Cher Scarlett said she didn't realize how hard it would be to find a job after leaving Apple.
Cher Scarlett
Cher Scarlett resigned from Apple after helping to start the employee activist movement, #AppleToo.
She struggled to find a tech job and later ended up homeless, living out of shelters.
She now attends community college, sees a bright future, and has no regrets about leaving Apple.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cher Scarlett, a 40-year-old former programmer and current community college student based in Southern California. It's been edited for length and clarity.
Growing up in a chaotic household, I never had much of a choice but to figure things out on my own. At age 6, I learned how to bake bread when my family needed dinner, and in middle school, I used that same initiative to teach myself how to code.
My home life worsened, and I dropped out of high school and went down a dark path. When I got pregnant at 19, I knew I wanted a better life for my daughter. I earned my GED with a near-perfect math score and broke into tech as a front-end engineer without a college degree. My tech jobs became my identity and source of self-worth.
Twenty years after starting my tech career, I quit my job at Apple. What followed was one of the hardest times of my life, but it was what I needed to finally see my true value.
My engineering career was fun at times, but unfulfilling
I worked for companies such as Blizzard, Starbucks, and USA Today as a software engineer. I had the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects, but I felt unfulfilled. I was always the activist type at work, speaking out against injustice, and I kept looking for a company that I felt like was making a positive impact on its community and employees.
When I was hired as a principal software engineer at Apple in April of 2020, I thought it was what I'd been looking for: Apple invested in education, installed computers in elementary schools, and even advocated for human and environmental rights. It seemed to embody the counterculture and activist movements that had been ingrained in my identity as someone who grew up in the Seattle area in the 1990s.
I started the #Appletoo movement and had no idea it would impact my career
About a year after I started working at Apple, coworkers and I created the #AppleToo movement, where we gathered testimonials from employees who shared their allegations of harassment, discrimination, abuse, and more.
I later helped send an official open letter to Apple asking for specific changes in how the company handled labor-related issues and complaints.
Two months later, I resigned. I didn't view what I did as something that could ruin my career or put myself in a position where I couldn't provide for my daughter. I was still taught when you see something, say something — so that's what I did.
After I quit Apple, I couldn't find another tech job
I had mixed feelings about my departure. I felt grief and disbelief at how it was ending, but I was self-assured and excited to reshape my vision of how I could impact the world with the software I worked on. I wasn't fearless, but I had a lot of belief that I'd find another programming job because it had never been an issue in the past.
I applied to places that seemed to align with my values, but I wasn't hired. Some hiring managers told me it was because I was underqualified without a college degree.
In August 2023, a year and a half after I left Apple, I ran out of money to pay my bills and enrolled in a community college to pursue a degree in computer science. Not only was it out of desperation because I needed a job to take care of my daughter and myself, but also because without that part of my identity, I felt like nothing.
I experienced homelessness before enrolling in community college
The same month I enrolled, I left an abusive situation in my personal life. I had to send my daughter to live with someone else, and I lived out of my car. I ended up withdrawing from my classes.
I spent some time in shelters before getting referred to an intensive, 10-week domestic violence program. I went to classes daily and counseling sessions multiple times a week to talk about why, my whole life, I kept going towards abusive situations. I realized that I put all of my self-worth into my identity as a software engineer and neglected the rest of myself.
I left the program feeling like a completely different person and re-enrolled in community college, but this time it was for something I've always been passionate about — astrophysics and earth sciences.
I'm on track to graduate with highest honors this spring, and I just applied to transfer programs. I don't know what I'm going to do with my degree yet, but I know that it's something that'll make me happy.
I don't have any regrets about leaving Apple
If I could go back and change anything about the time I left Apple, it would be that I reached out for help with the domestic violence I was facing, instead of suffering in secret.
I'm redefining what success means to me, and it has nothing to do with money or prestige. I've landed an internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a research assistant position at Caltech. It's interesting because the thing that has gotten me noticed at these places is my programming experience. I'm finally in a place where that's no longer my whole identity, but it's a part of myself that I'm getting to reclaim.
College has done for me something that no other part of my life has given me. I feel rewarded for my hard work. Getting that positive attention means everything to the bright little girl who never got any and has helped me learn to truly value my whole self.
If you quit your job for an unconventional path and want to share your story, please reach out to this reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.
After ChatGPT blindsided the company in 2022 and turned OpenAI into the face of generative AI, Google spent three years working to regain its footing.
The company launched Gemini 3, calling it its most advanced model yet. The positive reviews the AI bot has received since its debut could be the clearest sign yet that Google's turnaround is real.
Now, it's OpenAI that appears to be on its heels. As first reported by The Information, Sam Altman sent employees a memo outlining a "code red" situation and calling for rapid improvements to ChatGPT, a sign that OpenAI is taking Google's latest advance seriously.
Here is a look at the differences between GPT-5.1 and Gemini 3, and which one might better suit your needs.
How do ChatGPT-5.1 and Gemini 3 compare in price?
ChatGPT offers a free version, limited to about 10 messages every three hours, with slower response times during peak hours. The free version lacks advanced data analysis features and the ability to create custom GPTs.
ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month, which gives you unlimited chats and the newest features like AI image generation. For a professional power user, there is also ChatGPT Pro at $200 a month, which provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI's models and offers prioritizedresponse times at peak hours. Groups can buyChatGPT Team, starting at $25 per user a month, for a collaborative workspace to share resources and custom GPTs.
Google takes a similar approach with Gemini. There's a free tier, but users are limited to five prompts for all tools and up to 100 images per day, and five deep research reports a month. The AI uses a token system to calculate how many more times a task can be performed.
An upgrade to Google AI Pro, which costs $19.99 a month, unlocks the latest model, as well as coding tools, the Gemini assistant in Chrome, and access to Gemini in Google apps. This plan is free for a year for all students. If a basic paid plan is still not enough, Google AI Ultra comes at $249.99 a month. This top-tier plan significantly increases the number of credits the user has to generate AI videos, and it comes with a YouTube Premium subscription.
Where can you access ChatGPT-5 versus Gemini 3?
Where the two tools diverge is in how they integrate with other apps.
ChatGPT works with a wide range of third-party services through plugins, connecting to tools like Slack, Zapier, Instacart, Trello, and more. It's easy for developers to build ChatGPT into their own apps.
In October, OpenAI launched a browser called Atlas that allows users to access GPT straight from the browser. Atlas itself is also powered by GPT and has a chat-style search bar.
Gemini, meanwhile, is built into Google's ecosystem. It plugs directly into Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, Sheets, Calendar, and other Workspace apps. It is also available to developers through Google AI Studio and Google Cloud.
Gemini 3 is the first time Google is introducing its new AI model to search immediately upon release. Without downloading an app or visiting a separate webpage, users can access Gemini 3 in Google search by clicking "AI mode." This could be a major advantage for anyone who already works in Google's world and needs a productivity tool.
Why is everyone talking about Gemini 3?
Google's new Gemini 3 model has been met with a wave of praise since its release in early November, and the buzz is starting to put pressure on rivals.
There are a few reasons Gemini 3 has AI enthusiasts excited.
For starters, the model is built directly into Google Search. Paying subscribers can select a new "Thinking" mode that pipes Gemini's reasoning capabilities into search queries, producing more detailed, context-aware results.
Gemini 3 is also touting accuracy gains. As Business Insider's Hugh Langley reported, the company shared new benchmark results showing Gemini 3 scored 37.5% without access to other tools on Humanity's Last Exam, a 2,500-question test covering math, science, history, and reasoning. Google's head of product, Tulsee Doshi, described the results as evidence that Gemini 3 solves math and science problems "with a very high degree of reliability."
In the same Humanity's Last Exam without access to other tools, GPT-5.1 scored 26.5%.
Mayank Kejriwal, a principal scientist at the USC Information Sciences Institute who leads theartificial intelligence and complex systems group, told Business Insider that Gemini 3 marks the biggest leap in large language models this year. Other models only saw "incremental updates."
Kejriwal also pointed to the LMArena leaderboard, where users ask questions and rate responses without knowing which AI chatbot they are engaging with. Gemini 3 is leading in overall score, while ChatGPT-5.1 ranks third, about 300 points behind.
"With Gemini 3, it seems like it is processing text, video, audio, and code in a unified manner," Kejriwal said. "So it's almost like we as humans, we're unified, and your one brain can do all of these different things at the same time, and that's the artificial general intelligence vision — that you're able to do all of these things under one umbrella."
The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.
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For Love & Money is a column from Business Insider answering your relationship and money questions.
This week, a reader wonders how to teach their children to recognize their financial privilege.
Our columnist suggests centering gratitude in their children's lives and healing their own inner child's relationship with money.
Dear For Love and Money,
My kids are growing up with way more financial security and privilege than I had as a kid. That makes me hugely happy, but I'm struggling to help them understand their privilege and appreciate the value of a dollar.
They're not spoiled brats, but there's a level of expectation, because things that were unfathomable to me as a child — yearly vacations, expensive extracurricular activities — are just the norm for my kids, who are in early elementary school.
I like that my kids get to do things I couldn't do when I was their age. However, what's your advice for getting them to understand how lucky they are? Does that just come with age? Or is this more about me coming to terms with my own hang-ups about a changed financial status?
Sincerely,
Raising Rich Kids
Dear Raising Rich Kids,
It's the natural instinct of every parent to want more for our kids than we had ourselves. It's also natural to think, when we see anyone living a life we perceive as easier than our own, Must be nice. Reconciling these two natural responses takes practice and will be the key to navigating how you feel about the privileged circumstances you've provided for your children.
You asked me if the solution is teaching your kids to understand their luck or if it's getting over your own hang-ups — I think it's a bit of both.
Helping your children understand their privilege is an important part of this conversation. As parents, we're responsible for ensuring they learn not to be entitled, but teaching our kids to recognize their privilege is different from teaching them to feel guilty about it.
This world of security and privilege that you've provided your children is the only world they know; it's not a problem that needs to be solved. Your kids have done nothing wrong by being born lucky. The difference between teaching your kids to recognize their privilege and instilling guilt in them is gratitude.
Make gratitude a central part of their lives
The best way to do that is by first modeling it yourself. You mention that they take for granted things you wouldn't have dreamed of when you were their age. Tell them this! However, be mindful not to frame it as a guilt trip — but rather as your own story.
For instance, instead of saying something like, "When I was your age, I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven if my mom took me anywhere outside the county," reminisce with your kids about the special little events from your childhood that felt like a really big deal to you. Don't deliver the story like a morality lecture, but don't shy away from the bits that highlight your relative lack of privilege either. Just share pieces of yourself with your children, and trust them to fit the puzzle together.
Remain vocally in awe of your good fortune even now. Your kids will pick up on this thanks-centered worldview and adopt it themselves.
Another way to instill gratitude is to create regular opportunities for giving thanks. Encourage them to write thank-you cards, initiate "one thing you're grateful for" round robins every holiday, family meeting, and long car ride, and introduce them to the idea of gratitude journaling or a gratitude jar. The more often you do it, the more regularly they'll reflect on the good in their lives.
Creating opportunities for your children to give back is another way to guide them away from entitlement issues. Generosity is a habit; get them hooked on it by embedding it into their lives. Give often and regularly, and bring them with you.
Find a local charity that allows children to volunteer and get the whole family involved. Explain to them why it's important to give not only money, but also time. Give them perspective and help them understand that what they take for granted could be the dream of someone else dealt a different hand in life.
Meet your children halfway
But as you mentioned at the end of your letter, your path forward isn't only about improving your children's relationship with their privilege; it'll also require that you address your hang-ups around your improved financial status.
Growing up in a vastly different financial status than you achieve in adulthood can be difficult to adjust to. I know you're happy to be able to give your kids the financial security you never had, but I wonder if on some level you are viewing your children's cushy circumstances through the envious eyes of your inner child: Must be nice. Meanwhile, your inner child, eager to make up for past deprivation. may also be the one creating that cushy life for your kids.
As I mentioned above, all of this is normal. Any comparison-driven resentment you may feel or desire to make up for your own childhood through your kids is a natural human instinct, and you're not a bad person for having these feelings. You're simply human.
That said, I know you don't want to feel resentment toward your kids, even subconsciously, which is why I think the first thing you need to do is recognize where you are viewing things from the perspective of your inner child, so that you can step away from it and step into the perspective of your children. Journaling, setting aside a block of time for reflection, or even investing in a few financial therapy sessions could all be part of your path toward healing your inner child's experience as you come to terms with how different the life you've created for your children is.
If, upon further reflection, you realize there are ways you've started to approach money with a new mindset that don't align with your values, then it may be worth considering whether you want to make some financial changes. For example, maybe you feel you've started throwing money at problems your kids encounter rather than sitting down and working through them together, or you've gotten into a habit of buying them whatever they ask for without conversations about the value of what's being purchased and whether it's necessary.
However, if you are simply worried about the potential impacts of privilege on your children and feel aligned with the lifestyle you're providing for them, you don't need to deny your children nice things just to prove a point.
Trust in your abilities as a parent; after all, you said yourself that your children aren't spoiled brats, and that's no small feat. And don't forget that the luckiest thing about your children's lives is that they have you — a parent who wanted to give them everything, and so you did.
Rooting for all of you,
For Love & Money
A version of this article was originally published in January 2022.
Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.
Applying for a home loan is a pain. You have to produce a heap of documents — bank statements, tax returns, employment records, tallies of investment accounts — to prove the stability of your financial footing, then wait for a mortgage underwriter to comb through all of it before giving you the thumbs up. I spoke with one exasperated homebuyer who described the process as a "borderline invasion of privacy."
While the average American submits to a financial colonoscopy en route to their dream home, wannabe real estate moguls have found a way to sidestep the hassle. With the help of a once-obscure type of loan, they've built mini-empires ranging from a few homes to a few hundred — without the usual scrutiny from lenders. These landlords include small-time investors eager to expand their portfolios, TikTok tycoons seeking new streams of real estate revenue, and seasoned property managers looking to make smart bets. In recent years, they've taken out billions of dollars' worth of "debt-service coverage ratio" loans — often abbreviated as DSCR — to hoover up homes. The loans enable income-seeking owners to quickly purchase rental properties while dodging annoying questions about their job history or outstanding debts. DSCRs may sound complicated, but obtaining one is relatively straightforward: A landlord just has to show their lender that the desired property will generate enough rent to cover the monthly payments and other basic expenses, such as taxes and insurance. The lender focuses on the property's cash flow, not the borrower's personal creditworthiness.
For some of these landlords, the cash isn't flowing as planned. Serious delinquencies on DSCR loans have nearly quadrupled in the past three years, data from the real estate analytics firm Cotality shows. Although the troubled loans account for only a small fraction of the total dollar amount of outstanding DSCR loans, they're a sign that debt-laden landlords face shakier economics amid a rental market slowdown. And while people in the industry defend the idea behind the loans — "It's still a great product," one lending veteran tells me — they acknowledge the spread of some sketchy practices that contributed to the spike in bad debt, including ambitious rent targets, hasty approvals, and loans for properties where the rental income wouldn't even cover the basic monthly payments.
Despite all the hand-wringing over Wall Street-backed giants gobbling up homes, it's the small and midsize players — prime candidates for DSCR loans — that make up the lion's share of investor purchases. If lenders tighten their standards in response to the recent turbulence, that could mean fewer budding land barons angling for houses. Regular buyers might benefit from less competition for available homes or the forced sales of some of these places. But a little shakiness in the short term doesn't mean these loans, along with the investors seeking real estate riches, will disappear. Big asset managers, keen on putting their money to work in real estate, have embraced the product. And with more people turning to rentals instead of buying, more landlords will take on this debt to multiply their holdings — even if some of their dreams of building real estate kingdoms come crumbling down.
Most people are content to snag their small slice of the American dream, buying one or maybe a couple of properties that they can call home. But there's also a growing class of entrepreneurs chasing real-estate riches. Say you decide to become one of those landlords: You own a couple of rental homes that pull in good money, but you're itching to buy more. Odds are you'll need a loan — it's expensive, and probably unwise, to tie up all your cash in a property when you could use it to do all kinds of other things, like pay for repairs or maybe even purchase more places. The Blackstones and Pretiums of the world have ample access to debt, but it's trickier for a little guy like yourself. Even if your finances are golden, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae limit the number of so-called "conventional loans" you can get to buy up houses and turn them into rentals. Alternatively, you may encounter a limit with your debt-to-income ratio — you can only take on so many liabilities before the typical lenders put the brakes on any further borrowing. This is when you may turn to the world of DSCR loans, where a bevy of lenders promise quick closings, little inspection of your personal finances, and practically unlimited access to more money down the line, as long as you can find rental properties that promise to deliver cash.
True to their name, debt-service coverage ratio loans center on one key metric: the ratio of the property's expected rental income to its mortgage payment and basic monthly expenses, such as taxes, insurance, and association fees. Let's say the home you've set your sights on brings in $3000 in rent each month, while those expenses total $2,500. Divide that first number by the second, and you get a coverage ratio of 1.2 — well within the typical range for a DSCR loan. Lenders prefer the ratio to be above 1, so that the soon-to-be owner has a little cushion to cover unexpected expenses that are likely to arise, such as a broken water heater or repairs on an aging HVAC system.
DSCR loans for residential investors have been around for more than a decade, but they really came into vogue during the pandemic, when borrowing rates dropped and investors saw a chance to capitalize on rising home prices and juicy rent hikes. Landlord influencers took to social media to preach the gospel of BRRRR — an acronym for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat — which they hailed as the golden path to financial freedom. Some of these evangelists leaned on DSCR loans to buy or refinance their properties, extracting equity from their homes and using the funds to scoop up more rentals. Larger firms also began purchasing loans from smaller private lenders, packaging them into portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and selling the resulting income streams as bonds, a process known as securitization. The embrace by so-called "institutional investors," such as insurance companies and asset managers, who purchase these bonds, along with growing demand from small- to midsize landlords, enabled the industry to flourish. Data from SFR Analytics, a real estate analytics firm specializing in single-family rental homes, shows that DSCR lenders churned out more than $44 billion in loans in 2022, up from just $5.6 billion in 2019.
"It really went from an unknown asset class, or very small asset class, overlooked by much of the commercial world," says Hunter Latta, an executive at the DSCR lender Renovo Capital.
"Fast forward to today, it's a full-blown, widely accepted asset class."
However, several things happened in 2022 that made it trickier for investors to wring cash out of their properties. The Federal Reserve began jacking up interest rates to fight inflation, making it more expensive to borrow money. Home prices had surged in the Covid era, so the properties landlords had invested in during the pandemic came with larger loan balances and heftier monthly payments. With Americans feeling financial pressure and fewer forming new households, the pace of rent growth also slowed. By March 2023, according to Cotality, single-family rents were up just 4.3% year over year, down from the 13.3% jump recorded a year prior. Some landlords found themselves in a bind: They'd taken on loans with higher rates, expecting rents to keep pace. But investing in real estate was no longer the slam dunk it had been just a year or two earlier.
The percentage of DSCR loans in "serious delinquency" — meaning that payments are at least 90 days late or the property is in foreclosure proceedings — has nearly quadrupled since mid-2022, Cotality data shows. Just under 2% of securitized DSCR loans (those packaged together and sold as bonds) fell into that bucket as of August, compared with around 0.5% at the same point in 2022. That may not sound like much, but quadrupling the amount of troubled debt has been enough for lenders to take notice. By contrast, only about 1% of conventional loans are seriously delinquent, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Roby Robertson, an executive vice presidentatLoanLogics, a mortgage technology company, likens this period to a "hangover in a really hot market." The most challenged loans these days were originated in 2022 and 2023, right when the market was turning. Landlords who might have aimed for a conventional loan couldn't make the math work, so they turned to a DSCR to make their investment dreams come true. Some lenders offered quick closings and "sub-unity loans," which meant that the debt coverage ratio on the home was less than 1 — the rent wouldn't be enough to cover the loan payments right out of the gate, so the landlord was either betting on the home's value increasing substantially in the future, or that rents would climb enough to cover the costs. On the other side of the deal, the lender might figure that the landlord had enough skin in the game to make it work: DSCR borrowers usually have to put down at least 20% of the home's value, and often significantly more, in order to get approval, which makes them unlikely to walk away from a property even if they're losing money on it.
Other landlords chose to refinance a traditional loan into a DSCR one, a double-edged sword: Though the new loans allowed them to capitalize on higher home prices and pull money out for more deals, they also wound up locked into higher borrowing rates, requiring higher rents to make the payments.
"There is a direct correlation between cash-out refinances and delinquency," says Alex Offutt, a DSCR executive and industry veteran, referring to landlords who took out loans right as borrowing rates jumped. "You're taking out the cash to go buy more properties, but rents aren't keeping pace with property values, right? So you had people that essentially got themselves into an over-leveraged position where they were not able to collect the rent they thought they could."
Some of these loans left other real estate lenders scratching their heads.
"We'll have a loan that we look at and say there's no way we'd finance that, no way we'd get to that leverage amount," says Sean Kelly-Rand, a managing partner at RD Advisors, an investment firm in Boston. "And then all of a sudden we'll see them get a DSCR loan, and we're like, what?"
Despite the uptick in delinquencies, DSCR loans continue to boom. Landlords secured more than $38 billion in DSCR loans tied to over 100,000 properties last year, according to SFR Analytics. Through October of this year, lenders have cranked out another $32.8 billion on almost 89,000 rental homes. The country's two largest mortgage lenders, United Wholesale Mortgage and Rocket Mortgage, both now offer DSCR loans, with Rocket announcing its entrance to the space just last month.
Comparing recent delinquency rates to 2022 can be misleading, says Robertson, the LoanLogics executive. Low interest rates and rising home prices at the time made it relatively easy for almost anyone to make money in real estate. Additionally, delinquencies are now trending in the right direction, having decreased slightly from a peak of 2.2% early this year. With this perspective in mind, Robertson refers to the rise in bad debt as "natural growing pains of an industry that's kind of hot right now."
"With the market growing as fast as it's growing, I think it's actually pretty healthy," Robertson tells me.
Owners of single-family rental homes face a mixed bag, though. The rent-versus-buy math tilts firmly in their favor — an analysis by the research firm Zelman concluded that the calculation leans toward renting to a degree that hasn't been seen since the early 1980s. If people continue to choose renting over buying, that'll be a boon for landlords. On the other hand, rent growth is middling. Single-family rents in August were up just 1.4% year over year, according to Cotality — a 15-year low. And while some of these landlords may be sweating over stagnant or even falling rents, investors who fall behind on their DSCR loans aren't totally stuck: Because home prices have generally climbed over the past few years, delinquent borrowers are usually able to sell the house and pay off the loan, says Sujoy Saha, an analyst at S&P Global. Still, if fewer well-funded investors are chasing properties and more cash-strapped mini-moguls are dumping their distressed assets, that could mean better odds for regular first-time buyers, who often seek the kinds of entry-level properties that are typically turned into rentals.
For wannabe BRRRRers or members of the FIRE movement, skyrocketing home prices and rock-bottom borrowing rates made the rental business seem like the best way to make a buck just a few years ago. Landlords still see plenty of opportunities to come out ahead — but ultra-cheap loans are no longer part of the equation.
"People got hooked on the cheap money," Offutt tells me. "Anybody can be successful when the money's cheap."
James Rodriguez is a correspondent on Business Insider's Discourse team.
If there is one ETF built specifically for people who never want to think about asset allocation again, it is the BetaShares Diversified All Growth ETF.
This fund is a fully diversified, growth-focused portfolio wrapped into a single ETF. It spreads your money across over 8,000 stocks worldwide through underlying index exposures.
Inside the fund’s underlying holdings, you will find global giants like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), along with broad exposure to the Australian market and other developed economies. It is designed for long-term compounding, with no need to rebalance or manage the portfolio.
For investors who want a simple, set-and-forget strategy, this ASX ETF is about as close as it gets to a complete, all-in-one solution. It was recently recommended by analysts at Betashares.
For those wanting exposure to the world’s most influential share market, the iShares S&P 500 ETF is hard to beat. It tracks the S&P 500 Index, which includes the 500 largest and most dominant companies in the United States.
These include global powerhouses such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD). Together, they represent many of the world’s most profitable, innovative, and globally competitive corporations.
The S&P 500 has delivered strong long-term returns for decades. By simply holding this fund, investors automatically participate in the growth of world-leading stocks without ever needing to choose between them.
Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)
The Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF gives you exposure to more than 1,200 international stocks across Europe, Asia, and North America, but excluding Australia. This means it offers deep diversification.
This broad global footprint helps smooth out volatility and ensures your portfolio isn’t overly concentrated in a single market. Overall, it could be a great long term option for investors that don’t want to pick stocks.
Should you invest $1,000 in Betashares Diversified High Growth Etf right now?
Before you buy Betashares Diversified High Growth Etf shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Betashares Diversified High Growth Etf wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Tech stocks had a nice session as well. The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ) saw a 0.69% lift by the closing bell.
Next came communications shares, as you can see by the S&P/ASX 200 Communication Services Index (ASX: XTJ)’s 0.29% bounce.
Gold stocks saw some decent demand as well. The All Ordinaries Gold Index (ASX: XGD) banked a 0.28% increase this session.
Broader mining shares tied that rise, with the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) also adding 0.28%.
Financial stocks weren’t left out of the party. The S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ) saw a 0.21% uptick.
Finally, consumer discretionary shares managed to get over the line, illustrated by the S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary Index (ASX: XDJ)’s 0.2% bump.
Top 10 ASX 200 shares countdown
Today’s best share came down to energy stock Boss Energy Ltd (ASX: BOE). Boss shares surged 6.96% higher this hump day to close at $1.69 each.
This gain came despite no news out from the company. Most of Boss’ peers did well today, too, though.
Here’s how the other best performers pulled up at the kerb:
Our top 10 shares countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary that shows which companies made big moves on the day. Check in at Fool.com.au after the weekday market closes to see which stocks make the countdown.
Should you invest $1,000 in Boss Energy Ltd right now?
Before you buy Boss Energy Ltd shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Boss Energy Ltd wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service he’s run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
San Francisco is suing major food brands, accusing them of fueling a public health crisis with ultra-processed foods.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
San Francisco is suing 11 major food brands, accusing the companies of fueling a public health crisis.
It accused brands like Coca-Cola and Nestlé of selling processed foods that lead to diabetes and obesity.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration cracks down on processed foods.
San Francisco is going after food brands that produce "ultra-processed foods," accusing the companies of fueling a public health crisis.
The 64-page lawsuit, filed on December 2 by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, accused some of the country's biggest food brands of selling dangerous, ultra-processed foods to residents of San Francisco.
It named 11 brands as defendants: The Kraft Heinz Company, Mondelez International, Post Holdings, The Coca-Cola Company, Pepsico Inc., General Mills, Nestlé, Kellanova, WK Kellogg Co., Mars Inc., and Conagra Brands.
The lawsuit said that the brands had profited from selling ultra-processed foods, which make people crave what they otherwise would not.The lawsuit accused the brands of failing to include health warnings, making fraudulent claims about the products being healthy, and of targeted marketing at children.
Products from these brands include cereals, candies, soft drinks, and ready-to-eat meals.
"They designed food to be addictive, they knew the addictive food they were engineering was making their customers sick, and they hid the truth from the public," the lawsuit wrote, adding that taxpayers were left to foot the bill of a resulting public health crisis.
It said that ultra-processed foods majorly contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses.
Chiu called for the brands to cease further deceptive marketing and pay civil penalties to the city of San Francisco.
Representatives for the 11 brands did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The lawsuit comes as the US is clamping down on processed foods, a result of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" movement.
In April, Kennedy said he would phase out eight petroleum-based food dyes in the US by 2027. And in July, President Donald Trump said that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its products in the US, instead of corn syrup that it now uses.
They’re two of Australia’s big 4 major banks and they’ve both enjoyed periods of great growth over the past 12 months. But when it comes to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX: WBC) and their shares, one is expected to outpace the other over the next 12 months.
Are CBA shares a buy for 2026?
CBA shares are trading in the green on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of writing, the shares are 0.21% higher for the day at $152.56 a piece. But over the past month, the shares have tumbled 13.09%, dragging the price 3.31% lower than this time last year.
The share price crash in early-November followed the banking giant’s quarterly update. The bank reported a 1% increase in its quarterly cash net profit after tax and a strong CET1 ratio of 11.8%, above regulatory requirements. But the results disappointed investors and raised concerns about the bank’s premium share price valuation. Investors started hitting the sell button in panic in what I think signalled the beginning of the bank’s share price correction.
Analysts also seem to think the share price still looks expensive at current levels, with many expecting the stock’s value to shrink further in 2026.
This month, Medallion Financial Group’s Stuart Bromley confirmed his sell recommendation on Australia’s biggest bank (courtesy of The Bull). He said that while CBA remains a solid business, the share price is too high. He pointed out that the bank is trading on a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 25 times and a modest dividend yield of about 3.15%. This means its valuation sits well above global peers.
Many other analysts seem to hold a similar view on the shares. Data shows that out of 15 analysts, 10 have a strong sell rating on CBA shares and another 3 have a sell rating. Some expect the bank’s share price to drop as low as $96.07, which implies a huge potential downside of 37% over the next 12 months.
Are Westpac shares a buy for 2026?
Westpac shares are also trading in the green at the time of writing, up 0.42% for the day at $37.28 each. Over the past month, Westpac shares have dropped 6.4%, but they’re still 10.89% higher over the year.
Like CBA shares, Westpac stock also tumbled after the bank released an unexciting FY25 result in early November, however, the drop wasn’t anywhere near as dramatic. The bank’s net profit after tax dropped 1% over the year. And after excluding notable items, net profit reduced by 2% year over year. But the bank hiked its full-year dividend to $1.53 per share, representing an increase of 2 cents per share.
I’m not sure now is the best time to buy Westpac shares, but I think 2026 will be a flat year for the banking giant, rather than a year marked by a significant share price drop.Â
Analysts are also unsure about the stock. Out of 16 analysts, data shows 7 have a hold rating on Westpac shares. Another 4 have a sell rating and 5 have a strong sell rating. The average target price of $33.34 implies a potential 10.5% downside over the next 12 months. The lowest target price of $23.03, implies a potential downside of 38.2% at the time of writing.Â
It’s not exactly positive news but when compared to CBA’s outlook, Westpac’s share price projection into 2026 is a little less⦠pessimistic.
Should you invest $1,000 in Westpac Banking Corporation right now?
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Motley Fool contributor Samantha Menzies has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei runs the AI firm through long-form Slack debates — a bold experiment in written leadership.
AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File
Anthropic studied its engineers to assess how AI tools like Claude Code are impacting work.
Employees said they felt more productive and had wider skills, but also shared some concerns.
They reported worries about the impact of AI on collaboration, mentorship, and job relevance.
AI is changing work, and Anthropic studied its own staff to learn exactly how.
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Anthropic shared the findings of its August research study, which surveyed 132 of its engineers and researchers, had 53 detailed interviews, and examined the internal use of Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic coding tool. The study aimed to understand how AI is transforming work at the company and society more broadly.
"We find that AI use is radically changing the nature of work for software developers, generating both hope and concern," the blog read.
Results showed that employees felt they were more productive and "full stack," meaning they could perform a variety of technical tasks.
For example, the study found that 27% of the work that was assisted by Claude consisted of tasks that would not have been done otherwise. These include scaling projects or nice-to-have data dashboards that would not have been cost-effective if done manually.
The Anthropic employees also reported that they could "fully delegate" 0-20% of their work to Claude, especially "easily verifiable" or "boring" tasks.
But employees also expressed concerns about how common AI assistants like Claude were becoming.
"Some found that more AI collaboration meant they collaborated less with colleagues; some wondered if they might eventually automate themselves out of a job," the blog read.
Employees said they were worried about the "atrophy of deeper skillsets" needed to write and check code.
"When producing output is so easy and fast, it gets harder and harder to actually take the time to learn something," one employee said, per the report.
Some employees said they missed social dynamics and mentorship opportunities.
"Claude is now the first stop for questions that used to go to colleagues," the report said. One person told the surveyors: "I like working with people, and it's sad that I 'need' them less now … More junior people don't come to me with questions as often."
The changes Claude Code is bringing to work inside the company also gave software engineers mixed feelings about their future relevance.
"I feel optimistic in the short term, but in the long term I think AI will end up doing everything and make me and many others irrelevant," the blog said, quoting an employee.
Others said that it was hard to predict what their roles would look like in a few years.
Outside Anthropic, employees are showing signs of embracing AI at work and wanting more tools that could improve their productivity.
According to a January McKinsey report on AI in the workplace, 39% of the 3,613 people surveyed self-identify as "Bloomers" — people who are AI optimists who want to collaborate with their company to create responsible AI tools. Another 20% identified as people who want AI to be quickly deployed with few guardrails.
McKinsey also found that even employees who reported AI skepticism expressed familiarity with generative AI tools.
China's top universities are planning to add a new "embodied intelligence" major as Beijing races to train the next wave of robotics talent.
credit should read FANG DONGXU / Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images
China's elite universities plan to launch an undergraduate major in "embodied intelligence."
China says the major is being introduced to meet national demand for talent and "strategic needs."
Some US universities also offer robotics programs as part of their push into embodied intelligence.
China wants more robotics talent.
The country's elite universities are preparing to launch a new undergraduate major in "embodied intelligence," an emerging field that combines AI with robotics.
Seven universities — including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Xi'an Jiaotong University — have applied to offer the new major, according to a public notice published in November by China's Ministry of Education.
These schools sit at the top of the country's engineering and computer-science ecosystem, and several are part of the C9 League, China's equivalent of the Ivy League. Zhejiang University, located in eastern China, is the alma mater of DeepSeek's founder and a growing roster of AI startup leaders.
The ministry said the major is being introduced to meet national demand for talent in "future industries" such as embodied intelligence, quantum technology, and next-generation communications.
In a June notice, the ministry said that universities should "optimize program offerings based on national strategies, market demands, and technological development."
China's embodied intelligence industry is expected to take off. This year, the market could reach 5.3 billion yuan, or $750 million, according to a report republished by the Cyberspace Administration of China. By 2030, it could hit 400 billion yuan and surpass 1 trillion yuan in 2035, according to a report from the Development Research Center of the State Council.
The Beijing Institute of Technology said in its application document that the industry has a shortfall of about one million embodied intelligence professionals.
If adopted, the major would become one of China's newest additions to its higher-education system.
Beijing's push into AI and robotics has been underway for a while. Shanghai Jiao Tong University already runs a "Machine Vision and Intelligence Group" under its School of Artificial Intelligence. Zhejiang University has also set up a "Humanoid Robot Innovation Research Institute," dedicated to "developing humanoid robots that exceed human capabilities in movement and manipulation."
The Chinese tech industry is moving just as quickly. Chinese companies specializing in humanoid robots and autonomous systems have been racing to keep pace with global competitors. In September, Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group, unveiled R1, a humanoid robot that has drawn comparisons to Tesla's Optimus.
In the US, some universities already offer courses and labs for robotics and AI, including Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and New York University.
What the Chinese course offers
China's proposed "embodied intelligence" major is designed with job opportunities in mind.
At the Beijing Institute of Technology, the school plans to enroll 120 undergraduates in the program a year, with 70 expected to continue into graduate programs and 50 headed straight into the workforce, according to its application document.
The university's filing sketches out where those students are likely to go. State-owned giants like Norinco and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation are expected to take more than a dozen graduates, while others are projected to join major tech players, including Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Xiaomi, and BYD.
The major includes courses such as multimodal perception and fusion, embodied human-robot interaction, and machine learning for robotics, according to the university's filing.
