• Firefighters are bracing for deadly new winds as the LA fires enter their second week.
• The fires have burned more than 40,000 acres. One figure estimates up to $275 billion in damage.
• More than 88,000 people were under evacuation orders — and 84,000 under warnings on Tuesday.

Parts of Los Angeles remain engulfed in flames Tuesday as high winds persisted and officials warned that things weren't likely to get better anytime soon.

And as the fires left misery and destruction in their wake, they could end up causing up to $275 billion in economic damage and losses, according to a new estimate from AccuWeather.

That would make the Los Angeles fires more economically damaging than the Maui wildfires from 2023, which AccuWeather said caused up to $16 billion in damages — and more destructive than 2024's Hurricane Helene, which caused $225 to $250 billion in damages, according to AccuWeather's estimate.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said Tuesday that the area was nowhere near in the clear: "Life-threatening and destructive and widespread winds are already here," she said.

The National Weather Service said conditions were ripe for "extreme" fire danger through at least Tuesday — and warned of "critical" conditions on Wednesday throughout much of Southern California.

One piece of potentially good news: Winds, which have been spreading the fires and also making it more challenging to fight them, were expected to generally weaken by Wednesday evening.

Tallying the destruction in the wake of the LA fires

The scope of the LA fires' destruction already caused is beginning to come to light.

AccuWeather's estimate accounts for more than just damage to buildings and infrastructure — it also includes the expected financial impact of evacuation orders, the long-term cost of rebuilding or relocation for people whose homes were destroyed, anticipated cleanup and recovery costs, emergency shelter expenses, immediate and long-term healthcare costs for those who were injured or exposed to unhealthy air quality, as well as lost wages for people whose jobs will have been affected.

Goldman Sachs estimates that the total damage from the LA fire will rank it among the top 20 costliest natural disasters as a share of GDP in US history.

And as damage estimates grow higher, some are using the situation for financial gain. People have started placing wagers on the LA fires, and reports have emerged of price-gouging on residences, hotels, and medical supplies.

Since the fires first broke out on January 7, firefighters have contained several smaller blazes in Los Angeles County, but the three largest — the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires — spanned a combined 38,629 acres as of Tuesday morning, with limited containment.

Around 88,000 people were under evacuation orders, and an additional 84,000 are under evacuation warnings as of Tuesday morning, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

Luna noted that while the evacuation numbers have decreased since Monday, "it is still very dangerous for the next 24 hours, so we're keeping a very close eye."

Winds pose 'extreme fire danger'

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service of Los Angeles issued "Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warnings" for parts of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties as "critical to extremely critical fire-weather conditions" continue across the region through Wednesday.

It said that these warnings are only used in "the extreme of the extreme fire weather scenarios," adding that "this setup is about as bad as it gets."

High winds up to 70 miles per hour are forecast to last through at least Tuesday, the NWS said, raising the danger of "extreme fire behavior."

Dry, fast winds over open brushland fueled the growth of the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires, which continue to burn.

More than 8,500 firefighters have been marshaled to fight the fires, which have so far caused at least 24 reported deaths and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, which include homes, buildings, cars, and sheds.

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica has burned through over 23,700 acres and was 17% contained as of Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire.

The cause of the fire, the first to start last week, is still under investigation. The area is home to a large number of celebrities whose homes were destroyed in the disaster.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has received reports of eight deaths tied to the Palisades fire so far.

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire, which has devastated parts of Pasadena and Altadena since it began last week, has now burned through more than 14,100 acres, according to Cal Fire. It is 35% contained as of Tuesday morning.

"It's one thing to see it on television, it's another thing to see it from air," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a Tuesday morning briefing, referencing the devastation she saw throughout the region during an aerial tour. "The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it." [«ADDED LINK HERE]

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has received reports of 16 deaths tied to the Eaton fire so far.

Hurst Fire and others

A number of other fires have sparked in the last week as high winds continue pummeling the region.

The Hurst Fire, which began last week in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 799 acres and was 97% contained as of Tuesday morning, Cal Fire said.

The Auto Fire, which erupted Monday night in Ventura, had burned through 56 acres, with zero percent containment. The fire's forward progress was stopped and no structures remained threatened, officials at Ventura County Fire Department said early Tuesday.

After burning over 1,400 acres combined, several other fires have been 100% contained, including: the Kenneth Fire near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills, the Lidia Fire near Antelope Valley, and the Woodley Fire in the south San Fernando Valley.

This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates.

• Los Angeles is bracing for high winds that could worsen ongoing wildfires.
• The fires have burned more than 40,500 acres and destroyed 12,300 structures. Authorities reported 24 dead.
• Evacuation orders are in effect for more than 92,000 people as fires threaten more areas.

After nearly a week of wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, the area is bracing for worsening conditions as high winds on Monday threaten to spread the flames.

The fires have burned through more than 40,500 acres in and around Los Angeles County, displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, and killed at least 24 people. More than 12,300 structures have been destroyed, local authorities have said.

Firefighters made some progress containing the blazes over the weekend — the Palisades Fire, the largest, is 14% contained, and the Eaton Fire, the second-largest, is 33% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire, a state agency.

Cal Fire reported that a new blaze, the Auto Fire, had broken out in Ventura County on Monday night. As of press time, the fire had burned through 56 acres and was 0% contained.

Strong Santa Ana winds are forecast to pick up again Tuesday, with gusts up to 75 miles an hour creating "extremely dangerous fire weather conditions" across coastal southern California, the National Weather Service said.

The NWS said these high winds have the potential to cause widespread power outages, worsen existing firefighting efforts, and make the ignition of new fires much more likely.

The NWS issued a "particularly dangerous situation red flag warning" for parts of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles Counties through Wednesday. The red flag warning signals fire danger. Though the winds aren't expected to reach the same highs as last week, they still pose "a high risk for large fires with potential for very rapid spreading of any fires that may develop."

The fires are predicted to become the worst natural disaster in US history, and the death toll will likely rise, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday.

"I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope," Newsom told NBC. "I've got search-and-rescue teams out. We've got cadaver dogs out. And there's likely to be a lot more."

Around 92,000 people near the Palisades and Eaton fires are under evacuation orders, and another 89,000 are under evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Monday morning press conference.

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica has burned through over 23,700 acres and was 14% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.

The cause of the fire, which started on Tuesday morning, is still under investigation. It threatens to spread into Brentwood, Encino, and Westwood.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported eight deaths tied to the Palisades fire so far.

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire, which has devastated parts of Pasadena and Altadena since it began on Tuesday, has now burned through more than 14,100 acres, according to Cal Fire. It is 33% contained as of Monday afternoon.

"In my career, I've never seen the amount of devastation and destruction that exists here. So, a lot of work. It's going to be long-term," Ernie Villa, an operations section chief for the California Interagency Incident Management Team, said at a Sunday press conference.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported 16 deaths tied to the Eaton fire so far.

Hurst Fire and others

The Hurst Fire, which began late Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 799 acres and is 97% contained as of Monday evening, Cal Fire said.

Though the fire has been mostly controlled, Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned Monday morning, "We are not in the clear as of yet." She added, "We must not let our guard down, as we have right now extreme fire behavior."

The most recent fire, the Auto Fire in Ventura County, started late Monday night. According to Cal Fire, it has spread over 56 acres and is 0% contained as of press time.

Several other fires have also sparked over the last week, together burning more than 1,400 acres.

The Kenneth Fire erupted at the Victory Trailhead near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties on Thursday, burning just over 1,000 acres before it was fully contained.

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

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 in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It consumed 395 acres but is now 100% contained, according to CalFire.

The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, burned 30 acres before it was contained.

Bad actors are taking advantage of the situation by looting

LA officials have reported instances of looting, burglary, and other crimes in wildfire-ravaged areas.

Luna, LA County's sheriff, said at Monday's press conference that his officers have made 34 total arrests — 30 in the Eaton Fire area and 4 in the Palisades Fire area.

Those arrests were related to burglary, looting, illegal drone operations, people entering restricted areas with guns and narcotics, and curfew violations, Luna said.

LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said Monday that his officers had made an additional 14 arrests related to the fires — for things like felony vandalism, impersonating a firefighter, possession of burglary tools, and shoplifting.

In at least one instance, which is under investigation, an individual near the scene of the Palisades fire wore a firefighting jacket and helmet in the course of an attempted burglary, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said during a Monday afternoon press conference.

"This behavior is despicable. We cannot tolerate it, and as we continue to help people heal through this suffering, we cannot allow people to pray on the devastation that has already happened," Horvath said. "And I want to be clear that goes not only for individuals who are preying on these locations, but also for the corporations and the businesses and the price gouging and the ways that they're taking advantage of people in this very difficult moment."

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office had already seen instances of price gouging for medical supplies and hotels, as well as landlords overcharging above the legal limit. During a state of emergency, businesses are prohibited from raising their prices on essential goods and services above 10% beyond what's normal.

"For the criminals who view this as an opportunity, let me again give you this warning, an absolutely unmistakably clear warning, that if you go ahead and you want to rip off people and the system and governments that are trying to help the people who have suffered from these tragedies, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, and we will seek maximum punishment against you," Hochman said Monday.

Jason Oppenheim, the star of "Selling Sunset" who co-runs real estate brokerage the Oppenheim Group, has also reported seeing landlords engaging in suspected price gouging.

Hochman also urged residents to be vigilant against scams related to the recovery efforts, like possibly fake GoFundMe fundraisers and insurance scams.

California's insurance crisis will only grow

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.

And while some insurance companies have stopped signing new policies in the region entirely, there are other ways companies try to cut down on disaster payouts.

Some companies go so far as to hire private firms to protect their policyholders' homes, both before a fire breaks out and after it has passed.

David Torgerson, the CEO of Wildfire Defense Systems, previously told Business Insider that his company partners with dozens of carriers to seek to protect homes before they are in the line of fire — and that his employees have been "actively working" to help combat the LA wildfires.

"We are typically working hours in advance, or days in advance of the fire passing over a property, and we call that the pre-suppression," Torgerson told BI. "We're preparing the property to survive the amount of time that the fire is in proximity to the structure, and then we quickly come back in after the fire is passed to secure the property."

His company takes proactive steps to fire-proof homes, like applying fire-blocking gels, removing flammable materials, cleaning out gutters, and running sprinkler systems, according to a company fact sheet. After a fire has passed through a neighborhood, Torgerson's staff go back to insured homes to extinguish remaining spot fires and assess further risk, he said.

And while some homeowners pay high premiums for special fire protection perks, it's not only the wealthy whose homes are protected by these services.

Celebrities and many others have lost their homes

The Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has long been a draw for celebrities. Some Hollywood stars lost their homes in the Palisades Fire.

Paris Hilton, Milo Ventimiglia, Billy Crystal, Mel Gibson, Miles Teller, and Anthony Hopkins all said the fire had destroyed their houses.

Of course, not everyone in the area is a celebrity. One 22-year-old renter told Business Insider that she'd had to evacuate her apartment in the Pacific Palisades — and feared that everything could be lost after seeing news footage showing buildings on her street that had burned.

A journalist and her husband and their two daughters told BI they evacuated their Palisades home on January 7 — only to find out later that the fires destroyed everything. They're now staying in a hotel.

Meanwhile, an $83 million mansion that had been featured in HBO's "Succession" also was destroyed.

LAX is open, as is Disneyland — but some attractions are closed

Los Angeles International Airport is open and is "operating normally," the airport said.

LAX has remained open throughout the fires, though over the weekend, around 500 flights were delayed, and around 13 were canceled.

The airport said customers should check with their airline to make sure there are no issues before starting their journeys.

Los Angeles attracts around 50 million tourists each year — and visitors to the area will find some things aren't open. Disneyland was open as of Monday, as was Universal Studios Hollywood. Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Hollywood said it would be closed through Tuesday.

The famous Griffith Park and its Griffith Observatory were both listed as closed through at least Wednesday. And Lake Hollywood Park, a city park beneath the famed Hollywood sign, also was closed.

The Getty Center said it would be closed through Thursday. The Getty Villa survived the Palisades fire.

The Santa Monica Pier was open, but warned of air-quality issues on its website. AccuWeather listed the air quality in the area as "poor" as of Monday morning local time.

This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates.

• 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 153,000 residents to evacuate and warned another 166,000 to be ready to leave if the fires continue to spread. About 38,000 acres have burned. Officials have reported 13 deaths related to the fire as of Saturday.

At a press conference on Friday evening, officials managing the Eaton fire, which now spans over 14,000 acres and is one of the largest and deadliest, said they did not 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.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday announced that he's doubling the number of California National Guard personnel on the ground to 1,680 members.

"The men and women of the California National Guard are working day and night to help Los Angeles residents during their greatest time of need," he said in a statement.

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 over 21,500 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Around 11% of the fire is contained, it says.

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

Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press briefing earlier this week that the Palisades Fire had 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 a Friday 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.

Eight people have died in the Eaton fire, Los Angeles County Sheriff Commander Tania E. Plunkett said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

The blaze has spread to over 14,100 acres, Marrone said at the Saturday conference, adding that over 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed and 15% of the fire is contained.

The cause of the fire remains "unknown," Marrone previously said.

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 799 acres and is 76% contained, per Cal Fire.

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 the fire had been stopped. It burned just over 1,000 acres, but no structures were reported damaged. It is 80% contained, per Cal Fire.

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 395 acres but is now 100% 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.

• Mark Zuckerberg's plan to replace fact checkers with "community notes" is a familiar one.
• A similar system of community moderation is already in place on Elon Musk's X.
• On X, community notes let users add context to posts. Meta has said it seems to work well.

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will use "community notes" to moderate content on its platforms like Facebook and Instagram — but what exactly does that mean, and how has it worked on other platforms?

Meta said the feature would function much like it does on Elon Musk's platform, where certain contributors can add context to posts they think are misleading or need clarification. This type of user-generated moderation would largely replace Meta's human fact-checkers.

"We've seen this approach work on X — where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see," Meta said in its announcement Tuesday.

Musk, who has a sometimes-tense relationship with Zuckerberg, appeared to approve of the move, posting "This is cool" on top of a news article about the changes at Meta.

So, will it be cool for Meta and its users? Here's a primer on "community notes" — how it came to be, and how it's been working so far on X:

How the 'community notes' feature was born

The idea of "community notes" first came about at Twitter in 2019, when a team of developers at the company, now called X, theorized that a crowdsourcing model could solve the main problems with content moderation. Keith Coleman, X's vice president of product who helped create the feature, told Asterisk magazine about its genesis in an interview this past November.

Coleman told the outlet that X's previous fact-checking procedures, run by human moderators, had three main problems: dedicated staff couldn't fact-check claims in users' posts fast enough, there were too many posts to monitor, and the general public didn't trust a Big Tech company to decide what was or wasn't misleading.

Coleman told Asterisk that his team developed a few prototypes and settled on one that allowed users to submit notes that could show up on a post.

"The idea was that if the notes were reasonable, people who saw the post would just read the notes and could come to their own conclusion," he said.

And in January 2021, the company launched a pilot program of the feature, then called "Birdwatch," just weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot. On its first day, the pilot program had 500 contributors.

Coleman told the outlet that for the first year or so of the pilot program — which showed community notes not directly on users' posts but on a separate "Birdwatch" website — the product was very basic, but over time, it evolved and performed much better than expected.

When Musk took over the platform in 2022, he expanded the program beyond the US, renamed it "community notes," and allowed more users to become contributors.

Around the same time, he disassembled Twitter's trust and safety team, undid many of the platform's safety policies, and lowered the guardrails on content moderation. Musk said in 2022 that the community notes tool had "incredible potential for improving information accuracy."

It's unclear how many users participate in community notes contributors. It's one of the platform's main sources of content moderation. X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

How the community notes feature works on X

The community notes feature is set to roll out on Meta's Instagram, Facebook, and Threads platforms over the next few months, the company said in a statement shared with BI. Meta said the feature on its platforms would be similar to X's.

On X, community notes act as a crowd-sourced way for users themselves to moderate content without the company directly overseeing that process.

A select group of users who sign up as "contributors" can write a note adding context to any post that could be misleading or contain misinformation.

Then, other contributors can rate that note as helpful or not. Once enough contributors from different points of view vote on the note as helpful, then a public note gets added underneath the post in question.

For instance, here's an example of a community note attached to a recent X post:

X has made the complex ranking algorithm behind the feature transparent and open-source, and users can view it online and download the latest data.

X says that community notes "do not represent X's viewpoint and cannot be edited or modified by our teams," adding that a community-flagged post is only removed if it violates X's rules, terms of service, or privacy policies.

Similar to X, Meta said its community notes will be written and rated by contributing users. It said the company will not write notes or decide which ones show up. Also like X, Meta said that its community notes "will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings."

Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users can sign up now to be among the first contributors to the new tool.

"As we make the transition, we will get rid of our fact-checking control, stop demoting fact-checked content and, instead of overlaying full-screen interstitial warnings you have to click through before you can even see the post, we will use a much less obtrusive label indicating that there is additional information for those who want to see it," Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, said in Tuesday's statement.

Potential pros and cons of community notes

One possible issue with the feature is that by the time a note gets added to a potentially misleading post, the post may have already been widely viewed — spreading misinformation before it can be tamped down.

Another issue is that for a note to be added, contributors from across the political spectrum need to agree that a post is problematic or misleading, and in today's polarized political environment, concurring on facts has sometimes become increasingly difficult.

One possible advantage to the feature, though, is that the general public may be more likely to trust a consensus from their peers rather than an assessment handed down by a major corporation.

Maarten Schenk, cofounder and chief technology officer of Lead Stories, a fact-checking outlet, told the Poynter Institute that one benefit of X's community notes is that it doesn't use patronizing language.

"It avoids accusations or loaded language like 'This is false,'" Schenk told Poynter. "That feels very aggressive to a user."

And community notes can help combat misinformation in some ways. For example, researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Qualcomm Institute found in an April 2024 study that the X feature helped offset false health information in posts related to COVID-19. They also helped add accurate context.

In announcing the move, Zuckerberg said Meta's past content moderation practices have resulted in "too many mistakes" and "too much censorship." He said the new feature will prioritize free speech and help restore free expression on Meta's platforms.

Both President-elect Donald Trump and Musk have championed the cause of free speech online, railed against content moderation as politically biased censorship, and criticized Zuckerberg for his role overseeing the public square of social media.

One key person appeared pleased with the change: Trump said Tuesday that Zuckerberg had "probably" made the changes in response to previous threats issued by the president-elect.

• Norovirus cases are surging in the US at some of the highest levels in over a decade.
• More people are gathering together post-COVID, leading to a rise in cases from past years.
• Staying hydrated is the most important thing to do if you become sick.

Norovirus, commonly called the stomach flu or the 24-hour bug, is on the rise across the US this winter.

And Norovirus outbreaks — which are most common from November to April — have reached one of their highest levels from any time in the past 12 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In its most recent data available, the CDC reported 91 norovirus outbreaks across the US for the first week of December — the highest number of outbreaks for the same week since 2012, and the fourth-highest number of outbreaks recorded in any week of the year since 2012.

The CDC defines an outbreak as "an occurrence of two or more similar illnesses resulting from a common exposure that is either suspected or laboratory-confirmed to be caused by norovirus."

Here's what you need to know about norovirus:

Norovirus symptoms, treatment, and prevention

Norovirus presents itself much like food poisoning — with a rapid onset of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain that generally lasts between one and three days.

But there are a few key differences between the two.

How it spreads: Once someone becomes exposed to norovirus — which is spread through direct contact and can linger on surfaces for days or even weeks — they can become infected within a day or two.

The symptoms of food poisoning, on the other hand, will typically present much faster than that, in a matter of hours, said Dr. Shruti Gohil, a professor and the associate medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the University of California, Irvine's School of Medicine.

How to treat: Though the treatments for both might be similar — drinking water, eating bland foods, taking anti-diarrheal medication — Gohil told BI that when in doubt, you should act as if you have norovirus.

That's because of how highly contagious norovirus is compared to food poisoning. Norovirus is one of the most contagious infections we know of, and to help prevent its spread, you need to be vigilant about washing your hands and disinfecting surfaces, she said.

The most important thing to do if you're experiencing symptoms is to stay hydrated. When you're losing so much fluid, particularly if you can't keep any fluids down, there's a risk of dehydration, which can become life-threatening, Gohil said.

Look for these symptoms as warning flags: If you reach the point of dizziness or light-headedness, Gohil said, then you may be dangerously dehydrated, and that's when you need to get yourself to an ER. When you get a headache, that's an early warning sign of dehydration and an indicator that you need to increase your fluid intake, she added.

People who are very young, very old, or immunocompromised can have infections that last longer, and they may be at higher risk of dehydration.

Pay special attention: Gohil also mentioned a few signs of dehydration to look out for in people who can't speak for themselves, like babies and nonverbal seniors. And that's if they cannot form tears, if their mouth looks dry, if they're despondent, or if they're not really reacting to you.

Why norovirus is so bad this year

In terms of the total number of norovirus outbreaks, Gohil said it's pretty bad this year.

One of the main reasons for that, she said, is that more and more people are gathered together for the holiday season this year than they did in the last few years when COVID-19 was a more immediate concern.

"We've got more outbreaks, people are unmasked, people are engaging with each other, they're not cleaning their hands, clearly," Gohil said. "Cleaning and disinfection and all that stuff is down. And we need to shore those practices back up."

Before the pandemic, there were also years when norovirus outbreaks spiked just like they are now, and fluctuations like this are normal, Gohil said.

Everyone has an important role to play in helping prevent the spread of norovirus, Gohil said.

"You could literally, just by being careful yourself, save other people's lives indirectly. That's really, really important for people to understand, that you live in a community, " she said, "and that you have a responsibility to care, and to keep yourself clean, and keep others safe."

In other words, wash your hands.

• Puerto Rico's power was restored after a New Year's Eve blackout sent the island into darkness.
• Still, the island's power company warned that there could be more electricity outages.
• Local business owners in San Juan told BI about their struggles to recover.

Small business owners and workers in Puerto Rico say they're struggling to recover from a massive power outage earlier this week that left the entire island without electricity.

Puerto Rico's electricity has mostly been restored after the blackout on New Year's Eve cut the power for more than 1.2 million customers. But the local energy company warned that it may need to schedule more rolling outages because the power grid is so fragile.

One business owner told BI that they'd tried their best to recover from the New Year's Eve outage. The power is back on, but now they're struggling to get the point-of-sale system back online.

"It's very, very surreal because we were about to have the whole system online today — and the technicians were already working before we opened the lunch service — and all of a sudden the system went out again," Gabriel Hernandez, the chef and co-owner of Verde Mesa restaurant in San Juan, told Business Insider.

The restaurant had already had to cancel its New Year's Eve dinner service because even though power was restored on Tuesday afternoon, it was too late to scramble to open.

"Once the power's restored, there's another layer of work that has to be done, which is to check our produce, check if our refrigerators are working, check our antenna and WiFi," Hernandez said.

And in the days since, he's also had to reduce the restaurant's seating capacity to below 50% of normal, he said. The blackout caused the restaurant's WiFi antenna to go out, downing the point-of-sale system.

Operating at less than half capacity has been especially difficult during one of the busiest weeks of the year, he said. He estimated the restaurant's losses are already in the thousands of dollars.

And, he said, the restaurant will never be able to make that back. "Unless we have somebody inject money that we lost, we don't recuperate money," Hernandez said.

Puerto Rico's power company warns of more outages

Luma Energy, the private company that transmits and distributes power in the territory, said in an X post on Thursday morning that 99% of its 1.4 million customers were back in service. It didn't respond to multiple inquiries from Business Insider.

The company urged customers to limit their energy consumption and use backup energy wherever possible as the electric system gets back up to speed. Luma initially attributed the blackout to the failure of an underground cable, but said on Thursday the cause was still under investigation.

The island-wide blackout, which happened around dawn on Tuesday, threw the New Year's Eve plans of the territory's more than 3 million residents into disarray.

The owner of another restaurant in San Juan, who didn't want to be named, told BI that she lost about a thousand dollars worth of refrigerated items — mostly produce and fish — when the power went out on Tuesday.

Luckily, she said, the restaurant was already closed that day, but because she doesn't have backup generators, she couldn't save her perishable inventory. And her restaurant's margins are already very slim, she said, so it won't be easy to make back that lost money.

Hotels, too, lost money during this week's power outage. Jose Lopez told Business Insider that the small eight-room hotel Villa Herencia, where he works in San Juan, had to refund a few guests who left early during Tuesday's outage.

But, he said, power service has been good since it was restored, and the hotel hasn't experienced any smaller outages.

One café worker in San Juan, who didn't want to be named, said that while his café suffered some losses this week, it was able to continue operating through the blackout thanks to its generator. People from around the neighborhood were able to come in and get food during the outage, he said.

Though some businesses and residences had their power restored by Tuesday afternoon or evening, others had to wait longer. Ryan Pamplin, a 36-year-old business owner, told BI that the power at his house in Dorado took 23 hours to come back on. Once it did, it went out again a few hours later and remained out for most of New Year's Day.

The island's power system has been an issue for a long time

Puerto Rico has for years dealt with a sometimes rickety power system, highlighted in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Fiona in 2022.

Tuesday's widespread outage came as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, has been trying to restructure its debt, which The Associated Press said stood at more than $9 billion.

Puerto Rico's new governor, Jenniffer González Colón, who was sworn in on Thursday, has called out the territory's ailing power grid and promised that stabilizing it will be her top priority.

• Ryan Pamplin moved to Puerto Rico four years ago for the entrepreneurial scene.
• He and his family love the island, but he's frustrated with its ailing power infrastructure.
• A massive blackout plunged the island into darkness on Tuesday, and it could take days to restore.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Pamplin, a 36-year-old who moved to Puerto Rico from the mainland US four years ago. Pamplin is the founder and CEO of BlendJet, a brand of portable blenders sold online and in more than 30,000 retail stores in 40 countries. He lives in Dorado with his wife and infant.

Pamplin was affected by Tuesday's near-total blackout in Puerto Rico, which left millions of residents across the island without power. Officials have said it could take days to restore service.

In recent years, Puerto Rico has seen a rise in entrepreneurs moving there. Government incentives like tax breaks — combined with the draw of an island lifestyle — have made it an attractive place for startups and new businesses.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm originally from Santa Monica, California, and then I moved a couple different times. I lived in New York, I lived in Florida, and most recently in the San Francisco Bay area.

And then about four years ago, a good friend of mine who's a really successful entrepreneur just said, "Hey, you got to check out Puerto Rico. There's something really interesting happening here. There's a lot of entrepreneurs moving there."

And I ended up talking to 30 different people — on Zoom, during COVID — who have moved here. Then I planned a whole trip to Puerto Rico with my cofounder and our wives, and we fell in love with it.

We met locals, we met people who had relocated here, and we just felt like, "Wow, what a cool place to go during Covid." And then we just never left. We ended up having our son here and built a house here.

We are in Dorado, which is about 30 minutes to the west of San Juan, and there's a really big community of people who have relocated from the mainland, a lot of entrepreneurs. It's a good mixture of us and locals all mixed together. I have a son who's 19 months old, and there are just tons of other kids to play with all the time. You see kids ride around on bikes by themselves. It's really safe.

The community is amazing and it's a great place to live — aside from the infrastructure.

I've never been anywhere in the world where people are so passionate about electricity that they protest in the streets about it.

When we moved here, there would be people driving tons of cars, just like a parade, with all kinds of megaphones and noisemakers and honking to protest the power company because it's really unreliable and it's expensive. That's happened many times since we've lived here.

People are mad because they keep increasing the rates but the service doesn't improve.

Backup power is a necessity — if you can swing it

You need backup energy in Puerto Rico because we have outages constantly, so I have four portable power stations and two backup batteries. In a two-week period recently, we experienced 14 outages. Most of the time it's an entire city or multiple cities. Sometimes the outages are short, but generally they last five-plus hours, and sometimes they last 18 to 24 hours.

That's a problem for so many people, and for restaurants and local businesses, because the food in their fridge goes bad. And ice sells out super quickly.

And it's not just power loss. Sometimes you get weird voltage drops, so then it fries all your electronics. You might not even be able to get it fixed, you just have to buy a new one. That happens so frequently. It's happened to me. It's happened to all my friends.

And then the gas generators break too. These generators are terrible environmentally — they're burning all this fuel, and they're super inefficient. It's terrible for the air quality surrounding your home.

The really difficult thing is it's really hot here all the time so not having AC could be deadly.

I don't have enough battery backup for the ACs, so when the power goes off, I usually wake up in the middle of the night because I get hot. And then I put a fan next to our bed. Then we sneak into the baby's room, trying not wake him up, and put a fan next to his bed. If we don't, he can't sleep at all without a fan.

Tuesday's power outage is definitely the worst that I've seen in four years of living here. That's because it's not isolated to one city or one area. It's the entire island.

I don't know a single person that has power right now. The only people that have power are people that have generators or they have powerwalls.

I've also never seen the water pressure drop so low. Right now, my water pressure is so bad, not just because my pump is off, but whatever pumps happen at the water company, those pumps aren't working. So if I turn on my faucet, no water comes out.

It's crazy to live in a place that's part of the United States that just has an unbelievably unreliable grid.

You have a lot of really talented people who come here, or are born here, or live here that are just incredibly frustrated because of such a basic thing as not having reliable power. And then they leave, and that hurts the economy.

Making the most of a New Year's Eve with no power

As for New Year's Eve on Tuesday, the power outage will probably inspire everyone to go stand in the street at midnight instead of standing in their homes. People are probably more likely to turn it into a block party and have a really good time.

I'm sure we're going to see all the stars and we're going to see the fireworks.

It'll be beautiful.

(Luma, the privately owned power provider, hasn't responded to a request for comment from Business Insider. The company earlier said in a statement that it's working to track down the source of the outage. "We understand the deep frustration that the power outage situation on a day like today is causing our customers and families in the country," the company said in a translated statement on X.)

• A massive blackout in Puerto Rico left more than 1.3 million power-company customers in the dark.
• The power company, Luma Energy, said restoring power could take up to 48 hours.
• It said the outage appeared to have been caused by the failure of an underground power line.

A massive blackout hit Puerto Rico early Tuesday — and it could take days to restore power.

The outage, which happened around dawn, initially left nearly 90% of the private power company Luma Energy's 1.47 million customers without power, the company told The Associated Press.

Luma, in a statement, called the blackout island-wide. It said the issue appeared to have stemmed from the failure of an underground cable, though it also said the cause was still under investigation. The utility said that fully restoring power could take 24 to 48 hours.

On social media, Luma said it had begun restoring power in phases. The utility said that by 11 a.m. local time it had restored power to the Municipal Hospital of San Juan, among other locations. It said that as of 1 p.m., it had restored power to 44,700 customers, or about 3% of its customers without power. And by 3 p.m., it said it had restored power to more than 73,000 customers.

As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 1.1 million customers remained without power throughout the US island territory.

"Luma teams remain focused on the complex process of restoring service to all affected customers," the company said in a translated statement.

Puerto Rico has for years dealt with a sometimes rickety power system, highlighted in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Fiona in 2022.

Luma is in charge of distributing energy across the island, while a company called Genera PR provides the power. The New York Times said both had been under scrutiny because of the territory's frequent outages.

Ryan Pamplin, the CEO and cofounder of BlendJet who's based in Dorado, Puerto Rico, told Business Insider that Tuesday's blackout was "definitely the worst that I've seen in four years of living here."

"I've never seen — even during a hurricane — I've never seen the entire island lose power," he said.

Pamplin said power wasn't the only problem during a blackout. He said water pressure in Puerto Rico is typically low, and pumps are used to help increase it — but when the power goes out, so do the pumps. He said he'd never seen the water pressure in Dorado drop so low.

He said that there was no water coming out of his faucets on Tuesday and that only one of his toilets was sort of flushing.

In a statement posted on Facebook, translated by the Times, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said, "We are demanding answers."

He said the two power companies "must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the island."

The widespread outage comes as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, has been trying to restructure its debt, which the AP said stood at more than $9 billion.

Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, argued on X that the federal government needed to step up and "end this cycle of insanity" as the island grapples with its unreliable electric grid.

A report from the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies at the City University of New York said more than 1.1 million Puerto Ricans lived in the New York metropolitan area in 2022.

Pablo José Hernández Rivera, the incoming resident commissioner of Puerto Rico — the territory's nonvoting member of the House of Representatives — said in a statement that he'd alerted federal officials to the urgency of Tuesday's situation.

"Once sworn in, I will collaborate closely with Congressional leaders and the incoming administrations in Puerto Rico and the United States to deliver real, lasting solutions," he said. "Our people deserve reliable energy and a brighter future — we will not settle for less."

The governor-elect of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González, who's set to be sworn in on Thursday, also highlighted the territory's ailing power grid on social media.

"We can't keep relying on an energy system that fails our people," González said on X. "Today's blackout and the uncertainty around restoration continue to impact our economy and quality of life."

She said that stabilizing Puerto Rico's energy grid would be her top priority when she takes office.

• Home prices across the US kept climbing in 2024, and luxury home prices were no exception.
• The cost of the top 5% of luxury homes rose nearly 9% from 2023 to 2024, Redfin found.
• A $210 million Malibu mansion and $108 million Aspen property were among the priciest sold in 2024.

By some measures, all home prices reached record highs in 2024.

It's not just more affordably priced homes that have gotten more expensive: Luxury real estate has also boomed this year.

The price of luxury homes — defined as those with a market value in the top 5% for their area — rose nearly 9% year-over-year as of the second quarter of 2024, according to the most recent data available from real-estate site Redfin. That jump was twice as fast as the increase for non-luxury homes, Redfin found.

Here's a look at five of the most expensive homes sold across the US this year.

A $210 million Malibu mansion broke California's record for priciest property ever sold

In June, Oakley sunglasses founder James Jannard sold his Malibu mansion for $210 million.

It edged out Beyoncé and Jay-Z's $200 million compound, also in Malibu, to break the record for the most expensive home ever sold in California.

Jannard bought the estate 12 years ago for $75 million, but the new owner's name is shrouded behind an anonymous LLC, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The mansion has eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and a tennis court spread over 9.5 acres and was pared down by previous owners who found the original main home "too grandiose," according to San Francisco outlet SFGate.

Its renovation was handled by Michael S. Smith, who also redesigned the White House's Oval Office for then-President Barack Obama in 2010.

A home on Palm Beach's only private island sold for $152 million

In May, a 28,600-square-foot home on Tarpon Island in Palm Beach, Florida, sold for $152 million, a real-estate agent behind the sale confirmed to Business Insider.

The property — situated on Palm Beach's only private island — includes two private decks, multiple pools, a wine room, a waterfront gym, a tennis court, and a wellness facility complete with a massage room and a nail salon, according to Mansion Global.

The home's buyer was Australian investor Michael Dorrell, who founded infrastructure investment firm Stonepeak Partners and formerly served as a senior managing director at Blackstone, The Wall Street Journal first reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

Another Palm Beach home sold for $148 million to a collector of trophy properties

A nearly 23,000-square-foot house with 225 feet fronting the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach sold for $148 million to billionaire investor Daren Metropoulos earlier this year, Mansion Global reported.

Metropoulos — a principal at private-equity firm Metropoulos & Co. and former co-CEO of Pabst Brewing Company — is a collector of trophy properties. He purchased the former Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, California, in 2016 for $100 million, according to The New York Times.

The landmarked Mediterranean Revival-style house in Palm Beach, designed by architect Addison Mizner in 1919, is called Casa Amado and sits on 3.2 acres, according to Mansion Global.

A $135 million penthouse was New York City's most expensive sale of the year

Real-estate developer Vlad Doronin's highest-profile project of late is the hotel and condos at Aman New York, located in the landmarked Beaux-Arts-style Crown Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Doronin himself purchased a five-story penthouse in the building this year for $135 million, Bloomberg reported.

The penthouse is one of just 22 residences above the hotel, which has more than 80 rooms, according to Bloomberg.

The home, which fetched more than $10,000 per square foot, was sold as an unfinished space that the owner can build out, Bloomberg reported, citing a spokesperson for developer OKO Group.

Doronin, who the Wall Street Journal called a "Russian James Bond" earlier this year, founded OKO Group and serves as Aman's owner, chairman, and CEO.

An Aspen home with 11 bedrooms broke a Colorado record

Former casino tycoon Steve Wynn partnered with billionaire financier Thomas Peterffy to purchase Colorado's most expensive home ever sold, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Looking out over Aspen at the base of Red Mountain, the 22,405-square-foot mansion — which includes 11 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, an outdoor pool, and a guest house — sold to the pair in April for $108 million, The Denver Post reported.

Aspen's first nine-figure sale elevates it to the ranks of other places that have hit that milestone: New York, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, according to the Journal.

• Generative AI is becoming increasingly omnipresent  — and is a growing hot topic.
• Chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT are changing the way we find information, generate images, and more.
• Here are the people, companies, and words you need to know to understand AI. 

It's becoming increasingly impossible to ignore AI in our everyday lives.

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, people have gotten used to using the chatbot in many ways. Workers are turning to AI to automate tasks, while others are using the technology to improve their personal lives.

And as AI continues to advance, there may be a greater need for everyone to understand what it is and how it may affect us.

Here's a list of the people, companies, and terms you need to know to talk about AI, in alphabetical order.

The top AI leaders and companies

Sam Altman: The cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. In 2023, Altman was ousted by OpenAI's board before returning to the company as CEO days later.

Dario Amodei: The CEO and cofounder of Anthropic, a major rival to OpenAI, where he previously worked. The AI startup is behind an AI chatbot called Claude 2. Google and Amazon are investors in Anthropic.

Demis Hassabis: The cofounder of DeepMind and now CEO of Google DeepMind, Hassabis leads its AI efforts at Alphabet.

Jensen Huang: The CEO and cofounder of Nvidia, the tech giant behind the specialized chips companies use to power their AI technology.

Elon Musk: The Tesla and SpaceX CEO founded artificial intelligence startup xAI in 2023. The valuation of this new venture has risen dramatically in just 16 months — it now has an estimated valuation of $50 billion, according to recent reports. Musk also cofounded OpenAI, and after leaving the company in 2018, he has maintained a feud with Altman.

Satya Nadella: The CEO of Microsoft, the software giant behind the Bing AI-powered search engine and Copilot, a suite of generative AI tools. Microsoft is also an investor in OpenAI.

Mustafa Suleyman: The cofounder of DeepMind, Google's AI division, who left the company in 2022. He cofounded Inflection AI, before he joined Microsoft as its chief of AI in March 2024.

Mark Zuckerberg: The Facebook founder and Meta CEO who has been spending big to advance Meta's AI capabilities, including training its own models and integrating the technology into its platforms.

The AI terms you need to know

Agentic: A type of artificial intelligence that can make proactive, autonomous decisions with limited human input. Unlike generative AI models like ChatGPT, agentic AI does not need a human prompt to take action — for example, it can perform complex tasks and adapt when objectives change. Google's Gemini 2.0 focuses on agentic AI that can solve multi-step problems on its own.

AGI: "Artificial general intelligence," or the ability of artificial intelligence to perform complex cognitive tasks such as displaying self-awareness and critical thinking the way humans do.

Alignment: A field of AI safety research that aims to ensure that the goals, decisions, and behaviors of AI systems are consistent with human values and intentions. In July 2023 OpenAI announced a "Superalignment" to focus on making its AI safe. That team was later disbanded and in May the company set up a safety and security committee to advise the board on "critical safety and security decisions."

Biden's executive order on AI: Biden signed this landmark executive order, officially called the "Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence," in 2023. It does a number of things to try to regulate the development of AI, including demanding greater transparency from tech companies producing AI, setting new standards for AI safety and security, and taking steps to ensure the US stays competitive in AI research and development. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to rescind this order.

Compute: The AI computing resources needed to train models and carry out tasks, including processing data. This can include GPUs, servers, and cloud services.

Deepfake: An AI-generated image, video, or voice meant to appear real which tends to be used to deceive viewers or listeners. Deepfakes have been used to create non-consensual pornography and extort people for money.

Effective altruists: Broadly speaking, this is a social movement that stakes its claim in the idea that all lives are equally valuable and those with resources should allocate them to helping as many as possible. And in the context of AI, effective altruists, or EAs, are interested in how AI can be safely deployed to reduce suffering caused by social ills like climate change and poverty. Figures including Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Peter Thiel identify as effective altruists. (See also: e/accs and decels).

Frontier models: Refers to the most advanced examples of AI technology. The Frontier Model Forum — an industry nonprofit launched by Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in 2023 — defines frontier models as "large-scale machine-learning models that exceed the capabilities currently present in the most advanced existing models, and can perform a wide variety of tasks."

GPU: A computer chip, short for graphic processing unit, that companies use to train and deploy their AI models. Nvidia's GPUs are used by Microsoft and Meta to run their AI models.

Hallucinations: A phenomenon where a large language model (see below) generates inaccurate information that it presents as a fact. For example, during an early demo, Google's AI chatbot Bard hallucinated by generating a factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope.

Large language model: A complex computer program designed to understand and generate human-like text. The model is trained on large amounts of data and produces answers by scraping information across the web. Examples of LLMs include OpenAI's GPT-4, Meta's Llama 2, and Google's Gemini.

Machine learning: Also known as deep learning, machine learning refers to AI systems that can adapt and learn on their own, without following human instructions or explicit programming.

Multimodal: The ability for AI models to process text, images, and audio to generate an output. Users of ChatGPT, for instance, can now write, speak, and upload images to the AI chatbot.

Natural language processing: The umbrella term encompasses a variety of methods for interpreting and understanding human language. LLMs are one tool for interpreting language within the field of NLP.

Neural network: A machine learning program designed to think and learn like a human brain. Facial recognition systems, for instance, are designed using neural networks in order to identify a person by analyzing their facial features.

Open-source: A trait used to describe a computer program that anyone can freely access, use, and modify without asking for permission. Some AI experts have called for models behind AI, like ChatGPT, to be open-source so the public knows how exactly they are trained.

Optical character recognition: OCR is technology that can recognize text within images — like scanned documents, text in photos, and read-only PDFs — and extract it into text-only format that machines can read.

Prompt engineering: The process of asking AI chatbots questions that can produce desired responses. As a profession, prompt engineers are experts in fine tuning AI models on the backend to improve outputs.

Rationalists: People who believe that the most effective way to understand the world is through logic, reason, and scientific evidence. They draw conclusions by gathering evidence and critical thinking rather than following their personal feelings.

When it comes to AI, rationalists seek to answer questions like how AI can be smarter, how AI can solve complex problems, and how AI can better process information around risk. That stands in opposition to empiricists, who in the context of AI, may favor advancements in AI backed by observational data.

Responsible scaling policies: Guidelines for AI developers to follow that are designed to mitigate safety risks and ensure the responsible development of AI systems, their impact on society, and the resources they will consume, such as energy and data. Such policies help ensure that AI is ethical, beneficial, and sustainable as systems become more powerful.

Singularity: A hypothetical moment where artificial intelligence becomes so advanced that the technology surpasses human intelligence. Think of a science fiction scenario where an AI robot develops agency and takes over the world.

• Ahead of its shift to an all-EV future, Jaguar unveiled a new brand identity this year.
• The rebrand was roasted by many online. But some advertising vets have said it was a smart strategy.
• Jaguar's first new EV model is expected in 2025 — and industry watchers said it has to deliver.

Jaguar gambled big this year on a total brand transformation. And in 2025, the British luxury carmaker will need to prove all the fuss was worth it.

It's set next year to debut the first EV in its new all-electric lineup: After setting up global audiences to expect something big — this year's Jaguar advertising controversy was the talk of the industry and beyond — now it's got to deliver something that matches the moment its rebrand has created, industry watchers said.

A space-age concept car — presented in pink and blue — with swooping lines and curious interior features stoked some excitement for the brand, whose leaders have said it intends to go much more upmarket.

Sometime next year, if the company stays on its own timeline, we'll see the result.

"I think the biggest risk for them now is making sure the production model lives up to the promise and doesn't suffer death by a thousand cuts," Greg Andersen, the CEO of the Omaha, Nebraska, creative agency Bailey Lauerman, told BI recently. "Rolling out an unapologetic, future-facing brand along with a marginally better car might not go so well."

Here's how Jaguar — a favored vehicle of the British royal family, UK prime ministers, and James Bond villains — got to this point:

Jaguar's slumping sales call for a reset

Jag's sales had been slumping globally for years. In 2021, Jaguar first announced that it would ditch internal combustion engines and go all-in on EVs.

And in 2024, the nearly century-old Jaguar made major moves to ramp up that transition. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India-based Tata Motors, said it would phase out production of all its current models by the end of this year.

In their place will come the new fully electric models, the first of which the company said would be unveiled in 2025 — and are expected to go on sale to the public in 2026.

A new Jaguar is born

In November of this year, soon after stopping new vehicle sales in the UK, Jaguar released the controversial new vision and brand identity.

The public reaction to the debut of Jaguar's new rebranding campaign wasn't quite as positive as the company may have hoped.

In particular, a promotional video Jag unveiled as part of the campaign — which also included an updated typeface for Jaguar's iconic logo, a redesigned leaping-jaguar mark, and a new creative philosophy to "copy nothing" — raised some eyebrows.

The video shows models clad in colorful, ultra-modern outfits doing things like exiting an elevator, painting a wall, and swinging a sledgehammer before they all sit down on a rock in a pink desert landscape.

Phrases like "create exuberant," "live vivid," and "delete ordinary," flashed across the screen. And notably, for a car company, there were no cars in the ad.

Social media users, late-night TV hosts, and some in the media roasted Jaguar over its decision not to include cars in the video, which was a viral sensation.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in, posting on X: "Do you sell cars?"

"The Late Show's" Stephen Colbert said on his program: "Where are the cars? Does Jaguar sell ketamine now?"

It wasn't just the lack of cars in the initial video that got people talking. A rash of criticism cropped up online and elsewhere, with some right-leaning personalities accusing the company of abandoning its traditional history and pushing into "woke" politics.

In response to the backlash, Jaguar's managing director Rawdon Glover told the Financial Times he was disappointed by "the level of vile hatred and intolerance" that he said the video garnered online, particularly against the models it featured. But he also said the campaign had drummed up positive buzz.

Marketing and rebranding professionals gave mixed reviews to Business Insider at the time — one called the campaign "bonkers," and another said it was a relatively successful rollout.

The ad industry vets all agreed that, at the very least, the rebrand sparked conversation.

Jaguar released a concept car to match its new image

A few weeks after its rebrand launch, at the beginning of December, Jaguar unveiled a design concept for its next generation of electric vehicles — finally pairing an image of a car with its "exuberant modernism" rebranding campaign.

The pastel-colored concept car — dubbed "Type 00" for zero tailpipe emissions and its status as car zero in the brand's new lineage — featured several novel design elements, like a glassless rear tailgate, a brass divider running through the middle of the cabin, and pedestals of travertine stone to support the floating seats.

When the concept car was released, several advertising veterans applauded it for continuing Jag's rebrand strategy.

"This is a master class in what rebranding can accomplish for a company — a new forward-facing product and brand, clearly designed for its new customer persona, that everyone is talking about," Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of the Chicago firm The Rebranding Experts, previously told Business Insider.

Others were less convinced.

Christos Joannides, the founder and creative director of the luxury branding agency Flat 6 Concepts in Los Angeles, said the concept car didn't do enough to ground Jaguar's new ethos in reality.

"By showcasing a production model with more realistic features, Jaguar could have conveyed its vision more effectively and provided tangible evidence of its direction," Joannides said. "As it stands, the concept car feels superficial and gimmicky, like a desperate attempt to be different without any real substance or coherent strategy."

Jaguar needs to deliver in 2025

For better or worse, Jaguar had a big year. And even bigger is the company's need to follow through next year.

The first model of Jaguar's new lineup — the electric four-door GT — will be unveiled in late 2025, the company has said.

It said the model would use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging.

But with a price tag that could near $200,000, Jaguar's new models will really need to be incredible, EV news outlet Electrek argued.

With so much competition, it could still be a tough sell.

"Unless Jaguar's expectations for its upcoming line of EVs is tempered with a dose of reality, the company will be planning to produce far more vehicles than there will be buyers willing to take them home," analyst Sam Fiorani, vice president of global forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Car and Driver.

Jaguar has said updating its brand for the future is the right move.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," managing director Glover said at the time the concept car was revealed.

We'll see next year whether it was right.

• Apple exec Eddy Cue explained why the company has not built its own search engine.
• Google has a deal with Apple to be its default search engine, and Apple wants to keep it that way.
• The exec explained Apple's reasoning in a filing related to the DOJ's antitrust case against Google.

Apple says it plans to stick to what it knows best, and that doesn't include building its own search engine.

In court papers filed this week in Washington, DC, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, listed the reasons the iPhone maker does not want to create its own search engine.

The filing was made in connection to the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google, which argues that Google has an illegal monopoly over the search engine market. One of the DOJ's key pieces of evidence in the trial is a revenue-sharing deal between Google and Apple that makes Google the default search engine on Apple's Safari browser on all its devices. Google has been paying Apple for this default search engine status since 2002. Google's payout has increased dramatically over the years, rising to around $20 billion in 2022.

Apple had asked to participate in the trial to defend its partnership with Google, Reuters reported. And in this week's filing, Cue explained the motivation behind the deal, including why Apple uses Google's search engine instead of creating its own.

He gave three main reasons:

1. Developing a search engine would "cost billions of dollars and take many years," Cue said in the filing. He added that it would divert employees and capital investment away from the company's other areas of growth.
2. Search is "rapidly evolving" alongside artificial intelligence, and investing in it now would be "economically risky," Cue said.
3. Search engines require a platform to sell targeted advertising, and that is not a core part of Apple's business, Cue said. He said Apple also does not have the staff or operational infrastructure to build out a successful search advertising business. And he said it could conflict with Apple's "longstanding privacy commitments."

Cue said the DOJ is wrongly assuming that, without a deal with Google, Apple would create its own search engine. Cue said that's not likely, regardless of the case's outcome. And he warned that if the DOJ blocks Google's revenue-sharing deal with Apple, then "it would hamstring Apple's ability to continue delivering products that best serve its users' needs."

Cue also highlighted Apple's revenue-sharing agreements with other search engines. These include deals that give Yahoo!, Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia access to Apple users' Safari search queries, he said.

In 2018, Apple considered buying Microsoft's Bing search engine or investing in a multibillion-dollar deal to allow Bing to supplement some of Google's dominance on Apple devices, CNBC reported in 2023. But the deal, which could have tarnished Apple's relationship with Google, ultimately did not go through, according to the report.

• Uber is continuing to expand its ride options, and some might surprise you.
• The ride-hailing company launched Uber Shikara in India and Uber Shuttle in the US this year.
• It plans to bring more boat and flight options in 2025.

You might be hopping into an Uber at some point this holiday season — and depending on where you live, that ride could take many different forms.

Uber's ride-hailing services are currently available in more than 10,000 cities in over 70 countries on six continents, a company spokesperson said. And in many of those places, the company offers more than just car rides.

In some some parts of the world, you can take rides on an Uber Boat, Uber Shuttle, Uber rickshaw, or Uber Shikara, and in the past, the company has also offered more novel travel options like Uber Yacht and Uber Sleigh.

Even more options are coming in 2025.

Uber by air

Uber has been looking to the skies for years, and the US-based tech company has some big aerial plans for 2025.

In 2017, Uber offered helicopter rides, dubbed UberCHOPPER, in the United Arab Emirates, between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, for one day only to visitors of that year's Formula 1 Grand Prix race. The less-than 30-minute trip, which could accommodate up to six people, cost about $544 per person in today's dollars.

In 2019, Uber launched an ongoing helicopter ride-hailing service in New York City called Uber Copter. The offering allowed riders to request a copter ride from Manhattan, below 110th Street, to John F. Kennedy International Airport between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For around $200, the service included a ride from your pickup location to the heliport, an 8-minute helicopter flight, and a ride from the heliport to your destination.

The service was short-lived, however, as the company discontinued it in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Uber isn't done with air travel just yet.

By late 2025, Uber plans to launch electric commercial "air taxis" in New York City and Los Angeles in partnership with Joby Aviation, which manufactures electric takeoff and landing vehicles, or eVTOLs.

Earlier this year, Business Insider's Taylor Rains toured one of the sleek new eVTOLs, which are much quieter and more eco-friendly than traditional aircraft.

"We're excited to continue exploring electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) partnerships in the Advanced Air Mobility space," an Uber spokesperson told BI. "This transformational technology will require connected mobility solutions on the ground and in the air to make this future a reality, especially for trips up to 100 miles."

Uber by boat

Uber offers a few different ways to glide across the water via river, sea, and lake.

One popular Uber Boat option is a water shuttle service on the River Thames in London, which launched in 2020 in partnership with boat operator Thames Clippers.

Riders can purchase a one- or two-day hop-on, hop-off pass for about $27 or buy Point A to Point B tickets, which can range in price depending on where you're going. An end-to-end single adult trip costs around $21, while shorter distances can be around $6.

Business Insider took a ride on an Uber Boat in 2021 and reported that it was much more fun than a traditional taxi ride.

And in 2025, Uber is expanding London's Uber Boat with the UK's first fully-electric cross-river passenger ferry, which will have capacity for 150 people and 100 bikes.

But if you're looking for a more upscale way to hit the waves, Uber launched a few higher-end European water transport services over the summer.

In August, travelers could book an Uber Yacht in Ibiza, Spain, to take up to eight passengers on an 8-hour private ride around the island, complete with Champagne, artisanal snacks, and land transportation to and from the skipper. The luxury adventure cost around $1,650.

Uber also started an on-demand "Limo Boat" service in Venice, Italy, in July for up to six people at about $124 per trip. The company also expanded its Uber Boat service in Greece from Mykonos to Athens, Corfu, and Santorini.

Though these higher-end options were seasonal offerings for the summer of 2024, Uber plans to announce more boat options in 2025, a company spokesperson told BI.

In December, the ride-hailing company launched Uber Shikara on Dal Lake in Srinagar, India.

Riders can book a one-hour ride on one of the traditional wooden boats, which are typically canopied and ornately painted, for up to four passengers. Uber says it will not collect any fees on the ride, and the entire amount of the fare will go directly to the Shikara driver.

Uber by land

Uber has also expanded on its original mode of transportation.

Aside from the traditional car options of UberX, UberXL, Uber Share, Uber Black, and others, the company now offers services like Uber Shuttle and Uber Auto.

In October, Uber announced its first-ever airport shuttle, which takes riders in New York City from Midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport in Queens for $18.

Uber Shuttle also operates in cities throughout India, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt.

You can also catch a ride on an Uber Auto, a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, in over 60 cities in India. The service is so popular that Uber has expanded it into Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Tanzania, a company spokesperson said.

One of Uber's newest seasonal offerings is Uber Safari, available through the end of January, which takes up to four passengers on a day trip through the Aquila Private Game Reserve in Cape Town, South Africa for $200.

Or, if you want to take driving into your own hands, the Uber app also lets you book electric Lime bikes and scooters, or get a rental car from a local agency delivered to your doorstep.

In one of its most novel offerings, the company offered free Uber Sleigh rides — yes, on an actual reindeer-pulled sleigh in the snow — in Lapland, Finland for a week in December 2022.

What's next for Uber

Uber is continually expanding its offerings. And, in addition to bringing more flight and boat services to the app in 2025, Uber is also planning to push into the world of autonomous driving.

The company, which announced its first-ever full-year operating profit in February, is reviving its robotaxi dreams.

And on the business side of things, in 2024, the company's stock had gained around 6% by late-December, trailing the benchmark S&P 500 index, which had gained more than 27% over the same timeframe. (Main competitor Lyft was up only around 0.8%.)

• Alexis Ohanian predicts AI will drive demand for more raw human experiences.
• In 10 years, live theater will be more popular than ever, the Reddit cofounder contends.
• He says no matter what jobs are replaced by AI, humans will always have an advantage in empathy.

Alexis Ohanian predicted that in a future oversaturated with artificial intelligence, people will seek out more raw, emotive human experiences.

And in 10 years, he said, live theater will be more popular than ever.

The 41-year-old, who co-founded social media platform Reddit in 2005, told the "On Purpose with Jay Shetty" podcast this week that AI will soon have an undeniable impact on nearly every aspect of society, including the entertainment sector.

Ohanian, who also founded venture capital firm Seven Seven Six in 2020, said that the industry will see a big shift when AI makes on-screen entertainment better, faster, cheaper, and more dynamic — which he said is happening.

Every screen we look at will become so programmed to show us "what we want, when we want it, how we want it," he said, that "a part of our humanity will miss, you know, thousands of years ago when we were sitting around a campfire and that great storyteller was doing the voices and the impressions.'"

"That's ingrained in our species," he said.

And that kind of raw, in-person magic will feel novel, he suggested.

"I actually bet 10 years from now live theater will be more popular than ever," Ohanian said. "Because, again, we'll look at all these screens with all these AI-polished images, and we'll actually want to sit in a room with other humans to be captivated for a couple hours in a dark room to feel the goosebumps of seeing live human performances."

The same is true for sports, he told Shetty. "We need humans doing that. We need to feel their pain and their success and their triumphs," he said. "Those are the areas that get me most hopeful."

AI can't replace genuine human empathy, Ohanian suggested.

No matter what jobs robots take over from us in the future, fields of work where empathy is a core component of the job will have an advantage, he said. And that's why one of the most important, marketable skills he's teaching his kids is empathy, he said.

• Nima Momeni was found guilty of second-degree murder in Cash App founder Bob Lee's stabbing death.
• Momeni killed Lee after a dispute about Momeni's sister, prosecutors argued.
• Momeni, who was acquitted of first-degree murder, faces 16 years to life in prison, the DA said.

A San Francisco jury found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 43-year-old Bob Lee, the creator of Cash App.

Momeni, a 40-year-old tech consultant, was accused of killing Lee in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023. Police had discovered Lee bleeding heavily from multiple stab wounds on an empty street in downtown San Francisco after he had called 911 for help. Lee later died of his injuries.

Prosecutors successfully argued to the jury that Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a knife he took from his sister's kitchen set.

Prosecutors said Momeni planned the killing after learning Lee introduced his sister to a drug dealer who drugged and sexually assaulted her, Fox News reported.

Momeni had confronted the Cash App founder about his sister, who had been drinking with Lee and a group of friends. Momeni asked Lee if she "was doing drugs or anything inappropriate," according to court documents. Prosecutors said a witness saw Lee reassuring Momeni that his sister had not taken any substances and that "nothing inappropriate had happened."

Later, Momeni lured Lee to a secluded area where prosecutors said he stabbed Lee before fleeing.

Momeni testified in court that he had been acting in self-defense. Momeni said he and Lee were driving together but pulled over because Momeni thought Lee was going to vomit, NBC News reported. Momeni said Lee then attacked him after he had joked that Lee cared more about strip clubs than his family, the outlet reported. Momeni told the court Lee pulled out the knife, and the pair struggled over it before Momeni walked away not realizing Lee had been stabbed.

But Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai argued that Lee was "stabbed through his heart and left to die," NBC News reported.

"In a world where the powerful and well-connected sometimes act as though they are immune to consequences, it is heartening to see a jury of ordinary San Franciscans demonstrate that if you break the law, you will be held accountable," Talai and Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt said in a press release.

Momeni, whose attorneys didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI, was acquitted of first-degree murder charges. He faces 16 years to life in prison, the district attorney's office said.

• UnitedHealth Group's CEO eulogized his slain colleague, Brian Thompson, in a New York Times op-ed.
• Thompson's shooting sparked a nationwide debate about the state of the health insurance industry.
• Witty's op-ed faced fierce online criticism from people who said it didn't offer solutions.

The head of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, is responding to the "vitriol" that's been lodged — both on- and offline — against the health insurance industry and its workers.

In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Friday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty expressed his grief over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, as well as his appreciation for the "outpouring of support" for Thompson. He then condemned the mounting rhetoric that he said has glorified violence against health insurance workers.

"We also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats," Witty wrote.

"No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones' safety," he wrote.

Witty acknowledged growing criticism that the healthcare industry is flawed and defended his company's place within it.

"We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people's frustrations with it," Witty wrote, adding that his company's mission is to build a system that works better for everyone.

And Thompson, he added, advocated for ideas "aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human."

The fatal shooting of Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel last week sparked a nationwide conversation about the state of the US health insurance industry, with many criticizing the system's ability to provide lifesaving care.

Social media has been inundated with memes mocking Thompson's death, praising the shooting suspect, and calling out other healthcare CEOs. Some executives have sought out greater security over fears for their safety, though the suspect has been arrested and charged in connection with Thompson's murder.

Witty's op-ed in the Times had received more than 2,400 comments as of Friday afternoon, many of which ridiculed his statement and condemned what they said were UnitedHealth Group's practices of denying insurance claims.

A number of commenters called out Witty for saying the system is flawed without providing any tangible solutions to fix it. Others criticized the for-profit health insurance system as a whole, with some acknowledging that businesses are meant to make a profit and others advocating for nonprofit healthcare.

UnitedHealth didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Executive security is getting a closer look after the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.
• Private security companies say they've gotten an influx of calls.
• Executive security spending at S&P 500 companies has been on the rise — doubling from 2021 to 2023.

Update: A "person of interest," 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested in connection with Brian Thompson's death in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

Following the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson this week, some high-level executives are ramping up their own security.

The host of a series of national and international executive leadership summits told Business Insider that a surge of corporate leaders has been reaching out to him this week to inquire about security at the events.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld — a professor and senior associate dean for Leadership Studies at Yale who also heads Yale's Chief Executive Leadership Institute — has been hosting summits for top company executives for decades.

He said that over the last few years the institute has significantly increased the security it provides executives at its events in the US. But things have shifted this week ahead of the institute's coming CEO Summit in Manhattan in December.

"What's really different for us, this coming one, is so many people inquiring to make sure we have it" Sonnenfeld said, in reference to event security. "We never used to get inquiries about it."

Sonnenfeld said the institute had increased security at its events long before Thompson's fatal shooting because company leaders have increasingly faced threats and general hostility from the public.

"Sadly, CEOs have been made into foils or scapegoats for the far-left and the far-right," he said, "so that the political grandstanding has looked to make excuses for whatever unhappiness people have."

This year marks the first time the December CEO Summit will have armed and uniformed NYPD officers all around it, Sonnenfeld said. But, he added, the CEOs are thrilled to get together to compare notes with other CEOs on what they're doing about security.

Meanwhile, the fatal shooting has led to a surge of interest in beefed-up security for company leaders, people at private security firms said.

Michael Kozhar, the vice president of operations at International Security Services, Inc., of Brooklyn told BI that in the past few days, his company has seen a rise in calls from executives and companies looking to upgrade their security.

Still, because the attack on the healthcare executive appears to have been targeted, Kozhar said there hasn't been a lot of action so far in terms of companies actually engaging in more security services beyond inquiries. "If these incidents become more frequent, the atmosphere surrounding the purchase of security services will change drastically," he cautioned.

Matthew Dumpert, managing director at Kroll Enterprise Security Risk Management, told CNBC on Thursday, that he'd also received calls.

"We had CEOs and other executive-level and board members reaching out to us all throughout yesterday and today to increase their own executive protection, their own personal security around the clock, 24/7," he said.

Because executives are the face of an organization, they can receive the brunt of the blame for their customers' frustrations, Dumpert told the outlet. And for organizations that deal in life and death matters — like health insurance companies — that ire can be even more potent.

Allied Universal, which provides a range of security and protection services to Fortune 500 companies, saw a surge of potential clients reaching out on Wednesday following the attack on Thompson, company leaders told The New York Times.

But it's not just the events of this week that are giving executives cause for concern.

Targeted attacks — both online and offline — on executives and their families have risen dramatically in the last five years, Chris Pierson, the CEO of digital executive protection agency BlackCloak, told the Times. The firm's data shows that the most frequently targeted executives work in the health care, biomedical, and pharmaceutical industries, according to the outlet.

In the last few years, companies have been increasing the amount they spend on security for their top executives.

Between 2021 and 2023, the median total value of security benefits provided to named executive officers at S&P 500 companies doubled, according to data shared with Business Insider from executive compensation research firm Equilar.

The prevalence of companies offering security benefits also increased modestly — by around 4% over the same timeframe, according to Equilar.

The shooting of Thompson, who didn't appear to have security protection when he was killed in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, sparked a dayslong manhunt for the suspect. As of Friday afternoon, the suspect is still at large, though authorities believe he has fled the city.

On Thursday, United Health Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, issued a statement: "Our priorities are, first and foremost, supporting Brian's family; ensuring the safety of our employees; and working with law enforcement to bring the perpetrator to justice."

• Leaders in the healthcare industry were shocked by the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• Healthcare leaders shared their condolences in the hours after he was killed.
• "The country lost a leader committed to improving patient care," one CEO wrote.

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson sent shockwaves through the healthcare industry.

Thompson, a 20-year veteran of the company, was fatally shot Wednesday morning on his way to an investor conference for the UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare. The meeting was called off as attendees grappled with the tragic news.

Update: Police have arrested a person of interest in Thompson's killing, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione.

UnitedHealth Group is the largest healthcare carrier in the US, but its competitors came together Wednesday, along with countless peers of Thompson's, to reflect on the industry leader.

"I find myself at a loss for words to appropriately articulate the depth of our feelings for the loss of Brian," Antonio Toft, UnitedHealth Group's vice president of people, culture, experience, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, said in a LinkedIn post. "He was not only a remarkable leader but also a cherished friend and mentor to many of us."

Toft added: "Brian was a true champion for our people and the community, and his impact will continue to inspire us all."

Here's what other health companies and their leaders said about Thompson.

Michael J. Alkire, president and CEO of Premier

"When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's life was tragically taken in Manhattan this morning, the country lost a leader committed to improving patient care," Michael J. Alkire wrote in a LinkedIn post. "Even more tragic, Brian's family lost a father, a son and a brother. I can't imagine their anguish.

"The entire Premier Inc. team and I offer our deepest, most heartfelt condolences to Brian's loved ones and colleagues.

"To honor Brian's memory, we must continue to come together and innovate to improve patient care. That's the legacy he created over two decades in healthcare."

Maria Ghazal, president and CEO of Healthcare Leadership Council

"As a dedicated leader in our industry for over two decades, Brian worked tirelessly to advance healthcare delivery and access for millions of Americans," Maria Ghazal wrote in a LinkedIn post. "His sudden and senseless death is felt deeply by us all."

Rob Davis, CEO of Merck & Co.

"I am saddened to hear about the tragic loss of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. His leadership and dedication made a meaningful impact on the health care community. My thoughts are with the Thompson family and all those who worked alongside him," Rob Davis wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Don Antonucci, president and CEO of Providence Health Plan

"Violence has no place in our society, and its presence in our healthcare community is particularly devastating," Don Antonucci wrote in a LinkedIn post. "To our colleagues at UnitedHealthcare — our entire Providence Health Plan family stands with you during this unimaginably difficult time. Our hearts are with Brian's family, friends, and the entire UnitedHealthcare team."

Justin Lake, healthcare analyst with Wolfe Research

"I can literally say that not only myself but my family is better off for having known Brian Thompson and I know from the outpouring of emotion and profound loss today from colleagues across the Wall Street and healthcare communities that there are many, many more who feel exactly the same way," a note from Justin Lake said, according to Bloomberg.

"Most of us sit in jobs where we are fortunate to work with intelligent and thoughtful colleagues on a daily basis, but the relationships we all value and treasure most are with those where the business or investing acumen is combined with character, integrity, kindness and good humor," he also said. "These are the people you feel fortunate to simply interact with much less count as a friend and while I can say my little corner of HC Services certainly has a long list of these types, Brian sat at or near the top for everyone that knew him."

Kaiser Permanente

"Many of us have worked with and known Brian well over the years, and this devastating loss will be felt by all who knew him," a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente told Business Insider.

Health Care Service Corp.

The company told BI in a statement that Thompson "was a respected leader focused on expanding access to critical health care."

Elevance Health

In a statement to BI, Gail Boudreaux, the president and CEO of Elevance Health, called Thompson's killing a "senseless act of violence," adding: "Leadership in healthcare is marked by dedication, compassion, and a profound commitment to improving lives, and Brian embodied these qualities and more."

David Ricks, chair and CEO of Eli Lilly and Co.

David Ricks was asked about Thompson's death during Wednesday's DealBook Summit. He later shared a LinkedIn post saying that Thompson "was an industry leader and a good partner to Lilly. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the entire UnitedHealthcare team."

Humana

"We are shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare," Mark Taylor, director of corporate communications at Humana, said in a statement given to BI. "Brian was a visionary leader in our industry, and his loss will be felt for years to come. Our thoughts and sincerest condolences are with his family, friends, and colleagues at this difficult time."

• Jaguar's rebrand has been controversial — but its rollout might also be a genius move.
• Advertising veterans told Business Insider the strategy could help mark a new era for the brand.
• Still, not everyone was convinced: Other marketing experts said Jag's final product might disappoint.

Jaguar has generated a lot of buzz since unveiling its rebranding campaign, culminating this week with the release of a conceptual design for its next generation of electric vehicles.

When the luxury British carmaker debuted its redesigned logo, brand philosophy, and promotional video last month, it stirred up controversy on social media. Some conservative personalities argued that the new aesthetic abandoned Jaguar's heritage and pushed into "woke" politics, while others questioned why the promo video didn't feature any cars.

That first phase of Jaguar's rebrand had some advertising veterans divided on whether the strategy was a smart move for the iconic brand.

And that division carried through to Jag's latest update on Monday, which finally paired images of cars with its "exuberant modernism" vision. Now that concept cars are connected to the initial rebranding video, some marketing professionals are praising Jaguar's "brilliant" strategy — while others remain less convinced.

"Jaguar's paced unveiling is a brilliant strategy to keep people talking and interested in a highly competitive auto marketplace," Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of the Chicago firm The Rebranding Experts, told Business Insider after seeing the conceptual car rollout.

"This is a master class in what rebranding can accomplish for a company — a new forward-facing product and brand, clearly designed for its new customer persona, that everyone is talking about," he said.

Heininger — whose 30-year career includes work for P&G, McDonald's, and Anheuser-Busch — argued that Jaguar set high expectations when it debuted its controversial rebrand last month.

He said the concept car unveiling delivered on those expectations. The car effectively signals the company's "boldly modernistic" vision and "departure from the past," he said. The colors, design shapes, and new logo "feel right when you see it on the concept car."

Greg Andersen, the CEO of the Omaha, Nebraska, creative agency Bailey Lauerman, also lauded Jag's marketing strategy.

"What exceeds expectations is the breadth and depth of the Jaguar brand vision," said Anderson, who's worked for brands such as Google, Levi's, Burberry, and Axe before joining Bailey Lauerman.

"They have revealed much more than a concept car," he said. "It seems it is the beginning of the story of the Jaguar brand vision, which they can easily chapter out and stretch to the production model reveal."

But looking to the future, Andersen said the company's strategy has to remain well-executed when it comes time to reveal its new EV, which the company has said it expects to happen in late 2025 before hitting showrooms in 2026.

"I think the biggest risk for them now is making sure the production model lives up to the promise and doesn't suffer death by a thousand cuts," Andersen told BI. "Rolling out an unapologetic, future-facing brand along with a marginally better car might not go so well."

The proof of success will be in the production model

Still, not all of the ad veterans who spoke to BI had so much praise for Jaguar and its rebranding rollout.

Christos Joannides, the founder and creative director of the luxury branding agency Flat 6 Concepts in Los Angeles, told Business Insider that Jaguar's initial rebranding announcement did too much all at once, "overwhelming and confusing" the carmaker's long-standing audience.

And, in releasing its concept car this week, Jaguar didn't do enough to ground its new ethos in reality, Joannides said.

Joannides, who's worked with Jaguar competitors like Maserati and Lotus, argued that the concept car's features, like the rear with no window and the brass-toned divider running through the middle of the cabin, are impractical and bizarre.

"By showcasing a production model with more realistic features, Jaguar could have conveyed its vision more effectively and provided tangible evidence of its direction," Joannides said. "As it stands, the concept car feels superficial and gimmicky, like a desperate attempt to be different without any real substance or coherent strategy."

Joannides said that while Jaguar's initial teaser video was "certainly audacious," the final product would be what matters.

Richard Brandon Taylor, the founder and CEO of the UK-based brand consultancy firm Brandon, told BI that while Jaguar's rebrand was a smart play in some ways because it got everyone talking, there's still a significant period of time before the first production model comes out to try to maintain that buzz.

"Why they've left a year between concept and car is beyond me — that is a dangerous strategy to play," said Taylor, who's worked with brands like Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, and Kimberly-Clark.

Sunny Bonnell, the cofounder and CEO of the strategic branding firm Motto, said that to hold the audience's attention until the new cars hit the market, Jaguar needs to dive deeper into the "why" behind the rebrand.

"What does 'Copy Nothing' mean in practice?" said Bonnell, who's worked with brands like Google and Virgin. "How will it shape the driving experience, not just the look?" To do that, Jaguar needs a storytelling narrative, she said.

Jaguar's next steps in its rebranding rollout

It's unclear which specific design elements of the new concept will be implemented in Jaguar's forthcoming electric-vehicle models. Jaguar said its concept car was "an indicator of design philosophy and intent for the coming new vehicles," which are expected to be available for purchase sometime in 2026.

The new EV model will use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging, the company said.

And the new EVs are expected to be much more upscale than previous Jags. Though Jaguar has not confirmed a price range, Wired reported, without citing a source, that the new Jag could cost at least $127,000 — a significant increase from current average price of around $70,000.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," Rawdon Glover, Jaguar's managing director, said of Monday's concept debut.

Update: December 5, 2024 — This story has been updated with comments from two additional marketing veterans.

• Jaguar has unveiled a concept car as part of its newly rebranded identity.
• Its rebrand stirred controversy for not including any cars — and some argued it was "woke."
• Jaguar said it would reveal a new electric model in late 2025 as part of its all-electric future.

Jaguar unveiled a design concept on Monday for its next generation of electric vehicles — finally pairing an image of a car with its "exuberant modernism" rebranding campaign.

Jaguar's rebrand had drawn fierce criticism over the past few weeks from some who said it was "woke" for featuring diverse models and bright colors. The campaign also didn't feature any cars.

Now, the luxury British carmaker has filled in some of the blanks regarding its new identity by revealing a concept car at Miami Art Week.

The exterior of the concept car — dubbed "Type 00" for zero tailpipe emissions and its status as car zero in the brand's new lineage — features butterfly doors, a glassless rear tailgate, and a panoramic roof.

It's conceptualized in two colors — "Miami Pink," honoring the pastel art deco architecture of the city in which it was unveiled, and "London Blue," inspired by the Opalescent Silver Blue of the 1960s and in honor of the company's British roots, Jaguar said in a statement.

"Type 00 commands attention, like all the best Jaguars of the past," Jaguar's chief exterior designer, Constantino Segui Gilabert, said in the statement. "It is a dramatic presence, channeling a unique spirit of British creativity and originality. It celebrates art and embodies the essence of Exuberant Modernism."

The Jag's exterior design also showcases the redesigned Jaguar "leaper" mark laser-etched into brass ingots that open up to reveal rear-facing cameras when needed.

On the inside, three brass lines run the length of the interior — one on each door and one straight down the middle of the cabin.

Floating instrument panels mark either side of the middle brass line, which is supported by a pedestal of travertine stone, as are the floating seats.

A woven wool-blend fabric surrounds the two seats, sound bar, and cabin floor.

"Just as on the outside, deployable technologies are a hallmark of the interior," Jaguar's chief interior designer, Tom Holden, said in the statement. "Screens glide silently and theatrically from the dashboard, while powered stowage areas slide open softly on demand, revealing hidden splashes of exuberant color."

It's not clear which specific design elements of the new concept will end up being implemented in Jaguar's forthcoming electric vehicle models. Jaguar said Type 00 was meant as "an indicator of design philosophy and intent for the coming new vehicles."

The brand announced in 2021 that it would be moving to all-electric vehicles. The first model of its new lineup — an electric four-door — will be unveiled in late 2025, the company said Monday.

It said the model would use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging.

With the new vehicles expected to become available in 2026, the company is already phasing out production of its internal-combustion-engine cars, converting its Halewood, England, factory to all-electric production and ceasing sales of new cars in the UK.

In preparation for its EV lineup launch, Jaguar debuted its rebranding campaign in November. It included an updated typeface for its "Jaguar" logo, a redesign of the leaping jaguar mark, and a colorful new video advertisement that showed models clad in high fashion and had no cars in sight.

The promo video caught a lot of flak on social media, on late-night TV, and in the media for not featuring any cars, while some conservative personalities accused the company of abandoning its history and pushing into "woke" politics. Elon Musk even weighed in.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jaguar's managing director, Rawdon Glover, defended the rebrand, saying that the campaign's intended message was lost "in a blaze of intolerance" and that the controversial promo video wasn't meant to be a "woke" statement.

The revamp of the iconic brand — and chosen vehicle of Britain's royal family and prime ministers — also included an introduction to its new design philosophy of "exuberant modernism," which the company defined as "imaginative, bold, and artistic at every touchpoint."

Some marketing and rebranding experts have heavily criticized Jaguar's new identity.

One told Business Insider the rebrand was "bonkers," and another said he wasn't convinced the company was making the right statement.

Still, others were more positive, with one advertising expert saying the rebranding rollout had been relatively successful and another saying it was a "significant disruption" that could eventually work for the company.

It's not just the shift in Jaguar's brand identity that has gotten marketers talking — it's also the apparent pivot in the audience base the company is now trying to target.

As part of the brand's positioning, the newly announced Jags are expected to be significantly more upmarket than the ones being phased out. Car and Driver previously reported that the brand, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, was looking toward Range Rover, its corporate cousin, as inspiration for where it wants to be. The magazine cited a Range Rover that costs about $400,000; most Jaguar models for 2024 had list prices of about $50,000 to $80,000.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," Glover said of Monday's concept debut.