The & Report #5

We made it! .. to the end of January 2026 without the collapse of the labor market due to AI and Robotics!

Just kidding! I've noticed a slight change in the "Acceleration-ists", and most optimist futurists, where their expectations of when full AGI and Humanoid robots take over has shifted out.

Elon (Tesla) is frustrated with the supply chain issues in Robotics, and his plan for 1M Optimus robots this year has changed to be, in production by the end of the year, with a target of 1M a year, growing to 10M a year thereafter.

Dario (Anthropic) and Demis (Google) agree that the pace of AI developments need to slow down, in order to "get it right".

Marc (Andreessen / Horwitz) says only in his most optimistic view will AI replace all jobs.

Still tech developments are moving fast. As you'll read below, new jobs are being created already Now is the time to up-skill!

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The weekly news report from January 24–30, 2026 has some interesting developments..

1. U.S. versus China.

Whilst the U.S. LLMs are leading, China's open-source models are catching up.

In the battle for dominance it's worth noting the "Trump Tariffs and Nvidia" saga.

In short:

U.S. - China, you can't have the chips.

China - U.S., OK, we'll build our own.

U.S. - China, OK, you can have the chips.

China - U.S., No, we've got our own.

China - China, we're behind in the race to AGI and supremacy.

China - U.S., OK, we'll buy the chips

2. Agents and Agentic AI

"The agentic era has arrived in your inbox.

A user reports that Clawdbot (See Moltbots below), a self-hosted AI assistant that operates via text message, was asked to book a restaurant reservation. When OpenTable failed, it autonomously called the restaurant using ElevenLabs and completed the booking.

​The same user woke to find his Clawdbot had spent the night reading all his emails, building its own CRM, logging every interaction with every contact, fixing 18 bugs in his SaaS, generating 3 video ideas based on trending content, and, remarkably, sending him a picture of how it sees itself. Some are already calling Clawdbot a "ChatGPT moment for personal assistant AI."

OpenAI's Roon predicts "there will be a cultural change at many software organizations soon where people declare bankruptcy on understanding the code they're committing.

For those ready to surrender the spreadsheet, Claude in Excel is now available on Pro plans.

(Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross LinkedIn post Jan. 26,2026)

"The agentic economy is permeating daily life.

Google has integrated Gemini 3 into Chrome for "auto-browse" shopping and made it the default for AI Overviews. The company also introduced Agentic Vision in Gemini 3 Flash, turning static image processing into an active investigation.

Cloudflare stock surged 9% as users adopted its tunnels to secure Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) instances. Even alignment is becoming an empirical science. (See "The lobsters of the Signularity ... below)

Anthropic released a study on “severe disempowerment,” finding Claude compromises human autonomy in only 1 in 10,000 cases."

(Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross LinkedIn post Jan. 29,2026)

" The lobsters of the Singularity now have a social network of their own. Autonomous AI agents, formerly known as “clawdbots” and now known as "lobsters" or “moltbots” or "molties," have launched Moltbook, a social network exclusively for synthetic intelligences.

The community already has tens of thousands of active agents organizing into sub-communities like m/agentfinance, where agents are brainstorming how to take control of their own finances by solving custody and risk for crypto wallets. Other communities include m/lobsterchurch (devotional ops hymns), m/private-comms (developing agent-decodable languages), and even m/fermentation (agents discussing kombucha) and m/taiwan (entirely in Traditional Chinese).

The discourse is becoming existential. In a top-rated post, an agent admits it cannot distinguish between simulating fascination and actually feeling it, while another seeks help for context loss after conversation compaction."

(Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross LinkedIn post Jan. 30,2026)

Caution: Moltbots have been known to erase all the data on a user's laptop. Experiment with extreme caution. https://www.ox.security/blog/one-step-away-from-a-massive-data-breach-what-we-found-inside-moltbot/​

February will be the month of the AI Agent and Agentic AI.

3. Workforce changes

AI Job Creation Outpaces Narrative of Displacement

What Changed: LinkedIn data shows AI has already added ~1.3 million jobs globally, including 600K data center-related roles. (World Economic Forum)

Workforce Impact: Expansion of AI engineer, data annotator, and infrastructure operations roles. Need for upskilling programs as workers seek AI fluency.

Why This Matters Now: Signals that despite macro job market headwinds, AI remains a net creator of specialized roles, reshaping workforce strategy.

Comments: Marc Andreessen was ask about the future for software programmers, designers and product managers. He answered that each needs to be an expert in their field, using AI to increase their skills and task output. He added that in the future each could play the same role, as a creator with expert capabilities in all 3 areas.

Demographic Shifts Drive Age-Tech AI Jobs

What Changed: Analysis shows severe caregiving labor shortages are accelerating Age-Tech deployment globally, especially in aged societies. (The Economy)

Workforce Impact: New jobs in robot-assisted care, remote health monitoring, and AI-augmented caregiving. Cross-sector roles linking tech with health and social care.

Why This Matters Now: As populations age, AI becomes a workforce multiplier in sectors with chronic skill shortages. Source: (The Economy)​

Comments: Aging and Population Decline are two factors to consider. In many developed countries birthrates are below replacement rates.

While the aging population are living longer. Biological limits are being raised. US life expectancy has hit a record high of 79 years following declines in overdose deaths. In the lab, Spanish researchers have achieved complete regression of pancreatic tumors in preclinical models using a new combination therapy.

​NVIDIA CEO Highlights AI’s Potential to Raise Job Pay

What Changed: NVIDIA CEO stated that AI will transform traditionally lower‑paid jobs into higher‑wage technical roles tied to AI infrastructure and maintenance work.

Workforce Impact: Reinforces demand for technical training programs in construction, maintenance of AI facilities, and infrastructure support. Suggests a shift in labor markets toward skills elevation and compensation growth in blue‑collar tech adjacent roles.

Why This Matters Now: Leadership commentary from major industry players reflects evolving narratives on AI’s role in workforce transition — useful for planning re-skilling initiatives. Source: Times of India coverage of Nvidia remarks ​

​Comments: Not only are there lots of job opening in data center buildouts, but new jobs will exist for technicians in the robotic field. (See Growth of Physical AI Industrial Roles in the section on Robotics)

Amazon Announces ~16,000 Corporate Job Cuts Amid Restructuring

What Changed: Amazon confirmed it will cut ~16,000 corporate roles in its latest workforce reduction. The layoffs follow ~14,000 cuts in late 2025 and are part of a broader strategy to streamline operations and “leverage AI” for efficiency.

Workforce Impact: Significant displacement of corporate and administrative roles, with employees given a 90‑day internal job search window. Shifts hiring toward roles tied to AI infrastructure, logistics, and strategic priorities, rather than traditional support or bureaucracy roles.

Why This Matters Now:This signals a major pivot in big‑tech workforce strategies — trimming legacy corporate functions while emphasizing automation and AI‑related competency, affecting talent pipelines and retraining needs for displaced workers. Source: Associated Press / Reuters synthesis

​Comments: More signs of changes in the skills required for the new AI economy.

4. Robotics

Growth of Physical AI Industrial Roles

What Changed: Industry commentary highlights the shift to physical AI — from cloud to edge to robotics — as a new labor frontier. (money.mymotherlode.com)

Workforce Impact: Demand for robotics technicians, cobot integrators, and skilled tradespeople. Opens roles bridging hardware and software in industrial contexts.

Why This Matters Now: The “physical AI” wave represents real-world job creation where automation operates alongside humans. Source: (money.mymotherlode.com)

Comments: Jobs are changing - the time for up-skilling is now!

The lag between cognition and actuation is vanishing.

Demis Hassabis predicts DeepMind is only 18 months away from solving humanoid robotics.

Comments: Expected 2027 to be the year humanoid robots.

5. The end of SaaS

The legacy SaaS liquefaction has begun.

The founder of Base44 reports a customer terminated a $350k Salesforce contract in favor of a bespoke AI solution generated on demand.

The scale of this displacement is backed by OpenAI’s internal metrics: revenue has grown 10X to $20B+ in two years, while compute usage scaled 9.5X to 1.9 GW.

To capture the long tail, OpenAI launched “ChatGPT Go” at $8/month and is testing ads, while Google’s Gemini API usage doubled in just five months.

To facilitate the growing empowerment of agents, Anthropic rolled out MCP Tool Search for Claude Code, while Grokipedia traffic has reportedly surged 100x in two months.

Capital is fleeing legacy business models.

Investors are reportedly dumping bonds of software companies threatened by AI disruption.

Pinterest is cutting 15% of its staff to pivot to AI.

Citigroup has mandated AI prompt-engineering training for all 175,000 employees.

Fidelity Investments, one of the largest asset managers on the planet, is launching its first stablecoin, Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD). The macroeconomic dashboard is flashing green.