• Blue Origin announced its all-women space crew, including Gayle King and Katy Perry.
• This mission marks the first all-female crew since 1963, led by Jeff Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez.
• The 11-minute journey will use Blue Origin's reusable, autonomous New Shepard rocket.

Jeff Bezos' fiancée is headed to space.

Helicopter pilot and former journalist Lauren Sánchez will lead an all-women crew, including "CBS Mornings" cohost Gayle King and pop star Katy Perry lifting off to space this spring on a Blue Origin spaceship.

The six-person crew will also include research scientist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Sánchez "brought the mission together," Blue Origin announced on Thursday.

"She is honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come," it added.

The 11-minute journey will take a six-person crew past the Kármán line, which is the "internationally recognized boundary of space." Blue Origin says it will be the first all-female flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova's flight to space in 1963. It marks the 11th human flight with Blue Origin's New Shepard program, which uses Blue Origin's reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight. The rocket is fully autonomous with no pilots.

Sánchez is following in Bezos' footsteps with the launch.

The first passengers of the New Shepard program included Bezos and his younger brother Mark Bezos, who owns a private equity firm and volunteers as a firefighter. The crew had about three minutes to float around before gravity pulled them back toward the ground.

"I'll tell you something very interesting: zero gravity feels very natural. I don't know if it's because it's like a return to the womb," Bezos later said in a podcast interview.

Bezos also said that the crew on his flight experienced the overview effect — or overwhelming feelings that astronauts can experience when viewing the Earth from space.

"You see how fragile the Earth is. If you're not an environmentalist, it will make you one," he added.

However, in a later flight, "Star Trek" actor William Shatner also flew up to space with Blue Origin's New Shepard program and had a less pleasant experience. Shatner wrote in his book that it was a dark experience for him that "felt like a funeral," and he experienced "the strongest feelings of grief" during the trip.

"I love the mystery of the universe," he wrote. "All of that has thrilled me for years…but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold...all I saw was death."

"I had a different experience because I discovered that the beauty isn't out there, it's down here, with all of us," the actor wrote. "Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound."

Blue Origin is an aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight company headquartered in Washington. It's owned by Bezos and currently headed by former Amazon exec Dave Limp. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 and has said it's his "most important work.

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp said a stint at his company is a sure sign of technical expertise nowadays.
• Some tech recruiters agree Palantirians are top-notch hires, while others argue results matter more than the company.
• "No doubt, Palantir is a strong hiring signal, but the idea of a golden ticket in tech is outdated," one expert told BI.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp talks a big game when it comes to his employees.

He's boasted on several occasions that Palantirians, as the company refers to employees, are the crème de la crème of tech workers.

"If you work for Palantir, everyone knows you're good," Karp said on CNBC's Squawk Box on February 18.

"No credible institution in commercial life can really be built without Palantir or an ex-Palantirian," Karp has also said.

The company, which reported just under 4,000 full-time employees as of December 2024, recently hit an all-time high in its stock and brought in $2.87 billion in revenue in 2024. Following its most recent earnings report, Palantir hit a $240 billion market cap, surpassing companies like McDonald's and Disney. It hasn't only been clear skies, however, as Palantir's share price is down nearly 30% from its all-time closing high earlier this month.

So do the people hiring from the tech talent pool buy Karp's glowing view of Palantirians?

Business Insider spoke to half a dozen tech recruiting professionals to find out if having Palantir on your résumé is as powerful as Karp has made it sound.

The Goldman Sachs of tech

Deepali Vyas, a senior Partner and global head of data, AI, and FinTech at global consulting firm Korn Ferry told BI she can "absolutely say that he's right," and she considers Palantir the Goldman Sachs of the tech industry.

"I've pulled people from Palantir," Vyas said. "They are a home run every single time."

While she said Palantir employees tend to work long hours, the company has a "very hands-on culture" that allows even junior employees to work alongside the "brightest minds" at the company. Vyas said having that proximity helps create a certain level of training.

Vyas said another factor that makes Panatir stand out is its ability to recruit people who are passionate about their work.

"There's something in the sauce there," Vyas said. "They want to work on the complex problems because that's what excites them."

Jason Saltzman, Director of Growth at Live Data Technologies, a company that tracks employment changes, told BI that "Palantir seems to be the stop on people's career journey that accelerates them the most." Almost a quarter of former product managers at Palantir have since become founders, he said.

Ex-Palantir employees also tend to end up at a big tech company or "one of the hottest startups," Saltzman said. Google and Meta as well as Anduril and OpenAI employ many former Palantir workers, he told BI.

"Not only is Palantir a rubber stamp on someone's résumé that allows them to go onto whatever they do next, but also many of them want to go solve the world's biggest problems that are shaping the future as we know it, either by joining a company or starting their own," Saltzman said.

Some say Karp could be overstating things

Aaron Sines, director of technical recruiting at global cloud consulting firm Edison & Black, told BI that there's some truth to Karp's statement, but overall he's seeing a "results revolution" among companies, where outcomes are placed above academic credentials and company names.

"My team tells me all the time results are almost always coming over academic credentials," Sines told BI.

Natan Fisher, the cofounder and co-CEO of tech and legal recruiting firm SingleSprout, similarly told BI that companies want to know how employees "operated under constraints, and whether they can drive impact in their environments."

"No doubt, Palantir is a strong hiring signal, but the idea of a golden ticket in tech is outdated," Fisher said, adding that "the real hiring market doesn't reward brand names alone, it rewards execution and adaptability — who built what and scaled systems at speed."

Fisher said that tech companies often seek to hire from "multiple high-caliber" talent pools such as Ramp, Stripe, Linear, and Notion, adding that they aren't clients of his.

Sines said that Palantir has a reputation for seeking out top talent and having a "rigorous" and "results-oriented" hiring strategy. However, he said that while it carries a "badge of honor," for some clients, it may signal too much intensity for others. It depends on how companies perceive culture, Sines said.

Farah Sharghi, a job search coach and former recruiter at tech companies including Google, Lyft, Uber, and TikTok, said that while Palantir's hiring process is "very stringent," a good employee at Palantir may not be a good employee everywhere else because "there might be some nuances to some companies versus others in terms of cultural fit."

"A Palantir engineer who's used to working on some particular type of technology might not thrive in another different size company or different cultural company," Sharghi said. "So it's really subjective relative to what the company does, what their needs are, and so on."

While culture may vary across tech companies, Sharghi says the guiding philosophy when it comes to hiring is largely the same across the board.

"They're not looking for breadth of experience," she said. "They're looking for technical depth of experience."

Alan Stein, the CEO of career-accelerating service Kadima Careers, told BI that "Palantir is a good brand name," but although it was considered, it didn't make his list of the top 100 companies that will accelerate your career.

"I don't think that's as impressive as some of the other companies," he said.

Stein, who has worked at several Big Tech companies, including Google and Meta, said that while Palantir candidates can definitely leverage their experience into data, engineering, or government roles, it doesn't have the same brand recognition as some other bigger companies, or Ivy League institutions like Harvard.

"My hunch is more people would prefer four years of Harvard on their résumé," Stein said.

• "Tesla Takedown" protests have happened in cities around the country in opposition to Elon Musk's DOGE work.
• Protesters are calling for Tesla owners to sell their stock and cars. Some owners have seen their vehicles vandalized.
• Tesla's stock price taken a hit this month and some shareholders told BI they want to sell their shares.

Criticism of Elon Musk has spilled out from the virtual walls of social networks and into the streets.

Demonstrators have gathered in cities around the US in recent days and weeks to participate in "Tesla Takedown" protests of varying sizes. Meanwhile, some Tesla owners have said they have faced insults or vandalism amid the Musk criticism.

Participants of the protests have called for a boycott of the EV giant in response to Musk's involvement with the Trump administration and DOGE's efforts to decrease the size of the federal workforce.

The "Tesla Takedown" effort started on BlueSky, a competitor to Musk's X platform, and now has a dedicated website. The site calls for Tesla owners to sell their vehicles and stock in an effort to "stop Musk now."

The website's organizer, "Bill & Ted" actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, wrote in a RollingStone op-ed that demonstrations have happened at over 100 Tesla showrooms and other locations.

Tesla owner and shareholder David Abrams told Business Insider he's heard about multiple protests but wasn't aware of the "takedown" effort specifically. Abrams said he added "Anti Elon Tesla Club" and "I Bought This Before Elon Went Crazy" stickers to his car window, and is hoping that's enough to keep it from getting vandalized.

"I absolutely want to sell my car and my shares," Abrams said, adding that he's waiting for the stock price to go up and would have sold his car already if it made financial sense.

While boycotts aren't always effective at materially impacting a company's bottom line, Wedbush analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives wrote in a Monday note that Musk's role in DOGE had a "visible perceived downside impact" on the company's stock. Tesla's share price has dropped this week after figures showed a 45% year-over-year drop in Tesla sales in Europe last month amid Musk's vocal support of Germany's far-right AfD party.

Musk addressed some of the protests while speaking at CPAC last week, calling them "fake rallies" with "hardly any people" and saying the demonstrations didn't have "popular support."

Here's a closer look at some of the protests and anti-Tesla vandalism attempts that have taken place in recent weeks in the US.

Demonstrators gathered in Seattle on Saturday to protest against Musk and Tesla

Protesters gathered at various entrances to the University Village shopping mall in Seattle, as well as outside the Tesla showroom at the mall. Some of the signs called to "boycott Tesla" and "defund Musk."

Protesters rallied in front of a Tesla dealership in Fort Lauderdale

Demonstrators gathered in a line on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale in front of the Tesla dealership on Saturday to protest Musk and his work with DOGE. Over 200 people gathered outside of the dealership, local publication Sun Sentinel reported on February 22.

Multiple protests happened in San Francisco

The above image shows protesters gathered on February 17 outside Tesla's Van Ness location in San Francisco. Demonstrators chanted "No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here."

Other protests have appeared outside Tesla showrooms on several occasions recently, some of which clipped posters to the glass doors.

Some of the protests have included stints with cardboard cutouts of Musk

A demonstration outside a Tesla dealership in Virginia on February 25 included an elevated cardboard cutout of Uncle Sam burning in a Cybertruck. Next to the cutout, a woman held a sign with the words "Nobody elected Elon!"

Protesters gathered outside a Tesla dealership in New Jersey

@hollowayryan2025 🚨 They don’t want you to see this. 🚨 We protested outside Tesla Cherry Hill because we’re DONE letting billionaires like Elon Musk and Donald Trump buy our democracy. Musk is pushing Trump’s agenda while crushing workers’ rights and platforming extremists. And we’re supposed to just take it? NOPE. 👀 Comment “🛑” if you’re over it. Share this to keep the momentum going. #ProtestTesla #NoToElon #NoToTrump #BanTheBillionaires #Indivisible #WorkersOverWealth #RejectTheRight #TakeBackDemocracy ♬ original sound - HollowayRyan2025

Rebecca Holloway, who posted the video, told BI that "people are fed up with the unchecked power of the ultra-wealthy" and are responding in their own way.

"The Tesla Takedown movement is about holding powerful people accountable — whether it's Elon Musk normalizing extremism or billionaires using their influence to shape our economy and politics to benefit themselves," Holloway, who posted the video, told BI.

Efforts to convince people to sell their Teslas were also seen in New York

A "sell your car" leaflet with a photograph of Musk's widely criticized gesture during a January 20th event celebrating Trump's election was spotted in Brooklyn.

Demonstrators also gathered in the Meatpacking neighborhood of New York City, and close to 300 demonstrators showed up outside the city at a Mount Kisko Tesla showroom to protest, News 12 Westchester reported.

An anti-Tesla ad made its way to a bus stop in London

London Guerrilla Ad-fare: #Tesla the #Swasticar ... from 0 to 1939 in just 3 seconds #Musk pic.twitter.com/y96FiQ5g1Z

— Peter Speetjens (@PeterBeirut) February 24, 2025

An ad at a London bus stop went viral on social media for displaying Musk in a Tesla with the caption "goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds."

Musk has responded to criticism of his January 20th gesture with jokes on X.

Some of the posters at protests refer to fascism, with posters at the Seattle protest labeled, "Make Nazis afraid again." Others say "Your Tesla paid for fascism."

Some Tesla owners have been subject to insults

Earlier today a group of people (elderly, at that) exited a BMW and as they walked past my Tesla, among other comments, called it a "Swastika car".

I also have seen several recent posts in San Diego of Teslas being randomly vandalized.

Since it appears fewer people than ideal… pic.twitter.com/lHHp6LDAYv

— Jed Bratt (@Jed_Bratt) February 26, 2025

"Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself how you can live with so much hate in your heart," Jed Bratt said in the post on X addressing Musk's critics.

At a Manhattan protest in Tesla's Meatpacking neighborhood, protesters shouted insults at Tesla vehicles, The Verge reported on Tuesday.

Some owners say their Teslas have been vandalized

One Tesla owner said he came back from a birthday dinner to writing on his car with an expletive aimed at Musk. While he was able to remove the writing, he said it still made him feel "violated" and want to get another truck.

@WholeMarsBlog @SawyerMerritt @Guylouis @elonmusk @Tesla_AI @realMeetKevin @Teslaconomics @Gfilche came back from my birthday dinner to this surprise. Sucks so bad when this happens to your truck even though it’s just a Permanent marker. Fortunately it came out with alcohol but… pic.twitter.com/GBpFsZKE0L

— DrT (@ariteymoorian) February 25, 2025

It's not the first time Teslas have been vandalized. In June, a 35-second video showing a fleet of Cybertrucks spray painted with expletives about Musk went viral.

• A WalletHub analysis found Mississippi spends the highest share of its median household income on groceries among US states.
• West Virginia and Arkansas ranked second and third, while New Jersey came in at No. 50 on the list.
• The three states that spend the lowest percentage on groceries also have the highest earnings.

Retail food prices have increased across the US, but Mississippians are arguably feeling it the most at the grocery store.

WalletHub, a personal finance platform, recently released an analysis examining the share of median income residents of US states allocate to groceries, and those in Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas are spending the highest percentages.

The company studied the prices of 26 common grocery items, including meat, dairy, fruits, and cleaning products, across all 50 states. It then combined the costs and compared them with the median household income in each state to identify where residents spend the highest proportion of their income on groceries.

Mississippi ranked No. 1 on the list for highest spending on groceries relative to income, with the cost of groceries reaching 2.64% of median monthly household income. West Virginia ranked No. 2 with 2.57%, and Arkansas ranked No. 3 with 2.49%.

You can hover over the map below to see the percentage of median monthly household income residents spend on groceries by state.

Despite Mississippi ranking highest on the list, the report said that "grocery prices in Mississippi are actually relatively low," with the state having the ninth lowest grocery prices in the US. WalletHub said in its findings that Mississippi is among the 10 least expensive states in 15 of the 26 products measured in the study, including items like margarine and dishwashing detergent.

However, a more significant factor is that Mississippi had the lowest median annual household income in the country, at $52,985 in 2022 dollars, per Census data spanning 2018 through 2022. That was well below the national median of $75,149.

"So even with relatively low grocery prices overall, Mississippians are spending a higher percentage of their income on groceries than people in any other state," WalletHub said.

WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo told Business Insider that the study compared the prices in each state to median annual income because it seemed to be a better indicator on a statewide basis than solely looking at grocery prices. Lupo said that the cost of grocery prices in New Jersey "won't mean anything to someone in West Virginia."

The report said that West Virginia is "around the middle or bottom of the country" for some of its grocery prices, although some products, like eggs and potatoes, tend to be more expensive. Still, West Virginia had the second-lowest median household income in the US, bringing in $55,217 annually.

Similarly, while Arkansas, which spends the third-highest percentage of its median income on groceries, is in the top 10 states with the cheapest groceries in the US, it has the third-lowest median household income, with $56,335 annually.

Meanwhile, New Jersey ranked No. 50 on the list, meaning its residents spend the lowest percentage of their income on groceries, with Maryland and Massachusetts placing right above it. All three states have the highest median annual household incomes in the country and spend between 1.5% and 1.54% of their median monthly household income on groceries.

Lupo suggested that those who want to see their spending go down should buy store-brand versions of products, buy in bulk, and look into reward programs for grocery stores they frequent. You should also budget carefully — and try to stick to it, Lupo said.

"That will keep you from splurging," Lupo said. "And most importantly, from making those impulse buys."

• Jon Flynn works in AI sales at Google, focusing on media, entertainment, and gaming.
• Flynn studied journalism and started his career in filmmaking before skilling up in engineering.
• He followed his passions and said his ability to communicate was the skill that got him the farthest.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 49-year-old Jon Flynn, a Google AI sales leader. His identity and employment have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I've always been a hobbyist in technology, but I'm an accidental technologist.

I started my career making music videos and commercials in southern Africa. Now, I help lead AI sales at Google in the telecom, media, entertainment, and gaming sectors within the North American market.

That means I'm responsible for a team of sellers and technical and product counterparts that are responsible for bringing the best of Google AI products into the arms of our customers, whether that is an eight-point or multifaceted solution that will be intricate to their business or a film-making process, or to a game customer service engine.

If you don't know exactly where you want to end up, don't sweat it. Some of the best journeys start without a map. Here's how I ended up where I am now.

I followed my passions

Initially I thought I was going to be a fireman. Then, I wanted to be a doctor. Then, I was planning to be a meteorologist, and eventually I went to school to be a photo journalist. Then, I wanted to get into the movie industry so I went to film school and did a master's degree in cinematography on the back of my journalism degree.

The road less traveled, the risky bet, that's where the magic happens.

"Fortune favors the bold" is a timeless saying for a reason. The people who change the game aren't the ones who wait for certainty. They're the ones who take the leap and figure it out on the way down.

The way that I was very fortunate in my career is that I've been able to zigzag to areas of passion.

Technology was always a passion of mine, so I always did it in my spare time. I had a computer in the family living room ever since I was single-digits years old. I learned to code and spoke in code poorly, but I can code. I was always the one who would fix the neighbor's computer, I was always the one who would build your friend's computer back in the day when we still built them. 

That never left me, and when I had downtime after working on a film project, I completed an engineering certification.

So I got accredited as an engineer with a Microsoft engineering certification and I got this job opportunity at a financial services company as an engineer.

It was really one of those crossroads. I was like, this seems like very much a 9-to-5 corporate kind of offer over here. Sure, it's stable and it's cool, but aren't I supposed to be this cool freewheeling make-music-videos, live-in-your-mom's-basement-until-you're-50 kind of guy?

That didn't seem too great either, though. So, I figured I would do both.

It opened my eyes to another thing I'm passionate about. From there I went into product and then from product into business and then into leadership. I ended up in an AI leadership role in the sports, media, and entertainment sector at Microsoft and then in the last year, moved to Google. 

I never went back holistically into being a content creator. I've created podcasts and I do those kinds of things, but it's a little bit different from what I thought I was going to be back when I finished school.

I find myself just as fortunate though because I get to work in the industry I'm super passionate about, in terms of getting to influence the way in which content is created and consumed.

A technology degree isn't everything

There's one constant thread between everything that I've done in my entire career from school, to being an engineer, to being a sales leader: conversation.

Getting a Microsoft data engineer certification is very functional, but with the advancements in AI, I think that the largest programming language in the world is English, or whatever your native tongue is.

The ability to translate technical complex things into conversational subject matters and hold someone's attention when we are surrounded by competing data points is a massively important skill. That has never ever left me on any step of the way that I've gone. Traditionally, technology people speak to technology people, which is such a miss because you become very myopic in your views.

When I'm looking for someone who's going to represent the products that we are building and the products that we want to get out into the hands of our customers, I'm not looking for someone who is a PhD.  I'm not looking for someone who is going to be up at 2 a.m. in the morning in their garage coding some Python script.

I'm looking for people who are articulate. I'm looking for people who are curious. I'm looking for people who are looking at technology the way our customers are looking at their technology.

A lot of people that I hire come from non-technical roles. They come from business-focused roles, project management-focused roles, and, quite frankly, some of them come from marketing and sales roles.

If you can articulate what we have in a product and how it's going to help you do your job easier, that's a super valuable skill — and none of that has any bearing on a technology-focused degree.

• Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe addressed weak guidance for 2025, citing uncertainty.
• Scaringe said tariffs and EV credit removal could impact pricing and the shift to electrification.
• President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

Despite beating expectations with its fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday, Rivian offered weak guidance for 2025 — and that's because of looming tariffs on automakers and eliminating EV credits.

"There's certainly a lot of uncertainty," Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in a CNBC interview published Thursday.

Scaringe said the company's 2025 outlook provides a "comprehensive view" of what could happen regarding tariffs and consumer incentives for purchasing EVs. He said tariffs and the removal of consumer incentives like the tax credit for new EVs "both ultimately have very similar effects."

The EV company released its fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday, doubling Wall Street's expectations for gross profit with a reported $170 million. It also outperformed forecasts in earnings per share and revenue.

However, its 2025 guidance fell short with projections of vehicle deliveries between 46,000 and 51,000. The high end of that estimate falls below Rivian's 2024 total deliveries of 52,000 EVs, and the midpoint of the range also misses Wall Street's estimate of about 55,000 vehicles.

In a previous interview with Business Insider, Scaringe shrugged off President Donald Trump's planned rollback of EV incentives, including the $7,500 tax incentive for EV purchases. He said although the EV industry faced a "high degree of uncertainty" in the next few years, Trump's plans to eliminate parts of the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act were "less impactful than people believe."

"I don't think removing a $7,500 credit is going to change the end state," he told BI. "The end state's still clear. It's still going to be electric."

Scaringe reaffirmed in the Thursday interview that his view that "the entirety of the automotive world is going to convert to electric" hasn't changed. The rate of that is still a question mark, though, and depends on how quickly the industry can create options for consumers.

Tariffs might not help either.

Trump shared plans on Tuesday to impose auto tariffs of around 25%. He's also threatened tariffs on imported goods from Canada and Mexico, which some analysts said could add an average of $2,700 to new car prices in the US.

While Rivian assembles its vehicles in the US, Scaringe said a number of tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers exist outside the country, and higher costs due to tariffs will "translate into pricing." Removing tax credits, which help make vehicles more affordable, would have a similar effect on pricing, Scaringe said.

"In both cases, they ultimately are going to impact a man and they ultimately are going to impact the rate at which consumers, you know, shift towards electrification," Scaringe said.

Scaringe said that the company is focusing on factors in its control, like cost efficiency, software improvements, and production of R2, which is set to launch in the first half of next year.

"We're certainly building, you know, building the resilience to respond to whatever ultimately happens in terms of trade policy and consumer credits," Scaringe said in the interview.

Rivian did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Salesforce's AI executive said having agency is "far more important" than learning to code.
• Jayesh Govindarajan defined agency as seeking out a problem and having the drive to solve it.
• Mark Zuckerberg similarly said he valued the ability to "go deep and do one thing really well."

For years, "learn to code" was the go-to advice for anyone wanting to break into a tech career — but Salesforce's head of AI engineering says another skill is more valuable these days.

"I may be in the minority here, but I think something that's far more essential than learning how to code is having agency," Jayesh Govindarajan, an executive vice president, said in an interview with Business Insider.

Govindarajan said that's because Salesforce is building "a system that can pretty much solve anything for you" but "just doesn't know what to solve."

"I think far more important than knowing how to code is having that agency and that drive to go get it built out," Govindarajan said.

The AI exec gave a hypothetical example of someone trying to solve a problem for College Possible, a nonprofit that helps students prepare for college and receives funding from Salesforce. Govindarajan said that someone could interview a counselor, see what they do on a daily basis, and then use an agentic AI system to "describe what you're trying to build and it'll give you a first draft of the solution." While that first draft may not be perfect, "you go take it to this counselor, have them play with it," and listen to their feedback and any critique, he said.

"Then you'd come back and you tweak it again. No code. You'd give it instructions in English. That's very possible," Govindarajan said.

The Salesforce exec said someone who has gone through this process has demonstrated two key things.

"One, agency to go seek out a problem to solve," Govindarajan said. "And two, learn the tool set — that's a no-code tool set or a low-code tool set — to be able to go get the job done."

In that hypothetical example, once the counselor is interested in actually buying the proposed solution, a more experienced coder could then be brought in to sharpen up the edges and fine-tune the software product.

Govindarajan's remarks offer a look into how the world of software development and sales is evolving in the age of AI.

Since the emergence of AI tools such as GitHub Copilot or Amazon CodeWhisperer, several coding tasks have been automated, creating uncertainty in a once-stable industry and new challenges for some younger entrants looking to break into software engineering.

During Google's third-quarter earnings call in October, CEO Sundar Pichai said more than a quarter of new code at the company was generated by AI, though it was still reviewed and accepted by employees. Other tech giants have similarly integrated AI into coding tasks. One Microsoft manager told BI that AI helped him cut down the time he spent on coding tasks by about 70%.

Even as coding becomes increasingly automated, some industry leaders believe learning the basics continues to be necessary, arguing that it's more important than ever to understand the fundamentals of technology in order to build on it.

Other industry leaders seem to be leaning in the direction that soft skills could be what sets candidates apart.

Mark Zuckerberg said in a July interview with Bloomberg that he believed the most important skill was "learning how to think critically and learning values when you're young."

"If people have shown that they can go deep and do one thing really well, then they've probably gained experience in, like, the art of learning something," Zuckerberg said in the interview, discussing what he looked for in job candidates.

The CEO said that skill applies to situations that could arise during a career at Meta, and it's key to showcase your ability to dive deep and master whatever you're working on.

Or, as Govindarajan may put it: using the tools at your disposal to get stuff done.

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Trump is "brilliant" at rejecting paradigms that lead to "stupid" outcomes.
• In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box," he suggested that those wanting to be builders do the same.
• Karp also addressed critics of Elon Musk's DOGE methods, saying the left should seek to engage with him.

Alex Karp, Palantir's cofounder and CEO, said President Donald Trump doesn't accept paradigms leading to "stupid" outcomes — and it's something he does "very, very well."

"He's quite brilliant at this," Karp, who said he'd identified as a Democrat for most of his life, said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.

Karp made the remarks when asked about early US talks with Russia about negotiations to end the Ukraine war and Trump's past comments that he wanted to secure $500 billion worth of rare earth minerals from Ukraine. Karp said it was an example of Trump rejecting a paradigm.

"So what I see is he's like, 'I'm not accepting a paradigm where America just keeps financing things, there's no real discussion," Karp said.

The Palantir CEO said those who wanted to be builders could take a lesson out of Trump's playbook.

"Do not accept a paradigm that is stupid, no matter who tells you that you should have it," Karp said.

The Palantir CEO said Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, was "the most important builder in the world" and criticized the way many on the political left had responded to Musk's efforts to cut down on "fraud, waste, and abuse." Karp said people should want to know where their taxpayer dollars are going, and those with questions about Musk's methods should engage in discussion with him about it.

Labor unions and other groups have filed various lawsuits against DOGE's efforts to access government data, such as the Treasury Department's payment system, and significantly scale back the federal workforce. Some of the initiatives are on hold as the cases wind through the courts.

"What the progressive left should be doing is saying, 'OK, Elon you're clearly the most qualified person in the world to do something like this, we want to dialogue with you about how you're doing and what are you doing," Karp said, adding that he didn't think that was happening.

Karp previously voiced support for DOGE and has also been outspoken about issues such as antisemitism and denounced the 2024 college protests against Israel.

Palantir is a software company that provides AI solutions and data analytics for government and commercial entities. It has several government contracts, including with the Department of Defense and US Army.

Karp is on a press tour promoting a book he coauthored called "The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West." In it, he argues that the West has abandoned its sense of ambition and become complacent and that "Silicon Valley has lost its way."

Pushing back against those who may view the West as "inferior," the Palantir CEO said the world had entered a technological revolution driven by a "software-defined world" led by the US. To succeed, Karp said, countries need to have functional borders, militaries need to "be scary," and education systems have to work.

• Four former Google interns shared tips on securing their internships and converting to full-time employees.
• They emphasized preparing early on and aiming for underclassman-targeted internships.
• Some also suggested networking and asking questions, and pointers for dealing with imposter syndrome.

With internship application season in full swing, you might be wondering how to make the most of your summer fellowship — and how to turn it into a full-time offer.

Business Insider spoke to four former Google interns who turned their summer gigs into full-time job offers at the tech giant. They shared their process of landing internships at Google and advice on landing a permanent offer.

Landing an internship at a Big Tech company is highly competitive, but having one on your résumé can help you get in early. Google offers general online guidance for navigating the hiring process, including practicing coding on platforms like CodeLab, Quora, and Stack Overflow. It also suggests keeping your résumé to one page and considering skills relevant to the role.

The tech giant also provides more customized guidance to specific programs, like its Student Training in Engineering Program (STEP), which is a popular intern option for college students.

If you want direct insight from the perspectives of those who landed internships and turned them into full-time jobs, keep reading.

Nancy Qi

Nancy Qi graduated in the winter and plans to return to Google full-time in June after spending three summers there as an intern, the first two with STEP and the last with Google's Software Engineering internship.

Her primary advice: start early.

Qi said she started taking data structure classes in high school at a community college and was practicing with leet code the summer before she started college, well before she had interviews lined up.

When Qi started sending out applications in the fall of her freshman year, she said her résumé mainly had website initiatives and leadership experience for volunteering clubs from high school. She said she also had some part-time tutoring experience teaching math and English,

"I think at that age, you're not expected to have so much CS experience or coding experience," Qi said. "So I think if you have some leadership experience or experience that shows your character, I think that's important at that time."

During her internship, Qi said she thinks her strong suit was building relationships with her teammates by getting lunch with them every day. She said doing helped to create "team chemistry" and she also said it helped her feel excited for work and "motivated to pump out code."

Islina (Yunhong) Shan

Islina (Yunhong) Shan interned at Google three times, beginning in the summer of 2022. She's set to graduate in May from an accelerated computer science Master's program at Duke University and start a full-time role as a software engineer at the tech giant this summer.

Shan first participated in STEP and later in the Software Engineering Internship, which is a more competitive program geared toward technical development.

When she applied for her first internship, Shan said she had some hackathon experiences and some technical projects from school. After she sent her résumé, she was invited to two rounds of final interviews, both of which were technical and back-to-back, she said.

Her advice to interns hoping to secure full time jobs: choose a team during the match process that you're actually interested in.

"Interest is really important in driving you to finish the project," Shan said.

She also said it's important to choose a team with a manager you can see yourself working with because you'll have to communicate with them regularly and set expectations. When she first started her internship, she said she set unrealistic goals. Once she adjusted them, she started seeing more progress. Shan suggested seeking help if needed, adding that Google engineers tend to be friendly.

Lydia Lam

Lydia Lam graduated from college in 2024 and participated in three Google internships, beginning with a STEP internship in 2021.

In her internship résumé, Lam included a seven-week Google program for high-school graduates called the Computer Science Summer Institute. She also had experience with a summer program for girls who code and a tech consulting student organization that she joined during her first semester of college.

Lam also recommended applying early in the recruiting cycle and said programs geared toward first and second-year students tend to be more aligned with that experience level.

Lam said "strong engineering practices" are highly valued at the company and mentioned feeling imposter syndrome and wanting to impress her internship host. However, she said asking questions sooner than later can help projects get done more quickly.

"It's much more efficient to ask someone else who knows a lot more than you try to figure it out longer," Lam said.

She also suggested "producing a lot of artifacts," whether designs or other "tangible pieces of work," that can help show your skill set and contributions.

Tawfiq Mohammad

Tawfiq Mohammad interned for two summers at Google before becoming a full-time software engineer at the tech giant.

He said the summer after his first year in college, he didn't have any internships, so he took summer classes and did his own projects at home, like a gadget that read the license plate on his car and opened the garage without him having to press a button.

Mohammad's biggest advice for incoming interns is to be prepared for imposter syndrome. Mohammad said the "biggest block" for him at first was being scared to do anything, and he suggested tuning out those negative feelings as much as possible.

"You're going to feel very out of place initially," Mohammad told BI. "I honestly felt like I had no idea what I was doing."

He said interns should set a goal to "learn as much as possible" from the more experienced employees and try to believe that they, too, felt like they didn't fully "know what they were doing" at one point.

"They're really smart so you want to absorb as much information as you can from them," Mohammad said.

He also suggested thinking "outside the box."

"You're going to be given a project that summer and try to own that project. Try to own it from A to Z," Mohammad said.

He also recommended networking with other interns and team members, adding that Google provides a number of opportunities to do so.

"It's good to build up a good network of successful people and it's just good to network with people that are farther along the career path than you," Mohammad said.

• Analysts say Tesla's tariffs exposure remains uncertain and could hurt its margins — and its competitors' more.
• Tesla is also likely to be impacted by the removal of Biden-era EV tax credits and the removal of emissions targets for automakers.
• However, Tesla could benefit from Elon Musk's ties to Trump, especially when it comes to self-driving regulations.

Some of President Donald Trump's policy proposals are on a collision course with Telsa. However, Elon Musk appears to be betting the EV maker can weather any short-term storm clouds and come out ahead of the competition.

On the tariffs front, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja recently warned that the EV maker is "very reliant" on global parts and Trump's proposed tariffs are expected to impact the company's "business and profitability."

Tesla has a lot to potentially gain from Musk's close relationship with President Donald Trump. Musk, for his part, has largely appeared to shrug off the possible impact of some of Trump's other proposed policy changes, such as ending the Biden-era EV mandate.

"At this point, I think that sustainable transport is inevitable," Musk said on Tesla's most recent earnings call when asked about any potential impact on the company if wider EV adoption slowed. The move to electric vehicles "can't be stopped," he added.

Tesla analysts told Business Insider that Musk appears to be taking the long-term view and that any negative short-term impacts would likely be outweighed by the potential benefits of working closely with Trump — such as gaining an ally in deregulation and formalizing a federal framework for autonomous driving.

"It's really all about autonomous driving," CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson told BI.

Nelson said a streamlined regulatory process for autonomous vehicles that supersedes state-level approval programs would be "the biggest positive" for Tesla. Nelson said he expects it to happen by the end of the year.

Trump has also indicated a willingness to flex political pressure on European regulators over the regulations they have in place that impact American companies operating in the market.

Musk recently singled out European regulations as a key constraint in executing Tesla's vision for fully autonomous vehicles. Musk has said solving autonomy is key to growing Tesla's market cap.

"Europe is a layer cake of regulations of bureaucracy, which, that really needs to be addressed," Musk said on the earnings call. "This is a like America innovates, Europe regulates."

Tesla's stock went on a tear in the month following Trump's election victory, surging to an all-time high in mid-December. And after Tesla's quarterly earnings in January revealed profit and revenue below analysts' expectations, the stock also rose around 8% amid Musk's bold predictions for the coming year.

"He understands that having the government on his side yields the company a lot of power among the big funds and analysts," Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com told BI.

The duration of Trump's tariffs is a question mark

Some of the tariffs that Tesla's CFO warned would impact the EV maker have since been made official — however, there's uncertainty on how long they will remain in place.

Trump's 10% tariffs on imports from China have gone into effect, though his previously announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been put on hold after the countries' leaders made concessions.

The president also announced on Monday new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, which are both commonly used for auto parts.

In a recent note to investors, Tom Narayan, lead equity analyst of global autos at RBC Capital Markets, said that if the steel and aluminum tariffs are made permanent, auto companies could face headwinds in 2027 or 2028. However, he also said that Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminum during his last term and ended up making exceptions for Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, the largest steel importers to the US.

In general, tariffs would impact "all the US auto manufacturers," said CFRA Research's Nelson. However, Nelson said Tesla's competitors may be more "exposed" — like General Motors, which has significant production and sourcing in Mexico and China.

That doesn't mean Tesla would be unaffected though.

Investing.com's Monteiro told BI that "there's no question" that "Tesla's margins will be pressured" in the coming quarters.

While Tesla's final assembly takes place in the US, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filing indicated between 20% and 25% of the company's components from its 2025 model-year vehicles were sourced from Mexico. Tesla's 2023 Impact Report also shows that the company sources a number of materials abroad for its battery and auto parts production, including lithium, nickel, steel, and iron.

Monteiro said further domesticating the supply chain would be expensive and the company's strategy of periodically reducing prices to sell more cars would "become even worse from a financial standpoint."

"To talk numbers, a 25% tariff would amount to a cost increase of around $1.5 billion in the first year," Monteiro estimated, adding that the cost would likely improve as company supply chains adapt.

Musk has largely shrugged off the potential impacts on Tesla's bottom line

Trump has also talked about rolling back Biden's EV incentives, including the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, which offers buyers a federal tax break of up to $7,500 for new EVs and a $4,000 credit for used EVs.

While lowering the overall price of buying a Tesla has benefited the company, Musk has voiced support for eliminating EV tax credits on several occasions — something not all Tesla shareholders agree on.

"I think it would be devastating for our competitors and for Tesla slightly," Musk said in a July earnings call about the possibility of the tax credits ending. "But long-term probably actually helps Tesla, would be my guess."

If he's right, the move could help Tesla maintain its dominance in the US EV market, especially after its estimated market share fell below 50% for the first time in July.

Nelson said Musk's position is likely that Tesla has a strong brand value and its buyers tend to be higher income. That means the tax credits may not be "as much a factor in their purchase decision," he said.

Trump has also moved to repeal the Biden-era EV mandates, which aimed to boost EV adoption through investments in infrastructure like charging stations and stricter emission standards.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order "to eliminate the 'electric vehicle (EV) mandate' and promote true consumer choice." The order calls for the removal of state emissions waivers that work to limit sales of auto vehicles and other government policies that "favor EVs over other technologies," mandating their purchase by making "other types of vehicles unaffordable."

When asked on social media over the summer about Trump's proposed EV policies, Musk said at the time that, "It will be fine" and wrote that "a surprising number of people think that Tesla survives on subsidies."

"That is true of our competitors, but not of Tesla," he wrote in July.

However, pulling back Biden's EV mandates on emissions targets threatens Tesla's revenue stream from selling regulatory credits to automakers that fail to meet federal and state EV sales targets.

In the fourth quarter, Tesla reported $692 million in revenue from these credits.

"There's really no cost associated with that revenue, so it's basically got 100% margin and it flows right through the bottom line," Nelson said.

Stephanie Valdez Streaty, a director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, previously told BI that, "Tesla has relied on the credits to help really boost profitability."

"If federal guidelines are less stringent, then other manufacturers have more time, and they're not going to need those credits as much, so I think it'll definitely impact it," she said.

• Trump's plan to reshape the federal workforce is underway.
• Some federal workers told BI they voted for Trump thinking he would help the economy and struggling Americans.
• While they support cutting government waste, some don't think all federal workers should be targeted.

Many federal workers have expressed outrage and despair at President Donald Trump's workforce mandates — but what about those who filled in the bubble next to his name on the ballot?

"I voted for Trump. I wanted to see some positive change," a federal employee of 17 years told Business Insider, adding that they didn't know that change would put them at risk of losing their job.

While some of the hot-button issues Trump is tackling, like eliminating DEI initiatives and cutting spending, may resonate with right-leaning workers, policies like remote work and cutting the government's head count haven't traditionally been partisan matters.

As of Thursday, about 75,000 federal employees had accepted the President's buyout offer. That's about 3.75% of the federal workforce, inching closer to the White House's goal of reducing the federal staff count by 5% to 10%.

Four federal employees who say they voted for Trump spoke to Business Insider about their feelings on Trump's approach to the federal workforce. BI granted their requests for anonymity and verified their identities.

Trump voters said they support the cost-cutting mission

While the federal workers BI spoke with don't fully support certain policies affecting them, some stand by the overall mission to reduce government waste.

One federal worker told BI that they don't understand why some government agencies have so many employees.

"They're uncovering a lot of waste and abuse there," the worker said about DOGE. "I just can't believe some of the stuff that they're finding which is a total waste of taxpayer money."

Elon Musk, who leads DOGE — a Trump-created commission aimed at slashing government waste — has vowed to target a range of existing federal programs, including expired spending authorization that goes to veterans' healthcare and NASA.

"This is the reason why people voted for Trump," the worker told BI. "Because what is the government doing? Why aren't they forthcoming? Why? People want answers."

While the worker said they understand why some people may be annoyed to return to the office full-time, they said: "Somebody needs to put their foot down."

Another federal worker said they disagree with focusing on federal workers without better understanding the various programs and the need for federal employees to keep them going. That said, they see value in looking at where money is being spent, and they're overall supportive of Trump.

For example, the worker said they support the administration's approach with the US Agency for International Development. Trump and Musk have both called USAID out for wastefulness and supporting liberal causes. A federal judge blocked Trump's funding freeze on the agency and his attempt to put thousands of workers on leave.

USAID spent $32.5 billion in global aid in 2024. About a quarter of the money went toward humanitarian efforts, another quarter to health and population initiatives, and additional funds were directed toward governance and administrative expenses.

"I think overall we're going to end up better off with him as a president," they said.

Some had concerns about targeting the federal workforce

The 17-year federal employee said they voted for Trump thinking he would help the economy and struggling Americans. Now, the worker said they feel like the president is making things worse by putting federal workers' livelihoods at risk.

"Do Trump and Musk know the whole situation of every federal building? I don't think they're making proper choices," the worker said.

They added that while they agree with Trump's goal to cut government waste, they don't agree that cutting the federal workforce and requiring all employees to return to the office full time is an effective approach.

Another federal worker who said they voted for Trump twice "had hope that he would fulfill his promises," but that hope disappeared after the administration's deferred resignation offers. The Office of Personnel Management offered federal employees the option to resign and receive pay through September, but this offer is now on pause due to ongoing litigation.

One worker said the way they've gone about the federal workforce changes is a "little disconcerting." The worker said while they understand Musk is only there for so long, it seems like they're "getting rid of people very quickly."

The worker also has concerns about returning to work in person because they moved out of DC. The worker said it would be a financial burden to return to the office.

A federal worker said they reached out to their senators and congressman and told them that "demonizing the federal workforce is not good." They said federal workers have performance reviews, meet with supervisors, and act in compliance with their mission.

"Don't take it out on us just because of the bad behavior of the prior administration," the worker told BI, adding that they haven't changed their stance on supporting Trump because "it shouldn't have come to this."

Got a tip or anything you'd like to share? Reach out securely on Signal at asheffey.97 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected].

• Meta's Andrew Bosworth recently told staff to "disagree and commit" or leave the company.
• The phrase, popularized by Bezos, emphasizes quick decision-making and commitment amid disagreement.
• The philosophy dates back to the Intel CEO Andy Grove, who believed in cohesion around decisions.

In Silicon Valley, an old mantra — "disagree and commit" — is making a comeback.

Meta's chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, recently told staffers to either leave or "disagree and commit" — echoing a phrase popularized by Jeff Bezos.

While Bosworth used the phrase to present a fork in the road for Meta employees unhappy about the company's recent policy changes, Bezos has talked about it as a management philosophy.

As Amazon's CEO, he elaborated on the phrase in his 2016 shareholder letter under a section labeled "High-Velocity Decision Making." Bezos argued that the use of "disagree and commit" could "save a lot of time."

"If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there's no consensus, it's helpful to say, 'Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?'" Bezos wrote.

"By the time you're at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you'll probably get a quick yes," he added.

He argued that bosses should follow the ideology as well. Bezos recalled greenlighting an Amazon Studios original after telling his team he had concerns about its success — his team had a different perspective and wanted to move forward.

"I wrote back right away with 'I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we've ever made,'" Bezos said, adding that the decision-making would have been much slower if the team had spent time trying to convince him.

A useful phrase that echoes late Intel CEO Andy Grove's management philosophy

The concept appears to echo a management philosophy from the 1980s, when Andy Grove, known for his intense management style and visionary leadership, ran Intel. Grove, who escaped Nazi-occupied Hungary, died in 2016 at 79.

Richard S. Tedlow, Grove's biographer, told BI that while it could be "very hard" to agree with Grove, the concept of disagreeing and committing "was the essence of how he felt you should comport yourself at Intel."

"Disagree and then commit was a philosophy that you fight like cats and dogs, but once the decision is made, everybody's pulling in the same direction," Tedlow said.

While Tedlow wasn't sure whether Grove coined the phrase, he said it embodied the culture at Intel during the executive's time leading the company.

Christopher Myers, the faculty director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, used the example of a CEO acceding to a lower-level employee who's closer to a problem to show how "disagree and commit" could be beneficial.

In a 2024 interview with Lex Fridman, Bezos expanded on the philosophy. He said that companies "tend to organize hierarchically," often leaving the CEO to make the final call. The CEO might not agree with the decision — but Bezos argued that committing is better than compromising or giving in to whoever's the most stubborn.

"The advantage of compromise as a resolution mechanism is that it's low energy, but it doesn't lead to truth," Bezos said, adding that "you shouldn't allow compromise to be used when you can know the truth."

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has since adopted the phrase, which is part of the company's leadership principles outlined on its website.

In recent years, the phrase appears to have evolved into "disagree and commit — or leave." In a 2023 internal fireside chat about Amazon's return-to-office policy, Jassy told employees it was time to "disagree and commit," adding that "it's probably not going to work out" for workers who don't do so.

Bosworth recently took a similar approach in responses to comments in an internal Meta forum. "Unless you are referring to the policy changes, in which case Mark spent quite a while talking through them, it just sounds like you don't agree," he said. "In that case, you can leave or disagree and commit."

Myers said that in its purest form, the disagree-and-commit mantra can remind organizations that productive conflict is valuable.

• Sam Altman announced free ChatGPT users will "get unlimited chat access to GPT-5."
• He said OpenAI is aiming to simplify its offerings by unifying models and removing the model picker.
• GPT-4.5, called Orion, will be the last non-chain-of-thought model before GPT-5, Altman said.

Tired of keeping track of OpenAI's chatbot models? In an effort to make things less "complicated," the OpenAI CEO detailed the plan for GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 on X.

"We hate the model picker as much as you do and want to return to magic unified intelligence," Altman said in the post.

Altman is referring to the current system available on ChatGPT, which requires users to manually select various AI models for different tasks. For example, you can select GPT-4o with scheduled tasks to set reminders or o3-mini which operates faster for advanced reasoning. Other chatbots, like Google's Gemini, have a similar setup offering varying models including Flash, Pro, or Pro with Deep Research.

The CEO said GPT-4.5, referred to as Orion, will launch as its final "non-chain-of-thought model." Following the release of GPT-4.5, Altman said the company will unify o-series and GPT-series models by offering a system that can use all of its features and determine when to take more or less time to think. GPT-5 is expected to feature a larger context window, take on more agentic tasks, and have multimodal capabilities.

Altman said OpenAI "will no longer ship o3 as a standalone model," and it will be integrated in GPT-5. The change also means that free users will no longer be limited in chatting with the latest model. Currently, free users have limited access to GPT-4o.

"The free tier of ChatGPT will get unlimited chat access to GPT-5 at the standard intelligence setting (!!)," Altman wrote on Wednesday in a post on X, adding that access is "subject to abuse thresholds."

Altman said Plus and Pro subscribers will get higher levels of access depending on their subscription tier. However, it's not clear what will differentiate the tiers.

"These models will incorporate voice, canvas, search, deep research, and more," Altman said.

In response to an X comment asking about the timeline for the new models, Altman said they would be available in a matter of weeks or months.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Google's changes to its Calendar to remove the beginning of Pride and Black History Month sparked debate online.
• Google said "maintaining hundreds of moments" became unsustainable, and changes began in mid-2024.
• Since Trump's victory, Google has updated Google Maps in the US to say "Gulf of America" and ended diversity hiring targets.

Some quiet changes to Google Calendar have elicited a loud response as the culture wars play out in real time online.

Google has removed cultural observances including Pride Day, Women's History Month, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage Month, and Indigenous People Month, among other celebratory events, from Google Calendar.

As people heard about the change, which Google says began in mid-2024, some took to social media and internet forums to weigh in, with some criticizing and others praising the move.

Some users on X referred to the change as "anti-DEI." Another said that Pride and Black History Month would continue to be celebrated regardless of any product changes.

"Just because the calendars are being changed doesn't mean we have to," the X user wrote.

Others applauded Google's move. Conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who led campaigns against what he described as "woke policies" at companies like Walmart, reacted to the change with a fire emoji. Others took the moment to thank Google.

The removals from Google Calendar was first reported by The Verge on Friday after users online started highlighting the change.

A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that "some years ago," its Calendar team began manually adding "a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world."

"We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn't scalable or sustainable," the Google spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that sometime in mid-2024, Google Calendar began showing only public holidays and national observances from outside company timeanddate.com. Google said that users can still manually add "important moments" to their personal calendars by customizing which holidays they show or subscribe to.

Timeanddate.com did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

While the removal of Pride and Black History Month by default on Google Calendar appeared to generate some of the strongest reactions from users across the political spectrum, Google also removed other celebratory events, including Teacher's Day.

The online discourse over Google Calendar follows some other changes Google has made more recently since Trump's inauguration. Google Maps renamed the Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America for US users on Monday, following an executive order Trump issued in January.

The company also recently ended diversity-related hiring goals. In a memo sent last week, Google said it would no longer pursue hiring targets tied to representation. The company also said it would review its DEI programs and initiatives.

"As a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic," a Google spokesperson previously said in a statement to BI about the search giant's DEI policies.

Other companies, like Meta, have made similar policy changes since Trump's reelection. In January, Meta announced it would roll back its diversity programs and no longer have a team focused on DEI. The social media company also changed its content moderation guidelines and replaced fact-checkers with community notes.

• Elon Musk conducted a poll on X asking whether a former DOGE staffer should be rehired.
• The former employee was linked to a social media account advocating for racism, the Journal reported.
• After 78% voted "Yes," Musk said the former staffer would be "brought back."

Elon Musk said a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer who made "inappropriate statements" will be "brought back" following the results of a social media poll.

Musk on Friday ran a poll on his social media platform, X, asking people whether a former DOGE staffer should be rehired.

"Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?" Musk wrote.

The majority of participants voted in favor of the rehiring.

The poll expired at about 11:15 a.m. ET on Friday and had about 385,000 votes, with 78% voting yes.

"He will be brought back," Musk posted after the poll closed along with a saluting emoji. "To err is human, to forgive divine."

Musk's poll appeared to reference Marko Elez, a 25-year-old who previously worked for SpaceX and X before joining DOGE.

The former DOGE staffer was linked to a since deleted social media account that advocated for racism, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The White House later confirmed to Business Insider that the staffer had resigned.

Elez is one of two Musk associates whose recent work at the Treasury Department has raised questions about DOGE's level of access to the department's payment systems, which contain sensitive data on millions of Americans.

The Treasury Department later agreed to not directly share the personal financial data with DOGE. Elez and Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause were identified in a Wednesday court hearing as the two Musk associates seeking access to the systems. Under the agreement, the Treasury said the two men would have read-only access to the records maintained by the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

In response to Musk's poll, one X user commented that the staffer "deserves a second chance" but should "have a talk to about the racist stuff."

"True," Musk replied to the comment.

Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the matter Friday, saying, "bring him back."

"I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," Vance wrote in a post on X.

Musk has a history of conducting polls on X, including asking whether he should resign as CEO of X and whether he should bring back high-profile accounts that had been banned.

He has previously taken action in line with the results of some of his social media polls. The billionaire allowed Donald Trump to return to X after results from a November 2022 poll by Musk supported Trump's ban being lifted.

Musk similarly restored the accounts of several suspended journalists after one of his poll's results supported bringing them back earlier than the initial seven-day period.

BI could not reach Elez for comment. The Journal said Elez did not respond to its requests for comment. Musk and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Cybersecurity jobs are in high demand.
• The field's relative youth and ever-evolving risks can make entry-level positions scarce and hard to secure.
• BI talked to cybersecurity pros including LinkedIn's CISO for tips — many recommended certifications.

So you're thinking about pursuing a job in cybersecurity — where do you start?

Cybersecurity jobs pay well and offer stability in the fast-changing tech landscape — but while there's high demand, positions in the field aren't necessarily easy to break into.

"Although there is a healthy supply of applicants for these roles, there is a significant gap in the training and skills needed for success in this field," LinkedIn chief information security officer Lea Kissner told BI.

That's partially because the industry hasn't been around that long relative to many others. Jon France, chief information security officer at member organization for cybersecurity professionals ISC2, told Business Insider that it can be a "little tricky" to get people into the industry because it's a "relatively young" profession.

The risks in the field are also constantly evolving, which requires the workforce to stay current on the latest tactics used by bad actors.

"If you're an organization and you're trying to protect against all these emerging threats that are ever-evolving, entry-level is not a huge focus," Sines said, adding that even internships can be hard to come by.

Danny Jenkins, CEO and cofounder of cybersecurity company ThreatLocker, previously told BI that his company has built training programs because it tends to hire a lot of junior-level staff, but that might not work in other companies with small cyber departments.

"I think that's where the challenge is," Jenkins said, adding that "most companies are too small to bring in their own cyber security training program and the colleges aren't spitting out cyber security professionals."

Business Insider spoke to half a dozen recruiters and executives in the cybersecurity space to hear about how candidates can navigate the career path and break into the field.

While there's no one golden road to securing a job, here are their pointers.

Explore the 'less glamorous' side of cybersecurity

MK Palmore, a director in Google Cloud's office of the CISO, previously told BI that hands-on experience is often prioritized. That can be difficult to get if you're a new entrant, he said.

LinkedIn's Kissner said newcomers in the field should have a "strong foundation" beyond security in areas like infrastructure, software, computer science, and critical reasoning. Sines said many candidates entering the field want to jump into cloud testing, instant response, or analyst roles, but he suggests starting in "some of the less glamorous areas of cyber" like IT support or help desk technician roles.

"A good security engineer understands how everything else works and has a deep understanding of these areas so they can predict and spot vulnerabilities across their systems, and how to fix them," Kissner said.

France said that while IT is the traditional route to enter cybersecurity, it isn't the only pathway. Many in the field, including Palmore, started their careers in the federal government or the military. Other common backgrounds include network security, systems administration, incident response, or network engineering system administrator, Sines said.

Art Zeile, CEO of Dice, a tech careers marketplace, said network engineering is a "core skill set" needed for cybersecurity.

"They have to know how networks work first and foremost," Zeile said, adding that knowledge about the integration of systems and how they interact is also key.

Jenkins, the ThreatLocker CEO, said people are learning how to defend against threats without understanding the systems and what they're defending against.

"They see a complicated IT system with 10,000 apps that they've never heard of, and they have no idea what they're looking at," Jenkins said about college graduates, adding that there can be a disconnect between training and encountering real-world threats.

Certifications balanced with soft skills

Cybersecurity certifications can verify a candidate's expertise in a given area, and applicants can take them online or at a testing center. They can prepare through self-study, boot camps, employee trainings, or college degree programs that incorporate it into their curriculum.

Sines said that it can be expensive for new candidates to get certifications in the field, but it's a good way to skill-up.

"If I was looking for a security professional, I would want to make sure that they had those certs," DHI Group's Zeile told BI.

While there are numerous cybersecurity-related certifications, Zeile said the CompTIA Security+ and the Certified Information System Security Professional certifications show a candidate's ability to understand how systems integrate. Paul Caron, head of cybersecurity of Americas at global corporate intelligence and cybersecurity consultancy S-RM, also mentioned Certified Information Security Manager as another "gold standard" that demonstrates technical awareness.

Kissner also recommended participating in "capture the flag" events, which are competitions where participants exploit system vulnerabilities. Or, if candidates already have a job, Kissner recommended talking to the security team at their company.

"They're probably busy and would appreciate some friendly help from someone who knows another area of the business," Kissner said. "I've had so many people who started out that way and eventually transferred into my team."

Given the constantly evolving nature of cybersecurity, some cybersecurity executives BI spoke to said the technical aspect of the job is something that employees can learn.

"To a certain degree, there's a stigma that if you aren't already cyber trained and prepped and ready, you can't be successful in cyber," Caron said. "And I think that's the one that we really need to run away from as quick as possible."

Kissner, who began her career in experimental robotics, ended up getting a phD in cryptography before skilling up in cybersecurity. She said soft skills like problem-solving and adaptability are increasingly valuable in the field.

A report that surveyed 15,852 cybersecurity professionals published by ISC2 in October said that "59% of hiring managers don't know enough about Gen AI to know which skills" are needed to succeed in an AI world.

Given that the necessary technical skills could shift, hiring managers said they are increasingly looking for "transferable skills that will complement AI adoption," like strong problem-solving, teamwork, and communication over technical skills like cloud computing security and risk assessment.

"The sector is full of people who are extremely imaginative and we're never bored," Kissner said. "That being said, our days are taken up by looking at broken things for ways they can be improved, and this isn't for everyone."

Do you work in cybersecurity? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected]

• Google has ended hiring targets tied to representation, BI confirmed.
• The company also said it is evaluating its DEI programs.
• Target, Meta, and other major US companies have also reduced DEI-related policies and programs.

Google will no longer pursue hiring goals tied to representation, Business Insider confirmed. The change makes the tech giant the latest US company to pull back on DEI-related policies.

The company is also evaluating its DEI programs and initiatives.

"We're committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the last year we've been reviewing our programs designed to help us get there," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider.

The spokesperson said the company had updated language in its annual 10-K report to reflect the change.

"As a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic," the spokesperson added. The Wall Street Journal first reported the change to Google's hiring targets.

Business Insider obtained an emailed Q&A with Google's Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi, which expanded on the plans.

Google staff will be "evaluating programs, trainings, and initiatives, and will update them as needed — including those that raise risk, or that aren't as impactful as we'd hoped," read the Q&A.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump swiftly signed an executive order terminating DEI "mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities" in the federal government. Trump also criticized DEI programs and diversity-related hiring goals at private companies on the campaign trail and since taking office.

Google set a goal in 2020 to increase leadership representation of Black+, Latinx+, and Native American+ employees by 30%. It reached that goal in 2022, according to the company's annual diversity report.

Google's decision to shift its hiring goals reflects a growing number of companies pulling back on DEI initiatives, beginning before Trump was reelected. Some of the companies that scaled back diversity efforts before his inauguration include Walmart, Ford, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, and Lowe's.

Meta also announced last month it will no longer have a team focused on DEI and Target recently said it will end multiple programs related to DEI.

Some companies have defended their DEI programs and policies in recent weeks, including Costco and JPMorgan.

Here's the full text of the Google memo obtained by Business Insider:

With new U.S. Executive Orders, court decisions, and many companies making changes to their DEl programs in recent weeks, we sat down with Fiona Cicconi to learn how Google is thinking about this.

Can you tell us how we're thinking about this across the company?

First, I want to be clear: we've always been committed to creating a workplace where we hire the best people wherever we operate, create an environment where everyone can thrive, and treat everyone fairly. That's exactly what you can expect to see going forward. Our users come from all across the US and around the world, and we serve them better when our employees do, too.

Every year, we review the programs designed to help us get there and make changes. And because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programs required to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic. For example, in 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation. We'll continue to invest in states across the US — and in many countries globally — but in the future we will no longer have aspirational goals.

You mentioned we'll evaluate our programs. Can you share more about that?

Melonie Parker and her team will lead on closely and carefully evaluating programs, trainings, and initiatives, and will update them as needed — including those that raise risk, or that aren't as impactful as we'd hoped. She'll work with senior leaders across the company.

And is there anything else you want Googlers to know now?

While there will be changes, our central Employee Resource Groups will remain, as will our work with colleges and universities, and our work to build products to help all our users and partners. That is all vital work for our business and our Googler community.

Do you work at Google? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected]

• Google revised a local market Super Bowl ad after Gemini showed an incorrect cheese statistic.
• The ad initially included a stat that Gouda made up 50 to 60% of global cheese consumption.
• Google has faced past criticism for inaccuracies generated by its AI.

Google tweaked one of its Super Bowl ads posted on YouTube after the AI featured in it displayed an inaccurate cheese statistic.

The original video showing off Google's Gemini offerings in Workspace was posted five days ago and showed the AI generating a response for a small-business owner in Wisconsin. In the response, Gemini claims Gouda accounts for "50 to 60% of the world's cheese consumption."

The edited ad now shows a Gemini response that says Gouda "is one of the most popular cheeses in the world."

A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that it consulted with the business owner from the ad about how he would handle the situation "after the question came up about the Gouda stat."

"Following his suggestion to have Gemini rewrite the product description without the stat, we updated the UI to reflect what the business would do," the spokesperson said.

A report about cheese market share published by global management consulting firm IMARC Group said that cheddar cheese "accounts for the majority of the market at around 32.4%." Gouda was not included in the report's top five by market share.

Andrew Novakovic, the UV Baker professor of agricultural economics emeritus at Cornell University, told The Verge that Gouda "is almost assuredly not the most widely consumed" cheese globally.

Jerry Dischler, president of Cloud applications at Google Cloud, replied to one user's post that called the stat "unequivocally false." Dischler said that Gemini's response was "not a hallucination" and that it was "grounded in the web."

"In this case, multiple sites across the web include the 50-60% stat," Dischler said. "Gouda news: many love this cheese! Bada news: not everyone thinks it's as grate."

The incident highlights that in addition to industry-wide risks of hallucination, AI products that are trained on or pull information from the web aren't necessarily providing fact-checked responses. The Gouda stat, for example, does exist on a website called Cheese.com.

It's not the first time Google has displayed incorrect information in a video promoting its AI. Last spring, the tech giant released a promo video in which Gemini provided a list of solutions to a photographer dealing with camera issues. One of the suggested solutions would have destroyed the photographer's photos.

Similarly, in 2023, a Google demo video showing off its Bard chatbot incorrectly stated the James Webb Space Telescope was the first to photograph an exoplanet. It was actually taken by a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory, according to NASA.

The tech giant also made headlines due to inaccuracies generated by its AI Overviews feature, which appears at the top of some search queries. Last year, it caused an online stir when it said to put glue in pizza sauce to prevent the cheese from falling off.

Google's Super Bowl ad is a good reminder of evergreen advice that applies to anyone using AI tools: Just because an AI says something confidently, it doesn't mean that it's true.

• Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the Canadian province would end its Starlink contract with SpaceX.
• The deal, worth about $68 million, aimed to provide internet access to 15,000 homes and businesses.
• Ford suggested he'd ban US companies from provincial contracts until Trump's tariffs are removed.

One of Elon Musk's companies could be about to lose a $68 million contract because of President Donald Trump's tariffs against Canada.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Monday that the province would be "ripping up" its contract with Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX.

"Ontario won't do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy," Ford said on X. "Canada didn't start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we're ready to win it."

In November, Ontario awarded a contract worth about $68 million to SpaceX, helmed by Musk, to provide internet access to "15,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses" across Ontario by June.

Ford also said on Monday that Ontario would be "banning American companies from provincial contracts," adding that the Ontario government spent about $30 billion on procurement each year and argued that "U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues."

"They only have President Trump to blame," Ford said.

Trump has announced a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imports from China.

The US on Monday agreed to delay the tariffs on Mexico by a month in exchange for compromises on some of Trump's border demands. Colombia similarly worked out an agreement with the Trump administration about a week ago after the White House threatened a 25% tariff on the country.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that Canada would impose 25% tariffs on about $106 billion worth of US goods. Some of the tariffs are set to go into effect on Tuesday and others in about three weeks.

Ford has previously criticized Trump's policies. More than 30 labor leaders in Ontario gathered last week to demand the premier establish a task force to address US tariffs.

SpaceX, Ford, and the Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• 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.