Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
No more California dreamingCalifornia’s billionaires are at a crossroads.One of the biggest business stories kicking off the year is the proposed wealth tax in California. The state’s rich and powerful, worth more than $1 billion, would face a one-time 5% tax on their assets if the plan gets approved.The proposal, which aims to address a projected multibillion-dollar state budget deficit, has prompted plenty of grumbling among the California elite.As Business Insider first reported, some have already taken action, including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.Page converted his secretive family office out of California in late December and incorporated it…
Landing a job at McKinsey & Company has never been easy. The firm has long been known for recruiting top talent from top schools and leading industry experts.AI, however, is forcing the firm to rethink the types of applicants it considers in the hiring process, CEO Bob Sternfels said.On Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast podcast this week, Sternfels said the firm used AI to analyze its past 20 years of hiring data to understand where it may have overlooked talent for its coveted class of partners.The firm found that applicants who had setbacks and recovered were more likely to become partners.…
OpenAI reportedly asking contractors to upload real work from past jobs OpenAI and training data company Handshake AI are asking third-party contractors to upload real work that they did in past and current jobs, according to a report in Wired. This appears to be part of a larger strategy across AI companies that are hiring contractors to generate high-quality training data in the hopes that this will eventually allow their models to automate more white-collar work. In OpenAI’s case, a company presentation reportedly asks contractors to describe tasks they’ve performed at other jobs and upload examples of “real, on-the-job work”…
Indonesia, home to the world’s fourth-largest population, has barred access to Grok after the AI chatbot generated sexualized images of real women and children.Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications said it is temporarily suspending access to Grok to “protect women, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence technology.””The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space,” Meutya Hafid, the minister of communications, said in a statement.Elon Musk’s xAI makes Grok and also owns X, which integrates…
Indonesian officials said Saturday that they are temporarily blocking access to xAI’s chatbot Grok. This is one of the most aggressive moves so far from government officials responding to a flood of sexualized, AI-generated imagery — often depicting real women and minors, and sometimes showing assault and abuse — posted by Grok in response to requests from users on the social network X. (X and xAI are part of the same company.) In a statement shared with the Guardian and other publications, Indonesia’s communications and digital minister Meutya Hafid said, “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as…
Dan Ross is a hypnotherapist who specializes in working with day traders.The number of traders who entered his practice doubled in 2025.His work involves uncovering traders’ unconscious beliefs. He says there are misconceptions about hypnosis.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dan Ross, a hypnotherapist who works with day traders at Silicon Valley Hypnotherapy Center. It has been edited for length and clarity.I originally discovered Tony Robbins back in the 1990s, and one of the tools he uses is hypnosis. I got fascinated by watching how rapidly he could work to help people make changes. I got curious…
The CES trade show is the premier event for showcasing extravagant new consumer tech concepts and prototypes. This year’s show, held in Las Vegas from January 6 to 9, was no different. But mixed in with all the spectacle were plenty of announcements for products you’ll actually be able to buy, including an assortment of brand-new TVs.I’ve been reviewing home theater gear for over a decade, so I know that not every display breakthrough sticks. With that in mind, I’ve separated the real upgrades from the marketing fog to find the top TVs and display trends from CES. And this…
If you’ve been following recent debates about health, you’ve been hearing a lot about vaccines, diet, measles, Medicaid cuts and health insurance costs – but much less about one of the greatest threats to global public health: climate change.Anybody who’s fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health. Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year.The U.S. government formally recognized these risks…
Dr. Molly O’Shea has noticed growing skepticism about vaccines at both of her Michigan pediatric offices and says this week’s unprecedented and confusing changes to federal vaccine guidance will only make things worse.One of her offices is in a Democratic area, where more of the parents she sees are opting for alternative schedules that spread out shots. The other is in a Republican area, where some parents have stopped immunizing their children altogether.She and other doctors fear the new recommendations and the terminology around them will stoke vaccine hesitancy even more, pose challenges for pediatricians and parents that make it…
When Sarah Baldassaro turned 50, she took stock of her health and began working with a fitness coach on strength training, a type of exercise that’s crucial for women in midlife.“Now I would say I’m stronger overall than I ever have been at any age,” said Baldassaro, 52, of Alexandria, Virginia. “My fitness level is much more like when I was in my early 30s.”Medical experts say strength training keeps bones and muscles healthy after menopause when estrogen loss speeds up a reduction in bone density and contributes to the gradual loss of muscle mass. This type of exercise —…