• I'm a makeup artist who asked ChatGPT to recommend drugstore beauty products to match my complexion.
• The AI chatbot gave me recommendations for products from brands like Maybelline, CoverGirl, and Nyx.
• The foundation I tried worked well, but I wasn't a fan of most of the suggested product shades.

As a professional makeup artist and seasoned ChatGPT user, I like to think of the software as my personal assistant, business partner, and sounding board.

AI has been helpful to me in my everyday life, so recently, I was curious to see if it could make my makeup routine more efficient. After all, the hardest part about makeup application for both beginners and seasoned pros is figuring out the shades and tones that complement different skin tones.

I decided to put ChatGPT to the test and see if it could recommend products that would enhance my features and flatter my skin tone.

I asked the chatbot to recommend budget-friendly products I could find at my Canada-based drugstores. Here's how it went.

I used a website to identify the HEX codes for my skin, hair, and eyes, and used them for my ChatGPT prompt.

To get the best shade matches, I needed to identify the exact colors of my skin, hair, and eyes. To do this, I went to a website called ImageColorPicker.com and uploaded a photo of myself I'd taken in natural lighting.

Then, I clicked on each feature I wanted to capture — my hair, eyes, and skin — to get their HEX codes, a unique combination of letters and numbers specific to a certain hue.

I copied my HEX codes and pasted them into a prompt I'd written out to send to ChatGPT.

Once I had my finished prompt, I logged into ChatGPT.

I added my HEX codes to my ChatGPT prompt and sent the following message:

Pick makeup that will best flatter me based on the following HEX codes for eye color, skin color, and hair color. Choose five of each: foundation, lip product, and eye-shadow palette. Limit options to products available at drugstores like Walmart and Target.

Skin color: [d5916f]

Eye color: [494956]

Hair color: [353942]

When I sent my prompt to ChatGPT, the software recommended five drugstore makeup products for each category, all from an impressive variety of brands.

ChatGPT even explained why each product might work for my skin tone, noting the specific undertones and coverage levels where applicable.

Unfortunately, I had a hard time sourcing the products ChatGPT recommended.

ChatGPT's response seemed promising, but I was surprised to find that many of the recommended shades either didn't seem to exist or weren't stocked at my Canada-based stores.

For example, recommended products like the Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Cocoa Bronze only seemed to be available from online resellers, and I couldn't find the L'Oréal True Match super-blendable foundation in N7 Classic Tan — though the foundation is available in a shade called N7 Medium Deep on L'Oréal's website.

Finally, after some searching, I was able to find a lip cream and eye-shadow palette in the shades ChatGPT recommended at Shoppers Drug Mart. However, I couldn't find any of the suggested foundation shades in-store, so I ordered one on Amazon.

I started with the Maybelline FitMe matte and poreless foundation, which I liked.

I had the Maybelline FitMe matte and poreless foundation in my kit when I first started doing professional makeup, so I was most excited to try this product again.

Though I was skeptical when I saw shade 338 in the bottle, after applying it to my face with a brush, it ended up being a perfect match. The foundation's natural, matte coverage was also exactly what I wanted for an everyday makeup look.

I'll definitely be reaching for this product again. 

Next, I tried to create a pretty eye look with the CoverGirl TruNaked nudes eye-shadow palette.

Out of all the recommendations I tried, the CoverGirl TruNaked nudes eye-shadow palette was probably the most disappointing.

ChatGPT described this palette as having "versatile neutrals and browns to create everyday or smoky looks," but when I examined the colors, I thought the shade range looked too cool-toned, or gray, for my skin tone.

The palette didn't have a diverse range of shades, which seemed limiting, and I had a hunch that the color payoff — how much pigment would be left on my skin — wouldn't be great.

I applied a brown-toned eye shadow onto my lid with a brush. As I suspected, the shades looked too cool-toned for my complexion. Even the deepest-brown shade ended up looking too gray, instantly washing me out and aging me.

I finished my ChatGPT-recommended look with a Nyx soft matte lip cream.

Though I've used the Nyx soft matte lip creams before, I've never tried the shade Abu Dhabi. According to ChatGPT, this color was supposed to be "a soft nude that complements warm skin tones without washing you out."

In the bottle, the lip product looked similar to the nude shades I usually apply. As a Black woman, I knew I'd have to pair the light color with a darker brown lip liner to create more dimension, so I followed my usual process.

Unfortunately, even pairing the product with a liner couldn't save this color. When I applied the product, it looked like I had concealer on my lips, which washed me out. I wouldn't go out of my way to find this shade again.

I think ChatGPT can be a useful tool, but I don't think it can accurately shade-match.

Overall, the biggest limitation I noticed with ChatGPT was its inability to correctly identify items in existing shades or recommend products that are still in stock at drugstores (and not just resale sites).

I had to look up the recommendations online to confirm they existed, so using the software didn't save me much time, either.

Though giving ChatGPT the HEX codes for my skin, hair, and eye colors seemed like the easiest way for the chatbot to determine appropriate shades, I don't think this method can accurately assess warmth or capture the depth and dimension of one's complexion.

The foundation I tried looked good and matched my skin tone, but the eye shadow and lip cream weren't flattering on me at all.

In the future, I'll probably use ChatGPT to pinpoint prices or get generic product recommendations for oily or dry skin. However, I'm going to leave the shade-matching to the humans.

The beauty of professional makeup artistry lies in understanding that every face is a unique canvas. If you ask me, ChatGPT offers a paint-by-numbers approach in a world that demands custom artwork.

• I usually get sets with extensions and gel nail polish, but I recently tried a Brazilian manicure.
• It's done with regular polish and is known for its messy application process.
• I have a renewed appreciation for regular nail polish, and I can't wait to try this again.

I get professional manicures once a month, and I've already tried Japanese, Russian, French, and American varieties.

In my ongoing search to test out different techniques, a coworker recommended that I go to Maria Bonita Salon & Spa in New York City for a Brazilian manicure.

Although I'm familiar with Brazilian waxes and blowouts, I'd never heard of the manicure style before. Evidently, it's known for its messy application process in which a nail tech layers generous coats of regular polish on the nails and surrounding skin before cleaning it up.

In theory, this is supposed to make the polish last longer — in part because every part of the nail gets covered. However, I'm used to long-lasting gel manicures that aren't as messy, so I was skeptical about whether the technique would meet my expectations.

Here's how my $35 appointment went.

The salon was quiet and welcoming.

My typical structured gel manicures take two or more hours to complete, so it was kind of nice to see my appointment at Maria Benito was only scheduled to take one hour.

When I arrived for my 10 a.m. appointment, the salon had just opened, so it was pretty empty inside.

I checked in on an iPad at the front desk before a nail tech approached me and asked if I spoke Portuguese. After letting her know I didn't, she offered me water and coffee and told me to choose my nail-polish color.

We started with filing and soaking.

The nail tech, Le Lopes, started the manicure by filing my nails. I then soaked them in a small bowl of water before she moved on to cuticle care.

Lopes was incredibly precise while cutting my cuticles, which felt reminiscent of the Russian manicure I got in Midtown just months prior.

The tech created a stronger base with a nail hardener.

Lopes and I made light conversation during the manicure, which eventually led to discussing my nail health. I knew this was coming — I got a bad set removal the week before that drilled my nails to bits.

I internally cringed when I showed her the state of my nails.

Lopes smiled kindly and said that because they seemed to lack keratin, I should only use regular polish (instead of gel) for the next three months so they could grow out.

She also consoled me a little by telling me that my natural nail shape was beautiful, so I didn't even need the extensions I usually seek out.

The tech applied a layer of nail hardener to solidify my nail plate for a better canvas before going on with the manicure.

I was very interested in the application process.

After the nail prep, Lopes layered two coats of red Essie polish without concern for the boundaries of my nails.

She seemed to embrace the messiness and even joked about how American women are often surprised by the technique.

Although I knew what to expect, I was still delighted by the chaotic application process. The polish covering my skin almost felt freeing — it didn't need to be perfect right away.

Lopes topped the color off with a clear coat using the same loose style.

Surprisingly, the clean-up was simple and quick.

To clean up the extra polish on my fingers, Lopes used a wooden cuticle stick topped with a small puff of cotton covered in polish remover.

She carefully dragged the stick across my skin, dismissing any evidence that this manicure was once a bit of a mess.

After perfecting the polish, Lopes had me place my hands under a cooling fan for 10 minutes so it could properly dry.

After watching the whole process, I was delighted by the end result.

My manicure was done at exactly 11 a.m., and I went to the front desk to pay. The service came out to $35, but I added a 20% tip.

That's a significant departure from my standard sets, which usually cost at least $100.

Between the welcoming environment, nail-health tips, and great application technique, I found the manicure well worth the price.

I also loved the final result. It reminded me how fun and easy regular nail polish can be to work with and inspired me to break back into my collection of drugstore polishes.

The manicure didn't last long, but I earned a renewed love for regular polish.

In terms of longevity, a Brazilian manicure never really stood a chance against gel varieties that are cured to the nail for long-lasting results.

Unsurprisingly, my nail polish started chipping within the week. By the 10th day, I decided to remove it entirely because of the significant wear and tear.

However, value-wise, the appointment was also much shorter and cheaper than my usual sets. Plus, skipping the damage that comes with applying and removing gel extensions was probably better for my nails.

I was just visiting New York, so I can't book myself in for biweekly visits at Maria Bonita. However, I'm excited to try the Brazilian technique myself at home while my nails gain back their strength.

• OpenAI has filed a trademark application for tech such as humanoid robots and AI-powered VR headsets.
• Sam Altman has hinted at OpenAI's hardware ambitions but says a prototype could still be years away.
• The move could put OpenAI in competition with Meta, Apple, and other AI-driven hardware players.

OpenAI has given more signs that it may be gearing up for a big hardware push.

The ChatGPT maker has filed a new trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that could hint at plans to develop humanoid robots, smart wearables, and AI-powered virtual and augmented reality headsets.

The application also mentions smartwatches and smart jewelry.

While companies often file wide-ranging trademarks for ideas that never come to fruition, OpenAI's application comes as its CEO, Sam Altman, has been talking up the company's hardware plans.

On Monday, he told Nikkei Asia that OpenAI wants to develop AI-powered consumer tech "through partnerships with multiple companies." However, he cautioned that even a prototype could take "several years" to materialize.

Altman added, "AI is a big enough shift in how we interact with computers that there ought to be a new kind of hardware."

Hardware push

OpenAI's trademark application, submitted on January 31, lists "user-programmable humanoid robots" and "humanoid robots with communication and learning functions."

It comes as OpenAI rebuilds its robotics team, which it previously shut down in 2020. In November, OpenAI hired Caitlin Kalinowski, Meta's former hardware lead, to lead the company's robotics and consumer hardware efforts. Kalinowski, who oversaw the development of Orion, Meta's prototype AR glasses, has previously said she will focus on "bringing AI into the physical world" through robotics and hardware partnerships.

In September, former Apple design chief Jony Ive confirmed that he's working with Altman on an AI-first consumer device as part of a new venture.

Altman hasn't provided specifics on how OpenAI plans to integrate its AI models with its own hardware, but the company's filing suggests it is laying the legal groundwork for future developments.

A move into VR hardware would put OpenAI in competition with Meta's Quest and Apple's Vision Pro, both of which are investing in AI-powered immersive experiences.

OpenAI, which has so far been focused on software, has also been linked to custom AI chip development, which could help it reduce its reliance on Nvidia's GPUs.

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

• Doctors and dietitians rated the Mediterranean diet the healthiest diet for the eighth straight year.
• It is praised for its flexibility and health benefits, including against diabetes and cholesterol.
• Items that fit into the Mediterranean diet can be found at Subway, Chick-fil-A, Wendy's, and others.

Often, the start of the new year can mark the start of new diet plans.

But given the overwhelming amount of information online and countless diet options to choose from, finding a plan that works for you can feel daunting.

One diet that continues to stand the test of time is the Mediterranean diet. US News & World Report has rated it the best diet overall for eight consecutive years, based on input from health experts.

It also claimed US News & World Report's No. 1 spot in several other categories, including the best diet for diabetes, the best diet for high cholesterol, the best diet for gut health, the best diet for healthy eating, and the easiest diet to follow.

Holiday Durham, a registered dietitian and clinical investigator at health-and-beauty company Amway, told Business Insider that the Mediterranean diet is "really based on the traditional eating habits of countries that kind of border the Mediterranean Sea, so Spain, Italy, [and] Greece."

At its core, "it's characterized by fruit and vegetable intake, whole grains, healthy fats, nuts and seeds, legumes, fish and seafood, dairy, herbs and spices with minimal red meat consumption," said Durham.

Part of its appeal, according to Durham, is its flexibility.

She explained that even if you're craving fast food or frequently eat at chain restaurants, you can still stick to the Mediterranean diet. The key is to apply its basic principles to everyday food choices, such as "choosing grilled and baked over fried, opting for whole-grain options, and limiting fried foods and sugary beverages."

From a grilled-chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A to DIY burrito bowls at Chipotle, here are 10 fast-food dishes you could opt for while on the Mediterranean diet.

Grilled-chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A

Whenever possible, said Durham, it is best to "opt for grilled instead of fried food." Chick-fil-A has grilled options on its menu, and Durham recommends the brand's grilled chicken sandwich.

While bread is included in the Mediterranean diet, Durham recommended having it "as part of balanced meals." She added that refined carbohydrates, such as white bread and buns, "should be limited as they don't provide the same nutritional value and fiber" as whole-grain or whole-wheat bread.

So, if only white bread or buns are available at a restaurant, Durham suggested substituting it with a romaine wrap or skipping the bun. Or you could opt for one of the more nutritious and fibrous bread types, if available.

Some other Mediterranean diet-friendly dishes on the menu include grilled chicken nuggets, a fruit bowl, and salads.

Veggie Delite at Subway

Durham told BI that "building your sandwich with vegetables, lighter sauces, and whole-wheat bread " is a good way to enhance fiber and add whole grains to your meal.

The best way to do this at Subway is by opting for a Veggie Delite sub. It's packed with salad and vegetables, making it nutritious and filling, Durham said.

Consuming processed deli meats served at the restaurant can make it tricky to manage sodium; Durham said small amounts of naturally occurring sodium from whole foods or moderate salt use are OK, but it's wise to be mindful of your intake, even in foods like nuts and canned goods.

The Cobb or apple-pecan salad at Wendy's

Wendy's, best known for its spicy chicken nuggets and hamburgers, also offers salads that can fit into a healthier eating plan.

The apple-pecan salad aligns well with Mediterranean principles, thanks to ingredients like apples, which provide natural sweetness and fiber, and pecans, which provide healthy fats and antioxidants.

However, "be mindful of the dressings," Durham said, because "store-bought or restaurant dressings are often high in added sugars, unhealthy fats (like trans fats or saturated fats ), or high in sodium."

Durham said these refined oils and sugars don't align with the Mediterranean diet's focus as a whole.

Instead, she recommended opting for fresh lemon wedges or olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which are minimally processed. Alternatively, you could also consider bringing a vetted homemade dressing.

Another option to try at Wendy's is the Cobb salad, which includes grilled chicken and chopped eggs. While it is traditionally served with applewood smoked bacon, requesting the server remove it aligns it more with the Mediterranean diet.

Build your own bowl at Chipotle

"Chipotle is a good place to be able to modify things," said Durham. It is known for its customizable bowls and incorporates Mediterranean-diet elements like beans, rice, and vegetables.

She recommended "asking for brown rice [and] building it with grilled chicken." They also have a wide variety of beans, so adding those and getting extra vegetables will make it more healthful.

"All of those are good sources of fiber and protein," said Durham.

Mediterranean sandwich at Panera

Panera is another spot that has lots of salad and sandwich options, Durham said, and the most obvious is its Mediterranean sandwich.

It is a sandwich with feta, hummus, and salad, but you could customize it to add some grilled chicken.

Durham recommended opting for whole-grain bread rather than tomato basil bread, as it better aligns with the Mediterranean diet lifestyle.

The veggie or chicken bowl at Taco Bell

Like Chipotle, Taco Bell offers a customizable, protein-packed bowl that can fit into your diet.

While Durham said she favors Chipotle for its variety and the option to swap white rice for brown rice, which is more nutritious, Taco Bell can be a good alternative in moderation, she said.

Avocado toast at Dunkin'

Avocado toast may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Dunkin', but it's part of the brand's breakfast menu.

Durham said that many fast-food restaurants offer substitutes, "but they're not always advertised," so she recommends checking and customizing your meals wherever possible.

At Dunkin', you can do this by getting avocado toast on multigrain bread. Durham said it "has good mono and saturated fat from the avocado" and is a great on-the-go option.

Turkey and Swiss sandwich at Arby's

Made with oven-roasted turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, red onions, Swiss cheese, mayo, and spicy brown honey mustard, the roast turkey and Swiss sandwich isn't typically Mediterranean diet-friendly because it incorporates mayo and processed meat.

However, with small tweaks, it can be adjusted to fit.

"Ask for mustard instead of mayonnaise," said Durham, and "get it on whole grain bread; ask for more vegetables, lettuce, and tomato."

At any fast-food restaurant, she recommends swapping fries for more nutrient-dense sides like a bowl of fruit. Since fruits aren't available at Arby's, you could also opt for a baked potato.

Protein-style burgers at In-N-Out

Durham said red meat can be eaten as part of the Mediterranean diet, but it should be enjoyed in moderation. Still, it's OK to have the occasional burger if it's part of "an overall balanced and whole-food-based diet," she said.

She also recommended selecting lean cuts and being mindful of portion sizes.

All burgers at In-N-Out can be customized to be "protein style," so they're wrapped in lettuce instead of buns. This simple swap lets you make healthier choices while still enjoying your favorite meals.

Little hamburger at Five Guys

Similarly to In-N-Out, Durham suggests choosing a little hamburger from Five Guys and swapping the bun with a lettuce wrap instead. And since Five Guys allows you to add multiple toppings, you could take advantage of this and load up on the veggies.

Switching to a lettuce bun would knock off 70 calories from a total of 540, bringing it down to about 463 calories.

"The Mediterranean diet is more about nutrient density and diet quality than calorie restriction," Durham said, but some substitutions do both: enhance overall nutrient quality while also reducing the calorie count.

The good thing about this diet, said Durham, is that "you're not sequestered to never going out with anybody or staying at home."

She added that while it's fine to indulge in fast food once in a while, it's equally important to choose options that best align with the Mediterranean lifestyle for better overall health.

• My mom and I went on a 21-day expedition cruise aboard the Seabourn Pursuit for $26,000 each.
• We went on excursions and saw wildlife throughout Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and Georgia.
• Overall, the bucket-list experience was incredible and felt like a nice value.

Antarctica is truly a bucket-list destination, as the beautiful continent can be difficult and expensive to get to.

Most Antarctic cruises cost thousands of dollars a person and many only sail through the region — I wanted to be on a ship that actually got me on the continent.

So, after a lot of research, I booked a 21-day expedition on the Seabourn Pursuit. It begins in and departs from Argentina, and its itinerary includes excursions in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia.

I traveled with my mom, and we initially paid $22,500 per person for an entry-level cabin. Our fare included food, drinks, and most excursions.

Here's what it was like.

We spent more money on upgrades and travel essentials before we even boarded.

We had booked our cruise about a year before its departure date and were fine with the lowest-tier room available.

About a month before we left, we received an offer to upgrade to a panoramic penthouse for $8,500 more per person. When that upgrade price later dropped to $3,500 per person, we decided to do it.

Lastly, before we left, we bought waterproof outer layers, thermals, and other items that were essential for our upcoming cold landings.

Our journey began in Buenos Aires.

We flew from the Northeastern US to Buenos Aires a day early since we were concerned about potential flight delays due to storms.

We spent a night at the Faena Hotel, which felt chic and offered fantastic service. The next day, we headed to the luxurious Avelar Palace for a one-night stay, which was included in our cruise fare.

After checking in, we visited the Seabourn hospitality room, where a representative handed us our boarding passes and told us to leave our tagged luggage outside our rooms before bed.

From there, we flew to Ushuaia to board the ship.

The next morning, we boarded an early bus to the charter flight to our ship in Ushuaia, Argentina.

This flight was also included in our cruise fare, and a Seabourn representative accompanied us on the journey. Our tagged luggage was already en route, so we didn't have to lug it with us.

The service was fine, though legroom on the plane was limited.

After a short walk around the small town of Ushuaia, it was time to board Seabourn Pursuit.

Our panoramic suite felt fairly spacious.

Our panoramic suite featured plenty of storage space, heated floors, and incredible floor-to-ceiling windows.

It also came stocked with thoughtful touches like umbrellas and Swarovski Optik binoculars for us to use throughout our trip.

Our bathroom also seemed very large.

We had a more sizable shower than we've had on other cruises and a jacuzzi tub.

There was a double vanity with a large mirror above it and, again, plenty of storage space.

Overall, the ship's food was pretty good.

Most days, we had breakfast and lunch at onboard restaurant The Colonnade. These meals were served buffet-style, though we could also order eggs or daily specials from the waitstaff.

The main dining room, The Restaurant, offered waiter service for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

For the most part, the food on our trip was quite good — especially considering we were essentially on a floating base camp for three weeks.

Room service was also available 24/7, which we often took advantage of during rough seas. I loved that we could order caviar anytime and anywhere.

We also spent time at the onboard lounge The Club, where we could listen to live music and order a selection of nigiri, sashimi, and rolls.

However, the real highlight of the cruise was all of the adventure.

The main reason to embark on an expedition cruise like this is to witness awe-inspiring landscapes and encounter wildlife.

We frequently saw whales and birds from the boat, but the true highlights of our trip were the excursions and Zodiac cruises, where we boarded a small boat called a Zodiac to explore more remote locations.

Most days, the expedition team offered both a morning and afternoon activity.

Our itinerary stayed flexible, and we got to learn about our stops.

Every day was truly an adventure, as the weather frequently changed, so too did our plans.

Our captain and expedition leader emphasized the need for flexibility throughout the trip and later reported that we'd deviated from our planned itinerary 86 times during the 21-day journey.

It didn't bother me. The Antarctic was truly breathtaking.

Each evening, we had a briefing about the plan for the following day.

Our first landing was on the Falkland Islands.

Our first landing was on New Island in the Falklands.

We hiked about 5 miles through stunning terrain and saw rockhopper and Magellanic penguins, elephant seals, and other wildlife.

We also had our only "dry landing" of the trip in Stanley, the capital of the Falklands. I particularly enjoyed our visit to Bluff Cove, where we saw several King Penguins.

Eventually, we set sail for South Georgia.

After three days in the Falklands, we set sail for South Georgia. Here, we saw countless fur seals amid the ruins of old whaling stations.

We also visited Salisbury Plain, home to tens of thousands of breeding pairs of King Penguins. We visited by Zodiac but did not land in order to take precautions against avian flu.

During downtime, I'd head to the spa or onboard lectures.

In between activities and excursions, I often headed to the cruise's onboard spa (an added cost) to indulge in a massage or enjoy the sauna.

The ship had multiple jacuzzis and a small pool, too. Most of them had incredible views of the landscape and waters surrounding us.

I also spent some of our time at sea attending talks and lectures from members of the expedition team, who spoke about a range of topics, such as marine biology, geology, history, and oceanography.

One of the trip's highlights was an excursion involving a submersible.

Perhaps the most incredible part of the trip was peering below the ocean floor in one of the ship's two submersibles.

After hearing about the OceanGate submersible disaster in 2024, I was nervous to set foot in one of these vehicles. However, our pilots thoroughly explained the submersible technology and how it was tested.

They also noted we were descending only 300 meters — OceanGate's vessel had attempted to go thousands of meters underwater.

Reassured, I took a Zodiac to the sub, then climbed down a short, three-rung ladder into the craft, which holds up to six guests and a pilot. I found it surprisingly easy to navigate getting in and out.

Once under the water, the experience felt otherworldly. We observed a variety of invertebrates on the seafloor, and the phenomenon of polar gigantism, where animals living in the poles are far bigger than their counterparts near the equator

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience.

The Seabourn Pursuit felt more like a luxury basecamp than a cruise ship, with a dedicated team of marine biologists, geologists, historians, kayak guides, and even submarine pilots.

Each day at sea was truly an adventure. I saw colonies of chinstrap and Adélie penguins, countless whales, and striking geological formations. I got to go under the water and explore a continent I'd long dreamed of seeing.

The trip was expensive but felt like a worthwhile investment considering our journey was long and included multiple incredible stops and excursions.

I had such a good time on this cruise that I booked another expedition trip on the Seabourn Pursuit to Australia's Kimberley region while still on board.

• Diageo has scrapped its guidance due to uncertainty over Trump's tariffs on imports.
• Shares fell despite a return to sales growth.
• Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports could affect Diageo's momentum in North America, its CEO said.

Diageo has scrapped its medium-term sales guidance, blaming macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump's tariff threats.

Shares in the Smirnoff and Guinness owner fell as much as 4% in London on Tuesday, bringing the decline over the past 12 months to almost 23%.

The dip came despite a return to growth for organic sales, which rose 1% to $10.9 billion in the six months to December 31. Four years ago Diageo set a target for organic net sales growth of 5% to 7% annually.

CEO Debra Crew said Trump's threat of 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico over the weekend — which have since been paused for a month — could impact Diageo's momentum in North America. That growth has been driven by Canadian whisky brand Crown Royal and Mexican premium tequila Don Julio.

"We are taking a number of actions to mitigate the impact and disruption to our business that tariffs may cause, and we will also continue to engage with the US administration on the broader impact that this will have on everyone supporting the US hospitality industry, including consumers, employees, distributors, restaurants, bars and other retail outlets," Crew said.

Analysts at UBS wrote in a note that better-than-expected growth in tequila was more than offset by weakness elsewhere, and also highlighted the potential negative impact of tariffs on sales.

Operating profit was $3.15 billion, lower than the $3.31 billion for the first half of 2024.

Guinness delivered double-digit growth of 17% for an eighth consecutive half-year, and Diageo said it had doubled investment in Guinness 0.0 to expand capacity to meet rising demand.

• While on a 10-day international vacation, I dropped my phone into the ocean.
• Losing access to my device was inconvenient and stressful. Ideally, unplugging would be planned.
• I'll take steps to plan better for future trips in case I lose my phone again.

"I haven't heard from Brittany in a couple of days." My best friend, Jasmine, frantically reached out to my sister, Ashlie, after trying and failing to get a response from me every way she knew how, from Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), and even email after my location hadn't updated from the Atlantic Ocean for days while I was on vacation.

Here's how the nightmare started: After days of ritzy beach clubs and soaking up the vibrant warmth and wealth of culture in Cannes, the perfect boat day on my 10-day South of France itinerary had finally arrived.

Our group of five settled onto the bow of our chartered yacht, seated with Champagne and snacks off to explore the fabulous French Riviera. Yet, we were met with choppy waters minutes after leaving the dock. Immediate unease seized us all as waves crashed onto the boat, followed seconds later by the captain pounding on the glass, urging us to return to the back of the boat. We scrambled to the back one by one, the walkway slippery as the boat rocked.

As the waves became more fervent, I reached out to hold the railing and watched as my phone hit the water in the sudden upheaval and immediately disappeared into the depths.

I had to figure out what to do while far from home without my phone

For a moment, I stood frozen, eyes glued to the spot where the phone had vanished, thinking, "This did not just happen!" Then, I quickly snapped to reality as the intense waves continued to thrash our boat.

Recounting the details of the now-long-gone phone initially dampened the mood, but as the storm passed, so did the worry. Surrounded by massive yachts, crystal blue waters, and bright sunshine, the energy returned to the boat, and our crew continued on.

For many, that moment would have been the perfect excuse to free themselves from the chains of the device that traps most of us from the moment we rise to the second we close our eyes in a never-ending cycle.

But losing my phone in the middle of a 10-day trip plunged my dream vacation into chaos. It made me rethink phone safety and the steps I wish I had taken before boarding the flight to Nice to minimize travel disruption.

Two-factor authentication made things tricky

I was able to use my friend's phones to contact my family, but I still lost access to a number of essential contact points. I organized the trip, so it was especially inconvenient, as I was now unable to use my phone to connect with Airbnb hosts for check-in; I had no access to WhatsApp or to my Gmail account to confirm reservations.

In the age of two-factor authentication, logging into your account from a new device, even a friend's phone, is nearly impossible without having a way to verify your identity through a second trusted device. Multiple times, I received messages like, "A code will be sent to your phone to verify your identity," which immediately shut me out of various apps. Traveling with a trusted second device, ranging from an iPad, smartwatch, or laptop, would have ensured I was able to regain access to those critical applications.

Additionally, as the content creator of the group, I lost the ability to capture key moments to later repackage for social media and a growing travel blog. I can't tell you how many times I had to ask a friend, "Can I use your phone for a photo?" While everyone was very gracious, I couldn't help but feel like a burden.

It wasn't relaxing to 'unplug' because I didn't plan for it

Returning home and recounting the story, the immediate reaction was always, "Well, wasn't it nice not to be glued to your phone and unplug during the trip?"

Honestly? No.

We've romanticized the idea of unplugging, but when it happens unexpectedly, you lose access to many of the conveniences a phone provides, including the ability to make calls, take photos, or use a search engine, maps, and so much more.

Unplugging is a choice that, ideally, you want to plan for so that if anything goes awry, you still have access to your device. For me, losing my phone meant losing access and autonomy and the loss of income through content creation. While it wasn't the end of the world, it was a wake-up call to always be prepared for the unthinkable.

• Perceptis has raised $3.6 million to automate tedious consulting tasks with generative AI.
• The startup was founded by a former McKinsey consultant and former Apple engineer.
• The cofounders said AI could lead to a lot of growth for small- and midsize consultancies.

Consulting has long relied on manpower, but a new generative AI startup co-founded by a former McKinsey consultant says its software can take over some of the industry's most tedious tasks.

"A lot of the internal processes are extremely manual labor heavy," Alibek Dostiyarov, cofounder and CEO of Perceptis, told Business Insider of consulting workflows, which he said "lend themselves almost perfectly to what GenAI is capable of doing."

He co-founded Perceptis with CTO Yersultan Sapar, a former engineer at Apple, to help consulting and professional services firms automate monotonous tasks, freeing up people at those firms to serve more clients and focus on solving their problems.

"Perceptis is an operating system for the consultants designed to help them win more business and make consulting — their day job — even more enjoyable and focused on the core of their service," Sapar said.

Perceptis has raised $3.6 million in funding led by Streamlined Ventures, along with The House Fund, Tekton Ventures, FEBE Ventures, MOST Ventures, and Silkroad Innovation Hub. They've also gained some prominent angel investors, including Charlie Songhurst, a member of Meta's board of directors and former Microsoft executive; AJ Shankar, founder and CEO of Everlaw, and Peter Kazanjy, author of "Founding Sales" and co-founder of Atrium.

Advancements in generative AI have disrupted the broader consulting industry, with major firms making huge investments in the technology and establishing dedicated AI units, such as McKinsey's QuantumBlack. A senior partner at McKinsey told BI last year that he thinks AI is "going to be most of what we do in the future."

How AI helps consultants land jobs

Perceptis is currently focused on the business development side of consulting, or helping firms secure jobs. The AI can do industry research for companies that Perceptis clients are interested in, identify what opportunities there are, and match that up with the clients' specific skills and backgrounds. It then creates a detailed, custom proposal that the client can use to try and secure a job.

Dostiyarov said an average proposal, meaning the work put in before the consulting firm is even hired for a job, can take 20 hours of work or more, adding that with AI it can take a fraction of the time.

Dostiyarov used an analogy for their message to clients: "We are going to find the house on fire for you, and then we are going to help you show up as the perfect firefighter for the job by giving you the perfect proposal."

"Because of all the data and all the capabilities that we have with our AI, we now can tell a perfect story as to why you are the great company to solve this problem," he said.

The co-founders said Perceptis clients are often able to double or triple the number of proposals they send each month and experience higher conversation rates as well as increases in revenue soon after getting started with the program.

Perceptis primarily serves small- to medium-sized firms, which typically don't have the same manpower as the biggest firms nor do they build their own internal AI tools.

The startup saw its biggest growth yet in November and December, doubling its annual recurring revenue, the cofounders said.

AI can't replace human consultants

The Perceptis co-founders said they see AI as supplementing human consultants, not replacing them, and that the technology still has its limitations. They said AI can't replace human judgement, at least for now, or the human-to-human interaction that is needed in consulting.

But they think it could make the industry overall a lot more productive. AI could also potentially help smaller consultancies and even independent consultants compete more seriously in the space by taking over the tedious but necessary work that the bigger firms have more than enough employees to handle.

"Perceptis therefore democratizes access to consulting as an industry," Dostiyarov said.

As a result, they said the consulting industry could become a lot larger, more fragmented, and more specialized — and that the MBBs and Big Fours of the world could become a bit less dominant.

"There are, of course, the goliaths in the industry. We don't think that they're going to go away," Dostiyarov said. "Still, we think that the majority of the growth is actually going to come from these much smaller firms."

Do you work in consulting and have insights to share about the industry? Contact this reporter at [email protected]or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at kelseyv.21.

• Elon Musk's political interventions are beginning to be a problem for SpaceX.
• The rocket firm is attempting to launch Starlink in South Africa even as Musk criticizes the country's laws as "openly racist."
• Ontario ripped up a Starlink contract in response to the threat of US tariffs from Musk ally Donald Trump.

Elon Musk has thrown himself head-first into politics — and that is causing problems for one of SpaceX's most prized assets.

Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk's rocket company, has grown rapidly in recent years, launching in 27 new markets and tripling its internet traffic last year.

Musk's political interventions across the globe and presence in the Trump administration are now complicating the service's expansion drive.

The world's richest person attacked a Black empowerment law introduced by South Africa's coalition government, which requires foreign telecom companies to provide 30% equity to Black-owned businesses to be granted operating licenses, as "openly racist."

Musk, who grew up in South Africa, has also railed against the country's land appropriation law, which allows the government to seize unused land in certain circumstances.

On Monday, President Donald Trump said the US would cut funding for South Africa over the law, which was intended to address the damage caused by colonial and Apartheid-era policies that restricted the ability of South Africa's Black majority population to own land.

South Africa hit back against Trump's move, with President Cyril Ramaphosa writing on X that the government has not "confiscated any land."

Musk's interventions in South African politics come as SpaceX waits to receive permission to launch Starlink there.

The rocket firm has launched its satellite internet service in other southern African nations, but is waiting for regulatory approval as politicians in South Africa debate whether to grant SpaceX an exemption to Black empowerment rules.

South Africa isn't the only place Musk's outspoken political interventions are causing a headache for SpaceX.

After donating more than $200 million to Donald Trump's campaign, the SpaceX founder has taken on a key role in the Republican president's administration, spearheading efforts to overhaul government spending with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency and even becoming a "special government employee."

Musk's status as one of the new administration's biggest personalities has made him a target as Trump has ramped up an aggressive trade war against Canada, China, and Mexico.

On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the Canadian province would be "ripping up" its $68 million contract with Starlink because of a mooted 25% tariff on Canadian goods, which Trump later paused.

The backlash could spread to Musk's other companies, with Canadian prime ministerial candidate Chrystia Freeland suggesting the country could respond to the tariffs by imposing a 100% levy on Tesla vehicles.

Musk doesn't seem particularly concerned. "Oh well," he posted on X in response to the news that Ontario was tearing up the multimillion dollar contract.

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

• Lee McKeeman found out he was autistic in his late 30s while he was working at Meta.
• Being autistic has made it hard to navigate office politics and communication at work, he said.
• His neuro differences have also set him apart in positive ways, such as with hyperfocus, he added.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 42-year-old Lee McKeeman, from Texas, about navigating Big Tech as an autistic person. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

As a child, I felt different, but I didn't know why.

When I was a teenager, I found out I had ADD — my mom took me for an evaluation after my teachers gave her feedback that I was sometimes disruptive.

Later in my life, one of my wife's relatives suggested I had some autistic behaviors. As time went on, I read more about autism and became interested in getting an evaluation.

Finding someone who evaluated adults was difficult, but I managed to get an evaluation in my late 30s. It confirmed I was autistic and also had sensory processing disorder. At the time, I was an engineer at Meta.

I've worked in tech my entire career, including for Big Tech companies: Amazon, Meta, and Google. Though I haven't always known I'm autistic, looking back, I can see that it's impacted my ability to handle office politics and communicate in the workplace. However, my neuro differences have also come with superpowers that help me stand out as an employee.

I've struggled to navigate the workplace because of my neuro differences

I got my first full-time job in 2004, shortly after finishing a computer science degree. Multitasking can be difficult for autistic people, and unlike in school, where I had to manage multiple classes and tests, I found it relieving to enter the workforce and have one focus. I showed up, did my job, and went home.

However, it wasn't clear to me how to approach job searching. I didn't know about salary expectations and didn't negotiate my first offer. I'm generally uncomfortable with conflict and wasn't willing to ask questions or look foolish. I feel like this is part of social differences related to autism.

Once I was in the workplace, I found navigating office politics challenging. Early on, I didn't know how to ask for more money or get promoted. I thought that if I kept working, things would go fine, which I now realize is naive.

I joined Amazon in 2012 after a recruiter reached out to me. I hadn't worked at large tech companies in the past and wasn't used to rigorous processes around promotions.

At one point, I was trying to get promoted as an engineer, but there was always some reason it didn't work out. I think some of those gaps were about salespersonship — self-advocacy and visibility — and knowing the right people. I struggled with these things because of a lack of social and situational awareness.

I felt I was doing good technical work and that if I solved senior engineer-worthy problems, then I was succeeding. However, I was often doing this in isolation, and I didn't understand the importance of showing other people or getting their input.

In 2021, I joined Meta as an engineer. They had a team-matching process, which I really struggled with. It took me months to find a team to join. I didn't know how to approach a new work environment. I'd been at Amazon for almost nine years. I knew how things worked and how to join a team there, whereas now I felt the expectations of me weren't very clear.

I've been working at Google for the last two and a half years. Last year, I was in discussions with managers about improving my performance, and I felt like I was at risk of losing my job.

With autism, I notice that my performance ebbs and changes, and I can get tired quickly. Sometimes, this is because of autistic burnout, but outside this, if I'm struggling with a problem and don't know how to get help, it quickly exhausts me. I worked with a psychiatrist to try to build up my capacity, which I think helped me to overcome some of my challenges.

I struggle to understand some requests. Like when asked to "pull something out" of a document, I wonder whether I'm meant to put that content in a new document or just remove it.

I can be very verbose, thinking that if I provide a lot of extra detail when communicating, I won't be misunderstood. However, this can be distracting for others. One manager suggested I write a TLDR above my message, which has been helpful, but it's still a work in progress for me.

My neuro differences have also helped me stand out in positive ways

Hyperfocus is one of the superpowers that comes with my neuro differences. Where other people might give up investigating a problem, I'll keep digging until I solve it because of my curiosity.

I spend days digging into issues. If it's not high-priority, people can think I'm "wasting" time, but at times when I'd get all my tasks done and solve something additional, it would impress people. It's distinguished me from others during my career.

Since I see things differently when it comes to problem-solving, I often make suggestions when reviewing other people's work. Being able to identify unseen problems is a very valuable skill in my line of work.

However, I've had to learn to get better at communicating those suggestions in a way that can be heard since I've been told I'm too blunt or inflexible when giving feedback.

Getting support is crucial for people with neuro differences

I'm part of a group for autistic individuals at Google. Having support and asking if others have experienced similar problems to me is helpful. You don't have to have an official diagnosis to be a part of groups like this, but getting an evaluation was empowering for me to feel I belonged.

I also use other resources like occupational therapy and psychiatry for support with different aspects of my neuro differences.

If you have neuro differences, finding support is critical. Learning about yourself and how to support yourself can be really powerful.

It's exhausting to think you just need to work harder and be like everyone else to succeed.

Do you have a Big Tech career story you'd like to share? Email the reporter at [email protected]

• Michelin-starred chef Maissmo Falsini has 30 years of experience in hotels worldwide.
• He's encountered many VIP requests and their — sometimes — outrageous requests.
• Falsini shared some of his wildest requests during an interview with Business Insider.

With over 30 years of experience in hotels from Abu Dhabi to Napa Valley, Michelin-starred chef Massimo Falsini has encountered every kind of guest.

So it should come as no surprise that the Italian native — now the director of culinary operations at Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, California — has seen his share of outrageous requests.

"I've done some crazy stuff," Falsini told Business Insider. "I can make a gelato, I can make a croissant, but I can also make a Michelin-starred dish. I've done buffets for 3,000 people. I cooked for 2,000 people in the middle of the desert."

During a sit-down interview with BI at Caruso's, the one-star Michelin restaurant Falsini runs in billionaire Rick Caruso's five-star hotel, the chef revealed some of the wildest requests he's received from VIP guests throughout his long culinary career.

One of those requests Falsini received was when he was an executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii. Falsini said the guest had been a regular at the hotel for years and "got really attached to my way of cooking."

For one of her stays in the presidential suite, the guest made her reservation on the condition that Falsini would cook all of her meals.

"So every single day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the resort, I had to go to her suite on the balcony and prepare the meal for her," he continued. "She had to look at me when I was physically cooking; she didn't want anyone else to cook her food."

"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the name of the guest, or I'd be in trouble," Falsini said with a laugh. "But I can tell you it was a big, big executive in the entertainment industry."

One guest refused to sit in a chair that had been used before, the chef recalled

Falsini recalled another guest who refused to sit on any chair that had been previously used.

"His chair had to be new, and only he could sit on that chair," Falsini said. "So we bought a chair for him, and then we stored the chair, and we wrapped it in plastic every year."

"So every year when he came back to the hotel, we used to open that chair and show it to him. And whatever restaurant he was going to, we were bringing the same chair."

In yet another example of an interesting request, Falsini had to create an SOP or standard operating procedure for one of his past hotel restaurants due to a guest's very specific requests for their fruit salad.

"She wanted the fruit salad cut with every single piece in a 1-inch square," Falsini said. "So I had to make a 1-inch cube for every single piece and mix it together in a certain way, and I had to make an SOP on how to make it. Otherwise, she wouldn't eat it, and she'd make a big fuss, and complain."

Falsini, who started washing dishes at a restaurant in Rome when he was 16, intentionally chose to work at very different places because he wanted to keep improving his culinary skills.

"I've done ultra-luxury hotels. I've done resorts. I've done theme parks," he said. "The beauty of food is that every day is a new day, and every day is different. That's why I feel like I've never worked a day in my life."

Now Falsini's attention is on Caruso's at Rosewood Miramar. The five-star resort in Montecito — a haven of celebrity mansions in California's picturesque town of Santa Barbara — has attracted numerous stars, but Falsini said he isn't fielding wild VIP requests nowadays.

"People, when they are celebrities, they probably travel a lot. They probably eat out a lot. They probably entertain a lot," Falsini added. "So when they come here with families or significant others, they just want to have a good time. They just want to relax, and just have simple, really good food."

• The founder of a ghostwriting business in London, Tom Scourfield, traveled to the US for a workshop.
• He was shocked by the contrasting approach to entrepreneurship in the States versus back home.
• Scourfield said he found his American counterparts were less risk-averse and more confident.

I help founders tell their stories on LinkedIn. Recently, I spent $5,000 to fly 5,000 miles from London to Arizona for a mastermind event meant to help ghostwriters build and scale their businesses.

The main workshop lasted one day, but the real magic happened while networking with other founders. I shared an Airbnb with writers, had group dinners, and stayed up late talking business. I spent $2,000 on the event and another $3,000 on flights, hotels, and expenses. It was a big investment.

As a digital nomad, I'd been surrounded by encouraging American friends and founders for years. But when I returned to London, I felt a shift. If I talked about my business goals, people would smile politely and change the subject.

I flew to Arizona, hoping to feel that American energy again.

These two weeks showed me why British founders often feel stuck and forever changed the way I view British business culture.

The enthusiasm gap

Brits are more likely to have tall-poppy syndrome. People are less open to talking about goals and encouraging ambition than in the US.

An American founder said he wanted to build his net worth to $10 million the next decade. Nobody flinched. Instead, they asked questions about his plan and offered ideas. Back in London a week earlier, I'd heard a friend call a £100,000 salary "unrealistic." That's the UK mindset — we talk ourselves out of ambition before we even start.

In Arizona, when someone shared a big goal, the Americans asked "How will you get there?" instead of "Are you sure that's possible?"

Back home in London, I'd keep quiet about my wins. When I do share goals, I find myself adding disclaimers to couch my ambition.

In Arizona, I could talk openly about my successes without feeling as if I were bragging. When I shared concerns, people helped me see them as challenges to solve, not roadblocks to stop me.

The energy was contagious. I felt calm about where I was and excited about where I could go. Instead of questioning whether things would work out, I started asking how much bigger they could get.

Now back in London, I notice how quickly our culture can pull you back into doubt. It's as if we're playing two different games: In the UK, we compete to spot problems. In the US, they compete to spot opportunities.

Entrepreneurship as a viable career

I think young people are more likely to start businesses in the US because it's deemed a legitimate career path.

Whereas, I was pushed toward higher education and a steady job as a young person in the UK.

At 17, I knew I didn't want to spend £50,000 — the average price of British university — on a degree, all to get a job I didn't want. In the UK, you're expected to go to university or trade school. When I said no to both and spoke about starting a business, my teachers were lost.

My family pushed me to get a "safe" job like accountancy. The subtext was entrepreneurship wasn't a real career. It was a phase I'd grow out of.

In Arizona, I met successful founders from every background imaginable. Some had fancy degrees; others never finished high school. But they all saw entrepreneurship as a natural path to success.

The difference being whether people in America or the UK go on to start businesses isn't about intelligence or education. The problem is how entrepreneurship is perceived.

This mindset gap starts early. While American kids grow up hearing stories about startup founders, as a British student I was raised to pursue job security.

Taking risks is normal

It took four failed attempts to build a business until I finally started seeing results.

Growing up, I learned that getting things wrong meant judgment and criticism. I built up walls and was less open about my struggles.

One of my first business ventures was becoming a personal trainer at 19. My peers found my website and sent anonymous emails mocking me. I quit after a year, but my family could never understand why.

It wasn't the fear of failure that was holding me back — it was the fear and embarrassment of being judged by others for trying.

But failure was proof I was building. Each startup taught me about business, systems, and myself.

Every founder I met at the mastermind had at least one failure story. They didn't hide them because they saw failure as proof that you're in the game and are resilient.

Infectious energy in the US

Spending time with American entrepreneurs felt like meeting a cousin who was raised with more confidence.

One of the guys in our group was training for an ultramarathon. He had some of the highest levels of self-belief and conviction I've seen.

He persuaded us all to run a practice marathon with him. With no training and two hours of sleep, we set off at 3 a.m. I had to drop out after the 18th mile, but that's still farther than I've ever run before.

I'd probably never have attempted it alone, but being around this level of confidence was infectious.

Using data from a company that tracks migration patterns of the ultrawealthy, Henley & Partners projected that at least 9,500 millionaires would leave the UK in 2024, compared with a projected gain of about 3,800 for the US.

We spoke at the mastermind about why so many British founders are looking to exit the UK.

In my opinion, it's about the country's energy as much as tax changes. In those two weeks in the States, I felt a source of energy I'd never experienced.

Despite the jet lag and constant socializing, I tapped into the enthusiasm of my peers, and it meant I had unlimited energy to keep going.

Back home, it's hard to not let the gray energy creep in. I have to be rigorous about self-care and my personal routines to maintain a steady baseline of energy.

While I was in the States, the positivity and ambition of the people around me was like riding a wave that kept pulling me along.

The UK's missing ingredient

London has access to European talent, free healthcare, and reasonable taxes. We should be an innovation powerhouse, but something's missing.

I believe it's a cultural problem. We need to push ourselves to think bigger.

Growing up in a remote British village, I was taught to keep my head down and expectations low. "Be realistic," they said. But ambition and optimism are good things, and we shouldn't hold back those who aspire for more.

• Ukrainian forces have fought against North Korean troops in Russia's Kursk region.
• A Ukrainian commander described to BI what it was like to face them in combat.
• He said the North Koreans would charge forward like something out of a movie and were "cannon fodder."

North Korean soldiers who fought in Russia were treated as "cannon fodder," a Ukrainian commander who went into battle against them told Business Insider.

Konoval Ihor Ihorovych, commander of the reserve group of the 4th Company of the 33rd Assault Regiment, said North Korean behavior in battle was at times confusing and reminiscent of past wars. He said they appeared insufficiently trained for this war.

Around 11,000 North Korean troops were deployed to Russia's western Kursk region last fall to help Moscow repel enemy forces and recapture territory that Ukraine had seized after it launched a stunning invasion there in August.

Ihorovych, call sign Sahara, joined an operation in early January to take Makhnovka, a settlement in Kursk. The goal was to secure key positions and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

He recalled how, at one point, his soldiers came across North Korean troops who were inexplicably running back and forth between buildings while getting pounded by artillery fire around 500 meters away from the Ukrainians.

Ihorovych said he wasn't sure why the North Koreans were running. He speculated that they either didn't know what to do or that there was no commander on the ground with them. Even Ukrainian soldiers in an adjacent unit were surprised by their strange behavior.

The war in Ukraine is a very different kind of conflict compared to what North Korean forces have trained for, and they are suspected to have received only limited training from the Russians.

"In combat, they would just charge forward from the tree line, like in a World War II movie," Ihorovych recalled. Assaults during the Second World War were often high casualty. He said his troops killed a number of North Korean soldiers they saw running from their positions.

Ihorovych said that his unit completed their operation without taking any losses, adding that the North Koreans are basically being used as "cannon fodder."

BI contacted the Russian embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Defense for comment on the observations of North Koreans in combat but did not immediately receive a response. His description of their battle style, however, falls in line with an assessment from the Biden administration, which said at the end of December that the North Koreans were employing human wave tactics that weren't very effective.

A White House spokesperson said at the time that Russian and North Korean military leaders saw the troops as "expendable" and were sending them on "hopeless assaults" against Ukrainian defenses. Prior to their deployment to Russia, Pyongyang's military had not experienced major combat operations in decades.

The Pentagon and Ukraine's military leadership have described the North Koreans as well-disciplined, competent, and capable soldiers skilled in combat but who are new to modern warfare and unprepared for its challenges.

According to new Western intelligence assessments, Pyongyang is taking heavy losses — around 4,000 troops are estimated to have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia. Britain's defense ministry said last month that the high rate of North Korean losses in such a short period of time is negatively affecting their ability to conduct combat operations in Kursk.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank warned in mid-January that if this trend continues, Pyongyang could lose all the troops it deployed in just a matter of weeks. North Korean forces, notably, haven't been seen on the front lines in weeks, fueling speculation they were pulled back amid the heavy losses.

Russia and North Korea have strengthened their defense ties during the Ukraine war and signed a pact over the summer that pledged military assistance if one country is attacked. In addition to soldiers, Pyongyang has also sent Moscow artillery shells and missiles.

• Intense pressure from Chinese rivals drove innovation at Uber, cofounder Travis Kalanick said in a recent podcast episode.
• He said competitors copied what Uber rolled out at dizzying speeds.
• Eventually, persistent copying led to genuine creativity, he said, allowing China to out-innovate some US companies.

In the thick of the 2010s, Uber was waging "all-out war" in China.

Travis Kalanick, Uber's cofounder who resigned in 2017, said that the sheer speed at which Uber's Chinese competitors copied the company's innovations was maddening.

And the way he sees it, that relentless approach eventually gave way to true innovation — the kind of ingenuity recently displayed by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek that sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley.

"There's no way I could express the frenetic intensity of copying that they would do on everything that we would roll out in China," Kalanick said on a recent episode of the "All-In Podcast." "And it was so epically intense that I basically had a massive amount of respect for their ability to copy what we did."

In 2016, the company was in a fierce battle for market share with Chinese rideshare rival Didi Chuxing, to which Uber would later sell its China operations in 2016. But before DiDi absorbed Uber's China business, the pressure to outpace each other created a veritable arms race.

"I just couldn't believe it. We would do real hard work, make it, we'd dial it, and it would be epic and it would be awesome," Kalanick said. "We'd roll it out, and then like two weeks later — boom! They've got it. A week later — boom! They've got it. And, of course, I used that to drive our team."

The competition pushed Kalanick to recruit "over 400 Chinese nationals," which he said created a sort of subculture within Uber's Silicon Valley office.

"We had a whole floor for the China growth team and it was primarily Chinese Nationals," Kalanick said. "We had billboards on the 101 in Silicon Valley in Chinese — Uber billboards to join our team in Chinese — to serve the homeland, right? It was like an all-out war. It was really epic."

Eventually, Kalanick said, that furious pace of development — and getting used to working at that speed — gave way to innovation.

"What happens is, when you get really, really good at copying, and that time gets tighter, and tighter, and tighter, and tighter, and tighter, you eventually run out of things to copy," Kalanick said. "And then it flips to creativity and innovation."

In some cases, Kalanick said that Chinese companies are now getting ahead of their American counterparts.

"But as they exercise that muscle, it gets better, and better, and better," Kalanick said. "So, if you want to know about the future of food, like online food delivery, you don't go to New York City — you go to Shanghai."

In part, Chinese companies are well-positioned to take advantage of circumstances that are unique to their country, Kalanick said.

"You know, they're taking advantage of their economics on labor and things like this," Kalanick said. "It wouldn't exactly work that way here, but a lot of the innovation you will see coming out on Uber Eats or DoorDash — like the stuff that's coming out now — is stuff that existed three years ago, four years ago in China. Maybe longer."

CloudKitchens and DiDi Chuxing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

At some point along the way, Chinese businesses went from lagging behind to setting the bar on innovative features, Kalanick said.

"Eventually you cross that threshold of copying, and you're innovating, and then you're leading," Kalanick said. "And I think we see that in a whole bunch of different places."

When Daphne Gordon first tried MDMA, everything changed. She had grown up steeped in the "just say no" messaging of the '90s, which taught that any amount of illegal drug use was a gamble with your life. But she was also a big raver. Consuming MDMA — also known as molly, ecstasy, or, back in the '90s, E — with people she trusted helped her experience music more deeply and connect with friends and loved ones on a whole new level. When she and her husband became parents in 2009, their drug use didn't stop.

Sixteen years later, the couple, who are in their early 50s and live in Toronto, remain embedded in what Gordon describes as "a drug-positive social culture." Their friend group, which grew out of the electronic dance music fan community, is now made up of middle-age, established professionals with families. Many of them continue to attend parties and DJ events and use drugs on a fairly regular basis. In some ways, Gordon said, drugs are part of the identity of her social life. Having this outlet, and the community that surrounds it, helps her be a more present parent, she said.

But navigating drug use while raising kids isn't always easy.

"Everybody's a parent now, and everybody's coming to the parties, and sometimes people even rent an Airbnb for the kids to stay at and hire a babysitter who is capable of handling five kids," Gordon told me. "People are developing their lives around the drug-positive culture, but then it's like we have to cover our kids' ears when we go back home. It's kind of weird."

Hers isn't the only friend group dancing between nightlife and parenting. A 2022 Department of Health and Human Services report said that between 2015 and 2019, more than 21 million US children lived with a parent who used illicit substances, which the report distinguished from parents who had a substance use disorder. As drug use has become more common in recent years, more adults are regularly partaking of both licit and illicit substances. The Global Drug Survey, a nonscientific survey that has grown into the world's largest annual survey of recreational drug use trends, found that self-reported use of drugs such as cannabis, LSD, and "magic" mushrooms was growing in the US. In 2022, the last year with available data, one-third of 30- to 39-year-olds and nearly one-quarter of 40- to 49-year-olds said they'd taken cocaine in the past 12 months. The same shares reported using MDMA in the past year. In a 2023 study of 226 American parents, 13% said they had used marijuana in the past six months.

In an age when Burning Man is the unofficial wellness retreat for aging tech bros, none of this should come as breaking news. Business leaders have gone on the record in recent years to sing the praises of mind-altering substances such as LSD and MDMA, with some even insisting that "tripping" had made them better at their jobs. At the same time, researchers are discovering therapeutic benefits for psychedelic drugs such as ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms). As the health risks of alcohol become clearer, drugs are increasingly stepping in as the preferred indulgences for a good time.

For a growing number of white-collar parents, getting high has become a critical avenue for staying sane amid the demands of parenthood. And they're hoping to send their kids a better message than "just say no."

This past spring, Katie, 37, rented a cabin with a friend in upstate New York and spent the weekend tripping on magic mushrooms. It wasn't a weekend to get loose with party drugs but a quiet getaway to embark on "a little trip together for more intellectual purposes," she said. While she was exploring the outer edges of her consciousness, her 8-year-old son was home with his dad.

Recreational drug use is a common feature of weekend get-togethers among Katie's New York City circle — a constellation of academics, creatives, and white-collar professionals who are mostly in their 30s and 40s. It's not unusual for her friends to pass around baggies of MDMA or cocaine to fuel hours of dancing at a club or to consume mushrooms for a cozy night of soul-searching. Drugs are a conduit for shaking off the pressures of everyday life, for living in the moment with friends, and for Katie — getting back in touch with herself.

Katie, who asked that I keep her identity private, splits custody of her son with her ex-husband, an arrangement that has allowed her to reengage with nightlife. Before they separated nearly two years ago, late-night parties and drug use were off the table — not because it interfered with being a mother, she said, but because of the societal expectations modeled by her ex and the other parents around her. "The way I am as a parent is maybe different — lighter and easier and freer — because I don't feel like my life is limited in that way," she told me.

Her parents grew up in the Soviet Union, where it was typical to start families in your early 20s while continuing to enjoy late weekend nights of well-lubricated merriment, with friends taking turns staying in to watch everyone's kids. But Katie has found that things are different in the US — American culture doesn't prioritize having a robust social life while raising a family. For parents like her, there's a double taboo: the lingering stigmas surrounding recreational drug use combined with a widespread wariness of parents, especially moms, who manage to lead full, fun lives outside the confines of home. A mother who routinely nurses half a bottle of wine in her kitchen at the end of a long day will likely be judged less harshly than one who takes a psychedelic with friends on the occasional Saturday night.

"Using drugs doesn't necessarily feel at odds with parenting," Katie said. "In many ways, it feels complementary or helpful."

Though her son is a constant presence in her plans, during conversations, and at the dinners she hosts for friends, the majority of her inner circle is child-free. Other parents she's encountered don't seem to have a blueprint for the kind of community she has — one that isn't centered on the kids.

Drug taboos get tricky to navigate when other people's children may be involved. "It becomes this thing you don't talk about because kids can't really be explaining to their friends on the schoolyard what Mommy and Daddy said last night about drugs," Gordon said. "It's such a socially enforced taboo. Any kind of conversation about anything good about drugs is seen as encouraging experimentation — like, 'Can't wait until you get to do some!'"

The taboos are a major reason many parents keep their drug use confined to a close-knit group of friends. Joyce, a 44-year-old mom of three in Melbourne, Australia, said it's not unusual in her high-income neighborhood to gather at someone's house, open up a nice bottle of wine, and discreetly visit the master bathroom for a line of communal cocaine. She and her neighborhood friends have been doing it for years.

"These are the same people who are taking vacations two, three, four times a year," Joyce told me. "They drive nice cars. They live in beautiful homes. You walk down a street in the nicest suburbs, and you would never even think that the people behind the gates would be having themselves a little '70s disco party in the kitchen. It's totally seen and not heard, but everybody does it." All the while, everyone's kids are squirreled away somewhere else in the house, preoccupied by movies and snacks, happily oblivious.

Despite the live-and-let-live attitudes in her immediate friend group, Joyce — who asked that we keep her identity private — is well aware of the legal and reputational risks that come with using drugs. Getting found out might not affect her as severely as it would if she were not a well-off white mom, for instance, but it wouldn't be trivial, either. The penalty for cocaine possession in Australia carries a fine of 2,000 Australian dollars, or about $1,240, and/or up to two years in prison. The social ramifications could be higher if the wrong person caught on. Joyce said she knows that her occasional sharing of "a little plate of something" with friends would be seen as irresponsible, or even flat-out reckless, by many others in her extended community. For these reasons, Joyce and her friends are stringent about concealing their recreational drug use from their children — even those who are now adults. Making sure the kids know nothing is the absolute rule.

There have been some close calls. "Once I had my best friend over, and I said to her, 'Can you watch in the hallway just in case little footsteps come running while I prepare something?' And, well, she was not fast enough," Joyce said, chuckling. "One of my kids slammed on in. But the beauty of hiding is that you're sort of always ready." By a stroke of luck, her secret escaped notice.

"It's kind of like a naughty little secret that I guess keeps everybody feeling attached to their youth — the good fun days," Joyce said.

Most of the parents I spoke with hadn't let their kids in on their drug secret, saying they would maybe disclose details on a need-to-know basis. But Gordon and her husband are working to establish a more open dialogue about drugs with their teenage son. Before going out, they've begun talking through their substance-use game plans for the evening in front of him: "Like, 'How are we going to drink tonight? You know, let's not because I'm going to bring a joint,'" she said. He might not chime in, but they know he's listening. Mainly, they're focusing on the harms that could come from the substances he's likely to encounter within his friend groups — cannabis, vapes, and, especially, the tobacco pouches whose bright, round canisters poke out from the trash bins of his hockey rink. Gordon has also self-published a zine to help guide other families' conversations about conscious substance use, informed in part by new research that suggests the cognitive dissonance between antidrug messaging and the way substances are presented by peers and on social media makes scare tactics ineffective.

Rhana Hashemi, a coauthor of the drug education study, is the founder and executive director of Know Drugs, a nonprofit aimed at replacing the D.A.R.E. model of antidrug education in US schools with a harm-reduction curriculum that speaks frankly and nonjudgmentally about the role of mind-altering substances in people's lives — legal and illegal, good and bad.

"There's a difference between normalizing drug use that's healthy and normalizing drug use that's problematic," Hashemi told me. As she sees it, that distinction depends on the role that a particular substance is playing in a person's life at any given time. A healthy adult life revolves around competing priorities: romantic relationships, social relationships, a career, and physical and mental health. Healthy drug use happens in harmony with the bigger picture. It's the pinch of a certain something that helps make memories with friends without becoming the crux of the relationship, or that washes away the residues of a tough week at work without becoming a contingency plan for getting through the next one. It's the ability to be honest and step away if and when drugs begin disrupting the balance between everything else — turning into a need instead of an occasion.

Hashemi said it's also critical to emphasize that different substances carry far greater potential for harm to the still developing brain of a person in their teens or early 20s: "There's a difference between a parent using cannabis on a regular basis — or psychedelics or MDMA — and a child. These are all nuances that should be very explicit."

The drug talk is still a few years away for Katie, the single mom in New York City. But when the time comes, she plans to be forthright about her experience using drugs. She wants her son to know how careful she is about what she takes, the amounts she ingests, and where she gets her product. She wants her son to have the information he needs to make smart decisions. "I'll tell him how it's an important part of my life," she said, "and I'll explain to him why."

Kelli María Korducki is a journalist whose work focuses on work, tech, and culture. She's based in New York City.

• Amazon's robotics could save the company $10 billion annually by 2030, Morgan Stanley analysts said.
• Amazon has introduced six new robotic systems since 2022.
• Next-gen fulfillment centers are costly, but Amazon has the cash to invest, the analysts wrote.

Amazon has stepped up its robotics development in recent years, and it could save the e-commerce giant as much as $10 billion annually, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note on Sunday.

The company's fleet of more than 750,000 robots now works across every part of the fulfillment process. They help with storage and inventory management, picking, packing, and sorting, and they transport packages to the fulfillment center's loading dock, where they are then sent to customers.

Since 2022 Amazon has introduced six new models. They include a fully autonomous mobile robot called Proteus, three types of robotic arms, and a containerized storage system called Sequoia. Amazon also has robots that can create custom packaging based on an item's specific dimensions.

Amazon opened its first "next-generation" fulfillment center, incorporating all of its latest robots, in Shreveport, Louisiana, in September. The company has said it expects to see a 25% improvement in fulfillment costs during peak periods at the Shreveport warehouse.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that if 30% to 40% of Amazon orders in the US were fulfilled through next-gen warehouses by 2030, the company could save as much as $10 billion a year.

They noted, however, that fully scaling robotics would take time.

"Looking ahead, we expect AMZN to continue to expand its warehouse network (to support growth) while also upgrading the footprint toward next-gen robotics in new builds and retrofits," they wrote. "The question of how quickly Amazon shifts volumes to robotics enabled warehouses will likely come down to reasonable and improving paces of build/retrofit (current new robotics plants still take 1-2 years) balanced with not wanting to cause near-term disruption to AMZN's retail service."

Next-gen fulfillment centers are significantly more expensive to develop than Amazon's traditional fulfillment centers. The analysts cited news reports that say the robotic-powered warehouses cost about $450 million to develop, compared with $200 million for traditional development and $100 million to retrofit an older warehouse with robotics.

"We estimate AMZN will have $60bn of net cash as of year-end '24 and will generate ~$150bn of aggregate free cash flow in '25/'26," they wrote. "As such, investment capital is unlikely to be a constraint to how quickly AMZN shifts to next-gen robotics...which means if they can build and shift without service disruption they likely will do it."

The analysts also said that if Amazon invested further in bringing robots to sorting centers and in scaling the technology internationally, it could see more savings.

• Powerconnex notified state regulators of plans for a 120 MW natural gas plant in New Albany.
• The plant would serve as the primary source of electricity for a data center on the same site.
• As energy demand from AI strains the grid, developers seek ways to bypass it entirely.

A developer is planning to power a data center in Ohio by building a natural gas-fired plant on the site, a public filing showed.

Lawyers for Powerconnex Inc. notified the Ohio Power Siting Board last week of the company's plans to build the plant, which would serve as the data center's primary source of electricity. The power generation facility, named the New Albany Energy Center, and the data center would be built on the same 48.6-acre site in New Albany, Ohio.

Construction on the plant is expected to start as soon as the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the letter. This means the data center could be up and running by the first quarter of 2026.

It would have a generating capacity of up to 120 megawatts, which is enough electricity to power a large hyperscale data center by today's standards. However, it's a fraction of the electricity developers of AI megaprojects have said they'll need. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, said the company is building a data center in Louisiana with over two gigawatts of capacity.

The data center development boom has caused electricity demand to surge in the US after nearly two decades of stagnation. Data centers are energy-intensive facilities that run 24/7, and as Big Tech continues to push into artificial intelligence, their projected future energy use is expected to create an enormous strain on the country's electric grid. Frustrated by regulatory bottlenecks in crowded data center markets, developers are seeking alternative solutions, Jones Lang LaSalle said in a report last month.

Already, developers are facing regulatory bottlenecks in crowded data center markets, and are seeking out alternative solutions — like building on-site power plants — to waiting for access to the grid.

Business Insider reported last week that developers for an Oracle data center in Abilene, Texas — widely thought to be the first Project Stargate location — are building a 360.5-megawatt natural gas turbine plant to help power it. This sort of arrangement is known as "behind-the-meter" in the utilities industry — it means that the electric generating facility is not connected to the grid, and local utilities can't monitor or measure its use.

Christine Pirik, a Dickinson Wright attorney representing Powerconnex, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pirik is a former deputy legal director for both the Ohio Power Siting Board, which grants permits for electric generating facilities, and Ohio's Public Utilities Commission.

Business Insider could not confirm who is behind Powerconnex Inc. However, there is a Virginia-based Powerconnex Inc. that shares a business address and three executive officers with data center company EdgeConnex.

EdgeConnex operates over 80 data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia. It is developing a data center in New Albany, Ohio, according to its website. In September, private credit company Sixth Street Partners announced it had acquired a minority stake in EdgeConneX.

New Albany, Ohio, a rural suburb northeast of Columbus, is home to several major data center projects. Amazon has committed to spending more than $23 billion on data center development in the state, and Microsoft, Meta, and Google also have projects in Ohio.

Recently, electricity demand in the region has soared. AEP Ohio, the Columbus utility that serves the major data centers, said last year that it had received 30 gigawatts of service requests. It asked state regulators to approve a separate rate class specifically for data center customers to protect other ratepayers from incurring additional costs due to the facilities' demand. Hearings for the matter were held in January, although the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has not yet issued a final order.

Do you work in or have knowledge of the data center industry and have insight to share? Get in touch with this reporter at [email protected] or reach out via the encrypted messaging app Signal at +1-929-524-6924.

• Canada and Mexico have secured a 30-day reprieve on tariffs from US President Donald Trump.
• In exchange for a tariff pause, Canada and Mexico agreed to boost border security and curb illegal activities.
• A 10% tariff on Chinese goods was not delayed, prompting China to slap retaliatory tariffs on the US.

US President Donald Trump has just shown the world how the Art of the Deal works.

In a matter of days, Trump threatened three key partners — China, Canada, and Mexico — with tariffs over illegal immigration and fentanyl. The threats paid off for the short term: He got a temporary deal with Canada and Mexico.

"President Trump has started his second term with his tariff guns blazing, and so far it has worked extremely well in achieving his policy goals," Rajiv Biswas, the CEO of Asia-Pacific Economics, a Singapore-based research firm, told Business Insider.

On Saturday, Trump, using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, imposed a 25% tariff on most goods from Canada and Mexico.

The tariffs were initially set to take effect on Tuesday. But after an early morning stock market downturn on Monday, talks with Canada and Mexico resulted in a 30-day tariff delay.

In exchange for the pause, Mexico agreed to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to its northern border to curb illegal activities. Canada agreed to a set of initiatives targeting drug trafficking, money laundering, and border security.

"Mexico and Canada have immediately capitulated to the threat of US tariffs and agreed to enforce tougher border security measures, which is what President Trump had clearly requested them to do weeks ago, even prior to his inauguration," Biswas said.

The US is trading off, too

While Trump's deals with Canada and Mexico may have been swift, the tradeoff is ill will toward the US in both countries and uncertainty in the international trade order.

"The trade rules are valuable because they create a predictability and certainty for countries and for companies that do business in North America and in the world," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Fore­­­ign Relations. "And to mess with those rules for no good reason is truly irresponsible."

"He has no evidence to show he is able to use tariffs to achieve significant concessions, economic or otherwise," he added.

Some experts said the agreements could have been achieved without threatening tariffs.

"Using the issues around fentanyl and illegal immigration to justify a trade war is somewhat bizarre," said Romel Mostafa, an assistant professor in economics and public policy at the Ivey Business School in Ontario. "It seems like we put the cart before the horse here, which is we basically went into this tariff imposition and counter-tariffs and then came to the discussion table."

Alden said the agreements are "not in the slightest" a significant concession because the Mexican government has long had an interest in cracking down fentanyl smuggling and better controlling its border. As for Canada, he pointed to data from the US Customs and Border Protection showing that the northern neighbor accounts for 0.2% of US border fentanyl seizures.

"The bigger question is whether potentially we could come back again a month later and there could be other demands coming in," Mostafa said of Trump's actions.

China retaliates

While Canada and Mexico have secured brief reprieves from Trump's tariffs, China hasn't. Blanket tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

China hit back swiftly, announcing tariffs on a range of US goods, including coal, liquefied natural gas, crude oil, and agricultural machinery.

"The US's unilateral imposition of tariffs seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization," China's Finance Ministry said in its tariffs announcement. "It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also undermines the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the US."

China has said fentanyl is the US' own problem and that Beijing would challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization.

"The US needs to view and solve its own fentanyl issue in an objective and rational way instead of threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

Trump is taking the same brinkmanship approach to China, said Alex Capri, an international trade specialist and a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore's business school.

"Trump will take the same approach to China and I think Beijing will, in fact, welcome this transactional way of doing business," Capri said.

• I've spent hours talking to college students about personal finance.
• Many of them don't fully understand how compounding works and, importantly, how to benefit from it.
• More high schools in the US are requiring students to take a personal finance class, but we need to keep talking about it.

Every January, Middlebury College invites me to its campus to talk to a group of students about money.

The guest lecture ranges between 90 and 120 minutes in length and is titled "Good Financial Hygiene — Lessons in Personal Finance."

I'm not a financial advisor, nor do I pretend to be, but in my decadelong career reporting on money and asking wealthy people, "What do you wish you'd known about money in your 20s?" I've learned some key lessons.

Most of these lessons — pay yourself first, automate your savings and investments, etc — are surprisingly simple and don't require a finance degree, or even a degree at all, to understand and use to your advantage. Had I understood them earlier and started building smart money habits in my late teens and early 20s, I'd be in a stronger financial position now at 32.

I try to convey that to the students: Time is on your side. Don't wait. Start now!

A two-part lecture: The reason we save is to invest

The crux of the lecture is that putting your money to work is a powerful way to grow your wealth over time.

But before we pull out the compound interest calculator and discuss investment strategies, we start with two prompts: How do you feel about money? How do you want to feel about money?

I ask them to pull out their notebooks and do two to three minutes of independent thinking.

The answers to the first prompt represent their starting point. Everyone has a different starting point — we all come from different financial backgrounds — but where they start from really isn't all that important. What matters is that they have some level of control over their trajectory, and they get from what they wrote down for prompt No. 1 to what they wrote down for prompt No. 2.

Next, we get into two components of personal finance that can impact trajectory: Saving — how to keep a portion of your income — and investing, which is the key to building wealth.

I acknowledge the importance of paying yourself first. When they ask how much, I point to the 50/30/20 rule of thumb, which suggests putting 50% of your income toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. I emphasize that starting with a small savings rate of even just 1% is better than nothing.

Most students are familiar with the concept of budgeting, even if they don't actively budget. I challenge them to think about budgeting not as restrictive, as it's often portrayed, but as liberating. If they successfully divvy up their paycheck according to the 50/30/20 rule, for example, they have 30% of their income to spend on whatever fills their cup.

Part two is all about growing your savings by putting it to work, taking advantage of compound interest, and understanding that time is on your side as a young investor. Every year, without fail, this is the moment when the energy in the room shifts. Ears perk. Hands shoot up.

This is when I'm reminded that young people are fascinated by the concept of investing — and data shows this generation is curious enough to take action: Gen Z started investing at a much earlier age on average, 19, than baby boomers (35) and millennials (25), according to the 2024 Schwab Modern Wealth survey.

Still, a handful of my students don't fully understand how compounding works or how it relates to an investment account. They're smart kids, but chances are that they didn't engage with this material in high school: In 2022, just 23% of high school students in the US were required to take a personal finance class, up from 16% in 2018, according to research from Next Gen Personal Finance. That percentage has continued to increase: As of 2024, more than two-thirds of all states require personal finance classes for high school graduation.

We analyze compound interest charts that show just how much of an edge they have simply by starting young, including this one from the St. Louis Fed comparing an investor who starts at 25 and another who starts at 35. The one who starts early ends up with a significantly bigger portfolio, even though they invest for 20 fewer years than the investor who started at 35.

We also plug numbers into a compound interest calculator and figure out how much money they'd have to save a month to become millionaires by 50. It's often less than they think.

The tricky lesson to convey is how to actually take advantage of compounding: How to start investing.

This is where there seems to be a significant lack of understanding. The common misconceptions I've picked up on are:

• Investing is for rich people
• Investing is for people who know a lot about finance and economics
• Investing means buying individual stocks
• Investing is risky

As we discuss passive investing strategies and how anyone can invest in funds that track the S&P 500 with a small amount of money, I can sense the eagerness and excitement as the students start to understand that they can actually participate — that investing isn't just for rich people — and that they can contribute starting today.

I'm reminded every year I step into the classroom that there's an appetite for financial literacy. We just need to keep talking about it.

• President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to start a US sovereign wealth fund.
• He said that the fund could be used to buy TikTok, which is facing a looming ban in the US.
• He has floated numerous other ways to save the app, like having Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buy it.

President Donald Trump floated the idea of buying TikTok with an American sovereign wealth fund, which he signed an executive order on Monday to create.

"So other countries have sovereign wealth funds, and they're much smaller countries, and they're not the United States. We have tremendous potential in this country," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Sovereign wealth funds pool money that comes from the government, often a surplus from economic activities like producing oil. Some funds invest in stocks and bonds, while others invest directly, buying real estate, companies, and other assets. Norway has the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, with $1.7 trillion in assets.

"And as an example, TikTok, we're going to be doing something, perhaps, with TikTok, and perhaps not," he said. "If we make the right deal, we'll do it; otherwise, we won't."

"But I have the right to do that and we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make, or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people," Trump added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the fund would be set up within the next 12 months.

Time's running short for TikTok

TikTok has until April to devise a game plan as it fights against the Supreme Court's divest-or-ban law. It went dark for its 170 million US users on January 18, a day before its original deadline, but was restored hours later.

Shortly after his inauguration on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to delay the ban by 75 days. He then suggested that the US should own half of TikTok.

"I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We'll see what happens," Trump said after taking office.

A day later, he said he would be on board with Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison buying TikTok.

Neither businessman has publicly expressed interest in buying the app. But Musk said in an X post on January 19, the day of the intended ban, that he has been against the ban "for a long time" because it "goes against freedom of speech."

Representatives for Trump and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.