# AI Moderation, Workforce Restructuring, and Data Strategy

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-07-07

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
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If you use Google, your training is AI.
I'm Imran Sheik and your Tuesday Daily Crunch featuring three big tech headlines starts right now.
Reddit's using LLMs to solve a problem LLMs largely created.
You see, it's easier than ever for bad actors to spew spam across the internet as powerful large language models, LLMs, become effortlessly accessible.
If you've spent about 10 minutes on the internet in the last few years, you'll know that this means spam and bot content have become an even bigger problem than they already were.
Well, Reddit says it developed tools with LLMs to cut down on spam, much of which was created with LLMs in the first place.
It's a bit ironic, of course, but in the AI era, platforms have no choice but to fight fire with fire.
You see, according to the platform, Reddit blocks 23 million spam views per day and catches about 25,000 new spam posts and comments each day.
Social platforms have been building automated spam reduction tools for years now, but Reddit says these updated tools are catching spam at a higher rate.
Platforms like YouTube, Meta, and Instagram allow users to post AI-generated content so long as they disclose it, and TikTok is going as far as letting users toggle how much AI-generated content they want to see.
If platforms are able to detect AI-generated content faster, that also means that they have the potential to flag violence.
content like hate speech more quickly.
But platform experts have continually reminded us that AI content moderation must be paired with human moderation to get the most effective results.
Microsoft cut around 4,800 rolls, or 2.1% of its global workforce on Monday, the latest in a series of layoffs that's stoking fears that AI will replace people at companies.
You see, the layoffs will hit Xbox and commercial sales the hardest, with Xbox losing 1,600 staffers today, according to memos shared with Microsoft staff.
Here's a snippet from a memo from Amy Coleman, EVP and Chief People Officer.
Our business is changing because the world around it is changing.
The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here.
Our customers' needs are shifting, the business models that serve them are shifting, and that means the work itself.
What we do, where we focus, and how we're organized has to transform too.
Companies don't get to choose whether their industry changes, they only get to choose whether they change with it.
That means we will need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate so we can have the greatest impact for our customers.
Coleman stressed that the roles eliminated on Monday are not being replaced by AI, but noted, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done.
As of Monday's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox.
In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this the most significant restructure in Xbox history.
As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects.
The Xbox layoffs come as the gaming industry shrinks amid new generative AI opportunities.
You know what?
Consider this a belated PSA.
A recent change to Google's privacy settings is allowing the company to store more of your data, including media such as images, files, and audio and video recordings, to improve its AI models.
In other words, if you upload any media to Google Search Services, it's being used to train AI unless you opt out.
The change came about via an under-the-radar update to Google Search Services privacy settings announced in June via a customer email.
With the update, the company essentially opted people into this expanded AI training under the guise of giving users more control over their saved history and personalized recommendations.
The update introduced two new settings, search services history and personalized recommendations, allowing you to configure how your activity is used to personalize your Google experience and how long your web and app activity is saved.
This update applies beyond Google Search itself.
It also includes other search services such as maps, shopping, flights, hotels, translate, and news.
For instance, when you use Google Lens to search for something visually by snapping a photo, that image may now be saved for AI training.
Similarly, if you use the newer Search Live feature to search via voice input in the Google app, those audio recordings could be saved, as can any other Google voice search.
If you use Google Translate to practice speaking, that audio is saved too.
The changes reflect a broader industry shift toward gathering data by any means necessary to improve AI services.
Instead of relying solely on information scraped from the web, Google and others are increasingly collecting data that people upload or create when using their services.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Sarah Perez, Rebecca Belan, Amanda Silberling, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel.
And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.