Author: openjargon

• The first season of "Stranger Things" premiered on Netflix in 2016.
• The fifth and final season will be released in installments through the end of 2025.
• Here's what the young cast looks like in their first season versus their last.

Spoilers ahead for "Stranger Things" seasons one through four.

When the first season of "Stranger Things" premiered in 2016, it quickly became one of Netflix's most successful original shows.

Nine years later, the sci-fi series following a group of kids who uncover the existence of a dark alternate dimension is approaching its fifth and final season, which will be released in installments through the end of 2025.

While only four years have passed in Hawkins, Indiana, since the events of season one, a decade has elapsed for the real-life cast members — many of whom hadn't hit puberty when the show began filming.

Continue reading to see each main character in season one, compared to their forthcoming appearances in season five.

Eleven, aka El, was introduced as a mysterious runaway with supernatural abilities.

Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) grew up in Hawkins National Laboratory, where she was subjected to experiments as part of a secret government program.

In season one, she escaped the lab and encountered Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) during their search for Will (Noah Schnapp). She's called Eleven because the number is tattooed on her arm, but Mike gave her the friendlier nickname El.

El learns to embrace her powers.

As the series has progressed, El has learned to nurture and expand her powers. She has repeatedly rescued her friends from the Upside Down's many threats — but along the way, the gang also discovered that El was the one who built the bridge between dimensions.

As a young child, El opened a gate to the Upside Down in order to banish One, previously known as Henry Creel, the first child test subject at Hawkins Lab. He later became Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the monstrous puppeteer of the Upside Down.

Vecna remained intent on killing El, and when she accidentally opened another gate years later, he began attacking Hawkins remotely. The Demogorgon from season one, plus the Mind Flayer from seasons two and three, were both at his command.

By the end of season four, Vecna has managed to open four new gates in Hawkins.

When the Upside Down begins leaking into the Rightside Up, causing Hawkins to be quarantined by the government, El realizes she's in for one last showdown with Vecna.

Will Byers vanished in the first episode of season one.

From the very beginning, Will (Noah Schnapp) was a central figure in "Stranger Things."

The series premiere was titled "The Vanishing of Will Byers." In that episode, while biking home at night, Will was attacked by a monstrous creature, which his friends later dubbed the Demogorgon.

Despite Will's attempt to flee, he was kidnapped and taken to the Upside Down. He managed to stay alive for about a week by singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash and by communicating with his mom, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), through flickering lights.

Using her telepathic powers, El located Will's hiding spot in the Upside Down. He was eventually rescued by his mom and Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).

Will still has a dangerous connection to the Upside Down.

When Will was stranded in the Upside Down, he was captured and assaulted by Vecna, cementing his connection to the so-called Hive Mind.

Will can still sense Vecna's presence, even when he's in the Rightside Up. Season five trailers suggest that Will will play a significant role in Vecna's plot to destroy Hawkins.

Mike Wheeler formed a close bond with El during the search for Will in season one.

Mike (Finn Wolhard) became the group's de facto leader in season one, motivating his friends to search for Will while dealing with the complicated emergence of El.

Because El was being hunted by government agents, Mike secretly sheltered her in his family's basement. The two formed a close bond that quickly blossomed into a romance.

Mike is still preoccupied with keeping El safe.

Mike and El kiss near the end of season one, and by season three, they're in a full-blown relationship.

Despite dealing with distance and communication issues throughout season four, the pair are as close as ever heading into the final showdown with Vecna.

"Mike is back in leadership mode," Wolfhard told Netflix of his role in season five, "and he's taken it more upon himself to help plan out these missions, and he and the whole gang are devoted to finding Vecna and ending this."

Lucas Sinclair was the group's voice of reason in season one.

Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) was the most suspicious of El after she showed up in season one — partially because he was jealous of her bond with Mike, and partially because she was being evasive about her role in Will's disappearance.

Lucas even split from the group to continue the search for Will on his own, but quickly reunited with his friends when he realized they were in danger.

Heading into season five, Lucas is struggling with the fallout from Vecna's curse.

Season four focused largely on Vecna's plan to invade Hawkins, which the group referred to as "Vecna's curse." The villain targeted vulnerable teenagers in Hawkins, killing them one by one.

With each murder, Vecna opened a new gate to the Upside Down. When the group realized their friend, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), had been marked for the next death, they hatched a plan to use her as bait.

Lucas was beaten and nearly killed in the season four finale while trying to protect Max. She died in his arms, was miraculously revived, then fell into a coma.

Lucas will continue to protect Max in season five. Trailers show Lucas stationed at Max's hospital bed, and some clips show him carrying Max's limp body as he flees from a Demogorgon.

Dustin Henderson was the crucial fourth member of the D&D party.

Much of the language in "Stranger Things" was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, a popular fantasy role-playing game. Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin consider themselves a "party" — that is, a group of people who take on different roles to complete a campaign.

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) became the fourth member of their party after he moved to Hawkins in fourth grade.

The boys often use D&D vernacular to make sense of the supernatural events in Hawkins. Dustin is the party member who knows the most about D&D lore and other mythologies. He's also a science prodigy with a knack for radio tech.

Dustin is now mourning his friend Eddie, who died in the season four finale.

In season four, Dustin grew close to Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the president of the school's D&D club.

Eddie was falsely accused of killing another student, who was actually killed by Vecna. After learning the truth, he tried to assist Dustin and the rest of the gang in taking down Vecna. Eddie was killed in the process.

Dustin had come to idolize Eddie, so watching him die — and not being able to clear his name — will undoubtedly affect his mentality going forward.

"Dustin is in a bit of a funk," Matarazzo told Netflix. "We're all dealing with the day-to-day issues of what it is to try to keep everybody safe and figure out where Vecna is, while having a lot of unpacked baggage from the events in the previous season."

Max Mayfield joined the party in season two.

Although Sadie Sink wasn't a member of the original "Stranger Things" cast, her character became an essential member of the party upon her arrival.

In season two, Max moved to Hawkins from California. She instantly charmed Lucas and Dustin, though Mike and Will were slower to accept her.

Mike told Max that everyone in their party already had an established role: he was the Paladin, Will was the Cleric, Lucas was the Ranger, Dustin was the Bard, and El was the Mage. (Some fans argue that Will transformed from the Cleric into the Wizard after his time in the Upside Down.)

In response, Max dubbed herself the "Zoomer," which isn't an official character type in D&D but speaks to her wit and quick instincts. The title is also fairly literal: Max can skateboard, and she can drive, which comes in handy for a hasty getaway.

As far as we know, in season five, Max is in a coma.

In season four, Max offered herself as bait in the group's plot to kill Vecna. After the plan went awry, Max fell victim to Vecna's curse and was killed.

However, El had telepathically transported herself into Max's mind and seemed to resurrect her. Although Max's body came back to life, she has remained in a comatose state.

Mike's older sister, Nancy Wheeler, got pulled into the action when her best friend vanished.

In season one, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) was mostly preoccupied with her new boyfriend, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) — until her best friend, Barb Holland (Shannon Purser), vanished without a trace.

Like Will, Barb was attacked by the Demogorgon, but unlike Will, she was killed almost instantly. She was the second person to go missing in Hawkins, but the police assumed Barb was a runaway teenager.

Nancy knew better and began investigating. She recruited the help of Will's older brother, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), and quickly discovered the existence of the Upside Down.

Nancy is eager to lead the charge against Vecna.

Throughout the series, Nancy grapples with survivor's guilt. She led the charge against Vecna in season four, urging the other teenagers to invade the Upside Down and kill him.

Although their efforts failed, Nancy is poised for another bout of supernatural battles in season five.

Steve Harrington, Nancy's boyfriend, was introduced as a popular jock.

According to "Stranger Things" creators Matt and Ross Duffer, Steve was originally intended to die in season one. He was painted as a typical high school jock: handsome, charming, popular, and more concerned with causing trouble than with Barb's disappearance.

However, Steve's love for Nancy inspired him to shape up — and unwittingly dragged him into a face-off with the Demogorgon.

By season five, Steve is an integral member of the team.

Just as Keery won over the Duffer brothers, Steve won over "Stranger Things" fans.

Even though his relationship with Nancy fell apart in season two, Steve formed a strong bond with Dustin and protected the kids when the Upside Down reared its ugly head again.

According to Netflix's official character description, "Steve heads into the final season bracing for the ultimate battle. But he also must deal with a grieving Dustin."

Jonathan Byers, Will's older brother, was an outcast among his peers.

In season one, Jonathan was determined to find and protect his little brother. In flashbacks, the two were shown to have a very close bond, especially since their dad left the family. Jonathan didn't seem to have many, if any, other friends.

Although he was initially led to believe that Will was dead thanks to an elaborate government cover-up, Jonathan teamed up with Nancy to uncover the truth of the Upside Down.

The pair eventually joined forces with El, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin (with an assist from Steve) to figure out how to save Will.

Jonathan and Nancy are still a powerful team.

Jonathan and Nancy began dating after she broke up with Steve in season two. Despite spending time apart in season four, their reunion in that season's finale proved their bond had remained strong. Season five clips suggest the couple is back to being inseparable.

Joyce Byers was desperate to find her son after Will's disappearance.

While the kids ran around searching for Will in season one, Joyce was communicating with him directly.

Joyce figured out that Will could make lights flicker from the Upside Down. She painted letters on the wall and strung up Christmas lights so he could send her messages, ignoring everyone who assumed she was crazy. She eventually ventured into the Upside Down, entering through a gate in Hawkins Lab, to rescue her son.

Joyce is one of the few adults in Hawkins who knows exactly what's going on.

As season five begins, hardly any of the parents know that their children have been battling supernatural monsters for four years. Mike's parents, Lucas' parents, Dustin's mom, and Max's mom have never been clued in. We've never met Steve's parents, but it's safe to say that they're clueless, too.

Joyce may have an unhinged reputation around Hawkins, but she's the rare adult who has a clear idea of the threats they're facing.

Jim Hopper was introduced as the Hawkins police chief.

Hopper (David Harbour) grew up in Hawkins and returned to the small town after the death of his daughter.

The gruff but lovable police chief played a pivotal role in season one's search for Will. Through his efforts, Hopper slowly realized that Hawkins Lab was concealing a conspiracy.

After breaking into the lab with Joyce, he convinced the scientists to let them conduct a rescue mission through the gate that El opened. They succeeded and brought Will back home.

Hopper is now El's dad and self-appointed protector.

Hopper and El formed an unlikely bond in season two, while she was still hiding from the lab's government agents. He took her in and was eventually able to adopt her.

In the season three finale, Hopper was nearly killed after an explosion in a clandestine Soviet lab. He was subsequently captured by Soviet soldiers and presumed dead by everyone in Hawkins, including El.

The pair was reunited in the season four finale, so Hopper will presumably reprise his protective role heading into season five.

"Hopper's been back from Russia, and for about a year, he's been training for these Upside Down crawls, basically prepping for a final battle with Vecna," Harbour told Netflix. "He doesn't tell the people he loves exactly what he's planning, but he's gearing up for something big."

Holly is the youngest Wheeler sibling.

Mike and Nancy's youngest sister, Holly, was 3 years old in season one. She was portrayed by young twins, Anniston and Tinsley Price.

Holly played a very small role in "Stranger Things" up through season four. She was mostly shown sitting on the hip of her mom, Karen Wheeler, or eating with her family at the dining room table.

However, in one pivotal scene in season one, Holly noticed a pattern in the Christmas lights that Joyce strung up — meaning she could sense activity in the Upside Down. She also noticed the Mind Flayer moving through the trees in season three.

Holly was recast for season five to allow for a larger role.

Holly should be about 7 or 8 in season five, based on the show's canonical timeline. Instead, she is portrayed by 14-year-old Nell Fisher.

Holly was presumably recast to an older age so she could be more involved in the show's horror elements and action sequences. Now that Vecna has set his Hawkins-destroying plan in motion, everyone in town is in danger, even those who never knew the Upside Down existed. In a season five teaser clip, Holly and her mother are shown coming face-to-face with a Demogorgon for the first time.

In fact, Matt Duffer told SFX that Holly is a "centerpiece" in season five.

"Once you see the full season, you'll have a better understanding of why it was so important to add her to the cast," Duffer said, via GamesRadar.

"One of the reasons was, we just wanted to recapture some of the feeling of season one, and some of that you can't recapture unless you have kids, because our kids are not kids anymore. They're not close to being kids anymore," he continued. "So it was really fun to add Holly and her classmates into the show, because it allowed us to recapture some of that feeling."

• Jon McNeill, VC investor, was a Tesla executive for nearly 3 years and now sits on GM's board.
• He told Business Insider that automakers conduct teardowns of competitors' vehicles all the time.
• McNeill said Tesla was a "learning sponge" that took valuable lessons from Chinese EVs.

Automakers are constantly learning from their competitors in China. Tesla, one of the leading EV companies, is no exception.

Jon McNeill, the former president of Tesla's global sales and marketing who now sits on General Motors' board, told Business Insider that Tesla has torn down Chinese EVs and that the lessons learned can be seen in some of Tesla's most popular models.

"Tesla is a learning sponge," McNeill, who was at the EV company between 2015 and 2018, said.

During his tenure, Model 3 was in its infamous "production hell," and Tesla had just teased the first image of the Model Y.

The former Tesla executive said one lesson learned from Chinese EVs was the reuse of parts — using some of the same guts of one model for another — and that can be seen "across the 3 and the Y."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a 2019 earnings call that the Model Y shared about three-quarters of its parts with the Model 3, allowing for easier production ramp-up.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not return a request for comment.

Another level of reusing

McNeill didn't name which Chinese EVs Tesla tore down during his tenure, but said he's recently seen BYD, the leading EV maker in China, take the technique of reusing parts to another level at a teardown with GM.

"The Chinese engineers are really disciplined about reusing parts underneath the hood that the customer can't see, and they save a lot of money that way," he said.

It's not a unique concept to Chinese automakers; the automotive industry has long relied on using the same parts from one model of car for another in an automaker's lineup, including components such as the steering wheel or the turn-signal stalk.

BYD and other Chinese automakers, however, are distinctive in the degree to which they reuse parts down to the ancillary components of a vehicle, from the battery packs to the heat pumps and motors inside the car seats, McNeill said.

"If you tear down all the BYDs — same windshield wiper motor across all of them; same heat pump across all of them; same conduit across all of them," he said. "In other words, there's not a team that's designing a particular model, and they're off on their own."

McNeill added that the technique was "super smart because a windshield wiper motor really doesn't change or add to the experience."

This practice is different from platform-sharing, in which the vehicle frame or the underlying architecture can be the same across models. Platform-sharing has become a central practice for EV automakers.

McNeill said the extent to which Chinese EV makers are reusing parts is not a common sight at other legacy automakers.

"Toyota uses completely different heat pumps, wiper motors, and seat actuators for each model. In other words, the guts of a Corolla is almost completely different from a Camry," he said.

Spokespeople for BYD and Toyota did not return a request for comment.

New automakers need to cut costs

Reusing parts is crucial for any automaker to scale production efficiently and reduce costs. That could be even more true for emerging automakers.

"There's a reason only one auto company has been started and scaled in the last hundred years, and it's because it's really hard. It's really, really hard and it's really capital-intensive," McNeill said, referring to Tesla. He added that a US EV company like Tesla needs to be "absolutely relentless" at reducing costs.

EV makers like Tesla, BYD, and Rivian are able to reuse parts at deeper levels because they're also highly vertically integrated companies, meaning the automaker develops and manufactures some of their car parts in-house. This level of control over design and production can enable automakers to standardize more parts and produce at higher speeds.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe previously told Business Insider that his company did a teardown of Xiaomi's SU7 and praised the Chinese carmaker's "heavily vertically-integrated technology platform." However, the CEO said there was nothing new about the way Xiaomi or other Chinese EV makers made their cars that Rivian could learn to make electric vehicles cheaper.

"Cost — we understood how they've arrived there," Scaringe said, adding: "There's nothing we learned from the teardown."

• Devi Parikh is a former senior director of generative AI at Meta, and the co-CEO of an AI startup.
• She has a Ph.D., but said you don't need one to do cutting-edge AI work.
• Seeing ideas through to the end has been instrumental to her success in the industry, she said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 41-year-old Devi Parikh, who lives in San Francisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

The seed of my passion for AI was planted in the early 2000s when I studied electrical and computer engineering at college. I was exposed to a type of machine learning called pattern recognition.

In 2009, I completed a Ph.D. in computer vision at Carnegie Mellon — well before the current excitement around LLMs and generative AI. But we had the same goal: make machines more intelligent.

Next, I moved into research and teaching roles, and in 2016, I spent a year as a research scientist at Facebook AI Research, or FAIR. Following that, I'd spend my springs and summers at FAIR in Menlo Park, California, and my falls teaching computer vision at Georgia Tech.

Over time, I enjoyed Meta more than my professorship, and I transitioned to a full-time role in 2021, eventually becoming a senior director of GenAI.

In 2024, I left Meta to start an AI company called Yutori, alongside my husband and our friend.

Here's what I've learned about getting into and succeeding in AI after over 15 years in the industry.

1) Don't assume you need a Ph.D. to do cutting-edge AI work

Professor and research scientist roles in AI might list a Ph.D. as a requirement, but there are other cutting-edge jobs in this space.

There are good reasons to do a Ph.D, like if you want to work in academia or explore certain ideas. But if your end goal is doing interesting AI work and learning how the sausage is made, you could spend those five to six years at startups or big labs instead.

You can also try side projects, making use of open source code and online communities to get your hands dirty.

If you keep putting in the time and effort to whatever you're doing, you'll be able to stand out, and you'll also have learned a bunch of skills along the way.

I think the perception that a Ph.D is necessary in this industry has changed over time. We don't take them into consideration much when hiring at Yutori, where we're trying to build AI agents that can help people with digital chores, like looking for apartments or buying headphones.

Instead, we look for people with relevant experience, such as in training models, and how candidates perform in technical interviews involving coding problems and system design questions.

2) Keep your professional identity flexible

Between 2011 and 2013, there was a "deep learning wave," when the AI community began to realize the effectiveness of deep neural networks.

Some fellow researchers tied their identity to the tools they had worked with and were hesitant to transition to deep models, even though it was clear they worked much better for the problems we were addressing.

This field evolves rapidly, and if evidence tells you new tools work better, don't hold onto your past tool set. Holding on to your professional identity, such as by seeing yourself only as an academic, can also be detrimental.

I also learned not to hold on to research areas. I worked on computer vision during my Ph.D, then multimodal problems, and later generative models for images and videos. At the time, I didn't know ChatGPT was coming, and that generative AI would suddenly become a high priority in tech. If I'd held onto my identity as a computer vision researcher without exploring these other things, I would've missed out on opportunities.

3) Pursue your genuine interests, not what you think you should do

On paper, my job at Meta was amazing, and you probably wouldn't leave it to start a company if you were being strategic about moving up in your career, and knew the success rate of startups.

It may be unclear whether an opportunity is the right move strategically, but I find it easy to put time and effort into things I think will be fun, and produce better quality work that gets recognized.

4) Follow through on ideas

Seeing things through to the end — 100%, not 95% — may be the single most important thing that's helped me stand out and achieve what I have.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started a series on YouTube called "Humans of AI," where I interviewed around 20 AI researchers in my network about their daily habits, strengths, and insecurities. I thought seeing the human side of the AI researchers we put on a pedestal would show folks in the community they could have a similar level of impact.

People loved it, and it made me more visible. I've met people at conferences who might not have known about my research, but saw the series.

Many people are excited 20 or 30% into the execution of their ideas, then their interest tapers off, leaving behind a bunch of unfinished projects. If you haven't seen something through to the end, it can't have its impact or lead you to the next thing.

If there's something you'd like to do, just go do it, instead of overanalyzing and not taking steps forward.

Do you have a story to share about building a career in AI? Contact this reporter at ccheong@businessinsider.com.

• After my parents divorced, my dad had more kids, but we were all raised as siblings.
• When my dad and one of my sisters died, my other siblings helped me deal with the grief.
• I will thank my dad eternally for making sure we were all close.

Within 19 days, I experienced both the sudden death of my baby sister and my father. Even though my five siblings and I had different mothers, we all shared the same father, who fostered close connections with us from a young age.

Although we grew up apart, we spent holidays, birthdays, and summers together throughout our lives and have come to love each other deeply. I never called my two brothers and sister from another mother my "step" or "half" siblings; they are just my brothers and sister.

My dad visited often

When my parents divorced, I was 7, my middle sister was 5, and my baby sister was only 2.

Shortly after they were separated, my dad left New York to move to Mexico for a job. He ensured that his contract required the company to cover the plane fare for us three to fly several times a year for visits. That's why when he remarried and had children with my stepmom, we became close with our new brothers and sister.

All of us six children got along well from the start. It was as if we were all part of the same symphony, constantly creating synchronized, lovely music. When we were teenagers, Dad would rent houses for us to enjoy in Mexico during Christmas, and after he moved back to the US, he'd rent houses for us to enjoy Thanksgivings in Florida and eventually family reunions in upstate New York. During these times, we cooked, danced, walked, and did yoga together.

As we all grew up, we started our adult lives on opposite coasts. But we still often fly or drive to spend time together. We talk on the phone regularly, processing marriages, divorces, and our own children's challenges.

My siblings showed up for me

When our sister, Jenny, was in the ICU dying, my brothers and sister dropped everything to be with me and my middle sister, here in California. My sister, who lives in Idaho, was able to join us at the hospital within hours. Me, my two sisters, and other nearby family held hands while Jenny transitioned. My brother, who lives in Washington, D.C., arrived within days. My other brother's flight from Florida was canceled that day, but he joined us virtually.

Having the support of my four other siblings within days of Jenny's passing made grieving bearable. My out-of-town brother and sister stayed for ice cream nights, meals where we shared our funniest Jenny stories. They knew Jenny and I were like one neuron with two bodies, so my sisters and brothers called me daily in the following weeks to check on me.

Shortly after our dad died

When my dad learned of Jenny's death, it was as if a dart shot into his heart. Crying, he told one of my sisters, "I'm done, I'm calling it." Eighteen days later, he was gone. The five of us remaining offspring were stunned. Within hours, my two brothers and sister booked flights again and jumped in and helped create slide shows, music lists, programs, and planning two celebrations for one weekend.

During this stressful process, we never fussed or disagreed. Three of my siblings are agnostic, yet Jenny's trust specified her celebration of life be held at our Soka Gakkai International Buddhist Center, where the mantra we chanted, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, would occur. She also specified that everyone wear colorful clothing and that R&B music be played. Everyone agreed on it all. I noticed at her service that my brothers, sister, and their kids, who are not Buddhist, joined in the chanting to honor Jenny. Each of my sisters and brothers spoke in front of the 150 people present, praising Jenny's irreverent spirit.

Dad didn't want any service. Still united, we decided to honor him by gathering at a local hotel and watching a slideshow of our favorite memories with him, spanning eight decades. We opted to tell our favorite stories about Dad that day.

During the weekend, the five of us hiked, swam, cried, and mourned together. While those two days were sad, they were also joyful because we were together. Belly laughter filled the hours, too. The cascade of care from my clan transformed what could have been a sad month into a time of endearment. Whenever we are in the same place, it's as if waves of happiness wash over us.

That intense month brought the five of us closer. I thank Dad eternally for making sure we six bonded as kids so that our love would last forever.

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John Morgan has an estimated wealth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes, placing him on its 2025 Billionaires List.

Morgan started his personal-injury firm, Morgan & Morgan, in 1988. Today, he has offices in all 50 US states and employs more than 1,000 lawyers. Morgan pioneered legal advertising, putting his face on ads across hundreds of US cities.

Other than his law firm, Morgan owns a collection of science museums, malls, billboard companies, and even a crime and punishment attraction that houses the original white Bronco that O.J. Simpson used to flee from the police.

Morgan sat down with Business Insider to discuss how he accumulated his wealth, the tragic motivation that led him to personal-injury law, the power and responsibility of wealth, and the dangers he believes a globally increasing wealth gap will one day create for both the rich and the poor.

For more:

https://www.forthepeople.com/

• In five years' time, our jobs will look different because of AI.
• The consulting firm EY has given its employees an AI tool to help them anticipate what will change.
• I wondered if ChatGPT or Gemini could do the same for me as a reporter.

A leader at the Big Four firm EY recently told me that the firm has introduced an AI tool to help their employees navigate the uncertainty around jobs that the new technology is creating.

It's part of an internal training program known as AI Now 2.0, which prompts EY employees to answer a series of questions about their job, day-to-day responsibilities, and overall deliverables.

They upload the answers to EYQ, the firm's internal ChatGPT-like tool, and it generates an analysis of how their current role might change because of the impact of AI. The goal is to help them identify the skills, knowledge, and abilities they might need in the future.

Most industries are facing AI-triggered upheaval, but professional services firms are in a particularly tight spot.

Consultants are the experts that other businesses turn to for advice, meaning the pressure is on to make AI work internally. While it presents opportunities, AI is also forcing firms to reconsider long-held pricing models, talent structures, and the services they offer.

Newsrooms are just as exposed to AI's unpredictability and opportunity.

Inspired by EY, I wanted to see if AI could predict how my job as a reporter will change over the next five years.

My prompts

I told both chatbots to act like "an organizational strategist," programming them to respond like someone who has done expert research on the possible impact that AI will have on my job rather than provide chatty advice.

I described myself as a "reporter for Business Insider" who covers the Big Four professional services firms and workplace culture, and listed some of my key job responsibilities.

Then I asked for a future role analysis, asking the chatbots to highlight only the most significant changes.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT predicted that AI will increasingly take on tasks like structural drafting, information-gathering, and generating background context in stories. It said there will be a suite of "built-in extras" to support the publishing process in real time, like smart templates and pulling up older coverage immediately.

With tools at my disposal to help speed up the reporting process, my edge as a reporter will come from providing "leaked memos, off-the-record sentiment, organizational politics, and nuanced interpretations that AI cannot surface on its own," according to ChatGPT.

I pushed ChatGPT a bit more, asking what new knowledge and skills I'd need to succeed as AI changes my industry, and how I could mitigate some of the key ethical and legal risks.

It told me to develop AI fluency by learning to prompt effectively, evaluate AI outputs critically, and use analytics to flag stories earlier.

On ethics, the big takeaway was essentially: don't trust AI outputs, and you'll be fine — a reassuring conclusion that also neatly undermined my entire experiment.

But ChatGPT had a message of encouragement: If I follow its upskilling guidelines and evolve with the tools, then my future job will not be threatened by AI.

"Your role sits at the intersection of access + judgment + context — areas where AI consistently falls short," the tool told me.

Gemini

Gemini's response to my initial prompt was more impressive, if a little overwhelming.

The tool produced a 3400-word strategy document for me titled "The Alogorithmic Nexus: A Future Role Analysis for the Business Insider Big Four Reporter in the era of Generative AI."

Perhaps the deep analysis should have been unsurprising given that Google launched the latest update to its AI model, Gemini 3, this month to rave reviews.

Gemini said that AI's "primary impact" will be undermining reporters' ability to get scoops, as companies develop AI systems for corporate surveillance and secrets detection. Journalists need an "immediate upgrade in secure sourcing tradecraft," it warned.

This suggestion was surprising to me, as typically reporters avoid using any digital footprint a company could monitor when talking to employees — see Business Insider's guide here. I'm not sure how AI would change that.

Like ChatGPT, Gemini said AI tools will help augment the research and writing process, and that I'll spend less time drafting and more time on verification.

On skills, Gemini gave me more detailed advice, suggesting I develop RAG literacy to improve my algorithmic research and use AI tools like Reality Defender to support digital verification.

Google's tool was more cautious about my future outlook, saying that my job security is not guaranteed by simply adopting AI.

"Your future value depends on shifting your function from a content creator to an ethical supervisor and veracity gatekeeper over all information," Gemini said.

A helpful exercise

Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, told me that EY's tool "helps to show and bring to life in a totally relevant way where AI might be able to help them."

My test wasn't exactly lab-grade science — I haven't seen the responses that EY's tool generates, or the prompts and programming behind it. What AI means for the future of journalism versus consulting are two very different questions.

Overall, the results didn't tell me that much I don't already know.

New AI tools can boost my efficiency, and verification and source-building — which have always been essential skills in journalism — are evolving alongside AI. But it was a helpful exercise to actively think about the future, and a reminder to spend time exploring what's out there.

• When I was growing up, my grandmother always suggested having pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
• We never did it then, but I always wanted to, and I finally tried it with my son when he was 2.
• We loved it so much that we've done it ever since, and it's our favorite holiday tradition.

Growing up, my grandmother would always say we should have our Thanksgiving pies for breakfast. I thought it was such a good idea, because by the time you're done eating dinner, you're really too full for dessert. My family never ended up going through with it, but the idea stuck with me.

When I had my son, I wanted to start our own holiday traditions together. I remembered the idea of having pie for breakfast and decided to try it. In order for the pie to be ready on Thanksgiving morning, I had to stay up the Wednesday night before to make everything. I thought an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and fresh whipped cream would be perfect.

It went so well the first year, and we added on to the tradition

My son was only 2 years old the first year we tried it, so it was his first time trying everything. After I put him to bed, I stayed up cooking, while the SNL Thanksgiving special played on TV in the background. It all felt just right for me, as if I were figuring out the kind of holiday I wanted to have, not just for my son, but for myself too.

It wasn't easy putting everything away for the next morning without taste-tasting, but it felt so much more special to wait for Thanksgiving. When we woke up the next morning, I put the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on right away. I didn't even feel too bad about letting us eat pie for breakfast, because it was homemade and still full of apples and pumpkin.

My son looked at me as if I had made a mistake, but when I reassured him to go ahead and try it, he loved it. I had my pie with coffee, while he had his with milk. Although it was delicious, I think what made us most happy was being together and doing something out of the ordinary. Before the morning was even over, I knew this was going to be something we did forever.

Having pie for breakfast came with benefits I couldn't have predicted

In addition to establishing our tradition of having pie for breakfast, I also developed a special Thanksgiving coffee that morning by putting whipped cream in a mug first and then pouring hot coffee over it, creating something like a cappuccino. While I knew eating traditional Thanksgiving desserts for breakfast with my son to be fun, I wasn't expecting to establish other traditions that also felt personal and resonant for me, such as the surprising nostalgia for SNL that I felt as I watched the special (which I still do every year) and my new holiday coffee.

Since my son also spends time with his father on Thanksgiving, the new tradition has had some unforeseen benefits for coparenting over the holiday, too. His father and I do our best to ensure that our son sees each of us on holidays. So, for example, I would have my son for the first half of the day, and then he would go with his dad for the second half.

It was hard getting used to not being with my son for the whole day, but it's gotten easier. And part of that is because I found ways to make our holiday time together feel full. The Thanksgiving breakfast tradition allowed me to celebrate with my son and not feel as sad because I wasn't eating dinner with him later on. I think it helps my son in the same way, too, because he's doing something equally as special with each parent.

Our pie tradition has become the best part of Thanksgiving

My son is 12 now, and we have kept the tradition going ever since. When I'm feeling really ambitious, I make a pecan pie, too. When I remarried, we let my husband in on the ritual, and he loves it. We're both big coffee drinkers, and the pie and coffee combo is really perfect. Everything that happens for the rest of Thanksgiving after pie for breakfast is just a bonus, because we've already enjoyed the most important part of the holiday for us.

• MrBeast said his latest videos fell short and vows to enter 'ultra grind mode' in 2026.
• His promise echoes that of CEOs like Andy Jassy and John Stankey pushing hardcore office culture.
• As companies tie careers to metrics, MrBeast is pledging a creator-style productivity reset.

YouTube megastar MrBeast said he's gearing up for what he calls "ultra grind mode" — a pledge that places him squarely in the growing hardcore worker moment, reshaping both the creator economy and corporate America.

In a post on X on Wednesday, the 27-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, told his 33.4 million followers that he hasn't been fully satisfied with the quality of his latest videos.

"After some reflection, I just want to say I think some of our newer youtube videos haven't been as good as I wanted. I apologize," MrBeast wrote.

"Ya boy is going to go into ultra grind mode and make the greatest content of my life in 2026. Promise," he added.

The X post, which quickly garnered more than 2.9 million views as of Thursday morning, triggered a wave of encouragement from fans, who insisted his standards were already impossibly high.

But MrBeast doubled down.

When one commenter told him not to be so hard on himself, MrBeast replied: "Appreciate it but I'm going to take this stuff to a whole new level."

The creator version of a 'hardcore' reset

MrBeast's pledge mirrors a broader shift inside big companies, where bosses are dialing back talk of work-life balance and leaning into performance, presenteeism, and discipline.

Executives like AT&T CEO John Stankey and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy have pushed employees back to the office five days a week and tied careers more tightly to measurable output.

In a memo to AT&T managers in August, Stankey told staff the company is moving away from "familial cultural norms" toward "a more market-based culture — focused on rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment."

Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jassy has slashed layers of management, toughened performance reviews, and reinforced Amazon's demanding culture.

Career experts say that in this landscape, staying employed means showing up, documenting wins, and proving how you drive results — not just how long you've been around.

• The US Coast Guard has a strict step-by-step process for stopping and boarding drug vessels.
• Its personnel train for a variety of situations, including needing to shoot out boat engines.
• Everything the Coast Guard gathers in an interdiction is helping build a case for prosecuting alleged traffickers.

USCG TACLET SOUTH OPA-LOCKA, Florida — At a time when a new war on drugs is brewing in the Caribbean, Business Insider grabbed a front-row seat as the Coast Guard trained to take down drug smugglers on the high seas.

Day in and day out, the Coast Guard is out on patrol for boats packed with hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs, illegal narcotics with street values in the millions. Finding these drug boats on the open isn't chance, officials said. It's all carefully orchestrated, from the intelligence-gathering to the drone flights to the precision shots from a helicopter needed to cripple the engine of a vessel on the run.

The service follows a strict step-by-step process, relying on the training and experience of its pilots, precision marksmen, boarding teams, and other personnel.

In recent years, the Coast Guard has been seizing record numbers of drugs from its interdictions during deployments in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, but drug smugglers out of South America keep them on their toes.

"The threat from narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorists is constantly evolving," Cmdr. Chris Guy, commanding officer of Coast Guard South's Tactical Law Enforcement Team, told Business Insider. "They are changing their tactics in order to try to elude detection and interdiction all the time."

They switch up drug routes and vessels, shifting from "go-fast boats" to semi-submersibles, vessels more commonly called narco-subs. But as the smugglers adapt, the Coast Guard does, too.

Finding drug boats on the high seas

The hunt starts with eyes in the sky. Drones, patrol planes, and helicopter crews sweep the ocean for fast-moving boats suspected of carrying drugs north to the US.

The Coast Guard refers to vessels potentially carrying drugs as "targets of interest." They keep an eye out for a number of potential red flag indicators, such as suspected drugs packages aboard the ship, the number of people on the vessel, weapons, even how many engines the boat has.

While the Coast Guard gathers intel, it tries to avoid accidentally tipping its hand, so it can take time.

The time it takes to gather the necessary data "all depends on the assets being applied to it," Capt. Daniel Broadhurst, the commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, told Business Insider.

The Coast Guard can draw critical intelligence from whatever's in the air — Navy P-8 Poseidons or its own assets, such as the HC-130Js, MQ-35 V-BAT drones, or MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. Depending on the mix of assets available, spotting and tracking a suspect vessel can take 15 minutes, a few hours, or a full day.

Every detail is important, as it may help the Coast Guard build a case that can be used to prosecute smugglers once the drugs are seized and arrests are made, either in the US or the country of origin.

After wrapping up the recon phase, a helicopter crew is sent out to order the vessel to stop for boarding. If the suspected smugglers ignore the warning blaring over the loudspeakers, a gunner leans into the mounted machine gun and rakes three short bursts across the waves — the Coast Guard’s last warning before escalating and taking aim at the engines.

If the vessel doesn't heed the initial warnings, a precision marksman takes the next step, disabling the boat's engines with a rifle shot. Coordination with the pilots on position, angle, and speed is critical to making the shot count.

There's standard script, Lt. Cmdr. Jamel Chokr, a pilot and mission commander at HITRON, said, "so theoretically, I could meet a gunner tomorrow, never have spoken to them, and we could walk out to an aircraft and affect an interdiction, and we could do it relatively seamlessly."

He said that if the pilot and gunner have been flying together for some time, "you start really syncing up with them."

Drug boats sometimes have several engines on them, or paneling that's intended to shield the engines from a clean shot. The smugglers will sometimes try to use their own body to protect the engine, forcing the shooter to adjust to avoid injuring or killing someone not directly engaged in hostilities.

If someone aboard the boat falls or jumps into the water, the helicopter team has to seamlessly switch from interdiction to search and rescue mode, prioritizing throwing out life vests or flotation devices to those people while also keeping the drug vessel in sight. If the smugglers toss the drugs into the water, the crew will throw down devices to mark that location.

Once the target boat is disabled, the Coast Guard moves into the endgame phase. The helicopter team keeps their eyes and weapons on the vessel while the boarding team arrives.

Boarding drug vessels

The Coast Guard's boarding teams position their vessels alongside the drug boat and begin what can be a highly dangerous process: the initial boarding can range in difficulty depending on the state of the seas, weather, time of day, and crew compliance.

Night time raids can be particularly risky, the darkness complicating even simple procedures.

The boarding crews have methods for disrupting and disabling vessels if needed, such as shouldering the boat, spraying fire houses, and using entanglers. Sometimes, how the interdiction process goes down is more of a leap-frog between teams, which makes communications between personnel essential.

After boarding, Coast Guard personnel want to swiftly take control of the vessel, including locating and apprehending any suspected smugglers, determining the origin and nationality of the boat and its crew, and investigating the drugs aboard. A translator will often come along to help gather information.

The boarding team also needs to be prepared for things to unexpectedly go south. If drug runners jump overboard, the mission switches to search and rescue. If they have weapons, the team has to neutralize them. Worst-case scenarios are anything that put the lives of the boarding team in danger.

If a vessel is stateless — no flag, no documents, and a silent crew — the Coast Guard enforces US maritime law. If it's registered to another country, the process gets more complex, requiring coordination with that government under existing law enforcement agreements.

Collecting all evidence aboard a drug boat is intense and can take hours. The team extensively takes pictures of the vessel and equipment and the drugs.

Coast Guard crews go through and swab for drug residue, map the vessel for hidden compartments, detain the crew, and search electronics for evidence while verifying identities and criminal backgrounds. The seized drugs are stored aboard a cutter and later offloaded to federal agencies in port.

A precise legal process

Every interdiction hinges on legal approvals that must move up and down the chain of command, from Coast Guard leadership to law enforcement partners, often leaving boarding teams waiting for the green light to act.

"There's a lot of legalities that come into play," Coast Guard maritime law enforcement specialist Morgan Fussell told Business Insider. "And if you do any of those prior to getting full law enforcement authority, then the case obviously could be inadmissible in court and get thrown out."

Finding drug vessels, getting permission to stop them, and seizing the cargo also relies on interagency cooperation, including with the Joint Interagency Task Force South.

Coast Guard helicopter and boarding teams regularly also find themselves aboard US Navy warships, as well as vessels belonging to international allies and partners. On those deployments, the priority is balancing interdictions with other objectives and missions.

At its core, the success of the service's interdiction boils down to pursuing those interdictions precisely but also remaining flexible as things change. "Drug smugglers are ever evolving, and we do a really good job of training for that," Chokr said. "So it's kind of a cat-and-mouse game."

• Nothing conveys our sci-fi future quite like the humanoid robot.
• Bouyed by AI, robot companies are now commanding eye-popping funding rounds.
• These bots are quietly becoming fixtures in factories and may soon be folding your laundry.

Science fiction is imaginary — until, suddenly, it isn't.

We are now on the brink of living in a world populated by humanoid robot assistants, a timeless trope of futuristic fiction. Right now, it's more the world of the "Jetsons" than that of "Terminator," but that's not always readily apparent when you see the tall, sleek robots that companies are eagerly demoing.

The founders of some of America's most promising robotics startups say that we're not far away from a world in which humanoid robots are autonomously completing tasks in the home and on factory floors.

Business Insider compiled a list of some of the most well-known US companies in the space to highlight the current state of the humanoid robotics industry — and where it's headed.

Tesla

While Tesla may be best known as an EV maker, the company has made its humanoid robot a key part of its future.

Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, is often trotted out at company events. It's been seen serving drinks, dancing, cleaning, and taking out the trash — at varying levels of autonomy (it's still very much in development and often tele-operated). The company says it is working to deploy its first fleet of Optimus robots in Tesla factories by the end of the year, but commercial production is further out.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is motivated to bet big on Optimus. Among other benchmarks, he will need to deliver one million new Optimus robots over the next decade to fully earn his $1 trillion pay package, which Tesla shareholders approved in early November.

During the company's third-quarter earnings call, Musk said that the robot "has the potential to be the biggest product of all time" and projected that Tesla would eventually make 1 million robots every year. He has also said that Optimus would eventually account for around 80% of the company's value.

At the company shareholder event in November, Musk even suggested that Optimus could "actually eliminate poverty."

Figure

CEO and founder Brett Adcock says Figure is building its machines on the belief that "the humanoid robot will be the ultimate deployment vector for AGI."

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is a still-theoretical and much-debated technology milestone generally viewed to be when AI can reason as well as humans. It's the thing all the leading AI companies are elbowing their way toward.

The company has $2.34 billion in funding, according to PitchBook.

The company's latest robot, Figure 03, is designed for household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and doing dishes.

The company says its overall mission is to "develop general-purpose humanoids that make a positive impact on humanity and create a better life for future generations," especially ones that can "eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs — ultimately allowing us to live happier, more purposeful lives."

In the near-term, like "single-digit years away," humanoid robots will be capable of doing useful work, Adcock said recently on the tech podcast "Around the Prompt." He told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the annual Dreamforce conference in October that Figure was building "a new species."

1X

1X, a dual Norwegian-American robot maker backed by OpenAI, is on a mission to develop "general purpose robots that can coexist with humans and elevate humanity," according to its website.

To that end, it has two series of robots: Neo, designed for domestic tasks, and Eve, designed for industrial use in factories. The company recently began taking orders for Neo, which will cost $20,000 or a $499 a month subscription with an expected US launch in 2026. For now, the robots will require owners to be okay with them being tele-operated by a human outside the residence as Neo is trained.

"We are cloning human thought and behavior into a machine, alongside providing foundation models for robotic safety," Bernt Øivind Børnich, the CEO and founder, told Business Insider in 2024.

He said the company, which is more than eight years into developing androids, is seeing a clear market for its innovations.

"What is unique about us is that we have an android that can be safely deployed with humans, which opens up new consumer markets," Børnich said. "These are complicated products looking for a market but we now have commercial traction which previously hadn't been proven out."

The company has raised $140.36 million in funding as of July 2025, according to PitchBook. The Information reported in September 2025 that the company was seeking an additional $1 billion in funding.

Agility

Digit, Agility's 5-foot-9 humanoid robot, became the first of its kind to be "paid" for performing real work in 2024.

Under a multiyear deal with GXO Logistics, Agility deployed Digit at Spanx's women's wear factories, where it moves boxes and places them onto conveyor belts, and just hit 100,000 totes moved to date, a spokesperson for the company told Business Insider by email. The company has also deployed its robots with Schaeffler Group and Amazon, Agility's spokesperson added.

Peggy Johnson, an alum of Microsoft and Qualcomm, who became Digit's CEO last year, previously told Business Insider that it'd soon be "very normal" for humanoid robots to become coworkers with humans across a variety of workplaces.

Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics, which was founded way back in 1992 and which is perhaps most famous for its "robot dog," has built and deployed a suite of advanced robotics over the years.

Hyundai acquired the firm in 2021 for $1.1 billion. In April, Hyundai announced a $21 billion investment in the U.S., including $6 billion to promote investment and partnerships in the US.

Its viral dog-like robot, Spot, is used to inspect building sites or oil and gas facilities. An artist-in-residence at SpaceX has even trained some Spot robots to paint.

More recently, Boston Dynamics released a fully electric version of Atlas, its humanoid robot, which the company is now exploring for commercial use, starting with part sequencing, a common logistics task that involves arranging parts correctly in order for the cars that are being assembled, according to a company press release.

Boston Dynamics has long been a leader in robotics. Its founder, Marc Raibert, said in a 2024 podcast interview that "it's hard not to think that seeing what Atlas is doing is a little bit of an inspiration" for Tesla's Optimus.

Apptronik

Apptronik is an Austin-based humanoid robotics startup that spun out of the University of Texas' Human Centered Robotics Lab in 2016.

It unveiled its first humanoid, Apollo, in August 2023.

It had $772.78 million in funding as of November 2025, according to PitchBook.

"The big idea is a humanoid robot should be able to fit in all the places that a human can fit into and use all the same tools that humans can use," Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas told Business Insider at the time. "That allows them to integrate into a world that's built for us versus having to modify the world for the robots."

The company is targeting a new funding round of $500 million, which would value it at $5 billion, according to the Austin Business Journal.