• A new study explored how birth order, gender, and personality traits influence parental favoritism.
• It found that parents tend to prefer their oldest kids and also daughters.
• Parents may show preferential treatment toward eldest daughters, who they see as more responsible.

It's a fact of life that parents play favorites, but which children are favored more — and why — is an ongoing topic of research.

A recent study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin in January, has shed some light on the matter, in hopes of pointing out how favoritism doesn't end well for anyone involved.

Which child parents are more likely to favor

The Brigham Young University researchers analyzed data from over 19,000 participants in 30 studies and 14 databases across North America and Western Europe.

They examined how birth order, gender, temperament, and personality played a role in favoritism and found that parents primarily tend to favor elder children, agreeable children, and daughters.

The data couldn't explain why this is the case, but the researchers have their theories.

Why parents favor eldest daughters

For example, daughters might be favored over sons because they're easier to parent and have more effortful control — the ability to sit still and ignore distractions.

Parents might also grant more autonomy, a measure of favoritism in the study, to older siblings because they are more "developmentally capable" than younger siblings.

Moreover, because eldest daughters may naturally take on more responsibilities and ease household burdens, "parents may naturally invest more in them," Annie Wright, a therapist practicing in California, told Business Insider.

She added that many cultures socialize girls to be "more emotionally expressive, empathetic, and communicative — traits that may make them more likable and easier for parents to bond with."

At the same time, the golden child can also wear a heavy crown.

The consequences of being the favorite

Wright is the eldest of six and identifies with eldest-daughter syndrome.

She told BI that there's a "shadow side" to being the favorite, such as people-pleasing and feeling relentless pressure to perform. Over time, it can lead to resentment and tension between siblings, Wright said.

Moreover, eldest daughters like Wright — who was given more chores growing up — can feel overly responsible for others. This mentality can eventually put them in a position as the caretakers in their families, a role that some lament because they feel like it holds them back.

Despite the societal messaging that women should make their own decisions, "there's still pressure for girls to care for the emotional needs of people in their immediate surroundings," Dr. Michelle Janning, a professor of sociology at Whitman College, told BI.

She added that these two expectations — to be great caretakers and to reach their ambitions — aren't mutually exclusive. "They are both in existence, but what's not happening maybe is how to manage both of them," she said.

In practice, it can lead to burnout and workaholism. Wright, for example, said she used to work 80-hour weeks while missing time spent with her daughter.

Wright added that eldest daughters, as a result, can also struggle with self-expression and independence later in life.

That said, life isn't too rosy for the less-favored kids, either.

Parents can make small adjustments

The study's authors believe that less-favored kids, like more defiant younger sons, are "at greater risk for maladaptive outcomes" because they receive less support from their parents.

In general, playing favorites isn't good for anyone involved and "negative outcomes happen for all siblings in the family," said Dr. Alexander C. Jensen, an associate professor at BYU and the study's lead researcher,

Parents can do small things to improve the dynamic, Wright said. They can ask themselves if they impose similar rules on their kids or if they provide more emotional attention to one child. And if they sense disparities, it's time to "level things out."

As the battle over Elon Musk's DOGE-directed cuts to federal medical research continues, institutions already are freezing hiring, cutting back on the number of Ph.D. students they'll accept and making other contingencies.

Why it matters: Capping how much the National Institutes of Health covers the schools' overhead costs could lead to billions of dollars in cuts to scientific research funding and widespread economic fallout.

Driving the news: An economic analysis by software company Implan on Tuesday estimates proposed cuts could lead to a loss of $6.1 billion in the nation's gross domestic product, a $4.6 billion reduction in labor income and result in the loss of more than 46,000 jobs nationwide.

• This includes the direct effects of the research itself, with 17,000 expected job cuts, but also indirect effects through a slowing of business-to-business spending in the R&D supply chain that could support 14,000 more jobs.

What they're saying: "It's not just researchers that are affected. It's not just universities that are affected," said Bjorn Markeson, academic divisional director and economist at Implan.

• "There's going to be impacts on real estate ... there's going to be impacts on legal services. There's going to be impacts on services to buildings, office, administration."

Between the lines: While federal courts have temporarily frozen plans to slash the rate NIH pays for "indirect costs" and the administration's temporary "pause" on federally funded grants and loans, universities are already feeling real pain.

• Institutions have also been reporting delays of NIH grant reviews, in what some legal scholars call a "backdoor" approach to freezing funding, Nature reported.

NIH cuts are most immediately hitting graduate education programs.

• The University of Pennsylvania said it would reduce graduate admissions, pointing in part to the NIH cuts, reported The Daily Pennsylvanian.
• The University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University and University of Southern California are among institutions that temporarily paused Ph.D. program admissions but have since resumed the process, per Inside Higher Ed.
• Meanwhile, Columbia's medical school and MIT, among others, have frozen hiring.

Zoom in: Maryland is among the states that could be hit hardest, with potential annual losses exceeding $2 billion due to Johns Hopkins University and its robust research corridor, Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, told Axios.

• By his calculations, there could be 2,000 to 3,000 jobs eliminated in the state as the result of the new NIH policy on administrative and overhead costs.
• "Losing 3,000 jobs across the state would not devastate the economy, but it's an add-on effect to everything else that's going on now," Clower said.
• "Taking into account job losses elsewhere in the federal government ... it's a hard hit to the local economy," he said, noting the Maryland suburbs of D.C. have not seen job growth rebound to their pre-pandemic levels.

The cuts can have outsized impacts within states that receive much less, pointed out officials at Dartmouth College.

• Dartmouth has about 1,300 employees funded in part by its roughly $97 million in federal NIH grants. Dartmouth Health has another 400 employees whose jobs are funded at least in part by its $18 million in NIH grants.
• "In New Hampshire, that's a lot of people," said Steven Bernstein, chief research officer of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
• Officials said they are not discussing layoffs or other changes. But "medium term and longer term, if the research portfolio shrinks, those job opportunities are going to decline," said Dean Madden, vice provost for research at Dartmouth College.

What we're watching: U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley is still considering whether the cut to the funding of indirect costs is unlawful.

The bottom line: The future of research talent and scientific advancements could be at stake with these looming cuts.

• "It will impact our ability to to train the next generation of scientists, because there will be less funding available to help support students while they're in their studies," Clower said. "There will be knock-on effects in the economy in future years."
• "What we can't measure is what those losses would mean to discovery of new medications, new drugs, new medical procedures," he said.

• I left my life in New Orleans for a completely different change of pace in Buenos Aires.
• After living here for two years, I can confidently say it was the best decision I ever made.
• My career and personal life are flourishing. While I make less, my cost of living is lower.

Two years ago, my life was very different. My relationship had just ended, my landlord died, and I was sad and anxious about finding a new apartment in the ever-more-costly New Orleans rental market.

Fast forward, and I'm now enjoying the happiest time of my life in Argentina. After my landlord passed, I stretched my savings to visit a friend in Buenos Aires and ultimately decided to move there.

One of the first phrases I learned after moving was "mejor calidad de vida," which translates to better quality of life — and I can confidently say that's been my experience in Argentina. After two years in Buenos Aires, I have no regrets or plans to return to the US.

As a gay man, I feel safer in Buenos Aires

Argentina was the first Latin American country to legalize same sex marriage, and Buenos Aires regularly tops lists of queer-friendly travel destinations.

Same-sex or queer couples are casually affectionate around town, and I find myself rarely tensing the way I sometimes did in Louisiana when something told me I needed to be cautious and alert.

I make less, but my creativity is flourishing

I've started freelancing again, and while I earn less, my expenses are much lower without a car and in the more affordable rental market here.

I live a short walk from greengrocers, butchers, grocery stores, and nearly everything else I might need, with a cheap and extensive (if not always timely) network of buses and subways.

The lower cost of living has given me more opportunities to be choosier about my freelance projects.

I've never been more pleased with my creative work: I recently sold my first horror short story and have 12,000 words and counting written toward my first novel manuscript.

My personal life is flourishing, too

I spent my first few months enjoying the bigger, more diverse dating pool of a big city.

I'm now in the early stages of a promising new relationship — with my Spanish teacher.

Humblingly for this former all-star French student, getting up to speed on the lingo has been tricky.

The region has a distinctive dialect, which preserves certain old-fashioned usages and incorporates features from Italians who arrived with the waves of late 19th and early 20th-century immigrants.

This local Spanish can challenge newcomers, and more than one person has compared learning Spanish in Argentina to learning English in Scotland.

In my experience, though, the people of Buenos Aires have been generous with my slow but steady progress, repeating themselves when I need to try again and trying their English when I'm completely lost.

I have different ice cream flavors for different moods

Buenos Aires is so densely populated with ice cream shops that I now have different favorites for different moods and situations.

Favorite local flavors include kumquats in whiskey, sambayon — an eggy, boozy custard, and crema del cielo, "cream of heaven," a sweet cream whose name only exaggerates slightly.

I've also embraced the city's elegant cafe culture. Instead of American-style coffee to go, I now sit and savor my coffee, along with the little glass of soda water and sweet biscuit that generally accompanies it.

And I'm constantly surrounded by the city's colorful plant life. Trees are planted in a curated assortment, so something is always in bloom: orange tipas, indigo jacarandas, pink palos borrachos.

I'm still adjusting to the city's different lifestyle

Argentinians dine late and party even later, which doesn't always align with my 40-year-old rise-and-shine circadian rhythms.

Fortunately, friends will occasionally compromise on an 8 o'clock dinner, and self-employment means I can nap when I need.

The bureaucracy can present a challenge, especially around the postal service. Cash-strapped Argentina balances its budget with a strict customs system, which means mail can be a hassle — sometimes it's delayed, sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get it, and sometimes it never arrives.

For example, to retrieve a T-shirt sent to me for my birthday, I had to receive a telegram, register online, go downtown twice, and speak to four people at separate desks.

These learning curves are a low price to pay for the life I have now. As I go about my day in my beautiful new home, I find myself smiling for no reason beyond the pleasure of the city.

Writer and editor Chris Turner-Neal writes about his new life in Argentina and other topics at upsidedownandinspanish.substack.com.

• Drones have changed the way that artillery units are fighting in Ukraine.
• They offer constant surveillance of the battlefield and can deliver devastating precision strikes.
• A US Army general says artillery will need to be more mobile and dispersed in future wars.

US Army gun crews are studying the war in Ukraine and how artillery battles are fought under the never-ending surveillance of drones, any one of which could be carrying a bomb.

A senior Army officer told Business Insider that mobility and dispersal will be key to survival in future fights.

"When we're under constant or near-constant observation, primarily from overhead, we must be more mobile," Brig. Gen. Rory Crooks, director of the long-range precision fires cross-functional team at Army Futures Command, told Business Insider.

"We must be more dispersed," he said, "and we must have a rate of fire that allows us to stop or emplace our artillery, fire sufficient munitions, and then displace well before the anticipated effects of counter-battery [fire] are able to come to bear."

Drones are everywhere in Russia's war against Ukraine. Both militaries are using them for reconnaissance and strike missions.

The presence of drones has complicated the work of artillery units, as uncrewed systems can be used directly to attack the firing position or indirectly to help guide counter-battery fire.

A National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2025 report said that "observations from Ukraine reinforce the critical role of mobile cannon artillery." It said that "the extensive employment of unmanned aerial systems and near ubiquitous sensing only increase the risks."

Crooks said it's important for artillery forces to constantly be on the move. Anytime the gun crews are static, they are putting themselves at risk. With drones becoming more prolific, one could destroy a cannon or wipe out its crew.

Rate of fire and resupply, ensuring there's enough ammunition on tap to keep the guns blasting without interruption, are critical as well. Resupply must match the rate of fire, or it will create serious problems.

"We have to have the ability to quickly resupply in smaller capacities but continue to move and resupply at short halts," Crooks said, adding "that's going to be important for our survival moving forward."

The high-intensity artillery fire in the Ukraine war has underscored the need for sufficient ammunition stockpiles and the ability to deliver ammunition to front-line artillery crews. Elevated demand has driven the US and European countries to boost production of key shells to not only support Kyiv but also ensure they are prepared for future conflicts.

Researchers at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, wrote in a report this month that the constant presence of drones above the battlefield has forced Ukraine and Russia to change how they employ artillery.

Hundreds of meters separate the guns, and firing positions are dug in with protection on all sides. Ammo and the resupply vehicles are kept concealed and away from the firing positions.

The heavy "guns tend to fire for a protracted period as the dug-in positions offer significant protection from counter-battery fire, the volume of which is itself reduced by the dispersion of guns," the report said. It added that the guns are periodically moved to avoid being knocked out by glide-bomb strikes.

Crooks said that the Ukraine conflict has also seen the introduction of ground-launched attack drones like loitering munitions being used to execute missions that have historically been almost exclusively done by artillery. But that doesn't necessarily mean that cannons are going anywhere.

The general said that "you absolutely need artillery to set the right conditions to exploit and perform maneuver warfare adequately in large-scale combat operations."

• Andrew Lambrecht compared the BMW i4 to the Tesla Model 3 with its driving experience and features.
• The i4 offers a refined interior, but he said it lacks some intuitive tech compared to Tesla.
• Despite its higher price, the i4 will appeal to those seeking a unique driving experience.

Several years ago, the Tesla Model 3 was the de facto choice in the electric car market, offering performance, range, and technology at a reasonable price. Last summer, I bought my second used Tesla Model 3. It's still a great car, but the Model 3 now faces some actual competition.

One of these entrants is the BMW i4, an all-electric take on the Bavarian automaker's 4 Series sedan. It offers good range, solid performance, and a somewhat competitive price point. The German EV costs more than other electric sedans, but BMW is not known for being the affordable option.

I wanted to see just how good the i4 is and what it offers over other electric sedans, so I rented one on Turo.

The BMW i4: The trims and specs

The BMW i4 has four different powertrain options: the eDrive35, eDrive40, xDrive40, and the 536 horsepower M50. My review model was an eDrive35, which most recently started at $53,975.

The base spec i4 can achieve a zero-to-sixty time of 5.8 seconds and offers a peak charging rate of 180 kilowatts. These numbers are not groundbreaking, though they align with the discontinued Model 3 Standard Range.

Standard features for the 2025 version include wireless phone charging, an opening sunroof, BMW digital key access, heated front seats, a power tailgate, wireless Apple CarPlay, and a light array of safety features, including a blind spot monitor.

The Harman Kardon premium sound system, adaptive cruise control, lane centering, heated steering wheel, parking assistance package, and ventilated seats are not standard but cost extra. Add those on, and the price will increase to $60,000.

For comparison, the 2024 Tesla Model 3 starts at $44,130 and qualifies for the $7,500 tax credit, effectively making it $36,630 for most buyers.

First impressions of BMW's EV

Turo lent me seven booking days to test the BMW i4. This i4 would've cost around $83 a day to rent if I paid.

Despite featuring frameless windows, the doors deliver a solid "thunk" when closing. The front seats are well-bolstered and have adjustable thigh support, dramatically increasing comfort on long road trips. The cabin is frankly a nice place to be.

Put your foot on the brake and press the start/stop button, and the dual curved displays will come to life with an electronic sound. The i4 features a 12.3-inch driver's display and a 14.3-inch center touchscreen, placed together as one panel. The center screen is crisp and responsive, though it requires a bit of a learning curve.

It's not the most intuitive system, as the climate control system is difficult to adjust, and the map's electric route planner is abysmal. If you're going on a road trip, BMW's system is complicated and outdated. Tesla and Polestar's route planners are far more usable and intuitive.

One area where the i4 truly shines is in the auditory department. While the base sound system won't impress anyone, Hans Zimmer's acceleration soundscapes will. The base i4 offers two futuristic sounds that change based on throttle input and speed.

BMW: The ultimate driving machine?

The i4's best feature is its driving experience. Unlike the Tesla, which uses electrically assisted steering, the BMW uses good old-fashioned power steering. The Tesla feels more sensitive to inputs, almost too much so, but the i4 has good responsiveness without being too sensitive.

The BMW is also an incredibly playful EV to drive. You don't get this in the Tesla or even the Polestar. When traction control is disabled, the rear wheels can easily lose grip. Especially on wet roads, the i4 is truly a blast to drive. Despite my rental i4 being the slowest variant, it still felt quick.

One of the most remarkable features is the car's performance display screen, which shows real-time horsepower, torque, and temperature information.

The i4's quietness on the road further entrenches you in the realm of prestige. On rougher roads, I did notice some rattles around the headliner and sunroof.

Range and charging

BMW's 256-mile EPA range estimate is accurate in real-world driving. Some EVs, like older Teslas, get much less range in real-world driving.

Charging the i4 is not a bad experience, but I've tested better cars. On an 11kW unit, the i4 can add up to 31 miles of range per hour.

The one issue I had was with DC fast charging. I used Google Maps on CarPlay to route me to a fast charger for my testing. I forgot to enter the options menu and manually precondition the battery before arriving, which meant more time waiting for charging.

I recorded 34 minutes to charge from 20 to 80%. This is not particularly fast. BMW says 10 to 80% should take 31 minutes in ideal conditions. This aligns with the Polestar 2 and Tesla Model 3 but is far behind the Hyundai Ioniq 6, which can manage just 18 minutes from 10 to 80%.

The gripes of the i4

The BMW i4 is not cheap, but some parts don't express luxury like others. Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, Volvo, and Ford have front trunks in their electric cars. With such a large hood, there should be a large front storage space in the i4. Open the hood, and you'll be disappointed to find a gaping hole.

Moreso, since the i4 uses the same platform as the gas-powered one, there's a massive transmission hump, taking up valuable legroom for backseat passengers. This makes the back seats feel very cramped.

To buy an i4 or not to buy an i4

The BMW i4 is not for everyone. It costs more than other electric sedans but offers one of the best driving experiences among similarly-sized EVs. The price premium goes somewhere.

The i4 looks elegant and understated and is also fun to drive but manageable. The eDrive35 won't transport you to another dimension like the Model 3 Performance does, but it'll conjure a smile.

For most buyers, including myself, I'd say buy a Model 3. Its price-to-features ratio is simply unrivaled. For those who want something that looks, drives, and feels different from most EVs, the BMW i4 might be your best choice.

• The rise of AI agents could upend how the internet works.
• The technology has the potential to disrupt Big Tech relationships with consumers.
• AI agents could change consuming content, organizing daily tasks, and making decisions.

In the future, you might not read this column on Business Insider's website or app. Instead, your very own AI agent could read it to you as part of a bespoke smorgasbord of daily content, suggestions, decisions, and actions that make your life easier and more organized.

Silicon Valley is all aquiver about this agentic vision as the third year of the generative AI boom gains momentum.

2025 has been hailed as the year of AI agents—personalized digital assistants that can interact with users, do research, gather information, curate content, and ultimately anticipate your needs and get things done before you even ask.

As usual with techno-futurist predictions, this may not come to pass. Generative AI might not progress as quickly as hoped. However, if the technology becomes capable of such feats, it will upend the internet and could disrupt some of the companies that dominate our current digital world.

"There's an idea we can't seem to shake," Bernstein's Mark Shmulik and Nikhil Devnani, two of the top internet analysts, wrote in a recent note to investors. "If AI agents truly become useful, the internet will go dark."

Websites and apps won't go away; it's just that for many of them, consumers won't visit or see these digital locations directly. Instead, they will access information, content, and widgets through an AI assistant that becomes "the aggregator of the aggregators," the analysts said.

"If it scales and plays out like we think it might, this. Changes. Everything. The aggregators get disaggregated, and much of consumer internet may be structural shorts. Welcome to the Agentic AI era," they wrote. "There's nowhere to hide."

Traveling could become easier

The Bernstein analysts cited an example of flying to New York and needing to get from the airport to the office.

Do you really care whether you take an Uber, a Lyft, a Waymo, a cab, or a generic black car service? Probably not. What you really want is the fastest, cheapest, most comfortable ride into Manhattan.

What if your personal AI agent could sort this whole thing out for you? That would radically change the way the internet works. No need to "Google" anything. You might not even need to take out your smartphone (if we even have phones in this agentic future).  

"The aggregators have control over the supply, but if demand consolidates and gets fulfilled through an AI agent, you may never need to open your rideshare app again!" the Bernstein analysts wrote. 

A new top-of-the-funnel

This could be the ultimate top of the funnel. An AI agent representing each of us would become a powerful new direct connection that tech companies could forge with consumers. All other providers would be funneled through this new digital gate and would likely have to pay some sort of toll—just as Google collects tolls right now on the web through Search ads and Apple collects tolls via App Store fees.

"If you extrapolate these dynamics to their end state, AI Agents could truly disintermediate the aggregators by becoming pseudo marketplaces in their own right," Shmulik wrote. 

Big Tech companies and startups are already furiously jostling for control of this future agentic funnel. 

In late January, OpenAI unveiled Operator, an AI agent system that uses a web browser to take action on behalf of users, such as booking travel reservations and buying them products.

Users can select a specific website through which they want to process their requests, such as OpenTable, or send the request through a search engine like Google. The key here is that the direct relationship is between the OpenAI agent and the user. Previously, this online journey would probably have started with a Google Search. Now, in the future, Google is just one of many services that OpenAI's Operator might choose.

Google is not waiting around to become just another app on someone else's AI agent platform, though. In December, the company showed off Project Mariner, an AI agent that can browse the web and take actions such as clicking buttons and filling out forms. 

Back in October, OpenAI rival Anthropic unveiled a similar tool rolled out as a test feature called "computer use," which enables its AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, to use a computer similarly to humans.

Some Anthropic engineers asked to order enough food to feed a group, and this new AI agent tool selected pizza. Alex Albert, Anthropic's head of developer relations, said the tool navigated DoorDash online, and "about a minute later, we saw Claude decided to order us some pizzas." On Monday, Anthropic launched an updated model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, with "extended thinking" capabilities.

Other tech companies, including AI startup Perplexity, have similar offerings.

These AI agents may be delivered via new, voice-based devices. Meta has wearable technology such as its goggles and smart glasses. Apple has put its brand of AI on many of its devices and is working on updates to the Vision Pro goggles. Google is busy baking its Gemini AI models into millions of Android phones and Chromebooks.

An even more unbreakable digital connection?

Is this the ultimate top-of-the-funnel technology? Maybe not.

Elon Musk's Neuralink aims to put chips inside humans' brains. That could create an unbreakable bond with consumers, as the chip would read their thoughts, desires, and needs directly from their heads rather than inferring what people want from Google Searches, Apple app behavior, and social media posts.

This might sound like wild sci-fi dreams, though Google executives have talked about this idea for years.  

In 2010, Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, discussed it with The Atlantic, saying a brain implant could be a logical next step for the company's search engine. 

"Now you Google things on your computer. And you Google things on your phone. That's the next stage. And I believe — people may laugh — but I think there will be an implant," he said. 

Every quarter since ChatGPT's debut, Nvidia's earnings release has tied a knot in Silicon Valley's gut as investors wait for the numbers that will prolong the AI boom — or end it.

Why it matters: It's risky when any industry hangs so much of its hopes on one company's results, and Nvidia's enviable record of beating expectations means the slightest faltering could trigger a rout.

Driving the news: Today, markets await the chipmaker's first report since the arrival of DeepSeek's latest model last month cast a brief shadow over Nvidia's glow.

• DeepSeek rivaled the industry's most advanced AI models in a cheaply trained open-source package.
• That suggested the long-term demand for Nvidia's powerful but costly chips might be lower than projected.

Yes, but: Tech giants and startups in the U.S. and around the globe continue to pour hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, new model training and data centers.

• All those projects keep orders flowing to Nvidia, which not only continues to lead the market for high-performing chips but also controls an ecosystem of supporting software tools that help AI makers optimize their products.

The big picture: There are three broader reasons to think that Nvidia could disappoint investors, if not this week then eventually.

1. The market is over-concentrated.

• The S&P 500's incredible run over the last two years has been heavily tied to the so-called Magnificent 7 stocks, led by Nvidia. But as a result, those gains are more heavily concentrated in that small handful of stocks than they've been in decades.
• The Magnificent 7 accounted for more than half of the S&P's gains in 2023 and 2024, and now makes up more than 30% of the index's total market capitalization.
• By one key metric, the market was more concentrated in late 2024 than ever before — including during the dot-com bubble.

2. Demand for AI remains elusive.

• Nvidia's astonishing market ride rests on the assumption that AI will be the tech industry's next universal platform and that demand for AI products and services will be massive.
• So far, although ChatGPT and its rivals show healthy growth in usage, businesses and consumers haven't always embraced the tools. Real-world applications beyond a few specialized fields like software programming and customer support have yet to take off.
• If that doesn't change, the AI industry — along with its leading toolmaker, Nvidia — could face a sobering correction.

3. The AI chip market is uniquely vulnerable to geopolitical risk.

• That's because Nvidia only designs its chips. They're manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC.
• Taiwan has long faced the danger of an invasion or blockade by China, which has claimed the island for decades.
• Trump may have given Beijing reason to doubt he would step in to protect Taiwan. Among other remarks, Trump lamented during the campaign that Taiwan "wants protection" but "they stole our chip business."

The other side: Nvidia could keep outperforming expectations for a long time.

• A bad quarter for the company would also be a disaster for the market in the short term, but not necessarily for Nvidia's long-term outlook.
• Even if the AI bubble pops, the chipmaker would remain an incredibly valuable repository of intellectual property, design skills and research power.
• Short-term investors might take a bath, but the company would live to thrive again.

The bottom line: Silicon Valley's 75-year history has been one long cycle of booms and busts. With AI it shows every sign of continuing that pattern.

Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia have the highest federal wages per worker, Labor Department data shows.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's attempts to cut the government workforce is likely to hit particularly hard in places with the most federal workers, and where those workers take home the biggest paychecks.

By the numbers: Federal workers in D.C. make about $136,000 per worker, those in Maryland make about $126,000 per worker, and those in Virginia make about $111,000 per worker.

• All three areas also rank in the top five for most federal workers overall.
• D.C. has about 191,000 federal workers, Virginia has 189,000, and Maryland has 158,000.

How it works: This data comes by way of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and reflects annual averages for 2023.

Caveat: These raw state-by-state figures don't account for varying costs of living between locations.

• $126k in Maryland doesn't go as far as it would in, say, West Virginia.

What's next: Multiple lawsuits filed by federal workers in connection with President Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to cull the government workforce are still working their way through the courts.

• Grant Sabatier built wealth by saving and investing the majority of his money in index funds.
• He'll always recommend index funds, but he also thinks people should be investing in themselves.
• Specifically, he advises developing AI skills.

Grant Sabatier understands better than most the power of index-fund investing: The strategy helped him build a seven-figure net worth and hit financial independence by age 30.

Today, at 40, he still primarily invests in index funds.

"Ninety-plus percent of my assets are still just in a Vanguard total stock market index fund. I've been keeping it simple since I started investing in 2010 and we've all seen what the market has done over that time," he told Business Insider. "So, just being a passive investor in that sense has continued to pay dividends. I really haven't changed a whole lot, and I still stand by the strategy."

The self-made millionaire, author, and new bookstore owner will always recommend buying index funds. But there's one, perhaps overlooked investment that he recommends additionally: "Invest in your skills because skills are future currency."

Skills allow you to adapt to a world that's "changing faster than ever," he said. "Having those skills and keeping those skills up to date is something that you often don't have to spend much money on — it just takes some time — but it is really, really valuable. I would double down on that."

Specifically, he'd invest time into learning about artificial intelligence — how it works and how you can leverage it.

"AI is poised to transform most industries in ways we are only beginning to predict. Savvy entrepreneurs are already looking for ways to adopt and adapt so they're not left behind," he writes in his new book, "Inner Entrepreneur," which he describes as a blueprint he's designed after 15 years of launching, acquiring, and selling business.

Sabatier, who built wealth by buying, scaling, and selling websites, has always leveraged technology to save him time and money.

"We use technology to manage our payroll, health insurance, 401(k), human resource support, podcast editing, email funnels, and more," he writes. "AI is making this even more accessible and affordable."

Learning AI is beneficial to any working individual, not just entrepreneurs and business owners.

"More recruiters and companies are going to be adding those questions about AI fluency and experience to their interviews and screenings," he told BI. "The more you know about it and the more well-versed you are, the more attractive of a full-time job candidate you are, so it's just as useful in your full-time job hunting as it is pursuing entrepreneurship."

He acknowledges that AI is a massive space and "it's impossible to keep track of everything, so try to pick a lane and spend a couple of hours a week experimenting with one or two tools just so you can have a conversation and stay relevant."

Choosing to invest in yourself by honing a skill doesn't mean abandoning your investment portfolio.

"You should simultaneously be building your skills while you're growing your investment portfolio," he said, which is easier to do if you simplify your investment strategy. "It's pretty easy to passively invest in an index fund. Use all that additional time you're saving from tracking individual stocks to learn some new skills or beef up the skills that you have. The world's just changing so rapidly. I'd rather future proof my skills than add complexity to my investments."