Merrill Hale has relied on technology for his caregiving.
Jordan Gale for BI
Christina Evers, 42, watches on, holding the back of Merrill Hale's motorized wheelchair, as he controls his screen with his eyes.
It's the only way Hale, 57, has found to effectively communicate with Evers, his caregiver. Hale was diagnosed with ALS a decade ago and has slowly lost the ability to speak, eat, and move.
"Tech is essential to my survival," Hale says, read aloud by a computerized voice.
"He's the brightest guy in the world," his mom, Judy, says as she watches him in their Oregon home.
Hale uses advanced eye gaze technology to communicate.
Jordan Gale for BI
Evers and Hale have formed an incredibly tight bond, Judy says. That's by design. They were matched, in part, by AI.
The two were connected through Home Instead, a home healthcare services company that operates in 1,200 locations across six countries. Home Instead was acquired in 2021 by Honor Technology, which has integrated AI algorithms and machine learning tools to match eldercare workers with clients.
Honor's tech has allowed for "smart matching," using algorithms to analyze caregiver availability, personality traits, skill sets, and prior client familiarity. The algorithms target patterns in how people work, such as ideal schedules or locations for caregivers, based on thousands of data points. The algorithms also anticipate future events, such as identifying when a caregiver may be at risk of missing a shift before it happens.
"I was lucky to have found her," Hale says. "Caregiving, I feel, is deeply personal, and you spend so much time with people at the most difficult time of their lives. I look forward to her visits every time."
Up until 10 years ago, Hale said life was rich and fulfilling. He played sports in high school and held jobs as a drafter, then an engineer, for a railcar manufacturer. He left his two-decade career to pursue music, playing drums in a Led Zeppelin tribute band. He raised two children and had been healthy and active, aside from minor back and knee pain, until his mid-40s, when his body began to shut down. ALS destroys motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and loss of movement.
Hale and his caregiver Christina Evers were connected in part through AI.
Jordan Gale for BI
"The change in roles is difficult, because instead of being equals, it's now caregiver and recipient," said his wife, Karen, who works full-time.
His health has been steady, as the progression of his ALS has been relatively slow compared to other forms. He recently had a tracheostomy to stabilize his condition and make caregiving responsibilities easier for his caregivers. One of Hale's friends had recommended Home Instead as his condition worsened, and he wanted to prioritize at-home care.
Hale said that while he doesn't understand how all the tech works, he has seen the benefits. CEO Seth Sternberg said Honor has been developing an algorithm that analyzes a client's service history and generates summaries that indicate what's most important to them. He said this algorithm has reduced handling time and allowed caregivers to be in agreement about care decisions more easily. Of course, AI makes mistakes sometimes, Sternberg added, but so do humans, and AI is better at taking feedback.
"AI is literally orchestrating all of the complexity about that single client and their whole history, and then making it so that we can have a really smooth, seamless conversation with that person," Sternberg told Business Insider.
Hale controls his screens mainly with his eyes.
Jordan Gale for BI
Sternberg added that the algorithms have reduced staff turnover because caregivers are assigned clients whose needs match their capabilities, and clients are often more satisfied with their care. Sternberg said yearly caregiver churn for Home Instead is about 30%, compared to 80% industry-wide. The tech also reassigns visits when scheduling gaps arise and identifies where a caregiver might need additional education.
"There are exactly zero customers of ours who want to hear about our technology," Sternberg said. "Rather, they want to hear about why their care pro is a better care pro, or why this service is a better service."
Christina Evers hadn't anticipated being Hale's caregiver. Her last client had died, and she thought she would quit caregiving because of the emotional pain. She previously served in the Army and decided to enroll in college to get a master's in psychology to work with veterans with PTSD. Hale resembled her last client, though, and after a few sessions, she committed to staying with him.
McDermott said Home Instead's AI helps with match criteria, but it ultimately requires a human to make the decision. Evers and Hale checked all the boxes: Evers was tech-savvy, equipped to work with high-acuity people, and had a warm personality. Hale was closer in age to Evers and very vibrant.
Christina Evers has cared for Hale for three years.
Jordan Gale for BI
Evers has been his caregiver for three years, working 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. When she started with him, he could speak and had more mobility. She's responsible for bathing him and getting him ready for the day, as well as keeping him entertained. His physical decline hasn't taken away, though, from their elaborate conversations, including their bickering about music or sports. It often takes a minute or two for him to formulate his response with his eyes.
"The lag is definitely a reality for Merrill, and based on what he's told me previously, it's the hardest part about his life," says Rachael McDermott, home care liaison at Home Instead, who was previously Merrill's care coordinator. "The trickiest part about the lag time is that his dad jokes aren't quite hitting because of the pause."
"We're so used to such a quick, upbeat response by people around us that we forget to have patience so they can actually articulate what they're feeling," Evers responds. She adds that he's "the definition of resilience."
Hale and Evers have formed a tight bond over the years.
Jordan Gale for BI
Judy, who is in her 80s, visits most days, helping him when Evers isn't working. Her husband died almost three years ago, and she moved into a retirement community nearby after selling her house.
Hale has embraced tech to bolster his creativity, using computer-aided design software and his 3D printer. He designed and printed a phone holder for watching shows, creating a matching pink one for Evers.
There's plenty to look forward to, Hale says. Spending time with family and friends, watching his kids grow up, and, most importantly, seeing the Chargers win the Super Bowl for the first time, he jokes.
"We share a lot of tears," Evers says. "You're holding onto every moment. I hate to call it a shift because I enjoy coming here."
Maria Koutsogiannis is a recipe developer and author of the cookbook "Greek Out."
Andrei Barb
Maria Koutsogiannis, a recipe developer, draws inspiration from her summers spent in Greece.
Koutsogiannis follows a Mediterranean-style diet focused on veggies, lean protein, and legumes.
She shared two of her favorite Greek-inspired recipes.
Maria Koutsogiannis remembers her yiayia making makaronia me kima — a Greek-style spaghetti with meat sauce — for her and her siblings on repeat as a child. Each summer, she'd spend three months in her parents' home country, Greece, and soak up the aromas of classic Mediterranean dishes.
Growing up in Saskatchewan, Canada, these yearly trips were her introduction to the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle.
"We had homes in the city of Astros, which is a coastal city, where we'd go to the beach, and we were lucky enough to just bathe in the sun all day. And it was really just eat, ocean, sleep, eat, hang out, repeat daily," Koutsogiannis told Business Insider.
Now a Greek "food obsessive," recipe developer, and author of the cookbook "Greek Out," Koutsogiannis spends hours every week making, eating, and thinking about the diet of some of the world's longest-living people.
The Mediterranean diet centers on fresh produce, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and lean protein sources. It has been linked to a lower risk of type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. It's recommended by GI doctors, cardiologists, and dietitians for its health benefits, but also because it's flexible and unrestrictive, making it easier to follow and maintain than many other diets.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Grate the onion and tomatoes on the large holes of a box grater. Discard the skins and use your hands to squeeze out the extra liquid.
In a medium bowl, combine the onion and tomatoes with the beef, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix until well incorporated.
Divide the mixture into eight portions and use your hands to form the mixture into burger-sized patties.
Arrange the patties on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Flip the burgers and bake for 20 minutes longer, or until they have an internal temperature of 165°F.
Method for the fries:
While the bifteki bake, peel the potatoes and cut into ⅓-inch-thick sticks.
Soak the fries in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry the potatoes. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.
Heat ½ to 1 inch olive oil in a high-sided pan or large pot over medium-high heat. You'll know the oil is ready when you add one fry and it starts to sizzle but doesn't immediately scorch.
Working in batches (it usually takes about four), fry the potatoes, moving them around with tongs or a kitchen spider so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan, until golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the fries to the lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining potatoes.
Transfer all the potatoes to a large bowl and toss with the oregano, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with a squeeze of lemon juice, and top with the feta.
Serve the fries with the bifteki, salted tomato slices, and additional hunks of feta. Throw in some tzatziki, or any other dip, if you're feeling that, too.
Green bean salad with artichokes, goat cheese, and hazelnut brittle
Koutsogiannis's green bean salad recipe from "Greek Out."
Preheat the oven to 275°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, stir together the hazelnuts, almonds, maple syrup, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread the mixture on the lined baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until crispy. Set aside to cool.
While the brittle bakes, in a blender, combine the jalapeños, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, chives, Dijon, salt, and chili flakes. Blend until smooth and set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and season with a generous pinch of salt. Fill a large bowl with ice and water and set aside. Add the green beans to the boiling water and blanch (aka boil) for 4 minutes, or until they're bright green and tender with some snap.
Use tongs or a kitchen spider to immediately transfer the beans to the ice bath to cool, 30 to 60 seconds. Drain the beans, lay them on a clean kitchen towel, and pat dry.
In a salad bowl or on a platter, combine the green beans, artichokes, and basil. Drizzle half of the dressing over the top and gently toss to coat.
Break up the brittle and sprinkle over the top (use as much or as little as you like; any leftovers can be a snack), along with the goat cheese. Season with salt, drizzle the remaining dressing on top, and serve.
The move has renewed debate over whether stricter skilled-immigration policies protect American workers or hurt American businesses.
Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and others from the PERM program.
VP JD Vance said Microsoft abused the PERM program more than any other company.
Here’s what immigration and tech experts are saying:
For foreign workers at some of the biggest employers in tech, there's another twist in an already uncertain system.
The Trump administration’s decision to suspend Microsoft, Adobe, and other named tech companies from the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, program has renewed debate over whether stricter skilled-immigration policies protect American workers or hurt American businesses.
On Thursday morning, Vice President JD Vance announced the suspension at a press conference. He singled out Microsoft, saying: "If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants."
PERM is not itself a visa. It is the Labor Department certification employers generally need before sponsoring a worker for an employment-based green card. Vance said that some companies had abused the system and used foreign workers to undercut Americans.
In a statement on Thursday, Microsoft disputed Vance's accusations, saying most of its H-1B filings were for existing employees rather than new hires.
"Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% percent were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people," the company wrote.
Besides Microsoft and Adobe, the action also affected six major IT services companies with deep ties to India’s tech sector: Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant, and Capgemini.
Here’s what immigration-policy experts and Indian tech voices are saying:
Ron Hira, Howard University political science professor
Hira, a Howard University political science professor and a longtime critic of the H-1B program, called the move against Microsoft “very significant.”
Hira has long argued that employers can use the program in ways that depress pay and disadvantage US workers. He told the Associated Press on Thursday that there are supposed to be protections requiring employers to show that hiring an H-1B worker does not hurt similarly employed Americans.
“That’s never been enforced,” Hira said.
Doug Rand, former senior advisor at US Citizenship and Immigration Services
Rand, a former senior advisor at US Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration, took the opposite view. He called Vance’s announcement “incoherent” in a statement to AP.
Rand’s argument is that the policy could worsen the problem Vance says he wants to solve. H-1B workers are generally tied to their employers for their immigration status. A green card gives workers far more freedom to switch jobs and bargain over pay.
“If the Trump administration were truly concerned that H-1B workers are ‘indentured servants,’ then the last thing they would do is block companies from helping their own H-1B workers get green cards,” Rand told AP.
Dinesh Pai, Indian tech founder
Pai, an India-based vice president of investments at the country's largest brokerage Zerodha, reacted to what a more restrictive US path to permanent residency could mean for India.
In a statement on X, Pai wrote that the immediate downside could be fewer high-earning Indians in the US, which in turn could mean lower remittances, less soft power, and less angel investments flowing back into Indian startups. He also noted that India receives roughly $125 billion in annual remittances, with the US accounting for about a quarter of that total.
But he also saw a potential upside. If US companies cannot bring talent to America, he wrote, “they probably will bring the work to India.”
US visa uncertainty may also keep more top engineers in India to build domestic companies and AI startups, he added.
Nasscom, India’s IT-industry trade group
Nasscom, India's main tech industry group, said immigration policy and skilled-talent mobility should be treated as separate issues.
"While the decision affects a specific immigration pathway, Nasscom has consistently maintained that immigration and skilled talent mobility are two distinct issues and should not be viewed through the same lens," the group said in a statement to local media
It also said the number of employees moving from H-1B status to permanent residency through PERM is “relatively limited.”
Paul Westbrook/Enerjazz; Hadi Ahmad; Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI
Dave Castino has tracked his fuel economy across all 43,497 miles he's driven in his 2021 Mazda3 over the past three years. He averages 39.4 miles per gallon — 46% better than the Environmental Protection Agency's combined estimate for the car — and has topped out at 45.6 mpg on a tank of gas. Fuelio, the app he uses to track his gas mileage, shows a steep drop on December 12 of last year — the day he got new tires. They're great for the winter weather in Indianapolis, but they've resulted in a 10% decrease in fuel economy. Still, he's never had a tank fall below the EPA's rating.
The 37-year-old father of two recognizes this can sound tedious, but it's actually a way for him to manage the tedium of his commute. The 38-mile drive each way is pretty boring, and tracking his gas mileage is a weird, secret little game that keeps him entertained.
"If I'm going to be in the car two hours a day, four days a week, it gives me something to do," he says. "This is one way for me to try and beat yesterday's high score."
Castino is a hypermiler — part of a small but enthusiastic community of drivers determined to get the best bang for their gas-tank buck. They swap tips on Reddit, brag about their stats on online forums, and engage in driving tactics that range from deft to dangerous. The practice is making a comeback as gas prices rise, as The New York Times recently noted, but the true mpg maniacs are in it for more than money. The motivations are part environmental awareness, part anger management, and part nerdy glory.
Dave Castino's hypermiling habit makes his commute less tedious.
David Castino
Optimizing his fuel economy comes naturally to Castino — he's an energy manager for an apartment development and management company where small tweaks can translate to millions of dollars. He thinks he saves about $600 a year through hypermiling, a drop in the bucket given that he pays $700 a week for day care. Still, he doesn't dare push his wife to join his efficiency quest in the family minivan. "I value my marriage too much for that," he says.
The term "hypermiling" was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, a fuel-efficiency guru and the founder of CleanMPG, an online community devoted to the hobby. Hypermiling was the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year in 2008, and for good reason: The cost of gas surpassed $4 per gallon and gobbled up 4% of the median household income. It's since fallen out of the zeitgeist, and while gas prices are going up again, they're not quite as painful as they were nearly two decades ago. Adjusted for inflation, a gallon of gas in 2008 would cost $6-$7 today. Rising fuel costs are nudging some people toward adjusting their driving habits to save money, but it's not shoving them. (Also, many drivers are likely doing some light hypermiling without realizing that's the term for it.)
The bigger change has been the ability to use modern technology to lean into gamification. Most cars now come equipped with real-time fuel economy displays, turning efficiency into an instant feedback loop and personal scoreboard.
"One thing about human nature is you put a meter in, and suddenly you're trying to compete," says Jake Fisher, who oversees Consumer Reports' auto testing program. "The problem is that, as with everything, you could take it to an extreme."
People think I drive slow, whatever.
Sarah Holmes, a 39-year-old social worker, stumbled into hypermiling when she started a new job with a "hellscape" of a commute. The stressful drive along a Connecticut interstate was putting her into a daily rage, so she made a deliberate effort to slow down, stick to the speed limit, and stop passing other cars. Not only was it good for her mental health, it was also great for her gas mileage. Fiddling around with the controls in her 2015 Subaru Forester, she realized her average gas mileage had increased from 24-25 to 30-31.
"The general perception is that I'm just a nervous driver, not that I'm doing it intentionally to remove my nerves, which is fine," she says. "People think I drive slow, whatever."
Holmes occupies a peaceful, practical end of the hypermiling spectrum. On the other end of it are the purists who've turned fuel efficiency from a mild hobby into a neurotic sport.
Hadi Ahmad is considering attaching pizza pans to his car's wheels to improve fuel efficiency.
Courtesy of Hadi Ahmad
Hadi Ahmad, 25, is closer to the latter camp. The Toronto-based data analyst shares two Toyota Priuses with his parents and is currently obsessing over 120 miles "missing" from his logs after his dad filled up one of the vehicles and failed to track it. Ahmad never turns on the car's air conditioning and occasionally engages in "drafting," by tucking in close behind a big truck on the freeway to reduce wind resistance. Is that dangerous? "Yes," he responds matter-of-factly, but it's an easy way of getting "25% or more gains in your efficiency." He still considers himself a casual hypermiler, though, since he hasn't yet ventured into vehicle modifications or weight reduction strategies. But he may be about to take the leap: he's considering a plan to drill pizza pans onto the wheels of one of the family cars to decrease drag. Whether his parents will go for it is "debatable."
When I describe this idea to Jonathan Elfalan, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds, he also has his doubts. "You've got to make sure that your brakes don't overheat because of lack of airflow," he says. He adds that new cars are so optimized for aerodynamics straight out of the factory, modifications may wind up being counterproductive: "Joe Schmo in his garage is most likely not going to improve on the engineering of a car that's had teams of classically trained engineers in wind tunnels."
Most hypermilers aren't so dedicated to their cause that they're putting themselves and others at risk. In general, auto industry experts and fuel economy-conscious drivers agree that there's a lot to be gained from modest behavior modifications and basic physics.
Aerodynamic drag increases quadratically with speed, so the faster you go, the harder your car's engine has to work and, in turn, the more fuel you burn. Just slowing down from 75 to 65 miles per hour provides a meaningful, instant boost in fuel efficiency. As a general rule, the less braking, the better on regular-gas vehicles, so hypermilers will coast to stoplights and keep their eyes far ahead on the road to anticipate slowdowns. Hypermilers prefer roundabouts to stop signs. If they do hit a stop sign or red light, they try to accelerate gradually when they get moving. They also keep their tires inflated to the manufacturer's recommended pressure — or slightly higher. They see roof racks and bike racks as a no-no, due to air drag. They're a bit split on cruise control — some think it helps, others think they can beat the machine at efficiency.
Joe Schmo in his garage is most likely not going to improve on the engineering of a car that's had teams of classically trained engineers in wind tunnels.
Hypermiling can become foolish when drivers take it too far, for example, by tailgating semis or driving dangerously slowly. Fisher recalls following a Honda Insight years ago that was going five miles per hour under the speed limit. He thought the driver was extra-cautious — until they blew a stop sign, in an attempt to avoid braking. "You're saving a couple of bucks, but potentially getting into a crash. It just doesn't make sense," he says.
Many of the hypermilers I spoke to for this story emphasized that the practice does not mean they drive like a grandma, which led me to suspect that it is kind of what it means for those not on the risky fringes.
"Hypermiling is a misnomer. There's nothing hyper about it, it's just common sense," says Dan Gray, who runs MPGomatic, a YouTube channel that reviews cars on gas mileage. "Overall, don't piss off the people behind you because you don't want to get people angry because they think you're going too slow, even though you're not."
Hybrid vehicles are especially popular among hypermilers because they do a lot of the efficiency work for you. They combine a regular gas engine with electric motors and a battery pack to save fuel and reduce emissions. Braking captures energy as they slow down, and at low speeds, many hybrids can rely entirely on the electric motor.
Paul Westbrook, 65, has gotten so good at hypermiling in his Prius hybrid that he's only purchased 50 gallons of gas all year. The Texas retiree acknowledges that's partly because he's not driving to work anymore, but even then, he was filling his tank a dozen times a year at most. He's been tracking his fuel efficiency since 2004 and averages 53 miles per gallon. He would love to trade for a plug-in hybrid, like his wife has, but all the hypermiling means his 2007 vehicle still works like a charm. "The wear and tear on the car is less when you drive it a little more responsibly," he says.
Paul Westbrook has been tracking his MPG stats since he bought a 2004 Prius.
Paul Westbrook/Enerjazz
For Jay Olson, a 53-year-old IT manager in California, hypermiling is more about the environmental case for making things last than anything else. His 2010 Prius has nearly 238,000 miles on it, and when his fuel economy dropped recently, he figured out the problem and fixed it himself.
"Hypermiling is just one piece of the conversation if you start to look at your carbon footprint and your effect on the planet," he says.
The greenest move isn't upgrading to a new car with all the bells and whistles — it's making sure old reliable stays reliable as it gets old.
As gas prices surge due to the war in Iran and other ongoing inflationary pressures, more drivers may be inclined to see what this hypermiling thing is all about. A 2008-esque resurgence, however, is unlikely. Americans are still spending a relatively low proportion of their incomes on gas, says Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a gas station finder app. Plus, most people are "not the brightest bunch" when it comes to efficient driving. "I still see people out there driving around like it's the Indy 500," he says. "If anything, driving has gotten to be more of a competition than anything else."
Hypermiling is just one piece of the conversation if you start to look at your carbon footprint and your effect on the planet.
The auto industry has also shifted toward larger, bulkier vehicles, in part because that's what many American drivers prefer and, in part, because that's what makes them the most money. Hypermiling entails some strategic undertakings that not everyone has time for or interest in. As much as we live in an optimized-obsessed culture, for most people, devising a route to work based on what has the most roundabouts feels like a bridge too far. The practice often also involves unlearning some pretty ingrained driving habits.
For David Raine, a 65-year-old warehouse manager who lives outside Toronto, the interest in hypermiling has come with age. "When I was young, gas was cheap, and when you're young, you're kind of reckless with your right foot," he says. Try as he might, much like Castino, he still can't get his wife to go along with any of this. "She is somewhat of a lead foot," he says. "I'll be honest, when I'm in the passenger seat, I'm a bit of a nag."
"When you're young, you're kind of reckless with your right foot," says hypermiler David Raine.
David Raine
America may not become a nation of hypermilers anytime soon — or Canada, it would seem. But for some people, it's not bad to live life in the slow lane economically, environmentally, or emotionally.
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
Spending on OpenAI was higher than on Anthropic in 47 states, according to YipitData.
Anthropic led in only Massachusetts, Montana, and California.
The map is a warning sign for Anthropic — though it's not a perfect proxy for consumer sentiment.
OpenAI and Anthropic are duking it out. One company dominates state-by-state spending.
YipitData collected AI spending data from consumer credit and debit cards between June and August. The data, which Andreessen Horowitz first published Monday in its "Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps" report, shows OpenAI with a major lead.
People spent more on OpenAI products than on Anthropic's in 47 states, Yipit found. The only states where Claude led in spending were Massachusetts, Montana, and California.
Anthropic also led OpenAI spending in Washington, DC.
OpenAI owned at least 70% of spending in eight states. Delaware leaned hard for OpenAI at 82%; the other states to reach that threshold were Alaska (74%), Kentucky (71%), Louisiana (71%), Mississippi (77%), North Dakota (71%), New Mexico (70%), and West Virginia (72%).
The map isn't a perfect proxy for consumer AI preferences. In measuring spending, the map excludes free users of ChatGPT and Claude. It's also a state-by-state comparison, something that can be tricky when population levels differ so broadly. Indeed, the biggest state by population (California) swung toward the losing company (Anthropic).
The map also doesn't include other, more consumer-facing AI companies. Meta has recently been scoring big with customers through its AI agent, Muse. Many everyday tech users interact with Gemini, thanks to its native integration in Google products.
Still, the map is one signal that ChatGPT still reigns supreme. It was the first player in the chatbot race, and the name many still associate with AI.
ChatGPT and Claude have their differences. Two 2025 studies found that ChatGPT is better suited to augmentation, while Claude is better suited to automation. ChatGPT is also the only of the two chatbots with image-generation capabilities.
Still, ChatGPT may not be OpenAI's most important product. That crown goes to Codex, the company's AI coding tool.
Price cuts are becoming more common in housing markets across the country, a testament to how the real estate market has increasingly shifted toward buyers mortgage rates have steadily climbed in 2026.
Around 21% of sellers with active listings cut their asking price for their home in the four weeks leading up to September 20, according to a recent Redfin analysis. It marks the highest proportion of sellers that have slashed prices in this time of the year since at least 2022, when Redfin began tracking the data, the real estate listings site said last week.
The housing market has been anemic in the years following the pandemic buying frenzy, though the freeze appears to have deepened in the last few months as mortgage rates have climbed. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate broke above the 7% mark for the first time in years in September, reflecting how borrowing costs for consumers have risen dramatically amid the spike in bond yields. On Monday, the rate was close to 7.5%.
"Many are eventually cutting their price as they come to terms with reality: Mortgage rates are sitting above 7%, the economy is uncertain, and many homes are lingering on the market," Asad Khan, a senior economist at Redfin, said.
Here are the 12 cities in the US that are seeing the most homes with price cuts:
Denver, CO
Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 30.9%
YoY% change: +3.1 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $619,909
Indianapolis, INIndianapolis, IN
shermancahal/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 29.9%
YoY% change: +2.0 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $259,828
San Antonio, TXSan Antonio, TX
Sean Pavone/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 26.8%
YoY% change: +0.7 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $264,825
Dallas, TXDallas, TX
Chris LaBasco/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 26.1%
YoY% change: +1.1 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $448,703
Austin, TXAustin, TX
Art Wager/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 26.%
YoY% change: +0 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $549,636
Portland, ORPortland, OR
Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 25.9%
YoY% change: +0.9 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $524,653
Minneapolis, MNMinneapolis, MN
Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 25.3%
YoY% change: +3.7 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $374,752
Seattle, WASeattle.
Mekdet/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 24.3%
YoY% change: +3.5 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $874,421
Fort Worth, TXFort Worth, TX
adamkaz/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 24.2%
YoY% change: +0.2 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $332,480
Houston, TXHouston, TX
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 23.9%
YoY% change: -0.6 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $349,769
Boston, MABoston, MA
Erica Denhoff/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Share of active listings with a price drop: 23.8%
YoY% change: +7.6 percentage points
Median sales price (August 2026): $859,431
Jacksonville, FLJacksonville, FL
Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Finn Gomez/Getty Images; Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI
Luke Hartley realized how important Elon Musk's Starlink was to him when it fell overboard.
Two weeks into his voyage across the Pacific in October 2023, Hartley's sailboat, Songbird, was hit by an intense squall that knocked the Starlink dish balanced on the front of the boat over the side.
It was a major blow for the music teacher turned sailing influencer, who tells me he made far more money posting about his three-year voyage around the world on TikTok via Starlink than he ever had in the US education system. Without satellite internet, he had no way to upload the videos that were funding his voyage, check weather forecasts, or call his family.
From the remote Pacific to the front lines of Ukraine, Starlink's network of orbital internet satellites has become indispensable to 13 million people in more than 167 countries. Starlink accounted for more than 60% of the $18.6 billion in revenue SpaceX generated last year, and was the only part of the business to turn a profit.
Musk has grander ambitions for the flying crown jewels in his empire. The company plans to launch tens of thousands more satellites in the coming years as it targets new markets, in a push to transform Starlink from a boutique service for rugged survivalists into the world's premier wireless carrier and broadband provider.
Many users who like it love it, and have flooded social media with praise for Musk and his creation.
Beyond the profits, Starlink has also provided Musk a vital source of influence and soft power that stretches the globe.
The world's richest man's attempt to gut government bureaucracy with DOGE, his massive political donations, and his erratic and incendiary posting habits on X have cost him Tesla customers and inspired boycotts and protests against his other companies. But Starlink is so useful in far-flung and war-torn places — and has so few alternatives — that it has granted Musk a rare level of immunity to political gravity. It's also left governments, adventurers, and digital nomads struggling to reconcile their reliance on the technology with the controversies that swirl around Musk.
"We can criticize Musk till the cows come home, but it's an incredible product," says Hartley, who has mixed feelings about depending so heavily on Starlink. "It has a very controversial name behind it, but it is also a way for me to talk to my mom and inspire folks. Both things can be true."
Nowhere is this dance between reluctance and reliance more delicately choreographed than in Ukraine, where Starlink has been essential in the war against Russia. Starlink satellites have been widely adopted across the Ukrainian military as a comms system that cannot be hacked or jammed by Russian radio warfare. The service has allowed ground teams to adapt their targets mid-mission and remotely control drones with flawless video almost to the moment of impact, with no need for giant antennas that could reveal their position.
The technological advantage has come at the price of giving a mercurial CEO the power to tilt the balance of the war.
In 2023, Musk sparked global headlines when he revealed he refused a request to activate Starlink to assist a Ukrainian assault on Crimea because he was concerned that "SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war."
The billionaire also threatened to stop supplying Ukraine with Starlink terminals the year prior over a funding dispute, and Reuters reported last July that he jeopardized a 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive by cutting Starlink access to frontline troops.
Musk did not respond to the report, but he previously said in a March 2025 X post that he would never turn off Ukrainian terminals or use the threat of doing so as a bargaining chip, no matter how much he disagreed with the country's government.
More recently, Musk has given Ukraine an edge. In February of this year, SpaceX clamped down on Russian forces' illicit use of Starlink terminals after Ukraine's then-defense minister made a personal appeal to Musk. The cutoff severely disrupted Russia's military and allowed Ukraine to retake valuable territory.
Some servicemembers and researchers say Ukraine's dependent yet unstable relationship with Starlink leaves them uneasy. "If you are military and you're operating a drone, you cannot rely on something unpredictable. All the systems should be under control," says one drone pilot and sergeant in Ukraine's unmanned brigades. "But we have no alternative right now," he adds.
Starlink has been essential in the war against Russia. Starlink satellites have been widely adopted across the Ukrainian military as a comms system that cannot be hacked or jammed by Russian radio warfare.
Yevhen Titov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Alessio Terzi, an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge's Bennett School of Public Policy, tells me that governments risk entering a "Faustian pact" with Musk that would see the billionaire decide how, when, and where its citizens and militaries access the internet.
He said that the closest analogy for this level of geopolitical power is not pre-war titans of industry like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison but the East India Company, the British trading conglomerate that ruled over much of the Indian subcontinent. The company was granted exclusive rights to operate the trade routes between Asia and Britain in 1600. It leveraged that monopoly to grow into a quasi-empire with its own system of taxation and standing army that ruled over millions for nearly three centuries.
We can criticize Musk till the cows come home, but it's an incredible product.Luke Hartley
Terzi says that SpaceX's market share of everything sent into space — close to 80% in 2025 — outstrips the East India Company's share of global shipping at its peak. He adds that Musk and SpaceX are leveraging their own monopoly over satellite communication to act more like a sovereign state than a private company.
"This is a mega-company that is chipping away at some roles that would normally fall on the government," says Terzi.
A star is born
When Musk first announced plans for Starlink in 2015, launching internet satellites was an ambitious side quest. At the time, SpaceX's main mission was to lower the cost of launching cargo into space by perfecting its Falcon rocket, which could be partially reused over multiple flights rather than self-destructing on impact.
One former SpaceX employee said that SpaceX initially based its Starlink division in Redmond, Washington, in part to avoid distracting employees working on Falcon at the company's main facilities in Texas and California. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
By 2020, however, Starlink was at the center of SpaceX's plans. That year, Musk suggested the satellite internet service could become a $30 billion-a-year cash cow.
The company spun up a production line for Starlink user terminals in a corner of its Hawthorne, California, facility that was so far away from the main campus that early employees bought bikes to travel from one side to the other. The bikes were regularly stolen, another former employee said. In typical SpaceX fashion, the production line quickly expanded, the former employee said, so much so that it spilled out into unfinished buildings with compacted dirt floors.
Musk took a hands-on approach to the project, the person added, including telling employees to contact him if they encountered any roadblocks and providing technical feedback on new versions of the terminal.
"If his internet was down, then we were in trouble," the former employee said.
In Starlink's early days, Musk framed it as an effort to "rebuild the internet" into a space-based network that would eliminate lag while reaching the estimated 42 million Americans with no access to broadband internet. It had the added bonus, Musk said, of providing a steady stream of revenue to pay for SpaceX's Mars colonization efforts.
Musk's rivals are also chasing this vision. Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Paris-based Eutelsat OneWeb have attempted to build their own satellite constellations, but the dominance of SpaceX's rocket business — the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket 165 times last year, more rockets than the rest of the world combined — gives it a steep advantage. When Amazon put 24 of its Project Kuiper (now Leo) satellites into orbit last October, they traveled on a SpaceX rocket.
Recently, Musk has gone from describing Starlink as cheap internet for rural communities to something more fundamental: an oxygen source for an AI-saturated world. In SpaceX's August 2026 earnings call, Musk speculated that demand for Starlink would skyrocket as it became the connectivity network for fleets of robotaxis and armies of humanoid robots. (Tesla has already begun outfitting its Cybercab robotaxis with Starlink dishes.)
Beyond the financial success Starlink has afforded Musk, it has also become a useful tool for him and SpaceX to help people in need, which can also generate positive headlines. The company regularly offers Starlink for free in countries hit by natural disasters and it waived fees for Starlink access in Iran during a government crackdown on protests.
SpaceX has also used Starlink discounts to defuse the data center backlash that has spread across the US. The rocket giant's Colossus data centers in Memphis and nearby Southaven, Mississippi, have attracted opposition and lawsuits from local residents complaining about noise and pollution from the gas generators powering the sites. SpaceX responded in June by offering residents in Memphis 50% off Starlink for their "partnership and support." SpaceX extended the same offer to residents of rural Vermilion Parish in Louisiana, where it is building a $100 billion spaceport that will eventually support thousands of Starship flights a year.
Musk's ambitions for the service are growing more galactic. In SpaceX's August earnings call, he predicted that Starlink could provide the majority of the world's internet within the next 10 years.
One area where Starlink has already become a must-have is in the air. Executives said on the call that in-flight WiFi powered by Starlink, which has been adopted by more than 40 airlines, has become so popular that some passengers — including YouTube influencer Mr Beast — are booking short-haul flights instead of going direct because they have Starlink.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell has signaled that Starlink plans to turn into a full-fledged mobile carrier that will aggressively target AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
IPO
The satellite internet service has become a major selling point for airlines that offer it and a headache for those who don't. United Airlines has used its Starlink in-flight WiFi to try and woo Delta loyalty flyers, after Delta picked Amazon's Leo for its fleet.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell signaled on the call that the company plans to turn its mobile service into a full-fledged mobile carrier that will aggressively target AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. "I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better," she said.
Limited by liftoffs
To take on the telecoms, SpaceX is planning to fill the heavens with a lot more Starlink satellites.
The company has submitted proposals to regulators to launch 100,000 of its V3 Starlink satellites, which are larger units that can only be launched on SpaceX's massive Starship rocket.
Analysts say that this proliferation won't be enough to take on the likes of AT&T. Tim Farrar, president at technology consultancy TMF Associates, tells me that while low-earth orbit satellites are great at providing coverage to remote and rural areas, they struggle to provide service in densely populated cities. As they whiz around the planet at 17,000 miles an hour, Starlink's satellites spend a small fraction of their time in orbit over these areas, and far more time crossing large uninhabited expanses of ocean and wilderness.
Starlink would provide Taiwan a backup network for military and civilian comms that would be exceptionally hard for China to jam.
Pierre Lionnet, a space economist, says that as the company launches more satellites to try to meet rising demand in urban areas, the amount of capacity being wasted will increase, shrinking SpaceX's margins. "The problem of growing this capacity is that it means that the same satellite will spend a larger amount of time circling the earth in areas where there is no additional demand," he says. Lionnet estimates that the company would be unlikely to turn a profit on a 100,000-strong network of Starlink satellites at the current cost of launching cargo into orbit.
SpaceX is working hard to bring that cost down with Starship, its most advanced rocket, which executives estimate will reduce launch costs by 10 times compared to the Falcon 9. In September, SpaceX hit a major milestone for Starship when it deployed working Starlink V3 satellites into orbit for the first time.
Until Starship can ramp up to full commercial operation, SpaceX will face pressure to maximize revenue from the satellite capacity they do have, Lionnet says. That means adding new enterprise customers, such as governments and airlines, and launching Starlink in new countries.
When connectivity becomes power
Global expansion gives Musk new soft power opportunities, but also risks entangling other parts of his business empire in geopolitics.
Following the example of Ukraine and the US government — for which SpaceX has built Starshield, a secure military version of Starlink — other nations are looking closely at Starlink for military purposes. In July, Taiwan changed foreign ownership rules that previously collapsed negotiations with SpaceX to bring Starlink to the island nation.
Phoebe Pham, a researcher at Taiwan's state-backed Institute for National Defense and Security Research, says that low-earth orbit satellite internet networks like Starlink would be critical for the country in the event of a conflict with China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites lifts off from Cape Canaveral.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images
Some military analysts have predicted that in an assault on Taiwan, China would likely cut the undersea cables that provide internet to the island and launch a barrage of cyberattacks against the island's communications infrastructure. For the Taiwanese government, Starlink would provide a backup network for military and civilian comms that would be exceptionally hard for China to jam.
"It would be wrong to say they're not looking at lessons learned from Ukraine," Pham says.
In Taiwan, government approval or adoption of Starlink could be complicated by Musk's business interests in China and his previous comments about Taiwanese independence. He suggested in 2022 that the island become a "special administrative zone" similar to Hong Kong and described Taiwan as an "integral part" of China in 2023. Tesla has operated a giant EV factory in Shanghai since 2019, and around a fifth of the automaker's revenue last year came from the Chinese market.
Pham says that if Starlink applied to operate in Taiwan, the government would have to weigh the risk that Musk's business interests in China could be used as "potential leverage." It could seek to avoid giving Musk the kind of unilateral decision-making power he has enjoyed in Ukraine, she added.
"The question is, who makes these decisions about the activation and coverage?" she says.
Starlink has also run into geopolitical roadblocks in India. In June, Bloomberg reported that officials hit the brakes on the service's long-awaited launch after raising concerns over reports from local Iranian media that Starlink kits were being used in Iran, despite a state-mandated block on internet access during the conflict with the US and Israel. SpaceX executive Lauren Dreyer said in response to Bloomberg's report that the company remained in "active and productive discussions" about bringing Starlink to India, adding that SpaceX had set up a bespoke deployment model for operating Starlink in the country.
Ukraine is now exploring alternative methods for frontline communications. A senior figure at a company manufacturing drones for the country's military says Ukraine is planning for the day Starlink goes offline, whether because Musk has pulled the plug or as a result of direct Russian attacks on Starlink's satellites.
"Hopefully, it will not happen tomorrow. But if it happens in a year, Ukraine will be ready," the person says. "Every army should prepare for this scenario because it's not just a question if Elon Musk will shut it down. In the military, you always need to have backup options for connectivity. Otherwise, you may lose everything."
