• Federal workers looking to move to the private sector could face increased challenges.
• Economic uncertainty and a dearth of middle-management roles could hurt job seekers' prospects.
• Universities, which have been landing spots for government workers, are also pausing hiring.

Federal workers trying to trek to the private sector could find they've walked into a minefield.

Lackluster corporate hiring, a shrinking middle-management job market, and pullbacks by universities are making the route to employment beyond federal agencies trickier to navigate than not that long ago, workplace observers told Business Insider.

"Right now is absolutely a very difficult time for the government workers that need to go back on the job market," Andy Wu, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, told BI.

One reason is that, for several years, it's been a tough job market for many people, especially those with desk jobs. Now, the US job market appears to be "frozen by an environment of economic uncertainty," Indeed economist Cory Stahle recently wrote on LinkedIn.

Goodbye, middle management jobs

As artificial intelligence burrows its way deeper into more workplaces, some employers are reconsidering how many people they need in service jobs and middle-management positions, Wu said.

"For many of these long-tenured government employees, that's the kind of role that they would be looking for," he said, referring to midlevel management jobs.

For years, some companies have been trying to scrub management layers from their org charts in hopes of trimming costs.

Growing uncertainty over the economic fallout from tariffs and a jittery stock market could push companies to cut added management layers, Angela T. Hall, an associate professor at Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, told BI.

"When we see recession or hints of recession, what do they do? They lay off middle managers," she said.

Hall said that would likely be bad news for longtime government workers who have historically been good fits for those types of roles.

A different pace

Extended service in government can also present unique challenges. Government workers might have to overcome concerns that they're not up to the rigors of business, for example.

"The government has a different way of and pace of working than the private sector," Wu said. That's especially true, he said, in high-growth areas of the private sector.

"Even if they could get the roles there, I think there's always going to be a question of culture fit," Wu said.

Job seekers who've worked for many years in the government could also face age bias, Amanda Augustine, a career coach with Careerminds, told BI.

"Any employee who's in a certain age group and is looking for work is always going to feel some challenges," she said.

Discriminating against older workers based on their age is illegal, yet it's a concern for some job seekers.

Other paths look questionable

Another possible escape route for one-time federal workers isn't looking as promising as it once had.

Some NGOs and universities, facing drops in federal outlays, are hoisting their ladders. More than a dozen top schools, from Brown to Harvard, recently halted hiring because of uncertainty around funding, according to reports.

Some are even cutting. On Thursday, Johns Hopkins University said it would eliminate more than 2,000 jobs in the US and abroad after the federal government canceled $800 million in grants that the research powerhouse had been expecting.

Policy nonprofits and universities have traditionally been eager to attract workers with strong government experience, Laura Labovich, who runs an outplacement firm in the Washington, DC, area, told BI.

She said a greater slowdown in federal spending — if it occurs — could further gum up the job search for federal workers. That's because it's not uncommon for those with government time on their sheets to parlay that experience and agency knowledge to move into government contracting roles.

There could be even less demand for that type of work if the feds or an advisory group like Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency pushes through cuts to federal contracting.

Some bright spots

Yet it's not all bad news, Labovich said. She said that because some employers are focusing on skills — and less on pedigree — that could create opportunities for veterans of the government.

Labovich said some private employers still look for workers with extensive government experience, particularly those who've been in management.

"A lot of companies highly value them because they are leaders," she said.

Beyond that, a handful of states have expressed interest in hiring laid-off federal workers.

Still, some skills might be so specific that government workers could face a tough job search. While being a specialist is often a good thing, a long record of sending up weather balloons or serving as a nuclear submarine engineer could limit someone's job prospects.

Hall pointed to the plight of a man who worked with dogs at Alaska's Denali National Park and was laid off.

"There aren't a lot of opportunities for dog mushers," she said.

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• Ethan Evans says résumés often fail by listing activities instead of showcasing impactful results.
• Recruiters skim résumés quickly, so clarity and conciseness are crucial for success.
• You must also list your education and certifications correctly and include your interests.

I've reviewed over 10,000+ résumés and conducted more than 2,500 interviews in my career as a VP at multiple companies, including Amazon.

I ran recruiting at three startups, and now I coach individuals through their job searches. I know what recruiters and hiring managers want in a résumé — and what mistakes could cost you the job.

The problem and the goal

I often see six mistakes. The first three are the most damaging, and 90% of résumés contain at least one of them.

Recruiters and managers are under tremendous pressure and usually review résumés as quickly as possible. Your résumé has to be optimized to catch their eye quickly. The goal is for them to skim it and think it would be worthwhile to interview you.

Here are the three biggest mistakes that could cost you the job you apply for.

1. No results, only activities

This is the most common mistake I see on résumés. People write down what they did by saying "wrote code," "managed employees," or "worked on X project."

Senior performers, however, know they're valued for their impact and make a point to show the results of their work.

You can rewrite nearly every bullet on your résumé in a way that describes why your work matters and shows that your presence made a positive difference to the team, the product, and the bottom line.

Here are some tricks to help do this:

• If possible, link to your results. People exaggerate and lie on résumés, but nothing says "my work is real" like a link to the project.
• The human eye is automatically drawn to bold. Selectively bold a few words or phrases to ensure your strongest accomplishments are noticed.
• Use action verbs like 'owned,' 'built,' 'drove,' or 'delivered.' This suggests you actively did something rather than simply witness it.
• People believe specific numbers, including dollar figures. Use them when possible.

2. No objective

Without an objective, a recruiter or hiring manager has to guess if you want the job. If you're a recruiter with a pile of résumés, you're not going to waste your time doing any guessing.

An objective clearly states what kind of role you're looking for in your next job, and a great objective is formulaic and short enough to be read in a single glance. Don't just talk about yourself in subjective terms.

An example of the formula for a senior engineer role would be, "Seeking a role as a Sr. Engineer where I can apply my proven ability shipping scaled services to deliver valuable innovation for the business."

The first part simply states the role you seek. This is particularly important if you want to do something different from your last job.

The second part allows you to state your highest qualifications for a role. Highlight the top reason to put your résumé in the "call" pile.

The third part shows you're there to help the manager and the company. While you're looking for a "good job" for yourself, the manager is not focused on "giving someone a good job." You want to convey that you're not just interested in yourself but that you're also dedicated to providing value to your new manager.

Here's my own objective in my executive coaching résumé as an example:

Objective: Provide professional development at scale, guiding transitions to executive leadership.

Proven executive leadership of multiple $500M+ businesses across games, video, apps, and music. Global leadership experience of teams 800+. Technical inventor; 60+ issued patents.

3. Too many words

Many résumés are long, lasting three or more pages or using a tiny font to cram the page.

The mistake is writing what we want to write about rather than what the reader needs to know. I call these "happy words." They occur when a résumé opens with the candidate writing positive sentences about who they think they are. It looks like this:

"Motivated self-starter looking for a positive environment where I can bring my technical skills and passion to a worthy project. Great coworker and mentor. Adaptable, fast learner."

It's natural to want to share what we see as our most positive traits. Unfortunately, managers looking at dozens of résumés daily will ignore this because it doesn't tell what the candidate can do.

The rule to follow is "show, don't tell." If you're a fast learner, include bullets on your résumé that show this. For example: "Learned and applied X to project Y, going from first effort to customer shipment in nine weeks."

The goal of your résumé is to put your three best accomplishments per role in front of the manager. If you write too much, they will skim over your biggest accomplishments. It is best to keep your résumé under 1,000 words.

My résumé is 700 words long and covers a 30-year career, and I created it on Microsoft Word in two hours.

Once you've written a solid résumé, look out for these three more mistakes before applying to any job.

4. Optimizing for the Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Many résumés try to cram keywords at the top to pass through the applicant tracking system. There are two significant problems with this approach.

Over 80% of all jobs go to someone with a networking connection to the role. Focusing on getting through the ATS means you're focusing on jobs where you have no networking connection, and therefore, you're competing against everyone else.

The second problem is that this makes the résumé hard for a human to read, and it buries your strongest accomplishments in the body of the text.

The ideal approach is to write your résumé for human eyes, then leverage your network to get it into the hands of someone who will read it. If you want to include keywords, put them at the end of your résumé in a 'skills' section.

5. Listing education and certifications in the wrong place

If you're a new graduate, the expected résumé format is to list your education at the top. If you have work experience, your education should be below your work history.

Another element of your education section is your GPA. If you do not list your GPA, the reader will assume it is poor. You're better off listing it if you did well (above a 3.3).

While you can safely remove your GPA once you're 10 years out of school, if you graduated with honors, it may be worth keeping forever.

The bottom of your résumé is the place to list most certifications unless you have a critical attribute like security clearance or an expected certification for the role you seek. You can put those near the top.

6. Excluding hobbies and interests

There are two benefits to ending your résumé with a little information about hobbies, charitable activities, and interests.

These interests humanize you. If someone has read to the bottom of your résumé, you won their attention. Giving a little personal texture at the bottom helps you be memorable.

Second, managers and recruiters look for icebreakers if they call you. Maybe they ski or have a dog, too, so listing things like this creates more chances to connect emotionally.

Next steps

Once you're confident in your résumé, don't procrastinate by continuing to polish it. Focus on networking to get a good reference for a job.

One last mistake I see is candidates failing to leverage their carefully crafted résumé language on LinkedIn. To get the most out of LinkedIn, put your crisp objective statement in the "About" section of the profile. Then, copy your job bullets into each section of "Work History."

Fill out your education and other information, and keep it current. This way, recruiters can find you while you sleep.

Ethan Evans is a retired Amazon vice president with over 23 years of experience as a business executive.

• Some former Palantir employees have left the software company to build their own startups.
• BI identified 30 founders building in the AI, legaltech, consumer, and healthcare spaces.
• The Palantir Mafia includes Partiful, Ironclad, Joe Lonsdale, Anduril, Garry Tan, and more.

Move over, PayPal: there's a new tech mafia in town.

Meet the Palantir Mafia: from Y Combinator's Garry Tan, to Joe Lonsdale, to the founders of ElevenLabs, IronClad, and Partiful, the big data software company has produced a slew of former employees who now run startups and investment funds of their own.

More than a decade ago, PayPal set the standard for producing a formidable group of alumni who now run their own companies, including Elon Musk, David Sacks, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and Peter Thiel — who later co-founder Palantir.

Now, Facebook and Oracle each have their own mafias and more recent tech companies like Square, OpenAI, and Instacart have mafias, too.

Palantir's original clients were federal agencies, and one of its core product offerings, "Gotham," assists in locating targets on battlefields. While some former Palantir employees are leveraging their experience to found defense tech startups, others are building companies in healthcare, consumer, AI, and enterprise.

Palantir mafia companies have been backed by top VC firms including a16z, Sequoia, Redpoint, and Accel, as well as the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator.

In total, the startups identified by BI have collectively raised more than $6 billion in VC funding, according to PitchBook data as well as founders themselves. More than half of that funding — $3.8 billion — went to one place: Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by three Palantir alums.

Take a look at BI's list of 30 Palantir Mafia members who are now startup founders. We put Y Combinator's Garry Tan at the top of the list and then listed everyone else in descending order based on how much VC funding their startup has raised.

• Amazon quickly integrated DeepSeek AI models into Bedrock due to high demand in January.
• Amazon wants to promote its products as faster and more secure alternatives to DeepSeek.
• The cloud giant warns employees not to share confidential information with DeepSeek.

In late January, as DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the tech industry, Amazon saw a huge spike in companies requesting access to the Chinese AI model on its development tool Bedrock.

Amazon swiftly added DeepSeek to Bedrock. Some employees who spoke to Business Insider felt the approval process was unusually fast. Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy later told investors the company moved quickly to meet customer demand.

DeepSeek's sudden rise has spurred swift reactions inside Amazon. The repercussions have been felt across product updates, sales pitches, and development efforts, according to internal documents seen by BI and people familiar with the matter.

The responses show how fast-moving AI discoveries can whipsaw even the biggest and smartest technology companies. Amazon rivals, including OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have also been forced to respond to the DeepSeek impact.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company's strategy has always focused on providing secure access to the latest models through AWS, giving customers control over their data to customize and build generative AI applications.

"Delivering DeepSeek models is an example of that," the spokesperson added in a statement to BI. "We're extremely pleased with the feedback that we've received from the thousands of customers who have already deployed DeepSeek on AWS."

'Privacy concerns'

DeepSeek's AI models upended the tech world in January with their powerful performance and low cost. Tech stocks plunged as investors questioned US tech companies' massive spending on computing products.

For now, Amazon continues to add DeepSeek-related features. Earlier this week, the cloud giant made it easier to use DeepSeek's reasoning model on Bedrock, offering a "fully managed" service with built-in security and monitoring features. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman wrote on LinkedIn that there's been "incredible demand" for DeepSeek.

It's not just the Bedrock team scurrying to make changes. One person said that DeepSeek has sparked many new discussions across Amazon.

One particular topic has been how Amazon should position itself against DeepSeek.

AWS has encouraged employees to highlight privacy and security concerns around DeepSeek when they speak to customers, according to internal guidelines seen by BI. They should remind customers of the importance of "model choice" and pitch AWS's Nova AI models as an alternative, the document added.

The guidelines also suggest promoting Bedrock, which AWS says provides a more secure and private method of accessing AI models. With Bedrock, customer data is not shared with model providers or used to improve base models. Amazon expects most customers to use open-source versions of DeepSeek models, not those directly offered by the Chinese company, it added.

"DeepSeek's privacy policy states they collect user data and may store them on servers in China," the guidelines said. "We are aware of the privacy concerns on DeepSeek models."

Nova is faster and safer

AWS has also told employees to leverage DeepSeek's shortcomings when selling Nova.

The guidelines say Nova models are faster than DeepSeek's models, based on third-party benchmark data, and more secure given AWS's more robust "responsible AI" standards.

Nova is more comparable to DeepSeek's V3 model than the R1 reasoning model and they serve different needs, the guideline also stated. However, the V3 is a "text-only model," while Nova supports image and video understanding, the document emphasized.

AWS is now working on its own reasoning model that would directly compete with DeepSeek's R1, BI previously reported. While AWS has been developing the new model for months, DeepSeek's recent emergence added more pressure to expedite its progress, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Efforts to study DeepSeek's technology are in the works at Amazon, and AWS wants to apply some of the training techniques DeepSeek used in its new reasoning model, some of the people added.

During last month's earnings call, Jassy said Amazon was "impressed" with a lot of DeepSeek's training methodologies. Those include "flipping the sequencing of reinforcement training" and some of its "inference optimizations," Jassy explained.

"For those of us who are building frontier models, we're all working on the same types of things and we're all learning from one another. I think you have seen and will continue to see a lot of leapfrogging between us," he said.

'Deepseek-interest' channel

On the day DeepSeek roiled the stock market in late January, Amazon employees created an internal Slack channel called "Deepseek-interest," according to a screenshot seen by BI. More than 1,300 employees joined the channel in just a few days.

One person wrote on this Slack channel that he was "surprised" there wasn't much pushback against DeepSeek given its China origin and "security concerns." Another person asked for Neuron, AWS's in-house chip development platform, to support DeepSeek models. A third person wrote about a customer complaint over errors they saw while using DeepSeek on Bedrock.

Amazon also held an internal DeepSeek learning session in late January, according to one of the Slack messages. The event covered AWS's messaging, positioning, and key differentiators versus DeepSeek.

Moving on from DeepSeek

Meanwhile, Amazon now discourages employees from using DeepSeek on their work computers, according to several people familiar with the matter. Staff now get a warning to not share confidential information with DeepSeek's app, the same message they see when using ChatGPT at work.

Perhaps in a sign of how fast things change in AI, some Amazon employees already seem to be moving on from DeepSeek to other Chinese AI offerings.

One person wrote in the internal Slack channel that AWS should start considering other China-based models, like Alibaba's Qwen.

"DeepSeek is already the past day," this person wrote. "When do we have Qwen2.5-Max?"

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This week, Social Security payments will be made to millions of Americans.

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St. Patrick's Day celebrates Ireland's patron saint, evolving from a religious feast to a global festival.

The Trump administration's moves to deport Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil have set up a historic court battle over whether the U.S. government can remove legal residents as national security risks for what they say.

Why it matters: If Trump's team is successful, legal analysts say, future administrations could deport legal immigrants for any political or religious speech the administration dislikes.

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• In a nation with a long history of immigration, the impact could be huge, and go well beyond President Trump's tenure.
• Think of the possibilities: If Trump's push is successful, a Democrat-led administration that follows could, theoretically, cite national security concerns to remove green-card holders such as right-leaning Chinese immigrants or someone like the outspoken Elon Musk, who had a green card before he became a U.S. citizen in 2022.

Zoom in: Both sides of the Khalil case think it could wind up before the Supreme Court, where the Trump administration is eager to win approval for various deportation strategies.

• A win in court could give the Trump administration — specifically Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a chance to launch deportations based on speech activities of the 13 million or so green card holders in the U.S.

Catch up quick: Khalil, a Columbia graduate and legal resident from Syria, helped lead last year's protests over the war in Gaza. The protests disrupted campus activities and led to allegations of antisemitic harassment of some Jewish students.

• As part of Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Khalil earlier this month.
• The Department of Homeland Security says it's gathered evidence that he was actively supporting Hamas, but not materially helping the terror group, a White House official said.
• Rubio was presented with evidence from the DHS review and determined that Khalil acted against U.S. foreign policy positions, the official said.
• Khalil has not been charged or accused of any crimes. As of Friday, he was being held in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. His legal team is challenging his detention.

The big picture: Green card holders, known as lawful U.S. permanent residents, have the most coveted status of foreign nationals who aspire to be U.S. citizens.

• A green card provides most of the rights of U.S. citizenship — except the right to run for public office and the right to vote. There's also the risk of deportation if the card holder commits a crime.

For non-U.S. citizens, there's additional risk in protesting because their speech rights are open to interpretation by the government. That's the legal gap the Trump administration is seeking to exploit.

• U.S. law allows the secretary of state to deport a green-card holder if that person is deemed to have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
• That authority rarely has been used outside of the Cold War or cases involving serious crimes, legal analysts tell Axios.
• That provision comes from the Cold War-era Immigration Nationality Act of 1952 —a point Rubio made as a senator eight days after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

There are limits on the secretary of state's authority, said Rebecca Ingber, a Cardozo Law School professor and former legal adviser for the State Department during the Biden administration.

• Ingber said the provision of the law the administration is using in its deportation argument doesn't operate in a vacuum — and that there are competing legal constraints such as "due process and the First Amendment."

Emily Berman, a constitutional scholar and assistant dean at the University of Houston Law Center, told Axios that secretaries of state haven't tried to remove legal residents based on their speech "because it's unconstitutional."

• "If the only thing this person did is engage in protests that happen to be pro-Palestinian, which is speech that the government doesn't like ... they can't punish him for that," Berman said.

Khalil's legal team believes the Trump administration is using him as an example for a larger goal.

• The administration "has selectively targeted Mr. Khalil, a student, husband, and father-to-be who has not been accused of a single crime, to send a message of just how far they will go to crack down on dissent," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The other side: Trump administration officials have said it's within the secretary of state's right to expel Khalil for speech they claim supported terrorism.

• Khalil's arrest came days after Rubio posted on X that the U.S. had "zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists."
• Trump border czar Tom Homan said last week that "free speech has limitations."

• Gen Z workers aren't paying attention to traditional job advice.
• They're more willing to pursue their career goals through job-hopping, says a career coach.
• Here's how two Gen Z workers navigated the job-hopping process.

It's no secret that Gen Z has some untraditional views on work.

They're not afraid of breaking workplace taboos such as job-hopping, and they're willing to prioritize their well-being and happiness over higher pay.

Some Gen Z workers are taking this mindset to the next step by quitting their jobs in a matter of months — breaking the classic recommendation of staying at a job for a year or longer.

Dennis Xiao is one of those people. After graduating college in 2021, Xiao started working at an investment bank but soon realized he didn't feel fulfilled by the job. Six months in, Xiao decided to quit. Since then, Xiao has worked a strategic finance role at WeWork, taken a career break to travel, and been self-employed as a content creator and coach.

Joey H., who declined to provide his last name for privacy reasons, had a similar experience. He got a job as a software developer at a small startup in October 2021 but left after eight months because he didn't feel like the company offered strong career development opportunities.

"I wanted to find an environment where I could have more support, maybe at a larger company," Joey said. He's since found another software developer role.

Career coach Marnie Lemonik has seen this new attitude toward work play out among her clients. "The biggest trend that I've noticed with Gen Z is they have more inherent confidence in themselves in the work world," Lemonik said. "Millennials tend to be a little bit more guilt-ridden about that process, and they're more concerned with leaving a job after only a year and the optics of it."

Job-hopping isn't an easy task, especially early on in your career. Here's what can make the transition smoother.

Prepare early and build an emergency fund

While Gen Zers tend to be more confident in their abilities to land a new job, the process isn't always seamless — especially if you're leaving without another job lined up.

"There is this desire to think, 'Once I start job searching, I'll find a job in a month,' or, 'I have a really good network, so maybe I'll find a job within two months.' The very rough average I've seen across a lot of different levels of my clients is three to six months," Lemonik said. "That's a longer period of time than what a lot of people budget for."

For that reason, it's important to make sure you have an adequate emergency fund to act as a buffer between jobs.

It took two months for Joey to find another job after quitting his first one, but he had begun preparing for interviews many months before leaving. Planning a few months ahead, getting a head start on interviewing, and putting more money into savings leading up to your departure can make the job-hopping process easier.

Consider decreasing your 401(k) contributions

It's not a bad idea to decrease the amount of money you're contributing to your company's retirement plans if you plan to leave your current job soon.

That's what Xiao did when he started planning to leave his second job. "I was like, 'I'm just going to start redirecting money away from my 401(k) to pure savings to prepare for this chapter of not having income,'" he said.

Once the money is in your 401(k), it's locked up for the long term — you can't withdraw it before age 59 ½ without a 10% penalty and income taxes. Lowering your contributions will give you more immediate cash flow. This can be especially advantageous if you're early on in your career and earning an entry-level salary. If that's the case, prioritize your immediate financial needs by diverting cash to a savings account instead of maxing out retirement funds.

Decreasing your 401(k) contributions can sound risky if you're concerned about hitting your retirement goals, but many people job-hop with the goal of increasing their pay and benefits. Joey's first employer didn't offer a 401(k) match, so he gained a better benefits package by switching jobs.

Get a 'bridge job'

A bridge job is a position that serves as a stepping stone between your current job and your dream job. Beyond providing you with income while you search for a job, a bridge job can help build up the professional skills needed for you to get closer to the career you want.

This was Xiao's mindset when he started his second role at WeWork. "I took the role fully knowing it was my day job," Xiao said. "I lived a part-time creator life doing YouTube and writing on the side."

Many of Lemonik's clients who leave jobs due to burnout want the next job to be a perfect fit, but that's not always possible.

"Sometimes it just takes longer to get that type of job, or sometimes you simply don't have the skills to go from your current job to your dream job and you have to find something in the middle," Lemonik said.

She encourages her clients to think about jobs that could build up their résumés for the job they want. "If you want to become a lawyer and you're working in tech sales, can you go work at a law firm while you study for the LSAT?" Lemonik said. "That gets you closer to that realm even though you can't be a lawyer tomorrow."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed that it was difficult for him not to look at Lewis Hamilton's time on the leaderboard.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has framed the strikes as evidence that the U.S. fears the growing strength of Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Japan is enhancing its standoff defense capabilities to eliminate any enemy forces at a distance and at an early stage.

Apple's acknowledgment that AI enhancements to Siri are taking longer than expected has increased concern that the iPhone maker is falling further behind in what is shaping up to be a tectonic shift for the tech industry.

Why it matters: When it announced Apple Intelligence last June, Apple was already trailing major competitors in outlining its AI strategy.

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Driving the news: Apple confirmed earlier this month that the enhanced Siri was taking longer than expected, with features that were due imminently now expected to arrive "in the coming year."

• With delivery times up in the air, Apple took down the video of a 2024 ad touting Siri's new AI features.
• Since then, there have been concerns expressed in and outside the company that Apple may have trouble reaching even these revised goals.
• Bloomberg has reported that Apple executives called the delay "ugly" and "embarrassing" in a meeting with worried staffers.

Between the lines: While Apple has shipped the first pieces of Apple Intelligence, what has yet to arrive are the components that really made the strategy compelling — the notion of combining AI smarts with personal data in a secure and privacy-preserving way.

• The features that Apple has delivered — custom emoji, Image Playground, writing help and ChatGPT integration — fit more in the nice-to-have bucket. And in some cases, those features still lag behind what's available from others.
• The features that are delayed, meanwhile, are the ones that generated the most excitement during last year's demo.
• For example, Apple showed Siri answering "when does my mom's flight land?" by drawing upon various pieces of knowledge across the system within multiple apps. That ability to understand personal relationships, context and retrieve personal information was what made Apple Intelligence stand out from rivals.

The big picture: While Apple has struggled with its AI efforts, the industry is barreling forward with unprecedented speed.

• Even Amazon, which has had its own set of challenges, announced in February its plans for Alexa+, an AI-infused upgrade to its voice assistant.
• On the personalization front, Google last week debuted an option for users to integrate their search history with Gemini and Microsoft managed at long last to ship its Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs.
• And the whole industry has added new techniques that have leap-frogged what chatbots could do last year. Among those are reasoning models, semi-autonomous agents and the ability to do deep research.

What they're saying: Industry observers have been pulling no punches in describing what the delay could mean for Apple's future. Daring Fireball's John Gruber thrashed Apple, arguing that not only is the company late with AI, but it has now broken its long, enviable record of only promoting products when they are ready to ship.

• "The fiasco here is not that Apple is late on AI," Gruber wrote. "It's also not that they had to announce an embarrassing delay on promised features last week. Those are problems, not fiascos, and problems happen."
• "The fiasco is that Apple pitched a story that wasn't true, one that some people within the company surely understood wasn't true, and they set a course based on that."

• More people are starting to use ChatGPT for free therapy.
• Therapists say it can make people lonelier and dependent on seeking reassurance.
• They recommend using it for specific tasks, like journal prompts.

I'm not shy about admitting I've confided in a robot.

Just last week, I spent a solid hour in an animated back-and-forth with ChatGPT, seeking advice for a personal problem that I've been agonizing over for weeks. I didn't want to bore my husband and friends with it again.

I'm far from the only one who does this. Reddit users say they love using the AI platform for life coaching and unpacking other people's narcissistic behaviors; TikTokers share tips like "voice journaling" into ChatGPT or changing the settings so ChatGPT responds back in audio, mimicking a therapist.

Rachel Goldberg, a licensed clinical social worker in Los Angeles, said she wasn't surprised to learn that some people use ChatGPT for therapeutic purposes. She even put me in touch with one of her clients, who recently disclosed that she uses the platform daily in addition to their in-person sessions.

The client, who we'll call Emily (she asked to remain anonymous because she is Goldberg's client), said she uses ChatGPT to "brain dump" her thoughts when she feels stressed. Sometimes, she doesn't want to text Goldberg ahead of a session or "burden" her friends; she just needs to process something quickly. Within seconds, she gets "the most amazing life advice," she said.

"It's kind of a little compass helping me go throughout my day," Emily, 28, told BI.

ChatGPT is a tempting alternative (or accessory) to therapy. It's free, available anytime, and offers customized, in-depth advice. The downsides — like OpenAI training on personal data or the environmental damage caused by frequent AI use — are easy to ignore in the heat of a crisis when ChatGPT responds with tranquil eloquence.

While some therapists say it's OK, they encourage hard boundaries around using ChatGPT: its boundless accessibility can reinforce reassurance-seeking behaviors and exacerbate loneliness. It can make a person more anxious and atomized — the opposite of what good therapy aims to do.

It felt nice to read ChatGPT's polite affirmations that my issue "sounds really tough." However, it just didn't feel the same as chatting with a friend who might crack a joke or share how they got through a similar experience.

Free 'therapy in your pocket'

Emily, who has been going to therapy for about eight or nine years, doesn't believe ChatGPT is better than traditional therapy or a substitute for her friends.

It is, however, convenient. When her car was stolen twice, or she felt overwhelmed by big life transitions, she'd write into ChatGPT. She found it most helpful when it identified her feelings when she was too in it to realize them herself.

"If I tell it things where I don't sound very confident or I'm doing something for someone else, it catches that, and it'll be like, 'this person is responsible for their own emotions,'" Emily said. "It's literally therapy in your pocket at any time."

While Goldberg said it's good that ChatGPT "does a pretty good job of validating" someone's feelings and can help them become more self-reflective, the danger lies in being overly dependent on a second opinion. There are still moments when one has to make a split-second decision on their own, like speaking up in a meeting or leaving a rude date.

Ciara Bogdanovic, a therapist specializing in dialectical behavioral therapy, told BI her worry is that ChatGPT can't spot broader patterns in a client, like the need for frequent validation. For people with OCD, ChatGPT can heighten reassurance-seeking behaviors, which a competent therapist would work on, encouraging the client to expose themselves to some discomfort.

AI is "just going to reassure, which is reinforcing the behavior which might be damaging," Bogdanovic said.

When customizing goes too far

The biggest problem I found with ChatGPT therapy is that it can be customized to answer in ways you find preferable. If I asked ChatGPT to analyze a conversation at face value, it told me I was coming off a touch harsh. Then I followed Reddit's advice of asking ChatGPT to spot signs of manipulation in the other person's texts. It broke down all the ways they were defensive and emotionally immature.

Without that note, readings might look different, potentially even sympathetic to the love-bomber or gaslighter.

Therapists and friends aren't perfectly objective, either. It's just that ChatGPT's answers can be continually tweaked to your liking, down to the tone of voice.

Unlike a therapist, Goldberg said that ChatGPT won't pick up on a user labeling everyone in their life as toxic and gently start to push back. It will simply tell them what they want to hear — ultimately, to their detriment.

"As a therapist, I'm constantly assessing: what's the client's diagnosis, what is their history, what is their family context?" Bogdanovic said. How she responds to one client may be completely different to another client, even if they raise what seems like exactly the same concern. ChatGPT, meanwhile, is "just going to spit out an answer," she said.

Losing the human touch

As empathetic as ChatGPT sounds, it has limitations for the kinds of problems it can solve.

Angela Betancourt, a 42-year-old business owner, no longer goes to therapy. While she said ChatGPT can't compete with it, she uses it for quick pep talks or offering a different perspective on approaching a problem.

Betancourt also loves using ChatGPT for gratitude journal prompts. Recently, she used it to reflect on the joyful moments of a trip she took with her family. However, she said she wouldn't use ChatGPT to deal with heavier emotions like grief. She lost her father-in-law last year and her father a few years before that. She believes only real people can provide adequate comfort and advice in a crisis.

Unlike a psychologist or best friend, ChatGPT is also not beholden to confidentiality — data inputted may potentially be used to identify users in the future, though it hasn't happened yet.

Emily tries not to include too much super-personal data. Sometimes, though, she'll describe a "really intense situation" involving other people. "If that ever got out, it could ruin relationships," she said. "I'm just hoping it's completely private."

If you're going to spill to ChatGPT, create boundaries

Both Bogdanovic and Goldberg predict that more people will start using ChatGPT for therapy, at least in the near future. They also hope they'll exercise some boundaries around it.

Bogdanovic recommends using it only for "pointed questions," like how to respond to your boss's message or breathing techniques to calm down.

In my experience, even the best AI -powered advice can fall short. By the time my husband came home that day, ChatGPT still hadn't given me an answer that felt right — it provided too many potential courses of action. I spiraled, wondering if I was giving ChatGPT a fair amount of context without completely compromising my privacy.

So I asked him instead: knowing all about this recurring issue, what would he do if he were me right now? He paused and closed his eyes, pensiveness in his voice. Then he gave me his advice.

I texted the person back in the way he suggested. I have no idea if it was the best answer or the rightest of resolutions. All I know is that I felt better when I put my phone down to hug him.

• Older Americans are facing retirement uncertainty due to market dips and Trump policy changes.
• Financial advisors urge against drastic investment changes, despite recession fears.
• Diversifying income sources and delaying taking Social Security can help stabilize retirement plans.

With dips in the stock market, planned staff cuts to the Social Security Administration, and rapidly changing economic policy, nearly a dozen older Americans told Business Insider they aren't sure how to navigate retirement under Trump 2.0 — so we asked financial advisors.

It turns out that they have also been fielding an uptick in queries about how this political moment will impact clients' finances.

Some retirees are tempted to make drastic changes to their investments, while others feel anxious about how their Social Security benefits may fare. This comes as the White House makes sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, the Department of Government Efficiency slashes budgets for government programs, and Wall Street braces for a potential recession.

The biggest advice for older Americans right now from financial advisors: don't panic. The news cycle since President Donald Trump's inauguration has moved quickly, and most advisors caution older adults against making any major changes to their retirement or savings accounts. Advisors told BI that building emergency funds and cutting back on spending are smarter ways to approach economic uncertainty.

"While it's difficult not to react when stocks are falling, this has often been the best course of action, or you risk locking in potential losses and missing out on any market recoveries," said Rita Assaf, vice president of retirement offerings at Fidelity Investment. "If you are saving for retirement, continue to stick to your plan. If you haven't created a plan, you should."

Here are the three top tips on retirement planning in the current economic climate from financial advisors, economists, and wealth managers.

Avoid drastic investment decisions

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq have fallen recently, sparking nervousness among older Americans who have invested their retirement savings. A potential recession could also impact the value of some retirees' assets, like homes.

"Putting the possibility of a recession into perspective can be hard to do," said John Canally, chief portfolio strategist at TIAA, Wealth Management. "Emotion is a big part of investing, for better or worse, and investors often see short-term volatility as extremely disruptive."

However, Gordon Whittaker, a Merrill wealth management advisor, told BI there is nothing about this period in the market that is different from other times of elevated volatility. If Americans have a smart retirement portfolio with adequate risk allocations, he said they shouldn't make any major money changes.

Financial advisors told BI that it's better to wait and see before making any immediate changes to 401(k) or Roth IRA strategies. Additionally, don't make any changes now in an effort to "get ahead of the economy," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. He added that investors can miss out on gains more than avoiding losses when they try to outguess the market.

Market conditions will likely change again soon, and Canally said it is important to "stay anchored" to long-term wealth and savings goals.

Older Americans who have invested in the market should ensure their stock portfolio is diverse, said Christopher Scibilia, a private client advisor at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. People should invest in various stock options, ideally in stable industries without much risk. Scibilia added that retirees should also plan to withdraw their investments when the market is higher to avoid losses.

Evaluate your budget and pay down debt

Regardless of age, economists and financial advisors told BI it is a good time for Americans to reevaluate their spending.

The job market could slow down, and the price of everyday items could tick up due to tariffs and market volatility, especially if there is a recession. This is a good time to examine household budgets and see what can be trimmed or cut if income changes, McBride said. He added that people should prioritize paying down debt, building emergency funds, and focusing on liquid cash savings.

Scibilia said older Americans, especially, should have cash on hand in case of unexpected expenses, like a medical diagnosis. He said building an emergency fund alongside a traditional retirement account should be a top consideration for Americans who are retired or are looking to retire soon.

Don't count on Social Security alone to pay your bills

BI previously heard from older Americans who are either unable to retire or must return to work after retirement due to financial constraints. Many said that Social Security isn't enough to afford essentials, and millions of retirees don't have adequate savings.

The Social Security fund is unlikely to be immediately affected by any of Trump's planned policies, though Trump has suggested cutting some government healthcare coverage and resources for Social Security beneficiaries.

Financial advisors and economists told BI that having multiple income streams can help protect people from market volatility or any changes in government benefits.

Assaf and Scibilia said that older Americans should consider waiting to collect Social Security. Delaying their claim until age 70 could increase people's benefits by 8%, which could be especially helpful for Americans worried about the Social Security fund dwindling in the 2030s, they said.

"Having multiple income sources, like Social Security, pensions, or part-time work, can also provide stability," Scibilia said.

Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, also told BI that people with emergency funds, investment portfolios, and updated skills in their industry recover fastest from job losses. Scibilia added that pursuing part-time work and increasing health insurance coverage can help retirees weather unexpected expenses.

Do you have a story to tell about retirement plans and how you're navigating finances under Trump 2.0? Reach out to these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected]

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