Enlarge / The IBM logo in front of an AI-generated background. (credit: IBM / Midjourney)

IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna has revealed plans to halt hiring for about 7,800 positions that could be replaced by artificial intelligence systems in the near future, according to a Bloomberg news report published Monday.

Krishna said that hiring in back-office functions like human resources will be suspended or slowed, affecting roughly 26,000 non-customer-facing roles. "I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," Bloomberg quoted Krisha as saying in an interview.

The announcement comes at a time when generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT have stirred anxiety about the future of human jobs. In March, Goldman Sachs released a report estimating that generative AI may " expose " 300 million jobs to automation, which means those roles might be reduced or replaced by AI systems.

Enlarge / An early augmented reality demo by Apple, using a smartphone instead of a headset. (credit: Apple )

Apple's mixed-reality headset is still on track for an unveiling sometime next year, and its future operating system has a new name, according to a report published Thursday.

Bloomberg claims the name of the operating system has changed from the previously leaked "realityOS" to "xrOS." XR stands for extended reality—sometimes also called mixed reality—a commonly used catch-all term for both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), as well as experiences that combine aspects of both.

In reports and leaks to date, Apple's next upcoming headset has been said to be an XR one, not strictly a VR or AR one—though there are also rumors of an AR-focused device that would launch later. The headset is set for a launch sometime next year, though it has been delayed many times before and may be yet again.

Enlarge / Apple's HQ, as seen in Apple Maps. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple is looking into significantly ramping up its ads business, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, and has already internally explored adding ads to the iPhone's Maps app, with other potential expansions also on the horizon.

The shift may be driven in part by a recent change within the company's reporting structure: Gurman wrote in his email newsletter this week that Apple advertising VP Todd Teresi began reporting directly to Apple services head Eddie Cue a few months back. He also wrote that Teresi plans to increase Apple's advertising revenue from $4 billion annually to billions in the double digits.

As Gurman notes, advertising is already a part of Apple's strategy, but it's limited in scope and to certain places. The most traditional advertisements you'll see in an Apple-made app are the ones in the Stocks and News apps. There, you'll see display ads just like those you see on news websites—both outside of stories and inside of them.

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  The 16-inch MacBook Pro with its lid closed. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

Second-generation refreshes of the current 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro design could arrive as soon as this fall, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The updated laptops will feature more powerful chips based on Apple's M2, he claims.

In his weekly Power On newsletter, the journalist—who has accurately reported on upcoming Apple products before—wrote that the overall design of the MacBook Pro is "likely to stay roughly the same," with no major new visual changes or features beyond what comes with the M2 generation of system-on-a-chip.

Gurman predicts that, unsurprisingly, the two new MacBook Pro models will offer buyers a choice between an M2 Pro and an M2 Max chip. These chips will be much faster and more oriented toward heavy-duty workflows than the M2 that shipped over the past couple of months in the 2022 refreshes of the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Enlarge / An Apple-made image of the 13.6-inch MacBook Air that was revealed earlier this week. (credit: Apple)

Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air and a new 12-inch MacBook, according to Bloomberg , citing sources familiar with Apple's plans. The sources also revealed details about the M2-family chips coming to Apple's high-performance MacBook Pro computers.

The 15-inch Air will use the same overall design as the 13.6-inch MacBook Air revealed at the company's WWDC keynote on Monday. That means an ultra-thin design with no tapered edges, plus a screen notch and a keyboard with function keys and Touch ID. The laptop is expected to use the same M2 processor as the one found in its smaller sibling.

The new laptop could arrive as soon as spring of 2023, the sources say. They also say Apple is working on a 12-inch MacBook that could arrive in late 2023 or early 2024—but that one is far enough out that Apple could still abandon its plans.

Enlarge / 2021's iPhone 13 still uses Apple's proprietary Lightning port. (credit: Samuel Axon )

Apple is testing iPhones that use the industry-standard USB-C port, according to a report in Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Since 2012, Apple's smartphones have used the company's proprietary Lightning connector. But more recently, the slightly larger USB-C port has come to dominate consumer electronics, including most of Apple's other products. Consumers, reviewers, and even government regulators have called for Apple to drop Lightning in favor of USB-C in recent years.

This has led Apple to a tough spot, with three possible paths forward, each with some significant downsides.