“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy wrote in an email to employees.

He said it is difficult to predict how the overall workforce will evolve, but in the next few years, it is expected that AI efficiency gains will lead to fewer office workers.

According to earlier reports, amazon employed around 1.5 million people worldwide, with approximately 350,000 office employees in various roles.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company does not anticipate further large-scale layoffs as were seen in 2022 and 2023 in the near future.

Instead, it expects that vacant positions will not be refilled.

However, layoffs are not ruled out, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Amazon is focusing on so-called AI agents software capable of independently performing tasks. These agents could, for example, summarize information from the web and data sources, write software, translate languages and automate many time-consuming tasks, Jassy explained.

“Agents will be teammates that we can call on at various stages of our work,” he added, urging employees to experiment with AI whenever possible.

How AI will affect the job market has been a concern for many years.

Recently Spotify, the leader in music streaming, announced that teams requesting additional staff would first need to prove that AI could not perform the tasks.

The creators of the language-learning app Duolingo plan to gradually replace external workers with AI

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The upcoming release would mark a significant expansion of Huawei’s HarmonyOS ecosystem, which already powers its smartphones and tablets.

By launching computers equipped with the country’s first homegrown operating system for the general public, Huawei seeks to challenge the long-standing dominance of Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s macOS in the PC market.

Huawei’s HarmonyOS-powered computers are the result of five years of research and development.

The company emphasised that the system incorporates strong security features, including a dedicated security chip for encryption, secure access mechanisms and encrypted data sharing.

“The new computers would enable seamless interaction across Huawei devices, allowing users to control and move between the screens of their phones, tablets and computers with a keyboard and mouse.

“HarmonyOS-powered computers support connectivity with over 1,000 external devices and currently have more than 150 dedicated PC applications and over 300 ecosystem-compatible applications,” it said.

HarmonyOS, or Hongmeng in Chinese, is an open-source operating system designed for various devices and scenarios, including intelligent screens, tablets, wearables and cars.

It was first launched in August 2019.

Analysts said that Huawei would have to work harder to attract users in the initial periods, as the mainstream Windows and macOS operating systems offer more mature applications.

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Meta made this known in its first quarter (Q1) 2025 report released on Thursday.

It said that on a constant currency basis, the revenue growth would have been even higher at 19 per cent, underscoring the underlying strength of the business.

“Q1 2025 has been marked by significant growth in user engagement and financial performance.

“Our family daily active people (family of products) reached an average of 3.43 billion in March 2025, demonstrating a solid 6 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

“Also, advertising revenue saw positive trends, with ad impressions delivered across Meta’s suite of apps increasing by 5 per cent year-over-year, and the average price per ad climbing by an impressive 10 per cent during the same period,” the Meta report said.

Despite the strong revenue growth, the organisation said it managed its costs and expenses effectively, with total costs and expenses amounting to $24.76 billion, representing a 9 per cent increase year-over-year.

The company continued its investments in future growth, with capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, totaling $13.69 billion in Q1 2025.

Meta also actively returned capital to its shareholders through share repurchases of its Class A common stock amounting to $13.40 billion.

It revealed that as of March 31, 2025, Meta held a strong financial position with $70.23 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities.

The report showed that the company generated a healthy $24.03 billion in cash flow from operating activities and $10.33 billion in free cash flow during the first quarter.

Meta’s workforce stood at 76,834 employees as of March 31, 2025, reflecting an 11 per cent increase year-over-year as the company continued to invest in talent to support its expanding operations and strategic initiatives.

Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2025, Meta anticipated total revenue to be in the range of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion.

The company says it expects a modest one per cent tailwind from foreign currency exchange rates based on current rates.

Commenting on the second half, the Chief Financial Officer of Meta, Susan Li, said for the full year 2025, Meta has revised its total expense outlook downwards to a range of $113 billion to $118 billion, compared to the previous guidance of $114 billion to $119 billion.

She said that the company had increased its full year 2025 capital expenditure forecast to a range of $64 billion to $72 billion, up from the prior $60 billion to $65 billion.

“The adjustment primarily reflects additional investments in data centres to support Meta’s growing Artificial Intelligence efforts, as well as an anticipated increase in the cost of infrastructure hardware,” Li noted.

Meta reassured that the majority of its capital expenditures in 2025 would remain directed towards its core business, even as it projected its full year 2025 tax rate to be between 12 per cent and 15 per cent.

Furthermore, Meta highlighted its ongoing navigation of an evolving regulatory landscape, particularly in the EU and the U.S., which could pose significant challenges to its business and financial results.

A recent decision by the European Commission (EC) had deemed Meta’s subscription for no ads model non-compliant with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Based on feedback from the EC, Meta anticipated the need to make modifications to this model, which it warned could negatively impact the user experience for European users.

The organisation added that it significantly affect its European business and revenue as early as the third quarter of 2025.

While Meta intended to appeal the EC’s decision, the company acknowledged that required changes to its model may be implemented before or during the appeal process.

Commenting, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said: “We have had a strong start to an important year. Our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well.

“We are making good progress on AI glasses and Meta AI, which now has almost one billion monthly actives,” Zuckerberg said.

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The Head of Startups Ecosystem, Africa, Google, Mr Folarin Aiyegbusi, said in a statement that across the continent, startups are demonstrating how local innovation could solve deeply-rooted problems.

Aiyegbusi said that AI’s potential to accelerate Africa’s development was real, and Google was investing in ensuring that African startups led that charge.

He said that, according to McKinsey, AI could add $1.3 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2030, but only if bold innovation was supported at the grassroots.

“Startups are Africa’s problem solvers, with the right resources, they can scale their impact far beyond local communities.

“This programme reflects our belief that AI can be transformative when shaped by those who understand the context deeply,’’ he said.

According to him, in West Africa, Crop2Cash – an agritech platform and alumni of the programme – is using AI to digitally onboard smallholder farmers.

He said that Crop2Cash helped smallholder farmers build their financial identities, and provided them with access to credit, traceable payments, and productivity tools.

Aiyegbusi said that through these efforts, Crop2Cash was improving agricultural outcomes and unlocking economic opportunity for farmers who had long been excluded from formal systems.

He noted that Crop2Cash illustrated the kind of impact that was possible when African startups received the support they need to scale.

According to him, the Accelerator is open to Seed to Series A startups based in Africa that are building AI first solutions.

Aiyegbusi said that Startups must have a live product, at least one founder of African descent, and a clear vision for responsible AI innovation.

He said that selected participants would receive dedicated technical mentorship from Google and industry expert, and up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits.

Other benefits, he said, included access to a global network of investors, partners, and collaborators and workshops focused on technology, product strategy, people leadership, and AI implementation.

According to Aiyegbusi, since 2018, the programme has supported 140 startups from 17 African countries.

Aiyegbusi said that these alumni had raised more than $300 million in funding and created over 3,000 jobs, adding that many are now regional and global leaders in their categories.

It was reported that applications for the 2025 cohort are now open for startups interested in participating to apply.

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The technology giant had rewritten the principles that guide its development and use of AI which is published online, but a section pledging not to develop tech that cause or are likely to cause harm has now been removed.

That section said the firm would not pursue applications in the areas of weapons or “that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms”.

Instead, the new principles feature a section on responsible development and deployment which implement “appropriate human oversight, due diligence,feedback mechanisms to align with user goals, social responsibility, and widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”

In a blog post, Google senior vice president James Manyika and Sir Demis Hassabis, who leads the firm’s AI lab, Google DeepMind, said the company needed to update its AI principles as they had been first published in 2018 and the technology has “evolved rapidly” since then.

“Billions of people are using AI in their everyday lives. AI has become a general-purpose technology, and a platform which countless organisations and individuals use to build applications,” they said.

“It has moved from a niche research topic in the lab to a technology that is becoming as pervasive as mobile phones and the internet itself; one with numerous beneficial uses for society and people around the world, supported by a vibrant AI ecosystem of developers.”

They said this had meant increased international collaborative efforts on common principles, which the blog post said Google was encouraged by.

But Manyika and Hassabis said “global competition” for AI leadership was taking place within an “increasingly complex geopolitical landscape”.

“We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality, and respect for human rights,” they said.

“And we believe that companies, governments, and organisations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

There is an ongoing debate among AI experts, governments, regulators, tech firms and academics about how the development powerful emerging technology should be monitored or regulated.

Previous international summits have seen countries and tech firms sign non-binding agreements to develop AI “responsibly”, but no binding international law on the issue is yet in place.

In the past, Google’s contracts to provide technology, such as cloud services, to the U.S. and Israeli military have sparked internal protests from employees.

James Fisher, chief strategy officer at AI firm Qlik, said Google’s decision was concerning, and highlighted the need for countries such as the UK to push for more international governance.

“Changing or removing responsible AI policies raises concerns about how accountable organisations are for their technology, and around the ethical boundaries of AI deployment,” he told the PA news agency.

“AI governance will of course need to flex and evolve as the technology develops, but adherence to certain standards should be a non-negotiable.

“For businesses, this decision shows we are likely to face a complex AI landscape going forwards, where ethical considerations are weighed up against industry competition and geopolitics.

“For the UK, which has attempted to position itself as a leader in AI safety and regulation, this decision only makes it more important to put robust, enforceable AI governance frameworks in place.

“The UK’s ability to balance innovation with ethical safeguards could set a global precedent, but it will require collaboration between government, industry and international partners to ensure AI remains a force for good,” Fisher said.

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It projects that government policies can positively impact the economy with a 3.64 per cent GDP growth rate in 2025.

Mr Basil Abia, Co-Founder of Veriv Africa, stated this on Thursday at the launch of its Nigeria Macro-Economic Outlook for 2025 in Abuja.

It was reported that Veriv Africa is a data insights company that leverages technology & expertise to turn data into actionable intelligence.

Abia said that the service sector in the past few years, led the GDP growth, which was expected to continue in 2025 along side the oil and gas, among other sectors.

The co-founder said that policies’ summersault in the past years, contributed greatly to economic downturn, but were expected to impact the economy positively in the coming year.

“Our projections for 2025 are in three scenarios, which include the worse, base case which is business as usual and bullish case scenario that is the best-case scenario.

“For best case scenario, we are looking at aggregate inflation rate for 2025 at 32 per cent, we are looking at Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) prices at N1,100 per litre,’’he said.

According to Abia, our exchange rate will be at N1,300 per dollar and we are looking at 3.64 per cent GDP.

He added that the projection for the base case scenario would be a GDP of 3.4 per cent real growth rate.

“Outside of that, we are also going to be doing N1,790 per dollar and we are going to be seeing PMS price over between N1,200 to N1,300 per litre.

“For the worse-case scenario, we are foreseeing the dollar going for between N1,900 to N2,000 and GDP growth rate will be around 2.5 per cent.

“We also foresee inflation rate at 36 per cent. The aggregate inflation rate for Nigeria for the entirety of 2024, will be around 33 per cent,’’Abia said.

He recommended that state governments should be more active in governance, implement the Nigeria’s Railway State policy, which empowered state governments to construct, operate and maintain railway tracks within their borders.

Abia also suggested that subnational governments should implement the Nigeria Electricity Act 2023, which enabled them to set up their electricity market, enable regulation, support the private sector to participate.

“The thrust of our recommendation to our economy in 2025 is to see that subnational governments take the centre stage in governance, in financialisation, how they govern business environment to be friendlier to businesses.

“I feel that the overt taxation, multiple taxations and most of that burden are emanating from subnational failing to govern.

“They should work on reducing the bottlenecks like the multiple checkpoints on the road for inter-state travels, which contribute heavily on food pricing.

“Other recommendations include ensuring more clarity on energy policies, pursuing comprehensive diversification, rethinking the Nigeria Monetary Policy, improve security, adopt new technologies in the energy sector, invest in human capital and infrastructure.”

According to him, the study has more insight into the mining sector, as well as the oil and gas, which aids our projections.

He added that the outlook would be distributed to government offices to aid policy making decisions.

Miss Omotayo Faro, Managing Director, Veriv Africa, said the macro-economic outlook mirrored the political and economic landscape of Nigeria for 2025, to help stakeholders, investors make informed decision.

Faro said they deployed the macro-economic model, which made it possible to infuse a lot of data.

She said that the company would come up with projected statistics in the food production ecosystem for the first quarter of 2025, among other projects.

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During a reception in the high-tech city-state, the head of the Catholic Church warned that AI should not make people forget about what is important, human relationships.

Technology developments risk isolating individuals and putting them into a false reality, he said.

Instead, AI should be used to bring people closer together and to promote understanding and solidarity within society, the pope added.

Pope Francis had also called on the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial democracies at this year’s G7 summit held in June in Italy, to ensure that AI was not left unchecked.

Singapore is the final stop of the 87-year-old pontiff’s longest foreign trip to date, lasting a total of 12 days.

Prior to this, he had visited Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

A large mass in a sports stadium is expected to attract about 50,000 people in the afternoon.

According to the Vatican, out of the nearly six million residents of the city-state, only 176,000 are Catholic.

The majority of the population has Chinese roots.

Pope Francis would fly back to Rome on Friday.

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The Director, West Africa, Google, Mr Olumide Balogun, said in a statement that in Nigeria, searches on AI doubled by 130 per cent between January to July 2024 as against the same period in 2023.

Balogun said that search interest in AI had reached a record high around the world and in Nigeria.

He said that currently, Nigeria had the sixth highest search interest in AI in Africa and ranked 25th in AI search interest in the world.

The Google director said: “Nigerians are also interested in learning more about AI and how best to use it.

“Across Nigeria, the trends show that Google search on cybersecurity and AI are up by 80 per cent; on AI and healthcare increased over 140 per cent; AI and medicine up by 50 per cent among others.

“AI has the potential to create opportunities from the extraordinary to the everyday for everyone, bringing new waves of innovation, social and economic progress.

“So, it is no surprise that Nigerians are already looking to make the most of this transformational technology and finding ways for it to boost their career, creativity and society.

“Searches for AI and courses have increased by 50 per cent while search interest in AI and business increased by 110 per cent while searches for AI and jobs increased by 640 percent,” he said.

Balogun said that aligned with its commitment to AI as a force for positive societal change, Google offered free AI training programmes for Africans through its Hustle Academy.

He stressed that this initiative designed for entrepreneurs, included modules specifically tailored to teach participants how to leverage on AI to improve their businesses.

He said that since its launch in 2022, the Hustle Academy had empowered over 10,000 businesses.

According to him, additionally, Google supports promising AI-focused startups in Africa through its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that through its initiatives, Google is also using AI to address some of society’s biggest challenges.

In Ghana, Google’s AI Center is working in collaboration with InstaDeep and the United Nations to better detect locust outbreaks and implement control measures.

While in Kenya, Google is working with Jacaranda Health to improve maternal care, among other initiatives.

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Kojo Boakye, Vice President, Public Policy, Africa, the Middle East, and Turkiye, Meta said this in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.

Boakye said Meta would continue its commitment to supporting innovative use cases of open-source AI to address critical global challenges.

The vice president said that building on the success of previous grant programmes, the Llama 3.1 impact grants would provide up to two million dollars in funding to organisations worldwide.

According to Boakye, the Llama 3.1 impact grants programme invites proposals from organisations with ideas for using Llama 3.1 to address social challenges in their communities.

Boakye said that applications in areas such as economic development, science and innovation, public service and more would be given special consideration.

The vice president said selected recipients would receive up to $500,000 and winners would be announced early next year.

“We are inspired by the diverse projects we have seen developers undertake around the world to positively impact their communities by building with Llama.

‘We believe AI has more potential than any other modern technology to increase human productivity, creativity, quality of life and to accelerate economic growth while unlocking progress in medical and scientific research.

“The Llama 3.1 impact grants programmes presents an opportunity to further empower organisations to leverage AI for social good and to drive meaningful change,” Boakye said.

The vice president said to support prospective applicants, Meta would host a series of regional events, including virtual events, in-person hackathons, workshops, and training sessions.

Boakye said this would be done in Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Korea, Latin America, North America, Pakistan, Singapore, sub-Saharan Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

The vice president noted that these events would provide technical guidance and mentorship, fostering the development of impactful applications of Llama 3.1 in local contexts.

“Organisations participating in these events will be eligible for additional specialised awards of up to $100,000.

“The inaugural Llama Impact Grants, announced in October 2023, received over 800 applications from 90+ countries.

“The 20 finalists have submitted their final proposals, and the grant recipients will be announced in September, alongside the recipients of the Llama Impact Innovation Awards,” Boakye said

According to Boakye, the application window for the Llama 3.1 impact grants is open from Aug. 5, 2024 to Nov. 22, 2024.

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The commission ended its investigation into the rewards feature and closed the first case under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a powerful set of EU laws governing large online platforms.

The EU executive arm began an investigation of TikTok Lite over concerns linked to a feature that rewards users for watching videos and inviting friends to join the platform.

The commission also wanted TikTok to show it had complied with risk assessment and mitigation rules for large platforms under the DSA when launching the product.

The DSA requires large platforms to manage various risks, including the risk of illegal content being spread and the risk of harm to consumers, particularly minors.

After the commission announced the probe, and threatened to order TikTok to suspend the rewards feature unless the company demonstrated within 48 hours that it poses no risk of serious harm.

TikTok had announced a voluntary suspension of the rewards scheme.

“Design features on platforms with addictive effects put the well-being of their users at risk, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

“That’s why we have made TikTok’s commitments under the DSA legally binding,” she said, touting the decision from TikTok to withdraw the scheme as a clear message to the entire social media industry.”

A spokesman for TikTok said the company was pleased to have reached an amicable resolution and has now withdrawn the TikTok Lite rewards programme.

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