Category: Business

• Dick's Sporting Goods has something unusual for a retailer: an app to manage youth team sports.
• The service now boasts 5 million users who spend a half hour per day on the platform.
• Dick's says the business will bring in $100 million this year, in addition to driving retail sales.

Dick's Sporting Goods has long offered youth athletes and coaches a number of spiral-bound ways to organize teams and keep score.

But in recent years, the company has been investing in something unusual for a retailer: an AI-powered app to manage youth team sports, with livestream video and auto-generated highlight reels from games.

Now, the aptly named Game Changer platform is driving real revenue with some notable engagement, Dick's CEO Lauren Hobart told investors on the company's earnings call Wednesday.

Hobart said last quarter saw 5 million users who spent a half hour per day on the platform, and Game Changer says it supports over a million teams and over 7 million games per year.

Dick's CFO Navdeep Gupta said the business segment will bring in a highly profitable $100 million in revenue this year, but the real kicker for the company is the lift for retail sales online and in-store, especially among loyalty program members.

"Athletes that are both GameChanger user and a Scorecard user have 2x the revenue profile for just a Scorecard user," the CFO said. "That indicates also that the level of engagement that we have with these multi-channel athletes is actually really, really exciting and interesting to us as we look to the long-term opportunity for this platform."

Initially developed for so-called "diamond sports" like baseball and softball, Game Changer has been rolling out new AI-powered features to better support sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball, and more, bringing a kind of ESPN+ viewing experience to far-flung family members and fans.

• PwC has a new deal with OpenAI as the largest user and first reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise.
• The deal comes amid surging interest in GenAI, with 950 of its top 1,000 clients engaging with it.
• "Your business strategy and your AI strategy in this world need to be intertwined," said a PwC exec. 

Big Four consultancy firm PwC has a new deal with OpenAI to help its staff and clients leverage generative AI.

The companies announced Wednesday that PwC will now be the largest user of ChatGPT Enterprise, the most powerful tier of ChatGPT geared toward businesses. According to OpenAI, it offers higher-grade security, longer context windows to process longer inputs, and more advanced data analysis abilities than the consumer version of ChatGPT. PwC will deploy the product across 100,000 of its employees between the US and UK.

As part of the deal, PwC will also be the first reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise — meaning that clients can now purchase the product from both OpenAI and PwC.

The deal formalizes the surging interest in generative AI that PwC has seen from clients over the past year. Around 950 of the firm's top 1,000 consulting clients in the US are actively engaged with generative AI, and many more are discussing the use and implications of the technology, according to its press release.

PwC announced last year that it would invest a billion dollars in generative AI over the coming three years to provide AI training and tooling for its employees — like its conversational AI assistant ChatPwC. Since then the firm has documented over 3,000 use cases for the technology, Joe Atkinson, PwC's US Chief Products & Technology Officer, told Business Insider. "We were our first client, so we would work through our client zero strategy," Atkinson said. Under the new deal, "we're bringing all of those capabilities and skills to our clients who are really, really eager to take their own strategy from where they are today to where they think they can be with generative AI."

He said the biggest questions the firm gets from clients are about the risks and biases of AI models and the accuracy of their outputs. So, it's clear they still need human oversight.

But Atkinson contends that businesses need to embrace AI if they want to survive.

"One of the things we keep telling our clients is, look, your business strategy and your AI strategy in this world need to be intertwined. That understanding, I think is really starting to make itself known in the C-suite and the boardrooms," he said.

• North Korea floated hundreds of balloons filled with garbage and feces across the border south.
• North Korea had vowed retaliation after South Korean activists sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
• The North's balloons contained fertilizer, NBC reports, but not human excrement.

North Korea floated balloons carrying garbage and feces into South Korea last week, officials in Seoul said.

The obnoxious floating orbs were an apparent retaliation against South Korean activists who'd previously flown anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music over the border.

Days before the balloons landed in South Korea, a North Korean official vowed retaliation via "paper and filth," The Wall Street Journal reported.

South Korea's military discovered the balloons near the border Tuesday and warned residents to stay inside, according to the Journal.

Roughly 260 balloons were ultimately found — the largest number ever sent, the Yonhap News Agency reports, citing South Korea's joint chiefs of staff. The countries have been feuding with messages sent back and forth via balloons for years.

North Korea's latest barrage of balloons contained plastic, batteries, parts of shoes, and manure, a JCS official said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea's defense ministry confirmed the presence of fertilizer to NBC, not human excrement — though the outlet noted that human feces was sent by North Korea in 2016.

The latest skirmish comes as North Korea on Monday failed to launch a spy satellite, which exploded midair.

South Korean media reported Russia was helping with the effort, with a number of its technicians entering the country before the botched launch.

• Another Tesla owner reported an injury from the Cybertruck's sharp edges.
• The owner said he ended up in the hospital after accidentally slicing his wrist during delivery.
• Previous Cybertruck injuries involved the sharp frunk and door edges. 

A Cybertruck delivery ended up a bit bloody, a Tesla owner wrote in a forum post.

While there's been past coverage of Cybertruck-related injuries from people testing out the frunk's sensor on their fingers (don't do that), or the guy who needed stitches after clipping his leg on the door's edge when exiting, this Cybertruck owner wrote that they accidentally sliced their wrist while inspecting their brand-new vehicle upon arrival.

The Tesla owner posted on the Cybertruck Owner's Club that he had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of his vehicle. But when it finally arrived, the Cybertruck was in "sloppy, sloppy condition at delivery," with a "disastrously dirty" windshield with a smeary film over it, and a hood covered in rust spots, he wrote.

The owner said that he noted several issues with the vehicle: an overspray on the body panels that he couldn't easily wipe off, a loose rubber seal along the tonneau cover, and a large upper panel on the driver's side in the bed that flew off while driving on a main road. He posted photos of some of the issues.

But they weren't enough to deter the Tesla owner from enjoying his new ride.

"Otherwise, it's great," he wrote on the forum. "Heck, it's great even with these issues. The tires and wheel look GREAT in person."

But things took a turn when the owner walked around to inspect the truck and noticed a small pit or divot on the tailgate, he wrote. When he tried to rub the spot with his thumb to see if it was a divot or stray adhesive, he ended up slicing his wrist, the owner said.

"I jerked my arm back and the employees chuckled jokingly saying this thing can be dangerous," he wrote on the forum. "I, too, thought it was a little slice like a paper cut…Until the blood started pouring."

The owner said there was "a lot of blood," and uploaded a graphic image of injury. We'll spare you the details — but it's safe to say he wasn't exaggerating: the cut looks pretty deep.

He said the two employees scrambled to find something to stop the bleeding, and he was eventually able to apply a bandage. He still managed to wash off his wrist, wrap it up, and complete delivery, the owner wrote.

Several hours later, he said that he assumed the gash had closed up and he could take off the bandage.

"I unwrapped my wrist and BOOM – spurts of blood all over the kitchen island…" the owner wrote on the forum. "Which leaves me here, at the ER."

The owner also posted a photo of a hospital waiting room. He did not return a request for comment ahead of publication.

The incident is one of the latest reported injuries tied to the sharp edges of the Cybertruck's angular stainless steel design. Some, however, have been seemingly playing with fire. Multiple owners reported hurting themselves after purposely closing the vehicle's frunk on their body parts to test out the hood's safety sensor, with one user ending up with a deep cut that appeared to extend down to his tendon.

Another owner had to get stitches after he accidentally cut his leg on the edge of the door while exiting his vehicle, according to a post on the Cybertruck forum. Yet another forum user commented on the post saying he had also cut himself accidentally while washing his car.

Tesla warns in its manual to "use caution around the panel edges on Cybertruck, including the doors, powered frunk, tailgate, and surrounding panels." The manual also states neglecting to follow proper procedures can result in injury.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment about the driver's account.

• Trump's 7-man, 5-woman jury will have only the verdict sheet with them in the deliberations room.
• They must check the boxes for "Not Guilty" or "Guilty" on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
• They will not have a copy of the judge's hour-long, spoken instructions on the underlying law.

After four weeks of testimony by nearly two dozen witnesses — plus hundreds of exhibits and eight hours of closing arguments — the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president now has a deliberating jury.

Donald Trump's potential criminal record rests in the hands of seven men and five women, a majority white-collar group that includes three men with finance backgrounds and two men who are lawyers.

Jurors listened intently for just over an hour Wednesday morning — with several taking brief notes — as the judge described the law to them before sending them to a deliberations room adjacent to the courtroom.

Jurors had to surrender their cellphones to the safe-keeping of court officers before beginning their work.

"I'm going to ask you to step out now and begin your deliberations," New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told the jury as parting words at 11:28 a.m.

Two jurors — a man who works as a security engineer, and a woman who works as a software engineer — volunteered to learn to operate the laptop on which they can view trial exhibits while deliberating.

The laptop contains no other data and is not connected to the internet.

Finally, six alternates — five women and one man — were asked to wait in a separate room. "There might be a need for you at some point in the deliberations," the judge told them.

Here are the documents that will guide the Trump jury's decisions in New York's historic hush-money trial.

The verdict sheet

The verdict sheet is the only document the jurors will have with them in the deliberations room. It instructs them to check "Not Guilty" or "Guilty" on each of 34 counts of a single charge: falsifying business records in the first degree.

The court staff has promised to give us a blank copy of the verdict sheet. We'll update this post once we have it.

Each of the 34 counts pertains to a different invoice, check, and ledger entry that Trump allegedly caused to be entered into the Trump Organization's business records throughout 2017, his first year in office.

Falsifying business records in the first degree

Prosecutors say Trump caused 34 business records to be falsified as part of an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

The records, prosecutors say, disguised the true purpose of $130,000 in "legal fee" reimbursements paid throughout 2017 to Trump's then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.

In reality, Cohen was being secretly reimbursed for his hush-money outlay to Stormy Daniels, a payment that silenced the porn star just 11 days before the 2016 election, prosecutors allege.

Merchan read to jurors from the standard jury charge for felony falsifying business records.

The jury charge

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan spent more than an hour Wednesday morning speaking to jurors, slowly describing to them the laws that will underpin their verdict.

Read the judge's "jury charge" here.

During the charge, Merchan warned jurors to be on guard against any "implicit bias" about groups of people and the defendant himself.

They were also reminded that prosecutors bear the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that they must consider only testimony, exhibits, and attorney stipulations in reaching a verdict — not the potential for punishment.

"The defendant is not required to prove that he is not guilty," he reminded jurors. "The defendant is not required to prove or disprove anything."

Finally, the jurors were instructed on the underlying laws, and their definitions.

Key among these laws is section 17-152 of the New York election law. Business Insider described this important but rarely-used state election-conspiracy law last month.

To convict, jurors must find that Trump falsified business records to conceal an attempt to violate 17-152.

And to find that Trump attempted to violate 17-152, jurors must find he attempted to commit any of three additional underlying offenses. These are the federal election campaign-finance law, an additional New York business-falsification law, and a violation of tax laws on either a city, state or federal level.

The judge told jurors that they could not take a written copy of the charge with them to the deliberations room.

"You may however request I read them back to you in whole, or in part, as many times as you wish," he told them. "And I will be happy to do so."

The defense lawyers, prosecutors, and Trump himself were instructed not to leave the courthouse during deliberations.

Trump sat still during the judge's instructions, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, leaving his hands in his lap. On at least one occasion, he appeared to stretch in his seat.

Once Merchan sent the jurors to the deliberation room, Trump appeared relaxed — even jovial — joking with his son, Donald Trump, Jr., as he left the courtroom to await his verdict.

Once in the hallway, he huddled with his aides outside the courtroom for three minutes before walking up to the cameras and complaining about the judge.

• Some products feel like they've been around forever, but they're actually fairly recent inventions.
• Sliced bread, a kitchen staple, has been around for fewer than 100 years. 
• It's tough to imagine life without the MacBook and iPhone, but they've only been around 20 years.

Certain products have become integral to our daily lives — it seems like there was never a time that we lived without them. 

However, even some that seem as old as time have been created fairly recently. Sliced bread was put on the market for the first time in 1928, after a Missouri-based jeweler, Otto Rohwedder, invented the bread slicer. 

More than a third of the US population, 136 million people, were iPhone users in 2023, and the company has a particularly strong hold on Gen Z: Research released by Piper Sandler in October found 87% of teenagers surveyed said they had an iPhone, and 88% of them anticipated getting an iPhone as their next phone, too.

However, the product was brought on the market just 17 years ago. 

Take a look at all the products that haven't been around for as long as you would think.

A pantry staple today, sliced bread was first sold in 1928.

The first loaf of automatically sliced bread was produced by Otto Rohwedder in Chillicothe, Missouri, in July 1928, according to History.com. Rohwedder was a jeweler, and faced criticism by bakers for his idea; they thought that sliced bread would go stale too quickly.

Cans with pull-tab tops became popular after being patented by Ermal Fraze in 1977. He had designed the mechanism about a decade earlier.

According to Slate, the pull-tab top on cans became standard after removable tops were deemed a health hazard — they could be accidentally swallowed or cut people's feet on beaches.

Post-it Notes were introduced around the world in 1980.

Arthur Fry was a new product development researcher at 3M when he learned of the adhesive microspheres that his colleague Spencer Silver had developed, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, of which Fry is a member.

He then coated the adhesive to paper and the Post-it Note was created.

Sriracha hot sauce is also a relatively new product. It was first put on the market in 1980.

Huy Fong Foods founder David Tran created Sriracha in 1980.

Sriracha is the eighth-most-popular hot sauce in the United States, according to 2023 data from Instacart. But before a worldwide Sriracha shortage, it was in the No.2 spot, per Instacart data shared by AllRecipes.

Battery-operated car keys have only been around since the 1980s. Before, each car door had to be locked and unlocked with a traditional key.

Car and Driver reported that one of the earliest iterations of a remote-entry locking system could be found in the 1983 AMC-Renault Alliance. Then, in 1987, Cadillac released the Allante car key, and by the early 1990s, the device was more widespread.

Though inline skates have been around since the 19th century, rollerblades were first sold by their teenage inventor, Scott Olson, in 1981.

Olson was 19, living in Waconia, Minnesota, and dreamed of joining the NHL when he saw a pair of inline skates in a sports catalog and thought they'd help him train. Even though they were not a popular item at the time, he knew immediately they had potential — they just needed some updates to appeal to a broader audience.

He told Marketplace he didn't invent the concept, only the product. "The inline skate started back before roller skates were even invented, back in the early 1800s," Olson said.

The Coca-Cola company was founded in 1892, but Diet Coke wasn't for sale until 1982.

Diet Coke was unveiled on July 8, 1982, and introduced in the United States on August 9, according to the company. It quickly overtook sales from the brand's previous diet cola, Tab. 

Built-in GPS for cars was first unveiled in 1990 by Mazda in Japan, but it took a decade before it was widely available in American cars.

Though there were earlier models of map guidance tools introduced as early as 1930, the Mazda 1990 model was the first that had a true GPS built in to a commercially available car. It took another 10 years after its release to become available in the United States, Popular Mechanics reported. The US military had to allow for its commercial usage, since they had launched the GPS satellites.

Though many households have them now, Sony PlayStations have only been around since 1994.

PlayStations revolutionized gaming, with graphics that were far more advanced than anything else on the market at the time.

Starbucks' famous Frappuccinos have only been available since 1995. Vanilla Bean and Strawberry Creme flavors were introduced in 2002.

Dina Campion, a Starbucks employee, helped launch the Frappuccino.

She told Starbucks, "It was the summer of 1993, and Los Angeles is very hot in the summer. We noticed there were some smaller coffee shops that did some sort of blended coffee beverage. A couple of store managers and I felt there was a huge opportunity for Starbucks."

It has certainly paid off for the chain.

In August 2023, Starbucks said 75% of its drink sales the previous quarter were for cold drinks, QSR reported. Even over the winter — between January and March 2024 — cold drinks accounted for 63% of drink sales, Starbucks reported in April.

In 2021, an employee told Business Insider that Starbucks was becoming a "frappuccino factory."

Though it's now become a household staple, Febreze was first introduced in 1996.

Febreze was invented by Procter & Gamble. The Washington Post reported Febreze and other similar sprays have ingredients called cyclodextrins that can actually trap odor molecules.

A popular item on the McDonald's menu now, the McFlurry was only introduced in 1997, two years after it was invented by a franchisee.

The McFlurry was invented by a Canadian franchisee, Ron McLellan, at his McDonald's in Bathurst, New Brunswick. 

"I never expected that my creation would circle the globe with countries mixing together their own unique flavours," McLellan told CTV News in 2015.

You might see them in almost every house now, but plasma flat-screen TVs were first sold by Panasonic in the 1990s.

Flat-screen TV technology was pioneered by two University of Illinois professors, Donald Bitzer and Gene Slottow, and a graduate student, Robert Willson, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

However, their model was not suitable for commercial use, and it wasn't until the 1990s that Panasonic engineer, Larry Weber, invented the modern flat screen we see in homes today.

Though they may seem like old technology now, DVDs were created in Japan in 1996 and first sold in the United States in 1997.

In 1997, Warner announced its first 30 DVD titles, which included "Blade Runner," "Casablanca," and "Twister," Variety reported.

The popular soft drink Sierra Mist has only been available since 1999, when it was launched by Pepsi.

Sierra Mist was rebranded to Mist TWST in 2015. A Pepsi spokesperson told AdAge, "We are working to highlight the lemon-lime credentials of the product."

The Universal Serial Bus (USB), also known as a flash drive, was first sold by IBM in 2000.

The first IBM USB was called the DiskOnKey, and held just 8 megabytes. However, within 10 years, the drive's storage capacity increased to 256 gigabytes.

Popular with both kids and adults, Razor scooters went on the market in 2000.

Razor scooters were invented by Wim Ouboter, a banker and amateur craftsman living in Zurich, Switzerland. He spoke to CityLabs in 2018 about how he came up with the idea.

"The problem is, if you're a big guy and you're riding such a small scooter, people will look at you weird. So you have to make it collapsible in order to bring it into a bar afterwards," he said.

The Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid car, was released internationally in 2000.

The car was first introduced in Japan in 1997. Today, Toyota is up to its fifth generation Prius.

Though you may see them in many public bathrooms today, Xlerator hand dryers have only been around since 2002.

Excel Dryer released the Xlerator in 2002, and they were marketed as being able to dry hands in about 10 to 15 seconds, much faster than other dryers at the time, which took about a minute.

The first camera phone was released in 2000.

Samsung's phone with a built-in camera, the SCH-V200, was released in South Korea in June 2000. Its camera was capable of taking 20 photos, but had to be hooked up to a computer for users to access them, per Digital Trends.

McGriddles are another relatively recent item on the McDonald's menu. They became available in 2003.

The McMuffin was introduced in 1972 and was McDonald's only breakfast sandwich until the McGriddle was released. 

Android phones were only introduced in 2003.

In 2022, the number of iPhone users in the US overtook Android users for the first time. Globally, however, the Android operating system is far more popular, according to StatCounter data.

Take 5 candy bars were first introduced by Hershey in 2004. Their popularity helped boost the company's profits 8% that year.

In 2019, Hershey announced Reese's was taking over the Take 5 bar, and it became the Reese's Take 5 bar. The company revealed that Reese's peanut butter had been an ingredient in the Take 5 bar since its 2004 launch.

Though energy drinks are ubiquitous today, the popular 5-hour Energy only went on the market in 2004.

The drink, created by American businessman Manoj Bhargava, made $1 billion in retail sales in its first eight years, Forbes reported.

Taco Bell's CrunchWrap Supreme is also relatively new. It was introduced in 2005.

After its launch in 2005, the CrunchWrap Supreme became Taco Bell's most successful product introduction. It was added to their permanent menu in 2006.

Stride gum has only been around since 2007.

Stride is made by Kraft and is marketed as "The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum."

Though Apple is now one of the world's top laptop retailers, MacBooks were released relatively recently, in 2006.

Though MacBooks are popular, Windows still takes the lion's share of laptop sales.

Similarly, more than a third of Americans own an iPhone, but the devices have only been around since 2007.

There are more than 130 million iPhone users in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all smartphone users in the country, per Statista.

Krave cereal was released in the United States by Kellogg's just 12 years ago, in 2012.

Krave was first released in the United Kingdom in 2010 and came in six different varieties: chocolate hazelnut, milk chocolate, totally chocolatey, chocolate caramel, chocolate, and double chocolate.

Amazon Alexa was first released in 2014, but only for Prime members. It became available for general users in 2015.

Alexa long led the way in voice-assistant technology but has slipped into third place in the US in recent years. Google Assistant is pacing for 88.8 million users in the US in 2024, followed by Siri with 84.2 million, per 2022 Insider Intelligence data. Meanwhile, Alexa has a projected 75.6 million users this year.

Amazon is working on an upgraded version of Alexa, slated for a summer release.

• Reebok was once one of the NBA's leading brands.
• Legends of the game like Allen Iverson, Dominique Wilkins, and Shaquille O'Neal all sported Reeboks.
• The brand has now partnered with O'Neal to try to regain its status in the sport.

In the 1990s, Reebok was one of basketball's leading brands.

From Dee Brown's iconic slamdunk contest win in his Reebok Pumps to Allen Iverson's first signature sneaker, the "Question Mid," the brand was once at the center of the sport.

But fast-forward to 2024, and Reebok finds itself a long way behind the likes of Nike, Adidas, and Jordan.

The company has now embarked on a big push to change that, however.

In October 2023, former LA Lakers star and hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal, 52, was announced as the president of Reebok's basketball operations.

O'Neal, who originally signed with Reebok as a rookie in 1992, is leading the brand's return to the court alongside fellow NBA legend Allen Iverson, who joined the company as the vice president of basketball.

"Listen, we're getting back into basketball," O'Neal said at Reebok's annual brand summit in March, The New York Times reported. "Everyone needs to be 100 percent in on this, because I'm 100 percent in on this."

"I'm not doing this because this is a hobby. I'm doing this because we have a rightful place in basketball," he added.

Despite Reebok's success in the '90s, sales had begun to fall by the turn of the century, and the company was eventually acquired by Adidas for $3.8 billion in 2006.

But Reebok's fortunes did not fare much better under the German company's ownership, which moved the brand away from both basketball and ice hockey.

"Adidas really mismanaged the brand," Matt Powell, a footwear industry analyst and senior advisor with BCE Consulting, told The Times.

Following repeated calls from investors to offload the brand, Reebok was eventually sold to US-based Authentic Brands Group in 2021 for around $2.5 billion.

With O'Neal and Iverson on board, the company now hopes to regain its spot among basketball's elite and challenge the sport's top brands.

But the former stars will have their work cut out — in 2023, Nike reported gross revenue of around $51 billion, while Adidas pulled in roughly $23 billion. Reebok's annual revenue was just $2.3 billion.

As part of its strategy, Reebok is planning to launch a new basketball line in 2025. However, the company will be facing tough market conditions.

Sporting goods companies have faced lower demand while struggling with high inventories in the US, with Adidas reporting its first annual loss in more than 30 years in March and Nike announcing plans to cut around 2% of roles — over 1,600 jobs — in February.

The industry is hoping that the 2024 Paris Olympics and two major soccer tournaments — the Copa América and the UEFA European Championship — will help boost sales this summer.

O'Neal, at least, seems to know what's at stake for Reebok.

"If this doesn't work, everyone's leaving," he told The Times.

• OpenAI's board was as surprised as the public by ChatGPT's 2022 release, a former member claims.
• Helen Toner says the board was "not informed in advance" and actually learned about it on Twitter.
• She says CEO Sam Altman had been "withholding" and "misrepresenting" information with them.

The release of ChatGPT took the world by surprise back in 2022 — and a former OpenAI board member claims that was the case for the company's board of directors, too.

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted a link to the chatbot, writing, "Today we launched ChatGPT. Try talking with it here." But Helen Toner said the board wasn't given a heads-up about the release and, in fact, learned about it from Twitter (now X).

"For years, Sam had made it really difficult for the board to actually do that job by withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening at the company, in some cases outright lying to the board," she said in an interview with Bilawal Sidhu on "The TED AI Show" that aired Tuesday.

Toner said one example was the ChatGPT release, where "the board was not informed in advance."

In November 2023, Altman was briefly ousted, with OpenAI's board at the time saying a review showed he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board."

But OpenAI reinstated Altman as CEO less than a week later after facing internal and external pressure. Nearly all of the company's staff had threatened to quit after Altman's firing, and Microsoft said it would hire Altman to lead an AI team.

Toner resigned from her role as an OpenAI board member a week after Altman returned as CEO.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, though current OpenAI board chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement to the podcast, "We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues."

An independent review of Altman's firing "concluded that the prior board's decision was not based on concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners," Taylor added in his statement to the podcast.

• Tech bosses are getting noticed for their style in 2024.
• As the weather heats up, tech workers should consider updating their wardrobes as well.
• Fashion experts suggested brighter colors and more accessories to make an impression this summer.

Tech's top players are switching over to their summer styles — and workers should follow suit if they want to dress to impress.

Whether accessorizing more like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos or opting for sporty outfits like Bill Gates and Sergey Brin, there are more ways to express personal style than the stereotypical tech uniform of jeans and a t-shirt.

Unlike finance workers — who typically have to keep it a bit more professional — the tech industry is known for its looser dress code and emphasis on an open work culture (though that's shifting in recent years).

Still, tech workers have begun hiring stylists to help them dress better for work. Some pay tens of thousands to improve their look, but others aren't so quick to give up their beloved t-shirts, stylists told The San Francisco Standard.

"If you can get them to try something new, and they get a compliment from someone soon thereafter, that makes it much easier for them to continue updating their wardrobe," image consultant Eddie Hernandez told SF Standard.  

With Meta and others calling their workers back into the office over the past year, employees will have to update their wardrobes for in-person work.

Here's what fashion experts believe tech workers should be wearing this summer.

Ditch the grey tones for colors

No more black, white, or grey.

Hernandez told the SF Standard that he's discouraging clients from going for the drab shades "that are dominant in SF," and asking them to reach for colorful options instead in 2024.

As the temperature heats up, workers might want to put their shackets away and go for the more typical techy t-shirt.

For his clients who want more luxurious options, Hernandez recommended the $80 Niels Standard t-shirt from Norse Project. Entry level employees who want to save money can shop similar styles at Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch for cheaper.

It looks like Gates got the memo and opted for sporty, breathable shorts and Adidas sneakers while off-duty at Zuckerberg's 40th birthday.

Find chic ways to stay cool

Wearing jean shorts and a tank top to work might not go over well — even at the most laid-back tech firms.

Save that for the weekend, and instead, find ways to stay cool during your commute and still look fashionable around the office. In its round-up of summer office outfits, Cosmopolitan included mostly maxi dresses, wide-leg jumpsuits, and light-weight dress shirts.

Loose, breathable clothes catch the wind and keep your body cool while also adhering to a corporate dress code.

Don't be afraid of accessorizing

Tech workers can take notes from Zuckerberg on how jewelry can elevate their look. The Meta CEO has been the subject of viral memes since adding a necklace to his outfits.

"Heading into the summer season, I can see the entry-level tech crowd wearing something clean and understated," Carol Altieri, COO of Bob's Watches told Business Insider.

Altieri suggested a Rolex Explorer for a high-earner starting their watch collection if they want a "clean, low-profile look." The timepiece starts at around $7,000.

To pair with the watch, jewelry brand Ritani told BI that tennis bracelets and necklaces are trendy ways to elevate an outfit.

Ria Papasifakis, vice president of e-commerce at Ritani, said that X CEO Linda Yaccarino is an example of the trend of wearing white gold accessories and putting on chunky bracelets.

"We like to call it the 'powerhouse' look," Papasifakis told BI.

• Singapore Airlines' deadly flight turbulence was so bad the plane dropped 178 feet in four seconds.
• Investigators say the G-forces in the plane caused passengers to fly out of their seats. 
• The turbulence over Myanmar led to one death and over a hundred injuries, some severe.

The turbulence on the deadly Singapore Airlines flight last week was so severe that the plane dropped 178 feet in just four seconds, investigators say.

Officials from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau released a new report on Wednesday revealing what happened on board the May 20-21 flight from London to Singapore, where turbulence was so bad that it killed one passenger and injured over a hundred.

The report details just how suddenly the plane experienced a catastrophic drop, one of the worst turbulence incidents in recent history.

While flying over Myanmar, the plane most likely passed over an area of developing bad weather that caused light turbulence and "slight vibration" for about 20 seconds, according to the report.

The report says an upward air draft caused an uncontrolled altitude and speed increase. In response, the pilots pulled the plane back down in an attempt to reach 37,000 feet and engaged the plane's speed brakes, the investigators found.

The plane then experienced — in just 4.6 seconds — a rapid change from positive to negative G force and back again, causing passengers who weren't wearing their seatbelts to fly out of their seats and then get slammed back down again, according to the report.

During those few seconds, the plane fell a total of 178 feet, the report found. After that drop, the pilots were able to quickly stabilize the aircraft, investigators said.

The entire incident, from slightly rough air to deadly turbulence, lasted just one minute and two seconds, according to the report.

In that short time, a 73-year-old British passenger was killed, and more than a hundred other people on board were hurt, including several with paralysis, skull and back trauma, and brain injuries, The Associated Press reported.

Once the pilots learned that passengers were injured, they diverted the flight to Bangkok, according to the investigators' report. The flight didn't hit any more turbulence before it landed safely.

Singapore's transportation bureau said it's still investigating the turbulence. Singapore Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.