• Databricks' vice president of AI likened looking for top researchers to "looking for LeBron James."
• Naveen Rao told Command Line that probably fewer than 1,000 researchers could build frontier models.
• Rao said it wasn't ridiculous for companies to pay large amounts for AI and infrastructure talent.

Recruiting top-tier AI researchers today is a bit like scouting a sports team's next star athlete — they're few in number and costly to recruit, but they can change an organization's trajectory.

"It's like looking for LeBron James," Naveen Rao, Databricks' vice president of AI, told The Verge's Command Line newsletter published Friday. "There are just not very many humans who are capable of that."

While thousands of tech workers and engineers are qualified to work on AI, identifying the best — and convincing them to jump ship — remains a challenge for companies leading the AI race. Rao said he agreed that probably fewer than 1,000 researchers were capable of building new frontier models. But he added that the work of a star AI engineer could have a "massive influence" on a company's ability to win.

Rao said the AI talent wars weren't just about "pure AI talent" — they're also about scaling and building infrastructure for AI models. He said he sees some aspects of the pool expanding in that area.

"When you build a model and you want to scale it, that actually is not AI talent, per se," Rao told Command Line. "It's infrastructure talent."

He added that the scarcity of top AI talent had given researchers "unprecedented" leverage at the companies they work at. While many Americans are navigating an employer-driven job market, cutting-edge AI engineers seem to have the upper hand.

Earlier this year, Perplexity's CEO described being rebuffed by a Meta engineer who told him to "come back to me when you have 10,000 H100 GPUs," the in-demand Nvidia chips needed to develop and scale AI.

As competition increases, companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Microsoft, and Google have ramped up their hiring efforts. AI tech workers have shared stories of CEOs' extravagant efforts to secure top talent: One worker said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally called to pitch them on joining the team, while a Meta recruit said Mark Zuckerberg showed up in an email thread.

The companies are also offering hefty pay incentives to secure the best talent. Google recently turned heads when it was said to have paid $2.7 billion in a deal to bring Noam Shazeer, the founder of Character.ai, back to the company. While Google didn't formally acquire Character.ai, it paid to license the startup's technology, and Shazeer made hundreds of millions from the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rao said that while the amounts these companies are paying for talent may sound ridiculous, they aren't. The executive gave an example of a former employee at his company Nervana. He described the employee, who now works at OpenAI, as "the best GPU programmer in the world." Rao said that programmer's code now likely powers every inference on OpenAI models and could have saved the company $4 billion.

"I think that's why you see Google hiring back Noam Shazeer," Rao said. "It's very hard to find another Noam Shazeer."

• Bayer's CEO overhauled his corporate budget system with 90-day cycles in an effort to reduce bureaucracy.
• Bill Anderson said the inspiration came from a "radical experiment" at Genentech to kill budgets.
• Bayer also reorganizes teams every 90 days and has cut 5,500 positions, many of which were managers.

The annual budget process can be a parade of lengthy meetings and red tape — so one CEO decided to try something different.

Since becoming CEO at Bayer, Bill Anderson has introduced a set of striking changes to the company, including an overhaul of its budget system, which he sees as the driving source of corporate bureaucracy.

"We all know that the belly of the beast of bureaucracy is the budget process, right," Anderson said in an interview with Business Insider. "Everybody knows that. Everyone hates it."

Every 90 days, Anderson reallocates budgets for the next cycle.

The executive said the decision to take the company "90 days at a time" was inspired by a "radical experiment" he helped implement at Genentech in 2016 before becoming CEO of the biotech company in 2017. After what he described as an unsuccessful attempt to de-bureaucratize the budgeting process at Genentech, Anderson said Genentech decided to "kill all budgets."

However, the plan didn't lead to lower spending, he told BI.

While company spending at Genentech went down in the first year, it shot right back up a year later, Anderson said. While the CEO didn't want to bring back the old process, he concluded he had to find something to replace it with.

Genentech declined to comment.

Anderson brought the lesson to German life science company Bayer, where, a month after becoming CEO in June 2023, he replaced annual budget discussions with 90-day cycles. Instead of managers spending five months setting targets and forecasting, Anderson said squads come together every 90 days to discuss whether the company achieved its goals, how it used resources, and what it needs to focus on next.

In a conventional budget process, Anderson said the team would be discussing what they're going to do in the third quarter a year ahead. The problem with that, he said, is "nobody knows" what they'll be doing that far in advance.

"That's a waste of time," Anderson said. "They're negotiating over budgets for Q4 next year. They don't even know what they're going to be doing."

The budget overhaul is part of a larger restructuring which the company refers to as "Dynamic Shared Ownership." In addition to flipping the budget system, the model also reorganizes staff every 90 days into "mini networks" made up of who is best suited to lead that specific project.

"So every 90 days, people can flow between teams, money can flow between teams," Anderson said. "And you're working on the most important things for the next 90 days."

In a press release announcing the new operating model in January 2024, the company said the structure would "reduce hierarchies, eliminate bureaucracy, streamline structures," and speed up the decision-making process.

A company spokesperson told BI that select groups called "frontrunner teams" transitioned to the new model in the summer of 2023. Now, most of the company has moved to the new structure. Along the way, managerial positions have changed, with some transitioning to individual contributors and others being laid off.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has cut about 5,500 roles, most of which were managers, shrinking its overall headcount from around 100,000 down to around 94,500. A spokesperson said layoffs are ongoing.

Anderson said some teams, like those that started the transition a year ago, "are racing ahead and doing great," while other groups are "still stuck in the starting blocks." He added that the company's voluntary attrition rate has gone down since transitioning to the new operating structure.

The company has embarked on a plan to cut costs by about 2 billion euros by 2026. Bayer's stock price is down 46% since the beginning of the year. In its third-quarter earnings, the company reported over $4 billion in net losses and shared expectations for a "muted outlook" and "declining earnings" over the next year.

The company has faced several recent headwinds, including the expected loss of exclusivity on the blood-thinning drug Xarelto. Anderson said the drug was once responsible for a significant amount of Bayer's profits.

The company has also grappled with legal battles over Roundup, a herbicide produced by Monsanto, which Bayer purchased for $63 billion in 2018. The product has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits alleging it causes cancer, and Bayer agreed to pay billions of dollars to resolve some of the litigation while it also appeals some of the court decisions.

"The litigation topic is a big overhang for our company," Anderson said, adding that "there's a lot of great things happening" but investors want the company to deal with the lawsuits, which it is.

When Bayer announced the new operating model, the company said its goal was to become "more agile and significantly improve its operational performance," and Anderson has already reported some positive results.

In Bayer's third-quarter earnings report, Anderson said Bayer's Pharma division outside Milan cut release time by almost 50%, resulting in less waste, improved cash flow, and lower inventory. Anderson said in the report that when he first asked about success stories, he would get the same two or three examples.

"Now, I'm hearing stories like these basically on a daily basis," Anderson told investors. "I'm confident that will translate into results for our investors, and a bright future for us and our customers."

• Aditya Challapally teaches a Stanford Online course on generative AI for tech-adjacent professionals.
• Challapally explained how individuals can skill up technically or become an AI domain expert.
• He also said using tools like ChatGPT or Claude can help people understand AI better.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aditya Challapally, a 30-year-old Microsoft employee who teaches a course for Stanford Online about generative AI. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I started working in AI about a decade ago. I started as a data science intern at Uber, then did AI consulting at McKinsey, and later joined Microsoft, where I now work on Copilot.

I started guest teaching at Stanford four years ago and recently co-created a course called Mastering Generative AI for Product Innovation, which launched on Stanford Online in August 2024. It's an online, self-paced course that runs throughout the year. All of the research comes from talking to 300-plus users and 50-plus executives.

A lot of the people who take the class are tech adjacent, such as customer support representatives for a technical product, or product managers for a software or hardware product. They'll often be working on somewhat of a technical product and the course helps them understand gen AI a little bit more.

We teach three modules in this course. The first module explains what Gen AI is and where the biggest opportunities are. In the second module, we talk about what great Gen AI products look like.

The third module talks about how great Gen AI products are built and what individuals can do to set themselves up to be more influential, relevant, and useful when building Gen AI products.

These are the two main pathways you can take to do so.

Track 1: Skill up technically

When I go out and talk to Fortune 500 leaders, they say that their most burning need is for professionals who bridge both worlds — those who understand the business requirements but also understand the technical requirements.

This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to learn how to code, but you at least need to have enough technical literacy that you can translate product visions into technical requirements.

The beginner version is just getting really good at prompt engineering. This sounds like it would be quite basic, but understanding the exact limitations of prompts and all of the different tools across text, audio, and image makes you already very valuable in a business setting because you can help generate ideas even before they get to the technical team.

At an intermediate stage you also should start to understand a little bit about how gen AI systems work in systems design, like how gen AI models can be called within your data boundary.

Companies have data boundaries for which they have an agreement with their customers that their data can't go beyond. So if you're a bank, you may have an agreement with your customers that only the bank will use their information. If you send that in some sort of chat to OpenAI, that would be breaking the company data boundary. So something as simple as knowing that is already really helpful.

In the advanced stage of this track, there are two options.

Some people who don't work in big companies go deeper into understanding coding a little more. People who work in Big Tech companies usually dive deeper into system architecture. So they'll understand things like data boundaries and data flow diagrams in a lot more detail.

Track 2: Become an AI expert for your industry

The domain expertise track is where business people automatically lean toward and have an advantage. This is not necessarily knowing more about the industry, but knowing how gen AI can apply to the domain in more detail.

For example, in finance, you have to know things like what data you can use to train a specific model. You also have to know things like what types of privacy and security regulations you have to go through to get an app approved or release a gen AI-related app.

This skillset is so valuable that companies pay large amounts to consultants that have this specialized expertise. I know this guy who used to work as an operations manager at a bank and he figured out where gen AI was the most valuable. Now, companies will just call him to figure out where to launch their gen AI product.

Use the tools and learn their limitations to improve your prompts

The best thing I see people do is try to automate a lot of their lives with gen AI. They use ChatGPT or Claude for everything and that helps them understand the limitations of AI really well and how to prompt it.

When beginners start to use gen AI, they're not used to what I call the abundance of intelligence. They'll say "Can you give me a response to this text message?"

Experts who use gen AI a lot will say something like, "Can you give me 20 responses to this text message?" And then they'll go and use their taste to pick one.

Outside of work, I use it in many ways to think through a lot of plans. It's really helpful as a thought partner for me, even if for communication, for general planning, or for something even as banal as trip planning.

Instead of asking a friend for advice you should think about asking an LLM or a chatbot for advice. That's when you really start to understand how it's useful.

• Holden Karau works in Big Tech during the day and builds her startup, Fight Health Insurance, at night.
• Karau said personal experiences with health insurance denials led her to create the platform.
• The platform uses AI and machine learning to streamline the insurance appeal process.

Holden Karau works as an open-source engineer in California — but just about every day after work, she's building Fight Health Insurance, a free AI-powered platform designed to help people appeal healthcare claim denials.

The 38-year-old Canadian has worked in the big data space for years, previously holding jobs at every FAANG company aside from Facebook.

Karau told Business Insider that while she had never worked on anything healthcare-related, her personal experiences with health insurance claim denials in the US led her to create an open-source tool to automate as much of the appeals process as possible.

Karau said that she's "seen different healthcare systems and the trade-offs," and the Canadian version isn't "perfect either." However, she grew increasingly frustrated with the US healthcare system while seeking out trans healthcare in California and recovering from a motorcycle crash.

Karau said denied claims lead to "a lot of suffering in the world today," and those challenges led her to start working on the AI project to help dispute health insurance denials.

"I'm not going to put up with this anymore. It's time to fight back," Karau said she told herself as she set out to build the tool. "And I think that's probably where the name came from."

She told BI that a later experience navigating her dog's pet insurance pushed her "over the edge" and made her determined to turn the proof of concept into a consumer product other people could use.

"I was like, I've had enough. This needs to not just be like a curiosity," Karau said. She wanted to "make it accessible to the average person," which factored into the decision to make it a free service.

Now, anyone in the US can generate an appeal with Fight Health Insurance by inserting some basic information, uploading a claim denial letter, and, if relevant, their plan documents.

The platform uses machine learning to identify and confirm details, and a fine-tuned large language model to pull data from PubMed, Karau said. The company uses an in-house AI tuned from a base model from Mistral AI, Karau said. To ensure patients' privacy, the system helps anonymize information by removing names and addresses.

Once the appeal is generated, users can review and edit it before mailing it off — or have the company fax it for $5. Karau said she added the faxing service after receiving emails from users saying they loved the platform but didn't have a printer and it was costly to get it printed somewhere else.

"It's a little weird working on an AI project and then going on to eBay to buy fax modems," Karau said. "But, hey, what is life if not a little weird?"

With insurers increasingly using AI to sift through claims, Karau said Fight Health Insurance offers a way to "level the AI playing field." She said while she wants doctors to make decisions about medications and diagnoses, she sees an opportunity for more AI tools to be used in the grunt work of dealing with insurance. Karau said AI could be useful in following up with patients after appointments, whether it be for reminders about surgery or to submit an out-of-network provider form.

The company now has two full-time staff and a few part-time contractors. Eventually, Karau said she plans to monetize the platform by building a professional version for hospital systems and medical vendors, who are also "feeling the pain from health insurance denials."

"Doctors are just super frustrated with all the time they spend dealing with insurance companies," Karau said.

Karau said that she plans to keep the consumer version free, aside from the $5 optional cost to have the company fax out an appeal.

"I think that it's really important that patients don't want to pay to use Fight Health Insurance because they already pay so much," Karau said.

Since launching the side project in August, Karau said over 1,000 have used the platform to help generate an appeal, and a handful have reached out to her to share success stories. She said just the other day she was talking to someone whose back surgery was successfully appealed using Fight Health Insurance.

"Now they're looking forward to getting back to riding motorcycles next year," Karau said.

Exactly how many of those appeals were successful isn't clear because users get responses directly from their health insurers rather than through the platform. The company also doesn't store user emails unless users opt-in, Karau said, so it currently doesn't have a way to follow up with people to learn the outcome unless they choose to share their contact information. However, she plans to incorporate replies from the platform in the future professional version to better track success stories.

In regard to recent conversations about the health insurance industry following the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Karau said she understands the intensity of emotions surrounding what can sometimes be life-or-death treatment decisions made by insurance companies.

She also said there's been an increase in traffic to the Fight Health Insurance website in the wake of the larger discussion online about frustrations with the healthcare system in the US.

"I think consumers are hurting a lot in the health insurance space right now," Karau said.

• Ongoing drone interest has led Ring users to use the "Neighbors" forum to discuss possible sightings.
• Some users shared frustration on Reddit about the influx of posts on the app unrelated to home security.
• The unidentified sightings have been reported since mid-November across the East Coast.

The "mystery drones" over the East Coast have sparked concern from local residents, some of whom are flocking to neighborhood surveillance apps to post about the topic.

Owners of Amazon-owned Ring video doorbells have taken to the accompanying app, which sends motion alerts, to discuss the possible drone activity in the app's "Neighbors" section.

Typically, Ring's forum is used to share information about lost pets, wildlife sightings, or stolen packages — activities happening on the ground. However, some are now using the forum to discuss what's happening in the sky above their homes.

The posts have ranged from written reports of drone sightings to shared videos showing light movements in the sky and footage of plane-like objects.

"Multiple drones spotted flying over Mount Laurel in Countryside Farms just off Church road," wrote one Ring user in New Jersey earlier this month, posting footage showing an aircraft with blinking lights.

Another Ring user in Union City, New Jersey, posted footage over the weekend of lights seeming to streak across the clouds. "Looks like the old club days when they used to put lights in the sky, but these are different," the person wrote.

Other Ring users have also posted video footage online captured by their doorbell cameras, though it wasn't clear if the footage showed unidentified aircraft or simply time-lapses of the moon.

"It has become something that pops up everywhere — on my Ring sightings, on the Neighbor's function, constantly, constantly, constantly, people saying that they are seeing drones out there," said "Squawk Box" co-anchor Becky Quick on Monday.

Ring declined to comment on the forum discussions.

People on Citizen, a neighborhood safety app, joined the conversation and posted footage of suspected drones on the platform. The company behind the app encouraged its users to livestream drone-related footage "to alert the community and protect the world."

Not everyone is eager to join the discussions. Some have taken to Reddit to complain about the amount of drone talk taking place in Ring's community forum.

One Reddit user questioned if the Ring App was "the new Facebook for useless posts," and complained about the amount of drone speculation. Others echoed similar sentiments, expressing annoyance at the free-wheeling nature of the discussions and an increase in their app notifications.

"I had over 100 ring neighbor notifications last night because people thought it would be funny to troll about a (fake) helicopter flying in our area. Like over 100 troll posts… about helicopters," one user commented on the Reddit post. "I officially turned off the notifications when I woke up."

Many of the forum posts aren't showing videos captured by Ring's video doorbells but rather videos users uploaded that were captured elsewhere, such as from smartphones. And in the age of generative AI video tools and editing software, it can be difficult to tell what's real — and what the footage is actually showing.

The White House has said many of the drone sightings are likely crewed aircraft that are operating lawfully. It has also said that it doesn't believe the drone sightings are a public safety threat.

However, the FBI and Homeland Security have both said they want more authority to deal with drones. An FBI official said that the drone investigation is "limited in scope" and that pending counter-UAS legislation could expand their legal power in implementing counter methods.

Reports of the drone sightings have been ongoing across the East Coast since mid-November. The mystery has mostly been centered on New Jersey sightings, where drones have reportedly been seen above military facilities and critical infrastructure sites.

• OpenAI launched its widely anticipated video feature for ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode.
• It allows users to incorporate live video and screen sharing into conversations with ChatGPT.
• ChatGPT can interpret emotions, assist with homework, and provide real-time visual context.

ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode can now help provide real-time design tips for your home, assistance with math homework, or instant replies to your texts from the Messages app.

After teasing the public with a glimpse of the chatbot's ability to "reason across" vision along with text and audio during OpenAI's Spring Update in May, the company finally launched the feature on Thursday as part of day six of OpenAI's "Shipmas."

"We are so excited to start the rollout of video and screen share in Advanced Voice today," the company said in the livestream on Thursday. "We know this is a long time coming."

OpenAI initially said the voice and video features would be rolling out in the weeks after its Spring Update. However, Advanced Voice Mode didn't end up launching to users until September, and the video mode didn't come out until this week.

The new capabilities help provide more depth in conversations with ChatGPT by adding "realtime visual context" with live video and screen sharing. Users can access the live video by selecting the Advanced Voice Mode icon in the ChatGPT app and then choosing the video button on the bottom far left.

In the livestream demonstration on Thursday, ChatGPT helped an OpenAI employee make pour-over coffee. The chatbot noticed details like what the employee was wearing and then walked him through the steps of making he drink, elaborating on certain parts of the process when asked. The chatbot also gave him feedback on his technique.

To share your screen with ChatGPT, hit the drop-down menu and select "Share Screen." In the "Shipmas" demo, ChatGPT could identify that the user was in the Messages app, understand the message sent, and then help formulate a response after the user asked.

During the company's Spring Update, OpenAI showed off some other uses of the video mode. The chatbot was able to interpret emotions based on facial expressions and also demonstrated its ability to act as a tutor. OpenAI Research Lead Barret Zoph walked through an equation on a whiteboard (3x+1=4) and ChatGPT provided him with hints to find the value of x.

The feature had a couple of stumbles during the Spring Update demonstration, like referring to one of the employees as a "wooden surface" or trying to solve a math problem before it was shown.

Now that it's out, we decided to give the feature a whirl — and so far, it seems pretty impressive.

We showed the chatbot an office plant and asked it to tell us about it, give context on whether it's healthy, and explain what the watering schedule should look like. The chatbot accurately described browning and drying on the leaf tips and identified it as an Aloe Vera plant, which seems to fit the right description.

The new video feature will be rolling out this week in the latest version of the ChatGPT mobile app to Team and most Plus and Pro users. The feature isn't available in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein yet, but OpenAI said it will be as soon as possible.

• Warris Bokhari founded Claimable to tackle insurance-claim denials using AI technology.
• Bokhari says denial is a major issue in the US healthcare system, causing fear about getting help.
• Claimable's AI-driven platform boasts an 85% success rate in overturning claim denials.

After working in the insurance industry, Warris Bokhari saw that claim denial was a core issue in American healthcare.

So around two years ago, Bokhari started working on Claimable, an AI startup launched in October that aims to fight claim denials for a growing list of treatments.

"It's no wonder why people give up," the Claimable cofounder and CEO told Business Insider. "If you're a rational person, you would say this model was not fit for purpose."

Bokhari was raised in the UK and grew up with two disabled parents. Unlike people in the US, his parents never went bankrupt because of medical expenses, he said. He went on to work as an ICU doctor in the UK, where, he said, there was "never a time" when a necessary treatment was denied to a patient. When he came to the US, Bokhari continued working in the healthcare industry, including a two-year stint at insurance company Anthem.

In the US, he said, "there's no guarantee" of getting the medical care you need. Insurance companies can end up feeling like an obstacle, and that dynamic has created "fearfulness" about getting sick and seeking out help, Bokhari added.

The insurance industry has faced renewed scrutiny amid the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. While the motive behind Thompson's killing is under investigation, many of the responses to his death online have disclosed deep frustrations with the insurance industry.

Bokhari said the company didn't support violence toward individuals. "That is not the productive solution," Bokhari said. "The productive solution is appealing."

Claim-denial rates have been increasing for more than a decade. The health policy and research firm KFF reported that 17% of in-network claims by HealthCare.gov insurers were denied in 2021. The same report found that 41% of appealed claims got overturned, though less than 1% of consumers went through the process. Recent criticism has also been directed toward insurance companies that can rely on algorithms to assist in claim decision-making.

Bokhari said that Claimable had helped file hundreds of appeals and that its success rate of overturning denials was about 85%. It joins several startups leveraging AI to improve the insurance process.

Patients start by describing their experience of living with the condition and what it would mean to get denied their requested treatment. The platform then uses AI to analyze millions of data points from clinical research, appeal precedents, policy details, and the individual's medical history to generate a customized appeal within minutes.

Most Claimable appeals cost patients $39.95, plus shipping.

Claimable supports claims appeals for more than 70 FDA-approved treatments for autoimmune and migraine sufferers, some of which may have been denied because of medical necessity or being out of network. In addition to faxing and mailing the appeal to the insurance company, Claimable also sends a copy to every regulator that would have oversight of the insurer.

"Regulators probably assume that these denial cases are occasional," Bokhari said. "They make big headlines, but they don't know that these very private tragedies happen every day in American life."

Bokhari said patients "have a right to be heard," and Claimable helps legitimize those patients' stories.

Claimable closed its seed round in March, backed by Walkabout Ventures, Humanrace Capital, and others. The company is a part of Nvidia's startup program and has a team of about 11 employees.

• Google unveiled its Willow chip this week, marking a milestone in the quantum computing space.
• One quantum researcher compared Google's advancement to mobile networks jumping from 1G to 2G.
• While the news represents a breakthrough, real-world applications are likely still years away.

Google's new Willow chip may not show up in consumer products in the near future — however, quantum computing researchers say it represents a significant breakthrough in the field.

That's because the chip solves a challenge that's existed in quantum computing for nearly 30 years, Google said in its announcement earlier this week.

The challenge is reducing the amount of errors quantum computers generate while operating. Quantum computers aren't your standard laptop or desktop computer.

Unlike your laptop, which uses bits to process information, quantum computers use something called qubits, short for quantum bits. Bits are binary digits, meaning they can only exist in one state at a time, typically as a 0 or 1. Qubits, on the other hand, can exist in multiple states simultaneously.

That's important because it means you can process significantly more information at much faster speeds with qubits. That's the ultimate promise of quantum computers: They can process so much data in such short periods that they'll revolutionize science and medicine, helping us solve problems related to climate change and health, for example, that are far too complex to tackle with today's technology.

However, right now, the best quantum computers can perform around a thousand operations before errors overwhelm the processing system, Steve Brierley, quantum computing researcher and CEO of error correction company Riverlane, told Business Insider.

"If we want to get to this big potential like transformational technology, we need to get to millions and trillions of free operations," Brierley said.

That's where Google's Willow chip has made a significant breakthrough. With the Willow chip, the more qubits Google adds, the fewer errors the system creates. The Willow chip reduces errors exponentially, the company said. The ability to reduce errors while scaling qubits is known in the field as being "below threshold," and it's been an unresolved challenge since 1995.

This plays out via processing speed. Google said its researchers used the Random Circuit Sampling benchmark to compare computing speeds across various technologies. The RCS is a standard in the field and the "classically hardest" benchmark to pass, to compare computing speeds across various technologies.

Google said its Willow chip can perform the standard benchmark computation in under five minutes, which would take one of the fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete — longer than the known age of the universe.

In the field of quantum, error correction is much more difficult and requires more hardware to function properly, which is why Google's advancement is so important, Mark Saffman, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director at the Wisconsin Quantum Institute, told BI.

Brierley compared Google's quantum computing advancement to what mobile networks experienced when they shifted from 1G to 2G networks.

When mobile networks shifted from 1G to 2G, "Qualcomm added error correction into the stack and this created a huge uplift in capability," Brierley said. "And this is exactly what's happening right now in quantum computing."

The ability to constantly correct errors is a "key part" of building a quantum computer, he said. Once companies are able to scale qubits and advance quantum computing forward, they will be able to reach the point of real-world applications.

Real-world impact is likely years away

Google said in a press briefing about the development that it has already partnered with companies in the pharmaceutical, material science, and battery space, among others. However, advancements in those fields may not be right around the corner.

Saffman said he would like to see real-world applications in five years, but it's difficult to provide an exact number.

Sebastian Weidt, quantum computer professor at the University of Sussex and co-founder and CEO of quantum computing company Universal Quantum, told BI that "we're still a little while away" from quantum computing impacting the general public.

Weidt said that while there was initially hope that intermediate-scale computers could offer some value to a general consumer, the science shows that qubits need to be scaled by hundreds of thousands and eventually millions to unlock real-world applications.

"There are many major roadblocks on their roadmap that need to be overcome for that technology to get to that scale," Weidt said.

Still, Google's advancement moves quantum computing research to the next stage — and while investors may not be able to reap the benefits in the immediate short term, Brierley said announcements like this help attract capital and talent to the space.

"There's still very very far to go to make it useful relative to conventional computers," Saffman said. "But it's a great step forward."

• Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killing.
• Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy family, left an online trail before his arrest.
• He founded an app, talked about AI on X, and read the Unabomber Manifesto.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has a vast online trail.

Police arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania on December 9. He initially faced local gun and forgery charges. He's expected to be extradited to New York.

New York court documents show that in addition to one count of murder, he also faces two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.

Here's what to know about Mangione.

Mangione attended elite schools

Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.

He achieved a Bachelor of Science in engineering with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. He also received a Master of Science in engineering the same year with a major in computer and information science, a university spokesperson told Business Insider.

Before that, he attended Gilman School, an elite all-boys preparatory school in Baltimore. His yearbook entry, obtained by BI, says he was involved in robotics and Model United Nations.

In his valedictorian speech, Mangione praised classmates for "challenging the world" and thanked parents for sending their children to the fee-paying school, which he described as "far from a small financial investment."

He favorably reviewed the Unabomber Manifesto

On Goodreads, Mangione reviewed Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and Its Future" book, also known as The Unabomber Manifesto, in early 2024. He gave it four out of five stars.

"He was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people," Mangione wrote. "While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary."

Mangione's review of the manifesto also quoted another online comment about the book, which appears to have originated on Reddit, praising the use of violence "when all other forms of communication fail."

"'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators,'" Mangione quoted.

He founded an app and worked in tech

In 2015, while in high school, Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios. AppRoar released an iPhone game called "Pivot Plane" that's no longer available, but a reviewer in 2015 said it was "a fun little arcade game brought to you by 3 high school juniors."

He lived in a co-living space in Hawaii as recently as 2023.

He posed for photos indicating he participated in Greek life at the University of Pennsylvania.

The fraternity chapter represented in his photos couldn't be reached for comment.

A blog post on the University of Pennsylvania's website that was removed on December 9 said he cofounded a video game design club there.

Stephen Lane, a professor of video game design at the Ivy League university who didn't advise the club, told BI that "the fact he took the initiative and started something from nothing, that means at least in the context of Penn, that's a pretty good thing." He added, however, that Thompson's shooting was "obviously not a good thing."

Mangione's LinkedIn page says he worked as a data engineer at the vehicle shopping company TrueCar starting in 2020.

A TrueCar spokesperson told BI that Mangione hadn't worked for the company since 2023.

Online breadcrumbs and roommate say he dealt with back pain

At the top of Mangione's profile on X — formerly Twitter — is a triptych of three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge; a Pokémon; and an X-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.

The Pokémon featured in his cover image is Breloom, which has special healing abilities in the games.

Some of the books reviewed on Mangione's Goodreads account are related to health and healing back pain, including "Back Mechanic: The Secrets to a Healthy Spine Your Doctor Isn't Telling You" and "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery."

R.J. Martin, the founder of the co-living space in Hawaii, told the Honolulu Civil Beat that Mangione had suffered back pain from a misaligned vertebra that was pinching his spinal cord.

Martin told CNN that after leaving Hawaii, Mangione texted him to say he'd undergone surgery and sent him X-rays.

"It looked heinous, with just, giant screws going into his spine," Martin told the outlet.

It's not immediately clear whether the surgery was related to UnitedHealthcare.

Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for the co-living space founder, told The Wall Street Journal that Mangione stopped replying to texts about six months ago and "sort of disappeared."

A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform had terminated Mangione's three accounts, adding that they had not been active for about seven months.

A senior police official told NBC New York on December 12 that Magione was never a UnitedHealthcare client and may have targeted Thompson because of the insurer's large size and outsize power. That same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that a company spokesperson said Magione was not a client.

Mangione was interested in AI

On his X account, Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances such as artificial intelligence. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.

He frequently reposted posts by the writer Tim Urban and the commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology.

He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food, ethics, and lab-grown meat.

On Goodreads, he praised Urban's book "What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies," describing it as "one of the most important philosophical texts of the early 21st century."

Urban posted to X on December 9: "Very much not the point of the book."

He was previously accused of trespassing

Before his arrest, Mangione had at least one encounter with the legal system. Hawaiian court records indicate that in 2023, he was accused of entering a forbidden area of a state park.

Mangione appears to have paid a $100 fine to resolve the matter.

Mangione comes from a wealthy and influential Baltimore family

Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a prominent multimillionaire real-estate developer in Baltimore who died in 2008, The Baltimore Banner reported. Nick Mangione Sr. had 10 children, including Louis Mangione, Luigi Mangione's father.

Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

One of Luigi Mangione's cousins is the Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, the Associated Press reported.

Representatives for Nino Mangione's office, in a statement to BI, declined to comment on the news of Luigi Mangione's arrest.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news."

The Mangione family has donated more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where all of Nick Mangione Sr.'s grandkids, including Luigi Mangione, were born, the Banner reported.

A public filing from 2022 for the nonprofit Mangione Family Foundation lists Louis Mangione as vice president.

He was arrested while on his laptop at a McDonald's, the police said

When the police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responded to a McDonald's after a call about a suspicious person, they found Mangione sitting at a table looking at a silver laptop and wearing a blue medical mask, a criminal complaint said.

The complaint said that when asked for identification, Mangione gave police officers a New Jersey driver's license with the name "Mark Rosario."

When an officer asked Mangione whether he'd been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the complaint said.

It added that Mangione correctly identified himself after officers told him he could be arrested for lying about his identity.

When asked why he lied, Mangione replied, "I clearly shouldn't have," the complaint said.

His motive is still not known, but police are analyzing his so-called manifesto

An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times said Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices."

Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.

Moments before the December 10 extradition hearing began, Mangione, handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, shouted out to the press as Pennsylvania police escorted him into the courthouse.

Mangione yelled out something partially unintelligible, saying something was "completely out of touch" and "an insult to the American people." He also shouted that something was a "lived experience" as a group of officers led him into the courthouse.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York that Mangione had prior knowledge that UnitedHealthcare would be having its annual conference in New York City.

Mangione has retained a high-profile New York attorney

Thomas Dickey emerged as Mangione's attorney in Pennsylvania after his arrest in Altoona on December 9.

During a December 10 hearing at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, Dickey told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition to New York City.

Dickey later told reporters that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania. During an interview with CNN, Dickey said he expected Mangione to plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen evidence that authorities "have the right guy."

Karen Friedman Agnifilo will represent Mangione in New York, a representative for Agnifilo Intrater LLP confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday.

Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from 2014 to 2021. She pivoted to private practice in 2021.

Do you know Luigi Mangione? Have a tip? Reach out to [email protected].

• OpenAI publicly launched the AI video generator Sora, offering new creative tools.
• Sora can create up to 20-second videos from text and modify existing videos by filling frames.
• It's rolling out in the US and many other countries to paid ChatGPT Plus and Pro users.

As part of Shipmas Day 3, OpenAI just launched its AI video generator, Sora, to the public.

Sora can generate up to 20-second videos from written instructions. The tool can also complete a scene and extend existing videos by filling in missing frames.

Rohan Sahai, Sora's product lead, said a team of about five or six engineers built the video generator in months.

"Sora is a tool," Joey Flynn, Sora's product designer, said. "It allows you to be multiple places at once, try multiple ideas at once, try things that are entirely impossible before."

OpenAI showed off the new product and its various features during a livestream Monday with CEO Sam Altman.

Sora includes an "explore" page, a browsable feed of videos shared by the community. OpenAI also showed the various style presets available, such as pastel symmetry, film noir, and balloon world.

To customize videos further, there's also Storyboard, which lets users organize and edit sequences on a timeline. The feature helps pull together text prompts that Sora then builds into scenes.

In February, OpenAI made Sora available to a limited group of creators, including designers and filmmakers, to get feedback on the model.

The company said in a blog post at the time that the product "may struggle to simulate the physics of a complex scene" and may not understand cause and effect. It may also mix up left and right and struggle to depict events that happen over time, it added.

The tool has already made a strong impression on some in Hollywood. Tyler Perry previously put his plans for an $800 million studio expansion on hold after seeing Sora. The billionaire entertainer referred to Sora demonstrations as "shocking" and said AI would likely reduce the need for large sets and traveling to locations for shoots.

However, the tool's product designer said in the demonstration Monday that Sora wasn't going to create feature films at the click of a button. Flynn said the tool was more "an extension of the creator who's behind it."

"If you come into Sora with the expectation that you'll just be able to click a button and generate a feature film, I think you're coming in with the wrong expectation," Flynn added.

The team also briefly touched on safety issues. Sahai said during the presentation that OpenAI had a "big target" on its back and that the team wanted to prevent illegal activity while balancing creative expression with the new product.

"We're starting a little conservative, and so if our moderation doesn't quite get it right, just give us that feedback," Sahai said. "We'll be iterating."

OpenAI said Sora would roll out to the public in the US and many other countries on Monday. But Altman said it would be awhile before the tool became available in the UK and most of Europe.

ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who pay $20 monthly, can get up to 50 generations a month of AI videos that are five seconds long and have a 720p resolution. ChatGPT Pro users, who pay $200 a month, get unlimited generations in the slow-queue mode and 500 faster generations, Altman said in the demo. Pro users can generate up to 20-second-long videos that are 1080p resolution, without watermarks.

While nonpaying users can't create Sora videos, they can browse Sora's explore feed, Altman said.

The prominent YouTuber Marques Brownlee published what he described as the first-ever Sora review on Monday, telling his nearly 20 million subscribers that the results were both "horrifying and inspiring."

After a brief overview of Sora's strengths and weaknesses — the YouTuber said that it could make provocative videos of cosmic events in deep space and other abstractions but that it struggled with realistic depictions of physics in day-to-day life, like a man running with a football — Brownlee was frank about his concerns.

Millions of people can now use Sora for basically whatever they want. And while the program has decent guardrails, one can be circumvented, he said. The little watermark that Sora adds to the bottom-right corner of its videos can be cropped out, Brownlee said.

"And it's still an extremely powerful tool that directly moves us further into the era of not being able to believe anything you see online," he said, adding: "This is a lot for humanity to digest right now."

• Apple's iOS 18.2 update launched on Wednesday with new AI features and improvements.
• The new Apple Intelligence features include ChatGPT integration, Genmojis, and Image Playground.
• The new features are available to iPhone 16 models as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

If you shrugged at Apple's first AI features, you might find the new batch that launched Wednesday with iOS 18.2 to be more meaningful.

Apple's AI software suite, Apple Intelligence, launched its first set of features on October 28. The upgrade included a revamped Siri, AI writing tools, smart replies, an updated Photos app, and a new focus mode called Reduce Interruptions.

It was a fraction of the flashy AI features Apple showed off at its Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this year, as the company decided to do a staggered rollout.

The second wave of features, which began rolling out to iPhone users today, will be followed by additional ones launching next year.

So what can you expect when you update to iOS 18.2?

Features in the December update include tools like Genmojis and Image Playground, among others. Like the earlier Apple Intelligence features, the newest AI features are available for all iPhone 16 models and most of them also work with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

ChatGPT integration

Siri received some enhancements in the iOS 18.1 update, but the iOS 18.2 update further improves the voice assistant and allows integrated access to ChatGPT.

With iOS 18.2, users have access to the popular OpenAI chatbot through Siri and Writing Tools, and they'll be able to access the tool by talking to the voice assistant or typing to it.

Visual Intelligence

The new update also allows iPhone 16 users to gather information by pointing their device at an object (sorry iPhone 15 Pro owners, you're out of luck).

The tool is similar to Google Lens, which does reverse image searches and helps identify landmarks, plants, and other objects or places.

Genmojis

For those who prefer to communicate with emojis over the written word, Genmojis could be a game changer.

The new update allows users to be more playful and interactive in their messages, creating custom emojis right from the keyboard and animated Genmojis of themselves, similar to Bitmoji.

Image Playground

Apple's Image Playground is its answer to popular AI image generators like OpenAI's Dall-E or Midjourney. The tool was first demonstrated at Apple's WWDC conference earlier this year.

Image Playground users can create images based on a specific description or concept and can select different formats like animation. The tool is available as its own app and is also accessible through third-party apps.

You can also use the tool as an extension in messages.

Photo updates

iOS 18.2 introduced several photo updates, including video enhancements like improvements for navigating Collections and the ability to view a video more finely, which can be helpful with editing. Users also have the option to clear their Recently Viewed and Recently Shared album history, and Favorites appear in the Utility and Pinned Collection.

Other updates

Apple's Mail app is getting an AI makeover that categorizes emails based on their priority level. The update gives access to the "digest" view, which organizes all emails from a sender in one place.

Apple's internet browser Safari also received some changes, including new customizable background images for the start page

The update also has some non-AI updates, including an AirTag enhancement that allows you to share the location of a lost item with friends or airlines. Users can also now choose their favorite Podcast categories and get relevant recommendations in their library.

To update to iOS 18.2, navigate to your Settings app on your iPhone, then to General, and finally tap on Software Update.

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had a tumultuous relationship over the years.
• While the two traded barbs during Trump's first presidency, they're now political allies.

• Trump officially added Musk to join his administration to help lead his DOGE effort, and Musk calls himself "first buddy."

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are now spending lots of time together, marking a new era of their working relationship.

The world's richest person and president-elect have become close political allies, with Musk calling himself "first buddy" following Trump's most recent victory and donating more than $200 million toward pro-Trump super PACs.

Trump tasked Elon Musk with recommending cost cuts in the federal government, appointing the Tesla CEO to the new Department of Government Efficiency council.

It wasn't always this cozy between the two billionaires, however.

Here's how they reached this point.

November 2016: Musk says Trump is 'not the right guy' for the job

Just before the 2016 presidential election, Musk told CNBC he didn't think Trump should be president. 

"I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," Musk said. 

The billionaire added that Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies were the "right ones."

December 2016: Musk appointed to Trump's advisory councils

After he won the presidency, Trump appointed Musk to two economic advisory councils, along with other business leaders like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. 

Musk got flack for working with the controversial president, but defended his choice by saying he was using the position to lobby for better environmental and immigration policies. 

June 2017: Musk cut ties with the White House in protest of Trump's environmental policies

On June 1, 2017, after Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Musk resigned from his roles on presidential advisory boards. 

"Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a tweet announcing his departure.

Musk's goal for Tesla is to curb dependence on fossil fuels through electric vehicles, solar power, and stationary energy storage. 

January 2020: 'One of our great geniuses'

During a January 2020 interview with CNBC, Trump praised Musk's accomplishments and intelligence. 

"You have to give him credit," the former president said, referring to Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford and General Motors. "He's also doing the rockets. He likes rockets. And he's doing good at rockets too, by the way." 

Trump went on to call Musk "one of our great geniuses" and likened him to Thomas Edison. 

May 2020: Trump backs up Musk in feud with California covid rules

As the pandemic gripped the US in early 2020, Musk clashed with California public-health officials who forced Tesla to temporarily shut down its factory there. Trump voiced his support for Musk. 

"California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW," Trump tweeted in May 2020. "It can be done Fast & Safely!"

"Thank you!," Musk replied. 

May 2022: Musk said he would reinstate Trump's Twitter account

In May, Musk said he would unban Trump as the Twitter's new owner. 

Musk called the ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme" in an interview with the Financial Times. Twitter kicked Trump off of its platform following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. 

The Tesla billionaire has called himself a "free speech absolutist," and one of his key goals for taking Twitter private was to loosen content moderation. 

July 2022: Trump calls Musk a 'bullshit artist'

In July, Trump took aim at Musk, claiming the businessman voted for him but later denied it. 

"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during a Saturday rally in Anchorage, Alaska. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."

On Monday, Musk tweeted that Trump's claim was "not true."

July 2022: Musk says Trump shouldn't run again

Musk stopped short of attacking Trump personally, but said he shouldn't run for president again. 

"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency," he tweeted. 

He continued: "Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76 years old. 

July 2022: Trump lashes out

Trump then went on the offensive, posting a lengthy attack on Musk on Truth Social, the social media company he founded. 

"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump said in a post that criticized two of Musk's ventures, Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. 

"Lmaooo," Musk responded on Twitter.

October 2022: Trump cheers Musk's Twitter deal, but says he won't return

Following Musk's official buyout of Twitter on Thursday, Trump posted to Truth Social cheering the deal. 

"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country," he said. He added that he likes Truth Social better than other platforms, echoing comments from earlier this year in which he ruled out a return to Twitter. 

On Monday, Musk joked about the potential of welcoming the former president back to his newly acquired platform.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!," the Tesla CEO tweeted. 

May 2023: Musks hosts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' glitchy debut

Musk and other right-leaning voices in Silicon Valley initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis ended 2022 as Trump's best-positioned primary challenger. In November 2022, as DeSantis was skyrocketing to acclaim, Musk said he would endorse him. In March 2023, after enduring Trump's attacks for months, DeSantis prepared to make history by formally announcing his campaign in an interview on Twitter.

The initial few minutes were a glitchy disaster. Trump and his allies ruthlessly mocked DeSantis' "Space" with Musk and venture capitalist David Sachs. DeSantis' interview later proceeded, but his campaign was dogged for days with negative headlines.

September 2023: A Trump-style border wall is needed, Musk says

Musk live-streamed a visit to the US-Mexico border on Twitter, which he had rebranded as "X." Musk said that one of Trump's signature policies was necessary during his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, to get a first-person look at what local officials called a crisis at the border.

"We actually do need a wall and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum to enter, as everyone is doing that," Musk wrote on X. "It's a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say! Will find out more when I visit Eagle Pass maybe as soon as tomorrow."

Like Trump and others on the right, Musk had criticized the broader consensus in Washington for focusing too much on Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine in comparison to domestic issues like migration. 

March 2024: Trump tries to woo Musk, but the billionaire says he won't give him money.

Trump tried to woo Musk during a meeting at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort. According to The New York Times, Trump met with Musk and a few other GOP megadonors when the former president's campaign was particularly cash-strapped. After The Times published its report, Musk said he would not be "donating money to either candidate for US President." 

It wasn't clear who Musk meant in terms of the second candidate. He had repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden, who looked poised to be headed toward a rematch with Trump.

July 2024: Musk endorses Trump after the former president is shot

Musk said he "fully endorsed" Trump after the former president was shot during a political rally ahead of the Republican National Convention. The billionaire's endorsement marked a major turning point in his yearslong political evolution from an Obama voter. Days later, it would come to light that Musk pressed Trump to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential pick at the Republican National Convention.

The ticket, Musk wrote on X, "resounds with victory."

It wasn't just his public support that Musk was offering. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported Musk had pledged roughly $45 million to support a pro-Trump super PAC. Musk later said he would donate far less, but his rebranding into a loyal member of the MAGA right was complete.

August 2024: Trump joins Musk for a highly anticipated interview

Trump, who ended the Republican National Convention primed for victory, stumbled after Biden abruptly dropped out of the 2024 race. The former president and his allies have struggled to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee.

Amid Harris' early media blitz, Trump joined Musk on a two-hour livestream on X that garnered an audience of over 1 million listeners. The conversation covered topics ranging from a retelling of Trump's assassination attempt to illegal immigration to Musk's potential role with a government efficiency commission.

In August, Trump began floating the idea that he "certainly would" consider adding Musk to his Cabinet or an advisory role. The Tesla CEO responded by tweeting an AI-generated photo of himself on a podium emblazoned with the acronym "D.O.G.E"—Department of Government Efficiency.

"I am willing to serve," he wrote above the image.

September 2024: Musk says he's ready to serve if Trump gives him an advisory role

In September, Trump softened the suggestion of Musk joining his Cabinet due to his time constraints with running his various business ventures, the Washington Post reported. However, he also said that Musk could "consult with the country" and help give "some very good ideas."

Musk then replied to a tweet about the Washington Post article expressing his enthusiasm.

"I can't wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go," he wrote.

He later said on X that he "looked forward to serving" the country and would be willing to do with without any pay, title, or recognition.

October 2024: Musk speaks at Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania

Musk joined Trump onstage during the former president's rally, hosted on October 5 in the same location where Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk sported an all-black "Make America Great Again" cap and briefly addressed the crowd, saying that voter turnout for Trump this year was essential or "this will be the last election." 

"President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution," Musk said. "He must win to preserve democracy in America."

The next day, Musk's America PAC announced that it would be offering $47 to each person who refers registered voters residing in swing states to sign a petition "in support for the First and Second Amendments."

By October, the PAC had reportedly already spent over $80 million on the election, with over $8.2 million spread across 18 competitive House races for the GOP. 

The Tesla CEO later told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he might face "vengeance" if Trump loses the election.

November 2024: Trump wins the presidency and names Musk his administration

Musk was by Trump's side on election night at Mar-a-Lago, helping celebrate his victory.

Nearly a week after his 2024 presidential election win, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy were chosen to lead a newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, as Musk likes to call it, in reference to the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin).

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pay the way for my Administration to dismantle the Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement. 

It's unclear whether the department will formally exist within the government, though Trump said the office would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government" and work directly with the White House and Office of Management & Budget.

Musk responded in a post on X that the Department of Government Efficiency will be post all their actions online "for maximum transparency." 

"Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" Musk wrote. "We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

Outside of administrative duties, Musk has also joined "almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had," The New York Times reported, acting as a partial advisor and confidant. The Tesla CEO also reportedly joined Trump's calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while both men were at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk seems to have settled in.

"Elon won't go home," Trump told NBC News jokingly. "I can't get rid of him." 

The two's close relationship has extended to a more personal friendship. Musk was seen attending Trump's Thanksgiving dinner and on the golf course with Trump and his grandchildren, where Kai Trump said he achieved "uncle status."

Trump reaffirms he will be the next President — not Musk

While Musk and Trump are both big personalities, the President-elect has made it clear that he'll be the one running the country. President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the notion that he has "ceded the presidency" to Musk and said that even if the billionaire wanted to be president, he couldn't because he was born in South Africa.

"No, he's not going to be president, that I can tell you," Trump said at Turning Point USA's annual "AmericaFest" on Sunday. "And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be? He wasn't born in this country."

Trump's comments came after Musk flexed his influence to help shut down a bipartisan emergency spending bill last week. Some Republicans questioned why Trump hadn't been more active in derailing the bill, and Democrats baited the President-elect on social media with posts about Musk "calling the shots" and taking on the role of a "shadow president.

Prior to Trump addressing the subject, Trump's team also looked to shut down the idea that Musk is leading the Republican Party.

"As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view," Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, told BI. "President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop."

• The NHTSA is gathering info on a Cybertruck crash that killed three college students in California.
• The crash is the second fatal Cybertruck incident in the US, following one in Texas.
• Tesla's Cybertruck has faced multiple recalls and 21 NHTSA complaints since launching.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is probing a Cybertruck crash that killed three college students last month in California.

"NHTSA is aware of the crash and is gathering information from the manufacturer and law enforcement," a spokesperson for the agency told Business Insider, adding that an investigation hasn't been opened yet.

The Piedmont Police Department and the California Highway Patrol are looking into the Tesla crash, Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers said at a media briefing. CFP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The Piedmont Police Department was alerted about the crash at 3:08 a.m. on November 27, according to Bowers. The police arrived at the scene and found the Cybertruck vehicle in flames. Three of the four people in the car were killed, and the fourth sustained serious injuries and was taken to a hospital.

Bowers said at the media briefing that the police officers attempted to extinguish the fire at the crash site, but it was "too intense." The Piedmont Fire Department eventually extinguished the fire, he said.

The cause of the crash still remains unknown, although Bowers said at the briefing that speed was likely a "contributing factor." He also said there was no indication that mechanical issues were the primary cause of the collision, although he said the investigation was still in the early stages.

The Piedmont crash stands as the second fatal Cybertruck crash in the US. The previous fatal crash, which occurred in August, also involved a Cybertruck and a fire after a driver drove off a road in Texas.

Like traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines, electric vehicles can catch fire in crashes. However, EVs have posed challenges with putting out fires in a timely manner because of their large lithium-ion batteries. When an EV battery enters a cycle of overheating and over-pressurizing, it can result in fires or explosions.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has criticized media coverage of Tesla models that have caught fire and maintained that the automaker's vehicles are some of the safest on the road.

"Considering the odds in the absolute, you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than experience even a non-injurious fire in a Tesla," Musk wrote in a 2013 blog post addressing recent Tesla fires.

The "'apocalypse-proof' Cybertruck, as Musk has described it, has faced multiple recalls since the first deliveries about a year ago, many of which were addressed through software updates. The most recent was due to a faulty vehicle part that could cause the vehicle's wheels to lose power.

Prior to that, 27,000 Cybertrucks were recalled because of a rearview camera issue that could increase the risk of accidents when driving in reverse. In addition to the recalls, NHTSA has also received 21 complaints about issues ranging from broken windshield wipers to issues with the electrical system.

The NHTSA has investigated other Tesla vehicles, often regarding the company's Autopilot or Full-Self-Driving technology. In October, the agency opened an investigation covering 2.4 million Tesla vehicles. The investigation followed reports of four crashes involving FSD in areas where road visibility had been reduced.

• OpenAI's marketing campaign "Shipmas" ended Friday.
• The campaign included 12 days of product releases, demos, and new features.
• On the final day, OpenAI previewed o3, its most advanced model yet.

OpenAI released new features and products ahead of the holidays, a campaign it called "Shipmas."

The company saved the most exciting news for the final day: a preview of o3, its most advanced model yet, which the company said could be available to the public as soon as the end of January.

Here's everything OpenAI has released so far for "Shipmas."

'Shipmas' Day 1

OpenAI started the promotion with a bang by releasing the full version of its latest reasoning model, o1.

OpenAI previewed o1 in September, describing it as a series of artificial-intelligence models "designed to spend more time thinking before they respond." Until now, only a limited version of these models was available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users.

Now, these users have access to the full capabilities of o1 models, which Altman said are faster, smarter, and easier to use than the preview. They're also multimodal, which means they can process images and texts jointly.

Max Schwarzer, a researcher at OpenAI, said the full version of o1 was updated based on user feedback from the preview version and said it's now more intelligent and accurate.

"We ran a pretty detailed suite of human evaluations for this model, and what we found was that it made major mistakes about 34% less often than o1 preview while thinking fully about 50% faster," he said.

Along with o1, OpenAI unveiled a new tier of ChatGPT called ChatGPT Pro. It's priced at $200 a month and includes unlimited access to the latest version of o1.

'Shipmas' Day 2

On Friday, OpenAI previewed an advancement that allows users to fine-tune o1 on their own datasets. Users can now leverage OpenAI's reinforcement-learning algorithms — which mimic the human trial-and-error learning process — to customize their own models.

The technology will be available to the public next year, allowing anyone from machine-learning engineers to genetic researchers to create domain-specific AI models. OpenAI has already partnered with the Reuters news agency to develop a legal assistant based on o1-mini. It has also partnered with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop computational methods for assessing rare genetic diseases.

'Shipmas' Day 3

OpenAI announced on December 9 that its AI video generator Sora was launching to the public.

Sora can generate up to 20-second videos from written instructions. The tool can also complete a scene and extend existing videos by filling in missing frames.

"We want our AIs to be able to understand video and generate video and I think it really will deeply change the way that we use computers," the CEO added.

Rohan Sahai, Sora's product lead, said a product team of about five or six engineers built the product in months.

The company showed off the new product and its various features, including the Explore page, which is a feed of videos shared by the community. It also showed various style presets available like pastel symmetry, film noir, and balloon world.

The team also gave a demo of Sora's Storyboard feature, which lets users organize and edit sequences on a timeline.

Sora is rolling out to the public in the US and many countries around the world. However, Altman said it will be "a while" before the tool rolls out in the UK and most of Europe.

ChatGPT Plus subscribers who pay $20 monthly can get up to 50 generations per month of AI videos that are 5 seconds long with a resolution of 720p. ChatGPT Pro users who pay $200 a month get unlimited generations in the slow queue mode and 500 faster generations, Altman said in the demo. Pro users can generate up to 20-second long videos that are 1080p resolution, without watermarks.

'Shipmas' Day 4

OpenAI announced that it's bringing its collaborative canvas tool to all ChatGPT web users — with some updates.

The company demonstrated the tech in a holiday-themed walkthrough of some of its new capabilities. Canvas is an interface that turns ChatGPT into a writing or coding assistant on a project. OpenAI first launched it to ChatGPT Plus and Team users in October.

Starting Tuesday, canvas will be available to free web users who'll be able to select the tool from a drop-down of options on ChatGPT. The chatbot can load large bodies of text into the separate canvas window that appears next to the ongoing conversation thread.

Canvas can get even more intuitive in its responses with new updates, OpenAI said. To demonstrate, they uploaded an essay about Santa Claus's sleigh and asked ChatGPT to give its editing notes from the perspective of a physics professor.

For writers, it can craft entire bodies of text, make changes based on requests, and add emojis. Coders can run code in canvas to double-check that it's working properly.

'Shipmas' Day 5

OpenAI talked about its integration with Apple for the iPhone, iPad, and macOS.

As part of the iOS 18.2 software update, Apple users can now access ChatGPT directly from Apple's operating systems without an OpenAI account. This new integration allows users to consult ChatGPT through Siri, especially for more complex questions.

They can also use ChatGPT to generate text through Apple's generative AI features, collectively called Apple Intelligence. The first of these features was introduced in October and included tools for proofreading and rewriting text, summarizing messages, and photo-editing features. They can also access ChatGPT through the camera control feature on the iPhone 16 to learn more about objects within the camera's view.

'Shipmas' Day 6

OpenAI launched its highly anticipated video and screensharing capabilities in ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode.

The company originally teased the public with a glimpse of the chatbot's ability to "reason across" vision along with text and audio during OpenAI's Spring Update in May. However, Advanced Voice Mode didn't become available for users until September, and the video capabilities didn't start rolling out until December 12.

In the livestream demonstration on Thursday, ChatGPT helped guide an OpenAI employee through making pour-over coffee. The chatbot gave him feedback on his technique and answered questions about the process. During the Spring Update, OpenAI employees showed off the chatbot's ability to act as a math tutor and interpret emotions based on facial expressions.

Users can access the live video by selecting the Advanced Voice Mode icon in the ChatGPT app and then choosing the video button on the bottom-left of the screen. Users can share their screen with ChatGPT by hitting the drop-down menu and selecting "Share Screen."

'Shipmas' Day 7

For "Shipmas" Day 7, OpenAI introduced Projects, a new way for users to "organize and customize" conversations within ChatGPT. The tool allows users to upload files and notes, store chats, and create custom instructions.

"This has been something we've been hearing from you for a while that you really want to see inside ChatGPT," OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil said. "So we can't wait to see what you do with it."

During the live stream demonstration, OpenAI employees showed a number of ways to use the feature, including organizing work presentations, home maintenance tasks, and programming.

The tool started to roll out to Plus, Pro, and Teams users on Friday. The company said in the demonstration it will roll out the tool to free users "as soon as possible."

'Shipmas' Day 8

OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT search to all logged-in free users on ChatGPT, the company announced during its "Shipmas" livestream on Monday. The company previously launched the feature on October 31 to Plus and Team users, as well as waitlist users.

The new feature is also integrated into Advanced Voice Mode now. On the livestream, OpenAI employees showed off its ability to provide quick search results, search while users talk to ChatGPT, and act as a default search engine.

"What's really unique about ChatGPT search is the conversational nature," OpenAI's search product lead, Adam Fry, said.

The company also said it made Search faster and "better on mobile," including the addition of some new maps experiences. ChatGPT search feature is rolling out globally to all users with an account.

'Shipmas' Day 9

OpenAI launched tools geared toward developers on Tuesday.

It launched o1 out of preview in the API. OpenAI's o1 is its series of AI models designed to reason through complex tasks and solve more challenging problems. Developers have experimented with o1 preview since September to build agentic applications, customer support, and financial analysis, OpenAI employee Michelle Pokrass said.

The company also added some "core features" to o1 that it said developers had been asking for on the API, including function calling, structured outputs, vision inputs, and developer messages.

OpenAI also announced new SDKs and a new flow for getting an API key.

'Shipmas' Day 10

OpenAI is bringing ChatGPT to your phone through phone calls and WhatsApp messages.

"ChatGPT is great but if you don't have a consistent data connection, you might not have the best connection," OpenAI engineer Amadou Crookes said in the livestream. "And so if you have a phone line you can jump right into that experience."

You can add ChatGPT to your contacts or dial the number at 1-800-ChatGPT or 1-800-242-8478. The calling feature is only available for those living in the US. Those outside the US can message ChatGPT on WhatsApp.

OpenAI employees in the live stream demonstrated the calling feature on a range of devices including an iPhone, flip phone, and even a rotary phone. OpenAI product lead Kevin Weil said the feature came out of a hack-week project and was built just a few weeks ago.

'Shipmas' Day 11

OpenAI focused on features for its desktop apps during Thursday's "Shipmas" reveal. Users can now see and automate their work on MacOS desktops with ChatGPT.

Additionally, users can click the "Works With Apps" button, which allows them to work with more coding apps, such as Textmate, BB Edit, PyCharm, and others. The desktop app will support Notion, Quip, and Apple Notes.

Also, the desktop app will have Advanced Voice Mode support.

The update became available for the MacOS desktop on Thursday. OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil said the Windows version is "coming soon."

'Shipmas' Day 12

OpenAI finished its "12 days of Shipmas" campaign by introducing o3, the successor to the o1 model. The company first launched the o1 model in September and advertised its "enhanced reasoning capabilities."

The rollout includes the o3 and 03-mini models. Although "o2" should be the next model number, an OpenAI spokesperson told Bloomberg that it didn't use that name "out of respect' for the British telecommunications company.

Greg Kamradt of Arc Prize, which measures progress toward artificial general intelligence, appeared during the livestream and said o3 did notably better than o1 during tests by ARC-AGI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during the livestream that the models are available for public safety testing. He said OpenAI plans to launch the o3 mini model "around the end of January" and the o3 model "shortly after that."

In a post on X on Friday, Weil said the o3 model is a "massive step up from o1 on every one of our hardest benchmarks."

• Pope Francis received the first all-electric popemobile from Mercedes-Benz.
• The G 580 model has a classic white exterior and a swiveling adjustable seat in the rear center.
• The Vatican recently announced plans to transition to a fully-electric fleet by 2030.

Mercedes-Benz has supplied the Vatican with popemobiles for decades — and for the first time, the Pope will ride an all-electric version.

"The first all-electric G-Class combines sustainability, elegant design and maximum functionality," Mercedes-Benz Group AG's chief design officer, Gorden Wagener, said in a release. "It is a great honor for us to be able to present this special vehicle to Pope Francis today."

Mercedes-Benz said it has been working on the vehicle for about a year and it contains four electric motors for each wheel. The vehicle's electric drivetrain was made to accommodate slow rides at public appearances.

The vehicle has a classic white exterior, like former popemobiles. In place of the popemobile's bench seat, the rear now features a swiveling and height-adjustable single seat. Two seats are also on the right and left of the main seat for other passengers.

The company's popemobiles are specially crafted white vehicles used to carry the pope through large crowds in St. Peter's Square while behind bulletproof glass. The new vehicle comes just in time for the 2025 Jubilee, which occurs every 2025 years and is expected to attract millions in Rome.

Mercedes-Benz didn't respond to a request for comment about the vehicle costs, but some estimates have pegged it around $500,000.

While Mercedes-Benz has been the standard manufacturer for years, the Pope ditched his typical popemobile for a Hyundai in 2015. He also previously approved plans for a new electric popemobile made by Fisker, but it's not clear if that was ever delivered and the EV company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

The new EV popemobile arrives amid a larger push from the Vatican to go all-electric.

Pope Francis specifically has emphasized the need for sustainable development. In his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si', he wrote about the dangers of the environmental crisis and cited the need for lifestyle changes. In November, the Vatican also announced plans with Volkswagon to transition to a fully electric fleet by 2030.

Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said in a press release that it's sending out a "clear call for electromobility and decarbonization."

"Mercedes-Benz not only stands for the special and individual — but also for consistently creating the conditions for a net-carbon-neutral new car fleet in 2039," Källeniu said.

• Jared Isaacman is President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead NASA.
• Isaacman has led and flown on two SpaceX missions, including the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
• Isaacman is a billionaire CEO who dropped out of high school and founded two companies.

Jared Isaacman isn't just a billionaire CEO. He's also a SpaceX astronaut, and now he's poised to lead NASA under the new Trump administration.

President-elect Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that he was nominating Isaacman to be the new NASA Administrator.

Isaacman has flown to space twice aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon, on flights he commissioned, funded, and commanded — including a mission where he conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September.

So who is Jared Isaacman, and how did the entrepreneur end up as Trump's NASA pick? Read on to learn about his career rise.

Isaacman decided to drop out of high school at the age of 15.

At the age of 15, Isaacman decided to drop out of high school and take the GED, according to the Netflix docuseries "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space."

"I was a horrible student," Isaacman said in the series. "And I wasn't, like, happy in school, either."

He described his younger self as independent and said he didn't understand things like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.

At 16, he founded a multibillion-dollar payment-processing company in his parents' basement.

Isaacman founded United Bank Card in 1999.

The company, now called Shift4, offers mobile-payment software, point-of-sale solutions, and online payments for various businesses.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that when he started the company, he would wake up every day at 7:30 a.m. and fall asleep on the keyboard at 2 or 3 in the morning.

By 2020, he took the company public. Today, Shift4 processes over $260 billion annually and serves over 200,000 customers, according to its website.

Isaacman has a wife and two kids.

Isaacman has known his wife, Monica Isaacman, for most of his life. The two come from the same town and got married in 2012. They now live in New Jersey with their two daughters.

"I want my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars," Isaacman told BI.

His wife said in the docuseries that she had good and bad dreams leading up to his first SpaceX mission, Inspiration4, which launched in 2021.

She said while she wouldn't want him to compromise on his dreams of going to space, she worried about what could happen if something went wrong.

Isaacman told BI in the interview that his family and wife were much more enthusiastic about the Polaris Dawn mission this time around, thanks to a successful first mission.

While there are still risks, he told BI his family is aware and accepts them.

He also founded Draken International.

Isaacman founded Draken International in 2012. The company is a private aircraft provider that also trains pilots for the US military, the UK, and NATO countries.

In 2019, Isaacman sold the company to Blackstone.

Isaacman became a billionaire in 2019.

Isaacman hit billionaire status in 2020 after selling Draken International and taking Shift4 public. His net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

He always had a passion for flying planes.

Isaacman said in the Netflix docuseries that he took an early interest in flying and went to flight school at a local airport in 2004.

At the time, he was feeling burned out from starting his company and described flying as "therapeutic." Isaacman also set a world speed record for flying around the globe in 2009.

"I do believe you only get one crack at life," Isaacman said in the docuseries. "To the extent you have the means to do so, you have this obligation to live life to the fullest. You never know when it's going to be your last day."

He added in the docuseries that this philosophy had taken him to fly in air shows as part of a seven-ship formation aerobatic team and on mountain-climbing expeditions in Antarctica.

He's involved with philanthropy.

Isaacman has been involved in several charitable causes and organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

His first SpaceX mission raised over $240 million for St. Jude and was named Inspiration4 to inspire support and raise awareness for the research hospital.

Isaacman and his wife have also committed to The Giving Pledge, a charitable campaign founded by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010.

The Giving Pledge serves as a commitment from wealthy people to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Isaacman's first mission to space took place in 2021.

In 2021, Isaacman funded and led the first civilian mission to space, called Inspiration4. The mission was carried out by SpaceX 's Dragon capsule.

Isaacman previously told Business Insider that the prep for the mission was extensive and involved a lot of studying and physical tests.

"The academics were pretty intense," Isaacman said, adding that there were thousands of pages across a hundred manuals to learn about SpaceX's Falcon and Dragon aircraft.

It also involved crew members drawing blood from each other and learning how to take skin samples to prepare for increased radiation levels on the trip.

Isaacman commanded the first-ever privately funded spacewalk

On September 10, Isaacman and three other crew members successfully took off on their way into orbit for the first-ever privately funded spacewalk.

The spacewalk featured SpaceX's new EVA suits.

During the spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew will wear the new SpaceX EVA suits → https://t.co/LRl5pPlAC9 pic.twitter.com/MVHzNwiWZU

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 10, 2024

Polaris Dawn lifted off from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's KSC, which also saw the launches of other historic missions, such as the Apollo 11 moon landing. Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew safely arrived back on the coast of Florida on September 15.

Trump nominated Isaacman to lead NASA

In an X post on Wednesday, Isaacman called the nomination "the honor of a lifetime" and suggested that human space exploration would be a top priority.

Space-industry experts told BI that Isaacman is not a traditional pick for NASA Administrator, but his background in commercial spaceflight would benefit the agency.

"They need someone who is not afraid to try something new if the old ways aren't working," George Nield, a former head of the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, told BI.

Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, called Isaacman "an inspired pick," in part due to his "stellar" managerial skills.

"He has shown a real commitment to increasing access to space, and I think he is going to be a great person to promote space to the general public," she said.

This story was originally published on September 11, 2024, and most recently updated on December 4, 2024.

• Jared Isaacman has been nominated by Donald Trump to head up NASA.
• Isaacman has flown two historic, all-civilian SpaceX missions, with more planned in the future.
• Isaacman vowed on X to advance US space exploration and send Americans to the moon and Mars.

The man who commanded multiple space missions for Elon Musk has been nominated to lead NASA.

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Jared Isaacman, the billionaire and repeat SpaceX astronaut, to be NASA's administrator on Wednesday.

Isaacman, who is also the CEO of the payments company Shift4, recently made history by leading the first private spacewalk with SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission. The five-day mission took Isaacman and three others further from Earth than anyone has traveled since the Apollo moon missions.

"We have to keep going," Isaacman said about space exploration in a November interview with Business Insider. "We just got to proceed with caution and just make sure we get it right. And if we do, we stand to learn so much that can change the course of trajectory of humankind."

Isaacman also previously helped finance and lead the world's first all-civilian private spaceflight. That was also a SpaceX mission, called Inspiration4, which Isaacman commanded.

"Jared will drive NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his nomination.

Trump pointed to Isaacman's passion for space and "exceptional leadership," demonstrated by his 25 years as the founder and CEO of Shift4. Trump also highlighted Isaacman's work as the cofounder and former CEO of Draken International, a defense aerospace company that supported the US Department of Defense, the UK, and NATO countries.

"I think that's a creative and hopeful recommendation," George Nield, a former head of the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, told Business Insider. "Jared has a lot of vision and enthusiasm."

He added that, "I would interpret this as at least an openness, if not strong advocacy, for industry playing an important role for the nation's space programs going forward."

Elon Musk, who is the founder and CEO of SpaceX and whom Trump tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, said "Congratulations" to Isaacman on X.

This would be Isaacman's first-ever role in government.

"He doesn't have experience as a government insider, and that's probably a good thing," Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander who now works in consulting, told BI. "He certainly has the potential to be a disruptor, so I think it's a great pick. It's much better than just status quo."

'An era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilization'

Following his nomination, Isaacman wrote in a post on X that it is "the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role" and work alongside NASA.

"With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place," Isaacman said, adding that "Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars."

Isaacman added that space holds potential for advancements in various areas including manufacturing, biotechnology, and possibly new energy sources. He also shared his vision for humanity to become a "spacefaring civilization" and described a "thriving space economy" with opportunities for people to work in space.

"I want my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars," Isaacman previously told BI.

Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, told BI in an email that this was a "perfect direction for NASA."

It's unclear whether his new role would impact his work with SpaceX or any plans he has to fly on future missions. The Polaris Program Isaacman is leading includes two more missions over the next six to nine years, including the first crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket.

Nield said Isaacman and his team at NASA would likely assess the tradeoffs and the risk of him flying into space during his term as Administrator.

"NASA's got a great team. They've got super smart and experienced and motivated people, but they need a leader. They need a communicator," Nield said. "They need someone who is not afraid to try something new if the old ways aren't working. So I think I'm excited about that choice."

• Google and Spotify launched a Wrapped AI Podcast with NotebookLM's AI hosts.
• The podcast talks about users' listening habits of the year.
• The head of editorial at Google Labs said he sees more NotebookLM integrations in the future.

If you've ever thought that your Spotify Wrapped deserved more attention from your group chat or social media followers — the wait is over.

On Wednesday, Spotify launched new features to accompany its annual round-up of users' most listened-to songs.

This year, users will also now get their Wrapped narrated in podcast form by NotebookLM, Google's AI-powered research and writing assistant that provides tools like summaries or study guides based on materials users upload.

The platform recently went viral after it launched its "deep dive," podcast-like discussion hosted by two conversational AI hosts.

The new Spotify feature enlists the voices of the same two AI hosts from NotebookLM's Audio Overview feature to discuss users' favorite artists, songs, and genres from the year.

"This is the first of its kind integration, and it demonstrates the potential of AI to enhance personalized experiences," said Steven Johnson, Head of Editorial at Google Labs, in a press event for the launch.

The podcast is unique to each user, reflecting their personal listening habits from the year, Johnson said. He also said it demonstrates the potential of AI to enhance these personalized experiences — and raised the point that most people don't have on-demand hosts to sit around and talk about their music choices from the year.

"There's a wonderful, robust market for podcasts on many topics," Johnson said. "But having customized top podcasts for millions of individual people based on their specific listening habits for the year, is just not something that you can do with actual humans."

Johnson said NotebookLM has been at the forefront of customizable AI.

He told BI that in the initial wave of AI, people conversed with models that knew a lot about the world, but nothing about the user asking the questions. When a reliable model is able to bring out these insights and make it interesting, that's when you see a change in the way computers can work, he said.

So far, the AI podcast feature on Spotify is only available with Wrapped. However, you can customize your own podcasts on NotebookLM's platform. Johnson also said the team is looking forward to "a lot of different partnerships," both in audio and text.

Just over a month after Google's NotebookLM Audio Overview tool went viral, NotebookLM introduced a "Customize" button, enabling users to guide the AI conversation. Its partnership with Spotify takes that customization a step further.

Google has implemented more personalized features across several of its platforms, including Google Shopping. Google Shopping now provides personalized recommendations and informative briefs at the top of your search. Spotify has similarly launched personalized features like AI Playlist, which creates playlists based on premium users' prompts. This year's Spotify Wrapped will also allow premium users to prompt the AI Playlist feature to create a playlist of their top genres or suggest artists similar to their top 5.

Spotify Wrapped will also include commentary from its AI DJ reflecting your year in music and incorporating insight from Spotify editors on the year's top tracks and artists of 2024.

The new Wrapped AI Podcast feature is available to free and premium Spotify users in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Sweden. To find the podcast, you can go to your Wrapped home feed and select your Spotify Wrapped AI podcast.

• A Delaware judge again struck down Elon Musk's $55 billion pay package.
• Legal experts walked BI through what the appeal process could look like for Tesla.
• Tesla may also reintroduce the package in Texas, a strategy that could end up costing shareholders more.

Elon Musk's battle over his Tesla pay is entering a new phase.

A Delaware judge ruled on Monday that Tesla's shareholder vote wasn't enough to pass Elon Musk's $55 billion compensation package.

Tesla called the decision "wrong" and said it would appeal.

"This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs' lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners — the shareholders," Tesla wrote in a post on X.

So what happens next?

If Tesla files an appeal, Delaware's Supreme Court will review the decision of Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, who maintained her earlier ruling that struck down the pay package on the grounds that Musk could have influenced Tesla's board members, to whom he had close ties.

Mathieu Shapiro, Obermayer's managing partner and a member of its litigation department, told Business Insider that appeals processes often take a year or longer.

Shapiro, who focuses on business and commercial litigation, said the case will ultimately have to balance Delaware's freedom for companies to self-govern with concerns about excessive payouts and Musk's status as one of the most successful businessmen.

While appeals are generally difficult to win, Shapiro said Musk's case is "novel" and contains unpredictable elements. One issue that may come up is whether Musk influenced the negotiations over his Tesla pay package, as the trial judge suggested in her initial ruling, he said.

"Little law addresses executive compensation, let alone what seems to be the largest-ever compensation deal at a US public company," Shapiro said.

Given that Musk's pay package was set to be the largest ever for a CEO, there aren't many cases to turn to for direct precedent.

Anat Alon-Beck, a business law professor at Case Western Reserve University, told BI that one case that stands out is the 2015 Delaware Chancery Court decision ruling against Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to ratify board actions related to Facebook's 2010 acquisition of Instagram.

Alon-Beck, who used to work as a merger and acquisition attorney for tech companies and also specializes in Delaware deal law, said Zuckerberg didn't follow the proper procedural requirements mandated by state law. The case demonstrates that even controlling shareholders need to comply with the legal procedures for ratifying board decisions, he added.

"When you know Delaware law, you know that stuff like that is just not going to fly," Alon-Beck said.

Columbia law professor Dorothy Lund used to clerk for a Delaware Supreme Court justice and US Court of Appeals judge. She told BI that Delaware is also "in a weird spot" because Tesla reincorporated from Delaware to Texas in June, and Musk has repeatedly spoken out about Delaware courts (he called the ruling "absolute corruption" on Monday).

While these decisions aren't supposed to be influenced by concerns around public perception, Lund said Musk's behavior hasn't been the most strategic.

"Delaware now has to worry about looking like, well, if we reverse, do we just look like we got cowed by Elon Musk?" Lund said.

Reintroducing the pay package in Texas

Prior to the shareholder vote, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm said in June that the board had considered introducing a new pay plan if the shareholder vote didn't pass — an option she said would cost shareholders.

If Tesla created a new plan with the same stock grants, it would cost tens of billions in stock-based compensation today. That's because the compensation tied to the original package was worth an estimated $2.3 billion in stock, and it's already been paid out.

Alon-Beck told BI that a new compensation package in Texas would make the most sense.

"I would do a new vote in Texas, under Texas law, and I would authorize a new compensation package," Alon-Beck said, adding that the old package wouldn't be able to be authorized because of a conflict of laws.

Shapiro said he thinks it would be "very difficult" to draft the same package in Texas, noting that the original plan goes back to 2018 and was based on specific targets as well as Tesla's stock price in 2018.

Shapiro said Musk's decision to appeal or reintroduce the package in Texas depends on multiple factors — and underlying motivations.

While it may be all about the money, the case may also signify more about public companies in the US and the way in which shareholders and courts can interfere with management's plans.

"Or is it about his public persona and his reputation and how those things are understood in future business dealings," Shapiro said. "If he were my client, I would have a discussion about all of those things before deciding what path forward was best for him."

• 51-year-old Alan Stein worked in the corporate world for 25 years at companies including Google and Meta.
• Now, as the CEO of Kadima Careers, he advises against following certain career advice clichés.
• He suggests focusing on referrals rather than creating multiple résumés and posting on LinkedIn.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alan Stein, CEO of career-accelerating service Kadima Careers. The story has been edited for length and clarity.

After 25 years of working in the corporate world, including at companies like Google, Meta, Salesforce, and American Express, I now help people get jobs at the world's best companies.

My company, Kadima Careers, is a career accelerator. We work for candidates and we help them get better jobs quickly, competently, and with lots more money. We've helped hundreds of people get jobs and negotiate offers.

Last time I checked, there were thousands of career experts on LinkedIn, sometimes, without any verification or certification.

These are some of the pieces of advice that I think you should avoid.

Posting often on LinkedIn

Don't expect that your posting or commenting is going to get you a job. You have to hope that your posts get seen by the right people. It's not easy to do that.

You should definitely keep LinkedIn up to date and make sure you are marketing yourself effectively on there because you will get people to come to your profile. But the way you'll do that is not by posting content but by proactively reaching out to people or people tangential to the people that you want to speak to.

Then, before they meet you, they'll look at your profile and understand that you're a program manager with 12 years of experience or you're a sales executive working at some of the best SaaS companies in the world.

You're wasting your time if the listed salary isn't what you want

You should decline to talk about compensation until after you get the offer.

I've seen so many times that there is flexibility with the compensation, and the best leverage you have as a candidate is after you have the offer. Furthermore, you get more practice. The more practice you get, the better you will become at interviewing — and you might learn things, you might meet people, and there might be other opportunities that pop up along the way.

There are three exceptions, including if you're grossly overpaid.

When I was at Google, sometimes I would just put the number out there to short-circuit things to see if it's not worth my time. Secondly, if they give you a homework assignment to do, you want to make sure it's worth your time.

The third reason is if you have so many interviews that you need to figure out which one to take and which one's going to compensate you if you get to the finish line.

Research the heck out of a company

Some people say you should research the heck out of a company and impress them with all your knowledge and that will lead to an interview. Don't do unsolicited work.

I've interviewed so many people in my time and some people come very well prepared and they've done research. But to put together a project, a presentation, a one-sheeter, a cover letter, or anything that is not asked for doesn't make sense. It might work for small organizations, but the better way is just to connect with the decision-makers at the company.

You should definitely check the company values out, understand the products, and research the role and who you're meeting with. But you don't need to research more than an hour for most interviews about the company. You will be surprised at how little most companies ask about the company itself.

Customize your résumé for every job

There are a couple of times when you want to have two résumés.

If you're going for an individual contributor role and you're going for a manager role, there are some different dynamics you do there. Also, if you have a disparate background and maybe you've done customer success and product management, you might want to have two different résumés.

Also, don't overcomplicate things and think you need to have the right search terms on there for the application tracking software.

Have a strong résumé that reflects your impact and what you've done and uses the right words for your industry — and then keep your résumé.

Your résumé is just table stakes. It's not going to make or break your search. So, focus on getting the referrals. That will get your résumé to the hiring manager.