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Paris Hilton’s been an entrepreneur, a reality TV star, a DJ, an author, a model, a singer, and an activist. But she says school felt like torture. “Sitting still under fluorescent lights surrounded by beige walls made me feel trapped instead of inspired,” she tells Fast Company via email. “Traditional environments were too flat, too uniform, and too quiet to support the way I think.” It wasn’t until after being diagnosed with ADHD in her late 20s that Hilton began to understand how to hone her energy and creativity — and how the physical spaces where she worked impacted her ability to focus. “Over the years, I’ve learned that when a space feels alive, so do I,” she says. Data from 2024 shows that almost a fifth of Americans are neurodivergent. According to 2023 research from Deloitte, over half of Gen Z workers identify as such. Yet even as awareness of neurodivergence in the workplace grows, most employers still struggle with fully accommodating these communities: 93% of workers in these groups say they burn out because of it. Over a third even hide their status altogether, out of fear of being stigmatized. And with ADHD specifically, recent surveys show that one in four Americans suspect they have it, but are undiagnosed (and diagnoses are rising). Studies also suggest people with ADHD are more creative, and that they also thrive as entrepreneurs. But because of their challenges with executive functions like attention, time management and emotional regulation — which can cause heightened sensitivity to stimuli like noise and light, and can be exacerbated when they feel physically constrained — most workplaces still unintentionally work against them. Hilton and her partner, the neurodivergence nonprofit Understood.org, offer valuable insights into: The big companies already reimagining their offices to be more inclusive What psychologists and design experts advise to best create offices for these groups How inexpensive and low-barrier making these changes can be As neurodivergence awareness has increased in recent years, businesspeople besides Hilton have opened up about their neurodiversity. Bill Gates opened up earlier this year about having ADHD, and Richard Branson, who is autistic, champions causes for the autism community. But the discussion around how most workspaces aren’t designed to best accommodate neurodivergent workers has only gained traction relatively recently. That’s what inspired Hilton to design one herself, collaborating with neurodivergence nonprofit Understood.org on the design of her home, and the new headquarters of her entertainment company, 11:11 Media. The neurodivergent-friendly workspace in Los Angeles features seats that enable different postures and a variety of chairs to choose from, sensory-friendly lighting designed to minimize glare and flickering, natural materials like plants and wood (which research has found effective in combating ADHD symptoms) and “play” areas that encourage free movement. There’s also the “Sliving Sanctuary,” a cozy space with weighted blankets and flicker-free lighting for “brain breaks.” “It was a chance to build a space that celebrates different ways of thinking and working,” Hilton says. Typical spaces constraint atypical brains The wrong workspace can affect anyone’s productivity, but that’s especially true among the neurodivergent, a classification that includes those with ADHD, dyslexia, autism and other cognitive differences. Recently, more high-profile companies have taken similar steps to make their spaces more accommodating to neurodiverse workers, like Etsy, SAP and Microsoft. But there’s still lots to do to help close the gap, activists argue — especially since such a huge swath of the workforce is neurodivergent, and traditional offices make them distracted and unproductive at best, burnt out and underemployed at worst. And as more and more companies push for return-to-office, many workers in this group may again face the challenges of working in spaces that simply weren’t designed for them. “In a lot of workspaces, we see things like open floor plans, which can be extremely distracting,” says psychotherapist Sarah Greenberg, Understood’s vice president of expertise and strategic design. Many workers have long found open floor plan offices’ noise levels and chaotic setting difficult to work in, particularly those in the deaf and autistic communities. Greenberg adds: “We see a lack of natural light, which can really halt inspiration. We see limited places to move, which can make it really hard when the neurodivergent brain needs that to bring our best selves to work.” For those with ADHD, even stiff chairs can feel restrictive, making it harder for them to concentrate and ultimately perform their best. “In school we were told, ‘stay in your chair,’ ‘you need passes to use the restroom.’ Aspects of that culture have bled into workplaces,” says Dr. Andrew Kahn, psychologist and associate director of expertise and strategic design for Understood. When neurodivergent individuals feel constrained physically, they often also feel constrained mentally, which can stifle innovation, creativity, focus and productivity. But this cohort has a unique way of thinking that can prove a significant asset. A new study from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in the Netherlands found that ADHDers’ tendency for their minds to wander can actually lead to more creativity and innovation. Allowing these folks to bring their gifts to the table requires spaces designed to meet their unique needs. “It can be the difference between needing to stay home in order to get anything done, or actually being able to be [productive] in that shared space,” Greenberg says. “It can be game-changing.” Low-lift changes that make a big difference Creating a more inclusive space, however, doesn’t necessarily require the resources of an heiress or celebrity. Research suggests many of the most impactful accommodations cost $500 or less. For example, standing desks and tactile items like fidget toys have been proven effective in enabling those with ADHD to channel their excess energy without breaking concentration. Noise-cancelling headphones can help block out distractions for those with sound sensitivity. Research also suggests offering a variety of chairs — like bean bag chairs, couches and even yoga mats — or chairs that can be used in a multitude of positions can make them feel less constrained, both physically and mentally. “For the ADHD brain if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist,” Greenberg says. “For example, in your office supply area, using clear bins that are clearly labelled takes away that cognitive load.” Greenberg explains that short-term memory and organization are both challenges for people with ADHD, and that a little extra support with both can go a long way. “When it comes to design, it’s not about having interior decorating skills, it’s about understanding the neurology of brains that think differently — and then applying those best practices to the physical container in which we do our work,” Greenberg says. Hilton’s workspace takes into account things like noise control, natural lighting, visual stimuli and textures. Standing desks and alternative workspaces are available throughout the office, and staff are encouraged to move to the workstation that best suits the task at hand. The 25-person staff of the LA-based media company, which promotes customer brand voices and social causes through film, TV and other media, are also surrounded by natural materials, like plants, flowers, wood, and a living wall. Hilton says that the effort she put into creating the space isn’t just about enabling herself and her staff to do their best work. It’s about pushing a bigger conversation forward. “I want 11:11 Media HQ to be a model for what’s possible when we prioritize the needs of those who are neurodivergent,” she says. “People with ADHD or other neurodivergent traits are often some of the most imaginative thinkers in the room.” View the full article

We know how overwhelming it can be to keep pace with rapidly-changing SEO strategies, especially with AI switching up the rules faster than ever. This collection of insights was handpicked to give you clarity and confidence on what really matters right now: how to make your content, structure, and strategy AI-ready, from basics to technical necessities. If you’re redefining your SEO strategy for the age of AI, we hope these pieces become your go-to guide for navigating what’s next in search. Keep testing and adjusting your strategy as the market changes, just like we do. And as always, let us […] The post AI Search Blueprint: Entity Maps, Structured Data, IndexNow & The Basics appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Schroders also reports new business boost, while AJ Bell boss warns of ‘damaging uncertainty’ before Budget View the full article

Hurricanes are America’s most destructive natural hazards, causing more deaths and property damage than any other type of disaster. Since 1980, these powerful tropical storms have done more than US$1.5 trillion in damage and killed more than 7,000 people. The No. 1 cause of the damages and deaths from hurricanes is storm surge. Storm surge is the rise in the ocean’s water level, caused by a combination of powerful winds pushing water toward the coastline and reduced air pressure within the hurricane compared to the pressure outside of it. In addition to these factors, waves breaking close to the coast cause the sea level to increase near the coastline, a phenomenon we call wave setup, which can be an important component of storm surge. Accurate storm surge predictions are critical for giving coastal residents time to evacuate and giving emergency responders time to prepare. But storm surge forecasts at high resolution can be slow. As a coastal engineer, I study how storm surge and waves interact with natural and human-made features on the ocean floor and coast and ways to mitigate their impact. I have used physics-based models for coastal flooding and have recently been exploring ways that artificial intelligence can improve the speed of storm surge forecasting. How storm surge is forecast today Today, operational storm surge forecasts rely on hydrodynamic models, which are based on the physics of water flow. These models use current environmental conditions—such as how fast the storm is moving toward shore, its wind speed and direction, the timing of the tide, and the shape of the seafloor and the landscape—to compute the projected surge height and determine which locations are most at risk. Hydrodynamic models have substantially improved in recent decades, and computers have become significantly more powerful, such that rapid low-resolution simulations are possible over very large areas. However, high-resolution simulation that provide neighborhood-level detail can take several hours to run. Those hours can be critical for communities at risk to evacuate safely and for emergency responders to prepare adequately. To forecast storm surge across a wide area, modelers break up the target area into many small pieces that together form a computational grid or mesh. Picture pixels in an image. The smaller the grid pieces, or cells, the higher the resolution and the more accurate the forecast. However, creating many small cells across a large area requires greater computing power, so forecasting storm surge takes longer as a result. Forecasters can use low-resolution computer grids to speed up the process, but that reduces accuracy, leaving communities with more uncertainty about their flood risk. AI can help speed that up. How AI can create better forecasts There are two main sources of uncertainty in storm surge predictions. One involves the data fed into the computer model. A hurricane’s storm track and wind field, which determine where it will make landfall and how intense the surge will be, are still hard to forecast accurately more than a few days in advance. Changes to the coast and sea floor, such as from channel dredging or loss of salt marshes, mangroves or sand dunes, can affect the resistance that storm surge will face. The second uncertainty involves the resolution of the computational grid, over which the mathematical equations of the surge and wave motion are solved. The resolution determines how well the model sees changes in landscape elevation and land cover and accounts for them, and at how much granularity the physics of hurricane surge and waves is solved. AI models can produce detailed predictions faster. For example, engineers and scientists have developed AI models based on deep neural networks that can predict water levels along the coastline quickly and accurately by using data about the wind field. In some cases, these models have been more accurate than traditional hydrodynamic models. AI can also develop forecasts for areas with little historical data, or be used to understand extreme conditions that may not have occurred there before. For these forecasts, physics-based models can be used to generate synthetic data to train the AI on scenarios that might be possible but haven’t actually happened. Once an AI model is trained on both the historic and synthetic data, it can quickly generate surge forecasts using details about the wind and atmospheric pressure. Training the AI on data from hydrodynamic models can also improve its ability to quickly generate inundation risk maps showing which streets or houses are likely to flood in extreme events that may not have a historical precedent but could happen in the future. The future of AI for hurricane forecasting AI is already being used in operational storm surge forecasts in a limited way, mainly to augment the commonly used physics-based models. In addition to improving those methods, my team and other researchers have been developing ways to use AI for storm surge prediction using observed data, assessing the damage after hurricanes, and processing camera images to deduce flood intensity. That can fill a critical gap in the data needed for validating storm surge models at granular levels. As artificial intelligence models rapidly spread through every aspect of our lives and more data becomes available for training them, the technology offers potential to improve hurricane and storm surge forecasting in the future, giving coastal communities faster and more detailed warnings about the risks on the way. Navid Tahvildari is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Washington has been putting pressure on New Delhi to stop importing crude from MoscowView the full article

Job interviews are nerve-wracking at the best of times. But for those who see themselves as introverts, they can be extra intimidating. It’s not due to a lack of skill. The ability to think on your feet and sell yourself—no doubt important in the interview process—tends to come more easily to those who go through life a little more extroverted. And yet more Americans see themselves as introverted than extroverted. Contrary to conventional wisdom, that’s not necessarily a bad trait in the workplace: Research has found that introverted leaders outperform extroverts by 28%, driving higher productivity from their teams. Connar Walford, student success lead at the U.K. jobs and career advice website TargetJobs, offers five strategies that introverts can utilize to ace a job interview. The Energy Anchor The idea of being put on the spot in an interview is enough to make any introvert’s heart race and palms sweat. That’s why thorough preparation is essential for anyone, but for introverts in particular. Walford suggests identifying up to five “energy anchors” before even setting foot in the interview room. “These are previous work wins that you can recall with ease. These can be anything from receiving a compliment from a peer to working on a successful project,” he says. “These ‘anchors’ help to regulate the nervous system and maintain your confidence throughout the interview.” The Power of Silence While some extroverts might dominate conversations, introverts can be skilled listeners, giving them an edge over the competition. Those pauses to compose your thoughts before speaking? They’re not awkward. In fact, they can be a superpower. “People often feel that they need to fill a silence. However, instead of rushing to speak, utilize it,” Walford says. “A calm pause can signal authority, thoughtfulness, and composure—all great working traits.” Reframe the interview Rather than regarding the interview as your one shot to impress the hiring manager, heightening an already intimidating situation, you could flip the script. Look at it as an opportunity to determine if the role is the correct fit on both sides of the coin. “This reframes the power dynamic from performing to connecting, eliminating the fear of being judged,” Walford says. The interview doesn’t end when the door closes Many introverts might be tempted to run from the room as fast as possible and wipe it from memory before the overthinking kicks in. Remember, although the interview itself may have ended, the process hasn’t. “Always send an email post-interview thanking those present, including any info that may have slipped your mind, and ask any additional questions,” Walford says. “This shows professionalism, gratitude, and a strong interest in the role.” Navigate Energy The interview process can be draining for anyone, but particularly for introverts who typically lose energy during social interactions. “Remember to manage your energy pre-interview by fitting in quiet time,” Walford says. “This helps navigate potential overstimulation, buildup of nervous energy, and fatigue.” Afterward, schedule some well-deserved alone time, and reward yourself with whatever fills your cup back up. Perhaps that’s coffee and a sweet treat. Or a glass of wine in the bath. You’ve earned it. View the full article

UK high-street bank took £800mn charge linked to motor commissions, offsetting growth in net incomeView the full article

One minute, you’re watching a hilarious or even completely bland YouTube short. The next? You realize you’ve just lost an hour of work time or managed to stay up way too late—again. Losing track of time when watching shorts is not an uncommon experience. But now, YouTube wants to help you set limits to stay on task, hit the hay, or just, ya’ know, not lose precious hours of your life to Shorts. On Wednesday, the video streaming giant rolled out a new timer feature on its mobile app. When users log on, they can go into their settings and click on “shorts feed limit” to set a timer that will remind them to stop scrolling. Once users hit their time limit, the app will send them a notification letting them know they’ve reached their limit. Of course, it’s not hard to dismiss the timer and keep on watching Shorts. Still, the feature may help to nudge users to get back to work. “Shorts are a core part of the YouTube experience,” YouTube said in its announcement. “Setting a scrolling time limit on the Shorts feed allows for this exploration while helping users be more deliberate about their viewing habits and manage their time effectively.” When it comes to setting time limits for scrolling, this isn’t YouTube’s first effort. The company has already had both “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” features in its mobile app settings. And while other social media platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, have since added similar features, YouTube was one of the first streaming platforms to help users put their phones down. Earlier this year, YouTube announced it was doubling down on its bedtime reminder feature for teens, which became automatic in 2023. At the time, Jon-Patrick Allen, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Rutgers School of Public Health, told Fast Company that users will still have to exercise some self-restraint. “It will be effective for a small proportion of people, but the onus is still on the user to turn it off.” Allen added, “These are all cosmetic things that may work for some people, but aren’t really going to shift user behavior.” Either way, the move feels like an invaluable one. According to YouTube internal data, per Sprout Social, last year, YouTube Shorts averaged 70 billion views a day. And it’s not just Gen Alpha and Gen Z who are endlessly watching YouTube hijinx: 25-to-34-year-olds—a combination of both Gen Z and millennials—are the platform’s most diligent viewers. No wonder workers are distracted and groggy. View the full article

The case resulted in the city-state tightening regulations around family offices View the full article

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. A coworker lent me a book four years ago and I still haven’t returned it This feels very low-stakes, but it’s something that hovers at the back of my mind. About four years ago, a coworker and I were talking about books we were reading, and she gushed about a great one she’d just finished. The next day, she brought a copy of the book to the office and gave it to me, suggesting I should read it. Since then, I’ve moved twice, I still have the book, and I still haven’t read it. I am avoiding returning it because I’m embarrassed that I haven’t read it (I’m a big reader, but I very much read by mood, and this book is outside my usual genres so I’ve never felt a strong urge to pick it up). I still work for the same office and see that coworker regularly and we have a good relationship. She’s never mentioned the book again, and I honestly don’t know if she remembers I still have it (I do wonder if she’s one of those people who lends books without expecting them to be returned?). It’s not a problem or affecting our work relationship at all, it’s just something that is weighing on me and I feel guilty about it every time I see the book on my nightstand, unread and unreturned. What should I do? Is it too late to return it now (four years!)? Is it awful to return it and say that I never read it? What if she says, “Oh no, feel free to keep it until you read it” and I still never read it? It’s not too late to return the book! Maybe she’s completely forgotten it or maybe she hasn’t and wishes you’d returned it but doesn’t want to say anything — who knows. But it’s hers, you have it, and you can just give it back! When you do, you could just say, “It’s been so long since you loaned it to me and I never ended up reading it so I figured it was past time for me to return it. Thanks for letting me borrow it.” If she tells you to feel free to keep it until you read it, say, “I figure if I haven’t read it at this point, I’m probably not going to so I’d feel better returning it. But I appreciate you giving me the chance to!” If you feel weird about not reading it — well, first, you don’t need to feel weird. Most readers know that not everything will grab everyone. But if she says something that makes you feel she wants a further explanation, you can just say, “It’s not my usual genre so I think I really had to be in the right mood for it” or “my reading list is ungodly long and I can’t stop reading fantasy heists so I’ll probably never get to it” or “at the moment I am only reading oral histories of frog empires” or whatever you want! 2. How can we convince our boss to let us use AI transcription? My organization (academic healthcare center) recently purchased MS Copilot licenses. Very quickly my coworkers and I started using the meeting transcription function to take meeting notes. It’s amazing! You can actually pay attention in the meeting and the AI will create a summary of the call and list action items. My supervisor recently decided we are not allowed to use this tool at all, even for internal meetings. He is worried about discoverability in case of litigation, apparently having lived through it once. Several of us feel this is taking things to an extreme and we are feeling demoralized that this great productivity tool is now off-limits. (Not to mention the implicit implication that we may be breaking the law in meetings.) I am looking into whether we have an org-wide policy on this matter, but it’s pretty new. I’ve seen other schools develop policies to address this by limiting how long full transcripts are kept and who has access to them. Do you have any suggestions on how to address this with my boss, who will probably be defensive and prickly if I bring it up? It’s really your boss’s prerogative to decide that the tool is a security or legal risk, even if AI transcription tools are allowed in the broader organization — and it might be a very valid concern, particularly in a healthcare context. There have been quite a few problems with AI transcription, including making up entire sections of conversations that never happened and getting nuance wrong enough that the entire meaning is changed. You can certainly try explaining why you’ve found the tool so helpful and see if you’re able to come up with limitations that would mitigate his concerns — but ultimately it’s his call to make, and you should stay open to the possibility that it’s the right one. 3. I have a job offer that’s better than my current job in some ways and worse in others I currently work a job as a legal recruiter. I like the people in my office, and I work in the office three days a week and am remote two days a week. My team is not based in my office, and I like them most of the time, except when things are stressful I think there is a tendency to punch down. During one such stressful period, I started a job application and I am supposed to get the offer today. The offer is for $20-35K more and bumps me to a senior manager title (two steps up). The downsides are a week less of vacation, worse healthcare, and it’s fully in person which I have never worked before as someone who graduated right before Covid started. I like the money and I like the vibe of the people I interviewed with. However, it’s an older firm with more old ways of doing things, whereas my current firm is very new-aged and leading the industry in terms of lawyer compensation. To top it all off, here I am on a four-person team and there I would be on a 100+ person team, so it makes growth into a decision making position seem further away. What do I do? Do I give my current place a chance to counter in hopes of making manager? It’s hard to evaluate how significant a raise that is without knowing what you’re making now (a $25,000 raise can have a huge impact if you’re currently making $50,000 and less of one if you’re currently making $150,000). But it seems pretty likely that the lost week of vacation, worse healthcare, and extra in-office days will eat up a lot, if not most, of that bump. If you haven’t already, make sure to do the math on those things to find out what the bump actually will be once you account for those in the equation. After that, it really comes down to how you feel about each company and the work of each position. Wherever you land, though, I don’t recommend trying to use the offer to get a counteroffer out of your current employer. First, there’s a chance they’ll say they can’t offer you anything close and so you should take the other offer. Second, taking a counteroffer can come with a lot of problems (described here) — not always, but often. 4. Should I tell my boss what I know about a micromanager on the team? My direct supervisor, Shayla, manages two other people. One of them, Stephanie, has five direct reports. Since we are on the same team, I am close with Stephanie and her reports, even though we have different focuses. In the last four years, two people who worked under Stephanie have left and told me it was because of her micromanaging. Currently, two more of her staff have told me that they are getting frustrated with the way she manages. They do not have immediate plans to move on, but also do not see a long-term future under Stephanie. I have given them advice about speaking to Stephanie, which does not go over well as she does not see herself as micromanaging. I have also advised that they speak with Shayla themselves, but they worry about the effects of going over Stephanie’s head. Shayla has told me in the past how frustrating it is to keep hiring and she hopes that the current staff stay. At what point should I (if ever) mention to her that I know the reason why people are leaving? Shayla is raising the issue with you and expressing concern about it and you have info she doesn’t have — info that’s arguably highly relevant to the healthy functioning of your team. You should raise it now. You need to be careful in how you do it so it’s not relayed to Stephanie in a way that risks her retaliating against the people who confided in you — and you should raise that concern explicitly with Shayla — but you should speak up. 5. What’s a performance plan? I’ve never had an annual review because I’ve always worked in a highly unionized environment, so certain terms sometimes confuse me. A friend recently started a new job (non-union) and everything seems to be going well. She gets very positive feedback from her colleagues and bosses, but her boss also said they should meet about a performance plan. Is this different from a PIP? It would be strange to me if she was put on a PIP shortly after joining and with all this great feedback from her boss but I really don’t know much about the world outside my union bubble! Some companies use “performance plan” to mean “plan for what you should be achieving in the next 6-12 months” (or whatever time period) without there being any component of “because you are not currently meeting expectations.” Which is confusing, because it’s extremely close to “performance improvement plan” (generally used when someone isn’t doing well and needs to make changes to remain in the job), and some companies even drop the “improvement” from that name and just say “performance plan” and now you have two identical terms that can mean different things. So you just need to know how a particular company uses it. In your friend’s case, I’d assume it’s not the disciplinary type of plan unless she hears otherwise! The post I haven’t returned the book a coworker lent me 4 years ago, boss won’t let us use AI transcription, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Decreased homeowner equity corresponds to recent declining prices reported by leading housing researchers, but tappable amounts still sit near record highs. View the full article

Partnership between US and UK groups designed to allow additional member groups to join View the full article

Investing more into roads will only mean higher economic returns for the UKView the full article

The gap between what is promised and delivered is stark when it comes to intimacyView the full article

US support has helped calm markets, but Argentina’s president is politically weakened as his party faces midterm electionsView the full article

Relying on conventional risk methods? AI is the future for precision and compliance. Discover strategic insights and tools that elevate your risk management approach. The post AI in Risk Management: The Executive Guide to Opportunities, Challenges & Use Cases appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

After working as a product manager for Google, Ishwar Dhanuka built an AI product designed to act as a junior PM. Just six months since launch and their announcement of pre-seed funding, ThriveAI is already changing how project teams operate. The post This Former Google PM Is Changing How Project Teams Operate With an AI PM Tool Built on the Back of AI Agents appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

Stan Yanakiev is an ex-HP program manager with a software engineering background. And he is the founder of Mindrise, an AI-automation consultancy helping small businesses to get real-world value through AI. The post Ex-Hp PM and Current Ai-Automation Consultant Breaks Down How to Implement AI Effectively and Responsibly appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

Silicon Valley group seeks $6bn for growth fund, $3bn for AI deals and $1bn to back US defence tech start-ups View the full article

Policy comes under increasing pressure as former premier’s institute warns of costs of tying energy plans to a ‘rigid’ dateView the full article

Venture capital powers innovation, yet investment decisions still favor the familiar. From the original design of the industry to the women reshaping its future, the patterns that drive investment may be poised for change. Is venture capital ready for a new outfit? On October 25, 1988, the Women’s Business Ownership Act (H.R. 5050) was signed into law, granting women the right to own and operate businesses without a male cosigner. This landmark legislation was a breakthrough for women’s economic independence. Yet by that time, generations of deal making had already embedded a pattern of men investing in men. Pattern matching is woven into the fabric of venture capital itself, such that investment in women-led startups has been stagnant at only 2% for more than 15 years, dropping even below that percentage in 2025. Venture capital, founded by men, invests in the familiar. Whether you mark the birth of the industry in 1946 on the East Coast with the establishment of the American Research and Development Corporation, or in 1961 on the West Coast with Davis & Rock and the rise of Silicon Valley, there is one truth: Men invested capital in men for decades before women could even own a business. PATTERN MATCHING AND THE SCIENCE OF RETURNS Fast forward to 2013, and pattern matching had become part of the investor’s craft. In a New York Times profile, a partner at Y Combinator (YC) described reviewing video interviews with founders applying to the accelerator to identify predictors of failure: “When you have to talk yourself into something, it’s a bad sign.” Such rapid assessments may well have relied on pattern matching. With YC partners predominantly male, could this instinct have influenced cohort selection? The stakes are high: In the Winter 2024 batch, YC admitted just 260 companies from more than 27,000 applications—an acceptance rate under 1%. Based on self-reported data, only 21% of those companies had a woman founder, and just 11% of the founders were women. If decision making in venture capital were driven by data rather than psychology, more women-led startups would be funded. Women-led startups generate more revenue per dollar raised than their male counterparts, and companies with a female founder have outperformed all-male founding teams by 63%. Morgan Stanley estimates that investors lose $4.4 trillion each year by underinvesting in women and people of color. Yet year after year, only about 2% of venture capital dollars flow to women-led startups. DISRUPTING AND UNRAVELING THE PATTERN To address the lack of access to capital, organizations are working on multiple fronts: expanding the pipeline of women entering venture capital, accelerating the career growth of emerging fund managers, and providing mentorship to empower female founders. A systemic issue requires multiple points of disruption to effect a systemic shift. Sourcing is a pivotal leverage point, influencing which founders are included in the consideration set of strategically aligned, high-potential deals. Twenty-eight percent of venture capitalists are women, and many of them—analysts, associates, and principals in male-led firms—are responsible for sourcing startups as part of the deal flow process. What if women sourcing deals were able to more efficiently identify women-led startups aligned with the investment thesis of the venture capital firm, expanding the consideration set and unraveling the threads of pattern matching? Efficiency means moving beyond the familiar networks—the same elite schools, the same geographic hubs, the same social circles—that reinforce pattern matching. MOVE THE NEEDLE Thank you to the women, and especially the National Association of Women Business Owners, who advocated and lobbied for this landmark legislation. And to the women entrepreneurs and the women invested in them who still persevere, knowing that progress may not be fully realized in their lifetimes. Shannyn A. Smith is founder of The Capital Boutique. View the full article

In addition, John Roscoe and Brandon Hamara have been appointed co-presidents at the government-sponsored enterprise, effective immediately. View the full article

Sam Woods says change lobbied for by industry would ‘be equivalent to ripping off our jacket, warm hat and gloves’View the full article

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in war in UkraineView the full article

OpenAI has officially entered the browser wars. On Tuesday, the company announced Atlas, a new web browser with ChatGPT integration. At the moment, it's Mac-only, but I wouldn't recommend even my Apple friends jumping on board immediately—at least not without understanding the underlying risks. Atlas' AI web browsing If you've already used other AI browsers, like Perplexity's Comet, Atlas is going to feel familiar. In fact, that's also likely true if you've used any web browser before: Atlas is built on Chromium, the engine that powers browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. That means the core mechanics of Atlas are fairly standard; there's nothing particularly revolutionary happening here when it comes to sorting tabs or the browsing experience itself. The same is true when it comes to some ChatGPT interactions. As with other AI browsers, ChatGPT is assigned to the sidebar of the browser window. You can call it up by clicking on the "Ask ChatGPT" button, where you can ask it questions about the content you're currently browsing. You can also ask ChatGPT for writing assistance any time you enter an open text field in the browser. Like Comet, Atlas has an agent mode, but the latter's is built off the existing ChatGPT agent. The idea is that you can task Atlas with performing functions on your behalf. So, rather than pulling up DoorDash's website and ordering yourself dinner, you could ask Atlas to order dinner for you. You can even watch Atlas get to work, and see its thinking behind each decision. OpenAI has other ideas for how to use Atlas' agent mode, including giving the browser a recipe to shop for, or asking the bot to run through team documents at work to generate a brief. Deeper ChatGPT integration is what might set Atlas apart from the competition. If you're a regular ChatGPT user, you'll probably appreciate it having that contextual awareness of your past conversations—if you've already asked ChatGPT about a topic, and you're currently researching it in a browser window, you can pick up the conversation and assume ChatGPT will remember what you've already talked about. Credit: OpenAi Similarly, Atlas will track your browsing and activity history and call upon it in future sessions. Perhaps you'll open your browser to find personalized suggestions on which sites and topics to explore next. Does that sound creepy? Absolutely. But if you're someone who doesn't mind the privacy trade-off, there could be some benefits there. In OpenAI's announcement, it suggested asking Atlas to pull up all the job postings you looked at last week, and produce a summary of industry trends to use in interview prep. If you find that these memories are a bit too much for you, you can disable them from the browser settings. (OpenAI says deleting your browsing history also deletes associated browser memories, and the browser's incognito window logs you out of ChatGPT.) The company includes a setting called "ChatGPT page visibility," which lets you control whether ChatGPT can actually see the webpage you're visiting. If you choose "Not Allowed," you can block the bot from seeing what you're doing, which is good. But then again, doing that defeats the purpose of Atlas a bit. If you don't want ChatGPT seeing what you're doing, you might as well use a browser that doesn't have ChatGPT built right into it. (The company does promise it won't train ChatGPT on your browsing data unless you opt into it, but why would you do that?) Is Atlas safe to use? Credit: OpenAI I'm of the opinion that if the safety of a browser is in question, it's best not to bother with. That's the case with Atlas, as well as other AI browsers. The main issue with browsers that incorporate AI agents is that they are susceptible to indirect prompt injection attacks. Brave has done a lot of research on this subject, particularly with Comet. In short, bad actors can potentially hide malicious instructions on websites that the AI agents see as no different from a typical user request. Because the browser is designed to act on your behalf, these malicious instructions can command the AI to do things you definitely don't want it to do. You might ask Atlas to summarize a webpage, but because a bad actor hid a command to do something involving your email, bank account, or corporate intranet on the site, it does that instead. To OpenAI's credit, the company has compiled a list of safeguards to mitigate risks with Atlas. Atlas cannot run code directly in the browser, nor can it download files or install extensions. The browser has no way to access other apps on your Mac, nor its file system. If agent mode needs to access sensitive sites, like your bank, it'll pause to make sure "you're watching." To that point, you can use Atlas' agent in logged out mode, which limits its ability to access sensitive data or take actions "as you" on websites. But even OpenAI admits that after thousands of hours of testing, their safeguards "will not stop every attack that emerges as AI agents grow in popularity." The company says it'll patch new vulnerabilities as it finds them, but if bad actors find them first, they might trick these AI agents into doing some terrible things. To me, the risks currently far outweigh the benefits. I don't yet see much reason to have a bot in my browser do things on my behalf, but even if I did, I wouldn't use it just yet. The risk that someone injects a website with a malicious command and derails my AI agent—and my digital life—is too great, especially when I can book those flights or order that delivery on my own without issue. View the full article