Author: Editor

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rohan Gore, a 38-year-old AI engineer at Reach3 Insights, a market research firm based in Vancouver. His identity and employment have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… I graduated with a computer science degree back in 2010, and I’ve worked in the industry since.I started as a typical software engineer working on some of the interesting and complex problems in marketing research. Now, I’m an AI engineer.I have mixed feelings about the impact of AI on the software engineering industry.I…

Scott Wool, 60, has been in the collectibles business for decades, selling Pokémon cards, toys, comics, and sports memorabilia.Running a business has been a “roller coaster of a ride,” he told Business Insider. He nearly went bankrupt in 2013. About 13 years later, sales are growing like never before.Between January 2025 and January 2026, his eBay sales have spiked 200%, according to a screenshot of his seller dashboard. He credits that jump to two things: a boom in collectible card games, especially Pokémon, and his company’s push into livestreaming.Wool got into collectibles in his early 20s, when he approached the…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Liz Plosser, the former editor-in-chief of Women’s Health.Plosser lives in Brooklyn, New York, and spends her time writing her Substack, Best Case Scenario; recording episodes of “Lifting with Liz,” and consulting for brands like Canyon Ranch and GORUCK.This story has been edited for length and clarity.I was an English major at Princeton, but I’ve always been interested in economics and finance. Investment banking was my ticket to New York City when I graduated and didn’t really know what to do with myself.I really enjoyed investment banking, but I quickly realized it…

Violeta Encarnación for NPR The alarming phone call came from Jane’s daughter, away at college. Her debit card had suddenly stopped working. Something was wrong with their shared bank account. What happened to all the money? Jane’s heart sank as she dialed her bank. The funds were still there, the bank said, but frozen — every penny, in every account. The directive came from a finance firm that had loaned to her small business. There had been no court order, no trial or hearing. “It devastated my family and my business, with no warning, zero warning,” Jane says. “They shut…

ICE is among the government agencies that buy commercial data about Americans in bulk. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images A whole industry of data brokers buys up vast quantities of electronic information from cell phone apps and web browsers and sells it to advertisers who use that data to target ads. The same industry also sells that data, including bulk cell phone location data, to police departments and federal government agencies in ways that can reveal intimate details about Americans without a warrant. Now, privacy advocates say that the best chance…

I recently received a letter from my health insurance. They said they had sent me a $50 (paper) check and noticed I never cashed it. Had I not received it? I was excited. I had not received my check! How nice of them to make sure I’d get the money I was owed!Then I read the bottom of the letter: If I wanted them to send a new check, I needed to fill out the enclosed form and then mail it back to them. Conducting the entire business via snail mail sounded like a lot of time and effort. It…

The Iran war is a short-term shock for China, but it may also bring longer-term economic benefits for the struggling economy. Loading audio narration… The world’s second-largest economy relies heavily on imported oil. Disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint for global crude — threaten to push up energy costs and weigh on growth.But that headline risk misses a more nuanced reality.”For China, Hormuz disruptions are certainly painful. Yet they also vindicate Beijing’s bet on electrification,” wrote Agathe Demarais, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, in a post on Tuesday.The near-term hit…

In Jeffrey Epstein’s last will and testament, he named two of his longtime associates — personal attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn — as co-executors of his $630 million estate. Loading audio narration… He didn’t give them salaries for the job.Since Epstein’s death in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, Indyke and Kahn have sold off his islands, mansions, and ranch; paid settlements to women who have accused him of sexual abuse; and dealt with other legal and financial headaches that the wealthy and well-connected pedophile left behind.Neither has taken a salary from Epstein’s estate for that work,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Namrata Yadav, a 28-year-old consultant-turned-writer based in Mumbai, India. It has been edited for length and clarity.I’ve always loved writing and being creative.But for my parents, the thought of me pursuing writing was absurd.Creative jobs are rarely supported in mainstream Indian households. Both my parents come from very rural backgrounds, having settled in a larger town to give my siblings and me a comfortable life.After 10 years in law school, research, and consulting, I decided I wanted a life I enjoyed rather than one spent living for the weekends. Last year,…

Meta is diving headfirst back into social shopping — with an AI twist.The tech giant announced a slew of new shopping-related updates on Tuesday at the e-commerce conference Shoptalk, including affiliate marketing tools and AI-powered product recommendations.Creators are a core part of Meta’s rollout.Here’s a quick rundown of the shopping features Meta is pushing:Affiliate marketing is back. Instagram creators can earn a commission from products tagged on reels, while Facebook creators will be able to earn from products tagged on reels and photos.Get ready for more detailed product descriptions on Facebook and Instagram, thanks to AI. Meta is trying to…