IBM is looking for layoff volunteers, but claims that it has nothing to do with their USD 3 bn savings goal. Last Thursday, The Register broke the story that Big Blue was asking their employees to volunteer for the next round of global layoffs. This comes hot on the heels of their Q4 earnings call in late January, wherein CFO James Kavanaugh announced an annual savings target of USD 3 bn, USD 1 bn higher than earlier target announcements, according to the article.

‘Transformative resource actions’ are not lay offs — according to IBM. Sources close to the matter told The Reg that the official party line at the company is that the move isn’t financial, it’s ‘transformative.’ They’re allegedly seeking employees that were willing to leave IBM anyway as they trim the fat to focus on efficiency, saving the company from taking jobs from people who don’t want to go elsewhere.

Bad news for EU staffers, though: IBM insiders didn’t specify the number of employees the tech company is happy to let go of, but did reveal that around 50% of the goal will “impact staffing levels” in Europe specifically. The Reg surmised that 80% of IBM’s “resource action” will focus on Enterprise Operations & Support (EO&S), Q2C missions, and Finance & Operations, which includes Procurement, CIO, HR, Marketing & Comms, and Global Real Estate.

Is AI a culprit? A statement sent to The Register by a company spokesperson insisted that the voluntary layoffs were not a cost saving initiative. The spokesperson attributed the move to an “increase in productivity” and a focus on “the skills most in demand” among IBM clients, which includes — surprise, surprise — AI and hybrid cloud.

And how does Big Blue plan to use those savings, you ask? By investing in “technical and industry skills,” says the company, a thin-veiled shorthand for AI development. IBM currently holds the world’s most AI-related patent applications in the US, filing for 1.6k patents within the last five years with a focus on generative AI.

The first two months of 2024 have seen 46k layoffs in the tech industry, seen as an ongoing consequence of major investments in AI by big tech companies like IBM.

Killer whale vs Great White Sharks: Scientists documented an orca hunting a great white shark solo for the first time, according to National Geographic marking an ecological shift in the seas. The killer whale, named Starboard, and his buddy Port, are seasoned killers with a penchant for nutrient and calorie-rich shark liver that they have been extracting with surgical precision since 2017 off of the South African coast — but this solo kill has scientists baffled.

It’s typically a group activity. It’s not unheard of for orcas to hunt such large prey, but they usually work in groups to get it done to avoid the risks of hunting bigger victims. Sometimes they work alone, but still stay with a group and they share their prey, according to the author of The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas Hanne Strager. What Starboard achieved is unusual because it questions the position that orcas hunt together.

What exactly went down? In the footage of the event (runtime: 1:08), Starboard killed a young eight-foot-long great white shark and removed its liver in under two minutes…then swam around to parade his trophy. Port was nearby but stayed out of the way, which indicates that the predator duo might be learning to fend for themselves.

Orcas are known to be creative predators. Other than the tried and true wolfpack approach, they can think outside the box. In Antarctica, one orca population is known to make waves to push prey off of ice and into the water, and in Australia, groups are known to kill blue whales — the largest mammal.

This could be bad news for the marine ecosystem. Sevengills (whose livers orcas relish), and great white sharks, are leaving South Africa’s coast to avoid the trouble: Starboard’s kill last June saw great whites abandon the area for months before returning in small numbers. The two types of sharks are known as apex predators so their presence, or lack thereof, causes an entire shift in the food chain. Especially that scientists don’t know where the sharks are going — their fear is that they end up in areas that have heavy commercial fishing activities, which could also threaten the species.

Tags: