AI Skills Are Reshaping Salaries, But at a Cost ⚖️

AI Skills Are Reshaping Salaries, But at a Cost

A new Lightcast report analyzing 1.3 billion job postings reveals a striking paradox in today’s labor market: AI is driving mass layoffs in tech but boosting salaries elsewhere.

While roles in software, IT, and administration are shrinking, reflecting automation’s impact, jobs outside the tech bubble are seeing remarkable gains. Positions in marketing, finance, education, and customer support that require AI expertise now pay an average of $18,000 more per year, or 28% higher than comparable roles without AI skills.

The study shows demand for generative AI skills has surged 800% since 2022, with employers seeking candidates who can combine technical AI knowledge with soft skills like communication and problem-solving. Simply put, those who can leverage tools like ChatGPT or understand large language models are commanding premium wages across industries.

However, this shift also exposes a growing divide: workers without AI skills, especially in tech, face increased job insecurity.

The takeaway? AI isn’t just a tech issue anymore. It’s becoming a must-have skill for professionals across fields.

💬 OpenAI Developments

OpenAI's Sam Altman is dreaming of running 100 million GPUs in the future - 100x more than it plans to run by December 2025

OpenAI is on track to operate well over 1 million GPUs by the end of 2025, placing it far ahead of rivals like xAI and underlining its dominance in AI infrastructure .
Looking ahead, CEO Sam Altman has set an even more audacious target—100 million GPUs—though such scaling would require approximately $3 trillion, massive energy capacity (~75 GW), and major breakthroughs in compute logistics.

OpenAI chairman says training your own AI model is a good way to 'destroy your capital'

OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor warned that trying to train a new frontier AI model from scratch is seriously capital-intensive—what he describes as “a good way to burn through millions of dollars”—making it impractical for all but the largest firms .
Instead, he advises AI founders to focus on building services or applied tools—or leveraging open-source and existing APIs—rather than competing as a model creator like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or Meta.

🚀 Tech Industry Moves

Google has now rolled out an AI Mode shortcut in the homescreen Search widget on Android, placing a dedicated circular “AI Mode” button to the right of the voice and Lens icons, making it easy for users to tap into AI search instantly from their home screen .
Once activated (via Google app v16.28), tapping the shortcut launches fullscreen AI Mode immediately, skipping introductory screens, to let users type or speak complex queries handled by Google’s Gemini‑powered AI.

Anthropic has introduced custom sub‑agents in Claude Code, allowing developers to spawn task-specific AI assistants (e.g. code reviewer, tester) with their own system prompts, tool permissions, and independent context windows, enabling modular, efficient workflows. These sub‑agents can execute in parallel, handling complex tasks like code reviews, debugging, or research autonomously, while preserving clarity and context in the main agent, significantly boosting productivity in multi-step engineering workflows.

Microsoft has introduced Copilot Appearance, an experimental virtual character that responds with real-time facial expressions, gestures, voice, and conversational memory to create a more human‑like AI companion experience. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman envisions this AI evolving a permanent identity, “a room that it lives in,” gradually aging with a “digital patina” over time to strengthen personalization and user bonding.

Generative AI isn't destroying SEO—it’s transforming it: as AI-powered search increasingly favors concise, authoritative content, brands that optimize for trust and clarity can actually gain visibility in AI-generated answers. Rather than targeting specific keywords, the new focus is on creating structured, conversational content that aligns with user intent and can be pulled into AI overviews or chatbots—opening possibilities for creators who adapt to formats like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

💡 Emerging AI Technologies and Companies

China’s latest AI model claims to be even cheaper to use than DeepSeek

China's AI startup Zhipu (formerly Zhipu AI) has launched its open-source model GLM‑4.5, which the company claims is even cheaper to use than DeepSeek’s R1 model—continuing the trend of highly cost‑efficient Chinese AI offerings. This signals increasingly fierce competition in China’s AI market, where domestic firms are scaling powerful, low‑price models to capture global usage and challenge U.S. leadership in AI infrastructure.

Chinese universities want students to use more AI, not less

China’s leading universities—including Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, and Renmin University—are expanding enrollment in AI-related disciplines and launching specialized courses tied to DeepSeek’s breakthrough AI models to meet national strategic needs and nurture top-tier STEM talent .
This push supports a broader educational reform under China’s “strong education nation” plan, rolling out AI into primary, secondary, and higher education to build innovation skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and digital literacy across the system.

💡 AT Tool Deep Dive

MyShell: Build & Monetize Your Own AI Agents

MyShell is a no‑code platform that lets anyone create and share AI agents — from chatbots to voice companions, without technical skills. With its drag‑and‑drop Agent Builder, you can integrate widgets like LLMs for smart conversation, OpenVoice for voice cloning, and MeloTTS for multilingual text‑to‑speech. Creators can design custom workflows, deploy agents publicly or privately, and even monetize them using MyShell’s blockchain‑powered economy. Already home to 200,000+ AI agents and thousands of creators, MyShell is a growing hub for interactive AI experiences.

Thinking of creating your own AI assistant? MyShell makes it simple.

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