Fionn Whitehead starred in "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch."
Netflix
Netflix is exploring personalized trailers and interactive content, recent patents show.
The patents describe using information about subscribers to tailor content to them.
AI experts said this could be a way for Netflix to revive interactive titles and boost engagement.
Netflix is developing tech that could help it personalize not only the recommendations you see on the service but also the videos themselves.
Patents issued to Netflix in recent months show the streamer is exploring the creation of customized trailers and interactive movies or shows based on what it knows about its users.
One patent, from December, describes how Netflix could develop different trailers for the same movie that could be personalized for eachuser.
"The trailer may highlight movie clips that showcase an actor or actress that the user has shown an interest in, or may highlight certain segments that show the genre or some of the comedic moments of the movie," Netflix gave as an example.
While the patent focuses on movie trailers, it says the principles involved may be applied to "full-length movies, trailers for television shows or full-length television shows, trailers for audio books or full-length audio books, etc."
A screenshot from a Netflix patent describes how it could make personalized trailers.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
In a second patent, from February, Netflix described a method of making choose-your-own-adventure-style titles using machine learning that offers viewers choices based on what it knows about them. For example, one could show, say, a romantic-themed option to someone whose profile indicates an interest in that topic.
Netflix has previously experimented with interactive shows and movies, most notably with its 2018 film, "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," about a programmer who starts questioning reality when he adapts a dark fantasy novel into a video game, and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend," a 2020 interactive film based on the Tina Fey-created series.
However, the momentum behind that original wave petered out, and Netflix removed all its interactive titles from the service, with the final ones leaving in May.
This new patent suggests that interactive titles could get a second look, with new tech backing them up. Netflix's previous tech presented all users with the same fixed decision tree.
Netflix declined to comment on the patents.
Screenshot from a Netflix patent describes how an interactive title could unfold.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Phil Petitpont, cofounder of Moments Lab, an AI startup that helps media companies monetize their video libraries, said dynamic storytelling had a lot of potential for social media virality, as users are likely to share their experiences with others. He imagined how Netflix could apply it in the future.
"When you see video games like 'Death Stranding,' 'Metal Gear Solid,' or even any games from Quantic Dream studios, it's built like a long interactive cinematic," he said. "We could expect the next season of 'Black Mirror' to be an experiment on this one."
Get ready for custom trailers
The idea of customized movie and TV trailers seems to be the most immediate practical application of the patents.
Netflix has been trying to address what's become a widespread pain point: The proliferation of titles on streamers has made it harder to find something to watch and left some viewers overwhelmed.
At the same time, Netflix is trying to boost time spent on the service, which will help its growing ad business. Along those lines, it's also been exploring other formats and types of content like live events, talk shows, and video podcasts.
Like other media and entertainment companies, Netflix has also been using AI in various phases of production to make films and shows faster and cheaper.
In May, Netflix made a slew of changes to its homepage to make it easier for users to choose what to watch. These changes included making shortcuts more visible, making recommendations that respond to people's moods and interests in the moment, and introducing a generative AI search tool.
Bryn Mooser, the founder of AI studio Asteria, said he saw potential in using AI to customize trailers.
"Netflix has always cared about giving customers a great user experience, and if they can use this tech to recommend movies people really like and attract people with custom trailers, I think that's really exciting," he said. "I want all my streamers to come up with better recommendations."
Between 2021 and 2023, Charles earned as much as $300,000 annually by juggling multiple full-time jobs in product and tech. The extra income helped him pay down debt, renovate his home, buy a rental property, and purchase a new car.
When he got laid off from one of his jobs last August, he took comfort in still having a roughly $150,000 salary from his remaining role. But landing a new job proved harder than he expected. Then, in September, he got more bad news: he'd been laid off again. In just two months, he'd gone from two jobs to zero.
Over the next six months, Charles said he applied to hundreds of jobs but couldn't land any. He had to rely on his wife's income and tap into much of the savings he'd built up through job juggling in recent years.
"All that extra money I made kind of went away," said Charles, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but who asked to use a pseudonym, citing fears of professional repercussions. He's in his 30s and lives in the Northeast. "I'd never seen the job market that bad, and I was genuinely concerned for my financial future."
But just as suddenly as he'd lost his jobs, his luck changed. A few months ago, he landed a full-time contract role through a personal connection — one that paid about $150,000 annually. Roughly a month later, after a recruiter reached out to him, Charles landed a second gig — a full-time contract role that paid about $175,000 annually. That same month, a different recruiter contacted him, leading to a third role, a full-time salaried position that paid about $185,000 a year.
And just like that, he was on track to earn more than $500,000 annually across his three jobs — more than he'd ever made in his years of job juggling. However, he would soon learn that landing the roles wasn't the end of his professional challenge.
To be sure, holding multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. Additionally, tech layoffs and return-to-office mandates have created obstacles for current and aspiring job jugglers. However, most job jugglers have told BI that the financial benefits have generally outweighed the downsides and risks and that they're doing whatever they can to maintain their over-employed status.
Juggling three jobs was lucrative — but not sustainable
Earning more than $30,000 a month across his three jobs was a financial boon for Charles, but he knew he couldn't keep it up.
The hours weren't the issue. Charles said he only worked roughly 40 hours each week, and that the companies operated in different time zones, which limited the number of hours he had to work all three jobs simultaneously. He said he used separate laptops and calendars to keep his roles siloed — and often worked on one job while sitting silently in a meeting for another.
The bigger problem came when the manager at his full-time role began pushing him to work from the office, a shift that would require a roughly two-hour commute each way. Charles said the recruiter had told him during the interview process that working remotely wouldn't be an issue, which made the change of tune particularly frustrating.
"I'm not wasting four hours of my time so I can sit in a meeting for two hours when I can just hop on Zoom," he said.
While the commute alone wasn't appealing, the larger concern was that working in an office would make job juggling nearly impossible. To make matters worse, Charles said the job wasn't turning out to be a good fit.
He considered dropping the job, but said he was hesitant to let it go because it was his only full-time role. He worried that if the economy took a downturn, his two contract roles would be cut first, making the full-time position his most stable option.
After considering his options, Charles decided to resign. He said his goal is for at least one of his contract roles to eventually convert into a full-time position. In the meantime, he's looking for other opportunities that offer the flexibility, stability, and pay he's come to value. He's also hoping the income from his two remaining jobs will help him restore the savings he depleted over the past year.
"For me, it's about building my savings back up and then putting that money away for a nest egg," he said. "That's kind of the priority until I get to a point where I'm comfortable where I'm at financially."
Hyrox is a group fitness race taking the world by storm, but demand is outstripping supply.
Fitness fans have described trying to get tickets as "like Glastonbury."
Many gyms are launching their own fitness competitions for people who can't get Hyrox tickets.
Emily Harding had four screens poised and ready to try to get tickets when they were released. "I almost thought about roping in my housemate too," the 34-year-old yoga teacher from London told Business Insider.
This wasn't a Taylor Swift or Burning Man ticket release. It was Hyrox, a fitness race that's taking the world by storm.
In Hyrox, competitors work in pairs or individually to perform functional exercises, such as wall balls, sled pushes, and rowing. These movements are sandwiched between eight one-kilometer runs. You win by finishing first. Entry costs up to $185 and the winner of the pro division gets a prize of up to $7,500. Unlike CrossFit, which was the dominant fitness contest in the 2010s and features highly technical movements like Olympic lifts, Hyrox was designed to be accessible to anyone who works out regularly.
However, as Hyrox grows more popular — even drawing away pro athletes from other sports, like CrossFit GOAT Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr — it is becoming harder to snag tickets, which are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The first race, in Germany in 2017, featured 650 people. In 2024, over 650,000 participants competed in Hyrox contests globally, making it one of the world's fastest-growing fitness events.
The hype is prompting gyms to launch their own alternative fitness contests, to cater to members who can't get Hyrox tickets — mass fitness events that typically cost a little less to enter, and usually have a cash prize.
Moritz Fürste, one of the cofounders of Hyrox, told BI the organization is aware of the demand and is pushing to keep expanding and optimizing their service. Still, some of the event's biggest fans are say change is overdue.
Tickets like 'gold dust'
Harding described a Hyrox ticket as "gold dust."
She first entered three years ago and had no trouble getting in. In fact, when she had to pull out for medical reasons, she couldn't find anyone to take her ticket.
Her second attempt was in June 2025. "I was really gobsmacked how different it was from now to then," Harding said.
Emily Harding, a London-based yoga teacher and Hyrox fan
Jerome Favreau
Tickets were released in two waves, at 12 p.m. and then 5 p.m. Harding was applying for women's doubles, so she and her friend each joined the queue on their phones and laptops. Harding was around 6,000th in the queue, and her friend was 10,000th, but then the queue glitched, and they jumped up to around 30,000th. Harding's phone kept pushing her to the back of the queue, she said.
"If you were only doing this on your phone, I can imagine you'd be absolutely fuming," Harding said.
Fürste said that server capacities are hard to control, but they are working hard to make the process fair, and it works very well 95% of the time. In 2024, Hyrox UK trialled a New York City Marathon-style ballot system to allocate race places, but the format was scrapped due to overwhelming demand and push-back from affiliates.
Harding and her friend finally got through on a laptop, but the tickets they wanted were sold out. They considered finding two guys to do mixed doubles, but while they thought about it, those tickets sold out too.
They finally got tickets when they tried again in the 5 p.m. release. "The queueing system was horrible," Harding said.
Jamie Thorpe, a sales director from Leicestershire, has competed in two Hyrox games since 2022. He likes the event's accessibility and energy, "even if many of the competitors seem to forget their shirts."
The first time he entered, "we got a place easily — no queues, no ticket drops, no random ballots," he told BI.
Jamie Thorpe, a Hyrox participant
Hyrox
In the years since, Thorpe, 34, has tried to get tickets more times than he can remember, often recruiting friends to assist, but it's got "significantly" harder, he said.
"The organizers can hardly be blamed for the success of their event, and I am fortunate to have attended two already, but that doesn't stop it from being immensely frustrating to miss out so consistently," he said.
Danny Rae, the UK men's open Hyrox champion, told BI he's competed in over 25 of the events and advises people struggling to get tickets to join an affiliate gym so they get early access.
"They do still get sold out because it's in such high demand, but you get a better shot," he said. "Another thing to consider is: people will naturally sign up for the Open races. People are scared of the prospect of doing Pro because of the word 'Pro'. If you are active and you train most days, then just go for Pro and you'll be more likely to get a ticket."
Clifford Saul, a personal trainer of 17 years and the owner of The 200 Strong gym in Leicestershire, UK, thinks the rise of Hyrox is in large part due to the proliferation of fitness culture on social media.
"If social media were as prevalent as it is now, 10 years ago, I think that boom would've happened sooner," he said. "If you put on an event now, it's thrown in your face. All you need to do is look at one reel, and then the algorithms send you loads more."
Gyms are putting on their own events for people who can't get tickets
Saul is one of many coaches launching other fitness competitions to cater to members who can't get Hyrox tickets.
He is part of a 30-person strong WhatsApp group of local fitness fans who all try to get tickets for each other. Some people never seem to have any luck, others have never had issues, Saul said.
With so many of his members missing out on Hyrox tickets, Saul decided to partner with another local gym to host their own group fitness competition called The District Games.
Clifford Saul, owner of The 200 Strong, a gym in Leicestershire, launched an alternative to Hyrox.
The 200 Strong
"The idea is that all the gyms in the area can enter teams," he said. "We want to get all the local community together, put food on, have a DJ, drinks, a bouncy castle for kids," he said. "And we're doing this because we can't get tickets for Hyrox. We can do it a bit differently, and it won't cost £100 each." Tickets cost £149 for a team of four.
On the other hand, some gym owners are staging large-scale events to rival Hyrox.
There's Athx, a functional fitness contest, launched in 2023, that focuses more on strength than Hyrox. Another is Metrix, launched in March 2025 — an immersive fitness competition that combines high-intensity workouts with club-level production and world-class DJs. Each pair does as much as they can in each of the five 10-minute stations, with four minutes of recovery in between each.
Metrix founder Will McLaren, a personal trainer and former Royal Marine based in London, launched Metrix in March 2025, told BI the atmosphere is dark, so people don't feel like they're being watched, and the exercises are designed to be even more accessible than those in Hyrox.
"50% of people can't do a wall ball because they haven't got the mechanics, the overhead extension of the spine, and the anchor mobility to be able to pull them off, so I didn't want to fall into that trap of being stuck in a set workout," McLaren told BI.
Emily Harding at a new, alternative fitness competition, Turf Games.
Emily Harding
Metrix also sells separate "social" tickets for those who just want to have fun and don't care about competing — there's a cash prize for whoever wins, though.
"It's really important that everyone starts together and everyone finishes together. There's no winners and there's no losers unless you do want to compete for the money."
The community aspect is important for McLaren too. Metrix has food vans, ice baths, saunas, and kids' games for people to enjoy afterward.
"You're paying £120 for a ticket for Hyrox. It's a lot. People get the patch, they get half a banana, and they get told to go," McLaren said. "So we wanted to make sure people could stay all day, enjoy the music, enjoy the atmosphere, and meet other people."
Metrix is priced the same, but McLaren said he wants to offer more for that price. He said he is also hoping to partner with a dating app, to build on the trend of run clubs and fitness events as a place to find love.
"17- to 24-year-olds, they're not going out, drinking, and partying as much anymore," he said. "They're meeting up and doing fitness events."
In a 2023 survey from McKinsey, more than 50% of Gen Z respondents (generally 13 to 28 years old) said fitness was a very high priority for them, compared to 40% of people across all age groups.
In the UK, 25- to 34-year-olds make up 42% of Hyrox's demographics, and while there are older people doing Hyrox, the brand is mostly driven by millennials and Gen Z.
Fürste, the Hyrox cofounder mentioned earlier, said Hyrox's next goal is "to deliver the best possible race experience for more than 1 million people in the 2025/26 season."
They are planning to keep up with demand by launching more races in more countries and cities, with the aim of "taking the sport to as many people as possible across the world," he said.
But for long-term Hyrox fans, the competition's growth, both in the number of applicants and the fitness standard, has seen it evolve from the approachability that was part of its initial appeal.
Thorpe has done the pairs event twice with a very fit friend, and although their times have improved in many areas, their rankings have dropped dramatically.
"The increase in overall standard was extremely noticeable," Thorpe said. "This is, of course, not a problem, but part of what attracted me to the event in the first place was the accessibility, and I hope they don't lose this as the standard continues to rise."
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said Meta tried to recruit his employees by offering them $100 million signing bonuses.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sam Altman said Meta was offering $100 million signing bonuses to OpenAI employees to jump ship.
But an OpenAI researcher who recently joined Meta said he wasn't given such a bonus.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, said Altman and OpenAI had countered Meta's offers.
A former OpenAI researcher who left the ChatGPT maker for Meta said he didn't receive a $100 million signing bonus when he joined the social media giant.
Lucas Beyer joined OpenAI in November and helped set up its Zurich office with two of his colleagues, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai. On Thursday, Beyer wrote in an X post that the three had moved to Meta.
Meta's hiring of Beyer, Kolesnikov, and Zhai was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The trio had worked as research scientists at Google DeepMind before they joined OpenAI.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said in an episode of the "Uncapped with Jack Altman" podcast that aired last week that Meta had tried to poach his best employees. Altman said he found it "crazy" that Meta was dangling $100 million signing bonuses to recruit his staff.
"I'm really happy that at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," he added.
"No, we did not get 100M sign-on, that's fake news," Beyer wrote on X on Thursday, but did not elaborate on the offer they had received.
The three former OpenAI employees did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment.
Meta has been ramping up its AI hiring efforts in a bid to dominate the field. Earlier this month, Meta said it had made a $15 billion investment in data-labeling firm Scale AI. The investment will also see ScaleAI's founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang leave his company to join Meta to work on their superintelligence efforts.
"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor, and I think it is rational for them to keep trying. Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they've hoped," Altman said of Meta's investment in Scale AI on the "Uncapped with Jack Altman" podcast.
Altman said he felt that the aggressive hiring strategy would not lead to a "great culture" at Meta.
"There's many things I respect about Meta as a company, but I don't think they are a company that's like great at innovation," he said.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer, responded to Altman's comments in an interview with CNBC last week. Bosworth told the outlet that Altman and OpenAI had countered Meta's offers.
Bosworth told CNBC that the scarcity of AI talent means a "relatively small pool of people" can command an "incredible market premium" for their skills.
"The free market will do its thing. People see these numbers, and they are going to start to build this expertise. A couple years from now, it will probably be very different and there will be a lot of people with this talent pool," Bosworth said.
"But today, it's a relatively small number and I think they have earned it," he added.
Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
At the AI startup that promised to help people "cheat on everything," there are only two job titles: engineer or influencer.
"There are only two roles here. You're either building the product or you're making the product go viral," Chungin "Roy" Lee, the CEO and cofounder of Cluely, said in an episode of the "Sourcery" podcast published Saturday. "There's nobody who's not a great engineer who has less than 100,000 followers."
Cluely has since removed references to cheating on job interviews from its website. It still positions itself as an "undetectable" AI that sees its users' screens and feeds them answers in real time.
The San Francisco startup, which announced a $15 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz on Friday, has made it clear it's betting big on influencers — not marketers — to drive growth.
Cluely needs to be "the biggest thing" on Instagram and TikTok, the 21-year-old said. "Every single big company is known by regular people," he added.
Lee previously told BI that his main goal for Cluely is to reach 1 billion views across all platforms.
"Marketing teams can try," he said. "The reason all these big consumer app guys are so young is because you need to be tapped in with young culture to understand what's funny."
"You can have a 35-year-old marketer who scrolls as much as they want. For some reason, they just won't have the viral sense to come up with hooks that are capable of generating 10 million views."
No work-life balance
Lee said most of the team lives and works together — part of his belief that "work-life balance should not be a thing."
"You need to work where you live if you're serious about building the company," Lee said. "Your work should be your life and vice versa."
"You wake up, go straight to work, go to bed on the couch," he said. "That's sort of the culture we're trying to promote here," he added.
Lee told BI on Tuesday that "work-life balance at an early-stage startup is a myth."
"The only way to succeed is by being all in on your company, not by working 40 hours a week and going home early," he added.
Lee also said on the podcast that he doesn't have to worry about his employees because "everyone is on board with the craziness."
"We understand that this is like the lifeline of the company," Lee said. "We're either crazy enough to make it or we're crazy enough to die."
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said during an episode of the "Diary of a CEO" podcast that startup employees shouldn't expect work-life balance if they want their business to take off.
"Work-life balance is not the startup game," Hoffman said.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said on an episode of "The Playbook" that "there is no balance" for the most ambitious people.
"If you want to crush the game, whatever game you're in, there's somebody working 24 hours a day to kick your ass," he said.
Disney's former executive said AI can only help content creation so much.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
A former Disney executive says there's a limit to how much AI can help the television industry.
Kevin Mayer said producing high-quality TV and movies is too expensive now for AI to help much.
"There's no longer the revenue base to afford as much content as once was the case," he said.
A former Disney executive said TV's golden era has passed, and even AI can't help it now.
Kevin Mayer, who spent more than 14 years in leadership roles at Disney, spoke on Yahoo Finance's "Opening Bid" podcast on Friday about how television is past its peak. Mayer, who is the co-CEO and founder of Candle Media, served as the CEO of TikTok for a few months in 2020.
"Content's squeezed right now, and it takes a lot of money to create great content. If you're doing traditional film and TV-length content at a high production value, it's expensive, it's getting more expensive," he told Brian Sozzi, the podcast host.
"AI might be helpful there a little bit, because AI is a tool that can help increase efficiencies in creating video and storylines and everything else," he said.
However, he also said there's a limit to how much AI can help the industry.
"You can't really depend on AI too much," he said. "But as a tool for creative executives and creative people, I think it may it'll actually help with the efficiency, but content's squeezed."
Mayer said TV peaked three to four years ago, and "there's no longer the revenue base to afford as much content as once was the case."
"This is not enough money to cover that anymore, so content is definitely coming down," Mayer said.
In his 14 years at Disney, Mayer was involved in the acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and 21st Century Fox. As the chair of Disney's direct-to-consumer and international division, he led a team that launched Disney's streaming service, Disney+, in 2019.
The use of AI in film and content production is a contentious issue. In 2023, more than 11,000 Hollywood film and TV screenwriters went on strike to protest the use of AI in their industry and demand more regulation.
Mayer's comments come at a difficult time for the US media industry. Traditional TV companies have for years been grappling with the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+, which have rendered once-essential cable TV networks obsolete.
Comcast, the American mass media, telecommunications, and entertainment megaconglomerate that owns MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, and other cable TV networks, said in November that it would spin off almost all of its TV networks into a separate company.
Representatives for Candle Media did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The author was nervous to travel with her in-laws, but they had a great time.
Courtesy of Melissa Noble
I had only met my in-laws a few times before my now-husband suggested we travel with them.
I was nervous about spending so much time together traveling, given our age difference.
However, we had so many great conversations, and it was a fantastic trip.
My partner Sam and I had been living in London for a year and were planning to head back to Australia when he made a suggestion one morning: "Why don't we invite Mom and Dad to do some traveling with us before we head home?"
Sam had been a good sport and done his fair share of traveling with my family, so I wanted to reciprocate. "Sure, let's do it," I replied, feeling a rush of anxiety bubble in my stomach.
Secretly, I wondered how it would go, given the age difference. His parents were 69 and 75, while Sam and I were 31 and 28. We weren't married back then, and I had only met his folks a handful of times in person.
I was nervous about how they'd handle Morocco, but we had a blast
He made a plan to meet his folks in Amsterdam. From there, they'd do a road trip through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France for a couple of weeks before flying to Morocco, where I was to meet them.
When the big day arrived and I landed in Marrakesh, Sam was waiting for me at the airport. They'd arrived earlier that day.
Marrakesh is a wonderfully vibrant city, but it can be an onslaught to the senses, what with the donkeys cruising around the narrow alleys of the Medina, the snake charmers working their magic, and the strange noises, smells, and crowds.
The author traveled to Morocco with her in-laws, and it brought them closer together.
Courtesy of Melissa Noble
"How are your mom and dad enjoying Morocco so far?" I asked tentatively. I had insisted on incorporating Morocco into the itinerary, so I was nervous about whether it was "too exotic" for his folks, who were from country Victoria in Australia.
"Well, Mom had a panic attack, but she's calmed down now," Sam said. I immediately felt awful and wondered if Morocco had been a mistake.
When we arrived at the riad where we were staying — a traditional Moroccan guesthouse with an interior courtyard — we found Sam's folks swimming in the pool. His mom seemed totally fine, and I sighed with relief.
Despite my initial concerns, we ended up having the most amazing time with his folks. We explored Marrakesh's vibrant Medina, historic Jemaa el-Fna square, and the other sites.
They trekked through the Sahara Desert on camels.
Courtesy of Melissa Noble
We trekked through the Sahara Desert and had amazing conversations
Next, we went on a three-day trip to the Sahara Desert, visiting historical sites like Aït Benhaddou and the Todra Gorge on the way. When his mom wanted to buy a Moroccan rug or a piece of jewelry, I bartered on her behalf. She looked mortified as I haggled with the locals over a couple of dollars, and afterwards, we'd all laugh about how unrelenting I'd been.
At one point on our trip, Sam went down with a stomach bug, and I was so glad his mom was there to help take care of him. I was clueless and didn't know what to do to comfort him, but she had the knack, as only moms do.
When we arrived at the Sahara Desert, the four of us trekked into the sunset on camels, then sat on the sand dunes and talked about life, dreams, and aspirations. That night, we enjoyed a tagine curry dish under the stars at the Berber camp where we were staying. To this day, it's one of my favorite experiences we've shared together.
The author, her husband, and her in-laws stayed in a riad in Morocco.
Courtesy of Melissa Noble
The trip was the icebreaker we needed
My in-laws proved to be real troopers on that trip and were great company to travel with. They ate street food and slept in low-budget hostels to accommodate our needs, provided interesting conversation, and were supportive when things got tough.
The trip helped us break the ice and get to know one another on a deeper level. Despite our age difference, we had loads of fun together.
That was 12 years ago, and Sam and I have now been married for a decade. We often reminisce with his parents about that special moment in time, and the lasting memories we made under a Moroccan sun.
Hiring managers are looking for candidates who stand out in a competitive job market.
SDI Productions/Getty Images
Hiring managers from McKinsey, Verizon, Exelon, and Kraft Heinz shared what makes job applicants stand out.
Candidates who show leadership, a sense of humor, and genuine interest may improve their chances.
Economic uncertainty and fewer job openings have made standing out crucial for job seekers.
It's one of the most frustrating parts of job hunting: You apply, maybe even land an interview, and then get rejected. Often, you don't know why you didn't get the job, or what made the person who did stand out.
Those answers often lie with the hiring managers and HR leaders who make the final call.
Blair Ciesil, partner, global talent attraction at McKinsey, pointed to an associate in the firm's Houston office named Caitlin — a former theater major who pivoted to management consulting. Ciesil said the pandemic's impact on the theater industry prompted Caitlin to explore new career options, leading her to take marketing classes and eventually launch a film and TV production business .
When Caitlin interviewed for the associate role, Ciesil said her creativity and resilience — two qualities McKinsey values — stood out, and she clearly articulated how her skillset could apply to the role.
"She had never been a consultant before, but talking about how she was agile and adaptable and pivoted her career — that was evidence for us that she likes to do hard things," Ciesil said. "She used what I think was a pretty difficult period for her professionally as her superpower in the hiring process."
Many job seekers aren't having the same success. Since last fall, Business Insider has heard from more than 800 people who say they're struggling to find work, including recent college graduates and middle managers. Amid economic uncertainty, companies are posting and filling fewer positions, and excluding a brief pandemic-related dip, US businesses are hiring at nearly the lowest rate since 2014, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
In this environment, optimizing every step of the hiring process, from the application to the final interview, could make the difference. Business Insider asked four companies — McKinsey, Verizon, Kraft Heinz, and Exelon — for a peek behind the curtain: What made certain candidates stand out and ultimately get hired?
Leadership skills and humor can differentiate candidates
When hiring managers receive countless job applications, many from qualified candidates, some choose to narrow in on specific skillsets they value.
Spring Lacy, Verizon's vice president of talent acquisition, recalled a junior-level hiring process for an IT analyst role that drew more than 1,000 applications — a number she said isn't unusual.
Lacy said recruiters narrowed the applicant pool down to about nine candidates. From there, one of the hiring team's main goals was to assess which candidates had the leadership and soft skills Verizon looks for at all role levels, including the ability to consider diverse perspectives and critical thinking.
"Our interview questions are geared toward assessing whether that person has those particular leadership skills," she said, adding that Verizon has team members with psychology backgrounds who help design the questions.
Other hiring managers prioritize how well a candidate's personality fits with their team.
Denise Galambos, Exelon's chief people and equity officer, recalled a recent senior-level hiring process in which several candidates appeared highly qualified on paper. To differentiate among them, she said she focused on two key "soft skills."
The first was whether the candidate could work well with a wide range of people. To gauge this, Galambos had eight colleagues from different departments interview the finalists and share feedback.
"I picked very different people from the company," she said. "It's important to be able to work with lots of different people."
The second was whether they had a sense of humor.
"HR is a tough job sometimes, and I wanted somebody who could see humor in the world and work hard, but also understand that sometimes life is silly," she said.
Showing genuine interest in the role and company could make you stand out
Some candidates' applications stand out right away, but their interviews and networking put them over the top.
McKinsey's Ciesil pointed to Grant, an associate in the company's Boston office, whose background in the Army special forces and triathlon competition showcased his resilience. But she said these weren't the only things that made him stand out.
Ciesil said it's rare to meet people who aren't just networking for transactional reasons — and seem genuinely interested in making connections with people. She said Grant came across as an "authentic relationship builder" while speaking with McKinsey employees at company events and during the interview process.
"He's someone who is an active listener — asking more questions to get to know not just the work that our colleagues do, but how they do it, what makes them tick, what their passions are, what they're excited about," she said.
In addition to strong qualifications and skills, demonstrating a deep understanding of the company and role can go a long way.
Mathias Rech, head of people & performance, marketing, at Kraft Heinz North America, recalled a candidate who had tried one of the company's newest products before the interview. He said this led to a productive conversation that showcased the candidate's understanding of the business and a genuine interest in the position.
Coming across well during the hiring process might not just help you land a job — but boost your chances of working for the employer down the road.
Exelon's Galambos recalled a candidate for a cybersecurity role who declined the company's job offer. However, roughly a year-and-a-half later, this person applied for a new role at Exelon and was ultimately hired. Galambos said the reverse can also happen: Someone the company initially passes on could land a role later on.
"We turn down people for a whole variety of reasons," she said. "A 'no' once doesn't mean a 'no' forever."
Mark Quinn used AI as an advisor in his job search. He landed what he says is his dream job after AI encouraged him to apply for the role.
Courtesy Mark Quinn
Months into his job search, Mark Quinn wasn't getting the traction he wanted, so he turned to AI.
He developed an AI tool that helped him tailor his applications and conduct mock interviews.
Quinn didn't think he was qualified for his dream job, but he got the role after AI said to apply.
Mark Quinn is the senior director of AI operations for Pearl, an AI search platform for professional services. Before getting the job, the longtime tech exec, who'd held leadership roles at Waymo, Apple, and LinkedIn, created an artificial intelligence tool, now calledCareerBuddy GPT, to help level up his search. The tool determined whether he was a good fit, updated his résumé to highlight relevant experience, wrote cover letters, and identified people to contact about the position. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
When I turned to AI to help with my job search, I was five months into it and wasn't getting the traction that I thought I would get. I felt like I had done everything, which obviously was not the case. When you're in a moment like this, you can feel stuck and be blinded to the possibilities.
So, I went to AI and said, "I don't know what to do. I'm an exec in tech, and here's my résumé. I'm applying to these jobs, and I'm not having a lot of success."
It was able to walk me back from the edge and say, essentially, "Look, you're at this level, and your average job search time should be ABC, and you're only this far in. So, first, calm down."
It sounds silly, but it was really helpful to hear. Then it went on to say, "Now, let's talk about some things. I'm hearing what you did do, but here are some things that maybe you could do that I'm not hearing."
A research partner
Some of its suggestions were unexpected. One was to make a cake for someone, because it was a company that appreciates bold moves. I don't know if that was really good advice, but it did come up with that.
It would also suggest how to tailor a message to a particular person. Or, for example, to use email, not LinkedIn, because they're not active on LinkedIn — those sorts of tidbits.
One of the taglines I've developed from my experience is that one way to think about AI is not as a tool but as the world's best expert in whatever you need help with. The more you leverage AI through that lens, the more you get out of it.
I used it to create what's called a panel of experts. Now, you've got AI playing multiple roles at once. It can slice and dice and give you different views and a synthesized opinion.
Another example is downloading the profile information for the person you're going to interview with. You can have AI assume the role of the interviewer and do a mock interview, and you can do it live with your voice, and then get feedback on how you performed.
It also started calling out things like applying to incremental CEO roles. It recommended doing more cold outreach, which I hadn't leaned into too much. It helped me figure out a plan that worked for me and language that worked for me to do that, and it gave me concrete steps.
'You're missing it'
The way that I ended up at Pearl is interesting. When I saw the job description, I passed it up because, on paper, it's different from anything I'd done before. Now it's laughable, because I'm in it, and everybody's connecting my passion and my past with the role.
Maybe a week later, I saw the posting again and thought, "Why am I saying 'no' to myself? Let me just drop this thing into CareerBuddy GPT and see what it says.
I didn't think that I was qualified, but I said, "Give me your objective assessment." It came back and said, "Hey, you're missing it. Your résumé doesn't speak to it, but here's how your experience aligns."
It encouraged me to apply. So, then I did the network outreach, and I had a connection, which helped open the door. One thing led to the next. But what got me to apply was leveraging AI to the extent of not only answering, but also truly advising. I say trust, but verify.
It told me to do something different than what I thought was right. I can represent me, what I am, and what I'm not. AI can look between the lines and challenge and question.
When I was interviewing with our CEO, he asked me, toward the end of the interview, what my dream job was. I got about 15 to 20 seconds into stumbling around, and I said, "Look, I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't know how to spin this to make it sound good, because the honest answer is this: This job is my dream job."
No more throwing darts
After I started using AI, my job search still took a bit of time — maybe another five months or so. But I went from feeling like I was just throwing darts to where it felt much more targeted and precise. And, I'd gone from essentially getting no response to finding the right opportunities, having conversations, and it was a matter of finding the right fit. That can take time.
We're in a moment when people and companies are about to be left behind, and I want to help that not be the case. The opportunity to go to a company that really gets it, is going after this full force, and wants to rewire with AI — that sounds like the hardest role of my career, but also the most fun and the most relevant thing I could be doing for this moment.
So, not only did I stumble into the job, but I stumbled into my dream job.
Howard Marks says he enlisted Perplexity, an AI tool, to help write his latest memo.
It laid out how regulations have distorted California's fire insurance market, reducing coverage.
Marks still included colorful commentary from himself and wisdom from Warren Buffett.
Howard Marks' memos are considered must-reads by many in the financial world, including Warren Buffett. Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, helped write a chunk of his latest missive.
Marks, the billionaire co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, has been writing memos for 35 years and turns 80 next year. That makes it perhaps a little surprising that he's drafted in a machine as a contributor.
"In a sign of the times, I'll let my new (and AI-powered) editorial assistant, Perplexity, fill you in on the background," Marks said in a Wednesday memo titled "More on Repealing the Laws of Economics."
The veteran fund manager said he hadn't "changed a word" of Perplexity's output, which was "pretty close to what I would have produced in an hour or two."
In support of his argument for free-market economics and less government intervention, Marks roped in the AI tool to lay out how regulations have distorted the fire insurance sector in California, resulting in widespread underinsurance.
"As Perplexity notes, insurers were told they couldn't price fire policies to reflect increases in the frequency and severity of forest fires," Marks said. "Likewise, they couldn't raise prices to pass through the higher premiums their reinsurers were charging based on the increased frequency and severity."
The distressed-debt investor asked whether a hypothetical insurer would cover a $5 million house with a 1% chance of burning down if the regulator only allowed it to charge $25,000 a year for a policy.
"I didn't need Perplexity to tell me the insurance company faces an expected payout of $50,000 on that policy," Marks said. "The answer's simple: you don't write that policy."
AI tools are divisive. Proponents hail them as productivity boosters that will free workers from mundane tasks and supercharge economic growth. Critics fear they'll stymie learning and development, erode skills, and destroy so many jobs that they cause mass unemployment.
Warren Buffett has said he always learns something from Howard Marks' memos.
Matthew Peyton/Getty Images
Marks may have embraced AI but he still finds value in human wisdom. In his new memo, he quoted Buffett saying the US fiscal deficit was "unsustainable" and could become "uncontrollable" during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting in May.
The Wall Street legend also included his own colourful, incisive comments: "The behavior in Washington with regard to both the fiscal deficit and the precariousness of Social Security remind me of the tale of the guy who jumped off the 20-story building. As he passed the 10th floor, he said, 'so far, so good.'"
Marks may be in his golden years and as skeptical of high-flying assets as ever, yet seems open-minded about innovations.
For example, he went from dismissing bitcoin as "not real" in 2017, to trumpeting its privacy and convenience in 2021 after learning about cryptocurrencies from his son. He's clearly finding uses for AI too.
First-person-view drones have come to dominate the battlefield in Ukraine, and more reports are coming in of drone pilots taking enemy soldiers prisoner.
Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ukraine's Magyar Birds released a video this week of a drone taking a prisoner by itself.
Clips showed the man raising his hands in surrender and being led to Ukrainian lines.
It's a rare instance where a cheap drone was almost solely responsible for the capture of a combatant.
Ukraine's military released footage on Thursday of a rare instance where a first-person-view drone captured a man, identified by Kyiv's forces as a Russian soldier, and brought him alone to Ukrainian lines.
The incident was recorded on Tuesday, said the Magyar Birds, a famed drone unit that filmed the clips.
The footage shows a man clad in military attire raising his hands in surrender to a small quadcopter drone. Business Insider was not able to independently verify that the man in the video is a Russian soldier.
It later cuts to an observer Mavic drone's view of the man stumbling through a forest as he follows the FPV quadcopter through several rows of concertina wire. He eventually meets a second man, who can be seen taking over the escorting of the prisoner.
"The pilot did not eliminate the invader, but escorted him to our positions and handed him over to the infantry of the adjacent unit," Ukraine's ground forces wrote on its official Facebook page in the Thursday post.
The Magyar Birds said on its social media channels on Wednesday that the exchange happened in the Donbas region.
It added that the pilot in the clips, a crew commander with the call sign "Payne," used an "F10" drone. The F10 likely refers to a reusable, lightweight FPV drone created in late 2023 by Robert Magyar, the businessman who founded the Magyar Birds.
The unit said it was the first time its pilots had captured a soldier with an FPV drone.
Similar cases have been reported before, but few known instances have involved a soldier being taken captive almost purely by a quadcopter and then escorted until he reaches enemy lines.
In September, for example, an FPV drone pilot from Ukraine's 54th Mechanized Brigade was recorded dropping a soldier a note and drinking water, leading the latter to surrender and follow the drone to a trench. Ukrainian soldiers later arrived and apprehended the man.
And in February, the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade released a video of what it said was an FPV drone using a loudspeaker to persuade nine Russian soldiers to surrender.
I lean into my natural rhythms and create structure based on what worked previously.
Cody Perhamus
Kate McAndrew cofounded the San Francisco-based VC firm Baukunst in 2022.
She told BI she builds out her schedule every quarter to accommodate her son and 12 p.m. dance classes.
Her "deep work" begins around 4 a.m., and she's asleep by about 8:30 p.m.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kate McAndrew, a San Francisco-based 38-year-old cofounder and general partner at VC firm Baukunst. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I got my first opportunity in venture capital in 2012, and as soon as I found venture, it was like two puzzle pieces fitting together.
In 2022, I founded Baukunst, a VC fund that I'm a general partner at with three other partners. We invest in brand-new technology startups in the pre-seed phase on the frontiers of technology and design. We raised a $100 million debut fund, and now we're off to the races.
No two days in a week are alike for me, but most of my weeks look the same. Mondays look like Mondays, or Tuesdays look like Tuesdays, but all of the days are different.
A big part of that is because I have 50/50 custody of my son, so my whole schedule gets built out around him.
My assistant and I do a quarterly planning of my schedule. I really lean into my natural rhythms and create structure based on what worked previously. I make my choices, and I own my choices, and that's not a privilege everybody has. But I think in the ways that you can control your time, you should.
My day starts at 4 a.m. with coffee
My deep work takes place between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Cody Perhamus
I wake up at 4 a.m. every day, and I am one of those people who wakes up awake.
I make coffee with my automated pour-over, and I drink as much of it as I want.
Once I get my coffee, I open my laptop right away. I'm probably already on my phone on the way down to make the coffee, which I drink with a little bit of half and half.
My deep work takes place between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. That's when I'm cranking through emails and when I'm most creative.
I drink a smoothie filled with functional mushrooms every day
I do a green smoothie every morning that has Huel green powder in it
Cody Perhamus
I do a green smoothie every morning that has all my functional mushrooms in it, which are said to produce functional benefits, such as brain elasticity. I love them.
I either make my smoothie to drink in bed while I work or when I make breakfast for my son.
My son and I read for 45 minutes every morning
My son and I read for about 45 minutes in the morning.
Kate McAndrew
If I have my son, we have a wild morning routine where I'll make him breakfast in bed and we read for about 45 minutes. Then we'll get dressed and go to school.
I walk with a weighted vest
Kate McAndrew walking in a weighted vest
Cody Perhamus
If I'm not dancing later that day, I go for a walk in the morning with a weighted vest. I walk about a mile — it's more about moving and seeing the sunrise than exercise.
I walk to my office around 8:30 a.m.
I can walk to my office.
Kate McAndrew
I can walk to my office, so I walk to my office.
Out of four cofounders, two of us are in San Francisco and we both live in the same neighborhood. A place was available halfway between our houses, and we were like, "We run this company. We can make this work for us."
Having everything feel totally integrated geographically has made me feel completely integrated with this community in a lot of different capacities. It is also so practical. I don't deal with parking.
I dance every Tuesday at noon during my lunch break
I plan all of my dance classes a quarter in advance.
Kate McAndrew
The non-negotiable for me is that I need to dance at least three days a week. So I plan all of my dance classes a quarter in advance.
Dance hits so many things for me — it's like this totally transcendent, ultra-efficient self-care. It's a physical workout, it's an emotional release, and it's a community.
My dance classes are one hour long and depend on the week, but most commonly, I dance every Tuesday at noon. It's a great class, and I never miss it.
I've killed the unproductive commute
I was missing my best self-care because of parking.
Kate McAndrew
I Waymo and work in the car on the way to dance. There's a community space at the dance studio and I will often take calls from the dance studio right before and after.
It was my assistant who figured this out. She was just like, "Why'd you miss dance class?" I was like, "I couldn't find a parking spot." She was like, "Why are you driving?" I was like, "It's expensive." She was like, "You can afford it."
I eat grocery store sushi for lunch
I eat grocery store sushi for lunch. It's less than $10, reasonably healthy, and super fast.
Kate McAndrew
There's a store by our office, and I just get either a cup of soup or grocery store sushi for lunch. It's less than $10, reasonably healthy, and super fast. I do not snack during the day.
Half of the workday is usually back-to-back calls, and the other half is reserved for focused work or longer networking coffees
I try to reserve half the day for focused work.
Cody Perhamus
Usually once or twice a week, either the morning or afternoon is taken up by a big board meeting or a strategy session with a founder.
I try to reserve half the day for focused work or a networking coffee that's going to be an hour and a half, and then the other half is typically transactional 30-minute Zooms.
I head over to a wine bar around 4 p.m. and finish my workday there
I finish off the day while I'm having a glass of wine.
Kate McAndrew
If I'm picking up my son from school, I finish off the day while I'm having a glass of wine.
That allows me to decelerate from the workday and then transition into mom mode. For a while, I was like, "Is it weird to be going to get a glass of wine at four?" And then I was like, "No, it's fine."
I pick up my son around 5 p.m. and we're asleep by 8:30 p.m.
We're both in bed by 7:45 p.m.
Kate McAndrew
If I have my son, there's no phone. I don't want him to see me with the device.
I'll pick him up, we'll go to the park and play together, and then I'll cook dinner. We eat around 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. and then his bath is at 7 p.m.
We're both in bed by 7:45 and asleep by 8:30 p.m.
I typically go to one work event a week
On days I don't have my son and I'm not at a work event, I'm either dancing in the evening or having dinner with my boyfriend.
Cody Perhamus
If I don't have my son, I usually make it to one work event per week. If I'm not at a work event, I'm either dancing in the evening or having dinner with my boyfriend.
I am in constant iteration cycles based on what works for me, my family, and my company
I am in constant iteration cycles on what works for me.
Kate McAndrew
In startups, 9-to-5 is a total fiction; you really have to think about seven days a week.
This is what's working for me now, but in six months, I'll probably have three things that stopped working for me — and I'll iterate.
North Korean troops during a military parade in Pyongyang in 2018.
ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
Russia says Kim Jong Un is sending another 6,000 people to Kursk.
UK intelligence estimates 6,000 North Koreans have already been killed or wounded in Kursk.
Sergei Shoigu said Kim is now sending 1,000 sappers and 5,000 workers to rebuild the oblast.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to send another 6,000 of his people to aid Russia in the Kursk region.
Russian state media on Tuesday cited Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Moscow's security council, saying that Pyongyang had agreed to provide 1,000 sappers — combat engineers who deal with explosives and fortifications — and 5,000 construction workers to rebuild the oblast.
Shoigu gave no timeline on the deployment. He said the sappers would help to demine Kursk, where Ukrainian troops held pockets of territory for about eight months after a surprise incursion in the summer of 2024.
The North Korean workers, meanwhile, would "restore infrastructure facilities destroyed by the occupiers," Shoigu told state media.
Shoigu's announcement comes after he visited North Korea for the second time in two weeks. According to Russian state media, he's visited Pyongyang three times in the last three months.
The new arrangement underscores a deepening relationship between Russia and North Korea that's opened up a vital source of arms and troops for the Kremlin to maintain its offensive pace against Ukraine.
"Sending North Koreans to support Russia is a quick and reliable way for Kim Jong Un to make money," Soo Kim, a North Korea researcher and former CIA analyst, told Business Insider about Tuesday's announcement.
"So in the short run, Kim gets money in exchange for providing manpower to Russia," she added. "Long run, the access to critical military know-how will only strengthen his threat base."
North Korean state media wrote on Tuesday that Kim had met with Shoigu. While it did not report on any details of fresh troops being sent to Kursk, it wrote that Kim had "confirmed the contents" and "accepted the relevant plans" of North Korea's cooperation.
Kim initially sent some 12,000 troops in the fall of 2024 to Kursk, the oblast where Ukraine entered in August of that year and seized up to 500 square miles of Russian soil.
Aided by Pyongyang's soldiers, the Kremlin's forces recaptured almost all of those gains by March 2025, effectively ousting Ukrainian forces from the region by late spring.
In the process, Pyongyang reportedly suffered heavy casualties. Ukraine said in early 2025 that about 3,800 to 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.
On June 15, the UK Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update that it estimated that more than 6,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in Kursk.
Shoigu, who oversaw the first two years of Russia's war in Ukraine as defense minister, said Moscow and Pyongyang are planning memorials for the North Korean troops lost.
"The heads of our states have decided to perpetuate the feat of the soldiers of the Korean People's Army who took part in the military operations," he told state media, referring to North Korea's military.
The top Russian official didn't say if Kim's new tranche of personnel to Kursk would come from North Korea's military. Pyongyang has typically been known to use its massive army to build large infrastructure projects.
In response to the announcement, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement that it was "closely monitoring developments" between North Korea and Russia.
Bob McGrew, OpenAI's former chief research officer, said prototypes made with vibe coding have to be "rebuilt with professional software engineers."
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
AI is not going to replace human software engineers just yet, says OpenAI's former research chief.
Bob McGrew, who left OpenAI last year, said product managers can vibe code "really cool prototypes."
But engineers still have to build the products in case they need to troubleshoot it, he said.
Bob McGrew, the former chief research officer at OpenAI, said professional software engineers are not going to lose their jobs to vibe coding just yet.
McGrew, who left OpenAI in November, said on the latest episode of Sequoia Capital's "Training Data" podcast that product managers can make "really cool prototypes" with vibe coding. But human engineers will still be brought in to "rewrite it from scratch."
"If you are given a code base that you don't understand — this is a classic software engineering question — is that a liability or is it an asset? Right? And the classic answer is that it's a liability," McGrew said of software made with vibe coding.
"You have to maintain this thing. You don't know how it works, no one knows how it works. That's terrible," he continued.
McGrew said that in the next one or two years, coding will be done by a mix of human engineers working with AI tools like Cursor and AI agents like Devin working in the background.
He added that while the liability that comes with using agents to code has gone down, it is "still, net, a liability."
Human engineers are needed to design and "understand the code base at a high level," McGrew said. This is so that when something goes wrong or if a project "becomes too complicated for AI to understand," a human engineer can help break the problem down into parts for an AI to solve.
McGrew did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In October, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said on an earnings call that the search giant was using AI to write more than 25% of its new code.
Garry Tan, the president and CEO of Y Combinator, said in March that a quarter of the founders in the startup incubator's 2025 winter batch used AI to code their software.
"For 25% of the Winter 2025 batch, 95% of lines of code are LLM generated. That's not a typo," Tan wrote in an X post.
On Tuesday, Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, said in a memo to employees that AI will "reduce our total corporate workforce" and provide "efficiency gains."
"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said.
Protesters displayed a sign that read "No Space for Bezos!" on the Rialto Bridge ahead of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's coming wedding.
Manuel Silvestri/REUTERS
Venetians protested against Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's upcoming wedding.
The wedding is expected to have around 200 guests during the last week of June.
Protesters cited concerns about overtourism in Venice, which gets 20 million visitors annually.
Venice is widely considered one of the world's most romantic cities, but some residents have found at least one wedding they're not celebrating.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are expected to tie the knot in Venice during the last week of June, with an estimated guest list of 200 — that's sure to include A-listers and fellow billionaires.
A group of Venetians protested the upcoming nuptials last week, citing concerns that the lavish event will not benefit local residents and will add to overtourism concerns that are already plaguing the historic city.
The island that makes up the city center, famous for its winding canals and gondola rides, is around 2 square miles. It is home to some 50,000 residents but welcomes 20 million tourists each year.
Photos showed protesters gathering in a Venetian town square and along the iconic Rialto Bridge with signs that read "No space for Bezos" with an image of a rocket ship, a nod to his rocket company, Blue Origin.
A representative for Bezos and Sánchez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here are photos of the protests, as well as what we know about the upcoming wedding plans and protesters' concerns.
Venice officials have said they welcome the wedding
ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images
Venice officials have confirmed the Amazon founder will be getting married in the city, saying the celebrations were expected to include some 200 guests. Reports have suggested different dates for the celebrations at the end of June.
The guest list is expected to include plenty of A-listers
ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images
Details about the wedding have been scarce, but the guest list is expected to include celebrities such as Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian, both of whom attended Sánchez's bachelorette in Paris earlier this year, as well as tech leaders such as Bill Gates.
Protesters said they wanted to discourage the idea of Venice as a tourist haven
ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images
Federica Toninello, an organizer of the protest, told demonstrators that they wanted to discourage the idea of Venice as a haven for tourists and cited the rising costs of living in the city, The New York Times reported.
She also said during the demonstration that the group has heard the wedding could be taking place at The Misericordia, a cultural and event center, and that if it does, they will try to block wedding attendees from reaching it.
"We will line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with lifesavers, dinghies, and our boats," she told the crowd.
Venice officials said they do not expect the event to cause significant disruptions
ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Images
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro has said the city is committed to ensuring the wedding does not disrupt daily life for Venetians.
The city has also said that the 200 expected guests are well within Venice's ability to host and on par with other weddings and events hosted in the city throughout the year.
A source close to Bezos and Sanchez told The Associated Press that the couple is sourcing around 80% of their wedding provisions from local vendors to show their appreciation for Venice.
Overtourism is a major concern in Venice
Stefano Mazzola/Getty Images
Though the city has said it is not concerned about the impact of Bezos's wedding, Venice has taken measures to address overtourism in recent years. The city introduced cruise ship size limits in 2021 and last year enacted an entrance fee for day-trippers during the busy season.
Alan Fyall, the Visit Orlando endowed chair of tourism marketing at the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management, said Italy has long been a popular luxury wedding destination for Americans, and that the reported size of Bezos' wedding suggests it would not be a significant disruption.
But he said the protest demonstrates how high frustrations with overtourism in Venice have gotten.
"It all comes back to the bigger problem," he added.
Protesters said they are planning more demonstrations during the wedding events
ANDREA PATTARO/AFP/Getty Image
Do you have a tip or a story to share about Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's wedding? Contact this reporter atkvlamis@businessinsider.com.
