• 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. 

• 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."

One of America's greatest love affairs is with cheap stuff. Yes, consumers generally want things to come fast, and sure, they'd like them to be of decent quality — but above all, what they really care about is the price tag.

Many retailers understand this obsession and are eager to cater to price-sensitive customers. But serving this desire does not guarantee success: The single-minded focus on price means that often we can be pretty disloyal about where our cheap stuff comes from. And in a race to the bottom, there's always someone willing to go lower. At the moment, that's the Chinese online retailers Temu and Shein, whose rock-bottom prices are proving almost impossible to beat for American companies.

Some formerly hot big-name retailers have had a tough go of it as of late. Liberated Brands — the operator of the beloved millennial brands Billabong, Quiksilver, and Volcom — filed for bankruptcy in February and said it would close all its US locations. The fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 is reportedly mulling filing for bankruptcy for the second time in five years. According to the research and advisory firm Coresight, major US retailers announced 7,325 store closures in 2024, up by 33% from 2023 and the highest number since 2020. The bloodbath has continued into 2025: More than 3,000 store closures have already been announced this year. Names such as Big Lots, Party City, Joann, Kohl's, Dollar Tree, and Macy's are shuttering locations. And it's not just physical retailers that are struggling — shares of the online retailer Etsy tumbled after it reported disappointing sales numbers during the holiday season.

When a retailer is having a hard time, it's usually for a multitude of reasons — poor management, a declining brand, changing consumer tastes, etc. But in many of these cases, one quite new factor is contributing to their troubles: supercheap Shein and Temu, which are increasingly hard to contend with. Many American consumers love to cycle through stuff rapidly and thoughtlessly, and the Chinese retailers let them do that in an unrivaled manner.

"What they've done that hurts the competition the most is compete so strongly on price that, yes, it makes it very difficult for anyone else to compete in that way without losing that money," said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst of retail and e-commerce at EMARKETER. "It puts other retailers on the back foot."

In the realm of cheap stuff, there's no such thing as cheap enough.

Liberated Brands has blamed several factors for its bankruptcy, including inflation and a volatile economy, but inexpensive online retailers are also contributing to its woes. In a sworn declaration accompanying the company's bankruptcy filing, its CEO, Todd Hymel, said the company had faced challenges from "shifting consumer preferences" toward fast fashion and e-commerce that harmed its pricing power and profitability.

"Consumers can cheaply, quickly, and easily order low-quality clothing garments from fast fashion powerhouses and have such goods delivered within days," he said. "These fast-fashion companies can cater to micro-trends as opposed to the traditional seasonal trend-forecasting retail model."

Forever 21 finds itself in a similar position, struggling to contend with Chinese e-commerce companies that can undercut it on price and are relatively indistinguishable, quality-wise. (You probably can't tell if a dress was from Shein or Forever 21 without looking at the tag.) In 2023, Forever 21 announced a partnership with Shein in an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" move. But apparently, even that hasn't been enough. For its part, Etsy made its name as a marketplace for personalized, handcrafted items from tiny creators. In recent years, though, it has expanded into offering inexpensive mass-produced goods in an effort to keep up. The problem is that whatever T-shirt you can get printed off Etsy for cheap you can probably find on Temu (or Amazon) for even cheaper.

Liberated pointed to a press release about its bankruptcy filing and otherwise declined to comment for this story. Forever 21, Shein, and Temu did not respond to requests for comment. Etsy declined to comment.

Most retailers don't outright say that Shein and Temu are a problem for them. It's not a great look to admit that you're hemorrhaging customers because you can't compete with e-commerce companies selling the lowest-quality, lowest-priced versions of everything you make. But if you read between the lines, the issue is present.

"Retailers sometimes are talking about consumer behaviors or cautious spending, and we think some of the siphoning off of sales to Shein and Temu is getting bundled up in the overall narrative of consumer caution," said John Mercer, the head of global research at Coresight. "Yeah, there's been some caution, totally, but some of what companies are reporting under that could be losing sales to Shein and Temu."

Coresight has estimated that Shein and Temu may be a $100 billion threat to traditional retailers.

Shein and Temu mostly employ well-trodden tactics from other retailers and push them to the limit in ways other companies can't. Instead of American companies manufacturing their stuff in China and shipping it over to the US, they decided to cut in on the action by making and shipping stuff themselves. The more direct supply chain allowed Shein and Temu to get agile and efficient enough to feed the American consumerist beast.

"You have to appreciate the fact that China for decades was always known as the country that merely manufactured products for other retailers," said Brittain Ladd, a retail and supply-chain consultant. "Shein and Temu, what they did is they researched retail in the US and Europe and so forth, and what they determined is we can do better. We actually can take what makes us special, our capabilities and manufacturing and supply chains and low-cost sourcing, all of that, and we can create business models where we can beat the best retailers in the United States."

Shein, which has been around since 2008, can quickly identify fashion trends and get them marketed, produced, and shipped to consumers' doors. The garments may take longer to arrive than if they came from Amazon, but the price makes them appealing. Temu, a newer entrant that sells items well beyond clothes, has the benefit of a monster parent company, the Chinese giant PDD Holdings, that allows it to set super-low prices that essentially no other retailer can stomach. It's not all that different from what Amazon did when it started out, losing money on e-commerce to get customers.

"They're backed by a very deep-pocketed parent company that is willing to lose money for a sustained period of time to gain market share in the US and elsewhere in the world," Canaves said. "It's a very aggressive strategy."

Now, I know what you might be thinking here: What about Trump and the tariffs and all this talk of taking on China? Shein and Temu have a plan for that — or at least they may not have to worry too too much.

Historically, Shein and Temu have been able to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows importers to avoid paying duties and taxes on shipments worth less than $800, known as the "de minimis" exemption. (Because what they sell is so inexpensive, it's tough to get to $800 in a single order, so they can put a bunch of orders together, too.) For some context, nearly 1.4 billion shipments entered the US through the de minimis exemption last year. Early in his term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order trying to close that loophole. Shein and Temu were prepared and had already been fulfilling more orders from the US and building up inventory stateside. Still, the executive order caused so much chaos at ports that it was put on pause. If the pause is lifted, the scenario won't be ideal for Shein and Temu, but it won't be a killer either.

"They're just simply storing the inventory in the US, just like other retailers do," Ladd said. "And even though that's a higher-cost methodology, it still allows them to sell their products at a price point much cheaper than anyone else."

It's a similar story with the 10% tariff Trump has imposed on goods from China. It's not great for Temu and Shein, but it's also well below the 60% Trump was floating on the campaign trail. It's relatively easy to pass some of that increase on to customers, and since plenty of their competitors import from China, too, they can keep their relative price advantage.

"Shein and Temu are rock bottom of the market," Mercer said. "If the whole market is rising in price, you can put your price up and still be rock bottom."

Some retailers have been able to ward off the Shein and Temu threat. Walmart and Amazon may not be able to go as low on prices, but they also offer things the Chinese e-commerce companies don't: faster delivery, groceries, different products. In November, Amazon launched Haul, a section of its app that, ironically, looks and works like a knockoff Temu. Other retailers at risk of going the way of Billabong or Forever 21 have managed to reinvent themselves and retain relevance, such as Gap and Abercrombie.

"You're not going to be able to outcompete Shein or Temu on price, so you have to build that almost emotional relationship with" customers, Mercer said. "You have to stand for more than low prices."

Ladd added, "Retailers go out of business because they lose relevance with customers."

Not to let flailing retailers off the hook here, but they're not dealing with the easiest of circumstances. Inflation has been a problem. The economy is unstable. It's not clear what tariffs and trade conflicts will mean for the retail industry. They're also managing a price-obsessed American consumer who's easily lured away.

We're attracted to cheap stuff not because of its quality but because it has a low enough price that allows us to constantly churn through the stuff, said Wendy Woloson, a history professor at Rutgers University who wrote "Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America."

"We don't have to make commitments to the things around us because if they're cheap enough and if they're available enough, then I can always buy something else," Woloson said.

When the barrier to entry is so low, there's no significant consequence of consuming like this. Hate that mousepad you got on Temu? Who cares; it was $2.74. Woloson noted that some people can't afford to buy something nicer, but even if everyone could, it's not clear they would. We live in an era of flash fads. People don't want a $200 pair of jeans that'll last for a decade — they want a $20 pair they can toss when the next trend cycles through.

"I think we're really bored," Woloson said.

At the moment, Shein and Temu are winning a race to satiate the insatiable American consumer, and they're undercutting retailers big and small in the process.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Chipotle is using AI chatbot "Ava Cado" to hire 20,000 workers for burrito season.
• AI hiring tools streamline recruitment but can frustrate applicants.
• It's unlikely AI hiring chatbots are going anywhere soon, they just have some kinks to work out.

Evalyn Mendoza has applied to work at Chipotle twice in the last 12 months. Last June, submitting her materials was a breeze. This January, the 33-year-old worked with a new kind of recruiter: an AI chatbot named "Ava Cado."

After asking some simple questions about her name, contact information, and availability to work, Ava Cado scheduled an interview for Mendoza at a Chipotle location 35 minutes away in Selma, California.

But the chatbot misled her. "There was pretty much no way to really contact them," Mendoza said of trying to reach the store. Upon arriving, the manager told her there were no open positions and that the AI system had mistakenly scheduled the appointment.

"I was really frustrated at that time because I had that problem with McDonald's and other AI," Mendoza said. "Having this problem be the third or fourth time that I've had issues with AI — it was just getting to me."

Chipotle is one of several major companies that use AI-powered recruiting. Paradox, the company that supplies the software for Chipotle's Ava Cado, has been working with other large retail, fast food, and service companies like Lowe's, FedEx, and McDonald's to hire new talent using AI. Other workplaces like Mastercard and Stanford Health Care partner with Phenom's AI-recruiting platform. A recent survey by Resume Builder found that 70% of surveyed business leaders were using AI to hire.

We're about to enter "burrito season," Chipotle's busiest time of the year from March through May when customers awaken from their winter slumber craving the fast-casual Mexican grill. This year, the chain is firing up Ava Cado to help hire 20,000 new workers to meet the demand.

"'Ava Cado' has helped streamline our processes in order to capitalize on top talent faster and remain competitive in high volume hiring," Ilene Eskenazi, Chipotle's chief human resources officer, wrote in an email to Business Insider.

While companies like Chipotle are reaping the benefits of expediting their hiring process, it hasn't necessarily made it easier for every candidate to apply.

Mendoza said the opaqueness of the AI hiring process has left applicants like her stranded and isolated.

"It's made the whole process a lot less personal and I feel like that's why it's become a harder time finding a job through AI because it just treats the people like me like a number," she added.

Pros and cons of AI hiring

In a press release, Chipotle said applications have nearly doubled since it started using the recruiting software Paradox to power Ava Cado last October. The completion rate has increased from 50% to over 85% and the average time it takes for a candidate to start work after applying has been cut from 12 days to just four.

Adam Godson, the CEO of Paradox, said the key to recruiting for these kinds of roles is making it easy and fast.

"That's actually the paradox for which we're named," Godson said. "By using technology, you actually spend more time with people and not software."

Answer a few fact-based questions like contact information, availability to work, and ability to physically lift items and voilà, a candidate is scheduled for an interview that could happen as soon as the next day.

"If you make it easy with the device they have, through text messaging, for example, and you can make it fast, then people will come to work," Godson said.

More and more companies are trying it out, said Andrew Chamberlain, a former chief economist at Glassdoor, even if small businesses aren't likely to use such technology.

"Less than 1% of employers have 500 or more employees, but those are really huge companies, and they employ a lot of people," Chamberlain said, referring to Glassdoor's US research. "This is the future that they're going to increasingly invest in this technology, and they'll be more and more automated."

He added that young people, those without a college degree, and lower-skilled workers in retail and customer service are most likely to encounter AI in their experiences. While companies stand to gain dividends from this hiring technology, candidates applying for roles might not equally share those benefits.

"I wouldn't be very excited about going through an interview process just dealing with a chatbot," Chamberlain said. "The tools are better today than ever before, and they're getting better. They're definitely not as good as talking to a human being."

On Reddit, at least half a dozen posts in Chipotle-themed forums discussed the difficulty in scheduling an interview. Candidates described arriving at a store for an appointment with a manager only to be stood up. Managers described having AI schedule appointments outside of their stated availability.

In written statements to Business Insider, Paradox said that clients have the option to integrate their calendar to schedule interviews automatically. Chipotle said that Ava Cado notifies managers when interviews are scheduled.

Godson said Paradox incorporates a short survey that allows candidates to rate their interactions with AI chatbots in the hiring process—98% of applicants, he said, report satisfaction. For Chipotle, that rating is nearly 89% positive, according to the fast-casual chain.

With any emerging technologies, there will be bumps in the road. One of the drawbacks and risks of using automation in the hiring process, said Chamberlain, is that it could negatively impact how they perceive a company's work culture. This could impact hiring as more and more young people are already feeling more alienated from work.

"If they get a reputation from their AI tool, that somehow this terrible place to apply, it definitely will hurt them in the long run," Chamberlain said. He said that companies might lose out on the best candidates if their reputation is tarnished. "It'll cancel out the benefits they're expecting to get."

So far, there's been no AI backlash at Chipotle. Since announcing their hiring spree, the company has seen a 20% increase in applications, Chipotle representatives said. And it doesn't seem they plan on firing Ava Cado any time soon.

"We will continue to leverage AI to relieve General Managers of administrative tasks, so they can focus on their day-to-day operations and providing excellent hospitality for guests," Eskenzani wrote.

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• WNBA player Aaliyah Edwards follows a vegetarian, high-protein diet to stay at the top of her game.
• Tofu, beans, and Greek yogurt feature heavily in her meal rotation.
• A sports dietitian said this diet is perfect for anyone who wants to avoid injury and level up at the gym.

WNBA rising star Aaliyah Edwards is under a lot of pressure. One key way she stays focused and fuels her recovery for peak performance is diet.

At just 22 years old, Aaliyah Edwards already has an Olympics under her belt, repping Canada's women's basketball team in Tokyo in 2021 as the then-youngest member of the team. She's also racked up accolades as a college forward, helping to bring UConn to the Final Four of the NCAA's D1 women's basketball tournament in 2024 before signing with the Washington Mystics for her rookie season of the WNBA.

Now in the WNBA — one of the world's hottest sports leagues right now — Edwards said it's a perfect moment of opportunity, and responsibility, to rep women's athletics. "The momentum for women's pro sports is building," she told Business Insider.

Edwards is a plant-based athlete, an increasingly popular choice favored by superstars like Serena and Venus Williams, Alex Morgan, and Kyrie Irving.

Being a vegetarian in pro sports is all about balance for better energy and recovery, Edwards told BI in the interview, coordinated through her partnership with plant-based food company Nasoya.

"I have to make sure I have high-protein meals throughout the day so I can perform on the court," she said. "It's not as difficult as you think."

Edwards said her routine includes nourishing staples like tofu, tempeh, and lentils for meals and energy-boosting, high-protein snacks to fuel intense training.

Her high-protein staples include tofu and legumes

Edwards said tofu is a regular ingredient in her meals because it's deceptively simple to prepare and it takes on the flavors of any sauces or condiments you add.

One of her favorite dishes is crispy soy garlic tofu — the secret to great texture is in coating the tofu in cornstarch before frying.

"It may look intimidating but it also takes about 30 minutes to make it," she said.

Edwards said she also eats tempeh, another soy product, as well as lentils and chickpeas.

"I'm always looking for new protein-packed recipes," she said.

Legumes are a great source of protein for athletes because they're also high in carbs for energy and fiber for healthy digestion.

Getting enough protein on a plant-based diet comes down to eating enough and eating the right balance of foods, according to sports dietitian Nancy Clark.

Plant sources of protein can have a different combination of amino acids, essential building blocks of protein, so it's important to get all of them.

"That's where mixing and matching comes in, like rice and beans. Mixing and matching can happen over the course of the day, it doesn't have to be at each meal," Clark told BI.

Athletes need more carbs than sedentary people to help muscles recover after exercise, according to Clark. She recommends adding chickpeas to salad or making lentil soup as healthy, high-protein meal ideas.

For energy: a pre-workout parfait

Edwards said she makes sure to get a snack before training, since she often has two workouts in a day.

Her go-to snack is a parfait with Greek yogurt, fruits, and granola, offering a combo of pre-workout carbs for energy with protein from dairy.

It's particularly important for athletes to get the right balance of carbs and protein if they're working out more than once per day, to give their muscles the best chance to recover, according to Clark.

Edwards said nutrition can be highly personal, and finding exactly what works best for her body has been a process. Her current routine is dialed in to help her keep up with the intensity of the WNBA.

"You can be super committed to what you do on the court in the moment, but it's what you do in prepping your body and your recovery that's the biggest thing in long-term performance," she said.

• Trump made cuts to the Department of Education's research arm, which fuels the Nation's Report Card.
• Research and data collection at the department are critical to tracking students' math and reading progress.
• One department employee told BI the cuts amount to a "dismembering" of the agency.

The Nation's Report Card is on notice.

Employees said the Department of Education's ability to conduct its periodic measure of US students' progress in math and reading could be severely hampered after the White House DOGE office announced earlier this month that it ended more than $900 million in research contracts.

The Trump administration says the cuts will promote efficiency. Department employees BI spoke to said they'll halt crucial funding for the neediest schools and cripple its ability to measure student achievement.

The cuts impact a vast array of research that allows the agency to dole out billions in grants and other programs that education policy experts said are crucial for the most underresourced schools and students. This includes contracts that analyze data to identify rural school districts eligible for federal assistance, and those that study early childhood and school safety issues.

This also includes the Education Department's National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests, more commonly known as the Nation's Report Card, which tracks kids' progress in subjects including reading and math. NAEP has assessed student academic achievement for the last three decades. Last year, it found that eighth-grade reading levels hit a 30-year low.

"I have grave concerns about our future, even if the lights were able to turn on tomorrow, I don't know — what's already been done is just very detrimental," one employee of the Institute of Education Sciences — the Department's research and statistics arm facing severe spending cuts — told BI.

Three employees BI spoke to requested anonymity because they fear retaliation from the Education Department or DOGE for speaking with the media.

Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, told BI, "The agency continues to support NAEP and transparency around measures of student outcomes," Biedermann said.

Biedermann said the Department canceled the long-term trend assessments for 17-year-olds, but other tests, including those for fourth and eighth graders, are "continuing as normal."

The Education Department posted on X on February 12, "We want to ensure that every dollar being spent is directed toward improving education for kids — not conferences and reports on reports."

Still, some agency employees and experts said contracts — including those that manage EdFacts and the Common Core of Data — to collect the data necessary for those studies have been canceled, which would make conducting them much more difficult.

The IES employee insisted that NAEP could not continue without certain canceled DOGE contracts for data collection. In a February 21 letter to the Education Department, a dozen Democratic members of Congress condemned the contract cancellations and said the administration's claim that NAEP and other key programs would not be impacted "simply is not true."

"This is the absolute worst time to divest from education research," another Department employee told Business Insider, referring to the recent NAEP scores. "To just cut all of our datasets for what's leading to that, what indicators, what states are falling behind — it's so bad for being able to make any type of data-driven decisions for how to help get kids back on track."

The Institute of Education Sciences is a nonpartisan data collection and research arm that measures educational outcomes to help the department allocate funds to students with disabilities, low-income schools, and rural schools.

With the cuts underway, the IES employee said the Department's work is at a standstill.

"That essentially is like cutting off our arms, our legs, and it's essentially totally dismembering us, and it's keeping us from being able to actually do our work," she said.

Jeopardizing billions in funding

IES's research and data support a wide range of Department functions, including billions of dollars in funding for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities. Every state receives Title I funding to help low-income students, but the amounts vary on school needs.

"You can't do anything if you don't actually know where are the schools, what are the schools, are they open or closed? And how many kiddos go to them? You can't do really anything if you don't have that very first building block," the IES employee said. "Without that, everything else falls."

One of these grants — the Rural Education Achievement Program — helps rural schools that need more support than they get from their state and local governments. But without the data IES collects on students and schools across the country, the federal government won't be able to determine school eligibility and make funding allocations, said one employee of the Department's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE).

"All of sudden, this money is going to be gone because we can't make awards because they canceled this IES data contract," the employee said.

Tracking the progress of America's students in math and reading

Without studies like NAEP, Department employees and education experts said states and local governments will lack crucial information on best practices for K-12 learning and methods to improve teacher training and quality.

Weadé James, senior director for K-12 policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, pointed to kids' literacy as one example, which has sunk to its lowest levels in decades.

"We know that research advances our knowledge of what evidence and research-based practices should look like in teaching and learning, and with cuts at IES, we're going to have limited knowledge around the science of reading and how to improve teaching students' literacy skills," James said.

James referred to the "Mississippi Miracle" as an example of NAEP's significance; between 2013 and 2019, NAEP scores showed that literacy in Mississippi continued to rise after it adopted better evidence-based methods for teaching reading, even in areas with high child poverty rates that usually align with lower literacy levels.

Rachel Dinkes, the president and CEO of Knowledge Alliance — a nonprofit focused on improving K-12 public education through research-based practices — told BI that some of the project cuts dealt with improving math achievement in Appalachia and improving teacher recruitment in rural areas in Alaska.

"The cancellation of this work will not only derail the current work, but leave communities, parents, teachers, looking for evidence-based information that they may not be able to find," Dinkes said.

Eliminating the Department of Education

The research cuts mark a key step toward Trump's overall aim to dismantle the Department of Education. He has not yet signed an executive order to officially begin that process, but he previously said that he wants the agency to be eliminated "immediately" and for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to put herself out of a job.

While McMahon and some GOP lawmakers have suggested shifting the Department's responsibilities to other federal agencies, like the Treasury Department, but that could be tricky now that so many contracts have been canceled this month.

"The contracts are gone. You can't just renew them," the OESE employee said. "Even if we're outsourced to other agencies to do the work, that's essentially starting from scratch."

And James said that there's no proof those efforts would actually improve the US education system.

"There's nothing that shows us that this is actually a solution that is that's going to lead to better results than we do have now," James said.

Trump has accused the Department of Education of promoting extreme ideology in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion, part of a broader anti-DEI campaign by the Trump administration. Earlier this month, the Department ordered schools across the country to end "racial preferences" in admissions, hiring, and other areas or risk losing federal funds. The agency legally cannot shape curriculum in classrooms.

NBC News reported earlier this month that dozens of Education Department employees who attended a diversity training course during Trump's first term in office were put on paid leave. On February 20, the Department said that it had so far canceled $350 million in "woke spending" at the Department.

"They are basically Control F-ing for their buzzword," the OESE employee said. But "the entire purpose of the Department of Education is equity, not in the DEI sense, but in like, we make up the gaps in local and federal funding and regulations."

Dinkes said that the future of the US education system is too important to be making cuts across the board without acknowledging the longer-term implications.

"There's even an efficiency argument to be made of having the federal government provide these sources of support at the national level of what works for whom and where," Dinkes said. "Who's to say when we cut it that it's ever going to come back. So let's continue to work on making this better, but let's not cut short what we currently have."

Have a tip or experience to share? Contact these reporters via Signal at elizarelman.57 and asheffey.97 or via email at [email protected] and [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

When Louis Chiappetta started working as a ski instructor at 19, he saw it as a way to turn his hobby into a job. Growing up in central Maine, he'd already spent his winter months on the slopes. So a paycheck and a free ski pass were enough to seal the deal.

"There are not many people who, when asked what they do for fun, say, 'Well, I go back to where I work,'" he said.

After one of his friends got established as a ski patroller in Utah, Chiappetta followed, taking a job in 2021 in the rental shop at Canyons Village, one of the two ski areas in Vail's Park City Mountain resort. The pay was meager — $12.25 an hour — but he got three days off a week to ski the mountain's long, powdery runs. If the price of entry was couch surfing at friends' places, so be it.

His view on that trade-off quickly changed. Park City Mountain is one of 42 resorts owned by the international conglomerate Vail Resorts. The cost of a lift ticket at Canyons climbed 25% from $230 in 2022 to $290 for the current season, making it one of the most expensive resorts in the country. Chiappetta said he remembered ringing up customers for $2,000 to $3,000 worth of equipment, "making money hand over fist" for the resort. It was hard to ignore the gap between what people were paying for the experience and what he was making as an employee. "It was like getting my nose rubbed in it," he said.

Through a scholarship, Chiappetta was able to get his EMT certification and join the ski patrol, something he had always wanted to do. But the $20-an-hour entry-level salary still wasn't enough for him to get by. He joined the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, the union representing ski patrollers at Canyons, to push for a livable wage that took into account the specialized medical training and avalanche-prevention work he and other patrollers were asked to do. Starting on December 27, he and the union went on strike for 13 days. It worked; Vail agreed to raise their pay by $2 across the board, with additional increases for training, certifications, and experience.

Now 31, Chiappetta is in his third season as a ski patroller and makes roughly $29 an hour. He feels much more confident in his ability to support a future family on a ski patroller's salary. "There's nothing I'd rather do," Chiappetta said.

Since 2020, people across industries have been rethinking their relationship to work. Frustrated with their bosses' lack of loyalty and support, many have quit, changed positions, or found ways to claw back their autonomy by quiet quitting, secretly working multiple jobs, slyly outsourcing parts of their jobs, or unionizing. The Economic Policy Institute says 16.2 million American workers were represented by a union in 2023, an increase of roughly 400,000 since 2020.

Lately, workers in jobs that were always sold as a dream experience — the kinds of jobs Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada" says "a million girls would kill for" — are realizing that they, too, have gotten the short end of the stick. In exchange for these people "living the dream," companies paid very little: The job itself was supposed to be the reward. Now these workers, including ski patrollers, Minor League Baseball players, Disneyland character performers, and Chippendales dancers, have decided that the dream is no longer enough. They want a real living wage.

America's ski industry has been one of the most visible examples of how workers are trying to turn their dream jobs into careers. During the busiest time of the year, the ski patroller strike shut down most of Park City Mountain. Guests were furious — not at the workers but at Vail for letting the strike happen. It brought attention to how little ski patrollers are paid. In 2023, the average hourly wage for lifeguards, ski patrollers, and other recreational workers was just $15, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Until recently, ski jobs were primarily seen as seasonal work for college kids or ski bums — people who would tolerate low wages in exchange for a romp on the mountain. Vail still bills its mission as creating "the experience of a lifetime" for its employees.

Over the past six years, workers have pushed to make ski work a sustainable career. Unions representing ski patrollers and lift mechanics have formed at more than 16 resorts across the US. A major concern for these workers is the rapidly growing cost of living near resorts. As of December, it cost about 33% more to live in Park City than in the average US city, the Economic Research Institute found in its research. As of 2023, census data shows the median income in the city was more than $101,000, while the median salary for ski patrollers was just over $30,000. While Vail provides some affordable housing options for its workers, there isn't enough to go around. To make ends meet, some patrollers have had to work second jobs.

Meanwhile, the ski industry has been consolidating. In the past decade, American companies have acquired nearly 100 ski areas. Since 2019, Vail alone has purchased 19 resorts. Those massive investments haven't gone unnoticed by the rank and file.

Mike Reilly, 33, moved to Park City about 10 years ago after graduating from college in Ohio. He didn't know how to ski when he arrived but practiced in his time off from working as a barista at a local coffee shop. About a year in, he took an entry-level ski patrolling job, making $13.25 an hour.

Initially, Reilly and Chiappetta both had to find work in the offseason to make ends meet. Reilly led youth backpacking trips, worked as a bike patroller at the resort, and occasionally picked up shifts as a barista. They didn't see their ski jobs as a side gig. "The longer I lived out here and saw that it was possible, the more I wanted to do this as a career," Reilly said.

Since the union ratification, that's become more of a possibility.

Before Minor League Baseball players unionized in 2022, they made between $290 and $500 a week, weren't paid during spring training, and had to find other jobs during the offseason. Despite the fact that nearly every major league player has to start in the minors, the finances never added up.

Gavin Lux, a second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, told The Nation that when he was with the Los Angeles Dodger's Single-A affiliate in Rancho Cucamonga, California, there were five or six players sleeping on air mattresses in a single apartment. The situation didn't get much better as he progressed to Triple-A. "I had to pay for my new place, plus an apartment that no one was living in anymore," Lux said.

After winning their contract in 2023, players saw their wages more than double to between $675 and $1,200 a week. They also secured a salary during spring training and the offseason, better healthcare benefits, and control of their name, image, and likeness rights, allowing them to make money off brand deals. It was a game-changer.

Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University, said the unionization effort represented a shift in the way society views so-called dream jobs. For decades, there was a consensus that people working these jobs shouldn't complain about wages because they got to play a game for a living, Clark said. That has changed as Major League Baseball has become more profitable. Last year, the MLB earned $12.1 billion in revenue, a 15% increase since 2012. Meanwhile, minor league teams have continued to go up in value, prompting a wave of acquisitions.

"The players are what fans pay for, and therefore they are the game," Clark said.

Entertainers are having a similar realization. Nothing says "dream job" like spending all day in a Disney park making little kids' dreams come true — as many as 900 people might audition for a single role as a Disney character. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows for those hired at the Southern California theme parks. The Actors' Equity Association says the base pay for Disney characters at Disneyland is $24.15 an hour and that many workers face unpredictable schedules and unsafe working conditions, like limited water breaks and long hours wearing heavy costumes in the California heat.

To change things, 1,700 employees who dress up as characters, march in parades, and train performers voted to unionize in May with the Actors' Equity Association. The union, known as Magic United, began negotiations this past fall for higher pay, medical coverage for injuries sustained while in costume, and better insurance benefits.

Other Disneyland employees, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, filed an unfair labor practice charge last year alleging that about 28% of cast members faced food insecurity, 42% did not have enough sick time to see a doctor, and 64% were spending more than the recommended 30% of their income on rent and utility costs. After filing the charge and threatening to strike, the union secured a higher base rate of $24 an hour and better policies around sick leave.

Over in Las Vegas, the city's famous Chippendales dancers are hoping for a similar win. Despite the group's popularity and the talent required to be a performer, they're paid a flat fee of $100 a show, a rate that has not changed in more than a decade. Dancers are not paid for rehearsal time unless it exceeds 15 hours a week and are expected to perform eight 80-minute shows each week. They are also expected to take pictures with guests after each show — photos that cost fans $35 but earn dancers just $0.50. They receive no benefits. In October, the Sin City dancers voted to form a union with AEA to make their jobs more manageable.

"It's a competitive market. And unfortunately, the entertainment industry breeds this concept of disposability, you know — one in, one out," one of the dancers who organized the union told In These Times. Chippendales did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Wilma Liebman, who served as chair of the National Labor Relations Board during part of the Obama administration and teaches as an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law, said she expected some of the unionizing activity to continue and perhaps increase. "If employers become emboldened to oppose unionization because Trump is in the White House, and they think it's going to be pro-business, it may incentivize workers to keep up the activism," she said. "There comes a point where you might be frustrated or you might be fired."

Even if the work is great, it's still work. Despite the tough labor market, these campaigns might just encourage other people working hot jobs to try their hand at getting a better deal.

Robert Davis is an award-winning journalist who lives in Denver.

• If you've been fired for performance, you can do a few things before applying to new work.
• You can talk to someone you trust about what your performance is really like.
• Be ready to talk about your skills and why you're looking for work during an interview.

One of the toughest things you can hear at work is your boss saying you suck at your job.

Being told you're a low-performer, as thousands of former workers from Meta, Microsoft, and the federal government know firsthand, is rarely easy. That's especially the case if you believe the poor job assessment is unfounded.

In the vernacular of Elon Musk, it can mean workers find themselves at a fork in the road — and often jobless.

Being out of work after suffering a rhetorical body blow calls for self-evaluation, getting feedback from a mentor, and being careful about how you talk about your former job and employer, career experts told Business Insider.

Workers pushed out in a high-profile culling of ostensibly poor performers could struggle even more to find work, Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, told BI.

"Employers know that that's the reason why they got laid off," he said.

That might necessitate that job seekers take special care. Here are four things to keep in mind.

Reflect on what happened and then take steps to improve

Before applying to jobs again, workplace observers suggested taking a step back and reflecting on what your former employer said.

Amanda Augustine, the career expert at TopResume, said it's important to think, "Was I really bad at this, or was I not doing a great job of communicating my work and my performance?" Whatever you learn, work on that in your next role.

If you were told you were underperforming in a particular skill, you could get a certification or complete some training to improve, Harshal Varpe, a career expert at Indeed, said.

Job seekers should also consider who can vouch for them.

"Your references are almost your living testimonial of what your performance has been," Varpe said.

Augustine suggested two potential job references: someone in human resources from your previous company or a former colleague who can attest to your skills. If you put down a former boss, a prospective employer "might get some insight" into your performance, she said.

Get an honest assessment from someone who knows you

Getting canned for falling short of an employer's expectations hurts. And, of course, there can be numerous reasons you drew the underperformer tag. Perhaps your skills weren't well suited for the role, or maybe your employer didn't give you what you needed to succeed, Vicki Salemi, a career expert with Monster, told BI. In some cases, that might be training or a set of clear expectations.

Finding a mentor or someone else you trust who knows your work can be a big help, she said, because you can ask the person for an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.

"You might actually truly be a poor performer," Salemi said. If you get a sense that's the case, it's reasonable to ask how you might improve, she said.

If you believe your poor performance rating isn't justified or that you faced other obstacles, like an unreasonable workload, Salemi suggests gathering qualitative measures of your success and clearly defined accomplishments.

She said having specific examples in your back pocket will help "demonstrate that you are a strong performer."

Be careful with your digital footprint

Some workers Meta terminated after labeling them as low performers pushed back with LinkedIn posts asserting that they'd earned solid reviews.

That's a departure from a more discreet approach some fired workers might have taken in the past.

If you're planning to post about your termination, Augustine said to consider what you include because it reflects your professional — and personal — brand to prospective employers and others, such as people you're hoping to set up informational interviews with.

Instead of talking about your performance or calling out your past employer, Augustine said to talk about the kind of areas where you're seeking opportunities, what skills you are hoping to use, and, of course, that you are hoping for job leads.

"You want to be cognizant of what reputation you're promoting for yourself, how you're positioning yourself, and your experience to the world," she said.

Focus on your skills

Augustine said prospective employers usually ask candidates why they left a job or are seeking a new one. She advised answering with, "I'm now targeting roles that really leverage my X, Y, and Z skills, which are really strong," rather than discussing performance or badmouthing a former employer.

Salemi said that job seekers should have ready a simple statement that explains why they left their last role. It's similar, she said, to how you might be prepared to talk about employment gaps on your résumé. Salemi said that after briefly explaining why you left, it's time to shift toward the role you're seeking.

"You want to pivot to your top skills and strengths," she said.

Before landing a role, you can get insight into performance expectations during the job interview. Augustine said you can ask, "If I were to take on this job, what would you expect me to accomplish in the first three months or the first six months?"

She said this can help inform your relationship with your potential manager. Once you get the job, she said to align with your boss about your goals and how you should be communicating progress toward them.

Do you have a story to share about your job search? Contact these reporters at [email protected] or [email protected].

• Workday's CEO said outdated federal software systems are a "tremendous opportunity."
• The company has been working with federal agencies since May.
• Workday's fourth-quarter revenue surpassed expectations and sent its stock up 12%.

Workday sees a "tremendous opportunity" with DOGE, the software company's CEO said on Tuesday.

"If you want to drive efficiency in the government, you have to upgrade your systems and we find that as a really rich opportunity," Eschenbach said on an earnings call on Tuesday.

His comments about DOGE echoed similar remarks he made on a November call.

On Tuesday, Eschenbach said despite high tech spending from the federal government, its human resource and financial systems are "very antiquated." He added that most of these systems are inefficient because they are on-premises — still physically located on local servers.

Private and public organizations have been pushing to move their servers to the cloud for cost efficiency, security, and collaboration. On an earnings call in November, Eschenbach said that 80% of the federal government's HR systems were on local servers.

Workday makes cloud-based human resource software used by employers for job applications, payroll, and performance evaluations.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue was $2.2 billion, beating analyst expectations of $2.18 billion. Revenue grew 15% from the same quarter last year.

Workday rose over 12% after hours on Tuesday. The company's shares are down 13.5% in the past year. Earlier this month, Workday cut about 1,750 jobs or 8.5% of its workforce.

In a note on Tuesday, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote that Workday has an "attractive valuation" relative to other high-growth software companies and international opportunities that can drive long-term revenue growth. Jefferies has a buy rating on the stock.

DOGE uncertainty

Since May, Workday has been working with some federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"Over the last 18 months, we've started to lean into the federal business and opportunity more aggressively than we've historically done," Eschenbach said on Tuesday.

Eschenbach also acknowledged that there is "some uncertainty" regarding DOGE, which has been throwing back-to-back curveballs at federal employees.

Just weeks after offering buyouts, the department asked federal workers to respond to an email asking them to detail what they did last week. Agencies differed on their recommendations to employees before the Tuesday night deadline.

About 75,000 federal employees accepted the buyout offer, the Office of Management and Budget said last week. That made up 3.75% of the federal government's 2 million people workforce, under the White House's goal of 5% to 10%.

• Tesla introduced self-driving features to some of its vehicles in China on Tuesday.
• Elon Musk said the software was trained on internet videos of China's roads and signs.
• Tesla has been facing increased competition from rivals like Chinese automaker BYD.

Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, said on Tuesday that the self-driving software it rolled out in China was trained on internet videos.

"We just used publicly available video on the Internet of roads and signs in China and used that to train in sim," Musk wrote on X after he was asked how Tesla could roll out its self-driving tech in China without any local testing.

Tesla rolled out self-driving features to some of its cars in China on Tuesday, per a software update log viewed by Business Insider.

The new software does not incorporate all of Tesla's Full Self-Driving features. It's centered mainly on driver-assist features like guiding vehicles on making turns and lane changes.

Tesla said that the rollout of some features "may vary based on the vehicle's model and configuration." The company said it will gradually introduce self-driving features to more of its vehicles.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Tesla's move comes after Chinese automaker BYD said all its customers would get self-driving software for free. Tesla owners in China have to pay about $8,800 to access their vehicle's self-driving features.

Tesla has been facing increased pressure from competitors like BYD. In January, the US EV giant said it sold 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, a 1% drop from the 1.81 million it sold in 2023 — the first time its annual sales declined in over a decade.

Tesla's pivot toward autonomous driving is taking place amid Musk's concerted push to redefine the EV giant as an "AI or robotics company."

"If you value Tesla as just like an auto company, fundamentally, it's just the wrong framework, and if you ask the wrong question, then the right answer is impossible," Musk told investors in April.

In January, Musk said at an earnings call that while he hoped Tesla would have unsupervised full-self-driving vehicles in most countries by the end of next year, that could be "limited simply by regulatory issues."

• Taiwan said it detained a Chinese-linked ship suspected of cutting an undersea cable on Tuesday.
• It's still investigating if the incident was sabotage but warned of "gray zone" tactics from China.
• That mirrors a dilemma faced by NATO in the Baltic Sea with vessels linked to China and Russia.

After months of suspecting that Chinese-linked ships had damaged its undersea cables, Taiwan said it might have caught a vessel in the act.

The Taiwanese coast guard released a statement on Tuesday saying it detained the Hongtai, a Togolese-flagged cargo ship, after a local telecom firm reported cable damage off the island's west coast.

It said the ship had been loitering in those waters since Saturday, and that the coast guard pinged the vessel seven times but received no response.

Taiwanese telecom firm Chunghwa then reported in the early hours of Tuesday that a cable to the nearby Penghu Islands had been severed.

The coast guard said its officials arrived at the location and found the Hongtai anchored near the damaged cable. The agency said it "stopped the 'Hong' ship in the act."

Its statement added that while registered under the Western African nation of Togo, the ship bore Chinese words on its hull and all eight of its crew members were Chinese nationals.

A dilemma like NATO's

Taiwan's incident closely echoes the subsea cable damage in the Baltic Sea that's been plaguing NATO, though there's no evidence linking the incidents in both regions.

Western nations have long suspected that the damage in the Baltics is the result of sabotage. In December, Finland accused the Russia-linked vessel Eagle S of deliberately dragging its anchor on the seabed to sever the Estlink 2 power cable.

And when two other cables in the Baltic Sea were cut in November, a Chinese cargo ship was found nearby.

European NATO countries have since responded by forming a coalition to monitor the Baltic Sea with drones, marine aircraft, and ships.

But it's been difficult for the Nordic nations and their allies to pin down who's behind the damage, especially since they were caused by civilian ships. For example, with no public connection between the Russian government and the Eagle S, which is owned by a UAE-registered company, the Kremlin has denied any ties to cable cutting in the Baltics.

The lack of official links to Moscow has led to European leaders dubbing the vessels as Russia's "shadow fleet" — which they say is also used to transport sanctioned oil and gas.

The Hongtai appears to have multiple names

In Taiwan's case, the coast guard highlighted the problems it faced in identifying the Hongtai. The agency said the ship told authorities it was the Hongtai 168 but that its vessel identifier listed it as the Hongtai 58.

Local outlet Central News Agency also published a photo taken by its reporter of the detained ship's stern. The image shows a different name: the Shanmei 7.

Taiwan's coast guard said it's investigating whether the incident involved sabotage or was purely an accident.

"It cannot be ruled out that it was a gray zone intrusion operation by China," its statement said, using a term describing hostile acts of subversion or sabotage that fall short of open war.

When reporters asked China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday if it could comment on the Hongtai's detainment, a spokesperson said: "I'm not familiar with what you mentioned, and this is not a question related to foreign affairs."

Why the cables matter to Taiwan — and China

The detaining of the Hongtai, which Taiwan said is now held at the Anping port, comes as Taipei has voiced suspicions for over a year that Chinese ships were damaging its undersea cables.

In January, Taiwan's coast guard reported that the Shunxin39, a Chinese-linked freighter on its way to South Korea, could have severed a subsea cable and ignored instructions to turn around for an investigation.

"The proximity between the different 'accidents' shows that there is indeed a pattern," Benjamin Blandin, a researcher who studies Asian maritime security at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, told Business Insider.

These cables often carry vital internet access or electricity. In 2023, Taiwan said Chinese ships had damaged two subsea internet cables to the outlying Matsu Islands, which suffered from limited online access afterward.

"This was not just any random cable, but one connecting the north of the main island to an archipelago off the coast of Fuzhou," Blandin said. "That has strategic importance as a forward operating base and a way to monitor China."

Blandin said Tuesday's incident involved a cable linked to the Penghu Islands, which also serve as a base for observing Chinese movements.

"If one day China takes these islands, or the Wuqiu and Kinmen Islands, Taiwan will be partially blind," he said.

• "The White Lotus" star Patrick Schwarzenegger says he sometimes wishes he didn't have a famous last name.
• He says people who criticize him for being a nepo baby don't see the work he puts into his career.
• But nepotism isn't only in Hollywood; the business and tech worlds have their fair share of nepo babies, too.

Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, says a famous last name like his can sometimes be a burden — especially since he's also trying to break into Hollywood.

In an interview with The Times published on Sunday,"The White Lotus" star pushed back against nepotism claims from people who say that he only landed the role on the award-winning HBO show because of his familial ties.

"I know there are people who'll say I only got this role because of who my dad is," Schwarzenegger told The Times. "They're not seeing that I've had 10 years of acting classes, put on school plays every week, worked on my characters for hours on end or the hundreds of rejected auditions I've been on."

Schwarzenegger is the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a bodybuilder, actor, and former governor of California, and Maria Shriver, a journalist and niece of former US President John F. Kennedy.

"Of course, it's frustrating and you can get boxed in and you think at that moment, I wish I didn't have my last name. But that's a small moment. I would never trade my life with anyone," Schwarzenegger said.

At the end of the day, he is "very fortunate" to have the life and family that he has, including "the lessons and values" that his famous parents have instilled in him.

Nepotism is everywhere

Nepo babies, or "nepotism babies" have been a hot topic since New York Magazine published a story in 2022 about the famous kids of Hollywood celebrities.

Many nepo babies have criticized the label, saying that it diminishes the work that they put into their careers.

In June, Emma Roberts — Julia Robert's niece — called out the use of the label, saying that people who criticize nepo babies "don't see all the rejection along the way."

Some parents of nepo babies have weighed in on the discourse, too.

In 2023, Tom Hanks — whose son was cast to play his younger self in the film "A Man Called Otto" — said it's no surprise that all four of his kids are in the industry since it's "the family business." He added that if he had been in a different field, "the whole family would be putting in time at some point."

But nepo babies aren't just in Hollywood; The business and tech worlds have their fair share, too.

All five of LVMH chairman and billionaire Bernard Arnault's children work at the company and its brands.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the eldest sons of US President Donald Trump, manage the Trump Organization together.

Even regular people who aren't rich or famous use their connections to gain an advantage in the workplace.

A 2023 survey of 2,000 workers conducted by Applied, a recruitment company, showed that 68% of Gen Z workers have used nepotism to land a job offer.

Career coaches previously told Business Insider that it's fine to use your network sometimes.

"Using your network and personal connection to learn information and gain introductions is generally seen as acceptable, even sensible. However, using your network to get unfairly hired into a role you may not be deserving of is generally seen as unacceptable," Hannah Salton, a UK-based career coach and author, said.

Although most reputable companies tend to have fair recruitment processes that don't allow nepotism, in practice, it's often hard to ensure impartial hiring always happens, she said.

A representative for Schwarzenegger did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• More than one million federal employees replied to DOGE's productivity email.
• That is less than half of the federal government, which employs over 2.4 million people.
• The initial email request was met with confusion, with some agencies telling staff not to respond.

The White House said on Tuesday that less than half of all federal employees responded to an email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to send in a list of their accomplishments.

"I can announce that we have had more than one million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager, cc'ing OPM," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

"All federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving," Leavitt added.

The federal government employs more than 2.4 million people.

The Department of Government Efficiency's first deadline for workers to send in bullet-point summaries passed at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.

The initial request for responses from all federal workers came via a memo from the OPM on Saturday. Elon Musk said on the same day that failure to respond by the deadline "will be taken as a resignation."

Musk appeared to walk back this ultimatum on Monday. He wrote in an X post that federal workers will be given "another chance" if they have not emailed in their list of accomplishments yet.

"Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," Musk wrote.

The DOGE email request was met with confusion and conflicting guidance across the government.

At least eight agencies, including the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services, said their workers didn't have to respond to OPM's email.

President Donald Trump has publicly backed Musk and DOGE's move, and on Monday told reporters that he thinks the OPM email request is a "pretty ingenious idea."

"So by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week,' what he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?'" Trump told reporters. "And then, if you don't answer, you are sort of semi-fired, or you're fired."

Musk first pitched the idea of having a government-efficiency commission to Trump during a livestreamed conversation on X in August. Musk told Trump at the time that he'd be "happy to help out" with such an effort. He now helms DOGE's efforts.

Last month, the Trump administration gave federal employees from January 28 to February 6 to accept a buyout offer and leave their jobs. A spokesperson for OPM told BI on February 6 that over 40,000 workers have taken the buyout.

Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• The White House released the name of the DOGE office's acting administrator.
• It is Amy Gleason, a former nurse who has spent decades in the medical records space.
• For weeks, it was unclear who, if anyone, occupied the position.

The White House on Tuesday named Amy Gleason as the acting administrator of the White House DOGE office following weeks of confusion over who was leading the agency.

A White House official confirmed Gleason's role to Business Insider. As of early Tuesday evening, Gleason hadn't publicly commented on the appointment, and her account on X was private. In her bio, she identified herself as a "former COVID response with US Digital Service."

Representatives for the White House, Musk, DOGE, and Gleason did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Gleason worked in multiple roles at the United States Digital Service, the Obama-era agency that President Donald Trump rebranded as the US DOGE Service, according to her LinkedIn. She served as a Digital Services Expert at the agency from October 2018 to December 2021 and as a Senior Advisor starting in January 2025, according to the LinkedIn page.

Jonathan Kamens, a former USDS engineer who was fired on February 14, and a current USDS employee both told Business Insider that Gleason rejoined the agency between the election and the inauguration.

"From our view, she has been as surprised by things coming out of DOGE as the rest of us," the current employee said. They said that they do not see her as "part of Musk's crew."

Kamens said he was told Gleason was there to help with the transition to the second Trump administration.

Gleason's background stretches into the private sector, too, and even bumps up against the profiles of other White House DOGE Office staffers, per her LinkedIn profile. The page indicates that Gleason worked as the chief product officer at Russell Street Ventures between November 2021 and December 2024, a health industry investment firm founded by Brad Smith, whom BI previously identified as a DOGE employee. Kendall Lindemann, whom BI also identified as working for the DOGE effort, also worked at Russell Street Ventures.

Gleason's path has differed from some of the private sector titans and young engineers involved in the White House DOGE Office. She started out as a nurse, according to a 2022 podcast appearance with the company Syllable. Gleason also said on the podcast she previously cofounded a company to help patients with a chronic disease, sparked by the experience of coordinating care after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare illness.

"The rest of my career is mainly electronic medical records starting as a ER nurse," Gleason said on the podcast.

According to her LinkedIn, Gleason has worked in senior positions at a variety of healthcare companies since the late 1990s.

The Obama White House honored Gleason as a "Champion of Change" for her work in the medical records space.

Though Elon Musk is closely associated with the DOGE office, the White House previously said in a court filing that he is not the group's leader and instead serves as a senior advisor to Trump. BI previously reported that Musk's title was written as "unlisted" in a White House record.

For weeks, the White House had declined to say whether there was a DOGE administrator — let alone name one. Trump created the position on Inauguration Day. He had previously said Elon Musk would lead the DOGE office, though Musk was never named to the position.

On Tuesday, reporters repeatedly pressed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on who was the DOGE administrator. After her briefing concluded, Semafor first reported Gleason's role.

Trump is set to hold his first formal cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where Leavitt said he'll be discussing the DOGE office's work.

Musk is expected to be in attendance. It's unclear if Gleason will be too.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Jack Newsham contributed to this report.

• OpenAI's former CTO, Mira Murati, debuted her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, last week.
• The startup is aiming to raise $1 billion at a roughly $9 billion valuation, people familiar said.
• A spokesperson for Murati declined to comment.

Mira Murati's new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is aiming to raise a $1 billion funding round at a roughly $9 billion valuation, people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The round is still in progress, and details could change. A spokesperson for Murati declined to comment.

A $9 billion valuation is unusually high for a startup less than a year old, but investors have been eager to back AI startups, especially those founded by former OpenAI employees.

Murati previously spent 6 ½ years at OpenAI, where she served as the chief technology officer, working on the development of ChatGPT and other AI research initiatives. She was briefly appointed interim CEO in November 2023 after OpenAI's board abruptly fired Sam Altman, a move that sparked turmoil within the company. After Altman's reinstatement as CEO, Murati resumed her role as CTO.

What exactly Murati would do after leaving OpenAI last year has been a favorite Silicon Valley parlor game in recent months, with few details until the company emerged from stealth last week.

In a blog post, Murati positioned the startup as an artificial intelligence research and product lab focused on making AI more accessible.

"To bridge the gaps, we're building Thinking Machines Lab to make AI systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable," the post said.

Murati has recruited a long list of engineers and AI researchers from her former employer OpenAI, as well as Meta and Anthropic. Several of Murati's former coworkers, including John Schulman, who co-led the creation of ChatGPT; Jonathan Lachman, formerly the head of special projects at OpenAI; Barret Zoph, a cocreator of ChatGPT; and Alexander Kirillov, who worked closely with Murati on ChatGPT's voice mode, are also working at Thinking Machines Lab.

Murati is one of a handful of former OpenAI executives who have gone on to launch their own companies. Ilya Sutskever, the former OpenAI chief scientist and cofounder, left the company in May 2024 and started Safe Superintelligence soon after leaving. Dario and Daniela Amodei also worked at OpenAI and founded Anthropic in 2021.

• Amazon is set to unveil an AI-enhanced Alexa upgrade that could boost publisher exposure.
• Amazon is negotiating licensing deals with publishers for the new feature, people familiar told BI.
• Some publishers are banking on exposure via Alexa as traffic from other tech platforms has declined.

Amazon is expected to unveil an AI-enhanced upgrade to its Alexa voice tech at an event in New York on Wednesday, and some publishers hope it will lead to broader exposure for their outlets.

As part of the work behind the scenes, Amazon is hammering out licensing deals with publishers to showcase their news and information in the feature, two people familiar with the talks told Business Insider. They asked for anonymity to discuss private deals; their identities are known to BI. Axios previously reported that Amazon had been reaching out to publishers.

Amazon has also held talks with companies such as Uber, Instacart, and Ticketmaster for the feature, BI previously reported.

Under the proposed terms of these new media deals, users of Amazon devices could hear content from a publisher read aloud when they ask Alexa for information on an Echo smart speaker, or see publisher citations with links on the Echo Show, the version with a screen.

Some publishers told BI they hoped the upgrade would be a big improvement over their earlier experience with Amazon's voice assistant. Alexa, which launched in 2014, hasn't lived up to expectations in recent years, as BI has previously reported. Publishers and other companies were encouraged to create Alexa skills, or shortcuts that let users perform tasks like shopping or getting news, but engagement with them was generally poor.

Publishers see an opportunity here, even if smart speakers have underwhelmed as a category. Facebook and Google search have deprioritized news, and publishers are looking for traffic anywhere they can get it. According to Amazon, Alexa is installed on more than 100 million devices, a sizable audience for publishers to get in front of.

One publishing exec told BI that Amazon was paying "good" but not significant money to feature publisher content, but stressed that the biggest benefit was the ability to up their exposure in Amazon's sprawling ecosystem.

AI deals have been a way for publishers to offset declines in audience and advertising while letting AI companies use their content to answer queries and train their tech. OpenAI, for example, has signed deals with companies like News Corp. and Business Insider parent Axel Springer.

• Tracy Block thought that she would own a home and be married by 40.
• Last year, still single, she decided that she wanted to celebrate her 40th birthday with her parents.
• The three of them traveled to Greece and boarded an adults-only Virgin Voyages cruise.

I'm one of those people who prefers to escape on her birthday. I like to take a trip and get out of Dodge. After spending my 30th sipping bubbly at the Veuve Clicquot Champagne house in Reims, France, I knew I had to plan something epic for my 40th.

But my road to 40 was not easy. I spent most of my 30s feeling lost. I'd moved to Colorado from Miami and back, which left me searching for answers. I thought that by this point in my life, I would have a husband and own a home.

During the year leading up, jealousy got the best of me. My social media feeds were plastered with highlights of how others were celebrating their 40th birthdays — spouses throwing fabulous soirees and whisking their partners away to exotic destinations.

After a vent sesh with a close friend, I was reminded not to harp on what I don't have but to focus on what I do: my parents.

So, I went over to their house for dinner and told them that since I didn't have that special someone to share my 40th with, I wanted to spend it with them. Like always, they understood and answered my call with open arms.

When I suggested going to Greece, my dad recommended a cruise because he couldn't imagine lugging bags while island hopping. When I mentioned an adults-only Virgin Voyages, he wasn't convinced, assuming it would be too young for two baby boomers. But despite my parents being in their late 60s, I knew they could still hang with the best of them.

We compared six different cruises — including options from Seabourn and Princess — but Virgin's "Greek Island Glow" seemed like the best fit. My dad did a bit more research and found positive reviews by older adults who'd traveled on the ship and finally caved. I paid $4,400 for an XL Sea Terrace cabin, which included $400 credit on the cruise.

Three days in Athens

Last June, after a champagne toast in the airport lounge, we boarded our flight and awoke in Athens. We immediately hit a walking foodie tour for our first bite of authentic spanakopita and sip of Greek wine. We strolled the Plaka and shopped for olive oil and honey and then toasted to sunset from the rooftop of the Hotel Grande Bretagne with the Acropolis illuminated nearby.

We spent the second day sightseeing in Athens, dropping by the Panathenaic Stadium, watching the changing of the guard at the Presidential Mansion, and enjoying panoramic views from atop Lycabettus Hill.

At dinner, we enjoyed Greek tapas — gigante beans and fava purée became quick favorites — and were served our first taste of sweet, piney Mastiha, a native digestif. There was lots of laughter and many inside jokes were born.

On our final day in Athens, we were ferried to Aegina, part of the Saronic Islands. We explored narrow alleys offering peekaboo marina views. Home to the PDO red pistachio, we went nuts shopping and enjoyed pistachio gelato.

Cruising with my parents

On day four, it was time to greet our home for the next seven nights: The Resilient Lady — quite apropos, all things considered. Once we were checked into our cabins, I surprised my parents with custom-made insulated wine tumblers sporting my birthday theme. At sail away, we clinked some more, and before long, it was party time along the Aegean Sea.

We all made the most of our time on the cruise. I worked out each morning while my parents enjoyed breakfast on their terrace. We sunbathed together. My mom and I got salon blowouts. I splurged on a spa visit. We played trivia and then blackjack in the casino. I made friends over nightcaps and posed at Instagrammable photo spots.

On our first morning, I woke up to a stunning at-sea sunrise just outside Santorini. After we tendered, our private driver took us on a scenic tour of the spectacular cliff-carved homes from atop Oia and whitewashed churches with blue-domed roofing abound.

We also made stops in Rhodes, the largest of the Dodecanese islands, to tour the ruins and windmills, and Bodrum, a town in Turkey, where we strolled the bazaar in the morning and spent the afternoon at the Bodrum EDITION near the Yalikavak Marina.

The big 4-0

On the morning of my 40th birthday in Mykonos, I treated myself to something memorable. Since friends had professional photos of their engagements and newborns, I booked a $250 photo shoot to commemorate the day.

My parents went off to explore Old Town while I strutted in a louder-than-life fuschia dress that stopped multiple tour groups in their tracks — certainly not for the modest.

We spent the afternoon at a posh beach club, lazing in a cabana before heading back to the boat. To my surprise, my parents had worked with the cabin stewards to outfit mine with 40th birthday decorations.

The evening felt special. While the 30-year-old me visiting Mykonos would've planned for an all-nighter at the clubs, we instead ushered in my new decade at an intimate al fresco dinner savoring an incredible sunset. We feasted on the fat of the land, finally tried loukoumades for dessert, and belted "Ya Mas!" over more local vino and Mastiha.

At dinner, it was as if time stood still. In that moment, I was able to set aside what I felt were my personal failures. Instead, I was able to focus on what was right in front of me: the two selfless humans who brought me into this world, out of pure love, and I held on tightly to that feeling.

While our Greek getaway didn't send me Prince Charming or the keys to my dream home, it offered a priceless perspective. It strengthened my ties with my aging parents and gave me gratitude for them in a life where nothing is promised.