The interim Phase I trial data was only from 35 people, but results look good so far.

And what ORPilot does differently The post Why AI Still Can’t Solve Your Real Mathematical Optimization Problem appeared first on Towards Data Science.

I've never been one to take pictures of myself, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone and book a solo photo shoot. Rachel Calvo In my mid-50s, I decided to let go of excuses and book a solo photo shoot in Paris. I spent about $800 for a three-and-a-half-hour package, which included one outfit change. I've always been camera-shy, but the shoot helped me gain confidence and felt well worth the money. I've never liked having my picture taken. I don't consider myself photogenic, and when I do try to pose for a photograph, I end up feeling self-conscious and awkward — giving less model face and more Chandler Bing's engagement shoot. Still, I've always enjoyed seeing the creative photos of travelers dressed in fancy outfits and posing in eye-catching locales. One style that grabbed my attention is the "flying-dress" shoot. If you've been anywhere near social media in the past decade, you've probably seen the viral images of influencers in brightly colored silken dresses with long billowing trains that "fly" — as the name implies — in the wind. Recently, I had a couple of free days in Paris after a work-related trip. I realized that, although I've traveled the world, I have very few pictures of myself in distant destinations to show for it. It's only been in the last few years, as I've entered my mid-50s, that I've been able to let go of the excuses that I'm too old or not pretty enough. I decided that I deserve to have some glamorous photos of myself. I found the perfect photographer for my shoot A Google search for "Paris photographer" led me to hundreds of options, ranging from individual shutterbugs to large studios with multiple artists. Their prices varied from about $100 for an hourlong shoot to thousands of dollars for experiences that included hair and makeup, videographers, wardrobes, and even chauffeured transportation. I reviewed dozens of portfolios, but couldn't find the right fit. Then, I came across Rachel Calvo, who specializes in on-location portrait photography of women. Her photos, many in black and white, emphasized a sophisticated simplicity — nothing too sexy or too young and trendy, and no excessive use of over-the-top props. The only thing holding me back from immediately booking, aside from my long-standing camera phobia, was the thought of having to pack additional outfits, especially the voluminous skirts or dresses I had envisioned for my photos. Calvo, however, offered a VIP Package for 695 euros, or about $800, that would include access to a studio wardrobe filled with evening gowns, party dresses, and fun accessories. Then I saw it: the flowing red train of a flying dress. I was sold. The experience was even more fun than I expected I wore two different dresses over the course of my shoot. Rachel Calvo On the morning of the shoot, I met Calvo at a hotel near the Louvre, and we headed to her favorite spot in the museum: an arched limestone corridor that offered plenty of space to run and showcase the dress. Changing into the flying dress was easy. The simple infinity gown featured an elastic waist and two long straps that could be wrapped and twisted to create a variety of looks from a plunging halter to a full-coverage shawl effect, making it ideal for many different sizes and body shapes. Calvo helped me arrange the top and unfurl the 15-foot-long train. As she worked, she talked me through the process, making sure that I was comfortable in the dress and assuaging my anxiety about being in front of the camera. Because I was on my own and didn't hire a photo assistant, we didn't do the viral shot of the train blowing in the wind. That takes two people: one to throw the fabric while the photographer takes photos. Instead, Calvo would floof the train, and as soon as it began to waft and billow, I would slowly walk or run while she clicked away. As the shoot continued, I felt myself grow more confident. Rachel Calvo At first, I felt stiff and uncoordinated, unsure how to hold my arms or run forward while simultaneously looking back and smiling naturally. Calvo provided plenty of directions and encouragement, though, and her enthusiasm and positivity bolstered my confidence. In fact, I wasn't even bothered when we began to attract a crowd. I laughed when I turned around and saw tourists taking photos of us. I felt like a celebrity with my own paparazzi. My photo package also included a second outfit — a black ballgown skirt and beaded shawl, which felt a little closer to what I wear in my day-to-day life — and multiple location changes. I didn't want to spend a lot of time traipsing around the city, nor did I want to battle the crowds at the Place du Trocadéro, the city's most popular photo shoot site. However, I did want at least a couple of photos with the Eiffel Tower in the background, so we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries, which offered gardens, statues, and views of the iconic landmark. The entire photo shoot took about three and a half hours, including outfit changes and travel time between locations. I'm so glad I stepped outside my comfort zone I'm so glad I took a risk and booked the shoot. Rachel Calvo About one week later, I received a link to a gallery of roughly 100 images. My package included 12 high-resolution images, along with the option to purchase additional photos separately. Looking through the final shots, I could tell that I felt more self-assured in the black outfit. There was a power in my stance, and I was staring confidently at the camera. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I also liked the flying-dress photos, though: More than ordinary photos, they were works of art. Do I have a future as a model? Absolutely not — but I had a fun time dressing up and pretending to be one. If the idea of a professional shoot has even crossed your mind, I say, "Do it!" You'll spend a few hours being treated and feeling like a movie star. Most of all, you'll have photographs and memories that will last a lifetime. Read the original article on Business Insider

Meta is launching paid tiers for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp while testing new AI, creator, and business subscriptions. The post Meta Adds Paid Subscription Tiers Across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp appeared first on TechRepublic.

Taylor Swift’s filings sit at the messy intersection of copyright, publicity and trademark law, each of which addresses different aspects of AI deepfakes. Luis Gutierrez/Norte Photo via Getty Images As one of the most popular celebrities in the world, Taylor Swift has already endured her share of AI-related abuse. Fake nudes of the singer have spread widely online. Her voice and likeness have also been used to create fabricated political messages and bogus product endorsements. In April 2026, Swift pushed back. Her intellectual property and brand management company, TAS Rights Management, filed trademark applications covering short audio clips of her voice and her visual likeness. As a law professor, I was struck by Swift’s filings because they highlight a new legal frontier in artificial intelligence. Most AI-related litigation has centered on copyright law, which protects creative works such as songs, books, photographs and recordings from being copied, distributed, adapted or publicly performed without permission. But TAS Rights Management’s recent move involves trademark law, not copyright. The filings aren’t really about protecting Swift’s lyrics or albums. Instead, they’re about preventing AI-generated voices and images from misleading people into believing she has endorsed a product, political message or cause. Copyright is about creative works Most AI-related lawsuits have been tied to whether copyright violations have taken place – specifically, whether AI companies used copyrighted works to train their systems, or whether their chatbots have produced outputs that too closely resemble protected material. For example, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023, alleging that the companies used the outlet’s journalism to train their AI systems, which then went on to generate outputs that have competed with or reproduced New York Times articles. Authors, publishers, photo agencies and music publishers have sued other AI companies for the same reason. But copyright violations are only one part of the legal issues raised by generative AI. Copyright doesn’t necessarily protect a person’s identity. It does not give Swift a general right to control anything that sounds like her, looks like her or evokes her in the minds of audiences. If an AI-generated voice imitates Swift without copying a particular recording, song or lyric, copyright may not address the real issue, which is that people are being led to believe she said, sang or endorsed something she never approved. Trademarks are about trust Trademark law starts from a different concern. It protects names, images, sounds and other markers that help consumers identify who or what is behind a product or service. A trademark can be a word, phrase, symbol, design or combination of these things. Familiar examples include brand names such as Coca-Cola, logos like the Nike swoosh, slogans like Subway’s “Eat Fresh” and even distinctive sounds, such as the MGM lion roar. FIFA uses a ‘TM’ wordmark in its 2026 World Cup logo, meaning soccer’s world governing body is claiming the logo as a trademark. Coca-Cola features a small ‘R’ with a circle around it at the end of its iconic cursive logo to indicate that it has registered the design as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images A trademark is not a general ownership right over a word, phrase, voice or image. It is a way of helping consumers know who stands behind what they are buying, hearing or seeing. That difference becomes crucial once AI can mimic a person’s voice or face. Suppose a company uses an AI-generated Swift-like voice to sell perfume or cryptocurrency. The concern is that listeners may think Swift approved of the product or message. That is a trademark problem. Trademark law asks whether the use misleads consumers about whether a company or person has produced or endorsed something. Swift’s filings appear aimed at that danger. They suggest a concern beyond copied songs: fake endorsements, fake appearances and fake signals of approval. Swift’s concerns also bleed into what are known as “publicity rights,” which generally protect against unauthorized commercial use of a person’s identity, such as a name, image, likeness or voice. A classic publicity rights case involves a company using a celebrity’s face in an advertisement without permission to mislead consumers into believing the celebrity endorses the product. AI’s ability to clone voices and images makes publicity law especially relevant. But in the United States, publicity rights are mostly governed by state law, and the rules vary widely from one state to another. That patchwork helped inspire the bipartisan NO FAKES Act, introduced in 2025, which would create a national standard that would prohibit unauthorized AI-generated replicas of a person’s voice or visual likeness. The bill, still in its early stages, has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration. The untested part Swift is not alone: Actor Matthew McConaughey trademarked “alright alright alright,” his memorable line from “Dazed and Confused,” to protect it from being used in AI-generated content. The courts have already affirmed that sounds can function as trademarks. But it isn’t clear whether trademark law can police AI-generated replicas of a person’s voice or image when the issue is not counterfeiting but a manufactured endorsement. A person’s voice or likeness is not automatically a trademark. In order to qualify as one, it must be used help consumers identify who is behind a product or service. One existing limit on trademark protection is especially important. Federal law protects certain uses of a celebrity’s image and likeness in cases involving parody, criticism, commentary and news reporting. Not every imitation is a form of deception. Courts will have to draw that line on a case-by-case basis. A fake ad that makes consumers think Swift endorsed a product is different from a parody that comments on celebrity culture. A scam using her voice is different from a news story about AI deepfakes. That said, Swift’s filings reflect a real problem: AI has allowed fake endorsements to look and sound real enough to spread before anyone has time to set the record straight. Major AI copyright cases will continue to focus on copied works. But when AI is used to manufacture identity, endorsement or trust, copyright alone is no longer enough. Swift’s filings suggest that AI law will increasingly focus not only on protecting the work of musicians, writers, journalists and artists, but also on protecting the signals that tell audiences who is really speaking. Daryl Lim does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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In this latest installment of the Reporters' Notebook video series, we discuss how cyber insurance is forcing organizations to quantify risk, what's covered (and what's not), and why this could be the best thing to happen to cybersecurity.

Rob Dubitsky is considering moving to Spain to lower his own long-term care costs. Courtesy of Rob Dubitsky Rod Dubitsky is weighing moving to Spain for lower long-term care costs compared to the US. His mom's assisted living costs exceed $7,000 monthly, adding financial pressure on the family. Selling his mom's apartment will help cover the costs of assisted living not covered by insurance. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rod Dubitsky, 62, a fintech startup founder who lives in New York City. Dubitsky's mother lives in assisted living, which costs upward of $7,000 monthly. Dubitsky said he's considering moving to Spain, where his out-of-pocket costs for long-term care will be lower than in the US. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Most of my career has been spent working in Wall Street-related finance. I covered subprime mortgages during the financial crisis and also autos, credit cards, and student loans. I built a fintech startup called The People's Economist to help people with their personal finance issues, ranging from budgeting to debt management to portfolio management. I also do a lot of research on private equity and private credit insurance companies, which intersect with my consumer focus because they influence a lot of assisted living and nursing homes. I'm the middle child, and I have two sisters who all live within daily commuting distance of my mom. I'm divorced with one son in college. My mom and dad both worked for the government as blue-collar workers. My mom was a mail sorter in the post office, and my father was a customs inspector. Are you paying for your own or your loved one's long-term care? To share your story with a reporter, please fill out this quick form. My mom was living at home independently at a retirement home community My mom, 88, was very independent for a while, driving on her own. She landed in the hospital a few times, mostly short-term, for diabetes-related reasons, and she sometimes forgot to take her medication. At one point, we decided she couldn't drive because it wasn't safe for her. She had passed out while driving once, and she could have hurt herself or others. Once that happened, she basically couldn't leave her home. She didn't mind this much, as she had a dog and a TV, but her weekly mahjong games ended, as well as her weekly breakfast with her friends. We began monitoring her blood sugar through an app, which was a game changer with her short-term memory issues. We'd have to call her so many times a day to remind her to take her meds, so that's when we started looking into assisted living. We also looked at in-home care, but none of the options quite worked, because if they're there for four hours a day, they're not there when she takes her night insulin. My mom moved into assisted living less than a year ago When trying to find a facility for my mom, I would encourage her to look at who the owners are, which could impact the quality and cost of care. Very few of them published the breakdown of their costs, and when there is a crisis, there are a lot of add-ons that are not easily comparable. We picked one that was a not-for-profit. The assisted living said that she had to go on a medication management add-on. That increase for the care package, on top of the $5,800 base monthly pay, costs $1,500 a month. If she stayed in independent living, the cost would be almost as high, and she wouldn't receive any benefits. The low end of independent living, with no meals included, would be $4,000 monthly, but a decent facility with meals and medication management can get you to $8,000. My mom is still caring for herself. We haven't considered memory care, which would add on a couple of thousand dollars a month. There is free transport to a doctor within the facility's radius. It works for her, though it may be a problem down the line if she has to see an out-of-network doctor. We would need to sell her apartment All but $2,000 of the monthly bill is covered by her pension. The rest is coming from savings, though that will include the sale of her apartment once that closes, which should cover her for a number of years. In 2009, my mother qualified for an affordable apartment, which was much cheaper than buying an apartment right off the market. It was right after the financial crisis, so we got a great deal. Fast forward, we're trying to sell that apartment, but it's appreciated less than other apartments at the market rate, which would have funded a lot more of her assisted living costs. In rough numbers, the apartment value would probably have doubled if it were a market apartment. I'm not sure we would have done anything differently. Of course, healthcare inflation has soared far beyond the Consumer Price Index. Making the conservative, prudent decision at the time means less money to pay for healthcare. The same could be said of too conservative investments; safer decisions made 15 years ago mean less money now. Assisted living costs are not covered by her insurance, even though it's healthcare, and she ends up paying $9,000 in taxes on her income. My mom still has to pay taxes, despite the fact that her assisted living costs, at least medication management, are healthcare and should be deductible. It's a broken part of our tax system that we still have to factor in tax expenses, even though she's negative. I have permanent residency in Spain and have an apartment in Barcelona I have to buy private health insurance in Spain because I don't qualify for the national health insurance program. What I pay in two months in New York basically funds my entire year of private health insurance in Spain, and the cost of care you're paying out of pocket without insurance is much lower in Spain than in the US. I don't have short-term plans to move to Spain, but given the trajectory of the US and the costs of inflation and healthcare insurance, there doesn't seem to be any plan to fix it. Even if I pay higher taxes in Spain, I still end up saving money. Anyone considering going into assisted living should think about the next level and the ecosystem network, such as memory care, nursing homes, and physical therapy. Think about what you would do if that next level is needed ahead of time, because if you're just narrowly focused, you then have to start the whole process again of finding another facility. Read the original article on Business Insider

The author (left) says her daughter doesn't need money while at college. Courtesy of Jenna Brooks I realized my college-age daughter never asked me to send her money. When I asked her why, she told me she budgets and lives off $100 a week. She told me she likes the independence of paying for herself. My daughter was four months into her freshman year of college when I realized she had never asked me for any money. I'd paid for Sarina's housing, meal plan, and books, and put $100 on her account for laundry and incidentals at the beginning of the year. But that was it. It didn't occur to me until another mom posted a joke about how, every time her kid called "just to say I love you," somewhere in the conversation, there would be a shakedown for money. Lots of fellow parents joked around in the comments about how they were all getting squeezed by their college students, too. Huh, I thought. My kid has never done that. How? I asked my daughter about it My daughter saved up from selling art in high school and lined up a job in dining services before she arrived at college, so I knew she'd have some spending money. But it never occurred to me that she'd think she had to pay for her own necessities. So I asked her about it: "Hey, how come you don't ever ask me for money? How are you paying for school supplies and snacks and shampoo and stuff?" "I'm OK!" she said. "I give myself a weekly budget of $100, and I don't really need more than that." She didn't mind eating at the dining halls all the time and participated in clothing exchanges and thrift store shopping. She mentioned there were plenty of free activities on campus and a library full of books. When she didn't use her full weekly budget, she saved for concert tickets and gifts for friends. I Venmoed her $50, just for kicks, and she sent back $20 of it. "That's too much!" she wrote. I felt bad and wanted to fulfill my parental role to support my teenager It had been a goal of mine as a single mom to provide for her through college so she'd never have that added stress. That's when Sarina said something that helped me see things differently: "I like paying for my own stuff. It makes me feel like a responsible adult, you know?" Actually, I did know — and I'd forgotten that feeling. When I went to college, my parents didn't want me to get a job or join clubs in the first year because they wanted me to focus only on my studies. But once I proved my grades were solid, they backed off, and by my senior year, I was working two jobs. It did feel good to earn my own money. I took a more trusting approach with my daughter; I didn't set rules about how she should spend her time, but I asked her to keep a light work schedule until she settled in and could see what her college workload would be like. Sarina was able to piece together a schedule that worked out fine, though, combining work and play in proportions that made her happy. She handled time management like a boss and ended the year with straight As. This year, she's working in the mailroom during the week and as a local chocolate tour guide on weekends. Every now and then, I still send her money I know full well she'll often return part of it or limit what I'm "allowed" to send. I was allowed to pay for her train ticket home, for instance, but not for the Lyft ride to the station. When I tried to pay her $90 for shoveling our driveway over break (the rate my usual company would have charged), she wouldn't take more than $50. It's a dance, both of us wanting to feel good about our contributions. Both of us gather some of our self-worth by our ability to work for what we want and need in life. There is joy in self-reliance, in that burgeoning confidence you get when you realize you're capable of making your way in the world. Read the original article on Business Insider

Avishai Abrahami, the CEO of Wix. AI Wix is laying off 20% of its workforce, citing AI and currency challenges. CEO Avishai Abrahami cited the need for Wix to become leaner and more efficient. Wix is the latest company to mention AI and a flatter structure when making job cuts. Wix is laying off around 20% of staff. In a message to staff shared by CEO Avishai Abrahami on X, he cited the "fast evolution of AI capabilities" and said the company needed to become a "faster, leaner, and flatter organization." Israel-headquartered Wix, which provides website-building software, employs just under 5,300 workers, meaning around 1,000 roles are set to be cut. Abrahami also cited the Israeli shekel strengthening against the US dollar in recent quarters, which he said "creates a structural pressure" on Wix's ability to operate. Wix joins Snap, Block, Atlassian, and a handful of other companies in citing AI when making layoffs this year. Often, the language used by executives in these layoff announcements is similar — as Business Insider's Dan DeFrancesco pointed out in April. Wix is also one of the companies at risk from the so-called "SaaSpocalypse," the idea that AI can replicate tools and products sold by established software firms. The company has embraced AI to compete with the likes of vibe-coding platform Lovable, but Wix's share price is down 23% since the start of the year. Read Abrahami's memo to staff announcing the layoffs: Today is a sad day for me. We have made a very hard decision. We are reducing the Wix team size by roughly 20%. It is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make, but I am confident it is the right one, and I will explain why. Before I go into anything else, let me say - this is a very hard decision because I will be saying goodbye to many people who have worked with me for years, many whom I call friends, people I trust and respect, friends who poured their energy and talent into Wix. Team members I know personally, and team members I never had the chance to meet, but whose commitment and contribution I have witnessed. So thank you. Thank you for the effort, for the talent, for the passion, and for the friendship. We are doing this as a company-wide change, a decision that will impact the entire organization, driven by how we need to operate going forward. Why are we doing this? The first reason is the Shekel/Dollar rates. In the past few quarters the exchange rate between the Shekel and the US dollar has shifted significantly as the Israeli Shekel strengthens against the US Dollar almost every day. As the majority of our teams are Israel-based, a very meaningful portion of our costs are shekel-denominated, while our revenue is largely dollar-denominated. This creates a structural pressure on our ability to operate at our current scale. It is a reality that directly shapes what is sustainable for our company. The second stems from the fast evolution of AI capabilities. We have witnessed the most significant shift in how companies are built since the invention of modern programming languages in the 1970s. This is not just about adopting new tools - it is about rewiring how companies are built, how they think, how they manage and how they operate. Companies that embrace this change will not only build faster; they will build things the previous generation literally could not have imagined. We are already taking concrete steps in this direction. As you know, we've recently introduced new roles like Xengineer and Creators, designed from the ground up around AI-native ways of working, a meaningful step towards the kind of company we are becoming. It also means we need to become a faster, leaner, and flatter organization. We are moving to a structure with fewer levels between any member of our leadership and the most junior person on the team. Fewer layers means faster decisions, clearer ownership, and less distance between the people setting direction and the people building the product - but it also means a smaller number of people. It is clear to us that in this new era, companies need to make this change in order to lead and compete or risk falling behind. We are choosing to compete. It is a painful change, a change that touches the lives of many, but I truly believe we have no other choice - we must evolve. To those of you who are being let go I want to once more say: Thank you. Those who are affected will be contacted in person, directly, and we will do everything in our power to handle each conversation with sensitivity, respect, and the care you deserve, you will also be granted personally curated separation packages. Many of you have given years to this company and built things we are genuinely proud of. I am personally grateful for what you've created, for the culture you've shaped, and for the trust you placed in us. More than anything, this decision was about the shape of the company we need to become. We own that - and we own the responsibility of supporting all of you through what comes next. To those of you who are staying What happens in the next few days matters. The people leaving this company are your colleagues, your friends, people you've built things with. They deserve to walk out of here with their heads held high, knowing that their work was real and that we recognize it. Please treat them with the respect they've earned. How we say goodbye says as much about who we are, as anything we've ever built together. Our broader commitment Before anything else, our commitment is to our users - to make the hard decisions so Wix continues to be the company that helps them succeed. We work for our users. Millions of people run their businesses on Wix. Their world is also changing, also uncertain, also shaped by the current shifts. They rely on us - our reliability, our innovation, and our commitment to their success. The responsibility does not stop with our users - behind every Wix shareholder is a real person whose savings, pension, or investment is tied to how we perform. We take this responsibility very seriously. If we do not make this change, we will be failing our responsibility to our users, our shareholders, and our employees. In the long run, what is best for our users is best for our employees and best for our shareholders. Today's decision was made to ensure we are here for our users and our shareholders, you among them, stronger and more capable, for years to come. We are doing this today because we are committed to building a company that is healthy, durable, and positioned to lead. We will come out of this faster, stronger and better equipped for this new era. Avishai Read the original article on Business Insider

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Climate tech companies are going public. What’s next? Solar and battery company Solv Energy went public in February, hitting a $6 billion valuation. X-energy, which builds small modular nuclear reactors, followed…

Modern AI agents built on top of large language models (LLMs) are designed to run continuously.

A diffusion-inspired framework for stress-testing and denoising LLM-as-a-Judge pipelines, applied to safety-critical driving video. The post DiffuJudge-AV: A Diffusion-Inspired Framework for Calibrated AV Video Evaluation appeared first on Towards Data Science.

Learn how Endava uses Codex to build an agentic organization, accelerating software delivery and reducing requirements analysis from weeks to hours.

Peter Blottman Photography/Getty Images This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. Problems aren't a problem when you're an influencer selling a supplement. They're profit. The wellness industry loves a good ailment it can heal. These days, public enemy No. 1 is cortisol. From middle-of-the-night wake-ups to extra-puffy faces, cortisol is causing you plenty of issues. At least, that's according to social media, where influencers coincidentally have the perfect fix (for the right price). BI's Emily Stewart unpacked the internet's cortisol obsession. She spoke to multiple doctors about why there's so much misunderstanding about this vital hormone. In rare, extreme cases, too much or too little cortisol can lead to weight gain or loss, respectively, as well as other ailments. But those types of conditions aren't diagnosed via a 30-second Instagram Reel. "When somebody says, 'I know when you order my cortisol levels, they're going to be high because I'm stressed,' they're always normal," Dr. Caroline Messer, an endocrinologist in New York City, told Emily. America's growing wellness obsession, distrust in the traditional medical community, and love of a quick fix have created a boon for wellness influencers looking to sell you something. Now all they need is a problem. The cortisol craze is part of a wider wellness trend where health optimization is treated like a luxury purchase. Even the man who's arguably spent more than anyone trying to live longer recently explained why money doesn't always equate to health. Bryan Johnson reportedly shells out $2 million a year on his longevity protocol. But when he shared a 41-item list of the best things he'd learned trying to reverse his biological age, a lot of it was free. That's not to say every wellness hack you've considered paying for is a waste. I still take a handful of pills every morning, and I've had a cold-plunge pool in my Amazon wish list longer than I'd like to admit. Our bodies and health goals are all slightly different. But a lot of the best things you can do for your health are more about consistency and simplicity than the size of your bank account. Read the original article on Business Insider

Russia is arming Shaheds with electronic warfare to make them more survivable against Ukrainian interceptor drones. Pierre Crom/Getty Images Russia is arming its Shahed attack drones with new electronic warfare technology. The intent is to fend off Kyiv's interceptor drones, a top Ukrainian defense official said. The interceptor drones are becoming an increasingly important pillar of Ukraine's air defense. KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is attempting to make its deadly one-way attack drones harder to kill, arming some with electronic warfare technology meant to help them survive Ukraine's interceptor drones. Oleksiy Vyskub, Ukraine's first deputy defense minister, confirmed in a recent interview with Business Insider that Russia has installed electronic warfare systems on the Shahed-style attack drones regularly used to strike Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. These modified drones "fly in our country and try to suppress our interceptor drones," Vyskub said, speaking through a translator. Although a broad term, electronic warfare generally refers to the use of signal jamming and other forms of electronic interference to disrupt or disable a device's communications or navigation systems. Vyskub said the modified Shaheds, fitted with an electronic warfare frequency suppressor mounted on their rear, were detected during recent attacks against Ukraine. However, he did not characterize the development as a "super innovation" for Russia. Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment on the defensive tactic. The modified Shaheds are not a "super innovation," a top Ukrainian defense official said. 47th Mechanized Brigade via Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Screengrab Samuel Bendett, a Russian drone expert and advisor with the Center for Naval Analyses, a US-based research organization, said Moscow first started putting portable electronic warfare on uncrewed aircraft last year in response to a surge in Ukrainian interceptor drones. "The result of using this technology is mixed so far, since most such attempts dealt with light fixed-wing [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] drones carrying this tech," Bendett told Business Insider, adding that "this was likely done in insufficient numbers to prevent a growing slate of Ukrainian interceptor attacks." The interceptor drones are armed with small warheads and destroy targets by exploding nearby or colliding with them. Ukrainian operators use these inexpensive drones to defend against the waves of Shaheds that Russia launches nightly. Some units cost as little as $2,000. Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian defense minister, told reporters at a recent briefing on the war that the number of Shaheds shot down by interceptor drones has doubled since the start of 2026, despite Russia increasing the number of Shahed launches every month. Deliveries of interceptor drones have more than doubled during this period as well, Fedorov shared, underscoring their growing popularity as a cheap air defense tool. Bendett said it's unclear whether adding electronic warfare systems to the Shahed-type drones will be enough to defeat Ukraine's interceptors, some of which use targeting technology to stay locked onto the aircraft they're pursuing. Ukrainian interceptor drones are taking down a growing number of Shaheds. Pierre Crom/Getty Images Russian Shaheds equipped with electronic warfare defenses are the latest effort to make these deadly one-way attack drones harder for Ukraine's air defenses to detect and shoot down. Last year, Russia began adding rear-facing cameras to its Shaheds so operators could see interceptor drones approaching from behind, and it also armed some of its attack drones with air-to-air missiles to threaten the Ukrainian helicopters used for air defense. On Monday, Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said that Russia had started using a new jet-powered Shahed, known locally as the Geran-4, in response to the effectiveness of Ukrainian interceptor drones. This aircraft is faster and more maneuverable than its predecessors. Interceptor drones are primarily designed to engage propeller-driven Shaheds that reach speeds of up to 115 mph. But Ukrainian manufacturers have said they are developing faster models to chase down Russia's jet-powered drones. And Fedorov, the defense minister, said Kyiv is building a stockpile of cheap interceptor missiles as well. Ukrainian and Western officials have repeatedly described the war as a cat-and-mouse-style arms race: one side deploys an innovative tactic or weapon, forcing the other to develop a countermeasure, only for the other to invent a counter to that counter. Read the original article on Business Insider

The vendor’s growth parallels the explosive emergence of agents in enterprise AI.

While Africa’s innovation ecosystem is growing rapidly, it still faces major challenges, writes Mind the Bridge's Alberto Onetti, who argues that the continent's weak electrical grid infrastructure and limited domestic venture capital will need large-scale public and private investment to unlock its economic and technological potential.

The share of U.S. startup funding going to companies with Black founders in 2025 remained low, even as overall funding ticked slightly higher, Crunchbase data shows.

The Member's Mark Community helped Sam's Club design these jogger pants. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Walmart's warehouse club is taking customer feedback to another level. Sam's Club said it has a 150,000-member engagement community that helps it develop new products. The chain's chief merchant said the program helps his team get what shoppers want. Focus groups are a mainstay of retail, but Walmart's warehouse club is taking it to another level in its battle against Costco. Sam's Club is assembling a large and growing community of shoppers to help it develop new products as it races to expand the value of a membership. The company said Thursday that its member engagement community has topped 150,000 participants, up from 50,000 two years ago, after it opened the previously invite-only program to all members in February. "As we enter into this next era for Sam's Club, it'll be all about participation in retail," the chain's chief merchant, Myron Frazier, told Business Insider. "It'll be about doing things with our members as opposed to doing things for our members." Myron Frazier. Walmart The community gives the retail giant a real-time, detailed view of what matters to US consumers, from healthier food ingredients to better-performing apparel to more eco-friendly packaging. By leaning into the program, Sam's Club is doubling down on a systematic, tech-powered approach that isn't really matched among traditional retailers, most notably its larger rival, Costco. Tapping into a flood of member data Wholesale clubs have been having a moment in recent years, posting strong sales and traffic growth from shoppers looking for the best bang for their buck. At Sam's Club, that has translated to more than $93 billion in sales last year, as well as comparable sales growth of 6.1% for the first quarter of this year. To be sure, membership-based retailers already have more information about their customers than many other retailers, and Costco also actively solicits member input. The company and its executives are highly responsive to feedback. Costco did not respond to a request for comment on this story. But the Member's Mark Community gives Sam's Club a richer flood of information to improve its products and services. "We can ask the community a question, and within four hours we can have a report back — and it will be of statistical significance because of the size of our community," Frazier said. Member's Mark diapers. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider A recent example of this came when Frazier's team was deciding on patriotic flavors for a USA-themed summer treat. While retail experts at its Bentonville headquarters expected apples and blueberries to win, the community surprised them by preferring strawberry shortcake. "We were able to buy a niche item that was that exciting members, and it's doing extremely well," he said. "It's not something that we believe that they want — they've told us they want it." Frazier said the community helps identify products from national or emerging brands that could reach the sales velocity essential to warehouse retail. Raising the quality while lowering the price Sam's Club quietly launched the community in 2019, shortly before it combined some 20 private-label brands under the Member's Mark banner, à la Costco's Kirkland Signature line, which spans motor oil to multivitamins. The feedback was instrumental in Sam's Club's 2022 decision to remove more than 40 unwanted ingredients from Member's Mark food and beverage offerings. Member's Mark coffee beans. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider "Many of your national branded suppliers were not doing it, so we were out front," said Frazier, who previously managed the brand. That move scaled up last year to Walmart's other US private brands, including Great Value and Marketside. Walmart competitor Target this year said it was kicking synthetic colors out of the cereal aisle, too. "It's certainly influencing not only our enterprise but broader retail," Frazier said. Sam's Club now gathers data via an app, in-club events, and an AI-powered bot that texts members. Walmart does not disclose Sam's Club membership numbers or renewal rates, but the company said retention is high among those in the community. Sam's Club has also consulted with shoppers to develop other merchandise, from jogger pants to a propane grill to a new ultra-filtered milkshake. Member's Mark merlot. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Taking some of the guesswork out of product development has a key benefit at a time when household budgets are stretched: better prices. One of the first product lines that Frazier worked on with the community years ago was a new line of children's apparel that balanced parents' needs for stylish clothing, made with organic or recycled materials, at an affordable price. "We don't view innovation and affordability as mutually exclusive," Frazier said, adding that member insights allow Sam's Club to shorten the time it takes to get a product from concept to sales floor. "R and D is where the cost really drives up, and we're able to do that for a fraction of the cost of most brands." In terms of quality and price, club store private-label brands are fast becoming one of the best values shoppers can get — and Sam's Club is trying to make that deal stronger. 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