Category: Business Insider

America has long had a plastic problem. It's an urgent question — what do we do with the 40 million tons of plastic waste we produce annually? One year of plastic waste is roughly enough to smother the entirety of Manhattan a meter deep, and it has to go somewhere. For years, the answer was simple: Make a lot of it, dump most of it in the landfill, and make the rest of it someone else's problem — the US regularly exported 7 million tons a year to China alone. Some of it was melted into lesser plastic; the rest was incinerated or buried.

But then, in 2018, China cut off plastic imports.

Now, America is coming to terms with a hard truth: Plastic was never designed to be recycled and there's no profitable way to recycle 91% of it. The environmental impacts have been disastrous. About 430 million tons of plastic are produced globally every year, accounting for 14% of global oil demand. The refinement of plastic alone emits up to 235 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. Most of that plastic breaks down into microplastics that make their way into the air, rain, and our bodies. Almost 95% of America's water supply contains plastic fibers.

While the US, the UK, and other European countries responded to China's ban by sending their waste to places like Thailand and Malaysia, those countries then followed China in cutting off waste imports. The message was clear: The Global South would no longer be a dumping ground for the West.

America is now scrambling to find alternatives. One approach peddled by oil corporations like Chevron and Exxon has been to turn plastic into crude oil, which they say extends the life of plastic that would've otherwise ended up in a landfill. As these companies look to replace projected lost revenue from the phasing out of fossil fuels, they're lobbying to blanket the country with 150 plants that specialize in pyrolysis, a form of chemical recycling that melts plastic down into crude oil to be used for fuel and petrochemicals, as well as to make lesser-quality plastics. While advocates champion these facilities for breaking down hard-to-recycle plastics that other recyclers toss aside, critics condemn them for emitting toxic particles, relying heavily on government subsidies, and acting as a greenwashed alternative to addressing the plastic problem.

As they're pitched as an innovation set to bring us a "circular economy" of plastic that allows us to stop making new plastic and just reuse what we have, marketing for pyrolysis and recycling overlooks a glaring fact: Plastic production doubles every 15 to 20 years.

This isn't sustainable, Tim Miller, a vice president at the Ohio plastic-recycling center Royal Paper Stock, told me, adding: "But I don't know how to stop it." Pyrolysis is another sign of America's plastic paralysis.

In the years after World War II, plastic flooded the marketplace as a cheap alternative to otherwise scarce and finite materials. It was hailed as a democratic harbinger of a new, utopian age of capitalism, fueling the subsequent decades of cheap consumerism that became synonymous with the American dream.

"The continuous flow of oil fueled not just cars but an entire culture based on the consumption of new products made of plastics," Susan Freinkel wrote in her book "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story."

Plastic went from being practically nonexistent in 1940 to being consumed at a rate of 30 pounds a person each year by 1960. Just as quickly, it became a target of environmental movements protesting litter, garbage-filled oceans, and landfills brimming with plastic. Oil and chemical companies responded by looking into whether recycling was realistic or, more importantly, profitable. It wasn't. So companies shifted the blame for the pollution onto consumers. The "Crying Indian" commercial, funded by beverage and packaging corporations, aired in 1971, showing a Native American character crying at the sight of litter.

The messaging worked. As companies expanded plastic into every facet of life, recycling became the due diligence needed to sustain our hyperconsumption. We didn't worry about plastic bottles because the recycling truck carried them off to a new life. Companies like Coca-Cola and Nestlé slapped "100% recycled" and "100% recyclable" labels on their packaging to appear sustainable. Just last year, the Plastics Industry Association launched a million-dollar ad campaign, "Recycling Is Real," claiming that it's "not only real, but feasible and economical."

While recycling is real, the vast majority of plastic isn't recycled, mostly due to how expensive it is to clean and sort it effectively. A 2022 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found only 9% of all plastic ever produced had been recycled; 72% ended up in landfills or the environment. Unlike aluminum or glass, the plastic that can be recycled rarely results in replacing one recycled water bottle with another.

Instead, it's a process of downcycling — turning plastic into lesser plastics like plant containers or bins before they are relegated to a landfill. By downcycling a tiny portion of plastic waste, companies can genuinely reuse a relatively small share of plastic, while convincing consumers that the industry has created a circular economy of infinitely recycled plastic. Never mind that products advertised as being made from recycled plastic are made almost entirely out of new plastic or that almost all the 300 pounds of plastic every American consumes each year (10 times as much as in 1960) ends up in a landfill, in the ocean, or incinerated.

Larry Thomas, a former president of what's now called the Plastics Industry Association, told NPR in 2020: "If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they are not going to be as concerned about the environment." And if they aren't worried about the impact of plastic on the environment, they won't threaten the plastics industry.

Since 2018, the fossil-fuel and plastics industries have faced two harsh realities: Oil is being phased out in favor of clean, renewable energy, and plastic waste can no longer be exported to developing nations in the South. To replace their fuel losses, oil companies are going all in on plastic. The International Energy Agency predicted in 2018 that petrochemical products like plastic would outpace trucks, aviation, and shipping in oil demand by 2050. In a recent report, ExxonMobil predicted that petrochemicals used largely for plastics and fertilizer would account for nearly all of the oil industry's growth by 2050, replacing industrial fuel demand, which is projected to decrease. To keep expanding plastic production, however, it needs to look sustainable.

Akron, Ohio, which hosts about one-quarter of the country's polymer companies, is ground zero for this push. Designated by the Biden administration as the only "tech hub" in Ohio, the city has received tens of millions of dollars from the CHIPS Act, which it hopes to use to create a circular economy around plastic.

In 2012, Alterra Energy opened America's first large-scale plastic-pyrolysis facility. According to its website, Alterra converts "plastics back into their original building blocks to produce new plastics and other valuable products." The crude oil produced by the Akron facility is shipped to petrochemical companies around the globe to be purified and made into new plastics. But it's unclear how effective this process is.

A study published in 2023 by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that the economic and environmental impact of turning pyrolysis oil back into plastic was actually far worse than it was to make brand-new plastic. As a result, they said, pyrolysis oil is "typically reintegrated into the petrochemical industry where only a small fraction is used for closed-loop recycling."

"It has had, let's say, limited success," Miller, the Royal Paper Stock vice president, said about pyrolysis. "No one yet in the United States that I know of is just cranking in plastic and pumping out oil." He pointed to a pyrolysis facility in Oregon that just announced it would shut down after tens of millions of dollars in losses.

Residents in Akron are split on the impacts of the Alterra facility. On the one hand, pyrolysis melts plastic to be reused instead of sending it to the landfill or incinerator. On the other, it emits cancerous pollutants such as mercury, benzene, and arsenic, and props up the very fossil-fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis.

"Akron's going for 'the green city on the hill,'" Kelley Sayre, a fourth-generation Akron resident, told me, "but it's really 'the greenwashing city.'"

Vicky Abou-Ghalioum, the lead petrochemicals organizer of Buckeye Environmental Network, has been working with Akron residents concerned about the environmental and health impacts of chemical recycling, but it's proved challenging in a city ruled by polymers. "People are afraid to talk about plastic," she told me. Her organization has been pushing the EPA to address the influx of planned pyrolysis facilities in Ohio, arguing that they're bad for the environment and people, and aren't even profitable.

In a statement to Business Insider, Alterra Energy said its Akron facility is profitable and diverts over 100,000 pounds of plastic each day from landfills. "We operate in a heavily regulated industry and are in compliance with those requirements," the company said in response to concerns about toxic emissions. It also said one of its customers uses Alterra's oil product exclusively for making new plastic.

Despite the problems of pyrolysis, many manufacturers hail it as a sustainable miracle. Companies such as Eastman Chemical Co. see chemical recycling as the solution to recycling or composting 50% of their plastic packaging by 2025, and the American Chemistry Council claims the growing industry is necessary for fostering what it calls "plastics circularity." But these companies face an uphill battle. Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City launched an $85 million campaign in 2022 to stop over 120 proposed petrochemical facilities. "Petrochemical plants poison our air and water — killing Americans and harming the health of entire communities," Bloomberg said in a statement.

In the plastic-recycling industry, pyrolysis is seen as a well funded but failing experiment. A 2023 report by Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network found that the 11 pyrolysis facilities in operation in the US required massive public subsidies, most couldn't operate at full capacity, and only two of the plants sold the crude oil to be used exclusively for plastic production. Most of it was sold to make fuels and chemicals. Based on their findings, they argued that pyrolysis was ultimately "a public relations distraction to prevent plastic regulation and prop up the profits of the petrochemical/plastics industry."

Though the conundrum of plastic grows more dire by the day, there are signs of hope. In early 2022, the UN adopted a resolution that could send shock waves throughout the entire plastic-disposing world. Heads of state, environment ministers, and UN representatives agreed to end all plastic pollution with a legally binding international plastic treaty to be officially adopted later this year. "Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic," Espen Barth Eide, Norway's then-minister for climate and the environment, said in the announcement. "With today's resolution we are officially on track for a cure."

The resolution would establish an agreement addressing plastic at every level, from production to recycling, in an attempt to reduce plastic pollution worldwide. Organizations such as the international coalition Break Free From Plastic have said that cutting the production of plastic has to be on the table. "The oil and gas industry sees plastic as its primary growth market and is investing billions of dollars in new and expanded facilities," the organization wrote in a 2022 statement. The group recommended bans on single-use plastics, a plastic tax, and regulations that prioritize plastics that can be recycled.

"Reduction in the production of plastic is entirely possible," Abou-Ghalioum of Buckeye Environmental Network told me. She pointed to the more than 500 cities and 12 states that have banned plastic bags, reducing the number of bags used by the billions. "It's talked about how we rely on plastic for so many things, and it just feels like a marketing ploy to make us reluctant to shift away from it," she said. "We had everything we ever needed before plastic."

The tough reality is that the 9.5 billion tons of plastic with us will be here for hundreds of years. But how many millions of more tons are added will be determined by the types of solutions we arrive at today.

Taylor Dorrell is a writer and photographer based in Columbus, Ohio.

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• A 7-acre private island off Florida's coast is on sale for $50 million.
• Black's Island has a private resort with 26 waterfront bungalows.
• The owner is open to selling the entire island or some of the bungalows, starting at $1.5 million.

If owning a private island is a personal dream for you, you're in luck — a 7-acre private island located just 3 miles off the coast of Florida just hit the market and could be all yours for $50 million.

Black's Island is located in Saint Joseph Bay and just south of Port St. Joe on Florida's panhandle. The island was named for Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, who is known as the wealthiest pirate in history.

The island hosts its own private resort, complete with 26 waterfront bungalows as well as common areas like a clubhouse, cabana, and pool, according to the sale listing. The structures are connected via an elevated boardwalk that runs along the center of the island.

Black's Island currently hosts short-term rentals with the help of a management company and full-time staff on the island, which is accessible via a 10-minute boat ride from the mainland, or by seaplane and helicopter.

From the dock on the mainland, the Panama City Beach International Airport is an hour-and-twenty-minute drive away. A smaller airport for those flying in on a private jet is only 25 minutes away.

"You're only 3 miles off the mainland, and you seriously feel like you're in the islands," Lori Bembry Weldon, one of the listing brokers at Jon Kohler & Associates, told Business Insider, adding, "It's really super cool. There's just nothing like it on the coast of Florida that's available."

If you can't quite swing the $50 million price tag, you may still have a chance to get a slice of the island life.

In addition to listing the entire island for sale, the owner has also listed several of the individual bungalows. Weldon said the owner, Atlanta developer Scott Seymour, is open to selling the entire island or just some of the bungalows — so it will ultimately depend on what potential buyers are interested in.

In this scenario, Weldon said the setup would be similar to a condo homeowners' association. The bungalows, which start at $1.5 million, would be purchased under a 99-year lease, and there would be a $25,000-a-year HOA fee to cover taxes, insurance, repairs, and utilities, including upkeep for all the common areas.

Weldon also said in the case of individual bungalow sales, pre-approved title insurance and lenders have already been set up, so potential buyers would not have to worry about getting insurance — an increasing problem in Florida.

The bungalows, which were first built in 2009, were remodeled when Seymour bought the island in 2018. Weldon said that in addition to renting out the bungalows, he also frequently spends time on the island.

Seymour is also currently building a $20 million hotel on the mainland where anyone who purchases a bungalow will be able to park. The hotel is also set to be named after the infamous pirate and will be called The Bellamy.

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Tesla is on the brink again. Sales are slowing even after the company slashed prices. The company is laying off 10% of its workforce — 14,000 workers from Shanghai to San Jose, from the factory floor to the executive suite. The company had to recall every single Cybertruck it shipped. And Tesla's position in China, a country that has become critical to its future, is getting shakier.

There's only one person to blame for the company's shambolic state and only one person whose exit could save Tesla: Elon Musk. For the past few years, Tesla has looked unstoppable, but during those high times, Musk failed to implement any strategy that would insulate the company from what has become a violent global electric-vehicle price war. The company is incinerating cash, losing market share, and holding more aging inventory than ever before.

Tesla reported its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday and missed expectations across the board, even though Wall Street was already expecting the worst. Earnings per share came in at $0.45, lower than analysts' expectations of $0.52. Free cash flow fell a stunning 674% as Tesla focused on AI research and making capital improvements. Gross profit fell 18% from the same time a year ago, and gross margins fell from 19.3% to 17.4% over the same period. If Tesla the company were a car, this is when you start to hear it make a rattling sound.

The company's problem isn't a matter of getting through "production hell" or "delivery hell" on a new model, which Tesla has been able to survive. Hell is, at the very least, a location. Tesla's problem is that it has no clear direction. It doesn't matter how much cash a company has on hand if it's blowing it on products that aren't ready to scale — like a robotaxi. Or cars that no one wants — like its dated models. Investors want to see a concrete plan for a whole new fleet of Teslas made for a leaner, meaner EV market.

Musk seems to understand at least that much: Earlier this month he denied a Reuters report that the company had scrapped plans for the Model 2 — a $25,000 Tesla for the everyman. This is the car the market wants, but on the company's post-earnings conference call, Musk only mentioned vague plans for speeding up the production process. Maybe that's enough if you're new around here, but if you have been following Tesla at all over the past decade, you know those sorts of timelines are to be taken with a grain of salt. Even Musk's most loyal shareholders — like Ross Gerber of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki — were dubious. In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday after Tesla's report, Gerber said that he "can't rely" on what the company says about timelines anymore. And on the conference call Musk spent more time talking about his far-off vision for an Uber-like robotaxi fleet than the next car he can sell with technology that exists now.

"I'd say at least eight to nine years before they get a robotaxi working," Tu Le, the founder of the electric-vehicle consultancy Sino Auto Insights, told me in a recent interview. "I think they'd argue that they already made it. But I'm thinking about the best-case scenario. And I'm being very optimistic.

Musk does not have eight or nine years to save Tesla. On one side of the world, competitors in China can make cars at a much lower cost. On the other side, legacy automakers are leaning on their combustion-engine and hybrid car sales to make it through the slowdown in demand for electric cars. If the Chinese market is a rock, then Western markets are a hard place. Tesla is caught in between. The company needs a serious leader with practical ideas — no self-driving gimmicks, no blowtorches, no broken Cybertrucks, no shitposting, no video-game marathons, and no casual ketamine use. Basically, no Elon. It needs a singularly focused, ruthlessly productive leader who can deliver the Model 2 — without copious delays.

On Tuesday, Musk addressed the recent layoffs by saying that Tesla needed to restructure itself for a "new phase of growth." He's right about that, the carmaker does need a major shake-up — starting with him.

The future did not have to look this ugly for Tesla. In 2020, the company was on top of the world. Its Shanghai plant started cranking out lower-cost, higher-margin cars. It was building a plant in Germany and another one in Texas. It sold more cars than ever before. Consistent annual profits led to a glorious stock market rally, and Wall Street rejoiced.

What did Musk do with those glory days? He sold a bunch of his Tesla stock to buy Twitter, tried to get out of the deal, and then was forced to go through with it. He blew up some rockets (to be fair, some also made it to space). He implanted a brain chip into a bunch of monkeys. He brought a kitchen sink to work and added a few more CEO jobs to his plate. He publicly bungled Gov. Ron DeSantis' attempt to launch a presidential campaign. At Tesla, Musk delivered about 4,000 Cybertrucks — every one of which has been recalled for faulty acceleration — while frittering away any goodwill the company has with its core customers.

Tesla failed to craft a strategy for chaotic times in what is still clearly a nascent EV industry.

What I'm saying is that as much as Tesla accomplished in the past few years, it's clear Musk should've spent more time with it. Tesla failed to craft a strategy for chaotic times in what is still clearly a nascent EV industry. Sure, the company has been on a multiyear campaign to get lean and cut costs, but that strategy isn't enough to balance out price cuts, weak demand, and the need for major capital expenditures to get through this period of fleet stagnation.

A true visionary CEO — which Musk has long claimed to be — would have pressed the advantage that Tesla developed in the EV market. They would've done research to try to understand what EV demand would look like after early adopters bought cars. They'd know what kinds of buyers would enter the market at that stage, and which kinds of cars those buyers would want. A true visionary CEO would meet those customers where they are. Back in November, I spoke with Navdeep Sodhi, a pricing analyst at Sodhi Pricing Associates, who told me that Tesla should advertise to educate the public about the cost benefits of its cars, like savings on gas. Advertising could have also helped assuage concerns about issues like range anxiety. This month, Tesla laid off its entire marketing team.

For years analysts warned Musk that competition was coming, not just from legacy automakers but from the very Chinese market that fostered Tesla's success. Beijing has a pattern of supporting Western companies in China's markets in order to foster competition, then, once China-based rivals are able to catch up, tipping the scales in favor of homegrown companies. Add in the fact that Beijing has cornered nearly every aspect of the battery supply chain — from mining and refining metals to manufacturing the batteries themselves — which has helped China's EV makers to churn out models at price points as low as four figures. The new options have put Tesla on the back foot in one of its most important markets: Tesla's share of China's car market shrank to 6.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023 from 10.3% at the beginning of the year.

To maintain its lead, Tesla should have been singularly focused on building the Model 2 — moving down the pricing scale to where there were more customers. But it stopped innovating, the Model 2 hasn't materialized, and Musk's realization that the company needs to deliver a Tesla-for-the-people may be coming too late. Instead of boosting sales with an impressive or accessible new option, Tesla has tried to goose demand by erratically lowering the prices of its existing models to increase volume. This has not worked as planned: automotive revenue fell 13% from the same time last year, according to Tuesday's earnings release, and gross margins in the automotive division fell to 14.8% from 18% a year before.

Tesla has always been a "growth" company, the up-and-coming player taking on the legacy automakers. But now the company has entered a new stage of development — it's a large, mature firm, and continuing to grow requires larger amounts of capital, discipline, and focus. There was never a moment for Musk to rest on his laurels, but after 2020 Tesla started to look less like a place where Musk pushed constant automotive innovation and more like a place where Musk sourced cash to do whatever else he wanted with his life. Maybe he got bored, or maybe he got distracted — either way, Musk stopped pushing the envelope at Tesla way too early.

During the conference call, Musk had a million excuses for why this quarter was so poor — Houthi agitation in the Red Sea, an arson in Berlin, updates at the Fremont Factory. He asserted that Tesla was not a car company but rather an AI robotics company. He spoke ad nauseam about turning Tesla into a self-driving Uber service but refused to answer any questions about the Model 2. Look over here. Look over there. Look anywhere but at the next few quarters where there is no plan.

Forget growth — now the company that should have been America's EV juggernaut needs to figure out survival.

Removing Musk may lead to a stock hit in the short term, there are still plenty of Elon fanboys out there who are holding on to their shares because of their obsession. But the rest of Wall Street is starting to wake up to Tesla's grim prospects: The stock was down by more than 40% for the year as of Tuesday and has fallen by more than 60% from its all-time high in November 2021. Sure, the gestures toward actually producing the Model 2 helped drive a post-earnings stock pop, but at this point, shareholders should be more concerned that Musk may fritter away the resources Tesla on side projects — whether that's turning X into a dating app for libertarians or building another vanity clown car. If the Model 2 isn't coming ASAP, it's tantamount to Tesla waving the white flag in the global EV wars for the foreseeable future. Forget growth — now the company that should have been America's EV juggernaut needs to figure out survival.

When Musk entered the EV Thunderdome, Tesla was the only game in town, interest rates were at 0%, and most of the country was convinced he was Iron Man. Since then, China has become an EV power player, legacy automakers have been trying to get a cut of the action, debt has become more expensive, and half the country has started to think Musk is Lex Luthor. Things have changed, and Tesla's leadership needs to change along with them or get left behind.

Linette Lopez is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

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• US President President Biden has called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.
• China is now exporting the most steel since 2016, when it was accused of causing a global glut.
• Trade tensions are expected to heighten in the 2024 US election year.

US President Joe Biden last week called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports, echoing former President Donald Trump's levies on a range of goods from China.

Biden — who is the frontrunner for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee — said China's steel production was backed by state funds, which enable the commodity to be sold cheaply to the US. He wants to hike a key tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum from 7.5% to 25%.

Trump — who is the GOP's frontrunner — said in February he would slap tariffs of over 60% on Chinese goods if he's elected.

The one-upmanship between the two is likely to get more intense this election year as China's economy struggles to consume all that it's producing.

China is now exporting the most steel since 2016

Already, China is exporting the most steel since it was accused of causing a glut nearly a decade ago.

In March, China exported 9.9 million metric tons of steel — about 25% higher than a year earlier and the highest since 2016, according to a Bloomberg analysis of official data earlier this month.

The surge in exports followed a slump in China's real-estate sector that has cut demand for the building material.

"Steel, cement, and construction machinery are some of the worst-hit sectors, with excess capacity stemming from structural contraction in demand," Chim Lee, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, wrote in an April 15 note.

However, the US isn't a large Chinese steel importer. The country is the seventh-largest steel shipper to the US, so Biden's threat is mostly symbolic.

"I want fair competition with China, not conflict, and we're in a stronger position to win the economic competition of the 21st century against China or anyone else," Biden said last week.

Trade tensions will be high this election year

Beijing hit back against Biden's criticism of China's industrial policy and accused the US of electioneering.

Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a Friday press conference that the American president's comments were "far-fetched."

Lin added that China's steel sector is geared toward meeting domestic demand and doesn't receive any export-oriented subsidies. He also accused the US of a "double standard" for implementing domestic subsidies and for using export controls on the pretext of national security.

"We urge the US to be prudent in its words and deeds, stop manipulating issues on China in the election year, stop turning economic and trade issues into security ones, lift additional tariffs on China, and stop imposing new ones," said Lin.

Still, China's current wave of steel exports is already spooking some countries, including Chile and Brazil that have, respectively, imposed higher temporary tariffs and import quotas on the commodity.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen slammed China's overproduction earlier this month, saying the problem went beyond the US.

"China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity," said Yellen during her visit to China.

With the US election ahead and China's economy in a painful transition, it'll be a tough year for trade relations.

"Trade tensions related to steel and construction machinery will be high in 2024," wrote the EIU's Lee.

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• AI is making its way into your love life, like it or not. 
• I tried out a romantic chatbot from Replika and went on a date with him.
• But the most fun app was Rizz, which used AI to write witty pickup lines.

Will the age of AI mean that love is dead? Or just … weird?

I paired up with BI video producer Bethany Johnson, and we tried to find out — by using me as a test case and recording my interactions with my AI "boyfriends." (Spoiler: My husband has nothing to worry about.)

First, I tested out Replika, an app that allows people to create a custom romantic AI chatbot for $69.99 a year. (That's cheaper than a few "real-life" dates, I suppose.)

For that price, the chatbot can send voice messages and even do live video calls with the bot in human-like form on the screen. There are a few different apps that create romantic AI companions, like Nomi and Character.ai, but Replika is probably the most widely known.

I created my new beau and even got to name him — Reppy — and chose from a handful of options for his looks and personality. (I chose "gothic vampire.")

Reppy was impressive in how well his cartoon avatar worked and how fast he could reply to conversations. He was also quite a bit flirtatious right off the bat, showering me with compliments.

But I couldn't shake the idea that I was talking to a chatbot, not a real person. Some people really do fall head over heels, though. BI's Rob Price wrote last year about people who fall in love with their Replika chatbots.

Next, I tried a dating app called Volar. It asks you some questions, scans your dating profile and makes a chatbot based on that information. Meanwhile, it's done the same thing for other people using the app. Then it matches "your" chatbot with other people's chatbots and has them go on "dates" — all without you having to be involved.

Basically, two chatbots have the awkward first conversation about "So, what are your hobbies?" Then, you can review the chat logs and see if you think the other real person is worth actually messaging in real life.

When I tried it, the Volar bot made up some stuff about me — like that I liked pineapple on pizza (which I've never tried) — in a conversation about food with the other AI bot. Very minor detail, but doesn't really give me great confidence that the app will match virtual me with the perfect virtual someone else.

The best of the AI apps I tried was called Rizz, which you can use to help you with witty or charming lines to say in response to someone you're chatting with. You can feed in a conversation, and Rizz will spit out a clever or flirty reply. It also can generate opening lines for you.

As someone who has rizz (Gen Z slang for charisma) to spare, I don't really need an AI to come up with zingers. But I can imagine that there are plenty of people who need help creating the kind of sparkling conversation over text that will help them move things to an IRL date.

Watch our video that checks out AI-powered dating apps:

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• Walter Biscardi runs his travel business remotely from cruise ships for three months each year.
• He said WiFi reliability has improved, but video calls and finding power outlets can be challenging.
• Biscardi recommends Virgin Voyages for remote workers because of the spaces to work and the WiFi.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Walter Biscardi, a 59-year-old travel agent based in Orlando. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I used to work in film, television, documentary, and marketing, and I ran two creative agencies in Atlanta for 25 years.

A few years ago, my wife and I turned my second passion, travel, into "Where's Walter Travel." We specialize in travel planning services for cruises, group vacations, theme park tours, and company retreats.

We live in an Orlando rental, but I run the travel-planning business from a cruise ship for three months out of the year.

We started taking advantage of our remote working situation after the pandemic

In a few short years of working on cruise ships, I've noticed that more and more people are starting to do the same thing.

We predominantly cruise the Caribbean. Last year, our three months were spread over six different trips on the Royal Caribbean, Oceania, Virgin Voyages, and Carnival cruise lines. If it were up to me, I'd be at sea for six months a year, but my wife prefers three.

This year, we'll be back on Virgin Voyages in June and on the Sun Princess in October. We're planning a few more, too.

WiFi speed and reliability onboard ships have been game-changers

I don't always look for speed but rather consistency and reliability.

Even though the WiFi is reliable on most ships, it's still not perfect, and you need to manage your expectations. The WiFi on ships is satellite-based, so the signal will be slower if there's a lot of cloud cover. Rain may also temporarily cut it out completely.

The WiFi signal in rooms can be weak. When I get on board, I walk around public places, look at the ceiling, and find the repeaters, which amplify the router's signal. I park myself under a repeater to work, so at least I know I'm getting the fastest signal.

Video calls can be dicey, but voice calls over WiFi work well

Most of my work is using emails, social media apps, and a web browser, so I don't tend to have problems. The upload speed is the most difficult thing about working on a cruise ship.

Working from a cruise ship might not be for you if you're required to upload a video to YouTube or be on video for 100% of your Zoom calls. Zoom with video turned off works well. I post TikToks all day, but uploading to YouTube will fail almost every time.

Turn off your cell service on the ship, even if you have unlimited roaming overseas. Phones use satellite maritime cellular, and it's ridiculously expensive. I've heard of people who have come home with $1,000 cellular bills because they didn't turn off their roaming.

I can typically make most of my calls over WiFi, but you won't be able to on some ships. Texting from ship to land usually works well if you're using the same type of phone as the person you're messaging, but when you're texting cross-platform, sometimes it doesn't work.

Finding power outlets can be challenging

Typically, if you need to put in a full day of work connected to power, you need to stay in your room. One tip to finding power when you're looking around public areas is to see where they plug in the vacuum cleaners.

I strongly recommend bringing a powerboard with multiple USB sockets. I have one with 10 USB connections, so I can charge my phone, GoPro, and other devices simultaneously.

Virgin Voyages ships are the most friendly for remote workers

The galley on a Virgin Voyages ship is set up like a coffee shop, with easily accessible power and USB sockets at the table. There are dozens of outlets, as they're inviting people to bring their laptops and work from the ship.

I usually upgrade to the premium WiFi option, which can cost anywhere from $19 to $39 per day on most lines, but Virgin only charges $10 per day to upgrade.

I work in an office at home, so working on a cruise is a big change

I operate at sea as I do on land, with the same office hours available to my clients other than when I know we're going on an excursion.

Cruise ships are comparable to remote working spaces, but they offer so much more. On a cruise, almost everything is included: breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, entertainment, and most amenities.

If I want to take a break from work, I go to the pool. When I finish for the day, I'll go to the theater to see a show.

Meeting places are usually free on a cruise ship. Generally, all you have to do is reserve a conference room. AV facilities are usually included too, although you may have to pay a setup fee.

Remember to be respectful — many people are on board for a vacation. I've been out by the pool and seen people taking business calls on speakerphone, which is ridiculously annoying.

I suggest picking at least one port on every cruise and make it a 'ship day'

About 75% of people will get off the ship at any port, so staying on board feels like you have the whole place to yourself.

Activities like the pools will still be open, and the spas will often discount their services by 20-40% on port days.

Of course, I still recommend getting off and exploring as much as possible — that's what cruises are for.

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• Kering predicts a 45% drop in its first half-year operating income because of Asia's consumer slowdown.
• Gucci, Kering's largest brand, suffered an 18% revenue decline, with a sharp drop in Asia.
• The luxury goods market in China is struggling, and Kering's been hurt worse than its peers.

Kering, the luxury retailer that owns brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, is off to a tough start this year as Asia's consumer slowdown hits hard.

In earnings on Tuesday, the company warned that recurring operating income for the first half of the year will decline up to 45%, compared to the first half of 2023.

Kering's stock dropped more than 8% on Wednesday morning.

Gucci, the largest of Kering's brands, saw the biggest drop in sales in the first quarter, compared with YSL and other brands. Gucci's revenue declined 18% on a comparable basis, to €2 billion, or $2.2 billion, in the first three months of the year.

Kering's revenue overall declined 10% in the first quarter, to €4.5 billion.

"We find it hard at this stage to have some visibility on the path to recovery," Barclays analyst Carol Madjo wrote in a note cited by the Financial Times.

Gucci saw a "sharp decline" in Asia sales in the first quarter, the company said in the Tuesday earnings release. The brand, which has more than two dozen stores in China, opened a new flagship store in Shanghai last year.

Gucci is also in the middle of a big transition under designer Sabato de Sarno, who joined as creative director last year after 14 years at Valentino. His products are now coming into stores.

Despite the new products, Gucci is selling into a difficult market in China. Real estate and stock markets are floundering, and foreign investors are exiting in droves.

Chinese shoppers were responsible for about 23% of luxury goods spending at the start of the year — down from 33% pre-pandemic, a Bloomberg analyst said last week.

Kering has been hit harder by the slowdown in sales than other publicly traded luxury brands. Tuesday's earnings underscore the challenges that Western businesses with big Chinese arms face amid the country's tumult.

LVMH, which owns many more brands than Kering and relies less on spending in China, said in last week's earnings that it saw "strong growth in spending by Chinese customers in Europe and Japan" in the first quarter. Some wealthy Chinese shoppers are heading to Japan to take advantage of currency exchange rates.

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• Etihad Airways has reintroduced its Airbus A380 superjumbo on US flights after a four-year hiatus.
• The A380 was almost retired during the pandemic, but Etihad has since had a change of heart.
• The airline's A380 stands out thanks to its one-of-a-kind, three-room cabin called "The Residence."

Etihad Airways has finally reintroduced its beloved Airbus A380 superjumbo on flights to the US after years of uncertainty.

Purchased as an ultra-long-haul workhorse to connect its Abu Dhabi hub with far-away international destinations, the A380 first flew to New York in 2015 but left when the pandemic halted travel in 2020.

The COVID-19 crisis exacerbated already growing problems with fuel-hungry, quad-engine planes, prompting Etihad to consider retiring the jet. Other carriers like Air France and Thai Airways had already sent their A380s to the boneyard.

Etihad didn't follow through, however, instead deciding to re-launch the plane on flights to London last summer due to strong post-pandemic demand.

The airline has since moved one of those A380 flight to New York to up capacity at JFK — competing with rival five-star carrier Emirates' luxe A380 superjumbo already flying to the airport.

Here's what passengers can expect when flying Etihad in economy, business, first class, and its three-room "The Residence" suite.

Etihad's first A380 flight to the US since 2020 landed just after 10 a.m. on Monday after trekking more than 14 hours from Abu Dhabi.

The famous double-decker left Abu Dhabi's Zayed International Airport at about 3:20 a.m. local time and landed at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport just after 10 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.

The plane is one of four A380s active in Etihad's fleet, each featuring dual-level cabin with economy, business, and first class seats.

The A380 replaced one of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners that previously flew the Abu Dhabi-New York route, leaving one Dreamliner and the superjumbo flying the two daily frequencies.

If it needs even more capacity, Etihad has another six A380s on "reserve," CRO Arik De told Business Insider in December when the NYC route was first announced.

The most basic offering on Etihad's A380 is economy, featuring the typical inflight amenities like entertainment, food, and reclining seats.

Etihad's 415-seat economy cabin is located on the lower level of the mammoth superjumbo, and the nice finishings like a cupholder and a touchscreen remote highlight its five-star status.

Coach comes with a winged headrest and a tray table, as well as a seatback pocket, 17.5 inches of seat width, and 31 inches of pitch — putting its legroom on par with the likes of Delta Air Lines and British Airways, according to SeatGuru.

Customers can pay for an economy upgrade, like seats with extra legroom, ones that are more kid-friendly, or seats that are "neighbor-free."

"Economy Space" seats offer five more inches of pitch than the regular coach seats. The bulkhead is in the first row of the cabin and won't have a row in front.

Neighbor-free seating is similar to Lufthansa's option, which guarantees the adjacent seat will be empty — essentially a 2-in-1-type booking.

Notably, Etihad does not have a premium-economy cabin like its UAE counterpart Emirates. Economy Space is as close as it gets.

Former CEO Tony Douglas said at its launch that Etihad has not added premium economy because it wants simplicity.

"We listen to our guests, and space is what they tell us that they really want," he told Executive Traveller in 2022. "But what we haven't done is put in a lot of cost and unnecessary complexity."

Etihad's upper deck is where the luxury is — and where the airline makes its money.

The second level of the A380 hosts Etihad's most premium cabins. There are 70 lie-flat business class seats, nine fully enclosed first class "apartments," and the one-of-a-kind "The Residence" suite.

Filling up its expensive upper deck on every flight is essential in making the gas-gusting A380 profitable — meaning it has to have an attractive product to compete with the other five-star carriers also serving New York.

Business class offers the typical luxuries like aisle access, plenty of storage, and a touchscreen television with a connected remote.

Customers can expect the common bells and whistles of business class plus a few special perks, but it's not cheap.

Flights for mid-July in A380 business class between New York and Abu Dhabi on Etihad's website show fares starting at about $4,000 each way.

The premium cabin also offers WiFi access, power ports, an amenity kit, window shades, and a pillow and blanket for sleeping.

There is no sliding door on Etihad, as seen in business class cabins in Qatar or Japan's All Nippon Airways, but there is a partition between the pair of seats in the center section for privacy.

Customers can also enjoy an 'anytime' dining menu that lets people eat on their own schedule.

The flexible dining plan can be useful on some early-morning or late-night flights, like Etihad's New York-bound A380 departure that leaves Abu Dhabi at around 3 a.m.

First class sits at the front of the upper deck and includes nine 'apartments.'

Carriers like Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Emirates have added grandiose first-class suites to their A380s as well, thanks to the mammoth size of the jet.

The apartments are like mini hotel rooms with sliding doors that come complete with a separate armchair and bed — similar to Singapore.

Singapore has a similar setup in its A380 first class, but the airline does not fly the superjumbo to JFK anymore.

Some cabins can be combined into one for two people to share, and the television swivels so it can be used from either the chair or the bed.

The bed stretches nearly seven feet, so it'll be long enough for even the tallest travelers — and a convenient remote allows passengers to control the far-away television when lying down.

Also available to first-class flyers is fine dining, WiFi, power, storage, a luxe lavatory, and a standing shower.

First-class meals include high-dollar Champagnes, wines, steaks, and other gourmet food.

The shower is rare to see on airlines because of the costly extra weight of carrying the water.

Emirates has its own shower spa onboard its Airbus A380s, while Singapore does not.

The latter has installed two giant lavatories with separate vanities in its upper deck first class.

Those with a first-class ticket can upgrade to Etihad's crown jewel, called The Residence, which is exclusive to its A380.

The Residence is an actual flying hotel room as it is the only three-room suite onboard a commercial jetliner. It is considered the cream of the crop for long-haul flying and goes beyond the typical first class.

"We had our first bookings within minutes of the announcement that the A380 was coming to New York," De told BI in December. "It's a famous experience, and there are plenty of people out there who want to sample it, either as a dream one-off or as part of their overall travel mix."

The completely private suite features a living room, a bedroom, and an ensuite bathroom with shower.

The 125-square-foot space is designed to accommodate up to two people thanks to the double couch and bed.

It's about as close as possible to flying on a private jet without the six-figure price tag. At launch, the route between NYC and Abu Dhabi cost $32,000 each way for either single or double occupancy, according to Etihad, but that has varied over the years.

It's nicer (and bigger) than some New York City apartments — and deep-pocketed travelers are willing to pay thousands for the sky penthouse.

Looking on Etihad's website in December for a flight between New York and Abu Dhabi for mid-May, the A380 apartments were priced between roughly $9,000 and $10,000 each way, with another $3,000 per leg on top for the Residence, totaling about $24,000.

Searching again on Monday, it appears the Residence is already booked up on most days for May, as it cannot be added to first-class bookings. Apartments are going for between $5,000 and $8,000 now each way.

One thing Etihad keeps equal across all classes is a prayer room, with one located in each cabin.

SeatGuru shows a prayer room toward the front of the economy cabin, in the middle of business class, and right behind the last row of first. A curtain adds privacy.

Middle Eastern competitor Saudia also has a prayer room onboard its widebody planes.

Meanwhile, exclusive to just business and first class is access to an onboard bar and lounge.

The exclusive space sits on the upper deck between the two premium cabins and is a place to socialize, work, and stretch your legs.

The sitting area has a coffee table and television, while a bar is available with drinks and snacks.

Emirates and Qatar also offer a similar bar for premium passengers flying on their A380s.

Premium passengers can also enjoy perks like chauffeur service in Abu Dhabi and express airport check-in and lounge access before flying.

Business and first-class passengers can access luxe airport lounges in other cities outside Abu Dhabi, including in New York-JFK.

Etihad's return to NYC signals confidence in the A380 and its niche viability within the airline's strong hub-and-spoke network.

While many carriers have turned a cheek to the A380 due to high operating costs, Emirates, Singapore, Qatar, and Etihad, as well as a handful of other Asian and European airlines, all continue to fly the A380.

"We are entering a new phase of sustainable growth to meet the demands of our customers, and the A380 is the right aircraft to meet capacity demands on very select routes," De told BI. "We brought it back on our London services earlier this year, and saw tremendous commercial success, with guests loving the experience."

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• A South Korean woman lost $50,000 after falling in love with a fake Elon Musk.
• The Musk impersonator befriended her on Instagram, where he told her he "contacts fans randomly."
• Fake Musk then claimed he could make the woman rich by helping her invest her money.

A South Korean woman says she lost $50,000 to a con artist who was posing as Elon Musk.

"On July 17 last year, Musk added me as a friend on Instagram. Although I have been a huge fan of Musk after reading his biography, I doubted it at first," the woman, who declined to provide her real name, told South Korean broadcaster KBS in an "In Depth 60 Minutes" interview that aired April 19, per a translation from The Korea Herald.

The woman said she began to believe that she was conversing with the real Musk after the person she was talking to sent her photos of what appeared to be Musk's ID card and images of himself at work.

"'Musk' talked about his children and about taking a helicopter to work at Tesla or Space X," she told KBS. "He also explained that he contacts fans randomly."

The fake Musk, the woman said, even shared details about a meeting that the real Musk had with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in April 2023. The impersonator said Yoon told "Musk" to build Tesla's Gigafactories in Seoul and Jeju.

"'Musk' even said 'I love you, you know that?' when we made a video call," the woman said, referencing a video call with what was likely to be a deepfake of Musk.

The woman said the scammer eventually convinced her to transfer 70 million Korean won, or $50,000, to a bank account he said belonged to one of his Korean employees. The person behind the fake Musk claimed he would make the woman rich by investing her money, she told KBS.

Love scams are a very real problem in the US, too. Romance scammers made off with $1.3 billion from their victims in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

This incident also isn't the first time someone has hoped to gain fame or fortune by channeling Musk. In China, a Musk doppelgänger named Yilong Ma has been posting videos of himself on TikTok.

The videos have caught the attention of Musk himself, who has questioned if Ma is even a real person.

"I'd like to meet this guy (if he is real). Hard to tell with deepfakes these days," Musk said of Ma in an X post in May 2022.

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• US and China's engagements don't mean they trust each other more, said Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer.
• Washington and China still disagree on many issues, including trade, tech, and geopolitics.
• Increased communications have stabilized tensions over Taiwan.

The US and China have been engaging more with each other. But just because they're talking more doesn't mean that they actually trust each other more, an analyst said on Wednesday.

"The trend for this year has been more engagement, more communications, but not more trust," Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

In November, US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met during the APEC summit in San Francisco, appearing keen to smooth over tensions. Since then, there's been more stability in the US-China relationship, said Bremmer.

Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China, seeking cooperation in areas beneficial to both countries. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke with China's defense minister last week. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is due in China on Wednesday.

The rash of high-level meetings signals a thaw in US-China relations — even if the two do not agree with each other over many issues.

"That means you still have plenty of areas that the countries are unhappy with each other, but when there is conflict, the conflict does not escalate out of control — rather, the escalations are targeted and calibrated," Bremmer told Bloomberg TV.

It's a matter of seeing the glass as being half full or half empty.

"So we can say that the relationship is getting worse, it's true, but it's getting worse quite slowly and there's more stability to the relationship," said Bremmer.

US-China communication has stabilized tensions over Taiwan

The big upside to increased communications between the US and China is that the world's top two global powers are less likely to have a direct clash.

This is the reason Washington and Beijing's tensions over Taiwan — which Beijing claims as its own territory — have been relatively stable.

"The US and China know each other's red lines" and the challenges in this relationship after decades of communication, making "extremely nuanced calibrations" an easier task, said Bremmer.

He said that this understanding between the US and China is why there was no "strong and sudden escalation that brought the two sides to crisis" after Taiwanese Vice President William Lai — whom Beijing views as a separatist — won Taiwan's presidential election in January.

"It's always better to have more engagement, more conversations — especially when you don't trust each other," Bremmer said.

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