• Roshan Gupta left Google to move to Portugal.
• Gupta wanted to pursue a better work-life balance in 2022 and start his own business.
• Gupta said it's important for those going into tech to be aware of the industry's demands and pace.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Roshan Gupta, a 46-year-old business owner who moved to Portugal with his family in 2022. Business Insider has verified his former employment and identity. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the traditional Silicon Valley story. I grew up loving technology, went to MIT, studied computer science, and got my first job at a startup.

My last role was at Google leading the Messages team. I had a big team of product managers, and it was a 300-plus org with a nine-digit budget. It was awesome. I loved the company and I loved the team, which is probably why people thought I was crazy for leaving and moving to Portugal.

When people make big changes, often there's this sort of big moment. But the truth is, it's a collection of all these other moments and the catalyst that finally puts you over the top.

My wife and I, and eventually our two sons, like to be adventurous, but we were also on the path you're supposed to take, which is to get a job, earn a paycheck, work harder, and climb the corporate ladder. The adventures we had been taking would be like moving from California to Austin and then to Seattle.

During COVID, we kept thinking: What if we made a bigger change?

The catalyst was a tough work-life balance

When you enter a field like investment banking, you know it's going to be a grind — and often, you get in and you get out. I graduated back in 2000 when the internet was booming. Mobile phones were just coming online. I was the first generation to be connected 24/7 and I don't think we've seen the effects of that yet.

My wife and I both worked in tech and we found that the more we did and the more success we had on paper, the worse our quality of life was getting. We were doing well from a career perspective and financially — but time for family, self-care, and community wasn't happening.

One option was to work like crazy for 10 more years, earn a crazy amount of money, and retire. But I didn't know if I could make it 10 years working at that pace. You don't know how much time you have left.

When I was running the Messages team, I had teams in the US on different coasts, in Zurich, and in Asia. I would wake up, pick up my phone, and start working. I would get the kids out to school, and by 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., I was in my seat taking calls.

I was in Google's Seattle office, but my teams were all over the world, so I would commute for 45 minutes to get on a video call. There are pros to being in the office, but there are also cons. So much of my work was on a video call talking to teams all over the globe.

By 6 p.m. or so, I would force myself to get off because I had to pick up the kids. Then I would give them dinner and pop them in front of a TV, or try to spend some time with them, but I was already spent.

Then I would get a flood of emails because Europe is waking up. By the time I got on top of that and was about to go to bed — surprise, Asia wakes up. When I wake up the next morning, I have all the stuff left over from there. Then the US is waking up, and you repeat.

Imagine repeating that for years.

At a previous job where I wasn't a product leader, I still felt overwhelmed.

We'd all try these tips and tricks like not checking emails after a certain time or scheduling emails to send in the morning, and then a month later, it would all go out the window, and we're all back to grinding.

I'm still busy in Portugal

Another factor for moving was I wanted to try building my own business.

I have Type I Diabetes and I felt I could never be an entrepreneur in the US because it would be difficult to afford healthcare for myself and my family.

In Portugal, I was able to start a company called AmplifyPM, and I help senior product managers become product leaders — and I teach them how to scale and handle the increase of responsibility in a sustainable way.

I thought if I came to Portugal and took a break from work and started my own business, I would suddenly have oodles of free time.

I still feel busy. The difference is the pace of work.

Working with companies like Google and others felt like drinking out of a fire hose. You sit down and the amount of work you get done in that same amount of time is off the charts crazy.

When you get promoted, you likely get promoted because you have the capacity to handle more. At Google, I loved the team, the company, and what we did. That let me handle such a large amount of things because I found meaning in my work, but it was not enough for us as a family to keep going in that direction.

In Portugal, I'm spending that time at a more sustainable pace.

I don't want the lesson to be that if you have a career in Big Tech, the only way to thrive is to leave. This career unlocked so much for us and I don't regret it.

It is a culture that keeps pushing you, but if you go in with awareness and understand how it can be, it can be great.

I loved it and I may even go back one day — but this is how I chose to restore balance for now.

• Elon Musk announced plans for Tesla to launch a paid robotaxi service in Austin this summer.
• Musk said expanding the service to allow Tesla owners to rent out their own vehicles is expected next year.
• Musk said he expects the robotaxi service to be available in additional US cities by the end of the year.

Tesla's robotaxi service is only months away, according to Elon Musk.

The Tesla CEO said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that a paid robotaxi service "isn't some far-off mythical situation," and it's launching this summer in Austin.

"Teslas will be in the wild with no one in them in June in Austin," Musk said.

Musk said the EV giant already has thousands of Teslas "operating autonomously" with unsupervised full-self-driving (FSD) at its factory in Fremont, California. He added the company will soon expand the tests to Tesla's other factories around the world.

In a video published Thursday, Model Y's are shown driving autonomously from the Fremont factory to designated loading dock lanes. The video notes that the route is 1.2 miles.

Musk said he's "very confident" Tesla will release unsupervised FSD in several other US cities by the end of 2025, and "probably everywhere" in North America next year.

While Musk didn't specify exactly which models Tesla would use in its robotaxi fleet, the company did show off its ride-hailing service with its in-development Cybercab during an event last year. The Cybercab is expected to begin volume production in 2026.

In a video showcasing the service, people can be seen ordering a ride in an Uber-like app.

"We just want to put our toe in the water, make sure everything is OK, then put a few more toes in the water, then put a foot in the water," Musk said. "With safety of the general public and those in the car as our top priority."

Musk said Tesla is targeting "a safety level that is significantly above the average human driver."

"The standard has to be very high because at the moment, if there's any kind of accident with an autonomous car, that immediately gets worldwide headlines," Musk said, adding that "if somebody scrapes a shin with an autonomous car, it's headline news."

There have been some prominent examples over the years of accidents involving autonomous vehicles.

Uber, before it sold off its self-driving division, was involved in a fatal accident in 2018 involving one of its test vehicles that had a safety driver behind the wheel. The Uber test driver later pleaded guilty to endangerment. More recently, GM's Cruise generated headlines in 2023 after one of its autonomous vehicles dragged a pedestrian beneath the vehicle. GM later said it would halt its robotaxi development.

Waymo, which currently offers paid rides in multiple markets, including San Francisco and LA, issued a software update last year after two of its robotaxis collided with the same pickup truck being towed within minutes. No passengers were in the Waymos at the time.

Tesla's fourth-quarter vehicle report stated it recorded one crash for every 5.94 million miles driven with Autopilot, a more limited set of driver-assistance features, compared to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration data from 2023 that indicated one crash for every 702,000 miles approximately in the US.

Musk, who has said he can be optimistic about timelines, said Tesla will "hopefully" have unsupervised FSD in most countries by the end of 2026 — however, he added that regulations could impact timing.

Musk estimated that unsupervised FSD could "maybe" be allowed in Europe in May of next year. However, he added that "Europe is a layer cake of regulations of bureaucracy" and the company would have to go through a "mountain of paperwork" to release unsupervised FSD in the Netherlands, which is its "primary regulatory authority. "

In China, Musk said there were challenges with unsupervised FSD because the US isn't allowing Tesla to train its systems in the country. Musk said the company was instead looking at videos of streets in China from the internet to train its systems to understand the local street signs and traffic rules, including bus lanes.

Tesla will operate its own robotaxi fleet to start

A core part of Musk's autonomous ride-hailing vision includes Tesla owners renting out their vehicles as taxis when they aren't using them, which he's said could earn them up to $30,000 a year.

However, Musk said Wednesday that an Airbnb-like service in which owners can "add or subtract their car from the fleet" likely won't be available until next year. Musk added that Tesla wants to ensure it has "ironed out any kinks" before expanding it to include personal vehicles.

"It's just a bunch of work that needs to be done to make sure the whole thing works," Musk said. "Especially that people can order the car, it comes to the right spot, does exactly the right thing, all the payment systems work, the billing works."

While Musk again acknowledged he can be optimistic, he said he thinks his predictions on timelines "are going to be pretty accurate."

"Sure, I'm optimistic," Musk said. "But I'm not that optimistic."

• The White House told federal workers they could voluntarily resign by February 6 and be paid through September.
• The offer follows the Trump Administration's efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.
• Many workers BI talked to were defiant, but some are moving on, or taking a wait-and-see approach.

Shock and outrage. Hopelessness, suspicion, and defiance.

Federal workers say they feel a mix of all of the above and more after payout offers landed in their inboxes late Tuesday. The Trump administration says workers can either return to the office full-time and face likely downsizing, or quit now and keep getting paid for the next eight months.

"I voted for Donald Trump twice, and on January 20th, I had hope that he would fulfill his promises," one federal employee told Business Insider. "However, when I received this email at 5:35 pm EST, that hope disappeared."

A Social Security Administration employee said that workers aren't the only ones at risk. "The public will suffer the most and the only group they can blame is the current one."

Or, as a 15-year veteran of the State Department put it: "They can fuck off and we won't be intimidated."

Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen workers at departments across the government in the hours after the email was sent. They requested anonymity to speak openly about their jobs. Their identities are known to BI.

Some are digging in their heels.

"I have no intention of quitting," one employee wrote in a text message.

According to a "deferred resignation offer" email sent by a White House office, workers have until February 6 to say whether they will voluntarily resign.

If they decide to leave, they will be exempt from in-person work, according to the email, and will receive pay and benefits through September unless they decide to leave earlier.

"I certainly won't be accepting a buyout," another employee said, adding that their teammates likely wouldn't either. "It's unpatriotic that he's trying to put people out of work or provide incentives for people to leave their stable jobs."

"I'm so sick of these stupid harassing emails," they added.

Deepening distrust

Others worry the administration won't stick to its word of steady pay and benefits through September — and aren't even sure the offer is actually a buyout, despite the language used in some media coverage.

"Suffice it to say the people I've been talking to don't trust how this will play out," one Department of Justice worker said, adding that they didn't see a budgetary or legal mechanism that would guarantee continued compensation.

The spotlight has encouraged at least one federal to look at the private sector.

"I will be seeking employment outside of government," the worker said, though they caveated they might also look for a job in the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. "I have no desire to work for an unappreciative organization."

Administration officials previously told CBS they believe up to 10% of federal workers would depart due to the new directives.

Meanwhile, another is in wait-and-see mode. Trump's second term has only just started, the employee told BI, and they want to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.

A break from historical precedent

The government has previously offered incentives for employees to leave as attempts to trim the federal workforce. In the 1990s, former President Clinton presented tens of thousands of workers with the option to leave their jobs.

A lawyer who works for the federal government questioned why it didn't follow the precedent set by previous administrations.

"In the federal government, reductions in force are covered by a litany of laws and regulations," said the lawyer, who specializes in employment issues. "Workers get severance pay, career transition assistance or job search help, and preference for other positions in federal government. This veiled threat about being laid off — it's illegal, indefensible, and incorrect."

The American Federation of Government Employees, the biggest union for federal workers, published a FAQ on Wednesday telling members to not take the email "at face value." It was "riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties," the union said, and it was unclear if the office that issued the memo had the legal authority or budget to make good on its promises.

The National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald urged federal workers to reject the "request to voluntarily quit their jobs. It is a bad deal for employees and the American people they serve."

The latest in a string of chaotic moves

The Tuesday email — which carries the same "Fork in the road" subject line as an Elon Musk memo sent to employees at X, then Twitter, in 2022 — is the latest in a string of chaos-causing, high-impact directives.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was putting a "temporary pause" on federal grants and loans. A federal judge halted the freeze from taking effect before the administration itself rescinded the memo, BI reported.

"It's kind of like Whac-A-Mole. What do you respond to? Personally, I think I'm a little bit numb to it," said one federal employee who has worked in facilities management for more than a decade.

Federal workers have been a particular focus for the administration. Trump issued a return-to-work order for all federal employees on January 20, and has also put forth an executive order to reclassify certain civil servants, removing legal protections and making it easier to fire them.

According to a FAQ posted Tuesday, several categories of employees are ineligible for deferred resignation, including military personnel, USPS staff, and those working in immigration enforcement and national security roles.

The remaining federal workers will have six working days to weigh their options. If the initial offer had been more generous, the federal government lawyer said they may have taken it.

"If they were offering me a guaranteed check for seven months that I could take to the bank, I might consider it," they said. "But it's difficult to trust promises that aren't legally binding."

• Ray Dalio said China's play in the tech wars would be "very inexpensive chips."
• US tech stocks tumbled following the release of the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's new lower-cost model.
• Dalio said the AI war is one that no country can afford to lose.

The billionaire investor Ray Dalio said he expected China to leverage its manufacturing might in the AI arms race, following a similar strategy as it did with electric vehicles.

Nvidia and other large-scale AI companies have "risk issues," the Bridgewater founder said in Tuesday's episode of the "All-In Podcast."

"You want to invest in productivity, but there's great disruption, great disruption, that's going to take place, and they're going to be the disruptors and the disruptees," Dalio said.

"I think the Chinese are a bit behind in the chips, but they're ahead in the applications," he added.

Asked about Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, which dominated headlines over the weekend, Dalio said "the Chinese play is going to be chips, very inexpensive chips embedded into manufactured goods," such as robotics.

"That's how they fight wars," the Bridgewater founder said, adding that the competition around AI is a "war no country can lose" and that winning it is "more important than profits."

Dalio's comments come as the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has rocked Silicon Valley and the wider tech world with the release of its R1 model, which it said was trained at a fraction of the cost of industry-leading models like those underpinning OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Following DeepSeek's latest release, tech stocks took a tumble, with the American chipmaker Nvidia's market cap plummeting by nearly $600 billion on Monday.

Ahead of Big Tech earnings, which kick off Wednesday, investors raised questions about companies' massive investments in AI infrastructure and capital expenditures and whether apparently lower-cost models like DeepSeek's could influence demand for Nvidia's latest chips.

An Nvidia spokesperson previously told BI that DeepSeek is an "excellent AI advancement and a perfect example of Test Time Scaling" that illustrates how to leverage "widely available models and compute that is fully export control compliant." The spokesperson added that AI inference "requires significant numbers of NVIDIA GPUs and high-performance networking."

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

The billionaire said many investors make the mistake of wanting to buy "good" things from "great" companies. But with the hindsight of the dot-com bubble, the share prices that AI and technology companies are trading at have "to be paid attention to," Dalio said.

In the late 1990s, hype built up around internet companies before an eventual collapse in the early 2000s that erased trillions in market value.

"A great company that gets expensive is much worse than a bad company that's really cheap," Dalio said.

• Some workers said Trump's federal grant freeze threw government agencies into disarray, creating confusion.
• At agencies like FEMA, some tried to get payments out the door before the 5 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline.
• "The general chaos is grinding things to a halt," one SBA employee told Business Insider.

The Trump administration's "temporary pause" on federal grant and loan awards sparked a range of reactions from rank-and-file workers within the federal government, from frustration to outright surprise.

Speaking before a federal judge temporarily prevented the freeze from taking effect, one Federal Emergency Management Agency employee who spoke to Business Insider Tuesday morning was blindsided by news of the funding freeze.

"The grants are frozen, is that what you said?" she asked.

Another FEMA employee described working with colleagues to try to cut checks for aid as quickly as possible. "We're trying to get as much obligated as we can before 5 p.m. today," the employee said Tuesday. But the employee was skeptical everything would get done; granting FEMA aid is a multi-stage process and some claims hadn't advanced far enough to be approved by the oncoming deadline.

Another federal worker said the freeze endangered two congressional grants to private foundations as well as a grant to their own agency. "They were put on hold today," the employee said. "No payments in or out."

For others, the freeze simply adds to the mounting issues facing the federal workforce. "We are thinking about the impact but there's no official word," one federal worker said. They said that Trump's return-to-office order, the resignation of colleagues, and attempts to scrub language surrounding DEI were taking precedence.

All of the workers were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about their work. Their employment was confirmed by BI.

One former federal worker and Biden administration official, who left the government two weeks ago, said that even a brief pause can have outsize impacts. Short delays, they said, lead to much longer delays, particularly when private workers who contract with the federal government can't be paid.

Two employees at the Small Business Administration said they hadn't been given any indications about how their work would be impacted. The SBA gives out loans to businesses to aid in job creation and recovery from emergencies.

It's been "mostly just chaos, with all the HR changes," one of the SBA employees said. "The general chaos is grinding things to a halt as people don't know what is going to come next."

Minutes before the freeze was set to take effect, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily blocked the action. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

The decision to withhold funds isn't unprecedented. In 2017, shortly after President Trump first took office, ProPublica reported that the Environmental Protection Agency was stopped from making grants and signing new contracts.

However, the size and nature of the most recent freeze, with only Social Security and Medicare benefits and direct benefits to individuals exempted, is notable.

On Tuesday morning, nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the freeze, and six attorneys general announced they plan to sue. At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer called the freeze "unconstitutional" and "illegal."

Have a tip? Know more? Reach Jack Newsham via email ([email protected]) or via Signal (+1-314-971-1627). Do not use a work device.

• The demand for cybersecurity jobs is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
• Cybersecurity executives told BI that the threat landscape has changed in the wake of AI.
• They also explained why it's been difficult to meet demand.

The launch of ChatGPT just over two years ago sparked an AI race among tech companies. The resulting easy access to the AI tools also ushered in new risks that have led to increased demand for cybersecurity talent.

"Every time you create something for good or for growth, some adversary is going to use that," Chris Schueler, CEO of cyber solution provider Cyderes, told BI.

In short, the bad guys can access the same AI smarts and efficiencies the tools unlock.

And while AI companies have safeguards in place to prevent bad actors from using tools maliciously, cybersecurity professionals have to actively work to "stay one step ahead of them," Schueler said.

"The bad guys are getting really good," Chris Risley, CEO of wireless threat intelligence company Bastille, told BI.

As the threat landscape changes, cybersecurity jobs are in high demand as companies and governments seek to safeguard against AI-fueled cyberattacks.

The number of employed information security analysts, who focus on protecting computer systems, is expected to grow 33% between 2023 and 2033, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In conversations with Business Insider, more than half a dozen cybersecurity executives explained why demand for cybersecurity roles has grown and how the security concerns facing companies have evolved.

Paul Caron, head of cybersecurity of Americas at global corporate intelligence and cybersecurity consultancy S-RM, said that attackers are using AI to "better understand behavioral analytics," such as the time someone logs into work.

Danny Jenkins, the CEO, and cofounder of cybersecurity platform ThreatLocker, said that AI also opened the door to anyone with a computer being able to create malicious software.

"Two years ago, if you wanted to write a piece of malware, you had to be skilled enough to write malware," Jenkins, whose company has clients including Jet Blue, told BI, adding that you "no longer need to be a smart engineer."

AI tools have also made it easier for traditional phishing scams to mask some of the usual red flags, like detectable spelling errors or poorly constructed messages. It's also advanced newer attack methods for bad actors, like deepfakes, with AI-powered audio and video.

"All I need is one good picture of your face, and I can run a deepfake video on you within 20 minutes," Schueler said.

Mike Britton, chief information officer for Abnormal Security, told BI that the evolution of the digital age has also allowed bad actors to attack from virtually anywhere around the globe.

"That's essentially taken a lot of my natural perimeters and protections, and it's dropped all of those walls," Britton said, adding that attackers no longer have to "beat your firewall" or "get into your building."

Technology is also much more deeply integrated into everyday life than it used to be, offering would-be attackers new devices to try to compromise.

"The old insider threat was the disgruntled employee," Risley said. "But the new insider threat is the loyal employee with a compromised device."

'It's a harder job than it was'

There's a growing gap in the workforce of about 4.8 million cybersecurity jobs globally, according to a 2024 study from cybersecurity member association ISC2 — a 19% year-over-year increase.

As cybersecurity risks become more sophisticated, the job has also become more challenging, industry executives told BI, which has made it difficult to meet the rising demand. Cybersecurity roles take 21% longer on average to fill than other jobs in the IT field, according to data analytics firm Cyberseek.

"It's a harder job than it was a few years ago," Risley said. "There's just so many more protocols, so many more policies."

MK Palmore, a director at Google Cloud's office of the chief information security officer, previously told BI that many cybersecurity professionals started in IT and transitioned over. He said it can be difficult for a new candidate to get the needed hands-on experience in the field.

Schueler, who's been in the industry for 25 years, said cyberattacks are "escalating at a pace" he's never seen. That's made it challenging for candidates to keep up with the skills needed. He said an employee taking just three months off could face a "pretty massive" knowledge gap upon return.

The stakes are also incredibly high. DNA-testing company 23andMe agreed to pay $30 million in September to settle a lawsuit after hackers accessed the personal data of millions of its customers.

Last year, a software issue caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike resulted in a global IT outage that disrupted several industries, including airlines, banks, and emergency services. While the incident wasn't the result of a bad actor gaining access to a system, it's a testament to how integrated cybersecurity systems are within the tech that powers the world.

While some companies like Cyderes or S-RM offer specialized training programs, smaller firms may not be able to provide that kind of programming. Risley told BI that his company doesn't usually hire recent graduates, and looks more for "battle-hardened cyber security people."

If you do happen to get a job in the field though, it may be worth holding onto. Schueler told BI the career path is here to stay — and will become increasingly important as technology evolves.

Plus, it tends to pay well.

At the top ranks of the profession, US-based CISOs make about $565,000 annually, with some exceeding $1 million, according to an IANS Research and Artico Search report that includes data from over 755 CISOs between April and August 2024.

Schueler told BI that recent grads and seasoned professionals in cybersecurity can earn above-average salaries.

"This industry does pay very, very well," he said.

• DeepSeek limited user registration on Monday amid service issues.
• The Chinese AI company cited recent "large-scale malicious attacks" for the temporary changes.
• The chatbot earlier encountered a "major outage," its status page said.

DeepSeek limited sign-ups for its service as the popular Chinese AI app encountered a widespread outage on Monday morning.

DeepSeek said only users with a China-based phone number could register for a new account, a measure taken because it had recently faced "large-scale malicious attacks."

The chatbot, which dominated the AI conversation over the weekend, is currently the top free app on Apple's App Store.

"DeepSeek's online services have recently faced large-scale malicious attacks," the company said in a message on its website. "To ensure continued service, registration is temporarily limited to +86 phone numbers. Existing users can log in as usual."

Later Monday morning, the wording of the message changed to say that "registration may be busy." Business Insider was able to successfully register for a new account with an email.

The chatbot encountered widespread service issues on Monday, its status page said, with both its API and web chat service experiencing what the company called a "major outage."

As of 11:40 a.m. in New York, the company's status page said its API was operating with "degraded performance" and its web chat service was experiencing a "partial outage."

The rollout of the new model from the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has garnered global attention, with AI leaders and researchers describing it as on par with OpenAI's ChatGPT but created with significantly lower training costs.

The Chinese hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng launched DeepSeek as a private company in 2023. The startup's latest release, a flagship AI model called DeepSeek-R1, was unveiled on January 20, the day Trump took office, and has since left many researchers astounded by its capabilities, especially in math, coding, and reasoning tasks.

Big Tech giants have poured billions into AI, investing in massive data centers and top-of-the-line chips to train increasingly intelligent large language models with the goal of maintaining an edge in the AI arms race.

However, DeepSeek's models suggest that China can rival top AI models from Silicon Valley — potentially at a fraction of the training costs amid US limits on access to American-made chips.

Nvidia, which has so far largely powered the AI revolution with its in-demand chips, saw its shares drop by over 14% on Monday — wiping out billions in market share — amid Wall Street concerns. Other tech companies' share prices also dropped Monday.

• Nimisha Sharath is a product manager at Uber and said she uses AI to automate around 30% of her job.
• She estimates AI saves her 100 minutes of notes a day and allows her to read research in minutes — not hours.
• AI allows her to focus more on human aspects like relationship building and stakeholder management.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nimisha Sharath, a Seattle-based Uber product manager. Her identity and employment were verified by Business Insider. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been leading the immigrant life for 8 years now.

I was on a student visa when I moved to the US to pursue my Master's degree, and moved to a work visa when I became a data scientist for Microsoft. I was a data scientist for the first couple of years and then I transitioned to be a product manager.

I moved from Microsoft to Instacart because I wanted to try out a startup. Making that kind of a move from a company as secure as Microsoft is not something that a lot of people in my position do. It worked out for a while, but there were layoffs at the company and I lost my job.

I had about 90 days to find a job or leave the country.

It was very harsh and the job market was bad at the time. So it took a lot of grit and hard work, but I ended up accepting an offer as a product manager at Uber and I work in road safety.

A lot has happened in the AI world since I left Instacart. We have so many versions of chatbots including Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. I didn't have this kind of AI automation in my last role.

Knowledge about what AI is and how it can be misused does not feel like a choice at the moment. As a product manager, it's important to learn about it — and as an immigrant, I feel it's a necessity. I really need to know how it's going to be affecting my livelihood and I think it's key to staying in this country.

When looking for job, it's important that a huge part of your role isn't likely to be automated in the future. It should need a lot of human involvement.

Around 30% of my job involves automation

I'd say maybe 30% of my role has gotten automated by AI — and out of choice.

As a product manager, I'm in a lot of meetings. AI takes my meeting notes and summarizes them so that I'm able to figure out who said what and who is leaning toward what decision. I don't need to take specific notes and send them out to people so that they're on track. AI does it for me.

It saves 15 or 20 minutes after every meeting when I would typically put stuff together and mail it to people and make sure everyone's on the same page. On average, I attend about four or five meetings per day, so that's 100 minutes a day saved.

If it weren't for AI, I would still be in the office putting things together, and sending out notes after everyone leaves.

I'm also able to upskill myself at a very fast pace. I can read research papers in a matter of minutes as opposed to a few hours. I'm able to understand what research or literature is out there about a specific solution area that I want to explore and do a complete SWOT analysis to figure out whether we should build something or not.

I'm able to prepare strategy decks with much more information and conviction as opposed to a few years earlier, when we all had to spend a lot of time doing a ton of research.

I have more time for the human side of the job

AI gives me time to do the more human side of things, like relationship building and stakeholder management — and I think that's a part of the job that can never really get automated.

As a product manager, you're the glue that holds seven or eight different kinds of teams together. Why would an operations team ever work with a data science or a design team? They wouldn't really. But as a product manager, we have the capacity to bring all of these people together and create magic.

Now, I'm actually getting time to talk to people and do that.

Judgment is also something that I think can never be eliminated by AI. Even if an AI tool is trained on the entire world's data, that data available is still biased. It's never going to be 100% representative of everybody's thoughts and opinions.

So, at the end of the day, you do need some sort of human intervention to make sure the decisions you're making are globally relevant.

I think parts of every role will get automated by AI. It's inevitable. Instead of waiting for AI to come and encroach on your job, become the person who uses AI to do your job better. Sure, 30% of your job may get eliminated. That's fine.

Become the person who teaches other people how to use it. That's a whole new skill in itself.

Has AI changed the way you work? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected]

• The Office of Personnel Management said mostly empty federal offices are "a national embarrassment."
• Its acting director said in a memo that unrestricted telework led to "poorer government services" and hurt the D.C. economy.
• The memo said agencies must complete three tasks by 5 p.m. on Friday in line with Trump's return-to-office order.

The White House's US Office of Personnel Management did not mince words when addressing agency heads in a memo outlining the next steps for federal workers' return to office.

"Federal office buildings sit mostly empty, particularly Washington, D.C.-area agency headquarters offices, devastating the local economy and serving as a national embarrassment," Charles Ezell, the acting director of the OPM, said in the Wednesday memo.

Ezell added that "virtually unrestricted telework" has led to "poorer government services" and also impacted the ability to train and supervise workers.

The OPM defines telework as an arrangement in which employees are expected to report to an agency office on a regular basis for each pay period, in addition to working from an alternative location, like their home. Remote workers, according to the OPM, are those who have not been previously required to report to an agency office.

The memo comes in the wake of Trump's executive order mandating the return of in-person office work for executive branch employees.

Ezell said that the pandemic has been over for years and "the vast majority" of federal workers did not return to the office.

In addition to criticizing remote work, Ezell detailed three tasks that federal agencies must complete by Friday at 5 p.m.

The first requires each agency head to revise its telework policy to state that eligible employees must work full time at their designated site unless granted an exemption due to a disability, medical condition, or otherwise approved reason "certified by the agency head and the employee's supervisor."

The second task requires that the agency head send an email notification to all employees about Trump's in-person work mandate and their intent to comply with it. The email should also include a copy of the mandate, the memo said.

The third directive calls for agencies to let OPM know who is the agency's telework managing officer, and to give the officer the responsibility of complying with the new guidelines.

The memo states that agencies are required to tell OPM when they plan to fully implement the new policy, with the suggestion of reaching "full compliance" within 30 days "subject to any exclusions granted by the agency and any collective bargaining obligations."

"If an employee's official duty station is more than 50 miles from any existing agency office, the agency should take steps to move the employee's duty station to the most appropriate agency office based on the employee's duties and job function," the memo said.

In an effort to streamline the federal workforce, the Trump administration has also moved to revoke federal job offers that were accepted before January 20 with an undefined start date or one that comes after February 8. President Trump has also taken steps to end federal DEI programs.

Are you a federal employee impacted by the changes? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected]

• Ellen Davis, a writer, said she was targeted by a fake job scam while seeking remote work.
• The scam involved impersonating HR representatives and requesting personal information, according to screenshots.
• Davis warned others to trust their instincts and be cautious of unusual job processes or requests.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ellen Davis, a New York-based writer. Her identity has been verified, and BI has viewed screenshots from her correspondences. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

For many, many years, I've worked as a marketing and promotion writer and producer at major networks and companies like People Magazine.

My last role ended a few months ago and I've been actively looking for work. I was primarily going after remote copywriter roles and I was having a hard time getting even a nibble.

Earlier this month, I got a text from a potential job that I had applied for, which seemed a little odd, but I thought, 'Okay, it's a whole new world out there. Technology has changed and maybe this is how representatives are contacting people.'

They said they liked my résumé and thought I would be a great fit.

I wasn't surprised to hear from the company. The name was familiar because I did apply there and I immediately checked the names that they were using on LinkedIn and they were actual HR representatives from the company.

So I started to communicate.

It was a scam

The person texting me told me to contact someone on Google Chat, which also should have been a red flag — but I did it. Her original message said, "We need to hear from you ASAP," and I thought, I'm not going to interview on a weekend. I said I would be available on Monday.

We never had a Zoom call. We never spoke on the phone. She sent me a series of questions asking why I'm the best fit for the job and what my qualifications are.

Things started getting odd when she asked me what my credit score was. I should have ended things right there, but instead, I said, "Honestly, I don't know what my credit score is."

Then she told me what a good job I did and said she was going to present me to the board of directors, which seemed preposterous to me that a copywriter job would go before the board of directors.

At that point, I really started to feel a little odd, so I went on LinkedIn and I wrote messages to the two people from the actual company whose names were used in these fraudulent communications with me.

While I was waiting to hear back from them, the person on Google Chat said the board of directors was very impressed with my credentials and they'd like to hire me as a copywriter. As soon as she said that, she also sent a list of equipment she was going to send to me to be able to do the job, including a 15-inch MacBook, headset, laminator, and printer. As a writer, I thought I would just send a file — why would I have to laminate?

I then saw I had a message on LinkedIn. It was the woman from the actual company who confirmed the Google Chat exchange was a scam and said the company would never contact me via text or Google Chat.

Immediately, I blocked the scammers.

Trust your instincts

The scammers strung me along for at least four or five hours. If I'm going to interview at a company, I research the company. I take pages of notes that I have in front of me when I'm going to go through an interview.

I've heard of this scam before, where they require you to have all this technology in order to perform the job and they send you a check to cover the cost of it and the check turns out to be fraudulent. I have a feeling that's where it was heading.

I'm mortified that I didn't pick up on these signals, but I was eager to move things forward. It was a company that promoted sustainability and I just thought this would have been fascinating work and something that I actually believe in.

I've applied to a few more jobs since, but my heart's a little broken that I fell for this and I definitely don't feel confident at the moment.

There's so much cruelty out there and it can feel like everyone is just trying to separate you from your money and your dignity. We have to protect each other a little bit.

That's why I'm trying to put this out there: If you feel something is wrong, it's likely wrong — very rarely do you get that sense of uncomfortableness in a legitimate interview.

You might be nervous. You might be tense. But if you feel something's wrong, trust your instinct.

• President Trump issued an executive order requiring federal workers to return to the office full-time.
• Some workers told BI that it will be a major strain on commutes and family life.
• Others say they're willing to return to the office full-time, and see the value in the mandate.

President Donald Trump has officially ordered federal workers to come into the office full-time. It has some employees rethinking their careers, while others see value in the new mandate.

The return-to-office requirement is one of Trump's first moves, and it could reshape the federal workforce. In late November, Elon Musk — the head of Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency — and former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy proposed the RTO mandate as a cost-cutting measure. They argued that it would effectively weed out employees who didn't want to go back.

Now that federal RTO is set to become reality, Business Insider spoke to a collection of federal workers who offered split perspectives on the order. Employees were granted anonymity to allow them to speak freely about their work situations. Their identities have been verified.

Detailed below are some of the main issues highlighted by frustrated federal workers, as well as the reasoning behind those in support of RTO.

More demanding commutes

One employee at the Department of Justice told Business Insider that one reason they took the job was because of the flexibility offered by telework. Now that they're facing a potential five-days-a-week requirement, their total weekly commute time could increase to 15 hours, up from six hours a week.

"You work for the government, it's supposed to be the best place to work, and suddenly you're seeing that you're not getting the same flexibilities that you've been living with and adjusting your life for, for the last couple years," the employee said.

An employee named Tyra, who works in the Health Resources and Services Administration, said the flexibility of remote work has allowed her to work out regularly after her shift ends. She now faces a 90-minute commute each way into Washington DC, something that could cut into her training to become a Pilates instructor.

"A lot of people live a little bit further away," Tyra said. "It's just a lot to consider and change abruptly."

Another federal worker said having to work in the office every day would mean "at least 10 stressful hours a week wasted in traffic," in addition to the time spent making lunch and other elements associated with getting ready for work.

"It will cost more money in gas, car wear and tear, parking fees, and business attire," they told BI.

Family-life complications

A veteran and four-year federal employee is trying to figure out how to restructure their family's life within the RTO mandate. They told BI that they had been teleworking since they started their job, which allowed flexibility for childcare. They haven't received any formal guidance yet from their agency, but they're starting to look at other career opportunities outside the federal government.

"Everybody's trying to figure it out, and we're trying to do it with limited time and on the fly," the worker said.

A clinical psychologist for a federal entity said they won't be able to work their job if it's not remote. As a military spouse, the employee is required to move around often, making it impossible to commute five days a week to a single location far from where they're stationed.

"It honestly makes me consider just leaving entirely in the first place," they said. "I can't be working for anyone where there's this much uncertainty when I have to support my family and when I have small children."

Those who support RTO

But not everyone is opposed to the RTO mandate. One federal employee says that while they're only required to work in the office two days a week, they would be willing to expand that.

"You need us to come in five days, we'll come in five days," the employee said. "We're adapting as we go along."

The employee added that they expect to see some workers retire earlier than planned due to this mandate. While they recognize the challenges it could bring, they're grateful for the employment and willing to work with it.

"There's a majority of Americans who probably would kill to have that opportunity, and they probably don't want to hear somebody complaining about, 'Well, I got to return to the office,'" the employee said.

Another worker in the Department of Homeland Security, who has already been going to work in-person the majority of the time, told BI being in the office "really enhances collaboration," adding that "decisions often happen more quickly." They also said working in the office can create clearer "boundaries between work and home life."

"I think it's overall a positive change in our work environment," the employee said.

Depleted morale and 'brain drain'

A Social Security Administration employee who works from home twice a week said the new RTO mandate will hurt organizational culture by deepening existing worker dissatisfaction.

"Morale is so low right now in this agency," they said, adding, "we'll have even more people wanting to leave."

In addition, one Treasury employee said the RTO order would lead to losing staff, including pushing some people into retirement.

There's going to be a possible "brain drain of senior, knowledgeable employees," they said.

• Government contractors told BI that DOGE could bring both challenges and benefits to their industry.
• Reducing the federal workforce could open opportunities for government contractors.
• They said DOGE could help make federal contracting more efficient, though uncertainty remains.

The looming changes expected to be recommended by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency mean swirling uncertainties for federal employees.

However, government contractors — those who work with the US government but are not directly employed by it — told Business Insider they feel secure in their jobs, even if some have fears over how things will ultimately play out.

"I still view it as 100% very stable," government contractor Wes Fisher told Business Insider about the wider industry.

"Without a doubt, we are a little scared," said Tyler Pinson, CEO of Navarre Corporation, a company that provides non-emergency medical transportation to VA hospitals.

Pinson said there's uncertainty in the contracting industry and he's curious about where federal cuts will be directed. However, he said he thinks "services are less likely to be interrupted" or eliminated, and past administrations haven't impacted demand for Navarre's services.

BI spoke to more than half a dozen business owners and consultants in the government contracting space about how they feel DOGE could impact their work. Many of them said they see it as an opportunity, even if it comes with uncertainties and challenges, such as potentially lower contract amounts or more ambitious deadlines.

"We envision a lot more contracts coming out to outsource to government contractors," said Derek Hoyt, CEO of government contracting platform GovSignals.

Deniece Peterson, senior director of federal market analysis at Deltek, which provides enterprise software for government contracting and other project-based businesses, told BI that if federal workforce reductions occur and specialized expertise is still required, it could create opportunities for other contractors. She said areas of opportunity depend on the particular market government contractors are working in.

For example, contractors working in federal offices might face challenges from agency budget cuts or return-to-office mandates. However, Peterson said the return-to-office mandates could also result in additional IT, maintenance, catering, and janitorial service contracts awarded.

"When there's gaps in the federal workforce, that can be an opportunity for contracts," Peterson said.

Limits on how much federal agencies can rely on outside contracts have already emerged as more details about President Trump's federal hiring freeze are distributed. A government memo sent to the heads of executive departments and federal agencies on Monday said that contractors can't be hired to take on the work that would have normally been filled by the roles in impacted job listings.

"Agencies shall not acquire by contract with a commercial vendor services that are substantially similar to those that would have been provided by a Federal civilian in a vacancy covered by the [presidential memorandum]," the memo said in reference to Trump's executive order.

Hoyt said the directive ensures that "a prospective federal civilian hire could not be brought in as a contractor" to fulfill the original role. Peterson said that the instruction "may not make much difference" since contracts "to replace certain functions could take longer to put into place" than the length of the current hiring freeze.

Symoné Berry, a tech worker in government contracting, said she doesn't think federal cuts will happen "in one fell swoop," but even if there are some reductions, there will always be "work to be done" in the realm of government contracting. She said that when it comes to modernizing technology or making upgrades, tasks in line with DOGE's new mandate, government contractors are often hired to do the work.

A more efficient government could remove a 'major pain point' for contractors

Rich Weber, a partner for advisory firm Moss Adams, which works with government contractors, told BI in an interview ahead of Trump's inauguration that there will likely be a push for efficiency that begins with federal workers and trickles down to contractors.

Adaptability will become "critically important" for government contractors as will being able to expand into needed areas, he said.

Hoyt, who runs a platform that helps clients win government contracts, said DOGE's push for operational efficiency could accelerate the contract award process, helping to remove "a major pain point for our clients." Speedier processes could also open up opportunities for smaller businesses, he added.

Hoyt said that with the current system in place, it can take up to 18 months to win a contract, which could create national security risks in situations where agencies can't get access to what they need fast enough. He added that the extensive processes, rules, and regulations surrounding government funding awards often lead to lengthy timelines, especially given the many procurement opportunities that can arise daily.

"For almost 20 years I've seen the compliance around the entire contracts life cycle kind of grow into this massive mountain of paperwork and documentation and bureaucracy," Weber told BI.

Weber said DOGE could help simplify procurement procedures, speed up project initiation, and standardize requirements across agencies. He also said "accelerated funding allocations" could "improve cash flow," especially for small business contractors.

Higher standards, increased competition, and doing more with less

Ripple effects from DOGE could work their way to government contractors in the form of smaller federal budgets to fund contract work and pressure to fulfill contracts for less money.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who was co-leading DOGE with Elon Musk before backing out ahead of an expected run for Ohio governor, previously said he anticipates "massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are over-billing the government." The US Government Accountability Office posted in June 2024 that the federal government committed about $759 billion in contracts in the 2023 fiscal year, a roughly $33 billion year-over-year increase when adjusting for inflation.

Weber said it's possible that the government could place "increased scrutiny" during the bidding phase of contracts. He also said there could be "stricter evaluation criteria" on projects.

"That would be the whole idea behind the agency," Weber said, which is "trying to bring up the quality and efficiency of government projects."

Weber said cost efficiency will likely become a higher priority, and delivering results under budget and ahead of schedule will become increasingly important. He added that there's a high potential that the number of contracts awarded could decrease.

"Let's say the overall budget decreases, then each individual line item may decrease and then you're going to have potential increased competition and cost cutting," Weber said.

If the overall budget for contracts gets reduced, Weber said contractors could see more competition and cost-cutting. That could also mean getting the job done with fewer individuals staffed on a project, or doing it for less money in a shorter span of time.

Some government contractors have also shared concerns about the future of minority set-aside funding for small businesses, which directly award contracts to certain subsets of qualifying small businesses.

Weber said set-asides could remain a key part of initiatives given the "entrepreneurial spirit" of the administration. However, Hoyt said it's possible that the panel puts an "emphasis on different types of set-asides."

While many in the government contracting space struck an optimistic view about their industry's future, it is clear they are bracing for change.

After all, the potential trickle-down impacts on the sector sound right out of Musk's playbook: Do more with less — and faster.

Are you a government contractor or a DOGE worker? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected]

• Federal job offers accepted before Monday with start dates after February 8 are revoked, a memo said.
• The Office of Personnel Management said agency heads could seek written approval to renew an offer.
• Agencies must also report monthly on job offers, hires, departures, and head count, the memo said.

Newly hired federal workers expecting to start their jobs next month could soon see their offers yanked by the federal government.

A memo providing further guidance on President Donald Trump's executive order mandating federal hiring freezes told federal agencies that "offers made and accepted prior to January 20" with an unconfirmed start date or one later than February 8 were revoked.

The memo, written by the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management and sent to the heads of executive departments and federal agencies on Monday, said that if people were hired before noon on Monday and had a start date earlier than February 8, their offers could remain in place.

"Those individuals should report to work according to their respective designated start date," the memo said.

Even if a job offer is rescinded, it might not be a done deal for the candidate. The memo said that the head of an agency could seek written approval from the OPM to renew the employee's offer after considering "essential mission priorities, current agency resources, and funding levels."

The memo also called for reports on the last day of each month from agencies subject to the hiring freeze. The reports should have information about candidates who were extended or accepted offers, employees who started that month, and employees who departed that month. The reviews are also required to list the total staff head count and any positions listed online, the memo said.

In a separate memo sent the same day, Charles Ezell, the acting director of the OPM, asked leaders of all federal agencies to evaluate their workforces and consider firing employees who had been there less than two years.

The memo requested that agencies identify all employees on probationary periods and "promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency" by Friday.

Trump's federal hiring freeze went into effect on Inauguration Day, preventing any vacant positions that existed before 11:59 a.m. on Monday from being filled and restricting the creation of positions. There are some exceptions to the freeze, including roles tied to "immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety" and positions requiring "Presidential appointment or Senate confirmation," the memo said.

The OPM move is in line with broader Trump-administration efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Since his inauguration, President Trump has already issued a mandate for federal workers return to the office full time.

He also signed an executive order to end federal DEI programs. The order calls for federal DEI staff to be placed on paid leave by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, and agencies have 60 days to end DEI-related practices.

The Department of Government Efficiency, an Elon Musk-led commission, is also working to recommend ways that the Trump administration can cut the size of the federal workforce, reduce regulations and federal budgets, and improve efficiency.

The OPM declined to comment. The Trump administration and the OMB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Correction, January 22 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the memo's date. It was Monday, January 20, not January 8.

• Co-leading DOGE means Elon Musk is spread increasingly thin.
• Tesla shareholders told BI that Musk's position could help reduce regulatory red tape for the EV giant.
• Others said Musk proved his ability to multitask and DOGE has an expiration date.

With his new role co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has another plate to keep spinning — and many Tesla investors aren't fazed by his new area of focus.

Business Insider spoke to more than a dozen Tesla shareholders and analysts about the billionaire's new role with DOGE and how they think it could impact the company.

Many said they aren't worried that Musk is juggling more — and that the CEO has proven himself a capable multitasker.

Questions about the amount of time Musk spends on Tesla have swirled in the last year, including at the EV maker's annual shareholder meeting, where the CEO's pay package was approved for a second time (more on that later). The serial entrepreneur is also involved with SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, xAI, and X.

With DOGE, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to slash the federal budget and cut wasteful spending. They've also pledged to restructure federal agencies, or in some cases eliminate them, with the goal of improving efficiency.

It's no small job.

Musk's work with Trump could benefit Tesla

Some of the shareholders BI spoke to said they believe Musk's involvement in the Trump administration could help reduce the regulations that Tesla must navigate, paving the way for technological advancements and generally making life easier for the company.

Anthony L. Gurino, a Tesla shareholder from Long Island, said he sees Musk's position easing the "red tape around autonomous driving." The technology is currently approved on a state-by-state basis and Musk has said he'd push to create a national approval process for fully autonomous vehicles.

Patrick O'Connell, a Tesla shareholder who started investing in 2013, said he went "all in" on the stock in 2019. He told BI he hopes Musk's new role will ease regulations and could help with brand awareness.

Philip Engberg, a Tesla shareholder in Denmark, said that under the Biden administration, it seemed like there was a "lot of political will against" Musk's companies and the technology they were trying to develop.

Despite being the top EV seller in the US, Tesla was famously not invited to President Joe Biden's EV summit in 2021. When asked at a press conference if Tesla's exclusion was due to not having a unionized workforce, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she would let people come to their "own conclusion."

"Now the outlook is that is completely gone," Engberg said.

Faced with increased competition and slowing growth across the EV market, Tesla reported its first year-over-year car sales decline in January. However, Telsa isn't the only car company to face declining sales, and the EV giant recently reached a new milestone, outselling Audi globally for the first time in 2024.

Wall Street appears optimistic about Tesla's fortune during the Trump administration. Tesla shares are up nearly 70% since the election, and some on Wall Street expect them to rise higher still. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas recently raised his price target from $400 to $430 and revised his bull case to $800.

Craig Irwin, a managing director and senior research analyst at Roth Capital Partners who recently changed his Tesla buy status from neutral to "buy," told BI that he estimates that "the pool of Tesla enthusiasts" has doubled since Trump's reelection.

"Right now, you have technology-oriented conservative fighters that are going to say, 'You know, I think Elon Musk is a cool guy — let's go see what this Tesla car is about,'" Irwin said.

Not all shareholders are convinced that Musk's affiliation with Trump will have a positive impact on Tesla. John VonBokel, a shareholder who voted against Musk's pay package the second time, said he "can't make sense" of why Tesla's share price has gone up so much.

"Certainly Trump is not going to go in there and write code to make FSD better," VonBokel said, referencing Tesla's Full-Self-Driving beta software, which requires drivers to be ready to take control of the vehicle at any moment. VonBokel said he sees it as a "classic situation of the market seems to think this is worth more than I think it's worth."

Charlie Redmond, a Tesla shareholder since 2017, told BI that he doesn't see the relationship with Trump lasting more than six months. He said the main benefit he sees from Musk's involvement would be convincing Trump to keep the EV tax break, which Trump has talked about getting rid of. Musk has also said he supports ending the credits.

Tesla shareholder and investing author Kiana Danial also said she sees the relationship likely falling apart at some point. If that were to happen, Danial said Musk has "always been unpredictable" and she believes any stock dip in the short term could be regained.

'Musk has shown that he can multitask brilliantly'

Some of the Tesla shareholders told BI they believe the second shareholder vote approving Musk's pay package galvanized support for him as the company's leader. Engberg told BI he thinks retail shareholder support "is the greatest it has ever been."

"Musk is Tesla, and Tesla is Musk," Wedbush analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives told BI, adding that the court battle has "become a soap opera" and he expects Tesla to win its appeal at the Supreme Court level given "overwhelming" shareholder approval of the pay package.

In addition to some shareholders being invigorated by the Tesla shareholder vote and Trump's victory following Musk's endorsement and fundraising, a majority of the investors and analysts BI spoke to said Musk has proven his ability to take on multiple projects at once.

"Musk has shown that he can multitask brilliantly," said Irwin of Roth Capital Partners.

David Abrams, a Tesla shareholder who started investing in the company about three years ago, told BI he thinks Musk's involvement in politics could have some level of impact on his focus on the company. However, he said Musk has "proven over the years that multitasking is one thing that he is undeniably good at."

"He keeps throwing stuff under his plate and you would think at some point the focus would go away," Redmond said.

Abrams said that while Musk may be spread thin, his companies likely have enough people in place that they can "largely run on their own." Other shareholders also said that at this stage of the company, Musk doesn't need to be involved in every step.

"Elon's an important leader, but it's about delegating and he's really good at that," Tesla shareholder Larry Winer told BI.

Tesla and Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Alexandra Merz, a staunch Tesla advocate and shareholder who goes by the username "TeslaBoomerMama" on X, said the company hasn't relied on his constant attention to run the business "for a long time."'

"He doesn't need to be the one opening factory doors in the morning," Merz told BI, adding that he doesn't turn "every bolt in every rocket" at SpaceX either.

Others pointed to DOGE's seemingly limited timeframe. Merz told BI that she is "in no way concerned" that Musk will be involved with the government for decades.

"Keep in mind that DOGE is set to expire on July 4, 2026," Tesla shareholder Cianna Swartz told BI.

Are you a Tesla shareholder? Reach out to the reporter at [email protected]

• Startup CTO Arun Prasad Jaganathan has been in the US for almost 14 years, mainly on an H-1B Visa.
• He said the application process isn't easy and companies don't sponsor applicants to fill spaces.
• The system has flaws, but there are misconceptions about H-1B employees contributing to the economy.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with
Arun Prasad Jaganathan, CTO of workforce platform Jugl. He is from Coimbatore, India, and now lives in Prosper, Texas. His identity, work experience, and visa status have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I have been in the US for almost 14 years. I built most of my career here. I have my family here. I have my home here. So it would be tough for me to shift back to India and build something from there.

I wanted to come to the US to experience the technology innovation firsthand. The US adapts technology faster than anywhere in the world.

I completed my computer science and engineering degree in India and got an offshore position at global tech services company Cognizant. Eventually, they wanted me to come to New York because they felt like my presence in the US would help them build a better product and train them to scale their processes. So I came in on an L-1B visa, which is for an intra-company transfer to help on a project. Then, I applied for the H-1B Visa.

H-1B is mainly for high-skilled workers. It helped me gain more product and business knowledge because it gave me first-hand experience working with US businesses.

I'm in the process of acquiring permanent residency now, but the H1-B visa has helped me grow from my role at Cognizant to lead and architect at nThrive to managing advanced technology projects at KPMG. Now, I am leading technology and product for the startup Jugl.

It's not easy to get

To get the H-1B Visa, I needed to show a lot of documentation, including my degree, résumé, and job offer. I also needed a very good support letter from the client my company served, arguing the need for me to be placed in that location. The first time, I also had to go for an interview with a US Citizenship and Immigration Services officer once the documents were submitted.

Every three years, you have to go through the same process. If there was no premium processing, which costs more, it took around three to six months to get my renewal. With premium processing, it takes about two weeks.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services scrutinizes every application. Companies don't hire H1-B talent just to fill spaces. They are very cautious about whom they sponsor for H-1B and they make sure that it's the top talent.

There are also regular audits from USCIS. They come and visit the companies and interview them. They audit employees. They ask questions to make sure they are placed in the same roles that they were submitted in the application.

The system has flaws — but there are misconceptions

The H-1B Visa system isn't perfect. However, I would not agree with the misconception I've heard that the H-1B visa is causing job losses. Any process will have loopholes, and they're working toward fixing them, but how fast they are going to do it is a question of the administration and other government functions.

Another argument is that H-1B employees don't contribute to the economy because they don't pay taxes. H-1 B employees pay taxes and insurance, have 401Ks and IRAs, and contribute back to the economy because they buy homes and cars and invest here in the US. I have a home, wife, and kids. I trained people already in the US. I helped them gain knowledge, build teams, develop products, and grow companies.

USCIS is making adjustments. The lottery system is little bit more difficult now because it's not just about skill level, it's more about luck. Now, because there is a lottery system, people with better skills might be frustrated.

In the last couple of years, many people were applying through different companies for a higher chance of getting picked in the H-1B lottery. USCIS understood this was happening, so they updated their system.

There is still room for improvement. For example, USCIS increased wages H-1B employees have to make and also increased sponsorship fees. The downside to it is companies have less incentive to hire.

With the startup I work for now, if we cannot find the talent we are looking for in the US, we have to hire H-1B candidates. But at the early stages of startup, it is a higher cost for us to hire H-1B workers. The H-1B process involves paying the attorney and legal fees as overhead, in addition to the high salary we need to pay compared to local talent.

Now other countries are catching up, like China and India. If H-1B is becoming tougher for workers they're going to open startups where they can build those products. Or, multinational corporates are going to open centers in locations where they can find people like in India, Mexico, Canada, and many other places.

• 22-year-old Tabitha Snavely evacuated her apartment ahead of the Palisades wildfire.
• Snavely, who works multiple jobs, said many in her building were blue-collar workers or older people.
• She evacuated to her parents' house and told BI she needs to find a new place to live that is closer to work.

This as-told-to essay is based on interviews with Tabitha Snavely, a 22-year-old living in the Palisades. Her identity and employment has been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm 22 years old, and I live alone in a rented medium-sized apartment building in the Palisades. I've lived in California my whole life so this isn't my first time dealing with a fire.

On Tuesday night, I woke up to the alert of an evacuation. I had about 45 minutes to pack and feed my dog really quickly because I didn't know when we'd be in a safe area. As I was packing up, I started smelling smoke in my unit. As soon as I started smelling the smoke, I was like, "OK, I need to leave now."

I threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbed my dog, loaded up my car, and started driving. I grabbed everything that I had the instinct to get out in an emergency, like my phone, laptop, some clothes.

When I pulled out of the parking garage, I could see so much smoke and then hundreds of cars trying to get out. Luckily, I am closer to the Pacific Coast Highway, so I was able to get out pretty quick.

I evacuated to San Diego. My family thought it was a better idea for me to evacuate here with them than to go to a friend's in Santa Monica or Hollywood because as the fire keeps growing, more people seem to keep getting evacuated.

The aftermath

I saw on the Watch Duty app on Wednesday that my apartment building was in a bright red zone — indicating it was in the path of the fire. My unit specifically is tucked away on the inside of the building, so I was hoping that not everything in my unit was demolished.

I planned to check on it over the weekend. Now, I've seen news footage showing my street and buildings that burned, including my apartment building.

Everything I left behind may now be gone: photos, books, my college diploma. I had my great-grandmother's quilt that she made for me before she passed away. I also had a set of plates and mugs that my grandma gave to me when she died. A lot of my things are thrifted or are hand-me-downs so they're not easily replaceable.

At the same time, my parents are selling their house, so the place I could stay for evacuation, although it isn't close to my job, is very temporary. I feel like a floater with nowhere to go because I don't want to impose on my friends too long without a secure plan for where to go.

A lot of my friends live in Santa Monica, Brentwood, or Malibu, and they have been starting to get evacuated now, but some of them have been able to return to their homes.

I'm close with a lot of the older people who have lived in the Palisades for decades. I would hang out with them at the coffee shops for hours. I don't know how any of them are doing because many of them only have home phones and not cellphones.

I have a hard time feeling at home, but this apartment finally felt like home. I loved everything about it.

It's not only wealthy people living in the Palisades

I know also that a lot of people think that the Palisades is very wealthy, but I don't feel rich. I have multiple jobs. A lot of the people in my building are blue-collar workers, and there are a lot of older people in the Palisades.

I work at a coconut water company, which allowed me to work remotely for the next week before returning in person. I also am a personal assistant for someone who owns a film production company, which also gave me the week off.

Luckily, I have renter's insurance, but I don't know where I will be living. Airbnb has offered a free week to people who have lost their homes, but I filled out the form and haven't heard anything back yet.

I have friends who have offered their couches for me to sleep on while I figure out what to do next, but I still do not have a definitive plan because I've been so scatterbrained since the fire evacuation alert woke me up.

I think we need to keep more compassion alive at this time because online, I've been seeing a lot of people say that the Palisades is very rich and they can all just afford to rebuild.

No one deserves to lose their home.

• Tesla launched a redesigned Model Y in China with a revamped Cybertruck-like look.
• Tesla recently reported a year-over-year sales decline amid EV-market challenges.
• Tesla is taking an Apple-like approach by iterating on a product rather than creating a new one.

Tesla's new Model Y in China has a Cybertruck-like design, a noticeable change that could be just what Tesla needs to refresh its aging car lineup.

Tesla's new Model Y has a redesigned exterior along with updated suspension, wheels, and tires. The company says it's also quieter and more efficient, and it has an 8-inch rear touchscreen.

The company says the car includes "soft-touch textiles" to give passengers the feeling that they're "floating in space," drawing inspiration from other futuristic Tesla designs.

It's not far off from Tesla's Model 3 redesign in 2023, which introduced a more luxurious and minimalist aesthetic. It similarly featured a quieter cabin and a rear screen.

The front end was made sleeker with slimmer headlights and a new wheel design. The dashboard and steering wheel were also redesigned.

While the new Model Y's design isn't nearly as radical as the Cybercab's or the Cybertruck's, that might be intentional. Sometimes drastically changing the look of a vehicle can be polarizing.

One Cybertruck driver told BI that he'd owned all Tesla models but faced negative reactions on the road only with his Cybertruck. The driver, a YouTuber, also said a sponsor declined to be featured in a video with his truck because of its polarizing nature.

The refreshed model is still likely to generate conversation about Tesla's most popular vehicle, one of the best-selling cars. It could stick out on the road and broadcast that drivers are in the latest Tesla, which may help boost sales or convince existing Model Y owners to upgrade.

It's similar to Apple's approach with the iPhone, in which the company has opted to enhance its models rather than build a new product line. Like Apple, Tesla offers frequent over-the-air software updates. When it comes to hardware updates, Tesla often offers a revamped design and features rather than a new vehicle.

Last week, Tesla reported its first year-over-year sales decline. The car giant said it sold about 1.79 million cars in 2024, slightly fewer than the 1.8 million it sold in 2023. While Tesla's fourth-quarter deliveries increased by more than 11,000 from the prior year, they fell short of analysts' expectations.

It's been a challenging time for the EV industry, which has slowed in the past couple of years because of factors including limited charging infrastructure and a lack of affordable options. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration adds uncertainty to the landscape, as he has vowed to eliminate EV tax credits.

The Model Y refresh in China comes at a pivotal moment for Tesla. It's facing increasing pressure from competitors like BYD, which has experienced surging demand and is challenging Tesla's dominance in the country.

While the new model hasn't launched in the US, it's giving investors something to look forward to in 2025, in addition to a lineup of cheaper EVs.

• California fires have led people to turn to apps, security cameras, and social media accounts for real-time updates.
• The Watch Duty wildfire maps app said it added over 1 million new users in recent days.
• Residents are also using security apps like Ring to check in on their homes and discuss updates in forums.

As California fires spread across the Los Angeles region, residents are turning to online resources and smartphone app communities to track the blazes and find up-to-date information on their impact.

Along with the Watch Duty wildfire maps app, people are using security apps like Google Nest and Ring to check footage of their homes and communicate in forums.

Others are sharing resources and information in subreddits and on social media platforms.

Watch Duty

Watch Duty describes itself as a wildfire mapping and alert service "powered by real people giving you real-time information vetted by trained professionals, not robots."

The app, which was developed by a nonprofit company and isn't government-affiliated, is free to use with the option to pay $25 for a yearly membership that unlocks additional counties and places of interest. There's also a web-based version.

Adam Wood, a 45-year-old film producer, director, and editor, living in North Hollywood, helped his friend evacuate from Pasadena and said he used the app to track the fires. He told BI it helped him assess whether his friend's area was likely to have been impacted, although they don't know if his house is still standing.

"People are hungry for granular information, and the fire department and other emergency agencies just don't have the capacity to supply that when there's multiple fires happening in the same area," Watch Duty's VP of operations, Nick Russell, told Business Insider.

The app provides users with push notification alerts and a geospatial look into what's going on around them with flame icons, evacuation zones, and information about surface winds. It focuses on providing real-time information about fires from over 200 volunteers and 12 paid employees, including retired firefighters, dispatchers, and first responders. The reporters use "radio scanners, wildfire cameras, satellites, and other public sources" to monitor and verify risks, the company said on its website.

"Our team is constantly getting signals, both from authoritative and third-party services," Russell told BI. "And then we're disseminating that through radio traffic and validating."

Ring and other home-security apps

Security app users have shared experiences of watching their homes being burned down from the app's camera footage.

Zibby Owens, a writer, shared to social media on Wednesday footage from her Google Nest camera of parts of her Palisades property in flames.

Some have also used the "Neighbors" forum on the Amazon-owned Ring app to share information about the fires.

"Fire close to Mandeville Canyon (photo from 9:50PM), seems to be going rapidly toward South," one user posted last night with a photo.

The app has also released information about the wildfires and dedicated a tab to resources for impacted residents called "California Wildfire Information." The page includes shelter locations, where to find food in LA County, what to pack, and wildfire smoke tips. It also links over a dozen resources including media updates, Airbnb temporary housing details, and a list of school closures.

The Ring Neighbors team also released a statement in the app about the wildfires with links to help those impacted, including organizations like The American Red Cross, the California Community Fund, and California Fire Relief.

Social media

In addition to people posting stories, photos, and videos about their experiences with the wildfire, specific accounts are also being used to inform people about up-to-date information.

Facebook users are active in groups like Calfire Updates, which has over 300,000 members. The group dedicates posts to firefighters, shares information about damage, and discusses the fires. Other groups, like California Wildfires Information ALERT, post evacuation notices and resources for those who have fled impacted areas.

Local police, fire departments, and emergency services have been sharing information on their dedicated social media pages, such as the Los Angeles Fire Department account on X or the City of Pasadena account on Facebook.

Local community forums on Reddit

People are also turning to community subreddits like r/PacificPalisades and r/Pasadena to share updates and discuss wildfire damage. Some posts have offered practical tips for evacuees, such as suggestions to film the contents of their homes before leaving for insurance purposes if they have time to do so.

One user named OnerKram17, has dedicated two days to monitoring police and fire scanners, providing frequent updates in the r/PacificPalisades subreddit in between what they said was a few hours of sleep.

Others have taken on similar roles, posting about power lines that are blocking off crossings or potentially false alarms for fires.

• Multiple blazes raged out of control in Los Angeles and Southern California Wednesday.
• Business Insider spoke with three residents about their experiences fleeing the scene.
• They called it terrifying, devastating, and apocalyptic.

The fires storming through Los Angeles and Southern California have left over 1,000 structures burned, at least two people dead, and tens of thousands of others displaced as they heed mandatory evacuation orders.

Business Insider spoke with three people who encountered the devastating impacts of the blaze firsthand. Their words have been edited for length and clarity.

'I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go'

Alisa Wolfson, a journalist, lives in the Palisades with her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 10. They evacuated to a friend's home and then the Beverly Hilton before losing their home in the fire.

My husband and I both grew up in the Palisades and bought our home there in 2018. My mom's still there, too. We love our neighborhood, and there's a strong sense of community. There's a reason that it's impossible to buy in and that Bill Hader lives on our street. It was like a storybook — too good to be true.

I was sitting in my home office Tuesday looking out the window when a girlfriend called me to see if I had heard that there was a fire nearby. I looked up and saw a little thing of smoke, but I thought we'd be fine. Within 10 minutes, it grew beyond what I ever thought was possible. I went out to the street and could see that the nearby hillside was engulfed in flames. I called my husband at work and said, "You need to come home right now."

Very quickly, it turned into all of our neighbors on the street throwing things in their cars and driving off. It was terrifying. I grabbed our dog Gus and just as I was leaving, my neighbor across the street called and asked me to pick up her dog since she wasn't home. I went back into my house, got her key, and put her dog in the car.

A friend whose daughter goes to the same school as mine picked our girls up, and we met at her house, which was just outside the evacuation zone. We put all the dogs in the yard, and the girls played with their friends. I thought we'd just camp out for a few hours — but then things started to look terrible really quickly. Around 1 p.m., my husband borrowed our friend's e-bike and rode to our house to see if there was anything he could do and to grab a few things left behind. He saw tons of smoke, firemen, and the hillsides burning — it was really wild.

We stayed at our friend's house until they lost power, then checked into the Beverly Hilton. It was like all of West Los Angeles had descended upon the hotel — it took 40 minutes just to pull into the driveway.

We paid $560 for the night for a room with two beds, which doesn't seem outrageous to me. They've been wonderful here. They greeted everyone in line, handing out water bottles. Henry Winkler was checking in ahead of me, and Cisco Adler's here. It's like a real LA tale. My mom is staying in the room next door with her dog — the number of dogs in this hotel right now is insane.

The front page of the LA Times featured a house on our street in flames. The images looked apocalyptic. Our daughters kept asking, "Is our house safe?" but we weren't sure.

This afternoon, a neighbor who rode his bike into the neighborhood confirmed it: We've lost our home. Our neighbors have been texting that they have too. I'm utterly devastated and in a state of shock, barely functional. I haven't been able to break the news to my daughters yet. I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go. Our entire town appears to be gone.

This isn't something that should be happening. People need to elect local officials who really care about the climate and do what's needed to prepare for or prevent events like this. Last night, my husband asked me, "Where do you think you want to spend the rest of your life?" We have family in Connecticut, and last night it crossed my mind — do we just bail and start fresh? I don't know. For now, we're just taking it hour by hour.

'It was like the apocalypse, in a way''

Katie Cassidy, an actor and close friend of Alisa Wolfson, lives three minutes away from Wolfson in the Palisades. On Tuesday afternoon, she and her significant other evacuated to her parents' home in another part of Los Angeles.

My significant other, who is Canadian, woke up around 10:15 a.m. and said, "Oh my gosh, this weather is so beautiful, and the wind is so nice," and I was like, "Oh no, wind is not good." I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I'm aware of fires and the Santa Ana winds, especially around this time of year.

I went outside and smelled smoke. My close friend Alisa lives up the street, so I called to check on her and her family. Moments later, firetruck after firetruck and helicopter after helicopter passed by. My gut knew that this was not good. I started to pack away our things and valuables.

We kept our eye on the situation. There were more helicopters and more smoke. The sky turned darker and red, and we started seeing ashes.

Around noon, my partner looked out the window and said, "Babe, there are people running down the streets with their suitcases and bags and kids and strollers." We threw everything in the car, brought our cats and dog, and left.

Luckily, my parents live in another part of Los Angeles, so we came here. We later saw on the news that the people we saw running down the street were people who'd abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard because they were stuck in traffic. It was really terrifying and devastating to see; it was like the apocalypse, in a way.

I wish I would've left earlier. I was trying to get a better gauge of what was going on and trying not to panic. People need to be aware and not be stubborn and stay in their homes thinking it'll never happen because it will; it's happened to me. I don't know if our house is still there, but if it isn't, it'll be the second home I've lived in that has burned to the ground in LA; my childhood home in Bell Canyon burned down in a fire some years after we sold it.

Even though my parents' place is safe at the moment, the winds can change. Our bags are packed, and we're ready to move with our fur babies when and if need be. At the end of the day, we're just grateful to be alive.

'There's only so much you can take'

Adam Wood, a 45-year-old film producer, director, and editor, lives in North Hollywood and helped his friend evacuate from Pasadena early Wednesday morning.

Everyone was aware there was a fire building in Altadena around late Tuesday afternoon, and we've had issues up there before. My friend has an urban farm up there that houses rabbits, pigs, and chickens. My thoughts and concerns were with him — if he had to get out, he'd need as much help as possible. I went over there in the early evening Tuesday to help.

At first, evacuators didn't think the fire would come down toward where we were, but at around 2:45 in the morning, we got the evacuation order through an alert on the phone. Then a fire official knocked on the door, and we had about half an hour to pack as much as we could, including a young pig, into the back of my friend's Tesla.

Thankfully, we got everyone out, and all the animals got out OK. My friend had already packed his documents and anything of physical value in his wife's SUV and his Tesla. The chickens were huddled together in one cage, and the rabbits were also hutched in one of the cars.

His wife and two kids were also there, and they all took a bunch of personal items, a suitcase each, and some computers. Of course, there's only so much you can take. The cars were jam-packed, but much of their personal property had to be left behind.

As we drove away, it was pretty hectic given that it was a rush and the whole neighborhood was also leaving at the same time. Thankfully it wasn't replicable to the scenes in the Palisades where people abandoned their cars. But the glow of the fires was visible on the horizon, and smoke filled the air.

He lives in a very nice house, and God knows if that still exists.

Now, there is the Woodley fire, which is closer to my home, so we are keeping a watchful eye on my place and hoping we won't need to evacuate ourselves.

• Mark Zuckerberg said Meta would loosen some policies in an effort to avoid limiting free speech.
• It'll remove restrictions on topics like gender, meaning users may see more-controversial opinions.
• The policy shift is expected to change how your Facebook, Instagram, and Threads feeds appear.

Don't be surprised if your Instagram or Facebook feed looks different as Mark Zuckerberg's overhaul of Meta's moderation policies rolls out in the coming weeks.

In addition to replacing its third-party fact-checking system with community notes similar to Elon Musk's X, Meta is looking to change things up with a return to promoting political content. Other changes include eliminating restrictions on topics like immigration or gender and shifting enforcement policies on lower-severity violations.

"We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the changes.

So what will Facebook, Instagram, and Threads look like with the changes? Based on Zuckerberg's comments, this is how your feed could appear different.

You'll likely see a wider range of views — including controversial ones

In the next few weeks, you may notice more-controversial content in your feeds.

In an announcement about the changes, Meta said that it "removed millions of pieces of content" daily in December and that "one to two out of every 10" of those may not have violated its policies.

Meta said that to try to reduce instances of accidentally removing content through its automated moderation tools, it would remove restrictions on frequent topics in political conversations and debates including "immigration, gender identity, and gender."

"It's not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms," the company said.

What does that mean in practice? An update on Tuesday to Meta's "Hateful Conduct" policy offers more detail.

"We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation," it says, "given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird.'"

Less-severe violations won't be reviewed unless people report those posts

Meta said it would loosen its guidelines around enforcement of policy violations and raise the bar for content removal.

The company said its automated systems had "resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored" and demoted content thought to violate its guidelines.

Meta said that moving forward it would focus on addressing "illegal and high-severity violations," including those related to terrorism, child sexual exploitation, and drugs.

It said that for "less severe policy violations" it would rely on users to report the content before it considers taking action. Meta said that it would also eliminate most demotions and that it would require a "much higher degree of confidence" and consensus from multiple reviewers to remove content.

You'll see more political content

Following what it described as feedback from people who didn't want to see political content in their feeds, Facebook announced changes in 2021 designed to reduce how much of that content users saw, including content about elections or social issues.

In Tuesday's announcement, the company described that approach as "pretty blunt" and said it would start recommending political content again on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. It said it would take a "more personalized approach" by ranking and showing content based on users' interactions with other content, such as liking a post.

"We are also going to recommend more political content based on these personalized signals and are expanding the options people have to control how much of this content they see," it said.

In 2022, Meta said political content made up about 3% of posts on Facebook. So the change doesn't necessarily mean your feed will be flooded with political news and content — but it may be an increase from what you've seen in recent years.

You won't see fact-check notes anymore — instead, you'll sometimes see community notes

Part of the shift focuses on reversing moderation changes that the Meta executive Joel Kaplan said resulted in "harmless content" being removed and people "wrongly locked up in 'Facebook jail.'"

Meta said it would end its third-party fact-checking program, implemented in 2016, and launch a community-notes program allowing contributors to add context to content.

Meta said it would no longer demote fact-checked content or include full-screen warnings that users have to click through before viewing a post. It said they'd instead see "a much less obtrusive label" indicating they can see additional content.

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from Business Insider.