🧠Your Brain is Already Being Scanned—And Now Advertisers Want to Go Deeper.
Plus: DOGE Automates the Firing of Federal Employees.
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In today’s issue: Our brains are being scanned and rewired every time we touch a device—now advertisers want to go even deeper. The workplace is evolving fast—are you keeping up? Plus, DOGE automates firings, the latest coding assistants, and key industry trends.
Your Brain is Already Being Scanned—And Now Advertisers Want to Go Deeper.
The Workplace Is Changing—Upskilling Is a Must
DOGE Automates the Firing of Federal Employees.
🧰 AI Tools (Coding Assistants as of Feb. 2025)
📰 News and Trends.
Your Brain is Already Being Scanned—And Now Advertisers Want to Go Deeper.
Right now, our devices are already mapping our habits, schedules, and preferences. Every interaction trains algorithms that shape the ads we see and the products pushed to us. But the next frontier isn’t just predicting our behavior—it’s reading our minds.
India’s Reliance Industries, fresh off an $8.5 billion merger with Disney, is using "brain mapping" technology to lure advertisers for the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the world’s most-watched sporting events. By analyzing viewers' brain activity, Reliance claims its streaming ads are more engaging than YouTube and Instagram, promising advertisers deeper influence over consumers.
This marks a shift in how ads are sold—not just based on demographics but on neural responses. As competition with Google and Meta intensifies, Reliance is betting on neuroscientific data to justify higher ad rates and push advertisers towards its IPL platform.
But this is just the beginning. If Reliance can track which ads literally rewire your brain, how long before every streaming platform, app, and website does the same? And what happens when this data is no longer just about selling products, but shaping political opinions, decisions, and behaviors at a subconscious level?
The question isn’t whether your brain will be scanned—it’s when.
📰 AI News and Trends
China Ramps Up Nvidia AI Chip Purchases as US Eyes Stricter Export Controls Amid DeepSeek’s Rise (Bloomberg)
A $40 billion investment, with $30 billion from SoftBank, is fueling OpenAI's ambitious future Stargate data center project (TheInformation)
The AI Data-Center Boom will not create many jobs and may help eliminate some as tech becomes more autonomous (WSJ)
DeepSeek is rushing to get its next-gen R2 model out sooner than expected (BGR)
🌐 Other Tech news
Perplexity teases a web browser called Comet (TC)
TikTok (with Douyin) becomes first app to reach $6B in annual consumer spending (TC)
Tesla debuted its full self-driving mode in China. The move, in Shanghai, appears to be a response to its Chinese rival BYD offering advanced autonomous features last month (Bloomberg)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket containing a lunar robot, lander, and satellite, as well as a mission to an asteroid, is scheduled to blast off today (Gizmodo) And…
The lander contains a mini data center belonging to Lonestar Data Holdings that weighs just 1 kilogram and contains 8 terabytes of SSD storage (IEEE)
DOGE Automates the Firing of Federal Employees.
DOGE is reportedly modifying AutoRIF, a Defense Department software designed to automate mass firings of federal employees, raising serious ethical and humanitarian concerns. Previously, layoffs required human oversight, but now AI and automation could accelerate terminations with little transparency or accountability. Thousands of probationary workers—lacking strong civil service protections—have already been dismissed, with agencies like the CDC unable to protect mission-critical staff.
This approach dehumanizes workers, reducing them to data points rather than individuals with careers, families, and financial obligations. Employees were reportedly asked to list their weekly accomplishments, with AI determining their “necessity.” This opaque process disregards worker protections, causing psychological and economic distress while disrupting critical government functions. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has not commented, raising concerns about unchecked automation in federal job cuts.
Beyond the immediate harm, this sets a dangerous precedent for algorithm-driven firings across industries, eroding job security and normalizing mass layoffs without human judgment or due process. While efficiency is important, prioritizing automation over empathy risks severe governmental, social, and economic instability.
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The Workplace Is Shifting and the need to upskill.
AI agents are set to dominate workplace communication, with experts predicting they’ll soon outnumber human interactions. Companies like Salesforce and OpenAI are driving this shift, offering AI that acts on employees’ behalf. While AI boosts efficiency, concerns include job displacement, social isolation, and inconsistent performance. However, the real need is for upskilling, reskilling, and a deeper understanding of emerging technologies to adapt and thrive. The transition to an AI-augmented workforce is inevitable—not a signal of job loss, but a shift in job roles, requiring workers to evolve alongside technology.
Check out top Free AI learning platforms in this issue AI tools.
🧰 AI Tools
Coding Assistants as of February 2025
Google Gemini Code Assist - Free AI coding tool offers up to 180,000 code completions per month, supports multiple programming languages and integrates seamlessly with environments such as Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and JetBrains.
Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet - A 'hybrid reasoning' AI model capable of combining quick responses with extended, detailed thinking. Beneficial for complex coding tasks.
Cursor - AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE) that enhances developer productivity by integrating advanced AI features directly into the coding environment. Code generation, intelligent autocompletion, and codebase understanding.
Qodo - Assist in software development across various stages. It offers tools for code generation, completion, test generation, and automated code reviews, supporting multiple IDEs and programming languages.
Tabnine - Designed to automate the coding workflow, offers features like AI-powered code completion and chat functionalities, supports 80+ programming languages and integrates with major IDEs.
Download our list of 750+ Tools free here.
The idea that AI will eventually scan, predict, and even influence behavior is no longer hypothetical—it’s unfolding. The real question is: who decides what AI optimizes for? I just started a ten-part series on this.
Whether in advertising, employment decisions, or governance, AI-driven oversight isn’t just tracking—it’s shaping priorities in ways that often go unseen. If AI is structuring ad engagement, determining job retention, and filtering whose voices get amplified, what feedback loops are being created? And who is responsible for ensuring those loops serve more than just efficiency?
I would love to hear more about where we expect to see new jobs emerging.
There are a lot of stats cited about increased productivity and economic growth but very few clues on what new jobs will actually look like for those displaced, who are not in AI-related tech or associated fields.
Even Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman admits to serious concerns about "AI's potential to put large numbers of people out of work."
In his book, The Coming Wave, he says "in the past, new jobs were created at the same time as old ones were made obsolete, but what if AI could simply do most of those as well?" It nags at me.
Anyway, love your work!