California-based startup Sabi is developing a thought-to-text wearable that could usher in the cyborg future.

Allbirds is an AI company now, and the rebranding is getting memed. Illustration by Timon Schneider/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Allbirds is, for some reason, an AI company now. Some people on social media found that more than a little funny. The jokes did not disappoint. Once in a while, something happens in tech land that's prime meme fodder. The latest: A shoe company suddenly — and seemingly inexplicably — pivots to go all in on AI. Allbirds found itself the subject of many jokes on social media on Wednesday. Investors in the long-beleaguered company, though, had something to celebrate. Its stock price shot through the roof after it rebranded itself as NewBird AI and said it would provide GPU compute-as-a-service. Have a look at some of these top-tier comedy offerings: #1 Goodbye to traditional investing logic Watching AllBirds stock be +430% after announcing a pivot from being a shoe company to a GPU as a service AI company pic.twitter.com/qD01LTXFyI — Boring_Business (@BoringBiz_) April 15, 2026 #2 Shoe Compute My new Allbirds just arrived! pic.twitter.com/pJg9OzhpLu — Jordanreviewsittt (@jordanreviewsit) April 15, 2026 #3 Corner the market With Allbirds shoes getting winded down, I’ve started buying hundreds of allbirds shoes for 50 cents on the dollar. So far, i have amassed a portfolio of 15,000 Allbirds shoes. Soon I will control the entire Allbirds market. — Finance Guy (@GuyInFinance) April 15, 2026 #4 Straight out of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' The name of the company… NewBird AI. It is a cutting-edge, AI-native cloud infrastructure firm out of- well, they used to be out of San Francisco making sneakers, but forget that, John- they are now awaiting imminent deployment of next-generation GPU compute clusters that have… pic.twitter.com/ArYT41hx8J — Negligible Capital (@negligible_cap) April 15, 2026 #5 Bubble vibes it’s so over pic.twitter.com/t51omPqhEO https://t.co/UAPNXP8OFj — Can Vardar (@icanvardar) April 15, 2026 #6 Cue the 'Mad Men' pitch Nike’s CEO seeing the stock down 28% YTD and pitching a turnaround story pic.twitter.com/VDTpjkRGX3 — litquidity (@litcapital) April 15, 2026 #7 If Allbirds starts a trend BREAKING: Crocs is pivoting from footwear into AI data centre infrastructure. Its EVA Croslite resin is ideal for controlling Nvidia rack temperatures. Jibbitz made for easy and secure chip insertion while foam holes provide ventilation, improving perf per watt by avg. of 16%. pic.twitter.com/ZMKDdWUTkD — Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) April 15, 2026 #8 Reinventing the heel Uber has no cars. Airbnb has no hotels. Allbirds has no shoes. This is the new economy. — Douglas A. Boneparth (@dougboneparth) April 15, 2026 #9 How far could this go? Allbirds entering the S&P 500 next week with a market cap of $750 billion https://t.co/k5LzD500tv pic.twitter.com/W35zt8VF3h — JT (@jiratickets) April 15, 2026 Allbirds, founded in 2015, quickly rose to fame for its wool sneaker, becoming a Silicon Valley tech bro favorite. Former President Barack Obama was spotted wearing a pair in 2020. It was a Wall Street darling as well. During the company's trading debut in 2021, its valuation reached $4 billion. But things started crashing after 2022, when the shoe lost its shine. In 2023, Allbirds posted an annual loss of $101 million, and its shares plummeted 47%. In the years since, it launched products that flopped, laid off staff, and went through a management shake-up, none of which helped turn things around. In March, Allbirds announced that American Exchange Group, a New York-based fashion and consumer company, would buy it for $39 million. After Wednesday's AI pivot, its shares rose by about 582%. They plunged as much as 64% in Thursday's premarket, but pared their decline to trade 24% lower as of 6 a.m. ET. Read the original article on Business Insider

The EIA’s pilot survey offers the clearest look yet at how the US government plans to measure data center power use as AI strains the grid. The post US Moves Toward Mandatory Data Center Energy Reporting as EIA Pilot Expands appeared first on TechRepublic.

The author's son (not pictured) felt a boost of confience when his teacher came to his soccer game. aire images/Getty Images My son wasn't initially sure whether his fourth-grade teacher liked him. Then, one day, she came to his weekend soccer game, and his face lit up. Her support meant everything to him and gave him confidence that I couldn't as his mom. The day we met my son's fourth-grade teacher in late August 2024, she wasn't the gentle, sweet personality I hoped for when my kids were little. When I'd dropped him at preschool for the first time, I wished for a warm, motherly personality to greet us, one that would hug away tears and calm separation jitters. But by nine, he was talkative, curious, and stubborn. By now, I knew he needed structure, precise expectations, and someone who would push him to his potential. As she showed him around the classroom, authority radiated from her words. "You two can sit beside one another, but only if you focus," she said to him and his closest friend. At first, he wasn't sure his teacher liked him My son excels in math, always solving equations in his head while I search for a calculator. With a craving to learn, he enjoys school, but transitioning into a new school year — and returning after long breaks — typically triggers some angst, initiating an internal voice that tries to convince him school will suddenly become too challenging. So, it was no surprise that initially, he was mildly apprehensive. "I don't think she likes me," he said one evening in early September after he'd been reprimanded for being chatty. A born negotiator, he exhibits the skills to persuade nearly anyone in his favor — but at the beginning of fourth grade, he learned you can't bargain your way out of every dilemma. It took time for him to adjust to her strong personality after learning words weren't always enough to evade consequences. She came to his soccer game one day, and I saw his face light up One Saturday morning, as we were talking about school, he informed me, "She's coming to my soccer game today." I worried he'd be disappointed. "She might be busy," I suggested. "She has her own family." Before having children, I worked as a speech-language pathologist in an elementary school. I was thrilled to live a couple of towns over; seeing my students on Saturdays wasn't my idea of enjoyment. But as we situated our chairs along the field line, there she was with her own husband and son. "It's your weekend!" I exclaimed. "You deserve time away from your students." She said she encouraged the students to share the times and locations of games and performances, as she strived to support them all. When my son spotted her from across the field, his face lit up. That was only the first of numerous games she attended that year. Each time his eyes locked with hers from a distance, his spirit intensified like a light. Her support gave him confidence that mine couldn't When I told him how well he played, he responded, "You have to say that. You're my mom." But each time she arrived, my biased pride in him solidified. She didn't have to show up; she chose to. "Save my number," she said one Friday after calling to check in. "You can call anytime," she insisted, as if my child were as important as her own. In the classroom, she rewarded students for their interests. Discovering my son's curiosity about the presidents, she had him recite them in chronological order to earn a movie for the class; she gave him a moment to shine. The usual apprehension that had always churned within him before returning to school after long weekends dissolved as the months proceeded. A teacher who shows up when it's not mandated shows she genuinely likes her students and who they are as people; with her on the sidelines, my son felt worthy. Throughout the year, purchasing pizza with her own money, she organized small group lunches, so every student had the privilege of her attention. On the last day of school, she threw them a party to celebrate the most impactful year my son had at his elementary school. When fifth grade began in September 2025, I knew he'd miss being in her classroom. "I wish I could be in 4C again," he said on the first day of school. That morning, he stopped by her room to say hi, and every morning thereafter, he's done the same. Beginning each day with her is a comfort he's come to rely on. At his championship soccer game this past fall — as he was adjusting to a new school year — a familiar voice caught my attention. Again, she filled him with confidence in a way I wasn't capable of. Last month, as we were wandering through the crowd to find our son after his orchestra concert, there she was amid the masses. "I can't believe you're here," I admitted, tears pooling in my eyes. These children are no longer in her class — they're preparing to move on to middle school — but she continues to emerge when they need her most. A mother herself, she has chosen to show up for our children. "I hope they never forget me," she said as students shuffled by with their instruments. "You'll be the one they remember," I promised. Last night, I found a letter my son wrote her at the beginning of fourth grade: "It is very nice of you to go to people's sporting events. You make me feel like everything will be alright." Because of her, my son knows he's enough. Read the original article on Business Insider

Rebecca Zisser/BI This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. A company announcing layoffs cited AI. How original. Snap is cutting 16% of its workforce, with CEO Evan Spiegel referencing "rapid advancements" in AI. It joins the ranks of Block, Atlassian, and a handful of others that have cited the tech as one of the driving reasons behind the layoffs. We could argue over whether these cuts are actually AI-related. Snap's stock is down 25% this year and more than 90% from its all-time high. That's despite a big surge over the past month. (It's a favorite among teens for messaging, so there's that.) Regardless of the reason, it doesn't make the layoffs any less real. What's more relevant is how similar all these announcements are feeling, writes BI's Tim Paradis. Layoff announcements are generally boilerplate, but these layoff-turned-AI-manifestos are all melding together. It's almost like CEOs are using Mad Libs for their AI layoffs. So after analyzing a couple, I decided to write my own for the next CEO who makes cuts. (Feel free to fill it out before reading. You can even email it to me: ddefrancesco@businessinsider.com.) TEAM/SQUAD/MADE-UP EMPLOYEE NICKNAME, Today is a SAD ADJECTIVE day for us. We're unfortunately saying goodbye to PERCENTAGE of our staff. This decision wasn't easy to make, but it's one that needed to be done to secure COMPANY NAME'S future. Before I explain why I made this decision, I want to thank our departing colleagues for their hard work. We're committed to helping you during this difficult transition. SEVERANCE PACKAGE DETAILS. ENOUGH TO AVOID BAD PR. NOT ENOUGH TO KILL YOUR BALANCE SHEET. So why are we doing this now? Over the last SINGLE-DIGIT NUMBER months, we've seen AI's impact on our business FAST ADVERB evolve from potential to actionable. For example, TEAM IMPACTED BY LAYOFFS handled MULTIPLIER its typical volume of work by leveraging AI. SMALL ADJECTIVE, AI-enabled teams will be better positioned to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients. We believe these efficiencies are replicable across our business. They're also necessary to stay ahead in such an AGGRESSIVE ADJECTIVE, AI-first business environment. Today's decision is about making sure we stay on that path. For those leaving, FINAL GOODBYE AND LOGISTICAL NEXT STEPS. Workers outside the US, INTERNATIONAL DISCLAIMER. (SAME OUTCOME, MORE STEPS.) For those remaining, I understand this is a lot to process. I appreciate your SEVERAL COMPLIMENTARY ADJECTIVES during this difficult time. Ultimately, I'm confident today's decision, as hard as it is, will position us to build an even POWERFUL ADJECTIVE + COMPANY NAME going forward. FIRST NAME (DESPITE NEVER PERSONALLY SPEAKING TO MOST OF THESE PEOPLE) Read the original article on Business Insider

The updated Codex app for macOS and Windows adds computer use, in-app browsing, image generation, memory, and plugins to accelerate developer workflows.

When the covid-19 pandemic started, Jennifer Phillips thought about the songs of the sparrows. They were easier to hear, because the world had suddenly become quieter. Car traffic plummeted as people sheltered at home and shifted to remote work. Air travel collapsed. Cities—normally filled with the honking, screeching, engine-gunning riot of transportation—became as silent as…

As a movement, environmentalism has been pretty misanthropic. Understandably so—we humans have done some destructive things to the ecosystems around us. In the 21st century, though, mainstream conservation is learning that humans can be a force for good. Foresters are turning to Indigenous burning practices to prevent wildfires. Biologists are realizing that flower-dotted meadows were…

Last week, news outlets reported that Microsoft was pausing carbon removal purchases. It was something of a bombshell. The thing is, Microsoft is the carbon removal market. The company has single-handedly purchased something like 80% of all contracted carbon removal. If you’re looking for someone to pay you to suck carbon dioxide out of the…

Cadence Design Systems announced two AI-related collaborations at its CadenceLIVE event this week, expanding its work with Nvidia and introducing new integrations with Google Cloud. The Nvidia partnership focuses on combining AI with physics-based simulation and accelerated computing for robotic systems and system-level design. The companies said the approach targets modelling and deployment in semiconductors […] The post Cadence expands AI and robotic partnerships with Nvidia, Google Cloud appeared first on AI News.

Announcements of job cuts at tech companies often touch on the same themes. David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images Recent layoff announcements from tech companies have hit on similar themes about AI and tiny teams. Snap is the latest tech firm to announce it's cutting jobs, in part, to account for AI's impact. Industry observers say AI isn't yet capable of replacing most jobs entirely. Different company, similar strategy. Recent layoff announcements from tech firms Atlassian, Block, and now Snap signal that the tech industry is converging on an approach to shaking up business: Move early, cut deeply, and proceed with fewer people and more AI. The companies tend to cast the reductions as preventive measures — a way to reset the business before AI forces the issue. "We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a memo released Wednesday announcing the company would cut about 1,000 workers, or 16% of its employees. CEOs describing the latest reductions — which amounted to about 10% of workers at Atlassian and nearly half at Block — often present the moves as recalibrations in how much labor is needed and how work gets done, thanks to AI. That can be a savvy strategy, Dan Kaplan, managing partner and head of the HR practice at the consulting firm ZRG, told Business Insider. "If you say you're doing a reduction because you're leveraging AI, you look more progressive and smarter," he said. These cuts are happening while AI isn't yet good enough to replace all that many workers, Kaplan said. Nonetheless, he said, CEOs want to show they are ready for what's to come. "You sort of have to bet into it without having all of the data," Kaplan said of many CEOs' thinking. 'Changing how we work' CEOs are showing those bets. In the memo, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian's CEO, pointed to AI "changing how we work," while Block's Jack Dorsey wrote about "a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company." Spiegel described the need for "a new way of working that is faster and more efficient." Explanations for recent layoffs at other tech companies, including Meta and Amazon, have variously focused on the need to be more efficient and nimble. Many also mention the value of small teams and a startup ethos — and making room for AI to take on more work. The overlapping language isn't surprising, said Melissa Swift, founder and CEO of work consultancy Anthrome Insight. It's tempting for companies to "grab onto this ongoing cultural narrative" about why they're conducting layoffs. "There is no danger in saying what everybody else is saying," she said. Snap, Block, and Atlassian didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Layoffs can also help with investors, who tend to reward cost-cutting. At the same time, AI has become a catch-all explanation for many reductions, when it's likely that several factors could be at play, said Scott Kirsner, CEO of InnoLead, a research firm focused on corporate innovation. Among them: interest rates, inflation, tariffs, pandemic-era overhiring, and the boom-and-bust cycles that have shaped the tech industry for decades. "Companies feel like they need a fig leaf to explain any kind of job cuts," Kirsner said. Broadly, he said, some firms are looking for a combination of AI and job cuts to help alleviate some of the pain of higher costs and "lead them to the future." Another through-line is that none of the firms framed recent layoffs as warning lights. Of course, leaders always want to instill confidence and avoid alarming investors, yet, to varying degrees, the messaging points to strength rather than economic headwinds. Atlassian highlighted revenue gains in its cloud business, while Block cited growth in its customer base and improved profitability. Snap, which has faced pressure from an activist investor, said the layoffs reflect an effort to prioritize investments "most likely to create long-term value" and put the company on a "clearer path to net-income profitability." Smaller is big right now Companies making cuts also tend to highlight broader shifts beyond simply letting workers go, including reorganizing teams. For some tech CEOs, the underlying assumption in the post-pandemic era is that their companies have grown too big and that smaller teams will operate more effectively. While the desire to be more nimble is understandable, especially in a period when the next competitor might be a tiny startup, it's often difficult for larger businesses, Kirsner said. "It's really easy to talk about 'Let's reorganize into small teams. Let's be more nimble and agile,'" he said. Yet, ultimately, large companies have a lot of bureaucracy that slows them down, Kirsner said. Beyond moving faster, saving on salaries has an obvious appeal for employers. Compared to some of the things AI can do, he said, "people look pretty expensive." Yet Kirsner said he hasn't seen much evidence that companies feel compelled to cut workers solely to make room for their hefty spending on AI infrastructure or tokens. If companies do opt to make a people-for-AI trade, the tech still can't outmatch workers in many cases, Swift of Anthrome Insight said. "You might be funding that investment through cutting roles," she said, "but it's not because AI can already do the work." Read the original article on Business Insider

Data center projects are running into resistance from communities and politicians across the country. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The booming data center industry faces growing pushback from communities and politicians. Industry executives worry that there hasn't been a coordinated response to its image problems. As states consider moratoriums, trillions of dollars of development could be at risk. A swell of backlash against the data center development boom has left the industry struggling to reboot its image. The mounting opposition over issues such as rising power costs, water usage, and AI's broader impact on the job market and environment could threaten trillions of dollars of projects backed by Big Tech, Wall Street investment giants, and a growing collection of developers. Large and prominent projects have already become casualties of the blowback. In late March, a Virginia appeals court invalidated a rezoning for Digital Gateway, a planned 22 million square foot data center complex on a rural parcel outside Washington, D.C. — potentially scuttling the mega-project. "The data center industry has gone too far. They've overpopulated certain jurisdictions, and people don't want them," Chap Petersen, an attorney who represented two nonprofit groups that sued to overturn the rezoning. "Communities are recognizing this is not free money, they impact the standard of living and people's perceptions of their own neighborhood." Despite increasingly glaring setbacks, the disparate cast of players involved in the data center boom has struggled to unite and mount a coordinated defense. "The worst business decision these companies can make is to invest billions in infrastructure while ceding the public debate to the loudest voices who will regulate them out of existence," the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Coalition wrote in a statement to Business Insider. The Washington DC-based advocacy group, which was cofounded late last year by former politicians Kyrsten Sinema, a US senator from Arizona, and Garret Graves, a Louisiana congressman, added that the "industry can't outsource the sales job" — an acknowledgment that it needed to take a more active hand in public relations and politics. Some industry leaders openly said that, as data centers proliferate around the country, they have failed to win over a public that is increasingly aware and skeptical. "The data center industry hasn't done a good job of explaining itself," said Ryan Mallory, the CEO of Flexential, a data center developer and operator. "I want to be very vocal about this so people know and understand how valuable these sites are." The growing threat of regulation The negative sentiment toward the industry is spilling over into politics. In March, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jointly proposed a federal ban on data center development. Several individual states, including Maine, are considering moratoriums. Legislators in Virginia, which hosts the largest data center market in the country, are examining whether to do away with a lucrative incentive that has saved data center developers billions of dollars in sales taxes on the equipment they install at facilities. Another data center executive who spoke to Business Insider anonymously because he has projects under public review in various locations around the country, singled out Big Tech companies because he believed the enormity of their development plans had spurred the public's ire and the threat of regulation. He said he has seen them do little to present a rousing, unified message to the public, in part because of the intense competition among them to win the AI race. "You're trying to get Google and Amazon and Oracle and Meta to all say the same thing and agree," he said. "Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg want to get into a cage fight." The result, he said, has been a fragmented response that has been insufficient "to combat the abundance of misinformation swirling around." In the crosshairs of controversy Once obscure to the wider public, data centers are now in the crosshairs of several leading controversies, including a nationwide affordability crisis. As facilities have sprawled across the country, they have necessitated costly, large-scale utility infrastructure, including transmission lines and power plants. That, in turn, has driven up electricity prices for some consumers. "Folks are calling electricity prices like the new price of eggs," said Christie Hicks, an attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental organization that has been critical of data center development. "I don't think that there's anyone who would say, yes, I would like to pay more for my electricity so that I can subsidize some of the wealthiest companies in the world." Because they provide the heavy computing for AI, data centers have also become emblematic of a technology whose rapid advance has stoked widespread fears about job losses across the economy. Much of the data center boom, meanwhile, has been energized by burning fossil fuels, drawing opposition from environmental groups who say the facilities will contribute significantly to the climate crisis. Some facilities deplete local water resources by consuming millions of gallons a day for cooling. Major tech companies, along with other leading participants in the building boom, have sought to assuage the criticism. In a recent blog post, "Building Community-First AI Infrastructure," a Microsoft executive said the company won't siphon away water or raise energy prices, will create jobs, provide AI training, and that its facilities will contribute revenue for essential public services like schools and libraries. "We partner closely with local and state leaders, listen to community needs, and ensure our investments benefit residents," Oracle said in a statement provided to Business Insider. The company has partnered with OpenAI to build tens of billions of dollars of data centers across the country. QTS, which is owned by the Wall Street investment giant Blackstone and is one of the developers behind the Digital Gateway project, said in a statement that it is "focused on being a transparent, trusted partner to responsibly deliver the infrastructure behind modern digital life." A matter of national security In early March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, OpenAI, and Oracle announced what has been seen as one of their biggest coordinated efforts at publicity, signing an agreement with President Donald Trump in which they pledged that the costs for their power infrastructure "are not passed to American households." The agreement "shows an awareness that these companies understand they have a public perception issue at least and they're interested in trying to address that," Hicks said. The data center executive who didn't want to be identified said the industry needed more of that kind of collaborative approach. He pointed to when US semiconductor manufacturers in the 1980s banded together to work on research and design, rally domestic support, and beat back foreign competitors. He said the industry should launch a similar initiative oriented around the idea that the AI race is a matter of national security and that the US's future economic vitality depends on prevailing over rivals like China. George P. Bush, the nephew of former president George W. Bush, who operates a public affairs firm in Texas that has assisted data center industry participants navigate development in the state, said that "this overarching competition of technological supremacy" is difficult for "everyday constituents to conceptualize." He said that even in Texas, which has long been considered a business-friendly state, there were some signs of skepticism. The state has more planned data center development than any market in the country, but Bush said that in private conversations, pubic officials, who he declined to name, who had once championed projects, had now signaled concern to him. "In 2024, where people would say, 'we want these types of developments'," Bush said. "Those same individuals that I've had personal conversations with now are saying 'hey, wait a second'." Read the original article on Business Insider

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Warren Buffett is the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Johannes EISELE / AFP via Getty Images Paul Dietrich applauded Warren Buffett's cash pile and Michael Burry's skepticism of AI stocks. The veteran strategist told Business Insider the stock market is "still very overvalued." Dietrich predicted stubbornly high fuel prices and touted utilities, domestic energy, and gold. Warren Buffett's cash hoard will pay off handsomely, and Michael Burry's AI critique is right on the money, Paul Dietrich says. "Buffett is right to still be keeping a lot of cash," Wedbush's chief investment strategist told Business Insider by email. "Given all the economic turmoil, the market is still very overvalued." The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high of about 7,023 points on Wednesday, fueled by a sharp rebound in tech stocks. In his final quarter as Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Buffett and his team grew the company's liquid assets to a record $373 billion as of December 31. "They will do very well when the market finally bottoms out after the next major bear market," Dietrich said, adding that "when it starts to recover, they will have great buying opportunities." Buffett famously deployed over $21 billion across five transactions between 2008 and 2009, when credit markets froze up and Berkshire stood virtually alone in being willing and able to put large sums to work. As for Burry, Dietrich said he subscribes to his Substack and "agrees with all of his analysis of AI funding and accounting." The investor of "The Big Short" fame has been sounding the alarm on AI stocks, pointing to their heady valuations, slowing growth, inflated earnings, excessive investments, and "give-and-take" deals. "It is a scandal!" Dietrich said. Navigating war and AI Dietrich shared a draft of his next market commentary with Business Insider. The Wall Street veteran wrote that energy prices are unlikely to materially retreat before next year, given it takes 60 to 90 days for fuel from the region to reach US pumps, there's been widespread damage to Gulf energy facilities, and there are clear signs of inventory pressure and shortages in the oil sector. Dietrich wrote that he favors investing indirectly in AI via utilities. "I can, at least, understand their financials," he said, adding that public utilities are the "backbone" of supplying the energy that data centers require. "Where utilities were once seen as a widow and orphans' safe bond-like investment known for steady dividends, they're now viewed as future growth companies powering the AI boom," he wrote. "Investing in utilities gives exposure to this long-term AI trend without the risks faced by other investors who are ignoring Burry's warnings," he added. Dietrich wrote that his analysis supports owning domestic energy producers that benefit from higher commodity prices but don't have operations in the Gulf, as well as domestic energy infrastructure as a safer alternative to Gulf assets. He also struck a bullish tone on gold and hard assets, noting they usually perform well in periods of inflation, geopolitical uncertainty, and currency pressure. On the other hand, he cautioned investors about fuel-sensitive industries such as airlines and trucking, as stubbornly high energy prices could throttle their profits. Dietrich flagged the risk of "12 to 24 months of disruption across energy markets, food supply chains, industrial input costs, and global growth." "The investors who navigate this period best will not be the ones who called the ceasefire date," he wrote. "They will be the ones who built portfolios capable of absorbing an extended disruption — and who resisted the urge to trade on every headline." Read the original article on Business Insider

Indeed CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba is worried about the aging workforce. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Semafor World Economy Indeed CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba says people are worried about the wrong thing. More than AI, Idekoba is concerned about the aging US workforce. It's "a way bigger impact than AI today," Idekoba said. Indeed CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba says all the concerns about AI are missing a much bigger issue in the labor market. "Actually, what is happening in all developed countries, including European countries and the US, what is happening is a big demographic change, an aging labor market," Idekoba, who is also CEO of Indeed and Glassdoor's parent company Recruit Holdings, said on Wednesday during Semafor's World Economy Summit. The struggle to backfill retiring workers "is a way bigger impact than AI impact today," Idekoba said. Idekoba said Indeed's research found that in the US, there will be 20 million fewer workers over the next 50 years. "That's like 5% less workers," he said. Of that decrease, Indeed estimated that 80% will be due to an aging population, and just 20% to AI-related job displacement. Western nations, including the United States, Idekoba said, haven't grappled with the reality that the labor market is shrinking at a time when there are already unfilled jobs in high-skilled trades. He compared the situation to his native Japan. Japan has struggled with a low birth rate for decades, but it has maintained a relatively stable labor force by increasing the number of women in the workforce. Historically, women worked at much lower rates in Japan. Unlike Japan, the US and many Western countries don't have a similar pool of untapped workers to fall back on. "In the US, it's happening in Germany, the UK, all of the developed countries, it's gonna be faster," Idekoba said. "That's why what's happening literally is there are so many open positions — construction jobs, plumbers, healthcare jobs, electricians —‚ such fundamentally important jobs, but we don't have a good pipeline." Idekoba said such shortages will quickly become major headaches for consumers. "I don't want to wait two months when I find the water leaking," he said. "But that's happening now in the US." Read the original article on Business Insider

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images Snap is leaning into small, AI-powered "squads" to boost speed and output. AI proponents say the technology lets fewer workers accomplish more, allowing for flatter hierarchies. Risks include weaker talent pipelines, AI-driven bias, and declining worker engagement. Score another one for tiny teams. On Wednesday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel framed plans to slash 1,000 jobs as part of a shift the social-media company started last year toward organizing employees into small, AI-powered "squads." He said the strategy is already playing out as AI cuts repetitive tasks and speeds up execution. Leaders at several other big companies have recently made similar remarks about the benefits of leaner workforces and the role that AI plays in making small teams highly productive. In some cases, the comments were linked to layoffs. "It would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does," Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of software company Atlassian, wrote last month in a securities filing about plans to cut 1,600 jobs. "We're starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person," Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said on a January earnings call with analysts. The tiny team trend isn't limited to Big Tech. JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders this month that "the real competitive battles" are waged by small, laser-focused teams. Embracing startup culture While startup founders have long prioritized scrappiness, the philosophy has been gaining traction among established businesses in recent years due to the AI boom. The technology allows just a few workers, or in some cases individuals, to carry out what previously required large teams, proponents say. "We're going to see 10-person companies with billion-dollar valuations pretty soon," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted in February 2024. Leaner teams reflect a related shift away from middle managers and toward flatter hierarchies. Earlier this month, Block CEO Jack Dorsey described the "most ideal" setup as one where all 6,000 of the payments company's employees report directly to him, while Amazon boss Andy Jassy said that flattening the tech giant's structure has improved its speed. Benefiting from shrinking teams requires changing how work gets done, said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economics professor at Stanford University. "The winners won't simply be the leanest organizations," he said. "They'll be the ones that best redesign work so humans and AI complement each other." Bias, morale, and pipeline problems Going too small can be dicey, said Matt Poepsel, vice president of talent optimization at the Predictive Index, an HR software company. Workers who rely solely on AI for decision-making might amplify personal biases, he said, whereas groups provide checks and balances. "AI is programmed to try to keep you using it," said Poepsel. "That's why I refer to it as the silicon sycophant, because it's wired for a very different outcome." Companies going down the tiny team path also risk hurting morale, which can negatively impact business outcomes, said Alex Lovell, a political psychologist at O.C. Tanner, an employee-recognition software company. Engagement is driven by interaction with colleagues and leaders, he said, and without that, "inspiration can decay." Another potential downside is that tiny teams can diminish talent pipelines, said Soumitra Shukla, a research fellow at Harvard Business School. Cutting entry-level roles, for example, can lead to shortages of experienced workers. "You don't have as many people to promote to seniors," he said. Further, early-stage professionals may start to question their ability to climb the corporate ladder at companies embracing tiny teams, added Shukla, also a researcher at The Burning Glass Institute, a nonprofit research organization that studies the future of work and learning. "Junior talent is not going to be junior forever," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider

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