Anthropic Says It Is Hiring Fewer Junior Staff and Spending More Time in Meetings

Anthropic is making fewer junior hires and spending more time in meetings, according to a report the AI company published Friday, TechCrunch reported. The proportion of junior-level employees in technical departments fell from 21% to 14% since early 2025, while junior technical hires dropped from 27% to 9%. Technical teams shrank from 61% to 56% of the workforce, which Anthropic partly attributes to coding tools that let non-technical employees make software themselves. In an April 2026 survey, 27% of employees said Claude had made them more productive, and 20% said their job had shifted to managing Claudes. Meeting time per employee rose 20% from a year ago.

Meta Removes Terms Language That Raised AI Training and Scraping Concerns

Meta has removed a provision from its commercial terms of use that legal experts said could let it scrape publishers’ websites to train its AI models, TechCrunch reported, citing The Verge. The updated terms had declared that Meta could use any content from a business account’s domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, and train its products and services. Legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab described it as a “remarkable provision.” A Meta spokesperson said the terms did not reflect a change in how Meta crawls the web. In a statement, Meta said the consolidated crawling terms applied only to its ads and business products.

Motor Drives Could Free Up Gigawatts of Grid Power, Experts Say

Variable frequency drives could free up gigawatts of U.S. grid capacity by cutting wasted energy in electric motors, according to a Canary Media article republished by IEEE Spectrum. Some 50 million motors drive fans, pumps, and compressors, using electricity equal to nearly a third of total U.S. power demand. The drives adjust motor speed to match demand and can cut a motor’s energy use by around 40 to 60 percent, said Neal Elliott of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Only 16 percent of industrial motor systems use them. ABB’s Kirk Anderson said drives on all motors could power up to five years of data center growth.

Ember Mug 3 Adds On-Mug Temperature Controls and Dishwasher-Safe Design

Ember has released Mug 3, the third generation of its temperature-controlled smart mug, TechCrunch reported in a hands-on review. The biggest change is a button on the bottom of the mug that cycles through five preset temperatures from 125 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, so users no longer need the app to adjust heat. The reviewer found the button’s placement peculiar and not particularly easy to press. The mug keeps drinks at temperature for up to three hours per charge, adds a sliding lid, and is the first in Ember’s lineup to be top-rack dishwasher-safe. The 10-ounce model costs $129 and the 14-ounce $149.

TikTok Permanently Bans Advertising Account for ‘Musk’ Documentary

TikTok has banned the advertising account for “Musk,” a four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, TechCrunch reported, citing The Hollywood Reporter. Distributor Bleecker Street was notified that the account had received a permanent suspension due to its political content. Ads promoting the film’s trailer were initially rejected by Meta and YouTube, though both platforms eventually allowed them, with Meta blaming the rejection on an error. X, which Musk owns, has refused to carry ads for the film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. TikTok’s U.S. operations are partly owned by Larry Ellison. The film opened in four theaters last weekend.

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