A framework for aligning agentic AI with enterprise intent to ensure consistent scenario‑wide autonomous behavior. The post The Three Dimensions of Custom Agentic Alignment: Purpose, Principles and Practices appeared first on Towards Data Science.

The CDC has confirmed 843 cases of cyclosporiasis and 86 hospitalizations as of July 9, with a further 1,500 cases under investigation. Yana Iskayeva/Getty Images An outbreak of cyclosporiasis has hit the US, with cases reported in 31 states since May 1. Symptoms of the intestinal illness include diarrhea, nausea, and fatigue. The source of the outbreak is unknown, but past culprits have included raspberries and lettuce. There's an outbreak of a parasite that causes diarrhea in the US, so you may be wondering if your go-to summer salad is safe. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite called cyclospora, has been reported in 31 states since May 1. It confirmed 843 cases and 86 hospitalizations as of July 9, with a further 1,500 cases under investigation. People get cyclosporiasis from eating food or water contaminated with human feces, typically during growing, harvesting, and processing. The source of the current US outbreak is unknown, but in the past, it has been linked to raspberries, basil, cilantro, snow peas, green onions, and mesclun lettuce. There have not been any product recalls as officials investigate the outbreak. Local media reported that some Taco Bell restaurants had stopped serving certain items to prevent the bug from spreading. Outside of business hours, Business Insider asked Taco Bell, McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Wendy's, Chipotle, Burger King, Subway, and the National Restaurant Association if any procedures had changed in light of the outbreak. We didn't immediately receive a response. How to prevent cyclosporiasis Health officials and food safety experts have advised people to consider avoiding eating foods that have been previously linked to the illness, while the outbreak is investigated. Such foods include lettuce, raspberries, green onions, and herbs. In general, it is advisable to wash, rinse, and scrub produce thoroughly, removing outer leaves where possible. However, evidence suggests that rinsing or washing fresh fruits and veggies isn't enough to get rid of cyclospora entirely, as it's sticky and resistant. Also try to cook your produce instead of eating it raw, as cyclospora can't survive in food with an internal temperature of at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also important to observe standard food safety rules, such as washing your hands with soap and water before and after handling fresh produce, and regularly cleaning chopping boards and utensils. Explosive diarrhea is one of several cyclosporiasis symptoms Cyclosporiasis usually causes watery diarrhea with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements. Other symptoms can include loss of appetite, weight loss, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, body aches, headaches, low-grade fever, and other flu-like symptoms. The true number of infections is likely much higher as most people are able to recover from the illness at home, and those who do see a doctor may not get tested for cyclosporiasis as it is expensive and involves giving multiple stool samples over a number of days, Katelyn Jetelina, assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, wrote in her public health newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, July 11. Not everyone infected with cyclospora experiences symptoms, and they typically only start to appear about a week after exposure to cyclospora, making infections hard to trace. Severe cases can be treated with antibiotics. Read the original article on Business Insider

The two Tom Hollands met on "The Rest is History" podcast to discuss Christopher Nolan's epic adaptation of "The Odyssey." Goalhanger Tom Holland, actor and star of 'The Odyssey,' was interviewed by Tom Holland, his namesake historian. In the interview, the actor discussed the difficulty of filming the first-ever entirely Imax movie. Last week, the pair's shared name caused internet confusion when Elon Musk insulted the historian. Tom Holland walks into a room for an interview to promote "The Odyssey." Waiting for him is his interviewer, Tom Holland. Last week, Holland, the actor who plays Telemachus in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation of the Greek epic, joined Holland, the British classicist and podcaster who shares his name, to discuss the much-hyped and highly divisive movie. In the interview for "The Rest is History" podcast, Holland, the 30-year-old actor, said starring in the first feature-length movie filmed entirely with Imax cameras left him "nowhere to hide." "Imax is a very different beast," the actor said. "There's a huge difference between acting onstage to acting on screen. And then there's an even bigger difference between acting on screen and acting on Imax." "You just can't hide anything in Imax. The resolution is so good. There are no secrets. There's nowhere to hide," he said, adding that the format promotes "a more subtle version of performance because it can very quickly become too much." There are practical reasons the format looms so large for actors. Imax cameras shoot on large-format film, and a single magazine holds only about three minutes of footage at standard speed before it must be swapped. The cameras are also notoriously loud, a long-standing obstacle to filming dialogue, which is why Imax built a new, quieter generation of camera, developed with Nolan in mind, that made an all-Imax production possible for the first time. The interview marked the first meeting of the two Tom Hollands. Their shared name has been a long-running joke between 58-year-old historian Holland and his podcast co-host Dominic Sandbrook. During the interview, the pair jokingly recreated the famous "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man" meme, while historian Tom Holland referred to the actor as "the real Tom Holland." He also joked that the actor's existence had made it harder to Google himself. The pair's shared name caused chaos online last week, when historian Tom Holland found himself at the center of a clash with Elon Musk after defending the film against critics who dismissed it as "woke." Elon Musk is feuding with Tom Holland over 'The Odyssey.' No, not that Tom Holland. The world's richest person then insulted Tom Holland in a post on X without specifying which one he meant, briefly leaving users unsure whether he meant the historian or the film's star. The pair's interview was filmed before the Musk spat, though the historian shared similar praise to the comments that sparked it, telling his guest he thought it was "the best adaptation." At one point, the historian asked the actor, who has played Spider-Man since 2016, whether the film had traces of the superhero genre. "Epic is not exclusive to swords and sandals and ancient text," the actor said. "At the end of the day, what I love about Chris [Nolan] is Chris lives to entertain. And this movie is challenging. It has topical themes. And I think it's very relevant in today's society. But his main focus is not to educate, it's to entertain." Read the original article on Business Insider

To understand how institutional capital is navigating the gap between AI's public market software multiples and private market valuations, Crunchbase News recently interviewed Anders Ranum, a partner at Sapphire Ventures, who shared how he strikes an investment balance.

AI agent crawlers, the bots that fetch pages in real time on behalf of a person waiting for an answer, will be blocked by default on a slice of the web from September 15 onwards. Cloudflare announced the change on July 1, and most of the coverage since then has focused on Google. The more useful part […] The post AI agent crawlers now need permission. Here’s how to get it appeared first on AI News.

By some benchmarks, Julia code can run 10X to 1,000X faster than Python—but there’s a reason it’s not a very popular programming language.

The author enjoyed a weekend with her parents, without her son. She got to have a relaxing morning coffee with her father and hear family stories she'd never heard before. Courtesy of Nicole Findlay My family loves multigenerational travel, and we often center our trips around my 9-year-old son. However, I recently went on a weekend trip with just my parents and left my son with his dad. At first, I felt guilty, but I'm grateful for the trip. It reminded me I'm someone's kid, too. Family trips, at least for me at this stage in my life, are very kid-centered. We are big multigenerational travelers, but on a recent trip, I left one generation at home. My 9-year-old wasn't happy about this — he loves spending time with his grandparents. The weekend getaway with my parents was the first time in over a decade that I'd traveled anywhere overnight with both of them and without my little one. We didn't go far — just an hour north of San Francisco to Healdsburg — but the experience felt new. We dined at a restaurant with no kids' menu, lingered over Zinfandels and Rhone-style blends, and watched a detective drama in our pajamas. My parents asked what I wanted to do and where I wanted to eat, just like I do with my son. The weekend was a feel-good reminder that I'm still someone's kid, too. They spent the weekend together in Healdsburg and enjoyed a wine tasting. Courtesy of Nicole Findlay I felt so guilty leaving my son behind Our trip centered on a wine tasting. I've been to wine country enough times to know that it isn't my 9-year-old's favorite place. I don't blame him — it's boring watching adults sip wine and chat about tasting notes. So, I left him with his dad to do things he'd much rather enjoy, like going to the Exploratorium and dining on burgers and fries. Still, it felt strange packing a bag for a vacation without him. We had fun, and I also learned more about my parents We kicked off the weekend at Limerick Lane Cellars. I enjoyed the varietals, but more importantly, the vineyard-side seating was the perfect place to hear stories about my parents I'd never heard before. From dating to immigrating to tales about their recent travels, I learned a lot. On any typical afternoon with my family, attention is on my son and nephew. My mom sketches with the kids, and my dad takes them on walks when they're feeling bored or a little antsy. Seriously, they're the best (which is why my son was mad I went on this trip without him). But this time, the three of us settled in, stayed in one place, and had a chance to really chat, without distractions. The author was grateful for the time with her parents. Courtesy of Nicole Findlay I got to be the kid again After wine tasting, my parents and I went out to dinner in downtown Healdsburg. My parents let me pick the restaurant. The food was full of flavors my son probably wouldn't have enjoyed, and we took our time ordering round after round of tasty tapas. At night, we stayed in a restored farmhouse on the vineyard where we'd spent the afternoon wine tasting. My parents cozied up on one couch, and I lay down on the other to wind down with a new TV show before bed. I don't even remember the plot, but I do know we didn't find it on the Disney Channel. I fell asleep halfway through, knowing my mom and dad would wake me up so I wouldn't get a sore neck, just like I do for my son. I didn't have to double-check that the doors and windows were locked or make sure all the food was put away. I was taken care of. It felt so good to truly be the "kid" again, just for one night. The next morning, my dad and I grabbed coffee and went outside. We passed a family of quail chatting beneath an orange tree and stepped into the vineyard. The dirt was surprisingly soft — almost sandy — and the vines, some planted as early as 1910, were dotted with self-pollinating buds. We sipped and strolled between the rows until my coffee was gone. I couldn't wait to get back to my son, but I had so much fun — and I felt so grateful for the time away with my parents. Read the original article on Business Insider

The quality of your social interactions matters more than quantity when it comes to your brain health. bernardbodo/Getty Images Dr. Jinsy A. Andrews says emotional health can influence Alzheimer's risk. Quality social interactions boost brain health more than superficial connections, he says. Certain creative hobbies enhance brain activity and reduce stress. A record number of people are living past 100 years. It's also why preserving brain health is more important than ever. Because people are living longer, neurologists estimate over double the cases of dementia by 2050, according to a 2022 Lancet study. Dr. Jinsy A. Andrews, a neurologist at NYU Langone specializing in neuromuscular medicine, told Business Insider that people who follow a typically American lifestyle, which can be more sedentary and involve eating more ultraprocessed foods, may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. "Among us neurologists, we're really trying to think about ways to protect the brain and have modifications in your lifestyle that can hopefully delay or prevent dementia," Andrews said. While diet and exercise are already crucial components of brain health and overall longevity, Andrews said an under-appreciated factor is your emotional health. Exercise is a core part of longevity and brain health. Luis Alvarez/Getty Images One 2024 study found that social isolation and depression were associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's. Emotional wellbeing is trickier to track than daily steps or the amount of protein and fiber in your meals, though. Sometimes, when Andrews asks patients what makes them happy, they draw blanks. "It's amazing how many people don't even actually think about it," she said. "They have to leave the visit and come back and tell me; I give them homework as to the things they could derive joy from." While everyone's happiness regimen is different, Andrews shared two tips for increasing your emotional health — and keeping your brain sharp in the process. Quality socialization matters more than filling your calendar Prioritize meaningful, face-to-face social interactions. Maaskot/Getty Images Socializing has long been credited with improving longevity and brain health. However, defining quality social interaction and how much you personally need to be happy is less straightforward, Andrews said. For example, he pointed to evidence that relying on social media for socializing might decrease your emotional wellbeing. "Especially when there are negative interactions online, it can increase social isolation and depression," Andrews said. When it comes to in-person interactions, keeping a stacked social schedule also might not be the answer. One 2022 study of over 160,000 participants found that while low to moderate social interactions improved wellbeing, a lot of socializing, even when positive, had diminishing returns. "The big picture is that social interactions really rely on the quality of that interaction rather than the quantity," Andrews said. Creative downtime keeps your brain active and helps you de-stress Reading stimulates the brain and is a natural de-stressor. Kathrin Ziegler/Getty Images Stimulating the brain is a key part of dementia prevention. Luckily, it doesn't mean you're beholden to daily crossword puzzles. Andrews said even simple, low-lift activities like listening to music or reading a book have brain benefits. "All of these activities activate different areas of the brain," she said, aiding in neuroplasticity, or a reshaping of the brain. A good range of activities, such as socializing and crafting, "provide input, enhance the circuitry, and keep things fresh and new." Relaxing hobbies also have the added benefit of stress reduction. "Long-term chronic stress can play a role in increasing inflammatory markers and cytokines that can be damaging to the nervous system — and the brain, especially," Andrews said. One 2024 study found that a decrease in brain volume was associated with participants being under high levels of stress. When it comes to brain health, the best thing you can do is add variety to your life. "It's the act of stimulating all parts of the brain in different ways that really helps to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease," Andrews said. Read the original article on Business Insider

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Cristina Estupiñán After hundreds of job applications and no offers, Cristina Estupiñán decided to leave tech behind. Her discomfort with AI made a brutal job hunt even harder as employers embraced the technology. Now 33, she's retraining as a nurse and finding hope in starting over. This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with 33-year-old Cristina Estupiñán of New Providence, New Jersey. Her identity and background have been verified. This story has been edited for length and clarity. I got a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science from Boston University in January 2017. I had gone to college to study chemical engineering, but I took a computer science class and ended up switching majors. After graduation, I moved to San Francisco. A friend helped me get some temporary nontechnical work at a large tech company, but when that ended, I didn't have a clear path forward. The computer science classes I took in college taught me a lot, but didn't actually prepare me to work as a software engineer. Then another friend told me she'd attended a three-month coding boot camp and had quickly landed a job afterward. I decided to sign up, and after I finished, I got hired by a startup as a front-end software developer. I stayed there for a few years before moving into similar roles at three other companies. In December 2024, I got laid off. In the past, it had never taken me more than six weeks to find a software engineering role. But this time was different. Six weeks turned into six months and eventually a year. AI overload As I was job hunting, I noticed that every single company was an AI company of some sort. Either you had to use AI as part of the job, or the product itself was AI, which was a problem for me. I don't think AI is needed for everything, and I'm concerned about its environmental impact. But in job interviews, recruiters would always ask, "What excites you about AI?" I always thought to myself, well, I have to make up something because, frankly, nothing really excites me about AI. Overall, I applied to more than 700 jobs and made it to several final rounds, but I didn't get any offers. I kept hearing that I wasn't senior enough, and some companies told me halfway through the interview process that they were going on a hiring freeze. There was one company in Europe that I interviewed with at the beginning of this year that I really thought I was going to get. It was hands-down the best interview I'd ever had. I felt I had really connected with the hiring manager, but a few days later, I received an overnight email with a generic rejection message. That email was the culmination of everything. My mental health was at an all-time low. I had gained a ton of weight and moved back home with my parents in New Jersey. I was isolated from my social network. Changing careers By this point, I was questioning whether I wanted to work in tech anymore. My parents encouraged me to consider a career in healthcare, and I did. I figured I might not make as much money as I did in tech, but I'd probably have more job stability, so I decided to go for it. Once I make a decision, it's made. I'm not turning back. In May, I started taking nursing classes at a local community college. Once I complete 10 prerequisite courses, I can apply to Rutgers University's accelerated nursing program. My ultimate goal is to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner and have a private practice. Meanwhile, I'm working part-time in retail, and it's been great. I'd never worked a service job before, so I'm gaining customer-facing skills. I'm also more active because I'm on my feet a lot. I really like the people I work with. Starting a new career at 33 isn't easy, but I felt like I had no other choice. It is a little hard to look at LinkedIn because all of my connections are people in tech, and I sometimes feel like I'm missing out. They're doing all this cool tech stuff, and that's not really my life anymore. Still, I don't have any regrets about my decision. When I think about becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I get excited. I've had a lot of experience dealing with my own mental health issues. Knowing I'll get to help people in the future is what's keeping me going. Read the original article on Business Insider

Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield is Anthropic's latest big hire. Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch, British tech star Tom Blomfield said he's taking a leave of absence from Y Combinator to join Anthropic. Blomfield, who cofounded the digital bank Monzo, said he's joining Anthropic's compute team. It's the latest big-name move in the AI talent wars, following Anthropic's poaching of Google researchers. The AI talent wars aren't letting up — and neither is Anthropic's big-name hiring spree. The AI startup has hired Tom Blomfield, the cofounder of British fintech company Monzo, and one of the biggest names in UK tech. Blomfield said on Monday that he is taking a leave of absence from Y Combinator, where he has served as general partner since 2023, to join Anthropic's compute team. "Powerful AI has the potential to improve the life of every human on earth and, as we enter the early stages of recursive self-improvement, availability of compute becomes one of the most important issues to solve," Blomfield said in a Monday X post. Personal update: I'm taking a leave of absence from YC to join Anthropic. I'll be working with @NotTomBrown on the compute team. Powerful AI has the potential to improve the life of every human on earth and, as we enter the early stages of recursive self-improvement,… — Tom Blomfield (@t_blom) July 13, 2026 Blomfield joins Anthropic as a member of technical staff — the catch-all job title Anthropic uses for senior employees — according to his LinkedIn and X profiles. Blomfield cofounded Monzo, a digital bank, in 2015 and was CEO until 2020. He left Monzo entirely in early 2021 after a short stint as president. Blomfield told TechCrunch at the time that he stopped enjoying the role after Monzo was no longer a "scrappy startup." He then turned to investing, joining YC in 2021, initially as a visiting partner. Blomfield is the latest notable name in tech to join Anthropic as the AI talent wars enters its celebrity era. Earlier this year, Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI cofounder, joined Anthropic to lead its pre-training efforts. More recently, Anthropic poached several researchers from Google DeepMind, including John Jumper, whose work on AlphaFold won him and CEO Demis Hassabis a Nobel prize. Read the original article on Business Insider

Kirk, 22, and Jacob, 21, McKinney are the founders of Junk Teens. Courtesy of Kirk and Jacob McKinney Brothers Kirk and Jacob McKinney started Junk Teens with a $4,000 pickup truck. A turning point came when they reinvested early profits into an $80,000 dump truck. They now operate in multiple markets and are on track to top $5 million in revenue in 2026. Kirk McKinney was riding bikes near his Massachusetts home about six years ago when he came across a goldmine: A dump filled with plenty of junk, sure, but also speakers and electronics. "Someone had thrown away this perfectly good pair of speakers," he told Business Insider. "I asked the guy at the dump if I could take them and he said yes. I just couldn't believe that." McKinney, a high schooler at the time, kept returning to the dump in search of more speakers for his collection. Eventually, he built a sound system in his bedroom that "shook the entire house," he said. "My mom was not happy about that at all." When his mom told him he needed to get rid of the speakers, he decided to try reselling them. "I sold my first radio on Facebook Marketplace for $50," he said. It was the most money he'd ever made for an hour's work. "That's when I discovered what entrepreneurship was." From selling junk to removing it The more time McKinney spent at the dump, the more he got to know the people who did junk-removal jobs. Eventually, he started working for them. After learning the ropes, he figured he could do the same thing himself. "I was basically doing the whole job for them," he said. "The guy was paying me pretty well, and he was still walking away with money at the end of the job. I eventually realized, I'm already transporting junk items from the dump back and forth. Why not just provide this service for people on my own?" The McKinney brothers both attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Kirk graduated in 2026, while Jacob is entering his junior year. Courtesy of Kirk and Jacob McKinney. To start, he needed two things: another set of hands and a vehicle. He enlisted his younger brother, Jacob, who had his own small side hustle splitting firewood, and the brothers pooled their savings to buy a $4,000 Ford F-150. That was in 2021. Their first job, which came through a referral from the junk-removal workers Kirk had helped, was small but encouraging. "We got hired to move a couch for, like, 100 bucks," Kirk said. "Took us 15 minutes. That was pretty good." Their earliest customers came mostly through word of mouth. They also posted on Nextdoor, in local Facebook groups, and leaned on family and friends to help spread the word. Not every job went as smoothly as the first one. One early house cleanout took them about nine days, they said — a job they estimate would take the company about half a day now. They had to rent a U-Haul and a dumpster because their pickup truck couldn't handle the volume. "In the very beginning, we were literally doing whatever we could to make it work," Kirk said. "We were just a couple kids in a pickup truck with couches hanging, like, three feet over the top of our truck, strapped down." They learned through trial and error, and by asking questions. They called other junk-removal companies, explained that they were young and trying to learn the business, and asked how they priced jobs. Over time, they got better at estimating, loading, and sorting. "We started to become masters at stacking, breaking things down, sorting it," Kirk said. "It was almost like Tetris, where you would just have to fit everything perfectly where it needs to go." Growing to a seven-figure business operating across multiple markets The first major turning point came around early 2022, when the brothers reinvested most of what they had made into a dump truck. It cost a little more than $80,000. The purchase changed the business immediately. The dump truck could hold about eight times as much as the pickup, they said, allowing them to take on more jobs, reduce trips to the dump, build more efficient schedules, and begin hiring friends to help. The McKinney brothers have built a team of young employees. Their first hire was a friend from high school. Courtesy of Kirk and Jacob McKinney By the end of 2022, with the pickup truck, the dump truck, a few employees, and a small amount of paid marketing, they did just over $200,000 in sales, according to a P&L viewed by Business Insider. In 2023, they bought another dump truck and rented a warehouse after outgrowing their parents' driveway. The warehouse gave them a place to park trucks and store items they could donate, resell, or repurpose. That year, they brought in nearly seven figures. In 2025, they hit $3 million in revenue. They're on track to bring in more than $5 million in 2026. Junk removal is relatively easy to start, but the low barrier to entry also makes the industry competitive. One way Junk Teens stands out, the brothers said, is through speed and communication. Most customers want junk removed the same day or the next day, so responding quickly can determine whether they win the job. The brothers started the business with a $4,000 Ford F-150 before upgrading to a dump truck. Courtesy of Kirk and Jacob McKinney They also leaned into what made them different: their age. The company was initially called K&J Removal, but Kirk said he realized customers were hiring them because they were teenagers working hard and hustling. That became the basis for the Junk Teens brand. "I just took the thing that made us stand out, our competitive advantage, and built a brand around that," he said. Today, Junk Teens has expanded beyond its main location in Norwood to Cape Cod, the North Shore, and Rhode Island. The company has about 25 employees and five dump trucks, and the brothers said they eventually want to expand nationwide. Kirk said the brand has also helped them build an audience online. Junk Teens has more than 500,000 followers across social-media platforms, which the brothers said has helped with visibility and recruiting young workers. Their advice: start small and get good with people Jacob said one of the most important skills for young entrepreneurs is learning "the people game" — how to communicate, ask for help, find mentors, and build relationships. "At the end of the day, business is business, but the whole world is made out of people," he said. "If you want to get into business, I feel like you really have to get into that whole people game first." Junk Teens originated when Kirk stumbled upon a dump near his home and started collecting speakers. Courtesy of Kirk and Jacob McKinney Kirk's advice is to simplify the first step. He said many people overcomplicate entrepreneurship by waiting for the perfect idea, the perfect plan, or the right amount of money. Junk Teens didn't start with a national vision. It started with one sale, then one truck, then one job, then one reinvestment decision. "It takes one realistic goal at a time being met over and over, slowly and steadily, and it compounds," Kirk said. "That's how the greatest things are created." Read the original article on Business Insider

PLUS: Go from idea to website with ChatGPT Work + Codex

Python has become the default language for data-intensive work, AI applications and...

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Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal: Eating disorder therapists say patients are increasingly using AI chatbots for advice, while AI also appears to be directing more patients to helplines  —  Even a chatbot trained on nutrition and fitness research that dispenses reasonable-sounding guidance can become a deadly influence

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Meta is spending at hyperscaler scale on artificial intelligence infrastructure—$125 billion to $145 billion in 2026 … Meta’s AI Cloud Strategy: How Infrastructure Spending Becomes Business RevenueRead more The post Meta’s AI Cloud Strategy: How Infrastructure Spending Becomes Business Revenue appeared first on .