The Walmart heirs' combined estimated net worth is nearly $380 billion.
All three of Sam Walton's surviving children have now made it into the $100 billion club.
In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth.
All three of Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children have made it into the $100 billion club as the retail giant's share price continues to soar.
The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which include founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his grandson Lukas — is nearly $380 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Together, they're significantly ahead of the top individual names on the list, such as Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, or Mark Zuckerberg, though Elon Musk has recently seen his fortune outstrip their collective net worth.
While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.
Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.
Most recently, the Walton children have expanded voting control to their own, giving eight of Sam's grandchildren a say in the family holdings.
Sam wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money:
Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.
He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.
Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.
By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.
He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.
John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.
In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.
James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 76 years old.
He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $26 billion.
He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.
Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $112 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 75 years old.
Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.
Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.
When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.
She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.
The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.
Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.
In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.
Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.
The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.
The foundation has three main areas of focus:
The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.
Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.
A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."
Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.
Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.
In December, Walmart disclosed that Sam's children had granted voting rights to eight of their own children, bringing the total number of voices in the family fortune from three to eight, and keeping with Sam's vision for his legacy.
I spent one night at Hotel Yellowstone, a luxury, adults-only resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
It was my first time staying in an adults-only hotel, and I was surprised by the relaxing amenities.
The quiet, calm environment led me to some epic natural sightings of a moose and the auroras.
I love kids, but it's tough for me to relax in a hotel full of them. Peaceful moments by the pool are often interrupted by splashing water. Occasional youthful screams in communal spaces startle me. And sunsets on the balcony may be accompanied by crying children and scolding parents in the room next door.
That's why I decided to check out an adults-only hotel called Hotel Yellowstone for the first time during a September trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The resort, with views of Snake River Valley and Grand Teton National Park, opened in August for adults at least 21 years old, though anyone aged 18 to 20 may stay when checking in with an older guest.
I booked a Grand Teton Suite with a starting rate of $1,600 a night. (Business Insider received a media rate for the one-night stay.)
I expected a relaxing evening but didn't realize how much a kid-free environment would elevate my experience.
When I stepped onto the property, I was immediately taken by the peace and quiet.
Just 15 minutes from the traffic-filled streets of Downtown Jackson, I didn't even hear the hum of a highway as I stepped out of my cab to check in at Hotel Yellowstone.
On a hill above a valley surrounded by mountains, 10 modern buildings with a cabin aesthetic sat between stone paths. A pond in the middle of the property made it feel serene.
There were no voices or pitter-patters of running feet. I only heard chirping birds and wind rustling the leaves of tall trees.
I didn't expect the pool to be designed purely for relaxation.
Most hotels I've stayed in have had at least one large pool where clusters of people lounge by the steps while others swim laps or play games. I typically find them chaotic, noisy, and tough to avoid a splash when passing through.
That wasn't the case at Hotel Yellowstone. This resort's pool, called the Negative Edge Pool, was just 4 feet deep and had jets and heating. It was indoors and overlooked a mountain scene with a retractable glass window. Though shallow, the pool was quite long. I thought it was spacious enough for multiple groups to enjoy simultaneously.
Next to the pool, there was a wood sauna. Both were open 24 hours a day, which surprised me since most hotels I've stayed in have had a pool curfew. I imagine this is partly because no children are on the property.
In my room, I was amazed to see the Tetons from every angle — even while taking a bath.
It was instantly clear to me that my room was designed to showcase the views as much as possible when I stepped inside.
The door opened into a short hallway with a bathroom on the left, behind a spacious bedroom and living space. Light poured in from a large window on the left wall and floor-to-ceiling windowed doors to the balcony spanning the back of the room.
Even the bathroom had a sliding door in front of the oversized tub, so I could gaze at the peaks of the Tetons and the valleys below while taking a bath.
"The room layout, windows, wall-to-wall sliding doors, and the beautifully crafted boiserie bathroom door enable guests to fully immerse themselves in the stunning views from every angle of the suite," a hotel representative told BI.
I didn't know the restaurant was so exclusive.
In my experience, hotel restaurants are typically open to the public, so I was surprised to learn that only guests could sit at Olivia's, a fine-dining establishment at Hotel Yellowstone with an eclectic menu and locally sourced ingredients.
When it was time for dinner, I headed to the lobby and walked down a staircase to the restaurant on the first floor. I was mesmerized by the indoor-outdoor feel provided by the vast windows. Below the wood-beamed cathedral ceilings, the wide view of the mountains looked like a painting.
No one else was dining at Olivia's when I stepped inside, so I could sit wherever I wanted. I selected a spot right by the back window and feasted on bao buns in silence.
I returned to Olivia's for some fruit and steel-cut oats in the morning. This time, one other guest, a solo backpacker, sat two tables away from me. It was a far cry from the clattering plates and blending conversations of a typical hotel breakfast, in my experience.
One of the biggest surprises of my stay was catching a glimpse of the northern lights.
After dinner, I took a peaceful walk back to my room, coated myself in a thick robe, and headed to the balcony. I expected to hear whispers of other guests enjoying the outdoor view, but it was just as silent and peaceful as when I first stepped onto the property.
Sitting in a lounge chair, I noticed a faint flutter of color in the sky and immediately jumped up and leaned on the railing. Purple and green hues danced so subtly that I had to confirm what I thought I was seeing with a long exposure on my camera. And it appears that I was right — I had spotted the northern lights in Wyoming of all places.
Seeing the auroras has been on my bucket list since I knew the phenomenon existed. And no matter where you are in the world, a trip to see the northern lights is never guaranteed. So, I certainly never thought I'd stumble upon them in the US.
I could hardly see them with my eyes alone, and I thought that if the environment hadn't been so free of distractions, I might have missed them.
The other grand surprise of my stay was the last — a moose sighting at breakfast.
I'd never seen a moose before having breakfast at Olivia's.
There I was, dining at a table against the back window, when a moose casually walked along the property just outside the restaurant.
I was stunned, but my server was not — they said the moose hangs out regularly and is often seen swimming in the pond and drying off in the flower beds.
After staying there myself, I could see why. The kid-free environment was calm and quiet. I imagine the serene nature of the resort could make wildlife more comfortable in the human setting.
I thought the adults-only element was key to having these surreal moments with nature without sacrificing comfort and luxury.
As US lawmakers worry the video-sharing platform, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, poses a danger to national security, TikTok is scrambling to fight a law requiring it be sold to a US owner by January 19 or else risk being banned in the country.
So who's leading the company through this turbulent period?
That would be Shou Zi Chew, TikTok's 41-year-old CEO from Singapore, who got his start as an intern at Facebook.
Here's a rundown on TikTok's head honcho:
Chew worked for Facebook when it was still a startup.
He earned his bachelor's degree in economics at the University College London before heading to Harvard Business School for his MBA in 2010.
While a student there, Chew worked for a startup that "was called Facebook," he said in a post on Harvard's Alumni website. Facebook went public in mid-2012.
Chew met his now-wife, Vivian Kao, via email when they were both students at Harvard.
They are "a couple who often finish each other's sentences," according to the school's alumni page, and have three kids.
Chew was CFO of Xiaomi before joining Bytedance.
He became chief financial officer of the Chinese smartphone giant, which competes with Apple, in 2015. Chew helped secure crucial financing and led the company through its 2018 public listing, which would become one of the nation's largest tech IPOs in history.
He became Xiaomi's international business president in 2019, too.
Before joining Xiaomi, Chew also worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He also worked at investment firm DST, founded by billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner, for five years. It was during his time there in 2013 that he led a team that became early investors in ByteDance, as the Business Chief and The Independent reported.
For a while, Chew was both the CEO of TikTok and the CFO of its parent company, ByteDance.
Chew joined ByteDance's C-suite in March 2021, the first person to fill the role of chief financial officer at the media giant.
He was named CEO of TikTok that May at the same time as Vanessa Pappas was named COO. Bytedance founder and former CEO Zhang Yiming said at the time that Chew "brings deep knowledge of the company and industry, having led a team that was among our earliest investors, and having worked in the technology sector for a decade."
That November, it was announced that Chew would leave his role as ByteDance's CFO to focus on running TikTok.
TikTok's former CEO, Kevin Mayer, had left Walt Disney for the position in May 2020 and quit after three months as the company faced pressure from lawmakers over security concerns.
Some government officials in the US and other countries remain concerned that TikTok's user data could be shared with the Chinese government.
Donald Trump's administration issued executive orders designed to force ByteDance into divesting its TikTok US operations, though nothing ever happened.
Wall Street said his testimony didn't do much to help his case to keep TikTok alive in the US, though Chew seemed to win over many TikTok users, with some applauding his efforts and even making flattering fancam edits of him.
Now, Chew and TikTok are in the spotlight again as the company tries to stave off a looming potential ban.
The House of Representatives passed a bill on March 13 that would require any company owned by a "foreign adversary" to divest or sell to a US-based company within 180 days to avoid being banned in the US.
He called the vote "disappointing" and said the company has invested in improving data security and keeping the platform "free from outside manipulation."
"This bill gives more power to a handful of other social media companies," he added. "It will also take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk."
The Senate also passed the bill, and President Biden signed it into law in April.
In September, a hearing on the potential TikTok ban began in federal appeals court and in December, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law is constitutional.
On the heels of the bad news, Chew met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago several days later.
Trump said in a press conference on the day they met that he has a "warm spot" for TikTok, which he has criticized in the past, because he says it helped him win over young voters in the 2024 election.
Also on the day of their meeting, TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block the law that requires it be sold to avoid a shutdown, arguing that it violates Americans' First Amendment rights.
When he's not fighting efforts to ban TikTok, Chew makes appearances at some pretty high-profile events.
Alex Karp pursued a Ph.D. and invested on behalf of wealthy European clients before founding Palantir.
The secretive and controversial big-data company went public in 2020 and recently posted strong quarterly earnings.
Karp is an outspoken CEO who hasn't held back in defending the company against critics.
Alex Karp, longtime CEO of data mining company Palantir, has been taking a victory lap on the heels of the company's latest blowout earnings and rising stock price.
Palantir, which creates software to manage, analyze, and secure data, saw its stock hit an all-time high earlier this month.
Karp, who has been CEO since 2004, is known as an unusual leader, even by Silicon Valley standards. He pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy before joining the startup and sometimes works from a barn.
He and the company have courted controversy over the years, and he's known to be outspoken in defending the company's work with government agencies and the military, saying at a recent talk that he's proud "the death and pain that is brought to our enemies is mostly, not exclusively, brought by Palantir."
Here's how the 57-year-old Karp got his start, took the helm of the secretive startup, and built it into a multi-billion-dollar company.
Alex Karp grew up in Philadelphia.
His parents were a pediatrician and an artist who Karp has described as hippies, saying they often took him to labor rights demonstrations and anti-Reagan protests when he was young. A 2018 Wall Street Journal profile called Karp a "self-described socialist."
Karp got his bachelor's degree at Haverford College in Pennsylvania before attending law school at Stanford University.
After law school, Karp began working on a Ph.D. in philosophy at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, studying under famed philosopher Jurgen Habermas.
Karp is fluent in German and speaks French as well.
Around the same time, an inheritance from his grandfather sparked an interest in investing.
According to Forbes, he quickly became successful at it and created a London-based firm called Caedmon Group, named after his middle name, investing on behalf of high-net-worth clients.
By 2003, Thiel, Karp's law school classmate, had already founded and sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion.
He decided to launch Palantir, along with Stanford computer science graduates Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen, plus Nathan Gettings, a PayPal engineer. By 2004, Karp joined as CEO.
Karp is known for being an eccentric leader.
He often wears brightly colored athletic wear, keeps Tai Chi swords in his offices, and was known to practice martial arts on his Palantir cofounders in the office hallways.
Karp is a fan of fitness and wellness who practices Qigong meditation and keeps vitamins and extra swim goggles stocked in his office.
He told Forbes that the only time he isn't thinking about Palantir is "when I'm swimming, practicing Qigong or during sexual activity."
Despite a net worth of around $7.1 billion by Forbes' estimates, Karp doesn't appear to spend lavishly.
Karp has been known to sometimes work out of a barn in New Hampshire. He has never been married and told Forbes that the idea of starting a family gives him "hives."
Palantir is also pretty secretive. Because of the company's contracts, many employees have government security clearances and receive five-figure bonuses for choosing to live close to the office, according to the Journal.
Palantir has courted numerous controversies over the years.
The company has been criticized for licensing its technology to law enforcement, which has used it for practices like predictive policing and tracking cars' routes using just their license plates.
Palantir has also come under fire for its contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The company provides software that helps the agency gather, store, and search through data on undocumented immigrants. After employees pressed Karp on ending the company's contracts with ICE, he denied that its technology was being used to separate migrant families.
Karp has responded boastfully to criticism of the company's contracts with the military.
"The death and pain that is brought to our enemies is mostly, not exclusively, brought by Palantir," he said at a talk in December 2024.
"You may not agree with that and, bless you, don't work here," Karp said in 2023 of tech workers who have qualms about the company's data mining.
The company went public in 2020.
It went public via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020 at an estimated $20 billion valuation.
Following Palantir's Q3 2024 earnings report, Karp boasted about the company's performance and defended himself from critics.
"This is a US-driven AI revolution that has taken full hold," he said in an earnings release. "The world will be divided between AI haves and have-nots. At Palantir, we plan to power the winners."
During the subsequent earnings call, he said, "Given how strong our results are, I almost feel like we should just go home."
Responding to criticisms of his leadership, he said, "Instead of going into every meeting saying, 'Oh, yes, Palantir is great, but their fearless leader is batshit crazy, and he might go off to his commune in New Hampshire,' whatever thing we're saying, it's now like, yes, the products are best, and we have great products."
Palantir's stock has since hit an all-time high in December.
Now, Karp has a forthcoming book.
Slated for release on February 18, 2025, his book "The Technological Republic" argues that Silicon Valley has become complacent and lost its ambition.
He cowrote the book with Nicholas Zamiska, Palantir's head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to the office of the CEO.
With unobstructed views of the Tetons and Snake River Valley, Hotel Yellowstone is located five miles from Downtown Jackson and only welcomes guests aged 21 and up. (It does accommodate adults as young as 18 when accompanied by a guest who is at least 21.)
During a September trip to Jackson Hole, I booked a one-night stay at the resort in a room with a starting rate of $1,600 a night.
After seeing and experiencing my room's thoughtful design and luxury comforts, it was easy to see why the price was so steep.
"Hotel Yellowstone's design pays homage to the American West while seamlessly blending influences of modern design," a representative of Hotel Yellowstone told Business Insider. "The intricate design components pull inspiration from Jackson Hole's history, proximity to national parks, and locale on a wildlife refuge — allowing guests to view Jackson Hole's native animals from the comfort of their suites."
Roughly two hours after arriving at Hotel Yellowstone in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I accidentally fell asleep.
Perhaps the serenity of the adults-only resort overlooking Grand Teton National Park and Snake Valley is to thank. It was the quietest hotel I'd ever been to.
I blame the ultra-luxe room.
I thought it epitomized cozy mountain luxury.
"The overall design style can be best described as a harmonious blend of tranquility, serenity, and modern sophistication," the representative said of the rooms.
The 36 guest rooms are spread throughout 9 buildings on the four-acre property.
Each accommodation is 600 square feet, sleeps two, and has a private balcony.
Depending on the view, starting rates range between $900 and $1,600 a night. Some rooms offer views of the mountains, while others are positioned toward the valley. Some showcase the pond on the property, and others combine multiple scenes.
As I stepped inside my room, I was surprised by the surplus of natural light that brightened the space.
I booked a room with views of the Teton Range. BI received a media rate for the one-night stay.
Wide, floor-to-ceiling windows stretched across the back wall and a portion of the left wall.
"The color palette for the walls, furniture, and bathroom was thoughtfully chosen to highlight the surrounding landscape and the unparalleled views of the Teton Mountain range," the hotel representative said.
When I took off my shoes, I felt the soft give of the cushy carpet beneath me.
Restoration Hardware furnishings filled the room, from a king-sized bed and two cozy sitting areas to Western-inspired decor.
My room had all the basic amenities you'd expect at a high-end hotel, from an espresso machine to a mini-fridge. A TV hung above a fireplace across from the bed.
I spotted nods to the environment, too. The representative said the floor lamp that resembled antlers came from AntlerWorx, and the furry accent chairs were made from pure New Zealand sheepskin.
"Bothpieces showcase natural materials and textures with the Moose Antler lamp serving as a tribute to local wildlife — particularly the seasonal resident moose who frequents the property," they added.
Sliding glass doors at the back of the room led to a private balcony.
The balcony was my favorite part of the accommodation. The spacious upper deck had two cushioned lounge chairs and a side table.
The view of the valley dotted with herds beneath the Teton range was one of the most epic I'd ever seen.
Unlike most hotel balconies I've experienced, the space was quiet. Not even cars on the highway were audible from the resort. And I didn't hear one voice the entire time I was out there.
After checking out the views, I decided to take a warm bath.
I'm not typically one for baths, but the Calacatta marble bathroom was spa-like. While warm water filled the large, free-standing tub, I turned on the floor and towel heaters to ensure top-tier comfort upon exiting the bath.
The most surprising part of my bath was the mountain views.
The bathroom was behind the bed with a sliding door in front of the tub, so I could view the Tetons while bathing.
"The room layout, windows, wall-to-wall sliding doors, and the beautifully crafted boiserie bathroom door enable guests to fully immerse themselves in the stunning views from every angle of the suite," the representative said.
Once cleaned up, I headed to the closet across from the bathroom to retrieve a robe.
I always look forward to hotel robes, and this one was more comfortable than most. It was made of thick fabric that felt like soft terry cloth.
Then, I cozied up on the bed, pressed the fireplace button, and turned on the TV.
Once I dried off, I jumped onto the cloud-like king-sized bed that felt endless when I cuddled up in the middle.
I grabbed the tablet on the nightstand with smart controls for the room, from mood lighting and curtains to room service.
With a plan to relax for just a bit, I turned on the TV for one episode of Modern Family.
Minutes later, I was fast asleep.
After an unplanned two-hour nap, I ended the night with a glimpse of what appeared to be the northern lights.
I woke up as the sun was setting and promptly headed outside in my robe to catch the end of it.
Once it was dark, I saw something I'd never seen before — and never thought I would see in the US — faint streaks of purple and green glided among the stars. I think it was the northern lights.
I could barely see them myself, but once I took a 30-second exposure on my camera, I was pretty sure I was right.
The northern lights were a massive surprise that made my stay even more meaningful. The quiet, peaceful resort made them even more mesmerizing.
You can make a Genmoji inspired by someone you've identified in your photo library or start fresh with instructions describing what you'd like your emoji to look like. If you don't like the initial result, you can keep refining it by tweaking the description. If you're happy with it, you can send it in a text or use it as a sticker or Tapback reaction.
Genmoji is available in iOS 18.2 on all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
ChatGPT's integration in your iPhone
Apple's iOS 18.2 software update launched the ChatGPT integration shown off earlier this spring.
Those with an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 can now access ChatGPT through Siri and Writing Tools by saying or typing their inquiries, without having to go back and forth between apps. Users can tell ChatGPT to generate written content in Writing Tools or generate images to go alongside their written content.
It can create videos up to 1080p resolution lasting up to 20 seconds from your written prompts or make up for missing frames by completing a scene or extending the length of an existing video.
OpenAI initially made a Sora preview available to some creators, designers, and filmmakers in February, but it's now available to ChatGPT Plus ($20 a month) and Pro users ($200 a month).
First demoed in the spring, ChatGPT can now see through your phone's camera or examine what's on your screen if you need to give the assistant visual context to help answer your questions.
The new video feature is rolling out this week in the latest version of the mobile app to ChatGPT Team and most ChatGPT Plus and Pro users.
Google Deep Research
Announced on Wednesday, Google Deep Research is Gemini Advanced's new agentic feature that can do deep dives on complex subjects for you.
Ask it a question, and it can browse the web "the way you do," Google said in a blog post. It'll ultimately generate a report you can export to Google Docs that contains key points and links to sources if you want to dig deeper.
Google Deep Research started rolling out this week in English on desktop and mobile web and will be available in the mobile app early next year.
They've recommended countless books over the years that they credit with strengthening their business acumen and shaping their worldviews.
Here are 20 books recommended by Musk, Bezos, and Gates to add to your reading list:
Jeff Bezos
Some of Bezos' favorite books were instrumental to the creation of products and services like the Kindle and Amazon Web Services.
"The Innovator's Solution"
This book on innovation explains how companies can become disruptors. It's one of three books Bezos made his top executives read one summer to map out Amazon's trajectory.
"The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement"
Also on that list was "The Goal," in which Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox examine the theory of constraints from a management perspective.
The final book on Bezos' reading list for senior managers, "The Effective Executive" lays out habits of successful executives, like time management and effective decision-making.
"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies"
This book draws on six years of research from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business that looks into what separates exceptional companies from their competitors. Bezos has said it's his "favorite business book."
This Kazuo Ishiguro novel tells of an English butler in wartime England who begins to question his lifelong loyalty to his employer while on a vacation.
Bezos has said of the book, "Before reading it, I didn't think a perfect novel was possible."
The Tesla CEO has recommended several AI books, sci-fi novels, and biographies over the years.
"What We Owe the Future"
One of Musk's most recent picks, this book tackles longtermism, which its author defines as "the view that positively affecting the long-run future is a key moral priority of our time." Musk says the book is a "close match" for his philosophy.
"Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies"
Musk has also recommended several books on artificial intelligence, including this one, which considers questions about the future of intelligent life in a world where machines might become smarter than people.
"Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence"
In this book, MIT professor Max Tegmark writes about ensuring artificial intelligence and technological progress remain beneficial for human life in the future.
"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future"
Peter Thiel shares lessons he learned founding companies like PayPal and Palantir in this book.
Musk has said of the book, "Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how."
The Microsoft cofounder usually publishes two lists each year, one in the summer and one at year's end, of his book recommendations.
"How the World Really Works"
In his 2022 summer reading list, Gates highlighted this work by Vaclav Smil that explores the fundamental forces underlying today's world, including matters like energy production and globalization.
"If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read," Gates said of the book.
"Why We're Polarized"
Ezra Klein argues that the American political system has became polarized around identity to dangerous effect in this book, also on Gates' summer reading list in 2022, that Gates calls "a fascinating look at human psychology."
"Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street"
Gates has said this is "the best business book I've ever read." It compiles 12 articles that originally appeared in The New Yorker about moments of success and failure at companies like General Electric and Xerox.
"Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think"
This book investigates the thinking patterns and tendencies that distort people's perceptions of the world. Gates has called it "one of the most educational books I've ever read."
Flight expert Gilbert Ott shared insights on the best and worst airports for connecting flights.
Dallas and Los Angeles have some of the best US airports for layovers.
Atlanta, Georgia, and London are home to some of the worst airports for layovers.
We'd all likely prefer a nonstop flight over a connecting one, as layovers add travel time and opportunities for things to go wrong, from delays to cancellations.
"A lot of the best places worth going to these days do not have direct flights from faraway places," Gilbert Ott, who flies about 200,000 miles a year and shares his insights on his blog, God Save the Points, told Business Insider.
"In any case, you want to be in a place where the airline has a strong presence because you're going to have layers of support," he said.
Still, when it comes to killing time, navigating terminals, and minimizing chances of delays, some airports offer a better layover experience than others.
A variety of upscale lounges and an on-site hotel make Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport one of the best for layovers.
Ott told BI that Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is among the best US airports for layovers thanks to its premium lounges, from Amex Centurion to Delta Sky Club.
"It's one of those places where if you do have a layover and you really need to kill time, there are both top-notch lounges and an airport hotel directly in the terminal," Ott said.
DFW is also home to one of Ott's favorite US airport lounges, Capital One Lounge.
Meanwhile, Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, is small, and there's not much to do there.
"I think there's a just inherent advantage to being a big airport because big airports can attract retail," he said.
As an example, Ott mentioned that he often has connecting flights through Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, which has only two runways.
"I've been there a lot. It's not a fun place to wait for flights," he said. "You have nothing to do."
Those with a tight layover may appreciate that Blue Grass Airport has the shortest walk to the gate in the US at just 0.11 miles.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is ideal for shopping between flights.
"I like Seattle-Tacoma Airport because they've done a really good job of cultivating more local stores and Seattle-centric things," Ott said. "If you've got an hour and 45 minutes, it's easy to kill time there."
BI previously reported that the airport's shops pay homage to the Pacific Northwest experience, with stores like Show Pony, Made in Washington, and Discover Puget Sound.
Ott said he'd spent his layovers at the Northwestern airport sifting through records at a music store and sampling Washington state wines at a bar.
"It doesn't feel as sterile and generic as some airports. You actually get a sense of Seattle. It's not just an airport somewhere," Ott said.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has many amenities, but layovers can be brutal due to frequent weather-related delays and cancellations.
No one wants to put their trip on pause over delays and cancellations — especially in a connecting airport.
According to Ott, this may be more likely to happen when flying out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia due to frequent storms. And the fact that it's the busiest airport in the world probably doesn't help; the airport has had mass cancellations in summers and winters due to storms.
"I've had hellacious experiences in Atlanta because of the weather," Ott said. "It's a good airport in the sense that there are lots of flights and places to kill time. It's a bad airport in the sense that it's caught up in more storms than most airports."
Ott added that the airport has plenty of amenities but can be overwhelming to navigate.
"There are so many terminals, and you're taking a tram everywhere. They have some nice stuff in them, but it's a hike," he said.
Los Angeles International Airport is among the best for connecting flights because it offers easy access to upgraded terminals.
According to Ott, some airports don't allow passengers to travel between terminals they're not departing from.
Since many travelers don't leave the airport between connecting flights, waiting to board can be a drag for those flying out of terminals with few shops, restaurants, and amenities. Ott told BI that international terminals typically have better amenities than domestic ones.
Domestic travelers "can still go to the international terminal, which has better food, shops, and lounges," he said. "You can kill time at LAX for hours."
LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B) was updated in 2023. BI previously reported that the terminal has comfy seating — each with its own power ports — a range of food and bar options, and an exceptional Sky Club.
The upgrade included adding a walkway connecting Terminal 3, which also received an upgrade, to Terminal B. The walk takes five to 20 minutes, so there's no need to catch a bus. This is an especially useful perk for those catching an international connecting flight.
London Heathrow Airport may be the worst place in the world to have a layover because it's challenging to travel between terminals.
"London Heathrow Airport is an atrocious airport for connections — one of the worst in the world, by far," Ott said. Why? Getting from one terminal to another is a journey in itself.
"Some terminals are miles apart, and there is no tram that runs between all of them," he said.
According to the airport's website, getting from one terminal to another can take more than 40 minutes.
For example, Ott said if you land in Terminal 3 with British Airways, you may connect in Terminal 5.
"You have to go through Terminal 3 and take a bus, which can take up to 30 minutes to arrive. Then, you'll take a long bus ride all around the airport to the other side," he said. "And then you may still end up with another tram or bus ride because Terminal 5 has three terminals within it — A, B, and C."
"It's an impossible airport for short connections," Ott added.
Singapore Changi Airport is the best place to spend a layover. It offers local food, on-site hotels, and a ton of activities.
Ott added that the best airport for layovers worldwide has a range of shops, hotels, dining, and activities.
"Some of the best local food is at the airport because the famous places in Singapore set up locations there," he said.
While waiting for connecting flights, travelers can access a pool, a movie theater, and a butterfly garden.
The real spectacle, however, is probably the Jewel — a retail and entertainment complex connected to Terminal 1. The Jewel seems like a destination itself with a hedge maze, a topiary walk, and a ropes course. And the centerpiece is the Rain Vortex — the world's largest indoor waterfall spanning seven stories.
"You can spend an hour just looking at that," Ott said of the Rain Vortex. "I would have a layover there any day."
Culdesac Tempe, a car-free neighborhood in Arizona, opened in 2023.
Millennials and Gen Zers are paying more to live in walkable communities.
I toured the carless neighborhood and found a walkable community with micro-retailers.
I'm a New Yorker who doesn't drive, and I've always felt like I couldn't move without a license. However, on a recent trip to Arizona, I found I was wrong.
Cars are banned from the 17-acre block in the Phoenix suburb that opened in 2023. As of April 2024, Culdesac had 200 residents, and eventually, they hope to have 1,000, a company representative told Business Insider.
I stopped by the car-free neighborhood for a tour of the block and thought it felt like an urban oasis in the Phoenix suburb.
Culdesac is in the greater Phoenix area.
Culdesac sits on the east side of Tempe, a suburb roughly 10 miles from Phoenix, also home to Arizona State University.
I recently got a private tour — and the chance to chat with the CEO.
During my visit, I met with CEO and cofounder Ryan Johnson. After years of working in the real estate and transportation industries — and traveling to walkable places worldwide — he was inspired to create a neighborhood free of cars.
From New York City to Budapest, Johnson said his travels launched a passion for cities.
"I saw those places and said, 'Wow, this is a much better way to build a city — with thoughtful architecture, great transportation systems,'" he told BI.
Johnson added that developments in the transportation industry, from ride-share apps to public transit systems and electric bikes, have made living car-free possible in places like Arizona.
Johnson, who grew up in Phoenix and currently lives at Culdesac, hasn't had a car in 14 years.
All around the property, I spotted electric bikes and scooters.
Visitors and delivery drivers can park their cars at Culdesac, but residents cannot.
The company representative told BI that for residents with cars, "it's regulated through their lease agreement that they won't park on-site or on any public streets within 0.25 miles."
Some residents park their cars elsewhere in Tempe, while others, like Johnson, don't have a vehicle. Residents get around on foot, bicycles, electric bikes and scooters. The neighborhood has more than 1,000 bike parking spots.
One Culdesac resident previously told BI that living without a car can be challenging outside the neighborhood, as the surrounding city was built for vehicles.
However, according to the company's website, Culdesac provides residents with a mobility package worth almost $3,000 annually to make transportation easier. It includes a complimentary Valley Metro pass for the light rail that goes through Phoenix and Tempe and discounts on ride-share apps like Lyft and Waymo, a self-driving cab service.
My tour began in the plaza.
The plaza, located across from the neighborhood light rail stop, is the communal center of Culdesac. It's marked by a sculpture by artist Matthew Salenger that doubles as a canopy.
Here, there are games, shaded tables, and weekly events.
Thursday nights at Culdesac light up with a public outdoor night market called Little Cholla. The weekly event features live music, local vendors like food trucks, and dancing.
There's also a two-story gym.
A two-story building in the plaza with giant windows houses the neighborhood fitness center. It has workout classes and is lined with equipment.
Across from the plaza, there are local shops run by residents.
From thrifted clothing to unique dishware and candles, there's plenty of local shopping at Culdesac.
According to the company's website, there are more than a dozen micro-retail shops, including a market, a laundromat, a medical spa, an art studio, and a plant shop.
These micro-retailers have the option to live in their workspace.
The company representative told BI that the small-business owners at Culdesac are residents, and some even live in their stores thanks to a zoning permit that allows them to do so.
All the stores have kitchens and bathrooms, and some have bedrooms.
Steps from the plaza, the neighborhood has a restaurant with outdoor seating.
In April 2023, Culdesac's Cocina Chiwas opened. It's a family-owned Mexican restaurant serving Chihuahuan cuisine.
As I strolled the communal paths, I noticed that Culdesac didn't feel as hot as the surrounding streets. That's because there's no asphalt on the property.
It's no secret that the Phoenix area is hot — sometimes dangerously so in the summers. So Culdesac was built to keep pedestrians cool without asphalt — a road material that gets hotter in the sun.
In the residential areas, the walkways are narrow.
Culdesac intentionally placed the buildings close together to create as much shade as possible.
The buildings' color is also no accident. Culdesac chose white because it reflects sunlight rather than absorbs it.
Between residential buildings, there are courtyards with grills, tables, hammocks, and firepits.
More than half of the entire property is open, landscaped space.
Culdesac has apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom floor plans.
Culdesac currently has 172 units. More will open in the fall, and the neighborhood will eventually have 760 units.
Studios start at $1,300 a month, one-bedrooms are $1,400, two-bedrooms are $2,100, and three-bedrooms are $2,900 monthly.
On the outer rim of Culdesac, there's a bike shop with tune-up services.
Archer's Bike Shop sells manual and electric bikes. And Culdesac residents get complementary services and product discounts.
Culdesac seems like a place where people can live car-free and get to know their neighbors.
After my visit to Culdesac, I chatted with Brad Biehl, a 24-year-old resident from Colombus, Ohio. Biehl has lived in the neighborhood for six months. He said one of the best parts of living there is the sense of community.
"We're usually in environments where we walk from our door to our car and from the car into the place," Biehl said. "But here, to go anywhere, I usually pass at least two or three of my neighbors, even when I'm just walking to the light rail right around the corner."
Biehl added that he's optimistic about the future of Culdesac when more residents and retailers come in.
"While there are still not a ton of people here yet, there's way more going on than I would've expected there to be," he told BI. "The number of serendipitous interactions that have taken place with the limited number of residents makes me super excited for what people will experience here."
A group of early 2000s PayPal employees and founders came to be known as the "PayPal Mafia."
The members have all gone on to impact Silicon Valley by founding and developing major companies.
The group includes Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and the founders of both YouTube and Yelp.
What do the founders of YouTube, Yelp, Tesla, and LinkedIn have in common?
Apart from creating some of the biggest companies in tech, they all share a common résumé line item: they've all worked at PayPal.
Many of PayPal's early employees went on to become major names in tech and the venture capital world, founding, funding, and otherwise developing successful companies. This elite group came to be known as the "PayPal Mafia," a nickname that gained popularity after Fortune used the term in a 2007 piece alongside a photo of some of the members dressed in gangster attire.
Members of the group include Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and over a dozen others. Here's a rundown of the most prominent members of this exclusive group and what they're up to over two decades later.
Peter Thiel: PayPal's founder and the so-called "don" of the PayPal Mafia
Peter Thiel cofounded the company that would become Paypal — called Confinity — in 1999 alongside Max Levchin and Luke Nosek. Confinity was launched as a developer of security software for hand-held devices like the PalmPilot, but it later pivoted toward digital money transfers.
Thiel served as CEO of PayPal until October 2002, when eBay acquired the company for $1.5 billion. Thiel's 3.7% stake was worth a $55 million, according to SEC filings.
Thiel went on to cofound Founders Fund, a venture capital firm that has helped launch companies like SpaceX and Airbnb.
Thiel, now a billionaire with a net worth of $15.9 billion, according to Bloomberg, cofounded the big data analysis firm Palantir in 2003. He was the first major outside investor in Facebook and contributed early funding to Yelp and LinkedIn, along with a number of other ventures launched by his PayPal peers. Thiel's also a partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital fund based in San Francisco.
Thiel has also drawn criticism in recent years for his support of President Donald Trump and for secretly funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in the company shutting down Gawker and selling the company's assets.
After facilitating talks between Trump and now Sen. JD Vance, Thiel gave a record-breaking $15 million to Vance's campaign, the largest donation ever given to a single senate candidate.
Thiel later told The Atlantic he was taking a break from politics. Business Insider later reported that he served as an FBI informant.
After PayPal was bought by eBay, Levchin founded a media-sharing service called Slide that was later bought by Google. He was also an early investor in Yelp — at one point he was the company's largest shareholder — and he served as chairman of Yelp from its founding in 2004 until July 2015.
He founded fintech company Affirm, which allows consumers to finance online purchases at the point of sale and pay for them over time. Affirm went public in 2021, raising $1.2 billion in its IPO. Levchin is also the chairman of Glow, a fertility-tracking app that helps users improve their odds of conceiving.
Ken Howery: PayPal cofounder and CFO from 1998 to 2002.
After eBay bought PayPal, Howery stayed on as eBay's director of corporate development until 2003. After PayPal's acquisition, he served as cofounder and partner of Founders Fund alongside Peter Thiel.
Howery recently served as US ambassador to Sweden.
He was appointed by former President Trump in January 2019 and confirmed in September of that year. He also donated $1 million earlier this year to America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC created by fellow PayPal mafia member Elon Musk.
Howery is active in several nonprofits and serves as a founding advisor to Kiva, an organization that facilitates loans to low-income entrepreneurs. Kiva was founded in part by Premal Shah, PayPal's former product manager.
Elon Musk: founder of (the other) X.com, which merged with Thiel's Confinity to become PayPal
In 1999, Elon Musk founded a payments company called X.com, which merged with Thiel's Confinity in 2000. He briefly served as CEO of PayPal before he was ousted by the board in September 2000 and replaced with Thiel. But as the company's largest shareholder, he still walked away from the PayPal sale to eBay with a cool $165 million.
Musk is currently the world's richest person.
Perhaps the best-known of all the members of the PayPal mafia now, Musk's estimated net worth is $362 billion.
Musk, who has been a vocal supporter of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and donated more than $200 million to Republican election efforts, will also co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump announced after winning the election.
Luke Nosek: PayPal cofounder and vice president of marketing and strategy.
Nosek was also reportedly the person who clued in Peter Thiel to cryogenic preservation, which Thiel has since invested in heavily.
Nosek explored angel investing.
In 2005, Nosek joined Thiel and Howery as a partner at Founders Fund. In 2017, Nosek left Founders Fund to launch investment firm Gigafund, which helped raise money for SpaceX.
Nosek was also the first institutional investor in SpaceX and is a board member. He also joined the board of ResearchGate, a platform where scientists and researchers can ask questions, follow topics, and review one another's papers.
Roelof Botha: PayPal's director of corporate development, vice-president of finance, CFO
Botha went to school to be an actuary. He said he never planned to get into tech, but when he saw the opportunity in Silicon Valley, his intuition told him it was where he needed to be.
He started as PayPal's director of corporate development, went on to become vice-president of finance, and later served as CFO.
Botha is now a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital has funded tech giants like Apple, Google, YouTube, and Instagram.
Botha as served on the board at more than a dozen companies, including Square, EventBrite, Weebly, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, as well as 23andMe, which he resigned alongside the rest of the board in September over CEO Anne Wojcicki's proposal to take the company private.
Reid Hoffman: board of directors at PayPal, COO
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman served on the board of directors when PayPal was founded.
He eventually joined the company full-time as PayPal's COO. In a New York Times interview, Peter Thiel referred to Hoffman as PayPal's "firefighter in chief," noting that there were many fires that needed putting out in the company's early days.
When PayPal was acquired by eBay, Hoffman was the company's executive vice president.
Hoffman cofounded LinkedIn and is one of Silicon Valley's most prolific angel investors.
Hoffman has coauthored several books on startups and professional development. He hosts the "Masters of Scale" podcast, on which he interviews founders about how they launched and scaled their companies, and is a partner at VC firm Greylock Partners. He was an early investor in OpenAI and used to serve on its board, and cofounded Inflection AI.
Hoffman has also recently criticized business leaders, including his fellow PayPal mafia members, for supporting Trump.
David Sacks: PayPal COO
Like Hoffman, Sacks also served as COO at PayPal. Previously a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, David Sacks joined PayPal in 1999.
After PayPal was bought by eBay, Sacks produced and financed the box office hit "Thank You For Smoking," which would go on to be nominated for two Golden Globes. In 2006 he founded Geni.com, an online tool for building family trees.
Sacks founded several companies, became an angel investor, and was named Trump's AI and crypto 'czar'
Sacks is a serial entrepreneur and investor, with angel investments in Airbnb, Postmates, Slack, and many more.
He's also a member of Elon Musk's inner circle and, like the Tesla CEO, is an avid Trump supporter, hosting a fundraiser for the president-elect at his home. Sacks reportedly urged Trump personally to choose Vance as his running mate, whom he was introduced to by fellow Paypal mafia member Thiel.
Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen met at PayPal during its early days.
Karim and Chen were engineers, while Hurley was a web designer.
In 2005, the trio launched the video-sharing platform YouTube. Karim uploaded the platform's very first video, "Me at the zoo," an 18-second clip of Karim in front of the San Diego Zoo's elephant exhibit. It's been viewed over 292 million times.
Today, Karim, Hurley, and Chen remain active entrepreneurs and investors with a hand in projects from finance to music.
Karim launched venture fund YVentures in 2008, through which he invested in Palantir, Reddit, Eventbrite, and Airbnb.
Hurley stepped down as CEO of YouTube in 2010. Since then, he's backed education startup Uptime and invested in several sports teams.
Chen invested in actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt's musical collaboration platform HitRecord, which in February secured $6.4 million in Series A funding.
Andrew McCormack: assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal
In 2003, McCormack started a restaurant group in San Francisco. In 2008, he joined Thiel Capital and worked there for 5 years.
McCormack went on to launch VC firm Valar Ventures
McCormack partnered up with Thiel again in 2010 to found Valar Ventures, a venture capital fund.
Valar Ventures has invested in technology startups well beyond Silicon Valley, including some in Europe and Canada. In August, Crunchbase reported the firm had closed on a $150 million funding round for a new venture capital fund, Valar Fund V.
McCormack continues to serve as a managing partner of the firm.
Keith Rabois: PayPal's executive vice president
Entrepreneur Keith Rabois served as PayPal's executive vice president from 2000 to 2002.
He would go on to join his PayPal colleague Reid Hoffman at LinkedIn as its vice president for business and corporate development from 2005 to 2007. He was an early investor in startups like Square, where he spent two-and-a-half years as COO.
Rabois joined Thiel, Howery, and Nosek as a partner at Founders Fund.
He was a general partner at Founder's Fund, where he cofounded OpenStore, before returning to Khosla Ventures in early 2024.
Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman: worked on technology at PayPal.
Simmons was an engineer and Stoppelman was the vice president of technology after joining PayPal from X.com.
In 2004, the pair came up with the idea for a platform where users could leave recommendations about businesses in their area. They pitched the idea to Levchin, who provided an early investment of $1 million, and Yelp was born.
Simmons left his official role at Yelp in 2010, while Stoppelman continues to serve as Yelp's CEO.
In 2017, Selby was revealed to be the generous tipper behind "Tips for Jesus."
Selby later helped manage Thiel Capital, the Thiel's family office, and started his own venture capital fund, AZ-VC, where he serves as managing partner. He still serves as managing director at Thiel Capital.
Starting in 2013, Selby began anonymously leaving tips for unsuspecting waitstaff, ranging into the thousands, and signing them "Tips for Jesus." His identity was confirmed by a New York City bartender who served him prior to receiving a $5,000 tip.
Dave McClure: PayPal's director of marketing
McClure served PayPal's director of marketing as for four years beginning in 2001.
According to McClure's LinkedIn, he began a program called the PayPal Developer Network, which consisted of about 300,000 developers that were using PayPal.
He's since become an investor and owner in a professional sports league for ultimate frisbee and cofounded Practical Venture Capital, according to his LinkedIn.
Several more former PayPal employees went on to have careers both in and out of tech.
Yishan Wong was an engineering manager who later served as CEO of Reddit from 2011 to 2014. He then founded the reforestation company Terraformation in 2020, where he now serves as CEO.
Jason Portnoy worked in finance at PayPal, and went on to work at Clarium Capital and Palantir. He's now a partner at VC firm Oakhouse Partners.
Premal Shah was a product manager at PayPal beginning in 2000, then went on to work at technology nonprofit Kiva. He's now president at financial-services startup Branch.
David Gausebeck was a technical architect at PayPal. Now, he serves as chief scientist at 3D modeling company Matterport. He cofounded 3D modeling company Matterport, where he now serves as chief scientist.
Joe Lonsdale started his career as a finance intern at PayPal before moving into venture capital — he's worked at VC firms Clarium Capital, Formation 8, and 8VC. Lonsdale also cofounded Palantir, and has reportedly contributed to a Trump PAC.
Eric Jackson was director of marketing at PayPal and went on to write a book about the company called "The PayPal Wars." He's currently the CEO of CapLinked.
The biggest draw for me was the location. The resort sits on a hill with unobstructed views of the Teton Range and Snake River Valley. Photos online showed epic landscapes that I had to see for myself. So I booked a one-night stay in September 2024, though Business Insider paid a media rate.
For travelers craving luxury on a tight budget, a hotel this expensive may need to be paired with a cheaper stay. That's why I spent another night in the cheapest accommodation I could find in Jackson Hole. For $150, I got a bunk in an upscale hostel, Cache House, though a company representative told BI that starting rates are $110 in the summer and $65 in the winter.
Before staying in both accommodations, I thought my preference for the more expensive one would be obvious. Still, my previous travel reporting has shown me that it's not always that simple.
Hotel Yellowstone and Cache House serve completely different vacationers, but both offer luxury in their own ways.
On a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I spent one night at Hotel Yellowstone, a resort, and another at Cache House, a hostel.
Cache House is in Downtown Jackson, a walkable neighborhood full of boutiques, restaurants, and, in my experience, traffic.
While Hotel Yellowstone is less than 15 minutes north of the bustling square, it's tucked away in a scenic area with expansive properties. I thought it provided a more isolated experience.
First, I stayed at Hotel Yellowstone, a luxury, adults-only resort that opened in August.
I booked a one-night stay at Hotel Yellowstone about a month after it opened. When my cab pulled up, I could tell it was a brand-new establishment.
The four-acre resort had 10 sleek, cabin-style buildings with wide windows and sloped rooftops.
Between buildings, lush, extravagant landscaping framed a glistening pond that attracted wildlife — from ducks to moose.
The resort's interior design showcased modern luxury with Western flair.
I entered a neutral-toned lobby with cathedral ceilings to check into the hotel. The space had an array of cozy seating, from fur seats to cushioned rocking chairs.
"Hotel Yellowstone's design pays homage to the American West while seamlessly blending influences of modern design," a representative of Hotel Yellowstone told Business Insider.
Before heading to my room, I sat briefly and stared in awe out a vast window that framed the Tetons.
Hills and mountains layered the distant landscape, and a rich, green valley brightened the foreground. It looked like a photograph.
After checking in, I headed to my Grand Teton Suite.
Hotel Yellowstone had nine guest room buildings with four accommodations in each. Each room was 600 square feet and had a private balcony — the main difference between each is the view.
I booked a room with a balcony facing the Teton Range. It had a plush, king-sized bed, a full bathroom, two seating spaces, and glass doors for nonstop views of the mountains.
The accommodation had basic amenities like a TV, a mini fridge, and a fireplace. I used the in-room smart tablet to close the curtains, ignite the fireplace, activate mood lighting, and change the channel.
The space nodded to the American West, from the lighting to the wall art.
"The intricate design components pull inspiration from Jackson Hole's history, proximity to national parks, and locale on a wildlife refuge — allowing guests to view Jackson Hole's native animals from the comfort of their suites," the Hotel Yellowstone representative told BI.
To me, the bathroom felt like a private spa.
The Carrara marble bathroom had floor and towel heaters. A stand-alone rainfall shower was stocked with Byredo toiletries. A large, deep tub sat behind a sliding door, revealing the outdoor views.
Hotel Yellowstone had a restaurant for guests only.
At most hotels I've stayed in, the on-site restaurants are open to the public. Still, Hotel Yellowstone's resto, Olivia's, was exclusively for hotel guests.
It was on the lower level of the main building beneath the lobby. As I stepped down the stairs, I spotted an elegant marble bar with couch seating. Just past the bar was a dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Dining at this establishment that locally sources ingredients almost felt like dining outside — without the discomforts of weather and bugs.
There was also a spa, fitness center, pool, and sauna.
The pool — open 24 hours a day, along with the sauna — was made for relaxing. Known as the Negative Edge Pool, it was indoors with retractable glass windows overlooking the valley and surrounding mountains.
After my tranquil night at Hotel Yellowstone, I headed to Downtown Jackson to stay at a hostel.
To get to Cache House, I went to the Anvil Hotel, which has existed since the 1950s.
In the 1970s, a bunkhouse opened in the basement of the hotel. Then, in 2020, that bunkhouse opened as the "modern, elevated interpretation of the classic European hostel" Cache House, a company representative told BI.
I checked in at the Anvil Hotel, and a staff member walked me around the side of the building and down an outdoor staircase into the basement.
My key card unlocked the door to the hostel.
Like Hotel Yellowstone, Cache House had a modern design with hints of Western culture.
The door at the bottom of the steps opened into a massive, brightly-lit room with a mix of midcentury modern and old Western pieces and accents.
Cache House hired Brooklyn-based Post Company to give the room a sleek, functional look.
Geometric-patterned blankets were laid over black leather futons with wooden feet. Modern built-ins displayed albums behind a rustic, wooden dining table. Rugs and throws added pops of color to the space.
My booking included a locker for my luggage.
All Cache House bookings include a private locker for belongings. With just a backpack and a medium-sized duffel bag, there was plenty of space I didn't use.
Unlike Hotel Yellowstone, I didn't have my own bathroom at Cache House — but I had the next best thing.
The shared space had several private stalls with a toilet, sink, and shower. And like at Hotel Yellowstone, the bathrooms were spotless and had complimentary toiletries from a high-end beauty brand, C.O. Bigelow.
After freshening up, I headed to my bunk.
The hostel's midcentury modern style continued into the bunk room, where wooden ladders with gold accents led up and down 50 bunks, ranging from twin- to queen-sized.
Beneath each pair of bunk beds were two storage drawers — one for each bunk.
I had a queen-sized upper bunk.
I pulled the curtain at the top of the ladder to reveal a nook with a queen-sized bed, a reading light, a shelf, an outlet, and a fan.
It was a far cry from my 600-square-foot haven at Hotel Yellowstone, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bunk felt like a tiny room. The curtain blocked sound and light, giving me all the privacy I needed.
The mattress was a bigger surprise. Although a tad smaller, the Cache House bed was just as comfy and plush as Hotel Yellowstone's. With linen and wool bedding, I slept just as soundly and woke up just as refreshed.
Cache House doesn't have on-site amenities like a restaurant, a pool, or a fitness center, but there's plenty to do.
I certainly didn't expect my budget hostel stay to have additional amenities, but since it was centrally located in the walkable downtown area, I thought it didn't need to.
I had dinner nearby and spent the evening strolling around the town square, popping inside various boutiques.
Both accommodations gave me a taste of luxury, and I'd stay at both again.
Hotel Yellowstone would be ideal for the retreat seeker who craves serenity in solitude.
An adventurer who wants to stay out all day sampling the food, shopping, and culture of Jackson Hole would likely have a better time at the centrally located Cache House.
They'd save a buck and still get a taste of luxury.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had a tumultuous relationship over the years.
While the two traded barbs during Trump's first presidency, they're now political allies.
Trump officially added Musk to join his administration to help lead his DOGE effort, and Musk calls himself "first buddy."
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are now spending lots of time together, marking a new era of their working relationship.
The world's richest person and president-elect have become close political allies, with Musk calling himself "first buddy" following Trump's most recent victory and donating more than $200 million toward pro-Trump super PACs.
Trump tasked Elon Musk with recommending cost cuts in the federal government, appointing the Tesla CEO to the new Department of Government Efficiency council.
It wasn't always this cozy between the two billionaires, however.
Here's how they reached this point.
November 2016: Musk says Trump is 'not the right guy' for the job
"I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," Musk said.
The billionaire added that Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies were the "right ones."
December 2016: Musk appointed to Trump's advisory councils
After he won the presidency, Trump appointed Musk to two economic advisory councils, along with other business leaders like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Musk got flack for working with the controversial president, but defended his choice by saying he was using the position to lobby for better environmental and immigration policies.
"You have to give him credit," the former president said, referring to Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford and General Motors. "He's also doing the rockets. He likes rockets. And he's doing good at rockets too, by the way."
Trump went on to call Musk "one of our great geniuses" and likened him to Thomas Edison.
May 2020: Trump backs up Musk in feud with California covid rules
As the pandemic gripped the US in early 2020, Musk clashed with California public-health officials who forced Tesla to temporarily shut down its factory there. Trump voiced his support for Musk.
"California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW," Trump tweeted in May 2020. "It can be done Fast & Safely!"
Musk called the ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme" in an interview with the Financial Times. Twitter kicked Trump off of its platform following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
The Tesla billionaire has called himself a "free speech absolutist," and one of his key goals for taking Twitter private was to loosen content moderation.
July 2022: Trump calls Musk a 'bullshit artist'
In July, Trump took aim at Musk, claiming the businessman voted for him but later denied it.
"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during a Saturday rally in Anchorage, Alaska. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."
On Monday, Musk tweeted that Trump's claim was "not true."
"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency," he tweeted.
He continued: "Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76 years old.
July 2022: Trump lashes out
Trump then went on the offensive, posting a lengthy attack on Musk on Truth Social, the social media company he founded.
"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump said in a post that criticized two of Musk's ventures, Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
October 2022: Trump cheers Musk's Twitter deal, but says he won't return
Following Musk's official buyout of Twitter on Thursday, Trump posted to Truth Social cheering the deal.
"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country," he said. He added that he likes Truth Social better than other platforms, echoing comments from earlier this year in which he ruled out a return to Twitter.
On Monday, Musk joked about the potential of welcoming the former president back to his newly acquired platform.
"If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!," the Tesla CEO tweeted.
May 2023: Musks hosts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' glitchy debut
Musk and other right-leaning voices in Silicon Valley initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis ended 2022 as Trump's best-positioned primary challenger. In November 2022, as DeSantis was skyrocketing to acclaim, Musk said he would endorse him. In March 2023, after enduring Trump's attacks for months, DeSantis prepared to make history by formally announcing his campaign in an interview on Twitter.
"We actually do need a wall and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum to enter, as everyone is doing that," Musk wrote on X. "It's a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say! Will find out more when I visit Eagle Pass maybe as soon as tomorrow."
Like Trump and others on the right, Musk had criticized the broader consensus in Washington for focusing too much on Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine in comparison to domestic issues like migration.
March 2024: Trump tries to woo Musk, but the billionaire says he won't give him money.
Trump tried to woo Musk during a meeting at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort. According to The New York Times, Trump met with Musk and a few other GOP megadonors when the former president's campaign was particularly cash-strapped. After The Times published its report, Musk said he would not be "donating money to either candidate for US President."
It wasn't clear who Musk meant in terms of the second candidate. He had repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden, who looked poised to be headed toward a rematch with Trump.
July 2024: Musk endorses Trump after the former president is shot
Musk said he "fully endorsed" Trump after the former president was shot during a political rally ahead of the Republican National Convention. The billionaire's endorsement marked a major turning point in his yearslong political evolution from an Obama voter. Days later, it would come to light that Musk pressed Trump to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.
Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential pick at the Republican National Convention.
The ticket, Musk wrote on X, "resounds with victory."
It wasn't just his public support that Musk was offering. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported Musk had pledged roughly $45 million to support a pro-Trump super PAC. Musk later said he would donate far less, but his rebranding into a loyal member of the MAGA right was complete.
August 2024: Trump joins Musk for a highly anticipated interview
Trump, who ended the Republican National Convention primed for victory, stumbled after Biden abruptly dropped out of the 2024 race. The former president and his allies have struggled to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee.
In August, Trump began floating the idea that he "certainly would" consider adding Musk to his Cabinet or an advisory role. The Tesla CEO responded by tweeting an AI-generated photo of himself on a podium emblazoned with the acronym "D.O.G.E"—Department of Government Efficiency.
"I am willing to serve," he wrote above the image.
September 2024: Musk says he's ready to serve if Trump gives him an advisory role
In September, Trump softened the suggestion of Musk joining his Cabinet due to his time constraints with running his various business ventures, the Washington Post reported. However, he also said that Musk could "consult with the country" and help give "some very good ideas."
"I can't wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go," he wrote.
He later tweeted again to show his interest in being appointed by Trump, writing that he "looked forward to serving" the country and would be willing to do with without any pay, title, or recognition.
Trump is reportedly soon to announce that he has taken Musk's advice and is forming a government efficiency commission.
October 2024: Musk speaks at Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Musk joined Trump onstage during the former president's rally, hosted on October 5 in the same location where Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk sported an all-black "Make America Great Again" cap and briefly addressed the crowd, saying that voter turnout for Trump this year was essential or "this will be the last election."
"President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution," Musk said. "He must win to preserve democracy in America."
The next day, Musk's America PAC announced that it would be offering $47 to each person who refers registered voters residing in swing states to sign a petition "in support for the First and Second Amendments."
By October, the PAC had reportedly already spent over $80 million on the election, with over $8.2 million spread across 18 competitive House races for the GOP.
The Tesla CEO later told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he might face "vengeance" if Trump loses the election.
November 2024: Trump wins the presidency and names Musk his administration
Musk was by Trump's side on election night at Mar-a-Lago, helping celebrate his victory.
Nearly a week after his 2024 presidential election win, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy were chosen to lead a newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, as Musk likes to call it, in reference to the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin).
"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pay the way for my Administration to dismantle the Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement.
It's unclear whether the department will formally exist within the government, though Trump said the office would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government" and work directly with the White House and Office of Management & Budget.
Musk responded in a post on X that the Department of Government Efficiency will be post all their actions online "for maximum transparency."
"Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" Musk wrote. "We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."
Outside of administrative duties, Musk has also joined "almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had," The New York Times reported, acting as a partial advisor and confidant. The Tesla CEO also reportedly joined Trump's calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while both men were at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk seems to have settled in.
"Elon won't go home," Trump told NBC News jokingly. "I can't get rid of him."
The two's close relationship has extended to a more personal friendship. Musk was seen attending Trump's Thanksgiving dinner and on the golf course with Trump and his grandchildren, where Kai Trump said he achieved "uncle status."
Months later, I'm still thinking about three mistakes I made when booking, packing, and planning the trip, which I'll avoid next time I want to escape to Arizona's millionaire hub.
When planning my itinerary, I didn't realize how far apart some stops were.
When I mapped out my trip to Scottsdale, I didn't realize how large the town was.
Downtown Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport are quite close together — 15 minutes or less by car, in my experience. However, I couldn't miss seeing the luxurious neighborhoods and fine dining in North Scottsdale.
When I booked my tours and reservations, I didn't realize North Scottsdale was about a 40-minute cab ride from the hub area.
I ended up traveling up and down Scottsdale multiple times a day. Next time, I'll plan to spend one full day in North Scottsdale to avoid wasting time and money on cabs.
When traveling to Scottsdale in the spring, I should have planned for dry, 90-degree Fahrenheit days.
For my spring trip to Scottsdale, I expected it to be warm, as the area is known to be throughout the year. So, I packed some cooling, quick-dry attire, like the Under Armour polo above, paired with pants made from a similar material.
It was warmer than I anticipated, and this dark navy outfit made me feel like a magnet to the sun.
The outfit was comfortable in the morning and evening, but I would have packed lighter-colored clothing if I had known I'd be battling 90-degree heat in the afternoons.
I also didn't realize that the heat in Scottsdale would feel drastically drier to me compared to the air I'm used to back home in New York.
I thought I could easily walk around all day in Scottsdale. I planned to spend most daylight hours exploring outdoors and walking from neighborhood to neighborhood. But I got dehydrated easily and ran through my 20-ounce plastic water bottle quickly.
Next time I visit Scottsdale in the spring, I'll pack a larger, insulated water bottle and break up outdoor activities in my itinerary with indoor ones to stay cool and hydrated.
Booking just one night in a mega-resort was my biggest regret.
Since I spent two nights in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, I booked one night in each town.
I stayed at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, a 600-acre mega-resort with five pools, a three-story spa, and an 18-hole golf course.
I didn't save enough time in my itinerary for hanging out at the hotel.
I spent most of the day out and about, and by the time I got back to the Phoenician, I was too tired to sit down at the award-winning lobby bar or step into one of the pools.
Before I checked out in the morning, I had just enough time to explore the entire property on foot. I watched others play golf, tennis, and pickleball and longed for another night. This ended up being my biggest regret of the trip because I left feeling like I'd missed out.
After my stay, I realized that a mega-resort is worth the price only if I take advantage of all it has to offer. Since my trip was more about exploring Scottsdale than relaxing, there simply wasn't enough downtime to make it worth booking for just one night.
After getting a preview of the Phoenician's amenities, I'd love to stay again for at least two nights and plan to spend many waking hours there.
Since 2016, the closed-captioning company The Captioning Group has compiled the list on behalf of the language platform Babbel, bringing together all the terms that newscasters, politicians, and public figures struggled to pronounce correctly on TV.
Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel, told Business Insider this year's words were a snapshot of the political, cultural, and musical zeitgeist.
Ready to test your pronunciation chops?
In no particular order, here are the top 10 most mispronounced words of the year, according to Babbel's report.
Semaglutide
There is more to the hype surrounding semaglutide, the active ingredient of the weight loss medication Ozempic, than just its effects.
For those unfamiliar with the antidiabetic medication, pronouncing it can be a challenge.
Pronunciation: sem-ah-GLOO-tide
Pete Buttigieg
The transportation secretary and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was one of the Democrats' most articulate spokespeople when he took over the airwaves and tried to appeal to swing voters and moderates for Harris.
He's also been known to spar with Elon Musk online.
Pronunciation: peet BOOD-ih-judge
Shein
The name of the fast fashion company Shein is frequently mispronounced as "Sheen." The company is reportedly planning to debut on the London Stock Exchange early next year.
Pronunciation: SHE-in
Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris has often seen her name being mispronounced, most recently in the run-up to the November 2024 presidential election.
Her nieces, Amara and Leela, helped set the record straight onstage at the DNC in August.
"It's like a comma in a sentence," explained Amara. "Then you say 'la,' like 'la la la,'" added Leela.
Pronunciation: COM-a-la HAR-iss
Zendaya
Actress Zendaya starred as tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan in "Challengers" and as Chani in "Dune: Part II." Her name is frequently mispronounced "Zen-DIE-a."
She has humorously called out those who said [SHA-pel ROW-an] during a live performance, making it clear that it's actually [CHAP-uhl], which sounds like chapel, and [ROHN], which rhymes with tone.
Pronunciation: CHAP-uhl ROHN
SPECULOOS-3b
SPECULOOS-3b is an Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits a red dwarf that captured global attention in May when astronomers announced its discovery at a distance of 55 light-years.
Pronunciation: SPEK-yuh-lohss three bee
Phryge
The phryge, the mascot of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, was chosen as a symbol of freedom and to represent allegorical figures of the French Republic.
Pronunciation: FREE-je
Barry Keoghan
The Irish actor rose to prominence for his role in Emerald Fennell's "Saltburn" last year, though Sabrina Carpenter fans will also know him as the pop singer's boyfriend.
Though the letter "G" is often silent in Irish names, Keoghan's last name has a distinct "G" sound.
Pronunciation: BARR-ee key-OH-gin
Dutch Kooikerhondje
Shohei Ohtani's dog, a Dutch Kooikerhondje, "threw" the first pitch at a game at Dodger Stadium after the Dodgers' pitcher signed a historic 10-year, $700 million deal with the MLB team.
Elon Musk helped found OpenAI, but he has frequently criticized it in recent years.
Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in August and just amended it to include Microsoft.
Here's a history of Musk and Altman's working relationship.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman lead rival AI firms and now take public jabs at each other — but it wasn't always like this.
Years ago, the two cofounded OpenAI, which Altman now leads. Musk departed OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, in 2018, and recently announced his own AI venture, xAI.
There is enough bad blood that Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing them in the suit of betraying the firm's founding principles, before dropping the lawsuit. The billionaire then filed a new one a few months later, claiming he was "deceived" into confounding the company. In November, he amended it to include Microsoft as a defendant, and his lawyers accused the two companies of engaging in monopolistic behavior. Microsoft is an investor in OpenAI.
Two weeks later, Musk's lawyers filed a motion requesting a judge to bring an injunction against OpenAI that would block it from dropping its nonprofit status. In the filing, Musk accused OpenAI and Microsoft of exploiting his donations to create a for-profit monopoly.
Here's a look at Musk and Altman's complicated relationship over the years:
Musk and Altman cofounded OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in 2015, alongside other Silicon Valley figures, including Peter Thiel, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston.
The group aimed to create a nonprofit focused on developing artificial intelligence "in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole," according to a statement on OpenAI's website from December 11, 2015.
At the time, Musk said that AI was the "biggest existential threat" to humanity.
"It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly," a statement announcing the founding of OpenAI reads.
Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board of directors in 2018.
With his departure, Musk also backed out of a commitment to provide additional funding to OpenAI, a person involved in the matter told The New Yorker.
"It was very tough," Altman told the magazine of the situation. "I had to reorient a lot of my life and time to make sure we had enough funding."
It was reported that Sam Altman and other OpenAI cofounders had rejected Musk's proposal to run the company in 2018.
Semafor reported in 2023 that Musk wanted to run the company on his own in an attempt to beat Google. But when his offer to run the company was rejected, he pulled his funding and left OpenAI's board, the news outlet said.
In 2019, Musk shared some insight on his decision to leave, saying one of the reasons was that he "didn't agree" with where OpenAI was headed.
"I had to focus on solving a painfully large number of engineering & manufacturing problems at Tesla (especially) & SpaceX," he tweeted. "Also, Tesla was competing for some of same people as OpenAI & I didn't agree with some of what OpenAI team wanted to do. Add that all up & it was just better to part ways on good terms."
Musk has taken shots at OpenAI on several occasions since leaving.
Two years after his departure, Musk said, "OpenAI should be more open" in response to an MIT Technology Review article reporting that there was a culture of secrecy there, despite OpenAI frequently proclaiming a commitment to transparency.
In December 2022, days after OpenAI released ChatGPT, Musk said the company had prior access to the database of Twitter — now owned by Musk — to train the AI chatbot and that he was putting that on hold.
"Need to understand more about governance structure & revenue plans going forward. OpenAI was started as open-source & non-profit. Neither are still true," he said.
Musk was reportedly furious about ChatGPT's success, Semafor reported in 2023.
In February 2023, Musk doubled down, saying OpenAI as it exists today is "not what I intended at all."
"OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it "Open" AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. Not what I intended at all," he said in a tweet.
Musk repeated this assertion a month later.
"I'm still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated ~$100M somehow became a $30B market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn't everyone do it?" he tweeted.
Musk was one of more than 1,000 people who signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on training advanced AI systems.
The March 2023 letter, which also received signatures from several AI experts, cited concerns about AI's potential risks to humanity.
"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," the letter says.
But while he was publicly calling for the pause, Musk was quietly building his own AI competitor, xAI, The New Yorker reported in 2023. He launched the company in March 2023.
Altman has addressed some of Musk's gripes about OpenAI.
"To say a positive thing about Elon, I think he really does care about a good future with AGI," Altman said last year on an episode of the "On With Kara Swisher" podcast, referring to artificial general intelligence.
"I mean, he's a jerk, whatever else you want to say about him — he has a style that is not a style that I'd want to have for myself," Altman told Swisher. "But I think he does really care, and he is feeling very stressed about what the future's going to look like for humanity."
In response to Musk's claim that OpenAI has turned into "a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft," Altman said on the podcast, "Most of that is not true, and I think Elon knows that."
Altman has also referred to Musk as one of his heroes.
In a March 2023 episode of Lex Fridman's podcast, Altman also said, "Elon is obviously attacking us some on Twitter right now on a few different vectors."
In a May 2023 talk at University College London, Altman was asked what he's learned from various mentors, Fortune reported. He answered by speaking about Musk.
"Certainly learning from Elon about what is just, like, possible to do and that you don't need to accept that, like, hard R&D and hard technology is not something you ignore, that's been super valuable," he said.
Musk has since briefly unfollowed Altman on Twitter before following him again; separately, Altman later poked fun at Musk's claim to be a "free speech absolutist."
Twitter took aim at posts linking to rival Substack in 2023, forbidding users from retweeting or replying to tweets containing such links, before reversing course. In response to a tweet about the situation, Altman tweeted, "Free speech absolutism on STEROIDS."
Altman joked that he'd watch Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's rumored cage fight.
"I would go watch if he and Zuck actually did that," he said at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in June 2023, though he said he doesn't think he would ever challenge Musk in a physical fight.
Altman also repeated several of his previous remarks about Musk's position on AI.
"He really cares about AI safety a lot," Altman said at Bloomberg's summit. "We have differences of opinion on some parts, but we both care about that and he wants to make sure we, the world, have the maximal chance at a good outcome."
Separately, Altman told The New Yorker in August 2023 that Musk has a my-way-or-the highway approach to issues more broadly.
"Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it," Altman said.
Musk first sued Altman and OpenAI in March 2024.
He first sued OpenAI, Altman, and cofounder Greg Brockman in March, alleging the company's direction in recent years has violated its founding principles.
His lawyers alleged OpenAI "has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world" and is "refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."
The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI executives played on Musk's concerns about the existential risks of AI and "assiduously manipulated" him into cofounding the company as a nonprofit. The intent of the company was to focus on building AI safely in an open approach to benefit humanity, the lawsuit says.
The company has since decided to take a for-profit approach.
OpenAI responded to the lawsuit by stating that "Elon's prior emails continue to speak for themselves."
The emails, which were published by OpenAI in March, show correspondence between Musk and OpenAI executives that indicated he supported a pivot to a for-profit model and was open to merging the AI startup with Tesla.
Musk expanded his beef with OpenAI to include Microsoft, accusing the two of constituting a monopoly
The billionaire called OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft a "de facto merger" and accused the two of anti-competitive practices, such as engaging in "lavish compensation." Musk's lawyers said the two companies "possess a nearly 70% share of the generative AI market."
"OpenAI has attempted to starve competitors of AI talent by aggressively recruiting employees with offers of lavish compensation, and is on track to spend $1.5 billion on personnel for just 1,500 employees," lawyers for Musk said in the complaint.
Two weeks later, Musk filed a motion asking a judge to prevent OpenAI from dropping its nonprofit status.
Musk filed a complaint to Judge Yvonne GonzalezRogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, arguing that OpenAI and Microsoft exploited his donations to OpenAI as a nonprofit to build a monopoly "specifically targeting xAI." In the filing, Musk's lawyers said OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive behaviors and wrongfully shared information with Microsoft.
If granted by the judge, the injunction could cause issues with OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft and prevent it from becoming a for-profit company.
As Musk's influence on US policy grows, his feud with Altman hangs in the balance.
As President-elect Donald Trump's self-proclaimed "First Buddy," Musk's power and influence on the US economy could increase even further over the next four years. In addition to being a right-hand-man to Trump, he'll lead the new Department of Government Efficiency with biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk hasn't been quiet about his disdain for Altman post-election. He dubbed the OpenAI cofounder "Swindly Sam" in an X post on November 15. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk "despises" Altman, according to people familiar.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft cofounder, shares three kids with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates.
They include a recent med school graduate and a fashion startup cofounder.
Here's what we know about the children of one of the world's richest men.
Bill Gates' story is a quintessential example of the American entrepreneurial dream: A brilliant math whiz, Gates was 19 when he dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in 1975.
Nearly 50 years later, Gates' net worth of $131 billion makes him one of the richest and most famous men on Earth, per Forbes. He stepped down from Microsoft's board in 2020 and has cultivated his brand of philanthropy with the Gates Foundation — a venture he formerly ran with his now ex-wife Melinda French Gates, who resigned in May.
Even before founding one of the world's most valuable companies, Gates' life was anything but ordinary. He grew up in a well-off and well-connected family, surrounded by his parents' rarefied personal and professional network. Their circle included a Cabinet secretary and a governor of Washington, according to "Hard Drive," the 1992 biography of Gates by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Brock Adams, who went on to become the transportation secretary in the Carter administration, is said to have introduced Gates' parents.)
His father, William Gates Sr., was a prominent corporate lawyer in Seattle and the president of the Washington State Bar Association.
His mother, Mary Gates, came from a line of successful bankers and sat on the boards of important financial and social institutions, including the nonprofit United Way. It was there, according to her New York Times obituary, that she met the former IBM chairman John Opel — a fateful connection thought to have led to IBM enlisting Microsoft to provide an operating system in the 1980s.
"My parents were well off — my dad did well as a lawyer, took us on great trips, we had a really nice house," Gates said in the 2019 Netflix documentary "Inside Bill's Brain."
"And I've had so much luck in terms of all these opportunities."
Despite his very public life, his three children with French Gates — Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe — largely avoided the spotlight for most of their upbringing.
Like their father, the three Gates children attended Seattle's elite Lakeside School, a private high school that has been recognized for excellence in STEM subjects — and that received a $40 million donation from Bill Gates in 2005 to build its financial aid fund. (Bill Gates and Paul Allen met at Lakeside and went on to build Microsoft together.)
But as they have become adults, more details have emerged about their interests, professions, and family life.
While they have chosen different career paths, all three children are active in philanthropy — a space in which they will likely wield immense influence as they grow older. While Gates has reportedly said that he plans to leave each of his three children $10 million — a fraction of his fortune — they may inherit the family foundation, where most of his money will go.
Here's all we know about the Gates children.
Gates and his children did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Jennifer Gates Nassar
Jennifer Gates Nassar, who goes by Jenn, is the oldest of the Gates children at 28 years old.
In 2018, Gates Nassar received her undergraduate degree in human biology from Stanford University, where a computer science building was named for her father after he donated $6 million to the project in 1996.
She then attended the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, from which she graduated in May. She will continue at Mt. Sinai for her residency in pediatric research. During medical school, she also completed a Master's in Public Health at Columbia University — perhaps a natural interest given her parents' extensive philanthropic activity in the space.
"Can't believe we've reached this moment, a little girl's childhood aspiration come true," she wrote on Instagram. "It's been a whirlwind of learning, exams, late nights, tears, discipline, and many moments of self-doubt, but the highs certainly outweighed the lows these past 5 years."
In October 2021, she married Egyptian equestrian Nayel Nassar. In February 2023, reports surfaced that they bought a $51 million New York City penthouse with six bedrooms and a plunge pool. The next month, they welcomed their first child, Leila, and in October, Gates Nassar gave birth to their second daughter, Mia.
"I'm over the moon for you, @jenngatesnassar and @nayelnassar—and overjoyed for our whole family," Bill Gates commented on the Instagram post announcing Mia's birth.
In a 2020 interview with the equestrian lifestyle publication Sidelines, Gates Nassar discussed growing up wealthy.
"I was born into a huge situation of privilege," she said. "I think it's about using those opportunities and learning from them to find things that I'm passionate about and hopefully make the world a little bit of a better place."
She recently posted about visiting Kenya, where she learned about childhood health and development in the country.
Rory John Gates
Rory John Gates, who is in his mid-20s, is Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates' only son and the most private of their children. He maintains private social media accounts, and his sisters and parents rarely post photos of him.
His mother did, however, write an essay about him in 2017. Titled "How I Raised a Feminist Son," she describes as a "great son and a great brother" who "inherited his parents' obsessive love of puzzles."
In 2022, he graduated from the University of Chicago, where, based on a photo posted on Facebook, he appears to have been active in moot court. At the time of his graduation, Jennifer Gates Nassar wrote that he had achieved a double major and master's degree.
Little is publicly known about what the middle Gates child has been up to since he graduated, but a Puck report from last year gave some clues, saying that he is seen as a "rich target for Democratic social-climbers, influence-peddlers, and all variety of money chasers." According to OpenSecrets, his most recent public giving was to Nikki Haley last year.
The same report says he works as a congressional analyst while also completing a doctorate.
Phoebe Gates
Phoebe Gates, 22, is the youngest of the Gates children.
After graduating from high school in 2021, she followed her sister to Stanford. She graduated in June after three years with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology. Her mom, Melinda French-Gates, delivered the university's commencement address.
In a story that Gates wrote for Nylon about her graduation day, she documented her graduation day, including a party she cohosted that featured speeches from her famous parents and a piggyback ride from her boyfriend Arthur Donald — the grandson of Sir Paul McCartney.
She has long shown an interest in fashion, interning at British Vogue and posting on social media from fashion weeks in Copenhagen, New York, and Paris. Sustainability is often a theme of her content, which highlights vintage and secondhand stores and celebrates designers who don't use real leather and fur.
That has culminated in her cofounding Phia, a sustainable fashion tech platform that launched in beta this fall. The site and its browser extension crawl secondhand marketplaces to find specific items in an effort to help shoppers find deals and prevent waste.
Gates shares her parents' passion for public health. She's attended the UN General Assembly with her mother and spent time in Rwanda with Partners in Health, a nonprofit that has received funding from the Gates Foundation.
Like her mother, Gates often publicly discusses issues of gender equality, including in essays for Vogue and Teen Vogue, at philanthropic gatherings, and on social media, where she frequently posts about reproductive rights.
She's given thousands to Democrats and Democratic causes, including to Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic Party of Montana, per data from OpenSecrets. According to Puck, she receives a "giving allowance" that makes it possible for her to cut the checks.
Perhaps the most public of the Gates children — she's got over 450,000 Instagram followers and a partnership with Tiffany & Co. — she's given glimpses into their upbringing, including strict rules around technology. The siblings were not allowed to use their phones before bed, she told Bustle, and to get around the rule, she created a cardboard decoy.
"I thought I could dupe my dad, and it worked, actually, for a couple nights," she told the outlet earlier this year. "And then my mom came home and was like, 'This is literally a piece of cardboard you're plugging in. You're using your phone in your room.' Oh, my gosh, I remember getting in trouble for that."
It hasn't always been easy being Gates's daughter. In the Netflix documentary "What's Next? The Future With Bill Gates," she said she lost friends because of a conspiracy theory suggesting her father used COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips into recipients.
"I've even had friends cut me off because of these vaccine rumors," she said.
Other Big Tech leaders have significantly changed up their looks since starting their companies; some are nearly unrecognizable (remember the Jeff-Bezos-is-jacked memes?)
Here's a look at the style transformations of some of tech's biggest names:
Jeff Bezos
Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994. Decades later, gone are the photoshoots where he's posing with a softcover while looking bookish.
Like Bezos, he's also gotten more fit. Part of Zuckerberg's physical transformation stems from hobbies like Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA fighting.
Michael Dell
Dell is another member of the college dropouts-turned-tech founders club. He started his company while still enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin.
While you probably won't catch him rocking a t-shirt to a professional event, he's appeared to prefer to drop the glasses since then.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998. They met as students at Stanford and built Google from a garage they rented from the late Susan Wojcicki, who was later YouTube's CEO.
Elon Musk
The photo at left shows Musk in 1999, around the time the "PayPal mafia" was formed.
Gates and the late Paul Allen cofounded Microsoft from a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975.
Gates left Microsoft's board in 2020 and today spends more of his time focused on the philanthropic foundation he started with his now-ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.
Half a century later, he's still rocking glasses — with some different frames.
Jack Dorsey
Twitter was founded in 2006. Cofounder Jack Dorsey has been seen with a full beard pretty regularly since departing as CEO and focusing his efforts more on cryptocurrency at Block, formerly Square.
Richard Branson
Richard Branson started the Virgin brand in 1970 with a mail-order record business.
At 73 years old today, Branson's day-to-day life still features plenty of exercise, from tennis and cycling to kite-surfing. As such, he's usually sporting a tan.
Jack Ma
Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma disappeared from public view in 2020 after criticizing China's financial regulation system.
Anne Wojcicki cofounded genetic testing company 23andMe in 2006. She is the younger sister of late former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded Tinder before founding Bumble in 2014. She stepped down as CEO of the dating app last year.
Herd became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world on the heels of Bumble's IPO.
The entrepreneur currently serves as executive chairman on Bumble's board of directors.
Evan Spiegel
Evan Spiegel co-founded Snap, which owns services like Snapchat, in 2011. The company's success made him the world's youngest billionaire in 2015, when he was 25.
While he'll often suit up or don a tux when attending a more formal event with his wife, Miranda Kerr, he's often seen in a white or black t-shirt and jeans.
Reed Hastings
Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph cofounded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service provider before it would become the streaming giant it is today. Hastings gave up the CEO title in January 2023, though he still serves as board chairman.
More recently, you can catch him in snowboarding attire after he bought a ski mountain in Utah.
Sam Altman
Altman is best known as the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, but his first startup was Loopt, a mobile service that allowed for real-time location sharing with friends.
The picture at left shows him in those days, circa 2006. In 2008, he was sporting two polo shirts with a double-popped collar on stage at Apple's WWDC conference. 15 years later, however, he's worn a tuxedo to the White House while continuing to keep it casual during interviews with more casual looks too.
The field of artificial intelligence is booming and attracting billions in investment.
Researchers, CEOs, and legislators are discussing how AI could transform our lives.
Here are 17 of the major names in the field — and the opportunities and dangers they see ahead.
Investment in artificial intelligence is rapidly growing and on track to hit $200 billion by 2025. But the dizzying pace of development also means many people wonder what it all means for their lives.
In short, AI is a hot, controversial, and murky topic. To help you cut through the frenzy, Business Insider put together a list of what leaders in the field are saying about AI — and its impact on our future.
Geoffrey Hinton, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, is known as a "godfather of AI."
Hinton's research has primarily focused on neural networks, systems that learn skills by analyzing data. In 2018, he won the Turing Award, a prestigious computer science prize, along with fellow researchers Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio.
Hinton also worked at Google for over a decade, but quit his role at Google last spring, so he could speak more freely about the rapid development of AI technology, he said. After quitting, he even said that a part of him regrets the role he played in advancing the technology.
"I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn't done it, somebody else would have. It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things," Hinton said previously.
Bengio's research primarily focuses on artificial neural networks, deep learning, and machine learning. In 2022, Bengio became the computer scientist with the highest h-index — a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author's scholarly output — in the world, according to his website.
In addition to his academic work, Bengio also co-founded Element AI, a startup that develops AI software solutions for businesses that was acquired by the cloud company ServiceNow in 2020.
Bengio has expressed concern about the rapid development of AI. He was one of 33,000 people who signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development. Hinton, Open AI CEO Sam Altman, and Elon Musk also signed the letter.
"Today's systems are not anywhere close to posing an existential risk," he previously said. "But in one, two, five years? There is too much uncertainty."
When that time comes, though, Bengio warns that we should also be wary of humans who have control of the technology.
Some people with "a lot of power" may want to replace humanity with machines, Bengio said at the One Young World Summit in Montreal. "Having systems that know more than most people can be dangerous in the wrong hands and create more instability at a geopolitical level, for example, or terrorism."
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has catapulted into a major figure in the area of artificial intelligence since launching ChatGPT last November.
French computer scientist Yann LeCun has also been dubbed a "godfather of AI" after winning the Turing Award with Hinton and Bengio.
LeCun is professor at New York University, and also joined Meta in 2013, where he's now the Chief AI Scientist. At Meta, he has pioneered research on training machines to make predictions based on videos of everyday events as a way to enable them with a form of common sense. The idea being that humans learn an incredible amount about the world based on passive observation. He's has also published more than 180 technical papers and book chapters on topics ranging from machine learning to computer vision to neural networks, according to personal website.
Fei-Fei Li is a professor of computer science at Stanford University and a former VP at Google.
Li's research focuses on machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and cognitively-inspired AI, according to her biography on Stanford's website.
She may be best known for establishing ImageNet — a large visual database that was designed for research in visual object recognition — and the corresponding ImageNet challenge, in which software programs compete to correctly classify objects. Over the years, she's also been affiliated with major tech companies including Google — where she was a VP and chief scientist for AI and machine learning — and Twitter (now X), where she was on the board of directors from 2020 until Elon Musk's takeover in 2022.
UC-Berkeley professor Stuart Russell has long been focused on the question of how AI will relate to humanity.
Russell published Human Compatible in 2019, where he explored questions of how humans and machines could co-exist, as machines become smarter by the day. Russell contended that the answer was in designing machines that were uncertain about human preferences, so they wouldn't pursue their own goals above those of humans.
He's also the author of foundational texts in the field, including the widely used textbook "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach," which he co-wrote with former UC-Berkeley faculty member Peter Norvig.
Russell has spoken openly about what the rapid development of AI systems means for society as a whole. Last June, he also warned that AI tools like ChatGPT were "starting to hit a brick wall" in terms of how much text there was left for them to ingest. He also said that the advancements in AI could spell the end of the traditional classroom.
Peter Norvig played a seminal role directing AI research at Google.
He spent several in the early 2000s directing the company's core search algorithms group and later moved into a role as the director of research where he oversaw teams on machine translation, speech recognition, and computer vision.
Norvig has also rotated through several academic institutions over the years as a former faculty member at UC-Berkeley, former professor at the University of Southern California, and now, a fellow at Stanford's center for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Norvig told BI by email that "AI research is at a very exciting moment, when we are beginning to see models that can perform well (but not perfectly) on a wide variety of general tasks." At the same time "there is a danger that these powerful AI models can be used maliciously by unscrupulous people to spread disinformation rather than information. An important area of current research is to defend against such attacks," he said.
Timnit Gebru is a computer scientist who’s become known for her work in addressing bias in AI algorithms.
Gebru was a research scientist and the technical co-lead of Google's Ethical Artificial Intelligence team where she published groundbreaking research on biases in machine learning.
But her research also spun into a larger controversy that she's said ultimately led to her being let go from Google in 2020. Google didn't comment at the time.
Gebru founded the Distributed AI Research Institute in 2021 which bills itself as a "space for independent, community-rooted AI research, free from Big Tech's pervasive influence."
She's also warned that AI gold rush will mean companies may neglect implementing necessary guardrails around the technology. "Unless there is external pressure to do something different, companies are not just going to self-regulate," Gebru previously said. "We need regulation and we need something better than just a profit motive."
British-American computer scientist Andrew Ng founded a massive deep learning project called "Google Brain" in 2011.
The endeavor lead to the Google Cat Project: A milestone in deep learning research in which a massive neural network was trained to detect YouTube videos of cats.
Ng also served as the chief scientist at Chinese technology company Baidu where drove AI strategy. Over the course of his career, he's authored more than 200 research papers on topics ranging from machine learning to robotics, according to his personal website.
Beyond his own research, Ng has pioneered developments in online education. He co-founded Coursera along with computer scientist Daphne Koller in 2012, and five years later, founded the education technology company DeepLearning.AI, which has created AI programs on Coursera.
"I think AI does have risk. There is bias, fairness, concentration of power, amplifying toxic speech, generating toxic speech, job displacement. There are real risks," he told Bloomberg Technology last May. However, he said he's not convinced that AI will pose some sort of existential risk to humanity — it's more likely to be part of the solution. "If you want humanity to survive and thrive for the next thousand years, I would much rather make AI go faster to help us solve these problems rather than slow AI down," Ng told Bloomberg.
Daphne Koller is the founder and CEO of insitro, a drug discovery startup that uses machine learning.
Koller told BI by email that insitro is applying AI and machine learning to advance understanding of "human disease biology and identify meaningful therapeutic interventions." And before founding insitro, Koller was the chief computing officer at Calico, Google's life-extension spinoff. Koller is a decorated academic, a MacArthur Fellow, and author of more than 300 publications with an h-index of over 145, according to her biography from the Broad Institute, and co-founder of Coursera.
In Koller's view the biggest risks that AI development pose to society are "the expected reduction in demand for certain job categories; the further fraying of "truth" due to the increasing challenge in being able to distinguish real from fake; and the way in which AI enables people to do bad things."
At the same time, she said the benefits are too many and too large to note. "AI will accelerate science, personalize education, help identify new therapeutic interventions, and many more," Koller wrote by email.
Daniela Amodei cofounded AI startup Anthropic in 2021 after an exit from OpenAI.
Amodei co-founded Anthropic along with six other OpenAI employees, including her brother Dario Amodei. They left, in part, because Dario — OpenAI's lead safety researcher at the time — was concerned that OpenAI's deal with Microsoft would force it to release products too quickly, and without proper guardrails.
At Anthropic, Amodei is focused on ensuring trust and safety. The company's chatbot Claude bills itself as an easier-to-use alternative that OpenAI's ChatGPT, and is already being implemented by companies like Quora and Notion. Anthropic relies on what it calls a "Triple H" framework in its research. That stands for Helpful, Honest, and Harmless. That means it relies on human input when training its models, including constitutional AI, in which a customer outlines basic principles on how AI should operate.
"We all have to simultaneously be looking at the problems of today and really thinking about how to make tractable progress on them while also having an eye on the future of problems that are coming down the pike," Amodei previously told BI.
Demis Hassabis has said artificial general intelligence will be here in a few years.
After a handful of research stints, and a venture in videogames, he founded DeepMind in 2010. He sold the AI lab to Google in 2014 for £400 million where he's worked on algorithms to tackle issues in healthcare, climate change, and also launched a research unit dedicated to the understanding the ethical and social impact of AI in 2017, according to DeepMind's website.
Hassabis has said the promise of artificial general intelligence — a theoretical concept that sees AI matching the cognitive abilities of humans — is around the corner. "I think we'll have very capable, very general systems in the next few years," Hassabis said previously, adding that he didn't see why AI progress would slow down anytime soon. He added, however, that developing AGI should be executed in a "in a cautious manner using the scientific method."
In 2022, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman launched AI startup Inflection AI along with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Karén Simonyan — now the company's chief scientist.
The startup, which claims to create "a personal AI for everyone," most recently raised $1.3 billion in funding last June, according to PitchBook.
Its chatbot, Pi, which stands for personal intelligence, is trained on large language models similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT or Bard. Pi, however, is designed to be more conversational, and offer emotional support. Suleyman previously described it as a "neutral listener" that can respond to real-life problems.
"Many people feel like they just want to be heard, and they just want a tool that reflects back what they said to demonstrate they have actually been heard," Suleyman previously said.
USC Professor Kate Crawford focuses on social and political implications of large-scale AI systems.
Crawford is also the senior principal researcher at Microsoft, and the author of Atlas of AI, a book that draws upon the breadth of her research to uncover how AI is shaping society.
Crawford remains both optimistic and cautious about the state of AI development. She told BI by email she's excited about the people she works with across the world "who are committed to more sustainable, consent-based, and equitable approaches to using generative AI."
She added, however, that "if we don't approach AI development with care and caution, and without the right regulatory safeguards, it could produce extreme concentrations of power, with dangerously anti-democratic effects."
Margaret Mitchell is the chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face.
Mitchell has published more than 100 papers over the course of her career, according to her website, and spearheaded AI projects across various big tech companies including Microsoft and Google.
In late 2020, Mitchell and Timnit Gebru — then the co-lead of Google's ethical artificial intelligence — published a paper on the dangers of large language models. The paper spurred disagreements between the researchers and Google's management and ultimately lead to Gebru's departure from the company in December 2020. Mitchell was terminated by Google just two months later, in February 2021
Now, at Hugging Face — an open-source data science and machine learning platform that was founded in 2016 — she's thinking about how to democratize access to the tools necessary to building and deploying large-scale AI models.
In an interview with Morning Brew, where Mitchell explained what it means to design responsible AI, she said, "I started on my path toward working on what's now called AI in 2004, specifically with an interest in aligning AI closer to human behavior. Over time, that's evolved to become less about mimicking humans and more about accounting for human behavior and working with humans in assistive and augmentative ways."
Navrina Singh is the founder of Credo AI, an AI governance platform.
Credo AI is a platform that helps companies make sure they're in compliance with the growing body of regulations around AI usage. In a statement to BI, Singh said that by automating the systems that shape our lives, AI has the capacity "free us to realize our potential in every area where it's implemented."
At the same time, she contends that algorithms right now lack the human judgement that's necessary to adapt to a changing world. "As we integrate AI into civilization's fundamental infrastructure, these tradeoffs take on existential implications," Singh wrote. "As we forge ahead, the responsibility to harmonize human values and ingenuity with algorithmic precision is non-negotiable. Responsible AI governance is paramount."
Richard Socher, a former Salesforce exec, is the founder and CEO of AI-powered search engine You.com.
Socher believes we have ways to go before AI development hits its peak or matches anything close to human intelligence.
One bottleneck in large language models is their tendency to hallucinate — a phenomenon where they convincingly spit out factual errors as truth. But by forcing them to translate questions into code — essential "program" responses instead of verbalizing them — we can "give them so much more fuel for the next few years in terms of what they can do," Socher said.
But that's just a short-term goal. Socher contends that we are years from anything close to the industry's ambitious bid to create artificial general intelligence. Socher defines it as "a form of intelligence that can "learn like humans" and "visually have the same motor intelligence, and visual intelligence, language intelligence, and logical intelligence as some of the most logical people," and it could take as little as 10 years, but as much as 200 years to get there.
And if we really want to move the needle toward AGI, Socher said humans might need to let go of the reins, and their own motives to turn a profit, and build AI that can set its own goals.
"I think it's an important part of intelligence to not just robotically, mechanically, do the same thing over and over that you're told to do. I think we would not call an entity very intelligent if all it can do is exactly what is programmed as its goal," he told BI.
Michael Kittredge II's son put the Yankee Candle founder's Massachusetts estate up for sale in 2022.
The compound, which features an indoor water park and bowling alley, was originally listed for $23 million.
After two years on the market, the estate could soon be redeveloped as senior living.
Three years after Yankee Candle founder Michael Kittredge II died in 2019, his son, Michael Kittredge III, put the family's sprawling 120,000-square-foot compound on the market for a whopping $23 million.
Now, after more than two years of no movement and a significant slash to its asking price, the historic Massachusetts estate could soon be transformed into an entirely different kind of living space. The Kittredge family has enlisted Josh Wallack, a Florida-based developer, to oversee the re-imagination of the mansion into a luxurious senior living community that features affordable housing.
In a conversation with Business Insider, Wallack outlined his vision for "Pioneer Point at Juggler Meadow: A 55+ Active Adult Community," a $200 million project that aims to incorporate all the amenities of the Kittredge estate into a community that helps address Massachusetts' housing crisis.
"This is going to be amazing. Regular people can buy one of these units and live in this amazing place that is like heaven on Earth," Wallack said.
Take a peak inside the mind-boggling compound.
The former home of Yankee Candle founder, the late Michael Kittredge II, went on the market in September 2022.
The $23 million listing quickly went viral thanks to its litany of amenities.
The sprawling estate is located about two hours outside Boston in Leverett, Massachusetts.
The estate encompasses 120,000 square feet of living space spread across eight separate structures, including a main house, a clubhouse, a spa, a pool cabana, two guest houses, and two car barns.
The main residence is a 25,000-square-foot house designed in the colonial style. It was originally constructed in the 1980s.
The compound sat on the market for months before its price was slashed from $23 million to $14.9 million.
Wallack and his family stayed at the estate's guest home in 2022 after he hit it off with Michael "Mick" Kittredge III.
As an expert in rezoning, Wallack said the Kittredge family asked him what he thought they should do with the property.
"Instead of looking for one billionaire to buy this mansion, let's take all the land underneath it and build 700 homes and allow regular people to live here and use your father's mansion as the social club," Wallack said he told the family.
Wallack wants to turn the estate into an active senior living community.
If approved, Wallack's plan would allow people 55 and older to buy individual units on the property, where they would have full access to amenities like an onsite restaurant, cafe, tennis and pickleball courts, and a beauty parlor.
The project would offer 25% of units at affordable housing rates.
Wallack said the community would be comprised of 25% of units at affordable housing costs and 75% of units at market rate.
Someone making $84,000 a year would pay about $1,875 a month for an affordable unit, Wallack said.
The budget for the project is about $200 million, Wallack said.
Wallack serves as the development manager representing the Michael Kittredge trust.
The team is in the final stages of preparing an application to MassHousing.
Wallack is working to garner more community support.
Take a peak at the original mansion before it potentially is redesigned.
The main residence has six full bathrooms and five half-bathrooms spread out between five bedrooms.
The house features 11 fireplaces, including in some of the bathrooms.
The lower level of the house has a 10-seat movie theater.
Kittredge was a car enthusiast who had two temperature-controlled car barns built at the estate.
The spa is a major attraction at the compound and houses a fitness center, as well as basketball and tennis courts.
Wallack said his project would turn some of those tennis courts into pickleball courts for senior residents.
Kittredge had three outdoor tennis courts and one indoor court constructed at the estate.
The indoor tennis court also doubles as a concert venue, which has hosted such bands as The Doobie Brothers, as well as KC and The Sunshine Band.
The fitness center takes up 4,000 square feet and has multiple locker rooms.
A bowling alley is situated in the 55,000-square-foot spa.
The compound also has a two-story arcade.
In addition to an outdoor pool, the estate also has an indoor Bellagio-style water park.
It is full of slides, waterfalls, and palm trees.
The real estate company that originally listed the compound said the estate is set up like a private country club and includes a nine-hole golf course.
The clubhouse, which looks out on a pool and two cabanas, has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a full kitchen.
The compound is also home to two guest houses.
"There was nothing he loved more than bringing his family and friends together and hosting parties at his home," Kittredge's son said in a 2022 press release.
Road-tripping around the US can be awe-inspiring — if you avoid making mistakes.
I've traveled 2,800 miles on US road trips and had some regrets.
In the future, I will spend fewer daily hours on the road and rely less on stops for caffeine.
Road trips can be amazing, awe-inspiring, and annoying.
I'd know — I've spent 400 hours traveling 2,800 miles on the road. I've passed through 30 states around the Southwest and up the coasts. I've traveled from Texas to the Carolinas, New Mexico to Oregon, and twice from Arizona to NYC. I've toured the Northeast in a van with my band. I've slept in more campsites and parking lots than I can count.
So, what makes an otherwise amazing, awe-inspiring road trip feel annoying? Mistakes. And I've had time to make a bunch of them.
Bringing my own food on the road saves money and time, but messy ingredients make trips more stressful.
In the summer of 2015, I took a two-week-long road trip for the first time. Before heading out for the journey from Austin, Texas, to Napa Valley, California, and back, I headed to the grocery store and loaded up the cart with ingredients for meals I could make in the car — sliced bread, deli meats, cheeses, peanut butter, and jelly. And I couldn't forget pickles, mayo, tomatoes, and avocados to make the sandwiches more dynamic.
I imagined staying healthy by skipping fast-food joints to lather and stack these ingredients into custom delights.
But it looked better in my head.
Creating sandwiches on the road was stressful, and making a mess was all too easy. My hands shook as I spread mayo in a moving car. And resealing meats and cheeses to be airtight wasn't as simple as the packages claimed.
By the time I could eat my sandwiches, my hands and parts of the passenger seat were sticky. Since that trip, I have only packed ready-made "meals" for road trips, like protein bars and shakes.
For snacks, I stick to dry items like trail mix that aren't coated in dusty flavors.
Forgetting to pack my own source of caffeine made my trips more expensive.
If you're anything like me, caffeine on a road trip is a must.
However, I've taken off for several trips without my own source of energy handy. When this happens, I end up spending an additional $10-$20 per day at coffee shops.
Recently, I've avoided additional stops and expenses by packing MiO, a water flavor enhancer with vitamins and caffeine.
Adding caffeine to my water instead of downing a coffee also helps me stay hydrated.
Spending too many hours on the road made trips less enjoyable …
Many of my road trip experiences took place in college, when energy was high and funds were tight.
My friends and I often prioritized covering as much ground as possible with the little bit of cash we had. This meant we spent 12 to 14 hours on the road some days.
Many of these hours were fun, but once the sun went down, so did the energy. Without a view or a sense of place in those later hours, it felt like we could have been driving anywhere.
In my experience, the nighttime road hours feel twice as long as the daylight hours. I would avoid spending more than two hours on the road after dark.
… especially when arriving at campsites after dark.
After a long day on the road, the last thing anyone wants to do is pitch a tent — especially in the dark.
In July 2017, I took a two-and-a-half-week road trip to national parks and monuments in Texas, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
The budget was extra tight, so we camped or slept in the car every night.
I remember arriving at our campsite outside Zion National Park in Utah. I don't remember how many hours we'd been on the road, but only the stars lit up the sky when I got out of the car.
I wanted to simply lie down and look up, but I had a shelter to pitch. Assembling a tent in the dark is challenging. Even with the car lights on for help, finding the right pieces to connect was difficult.
I'm not sure how long it took to pitch the tent that night, but I went to bed thinking I wouldn't put myself in the same situation again.
Avoiding my phone in the car made me miss crucial stops.
As a cusp millennial, I love to play the game of not using my phone to find food or rest stops and just relying on signs in the present moment.
Well, I used to love it.
The problem with this game is that I'm not only relying on signs to tell me what's coming up but also relying on my attention span, which can be shorter than a sentence.
So, how do you lose this game? You miss the sign that says, "This is the last gas station for 100 miles." I've done it more than once, and it sucks. I've never gotten stuck, but I've gotten close.
My best advice is to find other road games to pass the time and keep your phone handy.
Traveling too fast left me unfulfilled.
When road-tripping from Austin, where I lived in college, the first and last days of a trip will likely just be getting in and out of Texas — Austin is in the middle of the gigantic state.
Because of this, my road trips in college were rushed. I'd travel as far as Oregon and visit as many as six national parks in less than three weeks.
I'm grateful that I've been able to experience so many different natural landscapes and environments around the US, but I don't feel like I've spent enough time in any of them to truly take in each setting.