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Ukrainian troops say their hard-won lessons on Iranian Shaheds apply far beyond their war at home

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The drones Iran is launching at US forces are the same ones Ukraine has fought for years. Ukrainian soldiers say their battlefield experience offers lessons that matter in this fight.

Alex Eine, the commander of a small Ukrainian drone unit, said it was “surprising” to see reports out of the Middle East of multimillion-dollar interceptors being used to combat cheap Iranian one-way attack drones.

“When long-range drones are flying at you, don’t shoot them down with $3 million PAC-3s from Patriots,” he said, referring to a top interceptor for the most advanced US surface-to-air missile system.

Through trial and error, Ukraine developed low-cost defenses to counter Russia’s Geran drones, copies of Iran’s Shahed drones. Ukrainians involved in defending their country and Western analysts say other countries facing these threats need to be doing the same.

A 122nd Brigade sergeant with Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces who asked to be identified only by their call sign Fast, said that Ukrainian soldiers “were sure the US had some secret weapon,” some foolproof shield for stopping Shaheds. They were expecting to see it in action when this new war began, he said.

Instead, what they saw were viral video clips of an Iranian delta-wing drone sailing past defenses and slamming into a US Navy base in Bahrain, causing serious damage.


Smoke rises from a skyline with water in the foreground under a blue sky

Iran has been firing missiles and drones at US targets and its Middle East allies.

Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images



“Now we see that it is a hard task, even for the US,” Fast said of defending against Shaheds.

On Wednesday, CNN reported, citing an unnamed source who attended a closed-door briefing, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the top general, Dan Caine, told congressional leaders that Shaheds pose a greater challenge for the US and allies than initially expected.

The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said that the US is “very familiar with the Iranian capabilities” and “planned for it right from the outset.”

He added that while he felt good about what the plan was, the military has been making adjustments.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a Ukrainian drone pilot with Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said the US and others should lean more into the kind of low-cost systems that Ukraine has proven work against Shaheds.

Hard-won combat lessons

The reality of any major air defense battle is that some threats are likely to break through.

“I’m not surprised that some Iranian drones penetrated their defenses, as they act like a swarm,” said Ukrainian lawmaker Maryan Zablotskyy, who was an early advocate for interceptor drone air defenses. “It’s very difficult to intercept a whole bunch of them flying at the same time.”


A man wearing camoufage stands on the back of a camoufage-painted truck pointing a weapon into a cloudy and blue sky, with another man standing beside

Ukraine has developed mobile fire groups as part of its response to Shahed-style drones.

Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images



Last year, Ukraine saw Russian drones break through and kill over 500 civilians.

“There is no 100% counteraction,” said Oleksandr Skarlat, the director of the Sternenko Foundation, a crowdfunding organization for combat drones. “The question is no longer whether such drones will break through,” he argued, “but what the cost of destroying them will be and how quickly defense systems can adapt.”

Ukraine says it can intercept about 90% of Russia’s Shaheds. That rate isn’t perfect, but Kyiv is able to achieve largely effective coverage and do so with systems that are cheap enough to field at scale, helping it save its missiles like the Patriot and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, for Russia’s more dangerous threats.

Ukraine depends on a host of low-cost solutions against Shaheds, including electronic warfare, mobile gun teams, and interceptor drones.

A cofounder of Wild Hornets, the Ukrainian firm behind the popular Sting interceptor drone, said the Shahed threat “forced” their country to develop an entirely new branch of service dedicated to using drones to fight drones.

Ukraine began surging production of cheap interceptor drones, designed to fly at high speeds to intercept Shaheds, in 2025. It says it now produces over 1,000 of them a day.


A man in camouflage gear and a black beanie stands in a snowy field in front of trees holding a black and beige drone, standing beside black equipment

Ukraine has developed interceptor drones designed to take out Shaheds and other drones.

Alex Nikitenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images



Math problems

Hegseth said on Wednesday that the US has “the most sophisticated air and missile defense network ever fielded” and that it has vaporized thousands of Iranian threats, both missiles and one-way attack drones.

“We have pushed every counter-UAS system possible forward, sparing no expense or capability,” he said, using an acronym for counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems.

Among the higher-end air defenses on the front lines of this multinational air defense fight are the MIM-104 Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems. Ship-based interceptors, like the SM-series missiles, and planes armed with air-to-air missiles are also in play.

Dara Massicot, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace defense expert, wrote in an assessment on Monday that drone attacks are being intercepted “at an impressive rate,” but at the cost of “extensive resources of near-constant defensive counter air patrols and the use of ground-based air defense systems that are otherwise needed for intercepting inbound Iranian missiles.”

Zablotskyy, the Ukrainian lawmaker, said that the important thing is to “start thinking low-cost war.” Ukraine’s interceptor drones are priced at around $2,300 to $6,000 each, while Shaheds are generally estimated to cost $20,000 to $50,000 apiece.


Two men bending over holding a large grey drone between trees

Ukraine has more experience operating and stopping drones than any of its allies.

ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images



That cost ratio is much better than expending a multimillion-dollar interceptor missile on a drone costing only thousands. American military leadership says that they are working to address past imbalances.

“Interceptors, in general, we’ve had a number of new capabilities being fielded,” Cooper said on Thursday. “I think you have seen over a period of time us kind of get on the other side of this cost curve on drones.”

“If I just walk back a couple of years, you remember you used to always hear: ‘We’re shooting down a $50,000 drone with a $2 million missile.’ These days, we’re spending a lot of time shooting down $100,000 drones with $10,000 weapons,” he said.

The admiral declined to go into specifics on the new capabilities being fielded.

The US and Israel are flying over Iran and destroying as much as they can of Iran’s missile arsenal to try to limit its offensive attacks — a state-of-the-art air campaign that Ukraine can’t match, and it has cut both missile and drone attacks down tremendously since the war began.

Offers to help

The US military has taken broader drone lessons from Ukraine; however, observers say it has not adopted Kyiv’s low-cost interception architecture at the scale it needs for this and future wars.


A large camouflaged truck-mounted weapon beside trees and under a white sky

The US military’s Patriot air defense system is powerful, but every use is costly.

Thomas Frey/picture alliance via Getty Images



Ukrainians told Business Insider that the US should invest deeply in interceptor drones like the ones they use while also layering in electronic warfare and short-range air defenses.

“The use of interceptor drones might be the key to the Shahed challenge in the Middle East and elsewhere,” said Taras Tymochko, who led the Dronefall project, a program under the charity foundation ComeBackAlive that funded early development of interceptor drones in Ukraine.

“Of course, there is not much time to learn how to use interceptors,” he said. “But it is better to be late than very late.”

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine “received a request from the United States for specific support in protection against ‘shaheds’ in the Middle East region.” At the same time, reports emerged that the US and other partners were considering purchasing Ukrainian interceptor drones.


A rocket trail is seen in the sky above the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on March 5, 2026.

In the past, the cost of interception was often vastly more expensive than the target. Cheap interceptor drones are designed to change that.

Jack GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images



Massicot said that while this deeper “learning should have started long ago, now is the time to start — and catch up quickly.”

Several Ukrainians said the urgency for the US to learn from their country extends past the fighting with Iran or the threat from Russia. These countries aren’t its only foes that might rely on Shahed-type drones or swarms.

“Air defense in the Middle East is already unable to withstand the intensity of Shahed attacks,” Skarlat said. “Imagine what will happen if China gets involved” in the drone swarm way of war, he said.

“The world is not ready for massive attacks by Iranian drones,” he said.




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I’ve raised my 3 kids across Switzerland, Australia, and the US — each culture has taught me valuable parenting lessons

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  • Raising kids across 3 countries — the US, Australia, Switzerland — changed how I approach parenting.
  • It opened my eyes to how different cultures empower children to reach their full potential.
  • My kids learned early independence in Switzerland and the power of preparation in Australia.

Parenting my children across Australia, Switzerland, and the US showed me how deeply culture shapes the way we raise our children.

In Australia, I didn’t fully recognize how much my parenting was influenced by my suburban Sydney lifestyle until we moved abroad.

When my family moved to Switzerland, I noticed the way the Swiss promote child autonomy, empowering their kids from a young age — and when I adopted that mindset, my children thrived.

After moving to the United States, I learned a different parenting lesson about the true value of community and strong support networks, which strengthened my children’s sense of belonging.

Each country offered unique perspectives on parenting, but they taught me the same thing: Raising children isn’t about choosing one philosophy.

Instead, it’s about treating my experiences as a “cultural buffet,” trying new methods, keeping what works, and leaving the rest behind.

In Switzerland, independence is promoted from an early age.

In Switzerland, independence is a big deal for kids.

Naomi Tsvirko

When I first moved to Switzerland from Australia, I was stunned to see 5-year-olds in high-visibility vests walking to school alone, without adult supervision.

When I asked my Swiss neighbor about this, she shrugged and said, “Children can do amazing things when you let them.”

I started to give my children more responsibility and even let them walk to the local park and bakery without me. I realized they were ready, and they loved the freedom.

Living there also taught me the importance of letting children be a little uncomfortable.


Kids standing on stones next to woman near water

We no longer hesitate to play in the rain or a bit of snow.

Naomi Tsvirko

I remember dropping my kids off at a school playground early one rainy morning in Switzerland. The teacher stood outside, wearing her raincoat, calmly watching the children play in the rain.

In Australia, rainy days were usually spent indoors, but in Switzerland, life continues outdoors in almost any weather.

At first, my son looked up at me, unsure whether to join in. His teacher encouraged him to play, and before long, he was running around like everyone else.

That was when I really understood that common saying: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only ill-prepared people.” Swiss parents approach tough situations not by avoiding discomfort, but by preparing children to handle it.

Australia showed me it’s important to prepare children for the road rather than trying to control it.


Kids smiling with woman in front of purple hydrangeas

My kids learned a lot in Australia.

Naomi Tsvirko

In Australia, helicopter parenting is widely frowned upon. When I worked as a teacher, I quickly learned that parents who hovered over their children didn’t just limit independence, they undermined confidence.

One of the hardest parts of parenting has been learning to step back and let my children take age-appropriate risks, trusting that they can handle them.

That parenting lesson was cemented when my 3-year-old daughter identified a venomous redback spider in our bathroom. She closed the door and informed me right away.

Her preschool had taught her how to recognize dangerous Australian spiders and what to do when they encountered them. It wasn’t fear-mongering, but survival training — a reminder that we can’t control the road ahead, but we can prepare our children to navigate it.

I also learned that being laid-back can help kids build confidence.


Kids smiling wearing leis

Australians can seem laid-back, but that’s not the same as apathy.

Naomi Tsvirko

Australians are laid-back by nature, but that doesn’t translate to apathy when it comes to parenting.

We care deeply for our children, but we’re also aware that even subtle parental anxiety can be picked up by them.

When my son was 2 years old, he started swimming lessons. His teacher gently asked me not to sit too close to the pool as she noticed that he kept looking at my face before trying anything new.

She was right. I seemed nervous, and he was even hesitant to put his head underwater.

I realized that I had to control my reactions when my children faced new challenges, otherwise my anxiety would become theirs, turning curiosity into fear instead of confidence.

Our time in the US has shown me how much competition builds confidence.


Family in NY rangers jerseys standing next to subway train

My kids have gotten more comfortable with competing in sports.

Naomi Tsvirko

For many years, I avoided entering my children in competitions because I didn’t want them to feel pressured to be the best at something.

However, after moving to the United States, my perspective shifted. Doing well in a competitive environment built my kids’ confidence, and losing helped build resilience.

My two older children first learned to play ice hockey in Switzerland, but it wasn’t until we moved to the US that they were exposed to higher-level competition. I’m grateful for their hockey coaches who mentored them and challenged my own assumptions about competition along the way.

Later, my daughter was able to represent our country at an international level. What surprised me the most wasn’t the achievement itself, but how much confidence she gained simply from being comfortable with competition.




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My 99-year-old grandma taught me important lessons about the power of silence, change, and living a good life

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My grandma and I spent most of our lives apart, yet she taught me a deeper way to live.

I grew up in California, while my Grandma Jackie lived in Minnesota. We saw each other only on special occasions — summer visits, my high-school graduation, and a few holidays.

Because of the distance, I got to know her through stories from my parents. Most of what I knew about my grandma came from tales of her days fishing, playing slots, and trying her luck at Pokeno.

These stories, mixed in with my own memories of her wide smile and the taste of her one-of-a-kind sweet-potato pie, cemented my connection to her. Yet when she passed away at 99, I felt guilty for not being closer to her.

During my grieving, I reflected on our relationship that flourished despite the time and miles between us. Through our scattered time together, Grandma Jackie gave me three lessons that shape how I live today.

Love doesn’t need many words


Woman smiling in chair lift wearing Minnesota sweatshirt

Although my grandma didn’t always say much, I knew she loved me.

Kiersten Brown



My grandma wasn’t much of a talker — oftentimes, she could communicate more with a smile than with words.

Whenever I visited her, her brown eyes would light up, and in her raspy voice, she would say, “Well, hi sweetie, how ya doing?”

After a few minutes of pleasantries, the conversation would end. Then we would sit together and watch “Wheel of Fortune.” Occasionally, I’d glance at her, and she’d shoot me a smile.

The same pattern played out during her yearly birthday calls, which lasted three minutes, at best. She would sing “Happy Birthday,” ask how I was doing, and end with, “Well, I’ll holla at you later.”

Interactions felt more like small talk with a coworker than chats with a loved one, and these brief interactions made me question our connection. Short conversations made me feel like we weren’t close because we didn’t have much say.

Yet one day after my grandma’s passing I was talking with my aunt who revealed that love is measured in time spend together.

My aunt mentioned that Grandma Jackie often asked about me and prayed for me nightly. Although we didn’t speak often and saw each other less, she was always thinking of me.

This insight made me realize that silence was more of a way of being than a reflection of our relationship. I realize now that not having much to say was a choice rooted in acceptance and love — she was content with simply having me around.

Because of her, I now focus more on appreciating someone’s presence rather than filling space with chatter.

It’s never too late to change how you live and chase life — no matter the circumstances

My grandma had an unwavering will to live and really took charge of her health at the age of 80 when the doctor’s told her that her she might not have much time left.

She quit smoking, cold turkey. She enrolled in exercise programs, walked daily laps around the house, took supplements, and focused on eating more fruits and vegetables.

More than fearing death, I believe my grandma enjoyed life too much not to fight for it. She had always been someone who loved spending time with her friends, enjoyed traveling within her own state, and considered everyone she met a friend.

When I visited my family a year ago, my grandma attended nearly every event. If she saw someone getting ready to leave, she’d ask, “Where we going?” and expected us to bring her with us. It didn’t matter whether we went to the park or out to eat; she made sure to tag along.

Every day I’m reminded that circumstances don’t have to dictate how I live, and her strength has inspired me to live life to the fullest.

Never stop doing what you enjoy


Group of women smiling outside

My grandma tried to spend time with friends and family as much as she could.

Kiersten Brown



As a music lover, she danced whenever her favorite songs came on. When she became less mobile, she would still rock her hips and sway in her chair.

She loved visiting casinos, never focusing on hitting big wins, but rather finding pleasure in simply playing. During her last few years of life, she attended virtual and in-person family bingo every Friday night. When she craved cake and ice cream, she would have some — in moderation, of course.

As time goes on and I grow older, I’m committed to following my grandma’s example. I will be dancing, hiking, and hanging out with friends for as long as I’m alive.

I’d say my grandma reached 99 for two reasons: good genes and complete dedication to living her life the best way she could. Because of her, I live with more purpose and intention.




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My dad died at 56 and never made it to retirement. The 3 lessons he taught me changed my own plans and perspective.

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In 2023, my dad called to tell me he’d dropped down to four days a week at work.

He’d had a long career as an insurance underwriter, though it didn’t define him. At one point, he even left the profession to become a plasterer for a decade to better balance out his schedule. Still, it served him well enough.

“You really are getting old, then,” I joked. Dad laughed — he was only in his 50s.

We talked about his retirement and how he planned to wind down gradually over the next few years, before pulling the trigger and paying a full-time job’s worth of attention to the golf course.

That step was the first, and last dad took toward retiring. A year later, he told me he had cancer.

His diagnosis marked the beginning of a period in which I spent every day with him. He had been exceptionally fit, competing in triathlons, marathons, and Ironman races, but went from Hyrox to hospice care in just eight weeks.

Then on June 19, 2024, at the age of 56, Dad’s oesophageal cancer snatched away his future, and any prospect of a retirement.

I later realized our conversations during his illness were a textbook of the values by which he had lived his life. I’d heard him talk along similar lines in the past, but it wasn’t until I was lucky enough to spend each day for two months with him as his peer that I was able to distill them into three lessons.

Now, at the age of 32, these guide me in my career and life, and frame the way I think about retirement.

Live as if you might never make it


Man jumping in the air in front of a mountain

Dad while doing the Tour De Mont Blanc.

Callum Macauley-Murdoch



It may sound a morbid start, but I see this principle as both pragmatic and a call to action.

I see it as pragmatic because, of course, it is true: You might very well not make it to your retirement. And thinking about death in this way can help you take important practical steps, like ensuring you have an updated will and, at the very least, start thinking about granting powers of attorney.

And I see it as a call to action because, when loss helps you understand that life is precarious, it shines a light on how we often live without confronting the inevitability of death.

With that understanding, a more fulfilling life can emerge years earlier than it might otherwise have; one that, perhaps, you dreamed might come in retirement.

This principle led my dad to travel widely, a habit he passed to me. I’m due to visit New Zealand soon, the place he unknowingly took his final big trip. It also led him to take up the sports that piqued his interest over the years, and achieve a genuine sense of contentment.

It took me a lesson in the brutality of life, and the illuminating chaos of grief, to truly understand the importance of living it.

Build a life that gives you choices


Man on a bicycle

Dad finishing an Ironman in Wales.

Callum Macauley-Murdoch



One of the pitfalls of the first lesson is that, if taken literally, it could lead to financial ruin.

If it were a certainty I’d never make it to retirement, I’d spend everything I had now. However, in a classic catch-22, living life like I’d never make it there would delay my retirement in perpetuity.

So instead, I keep an eye on the future and try to resist the urge to part with all my money in exchange for experiences now, so that I can have some freedom of choice when I retire.

For Dad, working hard and getting an education meant having choices, and that influenced many of my decisions in life, including the one to pursue a career in corporate law.

In the end, that didn’t align with the life I wanted, but the experience gave me the skills and financial backing to choose a different legal career for myself.

Because of my job and savings I’ve built up from it, I had choices when Dad died. I was able to pause, reassess my life, and temporarily step away from my busy career.

During that time, I thought about how he used to ask me about work and I’d sometimes tell him how I wished I could just retire now to travel the world and write. He’d remind me I had a long way to go.

But now, those passions I always thought I’d save for later, like planning a trip to New Zealand or getting my master’s in creative writing, have become present pursuits.

Soon enough, though, I’ll pick up some legal work again. Why? Because unless I write a bestselling novel by the end of the year, I still want choices in retirement, should I make it there.

Find the adventure in everything


Man with hat on a mountain leaning on a stone

My dad on a hike at Arthur’s Pass in New Zealand.

Callum Macauley-Murdoch



Dad took a keen interest in all aspects of life, and didn’t take much of it seriously — because of that, not in spite of it, he was still successful in much of what he did.

This lesson applies to every aspect of life, including retirement, which I’m viewing as simply another opportunity to experience a new pocket of life.

It even applies to terminal illness. When my dad was nearing the end of his life, he said something in an attempt to comfort me, which has ended up being the most transformative lesson of the three.

“Life is one series of adventures. This is just another one.”

That impacted me profoundly, and taught me to seek joy even in life’s darkest corners.

These days, I view my retirement, career, and life much differently


Author Callum Macauley-Murdoch and his dad

Dad and I at my wedding.

Callum Macauley-Murdoch



Losing Dad changed how I think about my life, career, and the very concept of retirement.

Most of all, it prompted me to stop deferring what I truly wanted to my final years while still setting myself up to have choices in the future.

Now that I’m taking incremental steps towards something I’d be happy to do well into my old age, the dream of retirement crosses my mind less often.




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My grandparents have been married for 54 years. Their relationship has taught me 3 lessons about love I plan to follow.

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My grandparents, whom I call Papa and GG, have been together since they were teenagers and married for 54 years.

As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized the secret to their lasting love hasn’t been perfection or grand gestures. Instead, it’s in finding joy and meaning in life’s small, everyday moments.

Their marriage has taught me how powerful a gentle, consistent love can be, and how beautifully it can shape everything around it.

Here are three of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from them that I hope to bring into my own relationships.

To maintain the “spark,” nurture curiosity


The author's grandparents posing for a photo together.

My grandparents still discover new things about each other, more than 50 years into their marriage.

Sierra Newell



Whether it’s by going on a spontaneous camping trip or navigating retirement together, my grandparents delight in discovering new things about each other.

Both avid readers, they often will sit beneath their orange tree and share quotes from their books. After long Sunday walks through the park, they also like to continue their running card game of gin rummy, laughter, and nostalgic stories tumbling between them.

Even after decades together, they also eat dinner with each other nearly every night, eager to unravel each other’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Find creative, consistent ways to express your love


A collection of

My Papa has clipped many “Love Is…” comics over the years.

Sierra Newell



My grandparents have found a variety of ways to show each other they care.

Every morning, for example, my Papa clips the “Love Is…” comic strip from the newspaper and places it on the kitchen counter for GG. He also writes poems, scribbled on notepads, painted on rocks, or sent as random texts throughout the day.

Meanwhile, GG often sends photos of heart-shaped stones or leaves she finds on her walks, and they both leave handwritten notes in each other’s suitcases when they travel.

Physical affection anchors it all, though. There’s rarely ever a moment when they aren’t holding hands or resting a head on a shoulder. They often seem to do it without even realizing, as though one another is as constant and grounding as gravity.

Remember to prioritize your own happiness, too


The author and her grandpa posing together.

I appreciate how each of my grandparents still pursues their own interests.

Sierra Newell



In my opinion, one of the reasons their relationship still feels so alive is because they never stopped making room for their individual interests.

GG started playing mahjong in retirement and now competes in tournaments, and Papa likes to play golf around the world.

Instead of resenting or fearing change, they celebrate each other’s passions, and watching each other reinvent themselves sustains their mutual excitement.

The common thread is joy

These days, it can be hard to sift through the barrage of conflicting advice on how to find and cultivate long-lasting love.

Still, witnessing my grandparents build a life out of tiny kindnesses — notes slipped into suitcases, breakfast cartoons, and shared laughter — has shown me the recipe is simpler than we think.

I see how extraordinary it is to share life’s simplest joys, to choose a partner who is real, steady, and kind. That level of devotion is an everyday miracle, and I try to weave those threads into my own relationships.

I send handwritten letters back and forth with my friends and family, and my boyfriend and I collect concert tickets, printed menus, and postcards from trips and dates we’ve experienced.

These items are arranged in a collage in my apartment, ink-stained and wrinkled, but tangible proof of the love my grandparents have taught me to sow.




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I spent a year interviewing and listening to over 50 tech leaders talk about AI. Here are the 4 biggest lessons.

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I’ve listened to and interviewed more than 50 tech leaders this year, from executives running trillion-dollar firms to young founders betting their futures on AI.

Across boardrooms, conferences, and podcast interviews, the people building our AI future kept returning to the same four themes:

1. Use AI, because someone who understands AI better might replace you

This is the line I heard most often. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said it multiple times this year.

“Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable. You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI,” he said at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in May.

Other tech leaders echoed his view, with some saying that younger workers may actually have an edge because they are already comfortable using AI tools.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Cleo Abram’s “Huge Conversations” YouTube show in August that while AI will inevitably wipe out some roles, college graduates are better equipped to adjust.

“If I were 22 right now and graduating college, I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history,” Altman said, adding that his bigger concern is how older workers will cope as AI reshapes work.

Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford professor known as the “godmother of AI,” said in an interview on “The Tim Ferriss Show” published earlier this month that resistance to AI is a dealbreaker. She said she won’t hire engineers who refuse to use AI tools at her startup, World Labs.

This shift is already showing up in everyday roles. An accountant and an HR professional told me they’re using AI tools, including vibe coding, to level up their skills and stay relevant.

2. Soft skills matter more in the AI era

Another consensus I’ve heard among tech leaders is that AI makes soft skills more valuable.

Salesforce’s chief futures officer, Peter Schwartz, told me in an interview in May that “the most important skill is empathy, working with other people,” not coding knowledge.

“Parents ask me what should my kids study, shall they be coders? I said, ‘Learn how to work with others,'” he said.


salesforce peter schwartz

I interviewed Salesforce’s chief futures officer, Peter Schwartz, in May.

Lee Chong Ming/Business Insider



LinkedIn’s head economist for Asia Pacific, Chua Pei Ying, also told me in July that she sees soft skills like communication and collaboration becoming increasingly important for experienced workers and fresh graduates.

As AI automates parts of our job and makes teams leaner, the human part of the job is starting to matter more.

3. AI is evolving fast — and superintelligence is coming

As the year went on, the stakes around AI’s future began to feel bigger and more real. Tech leaders increasingly spoke about chasing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, and eventually superintelligence.

AGI refers to AI systems that can match human intelligence across a range of tasks, while superintelligence describes systems that surpass human capabilities.

Altman said in September that society needs to be prepared for superintelligence, which could arrive by 2030. Mark Zuckerberg established Meta’s Superintelligence Labs in June and said that the company is pushing toward superintelligence.

These leaders don’t want to miss the AI moment. Zuckerberg underscored that urgency in September, saying he would rather risk “misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars” than be late to superintelligence.

Some tech leaders, such as Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, argued that the industry has already achieved AGI. Others are more cautious. Google DeepMind’s cofounder, Demis Hassabis, said in April that AGI could arrive “in the next five to 10 years.”

Even when tech leaders disagree on timelines, they tend to agree on one thing: AI progress is compounding.

I saw this acceleration from the outside as a user. New tools are rolling out at a dizzying pace — from ChatGPT adding shopping features and image generation to China’s “AGI cameras.”

Things that would have felt magical in January now feel normal.


LingGuang

I tried Ant Group’s vibe coding app LingGuang’s AGI camera last month.

Lee Chong Ming/LingGuang



4. The human needs to be at the center of AI

Many leaders also circled back to the need for human control amid AI acceleration.

Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman said superintelligence must support human agency, not override it. He said on an episode of the “Silicon Valley Girl Podcast” published in November that his team is “trying to build a humanist superintelligence,” warning that systems smarter than humans will be difficult to contain or align with human interests.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been blunt about the risks AI poses if it’s misused.

While advanced AI can lower the barrier to knowledge work, the risks scale alongside the rewards, Amodei said on an episode of the New York Times’ “Hard Fork” published in February.

“If you look at our responsible scaling policy, it’s nothing but AI, autonomy, and CBRN — chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear,” Amodei said.

“It is about hardcore misuse in AI autonomy that could be threats to the lives of millions of people,” he added.

Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “godfather of AI,” said in August that as AI systems surpass human intelligence, safeguarding humanity becomes the central challenge.

“We have to make it so that when they’re more powerful than us and smarter than us, they still care about us,” Hinton said at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas.




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Henry Chandonnet is pictured

I worked at Tesla and Waymo. Here are the leadership lessons I bring to my startup.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Spencer Penn, the 33-year-old founder of LightSource, who lives in San Francisco. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I moved to California 10 years ago, back when Tesla was a boutique car business. We were making 1,000 vehicles a week.

My friends and family were telling me it was a big career mistake to work at Tesla. They said it would never be someone’s main car, that it’s a tech toy, that it’s an iPad with wheels on it. But I was just excited to see what this Elon guy was up to.

My interactions with Elon were always very positive, but I’m not a fanboy. There were some things that were very notable about his leadership style.

Tesla is a very flat organization. When I was there, even relatively young and out of college, it was two levels between Elon and me. That’s very unusual to have such close proximity so early in your career.

Just because it’s a flat org structure, doesn’t mean it’s a horizontal power dynamic. Elon is the king. What he says goes. If you wanted to get something done, you really did have to go through Elon.

The drawbacks were that the guy didn’t have that much time. In 2017, he was running three different companies: Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink. He was just getting started with OpenAI. He had two and a half days a week to really focus on Tesla exclusively. You’d have to get things approved in that period of time.

But he was also very focused on the product. He would get involved in the way that things felt. If you wanted to change a texture on a paint, you’d want to get his buy-in.

Many CEOs go the opposite direction. They let themselves get so far removed from the product. Elon always felt the product was the thing, and the innovation would be what drives the company forward.

I like to embody that here at our company. I still do demos. If you take your hands off the wheel, things might veer in a direction you don’t like.

Elon has a knack for setting overly ambitious goals. There are benefits and drawbacks. Sometimes, you lose credibility. Certain products like the new Roadster were unveiled back when I was an employee, and they’ve yet to be delivered.

But there are certain things where you shoot for the moon and you do hit the stars. Nobody thought Starlink would be as successful as quickly as it has been.

If you apply the right amount of pressure, you can see where the leaks are. That kind of ambition is everything.

That’s the final thing Elon does: he’s really a risk taker. He’s bet the company multiple times; he always keeps putting the chips back on red. I think about that a lot. Sometimes it can be hard for professional management to take the risks they need to. Sometimes you can sleepwalk into a long-term, uncompetitive position.

There was some internal signaling. People knew that Elon was in the factory. They knew that he was going to stay there until the issues were fixed. Elon works about as hard as any human on earth possibly can.

There’s a hotel right across the street from the Fremont factory. Part of me always felt like, instead of setting up pillows in a conference room, I would like our CEO to be well-rested and go to the hotel five minutes away. But the signaling was very potent.

I try to embody that to some degree here, too. I like to come into the office five days a week. I want people to know that I’m coming in early and I’m staying late. I unload the dishwasher in the office. I’m assembling IKEA furniture.

How I found Waymo compared

Waymo was a very different organization. It’s a very vertical org structure. Google is a large organization with lots of levels, and that translated directly to Waymo, which is a much smaller business.

Even though it’s a very vertical org structure, it’s a horizontal power structure. It’s like it’s rotated 90 degrees from Tesla.

Some people compared the org to slime mold. It starts to spread and find all the crevices on its own. Individual contributors could construct their own ideas.

There are benefits and drawbacks. There is the possibility that there are duplicative teams doing the same things in different ways. But it also leads to a lot of creativity.

At Tesla, it was very clear that Elon and his lieutenants were driving a lot of the decisions. The decisions that the more junior people made would be incremental. At Google, I found that a lot of the best ideas come from the individual folks in the business, because they’re given the freedom to roam.

In a startup, you have limited resources. You have to be focused, but a lot of the best ideas come from experimentation.

We had an engineer who asked if he could move his start date by a month. He was like, “I want to spend a month before I get into work catching up on everything that’s happening in AI.” He came to the table, and he had so deeply immersed himself that he had a lot of new and fresh ideas. Many of those ideas have become product features.

I have to delegate innovation to folks on the team to find those opportunities. That’s something I learned from Google.




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