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.

Chinese brands coming for Starbucks, Nike, and your wallet

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Environment
Collage featuring Pop Mart Labubu Popular, a hand holding a coffee cup with Luckin Coffee, and a sweater with a

Zhang Peng; CFOTO/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

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

Young tech founders are dumping their girlfriends and going 'monk mode'

Tech Insider : Business, Style, Technology
Young founder in a suit showing heartbroken gestures.

BI

Among the more unexpected effects of the AI race is the rise of a breakup line: It's not you, it's my startup.

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

My week inside the new Silicon Valley news rabbit hole

Tech Insider : Business, Crypto, Style
MTS footage

MTS; BI

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