Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤖 Google joins the push to weaponize AI
• 💼 Less Americans are quitting their jobs
• 🤔 How many ants are there in the world?

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.37-minute read (1,162 words).

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“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

–George Washington (1732-1799)

The next live-action sequel in the Terminator franchise could soon play out in real time.

Google updated its ethical guidelines around AI this week, removing a company-wide pledge to avoid using the technology to develop potentially harmful products like weapons or surveillance.

• This pledge dates back to Google’s first AI principles published in 2018, which came after employees protested a contract with the Pentagon applying algorithms to analyze drone footage.
• In a blog post, top Google officials said the change stems from the belief that “companies, governments, and organizations sharing [core democratic] values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

AI is already being adapted for the battlefield

Google’s previous restrictions on using AI for national security applications had made it an outlier among major competitors.

• OpenAI is working with military manufacturer Anduril to develop technology for the Pentagon.
• Anthropic has partnered with defense contractor Palantir to help US intelligence and defense agencies access versions of its chatbot Claude.
• Tech giants Microsoft and Amazon have long partnered with the Pentagon, including on AI-related projects.

🤖 Use cases abound: As of last spring, the US military’s AI-controlled fighter jets were “roughly even” in skill level compared to experienced human pilots not named Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Additionally, a wide range of low-cost drones can use AI image recognition to identify and surveil targets – or blow them up.

Outside of aircraft, the US military and its contractors have spent billions developing experimental submarines, tanks, ships, and other technology that use AI to pilot themselves and shoot – including robot dogs armed with rifles.

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Job-hopping, like clothing with oversized logos, is going out of style. Americans quit 39.6 million jobs in 2024, down 11% from the year before and 22% lower compared to a recent peak in 2022, according to government data released this week.

Hiring is down, too

One reason for this staying-put trend is the state of the job market, which has entered a cooldown stage following a hefty years-long workout.

• The share of workers hired into new jobs every month fell to an average of 3.5% last year, a decline from a recent peak of ~4.4% in 2021.
• There were 7.6 million job openings in December, down from 8.16 million the previous month. That’s compared to a high of 12.2 million in early 2022.

Hiring has slowed the most in white collar fields, including finance and tech, but is still strong in areas like healthcare and hospitality. And some overall good news: Layoff rates remain near historic lows, and the economy continues to add jobs.

👀 Looking ahead…We’ll get more data tomorrow, after the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its monthly jobs report for January + revised job creation stats for previous months.

The Sunshine State’s citrus growers are asking for some juice, calling on state lawmakers this week to continue providing money to help an industry that’s seen production fall 90+% in less than three decades.

• Florida produced 50 million boxes of grapefruit and 244 million boxes of oranges in 1998, when the industry was at its peak, according to Florida Citrus Mutual.
• This growing season, the state is projected to produce 1.2 million boxes of grapefruit and 12 million boxes of oranges (the lowest total since 1930).

Behind the squeeze: An incurable deadly citrus disease called greening has decimated orange production. And hurricanes Ian, Irma, and, most recently, Milton have only compounded this slowdown – Milton knocked three million boxes off this growing season’s production estimates, per US Department of Agriculture figures released in December.

The state’s budget impacts the industry: Governor Ron DeSantis recently released a budget proposal for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that includes $20 million for citrus research to combat greening, among other things; lawmakers will consider the proposal during a legislative session beginning March 4. The citrus industry is receiving $47 million for research and marketing from the state this fiscal year, which runs through June.

🍊 Zoom out: Despite Florida’s woes, America’s citrus industry is growing. US production is estimated to increase 8% in 2024-2025 due to higher yields in California, per Department of Agriculture figures released last month.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US markets rose across the board (S&P: +0.4%; Dow: +0.7%; Nasdaq: +0.2%).
• 🏢 America's biggest office leases grew in size last year, reversing a three-year decline, per data from commercial real estate firm CBRE.
• 💼 Google is eliminating its goal of hiring more employees from historically underrepresented groups and is reviewing other DEI measures, citing “recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders.”

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with the Picture This contest

• 📺 Speaker-maker Sonos is reportedly planning to release a high-end streaming box that combines content from numerous streamers – including Netflix, Max, and Disney+ – under a single, unified software experience.
• ✍️ College football’s national signing day has come and gone. Winners, losers, and takeaways from 2025 recruiting. | ⚽ The National Women's Soccer League reached a $5 million settlement related to its 2021 abuse scandal.
• 🤖 OpenAI will air its first-ever TV commercial during this Sunday’s Super Bowl, per a Wall Street Journal report. | ⚖️ Three men were charged by a federal grand jury in connection with the December burglary of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's home; prosecutors say the men are part of a South American theft ring.

🚨Free Giveaway Alert: Don’t forget to enter the Picture This contest for a free chance to win up to $2,500 worth of prizes! Contest ends next week.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 Google released Gemini 2.0, its “most capable” artificial intelligence model suite yet, to the public; it includes bringing Google’s reasoning AI model to the Gemini app, which can interact with apps like YouTube, Search, and Maps.
• 🇺🇬💉 Uganda and the WHO launched the first-ever trial for a vaccine against the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus; an outbreak was declared last week.
• 🇨🇳⚛️ China is secretly building a massive “laser fusion” research facility ~50% bigger than the world’s largest such plant (located in the US), per satellite images; experts say it could have implications for nuclear weapons research and clean energy production.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Commons

• ✍️⚧️ President Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
• 📝 The entire CIA workforce has been offered a buyout, in a move Trump admin officials say is aimed at bringing the agency in line with the President’s priorities.
• 🏛️ Most USAID workers will be "placed on administrative leave globally" starting tonight, per a statement posted to USAID's site. (Dive deeper: US foreign aid is under scrutiny from Trump admin)

*From our partners: 🌎📲 Live lighter, feel good, get rewarded… The Commons app helps you track/lower your carbon footprint and rewards you for purchases from 50,000+ sustainable brands. Get Commons app FREE here and start earning.

Spotify is at the bottom of the charts when it comes to artist payouts on a per-stream basis, according to financing platform Duetti’s annual Music Economics Report. The Swedish company doled out an average of $3.00 per 1,000 streams last year, far below other platforms like Amazon Music ($8.80), Apple Music ($6.20), and YouTube ($4.80), Duetti found.

But, like when all old posts containing a girlfriend are deleted from Insta, the data tells a more complicated story.

Analysts say Spotify’s lower payout rates don’t mean the company has struck worse payout deals with artists, but rather stems from having more engaged listeners compared to its rival music streamers.

• Streaming companies all share roughly the same portion of subscription revenue with artists (~70%), and all have roughly the same subscription fees ($11-$12/month).
• This means the main difference in artist payouts – when judged on a per-stream basis – is how often subscribers use each service.

☝️ The Museum of Natural History in London unveiled the winners of its Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards yesterday, which featured 25 images selected from nearly 60,000 entries. (Make sure to look at the bottom-right photo closely if you haven't already.)

🤔 Did You Know? There are an estimated 2.5 million ants for every one of the 8+ billion humans on Earth, or ~20 quadrillion ants in total, per a 2022 study.

📰 Worth a Read: Believing in aliens derailed this tech pioneer's career – now he's facing prison

🖱 Clickbait: The heist of 100,000 eggs in Pennsylvania becomes a whodunit that police have yet to crack

Yesterday we covered how the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is facing an uncertain future, after recently becoming a target for reformation by the Trump administration.

❓ Our question to you: How do you feel about the Trump administration’s recent moves to overhaul USAID?

• 👍 Support: 42%
• 👎 Oppose: 46%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 12%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,922 votes and 271 longform responses.

💪⛷️ Six years ago, climber Darren Edwards suffered a hiking accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Despite this obstacle, he's completed seven marathons on seven continents over seven days; at the end of this year, he aims to ski 207 miles in 20 days across Antarctica to the South Pole. Read his remarkable story here.

😃 People are valuing their happiness and personal balance more than ever before. For the first time in Workmonitor’s 22-year history, work-life balance has surpassed pay as the leading motivator for job seekers.

🤢🌸 Throngs of people lined up for hours outside the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in hopes of catching a whiff of one of the stinkiest flowers known to man. The rare corpse flower located there, nicknamed "Smelliot," began blooming for the first time a little over a week ago.

Which three states border Lake Superior?

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Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin