• Russia's medium-sized strike drones are flying smaller drones into battle, Ukrainian soldiers say.
• The fixed-wing "Molniya" drones can carry one or two first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters.
• The tactic extends the reach of Russia's FPV drones.

Russia has been using its medium-sized drones to fly smaller drones packed with explosives into combat, extending their range and creating deadly new problems for Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian soldiers who described the tactic to Business Insider said that Moscow uses its fixed-wing Molniya ("lightning" in Russian) drones to carry small first-person-view (FPV) drones; these are typically the quadcopters that have become a dominant presence on the battlefield.

The tactic, while not a new phenomenon, has become a growing concern for Ukrainian forces because it enables the FPVs to operate and strike at greater depths. The war has featured other types of mothership-style drone carriers, but Russia only recently started using the Molinya for this purpose, soldiers said.

A soldier in the 4th Ranger Regiment, a Ukrainian special operations unit, said that the inexpensive Molniya drones act as "an aircraft carrier," bringing one or two FPVs into battle, significantly extending their reach.

The Molniya can also carry an explosive payload, allowing it to function as both a mothership and a strike drone, said the operator, who could only be identified by his call sign Khyzhak ("Predator" in Ukrainian) for security reasons.

After the Molniya releases its onboard FPVs, it can continue flying to strike a target. Russia has sometimes even put anti-tank mines on the drone to increase its explosive potential, Khyzhak said.

"They're cheap, there's a lot of them, and so they can use them any time — at any moment — they want," the soldier added.

Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to Business Insider's request for comment on the tactic.

A Ukrainian drone unit commander operating in the northeast Kharkiv region described the Molniya tactic as a "dispensable relay." They can often fly for dozens of miles, and the FPVs are remotely piloted after they are dropped off by the mothership.

Russia began using this tactic in the Kharkiv region several weeks ago, taking advantage of the shifting front lines, the commander said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Another Ukrainian soldier said he suspects Russia does not have many of these Molniya drones and described the threat as still being somewhat "experimental."

The soldier, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ukraine has similar mothership-style drones that can carry three or even four smaller ones. He declined to detail how widespread their use is, citing operational security concerns.

Ukraine has previously disclosed the use of naval drones to carry FPVs in the Black Sea, with the smaller quadcopter drones taking off from the mothership to attack a Russian-held oil platform.

The introduction of the FPV-carrying Molniyas marks another instance of battlefield innovation, highlighting how drones continue to play an increasingly dominant role in the ongoing conflict.

"War changes. I'm not saying every day, but every year for sure, every half of the year. They're trying new tactics all the time. We are doing the same," Khyzhak said.

Both Ukraine and Russia are constantly trying to outsmart the other in what officials have described as a cat-and-mouse game to field new warfare technology before the other side develops a workable countermeasure.

New warfighting technologies often grants one side an advantage for only a limited window, maybe only a few months before the other side figures out how to respond, Lt. Col. Yurii Myronenko, Ukraine's deputy minister of defense for innovation and a former drone unit commander, told Business Insider recently.

Khyzhak said that Russia is modifying its drones to make them more deadly. He added that "they are improving their weapons — their equipment — nonstop, 24/7, every day."

Earlier this month, Ukraine's defense ministry published combat footage showing interceptor drones — one of Kyiv's newest air defense tools — taking out a handful of Molniyas above the battlefield. It's unclear if they have stopped any of the motherships carrying FPVs.

• Talent firm G&B Digital Management has been hosting creator economy classes for Hollywood pros.
• Traditional entertainment workers are seeking new skills as the film and TV industries slow down.
• Here's G&B's presentation laying out the dos and don'ts of the creator world.

It's a tough time in Hollywood, with TV shows being canceled, shoots moving to cheaper locales, and jobs lost to industry consolidation. Meanwhile, the independent creator economy is booming.

G&B Digital Management, a 10-year-old talent management firm, has been hosting free classes, called "Flipping the Script," aimed at helping Hollywood workers capitalize on new opportunities. G&B founder and CEO, Kyle Hjelmeseth, has put them on in Los Angeles and New York. About 40 people attended a recent event in New York, including film and TV producers and directors.

During the class, Hjelmeseth and G&B's education director, Joey Gagliardi, gave a high-level overview of the creator economy and practical steps people can follow to take advantage of it.

One big takeaway: the new and old entertainment worlds have more similarities than you might think, and even people used to being part of big crews and behind the scenes have transferable skills.

"You've already been trained for all of this," Gagliardi told the New York class. "Because nobody runs a ship tighter than a producer."

Check out slides from the presentation deck they used for "Flipping the Script."

G&B Digital Management encourages Hollywood pros to chart their path

G&B sees creators falling into three main types

One type is lifestyle creators who are known for taking people behind the scenes of their lives.

A second type is industry insiders or educators

G&B says a lot of Hollywood pros who are used to working behind the scenes are well-suited to this approach because it enables them to showcase their professional expertise.

A third type is entertainers

These people perform as characters in monologues, comedy bits, skits, and series.

Do you want to be on camera or off?

G&B says your first big decision is to figure out if you want to be on camera or not. Those on camera tend to be actors, hosts, and performers building personal brands online. Their personality is central to the content, and they use storytelling to connect directly to their audiences.

The off-camera path

G&B lays out ways writers, directors, producers, photographers, videographers, and editors can apply their skills to the creator economy, doing things like translating creative concepts to digital series for themselves or other creators.

Hollywood and the creator economy aren't that different

Many Hollywood terms and skills have their counterparts in the creator economy.

Start with a strong profile

Ask yourself when creating a digital profile: If someone landed on your profile today, would they know who you are, what you do, and why they should follow you?

Consistency is key

G&B stresses that posting regularly and with a consistent tone is important for attracting brand sponsors as well as fans. A creator who does this well is Bonnie Barton, whose home decor account flashesofstyle has a different color palette for each season.

Pairing food and fun

Another is Brandon Gouveia, a chef known for his fun and accessible recipes.

Put your pets to work

For people who don't want to be on camera, a pet can be a worthy substitute.

Have a strong hook

G&B recommends coming up with a good hook to grab people while they're scrolling — a cold open, if you will.

Be human

Carson (Crustbycarson) and Ashby Florence are examples of popular creators who have gained big followings by being natural and unpolished.

Don't reinvent the wheel

Stick with an easily repeatable format and a couple of consistent phrases that people know you for.

Be real and consistent for a winning formula

Carson is an accountant by day who often starts his posts with a quippy intro before sharing his pastimes.

His account is brand-friendly

His account sticks with a few themes — traveling, working out, cooking — making it well-suited to brand sponsors.

Posting shouldn't be a chore: Work it into your daily life

Other dos: Respond to comments and messages, and build your posting activity into your schedule.

Don't oversell or chase trends

Stay yourself if you're doing a product-focused post. Don't change your tone of voice or be too salesy, G&B says.

Figure out who your audience is, and share your life with them

G&B says being consistent will also teach platforms' algorithms what you're about, so they can recommend you to potential future followers.

• In September, Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the richest man in the world.
• Ellison cofounded Oracle and his son recently bought Paramount.
• He's also been a big political donor and has supported several politicians over the years.

You've probably heard Larry Ellison's name a lot lately.

In September, the cofounder and chairman of Oracle briefly overtook Elon Musk as the richest man in the world after his company's stock price soared on news of a blockbuster earnings report.

He also cemented Oracle's role in the American takeover of TikTok, which was approved by President Donald Trump that same month.

And in August, his son David successfully acquired Paramount, a major shake-up of the media industry that led to a string of new acquisitions and the ascent of Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS.

Nonetheless, Ellison is known for keeping a relatively low profile compared to other major tech billionaires.

He's been around for a long time, and over the years, he's made a number of interesting moves. In 2012, he bought an entire island in Hawaii, and he later purchased an airline to help facilitate travel to it.

He also owns several mansions, including properties in Malibu, Palm Beach, and Rhode Island.

And the billionaire has thrown around his money in another way: spending it on political campaigns.

Though he's one of several tech leaders who's fostered ties to Trump, Ellison does not appear to have ever made any direct, public contributions to the president's political operation, according to Federal Election Commission records.

He did host a fundraiser for Trump in 2020 on one of his properties, but has said that he did not attend the event himself.

But Ellison has spent big on some other major politicians — mostly Republicans.

Here are the politicians who've enjoyed Ellison's largesse over the years.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina

Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has been Ellison's biggest financial beneficiary by far.

From 2020 to 2023, as Scott geared up for a 2024 presidential bid, Ellison poured more than $35 million into Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC associated with Scott.

Ellison even attended Scott's presidential campaign launch event in South Carolina in 2023, where the senator gave the Oracle cofounder and shoutout and called him a "mentor" of his.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Long before he became Secretary of State, Marco Rubio was a freshman senator running for President of the United States.

During the 2016 presidential election, Ellison contributed $5 million to Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC that supported Rubio's presidential bid.

Ellison reportedly held a fundraiser for Rubio at his mansion in Woodside, a town in the San Francisco Bay Area, in May 2015.

Rubio ultimately dropped out of the race after losing his home state of Florida, and Trump went on to win the nomination and the presidency.

Former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah

Long before Romney was a senator from Utah, Ellison was a supporter of his 2012 presidential candidacy.

Ellison donated $3 million to Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney super PAC, that year.

Romney, the onetime governor of Massachusetts, ultimately lost to then-President Barack Obama. He was later elected to the Senate in 2018 and retired after 2024.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Tim Scott isn't the only South Carolina politician that Ellison has supported.

The state's other Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, has also earned Ellison's financial support, including as recently as this year.

Ellison contributed $1 million to Security is Strength, a pro-Graham super PAC, in March of this year.

It was his largest publicly disclosed political donation since 2022. Graham is seeking reelection next year.

Ellison also made a $250,000 contribution to the same group in 2020, the last time that Graham was up for reelection.

A smattering of other politicians have received Ellison's money

Ellison has donated to a variety of other politicians over the years.

In July, he gave almost $50,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm for Senate Republicans.

In 2020, he gave $1 million apiece to super PACs supporting Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and GOP candidate John James in Michigan. He also gave $1 million in 2022 to a super PAC that spent heavily in a US House primary in Tennessee.

While most of his contributions have been to Republicans, Ellison wasn't always just a GOP donor.

FEC records show that in the 1990s, he made significant donations to Democrats, including a total of $120,000 to the Democratic National Committee, when Bill Clinton was the party's presidential nominee.

In 2000, he was quoted as saying: "We should have amended the Constitution to elect Bill Clinton to a third term."

• The Trump phone was announced in June and was originally set to be released in August.
• It's been months since then, and the phone has yet to hit the market.
• Here's what we know about the Trump phone as of now.

The Trump family's foray into the smartphone business has seemingly hit a snag.

Months ago, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — the president's two oldest sons — announced the creation of "Trump Mobile," a new line of Trump-branded smartphones.

The duo made the announcement on June 16, the 10-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's first presidential campaign launch.

Among the new company's offerings: The T1, a gold-colored smartphone that largely resembles Apple's iPhone and that was originally advertised as being made in the USA.

There was also the "47 Plan," which would offer users services like unlimited texting, calling, and data, roadside assistance, and even tele-health services, all for $47.45 per month — a reference to Trump's status as both the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

Since then, there have been some adjustments.

Within days of the launch, the "MADE IN THE USA" wording was struck from the Trump Mobile website. The phone is now simply described as "brought to life right here in the USA" and made with "American hands."

More significantly, the company has missed its original launch date.

The phone was originally set to be released in August, according to the company's June announcement.

A spokesperson later told USA Today that the phone would launch in October.

It's now late November, and the Trump Mobile website simply says the phone will be available "later this year."

Trump Mobile did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Meanwhile, Trump Mobile's X account has laid dormant for months — the last post the company made was on August 27.

Despite the delay in the release — and the lack of information about when the phone may be available — Trump Mobile is still accepting pre-orders for $100, with the remaining $399 charged when the phone finally arrives.

• A NATO drone maker said smaller, frontline NATO members have two key weaponry needs.
• They need autonomy because they have smaller populations, and cost-effective ways to stop attacks.
• Latvia's Origin Robotics makes drones and drone interceptors, and has systems in Ukraine.

A drone maker that's been arming Ukraine and designing systems to protect NATO says it's learned what the alliance, especially allies sharing a border with Russia, will need to fight — and win — a war.

Drone maker Origin Robotics, which is based in Latvia, one of NATO’s smaller eastern edge allies bordering Russia and Belarus, is among those considered most at risk of a potential Russian attack. Facing a growing threat, countries along that frontier have played an outsized role in shaping NATO’s urgency toward Moscow.

CEO Agris Kipurs recently told Business Insider that these smaller front-line states need to invest in autonomy and lower-cost ways to take down enemy mass.

These are the kind of solutions that the technology company is working on. It has supplied some systems to Ukraine and has R&D contracts with Latvia's defense ministry. And Belgium recently agreed to buy Origin's interceptors.

Origin Robotics produces autonomous aerial and airborne systems, including an AI-enabled drone interceptor called BLAZE and a drone-launched precision-guided weapon known called BEAK. The latter is in use in Ukraine.

Kipurs said the company is using Ukrainian feedback to shape how it's building its new systems with NATO in mind. "We take the learnings of Ukraine, but we adapt those weapons systems specifically to be used in a NATO country," the market they are building for, he said.

Western militaries see real-world experience from Ukraine as key for industry. Luke Pollard, the UK's armed forces minister, said earlier this year that any Western drone companies that don't have their gear in Ukraine "might as well give up."

A need for autonomy

Russia has one of the world's largest armed forces. In Ukraine, Russia has shown a willingness to send waves of soldiers forward to relentless stress and overwhelm defenses — tactics often described as "meat waves." It has roots in Soviet doctrine, though it's not a 1:1 comparison to the fatal forward charges of the Second World War.

Smaller militaries with fewer troops can counter that mass with autonomy, Kipurs said. That kind of tech allows armies to be bigger than their numbers. Autonomy can give life to drone swarms, converting a single operator into an army of their own.

"For a NATO country, you need a scalable solution," he said. Compared to Russia and Ukraine, "our armies, in terms of head count, are a lot smaller." The alliance as a whole commands substantial forces, but force multipliers like autonomy can make alliance military might much greater.

"We have to build systems which can be deployed within a smaller army where one operator has to accomplish way more than an operator in Ukraine is accomplishing," he said. "And pretty much the only answer to that is autonomy."

Autonomy allows militaries to scale, Kipurs explained. "We don't have the numbers in terms of infantry, in terms of any army operator. So they have to be able to accomplish more."

Ukraine, one of Europe's largest countries, is still struggling against Russia's superior manpower and is increasingly turning to autonomy to offset that disadvantage. It also wants technology that protects operators by keeping them farther from the front lines, a crucial need as drone pilots have become top Russian targets.

Low-cost counters

Kipurs said finding cost-effective ways to stop large-scale attacks is also critical for nations with limited budgets, not just smaller militaries.

A key Russian tactic has been launching massive drone and missile barrages across Ukraine. This is something the West is increasingly worried about, with many officials acknowledging a gap in its defenses. There are not enough air defense systems, particularly affordable ones. It's not sustainable to fire a $4 million Patriot missile at a Russian drone worth only thousands.

Kipurs said that "when you look at the current offering for precision strike technology or weapon systems that can deliver precision strikes at the lowest end, you are talking hundreds of thousands per one successful strike." Some missile systems are worth millions, which is what higher-end interceptors are made for.

In Ukraine, both sides have recognized that exquisite precision strike capabilities are simply not sustainable in the long run, so they've been augmenting barrages with cheaper drones and loitering munitions.

It's cheap mass, not the expensive weapons that top armies have prioritized for decades. Addressing this problem, Kipurs said, is an "opportunity" for European entrepreneurs.

Front-line perspectives

Latvia and its neighbors, countries at risk that have grappled with Russian hybrid attacks and airspace violations, warned early on that Russia posed a threat and are now among Ukraine's strongest backers.

They're also some of NATO's most vocal members, warning that Moscow could strike elsewhere in Europe. These nations rank among the alliance's top defense spenders relative to GDP and have built new border defenses to blunt any potential attack.

They're protected by NATO's mutual-defense clause — it essentially states an attack on one is an attack on all — meaning that despite their small size, they have the backing of major militaries like the US, UK, and Germany.

But officials in these countries remain concerned about how quickly NATO could respond, insisting that Russia must not be allowed to seize even an inch of territory. That urgency is driving them to build stronger deterrents and homegrown defenses, a focus shared by companies like Origin Robotics.

The uncertain state of the US commitment to NATO and European security has only heightened those concerns across the region.

• Tesla is stepping up its efforts to get self-driving cars on the road in Europe.
• The EV maker is offering Full Self-Driving ride-alongs in France, Germany, and Italy next month.
• Tesla aims to have FSD approved in Europe by February, but regulators have cast doubt on the timeline.

Tesla is going on the offensive in its campaign to roll out its self-driving tech in Europe.

The EV maker is offering Full Self-Driving (FSD) ride-alongs in Germany, Italy, and France next month, as it inches closer to introducing the self-driving software in Europe.

According to Tesla's website, the ride-alongs will allow Europeans to experience FSD — which the company says can handle almost all driving scenarios autonomously but requires human supervision — during a test drive from the passenger seat.

FSD has been available in the US since 2022, but Tesla has struggled to roll it out internationally.

The automaker said in a Saturday X post that after pushing hard to ship FSD in Europe for over a year, it expected to get approval from the Dutch regulator RDW in February 2026.

However, the regulator quickly fired back, saying that although the agency had drawn up a schedule to grant approval by February, it "remains to be seen" whether that timeline will be met.

The RDW also asked Tesla fans to stop contacting them after the company called on European owners to get in touch with the regulator and "express your excitement."

Tesla has been testing Full Self-Driving for months on European roads, posting videos of cars driving through the streets of Rome and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Business Insider previously reported that Tesla employees working on FSD approval have expressed impatience with the extensive testing required by Dutch regulators, with one employee telling officials that FSD approval was "mission critical" to Tesla's leadership.

CEO Elon Musk has regularly complained that European bureaucracy is holding up Tesla's attempts to roll out its self-driving tech.

In a July earnings call, he said the company was navigating a "Kafkaesque" labyrinth of regulations, and predicted that Tesla's sales in Europe would surge once the company got the regulatory green light.

Tesla could use the boost. The company's sales in Europe have plummeted this year amid backlash over Musk's support for the far-right German party AFD and fierce competition from the Chinese EV giant BYD.

In October, Tesla's European sales were down nearly 50% from the previous year, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, while BYD's sales surged by over 200%.

• Hedge funds have been quick to use artificial intelligence to help their investing teams.
• The so-called smart money has also been quick to invest in the trend across public and private companies.
• Quant funds have used machine-learning techniques for years.

Artificial intelligence has already changed the way many industries operate, and hedge funds are no exception.

The $5 trillion field is diverse in the type of strategies different firms employ and the type of securities they invest in. But everyone wants to be the smartest manager in the world — or at least the best-informed.

To do that, funds have pumped resources into building out generative AI capabilities and use cases. Many firms, especially quantitative traders, are expanding initiatives they were already pursuing in areas such as machine learning. And nearly every firm is putting capital behind the trend that has dominated the public and private equity markets for several years now.

Business Insider rounded up how some of the biggest and well-known managers are leveraging and backing the development of AI. It's an extensive, but not exhaustive, rundown.

How funds are using AI

It is, first and foremost, about the data.

Hedge funds have spent countless hours and astronomical amounts of money to get more information than their rivals as fast as possible. Their insatiable appetite for new and unique data has created a thriving alternative data industry, which is filled with firms scouring the world for new information to sell.

As Umesh Subramanian, the chief technology officer of Ken Griffin's $69 billion Citadel, said at a Bloomberg event in October, the data firms like his are now consuming is in petabytes. A single petabyte is 1 million gigabytes and can store hundreds of millions of photos or hundreds of thousands of high-definition movies.

The only reason funds like Citadel are able to consume this amount of information without feeling overwhelmed is because of AI. And, given the hypercompetitive nature of the industry, even the slightest advantage over a competitor is worth the cost.

"It's an arms race to be able to consume the right kind of data in the right kind of way to be able to make the right decisions," Subramanian said.

$29 billion hedge fund Balyasny has built an AI bot that it believes will be able to do the grunt work that typically falls to senior analysts — a potential huge timesaver for investment teams. The manager told Business Insider in 2024 that roughly 80% of the firm's staff use its AI tools, which include the internal chatbot BAMChatGPT, and recently hired Matthew Henderey, one of the CIA's AI developers, as a data science executive.

Balyasny isn't the only firm that has its own chatbot. Man Group and Viking Global have also developed their own internal offerings.

Quant funds like D.E. Shaw, Bridgewater, and Two Sigma and proprietary trading firms and marketmakers like Jane Street, Citadel Securities, and Hudson River Trading have been at the cutting edge of AI and machine learning for years.

For example, Two Sigma's Mike Shuster, who is the head of the quant's core AI team, said at a Columbia University event in November 2024 that his firm had been using generative AI for more than five years at that point. Bridgewater launched a $2 billion fund in the summer of 2024 that is run by machine learning; the manager's CEO, Nir Bar Dea, said this year the strategy produces "a unique alpha uncorrelated to what our humans do."

To stay at the vanguard of a new technology, you need top talent. These firms have often been able to lure top technical talent with eye-popping pay packages, but AI companies have been able to match, and in some cases, surpass compensation offers.

As Business Insider reported, young quants drawn to the work AI startups are doing now "don't even have to take a pay cut" to choose Silicon Valley over East Coast trading floors.

How funds are investing in AI

One of the reasons AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic can afford hedge-fund talent is the tens of billions of capital that have been invested into them by big-name venture capital firms, as well as Tiger Cubs like Tiger Global, Coatue, and D1. Tiger Cubs are hedge funds with connections to the billionaire Julian Robertson and his firm, Tiger Management, that often focus on growth stocks in industries such as technology.

Stockpicking funds like the Tiger Cubs have increasingly turned their attention to the AI trend in the public and private markets. Stocks like Nvidia, AMD, and Korean chipmaker SK Hynix are often significant holdings in their public portfolios, alongside tech giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta.

Maverick, a smaller Tiger Cub run by Lee Ainslie, focuses less on picking the winners and losers among AI players and more on supporting the chipmaking ecosystem. The firm's private fund, Maverick Silicon, which invests in that space, is run by one of the firm's longtime investors, Andrew Homan.

Steve Cohen, whose $40.5 billion Point72 has dozens of teams that invest in equities, was so convinced by AI's potential that he created a standalone strategy in October 2024, named Turion, a play on the famous computer scientist Alan Turing's name, to invest in the space. Point72 rarely offers new funds outside its flagship.

Turion, which is run by portfolio manager Eric Sanchez, has outperformed the manager's flagship offering in 2025.

Where AI still falls short

While some firms have turned over investing decision-making to AI, other industry leaders are not yet convinced that the machines can outperform the market.

Citadel's Ken Griffin said at an October conference that AI can not yet beat the markets. Man Group's Numeric unit has created an internal "large language model-based workflow" called AlphaGPT that "still requires human oversight and strategic direction." Elliott's Paul Singer said in a podcast at the start of the year that AI's use cases are "way exaggerated."

There's no doubt that funds are using AI more than ever before and processing more data than ever imagined. However, human creativity remains important for investment giants, and, for the most part, AI is seen as a tool, not a replacement, for flesh-and-blood traders.

At a London quant conference in October, the conclusion many systematic funds reached is that humans, not machines, are the edge required to beat the markets, Business Insider reported.

"Our key takeaway so far is that AlphaGPT doesn't replace human judgment but amplifies it. The most effective use of the system involves human researchers working alongside AI, with each contributing their unique strengths," a pair of Man Numeric executives wrote in a note on AlphaGPT from earlier in November.

"Numeric Humans provide strategic direction, market context, and final decision-making, while AlphaGPT handles the heavy lifting of data processing, hypothesis generation, and initial analysis."

• Miles Wu, 14, won a $25,000 award for his research project combining origami and physics.
• He measured the weight that Miura-ori origami patterns can hold across various benchmarks.
• Wu said the pattern could help improve deployable structures used in emergencies.

While most 14-year-olds are folding paper airplanes, Miles Wu is folding origami patterns that he believes could one day improve disaster relief.

The New York City teen just won $25,000 for a research project based on an origami fold called Miura-ori, which is known for collapsing and expanding with precision.

"I've been folding origami as a hobby for more than six years, mostly of animals or insects," Wu told Business Insider. "Recently I've been designing my own origami, too."

For his project, which won the top prize at the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge in October, Wu spent months determining whether the strength-to-weight ratio of the Miura fold can be leveraged to improve deployable structures used in emergency situations.

Essentially, Wu tested how much weight the Miura fold could handle across different types of paper, parallelogram heights, parallelogram widths, and parallelogram angles.

Wu got the idea while learning about natural disasters, like January's wildfires in Southern California and Hurricane Helene, which hit the Southeast US in 2024. He also studied how people use origami in STEM disciplines, including the medical field.

"A problem with current deployable structures and emergency structures is, for example, tents are sometimes strong, sometimes they can compact really small, and sometimes they're easily deployable, but almost never are they all three, but Miura-ori could potentially solve that problem," Wu said.

"I found that Miura-ori was really strong, light, and folds down really compactly."

Wu tested 54 variations and underwent 108 trials

When using the Miura-ori, a sheet of paper is folded into a smaller area with repeating parallelograms.

To figure out the winning combination, Wu tested three different parallelogram widths, three different parallelogram angles, and two different parallelogram heights. He also tested three different types of paper.

That means Wu tested 54 hand-folded variations and oversaw 108 trials.

"After folding them with the help of a cutting machine for accuracy, I placed them between guardrails to keep my experimentation the same throughout my trials," Wu said. "Then, I placed a lot of heavy weights on top."

Wu would gradually place more weight atop each test variation until they collapsed. To his surprise, the origami variations were quite strong. He used every book in his home as a weight before having to ask his parents to purchase exercise weights for his research.

Wu believed "smaller, less acutely angled panels made of heavier material would yield a greater strength-to-weight ratio."

By the end of his trials, his hypothesis was partially correct. While small and less acutely angled panels showed a better strength-to-weight ratio, Wu found that copy paper — not heavier materials —had the strongest strength-to-weight ratio.

"The final statistic I got about the strongest Miura-ori that I tested was that it could hold over 10,000 times its own weight," Wu said. "I calculated that to be the equivalent of a New York City taxi cab holding over 4,000 elephants."

Wu took the top prize at the competition in Washington, D.C.

Taking top prize at the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is no small feat. To apply, middle schoolers must compete at local science or engineering fairs, where judges nominate the top 10% of projects.

Of the 2,000 or so applicants, judges select 300 before narrowing it down to just 30. Those 30 kids then travel to Washington, D.C., where they present their work and participate in challenges.

Those challenges play a role in how judges decide who will take home an award.

Maya Ajmera, the president and CEO of the Society for Science, which collaborates with Thermo Fisher Scientific to host the competition, told Business Insider that Wu excelled in those challenges.

"We're not only looking at their project. We're looking at do they deal with creative problem solving, how they deal with setbacks, how they bring everyone in a collaborative mode," Ajmera said. "Not only did Miles have an extraordinary project, but he shined as a leader in these challenges."

To Ajmera, introducing STEM education to young people is imperative.

"We're looking for the next generation of innovators," Ajmera said.

Ajmera said that many of the kids participating in the competition are considering careers in STEM fields.

"That is really important for global competitiveness as the United States, being the global leader of innovation and also solving the world's most intractable problems," Ajmera said. "I think we have a duty to really nurture the curiosity."

Wu said he and his parents decided to put the $25,000 award toward higher education. Although it's been nearly a month since Wu won, he's already thinking ahead about how to bring his vision to life.

"One thing I really want to look into is prototyping one of these Muira-ori to create a real emergency shelter that could be used in real-life situations and actually help people," Wu said. "But overall, I would love to keep working on origami-related research. Not only Miura-ori folds, but origami as a whole, and in other fields, too."

• Major retailers, such as Walmart and Target, are integrating AI into their shopping experiences.
• Retailers have partnered with AI companies, such as OpenAI, and developed their own tools.
• AI assistants can help with product recommendations, checkout, and customer service.

Retail is becoming a major battleground in the artificial intelligence arms race.

Since the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, AI chatbots have had a meteoric rise in popularity. This year, more major retailers got in on the hype, unveiling plans to offer AI tools that can make shopping easier for consumers.

They're investing time and money in partnering with AI companies like ChatGPT maker OpenAI, or building their own large language models to create shopping assistants or simplify the checkout process.

Shoppers are already using AI. In an October survey from PwC, more than half of the respondents said they planned to use AI for price checks, trip planning, or writing messages this holiday season.

And the retailers aren't the only ones building AI-powered shopping experiences. OpenAI is bringing e-commerce to ChatGPT with its Instant Checkout feature, where users search and purchase items from some retail partners right in their chats.

Here's what seven major retailers have said publicly about how they're using AI to transform the way we shop.

Walmart

Walmart introduced the world to its AI shopping assistant, Sparky, in June. Shoppers can use the chatbot in the Walmart app to find products, read reviews, and receive personalized purchase recommendations.

The retail giant rolled out additional features in the app for the holiday season, including help with party planning, a 3D showroom, and audio product descriptions and reviews.

Walmart also said in October that it and sister company Sam's Club would be partnering with OpenAI. The deal is supposed to enable customers to shop through ChatGPT using the platform's Instant Checkout feature.

Target

Target and OpenAI unveiled in November that a custom Target app would be coming to ChatGPT, rolling out in beta later that month. With this feature, shoppers can purchase multiple items in a single transaction, shop for fresh food, and select their preferred shipping method, the companies said.

"Our goal is simple: make every interaction feel as natural, helpful, and inspiring as chatting with a friend," Prat Vemana, executive vice president and chief information and product officer at Target, said in a statement when the OpenAI partnership was announced.

Target's app also features its own AI-powered tools, including one that enables users to scan their written grocery list and have the items automatically added to their cart. The retail giant launched a holiday-themed AI shopping assistant that suggests gift ideas based on user prompts.

Amazon

Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant Rufus is growing. Rufus had over 250 million customers this year, with monthly users up 140% year-over-year, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in October.

The AI shopping assistant has been around since 2024, offering consumers personalized product recommendations. Rufus generally appears alongside search results as a panel where users can choose from shopping-related prompts or ask their own questions to find deals on the platform.

"Our goal is to save customers time and money by making online shopping even simpler with real-time information and insights of experts," said Rajiv Mehta, vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, in a November press release.

eBay

Online marketplace eBay unveiled an AI-powered shopping agent in May that would personalize the shopping experience. The company said that the shopping agent would show up for customers throughout their shopping journey, either by reacting to a request or through in-line messaging on the page a user is visiting.

"Our AI shopping agent has given buyers a new way to shop across our inventory, with personalized product picks and expert guidance based on their individual shopping preferences," CEO Jamie Iannone said on the company's October earnings call.

He said the company built its large language models in-house to perform specific shopping agent tasks, and it's been fine-tuning them. It's "poised to gradually bring agentic capabilities into the core of eBay's business through the main search experience over the coming quarters," Iannone said.

Home Depot

Home Depot created an AI tool, called Blueprint Takeoffs, for professional builders, renovators, and remodelers, a core pillar of the retailer's customer base.

The tool is named after takeoffs, which are material lists and estimates that can be time-consuming for workers to make themselves.

Home Depot said the tool can handle tasks for a single-family project that should take weeks within a few days.

"The speed and accuracy of the Blueprint Takeoffs tool give Pros more time to focus on what matters most: serving their customers and growing their businesses," said Mike Rowe, executive vice president of Home Depot's pro business, when Blueprint Takeoffs was announced in November.

Lowe's

Lowe's introduced Mylow, an AI-powered virtual home improvement assistant made in collaboration with OpenAI, in March. The retailer said it provides the expertise of a Lowe's associate at customers' fingertips.

The assistant was designed to provide step-by-step instructions for DIY projects, offer design inspiration, and help locate specific products at Lowe's.

"Our virtual assistants, Mylow and Mylow Companion, which are built on an OpenAI platform, are answering nearly 1 million questions a month about everything from product specs to project know-how to the status of a customer order," CEO Marvin Ellison told analysts in November.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch is in the midst of a revival, and the company said in a November earnings call that it's investing in AI to enhance the customer journey.

It recently started using AI agents in customer service, for example.

The company is also kicking off in November a partnership with PayPal that it said will enable customers to browse the retailer's catalog and complete transactions within their AI conversations on AI answer engines like Perplexity. Abercrombie & Fitch is one of several retailers that will be integrated into the ecosystem.

• Retailers are marketing affordability and value to attract increasingly cautious consumers.
• Consumer sentiment is at historic lows, driving demand for lower prices and essentials.
• Retailers are adjusting their promotional strategies and messaging to encourage spending.

Retailers are responding to the affordability crisis this holiday season.

In recent earnings calls, Target, Walmart, and Sally Beauty Holding addressed the cratering consumer sentiment and discussed their pricing strategies as the busiest time of year for shoppers approaches.

Consumers are feeling the pinch. According to the University of Michigan's survey of consumers, sentiment dropped to 51 points in November, which is the second-lowest score the index has ever recorded since 1952, narrowly topped only by a score of 50 in June 2022.

Mark Cohen, the former director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, said that retailers are responding by investing more in lower-priced items and "adjusting their assortments" to give their customers the opportunity to buy from them at a lower price.

"Retailers have been getting more and more promotional for years in the main, but now they're doing it with their feet standing on thin ice because they don't know what to expect," said Cohen. "The last thing they want is to have overhang inventory for the holidays when the season is over, so they have been discounting frantically."

In Target's third-quarter earnings call, Rick Gomez, the executive vice president of Target, said that because consumer sentiment is "at a three-year low amid concerns about jobs, affordability, and tariffs," shoppers are looking to "celebrate with loved ones without overspending."

"Guests are choiceful, stretching budgets and prioritizing value," said Gomez. "They're spending where it matters most, especially in food, essentials, and beauty, while looking for trend-right deals in discretionary categories."

"Given our focus on affordability, we recently lowered prices on thousands of everyday food and essential items to help families further manage their budgets," Gomez added.

Target is struggling with declining sales and had to cut its profit guidance for the end of the year, but companies that are faring better have similar concerns.

In their respective Q3 earnings calls, Home Depot said that "consumer uncertainty and continued pressure in housing" is driving down demand for larger home improvement projects, Lowe's is expecting comp sales to remain "roughly flat" due to "a cautious consumer," and Sally Beauty Holdings said it saw shoppers "leaning into value a bit more," especially for those with low-income.

"The disparity in wage growth between those cohorts was as large as it's been in almost a decade," said John David Rainey, CFO of Walmart, during the company's Q3 earnings call in reference to the relatively stagnant wage growth for low-income households.

"If pocketbooks are being stretched and consumers are being choiceful and value seeking, it stands to reason, if there's more pressure on the consumer, they're only going to become more so," Rainey added, citing the value Walmart provides as a reason why the company is gaining market share in this economic environment.

The Federal Bank of New York wrote in its latest report that total household debt has reached a record high this year, totaling $18.59 trillion from July through September. Compared to the end of 2019, before the pandemic, overall debt levels have increased by $4.4 trillion.

Not every retail company is feeling equally cautious this holiday season. Best Buy hiked its sales forecast on "better-than-expected" sales in the third quarter because of strong results across computing, gaming, and growth in wearables. Gap Inc., in its Q3 earnings call, said that external data points to "macro pressure on the low-income consumer," but the company raised its full-year guidance.

A change in messaging

Dax Dasilva, the CEO of Lightspeed Commerce, a retail analytics company, told Business Insider that shoppers now are "highly price-savvy" and drawn to transparency in pricing and offers that are easy to understand.

A consumer sentiment survey from Lightspeed Commerce found that of the 1,500 respondents in the US market, almost one in four of the surveyed individuals said they will use Black Friday only for everyday essentials, such as groceries and household basics, while 13% said they weren't planning to spend at all.

"The brands winning right now are those showing empathy, not extravagance," said Dasilva. "Messaging that celebrates practicality like 'shop smarter,' 'stretch your dollar' resonates far more than indulgent tones like 'treat yourself.'"

Dasilva added that despite low consumer sentiment, sectors like bike, outdoor, sports, and self-care are still performing resiliently, which gives some indication toward what consumers are currently willing to invest in.

Jean-Pierre Dubé, professor of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said that retailers are developing strategies to offer deals without permanently lowering prices, in fear that this may "recalibrate consumer price expectations" to be lower.

"Retailers like promotional discounts because they are temporary in nature, facilitating a necessary price reduction without leading the consumer to expect the lower price to persist," said Dubé.

Dubé pointed to the rise of the "everyday-low-price" model, now widely used by chains like Walmart and T.J. Maxx, which he said is experiencing surprisingly good results because of the guarantee of consistent low prices within a specified period, without needing to wait for a big annual sale.

"Depending on how much inventory retailers acquired for the holiday season," Dubé added, "I anticipate some exceptionally aggressive discounts and promotions."