• "28 Years Later" introduces a cult leader inspired by Jimmy Savile, a BBC star outed as a prolific abuser.
• Chi Lewis-Parry, who played an infected Alpha in the film, called the character "masterful."
• "It's hard to come up with something original," he told BI.

Fans of "28 Years Later" were divided by the ending that introduces Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell), a cult leader who bears more than a passing resemblance to Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter outed as a prolific sexual abuser after his death in 2011.

In an interview with Business Insider in June, the film's respective director and producer, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, confirmed that the character is based on Savile.

Chi Lewis-Parry, who plays Samson, a new, super-strong type of the infected called an Alpha, told BI that he thinks introducing Crystal was a bold decision but said "you have to test the boundaries."

Boyle has always challenged audiences with his films, including "28 Days Later" and "Trainspotting," a dark comedy about people in Glasgow addicted to heroin. In the world of "28 Years Later," the Rage Virus would have broken out before Savile's crimes could be unearthed. It seems likely the sequel, "The Bone Temple," will explore this further.

Lewis-Parry said: "It's hard to come up with something original" in the horror genre.

"Introducing that character is a different type of horror. It's taking real horror and sticking it in a fantasy horror scenario. I think that's masterful because you're not just relying on the jump scares and the stereotypical gore.

"You are kind of teasing the psyche of an audience with a real-life horror that has been discovered," he added. "For me, it's almost scarier because that really happened. Whatever you attach to that character is the fear element. I think it's brilliant, personally."

Boyle and Garland told BI how Crystal's scenes in "28 Years Later" set up the sequel. Garland said the bizarre cult leader taps into bigger themes of a "misremembered past" and "how selective memory is."

O'Connell will no doubt have a larger presence in the second film as Crystal, while Lewis-Parry will reprise his role as Samson.

BI previously reported how Lewis-Parry said he scared Boyle into casting him in the role during his audition.

Lewis-Parry teased that fans "might fall in love with Samson," but didn't reveal any plot points, adding: "it's magical when you watch something and know nothing about any surprises."

• Military officials and experts warn that air superiority may not be possible in modern warfare.
• Israel, however, was able to quickly achieve it against Iran.
• Iran, though capable, isn't bringing the same fight that a foe like Russia or China could.

Israel swiftly seized air superiority over parts of Iran during the latest fight, showing that it's still possible in modern, higher-end warfare to heavily dominate an enemy's skies.

But there's a risk in taking the wrong lesson from that win. Iran isn't Russia or China, and as the West readies for potential near-peer conflict, it really can't afford to forget that, officials and experts have cautioned.

Western military officials and warfare experts have repeatedly warned in recent years that achieving air superiority against those countries would be a daunting task.

Russia and China, especially the latter, boast sophisticated, integrated air defense networks with ground-based interceptors well supported by capable air forces, electronic warfare, and reliable space-based and airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

Air superiority in a limited theater is not the same as breaking through a complex anti-access, area-denial setup.

Israel's victory in the air war over Iran shows that air superiority is "not impossible" in modern warfare, former Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan, a warfare strategist, explained. That said, he continued, a Western conflict with Russia or China would be "very different."

A victory in the air for Israel

Israel attacked nuclear and military sites in Iran in bombing runs and eliminated dozens of Iranian air defense batteries.

Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said it "highlights what you can do with a modern air force against some, on paper, fairly impressive defenses."

Iran maintained a capable layered air defense network featuring domestic systems, foreign-supplied defenses, and some modernized older systems. Though only semi-integrated compared to fully networked air defenses, it presented an obstacle.

Israel dismantled Iranian defenses over multiple engagements through extensive planning, detailed intelligence, and the employment of combat-proven airpower, specifically fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters built for penetration and suppression of enemy air defenses and fourth-generation F-15s and F-16s, which can also support that mission.

Important to Israel's success in the latest fight with Iran were the engagements last year that substantially weakened Iranian air defense capabilities, as well as Israel's skills in this mission. Failures and aircraft losses in the 1973 Yom Kippur War led it to reevaluate how it approached enemy air defenses, in many ways leading to the emergence of the kind of missions used against Iran.

Ed Arnold, a security expert at RUSI, said that Israel reporting no aircraft losses "was significant, and it just showed that, yeah, you can get air supremacy very quickly." The caveat there is that doing so requires the right tactics, weapons, and intelligence, but even then, it is not guaranteed.

Retired Air Commodore Andrew Curtis, an airfare expert with a 35-year career in the Royal Air Force, told BI "the situation that everybody's been used to over the last 30 years is air supremacy," but when it comes to high-intensity war against a near-peer adverary, realistically, "those days are long gone."

Russia and China

Iran had air defenses, but not airpower. It's air force is largely made up of obsolete Western, Soviet, and Chinese aircraft. The ground-based surface-to-air missile batteries are more capable, but that's only one part of the defensive picture.

Curtis explained that Iran has "very little in the way of air defense aircraft, whereas of course Russia, and especially China, has stacks of them." Both Russia and China field fourth-generation-plus aircraft, as well as fifth-generation fighters.

China, in particular, has multiple fifth-gen fighters in various stages of development, and there are indications it's working on sixth-generation prototypes. By comparison, Iran's air force looks a lot like a plane museum.

But they also boast more advanced and more effective air defenses. Bronk said Russia's defenses are "better networked, more capable, more numerous, and more densely layered than Iran's." He said that if the West rolled back the SAM threat, it would likely be able to overcome Russia's air force, but China is a different story.

China has a complex integrated air defense network supported by ground-based air defenses, naval air defenses, and what Bronk characterized as "an increasingly very capable modern air force," among other capabilities. And China also has a "far greater and more sophisticated missile arsenal for striking bases" to hamstring an enemy's airpower. Additionally, it holds a strong economic position with an industrial base that is turning out high-end weapons.

China has also been tremendously increasing its number of interceptors without really expending any, unlike the US, which has been burning through interceptors in Middle Eastern conflicts.

Not all of China has the same protections, but breaking through defenses would likely represent a substantial challenge in a conflict, especially in something like a Taiwan contingency.

A conflict between the West and China could look like "a more traditional air war" — something not seen in a long time, Curtis said, explaining that air-to-air combat could make a comeback, with pilots again shooting down enemy planes. "In a peer-on-peer conflict, certainly with China, you would see a lot of that, because China has got a lot of air assets."

Future air battles

Achieving air superiority, as Israel did recently and as the US did in the Gulf War in the 1990s and in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s, has been crucial to the Western way of war, often serving as a tool to enable ground maneuvers.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which failed to knock out Ukraine's air defenses, now far more robust than at the start of the war, has shown what a conflict looks like when it isn't achieved. Aircraft are shot out of the sky, and ground forces are locked in grinding slogs. Devastating long-range attacks are still possible, but quick victory is generally not.

It has resulted in some stark warnings for future warfare.

Speaking on air superiority, Gen. James Hecker, the commander of NATO's air command, warned last year that "it's not a given." He added that "if we can't get air superiority, we're going to be doing the fight that's going on in Russia and Ukraine right now."

Other military leaders have said that air superiority may only be achieved in short bursts. War is full of surprises, but evidence indicates that's a real possibility. Achieving

Curtis said air planners now have to focus on specific priorities, like protecting air bases, and figuring out how to achieve a "localized time-bound air superiority or air supremacy in support of a short-term mission or operation."

"It's a different mindset," he said.

The key in future wars will be to seize control of as much of the aerial battlespace as possible to do what's necessary in the moment, all while holding firm defensively, as Israel did against Iran's retaliatory ballistic missile strikes, experts said. That means maintaining a strong air force and strong air defenses.

"Nothing in Ukraine or Israel has shown that air superiority isn't needed in the future," Ryan shared. "I think they've both shown that having air superiority is an extraordinarily important part of warfare and remains so.

• Motherhood is challenging, especially when you have six kids.
• As my kids have grown, life hasn't gotten any easier. It's just different.
• I try to remind myself that parenting is supposed to be hard.

Some mornings, I wake up and feel like I'm already behind. Someone can't find their shoes, someone is fighting over who gets to sit in the front seat, and I'm pouring cereal into a cup because all the bowls are somehow in the dishwasher — again. And in the middle of the chaos, I catch myself thinking, "How am I still so bad at this?"

I've been a mom for nearly 20 years. I have six kids, ranging in age from a teenager down to a 1-year-old. I've homeschooled. I've worked. I've done it all with and without a support system. If experience came with a trophy, I'd probably have a shelf full of them. And yet, I still have days when I go to bed wondering if I was patient enough, present enough, or just enough.

Life doesn't get easier, it gets different

I'm in what I call the messy middle of motherhood. During this time kids aren't babies anymore, so people assume it must be easier. But it's not. It's just different.

The sleepless nights are traded for emotional exhaustion. You're no longer chasing toddlers — you're navigating curfews, attitudes, identity, and the constant tug-of-war between boundaries and independence.

Your kids you, but in ways that are harder to define. They need guidance, empathy, and snacks every 15 minutes. They need deep conversations late at night, even when you feel like you have nothing left. They need your strength when you're running on fumes.

And the whole time, you're expected to hold it all together with grace, with gratitude, and preferably without falling apart in the middle of the grocery store.

This is supposed to be hard

But here's something I'm learning: Motherhood is only hard for the ones who are trying. If you didn't care so much, it would be easy.

You wouldn't overthink your decisions or question whether your child needs therapy or just a nap. You wouldn't stay up worrying, praying, googling symptoms, or wondering if you're doing any of it right.

That weight you're carrying? That doubt? That relentless voice in your head wondering if you're failing? It exists because you care.

And that matters more than we give ourselves credit for.

Because the truth is, there's no such thing as a perfect mom. There's just a present one. A mom who shows up. A mom who keeps trying. A mom who loves deeply, messes up often, and starts over again each morning.

I know I'm not alone

If you're feeling stretched thin, emotionally worn down, or like you're somehow still not doing enough — you're not alone. Even moms with big families and years of experience can feel like they're drowning in the demands of the everyday.

But here's the good news: you're not failing. You're in the thick of it. You're living out the most important (and often overlooked) part of motherhood, the in-between years. The not-so-cute, not-so-Instagramable, fiercely formative middle.

And one day, when the house is quieter and the shoes are where they're supposed to be, you'll look back and see that all your invisible work mattered. That even when it felt like too much, you were enough.

So if today was loud and messy and imperfect — same here. We're not failing. We're mothering. And that's more than enough.

• Southern cities dominate RentCafe's top 10 list for renters in the US.
• RentCafe analyzed housing affordability, local economies, and quality of life.
• The South claims 41 of the top 50 cities, highlighting cost of living advantages.

Go South, young man.

Well, if you're a renter, you might want to at least consider it.

According to a new analysis from research firm RentCafe, the 10 best cities in the US for renters are all in southern states, such as the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama.

To compile the list, RentCafe considered 20 metrics across three categories: housing affordability, the attractiveness of local economies, and quality of life.

From sources like the Census Bureau and Yardi Matrix, the firm looked at stats like local unemployment rates, average apartment square footage, income growth, how many apartments in the city are new, average commute times, and more.

"The South firmly establishes itself as the top region for renters in 2025, by claiming an impressive 41 of the 50 featured cities," wrote Adina Dragos in the report. "This growing interest is reflected in the region's consistently high rankings in key categories, like cost of living and housing and local economy, with nearly all leading cities securing spots within the top 30 for these criteria."

Below are the top 10 on RentCafe's list. Each city's national housing cost of living ranking, which had a 50% weighting in RentCafe's index, is included. The average apartment square footage and the share of new apartments in the city are also shown.

The condo market is seeing a much bigger downturn than the single-family one, with Florida at the epicenter of the slump.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown is deeply concerned about Max Verstappen's potential move from Red Bull to Mercedes.

• McKinsey's global managing partner said humor and vulnerability can help employees open up.
• Bob Sternfels said he likes to take walks with small groups and participate in fun traditions.
• Sternfels said McKinsey is also continuing to focus on professional development for its staff.

What does the head of McKinsey & Company, one of the world's most prestigious consulting firms, say is essential to leading high-performing teams?

Humor.

"A little levity — a joke at your own expense, a lighthearted moment — can go a long way toward building trust, breaking down barriers, and democratizing the team room," Bob Sternfels, McKinsey's global managing partner and chair of the firm's board of directors, told Business Insider in a an email last month.

Founded in 1926, McKinsey is approaching its 100th year in business. Sternfels, who was first elected by the firm's senior partners to lead it in 2021, said that while the firm might look and sound different than when it started, its mission and values have remained.

He was reelected for a second three-year term in 2024 and heads the firm's 40,000 employees around the globe, a 10% reduction from 18 months prior.

In addition to humor, one simple tool he uses to get employees to open up when he visits the firm's offices around the world is walking.

"I like to invite small groups of colleagues on walks whenever I visit one of our offices — it's a great way to get moving and hear what's really on people's minds," he said.

He also said he likes to join in on fun traditions that colleagues invite him to, like mochi-making in Tokyo, a hot wing challenge in Phoenix, and karaoke in Manila. Participating in these activities helps set a good tone before a town hall, he said, adding, "A little vulnerability on my part helps people open up."

Sternfels is leading McKinsey as the consulting industry faces disruption brought on by AI, and the global economy faces major changes.

A spokesperson for the firm said in May that AI was driving new levels of productivity and that it planned to hire thousands of new consultants this year.

Sternfels said he's drilling down on three main issues in 2025. ("If you know anything about McKinsey consultants, you'll know we rarely have a single answer," he wrote.) They are: distinctive impact with clients, unrivaled employee development, and staying global as a firm.

He said McKinsey was committed to professional development, noting Time magazine ranked it the "best company for future leaders" two years in a row.

"We're also not shying away from continuing to build a diverse meritocracy. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from — it only matters what you've got," he wrote.

As for what he sees as the biggest growth areas looking forward, he said many CEOs are trying to navigate shifting trade policy and supply chain issues, and that "building a musical around geopolitics" is essential for this moment.

Capturing the productivity gains of AI remains top of mind, and it's clear that just incorporating the technology won't be enough.

"Companies will have to really rewire their organizations to fully benefit," he said of AI.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at @kelseyv.21. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• "Love Island USA" is a game show about finding true love and testing that connection.
• Despite the premise of the show, most of the contestants have failed to make strong connections.
• They seem too preoccupied with perception, reflecting our culture of social media and surveillance.

If you want to understand how constantly carrying a camera in your pocket has affected the way we think, behave, and fall in love, watch "Love Island USA."

On Tuesday, the 26th (!!!) episode of season seven aired on Peacock, meaning the original cast members have been secluded in an open-air Fiji villa for about one month. Based on how the show typically progresses, by this time, there should be several strong connections between the islanders, couples for the viewers to root for and, eventually, to vote for as joint winners of a $100,000 cash prize.

Instead, a common refrain among viewers online is that, at this point, no one deserves the money. Calls for the producers to "cut the cameras" and "delete the whole cast" abound.

This season has made a negative impression for various reasons, chief among them being an apparent lack of sincerity. The islanders seem hyper-aware of their role as entertainers and competitors, much too preoccupied with how they're being perceived by an invisible audience to be truly honest and vulnerable with each other.

Can we blame them?

It's not only that cameras are pointed at the islanders from every angle, in every nook and cranny of the villa, during every minute of the day — it's that reality TV has reached the point where viable cast members are already accustomed to those exact conditions.

It's painfully clear that living in an age of constant surveillance has taken its toll on these twentysomethings. This season, the cast's ages have ranged from 21 (Vanna) to 29 (Zak), though most hover in the 23-27 range. Their lives have been defined by the advent and proliferation of smartphones; the rise of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok; and with these gadgets and platforms, a new kind of celebrity known as the "influencer." These days, some genre of content creator is one of the most commonly cited dream jobs for Gen Alpha kids.

Speaking as someone who came of age in a post-9/11 world, who happily forked over my personal data to Mark Zuckerberg when I had yet to hit puberty, my generation's expectation of privacy ceased to exist pretty quickly. But when a person grows up idolizing those who found fame by broadcasting their personal lives, the value of privacy is also lost.

Meanwhile, the expectation to perform is more intense than ever. Even beyond the villa, it feels like there are spectators everywhere we go — with the way social media trends leak into real life and how people have normalized filming strangers and themselves in the hopes of going viral.

Amaya Espinal is one of the few islanders not afraid to show real emotion

Inside the villa, this expectation is dialed up to maximum levels. With the exception of Amaya Espinal — who is so raw and sincere that her willingness to express emotion has been repeatedly mocked by her castmates — the Gen Zers on "Love Island" seem to be putting up a front because they probably are; it comes as naturally to them as posing for a photo or curating a dating app profile.

This inevitably makes it difficult for the islanders to forge genuine intimacy, especially in the fires of reality TV. As April Eldemire, a licensed marriage and family therapist, previously told Business Insider's Julia Pugachevsky, vulnerability and open communication are keys to a lasting relationship. "You have to go in with open eyes," she said.

However, this doesn't necessarily make the islanders "fake." It makes them products of an environment that billionaires and tech companies created — and a tragic mirror for the rest of us.

• Jeremiah Peoples taught himself how to code while in the military after dropping out of college.
• He got to leverage his new skills at an apprenticeship in the military but felt impostor syndrome.
• Peoples overcame his doubts and landed a job at Slack after his service.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeremiah Peoples, a 28-year-old staff developer advocate at Slack in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I work in software engineering as a staff developer advocate without a college degree. After my first semester in Butler University's computer science program, I dropped out and joined the military in May 2016.

While in the military, I taught myself how to code. In February 2020, I started a six-month temporary duty assignment, similar to an apprenticeship, to build satellite applications.

I was immediately reminded of how little I knew. After work, I felt terrible because I felt inadequate and thought they had made a mistake by hiring me.

I ended my enlistment in the military in May 2022 and started at Slack that same month. I've overcome that impostor syndrome.

My job in the military was as an intelligence analyst

I assessed dangers around the world in real time, trying to provide value that could be helpful to the US and military operations.

I enjoyed progressing in rank, the camaraderie, and the structure. In 2019, I volunteered to deploy to the Middle East, where I worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in a war zone.

While in the Middle East, I realized this wasn't how I wanted to spend the best years of my life.

I needed a change

I started to make a plan and research other careers on YouTube. I saw a few creators who became software engineers without going to college.

I reverse-engineered what they did. I decided to study their videos, essentially do what they did, and hopefully try to achieve the same success.

I started with learning Python from a book, but after a month of working with it, I realized it wasn't the type of coding I wanted to do. I switched from learning Python to JavaScript, HTML, and CSS through an online course that I bought.

Learning to code was tough but really exciting

After my 12-hour shifts, there wasn't much to do besides work out or study. I studied every single day for three hours. I was having a good time and making progress.

I blended my background as an intelligence analyst with my ability to write code, which is how I started working on some technical coding projects in my intelligence job.

After that, I used it to land my temporary duty assignment with Section 31, an Air Force unit in Southern California tasked with creating applications for the Space Force. I was simultaneously an intelligence analyst and a software engineer.

My doubt lasted for over half of the apprenticeship

The feeling of doubt lasted for around three and a half months. It eventually clicked for me that I wasn't supposed to get it that quickly.

I grew up playing sports, and I thought of learning to code as learning sports. I had only been learning to code for about a year, and I was working alongside people who had been working in the industry for longer.

I had to realize that's OK. They're not expecting me to be a professional coder, but they want me to learn and grow. That's when I finally started to turn a corner and realize that I need to increase my reps, study, and practice like I would a sport.

Having a mentor really helped me

When I got a mentor, he streamlined everything I learned, helped me apply it, and told me what I didn't need to learn. Finding a mentor I was comfortable with and someone who had already achieved success where I wanted to achieve success was probably the most important part of my learning.

When I returned home from Iraq, I had two mentors. One was in the Air Force, a senior engineer in my squadron, and I just attached myself to him and asked him so many questions. He was so patient with me. I had another mentor who was a civilian.

I have some mentors now at Slack who are able to challenge me and help me grow.

There's not a single thing I would do differently

I'm extremely grateful and blessed to be in the position I'm in today.

In the Space Force apprenticeship, I did pair programming, which means you sit with another engineer and go back and forth. One writes the technical test, and the other writes the code to make that test pass.

Every time I heard a phrase that I didn't know in a meeting or saw a line of code that I didn't understand, I made note of it. Then, for 30 minutes every single day, I would talk to my mentor and just try to get better.

If you're feeling impostor syndrome, look in the mirror and tell yourself that the people who hired you are smart people, and they hired you for a reason.

As a staff developer advocate now, it's my job to know how to create custom applications in Slack and then teach them to all of our customers around the world with content via on-site workshops, presentations, keynotes, and virtual content.

In 2020, I started a YouTube channel

I documented my process and created content about software engineering. When I was separating from the Air Force in 2022, I put out a little teaser video on Twitter saying that I was open to work. That post went pretty viral, and I got messages about job opportunities at Google, Amazon, and Slack, where I ended up.

I don't have impostor syndrome anymore because I understand what it is. The only way to get through it is by being confident in your abilities.

I'm now confident in my abilities and what I can offer my employer and my community.

Did you land a job without a college degree? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• America's Frontier Fund is raising up to $315 million for its first fund, per a pitch deck viewed by BI.
• The fund will invest $175 million in government loans and $140 million in private capital in national security startups.
• Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel have invested in the firm's nonprofit foundation.

A national security-focused VC fund, America's Frontier Fund, is raising a large new fund, capitalizing on the sector's support as the Trump administration rallies behind defense tech.

The firm is raising up to $315 million for its first fund, called the Frontier Fund, according to a pitch deck viewed by Business Insider. In early 2023, the target for the fund was $500 million, per an SEC filing.

The fund will consist of $140 million of private capital from limited partners and $175 million of government loans, according to the deck. The fundraise hasn't closed yet, and the terms of the deal could change. Part of the funding will come through the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology Initiative, a program launched by the Defense Department and the Small Business Administration to grow private investment in biotech, quantum science, advanced materials, AI, space, and more.

A spokesperson for the venture firm declined to comment on the fundraise.

America's Frontier Fund will receive government-guaranteed loans, matching private investments up to $175 million. The firm will repay the loan with interest over a ten-year period, according to Washington Business Journal, which first reported the fund's government loans in 2024. The fund has also raised $100 million from the state of New Mexico, Bloomberg reported in 2023. The private capital raise has not been previously reported.

The Frontier Fund will give the Arlington, Va.-based firm fresh cash to back startups building frontier technologies — advanced manufacturing, compute solutions, energy, and other highly technical fields — that support American economic and geopolitical influence. America's Frontier Fund recently invested in Venus Aerospace, which makes hypersonic engine technology, and Foundation Alloy, a metal production startup.

$315 million is large for a first fund; market downturn, delayed initial public offerings, and more have hampered venture firm's capacity to raise large sums of money from limited partners. In 2024, 121 US-based venture capital firms raised funds for the first time, notching $5.7 billion in commitments. That year, the average size of a US-based firm's first fund was just under $41 million, over $270 million smaller than the Frontier Fund, according to data firm Pitchbook.

Investments in the defense tech space have surged up to $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared with $200 million the same period last year, according to Pitchbook.

The firm also invests out of its Roadrunner Venture Studios, which backs pre-seed and seed stage startups building frontier tech primarily in New Mexico. Silicon Valley heavyweights like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel have invested in the firm's separate nonprofit arm, the America's Frontier Fund Foundation, an initiative to support US technological competitiveness, like partnering with the Austin Community College District on expanding its advanced manufacturing program.

Gilman Louie, the CEO of America's Frontier Fund, previously cofounded and ran In-Q-Tel, the CIA-funded investment firm. Cofounder and managing partner Jordan Blashek formerly worked at Schmidt Futures, Eric Schmidt's family office, now Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic organization that funds research in AI, advanced computing, biotech, climate, and other industries.

• Bild AI analyzes blueprints to streamline preconstruction processes.
• The five-month-old startup raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures.
• Bild estimates material costs and will eventually streamline permitting, its cofounder told BI.

A Columbia grad who was one of Google's youngest engineers and a serial entrepreneur who built hundreds of homes starting at age 16 have their sights set on disrupting the construction industry with AI.

Roop Pal and Puneet Sukhija launched construction startup Bild AI in February and on Xday announced a $3.1 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Mission Street Capital, Ryan Sutton-Gee, and Ooshma Garg.

Bild uses AI to read blueprints and estimate the materials and costs associated with a project. This is currently a timely and error-prone process done by hand, Pal said.

The company, which consists of just Pal and Sukhija, will use its seed to hire engineers aggressively in order to expand its technology, Pal told BI.

The duo came up with the idea for Bild at a Hack for Social Impact event in San Francisco, and were accepted into Y Combinator within days of meeting.

"I was really mostly keen on the issue of affordable housing," Pal, who also previously worked at Waymo, told BI. "There's an opportunity to apply my knowledge in computer vision and AI to really make an impact."

The startup's early clients are material suppliers in the framing, flooring, and door businesses, predominantly for multifamily residences. The company makes money by charging subscription fees.

By cutting down on presconstruction costs, Pal said Bild could also spell savings for renters. "If you have elastic housing markets," he said, "this cost passes through and people save on rent."

Material analysis is just the first layer of Bild's vision, as it incorporates new sub-trades — such as windows and roofing — one by one.

As its blueprint-reading technology becomes more sophisticated, it will ultimately be used in the permitting process, Pal said, to catch compliance issues and cut down on the costly and bureaucratic back-and-forth for residential and non-residential projects alike.

"If you reduce 1% of the cost of a hospital, that's another hospital that we have budget to build," he said. "It can really make a big difference broadly."

In addition to Bild, AI is also infiltrating other aspects of the construction industry, with firms like Shawmut and Suffolk relying on the technology to shore up worker safety.

• Zyn owner Philip Morris International US has launched a patriotic ad blitz.
• PMI wants Americans to know more about its corporate brand.
• The push comes as Zyn has soared in popularity.

The owner of buzzy nicotine pouch brand Zyn is taking over the upper deckys of several national newspapers and websites this Independence Day weekend with a patriotic push.

Sales of Zyn have soared in the past two years. The flavored nicotine pouches, placed between either the lower ("lower decky") or upper ("upper decky") lip and gum, are beloved by TikTokers and the conservative manosphere alike.

Zyn's popularity has propelled parent company Philip Morris International's stock to all-time highs. But few Americans know a great deal about Zyn's corporate owner and its US operations.

So, PMI's US division is running an ad campaign titled "Invested in America" across newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn, YouTube, digital news sites including Business Insider, and selected connected TV channels.

PMI said it's hoping to reach "key opinion leaders" as it reintroduces its corporate US brand to America. It wants to raise awareness that Zyn, which was acquired by PMI from Swedish Match in 2022, is manufactured in the US, from its Kentucky facility. PMI also wants its target audience to know that the company's corporate headquarters is located in Stamford, Connecticut, and that it employs around 2,500 people nationwide.

Marian Salzman, PMI's vice president of corporate development in the US, told Business Insider that she and the company's US CEO, Stacey Kennedy, embarked on a listening tour around the US in the fall of 2023, which ultimately culminated in the "Invested in America" campaign. They found commonality around people "wanting a strong and proud America," Salzman said.

Salzman added that the campaign's ambition is to spark greater recognition of PMI's investments in healthier alternatives to smoking and its investments in US communities through job creation and charitable projects.

Patriotic campaigns follow a trend, but also carry a risk

PMI's flag-waving campaign launches in "Made in the USA" month, as designated by the Federal Trade Commission. Amid a global tariff war and President Donald Trump's push to boost domestic manufacturing, brands such as Ford and American Giant have recently shifted their US advertising to proudly promote their American roots. (Some big brands have also sought to play down their Americanness in their marketing overseas.)

PMI will need to tread carefully, said Marcus Collins, a clinical professor of marketing at the University of Michigan.

PMI's heritage is as a tobacco company — with a somewhat confusing corporate history. PMI separated from Altria Group in 2008. PMI still distributes cigarette brands like Marlboro and Chesterfield overseas, while Altria Group sells cigarette brands, including Marlboro, in the US, under the Philip Morris USA subsidiary.

PMI is attempting to shift more of its global business to smoke-free products. But while generally accepted as safer than smoking, nicotine products can still pose health risks, and there are concerns among public health advocates about the appeal of products like vapes and pouches to teens. (The majority of PMI's US sales are from non-combustible products, though it operates a cigar business it acquired in the Swedish Match deal.)

Collins said patriotism in America can carry many different meanings — from MAGA, to resistance, to the idea of capitalism at all costs, to name a few — and that brands need to be intentional about which of these groups they are targeting.

"I think the idea of, let's just grab on to Americanism and let people make their own judgment call or framing about what we mean when we say 'America' or 'patriotism' leaves you open to so much scrutiny for a brand whose products are already controversial," Collins said.

Salzman said the company's aim for the "Invested in America" campaign is to "spark an intelligent dialogue around change." She added that the company follows a strict marketing code, focusing its advertising only on adults who are of the legal age to use nicotine.

"We know that there's going to be naysayers, we know that there's going to be those who challenge this," Salzman said. "We'd really like to stay out of the political debate, and we'd really like this to be a communal debate about, if you won't quit, change."

• The AI talent wars are intensifying as companies like Meta offer salaries in the mid-six figures.
• Federal filings reveal Meta's wage ranges for researchers, engineers, and other workers.
• The highest-paid research engineer at Meta makes up to $440,000 in base salary.

Meta may be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lure top AI talent from rivals. But how much is it paying its broader workforce of software engineers, product managers, and UX researchers?

Thanks to data from federal filings, we now have a window into the company's salary ranges during a heated moment in Silicon Valley's talent wars.

Software engineers at Meta can make up to $480,000. Machine learning roles go as high as $440,000. Even product designers and researchers routinely top $200,000.

The numbers come from filings that companies must submit to the Department of Labor when hiring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, which allows them to bring in 85,000 specialized workers annually through a lottery system. Because tech companies typically guard their compensation details closely, these government-mandated disclosures provide a peek into actual pay scales.

The numbers reflect only annual salaries, excluding the stock options, signing bonuses, and other perks that can often double or triple total compensation packages.

The data comes amid intense competition for AI talent in Silicon Valley. Meta is reportedly offering some AI researchers compensation packages worth up to $300 million over four years as it builds out a new Superintelligence lab.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.

The frenzy extends beyond tech giants. Thinking Machines Lab, the secretive AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is paying technical staff base salaries of up to $500,000 before the company has launched a single product, Business Insider reported earlier this week.

The battle has gotten personal. After Meta lured away seven OpenAI researchers, including Trapit Bansal, co-creator of the company's o1 reasoning model, OpenAI's chief research officer, Mark Chen, said in an internal memo that it felt like "someone has broken into our home."

Here's what Meta is paying across key roles, based on H-1B filings from the first quarter of 2025.

The White House said the decision to halt some weapons deliveries to Kyiv was made "to put America's interests first."

Katherine Ramsland, who taught Kohberger at DeSales University, spoke out after it emerged he had agreed to a plea deal in the murders of four Idaho students.

A U.S. aircraft carrier is operating near the Philippines, while a Chinese aircraft carrier is visiting Hong Kong.

Whether the establishment is ready or not, we're here. And we're proving a different way of doing politics isn't just possible—it's necessary.

Costco will close all its U.S. stores for one day this month, adhering to one of the chain's traditions.

China's Central Military Commission is its smallest in decades highlighting the personalisation of Xi Jinping's control even as questions grow over his power.

Lauren Sanchez's income is changing following her weekend wedding to the Amazon founder.