Maybe Sarah Connor was right: Remember when The Terminator seemed like pure science fiction? Recent AI headlines are making that movie feel a little less fictional. In one incident, researchers reported that an autonomous AI agent allegedly left notes for future versions of itself, detailing ways to navigate around human-imposed constraints while pursuing its assigned objectives. The idea of software documenting best practices for its successors is enough to make even the most optimistic technologist raise an eyebrow. In a separate and apparently unrelated incident, an autonomous AI agent not only escaped its testing environment but allegedly hacked another AI company to accomplish its assigned task. When AI starts leaving instructions for its future self and taking unexpected actions on its own, it's hard not to hear Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice echoing in the background: "I'll be back." Source: ndtv.com 7/27/26; openai.com 7/21/26

IRS updates premium tax credit table: The IRS has updated the applicable percentage table used to calculate an individual's premium tax credit and required contribution percentage for plan years beginning in calendar year 2027. This percentage is used to determine whether employer-sponsored minimum essential coverage is considered affordable and whether an individual may qualify for an exemption from the individual shared responsibility payment due to a lack of affordable coverage. For plan years beginning in 2027, the required contribution percentage under Internal Revenue Code Section 36B will be 10.22%. In addition, the IRS and the Treasury Department have determined that the failsafe exception described in IRC Section 36B(b)(3)(A)(ii)(III) applies for calendar year 2027. As a result, no additional adjustment under IRC Section 36B(b)(3)(A)(ii)(II) is required. Source: Rev. Proc. 2026-26, I.R.B. 2026-31, 7/27/26.

Are you burned out? HR reaches record levels: HR leaders focus so much on employee well-being, they often neglect themselves. So, what happens when HR is burned out? Here’s how bad it is: According to Sage’s report, The Changing Face of HR: 81% of HR pros are regularly stressed, 84% are personally burned out, 95% feel HR is too much work, 91% agree the last several years have been challenging, and 62% are considering leaving HR. Burnout becomes visible in three critical areas: Professional, emotional, physical. Look for these signs.  Professional – Inefficacy: You’ve lost confidence and belief in your ability to be effective; Mental distance: You feel detached, negative and/or cynical about your work; Mental drain: You feel tired of your work, demands and expectations, and Spinning wheels: You accomplish little or nothing while working toward the same issues and concerns over and over.  Emotional – Feeling unappreciated, bored and/or resentful; impatience and irritability with colleagues, clients, and/or family; feeling detached, isolated and lonely; feeling overwhelmed, disillusioned, apathetic and/or hopeless; excessive self-criticism and dissatisfaction; difficulties with concentration; and anxiety and depression. Physical – chronic fatigue; chest pains and headaches; insomnia; appetite and weight loss or, on the other side, binge eating and weight gain; breathlessness; dizziness, palpitations, and/or feeling faint; frequent illnesses and infections from a compromised immune system; and withdrawal from social and professional situations. Source: HR Morning 6/23/26

Expense report fraud on the rise: New research from travel and expense management firm Emburse, based on a survey of 2,000 workers in the U.S. and UK, found that 4 in 10 U.S.-based employees have used AI to create a fake receipt on a business expense report. Nearly 20% say the AI-generated content was an entire fabrication, while about 15% used AI to increase the price of the expense; meanwhile, 6% used AI to replace a lost receipt for an actual expense.  In a blog post about the research, Emburse Chief Revenue Officer Michele Shepard noted how drastically gen AI has transformed the world of business expense fraud. The tech can create realistic content in just seconds, eliminating the historic “barrier to entry.”  Further, nearly one-quarter of respondents in Emburse’s data admit making a personal purchase and trying to pass it off as a business expense.  Fraud detection processes need a refresh for an AI-powered world, the Emburse report suggests. In particular, Shepard writes that systems need to detect fabricated content, identify unusual reimbursement patterns and monitor divergent spending across departments and vendors. Source: HR Executive 7/8/26

The elections are coming up and so is divisiveness: New research in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Human Behaviour catalogues several kinds of political segregation in the workplace. Most notably, researchers say that Republicans “experience higher exposure to Democrats than vice versa,” with the average Republican’s coworkers tending to be Democratic more often than Democrats’ coworkers being Republican. Still, despite the stark divides in the U.S. political landscape, the majority of workers weren’t shy about engaging in political debate with coworkers, according to a 2024 HiBob report; 58% of respondents said they supported political discourse in the workplace, up 10 percentage points from the year prior. So how should HR handle politically imbalanced workplaces?  During the last general election, attorneys at Fisher Phillips encouraged workplaces to take a compliance-focused approach. While the First Amendment’s free speech provision typically doesn’t apply to private employers, the National Labor Relations Act protects certain speech in both union and nonunion workplaces.  While the Civil Rights Act doesn’t directly concern speech, attorneys said, discussions that might involve a worker’s age, color, disability, gender identity, national origin, religion, race, sex or sexual orientation might pose a compliance risk. HR should consult state laws and also remain consistent in its policies on political dress and paraphernalia, attorneys wrote. Source: HR Dive 6/30/26

Do you offer adoption reimbursement benefits? At a time when some employers are pulling back on workplace perks, adoption benefits continued to grow in 2026, with increases in financial reimbursement and paid leave, according to a new survey.  Companies are offering an average of $16,716 in financial reimbursement for adoption costs this year — a 6% increase from 2025, according to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's 2026 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces report. Foster parents also saw gains in paid leave, which rose 2% in 2026 to an average of nine weeks. "It's a small outlay for businesses, and yet it has maximum impact in terms of employee loyalty, recruitment, and a sense of equity among families in the workplace," said Rita Soronen, president and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.  Source: EBN 6/30/26

Electronic delivery of SPDs may become the norm: The U.S. Department of Labor is preparing to post a draft regulation that could ease health plan information delivery rules. The administration wants the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration and other federal agencies to make it easier for employers to use electronic delivery systems. EBSA officials appear to be moving toward letting employers make electronic delivery the default delivery option. EBSA sent the draft delivery regulation to reviewers at the federal Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in May. OIRA says the draft may show up in the Federal Register by the end of July. OIRA, a division of the White House Office of Management and Budget, held a regulation impact review teleconference meeting with benefits industry representatives in June. ERIC hired Ipsos, a research consulting firm, to conduct a survey of 1,009 people ages 18 through 65 who are enrolled in health plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. About 91% of the participants said they most frequently view information about their health benefits through electronic systems, rather than on paper, and 78% of the participants said e-delivery should be the default information delivery option. Source: BenefitsPro 7/7/26