• Wildfires are burning across Los Angeles County.
• Hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders or warnings.
• Insured losses could top $20 billion, JPMorgan analysts estimated — the most-ever in California.

The Los Angeles area is battling a series of massive wildfires that continue to rip through its picturesque mountains and hillsides — creating a hellscape of burned-out neighborhoods and upended livelihoods that could ultimately be the most costly fire disaster in California history.

Authorities on Friday night expanded the evacuation zone related to the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, east toward Santa Monica, less than 1.5 miles from the iconic Santa Monica Pier. The zone now encompasses the famous Getty Center, home of the Getty Museum.

Officials have now ordered over 150,000 residents to evacuate and warned another 166,000 to be ready to leave if the fires continue to spread. More than 35,000 acres have burned, and the LA County Medical Examiner has reported 11 deaths related to the fires so far.

At a press conference on Friday evening, officials managing the Eaton fire, which now spans almost 14,000 acres and is one of the largest and deadliest, said they don't expect the blaze to spread significantly over the weekend due to more moderate wind conditions. However, officials said they are anticipating another high-wind event early next week. It was strong Santa Ana gusts of up to 90 miles per hour that first whipped the fires into a frenzy earlier this week.

JPMorgan analysts said the blazes tearing through the region could lead to over $20 billion in insured losses — and about $50 billion in total economic losses. That would make these conflagrations "significantly more severe" than the Camp Fires that struck the state in 2018 and racked up $10 billion in insured losses, the current record.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the scene in LA as apocalyptic, as thick bands of smoke surrounded the city. Los Angeles County is home to about 10 million people.

"Not since the 1990s, when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake, and the riots, have I seen such disaster occur here in our city," Hochman said at a briefing, referring to the Northridge Earthquake and the disturbances in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

Erroneous emergency alerts telling residents to evacuate areas unaffected by the fires further heightened panic in the region. Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, apologized for the messages at Friday's conference.

"There is an extreme amount of frustration, anger, fear, with regards to the erroneous messages that have been being sent out through the wireless emergency alert system. I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience," he said.

He reassured residents that resolving the issue is his "top priority" and that he has technical specialists working to identify the root cause. "I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone," he said.

Late Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration warned civilians against flying unauthorized drones in areas undergoing firefighting efforts, after a firefighting plane sustained wing damage from a civilian drone and had to be grounded.

Satellite images of the LA fires showed the destruction left in their wake.

Starlink, Elon Musk's SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet service, said Thursday that people in the Los Angeles area can use the company's network to text loved ones, contact 911, and receive emergency alerts.

Here's a look at the latest happenings in the main fires spreading throughout the area:

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica was the first fire to strike the region on Tuesday morning. It has spread to nearly 20,438 acres, Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said a Friday press conference.

Five people have died in the Palisades fire, according to the medical examiner's office.

Due to favorable weather conditions on Thursday night, firefighters managed to contain about 8% of the fire, Crowley said Friday.

Crowley said at an earlier briefing that the Palisades Fire had so far damaged or destroyed over 5,300 structures.

Crowley would not confirm reports that the fire started in a resident's garden, saying the origin is still under investigation.

Some celebrities have lost homes in the blaze, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal.

On Thursday, a drone hit the wing of one of two Super Scooper planes fighting the wildfires, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at Friday's press conference. He said the plane was under urgent repairs and set to be flying again by Monday. "If you fly a drone at one of these brush fires all aerial operations will be shut down," he said.

Eaton Fire

The second-largest fire in Los Angeles County is the Eaton Fire, which started on Tuesday evening in the Pasadena-Altadena area at the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

Six people have died in the Eaton fire, according to the medical examiner's office.

The blaze has spread to over almost 14,000 acres, Marrone said Friday afternoon. Only 3% of the fire has been contained and at least 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed.

Marrone said the fire had pushed toward Mount Wilson, where a number of communications towers are located. No buildings were damaged.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has 1,527 firefighting personnel assigned to the incident. One firefighter suffered a significant injury after a fall on Thursday but is expected to make a full recovery.

Marrone said the cause of the fire remains "unknown."

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 771 acres and is 37% contained as of early Friday, Crowley said at the press conference.

In an X post on Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the mandatory evacuation order for the Hurst Fire had been lifted.

Kenneth Fire

On Thursday, a small brush fire erupted at the Victory Trailhead near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Marrone said that fire has been stopped, with 35% containment. It burned about 1,000 acres, but no structures were reported damaged.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for several neighborhoods near the fire.

LAPD said it had detained a possible arson suspect but could not confirm any connection to the fire.

An evacuation notice intended for residents impacted by the Kenneth Fire was mistakenly sent out across LA County due to a "technical error," County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in an X post.

Sunset Fire and others

The Sunset Fire broke out in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, quickly spreading to scorch over 40 acres and threaten major LA landmarks.

As of Thursday morning, firefighters were able to stop the fire's forward progress, Crowley said.

All evacuation orders related to the Sunset Fire were lifted as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, she added.

A large structure fire consumed two large homes in the Studio City area but firefighters were able to stop its forward growth at just one acre and prevent another brushfire, Crowley said.

Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, started Wednesday afternoon in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It consumed 394 acres but is now 75% contained, according to CalFire.

The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday morning in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, has been suppressed and there are no current threats, Crowley said.

Patrols were monitoring the area for any flare-ups, she added.

Events canceled and landmarks closed as smoke chokes LA

Major and minor events alike have been canceled or postponed across the Los Angeles area as the city battles the fires.

The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were rescheduled for January 26. A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled for Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The LA Lakers rescheduled Thursday night's game.

Music venues across the city were also canceling or postponing their shows, including The Troubadour, The Wiltern, The Echo, the Kia Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others.

Flights into and out of LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport were also experiencing delays and cancellations. LAX, however, remains open.

The fires are also shuttering tourist destinations in and around Los Angeles, which attracts nearly 50 million visitors a year.

The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Broad Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Getty Villa and Getty Center, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.

Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.

California already struggled with an insurance crisis

The devastating fires this week will likely only worsen California's ongoing insurance crisis, where many homebuyers already struggle to get approved for loans, home insurance, and fire insurance — even in areas outside the typical risk zones.

In recent years, some insurance companies, like State Farm, have stopped accepting new home insurance policies in the state entirely, as wildfire risks have only increased.

Experts told Business Insider that prices are likely to continue rising for those who can still get insurance.

"I've seen numbers go up 200%, 300%, even 500% in a year," Nick Ramirez, the owner of a California insurance agency, told BI.

And as the fires' estimated damages already climb into the billions of dollars, some homeowners will have to rebuild without the help of insurance payouts.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met his wife Lori Huang at Oregon State University.
• In a recent interview, he said that he tried to use homework as an excuse to spend time with her.
• Huang said he promised her he'd be CEO by 30 to ensure she'd marry him.

When Jensen Huang met his wife in college, the odds weren't in his favor.

He was 17 years old, and she was 19. "I was the youngest kid in school, in class. There were 250 students and 3 girls," he said in an interview at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology last week after receiving an honorary degree. He was also the only student who "looked like a child," he said.

Huang used his youthful appearance to approach his future wife, hoping she'd assume he was smart. "I walked up to her and I said, 'do you want to see my homework?'" Then he made a deal with her. "If you do homework with me every Sunday, I promise you, you will get straight As."

From that point on, he said he had a date every Sunday. And just to ensure that she would eventually marry him, he told her that by 30, he'd be a CEO.

Huang married Lori Mills five years after they first met at Oregon State University, according to his biography on OSU College of Engineering's website. The couple has two children, Madison, a director of marketing at Nvidia, and Spencer, a senior product manager at the company.

After graduating from OSU in 1984, Huang worked at chip companies LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices, according to his bio on Nvidia's website. He then pursued a master's degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1992, a year before he founded Nvidia, which has grown into a $3.48 trillion company thanks to the artificial intelligence boom.

Huang was 30 years old when he founded Nvidia.

The CEO often shares the lore about Nvidia's origin: He conceived the idea for a graphics company while dining at Denny's, a US diner chain, with his friends. Huang said in a 2010 New York Times interview that he also waited tables at Denny's while he was a student.

Huang's net worth is now estimated to be $124 billion.

The CEO also credits his wife and daughter with establishing his signature style: the black leather jacket.

In an interview last year on HP's online show, "The Moment," host Ryan Patel asked Huang how he feels to become a style icon.

"Now, at Denny's I'm sure you weren't thinking you were gonna be the style star of the future, but now you are," Patel said. "What do you think? How do you feel?"

"Don't give me that," Huang replied. "I'm happy that my wife and my daughter dresses me."

A spokesperson for Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

• AI leaders are rethinking data-heavy training for large language models.
• Traditional models scale linearly with data, but this approach may hit a dead end.
• Smaller, more efficient models and new training methods are gaining industry support.

For years, tech companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Google have focused on amassing tons of data, assuming that more training material would lead to smarter, more powerful models.

Now, AI leaders are rethinking the conventional wisdom about how to train large language models.

The focus on training data arises from research showing that transformers, the neural networks behind large language models, have a one-to-one relationship with the amount of data they're given. Transformer models "scale quite linearly with the amount of data and compute they're given," Alex Voica, a consultant at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, previously told Business Insider.

However, executives are starting to worry that this approach can only go so far, and they're exploring alternatives for advancing the technology.

The money going into AI has largely hung on the idea that this scaling law "would hold," Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang said at the Cerebral Valley conference this week, tech newsletter Command Line reported. It's now "the biggest question in the industry."

Some executives say the problem with the approach is that it's a little mindless. "It's definitely true that if you throw more compute at the model, if you make the model bigger, it'll get better," Aidan Gomez, the CEO of Cohere, said on the 20VC podcast. "It's kind of like it's the most trustworthy way to improve models. It's also the dumbest."

Gomez advocates smaller, more efficient models, which are gaining industry support for being cost-effective.

Others worry this approach won't reach artificial general intelligence — a theoretical form of AI that matches or surpasses human intelligence — even though many of the world's largest AI companies are banking on it.

Large language models are trained simply to "predict the next token, given the previous set of tokens," Richard Socher, a former Salesforce executive and CEO of AI-powered search engine You.com, told Business Insider. The more effective way to train them is to "force" these models to translate questions into computer code and generate an answer based on the output of that code, he said. This will reduce hallucinations in quantitative questions and enhance their abilities.

Not all industry leaders are sold that AI has hit a scaling wall, however.

"Despite what other people think, we're not at diminishing marginal returns on scale-up," Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott said in July in an interview with Sequoia Capital's Training Data podcast.

Companies like OpenAI are also seeking to improve on existing LLMs.

OpenAI's o1, released in September, still relies on the token prediction mechanism Socher refers to. Still, the model is specialized to better handle quantitative questions, including areas like coding and mathematics — compared to ChatGPT, which is considered a more general-purpose model.

Part of the difference between o1 and ChatGPT is that o1 spends more time on inference or "thinking" before it answers a question.

"To summarize, if we were to anthropomorphize, gpt-4 is like your super know-it-all friend who when you ask them a question starts talking stream-of-consciousness, forcing you to sift through what they're saying for the gems," Waleed Kadous, a former engineer lead at Uber and former Google principal software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "o1 is more like the friend who listens carefully to what you have to say, scratches their chin for a few moments, and then shares a couple of sentences that hit the nail on the head."

One of o1's trade-offs, however, is that it requires much more computational power, making it slower and costlier, according to Artificial Analysis, an independent AI benchmarking website.