Good morning, tech enthusiasts. The AI reckoning now comes with job titles. Microsoft just released a new study calling out 40 jobs most at risk of disruption by generative AI.

For those of us in the “knowledge worker” set, it’s enough to set off a fresh wave of existential dread. Is ChatGPT quietly edging you out, one prompt at a time?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Microsoft’s AI job risk list

• SpaceX under fire for worker conditions

• The Boring Company digs in Nashville

• TikTok crowdsources its fact-checking

• Quick hits on other major tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

😬 Microsoft’s AI job risk list

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Microsoft has set off fresh anxiety across knowledge workers with the release of its list of 40 jobs that have the greatest overlap with AI, based on how closely roles align with the capabilities of generative AI.

The details:

• Researchers analyzed 900+ occupations, assigning each an “AI applicability score,” reflecting how current AI can realistically perform core job tasks.

• Topping the list of roles are interpreters, translators, historians, sales reps, and writers — the kinds of jobs large language models are already eerily good at.

• Other at-risk jobs: brokerage clerks, telemarketers, political scientists, mathematicians, editors, business school teachers, and PR specialists.

• For its part, Microsoft has announced plans to eliminate up to 9K jobs in 2025, citing its pivot to $80B in AI investments as the rationale.

Why it matters: The notion that AI would disrupt knowledge and creative work has been floating around for a while, but Microsoft’s list is an explicit, data-backed ranking from a major player developing these very AI tools. However, the list also includes a few jobs likely to remain “safe”: dredge operators, bridge tenders, and orderlies.

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SPACEX

🚀 SpaceX under fire for worker conditions

Image source: SpaceX

The Rundown: SpaceX is facing heat after two former employees filed separate wrongful-termination lawsuits, now in federal court, alleging that the company prioritized speed and cost-cutting over employee safety.

The details:

• One of the lawsuits comes from longtime supervisor Robert Markert, who spent 13 years at SpaceX before his termination in April 2025.

• Markert claims he repeatedly warned SpaceX that a process in rocket fairing recovery was so hazardous it could “easily cause serious injury or death.”

• He says his concerns were dismissed as execs opted for what they deemed the “more economical solution,” and Markert lost his job soon afterward.

• A second lawsuit, filed by a former SpaceX plumber, alleges that the company ignored work-related injuries; he was fired after requesting medical leave.

Why it matters: SpaceX faces lawsuits over a workplace culture where technicians reportedly work 20 days straight, with injury rates exceeding industry norms. As the company pushes to meet ambitious Starship and Falcon 9 launch schedules, these legal battles shine a harsh light on the human cost of its breakneck pace.

THE BORING COMPANY

🚗 The Boring Company digs in Nashville

Image source: The Boring Company

The Rundown: Elon Musk’s The Boring Company plans to start digging tunnels in Nashville to build its newly unveiled Music City Loop, an underground transportation system for Teslas that connects downtown Nashville to its international airport.

The details:

• The planned 10-mile tunnel system will link downtown key tourist and business zones like the convention center to the international airport.

• The Boring Company says it will deploy its latest Tesla electric vehicles and tunnel-boring technology, honed in Las Vegas.

• Significantly, the $600M-plus project will be privately funded, requiring no direct financial contribution from Tennessee taxpayers.

• Tunnels are being designed to remain operational and safe even during flood events, which is crucial given Nashville’s recurrent storm-related disruptions.

Why it matters: The promise: speedy, traffic-free airport access in just eight minutes. But skepticism remains as critics argue that a low-capacity tunnel relying solely on Teslas may fall short of tackling Nashville’s traffic challenges and could prove more limiting than conventional mass transit options.

TIKTOK

✏️ TikTok crowdsources its fact-checking

Image source: TikTok

The Rundown: TikTok is rolling out "Footnotes" to its massive U.S. user base, introducing a crowdsourced fact-checking feature that brings added context and accountability to short videos on the platform.

The details:

• Modeled after initiatives like X’s Community Notes, Footnotes lets some 80K vetted U.S. contributors write and rate notes on video content.

• Contributors can write footnotes that appear directly under videos, offering clarifications, factual corrections, or added context on all kinds of videos.

• For a footnote to be seen by all viewers, multiple contributors from different perspectives must rate it as helpful.

• Unlike Meta and X, TikTok says it is supplementing, not replacing, its network of third-party fact-checkers, aiming for a layered approach to verification.

Why it matters: TikTok’s Footnotes launch comes as social media faces growing criticism over misinformation on its platforms. By combining community fact-checking with its professional network, TikTok looks to be setting a new standard for transparency and shared responsibility in digital content.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Apple’s last earnings call that the company has now shipped 3 billion iPhones.

Google plans to invest about $6B to build a 1-gigawatt data center and associated power infrastructure in Visakhapatnam, India.

Tesla reached a $4.3B agreement with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution to secure lithium-iron phosphate batteries for its grid-scale energy storage systems.

Google said yesterday that it would sign the EU AI code of practice, despite Meta’s refusal to do so.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company is considering adding ads to users’ chats with AI-powered digital assistant Alexa+.

OpenAI said that it will establish Stargate Norway, in what will be Europe’s biggest AI data center, powered by 100K NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026.  

Google is piloting a machine learning system in the U.S. that uses account data, like search history and watched YouTube videos, to estimate users' ages.

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Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team