Less than a month after reporting a record $1.4 billion profit for 2024, British fintech unicorn Revolut is doubling down on European expansion. The company announced on Monday plans to invest €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in France over the next […]
"I should probably be suspicious," Geoffrey Hinton said of the answers AI provides.
Mark Blinch/REUTERS
The "Godfather of AI," Geoffrey Hinton, has said he trusts chatbots like OpenAI's GPT-4 more than he should.
"I should probably be suspicious," Hinton told CBS in a new interview.
He also said GPT-4, his preferred model, got a simple riddle wrong.
The Godfather of AI has said he trusts his preferred chatbot a little too much.
"I tend to believe what it says, even though I should probably be suspicious," Geoffrey Hinton, who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics for his breakthroughs in machine learning, said of OpenAI's GPT-4 in a CBS interview that aired Saturday.
During the interview, heput a simple riddle to OpenAI's GPT-4, which he said he used for his day-to-day tasks.
"Sally has three brothers. Each of her brothers has two sisters. How many sisters does Sally have?"
The answer is one, as Sally is one of the two sisters. But Hinton said GPT-4 told him the answer was two.
"It surprises me. It surprises me it still screws up on that," he said.
Reflecting on the limits of current AI, he added: "It's an expert at everything. It's not a very good expert at everything."
Hinton said he expected future models would do better. When asked if he thought GPT-5 would get the riddle right, Hinton replied, "Yeah, I suspect."
Hinton's riddle didn't trip up every version of ChatGPT. After the interview aired, several people commented on social media that they tried the riddle on newer models —including GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 —and said the AI got it right.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
OpenAI first launched GPT-4 in 2023 as its flagship large language model. The model quickly became an industry benchmark for its ability to pass tough exams like the SAT, GRE, and bar exam.
OpenAI introduced GPT-4o — the default model powering ChatGPT — in May 2024, claiming it matched GPT-4's intelligence but is faster and more versatile, with improved performance across text, voice, and vision. OpenAI has since released GPT-4.5 and, most recently, GPT-4.1.
Google's Gemini 2.5-Pro is ranked top by Chatbot Arena leaderboard, a crowd-sourced platform that ranks models. OpenAI's GPT-4o and GPT-4.5 are close behind.
A recent study by AI testing company Giskard found that telling chatbots to be brief can make them more likely to "hallucinate" or make up information.
The researchers found that leading models —including GPT-4o, Mistral, and Claude — were more prone to factual errors when prompted for shorter answers.
Google’s annual I/O developer conference is almost here, and all eyes will be on the company’s opening keynote. But for the first time in years, we know there’s little reason to hope for major Android OS announcements, since Google already did that last week.
Instead, we’re expecting I/O’s keynote to be (almost) all about AI, though we do know there’ll be at least a little time devoted to XR.
When Google I/O will happen and where you can watch
Google I/O happens over two days, May 20th and 21st, but you probably want to know about the opening keynote. That kicks off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on the 20th. You can watch it on Google’s I/O site or its YouTube channel, and we’ve embedded the livestream above for ease — there’s a version with an American Sign Language interpreter, too.
If you’re planning to watch, be sure to set aside ample time. I/O keynotes usually run for a couple hours, and even with no new Android announcements, we’d expect the same this time.
All about AI
As my colleague Allison Johnson put it over the weekend, the fact that this year’s I/O keynote will be focused on AI shouldn’t come as a surprise. Gemini and its ilk have dominated the event for two years running, and Google is embroiled in an AI race with OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and more. In fact, I/O kicks off a day after Microsoft’s Build developer event, which should make for an interesting back-to-back comparison.
It’s likely that Google will have lots to say about new Gemini features coming to phones and other devices, updated models with increased power, and hopefully some ambitious Project Astra updates that will show us the pie-in-the-sky side of Google’s AI work.
There’ll be some XR, too
I/O won’t be entirely about AI, as Google has already promised updates on Android XR, too. The company’s extended reality OS didn’t get much screentime during last week’s Android Show, other than confirmation of Gemini support to come, but a closing tease from Android head Sameer Samat suggested that we’ll at least see more from Google’s prototype smart glasses.
Samsung still says its Project Moohan Android XR headset is going to launch this year, so this might be Google’s last chance to detail the software side before Samsung steals the limelight.
Don’t expect Pixel or Nest hardware
Google used to use I/O to launch Pixel phones and Nest smart home tech, but it doesn’t seem keen on the idea anymore. If we were going to hear about new phones, tablets, or wearables, then it likely would have happened last week, and Google wouldn’t want anything to distract from its AI updates. There’s a chance we’ll see new XR hardware, but you shouldn’t expect anything beyond that.
Welcome back! In case you missed it, our new newsletter, Tech Memo, written by the great Alistair Barr, launched on Friday. Check out the first edition here. And if you aren't already, subscribe here.
Middle managers have had to keep their heads on a swivel for a while. At the end of last year, BI's workplace expert Aki Ito detailed Corporate America falling out of love with the role.
But the tech industry has taken the trend into overdrive, as is often the case. From Microsoft to Intel and Amazon, companies are shedding managers to make themselves as quick and lean as possible.
The biggest immediate impact of flattening orgs is managers overseeing more workers. Some argue that will limit micromanagement. Others say you'll burn out the managers who are left behind.
With that approach, you could argue there is less of a need for managers. No weak links in the chain means managers don't have to do as much hand-holding. Get out of the way and let your top performers do what they do best.
This isn't a foolproof strategy, though. Someone being extremely capable at their job doesn't always correlate with them being an easy employee to manage. In fact, sometimes the opposite can be true.
But what other options do these tech giants have? The pressure from startups like OpenAI and Anthropic is undeniable. Their smaller size also gives them a massive leg up to move quickly.
And when it comes to AI, speed is the name of the game. Meanwhile, middle managers seem to only be slowing companies down.
3 things in markets
President Donald Trump displays an executive order he signed that will end the practice of separating family members who are apprehended while illegally entering the United States on June 20, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
1. Trump's "Big, beautiful bill" could cause some big chaos. Market pros say the president's tax bill would add $4 trillion to the US deficit, stoking mayhem in the bond market. That means another Trump vs. bond market showdown could be headed our way.
2. Bankers tell startups wanting to go public: "Go, go, go." Startups like Hinge Health put their IPO plans on hold when Trump introduced sweeping tariffs. Now that the stock market has recovered, bankers are telling companies to go public while they still can.
3. This "hick from Ohio" is a big deal for IPOs. Pat Healy could be the forefather of getting stock exchanges to compete for the right to get a company to list with them. From free Davos advertising to NFL star appearances, here's how Healy lands companies major marketing perks.
3 things in tech
Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
1. "Appstinence" is a virtue. Raised in the age of the smartphone, a growing cohort of people, mostly millennials and Gen Zers, are opting for dumb tech instead. As the evidence of our collective phone addiction adds up, even tech lovers are embracing the digital detox movement.
2. How Silicon Valley's favorite startup came back from the edge of disaster. StackBlitz was at death's door when Anthropic released its AI model Sonnet 3.5 in 2024. That led StackBlitz to create Bolt.new, a product that could write code based on prompts written in English — and the company's gold mine. BI's Alistair Barr has the full story.
3. Is AI coming for teachers? Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn thinks so. On a recent podcast appearance, he told venture capitalist Sarah Guo that schools will still be necessary in an AI-driven future — but mostly just for childcare. He thinks AI will do the actual teaching.
3 things in business
Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
1. Gen Z is dyeing white collars blue. The cost of college is skyrocketing, and the white-collar job market is unstable. That's led many young people to turn to trades instead, which can offer six-figure salaries and have a high demand for workers.
2. Selling a merger to Trump? MAGA-ify it. Cable giant Charter is merging with Cox, posing a bigger rival for Comcast. The merger still needs the green light from the Trump administration, and it seems like Charter is leaning into pro-American rhetoric to get it, BI's Peter Kafka writes.
3. LA investor Jessica Mah is in a legal battle with DGV investor Justin Caldbeck and two ex-employees. In a lawsuit, Mah has accused Caldbeck of sexually harassing her, which he denies. The lawsuits against Mah, meanwhile, accuse her of misusing company funds, harassment, and age discrimination, BI's Rob Price reports.
The Business Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.
Xiaomi boss Lei Jun is ready for his company to emulate Apple's approach to chip design.
PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images
Xiaomi boss Lei Jun said his company would start making its own mobile chips.
He said his company was ready to spend billions of dollars on chip design over the next decade.
It's an approach that its rival Apple largely popularized.
One of Apple's top rivals in China is taking a page out of its own book, again.
On Monday, Xiaomi's billionaire cofounder and CEO, Lei Jun, said that his company was implementing a 10-year plan to invest 50 billion yuan, roughly $7 billion, into chip design as it looks to make chips of its own for its smartphones. To date, it has relied on US firm Qualcomm and Taiwanese firm MediaTek for chips.
In a post to Chinese social media site Weibo, Lei said his company "made a major decision" back in 2021 to restart the process of developing its own silicon for smartphones after an initial effort in the previous decade faced setbacks.
Apple has largely popularized the so-called system-on-a-chip (SoC) approach, spending the past 15 years powering products like iPhones and Macs with its own silicon, which company executives believe gives their products an edge.
Lei also said on Weibo that the first chip from its new mobile efforts, Xring 01, would be unveiled on May 22.
"Chips are the underlying core track for Xiaomi to break through hardcore technology, and we will definitely go all out," Lei wrote, while acknowledging that his company had previously suspended its work on SoC research and development.
The move comes as Chinese companies increasingly seek to develop their own know-how and expertise in key technologies.
Lei said Xiaomi would chase "the latest process technology" as part of its ambitions for its renewed work on mobile chips. Chips for the Xring 01 will be developed using 3 3-nanometer process, Lei said, an advanced way of producing some of the most powerful chips.
He said that at least a decade of fresh investment would be needed, given "the difficulty of chip manufacturing."
"Xiaomi has always had a 'chip dream' because, in order to become a great hardcore technology company, chips are a peak that must be climbed and a tough battle that cannot be avoided," he wrote.
It's not the first time Xiaomi has looked to emulate a rival like Apple.
Microsoft’s annual developer conference kicks off today in Seattle, Washington, during the same week Google hosts its own I/O developer event in Mountain View, California. Build will be focused on Microsoft’s latest platform changes for developers, including new AI announcements that are bound to go head-to-head with Google’s own news.
Microsoft is streaming Build online free of charge and developers, students, and engineers will also be able to attend the in-person event at Seattle’s conference center. I’m expecting Microsoft to focus largely on AI this year, with emphasis on its push for AI agents that Microsoft envisions working alongside humans as digital colleagues.
We may also get some news on Microsoft’s plans to host Elon Musk’s Grok AI model. I revealed in my Notepad newsletter earlier this month that Microsoft is in discussions with xAI to host the Grok AI model on its Azure AI Foundry service, with a potential announcement at Build this week.
Perhaps we’ll also see OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appear at Build, just like he did last year. In Notepad earlier this year I revealed that OpenAI had been planning to launch its GPT-5 model in late May, but sources familiar with OpenAI’s plans tell me that’s less likely now due to service changes and recent delays affecting the launch of other models. Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are always keen to show that the partnership between the two companies remains strong — amid media reports of tensions — with the pair posing for a selfie earlier this month.
Nadella will kick off all of Microsoft’s AI announcements at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on May 19th, followed by a day two technical keynote hosted by Jay Parikh, Charles Lamanna, and Scott Guthrie.
How to watch Microsoft Build 2025 Keynote and Sessions
Jensen Huang gave the opening keynote at Computex in Taiwan on Monday.
I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images
One of tech's biggest celebrities, Jensen Huang, spoke on Monday at a major industry show in Taiwan.
Huang said Nvidia is building a new office in northern Taipei.
He also introduced a new desktop system and talked about China's DeepSeek R1 model.
Taiwan's biggest tech celebrity — clad in his signature black leather jacket — ran onstage in Taipei on Monday morning with a lot to talk about.
Jensen Huang's 100-minute keynote at the tech show Computex featured Nvidia's usual assortment of high-tech videos, complete with a cute robot, and praise for semiconductor hub Taiwan.
The tech titan also outlined new products and a significant regional expansion. Business Insider was in the audience while Huang spoke —here are the top four takeaways from his speech.
1. Nvidia's new office
Speculation about Nvidia's new office in Taiwan has been brewing since Huang said in January that the company's current building was too small and that it was "looking for real estate."
On Monday, Taipei's mayor, Chiang Wan-an, generated buzz when he showed up at Huang's keynote. Huang went on to announce that Nvidia is eying the Beitou Shilin area — home to a science park — in northern Taipei for the tech giant's new Taiwan office, named "Nvidia Constellation."
The announcement was met with applause and cheers from the audience.
Chiang said in a media interview following Huang's keynote that the city government welcomes Nvidia's move and will provide any necessary assistance.
2. New computer systems
Huang introduced Nvidia's DGX systems, which are designed for users who want heavy-duty AI without dedicating significant storage space to a weighty server system.
The physical workstation can be used as a single computer or as a central node for multiple users.
"This computer is the most performance you can possibly get out of a wall socket. You could put this in your kitchen. But just barely, if you put this in your kitchen and then somebody runs the microwave, I think that's the limit," he joked.
Huang said the cloud-based system — DGX Spark — will be ready in a few weeks. Nvidia is working with companies including Dell and HP on the systems.
"I'll let all of our partners price it for themselves, but one thing's for sure: Everybody can have one for Christmas," Huang said.
3. DeepSeek praise
Huang talked software, too.
He praised the DeepSeek R1 model, saying that it's "genuinely a gift to the world's AI industry."
"The amount of computer science breakthroughs is really quite significant and has really opened up a lot of great research for researchers in the United States and around the world," Huang said.
He said DeepSeek R1 — owned by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer — has made a "real impact" in how people think about AI and that it has made a "great contribution to the industry and the world."
Shares of Nvidia and many of its peers were clobbered in January, as Wall Street grappled with how to price in the new, seemingly cheaper technology.
Huang said in February that investors got it wrong because the industry will still need computing power for post-training.
4. New AI supercomputer for Taiwan
Huang announced an Nvidia collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Foxconn — the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer — and the Taiwanese government to build an AI supercomputer for the island.
Nvidia's joint effort with the Taiwanese government and Taiwan's top tech giants highlights the Santa Clara-based company's close ties to the hub of global chipmaking.
Born in Tainan in southern Taiwan before he moved to the US as a child, Huang's meteoric rise to the top of tech royalty has captivated Taiwan and catapulted him to folk hero status.
In Taiwan, Huang is surrounded by local media and fans who ask for selfies and autographs. The celebrity factor has also rubbed off on Nvidia, the company he cofounded, at home and abroad. The chipmaker's stock is up nearly 43% in the last year.
Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang talked hardware and software in Taipei on Monday.
I-Hwa Cheng/AFP/Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised DeepSeek R1 for significant contributions to AI research.
DeepSeek has made a "real impact" in how people think about inference and reasoning AI, Huang said.
Nvidia's stock fell sharply amid January's DeepSeek selloff, but Huang said investors got it wrong.
Jensen Huang heaped praise on the Chinese AI model that briefly upended the tech world, calling DeepSeek's R1 "a great contribution to the industry and to the world" on Monday.
Shares of tech and semiconductor companies, including Nvidia, tumbled in January following the meteoric rise of DeepSeek R1, the Chinese AI model that investors viewed as being globally competitive and cost-effective.
But Huang has good things to say about DeepSeek, which he said on Monday was "genuinely a gift to the world's AI industry."
"The amount of computer science breakthroughs is really quite significant and has really opened up a lot of great research for researchers in the United States and around the world," Huang said at the opening keynote of the Computex Taipei tech conference in Taiwan.
In January, open-source chatbot DeepSeek R1 took the world by storm, raising questions about Silicon Valley's massive spending spree on the technology.
"Everywhere I go, DeepSeek R1 has made a real impact in how people think about AI and how to think about inference and how to think about reasoning AIs," Huang said.
US AI-related shares tanked across the board in the wake of DeepSeek's rise. Nvidia's stock lost as much as $600 billion in market capitalization, hitting 20% of Huang's personal net worth at one point. The stock has recovered most of these losses and is up nearly 43% in the last year.
Huang said in February that investors got it wrong because the industry will still need computing power for post-training.
At the time, Huang said that post-training is the "most important part of intelligence" and "where you learn to solve problems."
The tech titan also seemed upbeat about DeepSeek, saying the open-sourced model created "energy around the world."
Sundar Pichai said "all of us are going to do well in this scenario" in regard to AI.
Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, "all of us are going to do well" when it comes to the AI race.
He said he met with Elon Musk and thinks his ability to build future technologies is "unparalleled."
Pichai said success in AI will depend on innovation and execution, which is driven by top talent.
The launch of ChatGPT set off a race among Big Tech companies and startups to scale AI, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai doesn't see it as a situation where only one player wins.
"I think all of us are going to do well in this scenario," Pichai said during an episode of the "All-In Podcast," published Friday.
Podcast host David Friedberg agreed with Pichai and said there seems to be a misconception that there's one winner "and everyone else is a loser." Friedberg said AI is introducing "an entirely new world" that's bigger than that.
Pichai's comments came after former Googler and Podcast host David Friedberg asked for his thoughts on rival companies like Microsoft, xAI, OpenAI, and Meta and their leaders. The Google CEO acknowledged that "by definition, it's a very impressive group."
"I think maybe only one of them has invited me to a dance, not the others," Pichai said, referencing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's comments that the "new Bing" will make Google "come out and show that they can dance."
Pichai added that he spent time with Elon Musk about two weeks ago and described the billionaire's ability to build future technologies as "unparalleled." He said that while there is competition among the companies discussed, there is also respect and partnerships.
Pichai said that AI offers a much larger "opportunity landscape" than any previous technology combined. He added that there may be companies that enter the playing field that haven't been established yet. Pichai raised the point that when the internet came out in 1983, Google hadn't even been launched as a company yet. Now, it's become the dominant search engine.
"There are companies we don't even know, haven't been started yet, their names aren't known," Pichai said, adding that those "might be extraordinarily big winners" when it comes to AI.
Pichai said that the companies that end up doing well will be those that are able to "innovate and execute with the best talent." That is what will be the driver for success, Pichai said.
Google is actively investing in that belief. Last year, the tech giant reportedly spent $2.7 billion on a deal largely intended to get AI scientist and startup founder Noam Shazeer back at the company. Other companies are following the same path: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has directly called candidates to persuade them to join his startup.
OpenAI also poached dozens of Googlers last year, and Zuckerberg has reportedly written personal emails to AI researchers at Google's DeepMind as a recruitment attempt. Even if Pichai is right that there's room for multiple companies to win the AI race, the competition hasn't shown signs of letting up anytime soon.
Google declined a request to comment from Business Insider.
After working on Meta layoffs as part of her role as an HR manager, Chikara Kennedy learned she'd be laid off too. The experience changed her life plan.
Courtesy of Alyshia Hull
Chikara Kennedy was a senior HR manager at Meta and helped guide the company through layoffs.
She was devastated to learn in 2023 that her role had also been affected and took a solo Bali trip.
She became a coach and now leads retreats for women who are transforming their lives and careers.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chikara Kennedy, the 42-year-old CEO of Chikara Power Coaching, who splits her time between Mexico and Washington, DC. Business Insider has verified Kennedy's employment with documentation and edited her words for length and clarity.
I'd been working in HR for nearly 15 years when I was hired by Facebook, now known as Meta, in 2018 as a senior HR manager.
I was working out of the Chicago office and then became a remote employee in 2020 during COVID. I moved to DC in 2022, still as a remote worker, to be closer to family while going through a divorce.
At Meta, I worked closely with leaders on things like coaching, performance management, recognition programs, morale-boosting, restructuring, and organizational development.
When the company began implementing layoffs in 2023, part of my role was helping guide the company through the process. I felt passionate about doing layoffs the right way — a way that was respectful to people.
In the end, I was shocked and devastated to learn that this very Meta layoff would impact my role, too.
Despite being a high performer, I was laid off
Growing up, we're taught that if you go to school, get good grades, and do a good job, things will turn out the way they're supposed to. As a society, we make work a big part of our identities.
I'd worked for Meta for nearly five years and was a high performer. I had received great ratings, had good relationships, and was acknowledged for exceeding expectations.
But in 2023, the company laid off 10,000 employees and withdrew 5,000 open roles it had yet to fill. I was part of a team that was very severely impacted.
Despite my intimate knowledge of the process, the experience was more challenging than I anticipated. I went through all the stages of grief. I was mad, sad, embarrassed, and in disbelief. Following my divorce, I was anxious about finances, and with so many tech companies doing layoffs, I was worried about not finding another job.
I remember there was a moment when those of us impacted were all messaging each other online and saying things like: "Who has the connections? What are the next jobs that are hiring? Let me connect you."
It was encouraging, and I was happy to be among a group of star players who were helping each other. But I had to ask myself if jumping right back into a new job was really what was best for me.
Ultimately, I decided to take a step back
I'd always been empathetic toward people experiencing layoffs, but living through one in such a tough economy helped me understand the transactional nature of employment. Things can change at any time, anywhere, and so much isn't in our control.
Although it was devastating, I also began to tune into my own voice. I wanted to honor myself and not be influenced by other people, so I decided to take a solo retreat.
I booked a trip alone to Bali from DC and went with no itinerary — just the intention to enjoy myself, enjoy the sights, and look inward to figure out what I truly wanted moving forward.
The trip felt like I was on a Black woman's version of "Eat, Pray, Love." I turned off my phone and computer, connected with strangers, and did things like breath work and meditation, just trying to get my mind and thoughts together.
These practices helped quiet the noise and fear of being laid off. It shifted the way I viewed myself and the possibilities I could see for myself.
It was like I became the main character of my own life. Before the layoff, I would often ask, "What can I do to make this organization better?" But now I began to ask: "What are my goals, my strengths? What would I love to be doing on a day-to-day basis? If I'm not reacting out of hurt, embarrassment, or the need to prove I'm good enough to land another job right away, what do I truly want to do?"
For me, the answer was founding my company, Power Coaching and Consulting.
I'm now a coach, and I plan to run retreats in the next year
Since my Meta layoff, I'm currently living between Washington, DC, and Playa del Carmen in Mexico.
I've taken on leadership roles at retreats in Croatia and South Africa and am hosting my own power retreat for the first time in January at a private retreat center in Mexico.
The retreats involve women from all professions and walks of life and include activities and sessions like guided meditation, temazcal and cacao ceremonies, astrological and tarot readings, and wellness workshops. In a beautiful setting with like-minded women, I help clients explore their goals and overcome obstacles to achieve meaningful transformation in their careers and lives.
My advice for those going through a layoff
It's normal to have feelings of grief, but it's also important to remember you're not alone. A layoff isn't a reflection of you, your performance, or your value as a person; it doesn't have to define you.
If you're going through a layoff, use it as an opportunity to figure out who you are and what you want next. The biggest challenges in our lives can lead to the biggest breakthroughs if we're willing to do the work.
Do you have a story to share about dealing with a layoff? Contact this editor, Jane Zhang, at [email protected].
Microsoft is among the latest to cut middle management jobs.
Tech giants like Intel, Amazon, and Google are also flattening structures for efficiency.
Experts warn that while flattening can speed decisions, it is possible to take it too far.
Companies are shedding bloated layers of management in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy. Some employees are applauding the move, known as flattening the middle, in the hopes of getting faster and boosting efficiency.
Microsoft said Tuesday it's slashing around 6,000 employees. While the days since have made it clear many of those cut were individual contributor-level engineers, executives previously told BI one motivation behind the recent cuts was to increase managers' "span of control," or the number of reports per manager.
Intel announced a great flattening last month, emphasizing more time in the office, less admin, and leaner teams.
"The best leaders get the most done with the fewest people," said the chip giant's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, in a memo to staff.
Amazon has also increased the ratio of individual contributors to managers. They call it a "builder ratio." Google CEO Sundar Pichai told staff late last year that the company cut vice president and manager roles by 10% as part of an efficiency push. Meta has been at it for years, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing in a 2023 memo, "flatter is faster."
The risk is that these companies cut too many managers, leaving the remaining folks with too many direct reports.
But for now, it appears to be a risk companies are willing to take.
Agility and expertise
The logic of cutting from the middle to speed up is sound, management experts say.
"You can't go faster and be more connected to a larger ecosystem if you're having to go up and down a hierarchy for every decision," Deborah Ancona, a professor of management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Business Insider.
While some companies have been trying for decades to zap management layers, there's a new urgency to do so. Businesses exist in "an exponentially changing world," Ancona said.
Dell executives explained this to employees earlier this month, when they began reorganizing managers to have more direct reports. The company, whose head count has dropped by 25,000 in two years, also pointed to the influx of artificial intelligence as a reason it needed to move faster.
Ideally, companies would remove layers and spread decision-making throughout the organization so that those closest to customers or technology, for example, could generate ideas and make decisions, Ancona said.
"You're kind of flipping the organization," she said. "Rather than all the ideas coming from on high, you have entrepreneurial leaders who are lower down in the organization coming up with new ideas."
Bayer CEO Bill Anderson is leery of having to run everything up the chain. After taking over the German biotech company in 2023, he began implementing what he calls a "dynamic shared ownership" setup that has cut thousands of managers. Staffers come together in "mini networks" for 90-day stretches to work on projects.
"We hire highly educated, trained people, and then we put them in these environments with rules and procedures and eight layers of hierarchy," Anderson previously told BI. "Then we wonder why big companies are so lame most of the time."
Fewer managers, more reporting, more meetings?
When middle managers are cut and layers condensed, inevitably, more workers report to fewer managers. The logistics of that vary, and the success in terms of morale has a lot to do with the starting point.
Amazon started flattening last year. In September, CEO Andy Jassy ordered a 15% increase in the ratio of individual contributors to managers by March. BI reported that senior Amazon Web Services managers received a memo in January instructing them to restrict high-level hiring and increase their number of direct reports.
An Amazon spokesperson told BI at the time that the memo may have been intended for one team, but does not apply to the company at large. The Amazon spokesperson also referenced a September memo from Jassy on the importance of reducing management layers.
An AWS manager told BI this month that the flatter structure has since put more burden on employees on her team to report on what they're doing day-to-day, in addition to their actual work, since managers have less time to inspect individuals' work.
Plus, this manager said they are spending more time in meetings as they took on a more diverse group of direct reports. The Amazon spokesperson also emphasized that the individual employee's anecdote does not represent the company as a whole.
Yvonne Lee-Hawkins was assigned 21 direct reports when she worked for Amazon's human resources. She told BI that she had to quickly learn new skills to handle the load, like asynchronous work strategies, but her teams' performance suffered as her number of reports grew from 11 to 21 employees.
Weekly one-on-ones — the subject of much debate among tech titans — became impossible, and she had to cut them in half.
At Microsoft, a half-dozen employees who spoke to BI about the manager flattening trend generally regarded it as a positive step to eliminate inefficient and unnecessary levels of managers. Some managers have as few as one or two reports.
Microsoft ended up with many management layers, the people said, because it often tried to reward good engineers by promoting them to become managers. Often, those engineers-turned-managers still spent most of their time in the codebase and weren't very effective as managers.
Meanwhile, larger groups of direct reports often work better for senior employees, who need less one-on-one time and can do more things in a group setting.
A Microsoft spokesperson did not comment when asked about these factors.
Gary Hamel, a visiting professor at London Business School who lives in Silicon Valley, told BI that pushing managers to take on more direct reports can reduce micromanaging, a common bane of corporate existence.
When managers have a lot of people to oversee, it pushes them to hire people they trust, mentor rather than manage, and give up a "pretty big dose" of their authority.
"Those are all hugely positive things," he said, even if they require "a fairly dramatic change" in how managers see their role.
How many direct reports is too many?
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang famously has 60 direct reports. Managers at Dell have been told they should have 15 to 20. An AWS document viewed by BI in January mandated no fewer than eight per manager, up from six. An Amazon spokesperson told BI there are no such requirements companywide.
Gallup research indicates that the quality of a manager matters more than the number of direct reports in terms of how well teams perform. That's because more engaged managers tend to lead to more engaged teams. And small teams — those with fewer than 10 people — show both the highest and lowest levels of engagement because managers can have an outsize effect, for better or worse.
That may explain why some companies seem to thrive with dozens of direct reports per manager and others fail.
The nature of the work matters, too. When work is more complex, it can be harder for managers to oversee too many people.
Managing dozens of people gets harder when "life intersects with work," Ravin Jesuthasan, the global leader for transformation services at the consulting firm Mercer, told BI.
When employees have an issue, they often need someone to talk to about it.
"As a manager, you are the first port of call," he said.
That's one reason, Jesuthasan said, that having something like 20 direct reports would likely be "really hard." For most managers, the couple of dozen direct reports that many tech companies are aiming for is probably the limit, he said.
Strong managers can powerfully boost a company's ability to develop talent and its bottom line. A 2023 analysis from McKinsey & Company, for example, found that organizations with "top-performing" managers led to significantly better total shareholder returns over five years compared with those entities that had only average or subpar managers.
While flattening schemes may be successful at reducing bulk in the middle and speeding up decision-making, they can hinder future growth if they're not well-managed.
Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair for board and CEO services at the organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry, told BI that removing layers from a management pyramid can help elevate those high performers. But flatter companies may fail to develop leaders who can pull together the disparate parts of an organization.
At some point, she said, "You've got to start to make a bet on the leaders that are going to have a chance to build muscle across, not just vertically."
Chime Co-founders Chris Britt and Ryan King. The digital banking app filed to go public this week after previously pausing its IPO plans on President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Chime
The markets have relaxed after Trump's tariffs scare, and companies are racing to go public again.
Startups like Chime and Hinge Health resumed their IPO plans this week after previous delays.
Bankers are telling IPO hopefuls to capitalize on the market's stability — knowing it may not last.
IPOs are back — just a month after a sudden market slump forced tech companies to put their public market debuts on hold.
This time, bankers are telling companies to rush out while they still can.
"If you're trying to get public, now is the time to 'go go go' before something else happens," a healthcare banker told Business Insider. The banker requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the press.
When President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from other countries on April 2, the markets panicked. The chaos forced companies from the payments lender Klarna to the physical therapy startup Hinge Health to put their long-awaited IPO plans on hold.
But in the past month, a number of changes, including Trump's rollbacks of the most severe tariffs and assurances he would not fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, all but erased that market drop. The S&P 500 is now up about 1% since the beginning of the year, a nearly 19% increase from its April lows.
With IPOs on the table again, companies are hustling to complete those deals while the market stability holds.
EToro, the Israeli trading platform, made its public debut on Wednesday via a SPAC merger and saw its shares pop on the Nasdaq, opening 34% above the IPO price and valuing the company at nearly $5.2 billion by Friday. Hinge Health resumed its own IPO plans by kicking off its road show Tuesday, aiming for a valuation of up to $2.6 billion. Digital banking app Chime and diabetes care startup Omada Health also filed to go public in May.
The markets have bounced back quickly after Trump rolled back most tariffs in part because investor appetites didn't go away, said Tom Johnson, global cohead of capital markets at Barclays. (Barclays is an underwriter on Hinge Health and Omada Health's planned IPOs.) Companies are being encouraged to seize on that improvement, he said.
"Knowing that we're perhaps going to be living in a world with a bit more volatility, you've got to be thinking about going when you can," Johnson said.
Releasing pent-up IPO demand
Bankers are looking at a number of signals that suggest companies could see successful IPOs right now.
Most importantly, the volatility index has cooled, signaling calmer markets. VIX, a measure of market volatility often called the stock market's fear gauge, denotes high volatility at values of 30 or more, while values of 20 or below signal more stability. The VIX index hit painful highs of 52 on April 8. As of Friday, the index has dropped to 17.
That reduced volatility, combined with better market performance, has allowed public investors to stop playing defense with their existing portfolios and consider new buys.
With steadier supply chains for most industries and fewer market shocks, companies and investors are also finding it easier to agree on fair pricing, a key ingredient for a successful IPO.
"Boards are now talking about the IPO option as being attractive and something that they want to proactively seek," said Jimmy Williams, a senior banker at Jefferies who worked on the eToro deal. "The backlog of private companies waiting to go public right now is one of the longest we've ever seen because we've had such a historic drought the last three years."
Hinge Health launched the road show for its IPO this week. The physical therapy startup has been signaling its intentions to go public for several years.
Hinge Health
No guarantee of sunny skies ahead
Despite recent market improvements, Barclays' head of Americas equity capital markets, Robert Stowe, said it's reasonable to expect higher political volatility for the foreseeable future.
"The conversations are harder than they've been historically. It's harder to predict even the next day, let alone the two weeks you need for a typical IPO roadshow," he said.
Not all of the companies previously rumored to be on the precipice of IPOs have come back to market yet. As of May 15, online payments company Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, which both reportedly delayed their IPO plans in April due to the stock sell-off, haven't publicly reupped those efforts.
Neither has Medline, a surgical equipment company backed by private equity firms Blackstone and Carlyle, which said in December it had confidentially filed its S-1. Medline had been planning a spring 2025 IPO until Liberation Day tariffs forced an indefinite delay, per the Financial Times.
It's not clear yet which of these companies, if any, will resume their IPO efforts in the current market. Medline, for one, still stands to be significantly affected by the tariffs, since the company manufactures much of its supplies in China. Most imports from China now face a 30% tariff, at least for the next 90 days, while the US and China attempt to negotiate a long-term trade deal.
Spokespeople for Klarna and StubHub said the companies don't have any information to share on their IPO plans. Medline didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.
Private investors may not be able to take advantage of the market upswing by cashing out at a company's IPO, either. Insiders are frequently subject to lock-up periods, wherein investors have to wait from 90 and 180 days after the IPO to sell their shares, sometimes even longer. Given how much the market has fluctuated this year, investors can't be sure that shares will continue ticking up for the next six months.
Still, it may be worth it to get an exit on the books while the market fundamentals are favorable, particularly for mature companies like Omada Health founded more than a decade ago, and offer an opportunity for investors to get the returns they've been waiting for.
"There is more impetus to get the first deal done and get the company listed, give the stock a chance to trade, and then the owners can be more nimble with the balance that they're holding,"Stowe said.
For other companies, especially those that could be more vulnerable to policy changes, bankers are advising a "wait and see" approach, watching how this next set of IPOs performs and continuing to evaluate emerging political risks, said Phil Capen, a managing director of equity capital markets at Deutsche Bank.
"The market is getting better, but there's still a lot of uncertainty out there. If you don't need to go, and you can be patient, I think there are a number of companies that are just waiting to find the right window," he said.
Jeff Dean, Google's AI lead, said it's possible AI will be at the level of a junior coder in a year or so.
Thomas Samson/Getty Images
Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google, said it will soon be possible for AI to match the skills of a junior engineer.
He estimated it could happen within the next year during the "AI Ascent" event.
AI will have to know more than basic programming to truly be at the level of a junior programmer, he added.
Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist, thinks that AI will soon be able to replicate the skills of a junior software engineer.
"Not that far," he said during Sequoia Capital's "AI Ascent" event, when asked how far AI was from being on par with an entry-level engineer. "I will claim that's probably possible in the next year-ish."
Still, Dean said, AI has more to learn beyond the basics of programming before it can produce work at the level of a human being.
"This hypothetical virtual engineer probably needs a better sense of many more things than just writing code in an IDE," he said. "It needs to know how to run tests, debug performance issues, and all those kinds of things."
As for how he expects it to acquire that knowledge, Dean said that the process won't be entirely unlike that of a person trying to gain the same skills.
"We know how human engineers do those things," he said. "They learn how to use various tools that we have, and can make use of them to accomplish that. And they get that wisdom from more experienced engineers, typically, or reading lots of documentation."
Research and experimentation is key, he added.
"I feel like a junior virtual engineer is going to be pretty good at reading documentation and sort of trying things out in virtual environments," Dean said. "That seems like a way to get better and better at some of these things."
Dean also said the impact "virtual" engineers will likely be significant.
"I don't know how far it will take us, but it seems like it'll take us pretty far," he said.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider prior to publication.
A Meta senior software engineer shared 4 strategies for career growth in times of uncertainty.
Krishna Ganeriwal
Krishna Ganeriwal, a Meta software engineer, shared four strategies that helped grow his career.
Meta's 'year of efficiency' led to structural changes and 10,000 employees being laid off in 2023.
Aligning with company priorities and tackling overlooked tasks can help career advancement, he said.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Krishna Ganeriwal, a senior engineer at Meta in California.
Meta dubbed 2023 its "year of efficiency" and made several changes to the company's structure, including flattening management layers and laying off about 10,000 employees. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified Ganeriwal's employment history and compensation.
I moved to the US in 2021 for my master's, after working for four years as a software engineer at Texas Instruments in India.
In the summer before I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had the opportunity to intern with Meta. I loved the scale of the projects the company worked on, and I returned to the company full time as a software engineer in 2023 — Meta's "year of efficiency."
Here are four strategies I used to get promoted and grow my salary from $200,000 to about $500,000 in the 18 months since I joined full time.
1. Swim with the tide
When company management is working toward a theme, which was efficiency in the case of Meta, I see it as a direct hint for what my priorities need to be. I tried to align myself with the same idea of efficiency over scaling and growth at all costs, which was the mindset many tech companies had previously.
That meant taking note of my knowledge gaps and upskilling so that I can help build more cost-aware infrastructure. Reorganizations and layoffs are times of major cost cutting, and it would be swimming against the tide to insist on working on time-consuming or expensive projects.
I've found it helpful to have an open ear to what company leaders are talking about at quarterly meetings and constantly ensure that I am in the middle of —or at least the periphery of — those priorities.
2. Get ready to reprioritize
Just because you've been fortunate to survive a round of layoffs, it doesn't mean there's nothing for you to change.
I tell myself that a layoff means I have to be ready to be thrown into ambiguous areas and solve problems, despite constraints such as fewer colleagues and fewer resources.
It also means I have to be open to pivoting and reprioritizing — dropping what I'm working on at the moment and switching priorities, even if it's temporarily.
3. Don't put your growth in the backseat
I've found it helpful to separate conversations about layoffs and the company's performance from those about my career growth.
Despite multiple rounds of layoffs at the company, I kept having conversations with my manager about setting new goals for myself and working toward them. I also took steps to overcommunicate and remain visible to my manager and others in my team because it plays an important role during performance reviews.
4. Be open to 'underdog' problems
One underrated strategy that helped me land promotions was looking out for problems and tasks no one was willing to work on, because they were likely busy chasing a piece of a big, exciting project.
In the past year, I've been open to being loaned out to other teams or working alone on some projects. I've found that these underdog projects pay back in the long run because they gave me expertise that very few people have.
For example, when everyone at the company was working on efficiency and AI models, I focused on neglected engineering problems that leveraged both these areas.
Apple Intelligence has been a wreck since its first features rolled out last year, and a big new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman details why — and how Apple is trying to piece things back together. And much of its effort hinges on rebuilding Siri from the ground up.
Gurman has reported in the past that Apple is working on what it’s internally calling “LLM Siri” — a reworked, generative AI version of the company’s digital assistant. Apple’s previous approach of merging the assistant with the existing Siri hasn’t been working. Gurman describes in great detail a number of reasons why, but here’s a quick summary:
Apple software chief Craig Federighi was “reluctant to make large investments in AI.” The company doesn’t like to invest in a goal without a clear endpoint, Gurman writes, but where AI is concerned, one unnamed Apple executive told him “…you really don’t know what the product is until you’ve done the investment.” That would have meant expensive GPUs, which the company didn’t rush to buy and later didn’t have enough of to keep up with competitors.
Apple started late. Another executive told Gurman that Apple Intelligence “wasn’t even an idea” before ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
Apple AI chief John Giannandrea thought people didn’t want AI chatbots. He told employees that customers commonly want to be able to disable tools like ChatGPT.
Old Siri didn’t work with new Siri. Apple apparently saw bolting generative AI features onto the old Siri as the fastest way to catch Apple up in AI, but it wasn’t working. “It’s whack-a-mole. You fix one issue, and three more crop up,” an employee told Gurman.
Giannandrea didn’t “fit in” with Apple’s inner circle. Giannandrea was a rare outside executive hire when he came on in 2018, and he didn’t have the same “forceful” personality as others in company leadership. He didn’t fight hard enough to get big funding amounts, the report says. Apple employees told Gurman that Giannandrea didn’t push his workers hard enough, and that he doesn’t see big AI companies like OpenAI or Google as an urgent threat to Apple.
Marketing got out over its skis.The company’s AI marketing focused heavily on promised features like an improved Siri or Apple Intelligence being able to take context from apps across your system before they were ready — features that it has since been forced to delay.
Now the company is trying to rejigger its approach. Part of that is a total overhaul of Siri, rather than just trying to make generative AI work in concert with the old Siri. According to Gurman, Apple has its AI team in Zurich working on a new architecture that will “entirely build on an LLM-based engine.” Gurman reported in November last year that the company was working on this, and the idea is that it will make the assistant “more believably conversational and better at synthesizing information.”
Another part of the solution is leveraging iPhones and differential privacy to improve Apple’s synthesized data — comparing fake training data with language from iPhone users’ emails, but doing so on-device and sending only the synthesized data back to Apple for AI training. And one way the company is discussing improving Siri is letting the LLM version loose on the web to “grab and synthesize data from multiple sources.” Basically, Siri as an AI web search tool not unlike Perplexity, which is one of the companies Apple has approached about partnering for AI search in Safari.
Whatever the outcome, apparently Giannandrea won’t be a direct part of it, having been taken off of product development, Siri, and robotics projects in the spring. According to Gurman, Apple execs have talked about putting him “on a path to retirement,” but are concerned that some of the research and engineering folks he brought with him would leave with him, too. Whatever the case, Gurman says Giannandrea plans to stick around, “relieved Siri is now someone else’s problem.”
"Fortnite" has a new AI-powered Darth Vader character that players can recruit to their team.
Screenshot/Empire Strikes Back
Darth Vader is now a character on "Fortnite," using an AI version of James Earl Jones' voice.
Jones's family said they allowed AI to use his voice because he wanted "all ages" to experience Darth Vader.
Before Epic Games cracked down, the AI-powered Darth Vader was saying some questionable things.
James Earl Jones's family allowed a "Fortnite" version of Darth Vader to use his voice. They probably didn't expect it to start swearing at players.
"Fortnite" added the Darth Vader character to the game on Friday. The character uses conversational AI to respond to questions from players, "Fortnite" maker Epic Games said in a blog post. Once a player recruits Darth Vader to their team, they can use a special button to let anyone on the team ask him questions.
"Ask him all your pressing questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire... or you know, a good strat for the last Storm circle, the Sith Lord has opinions," the post says.
But players are asking the AI-powered villain about more than just "Fortnite." In one popular clip, Twitch streamer Loserfruit asks the AI-voiced Darth Vader what is his "freaking fucking favorite food."
Darth Vader responds; "Freaking, fucking, such vulgarity does not become you Padme."
"You inquire about sustenance, and yet speak like a common thug," Vader continues in the clip.
Jones, who died in January 2024, played several iconic roles throughout his career, including the voice of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" series.
In 2022, Disney partnered with the Ukrainian AI company Respeecher to create an AI version of his voice that the studio could use for future projects involving Darth Vader.
Jones's family said in a statement that they also allowed the use of the actor's voice in "Fortnite" because the late actor believed that the voice of Darth Vader was "inseparable from the story of Star Wars."
"He always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it," the statement says. "We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character."
A spokesperson for Epic Games told BI that Fortnite deployed a fix to stop Darth Vader from cursing "within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so it shouldn't happen again."
"While we added several specific rules and instructions as part of our guardrails to prevent Darth Vader from swearing or repeating swear words, in this instance, our filters did not catch a specific variation of an expletive," the spokesperson said. "Our hotfix addressed this."
Epic says that it also put several safety measures in place to avoid players having negative experiences with Darth Vader, including standard Gemini safety settings and additional instructions to stop the AI from violating Epic community guidelines.
If the game detects a player repeatedly attempting to get Darth Vader in "Fortnite" to violate Epic's rules, Darth Vader will leave the player's team, and they will be unable to recruit him again during that game session, the spokesperson told BI.
Husband and wife duo Erez Druk and Gabi Meckler are helping each other build Freed, a note-taking program for doctors.
Bonfire Partners
Erez Druk launched Freed AI for his wife, Dr. Gabi Meckler, who spent hours writing clinical notes.
The couple collaborates closely on Freed AI, integrating clinician feedback to refine it.
They shared their founding story, which, they said, is a love letter to each other.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation between Erez Druk, the founder of Freed AI, an AI assistant for clinicians, and his wife, Dr. Gabi Meckler, a family physician. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Gabi Meckler
When I was in residency, I really began to feel the weight of notes.
I would stay in the hospital until midnight, writing notes. You'd come home and still have notes to do. They were constant — a fact of life. Some people suffer. Some even quit.
One day, my husband, Erez, asked me what would make my life easier. I jokingly said, "Can you just write my notes for me?"
Erez took the idea seriously. He started building something.
Erez Druk
I built a simple proof of concept using GPT, a customizable version of ChatGPT, over the course of a few hours. It was a bare bones version of Freed that allowed for patient instructions, which are what clinicians send to patients post-visit, and subjective notes, which clinicians use to document patients' experience of their condition.
I showed it to Gabi. She said "interesting," but told me it still needed a few improvements. It would break at times, it didn't know the names of several medications, and wasn't attuned to different specialities.
I knew I needed another data point beyond my wife, so I solicited the opinion of our friend, another clinician. She came over for dinner, I showed her the product, and her response was very different — one of immediate excitement. She texted the next day asking to use it.
I knew we were on to something.
We moved fast from there. It took some work to make it HIPAA compliant. I wanted to get a beta version out quickly. We got some clinicians to test it. We asked them for feedback constantly. Building Freed isn't just about vision or strategy — it's about listening to users and iterating based on what they need.
Meckler
When I started working at a clinic, after residency, I began using Freed every day. I could finally finish my notes before leaving the office. One time, I forgot to send a referral for a patient, but Freed reminded me. That moment made me realize how much Freed was helping, not just with time, but with the details that I might have missed otherwise.
Other doctors at the clinic noticed, too. They'd come to me and say, "Your husband? He saved me hours of work." That was rewarding.
One thing I love is that Erez takes my input seriously. He really understands the nuances that matter to clinicians, and the team is learning too.
Druk
Gabi holds a weekly office hour with the product managers and designers where they share their work with her. She offers her perspective on what's useful and what isn't.
It's surprising — or maybe not — that even after spending a lot of time with clinicians, there's always more to learn. We can never truly be in their shoes, there's a constant depth and nuance to uncover. That's why this setup is so valuable: It helps us get closer to understanding how they think and what's genuinely useful to them.
Meckler
Freed, as the name suggests, is all about freedom. Our goal wasn't to tell clinicians how to use their time — we simply wanted to give it back to them.
That mindset really influences our marketing. We're very intentional about not telling clinicians what they should do — they know better than anyone else. We don't tell clinicians to be heroes or push messages like maintain "eye contact" or "spend more time with patients." You probably already make enough eye contact. And if you want to Netflix and chill, great.
We're not here to tell people how to be better doctors.
Druk
Managing the relationship between husband and wife, founder and consumer, innovator and advisor — isn't always easy. It's definitely annoying sometimes to get feedback that is correct.
Meckler
I think we do it well, though, I don't know how we do it.
I try to be specific about feedback. Like, this is something you absolutely have to change before moving forward, versus this would be nice, or it's a bit iffy.
I told Erez that we needed to incorporate patient instructions. They include a summary of the visit and clear instructions based on the action plan created during the appointment. The goal is to make them easy for patients to read, understand, and follow. It's now one of the most loved features of Freed.
We're building a document analyzer now at the request of users. It will take any clinical document and give the clinician a summary. Users can also ask questions, and it will provide short responses with references from the document.
This whole time, since we launched in January 2023, Erez has been learning about medicine, and I've been learning about startups. So, I know he has to move fast. That's why I focus only on the most important things, and I push really hard when it matters.
I've loved being involved as part of our relationship.
Druk
Work is really my second obsession after Gabi — and I'm obsessed with work. So the fact that we can talk about everything, and she knows the people in the team, and what we're working on, is really fun.
We created Freed together. It's a love letter from us, our team, to all the clinicians out there.
China has launched the first 12 satellites of a planned 2,800-strong orbital supercomputer satellite network, reports Space News. The satellites, created by the company ADA Space, Zhijiang Laboratory, and Neijang High-Tech Zone, will be able to process the data they collect themselves, rather than relying on terrestrial stations to do it for them, according to ADA Space’s announcement (machine-translated).
The satellites are part of ADA Space’s “Star Compute” program and the first of what it calls the “Three-Body Computing Constellation,” the company writes. Each of the 12 satellites has an onboard eight-billion parameter AI model and is capable of 744 tera operations per second (TOPS) — a measure of their AI processing grunt — and, collectively, ADA Space says they can manage five peta operations per second, or POPS. That’s quite a bit more than, say, the 40 TOPS required for a Microsoft Copilot PC. The eventual goal is to have a network of thousands of satellites that achieve 1,000 POPs, according to the Chinese government.
The satellites communicate with each other at up-to-100Gbps using lasers, and share 30 terabytes of storage between them, according to Space News. The 12 launched last week carry scientific payloads, including an X-ray polarization detector for picking up brief cosmic phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. The satellites also have the capability to create 3D digital twin data that can be used for purposes like emergency response, gaming, and tourism, ADA Space says in its announcement.
The benefits of having a space-based supercomputer go beyond saving communications time, according to South China Morning Post. The outlet notes that traditional satellite transmissions are slow, and that “less than 10 per cent” of satellite data makes it to Earth, due to things like limited bandwidth and ground station availability. And Jonathan McDowell, a space historian and astronomer at Harvard University, told the outlet, “Orbital data centres can use solar power and radiate their heat to space, reducing the energy needs and carbon footprint.” He said both the US and Europe could carry out similar projects in the future, writes SCMP.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supports Trump's AI deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Trump struck some major AI tech deals on his Gulf tour this week.
The deals have alarmed some lawmakers who worry the technology could fall into the wrong hands.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called those critics "naive."
President Donald Trump went to the Gulf this week and struck some deals that AI companies in Silicon Valley are excited about.
Lawmakers, on the other hand, are less excited.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called those critics "naive" in an X post on Saturday.
"This was an extremely smart thing for you all to do and i'm sorry naive people are giving you grief," Altman said on X, responding to David Sacks, Trump's AI czar and a former PayPal executive.
In his own X post, Sacks said he was "genuinely perplexed" how anyone could see Trump's AI deals in the Gulf as anything but "hugely beneficial for the United States."
Among the deals announced during Trump's tour was a partnership between chipmakers Nvidia, AMD, and Humain, a new Saudi AI company launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to bring billions in chips and hardware to the kingdom. Amazon Web Services also announced a $5 billion plan to build an "AI Zone" in Saudi Arabia. The UAE announced a new AI campus.
OpenAI, too, is ramping up investment in the Middle East. The company this week announced plans for a new data center in the UAE. It may end up as one of the largest in the world, and is another sign that the tech industry is eyeing the region as a new AI hub.
In Washington, however, these deals have drawn critics from both sides of the aisle who worry the emerging technology could end up in the wrong hands.
During a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said the chip deal was "dangerous because we have no clarity on how the Saudis and Emiratis will prevent the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, the Chinese manufacturing establishment, from getting their hands on these chips."
The Republican-led House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, meanwhile, said in a post on X that "Reports of new U.S. chip deals with Gulf nations — without a new chip rule in place — present a vulnerability for the CCP to exploit."
The competition between the United States and China to dominate AI technologies has ramped up in recent years. The US has tightened export controls on advanced chips and manufacturing tools to curb China's progress, while also boosting domestic production. China, meanwhile, has accelerated investment in its own AI companies and sought suppliers outside the United States.
In which the phones website goes outside. | Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
For most of my life, I've relied on a paper map when I go outdoors. Then, in March, I joined my friend Rusty on the Appalachian Trail for two weeks. He told me to download FarOut.
FarOut was my introduction to the world of app-based navigation. It's focused on thru-hikers, and has useful details, including comments that tell you whether a specific water source is flowing, and if so, how well. It took me a minute to get the hang of it - I was hiking southbound, and it defaults to northbound - but once I did, I was impressed.
FarOut works like a guidebook. But the kind of backpacking I ordinarily do is on more offbeat trails in the local national forests - not the wilderness highways FarOut specializes in. So for my first solo trip, to the Ventana Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, I thought I'd try out some of the other navigation apps, as part of an absolutely transparent ploy to get my job to let me fuck off outdoors more often; there are a lot of hikes I want to do. I suspect many of our readers are connoisseurs of the great indoors, but I also know you love gadgets, and let me tell you something: so do backpackers. You would not believe the conversations I hav …
