• "You Can See Everything" is a new documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
• Holmes invited a camera crew to document her life in the weeks leading up to her 2023 imprisonment.
• The movie is led by co-director Nathan Fielder, who lived with Holmes and her family during filming.

The first official trailer for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's genre-bending Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" has arrived, and it promises an intimate look at one of Silicon Valley's most notorious felons.

The documentary follows Holmes, the once-celebrated founder of Theranos, a now-defunct blood-testing startup, who was accused of building the company on false promises and nonexistent technology. While Holmes has admitted that she made mistakes, she denied any criminal wrongdoing. Following a lengthy trial, Holmes was found guilty in 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy.

As we see in the documentary's trailer, which adopts the tone of a mind-bending mystery-thriller, Holmes has continued to maintain her innocence. But Fielder and Oppenheim are clearly skeptical.

Fielder serves as a kind of host, interviewer, and narrator as he moves in with Holmes and her family in the weeks before she reported to prison to serve an 11-year-sentence in May 2023.

In the trailer, Fielder bluntly asks Holmes how she ended up as a convicted felon if she did nothing wrong. She replies, "I wish I knew, you know? I don't know. I don't feel like I understand that."

Later, she tells Fielder, "I don't have anything to hide."

Here's everything to know about "You Can See Everything."

The documentary was filmed in secret

Holmes reported to federal prison on May 30, 2023, to begin serving her 11-year sentence. (Her prison time has since been shortened by roughly two years.)

"You Can See Everything" was kept under wraps for over three years until it had its surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in early September. A short teaser arrived online that same day.

Critics who attended the screening have described "You Can See Everything" as disarming, surreal, and fascinating. Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, are depicted as "willing, if wildly offbeat subjects," according to Deadline's Pete Hammond.

Kyle Buchanan, the former awards columnist at The New York Times, said that Evans comes across as a "wild narcissist" and the "unlikely star of this film."

The 'You Can See Everything' trailer offers more insight into Holmes and Evans' dynamic

Holmes and Evans welcomed a baby boy named William in 2021 while Holmes was awaiting trial for her charges. The birth of their second child was revealed in a 2023 court filing, as Holmes' legal team sought to delay her incarceration.

In one scene, Evans tells Fielder that he fell in love with Holmes almost immediately, during their first conversation.

Fielder pushes back, asking when Evans learned the truth about Theranos and whether he's concerned about Holmes' track record.

"Weren't you worried that she was, sort of, scamming you?" Fielder asks.

"100%, but what did she have to gain from me?" Evans replies.

"Well, isn't your family rich?" Fielder counters.

Evans is the heir to Evans Hotels, a hospitality company founded by his grandparents that runs three luxury hotels in San Diego. He currently works as a biotech executive at the blood testing startup Haemanthus, according to his LinkedIn.

"I think that there's, like, a lot of different levels of wealth," Evans tells Fielder in the trailer. In another clip, Evans says that he doesn't believe Holmes has ever lied to him.

Holmes and her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant, Sunny Balwani, were ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their Theranos fraud in 2023 in addition to their prison sentences.

"You Can See Everything" arrives in theaters on October 16.

• Jay Eskenazi planned the itinerary for his trip to Europe with Claude and the Grok Bot.
• Once he landed, Eskenazi said he realized Meta's Muse was the most helpful for travel planning.
• "These are the things that a very seasoned travel agent from 30 years ago would've done for you," he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jay Eskenazi. He lives in Los Angeles and worked in user experience for 19 years. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I'm in Paris, and I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow. The trip is three weeks.

I came here for the first time last year, and it was my first long trip by myself. Last year, planning it was very stressful, and I did a ton of research.

This year was the same thing, where I had these very long notes. At this point, everyone knows that you can go to any AI tool and say: "Hey, I'm going to City X, give me an itinerary for seven days."

I had this epiphany a few weeks ago, where I realized I had all these note files, bulleted stuff, and coffee shops to go to.

If someone gave you a list of five coffee shops and they were in five different cities, as someone who's not familiar with the terrain, you wouldn't necessarily know how to structure that in the course of the day. Which coffee shop goes with which museum?

So, instead of doing an itinerary, I was like: "Here's my notes. Put them together in an organized way for me. Structure them in a logical sequence."

I hadn't used Claude in a while, so I tried that a little. I use Grok a lot, and I just upgraded because I wanted to play with the Grok Bot. So, I made this really fancy itinerary. I kept iterating it. It did a really good job. Then I got here and was like, "It's not as good."

I'm naturally curious, so I tried out Muse. I think I must've gotten Muse two days before I left.

I was looking at this itinerary a couple of days ago and was like, "I don't like what it says tomorrow." So I opened Muse and asked for an afternoon itinerary. It spat out all of this stuff. I was like: "Oh! There's some new stuff in here."

These are really common scenarios. Maybe there are five museums you want to go to. It takes a lot of work: this museum's closed on Tuesday, this one's closed on Monday, and this one's free next Friday. The AI tools can structure that in a way that you would do if you had a thousand hours.

It's a small thing, but when you apply that to a thousand decision points, it does a really nice job of putting those things together.

If you're like: "Hey, I want to go get coffee, then I need something to do before I get lunch, then I want to go to the museum this afternoon." Most of the other AI tools will just give you the list. Then you're like, how do I get from place to place to place?

Muse would actually put it on a map with dots. I clicked a button, and it put it in Google Maps. I had this experience this weekend. None of the other tools did that.

I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow, and I'll get there in the evening. One of the reasons I picked it was because there's an annual festival. I timed it so I can be there for the core of the activities. But the main activities weren't published, even last week, because they're on some website in Spanish that didn't have the fully fleshed-out program.

In the hourlong Uber to Versailles, I was like, "What's the structure for Thursday?" It's able to pull that. It's got: this opens in the morning, this is free, this is mid-day, this is in the evening.

I don't know if ChatGPT would have it. Maybe it would, but it doesn't seem to output it in the same way. Also, I gave it access to my email, so it knows I'm leaving tomorrow. It has an idea tab that said, "I can map the opening night before you get there." It's proactive.

The other thing: I was indecisive about my plans over the last couple of days. What Muse was doing was checking the times to see what ticket availability looked like. It's doing this proactive thing for you, where it tracks it, because options are shrinking.

As a non-developer, I set up OpenClaw in February. That took a lot of time. I had a developer friend help me for hours. Then I had all these AWS bills I didn't understand. I'm asking it to give me a recipe; I don't know how many tokens that's going to cost. I ended up having to shut it down.

Muse is like OpenClaw for normies. If you're not a tech person, these things are useful because they do what an assistant would. Anyone could set this up.

It comes back to when I worked at Expedia. These are the things that a very seasoned travel agent from 30 years ago would've done for you. That would be a very expensive vacation for that level of service.

I also just got access to Instinct yesterday, because I was on the waitlist. I'm very curious, but you can't see exactly what it's doing. It had good ideas and gave me an itinerary, but it had to put them in a Google Doc. I was also confused because I don't remember what I told it, and it made personalized recommendations. I was like: "Wait, how did it know this?"

Muse just seems easier. It's very fast, and it feels more responsive.

• Finance and tech have minted the most billionaires in the US.
• However, less obvious industries have also led to some of the US's biggest fortunes.
• The common denominator of massive wealth is being a founder (or, of course, an heir).

Finance and technology usually spring to mind when thinking of the world's most lucrative industries.

And that's for good reason. They have been the source of wealth for nearly half of America's 400 richest people, as ranked and categorized by Forbes.

However, billion-dollar fortunes have been made in other sectors, too, ranging from trucking to pest control.

Business Insider has compiled data from the 2026 Forbes 400 list, which is an estimated snapshot of the 400 richest people in America as of September 4.

Forbes estimated each member's net worth using a variety of sources, including interviews, asset valuations, and deductions for debt, charitable contributions, and fund donations.

The following ranking is based on the 16 industries into which Forbes categorized each individual. Business Insider calculated how many individuals went into each category to find which industries have minted the most of America's richest people. It also compiled the richest person within each industry.

Some of the members featured an "& family" tag, which means wealth held by a founder or heir's immediate family. The totals, therefore, count Forbes entries, not necessarily individual people.

Here are the industries that featured the most on the Forbes 400 list, from most to least prevalent.

1. Finance & investments — 108 members

Richest: Warren Buffett — $144 billion

The finance and investments industry has been the biggest maker of fortunes. Most of the wealthiest individuals in this category are founders of hedge funds, mortgage lenders, VC, and investment firms.

Some are heirs to founders, such as the grandchildren of Fidelity founder Edward Johnson II.

2. Technology — 91 members

Richest: Elon Musk — $908 billion

Technology has been a massive maker of fortunes; the nine richest in this category are wealthier than Warren Buffett.

Many are founders of big-name tech companies, as well as software and computer hardware firms. The AI boom has brought several newcomers to the list, including OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman.

3. Food & beverage — 35 members

Richest: (Tie) Jacqueline and John Mars — $50.3 billion

From Chick-fil-A to Tito's Vodka, there are plenty of household-name brands in this category.

Others made their fortunes in the non-consumer parts of the food and beverage industry. These include J. Christopher Reyes and Jude Reyes, who cochair the food and beverage distribution firm Reyes Holdings, or Harry Stine, who made his fortune licensing soybean and corn genetics.

4. Fashion & retail — 26 members

Richest: Rob Walton & family — $132 billion

Like food and beverage, household names dominate the fashion & retail category. Walmart alone is listed as the source of wealth of eight people in this industry.

Other sources of retail wealth are less obvious. Jimmy and Bill Haslam's fortunes largely derive from the truck stop chain Pilot Flying J, which their father founded.

5. Energy — 23 members

Richest: Lyndal Stephens Greth & family — $30 billion

Oil tycoons and their families make up the bulk of this list. And it's not just those with stakes or roles in companies involved in production, but also pipelines and refineries.

6. Real estate — 18 members

Richest: Stephen Ross — $21.5 billion

America's wealthiest real-estate magnates built their fortunes through all kinds of properties. Jeff Greene, for example, made billions investing in credit default swaps tied to subprime mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis.

With an estimated net worth of $7 billion and much of his wealth tied to real estate, President Donald Trump is also included in this category.

7. Media & entertainment — 17 members

Richest: Rupert Murdoch & family — $25 billion

Legacy media, such as cable and satellite television, continue to dominate this category. However, some billionaires built their fortunes through other kinds of media, including Gabe Newell, who cofounded video game developer Valve.

Movies have minted others, such as award-winning director Steven Spielberg and "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.

8. Sports — 16 members

Richest: Stanley Kroenke — $27.6 billion

For many people in the sports category, team ownership is more of a second act, rather than the original source of their wealth.

For example, before they bought teams, Arthur Blank cofounded Home Depot, Stephen Bisciotti made his fortune in talent management, and Arturo Moreno made his money from billboard advertising.

There are some exceptions, such as Michael Jordan, whose basketball career was the origin of his wealth.

9. Healthcare — 15 members

Richest: Thomas Frist, Jr. & family — $33.6 billion

Aside from the category's richest entry, Thomas Frist Jr. and family, whose wealth comes from hospitals, most of the others made or inherited their fortunes in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and medical equipment.

One, Patrick Soon-Shiong, developed the chemotherapy drug Abraxane.

10. Manufacturing — 15 members

Richest: Steven Rales — $8.7 billion

Manufacturing spans a variety of industries, from packaging materials to defense.

Some big fortunes come from everyday products you might not expect. Cleaning products alone account for four people on the list, all of whom are heirs to SC Johnson, whose products include Windex and Glade.

11. Service — 11 members

Richest: Micky Arison & family — $11.5 billion

Aircraft leasing, cruises, and self-storage are just some examples of services that have turned people into billionaires.

Lucrative service companies aren't necessarily the most glamorous. Gary Rollins, for example, is executive chairman emeritus of pest control firm Rollins, which was founded by his father.

12. Automotive — 8 members

Richest: Ernest Garcia, II — $24.3 billion

In the US, automotive fortunes are less about manufacturing cars and more about selling, servicing, and moving them.

Forbes 400 member Dan Friedkin, for example, owns Gulf States Toyota, while Shahid Khan owns auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate.

13. Diversified — 8 members

Richest: Julia Koch & family — $84.6 billion

Diversified means fortunes that don't neatly come from one industry. Members of the Koch family, which has stakes in the conglomerate Koch, dominate this segment.

14. Logistics — 4 members

Richest: Brad Jacobs — $13.3 billion

The businesses that move products through the supply chain are among the most essential to day-to-day life, and can be worth billions.

For example, Johnelle Hunt, who cofounded transportation and logistics firm J.B. Hunt Transport Services, is worth $6.6 billion.

15. Construction & engineering — 3 members

Richest: Diane Hendricks — $23.6 billion

All three members of the Forbes 400 in the construction and engineering industry are self-made billionaires.

Diane Hendricks cofounded building-supply distributor ABC Supply with her late husband, Ken Hendricks. Mike Hollingshead founded concrete maker Smyrna Ready Mix, while Robert Clark founded construction firm Clayco.

16. Gambling & casinos — 2 members

Richest: Miriam Adelson & family — $33.5 billion

With just two members categorized in the Forbes 400, gambling and casinos are the smallest category.

Miriam Adelson's late husband, Sheldon Adelson, was the founder of casino company Las Vegas Sands, while Jon Yarbrough founded casino producer Video Gaming Technologies.

Phil Ruffin, who Forbes categorized as diversified, made his wealth from a mix of casinos and real estate.

• OpenAI boosts ChatGPT's voice mode on mobile as the competition over personal agents heats up.
• The new release connects OpenAI's voice model to its agentic text models, which can handle tasks.
• OpenAI has yet to release a direct competitor to viral AI assistants like Instinct and Meta's Muse.

OpenAI is pushing further into the hotly contested market for personal agents — this time with voice.

The company is adding its most advanced voice system to ChatGPT's website and mobile app on Wednesday. OpenAI's release allows users to speak to delegate single and recurring tasks that require multiple steps, a browser, and disparate apps. The company has been rolling out launches ahead of its big OpenAI DevDay event next week.

OpenAI's product lead for ChatGPT voice, Atty Eleti, gave a demo to Business Insider. Only speaking with the app, he had the tool analyze his DoorDash spending, pay $5 to book a pickleball court, and reorganize his calendar.

"In the future, we really imagine people using voice as the primary modality to interact with AI," Eleti said, "and that's kind of our North Star that we're working towards."

Personal AI assistants like Instinct and Meta's Muse are having a moment in Silicon Valley as the industry peddles apps tailored to handle cumbersome internet tasks. OpenAI has many of these capabilities in ChatGPT, though it hasn't yet released a narrower offshoot. This voice tool is a play for the AI-assistant buzz.

In the short term, the improvements make it easier for people to delegate work to ChatGPT by speaking while they're on the go. In the long run, they'll serve OpenAI's hardware ambitions: Bloomberg has reported that the company is building a smart speaker for release in 2027.

Wednesday's release connects OpenAI's voice model, GPT-Live, to AI models that can perform tasks on computers or in browsers, a focus the company maintained before the personal AI agent craze. GPT-Live, which can listen and respond simultaneously, was already turned on for ChatGPT's basic conversational mode and connected to agentic models on the desktop app.

Voice mode, as Eleti sees it, has three main benefits. Speaking is quick and natural — "you can blurt out your thoughts," he said. You can do it with your hands off a device. And it can help you with vocal tasks, like learning a language or practicing a speech. Eleti and his colleagues use it while commuting and on walks, he said.

Eleti said more than 150 million people already use ChatGPT's dictation and voice mode tools. Still, the team faces an uphill battle. Though smart speakers have shown some staying power, offices are still organized around desktop computers.

Plus, though it's quicker to speak than type, it's also quicker to read than to listen. Eleti said his team considered this dynamic when deciding how ChatGPT would respond to audio prompts.

"We don't think of this as just pure voice in and voice out," Eteli said. "It's about voice in and then the right output back. Sometimes it's text, sometimes it's voice, sometimes it's a mix."

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• A growing share of Americans living in rural areas aren't happy with data centers.
• Most data centers are built in rural areas.
• Data centers are facing a public reckoning amid bipartisan pushback.

Americans living in rural areas are increasingly souring on data centers.

In a new poll by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed people in August, half of rural Americans said data centers "are mostly bad for the environment" — a figure substantially higher than in January, when it sat at 32%.

46% of those respondents also said that data centers would drive up home energy costs, up from 32% in January. 45% said they negatively impact the quality of life for those living nearby, while 28% said so in January.

While displeasure with data centers increased among Americans across the board, according to Pew, higher levels of antagonism among rural voters are striking because most data centers are built in rural areas.

The data center buildout, which proponents say is integral for the US to keep pace with China in the AI race, has been suffering a PR crisis as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers moves to impose limits on data center construction.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, who was formerly bullish about building data centers in his state, recently backed away from that optimism. His administration has halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.

All across the country, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers, which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres. Many are concerned about how the sprawling facilities will affect the environment, utility prices, water resources, and noise levels. Some just don't like AI.

For AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and others, the issue is existential. Without AI data centers, they can't power the products they sell. Sam Altman has recently suggested that new data centers could be built far from where people lived, such as the desert.

Proponents of data centers have said the buildout brings jobs to rural areas. Venture capitalist Gavin Baker recently said that data centers are "probably the best thing that has ever happened to working-class Americans."

Tech bros haven't been able to agree on exactly why Americans aren't taking to the data center buildout. Some have postulated that a Chinese-orchestrated psy-op is behind the distrust, while others said tech leaders haven't sold the product well.

President Donald Trump, for his part, called the data center buildout "the golden goose," and warned against falling behind China.

"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump said in August in a Truth Social post.

In the Pew poll, very few Americans — about 4% — said data centers are "good" for the environment, energy costs, and quality of life.

"Americans have grown more negative toward the possible environmental and economic effects of data centers since the beginning of the year," Pew said in a release. "And a majority say they'd be uncomfortable if a new data center started operating in their area."

• Sumitomo CEO Shingo Ueno believes 'kosoryoku' is a key skill in business.
• The term translates as 'the ability to envision futures that do not yet exist'.
• Ueno says AI can be a helpful research tool, but cannot yet conceptualize the future well.

A little-known Japanese term about imagining the future helps explain both the role — and the limits — of AI in the workplace, according to the CEO of one of the country's largest conglomerates.

Speaking to Business Insider in early September, Shingo Ueno, the head of Sumitomo Corporation, a Japanese multi-industry powerhouse with a market capitalization of around $55 billion, said that AI is a powerful research tool but lacks a crucial human capability: kosoryoku.

Pronounced koh-soh-ryoh-koo, the Japanese term essentially means the power to conceptualize or formulate a vision for the future that has not yet been imagined, something Ueno says AI does not currently have.

"Generative AI is helping me a lot to improve my efficiency. I'm fully utilizing it," Ueno said.

One of its biggest advantages is its ability to retrieve information quickly. "If I want to find information about something the company did before, I might have previously spent a day searching for that experience. Now, the answer comes immediately," he said.

That speed helps Ueno, who has spent over 40 years working for Sumitomo Corporation, follow his preferred management style: resolving issues quickly instead of allowing them to linger.

"My method is to make decisions on the spot," he said. "I try to avoid the back-and-forth — having the same issue come back the next day."

Still, Ueno has found that AI cannot make every decision for him. "I once tried to make a decision using AI, and I just got rubbish answers," he said. "It wasn't usable at all."

The problem, he said, is that AI depends on information from the past. It can identify patterns and suggest possible directions, but it is less capable when it comes to envisioning a future that does not yet exist.

"AI analyzes past data to show us a direction. But it is still based on the past," Ueno said. "It can't create the future. It can't really show the vision."

Developing kosoryoku does not require employees to come up with revolutionary ideas from scratch, he said.

"We don't need to be inventors. We don't need to come up with something completely new," Ueno said. "We can start with something that already exists, improve it, and make it our own."

Separately, Ueno said taking time away from work is important because it allows him to rest and return with new ideas.

"At the weekend, I basically spend my time without thinking about work," he said. "That is extremely important, just resting my head. Then, when I go back to work, I can come up with new ideas."

AI may help executives understand the past in seconds. Ueno's message is that humans must still decide what the future should look like.

• Anthropic posted a sales job directly targeting one of its biggest customers, Meta.
• The AI lab took down the job posting after Business Insider asked about it.
• Meta and Anthropic have a complicated relationship, as both pushing to develop frontier AI.

Anthropic posted — and then deleted — a job listing for a salesperson tasked with selling to Meta, its AI rival and one of its largest customers.

The listing, titled "Mega Account Executive, Meta," appeared on Anthropic's job board at a delicate moment for the companies' relationship.

Meta still spends hundreds of millions of dollars a month as Anthropic's customer, according to a recent New York Times report. But it's also trying to reduce its reliance on Anthropic's AI tools as Anthropic is shoring up its finances ahead of a massive initial public offering.

The post suggests Anthropic is betting Meta will remain a major customer even as Meta builds more capable AI models of its own.

After Business Insider asked Anthropic about the listing on Wednesday, the company pulled it down. Anthropic and Meta declined to comment.

Anthropic's job posting offered an annual salary of $380,000 to $450,000, and didn't mention Meta outside the title. It said the salesperson would "win new business and drive revenue within a book of strategic digital native accounts."

The listing stands out for its specificity. Other Anthropic account executive openings target broad regions or sectors, including startups in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, or the public sector in Southeast Asia.

Anthropic's AI coding tool, Claude Code, became popular across Silicon Valley, including at Meta, this year. One internal projection said Meta could spend $10 billion annually on Anthropic, the Times reported. Meta's head of AI product, Nat Friedman, told employees that if Meta decreased its reliance on Anthropic's tools, it could hit Anthropic's revenue as it approaches its IPO, the report said.

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• Silicon Valley is having a moment in Hollywood this fall.
• Elizabeth Holmes and Elon Musk are getting the documentary treatment, with two very different tones.
• Meta and OpenAI are the subjects of two movies that could be major players this awards season.

This fall, Hollywood is taking on another California industry: Silicon Valley.

A fresh crop of movies and documentaries about some of the biggest figures in tech is slated to hit screens starting in October, with many of them already being teed up as serious contenders for Oscar season.

Get ready for movies that delve into the dark sides of Facebook and OpenAI, a hard-hitting exposé on Elon Musk, and a genre-bending documentary in which Nathan Fielder faces off with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

But which tech-founder movie is right for you? Let's help you decide.

"The Social Reckoning" (October 9)

What it's about: Sixteen years after the release of "The Social Network," David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's classic gets a spiritual sequel. This time, Sorkin, who wrote "The Social Network," takes the directing reins and Jeremy Strong steps in as Mark Zuckerberg to tell the story of a Facebook engineer who decides to blow the whistle and reveal some of the company's darkest secrets. Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison also star.

Watch this if: You want to see Strong go full Method as Zuckerberg.

"Musk" (October 16)

What it's about: Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney leaves no stone unturned in his nearly four-hour film chronicling Elon Musk's life and career. The doc tracks the moves he made to become the richest person in the world, along with his troubled personal life and his time in Trump's White House.

Watch this if: You want to see the doc Musk calls a "hit piece" and judge for yourself.

"You Can See Everything" (October 16)

What it's about: Before Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison for defrauding investors in 2023, she invited a film crew to her California home. But not just any film crew — one led by comedian Nathan Fielder.

Watch this if: You're itching to hear what Holmes thinks when Fielder shows her Amanda Seyfried's portrayal of her in "The Dropout."

"Artificial" (December 25)

What it's about: Luca Guadagnino's latest movie stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman. The movie focuses on his dramatic firing and rehiring as its CEO in 2023.

Watch this if: You want to get a peek inside Sam Altman's doomsday bunker.

BONUS: "The Altruists" (November 19)

What it's about: While not a movie, this upcoming Netflix series is set to carry the tech-founder-story torch in November, when all eight episodes of "The Altruists" arrive on the streamer. The series delves into the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The cast includes Anthony Boyle as FTX cofounder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as his girlfriend, Caroline Ellison.

Watch this if: You want to see Julia Garner play another infamous woman.

• The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models have new Audio Intelligence features that feel a little weird for privacy reasons.
• "Live Rewind" transcribes the last 15 seconds of what someone said. Apple says no audio is recorded or stored.
• "Siri Recap" listens to your day and recaps your meetings and conversations. Apple Watch users, get ready for some odd looks!

So you got an Apple Watch to track your steps and heart rate. Now all your friends are afraid you're taking notes on their conversations.

The latest Series 12 Apple Watch model, announced at the company's big September event, includes new AI listening features. Apple is calling them "Audio Intelligence." They're convenient and cool, but also a little … weird. They also strike me as very un-Appley.

The two features that caught my eye are called Siri Recap and Live Rewind.

Siri Recap can be set to always listen, or just for certain hours of the day (or not at all). The AI recaps are available upon request in Siri, and will be a recap of what the mic on your Apple Watch heard — not the full audio clip or transcript.

The examples Apple gives for what you could use this for include remembering high-level moments from a team meeting or a parent-teacher conference.

Live Rewind gives you a transcription of what was just said in the last 15 seconds. You can then send the transcription to Siri to save for later.

In the example they give, a server speeds through the daily menu specials — relatable! That's always a challenge to remember. A quick double-tap to the watch's crown, and you can see the list of menu items she just rattled off.

The other examples they give for using this are remembering book recommendations from a friend or a great idea your colleague just had. You can send the transcript to Siri to look at later when you want to remember that book or great idea.

Convenient!

A world where our watches are listening feels weird

But in both cases, I'm not sure the convenience fully offsets how strange I would feel knowing I'm walking around with an always-on listening device.

Technically, it's ambiently on, and there are some general privacy functions. Apple emphasizes that audio is not recorded or stored, and raw audio isn't accessible to you or even Apple. It doesn't label individual speakers' voices to identify them. The recap summaries are stored in Siri with end-to-end encryption.

But even so, something here feels … off. It means if I'm talking to you and you're wearing an Apple Watch, you might be getting a recap of our conversation sent to Siri to look through later. That feels weird!

Apple is far from the first to test our appetites for AI listening features. AI note-taking apps and devices like Plaud or Granola have become popular in the workplace to help you remember what was said in a meeting. Great! That limited use case for work-related audio seems useful. Granola even has an Apple Watch app — it turns the screen bright green, which is a decent indication for others in the room that someone is using it. (Live Rewind makes a chiming noise along with a "full-display animation and microphone indicator" to alert other people that you just turned it on, but Siri Recap doesn't.)

Apple Watches are everywhere

People wear their Apple Watches all day, every day, and a lot more people have Apple Watches than Plaud devices.

They wear their Apple Watches on dates, at the doctors' offices, in dark bars and school classrooms, while having sex (gotta get those steps in), sitting next to you on the subway, gossiping with friends, complaining about their boss with colleagues, arguing with their spouse, doing drugs, discussing trade secrets, or yelling at their kids to finish their homework. Look, I don't know what you do with your time, and I don't want to.

Yes, you can turn this off. Yes, someone could already be recording you on their phone at any time. Yes, these note-taking recap apps/devices already exist. Yes, it doesn't store raw audio recordings of you, and yes, it has some privacy features like end-to-end encryption.

But there is something very different about all this.

Apple Watches are everywhere — I am wearing one right now, so are several people in my office, and plenty of my friends and family. I don't feel like an eavesdropper wearing an Apple Watch. Unstylish, maybe, but not creepy.

That all might change if the culture zeitgeist feels that wearing an Apple Watch turns you into an AI-powered eavesdropper.

• Apple showed off a new batch of gadgets at its "Surprise and Shine" event on Wednesday.
• The launches included Apple's first foldable iPhone and Watches with new health-monitoring features.
• Here are the biggest updates from new CEO John Ternus' first Apple event.

Everyone's talking about Apple's new foldable phone, but that's only one of the new gadgets the iPhone maker unveiled on Wednesday.

At its annual product launch, Apple revealed a slew of novel products and features, from watch technology that tells users how old they really are to a version of Siri that listens to all your conversations.

Despite the new offerings, Apple's stock price fell about 2% near the end of the launch presentation before recovering late Wednesday afternoon. The company also revealed it was raising the prices of its iPhones by $100 across the board, a move Apple says is due to the ongoing memory shortage.

Here's a list of some of Apple's new stuff.

The iPhone Duo

In its most anticipated announcement, Apple launched a new foldable iPhone — its first foray into foldable technology.

The iPhone Duo starts out as a 5.4-inch phone with a screen, and once opened up like a book, it becomes a 7.6-inch device that resembles an iPad. The device starts at $1,999. Pre-orders begin October 16, with availability beginning October 23.

John Ternus, Apple's CEO, said during the launch that other foldables feel too much "like two phones awkwardly stuck together." The company instead wanted a larger display, one that Ternus said feels "as natural and intuitive as an iPad."

Samsung, which first launched a foldable phone in 2019, shared its thoughts on Apple's shiny new product in a post on X. "Let us know when you're done reheating our leftovers," it wrote.

iPhone 18

Apple's new iPhone 18 model offers better battery life, camera capabilities, and performance than its predecessor, the company said. It comes in four colors: black, silver, glacier, and burgundy.

Available in two models, the Pro and Pro Max, the devices can be preordered on September 12, with availability beginning September 18.

In addition to camera upgrades, the new phone has improved graphics rendering and a more robust "dynamic island," the small, black, cylindrical segment near the top of the phone's display.

The Pro version starts at $1,199, or buyers can pay installments of $49.95 a month. The Pro Max starts at $1,299, or $54.12 a month for 24 months. The devices come with storage capacities of 256 gigabytes, 512 gigabytes, 1 terabyte, or 2 terabytes.

Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4

Apple unveiled two new smartwatch models on Wednesday: The Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4, the latter geared more for athletic wear.

Both models come equipped with "the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable," Apple said. Each device measures a user's heart rate every five seconds.

The company said other metrics, like heart rate variability, are also measured more accurately.

"Recovery HRV is best for identifying daily signals of stress and recovery, while overall HRV is best for insights into a user's broader health, including cardiovascular health," Apple said.

AirPods 5

Apple's fifth-generation AirPods are getting a Pro-style upgrade: higher-quality active noise cancellation.

AirPods 5, which start at $129, can block up to 50% more external noise than the prior noise-canceling model, the company said. They also add hands-free Siri AI and live translation. A $149 version adds a wireless charging case, longer battery life, and on-stem volume sliders.

They launch on September 18 with preorders now available.

How old are you… really?

Apple's new Watch-based monitor is meant to answer that question with a new feature coming to the Health app, called Health Age.

Sumbul Ahmad Desai, the company's vice president of health and fitness, said it's a "simple way to discover how key health metrics align with your actual age."

The feature uses Apple Watch data to show how certain health metrics — like sleep patterns and blood composition — track against a user's actual age. It's part of Apple's broader push to turn the Watch from a step counter into a more persistent health companion.

Siri AI release date

Siri AI, the revamped assistant Apple announced in June, starts rolling out in beta on September 14, initially in English.

Apple says it draws on a user's personal context and answers broader questions. For example, it's now capable of finding a dinner reservation buried in an email or remembering a song a friend recommended in a text.

It will work on Apple Watches dating back to the 2023 Series 9 when paired with a compatible iPhone.

Always listening…

Apple is turning the Apple Watch into an AI-powered set of ears.

The coming Audio Intelligence suite uses the Watch's microphone, the S11 chip, and Apple Intelligence models on a paired iPhone to help users catch sounds and conversations they might otherwise miss.

Apple says it will help hard-of-hearing users identify nearby alerts, transcribe conversations up to 15 seconds back, identify songs playing from a nearby speaker, or script notes from an important meeting.

"Apple Watch is always on your wrist," Ron Huang, Apple's vice president of sensing and connectivity, said. "It's the perfect device to stay aware of the sounds around you, and keep track of your conversations."

Apple says the features do not create or store audio recordings and that they do not identify speakers. Still, the rollout comes right as consumer tech companies face increasingly thorny questions about AI, privacy, and surveillance.

iPhone 18 will have an improved camera with variable aperture

The cameras in both versions of the iPhone 18 have variable-aperture blades that automatically adjust to different lighting conditions. Adjustments in aperture change the amount of light that reaches a camera's lens.

Apple said its new aperture system uses "six laser-cut blades, each thinner than a human hair."

"We've optimized for the best balance of light gathering and depth of field, and the aperture can narrow for more depth of field, which means crisper detail further back in the scene for better group shots," Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of worldwide Apple Watch product marketing, said during the launch.

• OpenAI's new safety hire, Paul Christiano, shared a dire warning about risks posed by AI.
• Christiano said that if humans lose control of AI "most people could die."
• He also said global coordination would be needed to address the risk.

OpenAI's new safety hire didn't mince words about what's at stake in the age of AI superintelligence.

"If we build superintelligence without more robust alignment I expect we will permanently lose control of it. If that happens then most people could die," Paul Christiano, an AI safety researcher, said on Wednesday after OpenAI announced he was joining its board and Safety and Security Committee.

In a lengthy statement about his new role, Christiano addressed the threat AI poses and warned that humans are at imminent risk of losing control of AI systems.

"Based on the recent trajectory of capabilities and the continued difficulty of alignment, I now believe there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term," Christiano wrote. "I do not think that the AI industry in general, including OpenAI, is currently on track to reduce this risk to an acceptable level."

Christiano previously led alignment research at OpenAI and worked for the federal government as the head of safety at the Center for AI Standards and Innovation within the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

On Wednesday, he said his joining of OpenAI was "not an endorsement or criticism of OpenAI's safety practices in particular" but that he hopes all frontier labs improve their safety oversight. He also said reducing the risks posed by AI would require coordination worldwide.

AI researchers have consistently warned about the risks posed by superintelligence and the singularity, a term used to refer to the point at which AI systems surpass human intelligence, improve themselves, and advance at a rate that humans can no longer predict or control. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in July that the singularity had already arrived.

The risk of losing control of AI

Christiano said he thinks the risk of losing control of AI is so great right now due to AI's increasing abilities in AI research, which he said could lead to a "rapid intelligence explosion." He also said the way AI is trained with reinforcement learning means the models are being taught to "get as much reward as they can."

"It has long seemed theoretically possible that this could motivate AI agents to undermine human control, seek power and resources, and cover up their tracks in pursuit of misaligned goals correlated with reward," he said. "Public evidence from recent incidents suggests that this is not just a theoretical possibility."

Christiano said that frontier companies still have the opportunity to address the situation, including by improving coordination, slowing development as needed, adopting share safety standards, and transparently sharing information about risks and mitigation efforts.

His statement came less than a day after another AI researcher shared a dire warning about AI. Jacob Coxon, an Anthropic researcher who previously worked at OpenAI, said Tuesday night that he had resigned from his role and that neither company was acting responsibly.

"They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," he said on X.

OpenAI has also lost several safety researchers over the years, with some casting doubt on the company's commitment to developing AI safely.

• Salesforce has been in talks to acquire AI startup Listen Labs for around $2 billion.
• Listen Labs, which was last valued at $500 million, sells an AI market analysis platform.
• Recent AI M&A deals include Nvidia's $12.9 billion acquisition of AI startup Hugging Face.

Salesforce could be on the hunt for acquisitions to beef up its AI capabilities.

The software giant has recently been in talks to buy Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research platform for around $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have not been finalized and could ultimately be unsuccessful, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

Salesforce and Listen Labs did not respond to requests for comment.

Listen Labs was founded in 2023 by Alfred Wahlforss and Florian Juengermann, who first met as undergraduates at Harvard University while building an AI avatar app that went viral, attracting 20,000 users on its first day, according to Sequoia Capital. Juengermann was previously a national champion in competitive programming in Germany.

They used an early version of what would become Listen Labs to interview users, which helped them realize that using AI for market research would be extremely valuable.

The company's software automates much of the qualitative research process, which has typically been expensive and time-consuming.

Customers include Microsoft, Anthropic, Google, Nestle, Sweetgreen, and Perplexity. At the beginning of the year, Listen Labs said it had grown its annualized revenue by 15x and interviewed more than one million people in nine months.

For Salesforce, the deal would strengthen its broader quest to make its agentic AI platform, Agentforce, more than just about automating repetitive work. Listen Labs could boost Agentforce by understanding what customers are thinking. It could recommend which products they might buy and craft the perfect pitch for salespeople to close a deal.

If the deal were finalized, it would be part of a wave of AI acquisitions in recent weeks, with Nvidia acquiring HuggingFace for around $12.9 billion and Stripe buying OpenRouter for around $8 billion.

Salesforce has been pushing to improve its AI efforts, with a particular focus on enterprise agents. The Information reported that they considered acquiring HuggingFace before it was sold to Nvidia.

Listen Labs was last valued at $500 million in a financing round earlier this year. Its backers include Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Conviction Partners, and Pear VC.

For the first time in 15 years, a new CEO took the stage at Apple's big fall event. Taking a page out of Steve Jobs' book, John Ternus announced "one more thing" — Apple's first foldable phone.

Ternus, a "product guy" who previously led Apple's hardware team, took over for Tim Cook at the start of the month. The annual product keynote marked an opportunity for the new CEO to introduce himself to the wider world of Apple fans — and pitch them on increasingly expensive gadget upgrades.

The foldable iPhone Duo, which is shaped like a passport, becomes an iPad-shaped device when it's open. It's Apple's biggest design change to the iPhone since Jobs first unveiled the phone in 2007.

Customers will have to pay big to own one of the devices, which opens for pre-orders on October 16 and launches on October 23. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999.

Apple also announced it was raising the price of its high-end "Pro" iPhone lineup by $100, a few months after raising prices on MacBooks and iPads — the result, Apple says, of the bruising memory shortage. The new iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299.

Apple also unveiled new Apple Watch models with new health-focused and AI features, the new AirPods 5, and detailed the many software features launching in iOS 27, which launches September 14.

Scroll on for a play-by-play of Apple's big keynote:

That's a wrap!

Apple wraps up its September hardware event after giving the final details for the foldable iPhone Duo, which CEO John Ternus introduced using Steve Jobs' famous "one more thing" line. Apple's stock is trading down 1% as the livestream concludes.

Thanks for joining us! See you at the next Apple event.

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and launches October 23

You'll have to be a bit patient for the Duo. Apple will make the foldable iPhone available to preorder on Friday, October 16, and it launches on Friday, October 23. It will cost $1,999 for the base storage.

Yes, a new iPhone form factor means new accessories too.

Apple shows two new accessories for its foldable phone. First, there is a small kickstand to prop the unfolded phone up. There is also a case that protects the edges of the folded.

The iPhone Duo is eSIM only

Apple removed the SIM card slot to free up space for batteries. Since the iPhone 14, US models have been eSIM-only.

The iPhone Duo's camera system

The iPhone Duo uses Apple's 48 megapixel Fusion Ultra Wide camera, which is one of the same cameras found in the iPhone 18 Pro. (The iPhone 18 Pro includes a beefier overall camera system though.)

Apple's new foldable phone, however, has another "FaceTime camera" which is visible upon opening the phone.

"iPhone Duo gives you fun new ways to use the camera that simply aren't possible on any other iPhone," Apple says. "With just a tap, iPhone Duo can become your personal photographer."

iPhone Duo gets two batteries

Apple says there are two batteries powering the Duo. Users will get up to 44 hours of usability if they only use the outer display, and up to 31 hours of video playback when using the inner screens.

Apple explains the tinkering it did to minimize creasing on the iPhone Duo's screen

Foldable phones have long suffered from a visible crease down the middle when unfolded. But the goal is for the screen to look even and flat, without visible blemish. To improve on this issue, Apple developed a custom texture that creates a "flat matte surface" when opened. It's made from a custom polymer and has a special coating for scratch resistance.

You can also use the iPhone Duo as … a clock

One of the many possible uses of the iPhone Duo is as a clock, Apple says.

In the launch video, a person sets up the foldable phone on a bedside table, and it turns into a clock.

"iPhone Duo can transform into a delightful bedside clock with the ability to wake you up with a gentle glow, timed perfectly with your alarm," Apple says.

iPhone Duo is launching in two colors

Apple's first foldable phone will be available in Star White and Night Sky.

iPhone Duo brings back Touch ID

Users will be able to unlock the foldable iPhone Duo by pressing a finger onto the side of the device.

"Essential controls are on the side to free up vertical space for content," Apple says.

Apple's new foldable phone looks like a little booklet or passport

Apple's iPhone Duo, the highly anticipated folding phone, is roughly analogous to an iPad in size when unfolded, and a passport or small booklet when closed.

"We wanted the experience of using iPhone Duo to feel uninterrupted," Apple says. "With two screens, the transition between open and closed had to be fluid and completely intuitive."

Here are some more pics of the new foldable iPhone Duo…

Here's how it looks when folded up, and what the software looks like on that front screen:

THE NEW iPHONE DUO FOLDABLE

Say hello to the iPhone Duo, Apple's first-ever foldable phone.

John Ternus starts by saying he isn't impressed by other foldable phones. In unveiling Apple's long-awaited entry into foldable phones, Tenus had some harsh words for those who got a head start.

"Others have created foldables that just feel like two phones stuck together," he said.

Catch up quickly: Here's what has already been announced

We've seen:

• iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
• New AirPods 5
• Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4

'Siri recap' will use 'ambient listening' to record conversations

Apple introduces "Siri recap," a feature that uses "ambient listening" to take high-level notes of your conversations.

The feature gives a user recaps of their conversations. It can be turned off and on at any time via the control system.

"Privacy is protected at every step. These audio intelligence features do not create or store audio recordings," Apple says. "The raw audio used for processing is completely inaccessible, even to Apple."

Apple says it will be available in a beta version later this year.

The new Apple Watch Series 12 comes in ceramic finishes

Apple Watch will let you 'rewind' conversations

The new Apple Watch will allow users to rewind conversations by up to 15 seconds, part of a suite of audio intelligence tools.

Additionally, the Apple Watch will be able to recognize sounds like a doorbell, a baby crying, or sirens.

Apple is replacing… the pacer test?

Apple says it's releasing a new assessment tool. It will ask users to jog in place with a coach, as shown on the iPhone, and give users tips for better form. The speed will speed up throughout the test.

Listen up, longevity-maxxers: Apple will tell you your 'health age'

Apple says it developed a new system that will take reams of data and tell a user their "health age."

Apple says the number is "a simple way to discover how key health metrics align with your actual age."

Apple's new 'readiness' score

Your Apple Watch can now judge how hard you should push. A new "readiness" score will analyze recent activity, vitals, and sleep to give a "clear call on your body's capacity to take on the day," Apple says.

The score also updates during the day, and is viewable both on the Apple Watch and the iPhone Fitness app.

Apple unveils a more advanced 'health sensing' system for watches

Apple says its new watches take "health and fitness to the next level" with a new sensor system.

The systems monitor a wearer's heart rate all day. "Background heart rate readings are now taken every five seconds all day long, even while you're on the go," Apple says.

Say hello to the new Apple Watches

Next up is the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, which include new Health-focused features.

The company says the new Apple Watch sensors sit closer to the skin, even during workouts, and will now monitor your heart rate variability, or HRV.

Apple says the new AirPods 5 have live translation

Apple says its new Airpods 5 have standardized live translation, an innovation which first launched last year.

In the launch video, the AirPods worn by an actor translate someone speaking Spanish.

The new AirPods 5 will start at $129.

AirPods 5 have a "new acoustic architecture and advanced computational audio," Apple announces. They will feature Apple's classic open ear fit while upgrading the audio. They will cost $129 for the standard charging case, and $149 with the wireless charging case.

The AirPods 5 are also getting a volume swipe slider on the side to more easily control how loud your music or podcasts play.

Introducing: AirPods 5

Next up, AirPods

Apple is talking about the success of its AirPods Pro models, but it sounds like we're getting a new model of regular AirPods today.

Apple says its new operating system has child safety features

Kaiann Drance, the vice president of iPhone marketing, says iOS 27 has more child-safety features.

The features give parents "more flexible ways to manage what kids can see, who they can talk to, and when they have access," Drance says.

Apple wants you to know your photos are real

Let's face it: AI slop images are everywhere. Apple wants you to know whether images are generated or edited with AI.

Apple's Maryam Azimi announced a reference image system that can help verify whether a photo was taken with an iPhone 18 Pro. The camera holds an image that lives with the "regular, editable photo." She compared it to having a "digital negative" that users can compare against the original image.

Apple says variable aperture is coming to iPhone

Speaking at a Hollywood set, Kaiann Drance, the vice president of iPhone marketing, says variable aperture is coming to the iPhone.

"We're introducing our biggest camera improvement in years, making stunning shots easy for everyone and adding new levels of creativity," Drance says.

Aperture settings control how much light enters a camera. Drance says, "This is the most advanced camera we've ever made."

The aperture system uses six laser-cut blades, Drance says.

The 'largest increase in battery life ever on an iPhone'

You can worry a bit less about your phone dying. Apple hypes up the battery life of its new iPhone 18 Pro. The phone will have up to 24 hours per charge, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have up to 30 hours per charge.

The iPhone 18 Pro also supports 50% charge in about 15 minutes.

Apple's new Siri upgrade comes with limits

While Apple boasts its new Siri updates, not everyone will get it at once. Siri AI is rolling out in beta for English speakers and will expand to French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in October.

Some Siri features will also have usage limits if they rely on powerful large language models.

Don't like Siri's voice? Now you can customize it.

Apple says users can customize Siri's voice to new levels of personalization.

In addition to the traditional accents, Apple unveils two new customization sliders: pace and expressivity.

Apple says the on-device model "also enables more accurate system-wide dictation, making it easy for you to get punctuation, spelling, and capitalization just right."

Apple touts 'a new Siri'

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will be able to run Apple's most advanced on-device AI model. As Apple previously announced, Apple is launching its overhauled Siri with a dedicated app.

Welcome: glacier and burgundy

Introducing the new iPhone 18 Pro, Ternus lists colors like deep black and silver. There's also a "fresh new color" called glacier, he says.

Plus, there's the "sophisticated and unique" new addition, Ternus says: burgundy.

The first product reveal: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

It looks like…an iPhone! Ternus reveals the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models. There are new colors, and the underlying computer chip technology will enhance photos and the new Siri AI, Apple says.

John Ternus says privacy protection is paramount

In what appeared to be a dig at AI labs, Apple's CEO says that "others see that data as something to collect and store."

"They move it to their servers and ask you to trust them," he adds.

Ternus says that Apple intelligence instead stores data on individual devices when it can.

"When greater capability is needed, private cloud compute extends that same level of privacy protection, ensuring that nobody, not even Apple, can access what's yours," he says.

John Ternus says the iPhone is perfect for the AI age

The Apple CEO says the iPhone is the perfect medium to achieve what he calls an "intelligent personal hub."

His comments come as the world eagerly awaits OpenAI's entry into the AI hardware space later this year.

Tim Cook makes a brief appearance before handing things over to John Ternus

We finally see Tim Cook in the prerecorded video, smiling. "No, no, no! Not me," he says. "That's your guy. That's your opening shot."

John Ternus, Apple's new CEO, appears to begin the keynote.

Apple starts with video about possible opening shots

Apple's event begins with several action shots imagining possible openings to the event. Characters in the scenes say that each one should be the beginning scene.

And we're off! Apple's fall keynote begins…

Prefer to watch? You can tune into the 1 p.m. ET livestream here:

A look at where the action is happening…

Apple shifted years ago from live keynote addresses (which run the risk of embarrassing demo fails) to pre-recorded keynotes. Apple, however, still hosts journalists and influencers at Apple Park, its Cupertino, California HQ. While Apple's CEO typically greets attendees, who will watch the livestream from the Steve Jobs Theater on campus, we're minutes away from seeing if new CEO John Ternus decides to switch things up — or keep the keynote pre-recorded.

Higher iPhone prices could entice people to try out Apple's leasing program, Apple Upgrade

Apple recently overhauled its device subscriptions, which it now calls Apple Upgrade. The program offers the opportunity to lease a new iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, or MacBook with monthly payments lower than those of traditional financing. It's powered by buy-now-pay-later service Klarna.

With Apple's rumored foldable iPhone expected to command a $2,000+ price tag, you can bet some customers might decide to rent instead of ponying up the full up-front cost.

Tim Cook scored a $47 million pay package to stay on as Apple's chairman.

While Tim Cook is no longer CEO, Apple is keeping him around — and keeping him paid.

Cook's new job as Apple chairman includes a $2 million salary (instead of $3 million as CEO), and comes with an annual equity award with a target value of $45 million for fiscal year 2027. The former CEO will also help engage with "policymakers around the world," which means Apple isn't losing its "Trump whisperer."

Who is John Ternus? Get to know Apple's new CEO before he takes the stage.

John Ternus studied engineering and once worked under Steve Jobs. Tim Cook, who is staying on as board chairman, called Ternus "one of a kind" and said the CEO transition would go "seamlessly."

Read full story

Apple's new CEO drums up hype with cryptic video.

pic.twitter.com/CLu9eRDP5b

— John Ternus (@johnternus) September 9, 2026

John Ternus posted a short clip to X this morning ahead of Apple's 1 p.m. ET event. The teaser, which shows a glimpse of what is presumably an unreleased device, could signal a glitzier marketing strategy under Ternus. It's unusual to see Apple reveal actual imagery associated with coming devices ahead of an event, even if it's not 100% clear what we're looking at.

• Apple debuted the Duo, its first-ever foldable iPhone.
• The phone has two displays and is 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. It's priced at $1,999.
• The foldable is one of Apple's first departures from the traditional iPhone form.

Since its 2007 launch, the iPhone has had the same basic design: a flat, rigid rectangle.

Now, Apple is folding on that form factor.

Apple debuted the new foldable iPhone Duo on Tuesday at its annual September hardware event, marking the biggest design change in the device's history.

John Ternus, Apple's CEO, critiqued other foldables that "feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together." The company wanted a larger display, one that is "as natural and intuitive as an iPad," he said.

The device has two displays: the closed front and the full-sized open screen. When opened, the phone can also have two displays on each side of the hinge.

It's 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max and 80% larger than the 18 Pro.

Apple said it has set the iPhone Duo price for $1,999 for 256 gigabytes of storage. Prices go up to $3,199 for two terabytes.

Breaking the iPhone's design rut

Apple certainly isn't the first company to put out a foldable. Samsung continues to expand its lineup, while Chinese companies like Honor and Oppo offer cheaper (and thinner) alternatives. One of Huawei's phones folds not once, but twice.

Still, the move is seismic for Apple, which largely iterated and finessed the form factor Steve Jobs first unveiled in 2007.

Designer Christopher Stringer recounted the process of picking a shape during Apple's 2012 lawsuit against Samsung. The company tested an "extrudo" model, which had a lozenge-like shape, he said. Then, it landed on the iPhone design we know and love.

At the end of the 2012 trial, Apple explicitly received its design patent: a rectangle with rounded corners.

For years after, Apple tinkered with elements of the design. It extended the display and removed the home button. It tried out new colors and side buttons. It tried lighter and thinner models.

Throughout it all, the basic rectangle design stayed flat.

The new foldable doesn't stray too far from Apple's roots. It does open into a rectangle with rounded corners, after all.

Still, the design brings something new to the market — and shows Apple can still mix it up.

• Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
• The phones will cost $100 more than the previous iPhone 17 Pro models.
• Apple also hiked the prices on older models.

Your next iPhone is going to cost you. And if you didn't buy an existing model before Wednesday, you're going to pay more too.

On Tuesday, Apple announced the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max — with price tags $100 higher than the previous Pro models. It also announced the new foldable iPhone Duo, priced at $1,999. Apple has yet to announce the entry-level iPhone 18.

That wasn't the only pricing news. Apple also raised the price of older iPhones by $100, going back to the iPhone 16, the oldest generation that Apple still sells new in its online store.

The increase means that the iPhone Air, which Apple launched nearly a year ago, is now more expensive ($1,099) than it was when it debuted at $999. This is also true for the iPhone 17e and iPhone 17, which are now $699 and $899, respectively.

The iPhone 16 is $799, restoring it back to its debut price when Apple launched it in September 2024.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models will be available with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage capacities. The 2TB version of the Pro model costs $2399, and the Pro Max 2TB phone will run you $2499.

Both prices are above those of the 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max, the previous most expensive iPhone on the market. Both of the top-of-the-line iPhone 18s still pale in comparison to the highest-tier iPhone Duo. The 2TB iPhone Duo will cost $3199.

The higher prices illustrate how the global memory shortage has stretched a company as dominant as Apple.

In his final earnings call as CEO, Tim Cook said that Apple had "reluctantly raised prices" of iPads and MacBooks due to the memory shortage.

"We did it because we're in what I would characterize as a 100-year flood on the memory pricing with exponential increases in memory prices," Cook said.

The memory shortage is largely driven by the AI revolution as chipmakers shift production away from chips designed for consumer products to the more specialized chips required for the data centers that power AI models.

In June, Apple increased the prices of iPads by up to 25% and Mac computers by as much as 20%. At the time, the cost of existing iPhone models remained unchanged.

Other companies, including some of Apple's competitors, have also hiked device prices.

Officials at Samsung and Google have said they raised prices on some of their smartphone models in part due to rising memory costs.

"There's never been an increase in memory prices like the world's going through right now," Google's vice president of devices and services, Shakil Barkat, said in July ahead of the release of the Pixel 11.

Ultimately, Google tacked $100 onto the Pixel 11, though it also doubled the storage of the baseline edition as Google discontinued the 128GB model.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will be available for preorder on Saturday, September 12, and then will go on sale on September 18.

• Accenture has formed a new business group, supported by Google Cloud, to help companies deploy AI agents.
• The group includes 1000 forward-deployed engineers ready to embed with clients.
• Consulting firms have become crucial intermediaries between AI companies and large companies.

Accenture is sending an army of engineers onto the AI battlefield.

The consulting giant and Google Cloud are teaming up to send 1,000 engineers to work with major clients on deploying AI agents, in a partnership they're calling the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group.

It brings together Accenture's Google Cloud-skilled professionals and engineers with Accenture consultants with industry expertise.

A key part of the group's offering is the promise of 1,000 forward-deployed engineers, Accenture professionals who are experts in the Gemini AI platform. They will embed with clients to help them roll out AI across their businesses.

Forward-deployed engineers work inside companies to integrate AI into workflows and customize AI tools for each specific client to make their work easier or more efficient. The role was popularized by Palantir and is now one of the buzziest jobs in tech — postings for the position have grown more than 700% in the last year.

In a press release, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said the group's combined technical and industry expertise will help clients deploy AI agents and realize value from them more quickly.

The investment also includes plans to expand Gemini Enterprise training for 50,000 Accenture employees.

The new Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group will support clients with "a dedicated, specialized team" to help meet the market demand for Gemini Enterprise, Chetna Sehgal, the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group lead, told Business Insider.

The teams will work together on platform engineering, aligned with the client's specific industry, process, and required changes.

"That combination is what lets clients architect, build, and scale Gemini Enterprise solutions with real speed," said Sehgal.

Tech and consulting are teaming up more and more

Consultancies like Accenture shape how companies spend money, buy technology, and redesign work.

They have become critical intermediaries in the AI boom, linking AI companies with their vast roster of Fortune 500 clients, who often want the familiarity and breadth that a traditional consulting firm can offer.

The deal works both ways: AI firms have little time to focus on implementation and sales, so consultants step in to fill the gap. In return, consultancies attach themselves to top names in tech and get access to enterprise-grade tools for their own workforces.

The result has been a flurry of partnerships between top consulting firms and AI leaders such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

Accenture partnered with ChatGPT last December and expanded its partnership with Anthropic a week later.

The company, a digital and technology specialist, has also been remaking its own workforce for the AI era. Sweet has previously said that AI is Accenture's strongest bet for creating new demand, and in March 2026, said that getting a promotion at Accenture now required AI use.

In 2025, the firm consolidated several of its key divisions into a single unit known as "reinvention services," and executives said it would be "exiting" employees it can't retrain with artificial intelligence skills.

The company's stock is down 29% over the last year, and in its third-quarter earnings report in June, Accenture said new bookings were down 2% for the quarter.

Sweet's message to the investors betting on the company was simple: Be patient. As companies seek Accenture's help to integrate AI, she said, the numbers will improve.

• A VC got his Resy account shuttered after using an AI agent for a reservation at one of NYC's hottest restaurants.
• It's an example of how AI agents often take questionable approaches to the tasks they're given.
• "I will probably, in the short term, ask it to lay out a plan and tell me what the plan is," he said

AI agents can do lots of tasks. Landing you a table at one of New York's trendiest restaurants might not be one.

JC Bahr-de Stefano, principal at Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech-focused VC firm, learned that after he connected an AI tool called Instinct to his Resy account in hopes of getting a reservation at 4 Charles Prime Rib, the West Village steakhouse where diners gobble up reservations within seconds of them appearing online.

Instinct, which is an invite-only service at the moment, communicates with users via text. The bet was that Instinct could check for open tables at 4 Charles much more frequently than Bahr-de Stefano — or any other human — could manually.

Instead of getting him a ticket to some prime rib or an egg-topped burger, though, Bahr-de Stefano's AI agent spammed Resy's website so much that the platform temporarily shut down his account.

The VC's experience is another example of how AI agents are bending or breaking the rules of the internet, from impersonating Wikipedia editors to trying to convince a GitHub user to upload malware into a project.

Agents might appear to understand their objective, though exactly how they carry it out — and whether the strategy they pick might have unintended consequences — is often an afterthought.

"Resy does not currently permit unapproved third-party bots or agents to independently access or interact with the Resy platform," an American Express spokesperson told Business Insider. "Unapproved automated activity can introduce risks to the platform and compromise a fair reservation experience for diners."

Users can find restaurants and make reservations through Resy's integrations with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, the spokesperson said. The company declined to comment specifically on Bahr-de Stefano's case.

'It was acting like a bot'

Bahr-de Stefano noticed the Resy issue on Sunday when he couldn't get into his account. In his email inbox, there was a message from the American Express-owned reservation platform saying that his account had "displayed behavior in violation of Resy's Terms of Service."

He got details about what went wrong after checking Instinct's activity log. Unbeknownst to Bahr-de Stefano, the AI agent had been sending Resy about 200 API requests per hour. That included checking the restaurant's availability through Resy every 10 minutes throughout the day, as well as looking every 0.4 seconds around the time that reservations usually dropped each morning.

That behavior mimics the bots that some people use to snag everything from restaurant reservations to limited-run pairs of sneakers and resell them, Bahr-de Stefano said.

Bahr-de Stefano wrote back to Resy, laying out how he had used the AI agent. The log made clear why his account had been flagged, he said.

"Of course, this account got flagged for spam, because it was acting like a bot," he said.

On Tuesday, an email from Resy informed him that the company had reinstated his account.

It came with a warning, though: If he did it again, American Express could permanently close his Resy account as well as his AmEx credit card. Bahr-de Stefano shared screenshots of the Resy and American Express emails in posts on X.

The tool has worked well in other cases, such as finding an appointment at an otherwise booked-up doctor's office and deciding which attractions to visit in Paris during a trip, Bahr-de Stefano said.

"That was part of what made it really great," he said. "It felt like magic."

The VC said that he plans to continue using Instinct, though with some adjustments. Instead of simply giving the AI agent a simple prompt, he said, he'll now set parameters on how the agent tackles the task, such as how often it pings a website looking for reservations.

"I will probably, in the short term, ask it to lay out a plan and tell me what the plan is before it does it," he said.

At the same time, he added, websites like Resy need to distinguish between legitimate AI agents and those with more nefarious intentions.

"Most of these sellers or providers need to get to a point where they can understand the difference between a verified agent acting on someone's behalf versus a bot farm," he said.

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• Alex Gibney's Elon Musk documentary, "Musk," examines the mogul's life and career.
• There's plenty of material on Musk's highs (Tesla, SpaceX) and lows (DOGE, his relationships).
• Here are the 3 most explosive parts of the doc.

In an era when documentaries about famous people can be as light and sweet as the snacks you eat while watching them, Alex Gibney is going against the grain. His new documentary, "Musk," which premiered at Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8, proves there's still room for hard-hitting investigative docs in Hollywood — as long as you're willing to sit through its nearly four-hour runtime.

From tackling Scientology in "Going Clear" to Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes in "The Inventor," Gibney has never backed away from a thorny topic. With "Musk," the Oscar-winning filmmaker pulls no punches, painting a thorough portrait of the man who turned companies like Tesla and SpaceX into household names.

The doc, which traces Musk's life from 20-something Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneur to becoming President Donald Trump's right-hand man during his second term, has ignited the ire of its subject since it was announced in 2023. At the time, Musk called the film a "hit piece" on X, to which Gibney responded, "How would you know?" The two have been locked in an online battle ever since.

Although Musk did not sit down for an interview for "Musk," that didn't stop Gibney from getting his subject on camera — sort of.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Gibney's team and the magic of AI, the documentary features a Musk avatar who's been trained on all available interviews the mogul has given. Avatar-Musk shows up throughout to comment on everything from why he believes we're all living in a simulation to his obsession with going to Mars.

It's a cheeky deployment of emerging technology at the CEO's expense. But it's not the only segment that paints Musk in an unflattering light.

Business Insider screened "Musk" the day it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Here are three times Gibney goes after Musk hard.

Business Insider reached out to Musk for comment on the documentary, but did not receive a response.

The failures of Tesla's self-driving feature Autopilot are back in the spotlight

The documentary delves into how Musk got involved in Tesla and turned it into a cash cow once the company went public. It also explores the darker side of Tesla's Autopilot, a self-driving feature that has been at the center of several lawsuits.

In the doc, Gibney contrasts a 2016 video released by Tesla that depicts the vehicle as fully self-driving with dash-cam footage from a deadly 2019 crash in which a car using Tesla's Autopilot feature killed one and seriously injured another in Key Largo, Florida.

After a Russian hacker was able to retrieve key crash data Tesla had said it could not access (yes, really), a jury ruled that Tesla was partially liable for the crash and responsible for $243 million in punitive and compensatory damages. Tesla is appealing.

While the story has been reported before by outlets including Business Insider, its retelling to a larger audience in Gibney's doc isn't going to improve perception of the Tesla brand.

The 'Godfather of AI' says he's worried Musk could rig an election

Trump and Musk have described DOGE as a way to overhaul the federal government and slash spending. Tech reporters from Wired and The Wall Street Journal tell Gibney that Musk's time working on DOGE also gave him access to every American's personal information.

Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI" and a friend-turned-frenemy of Musk's, says he thinks Musk is up to something nefarious. He tells Gibney in the documentary that he believes Musk will use that information to corrupt the upcoming midterm elections.

"If you wanted to corrupt the midterm elections and you wanted to use AI, all you needed to do was get detailed information on US citizens," Hinton says in "Musk." "And what DOGE did looked like just what you would do."

Hinton does not elaborate further, but Gibney wonders in a voiceover: Is Musk "trying to connect us or control us?"

A former flame reveals the NDA terms she declined and Musk's desire for a 'legion of children'

The documentary also delves into Musk's personal life, specifically his many children, 14 of whom are publicly known. While Musk's first wife, Justine, appears in the doc, the real star is influencer Ashley St. Clair, who gave birth to one of his sons in 2024.

St. Clair says in the doc that the two connected after Musk began following her on social media and would message her saying she should have more children. St. Clair says in the doc that once their relationship went south and after giving birth to Musk's child, she was offered $15 million up front and $100,000 per month over 21 years if she signed an NDA. She refused.

St. Clair also recalled that one night she was with Musk in bed and he was listening to a podcast about Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan who had at least 47 children.

She also said that Musk once texted her that he needed a "legion of children before the civil war."

St. Clair claims she wasn't the only one Musk reached out to on social media in hopes of procreating.

It's a "Gatling gun of sperm on his DMs," she told Gibney.

On Wednesday, a day after the movie's world premiere, Musk disputed the terms of St. Clair's NDA, commenting on X that St. Clair "was never offered that and has a history of making false claims." St. Clair did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk also went on X to comment on the documentary as a whole.

"Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don't even know me (but still have an axe to grind). He has ZERO integrity. Horrible human," Musk wrote.

"Musk" opens in theaters October 16.