Author: Editor

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sade Slack, a 38-year-old surgical technician based in California. It has been edited for length and clarity.I entered high school with a heavy load of AP and honors classes. My middle school grades had put me on an accelerated track, and I pushed myself hard to keep up.By 10th grade, I was burned out.I came home from school and slept for hours just to recover. I obsessed over making A’s. Then the pressure started affecting how I handled tests. I got so anxious that I began avoiding them.Halfway through the semester,…

There’s a new generation of founders on the rise — and they’re not old enough to vote.Generation Alpha was born between 2010 and 2024, making the oldest members 16 years old. That’s the age Stripe’s John Collison cofounded his first company, and when Mike Kittredge set the stage for Yankee Candle.Let’s face it: Gen Alpha founders are coming in hot. Many VCs have already been pitched by them; others will be soon.”What I’ve noticed about Gen Alpha is they seem to have a ton of hustle,” said Sarah Catanzaro, a general partner at Amplify. “They tend to have an advantage in markets…

AI agents like Instinct and Muse are quickly becoming personal shoppers — and some are finding the tools need to be kept on a short leash.From finding cheap airline tickets to ordering groceries, three shoppers told Business Insider that they are using the agents to automate parts of their shopping. Some say the decision has saved them time and found them deals they would not have found on their own.But even those impressed with AI agents as shopping assistants say they’re using them carefully. Sometimes, the agents order the wrong thing. In other cases, users say they want to make…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nancy Vinsel, a retired lawyer in Florida. Business Insider has verified her identity and background. This story has been edited for length and clarity.I got married after my sophomore year of college, and my husband and I started having children early. I left school when my first was born, and went back part-time after my second, but I stopped again because juggling school and two kids was too hard. I didn’t finish college until my youngest was in third grade. I was 29.I attended the University of Louisville and earned my…

When Trump Accounts became available, Gene Goldman was on board.The chief investment officer of Cetera Investment Management opened accounts for his twin girls, born earlier this year, giving each access to the $1,000 government contribution and a diversified stake in the market.But now, the accounts he signed up for could look a little different.The Treasury Department is now allowing companies and other donors to gift individual stocks to children’s Trump Accounts. What’s raised some eyebrows is that shares can’t be declined or sold for five years. Goldman said that changes the “character of the program” from a “simple, diversified vehicle”…

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation for our video series The Pay Check with Robert John Burck II, also known as the Naked Cowboy, a Times Square street performer. It has been edited for length and clarity.I’m Robert John Burck II. I exist to get my alter ego, the Naked Cowboy, to Times Square.I make roughly $150,000 a year, on average, singing and playing my guitar for tourists and locals in New York City. In my best year, I have earned as much as $250,000, and I have had previous consecutive years when I have only made…

Gen Xers are putting their credit cards to work.The Federal Reserve’s latest accounting of consumer finances finds that as of 2025, 45 to 54-year-olds had the largest credit card balances among age groups, surpassing 64 to 75-year-olds. At the same time, their younger millennial peers have been paying down debt, with balances for 35 to 44-year-olds falling. The latest data comes as the country’s forgotten middle-child generation contends with its own mixed financial fortunes. Consumer sentiment is lowest among Americans ages 35 to 54, according to the University of Michigan’s index, with sentiment among that millennial-Gen X cohort sliding below…

Christina Evers, 42, watches on, holding the back of Merrill Hale’s motorized wheelchair, as he controls his screen with his eyes.It’s the only way Hale, 57, has found to effectively communicate with Evers, his caregiver. Hale was diagnosed with ALS a decade ago and has slowly lost the ability to speak, eat, and move.”Tech is essential to my survival,” Hale says, read aloud by a computerized voice.”He’s the brightest guy in the world,” his mom, Judy, says as she watches him in their Oregon home. Hale uses advanced eye gaze technology to communicate.  Jordan Gale for BI Evers and Hale…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Richard Desentz, Toshiba’s chief human resources officer for the Americas. Desentz has been in the HR industry for nearly 30 years and joined Toshiba more than two years ago. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.When I first got into HR, not everyone had a computer. People had notepads and paper in front of their desks, and they still worked.Now people are asking: How can I become a recruiter if an AI automation goes through the résumés? How am I going to learn to screen a candidate and…

OpenAI’s latest math release has some academics celebrating breakthroughs and others wondering what happens to the researchers who were still working toward them.Tristan Buckmaster, a mathematics professor at New York University, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday that the company’s release had upended work by early-career mathematicians.“So we’ve had whole research programs wiped out on Tuesday by their dump,” Buckmaster said.OpenAI released over 700 mathematical manuscripts on GitHub on Tuesday, describing them in an announcement as the results of an internal frontier model. The company also shared computer-checkable versions of many proofs.Questions about data and academic normsFor some mathematicians, the…