Connect with us

Business

I bombed algebra in high school. ChatGPT’s new Study Mode is my redemption arc

Published

4 months ago

on



Welcome to Eye on AI. AI reporter Sharon Goldman here for the Thursday newsletter! In this edition...

This week, I got a sneak peek at ChatGPT’s new Study Mode during an OpenAI press demo on Zoom, ahead of its Tuesday release. 

Toggling the tool button in the “Ask Anything” chat to “Study and Learn” transforms ChatGPT from a straightforward Q&A assistant into a personalized tutor. Instead of simply spitting out answers, it uses Socratic questioning, hints, and step-by-step guidance to encourage active learning. Tell it what you want to study, and it will assess your skill level and even remember your progress across chats.

As I watched the demo, my eyes widened and my breath quickened. Study Mode may have been designed with college students in mind—powered by system instructions crafted with input from teachers, scientists, and learning experts. But while it’s been several decades since my own academic experience, I instantly knew that I wanted to use Study Mode. And I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for: high school algebra. 

My math failure shaped my life

Along with the rest of the math curriculum in those years, I completely bombed in algebra—and I can’t overstate how much that failure shaped my life. I carried a deep sense of shame about how hard math was for me, even with tutors. It stood in stark contrast to how easily I excelled in subjects like English and social studies, and it felt like no one really understood how curious I actually was about math. There were so many questions that were never answered. What is algebra, anyway? Why do we learn it in the first place? Why does it come before geometry and trigonometry? What’s the point of all these rules about x and y?

It might seem ironic, given that I now write about AI and regularly interview researchers with PhDs in mathematics who casually reference linear algebra in conversation. But I’ve always wished I could get a do-over on high school math.

Yes, there are real concerns about how AI will affect student learning—from cheating and over-reliance to privacy and bias. New reporting this week from Rest of World found that when students in rural Colombia gained access to AI, students started failing exams.

But for me, ChatGPT’s new Study Mode is already becoming something deeply personal: a long-overdue redemption arc.

Study Mode at my own pace

I started where I never really could before, and Study Mode immediately had a refreshing response:

“Let’s treat this like the first day of Algebra 1—only better. This time, you get to ask questions whenever you want, and we move at your pace.” 

I was on board with that: What is algebra, I asked.

Algebra is the part of math where we stop just working with numbers and start working with relationships between numbers.

Instead of asking:
What’s 3 × 5?
We ask:
What number x would make this equation true?

It’s like math with mystery—something is hidden, and our job is to solve for it.

“Math with mystery”—ooh, I loved that. After giving me the lowdown on the “big ideas” in algebra–everything from solving equations to graphing lines and word problems, Study Mode offered a few options: 

Want to:
A) Ask questions about any of this?
B) Choose a puzzle type to start with?
C) Keep going with the intro and build slowly from here?
Your call!

I said I’d like to solve equations. Study Mode dove right in:

🔍 Solving Equations: What’s the Goal?

An equation is like a balance scale—whatever you do to one side, you have to do to the other.

Here’s your first equation:
3x + 4 = 19

👉 What do you think we should do first to start solving for x?
 (Just take a guess—we’ll figure it out together.)

The promise of AI-powered personalized learning

I sat back and smiled. Apparently, it’s never too late to solve for x—even for a journalist who always thought she was good with words but terrible with numbers. I spent a couple of hours progressing through one-step and two-step equations; equations with variables on both sides; equations with parentheses; and equations combining like terms. I asked lots of questions along the way and occasionally peppered my responses with “Wow!” and “I never knew that!”

Like every AI use case, there are tradeoffs. The risks of over-reliance on AI and diminished critical thinking are real. But I find myself leaning toward the view of my colleague Jeremy Kahn, who, in his recent book Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, highlights the promise of AI-powered personalized learning. He frames the idea of AI as a one-on-one tutor as one of its most powerful educational opportunities.

My late-in-life return to algebra may not have been OpenAI’s target use case. But who knows—maybe I’ll make it to calculus.

With that, here’s the rest of the AI news.

Sharon Goldman
sharon.goldman@fortune.com
@sharongoldman

AI IN THE NEWS

Microsoft signs on to EU’s AI Code of Practice, but Meta has declined. Microsoft announced Thursday that it has signed on to the European Union’s General-Purpose AI Code of Practice—becoming one of the first major tech companies to formally do so. The move signals Microsoft’s support for the EU’s AI governance framework, even as it calls for simplification of what it describes as a complex regulation. Other companies have also expressed willingness to align with the voluntary code, including OpenAI and Mistral, but notable holdouts remain: Meta has declined to join, and Google has yet to make its position public.

OpenAI launches Stargate Norway, its first AI data center initiative in Europe. OpenAI launched Stargate Norway as part of its broader Stargate program under the OpenAI for Countries initiative launched in May to partner with governments and help them build out their own AI infrastructure, particularly focusing on data centers. The facility—planned for Narvik and backed by Norwegian partners Nscale and Aker—will deliver up to 230MW of AI compute capacity, with plans to scale to 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by 2026. The project underscores OpenAI’s strategy to partner with governments and industry leaders around the world to build sovereign, sustainable AI infrastructure. It follows Stargate UAE, and is part of a growing global footprint that also includes agreements with the UK, Estonia, and early engagement with the EU’s AI Gigafactories initiative—each aimed at ensuring countries have the compute capacity and ecosystem support to harness AI for national priorities.

AI researchers are approaching the job market like NBA stars. The New York Times has a great story today about the AI talent wars, in which the race to recruit top young AI researchers has become as intense—and lucrative—as signing NBA superstars, with companies like Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft offering nine-figure compensation packages and engaging in highly publicized hiring battles. Many of these 20-something “AI free agents” are turning to informal agents and entourages to navigate the frenzy and negotiate top deals, unbound by salary caps like those in professional sports. The competition has even taken on the tone of a sports spectacle, with streaming outlets like TBPN covering notable industry job changes with the flair of a league’s trade deadline. 

FORTUNE ON AI

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on why AI agents won’t lead to mass unemployment—by Jeremy Kahn

Mark Zuckerberg is pouring billions of dollars into AI ‘superintelligence’—so why does his Instagram pitch feel so underwhelming?—by Sharon Goldman

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg laid out his AI vision that outperformed Q2 expectations and sent shares soaring—by Amanda Gerut

Why Booz Allen’s CTO used generative AI to make a deepfake video of himself—by John Kell

COMMENTARY: Silicon Valley’s billions of dollars on AI haven’t actually generated a return yet. Here’s why most companies should embrace ‘small AI’ instead—by Jason Corso

AI CALENDAR

Sept. 8-10: Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Park City, Utah. Apply to attend here.

Oct. 6-10: World AI Week, Amsterdam

Oct. 21-22: TedAI San Francisco. Apply to attend here.

Dec. 2-7: NeurIPS, San Diego

Dec. 8-9: Fortune Brainstorm AI San Francisco. Apply to attend here.

EYE ON AI NUMBERS

52%

That’s how many developers are not yet using AI agents, according to a new survey of software developers from Stack Overflow, the popular online question-and-answer platform for computer programmers and developers. The study found that AI agents are not yet mainstream: A majority of developers (52%) either don’t use agents or stick to simpler AI tools, and a significant portion (38%) have no plans to adopt them.



Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Business

Construction workers are earning up to 30% more in the data center boom

Published

1 minute ago

on

December 5, 2025

By



Big Tech’s AI arms race is fueling a massive investment surge in data centers with construction worker labor valued at a premium. 

Despite some concerns of an AI bubble, data center hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Meta continue to invest heavily into AI infrastructure. In effect, construction workers’ salaries are being inflated to satisfy a seemingly insatiable AI demand, experts tell Fortune.

In 2026 alone, upwards of $100 billion could be invested by tech companies into the data center buildout in the U.S., Raul Martynek, the CEO of DataBank, a company that contracts with tech giants to construct data centers, told Fortune.

In November, Bank of Americaestimated global hyperscale spending is rising 67% in 2025 and another 31% in 2026, totaling a massive $611 billion investment for the AI buildout in just two years.

Given the high demand, construction workers are experiencing a pay bump for data center projects.

Construction projects generally operate on tight margins, with clients being very cost-conscious, Fraser Patterson, CEO of Skillit, an AI-powered hiring platform for construction workers, told Fortune.

But some of the top 50 contractors by size in the country have seen their revenue double in a 12-month period based on data center construction, which is allowing them to pay their workers more, according to Patterson.

“Because of the huge demand and the nature of this construction work, which is fueling the arms race of AI… the budgets are not as tight,” he said. “I would say they’re a little more frothy.”

On Skillit, the average salary for construction projects that aren’t building data centers is $62,000, or $29.80 an hour, Patterson said. The workers that use the platform comprise 40 different trades and have a wide range of experience from heavy equipment operators to electricians, with eight years as the average years of experience.

But when it comes to data centers, the same workers make an average salary of $81,800 or $39.33 per hour, Patterson said, increasing salaries by just under 32% on average.

Some construction workers are even hitting the six-figure mark after their salaries rose for data center projects, according to The Wall Street Journal. And the data center boom doesn’t show any signs it’s slowing down anytime soon.

Tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft operate 522 data centers and are developing 411 more, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing data from Synergy Research Group. 

Patterson said construction workers are being paid more to work on building data centers in part due to condensed project timelines, which require complex coordination or machinery and skilled labor.

Projects that would usually take a couple of years to finish are being completed—in some instances—as quickly as six months, he said.

It is unclear how long the data center boom might last, but Patterson said it has in part convinced a growing number of Gen Z workers and recent college grads to choose construction trades as their career path.

“AI is creating a lot of job anxiety around knowledge workers,” Patterson said. “Construction work is, by definition, very hard to automate.”

“I think you’re starting to see a change in the labor market,” he added.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Netflix cofounder started his career selling vacuums door-to-door before college—now, his $440 billion streaming giant is buying Warner Bros. and HBO

Published

32 minutes ago

on

December 5, 2025

By



Reed Hastings may soon pull off one of the biggest deals in entertainment history. On Thursday, Netflix announced plans to acquire Warner Bros.—home to franchises like Dune, Harry Potter, and DC Universe, along with streamer HBO Max—in a total enterprise value deal of $83 billion. The move is set to cement Netflix as a media juggernaut that now rivals the legacy Hollywood giants it once disrupted.

It’s a remarkable trajectory for Netflix’s cofounder, Hastings—a self-made billionaire who found a love for business starting as a teenage door-to-door salesperson.

“I took a year off between high school and college and sold Rainbow vacuum cleaners door to door,” Hastings recalled to The New York Timesin 2006. “I started it as a summer job and found I liked it. As a sales pitch, I cleaned the carpet with the vacuum the customer had and then cleaned it with the Rainbow.”

That scrappy sales job was the first exposure to how to properly read customers—an instinct that would later shape Netflix’s user-obsessed culture. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1983, Hastings considered joining the Marine Corps but ultimately joined the Peace Corps, teaching math in Eswatini for two years. When he returned to the U.S., he obtained a master’s in computer science from Stanford and began his career in tech.

The idea for Netflix reportedly came a few years later in the late 1990s. After misplacing a VHS copy of Apollo 13 and getting hit with a $40 late fee at Blockbuster, Hastings began exploring a mail-order rental service. While it’s an origin story that has since been debated, it marked the start of a company that would reshape global entertainment.

Hastings stepped back as CEO in 2023 and now serves as Netflix’s chairman of the board. He has amassed a net worth of about $5.6 billion. He’d be even richer if he didn’t keep offloading his shares in the company and making record-breaking charitable donations.

Netflix’s secret for success: finding the right people

Hastings has long said that one of the biggest drivers of Netflix’s success is its focus on hiring and keeping exceptional talent.

“If you’re going to win the championship, you got to have incredible talent in every position. And that’s how we think about it,” he told CNBC in 2020. “We encourage people to focus on who of your employees would you fight hard to keep if they were going to another company? And those are the ones we want to hold onto.”

To secure top performers, Hastings said he was more than willing to pay for above-market rates. 

“With a fixed amount of money for salaries and a project I needed to complete, I had a choice: Hire 10 to 25 average engineers, or hire one ‘rock-star’ and pay significantly more than what I’d pay the others, if necessary,” Hastings wrote. “Over the years, I’ve come to see that the best programmer doesn’t add 10 times the value. He or she adds more like a 100 times.”

That mindset also guided Netflix’s leadership transition. When Hastings stepped back from the C-suite, the company didn’t pick a single successor—it picked two. Greg Peters joined Ted Sarandos as co-CEO in 2023.

“It’s a high-performance technique,” Hastings said, speaking about the co-CEO model. “It’s not for most situations and most companies. But if you’ve got two people that work really well together and complement and extend and trust each other, then it’s worth doing.”

Netflix’s stock has soared more than 80,000% since its IPO in 2002, adjusting for stock splits.

Netflix brought unlimited PTO into the mainstream

Netflix’s flexible workplace culture has also played a key role in its success, with Hastings often known for prioritizing time off to recharge. 

“I take a lot of vacation, and I’m hoping that certainly sets an example,” the former CEO said in 2015. “It is helpful. You often do your best thinking when you’re off hiking in some mountain or something. You get a different perspective on things.”

The company was one of the first to introduce unlimited PTO, a policy that many firms have since adopted. About 57% of retail investors have said it could improve overall company performance, according to a survey by Bloomberg. Critics have argued that such policies can backfire when employees feel guilty taking time off, but Hastings has maintained that freedom is core to Netflix’s identity. 

“We are fundamentally dedicated to employee freedom because that makes us more flexible, and we’ve had to adapt so much back from DVD by mail to leading streaming today,” Hastings said. “If you give employees freedom you’ve got a better chance at that success.”

Netflix’s other cofounder, Marc Randolph, embraced a similar philosophy of valuing work-life balance.

“For over thirty years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays. Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 p.m. and spent the evening with my best friend. We would go to a movie, have dinner, or just go window-shopping downtown together,” Randolph wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“Those Tuesday nights kept me sane. And they put the rest of my work in perspective.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

‘This species is recovering’: Jaguar spotted in Arizona, far from Central and South American core

Published

1 hour ago

on

December 5, 2025

By



The spots gave it away. Just like a human fingerprint, the rosette pattern on each jaguar is unique so researchers knew they had a new animal on their hands after reviewing images captured by a remote camera in southern Arizona.

The University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center says it’s the fifth big cat over the last 15 years to be spotted in the area after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The animal was captured by the camera as it visited a watering hole in November, its distinctive spots setting it apart from previous sightings.

“We’re very excited. It signifies this edge population of jaguars continues to come here because they’re finding what they need,” Susan Malusa, director of the center’s jaguar and ocelot project, said during an interview Thursday.

The team is now working to collect scat samples to conduct genetic analysis and determine the sex and other details about the new jaguar, including what it likes to eat. The menu can include everything from skunks and javelina to small deer.

As an indicator species, Malusa said the continued presence of big cats in the region suggests a healthy landscape but that climate change and border barriers can threaten migratory corridors. She explained that warming temperatures and significant drought increase the urgency to ensure connectivity for jaguars with their historic range in Arizona.

More than 99% of the jaguar’s range is found in Central and South America, and the few male jaguars that have been spotted in the U.S. are believed to have dispersed from core populations in Mexico, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials have said that jaguar breeding in the U.S. has not been documented in more than 100 years.

Federal biologists have listed primary threats to the endangered species as habitat loss and fragmentation along with the animals being targeted for trophies and illegal trade.

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule in 2024, revising the habitat set aside for jaguars in response to a legal challenge. The area was reduced to about 1,000 square miles (2,590 square kilometers) in Arizona’s Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.

Recent detection data supports findings that a jaguar appears every few years, Malusa said, with movement often tied to the availability of water. When food and water are plentiful, there’s less movement.

In the case of Jaguar #5, she said it was remarkable that the cat kept returning to the area over a 10-day period. Otherwise, she described the animals as quite elusive.

“That’s the message — that this species is recovering,” Malusa said. “We want people to know that and that we still do have a chance to get it right and keep these corridors open.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Miami Select.