• If Ukraine loses to Russia, NATO forces would face an emboldened Russian military, war experts say.
• Ukraine's defeat may lead Russia to become a greater military risk, potentially driving toward NATO borders.
• If Ukraine wins though, it could make it more challenging for Russia to threaten the alliance.

If Ukraine loses to Russia, NATO countries could consequently find themselves facing an emboldened, "battle-hardened" Russian army with a clearer path to war, an analyst argues.

The Institute for the Study of War's Fredrick W. Kagan wrote that unless the US resumes sending military aid, Ukraine will be defeated and Russia will become an even greater military threat able to then "drive toward the NATO borders from the Black Sea to central Poland." 

In the event that Russia attacked the alliance, NATO would likely have to resolve threats at Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary's southern borders, holding up its forces that are tasked with defending countries in the Baltic region like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Able to overrun a defeated Ukraine, Russia would be threatening parts of the alliance that haven't faced a Russian threat since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In that dire scenario, "NATO troops, inexperienced in fighting modern mechanized war, would be staring down a battle-hardened Russian military, emboldened from its victory in Ukraine," Kagan wrote.

He said that it "is almost impossible to overstate how much the success or failure of Ukraine's current efforts to fight off the Russian attack changes the prospects of a future Russian attack against NATO's northeastern flank," which would be front-line fighting in a war with Russia.

Kagan emphasized that regardless of whether or not Ukraine is a NATO member, empowering it to stand strong against Russia is in the best interests of the US and the broader alliance.

"An independent Ukraine with a strong military and a pro-Western government will make a Russian attack on NATO much more difficult, risky, and costly for Moscow," he wrote.

Currently, Kyiv has been waiting on US aid for months, waiting for a decision on billions of dollars in aid from Congress that could make or break it in the war against Russia.

Ukraine has found short-term solutions. Its dependence on drones, for instance, stems from its struggle to find enough artillery ammunition and other supplies to sustain its ground forces. Ukraine recently used seven drones to take down a Russian radar system worth millions of dollars, but they aren't enough, as Ukraine's leadership has said.

Ukraine has regularly said it needs more weapons and more ammo, such as air defense and artillery.

"It's a lot to preserve ourselves. It's very difficult for us. We are fighting against a large army," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with PBS this week.

"They have an unlimited number of people and a lot of shells. They use thousands of drones against us. Tell me, please, how can you fight against these thousands if you don't have weapons to take them down?" he said, adding that what Ukraine needs, it's partners have.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that helping Ukraine fight Russia today keeps NATO from having to fight it later.

Kagan argued in his analysis that a "victorious Russia that succeeds in its aim of destroying Ukraine entirely" will likely "pose a major conventional military threat to NATO in a relatively short period of time."

He added that "it will be much harder to deter future Russian aggression and both more difficult and far more costly to defeat it if deterrence fails."

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• Last year's job cuts weren't the end of layoffs. Further reductions have begun in 2024.
• Companies like Tesla, Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Amazon have announced plans for cuts this year.
• See the full list of corporations reducing their worker numbers in 2024.

A slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. Tech titans like IBM, Google, Microsoft, finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and manufacturers like Dow all announced layoffs.

This year is looking grim too. And it's only April.

Nearly 40% of business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder think layoffs are likely at their companies this year, and about half say their companies will implement a hiring freeze. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees. Half of those surveyed cited concerns about a recession as a reason.

Another major factor is artificial intelligence. Around four in 10 respondents said they'll conduct layoffs as they replace workers with AI. Dropbox, Google, and IBM have already announced job cuts related to AI.

Here are the dozens of companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2024.

Nike's up-to-$2 billion cost-cutting plan will involve severances.

Nike announced its cost-cutting plans in a December 2023 earnings call, discussing a slow growth in sales. The call subsequently resulted in Nike's stock plunging.

"We are seeing indications of more cautious consumer behavior around the world," Nike Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said in December.

Google laid off hundreds more workers in 2024.

On January 10, Google laid off hundreds of workers in its central engineering division and members of its hardware teams — including those working on its voice-activated assistant.

In an email to some affected employees, the company encouraged them to consider applying for open positions at Google if they want to remain employed. According to the email, April 9 will be the last day for those unable to secure a new position.

The tech giant laid off thousands throughout 2023, beginning with a 6% reduction of its global workforce (about 12,000 people) last January.

Discord is laying off 170 employees.

Discord employees learned about the layoffs in an all-hands meeting and a memo sent by CEO Jason Citron in early January.

"We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020," Citron said in the memo. "As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated."

In August 2023, Discord reduced its headcount by 4%. According to CNBC, the company was valued at $15 billion in 2021.

Citi will cut 20,000 from its staff as part of its corporate overhaul.

The layoffs announced in January are part of a larger Citigroup initiative to restructure the business and could leave the company with a remaining head count of 180,000 — excluding its Mexico operations.

In an earnings call that month, the bank said that layoffs could save the company up to $2.5 billion after it suffered a "very disappointing" final quarter last year.

Amazon-owned Twitch also announced job cuts.

Twitch announced on January 10 that it would cut 500 jobs, affecting over a third of the employees at the live-streaming company.

CEO Dan Clancy announced the layoffs in a memo, telling staff that while the company has tried to cut costs, the operation is "meaningfully" bigger than necessary.

"As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible," Clancy wrote. "Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch."

BlackRock is planning to cut 3% of its staff.

Larry Fink, BlackRock's chief executive, and Rob Kapito, the firm's president, announced in January that the layoffs would affect around 600 people from its workforce of about 20,000.

However, the company has plans to expand in other areas to support growth in its overseas markets.

"As we prepare for 2024 and this very exciting but distinctly different landscape, businesses across the firm have developed plans to reallocate resources," the company leaders said in a memo.

Rent the Runway is slashing 10% of its corporate jobs as part of a restructuring.

In the fashion company's January announcement, COO and president Anushka Salinas said she will also be leaving the firm, Fast Company reported.

Unity Software is eliminating 25% of its workforce.

Around 1,800 jobs at the video game software company will be affected by the layoffs announced, Reuters reported in January.

eBay is cutting 1,000 jobs.

In a January 23 memo, CEO Jamie Iannone told employees that the eBay layoffs will affect about 9% of the company's workforce.

Iannone told employees that layoffs were necessary as the company's "overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business."

The company also plans to scale back on contractors.

Microsoft is reducing its headcount by 1,900 at Activision, Xbox, and ZeniMax.

In late January, nearly three months after Microsoft acquired video game firm Activision Blizzard, the company announced layoffs in its gaming divisions. The layoffs mostly affect employees at Activision Blizzard.

"As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a memo obtained by The Verge.

The cuts come a year after the tech giant announced it was reducing its workforce by 10,000 employees. It then slashed a further 1,000 roles across sales and customer service teams in July 2023.

Salesforce is cutting 700 employees across the company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Salesforce announced a round of layoffs that the company says will affect 1% of its global workforce, The Journal reported in late January.

The cuts followed a wave of cuts at the cloud giant last year. In 2023, Marc Benioff's company laid off about 10% of its total workforce — or roughly 7,000 jobs. The CEO said the company over-hired during the pandemic.

Flexport lays off 15% of its workers.

In late January, the US logistics startup laid off 15% of its staff which is around 400 workers.

The move came after Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen initiated a 20% reduction of its workforce of an estimated 2,600 employees in October.

Flexport kicked off 2024 with the announcement that it raised $260 million from Shopify and made "massive progress toward returning Flexport to profitability."

iRobot is laying off around 350 employees and founder Colin Angle will step down as chairman and CEO.

The company behind the Roomba Vacuum announced layoffs in late January around the same time Amazon decided not to go through with its proposed acquisition of the company, the Associated Press reported.

UPS will cut 12,000 jobs in 2024.

The UPS layoffs will affect 14% of the company's 85,000 managers and could save the company $1 billion in 2024, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said during a January earnings call.

Paypal CEO Alex Chriss announced the company would lay off 9% of its workforce.

Announced in late January, this round of layoffs will affect about 2,500 employees at the payment processing company.

"We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," CEO Alex Chriss wrote in a January memo. "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth."

Okta is cutting roughly 7% of its workforce.

The digital-access-management company announced its plans for a "restructuring plan intended to improve operating efficiencies and strengthen the Company's commitment to profitable growth" in an SEC filing in February.

The cuts will impact roughly 400 employees.

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon told staff in a memo that "costs are still too high," CNBC reported.

Snap has announced more layoffs.

The company behind Snapchat announced in February that it's reducing its global workforce by 10%, according to an SEC filing.

Estée Lauder said it will eliminate up to 3,100 positions.

The cosmetics company announced in February that it would be cutting 3% to 5% of its roles as part of a restructuring plan.

Estee Lauder reportedly employed about 62,000 employees around the world as of June 30, 2023.

DocuSign is eliminating roughly 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan.

The electronic signature company said in an SEC filing in February that most of the cuts will be in its sales and marketing divisions.

Zoom is slashing 150 jobs.

The latest reduction announced in February amounts to about 2% of its workforce.

Paramount Global is laying off 800 employees days after record-breaking Super Bowl.

In February, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish sent a memo to employees announcing that 800 jobs — about 3% of its workforce — were being cut.

Deadline obtained the memo less than a month after reporting plans for layoffs at Paramount. The announcement comes on the heels of Super Bowl LVIII reaching record-high viewership across CBS, Paramount+, and Nickelodeon, and Univision.

Morgan Stanley is trimming its wealth management division by hundreds of staffers.

Morgan Stanley is laying off several hundred employees in its wealth-management division, the Wall Street Journal reported in February, representing roughly 1% of the team.

The wealth-management division has seen some slowdown in recent months, with net new assets down by about 8% from a year ago. The layoffs mark the first major move by newly-installed CEO Ted Pick, who took the reins from James Gorman on January 1.

Cisco slashes more than 4,000 jobs amid corporate tech sales slowdown.

In February, networking company Cisco announced it was slashing 5% of its workforce, or upwards of 4,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported.

The company said it was restructuring after an industry-wide pullback in corporate tech spending — which execs said they expect to continue through the first half of the year.

Expedia Group is cutting more than 8% of its workforce.

Cutbacks part of an operational review at online travel giant Expedia Group are expected to impact 1,500 roles this year, a company spokesperson told BI.

The company's product and technology division is set to be the worst hit, a report from GeekWire said, citing an internal memo CEO Peter Kern sent to employees in late February.

"While this review will result in the elimination of some roles, it also allows the company to invest in core strategic areas for growth," the spokesperson said.

"Consultation with local employee representatives, where applicable, will occur before making any final decisions," they added.

Sony is laying off 900 workers

The cuts at Sony Interactive Entertainment swept through its game-making teams at PlayStation Studios.

Insomniac Games, which developed the hit Spider-Man video game series, as well as Naughty Dog, the developers behind Sony's flagship 'The Last of Us' video games' were hit by the cuts, the company announced on February 27.

All of PlayStation's London studio will be shuttered, according to the proposal.

"Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences – allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways – as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and Mobile, requires a different approach and different resources," PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst wrote.

Hulst added that some games in development will be shut down, though he didn't say which ones.

In early February, Sony said it missed its target for selling PlayStation 5 consoles. The earnings report sent shares tumbling and the company's stock lost about $10 billion in value.

Bumble is slashing 30% of its workforce

On February 27, the dating app company announced that it would be reducing its staff due to "future strategic priorities" for its business, per a statement.

The cuts will impact about 30% of its about 1,200 person workforce or about 350 roles, a representative for Bumble told BI by email.

"We are taking significant and decisive actions that ensure our customers remain at the center of everything we do as we relaunch Bumble App, transform our organization and accelerate our product roadmap," Bumble Inc CEO Lidiane Jones said in a statement.

Electronic Arts is reducing its workforce by 5%

Electronic Arts is laying off about 670 workers, equating to 5% of its workforce, Bloomberg reported in late February.

The gaming firm axed two mobile games earlier in February, which it described as a difficult decision in a statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz.

CEO Andrew Wilson reportedly told employees in a memo that it would be "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry."

Wilson also said in the memo that the cuts came as a result of shifting customer needs and a refocusing of the company, Bloomberg reported.

IBM cutting staff in marketing and communications

IBM's chief communications officer Jonathan Adashek told employees on March 12 that it would be cutting staff, CNBC reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

An IBM spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement that the cuts follow a broader workforce action the company announced during its earnings call in January.

"In 4Q earnings earlier this year, IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge that would represent a very low single-digit percentage of IBM's global workforce, and we expect to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with," they said.

IBM has also been clear about the impact of AI on its workforce. Last May, IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna said the company expected to pause hiring on roles that could be replaced by AI, especially in areas like human resources and other non-consumer-facing departments.

"I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," Krishna told Bloomberg at the time.

Stellantis is slashing 400 white-collar jobs

On March 22, the owner of Jeep and Dodge announced it's laying off employees on its engineering, technology, and software teams in an effort to cut costs, CNBC reported.

Workers learned they were being let go through video calls after the car company ordered them to work remotely for the day. The cuts are set to occur on March 31.

Amazon is laying off hundreds in its cloud division in yet another round of cuts this year

Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs from its cloud division known as Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg reported on April 3.

The reduction will impact employees on the sales and marketing team and those working on tech for its retail stores, Bloomberg reported.

"We've identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.

On March 26, Amazon announced another round of job cuts after the company said it was slashing 'several hundred' jobs at its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions earlier this year to refocus on more profitable products.

"We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact," Mike Hopkins, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told employees in January.

This year's cuts follow the largest staff layoff in the company's history. In 2023, the tech giant laid off 18,000 workers.

Apple has cut over 600 employees in California

Apple has slashed its California workforce by more than 600 employees.

The cuts follow Apple's decision to withdraw from its car and smartwatch display projects.

The tech giant filed a series of notices to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification program. One of the addresses was linked to a new display development office, while the others were for the company's EV effort, Bloomberg reported.

Apple officially shut down its decadelong EV project in February. At the time, Bloomberg reported that some employees would move to generative AI, but others would be laid off.

Bloomberg noted that the layoffs were likely an undercount of the full scope of staff cuts, as Apple had staff working on these projects in other locations.

Representatives for Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside normal business hours.

Tesla is laying off over 10% of its workforce

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a memo to employees Sunday, April 14, at nearly midnight in California, informing them of the company's plan to cut over 10% of its global workforce.

In his companywide memo, Musk cited "duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas" as the reason behind the reductions.

An email sent to terminated employees obtained by BI read: "Effective now, you will not need to perform any further work and therefore will no longer have access to Tesla systems and physical locations."

Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive is reducing its workforce by 5%

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, said on April 16 that it would be "eliminating several projects" and reducing its workforce by about 5%.

The move — a part of its larger "cost reduction program" — will cost the video game publisher up to $200 million. It's expected to be completed by December 31.

As of March 2023, the company said it employed approximately 11,580 full-time workers.

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• Tesla is seeking shareholder approval for Elon Musk's pay package, which a judge previously struck down.
• The company argues the package is "critical to the future success of Tesla."
• The pay plan grants Musk stock options that vest when Tesla hits certain financial targets.

Why does Tesla's board think Elon Musk deserves a $55 billion pay package?

It's a matter of respect and fairness.

Tesla plans to ask shareholders to vote again on Musk's $55 billion pay package after it was struck down by a Delaware Judge earlier this year.

The chair of Tesla's board of directors, Robyn Denholm, highlighted several key reasons why the carmaker wants shareholders to vote in favor of the package in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Denholm calls the pay package, as well as a motion to move Tesla's state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas, "critical to the future success of Tesla."

The board chair said a vote in favor of Musk's pay package will "restore Tesla's stockholder democracy" and the issue is a "matter of fundamental fairness and respect to our CEO."

"Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years that has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value," Denholm writes, adding that shareholders have "benefited from unprecedented growth under Elon's leadership."

Since the beginning of 2018, Tesla's shares have increased nearly six times in value.

The filing also argues that the pay package will further motivate the Tesla CEO to keep driving growth at the company as the plan requires Musk to hold onto his Tesla shares for five years after he exercises his options.

"He will continue to be driven to innovate and drive growth at Tesla because the value of his shares will depend on it!" according to the filing.

Tesla made similar arguments during the trial over the compensation plan last year.

Tesla shareholders will be able to vote on the issue during the company's annual meeting in June.

When Court of Chancery Judge Kathleen St. J. McCormick voided Musk's compensation package in January, she said that Musk had undue influence over the package due to his close ties to several board members and said Musk's influence resulted in an "unfair price."

Musk does not receive a salary from Tesla and his pay package centered on a series of goalposts around the carmaker's financial growth, initially set in place in 2018. Specifically, the plan involves a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of stock options vested when Tesla hits certain targets. According to the carmaker, Tesla has accomplished all of the 12 targets as of 2023. When each milestone is passed, Musk gets stock equal to 1% of outstanding shares at the time of the grant.

The package was valued at around $55 billion at the time it was struck down, but is now valued around $47 billion, according to The New York Times.

Tesla's proxy filing comes only a few days after Musk told staff the carmaker was laying off more than 10% of its workforce.

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com

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• Amazon Prime had 180 million members in March, according to new data.
• That's 75% of all US shoppers, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
• It shows how ubiquitous Amazon has become in online shopping.

Now more than ever, you're more likely than not to be an Amazon Prime member.

About 180 million people had a Prime membership as of March, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. That represents an 8% increase from 2023, according to the data.

It also brings the share of US consumers who have Prime to 75%, per the report. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Online shopping, including from Amazon, took off during the pandemic. The new numbers suggest that Prime still has growth potential, albeit at a less rapid rate.

Prime fees, which cost $15 a month or $140 annually, are a key source of revenue for Amazon. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the company's subscription revenue for the first quarter will jump 12% to $10.8 billion; data are due April 30.

Other retailers are trying to popularize their own membership services, which offer perks like free shipping on online orders and access to streaming services. Last month, Target said it would offer Circle 360, a membership that provides unlimited same-day delivery on orders from its stores, for $49 a year.

Walmart, meanwhile, has been expanding its Walmart+ subscription program for years.

Some shoppers have still managed to avoid signing up for Prime. But in a sign of how engrained Amazon has become in the e-commerce world, even items bought on other websites, such as eBay, end up being shipped by Amazon.

Do you work for Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, or another part of Amazon's retail business and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

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• The public now has 30 days to comment on Biden's new student-loan forgiveness plan.
• It's the next step in implementing a broader version of debt relief for borrowers.
• The proposals include relief for those with unpaid interest, along with those in repayment for 20 years.

The public has one month to tell President Joe Biden what they think of his new student-loan forgiveness plan.

After announcing details of Biden's second attempt at student-debt relief last week, the Education Department formally published the draft text of the new rules on the Federal Register on Wednesday. The publication of the rules officially kicked off the 30-day public comment, set to end on May 17. Comments can be submitted to the Federal Register here, which the Education Department will then review.

The draft text currently consists of nine rules "that permit separate and distinct types of waivers using the Secretary of Education's longstanding authority under the Higher Education Act," the Education Department said in a Tuesday press release.

The rules address distinct types of borrowers that would qualify for relief under this new plan: those whose balances have grown due to unpaid interest, those who would be eligible for relief under certain repayment plans but have not yet enrolled, those who have been in repayment for at least 20 years, and those who have attended programs that left them with too much debt compared to post-graduation earnings.

The Education Department also said a separate rule to address relief for borrowers experiencing financial hardship will be released in the coming months.

"These historic steps reflect President Biden's determination that we cannot allow student debt to leave students worse off than before they went to college," Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal said in a Tuesday statement. "The President directed us to complete these programs as quickly as possible, and we are going to do just that."

The department aims to begin implementing relief as early as this fall. Still, as Business Insider previously reported, legal threats to the relief could imperil the department's timeline. While lawsuits have yet to be formally filed against Biden's administration, Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote on X in response to Biden's relief proposals: "See you in court."

And some experts said a conservative Supreme Court could likely rule like they did with Biden's first debt relief plan, striking it down.

"The administration is certainly still facing a very skeptical Supreme Court," Cary Coglianese, an administrative law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told BI. "Even though it's a different statute, it's still a skeptical Supreme Court. It's still a pretty big program even though it's a smaller one."

Following the public comment period, the Education Department will review comments and could choose to adjust their proposals based on the feedback they receive. It will then finalize the rule and move toward implementation.

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• Peter Thiel discussed artificial intelligence on Wednesday's episode of "Conversations with Tyler."
• The billionaire said the expansion of AI will be "worse for the math people than the word people."
• Thiel said Silicon Valley is "biased" toward math and a "rebalancing of our society" is overdue.

Peter Thiel believes the expansion of artificial intelligence will be "worse" for math aficionados — not wordsmiths.

The billionaire shared his reasoning on the latest episode of "Conversations with Tyler."

Thiel, 56, launched himself into the tech industry when he cofounded PayPal in 1998, but he's since shifted to other ventures, including those involving artificial intelligence. Palantir, a company he cofounded in 2003, provides artificial intelligence models to world militaries like Ukraine and Israel.

During the interview, host Tyler Cowen noted that large language models like ChatGPT are growing and expected to become more advanced with time. When asked if writers should worry, Thiel responded that math lovers are the ones who should be on high alert.

"My intuition would be it's going to be quite the opposite, where it seems much worse for the math people than the word people," Thiel said. "What people have told me is that they think within three to five years, the AI models will be able to solve all the US Math Olympiad problems. That would shift things quite a bit."

Thiel then touched on how different societies prioritized math or writing throughout history, prompting him to discuss Silicon Valley.

"If I fast-forwarded to, let's say, Silicon Valley in the early 21st century, it's way too biased toward the math people," Thiel said.

Thiel said that math tends to be used as a benchmark for competency, but that might have shortcomings. Thiel used his lifelong love of chess as an example.

"In the late '80s, early '90s, I had a chess bias because I was a pretty good chess player. And so my chess bias was, you should just test everyone on chess ability, and that should be the gating factor," Thiel said. "Why even do math? Why not just chess? That got undermined by the computers in 1997."

He added: "Isn't that what's going to happen to math? And isn't that a long-overdue rebalancing of our society?"

Business Insider outlined 10 roles that artificial intelligence will most likely replace as the sector grows in March 2024. Among the roles were accountants, finance jobs, and areas of the tech industry.

Brookings Institution senior fellow Mark Muro told BI that technology like ChatPGT could produce code quicker than humans, which could mean needing fewer staffers.

"What took a team of software developers might only take some of them," Muro told BI.

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• John Deere is looking for a different kind of CTO — a Chief Tractor Officer.
• The winner of the competition will help launch the agriculture equipment company's new TikTok channel.
• Entries are accepted until April 29, with the finalists selected after May 17.

Agriculture equipment company John Deere is on the hunt for a different kid of CTO.

The brand on Tuesday announced a two-week search to find a "Chief Tractor Officer" who would create social media content to reach younger consumers.

One winning applicant will receive up to $192,300 to traverse the country over the next several months showcasing the way John Deere products are used by workers, from Yellowstone National Park to Chicago's Wrigley Field and beyond.

"No matter what you do — whether it's your coffee, getting dressed in the morning, driving to work, the building you go into — it's all been touched by a construction worker, a farmer, or a lawn care maintenance group," Jen Hartmann, John Deere's global director of strategic public relations, told AdAge.

To kick off the search, John Deere tapped NFL quarterback Brock Purdy (who will presumably be a bit busy this Fall to take the job himself) to star in a clip in which he attempts to set out on a road trip in an industrial tractor.

Suited up in the obligatory vest, work boots, and John Deere hat, Purdy's progress is interrupted by teammate Colton McKivitz hopping into the cab while a string of messages floods in from other athletes and influencers expressing interest in the job.

The clip also represents the first time that the 187-year-old company has used celebrities to promote itself, Hartmann told AdAge.

According to the contest rules, entrants have until April 29 at midnight to submit a single 60-second video making their pitch for why they should be the face and voice of the company.

In addition, entrants must live in the 48 contiguous states or DC — sorry Hawaii and Alaska residents. Interestingly, any AI-generated submissions are prohibited, too.

Videos will be judged against four categories — originally, creativity, quality, and brand knowledge — after which five finalists will be chosen and notified after May 17.

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• Elon Musk runs Tesla and a lot of other companies at the same time.
• Normally investors don't like CEOs to do that. But they've given Musk a pass.
• But now there are real investor concerns about Tesla. Will that force Musk to narrow his focus?

Elon Musk runs Tesla. And Space X. And the company formerly known as Twitter. And Neuralink, the company making chips that are supposed to go in your brain. And a company that operates a tunnel under Las Vegas. And an AI startup, too.

Normally, people who run big publicly traded companies are encouraged to just do that one thing and are discouraged from doing side projects. But Musk does his own thing, and for a long time, the idea that he's a guy who does so many things was part of the pitch: Normal people couldn't pull this off, but Elon is Not Normal.

None of this is secret. Tesla spells it out to shareholders in its public filings, where it describes all of Musk's other jobs.

And this year's proxy filing describes how some of those jobs intersect: Tesla, for instance, has spent $200,000 advertising on the company formerly known as Twitter; and Twitter has spent $1.2 million via "commercial, consulting and support agreements" with Tesla — which presumably refers to Tesla staff who have worked on Twitter since Musk bought it in 2022 (though Musk has previously described some of that work as volunteering). There are also interlocks between Tesla and Space X; and Tesla and Musk's tunnel company.

And on top of all that, Musk has essentially used the fact that he runs other companies to justify his demands for a $55 billion pay package from Tesla — if he didn't get it, he posted on the social network formerly known as Twitter, he'd be tempted to spend more time doing cutting edge work at one of his other outlets.

And for a long time, this has all been … fine. Particularly over the last few years, when the market fell head over heels for Tesla and turned it into a company with a trillion-dollar valuation.

Tesla's stock price might cause a rethink of Musk's roles

But now Wall Street has turned on Tesla amid concerns about electric car demand in general and at Tesla in particular. Earlier this month the company reported its first year-over-year sales decline since 2020, and it just laid off 10% of its workforce.

Tesla stock is now down more than 60% from its pandemic-era peak; it's dropped 37% so far this year.

All of which makes me wonder if some Tesla investors will eventually work up the nerve to demand that Musk spend more time working on Tesla and a little less on at least some of his side projects. Or, failing that, if Musk will at least start performatively demonstrating that he's spending more time on Tesla.

The knee-jerk response here ought to be: Good luck with that! Musk does what Musk wants. And that's worked out great for the third-richest man in the world.

But even Elon Musk sometimes has to accept the world as it is, not the way he'd like it to be, which is why he was compelled to buy Twitter after trying to get out of a binding sales agreement.

And if Tesla keeps stumbling, and its price keeps dropping, maybe he'll decide that he doesn't need to do quite so many things at the same time.

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Sony has announced its latest lineup of 4K TVs, with sizes ranging from 43 inches to 85 inches. The new collection features LED, OLED, and Mini LED models, including the company's brightest 4K TV ever.  

And to help shoppers easily determine where each new TV falls in the lineup, Sony is introducing a simplified naming scheme that brings its Bravia branding front and center. On the high end, there's the Bravia 9 Mini LED, followed by the Bravia 8 OLED and Bravia 7 Mini LED, and capped off by the entry-level Bravia 3 LED.

In addition to those four new displays, the company is retaining three 4K TV models from 2023. These include the midrange X90L QLED, the smaller-sized A90K OLED, and the premium A95L OLED, which is our top high-end pick for the best TV you can buy. 

All of Sony's 2024 models will once again use the Google TV operating system, which offers access to all of the best streaming services and typically performs well in our tests. The Bravia 7, 8, and 9 will also include a new feature called "Voice Zoom 3," which can isolate dialogue in movies and TV shows so you can adjust the volume of speech without impacting other sound effects.

Preorders for Sony's new 4K TVs are now launching at various stores, with prices starting at $600 and going up to $5,500, depending on the model and size you choose. Below, we've listed the sizes, prices, and features for each model to help you decide which Sony TV is right for your needs. We'll add more retail links once they become available. 

Sony Bravia 9 Mini LED 4K TV price and specs

• Sony 85-inch Bravia 9 Mini LED 4K TV ($5,499.99)
• Sony 75-inch Bravia 9 Mini LED 4K TV ($3,999.99)
• Sony 65-inch Bravia 9 Mini LED 4K TV ($3,299.99)

The Bravia 9 is Sony's latest flagship TV geared toward buyers who want the absolute best image quality. It's an advanced QLED with a Mini LED backlight and local dimming, and Sony says it's the company's brightest 4K TV so far.

This high brightness is a key factor in realizing Sony's desire to preserve the creative intent of filmmakers. To this end, Sony says the Bravia 9 uses technology similar to what's employed in its new BVM-HX3110 professional monitor, which can achieve a whopping 4,000 nits of peak brightness. The BVM-HX3110 is marketed toward Hollywood colorists for use during the mastering process of their upcoming films, and its impressive luminance could result in more movies being graded with higher brightness levels in mind.

In theory, this direct link between the Bravia 9 and the actual post-production equipment used by the film industry should enable it to produce an incredibly accurate image with brightness and color performance that more closely mirrors what filmmakers create on their mastering monitors. Sony's past flagship TVs have done an exceptional job of mimicking the look of its previous-generation professional monitors, so we have high expectations that the Bravia 9 will follow suit.  

However, while the Bravia 9's brightness capabilities are poised to lead the industry in 2024, it's important to note that this is a Mini LED QLED TV rather than an OLED. As such, it uses a backlight instead of self-illuminating pixels, and it relies on local dimming zones to control its contrast and light output. With that in mind, Sony is touting some big advancements for the TV's local dimming tech and says that the Bravia 9 has up to 325% more dimming zones than its flagship Mini LED TV from 2023, the X95L. 

Though we've seen some models get close, we've yet to test a Mini LED TV that can truly mimic the pixel-level precision and perfect black-level performance of an OLED, so we're curious to see how Sony's latest local dimming process stacks up. We will begin testing a Bravia 9 unit soon, so check back for our full review. 

Sony Bravia 8 OLED 4K TV price and specs

• Sony 77-inch Bravia 8 OLED 4K TV ($3,899.99)
• Sony 65-inch Bravia 8 OLED 4K TV ($2,799.99)
• Sony 55-inch Bravia 8 OLED 4K TV ($1,999.99)

Sony's Bravia 8 is its only new OLED TV set for release in 2024. This midrange model is the successor to last year's A80L, and it's expected to deliver very similar performance with a few upgrades here and there. Meanwhile, the high-end A95L OLED from 2023, which remains one of our picks for the best 4K TVs you can buy, will carry over to 2024.

Sony says that the Bravia 8 will deliver a modest increase in peak brightness compared to the A80L, but general image quality will be about the same. With that in mind, we expect around 700 to 800 nits of brightness, which is decent for a midrange OLED but much lower than the 1,500 nits peak you can get on pricier flagship models. 

More so than picture improvements, Sony is touting design tweaks as the main upgrade for the Bravia 8 over its predecessor. The company says the Bravia 8 is 31% thinner than its 2023 predecessor, and its bezel is 29% slimmer. It also has an updated four-way stand.

The A80L was a great TV in its own right, so it makes sense that Sony won't be reinventing the wheel with the Bravia 8. However, we tend to give competing midrange OLEDs from Samsung and LG a slight edge over Sony's options in this class since they often deliver similar image quality for less money.  

Sony Bravia 7 Mini LED 4K TV price and specs

• Sony 85-inch Bravia 7 Mini LED 4K TV ($3,499.99)
• Sony 75-inch Bravia 7 Mini LED 4K TV ($2,799.99)
• Sony 65-inch Bravia 7 Mini LED 4K TV ($2,299.99)
• Sony 55-inch Bravia 7 Mini LED 4K TV ($1,899.99)

The Bravia 7 is designed to serve as a more affordable step-down version of Sony's flagship Bravia 9, and it also uses a QLED panel with a Mini LED backlight and local dimming. But the Bravia 7 can't get as bright as the Bravia 9, and it doesn't have as many dimming zones, so its contrast control won't be as precise.

But that's not to say the Bravia 7 won't deliver high-end image quality. Sony says this model will perform a lot like the X95L, which was the brand's flagship QLED last year. Sony's X95L was an impressive TV, but it was only available in an 85-inch screen size in the US, so it will be nice to get a similar level of performance in more sizes with the Bravia 7.

Sony's QLEDs in this class tend to be pricier than options with similar specs from budget-friendly brands like TCL and Hisense, but their higher cost comes with a few notable perks, like superior picture processing, better quality control, and fancier design elements with sturdier builds. 

Sony Bravia 3 LED 4K TV price and specs

• Sony 85-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV ($1,799.99)
• Sony 75-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV ($1,299.99)
• Sony 65-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV  ($999.99)
• Sony 55-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV  ($849.99)
• Sony 50-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV ($699.99)
• Sony 43-inch Bravia 3 LED 4K TV ($599.99)

On the entry-level side of Sony's 2024 lineup is the Bravia 3. This basic smart TV uses a standard direct-lit LED panel without Mini LEDs, quantum dots, or local dimming. As such, it's not expected to come anywhere near the picture capabilities of its pricier siblings. But, it should still provide a reliable experience for casual streaming and cable TV viewing. 

The Bravia 3 appears to be a replacement for last year's X77L, but it remains to be seen whether it offers any improvements. Based on our knowledge of past Sony models in this class, the Bravia 3 will likely end up being a bit overpriced for what it offers in the picture quality department. 

Generally, Sony excels more at upper midrange and high-end TVs, while brands like TCL, Hisense, and Vizio deliver better value for your dollar in the entry-level and mid-tier markets. For instance, you can get a 65-inch Hisense U6K with a Mini LED backlight, quantum dots, and local dimming for just $500, which is half the price of the less advanced 65-inch Bravia 3.  

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• J.B. Hunt stock slid as much as 13% on Wednesday after an earnings report that missed estimates.
• Demand for its freight services was weaker than expected in the first quarter.
• The firm is a bellwether for the freight industry, which has been mired in a post-pandemic recession.

A leading freight company is seeing its stock tank after weak trucking volumes led to a first-quarter earnings miss on both profit and sales.

JB Hunt shares slid as much as 13% on Wednesday after the company posted a profit of $127.5 million, which was $70.3 million less than it earned in the same period last year. Meanwhile, revenue missed forecasts of $3.11 billion, and instead slumped 9% to $2.94 billion.

The bellwether firm's difficulties are not a good look for the broader freight market, which has been toiling through an extensive slowdown since the pandemic years. Driving the contraction are weak sales and an overload of trucks.

"Demand remains weak and we're not seeing a breakout, and that's exemplified with what's going on with spot pricing in the market, where pricing is remaining at really historically low levels," Ken Hoexter, Bank of America's senior transportation analyst, told CNBC. "And it certainly was even weaker than expected, just given those results."

JB Hunt first sounded alarm over a potential "freight recession" in last year's first quarter earnings conference call, then noting that pandemic over-buying depressed goods demand in the years that followed, weighing heavily on the freight and transport industry.

This continued through 2023, marked by rising trucking unemployment and the exit of a number of major carriers. Current trucking spot rates have fallen 6.5% so far this year, DAT Solutions said, according to WSJ.

Part of JB Hunt's dilemma comes from rising competition from Eastern truck companies, which has slashed into its domestic intermodal services. These truck-to-rail offerings, a core segment of the company's revenue, dropped 9% from last year's quarter.

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