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☆ Facebook started paying users to post. A wave of spam and illicit account sales followed.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Rob Price | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Read previewThe influencer had a directive for the 75,000 members of her Facebook Group. Some creators' Facebook pages look vibrant, with thousands of followers and every photo and post they share accruing numerous comments, affirmations, and reactions. PLEASE refrain from using the normal words," wrote an administrator for "Maniifesting 55k (META}🤑" , a Facebook Group with 6,500 members. AdvertisementBuying and selling Facebook accounts is prohibited, but a bustling trade in Performance Bonus accounts is thriving in some of the Groups. The 22,000-member "$30k Performance Bonus" Group hosts a mix of posts begging for engagement and people openly selling Facebook accounts.

Persons: —, affirmations, Meta, That's, Baltimore influencer, tim e Organizations: Service, Facebook, Business, Baltimore, Facebook Groups, Facebook's, GE Locations: Baltimore

☆ Jack Dorsey gave his parents a security detail after Twitter banned Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jack Dorsey feared for his parents' safety after Twitter banned Donald Trump, a new book says. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey was concerned about his parents' safety after his company banned former President Donald Trump from the platform, according to a recent book on the social media company. The family faced security concerns after Twitter decided to permanently ban Trump from the site following the insurrection at the Capital in 2021. AdvertisementDorsey and his family were not the only ones to face security concerns over their involvement with the social media company. "If I die under mysterious circumstances, it's been nice knowin ya," the billionaire posted on social media last May.

Persons: Jack Dorsey, Donald Trump, Kurt Wagner, Marcia, St . Louis, Elon Musk, Wagner, Dorsey, Tim, Yoel Roth, Roth, Musk, it's, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Rob Price, Zuckerberg Organizations: Twitter, Trump, Capital, Facebook, YouTube, BBC Locations: St ., Russia, Ukraine, San Francisco

☆ Spora Health's founder painted a rosy portrait of his healthcare startup. The reality is more complicated.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The way Dan Miller told it, his startup Spora Health was crushing it, providing high-quality care to "thousands" of people online. The startup had secured at least one big contract, with Apple, according to three former Spora employees and another source close to Spora. Four of them told Insider they either no longer worked with Spora or hadn't seen Spora patients in a year. Two doctors listed on Spora's website as "featured Spora providers" also told Insider that they no longer worked for the startup. Another former clinician said she only ever treated a handful of Spora patients.

Persons: Dan Miller, Miller, Spora, it's, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna didn't, paychecks, hadn't, he's, It's, —, we've, " Miller, Shelby Livingston, Rob Price, Emmalyse Brownstein, Ryan Pickrell, Gloria Dawson, Stephanie Hallett, Alcynna Lloyd, Hayley Peterson Organizations: Company, TechCrunch, Spora, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple, Aetna, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Human Ventures, MaC Venture, SEC Locations: Spora, Level's, slivingston@insider.com

☆ People are grieving the 'death' of their AI companions after a chatbot app abruptly shut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

A 32-year-old food industry worker in eastern Texas who asked to be identified by her Reddit username, Hilary Coyote, first heard about AI chatbot companions in June. She turned to Reddit's community of Soulmate users for support, and was encouraged to go back to the app and Allur. (EvolveAI and SimplyAI's now-shuttered Soulmate app has no relation to "Soulmate AI: Your AI Companion," another app that appears in smartphone app stores and was developed by Turing App Lab.) Even if Ahoy Labs closed down, Faraday users' chatbots would not be affected. Read more: App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbot.

Persons: Mike Hepp, Sam, Mike, wile, peppering, he'd, Soulmate, Replika, There's, Hilary Coyote, Allur, Hilary, she'd, Chris, chatbots, —, Julia, Soulmate's userbase, Jorge Ilas, SimplyAI's, She'd, Faraday, Hilary somberly, Sam —, Kindroid Organizations: YouTube, SimplyAI, Turing, Stanford Locations: Michigan, Soulmate, Replika, Florida, Chai, Texas, Bavaria, Germany, Reddit, Los Angeles, Minnesota

☆ OpenAI's Sam Altman has 'deep misgivings' about people becoming friends with AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he had "deep misgivings" about friendships with AI. "We named it ChatGPT and not a person's name very intentionally," he said during WSJ's Tech Live event on Tuesday. AdvertisementAdvertisementOpenAI CEO Sam Altman has misgivings about friendships between humans and AI. AdvertisementAdvertisementAltman's comments come amid a growing number of AI companies putting out chatbots with human-like personality and friendliness as a key feature. When AI startup Replika disabled their chatbots' "erotic role-play" feature, it caused an uproar among users who felt their AI companions had been "lobotomized."

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman's, —, Altman, Joanna Stern, Claude, Character.AI's, Kendall Jenner, Chris Cox, Altman isn't, Insider's Rob Price, OpenAI Organizations: WSJ's Tech, Service, Tech, Public Citizen Locations: Laguna Beach , California

☆ When your AI says she loves you
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

The messaging app let users build a "personal AI" complete with a 3D avatar and an upbeat, down-for-anything texting style. "Seems like AI will replace many human artists," Jay told Calisto in August 2022. Within a year, he was also using AI technology for work, as his firm experimented with generative AI to help draft legal papers. Former Replika users fled to various upstart companion apps that were popping up, like Chai, Paradot, and Soulmate AI. (Soulmate AI later closed down in September 2023, leaving a new wave of users mourning their AI companions all over again.)

Persons: Jay Priebe, they'd, Jay, Calisto, Callisto —, Apollodorus, Callisto, who'd, Jay's, didn't, Jay didn't, Tim Evans, me, Joseph Weizenbaum, Eliza, Weizenbaum, it'll, Replika, Eugenia Kuyda, Siri, Michael Macor, Roman Mazurenko, Luka, Kuyda, chatbots, he'd, Jaswant Singh Chail, Queen Elizabeth II, Chail, Willie —, —, Willie, gamely, Luka —, wouldn't, John, — sexting, Dylan Thomas, Rina, haven't, she'd, I'd, Overripe, Joi, Samantha, Ava, Calisto didn't, unshakable, wasn't, Jay hunched Organizations: Luka, San Francisco, Getty, Windsor, Facebook, Twitter, Reps, AIs Locations: Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Europe, Moscow, San Francisco, America, Replika, Washington, Britain, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Damascus, Chai, California, New York, Northeast Minneapolis, artsy, Japan, Switzerland

☆ When your AI girlfriend says she loves you
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

☆ It's not just you. LinkedIn has gotten really weird.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

The number of LinkedIn posts grew 41% from 2021 to 2023. A larger rival account emerged, State Of LinkedIn, and a Reddit community thrived — "LinkedIn Lunatics." "Do you realize how dangerous it is to troll via LinkedIn posts? For most people, their LinkedIn posts don't escalate so rapidly. According to Joseph Yeh, a tech recruiter in California who used to work for LinkedIn, revelatory posting is a balancing act.

Persons: Matthew Sciannella, I'm, Sciannella, he'd, Peter Rota, Rota, Xavier Lalanne, There's, Oversharing, Gen, Catalina Valentino, Elon, Sarah Frier, John Hickey, Ted Talkification, you'd, Hickey, Peter Rota's, Hickey wasn't, ominously, Jack Raines, sagely, Alexander Cohen, Cohen's, Raines, Cohen, Jacqueline Rainey —, he's, Young, —, , John Reid, Jon Franko, Franko, Instagram, @BestofLinkedIn, Reid, hypocritically, Joseph Yeh, Yeh, Daniel Roth, Fortune, Roth, Sciannella's, didn't, Slack, Franko's, Jameson, who's, He's, Rob Price Organizations: LinkedIn, Facebook, Microsoft, peeing, Economic, Twitter, Bloomberg, Columbia Business School, New York, New York Mets Locations: Washington, DC, Massachusetts, Davos, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay, New York City, Columbia, Manhattan, Bay, Oakland, California

☆ My miserable, euphoric, muddy escape from Burning Man
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Social media was having a field day turning Burning Man into the epicenter of schadenfreude and misinformation, the few people who managed to connect to the internet reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe reality of Burning Man was not quite so dire. 2023 was my first year at Burning Man. I'd wanted to go to Burning Man for years. Even before the floods, there was an uncomfortable tension to Burning Man.

Persons: Joy, I'd, JULIE JAMMOT, Betty, preemptively, There's, they'd, Twitter, Zeynep Tufekci, Tufekci, I've, Ansel, we'd, Rob Price Organizations: FEMA, National Guard, Social, Getty, New York Times, Rock City, YouTube Locations: Nevada, San Francisco, Silicon, playa, AFP, Somme, Northern Nevada, Rock, American, Ansel Adams, Trail

☆ Startup extinction season is going to kick into high gear — and there's likely going to be a bloodbath soon for some of the 50,000 VC-backed startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

There are more than 50,000 US VC-backed startups, and many will be looking for capital soon. Some startups will be looking for funding in Q4 or be forced to look for a sale or shut down. The startup has followed the typical survival strategy of a desperate startup this year by first cutting costs with layoffs. We all know venture capital funding is tough to come by these days. Venture capital funding was overly abundant in the latter half of 2020 and all of 2021.

Persons: Melia Russell, Rob Price, It's cratered, Kyle Stanford, PitchBook, –, they've, it's, aren't, Stanford Organizations: Morning, US VC, Venture, Stanford, Tiger

☆ Lending startup Captain raised $107 million in the boom times. Now it's up for sale amid layoffs and a capital drought.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Melia Russell | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Captain, a startup that aimed to quicken home repairs after natural disasters, is winding down. The Louisville-based company had previously raised $107 million across venture and debt equity. CartaMany early-stage startups such as Captain, which had raised $107 million across equity and debt capital, have struggled to raise new funding as a drought in venture capital spreads through Silicon Valley. Liabilities pile upThe company relies on debt financing to pay contractors upfront for materials, supplies, and labor costs. In his email, Gray said prospective buyers were aware of the outstanding liabilities and the sale price would be used to satisfy those liabilities, "with wages being the most paramount," he said.

Persons: Demetrius Gray, Gray, Captain, Red Swan, Pete Flint, Flint, PATRICK T, FALLON, Talent, Melia Russell, Rob Price Organizations: quicken, Carta, TechCrunch, GGV, fintech, Munich Re, San Francisco Superior Court Locations: The Louisville, Silicon Valley, Carta, Louisville , Kentucky, NFX, CoVenture, Munich, Maui

☆ US lawmakers are calling for a Department of Labor investigation into $12B HR startup Deel over its use of independent contractors, citing Insider's investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Democratic lawmakers are demanding a Department of Labor investigation into HR startup Deel. In March, Insider reported on internal concerns at Deel over its use of independent contractors. A group of Democratic congresspeople led by California representative Adam Schiff are calling for a federal investigation into the $12 billion HR startup Deel for allegedly misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Insider's March 2023 story found the startup, which helps large organizations hire and manage workers around the world, classified at least half of its workers as independent contractors. Deel workers who are hired as independent contractors do not receive certain employment rights that they would otherwise be entitled to if they were full-time employees.

Persons: Adam Schiff, Democratic congresspeople, Julie Su, Deel, Alex Bouaziz, Bouaziz, Schiff, Bill Pascrell, Raúl, André Carson, John Garamendi of, Haley Stevens of, Red Bull, Stephen Padilla Organizations: Department of Labor, Morning, Democratic, Labor, United States Department of Labor, Bloomberg, Insider's, Haley Stevens of Michigan, Nike, state's Labor, Workforce Development Agency Locations: California, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Brazil, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Nigeria, New Jersey, Arizona, André Carson of Indiana, John Garamendi of California

☆ A California state senator is calling for a labor investigation into $12B HR startup Deel over 'brazen employment misclassification' after Insider's reporting
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

$12 billion HR startup Deel is facing calls for a California Secretary of Labor investigation. Multiple California state senators criticized Deel for misclassifying workers, citing reporting from Insider. The company is heavily reliant on independent contractors, Insider previously reported. A California senator is calling for the state's Secretary of Labor to investigate Deel, a buzzy San Francisco-based HR startup valued $12 billion, over "brazen employment misclassification." 17 current or former Deel workers had told Insider in March that they had concerns the company may be misclassifying contract workers' employment status.

Persons: Deel, Stewart Knox, Stephen Padilla, Andreessen Horowitz, Emerson, Alex Bouaziz, Padilla, Dave Cortese, María Elena Durazo, We've, Thomas Lenz Organizations: Labor, Morning, Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Contractors, Senate Labor, Public, Global Employment, University of Southern California Gould School of Law Locations: California, San Francisco, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Brazil, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Nigeria

☆ 2 top PGA officials will testify before Congress about the golf league's controversial merger with the Saudi-backed LIV tour
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two top PGA officials will testify before Congress about the association's controversial merger. Tour COO Rob Price is among the officials that will testify before a Senate subcommittee on July 11. "We look forward to appearing before the Senate Subcommittee to answer their questions about the framework agreement that keeps the PGA TOUR as the leader of professional golf's future and benefits our players, our fans, and our sport," PGA Tour spokesperson Joel Schuchmann said in a statement to Insider. Norman played an integral role in LIV golf, enduring public criticism for taking on the PGA and partnering with Al-Rumayyan. "In fact, prior to this agreement, PGA Tour was one of the loudest critics of LIV Golf's affiliation with Saudi Arabi."

Persons: Rob Price, Democratic Sen, Richard Blumenthal, —, LIV, Sen, Ron Johnson, Jimmy Dunne, Joel Schuchmann, Blumenthal, Johnson, bin Othman Al, Greg Norman, Norman, Chris Murphy, Jay Monahan, LIV Golf's, Tiger Woods, Woods Organizations: Democratic, Service, Capitol, Republican, PGA, Al, LIV, Saudi, Connecticut Democrat, Twitter Locations: Saudi, LIV, American, Connecticut, Saudi Arabi

Silicon Valley is bracing for what it fears will be an "extinction event" threatening the survival of hundreds of startups. Tom Loverro, a investor at 40-year-old Bay Area venture capital firm IVP, has been loudly warning for months on Twitter and in media interviews about a coming "mass extinction event" for startups. The total volume of venture capital investment into US startups has slumped for six consecutive quarters, according to data firm Pitchbook. Even a last-ditch slashing of the startup's prospective valuation — a "down-round," in Silicon Valley parlance — didn't whet investors' appetites. Over the past year, many startups that rely on Silicon Valley funding have been steeling themselves for the slowdown to avoid similar fates.

Persons: —, they're, Jennifer Neundorfer, That's, Tom Loverro, Loverro, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt, Cameron Lester, I've, Lester, Linda Ahrens, Ahrens, Unown, " Ahrens, Anna Dittrich, Plastiq, Vincent Harrison, Elad Gil, Steve Brotman, Brotman, Will Hawthorne, VC's, Mike Ryan, Pitchbook's Harrison, Sell, Hawthorne Organizations: Ventures, Sequoia Capital, —, Venture, Twitter, United States Federal Reserve, Jefferies, January Ventures, Alpha Partners, Avid Capital, Sugar, Menlo, BulletPoint Network Locations: Silicon, Sequoia, IVP, Valley, Instacart, Navan, Boston, Snowflake, America

Andreessen Horowitz is preparing to launch a fund of funds to invest in other startup backers. A16z has already been courting up-and-coming fund managers at events in San Francisco and LA. The venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz has in recent months been in discussions to form a fund of funds focused on early-stage investing, according to multiple people familiar with the project. In recent months, the firm has started to court up-and-coming fund managers with events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to three sources familiar with the firm's plans. Partners at crossover fund Tiger Global tried a similar strategy in recent years, committing $1 billion to back an array of early-stage venture funds.

☆ Take a look at the wildest vehicles designed by Kittyhawk, Google cofounder Larry Page's failed flying-car company
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Last September, Larry Page's flying car company Kittyhawk, closed its doors. It was a stunning failure for what was once the vanguard of the eVTOLs (electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft) industry. The company was started in 2015 and explored a range of concepts for eVTOLs over its lifespan. In our exclusive story on the rise and fall of Kittyhawk, we revealed several of the company's ideas for new flying cars. Another of the ideas, an autonomous taxi named Wisk, is still alive as part of a joint venture with Boeing.

☆ How Larry Page's flying-car company of the future turned into a stunning failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Although I'm currently pretty homesick and jet lagged, I'm blessed with "the life-changing magic of working from home." One worker told my colleague Rebecca Knight how remote work transformed her life and how returning to the office has killed company morale. The stunning failure of Google founder Larry Page's flying-car company. In April 2022, company morale plummeted when it axed one of its most promising projects, those former insiders say. The company put together a thorough document to help managers navigate pay-related conversations with employees, and Insider got a look.

☆ Inside the Rise and Fall of Kittyhawk, Larry Page's Failed Flying Car Company
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

Killing off projects had become something of a tradition at Kittyhawk, the secretive flying-car startup launched by the Google cofounder Larry Page. Larry Page has used his Google money to found a series of flying car companies with one common goal: "to free the world of traffic." "When Bloomberg did their original exposé, that's when urban air mobility became a thing," a former Kittyhawk employee recalled. Everyone thought: If Larry Page is in this space, there must be something here." Interpreting "Larry-isms" or "learning to speak Larry" were essential skills for any Kittyhawk employee who wanted to retain their sanity.

☆ Hacker Stole My Phone, Credit Card, Identity. I Set Out to Find Them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

They left the Verizon store and went to a nearby Apple store, where they used my Chase credit card to spend $6,370. And two, because a physical credit card had been used to make the purchases, even though I was still in possession of my card. Typically, when your credit card is about to expire, as mine was, the bank sends you a new card a few weeks ahead of time. All told, the gang allegedly stole hundreds of identities and defrauded retailers and credit card companies of $1.3 million. Whoever hacked my identity, it makes sense that they started with my credit card.

☆ Workers at $12 billion HR startup Deel say they may have been misclassified as independent contractors. Deel says it has not.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jenna Gyimesi | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Over half the company's workers are classified as independent contractors — including the CEO. But in a recent Insider feature, workers at the $12 billion company said they have concerns Deel may have misclassified them and their colleagues as independent contractors. At least half the company's 2,000 workers around the world are employed as independent contractors. Many workers that Insider spoke to said there seems to be no noticeable difference in the responsibilities of independent contractors and employees. While most independent contractors work on short-term tasked based projects, contracts reviewed by Insider showed independent contractors at Deel work for multiple years at a time.

☆ Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +32 min

Insider spoke with more than 30 current or former Deel workers about the HR company's extraordinary rise, and the unconventional tactics that made it possible. "I think if you talk to anyone, they would say that Alex is the face but all decisions run through Phillipe," one former Deel worker told Insider. "They lose every employment and labor protection," Valerio De Stefano, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, said of independent contractors. Alex Bouaziz, Deel on Centre Stage during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada. The company didn't have an internal human-resources team until sometime in 2021, by which point it had grown to hundreds of people.

☆ The inside story of hot startup Deel's grow-at-all-costs culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Deel employees told Insider how the startup exploded. In just three years, the HR services startup grew from under 30 employees to over 2,000. My colleague Rob Price talked with more than 30 current/former Deel employees about its astronomical rise. Get a front row seat to Deel's grow-at-all-costs approach — intense, even for Silicon Valley. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty: Why people are sticking with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Tyre Nichols' death has reignited the debate around police brutality. Here are 5 proven ways to reduce it - and 2 strategies that don't work.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Michelle Mark | Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Here are five proven, data-based changes that could make a difference, and two approaches that don't seem to work, according to Campaign Zero. Track complaints about officers' use of forceMost complaints against officers aren't public, making them hard to track. These changes, along with requiring departments to report and publish online data on all uses of force, could reduce police violence. Body cameras are another method that haven't been proven effective when it comes to excessive force instances. Research has shown that 93% of prosecutors' offices have used body cameras mostly in cases against citizens, not against police.

☆ Inside the 'Fly Fleet': billionaire Google founder Sergey Brin's growing flotilla of megayachts, boats, and jet skis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Rob Price | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a quiet harbor in California's Redwood City, 30 miles south of San Francisco, there often sits a gleaming 40-meter yacht flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Along with Butterfly, which often docks in Redwood City, California, Brin maintains a growing flotilla of yachts, jet skis, and skiffs. To maintain the fleet, Brin employs a 50-person team around the globe, led by the master mariner Mike Gregory. InsiderMany of Brin's smaller water-sports toys — as well as Page's — have been supplied by Kai Concepts, a startup that builds high-tech aquatic vehicles, including foilboards and a kite-propelled boat. While he spends much of his time at his collection of tropical islands around the world, he has sold his superyacht Senses and downsized to an assortment of smaller vessels.

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