Author: openjargon

• Hybrid work boosts job satisfaction, a study published in Nature found.
• And productivity loss in hybrid work was negligible.
• Hybrid work also fosters employee well-being and benefits businesses like cafes and gyms.

One of the greatest debates of the post-pandemic age is whether hybrid work is the best — or worst — of both worlds.

Advocates of hybrid work say it helps them achieve a better work-life balance and is more engaging. Studies show it has also boosted women's participation in the labor force. Employers, meanwhile, worry that it lowers employee productivity and collaboration.

A new study published in Nature could end the debate. It suggests that productivity concerns are negligible and that hybrid work really could be the ideal setup for workers.

The study divided more than 1,600 employees of Trip.com, a Chinese travel agency, into two groups and tracked them for two years. One group worked from the office five days a week, while the other spent three days in the office and two days at home.

The latter group showed improved job satisfaction. The rate at which these employees quit also reduced by a third, with the impact especially pronounced on employees who weren't managers, females, and those with long commutes.

There weren't really any downsides. The study found that hybrid work didn't have a measurable impact on workers' performance or productivity. Managers, too, were more supportive of it after participating in the study.

The authors concluded that hybrid work can boost companies' profits by reducing quit rates "estimated to cost about 50% of an individual's annual salary." It also "offers large gains for society by providing a valuable amenity (perk) to employees, reducing commuting and easing child-care."

It can also be a boon to businesses like cafés, bars, gyms, and beauty salons — all of which have seen increased earnings due to the work-from-home economy.

• Joe Alwyn spoke about his relationship with Taylor Swift to The Sunday Times.
• Alwyn said the end of their relationship was a "hard thing to navigate."
• Swift and Alwyn dated for six years before breaking up in 2023.

Joe Alwyn, speaking openly about his breakup with Taylor Swift for the first time, urged fans to have some empathy.

Alwyn, 33, and Swift, 34, dated for six years before their split in April 2023. The breakup became a hot topic on social media, where Swifties shared fan theories and analyzed Swift's lyrics for subtle nods to Alwyn.

The release of Swift's latest album — "The Tortured Poets Department" — launched another round of fan speculation as some fans thought the song "So Long, London" was about Alwyn.

Alwyn, an actor, shared his thoughts on the topic for the first time in an interview with The Sunday Times on Saturday. When asked if he's listened to the album, Alwyn acknowledged the difficulties of ending a long-term relationship in the public eye.

"I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years," he said.

He said the end of their relationship was a "hard thing to navigate."

"What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later, it's suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in," he added.

Alwyn told the Times that he had made his "peace" with misconceptions surrounding their split, especially after the couple had gone to great lengths to keep their relationship private.

"As everyone knows, we together — both of us, mutually — decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private. It was never something to commodify and I see no reason to change that now," he said. "And, look, this is also a little over a year ago now and I feel fortunate to be in a really great place in my life, professionally and personally. I feel really good."

Representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Following her split with Alwyn, Swift briefly dated 1975 frontman Matty Healy before starting a relationship with Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The 2023 announcement of her breakup with Alwyn came shortly after her renowned "Eras Tour" began, prompting heightened speculation and scrutiny of her performances by her fans.

The tour cemented her reign over the music industry while catapulting her — and practically everything she touches — to a new level of economic power.

Between her tour and her movie, she injected billions into the US economy last year, while her highly publicized relationship with Kelce caused NFL viewership to skyrocket.

• OpenAI appointed former NSA Director Paul Nakasone to its board of directors.
• Nakasone's hiring aims to bolster AI security but raises surveillance concerns.
• The company's internal safety group has also effectively disbanded.

There are creepy undercover security guards outside its office. It just appointed a former NSA director to its board. And its internal working group meant to promote the safe use of artificial intelligence has effectively disbanded.

OpenAI is feeling a little less open every day.

In its latest eyebrow-raising move, the company said Friday it had appointed former NSA Director Paul Nakasone to its board of directors.

In addition to leading the NSA, Nakasone was the head of the US Cyber Command — the cybersecurity division of the Defense Department. OpenAI says Nakasone's hiring represents its "commitment to safety and security" and emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity as AI continues to evolve.

"OpenAI's dedication to its mission aligns closely with my own values and experience in public service," Nakasone said in a statement. "I look forward to contributing to OpenAI's efforts to ensure artificial general intelligence is safe and beneficial to people around the world."

But critics worry Nakasone's hiring might represent something else: surveillance.

Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower who leaked classified documents about surveillance in 2013, said in a post on X that the hiring of Nakasone was a "calculated betrayal to the rights of every person on Earth."

"They've gone full mask-off: do not ever trust OpenAI or its products (ChatGPT etc)" Snowden wrote.

In another comment on X, Snowden said the "intersection of AI with the ocean of mass surveillance data that's been building up over the past two decades is going to put truly terrible powers in the hands of an unaccountable few."

Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on the other hand, described Nakasone's hiring as a "huge get."

"There's nobody in the security community, broadly, that's more respected," Warner told Axios.

Nakasone's expertise in security may be needed at OpenAI, where critics have worried that security issues could open it up to attacks.

OpenAI fired former board member Leopold Aschenbrenner in April after he sent a memo detailing a "major security incident." He described the company's security as "egregiously insufficient" to protect against theft by foreign actors.

Shortly after, OpenAI's superalignment team — which was focused on developing AI systems compatible with human interests — abruptly disintegrated after two of the company's most prominent safety researchers quit.

Jan Leike, one of the departing researchers, said he had been "disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company's core priorities for quite some time."

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's chief scientist who initially launched the superalignment team, was more reticent about his reasons for leaving. But company insiders said he'd been on shaky ground because of his role in the failed ouster of CEO Sam Altman. Sutskever disapproved of Altman's aggressive approach to AI development, which fueled their power struggle.

And if all of that wasn't enough, even locals living and working near OpenAI's office in San Francisco say the company is starting to creep them out. A cashier at a neighboring pet store told The San Francisco Standard that the office has a "secretive vibe."

Several workers at neighboring businesses say men resembling undercover security guards stand outside the building but won't say they work for OpenAI.

"[OpenAI] is not a bad neighbor," one said. "But they're secretive."

• House Republicans overwhelmingly sought to restore a Confederate memorial to Arlington Cemetery.
• But the measure failed as 24 Republicans joined every Democratic lawmaker in rejecting the effort.
• The Confederate memorial was removed from the cemetery last December and is currently in storage.

House Republicans were unsuccessful in their effort to reinstall a Confederate memorial to Arlington National Cemetery after two dozen members joined Democrats in rejecting the measure.

The amendment was backed by 192 Republicans — or nearly 90% of the House GOP — while 24 Republican lawmakers rejected the measure.

Supporters of the amendment included Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik of New York.

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida — a high-profile Black conservative who earlier this month argued that "the Black family was together" during the Jim Crow era — voted for the amendment. Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Burgess Owens of Utah, two other prominent Black conservatives on Capitol Hill, also supported it.

The amendment, authored by GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, was part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

No Democratic lawmaker voted in favor of restoring the memorial.

Last December, the memorial was removed from Arlington National Cemetery as part of a push to rethink military installations named after Civil War-era Confederate leaders.

The removed memorial is a 32-foot bronze statue that includes imagery of an enslaved Black woman — which the cemetery website said was a depiction of a "Mammy" carrying the infant child of a White Confederate officer — along with an enslaved Black man who is following his Confederate owner to the battlefield.

The memorial, designed by the sculptor and Confederate veteran Moses Jacob Ezekiel, was placed in the cemetery in 1914 — nearly 50 years after the end of the Civil War.

The depiction of "Black Mammies" was a stereotypical one, where enslaved Black women were depicted as being content with their predicament.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York on Friday blasted the GOP lawmakers who supported the amendment.

"What tradition are extreme MAGA Republicans … upholding? What Confederate tradition are you upholding? Is it slavery? Rape? Kidnap? Jim Crow? Lynching? Racial oppression? Or all of the above?" he said during a Capitol Hill press conference.

The current debate comes four years after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and the following national racial reckoning. Protests against racial injustice swept the country at the time, and many lawmakers sought to shepherd through reforms aimed at tackling racial discrimination and disparities in everything from health care to education.

But many Republicans in the intervening years have pushed back against the mostly Democratic efforts to remedy past racial discrimination, buoyed by former President Donald Trump's campaign and the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling that effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions.

• Meta said it won't launch its AI assistant in Europe following pushback from regulators.
• Regulators raised privacy concerns about Meta's plan to scrape user data to train its AI.
• But Meta says that data is essential to offer a useful product.

Meta is taking a "my way or the highway" approach with its generative AI product.

Meta announced Friday it won't release its AI features in Europe because the EU's stringent privacy regulations would make it a "second-rate experience."

Meta said in a press release that it was "disappointed" by the Irish Data Protection Commission's (DPC) request to "delay training our large language models (LLMs) using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram," calling it a "step backward for European innovation."

"We are committed to bringing Meta AI, along with the models that power it, to more people around the world, including in Europe. But, put simply, without including local information we'd only be able to offer people a second-rate experience. This means we aren't able to launch Meta AI in Europe at the moment," the company said.

European regulators don't seem all that torn up about it. In fact, they welcomed the announcement.

"The DPC welcomes the decision by Meta to pause its plans to train its large language model using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram across the EU/EEA," the commission said in a press release on Friday, referring to the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Meta has faced heightened scrutiny in Europe over its plans to use public content from its apps to train its AI. Earlier this month, a European advocacy group called for a halt to Meta's data scraping plans, saying the company would use "years of personal posts, private images, or online tracking data" to train its AI.

• German chancellor Olaf Scholz said it's "very likely" Joe Biden could be reelected in November.
• Scholz dismissed the idea that Biden was too old.
• Scholz also touched on Russian President Vladimir Putin's new demands to end the Ukraine war.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz believes it is "very likely" that President Joe Biden could be reelected in November.

Biden has "pursued a policy that has led to proper economic development in the country, that has helped to ensure that peace and security are in good hands and that the US is actually playing its role in the world," Scholz said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets.

Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer.

"I think it's a bit strange how people in this country are speculating about who will win the next American election. I think it is very likely that the current president could win the election," said the German leader.

"He is committed to togetherness and cohesion in his country," Scholz added.

Biden has faced concerns over his age and mental fitness. But the German chancellor dismissed such worries, saying the president is "very clear."

He is "one of the most experienced politicians in the world, especially when it comes to international politics," Scholz said.

"I can only say that this is a man who knows exactly what he is doing," he added.

The German chancellor was speaking ahead of a Ukraine peace conference set to be held in Switzerland.

In a new poll by Reuters/Ipsos, 41% of registered voters said they would vote for Trump if the election were held now, while 39% said they'd vote for Biden.

However, the survey had a roughly three-percentage-point margin of error for registered voters, Reuters says, noting that a survey from the end of May showed Biden with a two-percentage-point lead over Trump.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the war in Ukraine would only end if Kyiv agreed to do away with its hopes for NATO entry and give up the four Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow.

Scholz said that the offer did not seem serious: "There can only be a peace that works for Ukraine and does not compromise its integrity and sovereignty. There cannot be a peace dictated by Russia."

Scholz also underlined the importance of the G7's decision to lend Ukraine $50 billion using frozen Russian assets.

"I think this is a message to Ukraine that it can count on us. But it is also a message to Putin that he should not rely on the fact that he just has to wait long enough and then support for Ukraine will fade away," he added.

• Dozens of people got sick this month at Havasupai Falls in Grand Canyon National Park.
• Tourists experienced vomiting, diarrhea, and fever symptoms.
• Officials said people in the northern Arizona region are experiencing "a gastrointestinal illness."

Dozens of tourists who hiked to a waterfall in the Grand Canyon have fallen ill, including one woman who had to be airlifted out of the national park.

The illnesses broke out near Havasu Falls in the Havasupai Indian Reservation in Arizona this week. Mary Blair told Fox 10 that her family was finishing a four-day hike in the area when her son became sick.

"He was throwing up and having diarrhea all night long. I got him in the river. We were in there at midnight, 1 o'clock, just to lower his body temperature," she told the outlet.

Blair said she later learned her son wasn't the only person struck by illness that night. She told the outlet her family decided to leave the canyon via helicopter and discovered other groups along the way.

"On the way up, all of us were passing people who are throwing up and that's when I was like, what the heck is going on?" she said. "There's probably 60–70 people down the line. There are multiple people throwing up."

Another tourist, Maylin Griffiths, told a local CBS affiliate she and her friends were hiking in the area when she experienced fever-like symptoms, including a 104° temperature. Griffiths had to be airlifted out of the canyon.

"We were violently ill. They were able to admit us to the clinic there because they considered it life-threatening," she told the outlet.

The Havasupai Tribal Council acknowledged the recent illnesses in a press release on Friday, describing it as "gastrointestinal symptoms."

The council said it held meetings with local health officials, who determined that the symptoms are affecting people across the northern Arizona region. Not just the Havasupai campground.

"The Tribe is working with IHS and other state agencies to further investigate the illness and to take measures to prevent further spreading of the illness not only to campers but to local tribal members," the council said.

The exact cause of the illnesses hasn't been disclosed, but Coconino County shared a health advisory on Wednesday.

"Gastrointestinal illness caused by a virus can spread in settings where people come in close contact with each other and when good hand hygiene is not practiced," the statement said. "These types of outbreaks can be ongoing if appropriate safeguards are not in place."

A county spokesperson told the Associated Press that hikers should take precautions, including monitoring early signs of norovirus. Norovirus, or "stomach flu," can cause vomiting and other symptoms.

Representatives for the Arizona Department of Health Services and Indian Health Services did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.