Yusuf Khan / Wall Street Journal: A look at Ireland's Bring Your Own Power policy, which requires new data centers to have their own power plants on site or contracts for energy produced nearby  —  The tiny nation is a test case for countries seeking AI investment without risking outages or higher bills for citizens

Machine learning has its limits—how is it being used?

Successful vertical AI startups are increasingly using channels like private equity networks and industry conferences to drive distribution, recognizing that larger deal sizes require a fundamentally different go-to-market playbook than traditional vertical SaaS. Guest author Medha Agarwal, a general partner at Defy.vc, explains just what that means.

What would your life be like right now without electricity? You wake up in the dark. You can’t charge your phone or laptop or make a cup of coffee. The shower is cold. You head out to work and have to...

Moms are outsourcing tedious household tasks to ChatGPT and selling courses teaching others to do the same. Where are all the dads?

Weis Markets is adding Instacart’s AI-powered shopping carts, Caper Carts, to select stores in Pennsylvania, bringing digital coupons, loyalty features, and repeat-purchase recommendations into the grocery aisle. The Pennsylvania-based grocery chain is working with Instacart to deploy the smart carts, which include cameras, certified scales, location systems, and a touchscreen. According to Instacart, Caper Carts […] The post Weis Markets adds Instacart AI-powered shopping carts to stores appeared first on AI News.

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The author, far right, with a new friend, her sister, and her mom. Courtesy of Melissa Noble At the beginning of this year, I moved from a small town to a big city. I was eager to meet new people and make friends in my new home. To expand my social circle, I said 'yes' to invitations and talked to strangers. At the beginning of the year, my family moved from Bright in country Victoria to the Gold Coast, Australia's sixth biggest city. Our new home has a population of close to 740,000, so it was a bit of a shock to the system moving from a tiny town of fewer than 3,000 people to the "big smoke." In Bright, we had a lovely group of friends, most of whom we met through school or work. On the Gold Coast, my husband and I were lucky enough to have a handful of friends from when we lived here 15 years ago, but I was also eager to meet new people and expand our social circle. Putting yourself out there in your 40s can be daunting, but it's so worth the effort. After just a few months, I've cultivated a lovely new circle of friends from all different walks of life. Here's how. I ignore the 'stranger danger' warning From an early age, we're taught to be mindful of strangers, but truth be told, I love talking to random people. One of the things that makes me feel most alive is discovering different people's stories and perspectives about the world. Since moving to the Gold Coast, I've made a habit of striking up conversations with strangers wherever I go. Gymnastics mums, parents at the playground, book lovers at the library. Often, we end up exchanging numbers and hanging out afterward. From these brief encounters, lovely friendships are blossoming. The author has said 'yes' to many invitations since moving, including an early-morning hike. Courtesy of Melissa Noble I say 'yes' frequently When life is busy with work and kids, it's tempting to decline social invites and chill on the couch. But if you want to build friendships, it helps to be a 'yes' person. Since moving to the Gold Coast, I've tried to say 'yes' to catching up whenever possible. When a new friend invited me to her high tea birthday celebration at the last minute, I blew off work and went along. I ended up meeting some lovely new people. When another friend invited me for an early morning hike, I was so tempted to decline and sleep in instead, but I fronted up and had the best time making memories in the sunshine. I initiate catch-ups well in advance One thing I've had to adjust to after moving from the country to the city is the busier pace of life. In the country, you could literally give people 10 minutes' notice that you were popping over for a tea, but here, people have really busy lives. After moving to the Gold Coast, I started initiating get-togethers well in advance, often giving people four to six weeks' notice. That way, it's on the calendar and more likely to happen. The author hosted a 'woo-woo' night with her friends and they made vision boards. Courtesy of Melissa Noble I'm leaning into my true, authentic self Being my true, authentic self has helped me forge deeper connections with new friends. We often put up walls with unfamiliar people, but once you break them down, you open the door to more meaningful conversations and relationships. As an example, one of the first group get-togethers I organized with a bunch of new friends was a woo-woo women's night. Everyone made a dream board for 2026, answered conversation cards, and shared their intentional "word" for 2026. For some of the ladies, it was outside their comfort zone, but they were brave enough to open up. afterward, several remarked how much they enjoyed the experience, and it felt like it broke the ice on our new friendship journey. It definitely takes time and energy to build a new social circle in your 40s, but once you find your people, it's so rewarding. One of the benefits of making new friends at this age is that you know who you are, and who you want to spend your time with. I highly recommend striking up a conversation with a stranger and seeing where it takes you. You might be pleasantly surprised, just as I was. Read the original article on Business Insider

CEO JT Batson is preparing for the World Cup and the attention it will bring to US Soccer. Colin Hubbard/USSF/Getty Images US Soccer CEO JT Batson aims to capitalize on the World Cup's immense attention. He said he's building for what comes after the World Cup, not just the event itself. Batson said he often looks to business for lessons that might apply to US Soccer. When JT Batson thinks about the FIFA World Cup, he compares it to an IPO. The head of US Soccer, the sport's governing body, recently recalled a conversation with a veteran CFO who described what it's like to take a company public: lots of work building toward a single, high-profile moment. Yet, ultimately, Batson said, the real test is what happens afterward. That long-term mindset is shaping how he's approaching what might be the biggest event in American soccer history. As the US prepares to co-host the World Cup starting Thursday, Batson said he's focused on building an organization capable of capitalizing on the attention it will bring. "This summer is a springboard," Batson said. "This summer is not the destination." A business mindset for soccer Batson, 43, came to US Soccer from the business world, where he co-founded and ran an advertising technology company before becoming US Soccer's CEO in late 2022. The start of his tenure followed a tumultuous period for the federation, including a settlement earlier that year with the US women's national team over a pay-equity lawsuit. Batson, who played the game growing up in Georgia and later worked as a ref, said he often looks to business for lessons that might apply to US Soccer. Organizational challenges often aren't unique, he said, even if their application at the nonprofit might be. "There is someone who solved a similar problem in another environment, somewhere in the world," he said. The trick, Batson said, is to take those best practices and "bring them to life" in a way that benefits US Soccer and the game. "One of the things that I've really come to appreciate is that when you apply basic business principles to most any problem we have, the answer becomes quite obvious," he said. One example of that philosophy was US Soccer's decision to take direct control over its commercial business. Since assuming responsibility for its sponsorship, media, and licensing rights in 2023, US Soccer has built an internal operation that handles those deals directly. Under Batson, US Soccer has brought in executives from outside the sport, including COO Dan Helfrich, who spent more than two decades at Deloitte. Batson describes soccer as "the challenger sport" in the US and the nation as "the challenger country" in global soccer. After all, despite the hype around hosting the World Cup, soccer isn't one of the Big Four leagues in the US, while it's the most popular sport in most of Europe. "That means if we want to win, we've got to out-innovate, we've got to outwork, and we've got to out-align," he said. Building for growth The philosophy is showing up in tangible ways. In May, US Soccer opened a national training center south of Atlanta. The sprawling facility is home to the federation's 27 national teams, including the marquee men's and women's rosters, as well as more than a dozen youth squads. Beyond the completion of the training center, Batson points to three straight years of profitability for US Soccer and a tripling of revenue as evidence of the federation's momentum. He said one of his top priorities since joining US Soccer has been to build trust with those who have a stake in the beautiful game. As he sees it, US Soccer's customers include a child learning to kick a ball, aspiring national team players, and every family in America that cares about soccer. Batson said polling makes clear that the opportunity for soccer is larger than many people realize. A Harris Poll survey found that seven in 10 Americans are interested in soccer. Among those, a quarter are "dedicated," and 20% are "obsessed." Beyond the World Cup Despite growing popularity in the US, some of the challenges Batson talks about come down to scale. One of those is helping US Soccer rely more on digital technology, software, and, increasingly, AI to reach players, coaches, and fans spread across such a large country, he said. The federation is exploring, for example, how the technology can help scouts identify promising players from game footage. Reaching large numbers of people will remain a priority as the sports world's attention shifts to North America for what is likely to be the most expensive FIFA World Cup. "Ninety-nine percent of the fans experiencing the World Cup were always going to do it outside the stadiums," Batson said. "How do you make sure that they really feel a part of that?" That mindset also shapes how he thinks about what comes after the tournament. Batson's longer-term objectives include getting more people involved in the game, setting the US up for success at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and co-hosting the women's World Cup in 2031. "How do we use this summer? How do you use LA '28? How do you use the Women's World Cup bid for 2031 to get people to make these big bets and make these big bets together?" he said. "That's been the focus for us." Read the original article on Business Insider

Felipe Chavez, CEO of Robot.com, wants to use robots to fill in the jobs people don't want. Courtesy Robot.com Robot.com is building a lineup of robots with different form factors to handle various tasks. The company currently has more than 500 robots deployed, with a majority handling delivery. CEO Felipe Chavez said the startup is focused on automating repetitive and mundane tasks. For Felipe Chavez, the future of robotics might look something like an idyllic yogurt commercial. No, really. During Business Insider's visit to Robot.com's headquarter in San Francisco on Thursday, Chavez, who is the co-founder and CEO, took out his laptop and played a Chobani commercial. The video had the whimsy of a Studio Ghibli movie. Light flutes played over scenes of frolicking children, while farmers, animals, and robots peacefully co-existed with the natural world. There was balance. And yogurt. In Chavez' vision, the organic world is still prioritized, animals are "very important," and people pursue the things that they enjoy like art or cooking. Nothing is wasted on the superfluous and mundane — in part, thanks to robots. "The mission that we have as a company is to bring automation to the physical world, to free human beings from labor that they don't want to do and that they can now actually pursue their meaningful life," he said. It's a loftier way to frame Robot.com's bet: Machines will first take over the boring, repetitive, physical work that so often leads to high turnover. Chavez said he came to the realization as he was making deliveries for his first startup. Before launching Kiwibot in 2017, a campus robot delivery outfit that later became Robot.com, Chavez ran a grocery-delivery company akin to Instacart in his home country of Columbia. The startup was completely bootstrapped, he said, which sometimes meant he completed some deliveries himself. "In that company, I realized that the manual work could be very exhausting and it could be very boring," he said. Today, Robot.com says it has more than 500 working robots deployed and has completed more than 2.5 million tasks. Most of the robots — around 400 — are still delivery robots, Chavez said, but the company has been expanding into other areas, including warehouses, food service, and advertising, where robots will act like roving billboards. Robot.com currently has more than 400 robots delivery robots deployed across college campuses. Courtesy Robot.com The company isn't pitching a general-purpose humanoid that can do everything. Instead, Chavez imagines an entire ecosystem of robots, in different form factors, each responsible for small, specific tasks. He described one scenario from Robot.com's food-delivery business. As the robot-delivery business grew, restaurant workers found they had a new chore: walking outside to place the to-go containers inside the robots. This new interaction created friction. Chavez said customers had to retrain workers or even hire extra people. In other words, automating one task exposed another one, pushing the company to start thinking about a "manipulation solution," or a robot that can grab and handle items. Chavez said his company now analyzes labor by breaking it down into specific tasks to identify which areas can be handled by robots. Robot.com's future robotics pipeline will follow a simple rule of thumb. "If you can do it with two fingers, very likely we will be able to do it," the CEO said. The startup's vision is relatively modest compared to the humanoid-robot hype captivating the rest of Silicon Valley. Companies like Figure AI and Tesla are building bipedal robots with five fingers, which means they'll first have to solve the herculean problem of full dexterity and manipulation. If they can do that and solve manufacturing challenges, the companies say the robots will work in warehouses, factories, homes, and other physical environments. Elon Musk has said this will lead to an "infinite money glitch" in which people will no longer have to work and can rely on a universal income. While Chavez said he doesn't doubt that humanoids will one day proliferate the world, Robot.com's version of the near future is grounded less in personal home servants and more in the less glamorous parts of service work, like sorting, moving, and handing items off. Chavez said his 20 or so customers at present are also thinking less about replacing their workers and more about improving workforce satisfaction and reducing turnover. "The people that are working right now are going to feel better," he said. "They're going to maybe not do that repetitive tasks and focus on customer-centric experience and not resign after seven months." Part of Robot.com's revenue will come from advertising, Chavez said. Courtesy Robot.com Companies like Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics have similarly pitched an optimistic outcome for robotics — one where humans are upskilled, not replaced. Still, those very companies have to contend with a massive labor force that relies on so-called simple jobs. Estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed there were about 3.8 million fast-food and counter workers, 3 million "laborers and freight, stock, and material movers," and 2.8 million stockers and order fillers in 2024. Chavez said humans will still be essential in a robotic future. Humans, after all, maintain and guide Waymo robotaxis at remote centers or train humanoids through teleoperation, he said. The CEO invoked the solarpunk movement — the antithesis of the dystopian cyberpunk vision in which humans live on the margins of a world overrun by robots. In an ad for Robot.com, humans peacefully co-exist with their robot counterparts. They could be delivered a cup of coffee along their daily commute. They could even wave hello, as Robot.com imbues their machines with some personality. Maybe they'll be served a yogurt ad along the way. Read the original article on Business Insider

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information. A reader (not pictured) asked For Love & Money what they can do to feel they can afford the life they've dreamed of. urbazon/Getty Images For Love & Money is a column from Business Insider answering your relationship and money questions. This week, a reader who moved to a new country feels they aren't achieving their financial dreams. Our columnist reminds them of all they've achieved and suggests creating a concrete plan for the future. Dear For Love & Money, I'm 25 years old and live in the Netherlands. I spent 15 years trying to leave my home country for a better future and move to Europe. I thought I would be better off here, have a higher standard of living, and be able to go on holiday. I worked and saved up whatever I could to make my dream come true. I made it to Europe 1½ years ago, and I'm working in tech sales, an industry that pays well even in a junior position; I make 67,000 Euros a year, but after rent, food, and bills, there's not much left. I see people my age going on holidays, wasting money on drinks, skiing in the winter, and partying in Ibiza during the summer. I feel worthless, like all of the effort I put in to be here means nothing. I still can't afford a holiday or to travel anywhere. It feels like I moved forward three steps, only for the world to take 10 steps backward. I want to be young, to meet women my age, and to be able to go on dates. I want to spend money on things, and not be scared to wear the one piece of clothing I bought because I can't afford to buy it again if it gets ruined. What can I do? Sincerely, Disappointed Dreamer For Love & Money answers your relationship and money questions. Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Submit your question in this Google form. Dear Disappointed, In 2002, my brother-in-law emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States at 21 years old. He had no money and a college degree that most American businesses didn't recognize. Compared to his American peers who had just graduated from college and were spending their first corporate paychecks on vacations and at bars, his life was distinctly unglamorous. While his frugal lifestyle reflected my brother-in-law's lack of funds, though, it also reflected his goals. He used his grit and brains to start over in a new country, and twenty-odd years later, he's now the most successful person I know. In 2022, he went on a bucket-list hunting trip on a Canadian island, visited his father in Bulgaria, took his kids to Disney World, and whisked my sister away for a romantic tour of Italy and Spain. I share his story with you to illustrate something that's easy to forget when life feels exhausting and your dreams are taking longer than you hoped to achieve: The best indicator of how far you'll go isn't where you've landed — it's how far you've already come. You moved to a new country — something many people never accomplish — and are working in a position with plenty of room for career advancement. So, please, do me a favor: Look at your accomplishments and congratulate yourself. You're a rockstar with remarkable inner strength and intelligence, and while I know you're tired, you're going places. Besides, your own history is a much stronger data point for where you "should be" than the social media accounts of your peers. You mentioned seeing other people your age "wasting money on drinks." Your use of the word "wasting" tells me you aren't much of a drinker. Apparently, they are, and therefore see drinking as a worthy financial trade-off. This is why you cannot fall into a comparison trap with your peers. You're different people on your own journeys. Instead, spend that energy analyzing your own financial priorities and aligning them with your spending habits. This is one of the best ways to turn your abstract fantasies into concrete goals and make choices based on those goals. Get extremely specific about what matters most to you financially and build your budget around those priorities. If travel matters more to you than clothes, eating out, or nightlife, create a separate sinking fund for holidays and automatically transfer money into it every payday, even if it's only €100 at a time. Do the same for other goals that matter to you, whether that's dating, buying new clothes, or taking time off work. Saving becomes much easier when your money has a clear purpose attached to it. You can also look for ways to reach your goals in a more budget-friendly way. Get roommates to share your rent, if you can. Buy your clothes at thrift stores. Stay at hostels when you travel, and track airfare and train fare to ensure you're booking at the lowest prices. I'd also encourage you to take an honest look at your current spending and identify the expenses that aren't actually improving your life. A lot of people bleed money through food delivery, subscriptions, expensive grocery stores, or constant small convenience purchases — without realizing how quickly they add up. I know it can be hard to cut those small expenses when it seems like everyone else can afford both food delivery and a month in Greece, but remember that things may not be how they look with your peers. They may have family money or a credit card balance that would make your head spin. How they spend their money has nothing to do with you. What has everything to do with you, though, is how you continue to build upon the hard work you've put in to get where you are, to reach the life you want for yourself. I know it's hard, and I understand we all have moments of weariness, but don't give up on your dreams now. You are doing an incredible job. If you take anything I am telling you to heart, please let it be this: Your story is inspiring. You've come so far so quickly, and I can't wait to see how high you climb. Rooting for you, For Love & Money An earlier version of this article was originally published in February 2023. Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form. Read the original article on Business Insider

SolStock/Getty Images Amy Morin is a psychotherapist, podcast host, and author. She said that many mislabel overwhelm as burnout, leading to incorrect solutions. Overwhelm is temporary and may improve with breaks, unlike burnout, which requires deeper solutions. For more than two decades, people have walked into my therapy office and told me they were burned out. Most of them weren't actually burned out. Corporate wellness programs and social media carousels that gloss over the topic are leading to incorrect self-diagnoses. People are using "I'm burned out" the way they used to say "I'm tired." Once you've concluded you have burnout, you'll look for evidence to confirm it. Every time you feel bored in a meeting or overwhelmed by a full schedule, you'll chalk it up to more evidence that you're burned out. I understand the temptation. Calling it burnout makes the feeling feel legitimate. But if you mislabel overwhelm as burnout, you'll reach for solutions that don't fit the problem. Burnout, as the World Health Organization defines it, is chronic workplace stress that has gone unmanaged for so long it produces three things: exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness at work. Overwhelm is a temporary issue that can be addressed by tackling the problem at hand. If you insist you're burned out, you might think the only solution is quitting your job — and miss out on taking the action that would actually give you relief. Here are five signs you're overwhelmed, not burned out. 1. You still care. If you're frustrated about the obstacles that stand in your way and prevent you from turning in your best work, you're overwhelmed. If you've genuinely stopped caring about the outcome, that's closer to burnout. If you aren't sure which end of the spectrum you're on, imagine yourself turning in some incredible work this week. Would that still mean something to you? If so, you're temporarily overwhelmed, not permanently burned out. 2. A great weekend gives you relief. If you come back to work on a Monday feeling even the slightest bit restored, you're just overwhelmed. Two days off isn't meant to fix everything, but a break from the grind should move the needle. If, however, an amazing weeklong vacation leaves you feeling as frazzled as when you left, you might be burned out. One caveat: Look at how you're spending your days off. If you're sprinting from one activity to the next and don't take time to rest, you won't be able to judge how your time off affects you. 3. You want to do the work, but there's too much to do. When you're overwhelmed, you're more likely to think, I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Cutting down on your to-do list, asking for help, or checking things off the list should help you feel better. When you're burned out, however, you're more likely to think, I can't make myself get my tasks done and I don't care. Burnout involves a lack of meaning that zaps your effort. It also prevents you from experiencing a sense of accomplishment when you get something done. 4. You can see the finish line. When you're overwhelmed, you can still see the light at the end of the tunnel. You know once your deadline passes or Friday afternoon arrives, you'll feel better. When you're burned out, you won't be able to see the other side. You won't imagine anything that brings relief. Instead, you'll think about how finishing one thing means starting the next, and the ability to keep going feels unsustainable. 5. The physical toll is evident. When you're overwhelmed, your shoulders might get tight, your stomach might churn, and you might struggle to sleep because you're thinking about all the things you need to do. If your body is yelling at you, that's actually a good sign. It means your system is still responding to the stress. It wants you to take action. And a little yoga, some gentle stretching, and regular exercise can help you feel better. If you're burned out, you're more likely to feel flat or numb, both physically and emotionally. My therapy clients who are genuinely burned out will say things like, "I don't feel stressed anymore. I feel nothing." What to do when you've named it correctly If you're overwhelmed, you don't need a new job or a six-month sabbatical. You need a strategy to tackle the problem. Name exactly what you're feeling instead of calling it all "stress." Use the 10-minute rule to tackle a task you've been avoiding — commit to 10 minutes to build some momentum that will help you keep going. Or gamify the grind, so you can get more tasks done faster. These are three examples of strategies I address in my new book that can give you fast relief when you're feeling overwhelmed. If you're burned out, you'll need a more serious intervention — like extended time off, therapy, or a major shift in your role. If you aren't sure if you're burned out, talk to a mental health professional if you can. Burnout responds to the right care, but you have to name it correctly first. Read the original article on Business Insider

Walmart is tapping into its enormous scale to get the most out of AI. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Walmart is folding AI into nearly every aspect of its business. The retailer is pushing to make AI capabilities available to all of its employees and customers. I visited the company to see how Walmart's AI is supporting new levels of speed and personalization. Walmart is big, but it wants to be bigger. The retail giant employs more than 2 million people. It serves hundreds of millions of customers each week across thousands of stores in the US and around the world. And it's not sitting still. Walmart is now working to speed up its business with a major assist from AI in just about every aspect of its operation. I got to see this firsthand during its annual shareholders meeting at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, where executives and frontline workers shared how the technology is transforming retail. AI is for everyone For starters, Walmart is using its scale to its advantage by equipping people at all levels of the company with the tools to wrangle AI. "We want to democratize the access to learning and democratize the access to making a difference, so that people can learn and grow," CEO John Furner told reporters last week. Walmart CEO John Furner. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider The most talked-about example was the new Code Puppy agent that Walmart Global Tech distinguished engineer Mike Pfaffenberger built and shared with the organization. Walmart already has a dizzying number of agents and a handful of super-agents tailored for particular use cases, but Code Puppy was notable for its ability to help people across the organization vibecode their own solutions — from salaried software engineers to hourly forklift drivers. Unlike companies that may centralize AI development within traditionally tech-focused departments, Walmart's approach accelerates the pace at which new ideas can arise from the front lines and spread throughout the global enterprise. "It doesn't matter where the idea came from. It could be in Bangalore. It could be in Greater Toronto. It could be Mexico City. It could be in Wichita, Kansas. Wherever the best idea is, we should take that and scale it," Furner said. "We just simply surface what's already been built, and then we see the adoption rates go much faster." Some workers want better guardrails Walmart's embrace of AI is not without controversy, however. A shareholder proposal backed by United for Respect, a coalition of retail workers, criticized the impact of AI and automation on frontline employees. Ava Williams, an overnight stocker in Washington, presented the proposal during the Walmart shareholders meeting. She said the new AI-powered workflows push workers like her to cut corners as they race against unrealistic expectations. "We are not asking Walmart to stop using technology. We are asking for technology that works for us, not against us," she said. Shareholders rejected the measure, and the company said it has multiple channels for employees to share their ideas and concerns. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider The company also officially launched a credentialing program it built with OpenAI that is available to every employee, fulfilling a commitment it announced back in September. The training program is intended to help employees build practical confidence with AI. They learn to integrate the tools into the problems they face in the real world. The company highlighted one such case: A logistics manager who completed a Google AI certification and used those skills to develop an agent that helps Walmart identify routes that would get drivers home faster with fewer empty trucks. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Even the new delivery partnership with in-store Subway restaurants now comes with a hefty serving of AI. Walmart order pickers already follow an AI-generated route through the store to fill the basket, and Walmart's head of digital fulfillment, Greg Cathey, said AI now also finds the right moment in that route to queue Subway workers to make the order. "That is the AI that's timing everything to make sure the sandwich is going to be hot if it's hot — always fresh," Cathey said. Deeper insights about what customers really want Over at Walmart's warehouse club, Sam's Club Director of Consumer Insights Sue Jervis said she can now gain new details from the chain's fast-growing member feedback community thanks to the power of multimodal AI analysis. She expressed a visceral disgust for five-star surveys and said the conversations and video clips she gets from participants give her a much more precise understanding of what really matters to them. Thanks to AI, Jervis can tap into the 150,000-member group and extract not just what they're saying, but how they're saying it — the emotional register behind their feedback about the club's products and services. Walmart Chief Growth Officer Seth Dallaire. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Walmart is also learning more about customers who use the company's new Sparky chatbot, which acts as a kind of personal shopping assistant. "We're learning a ton just from how they're interacting with Sparky relative to ways that maybe historically they have interacted with us," Chief Growth Officer Seth Dallaire told reporters. The value of that interaction is significant enough that the company is not rushing to serve ads in the chat, focusing instead on ensuring customers are getting what they want from the experience. "We see long natural language query strings that look very different than someone typing in 'men's shoes,'" he said. "That is in itself is a really interesting piece of information for us." Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Betting big on smaller things It's telling that on Friday, Furner handed the President's Innovation Award to Pfaffenberger and his colleague, John Choi, for their work on Code Puppy. "A vibe-coding tool that turns associates into engineers," Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar said. "They built a tool that supports the entire company." Or, as Pfaffenberger asks in his documentation for the project, "Would you rather plow a field with one ox or 1,024 puppies? If you pick the ox, better slam that back button in your browser." Walmart, big as it is, is betting on the puppies. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at dreuter@businessinsider.com or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

Citadel and Citadel Securities accepted 0.36% of interns this year. Citadel More than 350 employees are starting as interns at Citadel and Citadel Securities. The companies accepted a record low 0.36% of applicants, out of more than 115,900 applications. BI got an exclusive look at the class and the firms' "insatiable appetite" for young talent. Ken Griffin's companies are making their biggest bet yet on entry-level talent, as Citadel interns kick off their program with an offsite in Palm Beach on Monday. They're among the more than 350 interns at the company and its sister firm, market maker Citadel Securities, and comprise the biggest global class to date. The companies, known for recruiting the sharpest quants and traders, accepted a miniscule 0.36% of applicants out of more than 115,900 applications, up 6.4% from last year's record. "The reason our class is larger than ever is precisely because the business has seen how valuable campus talent can be," Iris Wang, who oversees campus recruitment at Citadel, said, adding that the firms aren't "headcount-restrained." Despite widespread anxiety about what AI will do to entry-level hiring, Citadel's commitment to young talent isn't entirely surprising, as the top hedge funds have been scrambling to hire enough people to invest their massive sums. Some of the biggest hedge funds are beefing up their talent pipelines to rival that of the big banks, whose intern programs are something of Wall Street folklore. Other hedge funds are also investing in their talent pipelines: in 2027, Millennium is starting an investing internship, and Balyasny is launching a nine-month Catalyst training program for recent graduates. Wang and Fabian Figi, who leads recruiting at Citadel Securities, said roles in quantitative finance are especially attractive to young people because they incorporate cutting-edge technology and AI, and might seem like a wise long-term bet in a rapidly evolving workforce. Some AI labs have been trying to poach the most impressive quants from hedge funds and trading firms, at times offering multimillion-dollar pay packages. Citadel and Citadel Securities interns, some of whom have PhDs, won't be starved for summer cash: their base salary is $4,300 to $5,800 per week, depending on their role and experience. Interns also get a signing bonus and can choose to live in corporate housing or receive a $15,000 housing stipend. A snapshot of the class The class has more than 350 interns who will work in areas including quantitative research, investment and trading, and engineering. Interns come from more than 90 schools globally, with MIT, University of Chicago, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and UT Austin among the most represented. Around 90% of the interns come from technical backgrounds, like mathematics, physics, and computer science, and the rest are finance and economics majors. The class includes more than a dozen USA Computing Olympiad Platinum award winners and 20 International Olympiad medalists. How to select top candidates Interns across Wall Street are entering an industry transformed by AI, as new tools automate much of the work once synonymous with junior roles and firms incorporate the technology into training. Griffin, once a prominent AI skeptic, said last month that the technology has become "profoundly more powerful," and can now complete work in hours that would have taken people with PhDs in finance weeks, even months. Fabian Figi and Iris Wang lead campus recruiting for Citadel Securities and Citadel, respectively. Citadel Citadel assessed applicants on their AI fluency during the recruitment process, along with their good judgment. Many of the strongest applicants knew how to leverage new tools and help AI code effectively, but the "A-plus" candidates were differentiated by their judgment and adaptability, Wang said. Figi said that though soft skills are especially important, a traditional STEM degree still holds weight, even if the traditional STEM skills aren't as crucial. "We like people who pursue STEM degrees not just because of their technical expertise, but because it's hard," he said. "These are people who want to challenge themselves, and it requires a certain level of raw intellectual horsepower that will push them forward no matter how tools evolve." This year's interns, he said, will have more time to think about higher-order, complex problems, which will likely make the role "more interesting." Return offers and evaluation While the intern role itself is changing, Citadel and Citadel Securities are still evaluating interns in much the same way: impact. Interns work on team projects with real business implications and have access to the same suite of AI tools as full-time employees, Wang and Figi said. They have one-on-one conversations with their managers each week and ongoing communication with team members. At the end of the summer, interns present their projects to business leaders, and Griffin and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao review return offers. Figi said that while it's hard to predict how the summer will shake out, he expects most interns to get a return offer, as they have in past years. The companies don't have specific quotas for returns, and instead evaluate whether each intern could be "wildly successful" individually, he said. And the track record is pretty good: campus hires are around twice as likely to one day be considered high performers, based on annual performance reviews. "We're going to continue to have an almost insatiable appetite for exceptional talent, and we'll continue trying to identify as much of it as we can because we believe it's a critical competitive advantage," Figi said. "Once we identify that talent, we'll move incredibly fast to secure it." Interning on Wall Street this summer or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

Kelsey Hightower has tips for fresh graduates who are entering an uncertain job market. Derek White/Getty Images Kelsey Hightower has three tips for new graduates entering an uncertain job market. Hightower said that young people still have more control over their careers than they may think. He said the era of AI is a good time for job seekers to focus on their human qualities. As graduation season collides with diminishing entry-level roles and slower hiring, the former distinguished engineer at Google has notes for fresh grads. Kelsey Hightower, who retired from Google in 2023, told Business Insider that the current job market is vastly different from the one he entered decades ago, but young people still have more control over their careers than they may think. "AI is definitely a very convenient reason to look at what you're currently doing," said Hightower of AI's effect on the workplace, adding that the industry is undergoing a "recalibration." "The fact is that for the last 20 to 30 years, we've taken millions of super bright people who would've been good at anything, and we pushed them all into tech," he said. Here are three pieces of advice Hightower has for new graduates and early-career workers, especially those looking to break into the tech industry. Treat extracurriculars like a job requirement Hightower said that the new "harsh reality" is that grades and diplomas are no longer enough to stand out. "All your work has been at school, you do projects for school, maybe you get a GPA, maybe you get a diploma from that, but no one knows if you're going to provide anything special or if you're just another person graduating," Hightower said. "You're going to have to show your work in public," he said. "I think now going into the workforce, you're going to have to put together a strong set of extracurricular activities." Hightower said prospective graduates should think about workforce preparation the same way they once approached college admissions. "That means open source projects, real-world things that you've actually built — not just internships, but things that people can really point to to say, oh, this was a meaningful contribution, whether it's to a company or society," he said. Invest in real-world relationships Referrals remain one of the most important pathways into coveted tech jobs, Hightower said, but many younger workers came of age during the pandemic and have built far more online connections than in-person ones. "The network really matters," Hightower said. "I think being in the physical world next to other people that are doing this work or going through the same challenges as you — it's very different than trying to do that online." He said he remembers attending programming-language meetups and technology gatherings when he was younger, but sees fewer people investing in face-to-face professional relationships today. "They're on Reddit, they're on social media, they're on LinkedIn," he said. "I see them posting all the time, but I don't really see a lot of them building those real-world connections." Don't become a 'senior engineer and a junior human' Hightower said that new graduates shouldn't lose hope in the face of AI and should focus on their human qualities. "I think a student really has to start thinking about what we traditionally call soft skills," he said. "Like understanding people, being creative, artistic, having a big vision, having experienced the world, and all those creative elements that typically don't get measured in the interview process." "Those are the only things that AI can't do well," he added. "It has no experience. It has no empathy for the human condition." He said that many workplaces have created what he calls "a senior engineer and a junior human," where around 20% of workers are expected to be more robotic and are "reduced down" to what a computer could do. "I can promise you a lot of people are not performing to the best of their ability, and in many cases, it's not their fault," he said. "They've driven the motivation out of you to the point where you're almost just doing what a robot would do: open this ticket, assign this task, write this code, check it in, rinse and repeat." "Start making that list today. What can I bring to the table that this AI model cannot?" Read the original article on Business Insider

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