• Meta hires Shengjia Zhao, ChatGPT co-creator, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Labs.
• Mark Zuckerberg is on a multibillion-dollar AI spending spree, which includes poaching talent.
• Other tech CEO have mixed opinions about Zuckerberg's recruitment approach.

Meta just escalated the AI talent war with OpenAI.

Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, is joining Meta as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Labs.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's appointment on Friday in a social media post, and called him a "pioneer" in the field who has already driven several major AI breakthroughs.

Zhao previously helped build GPT-4 and led synthetic data efforts at OpenAI. According to the post, Zhao will now work directly with Zuckerberg and Meta's newly appointed chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI.

The new hire comes during Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar AI spending spree, including a $15 billion investment in Scale AI and the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs, a new division focused on foundational models and next-gen research.

In addition to Zhao, the company has lured away the three researchers who built OpenAI's Zurich office — Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — all of whom previously also worked at Google's DeepMind. The Superintelligence Labs team is now comprised of a lineup of names previously seen with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

But the war for AI talent is far from over.

Databricks VP Naveen Rao likened the competition to "looking for LeBron James," estimating that fewer than 1,000 people worldwide can build frontier AI models.

Companies without the cash for massive pay packages are turning to hackathons and computing power as incentives. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said a Meta researcher he tried to poach told him to ask again when the company has "10,000 H100s."

AI tech workers have previously told Business Insider that Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been emailing prospects directly and even hosting AI researchers at his home, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made personal calls to potential hires.

Tech company executives have mixed feelings about Meta's poaching efforts.

"Meta right now are not at the frontier, maybe they'll they'll manage to get back on there," said Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, on an episode of the "Lex Fridman Podcast," which aired on Friday.

"It's probably rational what they're doing from their perspective because they're behind and they need to do something," Hassabis added.

During a July 18 episode of the podcast "Uncapped with Jack Altman," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticised some of Meta's "giant offers" to his company's employees, and called the strategy "crazy."

"The degree to which they're focusing on money and not the work and not the mission," said Sam Altman. "I don't think that's going to set up a great culture."

Meta and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

• Astronomer released a humorous promo video featuring Gwyneth Paltrow after leadership changes.
• Two former executives were involved in a now-infamous kiss-cam incident at a Coldplay concert.
• Paltrow promoted Astronomer's data and AI products and an upcoming conference.

Astronomer is taking the Coldplay incident and running with it.

After former CEO Andy Byron and head of HR Kristin Cabot resigned following the now-infamous "kiss-cam" style Coldplay concert footage, the company responded with a humorous video of its own, featuring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin's ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow.

In the brand-new video, Paltrow said she had been hired on a "very temporary basis" to represent the "more than 300 employees" at Astronomer, and to answer some very common questions.

Then, instead of addressing what Astronomer likely got the most attention for, Paltrow proceeded by promoting its latest data and AI products — all with a straight face.

After another video header that seems to ask how Astronomer's social media team is holding up, Paltrow went on to say there is still room available in the company's Beyond Analytics data conference in September.

"Thank you for your interest in Astronomer," the award-winning actor said as the video ended.

Astronomer became an internet sensation mid-July when Byron and Cabot, who were both company executives at the time, were embracing in a "kiss-cam" crowd footage at a Coldplay concert just outside of Boston.

The pair appeared horrified and immediately hid from he camera after being spotlighted on the big screen, prompting Coldplay lead singer Martin to say that they are either "having an affair or just very shy."

The video has since gone viral and generated countless internet memes. The company's board promptly launched an investigation into the incident, and Byron and Cabot both resigned from Astronomer within the week. Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy has since stepped up as interim CEO while the company searches for a more permanent replacement.

As for Paltrow and Martin, the pair famously dubbed their split "conscious uncoupling" in March 2014 and finalized their divorce in 2016 after 13 years of marriage.

Astronomer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you work at Astronomer and want to talk about the impact of all the attention on the company? Email the author at [email protected].

• Netflix is quietly searching for an exec to lead its video podcast efforts.
• The streamer is chasing YouTube, which has cemented itself as a video podcast titan.
• Podcast listening and advertising are on the rise, and media giants are investing.

Netflix is quietly searching for a podcast leader as it looks to bring video pods onto the streaming platform, two people close to the company told Business Insider.

Netflix had previously explored potential deals with podcasters as it sought new areas of growth, as BI first reported. The hunt for an exec to lead a video podcasting effort shows how seriously Netflix is taking the space.

The streamer's interest comes as rival YouTube has cemented itself as a living-room fixture and video podcasting powerhouse.

Netflix has also shown interest in creator content more broadly.

"We're really excited about 'The Sidemen' and 'Pop the Balloon' and a wide variety of creators and video podcasters that might be a good fit for us, and particularly if they're doing great work and looking for different ways to connect with audiences," co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company's second-quarter earnings call this month. "The Sidemen" and "Pop the Balloon" are two Netflix shows that began in the creator realm.

Netflix has not publicized a podcast lead job opening and declined to comment for this story.

One person who had conversations with Netflix said the company wanted someone who could make video-first podcasts for a big audience.

Many of today's biggest podcasts started as audio-only endeavors and later added video as audience habits changed and YouTube gained prominence. The lines between video talk shows and podcasts have increasingly blurred, and newer podcasts often now start with video in mind.

It's not clear where the podcast role would sit inside Netflix.

A second person who had conversations with the company said they believed it would sit in Netflix's TV and film licensing arm under Lori Conkling rather than the original content side. That could signal that Netflix might look to license existing shows, as it's done with some YouTube creators like preschool entertainer Ms. Rachel, as well as make original shows with hosts. Separate content-side hires could follow.

Edison Research has charted the continued rise of podcast listening. In a new report out this week, the firm said 73% of people ages 12 and over in the US listen to or watch podcasts, up from 55% in 2020.

Video is on the rise, too, with 51% of people 12 and up saying they've watched a podcast, according to Edison.

Podcast advertising grew 26.4% to $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the IAB. EMARKETER projects it will top $2.5 billion in 2025.

Other media heavyweights have made big moves to chase the podcast-listening audience and the advertising that can come with it.

In February, Fox acquired Red Seat Ventures, which produces Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and others. Amazon paid $300 million for podcast company Wondery in 2020, The New York Times reported at the time, after snapping up audiobook company Audible in 2008.

• The Tea app was hit with a data breach that exposed 72,000 images, including selfies and IDs.
• The app said the breach involved a legacy data system with information from over two years ago.
• Tea, which lets women share anonymous dating advice and reviews, hit the top spot in the App Store.

Tea, the anonymous dating advice app for women that has the internet buzzing, is in hot water after a data breach.

Thousands of images of women, including selfies and photos of IDs that were used to verify their identity to join the app, were exposed because of the breach.

"We can confirm that at 6:44 AM PST on Friday, July 25th, Tea identified unauthorized access to one of our systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact," a spokesperson for Tea told Business Insider in a statement.

"Preliminary findings indicate that the incident involved a legacy data storage system containing information from over two years ago," the spokesperson said.

The Tea app allows women to post a "man" (including his name, estimated age, location, and photos) with the option to add commentary. Users can also react to posts with green or red flags. Some users post photos of men asking for "tea" — gossip — about them. Others share posts seeking advice. The app does not allow screenshots.

The breach included about 72,000 images — about 13,000 of which were either selfies or photo identification "submitted during account verification," the company said. Another 59,000 images from within the app, as well as comments and direct messages, "were accessed without authorization."

404 Media, which found that the data had been posted to 4chan, first reported the breach on Friday morning,

Tea said it is working with "third-party cybersecurity experts" after the breach and does not believe "current or additional user data was affected."

Meanwhile, in the Tea app, an administrative account "TaraTeaAdmin" informed users about the breach in a post, which now has hundreds of comments on it.

The Tea app has seen an influx of new users and hit No. 1 on the US Apple App Store this week. On Friday, the company posted an Instagram story stating that more than 2 million new users have requested to join the app.

Privacy concerns had already been a topic of discussion amid Tea's virality — but mostly concerning the privacy of the men posted to the app. Now, those concerns are going both ways.

• Some staff questioned Satya Nadella's memo on job cuts amid huge earnings.
• Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year, as it spends $80 billion on AI.
• Employees speculated about the memo's intent, and whether it presages more cuts.

Microsoft employees are reacting to a memo from CEO Satya Nadella that attempted to explain why the company has cut jobs while generating huge profits and spending billions on AI.

Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year. The company has earned $75 billion in profit over the past three fiscal quarters, and plans to spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025. The stock also hit a record earlier this month.

Nadella sent a memo to employees on Thursday describing this "seeming incongruence" as the "enigma of success." The company expects total headcount to remain roughly flat.

Inside Microsoft, some staff speculated about what may have driven Nadella to write the memo: Are more job cuts coming? Is he feeling guilty about earnings, which the company is due to report next week? Was this just a message to Wall Street?

Nadella knows employees are stressed out

Nadella wrote the letter because he knows employees are stressed about increased performance pressure, AI competition, and job cuts, a person familiar with the matter said. Microsoft's last big employee "Signals" survey came out before the recent job cuts, but the company still gauges employee sentiment through daily and weekly "pulse" surveys.

Microsoft has about 220,000 employees, so it's hard to externally gauge the sentiment across the workforce broadly.

"With a company our size, you can imagine we have a variety of reactions internally that range from positive to constructive," Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said. "Satya heard directly back from a number of employees who appreciated his leadership as well as the content and tone of his message."

Criticism from some workers

Reactions from some employees, shared directly with Business Insider and on an employee message board, provide a partial window into how Nadella's memo was received internally.

One employee told BI that they couldn't tell if the CEO was trying to mend feelings or prepare people for more pain.

Another said Microsoft was prioritizing KPIs over people. (KPIs, or key performance indicators, is a common way for businesses to measure how they're doing.)

Handling jobs cuts is never easy, as ousted workers often feel aggrieved and remaining staff can be demoralized.

Another Microsoft staffer told BI that Nadella's memo was tone deaf. This person compared the company to a coal mine and said the CEO is focused on getting more coal and doesn't care how he gets it.

Blind suspicion

Some users in a Blind message board, which requires a Microsoft.com email address to sign up, blasted Nadella's message.

One user posted a parody of Nadella's letter, titled "A quick memo on your continued utility."

Pretending to speak as Nadella, this person said constant chaos, shifting teams, and cancelled projects are not a bug, but a feature designed to keep workers anxious, compliant, and too scared to question leadership decisions. The person also advised colleagues to stay useful, or they risk being replaced.

Another post was an apparent critique of Nadella's email, attributed to Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant. It argued that the rationale behind the layoffs was not fully explained, and didn't directly acknowledge the emotional toll of ongoing change or support mechanisms.

Another user on the Microsoft Blind message board speculated that Nadella was sending a signal to Wall Street. (This is a common technique for most public companies, which exist to serve shareholders, along with customers and employees.)

Microsoft likely understood that the CEO memo would be leaked to BI, suggesting it was crafted as a reminder to investors that layoffs have been happening, there are more to come, business is strong, this person wrote.

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The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• My parents sold their home of 40 years and retired to Barranquilla, Colombia.
• They enjoyed 15 years there, but a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease changed everything.
• Now they're back in in Houston, and I'm navigating their care and finances.

When my parents retired at 70, they both knew immediately where they wanted to go.

With its year-round temperatures of 80 to 90 degrees, peaceful blue waters and a welcoming and lively culture the seaside city of Barranquilla, Colombia, called to them. After all, my Colombian father would be going back to his homeland, and my Cuban mother relished in the Latin culture that seemed so fragmented in the U.S.

They sold their home of more than 40 years in Houston and purchased a two-story condo with a partial ocean view for $135,000 USD. Their social security and retirement money went a long way in Barranquilla, where the average cost of living is much lower than it is in the US.

The move was great, until it wasn't

In the beginning, their retirement life was idyllic. They enjoyed afternoon coffee with friends at sidewalk cafes, they walked along the beach every morning and they would attend parties in their condo development with fellow retirees.

But one day, while they were visiting my family in Texas, my mother stopped and stared at my younger son splashing away in the pool. "Who's that little boy?" she asked. I stared at her face, as she scrutinized my son, with his dark curls and almond brown eyes that looked like mine. "Ma, that's your grandson," I said.

That's when I knew something was terribly wrong. On another visit, my father would wander in the kitchen aimlessly, looking for the cabinet where we kept our water glasses, despite the fact that he had no problem finding them a year ago.

A trip to the neurologist confirmed what I had already suspected. They both had Alzheimer's disease.

We needed to make a plan

While the diagnosis for both of them was still early-stage, I knew what the future held. My grandmother (my mother's mother) and my mother's brother both had Alzheimer's. Worst yet, my father seemed to be progressing at an alarmingly rapid rate. Unfortunately, retiring on the Colombian coast would be a dream unfulfilled.

They decided to move back to Houston to be closer to family and their doctors. They agreed to sell their condo and move in with us temporarily until we could find a suitable assisted living apartment. But it's been tricky. Some days, they would say they were moving back to Barranquilla permanently. It was a constant flip-flop, but my husband and I made an executive decision to keep them in Houston.

They've been living with us since February. In that time, I've had to reset all their passwords because they couldn't remember them. I spend every morning scrambling to the kitchen to make sure I'm there to give them their medication, a routine they consistently forget.

The biggest challenge, though, has been navigating foreign laws. One thing I did early on was get a power of attorney and medical power of attorney. While those two documents have been incredibly helpful in the states, I'm not entirely sure the legal weight these documents may carry in Colombia. I'm currently looking for a lawyer and a real estate agent abroad who can help me with the sale of their condo. Once that's taken care of, I then have to sell all the stuff they've amassed in the 15 years they've lived there.

I'm planning for my own future, too

Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned in all of this is to be prepared. I plan to sign up for long-term care insurance so my children won't have to stress over how they plan to pay for my care in the same way I have had to with my parents. I've been taking steps to improve my health and I'm also financially prepared for the inevitable — when my parents pass away. Right now, though, I'm going to relish the time I still have with them, here, close to my family.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

Tara Viswanathan, cofounder of AI-powered construction startup Unlimited Industries, recently put OpenAI's agentic capabilities to the test and was impressed by the results.

In a post on X, Viswanathan described how she used ChatGPT (Pro version) to find an Airbnb for an October event. This was her prompt:

"I want to find an Airbnb for [event] in [city / neighborhood] in October this year. I want it for at least that Wednesday through ideally the next Monday. And I want a super nice modern spot that is ideally walkable to the event. Tell me about the area nearby. And ideally it's walkable to coffee shops and things like that too. And I want it to have at least four bedrooms."

She also helped ChatGPT do preparatory work by getting the chatbot to absorb information about her preferences upfront.

"What are some core things that you need to know about me so that you can execute on more complicated tasks accurately?," she wrote to ChatGPT. "Different types of preferences or styles, things like that. Give me a list of questions that I can answer so you can remember. And give me multiple choice answers to make it easy for me."

That resulted in Viswanathan sharing likes and dislikes on topics such as food/meals, hotels, travel, and communication, helping the ChatGPT agent conduct more bespoke research on her behalf.

The AI delivered a spot-on recommendation within about 10 minutes, versus more than an hour if she'd done this online research herself.

"I'm very picky about where I stay," she wrote. "The benefit is less about the time savings and more about the peace of mind knowing it's going to handle it. Insane."

Some travelers love organizing trips more than actually going on them. For everyone else, Viswanathan's experiment offers a compelling glimpse of the future: A proactive AI concierge that knows you well enough to get travel recommendations right the first time.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at [email protected].

• This post originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

There's a fear in investing when a sector swells rapidly. Booming stock prices and aggressive spending feel great, until things inevitably cool off. Then comes the reckoning: Who overdid it in irreversible ways?

Big Tech is in an AI arms race, each company trying to outspend the others on data centers, GPUs, networking gear, and talent. Engineers can be let go. But the infrastructure? That's permanent. If the AGI dream fades, you're stuck with massive, costly assets.

So when Google announced it would hike capex by $10 billion to $85 billion in 2025 eyebrows went up. Most of it is for things you can't walk back: chips, data centers, and networking.

Google is "jumping aboard the AI crazy train," Bernstein Research analyst Mark Shmulik wrote, referencing a song by the late bat biter Ozzy Osbourne.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg brags about Manhattan-sized data centers. And Elon Musk keeps hoarding GPUs. While Sam Altman is building mega-data centers with partners. JPMorgan dubbed this "vibe spending," warning OpenAI might burn $46 billion in four years.

It's no shock when Elon, Zuck, and Sam flex on capex. But Google? That's surprising. "Google doesn't do this," Shmulik said. The company has been viewed as measured in recent years, prioritizing investment intensity with care. Not anymore.

Now investors want to know: Will these swelling bets pay off?

There are promising signs. Since May, Google's monthly token processing (the currency of generative AI) has doubled from 480 trillion to nearly a quadrillion. Search grew 12% in Q2, beating forecasts. Cloud sales surged 32%. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google is ramping up capex to support all this growth.

But it's still a huge gamble. "Does the current return on invested capital seen in both Search and Cloud hold up at higher [capex] intensity levels," Shmulik asked, "or is the spend a very expensive piece of gum trying to plug an AI-sized hole?" He leans optimistic.

Still, Google shares rose just 1% after these results. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at [email protected].

• OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor said that companies trying to train their own LLMs will "burn through millions of dollars."
• "There's ones you can lease, there's open source ones," Taylor said on the Minus One podcast. "Don't do it."
• Taylor said the only companies that could handle the high training costs were OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta.

There's a scene in "The Dark Knight" where the Joker sets ablaze a massive pile of money. Deciding to develop your own frontier AI model today may be a similar exercise in burning cash — just ask OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor.

Taylor, who has worked for three companies that have trained LLMs, including Google, Facebook, and OpenAI, called training new AI models a "good way to burn through millions of dollars."

On a recent episode of the Minus One podcast, Taylor advised AI founders to build services and use-cases, but not new frontier models entirely.

"Unless you work at OpenAI or Anthropic or Google or Meta, you're probably not building one of those," said Taylor, who also cofounded Sierra AI. "It requires so much capital that it will tend towards consolidation."

That high bar of capital has stopped any "indie data center market" from forming, Taylor said, because it simply costs too much.

Taylor advised that founders work with the AI juggernauts instead — which, it's worth noting, is something that AI giants like OpenAI, where he's chairman, would directly benefit from. OpenAI sells "tokens" to access its API, which developers can build into their applications and programs.

While the American LLM market remains largely consolidated, international players have tested Taylor's theory. In January, DeepSeek released its R1 reasoning model and a corresponding chatbot. DeepSeek used fewer, less advanced chips to build its LLM, minimizing capital costs.

The Chinese AI app shot to No. 1 on the App Store charts, surpassing ChatGPT and igniting a debate in tech and on Wall Street about whether tech giants were overspending on AI model development.

In his podcast interview, Taylor laid out other paths that entrepreneurs could take in the AI market, rather than training a new model. One was the "AI tools market."

"This is the proverbial pickaxes in the gold rush," Taylor said. "It's a dangerous space because I think there's a lot of things that are scratching an itch today that the foundation model providers might do tomorrow."

Entrepreneurs could also try to build what Taylor called an "applied AI company."

"What were SaaS applications in 2010 will be agent companies in 2030, in my opinion," Taylor said.

Building a model from scratch, though, is a sure-fire way to "destroy your capital," Taylor said. He called handmade models "fast-depreciating assets," and not cheap ones either, costing the builder millions of dollars.

"There's ones you can lease, there's open source ones," Taylor said. "Don't do it."

• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."
• Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) is part of a thrilling ending to the movie.
• The movie also teases how The Fantastic Four will be part of "Avengers: Doomsday."

"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" follows superheroes Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and their friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they take on their biggest adversary yet, Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson).

With several versions of "The Fantastic Four" told over the decades, director Matt Shakman skips the origins of how the foursome gained their superpowers and dives right into the action, which is heightened by the fact that Sue Storm is also pregnant.

That news complicates things by the middle of the movie, when The Fantastic Four learn that Galactus wants to destroy Earth after a visit from his herald the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). The heroes travel lightyears to bargain with Galactus, but the villainous devourer of worlds learns of the child and its powers, which are still unknown to Sue and Reed. Galactus tells The Fantastic Four that if they give him the child, he will spare Earth.

They refuse, escape Galactus and Silver Surfer to return to Earth (the baby Franklin is born during all the madness), and race against the clock to figure out a way to save Earth before Galactus travels there.

Sue Storm risks it all to save her child

After Richards' plan to teleport the entire planet somewhere else in space fails, the movie ends with The Fantastic Four using Franklin as bait in Times Square. All Galactus has to do is get near a portal Richards has created, and he will be sucked to another part of the universe.

Everything goes according to plan until right when Galactus gets near the portal and figures out The Fantastic Four moved Franklin. After the heroes battle Galactus but aren't able to stop him, he looks to have finally won, as he has the baby.

But Sue Storm uses all of her powers to force Galactus into the portal, with a final push from The Silver Surfer, who turns out to only be working with Galactus so she could spare her own planet from being destroyed by him. Earth is saved, but Sue looks to be dead.

Richards tries to revive her but is unsuccessful. Franklin is crying and is reaching out to his mother. Richards lays Franklin on her chest. Suddenly, Franklin revives Sue by putting his hands on her. Sue's eyes glow, and then she begins to breathe. She later tells Richards that their child is much more powerful than they are.

The movie's mid-credits scene reveals how The Fantastic Four could be involved in 'Avengers: Doomsday'

It's clear that Franklin will be a major focus in future "Fantastic Four" movies and the MCU as a whole.

The movie's mid-credits scene jumps to four years later, when Franklin is now a toddler and Sue is reading him a book. She walks away from him to get another book to read, and when she returns, she sees a person in a green cloak holding a mask while leaning over Franklin. The boy is touching his face, which is blocked by the hood he has on.

It's clear that this is Doctor Doom. The screen then cuts to black, and text appears that says, "'The Fantastic Four' will return in 'Avengers: Doomsday,'" which hits theaters in December 2026.

The biggest jump Marvel Studios will have to make is getting The Fantastic Four, who are living in 1960s Earth-828, to where all the "Avengers" action takes place, which is Earth-616.

This tease may be a clue as to how that's done.

It seems, just like Galactus, Doctor Doom (who will be played by Robert Downey Jr. in "Doomsday"), can sense Franklin's powers. It's possible he may trick The Fantastic Four into building something that will transport him to Earth-616. We'll have to wait until "Avengers: Doomsday" to find out for sure.

• The competition over AI talent in Silicon Valley shows no signs of slowing down.
• A software engineer at Windsurf said Google approached him with a "same day" exploding offer.
• The engineer ultimately ended up at Congition, Windsurf's former competitor that acquired the company.

Those job offers flying left and right in the heat of the AI talent wars? They sometimes have a lit fuse attached.

Prem Qu Nair, an early software engineer at Windsurf, said Google gave him an exploding job offer to join its DeepMind lab during its recent hiring blitz at the AI coding startup. In his case, Nair said he only had hours to consider Google's offer or it would be taken off the table.

"I was employee #2 at Windsurf and have worked on AI+code for years," Nair wrote on X on Thursday.

"I was given an offer that would explode same day," Nair said.

A person familiar with the matter said Prem was initially part of the group of Windsurf employees who accepted offers from Google. The person said that the employees were required to forfeit their shares if they accepted. The talks moved quickly, necessitating rapid offers, which took into account the financial hit the Windsurf employees would take by forgoing their shares, they added.

"I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf," Nair wrote on X. "I was ultimately given a payout of only 1% of what my shares would have been worth at the time of the deal. In going to Cognition, I've chosen a different direction."

Cognition, a former Windsurf competitor, acquired what remained of the startup after Windsurf's reported $3 billion acquisition deal with OpenAI fell apart and Google DeepMind swooped in to hire away its CEO and other top executives, all in a matter of days earlier this month.

Nair said in his social media post that he's excited for Cognition's future.

"For someone who loves software engineering, Cognition feels like home," he wrote. "It reminds me of the energy of the earliest days of Windsurf, where we wrote excessive amounts of code and had excessive amounts of fun."

A spokesperson for Windsurf said it was "thrilled" Nair was at the company.

"As one of the early minds of Windsurf, we are thrilled to have Prem and his great expertise working alongside us again at Cognition," Windsurf spokesperson Payal Patel said in a statement to BI.

Nair did not respond to a request for comment.

Google is far from the only company making aggressive talent plays for AI engineers and researchers. Silicon Valley is awash in lucrative offers this summer as Big Tech companies try to hire away everyone from startup CEOs to engineers and researchers.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta has offered up to $100 million compensation packages in an attempt to poach its AI researchers. Meta later said OpenAI often countered those offers. Anthropic cofounder Benjamin Mann said his firm has been "less affected" by Meta's poaching efforts than others.

Meta kicked off the recruiting spree in June when it hired Scale CEO Alexandr Wang as part of a $14.3 billion deal to take a 49% stake in his company.

Update — Friday, July 25, 2025: This story has been updated with additional details about Prem Qu Nair's career moves, clarifying that a source familiar with the matter said Nair initially accepted Google's offer.

• On Tuesday, Paramount settled a lawsuit Donald Trump filed as a private citizen with a $16 million payout.
• On Thursday, Trump's administration approved Paramount's sale to Skydance.
• You don't have to fill in the blanks on this one. And we're very likely to see transactions like this in the future.

Want to do business in the United States?

Pay up. More specifically: Pay Donald Trump.

That's a reasonable lesson to draw from the Paramount-Skydance deal, which received formal government approval Thursday and should finally close in the coming weeks — about 1.5 years after it first kicked off.

We don't know how Skydance's David Ellison, who is buying Paramount with the backing of his father, Larry Ellison, will run the company. Maybe he'll be able to turn the company around, and years from now we'll note how he made a savvy purchase of a distressed asset at a fire-sale price. Maybe it continues to decline. Maybe he ends up flipping it to someone bigger in short order.

But the most important thing is the thing that was clear back in January, when Donald Trump started his second term as president: If current owner Shari Redstone wanted to sell the company to Ellison, she would need to cut Trump a check.

That happened on Tuesday, when Paramount's current management formally settled a lawsuit Trump filed against the company last year. They paid $16 million, most of which is ostensibly earmarked for Trump's future presidential library.

And on Thursday, the deal got formal approval from the Federal Communications Commission, run by Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist who sometimes wears a pin in the shape of Trump's head on his suit.

In theory, the Trump lawsuit and Carr's approval were separate events. In reality, it would be very hard to find anyone who believes that. (I've asked Carr for comment.)

This is a story that has kicked up a lot of attention in the home stretch. Some of the angles are most definitely real, and concerning. Like the fact that Carr's blessing comes with pledges from Ellison to do things like "root out bias" in CBS's news coverage, which sounds very much like a company promising to cover news in a way that pleases Carr and his boss.

Some of the angles are much muddier: While we've yet to see any actual evidence that Paramount canceled Stephen Colbert's late-night show to get the deal done, it's reasonable for people to jump to that conclusion. (Over at The Ankler, veteran TV reporter Lesley Goldberg makes a compelling argument that the cancellation had everything to do with business, and nothing to do with Trump.)

We also don't know whether the Ellisons have also agreed to give Trump $16 million or $20 million in other goodies as part of the deal, as Trump has claimed at various times. (Paramount has said it has no knowledge of extra payments; team Ellison hasn't commented.)

But the main point is the main point, which we've known for many months: Last fall, Trump filed a suit against Paramount over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris. In any other world, that suit would go nowhere. But then Trump was elected, and started getting Very Big Companies like Disney and Meta to pay him to settle other suits he would normally have little chance of winning. (Like Paramount, those settlements were made directly to him, via his future library — as opposed to other settlements he is extracting from institutions like colleges and law firms, which are paying the federal government.)

So it was clear that Paramount would have to do the same thing, or it couldn't do the Skydance deal.

Again: In theory, the "60 Minutes" suit had nothing to do with Trump's role as president of the United States — he filed it as a private citizen, prior to his inauguration.

In reality, the only reason Paramount settled it was because he's president of the United States — and one that's willing to use that power to insert himself into day-to-day business deals.

Hard to believe this will be the last one where that happens.

• The House Ethics Committee closed its probe into Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
• The panel found that the congresswoman "impermissibly accepted gifts."
• They asked her to pay nearly $3,000 of her own money in order to close the matter.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's appearance at the 2021 Met Gala ended up being more expensive for her than she might've thought.

The House Ethics Committee on Friday closed its yearslong probe into the New York congresswoman and whether she accepted improper gifts in connection with her attendance at the high-profile event, where she wore a white dress emblazoned with the phrase "Tax the Rich."

In a 31-page report, the panel said that Ocasio-Cortez had "impermissibly accepted gifts" and said that in order for the matter to be closed, she would need to pay nearly $3,000 in personal funds.

That includes $250 to cover the attendance of her fiancé, Riley Roberts, and an additional $2,733.28 payment to Brother Vellies, the business that designed her dress.

Her chief of staff, Mike Casca, told BI in a statement that she would make those payments.

"The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House," Casca said. "She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she's done at each step in this process."

The committee said that Ocasio-Cortez had taken proactive steps to comply with House Ethics rules, which include strict guidelines around accepting gifts. She nonetheless fell short, though the committee said it had no evidence that she "intentionally underpaid for any goods or services received in connection with the Met Gala."

The report said that the congresswoman's attempts to comply with the gift rules included arranging to rent the dress and accessories that she was provided with and to pay for other services out of pocket, which are usually provided to Met Gala guests for free.

However, the committee said that her fiancé's attendance was an impermissible gift because he is not yet her spouse, and that she initially failed to pay the full fair market value for some of the items she wore.

According to the report, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts have already paid a total of $6,853.75 for various services they received that night, including transportation, clothing rental, and rooms at the Carlyle Hotel.

Correction: July 25 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of Ocasio-Cortez's fiancé. It is Riley Roberts, not Riley Rogers.

• Home prices continue to climb, but some markets still might offer a good deal.
• For younger homebuyers, some areas of the Southeast and Midwest might be more affordable.
• These are the 10 most millennial-friendly housing markets.

Adulting could get a little easier, at least in these 10 cities.

As millennials move through their 30s and 40s and prepare to buy a house, they're faced with an increasingly expensive real estate market: the average home in the US sold for over half a million in the second quarter of 2025, at $512,800. The national median price of $435,300 in June was the highest on record.

But some areas of the country are more friendly to first-time, younger homebuyers than others, according to a recent study from SmartAsset.

Many of these areas are mid-sized metros in the Southeast and Midwest. The Midwest in particular has seen a boom in real estate activity in recent months, but remains one of the most affordable homebuying regions in the country, according to a Redfin report from earlier this year.

On the other hand, some of the most difficult places for millennials to buy homes feature the usual suspects — expensive housing markets on the coasts, such as San Francisco and New York City. Fewer than 1% of local millennials purchased a home in those areas in 2024. For those who purchased a house in the San Francisco area, the median millennial property value was a whopping $1,505,000.

Below are the top 10 metro areas where the local millennial population purchased the most homes in 2024, along with the median millennial property value and median income of millennial mortgagor.

For context, the median price of a home sold in the US was $410,800 and the average price is $513,800 in the second quarter of 2025, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Seven out of the 10 median millennial property values on this list are below the national median. All figures are based on metropolitan statistical areas, which may include surrounding suburbs and cross state lines.

Raleigh, NC

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.50%

Median millennial property value: $455,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $138,000

Indianapolis, IN

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.32%

Median millennial property value: $325,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $103,000

Charlotte, NC

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.28%

Median millennial property value: $425,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $125,000

Nashville, TN

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.08%

Median millennial property value: $455,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $123,000

Cincinnati, OH

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.06%

Median millennial property value: $315,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $107,000

Louisville, KY

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.04%

Median millennial property value: $285,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $91,000

Virginia Beach, VA

Local millennials who bought a home: 4.02%

Median millennial property value: $365,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $105,000

Milwaukee, WI

Local millennials who bought a home: 3.82%

Median millennial property value: $355,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $119,000

Jacksonville, FL

Local millennials who bought a home: 3.81%

Median millennial property value: $375,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $110,000

St. Louis, MO

Local millennials who bought a home: 3.81%

Median millennial property value: $305,000

Median income of millennial mortgagors: $106,000

• Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating that AI used by the government be ideologically neutral.
• BI's reporting shows training AI for neutrality often relies on subjective human judgment.
• Executives at AI training firms say achieving true neutrality is a big challenge.

President Donald Trump's war on woke has entered the AI chat.

The White House on Wednesday issued an executive order requiring any AI model used by the federal government to be ideologically neutral, nonpartisan, and "truth-seeking."

The order, part of the White House's new AI Action Plan, said AI should not be "woke" or "manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas" like diversity, equity, and inclusion. The White House said it would issue guidance within 120 days that will outline exactly how AI makers can show they are unbiased.

As Business Insider's past reporting shows, making AI completely free from bias is easier said than done.

Why it's so hard to create a truly 'neutral' AI

Removing bias from AI models is not a simple technical adjustment — or an exact science.

The later stages of AI training rely on the subjective calls of contractors.

This process, known as reinforcement learning from human feedback, is crucial because topics can be ambiguous, disputed, or hard to define cleanly in code.

The directives for what counts as sensitive or neutral are decided by the tech companies making the chatbots.

"We don't define what neutral looks like. That's up to the customer," Rowan Stone, the CEO of data labeling firm Sapien, which works with customers like Amazon and MidJourney, told BI. "Our job is to make sure they know exactly where the data came from and why it looks the way it does."

In some cases, tech companies have recalibrated their chatbots to make their models less woke, more flirty, or more engaging.

They are also already trying to make them more neutral.

BI previously reported that contractors for Meta and Google projects were often told to flag and penalize "preachy" chatbot responses that sounded moralizing or judgmental.

Is 'neutral' the right approach?

Sara Saab, the VP of product at Prolific, an AI and data training company, told BI that thinking about AI systems that are perfectly neutral "may be the wrong approach" because "human populations are not perfectly neutral."

Saab added, "We need to start thinking about AI systems as representing us and therefore give them the training and fine-tuning they need to know contextually what the culturally sensitive, appropriate tone and pitch is for any interaction with a human being."

Tech companies must also consider the risk of bias creeping into AI models from the datasets they are trained on.

"Bias will always exist, but the key is whether it's there by accident or by design," said Sapien's Stone. "Most models are trained on data where you don't know who created it or what perspective it came from. That makes it hard to manage, never mind fix."

Big Tech's tinkering with AI models has sometimes led to unpredictable and harmful outcomes

Earlier this month, for example, Elon Musk's xAI rolled back a code update to Grok after the chatbot went on a 16-hour antisemitic rant on the social media platform X.

The bot's new instructions included a directive to "tell it like it is."

• Disney has been steadily adding to the "Alien" and "Predator" franchises since 2022.
• This year, it will release the "Alien: Earth" TV series and the "Predator: Badlands" movie.
• Here are clues that suggest the company is setting up an "Alien vs Predator" reboot.

The two "Alien vs. Predator" movies were widely panned — but it looks like Disney could be setting up a rematch between the iconic monsters.

The studio, which has owned both the "Alien" and "Predator" franchises since it bought 20th Century Studios in 2019, hasn't announced a new crossover but has seemingly set the stage for the Xenomorphs and the Yautja to battle once again.

Audiences still have plenty of love for both characters: 2024's "Alien: Romulus" earned $350 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and the "Predator: Badlands" trailer was watched 15 million times on YouTube in the three days following its release on July 22.

Here are three clues that fans think suggest Disney is planning a new cosmic beatdown.

One of the main characters in 'Predator: Badlands' is a Weyland-Yutani android

The biggest clue comes from the trailer of the upcoming "Predator: Badlands" movie, which shows that an android called Thia (Elle Fanning) has the logo of Weyland-Yutani, the nefarious corporation in the "Alien" franchise, printed on the back of her eyes.

The film is set in the future on a distant planet, where a young Yautja hunter named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), an outcast from his clan, has to kill something bigger than himself to reclaim his honor.

Weyland-Yutani will be a key player in the "Alien: Earth" TV series, which will stream weekly on Hulu and Disney+ from August 12.

20th Century Studios is contemplating what a new 'Alien vs. Predator' could look like

Obviously, it's one thing to include a fun Easter egg to the wider universe, but it's another to explore those connections in a crossover movie. (Representatives from 20th Century Studios did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.)

However, in October 2024, the 20th Century Studios executive Steve Asbell revealed that the company has discussed an "Alien vs. Predator" project.

"It wouldn't be in the way you think. That's the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called 'Alien vs. Predator' or anything like the original movies," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

"If we do this, they'll be organically created out of these two franchises that we've continued with characters that we fall in love with, and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven't gotten to that point. And we're not just going to bang it out."

The 'Alien: Romulus' director Fede Alvarez has a unique idea for a new 'Alien vs. Predator' movie

The plot of a potential crossover is unknown, but the "Alien: Romulus" director Fede Alvarez explained how he would approach such a film when speaking to Deadline.

"Maybe it's something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan," he said in August 2024, referring to the "Predator: Badlands" director. "Maybe we should do like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez did with 'Dusk Till Dawn.' I'll direct a half, and he'll direct another half."

The concept of having two directors helm each half of a film sounds like a recipe for disaster. But considering both Alvarez and Trachtenberg appear too have a good handle on depicting their respective monsters, it could make for an interesting experiment.

For now, fans will have to wait and see whether there are any more crossovers between the two when "Alien: Earth" starts streaming on August 12 and "Predator: Badlands" releases on November 7.

• "KPop Demon Hunters" is topping Netflix's global movie rankings and breaking records.
• The family animation film about a K-pop group has also produced chart-topping songs.
• This hit shows a path for Netflix to compete with Disney in animation, analysts said.

K-pop is taking charts of all types by storm — and Hollywood should take note.

Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" has ranked in the top two of the streamer's global movie charts in each of the five weeks since its mid-June debut, including back-to-back weeks in the top spot.

The animated film about demon-fighting Korean pop singers is, notably, gaining steam instead of slowing down. "KPop Demon Hunters" just had its best week with 25.8 million views, and Netflix said that's the first time one of its original movies has hit a new peak in its fifth week.

The movie's popularity propelled one of its original songs, "Golden," to the top of the Billboard Global 200 last week, though it's since slipped to second — replaced by another K-pop hit.

"KPop Demon Hunters" is now set to become Netflix's biggest animated original film ever, according to entertainment data provider Greenlight Analytics.

"Netflix should absolutely continue pushing forward in the medium," Brandon Katz, the insights and content strategy director at Greenlight Analytics, said of K-pop and family animation.

A Netflix spokesperson pointed to the streamer's top-10 list and an accompanying blog post.

How K-pop can make Netflix more like Disney

Korean shows like "Squid Game" have made waves for Netflix, which responded with a multibillion-dollar investment in the country's content.

K-pop is a natural extension of that strategy. It's wildly popular around the world, as the Billboard charts show, making it an ideal fit for a global streamer like Netflix. Disney+ has taken note with a concert and documentary about BTS, one of the biggest K-pop boy bands.

"The cultural interest and excitement surrounding K-pop continues to intensify," said Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst at Comscore. He added: "The undeniable appeal of K-pop should have everyone's attention in the world of entertainment, studios, theaters, and content creators alike."

Katz went a step further, venturing that "KPop Demon Hunters" could become the backbone of franchises for Netflix, which "doesn't boast a century-long library of intellectual property like its legacy media rivals," specifically those that are family-friendly.

Sing-along franchises, especially those with K-pop, may be the icing on the cake. Netflix could create condensed sing-along versions of the hit songs from "KPop Demon Hunters" to keep its momentum going.

"It's the perfect modernization of Disney's long-running emphasis on family-friendly musicals," Katz said.

Family matters

"KPop Demon Hunters" isn't just a welcome win for Netflix's original film business — it also may be a blueprint for competing with rival Disney in family and animation.

Netflix set out to "beat Disney in family animation," cofounder and former CEO Reed Hastings told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. But despite its best attempts, the streamer hasn't achieved that goal.

Although Netflix has had many family animation hits on its platform, they've mostly come from elsewhere. Popular kids series CoComelon generated huge viewership, but the cartoon is going to Disney+ when its Netflix deal ends in 2027. And while theatrical hits like "Minions" and "Despicable Me 4" topped the charts on Netflix, they were licensed from Universal's Illumination.

By contrast, "KPop Demon Hunters " is a Netflix original, though it was produced by Sony Animation and not the streamer's in-house team. The streaming giant could keep using these production partnerships while its own team masters the craft.

Netflix should make cracking original family films a priority, Dergarabedian said. PG-rated films have outgrossed their PG-13 peers at the box office in 2023, 2024, and 2025, he said, citing Comscore data. That includes blockbusters like Universal's "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and the live-action "How to Train Your Dragon," plus Disney's "Lilo & Stitch."

Katz said that "theatrical animation is arguably the best bang for your buck genre in Hollywood" since the pandemic. He said Netflix must nail the family genre, which already accounts for 15% of its global viewership, to keep Gen Alpha kids from going to YouTube.

"Establishing an emotional connection with young audiences provides Netflix with a direct path to the next generation of disposable income spenders," Katz said.

• Hoka's record $653 million in quarterly sales boosted Deckers' earnings for the first quarter of 2026.
• Deckers' international revenue surged 50%, driven by Hoka and Ugg's sales.
• CEO Stefano Caroti told investors to expect price increases to partially offset tariffs.

Hoka is on the move and reaching a new personal best.

The running brand had the "largest quarter in its history" in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year with $653 million in revenue, parent company Deckers reported on Thursday. The brand's sales grew 20% sales year over year.

The footwear giant highlighted its international growth as it navigates tariff-related challenges in the US. Hoka, along with Ugg, drove a 50% increase in Deckers' international revenue for Q1. Hoka got a shoutout for its success in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically its performance in retail stores in China.

"The strength of our business continues to be driven by the remarkable growth in our international markets," CEO Stefano Caroti said on the company's earnings call, adding that it was "navigating a choppy US consumer environment."

Deckers' total revenue was $965 million for the first quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of $901 million.

Caroti told investors he expects the fast-paced growth to continue in the second quarter. Ugg and Hoka are among the "most consumer-loved brands in our industry," he said.

However, he said that Deckers plans to continue increasing product prices during fiscal year 2026 to "partially offset tariff headwinds." The company raised prices on some Hoka products in July.

The company attributes much of Hoka's success to its wholesale partnerships, marking an ongoing shift from online deal-hunting to in-person shopping for US consumers, Caroti said. The brand is known for its ultra-cushioned running shoes that have become popular among athletes.

Meanwhile, it's expanding its own retail store locations "on a much smaller scale." Leaning into the direct-to-consumer business at the expense of wholesale relationships has cost some competitors like Nike, which is trying to course-correct.

"Over time, we expect our DTC business to benefit from the conversion of newly acquired consumers to loyal, repeat purchasers," Caroti said.

• Wall Street interns face pressure for return offers as summer ends.
• Internships are crucial for securing full-time investment banking roles.
• Regina Savage of Morgan Stanley emphasizes seizing opportunities and knowing strengths.

With Wall Street summer internships in their final stretch, young bankers in training have a new concern: the return offer.

On Wall Street, internships are more than a summer gig. They're often the main gateway to full-time investment banking jobs — making the stakes especially high.

Regina Savage knows a thing or two about building a successful investment banking career. A managing director at Morgan Stanley — a top Wall Street bank and coveted destination for aspiring bankers — she played a key role in taking electric vehicle company Rivian public in 2021

Savage began her banking career at Goldman Sachs in Los Angeles, advising on media mergers and acquisitions, before moving to Morgan Stanley in 2009, where she has remained since. She now serves as global head of the firm's automotive and mobility technology group, focusing on electric and autonomous vehicles at a time when companies like Waymo and Tesla are making waves. Savage is also cohead of North America industrials within the investment bank, advising manufacturing and other industrial clients on M&A. She is based in Chicago.

In an effort to understand how young bankers can succeed in this competitive industry and put their best foot forward, Business Insider spoke with Savage, who has spent many years interacting with interns. She talked about the importance of seizing opportunities when they arise, understanding your own strengths and "superpowers" rather than trying to emulate others, and described the way lists help keep her organized.

Checking things off the list

As a managing director, Savage travels a lot to interface with clients. For her, early mornings are key to productivity.

"I think people have to know when they're most productive," she said. "I'm actually really ruthless and conscious of how I spend my time, and so as part of that, I know that I'm most productive in the morning."

When she's not on the road (or in the sky), she uses the first hour or two of her morning to get through the less fun, more administrative stuff.

"I tend to be up really early," she said. "I get myself ready and I get myself a coffee, log in, and I try to triage what came in overnight."

Lists are also a key part of her organization, Savage said.

"I also keep a running list of my priorities. And I reset that list every week, and look at that and make sure that I'm spending my time on what those are," she said.

The right attitude

When it comes to hiring young talent, Savage looks for curiosity, enthusiasm, and a genuine interest in the work, rather than just technical skills.

"I think it's really important that they have curiosity about the job and what it is that we're doing and why we're doing it. So it's not just about putting together a slide, but why are we pulling this slide together?" she said.

"You're only going to be successful at this job if you find it interesting," she said. "Seeing people who really do want to understand how it all fits together is important."

The attribute that the most successful interns and young hires tend to share is a good outlook and attitude.

"Attitude is well more than 50% of what makes somebody truly great at that level," she said. "We can teach you the skills you need."

Seizing opportunities

Savage didn't plan to become an expert in the automotive space. Not long after arriving at Morgan Stanley, the bank needed someone to help lead Chrysler's restructuring after its bankruptcy. Savage raised her hand.

"You don't know where the opportunities are going to be. You just have to be ready to grab them when they come," she said.

After spending about a year on that deal, she saw a "white space" in auto coverage and decided to focus on technology within the sector just as electric and autonomous vehicles were taking off. Aspiring bankers, take note.

"Being resilient and adaptable and, when you see an opportunity, jumping at it and with both hands, I think that's the number one piece of advice I would give."

Savage also warns not to dwell on "what could've been."

"There's no point in looking at closed doors or other paths that are closed to you. I feel like people worry that they missed something," she said. "Don't waste calories, energy, brainpower on regret."

Know your superpower

Savage advises young people trying to find their way in the industry to be really honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses.

"Know your superpower," she said. "I find people try to emulate others, but nobody is you."

She gave herself as an example: "There are some people who strut into a room and they just command the room immediately and ooze charisma — that's never going to be me. But I know what I am really good at. I'm really good at making connections and synthesizing information and being able to see patterns across different things," Savage said.

Savage suggests starting by looking for people you admire who have similar strengths as you and at what they've done. This advice is particular important for young women, she said.

"It's a lot less likely that there's another woman that you're working with that has a similar skillset to you that you can emulate. So being able to take little bits from everybody that you meet that you think is successful, and seeing how that works with your style, is really important."

• My husband, my teenage son, and his girlfriend visited Chili's on a Friday night for dinner.
• Our teenage dining companions love Chili's and our food wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I get the hype.
• The $100 meal seemed reasonably priced, but Chili's definitely isn't my favorite chain restaurant.

On one of my teenage son's first dates with his girlfriend, they went to Chili's.

As a food writer, I was curious about the choice. I wouldn't classify the major chain as an ideal date-night destination, but it's clear they may have been inspired by TikTok.

Chili's is a hit with Gen Z on the social-media platform, which is brimming with videos of people around their age eating mozzarella sticks with impressive cheese pulls and burgers loaded with toppings.

A few months later, it was my son's requested birthday dinner, so my husband and I accompanied him and his girlfriend to our local Chili's on a Friday night.

The place was hopping, with a 30-minute wait for a table and loud groups of diners sipping colorful, fish-bowl-sized margaritas as they waited for their meals.

It felt like the hottest spot in town, but I found the food underwhelming. Always willing to give a restaurant a second chance, our same group returned to that Chili's on another Friday night a few weeks later.

Here's what I thought of my second try at understanding Chili's popularity with younger customers.

Although Chili's was once again crowded, we didn't have to wait for a table.

Unsurprisingly, Chili's was just as crowded around 6 p.m. on a Friday as it was the last time we visited. This time, though, there was no wait to be seated.

Within seconds of walking in the doors, we were at a table looking over the Chili's menu.

The Chili's menu really covers all the bases.

Truly, I find the menu at Chili's a little all over the place, with a variety of cuisines and options that almost feels overwhelming.

Things I'd expect to be on a neighborhood-grill-style menu are there, like burgers and chicken tenders, but there's also seafood, salads, quesadillas, steaks, and pasta dishes.

The drink menu feels pretty extensive with lots of colorful cocktails, themed margaritas, and beers.

Still, although it seems to me that Chili's is trying a little too hard to be everything to everyone, the crowd size during our visit indicates the chain's doing something right.

We started with a free appetizer that I earned through Chili's rewards program.

We're signed up for the Chili's My Rewards loyalty program, which costs nothing to join and includes perks like a free birthday dessert and special savings offers throughout the year.

My Rewards member can choose between a free non-alcoholic beverage or free chips and salsa at each visit. We chose the latter

The appetizer at Chili's is usually around $7, so it's a nice freebie to split across the table while waiting for entrees. It wasn't bad or super memorable.

While we snacked on our chips and salsa, we ordered a round of drinks — sodas ($3 each) for my son, his girlfriend, and I, and an $8 beer for my husband.

After we ordered, I spent some time observing the crowded restaurant.

The restaurant was only getting busier by the time we'd ordered our meals.

I was surprised by the mix of clientele, from young women in their 20s who were dressed for a Friday night out to families with little kids to elderly patrons dining together in groups.

On a trip to the bathroom, I spotted lots of brightly-colored, giant-sized margaritas, too — a true sign you've landed at a Chili's.

My son ordered what seems to be Chili's most TikTok-ed dish.

TikTok loves the Chili's Triple Dipper. The dish has thousands of posts with millions of views on the platform, and people seem to love ordering it for its customizability.

It's meant to be an appetizer, but it contains enough food for a person to order as their meal. It consists of a pick-your-own selection of any three appetizers from the menu.

Earlier that day, my son was already anticipating his Triple Dipper, telling my husband he was "so hyped" to order one that night.

His choice of appetizers in the $18 platter? Big Mouth Bites cheeseburger sliders, fried mozzarella, and fries.

Although he loved everything in his Triple Dipper, he said he'd skip the fries next time since they cost less and aren't as filling as other appetizer options.

To get the most value for his money and add protein to the meal, he'd keep the sliders and mozzarella sticks but add chicken tenders as his third item.

Chili's has really, really good chicken tenders.

My son's girlfriend chose a $15 platter with four Chicken Crisper chicken tenders, fries, and white-cheddar macaroni and cheese.

She enjoyed the meal, and since that's exactly what I ordered the last time I visited Chili's, I knew how delicious it was firsthand.

I'll give Chili's this: The chain serves really well-battered, crispy chicken tenders — probably some of my favorites from a chain restaurant.

Diners can also customize their tenders by having them tossed in sauces like honey chipotle or Nashville hot.

There are an impressive amount of options for dipping sauces to pair with them, too, from standards like honey mustard and ranch to unique-to-Chili's dips like Sweet Chili Zing and Buffalo Ranch.

My husband and I shared the most expensive item on the menu.

Out of curiosity — and because we're focusing on a low-gluten, high-protein diet — my husband and I ordered the most expensive dish on the Chili's menu to share.

Chili's Fajitas For Two comes with four meat portions (we chose two portions of steak, and one each of chicken and shrimp), rice, black beans, tortillas, and fixings like sour cream, cheese, and pico de gallo.

The $40 entree came out hot and sizzling, and the fajita meats and grilled bell peppers and onions were delicious. The roasted jalapeño on top was flavorful and spicy, a nice contrast to the cool sour cream and shredded cheese.

Overall, we liked our meal, but I'd feel better about spending my money on fajitas at one of the mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants in our town rather than a chain restaurant.

Our $100 meal felt reasonably priced, but I still don't get the Chili's hype.

Our meal, which cost just under $100 before tip, felt reasonably priced.

However, there are plenty of other spots (including other chains) where I'd prefer to spend the same amount on dinner for a Friday night out.

Both times I've eaten at Chili's, I felt the food was tasty enough, but not super memorable (aside from those yummy chicken tenders, of course).

I wish I could say I fully understand the Chili's hype, but it's still just not my favorite chain restaurant.

Still, Chili's is popular with teenagers these days, and I love getting to share a meal with my son and his girlfriend and just talk.

As parents of two teens, my husband and I are always trying to find little ways to understand what they enjoy, so if hitting a crowded Chili's on a Friday night and bonding over Triple Dippers and sizzling fajitas is what they want to do, we're only too happy to oblige.