Amazon CEO cites ‘uncertain economy’ for new round of layoffs

• In a memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explained why the company is cutting 9,000 jobs. 

• The latest round of cuts follows a separate 18,000-person layoff in January. These additional 9,000 layoffs bring the total to 27,000 job cuts, about 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, which previously numbered around 350,000 people.

• Tech companies continue to trim headcount amid the larger industry downturn, following a period of pandemic-driven growth. Meta said last week it was cutting another 10,000 employees, which came four months after it cut 13% of its workforce.

Howard Schultz stepped down as interim CEO of Starbucks, handing the reins of the coffee giant to Laxman Narasimhan a couple weeks earlier than previously expected.

• Schultz announced he was done in a letter to company leaders on Monday. Narasimhan, a former leader at PepsiCo, will lead this week’s annual shareholder meeting. Read more. 

Microsoft-owned AI company Nuance is leveraging GPT-4 to power new software designed to ease the burden of clinical documentation for physicians.

• The new application is designed to increase physician efficiency and reduce burnout and fatigue from completing clinical notes, an often time-consuming task. Read more.

Are robots more poetic than humans? We put that question to the test with a poetry assignment for one Seattle writer and some of the latest AI chatbots.

• One man with a typewriter had his simple poem about two dogs compared to prose generated by ChatGPT, Bing’s chatbot, and GPT-4. Which was best? 

Former oilfield managers launched a Seattle climate tech startup that uses ancient carbon-trapping technology.

• Myno is commercializing biochar — a substance akin to charcoal that traces its roots to ancient civilizations in the Amazon and beyond. Read more.