• "Rage bait" is the Oxford University Press' Word of the Year.
• I worry: Will overexposure to the concept of rage baiting kill it off?
• I say SELL on rage bait and BUY on earnest posting for 2026.

I have bad news for my fellow rage baiters: We may be seeing the peak of the rage-bait bubble. I'm advising you to exit your rage-bait positions and go long on earnest posting through at least 2027.

My recommendation comes as "rage bait" has been named the Oxford Word of the Year for 2025, narrowly edging out runners-up "aura farming" and "biohack." Last year's word was "brain rot." (Oxford is insisting the phrases "rage bait" and "brain rot" are two separate words, which, in my opinion, is its own form of rage bait!)

Rage bait, of course, is the tactic of purposely posting rage-inducing things just to garner attention or engagement, for fun and/or profit (Rage bait is an online-only term; saying unnecessarily provocative things in real life is just being an a-hole.) Ideally, a rage bait post is something you don't even really believe — you're just posting it to stir the pot and elicit a response.

I know something about rage bait. I was all in on rage baiting in the fall of 2024 on Threads. I had discovered that the algorithm of the nascent platform tended to favor content that got a lot of replies, and the easiest way to get a ton of replies was to say something so objectionably stupid and awful that strangers couldn't help but yell at me in the replies. (A particularly successful post in this vein was saying that teachers should be responsible for buying school supplies for kids. People hated that!)

Not long before that, I interviewed a couple whose rage-bait TikTok videos I initially fell for (game recognize game). They'd post videos about gifting thousands of dollars worth of toys and an iPhone to their toddler, or going barefoot on the streets of Cleveland to experience the wellness trend of "grounding." Getting lots of views by rage baiting turned out to be lucrative for them — and others — who found rage bait to be a smart way to garner a following on TikTok.

Meanwhile, on X, a longtime bastion of rage, the newish monetization element added by Elon Musk put a spotlight on what had been a whole new incentive structure for rage bait. It's such a successful strategy that when X recently added a new transparency measure that shows you what country an account is based in, people noticed that some accounts that tweeted hyperpartisan things about US politics were apparently based in other countries. Baiting Americans was easy money!

But here's the problem. Rage bait only fully works when it catches the element of surprise. If you know someone is rage-baiting, you know to ignore them.

And if now "rage baiting" is the word of the year, well, can a rage baiter still bait?

That's why I'm calling it! It's the peak of the rage-bait market; it's time to pull out and move on. The rage fields have been salted; it's time to let them lie fallow.

Instead, I am going long on earnest posting. Posting nice and thoughtful things, perhaps politely complimenting someone, or expressing gratitude. Eh, who am I kidding?

• The accounting industry has long grappled with a shortage of young talent.
• New data suggests more students are choosing accounting again.
• Stability and stronger entry-level pay are helping to attract them back to the profession.

For years the accounting industry has been shouting the same warning on repeat: the US is running out of accountants.

New data, however, suggests that the profession's talent crunch may be — cautiously — easing.

Graduates who earned a bachelor's or master's degree in accounting fell to 55,152 in the 2023-24 academic year, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

That's a 6.6% decline from the year prior — still a drop, but a slower one than the 9.6% decline in 2022-23 and 7.4% in 2021-22, years when pandemic disruption dragged down college completion rates across the board.

There's also a positive trend in the growing number of high school students pursuing accounting degrees.

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that spring accounting enrollment in the 2024-2025 school year grew 12% year-over-year — the third consecutive semester of growth in accounting enrollment.

"I am certainly seeing students more knowledgeable about the opportunities in accounting, and more students going into accounting in the US," Yvonne Hinson, CEO of the American Accounting Association, told Business Insider.

"I'm very excited about where we're headed now," Hinson said.

A different generation

Students are responding to the combination of better pay and the promise of a stable career, said Hinson.

Accounting majors were the fourth-best degree ranked by return on investment after five years in the workforce, according to analysis by Student Choice, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Engineering, computer science, and nursing took the top three spots.

In high schools, the stability of the profession is the strongest message that resonates with students, said Hinson. "You just don't see a lot of unemployed accountants and CPAs out there. They usually can find a job."

Employers have also been making concessions to make the field more attractive, especially for younger generations who have different demands of the workplace.

"Gen Z is just not going to do what we did," said Hinson. "I never questioned if I had to work late at night or weekends. They're just flat-out not going to do that."

The big firms have been investing in affinity groups and retention programs, boosting workplace culture, and embracing hybrid work to bridge that gap, said Hinson.

Compensation for junior workers — long a sore point — has also undergone a reset.

"We've had a salary issue for a long time, and that has turned around," Hinson said. Entry-level pay, which previously ranged from $55,000 to $60,000, has increased to around $85,000, or even six figures, depending on the city, she said.

Technology is also redefining the type of work that accountants do, which leaders hope will make the profession more appealing.

"AI is a welcome relief for these people that are out there, that they have another tool to be able to help and do more," EY's global managing partner, Raj Sharma, previously told Business Insider.

At PwC, new hires will be doing the roles that managers currently perform within three years as AI takes on the more mundane aspects of the job, Jenn Kosar, PwC's AI assurance leader, told Business Insider in August.

Technology has widened what you can do with an accounting career, said Hinson: "If you have a base in accounting, you can jump off and you can do so many exciting things, valuations, forensics. Now that we've got all of this technology, it makes it even more sexy, more fun."

'Don't take your foot off the gas pedal'

The uptick in accounting's talent crisis is encouraging, but it's neither evenly distributed nor permanent, warned Hinson.

The Big Four and the top schools "get the talent they want," but community colleges and smaller firms aren't experiencing the same enrollment boost. Demographic shifts and a widening array of majors within business schools threaten to dilute the flow of students into accounting.

"We see the enrollment cliff coming," Hinson warned. "There are going to be fewer students from high school. When you add to that the questioning of higher education that is going on, even if the same percentage choose business school, that's a declining number."

For Hinson, the takeaway is clear — the profession can't afford complacency.

"Don't take your foot off the gas pedal," she said. "We've got to keep talking about how great this profession is and keep getting young people to go into it because we are going to need them."

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pthompson@businessinsider.com or Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• The competition to supply the government has reached new heights among drone startups.
• Even commercial drone players are seeing a boost as funding and interest in the sector abounds.
• This is the first installment in a three-part series on the major players in the drone industry.

The booming American drone market is having a moment.

From niche gadgets to strategic infrastructure, the growing industry is getting another boost from the Trump administration's supercharged defense spending and the military's growing interest in heavily investing in drones.

The resulting boom isn't just benefiting the legacy players.

Early-stage drone startups are suddenly winning contracts once typically reserved for more established defense companies, a frenzy that has turned 2025 into a breakout year for drones across both defense and commercial markets.

Defense-focused drone startups are motivated to work on the tech and "make sure the West wins in the emerging era of unmanned wars," Ethan Thornton, CEO and founder of Mach Industries, said in an email to Business Insider. His startup recently won a US Army contract for its cruise missiles.

Business Insider dug into the booming drone market, looking at the startups winning the biggest term sheets and government contracts this year. Figures on the number of employees and the amount of funding each company has raised are based on data provided by PitchBook, unless otherwise specified.

Here's a list of the startups trying to define how drone tech is being built, deployed, and used by governments and commercial customers alike:

• Carl Erik Rinsch, charged with wire fraud and money laundering, goes on trial Tuesday in Manhattan.
• The feds say he defrauded Netflix out of $11 million for a never-finished sci-fi series.
• Prosecutors say Rinsch spent Netflix's money on cars, crypto, and $638,000 for mattresses.

He's taking it to the $638,000 mattresses.

Filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch is going to trial in Manhattan, fighting charges that he defrauded Netflix out of $11 million — money prosecutors say was conditioned on his delivering a humans-versus-clones sci-fi series he ultimately never completed.

Rinsch spent the money on himself instead, prosecutors say, using it to pay off his debts and splurge on luxury cars and furnishings, including two mattresses that together cost $648K.

Openings in the colorful case are expected early Tuesday afternoon.

Jurors can expect to hear a rollicking Hollywood tale featuring a bidding war (a half-dozen streamers, including Amazon, had vied for the project's rights) and at least one celebrity (Keanu Reeves was an early investor, according to the New York Times.)

They'll likely see raw footage from Rinsch's dystopian, AI-themed thriller, "White Horse," turning a federal courtroom in Manhattan into the project's first public screening venue.

And they'll hear extensive details of Rinsch's spending — with what prosecutors contend was Netflix's money — on cars, watches, clothing, luxury rentals, and those two very pricey premium mattresses.

"Mr. Rinsch, you can agree that these are extraordinarily expensive mattresses, right?" Rinsch was asked once, during a civil deposition.

"Not only extraordinary," he answered, according to a transcript included in his criminal docket. "Almost Cat in the Hat crazy expensive mattresses, yes," he added.

"But they appreciate in value, strangely."

A name inspired by the first horseman of the apocalypse

Rinsch, 48, is charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions, charges carrying a combined maximum penalty of 90 years in prison.

At the trial's center is an ill-fated TV series named for the color of the steed ridden by the first horseman of the apocalypse. (The name was later changed to "Conquest.")

Federal prosecutors say Netflix execs gave the Los Angeles native their first infusion of cash for "White Horse" — $44 million — in 2018, after falling in love with a trailer and six mini-episodes he'd already filmed.

Rinsch soon asked for more money, and in 2020, Netflix wired him $11 million on the condition that he use it for specific pre- and post-production purposes, including costumes, editing, and payroll.

Instead, according to the charges, Rinsch routed the money through a series of bank accounts to his personal brokerage account.

Prosecutors say Rinsch then lost more than half the funds on speculative stock investments, all the while giving Netflix false, rosy updates.

"By the way, don't worry about the show," he emailed Cindy Holland in April 2020, telling the then-vice president of original content that his progress on the project was "awesome," "other level," and "game changing good," court documents said.

According to the indictment, Rinsch then invested the money he hadn't lost in cryptocurrency, making nearly $10 million.

Prosecutors say he used these winnings to pay down credit card debt, hire divorce lawyers, and splurge on a warehouse worth of luxury items, including five Rolls-Royces — props, he contends, for "White Horse."

Not a single episode in the promised 13-episode, 120-minute first season was completed.

The trial, before US District Judge Jed Rakoff, is expected to last two weeks and will include testimony for the government by multiple former Netflix executives.

Court documents have named four ex-executives as having involvement in the project. They are Holland, Peter Friedlander (former head of US and Canadian scripted TV content), Rochelle Gerson (former head of business affairs), and Bryan Noon (former vice president, original series).

Rinsch's ex-wife, once a producer on the project, is also slated to be called by prosecutors, who have asked the judge to "police" her cross-examination "to avoid digression into a sideshow."

Rinsch blames the pandemic — and Netflix

In defense filings, Rinsch blames the project's implosion on the pandemic and on what his lawyers describe as the streaming giant's decision to abandon "White Horse" and write it off as a tax loss.

Prosecutors blame Rinsch alone, citing Netflix executives' belief that Rinsch's mental health had, in their words, "drastically decompensated" at around the time Netflix wired him the $11 million.

Rinsch's mental health — and the question of whether he could form the requisite intent to commit fraud — may be a significant issue at trial, particularly for his side.

"The defense is not making any argument or submitting any evidence that Mr. Rinsch was or is insane," his lawyers wrote in a defense filing two weeks ago.

Still, "the condition of his mind and mental state" is "worthy of exploration and contextualization," they wrote.

The filmmaker — described by his lawyers as currently "indigent" and "unemployed" — is so confident of his prospects that he declined to even discuss taking a plea deal, prosecutors revealed last week.

"Mr. Rinsch is looking forward to the opportunity to show that these charges are not founded and that he's completely innocent," lead attorney Daniel Adam McGuinness told Business Insider.

"He's eager to get this trial underway."

• Most people don't eat enough fiber, which supports heart health and lowers the risk of colon cancer.
• However, a dietitian warned that eating too much fiber too soon can cause digestive distress.
• She shared tips on how to gradually increase your fiber intake until your body adjusts.

Most Americans don't eat enough fiber. As a result, they miss out on its many benefits, including supporting heart and gut health, lowering cholesterol, managing weight, and reducing the risk of colon cancer.

If you feel tempted to stock up on soluble fiber — say, by adding beans to every meal — you might want to take your foot off the gas. Literally.

"Many people can experience gas or bloating when they increase fiber too quickly," Michelle Routhenstein, a preventive cardiology dietitian, told Business Insider. Eating too much fiber too quickly can cause more intense symptoms of gastrointestinal distress, like constipation, abdominal pain, and nausea.

Routhenstein works with her clients to gradually introduce more fiber to their diets until they reach their daily goal — 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.

Here are a few of Routhenstein's tips on how to sneak in more fiber — without any discouraging stomach pains.

Start with small changes

Routhenstein recommends starting by adding fiber to one meal a day at a time.

"Choose foods you already enjoy and tolerate well, then build from there," she said.

If you're very new to eating fiber (or have a history of it causing gassiness and bloating), some easy additions include:

• Sprinkling a teaspoon or two of ground flax or chia seeds on your morning yogurt or oats, building up as you go
• Mixing ¼ or ½ of a cup of beans or lentils into a stew
• Swapping fries with cooked vegetables, which are gentler on digestion than raw vegetables

Eventually, the goal is to ramp up your fiber intake — like adding fresh fruit to that morning yogurt, snacking on raw carrots, and having at least two servings of vegetables for dinner.

Stay hydrated and move around

Besides watching your diet, Routhenstein said there are a few other ways to avoid fiber-related bloating.

Staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water aids digestion and helps prevent constipation.

Exercise can also help. Routhenstein recommended easy walks after meals, which also improves digestion.

It can take a few weeks to 6 months to adjust

How long it takes for your body to get used to your daily recommended fiber intake all depends on where you start, Routhenstein said.

If you're someone who already eats some fiber, the transition can take a few weeks with a steady increase of salads and fruit.

But if you almost never eat fiber, your gut microbiome is likely less equipped to handle a sudden fiber introduction, she said. "In those cases, it can take six months or more to rebuild the microbial diversity needed to comfortably tolerate higher fiber levels."

No matter where you begin, the key is to go slow and not give up.

"The focus isn't on racing to the 'end goal,'" she said, "but on making small, consistent daily adjustments that support long-term digestive health and a sustainable heart-healthy lifestyle."

• Business Insider asked readers to tell us about price changes.
• Many said the cost of groceries and dining out has increased.
• High costs have affected spending habits; some people mentioned they aren't dining out.

Official inflation reports have been in chaos since the government shutdown, so we took matters into our own hands.

Business Insider turned to its readers to gauge whether grocery hauls, shopping sprees, and fuel were more expensive while official data reporting was in question.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks roughly 80,000 prices a month and uses that to compile a monthly report about food, apparel, and other expenditures. However, the agency couldn't collect survey data for the October consumer price index report due to the government shutdown, leading to the report's cancellation. The November data release has been pushed back from December 10 to December 18.

Given that uncertainty, Business Insider was curious what kind of price changes US consumers were seeing. We asked Americans to answer our survey between November 10 and November 13. Naturally, this unscientific survey is a far cry from BLS' usual heroic efforts to gather price data, but it can at least give a sense of how everyday shoppers are feeling about their wallets.

We asked about whether people saw price changes in the last month or two for 10 categories, and about 200 readers filled out the survey at least in part. This chart shows how many said they saw a price hike in each category.

Some responded with observations about how prices have shifted over a longer period, so the chart below reflects any mention of a rise. We excluded responses that were unclear or were not applicable, with some exceptions. For each category, that resulted in between 90 and around 200 usable responses.

Most respondents said they've noticed a rise in grocery and dining out prices, with one person calling dining out a luxury and another saying it's nearly impossible to do so. Some respondents specifically called out the cost of meat. A higher share of applicable respondents noticed an increase in coffee prices than in alcoholic beverages. Some said gas prices fluctuate, so less than half said they've noticed a rise. Not many Americans noticed a rise in their rent.

Survey respondent Jeni Garcin said she and her husband have noticed price increases for tires, coffee, and many other items.

"It's so frustrating that people like us who are financially responsible, who are doing everything right, are still just feeling like we're stretched every step of the way," Garcin told Business Insider.

Garcin is cost-conscious, but she's not willing to cut out all expenses; she views coffee as a luxury "self-care item," so she's willing to pay the higher price. However, she's willing to opt for a cheaper burger option when dining out or cut back on chips.

"Even though sometimes I want the sour cream and onion, I look at the price, and I just, I'm not going to do that," she said.

Almost all survey respondents mentioned a price change in groceries. One person said they're forgoing treats because things are too expensive, while another said they look for buy-one-get-one offers. One survey respondent said coupons aren't helping and that their standard list of groceries has more than doubled in price.

Survey respondent Sarah DeVellis Adams said grocery prices have crept up. She thinks the cost of vegetables has been pretty stable, but thinks the cost of meat and processed foods has increased.

"It's absolutely affected our bottom line because the other things that are going through increases, we're forced to pay — utilities and things like that," she said. "There's no way out of it. And so the only thing we can manipulate is our grocery budget, and it gets harder and harder the more things cost."

DeVellis Adams said her family doesn't dine out often because it has become unaffordable, adding that one outing can add up to an entire week of food, so she would rather use the money for groceries.

Some survey takers were so put off by prices that they would rather not dine out anymore. Year-over-year consumer price index data up to September showed prices have been rising faster for food away from home than for food at home.

Pet owners are also finding they're spending more to feed their furry friends. Some respondents said there's been double-digit growth. Consumer price index data showed prices for pet food and treats increased 0.5% in September from a year ago, much smaller than the increases in 2022 when inflation was sky high.

About two-thirds of people said they have seen a change in toiletries and personal care products. Some of them said paper products have increased.

A few survey respondents called out or alluded to shrinkflation, where items have shrunk but not the price, or felt like prices have jumped, but quality has worsened, such as for clothing.

We asked survey takers if they had experienced any other notable price changes. Several people mentioned the cost of entertainment, repairs, and insurance. CPI data showed that the year-over-year increase in motor vehicle maintenance and repair remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic rates.

If there's a Gen Zer on your holiday gift list this year, it may be best to forego one of the quintessential young adult presents: a wallet.

Some 4.4 billion people, or about half of people worldwide, are using digital wallets, with that number expected to grow 35% by 2030, according to tech strategist firm Juniper Research. Adults 24 and younger are most likely to pay with their phones, using them to make 45% of their purchases, according to a 2025 report from the Federal Reserve (across age groups, mobile phones were used for 23% of payments). Cash now accounts for just 14% of all purchases, and is more likely to be used by people older than 55 or in households that made less than $25,000 a year. A McKinsey survey in 2024 found that one in five people in the US and Europe who use digital wallets often go out without bringing a physical one, and in the UK, only 38% of people ages 18 to 24 own a wallet or purse that they see as essential in their daily lives, according to Link Scheme, a nonprofit that works to provide cash access in the UK. People are increasingly ditching cash, with 30% of Americans saying they haven't taken cash out of an ATM in the past month, and 17% saying it's been longer than six months, according to a LendingTree survey.

That shift is changing how they think about the money they spend. For older generations, cash feels real; for younger people, it might as well be Monopoly money. Hailey Moore, a 26-year-old in Los Angeles, tells me she hasn't had a wallet in more than a decade, and rarely carries cash. If she does get some, maybe in a birthday card, it feels like fun money: "If I have cash on me, it's money that doesn't exist," she says. And it disappears quickly. "I can just use this to get myself a little treat."

To younger shoppers, cash has lost its cachet.

Apple Pay arrived 11 years ago, but people were slow to put their credit cards on their phone; tapping a phone didn't seem any better use case than swiping a credit card. That changed largely when contactless payments were favored in the pandemic and Apple Pay became easy to use when online shopping. Now, digital payments and cards are becoming increasingly prioritized. Pennies, which each cost about two pennies to make, went out of print in November. Digital IDs are now accepted at more than 250 US airports for domestic flights. More and more daily activities can be done with just a phone. Oura is even looking into ways to make its smart rings work as wallets and keys.

If I have cash on me, it's money that doesn't exist. I can just use this to get myself a little treat.Hailey Moore, 26

And as digital wallets are used more frequently, people "trust the digital wallet more than they trust cash," says Adam Gray, chief transformation officer at payments tech firm Stax Payments. They're more secure than carrying a physical wallet stuffed with cash and cards. "We're trying to enable as many merchants and places to take it because it's better for everyone."

Historically, people tend to spend more when paying with credit cards than cash. But that might be shifting among Gen Z — a Cash App survey published last month found that 54% of Gen Zers say they're more likely to spend cash thoughtlessly. The money that has already left your bank account or came in a card from your aunt might feel inconsequential, compared to growing numbers on a credit card statement that you'll have to face at the end of the month. Moore also tells me that she mostly uses her debit card, only tapping a credit card for large purchases or those where she knows she'll earn points, like at gas stations and grocery stores. She mostly wants to build credit, and pays off the card early to avoid overspending what's in her bank account.

Shoppers have different feelings about using cash over cards. A 2023 study from the University of Notre Dame found that people prefer to use cash on purchases they feel guilty about. But cards can also lead to quick-dopamine hit spending — researchers at MIT found that using credit cards can activate a reward pleasure sensor in the brain, driving people to become addicted to spending or at least lower the restraints to spending. (The researchers behind this 2021 study did not look at contactless mobile payments, but did say that the ping that followers a purchase made on a phone could serve as a reminder of money spent, and disincentivize tapping with abandon).

Being the first to throw your card onto the check at dinner and max out rewards has become appealing to travelers, but more young people are rapidly adopting buy now, pay later companies like Klarna and Affirm. Last holiday season, Gen Z used BNPL services more than credit cards, according to research from J.D. Power. To the people who use these services, "the payment terms are just much more reasonable and transparent than credit card payment terms," says Sean Gelles, senior director of payment intelligence at J.D. Power. Frances Boyle, a 29-year-old in Seattle, says has used buy-now, pay-later services on clothes. "It's almost a way of justifying the purchase, because I'm like, 'I can't spend over $100 right now. But $20 a month, that doesn't sound that bad."

Data from PayPal shows that BNPL can lead people to spend 91% more at large businesses and 62% more at small businesses. Half of shoppers say they're more likely to complete a purchase when the split payment option is at the checkout. But a frictionless way to buy little things online now can turn into a pesky payment that lasts for months, and even barrel into a big debt down the road.

It might seem convenient to ditch cash, but a digital wallet can't cover everything.

Tori Khutorna, a 28-year-old who lives in Prague, says she doesn't own a wallet anymore — she uses a digital wallet and an app that houses her ID. It all started during the COVID-19 lockdowns with online purchases. "Moving on, I didn't see any real need in having cash." But her plan has hit snags when traveling. Khutorna also says she had to ask a stranger for cash to buy food and then transfer her the money when she was in Ukraine and a major power outage took out a neighborhood's card payment options. Once, while in Italy, she couldn't buy a bus ticket because a card machine was broken. She was fined for not having a ticket (the fare enforcer, conveniently, had a device that allowed her to use Apple Pay to settle up her fine instantly). "Sometimes, I feel really out of touch with reality" without cash, she tells me. When she sees a nice wallet for sale, she sometimes feels drawn to buy it. "Then I think, for what?"

For the young people saying goodbye to wallets, the world may soon have to catch up.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

• Kelluu, a Finnish startup, is developing low-cost hydrogen airships that can fly for up to 12 hours.
• They've recently attracted attention from NATO, securing a deal with a member for trials.
• The airships are built near Russia and designed to withstand jamming and icy conditions.

In less than 10 seconds, Kelluu's silver airships can soar from the ground to high above eastern Finland's treelines, their motors puttering and their noses pointed skyward.

Gas blimps were first invented in the 19th century, but the Scandinavian startup is betting on a modern version of the old concept to help the West guard its territory.

Kelluu, a Finnish company located about 50 miles from the Russian border, is launching small, propeller-driven airships filled with hydrogen, which it believes can fill a gap in battlefield and border surveillance.

The startup is already finding success with NATO, being the first to secure a deal with a Western nation through a new innovators' program run by the alliance.

Militaries or law enforcement agencies could equip a fleet of such remotely piloted airships with cameras and sensors, rotating them to monitor regions around the clock. Kelluu said its airships can be automated, meaning a human operator only has to set a target destination.

Airships won't be easily survivable on an immediate frontline, but can surveil rear areas or combat zones near the fighting for long periods.

Small drones, meanwhile, typically can only fly for a few hours, while spy planes are often expensive, scarce, and need an onboard crew. Satellites have to wait to pass over a specific region to gather intelligence.

Niko Kuikka, the startup's head of engineering, told Business Insider at Kelluu's workshop in Finland that its airships can fly for half a day.

"Our customers don't care so much what we are flying with, but they pay us to stay up in the air for 12 hours. That's our specialty," said Kuikka.

About as long as a city bus and six-and-a-half feet wide, Kelluu's airships are tiny compared to the Zeppelins of World War I. The ship carries fuel, a propeller, and an onboard computer, and can be configured to transport an additional payload of up to 11 pounds for other gear such as sensors. Altitude can allow high-definition cameras or radar to survey a wider area.

Kuikka said a smaller size can be an advantage for Kelluu's airships, which are designed to fly at top speeds of 33 mph.

They're cheaper and easier to mass-manufacture, so a customer wouldn't have to worry that losing a few airships might disable an entire fleet, he said.

Kelluu declined to disclose its pricing, but said its airships are meant to be low-cost.

"Having a kind of sitting duck in the air that costs a vast amount of money isn't going to make sense," Kuikka said.

'Free interference' from Russia

At Kelluu's workshop, employees perform the final assembly of the airship and fill it with hydrogen, a lighter-than-air gas that serves to both lift its frame and power its propeller. In the upstairs attic, a team of about 10 computer engineers finetunes in-house software and a user interface for monitoring the airships.

The main team is based in Joensuu, a small city of 78,000 people just west of Russian Karelia.

That location is a key advantage for the airship company, Kuikka said.

Because Joensuu is so close to the border, it has to deal with frequent jamming from both Russia and Finland, or as Kuikka and his team call it: "free interference."

While other firms may have to pay for tests, Kelluu's airships must be resistant to electronic warfare to work in the first place, he said.

"We get all sorts of jamming and spoofing from the other side of the border, and also from this side of the border, so we have been proven to be pretty resilient against this sort of GSS denial," he said.

Kelluu is also about 340 miles south of the Arctic Circle, so its team had to build its airships to withstand icy winds and temperatures that dropped in January to -15°F.

As such, the startup is positioning its airship as a particularly useful means of monitoring future Arctic bases or territories. The theory goes that the longer its fleet can stay aloft in rough conditions, the fewer people are needed on the ground to maintain and operate the airships.

"We are hoping to soon have an asset that can run multi-day missions, so you need even fewer persons working out there," Kuikka said.

Catching NATO's eye

Joensuu once heavily relied on Russian tourism, an income flow sapped dry in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted Finland to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. The following year, Finnish authorities closed the country's 833-mile land border with Russia.

Helsinki, like much of European NATO, is now grappling with the question of how to guard its eastern borders. The Finnish government is already raising concerns about illegal immigration, which it says Moscow is intentionally orchestrating as a gray warfare tactic.

Kelluu was founded in 2018, well before these issues drew public concern. It began by building airships for civilian use, such as monitoring power lines.

Now, the war is turning it into a rising star in Europe's defense industry.

Kelluu was one of 14 firms picked by NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, or DIANA, to enter the second phase of the alliance's 2025 program.

The accelerator program is trying to connect allies with startups and defense contractors, pushing governments to adopt new tech into their militaries within two years. Roughly 2,600 companies or parties initially submitted proposals to DIANA this year.

After several showcases, Kelluu was the program's first company to land a deal with an allied country under a new "Rapid Adoption Service" to conduct national trials, a program spokesperson told Business Insider.

Neither NATO nor Kelluu named the member state, but Fabrizio Berizzi, challenge manager at DIANA, praised Kelluu's airships as "strongly versatile in terms of maneuvering and endurance" and useful for 24/7 surveillance.

"The airship solution proposed by Kelluu fills the gaps on aerial platforms operating in altitudes in between the typical UAS and aircraft airspaces," he told Business Insider in a statement, referring to uncrewed aerial systems.

Berizzi highlighted the airships' jamming-resistant capabilities, saying that they can operate in "electromagnetic contested and congested environments."

Each airship is also "difficult to detect from radar due to its low radar cross section, or radar reflectivity," he said.

Building thousands of airships

The material of the airship's metallic, mirror-like skin is a company secret, the firm said. When asked if it helps avoid radar detection, the company declined to answer.

But Kuikka said the core feature of Kelluu airships is that their structure allows them to be filled safely with hydrogen, which is flammable and more dangerous than helium but provides better lift; it is also lower cost than helium.

These airships are built with a semi-rigid frame, meaning they have some structural integrity but primarily derive their shape from the gas within. Zeppelins, by contrast, had fully rigid frames, while other airships like the $21 million Goodyear blimp would collapse if they were deflated.

Janne Hietala, Kelluu's CEO, said that lighter-than-air technology is often overlooked in the defense industry, especially with disaster stories like the Hindenburg marring its history.

NATO evaluators were surprised, he said, when they assessed the company's airships during trials, which included naval showcases in the Atlantic.

"Nobody kind of believed us," Hietala said. "When they looked at the specs, they were like: 'Well, the wind is going to blow it away.' But when we actually deploy, they're like: 'Oh, it actually works and makes sense.'"

Kelluu now maintains a small active fleet of just under 20 airships, but Hietala said it's focused in the near future on scaling up mass production capacity.

Some of its airships are already being deployed in other countries, such as Latvia, for testing or client use. Kelluu now manages and operates the fleet for its clients, but is discussing the possibility that some militaries may want to operate their own airships.

"Our intention in Europe is to manufacture more than 500 for the Western world, and we expect to eventually have 3,500," Hietala said.

• Simple data labeling is becoming obsolete as AI models require more complex training data, says Turing's CEO.
• AI training companies need to be a "proactive research partner" for major labs, Jonathan Siddharth said.
• AI data-labeling startups have been garnering massive valuations over the past year.

Basic data-labeling work — the kind built on tagging images or sorting text — is becoming obsolete, said the CEO of a $2.2 billion AI training firm.

Jonathan Siddharth, the CEO of Turing, said on an episode of the "20VC" podcast published Monday that "the era of data-labeling companies is over."

"Data needs have significantly changed," said Siddharth. Early models relied on annotators tagging images, classifying text, or performing simple tasks that could be outsourced at scale. Today's systems, like agentic models and reinforcement-learning architectures, require more complex data, he added.

"It's more real-world data, data that touches how real humans do knowledge work," Siddharth said, adding that major labs want to work with AI training companies that can be a "proactive research partner for them."

"It's now the era of research accelerators," he said.

Siddharth said AI training companies need to focus on building a reinforcement-learning environment — simulated mini-worlds — that replicate human workflows across different industries.

To do that, AI training companies must recruit human experts in various domains, Siddharth said.

Turing announced in June that it had raised $111 million in Series E funding at a valuation of $2.2 billion. Earlier this year, the AI training firm said its annual revenue run rate reached $300 million in 2024 — nearly triple the year before.

Rise of AI data-labeling companies

AI data-labeling startups have been garnering massive valuations over the past year.

In June, Meta acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI, valuing the company at over $29 billion. Mercor said in October that it closed a funding deal valuing the startup at $10 billion.

The AI training boom has also fueled a fast-growing freelance workforce. Business Insider reported in September that several freelancers and contractors said that their AI training work has provided them with thousands of dollars a month, although it can be disturbing and unpredictable. Business Insider spoke with more than 60 data labelers about their work experiences.

The demand for AI training has also created an underground market for access to these platforms. Business Insider reported on Monday that it uncovered more than 100 Facebook groups selling unauthorized access to real and fake contractor accounts. Although reselling accounts is prohibited by AI-training companies, scammers and opportunistic gig-seekers are cashing in on the growing demand for AI-training gigs.