An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Perplexity's AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users' knowledge or consent. "This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account," the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that "enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users" are shared. Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with "a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google." Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleged, chats are also shared with personally identifiable information (PII), even when users who want to stay anonymous opt to use Perplexity's "Incognito Mode." That mode, the lawsuit charged, is a "sham." "'Incognito' mode does nothing to protect users from having their conversations shared with Meta and Google," the complaint said. "Even paid users who turned on the 'Incognito' feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google, along with their email addresses and other identifiers that allowed Meta and Google to personally identify them." "Perplexity's failure to inform its users that their personal information has been disclosed to Meta and Google or to take any steps to halt the continued disclosure of users' information is malicious, oppressive, and in reckless disregard" of users' rights, the lawsuit alleged. "Nothing on Perplexity's website warns users that their conversations with its AI Machine will be shared with Meta and Google," Doe alleged. "Much less does Perplexity warn subscribed users that its 'Incognito Mode' does not function to protect users' private conversations from disclosure to companies like Meta and Google."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s a question many engineering teams aren’t ready to answer honestly.

Partly because the answer changes depending on who you ask, and partly because the two emerging answers point in completely opposite directions.

Iain Bishop, CEO of Damala Technology and a former CTO with over two decades of experience, believes that “there are uneven gains with AI at the moment.”

Some teams are moving fast – shipping more, experimenting, shaping decisions, and owning outcomes. Others are still treating AI like a smarter autocomplete, focusing on infrastructure and reliability. The gap between these groups, Iain believes, is only going to grow.

Soon, devs won’t jus use AI – they will coordinate it

Most teams today are still operating in what Iain describes as the copilot phase. 

AI sits alongside developers, helping them generate code, suggest improvements, or speed up repetitive tasks. It’s useful, but it doesn’t fundamentally change how work is structured, though that could change soon, Iain believes.

What we’ll see over time is a move from a copilot model to an orchestration model.

In that world, developers don’t just use AI, they coordinate it. Instead of writing everything themselves, they manage multiple AI agents, assign tasks, validate outputs, and connect everything into a working system. The role shifts from execution to direction.

You’re still accountable, no matter how smart AI becomes

As tools become more powerful, there’s a growing temptation to push more responsibility onto them. Iain sees that as a dangerous path:

If AI is just like a co-worker, it isn’t truly autonomous and we remain accountable no matter how powerful the tools are.

The risk isn’t that AI will take control. It’s that teams will give it up too easily: 

If we allow AI tools to operate completely autonomously, we lose that accountability. And that’s the wrong approach.

This means developers aren’t becoming less responsible, they’re becoming more. They’re accountable not just for what they write, but for what they orchestrate.

AI’s first impact won’t be mass layoffs, it will be role compression

AI’s first big impact won’t be mass layoffs, it will be role compression. “In the coming years, teams will shrink, and people will need to wear multiple hats,” Iain says.

The lines between traditional roles are starting to blur: you’ll see more product engineers build AI-driven solutions. At the same time, deep technical expertise won’t disappear; if anything, it becomes even more critical, Iain explains.

There will always be a need for systems engineers who understand what good code looks like.

As AI generates more code, someone still needs to ensure the architecture makes sense.

Iain sees two clear paths:

1. Toward product – understanding users, business needs, and delivering end-to-end solutions;
2. Deeper into systems – architecture, design, and scalability.

“The risk is for engineers who stay in the middle,” he says. “With AI handling more execution, being just kind of technical and kind of product-aware may no longer be enough.”

Structuring AI lets teams move fast without losing control

Most companies aren’t struggling with what AI can do, they’re struggling with how to manage it, Iain says: “There’s a rapid pace of change, and companies need to get control of what’s happening.”

The instinct is to lock things down (limit tools, restrict access, add heavy governance) but engineers will find ways around it.

A more sustainable path is to structure how AI is used. Iain points to orchestration platforms, where standards, design systems, and governance are built into AI workflows. This lets teams move fast without losing control, and ensures organisations don’t have to choose between speed and consistency. Control comes not just from systems, but from people understanding the tools they’re using.

Knowing how to use new models won’t come automatically

With all the focus on automation, one skill is quietly becoming critical: communication.

Iain says that for teams new to AI, it’s about more than prompts – it’s understanding models, structuring context, and guiding outputs into something usable.

Prompt engineering is really about creating the right context to get the best response.

This changes how developers work. Instead of writing everything, they guide systems, shape inputs, and validate outputs. Models will keep improving, that’s inevitable, but knowing how to use them well won’t be automatic.

The post Some Engineering Teams Won’t Be Ready for AI Orchestration – and It Will Cost Them appeared first on ShiftMag.

---

---

“The platforms should be absolutely begging Congress to regulate them, because the alternative is they get sued into oblivion by a bunch of law firms.”

The code is actually kinda useless

This week, we discuss the Claude Code leak, locking down coding agents, and the Axios supply chain attack. Plus, Coté considers breaking up with his Gmail address of 20+ years.

Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 566

Runner-up Titles

• pawpatrol891@gmail.com
• I get that dude’s email
• Those turtles are dyslexic
• I’m just a space hyperchicken judge
• curl|bash is the debate
• Djikstra’s algorithm for calendaring

Rundown

• Google Now Lets You Change Your Gmail Address. Here’s How
• Claude had a week
  • He Rewrote Leaked Claude Code in Python, And Dodged Copyright
  • Anthropic admits Claude Code quotas running out too fast
  • Auto mode for Claude Code
  • Anthropic leaked its own source Code
• Are sandboxes the future
  • Docker Sandboxes: Run Agents in YOLO Mode, Safely
  • Docker Sandboxes: Run Claude Code and More Safely
  • Coder Raises $35M
• Axios NPM Distribution Compromised in Supply Chain Attack

Relevant to your Interests

• Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy
• Juries Take the Lead in the Push for Child Online Safety
• Jensen Huang runs Nvidia with 60 direct reports — and no one-on-ones
• Report: Apple to Move a Part of its Embedded Cores to RISC-V, Stepping Away from Arm ISA
• A one-line Kubernetes fix that saved 600 hours a year
• Apple discontinues the Mac Pro with no plans for future hardware - 9to5Mac
• ‘Astound’ed. Google Flips Its Fiber To PE.
• Hacked Files of F.B.I. Director Kash Patel Circulate Online
• We Rewrote JSONata with AI in a Day, Saved $500K/Year
• I Decompiled the White House's New App
• Mistral secures $830 million in debt financing to fund AI data center
• The AI boom is a lie: Fake data centres and unused GPUs | Ed Zitron
• Microsoft Copilot is now injecting ads into pull requests on GitHub
• American Exchange Group Inks $39 Million Deal for Allbirds Assets
• OMG. Best back to back posts. Maintainer for Axios, before and after the supply chain breach.
• Historical GitHub Uptime Charts
• Reddit - The heart of the internet
• Bluesky's new AI tool Attie is already the most blocked account other than J.D. Vance
• Steve Blank Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival

Nonsense

• The Untold Story of Wiz (ft. Wiz Khalifa)

Conferences

• DevOpsdays Atlanta 2026, April 21-22, 2026
• DevOpsDays Austin, May 5-6, 2026
• DevOpsDays + AI Nashville, May 14-15, 2026
• KCD Texas, May 15, 2026, use code MEDIA_THANK_YOU for free pass
• WeAreDevelopers Europe, July 8-10, 2026 Berlin, Coté speaking.
• DevOpsDays Dallas, Sep 28-29, 202
• WeAreDevelopers NA, Sept 23-25, 2026, Discount Code: Community_SoftwareDefined
• DevOpsDays Vilnius, Sep 30 - Oct 1. 2006
• VMware User Groups (VMUGs):
  • Minneapolis (April 7-9, 2026)
  • Toronto (May 12-14, 2026)
  • Dallas (June 9-11, 2026)
  • Orlando (October 20-22, 2026)
• Conference Partners

SDT News & Community

• Join our Slack community
• Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com
• Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com
• Follow us on social media: Twitter, Threads, Mastodon, LinkedIn, BlueSky
• Watch us on: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
• Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté
• Sponsor the show
• Sponsor more podcasts with Failover Media

Recommendations

• Brandon: Claude Code /copy
• Matt: Search Engine:
  • Are You a Good Driver?
  • The Trial of the Driverless Car
• Coté:
  • Abby Bangser’s KubeCon EU 2026 talk
  • booWhoops

Download audio: https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/9b74150b-3553-49dc-8332-f89bbbba9f92/e31ef150-de39-4ead-b879-4edb4f479f03.mp3