AI just hit its COVID shutdown moment

Tech Insider : Business, Travel
Photo collage featuring SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket booster on display outside the company's facilities in Hawthorne, Open AI logo and NVIDIA stock price on May 20, 2026.

Samuel Boivin; Ethan Swope/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

I happened to be on the toilet both times everything changed.

The first was March 11, 2020, the day America's eyes were opened to COVID.

Quiet luxury is out. Loud, in-your-face wealth is booming.

Tech Insider : Business, Economy, Sports
A man in a flashy gold suit holding up money while on a yacht

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

Tech's hottest job: Documentary filmmaker

Tech Insider : Business, Crypto, Technology
Filmmakers

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

Lume isn't just a modern and expensive lamp; it doubles as a laundry folding genie. And to hype and humanize this alien-like robo housemaid before it starts shipping this summer, the company behind it, has launched an all-out, high-gloss social media video blitz.

Ask your landlord to lower your rent — now

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Style
Apartment key on a keyring with three dollar signs; a hand crosses out two of the three signs.

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

A few weeks ago, Marco Bario texted his landlord with an unusual request.

The guy with a 'killer idea for an app' can finally build it. So can everyone else.

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Environment
A tech employee visibly looking stressed at a desktop computer

Getty images; Tyler Le/BI

The rise of shadow AI

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
A woman standing in the shadows of a laptop displaying the Claude AI logo

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

Help, I think I'm building an AI tool to lay off my coworkers

Tech Insider : Business, Economy, Technology
An employee sitting next to an empty desk with a box of items and a glitching computer

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

I built an agent to do my job. Then it hung up on my boss.

Tech Insider : Business, Style
Amanda Hoover (left) and a close-up of Robot hands and human hands typing on a laptop.

Amanda Hoover; Alyssa Powell/BI

Rather than wait to find out if AI will replace me, I built my replacement.

Brené Brown would like a word with Silicon Valley

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Style
Brene Brown

BetterUp

Not so long ago, Brené Brown's ideas about vulnerability as a leadership virtue were not only uncontroversial, they were embraced in corporate America. No longer.

Meet the first graduating class of CollegeGPT

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
A college grad with a ChatGPT logo on the cap

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

Subscribe to discourse-staff