• Apple executives knew they needed to upgrade Siri after they started using ChatGPT. 
• The company's software chiefs spent weeks using the OpenAI chatbot before making the decision.
• Apple is expected to unveil its AI offerings in its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple executives realized their digital assistant Siri badly needed an upgrade after they began testing OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT.

The company's software chiefs, Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks using ChatGPT before making the decision, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Federighi and Giannandrea oversee the company's software engineering as well as machine learning and AI strategy respectively. Both report directly to Apple's CEO Tim Cook.

Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Speculation about an impending Siri overhaul comes ahead of the Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which is set to take place from June 10 to June 14. The company is widely expected to unveil its AI offerings then.

Back in February, Cook said in an earnings call that the company spends "a tremendous amount of time and effort" on AI.

"We're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year," Cook told investors on February 1.

Unlike most tech giants, Apple has remained relatively coy about how it intends to compete in the field of AI. The Cupertino-based company hasn't announced any major deals with AI companies like Microsoft or try to scoop up as many AI chips as it can like Meta.

But that isn't to say that Apple has taken its eyes off the wheel.

The tech giant has poached at least 36 former Google employees with AI expertise since 2018, the Financial Times reported in April, citing an analysis of LinkedIn profiles it conducted.

Besides participating in the AI talent wars, the company has been quietly working on its own AI chips as well.

Apple has been working with chip-making giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to make AI chips for its own data centers, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

In addition to its in-house efforts, Apple is also in talks with both OpenAI and Google to integrate their chatbots, ChatGPT and Gemini, in the next version of iOS. In fact, Apple is already finalizing an agreement with OpenAI, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The Sam Altman-led AI company has long been on Apple's radar, with Cook admitting in an interview with Good Morning America last year that he, too, uses ChatGPT.

"Yeah, I'm excited about it. I think there's some unique applications for it and you can bet that it's something that we're looking at closely," Cook said.

• McDonald's reportedly plans to launch a limited-time $5 meal.
• In first-quarter earnings, the company's leadership highlighted how inflation has affected customers.
• Other fast food chains are also worried about affordability.

McDonald's is looking to launch a $5 meal in the US in a move to bring back price-sensitive customers.

The meal includes four items, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg and Restaurant Business. Customers would choose between two of the chain's signature burgers — a McChicken or a McDouble — and get four-piece McNuggets, fries, and a drink. The $5 promotion would last for a month, Bloomberg reported.

It's unclear when the promotion would start and if it would apply to the entire US or other geographies.

The discussions about the new deal come two weeks after the fast food giant's first-quarter earnings call, where leadership highlighted how customers are increasingly price-sensitive.

"I think affordability is clearly an area where consumer expectations are heightened," McDonald's chief financial officer Ian Borden said on the call. "Obviously, they're getting hit," by inflation, he added.

The company previewed a value meal on the earnings call without any specifics. CEO Chris Kempczinski said McDonald's has local value meals around the US, but no standard national offering like competitors do.

A $5 meal would be a stark drop from current prices, especially in higher-cost cities, according to a Business Insider analysis.

A meal consisting of the same four items — a McChicken, fries, a drink, and four-piece chicken nuggets — costs $18.26 in downtown New York City. In downtown San Francisco, the McChicken version costs $16.15, and the burger variant costs $17.75.

The new bundle would be priced lower than a Happy Meal, which starts at $6.39 in downtown Manhattan.

The company's stock has fallen about 7% year-to-date as investors worry about rising costs and intensifying fast-food competition.

Fast-food chains across the US are grappling with fewer orders from customers who no longer find their meals affordable. Wendy's, Shake Shack, Starbucks and Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International have all said in their latest earnings call that they will exercise caution on prices.

"We're going to stay careful on pricing," Gunther Plosch, Wendy's CFO, said in its earnings call earlier this month. "I don't think we're going to get too greedy."

Fast-food giants have also been hit by California's new minimum $20 hourly wage for limited-service restaurants. Franchisees that have raised prices are worried they may lose customers to sit-in dining chains like Chili's and Applebee's, which are not subject to the wage hike.

McDonald's did not respond to an immediate request for comment sent outside standard business hours.

• Google Glass existed for almost exactly 10 years before being discontinued.
• Google Glass' failure came amid widespread quality issues and a general lack of adoption.
• Apple's smart glasses, the Apple Vision Pro, seem to be succeeding where Google Glass failed.

First announced in 2012, and then released to a select number of product testers in 2013, Google Glass was thought by many tech experts and industry watchers to be a revolutionary new device that would change the way human beings and technology interacted.

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know those hopes were overblown.

So, what went wrong? A cocktail of factors led to the failure of Google Glass. But before we discuss the demise, let's establish a baseline understanding of this once-promising hardware.

What did Google Glass do?

Google Glass was first developed by a lab formerly known as Google X. The secretive research initiative, which also developed the self-driving car technology now known as Waymo, is now a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

Google Glass was like a heads-up display and a mini computer joined together in one pair of glasses. It placed a small cube of glass just before its wearer's right eye and had a camera inset into the frame beside that cube.

The camera could be used to do things like identify objects or locations or project a restaurant's menu or a subway station's schedule before the user's vision in real time. It could also share images and videos via Google Meet.

Google Glass even integrated with Google Calendar and could show wearers their schedules or event notifications.

Google Glass used the Google search engine to summon information, allowing wearers to navigate the world hands-free and with their eyes raised from their phone while still enjoying all the benefits of a smart device.

The hardware was controlled via voice command or a touchpad on the side of the frame. Google Glass could also do many things a smartphone can, like send and receive texts, take photos, and so on.

Why did Google Glass fail?

Google Glass was released before it was ready. Early users complained about short battery life, slow upload times, inferior camera quality, and spotty voice control and voice recognition abilities.

The system often misheard words and was unable to pick up commands over loud background noise. And despite being essentially a smart pair of glasses, the physical design of early Google Glass editions was not that smart: the arms of the glasses did not fold down, so storing a Google Glass when it was not being worn was a frustration.

It also must be said that, in many ways, Google Glass was an answer to a problem that did not exist. Despite the best efforts of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who frequently wore the glasses in public, the public did not have much interest in the technology.

In fact, many people hated the sense that they were always being filmed and monitored by people wearing Google Glass.

Though the technology had a brief ascendence used in professional settings, with businesses like Volkswagen and Boeing seeing increased productivity in workers wearing a headset, even the specialized "Enterprise Edition" of Google Glass failed. There was simply not enough adoption.

Can you still buy Google Glass?

You can find pairs of Google Glass for sale on Amazon and on eBay and at certain other platforms, so you can still purchase a set for yourself. But Google no longer offers any support for the device, thus if you have an issue with the hardware, you're on your own.

There will be no further updates, no technical assistance, and certainly no repair or replacement of a Google Glass bought via a third-party seller.

You can expect to pay between $150 and $300 on average for a Google Glass set today, though some Enterprise and Expedition editions sell for much more than that. In comparison, a brand-new Apple Vision Pro currently costs $3,499.

How is Apple Vision Pro different from Google Glass?

Whereas Google Glass used a small, semi-transparent screen perched before one eye, an Apple Vision Pro headset fully covers both eyes and can create a truly immersive experience.

And whereas Google Glass simply added to its user's real-time experience, Apple Vision Pro can transform it. The former can display videos, whereas the latter brings you into the visual experience.

Google Glass and Apple Vision Pro also used different control features. As noted, Google Glass was controlled by voice or by touch.

Apple Vision Pro is controlled by hand motions and voice, with those motions being highly precise. You can, for example, type on a virtual keyboard or pinch to zoom with your fingers simply grasping at the air.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is replacing his defense minister with a civilian economist.
• Andrei Belousov will lead Russia's military-industrial complex as Putin prepares for a protracted war.
• The move shows Russia's wartime economy has become a key pillar of growth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced his defense minister with a civilian economist on Sunday. The move has surprised analysts and signaled to some observers that Putin has no intention of ending the war in Ukraine any time soon.

On Sunday, Putin — who was sworn in Tuesday for a fresh six-year term — proposed his new Cabinet.

The Russian leader proposed Andrei Belousov, a 65-year-old former deputy prime minister, as defense minister to replace his longtime ally Sergei Shoigu.

The personnel changes still need to be approved by Russia's parliament, but given Putin's grip on power, there are few doubts they will be checked off.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian defense military's budget is nearing that of the former Soviet Union in the mid-1980s.

"Today on the battlefield, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation," Peskov said of Belousov's appointment, per TASS state news agency.

"Therefore, it is natural that at the current stage, the president decided that the Russian Ministry of Defense should be headed by a civilian," Peskov added.

Putin is putting the war at the center of Russia's economy

Putin's cabinet reshuffle comes as the war in Ukraine drags well into its third year.

Russia continues to face sweeping Western sanctions that were designed to cripple its economy. However, Russia's economy has appeared to remain resilient.

Reports from Russia suggest the country's economy is primarily driven by wartime activities that generate a demand for military goods and services, subsidies that steady the economy, and sharp policy-making from its top central banker, Elvira Nabiullina.

Just last month, Putin denied Russia's economy was moving to a wartime regime.

However, the Russian leader's appointment of a civilian economist with no military experience as defense minister signals Putin expects the military-industrial complex to be a key pillar of Russia's wartime economy amid the conflict in Ukraine.

It suggests Putin may be preparing for a confrontation with NATO in the future, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, wrote on Sunday.

It also points to a long war in Ukraine.

"Belousov's appointment to the position of Russian Defense Minister is a significant development in Putin's efforts to set full economic conditions for a protracted war," the analysts added.

Defense minister Belousov will be a 'financial administrator'

Belousov's appointment to defense minister is unlikely to impact military operations on the ground.

Valery Gerasimov, Russia's top general and chief of general staff, will remain in his position and is expected to continue playing a key role in directing the Ukraine war, Mark Galeotti, the director of the London-based Mayak Intelligence consultancy, told Reuters. Gerasimov reports directly to Putin.

"In that context, having an economist, someone who has been speaking about the need to basically subordinate much of the economy to the needs of the defense sector, makes a certain amount of sense," Galeotti told the news agency. "It is now essentially a financial administrator's job and Belousov can do that."

• Anti-Israel protesters are just engaging in a form of performance art, says Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.
• "Freedom of speech does not give you the right to storm a building or vandalise it," Griffin said.
• Griffin said he was pausing his donations to Harvard over its approach to on campus antisemitism.

Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, 55, isn't a fan of the anti-Israel protesters that have taken over American college campuses.

"The protests on college campuses are almost like performative art, and we're not actually helping Palestinians or Israelis with these surreal protests," the hedge fund billionaire told the Financial Times in a story published Saturday.

Pro-Palestinian protests have rocked American colleges like Columbia University and UCLA since April, with students calling upon their schools to sever any financial ties with Israel.

The ensuing chaos prompted officials to quell the protests by shutting down encampments and conducting mass arrests. More than 2,800 people have been arrested or detained, according to data collected by The New York Times.

"Freedom of speech does not give you the right to storm a building or vandalize it. That's not freedom of speech. That's just anarchy," Griffin said of the student protesters.

The US, Griffin said, has "lost sight of education as the means of pursuing truth and acquiring knowledge." Instead, US colleges were now seized by a narrative that sees the country as one that is "plagued by systemic racism and systemic injustice," he added.

"What you're seeing now is the end-product of this cultural revolution in American education playing out on American campuses, in particular, using the paradigm of the oppressor and the oppressed," Griffin said.

Representatives for Griffin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

This isn't the first time Griffin has weighed in on the anti-Israeli sentiment that has gripped US colleges. Back in January, Griffin said he was pausing his donations to his alma mater, Harvard University over its approach to on campus antisemitism.

Griffin, who donated over $500 to Harvard over four decades, is one of university's most generous donors, per The Harvard Gazette.

"Are we going to educate the future members of the House and Senate and the leaders of IBM?" Griffin said while attending the Managed Funds Association Network Miami conference in January.

"Or are we going to educate a group of young men and women who are caught up in a rhetoric of oppressor and oppressee and, 'This is not fair,' and just frankly whiny snowflakes?" he continued.

When asked about what Harvard should do next, Griffin told the FT that the Ivy League institution should "embrace our Western values" and get their students to "manifest these values throughout the rest of their life."

Representatives for Harvard didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Griffin's criticisms of student protesters highlight the huge influence that Corporate America has on higher education. Besides withholding donations, corporate leaders also hold immense power over the career prospects of college graduates.

Last month, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told CNBC that the oil giant "wouldn't be interested" in hiring students who took part in the anti-Israel protests.

In fact, student protesters will soon find that they are "screwed" when it comes to landing a job, "Shark Tank" host and investor Kevin O'Leary told Fox News' "The Five" earlier this month.

"Here's your résumé with a picture of you burning a flag. See that one. That goes in this pile over here, cause I can get the same person's talent in this pile that's not burning anything," O'Leary said.

• A Ukrainian commander complained that promised defenses in Kharkiv are missing, per the BBC.
• Denys Yaroslavskyi called the lack of defense like mines a "betrayal," blaming corruption or negligence.
• Russia has launched a renewed assault on Kharkiv, with an estimated 35,000 troops pushing on the northern front.

The commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance unit said defenses in Kharkiv have been lacking as Russia tries to push into the region, blaming corruption or negligence from officials.

"There was no first line of defense," Denys Yaroslavskyi told the BBC, which reported from Vovchansk on Sunday. "We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined fields."

Jonathan Beale, a defense correspondent at the outlet, wrote that Yaroslavskyi showed him drone footage of Russian troops walking past Ukraine's northeastern border without resistance.

Yaroslavskyi, who heads a Ukrainian Special Reconnaissance Unit, told the BBC that at least some defenses promised by officials were missing in Kharkiv.

"Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn't a failure. It was a betrayal," he said, per the outlet.

He and his men were set to deploy to the front line in Vovchansk at the time of the BBC's report.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine's General Staff press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Lying on Kharkiv's northeastern border, Vovchansk is one of Ukraine's closest cities to the Russian region of Belgorod. Kharkiv saw months of heavy fighting in the early stages of the war, when Russian forces initially seized it but were later rebuffed by Kyiv.

Now, Russia is trying to re-establish a foothold in the region through a new offensive, claiming this weekend to capture several border villages.

Days earlier, Ukrainian military observers reported that between 30,000 to 35,000 Russian troops had gathered for the push.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said on Sunday that the situation in Kharkiv had "significantly worsened."

"Currently, there are ongoing battles in the border areas along the state border with the Russian Federation," Syrskyi wrote in a message on Telegram.

It's unclear what's the Kremlin's intended goal for a renewed assault on Kharkiv. Russian leader Vladimir Putin in March suggested that Russia create a "buffer zone" there that would shield Belgorod from possible Ukrainian attacks, a comment that Kyiv said was a sign Moscow was preparing to attack in the north.

The Kremlin has since 2022 been accusing Ukraine of shelling Belgorod, though this also comes amid repeated reports of Russian troops misfiring or dropping bombs by mistake on civilians there.

Most recently, an apartment building in Belgorod partially collapsed on Sunday due to shelling, killing 13 and injuring 20, per local authorities. Russia blamed the deaths on fragments of Ukrainian missiles intercepted by air defense systems.

As for the fighting in Kharkiv, Vovchansk has reportedly been a focal point for the latest Russian attack, with conflicting reports on Sunday of whether the settlement has been seized.

Thousands of people have been evacuating Vovchansk, which originally had a population of 20,000 that's dwindled to 3,000 since the war started, per The BBC.

The Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War has estimated that Russia will need far more troops and equipment on the northern front if it wants to seize Kharkiv city itself.

It cited a report in March by Russian independent outlet Verstka, which quoted a Kremlin source saying Russia will need some 300,000 more troops, or 10 times more than the estimated personnel already deployed in Kharkiv, to surround and take the city.

The ISW assessed that Russia's ability to attack Vovchansk was largely due to the West restricting Ukraine from hitting military targets with NATO-supplied equipment.

The US more recently approved about $25.7 billion in weaponry and ammo for Ukraine, including artillery shells desperately needed by Kyiv to stave off Russian advances.