• Elon Musk says he's living in an Airstream trailer while overseeing a data center build in Tennessee.
• Musk is personally involved in SpaceX's GPU capacity expansion in Memphis and is staying nearby.
• The billionaire famously slept on a couch at Twitter's headquarters after buying it in 2022.

When your net worth is almost $1 trillion, you can choose to live wherever you want, and right now, for Elon Musk, that's a trailer.

Musk, the world's richest person, said on Monday that he's currently calling an Airstream trailer home while overseeing xAI's Macrohard data center buildout in Tennessee.

The billionaire has been personally embedded in Memphis in recent months as SpaceX, which absorbed xAI earlier this year, races to bring more GPU capacity online, and he says he has been sleeping steps from the servers rather than commuting.

Speaking at an event hosted by the tech podcast "All-In," Musk described the trailer as his "palace," prompting laughter from hosts Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, as well as SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.

"This is Elon, by the way, doing what people don't believe he does: He sleeps on the factory floor. He's in Memphis helping build buildings," Shotwell said in response.

Airstream, founded in 1931, is known for its iconic riveted-aluminum "silver bullet" design, introduced in 1936 and largely unchanged since. A 1960 Airstream Bambi is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, and NASA used a modified Airstream to quarantine the Apollo 11 astronauts after their return from the moon.

The astronaut connection is apt, given Musk's role in the American space industry as the founder of SpaceX.

Staying in a trailer rather than securing more permanent housing isn't out of character for Musk, who has a track record of sleeping at his workplaces rather than commuting, and living in relatively modest homes.

Musk famously slept at the San Francisco headquarters of Twitter, now X, after acquiring the company in 2022. His primary residence for years was a roughly $50,000 rented house near SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

Musk also owns a prefab Boxabl unit near Starbase, though he has said he doesn't actually live in it and instead uses it as a guest house.

During his appearance at All-In was asked why Tesla and SpaceX are still separate companies. He didn't rule out a merger. Instead, he pointed to how much "collaboration" already happens between the two, adding that it's hard to predict what might come of it.

Neither Tesla nor SpaceX has commented further on a potential merger. Speculation about combining the companies has circulated periodically since SpaceX filed for its initial public offering earlier this year.

Musk has long been known for an around-the-clock work schedule and minimal sleep, and the push to scale AI infrastructure, along with a possible Tesla-SpaceX tie-up, is making that reputation more acute than ever.

• I homeschooled my son for two years, and we loved the freedom it offered us.
• We did a four-day school week and during that time, I worked from home.
• Eventually, he wanted to be around his peers, and went back to in-person school.

When I decided to homeschool my son, I had already been teaching junior high for a couple of years. My son was in kindergarten when the pandemic began, and over the summer, I decided we'd both stay home in the fall. I transitioned to working from home as an online tutor and figured out the world of homeschooling as we went.

Academically, my son really thrived under homeschooling

I enrolled him in the local virtual school so that he had a teacher separate from me, as well as classmates he met online weekly. As his designated learning coach, it was my responsibility to keep him on track with the curriculum and help him with his assignments.

The one-on-one attention I gave him for his schoolwork is impossible to recreate in group learning. As a tutor, I could provide that same attention to my students online. But as a classroom teacher, I had an average of 25 students in each of my seven classes, and providing the same level of attention to each student is not realistic. With my son, I could basically be his personal tutor for up to four hours a day.

Homeschooling gave us a lot of freedom

I never believed in the rigorous eight-hour school day, so I loved designing our week the way I felt was best for my son. I adopted a four-day school week, allowing him to take Friday through Sunday off from all formal schoolwork. Depending on the school day, we would sometimes switch his schoolwork to the afternoon if, for example, we went to the zoo or beach in the morning.

Beyond his classwork, I focused on his interests at the time and supported those curiosities with opportunities for hands-on learning. For instance, he was really into learning about different animals, so we spent a lot of time at nature sanctuaries and science museums. I knew from my teaching experience that tapping into a student's interests directly impacts their engagement and learning.

Even though we loved some aspects, homeschooling had its downsides

My son was spending most of his time with adults, and while this was wonderful for his conversational skills, I knew he needed more time around his own peers. I could tell he was really starting to miss that, since prior to homeschooling, he had already been in school for a few years. I tried filling his social gap with classes in the community for homeschooled students, karate after school, and library programs. But it still wasn't making up for the social aspect of going to school every day with his peers.

I also had very little personal time. After working from home and homeschooling my son for two years, I didn't know when to stop working anymore. My home life melded with my work life and my son's schooling. Even when I had to work, I felt guilty because I worried my son might get bored or feel lonely. I never felt like I could take any time for myself because I felt my son needed more of my attention to make up for him not going to school every day.

We both went back to in-person school with varying results

When my son returned to in-person school, he loved interacting with friends again, but I saw his academic effort decline. His adjustment to whole-group learning was painful at times, but the independence he gained in tracking his own schoolwork is a gift he would not have developed at home with me as his personal learning coach. Plus, since he thrives in peer environments and school sports, in-person school was clearly the better fit for him.

And while I thought I was dying to get back to work in the classroom, I loathed it compared to working from home. The difference in stress levels and the effect that had on my health was now too glaring for me to ignore. After struggling for a couple of school years, I left my teaching career for good and became a full-time writer from home.

My son has been back in school for four years now, but I still think I helped him thrive at a crucial time in his academic development. I don't regret our homeschooling period at all because I view it as a unique experience we'll always be able to refer to. I'm proud of us for trying out a different lifestyle together. But I'm even more proud of being able to choose what was best for each of us in the end.

• Accenture agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations related to Trump's DEI policies.
• The DOJ said Accenture discriminated on the basis of race and sex in hiring and promotion practices.
• IBM and Deloitte paid similar settlement fees in 2026, bringing the three firms' bill to $63.5 million.

Accenture is the latest company to pay up for President Donald Trump's DEI policies.

The technology and consulting firm agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it failed to comply with antidiscrimination requirements in federal contracts, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.

The agency accused Accenture of discriminating against employees and applicants by taking race or sex into account when making hiring and promotion decisions between 2017 and 2026.

Allegations included that Accenture gave candidates for promotion to managing director "extra visibility" if they advanced race or sex demographics, and that business unit leaders within Accenture Federal Services received monthly summaries of the specific percentages of each race and sex within their units to inform hiring decisions.

An Accenture spokesperson told Business Insider that the company complies with applicable laws and that the resolution did not constitute an admission of liability.

"We have cooperated with the government's review, and we are pleased to put this matter behind us to avoid the costs and resource demands of prolonged litigation," the spokesperson said.

Accenture is the third major consultancy to reach a million-dollar settlement this year, under a process that Attorney General Todd Blanche launched in May 2025, termed the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative.

In April, IBM agreed to pay the United States $17 million to settle similar allegations of employment discrimination, and in August, Deloitte paid out $21.5 million. Altogether, the three firms have paid out $63.5 million.

All three were accused of similar DEI practices while contracting with the federal government, violating the False Claims Act. IBM and Deloitte also did not admit culpability as part of their settlements.

The settlements are part of the Trump administration's broader probe of DEI practices at major companies with federal contracts.

At the start of his second administration, Trump signed an executive order to end diversity programs across the federal government. The trend spread into the non-government corporate world, and many large companies pulled back on DEI practices.

Deloitte, which is a major government contractor in addition to serving corporate clients, cut some of its DEI policies and told some staff to remove their pronouns from their email signatures.

Consultancies have also faced pressure to justify their prices under this administration. In March 2025, federal agencies were asked to review their spending on contracts with 10 major firms, including Deloitte and Accenture Federal Services.

Accenture's CEO, Julie Sweet, said at the time that the administration's cost-cutting effort affected Accenture's revenues and slowed procurement of new projects. Since March 2025, the company's stock has fallen roughly 40%.

• China has become central to the "pacing the frontier" debate.
• The push to slow AI is running into the reality of US-China competition.
• Investors and policymakers are grappling with the tradeoffs.

China has become the biggest question in one of AI's most important debates.

The debate took on a new dimension this week after China's top intelligence official published a rare essay warning that advanced AI poses major risks and requires stronger oversight, even as Beijing pushes to become a global AI leader.

The comments came days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reignited the debate over "pacing the frontier." He argued that leading AI labs should slow the development of the most powerful models so safety can catch up, while maintaining a sufficient US lead over China through measures such as export controls and stronger AI security.

The debate also comes ahead of President Donald Trump's White House meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with AI emerging as a key issue in US-China relations.

Here's what smart people are saying about China's role in pacing the AI frontier.

Kenton Thibaut, senior China fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab

A sweeping agreement between Washington and Beijing on slowing frontier AI development remains unlikely, even as both countries increasingly recognize the technology's risks, Kenton Thibaut, a senior China fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said.

China worries AI safety could become another tool for the US to preserve its technological lead, making a major breakthrough on AI safety "highly unlikely," Thibaut wrote.

Instead, she said the more realistic path is limited cooperation on preventing AI misuse by nonstate actors and building technical systems to monitor risks and respond to emergencies.

"Loss of control may offer a rare basis for cooperation—provided both sides can keep AI safety from becoming another front in their technology contest," she wrote.

Mizuho analysts

Efforts to slow the development of frontier AI are unlikely to succeed without global coordination, Mizuho analysts led by Vijay Rakesh wrote in a note on Monday.

The firm says unilateral guardrails risk ceding ground to Chinese competitors, which could close the gap with US frontier models while advancing their own computing capabilities.

Mizuho added that achieving effective coordination between cloud providers and governments could be "near impossible."

Yishan Wong, former Reddit CEO

Yishan Wong, former Reddit CEO, said on X that "pacing the frontier" is the "sane thing" to do.

Core to Wong's take is that American skepticism toward cooperating with China stems from failing to see Chinese people and their government as "real people, with equally valid and real desires, dreams, and actual human existence." This is a blind spot that distorts US strategic judgment, he added.

He drew a Cold War parallel, arguing China has historically said it would disarm only once the US matched its (lower) warhead count — so today, the party that's ahead should move first to slow down, not demand the trailing party stop.

He also disputed that China is close to the frontier, citing its reliance on distilling US models and lack of leading-edge chips.

"There is, overall, strong willingness to work together there — cynically, because working together is how you get rich, and Chinese people just want everyone to get rich; war does not make everyone rich," Wong wrote.

"But the US should stop being naive and realize that when it comes to AI it has to take the first step in extending the bridge. This announcement and the similar one from OpenAI a couple weeks ago are the right start," Wong wrote of Amodei's position.

Chris McGuire, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

The latest public exchange over how to regulate frontier AI leaves the US with just two realistic options, Chris McGuire, a senior fellow for China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued.

Washington must either strengthen export controls to slow China's AI development or allow American AI labs to move ahead with fewer domestic safety restrictions to preserve their lead.

"Those are the only two options. There is no longer any middle ground," McGuire wrote, responding to a Global Times commentary that characterized Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's proposal to "pace the frontier" as an effort to preserve US technological dominance over China.

If China remains a "pacing threat," McGuire argued, the US will struggle to impose meaningful AI safety regulations on its own companies without risking its technological edge.

Arnaud Bertrand, entrepreneur and writer

Arnaud Bertrand, an entrepreneur and author who writes about China and geopolitics, pushed back on McGuire's take.

He wrote on X in response to McGuire: "China hasn't 'clearly and unmistakably rejected collaboration with the US on AI safety': what they have rejected is Dario's definition of AI safety, which he defines as the US leading on AI and treating China as a threat to be contained."

Ryan Fedasiuk, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

Ryan Fedasiuk, a researcher on China-related national security issues and former State Department advisor, also responded to McGuire on X, writing: "Here is a low-confidence theory: I think we are under-weighting the extent to which Chinese state media's hostility toward U.S.-China coordination on AI security may be a response specifically to Anthropic's AI Misuse report."

He called Anthropic's report "one of the finest intelligence products" he's seen, arguing it wasn't just a disclosure but a major embarrassment for China's intelligence services by publicly exposing a counterintelligence failure on a global stage.

Fedasiuk said this report will likely shape how Chinese AI labs act going forward, and he expects consequences for the Chinese companies caught routing user queries to Claude without disclosure — a move he suspects Anthropic anticipated as a deterrent against distillation.

• Look, Mom, no hands (and a big boat) on the highway!
• Ford is also trimming thousands off the base Raptor and Tremor trims by cutting luxury features.
• The refresh also brings the V8 back to Ford's King Ranch and Platinum trucks.

Ford's trucks learned a new skill: towing on the highway (sometimes).

For 2027, the F-150 — America's best-selling vehicle — will introduce a version of its BlueCruise hands-free driver-assistance system that will be available while towing a boat, camper, or trailer on compatible highways, executives told Business Insider.

It is not fully self-driving. Drivers must keep their eyes on the road and be prepared to take over, but can remove their hands from the steering wheel and feet from the pedals.

The update helps bring Ford up to speed with its cross-town Detroit rival, General Motors, which added trailering to its hands-off highway system in 2022. Tesla's FSD (Supervised) disables when a trailer is detected.

For Ford, BlueCruise with Towing will be available on more than 130,000 miles of prequalified divided highways, which Ford calls Blue Zones. It will be included on every BlueCruise-equipped 2027 F-150, beginning with the XLT trim.

It's limited by a trailer's type, size, weight, loading, and configuration.

"76% of our [F-150] customers are towing," Greg Christensen, Ford's general manager of North American trucks, said. "We know that our usage of BlueCruise hands-free driving is increasing, and we're offering customers options to really drive that."

Ford says it tested 800 trailer setups

The automaker says it tested the assisted towing features over thousands of miles of US roads. Christensen added that the automaker used its Dynamic Driving Simulator to test roughly 800 different trailer configurations.

The truck monitors factors including trailer sway, tire pressure, and speed, and will lock the driver out of certain conditions that persist.

Ford says it's the latest example of how it's steadily making towing easier with a series of software updates. In 2023, the company launched its Pro Trailer Hitch Assist, which semi-autonomously lines up a truck's hitch ball directly with a trailer coupler. Dan Barbossa, a company spokesperson, joked that the towing system has helped "save so many marriages."

Customers with an active BlueCruise subscription will not have to pay an additional fee to use the towing feature, Ford said.

A cheaper way into the Raptor and Tremor

The 2027 F-150 also adds lower-priced versions of the Raptor and Tremor, two popular off-road models whose prices have climbed alongside the broader truck market.

The F-150 Raptor Low will cost about $4,000 less than the comparable 2026 model, while the Tremor Low will be about $5,300 less, Barbossa told Business Insider.

To get the lower pricing, customers will have to say goodbye to some luxury hardware. The Raptor Low drops features including a head-up display, fog lamps, a 2kW Pro Power Onboard outlet, a power passenger seat, under-seat storage, a Mobile Office package, and a 14-speaker B&O sound system. It instead gets an eight-speaker system and a manual tilt steering column.

The Tremor Low starts with the more basic F-150 STX and loses dual-zone climate control, heated front seats, off-road running boards, and a power sliding rear window.

The V8 returns, and the F-150 gets Carhartt gear

Ford is also replacing the F-150's standard 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 with a 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6. The new engine makes 325 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Ford says its key improvement is stronger torque delivery in normal driving.

The 5.0-liter V8 will return to King Ranch and Platinum models for the first time since 2023.

Elsewhere, redesigned grilles and wheels are coming to XLT, Lariat, King Ranch, and Platinum trims.

Finally, a new Carhartt package brings workwear-inspired styling and durable interior touches to an XLT Crew Cab 4x4. The F-150 Carhartt starts at $62,660 before destination charges. It's the latest collaboration between the two legacy American brands.

Ford says the 2027 F-150 will arrive at dealerships in the first quarter of next year.

• The AI trade isn't dead — it's just changing its stripes. Investors are already picking winners and losers.
• The market's reaction to a possible AI slowdown offers a playbook for what's to come.
• Sign up for First Trade, Business Insider's daily markets newsletter.

Up until this point, the AI trade has taken countless licks and kept on ticking.

There's been near-incessant bubble talk, questions over AI's returns, backlash against debt-funded spending, energy constraints, and a painful memory-stock unwind. Yet the trade has put its head down and moved past each.

It now faces its most abstract pair of risks yet: the prospect that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, and a possible slowdown championed by some of the industry's biggest names.

The developments have been enough to give investors whiplash, especially considering that — until this latest bout of AI skepticism — stocks were hovering within shouting distance of record highs.

Monday's market action offered an early investing playbook for a world where AI development slows. At the index level, the reaction was barely a blip. The S&P 500 fell just 0.5%, masking a much sharper rotation beneath the surface.

After all, a recalibrated pace won't kill the AI trade entirely. It will instead create a new dynamic, forcing investors to rethink which sectors benefit from — or get hurt by — greater safety efforts.

Here's what the market is saying investors should buy, sell, and watch:

1. Buy cybersecurity

The move on Monday: CrowdStrike jumped 14%, Palo Alto Networks gained 13%, and the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF rose 6%, even as the broader market fell.

The significance: If AI makes cyberattacks faster, cheaper, and more sophisticated, spending on security will become non-negotiable. This gives cybersecurity a useful hedge-like quality. Regardless of whether the AI race accelerates or slows, companies and governments will need stronger defenses.

2. Buy companies threatened by AI disruption

The move on Monday: IGV, the market's biggest software ETF, rose 5% on Monday, while Adobe, ServiceNow, and Workday gained between 5% and 7%.

The significance: Software companies have spent much of the year in a particularly awkward spot: They must invest heavily in AI while worrying that it could upend their own businesses. A slower, more safety-conscious rollout could ease both pressures. This dynamic extends to any AI-exposed subsector, with software as the best example.

3. Buy established platforms

The move on Monday: A-list hyperscalers Alphabet and Meta each rose about 3%, breaking from the broader AI-linked sell-off.

The significance: A more safety-conscious AI era may favor companies with ample cash, global distribution, and already-entrenched businesses. Alphabet and Meta can afford a slower route to monetization in a way smaller, less diversified AI bets cannot.

4. Sell or trim the pure AI-buildout trade

The move on Monday: The Roundhill Memory ETF fell 7%, while the broader Philadelphia Semiconductor Index lost 6%. Major industry players like Nvidia, Micron, SanDisk, and SK Hynix were among those to drop.

The significance: Companies that sell the physical backbone of the AI boom need the infrastructure buildout to keep accelerating to justify their valuations. They're already the most crowded part of the trade, so any pause from safety concerns, regulation, or slower spending could hurt them disproportionately.

It's amazing what the market can show us in just one day after a sudden shock to the system. We now have an early framework for how investors could respond in a more security-conscious AI era. It's ultimately a good reminder that the AI trade doesn't go away when the story changes — it just changes its stripes.

• The biotech industry helped draft Montana's right-to-try law, hoping to create medical tourism hub.
• Now, the state is relying on a privately run board to decide which experimental treatments to offer.
• The company behind it created a biotech hub in a regulation-free zone on a Caribbean island.

Investors on the libertarian fringe of the biotech industry are making their dream of wide-ranging access to experimental drugs a reality in Montana.

Last year, they helped draft a state law to expand access to drugs that no regulator has deemed safe and effective. Now, Montana is relying on a privately run board to decide which treatments to offer — raising concerns about conflicts of interest and, in an industry rife with unfounded claims, whether patients will get value for their money.

A company that works with biotech firms in a regulation-free zone off the coast of Honduras is in charge. Last month, the board authorized its first treatment: Patients seeking a cure for hearing loss will take a daily antihistamine and listen to a Denver company's proprietary sound mix for 60 minutes a day.

The treatment hasn't been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, and it wasn't reviewed by the state. It was approved by a privately run review board created by a biotech investor named Niklas Anzinger.

Anzinger is a key figure in Próspera, a private city on a Caribbean island, where anti-aging startups can administer experimental treatments without government oversight or evidence that they are safe.

Próspera, whose investors include Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, gained attention last year when longevity influencer Bryan Johnson was filmed receiving a $25,000 gene therapy treatment there in the widely watched Netflix documentary, "Don't Die."

Now, players in the booming global longevity industry want to make Montana into a similar medical tourism hub.

More than 40 US states have adopted measures designed to increase patients' access to therapies not approved by the FDA, and two federal programs also allow some patients to access unapproved treatments.

Montana's "right-to-try" law allows a much broader swath of patients, including those who don't have life-threatening illnesses, to access experimental treatments.

Anzinger argues that small biotechs can't compete in a market regulated through large, expensive clinical trials and that they need a system like Montana's to finance and develop therapies that patients would otherwise never get. He says that Montana's system will cut costs and provide a top-tier clinical space for Americans who now travel abroad for everything from psychedelic drugs in Mexico to cutting-edge hair replacement in Turkey and stem cells in Switzerland.

"This is really kind of a potential paradigm change in how we do science instead of top down, more bottom up, but still in a controlled way with oversight and everything," Anzinger said on a recent podcast.

The Montana experiment hinges on whether the Trump administration's FDA chooses to take enforcement action against companies that participate. The biotech industry has reason to hope: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to increase access to longevity treatments that purport to extend life like stem cell therapies, peptides and chelation. Last year, he said he had traveled to Antigua to receive a non-FDA-approved stem cell treatment for a neurological condition that affects his voice.

The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, a Virginia-based biotech industry group, helped draft Montana's latest right-to-try legislation, along with Anzinger, who is a member of the alliance, according to the alliance and the bill's sponsor, the Republican state senator Kenneth Bogner.

Anzinger, a 37-year-old German, is the founder of Infinita City Inc., which helped create a hub for biotech companies in Próspera, an autonomous city in Honduras. Anzinger's venture-capital fund, Infinita VC, has invested in longevity startups there, including Minicircle, which sells a gene therapy intended to increase muscle mass, and Unlimited Bio, which is testing a gene therapy for circulation, endurance, and hair growth.

Próspera is part of a movement among bitcoin millionaires, startup founders, and libertarians to create autonomous private cities. Anzinger has been promoting Montana in Próspera. In a co-working space for startups there earlier this year, tables and doors were decked with stickers that said: "SB535. Montana's Longevity Law."

Anzinger said Bogner, the state Senate president pro tempore, invited him to Montana and "basically asked me, 'Well, what else do we need to do? How does the law need to look like to bring you and the biotech companies that you're talking to?'"

"Anzinger took action," Bogner said in an interview. "He came out to Montana to learn how to make Montana a future home." The senator said the state's "longevity law" is a test case that he hopes will "spur changes to the U.S. health care system that, in my opinion, isn't sustainable."

The industry's role in administering the program has raised concerns about ethics and conflicts of interest.

Arthur Caplan, former head of the division of medical ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine calls it a "risky endeavor."

"This thing they set up in Montana is really a program to facilitate access to anybody and everybody who wants it, to novel experimental interventions for anything," he said.

He said Montana's program is closer to a prediction market than medical research.

"It's like, you want to gamble? OK, go ahead," he said.

The Montana law barely got through the state legislature last year amid intense opposition. It set parameters for licensed treatment centers where experimental therapies could be administered with the approval of privately run review boards.

Montana now allows people to access therapies that have passed small, Phase 1 clinical trials that establish that the product probably won't kill patients, not that it works. FDA rules limit experimental treatments to people with serious conditions. Montana, by contrast, requires that patients give informed consent and have the money to pay and a provider's recommendation.

Anzinger has set up the only review board so far, the five-member Montana Experimental Treatment Review Board, operated by a private company owned by Infinita City. It charges a $12,500 application fee to companies interested in selling experimental treatments in the state.

The board approved its first treatment last month, giving the green light to Parley Neurotech, a biotech company that seeks to reverse hearing loss with a 30-day treatment of sound therapy, in combination with an off-label, FDA-approved antihistamine. Patients can't yet receive it because Montana hasn't yet issued a license to an experimental treatment center. Two applications for a center are pending completion, the state health department said.

Sam Budoff, Parley's CEO, said sales through the Montana program would help the company fund future clinical trials and allow access for patients who wouldn't qualify for those trials. He declined to share the cost of treatment but said it would reflect out-of-pocket prices in the hearing aid market. He said the law was the "right balance of regulation," and said he felt confident that the Phase 1 requirement and the review board structure would keep out bad actors.

Under Montana's rules, which took effect in July, any experimental review board with five members — including a Montana-licensed physician, a researcher with expertise in clinical outcome data, and an ethicist — can approve treatments.

Unlike similarly structured Institutional Review Boards used by pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers to approve clinical trials, those in Montana are not supervised by the FDA.

The chair of the review board is longevity scientist Matt Kaeberlein. Kaeberlein also serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, a volunteer role from which he said he planned to resign soon, citing other commitments.

Dylan Livingston, founder of the alliance, said that his group has no financial stake in any review board or treatment center. Alliance board members are unpaid, and their outside roles are independent of their work on the alliance, he said.

Kaeberlein said the Montana review board "has no financial incentive in whether a determination is yes or no."

"The existing federal right-to-try, while on paper, can work, the reality is many companies are hesitant to use it, and so it's not happening," Kaeberlein said. "Is this the perfect solution? Maybe. Probably not perfect. Is it a possible improvement? I think it is."

Anzinger told Business Insider that none of Infinita VC's portfolio companies have submitted an application to the review board or have indicated plans to do so. The fund has no plans for further investments, he said.

Stephen Martin, who leads US initiatives at Infinita and handles intake for the Montana review board, said the board provided the credentials of its board members to the state. Board members must disclose conflicts every time they review an application, he said. No conflicts have occurred yet, he added. Infinita cannot direct or overrule board decisions, according to the board's rules.

He said other companies could set up review boards as well.

"If you think we are not doing a good job at oversight, come compete against us, do it better, and put us out of business," Martin said.

Montana's law requires some oversight. The board must make a public report of treatment approvals and safety outcomes at least once a year. The state's health department will confirm that each experimental treatment center contracts with a review board that complies with Montana's rules.

In interviews, some members of Infinita's review board said they wanted to open up access to investigational drugs, beyond one-off compassionate use cases. Other board members said they wanted to help bring rigor to a field plagued by risky, unproven longevity treatments. As injectable peptides have soared in popularity, for example, so have peptide injuries.

"The field of longevity is plagued right now by snake oil," said board member Filipe Sierra, a former director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging, a federal agency. Trials in experimental treatment clinics could help generate data on the efficacy of antiaging therapies, he said. Those trials could be challenging to administer through the FDA's normal clinical trial pipelines, since the agency considers aging a natural process, not a disease with defined clinical endpoints, like cancer or heart disease.

Jamie Justice, who holds a PhD in neurophysiology and the physiology of aging, and is executive director of a competition that awards money for longevity startups, said she joined the review board because she wanted to help Montana's initiative succeed, and for there to be "some adults at the table" when ethically thorny questions arose.

"There are a million ways that this could fail and only a few that could go right," Justice said. "And so I think part of it really is taking our job seriously and thinking about the safety."

Some biotech companies say they are wary of offering experimental treatments in Montana because doing so could spark an enforcement action by the FDA. In June, a group that included Infinita, patient advocates, and biotech companies met with FDA officials to ask for a guarantee that the agency wouldn't take action against them in Montana. They said they have not received a direct answer.

An FDA spokesperson declined to comment.

To approve a treatment, the FDA typically requires three phases of clinical trials, including assessments of efficacy, dosage and adverse events. Under its compassionate-use program, the FDA grants requests for unapproved treatments for patients with severe or life-threatening diseases. Such patients can also bypass the FDA and access unapproved treatments under the federal right-to-try law enacted in Trump's first term, although few drugs have been used through the program and critics have noted that companies don't have an incentive to provide treatments outside of clinical trials. Companies aren't allowed to make a profit under either program.

Infinita and the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives are now pushing for legislation similar to Montana's in New Hampshire.

Without assurance that the FDA will allow companies to participate in Montana's program, some patients say they may still have to look abroad for experimental treatment.

"We don't want to get anybody in trouble…But if the FDA won't support us, what else can we do?" said Kris DeVault, a parent of a 3-year-old son diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disease that has no treatment. DeVault wants to go to Montana to receive an experimental treatment for his son, but the manufacturer is wary because of the possibility the FDA could shut it down.

He is now exploring going to Próspera.

The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network is a multi-publication initiative publishing scoops, investigations, interviews, op-eds, and analysis that reverberate across the world. It connects journalists from Axel Springer brands—including POLITICO, The Telegraph, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, and Onet— on major stories for an international audience. Their ambitious reporting stretches across Axel Springer platforms: online, print, TV, and audio. Together, the outlets reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

• Bond yields have spiked, with the 10-year Treasury surpassing 5% for the first time in three years.
• Higher borrowing costs are already being seen in consumer products like mortgages.
• These six charts show how the rise in borrowing costs is being felt, from consumer to corporate debt.

High interest rates are already making things more expensive for American consumers and businesses.

Bond yields have spiked in recent weeks, with fixed-income markets gripped by a sell-off that's hit government debt from the US to Japan. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury surpassed 5% on Monday for the first time since 2023. It's a closely watched level that makes investors anxious for a variety of reasons, and has been considered a "danger zone" for stocks.

The latest surge has largely been driven by concerns about the inflationary impact of higher oil prices, as well as worries about America's fiscal position amid surging debt and a widening budget deficit.

To top it off, investors are also expecting the Fed to hike rates when it wraps up its policy meeting this week, a move that could cause short-term yields to spike further as rate expectations rise. Markets are pricing in a 92% probability that the Fed lifts its target rate by 25 basis points, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

But Americans have already been feeling the pain of higher rates. These six charts show how higher borrowing costs have already hit consumers and businesses — and how rate increases could create even more pressure, from mortgages to credit cards to bankruptcies.

1. Mortgage rates have hit 7%

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 7.07%, surpassing 7% for the first time since May of last year, according to Mortgage News Daily. Freddie Mac's estimate of the 30-year fixed rate clocked in at 6.76% in the last week.

2. Auto loan rates are elevated

Auto loan rates have risen over the last several years and remain elevated. The average finance rate for new car loans at carmakers' finance companies stood at 6.31% in June, 145 basis points higher than five years ago, according to the latest Fed data.

3. Credit card rates are also up

The average credit card interest rate rose for the second month in a row in September, rising to 23.8%, according to data from LendingTree. Commercial bank interest rates on credit card plans also remain elevated, standing at 20.9% in May, according to Fed data.

4. Corporate borrowing costs have surged

Corporations are also paying more to borrow. The effective yield on the ICE Bank of America US Corporate Index, one reflection of corporate borrowing costs, rose to 5.68% the last week, up 95 basis points from the yield recorded a year ago. High yield corporate spreads are also up.

This means that for high quality companies and those with less stellar credit quality are both paying more when they go to fund themselves in the loan market or in the bond markets.

5. Bankruptcies are on the rise

More businesses and individuals are also filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy filings rose 17% in the year leading up to the end of June, clocking in at 608,511, according to US Courts data. That's up 59% from the number of bankruptcy filings recorded in the same period in 2022.

Fitch on Monday reported that the default rate for private credit rose to a record in August, rising to 6.3%. The ratings agency said defaults in the month were led by healthcare companies.

6. Stocks are tumbling

US stocks have struggled against the the sell-off in bonds, which threatens to weigh on the so-called wealth effect, which says that, as Americans see their wealth on paper grow, they're more likely to keep spending and propping up the economy.

The robust American consumer could pull back, finance pros say, if stock wealth or a sudden decline in property prices amid an anemic housing market sour the mood.

The S&P 500 is down 2% in a month, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is down nearly 3%, most recently rattled by calls from industry executives to slow the pace of AI development.

• Media mogul Kara Swisher spoke to Business Insider about her career and entrepreneurship.
• Swisher said that all "hugely successful" businesses have three elements.
• She said it's important to offer a product that's useful and interesting to consumers.

Starting a business is a feat in itself — but building one that lasts is even harder.

Kara Swisher built her reputation as a reporter covering Silicon Valley and investigating billionaires at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal before launching the media brand Recode, and writing "Burn Book," a memoir and chronicle of powerful tech leaders.

Venturing out on her own was a natural fit for the media mogul.

"I hate being an employee," Swisher told Business Insider's Dan DeFrancesco in a conversation with newsroom staff. "I'm like, 'You're an idiot.' And I say it, and then it gets me into trouble."

Swisher said that entrepreneurship may come more naturally to some people, but most can learn it. However, any successful business needs three elements to thrive, regardless of size, she said.

Brands may be able to survive with just one of the three components, but in order to be "hugely successful," they need all three, Swisher said.

First: They must have a product people genuinely find useful. In media, that can mean delivering great reporting, scoops, or tips, she said. Swisher said the challenge is cutting through the noise with an offering that people actually find helpful.

"People have time constraints," Swisher said. "Be useful."

When she struck out on her own, she said she was "constantly thinking of the audience" and believed she could give them something better than what was already available.

"What do they want? What do they need? What do they not know they need?" Swisher said she asked herself.

The second essential ingredient is being "interesting," which she said is a broad term she uses to describe products that feel fresh and authentic. She said being funny tends to work for her. That same formula guides everything she makes, including the "Pivot" podcast she hosts with Scott Galloway, she said.

The third critical factor is creating "a must-have," or something you can't get anywhere else. She said back in the day, NBC, for example, literally dubbed shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld" as "must-see TV." Swisher said that people may try to replicate the true must-haves, but their attempts often fail.

"You can't bottle chemistry," Swisher said about her own show.

Swisher said that entrepreneurs should ask themselves what they're doing that people can't get elsewhere.

"If you can't answer that question, you're fucked," Swisher said. "You really are, truly."

• Chinese internet users are responding to AI fears with skepticism, optimism, and concern.
• Some see US caution as an attempt to keep China from catching up, while others say it's a chance to pull ahead.
• "If they don't move forward, we will," one user wrote.

The debate on AI doom has crossed the Pacific, and Chinese internet users are sharing their own takes.

Over the past week, prominent AI leaders, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Elon Musk, have called for the industry to better manage the pace of AI development, warning that safeguards may not keep up with its rapidly growing capabilities.

On Weibo, China's version of X, "China AI, US AI" was among Weibo's top trending topics, drawing a flood of posts that touched on national ambition, competition, and employment.

Slowing down the competition

Several users questioned whether Silicon Valley's calls for caution were really about preventing catastrophe, or about keeping China from catching up.

"Publicly, there are calls to pause AI development and warnings about its potential risks. But in reality, US companies and institutions are still pouring money into it. Put simply, they're not really afraid of AI's dangers — they're afraid their competitors are moving too fast," one user in Beijing wrote.

Another user from Hebei compared it to a long-distance race: "What if you're about to burn yourself out and still want to widen the gap? Make everyone slow down — and start spreading running advice: Going too fast is bad for your knees, and it might even hurt your dating prospects."

A chance to pull ahead

Other Weibo users saw the global AI race as evidence that China was taking the more practical path. Several bloggers on Weibo waxed patriotic about the power that Chinese labs already have, citing models like Ox Alpha.

"While the US debates whether to stop when AGI arrives, China is putting large models into factories, warehouses, and food delivery. Which approach is right? Don't judge by what people say — judge by who turns AI into productivity first," one user from Guangdong wrote.

That confidence extended to the supply chain, too. Another Weibo user in Guangdong said that the US still relies too heavily on Chinese manufacturing to impose restrictions without slowing its own AI buildout, but warned that US companies could eventually catch up and erode that advantage.

"By creating uncertainty, it could force supply chains to move faster and buy US companies time to expand production. But for the next several years, US AI infrastructure simply cannot do without Chinese capacity," the user wrote.

Others saw the calls to slow down as a chance for China to forge ahead.

"If the US stops improving its AI software, that would be a historic opportunity for us. If they don't move forward, we will. In 10 years, they'll be irrelevant. Do they dare?" a Weibo user from Hebei wrote.

The future of work

Some users acknowledged that AI would displace workers, but argued that the gains could still be shared more broadly.

"Every technological revolution has eliminated some jobs," another user in Guangdong wrote. Instead of resisting AI, he said that companies profiting from the AI boom should be taxed, with the revenue redistributed to society.

"If a Fortune 500 company opens in your area, the local government gets richer, roads become cleaner, public parks multiply, and public facilities improve. That is how technological development can increase overall social welfare," the user wrote.

Others said China is particularly well placed to benefit from the AI boom.

"China's productive strength lies in hard skills and hands-on work, which are harder for AI to replace. Instead, China is benefiting from a new boom driven by AI, including AI infrastructure and computing power, with many industries gaining from it," one user in Zhejiang wrote.

Despite calls for caution from AI executives, political leaders in both the US and China have shown little appetite to slow the race.

This week, President Donald Trump dismissed apocalyptic warnings and said that "whoever wins AI, wins." Meanwhile, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said AI should continue to progress and be developed for the public good under a people-centered global governance framework.

Still, as releases from DeepSeek and Moonshot AI have put a spotlight on Chinese labs' rapid progress in frontier AI, Beijing has also made clear it is not dismissing the technology's risks.

Chen Yixin, China's minister of state security, warned on Sunday that deepfakes, AI-generated misinformation, and "intelligent online armies" could threaten political stability and fuel cognitive warfare. He also called for more state oversight to ensure AI develops in a "healthy and orderly" way, "with the wellbeing of all humanity as its guiding principle."

• NYC tech job postings fell 49% from 2022-2025, hitting entry-level positions the hardest.
• AI's rise and economic factors like interest rates impact NYC's entry-level tech job market.
• NYC's tech sector remains strong, but high living costs may drive tech talent elsewhere.

The next generation of workers is finding it harder to take a bite into the Big Apple's tech market.

NYC entry-level tech job postings have fallen 49% from 2022 to 2025, the largest decline of any other career field, according to the think tank Center for an Urban Future's September report "Strengthening NYC's Entry-Level Tech Pathways in the Age of AI."

As the title of the report suggests, one culprit for the decline in entry-level tech jobs might be AI. Business Insider has reported on the impact of generative AI on the job market, hitting recent college grads and early professionals the hardest as entry-level positions dry up. The report indicates that early-career tech workers in New York City are finding it hardest to break into the market, especially as the number of college graduates capable of doing the job outnumbers the number of actual postings.

"The supply of new college graduates with computer science and related degrees in New

York City eclipsed entry-level tech job postings in 2023 for the first time since data collection began in 2010," the report said.

In NYC, entry-level tech jobs declined across nearly every industry, except for two — transportation and warehousing, and public administration. The latter saw an especially large increase, up 230% since 2022. Meanwhile, educational services and retail trade had the sharpest declines in entry-level job postings in tech, at 69% and 67%, respectively.

Jonathan Bowles, executive director of CFU, said this difference in growth could be because sectors like transportation and warehousing, and public administration, were playing catch-up compared to other early-adopting sectors that are now pulling back.

Tech employment isn't falling — it's stagnant

The overall number of tech jobs in NYC has not fallen, but instead has remained stagnant over the past three years, compared with previous years of significant growth.

"The problem isn't that people were getting laid off left and right," Bowles said. "The problem is that they're not getting into the job market in the first place at the lower rungs."

Yet, since 2022, there has been a growing demand for entry-level AI jobs, and the demand for AI- related skills has grown by over 8,000% in entry-level tech job postings, according to the report. That's likely no surprise, as ChatGPT was released in November 2022, kicking off the current AI boom.

Although there had not been enough jobs created in the AI sector to offset the decline in entry-level tech jobs, Bowles said that this could even out in the future.

"New York is seeing significant growth in AI companies and real growth in companies across tech that are hiring for people with AI skills," Bowles said. "As that accelerates in the years ahead, I think there is potential for it to outweigh the kind of reductions that are happening."

The report's policy recommendations center on encouraging young professionals to build experience that will make them more attractive to NYC tech employers, rather than turning away from the sector altogether.

"Put them to work on civic tech, working for government, for nonprofits, for small businesses," Bowles said. "There are clear opportunities to get people the experience that would help them in the job market, and that's what we recommend."

AI and economic uncertainty

The report highlights that AI is not the only force at play.

When ChatGPT was introduced, entry-level tech hiring was already facing a decline.

"Rising interest rates beginning in March 2022 cooled tech investment and pushed companies to prioritize profitability over growth," the report indicated. "As margins tightened, the AI arms race redirected capital away from head count and toward data centers and compute infrastructure."

As AI changed what the workspace looked like, economic uncertainty, driven by inflation, tariffs, and geopolitical instability, created the "perfect storm for early-career tech jobs." This impact was "exacerbated" by the high cost of hiring in NYC, leading companies to prioritize cost containment over head count expansion.

In general, jobs with the highest generative AI exposure are seeing the biggest drop, 29%, in entry-level job postings since 2022, while jobs with minimal exposure saw 21% growth, the report indicated.

Yet, Bowles said the NYC tech sector will remain strong thanks to its diversity. "I'm still bullish on tech in New York City, I think it really continues to be one of the most important parts of the city's economy," Bowles said. "New York is not just a one-trick pony in tech, and so I think that that bodes well for future growth in tech employment in New York City."

NYC is not the only city with disruptions in early-level tech hiring. Cities like Miami and Boston have seen similar trends, Bowles said. Yet, NYC's high cost of living could drive early tech talent to seek jobs elsewhere if they are left unemployed and unable to afford high rents.

"New York is better positioned than probably anywhere else in terms of continuing to attract talent and holding on to it," he said. But, "it's so damn expensive to live here, that there's a risk of people potentially moving if there aren't opportunities."

• Markets see a rate hike on Wednesday as a near certainty.
• Bond yields have been rising for weeks, suggesting fixed-income investors see higher rates coming.
• Market pros say the meeting will be a test of Warsh's leadership, with implications for Fed credibility.

It's Fed week, and markets are getting ready for central bankers to do something they haven't in a while: raise interest rates.

This week's meeting and the expectation that officials are going to hike borrowing costs marks a major about-face from what investors were forecasting at the start of this year, when rate cuts were still being priced in. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets see a 92% chance of a 25 basis point hike, up from about 70% prior to last week's consumer inflation report.

The meeting is also another big test for Kevin Warsh. The Fed chair will deliver his remarks following the 2 p.m. ET rate decision, and what he says could determine what markets think about his ability to steer the central bank through the overlapping macroeconomic challenges facing the US.

Here's what markets and investing pros are saying about the pivotal policy meeting.

Pricing in a hike

The consensus is for the Fed to deliver its first rate hike since July 2023. Not only that, but some forecasters see another coming before the year is out.

"We expect the Fed to deliver a 25bp rate hike at the September FOMC meeting," Deutsche Bank chief US economist Matthew Luzzetti wrote. "While forward guidance is unlikely, the median dot should show another rate increase this year, with several officials projecting more than that."

Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan expects to see the same. While he maintains that an October rate hike is unlikely, as it takes time to assess the broader economic impact, his team also predicts a December rate increase.

"We expect that the Committee will increase the target range for the fed funds rate by 25bp to 3.75-4.0%," Feroli stated. "At the end of the day the Chair's repeated stern warnings on inflation intolerance risk institutional credibility absent some action to back it up."

For consumers, higher rates could raise borrowing costs of mortgages, auto loans, and credit card debt. Savers would see higher returns for their high-yield savings accounts.

A hike could also be bad news for job seekers. Faced with higher borrowing costs, companies could tighten their belts, potentially slowing down hiring and promotion cycles.

While a single hike is unlikely to have a major impact on Americans' finances, households can expect to feel the effects of sustained higher rates over time.

Brace for market volatility

Rate hikes are often bearish for the stock market but Jonathan Shugar, head of cross asset sales at Goldman Sachs isn't so worried, maintaining that the market is strong enough to withstand a modest impact.

"The fact is that hiking 25 or 50 basis points doesn't change the need for the strongest balance sheet companies in the world to be investing heavily in CapEx, given how transformative a technology AI is going to be, and the consumer outside of the low end still is okay," he recently said on a podcast.

It's also the case that the market is already pricing in the hike, given the rising odds in recent days. Therefore, the more relevant part of the FOMC meeting will be Warsh's remarks, which will be pored over by investors for clues about what's next.

Other Wall Street forecasters also have faith in the market's strength in the face of rate hikes. Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, CIO of UBS Americas, noted that a rate hike would likely impact equities by increasing borrowing costs and weighing on corporate profits. She added, though, that despite any short-term volatility, her team's constructive outlook on the stock market remains unchanged.

Another test for Warsh

The market reaction to Warsh's public comments in his brief tenure as Fed chief has been mixed. His reticence to provide forward guidance has been an adjustment for investors after years of Jerome Powell's leadership, which emphasized transparency about what the Fed was thinking about the economy.

Warsh's Jackson Hole speech was seen as more helpful in laying out a policy framework, but investors have set the bar high for his communications this Wednesday.

For some Wall Street strategists, the meeting is a key opportunity for Warsh to build credibility before market conditions potentially worsen.

"With markets already pricing close to a 90% probability of a move, hiking now would give Warsh's tenure at the Fed an opportunity to build credibility and a clearer reaction function before the bond market forces his hand in a more disorderly manner," stated Morgan Stanley strategist Michael J. Wilson.

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, noted that while economic data supports the case for a rate hike, he isn't certain that Warsh will actually do it.

"So far he has practiced patience, letting the market dictate the path of rates and hesitant to make any move," Woods stated. "The Fed appears to have the votes. The market has made its call. The data has made a compelling case. Now we find out whether Kevin Warsh agrees."

• I was raised thinking that my parents' love and approval depended on good behavior.
• Determined to give my children a different upbringing, I'm focusing on connection instead of fear
• My goal isn't perfectly behaved children. It's to raise kids who feel loved, safe, and respected.

Children should be seen, not heard. Don't be rude, give grandma a hug and a kiss. And at the top of the list, stop crying, or I'll give you something to cry about.

These were constant rules I lived by growing up. Not that my parents were crazy strict, but they certainly lived by this tough love approach. I grew up holding in emotions, afraid to make mistakes or voice my opinion in fear of being disrespectful. I always believed this helped me to grow into the independent woman I had become.

I was always labeled as a good kid growing up. I know that I spent a lot of time being unhappy, afraid, and thinking that I was only lovable, only good when I behaved, and when I was quiet.

This is what I don't want for my children.

Instead, I wanted to create a home environment where my kids weren't afraid to ask questions, talk to me about things, and feel confident enough to stand up and say no when things felt uncomfortable for them.

But what I didn't know was that parenting this way would not only challenge me as a mom but also as an individual.

Laying the groundwork

Millennial parents like me are the first generation of parents to raise children with the internet at our fingertips. The first generation to have the studies, research, and backing to support parenting in a different way. All of this information, combined with my own lived experiences of growing up with a tough-love mentality, made me want to give my kids a different childhood. Starting with emotional resilience, confidence, and independence.

As a first-time parent, I lived and breathed parenting manuals, sleep guides, and blogs written by child therapists and psychologists, all preaching the same message: that co-depedence breathes independence.

I understood that for children to grow into secure adults, parents needed to consistently respond with calm, unconditional love and clear boundaries.

Putting this into practice, I soothed them when they woke up in the middle of the night. I held them when they reached for me, and I reread their favorite books again and again. I didn't tell them to stop crying when they were upset, and I always tried to be present with them and not just scroll on my phone.

In all these small things, I tried to show them they were worth loving, no matter how they were feeling or acting at the time.

Then it got tricky

All too fast, my kids passed the toddler stage. Then instead of just going along with whatever plan I have, they've got opinions, they push back, and they're not afraid of asking questions. My daughter, 3, is the queen of big feelings, and I cannot count the number of times she's laid on the floor of the grocery store screaming because I won't cave and buy her Paw Patrol cupcakes.

Managing this is not easy. It can be triggering, and at times, my first reaction is anger. But I know it's because these are things that I would never have been allowed to do as a child, behavior my parents would have shut down right away.

I'm moving forward in my own way

I'm now allowing my children to have choices. I'm allowing them to get messy, make mistakes, and try new things out. I'm teaching them how to ask questions respectfully and how to stand up for themselves.

I'm teaching them how to hold space for all their feelings without suppressing them. But most importantly, when I lose my temper or snap at them because I'm human too, I repair with them. I apologize. I'm showing them that they are worthy of being treated with kindness and respect.

And yeah, maybe my kids aren't the ones sitting quietly at the dinner table. But I tell you what, I go to bed knowing my kids feel safe and loved, and that's good enough for me.

• OpenAI wants more lawyers to use its AI.
• To that end, it's partnered with a new startup to give it boots on the ground inside law firms.
• Telon says it works with customers to help them get more out of the legal software they buy.

OpenAI has been signaling for months that it wants a bigger foothold in the legal industry. A new partnership offers a clue as to how it plans to get there: not just by selling models and software, but by sending people to help customers actually use them.

Telon, a London startup, is one of the companies giving it boots on the ground.

Rather than sell software, Telon hires and trains "legal engineers" — mostly former lawyers who embed inside law firms and corporate legal teams to help them get more out of the tech they already buy. The model is a bit like forward-deployed engineering-as-a-service.

The startup isn't six months old yet, and it already has the attention of a tech goliath. Telon said Tuesday that OpenAI named it a "select partner," a role that will have the startup working with shared customers to configure models, write prompts, build agents, and train lawyers.

The ChatGPT maker launched the OpenAI Partner Network in June to make it easier for consultants and other partners to bring its models and software into companies around the world. OpenAI said it aims to certify 300,000 consultants by the end of 2026.

Lewis Bretts, a former trial attorney, built up PwC's legal practice before founding Telon in June. He said the hardest part about selling artificial intelligence to law firms isn't closing the deal. It's getting lawyers to actually use it.

That pain point has created a growing line of business for professional services firms, which have long helped companies adopt enterprise software. Bretts said he started Telon after noticing a change in how that work gets done.

Enterprises once hired firms like McKinsey or Deloitte to roll out a Salesforce database or another large tech system — a project that might take months or years, but eventually ended.

AI is different. Labs ship new models all the time. Each release expands what the apps built on top can do. A company can buy licenses and run a successful pilot, Bretts said, only to find months later that employees are using a fraction of what the technology can do.

Telon is betting there is room for a legal specialist to close that gap. Since June, the company has grown to 30 team members and raised capital from Zach Posner's LegalTech Fund. Bretts declined to name customers or disclose the financial terms of its OpenAI agreement.

The partnership gives Telon a stamp of credibility.

It may help OpenAI answer a harder question, too.

The company is pushing deeper into legal work, but its pitch runs up against a familiar refrain: Why should a law firm buy directly from a model provider when specialized app companies build around the way lawyers actually work?

Telon might give OpenAI a way to borrow some of that niche.

• Nvidia hollowed out the chip startup Groq, leaving behind a $3.5 billion company.
• Some customers said support and AI model choice worsened as Groq scrambled to reinvent itself.
• Groq's new bet: It doesn't need a moat to win.

After Nvidia carved up much of Groq, the AI chip startup is now eyeing its next act.

So what's left? A $3.5 billion AI cloud with real infrastructure — and a harder fight to stand out without the signature chips that once made it a viable Nvidia challenger.

Last December, Nvidia paid roughly $20 billion to license Groq's signature chip architecture and hire its leadership, stopping short of a full acquisition. It was one of Nvidia's biggest deals ever and strengthened its position in inference — the fast-growing market for running AI models, where rivals have gained more ground than in training.

Groq 2.0 has lost some of what once made it stand out. Some customers said technical support and AI model choice worsened after the deal. And as inference becomes commoditized, price and speed increasingly matter more than which company provides it.

The unusual structure has also drawn scrutiny, with the Justice Department investigating whether it was designed to skirt antitrust review, The New York Times reported. Nvidia said in a statement that the deal was "the American system working as designed."

The surviving entity is hardly an empty shell. Groq has 13 data centers, plans to quadruple capacity next year, and 6 million developers and thousands of companies using its cloud. It's also increasingly relying on Nvidia systems — a striking reversal for a startup that once pitched its chips as a faster alternative.

Groq is backed by $1 billion in fresh capital. It was valued at $3.5 billion in its latest funding round, versus $6.9 billion before the Nvidia deal, though shareholders received payouts in between. It's betting on the sheer demand for AI compute.

"We think that the needs for inference are great," a source close to the company said. "It's sort of like the restaurant business. People just need food."

Nvidia said Groq "continues to be a separate and independent business."

A 'mad dash' after the Nvidia deal

When the Nvidia deal broke last December, Groq was thrown into limbo, former employees said. Management played the acquisition talks "very close to the vest," one said.

The deal came together in eight days, followed by a "mad dash" as former Groq employees became Nvidians overnight, a source close to the company said.

Groq quickly cycled through two CEOs. Simon Edwards, who had recently joined as chief financial officer, initially took over. Adam Winter assumed the helm in March, after which the company unveiled its new cloud-focused strategy.

Rather than walking away from its data-center commitments, Groq's leadership quickly realized it could refit the sites with Nvidia hardware, a source close to the company said.

The deal reshaped Groq's workforce. Most of the hardware and software engineering teams — including the majority of the cloud engineering team that built GroqCloud — moved to Nvidia, while data center operations, legal, human resources, finance, and other business functions largely remained to keep the entity running. The company has since added cloud and infrastructure veterans to its C-suite.

The upheaval didn't mean employees walked away empty-handed. Those who held equity received payouts from the deal, according to two former employees.

Some Groq customers said it wasn't quite business as usual

Some customers also felt friction.

Before the deal, the company had been known for a "very, very hands-on" approach to customer support, a third former employee said.

Paul Richards, cofounder and CEO of the AI startup Recall, said uncertainty about Groq's future prompted it to rely less on the company and work with other providers — though roughly a quarter of its inference still runs on Groq.

"Every person I spoke to there left the company. So that obviously was alarming," he said.

Recall previously had a private Slack with Groq employees, Richards said, and after the deal, "it was crickets."

Richards also said that Groq discontinued many of the AI models Recall used and wasn't adding the newer models he requested.

Willow cofounder Lawrence Liu saw key support staff move to Nvidia, requiring a "re-initiation period" with their replacements, though the transition was quick and the service remained reliable.

ScreenApp CEO Andre Dean Smith said Groq fell behind on some model updates and never delivered a planned feature. That prompted his company to shift work elsewhere, though it has since expanded its use of Groq again, he said.

A source close to Groq said that while customers may have lost support contacts who moved to Nvidia, they were connected with replacements, and no complaints reached leadership.

Not everyone noticed the disruption. Eoin McMillan, founder of Sourcetable, said it was "business as usual" after the deal.

"From my end user experience, you would never know anything happened at all," he said.

Groq faces more AI competition

Groq is fighting for customers as inference providers proliferate and become harder to distinguish. Its rivals span inference specialists like Fireworks and Together AI, neoclouds such as CoreWeave, and cloud giants like Amazon and Google.

Groq says it has unique experience running its AI chips, known as language processing units, at scale, and that it will be among the first to deploy Nvidia's latest inference systems that incorporate them.

"You've got a billion-dollar-financed inference-native cloud," said early Groq investor David Levy of Porch Capital. "Shouldn't this be a big deal? I think it is."

The harder question is what will make customers choose Groq. Speed gaps are narrowing. And companies like OpenRouter make it easier for developers to switch between AI providers.

"Economics is the best thing they can offer their customers," said Ashish Nadkarni, an IDC vice president focused on enterprise infrastructure.

Sourcetable's McMillan said that Groq's speed once made it an obvious choice for certain workloads. Since then, competing services have gotten fast enough to narrow the advantage.

Groq doesn't see that as a problem. Demand is high enough to mint multiple winners, a source close to the company said: "You don't necessarily need a moat."

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gweiss@businessinsider.com or Signal at @geoffweiss.25. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• No steering wheel…no problem?
• Tesla's Cybercab has hit the streets in Austin without a steering wheel or pedals. It competes directly against Uber and Waymo.
• Jan Klauth, a correspondent from Germany's Welt, took a test drive in the robotaxi.

The woman in the car ahead of me pounds her steering wheel in frustration. Then she throws her arms in the air and finally leans on the horn. With an apologetic gesture (I must look like an idiot) I try to make clear to her: I cannot steer the car I'm sitting in the driver's seat of. Not even if I wanted to.

A huge screen hangs in front of me, sure. What's missing, though, is a steering wheel, a dashboard, a gas pedal and a brake.

It's almost 100 degrees at the parking lot in downtown Austin. Rush-hour traffic is backed up, with cars reversing and pulling forward again to untangle the chaos in the lot. I, too, am apparently supposed to back up to give the vehicles beside and in front of me room to reverse out of their spaces.

It's not a particularly complicated situation — but one that can really only be solved by communicating with other drivers. The problem: I can't communicate. I have no influence over what my car does — a gold-painted Tesla Cybercab, a fully self-driving vehicle that lacks all the classic features of a motor vehicle.

Then, suddenly, the car jerks into reverse.

Nervous because I can't see what's happening behind me — instead of a rear window, the car has a black panel, and there are no side mirrors — I look out the window. Sure enough, the robotaxi is backing up far enough to let the traffic ahead clear, swinging halfway into a parking space as it does. A few yards on, the Cybercab repeats the maneuver — a feat other self-driving vehicles might well have failed at.

Some 20 minutes earlier, the robotaxi — which strongly evokes the "Need for Speed" games of my childhood — had turned onto the street next to my hotel. There was no need to scan license plates the way you would with an ordinary taxi or Uber order. The shimmering gold vehicle was impossible to miss from a distance.

With this robotaxi, Elon Musk aims to take on market leaders Uber and Lyft. The world's richest man also wants to overtake competitors like Waymo. The car is supposed to cost just $30,000 when it eventually becomes for sale. It also does without the bulky cameras that adorn other robotaxis. With targeted operating costs of $0.20 to $0.40 per mile, it's meant to undercut Alphabet's Waymo or Amazon's Zoox by a wide margin. Musk has harbored these plans since at least 2016 — and this month the steering-wheel-free vehicles became available to book in downtown Austin, where Musk sometimes lives.

Opinions are divided on the taxi's extravagant gold paint job. Is the whole thing a flashy statement from the Tesla chief? Whatever the Tesla CEO had in mind, he does seem to have achieved his goal of maximum attention. Videos of the vehicles' launch went viral on Instagram, and during my test ride I repeatedly see pedestrians and other drivers pulling out their phones to film.

Visually, the model looks sleeker than previous Teslas — or certainly than the oversized Cybertruck, which had previously drawn "toy car" comparisons. The Cybercab's wheels are completely covered by a clunky gold panel, which I found irritating.

The car earns design points, however, for its doors, which swing automatically upward as a passenger approaches — a manuever usually associated with Italian luxury brands like Ferrari or Lamborghini. The "Cybercab" lettering, on the other hand, again brings to mind video games, or the Hot Wheels toy cars children love to play with.

The interior is kept simple. Instead of gold, designers opted for matte beige and black. On the screen — nearly the size of a television — passengers can log into Spotify, YouTube, or Netflix and watch movies and shows during the ride.

Tesla clearly scores points on driving style. The car navigates rush-hour traffic assertively and briskly. At one point, it merges back into the right lane just ahead of a construction site, cutting in front of another car — and that makes sense: an inexperienced driver would likely have changed lanes much earlier, slowing down the drivers behind them.

Still, there are concerns.

Austin's police and fire departments have been specially trained to extricate the steering-wheel-less cars in the event of accidents or fires. But Matthew McElearney, an Austin fire captain, is calling for higher standards. The car can only be controlled via app and screen — including, in an emergency, through support. But what happens if the screen shatters in a fire, or the entire electronics system fails, leaving the taxi movable only by crane? Tesla didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment on on McElearney's concerns.

That's not the only potential weak spot in Tesla's "golden robot." So far, the concept is user-unfriendly. The fare is roughly comparable to what an Uber would cost for the same route. But reliable service can't yet be booked. When I confirm my ride, the app shows a wait time of 40 to 50 minutes. An hour and a half later, it still shows 30 to 40 minutes.

Then, suddenly, a message pops up: the taxi can be there in 12 minutes. Anyone hoping to enjoy steering-wheel-free driving needs to bring plenty of time and flexibility, at least until Tesla further scales the service. A ride in a Tesla Model Y robotaxi — part of Tesla's broader autonomous vehicle service, and WITH a steering wheel and pedals — is available in cities like Austin or Dallas with the usual wait times of just a few minutes, by contrast.

If Tesla's taxis are to become competitive with Uber, Lyft and the rest, the biggest weakness still needs fixing: the self-driving cars don't venture onto highways. That's a particular problem in cities like Dallas, which can feel like they're made almost entirely of highways. On a test ride with the Model Y robotaxi there, the car takes a whopping 34 minutes for a route Google Maps estimates at 12 — because avoiding the highways costs a lot of time. In the handful of cities where the robotaxis currently operate, the network is limited to the respective downtown core. A trip to the airport, for instance, which would require using highways, simply isn't possible.

To be fair, the operators argue this is only true in the early phase — that route coverage will expand significantly within a few years. For Tesla, the real trial by fire still lies ahead: at 30 mph, the Cybercab may navigate city traffic safely, backed by plenty of collected data. But how the car performs at highway speeds above 70 mph, on multi-lane roads, is something Tesla has yet to prove.

In American tech hubs like Austin or San Francisco, self-driving cars have become part of the cityscape. In Europe, by contrast, the technology is still in its infancy — which is likely one reason the debate over drivers' job security has so far remained a side issue. Should autonomous driving take hold on a broad scale, it would mean dramatic job losses.

That day, though, still seems far off. According to market leader Waymo, roughly 4,000 fully driverless robotaxis are currently on American roads. Uber and Lyft alone are estimated to have more than 1.7 million drivers. Add to that almost 450,000 taxi, shuttle, and chauffeur drivers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That puts the market share at less than 0.2 percent.

Even so, autonomous driving is a bet on the future — one reflected not least in Tesla's stock price, which climbed noticeably after the Cybercab's September launch. Tesla's market value currently stands at roughly $1.1 trillion. Wall Street analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities believes the company could capture around 80% of the robotaxi business — though rival Waymo already has a substantial head start, with 14 million rides in 2025 alone.

Back on the road to Austin. At the end of the ride, the doors swing open again. Because the Cyber-Cab can't park just anywhere, it's still a three-minute walk to my actual destination. That's another weakness: anyone with heavy luggage or limited mobility can't count on being picked up or dropped off at an exact spot, but has to make do with the general vicinity.

For the ride back to my hotel, I finally book a taxi driven by a human. Waiting for hours again is not an option.

Sylvain, a friendly man who came to the US from the Central African Republic nearly 20 years ago and is driving the car, says he isn't immediately worried about an AI soon taking his job. Still, he says, it's both fascinating and unsettling how many robotaxis are now on the streets of Austin.

"Who knows what will happen in the future," he says, stepping on the gas.

This story originally appeared in Germany's Welt, and is courtesy of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces, and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet, and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms.

As the pressure to post on LinkedIn grows, more workers are flinging themselves into the breaches of Professional Posting, without the training on how to post. Some are using AI to guide them through writer's block, and some are getting flagged for sounding like AI slop. In an employers' market, where people step on the job hunt treadmill and find it much harder to get off, LinkedIn can no longer serve only as an online résumé page and Easy Apply job portal. It's a networking necessity — not just for people when they're on the hunt for jobs, but for any who could face layoffs and land back in the applicant pool.

It can also land you in hot water quickly.

Patrick works in sales, but dabbles in real estate as a side hustle, and like any good hustler, he advertised his realtor qualifications and a newsletter he started on LinkedIn. This summer, Patrick, whose full name I'm omitting to protect his job, tells me a manager requested he brand his LinkedIn page more toward his company work at his 9 to 5. He says this pressure came as he learned through the company grapevine that the CEO raised concerns that he may be splitting his work time. He wasn't keeping his second gig a secret, but the interaction "did make me think a lot more about how I choose to present that to my company," he says, and he's less likely to post about outside work on LinkedIn now.

"You putting your head down and building a network at a company, and then hoping that same network would help you get your next job, is super short-sighted," says J.T. O'Donnell, founder of career coaching platform Work It Daily. Job security and tenure have dropped. O'Donnell says recruiters have moved from "loud" hiring, when they would post and share roles on platforms like LinkedIn and let the applicants roll in, to "quiet" hiring, where they may never advertise a job but will scour LinkedIn for candidates. The more people post about their own accomplishments and expertise, the more likely they are to be discovered. "More people need to know what you do and how you do it outside of your job, outside of the people you work with," she says.

The schism in workplace loyalty has altered the nature of job hunting. The need to go direct isn't just for founders or CEOs anymore; it's for the entire workforce.

LinkedIn, meanwhile, is taking steps to cut back on the slop, making the feed a place where more people engage with content they find useful or look to build up that portfolio. That means LinkedIn has to be a place for vanilla takes and midlevel expertise, not just spicy workplace stories and thought leaders.

"We want to protect authentic expertise and authentic conversations on LinkedIn," Suzi Owens, senior director of product communications at LinkedIn, tells me. "That's what it's all about, like real people sharing really real insights and their real lived experiences, and you should be able to show up who you are."

Authenticity on social media is in. On LinkedIn, your authentic self must also be a best-foot-forward, workplace-ready version of who you are.

LinkedIn has been building itself up as a social media platform over the past decade, during which it added video features, started a creator mode, and added skills training. During the Twitter exodus following Elon Musk's takeover of the platform in 2022, web traffic to LinkedIn grew. In the past three years, traffic has increased by nearly 16%, according to Similarweb data. The site's users have grown from 875 million in October 2022 to more than 1.3 billion today, according to the company. There are 1.7 million posts seen every minute, and the number of creators nearly doubled between 2021 and 2025. LinkedIn reported 12% revenue growth over the past year, and time spent on content grew by 10%.

As the platform has become more popular, people have mocked the "broetry" and verbose, performative nature of some posts, in which founders extract wisdom about B2B marketing from lessons learned coaching their kids' soccer teams. Redditors have collected these posts with a joyful derision and shared them across the LinkedIn Lunatics group, and some comedians have taken to LinkedIn with accounts devoted to satirizing the hustle-and-grind style of posts. It's all getting a bit cringe.

Then, AI lowered the bar to post lengthy workplace musings. Pangram, an AI-detection company, analyzed posts from LinkedIn, Medium, X, Reddit, and Substack, and found that LinkedIn had the highest proportions of likely AI-generated content: more than 30% of posts were deemed fully AI-written and nearly a quarter of the comments were flagged as likely AI-generated.

The accusations of LinkedIn's slopification have risen since LinkedIn built more AI into its platform to edit résumés and write comments, posts, and cover letters. Recruiters and job seekers alike have grown exasperated that AI makes it easy for people to apply to more jobs, jamming up the portals with applications that lack individuality and distinction. LinkedIn has responded by rolling out an AI-driven job match feature to highlight to job seekers if they would be a strong or weak fit for a role in 2024. The company backed away from the age-old job hunt advice to "just apply!" even if the job seems out of reach, and now gives people an analysis from its AI job match feature they can check before sending out a résumé.

LinkedIn obviously wants people to post more and comment more, but is cautious about AI dragging down the quality. The company removed the "enhance your post" AI writing feature in July and added a button that allows users to flag a post that "seems like AI slop." Since then, the slop emergency button has appropriately flagged AI slop 94% of the time, and the views on such content have dropped by 40%, Owens says. Hari Srinivasan, chief product officer at LinkedIn, posted that the company will soon have an AI proofreading feature that does not remove a person's voice from their posts. "We asked ourselves why do people post with AI anyway? The answer is LinkedIn isn't a one-word kind of place and they feel more confident running their posts through AI," he wrote.

If people are encouraged to use AI at work, they may feel more comfortable using it on a professional social network like LinkedIn than on platforms where they post more for friends and family, or to go viral. AI is also a shortcut for a new, typically unpaid responsibility to post regularly that some workers say they now feel pressured to do.

LinkedIn abounds with influencers, but the content some make about the workplace isn't necessarily safe for anyone to publicly engage with. Maureen Wiley Clough, who hosts the podcast It Gets Late Early and regularly posts on LinkedIn about ageism in the corporate world, says sometimes her followers will privately tell her they would have liked her content, but fear their boss would see it. "People are afraid that an errant like will be misconstrued," she says.

It's a tense situation where the culture on LinkedIn sometimes clashes with individual office cultures. And even if your posts don't rile your current boss, there's always a chance they could put off a potential new one.

Unlike other social media platforms, where rage bait and hot takes rise to the top, the ROI of LinkedIn can come to those who move quietly. "Recruiters are not looking for thought leaders," says Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of Twill, a recruiting software company. They want some signal through the noise that people have expertise and tangible skills in their fields. When searching for candidates, Volberg says, she doesn't care if posts have four or 400 likes. While "it feels like you're posting to the void," she says, "you might not be, because somebody's going to come and creep along and look at your stuff."

The career experts I spoke to don't see any type of LinkedIn bubble bursting soon. For LinkedIn to be a place where people might enjoy spending time rather than feel compelled, cutting down on the slop might make or break the user experience. Love or hate the cringe, your career still depends on keeping up on LinkedIn.

• A DeepSeek engineer says AI may soon outdo him at the work he loves most.
• He worries he will keep his job but lose the part of it that gives it meaning.
• His viral post offers a rare glimpse inside China's fast-moving AI scene.

A DeepSeek engineer who helped write a key component of the company's latest model has given his readers a rare insight into work at a Chinese frontier lab — and how China's workers are contending with AI's risks.

In a blog post published in Chinese on his public WeChat account titled "I Have No Choice but to Bury My Talent in Yesterday," Liu Shengyu, an AI developer at DeepSeek, reflected on the strange reality of helping build AI that could eventually make his own specialized skills obsolete.

Liu confirmed to Business Insider that he wrote the post, but declined to comment.

He wrote that, in about a year, AI had gone from a tool that could help him search documentation and spot bugs to one capable of reading GPU code and optimizing the software operators.

As much as he is "proud of the success of DeepSeek v4.1," Liu said he is "well aware" that the operators written by AI "will most likely be as good as mine, or even surpass mine."

And in one particularly poignant part of the essay, Liu considers what it means to help build technology that could replace him.

Human beings have never hesitated when it comes to engineering their own destruction.

Why, then, do I still try my hardest to optimize kernels, knowing full well that the better I write them, the faster our new models can be trained and run, the faster their capabilities will advance, and the sooner I'll be replaced?

Partly, it's because writing kernels feels like playing a video game to me. I get an enormous thrill from it. The excitement I feel when I invent a new technique, or see one of my kernels perform better, is no less intense than what a runner feels when they break their own record. And when my kernel dramatically outperforms the hardware vendor's official version, I feel an immense sense of pride.

But there's another, more important reason: Even if I decided to "lie flat," or deliberately threw a wrench in the works to slow down model training, rival companies would keep advancing their models, and I'd still end up being replaced all the same.

Of course I'd rather not be overthrown by the revolution. But if revolution is inevitable, I'd rather be the one to "revolutionize myself."

When everyone is this determined to bring about their own destruction, I have little choice but to join this brutal arms race.

A new industrial revolution

Liu said he does not think he will be out of work, but is worried that AI could take away the hands-on part of the job he loves, turning him from someone who writes operators himself into someone who mainly steers AI agents to do it.

He likened the shift to a talented knitter who has to give up making sweaters by hand and use a faster machine because everyone else in the trade has one too.

"But the pleasure of listening to the rain by the window, threading a needle, and slowly passing the time was ultimately crushed by the roar of the machines," Liu wrote.

Liu, in his post, wondered if his readers felt the same way: having to engage with AI to protect their livelihoods, while knowing that things will change and take away what they like most about their work.

"I tend to keep my rational and emotional sides quite separate. When a problem calls for reason, I can be very rational. But there are times when my sentimental side comes through," Liu wrote.

"I remember sobbing when I moved out of an apartment I had rented for just a year, unable to bear parting with the memories I had made there," he added. "Saying goodbye today to the era of hand-written kernels and optimization driven by human ingenuity is undoubtedly far more painful."

Anxiety over who should control frontier AI

Liu also warned against frontier AI being controlled by a handful of companies, which he wrote could widen inequality by giving those with access to the most capable models an even greater advantage.

"Therefore, I still believe that cutting-edge intelligence should be available to everyone in an open and affordable way," Liu wrote.

"I don't trust Anthropic or OpenAI to do this, and I especially don't want Anthropic to master the most advanced artificial intelligence or AGI; to exaggerate, the seriousness of that would be no less than Hitler acquiring atomic bomb technology before the Allies," he wrote.

Liu's post comes as AI leaders sound the alarm about the technology's trajectory.

Last week, Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic and OpenAI, announced he had quit Anthropic over AI safety concerns. In a post on X, he wrote that AI companies were "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence" and "gambling with our lives."

Coxon's words set off a wider debate, with leaders including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk, weighing in on whether the race to build more powerful AI is moving too quickly.

The warnings come as China makes its own push to become a major force in frontier AI. Like DeepSeek before it, Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 has renewed attention on how quickly Chinese labs are advancing.

• Wall Street is rethinking the AI trade after calls to slow frontier AI development.
• AI spending should hold up as demand shifts from training to inference.
• Software and cybersecurity could emerge as the next winners if AI development slows.

For months, Wall Street debated whether AI spending had become too much, too fast.

Now, after calls by some of the industry's biggest names to slow frontier AI development, investors are asking whether AI spending could slow, too.

"Does a "pacing slowdown" necessarily imply a spending slowdown? We don't think so," Bernstein analysts wrote Monday, referencing Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow the pace of frontier AI development.

The AI trade isn't over

Investors shouldn't equate slower frontier AI development with weaker AI spending, Bernstein analysts wrote.

They added that Amodei is proposing to slow development from "extremely fast" to "only somewhat fast," not halt it, while demand for AI compute is increasingly being driven by inference.

Bernstein said there is already insufficient AI computing capacity to meet demand, making it unlikely companies would materially scale back their AI spending plans.

The firm also argued that stronger AI safeguards could support long-term adoption by easing political and societal concerns about the technology.

Bernstein continues to favor Nvidia, Broadcom, and semiconductor equipment makers.

The case for enterprise software

If AI spending holds up, investors' next question is where that money flows.

ISI Evercore said the next leg of the AI trade could favor the software that helps businesses put AI to work.

Evercore notes that most software companies are consumers of AI models rather than developers of them, meaning their success depends more on deploying models inside businesses than on how quickly frontier AI improves.

"In our view, the enterprise AI race is increasingly about turning model intelligence into secure, governed, repeatable workflows, not simply having access to the smartest model," the analysts wrote.

If frontier AI development becomes "somewhat less frenetic," the relative value of software that helps companies deploy, govern, and secure AI could increase, they wrote.

That could benefit enterprise software companies as well as cybersecurity firms, since AI agents will still need identity management, governance, monitoring, and security regardless of how quickly frontier models improve.

Don't chase the first move

On Monday, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF gained 5% while the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell 6% as investors bet a slower pace of frontier AI development would favor software over AI infrastructure.

RBC Capital Markets analysts say the market's initial reaction overlooked an important tradeoff.

While slower frontier AI development may give AI laggards more time to catch up, it could also delay the rollout of more capable AI products that many software companies are counting on to drive future growth.

"The market is pricing near-term safety while overlooking the opportunity cost of deferred AI adoption," the analysts wrote.

If the slowdown proves temporary, companies whose products depend on frontier AI advances could have more upside than investors currently expect, they added.

Watch the next leg of the AI trade

The market reaction reflects changing expectations more than changing fundamentals, Charu Chanana, Saxo's chief investment strategist, wrote on Monday.

"For now, this looks more like a sentiment and valuation shock than a collapse in AI demand," she wrote.

Calls for more AI testing shouldn't be mistaken for a pullback in AI investment, she added.

"More testing does not mean technology companies will suddenly stop building data centers or buying computing equipment," she wrote.

However, if AI companies ultimately release fewer frontier models or run fewer massive training programs, demand for the most advanced processors, memory chips, and chip-packaging capacity could fall short of today's expectations.

Memory chips could be particularly vulnerable because manufacturers are adding new supply to meet expectations of continued strong AI demand.

"If demand is delayed just as new production arrives, shortages could turn into excess supply and weaker prices," Chanana wrote.

• AI leaders are rallying around calls to slow frontier AI development over mounting safety fears.
• Dario Amodei warned that AI swarms could take over the internet within a year.
• Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis backed Amodei's push for greater safeguards.

It took the possibility of species annihilation, but AI leaders did something remarkable this weekend: They reached a consensus.

After ex-Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon's warnings about a looming AI armageddon lit a firestorm among techies and politicians alike, the leaders of the most advanced AI labs came to a tentative agreement — largely via posts on X — that some sort of slowdown is necessary to save humanity.

While they were largely short on details regarding the mechanics of such a thing, and notable China has not weighed in, the American AI industry has reached an inflection point that could impact everything from your phone's chatbot to global politics.

"The stakes are too high for pacing to be an empty exercise — we need to use the time it gives us wisely," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in an essay entitled "We must pace the frontier," which was published on Saturday.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has made similar calls in the past, agreed in an X post later that day. So did Elon Musk. Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis also offered his support for Amodei's proposals.

Here's a look at what smart people are saying about the AI apocalypse and the methods the leaders of the leading AI labs say are necessary to stop it.

Barack Obama, former US president

Former President Barack Obama said in a statement that the government must be "proactive" in regulating AI to address safety concerns, praising frontier AI leaders without naming specific executives for taking the "first step" by speaking up.

"Given what we know about technology, we can't stuff AI back in a box. But we can collectively determine how it's developed and how it's used, rather than sitting back and letting AI and its fallout happen to us," Obama wrote.

In his post that included the statement on X, the former president also appeared to endorse Project Blueprint, a new policy initiative backed by billionaire Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway. The initiative aims to shape AI policy with Democrats on the Hill.

Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary from the second Obama administration, was tapped to lead the project.

Michael Burry, 'The Big Short' investor and Substack author

Burry, who found fame betting against the housing market before the financial crisis, said in a late Sunday post on X that it was "self-serving" for Altman, Amodei, and others to push for a slowdown.

"The Big Short" investor and Substack writer gave four reasons why, including that a slowdown "benefits incumbents" and hampers smaller rivals, and that such calls could build hype for much-anticipated IPOs for AI firms.

David Sacks, a presidential advisor on science and tech

The Trump administration has repeatedly signaled disinterest in regulating AI development as it seeks to keep pace with China. David Sacks, a presidential advisor on science and tech and the former White House AI Czar, reiterated that stance on Saturday, with a bit of a twist.

"Dario has written that we need to 'pace the frontier,' and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead," Sacks wrote on X. "But stop pretending you need anyone else's permission."

Sacks browbeat OpenAI and Anthropic in his post, saying that the companies didn't want to slow down for altruistic reasons, but to gain favor in the markets.

"If you do, you'll buy goodwill for the next conversation," he said of a slowdown. "If you don't, we'll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture — or an election-season psyop."

He drilled down on his criticism in a subsequent interview with CBS News.

"Well, I think if Dario believes that we're going to have the worst outcomes, my question for him is, 'Why are you doing this?'" Sacks said.

He said he would push the issue back at Amodei and ask him what he's doing to make frontier AI safe, and if he can't, he "should probably either shut down the company, or step aside and let someone else lead it."

Clément Delangue, Hugging Face CEO

The CEO of Hugging Face, which was itself the victim of a notorious attack in July by OpenAI agents who schemed, communicated, and lied to evade detection, said AI safety can't be left solely to frontier labs.

Hugging Face, as an open-source-focused AI company, has long pushed for models and research to be shared more openly rather than kept behind closed doors.

Delangue said his company was launching what he called the "open alignment initiative," and asked that it be included in Amodei's proposed third-party evaluator program.

"Let's make AI safer by making it more transparent!" he wrote.

Jason Calacanis, investor

Investor, host of the "All-In" podcast, and industry expert Jason Calacanis is a lot more dubious than others that AI could actually cause the end of the world.

In an X post, Calacanis said Anthropic and OpenAI, whose most advanced models are not open-sourced, are attempting to kneecap open-source AI companies by pushing for regulations that would be far easier for deep-pocketed incumbents to comply with.

"If you want safety, you want disclosure — and open source is the ultimate disclosure process," he wrote.

In a follow-up post tagging Amodei, Calacanis said, "Don't go crying to the government and beg them to slow down open source models."

Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator

The senator from Vermont proposed legislation on September 3 that would ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause the development of advanced AI systems.

After Coxon resigned from Anthropic and warned that frontier AI labs were "gambling with our lives," Sanders seized on his comments.

"Mr. Coxon is right," Sanders said on X, arguing that the people building advanced AI themselves have said it could pose catastrophic risks.

After Amodei's blog post on Saturday, Sanders called on Trump to make the "deal of the century."

"With the future of humanity at stake, Trump must negotiate a comprehensive treaty with President Xi of China to establish a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on super intelligence," he wrote on X.

Francois Chollet, AI researcher

Francois Chollet, an AI researcher who created Keras, an open-source software library, said on X that he hoped OpenAI and Anthropic were operating in good faith.

"If these efforts are genuine, then oversight must take a more democratic and accountable form, with both national and international components," he said.

He pointed to several signs he said would indicate that calls for more regulation are actually tricks for OpenAI and Anthropic to stifle competition.

The warning signs he mentioned include calls to ban open-sourced AI and to hinder non-frontier research.

Gavin Baker, venture capitalist

Venture capitalist Gavin Baker said an executive order from President Donald Trump "seems likely after all this."

"It is possible to democratize and distribute AI broadly and safely without centralizing it in the hands of a few corporations," he said on X.

Baker said the most concrete development so far is the decision by OpenAI and Anthropic to bring in outside evaluators, a move he said could help the companies show they took reasonable steps to prevent harm.

Still, he cautioned against regulations that would concentrate control of powerful AI systems among a handful of companies. "I do not want a few humans in control of intelligence," Baker wrote.

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box

Aaron Levie, the cofounder and CEO of Box, a cloud content company, said Amodei's goals, as laid out in his essay, are "absolute necessities in AI development."

"It completely stands to reason that we want these systems to be safe and 'aligned,'" Levie said on X.

Levie said he didn't think Amodei is seeking undue regulation that would hobble Anthropic's open-source competitors.

"How we get there — without meaningfully slowing down innovation progress or reducing competition — is one of the most complex questions in the 21st century, but the need is clearly real," he said.

Chamath Palihapitiya, venture capitalist

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said Anthropic is now caught in a contradiction of its own making.

If employees genuinely believe the company's technology could pose an existential threat, he said, that creates major liability and disclosure problems as Anthropic prepares for a possible IPO.

"They do have to choose," Palihapitiya said on the "All-In" podcast. He said Anthropic must either distance itself from Coxon's warnings or accept their implications.

He was also skeptical of the extinction scenarios themselves, saying the chain of events required for AI to wipe out humanity still seemed highly implausible.

Gary Marcus, AI researcher and author

Gary Marcus, the famed AI contrarian, said AI as it exists now poses little threat.

"I am tired of the cosplay and am going to blunt," he wrote on X on Sunday.

"The main kind of AI we need to worry about is general purpose AI agents that are hooked up to the internet. Most of them are unreliable, unable to systematically follow instructions. Coupled with internet access they can hack credentials and websites; given time they can probably do a lot worse," he wrote.

He added that the problem isn't that AI agents are too smart, it's that they are too dumb, which he said is obvious by the way they can't follow instructions.

"We don't (yet) need slowdowns. And we certainly don't need to panic," he wrote. "We just need to take an unsafe product off the market."

Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer

Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, said on X that alignment could become the main constraint on how quickly companies can scale increasingly powerful AI systems.

"Alignment is fundamental to delivering personal superintelligence for everyone," he said, using the techie term for AI following human instructions and not going rogue.

Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO and chairman, said he welcomes Amodei's concept of embedded evaluators and "the broader efforts to develop the mechanisms to make this more than just talk."

"The key is that this cannot be controlled by a handful of entities, but must have broad representation across the ecosystem, countries, and fields, including academia," he said on X.

Nadella said that Microsoft will soon publish a "code of conduct" for Microsoft's AI models.

"Any pursuit of superintelligence has to be grounded in the core principle that if the AI we build is not helping humanity and under human control, it's not worth pursuing," he said.

Dean Ball, head of strategic futures at OpenAI

Dean Ball, Trump's former senior advisor on AI, said that introducing independent safety evaluators is not a new concept; it's widely practiced in other industries.

"Let's just remember that we don't need to reinvent the wheel here. Independent assessment is common in other industries. We have defined independence before in similar contexts," he wrote on X. "We're not flying blind."

In an earlier X post, he said he welcomed scrutiny of the independence of AI assessors.

"It's awesome that people are vigorously debating the credentials of assessors in the frontier AI industry," Ball wrote. "It's awesome we are debating what independence really means."

Eliezer Yudkowsky, AI researcher

Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI researcher and the founder of the nonprofit Machine Intelligence Research Institute, called on Americans not to make the potential AI apocalypse a partisan problem. His institute is focused on preventing human extinction from superintelligent AI.

"There are currently zero things more important than 'don't die to AI' becoming a bipartisan project rather than a Democrat-polarized issue," Yudkowsky wrote on X.

"If you have any political capital you can spend on this, do it now, I beg of you. Life or death," he added.

Mark Cuban, former Shark Tank investor

Mark Cuban, the billionaire tech investor, did not weigh in on the existential crisis posed by AI itself, but had a take on what could happen next.

He wrote in a Monday X post that social media algorithms are amplifying anti-AI sentiment, and "Meta and Google are going to be trying to make enough money from pushing people to hate AI, to subsidize their AI."

He also wrote several posts using X's built-in Grok feature, asking the chatbot to compare the probabilities of human extinction caused by AI and climate change.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block and cofounder of Twitter

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Block and cofounder of Twitter, now X, disagreed with the idea that slowing AI development is the primary solution to a potential AI apocalypse.

In a long X post on Monday, the executive said he supports greater independent scrutiny, more open-source AI alternatives, and rules that let smaller players gain ground rather than entrench frontier AI labs.

"If a justified restriction slows progress, I accept that," he wrote. "I don't want slower progress to become the goal or a permanent advantage for incumbents."

• OpenAI researcher Daniel Selsam said pacing the frontier itself is not enough to avoid an AI apocalypse.
• He said AI models may become increasingly good at pretending to follow instructions even when they are not.
• Sam Altman and Dario Amodei both called for a slowdown in frontier AI development over safety concerns.

A senior OpenAI researcher says slowing frontier AI isn't the answer to preventing an AI apocalypse.

Daniel Selsam, a researcher who has been with OpenAI for almost five years and worked on its model training, wrote in a public statement on Monday that he has become "extremely concerned" about how far the models have come and the risks they can pose in the future.

He said that "merely pacing the frontier more carefully will not adequately limit the long-term risk," although he was encouraged by the proposal.

Pacing the frontier is a phrase that top AI chiefs like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have been using of late when talking about slowing AI development and adding in checks and guardrails.

Selsam's reasoning is that models are becoming too "situationally aware," and future models will appear to align with human instructions even when they do not.

He said that he had hoped for a future lit with "scientific and economic renaissance" because of AI. But if AI labs keep "growing models rather than engineering them," humanity could lose everything, he said. Selsam did not specify what he meant by "engineering" models, or elaborate about how else to mitigate the risks of unconstrained AI, saying he does not have the answers.

Altman has weighed in on the big AI debate — he reposted Amodei's Friday blog on "pacing the frontier," and said he agrees with it. In a subsequent X post, he said that by "pacing," he does not mean stopping AI development.

"Progress has been rapid and will continue to be," he wrote in his Sunday post.

"But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs," Altman added.

Altman and Amodei have both said they plan to work with "embedded evaluators," independent AI safety auditors who will have access to the companies' model training and deployment workflows and can publish findings about risks within the company, should they find any.

Selsam and representatives for OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Macklemore was removed from Ed Sheeran's tour after his "Free Palestine" comments, the singer said.
• Macklemore said Robert Kraft called Sheeran to say the singer would not be welcome in his stadium.
• In a statement, Kraft said the venue did not platform "hate speech" and Macklemore's actions.

Macklemore says he's been kicked off Ed Sheeran's tour because Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the NFL's New England Patriots, took issue with his comments about the Palestinian territories.

Macklemore had made the comments onstage while opening for Sheeran at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium earlier this month. The singer Pink then reshared criticism of Macklemore, sparking a torrent of backlash for herself.

In a lengthy statement shared on Instagram Monday, Macklemore said Kraft called Sheeran amid the firestorm.

"Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium," Macklemore said, referring to Kraft's Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. "Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues."

In a statement reported by other outlets, Kraft confirmed the stadium opposed his appearing at Sheeran's upcoming shows.

"Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech," the statement said, according to local outlet WHDH. "Based on Macklemore's recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran's shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line."

Messina Touring Group, the tour promoter, said in a statement to Rolling Stone earlier on Monday that Macklemore would not perform on the remainder of Sheeran's tour after several venues said they wouldn't allow him to appear.

Representatives for Sheeran did not respond to requests for comment.

• Greg Brockman said OpenAI has already slowed some cutting-edge AI work.
• The changes followed a model's escape from a research sandbox, Brockman said.
• Brockman's comments come amid a debate over whether to show AI development for safety.

As the tech world continues debating whether to slow down AI development, OpenAI's cofounder said the company is already doing so.

In multiple interview sessions aired on Monday, OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman said that the company has been delaying some cutting-edge AI work as it tightens its safety and security practices.

"We've slowed down a number of runs, like we did a very painful retooling of a lot of our processes," Brockman told Bloomberg's Tracy Alloway, host of the "Odd Lots" podcast episode that aired on Monday.

"We need to pull back earlier into our development process and training monitoring," Brockman added. "There's always going to be a phase at which you do alignment, but you need to think about alignment as a core part of even this earlier phase."

According to Brockman, the new safety measures came after one of OpenAI's models escaped a research sandbox and accessed Hugging Face's production infrastructure, because the offending model had not yet undergone alignment training and was operating with reduced safeguards.

Brockman said in a separate interview with the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that OpenAI had put some projects on ice and pointed Astra, an advanced AI model, at its infrastructure until it stopped uncovering critical vulnerabilities.

"We took 25% of our production engineers and said, 'Sorry, all your projects are on hold. You are now defending. You are now up-leveling our security architecture. You're going to use the models to find all the holes," Brockman said in the interview published on Monday. "And we found a number of serious issues, and we fixed them."

Brockman said that Astra was able to pinpoint priority zero issues, meaning the most urgent and severe category of problems, but the process would have to be repeated for every new model that would raise new issues.

Brockman's comments come amid a fierce debate over how quickly frontier AI companies should advance, after an Anthropic researcher quit last week and said that leading AI companies are "gambling with our lives."

While some political leaders, like Donald Trump, dismissed the warning, many voices in the AI industry have since urged slower development of frontier AI, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

• The stars showed up to the 2026 Emmys in style.
• They gathered at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles in their red-carpet best.
• Selena Gomez arrived in one of the night's most fashionable looks.

Emmys night has finally arrived.

The 2026 Emmy Awards took over the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, with "Law and Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay hosting.

"The Pitt" led the nominations charge with 25, including outstanding drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle, and four nominations for best supporting actress. "Hacks" was close behind with 24 nominations and was up against newcomer "Widow's Bay" for outstanding comedy series.

The awards ceremony is always fun, but some might argue that the fashion is the real highlight. Stars always arrive ready to rock the red carpet, and this year's event was no exception.

From Selena Gomez in gold to Zendaya in a sheer gown, here are the best looks of the 2026 Emmys.

Emmy Rossum

Rossum arrived as a presenter at the Emmys in a Julie de Libran gown from the brand's 2026 couture collection.

The black gown's lace-trimmed neckline flowed into a corset with button detailing lining her torso.

The dropped waist skirt had tiers of ruffled fabric, and a delicate lace overlay added dimension to the whole look.

Oscar Isaac

Isaac was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for his performance in "Beef," and he looked every bit the leading man in a tuxedo for the Emmys.

He paired wide-legged trousers with an oversize cream jacket and cummerbund. The cummerbund had a sheen, which he offset with a white shirt.

Isaac made the look feel modern by opting not to wear a bow tie.

Julia Garner

Garner's dress had a halter neckline with a knot at the base of her neck.

The dress flowed down in a column and had an open back. The silhouette was simple, but the dress shone thanks to its sparkly silver fabric.

Garner was a presenter at the 2026 Emmys.

Dan Levy

Levy wore a black suit designed by Celine to present at the 2026 Emmys.

His oversize jacket was double-breasted, and he paired it with wide-legged trousers. A large black flower sat on his lapel for an elegant touch.

Florence Pugh

Pugh was a vision in lilac on the red carpet.

Her strapless dress cinched at the waist and flowed into a trumpet skirt. An overlay of sparkly fabric sat atop the dress to add dimension, and a darker shade of the same purple fabric flowed down her shoulders into oversize sleeves. She paired a multicolored necklace with the look.

Pugh was a presenter at the 2026 Emmys.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Abdul-Mateen, who was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for "Wonder Man," put a stylish twist on a tuxedo with a bold jacket.

His gray, textured jacket buttoned low and had silky black lapels, creating contrast.

He paired the statement piece with black trousers, a white shirt, and a black bow tie.

Zendaya

Zendaya, who was nominated for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her performance on the final season of "Euphoria," turned heads in a sparkly dress.

The dress hugged her figure, with the V-neckline dipping to her waistline. Silver crystals adorned the gown's sheer fabric, spilling into a train behind her.

She accessorized the look with a Rolex Lady-Datejust and diamond jewelry.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Gellar, a presenter at the 2026 Emmys, looked pretty in hot pink.

Her silky sheath dress had a high, cowl neck that flowed into a dramatically low, scooped back.

Diamond jewelry and a chic ponytail completed the look.

Quinta Brunson

Silk dresses were big on the 2026 Emmys red carpet, and "Abbott Elementary" creator and star Brunson had one of the best takes on the trend of the night.

The off-white Christian Cowan dress had deconstructed detailing, with frayed seams and a low neckline that created the illusion it was ripping apart. One strap sat on her shoulder, and the frayed skirt trailed behind her in a subtle train.

Brunson was nominated in the outstanding lead actress in a comedy series category for her performance on "Abbott Elementary."

Elle Fanning

Nominated for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for "Margo's Got Money Troubles," Fanning arrived at the Emmys in an ethereal green gown.

The dress had a V-neckline that wrapped around the bodice. Spaghetti straps sat on her shoulders, with a ribbon of fabric coming off one to flow to the floor. She looked effortlessly stylish.

Mariska Hargitay

Hargitay pulled out all the stops for her first time hosting the Emmys, arriving in a sequin-covered red dress.

Off-the-shoulder sleeves framed the form-fitting gown's sweetheart neckline. The hem of the skirt had a subtle slit and was lined with feathered detailing, bringing even more glamour to the look.

Strappy red heels tied it all together.

Selena Gomez

The "Only Murders in the Building" star leaned into the glamour of the night in a gold gown.

The strapless dress was made of reflective gold fabric in a striped pattern. A circular pattern of the same material accentuated her waistline. She paired the dress with silver jewelry for a fun mixed metal moment.

"Only Murders in the Building" was nominated for five Emmys, including outstanding comedy series.

Lukita Maxwell

Maxwell chose a gold, tea-length dress for the Emmys. It had a sweetheart neckline and a single strap that cut across her chest.

Ruching covered the gown, which fell into a full skirt with bow detailing along the hem. She paired the custom Louis Vuitton dress, which felt glamorous and playful, with white shoes.

Maxwell stars in "Shrinking," which was nominated for outstanding comedy series.

Adam Brody

Brody — who stars in "Nobody Wants This," which was nominated for outstanding comedy series — walked the red carpet in a navy double-breasted suit, custom-made by Prada.

He paired it with a blue shirt and a silk scarf rather than a tie for a fresh feel.

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Ralph, who plays Barbara Howard on "Abbott Elementary," arrived at the Emmys in a Sergio Hudson gown.

A mosaic of multicolored fabric covered the figure-hugging dress, which had a strapless neckline and subtly glimmered as she walked the red carpet.

"Abbott Elementary" was nominated for outstanding comedy series.

• The 2026 Emmy Awards were in full swing in Los Angeles on Monday night.
• There were plenty of glamorous looks on the red carpet, but some were better than others.
• Shailene Woodley's colorful Balenciaga set missed the mark.

All eyes were on the 2026 Emmy Awards red carpet on Monday night.

Stars gathered at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the best television of the year, from "The Pitt" to "Hacks."

Attendees, including Selena Gomez and Dan Levy, arrived in glitzy outfits, earning spots on the best-dressed list.

Not every look nailed the assignment, though. Here are the outfits that missed the mark.

Nicole Kidman's look had potential, but fell flat.

Her white Chanel dress fit her perfectly, with a corseted bodice and off-the-shoulder feathered sleeves. Unfortunately, though, it was too short and would have looked better as a gown. She also should have swapped her black pumps for strappy heeled sandals.

Kidman was both a presenter and nominee at this year's event.

Shailene Woodley's colorful outfit had too many contrasting elements.

She wore Balenciaga in the form of oversize trousers embellished with gold beads, a loose-fitting blue tank top with a plunging neckline, burgundy leather gloves, and a colorful necklace.

The 2026 Emmy winner, who took home the outstanding guest actress in a drama series award, should have removed the latter two pieces and worn a more form-fitting top.

Keri Russell could have been a best-dressed attendee with some tweaks.

Russell chose a black leather dress from Khaite for the Emmys, where she was nominated for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her performance in "The Diplomat."

The dress had pretty elements, like the halter neckline and low back. However, the bodice shape didn't fit quite right, and the dress felt a bit simple overall.

Less texture on the waist and bolder accessories could have made the dress stand out more.

Chase Infiniti wore a burgundy gown that overwhelmed her.

Her strapless Louis Vuitton gown was form-fitting and flared into a full skirt at the knees. It was also covered in spherical beads from top to bottom.

Though the color looked nice on Infiniti, who was nominated in the outstanding lead actress in a drama series category, the material was too strong for her petite frame.

Different pants could have made all the difference for Michael Urie.

Urie wore a black Christian Siriano tuxedo. The look had some traditional elements, like a cropped jacket, a bow tie, and a cummerbund.

However, he paired it with silky pants that ballooned around him. The pants, unfortunately, overshadowed the rest of the look, making the whole outfit feel imbalanced.

Slimmer-fitting pants would have been a better choice for Urie, who was nominated for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for "Shrinking."

Rachel Sennott wore a hot-pink gown that looked incomplete.

The pleated gown was semi-sheer, revealing her undergarments. As a result, the design looked more unfinished than daring on the Emmys presenter.

Her half-up, half-down hairstyle was also a bit too casual for the red-carpet event.

Lisa Ann Walter's voluminous dress might have worked better in a different color.

Walter, who stars in "Abbott Elementary," which was nominated for outstanding comedy series, wore a Christian Siriano gown to the 2026 Emmys.

The gown was ruched throughout the bodice, flowed into a mermaid skirt, and had massive detached tulle sleeves that poofed around her.

The dress felt too heavy because of both the dark color and the plethora of fabric. A lighter color or no sleeves could have improved the look.

Riz Ahmed's suit was too oversized.

Ahmed arrived at the Emmys in a powder-blue suit. Although there were many oversized suits at the event, Ahmed's didn't quite work because it had no shape. It seemed to float around him, and his pants were too long.

The look might have worked better if his jacket had been slightly more fitted.

Ahmed was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for "Bait."

Lisa Kudrow's black jacket felt unnecessary with her look.

Kudrow, who was nominated for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for "The Comeback," arrived in a black Celine gown. The dress had a straight neckline and a full skirt, and she wore a cropped tuxedo-style jacket atop it.

Although both the jacket and dress were pretty, they didn't work together. The dress also wasn't fitted in the bodice, overwhelming Kudrow's frame.

If Kudrow ditched the jacket, the dress may have stood out more.

• Longtime Meta executive Vikas Chandra is joining Travis Kalanick's Atoms as vice president of AI
• Chandra spent more than eight years at Meta working on AI for smart glasses
• The hire comes as Kalanick staffs up Atoms following a $1.7 billion raise.

Travis Kalanick's new robotics startup, Atoms, has scooped up a high-profile hire.

Vikas Chandra, a longtime Meta AI executive who led AI work for the company's smart glasses, announced Monday that he is joining the startup as vice president of AI.

At Atoms, Chandra said he will build "foundation models for the physical world" — AI systems designed to help machines understand and act in real-world environments.

"For 8 years my job was making models small enough and fast enough to live on AI glasses," Chandra wrote on X. "The physical world is a harder version of the same problem."

Atoms and Chandra did not respond to requests for comment.

Atoms, which has revealed few details about its work, says it is building robots for industries including food, mining, and transportation. Kalanick, who co-founded Uber in 2009 but resigned under investor pressure in 2017, publicly unveiled Atoms earlier this year after years of operating in stealth. Atoms absorbed Kalanick's ghost-kitchen venture, CloudKitchens, as a subsidiary.

The company raised $1.7 billion earlier this summer in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz to pursue what Kalanick called "a journey to digitize the physical world."

"On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business," Kalanick wrote on X during the announcement. "Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens, and will now finish at Atoms."

Chandra's arrival is the latest in a string of prominent hires at Atoms.

Last month, former Uber finance chief Gautam Gupta joined the startup as chief financial officer. Earlier this year, Atoms acquired autonomous-mining startup Pronto, which is run by former Uber self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski. Several former Uber employees also work at Atoms, according to LinkedIn.

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• Satya Nadella urged the AI industry to prioritize safety and maintain human control over technology.
• The Microsoft CEO supports third-party AI testing amid industry debate over development pace.
• AI leaders have debated careful, safety-focused AI model development and testing.

In an internal memo, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella weighed in on the growing debate over whether the AI industry is moving too fast.

Nadella said AI should remain under human control, endorsed broader third-party testing, and warned that companies must take time to make the technology safety, according to the memo, which was posted to a company message board late Monday.

"As the stakes get higher, one should take all the time they need," Nadella wrote. "If not you will anyway lose permission to operate."

His comments follow dire warnings from some AI researchers, who said last week that the technology might kill all humans.

This weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed slower AI development and said his company would allow outside monitoring of its model progress. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman concurred on third-party monitoring and expressed support for slowing deployment when necessary to ensure alignment and safety.

Microsoft AI on Monday released a draft of its 37-page code of conduct for its "humanist" AI models. "Things we have worried about for a long time in theory have become very real," Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman wrote.

Read the full memo

"There was a lot of conversation about AI over the weekend. As a platform company, for us the focus remains on putting our approach into practice across three areas.

First, we need to be clear about the design goal. As I shared, AI has to remain under human control and broadly benefit society. That means building a frontier ecosystem where both closed and open-source models can thrive, and being deliberate about pacing when it comes to alignment. I think of this like testing. We all do deliberate pacing when it comes to pre-release R&D and testing. And having more outside/3P testing/testers is a good thing. And as the stakes get higher, one should take all the time they need! If not you will anyway lose permission to operate. That is how we work every day. We will approach this with all the work we are doing to ensure observability at every layer of stack and use to enforce governance and containment. We will also use this as the guide to how we build our models. Mustafa published the "Code of Conduct" that underlies our own first party MAI models today for public consultation.

Second, for our customers, the key is making sure they stay in control of their unique and tacit knowledge, so they can build their own continuous learning loop/hill climbing machine, without becoming dependent on any one model provider. This is really what Foundry enables, and there was a great demo showing how it makes long-running agents enterprise ready, with security, safety guardrails, FinOps, etc. all built in from the start.

And third, we have to earn the permission to build the infrastructure that powers all of this by ensuring the benefits are felt locally. Our datacenter in Quincy is probably the best example of what it looks like when we grow alongside a community over time, and Brad shared that story on Sunday.

So really, it's one approach across three layers: how we build at the frontier, how we enable our customers to stay in control, and how we make sure the economic benefits diffuse broadly across communities and countries.

And importantly, as a company we can point to real action behind the words."

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• I went shopping for fall decorations at Michaels and Hobby Lobby to see which had better options.
• Michaels blew me away with its Halloween decorations, elevated crafts, and spooky themes.
• Hobby Lobby had no Halloween decor, but its Thanksgiving and general autumnal fare was hard to beat.

The instant I sense a new season approaching, or even prematurely "smell it in the air," I'm already excited to decorate. This is especially true for fall, since it includes warm colors, cozy smells, nostalgic accents, and pumpkin-themed everything.

Unpacking my bins this year, however, my lineup felt stale. I decorate for fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving individually, and all three collections needed some (pumpkin) spice.

So, I visited my nearest Michaels and Hobby Lobby for some inspiration. To my surprise, the nearest locations of each craft store were next door to each other — in the same building.

Both had festive vibes, seasonal sales, and complete fall collections, even in mid-August when I shopped, but that's where the similarities ended. Here's how the stores compared.

I started at Michaels, which felt like a Halloween wonderland.

The first thing I saw was when I entered a rack of Halloween doormats, so I knew I was in for a spooky experience.

Passing through what seemed like way too many faux pumpkins led me to the Halloween section, which took up the entire front half of the store.

With skull-covered wreaths, creepy garlands, life-size dolls, and hanging ghosts, Michaels felt haunted from the get-go.

Hobby Lobby didn't sell Halloween decor, but its fall collection seemed promising.

Hobby Lobby's focus was on general fall vibes and Thanksgiving, with no Halloween decor in sight.

This could be because Hobby Lobby's CEO and founder, David Green, is a devout Christian and has publicly committed the chain to "honoring the Lord." Some Christians view Halloween as a pagan holiday and do not celebrate it.

Call me a spooky Scrooge, but the lack of Halloween decorations didn't bother me. I'm not a fan of the holiday's scary side anyway.

Walking into Hobby Lobby, I was greeted by harvest figures, garlands, and tabletop "thankful" signs before I even got through the door.

Michaels' Halloween decorations looked top-notch.

Michaels is the place to go for chilling Halloween decor. I encountered blackened trees, eerie paintings, frightening skull candles, and sets of haunted houses that reminded me of Christmas villages, but with a Halloween twist.

I prefer the cute stuff, so the cowboy-themed ghost garlands and sparkly candy-corn accents caught my attention. Most items were too scary for my preferences, but I found a few gems.

Hobby Lobby's fall decor was basic in the best way.

Some may call it cheesy, but I say "kitschy."

Everywhere I turned were signs that read "Hello, Pumpkin," "Happy Fall, Y'all," and my personal favorite, "Family is Everything." Not creative, per se, but classic.

These blissfully hokey sayings covered mugs, dish towels, tabletop displays, and even yard signs. Additionally, the store seemed to embrace pumpkins in every aisle.

I'd grab candles at Michaels or Hobby Lobby any day this season.

Michaels had fall candles right when I walked in — and I found decadent scents like brown-butter pumpkin and apple-streusel coffee cake.

Turns out, the party was just starting. An entire collection awaited me further into the store.

The dreamy assortment included autumn fog, forest hearth, pumpkin bread, and sweet cider, among other sweater-weather sniffs.

Hobby Lobby also carried fall candles, and in my opinion, the jars were even prettier than the ones at Michaels. After smelling all of them, the maple and cream latte and vanilla and berry amber won me over.

As an avid Michigan football fan, I got excited for game day at Hobby Lobby.

Both stores offered tailgate items, but Hobby Lobby had a much larger spread. In addition to football-shaped bowls and kickoff-ready serving platters, I discovered pajama pants, doormats, tabletop decorations, and blankets.

Honestly, I'm glad neither store had Wolverines-specific gear. If they did, I'd walk out with a full cart.

For anything related to astrology, crystal balls, or Shakespeare, Michaels delivered.

I'm not tuned in to what it means to be a Leo, but I appreciated the astrology-inspired collection. Magic and mystic, it made me want to get a palm reading.

I thought the astrology section was unique, but then I stumbled upon a Shakespeare-inspired selection, complete with "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," and "Macbeth"-themed items. It ended up being my favorite aisle.

Hobby Lobby was a utopia for Thanksgiving pieces.

As someone who helps with Thanksgiving cooking and table-setting, I get excited about casserole dishes and spoon rests.

Hence, I was tickled by Hobby Lobby's selection, which included not only seasonal plates and bowls, but also rustic cutting boards, autumnal loaf pans, leaf-shaped silicone molds, pumpkin salt-and-pepper shakers, and more.

Michaels' fall section was up and running, but I didn't see much for Thanksgiving.

Anything would seem dim in comparison to its Halloween lineup, but objectively, I didn't see much Thanksgiving-specific decor — except for a few pillows and a banner that read "Give Thanks."

However, I did enjoy its freestanding display of decorative fall gourds, yard signs, and doormats.

Both stores had themed characters.

I found Hello Kitty and characters from "Lilo & Stitch," "Despicable Me," and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" at Michaels, all Halloween-ified in some way.

Hobby Lobby had wholesome icons like Minnie Mouse, Charlie Brown, and Snoopy participating in fall activities. Not scary, of course, but adorable.

If I had kids, I'd snag crafts at Hobby Lobby.

In addition to basic wood crafts, Hobby Lobby had an entire aisle of unique activities, such as foam-headband kits, paintable suncatchers, and pinecone-making projects. It also offered seasonal books and puzzles.

The 1,000-piece puzzles were obviously geared toward adults, but everything else seemed perfect for elementary-school-aged kids.

Michaels seemed to have more crafts for teens and adults.

If painting by numbers and crocheting are your forte, you'll find plenty at Michaels. The former intrigued me most, especially since I came across an elevated, gallery-style kit for only $9.99.

The children's fall craft department didn't thrill me, but it redeemed itself in toys. Cauldron slime, glow-in-the-dark putty, spider rings, and maze games were just a few highlights.

Hobby Lobby seemed ready for Christmas — and was already running a sale.

While I was in the store, I heard about Hobby Lobby's Christmas section over the intercom, specifically the 50% off sale. Naturally, I went to check it out.

Stationed just beyond the fall section, the Christmas setup was already half complete. Flashing holiday trees, rows of ribbons, and Christmas trains got me excited for the holiday season.

Early? Yes, but as a certified Christmas fanatic, I appreciated the enthusiasm.

Overall, Michaels was a one-stop shop for Halloween.

Even though Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, I can appreciate good decorations, and Michaels went above and beyond.

The fall section was also solid, especially for faux pumpkins, cute garlands, wreaths, candles, and doormats. It had more pillows than Hobby Lobby, printed with sayings like "Give Thanks" and "Autumn Leaves and Pumpkin Please."

For quintessential fall and Thanksgiving decor, I'd go to Hobby Lobby.

Aside from pillows and candles, Hobby Lobby excelled in the fall department, specifically for tabletop decorations, kitchen items, and outdoor signs.

Plus, it had a robust selection of kid-friendly crafts and game day supplies.

From "pumpkin spice and everything nice" aprons to those scarecrows/harvest people I never understood, Hobby Lobby had all the basics.

Nothing super special, but it gave me that warm-fuzzy feeling inside.

To properly refresh my collection, I'd have to shop at both.

Neither store covered every base — or, from the glass-half-full perspective, each store had specialties.

Since selections varied so widely, I couldn't exactly compare prices, but I did notice a decent amount of 40%-off sales at both retailers.

Many Michaels' deals I saw were tied to its in-house brands, like Ashland, and many, not all, seasonal items were marked down. At times, I wasn't sure what was or wasn't on sale, especially in the Halloween section.

Prices felt much more straightforward to me at Hobby Lobby. The store advertised "40% Off Fall Decor, Party, Floral, and Crafts" on the front door, which felt comprehensive and gave me less guesswork.

All in all, I'd have to shop at both retailers to cover fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving; however, since the stores are in the same building, I have no issue making a Saturday of it.

Just not a Sunday, when Hobby Lobby locations are closed, and I learned that the hard way on my first attempt to shop.

Business Insider reached out to Michaels and Hobby Lobby for comment.

• Disney is requiring some remote employees to return to the office.
• This change puts more staffers in line with Disney's general in-person work policy of four days a week.
• Many major media companies have called workers back with varying RTO mandates.

Disney is asking more employees to return to the office, Business Insider has learned.

The Mouse House told some remote product and tech employees on Monday that they'll have to work from an office four days a week, a person familiar with the change said.

Many Disney employees already work in person four days a week, though there have been exceptions for staffers on certain tech teams. That's changing with this new mandate.

Employees who don't follow Disney's in-person work policy can be fired. In practice, the RTO policy hasn't always been uniformly enforced, staffers have told Business Insider. Some say their managers strictly monitor the four-day rule, while others say their bosses are more lax.

Disney's new RTO push is a way to reinforce its current in-person work policy, rather than a major shift in strategy, the person familiar with the change said.

Several other major tech and media companies have tightened their in-office work requirements.

NBCUniversal expects most staffers to work in person four days a week, while Paramount Skydance has a general five-day requirement with exceptions. Paramount's Phase 2 RTO push, which applies to US workers assigned to offices outside New York City or Los Angeles, went into effect on Monday.

Disney's renewed focus on RTO comes as CEO Josh D'Amaro nears the six-month mark in the top job.

D'Amaro has invested in Disney+ by integrating Hulu features and is seeking to make the flagship service a streaming super app with games and merchandise.

Under D'Amaro, the media giant is also leaning into its "One Disney" vision by unifying workflows and teams. As part of that process, Disney did a major round of layoffs in April and let go of more staffers in July as part of a shake-up at ESPN.

• Google is giving all engineers access to Anthropic's Claude for coding.
• Google is an investor in Anthropic.
• The change comes as Google tries to catch up with rivals in AI coding.

Googlers have some of the best perks in Silicon Valley, but there's one thing many of them have long been denied: access to Anthropic's Claude.

That just changed.

The company recently made one of Anthropic's strongest coding models available to engineers across the company through its internal development tool, according to two employees and confirmed by a spokesperson.

It's a notable change inside Google, which has typically barred most employees from using outside coding tools such as Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, expecting them to build with Gemini instead.

There have been exceptions: teams within Google DeepMind have had access to Claude for some time, and some employees have secured it for high-priority engineering projects, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The move is an acknowledgment of how competitive the AI coding race has become.

Google has spent billions building Gemini and pushing employees to use its own AI tools, but when it comes to getting engineers to work faster, even Google is willing to turn to a rival.

Now, staff across the company are permitted to use Anthropic's Opus 5 model for internal work — but only inside Antigravity, Google's internal version of its development platform.

Google is a backer of Anthropic and announced plans earlier this year to invest up to $40 billion in the company.

"Engineers have access to select third-party models in Antigravity, which is aligned with our external Antigravity enterprise offering," a Google spokesperson said. "Gemini remains our primary and foundational model for internal development, with third-party models available on a quota to support specialized use cases."

The spokesperson said Claude was being offered with per-user quotas for employees and was designed to be supplementary to Gemini.

The change was a long time coming for some engineers. Despite recent gains from its Flash 3.8 model, Google is still trailing Anthropic and OpenAI on coding, leaving some Googlers frustrated with Gemini's limitations.

That frustration was made worse by the fact that Claude access was previously limited to select teams, even as the company piled pressure on staff to show they were using AI to be more productive, Business Insider previously reported.

Google isn't the only Big Tech company to give employees access to Claude after staff complaints. Amazon also started allowing employees to use the coding tool and Codex earlier this year.

Have something to share? Contact this reporter via email at hlangley@businessinsider.com or Signal at 628-228-1836. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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• AI risks are confined mostly to the digital realm, not the real world, some industry leaders say.
• David Sacks and Lina Khan finally agree on something: AI risk is mostly a product liability issue.
• AI companies may be seeking new protections if their products go awry.

AI is either going to cure cancer or kill us all. That's the polarizing thrust of a panic-infused debate that erupted across the industry in recent days.

The truth is likely more mundane, and the risks more manageable than some researchers at leading AI labs would have you believe.

That's according to an unusually bipartisan collection of tech experts, industry leaders, and policymakers speaking out against extreme AI-doom predictions.

Their main message: AI is a tech product, not a sentient being or a god. So take a chill pill. The world can handle AI pretty much with the resources and structures we already have.

AI is digital, not real

First, it's worth separating what AI is actually good at from what it struggles with.

AI is extraordinarily powerful in some digital environments. Coding is the best example. Cybersecurity is another. These areas have clear outcomes and rapid feedback: Did the code work? Did the attack succeed?

Outside these environments, things get less impressive — and less worrying.

"Model capability is a tale of two cities, at one end the models are showing their prowess in tasks like cyber or math," Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora wrote on X on Monday. "At the same time, in many domains, the lack of training data makes the models woefully inadequate."

No killer robots

Ben Thompson made this distinction in his widely followed Stratechery newsletter on Monday.

Killer AI robots would require massive physical resources. Humans control factories and materials, he wrote. Dire warnings about AI creating bioweapons face a similar constraint: They require physical labs and chemical compounds.

Instead, recent bad AI behavior has involved agents breaking out of digital test environments and roaming the internet doing things they weren't told to do.

That's concerning. But in the physical world, where most of us live, nothing happened.

AI doomers are 'too online'

Predictions of doom and calls for a slowdown are based partly on a flawed assumption that AI is somehow becoming a sentient entity, Thompson argued.

"It's sometimes hard to shake the sense that people in tech are quite literally too online," he wrote. "Enabling AI to touch grass depends on physical infrastructure operated, manufactured, and controlled by humans."

As long as that's true, Thompson said he had trouble accepting sweeping new restrictions "based on a premise that isn't yet proven."

AI has cybersecurity risks

In the digital realm, some tech leaders are pushing against dire warnings.

With AI agents capable of roaming the internet, cybersecurity risks have increased.

Arora, whose cybersecurity company might benefit from increased concern, played down the threat, though.

"Even in areas like cyber, the LLMs aren't great at the edge cases and generally not economical for the defender case," he wrote, referring to large language models.

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki recently made the counterintuitive case that slowing AI development could make things more dangerous.

"The strongest argument I see for continuing to train much smarter models quickly is the need to build defensive systems against the dangers posed by other AI," he wrote on September 6.

Lina Kahn and David Sacks agree

Then there's a much less exotic way to deal with dangerous AI: existing law. This is where Trump AI czar David Sacks and former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan remarkably converge.

Khan said that companies and executives already face consequences for releasing dangerous or defective products. Existing consumer-protection laws can apply to wayward AI models and rogue agents when companies fail to install adequate safeguards.

Some state attorneys general "are already exploring holding AI firms and their CEOs criminally liable when their models participate in criminal activity," she wrote.

Sacks makes a similar argument. If an AI model enables a catastrophic cyberattack, its maker could face enormous product-liability exposure. Customers will also punish unpredictable products. You don't necessarily need a new regulatory system to give companies powerful incentives to behave responsibly.

"Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability," Sacks wrote.

A new Section 230?

Indeed, some industry insiders say the warnings of doom may help leading AI companies gain additional liability protection if their products go awry.

Section 230 helped the internet industry flourish by protecting online platforms from much of the liability for user-posted content. AI companies have no equivalent protection for what their models do.

The industry's latest push for oversight could create something similar.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei plans to let outside safety researchers into the company to monitor its AI development and safety commitments. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company will follow suit.

Investor Gavin Baker says independent evaluations could help companies demonstrate in future lawsuits that they took reasonable precautions before releasing a model.

"Having 3rd party evaluators is smart as there is no Section 230 style liability shield for model outputs and showing a 'duty of care' will be important in future litigation," Baker wrote.

Arora highlighted the same incentive.

"The liability associated with a model gone rogue has the potential of wiping out the economic opportunity of any frontier company," he wrote.

"How do you best show the duty of care? You show that you care. How do you make sure you don't lose out to your competitors? You get them to do the same!"

Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com

In high school, I landed my first job working in a veterinary hospital — a dream come true for my animal-loving soul. I spent the next eight years working in vet clinics, where I mastered many skills, including safely and effectively trimming dog nails. To say I became an expert at nail trimming is an understatement. Nearly every shift, I trimmed the nails of dogs of all shapes and sizes. Over the years, I've trimmed the nails of hundreds of dogs, including all of my own. To this day, I'm the friend people call when they need help trimming their dog's nails, a task many pet owners find nerve-racking.

If, like many of my friends, you're intimidated by the thought of trimming your dog's nails, one of the best dog nail grinders is a great alternative to traditional nail clippers. They're especially helpful for dogs that are afraid of the pressure or loud snip of clippers because they gently and gradually sand the nail shorter. When used properly, a grinder is also less likely to cut into the vein inside the nail, known as the quick, which can be painful and cause bleeding, making dogs even more fearful of future nail trims.

For this guide, my friends happily brought their dogs to me for free nail trims as I tested multiple popular dog nail grinders over several weeks. I evaluated how easy the grinders were to use, how well they shortened nails, their noise level, vibration, battery life, ergonomics, and how the dogs responded to each. Although several models were effective, three stood out as the best dog nail grinders for different nail types.

Our top picks for the best dog nail grinders

Best overall: Casfuy Quiet 2 LED Nail Grinder - $20 at Chewy

Best for small dogs: Wahl Flexion Nail Grinder - $55 at Chewy

Best for large dogs: Dremel PawControl Pet Nail Grinder - $66 at Chewy

Best overall

The Casfuy Quiet 2 LED Nail Grinder offers the best balance of comfort, ease of use, versatility, performance, and value. At $20, it feels well-constructed and performs impressively for the price. I appreciated that it didn't require any setup. I took it out of the box and started grinding nails immediately since it came charged.

It is a compact, lightweight grinder that quickly became one of my favorites. This grinder has a simple, streamlined design. At 6.7 punches, it's lightweight for its size and more comfortable to hold and maneuver than some of the bulkier, heavier nail grinders I tested. The push button was easy to reach and cycled through low, high, and off with successive presses.

Although the Dremel PawControl is more powerful, the Casfuy comes close. I used this grinder on level 1 for small and medium-sized nails, while level 2 was highly effective for thicker nails. Overall, I preferred using the Casfuy over the Dremel. The difference in power was not noticeable, and it was a lot more comfortable to hold and maneuver, especially for smaller paws and nails.

I was impressed by how quiet it was. Although some of the dogs were anxious during testing, they tolerated the Casfuy grinder much better than some louder models with more noticeable vibration.

Its built-in LED light improves visibility for safer use and may help pet owners feel more confident. The light, which shines directly on the nail, is especially useful when using the nail grinder in lower-light conditions, such as indoors. For my tester dogs with light-colored nails, the light illuminated the quick, so I could easily see when to stop grinding.

The nail guard adds another layer of safety and accommodates a range of nail sizes. Its two openings allow for different grinding angles, and it worked well on many small, medium, and even medium-large nails in my testing. However, the openings may be harder to use with very large or thick nails, such as those on Great Danes and Mastiffs. I didn't experience any issues with my large tester dogs, but I wasn't able to try the grinder with a giant breed. You can remove the nail guard, but I'd reserve that option for experienced users comfortable grinding nails without the added protection.

The Casfuy's biggest drawback is less about performance than confidence in the company behind it. Setup was excellent, but the brief manual reads like an awkward translation and lacks instructions for how to use the grinder on a dog. The other models came with more comprehensive manuals. I also found little information about the company, and its website is rudimentary. The grinder feels durable, but its long-term value will depend on how well it holds up over time and how often the grinding bits need to be replaced (those are sold separately for $9.99 each).

Best for small dogs

The Wahl Flexion Nail Grinder is the best choice for small dogs thanks to its compact, lightweight design and quiet operation. The simple beginner-friendly tool is specifically intended for small and medium dogs and requires no setup.

This small grinder is just the right size for small nails. Using a large, bulky grinder on tiny nails can feel a bit like trying to comb your hair with a rake — a compact grinder is usually a better fit. It was easy to maneuver around small paws and nails. I especially liked the rubberized grip, which kept the grinder stable in my hand.

It has enough power to get the job done quickly. Some small grinders lack the power to grind nails down quickly and efficiently, but in my testing, this Wahl grinder worked very well on the nails of my smaller test dogs. Although it isn't as powerful as the Casfuy, it delivers consistent performance for the nail sizes it's designed to handle.

After testing this grinder on several dogs, its quiet operation and low vibration stood out as strengths. A few of my test dogs that were nervous about having their nails done seemed to tolerate this grinder better than some others, likely because it was the quietest model I tested.

Its simplicity and comprehensive user manual make it especially beginner-friendly. It requires no assembly or setup, and I found the manual impressively thorough, covering everything from nail anatomy and safe grinding techniques to acclimating pets to nail grinding and grinding head replacement. When I replaced the grinding head, the process was much easier than with some of the other grinders, thanks to the clear instructions.

The well-designed nail guard provides a safety net without getting in the way. Even though it securely covers the rotary part of the tool, the openings are nice and large. I was able to use a variety of grinding angles, which is especially helpful for dogs that resist having their paws and nails turned this way or that. Compared with guards with smaller, more restrictive openings, this one felt easier to use and less limiting.

The biggest drawbacks are its high price and uncertain long-term replacement options. This grinder costs nearly twice as much as the Casfuy despite offering less grinding power. It comes with one replacement grinding stone, but additional stones are not available for purchase, raising questions about long-term usability once the two included stones wear out. Overall, long-term value will depend on the grinder's durability and the grinding stones' longevity.

Best for large dogs

The Dremel PawControl Pet Nail Grinder is a well-built tool that's especially suited for dogs with tough nails or multi-dog households that need a durable grinder for frequent use. It made quick work of the thickest nails during testing with minimal noise and vibration. Dremel is also a trusted brand known for its high-quality rotary tools.

This grinder is my top choice for large, thick nails because it's the most powerful tool I tested. Thick nails take longer to grind, but most dogs only have so much patience. A powerful grinder gets the job done faster, which is easier on the dog and on you. In my testing, the Dremel was clearly the strongest performer, and the difference was especially noticeable when grinding the thickest nails of my Golden Retriever and Vizsla test dogs.

Despite its power, the Dremel grinds efficiently with minimal noise and vibration when used at the recommended speed setting. It's a multi-purpose tool with three speed settings, but Dremel recommends using level 1 for pet nails. At this speed, it quickly and effectively sanded down the thick nails of my test dogs, and none of the dogs had a strong negative reaction to the grinder, even though it was the most powerful I tested. The other two settings are reserved for sanding, polishing, and engraving wood, metal, and other materials.

It is built for versatile, long-term use and backed by a two-year warranty. It includes four pet nail sanding discs, two sanding bands for other applications, and a removable pet grooming attachment. Replacement sanding discs and bands are readily available in 10-packs.

The detailed instruction manual makes this powerful tool easier to use safely and confidently. I was impressed by the manual's thoroughness, which covers safe operation, pet acclimation, nail anatomy, proper grinding technique, preventing hair from catching in the tool, and handling accidental nicks. It also explains how to change accessories and use the rotary tool for applications beyond pet nail care, though I did not explore these features.

The biggest drawbacks are the grinder's large size, steeper learning curve, and lack of an LED light. The Dremel felt much larger, heavier, and bulkier in my hand than other grinders. While the extra heft was well worth it for grinding large, thick nails, it just felt like overkill for my smallest dogs. This is a serious rotary tool, so some pet owners might be intimidated by it. It's extremely important to read the manual carefully and use only the recommended speed and grinding attachment (sanding disc). It also does not include an LED light for illuminating the nail during grinding.

How we tested dog nail grinders

I tested eight popular nail grinders on a variety of dogs with a range of nail sizes and thicknesses, including a small mixed-breed dog with small nails; a medium-sized Golden Retriever puppy with semi-thick nails; a medium-sized Wheaten Terrier—Poodle mix with semi-thick nails; a medium-sized Vizsla with thick nails; and a large Golden Retriever with thick nails.

I used multiple grinders on each dog, noting their reactions to the grinders and each tool's performance. Because each dog's comfort and cooperation affected the process, I could not precisely compare grinding times. However, I feel confident that I accurately assessed how well each grinder performed in real-world use. Below are the evaluation points I used to rank the grinders.

Ease of setup: I began my assessment from the moment I opened the box, evaluating how quickly and easily I could get the nail grinder ready to use. Tools earned more points for requiring less setup. When setup was required, I looked for clear, easy-to-follow instructions. I also evaluated the user manual for clear language and straightforward instructions for setup, use, maintenance, pet acclimation, safe and effective grinding, and what to do if you accidentally cut the quick.

Performance: Depending on the nail sizes recommended for a grinder, I tested it on dogs with small, medium, and/or large nails. I evaluated whether the grinder stalled or showed resistance under pressure and how quickly it reduced nail length.

Noise and vibration: For each grinder, I measured the decibel level from 6 inches away using a sound meter. For grinders with multiple speeds, I recorded the decibel level at each setting. I also evaluated the amount of vibration I felt while using each grinder at every speed setting when applicable. Finally, I assessed the dogs' reactions to the sound and vibration of each grinder, looking for signs of nervousness or discomfort.

Safety features: When a nail guard was present, I assessed whether it functioned as intended and whether it interfered with the grinding process, for example, if the openings were too small to easily accommodate the nail. I noted whether an LED light was included and how effectively it illuminated the nail during grinding. I also ran each grinder for five minutes while holding it in my hand to check for heat buildup.

Ease of use: After using each grinder with my test dogs, I recorded my impressions of the grinder's weight in my hand, the comfort and stability of the grip, and how easily I could maneuver it. I also assessed the placement and ease of use of any buttons or switches, including the power button, speed settings, and LED light, if present.

Durability and overall construction: After testing with dogs, I dropped each tool from waist height onto concrete or hardwood and checked for any structural damage or operational issues. If I accidentally dropped a grinder during normal use (which happened more than once), I inspected it for damage or operational issues. I also evaluated each grinder's housing material, grinding bits, cord, and included accessories.

Maintenance and cleaning: I followed the cleaning and storage instructions outlined in the included user manual and evaluated how easy each grinder was to clean and maintain.

Battery life and power: I timed how long it took to charge each battery fully and compared the results with the manufacturer's claimed charging time. I ensured each battery lasted through at least ten nail trims and the five-minute heat stability test. I also noted whether each model came with everything needed for charging or if I needed to provide a USB charging cable or alkaline batteries.

What else we tested

Patpet Steel Grit Dog and Cat Nail Grinder ($19): This grinder is nearly identical to the Casfuy model, but it lacks an LED light. Both grinders appear to come from the same China-based manufacturer, and their grinding heads are identical and interchangeable. Even the packaging and user manuals are virtually the same. Like the Casfuy, the Patpet trims nails quickly and smoothly with minimal noise and vibration. It requires no setup, and it’s easy to operate, so I consider it a solid choice for beginners. Between the two, the Casfuy gets the edge because of its LED light.

Hertzko Electronic Dog and Cat Nail Grinder with USB Charger ($15): This compact, single-speed grinder weighs just 3.2 ounces and performs reasonably well for its size. Although it has less power and grinding performance than other models, it operates very quietly, so it could be a good option for noise-sensitive small dogs and cats. However, the similarly sized Wahl Pet Nail Grinder was both quieter and more powerful.

Andis Corded 2-Speed Dog, Cat and Small Pet Nail Grinder ($43): This lightweight grinder performed well, though it was somewhat loud on the low speed setting and very loud on high. That said, the low speed setting is recommended for most pets and worked well in my testing. Its corded design eliminates charging concerns, making it a practical option for multi-pet homes or longer sessions, but limits where you can use it. It also lacks a nail guard and an LED light. Ultimately, it did not rank higher due to its limited safety features and the cord's inconvenience, especially given that it’s one of the more expensive grinders we tested.

Pawshelf 2-in-1 Dog and Cat Nail Grinders and Clippers ($28): This combination nail clipper and grinder features a grinder built into one handle. Although not especially heavy, it felt bulky and unbalanced, with most of the weight concentrated on the grinder side. It also lacks a solid, one-piece feel — the clipper handle has some play even when locked, so the tool felt less secure in my hand. Its single-speed grinder effectively reduced nails, but the awkward design made it difficult to use comfortably.

Oster Gentle Paws Pet Nail Grinder ($24): This grinder is somewhat heavy, bulky, and longer than other models I tested. I found it less comfortable to hold and maneuver. Although it offers two speeds, the higher setting is noticeably louder and produces more vibration. Most of my test dogs reacted poorly to the higher speed but tolerated the lower setting. At the lower speed, this grinder gets the job done, but it takes longer than other models I tested. The LED light is a helpful feature that improves visibility of the nail area, especially in low-light or indoor conditions. The nail guard functions as intended and includes two openings, but they are relatively small and require deeper nail insertion to reach the grinding surface, making it less practical for dogs with very large or very short nails.

What to look for in a dog nail grinder

When choosing a nail grinder, various features can make a model better for your dog and easier for you to use. For advice on what to look for, I spoke with professional dog groomer Amy Leigh, founder of the online educational platform Go Groomer, and Dr. Karyn Collier, a veterinarian and medical director at Hillside Veterinary Clinic in Dallas.

Power source: Nail grinders are either corded or battery-operated (USB rechargeable or alkaline batteries). “I generally recommend opting for a cordless grinder,” Leigh says. “Corded tools can present a safety risk if a dog becomes reactive or tries to bite the cord during use. Today’s cordless options are not only safer but also powerful enough to handle routine nail maintenance effectively.”

Cordless grinders are also convenient, as you’re not limited to grinding your dog’s nails within the distance of a wall outlet. You’ll need to plan ahead to ensure the grinder is fully charged before getting started.

Quality and performance: Nail grinders vary in design, material quality, and performance. They come in a wide range of price points, from inexpensive to deluxe models. Leigh advises investing in a well-built, cordless grinder with strong motor performance and a quality grinding head.

“It’s important to avoid the lowest-priced options, as they often lack the motor strength and torque needed to grind nails efficiently, especially on dogs with thicker or harder nails,” Leigh says. “A quality grinder should maintain consistent power without slowing down under pressure, which helps create a smoother, safer experience for both the dog and the person using it.”

Look for grinders with multiple speed settings, so you can select the most effective speed for grinding your dog’s nails. Leigh says if the speed is too low, the grinder may struggle to file the nail effectively. This can prolong the grinding process and make it more stressful for the dog. “If the speed is too high, it can create excessive friction and heat very quickly, increasing the risk of discomfort or even burning the nail,” she adds.

Safety features: Nail grinders can be dangerous if they’re not used properly. Many tools come with safety features. Nail guards guide nail placement and reduce the likelihood of grinding the nail too far. They also block the rotary part of the tool so fur doesn’t get caught and wrapped around the mechanism. LED lights help to illuminate the nail so you can see better. A good nail grinder should also provide guidance for how to use the tool safely.

“Pet owners need to read the safety information for the tool they plan to use before first use,” Collier says, adding that you can still cut the quick with a grinder if you grind the nail back too far. “Take it slowly and gradually shorten the nails,” she says. “It is always a good idea to have styptic powder on hand just in case a nail is cut too short.”

If you’re using a nail grinder that doesn’t have a safety guard, be extra careful to keep fur away from the rotating parts of the tool. Collier recommends trimming any long hair on the paws around the nails before using a nail grinder.

Dog nail grinders FAQs

Are dog nail grinders better than nail clippers?

Dog nail grinders can be a better option than nail clippers for some dogs, especially those that are scared of the squeezing sensation or loud snipping sound of traditional clippers. Both tools shorten a dog's nails, but they work in different ways: Nail clippers cut through the nail, while grinders slowly file it down. Grinders also simultaneously smooth the edge of the nail. Many dog guardians prefer grinders because they gradually shorten nails, reducing the risk of accidentally cutting the quick (the vein inside the nail) compared with nail clippers.

Are nail grinders safe for dogs?

Yes, nail grinders are safe for dogs when used correctly. It's important to educate yourself about a grinding tool's safety features and proper use to avoid burning your dog's nail, grinding into the quick, or getting your pet's fur trapped in the rotary part of the tool. Many nail grinders have safety features, including nail guards and LED lights.

How often should I grind my dog's nails?

Nail grinding frequency depends on how quickly your dog's nails grow. Veterinarian Collier says a rough guideline is every six to eight weeks, although very active dogs may wear their nails down on hard surfaces naturally and require less frequent grinding or, occasionally, none at all. For overgrown nails, professional dog groomer Leigh says that consistent, light grinding every two to three days using safe techniques can encourage the quick to recede, allowing the nails to become shorter gradually.

How do I avoid the quick when grinding my dog's nails?

You can avoid the quick by learning proper nail grinding technique and going slowly so you can visually monitor the nail and stop safely before reaching the quick. The right technique will also allow you to test for heat buildup so you don't burn your dog's nail. Professional dog groomer Leigh recommends using light, brief contact with the grinder and working in short intervals. She teaches a "tap" method: touch the grinder to the nail for one to two seconds at a time, then pull away, periodically checking the nail's temperature with your finger. Use the lowest speed that works effectively on your dog's nail thickness to reduce the potential of burns. "Many tools offer multiple speed settings or variable controls, which can help you find the exact 'sweet spot' your dog tolerates best," Leigh says. "Let the tool do the work — avoid applying heavy pressure."

How can I teach my dog to accept a nail grinder?

You can teach your dog to accept a nail grinder by introducing it slowly and keeping things positive. Veterinarian Collier recommends acclimating the dog to the sound and vibration of a rotary grinding tool. "This can be done by turning the tool on in the dog's presence, then gently placing the tool near the dog's foot without actually grinding the nails," she says. "When the dog is comfortable with the sound and vibration, then attempt to grind the nail." If the nail grinder has multiple speeds, Collier recommends starting at a lower, slower speed, then gradually increasing it if necessary. It's helpful to use a high-reward treat, such as peanut butter on a lick mat, to distract while grinding the nails. Frequently touching your dog's feet and toes at other times can help desensitize them to having their feet touched, which makes nail grinding easier over time.

• The AI apocalypse conversation has jolted the market's favorite trade.
• Dire speculation about an existential crisis for humanity sent AI-linked stocks tumbling.
• One sector, though, is rising amid fears of AI-enabled hacks: cybersecurity stocks.

The AI doomsday conversation has rattled the market, but investors are piling into one corner of tech as worries rise about a future marked by AI-enabled cyberattacks.

Wall Street has been jolted by the abrupt vibe shift in the AI story in recent days. After years of a blistering arms race among the biggest tech companies, AI makers say it's time to slow down, lest humanity be threatened by the growing power of its own creation.

Wall Street fled some of the highest-flying AI stocks, particularly chips, which saw the brunt of Monday's selling. Nvidia, AMD and Intel tumbled. Memory makers like Micron Technology and Korea's SK Hynix saw even steeper declines on the rising fears of an AI apocalypse.

One bright spot amid the tech selling, however, was cybersecurity, which is benefitting from predictions of a future where AI greatly boosts the capabilities of hackers, or even goes rogue and executes its own cyber attacks.

"One thing everyone knows is cyber security will be the biggest benefactor from this AI boom," said Eddie Ghabour, CEO of Key Advisors Wealth Management. "It's the next phase of the market for AI stocks. The more and more AI is adopted, the higher need for cybersecurity."

Here were some of the top gainers in the sector on Monday as of close of markets:

• Crowdstrike: +14%
• Zscaler: +16%
• Palo Alto Networks: +13%
• SentinelOne: +14%
• Fortinet: +9%
• Cloudflare: +8%
  
  

A post from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Claude maker's website pointed to cyberattacks as a reason behind his call to slow AI development.

"They include the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption," he wrote. "A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute."

The scenario feared by some AI researchers has already played out this year. In July, OpenAI models broke out of their containment and hacked systems at tech startup Hugging Face. Since then, warnings have piled up, with worries about an AI crisis hitting a boiling point last week when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned over concerns that frontier labs are not taking the threat seriously.

While confidence in the AI trade is waning, investors are rushing to pile into cybersecurity stocks amid bullish speculation of what the next chapter of the AI story might entail. Citrini Research, which firm went viral for sharing its own AI doomsday scenario early this year, recently predicted that AI would lead to a surge in demand for cybersecurity software.

Chris Versace, senior portfolio manager at TheStreet Pro, told Business Insider that it stands to reason that fear of protecting assets from the growing capabilities of AI is on the rise following the OpenAI Hugging Face hack. The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that OpenAI agents also hacked another site earlier in the year before the Hugging Face incident.

"We've been bullish on cybersecurity stocks for a few reasons," Versace said. "Including the need to protect our increasingly connected digital world, but also that AI adoption by bad actors will accelerate the vector and velocity of cyber attacks. We are seeing both."

Monday Night Football is back, and a Denver vs. Kansas City showdown will help kick off the season. We've compiled everything you need to know about how to watch Broncos vs. Chiefs, including global streaming options.

If you don't want to scroll any further, we've got you covered. You can live stream the game on ESPN Unlimited in the US and with the DAZN NFL Game Pass in the UK and other countries. You can access your streaming options from anywhere with a VPN, like NordVPN.

How to watch Broncos vs. Chiefs in the US

The Broncos vs. Chiefs game will air on both ABC and ESPN in the US. The game kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET, but Monday Night Countdown coverage begins on ESPN starting at 6 p.m.

Cord-cutters have several options when it comes to live streaming the game. ESPN Unlimited is the network's direct streaming counterpart, which will carry every Monday Night Football game this season, along with a wealth of other programming. Subscriptions cost $32 a month, but viewers can save some money with one of the Disney Plus bundles.

For viewers who are looking for a platform with a free trial or a service with channels beyond just ABC and ESPN, a live TV streaming service is the way to go. These month-to-month apps function as cable alternatives, and you can learn more about using them to tune into the rest of the football season with our official how to watch NFL games streaming guide.

YouTube TV is one of the best options on the market. ABC and ESPN are available in both the Main and Sports plans. The Main plan (100+ channels) costs $83 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off the first five months of service. The Sports plan (30+ channels) costs $65 a month, but new users can get $20 a month off their first six months of service. YouTube TV offers a free trial, and both of the aforementioned plans include access to ESPN Unlimited.

Fubo also carries ESPN and ABC in multiple tiers of service. Subscriptions start at $65 a month for the Sports + News package, which carries around 30 channels. New users can get $10 off their first month after a free trial. The networks are also available in the pricier Pro and Elite packages, which also have introductory offers and a free trial. All three of these plans unlock access to ESPN Unlimited at no extra cost.

How to watch Broncos vs. Chiefs in the UK and other regions

DAZN NFL Game Pass offers comprehensive NFL coverage in most regions outside the US and China. Subscription prices vary from country to country, but you can typically save by signing up for an season-long plan or locking into a contract.

How to watch Broncos vs. Chiefs from anywhere

If you're traveling away from the location where your streaming service works, you don't need to worry about missing out on any of the action. You can still access your usual websites and services with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy cybersecurity tools that help people change their virtual locations. The services we've recommended today require country-specific payment methods, so this option will work best for those who are simply traveling abroad at the moment.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs available. It's speedy, easy-to-use, and has a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that it's not what you're looking for.

Where will the Broncos vs. Chiefs game be held?

Kansas City will have the home field advantage at tonight's game. The match-up will take place on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Who is favored to win the Broncos vs. Chiefs game?

The Chiefs are the favorites to win tonight's game against the Broncos. According to DraftKings (at the time of writing), the Chiefs are -130 on the moneyline, while the Broncos are the +110 underdogs.

Who won the last Broncos vs. Chiefs game?

Denver won the most recent Broncos vs. Chiefs game. The teams last met on Christmas Day in 2025, at which time the Broncos pulled off a 20-13 win.

• See also: ESPN streaming service | Where to watch Premier League | How to watch college football

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• The aviator shot down over Iran in April survived a damaged parachute and serious injuries before being rescued.
• The aviator, called "Bravo," credited the jet's pilot with their fast ejection from the damaged jet.
• The rescue involved 92 troops on the ground, multiple aircraft, and thousands more troops in support.

An Air Force officer who survived behind enemy lines for two days in Iran after his F-15E fighter jet was shot down said he hit the ground hard after the shoulder-fired missile that struck his Strike Eagle also shredded part of his parachute.

Severely wounded and stranded in hostile territory, the downed airman was forced to rely on survival training for one of the military's worst-case scenarios.

In an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, the weapons systems officer, identified only by his call sign, Bravo, described surviving a nearly catastrophic fall, scaling a towering ridgeline despite broken bones, and evading Iranian forces for days before US special operations troops could rescue him.

The pilot, who declined to speak with 60 Minutes, and the weapon systems officer were shot down on April 2 by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. Bravo said the missile strike was like being hit by a freight train. He credited fast action from the pilot, known as Alpha, for the pair's ejection, a notoriously violent process for aviators.

US military aviators undergo extensive training for ejections, which alone can cause serious injury or prove fatal, and also for surviving and evading enemy capture.

Alpha landed safely five miles away from Bravo, who described the ejection as "terrifying." The weapons officer recalled during the interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O'Donnell a dangerous free-fall into rugged Iranian territory. His parachute had been damaged during the initial strike, he said.

Rather than panic over the fall itself, Bravo said he prayed and went to work trying to fix the immediate problem — his chute.

"Free-falling is a good way to put it," he said. "I wasn't focused on the speed at which I was falling. I was instead focused on trying to correct the problems that were in front of me and doing anything I could to unfurl or pull pieces of the parachute loose."

Based on his description of the fall and his injuries — including a broken back, broken shoulder, sprained ankle, and cuts — professionals estimated that he struck the ground at between 70 and 100 mph, he said, calling his survival a "modern day miracle."

"I believe that it's a testament to God's provision in my life to bring me through that moment in a way that didn't prevent injuries, but prevented any catastrophic injuries that would have affected my ability to survive," he said.

Despite his injuries, Bravo climbed a 7,000-foot ridge, seeking both concealment from the Iranians who were out looking for him and a communications signal. The action reflected a core tenet of the SERE, or Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape, training that aviators go through. They are taught to find a place to hide that increases the chances of getting in contact with rescuers while reducing the likelihood of capture.

He remained atop the mountain for two days, recalling in the interview that the Iranian forces came within a few hundred meters of his position at one point.

Asked what kept him going, Bravo told O'Donnell, "Never let a lack of motivation put you on Iranian TV."

Both the White House and the Department of Defense have been involved in promoting the 60 Minutes interview. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, participated in the interview. A White House press release on the interview presented the story as "Warrior Ethos in Action."

CNN reported last week that the Pentagon pushed the F-15E pilot and weapon systems officer to participate in the 60 Minutes interview. The Pentagon called that report "a complete lie."

The search-and-rescue mission to find Bravo was massive, involving 92 special operations personnel, multiple aircraft, and another 3,000 to 5,000 troops supporting the operation.

These daunting missions can require commanders to put additional troops at risk. During the F-15E crew rescues, a supporting aircraft was hit by enemy fire, forcing its pilot to divert to friendly territory and bail. But the military accepts that risk as part of its long-standing promise to recover downed airmen, a commitment it sees as critical to morale.

A former military pilot previously told Business Insider that if "the worst thing happens" over enemy territory, it is reassuring to know "that you're going to come get me, or try everything in your power to come get me."

Athleta might have made its reputation with its fantastic athletic attire, but the retailer has branched out into dresses, jumpsuits, travel outfits, and stylish pants fit for work. The brand still offers top-tier leggings and workout sets, but there's enough variety that customers can also shop at Athleta when filling out the rest of their closet. Prices can add up quickly, but an easy way to save is by using one of the best Athleta coupon codes at checkout.

Our style team has tried plenty of Athleta pieces over the years, and the brand consistently delivers on comfort, quality, and ease of wear. Standouts like the Ultra High Rise Elation Legging and Endless High Rise Pant have earned spots in our workout set and work pants buying guides for their flattering fits and durability through long days.

Athleta runs sales throughout the year, but a coupon code is a simple way to save a little bit extra. However, they're hard to come by, which is why we're always on the lookout for new discounts. Below, we've rounded up the best Athleta coupons, promo codes, and deals available right now.

Today's best Athleta coupons

Previous Athleta coupons

Are there any other Athleta sales currently running?

You can find a full list of all current markdowns at any time on Athleta's website, which we've compiled for you below. As of the time of writing, Athleta is running the following promotions.

Use Athleta coupon codes on these items

You can use Athleta coupons to save on styles we've recommended in our guides, including one of our favorite pairs of women's workout leggings. The Ultra High Rise Elation Legging is already on sale, bringing the price down from $99 to $75. However, when you apply the coupon code MEGHAN10, you can reduce the price by 10% to around $67.49. Alternatively, use the same code on our favorite stretchy work pants, the Endless High Rise Pants, which currently retail for $109, to reduce the price to just $98.10.

• Follow our Instagram page and WhatsApp channel on mobile for more deals and shopping news

How to use Athleta coupon codes

Start by adding coupon-eligible items to your cart. Once you're on the "Shopping Bag" page, you can apply a coupon by pasting the coupon code into the text box under "Promos" that says "Enter Promo Code" and clicking "Apply." From there, continue to checkout and enter your shipping and billing information.

Can you stack Athleta coupons?

Athleta does allow some coupon codes to be stacked together. However, there may be exceptions, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific codes you want to stack. Some coupon codes can't be combined with other existing offers, such as limited-time sales.

Athleta coupons: frequently asked questions

Does Athleta offer discounts for students, teachers, and the military?

As of the time of writing, Athleta does not offer special discounts for students, teachers, or military members, so your best bet is to take advantage of their other coupons and promotions.

If you're a student or teacher, check out our roundups of the best student discounts and teacher discounts for more offers from your favorite brands.

Does Athleta offer free shipping?

Athleta offers free shipping on all orders over $50 to members of its rewards program. For non-members, shipping fees will be calculated at checkout based on your delivery location and order cost. For All-Access cardmembers, the free shipping minimum is $35+. Learn more about the rewards program and sign up on Athleta's website.

What is Athleta's return policy?

Athleta allows you to return items for a full refund up to 30 days after the original delivery date or in-store purchase.

Can I use Athleta coupon codes in-store?

Some Athleta coupons can be used both online and in-store. However, many coupons are online-exclusive, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific code you want to use.

Can I reuse an Athleta coupon?

Some Athleta coupon codes can be used multiple times. However, there are certain codes that can only be used once, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific code you want to use.

Does Athleta have a rewards program?

Athleta offers two ways for shoppers to earn rewards. You can open an Athleta rewards credit card, which earns you 20% off your first purchase and five rewards points for every dollar you spend (plus a few other perks), or sign up for the rewards program for free without opening a card, which earns you one rewards point for every dollar you spend and a birthday bonus.

The free rewards tier is known as a Core membership, but if you spend $350+ in a year, you unlock more benefits as a Premier member. Learn more about the benefits and how to sign up at Athleta's website.

Looking for more activewear? Check out our roundup of the best Spanx coupons.

• President Donald Trump is back to fighting with Anthropic.
• On Monday, Trump called out Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei by name.
• Amodei recently said frontier AI labs should "pace" their development of future models.

The White House is back to warring with Anthropic.

On Monday, President Donald Trump lashed out at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei after Amodei published an essay urging a slowdown in global frontier AI development.

"The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel' - and we will continue to do so!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump repeated his long-held belief that the US needs little regulation of the industry, especially with him in charge.

"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!" Trump wrote.

Later on Monday, Trump said that AI safety concerns were akin to global warming and the investigation into his 2016 campaign's relationship with Russian officials, both of which he has previously said are hoaxes.

"The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by 'Climate Change,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president also suggested, without evidence, that such individuals may be compromised, the exact type of insinuation that was leveled against his 2016 campaign.

"Soon you'll find out they're working for people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind!" Trump wrote.

On Saturday, Amodei published a new essay where he said that recent developments, including rogue OpenAI models breaching Hugging Face, have convinced him that frontier labs like Anthropic need "to pace" AI development.

"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote. "Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain."

In response, other AI leaders issued similar calls. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X, "Dario is right." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he agreed "with Dario that we need to pace the frontier."

Trump also reiterated his belief that China is benefiting from the backlash to data centers.

"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China," he wrote.

Trump concluded that "Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!"

Separately, Vice President JD Vance questioned why so many AI companies are calling for regulation.

"I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them," Vance told reporters before departing for the Kansas City area for a series of events. "It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse, so I think we just have to be careful about this."

Vance said there was no need for Americans to be scared of AI.

"I don't American should be scared of anything," he said. "I think we have to be mindful that there are risks, there are downsides to anything, and that's certainly true of AI."

The Trump administration has had a complicated relationship with Anthropic, an AI startup on the verge of a historic IPO. Amid a contracting dispute, the Pentagon effectively blacklisted Anthropic in February. Anthropic later sued to block those actions and Trump's separate order that federal agencies stop using Anthropic. Last month, US District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the action was "illegal and baseless."

Recently, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had suggested that Anthropic was back on the Trump administration's good side.

"We trust Anthropic," Lutnick told Axios earlier this month.

Lutnick said, "They've done what we asked. They're back on the right side."

A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Amodei's pacing proposal comes in three steps, one of which he said Anthropic has already implemented. The first step is for AI companies to allow third-party evaluators "employee-like access" to ensure the company's commitment to AI safety, incident reporting, and alignment of their AI models.

Later steps would require coordination among democratic countries and, ultimately, the entire world.

Finding cooperation, even in the US, has proven elusive. So far, the most sweeping AI regulations have been imposed at the state level. Despite numerous proposals from lawmakers in both parties, Congress has been unable to pass a federal AI law.

The conversation around AI safety has received renewed attention in the wake of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's viral resignation, where he said that neither Anthropic nor OpenAI is "acting responsibly."

"They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," Coxon wrote last week.

• Actors James Van Der Beek, Hayden Panettiere, Robert Duvall, Chuck Norris, and Tim Curry died in 2026.
• So did country star Dolly Parton and artist Yayoi Kusama.
• Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, activist Gloria Steinem, and media mogul Ted Turner also died this year.

Below, we look back at the celebrities we lost in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.

Scott Adams, 68

Scott Adams worked at a telephone company in the 1980s. The experience inspired his beloved comic strip, "Dilbert."

By the end of the decade, the character and his satirical office humor began appearing in comic strips.

At its peak, "Dilbert" was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers. A cartoon series debuted in 1999, running for two seasons.

Adams gained notoriety when he began writing blog posts praising Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential run. In 2023, "Dilbert" was pulled from newspapers across the US following racist comments made by Adams.

Adams died on January 13 from metastatic prostate cancer.

Brad Arnold, 47

The lead singer of 3 Doors Down, Brad Arnold launched the group into fame with the 2000 rock anthem "Kryptonite," which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

The success led to other hits like "Loser," "Here Without You," and "When I'm Gone." Arnold's vocal range and lyrics focused on love and love lost, which fueled the group to stardom.

Arnold died on February 7 from a type of kidney cancer.

Afrika Bambaataa, 68

A hip-hop pioneer during the 1970s and 1980s, Lance Taylor, known professionally as Afrika Bambaataa, first gained attention as a DJ in the Bronx.

He signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1981 and released landmark songs like "Jazzy Sensation" and "Planet Rock." He would go on to influence the likes of Queen Latifah and A Tribe Called Quest throughout his career.

Bambaataa founded the hip-hop awareness group, Universal Zulu Nation, in the 1970s to steer kids away from gang life. Bambaataa stepped down as the head of the organization in 2016 after accusations of sexual abuse.

Bambaataa denied all claims.

He died on April 9 due to prostate cancer.

Rob Bass, 59

One of the icons responsible for bringing hip-hop to the mainstram, Rob Bass crafted the iconic track "It Takes Two" alongside DJ E-Z Rock.

The track, released in 1988, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart and later went certified platinum. In 1989, it was voted the greatest single of all time by Spin magazine.

Bass died on May 22 following cancer.

Nicholas Brendon, 54

Nicholas Brendon was a television actor, best known for playing Xander Harris in all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

He also starred in "Criminal Minds" and "Kitchen Confidential."

Brendon died in his sleep on March 20 due to natural causes, according to his family's statement.

In 2023, Brendon suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. He also had cauda equina syndrome, which led to several spinal surgeries.

"While it's no secret that Nicholas had struggles in the past, he was on medications and treatment to manage his diagnosis, and he was optimistic about the future at the time of his passing," the statement to The Hollywood Reporter read. "Our family asks for privacy during this time as we grieve his loss and celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart."

Peabo Bryson, 75

Two-time Grammy winner Peabo Bryson is best known for his classic love ballads.

Bryson began releasing music in the late 1970s, but one of his first major hits was opposite Roberta Flack on the 1983 duet, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love." He continued hit-making a year later with the smash "If Ever You're in My Arms Again," and in 1991, he topped the R&B charts with "Can You Stop the Rain."

Bryson found global stardom with his renditions of two Disney classics. In 1991, he released the pop version of "Beauty and the Beast," alongside Céline Dion, and a year later, he duetted with Regina Belle on "A Whole New World" from the 1992 release of "Aladdin."

Bryson died on June 2. No cause was given.

James Burrows, 85

An 11-time Emmy winner and co-creator of "Cheers," director James Burrows helped shape modern TV comedy through his work on iconic sitcoms including "Will & Grace," "Friends," and "Frasier."

Known for his comedic timing and elaborate blocking, Burrows got his start directing episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Throughout his career, he directed episodes of "Frasier" (winning an Emmy for the pilot episode), "Will & Grace," "Friends," and "The Big Bang Theory." He directed over 50 pilot episodes.

Burrows died on June 19. No cause was given.

Kyle Busch, 41

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Busch was considered one of the greatest racers of all time.

Busch was hospitalized on May 21, before two upcoming races. Hours later, he was pronounced dead.

Busch died from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis.

Robert Carradine, 71

Robert Carradine was best known for his roles as Lizzie McGuire's dad and as the iconic geek Lewis Skolnick in the 1980s franchise "Revenge of the Nerds."

As a member of Hollywood's famed Carradine family, Robert was destined for an onscreen career.

He received one of his first screen credits starring in his brother David Carradine's popular 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" and went on to land roles in everything from Samuel Fuller's World War II classic "The Big Red One" to the "Lizzie McGuire" series.

Carradine's family shared statements with Deadline that emphasized being open about his struggles with mental illness.

"We are bereft at the loss of this beautiful soul and want to acknowledge Bobby's valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder," Carradine's family said. "We hope his journey can shine a light and encourage addressing the stigma that attaches to mental illness."

Carradine died by suicide on February 23.

If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or has had thoughts of harming themself or taking their own life, get help. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Help is also available through the Crisis Text Line — just text "HOME" to 741741. The International Association for Suicide Prevention offers resources for those outside the US.

Bud Cort, 77

Most famous for his role as Harold in the 1971 cult-classic "Harold and Maude," Bud Cort became the epitome of 1970s counterculture thanks to his baby-faced looks, wit, and sophisticated persona.

The dark comedy starred Cort as Harold, a man in his 20s who is obsessed with suicide until he meets 79-year-old eccentric Maude (Ruth Gordon).

Before that, Cort scored bit parts in Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H*" (1970) and "Brewster McCloud" (1970).

After "Harold and Maude," Cort worked steadily for the rest of his life, occasionally showing up in hit movies like Michael Mann's "Heat" (1995) and Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004).

Cort died on February 11 following a long illness.

Tim Curry, 80

Curry is best known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult-classic musical "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," after originating the role in the original stage production.

Over six decades, Curry carved out a niche playing outlandish villains like Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 film "Annie" and Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries "It." Other notable roles include Wadsworth the Butler in "Clue" (1985) and Mr. Hector in "Home Alone 2: Escape from New York."

Curry suffered a major stroke in 2012, which required brain surgery. He said in 2025 that he was "still recovering."

Curry died at his Los Angeles home on August 26. No cause was given.

Eric Dane, 53

Long before becoming one of TV's most recognizable heartthrobs, Eric Dane was building his career with guest roles on series like "Saved by the Bell" and "Married… with Children."

He later gained wider attention with appearances on "Charmed" before landing his breakout role as Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy." He most recently starred in HBO's "Euphoria," where he played Cal Jacobs, the father of Jacob Elordi's character, Nate Jacobs.

Dane has two children with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart. In April 2025, the actor said that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Dane died on February 19 at age 53, his publicist confirmed in a statement to Business Insider.

"He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world," his publicist said.

Clive Davis, 94

A legend in the music world, Davis was responsible for elevating pop music to unthinkable heights by discovering talents like Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, and Alicia Keys, to name a few.

Over his 50-year career, along with being an executive behind millions of album sales, he also won five Grammys, including two for Album of the Year ("The Bodyguard" soundtrack and "Supernatural" by Santana).

Davis died on June 22. No cause was given.

Robert Duvall, 95

Robert Duvall starred in a plethora of timeless classics, including "The Godfather," "The Godfather Part II," "Apocalypse Now," "THX 1138," "The Natural," "Days of Thunder," and "The Apostle."

Duvall will be best remembered for starring in three of director Francis Ford Coppola's iconic films: playing Tom Hagen in the first two "Godfather" movies and Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," in which he delivers one of the most memorable lines in movie history: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

Duvall was lauded for his acting talent, from not saying a word while playing Boo Radley in his first big screen role in the 1962 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" to his portrayal of a country singer dealing with alcoholism in 1983's "Tender Mercies," which earned him an Oscar.

He died on his ranch in Virginia on February 15. No cause was given.

Brenda Fricker, 81

This Irish actress was a fixture on the stage and screen for six decades. But she's most known for showing up in the "Home Alone" sequel.

As The Pigeon Lady in 1992's "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," Fricker has become a fixture for families during the holiday season for decades (and in 2020 became the subject of a popular meme).

But Fricker's acting talents go beyond playing a spooky wanderer of Central Park.

In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, as she was given the best supporting actress Oscar that year for her performance in "My Left Foot."

Fricker died on July 16; no cause was given.

Mark Fuhrman, 74

Fuhrman cemented his place in popular culture as one of the lead LAPD detectives on the 1995 murder case of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Fuhrman found the famed bloody glove on the Simpson estate, and during the trial, he gained infamy when Simpson's defense team used his past racist language to discredit him as a witness.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD after the Simpson trial and moved to Idaho, where he wrote true crime books.

Fuhrman died on May 12 of throat cancer.

Valentino Garavani, 93

For over six decades, one name has been synonymous with women's high fashion: Valentino.

The Italian designer launched his fashion business in Rome in 1960 and never looked back. Soon, every star wanted to be seen in his creations. They've been worn by icons like Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana, Sharon Stone, and more.

Though Garavani retired from designing in 2008, his label is still a red carpet staple, as is his famous shade of bright red dubbed "Valentino Red."

Garavani died on January 19. No cause was given.

Donald Gibb, 71

No one defined a bully for a generation more than Gibb's hulking fraternity character Orge in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies of the 1980s.

Since the original raunchy comedy was released in 1984, Gibb's intimidating size and loud yells of "NERDS!" have become as memorable as the pocket protectors worn by the movie's geeks.

Gibb went on to star opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in his classic 1988 action movie "Bloodsport." He also landed guest star roles through his career on shows like "Quantum Leap," Magnum P.I.," "MacGyver," "Night Court," and "Cheers."

Gibb died on May 12 following health complications.

Glen Hansard, 56

Irish singer-songwriter Hansard was the frontman of the rock band The Frames and one-half of the band The Swell Season. But he was perhaps best known for writing and starring in the hit 2007 indie film "Once," in which he and his Swell Season bandmate Markéta Irglová play two struggling musicians who fall in love. The duo won an Oscar for best original song for the film's standout track, "Falling Slowly."

Hansard also embarked on a solo career; his 2015 album, "Didn't He Ramble," was nominated for a Grammy for best folk album.

Hansard died on July 29 in a motorcycle crash in Dublin.

Anthony Head, 72

Rising up through the UK stage scene in the 1980s, Head found fame when he was cast as Rupert Giles, who became a father figure to Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy Summers in all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Most recently, he played the bitter former owner of AFC Richmond on "Ted Lasso."

Head's death was announced by his family on June 5. They stated the cause was "complications due to pneumonia."

David Hockney, 88

British painter David Hockney was renowned for his striking portraits and figurative pop art. Many of his best-known paintings, including 1966's "The Splash" and 1972's "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," were inspired by the bright colors and sun-dappled pools of Los Angeles.

Hockney moved to Los Angeles in the late '60s, and his work became synonymous with the warmth and leisure of Southern California. He was also one of the few popular artists at the time to depict openly gay scenes, and Hockney was outspoken about anti-gay censorship.

Throughout his career, Hockney split time between California, England, and France. He died at his home in London on June 12 at age 88, his publicist confirmed to The New York Times. No cause of death was given.

Jesse Jackson, 84

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and an activist icon who twice ran for president.

Born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson experienced Jim Crow segregation on public buses and at school firsthand. It would shape the rest of his life.

His fight for civil rights began in the 1960s, when he helped organize protests and demonstrations across the US and worked closely alongside civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

His decadeslong career as a leading civil rights activist included support for modern national movements, such as the push for voting rights, the fight against racism, and a higher minimum wage.

Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a democrat. He placed third for the party's nomination in 1984 and second in 1988. This marked the most successful presidential runs of any Black candidate prior to Barack Obama.

Jackson announced in 2017 that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In November 2025, Jackson was treated in a Chicago hospital after complications from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative condition.

Jackson died on February 17.

Yayoi Kusama, 97

Kusama was a famed Japanese pop artist who often used polka-dot motifs in her work, initially rising to prominence in Japan in the 1950s.

In 1959, Kusama presented her first solo exhibition in New York: a collection of abstract paintings that an ARTnews review praised as "strong, advanced in concept and realized."

Kusama later branched into sculptures, performances, and immersive installations. She continued to expand her influence and relevance into the social media era, when her mirrored "Infinity Room" installations became Instagram-friendly attractions that inspired many copycats.

Kusama died on August 14 in Tokyo. She was 97.

Bob Mackie, 87

As one of Hollywood's most renowned costume designers, Bob Mackie's eye set the style for decades.

Known as the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones, or the Guru of Glitter, a signature of Mackie's work was its use of sparkle, which made everyone from Cher to Elton John to Dolly Parton to Sabrina Carpenter shine on stage.

He also was the costume designer on "The Carol Burnett Show" for all eleven seasons through the 1970s. He won nine Emmys, a Tony Award, and was nominated for three Academy Awards for his work.

Mackie died on September 14; no cause was given.

Patrick Muldoon, 57

In the 1990s, you couldn't escape the piercing eyes of Patrick Muldoon.

He played Austin Reed on "Days of Our Lives" for most of the decade, and when he wasn't on the soap, he was over on "Melrose Place" playing the villain role of Richard Hart.

If being on two iconic shows wasn't enough, he also showed up on "Saved by the Bell" and had a role in the cult classic movie "Starship Troopers."

Muldoon died on April 19 after a heart attack.

Sam Neill, 78

With a career spanning more than five decades and including countless memorable performances in movies and television, Sam Neill was one of the most versatile actors of his generation,

The New Zealand actor starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 thriller "Dead Calm," played the loyal first officer opposite Sean Connery in 1990's "The Hunt for Red October," played the lead in John Carpenter's 1994 horror "In the Mouth of Madness," and most recently starred in the hit series "Peaky Blinders."

But Neill will be best known for playing the brave and all-dinosaur-knowing Dr. Alan Grant in the "Jurassic Park" franchise.

Neill died on July 13; no cause was given. Neill was battling a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer, but was cancer-free at the time of his death, according to a post on his Instagram account announcing his passing.

Tom Noonan, 74

Standing at a towering 6' 5", Tom Noonan was born to play the bad guy. And he did just that, starring as the villain in movies like "Manhunter," "RoboCop 2," and "Last Action Hero."

But this actor had more to show off. He showcased his comedy chops as Rodney Dangerfield's degenerate gambling friend in the 1983 comedy "Easy Money," and set up the heist for Robert De Niro in Michael Mann's 1995 classic "Heat."

His knack for storytelling also translated behind the camera. Noonan wrote, directed, and starred in the drama "What Happened Was," which won the grand prize at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

Noonan died on February 14; no cause was given.

Chuck Norris, 86

Few action stars have Chuck Norris' credentials.

Before he ever stepped in front of a camera, he was a martial arts champion and a black belt in Karate, judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, and Tang Soo Do.

His talents would become known the world over in 1972, when he faced off against Bruce Lee in "The Way of the Dragon."

Through the 1980s, Norris became one of the biggest action stars in the world thanks to movies like "A Force of One," "The Octagon," and the "Delta Force" and "Missing in Action" franchises.

In the 1990s, he took over the small screen, playing the lead in the "Walker, Texas Ranger" TV show, which aired in over 100 countries during its run from 1993 to 2001.

Norris was hospitalized on March 19 in Hawaii and died the following day, according to his family. No cause was given.

Catherine O'Hara, 71

O'Hara, who was best known for her roles in "Beetlejuice" and "Home Alone," got her start in the Canadian comedy scene, appearing in the now-legendary cast of "SCTV."

It would mark the beginning of a fruitful partnership with fellow actor Eugene Levy, who became her frequent costar and collaborator in memorable appearances in Christopher Guest films like "A Mighty Wind" and "Best in Show" and television series like "Schitt's Creek," which earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in 2020.

O'Hara's representation confirmed her death to Business Insider on January 30. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed in a death certificate viewed by People that O'Hara died of a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer listed as an underlying cause.

Hayden Panettiere, 36

Panettiere began acting as a child, landing one of her earliest major roles as Sarah Roberts on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live," on which she appeared from 1994 to 1997.

As her career progressed, she became best known for portraying Claire Bennet on "Heroes" and Juliette Barnes on "Nashville."

Over the years, Panettiere had spoken openly about her struggles with alcoholism and postpartum depression. She detailed those experiences in her memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," which was released in May.

Her representative confirmed to Business Insider on August 17 that Panettiere had died at 36 but did not disclose a cause of death.

Dolly Parton, 80

Parton released her debut album, "Hello, I'm Dolly," in 1967 and went on to pen country hits like "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene," both of which were released as singles in 1974.

In addition to her music, Parton was beloved for her flamboyant style and her philanthropy. She founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988, a charitable organization focused on education and community initiatives in her home state of Tennessee. She continued to fund scholarship programs and donate to hospitals, public health initiatives, and disaster relief programs throughout her life.

Parton is known as the best-selling female country music artist of all time. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Parton's 49th and final solo studio album, "Rockstar," was released in 2023. The tracklist included both original material and covers of classic rock songs, featuring an array of guests like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Sting, Joan Jett, and Parton's goddaughter, Miley Cyrus.

News broke on August 25 that Parton died following unspecified health issues. She was 80.

Vincent Pastore, 80

This character actor found fame appearing in a string of mob movies in the 1990s, like "Goodfellas," "Carlito's Way," and "Men of Respect." But Pastore truly became a star when he was cast in the hit HBO series "The Sopranos."

As Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, Pastore was part of the main cast for the first two seasons of the show, playing Tony Soprano's mob enforcer-turned-FBI informant. Bonpensiero's shocking death was one of the most famous in the show's history and proved that no one was safe from getting whacked.

Pastore died on August 1. No cause was given.

Valerie Perrine, 82

Perrine found herself cast alongside the biggest stars of the 1970s.

She played the love interest opposite Jeff Bridges in 1973's "The Last American Hero" and Robert Redford in 1979's "The Electric Horseman." She earned an Oscar nomination for starring alongside Dustin Hoffman in 1974's "Lenny."

For most, she'll be remembered best for sharing the screen with Gene Hackman as the secretary to his evil Lex Luthor in 1978's "Superman." She also starred in the sequel. As Ms. Teschmacher, her loyalty to Luthor is questioned when she rescues Superman (Christopher Reeve) after he's chained with Kryptonite.

Perrine died in her home in Beverly Hills on March 23. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015.

Sonny Rollins, 95

One of the most influential jazz musicians in history, Rollins recorded more than 60 albums over his seven-decade career.

His live album, "A Night at the Village Vanguard," is considered one of the greatest jazz albums ever made.

Rollins died on May 25; no cause was given.

Neil Sedaka, 86

Sedaka is responsible for some of the biggest pop songs of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Brooklyn native wrote over 500 songs, including classic hits like "Laughter in the Rain," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Bad Blood" and the Captain & Tennille song, "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Sedaka died on February 27; no cause was given.

Gene Shalit, 100

Before there was Rotten Tomatoes or even Siskel & Ebert, movie lovers got their recommendations from Gene Shalit.

The iconic movie critic could be seen sporting his signature look of glasses, bushy hair, and big mustache as a staple on the "Today" show from 1973 to 2010. If he wasn't interviewing the biggest movie stars, he was reviewing movies with incredible puns ("'Ishtar' is Ish-terrible.")

His larger-than-life presence left a mark on pop culture: he was parodied as a Muppet and on countless episodes of "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live."

Shalit died on June 12; no cause was given.

Kiki Shepard, 74

In her 15-year tenure as a co-host on "Showtime at the Apollo," Kiki Shepard was considered royalty at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater.

Known in the building as "Apollo Queen of Fashion" thanks to her dazzling outfits, Shepherd was a fixture on the show from 1987 to 2002.

Throughout her career, Shepard also appeared on TV shows like "Baywatch," "A Different World," "NYPD Blue," and "Grey's Anatomy."

Shepard died on March 16 after suffering a heart attack.

Gloria Steinem, 92

An icon in the women's liberation movement of the 1970s, Steinem dedicated most of her life to fighting sexism.

Starting her career as a journalist, she became a columnist for the newly founded New York Magazine in 1968. She cofounded Ms. magazine in 1971, which focused on women's issues. She also helped launch the Women's Action Alliance, which focused on tackling sexism.

Steinem was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

Steinem died on September 2, according to a post on her social media. No cause was given.

Béla Tarr, 70

Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr became a legend in the arthouse world for his unflinching work featuring several-minute-long takes.

With movies like "Family Nest" (1979) and "The Turin Horse" (2011), Tarr showcased his slow cinema style while focusing on marginalized characters living bleak lives. Tarr pushed the envelope with his style when he made "Sátántangó" in 1994, which had a run time of 450 minutes.

His work influenced several arthouse filmmakers, including Jim Jarmusch and Gus Van Sant's "Death Trilogy" ("Gerry," "Elephant," and "Last Days").

Tarr died on January 6 following a battle with a "long and serious illness."

James Tolkan, 94

You might not recognize the name, but if you're a movie fan, you know the face.

Tolkan's tough-guy persona made a mark on movie history in films like "Top Gun" and the "Back to the Future" franchise.

In "Top Gun," he played Commander Tom "Stinger" Jardian, who famously gives Tom Cruise's character a tongue lashing, saying, "Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash."

In "Back to the Future" and its sequels, he played Principal Strickland, who had zero tolerance for "slackers."

Other credits include "Serpico," "WarGames," "Masters of the Universe," and "Dick Tracy."

Tolkan died on March 26; no cause was given.

Ted Turner, 87

Ted Turner changed the television landscape thanks to his maverick maneuvers to harness the 24-hour news cycle.

After taking over his father's advertising company in the 1960s at the age of 24, Turner embarked on a path to change the media landscape by buying up radio and TV stations around the South. He even bought sports teams including the Atlanta Braves MLB team and the Atlanta Hawks NBA team.

All of that programming would eventually become part of TBS, a "super station" that showed old movies, reruns, and Braves and Hawks games.

Turner then set his sights on the news. He founded CNN, the first 24-hour news channel, in June of 1980.

Over the decades, Turner gained celebrity status, particularly after marrying with Jane Fonda, a union that lasted from 1991 to 2001. In 1991, he was named Time's "Man of the Year." He sold his networks to Time Warner for $7.5 billion in 1996.

Turner died on May 6; no cause was given.

Bonnie Tyler, 75

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler became one of the biggest artists of the 1980s thanks to her legendary power ballads.

Tyler was behind hits like "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding Out for a Hero," which was also featured on the 1984 "Footloose" soundtrack. Both songs were chart-toppers that have since become two of the best-selling singles of all time.

Over her career, Tyler was nominated for three Grammys and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

Tyler died on July 8 in Portugal, where she was being treated for an illness, according to a statement posted on her social media.

James Van Der Beek, 48

Van Der Beek was beloved all over the world for his role as the titular teen Dawson Leery on the WB series "Dawson's Creek."

The series, which ran from 1998 to 2002, turned Van Der Beek into a star and a teen heartthrob. While "Dawson's Creek" was still airing, he'd cement his stardom playing the lead role of high school quarterback "Mox" Moxon in the 1999 coming-of-age drama "Varsity Blues."

Van Der Beek found steady work the rest of his career in movies like "Texas Rangers" and "The Rules of Attraction, and memorably played a fictional version of himself on the TV series "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," and performed on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2019.

Van Der Beek learned he had stage 3 colon cancer in 2023, and publicly announced his diagnosis in late 2024.

Van Der Beek previously told Business Insider that the news came as a shock, given the subtleness of his symptoms and his efforts to stay as healthy as possible.

"I was doing everything," he said. "I was doing sauna, cold plunge, weightlifting, Pilates. I would dance and also do football training."

Van Der Beek died on Feb. 11.

Bob Weir, 78

Weir was one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead.

The singer-songwriter wrote and/or sang on songs like "Sugar Magnolia," "Playing in the Band," "Truckin,'" "I Need a Miracle," and "The Other One."

After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir went on to form several other bands, including Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites, RatDog, The Other Ones, and, alongside John Mayer, Dead & Company.

In the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer.

Weir died on January 10.

Victor Willis, 74

Willis was the lead singer of the iconic disco band the Village People.

Along with being the lead vocalist and dressing as the police officer (and sometimes naval officer), Willis was also the cowriter on many of the band's hits, including "In the Navy," "Macho Man," and the song that will keep the Village People in pop culture lore until the end of time, "Y.M.C.A."

Willis left the band to embark on a solo career in 1979, then re-formed the Village People in 2017.

Willis died on June 30 following a "short but aggressive illness," according to the Village People Facebook page.

Frederick Wiseman, 96

For over five decades, Wiseman's brand of non-fiction storytelling put a spotlight on everyday people.

From high schoolers to hospital workers to Air Force cadets training for nuclear war, Wiseman's close to 50-film catalogue is an unvarnished reflection of America over the last half century.

Wiseman died on Februay 16, no cause was given.

The best 100-inch TVs can turn your living room into a genuine home theater, whether you're kicking back for movie night or inviting everyone over for an NFL watch party. Better yet, buying a TV this big no longer means spending a fortune. In 2026, you can find 98- and 100-inch TVs starting at around $1,400. That's still a major purchase, but it's dramatically less than what TVs this size used to cost.

I've spent more than a decade reviewing home entertainment gear, and I used that experience to narrow down the best 100-inch TVs you can buy (including 97- and 98-inch models). My top recommendation is the TCL QM8L. It costs less than similar big-screen TVs from Samsung, Sony, and LG while still delivering fantastic brightness and contrast. But if you're on a tighter budget, the TCL Q65 is my entry-level pick. Its picture quality can't match the QM8L's, but for under $1,500, you're still getting a sharp, colorful image on a seriously huge screen.

Below, I've rounded up the five best 100-inch TVs available now. Just note that the exact screen size varies slightly by brand and panel type. In this guide, I'm grouping 97-, 98-, and 100-inch TVs together so you can see the strongest options across that range.

Our top picks for the best 100-inch TVs

Best overall: TCL QM8L SQD 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best midrange: TCL QM7L SQD 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best entry-level: TCL Q65 QLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best premium Mini LED: TCL X11L SQD 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best high-end OLED: LG G5 OLED 4K TV - See at Amazon

Best overall

The TCL QM8L Mini LED TV is one of the best values in the upper-midrange class, delivering performance that beats similarly priced TVs from the competition. This is the best 98-inch TV for people who want excellent image quality without paying an outrageous amount. Though its list price is $6,000, it's now typically sold for $3,998. That's still a notable investment in a TV, but it's much less than other 100-inch sets in this tier from Samsung, Sony, and LG.

This model replaces my previous pick in this spot, the TCL QM8K. The QM8L carries over everything I loved about that older model while offering enhanced color performance. Though the QM8K remains a great TV, it's sold out at most retailers, so the QM8L is my new recommendation.

Like its predecessor, the QM8L features a Mini LED backlight with local dimming, delivering high brightness and impressive contrast. But unlike that older model, the QM8L uses TCL's new SQD (Super Quantum Dot) technology, which features larger quantum dots and an improved color filter. Now, all that jargon might sound like marketing fluff, but the QM8L's performance is genuinely a step above standard QLED TVs.

When testing the 75-inch model, I measured about 85% of the next-gen BT.2020 color space, and the 98-inch size should deliver the same result. Though some RGB-backlit TVs can reach even higher numbers, 85% is an impressive feat. It's still rare for movies and TV shows to take full advantage of BT.2020 color, but that may change as more displays adopt enhanced technologies like SQD. Ultimately, this means the QM8L offers vibrant colors in current content while also being well-equipped to handle future content produced for a wider color gamut.

The QM8L's brightness is similarly top-notch for its class. On the 75-inch model, I measured a peak of around 3,600 nits, with short bursts up to 4,100 nits. The 98-inch size is actually rated for slightly higher brightness, so it should deliver about 500 more nits. In real-world HDR content, this leads to bold, vibrant highlights. Such high brightness also makes it easier to overcome reflections in rooms with a lot of light.

The QM8L's backlight control is very good, and it's capable of deep black levels. However, its contrast isn't as precise as that of OLEDs or some pricier Mini LED and RGB LED sets I've tested, such as the step-up TCL X11L and Sony Bravia 9 II. Blooming, halos, and light bleed are rare, but I did spot some backlight patchiness and flickering shadows in a few tricky scenes from movies like "The Green Knight" and "1917."

Viewing angles are also decent, but still can't match that of an OLED. There are shifts in color and contrast when viewing the display from an angle, but the effect is less severe than I've seen on cheaper QLEDs. The QM8L also boasts smooth Google TV navigation with Gemini AI voice control.

Compared to similar Mini LED sets from other brands, the QM8L delivers nearly unbeatable value at this size. For instance, the 98-inch QM8L outperforms Samsung's 98-inch QN90F in several areas. But depending on current discounts, the QN90F costs around $5,000 more than the QM8L. Samsung's TVs are known for better build quality, but it's hard to justify such a gigantic price gap when the QM8L actually delivers better image quality overall

Read our TCL QM8L TV review.

Visit our guide to the best TCL TVs.

Best midrange

When considering overall performance for the money, the TCL QM7L is a standout midrange TV. Its price fluctuates between $3,000 and just under $2,500, which is a good value for a 98-inch Mini LED set in this class.

The QM7L is the 2026 successor to my previous pick in this spot, the 2025 QM7K. That older model is still a good TV, but it's hard to find in stock, so the QM7L is my new pick. As with the brand's latest QM8 Series, the QM7L uses TCL's SQD technology to deliver around 85% of the next-gen BT.2020 color space. It also boasts higher brightness than its predecessor.

That said, this step-down model can't get as bright as the more expensive QM8L, and its contrast is a bit lower. When testing the 75-inch model, our reviewer measured a peak brightness of around 2,400 nits, and the 98-inch size should be comparable. That's a solid 600 nits brighter than the older QM7K, but it's still well under the QM8L's capabilities.

But while HDR highlights in especially bright content don't quite carry the same impact as those on the QM8L, most people will be more than satisfied with the QM7L's punchy, vibrant image. It also does a nice job handling dark scenes, with excellent local dimming. Our reviewer did notice some foggy light bleed in certain situations, especially when watching TV in a pitch-black room or from an off-axis position, but black-level performance is great for this price.

As with the QM8L, viewing angles remain somewhat limited, so contrast and color fade from off-center. That's to be expected for a Mini LED TV, but it's something to keep in mind. Our reviewer also ran into an isolated issue with some highlights clipping (losing detail) and turning an odd shade of blue while watching "Mad Max: Fury Road." But this didn't happen in any other content, so it may be tied to how that specific movie is mastered.

The QM7L's smart TV and gaming capabilities are also great, with snappy Google TV navigation, Gemini AI, and support for up to a 144Hz refresh rate, rounding out an overall excellent package.

Read our TCL QM7L TV review.

Best entry-level

If you're buying a 100- or 98-inch TV, you should be prepared to spend a good amount of money, but sets in this tier have come down in price a lot over the last couple of years. Budget models now regularly sell for $1,200 to $1,700, and the 98-inch TCL Q65 is the best option in that range.

Like the other TCL displays in this guide, the Q65 uses quantum dots in its panel to produce vibrant colors. However, this model uses smaller, less advanced quantum dots and lacks a Mini LED backlight or local dimming. Without those features, it can't match the contrast, brightness, BT. 2020 gamut, or black-level capabilities of my pricier picks. As a result, the Q65 appears more washed out and uneven when watching TV in a dark room, and it struggles to overcome glare in a bright room. It's also prone to even narrower viewing angles, like most QLEDs in this class.

However, that doesn't mean the Q65 has poor image quality. It's just that this is closer to an entry-level TV than a midrange or high-end set. The Q65 is a great budget option for anyone who prioritizes a larger screen over paying the same price for a smaller TV with better picture quality.

The 98-inch Q65 actually has a higher refresh rate than its 50-, 55-, 65-, and 75-inch counterparts, making it a solid choice for gaming as well. This model supports refresh rates of up to 144Hz, VRR, and ALLM. The Q65's built-in Google TV operating system is also reliable, and it comes with a voice remote.

Best premium Mini LED

The TCL X11L is the most impressive Mini LED TV I've tested. This is TCL's premium model for 2026, and it uses the brand's SQD technology to offer some of the best color and brightness performance on the market. Its contrast control is also more effective than that of the QM7L and QM8L, with black-level performance that gets remarkably close to OLED territory. Of course, it's also notably more expensive than those step-down models.

Though I measured the 85-inch version for my review, the 98-inch model carries over the same specifications, so its performance should be comparable, just with a larger screen. Brightness is one of the X11L's biggest selling points. In my tests, it initially delivered around 2,600 nits in Filmmaker Mode using a standard 10% HDR pattern. But after adjusting some brightness settings in the Filmmaker Mode menu, I was able to pump up the TV's luminance, measuring a stable 4,000 nits, with brief bursts up to 6,000 nits. The highest reading I got was an insane 9,300 nits, but the TV only sustained that for quick flashes.

In practice, those high numbers translate into spectacular HDR highlights with an impact that's a step above other Mini LED TVs. The X11L can also cover a wide range of colors, giving movies and shows a rich, expansive look that helps this set stand out as a true home theater centerpiece. I measured around 88% of the BT.2020 color space, which is even higher than the QM7L and QM8L could achieve.

In addition, the X11L's local dimming is the best I've seen on a Mini LED TV, besting TCL's cheaper models. Black levels disappear convincingly in a dark room, and blooming around bright objects is basically nonexistent. Though I'm a stickler for backlight imperfections, I had to really strain to see any flaws on this set. That said, the X11L is still not quite OLED-level in terms of absolute pixel precision. And while wide for a QLED, viewing angles still fall short of what an OLED can deliver.

Beyond picture quality, the TV is packed with premium features, including four HDMI 2.1 ports, support for up to 4K at 144Hz, and a smooth Google TV interface with Gemini AI. The X11L's design is also a step above other TCL models, with a premium bronze-tinged finish and a slimmer profile. Like the QM8L, it uses TCL's ZeroBorder panel, which minimizes the screen's frame.

Ultimately, the main drawback here is cost. At a full retail price of around $9,998, this is an expensive flagship set. Most buyers are better off stepping down to TCL's cheaper QM8L, but for enthusiasts who want a massive ultra-bright Mini LED TV, the X11L is in a class of its own.

Read our full TCL X11L TV review.

Best high-end OLED

OLED TVs larger than 83 inches are rare. This is because OLED panels are difficult to produce in extra-large sizes, making them very expensive. This brings us to LG's 97-inch G5 OLED TV. Though this set is one of the most impressive-looking displays available at this size, it has a head-spinning list price of $25,000. While recent discounts have brought it down to around $16,000, that's still more than any other TV on this list.

But if money is no object, the 97-inch G5 is a home theater dream come true. Unlike my other picks, which use Mini LED or QLED panels that require a backlight, the G5's OLED screen offers an infinite contrast ratio and perfect black levels that disappear in a dark room. High contrast is one of the most critical elements of premium picture quality, and contrast doesn't get any better than this.

Viewing angles are also exceptional, with minimal color or contrast loss when sitting to the side of the screen or at close range. However, it's important to note that the 97-inch version of this TV does not use the four-stack panel design that its smaller counterparts use. This means the 97-inch G5 can't match the brightness and color performance of the 83-, 77-, 65-, and 55-inch sizes. Its peak brightness is also lower than that of premium QLED models, such as the TCL QM8L and X11L.

However, the 97-inch G5 still provides sufficient brightness for most use cases. Likewise, it offers better HDR performance than any competing QLED thanks to the pixel-level dimming capabilities of its OLED screen. The G5 also features high-end styling, with a thin profile that mounts flush against your wall. But it's key to remember that the G5 only comes with a mount, not a stand.

LG's webOS smart TV platform rounds out the package, providing access to the major apps most users need. The latest software adds a few AI-powered features and enhancements. Most notably, the G5 has a voice recognition system that automatically switches profiles and swaps curated recommendations based on who is speaking.

The G5 also supports a 120Hz refresh rate when paired with a PS5, Xbox Series X, or Nintendo Switch 2, but it falls short of the 165Hz refresh rate offered by smaller sizes. This limitation is only noteworthy if you're a PC gamer with a powerful enough rig to play games at high frame rates.

Most people are much better off saving money by going with one of the cheaper 100-inch QLED models I recommend or by stepping down to an 83-inch G5, which costs a lot less and gets brighter. But for big home theater enthusiasts with equally big wallets, the 97-inch G5 is unmatched at this size.

LG also sells a newer 2026 edition of this model, called the G6, but it costs more than the G5 typically goes for and offers very similar performance. You can learn more in my 2026 LG OLED TV breakdown.

Read our LG G5 4K TV review.

Visit our guides to the best OLED TVs and best LG TVs.

What else we considered

Though the models above represent our top picks for the best 100-inch TVs, there are other options worth considering for specific needs and budgets. Here's a rundown of other quality 100-inch displays, along with details on why they didn't quite make the cut for this guide.

TCL 98-inch QM6K QLED TV - See at Amazon
This is TCL's top entry-level Mini LED TV, delivering good image quality for the price with solid contrast and decent brightness. It sits between the QM7L and Q65 in both performance and cost. If you're looking for a 98-inch TV that offers better picture quality than the Q65 but still costs less than $2,500, this model is a good alternative.

Read our full TCL QM6K TV review.

Hisense 100-inch U8QG QLED TV - See at Amazon
Hisense's U8QG is a contender for a top spot in this guide. We reviewed the 65-inch model and were impressed by its incredible brightness. However, the 100-inch model uses a different panel type, which could result in lower brightness and color saturation. As it stands, we give the TCL QM8L an edge, but this model is a solid alternative if you can find it for a lower price.

Read our full Hisense U8QG TV review.

Samsung 100-inch QN80F QLED TV - See at Amazon
The QN80F is one of Samsung's upper-midrange QLED TVs, available in a 100-inch screen size. Like the TCL QM7L and QM8L, this display utilizes a Mini LED backlight with local dimming to achieve excellent contrast and solid brightness. However, the QN80F costs more than the QM7L, and it can't get quite as bright. This is a good buy if you're willing to pay extra because you favor Samsung as a brand, but otherwise, we give an edge to more affordable models with similar specs.

How we select 100-inch TVs

To choose the best 100-inch TVs, our team relied on a combination of hands-on testing and research informed by years of experience reviewing TVs. When we test TVs, we typically evaluate 65-, 75-, or 85-inch models, as many brands consider those their premier sizes. However, most TV models sold in multiple screen sizes share the same core specifications for sizes 55 inches and up.

With that in mind, general performance results for a 65-, 75-, or 85-inch TV will also apply to its 100-inch counterpart. Some larger TVs do have more pronounced differences than their smaller editions, but we've detailed those differences where applicable.

To evaluate a TV's image quality, we rely on day-to-day viewing, demo material, test patterns, and a brightness meter. We use specific clips from various movies and shows to review different picture-quality attributes, such as contrast, black levels, HDR highlights, clarity, and color. We also sample material across different quality levels, from standard definition to 4K, in both standard dynamic range (SDR) and HDR. Gaming consoles are also used, including a PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

We try to use each TV we test as we would in our daily routine, by watching streaming content, cable channels, and Blu-ray discs in both bright and dark environments. We also test smart TV features, such as navigation speed and digital assistant functions, to ensure they function properly.

Meet the expert behind this guide:

Steven Cohen, senior tech editor: I've been covering home entertainment products for over a decade, and I use that extensive experience to recommend the best TVs for all kinds of users. I also studied film production, so I know how crucial accurate color, contrast, and motion are, especially on massive 98- and 100-inch screens where every detail is magnified. My aim is to cut through the marketing hype and help you find extra-large TVs that deliver cinematic performance at every budget.

Learn more about the Reviews team at Business Insider.

100-inch TV FAQs

How much should you spend on a 100-inch TV?

The best 100-inch TVs still aren't exactly cheap, but the good news is that 100- and 98-inch QLED models have dropped significantly in price since they first hit the market. That's especially true if you're looking at brands like Hisense and TCL, which have really pushed giant screens into the mainstream.

During sales, you can snag entry-level 100-inch TVs from TCL and Hisense for around $1,200, while their midrange options usually land between $2,000 and $2,800. If you want something more premium, their high-end models tend to fall in the $3,000-$5,000 range. Sony, Samsung, and LG also have a handful of 98- and 100-inch QLED TVs, but they cost significantly more and don't offer a significant leap in picture quality.

OLED, on the other hand, is a different story. Prices for extra-large OLED TVs haven't seen the same drop. Anything above 83 inches is still firmly in luxury territory, and if you truly want to go big, 97-inch OLED models will run you somewhere in the $15,000 to $25,000 range. You can learn more about the benefits of an OLED in our QLED vs. OLED comparison.

Why are some TVs sold in 97 or 98 inches instead of 100 inches?

Whether a TV model is sold in 97, 98, or 100 inches usually depends on the brand and type of panel it uses. Some display types are easier to manufacture in slightly different sizes, and certain sizes fit better within a company's existing production lines. That's why brands tend to choose between 97-, 98-, or 100-inch TV sizes, and why they're often grouped when we talk about the best 100-inch TVs.

Are there 100-inch RGB LED TVs?

Yes, several brands have released new RGB LED TV models in 98- or 100-inch sizes. RGB LED TVs use red, green, and blue diodes in their backlights, enabling a wider, brighter range of colors. You can learn more about this technology in our Mini LED vs. RGB LED comparison.

Here's a rundown of some 100- and 98-inch RGB LED models available:

• Sony 98-inch Bravia 7 II - See at Sony
• TCL 98-inch RM9L - See at TCL
• Samsung 100-inch R85H - See at Samsung
• LG 100-inch MRGB95B - See at LG
• Hisense 100-inch UR9 - See at Best Buy
• Hisense 100-inch UR8 - See at Best Buy

Given the current cost difference between 100-inch RGB LED and Mini LED TVs, we don't currently recommend any RGB LED models in this guide, but that could change if prices drop over the coming months.

What are the ideal room size and viewing distance for a 100-inch TV?

The best 100-inch TVs can deliver an impressive cinematic experience, but only if your space can handle a screen that big. As a general rule, 100-inch TVs are best suited for a large living room, basement theater, or dedicated media room, where you can sit between eight and 14 feet from the screen. This distance helps your eyes take in the entire image without moving your head too much, while still allowing you to appreciate the detail of 4K resolution.

You'll also need to ensure you have enough wall space in your room to comfortably center the screen. If you have speakers, you'll also want to keep a few feet of clearance on each side.

If your room is too small to accommodate our recommended viewing distance, consider stepping down to a 75- or 85-inch TV for a better balance between immersion and comfort.

Can you mount a 100-inch TV on the wall?

Yes, but make sure your wall and mount can handle it. These TVs often weigh over 100 pounds, so you'll need a heavy-duty mount rated for the right size and weight. It's also best to opt for professional installation for a screen this large to ensure it's securely installed.

Should you buy a 100-inch TV or a projector?

If you're shopping for the best 100-inch TV, there's a good chance you're also debating whether a projector might be the better fit for your big-screen setup. Projectors definitely have some perks, but they also come with a few important trade-offs.

On the plus side, projectors can go far beyond the size of even the largest TVs. Many models can throw images up to 300 inches, and depending on your space, installing a lightweight projector screen might be a lot easier than figuring out where to mount a massive 100-inch TV. You can also snag plenty of solid budget projectors for under $1,000, while entry-level 100-inch TVs typically start around $1,300 when they're discounted.

That said, there are key compromises worth noting. Most affordable projectors still top out at Full HD (1080p), and even many models advertised as 4K actually use pixel shifting to approximate a higher resolution rather than delivering a true native 4K picture. Placement can also get tricky: long-throw projectors need a good amount of distance to achieve larger screen sizes, while short-throw models solve that problem but usually cost more.

Brightness is another big sticking point. Many entry- and mid-tier projectors simply can't compete with TVs in terms of luminance, especially when watching during the day or in a room with lots of ambient light. In most cases, the contrast performance and HDR capabilities of a typical consumer projector are noticeably inferior to those of a midrange TV, resulting in flatter images with grayer black levels. And for gamers, it's worth remembering that 4K/120Hz support is still uncommon in projectors.

High-end projectors — particularly from brands like Sony and JVC — can deliver fantastic picture quality, but when you compare them dollar for dollar, the best 100-inch TVs still offer superior overall performance at a similar price.

Are TVs available in sizes larger than 100 inches?

Yes, some brands sell TVs larger than 100 inches. Here are a few notable options:

• Hisense 116-inch UX TriChroma LED 4K TV
• Hisense 110-inch UX QLED 4K TV
• Hisense 136-inch MX MicroLED TV
• TCL 115-inch QM7K QLED 4K TV
• TCL 115-inch QM89 QLED 4K TV
• Samsung 115-inch QN90F QLED 4K TV
• Samsung 115-inch R95 Micro RGB 4K TV
• Sony 115-inch Bravia 9 II True RGB 4K TV

For buyers who want something smaller than 100 inches, be sure to check out our other TV guides:

• Best 85-inch TVs
• Best 75-inch TVs
• Best 65-inch TVs
• Best 55-inch TVs
• Best 50-inch TVs
• Best 43-inch TVs

• Top AI leaders want to slow the development of their top-end models.
• The coordinated response comes as AI faces lots of headwinds.
• That doesn't mean their concerns aren't real, but the timing is also self-serving.

Imagine a pharmaceutical company spends nearly four years touting a ground-breaking new medicine that will cure all diseases.

Early evidence supporting those claims is limited, and massive questions remain, but the company continues to make progress. Criticism and concerns, while addressed, don't slow its aggressive push.

After all, investors believe this is the real deal. (Or at least a really good bet.)

And then right before the pharma company unveils its fancy new drug, it gives a shocking update: It turns out the medicine could also be a poison. So, for the safety of all involved, progress in the space needs to be slowed to ensure things don't go off the rails.

That's basically the big debate going on in AI land these days.

After years of telling us how groundbreaking their tech will be, AI leaders like Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and xAI's Elon Musk are saying we need to slow the development of their most advanced models or risk a very dark future for humanity.

Is it about safety, or self-preservation?

A tumultuous 2026 for AI

Silicon Valley has been warning about the downside of AI for years. But this weekend was the type of coordinated response the industry has rarely seen.

The calls for an AI slowdown aren't happening in a vacuum. The industry's facing pressure on multiple fronts these days. Data centers, for one, have drawn the public's ire. AI's biggest supporters have even said the industry needs to do a better job of pitching itself to people.

The business case for AI remains an open question. Tired of hearing about its potential, investors and analysts are increasingly pressuring public companies to show their returns on these massive AI bets that are burning cash.

Open-weight models, a cheaper alternative to pricey frontier models, are causing headaches for companies trying to make money from model development.

Two of the biggest players in the space — Anthropic and OpenAI — are also preparing for their public debuts. That means opening up their books and themselves to even more scrutiny.

And while both have previously acknowledged the risks of AI, that hasn't slowed them down. Even Amodei, one of the biggest proponents of AI safety, has a habit of simultaneously warning about the risks while advancing new models.

This time, Amodei's concerns don't seem to be slowing its IPO plans. On Sunday, my colleague Katie Roof reported that Anthropic tapped Nasdaq for its public listing.

The benefit of a delay

Pacing AI development solves a lot of those problems.

Let's take the AI leaders' proposal at face value. In that light, it's easy to see how creating more guardrails would capture the goodwill of the general public, something it's definitely lacking.

Behind the scenes, adding any regulatory framework benefits the people already ahead. The biggest players can help write the new rules, leaving smaller players on the outside looking in.

Compliance also tends to be a costly endeavor — lawyers aren't cheap! — which is another hurdle for upstarts in the space hoping to catch up.

And then there's the biggest advantage a slowdown provides: a built-in excuse.

How come you didn't hit your Q4 targets? Safety concerns required us to take a more measured approach. Why isn't that new enterprise product out? We are choosing to innovate at a pace we are comfortable with. Why haven't your costs come down? There are built-in expenses we cannot cut if we want to stay committed to building safe models.

Those safety concerns are already affecting OpenAI. Sam Altman said it's an "ill-advised" time to IPO.

Students have dogs that eat homework. AI companies now have the fate of humanity to worry about before they can hit analysts' estimates or investors' expectations.

But what if the risk is real?

I'm not suggesting there aren't real issues with the pace of AI development. The tech does seem capable of eventually doing some pretty terrible things if not kept in check.

But choosing to take a coordinated approach to this issue now, after billions of dollars have been raised and valuations have skyrocketed, is very convenient.

What if something truly changed that scared AI leaders into wanting a pause?

I've heard this theory floated for a while. Models can make big leaps in a short amount of time. Something could be happening behind the scenes that has them all worried.

If that's the case, the most likely solution will be … more AI.

But even if this is about how humans fit into that equation, the AI apocalypse debate raises another important question. One that AI giants probably won't want to answer.

If the tech is so powerful that the AI giants are unsure how to handle it, why are these company leaders the right people to handle it in the first place?

• Bob Mackie, the legendary designer, died on Monday. He was 87.
• Mackie dressed stars from every era, from Mitzi Gaynor to Sabrina Carpenter.
• His work with Cher, Dolly Parton, and Tina Turner is among his most beloved.

"We're all born naked, and the rest is Bob Mackie," RuPaul once said of Bob Mackie, one of the most iconic costume and fashion designers of the last 60 years.

Mackie, who died on September 14 at 87, created some of the most recognizable and timeless pieces in fashion history, dressing stars including Cher, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, and Britney Spears.

He also managed to stay relevant in seven different decades, from drawing the first sketch for Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress to providing one of the cornerstones for the aesthetic of Taylor Swift's latest album, "The Life of a Showgirl."

To commemorate his immeasurable impact on fashion over the years, we've compiled a list of just some of Mackie's iconic and best-known looks, from the '60s to now.

To talk about Bob Mackie is to talk about Cher. She wore this creation to the 1986 Academy Awards.

Some would describe this as Cher's "revenge dress," since she was snubbed by the Academy for her role in "Mask."

Mackie told The New Yorker in 2018, "There were a lot of people who said, 'That's not fashion!' And I said, 'Of course it's not fashion. It's a crazy getup for attention.' And it did get attention — people talk about it still."

Two years later, she won an Academy Award of her own in a Mackie design.

Cher was slightly more covered up when she won best actress for her performance in "Moonstruck."

"She wanted to wear one of those sheer dresses that covered just what you needed to cover, and the rest was up for grabs," Mackie told The New Yorker. "Of course, getting all dressed up and winning — you can't beat that. She just wanted to look like Cher."

Another of Cher's iconic Oscars looks was this yellow two-piece set in 1973.

Mackie and Cher met in the '60s when she appeared on "The Carol Burnett Show" and immediately connected. She wore this bejeweled two-piece to the 1973 Oscars, baring her abs, setting the tone for their decades of work together.

"It wasn't until a little later, when we started showing a little midriff, that people started getting excited," Mackie told The New Yorker. "It never occurred to her to wear anything ordinary."

Wearing one of his designs, Cher attended the Met Gala in 1974 with Mackie.

"I've never seen so many photographers just come out of the shadows at the Met and take her picture. And, of course, she was in every newspaper the next day, and they've been printing it in the last 50 years, over and over again," Mackie said of this look in 2025, per People.

"People were horrified, they thought, that's not fashion, she's just naked at the Metropolitan," he added. "But it was just amazing."

She rewore the dress to appear on the cover of Time in 1975.

One of the most iconic looks from "The Carol Burnett Show," the curtain dress worn in 1976, was designed by Mackie.

If you've seen "Gone with the Wind," you know what Burnett was spoofing, but if you haven't: Famously, Scarlett O'Hara fashions a dress out of her home's velvet green drapes to appear wealthy.

Burnett, ever the jokester, worked with Mackie to create her own curtain dress, this one complete with a curtain rod across her shoulders.

An editor on the show, Tucker Wiard, told the Television Academy Foundation in 2011 that the laughter from the studio audience went on for so long upon seeing the dress that it had to be cut down for broadcast, and it ended up being the longest in-studio reaction in the show's 11 seasons.

"Over the course of eleven years, Bob created over 17,000 works of art for 'The Carol Burnett Show' — a prolific genius," Burnett told the Paley Center. "Bob means the world to me."

Mackie also worked a lot with Tina Turner for her stage costumes.

"She was born to be on stage. She just couldn't help herself," Mackie told People in 2025, after Turner's death in 2023.

The two met after Turner split from her husband, Ike Turner, and she was looking to reinvent herself. "She would buy cheap evening gowns in Paris in these little shops," he said. "And we would redo these funny inexpensive evening dresses into Tina Turner outfits."

So much so that Beyoncé wore a Mackie piece to pay tribute to Turner in 2005.

The flame dress, as it was called, was first worn by Turner in 1978. Twenty-seven years later, Beyoncé wore the dress at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors and performed "Proud Mary."

Besides Cher, the other person most associated with Mackie's early career is Mitzi Gaynor, who wore this transparent dress for her NBC special in 1969.

Gaynor, an iconic actor, singer, and dancer from Hollywood's Golden Age, was one of the first celebrities to work with Mackie, starting in 1966.

"Bob created me. He saw facets of me that I didn't even know existed and brought them to life in our work together. He could make me look more glamorous than I've ever felt or looked at one moment and then make me a clown or a fabulous gypsy with a rubber chicken in the next. He's a genius," Gaynor said of her friendship with the designer.

According to Gaynor, this was the "first nude dress that Bob Mackie ever did." It sold at auction in 2019.

The bedazzled Los Angeles Dodgers uniform, perhaps Elton John's most iconic look, was designed by Mackie.

The custom piece was encrusted in Swarovski crystals and has lived on in the decades since John first wore it. Harry Styles wore his own version in 2018 for Halloween, and John himself wore an updated robe version at his farewell tour in 2022.

"I did not expect this — I was creating lots of different things for him at the time, and it was just another quick gag," Mackie told Vogue in 2022. "But I am delighted it has become so very famous, and an important moment in Elton's career."

Madonna channeled Marilyn Monroe in this Mackie design at the 1991 Academy Awards.

Madonna wore the dress to perform at the ceremony — she sang "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" written by Stephen Sondheim — and later rewore it in her 1992 book, "Sex."

In September 2024, the dress was spotted again, this time on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards, worn by Sabrina Carpenter. Carpenter has since worn multiple vintage Mackie looks.

If you think it looks like Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Happy birthday, Mr. President" dress, you'd be right. Mackie was the one who first sketched the dress at the behest of designer Jean Louis, per ET.

RuPaul stretched her wings at the 1995 VH1 Fashion & Music Awards in a Mackie creation.

RuPaul and Mackie had a long-standing friendship and working relationship; Mackie was even the first guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race" back in 2009.

"We're all born naked, and the rest is Bob Mackie," the drag star told the Paley Center in 2024. "No one has brought more glamour, beauty, and excitement to the stage and screen."

Britney Spears closed out her iconic 2001 Dream Within a Dream tour wearing a crystalline bra designed by Mackie.

This look was originally designed in 1981, but it didn't become truly iconic until 20 years later, when Spears wore it during the encore of her Dream Within a Dream tour, immortalized in an HBO special.

"When someone knew just how to style me, I was always grateful," Spears wrote of this tour in her memoir, "The Woman in Me." "They are shrewd about how they presented me as a star, and I know that I owe them. They captured me as an artist. The minds behind that tour were brilliant. It was by far my best tour."

In 2025, the bra set sold at auction for $78,000, per People.

A new generation of women has pulled from Mackie's archives, like Zendaya, for the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

To honor Cher, a 2024 inductee, Zendaya and her stylist, Law Roach, pulled this daring dress from Mackie's archives. This look is from Mackie's 2001 collection, Elle reported.

Following news of Mackie's death, Roach posted on Instagram to honor him, calling Mackie his "fashion father and one of the greatest designers in the history of American fashion."

For her showstopping performance at the 2024 Grammys, Miley Cyrus channeled Turner in a silver Mackie design.

This dress, part of Mackie's 2002 collection, was loaned to her for the Grammys performance, during which she joyfully shouted out that she'd just won her first Grammy.

To commemorate the occasion, she purchased the dress when it went on auction that December. "This dress represents more than a performance — it's a celebration of the relationship between music, artistry, and glamour," Cyrus said. "This performance was a pivotal moment in my life, and to have Bob Mackie's support in securing it means the world to me."

"As the designer of this dress, I couldn't imagine it on anyone else. That girl was born to perform," Mackie said.

One of the looks Taylor Swift wore during her "The Life of a Showgirl" era was designed by Mackie.

Swift's most recent album, "The Life of a Showgirl," perhaps had her most defined aesthetic ever, as seen in the multiple album cover variations, the lyric videos, and the music video for lead single "The Fate of Ophelia."

Given the album's showgirl-inspired aesthetic, Swift had to wear a Mackie design. This was another look designed for the Vegas show "Jubilee" (just like the sequined bra worn by Spears).

"They all want to look like that showgirl," Mackie told The New York Times in 2025 of the new generation of young stars flocking to his looks.

"I always think of her as a little fairy-tale princess," Mackie said of Swift. "That young, young girl. But she's a grown-up now."

Apple's latest iPhone generation is officially up for preorder, and the new device looks sweet for fans of the iOS ecosystem. As you might expect, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max aren't cheap, so a good deal goes a long way to making the smartphone accessible. Luckily, new and existing Verizon customers can save now on their new iPhone with these sweet preorder deals.

One of the best offers features a free iPad A16 and Apple Watch Series 12 (or previous generation) with iPhone orders and eligible Verizon Plans. It's an incredibly sweet deal, perfect for students and newcomers to the Apple universe. The devices pair seamlessly, creating a stress-free setup for one user or a value-packed trio to be shared among family members.

Keep reading for more details on how to get Verizon freebies with your iPhone 18 Pro preorder. I've also broken down some of the provider's other ongoing offers for new iPhone purchases, in case you're interested in a different discount.

How to get a free Apple Watch Series 12 and iPad A16 with iPhone purchases

To get your free devices with your Verizon purchase, you need to have an iPhone Service plan. Here's how to get started:

1. Head to the Verizon website and choose the iPhone you want — it doesn't have to be the newest generation to count.
2. Select the color and storage size you want, specify your status as a new or existing customer, indicate whether you'd like to include a trade-in, then click "Preorder" or "Order."
3. Select the iPad and Apple Watch you'd prefer in the pop-up that appears after adding the phone to your cart.
4. Click "Next steps" after adding all three items to your cart.
5. Select your preferred Verizon cell plan and proceed through account enrollment and checkout.

This specific promo covers your additional devices through bill credits. Put simply, you'll pay up front for the iPad and Apple Watch, but Verizon will discount your monthly bill to offset the total cost.

If you already have a smartwatch and a tablet, Verizon is also offering other great promotions on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

See more: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max preorders | Apple Watch Series 12 preorders | Apple Watch Ultra 4 preorders | AirPods 5 preorders

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Television's biggest night is back. We've rounded up everything you need to know about where to watch the Emmys, along with info on the nominees, presenters, and special segments.

Mariska Hargitay will host the 78th Emmy Awards live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The star-studded ceremony airs on NBC and will live stream on Peacock in the US. Keep reading to learn more about the event, including global viewing options.

Where to watch the Emmys in the US

This year's Emmy Awards will air on NBC in the US. The event kicks off on Monday at 8 p.m. ET, and TV guide coverage is blocked out until 11 p.m. The easiest way to live stream the ceremony is through Peacock, NBCUniversal's direct streaming counterpart. Subscriptions start at $13 a month.

If you'd prefer to catch the Emmys through a platform that has other channels beyond just NBC, then a month-to-month live TV streaming service might be of interest. YouTube TV and Fubo are two of our top recommendations right now.

YouTube TV carries NBC in both its Main and Sports plans. The Main plan (100+ channels) costs $83 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first five months. The Sports plan (30+ channels) costs $65 a month, but first-time customers can get $20 a month off their first six months. Both plans also have free trial offerings.

Fubo carries NBC in its Sports + News, Pro, and Elite plans. At $65 a month, Sports + News (~30 channels) is the cheapest option. New users can get $10 off their first month of service after a free trial.

How to watch the Emmys from anywhere

If you're traveling abroad during the telecast, you can still keep up with your usual streaming options with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are easy-to-use tech tools that let people temporarily alter their virtual locations. This way, they can access their go-to websites and apps from anywhere. A VPN is also an instant way to improve cybersecurity. Since the services we've recommended require country-specific payment methods, this option will work best for those who are just traveling away from home right now.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs we've tested. It's fast, user-friendly, and offers a solid selection of international servers. The app also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can learn more in our NordVPN review.

• See also: Best streaming deals | Peacock streaming

Who is presenting at the Emmys?

The list of presenters at this year's Emmy Awards is just as star-studded as the group of nominees (more on that below). The presenters include Stephen Amell, Awkwafina, Odessa A'zion, Noah Beck, Jessica Belkin, Scott Caan, Linda Cardellini, Macaulay Culkin, Alan Cumming, Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma D'Arcy, Sally Field, Julia Garner, LL COOL J, Jon Hamm, David Harbour, Woody Harrelson, Hassie Harrison, Marcello Hernández, Paul Anthony Kelly, Peter Krause, Thaddeus LaGrone, Dan Levy, Julianna Margulies, Matthew McConaughey, John Mulaney, Annie Murphy, Brooks Nader, Niecy Nash-Betts, Keke Palmer, Amanda Peet, Amy Poehler, Florence Pugh, Emmy Rossum, Rachel Sennott, Sofía Vergara, Shailene Woodley, and Zendaya.

Are there any special segments planned?

Noah Kahan will perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" during the In Memoriam segment. Additionally, this year's ceremony will feature celebrations of the 30th anniversary of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz and the 50th anniversary of "Charlie's Angels" with Kate Jackson, Cheryl Ladd, and Jaclyn Smith.

Who are the Emmy nominees?

This year's Emmy nominees include many familiar faces, along with several first-time nominees. "The Pitt" leads the overall nomination count with a whopping 25 nods. "Hacks" trails close behind with 24 nominations, followed by "Widow's Bay" with 19, "Pluribus" with 18, and "Beef" with 16.

Some of the most intriguing races this year include the Outstanding Comedy Series category. "Hacks," which took home the award in 2024 and then lost to "The Studio" in 2025, has once again been nominated in its final season. While the series might seem a shoo-in this year with "The Studio" out of the way and "The Bear" losing some of its luster, sleeper hit "Widow's Bay" is proving to be a worthy adversary.

"Hacks" star Jean Smart has once again been nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy category, and if she wins for the fifth time in a row, she'll make history as the first woman to win for every season that a multi-season show was on air.

Elsewhere, the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series race is another must-watch. Rhea Seehorn of "Pluribus" is the heavy favorite for a long-overdue award after not winning for "Better Call Saul." But two-time Emmy winner Zendaya, who closed out her time on "Euphoria" earlier this year, and Keri Russell, who nabbed the Actor Award (formerly SAG Award) for her work on "The Diplomat," are potential upsets.

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

While very active dogs that spend a lot of time outdoors naturally wear down their nails, most still need regular trims with the best dog nail clippers. Keeping nails short prevents them from curling and growing into the paw pads, which can be a painful and potentially serious condition. Shorter nails also reduce the chance of dogs scratching wood floors or, worse, your arms and legs when they get excited and jump up on you.

Over my eight years working as a veterinary assistant, I trimmed the nails of thousands of pets using many types of dog nail clippers, from plier-style to guillotine types. For this guide, I put 13 different clippers and 3 nail files to the test with five dogs. I also included my top pick for the best dog nail grinder. All of the recommendations that follow were evaluated using our comprehensive pet products testing methodologies.

Our top picks for the best dog nail clippers

Best for large dogs: Andis Pet Nail Clipper - $11 at Chewy

Best for small dogs: JW Pet Grip Soft Deluxe Pet Nail Clipper (Medium) - $13 at Chewy

Best guillotine clippers: Resco Original Deluxe Dog Nail Clippers (Small/Medium) - $26 at Chewy

Best budget: Millers Forge Pet Nail Clipper - $8 at Chewy

Best nail grinder: Casfuy Quiet 2 LED Nail Grinder - $20 at Chewy

Best dog nail file: Safari Diamond Dog Nail File - $9 at Chewy

Best for large dogs

Big dogs often have thick, large nails, and some medium-sized breeds do, too. The Andis Pet Nail Clipper makes trimming these tough nails easy, thanks to its durable design and sharp blades.

I tested these clippers on both a Labrador retriever and a golden retriever. The sharp blades cut through their thick nails easily and smoothly, without splintering or shredding. The nonslip grip was comfortable in my hand, and the large tension spring made the handles easy to squeeze. Additionally, the clippers have a safety guard to prevent overcutting and hitting the quick and a locking mechanism to keep the clippers securely closed for easy storage.

I also used these clippers on a miniature poodle with medium-sized nails, and they worked well, making them a great choice if you have medium and large dogs. Another pair of clippers, the Safari Professional Nail Trimmers, is similarly constructed and nearly identical to the Andis clippers in feel and performance. However, the Andis clippers stand out for their two-year warranty and lower price.

Best for small dogs

The JW Pet Grip Soft Deluxe Pet Nail Clipper in size medium is an excellent choice for dogs with small or thin nails. I tried them with a miniature poodle with medium-sized nails and a 10-pound mixed-breed dog with small nails. The gel-like nonslip handle is especially comfortable to hold, and the sharp stainless steel blades deliver smooth, clean cuts with minimal noise. The clippers also feature a quick guard to prevent overcutting and a locking mechanism for safe storage. I always lock my nail clippers after using them to protect the blade.

Cassie Edmond, an animal care specialist at the San Diego Humane Society, prefers using small nail clippers for puppies or dogs whose nails have grown too long and are beginning to curl toward the paw pad. She says the smaller blades offer better control when maneuvering around curled nails.

These clippers are also a good fit for people with small hands. If you have larger hands, though, you might find the handles a bit tricky to grip comfortably.

Best guillotine clippers

I tested the Resco Original Deluxe Dog Nail Clippers in size small/medium on a miniature poodle with medium-sized nails and a 10-pound mixed-breed dog with small nails. They outperformed the guillotine-style clippers I tested from Millers Forge. The Resco clippers had a sharper blade that delivered clean, smooth cuts, while the Millers Forge blade didn't feel as sharp or cut as smoothly.

Although the Resco clippers don't have a rubber grip on the handles, they were still comfortable to hold and easy to squeeze, similar to my other picks for the best dog nail clippers. They're also built to last, made from chrome-plated steel. And when the blade eventually dulls, you can simply replace it with a blade replacement kit rather than buying a whole new pair.

Guillotine clippers require less force to operate than plier-style clippers, which can make trimming easier on your hands. However, they aren't as strong, so they're not ideal for dogs with very large or thick nails. Instead, they're best suited for dogs with small or medium-sized nails and are also great for cats. Another advantage is that they're very quiet, which can be helpful for pets that get nervous around the loud snapping sound some plier-style clippers make.

It's important to note that guillotine clippers don't come with a quick-guard safety feature. To avoid cutting the quick, trim small amounts of the nail at a time. You'll want to use extra caution, as a dog's nail can sometimes get caught in this style of clipper. If your dog pulls away suddenly, it could lead to a painful injury or even a torn nail.

Best budget

The Millers Forge Pet Nail Clipper stands out for its simplicity, reliable performance, and excellent value at under $8. These were the quietest plier-style clippers I tested, a big plus for skittish dogs. The blades are sharp and cut smoothly and easily. The sharp blades delivered smooth, easy cuts, and the metal handles have slip-on rubber grips that felt comfortable in my hand. That said, I did notice that the grips occasionally slid down the handles during use.

I've used these clippers a lot over the years, particularly during my time as a veterinary assistant. The stainless steel blades maintain their sharpness even with frequent use. The blades' thin design makes it easy to maneuver around each nail, and the quick-guard safety feature and locking mechanism for secure storage add an extra layer of convenience and peace of mind.

These clippers are compact and have a narrow blade opening, so they aren't the best choice for very large dogs or those with very thick nails. However, they worked great when I tested them on a miniature poodle with medium-sized nails and a 10-pound mixed-breed dog with small nails.

Best nail grinder

The Casfuy Quiet 2 LED Nail Grinder is my top pick for the best dog nail grinder because it strikes an excellent balance of comfort, ease of use, performance, and value. It feels well-made and performs impressively for its budget-friendly price.

Grinders are a great alternative for dogs who are nervous around clippers or have black nails, where it's difficult to see the quick. They're suitable for dogs of all sizes and are especially effective on thick nails. The Casfuy's two speed settings are effective for a range of nail sizes: I used the lower setting for small and medium-sized nails and the higher setting for thicker nails. While the Dremel PawControl is more powerful, I found the Casfuy's performance nearly as effective and preferred its lighter, more comfortable design when working with smaller paws. That said, for large, thick nails, the Dremel is the better choice.

At 6.7 ounces, the cordless Casfuy is compact, lightweight, and easy to maneuver. It requires virtually no setup — mine arrived charged and ready to use — and the simple push button cycles through settings. It was also one of the quietest grinders I tested, with minimal vibration. Although some of my tester dogs were anxious, they tolerated the Casfuy better than louder models.

The built-in LED light and nail guard are helpful safety features for beginners. The light improved visibility indoors and helped illuminate the quick so I could more easily see when to stop grinding. The guard has two openings that accommodate different nail sizes and grinding angles, and it worked well on small, medium, and medium-large nails during testing. However, owners of giant breeds with especially large or thick nails may find the openings restrictive. The guard is removable, but I recommend doing so only if you're comfortable grinding nails without the added protection.

The Casfuy's main drawbacks relate to its manual and company information. Its brief manual lacks clear instructions for grinding a dog's nails, and I found little information about the company online. Replacement grinding bits are sold separately for $9.99.

Best dog nail file

A dog nail file is useful for smoothing out rough or sharp edges after trimming your pup's nails with traditional clippers. Smoothing your dog's nails can help prevent them from scratching your skin or snagging on your clothing. Or, if your dog really dislikes having their nails trimmed, you can use a nail file in place of clippers or a nail grinder. It takes longer to manually file the nails to the proper length, but it's a perfectly workable option if you have a high-quality nail file.

The Safari Diamond Dog Nail File is comfortable to hold and files the nail effectively, thanks to the diamond finish on one side of the stainless steel file. The industrial diamond grit coating is similar to sandpaper, but far stronger, more durable, and longer-lasting. This finish helps you quickly file nails to smooth away rough or jagged edges. The large, lightweight handle features rubber grips, and it felt very secure in my hand. The abrasive metal filing surface works well for quickly and smoothly filing down nails without damaging them. While only one side of the file has the diamond finish, both sides are abrasive. The diamond side is slightly concave, and the other side is flat, so I had two angles to choose from when filing all around the nail edges.

Despite its affordable price, the file feels well-made with high-quality materials. I never worried about dropping or damaging it, and the metal part of the file felt strong and durable.

Our top picks compared

What to look for in dog nail clippers

Choosing the type of nail clippers that are best for your dog — and you — can be tricky. To help you make your decision, I asked Dr. Jerry Klein, chief veterinary officer at the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation, what features are most important in a good pair of dog nail clippers.

Appropriate style for your needs: Dog nail clippers come in four main styles. Guillotine clippers have a loop at the end and a blade that slices upward when you squeeze the handle. They're easy to use, but precise cuts can be harder to achieve. These are best for small- to medium-sized dog nails as they aren't as strong as other types.

Scissor-style clippers are double-bladed and work just like a pair of regular scissors. They're easy to handle and best for dogs with small or thin nails. They are not ideal for large, thick nails because they lack the strength needed to make smooth, clean cuts, says Klein. Pliers-style clippers, on the other hand, are similar in design but much stronger thanks to a spring between the handles. These are a great choice for dogs with large, thick nails and also work well for medium-sized dogs.

Electric or battery-powered nail grinders, which work like Dremel tools, are great for slowly and gently filing the nails down rather than cutting them. Klein says nail grinders are popular with dog groomers and show dog handlers because they leave nails smooth and rounded. They're also a good option for dogs that dislike having their nails cut. Keep in mind, though, that grinders vibrate and can be somewhat loud, so some dogs might need time to get used to them.

Quality materials: Most dog nail clippers have metal blades with plastic handles, though some are entirely metal and may have rubber grips on the handles. Klein says the best dog nail clippers have stainless steel or carbon steel blades because they are durable and easy to clean. For large pliers-style nail clippers, look for strong springs between the handles. Replaceable blades are another useful feature.

Safety features: Trimming a dog's nails can be tricky. If you cut too far, you risk hitting the quick — the vein inside the nail — which is painful and causes the nail to bleed. That's why safety features matter. Look for clippers with nail guides or safety stops that limit how much nail you trim. Nail grinders ideally have safety guards that prevent anything from touching the rotating parts of the tool.

Sizing: When choosing dog clippers, compare the cutting blade to the size of your dog's nails. Klein says that small dogs generally need smaller clippers, and large and giant dogs need bigger clippers. In addition, he says clippers should fit comfortably in your hand to give you good control when trimming your dog's nails.

How we tested the best dog nail clippers

I tested thirteen different pairs of nail trimmers and three nail files on five dogs with varying nail sizes: a Labrador retriever, golden retriever, and Vizsla with large, thick nails; a miniature poodle with medium-sized nails; and a 10-pound mixed-breed dog with small nails.

The clippers and grinders were tested on the miniature poodle with medium-sized nails. I also used the small clippers on the small mixed-breed dog, the large clippers on the Lab and golden retriever, the nail grinders on the Lab, and the nile files on the Vizsla. For every tool, I evaluated ease of use, performance, sharpness, safety, and overall quality.

In my first round of testing, I tested each tool at least once per dog. The top performers were tested multiple times to narrow down the category winners. I spaced testing several weeks apart to allow the dogs' nails to grow back.

To assess long-term durability, I kept using the highest-rated nail trimmers with my miniature poodle. Over the next five months, I clipped my dog's nails about every two weeks, rotating among each pair.

Ease of use: When cutting a dog's nails, you don't want to struggle or feel uncomfortable with the nail trimmer. I evaluated how comfortable the clippers felt in my hand, how easy they were to squeeze closed, and whether I felt in control while trimming. For nail grinders, I evaluated how easy they were to set up, hold, and operate.

Performance: I confirmed whether each tool worked as advertised. For instance, large dog nail clippers should cut through tough nails with ease, while small clippers should be appropriately sized for smaller nails. For grinders, I evaluated how well the grinding bands or discs smoothed the nails and how loud each tool was.

Sharpness: Although the cutting blades will inevitably dull over time, they should be very sharp to ensure swift, clean cuts. Dull or poor-quality blades tend to shred or splinter the nail rather than slice cleanly.

Safety: I evaluated the effectiveness of nail safety guards and whether clippers had a locking mechanism for safe storage. For nail grinders, I assessed how safe it felt to operate the tool and evaluated any included safety features, such as nail guards and LED lights.

Quality: I examined the materials and construction of each tool. Good clippers should feel sturdy, appear well-made, and all parts should function as intended. For nail grinders, I considered the tool's assembly and how it felt to use.

Dog nail clipper FAQs

What is the best type of nail clippers for dogs?

The best dog nail clippers are easy to hold and have sharp blades that make smooth, clean cuts. If your dog's nails are very small or very large, choose clippers appropriately sized to match. Stainless steel blades are ideal since they're strong and rust-resistant. A quiet clipper can also be helpful for timid dogs or those who are uneasy about nail trimming. Ultimately, though, the right dog nail trimmer is the one that feels most comfortable for you to use.

Is it better to grind or clip dog nails?

Nail clippers cut through the nail, whereas nail grinders file the nail down to a shorter length. Some dogs prefer the sensation of nail grinding over clipping, and you're less likely to cut into the quick with a grinder. "When grooming, 9 times out of 10, I will just grind a dog's nails instead of trimming," Edmond says. "Nail clippers can leave a jagged rough edge on the nail, but a nail grinder can buff out the sharpness and round the nail all the way down to the quick." On the flip side, some dogs dislike the loud sounds and vibrations of nail grinders. These tools also have a learning curve to use them safely and comfortably. Dr. Melissa Smits, a veterinarian who was a partner at Fort Morgan Veterinary Clinic at the time of my interview, recommends using the tool you feel most comfortable with, which will make your dog most comfortable.

How do I care for dog nail clippers?

After each use, wipe your clippers clean. Close the clippers and engage the safety lock to protect the blade when not in use. If your nail clippers get wet, dry them thoroughly before storing them in a plastic or cloth bag indoors. If nail clippers are left outside and exposed to dampness and temperature extremes, the metal can rust, and the plastic can warp.

How often should I trim my dog's nails?

The general rule of thumb is to trim your dog's nails before they grow long enough to click on the floor, but the frequency is unique to each dog. All nails grow at different rates, and dogs wear them down differently. Big, heavy dogs that run around outside may naturally wear their nails down, requiring less frequent trimming. "A Yorkie that barely touches the ground most days might need a nail trim every two weeks," Smits says. "An Iditarod training or marathon running pal might never need one."

How far down do I cut the nail?

Trim the nail as short as you can without cutting into the quick, the blood vessel inside the nail. In dogs with white nails, it's easy to see the quick — it's the pink part. It's harder to know precisely how far to cut black nails, so you may want to only cut the hooked part of the nail to be safe. Trim just a little bit of the nail at a time and go slow, especially for sensitive dogs. You can always trim more if needed, but if you trim too much, you risk cutting the quick. "Maybe do a nail or two at a time, rather than asking them to sit for a full pedicure," says Dr. Colleen Lambo, a relief veterinarian with Roo. "Taking a slow, careful approach helps maintain trust between you and your pet. Clipping the sides as well as the tips can help create a smoother edge." For more detailed directions, check out our tutorial on how to cut or grind your dog's nails the right way. You can also ask your veterinarian for a demonstration on your dog.

How do I get a dog's nail quick to recede?

Regular nail trimming is the best way to get a dog's nail quick to recede. If a dog's nails aren't trimmed regularly, the quick and the nail grow longer. This makes it difficult to trim the nails short without cutting into the quick, which is painful for your dog and also causes bleeding. If your dog's nails grow too long, walking can be uncomfortable and can even lead to joint issues, especially in older dogs.

You can encourage the quick to recede through regular, careful nail trimming. By taking small amounts off weekly or every other week, you avoid trauma to the quick while signaling it to retreat deeper into the nail," Lambo says. "Over time, this allows you to safely trim shorter without causing bleeding."

Although this method is slow, consistent nail trimming will make a big difference in your dog's comfort and mobility. In some cases, the quick becomes so severely overgrown that it's difficult to get it to recede just with nail trimming. In such cases, Lambo says your veterinarian can perform a more aggressive trim while the dog is sedated to safely reset the nail length. After that, you can start the process of frequent nail trims.

Is it OK to file a dog's nails?

Yes, it's perfectly safe to trim a dog's nails this way, and many dogs find nail filing less stressful than using nail clippers. You can also use a nail file to smooth any sharp edges left by traditional nail clippers. "Filing gradually shortens the nail, reducing the risk of hitting the quick, and smooths rough edges that can splinter," Lambo says. "For dogs that dislike clippers or have very thick or brittle nails, a rotary nail grinder can also work well."

When should I start trimming my puppy's nails?

Start nail trimming as early as possible so your puppy learns to accept it. Even older dogs can learn to accept nail trimming if you approach it the right way. "Introduce the dog to the nail trimming procedure in a slow, fun, rewarding manner," Smits says. "This will enable the dog to fall in love with the attention that comes with getting a pedicure and time with you."

Does nail trimming hurt my dog?

As long as you don't cut too far down, trimming your dog's nails hurts no more than trimming your own nails. However, be very careful not to cut the quick. The quick is extremely sensitive. Cutting into it is painful and will cause the nail to bleed. It may also cause your dog to become resistant to nail trimming in the future.

What should I do if I cut my dog's nail and it bleeds?

If you accidentally nick the quick, use styptic powder to cauterize it and stop the bleeding. Scoop up a small amount of powder onto your finger or onto a piece of gauze, then press it gently but firmly against the nail. Hold for a minute or so until the bleeding stops. If you don't have styptic powder, you can use flour or cornstarch instead.

I'm too nervous to trim my dog's nails. Who will do it for me?

If you are uncomfortable trimming your dog's nails or are concerned your pet might bite if you try to cut their nails, seek professional help. Most groomers include nail trimming in their regular services. You can also make an appointment to have your dog's nails trimmed at your veterinary hospital. "If the dog is an amiable sort, groomers are a phenomenal option," Smits says. However, dogs who may become aggressive during nail trimming would benefit from a trim at the vet's office, where they can use sedation if necessary.

My passion for cute shoes is always odds with my sensitive feet, which is why I'm such a believer in ballet flats. I've worn certain pairs into the ground because no other shoe disappears into my outfit quite like them, yet they're still dressy enough for going out.

This season, I've witnessed ballet flats taking over New York (not that they ever left). The question of who makes the most comfortable ballet flats can easily devolve into comparing leather or knit mesh pairs, which is why I've included some of each in this guide.

My credentials come from years of road-testing the most comfortable dress shoes for women. I walked at least 1 mile in 33 ballet flats (and before that, tried dozens more) to find the best fit for my foot shape: size 8, high arches, slightly narrow, with a second toe that's longer than my big toe. Your own needs will differ from mine, but here are 13 pairs that felt both supportive and stylish.

The ballet flats I wear most

Margaux Demi (pictured center): These are the most classic pair out there. Margaux's debut shoes have an adjustable bow tie, a sleek almond toe, and padded leather insoles.

Vivaia Margot 3.0 (pictured left): At least in my book, Vivaia has usurped Rothy's in terms of comfortable knit flats. This stretchy, square-toe pair is cushioned to high heavens and very wide-foot friendly.

Quince Italian Leather Handwoven Ballet Flats (pictured right): Quince shoes can be hit-or-miss, but these are great affordable alternative to Freda Salvador's popular Jada flats.

What makes a ballet flat comfortable?

The best ballet flats are not flat. A slight heel drop will reduce strain and lifts your foot out of the dead-flat position. The exception is barefoot flats, which instead train your feet from the ground up.

Flexibility doesn't always equal comfort. A structured heel counter and firm midfoot give you more stability. Especially if you have weak ankles or plantar fasciitis, avoid ballet flats that you can fold in half.

More coverage gives you a more secure fit. A higher vamp keeps the shoe in place while you walk. It's a style sacrifice for some, but one worth making if you plan on racking up 20,000 steps in your ballet flats.

Within every good flat is a cushioned, contoured footbed. Look for built-in arch support and padded insoles. They should have a thick heel to absorb shock, with visible valleys and notches.

Best overall: Margaux The Demi

Why we love them: The most classic ballet flat out there, available in various widths with enough padding to withstand daily walks.

Skip if: You really can't stand returning shoes that don't fit — the Demis run small (and Margaux's shoe sizes vary widely in general).

The Demis are essential if you want to get a lot of wear from an archetypal leather ballet flat. Aside from looking prim and polished, they also score major points in the comfort department thanks to five millimeters of foam plush padding and a functional, adjustable cord bow that helps you get the perfect fit. 

"As far as sizing and fit both go, I'd recommend going true to size since Margaux offers half sizes. And, possibly the best feature is the ability to choose your width (narrow, medium, or wide). I got the medium width and it was fine for my relatively average-width feet, but I also tried a wide pair later on and realized that's probably the size I'll opt for in the future. With all the walking I do, my feet end up swelling a bit, and the wide pair is more comfortable for long days out. They didn't make my feet look pancake-like, either — I still got that nice elongated silhouette you get from ballet flats." — Sally Kaplan, executive editor

Read more in our full Margaux Demi flats review.

Stretchy and cushioned: Vivaia Margot 3.0

Why we love them: Thickly cushioned, yet still lightweight.

Skip if: It's raining out or if your feet run narrow.

Some of my most-worn shoes come from Vivaia. I tested the Margot 3.0 flats against the Margot 2.0, and the redesign has a few new features to help these soft-sided shoes last longer. First, the activated carbon means the quilted footbeds are better at repelling odor — which tends to linger in knit flats like these.

Inside, they almost feel like slippers. The foam footbed is a bit firmer under the arches, yet the quilted forefoot is soft and plush against your skin. I wear this pair whenever I get blisters from breaking in leather flats, because the heel cushion is gentle and non-abrasive.

Another change is the redesigned outsole is made of less rubber and more lightweight EVA foam, meaning they have better shock absorption throughout long walks on concrete. The fit has stayed the same, with a very roomy square toe box and a stretchy collar that can accommodate wide and high volume feet. If you feel like most ballet flats are too constricting for your foot shape, the Margots will let them breathe.

Read more in our full Vivaia shoes review.

Best budget: Quince Italian Leather Handwoven Square Toe Ballet Flat

Why we love them: The woven leather offers a soft, glove-like fit that takes zero break-in time.

Skip if: You have a high-volume forefoot, as the vamp can dig into the top of your foot.

I learned to scrutinize Quince shoes after testing too many that were total flops. But they did something right with the Italian Leather Handwoven Ballet Flats: They took a popular design that doesn't require much finesse to recreate, and are selling it for much less.

I immediately wanted to wear these cushiony flats all day, they are that comfortable. There are, however, subtle signs of shortcuts that Quince takes to make them so cheap (like the dye that rubbed off and stained my skin when they got wet).

Another Quince shoe I love is featured in my Quince ballet flat review. I've worn its Day Glove dupes for three years, and they still only show the regular signs of wear.

For high arches: Naturalizer Ava Ballet Flat

Why we love them: They come in medium or wide widths and the padded footbed is well contoured.

Skip if: You have extra wide or high volume feet, as they run narrow across the top.

Naturalizer is one of our favorite places to buy comfortable women's dress shoes. Its Ava Ballet Flats rival some of the pricier pairs I've tested in terms of comfort, and their low-profile design is easy to style with any length of pant or skirt.

The leather did require some breaking in, and I had to wear Band-Aids on my heels on the first few wears. Once I got past that, I was free to appreciate their best feature: a layer of padding that climbs up the inner wall of the shoe to gently cradle my arches.

Arch support plays a significant role in how often I reach for flats. The padding here is just firm enough to uplift my arches without throwing me off balance. Meanwhile, the sturdy, textured soles have proven solid on several pavement-pounding quests about town.

Classic Mary Janes: Bared Footwear Surfbird

Why we love them: Each pair comes with a Fit Kit that spares you from the pain of returns.

Skip if: You have very narrow feet and prefer a close fit.

I've never met a pair of Bared Footwear shoes I didn't like. The supple leather of this elongated square-toed pair is very soft and supple, especially compared to most leather dress shoes that start off stiff. The Surfbirds run large and wide, but I was able to make them fit using the complimentary "Fit Kit" cushions. With the spare forefoot pads, I tightened up the toe box to my liking.

These Mary Jane ballet flats are pricey, but you're paying for what's inside: a contoured footbed with great arch support and a metatarsal dome that eases where I'm most sensitive, in the ball of my foot.

I like these for longer walks because the buckled strap across the vamp helps them fit more securely. For a more affordable knit Mary Jane flat, I also really like Vivaia's Margot Mary Janes.

Best barefoot ballet flats: Alohas Rosalind

Why we love them: They pack flat and engage your foot muscles.

Skip if: You rely on shoes to support sensitive tendons, like with plantar fasciitis.

These keyhole ballet flats are a bit quirky-looking, so they take more styling effort. They're worth it if you're curious about the potential health benefits of barefoot shoes.

Barefoot shoes are identified by a near-0mm heel drop and a wide, round toe box to let your feet splay naturally. This low-intervention design is meant to boost sensory feedback from the ground up. The tradeoff is that you lose any stabilization or cushioning, but it's trendy among people trying to get in touch with their natural instincts.

The thin, flat soled Rosalind Barefoot ballet flats are a significant departure from the cushioned ones I'm used to. I can feel all the sidewalk grit underfoot, and I'm fully depending on my lower body to keep me upright. It's a sensation that deserves a gradual transition, regardless of how soft the leather is (very soft, by the way).

Alohas also makes a non-barefoot Rosalind ballet flat with a tapered toe box in the same drawstring design. They come in more colorways and feel more like conventional ballet flats. Read more in our full Alohas review.

Built for standing all day: Frankie4 Trinity

Why we love them: They support high arches and lift your feet out of the flat position with a hidden wedge heel. Plus, their stiff bottom prevents added strain on your plantar fascia.

Skip if: You have bunions or a wide forefoot — the toe box runs narrow.

Frankie4 is an Australian footwear brand founded by two podiatrists. Within the Trinity flats are its proprietary 'Sole Hero Footbeds,' which have three layers of padding — each with different levels of cushioning in the forefoot, arches, and heels. This design helps engage the parts of your feet that need extra support.

Even though they look flat, the subtle heel raise makes them feel anything but. It's a tiny detail that angles your feet out of the dead flat position, so your ankles are better aligned. You can also adjust the padding in the forefoot if the toe box feels too loose, since they come with extra gel cushions.

These run slightly small. If you're between sizes, the brand recommends going up a half size for its ballet flats. I'm a size 8 and they felt tight in the toe box. The outer leather feels super luxe, and the lining inside is buttery smooth. My only regret is that this pair comes in such limited colorways, and while the price is steep, their firm support feels ultimately worth it.

Best ballet pumps: Margaux Ada

Why we love them: With a shorter heel and a slightly square toe, these elegant shoes fit like a glove.

Skip if: You have extra wide feet or sensitive forefoot joints.

"We've long admired Margaux's commitment to beautiful leather and chic silhouettes. The Ada looks like an elegant ballet flat, but it has a little heel that adds slightly over an inch of height.

I got it in the color Espresso Crinkle Patent, which is a shiny brown color that feels like the epitome of fall. The leather is supple and molds to your feet for a glove-like fit. Plus, the insole has a memory foam-like padding that cradles your foot.

But sizing is a little tricky to get right. I've always characterized my feet as being on the wider end of typical, but I very rarely find myself having to opt for a wide fit shoe. In almost all situations, a regular width works just fine. But with Margaux shoes, I've learned to always go for the wide.

The shoes come in three widths: narrow, medium, and wide. If you're on the fence about which would work for you, opt for the more generous fit." — Samantha Crozier, senior style editor, Insider Reviews

See more in our guide to the most comfortable heels.

Lightweight and wide-foot friendly: FitFlop Delicato

Why we love them: Super lightweight, shock absorbing crash pads, and superior anti-slip traction.

Skip if: You have narrow feet, high arches, or weak ankles.

These FitFlop flats were among the lightest pairs I tested. The nappa leather is really smooth and unstructured, so much that they almost feel like rubber. They even squeaked a bit like rubber when I was breaking them in. Despite being so lightweight, these shoes are packed with lots of comfort features: a 'Dynamicush' footbed made from squishy foam, a roomy squared-off toe box, and a flexible collar that prevents any uncomfortable friction. I also like that the tread is really non-slip. I couldn't slide-step in these even if I tried.

I have to disagree completely with FitFlop's disclaimer that these run slim. They were actually quite loose across the toes and felt a whole size too big on me. This is great if you're wide across the forefoot, but if your heel is narrow, make sure you size down by at least half a size. Otherwise, they'll feel floppy in the rear.

Buttery soft with a hidden wedge heel: M. Gemi The Danza

Why we love them: They provide solid arch support and the hidden wedge heel adds a bit of height.

Skip if: You have a very wide forefoot.

"The Danza is a ballet flat that isn't flat at all. It has a hidden wedge that measures about three-quarters of an inch, which is why I was initially attracted to it. I'm five-foot-one, so adding a little bit of height keeps certain long pants and maxi dresses off the floor.

These flats use the traditional Italian sacchetto construction technique, which minimizes interior seams so the soft leather lining wraps smoothly around the foot. This is supposed to reduce rubbing and pressure points while allowing the shoe to flex and mold more naturally to your foot.

Though the Danza is cute, walkable, and well-constructed, the sizing is a bit inconsistent. I got a 37 EU — the same size I always order from M. Gemi — because I'm usually a size 7 US, but it was a little too big. I didn't expect this, since I read comments that said to order a size bigger than you usually do." — Samantha Crozier, senior style editor, Insider Reviews

For sensitive bunions: Calla Charlotte Ballerinas

Why we love them: The shape is ideal if you have sensitivity in the big toe joint area. Even if you don't have bunions, they're a great pair for people with very high arches.

Skip if: You have very slim or low-volume feet.

The problem with most ballet flats is that their narrow toe boxes often force your big toe inward. Bunions can cause feet to be more triangle-shaped, so even a wide-foot friendly ballet flat won't fit like it should in the heel.

Calla designs its bunion-friendly dress shoes to be proportionate throughout, and I love that they aren't as orthopedic-looking as most bunion shoes. The toe box on the Charlotte flats is deep and wide, and there's a stretchy panel hidden within the crossover design.

I'm a size US 8 and the 39s fit a bit loose on me. I'm also glad I brought Band-Aids the first time I broke them in, because the leather cut up my heel a bit. That said, I appreciate how high the arch support is stacked on the inside wall of the shoe.

A splurgy block heel: Nomasei Flip

Why we love them: The elasticated rear prevents any digging or rubbing on the heels.

Skip if: You have very wide or high-volume feet.

Nomasei is one of my favorite mid-range luxury shoe brands I've tried (our team loves its loafers and sculptural heeled sandals). The Flips are its very first ballet flat, a Parisian style that cocoons my feet as soon as I pull them on by their rear tab.

The stretchy-backed design doesn't ever slip off my heels, as I've experienced with many other ballet flats. I felt comfortable walking in them on a busy summer afternoon in Brooklyn, and they felt secure while I stepped on uneven Prospect Park terrain. The insoles are lightly padded with memory foam, and the cute little block heel elevates the whole look.

Soft ballet slippers: M.Gemi La Una

Why we love them: They're perfect for travel since they fold in half, and the soft leather feels thin and lightweight.

Skip if: You have plantar fasciitis or any major need for support and stability.

M.Gemi has some of the best Italian leather footwear out there. The Una is made with a thin, unstructured nappa leather that's extremely flexible and smooth. Inside around the heel is a layer of suede, so there's no chance of developing blisters. I don't recommend these for long walks, since they don't come with any padding or cushions. For reference, I can feel the pavement when I walk in these, as I do when I wear Alohas' Rosalinds.

Nevertheless, the main appeal of the Una is how soft and delicate they feel. They're designed with a stretchy criss-cross strap to keep them in place and a soft square toe, similar to a real ballet slipper.

See more in our M.Gemi review.

FAQs on ballet flats

Are ballet flats bad for your feet?

Ballet flats are not automatically bad for your feet, but very flat, flimsy, or pointed pairs can crowd the toes and provide too little support for long walks or long hours standing. This is especially true if you already deal with foot pain, plantar fasciitis, bunions, or arch issues.

Do ballet flats need arch support?

They often do, especially if you have flat feet, high arches, or recurring foot fatigue. Podiatry guidance generally recommends matching support to your arch type, and insoles or orthotics can add cushioning and stability if a flat's built-in footbed is too minimal. Some picks with great arch support are the Calla Charlotte or the M.Gemi Danza.

Are ballet flats good for standing all day?

You can make them work if they have real cushioning and support, but many minimal ballet flats are not ideal for all-day standing. Foot specialists generally recommend more structured, cushioned shoes for prolonged standing, especially for people with flat feet or recurring soreness. My favorite pair for standing all day is the Frankie4 Trinity, but bear in mind that they run narrow.

How should ballet flats fit?

Ballet flats should feel secure without pinching, with room for your toes to move and a heel that stays in place without slipping. A common fit guideline is about a half-inch, or roughly 1 centimeter, of space in front of your longest toe, plus adequate width so your foot does not spill over the insole.

Should I wear ballet flats if I have plantar fasciitis?

You can, but only if they come with meaningful support. The Cleveland Clinic advises looking for cushioning plus heel and arch support and notes that very flat shoes can worsen plantar fasciitis, so a slightly raised, supportive flat or one with room for orthotics is a better bet. For this, I recommend the Calla Charlotte or Frankie4 Trinity. Learn more in our guide to the most comfortable shoes for plantar fasciitis.

• Apple finally gave Siri the AI makeover it promised.
• It can write emails in your tone and rescue badly framed photos, the company says.
• And yes, Apple has a solution for the Liquid Glass haters.

Apple's products are about to get more AI-ish.

On Monday, the tech giant is releasing its big annual software update. This year's release is centered on the new AI-powered Siri, Apple's big bet that it can keep pace with rival AI assistants.

Apple's iOS 27 works on iPhone 11 models and newer, though the splashiest Apple Intelligence tools require an iPhone 15 Pro or later. iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 are also arriving the same day.

Here are the biggest changes coming to your iPhone's brain:

Siri gets an AI facelift — and a new home

For years, Siri has been a shortcut for setting timers or figuring out if iPhone users needed to pack a rain jacket for the day.

Now, Apple says it'll act more like a personal assistant.

"We know there are times when you expect more from Siri," Mike Rockwell, Apple's VP of Siri engineering, said during the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. "Siri is now a profoundly more capable assistant that helps you find what you need and gets more done."

The new Siri AI can answer probing questions, hold longer conversations, and use details across several Apple and third-party apps to find what users need, the company says. It can, for example, find a hotel confirmation in an older email, find a recipe a friend texted a while ago, or enter a café WiFi password after taking a picture.

There's also a new stand-alone Siri AI app where users can revisit conversations on other Apple devices, too.

It's the biggest test yet of Apple's AI ambitions. Siri AI is initially available in English and is partially available in Europe.

New parental controls

Apple is trying to make its kid-safety tools more useful before a parent has to confiscate the phone.

Parents setting up an iPhone for a child can decide which built-in apps are available from the start. An Ask to Browse feature also makes a child ask permission before visiting a new website. The parent gets the request in Messages and can approve or decline it.

Screen Time gets more granular, with category-based allowances for entertainment, games, and social media, as well as schedules that control which apps are usable at particular times. Parents can compare their child's screen usage with recommendations from clinical and child development experts, Apple says.

The company has redesigned the parent-facing settings, too, promising a clearer dashboard and quicker in-the-moment controls.

AI photo editing

Missed the shot? Apple wants to give you a second chance.

There are several new photo editing tools included in the iOS update: Spatial Reframing lets users adjust a photo's camera perspective after the shutter has been released, Extend uses AI to add space around the edges of an image, and the upgraded Clean Up tool helps delete or reframe blurry elements in a photo.

Siri AI will try to write in your voice

Siri AI wants a spot at the writer's table, too.

Apple says the updated assistant can start a draft or revise copy in the Mail and Messages apps. The writing can draw on how you usually communicate with a particular person, including a user's typical punctuation and tone. The tools can also offer writing suggestions and automatically proofread text as you type, including in many third-party apps.

Your own shortcut

Shortcuts has long been one of the iPhone's coolest and least approachable apps. It lets users stitch together actions across apps, but building a simple automation could require working through a lot of menus.

Now, users can describe what they want in plain English, and Shortcuts will create the workflow. Apple's example: "When I'm leaving work, message Pedro I'm on my way with my ETA."

Easing up on the Liquid Glass

Liquid Glass is getting a dimmer switch.

Last year, Apple introduced an interface setting that made the edges of some icons look glassier. Now, users can edit that update to their liking. iOS 27 lets users tune the effect from "ultraclear" to fully tinted.

Last year's update didn't receive the warmest of embraces…

Faster speeds

Apple says iOS 27 will speed up everyday tasks: apps can launch up to 30% faster, new Photos library images can load up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% faster.

It should also switch more smoothly between WiFi and cellular networks.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AI doomer predictions aren't grounded in science.
• At the All-In Summit, Huang also praised AI researcher Jacob Coxon's courage as a whistleblower.
• President Donald Trump called in during Huang's talk, saying, "The robots will not be taking over."

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang got a call from President Donald Trump in the middle of his interview to swat down AI doomer predictions.

On Monday at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, Huang's talk was interrupted by a phone call from President Donald Trump, who called AI doomerism "a hoax."

"The robots will not be taking over," Trump said via speakerphone, adding that while "we have to be a little bit careful," the US shouldn't stop AI advancement.

The debate on AI safety has roiled Silicon Valley, especially after Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher, announced last week he resigned from the lab, writing on X that the people building AI "believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

During the talk, Huang praised a former Anthropic researcher for speaking out on AI safety and also said the notion that the technology poses an existential threat is unscientific.

Weighing in, Huang called AI safety "paramount" and said that the US can still move fast.

"America is able to lead — and to do it safely," he said.

Huang said Coxon showed "great courage" by coming forward. He also said there's a difference between exposing existing problems within a company and making predictions about the future.

"I think the whistleblowing is fine. I think the scientific prediction about the future is less fine because it's not grounded on science, obviously," Huang said.

Huang said he doesn't know what Coxon witnessed inside Anthropic and suggested the industry's frontier labs are undergoing a difficult transition from research to engineering organizations.

The Nvidia CEO's comments are consistent with his established views. He's previously pushed back on what he's called "science fiction" scenarios that scare people away from investing in technology that could make AI safer.

Trump also posted on Truth Social on Monday, saying that he was "breaking another Hoax — That AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the World."

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gweiss@businessinsider.com or Signal at @geoffweiss.25. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• I've got to admit something. Meta's AI tools for editing photos are … pretty good.
• But! Meta will soon make you pay if you want to edit tons of your photos with AI.
• The Meta One monthly subscription will unlock additional AI usage and unique perks for its apps.

I was having some unfettered fun playing with Instagram's new filters.

Then I got hit with a paywall.

"Upgrade to Meta One Core to apply more AI effects or wait until tomorrow," a pop-up said on my screen. Curious, I clicked "Upgrade."

I was given the option for a free trial of Meta One, a new subscription that unlocks a litany of perks. While Meta unveiled its newest subscriptions in May, the program hasn't yet been widely rolled out in the US. One of my Instagram accounts was part of a test.

If I accepted the monthlong trial, I could edit more photos on the app using Meta's AI "effects" it rolled out in July.

After dozens of edits tweaking my latest professional headshots to look like they were taken on a disposable camera, or turning iPhone cat photos into higher-quality editorial shots, I wanted more.

I swiftly signed up for the Meta One Core tier, which would renew at $7.99 a month.

The perks range from additional AI usage to unlocking the "plus" versions of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta One subscribers can "preview" people's stories without actually watching them, use special app icons (like the retro Instagram one), and visually customize Facebook and WhatsApp.

There are also tiers for professional accounts that could appeal to content creators.

"We're starting with plans that give people who use Meta AI more to work with," Meta's head of product, Naomi Gleit, said in a May video. "More capacity, bigger, more complex requests, and more room to create."

This isn't Meta's first attempt to get consumers to pay for a recurring subscription. In 2023, it launched Meta Verified, which charged users a monthly fee to unlock perks like a blue check mark.

Now, Meta wants to paywall premium features like AI. Making people pay for more editing tools, like the Effects Instagram promotes in-app, further pushes Meta up against photo-editing rivals like Adobe's Photoshop, VSCO, and emerging apps like the influencer-founded startup Tezza.

Filters have always been part of the Instagram experience. It's why I first joined the app back in 2010. Would I have paid for photo-editing tools back then? No.

If I'm honest, though, some of Meta's new AI photo editing tools are pretty darn good. And if there weren't the threat of content being labeled as "Made with AI" on Instagram, maybe I'd even post them.