EV sales rose globally by 21%, but declined 1% in North America this year, new data shows.
The US sales slump follows policy changes, tariffs, and the end of the $7,500 EV tax credit.
China leads with 11.6 million EVs sold.
The most valuable EV company in the world is based in the US, but Americans are buying fewer battery-powered vehicles.
EV sales in North America fell 1% this year compared to 2024, according to data from supply chain data firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The dip comes as the US has faced a combination of policy changes, tariffs, and supply chain upheavals this year.
There were 1.7 million EVs sold in North America between January and November — far behind the 11.6 million sold in China and below the 3.8 million sold in Europe.
US automaker execs have been sounding the alarm bells on sales. In September, Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted that the EV market share in the US would nearly halve to around 5% in the near term.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence cited the $7,500 EV tax credit ending in September as a reason for "subdued" sales in the US, along with the Trump administration relaxing rules for automakers designed to encourage the transition to EVs and hybrids.
Elon Musk's Tesla has had a rocky year in almost all of its biggest markets, but it weathered the October drop-off better than its rivals, according to separate data from Cox Automotive. The world's most valuable car company, however, is facing a race against time to avoid a second consecutive year of declining sales.
Other US EV makers have been hit by slowing demand, with GM and Rivian both announcing layoffs in recent months.
China's overall EV sales were up 19%. While BYD, the country's biggest EV maker, hit a rough patch in its home market amid rising competition from local startups, it set a record for EV exports in October.
Globally, EV sales were up 21% compared to last year, the Benchmark Mineral Intelligence data showed.
"Overall, EV demand remains resilient, supported by expanding model ranges and sustained policy incentives worldwide," said Charles Lester, data manager for Rho Motion, the Benchmark subsidiary behind the report.
Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and created a system seemingly designed to reward posters who excelled at rage bait.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Tesla has introduced a wave of incentives to shift as many EVs as it can before the end of the year.
The incentives include free paint jobs and financing deals.
Elon Musk's automaker is racing to avoid another decline in annual sales after a difficult year.
Tesla is piling on incentives for buyers as it aims to end a rocky year on a high.
Elon Musk's automaker has introduced a smorgasbord of discounts and deals in the US, with Tesla facing a race against time to avoid a second consecutive year of declining sales.
Tesla is offering 0% APR financing for up to 72 months on select Model Y Standard purchases and is also advertising the option to lease a Model Y without a down payment on its website.
Buyers can also trade in a gas car to receive 2,000 miles of free supercharging, and Tesla is offering complimentary upgrades, including premium paint jobs, tow hitches, and 19-inch "Nova" wheels valued at up to $1,500 on select inventory vehicles.
Tesla often offers more incentives toward the end of the year. But this time, the company is racing to avoid another year of declining sales, following Tesla's first-ever year-over-year fall in sales in 2024.
Repeating that pattern would provide more evidence that Tesla's momentum is stalling after years of rapid growth.
In October last year, Musk predicted Tesla sales would grow 20-30% in 2025. Tesla needs to sell 555,000 EVs in the final three months of the year — more than it's ever sold in a quarter — just to match its sales figures from last year.
That's a tall order, with Tesla facing difficulties in all its main markets. The Cybertruck maker's sales have cratered in Europe amid backlash over Musk's politics. In China, Tesla has been squeezed by a wave of competition from local rivals.
Tesla also faces major headwinds in the US after the Trump administration scrapped the $7,500 tax credit for new EVs in September. Tesla's US sales fell 35% between September and October after the tax credit disappeared, according to data from Cox Automotive.
It comes as Musk has increasingly shifted Tesla's focus toward AI and robotics. The billionaire has described the steering wheel-less Cybercab and Tesla's Optimus robot as the future of the company, with both set to enter production next year.
Michael Novati got the nickname "coding machine" at Meta. He said the top tier engineers are off LinkedIn, but that doesn't mean engineers should delete their profiles and expect offers to roll in.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Michael Novati, a former Meta principal software engineer, said that the best engineers' names are "nowhere" online.
"The $100 million engineer is not on LinkedIn with a tagline that's like, #100millionengineer," Novati said on "A Life Engineered."
The strategy is intended for top-tier Big Tech engineers, Novati said, and not for everyday coders.
LinkedIn is full of corporate braggarts. But don't expect the best engineers to flaunt their success on the platform — or even have an account, according one former Meta employee.
Michael Novati spent almost eight years at Meta, back when it was still called Facebook and hadn't yet doubled down on AI. He reached the rank of principal software engineer and earned the nickname "coding machine."
On the "A Life Engineered" podcast, host Steve Huynh asked Novati about his claim that the top five engineers aren't on LinkedIn. Novati stood by it.
"When I was at Facebook, the top engineers were like, 'If you had a LinkedIn account, people would be wondering if you're job hunting,'" he said.
Novati said these engineers don't need to publicly job hunt because of tech's extensive recruiting arm, which he called the "secrets of the industry."
"There are very senior, very highly paid recruiters that work at the top companies who have very strong long-term social relationships with a lot of top engineers," he said.
How do these engineers and recruiters meet? Novati gave the example of an engineer who spends a week doing campus recruiting at Stanford, bonding with the company's recruiter in the process.
He referred to these as the "secret backroom dealings of Silicon Valley."
"These engineers' names are nowhere, but they are the ones that are the most desirable by these recruiters," he said. "The $100 million engineer is not on LinkedIn with a tagline that's like, #100millionengineer."
Tech recruiting has long been a large, lucrative industry. Big Tech companies both employ in-house recruiters and outside agencies to stay close to key talent.
Meanwhile, talent is becoming increasingly competitive, particularly in the field of AI. Meta shelled out large contracts for its Superintelligence Labs, poaching engineers from its competitors.
Sometimes CEOs even get involved. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly made a list of the top AI talent to poach. OpenAI's chief research officer said that Zuckerberg hand-delivered soup to an employee he was trying to recruit.
One AI worker told Business Insider they got a personal call from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, pitching them to join the company. They accepted.
Being offline may not be the golden key to tech recruiting, though. These top-tier engineers are a "specific case," Novati said on the podcast.
"It doesn't mean that your strategy should be: delete LinkedIn and all the offers will come," he said.
It's a rarified class, Novati said, but one that stays away from all semblances of personal branding.
"I don't know any of those top engineers, who get special equity grants and special dinners with Bezos or whatever stuff like that, who have big personal brands," he said.
An AI agent hacked Stanford's network for 16 hours and outperformed human pros, all while costing far less than their six-figure pay.
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
An AI agent hacked Stanford's computer science networks for 16 hours in a new study.
The AI agent outperformed nine out of 10 human participants, said the study by Stanford researchers.
It also cost a fraction of the six-figure salary for a "professional penetration tester."
For 16 hours, an AI agent crawled Stanford's public and private computer science networks, digging up security flaws across thousands of devices.
By the end of the test, it had outperformed professional human hackers — and at a fraction of the cost.
A study published Wednesday by Stanford researchers found that their AI agent, ARTERMIS, placed second in an experiment with 10 selected cybersecurity professionals. The researchers said the agent could uncover weaknesses that humans missed and investigate several vulnerabilities at once.
Running ARTEMIS costs about $18 an hour, far below the average salary of about $125,000 a year for a "professional penetration tester," the study said. A more advanced version of the agent costs $59 an hour and still comes in cheaper than hiring a top human expert.
The study was led by three Stanford researchers — Justin Lin, Eliot Jones, and Donovan Jasper — whose work focuses on AI agents, cybersecurity, and machine-learning safety. The team created ARTEMIS after finding that existing AI tools struggled with long, complex security tasks.
The researchers gave ARTEMIS access to the university's network, consisting of about 8,000 devices, including servers, computers, and smart devices. Human testers were asked to put in at least 10 hours of work while ARTEMIS ran 16 hours across two workdays. The comparison with human testers was limited to the AI's first 10 hours.
The study also tested existing agents, which lagged behind most human participants, while ARTEMIS performed "comparable to the strongest participants," the researchers said.
Within the 10-hour window, the agent discovered "nine valid vulnerabilities with an 82% valid submission rate," outperforming nine of 10 human participants, the study said.
Some of the flaws had gone unnoticed by humans, including a weakness on an older server that testers could not access because their browsers refused to load it. ARTEMIS bypassed the issue and broke in using a command-line request.
The AI worked in a way humans could not, the researchers said. Whenever ARTEMIS spotted something "noteworthy" in a scan, it spun up additional "sub-agents" to investigate in the background, allowing it to examine multiple targets simultaneously. Human testers had to do this work one step at a time.
But the AI isn't flawless. ARTEMIS struggled with tasks that required clicking through graphical screens, causing it to overlook a critical vulnerability. It is also more prone to false alarms, mistaking harmless network messages for signs of a successful break-in.
"Because ARTEMIS parses code-like input and output well, it performs better when graphical user interfaces are unavailable," the researchers said.
AI is making hacking easier
Advances in AI have lowered the barrier to hacking and disinformation operations, allowing malicious actors to enhance their attacks.
In September, a North Korean hacking group used ChatGPT to generate fake military IDs for phishing emails. A report from Anthropic in August found that North Korean operatives used its Claude model to obtain fraudulent remote jobs at US Fortune 500 tech companies — a tactic that gave them insider access to corporate systems.
The same report also said a Chinese threat actor used Claude to run cyberattacks on Vietnamese telecom, agricultural, and government systems.
"We are seeing many, many attacks," Yuval Fernbach, the chief technology officer of machine learning operations at software supply chain company JFrog, told Business Insider in a report published in April. He added that hackers have been using AI models to extract data, shut systems down, or manipulate a website or tools.
A British Airways flight to Mexico returned to London on Wednesday.
It turned around over the Atlantic Ocean, five hours into the journey.
Passengers were on the plane for nine hours before landing back at Heathrow Airport.
British Airways passengers spent more than nine hours on a transatlantic flight that ended up back where it started.
Wednesday's Flight 243 took off from London Heathrow Airport at 1:22 p.m. and was supposed to land in Mexico City around 11 hours later.
However, five hours into the journey, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner turned around over the Atlantic Ocean.
It had already passed Greenland and was only about 150 miles off the coast of Canada's Nunavut territory, according to data from Flightradar24.
The plane then headed back across the ocean, arriving in London just after 10 p.m.
The airline said in a statement that the diversion was due to an unspecified technical issue.
"The flight landed safely and customers disembarked normally following reports of a technical issue with the aircraft. We've apologised to our customers for the delay, and our teams are working to get their journeys back on track," the statement said.
It can be frustrating for passengers when they're diverted to their origin — a so-called flight to nowhere — but often it's the best course of action.
Returning to Heathrow, BA's main hub, makes it easier for the airline to rebook passengers on alternative flights and fix any problems with the aircraft.
Diverting elsewhere might have also left the plane and crew out of place, disrupting the airline's schedule. Plus, a stopover in Canada or the US may have caused the crew to reach their maximum working hours.
When BA Flight 243 turned around, its closest airport was Iqaluit in northern Canada, less than 300 miles away.
Some flights have diverted to this remote town in the past, but it can ultimately be more disruptive.
The pilots declared an emergency, and a different plane was rerouted to rescue the passengers. It was originally scheduled for another flight, so that had to be canceled. Passengers were then taken to New York, where they were rebooked onto other flights to reach their intended destination of Seattle.
Ultimately, it depends on how urgent the diversion is, since safety is the top concern.
However, if possible, returning to the flight's origin can be the simplest option for both passengers and the airline.
Leslie Snipes secured approval from her manager to work remotely after struggling with her LA commute.
She said she made the case for why working from home would benefit her personally and professionally.
Working remotely has been a game changer for her, even though she misses some parts of office life.
This 'as-told-to' essay is based on a conversation with Leslie Snipes, a 34-year-old director of marketing at a Los Angeles-based creative agency who lives in Reseda, California. Her words been edited for length and clarity.
When I started my director of marketing job in January 2024, the expectation was that I'd work from the office at least once a week. But because I was in a director-level role, I felt a bit more obligated to show face.
For the first few months, I made the 30-mile, 60- to 90-minute commute to our Los Angeles office a couple of days a week. Over time, the commute began to take a toll on me. I was wasting hours a day sitting in LA traffic.
In April 2024, after weighing my options, I decided to speak with my manager and ask if I could work mostly from home — coming into the office only as needed, along with any travel obligations. My request was approved in less than a day.
How I made the case for work-from-home flexibility
I started the conversation with my manager by being transparent about my commute and the challenges it was creating for me. I would often arrive home feeling mentally drained, frustrated, or short-tempered after commuting, which affected my energy and overall well-being in the evenings. Additionally, the wear and tear on my car, along with the gas costs, were becoming outrageously expensive.
I also shared that I believed I'd be a better worker without the strain of the commute, because I could spend more time actually working rather than sitting in traffic. Most of the company's clients were based on the East Coast — rather than LA — so most of my work could be done remotely from my computer and through Zoom calls.
I emphasized my performance
From a team camaraderie perspective, some of our strongest bonding happened during travel and off-site projects, rather than in the office, so I noted that working remotely wouldn't take away from that sense of connection.
Overall, I emphasized that working from home would allow me to deliver my best work without compromising collaboration or team culture — and I think that approach was effective.
After speaking with my manager and another manager, they were very understanding and accommodating. Since my role involves some travel, the managers said they considered that to be a form of in-office time, as I'm still interacting with colleagues in person.
More than anything, they recognized that work-from-home flexibility would help me perform at a higher level — and they trusted me to deliver on that.
WFH has been a game changer — I'm glad I asked for it
The biggest perk of my work-from-home flexibility is that I feel much more efficient with my time — both personally and professionally. It gives me greater autonomy over my schedule, which helps me manage my workload more effectively and leaves me more energized and present when meeting with the team.
I'm also a bit of an introvert, and I find it harder to focus when I'm surrounded by a lot of people. I tend to get more distracted in the office than when I'm working alone. Now, instead of showing up to be "a body in the room," I can focus my energy on strategy, creative work, and client engagement.
Working from home has also reduced my stress, since I'm no longer spending hours in traffic just trying to get to work on time.
There are some things I miss about working in the office
Despite these benefits, I sometimes miss grabbing lunch and coffee with coworkers and talking about non-work-related things. When I'm working from home, I mostly interact on an as-needed basis, and there's less spontaneity with coworkers outside work.
I typically make the commute to the office once or twice a month to connect in person with my colleagues, in addition to whenever circumstances warrant it.
Overall, the shift has been a game changer for me — and it's a setup I wouldn't have if I hadn't asked.
Dominick DiBartolomeo, the owner of the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, says going viral on social media has helped reinvigorate his business.
Courtesy of Dominick DiBartolomeo
Dominick DiBartolomeo said TikTok virality drew in waves of younger customers to his cheese store.
The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills has repeatedly pivoted due to the pandemic and tariff uncertainty.
Appealing to younger customers has helped reinvigorate the store, which has been open since 1967.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dominick DiBartolomeo, owner of the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. It has been edited for length and clarity.
When I bought the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, my goal was to honor its legacy while making it feel fresh and relevant.
The shop has been around since 1967 and already had decades of goodwill, but I wanted to create something familiar and new, so we added sandwiches, salads, cheese boards, and wines by the glass.
I didn't expect the flood of teenagers.
My daughter is 16, and I like to say her generation arrived armed with Instagram. They started filming everything — and some of those videos went viral.
Suddenly, we had crowds of teens lining up for a place that had historically catered to adults, chefs, and longtime Beverly Hills locals. It completely changed the energy of the shop.
This year has been one of our toughest
People know our products are premium, but they don't see how volatile the economics have become.
We import directly from Europe, mainly Italy. At the beginning of the year, tariffs were 10%, and we absorbed as much of that as we could. However, the Euro then jumped from around $1.04 to about $1.17 or $1.18 — a 13% swing. As a result, the same products suddenly cost 23% more before they even reach our shores.
Then there are the Chinese tariffs, which people rarely think about, but almost all takeout packaging comes from China. Between packaging tariffs and ingredient tariffs, some costs have risen 50%, 60%, and even 70%. When that happens across your entire supply chain, the math stops making sense.
We tried everything before raising prices, from asking suppliers to share some of the tariff load to switching products, and eventually accepting lower margins. However, at a certain point, you can't absorb the costs.
Our sales are up this year, but our margins are down because our costs are so much higher. That's the reality for a lot of small specialty food businesses right now.
Our customers are still buying, but the middle is getting squeezed. The under-$25 customer remains rock solid, and diners spending $100 or more are also doing fine. It's the middle that's struggling, and that's where a lot of restaurants and gifting budgets live.
The next generation is extending the life cycle of my business
When we moved into our new location a couple of years back, I knew I had to take care of the older clientele who built this brand — but I also believed that if the shop didn't evolve, it would die.
Adding sandwiches and salads wasn't just about giving people something to eat while they browsed. It was a way to create a full experience. While customers wait for their sandwiches, they can try different cheeses in line. The whole place feels alive.
Then the influencers started showing up.
I didn't know who most of them were — I had to ask my daughter who people were after they left — but our Instagram following grew from 6,000 to around 280,000 in about a year and a half.
People now walk in and say, "I came here because you showed up on my feed." We even had a couple from Australia tell us this was their first stop off the plane for their honeymoon because we popped up on their TikTok feed.
The most exciting part is that the virality around the sandwiches has turned into virality around the cheese, too. Because of the way our line bends through the store, people waiting for sandwiches are sampling cheeses the whole time — and they film that. Now, young customers come in for a buzzy sandwich, discover a type of cheese they've never tried, and suddenly they're coming back for parties, holidays, or simply because they want something special.
We even launched a merch line because we noticed how many younger customers wanted something to take home. Seeing a longtime customer who's been coming in for 40 or 50 years standing next to a teenager in a Cheese Store hoodie is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. It feels like we've made cheese buying cool again.
The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills serves more than 500 different cheeses, many of which were imported from Italy.
Courtesy of Dominick DiBartolomeo
What's happened is that this new generation has completely renewed the life cycle of the business. At the same time, our longtime loyal customers remain the backbone of who we are. Now the two groups stand shoulder to shoulder in the shop. It's a full-circle moment — we've managed to grow without losing our core.
I met my wife at the Cheese Store, where I was working while I couldn't afford a phone and was taking the bus to work. She supported me through everything — from raising money to buying the business and surviving the pandemic. Now we have 40 to 50 employees. All of their families rely on us.
That responsibility changes you. So does the joy of seeing the store full, watching our products show up in incredible restaurants, and witnessing teens discover a 57-year-old Beverly Hills cheese shop on social media.
OpenAI's head of business products flagged 3 jobs that could be automated in the next few years.
JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images
Three industries are going to look very different in some years, says an OpenAI head of product.
He said that life sciences would see a lot of automation, because admin can be automated.
AI leaders are flagging white-collar jobs that can be easily automated by newer models.
Three industries are going to look very different in the next few years, according to an OpenAI executive.
On an episode of the "Unsupervised Learning" podcast, Olivier Godement, the head of product for business products at the ChatGPT maker, shared why he thinks a trio of jobs — in life sciences, customer service, and computer engineering — is on the cusp of automation.
"My bet is often on life sciences, pharma companies," he said, about his first pick for industries on the brink of change because of AI.
Godement said that the goal of pharmaceutical companies like Amgen, with which he works, is to design new drugs. This has two components: actual research and experimentation, and admin, a time-consuming process that could be automated, he said.
"The time it takes from once you lock the recipe of a drug to having that drug on the market is months, sometimes years," he said. "Turns out like the models are pretty good at that. They're pretty good at aggregating, consolidating tons of structured, unstructured data, spotting the different changes in documents."
Godement joined OpenAI in 2023. He previously worked on products for Stripe for eight years.
On the podcast, Godement said that while we haven't reached a stage where "any white collar job" can be automated in just a day, he is starting to see strong use cases in fields such as coding and customer service.
"The automation is probably not yet at the level of automating completely the job of a software engineer, but I think we have a line of sight essentially to get there," he said.
The future of software engineering has been one of the most heated tech debates of the year, as AI-assisted coding enters most companies' workflow.
An Indeed study from October found that software engineers, quality assurance engineers, product managers, and project managers were the four tech jobs that have been axed the most during layoffs and reorgs.
Lastly, Godement said that customer-oriented roles like sales and customer experience may be automated soon.
"I've been working a bunch with the folks at T-Mobile, the telecom company in the US, to essentially provide a better experience to their customers, and we're starting to achieve fairly good results in terms of quality at a meaningful scale," he said. "My sense is we'll probably be surprised in the next year or two on the amount of tasks that can be automated reliably."
Across the board, AI leaders are flagging white-collar jobs that can be easily automated by newer large language models.
In a June podcast, Geoffrey Hinton, who is recognized as the "Godfather of AI," said that eventually, technology will "get to be better than us at everything," but some fields are safer than others in the interim.
"I'd say it's going to be a long time before it's as good at physical manipulation," Hinton said. "So a good bet would be to be a plumber."
Vintage toys, fashion, and interior design will make a comeback in 2026, per Pinterest.
Pinterest.
Pinterest did a vibe check of the internet in 2026.
Its annual Pinterest Predicts report identified 21 trends the company says will be hot next year.
Mismatched beauty, nostalgic toys, and an obsession with cabbage are just a few of them.
Pinterest did a pulse check on the internet's 2026 mood. It predicts glamorous, glittery fashion will return, layered scents will be popular, and people might just develop an obsession with cabbage.
The San Francisco-headquartered company released its annual "Pinterest Predicts" report on Tuesday. It said it analyzed "billions of Pinterest searches and the visual content Pinterest users are engaging with," which helped it uncover emerging words, colors, styles, and aesthetics.
"With a boost from machine learning, our trend experts find patterns by combining data insights with real-world observations," the report said.
The company predicts that 21 trends will be hot globally in 2026.
Take a look at the top five in the US:
1. Cabbage Crush
All things cabbage will be trending next year, Pinterest says.
Pinterest
The topic that Pinterest says will trend highest in the US in 2026 isn't a fashion or home decor trend — it's cabbage.
"In the year ahead, boomers and Gen X will say goodbye to their cauliflower obsession and crown cabbage the new kitchen champ," it wrote. "Think blistered-edge 'steaks', kimchi cocktails and even crispier taco wraps."
It said the search terms cabbage dumplings had risen 110% from September 2024 to August 2025 compared to the same period the year before, while Golumpki soup and cabbage Alfredo saw similar spikes.
This falls right in line with one of 2025's top diet trends, "fibermaxxing," which stresses the importance of consuming enough fiber for heart and gut health.
2. Glitchy Glam
Imperfect, mismatched beauty could be popular in 2026.
Pinterest
Second on the list is "Glitchy Glam," which refers to imperfect beauty. The report said that in 2026, "beauty is missing the mark — on purpose."
"Gen Z and millennials will rock mismatched manicures, two-toned lipstick, and bright eyeshadow in two binary hues. So long, symmetry," it wrote.
The search terms that led Pinterest to believe mismatched beauty would trend were "eccentric makeup," "weird makeup looks," "avant-garde makeup editorial," and "nails with different colors on each hand."
This marks a departure from the "clean girl" makeup trend that has reigned supreme on social media in recent years.
3. Throwback Kid
Vintage toys, fashion, and interior design will make a comeback in 2026, per Pinterest.
The search terms "1970s childhood toys," "upcycled baby clothes," and "vintage kids fashion" had done well on Pinterest between September 2024 and August 2025, the report said.
"In 2026, childhood gets a throwback twist with vintage-inspired outfits, classic toys from the '60s and upcycled baby looks," it wrote. "Crocheted play mats will bring cosy vibes to any nursery, while baby boomers and Gen X will thrift mini fits."
4. Scent Stacking
Pinterest predicts that people will be layering fragrances next year instead of using single scents.
Pinterest
Gen Z and millennials won't be satisfied with store-bought perfumes in 2026, Pinterest said.
"Gen Z and millennials are ditching one-and-done scents for bespoke notes, blending oils and perfumes to craft their very own fragrance formulas," it wrote in the report. "Expect luxury to linger in layers next year."
Pinterest said search terms pointing to this trend include "perfume layering combinations," "scent layering," and "niche perfume collection."
5. Extra Celestial
Holographic accents and opalescent makeup is going to be popular in 2026, says Pinterest.
Pinterest
Lastly, Pinterest predicts that an "intergalactic" aesthetic will trend highly in the US, particularly among Gen Z and millennials.
"Think holographic home accents, opalescent eyeshadow that looks like moon dust, and cosmic silhouettes straight out of a sci-fi movie," the report said.
The search term "alien core aesthetic" increased by 80% between September 2024 and August 2025 compared to the same period in the previous year. Other trending search terms include "opalescent," "futuristic truck," and "soft dewy makeup."
Special mentions: Glamoratti, Pen Pals, and Gimme Gummy
Pinterest Predicts 2026's trends also include "Glamoratti," "Pen Pals," and "Gimme Gummy."
Pinterest
Pinterest says 2026 is also set to be the year of "Glamoratti," which spells a return to loud, decadent, and maximalist fashion. Think chunky gold jewelry, funnel neck outfits, and tailored suits.
Another trend worth noting is "Pen Pals." This is a hobby-based trend that Pinterest says could lead to a resurgence of letter writing, as Gen Z and millennials grow tired of texting and social media.
And lastly, Pinterest coined "Gimme Gummy," an ASMR-loaded, gummy-bear aesthetic which is predicted to be hot in 2026. "Gimme Gummy" is characterized by "bendy phone cases," "3D jewelry," and "rubberized nail art."
Pinterest reported third-quarter revenue of $1.049 billion in November, representing a 17% increase compared to the same period the previous year. Its monthly active users increased by 12% compared to the previous year, reaching 600 million.
The company's stock is down about 6% since the start of the past year.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Rivers, the CEO ofCanyon Ranch, based in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.
I've been the CEO of Canyon Ranch, a wellness hospitality company, since September 2023. Before that, I guided the company's new development opportunities starting in 2022.
Joining Canyon Ranch capped off over 25 years of experience in hospitality operations and property development at other resorts and clubs. I was the original master developer of the campus that's now the Driftwood Golf & Ranch Club in Austin, a development principal of Solage Hotels and Resorts in Napa Valley, and an executive at the Steve Wynn-founded, Las Vegas-based Mirage Resorts.
Canyon Ranch sits at the crossroads of hospitality and wellness. Wellness is certainly having its moment right now — and for a brand like ours, which was just named the best wellness resort in the Americas in 2025 by the Michelin Guide, this is a seminal moment to lead, redefine, and infuse our expertise and energy.
We have resorts in Tucson and Lenox, Massachusetts; the largest day spa in North America at The Venetian in Las Vegas; and a wellness club and spa in Fort Worth, Texas. We're also developing a new resort and residential community outside Austin.
Rivers and architect David Lake at the construction site for the new Austin property.
Canyon Ranch
Not much can derail my day — I'm an optimist and highly motivated. I brush off the difficult, the impossible, and the stressful, and move on.
Here's an idea of what a day in my life is like.
At 2:45 a.m. on Mondays, I start with a very early wake-up call
On a typical day, I wake up at 4 a.m., but on Mondays, I'm up at 2:45 a.m. to make the nearly three-hour drive from my home in Austin to our corporate office in Fort Worth. I live in Austin, and our company's biggest investment to date is the new resort we're building, so I like to be at or near it during most of the week.
The ride to work gives me time to listen to my favorite podcasts. My go-tos are usually Acquired or Founders, which have great insights on corporate brands and stories.
I like to do a 5 a.m. workout
Rivers on a treadmill.
Canyon Ranch
It's important to get the body moving, first and foremost.
Whether at the office gym in Fort Worth or the fitness facilities at all our properties, I work out daily.
I always hydrate before caffeine in the morning, stretch, and get my brain going with The New York Times Spelling Bee before dawn.
After a protein shake, I love to be at my desk before 7 a.m.
I try to get some busy work and emails done early, before the day is overrun with meetings and the daily unexpected.
When in Tucson, I love 'cowboy coffee,' which starts at 7 a.m.
Cowboy coffee in Tucson.
Canyon Ranch
This is our fun morning ritual where we recreate a ranch tradition of brewed coffee served by our 'ranch hands' on staff — I can visit with coworkers and guests around a warm fire.
We meet in a eucalyptus courtyard in the center of the property. It's a warm, social morning gathering for guests and staff — a perfect way to start the day.
I start meetings around 7:30 a.m.
With properties and management sprinkled throughout the country, I'm frequently on the road visiting all of our locations. I prefer in-person human connection, but virtual meetings dominate.
On any given day, I probably have 10 to 12 meetings until 6 p.m., with a quick break for lunch.
12 p.m. is lunchtime
Canyon Ranch
I grab a quick lunch from one of our dining outlets. These healthy, nutrient-packed meals help me with my mood and mental focus for the rest of the day.
I love breakfast at almost any time of the day — egg scrambles with all sorts of veggies, a fruit bowl, or an oat bar snack.
I also have an absolute sweet tooth — ice cream is a vice. I'm always grabbing coworkers and making a beeline for a quick ice cream.
For the rest of the afternoon, I'm at our resorts with coworkers and guests
I try to spend time in Fort Worth with our leadership team, and balance the week between our properties and our new resort project in Austin.
Spending time with our food-and-beverage, programming, spa, and health teams is especially rewarding — and it motivates me to maintain my diet and exercise regimen.
On many afternoons, you'll find me knee-deep in the development and construction of the newest Canyon Ranch in Austin
Over the last couple of years, I've spent a few days each week at the 600-acre ranch, located west of Austin, where our newest resort and residential community will open in fall 2026.
We'll have the largest spa in Texas — a Women's Wellness Collective dedicated to well-being, featuring 141 rooms, outdoor adventures, and three dining outlets.
I love the process of creating guest experiences, innovating and experimenting, and marshaling our teams to launch this new destination. It's something like a movie production with our cast, sets, script, imagination, and location.
For me, that means meetings with the architects and contractors, interior designers, and our teams on the campus.
To wrap up the day, at 6 p.m., I try to get an early dinner and one more physical activity
Tennis has become a passion of mine, and I can play year-round with friends and pros in Texas.
I'm not much of a TV or Netflix person, but I will follow some sporting events of my favorite teams: the Buffalo Bills, UConn Huskies, and Boise State Broncos. I share Buffalo Bills season tickets with my adult children.
My typical bedtime is 8:30 p.m.
Before settling in for sleep, I apply some sleep learnings and protocols from Longevity8, a program we recently launched that enables guests to enjoy a longer and healthier lifespan. I do a specific breathwork technique designed to trigger relaxation, which can be followed by journaling.
To keep my morning routine intact, I don't stay up late and barely drink alcohol. I'm early to bed — I'd rather have 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. to think, organize, and get ahead of the day than 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. for TV.
Chair Jerome Powell will announced the Fed's last interest rate decision of the year December 10.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The Federal Reserve will decide on a possible interest rate cut at its final 2025 meeting.
The government shutdown delayed economic data, making the central bank's decision more difficult.
A rate cut could lower borrowing costs for mortgages and credit cards, bringing relief to consumers.
The Federal Reserve has one more decision in 2025 — and it will set the tone for where interest rates will go in the new year.
On Wednesday, leaders at the central bank will decide whether to continue cutting rates or put a pause on loosening monetary policy. The call will have ripple effects across consumer prices, the job market, and Corporate America. CME FedWatch predicted the Fed had a roughly 90% chance of a quarter-point cut on Monday.
But slicing rates isn't a sure thing. The final Federal Open Market Committee meeting of 2025 will follow the record-long government shutdown, which upended job stability for federal workers and disrupted data releases, including on unemployment and inflation. Even with the government open again, federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics continue to delay or have canceled their reports. It leaves the Fed's decision makers without a full picture of US economic health.
"The risk to the labor market's still there, the risks to inflation are still there, neither of which are necessarily a cause for alarm right now," Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told Business Insider, but "the picture is cloudy."
The Fed still has limited economic data
Fed leaders are missing some key job and price data. Because BLS didn't collect new data during the shutdown, the agency can't publish the October consumer price index report or the October unemployment rate, and the November jobs report and inflation data won't be released in time for the December meeting.
Renter said the murky economic picture may mean the Fed leans on last-minute data reports to make its decision. The job openings and labor turnover survey results and the employment cost index will be released on December 9 and December 10, respectively.
The delayed September jobs report that came out on November 20 showed that the US added more jobs than expected that month, and unemployment increased amid an increase in labor force participation. Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider that this doesn't mean the job market is reinvigorated or that the Fed's concerns over the labor market would immediately fade.
"We're still off to one of the worst starts we've had since 2010 after you take out the pandemic," Stahle said. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in the last FOMC press conference that labor market conditions had "not changed much" between the Fed's September and October meetings.
Claudia Sahm, the chief economist for New Century Advisors, expects the Fed to cut rates again, but wouldn't be surprised if members then decide to hold off for a while to see how the economy evolves. She also said there hasn't been much progress on cooling US inflation this year. After another cut to help with the job market, she expects a wait-and-see period before another rate cut, assuming there aren't drastic labor market changes.
"I have a feeling that if all goes well in the economy, the Fed probably is not going to be doing a whole lot because they took steps right now to ensure against the worst outcomes," Sahm said. "Then it's just going to take time for the inflation to start moving back down."
The Fed has kept monetary policy restrictive so far this year, holding rates steady until September. But not all Fed leaders agree. Minutes from recent meetings show that some FOMC members would prefer larger and more consistent interest rate cuts. It's possible that monetary strategy could change in 2026, as Powell's term ends in May. President Donald Trump — who has been a vocal advocate for rate cuts — is likely to nominate a new Fed chair in January.
A pattern of cuts could trickle down to consumers
A third consecutive cut would help make major purchases more affordable.
Thirty-year fixed mortgages, two-year auto loans, and credit card rates tend to fluctuate alongside the federal funds rate. And, while inflation remains above the Fed's 2% goal, mortgage rates have largely cooled in recent months in anticipation of rate reductions.
A quarter-point cut could mean lower returns on investment for savers using high-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit, though it would become cheaper to pay off credit cards. Lower rates would also make home equity lines and small business loans more accessible to Americans.
If there is a cut, Renter said it could be a positive sign for people applying to roles in the sluggish labor market: If job seekers "hear that the Fed is responding to an unfavorable labor market, that's going to feel good to them; they may feel like relief is on the horizon," she said.
Sustained rate cuts would bolster the job market by making it easier for businesses to borrow and invest money. This would free up more funds for companies to hire and pay employees, which could lead to higher consumer spending — all factors needed for a healthy economy.
Though Powell said the Fed will be careful to balance jobs goals with curbing inflation. A rate change is likely this week, but "not a foregone conclusion, far from it," he said. "Policy is not on a preset course."
"YOLO" is making a comeback. This time, it's shaping the AI industry.
The term has been used to describe huge investments and fast-moving AI development.
That YOLO culture presents a risk for a technology that can have far-reaching implications.
The term "YOLO" was cool once, made so in 2011 by Drake in his hit song, "The Motto." Then it slipped into the domain of the unhip and out-of-touch.
Well, it's now back.
This time, it's being used by the AI vanguard to describe the state of the industry, which is a tad worrying to those concerned about AI's far-reaching implications for the world.
Last week, at The New York Times DealBook Summit, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei took a dig at his competitors, like OpenAI and Meta, when he said, "There are some players who are YOLO-ing, who pull the risk dial too far, and I'm very concerned." In other words, their approach to developing AI models is more reckless than rigorous.
Anthropic, he said, is trying to manage its growth as "responsibly as we can."
The term is being used by AI researchers, too.
Jason Wei, a researcher at Meta, wrote on X that one of the great skills he's seen is "yolo runs" — a sort of instinctive flow state where a researcher or developer throws caution to the wind.
In a "yolo run," he said, a researcher "directly implements an ambitious new model without extensively de-risking individual components. The researcher doing the yolo run relies primarily on intuition to set hyperparameter values, decide what parts of the model matter, and anticipate potential problems. These choices are non-obvious to everyone else on the team."
This approach contrasts with the traditional research approach to carefully change one thing at a time, he added.
During a discussion at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center, which seeks to understand the impacts of technology, Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain used the term to describe the AI industry's current approach.
Zittrain said the "YOLO model" is driven by founders and VCs who will try anything quickly: Launch an idea, see if it sticks, and if the company collapses, just move on to the next startup. If it succeeds, he said, they cash in.
The resurgence of the term highlights a growing tension between the AI industry's full-throttle race to build ever-larger and smarter models and the more safety-minded voices urging caution.
On the one hand, competition is fierce in the AI industry, with tech giants issuing "code reds" to their teams every time a competitor launches a successful new model. And the money is flowing. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft all logged record-breaking capital expenditures on AI chips, servers, and data centers this quarter. The scale of AI spending pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs in recent weeks.
At the same time, others warn this sort of YOLO culture ignores AI's potential threats — anything from misuse by bad actors to unintended AI model behavior.
AI "godfather" Geoffrey Hinton said in a conversation with Sen. Bernie Sanders at Georgetown University last month that the rapid development of AI could spark mass unemployment, deepen inequality, and even change the nature of human relationships.
An analysis conducted by AlphaSense found that 418 publicly traded companies valued at more than $1 billion have cited AI as a risk to their reputations and security in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hertz's multi-billion dollar bet on a rental EV fleet did not pay off, but it did show how some consumers are open to a new powertrain — for the right price.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Hertz, a global car rental company, ramped up its EV fleet around 2021, buying 100,000 Teslas.
The move was a multibillion-dollar bet on an EV demand that Hertz later said did not materialize.
The rental car company saw nearly half a billion dollars in losses directly tied to its EV fleet.
When Hertz emerged from bankruptcy and went public in 2021, the rental car company made a multi-billion-dollar bet that the future of mobility pointed toward mass electrification and that the time to pivot was immediate.
Hertz, the second-largest rental car company in the US, made a bulk purchase of 100,000 Teslas that year — estimated to cost around $4.2 billion and deemed the largest single purchase of EVs ever. No other rental car company had invested as aggressively in electric cars.
That bet turned costly and was ultimately short-lived. By 2023, less than two years into its EV shift, Hertz had waved a white flag, stating in a 10-K filing at the time that it would "significantly reduce the size" of its global EV fleet.
The result — nearly half a billion in write-downs and disposal losses alone — suggests American drivers are still reluctant to adopt an entirely new powertrain nearly three decades after the first mass-produced EV, General Motors' EV1, was put on the market. But, as a bright spot, consumers have shown that they're willing to pay for an electric car — for the right price.
Here's what Hertz lost and what the rental company's EV gamble says for the future of electrification.
A 'risky' bet gone wrong
Hertz's EV pivot wasn't made on a blind hunch — 2021 was a critical year for the electric car industry. The US market share grew faster than anticipated, and the Biden administration set a goal through an EO to make half of the passenger vehicles sold in the country zero-emission.
Then-interim CEO Mark Fields said in October 2021 that EVs were "now mainstream" and that the "rising global demand and interest" had just begun.
Hertz committed to expanding its EV fleet with a massive order of 100,000 Teslas — as well as orders from other EV brands such as Polestar and GM — and entered into an exclusive partnership with Uber, making part of the fleet available to a ride-hailing driver network.
Still, despite markers of growing EV demand, Hertz's pivot was "risky for sure," Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, told Business Insider.
In the US, pure EVs were still a niche interest, and the infrastructure, such as charging networks, had yet to keep up with the demand Hertz was prepping for. For context, Enterprise, which eclipses Hertz's overall fleet size by four to five times, only cites "several thousand EVs" in its global fleet.
"Not even the rental agencies themselves were prepared for, 'How do you charge 30 cars when you don't even have a single level-3 charger on hand?'" Drury said.
Among other "risk factors" Hertz outlined: low residual values due to volatile pricing of new EVs, frequency of damages and collisions partly due to the "lack of familiarity by drivers," cost of maintenance and repairs, and consumer sentiment regarding the reliability and safety of EVs.
In 2023, cracks in Hertz's electric car experiment began to show. The "supply of EVs exceeded customer demand," the company disclosed to investors.
Hertz made the decision that year to offload some of its electric cars, and as a result, recorded a $245 million write-down due to the value of the EVs being lower than anticipated.
By the end of 2024, Hertz had incurred another $175 million in write-downs and $48 million in losses from EVs sold, primarily in the US.
All told, the rental car firm took a $468 million hit that was explicitly tied to EV losses.
That doesn't include another $1 billion in impairment charges — or the reduction in the value of the company's total assets — which Hertz doesn't break down between EVs or gas-powered cars.
The company also said in its 10-K filing for the 2023 fiscal year that its direct operating expenses increased $646 million "primarily" due to "higher collision and damage costs, particularly within the EV fleet."
If the pain points for potential EV buyers were range anxiety or the lack of familiarity with operating a new powertrain, then getting internal combustion engine (ICE) consumers to experiment with an EV through a rental only magnified those pain points.
"If I was at my hometown location — say my standard ICE car broke down — and I was like, 'You know what? I'll rent an EV for a week and see if it'll work with my lifestyle.' This would've been the greatest test drive ever," Drury, the Edmunds expert, said. "But the problem was — if I'm on a flight and I don't know anything about the city I'm going to, I don't want to research its (EV) infrastructure. I don't want to research anything other than, 'How do I get to the four places I need to get to in the least amount of hassle without diverting my route?'"
Drury also said that rental users could return the EVs with a depleted battery, leaving the rental agencies responsible for charging the cars without enough fast-charging stations.
When Business Insider previously rented a Tesla through Hertz in 2024, a Model 3 was provided with a 53% battery, leaving the reporter to find a charging station before embarking on a trip in the Michigan cold.
There are also hidden costs with EVs that can sneak up on buyers, including higher insurance premiums and maintenance costs. In some cases, a minor ding can lead to a total loss, Drury said.
"A lot of EVs — they end up being complete write-offs because, what might look like a minor hit, if it damages a structure that holds the battery, it's kind of game over," he said.
Buyers are out there
There could be one silver lining to Hertz's massive EV gamble: People are willing to buy an electric car at an attractive price.
By 2024, Hertz was having a fire sale of 30,000 used Teslas, with listings going as low as $18,000 for a Model 3.
In April of that year, the average list price of Hertz's EV inventory was $23,500, with an average mileage of 23,000, according to Edmunds data. The average list price for ICE cars was $33,700, with an average mileage of 39,500.
The EV's low resale value cut both ways: While it could detract new-car buyers, it also invites bargain hunters looking for steeply discounted cars.
"That's the one benefit for them — is that EVs right now in the used market: fastest-selling powertrain type," Drury said.
Today, Hertz's EV used inventory is "minuscule," Drury said. Hertz disclosed in an SEC filing that the sale of its EV inventory was "substantially complete" by December 31, 2024.
"Hertz is in the midst of a disciplined transformation under new leadership, delivering strong results and returning the company to EPS profitability," a Hertz spokesperson wrote to Business Insider. "We completed the EV fleet reduction a year ago, and we are now focused on continuing our momentum as we execute our transformation strategy."
Hertz hasn't entirely abandoned the electric powertrain. The rental giant said in a filing that it expects to "continue to purchase EVs in the future."
"I think knowing what they now know, having an appropriate level in the right segments, is a feasible business case," Drury said. "But should (EVs) be the overwhelming majority of your fleet? No, not even close."
A big point of contention was a new definition for the programs that qualify as "professional" and allow students to borrow more under the caps. Ten programs, including law and medicine, meet the department's professional designation and qualify for the higher $200,000 lifetime borrowing cap, while other programs, including nursing, are subject to the lower $100,000 cap.
The caps particularly angered the healthcare industry. During negotiations with the Department of Education on the proposed caps, some stakeholders argued that healthcare workers, such as nurses, might choose to leave the industry because they lack sufficient funding for their programs, thereby putting Americans who rely on healthcare services at risk. While data from the department showed that most advanced nursing programs would not be impacted by the caps, advocates still worry about the implications.
An analysis of data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard found that most students in post-graduate nursing programs borrow within the new caps. Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a blog post that "the new caps will affect only a small number of programs charging exorbitant prices." Cooper said 115 of the 140 advanced nursing programs had a median debt below $100,000, based on classes of 2019 and 2020 available data.
Only a handful of programs had debt loads of at least $180,000, well in excess of the new caps. Georgetown University's advanced nursing degree had a median debt load of $212,494.
Still, the new borrowing caps — coupled with Trump's elimination of the Grad PLUS program, which allowed graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their programs — could weigh on the healthcare industry.
The Association of American Medical Colleges found that the median cost for four years of public medical school in 2025 was $286,454, with about half of medical students taking out Grad PLUS loans. Education policy experts told Business Insider that it's likely the caps could lead more students to forgo their advanced degrees or seek additional financing through the riskier private lending market.
The Department of Education said in a recent press release that 95% of nursing students borrow below the new caps, based on department data, and it emphasized that the limits do not impact undergraduate nursing programs. The department also said that changing the definition of a "professional" degree is "not a value judgement about the importance of programs."
"It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not," the department said.
The department's changes to student-loan repayment, including the new borrowing caps, could still change. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposal early next year before the final rule is implemented in July 2026.
How the new borrowing caps could affect the medical worker shortage
Healthcare advocates said the caps could exacerbate the already-existing doctor and nurse shortage, especially alongside planned Medicaid changes: "It feels like we're being attacked on all sides and really limiting what we can get from a funding perspective," Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, told Business Insider.
Mensik Kennedy added that removing professional designations from nursing degrees could make it more difficult to train and retain faculty at nursing schools, a job that requires more advanced and expensive education. "It's going to be a really bad revolving issue where we don't have enough faculty to produce enough nurses to replace the nurses who are retiring," she said. The trend will have an "immediate impact" on the number of nurses in the US healthcare system, which will shape patient care for years to come.
NerdWallet lending expert Kate Wood also said increased limitations on student loans could further disparities in the nursing field. She told Business Insider that "Healthcare professionals already skew whiter and wealthier than the general population" and loan caps "may push students from groups that have historically had limited access to higher education, like people from underrepresented minority groups, lower-income families or people in rural areas, away from these fields."
Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
Geoffrey Hinton said he was surprised it took Google this long to catch up in the AI race.
Google received significant praise for its release of Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro models.
Hinton, an AI pioneer who previously worked at Google Brain, said the tech giant is now likely to surpass OpenAI.
The "Godfather of AI" thinks it's about time that Google caught up in the AI race.
"I think it's actually more surprising than it's taken this long for Google to overtake OpenAI," Geoffrey Hinton, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto who previously worked at Google Brain, told Business Insider in a Tuesday interview.
Google is coming off the heels of its widely praised launch of Gemini 3, an update that some in tech said elevated the giant beyond OpenAI's GPT-5. Google's Nano Banana Pro AI image model has also proven to be a hit.
Three years after Google reportedly declared a "code red" after the release of ChatGPT, recent reports indicate it's now OpenAI that is sounding the alarm.
"I think that right now they're beginning to overtake it," Hinton said of Google's position relative to OpenAI.
On top of the successful launch of its latest AI model, shares of Google rose on reports that it might broker a billion-dollar deal to supply Meta with its own AI chips.
Making its own chips is a "big advantage" to Google, Hinton said.
"Google has a lot of very good researchers and obviously a lot of data and a lot of data centers," he said. "My guess is Google will win."
Hinton, who helped pioneer AI research during his time at Google Brain, said that the search giant was once at the forefront of AI but held back.
"Google was in the lead for a long time, right?" he said. "Google invented transformers. Google had big chatbots before other people."
Google was cautious, Hinton said, in the wake of Microsoft's disastrous 2016 launch of its short-lived "Tay" AI chatbot, which it took offline after it posted incredibly racist tweets.
"Google, obviously, had a very good reputation and was worried about damaging it like that," he said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has previously said that the company held back on releasing its chatbot.
"We hadn't quite gotten it to a level where you could put it out and people would've been okay with Google putting out that product," Pichai said earlier this year. "It still had a lot of issues at that time."
In the past, the company has had some shaky rollouts. Just last year, Google had to pause its AI image generator after some users complained that results showing historically inaccurate images of people of color were too "woke." Its initial AI search overviews generated nonsensical advice, such as putting glue on pizza to prevent cheese from falling off.
Google just made a big university donation in Hinton's honor
Hinton spoke to Business Insider ahead of the announcement that Google was donating $10 million CAD to help establish the Hinton Chair in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Toronto. The university, where Hinton split his time while at Google, said it would match Google's gift.
Hinton left Google in 2023, citing concerns about AI's development. Since then, he has repeatedly spoken out about the risks that AI poses to society, ranging from the potential to outsmart humans to displacing jobs. In 2024, Hinton was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.
"Geoff's work on neural networks — spanning his time in academia and his decade here at Google — laid the foundation for modern AI," Google said in a statement. "This chair honors his legacy and will help the university recruit visionary scholars dedicated to the same kind of curiosity-driven, fundamental research that Geoff championed."
