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Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names are wading into the battle for AI expertise
Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Big Tech companies are engaged in a fierce battle for AI talent.CEOs and founders have taken to making personal appeals to attract and retain top talent.The competition for workers has led to some aggressive attempts to poach workers.The war for AI talent is causing some Big Tech execs to take drastic measures.
Investor enthusiasm and the rapid development of AI products have left the major players fighting over a small pool of advanced researchers and engineers. Candidates with the necessary expertise can net pay packages of up to $1 million, The Verge reported in January.
Even company CEOs and founders have been getting involved in the battle to acquire and retain top researchers.
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sergey Brin have both issued personal appeals to current and potential employees.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin.Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images
Zuckerberg has reportedly been cold-emailing Google's AI staff, while Brin recently called an employee who planned to defect to OpenAI.
At Microsoft, Satya Nadella has scooped up former Inflection AI CEO and DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman.
Microsoft also went on a hiring spree of Inflection's staff, something that came amid concerns from the company's board about instability at OpenAI and internal doubts about consumer-AI vision and strategy, Business Insider previously reported.
Some CEOs have been getting personally involved in AI recruitment for a while, and retaining top AI talent has proved just as difficult as recruiting new blood.
In Apple's case, Google CEO Sundar Pichai personally wooed a trio of its top researchers away in 2022, according to a report by The Information. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly tried unsuccessfully to persuade them to stay.
Srinivasan Venkatachary, Steven Baker, and Anand Shukla now work across Google and left Apple within a month of each other, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Startups struggling
Apple's also been aggressively recruiting from Google's and Meta's AI ranks, The Information reported, citing an unnamed internal source. The iPhone maker has recently boosted its spending on conversational AI development.
Pressure to match the salaries and resources of Big Tech companies has left startups struggling to recruit in the increasingly competitive market.
Aravind Srinivas, the founder and CEO of Perplexity, said he recently struggled to poach a Meta employee because of a lack of GPUs. Zuckerberg has previously said Meta is sitting on a stockpile of the hot commodity.
In a later interview with The Verge, Srinivas also identified Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, as major competition in the recruiting space.
Alex Libre, cofounder of Einstellen Talent, told BI's Aaron Mok that startups are starting to be "extremely generous" with their offers to early-stage AI hires to compete with the tech giants.
Stability AI, creators of AI-image generator Stable Diffusion, has also been described by one person as "totally hollowed out" in terms of research talent, Bloomberg reported.
Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque announced his departure last Friday to "pursue decentralized AI."
Stock market today: US futures tread water ahead of Easter break and PCE inflation
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
US futures were trading flat ahead of the opening bell on Thursday. It's the last day of first-quarter trading before markets close for the Easter break. The S&P 500 is poised to post its best first quarter since 2019.US futures dipped ahead of the opening bell on the final day of the first quarter for 2024.
S&P 500 futures were down about 0.1% shortly before 6 a.m. ET. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.15%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 0.07%.
After a three-day losing streak, stocks rallied across the board on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.86% to close at another record high. The Dow had its best day for the year so far, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.51%.
Yields on 10-year US Treasury notes were steady in pre-market trading. The dollar surged on Wednesday as Japan's yen tumbled.
Yields on Treasurys jumped following Fed Governor Christopher Waller's remarks that there was no rush to lower interest rates, and he wanted to see "at least a couple months of better inflation data" before cutting.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was up 0.25%.
Thursday is the last day of trading in the first quarter, before markets close for the Easter break on Friday.
The S&P 500 is poised to close out its best first quarter since 2019, with gains of about 10%. The Dow is up 5.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 9.3% in the quarter.
Investors will be eyeing economic data on jobless claims, gross domestic product, and consumer sentiment due later.
The PCE, the Fed's favored inflation gauge, will be released on Friday along with personal income and consumer spending data.
Waller's hawkish comments on Wednesday signaled more caution about the upside in inflation than expressed by Powell last week.
He suggested it's "appropriate to reduce the overall number of rate cuts or push them further into the future in response to the recent data", specifically referring to the recent inflation data as "disappointing".
The top places in the US where everyone is moving
Pgiam/Getty Images
A Census Bureau press release said 62% of counties had "positive net domestic migration in 2023."Kaufman County, Texas, had the highest positive net domestic migration rate among counties.All counties in Maine saw positive net domestic migration; most counties in California didn't.Americans just can't stop moving to the Lone Star State.
A majority of Texas counties saw positive net domestic migration from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023 — or more people moving in from somewhere else within the US than people leaving these locations for a different US place. Many other US counties, including most of the counties that make up Vermont and Georgia, saw positive net domestic migration during this period.
Considering population size, Kaufman County in Texas saw the largest positive net domestic migration rate.
Business Insider looked at net domestic migration totals and rates per 1,000 people for counties. Rates were based on populations as of July 1, 2022, and net domestic migration from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. These migration and population estimates were from the Census Bureau's recently published county-level data.
In addition to the many Texas counties that saw positive net domestic migration, all counties in Maine and Delaware saw positive net domestic migration over that year.
The South is flourishing. A press release from the Census Bureau press release said: "The 10 counties with the largest net domestic in-migration were mostly in the South." Additionally, a high share of counties in Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina experienced positive net domestic migration.
Negative net domestic migration during that period was common throughout California and in Massachusetts, for instance, based on counties.
"Sixty-two percent of counties, up from 60% in 2022, experienced positive net domestic migration in 2023," the press release from the Census Bureau stated. "In addition, net domestic migration generally moderated among some of the counties with the largest amounts of net domestic in-migration and out-migration in 2022."
A 105-year-old man who has been going to Bojangles every week for decades was thrown a surprise party for his birthday by the restaurant
Courtesy of Bojangles
Bojangles surprised one of its regulars with a party to celebrate his 105th birthday.Charlie Lentz has been going to the restaurant in North Carolina for decades, WXII-TV reported.Lentz's go-to order is its Leg & Thigh meal, which staff often have ready when he arrives.A man in North Carolina who goes to Bojangles every Sunday after church was thrown a surprise party by his local fried chicken spot to celebrate his 105th birthday.
NBC affiliate WXII-TV reported that Charlie Lentz has been going to his local Bonjangles in Winston-Salem, about 80 miles north of Charlotte, after church for decades. The restaurant opened in 1994.
Lentz's friends and family gathered at the restaurant on Sunday as a surprise to celebrate his birthday at an event planned by Bojangles.
"Charlie came to Bojangles after church that day expecting to uphold his typical Sunday afternoon tradition, but instead walked into a birthday celebration," Horace Spencer, Bojangles' regional manager, told Business Insider.
"This was a big surprise," Lentz, who wore a Bojangles crown at the party, told WXII-TV.
Lentz told WXII-TV that the party was a "big surprise."Courtesy of Bojangles
Lentz usually goes with a "handful" of family members and friends from his church, which is located a short walk or just a few minutes drive from the restaurant, Spencer told BI.
"He's very consistent with his order," Spencer told WXII-TV, adding that Lentz's go-to order was its $8 Leg & Thigh two-piece meal, which also comes with two sides and a biscuit.
"And a lot of times, before he even gets in the door, the employees have it ready for him," Spencer told the channel.
Bojangles opened its first restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1977 and now has more than 800 restaurants across 17 states, with its biggest presence in the Carolinas and the surrounding states. Its southern-inspired menu focuses on chicken and biscuits.
14 college majors where the typical graduate is making at least $100,000 by the middle of their careers
REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
The New York Fed analyzed the mid-career wages of college graduates with a bachelor's degree.Those graduates aged 35 to 45 with one of 14 majors had a median wage of at least $100,000 a year. Nine of those 14 college majors were related to engineering.When undergraduate college students choose their majors, there can be several factors that go into their decisions.
But if maximizing one's future earnings is high on their priority list, some areas of study have a better track record than others.
A New York Fed analysis of 2022 American Community Survey data found that college graduates who majored in one of 14 areas of study had a median mid-career wage of at least $100,000 a year. The NY Fed defined mid-career as people between the ages of 35 and 45. The analysis only included people with a bachelor's degree — no additional graduate school education — and used what's noted as people's first major.
One general area of study accounted for nine of the 14 spots: engineering.
Chemical engineering majors had the top median mid-career wage of $133,000, per the analysis. Computer engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering rounded out the top five.
Eight of the top 10 median wages for people aged 22 to 27 — defined as early-career wages — with a bachelor's were also types of engineering. Computer engineering just surpassed the median wage of chemical engineering for early-career professionals with a bachelor's. None of these median wages were six figures. Computer engineering came closest with a median of $80,000.
Puerto Rican tax breaks are luring wealthy newcomers. A millennial says that's bad news for members of her generation with dreams of careers and homeownership.
Oscar Gutierrez/Getty Images
Puerto Rico is becoming a popular destination for mainland Americans seeking tax breaks.However, an influx of wealth is driving up housing costs.Young Puerto Rican professionals are being forced to seek opportunities abroad.Finding good jobs and affordable housing is often a challenge for young Americans living in the 50 states, and that issue is stretching to Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is becoming an increasingly popular destination for mainland Americans looking to relocate for tax purposes without giving up their US citizenship. But for many Puerto Ricans, the economic boost that could come from the influx of businesses and wealthy foreigners is contributing to rising housing costs and a lack of professional job opportunities, said Anna, a millennial who grew up on the island and recently relocated to Europe for a software engineering career.
"When people mention how this is helping, they talk about creation of jobs in the service industry, cleaning Airbnbs, day care for kids," said Anna, whose identity is known to Business Insider but has been withheld due to the political sensitivity of the topic in Puerto Rico. "On the other hand, many young professionals leave the island due to the lack of job prospects, decent salaries, and job conditions."
She pointed to the $18.3 million hotel purchased by crypto millionaire Brock Pierce in 2022 as an example of a wealthy mainlander investing in the island. While the hotel will create jobs, Anna worries that most would be low-paying jobs and won't help young professionals seeking careers.
The beauty of Puerto Rico, combined with tax incentives, lures wealthy Americans to the island.Maridav/Getty Images
Between 2021 and 2022, about 27,000 individuals moved from the US mainland to Puerto Rico, according to data collected by the US Census Bureau. Many of those people are lured, at least in part, by Act 60, which provides financial incentives to entice Americans to move to Puerto Rico.
If you qualify for an Act 60 decree, it includes a 4% income tax rate, a 75% discount on property tax, and no tax on capital gains accrued while on the island.
To help ensure that those taking advantage of the tax breaks are contributing to the local economy, a person must give $10,000 annually to specific Puerto Rico-based charities and purchase a residence on the island within two years of relocating.
Young people like Anna aren't so sure that's enough.
The cost of housing is out of reach for most Puerto Ricans
"Most Puerto Ricans complain about how it's getting more difficult to buy property, that rents are going up," Anna said. "Family homes that would typically cost about $200,000 or less in years past are easily over $300,000 now."
In 2021, the cost of living in Puerto Rico rose by 7%, the largest jump seen in 40 years. Meanwhile, in the past five years, the prices for single-family homes on the island have jumped 28%, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
According to data from Realtor.com, the median home price in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February was $950,000, up 37% in the past year. Even in Aguas Buenas, a town 40 minutes south of San Juan that Anna described as formerly "rural and in the middle of nowhere," the median house price was over $300,000 in 2023.
These prices are out of reach for most Puerto Ricans, where the median income is $24,000, and 42% of the population is living in poverty.
Act 60 is also drawing real estate investors to Puerto Rico, which compounds the problem of housing costs.
In February 2023, Adrián González Costa, a former candidate for San Juan mayor and representative for the Puerto Rican Independence Party, announced that foreign investors had recently purchased nine buildings in the Río Piedras section of San Juan. In at least one of those buildings, residents received notice that their rent would increase by $300 monthly.
After Hurricane Maria, investors were drawn to the island looking for cheap housing.AFP Contributor/Getty Images
The surge in Airbnbs is also pushing prices up
Anna also noted that there has been a surge of new Airbnbs created on the island.
According to the San Juan Daily Star, these short-term rentals further limit housing supply and have been blamed for pushing prices up. While new regulations governing these units in San Juan were passed in 2023, there is still no limit on the number of short-term rentals in the city.
According to the Associated Press, there are now 25,000 short-term rentals in Puerto Rico, up from 1,000 in 2014. The AP also noted that the increase was partly spurred by Hurricane Maria, which devasted the island in 2017. Many investors took advantage of the cheap housing available as Puerto Ricans fled the island for the mainland.
Despite these hurdles, Anna is still hopeful that she can return to Puerto Rico someday and buy a home.
"Many young people such as myself simply leave the island since this option is easier to be able to live independently," she said. "I want to move back and buy a decent home someday; I think I will eventually be able to, but it will be difficult, and I know I am lucky and privileged to be in my position."
In the meantime, she feels the problem will continue to grow until there is more investment in local businesses and job opportunities in professional fields.
"I want to see more job opportunities in diverse fields, such as medical, engineering, and education," she said. "People should feel like they can study whatever they want and find a dignified job opportunity on the island."
A boomer couple left coastal Florida after 3 decades for rural Missouri because the Sunshine State 'is definitely not paradise anymore'
Sherry Meaders
Retired couple Sherry Meaders and James Michael Dunne moved from Florida to rural Missouri.The couple moved due to Florida's rising insurance costs, population influx, and political changes.Some former Florida residents are choosing small-town life for a lower cost of living.Married retired couple Sherry Meaders, 75, and James Michael Dunne, 79, lived by the Atlantic Ocean for 30 and 45 years, respectively. But after decades by the water in Florida, Meaders said Florida "is definitely not paradise anymore."
The couple decided to move to a very different place: rural Missouri.
Meaders wanted to be closer to her son and grandson, and the couple wanted a small-town feel. They settled on a small city in south-central Missouri with 2,500 residents, purchasing a home on two-thirds of an acre for less than half of what she sold her Florida home for.
"There's a lot of things we don't have nearby; we don't have a lot of the convenience stores and malls, that sort of thing," Meaders said. "But that's what you get when you live in a small town, and I think you have to get to a point where you don't need a city. I always said that you couldn't take the city out of the girl, but I got to a point where I didn't need the city anymore."
Many older Americans continue to flock to Florida, though some have recently told Business Insider they've had enough of the Sunshine State. Some echoed Meaders by noting that Florida has lost its feeling of "paradise" amid rising home and insurance prices and political changes. One recent mover to Virginia said her move led to lower costs, a slower pace of life, and a break from politics.
The Census Bureau found that from July 2022 to July 2023, Florida's population increased by 365,200, or 1.64%. The 2022 American Community Survey revealed that 9,758 people moved from Florida to Missouri between 2021 to 2022, compared to 10,919 who did the opposite move. On average, those leaving Florida are unmarried millennials earning almost $48,000 a year moving to Georgia or Texas.
Leaving Florida for Missouri
Meaders was born and raised in Kansas City, where she started her career as a teacher. She moved to Florida in 1995 with her late husband seeking better weather. They moved to Rockledge in Brevard County, six miles from Cocoa Beach and a short drive from Cape Canaveral.
She worked in grant development for nonprofits, public schools, and universities, as well as grant review work for national federal agencies. She also served as a dean of a university in Florida.
Dunne was raised in Chicago and enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he served in the Pacific and Alaska. For over three decades, he worked for Bell System and moved to Florida for work. He moved around the state, settling in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Volusia County by Daytona Beach. He worked for nearly two decades as a volunteer firefighter, then spent seven years in Africa.
Meaders and Dunne met in Brevard County after Dunne moved back. They married in 2016 and spent time volunteering at children's homes, youth camps, and national parks.
They said the hurricanes and bad storms would often bypass their city, and they would often drive an hour to Orlando or two and a half hours to Miami for weekend trips.
For years, Meaders said Rockledge had a small-town feel, and it was quiet and calm. However, a few years ago, she said many more people started moving in and visiting on vacation. She noticed traffic was intense while prices shot up.
She saw many wealthier people moving up from Miami seeking a lower cost of living, as well as "snowbirds" from the North looking for warmer weather year-round.
"I was just watching more and more people come into the state, and a lot of people that I look at today, they don't seem to have good coping skills," Dunne said. "They come in and expect things to be done for them that they should be doing for themselves. Getting back to rural America, you find less people that are having difficulty coping."
Many of these movers, Meaders felt, were "not as patient, not as agreeable," adding that many "had expectations of how they wanted things to be." She said her area became much more radical — the KKK passed out fliers in 2013 by her home — and she felt less respected and accepted in her city.
"It's just destroying that original, wonderful Florida culture that was down here," Meaders said. "The whole atmosphere of living in Florida had become very toxic to us."
Both noted their area was also becoming more commercialized, with more hotels and tourist attractions being constructed. Many new homes were built along the dunes, and she said with every hurricane, many homes were eroded, meaning taxpayers' dollars were spent refurbishing the beaches.
"Even though I didn't live on the beach, I was paying for them to live there," she said.
Moving to Missouri: pros and cons
Meaders and Dunne knew it was time to move, and they wanted to be closer to Meaders' son in Missouri. She said she wanted to help care for her grandson with autism. Dunne's two children are still in Florida, and they didn't want to move to Kansas City, which was too busy and expensive.
"We're not staying in Florida anymore and left because things had gotten so expensive," Meaders said, noting that many insurance companies were leaving her area. "For instance, our house insurance had been about $1,400, and we got notice it was going up to $6,000. In Florida, they don't have a state tax, but you get dinged on everything. We didn't have tax on food, but taxes were high on everything else."
In September 2022, they decided to move with their RV to rural Missouri in a city of 2,500 called Mountain View, and within a week, they found a house. Within two weeks, they sold their Florida home for $319,000, about six times what she bought it for in 1994.
"Moving everything and packing was quite an effort at our age, and then we renovated the house to boot, so it's been quite an ordeal to move back," Meaders said. "But I feel more peaceful here, and it feels actually safer than being in Florida."
The couple bought the three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home for $150,000 with two-thirds of an acre of space.
In Missouri, they pay a sales tax and a higher property tax, which they acknowledged has made some bills more expensive, though car insurance is much less, and the cost of daily expenses is significantly lower. They paid $650 a year in Florida property taxes for a quarter of an acre, while they now pay $1,020 a year in Missouri. In Florida, her water bill was $70 a month, while it's just $11 in Missouri. She said her electric bill is about the same, while gas is slightly cheaper.
She misses Florida's weather, though she's enjoyed having all four seasons in Missouri. She said it's taken some time to adjust to how spaced out her area is, though she finds herself driving less often and being more intentional about purchases.
They've found the hospitality of everyone in their community much improved, noting that many people in her small Missouri city recently moved from California. She said during a recent brush fire, people stopped their cars to help extinguish the fire before the fire department arrived.
"We were putting up a new mailbox, and we had no box by the road, and a guy stopped and helped us," Meaders said. "It was snowing and it was just a neighbor somewhere, and he stopped and helped us. We've met more nice people who just do that."
Have you recently moved to a new state or left the United States for a new country? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
Mortgage Interest Rates Today, March 28, 2024 | Rates Are Down This Week. Will They Stay That Way?
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Mortgage rates have been inching down this week, and they're expected to fall further later this year. But we could still see some volatility in the coming months depending on how the latest economic data shakes out.
Average 30-year mortgage rates have remained below 6.5% for several days now after spiking up near 6.7% last week, according to Zillow data.
When rates might fall further depends on the economy. As inflation slows and the labor market comes into better balance, mortgage rates are expected to trend down. But the path to lower rates may be a bumpy one. Inflation has been somewhat sticky in recent months, and it ticked up unexpectedly in the latest Consumer Price Index report.
But Federal Reserve officials still expect inflation to continue slowing, which should enable them to start lowering the federal funds rate at some point this year. Once the Fed begins cutting rates, mortgage rates should trend down more permanently.
Investors are currently pricing in a potential cut at the Fed's June meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. But until we get more data showing that price growth is moderating, mortgage rates may be somewhat unpredictable.
Mortgage Rates Today
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Use our free mortgage calculator to see how today's interest rates will affect your monthly payments.
By clicking on "More details," you'll also see how much you'll pay over the entire length of your mortgage, including how much goes toward the principal vs. interest.
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Last week's average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.87%, according to Freddie Mac. This is a 13-basis-point increase from the previous week.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is the most common type of home loan. With this type of mortgage, you'll pay back what you borrowed over 30 years, and your interest rate won't change for the life of the loan.
The lengthy 30-year term allows you to spread out your payments over a long period of time, meaning you can keep your monthly payments lower and more manageable. The trade-off is that you'll have a higher rate than you would with shorter terms or adjustable rates.
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Average 15-year mortgage rates inched up to 6.21% last week, according to Freddie Mac data. This is a five-point increase since the week before.
If you want the predictability that comes with a fixed rate but are looking to spend less on interest over the life of your loan, a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage might be a good fit for you. Because these terms are shorter and have lower rates than 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, you could potentially save tens of thousands of dollars in interest. However, you'll have a higher monthly payment than you would with a longer term.
How Do Fed Rate Hikes Affect Mortgages?
The Federal Reserve has increased the federal funds rate dramatically to try to slow economic growth and get inflation under control. So far, inflation has slowed significantly, but it's still a bit above the Fed's 2% target rate.
Mortgage rates aren't directly impacted by changes to the federal funds rate, but they often trend up or down ahead of Fed policy moves. This is because mortgage rates change based on investor demand for mortgage-backed securities, and this demand is often impacted by how investors expect Fed hikes to affect the broader economy.
The Fed has indicated that it's likely done hiking rates and that it could start cutting soon. This will likely allow mortgage rates to trend down later this year.
When Will Mortgage Rates Go Down?
Mortgage rates increased dramatically over the last two years, but they've moderated somewhat in recent months, and are expected to drop further this year.
In February 2024, the Consumer Price Index rose 3.2% year-over-year. Inflation has slowed significantly since it peaked last year, which is good news for mortgage rates. But it has to slow further before rates will begin to fall.
For homeowners looking to leverage their home's value to cover a big purchase — such as a home renovation — a home equity line of credit (HELOC) may be a good option while we wait for mortgage rates to ease. Check out some of our best HELOC lenders to start your search for the right loan for you.
A HELOC is a line of credit that lets you borrow against the equity in your home. It works similarly to a credit card in that you borrow what you need rather than getting the full amount you're borrowing in a lump sum. It also lets you tap into the money you have in your home without replacing your entire mortgage, like you'd do with a cash-out refinance.
Current HELOC rates are relatively low compared to other loan options, including credit cards and personal loans.
Uh oh — it looks like ChatGPT's AI model got lazy again
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images
OpenAI's top model has a problem: it seems to keep getting lazy.Users of GPT-4 have taken to the ChatGPT maker's forum to complain.They're so frustrated that they're looking to rival AI models until there's a fix.OpenAI's GPT-4 seems to have gotten lazy — again.
This time, though, frustrated users of the model powering ChatGPT's paid-for service aren't hanging around for a quick fix.
They're looking to other models instead, with one, in particular, grabbing their attention: Anthropic's Claude.
OpenAI's top model still seems lazy
In recent days, users of GPT-4, first released in March 2023, have been taking to OpenAI's developer forum and social media to vent about the model seemingly being far less capable than it once was.
Some complain about it not following "explicit instructions" by providing truncated code when asked for complete code. Others cite issues with getting the model to respond to their queries altogether.
"The reality is that it has become unusable," one user wrote on OpenAI's online forum last week.
What's frustrating users is that it's not the first time performance has lagged on a model not only meant to be OpenAI's finest — but one they're paying $20 a month to use.
As my colleague Alistair Barr first reported, signs that GPT-4 was getting lazier and dumber emerged in summer last year. The model seemed to be having trouble as it exhibited "weakened logic," while returning wrong responses to users.
More evidence of laziness emerged again earlier this year, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even acknowledging that GPT-4 had been lazy. He posted on X in February that a fix had been issued to address complaints.
gpt-4 had a slow start on its new year's resolutions but should now be much less lazy now!
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2024Back when signs of weakness first emerged though, no other company had released a model that — on paper at least — had remotely comparable performance to GPT-4, keeping users attached to the company that arguably triggered last year's generative AI craze.
That's not the case now.
GPT-4 alternatives emerge
In the face of a fresh batch of issues with GPT-4, users have been experimenting with a bunch of other models that have since emerged that not only match OpenAI's top model but seem to outperform it, too.
Take Anthropic's Claude. The OpenAI rival, backed by the likes of Google and Amazon, released a premium version of its Claude model earlier this month called Claude 3 Opus. Think of it as an equivalent to GPT-4.
On its release, Anthropic shared data that compared Claude 3 Opus' performance to its peers across several benchmarks like "undergraduate level knowledge," "math problem-solving," "code," and "mixed evaluations." Across almost all of them, Claude came out on top.
It's not just Anthropic's data that says its model is better. This week, Claude 3 Opus overtook GPT-4 on LMSYS Chatbot Arena, an open platform for evaluating AI models.
Of course, there's a difference between something looking good on paper versus being able to deliver in practice. So in the wake of GPT-4's problems, even OpenAI loyalists have had plenty of incentive to try alternatives like Claude.
It's clear many are more than impressed.
After a coding session with Claude 3 Opus, software engineer Anton concluded on X last week that it crushed GPT-4. "I don't think standard benchmarks do this model justice," he wrote.
Just had a long coding session with Claude 3 opus and man does it absolutely crush gpt-4. I don’t think standard benchmarks do this model justice
— anton (@abacaj) March 19, 2024Angel investor Allie K. Miller acknowledged that GPT-4 feels worse than it was a few months ago. "Most folks I know are using Claude 3," she wrote, as well as Mistral AI's Mixtral 8x7B model.
Wharton professor Ethan Mollick even found Claude 3 to be better versed in J.R.R. Tolkien's constructed Elvish languages of Sindarin and Quenya. "When asked to translate 'My hovercraft is full of eels' Claude 3 does an original translation, GPT-4 searches the web," he wrote on X.
On OpenAI's forum, meanwhile, users have been describing Claude as far more reliable for tasks like coding, and have described Claude 3 Opus as akin to the sharper performance GPT-4 had upon its release.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from BI on GPT-4's performance issues.
Some, like Miller, don't necessarily think the issues are reason enough to ditch OpenAI altogether. The dip in performance, they say, might be because "OpenAI is focused on the next model," and could be devoting resources towards that.
This might be so. As my colleagues Kali Hays and Darius Rafieyan reported this month, OpenAI is poised to release GPT-5 by mid-year.
The least it can do is not be lazy.
Foreign companies have lost over $100 billion in the process of leaving Russia since it started the war in Ukraine
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Foreign companies exiting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine have amassed losses of $107 billion.Putin's regime has intensified punitive measures on companies that want to leave Russia.Despite thousands pledging to leave, only 372 companies have exited Russia since the war started.Foreign companies that have left Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022 have lost $107 billion in the process of exiting the market, according to a Reuters analysis published on Thursday.
Reuters last published an analysis of company filings and statements in August. At that time, foreign companies leaving Russia had lost over $80 billion in the departure process.
The new data represents a 30% increase since Reuters' last analysis.
The departing companies have lost so much in writedowns and lost revenue because President Vladimir Putin's regime has implemented increasingly punitive measures for exiting firms. Those include requiring companies to sell their assets at a 50% discount and pay at least 10% of their sale proceeds to the federal budget. Washington has called such payments "exit taxes."
Companies that wish to leave Russia must be approved by Moscow. Companies operating in sectors such as energy and banking need Putin's personal sign-off.
Thousands of foreign companies pledged to leave Russia after it started the war in Ukraine. Just 372 of them have made a complete exit since the war started, according to a count by the Kyiv School of Economics.
Another 502 companies are in the process of withdrawing from the country, while another 702 companies have suspended their operations in the country.
Companies trying to sell their assets in Russia this year include energy giant Shell, banking major HSBC, mining company Polymetal International, and tech company Yandex.
Their assets sales total nearly $10 billion and they were sold at discounts as high as 90%, per Reuters' calculation.
"There are no Western assets in Russia that can be considered safe or ringfenced so long as the Kremlin continues to wage war," Ian Massey, the head of corporate intelligence at global risk consultancy S-RM, told Reuters.
Other than writedowns and lost revenue, departing foreign companies have also been paying huge fees to the Russian government.
Exiting companies had already paid 35.7 billion rubles, or $387 million, to Russia's budget as of March 15, Russia's RBC Daily reported earlier this month, citing official data.
As Business Insider reported in December, many of the biggest Western household names — companies such as McDonald's, Starbucks, and Ikea — have already left Russia.
Among the major foreign companies still operating in Russia are Nestlé, Unilever, and Mondelez.
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The ship that crashed into the Baltimore bridge carried 764 tons of hazardous material, and some containers have been breached, NTSB says
Screenshot/NTSB
At least 56 containers of hazmat goods were on board the Dali when it crashed, the NTSB said.Some of the containers were "significantly breached" and some are in the water, officials said.The 984-foot ship is still caught under the debris of Baltimore's biggest bridge, which collapsed on Tuesday.The 984-foot container vessel that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge was carrying at least 56 containers of hazardous material, some of which have fallen into the water, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The board's chair, Jennifer Homendy, told reporters on Wednesday that officials boarded the Singapore-flagged Dali for an inspection on Tuesday evening.
A senior NTSB hazmat investigator identified the 56 hazardous containers while observing the cargo and manifest, Homendy said.
"That's 764 tons of hazardous materials. Mostly corrosives, flammables, and some miscellaneous hazardous materials," said the board chief.
Some containers held "class 9" materials, which may include lithium-ion batteries, she said.
Homendy added that she saw that some hazardous material containers were "breached significantly" and several had fallen into the Patapsco River, but did not have "an exact number."
Officials have also "seen sheen on the waterway," she added.
NTSB officials said the exact kinds of hazardous materials on the Dali have yet to be identified, and could not speak to the risks posed to the public.
When asked whether people should be concerned about the "sheen" on the river, Homendy said the transportation safety agency had referred the information to other federal and state authorities.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
BI also contacted two organizations researching water quality in the area, the Chesapeake Research Consortium and Blue Water Baltimore.
"It's a massive undertaking for an investigation," Homendy said, adding that the total probe into the ship's malfunctions could take 12 to 24 months.
The Dali lost power on Tuesday morning and crashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge, causing its span to collapse. Six construction workers who were on the bridge have died or are presumed dead, with four bodies still unrecovered.
The vessel has a gross tonnage of 95,000 tons, meaning the containers carrying hazardous materials would have taken up a small fraction of its total carrying capacity.
While the Key Bridge's collapse has not been declared a chemical-related emergency as of Wednesday evening, hazardous materials will likely complicate the city's clean-up process.
"It's a pretty dangerous situation in that area, and we can't go in there," Homendy said.
A recent major disaster, when a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohi,o in February 2023, still affects residents more than a year after the event.
Delays in freeing up the Patapsco River also threaten major economic consequences. The Port of Baltimore — the ninth busiest US port for international cargo and a major hub for the automotive industry — is closed to vessels until further notice as wreckage blocks the waterway.
The loss of the bridge itself is likely to become a pain point for Baltimore commuters since 11.3 million vehicles plied the Key Bridge annually. It was also the only land transport route for hazardous materials, posing another complication for local industries.
Authorities are still investigating how the Dali lost power as it tried to navigate under the Key Bridge.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said on Wednesday that the ship had passed two foreign port inspections, one in June and another in September.
Paris Hilton hopes her kids 'aren't as addicted to social media' as she is when they grow up
Charles Sykes/Bravo
Paris Hilton says she hopes her kids "aren't as addicted to social media" as she is when they grow up.She made the comments during a panel at the "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" summit, per People.Hilton previously told BI that influencer culture can be "toxic" and she doesn't want her kids to be caught up in that.Paris Hilton says she hopes her kids won't grow up to be "as addicted to social media" as she is.
During a panel at the "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" summit in Los Angeles on Monday, Hilton said she wanted her children to "live a world outside of social media and being on their phone all the time," per People.
"So I feel that's really taken a lot from children. Kids are not going outside anymore and playing as much because everyone's just so busy on their phones," Hilton said. "So hopefully my kids won't be as addicted to social media as I am."
The summit included panels, performances, and fireside chats featuring Hollywood celebrities and political leaders, including Halle Berry and first lady Dr. Jill Biden.
"I just want my children just to feel just so loved and seen and want to be that next generation of someone that brings positivity to the world and just to have big hearts and big loving," Hilton said during the panel. "That's something that's really important to me."
Hilton has two children with her husband, Carter Reum. Hilton married Reum in November 2021. The couple welcomed their son Phoenix in January 2023 and their daughter London less than a year later.
This isn't the first time Hilton has talked about how she doesn't want her kids to be on social media.
She said in her 2021 reality series "Paris in Love" that she hopes her future daughter has no interest in becoming an influencer and elaborated on her thoughts to Business Insider's Samantha Grindell.
"I just feel that it can be toxic in some ways where I really wouldn't want my daughter in this world because I just think there's so much emphasis on being perfect," Hilton told BI. "And then having people be mean and write rude comments. I just wouldn't want my daughter to have to experience that."
In her 2020 documentary "This Is Paris," Hilton said she felt "responsible" for getting young people addicted to social media, per Today.
"Everyone says I'm the original influencer, but sometimes I feel like I helped create a monster," Hilton said in her documentary. "When you add up all those hours ... it's literally like years of your life spent just looking at a phone."
Hilton isn't the only celeb mom who has spoken up against social media for kids.
In a January interview with Elle, Penélope Cruz also shared her concerns about letting her kids use social media.
"It's so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming," Cruz said. "And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked. It's a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers."
Cruz added that her 10-year-old daughter, Luna, and her 12-year-old son, Leo, "don't even have phones."
Globally, people spend almost four hours a day looking at their mobile phones, per data from the Global Media Intelligence Report 2023.
Research has also shown that youths who spend the most time glued to their phone screens are more likely to develop depression and anxiety, among other problems, in the future.
However, there are ways to stop the mindless scrolling. When it comes to raising Gen Alpha kids, experts say that parents should keep them offline for as long as possible and emphasize the importance of real-life connections.
Prepare for the #motivational doom scroll — LinkedIn is trialing TikTok-style short videos
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LinkedIn is experimenting with presenting video posts in a short-form, infinite-scrolling format.The company confirmed the trial to TechCrunch on Wednesday.These videos appear to be taken from existing posts on LinkedIn.LinkedIn is testing a new short-form video feature in the same vein as YouTube Shorts and TikTok, making it one of the latest platforms to invest in infinite scrolling.
The Microsoft-owned company confirmed the experiment to TechCrunch on Wednesday, as the outlet reported spotting a LinkedIn user who posted about the videos.
"I told y'all once LinkedIn as a product catches up to the other platforms it's over," marketing professional Austin Hull wrote.
Hull posted a screen recording of the LinkedIn app on his phone, which showed him navigating to a "video" tab and then scrolling through four short clips.
One was of an entrepreneur discussing lessons learned from a TV appearance, and another featured a product engineer discussing her career.
A woman in the third video said: "Welcome back to another episode of 'What I do for work.'"
The last clip showed a startup founder giving advice on LinkedIn.
While shot in the 9:16 aspect ratio used by creators for mobile scrolling content, these posts don't appear to be specifically created for the short-form feature.
The ones featured in Hull's video come from normal LinkedIn posts, which have a caption above the clip, likely meaning LinkedIn is just presenting the same posts differently.
A screenshot of a video uploaded by Sonny Caberwal, whose clip was featured in a short-form video format on Hull's post.Screenshot/LinkedIn/Sonny Caberwal
If the company rolls out this feature more widely, it would have to catch up with YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and essentially every popular social media platform in the pivot toward short-form video content.
The format is widely considered a staple for younger tech users, and online video is even recognized as a "nearly universal part of teens' and tweens' media diet" by Sesame Street's producers.
Infinite scrolling hasn't always been well-received. US officials are concerned that it's getting people more addicted to social media, which could harm mental health.
In its October lawsuit against Meta over mental health concerns for children, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office described infinite scrolling as "designed to defeat children's attempts to self-regulate and disengage" with social platforms.
"Users are spoon-fed highly personalized content designed to keep them hooked," the lawsuit said. "As a result, users often find themselves unwittingly and infinitely scrolling."
LinkedIn's press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
The Baltimore bridge disaster is just the latest knock to global shipping and trade
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Supply chains disruptions have repeatedly come under the spotlight in recent years.The collision of the Dali containership with the Baltimore Key Bridge is the latest risk to supply chains.Geopolitics, climate change, and shipping incidents all pose risks to supply chains.Supply chains are the backbone of global trade, but they've been largely taken for granted — until recently. Over the past few years, supply chain woes have repeatedly come into the spotlight.
The vital link came under the spotlight when President Donald Trump launched a trade war against China in 2018, prompting investors to reassess their reliance on the factory of the world.
Since then, global integrated supply chain systems just seem to keep getting disrupted — be it by the COVID-19 pandemic or Russia's war in Ukraine.
On March 26, the Dali — a 984-foot-long cargo ship — collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Port of Baltimore is now closed to vessels. Its reopening could take months, impacting trade and business.
The auto industry is expected to be disrupted, as the Port of Baltimore is the top handler in the US for car imports and exports, supply chain platform Project44 wrote in a report on March 26.
"The automobile industry is notoriously lean, meaning any disruptions will have ripple effects throughout the manufacturing process," Project44 wrote.
The domino effect is due to the "just in time" model that supply chains have been relying on for decades. This means materials were moved right before they were needed. The model keeps business operations extremely efficient — but it also opens them up to risks should just one part of the system fail.
"While just-in-time supply chain strategies have been the 'go-to' for 40 years, you can only expect something held together by chewing gum and shoelaces to last so long," Nari Viswanathan, a senior director of supply chain strategy at Coupa, a business spend management platform, told Business Insider.
Viswanathan said "the world has been on a roller coaster that won't stop" over the last few years, which has in turn sent the world's supply chains into tailspin after tailspin.
Given that risks impacting supply chains are intertwined, they pose multifaceted risks to operations, Julie Gerdeman, the CEO of Everstream Analytics, a platform for supply-chain risk management, told BI.
Here are three key reasons why supply chains just seem to keep screwing up in recent years.
1. Heightened geopolitical tensions
Geopolitics are one of the biggest drivers of risks in fields ranging from economy to technology. Supply chains are no exception.
The issue first came to the fore in 2018, when Trump imposed high tariffs on a range of Chinese imports. It has become more amplified because of the tech rivalry between the US and China.
Examining ongoing conflicts in the Black Sea and Red Sea respectively shows how geopolitical conflicts affect global supply chains.
Russia's blockade of the Black Sea amid the war in Ukraine is preventing wheat and sunflower supplies from Ukraine from moving freely to other parts of the world.
The Red Sea — a vital trade route between Europe and Asia — is under siege by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
To avoid being caught in the Red Sea attacks, cargo-carrying ships are staying away from the Suez Canal and rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope around the southern tip of Africa — but that will prolong journeys.
2. Climate change
In the summer of 2023, a historic drought affected rainfall that feeds into the Panama Canal, lowering the canal's water levels and limiting the number and weight of ships that can float on it. The drought was caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon and its warming effects, which were more severe in 2023 due to climate change.
The fall in water levels at the Panama Canal caused a buildup in the number of ships waiting to cross the waterway, increasing transit time and prompting some vessels to reroute through the Cape of Good Hope.
Roughly 40% of US container traffic passes through the Panama Canal. By late November, the wait time for some ships waiting to pass through the waterway was around 20 days — up from five to seven days in October.
"The low water levels at the Panama Canal are a clear example of the effects of climate change in rainfall and weather patterns across the globe, which causes a ripple effect through the supply chain," shipping giant Maersk told BI in September.
3. Shipping incidents
Ships transport 90% of the world's trade, and the vessels keep getting bigger and bigger on the back of ballooning trade volumes over the decades.
Containerships such as the Dali, which are typically used to transport consumer and packaged goods, have "grown up in size by as much as 1,500% in the last 50 years," Captain Rahul Khanna, the global head of marine risk consulting for Allianz, told Business Insider's Geoff Weiss on Tuesday.
At 984 feet, the Dali is just the "standard size these days," Allan Post, a veteran ship's officer told The Conversation on March 26.
With the increase in size, the risk that something goes very wrong also increases.
"A number of recurring themes have emerged in major incidents in recent years, many of which are a consequence of the increased size of vessels," Justus Heinrich, a shipping product leader at Allianz Commercial, a corporate insurer, wrote in a May 2022 report.
This is best exemplified by the case of the massive 1,312-foot Ever Given container ship, which ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021. The incident delayed about 16 million tons of cargo on hundreds of container ships at a time when COVID-19-related movement restrictions were already straining the global shipping system.
MARCH 29, 2021: High-resolution satellite imagery of the Suez canal and the container ship (EVER GIVEN) that remains stuck in the canal north of the city of Suez, Egypt.Maxar Technologies
To be sure, the number of serious shipping accidents worldwide has declined in the longer term, Allianz wrote in its report. However, incidents involving large vessels — in particular container ships and large vehicle carriers — are resulting in disproportionately large losses.
In fact, the cost of responding to incidents and clean-up is typically many times the ship's value, per Allianz.
"Larger vessels mean larger losses," Khanna wrote in the report.
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Mark Zuckerberg says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is basically the Taylor Swift of tech
STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images; Ashok Kumar/TAS24 via Getty Images; Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
Music has Taylor Swift, and AI has Jensen Huang — at least, according to Mark Zuckerberg.Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg likened Nvidia's CEO to the pop star on Tuesday.Zuckerberg made the comment on a photo with Huang, where the pair switched jackets in a "jersey swap."Mark Zuckerberg really, really likes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Zuckerberg on Tuesday showed off his "jersey swap" with Huang, a photo of the moment he swapped his shearling brown jacket for Huang's iconic black leather jacket.
Not everyone knew who the Meta chief was posing with — but one person dared to slip into the comments section and ask Zuckerberg who Huang was.
Zuckerberg's response?
"He's like Taylor Swift, but for tech," Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram comment reply on Tuesday.
This isn't the first time Huang's been likened to the tech world's version of Swift.
Huang acknowledged the comparisons when he made a joke about having to perform like Swift during Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference on March 18.
"As I was simulating how this keynote was going to turn out, somebody did say that another performer did her performance completely on a treadmill so that she could be in shape to deliver it with full energy," Huang said, referencing Swift's grueling training regime for her record-breaking Eras Tour.
"I didn't do that. If I get a low wind at about 10 minutes into this, you know what happened," he continued.
Yet for Zuckerberg, gushing about Huang isn't just about Swiftie-style fanboying. Huang's work in Nvidia is vital to Meta's survival, given Zuckerberg's professed ambitions for Meta to become a leading player in AI.
As part of that goal, Zuckerberg has been building up a stockpile of Nvidia's chips, which can be used to train and deploy AI models.
Zuckerberg revealed in an interview with The Verge in January that Meta would own more than 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs by the end of 2024.
"We have built up the capacity to do this at a scale that may be larger than any other individual company. I think a lot of people may not appreciate that," Zuckerberg told the outlet.
The relentless race toward AI domination by companies like Meta has also placed Huang's Nvidia in an enviable position.
Last month, Nvidia's valuation reached $2 trillion, beating out Amazon and Alphabet. Nvidia's worth now also rivals the entire Chinese stock market.
Representatives for Nvidia declined to comment on Zuckerberg's remarks on Huang when approached by BI.
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling had a 'non-verbal agreement' about who stays home with the kids. That's probably not going to work for you, experts say.
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Eva Mendes says she had a "non-verbal agreement" with Ryan Gosling to step back from acting when they had kids."It was like a no-brainer," Mendes said on the "Today" show, adding she was "lucky" to have that time with her kids.However, experts say it's better for partners to have an open discussion and make decisions on equal standing.Eva Mendes says she and Ryan Gosling had a "non-verbal agreement" that she would step back from her acting career to stay at home with their children when they decided to have kids.
"It was like a no-brainer," Mendes, 50, said on the "Today" show on Tuesday when asked about transitioning from being an actor to a full-time mom. "I'm so lucky if I could have this time with my children."
Mendes and Gosling started dating in 2011 after meeting on set while filming "The Place Beyond the Pines." They've maintained a private relationship ever since and share two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada.
"It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, 'Ok, he's going to work and I'm going to work, I'm just going to work here,'" Mendes said.
She also clarified that while still works, she prefers not to act.
"I still worked, I just didn't act because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away," she added.
According to her IMDB page, Mendes hasn't acted in a show since 2014's "Lost River," which was written and directed by Gosling. However, she did some voiceover work for Bluey, a kid's television series, in 2021.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Mendes also said she doesn't really miss acting and is focused on "keeping it in the home" with her kids.
Since 2022, Mendes has also been the co-owner and brand ambassador of a cleaning product company, Skura Style.
Meeting in the middle
Mendes and Gosling's approach to childcare isn't one that can be well replicated among ordinary couples, Mu Zheng, an assistant professor at the department of sociology and anthropology at the National University of Singapore, told Business Insider.
"First of all, it's very likely Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling reached the agreement based on a fair, egalitarian discussion and decision-making," she said. "But in more regular scenarios, it may be a very gendered situation where women, most of the time, are expected to make such a choice."
The best way for couples to navigate childcare arrangements is to be open to discussion and make decisions on an equal standing, experts say.
"Eva and Ryan seem to have an amazing connection, and their intuition may have been aligned on how to raise their family, hence why they were able to have the 'non-verbal agreement,'" relationship coach Amie Leadingham told BI.
"However, not all couples naturally have this type of connection, and being communicative about their needs can help create clarity and a structure that makes both people happy," she added.
It's important for partners to discuss the arrangement with each other so that they know they're both on the same page. This can help avoid resentment, Leadingham said.
Every couple is different
However, not everyone can afford to be like Mendes and Gosling, and have one partner focus almost entirely on raising kids.
"I believe a wise strategy for any couple is the one that is agreed upon by both and that is applicable to the couple themselves and the circumstances they are in," Kenneth Tan, an assistant professor of psychology at the Singapore Management University, told BI.
This includes factors such as in-law support, finances, as well as their actual careers, he said.
"Some couples might want the 'traditional' arrangement, whereas others do not," Tan said. "It should not be prescriptive in a way where we merely follow social roles or follow how others have done it."
In the end, there is no wrong or right way to approach this matter, Leadingham said: "Every family gets to create their own structure that works for them."
When communicating, partners need to listen to understand each other's point of view rather than defend, Leadingham said. And when dealing with conflict, creating an environment with a win-win solution for both people is essential.
"Remember, it's not only love that keeps a couple together, it's how they fight and resolve their problems," she added.
More than anything else, it's about being a team.
"Ultimately, these discussions should take place in a context where partners feel safe and secure in each other, and trust that the other is looking out for each other and that they are strong in their couplehood," Tan said. "A marital couple that thinks in terms of 'you' and 'I,' instead of 'we,' is less likely to be committed in the first place."
Safety investigators likely to look into whether 'dirty fuel' contributed to Baltimore Bridge collapse
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Contaminated fuel may have contributed to the Baltimore Bridge disaster, industry experts say.A large container ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning.Officials will probe whether dirty fuel played a part in the incident, per The Wall Street Journal.Safety officials are likely to investigate if contaminated fuel played a role in the Baltimore bridge collapse, causing the ship to lose power before it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to reports.
The Dali, a large container ship, ran into a section of the decades-old bridge early Tuesday morning, leading to six deaths and millions of dollars in damage.
Federal, state, and local authorities have launched a probe into what went wrong. Part of the investigation will examine whether "dirty fuel" contributed to the ship's initial loss of power, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
An officer on board the boat told the outlet that the lights started flickering about an hour after The Dali departed. Soon, the smell of burning fuel had filled the engine room, the officer said. Crew members issued a mayday call but the ship wasn't able to drop anchors before it drifted toward the bridge, according to The Journal.
Marine experts say contaminated fuel is a long-standing industry issue and a possible factor in the Baltimore port crash.
Business Insider reached out to Dali's owner, Grace Ocean PTE and Dali's manager, Synergy Marine, for comment.
"We are closely following the investigations conducted by authorities and the vessel operator as well as conducting our own investigation," a representative for Maersk, Dali's charterer, told BI.
A 2018 report from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank, found that marine fuel can often be tainted with a slew of industrial products that end up in the mix, leading to engine failures and power outages on ships.
Gerald Scoggins, a veteran chief engineer in the oil and gas industry, told The Washington Post that dirty fuel can clog a ship's filters leading to its main generator. If a ship's main generator goes down, the boat can end up in total blackout, leading to a potential catastrophe at sea.
Ships typically use different fuels for different parts of their voyage, Scoggins told the outlet. When ships are still in port like the Dali was at the time of the crash, boats typically depend on light diesel fuel, which can also be contaminated with water, dirt, and algae, Scoggins said.
John Catsimatidis, CEO of United Refining Company, told Fox News that it's not unusual for oil companies to sell ships contaminated fuel.
"You give them 80% real fuel and 20% garbage," Catsimatidis told the outlet.
The fuel that goes into ships while at port is typically mixed with something known as cutter stock, which can frequently include unregulated contaminants, Ian Dalby, one of the authors of the Atlantic Council report, told the Post.
Inspections into merchant ships have uncovered fuel mixed with motor oil and by-products from plastics, rubber, and fertilizers, according to the Atlantic Council report.
While it's still too early to determine what led to the Baltimore Bridge collapse, industry experts say "dirty fuel" would be one of multiple possible factors in the incident.
The investigation will look into The Dali's operations and safety record, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a news conference this week.
The ship underwent more than 20 port inspections since it was built in 2015, according to data from international shipping database Equasis. The Dali was cited for propulsion and auxiliary machinery deficiencies in June 2023. The vessel reported a loss of propulsion before the Tuesday crash, though it's unclear if it was related to the same issue flagged in June.
2 bodies recovered from the Baltimore bridge collapse were 'trapped' inside a submerged pickup truck
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Two victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse were recovered from the Patapsco River Wednesday.Police said divers located a red pickup trick that the men were "trapped" inside.Four men who were working on the bridge when it collapsed are presumed dead and have not been found.Two of the victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse on Tuesday were recovered from a submerged red pickup truck, authorities said during a news conference on Wednesday.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was struck by the container ship Dali in the early morning hours on Tuesday while construction workers were doing overnight work on the bridge.
Shortly after the collapse, two people were rescued from the water. Six people who were missing were presumed dead by late Tuesday evening, with search and rescue operations transitioning into a recovery operation.
The bodies of two of the missing people were recovered on Wednesday morning after divers found a red pickup truck submerged about 25 feet underwater in the Patapsco River near the middle section of the bridge, police said during a press conference Wednesday.
"Divers recovered two victims of this tragedy trapped within the vehicle," Col. Roland Butler of the Maryland State Police said.
The victims were identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes of Baltimore and 26-year-old Dorlian Castillo Cabrera of Dundalk, Maryland.
Police said responders were now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. He said divers are no longer able to access the area where they believe more vehicles and victims may be because of the surrounding structures and debris.
"Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down," Butler said.
The bodies of four men who are presumed dead remain missing.
Seven of the eight men who were working on the bridge at the time of the collapse were employees of Brawner Builders. The company said Tuesday only one of their employees survived, while the six others were presumed dead.
Jesus Campos, a coworker of the men, told media outlets all six of them were migrants from Mexico and Central America and that they had spouses and children.
"We're low-income families," Campos told The New York Times. "Our relatives are waiting for our help back in our home countries."
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