Those of us who enjoy freedom from the confines of an office have been warily eyeing a steady drumbeat of scary headlines: News of in-office mandate-related firings and forced relocations might give the sense that the tech industry is clawing back the remote-work culture cemented early in the pandemic. Even Zoom, synonymous with the post-office lifestyle, recently summoned some of its workforce on a part-time basis.

But outside of a few noteworthy showdowns between management and rank-and-file workers—usually from the usual suspects of in-office fanaticism, like Amazon and Goldman Sachs—experts say flexible, hybrid work is still the way of the future. While some tech companies are rethinking rules to perhaps yield more engagement or productivity, many are finding there is no universal answer for every team, HR execs and management researchers told Tech Brew.

“The [return-to-office] push that we see is just a few companies that are mentioned every time,” Prithwiraj Choudhury, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, said. “The data is showing that about 30% of all US workdays are being performed remotely, and it’s very stable. And the office occupancy numbers that I’ve seen are about 50%, and it’s been very stable…So I’m not seeing that big RTO push.”

Keep reading here.—PK

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After months of chatter in Washington about how best to rein in AI, President Biden is taking some concrete steps in the form of a first-of-its-kind executive order.

The White House laid out a sweeping set of rules that span eight areas of focus, including equity and civil rights, privacy, and worker and consumer protections. The order is the administration’s first big attempt to shape the development of the latest wave of generative AI tech following a nonbinding agreement tech leaders signed over the summer.

What it says: The directives in the order cover everything from housing discrimination to bioweapons, and aim to address AI at each stage of development. Here’s a rundown:

• Developers must share safety test results with the government, and various agencies will work on developing standards designed to mitigate threats from AI-created biological weapons and deceptive deepfakes.
• The order includes a regimen of new privacy research and rules that aims to better govern how developers use information they collect on users.
• A section of the order homes in on algorithmic discrimination; it calls for guidance to landlords, federal contractors, and welfare programs on reducing bias in any AI tools they use, as well as new guidelines for the Department of Justice to probe this type of discrimination and more rules around AI’s use in the criminal justice system.
• The general consumer protection section focuses mostly on developing standards for AI’s use in healthcare and education.
• The order calls for a report on AI’s impact on the workplace, and lists directives for working with allies to implement AI standards internationally.

Keep reading here.—PK

Elon Musk offered satellite internet access to some aid organizations in Gaza, but it’s still unclear whether the SpaceX CEO can actually provide the help he’s offering.

Musk, whose company operates the Starlink satellites, wrote that his company aimed to enable internet connections in Gaza amid Israel’s invasion and a near-total telecom blackout in the region over the weekend.

“Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” he wrote Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The pledge came after Musk said no ground terminals in the area had attempted to contact Starlink satellites and that it was unclear who had the authority to authorize such access.

There are questions about whether the technology will work in the region.

Keep reading here.—KG