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Microsoft States AI Cannot End the ‘Infinite Workday’ Without Business Operational Changes

June 18, 2025

Microsoft States AI Cannot End the 'Infinite Workday' Without Business Operational Changes

OpenAI lands $200M Pentagon contract to build AI tools for military, admin use

The Defense Department just handed OpenAI a $200 million contract. Under the deal, OpenAI will develop prototype “frontier AI” tools aimed at boosting military operations and administrative functions inside the Pentagon. The systems are expected to launch by summer 2026.

Alongside the contract, OpenAI launched a new “OpenAI for Government” initiative to focus on selling AI products to government agencies. Read more at CNBC.

OpenAI and Microsoft clash heats up

Tensions between OpenAI and Microsoft are escalating, reports the Wall Street Journal. OpenAI wants more freedom to work with other cloud providers and sell products that compete with Microsoft’s offerings. It also refuses to share technology from its $3 billion AI startup Windsurf acquisition with Microsoft.

Microsoft apparently stalls OpenAI’s plans to become a public benefit corporation, disagreeing on equity stakes despite investing $13B so far. OpenAI is reportedly weighing a federal antitrust complaint and a public campaign against Microsoft’s “anticompetitive” conduct. Full scoop here.

Google launches AI-powered hurricane forecasting with Weather Lab

Google DeepMind teamed up with the U.S. National Hurricane Center to create Weather Lab, an experimental website showcasing an AI model that predicts tropical cyclones up to 15 days ahead.

The AI forecasts storm formation, intensity, size, shape, and track with accuracy matching or surpassing traditional physics-based models. Five-day forecasts beat physics models by 87 miles on average.

Users can compare AI and physics forecasts and test different scenarios. Google stresses this is an experiment and not a replacement for official forecasting. Google DeepMind blog.

Salesforce AI study: Top models struggle with CRM multitasking

Salesforce researchers tested leading AI models on 19 CRM tasks using their new CRMArena-Pro benchmark. Tasks ranged from configuring products to assigning sales reps and quoting prices, including multiturn customer exchanges.

Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro led single-turn tasks, completing 54% of B2B and 58% of B2C workflows. But multiturn task performance fell sharply—Gemini 2.5 Pro managed only 35% of B2B and 30% of B2C.

OpenAI’s o1 slightly edged Gemini on multiturn B2C at 30.4%. The study shows AI still struggles with complex real-world business tasks. Salesforce’s own “Agentforce” AI agents were not tested. Read the research on arxiv.org.

AI scrapers overwhelm libraries and museums, threaten public access

A new GLAM-E Lab study reveals AI scraping bots are flooding cultural institutions’ servers, sometimes knocking collections offline. Out of 43 libraries, archives, museums, and galleries surveyed, 39 saw recent traffic surges, 27 directly linked to AI training bots.

The spikes resemble denial-of-service attacks. Many bots ignore robots.txt files, breaking web scraping norms. Small IT teams struggle to block bots without harming human user access.

This chaotic scraping threatens public digital resources and raises tough management choices. Read more at 404 Media.

Microsoft warns AI might worsen ‘infinite workday’ burnout

Microsoft’s latest research spotlights the “infinite workday” trap: emails start in bed, peak productivity hits amid nonstop meetings, and workdays stretch late.

AI tools helping write emails and summarize meetings may just accelerate this overload. Jamie Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist, explains AI boosts productivity but also adds “metacognitive burden” by making users think more to craft prompts.

“AI is delivering real productivity gains, but it’s not enough,” Teevan said.

“The speed of business is still outpacing the way we work today.”

Alexia Cambon, MS work trends lead, says organizations must treat AI as a digital colleague to assign full workflows, not just a tool. Microsoft flagged “Frontier Firms” that reshape business and jobs around AI, boosting employee satisfaction. But only 840 of 31,000 companies hit these standards.

Fortune launches AIQ hub on mastering AI’s real-world impact

Fortune launched AIQ, a dedicated resource exploring AI’s effects on workforces and business. The first AIQ playbook dives into the critical “people” side of AI adoption—from hiring AI-native talent to combating “AI fatigue.”

More updates and playbooks are incoming. Explore AIQ here.