Author: Editor

When an AI tool Jacob Adamson uses for work recently froze, so did his fingertips. The senior software engineer had become so reliant on the technology that he briefly forgot how to complete a code-writing task on his own.”I felt the rust, as if I had come back to this code after a couple of days,” said Adamson.He’s now concerned the same dependence could grip the five engineers he manages at Varonis, a data-security company. To keep their skills sharp, he said he may have his team do drills in which they can only write code themselves, without the aid…

In a year rife with macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, hedge funds are cruising toward the industry’s strongest annual showing since the pandemic era.Through three quarters, hedge funds have gained 16.6% on average and pulled in more than $40 billion in net inflows from investors, according to new data from fund administrator Citco.The industry is on pace for its best year since 2020 following a 5.2% weighted average gain in the third quarter, with each major strategy and 80% of funds posting positive returns, Citco reported this week. Along the way, money managers have navigated a roller coaster of tariff policy…

Have you heard about the podcasting dogs?A few months ago, the Montreal-based social app DogPack started posting AI videos on Instagram of a pair of dogs cracking jokes on a podcast about their owners and other breeds.An example: “She says it’s rude to beg at the table, bro. She went on a second date just to get a free dinner.”The original idea was to get people to download DogPack — which connects dog owners — but the canine caper quickly developed a life of its own. They’ve accumulated more than 1 million followers on Instagram and TikTok, and signed with talent…

Math class at 10 a.m.; flying a plane at noon.That’s a day in the life of some students at Northeast High School in Broward County, Florida.The school champions a program that allows students to pursue an educational pathway in aviation, technology, or art, which includes real-world opportunities in their fields of interest. For students on the aviation pathway, it means a flight simulation class — or flying an actual plane at the nearby flight school.”Our two instructors are both retired fighter pilots who have been in combat,” Anthony Valachovic, the principal at Northeast High School, told Business Insider. He recounted…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Peter Truong, a content creator who moved from Vancouver to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It has been edited for length and clarity.I was born and raised in Vancouver to Vietnamese immigrant parents who came to Canada in the 1980s.Even though my parents were typical Asian parents, I grew up very Canadian — I like hockey, pancakes, and maple syrup. I didn’t feel especially connected to my Vietnamese roots growing up.This was before the internet, when the only Asian representatives on TV were Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.My mom made sure…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg fielded a barrage of investor questions on Wednesday about where exactly the billions of dollars Meta is pouring into AI are going.Meta expects capital expenditures to climb sharply through 2026 as it races to build computing infrastructure and hire top AI researchers, the company revealed in its third-quarter earnings report. In a call with analysts, Zuckerberg defended this strategy as essential to Meta’s push to compete with AI rivals.Meta CFO Susan Li said the company now expects to spend $70 billion to $72 billion on building AI infrastructure this year, up slightly from the $66 billion…

Starbucks’ turnaround is making progress, and protein is playing a role.The coffee chain said that its fourth-quarter comparable sales rose 1% globally — the first time in seven quarters that Starbucks has reported an increase. Comparable sales in the US were flat.New protein-heavy drinks were one of the drivers. Starbucks launched protein cold foam and protein lattes at the end of September, CEO Brian Niccol said on the company’s earnings call on Wednesday. Starbucks had previously said it planned to start offering protein cold foam by the end of 2025, as it looked to capitalize on the high-protein diet craze.Starbucks…

Home Depot cofounder Ken Langone doesn’t seem to be looking forward to next Tuesday.Langone took a not-so-subtle shot at New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani while speaking at Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Conference in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.”New York is on the verge of making a monumental mistake,” Langone, a Long Island native, said when asked about capitalism.Many business leaders and billionaires have expressed concerns about Mamdani’s likely victory in the November 4 election, and some have poured hundreds of thousands into trying to stop him from moving into Gracie Mansion. (There is, however, a contingent of Wall…

One of the biggest challenges a company can face is figuring out how to post a job that will quickly attract suitable candidates. It’s a problem that plagues small to medium businesses and enterprise-level organizations alike, because no matter the size of the company, an unfilled job is a problem, but a bad hire is even worse.If you want to know how to post a job that will get you the best candidates, you need to think about the Mona Lisa. And yes, Leonardo’s famous painting does have something in common with how you hire employees.Each day, an average of…

Marketers are finding out the hard way that Meta’s AI tools can churn out some very strange ads.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that the company’s artificial intelligence had become so advanced that advertisers would no longer need to create their own ads. Brands could simply hand over their bank accounts and campaign objectives and let the AI take the wheel.Some marketers, however, haven’t been pleased with the results when they let Meta’s AI drive their ad campaigns.Bryan Cano, head of marketing of the “elevated basics” clothing brand True Classic, was aghast when he noticed Meta had switched…