Wall Street Journal: A profile of OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, who sources say helped keep OpenAI's Microsoft deal on track and has privately suggested waiting until 2027 for an IPO  —  The chief financial officer is managing Sam Altman—and ambitions for one of the biggest IPOs ever.  She has pulled off impossible ones before.

Plus: The NSA tests Anthropic’s Mythos Preview to find vulnerabilities, a Finnish teen is charged over the Scattered Spider hacking spree, and more.

For the past week, a photo of me has been plastered on the CEO of Snap’s Wikipedia page. No one, not even Spiegel, seems to care.

Spirit Airlines has operated for nearly 50 years, and its ultra-low-cost fares pushed prices down on many routes. Kevin Carter/Getty Images The ultra-low-cost airline announced it is shutting down after nearly 50 years. A proposed bailout fell through. The US government offered $500 million in exchange for a 90% stake. Spirit said it would automatically process refunds for flights bought with a credit or debit card. After two bankruptcies and a failed federal bailout, Spirit Airlines is out of moves. The ultra-low-cost airline announced early on Saturday that it is shutting down and ceasing operations immediately. "All Spirit flights are cancelled and customer service is no longer available," the airline said on its website. It said customers booked on flights should not go to the airport. Directing travelers to links offering advice and information, it said: "Thank you for choosing Spirit — we are grateful to all our Guests who flew with us over the past 34 years." The collapse comes after a proposed $500 million bailout from the Trump administration in exchange for an up to 90% stake fell through. As far as refunds, flyers with tickets may not be totally out of luck. A company document shows Spirit's credit card processor has been holding up to $3 million a day since August in the event of a collapse, meaning those with canceled tickets should be able to get their money back. In its advice to customers, Spirit said: "While we are not able to help rebook your flight on another airline, we will automatically process refunds for any flights purchased through Spirit with a credit or debit card to the original form of payment. "Guests who booked flights via a travel agent should contact the travel agent directly to request a refund. Compensation for Guests who booked flights using any other methods, including a voucher, credit or Free Spirit points, will be determined at a later date through the bankruptcy court process." Credit card holders may be able to do a chargeback if the refund from Spirit falls through. It's unclear how long the refunds will take. Any spent points are likely gone, as without Spirit, they're worthless. Spirit's President and CEO, Dave Davis, referred to a March agreement "with our bondholders on a restructuring plan that would have allowed us to emerge as a go-forward business." He added: "However, the sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the Company. Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure." Spirit's collapse comes after decades of flying bare-bones planes to leisure destinations across the US and Latin America. It was consistently profitable before the pandemic, but rising labor and operating costs post-COVID, mixed with changing traveler habits and the oil crisis amid the war in Iran, proved too much to bear. The airline tried to adapt to the premium demand trend, as flyers are increasingly willing to pay extra for greater comforts in the sky. It added extra legroom seats and a refreshed "first class" experience, but it still never offered long-haul international routes or the fancy airport lounges its legacy rivals could curate. Its departure means customers no longer have access to the rock-bottom fares it's famous for. Its key leisure routes to places like Florida, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean may see fare increases since Spirit is no longer present to pressure prices downward. A fare analysis previously conducted by Business Insider shows Spirit's exit from dozens of routes in 2024 and 2025 pushed fares up by roughly 14%. Some shot up more than $100. President Donald Trump has taken the unprecedented step of having the government pursue a range of investments and equity stakes in private companies, but Spirit was in some ways different. The government has taken stakes in companies extracting critical materials or producing essential components, such as the rare-earth producer MP Materials, the mining company Lithium Americas Corp. and chipmaker Intel. "It's 14,000 jobs," Trump said Friday in response to a reporter's question. "I would say we're driving a tough deal but it's one of those things. We'll do it or we won't." Read the original article on Business Insider

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Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's chief technology officer, revealed the plan in an interview at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, describing it as a natural extension of a nascent program the company announced in late January called AV Labs.

New York Times: Ripple Labs investor and exec Chris Larsen plans to spend $3.5M to help Alex Bores, a NY congressional candidate at the center of a proxy war over AI regulation  —  Chris Larsen, who hails from California, plans to spend $3.5 million to help Alex Bores, a New York congressional candidate …

Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal: Sources: GameStop is preparing to make an offer for eBay after quietly building a stake; GameStop had a market cap of ~$11B as of May 1, while eBay had ~$45B  —  Retailer's CEO Ryan Cohen has been eyeing a major deal, in part to clinch a huge payday  —  GameStop is preparing to make an offer for eBay …

Allie Garfinkle / Fortune: Avoca, whose AI agents let physical services businesses handle inbound calls and dispatch, raised $125M+ across seed, Series A, and Series B at a $1B valuation  —  Tyson Chen and Apurva Shrivastava were chasing restaurants when they found an HVAC company.  —  The two engineers had first met …

These five AI image-editing prompts can help improve backgrounds, outfits, headshots, product photos, and image quality across today’s top tools. The post 5 Best AI Photo Editing Prompts in 2026: How to Get Better AI Images appeared first on TechRepublic.

Sam Tobin / Reuters: A UK court orders Samsung to pay ZTE $392M for patents needed to enable phone network access; Samsung faces similar suits from ZTE in China, Germany, and Brazil  —  Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) must pay a $392 million lump sum for a licence to use ZTE's (000063.SZ) patents for mobile phones …

Elon Musk spent three days on the witness stand to testify in his high-stakes lawsuit against OpenAI. JOSH EDELSON / AFP via Getty Images The author was in the Oakland courthouse when Elon Musk testified in his case against OpenAI. Musk's testimony started with his life story and ended with a lengthy spar with OpenAI's attorney. The presiding judge runs a tight schedule and is not shy about putting billionaires in their place. The air in Downtown Oakland felt different the morning Elon Musk showed up to testify at the federal court in his high-stakes lawsuit against OpenAI. "What's going on out there?" a cyclist asked as we waited for the traffic light just shy of 7 am on Tuesday, gesturing to the swarm of police vehicles on the block ahead of us. "Is someone in trouble?" "That depends," I said, as I rushed to cover the legal soap opera drama unfolding between the world's richest man and his former AI partner, Sam Altman. Entering the courthouse is a challenge Protesters against both Elon Musk and AI showed up in front of the courthouse every day. Katherine Li/Business Insider Musk claims Altman deceived him into donating $38 million to OpenAI's nonprofit, only to abandon its mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. He is asking for billions in damages and for Altman to step down as an officer of the for-profit entity. From day one, the courthouse grounds were teaming with people trying to make a point or just be seen. Protesters against AI and Musk showed up each day. Some wore robot costumes and walked around with a chain around their neck, while others brought a life-sized cutout of Musk. It was like Halloween in April. The author contended with a long line outside the courthouse each morning. Katherine Li/Business Insider I live just a few blocks from the Oakland federal court, and I learned very quickly that the small courthouse is not equipped to handle the frenzy that followed Musk. Getting inside the courtroom was its own circus show. The court coordinator had to call out line cutters daily and send them to the back of the line. I consistently arrived at the courthouse before 7 am, with a fully charged laptop and a Hydro Flask full of coffee, but I was never able to snag one of the 10 unreserved seats in the main courtroom, forcing me into the overflow room instead. By 8 am each day, the line would start to snake through the courtyard, taking me to an airport-style security check by 8:15 am. It never gave me enough time to make it inside for the 8:30 am start time. Mingling with Musk and Altman Anti-AI protesters have appeared in front of the courthouse each day. Katherine Li/Business Insider It surprised me that both billionaires showed up in person, given the security risks and their work schedules. Altman was present each day for varying lengths of time since Monday, which was jury selection. He always wore a jewel-toned blue suit and brown Oxford shoes and could sometimes be seen in the room during Musk's testimony. Whenever he entered or left the courtroom, his pace was usually very fast, often leaving his legal counsel scrambling to catch up. Musk, who moved around the courthouse with a noticeably larger entourage compared to Altman, skipped jury selection but showed up Tuesday morning. He took the witness stand that afternoon through Thursday. He wore a solid black suit and black Chelsea boots, and could sometimes be seen snacking during recess. Musk's initial testimony focused heavily on his life story before he was the world's richest man: He told jurors he was from South Africa, once worked as a lumberjack, and came out of college with $100,000 in student loans. During cross-examination, Musk got cut off many times for giving lengthy explanations to yes-or-no questions, and could not resist the urge to argue with OpenAI's attorney, William Savitt. Attendees laughed when Musk became flustered over questions about Shivon Zilis, who is the mother of some of his children and his former chief of staff. His repeated references to "The Terminator" also drew chuckles. The room also appreciated the humor of the presiding judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who told the jury about how, when she was still a young judge, she made the mistake of having a big lunch and had to pinch herself to stay awake in the afternoon session. It is clear that both tech giants highly value this case and are eager to make a good impression on the jury, some of whom shared negative perceptions of Musk and AI during jury selection. "Look, the reality is that people don't like him," Rogers said of Musk when his attorneys griped about comments made about the Tesla CEO during jury selection. The non-nonsense judge The author left the court early on Thursday because the presiding judge was very punctual. Katherine Li/Business Insider Rogers has a very exacting courtroom style and is not shy about putting billionaires and their lawyers in their place. The presiding judge made it clear from day one that the jury's time must be respected and that the day will start at precisely 8:30 am with a hard cutoff time of 2:00 pm. As early as day two of the trial, she demanded that the lawyers tell her exactly how much time they need with each witness and how long their closing statements will be. It may be hard to exert authority over the wealthiest person in the world, but Rogers always cuts straight to the point. During Musk's cross-examination, she asked him to "just answer the question" multiple times when he went on tangents, and told him that he is no longer allowed to talk about a hypothetical AI doomsday. On Thursday, when Musk interrupted Savitt's final question and called it "leading," Rogers was quick to remind him that he is not a lawyer. "Yes, I'm not a lawyer," Musk said. "I did take Law 101, technically." "You don't have statements on the law," Rogers responded, "At least not in this court." While I may never become a lawyer either, I do hope that the crowds will trickle out next week enough for me to make it into the courtroom just for a day, preferably without camping on the federal building lawn at 5 am. Read the original article on Business Insider

Meta is making another push to expand its humanoid efforts with the acquisition of a small robotics intelligence startup. Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) on Friday, a startup developing AI for humanoids. The move is another step for Meta toward building out its robotics efforts. Several startups are working on the brains for humanoids and other robots. Meta has deepened its stake in the robotics intelligence race. The social networking giant has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), Xiaolong Wang, the startup's cofounder, said in an X post on Friday. ARI is a small San Diego-based startup with about 20 employees. Meta and AIX Ventures, which was the first institutional investor to commit to ARI when it was founded last May, confirmed the news to Business Insider. Bloomberg first reported the acquisition. "We acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a company at the frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict, and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments," a Meta spokesperson said. ARI is developing AI models that will power humanoid robots. Nick Crance, a partner at AIX Ventures, told Business Insider that the startup is focused on high-precision dexterity and manipulation in robotics. Dexterity and manipulation cover a robot's ability to physically interact with real-world objects. Both elements are crucial to making robots useful, whether that's in industrial settings or at home. The startup is led by two "world-class roboticists," Crance said. Cofounders Wang and Lerrel Pinto both have academic backgrounds. Wang was a researcher at Nvidia and is a member of the electrical and computer engineering faculty at the University of California, San Diego. Pinto, who is also CEO of ARI, cofounded Fauna Robotics and is a computer science professor at New York University. ARI is not the only startup focused on robotics intelligence. Startups like Physical Intelligence, Generalist AI, and Genesis AI are focused on the intelligence layer, or the brains, of robots rather than the hardware. Their AI systems are designed to help robots of various form factors, including humanoids, perform across different environments. Meta's acquisition of ARI is another indication of the company's push toward robotics. In 2025, Meta formed a robotics group within its Reality Labs division, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider. Since then, the company has tapped new leadership and expanded its hardware team for Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). MSL is a separate division from Reality Labs. Both are increasingly becoming intertwined through AI hardware and robotics. AIX Ventures and Meta declined to comment on the size of the acquisition. Read the original article on Business Insider

Aarian Marshall / Wired: Waymo says it is continuing to “refine” its system preventing kids under 18 from riding alone, after adult riders reported new age-verification checks  —  As adult riders report new age-verification checks, the self-driving car company says it's continuing to “refine” …

At TechCrunch's sold-out StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, we covered a lot of ground in a short time, beginning with the question everyone in the industry is asking right now: in a world where rival Cursor is reportedly in talks to be acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion, is Replit also bound to sell?

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: xAI launches Grok 4.3, featuring “always-on reasoning”, 1M token context window, and low API pricing, and releases a voice cloning suite called Custom Voices  —  While Elon Musk faces off against his former colleague and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman in court, Musk's rival firm xAI …

The DTC skin, hair, and menopause care brand will use the non-dilutive capital to super-charge customer acquisition.

The starting price for the Mac Mini went from $599 to $799. Future Publishing via Getty Images Apple's Mac Mini starting price rose this week as the company reported a surge in demand. The cheapest model is now $799, and the $599 model no longer appears on Apple's website. CEO Tim Cook says AI is driving the unexpected demand for the device. Apple's "most affordable Mac" just got more expensive. The starting price for the Mac Mini jumped $200 this week as the company reported an AI-fueled increase in demand for the compact computer. The $599 base model with 256GB of storage, touted on the website as the "mini-est, most affordable Mac with mighty performance," had disappeared from Apple's site as of Friday. The website now says the starting price for a Mac Mini is $799, which comes with 512GB of storage. Earlier this week, the website listed the starting price as $599, the Internet Archive shows. While it's not an increase in price for the model that comes with 512GB of storage, it means the entry point for a Mac Mini is now higher. Apple, which did not respond to a request for comment, said on its quarterly earnings call this week that it hasn't been able to keep up with an AI-related clamor for the Mac Mini. The line got a boost in popularity earlier this year when tech enthusiasts sought them out to use with OpenClaw, an open-source, autonomous AI agent previously known as Clawdbot. CEO Tim Cook attributed the boost to the device's abilities as a "amazing" platform for "AI and agentic tools." "The customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted," Cook said on the call. "And so we saw higher-than-expected demand." Cook said it could take "several months" for supply to balance out with Mac Mini demand. Read the original article on Business Insider

Overtuning can cause models to "prioritize user satisfaction over truthfulness.”

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.