The flight disruptions during the record government shutdown that ended last week inspired a rare act of bipartisanship in Washington on Tuesday, when congressional representatives from both parties introduced legislation that would allow air traffic controllers to get paid during future shutdowns.
The bill proposes funding salaries, operating expenses, and other Federal Aviation Administration programs by tapping into a little-used fund with $2.6 billion that was created to reimburse airlines if the government commandeers their planes and they are damaged. The bill’s sponsors, which include four of the top Republicans and Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hope that relying on the fund might make their bill more attractive than other proposals because it would limit the potential cost of doling out paychecks.
U.S. Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, the GOP chairman of the committee, said in a statement that the bill would help keep the traveling public safe during future shutdowns. The other sponsors include Democratic U.S. Reps. Rick Larsen of Washington and Andre Carson of Indiana, along with Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, who leads the aviation subcommittee.
We all saw that the system can be vulnerable when Congress cant get its job done, Graves said. This bill guarantees that controllers, who have one of the most high-pressure jobs in the nation, will get paid during any future funding lapses and that air traffic control, aviation safety, and the traveling public will never again be negatively impacted by shutdowns.
The bills introduction comes ahead of a scheduled hearing Wednesday by a Senate subcommittee to examine the impacts of the 43-day shutdown on aviation.
But it’s not clear whether this bill or any similar proposals that have been floating around Congress since the 2019 shutdown will have a chance to get approved before the next government funding deadline at the end of January. Nearly all the other proposals, including one from U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, would rely on the aviation trust fund that collects money from fees the airlines pay, and the Congressional Budget Office has given those bills a much higher price tag.
Fixes have been proposed, but none approved
Over the years, lawmakers have tried a handful of fixes for a long-term solution to keep air traffic controllers and other essential aviation workers paid during funding lapses. The proposals often gained bipartisan attention, especially after the 35-day shutdown that ended in 2019 during President Donald Trumps first term, but none made it over the finish line.
Moran’s bill, known as the Aviation Funding Stability Act, for example, is a recurring proposal in Congress that would allow the FAA to tap into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Lawmakers in both chambers have reintroduced versions of it over the years, including in 2019 and 2021.
The legislation resurfaced in March when Moran, the Republican chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, put it forward. It came up again in September, weeks before the shutdown began, when Carson and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, also a Democrat, introduced it in the House.
The new bill introduced Tuesday would cut off the money if the insurance fund dips below $1 billion. But Transportation Committee staffers estimate that would still provide enough funding to keep FAA operating for four to six weeks.
Air traffic controllers stretched thin during shutdown
The issue gets so much attention because of all the flight delays and cancellations that happen during a shutdown as more air traffic controllers call out of work. The existing shortage of controllers is so severe that just a few absences in an airport tower or other FAA radar facilities can cause problems.
The controllers and the FAA technicians who maintain the equipment they rely on are expected to continue working without pay during a shutdown to keep flights operating. But as the shutdown dragged on this fall, more controllers began calling out of work, citing the financial pressures and the need to take on side jobs.
The delays got so bad during the latest shutdown that the government ordered airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports nationwide, in what the FAA said was an unprecedented but necessary move to relieve pressure on the system and controllers. Thousands of flights were canceled before the FAA lifted the order entirely and airlines were able to resume normal operations Monday.
Why the insurance fund was created
The fund that the bill introduced Tuesday would use was created years ago to pay for claims an airline might file if the government uses one of its planes for a military operation or other use. But that’s not common anymore.
The last time a claim was made was after Americas withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The fund has continued to grow as it collects interest.
For a time, it was also used for an insurance fund at a time when airlines were having trouble getting any insurance coverage after 9/11. For years, airlines paid into the fund regularly to get coverage from the government.
But by the early 2010s, the insurance market for airlines had stabilized. Congress let the insurance program expire at the end of 2014.
Josh Funk and Rio Yamat, AP transportation and airlines writers
New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, hasn’t taken office yet. But he’s already the new avatar of evil for conservative media figures.
He’s been called downright sinister and incompatible with America. His labels include commie, Marxist, jihadist sympathizer and seething leftist. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham warned her viewers not to be fooled by smiling socialists who rule like Soviet tyrants.
A New York Post post-election cover that depicted Mamdani holding aloft the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle symbol sold out on newsstands by noon and was offered on e-Bay for $75. By the end of the day, the Post was selling baby onesies and commemorative plates emblazoned with the cover.
Already, conservative outlets see Mamdani joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton as someone guaranteed to make their audiences’ blood boil. And by doing so, they can help Republicans in the midterm elections.
It’s very clear that he’s going to be the No. 1 target of right-wing media for the foreseeable future, well into 2026, said Howard Polskin, publisher of the Righting, a newsletter that follows conservative media. He’s colorful, controversial and not afraid of a fight.
The new bogeyman for conservative media
The head of an outlet that Polskin regularly monitors, the Daily Signal, said Mamdani is likely seen as a threat because his appeal to working-class Americans who feel left behind by the economy is similar to that of President Donald Trump, although they have different ideas about how to handle that.
Remember years ago there was Nancy Pelosi who was the bogeyman for Republicans, said Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. I think Mamdani is probably going to be the new person. I think thats why you see a lot of emphasis on him in conservative media.
In the Washington Examiner, editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon saw ominous signs in Mamdani’s election night victory speech. He was downright sinister, glorying not just in his achievement but in having laid low his vanquished enemies and stuck it to others besides. He took off his smiling campaign mask and revealed his venomous self, Gurdon wrote.
Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt called Mamdani the mayor for the foreign-born. We have flooded the country with diversity, and diversity delivered us Zohran.” In an interview, Schmitt said he wasn’t quite ready to anoint Mamdani as a deliberate target for the conservative media.
A go-to bogeyman makes it sound like it’s manufactured, he told The Associated Press, whereas we are just appropriately concerned about people that are spewing or trying to push an ideology that is destined to not work.
The Post recognized Mamdani as a target of interest well before the election. Between Oct. 27 and Nov. 5, he was the subject of seven of the tabloid’s covers. One, headlined Mam-Child,” depicted Mamdani in a little boy’s overalls to illustrate a column warning that the city wasn’t a toy to hand to a baby like Zohran. Another front page blared Not Zo Fast to herald a tightening race in the polls. Election Day’s lead headline was Trump to New York: Keep the Commie Out.
Mamdani reached out to the White House post-election for a meeting with Trump and the president said Sunday that we’ll work something out.
A socialist or a communist?
Mamdanis status as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and his Muslim background are behind many of the conservative media attacks.
Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press this spring whether he was a communist, Mamdani said, No, I am not. Webster’s defines socialism as a political theory where the community or government owns and controls the production and distribution of goods. Communism, advanced by revolutionary Karl Marx, is considered a step beyond, where private property and capitalism no longer exist.
Many of Mamdani’s critics make no distinction. Commie takeover in the Big Apple, one Fox News onscreen headline read. They elected a communist, World Net Daily wrote. Communist, not socialist, Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview last month. Communist. He’s far worse than a socialist.
Some Jewish groups have expressed skepticism about Mamdani, who has supported Palestinian rights and criticized Israel’s attack in Gaza as genocide. But he has denounced Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and said he will work to combat antisemitism.
Republicans have a clear interest in seeing more American Jews traditionally a group that leans toward Democrats switch over. But that doesn’t account for some of the hostility seen in the media.
The National Review said Mamdani’s win meant it’s open season on New York Jews. Megyn Kelly said the tenets of Islam are inconsistent with American values and Muslims should not be elected mayors or governors. Podcaster Michael Savage called him a Marxist jihadist sympathizer. Influencer Laura Loomer predicted Mamdani would encourage Muslims to commit political assassinations to acquire power and silence critics.
Mamdani’s staff did not return messages from The Associated Press. In the waning days of his campaign, he spoke out against some of the religious-based attacks on him.
I thought that if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough in the face or racist, baseless attacks all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith, he said. I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.
Making Mamdani the leader of his party in consumers’ eyes
Some of the attacks reflect a common theme in politics and the media not unique to Mamdani to associate all members of a political party with the beliefs of one who could be depicted as on the fringe. The Daily Signal wrote after his election that Mamdani is now the putative leader of his party.
The Victory Girls conservative blog used an illustration of the incoming mayor in a military uniform. “The socialists are coming, and Mamdani is just the begining, the blog wrote. If we ignore them, we will all be in big trouble.
He’s the new AOC in the sense that they have found someone who is relatively unknown that they get to define and hold up as the example of what it means to be a Democrat, said Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America.
Carusone said he’s not sure if Mamdani will become a villain of the conservative media on the level of a Clinton or Pelosi, but he can understand the urgency.
If you don’t check him now,” Carusone said, he’s going to capture the young people.”
David Bauder, AP media writer
In todays hyper-competitive B2B landscape, marketing leaders face a paradox: The pace of change is relentless, yet the need for clarity and purpose has never been greater. With artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping every facet of business, the imperative is not just to keep up but to lead the charge.
To navigate this complexity, we must lead with vision and innovate with intentfocusing our efforts, aligning teams, and making decisions that drive the business forward. Below is a no-nonsense framework for CMOs to fulfill our mandate of not just keeping up with the market but shaping what comes next.
VISION IS THE STRATEGIC COMPASS
Vision is more than a lofty statement on a corporate website. Its a strategic compass that sets a clear direction for decision-making, inspires bold thinking, and aligns marketing with broader business transformation goals.
AI is not just a technology trendits a strategic lens through which visionary CMOs anticipate market shifts, personalize at scale, and create new sources of value. Vision encourages us to look beyond quarterly targets and toward long-term value creation. Its not just about where were going, but why our destination matters. Peter Druckers insight that the best way to predict the future is to create it reminds us that visionary marketers dont wait for trends to unfold. They shape themoften by harnessing AIs predictive and generative power.
Consider Microsofts transformation under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella. By repositioning itself as a cloud-first, AI-forward enterprise leader, Microsofts market cap soared from ~$300 billion in 2014 to over $3 trillion by 2024. Unified branding, thought leadership, and marketing aligned with product visionand a bold embrace of AIwere instrumental in this journey. The lesson is clear: A rebrand aligned with long-term strategy and market trends, especially those driven by AI, can unlock massive shareholder value.
INNOVATION IS THE DIFFERENTIATION ENGINE
In saturated markets, differentiation is survival. Innovation allows us to stand out, not just in what we offer, but in how we engage, deliver, and evolve. AI-driven insights empower marketers to test, learn, and iterate at unprecedented speed, turning data into differentiated experiences that set brands apart. Whether through product, experience, or brand voice, marketers must respond to evolving customer needs and emerging technologies. The challenge is to build a unique voice, foster a culture of innovation, and lead with empathy and agility, even while navigating internal barriers like silos and legacy systems. Steve Jobs captured this imperative when he said, Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. For marketing leaders, innovationnow supercharged by AIis the engine that powers strategic impact.
Apples journey from the dot-com bust to unprecedented growth is a testament to visionary leadership and relentless innovation. Strategic repositioning built a premium brand and loyal customer base. The transformation wasnt just about technology. It was about storytelling, experience, and strategic marketing, now increasingly powered by AI-driven personalization and creative tools. When marketing aligns with product innovation, long-term strategy, and the intelligent application of AI, it can redefine industries and drive valuation from billions to trillions.
VISION MEETS INNOVATION
At onsemi, our own transformation showcases how aligning vision and innovation can redefine a brand. Once known primarily as a reliable supplier, onsemi has emerged as a high-value technology leader in intelligent power and sensing. Under CEO Hassane El-Khoury, our identity evolved from traditional, engineering-focused to forward-looking, innovation-driven. Marketing played a pivotal role in translating the strategic vision into measurable results.
Marketing leaders operationalize and bring vision and innovation to life with a strategic framework that tightly aligns marketing with business goals. Today, they must put AI at the center of every pillar. The backbone of a modern AI-centered marketing engine includes these eight fundamentals:
Brand purpose and positioning: AI-powered sentiment analysis and competitive intelligence inform meaningful, consistent messaging.
Market and audience intelligence: AI enables dynamic segmentation, lookalike modeling, and predictive analytics for personalization at scale.
AI-powered demand generation: Generative AI creates dynamic content, while predictive models fuel pipeline growth through targeted outreach.
Optimized digital experiences and customer intelligence platforms: AI-driven personalization engines and recommendation systems ensure every interaction is seamless and insight-rich.
Unified messaging architecture: AI helps keep the story coherent across channels, adapting in real time to audience feedback.
Innovative tactics: Agile marketing models, strategic AI personalization, and customer journey mapping empower teams to iterate quickly and adapt to change.
Customer experience: A relentless focus on customer experience transforms every touchpoint into a strategic advantage. AI tools can anticipate needs and deliver value before customers even ask.
Cross-functional collaboration: Marketing collaborating with sales, product engineering, and corporate strategy ensures that marketing is at the table, shaping the future rather than just communicating it.
Taken together, these elements create a marketing engine that drives growth, relevance, and long-term impact.
LEAD WITH VISION, EXECUTE WITH INNOVATION, DELIVER WITH IMPACTPOWERED BY AI
If theres one takeaway for marketing executives, its this: Lead with vision, execute with nnovation, and deliver with impact. Vision inspires teams and aligns stakeholders. Innovationnow inseparable from AIkeeps us relevant and unlocks differentiated value. Impact is measured not just in impressions and engagement, but in pipeline, revenue, and strategic growth. When we connect vision to execution, harness the power of AI, and measure our impact, we elevate marketing from a function to a force.
The future belongs to those who shape it. Lets continue to lead with clarity, execute with creativity, and deliver with purposeembracing AI as a core leadership competency for the next era of marketing.
Felicity Carson is chief marketing officer at onsemi.
A Gustav Klimt portrait painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust sold Tuesday for $236.4 million, a record for a modern art piece.
Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold after a 20-minute bidding war at Sothebys in New York, where the flashiest item of the night was a solid gold, fully functioning toilet that went for $12.1 million.
The 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) portrait, painted over three years between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of one of Vienna’s wealthiest families adorned in an East Asian emperors cloak. It is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned. The work was kept separate from other Klimt paintings that burned in a fire at an Austrian castle.
The colorful painting depicts the Lederer family’s life of luxury before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Nazis looted the Lederer art collection, leaving only the family portraits, which were considered too Jewish to be worth stealing, according to the National Gallery of Canada, where the painting was previously on loan.
In an attempt to save herself, Elisabeth Lederer made up a story that Klimt, who was not Jewish and died in 1918, was her father. It helped that the artist spent years working meticulously on her portrait.
With help from her former brother-in-law, a high-ranking Nazi official, she convinced the Nazis to give her a document stating that she descended from Klimt. That allowed her to remain safely in Vienna until she died of an illness in 1944.
The portrait was part of the collection of billionaire Leonard A. Lauder, heir to cosmetics giant The Estée Lauder Companies. He died this year at 92, leaving behind an impressive collection worth more than $400 million.
Sothebys declined to share the identity of the portrait’s buyer. The sale topped a previous record for 20th-century art set by an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which sold for $195 million in 2022.
Five Klimt pieces from Lauder’s collection sold at the auction for a total of $392 million, Sotheby’s said.
Pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Edvard Munch were among other notable sales.
Later in the evening, an 18-karat-gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall hit the auction block. Cattelan has said the 223-pound (101-kilogram) piece, titled America, satirizes superwealth.
Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise, he once said.
The toilet, owned by an unnamed collector, was one of two that Cattelan created in 2016. The other was displayed in 2016 at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, which pointedly offered to lend it to U.S. President Donald Trump when he asked to borrow a Van Gogh painting.
Then the piece was stolen while on display in England at Blenheim Palace, the country manor where Winston Churchill was born. Two men were convicted in the toilet heist, but it’s unclear what they did with the loo. Investigators aren’t privy to its whereabouts but believe it was likely broken up and melted down.
America was exhibited at Sothebys New York headquarters in the weeks leading up to the auction. Sothebys called the commode an incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value.
Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press
Google announced its widely anticipated Gemini 3 model Tuesday. By many key metrics, it appears to be more capable than the other big generative AI models on the market.
In a show of confidence in the performance (and safety) of the new model, Google is making one variant of GeminiGemini 3 Proavailable to everyone via the Gemini app starting now. Its also making the same model a part of its core search service for subscribers.
The new model topped the scores of the much-cited LMArena benchmark, a crowdsourced preference of various top models based on head-to-head responses to identical prompts. In the super-difficult Humanitys Last Exam benchmark test, which measured reasoning and knowledge, the Gemini 3 Pro scored 37.4% compared to GPT-5 Pros 31.6%. Gemini 3 also topped a range of other benchmarks measuring everything from reasoning to academic knowledge to math to tool use and agent functions.
Gemini has been a multimodal model from the start, meaning that it can understand and reason about not just language, but images, audio, video, and codeall at the same time. This capability has been steadily improving since the first Gemini, and Gemini 3 reached state-of-the-art performance on the MMMU-Pro benchmark, which measures how well a model handles college-level and professional-level reasoning across text and images. It also topped the Video-MMMU benchmark, which measures the ability to reason over details of video footage. For example, the Gemini model might ingest a number of YouTube videos, then create a set of flashcards based on what it learned.
Gemini also scored high on its ability to create computer code. Thats why it was a good time for the company to launch a new Cursor-like coding agent called Antigravity. Software development has proven to be among the first business functions in which generative AI has had a measurably positive impact.
Benchmarks are telling, but as the response to OpenAIs GPT-5.1 showed, the feel or personality of a model matters to users (many users thought GPT-5 was a dramatic personality downgrade from GPT-4o). Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis seemed to acknowledge this in a tweet Tuesday. [B]eyond the benchmarks its been by far my favorite model to use for its style and depth, and what it can do to help with everyday tasks. Of course users will have their own say about Gemini 3s communication style, and how well it adapts to user preferences and work habits.
With the release of Googles third-generation generative AI model, its a good time to look at the wider context of the race to build the dominant AI models of the 21st century. The contest, remember, is only a few years old. So far, OpenAIs models have spent the most time atop the benchmark rankings, and, on the strength of ChatGPT, have garnered most of the attention of all the players in the emerging AI industry.
History on its side?
From the start, Google has enjoyed some distinct advantages. Its been investing in AI talent and research for decades, starting long before OpenAI became a company in 2015. It began developing machine learning techniques for understanding search intent, defining page rank, and for placing ads as far back as 2001. It bought London-based AI research lab DeepMind back in 2014, and DeepMind has been responsible for some of Googles biggest AI accomplishments (AlphaGo, AlphaFold, Gemini models).
The big research breakthroughs that enabled the current wave of generative AI models took place at Google. In 2017, Google researchers invented the transformer language model architecture that allowed LLMs to learn much more from their training data than earlier language models. The following year Google used the transformer architecture to build its BERT language model, which led directly to the GPT models that power ChatGPT. In fact, the search giant developed an AI chatbot well before OpenAI did, but was conflicted about releasing it or infusing it into its other products because of legal and business model concerns.
All the data
Google has access to more and better-quality training data than any other AI company. Its been indexing most of the information on the web since 1998. It also owns huge amounts of information such as local business data, mapping data, and customer reviews, which can be used to train AI models or augment their output (within search results, for example).
Generative models are just now gaining the ability to learn about the world from video footage in the same way that models learn from large amounts of text. With YouTube, Google has access to mountains of it, and its AI models could gain an increasing intelligence advantage by training on it.
As AI begins to manage more and more of our personal and work tasks, Googles advantages in experience, talent, and data and other resources may help sustain Geminis state-of-the-art status and overall functionality in the years to come.
High stakes
This is more than about which company can sell the most API access to its models or subscriptions to a chatbot. As models like Gemini, Claude, and GPT-5 may eventually become smarter, perhaps far smarter, than humans at almost any task. The company with the models that reaches that level, also called artificial general intelligence (AGI) may dominate the marketplace for consumer and business AI in the same way Google has dominated search in the first decades of this century. With tech companies already spending hundreds of billions to build the infrastructure for their AI businesses, the pressure is mounting to push harder and faster on the development of new generations of AI models.
AI is bringing voice to the forefront of brand interactions. Smarter AI means we can talk to our technologyLLMs, software, phones, cars, fridges, and even banking apps. The novel part is this: Our technology is now talking back, and convincingly so. Brands are catching on, and the smart ones know that voice isnt just functional, it will form a core part of the brand identity itself.
Voice will be the next frontier of branding. And not metaphorically. A brands literal voicethe voice(s) used for advertising, on their website, and now, in interactive AI-based conversations with customersis becoming just as ownable as elements of a visual identity. But standing out wont come from just using voice tech alone. To cut through the noise, brands will need a voice thats authentic, distinct, and is uniquely associated with their brand.
The biggest brands already understand this. Theres a reason the most memorable brands choose to use the same voice actor across marketing campaigns, sometimes even across years: Consistency builds memorability, recognition, and trust. With voice AI, the opportunity for consistency and impact is even greater, and brands that embrace it will set themselves apart from the rest.
TURN CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINTS INTO BRANDED EXPERIENCES
The real gold in voice AI is its ability to provide both one-to-one and one-to-many communication at scale. AI is empowering brands to automate interactions across more customer touchpoints than ever before, including sales support, call center automations, and personalized ads, to name a few. As these channels incorporate voice AI, the need for consistency grows, making a singular, distinct voice more critical than ever.
With voice AI, brands can hold a million individual conversations at once while maintaining both continuity and a personal touch. In customer support, an AI-powered agent can provide instant answers and even act via voice. That same voice can guide them through a product tutorial, help pay a phone bill, or introduce your brand to customers in an ad.
Thats the beauty of voice AI as a brand asset: One voice can now efficiently scale, enabling a whole new level of brand cohesion across multiple interactions. Customers value predictability, and a consistent, trusted, and recognizable voice can really drive home that brand memorability and distinction.
SECURE A MEMORABLE VOICE THATS EXCLUSIVELY YOURS
With technology moving so fast, theres no shortage of ready-to-go AI voices. But the convenience of these voices doesnt guarantee exclusivity, and in branding, distinction is everything.
The problem with 100% synthetic AI voicesvoices entirely created with AI, with no real human in the loopis threefold:
They may become unavailable.
They are often forgettable.
They are rarely exclusive to the user.
As vendors update their library or licenses expire, the voice youve been using to represent your brand could change, or even completely disappear. Even if it doesnt, chances are: Other brands and creators are using that same off-the-shelf voice, erasing any sense of individuality. As a brand, youll want at least some exclusivity for your AI voice, so you dont end up sharing it with a competitor.
The reality is, the best AI voice clones come from real humans with the best voices: voice actors. You can hear a tangible difference between a synthetic AI voice and an AI voice cloned from a skilled voice talent. Done right, the one-to-one voice clone is higher quality than any synthetic voicenot only in its realism, but in its emotional nuance, uniqueness, and overall human quality.
Licensing a professional voice also gives you greater control over creative direction to ensure the pronunciation of brand names and technical terms is correct. Licensed voices also offer customizable licensing suited to your specific needs, securing long-term consistency, exclusivity, and greater legal protections. Its the difference between borrowing something generic and curating a voice experience that is yours.
The best, most successful branded voices in the market today are distinct and emotive. Customers wont remember an AI chatbot with a friendly middle-aged female voice, but they will remember a voice with personalityone that feels alive, intentional, and unmistakably part of the brand.
Thats the future: Voice as a distinguishable brand asset, just like a logo. And by working with real humans to create a unique AI voice, youll secure something competitors cant copy: A voice that is exclusively, recognizably, and enduringly yours.
Jay OConnor is CEO of Voices.com.
Ransomware doesnt knock on the front door. It sneaks in quietly, and by the time you notice, the damage is already done. Backups, replication, and cloud storage help recover from ransomware, but when it strikes, these products may not be enough. You copy your data and ensure copies are recoverable when needed.
Replication is often viewed as the gold standard of protection. It is fast, efficient, and seems like an easy answer. Two common types of replication are in use today.
The first is physical to physical. This is when data is copied from one physical device to another, usually at a remote location. The second is physical to virtual. This is when data is copied from a local physical device to a virtual device in the cloud, commonly managed by a backup vendor.
Both replication types can be useful and offer advantages, including uninterrupted service, reduced potential data loss, and data redundancy. But replication has limitations.
When ransomware strikes
When ransomware hits a server, the infection can spread fast. If replication is active, then corrupted or encrypted data may be copied to the secondary device. Both the original and secondary devices now contain bad data. Instead of serving as a safety net, replication can become a trap locking both environments into a compromised state.
Replication can also be complex to set up and maintain, requiring skilled staff. Not every organization has the time, budget, or expertise to set up and maintain a replicated environment.
Replicating to a vendors cloud can be expensive. You pay for the storage, and often for recovery and ongoing usage. Plus, if your original server goes down and you need to switch to the secondary server, you still need to rebuild the original serverreinstalling the operating system, reapplying patches, and restoring the previous configuration. This can take time depending on the environment.
Where does this leave us? Should we just throw replication out the window? No, replication has its place. It can solve certain problems, especially when the risk of downtime outweighs the maintenance costs. But replication is not a cure-all. It should not be viewed as the primary recovery tool, especially against ransomware.
Ask if you’re prepared
Some questions can help you determine if you are ready for a cyberattack. Replication is a great tool, but ransomware can often expose its weaknesses:
Have you thought about what would happen if ransomed data spread across your replicated systems?
Do you know how long it would take to rebuild an original device if you had to switch over?
Have you tested your recovery process end-to-end, not just the replication part?
Do you understand the true cost of your replication service, including the hidden recovery fees?
Look beyond replication
Replication is valuable, but it shouldnt be the primary mechanism for recovery from a cyberattack. Replication comes with costs and complexity, and doesnt replace the need for a recovery strategy. So consider replication a tool in the toolbox, not the entire strategy.
You need a way to quickly restore an infected device to a clean statewithout worrying whether the compromised data has spread across your replicated environment. Or whether the recovery will cost more than the attack.
Users sometimes download files locally or store critical data outside of the replicated environment. A complete recovery strategy must include both servers and workstations to ensure quick recovery, regardless of which devices become compromised.
When considering ransomware recovery, explore solutions that provide resilience and data integrity, and enable fast recovery when your data is compromised. Instant recovery is achievable with solutions designed to recover from ransomware and other cyber threats.Elisha Riedlinger is the COO at NeuShield.
The cryptocurrency market is continuing to tumble as investors worry about risky assets, an AI and tech bubble, and a roughly 50% likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.
Closely watched digital asset XRP (XRP-USD) has fallen to $2.13 per token, a 26.55% drop from three months ago.
It previously hit a high of $3.65 in July, but the cryptocurrency has been trending significantly downwards since early October. This fall keeps XRP below the critical support/resistance level of $2.20.
XRP ETFs fail to boost price
There were moments of hope that the price would rebound with the recent launch of three XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs). However, those hopes were soon dashed.
Take Canary XRP ETF, from Canary Capital, which launched on November 13. The fund (XRPC) opened at $26.63 that first day but has since fallen 10.85%. Binance News reports that “whales” sold 200 million XRP in the 48 hours following.
Blockchain company Ripple Labs is traditionally the largest owner of XRP, which is the native token of the XRP Ledger.
‘Profit-taking’ and the broader crypto slump
XRP is following a similar downward pattern to other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, the worlds most popular cryptocurrency.
Its price (BTC) also began to fall in early October and has made a sharp decline since early November. This week, it experienced a so-called death cross, which is when an asset’s short-term price momentum falls below its long-term trends.
As of publishing, Bitcoin sits at $91,577, a 13.26% drop from six months ago and an 18.12% drop from just one month ago.
The selloff is a confluence of profit-taking by LTHs [longtime holders], institutional outflows, macro uncertainty, and leveraged longs getting wiped out, Jake Kennis, senior research analyst at Nansen, said in a statement to CoinDesk this week. Profit-taking occurs when investors cash out to ensure a higher price, rather than hold a potentially declining asset.
While Bitcoin is still significantly up from a low of $74,436 in April, its gains for 2025 have been completely wiped out. It’s down roughly 2.14% year to date.
Every industry eventually reaches its productivity era. Manufacturing had automation. Finance had algorithmic trading. Today, real estate is stepping into its own transformation: the age of intelligent decision making.
Ive seen firsthand how investors are reimagining their operations. For decades, property investment was managed with clipboards, paper checks, and late-night phone calls. It left investors buried in minutiae.
Now, just as modern supply chains run on smart logistics, real estate is running on smart systems that streamline everything from payments to tenant communications. The result? A shift away from chasing down tasks and toward making wise, future-oriented decisions.
FROM ENDLESS TO-DO LISTS TO INTELLIGENT DEFAULTS
Smart investors are creating portfolios that think ahead. A good example of this is making sure lease renewals no longer catch the investors by surprise. To remedy this, property owners are using systems that automatically send themselves lease expiration reminders at critical times (whether that is 90, 60, 30, or 7 days beforehand). Those reminders keep each of their properties on schedule, whether the plan is to renew a great resident or list the property for new interest.
This kind of intelligent default has become a hallmark of modern operations. Routine communication, recurring tasks, and renewal cycles all happen on precise schedules set by the investor. The technology follows their logic, not the other way around. These built-in prompts and automated workflows turn repetitive management into proactive planning. Investors stay focused on growth, while the system quietly handles the details in the background.
KEEP CONTROL WHILE SCALING SMART
As portfolios expand, control becomes the defining advantage. The most sophisticated investors are scaling through rules-based automation by adopting a digital infrastructure that mirrors their judgment across every property.
Ive watched how this works in practice. Investors create specific rules that reflect their personal standards: how to screen residents, when to send payment reminders, how to communicate about maintenance. Once those rules are set, the system enforces them automatically and consistently.
Each property operates according to the investors playbook, giving them confidence that every detail aligns with their approach. That way, automating doesnt mean giving up control. Instead, the investors expertise becomes codified and applied across the portfolio. This is how smart growth happens.
REAL ESTATES PRODUCTIVITY ERA
A new rhythm is emerging in real estate, as smart systems generate time, and time generates smarter decisions. Investors who once spent evenings chasing paperwork now spend that time analyzing portfolio trends, comparing rent performance across markets, and identifying when to refinance or expand.
This productivity cycle turns operational gains into strategic insight. Each automation saves a few minutes, each saved hour leads to a better decision, and each good decision strengthens long-term performance. As more independent real estate investors adopt intelligent systems, they are operating with the same clarity and responsiveness once limited to large institutional firms, only now at the scale of individual portfolios.
SMARTER SYSTEMS LEAD TO HAPPIER HOMES
When operations become intelligent, the ripple effect reaches residents. Payments are made seamlessly through mobile tools. Maintenance requests route directly to the right vendor. Renewals are handled early and clearly, reducing last-minute stress for everyone involved.
For example, RentRedis internal data shows that when residents use features like autopay and credit reporting, on-time payments increase to 99% and by 13 points, respectively. These tools simplify the payment process while also supporting renters financial wellness by helping them stay current on rent while building stronger credit scores. When convenience meets incentive, the result is a healthier financial ecosystem for both residents and investors.
The smartest investors understand that streamlined operations lead to stronger tenant relationships. Happy renters renew leases more often, take better care of their homes, and create stability that fuels long-term returns. Intelligent systems make that balance possible, because they are efficient for investors and convenient for those who call their properties home.
MEET THE MOMENT OF INFLECTION
Real estate is now at the same inflection point that other industries reached when intelligence and automation converged. Smart investors are already leading this transformation, by building portfolios that run smoothly with insight, structure, and foresight.
They manage by design, using systems intentionally built to reflect their standards and priorities. Each workflow, rule, and automation represents their expertise in action. The business runs with purpose, clarity, and consistency because every element has been designed to anticipate needs, maintain performance, and create stability.
This design-led approach turns management into strategic execution. Investors operate within systems that think ahead, ensure precision, and keep portfolios moving in sync with their goals. This is what the age of intelligent real estate looks like: investors in control, operations running with clarity, and homes that reflect the benefit of smarter thinking.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The next generation of savvy real estate investors has already arrived. They have built operations that are thoughtful, predictive, and scalable. Their systems manage the details, their data fuels their strategy, and their decisions define a new benchmark for success.
The age of intelligent real estate is not a future visionit is already here, reshaping how the most forward-thinking investors grow, manage, and thrive. And as more industries adopt intelligence as their foundation, real estate stands as proof that when technology aligns with human insight, innovation becomes progress.
Ryan Barone is cofounder and CEO of RentRedi.
When I was a kid, my favorite place in the world was hunched over a sewing machine. Id cut up old jeans, hand-stitch fabric scraps into new outfits, and dream of someday seeing my clothes walk a runway. My notebooks were full of fashion drawings. Somewhere in my teens, that dream slipped quietly into the background. Life pulled me in a different direction.
But this year, thanks to AI, I finally staged my first runway show at New York Fashion Week.
Okay, not at the literal Fashion Week runways in Manhattan but on social media where people are scrolling for Fashion Week content. And the wild part? I pulled it together in one Friday night using my own AI-powered fashion brand, yanabanana.
The tech stack behind the catwalk
The show was called The Stockholm Archipelago Collection, inspired by a trip I took to Yasuragi, a Japanese-style spa perched on the water outside Stockholm. Architectural shapes, blue kimonos, and tall pines by the water were my mental mood board as I was designing my collection.
Heres how I translated inspiration into a digital runway:
Sketch to photo: I started with a rough sketch of each look. Using Google’s Nano Banana image generation model, I transformed my doodles into photos. Sometimes I generated two photos (a start and end scene) that would ultimately create a more interesting runway moment.
Models on the runway: Through prompt engineering, I iterated until all my looks walked the same runway that I had decorated with my photos of the water view from Yasuragi.
Static to cinematic: I turned the images into short clips with Midjourneys video model. It worked but Ill be experimenting with different video models next season. Runway fluidity is tricky!
Custom soundtrack: Every show needs a vibe, so I used Suno to generate an original Scandinavian inspired track to set the pace.
Cut & polish: Finally, I stitched it all together in iMovie, as old-school as it gets in the age of AI.
The result? A minute-long AI-powered runway film that could almost pass for an indie cut of a Fashion Week show.
AI is the new sewing machine
What I love about this process is that AI collapsed the barrier between imagination and execution. Ten-year-old me could only dream of sourcing fabrics, hiring models, and booking a venue. Today all I need is a sketch, a stack of AI models to create virtual human models, and a little curiosity. And yet, the story didnt stop at the digital runway.
From sketch to closet
At one point, I even thought about building a platform where fashion designers could sketch with AI and then manufacture their garments. That idea simmered until I stumbled on Flair, an early- stage startup already doing exactly that. I joined one of their sessions with a roomful of fashion designers during San Francisco Design Week this spring. The format was like an AI version of Project Runway. Everyone created some designs, and whichever one got the most votes on their platform over the next week would be brought to life. Mine won. I sent in my measurements, and last week a package arrived. Inside was a dress that had started as a doodle on my notebook, passed through Flairs AI workflow, and emerged as a real garment stitched together in the physical world. Slipping it on for the first time was magic. It was the same rush I felt as a kid cutting up old jeans. Except this time the runway wasnt just in my imagination. It was hanging in my closet.
The bigger picture
For me, yanabanana isnt about building a traditional fashion house. Its about asking what does a fashion brand born in the age of AI even look like? Maybe it doesnt need to produce clothes at all. Maybe its runways live on Instagram, soundtracked by generative beats, designed with prompts instead of pins. And maybe, sometimes, those designs make the leap from pixels to fabric. And maybe thats exactly what makes it fashion-forward.
Yana Welinder is Head of AI at Amplitude. She was CEO and founder of Kraftful (recently acquired by Amplitude).
