• Driverless cars are set to expand to more US cities next year.
• Waymo, Tesla, Uber, Lyft, and others are all trying to get in on the action.
• I hailed a ride in a Waymo car in San Francisco to see what it's like.

Robotaxis are coming to more US cities. San Francisco offers a glimpse of what the future might look like as their use expands.

On a recent trip to downtown San Francisco, self-driving cars, particularly those operated by robotaxi company Waymo, seemed to be on most of the streets. As a visitor to the city, it was odd to see so many cars ferrying people around without any driver behind the wheel.

But in San Francisco, that site is nothing new.

Waymo has had driverless cars operating in the city center since 2022, and hailing one of them has been an option for anyone who can download the company's app since last year.

And robotaxis are set to expand in the US.

In November, Waymo added Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando to the list of cities where it will start using its cars, though the company said that riders need to wait until next year to hail a robotaxi in those places. Waymo is also preparing to offer driverless rides in several other cities, including Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas.

In Atlanta and Austin, companies like Uber and Lyft started offering rides in driverless cars earlier this year, but some riders have told me they've had to go out of their way to hail one.

And Tesla, which already offers its robotaxis in Austin, has plans to launch the service in several more US cities.

In October, I decided to hail a Waymo car in San Francisco and see what it's like to ride one in a city where they've become so ubiquitous. Here's what I found.

I used Waymo while getting around San Francisco for business.

I wanted to get from my hotel near Union Square to a meeting about 12 minutes away, so I checked a few different ride-hailing options on my phone.

A 12-minute ride was about $16 on Waymo.

I was traveling close to 9:30 a.m., so I expected to hit rush-hour traffic and see higher prices than if I had waited until later in the day.

It was a little more expensive than the same trip on Uber or Lyft.

Despite not having a human driver to pay, Waymo charged me more than Uber or Lyft would have for the same trip.

After booking with Waymo, I pulled up the two other ride-hailing services to compare prices. An UberX ride would have cost around $13, while Lyft, which was running a discount when I checked, would have charged about $10.

With a 20% tip, the Uber ride would have cost about the same as Waymo, but the Lyft ride would've been a few dollars cheaper.

A Waymo spokesperson said that the company looks at multiple factors when pricing rides, such as the trip's duration and distance. "During busier times, such as morning rush hour and weekends, prices may be higher," the spokesperson said.

As I waited, I saw several other Waymo vehicles drive by.

During the six-minute wait for my ride, I noticed at least a half-dozen other Waymo vehicles drive by, including two right next to each other.

Going around town over the previous couple of days, I found out how hard it was to walk around a city block without seeing at least one or two self-driving cars.

My car arrived, but I had to look twice to find it.

At first, I missed the notification that my car had arrived. As I looked around my pickup location, though, I couldn't see a Waymo stopped near me.

After checking the map, I realized that it had stopped down the block and up another street. While it took less than a minute to walk there, I wondered why the car had not navigated to my designated pick-up point.

Waymo uses several factors, such as zoning, traffic, and walking distance, to determine where its vehicles pick up and drop off passengers, with the goal of "balancing safety and convenience," the Waymo spokesperson said.

After going down the block, I found this Waymo vehicle waiting for me.

I verified that this was my car by checking the license plate number against the one on-screen in the Waymo app. My initials were also visible on the console that was on the roof.

Three other Waymo-run cars were stopped behind it.

The street where my car stopped wasn't as busy as the one I waited on, which might explain why it was there.

I found it funny that there were three other Waymo cars stopped behind it.

I threw my bags in the trunk, got in the car, and started my trip.

I had to slide this button forward in the Waymo app to indicate I was ready to leave.

A safety video played as the car pulled away.

Sitting in the back of the electric Jaguar I-Pace, I noticed a screen on the console between the two front seats.

As the car began to move, a safety video started playing. It reminded me to buckle my seatbelt and said that I shouldn't touch the steering wheel or the pedals. It almost felt like boarding a plane.

Being in a car without a human driver wasn't as creepy as I expected.

Some people I know swear that they'll never get in one of these cars because no one is behind the wheel. I didn't find it that strange, in part because I was traveling along city streets at low speeds.

Still, I couldn't help but take a video of the empty driver's seat, especially as the car made a turn and the wheel rotated without anyone present.

The screens in the Waymo showed some of the process behind the company's self-driving tech.

At one point, the car came to a stop in the middle of an intersection.

As I tried to look ahead and see what was happening, I noticed that the screen in the front of the car laid out the situation for me: Someone was crossing the street one vehicle ahead, and the car I was in had noticed and stopped.

I could adjust the music, air conditioning, and other aspects of the ride through this screen.

The screen between the front seats also allowed me to call support if there was an issue.

I arrived at my destination on time.

Fortunately, my destination was on a less-busy street than the one where I hailed the car, so it was able to pull up directly in front of my destination.

I grabbed my bags from the back and headed to my meeting.

As I got out, the Waymo app prompted me to leave a review and offered walking directions to my destination (which I didn't need, in this case).

Overall, I'd take a ride with Waymo again, but I'll be comparing prices with Uber and Lyft.

I felt safe riding in Waymo's vehicle, and with the company's expansion to other cities, I would consider trying it again.

But I probably won't pay a premium to ride in a Waymo again. If Uber and Lyft are cheaper, I'd likely take a ride with one of those services.

Do you have a story to share about self-driving cars, the gig economy, or a related topic? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com.

• Michael Stausholm bought the rights to a sustainable pencil from grad students at MIT.
• He thought the pencil was a great illustration of sustainability.
• He was surprised by the immediate commercial success.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Stausholm, founder and CEO of SproutWorld. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Back in 2013, I saw a Kickstarter campaign for a plantable pencil. Three young students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had invented the pencil in their class. The idea was to use the writing instrument, then plant it and watch herbs and vegetables grow from seeds encased in the pencil.

I thought this was brilliant. At the time, I was consulting with major companies, including Nike and Walmart, about sustainability efforts. I knew people had a really hard time understanding what sustainability was.

Yet, this pencil was a perfect illustration. It was a useful item, made from all-natural materials. It was designed with the end in mind: when it was no longer useful, users could quite literally give it new life. I wanted to integrate the pencil into my work.

I licensed limited rights, and then bought global rights

I reached out to the students and licensed their intellectual property to sell the pencil in Denmark, where I live. Just one month later, I obtained the rights for all of Europe and started my company, SproutWorld.

I had been interested in the Sprout pencil as a symbol, but almost as soon as I began selling it, I saw the huge commercial potential. That first summer, we sold 50,000 pencils. I had no idea how much space that inventory would take up. I had pencils all over my house, and the neighborhood kids were helping to pack them up.

Within a year, I reached out to the MIT students again, asking to purchase the global rights for the pencil. They were robotics students who dreamed of building robots, not pencils. I can't share the specifics of the deal, but I was very happy with it and so were they, which tells me it was fair for both sides.

Thirteen years later, I still keep in touch with them, and they're proud of how their classroom project has grown.

I was ready to turn down a major deal to project the brand

I thought schools would love the pencils, but I realized they weren't viable customers because of their small budgets. Soon, corporations began reaching out about making custom-branded pencils. That side of the business flourished. Even today, our sales are about 80% commercial, and 20% direct to consumers.

The first major global brand to reach out to me was Ikea. They wanted about 50,000 pencils for an anniversary celebration at their Italian stores. There was just one problem: they didn't want the SproutWorld logo on the pencil — they only wanted Ikea branding.

I've lived and worked in Asia, and I understood that as soon as I compromised on our branding, it would be easier for other companies in China and India to make copycat pencils. I wanted to do business with Ikea, but I had to decline. They asked me if I was sure, and I said yes. I dared to say no to a corporate giant in order to protect the company's future.

Ikea came back, and we later made branded pencils for Michelle Obama

A couple of months later, Ikea reached back out — they wanted the pencils, and were willing to include our SproutWorld branding. That was a major milestone for the company.

Then, in 2018, an agency from New York City contacted me about using the pencils for one of their artists. I saw they represented major musicians, so I was a little disappointed when they said the work was for an author. However, we then obtained the purchase and sales agreement, which was signed by Michelle Obama. Working with the first lady, with her emphasis on healthy eating, was a perfect fit for our brand.

Today, we've sold more than 85 million Spout pencils around the world. We even make eyeliner pencils. Last year, we profited about $1.7 million across the globe.

The symbolism of the pencil is still important to me

I'm thrilled with the commercial success of the Sprout pencils. And still, the symbolism of the product is incredibly important to me.

Sustainability is a hard concept to get your head around. The pencil is an entry way: if you can choose a sustainable, all-natural pencil, what other changes can you make? No one can be 100% sustainable these days, but even if individuals and businesses change 20% of their behavior, that would make a difference.

Our motto is "from small things, big things grow." That's what drives us as a company: inspiring global change, one pencil at a time.

• Google unveiled Project Suncatcher earlier this month.
• It aims to reduce AI's environmental impact by relocating data centers in space, powered by the sun.
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company plans to begin sending 'machines' to space next year.

The great AI space race has begun.

Google has been quietly working on a long-term research initiative, internally known as Project Suncatcher, to "one day scale machine learning in space."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday that Google's goal is to start putting data centers in space, powered by the sun, as soon as 2027.

"We are taking our first step in '27," he said. "We'll send tiny, tiny racks of machines, and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there."

In a decade, Pichai said that it'll be normal to build extraterrestrial data centers.

"At Google, we're always proud of taking moonshots," he said. "One of our moonshots is: How do we one day have data centers in space so that we can better harness the energy from the sun, which is one hundred trillion times more energy than we produce in all of Earth today."

Google's cosmic pivot comes amid growing global scrutiny over the power demands of data centers.

"There is still much we don't know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning," Sally Radwan, the chief digital officer of the United Nations Environment Program, said in a press release in November. "We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale."

The UN says AI's toll on the environment stems from the extraction of rare materials and minerals needed to build the technology and microchips to power the technology, the massive amounts of electronic waste data centers produce, the water needed to operate and cool data centers, and the greenhouse gases produced by operating data centers.

Google's plan is to divert some of that environmental toll off the planet.

"In 2027, hopefully we'll have a TPU somewhere in space," he said, referring to the company's custom AI chip, on the "Google AI: Release Notes" podcast last week.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• As AI becomes table stakes on Wall Street, business schools are racing to keep pace.
• Elite programs nationwide are launching new courses at the nexus of AI and finance.
• Leaders from Wharton and Goldman Sachs explain how AI is reshaping teaching and hiring.

Yesterday's classroom threat was: Use AI and you'll be caught.

Today's is: Don't use it, and you'll be obsolete.

As artificial intelligence becomes table stakes on Wall Street, business schools are racing to overhaul their programs for finance industry hopefuls. The technology is set to automate much of the work that has defined junior bankers' roles, including the rote tasks of building models or the endless tinkering of slide decks.

Across the country, universities are adding AI-focused courses, launching new majors, and retraining professors to prepare students for a world where algorithms handle the grunt work and humans provide the judgment.

Wharton, the famed business school at the University of Pennsylvania, is introducing a new academic track built around AI, offering students classes that fold in psychology, ethics, and governance to help them understand how humans and machines will reshape business. In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University is establishing a new College of Connected Computing to meet the moment. Nationwide, insiders say a debate is underway about how to update business-school curricula that have long centered on traditional finance fundamentals — like accounting, statistics, and financial modeling — as the advanced technology races past anyone's ability to keep up.

The push is to better prepare the next generation of Wall Street talent, as recruiters now prize candidates who have the human insight to interpret the outputs that AI produces, question a system's logic, and channel insights into cohesive strategies on deals.

Jacqueline Arthur, global head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, told Business Insider that, as AI becomes more commonplace, the firm has doubled down on efforts to probe candidates' analytical thinking. When meeting with students, the firm tries "to see how they think critically, react in the moment, and solve a problem," she said — essentially, the attributes that would make a human more valuable than a robot.

Business Insider spoke to leaders at educational institutions as well as bank-hiring executives to determine how the AI revolution is transforming what and how students learn as they prepare to embark on Wall Street careers.

Wharton's AI reboot

About 10 years ago, Wharton, the famed business school at the University of Pennsylvania, became one of the first business schools to formally explore the potential of artificial intelligence. It launched a research center, enhancing its academic offerings, and partnering with corporations on real-life projects for its students.

Now, the school is taking that work into the classroom, rolling out new courses and an undergraduate and MBA academic track built around AI, Eric Bradlow, Wharton's vice dean of AI and analytics, told Business Insider.

New course offerings explore classes from interdisciplinary points of view, looking at how AI will change business and society from philosophical and psychological lenses. They include "Artificial Intelligence, Business, and Society," "Applied Machine Learning in Business," "Big Data, Big Responsibilities," and "AI in Our Lives," according to Wharton's online course listings. Classes combine quantitative analysis and lab-based data projects with coursework on ethics, governance, and behavioral responses to AI technologies; or case studies that unpack how humans and AI will work together to reshape organizations and the labor economy.

While some classes involve coding, training of large language models, or statistics, many also tie in elements of critical analysis to teach students how to validate the output of AI systems.

Students learn to query models, review results, and determine whether the underlying assumptions withstand business scrutiny. To accelerate the shift, Bradlow said, Wharton established an AI in Education Fund that provides faculty with funding, data, and technical support to integrate AI material into existing courses.

Six months ago, a tech executive at a large private-equity firm, Bradlow, sought recommendations for hires who could sit at the intersection of business strategy and data science.

"I said, 'We'll send you five names,' Bradlow told BI. "He hired every single one of them the next day."

The AI wave sweeps other schools

Across the country, other schools besides Wharton are also catching the AI wave. One is Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which recently announced the creation of a standalone college that will be dedicated to advanced technologies in AI, computing, data science, and robotics.

Though the school hasn't finalized its curricular programming, the College of Connected Computing is exploring where subjects overlap as part of its ongoing academic planning with Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, the University told Business Insider in a statement.

"Our teams are actively developing opportunities that reflect the rapidly evolving role of data, AI, and analytics in business education," Vanderbilt added.

At the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Steve Sibley, a professor who oversees the investment-banking workshop — a program that's sent students to leading banks including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Moelis — said faculty were exploring how to "pivot the curriculum" in light of AI's rise. The school is expanding the number of case-based classes it offers, he said, and exploring more coursework tied to AI and programming, such as Python for Finance and a graduate-level AI and Business class.

Training The Street, which provides technical training to banks and early-career finance professionals, has launched a series of free online resources on how to use AI and data tools in finance roles. Scott Rostan, the company's founder and chief learning and strategy officer, told Business Insider the tutorials are open to the public, underscoring the growing demand for AI training.

Recruiters say those changes mirror what Wall Street is looking for.

"Many of the tasks junior employees would have traditionally performed will over time be automated, but that will really enable them to focus their attention on higher-value deliverables," said Arthur, Goldman's human global human capital management head. Training programs at Goldman incorporate AI lessons, she added, with new-hire development including hands-on experience with the firm's internal AI tools as well as instruction on responsible use and continuous human oversight.

"Many of these quantitative analyses will be automated, but will we need our people to understand how to look at that and actually assess it and make sure that what the AI has delivered is actually right?" Arthur asked. "Absolutely."

• Some workers are letting AI tools do their jobs for them — and they're keeping quiet about it.
• Most companies are still in the early stages of AI deployment, leaving room for quiet "coasters."
• A recent study from McKinsey says AI tools can now automate about 57% of US work hours.

For nearly two years, Noah Olsen kept a secret from his manager at a small roofing company in Ohio. He used AI to complete about half of his software-engineering tasks, spending the rest of his time on the clock scrolling through Reddit and watching YouTube.

"I was copying and pasting all of my tasks into an AI agent such as Cursor or Claude Code, and I would let it do the work," Olsen told Business Insider. "So instead of having to work about 40 hours a week, I would work around 20 hours."

Olsen's quiet use of AI to get ahead highlights a fleeting period of technological ambiguity unfolding in workplaces across the globe. With many companies just starting to adopt AI tools, workers who've figured out how to use them to shave hours off their workloads face an awkward dilemma: Come clean or stay mum?

Right now, there is an "arbitrage opportunity" for AI-savvy workers whose managers and peers are behind the curve, Glenn Hopper, an AI consultant in Memphis, told Business Insider.

"If you're using AI, you're getting polished, completed reports and spreadsheets that look incredible," he said. "If you didn't know AI did it, you would think someone took hours to create something like this."

About 57% of employees said they've used AI at work in non-transparent ways, according to a global survey of more than 30,000 workers conducted between November 2024 and January 2025 by KPMG and the University of Melbourne. Those hidden uses included not disclosing when they used AI tools to complete their work and passing off AI-generated work as their own, the findings show.

AI's impact on productivity can be extraordinary for some workers, said Matt Martin, cofounder and CEO of Clockwise, which uses AI to optimize workers' calendars.

"If you're an engineering prototyper, like, holy shit," he said. "Your life changed in the last year."

A recent report from McKinsey found that AI-powered agents and robots available today could technically perform about 57% of US work hours for all sorts of jobs.

Some employees are calling out the gains they've made using AI, said Avani Prabhakar, Chief People Officer at software maker Atlassian.

"They are gloating," she said.

While getting work done faster is a plus, the outcome still needs to be up to snuff, Andrew Sobko, CEO of the AI infrastructure startup Argentum AI, told Business Insider. Since AI is known for making mistakes, or so-called hallucinations, users need to invest time and energy into ensuring what it spits out is accurate.

At some point in the future, Sobko said he expects enough workers to be using AI that the technology's productivity boost will no longer go unnoticed.

"Eventually it's going to even out," Sobko said.

It may be a while, though, before that happens. Another recently released study from McKinsey shows that around two-thirds of companies are still in the experimentation or pilot stage of AI deployment. It also notes that companies with more than $5 billion in revenue are closer to fully embedding the technology into their operations than those with less than $100 million in revenue.

"While AI tools are now commonplace, most organizations have not yet embedded them deeply enough into their workflows and processes to realize material enterprise-level benefits," the report concludes.

Employers hoping to boost productivity with AI should encourage workers to share the efficiencies they uncover and position that transparency as a good thing, Dan Kaplan, head of the HR practice at consulting firm ZRG, told Business Insider.

"Let's celebrate it," he said. "Let's give awards for it."

For Olsen, the software engineer from Ohio, the good times didn't last. Over the summer, he said, his employer hired an AI specialist who taught everyone on his team to use the same shortcuts he'd been relying on. Soon after, he said he was expected to fill the hours he'd spent slacking off with additional work.

Olsen, 21 years old, quit his job in September. He then visited China for two months and is now doing freelance software-engineering work for an employer in Europe that he said hasn't yet caught on to his penchant for AI coasting.

"If you're not at one of the bleeding-edge companies, then you can use AI to do a lot of your work," he said. "But who knows how long this will last."

• One of my sons started his very long Christmas wish list back in October.
• To temper expectations, I have set a gift limit and reserve the right to veto any gift on the list.
• I'm also working to teach my kids the importance of gratitude and giving to others this season.

My 5-year-old is like me in so many ways. He's social, loves trying new things, and makes friends wherever he goes, from a kid at the playground to the older man who walks his dogs in our neighborhood. Also, like me, his love language is receiving gifts.

As such, his Christmas list is crazy long — and expensive. Since he's still a big believer in Santa and thinks all the gifts are made in the workshop, I can't use the cost of things to bring his expectations down to a realistic level.

Here's how I'm tempering his expectations this year, while still keeping the magic of Christmas alive.

I set a gift limit

Since we're still in the sweet stage of believing in Santa's magic, I can't really tell my kids that I'm setting a dollar amount on the gifts they'll receive for the holiday. After all, they still think all the toys are made in Santa's workshop and that everything is "free." Oh, I wish that were the case.

Instead, I'm setting a limit on the number of gifts Santa will bring him and his brother. In our house, it's 10 since most of the asks are for inexpensive toys.

And it's easy to explain the logic, too — since Santa has to bring gifts to every kid around the world, he can only carry a set amount per kid.

I asked him to rank his wish list

As a child, I remember drafting and redrafting my holiday wish list, ranking items in order of importance. Often, I'd cut out pictures of the desired item from catalogs or ads in the paper to really drive my point home. While Christmas isn't all about gifts, I know for kids, that's often the most exciting part of it, and I don't want to take that away from my 5-year-old.

That's why I have my kids rank their own list in order of importance, so I don't miss anything that they really want. It's also an excellent opportunity to discuss how they may not receive all the items on their list, and it's important to be thankful and appreciative of the items they do receive.

I'm teaching them to give, not just receive

At 5 and 7, my boys are at the perfect age to start giving gifts to loved ones. They both receive an allowance, so every year I take them to the toy store and have them pick out a small gift for each other with minimal guidance. Not only is it hilarious to see what they pick out for their brother, but it also teaches them the other side of holiday gifting.

We also adopt a family via the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program every year. We gather the family's list, hit up a local big-box store, and I let my boys take the lead on what they think the family's children would like. It also opens up the conversation about socioeconomic differences and the importance of giving to others if you're fortunate enough to have extra.

I encourage gratitude

This year, we're starting to exercise gratitude for what we have even earlier in the season. Every night at dinner, we share what we were grateful for that day.

We've also started a "leaf wall" in our dining room last month. Every day, the boys write one thing they're thankful for on a leaf and we affix it to the wall. We've enjoyed doing this so much that we're planning to keep adding to it through Christmas and the new year.

I always have veto power

I'm not sure how far you take the Santa thing in your house, but my kids think I'm on a first-name basis with the big guy. We text a lot. I know his favorite kind of cookie, and — most importantly — I have final approval on all the gifts Santa brings them.

This is important for two reasons. First, it helps me keep the budget in check. Second, I can easily veto gifts that aren't appropriate for their ages, like the super-fast dirt bike my 5-year-old asked for. Sorry, buddy, Mom doesn't want any emergency room visits this holiday season.

• AI-generated video has come a long way.
• In 2023, AI-generated videos went viral for depicting Will Smith eating spaghetti poorly.
• OpenAI's Sora and other models are coming close to passing the so-called spaghetti test.

It's no longer your mom's AI spaghetti.

In just two and a half years, AI video generation has progressed from struggling to depict Will Smith eating spaghetti to producing a lifelike video.

The unofficial benchmark test began in 2023 when a Reddit user posted a video of the Academy Award-winner eating spaghetti generated by ModelScope, a text-to-video AI model.

The initial results were horrifying. Will Smith looked nothing like his movie star self. Instead, he looked like a bad animation, complete with caricatured features that would be more at home on a tourist trap boardwalk. In some videos, he never actually consumed the spaghetti, failing to meet even the most basic premise of the test.

The failures highlighted the early limitations of AI-generated video and images, which sometimes produced people with 8 fingers or other anatomical imperfections.

Smith himself referenced the test in February 2024, posting a TikTok in which he ate spaghetti in almost as cartoonish a manner as the initial video.

A lot has changed since then, as SkyNews and others have recently pointed out.

In 2024, MiniMax, a Chinese AI model, made a much more accurate representation, but AI Smith's chewing was still off. And at the very end of the clip, the noodles appear to levitate. In May, a user posted on X that he used Google's Veo 3 to generate a new video. The problem with this one is that the noodles AI Smith is chewing sound way too crunchy. A later Veo 3.1-generated video looks even more realistic.

OpenAI's Sora is widely regarded as the best AI video generator on the market. In fact, it is so good that soon after the launch of Sora 2 and its accompanying TikTok-esque mobile app in September, the company was forced to add more guardrails on third-party likeness and copyrights after a series of high-profile incidents involving SpongeBob and Martin Luther King Jr.

Google and Elon Musk's xAI are racing to keep up. In July, xAI launched Grok Imagine, its text-to-video generator.

Passing the spaghetti test might be tougher now, as Hollywood and other rights holders intensify their efforts to prevent AI companies from infringing on their rights. Just days before Sora 2's release, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., and other rights holders filed suit in federal court against MiniMax.

Cameo, the personalized video company, sued OpenAI over its decision to name the core feature of the Sora app "cameos." One of the reasons Sora can generate such high-quality videos, especially of non-public figures, is that users can upload facial scans to the app, which is the "cameo" feature. In November, a federal judge temporarily blocked OpenAI from using the word "cameo."

Meanwhile, in Washington, some lawmakers are appalled that AI can now generate videos of them speaking words that they never once uttered.

Not everyone is shying away from AI video. Coca-Cola recently said it once again used AI to help generate its holiday ad, this time drawing on Sora, Veo 3, and Luma AI.

• Bart Dziedzic left JPMorgan for MrBeast, trading pay and prestige for the entrepreneurial route.
• He's had a number of roles, including helping build a pop-up theme park in Saudi Arabia.
• Dziedzic, 27, now values experience over money and advises others to take calculated risks.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Bart Dziedzic, a 27-year-old who left investment banking to work for YouTube's top creator, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Darien, an upscale town in Connecticut, but I didn't belong to the world of finance bros. My parents were Polish immigrants, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. I was enamored by the big guys: Steve Jobs, Elon Musk.

I went to Fordham and landed at JPMorgan Chase, where I worked my way up into investment banking. It was prestigious, and the money was good.

But the investment banking lifestyle started to get repetitive. I was working 80- to 100-hour weeks, and if you break it down to the hourly rate, it's not a ton of money. And the noise of the city was starting to wear on me.

One day, I was talking to a partner at a VC firm who was doing some recruiting for MrBeast. They were looking for smart, obsessive, athletic people.

I always wanted to be either a soccer player or an entrepreneur. Growing up, I did construction with my dad in the summer. In elementary school, I sold duct-tape wallets until the principal shut it down because you weren't allowed to sell stuff at school.

I didn't grow up with media or social media, but I realized that everyone from my cousins in Poland to people in Asia and Africa knew who MrBeast was.

Going to MrBeast had pros and cons

There were a lot of reasons not to go there. I didn't really understand the role completely — working in development for the chief of staff. I wondered about the key-man risk. I'd be taking a 50% pay cut and going to Greenville, North Carolina, and leaving all my family and friends behind. My parents thought I should stay at JPMorgan.

But I figured, I don't have a family or mortgage, and everyone knows the MrBeast name. I saw the opportunity to learn, add value, be part of a brand that is growing very rapidly, and have autonomy. That's the one thing I didn't like about JPMorgan — like any corporate job, it's too structured.

In the worst-case scenario, I can come back. If nothing else, it'd be an experience in itself. So I left JPMorgan in January 2024 and started at MrBeast in February.

My first week on the job, I got to watch a video being produced where people aged 1 to 100 were competing for a prize. These are multimillion-dollar shoots. It was exciting. This is a totally new landscape, the creator economy. How do you take this massive megaphone of followers and then turn it into something sustainable?

I had to adjust to small-town life

The transition to Greenville was tough at first. I lived out of suitcases in a hotel for two weeks because they didn't have housing ready for me; they were hiring so rapidly. There wasn't a lot to do. I ended up getting a dog and a truck. I went on Hinge, where I met my girlfriend. I played a lot of pickleball.

I've had a lot of different roles in my time here. Although we have titles, the roles are very ambiguous. You just break down problems and figure things out. One of the projects we had was doing this pop-up theme park in Riyadh that was supposed to be something between a Six Flags and a carnival pop-up, and gamified — MrBeast-style.

I was part of the negotiations and planning, so I kind of took the lead and worked with our partners over there to design and build it. Seeing it come to fruition was similar to doing a construction project with my dad. It was beautiful.

A high point was launching MrBeast's theme park

Operationally, there were a lot of things to figure out. Jimmy [Donaldson] was there on opening day, so that's a world of its own from an operational perspective. We had 7,000 people on opening day. A few days before, MrBeast said he wanted a prize wall. We had to figure out a points system to award prizes, what the prizes would be, and how we'd get them here in three days. We brought some stuff from the states, like an authenticated piece of a set or Jimmy's hat from a set.

Jimmy also wanted to take pictures with a bunch of people. We had to design it so as many people as possible could take pictures with him while making it a good experience for them. We handed out 250 golden tickets and built barriers to control the crowd. Then people started coming in with one ticket and three families. So we limited it to five people.

I enjoy getting my hands dirty and doing things. I think a lot of people operate in fear of decision-making. You always have to think about, "What's the opportunity cost of this decision? Is it a big decision where I could literally ruin this park? Or is it a micro decision where I can live with the consequences?"

I was pretty proud of the team and myself. We were supposed to open in December, but we ended up opening it earlier. We're in a foreign country, dealing with a lot of inputs. There was a lot of just figuring it out. And it was cool to see it all come together in a project of this size.

Now I'm manager of strategy and operations on the holdco team. There wasn't really a reason for them to be in Greenville, so the team moved to New York, and I moved back in the summer.

After a break from New York, I'm glad to be back. I appreciated the nice weather and greenery, but there wasn't as much to do in Greenville. I've also slowed down as I've gotten a little older. I enjoy going on walks instead of going to a bar until three in the morning.

I learned to prioritize experience over pay

I've learned you shouldn't optimize for salary in your 20s. You should build skills and experiences so you can make more money when you're older or start your own thing. I would tell people out of college, take as much ownership as you can in something. Do something that's exciting, risky, with a good leadership team behind you, where you can learn something. Because the further you get along in your career, the harder it will be to pivot.

I think a lot of people want certainty in their careers, and that's why a lot of people stay at roles like JPMorgan even though they're miserable. But it's an ever-changing world. Google didn't even exist when I was born. Also, everyone's going to give you advice based off of their own experience when those experiences don't necessarily apply to you. In the same way you would do benchmarking comps for a business or analyze anything in life, you should take 10, 15 inputs and then decide what the risks and rewards are based on that.

• Lee Givens, Jr. worked at Microsoft, Meta, and Apple over a 15-year span.
• After leaving Microsoft and Meta, he lost his contract job at Apple and struggled to find work.
• He said learning about AI and exploring opportunities outside Big Tech helped him land a new role.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lee Givens, Jr., a 57-year-old product manager in Seattle who works at Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. Business Insider has verified his employment with documentation. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I'd worked at Big Tech companies for more than a decade, but a year ago, I found myself in the middle of a humbling job search.

I started working for Microsoft in 2011 as a product manager, but in 2014, I was among thousands of employees who were laid off. I never actually left Microsoft — I was given 60 days to find a new role internally and successfully moved into a program manager position in a different department.

By 2020, my job at Microsoft had become somewhat boring, in part because there was a lot of legal and compliance work. I also thought I needed a new challenge and more money.

I left Microsoft for a new opportunity, but looking back, I maybe shouldn't have been so quick to leave. I'm now working at Toyota and am happy with my role, but I had to endure some ups and downs to get here.

Moving on from Microsoft and Meta

When I started looking for something new in 2020, Meta was actively recruiting. I decided to leave Microsoft for a product marketing manager role there, where I worked on an augmented reality glasses product. Some of the product plans went awry, and it felt like the team was in disarray.

In December 2021, after a little more than a year at Meta, I transitioned to a global product lead role at the software development company Unity.

Things didn't ultimately work out there either. As I searched for work in recent years — and faced a challenging job market — I sometimes found myself thinking that I shouldn't have left Microsoft.

Diving into AI after a layoff

Things at Unity seemed promising at first, but as the tech industry shifted toward AI, our researchers began to be poached left and right. We didn't have the budget to keep them happy.

I still believed in Unity and really thought it had potential. However, in May 2023, a few days after getting married and honeymooning in Italy, I learned I'd been laid off.

This was the third layoff of my career, but it was the first time I had nothing in the pipeline to help me transition to my next role.

I decided to take some time to learn as much as I could about AI — and the basics of how AI frameworks like PyTorch and Modular's MAX worked. My goal was to understand AI so I could better communicate with the engineers working on the technology.

I also actively applied for jobs and reached out to recruiters. Apple was one of my top targets, and I applied to every AI-related role I could find at the company.

Leaving Apple and learning how to find a job

After a few months of job searching, a recruiter contacted me about a contract opportunity at Apple for an engineering program manager role, which I started in September 2023.

My contract was extended every three months, and my manager told me that the company was attempting to transition me to a full-time role. It was my understanding that contractors in my group couldn't stay beyond a year, so I figured I'd either be converted or out of a job.

As the one-year mark approached, I was told that a senior leader wanted everyone on my team to be based in Cupertino, California, where Apple is headquartered. My understanding was that my chances of landing a full-time role would increase dramatically if I moved to Cupertino.

But my wife and I didn't want to leave Seattle. We had recently bought a home in the area, and she had a job there. By the time my contract with Apple ended in September 2024, I had started my next job search.

I found the job market to be extremely challenging

For six months, I had numerous conversations and interviews, and then a lot of "Nope, you didn't get the job" messages.

I'd never had that problem before. Throughout my career, I had almost never actively sought a job. Most of the jobs I'd had came through friends or recruiters who actively pursued me. It was a humbling experience of putting out hundreds of résumés and not hearing back.

Fortunately, I found some part-time consulting gigs as I looked for work. I'd been good at investing — doing well enough that I could almost retire — so I wasn't too worried about cash. My wife also had a fairly high-paying job.

Still, we had college expenses for two kids, and my wife was thinking about starting her own business. If we were to make this work financially, I felt I'd have to step up. This motivated me to find a job.

For months, I focused on getting back into Apple

I eventually decided to become more open to other opportunities. I started entertaining LinkedIn messages from recruiters I would've previously ignored.

One of those messages came from Toyota. The original job was based in Palo Alto, but the company was flexible and agreed to move the role to Seattle.

In April, after about two-and-a-half months of interviews, I joined the company as a staff product manager in the company's Woven by Toyota subsidiary. I have a six-figure salary, and my total compensation is much higher than what I was earning at Meta and Apple.

I definitely think taking the time to learn more about AI helped me land the job, and that knowledge is driving the main work I'm doing now.

Reflections on my career journey

One of the biggest takeaways from my career journey is that when there's a major technological shift — such as the rise of the internet or AI — you have to reinvent yourself. You need to dive deep into the technology to really understand it.

Another lesson: Don't get pigeonholed. I had my heart set on staying at Apple, and I nearly missed out on a great opportunity. Be open to new industries — it could actually work out.

Additionally, don't rush to switch jobs. Before I left Microsoft in 2020, I really clicked there and felt comfortable — and I think I maybe should've stuck around, even if part of me wanted to try something new. At the same time, leaving Microsoft set me on a path to learning more about AI, which I believe will serve me well in my career.

I'm happy with my current role. Toyota's culture, legacy, and focus align closely with my approach to work. The subsidiary I work for is much smaller than Microsoft, Meta, and Apple, which has made it easier for me to make an impact and gain visibility with company leaders.

Legal tech has had a breakout year for VC funding, which reached $3.2 billion in 2025. As the sector attracts investment, questions remain about a bubble and real revenue gains. Meanwhile, law firms are exploring ways to utilize AI to deliver better and faster service.

For many lawyers, 2025 was the year when using AI became mandatory.

Law firm leaders and general counsels moved the tech from pilots to production, standardizing research and drafting copilots while expanding innovation teams and training junior lawyers.

That demand fueled investment in a new crop of startups across contract review, corporate due diligence, predictive analytics, and more. Buzzy legaltech startups like Harvey and Legora pulled in bigger checks, as incumbents from LexisNexis to Clio made aggressive moves to keep pace.

Funding for legal companies hit $3.2 billion this year, according to Business Insider's analysis of Crunchbase data and recent financings. Valuations on some names have prompted bubble talk, but buyer demand would suggest there's at least real revenue beneath the hype.

This year, Business Insider had the inside track on legal tech companies raising money. Read on for our coverage of some of 2025's most notable deals.

Legora raised $80 million — without even trying

Legora CEO Max Junestrand said the company wasn't actively seeking funding last spring, but still, the offers flooded in. "I don't think it's a secret that things have been really working," Junestrand said.

By now, the company has amassed over 400 clients across 40 markets, including big-league law firms like Cleary Gottlieb, Goodwin, Bird & Bird, and Mannheimer Swartling, Sweden's largest law firm.

In October, Legora closed another blockbuster round, raising $150 million in Series C funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Eudia's $75 million shopping spree

Eudia emerged from stealth in February with $105 million in Series A funding from General Catalyst. The investment had just one major condition: Eudia would get $30 million up front and the other $75 million as it found other companies to buy. Its first acquisition was Irish-founded alternative legal services provider Johnson Hana. In October, Eudia also acquired the legal service provider Out-House.

Bench IQ raised a round to predict judges' rulings

Jimoh Ovbiagele, Bench IQ's cofounder and chief executive, said Bench IQ has built a proprietary dataset and layered in large language models to forecast how judges tend to think and rule.

Battery Ventures and Inovia Capital led the company's $5 million seed round. Before Bench IQ, Ovbiagele was a founder of Ross Intelligence, the legal research company that shut down after a costly lawsuit brought by Thomson Reuters.

An ex-Microsoft scientist takes on work visas

Priyanka Kulkarni spent nine years on a visa while working as an AI scientist for Microsoft. Now, her startup, Casium, which raised $5 million in seed funding, sells employers a portal to run visa cases end-to-end, replacing the Excel spreadsheets and, in many instances, the outside law firms that they usually rely on. The product is designed to respond to the rapidly changing employment immigration landscape as policy has swung in recent months.

The software-first approach to legal advice

WeWork's former top lawyer raised $4 million to build an AI-native law firm. Covenant, cofounded by Jen Berrent, reviews fund docs for private market investors. Its tools use large language models to root through hundreds of pages of legal documents, raise red flags, and suggest stronger terms that are tailored to the investor's own playbook.

A lawyer-backed startup for due diligence

Marveri wants to cut manual review from months to minutes. Their software sucks up all of a corporation's documents, then automatically renames, organizes, and analyzes them. The company emerged from stealth with $3.5 million in funding. High-profile litigator Alex Spiro — best known for helping Elon Musk defeat a defamation lawsuit and getting Alec Baldwin's manslaughter case dismissed — is advising the Marveri team.

Attorney's crystal ball into settlement rulings

Theo Ai is building a "predictive engine" tool, aimed at law firms and large corporations, that it says takes the guesswork out of pricing a lawsuit. Earlier this month, the company told Business Insider it raised $3 million in new funding from Run Ventures, bringing total backing to more than $10 million. Trained on a firm's own data, when a new case lands, the model finds look-alikes in that history and returns a settlement likelihood and range.