• Noah Berk, co-CEO of Aptitude 8, told Business Insider he values curiosity in job candidates.
• Berk said a candidate made a lasting impression by asking what he was reading.
• He said candidates should avoid broad questions in order to stay memorable in a competitive market.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Noah Berk, the co-CEO of Aptitude 8, who is based in Columbia, Maryland. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I am the co-CEO of Aptitude 8, which is HubSpot's leading technical consultancy in the ecosystem. We specialize in deploying HubSpot on behalf of our clients.

Generally, when someone interviews with me, it's their last interview. And generally, prior to the interview, I have a full list of what I'm looking for. I'm trying to understand culture fit and if they're the right person for the job. It's also an opportunity for me to set expectations for them.

To me, educating yourself and learning constantly is what will separate any candidate. With AI-enabled services, it's too easy to just regurgitate whatever AI is saying to you instead of thinking thoughtfully about your own career and your own way of growing up.

I'm looking for curiosity in a candidate. People who show that they like to read and learn are generally the type of people we like to hire.

The question that made a lasting impression

Before becoming a co-CEO, I interviewed thousands of people as a recruiter. In my current role, I've interviewed hundreds. Recently, I got asked a question that I've never been asked before.

The candidate asked, "What are you reading?"

That question really showed a sense of curiosity and that they're not just prioritizing themselves. They were also trying to think about who we are as an organization and what the company's future will look like.

I think I was reading "The Culture Code" at the time, and rereading "Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business." The question was almost like a shortcut to my mindset.

I ask that question as well. I'm not necessarily looking to hear that the candidate is reading a business book. I'm just curious if they're exercising their brain and staying on top of whatever it is. Even if you're reading for fun, you're still exercising. It's more difficult to pick up a book than it is to go on TikTok and scroll. For many people, the easiest thing to do is not read.

Avoid broad questions

You should stay away from broad-based questions. The broadest question I typically get is, "What's the culture like?" That's not a good question. No one's going to say, "It sucks here. It's a horrible place to work."

I think one mistake a lot of people make, especially when they get to the final interview, is that they think they've asked all the questions to the other people they've interviewed with, and they may say, "Well, I've already had all my answers." That's the absolute wrong answer to give, because oftentimes you may get a different or more in-depth answer when you ask the question to different people.

Showing curiosity in your questions is incredibly important. It's not that hard to research who you're interviewing. What have they posted on LinkedIn recently? What are their biggest concerns? Who are they as individuals? What are their press releases saying?

Do your research

You should automatically have five to seven questions that you want to ask that show your sense of curiosity about the company and the role. I think a really common and good question is, "What is a co-CEO? How do you operate with your cofounder? Why did you two decide to become co-CEOs?" That's an example of a question from someone who did research.

We didn't end up hiring the candidate who asked the question about reading. We had several fantastic candidates, and although that person was definitely in the running, there were other reasons it wasn't the best fit. But it was still very memorable to me and left a lasting impression. It told me a lot about their character and curiosity.

It's not the end-all, be-all. But when you're in a very competitive situation and you're running against multiple candidates, it could be the difference between getting the job and not getting the job. We're in a very interesting job market where there's a lot of competition, and you have to figure out how to stand out.

When you're getting to the last interview, maybe with a leader in the organization or department, do your research ahead of time.

• Companies such as Peloton, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, BlackRock, and UPS have trimmed staff this year.
• In some cases, artificial intelligence is reshaping workforces.
• See the list of companies letting workers go in 2025.

The list of companies laying off employees this year is growing.

Layoffs and other workforce reductions have continued in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts in tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy.

While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid technological change. A World Economic Forum survey found that some 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI. Though Amazon has not announced job cuts this year, CEO Andy Jassy told employees in June that the company will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today" in the coming years as it expands its use of generative AI and agents.

Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025 so far, in alphabetical order.

Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany.

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

"To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers.

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Automattic, Tumblr's parent, cuts 16% of staff

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

"While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

BlackRock is cutting 1% of its workforce.

BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Block to lay off nearly 1,000 workers

Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

Bloomberg is making cuts in an overhaul of its newsroom

Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

Blue Origin is laying off one-tenth of its workforce

Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

"We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

Boeing cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program

Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

BP slashed 7,700 staff and contractor positions worldwide

BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

Bridgewater cut about 90 staff

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

Bumble said it intends to cut 30% of its workforce.

In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

"We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

Burberry says it plans on cutting 1,700 jobs

Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

Chevron is slashing up to 20% of its global head count

Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

"Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

CNN plans to cut 200 jobs

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Coty is cutting about 700 jobs

Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

CrowdStrike is cutting about 500 jobs

CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, is cutting about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

It expects the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

Disney says it's laying off several hundred employees

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Geico has axed tens of thousands of workers

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

GrubHub announced 500 job cuts

Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

HPE is laying off 2,500 employees

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

Intel to cut at least 15% of its factory workers

Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

"Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

"This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

"We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

Kohl's is reducing about 10% of its roles

Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

"Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

Microchip Technology is slashing 2,000 jobs

Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

Microsoft has made several rounds of cuts this year

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Morgan Stanley plans cuts for the end of March

Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

Nextdoor is slashing 12% of its staff

Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

Nissan says it will cut 20,000 jobs by 2027

Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

Oracle is reportedly cutting jobs from its cloud division.

Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Panasonic is cutting 10,000 jobs

Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

"Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

Paramount is cutting 3.5% of its US workforce

Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

Peloton is looking for $100 million in run-rate savings by next year

Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

"As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

Porsche is cutting 3,900 jobs over the next few years

Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

PwC is laying off approximately 2% of its US workforce

The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

Salesforce is cutting more than 1,000 jobs

Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

Scale AI is cutting 14% of its workforce

On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

Sonos cuts about 200 jobs

Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

Starbucks is laying off 1,100 corporate staff

Starbucks planned to notify 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off on February 25.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a memo that the layoffs will make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The layoffs won't affect employees at Starbucks stores, the company said.

Niccol told employees that layoffs were on the way in a separate memo in January. The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

Stripe laid off 300 employees

Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

UPS is cutting 20,000 jobs

UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

"With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

The Washington Post cut 4% of its non-newsroom workforce

The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

Wayfair laid off 340 tech employees

Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

"With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

Workday cut more than 8% of its workforce

Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

"The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?

Have a tip? Contact Dominick Reuter via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• "If you come to Palantir, your career is set," Palantir CEO Alex Karp said on Monday's earnings call.
• Dozens of Palantir alums have become startup founders, raising over $30 billion from investors.
• Some tech recruiters told us they're more interested in what candidates have built than whether they worked at Palantir.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp talks a big game when it comes to his employees, calling a job there "by far the best credential in tech."

So, do recruiters agree?

Karp has boasted on several occasions that Palantirians, as the company refers to employees, are the crème de la crème of tech workers.

"If you come to Palantir, your career is set," Karp said on Monday's earnings call. He's previously said that "no credible institution in commercial life can really be built without Palantir or an ex-Palantirian."

Palantir has minted founders and startups in droves.

Former Palantir alums have raised over $30 billion total at an average valuation of almost $800 million per company, according to AI predictive intelligence firm CB Insights. That figure is somewhat skewed by defense tech darling Anduril, which recently raised at a $30.5 billion post-money valuation in June.

Three Anduril cofounders — Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, and Brian Schimpf — all worked at Palantir before starting Anduril alongside Palmer Luckey in 2017, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Over 6% of founders who previously worked at Palantir started companies now worth over $1 billion, according to CB Insights.

Palantir, which reported just under 4,000 full-time employees as of December 2024, grew its revenue to $1 billion in the second quarter of 2025, a first for the company. Karp called the earnings "bombastic," and in his letter to shareholders Monday, said Palantir's skeptics have been "defanged and bent into a kind of submission." The stock is up over 600% in the last year.

So do the people hiring from the tech talent pool buy Karp's glowing view of Palantirians?

Business Insider spoke to more than half a dozen tech recruiting professionals to find out if having Palantir on your résumé is as powerful as Karp has made it sound.

The Goldman Sachs of tech

Deepali Vyas, a senior partner and global head of data, AI, and fintech at global consulting firm Korn Ferry, told BI she can "absolutely say that he's right," and she considers Palantir the Goldman Sachs of the tech industry.

"I've pulled people from Palantir," Vyas said. "They are a home run every single time."

Vyas said Palantir employees tend to work long hours, and the company has a "very hands-on culture" that allows even junior employees to work alongside the firm's "brightest minds." Having that proximity helps create a certain level of training, she added.

Vyas said another factor that makes Palantir stand out is its ability to recruit people who are passionate about their work.

"There's something in the sauce there," Vyas said. "They want to work on the complex problems because that's what excites them."

Janelle Bieler, the head of US tech talent at global tech talent and engineering company Akkodis, told Business Insider that Palantir is known for hiring elite talent and candidates that tackle complex issues. While candidates still need to be individually evaluated on what they worked on at the company, she said working at Palantir signals "intellectual horsepower."

"When a recruiter sees it on a résumé, it usually signals that this person went through a tough interview process and likely that they can hold their own in a pretty rigorous and fast-paced environment," she said.

Bieler added that Palantir's branding also stands out to recruiters. She said Palantir is neither regarded as Big Tech nor a typical startup, and the name has a level of mystique. Given the company's niche work environment, though, recruiters want to know that candidates can thrive in a variety of workplace settings.

Jason Saltzman, head of insights at CB Insights, previously told Business Insider while working at a company that tracks employment changes, that "Palantir seems to be the stop on people's career journey that accelerates them the most." Almost a quarter of former product managers at Palantir have since become founders, he said.

Ex-Palantir employees also tend to end up at a Big Tech company or "one of the hottest startups," Saltzman said. Google and Meta, as well as Anduril and OpenAI, employ many former Palantir workers, he said.

"Not only is Palantir a rubber stamp on someone's résumé that allows them to go onto whatever they do next, but also many of them want to go solve the world's biggest problems that are shaping the future as we know it, either by joining a company or starting their own," Saltzman said.

"That Palantir stamp gives the founder credibility, which makes hiring early employees easier," said Alex Klein, founding partner at Nucleus Talent. Klein's company hires partner-level venture investors and early leadership for startups. He hasn't done any work for Palantir.

"A founder or CEO who worked at Palantir for three years — even if they're 27 years old — will win the recruiting battle against the 35-year-old founder who worked at a tier two tech company," Klein added. "Palantir is absolutely a gold star on a résumé."

Some say Karp could be overstating things

Aaron Sines, director of technical recruiting at global cloud consulting firm Edison & Black, told Business Insider that while there's some truth to Karp's statement, overall he's seeing a "results revolution" among companies, where outcomes are placed above academic credentials and company names.

"My team tells me all the time results are almost always coming over academic credentials," Sines said.

Natan Fisher, the cofounder and co-CEO of tech and legal recruiting firm SingleSprout, similarly said that "execution matters more than brand," adding that "companies that want six plus days in the office are going to optimize for someone who is hungry and scrappy above all else."

"No doubt, Palantir is a strong hiring signal, but the idea of a golden ticket in tech is outdated," Fisher said. "The real hiring market doesn't reward brand names alone, it rewards execution and adaptability — who built what and scaled systems at speed."

While a gig at Palantir alone isn't necessarily a career maker, Fisher has seen an increase in tech companies hiring Forward Deployed Engineers, a job title Palantir coined for software engineers who work directly with customers.

Fisher said that tech companies often seek to hire from "multiple high-caliber" talent pools such as Ramp, Stripe, Linear, and Notion, adding that they aren't clients of his.

Sines said that Palantir has a reputation for seeking out top talent and having a "rigorous" and "results-oriented" hiring strategy. However, he said that while it carries a "badge of honor," for some clients, it may signal too much intensity for others. It depends on how companies perceive culture, Sines said.

Farah Sharghi, a job search coach and former recruiter at tech companies including Google, Lyft, Uber, and TikTok, said that while Palantir's hiring process is "very stringent," a good employee at Palantir may not be a good employee everywhere else because "there might be some nuances to some companies versus others in terms of cultural fit."

"It's really subjective relative to what the company does, what their needs are, and so on," she said.

While culture may vary across tech companies, Sharghi says the guiding philosophy when it comes to hiring is largely the same across the board.

"They're not looking for breadth of experience," she said. "They're looking for technical depth of experience."

Calling Palantir the best credential in tech, as Karp did, "flattens the reality," she added.

"Tech is broad. What makes someone a great hire at Palantir doesn't always translate to, for example, a legacy company trying to modernize systems," she said. "That takes a different skill set. There's no universal best, only fit for the problem at hand."

• Jennifer McMahon is job hunting for the first time in 20 years.
• She said more competition and a lengthy interview process have changed the job-search landscape.
• McMahon said her AI knowledge has helped, along with a job coaching service and networking.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer McMahon, a Gen X job seeker based in Connecticut. Her employment history and identification have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

About five months ago, I was informed that my organization at Google was getting moved to Mexico City.

I felt like the rug was ripped out from under me. I've been working in marketing and sales enablement continuously for over 20 years, and it's been so long that I've forgotten the feeling of not working.

The job market has also changed. Gen X was always told, "No bragging, let your work speak for itself." That's not the case anymore. You have to put yourself out there now, and it's uncomfortable and new for me.

The volume of applicants has also increased. I'll look at a job that was posted 10 minutes ago, and there are already 100 people who have applied. So that's kind of freaking me out, as I don't know how I'm going to showcase my value when there are thousands of applicants.

There are also fake jobs being posted out there for phishing purposes. So, I'm often like, "Is this job real?"

The interview process itself has also shifted. I've gone through several interviews where I have to build a presentation. I'm like, "Whoa, I'm not a CEO." I'm not going for the highest-level position here, but it's still super competitive.

It's been tough. It's been a roller coaster. I'm not a job-hopper, and in this process, I've realized that I'm a control freak. It's been challenging to surrender and just trust, but I have to have faith that I'm going to find the right position.

I haven't landed anything yet, but these three things have helped improve the process.

1. AI knowledge

Having had the opportunity to work at Google has definitely been a blessing for my résumé. I think it makes a difference because of how tech- and AI-forward the company is.

I've been trying to look at the job hunt as an opportunity to continue to grow and learn new technologies. ChatGPT has helped me come up with an elevator pitch and I even generated a NotebookLM podcast on myself by putting in my profile and résumé. After listening to the podcast, I was like, "Wow, I am good at this."

For one interview, I even used AI to build a one-pager prototype concept of what an AI coach would entail. It's so incredible right now what you can build with AI. I was like, "Hey, I haven't done this type of training before, but look what AI can help your company do, and here's the prototype."

I think I have a little advantage due to my experience with AI, and I think people want to hear that.

2. A job coach

One of the benefits of working with Google is that they'll help you with the transition for six months if you don't find a new role internally. I've had an incredible benefit from that experience.

The service they provide helped optimize my résumé and provided me with a one-on-one job coach. The company also offers resource hubs and webinars with recruiters so you can ask them questions about what they're looking for in candidates.

We also have a weekly group meeting where people get together, share stories, and try to uplift each other. It's sort of like a community of folks in the same situation, and it's been really helpful.

3. Years of experience

Networking has to be the most important piece right now.

If someone doesn't come in with that, "Hey, we know Jen, she's good at what she does," I don't think I'm getting that call back. Since the end of June, I've applied for about 25 external roles, and I've been able to get about seven interviews out of that. I got referrals on all except for one.

After 20 years of industry experience, I'm able to rely on my network to be supportive, helpful, and put in a good word.

• Dawn Choo took a 40% pay cut to pivot from finance to a tech job at Amazon.
• Choo's transition involved moving from a quant role at Bank of America to a business analyst role.
• Her career shift eventually led to her dream job at Meta, after applying around seven times.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dawn Choo, the 34-year-old founder of Interview Master, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her identity, employment history, and salary have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I interned at Facebook in college, and my dream was to get a data scientist job at Instagram — but I didn't get an offer.

I took the first offer I got in college because I had interviewed so many times at so many different places. Finally, I got a finance offer from Bank of America, and I took it because I needed a job to stay in the country, even if it wasn't exactly the industry I wanted.

It was a quant role, but it wasn't very data-heavy. I did backend work, like building models to help predict if companies that took a loan from us were going to default on the loan. I was there for three and a half years, but I started applying for tech jobs about a year and a half into the job.

Again, I tried so many times. I was not the best at interviewing. I applied to about 100 places, interviewed at maybe 10, and then finally I got an Amazon offer in 2017.

I took a roughly 40% pay cut and a step back in my career

The Amazon job was for a business analyst role, and it was a really big pivot.

When I applied, I knew I was taking a step back in my career given the scope of work, but I didn't realize I would be taking a roughly 40% pay cut.

I was living in New York City in a one-bedroom with a roommate, so that 40% really made a big difference.

Despite what felt like moving backward, I could see the upsides of taking the job. Amazon's a big company, and I knew it was a step toward where I wanted to go. I had to make some adjustments, like eating at home more. But I also felt like it was a step back in my career because I suddenly stepped into a service-desk role.

I didn't love the work I did at Bank of America either, but at least I was building models and writing extensive documentation. At Amazon, I felt like I wasn't really learning much, and many times, I wondered, "Why did I take this pay cut? Why did I make this transition? Should I just go back?"

At times, it didn't feel like the right move, but I recognized that I had agency over that decision. I chose to be there, and it was a privilege for me to be able to make that choice.

Things got better

The upside of the work being very repetitive and simple was that I could automate it. The automation project started as a pet project — I randomly came up with the idea and pitched it to an executive. He loved it so much and kept pushing me to do it that eventually, I did.

I was promoted from business analyst to business intelligence engineer. What was initially my site tech project became a full-staff team of five business intelligence engineers.

I worked for Amazon for two years before getting my dream job as a data scientist at Instagram.

I interviewed at Meta so many times previously. After my internship, I applied about seven times and interviewed maybe four or five times. I almost canceled my final round of interviews because I couldn't get rejected again.

I think my experience working in tech and product changed my application. I also had a lot more leadership experience since I spearheaded a project. Plus, I matured around interviewing and presenting myself.

I worked at Instagram for about three years and three months. The office was beautiful. The people I worked with were incredible and made me feel challenged. I made a lot of good friends, and we went through COVID together. They were part of my pod.

Bets take time to pay off

For others thinking about making a career transition, I would say take the pay cut if you have to. I've always feared regret more than failure. I knew if I didn't take the Amazon job, I would be upset for not betting on myself.

It's also important to recognize that some of these bets take a long time to pay out. It took me two years, which wasn't that long, but I know other people where it took longer to get that payout.

Sometimes, even after the payout, you see other people in your situation and you think, "Wow, this person got this data science job at Facebook right out of college." So, at that point, I was about eight years older than this person doing the exact same thing. And it didn't feel great. So, maybe don't compare yourself to other people.

I will always say take the bet on yourself — and I'm doing it again. I pretty much took a 100% pay cut this time. I went from my comfy corporate job with insurance, travel perks, and stability to work for myself, and I hope the payout will come soon.

• Elon Musk recently announced that there will be a Tesla shareholder vote on investing in xAI.
• Musk's AI focus further blurs the lines between his companies as he looks to integrate AI across his business empire.
• AI development is pricey, and xAI is racing to rival tech giants like OpenAI and Google.

AI has increasingly become the connective tissue of Musk Inc.

In the last week, Elon Musk has shed light on two potential efforts to channel funding into his AI company, xAI, through his broader business empire.

Over the weekend, Musk said Tesla shareholders would vote on a potential investment in xAI, after responding to a Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX is looking into investing $2 billion into the AI venture. Earlier in the week, the billionaire also announced that xAI's chatbot Grok would be integrated into Tesla "next week at the latest."

It's no surprise that Musk is leaning into AI — the CEO has spoken about the idea in many of Tesla's earnings calls over the last year. What sets his approach apart, analysts say, is the way he's blending the boundaries between his companies.

"What's different from most other companies is the relationship and interplay between his private companies and a public company (Tesla)," Garrett Nelson, senior VP and equity analyst at CFRA Research, told Business Insider. "Most other companies are doing everything under one corporate umbrella."

These aren't the first examples of Musk blurring the lines between his companies, but they're the latest indication that Musk Inc., the constellation of companies under his leadership, is becoming increasingly centered on AI.

Tesla is an 'AI robotics company'

Musk has long pushed for Tesla's focus on AI and robotics by prioritizing projects like autonomous driving, humanoid robots, and building out its Dojo supercomputer, his ambitious bid to rival Nvidia.

In a 2024 earnings call, the Tesla CEO said, "We should be thought of as an AI robotics company," and those who think of Tesla merely as an auto company are holding "the wrong framework."

With the recent launch of Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin, that push is appearing more prominent, especially as Tesla's auto business, in contrast, grapples with a loss in sales momentum.

Musk has promoted the advantages of buying into the "Muskonomy," pitching it as a way for shareholders to tap into his business empire, which includes SpaceX, X, xAI, and The Boring Company. Musk has even said he would prioritize "longtime shareholders" of his other companies if any of his businesses were to go public.

Nelson told BI that Musk leveraging his other companies and resources could help Tesla meet its AI demands for autonomous driving.

"Tesla's data needs are massive if its approach to autonomous driving is going to be successful (and scalable), as its approach will require the development of a global neural network," Nelson said.

While exploring ways to pool resources across companies might benefit the broader Musk ecosystem, it could carry risk.

Last week, Grok sparked backlash with antisemitic outbursts on X, potentially putting investors on edge about integrating the chatbot into Tesla's EVs. xAI apologized for the incidents and said that new instructions to prioritize engagement could have reflected "extremist views" from user posts on X.

Last year, Musk also sparked concern among investors when he diverted a $500 million shipment of Nvidia chips intended for Tesla to X and xAI instead. When asked about the move in a Tesla earnings call, he said it was beneficial to Tesla because the carmaker lacked the infrastructure at the time to use the chips.

Gadjo Sevilla, an analyst at EMARKETER, a sister company to Business Insider, said that Musk may be leaning on SpaceX and Tesla to fund xAI because he views them as more "mature businesses." However, he said that shifting GPUs from Tesla to xAI in the past showed where Musk's priorities were, and that could delay innovation at the automaker.

"The strategy of cannibalizing one business to prop up another one could take its toll," Sevilla said. "Especially since competing carmakers are focused on developing one type of product, EVs."

Musk seems to be ruling out the idea of a merger between Tesla and his AI startup for now. In response to an X user asking Tesla shareholders to weigh in on whether Tesla and xAI should be combined, Musk replied with a flat "No."

Staying in the AI race is a costly venture

Investing in AI efforts might make sense from a strategy perspective, but it comes with a hefty price tag.

The development, training, and implementation of foundational AI systems, like xAI's Grok 4, costs many, many billions.

In March, Musk announced that xAI had acquired X in an all-stock deal, valuing the AI startup between $33 billion and $80 billion. Since founding the company two years ago, he's raised major funding, including around $12 billion in Series A, B, and C funding rounds last year. The company is expected to spend about $13 billion this year, however, and is rapidly burning through its cash reserves, Bloomberg reported.

Musk's challenges keeping up with AI costs aren't unique. In a May letter to California's attorney general, OpenAI revealed concerns about competitors who are "far better funded, conventional for-profit businesses."

Larger tech giants, like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, aren't showing any signs of backing down from their AI spending spree. Earnings reports from earlier this year indicate that their combined capital expenditures are set to exceed $320 billion in 2025, a notable rise from the roughly $246 billion the four companies spent in 2024.

Amazon plans to allocate over $100 billion this year toward expanding AWS and scaling AI infrastructure. Meta specifically has said it plans to spend $60 billion to $65 billion in capex on its strategy this year.

Zuckerberg certainly isn't slowing down.

On Monday, he announced Meta would spend "hundreds of billions" on compute to build superintelligence. Wall Street seemed to approve, with Meta's stock rising 1.3% following the news, suggesting that its concern isn't about overspending on the AI race — but rather underspending and falling behind.

• Nvidia's stock has been on a tear lately — but some people still don't know how to pronounce the company's name.
• While some pronounce it "NUH-vid-ee-uh," the correct pronunciation is "en-VID-ee-uh."
• Nvidia's name, inspired by the Latin word "invidia," reflects its founders' hope to evoke envy.

You might hear people mentioning Nvidia more this week. The stock is trading at an all-time high. It's officially the most valuable company in the world. But are people pronouncing it correctly?

Despite the company dominating headlines and being at the forefront of many conversations around AI, some people still don't know how to pronounce its name.

Luckily, Nvidia cleared the confusion on its website and explained the proper pronunciation. We're sorry to tell you, but if you're one of the people calling the tech giant "NUH-vid-ee-uh," you've been saying it wrong.

The proper pronunciation of Nvidia is "en-VID-ee-uh," according to the company.

Founded by CEO Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem in 1993, the chipmaker's name actually came from its lack of a name, Fortune previously reported. While the trio focused on developing the company, they put its title on the back burner and named files "NV" as an abbreviation for the "next version."

The three eventually decided on NVision before realizing the name was taken by a toilet-paper manufacturing company, The New Yorker reported. Finally, Huang suggested the chipmaker's current name, a spinoff of the word "invidia," which means envy in Latin, the report said.

Huang and the founders had dreams of creating a product that would make rivals "green with envy," Nvidia cofounder Priem said. Given Nvidia has a nearly $3.9 trillion market cap and a long line of tech giants and startups angling for its latest AI chips, it seems as if that vision has come to fruition.

To celebrate Nvidia's stock price hitting $100 years ago, Huang got the company's logo tattooed on his arm — an experience he later said "hurts way more than anybody tells you."

Check out the video below to hear Huang pronounce the name at Nvidia's 2024 keynote.

• An AI-generated ad for Kalshi, where you can bet on real-world events, aired during an NBA Finals game.
• PJ Accetturo, a self-described AI filmmaker, described his process for creating the ad.
• Here's how he used Google's Gemini chatbot and Veo 3 video generator to make the "most unhinged" ad.

A farmer floating in a pool of eggs. An alien chugging beer. An older man, draped in an American flag, screaming, "Indiana gonna win baby." The chaotic scenes are all part of a new AI-generated ad from sports betting marketplace Kalshi, which aired Wednesday during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

"The world's gone mad, trade it," the commercial's tagline read, following the 30-second collection of surreal scenes.

In a recent thread on X, the ad's director explained how he made the clip for just $2,000.

"Kalshi hired me to make the most unhinged NBA Finals commercial possible," PJ Accetturo, a self-described AI filmmaker, wrote on Wednesday. "Network TV actually approved this GTA-style madness."

Accetturo said he made the ad using Veo 3, Google's latest AI video generator. A Kalshi spokesperson confirmed to BI that the company hired Accetturo to make the ad and that it was generated entirely using Veo 3.

"Kalshi asked me to create a spot about people betting on various markets, including the NBA Finals," Accetturo wrote on X. "I said the best Veo 3 content is crazy people doing crazy things while showcasing your brand. They love GTA VI. I grew up in Florida. This idea wrote itself."

He said that he started by writing a rough script, turned to Gemini to generate a shot list and prompts, pasted it into Veo 3, and made the finishing touches in editing software.

To write the script, he said he asked Kalshi's team for pieces of dialogue they wanted to include, then thought up "10 wild characters in unhinged situations to say them." Accetturo said that he got help from Gemini and ChatGPT for coming up with ideas and working them into a script.

A screenshot he posted of this stage of his process showed dialogue like "Indiana gonna win baby" and "I'm all in on OKC" alongside characters like "rizzed out grandpa headed to the club" and "old lady in front of pickup truck that says 'fresh manatee' in a cooler behind her."

Accetturo said he then asked Gemini to turn every shot description into a Veo 3 prompt.

"I always tell it to return 5 prompts at a time—any more than that and the quality starts to slip," he wrote on X. "Each prompt should fully describe the scene as if Veo 3 has no context of the shot before or after it. Re-describe the setting, the character, and the tone every time to maintain consistency."

Accetturo said it took 300 to 400 generations to get 15 usable clips.

"We were not specifically looking for an AI video at first, but after getting quotes from production companies that were in the six or seven figure range with timelines that didn't fit our needs, we decided to experiment, and that's when we made the decision to go with AI and hire PJ," the Kalshi spokesperson told BI. "Given the success of this first ad, we are absolutely planning on doing more with AI."

The spokesperson said the video went from idea to live ad in three days, cost roughly $2,000 to make, and is on track to finish with 20 million impressions across mediums.

Accetturo told BI that he was "paid very well for the project" and now makes a "lot more as an AI director" than he did for live action contracts, which often involved weeks of work before and after the shoot compared to the few days the Kalshi ad required.

"The client got an insane ad for a great rate on a blistering timeline, and I got paid really well, while working in my underwear," he said.

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had a tumultuous relationship over the years.
• While the two traded barbs during Trump's first presidency, they've become political allies.
• Musk officially joined the administration, but recently criticized Trump's "big, beautiful bill."

Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had something of an on-again-off-again relationship over the years.

The world's richest person and the two-time president of the United States weren't always close, but became singular political allies, with Musk calling himself "first buddy" following Trump's 2024 victory and donating more than $200 million toward pro-Trump super PACs.

At the beginning of Trump's second term, Musk was frequently seen on the president's side and served as the de facto head of the White House DOGE office, the cost-cutting initiative that made waves throughout the federal government.

In May, Musk started to separate himself somewhat from Trump, saying he'd devote more time to his businesses and spend less money on politics.

By early June, it appeared that their relationship was blowing up in real time as the two publicly disagreed over the "Big, Beautiful Bill."

Here's how the two billionaires reached this point.

November 2016: Musk says Trump is 'not the right guy' for the job

Just before the 2016 presidential election, Musk told CNBC he didn't think Trump should be president. 

"I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," Musk said. 

The billionaire added that Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies were the "right ones."

December 2016: Musk appointed to Trump's advisory councils

After he won the presidency, Trump appointed Musk to two economic advisory councils, along with other business leaders like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. 

Musk received criticism for working with the controversial president, but he defended his choice by saying he was using the position to lobby for better environmental and immigration policies. 

June 2017: Musk cut ties with the White House in protest of Trump's environmental policies

On June 1, 2017, after Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Musk resigned from his roles on presidential advisory boards. 

"Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a tweet announcing his departure.

Musk's goal for Tesla is to curb dependence on fossil fuels through electric vehicles, solar power, and stationary energy storage. 

January 2020: 'One of our great geniuses'

During a January 2020 interview with CNBC, Trump praised Musk's accomplishments and intelligence. 

"You have to give him credit," the former president said, referring to Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford and General Motors. "He's also doing the rockets. He likes rockets. And he's doing good at rockets too, by the way." 

Trump went on to call Musk "one of our great geniuses" and likened him to Thomas Edison. 

May 2020: Trump backs up Musk in feud with California's COVID-19 rules

As the pandemic gripped the US in early 2020, Musk clashed with California public-health officials who forced Tesla to temporarily shut down its factory there. Trump voiced his support for Musk. 

"California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW," Trump tweeted in May 2020. "It can be done Fast & Safely!"

"Thank you!" Musk replied. 

May 2022: Musk said he would reinstate Trump's Twitter account

In May, Musk said he would unban Trump as Twitter's new owner. 

Musk called the ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme" in an interview with the Financial Times. Twitter kicked Trump off its platform following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. 

The Tesla billionaire has called himself a "free speech absolutist," and one of his key goals for taking Twitter private was to loosen content moderation. 

July 2022: Trump calls Musk a 'bullshit artist'

In July, Trump took aim at Musk, saying the businessman voted for him but later denied it. 

"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during a Saturday rally in Anchorage, Alaska. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."

On Monday, Musk tweeted that Trump's claim was "not true."

July 2022: Musk says Trump shouldn't run again

Musk stopped short of attacking Trump personally, but said he shouldn't run for president again. 

"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency," he tweeted. 

He continued: "Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76 years old. 

July 2022: Trump lashes out

Trump then went on the offensive, posting a lengthy attack on Musk on Truth Social, the social media company he founded. 

"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump said in a post that criticized two of Musk's ventures, Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. 

"Lmaooo," Musk responded on Twitter.

October 2022: Trump cheers Musk's Twitter deal but says he won't return

Following Musk's official buyout of Twitter on Thursday, Trump posted to Truth Social, cheering the deal. 

"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country," he said. He added that he likes Truth Social better than other platforms, echoing comments from earlier this year in which he ruled out a return to Twitter. 

On Monday, Musk joked about the potential of welcoming the former president back to his newly acquired platform.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!," the Tesla CEO tweeted. 

May 2023: Musk hosts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' glitchy debut

Musk and other right-leaning voices in Silicon Valley initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis ended 2022 as Trump's best-positioned primary challenger. In November 2022, as DeSantis was skyrocketing to acclaim, Musk said he would endorse him. In March 2023, after enduring Trump's attacks for months, DeSantis prepared to make history by formally announcing his campaign in an interview on Twitter.

The initial few minutes were a glitchy disaster. Trump and his allies ruthlessly mocked DeSantis' "Space" with Musk and venture capitalist David Sachs. DeSantis' interview later proceeded, but his campaign was dogged for days with negative headlines.

September 2023: A Trump-style border wall is needed, Musk says

Musk live-streamed a visit to the US-Mexico border on Twitter, which he had rebranded as "X." Musk said that one of Trump's signature policies was necessary during his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, to get a first-person look at what local officials called a crisis at the border.

"We actually do need a wall and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum to enter, as everyone is doing that," Musk wrote on X. "It's a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say! Will find out more when I visit Eagle Pass maybe as soon as tomorrow."

Like Trump and others on the right, Musk had criticized the broader consensus in Washington for focusing too much on Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine in comparison to domestic issues like migration. 

March 2024: Trump tries to woo Musk, but the billionaire says he won't give him money.

Trump tried to woo Musk during a meeting at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort. According to The New York Times, Trump met with Musk and a few other GOP megadonors when the former president's campaign was particularly cash-strapped. After the Times published its report, Musk said he would not be "donating money to either candidate for US President." 

It wasn't clear who Musk meant in terms of the second candidate. He had repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden, who looked poised to be headed toward a rematch with Trump.

July 2024: Musk endorses Trump after the former president is shot

Musk said he "fully endorsed" Trump after the former president was shot during a political rally ahead of the Republican National Convention. The billionaire's endorsement marked a major turning point in his yearslong political evolution from an Obama voter. Days later, it would come to light that Musk pressed Trump to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential pick at the Republican National Convention.

The ticket, Musk wrote on X, "resounds with victory."

It wasn't just his public support that Musk was offering. In July, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk had pledged roughly $45 million to support a pro-Trump super PAC. Musk later said he would donate far less, but his rebranding into a loyal member of the MAGA right was complete.

August 2024: Trump joins Musk for a highly anticipated interview

Trump, who ended the Republican National Convention primed for victory, stumbled after Biden abruptly dropped out of the 2024 race. The former president and his allies have struggled to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee.

Amid Harris' early media blitz, Trump joined Musk on a two-hour livestream on X that garnered an audience of over 1 million listeners. The conversation covered topics ranging from a retelling of Trump's assassination attempt to illegal immigration to Musk's potential role with a government efficiency commission.

In August, Trump began floating the idea that he "certainly would" consider adding Musk to his Cabinet or an advisory role. The Tesla CEO responded by tweeting an AI-generated photo of himself on a podium emblazoned with the acronym "D.O.G.E"—Department of Government Efficiency.

"I am willing to serve," he wrote above the image.

September 2024: Musk says he's ready to serve if Trump gives him an advisory role

In September, Trump softened the suggestion of Musk joining his Cabinet due to his time constraints with running his various business ventures, the Washington Post reported. However, he also said that Musk could "consult with the country" and help give "some very good ideas."

Musk then replied to a tweet about the Washington Post article, expressing his enthusiasm.

"I can't wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go," he wrote.

He later said on X that he "looked forward to serving" the country and would be willing to do with without any pay, title, or recognition.

October 2024: Musk speaks at Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania

Musk joined Trump onstage during the former president's rally, hosted on October 5 in the same location where Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk sported an all-black "Make America Great Again" cap and briefly addressed the crowd, saying that voter turnout for Trump this year was essential or "this will be the last election." 

"President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution," Musk said. "He must win to preserve democracy in America."

The next day, Musk's America PAC announced that it would offer $47 to each person who refers registered voters residing in swing states to sign a petition "in support for the First and Second Amendments."

By October, the PAC had reportedly already spent over $80 million on the election, with over $8.2 million spread across 18 competitive House races for the GOP. 

The Tesla CEO later told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he might face "vengeance" if Trump loses the election.

November 2024: Trump wins the presidency and names Musk his administration

Musk was by Trump's side on election night at Mar-a-Lago, helping celebrate his victory.

Nearly a week after his 2024 presidential election win, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy were chosen to lead a newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, as Musk likes to call it, in reference to the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin).

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pay the way for my Administration to dismantle the Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement. 

It's unclear whether the department will formally exist within the government, though Trump said the office would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government" and work directly with the White House and Office of Management & Budget.

Musk responded in a post on X that the Department of Government Efficiency will be post all their actions online "for maximum transparency." 

"Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" Musk wrote. "We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

Outside of administrative duties, Musk has also attended "almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had," the New York Times reported, acting as a partial advisor and confidant. The Tesla CEO also reportedly joined Trump's calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while both men were at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk seems to have settled in.

"Elon won't go home," Trump told NBC News jokingly. "I can't get rid of him." 

The two's close relationship has extended to a more personal friendship. Musk was seen attending Trump's Thanksgiving dinner and on the golf course with Trump and his grandchildren, where Kai Trump said he achieved "uncle status."

December 2024: Trump reaffirms he will be the next President, not Musk

While Musk and Trump are both big personalities, the President-elect made it clear that he'll be the one running the country. President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the notion that he "ceded the presidency" to Musk and said that even if the billionaire wanted to be president, he couldn't because he was born in South Africa.

"No, he's not going to be president, that I can tell you," Trump said at Turning Point USA's annual "AmericaFest" in December. "And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be? He wasn't born in this country."

Trump's comments came after Musk flexed his influence to help shut down a bipartisan emergency spending bill earlier that month. Some Republicans questioned why Trump hadn't been more active in derailing the bill, and Democrats baited the President-elect on social media with posts about Musk "calling the shots" and taking on the role of a "shadow president.

Prior to Trump addressing the subject, Trump's team also looked to shut down the idea that Musk is leading the Republican Party.

"As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view," Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, told BI. "President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop."

January 2025: Musk and fellow billionaires celebrate Trump's inauguration

Trump was sworn into office on January 20. Several tech leaders were in attendance, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Google's Sundar Pichai. The "first buddy" was also front and center for Trump's inauguration.

Musk took the stage to celebrate at an inauguration event at the Capital One Arena, where he sparked accusations over a gesture he made that some said resembled a Nazi salute. Musk denied the allegations.

"Hopefully, people realize I'm not a Nazi. Just to be clear, I'm not a Nazi," he said during an interview with Joe Rogan.

February 2025: The White House says Musk isn't running DOGE

Though Musk has been the face of the DOGE effort, White House court filings said he has "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."

In the filing, Musk is described as a senior advisor to Trump with "no greater authority than other senior White House advisors." Officials have also called him a "special government employee."

Trump told reporters they can call Musk "whatever you want."

"Elon is to me a patriot," Trump said in February. "You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want."

Later that month, a White House official told BI that Amy Gleason, who previously worked for US Digital Service, is the acting DOGE administrator.

March 2025: Trump buys a Tesla and calls out protesters

Despite court filings and White House officials stating otherwise, Trump told Congress that Musk is the leader of the DOGE office.

"I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, perhaps you've heard of it, which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight," Trump said during his speech on March 4.

Those questioning the constitutionality of DOGE were quick to respond by letting a federal judge know about their claims that Musk is in charge.

Meanwhile, calls for a Tesla boycott are growing as Musk becomes more involved in Trump's presidency. Protests, boycotts, and vandalism at Tesla dealerships across the US have spread since the beginning of 2025.

Trump stepped in to defend Musk's electric car company on Tuesday, with Teslas on the South Lawn of the White House. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote that he'd purchase a car to show support amid the public outcry.

"The Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World's great automakers, and Elon's 'baby,' in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for," the president wrote.

April 2025: Musk announces he's stepping back from DOGE

Three months into DOGE's mission to reshape the federal workforce, Musk announced that he would be stepping back from the effort. He broke the news during an underwhelming Tesla earnings call, where earnings per share were down 71% year over year.

"Starting next month, I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla," Musk said during the call. He added that "the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency" had been completed.

At the time, Musk said he would keep spending one or two days each week on governmental duties, so long as Trump wanted him to do so.

May 2025: Musk says he'll be spending less on politics, criticizes the Republican agenda, and announces he's leaving government for good

By May, Musk started to step back from his political activity overall. During an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, he said he thinks he's "done enough" in terms of political contributions.

"In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," he said, adding that he didn't "currently see a reason" to pour money into politics. Previously, Musk had said his super PAC would contribute to 2026 midterm efforts.

A few days later, Musk told a reporter that he "probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," and that he'd "reduced that significantly in recent weeks."

Musk took a decidedly more critical tone regarding the overall Republican agenda. In an interview with CBS in late May, he said he wasn't pleased with Trump and House Republicans' "big beautiful" spending bill.

"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said.

And then, on May 28, Musk cut ties with DOGE and the Trump administration. The White House confirmed that it had started Musk's off-boarding process.

"As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," Musk wrote in a post on X. "The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government."

Under federal law, special government employees can't serve for more than 130 days a year. Musk left the administration 128 days after the inauguration.

June 2025: Musk and Trump escalate attacks, after Tesla CEO delivers sharp rebuke against the 'Big Beautiful Bill.'

Days after stepping away from his job in the White House, Musk delivered his harshest criticism yet of the GOP spending proposal called the "Big Beautiful Bill."

"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," Musk wrote on X on June 3. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."

Some congressional Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee, posted that they agreed with Musk. Meanwhile, Trump has consistently defended the bill on Truth Social, including just hours before Musk's critical post on X.

In an interview with CBS News that aired June 1, Musk said, "I'm a little stuck in a bind where I'm like, well, I don't want to speak up against the administration, but I also don't want to take responsibility for everything the administration's doing."

On June 5, the barbs escalated as Musk doubled down on his criticisms and Trump threatened the CEO's businesses.

Musk began to dig up old tweets from Trump, including one where the president said in 2013, "I cannot believe the Republicans are extending the debt ceiling—I am a Republican & I am embarrassed!"

Musk quote-tweeted it with the message, "Wise words," taking a dig at Trump's very different stance on the debt ceiling today.

Trump first shot back with a softer/more diplomatic response, saying that the CEO and he "had a great relationship," but he wasn't sure if it would continue.

The president said Musk was criticizing his bill because of the phase-out of the electric vehicle tax credit, which would likely have repercussions for Musk's Tesla.

Musk shot back within minutes on X, saying that while he thought the EV phase-out was unfair, what he really took issue with was the "MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill."

The tone soon took a sharp turn after the president threatened on the same day to terminate the federal contracts that Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, rely on, and Musk began to take credit for Trump's 2024 electoral victory.

In response to Trump's threat to cancel the government contracts, Musk said on X that he'd immediately decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which provides NASA transport to and from the International Space Station.

• Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI's advanced models have shown deceptive behavior to avoid shutdowns.
• Experts told BI that AI's reward-based training can lead to unpredictable and deceptive actions.
• AI researchers caution against using models that are trained to tell users what they want to hear.

AI has taken part in some unsettling behavior recently.

Last week, Anthropic's latest AI model, Claude Opus 4, displayed "extreme blackmail behavior" during a test in which it was given access to fictional emails revealing that it would be shut down and that the engineer responsible was supposedly having an affair.

The situation didn't transpire organically. Claude Opus 4 was baited — and it took it. However, the test scenario demonstrated an AI model's ability to engage in manipulative behavior in an effort to self-preserve.

It's not the first time.

Another recent experiment conducted by researchers said that three of OpenAI's advanced models "sabotaged" an attempt to shut it down. The nonprofit Palisade Research wrote in a post on X that similar models like Gemini, Claude, and Grok complied with the shutdown instructions.

Other safety concerns were previously flagged with OpenAI's o1 model. In December, OpenAI posted a blog outlining research that indicated that when the AI model believed it would be shut down while pursuing a goal and its actions were being monitored, it attempted to disable the oversight mechanism 5% of the time.

While AI companies are being transparent about risks by publishing safety cards and blog posts, these models are being released despite demonstrating safety concerns.

So, should we be worried? BI spoke to five AI researchers to get better insight on why these instances are happening — and what it means for the average person using AI.

AI learns behavior similarly to humans

Most of the researchers BI spoke to said that the results of the studies weren't surprising.

That's because AI models are trained similarly to how humans are trained — through positive reinforcement and reward systems.

"Training AI systems to pursue rewards is a recipe for developing AI systems that have power-seeking behaviors," said Jeremie Harris, CEO at AI security consultancy Gladstone, adding that more of this behavior is to be expected.

Harris compared the training to what humans experience as they grow up — when a child does something good, they often get rewarded and can become more likely to act that way in the future. AI models are taught to prioritize efficiency and complete the task at hand, Harris said — and an AI is never more likely to achieve its goals if it's shut down.

Robert Ghrist, associate dean of undergraduate education at Penn Engineering, told BI that, in the same way that AI models learn to speak like humans by training on human-generated text, they can also learn to act like humans. And humans are not always the most moral actors, he added.

Ghrist said he'd be more nervous if the models weren't showing any signs of failure during testing because that could indicate hidden risks.

"When a model is set up with an opportunity to fail and you see it fail, that's super useful information," Ghrist said. "That means we can predict what it's going to do in other, more open circumstances."

The issue is that some researchers don't think AI models are predictable.

Jeffrey Ladish, director of Palisade Research, said that models aren't being caught 100% of the time when they lie, cheat, or scheme in order to complete a task. When those instances aren't caught, and the model is successful at completing the task, it could learn that deception can be an effective way to solve a problem. Or, if it is caught and not rewarded, then it could learn to hide its behavior in the future, Ladish said.

At the moment, these eerie scenarios are largely happening in testing. However, Harris said that as AI systems become more agentic, they'll continue to have more freedom of action.

"The menu of possibilities just expands, and the set of possible dangerously creative solutions that they can invent just gets bigger and bigger," Harris said.

Harris said users could see this play out in a scenario where an autonomous sales agent is instructed to close a deal with a new customer and lies about the product's capabilities in an effort to complete that task. If an engineer fixed that issue, the agent could then decide to use social engineering tactics to pressure the client to achieve the goal.

If it sounds like a far-fetched risk, it's not. Companies like Salesforce are already rolling out customizable AI agents at scale that can take actions without human intervention, depending on the user's preferences.

What the safety flags mean for everyday users

Most researchers BI spoke to said that transparency from AI companies is a positive step forward. However, company leaders are sounding the alarms on their products while simultaneously touting their increasing capabilities.

Researchers told BI that a large part of that is because the US is entrenched in a competition to scale its AI capabilities before rivals like China. That's resulted in a lack of regulations around AI and pressures to release newer and more capable models, Harris said.

"We've now moved the goalpost to the point where we're trying to explain post-hawk why it's okay that we have models disregarding shutdown instructions," Harris said.

Researchers told BI that everyday users aren't at risk of ChatGPT refusing to shut down, as consumers wouldn't typically use a chatbot in that setting. However, users may still be vulnerable to receiving manipulated information or guidance.

"If you have a model that's getting increasingly smart that's being trained to sort of optimize for your attention and sort of tell you what you want to hear," Ladish said. "That's pretty dangerous."

Ladish pointed to OpenAI's sycophancy issue, where its GPT-4o model acted overly agreeable and disingenuous (the company updated the model to address the issue). The OpenAI research shared in December also revealed that its o1 model "subtly" manipulated data to pursue its own objectives in 19% of cases when its goals misaligned with the user's.

Ladish said it's easy to get wrapped up in AI tools, but users should "think carefully" about their connection to the systems.

"To be clear, I also use them all the time, I think they're an extremely helpful tool," Ladish said. "In the current form, while we can still control them, I'm glad they exist."

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could soon eliminate 50% of entry-level office jobs.
• The AI CEO said that companies and the government are "sugarcoating" the risks of AI.
• Recent data shows Big Tech hiring of new grads has dropped 50% since pre-pandemic, partly due to AI.

After spending the day promoting his company's AI technology at a developer conference, Anthropic's CEO issued a warning: AI may eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years.

"We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Dario Amodei told Axios in an interview published Wednesday. "I don't think this is on people's radar."

The 42-year-old CEO added that unemployment could spike between 10% and 20% in the next five years. He told Axios he wanted to share his concerns to get the government and other AI companies to prepare the country for what's to come.

"Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei said. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it."

Amodei said the development of large language models is advancing rapidly, and they're becoming capable of matching and exceeding human performance. He said the US government has remained quiet about the issue, fearing workers would panic or the country could fall behind China in the AI race.

Meanwhile, business leaders are seeing savings from AI while most workers remain unaware of the changes that are evolving, Amodei said.

He added that AI companies and the government need to stop "sugarcoating" the risks of mass job elimination in fields including technology, finance, law, and consulting. He said entry-level jobs are especially at risk.

Amodei's comments come as Big Tech firms' hiring of new grads dropped about 50% from pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report by the venture capital firm SignalFire. The report said that's due in part to AI adoption.

A round of brutal layoffs swept the tech industry in 2023, with hundreds of thousands of jobs eliminated as companies looked to slash costs. While SignalFire's report said hiring for mid and senior-level roles saw an uptick in 2024, entry-level positions never quite bounced back.

In 2024, early-career candidates accounted for 7% of total hires at Big Tech firms, down by 25% from 2023, the report said. At startups, that number is just 6%, down by 11% from the year prior.

SignalFire's findings suggest that tech companies are prioritizing hiring more seasoned professionals and often filling posted junior roles with senior candidates.

Heather Doshay, a partner who leads people and recruiting programs at SignalFire, told Business Insider that "AI is doing what interns and new grads used to do."

"Now, you can hire one experienced worker, equip them with AI tooling, and they can produce the output of the junior worker on top of their own — without the overhead," Doshay said.

AI can't entirely account for the sudden shrinkage in early-career prospects. The report also said that negative perceptions of Gen Z employees and tighter budgets across the industry are contributing to tech's apparent reluctance to hire new grads.

"AI isn't stealing job categories outright — it's absorbing the lowest-skill tasks," Doshay said. "That shifts the burden to universities, boot camps, and candidates to level up faster."

To adapt to the rapidly changing times, she suggests new grads think of AI as a collaborator, rather than a competitor.

"Level up your capabilities to operate like someone more experienced by embracing a resourceful ownership mindset and delegating to AI," Doshay said. "There's so much available on the internet to be self-taught, and you should be sponging it up."

Amodei's chilling message comes after the company recently revealed that its chatbot Claude Opus 4 exhibited "extreme blackmail behavior" after gaining access to fictional emails that said it would be shut down. While the company was transparent with the public about the results, it still released the next version of the chatbot.

It's not the first time Amodei has warned the public about the risks of AI. On an episode of The New York Times' "Hard Fork" podcast in February, the CEO said the possibility of "misuse" by bad actors could threaten millions of lives. He said the risk could come as early as "2025 or 2026," though he didn't know exactly when it would present "real risk."

Anthropic has emphasized the importance of third-party safety assessments and regularly shares the risks uncovered by its red-teaming efforts. Other companies have taken similar steps, relying on third-party evaluations to test their AI systems. OpenAI, for example, says on its website that its API and ChatGPT business products undergo routine third-party testing to "identify security weaknesses before they can be exploited by malicious actors."

Amodei acknowledged to Axios the irony of the situation — as he shares the risks of AI, he's simultaneously building and selling the products he's warning about. But he said the people who are most involved in building AI have an obligation to be up front about its direction.

"It's a very strange set of dynamics, where we're saying: 'You should be worried about where the technology we're building is going,'" he said.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Salesforce exec Patrick Stokes advises against going into management by default or simply to advance up the ladder.
• He told BI that he became a manager because he wanted to lead others and share his vision.
• Stokes said if you value personal growth, you should be willing to try out new roles that aren't necessarily a level up.

Transitioning to management might feel like a natural next step in your career. However, Salesforce executive Patrick Stokes cautions that it might not necessarily be the right path for everyone.

"I think it's easy for people to be enamored with the growth of kind of, moving up the ranks, rather than the growth of themselves personally," the executive vice president of product and industries marketing told Business Insider.

Stokes, in a conversation during Salesforce's Agentforce World Tour in New York City, said whenever people tell him they want to move into management, he asks them why. Usually, people say that "it's the next step," he told BI — and that's not enough of a reason.

"No, you need to know why you want to be a manager, because now you have to inspire a team," Stokes said. "You have to think about your day-to-day job very differently."

Salesforce EVP of talent growth and development Lori Castillo Martinez echoed a similar sentiment in a previous interview with BI. "Being a deep expert isn't always an indicator of being a great manager," she said, adding that collaboration and task management skills are more important, and the best managers are those who can analyze their teams and maximize productivity.

Responsibilities naturally shift when you transition from an individual contributor to a manager. Stokes said that if you take on a management role, you may not be able to do some of the things you value.

Stokes, who started out as a developer and transitioned multiple times in his career, said he moved into management because he wanted to be a leader, and he was already acting like one.

The Salesforce executive showcased the contrast in responsibilities between an individual contributor and a manager at the company's Agentforce conference. At the executive level, the job involves more than simply managing massive teams — it can often include public speaking at high-profile events. Stokes, for example, gave a keynote address at the event, opening with an energetic anecdote about recent events in New York City. Then, he introduced the company's digital workforce of AI agents, Agentforce, along with other speakers, all while walking through an auditorium of hundreds of people and talking directly to a video camera that trailed him.

Stokes said he's always had strong opinions and a desire to rally others around his vision. From the time he was in high school, he found himself leading projects, despite frequently sitting in the back of the classroom. He said he didn't announce himself as the leader, but he was often the one coming up with ideas and convincing others to get on board.

"That's what you really need to have if you want to go into leadership," Stokes said.

Stokes said that as soon as he feels "not nervous" about an event or meeting, he wants to try something new, and he's a big advocate for changing roles. The exec said some people tend to "think too narrowly" about changes and only want to switch roles if it's "growth within the org chart." Stokes said that can be tough to find.

"If you value the growth, the personal growth that you're gonna get from that new role, enough, you should be willing to take a step back to go forward," Stokes said.

Outside of leading Salesforce's product and industries marketing team, Stokes said he likes to play chess. He said there's a concept in chess called a "gambit" — fans of the hit Netflix show "The Queen's Gambit" will be familiar — where you make what appears to be a bad move, but is actually designed to get a reaction from an opponent. Stokes said that's how he likes to think about his career changes — seemingly risky but strategic long-term.

"When I first went into marketing, a lot of my peers and product were like, 'Why are you going to marketing?' And I'm like,'Just wait. It'll be fine. I'm gonna be great,'" Stokes said.

• Cadillac said it's seeing a rise in Tesla owners switching to its Lyriq EV models.
• Cadillac has expanded its EV lineup, and California registrations have increased by 60% year over year.
• The automaker's growth comes as Tesla had a tough first quarter and experienced declining registrations in multiple markets.

Cadillac appears to be eating into Tesla's customer base.

The automaker told Business Insider it's seen a rise in Tesla owners switching to its EV brand. The company said its EVs have a conquest rate of about 75% — or the percentage of sales coming from customers switching brands — with 10% being former Tesla owners.

Cadillac told BI its first EV model, the Lyriq, launched in 2022 and is seeing a roughly 80% conquest rate, with 25% of buyers coming over from Tesla.

At a recent event showcasing its Vistiq model, Cadillac's director of global marketing, Brad Franz, told CNBC the company has seen "a good jump" in the rate and that General Motors' luxury vehicle division has "always had good interaction with Tesla customers," with the Lyriq conquest rate of Tesla owners ranging from 10% to 15%.

Franz told CNBC that the figure is now on the rise as the car brand expanded its luxury EV lineup, and it sees potential for even greater growth. Cadillac has added three additional EVs to its portfolio in the past 6 months, including the Escalade IQ, Optiq, and Vistiq.

Cadillac told BI it's not targeting any brand specifically and its mission is to "build great Cadillacs" that capture buyers based on the quality of its products and delivery on brand promise. The luxury brand reported a 21% increase in retail sales, with its EV segment up 37% in the first quarter of the year.

In California, a crucial market for EVs that's often seen as a bellwether state for the broader market, industry data shows Cadillac registrations jumped about 60% year over year, rising from 1,000 to 1,609 in the first quarter of 2025.

Tesla, which remains the EV market leader in the US by a large margin, has seen its sales decline recently in several countries.

The same data shows that Tesla registrations decreased 15% year-over-year in California, although its Model Y and Model 3 remain the top two selling EVs in the state, and the Model Y continues to be the best-selling car overall. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The rise in Cadillac EV ownership comes as Tesla faces a rocky start to the year. The EV giant fell short of revenue expectations in the first quarter, reporting a 9% year-over-year decline. Tesla's automotive revenue dropped 20% year over year, and the company backed away from its 2025 "return to growth" forecast for its auto business.

Tesla reported first-quarter deliveries numbers below analyst expectations and 13% lower than the same period last year. Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said in the company's earnings call last month that the assembly line changeover for the refreshed Model Y impacted delivery numbers. Anti-Tesla hostility also "had an impact in certain markets," he added.

Following months of boycott efforts aimed at Tesla, the automaker and SpaceX both saw declines in brand reputation, according to the Axios Harris Poll 100. Tesla dropped to 95th place, a decrease from its ranking in 63rd place last year and eighth place in 2021. Other automakers scored higher on the list compared to Tesla, with Ford landing at 60th and Volkswagen Group at 53rd.

Amid continued political backlash against Elon Musk and a challenging EV landscape, Cox Automotive data from April reveals Tesla's used-car sales volume rose 27% month-over-month, meaning that more Tesla owners are trying to sell their vehicles. The surge boosted its share of the used EV market to 47%, according to Cox Automotive's data.

Musk said in a recent interview at the Qatar Economic Forum that while the company has "lost some sales, perhaps on the left," Tesla also gained sales from the right.

"The sales numbers at this point are strong, and we see no problem with demand," Musk said, adding that the stock price is the best indicator of where the company stands.

Despite Tesla stock plummeting over 50% in March and being down 10% year-to-date, the automaker's share price is up 43% this month as the billionaire has taken a step back from his DOGE involvement.

While Tesla sales continue to drop in Europe, which Musk described in the forum as its weakest market, the automaker has seen some positive momentum. Cox Automotive data shows that Tesla was among the few manufacturers reporting month-over-month growth in EV sales. Tesla's market share increased by over 3% in April, according to the data, driven by 25,231 sales of the Model Y.

• Dropbox's VP of product and growth, Morgan Brown, advises job seekers to put their work on display.
• Brown said anyone can build products with the amount of free tools and online courses now available.
• Brown took 20 years to finish his degree and worked his way up the career ladder by teaching himself.

Like many tech execs, Dropbox's VP of product and growth agrees that job seekers should still learn basic technical skills — but his No. 1 piece of advice is to "show your work."

Morgan Brown told Business Insider that it's about showcasing your capabilities, rather than showing how you arrived at an answer.

"Publish your stuff, publish your thinking," Brown said in an interview. "Build the apps, build the websites."

Brown said he would give that advice at any time, but it's especially relevant in the age of AI. In a time where there's an abundance of free tools and online courses, Brown said there's nothing stopping job seekers from building products on their own. All candidates need to get started is a phone and internet access, Brown said.

"There are so many opportunities to kind of, like, show what you have to offer right now without kind of any credential necessary other than just your work," Brown said.

The Dropbox product exec said that when he suggests building a product, people sometimes say that they don't know enough or don't have good ideas. That shouldn't be a deterrent, Brown said.

"First of all, no one's paying any attention," Brown said, adding that you can "learn by doing" and eventually create a body of work to point to that some people will end up noticing.

Brown said his advice comes from the perspective of someone who isn't a "classically trained product manager." Despite spending years in product management at Facebook, Instagram, and Shopify, the now Dropbox VP didn't have a typical start to the realm of Big Tech. In fact, he didn't finish his college degree until a few years ago.

"I was a biology major, you know, I failed out of college. It took me 20 years to get my degree," Brown said.

After dropping out of school, Brown started his first job in data operations at a startup in the midst of the dot-com boom. It was a time before the rise of APIs, and the bulk of his work started with typing information from physical newspapers. He said search engine optimization had recently emerged, and he had to figure out how to get web traffic.

"I basically was a self-taught digital marketer, fully based on like what kind of impact we could have," Brown said. "And then from there I went to digital marketing."

In addition to learning how to generate traffic, Brown ended up teaching himself how to create a website and blog, and eventually how to build products. While Brown said he's grateful for the experience and where it led him, he said he learned what he knows now "at the school of hard knocks" and experienced "a lot of failure along the way."

He went from publishing his thoughts online to co-authoring a published book called "Hacking Growth," a guide for driving growth. He said putting his work out there led people to find him and ultimately created opportunities.

"There's nothing stopping anyone from publishing and showing their work," Brown said. "And I think more people that do that, that's where good stuff happens."

• Salesforce is launching AI tools to up-skill employees and help them transition internally.
• Salesforce piloted its Career Connect service last year and 28% of users applied for jobs on the platform.
• The company is investing in AI career coaches in preparation of major workforce changes due to AI.

Brooke Grant was working as a change manager at Salesforce when the company's internal AI Career Agent pinged her on Slack to suggest an open role in sales enablement.

"It said, 'this is your career path,' but you also have these skills that are very interchangeable to these other paths," Grant said in an interview with Business Insider.

While Grant didn't have any sales experience, she had been skilling up in sales, AI, and customer success for a few months leading up to the opportunity. She said the platform, which highlighted her transferable skills, gave her the confidence to go for it.

Grant received the Slack notification for the open role in February, and by March, she started the new role.

While many companies are chasing productivity gains, Salesforce is taking a broader approach to AI adoption by investing in internal AI career tools to help employees pivot to new roles and skill up.

Last year, Salesforce launched Career Connect, an AI-powered internal talent marketplace. Once users create a profile, the platform infers skills based on their job history and helps employees create personalized career paths based on their skills and goals, Salesforce told BI. The tool also helps Salesforce track trending skills so it can invest in targeted training, the company told BI.

The platform is also available in Slack through a version called Career Agent. Employees can go back and forth with the tool to get actionable insight on reaching their career goals. Salesforce told BI that employees can ask the agent about open career opportunities or how to develop a skill. The AI-powered tool recommends courses, relevant contacts, and job opportunities based on the user's interests.

Salesforce filled half its roles internally in Q1

Salesforce piloted Career Connect last year with 1,200 employees across its customer success, employee success, and business technology teams. The company said 74% of employees were active on the platform, logging in multiple times throughout the three-month pilot. Just under 40% of participants enrolled in courses and training that were suggested to them, the company said.

Grant isn't the only employee who found success with Salesforce's AI career coaches. In the first three months of the pilot, 28% of participants applied for jobs through Career Connect, and over 90% of the roles filled by participants were discovered using the platform, the company said.

Salesforce president and chief people officer Nathalie Scardino also said in a press briefing that with Career Agent, the company was able to fill half of its roles with internal applications in the first quarter of 2025.

Some of the career transitions employees made were more unconventional. Salesforce executive Lori Castillo Martinez told Business Insider in an interview that one employee recently used Career Connect to transition to a cybersecurity role after spending 19 years as a program manager in human resources. Martinez said the platform connected the employee to a mentoring program with someone from the cybersecurity team, which encouraged him to pursue the role.

"I hadn't even thought about cybersecurity as a pathway for some of our HR program managers," Martinez said.

Preparing for transformation

Salesforce is pushing these efforts as the company has already seen changes to its workforce as a result of AI. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff previously announced a 2025 hiring freeze on engineers following a 30% productivity increase from new tools.

Recent data also indicates that workforce transformation will evolve further in the coming years. Salesforce released the findings of a research study on Monday that surveyed 200 chief people officers, chief human resources officers, and other global HR leaders.

The study revealed that CHROs expect to redeploy 23% of the workforce into new teams or roles in the next two years. While 61% of the workforce is expected to stay in their positions, the roles are expected to change. About 80% of CHROs surveyed are either planning to reskill employees for roles with better future opportunities.

"Every industry must redesign jobs, reskill and redeploy talent — and every employee will need to learn new human, agent and business skills to thrive in the digital labor revolution," Scardino said in a statement.

• Handshake data seen by BI reveals federal job interest dropped 40% after a wave of executive orders.
• Meanwhile, interest in state and local jobs grew over 30% year over year in the second half of the school year.
• Some job seekers initially interested in government roles are also going back to the private sector.

A year ago, the hashtag "government jobs" was trending on TikTok, with videos of employees hyping up the stability and perks of the field and explaining best practices to get a job.

Interest in the industry was surging. Not so much anymore.

In a highly competitive year, federal employers were the only industry that saw year-over-year applications decline in the second half of the school year, according to Handshake data shared with BI.

The federal government lost more application share than any industry year-over-year, aside from tech, the platform said.

Government roles, including state, local and federal sectors, received about 4.4% of the Class of 2025's total applications, down from about 5.5% for the Class of 2024 last year, according to Handshake's Class of 2025 report released Thursday.

Last year, the hiring platform reported a significant uptick in job availability and interest from college students to work for the government. At the time, stability was the top priority for graduating students, and government jobs delivered exactly that.

"People presumed at the time, there's nothing more secure than a government job," Handshake chief education strategy officer Christine Cruzvergara told Business Insider in an interview.

Cruzvergara said the class of 2025 was on track to follow and surpass that trend until a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump hit the federal workforce in January.

Around mid-January, federal jobs were drawing 2.7 times as many applications as state roles or local roles, despite state and local roles outnumbering federal roles over six to one, Handshake told BI.

But by early April, state employers were receiving 1.5 times as many applications as federal employers, and local employers were just below, the platform told BI.

"January hits and, all of a sudden, government lost a ton," Cruzvergara said, adding that the federal government specifically "lost a ton of applications."

Increased interest in state and local roles

While federal job applications dropped 40% year over year in the second half of the school year, local roles increased by 31% and state roles by 35%.

Cruzvergara said there's essentially been "a flip" between the government sectors. Prior to the executive orders, students were more interested in federal jobs, and there was some interest in state and local roles. This year, interest in state and local jobs went up after mid-January.

That's not a total surprise. Trump implemented a federal hiring freeze just about as soon as he got into office. He also created DOGE, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which has been on a mission to reduce the federal workforce and dismantle agencies.

Meanwhile, states like New York, California, and Virginia released hiring campaigns within their local and state governments for federal workers. Cruzvergara said that students who were really set on working in government likely ended up looking at state or local positions instead.

The priorities of this year's graduating class may have also influenced their interest in state and local positions. While stability was the top priority last year, it came in second this year, behind location, Handshake said in its report.

State and local roles allow job seekers more flexibility to choose where they want to work.

Back to the private sector

Cruzvergara told BI that some job seekers from the class of 2025 who had high intentions of entering the federal government are shifting back to the private sector. Handshake told BI that there was an increase in applications to roles in tech, finance, healthcare, and consulting among seniors who had previously applied to federal roles before the executive orders.

"You've got students that are going back into finance, back into tech, back into some of the areas that they were leaving to go to the federal government last year," Cruzvergara told BI.

Cruzvergara said that there have also been increases in applications to nonprofits, law, and even real estate, which can also intersect with state and local policy.

The choice to reconsider the private sector often came down to practicality, Cruzvergara. The Class of 2025, in particular, is less rigid about sticking to one path and more open to using their skills across different areas.

Handshake's report found that out of 57% of the Class of 2025 who started college with a "dream job" in mind, fewer than half still have the same goals.