• Elon Musk shared some of his favorite podcasts and audiobooks on a recent livestream.
• He said he's "a big history guy" and named several including "The Explorers" and "Hardcore History."
• Here's the full list of recommendations he shared.

Elon Musk recently shared some of his favorite podcasts, and —spoiler alert — they're mostly on the subject of history.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was asked for podcast recommendations on a stream on his platform X, formerly Twitter, last week.

"I like history podcasts in general," he said, according to one Tesla fan's recap of the 5-hour livestream. "I just generally love history. Any kind of narrative is just a story really, it's a story about reality or at least someone's perception of reality."

Musk named the "Explorers Podcast," which focuses on "the lives, explorations and discoveries of history's greatest explorers," according to its website. He's also a fan of "The Age of Napoleon Podcast," which is described as centering on "the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as the general context of Europe between the early eighteenth and early nineteenth century."

Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcast — known for its "unique blend of high drama, masterful narration and Twilight Zone-style twists," according to its Apple Podcasts page — is "probably my top recommendation," Musk said.

Musk also shared some of his favorites in another medium: audiobooks. He likes "The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant as well as the Penguin edition of "The Iliad."

Musk has recommended several other books over the years, including sci-fi novels and books on artificial intelligence.

• Henrik Fisker's second automotive startup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
• Fisker was pitched as a Tesla rival, but workers say mismanagement led to compounding problems.
• Business Insider spoke with 27 former and current Fisker staff that charted the startup's downfall.

Fisker's staff was in chaos as they prepared to deliver the company's first batch of electric cars to US customers.

It had been four years since famed automotive designer Henrik Fisker unveiled his Tesla rival, an SUV called the Ocean, and the vehicle still wasn't ready.

In the weeks leading up to the big June 2023 event, Fisker staff raced to fix faulty parts on at least four of the 22 EVs that were set to be delivered — even stripping parts off the CEO and CFO's personal cars to repair the vehicles, including door handles and seat sensors, according to 11 sources familiar with the incident.

Two days later, Fisker board member Wendy Gruel's Ocean SUV, one of the cars that had been delivered at the event, shut off on a public road while going full speed, five sources said. Later, the same thing happened to Geeta Gupta-Fisker, Henrik's wife and the company's CFO and COO, workers said.

A Fisker spokesperson denied that workers used parts from pre-production vehicles for customer cars and said Gruel's car didn't stop on a public road. The company said Gupta-Fisker's vehicle had malfunctioned, but the issue was resolved.

When TechCrunch previously reported the incident with Gruel's car, the publication said the company had confirmed the incident and said the issue was fixed.

The issue was unrelated to Fisker's part swapping, but one thing was clear: the electric cars had barely hit the road and already the problems were piling up.

Henrik Fisker's EV startup seemed to be an easy sell at first. The 60-year-old automotive veteran boasts a long history in the industry, known for being the designer behind the Aston Martin V8, the BMW Z8 roadster that famously appeared in a 1999 James Bond film, and helping design Tesla's Model S.

Even though it was Henrik's second automotive startup after his first company went out of business in 2013, some workers told Business Insider that it was easy to dismiss worries early on that his second company could meet the same fate.

For his part, Henrik said he planned to do things differently this time. He would follow Apple's model by outsourcing production through Magna International and he also aimed to target the middle of the market with a more affordable EV option that could compete with Tesla's best-selling Model Y. Fisker Inc emerged in 2016 and went public in 2020 via a SPAC backed by Apollo Global Management. At one point, the company's market value soared as high as $8 billion.

At the time, Fisker was one of several EV startups to burst onto the scene — Rivian, Lucid, and Lordstown all wanted the chance to compete with Tesla. Since then, production and market headwinds have pushed some EV startups to shutter and major players like Ford and GM to scale back their electric-vehicle operations. Even Tesla has struggled, seeing revenue decline and layoffs.

"I was hopeful at first," one former VP, who worked at both Fisker startups, said. "Initially, at least, it seemed like he'd learned from his mistakes. It became obvious later on that they hadn't."

A Fisker spokesperson said it would be "unfair" to compare the two companies.

On Monday, the company announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after months of struggling to stay afloat. The company cited "various market and macroeconomic headwinds."

Business Insider spoke with over two dozen current and former Fisker employees who worked at the startup during various periods from its launch in 2016 to the present. The workers, whose identities are known to BI, requested anonymity as they were not authorized to comment on Fisker's behalf and feared professional reprisal.

A husband and wife duo who workers say mismanaged their way into a mess

Many of Fisker's woes can be traced back to the husband-wife duo that launched the brand, multiple former and current workers told BI.

They described a disorganized environment in which unqualified people were brought in to lead major programs and basic automotive standards were ignored.

While Henrik often served as a figurehead, Gupta-Fisker was heavily involved in everyday decisions, including on the engineering side, 11 workers said. Prior to taking on the role of CFO and COO at Fisker, Gupta-Fisker had served as an investment manager for the Fisker family office and as an advisor at a nonprofit. She had no prior experience in the automotive industry. But at Fisker, the workers said she managed deals with Magna and outside parts suppliers, frequently popped into engineering meetings, and weighed in on everything from parts purchases to software decisions.

A spokesperson for Magna declined to comment on Fisker. A Fisker spokesperson denied comments that Henrik took on a more passive role and said he was "deeply involved."

49-year-old Gupta-Fisker quickly became known in the company for her shrewd cost-cutting abilities. But, her strategy meant that at times Fisker ended up using components that didn't match the correct specifications for the Ocean, five former and current workers said. Gupta-Fisker made several decisions to use cheaper parts against Fisker executive and Magana executives' advice, two workers said. The mismatches led to issues with over-the-air updates, the five workers said.

The company said Magna oversaw the majority of parts sourcing and a "significant" amount of the parts came from Magna and its suppliers.

In conversations with BI, staff blamed many of the Ocean's faults on the cost-cutting efforts.

Several workers said that in the months leading up to the vehicle's launch, they filed internal reports recommending that the product undergo further testing and development before its release. They said they were told the company planned to proceed anyway.

"The focus was on getting the car to market as soon as possible," one former worker said. "The overarching belief was we could fix things with updates later on."

A Fisker spokesperson said Magna was responsible for testing and releasing the Ocean and it had been fully certified by regulators in the US and Europe. The company has been sending out over-the-air updates since 2023, the company said.

Ahead of the release, Fisker engineers were aware of multiple issues with the vehicle, according to five current and former workers, as well as internal documents viewed by Business Insider. Engineers had identified issues with the effectiveness of the car's door handles, key fobs, and seat sensors.

Over the past year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched four investigations into Fisker's SUV, including issues with inadvertent braking and flaws in the vehicle's door latch system. The company said it is cooperating with NHTSA.

Fisker has also faced dozens of lemon law lawsuits. Last week, Fisker issued a recall for a software-related issue that it said caused some of its vehicles to suddenly lose power.

Cutting corners led to compounding issues

In its haste to bring the car to market, Fisker failed to set up an effective system for processing repair orders and warranty claims, seven current and former workers said. Technicians were tasked with filling out the work orders and many of them said they hadn't been trained on the process.

In lieu of a working warranty system, some workers began processing the repairs without the proper California Bureau of Automotive Repair codes and EPA license numbers, using "123456" as a placeholder on a number of repairs, according to an internal document viewed by BI. In March, a VP at Fisker warned the issue made the company non-compliant with NHTSA protocols and unable to properly track and report safety concerns.

A Fisker spokesperson said the issue was "an internal error with only draft work orders early in the service process that was immediately corrected."

Without a proper system to process warranties or repair orders, the majority of repairs went unaccounted for, seven current and former workers said. That meant there wasn't an adequate way for Fisker to keep track of which parts were being used for repairs for its own financial records. It also meant many customers did not get a record of their repairs, workers said.

Meanwhile, Fisker also struggled to find the necessary parts for all of the fixes. The company hadn't set up much inventory for aftersales parts, so some of the parts used for customer fixes either came directly off the factory line, meaning they were meant for production vehicles, or the parts were stripped off pre-production and production vehicles, 11 workers with knowledge of the issue said.

In one instance, Fisker stripped parts off an engineering test vehicle that had been shipped from Magna's facility in Graz, Austria under an import bond, according to three former workers and emails viewed by BI. The vehicle was supposed to be destroyed in its entirety shortly after it was delivered to comply with the terms of the import. This is typically within a year, according to NHTSA, but the period can be extended in one-year increments up to 3 years. The vehicle's parts were not intended to be used for customers' cars.

The company denied any test vehicles had been used for parts and said all vehicles that had been imported for testing were destroyed under NHTSA's supervision within the allotted time period.

The spokesperson also denied that Fisker had a shortage of after-sales parts: "The Service department made its own forecast for parts, based on their sector knowledge. The Purchasing department supported those requests."

Fisker staff also looked for clever ways to address the parts shortage. In some instances, workers who visited Graz were told by managers to bring parts back in their suitcases to avoid paying import fees, seven workers said. One worker recalled having to leave personal belongings behind to fit air vents and key fobs into their luggage; another said they packed a larger bag to fit trim panels.

Fisker declined to comment on the claims.

A sales scramble amid negative reviews and vanishing demand

Fisker was initially successful in generating interest in the Ocean, with over 65,000 reservations initially placed.

But in the year since the Ocean's release, the company has delivered around 7,000 vehicles, a Fisker spokesperson said. Negative reviews — including YouTuber MKBHD calling it the "worst care I've ever reviewed" — took a toll on the brand, driving thousands of would-be customers to cancel their reservations.

In November, Fisker moved to bring in hiring recruiters to help sell the vehicle, as well as orchestrate the delivery of the car after the sale had been processed, six former workers said. In many cases, the recruiters, who had initially been brought onto the human resources team, had zero experience in automotive sales.

A Fisker spokesperson said that recruiting staff did join the sales efforts, though the company said they were asked to stay because they were successful in the new role.

Selling the car wasn't easy either. The recruiters found themselves directly competing with the company's established sales team and there weren't enough leads to go around. Four former workers said Fisker's reservation numbers included many duplicate names in its count and it was difficult to track which customers had connected with a sales worker. As a result, some people on the reservation list would find themselves getting multiple calls per day from different Fisker representatives.

At one point, sales workers were instructed to target customers who had canceled their orders and pepper them with calls in an attempt to get them to reverse their decision, three former workers said.

Fisker also began hosting pop-up events to boost sales, including events in partnership with fan blog Fiskerati, two former employees told BI. The events varied from meetups at Panera parking lots to larger-scale test drive events. In at least one instance, the event was shut down after Fisker failed to get permission from the owner of the location, the two sources said. Queues of Fisker owners that needed repairs also showed up at the events, three former workers said. Fisker told BI that the event hosted at Panera was not a company event.

"Sometimes it was hard to sell the cars when you'd take someone on a test drive and any number of error messages would pop up," one former worker from sales said. "As time went on and it became clear the writing was on the wall, we became even more honest with the customers on the risk," they added.

Fisker said it was aware of the ADAS issues but it was fixed with an update.

Meanwhile, some customers who'd canceled their orders and never paid for the car ended up mistakenly receiving delivery of the vehicle anyway, four former workers said. Former Fisker Ocean owner Kurt Mechling told BI he received delivery of the vehicle before he'd signed off on the order or had his payment successfully processed.

In March, TechCrunch reported that Fisker temporarily "lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments" for multiple months. Four workers with knowledge of the issue confirmed to BI the incident involving misplaced payments occurred.

When the carmaker conducted an internal audit in December over the issue, workers began scrambling to find the missing payments and bring some of the vehicles that had been mistakenly delivered back, the workers said. Some workers were encouraged by upper management to threaten the customers by saying they'd put them on a repossession list which could impact their credit score, the former workers said.

A Fisker spokesperson said the company had an "organized process" to address issues with vehicles that had not been paid for that was in line with industry standards.

Filing for bankruptcy — again

Fisker had been facing the possibility of bankruptcy for months.

Fisker warned in March that it might go out of business within the year. The stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in April after it fell to 9 cents per share.

Fisker warned staff in an April filing that they could be laid off if the company couldn't find a buyer or additional investor. The company brought in a chief restructuring officer who was given "sole authority" over some financial matters, including a potential sale, as part of an agreement with one of its investors.

Fisker also dropped prices by as much as $24,000 for some versions of the vehicle and conducted a series of layoffs that whittled the company down to the bone.

Ahead of the bankruptcy filing, Fisker's workforce consisted of less than 100 people, according to two sources with knowledge of the issue. The remaining workers were involved in last-ditch efforts to offload the company's remaining inventory, the people said.

A week before the bankruptcy filing, Fisker denied it had less than 100 workers left and told BI it continues to sell vehicles in the US and in Europe. It declined to specify how many workers remained.

In its Chapter 11 filing, Fisker said that its manufacturing pause would remain in place but that it plans to file "customary motions" with the bankruptcy court to ensure it can continue to pay employee wages and its vendors.

Over the past few months, workers have expressed dissatisfaction with what they view as Henrik and Gupta-Fisker's inability to take accountability for their actions. A Fisker spokesperson pushed back on the comments questioning Henrik's business prowess.

For Henrik, whose earlier company, Fisker Automotive, filed for bankruptcy in 2013, his present predicament echoes the past.

"I think it's a story of ego. He wanted to make a car and stamp his name on it. Henrik is a great designer, but he doesn't have the business acumen beyond that," an individual who worked with Henrik at several companies, including his first automotive startup. "The lessons he should have learned from the first startup were never implemented and he rushed a car to market once again."

June 18, 2024: Updated to reflect that Fisker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

June 12, 2024: Added clarification that NHTSA requires temporarily imported vehicles to be destroyed within 3 years and that Fisker said it had done so within the allotted time period.

Do you work for an EV company like Fisker or Tesla? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com or 248-894-6012.

• Ecolab manages water-purification and water-treatment systems.
• The company, which has been around for a century, uses AI to inform new projects.
• This article is part of "CXO AI Playbook" — straight talk from business leaders on how they're testing and using AI.

For "CXO AI Playbook," Business Insider takes a look at mini case studies about AI adoption across industries, company sizes, and technology DNA. We've asked each of the featured companies to tell us about the problems they're trying to solve with AI, who's making these decisions internally, and their vision for using AI in the future.

Ecolab, a company headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, focusing on water management, hygiene, and infection prevention, works across 40 industries. Tens of thousands of its associates help optimize water use and maintain safe water environments for millions of customers in more than 170 countries.

Situation analysis: What problem was the company trying to solve?

Kevin Doyle, Ecolab's chief digital officer, told Business Insider that while Ecolab has deep institutional knowledge, digging into it to help clients can sometimes be tricky. "We've got water expertise that we've had for 100 years and have been out working with clients and customers assessing those operations and making recommendations" based on that history, he said.

Ecolab's business involves assessing a client's operations to understand their needs and challenges. Those findings are then used to develop plans to drive water and energy savings through tailored programs that include science-based chemistry, digital insights, and extensive expertise.

Ecolab's associates — generally chemical engineers — carry out these assessments and make recommendations to customers. Doyle said decades-old recommendations could be valuable for clients' current decision-making, but only if the company has access to them.

"That could have been lost on that person's hard drive or in that person's mind only," he said. "What's now happening is it's documented in a repository of data that we're then able to serve up" to associates using generative AI.

Key staff and partners

Ecolab's AI acceleration lab initiated the project, which is now used by thousands of employees working directly with customers and uploading data to the system. Doyle said those field associates also use generative AI to analyze information stored in the company's existing filing systems.

AI in action

The system started with a mobile application and a recommendation screen, and a chatbot was added later, Doyle said. "We could see either a recommendation based on best practices or what was contained in a knowledge repository, or somebody could ask a question, like, 'I'm trying to install water meters on this size pipe, what type of meter should I order?'" he said.

Adopting generative AI means Ecolab's representatives can harness information and insights from clients around the world.

"Maybe it's another person in southeast Iowa who goes into a similar-type plant, they have a similar customer with similar characteristics," he said. "It will make a recommendation based on the AI that will say, 'You could implement these programs and projects,' or 'Your peers have done this to create value: Is it something that's interesting to you?'"

Did it work, and how did leaders know?

Doyle said Ecolab had seen benefits from integrating generative AI in customer outreach, advisory, and briefing processes.

"It has enabled those out in the field to make decisions and ensures their on-the-ground insights are not lost within the organization," he said.

"We've seen increases already in the early stages of that program in the hundreds of millions of dollars of value creation and value potential," he added.

Doyle said AI will help the company make quicker decisions, which means "our existing team will be able to serve more customers and deliver greater value."

What's next?

Doyle said Ecolab's AI acceleration lab was testing further ways to use generative AI. "We're trying to apply that to even broader knowledge sets and certainly across all of our businesses," he said, referring to firms within the 40 industries Ecolab serves. Those broader knowledge sets include the nuanced processes in each industry, such as an associate's experience with supporting cooling water systems or identifying product quality issues.

By applying AI to new data, Doyle said they're able to take in more information to "get our people to the most impactful locations, whether that's to create value through a project or to fix something that's not operating as it should and causing other problems."

We want to hear from you. If you are interested in sharing your company's AI journey, email jhood@businessinsider.com.

• The House Ethics Committee issued a rare statement on its probe into Matt Gaetz on Tuesday.
• The panel's looking into whether he sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.
• That's in addition to the existing sexual misconduct claims.

The House Ethics Committee made clear on Tuesday that it's still investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz.

In addition to the long-standing sexual misconduct allegations, the panel said it's now looking into whether the controversial Florida congressman has "sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct."

The rare public statement came after Gaetz, who led the charge to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, denounced the committee and blamed the former speaker for the ongoing probe in a Monday post on X.

"This is Soviet," wrote Gaetz.

While noting "difficulty in obtaining relevant information" from Gaetz, the committee said it had "spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents" as part of the probe.

The committee has been investigating Gaetz since April 2021, but on Tuesday, the committee said the scope of the probe had shifted.

While the committee is still investigating Gaetz's alleged "sexual misconduct and illicit drug use," the panel said it was no longer investigating claims that he shown explicit images on the House floor, used campaigns funds for personal reasons, or accepted bribes.

Altogether the committee now says it's investigating whether Gaetz:

• engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use;
• accepted improper gifts;
• dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship;
• sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• Justin Timberlake is facing DWI charges, Business Insider has confirmed.
• Timberlake was arrested in the Hamptons on Monday night and will reportedly appear in court Tuesday.
• The 10-time Grammy winner has upcoming concerts scheduled in Chicago and New York as part of his tour.

Justin Timberlake was arrested Monday night in the Hamptons on charges of driving while intoxicated, Business Insider has confirmed.

Timberlake, 43, was arrested in Sag Harbor, New York. He will appear in court on Tuesday, according to several outlets.

The 10-time Grammy winner has two concerts scheduled in Chicago this weekend and two shows in New York City next week as part of "The Forget Tomorrow World Tour." The tour is in support of his sixth studio album, "Everything I Thought It Was."

Business Insider contacted Timberlake's reps for comment but did not get a response.

This story is developing. Please check back for additional details.

• Only 1 in 20 Gen Z workers have "green" skills, according to a LinkedIn analysis.
• Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z workers said the main barrier is a lack of job opportunities.
• The skills gap could make it harder for governments and companies to meet their climate goals.

Gen Z is considered the most climate-conscious generation, with nearly two-thirds saying they want a "green" job within the next five years.

That's according to a LinkedIn analysis, which found only 1 in 20 Gen Z workers have "green" skills like measuring carbon emissions, building solar, wind, and electric vehicle projects, reducing waste, or protecting water quality.

LinkedIn classified several hundred skills as "green" and analyzed data from more than one billion people and 65 million companies using the networking platform between January 2016 and March 2024. In May, LinkedIn also conducted an online survey of more than 7,000 global workers in the US, Europe, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates to capture a snapshot of Gen Z's perception of green jobs.

The green skills gap could make it harder for governments and companies to meet their climate goals, LinkedIn warned, especially with Gen Z on track to account for 30% of the global workforce by 2030. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, buildings, the power grid, and the food system could create hundreds of millions of jobs around the world. And while the skills shortage is most acute among Gen Z, it is part of a broader trend across the labor market.

Some 63% of Gen Z workers said the top barrier was a lack of available opportunities. That may be because employers are looking to hire people with prior experience or a certain technical skill, said Efrem Bycer, senior lead manager of public policy and economic graph at LinkedIn. But he also hears a lot of employers say they want workers who are hungry to learn and solve problems.

"The data tells us that Gen Z has that in spades," Bycer said, noting that two-thirds of Gen Z said they were interested in training programs.

Bycer added that employers need to align their climate goals with a hiring plan and identify green skills they can teach people on the job. There are also job titles that might not sound "green" but do help a company reduce its environmental impact. Employers could explain the connection in job descriptions.

"If you think the universe of climate jobs have sustainability in the title or are at a climate tech company, that's a limited view," Bycer said. " There's a lot more jobs that contribute to climate action. So the problem is partly skills, partly signaling."

President Joe Biden is trying to address the green skills gap with the American Climate Corps, which is modeled after a New Deal-era program that hired millions of men to conserve public lands, forests, and parks.

The administration said they expect thousands of young people to fill American Climate Corps jobs this summer that train them to reduce wildfire risks in national forests, respond to natural disasters, install solar panels, and provide environmental education.

Do you work a job that's helping solve the climate crisis? Reach out to this reporter at cboudreau@insider.com.

• OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded a year ago, killing all five on board.
• The investigation into the implosion is dragging on and will miss the 12-month deadline.
• There's currently no projected completion date for the investigation, the US Coast Guard told BI.

On June 18, 2023, OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded while heading to the wreckage of the Titanic. All five on board died.

A year later, investigators say that finding answers to what happened is "complex" and will take longer than anticipated.

In a statement on Friday, the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations, or MBI, said it was continuing to actively investigate the factors that led to the implosion.

However, the statement acknowledged that the original 12-month timeline for the investigation had not been met.

In an email to BI, a Coast Guard spokesperson said the investigation is still in the fact-finding phase, where the agency is "gathering all relevant evidence and information."

The MBI said that the reasons for the delay included the need to contract two salvage missions to secure evidence and the extensive forensic testing being carried out.

"The investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible is a complex and ongoing effort," said the MBI's chair, Jason Neubauer, in the statement.

Neubauer added: "We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident."

The US Coast Guard convened the MBI into the submersible's loss last year to determine the cause and whether any misconduct was involved.

It was also set up to investigate whether evidence indicated any criminal acts and to decide if new laws or regulations were needed.

"The MBI is committed to ensuring that we fully understand the factors that led to this tragedy in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future," Neubauer said.

On June 22, 2023, the Coast Guard concluded that the missing submersible had likely imploded, attributing it to a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber" on the seafloor.

Investigators found major pieces of debris, and months later, the Coast Guard said it recovered "presumed human remains."

Among the dead was Stockton Rush, CEO of the now-defunct OceanGate.

A June 2023 memorandum convening the MBI stipulated that if the 12-month deadline for the investigative report could not be met, a written explanation for the delay and a new expected completion date should be provided.

However, the Coast Guard spokesperson told BI that there is currently no projected completion date.

They added that the latter part of the fact-finding phase would include a public hearing, for which the MBI would provide at least 60 days' notice.

The Titan implosion raised concerns about deep-sea exploration in general.

Despite this, billionaire Larry Connor told The Wall Street Journal in May that he and Patrick Lahey, the CEO of Titan Submarines, plan to travel down to the Titanic wreck site to prove it can be done safely.

• Russian naval ships left Cuba on Monday after a five-day official visit.
• Among them, the submarine Kazan — with visible damage including panels falling off.
• Though a shabby look, it won't affect the sub's performance, experts told BI.

One of Russia's most advanced new submarines, which just left Cuba, is "falling apart" with damage on its hull, according to an OSINT analyst.

Marijn Markus, a managing consultant at the Capgemini IT firm, shared four photos of the nuclear-powered Kazan in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

Markus pointed to soundproofing panels "falling off" the front part of the submarine's hull. That would ruin its stealth capabilities, he said, making it "very" loud underwater and causing it to light up on sonar.

He also pointed to what he described as a "gaping" hole at the sub's midsection.

"While docked, Russian divers were seen around the sub, presumably trying to repair the tin tub," he said.

Markus didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

However, military experts told BI that the damage seen in the photos is common and won't affect the sub's operational capabilities.

Richard Kouyoumdjian Inglis, an officer in Chile's naval reserve, told BI that tiles are made of rubber and can get loose and fall off.

Losing lots of the tiles would make the sub easier to find, Inglis said. But the photos showed only a few missing, not enough to make a difference, he said.

"Russian naval vessels are not state-of-the-art and sometimes are not well maintained, but that does not mean something catastrophic will happen," he said.

John Hardie, the deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told BI that such tiles falling off is a "quite common" problem for all navies, including the US.

Meanwhile, Mark C, a former UK Royal Navy submariner who declined to provide his last name, citing work-related cross-overs, said the vessel did seem to suffer operational wear-and-tear but remained capable of performing its role.

"So it's very possible it will continue its exercises," he told BI.

The Kazan, along with three Russian surface ships, left Havana's port in Cuba on Monday after a five-day official visit that included planned military drills in the Atlantic, per the Associated Press.

Its next destination is unclear, though US officials said a few days ago it could stop in Venezuela, according to the AP.

The US and its Western allies have been concerned about the relatively new Kazan class of submarines for years.

They cite its ability to strike targets both on land and at sea with little notice, and its stealth.

An unnamed US official said Russia sending warships to Cuba was an attempt to show its navy is still a global power despite its heavy losses in the sea around Ukraine, the AP reported earlier this month.

• I tracked all the ads I saw in a day and counted over 130.
• Some ad settings can be adjusted, but control over frequency remains limited across many platforms.
• I didn't mind most ads because they either catered to my interests or were easy to tune out.

Ads have become so embedded in everyday activities and media consumption that you may not even notice how often you run into them.

When my editor asked me to track all the ads I saw in a day, I wasn't sure how it would go. Prior to this experiment, I hadn't paid close attention to how often an ad or sponsored content floated before my eyes.

While the words "sponsored" may show up on a video or image you scroll past on social media, the font is often small and if the content is successfully targeting you, you may not even notice.

I missed a few ads during this process, especially on sites where I was focused on getting the answer I was searching for. But based on what I did catch, I spotted over 130 ads in a single day.

Let's dive in.

Your settings can (sometimes) make a difference

The type of ads you receive may be adjustable in your settings. But for most platforms, you won't be able to control how many you see.

To personalize Google ads, for example, you can go to "My Ad Center" and opt to turn personalized ads on or off in the top-right corner. If you turn them on, Google will use the information it collects about you to give you more personalized ads. That means your activity on Google sites and apps will be saved in your Google Account and information from your account, like your age, will also be used.

I decided to keep personalized ads off for Google because that's how I usually have it. This resulted in me sometimes missing ads on my screen. I'm so used to seeing random photos and brand names in the corners and sides of my screen that my eyes glazed over some of them. It drew a sharp contrast to my experience with social media ads, which are fully personalized to my activity on and off-site and often pull my attention.

When it comes to social media, you don't have as much of a choice — although some do let you pay to remove or decrease ads. Facebook now offers a paid version in the EU for people who prefer an ad-free experience, YouTube lets you pay for Premium to remove them, and Elon Musk's X says paying for X Premium+ means no ads in your For You or Following feeds.

But TikTok, for example, says on its website that "you will always see ads based on what you do on TikTok." But you can provide feedback on an ad if you're not interested in it. Other social media sites have similar ad policies.

With TikTok, Instagram, and most apps that you download on your phone, you can turn off ad-tracking across companies and websites in your privacy settings.

My social media feeds were filled with ads

I spent about two and a half hours on Instagram on the day of this experiment — and I saw about 75 ads.

I probably never went through more than four posts at a time without being interrupted by an ad. But most of the ads were similar to content I regularly engage with in my explore feed or online.

I find ads with multiple products and links particularly effective because it's easy to engage with them and find out pricing or other details. I also loved seeing sponsored food content because it gave me ideas of where to go out to eat.

None of the ads resulted in me purchasing any items, but if I continue to see interesting ads in my price range for weeks at a time, it may eventually influence my buying patterns.

For TikTok, the ads were even less noticeable because the app is so casual. For example, I would start watching a woman wipe down her counters and then see Mr. Clean at the end of the video before noticing the "sponsored" label at the bottom. I also found some of the TikTok ads interesting or helpful.

I didn't engage at all with internet ads

I tracked about 40 ads online, but since they weren't personalized to my interests I sometimes didn't notice them. I saw a range of ads from USPS to T-Mobile, to random shows on streaming services that I had no interest in.

Sometimes, they were images, and other times, they were full videos. I also saw a couple of ads on YouTube videos but usually skipped after a few seconds, so I didn't fully engage with those either.

Miscellaneous ads

I use the language-learning app Duolingo every day and those are the only ads I truly dread. The ads are animated with sound and I sometimes put my phone down and walk away because of how painful it feels to watch.

I also saw about 10 ads in real life on the subway on my way to and from work. By the end of the day, I noticed these less, but in general, they tend to stick out more than non-targeted ads on the internet.

I also receive several push notifications and ads over text every day. I counted about seven on the day of this experiment, including a push notification from Urban Outfitters about a flash sale, a text from CorePower Yoga for discounted class packs, and a push notification from Amazon about trending sunscreen.

Most of the ads don't bother me

My biggest takeaway from this experiment was that I really didn't mind the ads. In fact, sometimes I liked them.

I love online shopping and browsing — and I like that apps like Instagram curate content to my interests. I've discovered new brands on Instagram that I ended up ordering from because of ads. Even if it doesn't lead to a purchase, I enjoy seeing items that fall in my line of interest and inspire me to look at similar products.

The push notifications and the texts were probably the most annoying of all the ads I received, and I find myself deleting them on a daily basis.

I also don't follow too many influencers, but I immediately scrolled past content if I saw it labeled with "creator earns commission" or if it included a discount code in the caption because I'm not interested in paid content from someone I follow for enjoyment.

As far as Duolingo's ads go, yes, I find them annoying — but I also wouldn't pay $12.99 per month to get rid of them.

It's clear that we're seeing more and more ads on our phones and TV screens — Netflix and Amazon recently introduced ads to their streaming services, although both offer ad-free options for an extra cost.

Luckily, I'm on my roommate's plan for Netflix, and my family has an Amazon and Spotify subscription, so I don't have to deal with these. I sometimes watch Hulu shows and the ads are annoying, but I usually walk away if an ad comes on.

For me, watching or listening to an ad is the most frustrating, and I would definitely be bothered if I was constantly interrupted by them. When I was growing up, I found radio commercials unbearable, and I might have paid for an ad-free option if I still had to go through those several-minute interruptions.

But the honest answer is I'm used to ads by now, and even find some genuinely interesting. We're living in an advertising world — and if I have to deal with sponsored content for clothing brands I like while scrolling on social media — then so be it.

• Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off on Wednesday, June 19.
• I wrote an out-of-office message to educate people and let them know I won't be checking email.
• Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery in the US on June 19, 1865.

Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off. To prepare, I crafted an out-of-office message to let my contacts know I won't be checking email on Wednesday and educate them on the historic event.

Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery in the US when the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas (then the most remote Confederate state) on June 19, 1865.

I took my usual OOO template and added a link that explains what Juneteenth is. Here's what I wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for your email! Business Insider has closed today to observe Juneteenth.

I encourage you to read the linked article on the holiday if you want to know why this decision was made and why it's so important to the company and its staff.

I'll be sure to respond to your message when I'm back in the office on Thursday, 6/20.

Big-name companies like Twitter and Nike declared Juneteenth a company holiday in 2020. Other organizations like Microsoft have designated it a "day of listening, learning, and engagement" and canceled meetings.

On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law to make Juneteenth a national holiday.