Good morning and welcome to FirstFT. In as we speak’s e-newsletter:
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AI office divisions widen
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US Navy secretary fired
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Farmers’ fertiliser prices soar
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Traversing Morocco’s Atlas Mountains on horseback
You may take heed to as we speak’s prime information tales with the FT News Briefing podcast.
We begin as we speak with an unique FT ballot which exhibits widening inequality within the office as AI is adopted by some workers quicker than others.
AI divide: Adoption of AI instruments like ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude is closely skewed in the direction of the best-paid employees, a brand new AI workforce tracker produced by the FT and analysis firm Focaldata has discovered. The analysis additionally factors to a persistent gender divide, with males considerably extra possible than ladies to make use of AI instruments throughout sectors starting from know-how to training and retail.
“AI goes to extend inequality between labour and capital. That’s nearly for positive. I’d say it’s setting us up for a . . . shitshow,” stated Daron Acemoglu, Nobel laureate in economics and professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise.
Why it issues: The robust relationship between pay, training and AI use suggests the know-how could improve earnings inequality by boosting the productiveness of employees on the prime however not on the backside.
The month-to-month survey covers how employees are utilizing AI, modifications in productiveness, limitations to adoption and impacts on the labour market. It gives a snapshot of how the know-how is rippling throughout the US and UK — and who stands to profit most. Read the full story.
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Q&A: Madhumita Murgia and John Burn-Murdoch, who commissioned the survey, shall be answering readers’ questions later today alongside employment columnist Sarah O’Connor.
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The AI Shift: Signal as much as John and Sarah’s weekly email taking a look at how AI is reshaping the world of labor.
Right here’s what else we’re maintaining tabs on as we speak:
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Warner Bros Discovery: The Hollywood studio holds a particular assembly of shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the corporate by Paramount Skydance. If permitted, the deal is predicted to shut within the third quarter of this yr.
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Outcomes: Intel is the newest know-how firm to report earnings alongside American Specific, Blackstone and American Airways.
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Lebanon-Israel talks: Washington performs host to a second spherical of talks because the 10-day ceasefire comes under strain.
5 extra prime tales
1. US Navy secretary John Phelan was fired yesterday as management turmoil gripped the Pentagon in the midst of some of the consequential missions for US naval forces in a long time. Phelan’s abrupt departure is the newest episode in Pete Hegseth’s efforts to shake up the Pentagon.
2. Tesla is to spice up its spending on self-driving taxis, vehicles, robots and a large new “Terafab” chip manufacturing facility in Austin to energy its AI ambitions. Chief government Elon Musk stated the corporate would spend $25bn this yr on capex, up from earlier steerage of $20bn and $8.5bn final yr. Read more on Tesla’s investment plans.
3. A prime envoy to President Donald Trump has requested Fifa to exchange Iran with Italy within the upcoming World Cup. US particular envoy Paolo Zampolli prompt the swap to Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Trump, as chief of the nation co-hosting the match, according to people familiar with the matter.
4. The EU is contemplating dropping its opposition to new oil and fuel drilling within the Arctic because it seeks to shore up vitality provides in response to the Center East disaster. Brussels has been pushing for a world ban on new oil and fuel drilling on environmental grounds since 2021 but it surely is now weighing abandoning the proposal.
5. The UK’s Nationwide Crime Company reviewed new allegations about Lord Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein in spring 2024, in keeping with individuals conversant in the matter, elevating additional questions on how the peer got here to be nominated as ambassador to Washington later that yr.
Information in-depth
For the world’s largest vitality merchants, rescuing tankers stranded within the Gulf has been one of many thorniest issues of the Iran warfare. Oil tankers owned by the likes of Trafigura, Mercuria and Vitol in addition to cruise ships and different vessels are trapped within the harmful waters managed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the US Navy as owners try to negotiate their exit.
We’re additionally studying . . .
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‘Placing individuals first’: The Republican senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, has known as on his celebration to refuse cash from pro-AI teams, in an FT interview.
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Home of Constancy: A brand new e book seeks to lift the lid on the corporate that touches the lives of 57mn People and is run by the publicity-shy Johnson household.
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Pricey diary: Soumaya Keynes pens what a day of a center energy would possibly seem like. The playground, it appears, is now not what it used to be.
Chart of the day
Throughout the US, farmers are reeling from an enormous surge within the worth of crop vitamins triggered by the Iran warfare. Center East international locations affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz account for practically half of world exports of urea, essentially the most extensively traded nitrogen fertiliser. The choking off of provides got here simply as farmers were preparing for the spring planting season.
Take a break from the information . . .
Finn Beales heads into Morocco’s Atlas Mountains on horseback, forsaking the souks and rooftop mint teas of Marrakech. His itinerary ran across eight days and took him by way of passes above 3,000 metres and deep down into the valleys on the opposite aspect on Kenzo, an Arab-Berber stallion.
