Just a couple of years ago, pundits were warning of streamings demise. From Netflix to Spotify, these companies were burning through cash. How could they keep operating?
Now, almost all of the streamers have made it to positive profits. Netflix is the envy of the entertainment industry, while its underlings like Disney+ and Max have also turned around their losses. Last Tuesday, Spotify shares jumped 13% after the company announced its first full year of profitability. There are still stragglers, but on the whole, streaming has formed itself into a successful business model.
Theres a lesson here: For emerging tech, theres value in patience. It took streaming over a decade to get it right, to effectively combine user growth and ad sales in a way that manifested profits. We should expect the same from all of our tech innovators.
How streaming became profitable
In the late 2010s, things werent looking positive for Netflix. Sure, they were making positive profits, but their debt was staggering. The company had amassed $15 billion in long-term debt by the end of 2020; compared to quarterly profits of just around $1 billion, Netflix seemed ready to capsize. CNNs headline at the time: Netflix is burning through cash. This cant last forever.
Now, everyone wants to be Netflix. Their profit margin is now 22%, earning $8.71 billion last year in profits (from some $39 billion in revenue). Remarkably, the business is expanding. They added a record-breaking 19 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024, mostly thanks to the live fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. And their ad tier, which used to be a tiny subsidiary of their business, is now scaling rapidly. Its good to be in the business of Netflix.
The smaller streamers, once the butt of Wall Streets jokes, are now reaching profitability. Max eked out its first positive profit of $103 million in 2023. Compare that to 2020, where WarnerMedia blamed their $1.2 billion in losses on investments in the streamer. Disneys streaming division, which compromises both Disney+ and Hulu, just reached their second straight quarter of profitability. In 2022, the division was losing the company over $3 billion.
Now, Spotify has joined the club. For years, Spotify failed to put up positive profits. Their losses reached a peak in the second quarter of 2023, when Spotify lost about $256 million. The Wired headline from that year: Spotify is Screwed. Now, theyve reached a full year of positive profits.
The virtue of patience with emerging tech
The sheer scale of money lost made streamers an easy target. In 2020, when Netflix was saddled with some $15 billion in long-term debt, the company also had a marketcap of $238.89 billion. How could we so blindly trust a company that was burning through money? But these are long-term bets, and the bets eventually paid off.
The same could be true for dozens of emerging tech fields of today. Look at AI. OpenAI, the golden child of the industry, lost $5 billion in 2024. And they keep taking on more money, most recently $6.6 billion in new investments and a $4 billion line of credit. How can we justify this? But AI companies (OpenAI chief among them) are betting on the future. AI might not be profitable now, but it will be.
Its hard to trust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman when he makes these grand claims. But, if streaming is any indication, he could be right. The tech market demands patience; not just months of it, but years.
Its no surprise that artificial intelligence is transforming the way we learn, but it also has the potential to add a sprinkling of magic to on-the-job training. Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary is especially beneficial in the skilled trades. Were already seeing social media inspire the next generation of tradespeople, and AI-based learning programs can help attract, develop, and retain young talent.
In the U.S., hiring for skilled roles, including electricians, industrial machinery workers, plumbers, and HVAC technicians, could be more than 20 times the projected annual increase in new jobs from 2022 to 2032.
The current pipeline of skilled trades training cant keep up with the demand for workers, and a significant percentage of high school students interested in training programs find themselves on a waiting list. Employer investments in training and upskilling programs are critical in closing the labor gap.
AI training requires a foundational knowledge
We have already seen that AI is effective for advanced learning. It synthesizes information, translates it, and creates more personalized learning experiences. However, leveraging AIs power hinges on one critical ingredienta strong digital foundation. This is where many employers will fall short. They have traditionally relied on job shadowing, the occasional in-person classroom training, or limited online compliance training.
Further, there is a common misconception that skilled workers will be able to learn in the field with an AI-enabled device as their primary means of information. These devices are useful for troubleshooting or serving as a quick reference tool, but they should only be used in conjunction with substantive foundational knowledge.
The cognitive load while working makes it incredibly challenging to learn efficiently and effectively. Imagine being in a setting with safety risks, noise, and multiple distractions competing for your attention. At the same time, youre supposed to be taking in new information, acting on it, and retaining it.
But, if that AI-supported in-the-field training was combined with a robust AI-driven digital foundational program, thats where the magic starts to happen. The most effective training takes place when employees have time to internalize the material, reflect on it, and review it.
The need to pair AI with people
A digital foundation that combines strategic assessments, core course material, bite-size learning, and digital simulations with real-world scenarios can provide the hands-on learning that is essential in the skilled trades. Whats more, all of this can be done in a safe, controlled environment.
AI can communicate big ideas and take on the role of mentor, highlighting what is important, assessing skills, offering support, and providing insights into strengths and weaknesses. AI can serve as a personal learning guide, but it can’t provide emotional support and won’t replace people. Instead, great teachers will use AI along with digital learning to make their emotional interaction more useful.
AI is advancing at a rapid pace, and many CEOs are asking themselves what their organization should be doing with AI and when to jump in. The answer is to jump in now. The consequences of not adopting digital learning will only get more severe the longer they wait.
Learning is essential for every role and at every age, from the Gen Zers who are increasingly skipping college to existing employees requesting upskilling tailored to their specific needs. A digital foundation is the magicor missing ingredientthat lays the groundwork for CEOs to address labor shortages, reduce risk, and increase operational efficiency within their workforce.
Doug Donovan is founder and CEO of Interplay Learning.
In todays evolving workforce, a growing number of individuals are embracing a new identity: the sidepreneur. These are people who, in addition to their traditional jobs, are launching entrepreneurial ventures on the side. Theyre not just taking on additional worktheyre creating new opportunities to pursue passions, build wealth, and gain control over their financial futures. From moonlighting chefs to weekend photographers, tech consultants by day, and digital creators by night, sidepreneurs are the embodiment of resilience, adaptability, and entrepreneurial spirit.
The rise of sidepreneurs isnt just a reaction to economic pressures; its a reflection of how modern workers are redefining what it means to have a career. This movement is a natural response to a shifting economic landscapeone where workers are increasingly turning their skills and passions into new revenue streams. For many, this dual-pronged approach offers not only financial security but also a sense of fulfillment and independence.
Who are the sideprepreners?
Kivas 2024 U.S. Impact Performance Report revealed that 43% of Kiva borrowers who are U.S. small business owners indicate that their business is a second job or venture. And recent findings from Deputy’s 2024 State of Hourly Work Report reveal that 27% of U.S. hourly workers now hold two or more jobs, with Gen X leading at 33%, followed by millennials, Gen Z, and boomers. Looking at this from both angles it is clear: The sidepreneur movement is real.
This movement reflects a broader, structural change. As financial pressures and the desire for flexibility grow, workers of all ages are embracing a multi-job lifestyle, redefining work norms, and creating a diverse labor landscape. The growth of the sidepreneur movement is supported by the ever-growing gig economy, advances in technology, and an overall shift toward improved mental health and wellbeing. A side business often allows people to blend their passions with professional pursuits, but to succeed they need support.
To succeed, sidepreneurs need access to capital
With unpredictable income and mounting responsibilities, many sidepreneurs struggle to access capital, especially when financial systems remain geared toward traditional credit metrics. Approximately 26 million adults in the U.S. (nearly 10%) are considered credit invisible, lacking the credit history to secure traditional financing.
Maria Cortes, founder of Tucson-based, Latina and woman-owned brand Di Luna Candles, is an example of that. In 2020, she turned a hobby into a business, all while she was as an essential worker at a bank. From the start, my mother taught me to be independent, responsible, and to always have a growth mindset, she told Kiva. In order to pursue her dreams, Maria needed capital, which is usually challenging to come by for small startups.
This is where Kiva steps in. Kivas microlending platform provides vital financial access to sidepreneurs, who often lack traditional banking resources. Maria received a $5,000 zero-percent interest, zero-fee Kiva loan in July 2022. “Being able to get that capital [from Kiva] was the start of it all,” Maria shared. “My first year, I made about $15,000. My second year, after getting the Kiva loan, I grew that total by about 400%. The third year, I grew it about another 190%.”
Marias story isnt just a testament to growth; its an illustration of how accessible financing can unlock new pathways to economic opportunity and to power sidepreneurs to succeed. Her story illustrates what Kiva has seen from thousands of borrowers: 83% report improved business success since receiving their loans, and 62% believe Kiva has enhanced their chances of achieving their primary business goals. Additionally, 80% have improved their confidence in managing finances, and 65% report increased revenues.
Maria has since opened a Di Luna Candles + Goods storefront in Tucson and is running her thriving business full-time.
Navigate the challenges of sidepreneurship
While sidepreneurship offers financial opportunities and creative outlets, its not without challenges. Modern-day realities of high costs of living, stagnant wages, and limitations such as access to healthcare often create an environment where innovators must turn to sidepreneurship, in lieu of pursuing their business goals full-time.
According to Deputy’s research, nearly 41% of hourly workers live paycheck-to-paycheck, making the balancing act of multiple jobs even more taxing. Sidepreneurs are reshaping the workforce, and businesses need to get ready for this generational shift. Businesses that offer flexibility, supportive work environments, and training will do much better in attracting this emerging sidepreneur workforce.
Embrace the sidepreneur workforce
The rise of sidepreneurs signals a profound shift in the workforceone that forward-thinking leaders cannot afford to ignore. These part-time innovators embody resilience, adaptability, and untapped potential, offering businesses a unique opportunity to engage a motivated, entrepreneurial talent pool. By investing in tools, resources, and policies that empower sidepreneurswhether through flexible work arrangements, financial access, or professional developmentbusinesses can fuel this growing movement and reap the rewards of a more diverse and dynamic workforce. Businesses can foster an economy where part-time entrepreneurs can grow into full-time business owners. Supporting sidepreneurs isnt just good for workers; its a strategic advantage for businesses looking to thrive in the future economy.
Vishal Ghotge is CEO of Kiva. Silvija Martincevic is CEO of Deputy and board member of Kiva.
When the news first broke, I was appalled three times after hearing about the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. First, that this man was gunned down in the streets and his killer was at large. Second, when I learned that UnitedHealthcare rejects 33% of its claims, over five times that of competitors like Kaiser Permanente, which has a 6% claims rejection rate. Lastly, what shocked me most was seeing some people in a comedy Facebook group Im in celebrating his death. One post featured a meme saying, I hope he dies, in response to news that he was shot.
I get it, late-stage capitalism is brutal and unfeeling. The instinct to not care about those who seem to care so little for us is understandable. But heres where the irony hits me: The people dancing on Thompsons grave are vilifying someone for doing the very job our system incentivized him to do. CEOs of public companies are hired to maximize profits, not to act as moral arbiters. Would I like to see more ethically-driven leadership? Absolutely. But Id wager that some of those grave dancers would reject just as many claims if it meant trading bank accounts with Thompson.
Thats the laziness of this so-called revolution. The same people electing the same congresspeople who do nothing to fix our broken healthcare system are directing their rage at a single individual for being a disappointing product of the systems we voted for.
A rigged system, or a reflection of us?
Day after day, I hear complaints about the rigged system of the stock market. And let me be clear: I dont disagree. The deck is often stacked against retail investors. But the complaints often miss a critical point: Finance is the highest-stakes game in the world. Do we complain about the inequalities of flying coach while others enjoy first class? Why, then, do we lament trades transported in different routing classes?
Heres whats more frustrating: Many of these same critics entrust their money to brokers who openly prioritize hedge fundstheir real customersover retail traders. Remember the trading halts during the meme stock frenzy? Thats the price of free trades.
For the past 14 years, Ive dedicated myself to creating tools that level the playing field for retail investors. Tools that are transparent, data-driven, and free. These tools rely on live options markets to work. You know what undermines this transparency? The push for 24-hour trading. While it may sound futuristic, it primarily benefits institutional players, whose algorithms thrive in low-liquidity environments. These systems dont sleep, theyre robots designed to manipulate prices during hours when theres less liquidity, making price discovery harder for everyone else. At the end of the day, this push isnt about empowering retail investors, its about maximizing control for those already at the top.
Pick up your shovel
I taught myself accounting as a teenager to land my first hedge fund job. Ive spent years building a platform designed to empower everyday people. At times, Ive had no money in my bank account and had to move back in with my parents. If you want change, real change, it starts with effort, not excuses.
Voting in leaders who care about healthcare reform is a start. Refusing to give your dollars and attention to companies that exploit you is another. But lets stop pretending that cynicism and complaining are substitutes for action.
The death of Brian Thompson is not a revolution, even if you think his sons deserve to lose their father. And perhaps even if more billionaires deserve to die, that is not going to solve the systemic problems that will just replace those billionaires with other billionaires. Real change requires picking up your shovel and holding your elected officials accountablenot dancing on graves.
A final thought
If we truly want to revolutionize our systems, it starts with usour choices, our votes, and our willingness to confront uncomfortable truths and come up with ideas that actually fix them. Until then, the lazy revolution will remain just that: lazy.
George Kailas is CEO at Prospero.Ai.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is in the Trump administrations crosshairs.
Employees at the CFPB, an agency designed to protect consumers from unfair financial practices, were ordered to stop all activities in recent days by new acting director Russell Vought, who is also serving as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position he was confirmed to by the Senate along party lines last week.
Vought reportedly closed the CFPBs headquarters and told employees to stop working, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the administration ramps up efforts to shut it downor at least declaw it to some degree.
The CFPB, which Congress created in the wake of the 2008 foreclosure crisis and the Great Recession, has long been a political target of Republicans, and with full control of the federal government, the Trump administration is evidently going after it in an attempt to deregulate the financial system.
While Trump himself cant unilaterally get rid of the CFPBonly Congress can do that, as Congress was the body that created itits unclear what happens next. Experts say that while the CFPBs work is on pause, the rules and regulations that the CFPB has put into place are still on the books.
Its not vanishing into thin air, says Kimberly Monty Holzel, a partner at Goodwin’s financial services, consumer financial services, and fintech practices, who previously worked at the CFPB for four years. We have orders with active orders from the CFPB, she says. Those orders dont terminate.
She adds that the firms regulated by the CFPBwhich include banks, debt collectors, financial payment platforms, and morestill need to act in good faith cooperation with the government, and that though whats happening may be surprising or alarming, consumers should remember that there are still numerous other regulating bodies that are still active.
The CFPB is not the only regulatorconsumers can still go to the FDIC, the OCC, the Fed, she says. And states still regulate banks, too. There isnt a vacuum of regulation.
However, the Trump team has reportedly floated the idea of dismantling some other regulators, like the FDIC, too.
Mixed signals
Other experts say that whats happening at the CFPB is a prime example of the mixed signals coming out of the Trump administration.
They told people to go home and not work at the office. At the same time, theyre saying to other government employees no more remote work, says Jeff Sovern, a Michael Millemann professor of consumer law at the University of Marylands Francis King Carey School of Law. They have said that theyre trying to eliminate waste, so theyre gutting an agency that generates huge returns to consumers, $21 billion annually, and yet costs less than $1 billion per year to operate.
Itll generate more waste, he adds.
So what exactly is the administration doing then? The whole thing makes no sense unless you see it as an attempt to eliminate or curtail agencies that they dont like, Sovern says.
As noted, many Republicans have long been miffed about the CFPB, which has, over the years, done things like cut overdraft fees, change mortgage lending rules, compensate fraud victims, establish a database for consumer complaints, and much more, typically to the benefit of consumers. The agency polls very strongly across both parties, with support from three-quarters of Republicans in recent years.
Even so, many Republican lawmakers have made it a target, even though its been wonderful for their constituents, says Sovern.
Sovern also has a warning for voters: The CFPB was born out of a financial crisis, and if its stymied, the consequences could be dire. The bureau was created in 2010 because we had the Great Recession, and one of the things that led to the Great Recession was predatory lending, he says. Congress recognized that we needed an agency to protect consumers, he says, because the agencies tasked with doing so werent getting the job done.
If we get rid of the CFPB, we run the risk of another Great Recession.
Less safe from financial traps and scams
While a sequel to the Great Recession may not occur immediately, one thing is clear in the short term: Putting the CFPBs work on pause does mean that consumers are in a more perilous position than they were before.
Across the country, people in my family and your family are less safe from financial traps, scams, and mistakes than they were a few weeks ago, says Chris Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah. The CFPBs work is the way that we ensure that companies are complying with the law, he says, and the people who do that job are now cooling their heels instead of protecting the public.
Peterson echoes Sovern in that he thinks the public should be more outraged by whats happening, particularly because the CFPB was created as an act of lawand taxpayers have paid for it to do its work.
Its a government service that we all paid for, and that is required by federal law to be provided to us all. And now thats been suspended without a law that authorizes it. Its not consistent with the constitution, he says.
We dont have an experience quite like this in the history of the country,” Peterson adds. “Its ambiguous as to what happens next.”
Holzel says that she thinks the CFPB will resume some activities at some point, and that whats currently happening may be a sort of payback by the Trump administration on behalf of players in the financial industry who felt that the Biden administrations CFPB had gone too far, and acted too aggressively in recent years.
The past four years had very aggressive leadership, and very liberal views on their authority to touch certain areas, which are disputed, she says. People are not happy about the past four years because they felt like it may have been good for consumers, but chaotic for banksbanks that were trying to follow the rules in good faith.
As for whether those in the industry are happy with whats happening?
Im hearing different things as to whether or not its a good thing, Holzel says.
In the span of three plays in the second quarter of the most-watched event on television, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked multiple times before launching the football soaring through midaironly for it to be intercepted and returned for a touchdown by his team’s opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles. And as that series of unfortunate events unfolded for the Chiefs at Super Bowl LIX, it seemed America rejoiced.
As one X user wrote before the big game: The amount of people I know who will be rooting for the Eagles simply because they dont want the Chiefs to win is a beautiful thing. Hate conquers all.
Hate conquering all certainly seemed to be the storyline of Sundays spectacle. The Eagles handily destroyed the Chiefs, a team whose successful season has been muddied by overexposure and controversy. And during the halftime show, Kendrick Lamar publicly embarrassed his rapping peer Drake, an artist that much of the country has turned against. From the game itself to the diss-filled halftime show, people who love to hate enjoyed their evening as “schadenfreude” defined much of the night.
The word schadenfreude has its roots in Germanschaden meaning harm, freude meaning joy, and schadenfreude then meaning happiness found in the misfortune of others. And Americans have certainly embraced the act in recent years: Schadenfreudes popularity has grown exponentially since the start of the millennium, according to Googles word-use tracker.
The Super Bowl was no exception.
A three-peat denied
The Chiefs might have been the most hated team in the NFL when the Super Bowl aired. It seemed much of America wasnt necessarily rooting for the Eagles to win, but rather against any happiness for Kansas City. After Philadelphia’s victory, one X user celebrated: “THE GREAT EVIL HAS BEEN DEFEATED.”
The dynasty-in-progress had won the last two Super Bowls, and this year they became the first team in NFL history to make a third consecutive Super Bowl after winning the first two. Had they won Sundays game, they would have been the first team in NFL history to three-peat (win three times in a row). But many viewers didnt want to see that happen.
The Chiefs’ unpopularity is in part due to perceived referee favoring. Many of the Chiefs victories this season have been decided by questionable, game-changing referee calls. And although the NFL commissioner vehemently denied any rigging allegations, that didnt stop fans from making them. After one questionable playoff win, even rapper Lil Wayne declared to his 34 million X followers that he hates the cheating azz Chiefs.
The cheating allegations may not have any merit, as data shows the Chiefs dont receive nearly as much help from referees as many assume. But haters have found other reasons to dislike the team; New York Magazine columnist Jake Nevins wrote that although the Chiefs may not be cheaters, they are boring and swagless, smug and exasperating.
As Super Bowl LIX progressed and the Chiefs struggled to put anything together offensively, the delight at the loss only grew. Statistically, Mahomes had one of the worst quarterback games in Super Bowl history. Fans in Philadelphia responded by gleefully burning a puppet of Kermit the Froga character many have said sounds exactly like Mahomesin a bizarre sort of effigy.
Ultimately, the Chiefs lost in an even more embarrassing manner than the final 4022 score suggests. And broadcasters knew that would make many viewers very happy. Nick Wright, a talk-show host known for his obsession with the Chiefs, posted Monday morning that his eventual broadcast about the loss would be undoubtedly delightful for everyone but me. And the joyfully hateful comments followed: One user responded, cant wait to hear you cry today, and another said, you deserve it.”
Pop star Taylor Swift, too, had her turn in the haters spotlight: The Super Bowl stadium erupted into raucous boos after she popped up on the jumbotron. Since the singer began dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in late 2023, the NFL has faced criticism for featuring too much footage of Swift during its game broadcasts. (But, maybe Swift shouldn’t feel too bad: Eagles fans have also famously booed Santa Claus.)
A winning diss track
CNN claimed that Drake lost worse than the Chiefs at Super Bowl LIX. And based on Kendrick Lamars spite-fueled halftime show, that may be true.
When the NFL announced that Lamar would be headlining this years halftime show, many immediately knew the centerpiece of the performance would be the critically beloved (and now Grammy-winning) diss track of Drake: Not Like Us.
The feud between the two rappers has been ongoing since 2013. And on the largest stage of all, with millions of eyes and ears on him, Lamar took the opportunity to spotlight rumors that his rapping rival has a tendency to date younger women.
During the show, Lamar rapped: Say Drake, I hear you like em young, and told viewers, hide your little sister from him. His diss track also includes a lyric calling Drake a pedophile, and while Lamar didn’t say the word out loud during his performance, the audience gladly did it for him, yelling and cheering.
The world noticed this joyous hate on full display. As one X user put it: A whole stadium calling you a pedophile during the Super Bowl has to be rock bottom, right?
And the diss wasnt limited to the lyrics. Lamar also brought on tennis star Serena Williams as a guest for the halftime show, who performed a crip walk dance during Not Like Us. Williams and Drake were rumored to have briefly dated in 2011 and 2015, and Drake has publicly dissed the athlete in two of his songs. The audienceand social mediawent wild.
But as the “hater-bowl” concluded, there were many victories to celebrate genuinely, not spitefully. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts overcame the odds to win his first Super Bowl after losing to Patrick Mahomes two years ago. Philadelphias running back Saquon Barkley also won his first Super Bowl after a tumultuous departure from the New York Giants. And before the game even started, the broadcast began with a moving tribute to victims of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, with two survivors taking the field as honorary captains.
Everyone has a favorite moment from Super Bowl LIX. Eagles fans likely will long cherish the decisive victory over the Chiefs. Some will discuss Kendrick Lamars game-changing halftime show. Me? I was happy to see Puppy Monkey Baby again.
The former Mountain Dew mascot, which made its disturbing debut in 2016 and was widely hated by pretty much everyone, was part of DoorDashs 2025 Super Bowl commercial, a spot that crammed in more corporate mascots than anyone thought possible. For some reason, that stirred some nostalgic feelings in me and I took to Facebook to post I, for one, am THRILLED to see the return of Puppy Monkey Baby!!! Thats when things got weird.
I made the post, basically, to amuse myself. A short while later, during a less interesting commercial break, I decided to see if any of my friends were equally excited about the weirdest of all possible mascots. (They were, for the most part, not.) However, I had received a notification from Meta saying I could manage invites to friends on and off Facebook by creating an event and it had taken the liberty of choosing the time, date and informational copy for this event, which it dubbed Puppy Monkey Baby Returns!
The wait is over!, the page read. Puppy Monkey Baby is back and better than ever! Join us for a fun-filled evening of laughter, joy, and excitement as we celebrate the return of our beloved Puppy Monkey Baby. With special performances, giveaways, and surprises, this is an event you wont want to miss!
This preview, it added in small print at the bottom, was generated by AI.
Ah. Yes. Of course it was.
On the one hand, this made sense. Puppy Monkey Baby looks like something an AI system would generate when its in the midst of a hallucinogenic fever dream. And perhaps keywords like baby and thrilled led the system to think I was about to become a father and wanted to celebrate.
But where in the heck did it get the idea there would be special performances? And giveaways? Not only was I learning about a party I hadnt planned for a nightmare-fuel corporate mascot, but I had to offer prizes to people who came?
When Fast Company contacted Meta, a spokesperson for the company confirmed that it was a new feature. This feature can help people create events directly from their Facebook posts through AI suggestions,” said a Meta spokesperson. “You can choose to either edit or disregard a suggested event and provide feedback on the quality of the AI-generated suggestion, which helps us improve the experience. Meta has said in the past that its AI systems are still a work in progress. The company, on Monday, was expected to begin carrying out a series of company-wide layoffs, reducing its headcount by as much as 5% as it prepares to spend $60 billion on AI development in 2025.
One upside, I suppose, is that at least Facebook didnt automatically invite any of my friends to this non-existent party, which was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. the next day. (Good thing, too! The time it gave me to prepare would have meant a menu largely made up of leftover buffalo dip and some cold pizza.)
I looked online to see if I could find if anyone else had seen their posts seemingly transformed into an invite. There werent many (and none, that I could find, whose mystery invites revolved around Puppy Monkey Baby), but I wasnt entirely alone. One users political post in January saw him getting the strange notification about managing invites for friends.
Invites are kind-of, sort-of hot once again, following the introduction of Apples Invite app for iCloud+ subscribers. Meta has never been shy to clone features of other tech companies (i.e. Instagram Stories, which had many of the same characteristics as Snap, and Reels, which is presented as an alternative to TikTok). That said, theres no evidence that Meta is looking to extend its invite or event segment beyond its current walls.
Metas in a fight with Google, Microsoft, X, OpenAI and more for supremacy of this burgeoning market and is looking for ways to incorporate it into peoples lives.
This misfire, though, should serve as a warning to Meta and those other companies. Sometimes its best to make sure your experiments are locked in the lab when youre still working on them. Otherwise, well, you could end up with a different sort of Puppy Monkey Baby.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch from Tuesday morning until Wednesday morning, as back-to-back winter storms are predicted to affect much of the nation this week.
A total of three winter storms will bring snow, ice, and rain to more than 40 states, with 29 million Americans facing a winter alert in the Central Plains, the Midwest, the Ohio Valley, and the Mid-Atlantic regions.
Winter Storm Harlow is expected to bring ice and snow Tuesday morning into Wednesday to the Ohio Valley, spreading east to the Mid-Atlantic, according to the Weather Channel.
This first storm will start in the Central Plains and bring rain and ice to Oklahoma and Arkansas and moderate snow from Kentucky to Maryland, per NBC News. The Mid-Atlantic (which includes Washington, D.C., Maryland, and several contiguous states) may get 3 to 6 inches of snow, Philadelphia may get 2 to 3 inches, and New York City around an inch.
Winter Storm Iliana is forecast to bring an even-more wintery mix from Wednesday into Thursday to the Plains and Midwest including Denver, Kansas City, and Oklahoma City, and across the Northeast on Thursday, according to the Weather Channel.
This second storm should bring light snow to Colorado, then moderate to heavy snow from Kansas to Michigan, with the heaviest snowfall predicted for Chicago: anywhere between 4 and 8 inches of snow, NBC Chicago meteorologist Alicia Roman said. The storm will then travel north, exiting to Canada, and along the way, bring snow to Boston and the rest of New England, and turning to rain down the coast to Raleigh, North Carolina, per NBC News.
Both storms combined are expected to result in large snow totals, and could cause flooding in the South, according to ABC News.
A third storm is set to impact California later in the week, bringing heavy rains and high-elevation snows, possibly resulting in flash flooding, with the threat of mudslides “across the burn scars of Southern California” on Thursday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Lets say you own one of the most valuable homes in a lush, gated community that has been earmarked as a future point of growth for decades to come. One day, a letter appears in your mailbox, offering to buy your property for between a third and two-thirds of its value on the open market.
On the face of it, you should turn it down. But the person offering to buy it owns every house in the estate, and runs the HOA. Theyre also friends with the police chief and the fire department. So you have to think carefully.
Thats the situation OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finds himself in today as an Elon Musk-led group launches an audacious bid to buy the nonprofit arm of OpenAI, the hottest ticket in tech, for $97.4 billion. The bid, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is undoubtedly a cheeky one. OpenAI was last valued at $157 billion late last year when it last went into the market to seek investment. And just this week, SoftBank, the Japanese investment company, valued it at $260 billion.
That makes Musks bid to take over the company a cut-price one, worth significantly less than the going market rate. The idea that OpenAIwhich has spent the past year or more in an on-again, off-again court case against Musk over an argument dating back a decade to the latters involvement in setting up the AI company as a nonprofitwould accept the offer for the nonprofit arm seems preposterous.
Yet, we are in an era where Elon Musk has emerged as a right-hand man for Donald Trump. Things are no longer normal in politics or business, and Trump sees OpenAI as a strategically important business for the United States. (For proof, just look at his recently announced AI project, the Stargate Project.)
It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was, Musk said in a statement made through his attorney announcing the bid. We will make sure that happens.
Well soon find out whether thats the bluster of a businessman who has long made audacious bets (many of which have paid off), or the commentary of someone whose quasi-governmental position allows him to exert power. For now at least, Sam Altman appears to be treating it like the joke it is. no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want, he quickly tweeted.
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
When U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department told their contractors to pause all work, Sadie Healy expected the impact to be horrendous.
But Healy, who runs a small global health consulting firm, Molloy Consultants, realized no one was documenting how bad the freeze on U.S. foreign aid would be. USAID wouldnt be cataloging the impacts as President Donald Trumps administration fired senior staff, shuttered its headquarters and then told its employees their jobs would end. The nonprofits and aid companies who worked with USAID were fighting to survive.
So Healy decided she would do it.
I am an action person. The depression and the sadness that we knew this was going to cause was something I couldnt deal with, Healy said in an interview with The Associated Press. So we called a Zoom meeting.
Healy is one of a growing number of people and organizations in the international development ecosystem stepping forward to track the impact of the freeze on U.S. foreign aid. Many are nonprofits who already support grassroots groups around the world, while others are professionals now volunteering their time, connections and skills.
The U.S. is the largest single global humanitarian funder, giving $13.9 billion in 2024, and largest supporter of U.N. agencies, meaning any changes to foreign assistance have sweeping impacts across geographies and issues. The pause in funding has since turned into the dismantling of USAID and its programs.
CLOSE IT DOWN, Trump said on social media on Friday, though a judge has paused a plan to put thousands of employees on paid leave.
Are USAID cuts permanent or not?
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and billionaire adviser to the Trump administration, has led the campaign to shut down USAID, saying in posts on X that it is evil, a criminal organization, and a vipers nest of radical-left marxists who hate America. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said funding will not be permanently cut, but people in the field say every day the freeze continues and USAID stops works causes irreparable harm. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Healy and her business partner Meg McClure said they decided to focus on documenting the number of American jobs lost. They eventually got in touch with a staffer from a Senate committee, who advised them on what data to collect.
Within days, they launched a website, USAID Stop-Work, and a survey to document how many U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of the freeze on foreign assistance. So far, employers or employees have reported 10,758 jobs cut since the stop work orders landed on Jan. 24. That number includes some positions at USAID, but not all of the 8,000 workers directly employed by the agency and the thousands more in the field.
We can document the destruction that this executive order has caused, Healy said. And we hope that lawyers and we hope that members of Congress can use that for their case.
At least two groups with tech capacity and deep networks circulated online surveys to learn about the extent of the funding cuts. They eventually merged efforts and set up the website, Global Aid Freeze to visualize the initial responses. The nonprofit GlobalGiving launched a fund to support small international organizations, many of whom will not survive even a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign funding.
Roth Smith, an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, studies how people organize outside of formal structures, often in response to a disaster. He said volunteer efforts to map a crisis and connect that information to people who can act is typical, but the reach of this organizing is impressive.
This is a much larger scale and it seems to be highly polished,” he said.
Things are fundamentally changed
The international nonprofit Accountability Lab, which now operates the Global Aid Freeze website, said 568 organizations responded to its survey about the impacts of the U.S. government’s foreign aid freeze. Half of the respondents estimated they had less than 3 months of operating reserves, meaning they will shutdown by May if funding remains on hold.
Blair Glencorse, founder and co-CEO of Accountability Lab, said they’ve been in touch with foundations to try to help them figure out where their support can be most strategic. He said it also seems hard for nonprofits in developing countries to understand how dramatic and lasting the changes in U.S. foreign funding may be.
Things are fundamentally changed and I dont think the aid system is going to be the same again, he said.
Other grassroots efforts have focused on supporting those who lost their jobs. Joanne Sonenshine, an economist who has worked as a consultant alongside USAID for more than a decade, said she saw a flood of LinkedIn posts about layoffs and in response, a flurry of job announcements. So, she set up a spreadsheet where people could put in their experience and contact information and others could post links to open positions. Almost 800 people wrote in their names, locations and work history. Another spreadsheet included more than 550 entries.
“This just goes to show how much we need support for these people. And this is not just D.C. people, by the way, Sonenshine said. These are U.S. contractors or U.S. staff all over the world whose livelihoods and their familys life depended on the U.S. government.
These grassroots tracking efforts are largely self-funded and self-directed. Healy and McClure pay for the website tracking U.S. job losses themselves. Accountability Lab stood up their survey without any dedicated funding, though they’ve recently gotten some support to continue the effort.
Other professionals within international development have also offered to work for free to help people find jobs or help organizations get new funding. Healy said that willingness reflects the broader ethos and resilience of the community.
We love planning, its our favorite thing, Healy said. We are like, This is the moment we were made for. Lets go.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Thalia Beaty, Associated Press
