Author: openjargon

• Furniture flipping is a booming business for content creators on TikTok and Instagram.
• But flips that involve painting over natural wood furniture often elicit backlash and hate comments.
• People get especially worked up when flippers paint over beloved mid-century modern furniture.

Growing up, Christina Clericuzio always thought the dresser at her grandma's house was so ugly — with walnut brown wood and a diamond-like design on the drawer faces.

So when Clericuzio's grandma was getting rid of it, it seemed like the perfect candidate for her new hobby: furniture-flipping, the practice of taking a piece of old furniture and restoring or refinishing it.

Clericuzio sanded down the walnut, removed the wood veneer, added drawer pulls, and painted most of the dresser white. When she posted the before and after shots online, she loved the new beachy look.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm a magician. I'm so amazing,'" the Connecticut-based content creator told Business Insider.

But then came the comments.

"This is criminal."

"This is evil."

"You literally ruined it!"

"I got humbled so quick," Clericuzio said, adding there were people calling her dumb and all sorts of names.

She still thought the piece was cute and was able to sell it for $400 — but now she knows a mid-century modern furniture piece like that, restored to its original look, can sell for much, much more.

Up to $8,160, to be exact, according to a current Chairish listing for what appears to be the exact same dresser — a mid-century nine-drawer lowboy piece made by United Furniture.

Clericuzio is among countless furniture flippers on Instagram and TikTok who regularly get berated or even threatened in their comments over some of their work — especially when they paint over wood furniture, and even moreso if the color they go with is white, beige, or the widely mocked "millennial gray."

Jennifer Beck, a Tennessee-based furniture flipper who runs Saved By Design with her mom, told BI she's considered making shirts for her brand that say, "Forget about politics. How do you feel about painted furniture?"

Still, furniture flipping is booming. Some content creators, like Clericuzio, got into it during the pandemic and have been able to turn it from a side hustle into a full-time gig. Furniture flippers also give new life to a piece that might otherwise end up in a landfill — which happens more than you'd think with donated furniture — and buying secondhand is increasingly appealing to Gen Z, who view it as a more environmentally friendly way to shop.

So why all the hate?

Demand is up for vintage wood furniture — without paint

Part of the backlash certainly stems from the current state of the furniture industry, in which it's increasingly difficult to get your hands on brand-new, high-quality furniture.

The decline in quality in mass-market furniture has led many people to seek out vintage or secondhand pieces, especially those made of real wood, which was common in American furniture production in the mid-1900s but makes up a much smaller share of the retail market today, which is saturated with products made from engineered wood and other cheap materials.

As a result, the secondhand furniture market is booming, with vintage furniture sellers proliferating on places like Instagram and Facebook Marketplace.

The flippers said most of the hate comments tend to come from flips of midcentury modern furniture, in particular, a beloved and lasting design aesthetic from around roughly the 1930s to 1970s.

Many of the flips that draw the most backlash are of distinct midcentury pieces getting transformed into a more modern, and often more generic, painted piece that would fit in at Anthropologie — a brand Clericuzio loves and takes inspiration from for her flips.

But now that she's been doing this a few years and is more knowledgable about furniture in general, Clericuzio said she understands where some of the critics are coming from, if not the hateful way they express their distaste.

"I really try to only work on midcentury modern pieces that, in my opinion, are just objectively ugly," she said, or pieces that are so damaged they might be beyond a classic restoration job.

As for how she'd handle her grandma's old dresser today?

"I probably wouldn't even touch it," she said, adding now that she knows more about furniture, she even sees more beauty in the original piece.

Furniture restoration vs. painting

Ask any flipper and they'll tell you how divisive painting furniture is, but some acknowledge that the desire to just paint over any old piece of furniture can come from a lack of skill.

"When I first started out, I did not know what I was doing," Beck, the Tennessee-based flipper, said. When she started furniture flipping, painting was the only thing she knew how to do.

"All we were trying to do was change the look so that we could have a before and after photo and sell it," she said, adding that meant her products were not as high quality as they could've been and she was selling some pieces for much less than she could if she actually restored them.

As she learned more about furniture and improved her skills, Beck said she was able to be more discerning about painting. Now she does high-end restoration and refinishing work, often selling her pieces for thousands of dollars.

She still uses paint, but in a much more limited capacity, like when the piece is too damaged for full restoration or some use of paint will add to the design and make it more appealing for her customers.

Beck said she also considers what kinds of pieces will actually decline in value if they are painted, according to appraisers, like high-quality antique, historic, or mid-century modern pieces, typically with a maker's mark indicating the craftsmen who produced them.

It's not just about making the most money. Beck believes there are some pieces that should be restored and preserved simply because they are rare, beloved, and culturally valuable.

But ultimately, it comes down to what she can sell to her customers. Despite all the vocal online haters of painted furniture, there's a reason furniture flippers do it: the pieces sell.

Mike Coleman, a vintage furniture seller and the owner of Big Mike's Vintage in Chicago, said he used to be strongly against painting over pieces, but after meeting skilled dealers who do it well, he's opened up to it.

"It's your house, your furniture," he said, adding, "Do want you want at all times."

But he said he's seen plenty of TikTok flippers who just don't know how to do it well in a way that will actually last, and he thinks most people should leave it to the pros.

"You can't just spray paint over lacquered walnut," Coleman said.

Critics of furniture flippers don't always know what they're talking about

One flip that drew hate comments and frustrated Clericuzio involved a brown shelving unit she picked up from Goodwill for $12.

She sanded down the shelf — which revealed it had previously been painted over three times: red, blue, and then brown — then painted over most of it with a light blue paint and added some mirrors, unique drawer panels, new knobs, and legs. She left the top wood visible, meaning there was actually more of the original wood showing than when she bought it.

Still, the hate comments rolled in. One that got over 4,100 likes read: "the way u take beautiful vintage pieces, n make em boring n modern should be put in the bible as a sin." Many commenters were especially exasperated that Clericuzio threw away the "original" knobs.

But after the TikTok of the flip went viral, the woman who originally donated the shelf got in touch with Clericuzio.

The shelf had come from somewhere like Ikea, and the woman had painted it over herself several times in the years she owned it.

As for the "beautiful antique knobs" that commenters couldn't believe Clericuzio tossed?

They sell for $3.99 a piece from Hobby Lobby.

Have a news tip or story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

• Hong Kong authorities warned about a scam using deepfake Elon Musk videos to trick investors.
• The group claimed to provide an AI-driven cryptocurrency trading service.
• This is not the first time scammers have used deepfake versions of Elon Musk.

No, Elon Musk didn't create the shady crypto trading website that a random person on Facebook is telling you to invest in.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued a warning last week about deepfake scams. According to the statement, a group calling itself Quantum AI or AI Quantum, is using deepfake videos of Elon Musk to trick people into thinking he is behind the software.

The group is not to be confused with NASA's Quantum AI Lab (QuAIL), which focuses on quantum computing research.

As the technology behind artificial intelligence advances, scammers are increasingly using deepfakes to dupe their victims into handing over cash.

"Deepfakes" leverage artificial intelligence to mimic the face and voice of a person in a video or audio clip. Scammers will use deepfakes to set up video calls with victims. They then use a webcam paired with software that changes their facial features to look like the person with whom the victim thinks they are communicating.

The notorious Nigerian scam group, The Yahoo Boys, for example, uses deepfakes to trick people into romance scams.

The group in Hong Kong claimed to provide a cryptocurrency trading service using underlying artificial intelligence. But Hong Kong authorities said they suspect it is a front for "virtual asset related fraudulent activities." The group used three websites and two Facebook pages to run its crypto scams, the warning says.

Authorities said the group used deepfake videos of Musk to deceive victims into thinking that he was the developer of the technology, lending the fake company an air of legitimacy. They even went as far as creating a fake "news" website to promote false information about the service, authorities said.

Hong Kong police shut down all of its websites and social media pages, according to Crypto News. The Hong Kong Police Force did not return a request for comment from BI.

It's not the first time scammers have used deepfakes of Musk to steal money from their victims. In April, a South Korean woman said she lost $50,000 after scammers pretending to be Musk reached out to her on Instagram. She even held a video call with whom she thought was the ubiquitous billionaire.

"'Musk even said 'I love you, you know that?' when we made a video call," the woman told 60 Minutes of the deepfaked conversation.

• The ongoing Trump hush-money case wrapped its third week on Friday.
• The unprecedented criminal trial of a former US president has supplied no shortage of wild moments.
• From a porn star's testimony to wacky tweets, here are the 5 top takeaways so far. 

For three weeks, jurors in a Manhattan criminal courtroom have heard testimony about lascivious affairs and complicated financial records as former President Donald Trump stands trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which center on a hush-money scheme to silence porn actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

The prosecution's case is nearing its end. On Friday, the DA's office announced it would present only two more witnesses — one of them is expected to be former Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen — and will likely conclude its case by the end of next week.

The trial was expected to run six weeks in total.

The unprecedented criminal trial of a former US president has delivered several stunning moments so far. Here are the top five.

Hope Hicks' tearful testimony

Hope Hicks' bombshell testimony — which helped both the defense and prosecution at times — was most notable for her waterworks on the stand. The former White House aide and longtime Trump advisor took the stand on May 3 and told jurors about working with Trump and Cohen as campaign press secretary amid the 2016 Daniels scandal.

Parts of Hicks' testimony didn't play well for Trump, Business Insider previously reported. She illustrated how much he and his campaign worried about Daniels going public with the story ahead of the election. When the story finally came to light in 2018, Hicks said Trump was almost relieved.

"I think it was Mr. Trump's feeling that it was better to be dealing with it now," she said, "rather than just before the election."

But when she took the stand on cross-examination, Hicks also helped bolster the defense's case, saying Cohen wasn't looped in on the "day-to-day" of Trump's campaign in 2016, confirming that the fixer sometimes "went rogue."

Hicks also testified that Trump cared about protecting his family from the infidelity stories.

"I don't think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that happened on the campaign," she said.

Jurors get a peek at the 34 records at the heart of the case

Two weeks into Trump's trial, jurors finally saw the paperwork at the heart of the matter. Two key witnesses — longtime Trump Organization employees Jeffrey McConney and Deborah Tarassoff — testified about their handling of the company's checks, invoices, and other records, which make up the 34 business records District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges Trump falsified.

The prosecution showed the paperwork on big TV screens in the courtroom. Though less exciting than the rumors of salacious extramarital affairs and campaign PR techniques, the accounting details constitute the crux of the case, Business Insider previously reported.

Prosecutors carefully walked through what they say was the falsified paperwork that led to Cohen's reimbursement checks. The business records were disguised Cohen's reimbursement checks as "legal fees" to cover up a conspiracy to sway the election, prosecutors say.

Jurors also saw eleven checks, including nine Capital One personal checks written out to Cohen that Trump signed over the course of his first year in office.

BI's reporters noted that while key evidence, the May 6 financial testimony bored many in the courtroom.

Stormy Daniels tells her story

Daniels took the stand on May 7, delivering her long-awaited testimony during which she described being scared and ashamed after the sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.

Wearing black-rimmed glasses and a sweater, the porn actor, whose name is Stephanie Clifford, came face-to-face with Trump for the first time in a decade. Trump spent much of Daniels' testimony staring down at the defense table, avoiding looking at her.

On the stand, Daniels described how she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006, saying she ended up in his penthouse hotel suite after accepting a dinner invitation from the businessman.

Daniels says the two then had sex — a claim Trump has repeatedly and strongly denied. On the stand, Daniels said Trump told her she reminded him of his daughter, commenting on her blond hair and beauty. She testified that Trump told her not to "worry" about Melania, saying he and his wife slept in separate rooms.

As Daniels began to describe their alleged sexual encounter, Trump appeared furious, BI's reporters noted. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan later reprimanded Trump for "cursing audibly" during her testimony.

Merchan barred some explicit details of Daniels' story, but she did tell jurors that Trump did not wear a condom during the act. She added that she didn't tell very many people about the encounter afterward because she was ashamed.

Daniels testified that she and Trump remained in contact after that night, and she avoided having sex with him again even though he indicated he wanted to.

She also described being approached by a man in a parking lot years later who she said warned her about discussing her "encounter with Mr. Trump."

When Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, Daniels said her agent told her she could sell the rights to her story to Cohen for $130,000.

Trump's legal team requested a mistrial on the basis of Daniel's testimony. Merchan rejected the motion.

Judge Merchan holds Trump in contempt of court

Since Trump's trial began four weeks ago, the former president has been held in contempt of court not once but twice.

The first slap on the wrist came on Thursday, April 25, when Judge Merchan ordered Trump to pay a $9,000 fine for violating his gag order nine times. His offenses include questioning the impartiality of his jury and launching tirades against trial witnesses, including Cohen and Daniels, on Truth Social.

Trump's legal team attempted to argue the judge's decision by noting that Trump was merely reposting attacks made by others in some cases, but Merchan rejected their argument.

The April shaming didn't quite work, however, and Merchan slapped Trump with another fine on May 6 in response to an April 22 phone interview Trump did with a right-wing network. During the call, Trump talked about the hush-money jury, calling them "95% Democrats."

In a written order, Merchan repeated much of what he had already chastised Trump for previously in the trial, emphasizing that Trump was in criminal contempt over three separate motions.

"It is apparent that monetary fines have not, and will not, suffice to deter Defendant from violating this Court's lawful orders," Merchan wrote.

Any future violation of the gag order will result in Trump's incarceration, Merchan said, adding that he did not want to go through the hassle of imprisoning the former president.

'ShitzInPantz' is entered into the court record

Perhaps the weirdest entry in the court record thus far was the inclusion of one of Cohen's favorite insulting nicknames for the former president: Donald "Von ShitzInPantz."

Todd Blanche, defense attorney for Trump, complained in court on May 2 that President Joe Biden and Cohen are allowed to bad-mouth Trump, while Trump isn't able to respond.

Blanche cited Biden's jokes about Trump during the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, which he said "Trump can't respond to" because of the ongoing hush-money case.

Then Blanche moved on to his complaints about Cohen's ramblings, reading into the record the former Trump ally's offensive post.

"This one says, oh my, ShitzInPantz," Blanche read to the courtroom as a screenshot of the social media post was added to the court record, with no objection from prosecutors.

• Kari Lake remains the heavy favorite to win the Arizona GOP Senate primary this summer.
• But some Republicans are skeptical of Lake's candidacy in one of the nation's premier swing states.
• The NRSC is set to unveil a joint television ad buy in conjunction with Lake, per Politico.

When Kari Lake jumped into the Arizona GOP Senate primary last October, many conservatives were thrilled with the decision, confident she'd energize base voters in the general election.

But Lake, a former television journalist who narrowly lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, remains a polarizing figure among the electorate. Lake excites former President Donald Trump's most fervent supporters, but Arizona, in recent years, has morphed into a purple state where independents are critical and statewide Republicans are not assured of easy victories.

A recent survey released by Emerson College Polling/The Hill showed that Lake was only winning 80% of Republicans and losing roughly 15% of GOP voters to her likely Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego. It's still early in the campaign, but the numbers are a sign that she has so far not consolidated GOP support around her candidacy.

And there's a similar sentiment among GOP leaders. While many are backing her campaign, others are less than thrilled.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, told Politico that while he anticipates most GOP candidates will be outspent this year, Arizona is too important of a state for the party on the national Senate map. (Barrasso speaks with Lake often, according to Politico.)

"To me, Arizona is a top-tier state. Because it's an open Senate seat," he told the outlet.

Lake is beginning to obtain some much-needed investment from Washington Republicans.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is set to unveil a joint television ad buy in conjunction with Lake's campaign, according to Politico.

But former Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, who ran against Lake in the GOP gubernatorial primary two years ago before withdrawing from the race, wasn't optimistic about his onetime opponent's viability.

"When you don't really have a core belief in anything, and you're willing to take whatever position you think is politically expedient at the moment, you end up getting caught between a rock and a hard place before too long," he recently said of Lake during a Politico interview.

"Ultimately, the Republican Senate committee is probably going to realize before too long that there's far better opportunities for victories in other parts of the country," he added.

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who chaired the NRSC from 2019 to 2021, told the publication that Arizona is "certainly not" on his current list of top pickup opportunities for the GOP this year.

Republicans are virtually assured of picking up the West Virginia seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. But in addition to Arizona, they're angling to flip seats in Montana, Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

"It's really important that Republicans control at least some lever of power in Congress," Young told Politico.

But he was seemingly unsure if he'd become involved in Lake's campaign down the line.

"I don't know that I'm participating in that one. It's possible," he added.

• The wine industry is embracing environmental sustainability. 
• Whitehall Lane Winery planted 100 acres of Oakville bluegrass, a cover crop that combats erosion.
• The winery also plans to use sheep to chew away weeds and fertilize its eight vineyards.

Wineries are embracing sustainability as the industry navigates shifting consumer values, so one winemaker is taking a tried and true approach: sheep.

The heart of the United States' wine country is nestled in California's Napa Valley, where the Leonardini family purchased a small St. Helena winery in 1993. Now, Whitehall Lane Winery has eight vineyards, including six in Napa Valley and two in Sonoma Valley.

Production is overseen by Jason Moulton, director of Winemaking and Viticulture, who began looking into sustainability practices when he joined the team in 2016. He told Business Insider that winemakers are leaning into regenerative farming, the practice of restoring soil health and biodiversity.

"You are seeing a shift from herbicides and tilling to no-till," Moulton said. "The general public doesn't want to see glyphosate in their wines or vineyards."

While some wineries have turned to artificial intelligence to deal with the industry's ebbs and flows, Whitehall Lane Winery hopes sheep and bluegrass can get the job done.

Sheep grazing is a centuries-old practice that could chomp down on weeds and add natural fertilizer

Although sheep grazing wineries might seem trendy, the American Sheep Industry Association said sheep and other livestock have grazed vegetation for "centuries."

Moulton said studying in New Zealand in the Lincoln University Viticulture and Enology program opened his eyes to the possibility in the mid-2000s. New Zealand has many wine regions, including Auckland and Hawke's Bay.

"The whole country is dotted with cows and sheep," Moulton said, referring to the 9.6 million cattle and 26 million sheep that live there.

Moulton said he hopes acquiring sheep can help phase out traditional tilling, which is turning the soil to oust weeds and unwanted pests. Tilling can kill topsoil and release CO2 into the environment, contributing to the climate crisis.

"This loss of soil carbon can reduce productivity within the soil profile," Moulton said. "It actually forces us to add more synthetic fertilizer."

Moulton said soil should have rich biodiversity or, in other words, be "alive."

"We want our soil to be alive and have beneficial insects like earthworms moving around those root zones," Moulton said. "By tilling, you're just killing it year after year. It's a constant life-and-death cycle."

Sheep, he said, will graze the vineyards and eat away at the weeds. They'll also leave behind natural fertilizer.

"Their byproduct will be all over our property, and I won't have to supplement synthetic nitrogen to our vines," he said.

Moulton has noticed other vineyards the area using sheep, adding that he hopes to get a herd onto the Whitehall Lane Winery vineyards in December or early 2025 before bud break.

The process involves working with shepherds who can provide and oversee herds at the vineyards, typically before bud break. Moulton said one shepherd he's spoken with is based in Nevada. The price for such services will vary, but Moulton said one estimate he viewed cost $210 per acre.

But the sheep alone won't address the problem. Moulton also began using a cover crop called Oakville bluegrass at the vineyards.

How Oakville bluegrass can have a lasting impact on vineyards

A cover crop is a plant that can bring several benefits to a vineyard. Cover crops smother weeds, slow erosion, boost soil health, help keep pests and diseases at bay, and encourage water infiltration.

Moulton has implemented about 100 acres of Oakville bluegrass at the Whitehall Lane Winery vineyards over five years. This particular cover crop lasts 10 years, which is an important selling point for Moulton.

Oakville bluegrass competes with weed growth — meaning fewer herbicides — and requires fewer tractor passes. Tractor passes is the process of taking a tractor down a vineyard row for a job like seeding or tilling.

"That's labor, money, and diesel fuel," Moulton said. "We're trying to do carbon sequestration, so by reducing those tractor passes, we're doing that."

Moulton added that Oakville bluegrass could also combat the three-cornered alfalfa hopper, an insect that spreads red blotch virus.

"By removing the ability for this insect to even live in a vineyard, I just improved longevity," he said.

Are sheep and bluegrass a tangible solution? Moulton thinks so.

Moulton hopes to eliminate herbicides and tilling from the winery's regiment between 2026 and 2028.

He added that Whitehall Lane Winery works with sustainability partners to set benchmarks, so utilizing long-lasting cover crops and sheep could help reach those goals.

"I think it's going to be absolutely necessary to achieve what we're after," he said.

• Floods in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul have sparked a number of online conspiracy theories. 
• Some say the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program has caused the extreme weather.
• Scientists have dismissed such theories.

The state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil has been facing heavy rains since last week, with 143 people confirmed to have lost their lives in the resulting floods so far, the local civil defense agency has said.

Eduardo Leite, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, described the weather on X as "unprecedented" in the state's history, adding that it would need "a kind of 'Marshall Plan' to be rebuilt."

The state is prone to periods of severe rain and droughts due to its position at a meeting point of tropical and polar climates.

Brazil's National Institute of Meteorology has said the current extreme conditions have likely been influenced by El Niño — the warming of sea surface temperature.

Nevertheless, a number of bizarre online conspiracy theories have cropped up over what's behind it.

"What's happening in Rio Grande do Sul is definitely not natural," one user wrote on X. "Let's open our eyes!"

The user said they believed that the cause of the heavy rains was HAARP, the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a North American scientific project that uses antennas to study a part of the Earth's upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere.

The program has long faced unfounded rumors that it was designed to control the weather, with former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez even claiming it caused the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

vapor trails — "chemtrails" — spread by the government and then activated by HAARP antennas in Alaska to alter the weather, AFP reported.

So-called chemtrails are the contrails of water vapor with soot particulates produced by burning jet fuel that freeze into ice crystals at certain temperatures, per BBC News. In the 1990s, a conspiracy theory evolved that they contained dangerous chemicals purposely put in the trails.

In recent years, influencers such as Russell Brand have promoted the theory to their big media followings

But Carlos Nobre, who heads Brazil's National Institute of Science and Technology for Climate Change (INCT), told AFP that scientists believed climate change has certainly played a key role.

"The warmer atmosphere can store much more water vapor, fueling more frequent and intense episodes of rainfall that lead to disasters like this," he said, while also dismissing the HAARP theory.

"There's no way an instrument in the ionosphere could make weather events more extreme," he said.

It comes after recent heavy flooding in Dubai.

Dubai's media office said the city experienced the heaviest downpour in the United Arab Emirates since records began.

Once again, social media was abuzz with claims about geoengineering — technologies could be used to alter weather or climate — and a conspiracy theory that has arisen around the term, linked to the chemtrails narrative, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge.

After the heavy rainfall flooded Dubai, cloud seeding was blamed by some on social media.

Scientists said the storms behind the floods in the city were likely made worse by the climate crisis, adding that the El Niño pattern also helped intensify the weather.

• Companies are rapidly integrating generative AI technology to boost productivity.
• Experts, however, are concerned that efforts to manage the risks of AI are lagging.
• Responsible AI efforts are moving "nowhere near as fast as they should be," a BCG senior partner said.

Companies have been racing to deploy generative AI technology into their work since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. 

Executives say they're excited about how AI boosts productivity, analyzes data, and cuts down on busy work.

According to Microsoft and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trends report, which surveyed 31,000 full-time workers between February and March, close to four in five business leaders believe their company needs to adopt the technology to stay competitive.

But adopting AI in the workplace also presents risks, including reputational, financial, and legal harm. The challenge of combating them is that they're ambiguous, and many companies are still trying to understand how to identify and measure them.

AI programs run responsibly should include strategies for governance, data privacy, ethics, and trust and safety, but experts who study risk say the programs haven't kept up with innovation.

Efforts to use AI responsibly in the workplace are moving "nowhere near as fast as they should be," Tad Roselund, a managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, told Business Insider. These programs often require a considerable amount of investment and a minimum of two years to implement, according to BCG.

That's a big investment and time commitment and company leaders seem more focused instead on allocating resources to quickly develop AI in a way that boosts productivity.

"Establishing good risk management capabilities requires significant resources and expertise, which not all companies can afford or have available to them today," researcher and policy analyst Nanjira Sam told MIT Sloan Management Review. She added that the "demand for AI governance and risk experts is outpacing the supply." 

Investors need to play a more critical role in funding the tools and resources for these programs, according to Navrina Singh, the founder of Credo AI, a governance platform that helps companies comply with AI regulations. Funding for generative AI startups hit $25.2 billion in 2023, according to a report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, but it's unclear how much went to companies that focus on responsible AI.

"The venture capital environment also reflects a disproportionate focus on AI innovation over AI governance," Singh told Business Insider by email. "To adopt AI at scale and speed responsibly, equal emphasis must be placed on ethical frameworks, infrastructure, and tooling to ensure sustainable and responsible AI integration across all sectors."

Legislative efforts have been underway to fill that gap. In March, the EU approved the Artificial Intelligence Act, which assigns the risks of AI applications into three categories and bans those with unacceptable risks. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration signed a sweeping executive order in October demanding greater transparency from major tech companies developing artificial intelligence models. 

But with the pace of innovation in AI, government regulations may not be enough right now to ensure companies are protecting themselves.

"We risk a substantial responsibility deficit that could halt AI initiatives before they reach production, or worse, lead to failures that result in unintended societal risks, reputational damage, and regulatory complications if made into production," Singh said.

• The 2024 Senate elections — which will run concurrent with the presidential race — are approaching.
• Democrats will have to defend several vulnerable incumbents in swing and GOP-heavy states.
• However, the party has held their own in the last three cycles in navigating tough Senate races.

In the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats defied political expectations by holding on to their Senate majority, with every incumbent securing reelection and then-Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman flipping the open seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

The upper chamber in January 2023 then shifted from its previous 50-50 split — with Senate control in 2021 and 2022 resting on Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking abilities — to a 51-49 majority led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. And despite Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema switching from the Democratic Party to register as an Independent late in 2022, she continues to retain her committee assignments through her former party.

However, the class of senators who were elected and reelected in 2018 — a Democratic wave year that saw several vulnerable red-state members of the party win and lose — will face a challenging map in 2024.

Much of the party's performance will likely be tied to President Joe Biden, who is seeking reelection to a second term.

Former President Donald Trump, who will once again be the Republican presidential nominee this year, remains unpopular among moderates and suburban voters who often decide close Senate elections.

A major development that boosts the GOP: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in November 2023 announced that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2024, a major blow to Democrats as he was not only the lone statewide officeholder from the party but the only Democrat who could conceivably have run a competitive race given its conservative lean. The GOP is now in the driver's seat in the Mountain State, which backed Trump over Biden by 39 points in 2020.

In 2024, 34 seats will be up for grabs, including 20 currently held by Democrats, 11 held by Republicans, and three currently held by Independents.

Here are the key states that both parties are set to target:

Arizona

Sinema's decision to become an Independent gave Democrats jitters while they were still rejoicing Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock's runoff victory in December 2022, but since then, her decision hasn't impaired the party's ability to move legislation and approve judicial nominations.

However, after more than a year of speculation, Sinema announced in March 2024 that she wouldn't seek reelection to a second term, ending fears from some Democrats that her candidacy might aid the GOP in a potential three-way race.

Rep. Ruben Gallego launched his campaign for the Democratic Senate nomination in January 2023 and remains the frontrunner to win the party's primary in July.

Democrats have made major inroads in Arizona in recent years, and the party is aiming to bolster their political ascent in the state by electing Gallego.

On the Republican side, former television journalist Kari Lake and Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb are the leading candidates.

Lake, the 2022 gubernatorial nominee who lost to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, jumped into the Senate race in October 2023 with the endorsement of Trump. While Lake ran a hard-charging conservative campaign two years ago, she has recalibrated her strategy and has sought to expand the GOP tent this year in anticipation of a competitive general election race in the purple state.

Meanwhile, Lamb, a conservative who has pushed for stronger security measures at the US-Mexico border, was the first major Republican to enter the race.

Blake Masters, the 2022 Republican Senate nominee who lost to Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, is running for the House seat being vacated by GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko after the 2024 elections.

Abe Hamadeh, who was narrowly defeated in the 2022 race for state attorney general, had been mentioned as a potential contender but in October 2023 threw his support behind Lake. He is also running to succeed Lesko in the House.

Michigan

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a popular lawmaker now in her fourth term, announced in January 2023 that she would not run for reelection in 2024.

Stabenow, the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was most recently reelected in 2018 by 6.5% against now-GOP Rep. John James. (James, the Republican Senate nominee in both 2018 and 2020, is running for reelection to his House seat anchored in suburban Detroit this fall.)

Republicans would very much like to flip this seat, but Michigan Democrats had a banner year in November 2022 — sweeping the top statewide offices and retaking control of the full legislature. Biden is set to compete hard in the state this year, but he continues to face significant intraparty pushback over the conflict in Gaza, an issue that will play heavily in the presidential race and the Senate contest given the state's sizable Arab-American population.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who represents a Lansing-area swing district that stretches to rural and suburban areas northwest of Detroit, announced in February 2023 that she would enter the Senate race.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and the acting assistant defense secretary for international security affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama, is the most prominent elected official to seek the Democratic nomination.

The congresswoman, who was first elected in 2018, said in her announcement video that she would focus on bolstering the middle class "in the state that invented the middle class" if voters send her to the Senate.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Reps. Debbie Dingell and Haley Stevens, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow all ruled out Senate campaigns.

The actor Hill Harper, best known for his roles on "CSI: NY" and "The Good Doctor," jumped into the Democratic primary in July 2023.

Businessman Nasser Beydoun is also seeking the Democratic nomination.

A number of Republicans are currently in the race, including former Rep. Mike Rogers, Sandy Pensler, a businessman, and Sherry O'Donnell, a physician and former congressional candidate.

Former Rep. Justin Amash, who voted to impeach Trump in 2019, is also running for the GOP nomination.

Rogers, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who served in Congress for 14 years, offers Michigan Republicans their most formidable candidate to date. But his appeal in a Trump-dominated GOP is untested on a statewide level.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role on January 6, 2021, entered the race in November 2023 but withdrew in April 2024.

Meijer served for one term in Congress and was ousted in a 2022 GOP primary by Trump-backed challenger John Gibbs. Gibbs eventually lost the general election race to now-Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten.

Montana

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is a political survivor, having first won in conservative-leaning Montana in 2006 before winning tough reelection contests in 2012 and 2018.

And Tester hopes to keep the streak going, announcing in February 2023 that he'd seek a fourth Senate term in 2024.

Despite the GOP lean of Montana, Tester has built a solid political brand over the years and has been able to appeal to many of the state's Independents and Republicans in past elections. GOP leaders have long coveted this seat, though.

Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, a favorite of Republican leaders in Washington, jumped into the GOP primary in June 2023 and has earned the endorsement of Trump.

Former Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson is also a candidate in the GOP primary.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, a staunch conservative who lost to Tester in 2018, announced in February 2024 that he'd also run for the seat. The decision was poised to set up a competitive — and potentially bruising — primary with Sheehy. But less than a week after entering the race, Rosendale dropped his bid, citing the headwinds he'd likely face after Trump backed Sheehy.

After Rosendale pivoted to running for reelection to the House, he subsequently withdrew from that race as well.

Nevada

Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is running for a second term in office in one of the most competitive battleground states in the country. In 2018, Rosen, then a first-term congresswoman, ousted then-GOP Sen. Dean Heller by 5 points.

In 2024, Rosen will be running for reelection when Nevada, a perennial swing state, will be a top target for both Biden and Trump.

Senate candidates on the Republican side include former US ambassador to Iceland Jeffrey Gunter; Army veteran and businessman Sam Brown; former state lawmaker Jim Marchant; attorney Ronda Kennedy; retired Army Lt. Col. Bill Conrad; retired Air Force Lt. Col. Tony Grady; and real estate broker Stephanie Phillips.

Ohio

Sherrod Brown, who was also elected to the Senate in 2006, is running for a fourth term. He has maintained a strong populist connection with his constituents despite the continued reddening of Ohio, which only 20 years ago was widely seen as the nation's premier swing state.

Republicans view the Ohio seat as one of their biggest targets, but Brown has proven to be an effective candidate adept at winning over Independents and even a slice of conservative-leaning voters.

In March 2024, businessman Bernie Moreno defeated state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in a hotly-contested GOP primary.

Moreno and Dolan previously ran for Senate in 2022 but fell short in that year's Republican primary to now-Sen. JD Vance.

The general election matchup between Brown and Moreno, which could very well determine the Senate majority, is now set to be one of the most expensive races in the country.

Pennsylvania

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who was first elected to the upper chamber in 2006, is seeking a fourth term in 2024.

Casey, who has won all three of his prior Senate races with relative ease, will likely benefit from running in a presidential year when turnout in the Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is poised to be very high.

However, Casey has also generally done well in many of the state's working-class towns and cities, and he could post an electoral performance similar to Fetterman, who dominated in the vote-rich Philadelphia suburbs in 2022.

David McCormick, who narrowly lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary to Dr. Mehmet Oz, jumped into the 2024 race last September.

Texas

The Lone Star State has been firmly in the Republican column since the 1990s.

Democrats have sought to run more competitive Senate and gubernatorial races in recent years but have largely fallen short by sizable margins, with the notable exception being the close 2018 senatorial contest between then-Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. That year, O'Rourke lost to Cruz by 2.6 points, a result that gave Democrats hope that they could once again win the state in the near future.

Cruz has long been a major foil for Democrats; the conservative lawmaker also ran for president in 2016 before his defeat in the GOP primary to Trump.

In March 2024, Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL player and civil rights attorney, easily won the Democratic primary over candidates that included state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, state Rep. Carl Sherman, and former Nueces County district attorney Mark Gonzalez.

Republicans point to the conservative tilt of the state in projecting confidence in the race, but they are also cognizant of Cruz's narrow 2018 victory.

Trump is favored to carry Texas in 2024, which would likely boost Cruz, but Allred was first elected to office by appealing to moderates and flipping a GOP-held district in the Dallas area. The congressman could potentially build on O'Rourke's success by making further inroads in suburbs across the state, especially if abortion remains as potent an issue in 2024 as it was in the 2022 and 2023 elections.

Wisconsin

Sen. Tammy Baldwin announced in April 2023 that she'd seek a third term in the upper chamber.

While Wisconsin in recent years has been one of the most politically polarized states in the country, Baldwin was able to win over many rural and exurban voters during her 2012 and 2018 campaigns — while also racking up large margins in the Democratic-heavy population centers of Milwaukee and Madison.

Several of the most prominent Republicans who were thought of as potential candidates — including former Gov. Scott Walker, Reps. Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany, and former Rep. Mike Gallagher — declined to enter the race.

The GOP candidates currently in the race include Eric Hovde, a businessman, and Rejani Raveendran, the chair of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College Republicans.

• In a bitter public feud, hip-hop stars Drake and Kendrick have exchanged personal slurs.
• Since March, the two have traded increasingly personal and aggressive diss tracks.
• An attorney told BI what it would take for one of them to sue for defamation successfully.

After weeks of the bitter public feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar finally looks like it's over — or at least dying down.

The two rap artists' long-running beef was reignited in March with the release of Future and Metro Boomin's track "Like That," which featured a verse from Lamar that aimed at Drake and another contemporary, J. Cole.

It sparked responses from both Drake and Cole, but the latter quickly excused himself, leaving just Drake and Lamar to duke it out. And the rap stars didn't hold back trading a series of increasingly aggressive and unpleasant diss tracks.

First, Drake dropped "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle," two tracks aimed at Lamar.

Their legions of fans encouraged the beef and eagerly awaited the responses.

Less than 72 hours later, Lamar released "6:16 in LA," sparking another response from Drake ("Family Matters"). It provoked two more jabs from Lamar ("Meet the Grahams" and "Not Like Us"), which led to another rebuttal from Drake ("The Heart Part 6").

The latter of these songs got excruciatingly personal, with both stars dropping into their lyrics serious — although crucially, unverified — allegations about domestic violence, pedophilia, and harboring secret children.

The Diss tracks that rappers use to prove themselves while also lyrically decimating their rivals have largely gone out of style since their heyday in the 80s and 90s.

But while the Drake-Kendrick feud was initially seen as some friendly competition between the two hip-hop heavyweights, the fact that they have leveled potentially career-ending accusations at each other has opened up the possibility that their war of words could move out of the recording studio and into the courtroom.

There is no precedent of rappers suing for defamation over the contents of a diss track

"Has anyone ever filed a defamation lawsuit over a diss track before?" Matt Ford, a legal reporter at the New Republic, joked on X earlier this week, seemingly referring to the increasingly salacious aspect of Drake and Kendrick's feud.

While the answer is no, that's not to say it couldn't happen.

Daliah Saper, a principal attorney at Saper Law who specializes in defamation cases, told Business Insider that while either one of them — especially Drake, given the serious, repeated accusations of pedophilia from Lamar — might be tempted to get the law involved to mitigate any reputational damages.

However, the legal benchmarks for a successful defamation suit are high for public figures.

"Because they're both famous, then they would have this added heightened pleading standard," Sapar said.

She explained that, unlike private individuals who only need to show that their alleged defamers acted negligently, public figures must prove that those making defamatory statements against them acted with "actual malice," meaning they knew their statement was false or they acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

Saper said the key to any suit is ascertaining "if the listening public — people who hear these songs — construe them to be just jabs or actual allegations." The real question is, 'Do people now think Drake is a pedophile?'" she said.

In the days after Lamar released his back-to-back diss tracks "Meet the Grahams" and "Not Like Us," a video of the Canadian rapper appearing to fondle a 17-year-old fan onstage has resurfaced online,

On the former song, Lamar accused Drake of being a "predator" who keeps "sex offenders … on a monthly allowance" at his record label, OVO.

In the latter, Lamar outright called Drake and his entourage pedophiles:"' Certified Lover Boy'? Certified pedophiles," he raps in an apparent reference to the singer's 2021 album.

Saper said: "If he was my client, I would have that serious conversation: 'Are you so adamant about the falsity of the statements that a mere PR campaign or responsive rap is insufficient to mitigate the harm? Or are you at rock bottom now and you can't come back from this?'"

So far, Drake has chosen to go for the option of a responsive rap, addressing the criticism head-on in "The Heart Part 6."

However, his defense — that he is "way too famous for this shit you just suggested" and would have already been arrested if there was any veracity to the claims — has been received as a somewhat tone-deaf move,.

The #MeToo movement has proved that famous sex offenders, such as Harvey Weinstein, operated in plain sight thanks to the protection and power their fame and success afforded them.

On the comeback track, Drake also addressed Lamar's claim that he secretly fathered a daughter with another woman five years before the birth of his son, Adonis, 6, whom he shares with French artist Sophie Brussaux.

"The ones that you're getting your stories from, they're all clowns," Drake raps. "We plotted for a week and then we fed you the information/ A daughter that's 11 years old, I bet he takes it."

However, by admitting that he intentionally passed Lamar fake intel about a secret daughter in the hope that his opponent would turn it into fodder for a rap, Saper said Drake may have jeopardized any standing he would have in court.

If what Drake raps is true, it "would just undermine any claim that Lamar acted with reckless disregard for the truth," she noted.

Ultimately, it seems unlikely that either rapper will end up suing for defamation over the slur-laden diss tracks. Any reputational damage suffered is survivable compared to the career suicide of being the first rapper to for defamation over the contents of a diss track.

Indeed, their careers have benefited from this high-profile feud, with both enjoying boosted streams and sales over the last few weeks.

"I do think it's giving them each notoriety. They're already incredibly famous, but this is elevating their music to another level," Saper noted. "It's probably ultimately a great PR play for both of them."