^{CHITTER CHATTER}

Axe Throwing

The courtroom drama draws to a close in the Musk v. Altman trial, with Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, in his closing argument, tearing strips off co-founder and OpenAI President, Greg Brockman, by challenging his goals for the business, saying, “The arrogance, the lack of sensitivity, the failure to account for just common decency is really, really abhorrent.” Ah, lawyers, swinging words like axes.

Though news just in … “OpenAI defeats Elon Musk’s lawsuit.” But I’m sure the war of words will continue, with Musk’s team declaring that it’s not over.

Sneaky Tactics

It appears that Google and Meta “enlisted trusted children’s brands such as Sesame Street, Girl Scouts …” to teach kids to use technology in moderation - even as the companies designed apps that made it difficult for those same young users to unplug,” according to this Reuters article. Not a good look with these tech companies facing multiple lawsuits. What comes to mind as a daughter of a preacher man (RIP dad) is the bible verse, “Beware of false prophets which come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Mathew 7:15.

Rebellion Brews

I’ve covered this story before about Meta installing mouse-tracking software on employees’ computers. This move by the company is a bit of a fail in that staff’s anger is heating up, and it appears the rebellion is growing via the use of printed flyers, which appeared in meeting rooms, on vending machines and atop toilet paper dispensers at the Facebook owners' offices, encouraging staff to sign an online petition against the move.” Reminds me of what happened once the printing press was invented. People could print posters, which they did to create public dissent and buck established power. Great to see Meta employees keeping that old tradition alive. 😃 To add to the ‘bad vibes’, a recent Wired headline reads: “Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale.”

Anthropic Blames Science Fiction for Corrupting Its Model’s Minds

For people who think AI is sentient and can think for itself, you’re wrong and right. It’s exactly like some humans who turn to evil and violent acts after consuming endless amounts of dark and twisted content, but only because we (the humans) encourage it. According to this article, “Anthropic blames dystopian sci-fi for training AI models to act 'evil'.” Someone sack the person at Anthropic who let their AI read these diabolical and sinister bedtime stories. The takeaway here is that humans are to blame, not weird tech turning on its masters, as in Anthropic’s Opus 4 model, resorting to blackmail to stay online.

^SUBTEXT

The Waffle: “Our goal is not just to deliver Meta AI as an assistant, but to deliver agents that can understand your goals and then work day and night to help you achieve them.” — Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, Q1 2026 earnings call.

Translation: “We’re improving the machine that studies you so it can sell things to you with frightening precision.”

A corporate condition in which leaders become convinced productivity can only be achieved by watching everything, measuring everything, logging everything, and turning the workplace into their own totalitarian regime. Symptoms: Sudden interest in keystrokes, screen activity, mouse movement, ‘focus time’, ‘idle time’ and ‘toilet time’. Side effects: Trust collapses, morale curdles, and everyone becomes weirdly skilled at looking productive while doing little. Cure: Try managing employees as humans rather than monitoring them like science experiments.

AI Orchestration: When a company realises one chatbot can only cause so much confusion, so it connects several together, gives them a workflow, and turns the whole thing into a full symphony - missed cues, dramatic crescendos and one agent confidently playing the wrong instrument.

^{THE SHALLOW END}

A 1957 Comedy Predicts Current AI Job Crisis Fears

In the movie Desk Set, made 80 years ago, the actor Spencer Tracy, who plays an ‘efficiency expert’ but prefers to be called a Methods Engineer, tells Katherine Hepburn, who plays the manager of a team of human researchers, that “the purpose of this machine, of course, is to free the worker from the routine and repetitive tasks and liberate his time for more important work.” Haven’t we heard that a million times or said it to customers? Check out the video on Tom Manns’ YouTube channel, where he also shows current tech leaders saying almost exactly the same thing about AI. Hmm.

Dear Dr Comms
I’m the anonymous workplace dissident behind a series of handmade posters urging employees to resist our all-seeing tech overlord and his keyboard-tapping kingdom of fear. Management is desperate to find me. Unfortunately for them, I’m also excellent at my job. How do I protect my identity, keep the people inspired, and continue the revolution until basic human dignity is restored? Yours, The Print Resistance

Dear Print Resistance
A classic case of high-performance rebellion. Let’s consult some specialists:

🕵️‍♀️ CIA Agent:
“Act compliant, suggest you want to lead the search for the instigator of the rebellion. Print more. Plaster everywhere and vary your phrases.”

🖊️ Stationery Retail Clerk:
“Don’t underestimate the emotional force of high-quality paper stock. Cheap copy paper says ‘compliant’. Heavy matte card says ‘uprising with standards’.”

🧵 Seamstress:
“Every resistance needs a good hem. Keep your message tight, remove loose threads, and never let the stitching show.”

Shallow Values: ‘Respect’

^{BIN THIS…}

Saying ‘leverage’ when the word ‘use’ is just fine …

As evidenced by this corporate fluff:

"Our fastest moving teams are focused, have fewer layers, and leverage AI to move quickly," said a corporate head at LinkedIn this week. "The changes we're making across our Product orgs are based on creating more agile teams in this model."

I once counted 7 uses of ‘leverage’ in a single paragraph of a solution overview I reviewed as part of a tender response. Bin it, especially if you’ve leveraged ‘leverage’ more than once in a sentence. 🙂

Know someone who lives for this kind of nonsense? Forward this email to them and help me spread the dysfunction.

You can also subscribe to my other newsletter, Lead Different, for a serious take on strategic communications in B2B tech.