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AI is taking drive-thru orders at Wendy’s, and Chipotle uses machines to prep avocados for its guacamole.Starbucks, however, is turning to a different solution: People.The coffee chain said in its latest earnings report that it plans to staff up its stores over the next several months. The reason: The efficiency-oriented machines that it’s spent the last few years using just weren’t good enough at speeding up drink production as good ol’ humans.Some of the additional staffing will involve hiring more baristas, a company spokesperson said. In other cases, Starbucks will give additional shifts to existing baristas or pull in workers…

More Americans appear to be dreaming of Scotland — not just as visitors but as prospective homeowners, according to a UK property portal.Rightmove revealed a 19% increase in enquiries from the US about buying property in the UK since the start of 2025 compared to the same period — the highest pace since 2017. Some 28% of US enquiries have been about Scotland — an area closely associated with President Donald Trump. That’s slightly more than the proportion asking about homes in London (26%).Rightmove did not reveal the number of queries it had received and noted that only a small…

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; Getty Images; BI Updated 2025-05-17T10:43:01Z Share Facebook Email X LinkedIn Copy link lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Wall Street banks are proving that generative AI is here to stay, and the tech is not just a fad. Business Insider has reported on how some of finance’s biggest banks are approaching generative AI. See how giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are…

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is seen during a press conference on May 7 in Washington, D.C. Bondi’s Department of Justice recently charged a few noncitizens for alleged illegal voting, citing assistance from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images Last October, at a library in Boynton Beach, Fla., Yelyzaveta Demydenko went with her mom and stepdad to vote for the first time. Demydenko, who’s 22, told a federal investigator that she voted in the presidential election “because she wanted to make a difference.” Her mother, Svitlana, also voting for…

District Court Judge Shelley Joseph leaves Boston federal court in April 2019 for allegedly helping a man in the country illegally evade immigration officials as he left her Newton, Mass., courthouse. Steven Senne/AP hide caption toggle caption Steven Senne/AP A Wisconsin judge pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that she helped an undocumented immigrant facing misdemeanor battery charges slip out of her courtroom to evade immigration authorities. Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan denies any wrongdoing and is asking for her case to be thrown out. Bringing criminal charges in a case like this is extremely rare, but a similar…

Cassie Ventura (left) and Sean Combs at the Met Gala in New York City in 2017. Ventura testified for the prosecution in the criminal trial of Combs, who is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transporting to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Neilson Barnard/Getty Images After spending most of four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony in the criminal trial of Sean Combs on Friday afternoon. Ventura, who dated Combs on and off for over a decade, was one of several witnesses…

TikTok videos of glitchy AI interviews have gone viral in recent weeks, but don’t worry if you’re due for a job interview soon.One user, who goes by Freddie, posted a video on May 3 of an AI assistant named “Catherine Appleton” glitching and spewing gibberish during his job interview. As of Thursday, his video had 8.8 million views.”Should I email them? I was expecting a real human,” he wrote in the caption.Another TikTok user named Ken shared a clip of her interview, in which the AI assistant repeated the phrase “vertical bar pilates” on loop.Neither responded to requests for comment…

The US lost its triple-A credit score with Moody’s on Friday, with the credit ratings firm citing rising federal debt and interest costs.The US was downgraded from Aaa, the highest rating, to Aa1. Some sovereigns with an Aaa ratings from Moody’s include the European Union, Canada, and Germany, while other Aa1 countries include Austria and Finland.Moody’s was the last triple-A credit rating the US had after being previously downgraded by other major rating agencies. Fitch Ratings previously downgraded the US in 2023, while S&P Global Ratings did so in 2011.”Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures…

Donald TrumpAl Drago/Bloomberg President Donald Trump called on members of his party to unite behind his economic agenda in Congress, putting pressure on factions of lawmakers who are calling for last-minute changes to the legislation to drop their demands.”We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party,” Trump said in a social media post on Friday. “STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”Trump sent the post from Air Force One after departing the Middle East as the House Budget Committee…

A temporary pause on sky-high tariffs between China and the US isn’t really giving consumers much of a break from trade war chaos.Five supply chain experts told Business Insider that, even with the recent reduction in Chinese tariffs, they expect to see continued disruption in the supply chain at least through the end of the year.And, they said, the higher prices consumers are seeing on everything from fast fashion to electronics are probably only going to increase.”While tariffs can be enacted with a pen stroke, it takes years to rewire global supply chains,” John Lash, group vice president of product…