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☆ A 32-hour work week helped this company's employees juggle self-care, side hustles, pets, and parenting 'without feeling like they're going to be penalized'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

4-day work week trials have found a shortened work week can improve employees' work-life balance. vChief says its 4-day work week helps employees juggle jobs as parents, self-care, and side hustles. Niebauer said that the 4-day work week has helped the company with employee retention, and they've also attracted over-qualified candidates for the company's roles. "Without feeling like they're going to be penalized for it, without feeling like they're going to look like they're distracted at work." "I really believe that people shouldn't live their lives for work," Niebauer said.

☆ Ex-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer admits the company should have bought Netflix instead of Tumblr as it 'would have been a better acquisition'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Yahoo should have acquired Netflix or Hulu instead of blogging platform Tumblr, she told Tech Brew. Morning Brew Insider recommends waking up with, a daily newsletter. In an interview with Tech Brew, Mayer reiterated that one of her regrets was hiring the wrong chief operating officer, Henrique De Castro, whom she fired after 15 months on the job. A source at the time told Insider Mayer was "very personally engaged in this deal," working late into numerous evenings. Mayer's biggest regret, however, was not making "the tax-free Alibaba spinoff to separate the assets of the company," she told Tech Brew.

☆ What boycott? Bud Light controversy led to only a 1% drop in global sales volume, CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Anheuser-Busch's global CEO Michel Doukeris discussed the impact of recent Bud Light backlash. Doukeris said the drop in Bud Light sales represented only 1% of the company's global sales volume. Previously, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bud Light Sales dropped by 17% by mid-April, per data created by Bump Williams Consulting and analyzed by Nielsen. By April 22, Bud Light sales in US stores dropped 21% compared to the previous year, per the sales data analysis reported on by the Journal. Bud Light has also reportedly offered a free case of beer to every employee of its wholesale distributors.

☆ Switching to a 4-day work week got rid of this company's 'Sunday Scaries'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A 4-day work week could help employees say goodbye to their Sunday Scaries. But the company's experience also adds to the established litany of research, trials, and discourse around the 4-day work week. Qwick wasn't one of the companies that participated in the 4-day work week trial study that was published by 4 Day Week Global in December. To aid the company's growth, Qwick weighed the option of piloting a 4-day work week. After announcing its four-day work week trial, Kekic said Qwick saw a 230% increase in job applications.

☆ Even President Biden has tried ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

President Joe Biden has tried out ChatGPT, Axios reports. Buzz about ChatGPT is everywhere, and apparently President Joe Biden has even given the generative AI tool a try, Axios reports. In a piece published Thursday, Axios wrote that the publication had learned Biden had tried out ChatGPT. The CEOs of Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI are set to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and other White House officials on Thursday. While AI tech execs will likely be watching to see what comes of the White House meeting, the report that Biden has tried ChatGPT begs the question: What did Biden choose to ask the AI chatbot?

☆ PDD, Shein, Binance: These hugely successful companies were born in China. They don't want you to know that
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Hong Kong CNN —Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, doesn’t want to be called a Chinese company. “Our opposition in the West bends over backward to paint us as a ‘Chinese company,’” he wrote in a blog post last September. Zhao has been vocal about how he feels his firm is misrepresented as a "Chinese company." The same concern could, in theory, apply to any Chinese company. TikTok CEO Shou Chew testifying before US Congress in March.

☆ The Future of Everything Festival: AI’s Path Forward, Michelle Obama and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sunshine Contacts Ceo Marissa Mayer Believes Great Things Will Come Out Of Artificial Intelligence But Is Cautiously Optimistic. | Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida Discussed The Challenge That Comes With The Fed Pausing Its Rate-Rise Campaign. | Google Deepmind Ceo Demis Hassabis Talked About Building Cognitive Function Within Ai. | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

“If you want to change the game, you can't just work from the outside. You’ve got to get inside.”Former first lady Michelle Obama on finding ways to change the food and beverage industry. Gary He for The Wall Street Journal

☆ The Future of Everything Festival: AI's Path Forward, Michelle Obama and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sunshine Contacts Ceo Marissa Mayer Believes Great Things Will Come Out Of Artificial Intelligence But Is Cautiously Optimistic. | Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida Discussed The Challenge That Comes With The Fed Pausing Its Rate-Rise Campaign. | Google Deepmind Ceo Demis Hassabis Talked About Building Cognitive Function Within Ai. | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Bud Light is hoping free cases of beer will smooth over any tensions with its sellers after Dylan Mulvaney backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bud Light has reportedly seen dips in sales since a promotion that featured a transgender influencer. Amid the backlash, the company is giving out free cases of beer to employees of its wholesalers. Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Bud Light, is gifting a case of Bud Light to all employees who work with the company's wholesale distributors, the Journal reported. On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram that featured Bud Light cans designed with a picture of her face. Later, the Journal reported that Bud Light Sales dropped by 17% by mid-April, per data created by Bump Williams Consulting and analyzed by Nielsen.

☆ Kraft wants to remake the TV dinner
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

On Wednesday, Kraft Heinz officially introduced Homebake 425°/:30, the company’s new line of frozen meals. Kraft HeinzFor Kraft, the new brand is part of an effort to increase the company’s net sales by $2 billion through 2027. As part of its earlier turnaround efforts, Kraft Heinz has been trying to reinvigorate decades-old brands like Velveeta and Oscar Mayer. In that time, frozen food prices jumped 16.3%, well above recent annual trends for grocery prices as a whole. In 2020, Kraft Heinz announced that it was divesting its natural cheese business.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: AI-generated Drake songs, discounted startups, and Amazon’s upgraded Alexa
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and in this turbulent economy, I definitely want stability over most other things. And my colleague Grace Mayer highlights how retail, finance, and other (seemingly more stable) industries are piquing our interest instead. A leaked document viewed by Insider revealed that Amazon wants to focus on entertainment features for Alexa. The upgrade will feature Amazon's own generative AI technology instead of using OpenAI's technology (like how Microsoft paired ChatGPT with Bing). Bell dished to my colleague Ashley Stewart on why he made the move, how he met Satya Nadella, and more.

☆ Gen Z is less interested in working at Big Tech companies right out of college, their job searches show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Upcoming college graduates aren't as interested in Big Tech jobs, a Handshake survey found. Searches for big tech brands dropped nearly 15% compared to the previous year's class, per the survey. Upcoming college graduates are less interested in jobs in Big Tech, a recent Handshake survey found. The career site found searches from the class of 2023 for Big Tech brands dropped nearly 15% compared to the previous year's class. Nearly 3 out of 4 graduates said they want to develop new tech skills within the next few years.

☆ The 'Godfather of AI' quit Google — and says he now regrets his role creating technology that poses a threat to humanity
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Geoffrey Hinton quit his job at Google and told The New York Times he regrets his role in pioneering AI. Hinton said he quit so he could warn about the risks of AI without worrying about the impact to Google. After recently leaving behind his decade-long career at Google, Geoffrey Hinton, nicknamed "the Godfather of AI," told The New York Times he has regrets around the foundational role he played in developing the technology. After Google employees were tasked with testing the Bard chatbot, some employees said they thought the technology could be dangerous, as reported by Bloomberg. This is a concern that CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman, and other critics of the AI technology, have echoed.

☆ The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Simone Pathe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

The GOP needs a net gain of one or two seats to flip the chamber, depending on which party wins the White House in 2024, and it’s Democrats who are defending the tougher seats. Jim Justice announcing his Senate bid in West Virginia – the seat most likely to flip party control in 2024. In a presidential year, the national environment is likely to loom large, especially with battleground states hosting key Senate races. Two businessmen with the ability to tap into or raise significant resources could be in the mix – Eric Hovde, who lost the GOP Senate nomination in 2012, and Scott Mayer. Still, unseating Cruz in a state Trump won by nearly 6 points in 2020 will be a tall order.

☆ Digital “Chicago Plan” fixes many financial woes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The economists’ solution – often called the Chicago Plan – was to remove commercial banks from the money-creating business. One of the main problems of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is that it would compete with old-fashioned bank deposits. With the digital money supply increasing in line with the economy’s potential growth, roughly as Friedman advised, inflation would soon come under control. Non-bank lenders like Apollo Global Management (APO.N) would have an enhanced role under the digital Chicago Plan. At present, there’s little chance of the digital Chicago Plan coming to pass.

☆ A 'Diet Coke break' is the latest example of Gen Zs and Millennials insisting on work-life balance
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The idea of "sharing a Coke," or taking a Diet Coke break, is also prominent in the soda brand's advertising history. Seninger says she's always been a "Diet Coke break girl" — even before she started posting about it on TikTok last year. A Diet Coke break helps me to romanticize that part of my day and take a break," Seninger said. In another TikTok, a creator captioned her Diet Coke break video: "Studies show Diet Coke breaks significantly improve one's mental health." In the past, he's said he drinks a minimum of five cans of Diet Coke or Cherry Coke a day.

☆ Bud Light sales reportedly dropped 17% following anti-trans marketing backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bud Light sales took a hit after the brewer partnered with a trans TikTok influencer, WSJ reports. The data showed Bud Light sales dropping 17% in the week of April 15 compared to the same week last year. Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid took a leave of absence following the backlash. Bud Light owner Anheuser-Busch has also said Heinerscheid will be replaced with with Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser. Bud Light isn't the only brand that's been recently hit with anti-trans backlash.

☆ The debate over banning TikTok has been poisoned by anti-Asian rhetoric
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The TikTok CEO's testimony to Congress in March highlighted the anti-Asian rhetoric around the app. And second: The discourse around those issues, particularly talk of banning the app entirely in the US, has been poisoned by a surge in anti-Asian rhetoric, making it difficult to have a national conversation around TikTok in good faith. But what set the hearing with TikTok's CEO apart was the tone and personal nature of the questions, Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups said. That paints a target on the back of Asian Americans, Chinese nationals living in the US, and, by extension, all other Asian populations, advocacy experts said. The rhetoric has consequences for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the US economyAll this has implications for the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US and the global Asian diaspora.

CNN —Harry Belafonte, the dashing singer, actor and activist who became an indispensable supporter of the civil rights movement, has died, his publicist Ken Sunshine told CNN. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte, left, plays a school principal in a scene from the film "See How They Run" in 1952. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte poses with the Emmy Award he won in 1960 for the musical special "Tonight With Belafonte." Fred Sabine/NBCU/Getty Images Belafonte and other recipients of Albert Einstein Commemorative Awards display their medallions after being honored in 1972. He is survived by his wife Pamela, his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte, David Belafonte, two stepchildren Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank and eight grandchildren.

☆ The layoffs are here for those who chose to 'learn to code'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

But for those who chose to "learn to code," Vox reported the wave of layoffs in 2023 is challenging that notion. "If we look at 2023 layoffs, it's software engineers who have overtaken recruiters in layoffs," Ayas told Insider. This shift also signals a change in focus for company layoffs, Ayas said. Since then, Revelio's new data suggests that nearly 5% of tech company layoffs impacted recruiters — the position that saw the most layoffs after software engineers. What started as a wave of layoffs in the tech industry has now rippled to the finance and media industries as well.

☆ Concert tickets resold on SeatGeek have doubled in price over the last 5 years to to an average of $252 per ticket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Concert fans buying resale tickets could be paying more than double what prices were five years ago. That means the average price of a concert ticket resold on SeatGeek has climbed from $125 in 2019 to $252 in 2023, the company confirmed to Insider. For resold Taylor Swift tickets, the average price is $1,311, per SeatGeek. One 31-year-old fan bought two resale Swift tickets for $5,500, Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported, which she said she later regretted. That was still lower than the rate other resold tickets were going for.

☆ ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ Review: Action in Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Dar Salim and Jake Gyllenhaal Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer PicturesThe possessive title is an odd choice for “ Guy Ritchie ’s The Covenant.” Mr. Ritchie made a name for himself in his native Britain directing kinetic and funny gangster comedies infused with hip comic dialogue and an ironic streak, notably “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” then carried that spirit with him to Hollywood in such efforts as the two Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr. Yet his latest offering, an Afghanistan war yarn, is such a straightforward action drama that it could have been made by Clint Eastwood . Only the jokey homoerotic banter stamps it as typical of Mr. Ritchie’s work. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as John Kinley, a supremely competent master sergeant in 2018 Afghanistan tasked with finding and destroying Taliban bomb factories dotted around the country. He goes on a mission with a new local interpreter he doesn’t fully trust, Ahmed (Dar Salim), who despises the Taliban for killing his son and is further tempted by the prospect of earning a special visa to immigrate to the U.S. in exchange for satisfactory service.

☆ More students are learning to be mechanics, chefs, and construction workers as college enrollment shrinks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Construction, culinary, and mechanic trade programs all saw enrollment increase last year. Across construction, culinary, and mechanic trade programs, all experienced increases in enrollment between spring 2021 to 2022, the study found. Enrollment in culinary programs increased 12.7% and 11.5% in mechanic and repair trade programs over the same time period. Prior to the pandemic, these sectors were experiencing labor shortages in skilled trade workers, particularly in construction, according to data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data. Overall, total college enrollment was down 4.1% from spring 2021 to spring 2022.

☆ This dog-babysitting robot can feed and play with your furry friend while you're away — for $49 per month
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Companion is a device designed to entertain, train, feed, and monitor the health of your dog. It's expected to launch in 2024 for $49 per month, with other purchase plans available later. Would you pay $49 per month for a device to babysit your dog while you're not at home? Since then, some pet owners have been reluctant to leave their furry companions behind for working in-office, Insider previously reported. The Companion device will be available starting May 2024, according to the company's website.

☆ Video shows Apple CEO Tim Cook at Coachella
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In a TikTok video, Apple CEO Tim Cook was shown walking around Coachella over the weekend. In 2022, Cook was seen standing front-row at Harry Styles's Coachella set. Apple Ceo Tim Cook made an appearance at Coachella this weekend. In 2022, a video posted to Twitter showed Cook standing front-row at pop singer Harry Styles' Coachella set. Cook, who took over as Apple's CEO in 2011 after Steve Jobs, has talked about his love for music in the past.

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