• This year, Dry January coincided with the US Surgeon General's call for cancer warnings on alcohol.
• The CEOs of Heineken USA and Athletic Brewing told BI that drinking trends are moving toward moderation.
• While the space is becoming more popular, widespread availability can pose friction in adoption.

Dry January participants were given extra incentive to stay sober this month as the US Surgeon General said alcohol is a leading cause of preventable cancer and called for a warning label on alcoholic products.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's advisory, announced on January 3, comes as a number of non-alcoholic drinking brands and sobriety-related trends, like sober curiosity or intermittent sobriety, have gained traction in the US.

However, CEOs of companies selling non-alcoholic beverages say the evolving attitudes toward drinking don't mean alcohol is on its way out.

"It's not that there is, like, a big prohibitionist movement or a sober movement, necessarily," Bill Shufelt, the CEO of non-alcoholic beer brand Athletic Brewing said in an interview with Business Insider.

Today, there are more options on store shelves to moderate alcohol intake while providing a similar taste experience. "Even two years ago," Shufelt said that there was "very little availability and awareness." Now the category is on the cusp of a "big societal breakthrough," the CEO said.

The increasing availability of non-alcoholic beer and spirits comes as studies suggest drinking rates have decreased among young Americans. Gallup data published in August also indicates a shift in perception of alcohol. The report said 45% of Americans view alcohol as bad for health, which is a 6% increase from the year before and 17% increase since 2018.

Dozens of celebrities have spoken out about their sobriety in recent years, with some even establishing their own non-alcoholic drink brands, including Katy Perry's De Soi, Blake Lively's Betty Buzz, and Tom Holland's Bero.

Shufelt said the availability of quality alternatives has given consumers the ability to drink non-alcoholic beer without changing their lifestyles.

Leaning into moderation

Both Athletic Brewing's CEO and Heineken USA's chief executive, Maggie Timoney, told BI that as more options are sold in bars and stores, buying behavior is leaning toward moderation over strict sobriety.

Shufelt said 80% of Athletic Brewing customers still drink alcohol, suggesting that most of its customer base isn't traditionally sober.

Heineken's Timoney pointed to NielsenIQ data from 2023 that indicated over 93% of non-alcoholic consumers also purchased alcohol, a 13% jump from the year prior.

The shifting mindset toward drinking can be seen in trends like Dry January, which has evolved for some into the more flexible approach of "Damp January," in which participants cut down on their alcohol intake for the month without fully eliminating it. Some have credited the less drastic approach for helping them moderate their alcohol consumption after the monthlong challenge ends.

Timoney said evolving attitudes toward non-alcoholic beverages stems in part from a desire to participate in occasions where others are drinking.

"It's linked to the health and wellness macro trend," the Heineken executive said, as well as occasions, "because people still want to have a sense of belonging."

Both companies have been making non-alcoholic beer for more than half a decade. Athletic Brewing was launched in 2018. In 2019, Heineken, which has experimented with non-alcoholic beer in the past, launched the non-alcoholic Heineken 0.0 in the US.

Over the last few years, other non-alcoholic drink companies like Free Spirits and Spiritless joined the space. Now, there are a number of non-alcoholic brands making the option to enjoy a mocktail or beer-like drink more widespread.

Athletic Brewing's Shufelt said that the proliferation of non-alcoholic options has expanded "menus and occasions" and has created excitement in the adult beverage industry.

Milan Martin, the CEO of Free Spirits, told BI the rise of participants in Dry January and the decline in some alcoholic drink sales isn't a sign that the alcohol industry "is in trouble" or that it's "going away."

"It's just that people are now just drinking more mindfully and more with an eye to moderation because they have the data," Martin said.

'Bars and restaurants are leaving a lot of money on the table'

While the sale of non-alcoholic beer and spirits has grown in recent years, the segment is still a fraction of overall alcohol sales.

Shufelt said the relative availability of non-alcoholic options is "probably the biggest friction" in people regularly buying the products. He said that Athletic Brewing products are on less than 10% of restaurant menus in the US and as he sees it, "bars and restaurants are leaving a lot of money on the table."

Martin said that for those looking to drink moderately, it can be challenging "if they have to go out of their way to try your product or keep drinking your product."

In an effort to reach more consumers, Heineken plans to expand its 0.0 brand across two major US convenience retailer chains and launch a 12-pack of the non-alcoholic beer bottles for the first time this year.

Timoney told BI that while stigmas around non-alcoholic beer are "easing, they still remain a hurdle."

A Heineken study released on January 2, conducted in collaboration with a professor at the University of Oxford, surveyed 2,413 Americans. The study found that 16% of those in the US said they felt the need to justify their choice of low- or no-alcohol drinks at social gatherings, and 13% said they concealed those choices due to social pressures over the past year.

"Often, the hesitation comes from outdated perceptions— people assume it won't taste like beer," the CEO said. "But the reality is, once they try it, they're amazed."

• The US Surgeon General's advisory calls for a warning label on alcohol products.
• The CEO of Free Spirits told BI he thinks the statement will further push a change in drinking culture.
• Non-alcoholic brands like Free Spirits are expanding as mindful drinking gains popularity.

Milan Martin, the CEO of non-alcohol spirit brand Free Spirits, said American drinking culture has evolved over the last decade — and the US Surgeon General's statement on alcohol will further push that change.

In an advisory published Friday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption was the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity. He also said he wants to see cancer warnings on wine, beer, and spirits.

In an interview with Business Insider, Martin said regardless of whether a change to the warning label would win political approval, he thinks the statement will impact consumers.

Do you plan to change your drinking habits in response to the Surgeon General's recommendation? Tell us why in this survey.

"What we've seen with the surgeon general is that there's enough research now that says alcohol does not play a positive role in your life and, specifically, it has ties to cancer," Martin said.

Martin said the advisory will be another "nugget" that reinforces similar messages about drinking based on data points, positive stories from friends who have stopped drinking, or guidelines from other governments. All of those insights sit in consumers' minds and lead them to make more informed decisions, Martin said.

"It's not that the alcohol industry is going away," Martin said. "It's just that people are now just drinking more mindfully and more with an eye to moderation because they have the data."

Martin said the current non-alcoholic drinking landscape looks different than it did even a year ago.

"Even a year ago, when I would see a zero-proof cocktail menu on a restaurant's menu, I'd be like, 'great,'" Martin said, adding that, "the expectation is that most restaurants have them now."

Despite running a non-alcoholic spirits company, Martin said neither he nor his employees classify as "traditionally sober." Martin said he still enjoys cocktails, but he drinks a lot less than he used to. Similar to most non-alcoholic consumers, Martin said he enjoys both options.

Before founding Free Spirits, Martin said he spent 20 years in the advertising industry and embraced the "work hard, drink harder" mentality of the business. Oftentimes, he said he overindulged — but not because he necessarily wanted to.

"It was just that phenomenon of you're having a great time, you're out with friends in some great cocktail bar. The energy is high," Martin said. "Your glass is empty, you order another."

Brands like Free Spirits, which is now distributed across around 8,000 locations in the US, including at stores like Total Wine & More and Wegmans, offer consumers the "bite and burn" of alcohol in a non-alcoholic drink. The drinks also integrate Vitamins B12, B6, and B3. Other popular non-alcoholic options infuse THC or psychedelics.

Instead of drinking orange juice or soda in a social setting, consumers now have the opportunity to experience a margarita or martini without the effects of alcohol.

Martin said Free Spirits' prices have come down by about 15% to 20% since the company's start. As Free Spirits continues to scale and find efficiencies in its supply chain, the company plans to pass those savings onto its partners and to consumers to broaden the availability of the category and the brand, the company said.

• Experts told BI the explosives detonated in an apparent attack outside a Trump hotel didn't appear sophisticated.
• One explosives expert said the incident, where the driver was an active-duty Army service member, appeared "poorly executed."
• Authorities said the explosives were "not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience."

Explosive experts told Business Insider the damage from the materials detonated inside a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas would likely have been worse if the items used had been more sophisticated.

The explosive-laden Cybertruck, which authorities say carried gasoline tanks, camping fuel, and large firework mortars, injured at least seven people. The driver, an active-duty Army service member named Matthew Alan Livelsberger, shot himself moments before the explosives detonated on Wednesday, authorities said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to social media in the wake of the incident to praise the Cybertruck's design and suggest it helped limit the damage of the explosion.

Nick Glumac, a mechanical science and engineering professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told BI that the volume of the explosion was likely due to the types of explosives used. Glumac said this was a "poorly executed" incident if the intent was to cause major damage.

"It would be very difficult to get the types of fuels here to make into a large scale destruction kind of event," Glumac said.

Glumac said similar improvised explosive device blasts look very different from what occurred on January 1. He also pointed to the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, when Army veteran Timothy McVeigh detonated an explosive-laden rental truck that killed 168 people and reduced a third of the federal building to rubble.

"That was very carefully planned. They knew what they were doing," Glumac said about the Oklahoma City Bombing, adding that the Cybertruck explosion on January 1, by contrast, appeared "very improvised."

'The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience'

Car and truck bombs were a key feature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to which the suspect deployed at least three times. In many of those instances, vehicles were packed with enough explosives to blast fortified positions or take down buildings. The war in Ukraine has similarly suggested that heavily armored vehicles and tanks can be used as rolling car bombs.

Officials spoke about the explosive materials used in the incident during a Thursday press conference.

"The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience," Kenny Cooper, an assistant special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police press conference, adding that most of the materials in the vehicle were to "help fuel a greater explosion."

Ali Rangwala, a fire protection engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said that the driver may have miscalculated the explosion, and it might not have been released instantaneously.

"Some of the explosives might not have triggered on time systematically," Rangwala said.

"The only way to create an instantaneous energy release, as in the case of a bomb, is for all of the energetic material to ignite in micro- or milli-seconds," Jim Wesevich, a global service line leader of forensics at safety and security firm Jensen Hughes, told BI in written commentary.

A military official told BI that Livelsberger "wasn't a bomb maker." But his military occupational specialty (MOS) within the 10th Special Forces Group was 18Z, making him a special forces operations sergeant, which the Army says, "trains and maintains proficiency in all major duties associated with Special Forces."

Cooper said it was too early to know if there was "sophisticated connectivity" to the components or to "give any determination" as to how the explosion was initiated. Officials said they discovered consumer fireworks, mortars, aerial shells, fuel enhancers, and explosive targets that Cooper said could be purchased at "any sporting goods store."

Experts say a vehicle's design may shape the trajectory of a blast

Elon Musk, in a social media post Wednesday, called the Cybertruck the "worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle."

Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said the Cybertruck's design helped limit the explosion.

"The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast go up and through the truck and out," McMahill said in a briefing.

Rangwala said the damage may have been partly limited because a Cybertruck's roof, which includes a large glass pane, would clear pressure from inside the vehicle early in the explosion. The pressure from an explosion would be felt on all sides equally if it wasn't relieved by going upward through the roof, he said.

Glumac and Brian Meacham, an engineer and director of risk and regulatory consulting at Crux Consulting LLC who spoke to BI over email, said that they would have expected similar scenarios if the incident took place in a traditional pickup truck.

Michael Villahermosa, a US Army commander with a background in explosive ordnance disposal, said on X that photos of the items used in the blast suggest the explosives were "poorly constructed and poorly thought out."

As he said on X, "People are using the Las Vegas bombing to show the quality of the Cybertruck," when, in his view, "it shows the quality of the explosive device that was used."

Staff writer Ryan Pickrell contributed to this report.

• The US Surgeon General recommended disclosing the cancer risk of alcoholic beverages on Friday.
• While just a recommendation, the advisory sent shares of some big alcohol manufacturers lower.
• It also presents a fresh opportunity for makers of alternatives to alcohol.

The US Surgeon General's finding Friday that alcohol causes cancer led to stock declines for some of the beverage industry's biggest names — and an opportunity for some newer entrants.

Drinking is a major cause of preventable cancer, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in the advisory, which also recommended placing a notice about the cancer risk on beer, wine, and spirits — similar to how packs of cigarettes include warnings about their health risks.

On its own, the recommendation doesn't mean that labels on booze will change. That would require an act of Congress.

Murthy is also part of President Joe Biden's administration and will be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for surgeon general after he takes office on January 20. That nominee, Janette Nesheiwat, could take a different view on the advisory if she's confirmed by the Senate.

However, the advisory prompted a response from some companies and the markets today. Here's what it might mean:

Shares of alcohol companies like Diageo and AB InBev lost out

Stocks of some of the biggest alcohol companies in the world were down Friday after the surgeon general released his advisory.

Shares of Budweiser-maker Anheuser-Busch InBev closed down 2.8% in Belgium. In London, shares of Diageo, the company behind Captain Morgan rum and Ketel One vodka, closed nearly 4% lower.

Still, there's reason to doubt that the surgeon general's advisory will lead to a lot less drinking and fewer sales for the big booze makers, Kate Bernot, lead analyst at Sightlines, which researches the alcohol space, told Business Insider.

Annual per-capita alcohol consumption in the US has hovered around 2 ½ gallons since 2012, Bernot said, citing data from the National Beer Wholesalers Association. Gallup polling shows that the percentage of Americans who say that they drink alcohol has mostly stayed between 60% and 65% since the early 1990s, she added.

That stability in habits comes despite previous research into the link between alcohol consumption and cancer as well as the growth of "Dry January," a commitment drinkers make to avoid drinking during this time of the year.

"Maybe some people change their behavior, but I don't think we're going to see population-level dramatic shifts in alcohol consumption," Bernot said.

Makers of non-alcoholic beer and spirits could get a boost

Even if there is a nationwide shift away from alcohol, many of the big producers already have alcohol-free options that they have been ramping up for years. In 2023, for instance, Constellation released a non-alcoholic version of Corona beer.

"The diversification has been happening as a result of consumers' potential thoughts about alcohol's effect on their health," Bernot said.

Murthy's advisory came right as many drinkers are trying to cut back on their alcohol consumption in the new year or embarking on a Dry January.

That's a potential win for many other brands that make alcohol-free beer, wine, gin, and other drinks.

The CMO of non-alcoholic spirit brand Spiritless, Tom Santangelo, told BI he sees these comments as the "front end of a tipping point."

"My guess is that for a lot of America, this surgeon general statement is kind of the message they need to come to a realization that this is something serious," Santangelo said.

He said the industry has already grown significantly in the last few years as alcohol moderation and abstention have become increasingly normalized. Similar to cigarettes, change may not come quickly, but he said, "It's a message that's going to carry a lot of weight."

Milan Martin, the CEO of non-alcoholic spirit brand The Free Spirits Company, told BI that the US Surgeon General's comments are another "nugget" of insight that will contribute to cultural change around drinking.

"All of these teeny little nuggets sit in our minds and sit there at the point where we're ready to order our third drink and impact our choice," Martin said, adding that conversations among peers and in the media around drinking are contributing to changes in drinking culture.

Athletic Brewing, which sells non-alcoholic beer, similarly said that while it is "aware of the ongoing discussions about alcohol and health," it "has never been anti-alcohol."

"We believe the alcohol and non-alcoholic sectors are synergistic," the company told BI.

Innovative soft drinks, from seltzer to kava, could benefit

Besides alcohol-free beer and cocktails with all the ingredients other than the, well, alcohol, there are other beverages that have attracted attention from the sober-curious — and could benefit if people cut back on booze.

Celebrity seltzer and soda brands often pitch themselves as upscale, healthier soft drinks, BI reported last year.

Others have turned to kava, a beverage that's common to the Pacific and is supposed to help you relax and put you in a better mood. While the most authentic kava is served on its own, brands that have added juice, sugar, and coloring before canning it have popped up over the last few years. Some point to their kava as a healthier choice than a cold beer or cocktail.

Cannabis products could become more attractive

People looking to cut back on alcohol sometimes turn to cannabis as a replacement, especially as governments loosen restrictions. That could be good news for makers of everything from CBD-infused beverages to marijuana dispensaries. Cannabis company Canopy Growth, for example, rose more than 2% Friday.

In 2022, the number of daily or near-daily cannabis users outpaced the number of daily or near-daily drinkers, research from Carnegie Mellon University found.

Some states, such as Minnesota and Texas, already allow liquor stores to sell drinks that contain THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana, right alongside liquor.

• The Chinese automaker BYD just reported its best quarter yet.
• Even though it doesn't have access to the US market, BYD's affordable EVs are popular in China.
• Here's how a little-known Chinese brand proved it could go toe-to-toe with an industry giant.

BYD may not be a household name in America, but it recently made itself known in a big way.

For a brief moment in December 2023, the Chinese automaker unseated Tesla as the world's top seller of electric cars. A little over a year later, on January 1, BYD reported its best quarter yet.

Even though you won't see a BYD car in America (yet), the company has built an affordable brand that's popular in China and elsewhere.

Earlier this year, it announced a Cybertruck competitor, the BYD Shark, along with a hybrid powertrain that allows its sedans to travel up to 1,250 miles without stopping.

Here's the story of the company that proved it could outsell Elon Musk.

BYD doesn't stand for anything — officially.

Wang Chuanfu and a cousin founded BYD in 1995. Then a 29-year-old government researcher, Wang came from a family of rice farmers. He earned a university scholarship and eventually moved to the Special Economic Zone in Shenzhen to start his new company.

The "YD" in the name came from Yadi, the village in Shenzhen where the company originally was, one South Korean newspaper reported. The "B" was added later as a promotional tool, the report said. Wang has said in interviews that, taken together, the BYD name doesn't stand for anything in particular.

It was only later that Wang derived the slogan "Build Your Dreams." The company has also acquired another nickname: "Bring Your Dollars."

The company was originally a cellphone-battery manufacturer.

The company's original business wasn't cars. It was cellphone batteries. BYD challenged the established Japanese suppliers Toyota and Sony by providing a cheaper alternative. By 2002, companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung were all using BYD batteries.

They started making cars in 2003.

BYD moved into the car business after buying Xi'an Tsinchuan, a failing state-owned automaker that was then an arm of the defense contractor Norinco, the South China Morning Post reported.

The company launched its first car in 2005. The BYD F3 was a compact sedan that resembled the Toyota Corolla. It sold for as little as 40,000 yuan, or about $5,850.

Warren Buffett was a key early booster.

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett was one of the high-profile names who took an interest in BYD early on. Looking to invest in China's booming car market, Buffett toured BYD's headquarters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that while the Berkshire Hathaway tycoon was there, Wang took a sip of battery fluid to prove how clean his batteries were. Buffett was so impressed by the experience that he offered to buy 25% of the company.

Wang declined that offer, but Buffett was not deterred. Berkshire Hathaway acquired a 10% stake in BYD — for $232 million — in 2008.

Their first electric car drew scorn from Elon Musk.

The company debuted its first fully electric vehicle, the E6, in 2010. Benefiting from Chinese government subsidies, it was able to compete with its Japanese counterparts.

But not everyone was impressed. Tesla CEO Elon Musk laughed in a 2011 interview when asked whether he considered BYD a serious rival to Tesla.

"Have you seen their car?" he said. "I don't think they make a good product. I don't think it's particularly attractive. The technology is not very strong."

BYD's hybrid cars turned it into a titan of Chinese automakers.

BYD established itself as one of the top automakers for hybrid vehicles in China in the 2010s. Its most popular offering was the Qin, introduced in 2012, which became one of the best-selling cars in China.

That wasn't the only offering that propelled BYD to prominence, however. The company also released the Tang, a hybrid SUV, and partnered with Daimler AG (now Mercedes-Benz) to make its Denza line.

BYD took the EV crown from Tesla — briefly.

Even though most of its sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 came from the Chinese market, BYD made headlines across the globe when it seemingly did the impossible — it unseated Tesla as the world's top seller of electric cars.

The Chinese automaker rode the EV wave on the back of its new Seagull, which debuted for 73,000 yuan, or about $10,000, as well as its Song, Qin Plus, Dolphin, Yuan Plus, and Han EVs.

Tesla reclaimed the crown in the first quarter of 2024, though both companies saw steep declines in their sales.

BYD's Shark takes aim at Tesla's Cybertruck

The Shark, unveiled in May, is the latest model offered by BYD.

It's a midsize hybrid pickup truck, and the cabin's design fuses outdoor functionality with modern style and durability.

The truck has more than 430 horsepower, or 170 less than Tesla's all-wheel-drive Cybertruc. BYD says it can accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers an hour, or about 62 miles an hour, in roughly 5.7 seconds. The vehicle has five seats and a maximum towing capacity of 2,500 kilograms, which is just more than 5,500 pounds. That's about half of the Cybertruck's towing capability.

Designed for everyday trips and off-road driving, the Shark has three terrain modes: sand, mud, and snow.

It also has built-in features to make camping and off-roading more accessible. The vehicle offers bidirectional charging, according to BYD's site.

While the Shark isn't in direct competition with the Cybertruck as a hybrid model that doesn't sell in the US, it may entice EV fans looking for a more traditional pickup design. It's also priced competitively at about $53,451, which is lower than Cybertruck's $60,990 starting price tag.

Don't expect to see a BYD car on American roads anytime soon.

For a time, it looked as if we were just a few years away from getting Chinese electric cars in the United States. A BYD executive said as much in 2017, and the company even hired Leonardo DiCaprio as a brand ambassador for English-speaking customers.

Since then, BYD has expanded overseas. The Chinese automaker is planning a factory in Mexico — alarming US officials — and even created its own shipping fleet in a bid to cut down on export costs.

But the company says it has abandoned its plans of selling its EVs to Americans. Analysts have pointed to geopolitical tensions and trade barriers between the two countries, as well as the slumping demand for EVs in the United States.

BYD is launching a new hybrid powertrain system on two midsize sedans — and it can drive 1,250 miles without charging or stopping to fill up for gas.

BYD is upgrading its hybrid powertrain system.

The company announced that the upgraded powertrains will launch in two of sedans, one of which will be the BYD Seal 06, Bloomberg reported. Both models will reportedly be under 100,000 yuan, according to the company.

Hybrids make up the majority of BYD vehicles sold, according to a Reuters report. The new upgrade gives them a competitive edge against rivals like Toyota and Volkswagon, which mostly sell fuel-powered vehicles.

The powertrain system translates to about 81 miles per gallon at full charge, which is over triple the US fuel economy average for 2022 cars. That's also close to 500 more miles of range than a hybrid 2023 Lexus ES, which was the longest-range hybrid in the Kelley Blue Book's list last year.

Additional reporting by Graham Rapier.

BYD hit record sales in the fourth quarter of 2024

BYD sold 1.76 million EVS in 2024, according to figures released Wednesday.

That total was part of a larger haul of 4.27 million cars sold overall, which includes both hybrid and EV models.

In an effort to boost sales in the holiday quarter, Tesla boosted discounts towards the end of the year. However, Tesla sold about 1.79 million cars in 2024, marking its first year-over-year decline.

BYD similarly launched a series of discounts toward the end of the year and has grown in popularity with its hybrid models in the last few months. BYD's 2024 sales include a monthly record of over 500,000 EVs and hybrids sold just in December, the company said.

• 32-year-old Taelor Salmon is the CEO of a government contracting company called TJS Group.
• She said around 50% of her contracts come from funds set aside for socially disadvantaged businesses.
• She doesn't know exactly how DOGE will impact small business set-asides, but she's bracing for change.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 32-year-old Taelor Salmon, the CEO of TJS Group. Her employment and identity have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the CEO of TJS Group, and we've been in business providing services to the government for about nine years now.

We have about 19 employees and provide everything from IT security to facilities maintenance and repair support. But our main focus is administrative and facility support.

Our success isn't tied to the president at this point. It's correlated to the regulations projected by the Small Business Administration, including in programs like the 8(a) Business Development program and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business certifications.

The 8(a) Business Development program was established to give at least 5% of all federal contracting dollars annually to disadvantaged small businesses. The 8(a) program can establish you or your business as socially and economically disadvantaged. We got ours in November 2021, and it's a nine-year program that you apply for with the SBA. There are a lot of requirements in it, and I got denied three times before.

We got our first contract around 2017 when Trump was president. We did well under Trump, but better under Biden simply because TJS Group received its 8(a) certification under him. While this could've happened under Trump, the program has helped us tremendously.

My biggest concern is DOGE, or the SBA, wanting to remove the 8(a) and the funding set aside for minority businesses. My company has significantly benefited from those "set-asides" over the past 3 years. Losing the 8a set-aside would be scary, as much of our contract value has derived from this for our small business.

SBA program funding makes up a large part of our revenue

The SBA's job is to support and assist small businesses. SBA initiatives require Congress to spend a certain amount of taxpayer dollars toward different types of small businesses. Some of the initiatives are for minority-owned, women-owned, or veteran-owned companies. It's the government's way of making sure taxpayer's dollars are funneled back into the economy in a fair way where it's not just going to powerhouses.

About 50% of our revenue is derived from 8(a) program awards.

The 8(a) certification is great because you can get directly awarded contracts without competition. Some people like that, some people hate it, some people think it's unfair. But again, these programs are to help small businesses establish themselves. In the beginning, these programs, or set-asides like 8(a) or EDWOSB, weed out other competition to level the playing field. The goal for these small businesses is to grow into well-established companies in the future so that these very same businesses won't need to rely on set-asides.

I don't know what DOGE will bring, but I'm preparing to be impacted

While TJS Group did well under the prior Trump administration, we're not certain how this administration will treat or change small businesses. I'm not as hopeful as I have been in prior years, given the conversation around the Department of Government Efficiency.

The SBA's 8(a) program has already been in question for the past year or two, so there's strong reason to believe it may not be around in the next 10 years. The program has faced scrutiny, and in 2023, a ruling challenged it. The program now requires applications to be processed with an additional social disadvantage narrative requirement. Prior to the ruling, race served as a qualification for being socially disadvantaged. Now, you have to provide an example of being socially disadvantaged and explain how it impacted your entry into the business world.

As we all know, any major decision, specifically regarding small businesses, requires a lot of change, and that could take months or years. I don't believe DOGE will have a lasting effect, but it has the potential to negatively affect small businesses like ours. The way you reduce that fear and uncertainty is to prepare, be knowledgeable, and fine-tune your strategy.

It's like in basketball — you live by the three-pointer. TJS Group cannot simply rely on our 8(a) status or EDWOSB for awards, we must competitively bid on opportunities to stay competitive. So we try to be proactive about also pursuing opportunities with federal agencies that anybody could pursue.

We're also exploring pursuing partnerships with larger companies, which can have subcontracting goals and requirements that necessitate partnering with small businesses. These partnerships can provide opportunities to expand service offerings and access new customers for small businesses.

We're also looking into opportunities that have the potential to become commercial so that we're not just relying on the government.

Every contract based on government funding is uncertain. Often, contracts remain for all base and options years if there's funding and if you provide good services. So, you could have it for the base, but if they say we don't have funding for the next four years, you can only have it for that year.

My advice to other government contractors would be to pursue opportunities competitively and focus on a niche that aligns within both federal and commercial industries so you're not solely relying on government opportunities.

Government contracting isn't for the weakhearted. You need to plan your business around a worst-case scenario just in case this happens. You're running a business, and you're managing it. And so that's a whole nuance in itself that you have to be prepared for.

There's also never a clear answer with administration change, so it's important to focus on things we, as small businesses, can control.

• Steve Bannon advised Elon Musk to "study modern political history" amid the H-1B visa debate.
• Bannon said Musk should not "start lecturing people about the way things are gonna be."
• Musk recently faced MAGA criticism after he shared strong support for H-1B visas.

President-elect Donald Trump's former advisor, Steve Bannon, has some advice for Elon Musk — start studying.

"You need to study modern political history of the fights we've been through for twelve or fourteen years to get to this spot," Bannon said on his "War Room" podcast on Tuesday.

The remarks were made during a discussion about the H-1B visa, for which Musk has recently expressed support. While Bannon said Musk earned a seat at the table for investing in Trump's reelection and supporting the cause, he said he didn't agree with the Tesla CEO's stance on the H-1B visa.

"Don't come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are gonna be. If you're gonna do that," Bannon said, "we're gonna rip your face off."

Musk said on X that the US needs to attract foreign talent to remain globally competitive. He strongly supports H-1B visas, which he said were crucial to building "SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong."

While Trump stood behind Musk, his stance has been criticized by MAGA supporters who say employers are using H-1B visas and other legal immigration methods to take jobs from Americans and drive down wages.

Bannon was considered one of the most powerful figures in Trump's administration before he was ousted from the White House. He was later found in contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with the January 6 panel.

Bannon completed a four-month prison sentence in October. After his release, the former strategist said at a media conference that he was "empowered" by his sentence.

• I made ChatGPT Search my default search engine after it rolled out to logged-in users.
• However, I found myself opening a separate browser to find the answers I was looking for on Google.
• ChatGPT Search hasn't quite nailed down keyword searching, but it worked well for open-ended prompts.

After a little over a week of using ChatGPT search as my default search engine, I can say that it won't be replacing Google Search for me in the near future.

ChatGPT Search became available to anyone with a free account on December 16 after OpenAI launched the feature on October 31 to select users. The feature allows users to get quick, up-to-date responses with the option to open up relevant links in a tab on the right-hand side.

"This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more," the company said in its announcement.

The launch of the tool to free users also means you can go into your web browser settings and set ChatGPT Search as the default search engine — meaning that typing a question or keyword into the browser bar will route that query through ChatGPT instead of your usual default, such as Google or DuckDuckGo.

I use ChatGPT frequently for a number of tasks and I find the chatbot and search engine feature valuable. However, setting it as my default search engine made me realize how necessary Google Search continues to feel to my daily workflow — and how much the two platforms differ.

I feel Google shows, ChatGPT tells

While I found the summaries generated by ChatGPT Search to be useful, there were instances when I wanted to better see and select the sources for myself.

It can vary, but in my experience, ChatGPT Search includes about one to seven in-text links in the response and has a "Sources" tab at the bottom that users can select for an expanded source display. The tab includes the cited links at the top and about eight to 13 relevant links underneath. If you ask for more sources, you have to reopen sources from the first prompt to see the original list.

On Google, it often feels like you can scroll endlessly.

For example, if I want to shop around for a new TV stand for my living room and search "55 inch TV stand" on Google, I can see seemingly infinite options of stands that match that description. If I want to keep scrolling through, I can open Google Shopping which now operates more like a third-party marketplace, thanks to an AI revamp.

ChatGPT Search, on the other hand, responded to my search with around 5 products and linked additional sites in the source tab. Instead of seeing a visual array of products from different brands with filters to set my preferences, ChatGPT Search selected some. I also found the source tab to be a fairly narrow display that didn't present sources in a particularly helpful way visually.

Now, it's worth noting that some people may prefer the approach of ChatGPT Search to their usual search engine. And Google has been evolving the search experience over the past year as it leans into AI.

There's an argument to be made about too many options being shown on Google, and ChatGPT certainly narrows it down. However, if I'm doing a broad search, I personally want to see the breadth of what's out there.

While using ChatGPT Search, I found that I missed Google's layout of providing AI Overviews at the top of some queries. The feature allows users to get the short version while also having the option to scroll through other sources, which I feel offers a bit more agency in how users consume information.

Google is optimized for keyword searches

During this experiment, I often opened a separate browser with Google as my primary Search engine because ChatGPT Search took longer to provide the answers I needed.

It's worth noting that the tech giant has dominated the search engine space for years, so my habits are naturally optimized for Google Search. I'm used to typing in a single keyword and instantly finding an array of relevant links.

Google's head of search, Liz Reid, said at Google I/O in May that "Google will do the Googling for you," and I've generally found that to be true. When I look up a company, person, or website, I'm able to see social media accounts, recent news, and other relevant links. I can also select filters or categories such as images, videos, news, and shopping to narrow my search.

ChatGPT Search worked better when I had a specific prompt or question in mind.

For example, if I have an open-ended research query, like "What was President Gerald Ford's most notable accomplishment" or "How did Gerald Ford's legacy differ from other presidents," I would probably turn to ChatGPT Search because it can organize information concisely, and save me from reading hundreds of related articles that might not address that specific question or contain those keywords.

Google's lead in offering keyword-based access to the wider web is tough to beat. While I see valuable uses for both products, I don't see how ChatGPT Search could replace for me what Google has spent decades building — at least at this stage.

• Larry Ellison, the 80-year-old cofounder of Oracle, is one of the most interesting men in tech.
• Whether yacht racing, buying Hawaiian islands, or trash-talking competitors, he keeps it lively.
• Now, he's one of the world's richest people with a net worth of about $190 billion.

Larry Ellison is the founder and chief technology officer at software company Oracle. Now, he's also the world's fourth-richest man and has a net worth of $190 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The billionaire's fortunes have surged by over $67 billion this year, thanks to spiking demand for generative AI. The windfall puts him ahead of tech execs like Google cofounder Sergey Brin and former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. 

The 80-year-old started Oracle in 1977, and decades later he's still one of the top dogs in Silicon Valley despite living in Hawaii full time — and owning an entire island. Ellison has also been a major investor in Tesla, Salesforce, and even reportedly had a seat on Apple's board of directors for a while.

Outside the office, the billionaire boasts an impressive watch collection and indulges in hobbies like yacht racing. His children have made their own names in the film industry, and his son David Ellison is set to become the CEO of Paramount after its merger with his Skydance Media production company. Through some of Larry's entities, he will control Paramount, per a September filing.

Here's a look at the life and career of Ellison so far.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison was born in the Bronx on August 17, 1944, the son of a single mother named Florence Spellman.

When he was 9 months old, Larry came down with pneumonia, Vanity Fair reported. His mom sent him to Chicago to live with his aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison.

Vanity Fair reported that Louis, his adoptive father, was a Russian immigrant who took the name "Ellison" in tribute to the place in which he entered the US: Ellis Island.

Ellison is a college dropout.

Ellison went to high school in Chicago's South Side before attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When his adoptive mother died during his second year at college, Ellison dropped out. He tried college again later at the University of Chicago but dropped out again after only one semester, Vanity Fair reported.

In 1966, a 22-year-old Ellison moved to Berkeley, California — near what would become Silicon Valley and already the place where the tech industry was taking off.

He made the trip from Chicago to California in a flashy turquoise Thunderbird that he thought would make an impression in his new life, Vanity Fair reported.

Ellison bounced around from job to job, including stints at companies like Wells Fargo and the mainframe manufacturer Amdahl. Along the way, he learned computer and programming skills.

In 1977, Ellison and partners Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded a new company, Software Development Laboratories.

The company started with $2,000 of funding.

Ellison and company were inspired by IBM computer scientist Edgar F. Codd's theories for a so-called relational database — a way for computer systems to store and access information, Britannican said. Nowadays, they're taken for granted, but in the '70s, they were a revolutionary idea.

The first version of the Oracle database was version 2 — there was no version 1.

In 1979, the company renamed itself Relational Software Inc., and in 1982, it formally became Oracle Systems Corp., after its flagship product.

In 1986, Oracle had its initial public offering, reporting revenue of $55 million.

As one of the key drivers of the growing computer industry, Oracle grew fast. The company is responsible for providing the databases in which businesses track information that is crucial to their operations.

Ellison became a billionaire at age 49. Now, he has a net worth of roughly $152 billion, according to Forbes, after racking up $50 billion in gains thanks to Oracle and Tesla stock. That makes him the seventh-richest person in the world.

Still, in 1990, Oracle had to lay off 10% of its workforce, about 400 people, because of what Ellison later described as "an incredible business mistake."

Oracle reported a loss of $36 million in September 1990 after admitting that it had miscalculated its revenue earlier that year, The New York Times reported.

It didn't get the decade off to a great start. After adjusting for that error, Oracle was said to be close to bankruptcy. At the same time, rivals like Sybase were eating away at Oracle's market share.

It took a few years, but by 1992, Ellison and Oracle managed to right the course with new employees and the popular Oracle7 database.

Ellison is known for his willingness to trash-talk competitors.

For much of the '90s, he and Oracle were locked in a public-relations battle with the competitor Informix, which went so far as to place a "Dinosaur Crossing" billboard outside Oracle's Silicon Valley offices at one point, Fortune reported in 1997.

His financial success has led to some expensive hobbies.

With Ellison as Oracle's major shareholder, his millions kept rolling in. He started to indulge in some expensive hobbies — including yacht racing. That's Ellison at the helm during a 1995 race.

He also partly financed the BMW Oracle USA sailing team, which won the America's Cup in 2010, according to Bloomberg.

Ellison was an early investor in Salesforce.

In 1999, Ellison's protégé, Marc Benioff, left Oracle to work on a new startup called Salesforce.com. Ellison was an early investor, putting $2 million into his friend's new venture.

When Benioff found out that Ellison had Oracle working on a direct competitor to Salesforce's product, he tried to force his mentor to quit Salesforce's board. Instead, Ellison forced Benioff to fire him — meaning Ellison kept his shares in Salesforce.

Given that Salesforce is now a $267 billion company, Ellison personally profits even when his competitors do well. It has led to a love-hate relationship between the two executives that continues to this day, with the two taking shots at each other in the press.

The dot-com boom of the late '90s benefited Oracle.

All of those new dot-com companies needed databases, and Oracle was there to sell them. Although investors lost out in the dot-com crash, Oracle came out of it stronger due to its acquisitions and the demand for software solutions.

With the coffers overflowing, Ellison was able to lead Oracle through a spending spree once the dot-com boom was over and prices were low.

In 2005, for example, Oracle snapped up the HR software provider PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion.

And in 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a server company that started at about the same time as Oracle, in 1982. That acquisition gave Oracle lots of key technology, including control over the popular MySQL database.

Ellison has also spent lavishly over the years, so much so that his accountant, Philip Simon, once asked him to "budget and plan," according to Bloomberg.

Ellison has expensive taste. Over the years he's built up an impressive collection of Richard Mille watches, an expert previously told BI. The timepieces start in the six-figure range and can go for over $1 million in some cases.

In 2009, the billionaire purchased the Indian Wells tennis tournament for a reported $100 million, The Los Angeles Times reported.

In 2010, Ellison signed the Giving Pledge.

By signing the pledge, Ellison promised to donate 95% of his fortune before he dies. And in May 2016, Ellison donated $200 million to a cancer treatment center at the University of Southern California, Forbes reported.

Starting in the 2010s, Ellison started to take more of a back seat at Oracle, handing more responsibilities to trusted lieutenants, like Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, then Oracle's copresidents.

Ellison hired Hurd, a former CEO of HP, in 2010, Inc reported. Catz has made a reputation for herself among analysts for what they describe as brilliant business strategy.

But Ellison's spending didn't slow down. In 2012, he bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

Ellison founded a startup called Sensei in 2016 that does hydroponic farming and owns a wellness retreat on Lanai.

He also purchased Hawaiian budget airline Island Air in 2014, before selling a controlling interest in the airline two years later after it struggled financially.

In 2014, Ellison officially stepped down as Oracle CEO.

Ellison handed control over to Hurd and Catz, who became co-CEOs. Ellison now serves as the company's chairman and chief technology officer. Following Hurd's death in 2019, Catz became the sole CEO.

In 2016, Ellison scored a personal coup: the purchase of NetSuite.

Back in 1998, Ellison had made a $125 million investment in ex-Oracle exec Evan Goldberg's startup business-management software firm, NetSuite. It ended up working out well for Ellison when NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson negotiated the sale of the company to Oracle for $9.3 billion, netting Ellison a cool $3.5 billion in cash for his stake.

NetSuite investor T. Rowe Price tried to block the deal, citing Ellison's conflict of interest, but the sale closed in November 2016.

He's used his billions in a variety of ways: he invested in educational platform maker Leapfrog Enterprises and was an early investor in the ill-fated blood-testing company Theranos.

Ellison has held shares in some of the most recognizable companies, one of which was the infamous blood-testing company Theranos, founded by Elizabeth Holmes. It had a promising future until its flaws were exposed and Holmes received a prison sentence.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO back in 1997, he asked Ellison to sit on the board. Ellison served for a while, but felt that he couldn't devote the time and left in 2002, according to Forbes. Compensation for his role was an option to buy about 70,000 shares, which would've amounted to about $1 million at the time of his departure.

Ellison owns homes on the East and West coasts as part of a multibillion-dollar real-estate portfolio.

Ellison reportedly owns the Astor Beechwood Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and a home in Malibu. Ellison also has houses in Palm Beach, Florida and more in a multibillion-dollar real-estate portfolio.

Both of his two children work in the film industry.

His daughter, Megan, is an Oscar-nominated film producer and the founder of Annapurna Pictures. The company has produced films like "Zero Dark Thirty" and "American Hustle."

Ellison's son, David, is also in the film business. His company, Skydance Media, has produced movies like "Terminator: Dark Fate" and films in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

After months of discussions in 2024, Skydance Media and Paramount agreed to a deal, creating "New Paramount," which David will be CEO of. He has plans to "improve profitability, foster stability and independence for creators, and enable more investment in faster growing digital platforms," the companies said.

Ellison was one of the few tech leaders who had a friendly relationship with former President Donald Trump.

Ellison said publicly that he supported Trump and wants him to do well, and hosted a Trump fundraiser at his Rancho Mirage home in February, though he did not attend, Forbes reported. The fundraiser caused an outcry among Oracle employees, who started a petition asking senior Oracle leadership to stand up to Ellison.

Catz, the CEO of Oracle, also had close ties to the Trump administration, having served on Trump's transition team. 

Ellison and Trump remained close during Trump's time in office and reportedly spoke on the phone about possible coronavirus treatments. Trump also supported Oracle's bid to buy TikTok, calling Oracle a "great company."

In December 2018, Ellison joined the board of directors at Tesla, where he's been a major investor.

Earlier in 2018, Ellison described Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a "close friend," and defended him from critics. When Musk acquired Twitter — now X — in 2022, Ellison offered to invest $1 billion.

Musk went on to help Ellison reset his forgotten password, biographer Walter Isaacson wrote.

In December 2020, Ellison revealed that he moved to Lanai full-time.

The announcement came after Oracle decided to move its headquarters to Austin, leading Oracle employees to ask Ellison if he planned to move to Texas too.

"The answer is no," Ellison wrote in a company-wide email. "I've moved to the state of Hawaii and I'll be using the power of Zoom to work from the island of Lanai."

He signed the email: "Mahalo, Larry."

He left Tesla's board in August 2022.

In a proxy filing in June 2022, the electric vehicle maker revealed that Ellison would be leaving the board. Since then, he and Musk have appeared to maintain their close relationship.

Oracle had a record-breaking 2023, and cemented itself in the new age of artificial intelligence.

Oracle's shares continued to hit records, CNBC reported. The company proved that it's not going any where any time soon.

In 2023, Oracle backed OpenAI rival Cohere.

Oracle joined other tech giants, like Salesforce, in backing the tech startup in June 2023. It began offering generative AI to its clients based on tech made by Cohere.

"Cohere and Oracle are working together to make it very, very easy for enterprise customers to train their own specialized large language models while protecting the privacy of their training data," Ellison previously said.

Oracle announced in April that it would be moving its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee.

Despite its big move to Austin only four years ago, Ellison said that Oracle is planning to move its world headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee.

In April 2024, the exec announced that Oracle has plans for a "huge campus" in Nashville that will one day serve as the software giant's world headquarters. The company relocated from the San Francisco area to Austin, Texas in 2020.

"It's the center of the industry we're most concerned about, which is the healthcare industry," Ellison said at the Oracle Health Summit in Nashville, CNBC reported.

Ellison's wealth jumped $14 billion after record earnings from Oracle.

Oracle's cloud applications business saw its shares spike by 13% in June 2024 after the company posted strong annual earnings due to demand for generative AI, Fortune reported. Ellison, who now serves as Oracle's CTO and owns about 40% of the company's cloud sector, got a $14 billion boost to his fortune.

The company also announced a partnership with AI startup Cohere, enabling its enterprise customers to build their own generative AI apps. "Cohere and Oracle are working together to make it very, very easy for enterprise customers to train their own specialized large language models while protecting the privacy of their training data," Ellison said during the company's earnings call.

Ellison to control Paramount as its majority shareholder

Ellison is set to become the controlling shareholder of Paramount following its merger with Skydance Media, a company founded by his son, David Ellison.

Pinnacle Media, Larry Ellison's investment firm, will acquire 77.5% of the voting interest currently held by Shari Redstone, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. This move effectively transfers control of Paramount from Redstone to Ellison.

While David Ellison has been named Paramount's new CEO and may retain some autonomy in the role, the FCC filing reveals that his father will hold ultimate authority as the primary shareholder and will likely retain significant decision-making power, Brian Quinn, a Boston College Law School professor, told the New York Times.

The deal, valued at $8 billion, includes major assets like CBS and MTV. RedBird Capital Partners, a private-equity firm backing Skydance, will acquire some voting rights, but Larry Ellison will retain the largest stake. He plays a sizable role in the entertainment industry, including cameos in movies such as "Iron Man 2" and through the financial backing of his children's ventures, including his daughter Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. 

Matt Weinberger and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Correction: May 7, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Larry Ellison's role at Oracle. He's the chief technology officer, not the CEO.

Ellison has a reputation as an international, jet-setting playboy.

Ellison has been divorced four times. The 80-year-old billionaire is now reportedly remarried to a 33-year-old named Keren Zhu, The Wall Street Journal reported in December.

 

Ellison gave a donation to the University of Michigan's football team and helped secure the top high school quarterback in the country

The University of Michigan football team flipped Bryce Underwood, the top high school quarterback in the country, from Louisiana State, thanks to a donation and support from Ellison, according to WSJ. While Ellison had no previously known connection to the school, his wife Zhu is an alum. Both Ellison and Zhu showed up in a Zoom call with Underwood and Michigan football's general manager to help recruit him, the report said. 

Oracle shares are up 60% year-to-date, increasing Ellison's net worth by $67.3 billion

Despite an 8% decline in Oracle's stock this month following a weaker-than-expected earnings report, the company's shares are still at some of their highest levels since the 1990s, boosted by cloud partnerships with Google, OpenAI, and Meta.

Ellison's net worth has increased by $67.3 billion this year, bringing his net worth to about $190 billion as of Monday, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

• Brenna Lasky, 34, spent eight years working in recruiting for Meta, Google, and Salesforce.
• Lasky now has a career coaching business and shares insights for applicants struggling to land jobs.
• She suggests fixes for applicants struggling to get past certain stages of the application process.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 34-year-old Brenna Lasky, who worked in recruiting at Google, Meta, and Salesforce. Her identity and employment have been verified. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I spent eight years recruiting for tech companies, including Meta, Salesforce, and Google. I learned a ton about what hiring managers are looking for.

Prior to working in Big Tech, I really struggled with my own job search process and received rejections. I was mass-applying. I was playing a numbers game. I wasn't revising my resume. With each application, I was just sending it out and hoping for the best.

I launched a career coaching business in September to help job seekers understand where they might be missing the mark and how they can get into Big Tech. My goal is to help demystify the job search process and understand what it takes to get into companies.

If you're applying to roles but find yourself getting stuck at one of these points in the application process, I would encourage you to take a step back to understand where you may need to make adjustments.

If you're not getting interviews

Usually, if you're not getting interviews, it's related to your résumé because your résumé is the first step in the process. I would check to see if your résumé a laundry list of everything you've ever done or if you're doing a good job of showing the relevant skills and how your past experience directly relates to the role that you're applying to.

Also, if you're mass-applying and not tailoring your résumé, there's a good chance you might not be hitting all of those minimum qualifications.

The reason why people say to tailor your résumé or make sure that you include keywords is not necessarily because there's this evil applicant tracking system that is going to auto-reject your résumé. It's instead because recruiters are comparing résumés against the minimum qualifications.

Obviously, it's super time-consuming to change your résumé every single time if you're doing tons of applications. So something that I always like to recommend to my clients is having a baseline résumé. If you're a program manager, have your program manager résumé. Then, based on each job that you apply for, go through those minimum qualifications and feel free to add small tweaks here and there.

I also always suggest to clients that I work with, if you do know someone who works at a company that you want to work with, definitely reach out to them. If you can get a referral, especially in Big Tech, that will help you. That being said, referrals aren't a guarantee for getting a job. Your referral isn't going to be there holding your hand or doing actual interviews with you.

If you're not getting past the screening call

Each team has a different individual process, but as a general rule of thumb, you'll always start with a recruiter screen. That'll be around 30 minutes. It's really just a quick pulse check on whether the person did what their résumé claims and if they are able to potentially do the job at hand. Having really solid answers where you can come into the interview and feel confident is worth the extra time it takes.

There's pretty much a guarantee that there are four common questions that you'll be asked in recruiter screens:

Tell me about yourself.

Why are you interested in this position or company?

Why are you looking for a new role?

What are your salary expectations?

Rather than simply relaying your experience, connect the dots for your recruiter on why you're a good fit for the role and why they should move your application forward. A mistake a lot of people make is they rely too much on their past experience. I always recommend that applicants speak to the job that they want to have.

If you're not making it to the final round

After the screening call, you'll typically do a 30-to-45 minute hiring manager screen. They'll give you the goals of the team and what they're looking for. Then, that hiring manager will decide if this is someone they want to move forward with.

Once you meet with the team, you'll typically meet with two to four decision-makers with whom you'd work daily. Those interviews are typically geared toward behavioral questions and technical skills.

I always suggest coming up with five to six stories that highlight your impact and achievements as evidence as to why you're a great fit for the role. I like this number because it gives you a broad enough range to pull from depending on the questions, but it's not so overwhelming that when you're on the spot, you panic and try to go through 20 different examples.

To understand what examples to speak to, I would suggest going back to the job description and looking at the bullet points or the minimum qualifications. For each one of those bullet points, come up with an example of how you were able to help solve that problem.

• I tried over 15 AI tools and features this year with a range of different uses.
• Google's AI Overviews is my favorite feature because it helps me find quick answers.
• NotebookLM's Audio Overviews is entertaining and useful for learning about a new topic.

As companies raced to scale AI this year, consumers were met with many AI product announcements — more than anyone could easily track.

The silver lining is that many of these tools are free to try, allowing people to explore how they might be able to apply the technology.

This year, I tried more than 15 AI tools and features ranging from chatbots to virtual shopping assistants and smart mirrors. The variety is an indication of just how widespread AI is becoming and how various industries are integrating it into products.

I found many tools impressive at first, but as the novelty of most of them wore off, I didn't become a regular user.

A few made a lasting impression, though — tools I could seamlessly integrate into my daily routine. Here are my top five, ranked in order of how often I use them.

1. AI Overviews

AI Overviews is a tool I use almost every day. I like that it enhances the search experience without making me open another application.

AI Overviews gives me the TLDR without me having to ask for it. It's especially helpful when I'm looking for a short answer, like contact info for a company or the release date of a product. Before AI Overviews, I had to dig through different pages to find the small bit of information I was looking for. AI Overviews not only brings it to the top of my search, but it also provides source links so I can fact-check.

2. NotebookLM's Audio Overview

Google has nailed down the concept of personalized AI with its Audio Overview feature. Powered by the Gemini 1.5 large language model, NotebookLM's "Deep Dive" conversation allows users to generate a podcast featuring two AI hosts. The roughly 10-minute discussion is based on material you upload, such as articles, YouTube links, and documents.

While I'm an avid podcast listener, I like the idea of curating an episode with sources that I upload. I often use this tool as a supplement when learning about a new topic or as inspiration if I need to present information in a conversational way.

NotebookLM also creates other content based on the sources you upload, including study guides, briefing documents, and fact sheets. I don't use these tools quite as often, but if I were still in school, I could see these features being more helpful.

3. ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode

I love the conversational element of speaking with ChatGPT, and it never fails to impress an audience when I use it. I have had family members go back and forth with it for 15 minutes just for their entertainment.

I don't use ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode to get quick answers, but it serves its purpose when I have a complicated inquiry or simply don't want to type a whole paragraph. The feature sounds shockingly human-like, and it's usually accurate, although it doesn't provide the level of detail the chatbot might provide in a written response.

4. Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an AI transcription service. The free version provides users with 300 monthly minutes and the ability to transcribe 30 minutes at a time. In addition to its high level of accuracy, it generates a summary of the recording and provides action items and an outline.

The ability to record and transcribe in real time has helped me be more efficient. Rather than sift through hours of recordings and search for a keyword in every file, you can also ask Otter.ai's chatbot to find when a certain topic was discussed.

Amazon's Rufus

I referred to Amazon's AI shopping assistant Rufus as a "game changer" when I tried it out in July — and that still holds true. I use Rufus almost every time I open Amazon. It has helped me make purchasing decisions on mirrors, fitness trackers, espresso machines, and even books. It's not perfect, and it's not as useful as ChatGPT or Gemini for everyday use, but it definitely provides useful information and summarizes reviews. It also features suggested prompts on the product page.

I recently started using Rufus to help me find items from my purchase history. I share my Amazon Prime account with my family, and our order history is flooded with different products. If I'm checking on an item or want to reorder a product, I ask Rufus about it instead of scrolling through pages of orders.

• OpenAI is the startup behind the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, but the company has other AI products.
• DALL-E creates images based on detailed text descriptions and Sora creates videos.
• Whisper is a speech-recognition model that can transcribe and translate audio from many languages.

ChatGPT quickly went viral after it was released in November 2022. 

The tool has generated controversy and even kicked off a race among large tech companies like Google and Meta to develop their own, more powerful AI tools. OpenAI now has a $13 billion partnership with Microsoft and the tech giant has integrated GPT-4o into Copilot and the Azure AI cloud suite.

However, the startup behind it, OpenAI, has other AI products, too — and it recently made its AI video-generator Sora available to users. Take a look at some of the startup's other AI products.

DALL-E 

Just months before ChatGPT launched, OpenAI removed the waitlist for its generative AI art generator, DALL-E. It quickly grew to over 1.5 million daily users by September 2022, the company wrote in a blog post. The tool — which quickly creates imaginative and detailed artwork via a text prompt — sparked controversy among artists when it came out, who debated what DALL-E and other AI art generators like it could mean for people in creative jobs.

Since DALL-E launched, OpenAI released DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3. The latest upgrade, DALL-E 3 understands more nuance and detail than previous versions, the company said.

The AI art generator creates original images called "generations" from detailed text prompts input by a person. You can write detailed prompts such as the one above — "astronaut fish swimming in an ocean in outer space, digital art" — and specify an art style or even reference a specific artist like Vincent Van Gogh.

You can also edit "generations" with the tool using one of the credits the program gives you each month, and upload your own photos to create images.

Whisper

Whisper is an automatic speech recognition model that transcribes speech to text and can identify and translate multiple languages to English. The model can transcribe in multiple languages too. 

The system was trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervised data collected from the internet, according to OpenAI.

In examples on its product page, Whisper transcribes an almost 30-second long audio of quick-spoken text, a clip of a K-pop song, an audio clip of spoken French, and an audio clip of someone speaking with a strong accent.

Whisper is now used in a number of industries including healthcare. Recently, an Associated Press report revealed that the technology is prone to hallucinations that include comments about race and violent rhetoric, which could pose problems if it's used in medical settings.

Codex

Codex is an AI system that translates natural language into code. OpenAI says Codex is "most capable" in Python, but is also proficient in over a dozen coding languages like JavaScript and Swift. 

The model can interpret simple commands input by a user. OpenAI says Codex is a "general-purpose programming model," which means it can be used for "essentially any programming task," although its results can vary. OpenAI said it's successfully used Codex "for transpilation, explaining code, and refactoring code."

OpenAI has some examples of how Codex works, including using the model to program a space-themed game and giving a computer spoken commands to edit a Word document.

Sora

OpenAI announced during its "Shipmas" livestream on December 9 that it would launch its AI video generator Sora to the public after making it available to a limited group of artists and creators in February. 

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

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

The company said in a blog post that the product "may struggle to simulate the physics of a complex scene," as well as with depicting events that happen over time. It may also mix up left and right, the company said.

While the tool already made a strong impression on some in Hollywood, the tool's product designer said in the demonstration that Sora wasn't going to create feature films at the click of a button. Rather, the employee said the tool was moreso "an extension of the creator who's behind it."

API tools

OpenAI also has a set of tools geared toward developers. Its flagship reasoning models include o1, o1-mini, and the soon-to-be-released o3 and 03-mini models. OpenAI also has GPT models, including GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini. OpenAI offers Chat Completions API, Assistants API, Batch API, and Realtime API. Users can explore models and APIs in OpenAI's Playground without writing code. According to the company website, three million developers are building with its tools.

• The top free apps in the App Store hint at what gifts were popular for the holidays this year.
• Meta Horizon, a social platform for Meta's Quest headset, topped the charts.
• Digital frames were also popular this year, with Frameo and Aura Frames taking third and fourth place.

'Tis the season of gift-giving, and if you're curious about what presents people bought this year, the App Store's Top Charts is full of clues.

Apple's Top Charts features the most downloaded apps and it fluctuates frequently. While popular apps like TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and ChatGPT often top the charts, the top five free App rankings on Thursday morning were all tied to products — and they offer a hint at which gifts were popular over the holidays.

Meta Horizon, the company's social platform for the metaverse, topped the charts for the free app category. It's used to set up the Meta Quest mixed-reality headsets, which are similar to Apple's Vision Pro headset but significantly cheaper. The platform also offers access to apps, tools, and services.

Amazon Alexa scored the second spot, indicating that Amazon Echo devices were a popular gift this year. Alexa is the voice-assistant technology that powers Amazon Echo devices, which are Amazon's collection of smart home speakers. Users can use the app to manage Echo devices, control music, track reminders, and set alarm clocks.

Digital photo frames also seemed to be a popular Christmas gift this year.

Frameo and Aura Frames took third and fourth place on Apple's top charts. Both companies are digital photo frame systems and rely on apps to send and share photos digitally to other frames.

Mytonies took fifth place in the top charts, suggesting that Tonies and Tonieboxes were under many Christmas trees this year. The screen-free devices are child-friendly audio systems for listening to stories, music, and educational content.

A Toniebox is a portable audio player for children, while Tonies are collectible toy figures preloaded with audio content. The app manages all the Tonies in your household and allows owners to add songs or stories to the devices.

Beyond the top five apps, the rankings become more varied and reflective of more usual app trends. However, the PlayStation App secured the No. 10 spot, suggesting plenty of PlayStation 5 game consoles were unwrapped and set up, and the Xbox app also made it into the Top Charts, landing in 22nd place.

Bose clocked in at No. 15, suggesting people were purchasing Bose headphones or speakers this season.

While it's not a comprehensive breakdown of the most popular gifts of the year, Apple's list of the top free downloaded apps is a good indicator of where consumer spending went over the holidays.

It's also a good reminder that for many gifts, the setup doesn't stop once it's unwrapped and plugged in — there's often an accompanying app for that too.

• Apple is exploring new headsets and smart-home devices to expand its lineup.
• Its plans don't always work out; it scrapped a car project and faces weak demand for the Vision Pro.
• Apple's future profits depend on the success of devices other than the iPhone.

Apple's possible future product lineup suggests the giant is entering a new era.

Many devices are reportedly in the works at the tech giant, and many of them are very different from its golden child, the iPhone. Apple followers including the Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and the Taiwan-based supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have said it's exploring new headsets, smart-home devices, and more.

The tech industry has long speculated about Apple's next big thing. The answer may lie in the slate that people have been reporting on for the past several months.

Creating a hit product isn't easy. The company in February scrapped plans for a car, and its $3,500 Vision Pro has gotten mixed reviews in the months since its release. On November 10, Gurman said Apple was focusing on smaller wins that could generate revenue on the same level as its iPads or wearable tech.

That requires Apple to tiptoe into new territory where competitors may already be making strides.

Bloomberg, also in November, reported on a wall-mounted smart-home tablet in Apple's production lineup that could operate home appliances, use Apple Intelligence, and access Apple apps.

The report said the project, code-named J490, could come as early as March, a month before new Apple Intelligence features are expected to roll out.

Though smart-home tech isn't a cash cow for Big Tech, another futuristic smart-home device is said to be on Apple's radar: a tabletop robot with an iPad-like display and a robotic arm.

Analysts from Morningstar, Deepwater Asset Management, and EMARKETER were skeptical about the device's profitability — or the probability of its existence — when Business Insider asked them about it in August.

Apple is also reportedly developing a smart lock and doorbell system, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The device would allow a person to open their home's door by scanning their face, the report said. It's unclear whether the doorbell system would work with existing third-party locks or if the company would partner with a lock maker.

The technology could certainly introduce competition to Amazon's Ring and Google Nest. However, the report said it's unlikely the product would launch until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Kuo, known for his often accurate Apple product predictions, said in early November that the tech giant had delayed production of a cheaper Vision Pro to "beyond 2027" and would move ahead with a Vision Pro with its M5 processor and Apple Intelligence for 2025.

In the wearables category, Apple is said to be exploring AR glasses — perhaps inspired by the prototype Orion glasses Meta showed off in September — though they're far from production stages. The Morningstar analyst William Kerwin previously suggested that smart glasses are likely Apple's ultimate eyewear goal.

CEO Tim Cook, who's been in the role for 13 years, is guiding the company into a new future. The next line of products Apple launches could solidify his legacy.

• Meta, Apple, OpenAI, and Tesla are set to launch new technology in the new year.
• In 2025, expect a display in Meta's glasses and a Gemini-infused mixed-reality headset.
• Apple reportedly has several new offerings in the works, like an iPhone Air and a new iPhone SE.

Big Tech companies didn't hold back on releasing AI updates and hardware in 2024 — and you can expect the same pattern in 2025.

Many companies made flashy product announcements and gave extravagant demonstrations this year, but several of those offerings aren't available quite yet. Examples include Apple's revamped Siri, Meta's Orion glasses, and Google's Project Astra.

While some release dates remain unclear, here's what you can expect to see from Big Tech companies in 2025.

Meta

The Financial Times reported on Monday that Meta was adding a screen inside its Ray-Ban smart glasses that could be available in an update as early as the second half of 2025. The screen would be able to display notifications and responses from Meta's chatbot, the report said.

Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer and head of Reality Labs, wrote in a blog post in December that in 2025 users could expect personalized AI assistants that don't just respond to prompts but help them throughout their day.

"One of the things I'm most excited about for 2025 is the evolution of AI assistants," Bosworth said.

Apple

Apple is expected to release a "more personal" Siri, but it's unclear whether that would come next year or with the Siri update expected in 2026. Apple is expected to announce the "LLM Siri" in 2025.

A Bloomberg report in November said Apple could also announce the release of a smart home device as early as March. The report said the device may be a wall-mounted iPad-like tablet that can control appliances, manage video calls, and use AI to access apps.

The tech giant is also set to announce a sleek iPhone "Air" model and a new version of the budget-friendly iPhone SE, Bloomberg reported. The new iPhone SE, that report said, would eliminate the home button and is expected to support Apple Intelligence.

OpenAI

OpenAI has been working on GPT-5 for more than a year and a half, but the model has been pushed back. It's unclear when exactly it will launch, but it might in 2025.

The model is expected to have impressive capabilities that surpass GPT-4's power. It could complete multistep tasks and work with audio, video, and text. It would also have a large context window, allowing it to process more text.

Tesla

While Elon Musk doesn't anticipate the Cybercab hitting volume production until 2026, he said in Tesla's third-quarter earnings call that he expected to get regulatory approval in 2025.

He also said the company was on track to start producing more-affordable EV models in the first half of 2025.

"These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next-generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle lineup," Musk said.

Musk also said in a post on X in July that Tesla would have humanoid robots in "low production" for the company's internal use in 2025 and in high production for external companies in 2026.

Google

In partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm, Google is introducing its approach to mixed reality with the release of the Android XR spatial computing platform.

The company said the first device, built by Samsung and code-named Project Moohan, would be available to purchase next year. The device would offer typical mixed-reality experiences and an integrated Gemini.

"With Gemini, our AI assistant, you can even have conversations about what you're seeing or control your device," the company said. "Gemini can understand your intent, helping you plan, research topics and guide you through tasks."

A Google DeepMind spokesperson said capabilities from research prototypes like Project Astra, which Google hopes will become a universal assistant, would graduate to Google applications and services. But they said there were no plans to make Project Astra generally available itself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genentech declined to comment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Track 1: Skill up technically

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Track 2: Become an AI expert for your industry

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

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

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

Use the tools and learn their limitations to improve your prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ring declined to comment on the forum discussions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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