Co-ed confidential ipad

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

Hello! I have a restaurant and we use iPads for our kitchen display. We also have Google docs on there with lists of opening/closing duties they are to do every day as well as recipes. However, on my business Google drive I also have employee files and don’t want them to access these as they are confidential. Is there a way to lock certain folders? If not, how do you keep your files organized and locked properly? I was thinking of moving that folder to Dropbox but I really like the easiness of Google drive.
Thanks for the help! Trying to organize and systemize my small business.

Hello! So my team and I have been working at a problem for a while (the result of a pivot) and we've finally cracked it. It's called Opilot, a copilot without the 'c' because nobody can 'see' your data.
We found a pain point where people wanted to use AI but without the risk of their hard work being used to train models, being leaked to others, and even more, cybersecurity, surveillance, and censorship.
This not only applied to companies that deal with confidential data, but to everyday people who just wanted to let's say, scan and figure out their health reports, need to do some random employment letter, etc.
Figured we could share the tool publicly, (we just launched on Product Hunt too so any feedback and support there is much appreciated! We launched the same day as the new iPad ahaha). It’s free!
Also it’s fully local, so no data is sent to cloud servers- you have full control. (You can run Opilot offline as proof ;))
It works across all web apps (GDocs, Slides, research papers, articles, etc), though I should caveat that this first version runs Llama 3 (so have a bit of spare RAM please). We'll be rolling out smaller models for lower configs soon :)
Here's our Discord channel if you're keen!
(Also does anyone have any tips on starting and scaling a Reddit thread for their company?)

Hello! I currently co-teach a PFA class blended 20 kids (some with ieps, some without) My co teacher (gen ed) always uses youtube videos for brain breaks or movement during circle time. This irks me to no end. She just turns on a video, then walks away and does other things. Kids stare at the screen like zombies. According to our state rules our classroom is not supposed to have more than 10 min of ANY technology all day.
Personally, I hate using youtube. This is a preschool class for at risk kids, and I KNOW most of them are "ipad/iphone" kids. I have done the home visits. I would love ideas for NON TECH move and groove. One thing I did so far is give one child a job of "personal trainer" and they come up with exercises for everyone to do (jumping jacks, squat, march, etc) we do 10 each. But I would dlike to change it up! Any ideas???

Here is the actual thread.
https://www.reddit.com/UFOs/s/76jNPTnJQe
Here is Ross’ Reddit username if you want to look up all of his responses, under comments.
https://www.reddit.comBrushPass/s/bv1nwTLrcv

Questions:

What is your confidence level that disclosure will happen in 2024 versus being deferred to 2025 with the presumptive FY25 UAPDA?
Ross: I have absolutely no certainty at all that there is going to be any meaningful Government disclosure and I've never said there would be. What I do believe is happening is that some extremely brave whistleblowers have already come forward to Congress (not to AARO - which they almost all treat as a pathetic joke) and they have testified in camera to SSCI, SASC, and, in some cases to the HASC. Several have also provided their evidence to the ICIG and DODIG. There is a substantial and extremely aggressive push-back happening right now - underlined by the recent AARO Historical Review apologia for the debunkers, which completely failed to address even what AARO was statutorily required to do.

Hi Ross! There is a new push for public science on UAPs. But past allegations assert that people face retaliation and harm for involvement. Are citizen scientists like Avi Loeb or Tim Gallaudet in danger?
Ross: I deeply admire and respect both Professor Avi Loeb and Tim Gallaudet, both of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with in confidence. Their commitment to a scientific investigation of the Phenomenon is commendable. I don't think they're in danger - hope not. Because, if they are, then a few of us are! I actually think the cat is out of the bag. Whomever has presided over this coverup (and there definitely is and has long been a cover-up) is not going to be able to continue to suppress it. It's time for transparency.

In whatever way you’re able, can you elaborate on what about the phenomena or ufo program you deemed to be too scary or horrifying to share and a "fate worse than death"? Can you offer additional context for these statements?
Ross: Without going into specifics - and with the ridequalification that I have no way of verifying if this 'information' is actually correct - the issue I think is most confronting is the possibility of an NHI with malevolent intent or, at least, a profound indifference to humanity.

Hello from Singapore, Ross! I’ve got a couple of questions for you.
1. ⁠With the exception of Japan and maybe China, why are countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia such as South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia so quiet on UAP? Especially since China is being increasingly aggressive/assertive in the Indo-Pacific and South Korea, Taiwan & Singapore being the most advanced U.S. allies or partners in the region yet they're aren’t very active or involved in the UAP issue compared to Japan. How much 'in the know' are these countries/governments on UAP? 2. ⁠Have you been approached by anyone from Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or elsewhere in Southeast Asia on their own local military, maritime and civil aviation UAP sightings, incidents, reports or encounters? 3. ⁠What can be done to bring places like the Middle East & Indo-Pacific regions as a whole up to speed on the UAP issue where there is a greater lack of awareness and engagement on UAP especially in parts of these regions where UAP & UFOs are even often seen as a Western creation/invention instead of a global phenomenon?
Ross: (1). I don't think they are quiet on UAPs at all. China for example has created a semi-governmental body some years back dedicated to the study of UAPs. I don't have the name in front of me while I'm trying to respond to this wonderful blizzard of Reddit Qs (!). I'm in touch with good people from across SE Asia, many of whom speak confidentially because they're terrified of retribution. If you thought the US Govt is repressive on UAPs.....
(2). Yes
(3). There's an implicit assumption there that I don't agree with. In the Middle East for example they talk about "the Jinn". Ideas of anomalous phenomena have long been part of popular mythology and accepted as legitimate for discussion. I'm in touch with many people from the Middle East for example who want proper scientific investigations done into UAPs and other anomalous phenomena.

Hey Ross. If you could see any Country disclosing to the public before the USA, which would it be?
Ross: China. I think China knows more than the US and it's weighing the strategic advantage that might be derived from being the first nation to reveal what I am being told is the truth:that there is an NHI presence on this planet.
Can I say though that I agree with Brandon Fugal of SWR when he told me in our most recent REALITY CHECK that he thinks disclosure won't come from Government in the way we hope. He thinks it has to come from private well-funded investigative research. Screw Governments if they're too cowardly or self-interested to disclose. I suspect it's more to do with a fear of having to admit they're compounding and doubling down on their lies.

Cheers Ross. Do you (or some of your sources) think it is possible there is currently a global elevation of consciousness / awakening that NHI might be orchestrating from behind the scene?
Ross: Interesting Q! I am only SPECULATING. I am not saying this is true or that I KNOW something for a fact. I have to emphasise this otherwise every deranged debunker then starts ranting "Coulthart said he knows this for a fact....". But - yes - I have often wondered, when I speak to experiencers or witnesses who purport to have had communications of some kind with NHI, how there is a consistency to what they say: that there is an indication here of some potential that this is perhaps a non-human intelligence trying to twig our consciousness in some way. I can't explain it but I can only report what I am told... a journalist is ONLY ever as good as his or her sources. And multiple people are telling me they believe there is both a benevolent and a malevolent intelligence operating behind the scenes. Personally, I am keeping an open mind... waiting for the data to convince me one way or the other.

Ross, do you have any solid sources who support the NHI narrative, who are free of influence from the AAWSAP/AATIP/Bigelow Aerospace group (no interaction with them, preferably ever)?
The AARO Historical Report, Volume I, on page 36 states AARO "has determined that modern allegations that the USG is hiding off-world technology and beings largely originate from the same group of individuals who have ties to the cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP program and a private sector organization’s paranormal research efforts."
AARO seems to think the modern narrative stems entirely from this group. Puthoff, Davis, etc. Having sources who have never interacted with this AAWSAP/AATIP/Bigelow Aerospace group who believe the USG is hiding the existence of NHI would serve as a "second source" to the story since AARO seems to be attempting to paint the entire group of AAWSAP members with one broad brush-stroke, saying their stories are nothing more than a "self licking ice-cream cone" (in the words of Kirkpatrick), etc.
Ross: Yes I do. I speak regularly - on confidential comms - with insiders who purport to be working in the legacy reverse engineering program. Of course, the great difficulty I have as a journalist is that I must always respect sources and not compromise their identities. They face grave consequences if the fact that they are engaging with me is known. Not having seen what they purport to have seen, yes, I accept there is the (extremely unlikely but always 'possible') possibility that this is some elaborate disinformation operation designed to make me think this is a reality - ie: a real reverse engineering and retrieval program. But I have multiple sources who confirm - independently of the known AATIP/AAWSAP identities that this is a reality.

Hello Ross! We appreciate this!
1. ⁠Leslie Kean said in an interview that "some of these [UAPs] may only be 60 years ahead of us" are you hearing the same thing? 2. ⁠Do you know what Tom Delonge was told that made him "unable to sleep for 3 days?" 3. ⁠What is the current timeframe for the 40+ whistleblowers? 4. ⁠What is the likelihood of a whistleblower talking in front of congress about direct communication with a nonhuman intelligence? 5. ⁠Whats the best question someone could ask you right now and what is its answer? 6. ⁠Do you believe humans are capable of psychic feats? 7. ⁠What are the current holdups/hurdles regarding disclosure? How can we help?
Ross: So many Qs, so little time.... I don't have a specific time in what I've been told. The Q implies that this phenomena is from the future. I am not so sure. Some of it might be. There is talk from some sources of "future humans" being in part responsible for what we are seeing. But I suspect the explanation is much more complex. I am drawn to possible "intra-terrestrial" explanations (ie: They're already here, co-habiting this planet with us, perhaps in underwater or inaccessible physical domains). Or perhaps inter-dimensional.
Tom DeLonge: He's agreed to speak to me on REALITY CHECK. We are just trying to find a time that works. I deeply admire Tom for his candour about what he was told by Generals McCasland and Carey and Lockheed Martin's Robert Weiss. I just wish they'd open up and explain why they were talking to a punk rock star about disclosing the existence of NHI. People don't understand sufficiently well I think just how significant it is that the emails between Tom, these men and John Podesta (in the Hillary Clinton campaign) were leaked (by the Russians!) to Wikileaks. They show, irrefutably, that senior former top generals in the USAF were talking about aliens and craft being recovered during the Cold War. For that matter, why the fuck haven't Congressional leaders hauled these Generals before Congress and put them under oath to ask what the hell was going on?
I cannot speak for all of the Whistleblowers as a lot depends on them feeling safe about coming forward.

Good evening, Ross. What do you think of Jacques Vallee's idea of the phenomena as a form of consciousness trying to teach us something?
Given the themes of nuclear self destruction, and us being on the verge of WWIII during the greatest transfer of wealth in human history during the pandemic that locked down the world. Chris Bledsoe's experience, was a message that we risk that very thing.
What do you think about the connection between nuclear weapons/technology in general, and the seemingly neutral observers and phenomena being seen? Such as 46ft TicTacs in 2004 mimicking top gun commander Fravor's movements with ease, Metallic Cubes inside transparent spheres in 2014 causing near misses, and 50-100 transmedium egg shaped 14ft objects swarming nuclear destroyers in 2019. Not to mention the ICBM's in Malmstrom and Ukraine, reported by Knapp and submitted for public record.
Lastly, have you ever had any odd Owl Encounters, or do people tell you about theirs? [The Messengers by Mike Mclelland]
(Thank for your time!)
Ross: Touched on this earlier but I share Jacques' fascination with this idea. Is an NHI entity/entities seeding human consciousness with technology and creative ideas. I find this possibility fascinating. I've talked several times before about how multiple people have contacted me telling me that they actually have conscious interaction with highly technologically advanced and intelligent blue entities. I don't know if they're stoned out of their brains or not but, without betraying their confidence, some of what they say they're being told is fascinating. I wonder sometimes if the NHI aren't a little frustrated with the Government cover-up themselves!

Is Sands legit?
Ross: I presume you mean Jason Sands? I do not have enough data to form an opinion one way or the other. I do think a lot of his story rests on whether the people who were with him during his reported incident are prepared to support his account (or dispute it).

Hey Ross. Thanks for doing this. What piece of ufo information has scared you the most? Can you say anything about it or expand?
Ross: The thing that scares and worries me the most (responding also to the person earlier who asked me what I fear the most) is that we might all go to our graves continuing to be ignorant of what I strongly suspect is a reality of NHI engaging with this planet and the human race. I find the purported reasons for the continued secrecy about this deeply concerning - and that is the scariest thing of all for me to contemplate - that we may never know. What on earth is it about this issue that the powers that be are so determined to suppress it? And why the wilful blindness from thought leaders in media and political power? I find it scary that so much of the human race has not briefed itself on the extraordinary evidence that supports the notion that there truly is an anomalous phenomenon engaging with humanity. We are well beyond superstitious speculation.

What types of NHI have been reported to you?
Ross: You use the word 'report' and I thank you for that because, to emphasize, a journalist is ONLY ever as good as their sources. I have not had any paranormal or NHI experience. I am not a UAP witness. I am not speaking from direct knowledge. SO, with that in mind, let me answer your Q:
I have been told by witnesses that they have witnessed: humanoid, semi-humanoid (tall whites), Grays in different sizes, Reptilians and apparently sentient plasmoids and technology.

Hey Ross wondering about your thoughts or theories on what the “blue being” you brought up here what is it? do you think it’s possibly nhi? Do you plan to follow up on the story of those contacted who are able to do complex physics now? Maybe a potential interview with one of those contacted by the being?
Ross: I have no idea what the purported 'Blue Being' is but what I will tell you all is that, since I mentioned I was in touch with multiple people internationally who described receiving 'downloads' from blue entities, I have been swamped with messages from people internationally who all tell very much the same story. A number of people have pointed out to me the similarities of these accounts with some of the ancient descriptions from Vedic and other texts. I am very interested myself also in the idea of creative insights, which I think might be more significant than the mere fact that these entities are perceived as blue. The evidence i am getting from witnesses suggests that creative and often complex scientific ideas are being seeded into human consciousness in some way. I find that fascinating and worthy of further investigation.

Ross,
Is it possible, that there have been instances in the past where UFO/UAP's have mid air collided with commercial airplanes and the public was given a different story as to what really happened? Have your sources ever discovered any incidents where this was the case? Cheers!
Ross: I do think there is data to suggest that military aircraft have been brought down by UAPs, perhaps/possibly inadvertently.
Another issue that does worry me greatly is that another skein of evidence from multiple witnesses suggests to me that the US and other nations are using EMP weapons to down NHI craft/tech. It is an open Q in my mind, one I am aggressively investigating, whether this allegation is true and whether our first contact experience with an NHI has actually involved the unthinkable possibility that we have acted aggressively against reportedly benevolent NHI. I have not yet reached a conclusion on the validity of these allegations so please don't report this as a fact I necessarily believe or know.

Have you heard anything about David Grusch's Op-Ed?
Ross: Yes. I hear it's coming.

Is there some truth in the testimony of Michael Herrera about human trafficking? Who is interested in this crime? The NHIs? Thanks for your amazing job! - Dave
Ross: I'm investigating aspects of the Michael Herrera story. I've spoken to Michael and other sources. I cannot make any further comment at this time. Watch this space.

Is there anything relating the phenomenon that will have a significant impact on people’s day to day lives?
Ross: Hell yeah. Imagine if it was true that the US and other countries are sitting on the capacity to draw unlimited amounts of energy from the quantum vaccum, ie: zero point energy. Or, what if we really could generate anti-gravity? These technologies alone would revolutionise human society and make possible the exploration of our known universe. This is why this matters. We are on the cusp - potentially - of momentous change but, only if the alleged truths are revealed.

Have you interviewed anyone that has suffered brain damage from UAP exposure?
Ross: Yes. And they have scans to prove it.

Sir, I know that you know more about the Phenomenon than you let on and can’t tell us for good reason.
I keep hearing about how “shocking” the truth is or that we would be “slack-jawed” if we knew more. That may be the case for some, but I think most people would accept the truth as a fact of life and understand that it’s just the way it is.
My question is: Knowing what you know, do we have anything to worry about when it comes to the intentions of NHI or our purpose in the Universe?
Yes, No, Maybe, IDK will suffice.
Ross: Yes. There is an indication of likely ill-intention/Malevolence ... if the source information is true, of course.

Do you think SpaceX has UAP data? Elon has denied seeing evidence but they have the most LEO sats and Chris Mellon has referenced our military sats tracking UAPs... wouldn't it be in SpaceX's interest to investigate / reverse engineer these exotic technologies for accelerating space exploration?
Ross: I don't know if this is true or not (again, I am just saying what I've been told by certain folk) but I was told that Elon had been read into parts of the legacy RE and retrieval program. It should be acknowledged that Mr Musk has denied any knowledge of NHI tech at all and he has said he would know if there were NHI visiting this planet. Hard to know what to think tbh. Someone is lying.

Disclosure is often referred to as "somber", something that will rattle and change the world in a bittersweet way. What, if anything, could us ordinary citizens do to "soften the blow" so to speak? How could we be better prepared?
Ross: Well, to answer this in reverse: the worst thing that Governments could responsibly ever do is keep us all in the dark because of fear of admission that they don't have all the answers and that we humans are not the apex predator we thought we were.

Is there any statement you've made in the past that you feel was a misstep and see value in correcting or clarifying it here?
Ross: Yeah, I wish I'd never mentioned what I'd been told about the giant UFO craft. People don't seem to be capable of comprehending that I may have very good reasons for not being able to disclose the location. And, I have also emphasised that I have no way of knowing if this craft is real or not because i especially never got to see inside the location. But I have spoken to folks who claim they have. I think a lot of this antipathy is based on the huge misunderstanding that journalists recklessly publish everything they get told. We don't. I regard it as a huge part of my job to take a measured approach with what I disclose about what I learn in journalistic investigation. If people don't understand that then...tough.

Thanks Ross! One question and honestly, a one word answer would be plenty. One word that the community almost certainly hasn't thought of that is relevant, where if relevant stones related to that word were... turned over, it could shave a few years off of any disclosure timeline? Y'know... what word should we all be aggressively Googling?
Ross: Psionic

What do you think is something that the community ought to be paying a lot more attention to?
Ross: Alleged Psionic potential

I already wrote here once about the research of our security company, where only apple products can be used, after the research I am the only one who can use the pixel 8 because it has passed tests including analysis of video calls from different platforms I will note a recent interesting case in our company (I cannot voice the development of a banking application because it is a corporate secret) so I'm the first one who left apple products (iphone) for pixel 8, mainly in apple products (ipad makbook iphone for employees), a colleague became interested in pixel and decided somehow to check and run my pixel through a special wi-fi router, I just had to use it the way I want all day long, it was video calls in different messengers, Internet access via the browser, etc., and he found out in a day that much less extra data is sent than from iPhones and iPads also used in the office through the same special router. He was even shocked by this, he said that confidential data is well encrypted in my pixel 8. Since he is the chief security engineer, he wants to take a tablet from Google and try to use it in our company

"Dude, I've fucked up. Really bad," whispered Chuck.
"What happened?" I asked, from the other end of the line.
“I… killed a patient.”
“I’m sorry man,” I said, “Not many people could do your job. These things happen.”
“No, you don’t understand,” he hissed, sounding alarmed, like he was grasping for words.
“Right, let me put it plain and simple,” he continued, "I grabbed my big ass drill, smashed his unconscious head in on the operating table, and kept bashing until he was dead. Blood everywhere. Nurses screaming. EKG Flatlined."
I was dumbfounded. Silence.
"Why?" I finally choked, hoping he would reply that it was all a prank. It wasn't.
"I don't fucking know," he whimpered. "It was a regular hip replacement, done these hundreds of times with no problem. I was hammering away, I couldn't get the socket in the right place, then… then I just saw red. Normally I would get slightly irritated, adjust the angle a bit and carry on. Like a normal person. But for some reason today, in that moment, I suddenly became more pissed than I have in my entire life. Like, if I rated my anger on a scale of zero to ten, I was a fucking ten thousand. I don't even know why it irritated me so bad. I just wasn't myself. That wasn't me, that wasn't me…" He was crying, and I had no idea what to say.
"Where are you right now?" I asked, after a pause that seemed like eternity. "Where are your colleagues and the patient?"
"I ran from theatre to my office, locked myself in here. But I won't be here for long. They've called security and the police, I saw them doing CPR on the patient. Everyone saw what happened. John, I'm done for. My life is finished. Eight years of med school. A five year residency. Twenty years doing surgeries. My family, friends, kids. Everything. Gone. Down the drain. It was nice knowing you, man."
"Look," I sighed, sweating but trying to sound calm, "If it happened, then it's happened. There's no going back. Just be honest. If you need anything with legal expenses or family stuff, I'll see what I can do to help. Face it. Whatever comes your way, at least you can take pride in the fact that you're not hiding anything or making excuses."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," he said, defeated, "Not much to hide anyway."
Banging erupted from the other end of the line.
"This is the police, open the door!"
"Shit," he muttered, and hung up.
I collapsed backwards onto the bed, shaking, wondering what the hell I had just heard. I pinched my balding head in utter disbelief. Was this a nightmare? My wife found me there breathing heavily. She thought I was having a heart attack. After we both calmed down, I explained the phone call to her. Chuck was my best friend of thirty something years - one of the most successful, smart, talented and level-headed people I knew. And somehow, he had randomly lost his shit over the course of a few seconds.
My wife happened to be a senior manager of the hospital where Chuck practised as a leading orthopaedic surgeon. She was also familiar with him, and saw him regularly at work. So I imagined she was even more disturbed to hear the news.
"What in the bloody devil's name made him do that?" She exclaimed.
"Beats me," I sighed.
"He'll need a wicked lawyer to get out of that one," she shook her head and rubbed her temple.
Perhaps she could pull some strings for Chuck, get him a lighter sentence or something, I suggested. It was awful what he did, but I knew the guy - there was no way he meant it. She said she could try, but was doubtful. In the end, he didn't plead insanity. He admitted to everything up front and got sentenced to life in prison.
Over the next year, three more 'incidents' happened at the hospital where my wife worked. Apparently, a top psychiatrist told a suicidal patient that if they wanted to kill themselves, they should 'just do it', and even provided guidance on the fastest methods. The psychiatrist was promptly fired, and later said she greatly regretted saying that, suggesting she herself may have had psychosis at the time but lacked insight, ironically.
A few months later, a doctor tried to take blood from an elderly demented patient sixty seven times. For context, if the doctor can't find a vein after around three attempts, they're supposed to stop and ask someone else to try, or use imaging guidance. This doctor got so frustrated with himself that he wouldn't stop until the patient was covered in bruises, with no idea what was gong on.
The final incident was the wildest. It involved another surgeon who cut his own finger off with a scalpel and insisted putting it inside the patient's abdominal cavity for "good luck". He was later struck off for obvious reasons. He said he had no idea why he did that, but thought it would be funny at the time.
My wife seemed as baffled as I was. The odd hospital scandal would occur every few years, she explained, but it usually involved something like a doctor shagging a patient or accidentally leaving swabs inside them during surgery. Still pretty horrifying, but innocuous compared to the insanity that had occurred over the last year. Patients and their relatives who were aware, understandably became terrified of attending that hospital. One eighty year old man requested a transfer, literally as he was having a heart attack in the ED.
As the CEO of a technology company myself, I sympathized with their parent company's plummeting share price as investors pulled out by the droves. I suggested to my wife that she should get a new job. I was happy to make recommendations, but she was confident they'd relocate her soon.
I met up with an old friend who was a doctor at a hospital in a different state, and we discussed the recent turn of events over some pad Thai.
"Surely they were on coke or something," he said. "Medical people, we're usually pretty conservative types. Unless we take stuff. Then we go apeshit."
"Nah," I shook my head, "they all tested negative for anything elicit."
"Huh, weird. Sounds like what happens to those homeopaths that microdose weird shit. Maybe there was something in the food," he joked.
I wanted to see the place for myself at least, and do some amateur detective work. If there was a ghost haunting the place turning everyone mad, I might be able to spot that much. One long day at work that seemed to drone on forever, I decided to leave early and hopped on a train to my wife's hospital a few stops away. As I entered through the huge revolving glass doors, all my senses were heightened. There was a few shops on the ground floor, wards and operating theatre on the second, more wards on the third. I had a snoop around and struck up a conversation with a few of the patients and staff, asking them how their day was. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except the place was a lot more empty than when I had last been here a few years ago, for good reason. I sent my wife a text letting her know I was there, but she didn’t reply. Busy woman, I thought, especially with all the recent shenanigans. No point in disturbing her.
Staff were on their lunch break, queuing up on the ground floor cafeteria. Surgeons, nurses, doctors, security guys and other supporting personnel in uniforms. Patients mostly had food in their rooms, and didn't mingle much with the staff. I joined the queue for beef pie, potatoes and salad on the menu. My portions were slapped on the plate and I swiped my credit card, then made my way to a table in the corner.
I picked up my fork and looked down at my food. An uneasy feeling washed over me. What if, I thought, as I remembered the recent conversation with my doctor friend. There was a one in a million chance, but curiosity could never hurt. Once the idea had been planted in my mind, however improbable it was, I was now convinced I shouldn't eat this.
I opened a plastic bag and poured my entire plate into an empty plastic bag I had in my briefcase. Later, I sent a sample of the potatoes off to a toxicology lab. I laughed to myself at the insanity of it all, as I was stuffing the boiled potato into a plastic tube. The ideas I came up with were really hit or miss, as my wife would put it. Still, my intuition had gotten me reasonably far in business and in life. 'Try, fail, iterate, succeed' was my life motto. But above all, I always had good fun and learned something new.
The report on the sample came back a week later. I scratched my head as I stared in disbelief.
Toxic levels of mercury in the sample, it concluded.
"You sure this is right?" I called them.
"We've repeated it five times," said the guy on the other end, "where'd you even get that from?" I was too stunned to speak.
"Well," he continued, "might want to file a police report against whoever's poisoning your potatoes. Just sayin'."
"I got it from some food they were serving at a hospital cafeteria, you know the one," I finally said.
"Oh, that hospital. Blimey. Explains a lot."
"But… surely it can't be," I stammered, "Must be an accident. A leak or something. Or some motherfucker's got balls of steel. It's a bloody hospital. They really thought nobody would find out?"
"You say that, but this has been under the radar for…" he paused, "almost two years now?"
"Don't they get blood tests or something? Checkups? Anything?"
"The patients, yeah. Not the doctors. Certainly wouldn't get toxicology tests for no reason if they don't show any symptoms," he scoffed, "I mean, the amount of mercury in that potato, if it was the same concentration throughout the whole meal, definitely ain't enough to kill a person. You wouldn't notice anything after a meal. You might've heard of some Russian who tried to assassinate a guy with it a couple years back, it's like a thousandth of the amount used there. But mercury builds up in your blood. It's hard to get rid of. So if you ate a bit every day and it stacked up, well… wouldn't be hard to imagine someone going off their rocker after a few weeks."
I did a quick Google search. Side effects of mercury poisoning: reduction in muscle strength, problems with memory, mood swings, mental health issues, among other concerning symptoms.
Jesus, I thought, no wonder Chuck went mad. The cafeteria food was slowly killing him. I rushed to the nearest police office to file a report, and called my wife on the way. When she didn't pick up, I texted her. Honey, this is going to seem out of the blue, DO NOT eat the food at the hospital. Come home ASAP, will explain. My wife was a health nut, and usually packed her own lunch, but I wasn't risking it. I gave the police the story and report, and a few hours of questioning later, they said they would look into it and stay in contact. I returned home late that night, eager to tell my wife about what had happened, but she still wasn't home. She hadn't called me, and didn't reply to any of my texts.
I later found out that she had been arrested.
As soon as I made the report earlier that afternoon, they dispatched a group of officers to the hospital and confirmed that the canteen food did indeed contain toxic levels of mercury. They quickly interviewed the chefs, staff, patients and managers. All the ground floor stores were shut down. Anyone under suspicion was brought to the police station for further questioning. After the first round of a length investigation, it turns out that, the managers collectively orchestrated the plan.
They asked chefs to sprinkle mercury in all the dishes, telling them it was vitamins, and had been doing so for the past two years. The company had been experiencing financial trouble as a result of some poor investment decisions. For some reason, they decided the best way to downsize and cover that up at the same time was to make the staff mentally ill so they would make more mistakes, and eventually get the place shut down as a result of it. They all knew this whole time - ten of them in total, including my wife. While it was hard to pin the blame on any single person, things didn't look good for any of them. The case had gained widespread attention, and no amount of money or connections was getting them out of this one. Some people even accused me of being in on it, despite being the one to blow the whistle in the first place.
I visited my wife at the police station. My mind drew a blank when I saw her.
"I know what you're going to say," she said tearfully, "How could I? You're going to say you married a monster."
"You killed innocent people," I said quietly, "while you lied to me every night."
"I don't know what was going through my mind. You're not going to believe me. When they suggested it, for some reason, we were all convinced it was the perfect idea at the time. All ten of us. The company wasn't doing so well. A bunch of executives had invested in some dumb shit that went into the ground with company, and they were scrambling to hide it and fudge the accounting. All the clinics ran on debt for months. Then they told us the only way to survive was to downsize - they did the math, and the entire hospital would have to close. And the only way to fire a shit ton of people for no reason without bringing suspicion was to make doctors fuck up and blame it on them. We were promised bonuses and they told us as long as we played along, our jobs would be safe. We'd get relocated to a competitor if things ever went south. They gave us a bunch of reasons for why we'd never get caught."
I put my head in my hands, exasperated.
"Sarah, are you hearing yourself right now?"
"Baby," she said, sobbing at this point, "I don't know why I did it. You know me, I would never do something like this. Yet when they told us to, I couldn't help but think it was the best idea anyone had ever thought of," she wept.
"If the executives told you to jump off a cliff, you'd do it too?"
My heart ached. I looked at her pitifully, seeing the sweet girl I had met at university.
"The execs didn't come up with the idea either," she said solemnly. "By they, I meant The Advisory."
I stopped.
"Wait, you mean… The Advisory and Company?"
She nodded.
The Advisory & Co. was a management consulting firm. They were one of those weird mysterious companies marketed, exclusively by word of mouth to counsel executives on how to improve efficiency in their businesses. An old colleague of mine who became the chief operations officer of a large retail company had recommended them to me a few years back, and I had received several more since then.
"They're just amazing," he told me, "they tell you how to cut and people don't even get offended. Sounded too good to be true, obviously I was sceptical at first. But they've got their ways. You've got to try them, I can set you up for a meeting. They've reinvented us," he said, excited and starry eyed. Annoyingly, he had the balance sheets to show for it. They claimed to have several high profile clients, but who they worked with and even employed as partners was a closely guarded secret. There was rumor that the consultants they employed weren't even allowed to say they worked for The Advisory.
I never took on those recommendations, despite the glowing reviews. Wasn't a fan of those companies in the business of 'doing business', telling you to cut costs just so you can pay them millions. Gave me Ponzi vibes. The intelligence could be helpful, but I never bothered to look into it.
"They told you to poison people with mercury?"
"Yeah, and somehow convinced us it was a great idea. I must not have lost my mind, I really don't know how," she repeated.
"Well," I said, shocked, "that's something to bring up in court."
"Nobody even knows who works for them," she said, "Some people think they don't even exist. Who are they gonna arrest? When we met with them, they all wore masks. Besides, you can't arrest someone for giving advice. They tell us what to do, we do it because we trust them and paid them a crap ton, then we take all the blame."
"They wore masks? What is this, a horror movie?"
"They had their reasons," she insisted.
"Why would you trust a faceless company to tell you what to do?"
"They had stunning reviews from people we really trusted. When we spoke to them, they knew everything. All the insider secrets from the competition."
"That's the biggest red flag ever." I shook my head. "If they told you the competitors' secrets, what's to stop them telling them yours? Worse yet, if a competitor is paying them more than you, what's to stop them stabbing you in the back? I mean, they literally tried to recruit you to a competitor. Could it get any more obvious?"
She struggled to come up with an answer. My biggest question was still how on earth all ten of them decided it was a 'good idea'. People in the business space often get brainwashed by social proof and the promise of big bucks to the point of losing their morality, especially under desperate circumstances. Nothing new. I liked to think I was one of the better guys, but looking back, even I made a few deals that I now regret for reasons other than financial. But this was no greed - it was utter stupidity. I struggled to fathom that I was talking to the intelligent, righteous girl I had married twenty eight years ago who wanted to cure cancer.
"I'll have a dig into this company, and see what I find. Other than that…" I looked down. "I really have nothing to say."
"You've got to help me, John, please!" She wailed, as I left the station.
I got in touch with the old colleague who had recommended me The Advisory.
"Ah, finally seeing the light are you now, Johnny?" He chuckled, as he handed me a phone number on a torn slip of paper. "It'll be very weird at first. Believe me, I was very weirded out. But I assure you, they know their stuff."
"Can't hurt to try," I said, smiling painfully.
I sat alone on my couch that evening as I called the number. A friendly woman's voice beamed from the other end.
"Good evening, The Advisory speaking. How may we help?"
"Hello, I was recommended your services by a good friend of mine," I said, "So I was wondering-"
"Brilliant!" The voice exclaimed. "We'll order a taxi over to pick you up right outside your doorstep on Brock Lane in roughly twenty minutes. All expenses covered. Talk soon!" The line hung up.
I had never felt both accommodated and violated at the same time. Realistically, I understood that they had so many connections that extracting my personal data from some random company I had given it to in the past was like a piece of cake. Either that, or they hacked my phone in five seconds. So this is the full Advisory & Co. experience, I thought. Fuck, I'm getting kidnapped. I scribbled a note on a piece of paper and left it on my dining room table. 'If I disappear, The Advisory killed me.'
Against my better judgement, I stepped outside. A black Mercedes AMG slipped onto my road, and a man in a white mask stepped out. It was the smiling variant of one of those comedy-tragedy theatre masks. Weird is an understatement, I thought, I'm in the fucking Purge or something.
"Good evening sir," the man said,
"Hi," I waved.
"I'm your driver, here to ensure a comfortable ride. For security purposes, we must check your person and ask you to leave all communication devices and valuables in the safe. They will be returned at the end of the meeting."
He opened up the boot which contained a large grey safe, door open. I hesitantly put my phone and wallet in the safe as he patted me down. He fished my house keys from my pocket. "And these too," he said, tossing them into the safe. He slammed the boot and opened the back passenger door for me. I climbed in and was enveloped by the scent of Febreeze.
The entire drive lasted over an hour. We turned into corners I never thought existed, and by the time I arrived, I had no clue where I was. Proabably as intended. The masked man opened the door for me, and I stepped out to see a massive glass building in the shape of a pyramid, as tall as a skyscraper. The ground floor was enormous and had black tinted windows all the way around. The floors above were completely transparent, and masked people lounged around in offices. They were drinking coffee, typing at computers and talking to each other. I remember thinking it was oddly quiet outside for a street with so many tall buildings.
I followed the masked man to a set of tall, revolving glass doors, and entered. A woman wearing the same mask was waiting for me at the lobby.
"Lovely to meet you, Mr Walker. You can call me Juliette," even though I couldn't see her face, I could hear a smile through her voice.
"Evening," I nodded.
"This way," she gestured to the elevator. We got inside and she pushed the button to the tenth floor.
"You look a little nervous," she said, "I'll address the elephant in the room now. As you can tell, we operate differently to other consulting companies. In other words, we're weird." Glad we're on the same page with that one, I thought, as I laughed politely.
"That's because our intelligence is unrivalled by any other firm. So we protect the identities of our partners, who work hard to solve real world problems with the most influential organizations."
We stepped out of the elevator.
"Who have you worked with?" I asked.
"The identity of all our clients is also strictly confidential, because we sometimes do advise competing organizations," she replied, leading me to a glass cubicle. I was surprised by her transparency. "For instance, we advise pharmaceutical companies, but also regulators. We work with governments, but also unions. Political parties from both sides of the spectrum. Aviation companies and global warming activists. We've probably worked with most organizations you've ever heard of at one point or another, so it's my pleasure to be welcoming you onboard."
I raised my eyebrows.
"I sense alarm bells ringing. You're probably thinking that's a conflict of interest," she paused.
"You read my mind," I replied. She laughed.
"You're not alone. Our policy is client first, but here we believe the sharing of information benefits not only clients but humanity as a whole. Look at it this way. When pharmaceutical companies better understand regulators' intentions, which are to keep the public safe, they can better tailor their processes to comply. When regulators understand the challenges pharmaceutical companies face, they can be better informed about what is a realistic guideline to implement. Win-win for both sides."
"And I assume you advise companies competing in the same industry," I said.
"Of course, but the same applies. Sharing information between them increases competition, which improves the consumer experience as a whole and thus the entire industry. Or perhaps a merger would benefit them. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We can advise in that case. But as a veteran of the business world, I'm sure you know all this, Mr Walker."
She gestured to a seat which I took, and I perched on a couch opposite. A shiny glass desk separated us, a coffee on her side, a hot chocolate on my side, waiting for us as we entered. I resisted the urge to gulp the entire thing down.
"Anyway, enough of this economics mumbo-jumbo. How can I help you today?" she beamed.
"Just wanted to see what you guys thought, get a run down of my company and see where I can improve," I said nonchalantly.
"Of course." She pulled up a slide on a large projector. "We've analysed your company and identified 574 potential areas of efficiency improvement. Many of these changes are simple, free things you can do to implement, but will make a massive difference to your bottom line. Here," she handed me the clicker. "Have a look."
I spent about twenty minutes flicking through the Powerpoint slides. To my astonishment, their analysis and suggestions made perfect sense. I knew my company well, but for many of them, I wondered how I had never thought of that before.
"The first fifteen slides are free to view. They contain just twenty suggestions. We will cover the remaining 554 over several meetings after negotiating a payment contract. But no pressure. Whether you want to work with us, or implement any of the suggestions we make is entirely up to you. We're just here to advise, and we won't force you into anything."
"I'll let you know, thank you," I said.
"Just give us a call and we'll be right at your doorstep. Hope that wasn't too much of a surprise." Her voice was cheerful.
I laughed nervously and we went back down to the ground floor. My wallet, keys and phone were returned to me untampered. The same masked taxi driver chauffeured me back along the hour long winding path to my front door, and I collapsed onto my living room couch, alone again in my dark house. It was 4AM.
They were odd indeed, but not unreasonable. Certainly not the types to suggest a mass poisoning a hospital. Just some admittedly brilliant corporate analysts in masks, who knew a little too much about everything and everyone. It was a little uncomfortable, but as they said, it didn't have to be a bad thing. Especially if the rest of those slides were anything like the first twenty pages. I shuddered at the very real possibility that my wife was just a terrible person, trying to pin the blame on an entity that wouldn't be there to defend itself. I glanced at the note I had left on the table. Silly, I thought. Maybe years in this job had left me paranoid of corporate, while unable to accept the reality that my wife wasn't the person I thought she was.
I probably would have been fully duped, maybe even booked a second consultation, if it weren't for one thing.
During the meeting, I looked at the hot chocolate on the table, and that what if thought came back to me. There were surveillance cameras everywhere around the pyramid, even inside, so it wasn't like I could've poured that stuff into my bag. As Juliette (if that was even her real name) was busy pulling up the slides, I stood up to straighten out my shirt. In the process, I dipped one of the shirt tails in the hot chocolate, my back facing the camera in the corner of the room. It had dried by the time we finished talking. I sent the shirt off to the toxicology lab for analysis, and the results came back a few days later. Toxic levels of mercury in the cotton.
I can't imagine what that must have felt like, to be stuck wondering why you were a different person at some moment in time. Neither my wife or Chuck knew why they did what they did. But now I know.
The courts are going to have a field day with this one.

To be clear, my parents are not abusive and they do love me and my brother. Also, they are Chinese (this is important).
I (F20) have problems with my mom (F46) and my dad (48). They never abused me or my brother (M18), and they had to deal with abusive parents (they were both the unfavorites in their respective families) who they reconciled with later in life.
But there are some things that have happened in my life that makes me realize that I'm happier without them:

• When I was in eighth grade, my class did a fundraiser for people in Japan, and we were supposed to write letters to them. We were supposed to ask our parents for help. I ask my mom and dad, and that's the day I learned about the Rape of Nanjing and why they will never support Japanese people. I ended up having to tell my teacher that.
• When I was ten/eleven, I switched violin teachers to a French man. After our first class, he pulled my mother aside to talk. He said that I was remarkably shy, and asked if everything was alright at home. On the ride back home, my mother treated me to a ten-minute rant on how my shyness made her look like a bad mom.
• On one of my yearly checkup appointments, my doctor pulled my aside for a confidential conversation, which she told my mother was private. She noticed that I showed symptoms for depression, and gave me some numbers to contact. When we left, my mother immediately asked me about it, saying that "I'm your mother" excuse, and only stopped when I said she was making me uncomfortable.
• They keep making me second guess myself, but offer me no solutions or help. I want braces (I had a snaggletooth), my mom says "It'll be painful, you don't have to get it." I want to study accounting (my dad recommended it), my dad says "It'll be too hard, what do you really want to do?" I want to study teaching, "why? Are you good with kids?"
• I actually broke down in front of them, screaming about my possible depression, and my mom's first question: "Did we do something?" My mom keeps checking with me, asking if I'm "sad." They don't seem to understand what depression really is and they don't seem to understand that sometimes, depression doesn't have a plausible cause.
• I like watching video essays, especially ones that analyze video games, movies, etc. My dad saw me watching one, and told me it was "garbage" and I should watch something "useful." When I explained it was a deep dive into character psychology and that I liked it, he said it was filled with "lies" and that stuff should be reserved for psychiatrists.
• When I went to Virginia for college, my parents asked that I call them. I agreed, but I wasn't able to be consistent with it, going weeks without calling. I felt lighter and happier, and when they did call, they greeted me with "Why didn't you call? Don't you love us?" I can't explain it, but being on the call was just draining. I talked with my college friends in groups of 4 or 5, for 2 hours, and I'm more energetic than anything. Talking with my parents over the phone for less than 10 minutes just makes me feel like my life is getting sucked out of me, and I don't recover until tomorrow.
• They don't like me swearing, slouching, wearing certain clothes, not because it's "bad." It just makes me look "poorly raised" (I make them look bad).
• They always make jokes about my height, saying if I exercised more, I could grow taller. Well, I can't exercise if you keep using the bike as a coat rack. It also doesn't help that you keep making a big deal of it.
• They don't like my "duck feet," blaming me for it, saying it was my fault since I didn't listen to them when I was younger. They don't show me how to correct it, other than "walking straight." (I'm pretty sure I fixed it, though)
• They buy me things I don't want/need, make me use it, then are upset when I'm honest that I don't want them. In elementary school, my mom once brought home free books, expecting me to like them. I lashed out at her (I was terrible, I won't deny it) accusing her of forcing me to read. She hid them away, and when I calmed down, I apologized and asked for them. She was passive-aggressive, but forgave me. My mom brought me and my bro iPad stands (too big, too heavy, our iPad cases already had fold-up cases that serve as stands), and when we pointed out how useless they were, she said we were "spoiled."

My biggest problem is with my dad. I used to be a daddy's girl, and he taught me a lot about philosophy and Chinese history, but now, I'm ashamed of him.

• My dad is right-leaning/neoliberalist. His argument: "I grew up in Communist China. Communist = Left. Democrats want to make this country Communist. Do you want to live in Communism?" Weird thing is that he actually convinced me at the time.
• He said that Trump wasn't responsible for the January 6th attack. He says that Trump was actively trying to change the country, and despite his personal life choices, we should give him a chance.
• He does not support BLM. He tried to "educate" me by pointing me to Candace Owens. His argument: "She can say these things because she's black." He used to tell me that black people were favored over Chinese, and that no matter how good my grades are, they would always pick a Black boy with 80% over a Chinese girl with 100%.
• My dad supports Israel. I overheard him having a discussion with my brother, and he said that he thinks Netanyahu is a hero. Let that sink in for a moment.

I really don't know what to do. I feel like Vaegon from ASoIaF, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to cut my parents off completely. I also don't know. how much of this is just my own problems, or if my parents have a problem. I thought about sending this list to them when I moved out, but just thinking about it leaves me drained.

Hello all. My friends house in Boston, Massachusetts was recently burned down due to an ipad that was left on couch( possibly due to battery fire or overheating). Now the housing management has issued a notice that from police investigation it was deemed that the fire was man made and issued a notice for eviction. When asked to show the report they told them that it is confidential and cannot reveal any details regarding the investigation. What can my friends do to get the investigation report and can the housing management press charges on them on this matter?

I have a HP wireless inkjet printer. It’s just a simple home printer, but I’m wondering when I print something who can see that? I’m the only one that uses it at home. I printed a file from my iPad which contains some confidential information I don’t want anybody to see. This led me to think… can anybody see? I thought that people could literally be printing illegal things and would anybody know? Basically, who can view the file I printed, like would the police or government see that or the HP company? Especially if I’m printing confidential information. Thanks guys!

DeCC - Decentralized Confidential Computation is quickly emerging as a major Web3 game-changer. As the buzz around this narrative intensifies, I've caught wind of an exciting debut set to unveil the tech to the public. It's none other than the DeCC side event at #NFTNYC.
Starting on Wednesday, April 3rd, this event promises to blend lively discussions and networking with the dynamic realm of Web3, all while spotlighting themes of privacy, innovation, and security. What's truly remarkable is that DeCC @ NFTNYC is co-presented by Secret Network and Silentswap, in collaboration with Station3NYC and Women in Blockchain. This solidifies Secret's pivotal role in pioneering the DeCC technology.
But what's in store at DeCC @ NFTNYC? Prepare for enlightening panel discussions on cross-chain confidential computing and decentralized asset protection, complemented by a showcase of groundbreaking projects reshaping Web3 security.
Already, a lineup of industry leaders and visionaries has been confirmed to grace the event. I’m talking about Lisa Loud, the ED of Secret Foundation, who'll be the MC, alongside seasoned crypto expert Wendy O as moderator and panelist. Shibtoshi, the Founder of SquidGrow, and SilentSwap as Co-Host and Speaker, Gav Blaxberg, the CEO of WOLF Financial as a speaker.
And more luminaries such as Sam Kelly, the Chairman of EvergrowCoinEGC, and CEO of AtlasWallet, Tor Bair, the Founder of Stashh, Andy Lian, the Best-selling Author of NFT: From Zero to Hero, Anthony Simonet-Bulogne, the Head of Research & Innovation at iEx, Isla Rose, the CEO and Co-Founder of SatorSAO, Robert Pollock, Co-founder of PageDAO, and Megan Nillson, the Founder and Host of the Crypto Megan Podcast.

forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2024/03/29/how-stability-ais-founder-tanked-his-billion-dollar-startup/
no paywall: https://archive.is/snbeV
How Stability AI’s Founder Tanked His Billion-Dollar Startup
Mar 29, 2024
Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque took the stage last week at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, California to roaring applause and an introduction from an AI-generated Aristotle who announced him as “a modern Prometheus” with “the astuteness of Athena and the vision of Daedalus.”
“Under his stewardship, AI becomes the Herculean force poised to vanquish the twin serpents of illness and ailment and extend the olive branch of longevity,” the faux Aristotle proclaimed.
“I think that’s the best intro I’ve ever had,” Mostaque said.
But behind Mostaque's hagiographic introduction lay a grim and fast metastasizing truth. Stability, once one of AI’s buzziest startups, was floundering. It had been running out of money for months and Mostaque had been unable to secure enough additional funding. It had defaulted on payments to Amazon whose cloud service undergirded Stability’s core offerings. The star research team behind its flagship text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion had tendered their resignations just three days before — as Forbes would first report — and other senior leaders had issued him an ultimatum: resign, or we walk too.
Still, onstage before a massive audience of peers and acolytes, Mostaque talked a big game. “AI is jet planes for the mind,” he opined. “AI is our collective intelligence. It's the human Colossus.” He claimed a new, faster version of the Stable Diffusion image generator released earlier this month could generate “200 cats with hats per second.” But later, when he was asked about Stability’s financial model, Mostaque fumbled. “I can’t say that publicly,” he replied. “But it’s going well. We’re ahead of forecast.”
Four days later, Mostaque stepped down as CEO of Stability, as Forbes first reported. In a post to X, the service formerly known as Twitter, he claimed he’d voluntarily abdicated his role to decentralize “the concentration of power in AI.” But sources told Forbes that was hardly the case. Behind the scenes, Mostaque had fought to maintain his position and control despite mounting pressure externally and internally to step down. Company documents and interviews with 32 current and former employees, investors, collaborators and industry observers suggest his abrupt exit was the result of poor business judgment and wild overspending that undermined confidence in his vision and leadership, and ultimately kneecapped the company.
Mostaque, through his attorneys, declined to comment on record on a detailed list of questions about the reporting in this story. But in an email to Forbes earlier this week he broadly disputed the allegations. “Nobody tells you how hard it is to be a CEO and there are better CEOs than me to scale a business,” he said in a statement. “I am not sure anyone else would have been able to build and grow the research team to build the best and most widely used models out there and I’m very proud of the team there. I look forward to moving onto the next problem to handle and hopefully move the needle.”
In an emailed statement, Christian Laforte and Shan Shan Wong, the interim co-CEOs who replaced Mostaque, said, "the company remains focused on commercializing its world leading technology” and providing it “to partners across the creative industries."
After starting Stability in 2019, Mostaque built the company into an early AI juggernaut by seizing upon a promising research project that would become Stable Diffusion and funding it into a business reality. The ease with which the software generated detailed images from the simplest text prompts immediately captivated the public: 10 million people used it on any given day, the company told Forbes in early 2023. For some true believers, Mostaque was a crucial advocate for open-source AI development in a space dominated by the closed systems of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
But his startup’s rise to one of the buzziest in generative AI was in part built on a series of exaggerations and misleading claims, as Forbes first reported last year (Mostaque disputed some points at the time). And they continued after he raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation just days after launching Stable Diffusion in 2022. His failure to deliver on an array of grand promises, like building bespoke AI models for nation states, and his decision to pour tens of millions into research without a sustainable business plan, eroded Stability’s foundations and jeopardized its future.
"He was just giving shit away,” one former employee told Forbes. “That man legitimately wanted to transform the world. He actually wanted to train AI models for kids in Malawi. Was it practical? Absolutely not."
By October 2023, Stability would have less than $4 million left in the bank, according to an internal memo prepared for a board meeting and reviewed by Forbes. And mounting debt, including months of overdue Amazon Web Services payments, had already left it in the red. To avoid legal penalties for skipping Americans staff’s payroll, the document explained, the London-based startup was considering delaying tax payments to the U.K. government.
It was Stability’s armada of GPUs, the wildly powerful and equally expensive chips undergirding AI, that were so taxing the company’s finances. Hosted by AWS, they had long been one of Mostaque’s bragging points; he often touted them as one of the world’s 10 largest supercomputers. They were responsible for helping Stability’s researchers build and maintain one of the top AI image generators, as well as break important new ground on generative audio, video and 3D models. “Undeniably, Stability has continued to ship a lot of models,” said one former employee. “They may not have profited off of it, but the broader ecosystem benefitted in a huge, huge way.”
But the costs associated with so much compute were now threatening to sink the company. According to an internal October financial forecast seen by Forbes, Stability was on track to spend $99 million on compute in 2023. It noted as well that Stability was “underpaying AWS bills for July (by $1M)” and “not planning to pay AWS at the end of October for August usage ($7M).” Then there were the September and October bills, plus $1 million owed to Google Cloud and $600,000 to GPU cloud data center CoreWeave. (Amazon, Google and CoreWeave declined to comment.)
With an additional $54 million allocated to wages and operating expenses, Stability’s total projected costs for 2023 were $153 million. But according to its October financial report, its projected revenue for the calendar year was just $11 million. Stability was on track to lose more money per month than it made in an entire year.
The company’s dire financial position had thoroughly soured Stability’s current investors, including Coatue, which had invested tens of millions in the company during its $101 million funding round in 2022. In the middle of 2023, Mostaque agreed to an independent audit after Coatue raised a series of concerns, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The outcome of the investigation is unclear. Coatue declined to comment.
Within a week of an early October board meeting where Mostaque shared that financial forecast, Lightspeed Venture Partners, another major investor, sent a letter to the board urging them to sell the company. The distressing numbers had “severely undermined” the firm’s confidence in Mostaque’s ability to lead the company.
“In particular, we are surprised and deeply concerned by a cash position just now disclosed to us that is inconsistent with prior discussions on this topic,” Lightspeed’s general counsel Brett Nissenberg wrote in the letter, a copy of which was viewed by Forbes. “Lightspeed believes that the company is not likely financeable on terms that would assure the company’s long term sound financial position.” (Lightspeed declined a request for comment.)
The calls for a sale led Stability to quietly begin looking for a buyer. Bloomberg reported in November that Stability approached AI startups Cohere and Jasper to gauge their interest. Stability denied this, and Jasper CEO Timothy Young did the same when reached for comment by Forbes. A Cohere representative declined to comment.
But one prominent AI company confirmed that Mostaque’s representatives had reached out to them to test the waters. Those talks did not advance because “the numbers didn’t add up,” this person, who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the talks, told Forbes. Stability also tried to court Samsung as a buyer, going so far as to redecorate its office in advance of a planned meeting with the Korean electronics giant. (Samsung said that it invested in Stability in 2023 and that it does not comment on M&A discussions.)
Coatue had been calling for Mostaque’s resignation for months, according to a source with direct knowledge. But it and other investors were unable to oust him because he was the company’s majority shareholder. When they tried a different tact by rallying other investors to offer him a juicy equity package to resign, Mostaque refused, said two sources. By October, Coatue and Lightspeed had had enough. Coatue left the board and Lightspeed resigned its observer seat.
“Emad infuriated our initial investors so much it’s just making it impossible for us to raise more money under acceptable terms,” one current Stability executive told Forbes.
The early months of 2024 saw Stability’s already precarious position eroding further still. Employees were quietly laid off. Three people in a position to know estimated that at least 10% of staff were cut. And cash reserves continued to dwindle. Mostaque mentioned a lifeline at the October board meeting: $95 million in tentative funding from new investors, pending due diligence. But in the end, only a fraction of it was wired, two sources say, much of it from Intel, which Forbes has learned invested $20 million, a fraction of what was reported. (Intel did not return a request for comment by publication time.)
Two hours after Forbes broke the news of Mostaque’s plans to step down as CEO, Stability issued a press release confirming his resignation. Chief operating officer Wong and chief technology officer Laforte have taken over in the interim. Mostaque, who said on X that he still owns a majority of the company, also stepped down from the board, which has now initiated a search for a permanent CEO. There is a lot of work to be done to turn things around, and very little time in which to do it. Said the current Stability executive, “There’s still a possibility of a turnaround story, but the odds drop by the day.”
In July of 2023, Mostaque still thought he could pull it off. Halfway through the month, he shared a fundraising plan with his lieutenants. It was wildly optimistic, detailing the raise of $500 million in cash and another $750 million in computing facilities from marquee investors like Nvidia, Google, Intel and the World Bank (Nvidia and Google declined comment. Intel did not respond. The World Bank said it did not invest in Stability). In a Slack message reviewed by Forbes, Mostaque said Google was “willing to move fast” and the round was “likely to be oversubscribed.”
It wasn’t. Three people with direct knowledge of these fundraising efforts told Forbes that while there was some interest in Stability, talks often stalled when it came time to disclose financials. Two of them noted that earlier in the year, Mostaque had simply stopped engaging with VCs who asked for numbers. Only one firm invested around that time: actor Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, which invested $35 million in the form of a convertible SAFE note during the second quarter, according to an internal document. (Sound Ventures did not respond to a request for comment.)
And though he’d managed to score a meeting with Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang, it ended in disaster, according to two sources. “Under Jensen's microscopic questions, Emad just fell apart,” a source in position to know told Forbes. Huang quickly concluded Stability wasn’t ready for an investment from Nvidia, the sources said. Mostaque told Forbes in an email that he had not met with Huang since 2022, except to say “hello and what’s up a few times after.” His July 2023 message references a plan to raise $150 million from Nvidia. (Nvidia declined to comment.)
After a June Forbes investigation citing more than 30 sources revealed Mostaque’s history of misleading claims, Mostaque struggled to raise funding, a Stability investor told Forbes. (Mostaque disputed the story at the time and called it "coordinated lies" in his email this week to Forbes). Increasingly, investors scrutinized his assertions and pressed for data. And Young, now the CEO of Jasper, turned down a verbal offer to be Stability’s president after reading the article, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The collapse of the talks aggravated the board and other executives, who had hoped Young would compensate for the sales and business management skills that Mostaque lacked, according to four people in a position to know. (Young declined to comment.)
When Stability’s senior leadership convened in London for the CogX conference in September, the financing had still not closed. There, a group of executives confronted Mostaque asking questions about the company’s cash position and runway, according to three people with direct knowledge of the incident. They did not get the clarity they’d hoped for.
By October, Mostaque had reduced his fundraising target by more than 80%.
The months that followed saw a steady drumbeat of departures — general counsel Adam Avrunin, vice presidents Mike Melnicki, Ed Newton-Rex and Joe Penna, chief people officer Ozden Onder — culminating in the demoralizing March exit of Stable Diffusion’s primary developers Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, Patrick Esser and Dominik Lorenz. Rombach, who led the team, had been angling to leave for months, two sources said, first threatening to resign last summer because of the fundraising failures. Others left over concerns about cash flow, as well as liabilities — including what four people described as Mostaque’s lax approach to ensuring that Stability products could not be used to produce child sexual abuse imagery.
“Stability AI is committed to preventing the misuse of AI and prohibits the use of our image models and services for unlawful activity, including attempts to edit or create CSAM,” Ella Irwin, senior vice president of integrity, said in a statement.
Newton-Rex told Forbes he resigned because he disagreed with Stability’s position that training AI on copyrighted work without consent is fair use. Melnicki and Penna declined to comment. Avrunin and Onder could not be reached for comment. None of the researchers responded to requests for comment.
The Stable Diffusion researchers’ departure as a cohort says a lot about the state of Stability AI. The company’s researchers were widely viewed as its crown jewels, their work subsidized with a firehose of pricey compute power that was even extended to people outside the company. Martino Russi, an artificial intelligence researcher, told Forbes that though he was never formally employed by Stability, the company provided him a “staggering” amount of compute between January and April 2023 to play around with developing an AI video generator that Stability might someday use. “It was Candy Land or Coney Island,” said Russi, who estimates that his experiment, which was ultimately shelved, cost the company $2.5 million.
Stable Diffusion was simultaneously Stability’s marquee product and its existential cash crisis. One current employee described it to Forbes as “a giant vacuum that absorbed everything: money, compute, people.” While the software was widely used, with Mostaque claiming downloads reaching into the hundreds of millions, Stability struggled to translate that wild success into revenue. Mostaque knew it could be done — peers at Databricks, Elastic and MongoDB had all turned a free product into a lucrative business — he just couldn’t figure out how.
His first attempt was Stability’s API, which allowed paying customers to integrate Stable Diffusion into their own products. In early 2023, a handful of small companies, like art generator app NightCafe and presentation software startup Tome, signed on, according to four people with knowledge of the deals. But Stability’s poor account management services soured many, and in a matter of months NightCafe and Tome canceled their contracts, three people said. NightCafe founder Angus Russell told Forbes that his company switched to a competitor which “offered much cheaper inference costs and a broader service.” Tome did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Mostaque’s efforts to court larger companies like Samsung and Snapchat were failing, according to five people familiar with the effort. Canva, which was already one of the heaviest users of open-sourced Stable Diffusion, had multiple discussions with Stability, which was angling for a contract it hoped would generate several millions in annual revenue. But the deal never materialized, four sources said.
“These three companies wanted and needed us,” one former employee told Forbes. “They would have been the perfect customers.” (Samsung, Snap and Canva declined to comment.)
“It’s not that there was not an appetite to pay Stability — there were tons of companies that would have that wanted to,” the former employee said. “There was a huge opportunity and demand, but just a resistance to execution.”
Mostaque’s other big idea was to provide governments with bespoke national AI models that would invigorate their economies and citizenry. “Emad envisions a world where AI through 100 national models serves not as a tool of the few, but as a benefactor to all promising to confront great adversaries, cancer, autism, and the sands of time itself,” the AI avatar of Aristotle said in his intro at the conference.
Mostaque told several prospective customers that he could deliver such models within 60 days — an untenable timeline, according to two people in position to know. Stability attempted to develop a model for the Singaporean government over the protestation of employees who questioned its technical feasibility, three sources familiar with the effort told Forbes. But it couldn’t pull it off and Singapore never became a customer. (The government of Singapore confirmed it did not enter into a deal with Stability, but declined to answer additional questions.)
As Stability careened from one new business idea to another, resources were abruptly reallocated and researchers reassigned. The whiplash shifts in a largely siloed organization demoralized and infuriated employees. “There were ‘urgent’ things, ‘urgent urgent’ things and ‘most urgent,’” one former employee complained. “None of these things seem important if everything is important.”
Another former Stability executive was far more pointed in their assessment. “Emad is the most disorganized leader I have ever worked with in my career,” this person told Forbes. “He has no vision, and changes directions every week, often based on what he sees on Twitter.”
In a video interview posted shortly before this story was published, Mostaque explained his leadership style: “I'm particularly great at taking creatives, developers, researchers, others, and achieving their full potential in designing systems. But I should not be dealing with, you know, HR and operations and business development and other elements. There are far better people than me to do that.”
By December 2023, Stability had partially abandoned its open-source roots and announced that any commercial use of Stable Diffusion would cost customers at least $20 per month (non-commercial and research use of Stable Diffusion would remain free).
But privately, Stability was considering a potentially more lucrative source of revenue: reselling the compute it was leasing from providers like AWS, according to six people familiar with the effort. Though it was essentially GPU arbitrage, Stability framed the strategy to investors as a “managed services” offering. Its damning October financial report projected optimistically that such an offering would bring in $139 million in 2024 — 98% of its revenue. Multiple employees at the time told Forbes they feared reselling compute, even if the company called it “managed services,” would violate the terms of Stability’s contract with AWS. Amazon declined to comment. “The line internally was that we are not reselling compute,” one former employee said. “This was some of the dirtiest feeling stuff.”
Stability also discussed reselling a cluster of Nvidia A100 chips, leased via CoreWeave, to the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, three sources said. “It was under the guise of managed services, but there wasn’t any management happening,” one of these people told Forbes. Andreessen Horowitz and CoreWeave declined to comment.
Stability did not respond to questions about if it plans to continue this strategy now that Mostaque is out of the picture. Regardless, interim co-CEOs Wong and Laforte are on a tight timeline to clean up his mess. Board chairman Jim O’Shaughnessy said in a statement that he was confident the pair “will adeptly steer the company forward in developing and commercializing industry-leading generative AI products.” But burn continues to far outpace revenue. The Financial Times reported Friday that the company made $5.4 million of revenue in February, against $8 million in costs. Several sources said there are ongoing concerns about making payroll for the roughly 150 remaining employees. Leadership roles have gone vacant for months amid the disarray, leaving the company increasingly directionless.
Meanwhile, a potentially catastrophic legal threat looms over the company: A trio of copyright infringement lawsuits brought by Getty Images and a group of artists in the U.S. and U.K., who claim Stability illegally used their art and photography to train the AI models powering Stable Diffusion. A London-based court has already rejected the company’s bid to throw out one of the lawsuits on the basis that none of its researchers were based in the U.K. And Stability’s claim that Getty’s Delaware lawsuit should be blocked because it's a U.K.-based company was rejected. (Stability did not respond to questions about the litigation.)
AI-related copyright litigation “could go on for years,” according to Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University. He told Forbes that though plaintiffs suing AI firms face an uphill battle overcoming the existing legal precedent on copyright infringement, the quantity of arguments available to make are virtually inexhaustible. “Like in military theory, if there’s a gap in your lines, that’s where the enemy pours through — if any one of those arguments succeeds, it could completely change the generative AI environment,” he said. “In some sense, generative AI as an industry has to win everything.”
Stability, which had more than $100 million in the bank just a year and a half ago, is in a deep hole. Not only does it need more funding, it needs a viable business model — or a buyer with the vision and chops to make it successful in a fast-moving and highly competitive sector.
At an all hands meeting this past Monday, Stability’s new leaders detailed a path forward. One point of emphasis: a plan to better manage resources and expenses, according to one person in attendance. It’s a start, but Mostaque’s meddling has left them with little runway to execute. His resignation, though, has given some employees hope. “A few people are 100% going to reconsider leaving after today,” said one current employee. “And the weird gloomy aura of hearing Emad talking nonsense for an hour is gone.”
Shortly before Mostaque resigned, one current Stability executive told Forbes that they were optimistic his departure could make Stability appealing enough to receive a small investment or sale to a friendly party.
“There are companies that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars that have much less intrinsic value than Stability,” the person said. “A white knight may still appear.”

forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2024/03/29/how-stability-ais-founder-tanked-his-billion-dollar-startup/
archive no paywall: https://archive.is/snbeV
How Stability AI’s Founder Tanked His Billion-Dollar Startup
Mar 29, 2024
Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque took the stage last week at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, California to roaring applause and an introduction from an AI-generated Aristotle who announced him as “a modern Prometheus” with “the astuteness of Athena and the vision of Daedalus.”
“Under his stewardship, AI becomes the Herculean force poised to vanquish the twin serpents of illness and ailment and extend the olive branch of longevity,” the faux Aristotle proclaimed.
“I think that’s the best intro I’ve ever had,” Mostaque said.
But behind Mostaque's hagiographic introduction lay a grim and fast metastasizing truth. Stability, once one of AI’s buzziest startups, was floundering. It had been running out of money for months and Mostaque had been unable to secure enough additional funding. It had defaulted on payments to Amazon whose cloud service undergirded Stability’s core offerings. The star research team behind its flagship text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion had tendered their resignations just three days before — as Forbes would first report — and other senior leaders had issued him an ultimatum: resign, or we walk too.
Still, onstage before a massive audience of peers and acolytes, Mostaque talked a big game. “AI is jet planes for the mind,” he opined. “AI is our collective intelligence. It's the human Colossus.” He claimed a new, faster version of the Stable Diffusion image generator released earlier this month could generate “200 cats with hats per second.” But later, when he was asked about Stability’s financial model, Mostaque fumbled. “I can’t say that publicly,” he replied. “But it’s going well. We’re ahead of forecast.”
Four days later, Mostaque stepped down as CEO of Stability, as Forbes first reported. In a post to X, the service formerly known as Twitter, he claimed he’d voluntarily abdicated his role to decentralize “the concentration of power in AI.” But sources told Forbes that was hardly the case. Behind the scenes, Mostaque had fought to maintain his position and control despite mounting pressure externally and internally to step down. Company documents and interviews with 32 current and former employees, investors, collaborators and industry observers suggest his abrupt exit was the result of poor business judgment and wild overspending that undermined confidence in his vision and leadership, and ultimately kneecapped the company.
Mostaque, through his attorneys, declined to comment on record on a detailed list of questions about the reporting in this story. But in an email to Forbes earlier this week he broadly disputed the allegations. “Nobody tells you how hard it is to be a CEO and there are better CEOs than me to scale a business,” he said in a statement. “I am not sure anyone else would have been able to build and grow the research team to build the best and most widely used models out there and I’m very proud of the team there. I look forward to moving onto the next problem to handle and hopefully move the needle.”
In an emailed statement, Christian Laforte and Shan Shan Wong, the interim co-CEOs who replaced Mostaque, said, "the company remains focused on commercializing its world leading technology” and providing it “to partners across the creative industries."
After starting Stability in 2019, Mostaque built the company into an early AI juggernaut by seizing upon a promising research project that would become Stable Diffusion and funding it into a business reality. The ease with which the software generated detailed images from the simplest text prompts immediately captivated the public: 10 million people used it on any given day, the company told Forbes in early 2023. For some true believers, Mostaque was a crucial advocate for open-source AI development in a space dominated by the closed systems of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
But his startup’s rise to one of the buzziest in generative AI was in part built on a series of exaggerations and misleading claims, as Forbes first reported last year (Mostaque disputed some points at the time). And they continued after he raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation just days after launching Stable Diffusion in 2022. His failure to deliver on an array of grand promises, like building bespoke AI models for nation states, and his decision to pour tens of millions into research without a sustainable business plan, eroded Stability’s foundations and jeopardized its future.
"He was just giving shit away,” one former employee told Forbes. “That man legitimately wanted to transform the world. He actually wanted to train AI models for kids in Malawi. Was it practical? Absolutely not."
By October 2023, Stability would have less than $4 million left in the bank, according to an internal memo prepared for a board meeting and reviewed by Forbes. And mounting debt, including months of overdue Amazon Web Services payments, had already left it in the red. To avoid legal penalties for skipping Americans staff’s payroll, the document explained, the London-based startup was considering delaying tax payments to the U.K. government.
It was Stability’s armada of GPUs, the wildly powerful and equally expensive chips undergirding AI, that were so taxing the company’s finances. Hosted by AWS, they had long been one of Mostaque’s bragging points; he often touted them as one of the world’s 10 largest supercomputers. They were responsible for helping Stability’s researchers build and maintain one of the top AI image generators, as well as break important new ground on generative audio, video and 3D models. “Undeniably, Stability has continued to ship a lot of models,” said one former employee. “They may not have profited off of it, but the broader ecosystem benefitted in a huge, huge way.”
But the costs associated with so much compute were now threatening to sink the company. According to an internal October financial forecast seen by Forbes, Stability was on track to spend $99 million on compute in 2023. It noted as well that Stability was “underpaying AWS bills for July (by $1M)” and “not planning to pay AWS at the end of October for August usage ($7M).” Then there were the September and October bills, plus $1 million owed to Google Cloud and $600,000 to GPU cloud data center CoreWeave. (Amazon, Google and CoreWeave declined to comment.)
With an additional $54 million allocated to wages and operating expenses, Stability’s total projected costs for 2023 were $153 million. But according to its October financial report, its projected revenue for the calendar year was just $11 million. Stability was on track to lose more money per month than it made in an entire year.
The company’s dire financial position had thoroughly soured Stability’s current investors, including Coatue, which had invested tens of millions in the company during its $101 million funding round in 2022. In the middle of 2023, Mostaque agreed to an independent audit after Coatue raised a series of concerns, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The outcome of the investigation is unclear. Coatue declined to comment.
Within a week of an early October board meeting where Mostaque shared that financial forecast, Lightspeed Venture Partners, another major investor, sent a letter to the board urging them to sell the company. The distressing numbers had “severely undermined” the firm’s confidence in Mostaque’s ability to lead the company.
“In particular, we are surprised and deeply concerned by a cash position just now disclosed to us that is inconsistent with prior discussions on this topic,” Lightspeed’s general counsel Brett Nissenberg wrote in the letter, a copy of which was viewed by Forbes. “Lightspeed believes that the company is not likely financeable on terms that would assure the company’s long term sound financial position.” (Lightspeed declined a request for comment.)
The calls for a sale led Stability to quietly begin looking for a buyer. Bloomberg reported in November that Stability approached AI startups Cohere and Jasper to gauge their interest. Stability denied this, and Jasper CEO Timothy Young did the same when reached for comment by Forbes. A Cohere representative declined to comment.
But one prominent AI company confirmed that Mostaque’s representatives had reached out to them to test the waters. Those talks did not advance because “the numbers didn’t add up,” this person, who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the talks, told Forbes. Stability also tried to court Samsung as a buyer, going so far as to redecorate its office in advance of a planned meeting with the Korean electronics giant. (Samsung said that it invested in Stability in 2023 and that it does not comment on M&A discussions.)
Coatue had been calling for Mostaque’s resignation for months, according to a source with direct knowledge. But it and other investors were unable to oust him because he was the company’s majority shareholder. When they tried a different tact by rallying other investors to offer him a juicy equity package to resign, Mostaque refused, said two sources. By October, Coatue and Lightspeed had had enough. Coatue left the board and Lightspeed resigned its observer seat.
“Emad infuriated our initial investors so much it’s just making it impossible for us to raise more money under acceptable terms,” one current Stability executive told Forbes.
The early months of 2024 saw Stability’s already precarious position eroding further still. Employees were quietly laid off. Three people in a position to know estimated that at least 10% of staff were cut. And cash reserves continued to dwindle. Mostaque mentioned a lifeline at the October board meeting: $95 million in tentative funding from new investors, pending due diligence. But in the end, only a fraction of it was wired, two sources say, much of it from Intel, which Forbes has learned invested $20 million, a fraction of what was reported. (Intel did not return a request for comment by publication time.)
Two hours after Forbes broke the news of Mostaque’s plans to step down as CEO, Stability issued a press release confirming his resignation. Chief operating officer Wong and chief technology officer Laforte have taken over in the interim. Mostaque, who said on X that he still owns a majority of the company, also stepped down from the board, which has now initiated a search for a permanent CEO. There is a lot of work to be done to turn things around, and very little time in which to do it. Said the current Stability executive, “There’s still a possibility of a turnaround story, but the odds drop by the day.”
In July of 2023, Mostaque still thought he could pull it off. Halfway through the month, he shared a fundraising plan with his lieutenants. It was wildly optimistic, detailing the raise of $500 million in cash and another $750 million in computing facilities from marquee investors like Nvidia, Google, Intel and the World Bank (Nvidia and Google declined comment. Intel did not respond. The World Bank said it did not invest in Stability). In a Slack message reviewed by Forbes, Mostaque said Google was “willing to move fast” and the round was “likely to be oversubscribed.”
It wasn’t. Three people with direct knowledge of these fundraising efforts told Forbes that while there was some interest in Stability, talks often stalled when it came time to disclose financials. Two of them noted that earlier in the year, Mostaque had simply stopped engaging with VCs who asked for numbers. Only one firm invested around that time: actor Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, which invested $35 million in the form of a convertible SAFE note during the second quarter, according to an internal document. (Sound Ventures did not respond to a request for comment.)
And though he’d managed to score a meeting with Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang, it ended in disaster, according to two sources. “Under Jensen's microscopic questions, Emad just fell apart,” a source in position to know told Forbes. Huang quickly concluded Stability wasn’t ready for an investment from Nvidia, the sources said. Mostaque told Forbes in an email that he had not met with Huang since 2022, except to say “hello and what’s up a few times after.” His July 2023 message references a plan to raise $150 million from Nvidia. (Nvidia declined to comment.)
After a June Forbes investigation citing more than 30 sources revealed Mostaque’s history of misleading claims, Mostaque struggled to raise funding, a Stability investor told Forbes. (Mostaque disputed the story at the time and called it "coordinated lies" in his email this week to Forbes). Increasingly, investors scrutinized his assertions and pressed for data. And Young, now the CEO of Jasper, turned down a verbal offer to be Stability’s president after reading the article, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The collapse of the talks aggravated the board and other executives, who had hoped Young would compensate for the sales and business management skills that Mostaque lacked, according to four people in a position to know. (Young declined to comment.)
When Stability’s senior leadership convened in London for the CogX conference in September, the financing had still not closed. There, a group of executives confronted Mostaque asking questions about the company’s cash position and runway, according to three people with direct knowledge of the incident. They did not get the clarity they’d hoped for.
By October, Mostaque had reduced his fundraising target by more than 80%.
The months that followed saw a steady drumbeat of departures — general counsel Adam Avrunin, vice presidents Mike Melnicki, Ed Newton-Rex and Joe Penna, chief people officer Ozden Onder — culminating in the demoralizing March exit of Stable Diffusion’s primary developers Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, Patrick Esser and Dominik Lorenz. Rombach, who led the team, had been angling to leave for months, two sources said, first threatening to resign last summer because of the fundraising failures. Others left over concerns about cash flow, as well as liabilities — including what four people described as Mostaque’s lax approach to ensuring that Stability products could not be used to produce child sexual abuse imagery.
“Stability AI is committed to preventing the misuse of AI and prohibits the use of our image models and services for unlawful activity, including attempts to edit or create CSAM,” Ella Irwin, senior vice president of integrity, said in a statement.
Newton-Rex told Forbes he resigned because he disagreed with Stability’s position that training AI on copyrighted work without consent is fair use. Melnicki and Penna declined to comment. Avrunin and Onder could not be reached for comment. None of the researchers responded to requests for comment.
The Stable Diffusion researchers’ departure as a cohort says a lot about the state of Stability AI. The company’s researchers were widely viewed as its crown jewels, their work subsidized with a firehose of pricey compute power that was even extended to people outside the company. Martino Russi, an artificial intelligence researcher, told Forbes that though he was never formally employed by Stability, the company provided him a “staggering” amount of compute between January and April 2023 to play around with developing an AI video generator that Stability might someday use. “It was Candy Land or Coney Island,” said Russi, who estimates that his experiment, which was ultimately shelved, cost the company $2.5 million.
Stable Diffusion was simultaneously Stability’s marquee product and its existential cash crisis. One current employee described it to Forbes as “a giant vacuum that absorbed everything: money, compute, people.” While the software was widely used, with Mostaque claiming downloads reaching into the hundreds of millions, Stability struggled to translate that wild success into revenue. Mostaque knew it could be done — peers at Databricks, Elastic and MongoDB had all turned a free product into a lucrative business — he just couldn’t figure out how.
His first attempt was Stability’s API, which allowed paying customers to integrate Stable Diffusion into their own products. In early 2023, a handful of small companies, like art generator app NightCafe and presentation software startup Tome, signed on, according to four people with knowledge of the deals. But Stability’s poor account management services soured many, and in a matter of months NightCafe and Tome canceled their contracts, three people said. NightCafe founder Angus Russell told Forbes that his company switched to a competitor which “offered much cheaper inference costs and a broader service.” Tome did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Mostaque’s efforts to court larger companies like Samsung and Snapchat were failing, according to five people familiar with the effort. Canva, which was already one of the heaviest users of open-sourced Stable Diffusion, had multiple discussions with Stability, which was angling for a contract it hoped would generate several millions in annual revenue. But the deal never materialized, four sources said.
“These three companies wanted and needed us,” one former employee told Forbes. “They would have been the perfect customers.” (Samsung, Snap and Canva declined to comment.)
“It’s not that there was not an appetite to pay Stability — there were tons of companies that would have that wanted to,” the former employee said. “There was a huge opportunity and demand, but just a resistance to execution.”
Mostaque’s other big idea was to provide governments with bespoke national AI models that would invigorate their economies and citizenry. “Emad envisions a world where AI through 100 national models serves not as a tool of the few, but as a benefactor to all promising to confront great adversaries, cancer, autism, and the sands of time itself,” the AI avatar of Aristotle said in his intro at the conference.
Mostaque told several prospective customers that he could deliver such models within 60 days — an untenable timeline, according to two people in position to know. Stability attempted to develop a model for the Singaporean government over the protestation of employees who questioned its technical feasibility, three sources familiar with the effort told Forbes. But it couldn’t pull it off and Singapore never became a customer. (The government of Singapore confirmed it did not enter into a deal with Stability, but declined to answer additional questions.)
As Stability careened from one new business idea to another, resources were abruptly reallocated and researchers reassigned. The whiplash shifts in a largely siloed organization demoralized and infuriated employees. “There were ‘urgent’ things, ‘urgent urgent’ things and ‘most urgent,’” one former employee complained. “None of these things seem important if everything is important.”
Another former Stability executive was far more pointed in their assessment. “Emad is the most disorganized leader I have ever worked with in my career,” this person told Forbes. “He has no vision, and changes directions every week, often based on what he sees on Twitter.”
In a video interview posted shortly before this story was published, Mostaque explained his leadership style: “I'm particularly great at taking creatives, developers, researchers, others, and achieving their full potential in designing systems. But I should not be dealing with, you know, HR and operations and business development and other elements. There are far better people than me to do that.”
By December 2023, Stability had partially abandoned its open-source roots and announced that any commercial use of Stable Diffusion would cost customers at least $20 per month (non-commercial and research use of Stable Diffusion would remain free).
But privately, Stability was considering a potentially more lucrative source of revenue: reselling the compute it was leasing from providers like AWS, according to six people familiar with the effort. Though it was essentially GPU arbitrage, Stability framed the strategy to investors as a “managed services” offering. Its damning October financial report projected optimistically that such an offering would bring in $139 million in 2024 — 98% of its revenue. Multiple employees at the time told Forbes they feared reselling compute, even if the company called it “managed services,” would violate the terms of Stability’s contract with AWS. Amazon declined to comment. “The line internally was that we are not reselling compute,” one former employee said. “This was some of the dirtiest feeling stuff.”
Stability also discussed reselling a cluster of Nvidia A100 chips, leased via CoreWeave, to the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, three sources said. “It was under the guise of managed services, but there wasn’t any management happening,” one of these people told Forbes. Andreessen Horowitz and CoreWeave declined to comment.
Stability did not respond to questions about if it plans to continue this strategy now that Mostaque is out of the picture. Regardless, interim co-CEOs Wong and Laforte are on a tight timeline to clean up his mess. Board chairman Jim O’Shaughnessy said in a statement that he was confident the pair “will adeptly steer the company forward in developing and commercializing industry-leading generative AI products.” But burn continues to far outpace revenue. The Financial Times reported Friday that the company made $5.4 million of revenue in February, against $8 million in costs. Several sources said there are ongoing concerns about making payroll for the roughly 150 remaining employees. Leadership roles have gone vacant for months amid the disarray, leaving the company increasingly directionless.
Meanwhile, a potentially catastrophic legal threat looms over the company: A trio of copyright infringement lawsuits brought by Getty Images and a group of artists in the U.S. and U.K., who claim Stability illegally used their art and photography to train the AI models powering Stable Diffusion. A London-based court has already rejected the company’s bid to throw out one of the lawsuits on the basis that none of its researchers were based in the U.K. And Stability’s claim that Getty’s Delaware lawsuit should be blocked because it's a U.K.-based company was rejected. (Stability did not respond to questions about the litigation.)
AI-related copyright litigation “could go on for years,” according to Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University. He told Forbes that though plaintiffs suing AI firms face an uphill battle overcoming the existing legal precedent on copyright infringement, the quantity of arguments available to make are virtually inexhaustible. “Like in military theory, if there’s a gap in your lines, that’s where the enemy pours through — if any one of those arguments succeeds, it could completely change the generative AI environment,” he said. “In some sense, generative AI as an industry has to win everything.”
Stability, which had more than $100 million in the bank just a year and a half ago, is in a deep hole. Not only does it need more funding, it needs a viable business model — or a buyer with the vision and chops to make it successful in a fast-moving and highly competitive sector.
At an all hands meeting this past Monday, Stability’s new leaders detailed a path forward. One point of emphasis: a plan to better manage resources and expenses, according to one person in attendance. It’s a start, but Mostaque’s meddling has left them with little runway to execute. His resignation, though, has given some employees hope. “A few people are 100% going to reconsider leaving after today,” said one current employee. “And the weird gloomy aura of hearing Emad talking nonsense for an hour is gone.”
Shortly before Mostaque resigned, one current Stability executive told Forbes that they were optimistic his departure could make Stability appealing enough to receive a small investment or sale to a friendly party.
“There are companies that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars that have much less intrinsic value than Stability,” the person said. “A white knight may still appear.”

Thank you for being here. This list provides some of my favorite resources. Enjoy!
Take a moment to breathe: https://www.calm.com/breathe
24/7 Hotlines

• Crisis Text Line: Need to talk? Text HOME to 741741 Crisis Counselors are there 24/7.
• Peer-Run Warm Line: This is a 24/7 line where you can talk to someone and receive support from a peer or view more local resources. Visit the link or you can call 855-845-7415
• Suicide Hotline: 24/7, free, confidential crisis support for callers having thoughts of suicide, and friends and family worried about loved ones. You can also call 415-499-1100
• 988: The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7, free, and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States.
• Youth-specific services (voice/text/chat/email) from the Boys' Town National Hotline.
• Parental Stress Line: Provides a 24 hour helpline for parents who need to discuss issues related to their children. Translators available to support all languages.

*Check out SuicideWatch's Post for hotlines in other countries*
Find local assistance

• 211 connects you with local resources and support. You can also text your zip code to 898211 for assistance.
• Peer-Run Warm Line is a 24/7 line where you can talk to someone and receive support from a peer or view more local resources. Visit the link or you can call 855-845-7415
• Find Help: Find free or reduced-cost resources like food, housing, financial assistance, health care, and more.
• Find Your Local Food Bank: Feeding America offers a directory of local food banks in the US, based on zip code.
• Find Shelter provides a directory and resources for finding shelter and housing, food pantries, clothing donations, health clinics, and more.
• Bright Sky has a secure journal tool and resources, and users can allow GPS to find the closest shelters and domestic violence support services.

Additional Hotlines

• Trans Lifeline: 1-877-565-8860
  • When you call, you’ll speak to a trans/nonbinary peer operator
  • Full anonymity and confidentiality
  • No non-consensual active rescue (calling 911, emergency services, or law enforcement)
  • Operating hours:
    • 10 AM – 6 PM Pacific
    • 11 AM – 7 PM Mountain
    • 12 PM – 8 PM Central
    • 1 PM – 9 PM Eastern

My Ultimate Favorites
<3 25 Daily Affirmations <3
You feel like shit offers an interactive self-care game/guide with grounding exercises for people struggling with feeling sad or anxious.
24 Best Self-Soothing Techniques and Strategies for Adults
Journaling Tools

• Journaling App: My Life/My Voice App is a journaling app that tracks your moods, feelings, or experiences. You can write, voice record, or photo journal.
• Antidepressant Workbook:
  • For adults: The Antidepressant skills workbook offers a self-guide for managing depression through self-care and coping skills.
  • For teens: The Antidepressant Skills Workbook for Teens offers a self-guide for managing depression through self-care and coping skills.
• The What’s Up? The app offers methods to cope with difficult emotions through spaces to track habits, journal, and coping skills for de-escalation. (insert iOS or Android link)
  • ios: https://apple.co/3x7BQtc
  • Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jacksontempra.apps.whatsup&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
• This article shares tips about how keeping a journal can help you understand and change your mental health, well-being, habits, and behaviors.

Workbooks

• DBT Skills Workbook shares DBT exercises for learning mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation & distress tolerance.
• Looking After Yourself: Looking After Yourself is a website with workbooks to improve mental health with topics like assertiveness, perfectionism, and more.
• “Coping with Suicidal Thoughts” is a PDF workbook to support and go through exercises.
• Centre for Clinical Interventions: Offers a workbook, worksheets, and info sheets on improving self-esteem. Also provides a range of information sheets about psychological disorders for one's self and others.
  
• Objective Zero: Connects veterans, service members, their families, and caregivers to peer support via voice, video, and text. Also provides free access to wellness resources such as yoga and meditation.
  

Worksheets / PDFs

• This worksheet has you reflect on activities and circumstances that cause distress to think through outcomes and work through the feelings.
• Distress Tolerance is a PDF that teaches you how to handle and accept situations that are out of your control.
• Goal Breakdown is a PDF that teaches you how to break large goals down into smaller, manageable tasks.
• Ten Ways to Untwist Your Thinking is a PDF that teaches you techniques to manage negative thoughts.
• This PDF helps address distressing thoughts by suggesting several ways one can create distance from these thoughts.
• This PDF is a workbook that supports survivors in discovering their resilience and learning how to tell their stories with self-compassion.
• Assertive Communication: This worksheet is a guide on how to be a more assertive communicator.

Anxiety & Stress

• Grounding Techniques
  • 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique: The 54321 PDF walks you through grounding exercises to find your cool calm.
  • 75 Coping Skills is a PDF that contains a variety of coping techniques to use when your go-to coping skills aren't working anymore.
  • Anxiety Coping Skills Guide: This PDF offers different options for coping skills to work through anxiety.
• Anger
  • Anger Diary is an activity that helps us reflect on our response to anger and prevent future outbursts.
  • Anger Management Helpguide: The Anger Management Helpguide is a website that provides techniques to help with anger management and expressing feelings.
• Meditation / Relaxing
  • Dartmouth Relaxation Downloads provide downloadable audio files that guide you through relaxation, mindfulness, and meditation exercises.
  • GGAP, curated by UC Berkeley, offers over 80 practices for growing self-compassion, mindfulness, happiness, coping with stress, etc.
  • Pixel Thoughts is a website that offers an interactive, 60-second meditation tool to communicate worries and release bothersome thoughts

LGBTQ+

• The Trevor Project: You deserve a welcoming, loving world. And so do the people you care about. Here you can reach out to a counselor if you’re struggling, find answers and information, and get the tools you need to help someone else.
  
  • “LGBTQ+ young people report higher rates of sexual violence than the general population. Nearly two in five LGBTQ+ young people (39%) reported that they had ever been forced to do “sexual things” that they did not want to do,” (03/27/2024–The Trevor Project).
• Sexual Violence and Suicide Risk among LGBTQ+ Young People&utm_source=emailsegment-wholefile2&utm_campaign=generaleffort)
  

Therapy

• DBT Travel Guide is an app where users can track feelings and actions in a diary and use folders with DBT skills and mindfulness guides:
  • Android: https://bit.ly/adbt_r
  • iOS: https://apple.co/3Tx2mGL
• CBT-i Coach is an app for people using CBT techniques and who are dealing with insomnia. Can be used with a healthcare provider or on its own:
  • ios: https://apple.co/3ChY3Zf
  • android: https://bit.ly/cbti_an
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy teaches people strategies to help them live their best and most productive lives.
• Open Counseling is a website that provides a directory of local and affordable counseling. They also have virtual options.
• OPC is a directory of low-cost options for in-person & online therapy; the site has a one-time lifetime membership fee or services <$80.
• Loveland Therapy Fund provides financial assistance to Black women and girls seeking therapy within the US using an application process.
• Bloom offers support and courses designed by survivors, allies, and mental health professionals to support survivors of abuse.

For Parents

• The APA's Parenting Guide is a website that offers resources for parents facing common issues relating to raising children.
• Child Care Aware: Child Care Aware connects you to local childcare options, including information on financial assistance, social services, and health.
• Sex Ed.
  • American Sexual Health Association: ASHA offers information about sex/sexuality, STIs, tips for parents for healthy sex ed conversations, and more.

Youth & Teens

• Active Minds (ages 14-25): Active Minds offers resources on mental health for yourself and loved ones: bit.ly/AM_ref
• The Antidepressant Skills Workbook for Teens offers a self-guide for managing depression through self-care and coping skills.
• Breaking Code Silence: Breaking Code Silence is a network of institutional abuse survivors who were institutionalized in the U.S. through the “troubled teen industry.” Breaking Code Silence provides support to survivors, educates them about the TTI, investigates programs for abuse, and advocates for youth.
  
• Jed Foundation: Promotes suicide prevention by teaching teens and young adults the skills and support to grow into healthy adults.
  
• Thorn for Parents: Thorn for Parents is an organization that equips caregivers with tools, guides, and information about online digital safety, so they may have honest, ongoing conversations with kids and teens regarding consent, sexuality, and privacy in the online sphere.
  
• Youth-specific services (voice/text/chat/email) from the Boys' Town National Hotline.
  
• Job Corps provides free residential education and career training. Students can earn a high school diploma or the equivalent, and college credits. Job Corps offers tuition-free housing, meals, basic health care, a living allowance, and career transition assistance. Ages 16-24
  
• Jed Foundation: Promotes suicide prevention by teaching teens and young adults the skills and support to grow into healthy adults.
  
• GirlsHealth teaches girls about health and well-being, relationships (including family), bullying, illness, and disabilities.
  

Bullying

• Know Your IX: Know Your IX educates students by teaching about Title IX, and what it offers, and by providing support for medical care, reporting abuse, and more.
• Right to Be: Right to Be provides support and resources to people experiencing online harassment, which includes help with reporting harassment/abuse.
• Stomp Out Bullying: Stomp Out Bullying is a website that helps you overcome and stop bullying and other forms of peer abuse.
• Breaking Code Silence: Breaking Code Silence is a network of institutional abuse survivors who were institutionalized in the U.S. through the “troubled teen industry.” Breaking Code Silence provides support to survivors, educates them about the TTI, investigates programs for abuse, and advocates for youth.

Natural Disasters

• The American Red Cross is a website that provides emergency assistance and disaster relief to families and individuals.

College Students

• Assignment Assistance for Students with ADHD: This PDF provides students with mindfulness exercises, like brain dumps and reflections, so they can focus on the tasks at hand.
• Balancing Work and School is a website that teaches you how to engage in and prioritize self-care.
• Khan Academy provides free education in math, science, programming, animation, etc. Backed by: NASA, MIT, and the Modern Museum of Art with free academic content (K-college).
• Job Corps provides free residential education and career training. Students can earn a high school diploma or the equivalent, and college credits. Job Corps offers tuition-free housing, meals, basic health care, a living allowance, and career transition assistance. Ages 16-24
• Active Minds: Empowers college students to speak out about mental illness and offers resources and ways to help themselves and others.

Helping others

• Be There certificate: A free, self-paced course on how to safely support anyone who may be struggling with their mental health.
• Caregiver Action Network provides education, and support to help you care for ones with chronic conditions, disabilities, disease, or old age.
• Kindness is a website that facilitates opportunities to do and share acts of kindness to feel more connected and for a happier world.

Legal Support

• American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU is a website that provides information on our rights as US citizens around immigration, LGBTQ+, voting, disability, and more.
• LawHelp is a website that provides referrals to local public interest law offices, information about rights, court forms, and more.
• Women's Lawis a website that provides legal information for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.

Food Support

• Find Help: Find free or reduced-cost resources like food, housing, financial assistance, health care, and more.
• mRelief: mRelief is a website that offers a fast and easy process to apply and qualify for food stamps. Text SNAP to 74544 or visit the link.
• Find Your Local Food Bank: Feeding America offers a directory of local food banks in the US, based on zip code.

Health Care

• NAFCC is a directory of clinics that offer free or low-cost health services for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people in the U.S.
• Patient Access Network is a website that offers copay assistance for the out-of-pocket costs of prescribed medications: http://bit.ly/PAN_ref
• GoodRX allows users to search their medication/prescriptions and compare prices at different pharmacies. It also contains information about the meds and potential side effects for folks who want to learn more and perhaps ask their pharmacists questions. Often, GoodRX also provides coupons for medications that can be used a most major pharmacies in the U.S. This service allows folks without insurance to save on medication, and it can also be used by people with insurance.
• Patient Advocate Foundation is a website that provides case management and financial aid for healthcare treatment for chronic illnesses.
• HealthWell is an organization that supports folks with inadequate health insurance and helps cover certain medical costs if you qualify.

Financial

• Short-term assistance
  • Help with Bills is a website that provides information about government programs that help with bill payment and temporary assistance.
  • Modest Needs Foundation provides short-term financial assistance to those in crisis who are ineligible for conventional financial assistance
• Financial planning/management
  • My Money Tools offers different information and templates to help with financial literacy, financial planning, and debt management.
  • National Endowment for Financial Literacy is a website that provides info and help with financial planning and management.
  • Savvy Ladies is a nonprofit focused on empowering women by teaching them about financial planning & money management through free resources.
  • The FDIC Money Smart program supports people in learning more financial skills and creating positive banking relationships. Includes information to support parents/caregivers of children of all ages as well.
• Debt support
  • This page talks about job loss and unemployment stress, as well as tips for how to cope and make a plan to move forward.
  • Coping with Debt is a PDF that provides information on how to manage debt, bankruptcy, and debt consolidation.
  • A 12-step recovery program for people who want to stop incurring unsecured debt.
  • Upsolve is an app that helps you get screened and file for bankruptcy. You can also consult with a lawyer for free.
• Taxes
  • Get your refund is a service that provides free tax filing assistance to families earning less than $66,000 a year.
• Unemployment/In-between jobs
  • This page talks about job loss and unemployment stress, as well as tips for how to cope and make a plan to move forward.

Abuse Support

• NCAC (National Children's Advocacy Center) provides information, local help, and strategies for parents, children, and professionals to prevent or intervene when child abuse occurs.
• The Safe Havens Mapping Project is a directory for the pets of those experiencing domestic violence.
• Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness provides information and resources on abusive relationships, sexual assault, and safety planning.
• Moving Ahead is a PDF that teaches you how to navigate financial challenges associated with ending an abusive relationship.
• Bloom offers support and courses designed by survivors, allies, and mental health professionals to support survivors of abuse.
• 1-in-6: Provides support for men who have been sexually abused.
• BetterBrave is a nonprofit focused on tackling sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Their programs include a community resource platform, a research hub, and events and workshops.
• Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) provides information & support to the U.S.-based adults who are survivors of imaged-based sexual abuse, including nonconsensual pornography, sextortion, and deepfakes. If someone has shared or threatened to share an intimate image of you without your consent, visit their Safety Center. (Deaf/HoH approved).
• Deaf Overcoming Violence through Empowerment provides support for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in the deaf community. (Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing approved).
• Domestic Shelters is a website that helps survivors of domestic violence learn about and locate shelters and crisis interventions services in their communities. Their site also provides informative toolkits and other resources.
• STOPSTALKINGUS: Stop Stalking Us is a nonprofit org focused on creating community for those impacted by stalking. They do this through advocacy at the legislative level and by offering community events, education, and supportive resources for those experiencing or who have experienced stalking.

Misc.

• TimeDone is a program that provides members with free benefits tailored to the needs of formerly arrested or convicted people.
• BetterBrave tackles sexual harassment/discrimination in the workplace with programs like a community resource platform, a research hub, & events.
• Coming Out Handbook is a PDF that provides tools and questions to help share your sexual identity with others.
• https://iava.org/ Support for Veterans

Career Support

• Dweebs Global is a website that provides mentorship on a wide range of career and job topics.
• CareerOneStop is a directory that provides resources for career exploration as well as a listing of available jobs by location and type.

Suicide / Suicide Loss

• Self-Help
  • Speaking of Suicide has articles and support for those having suicidal thoughts.
  • How to ask for help is an article that gives tips on how to reach out when you are having suicidal thoughts.

California - Long Beach resources

• CSULB (California State University Long Beach): offers this anonymous tool, so you can be pointed to the best resources local to you, either on campus or off.
• Huckleberry Youth (California): HY promotes safety in times of crisis, physical and emotional health, social justice and educational success for youth. Call 415-668-2622 or visit the link.

Learning Resources:

• Learning for Justice - Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.
• VR 360 Videos on YouTube
• NEA ED Justice - NEA is growing the movement to win education justice for our students, schools, and communities.
• News, science, arts & culture, podcasts, TV, reports, and more.
• Edutopia
• Academia.edu - free downloadable PDFs
• MySocialBrain.org - exploring the social brain
• Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
• TestMyBrain aims to engage and collaborate with citizen scientists like you, by providing tools to help you learn about yourself. When you test yourself, you contribute to brain research.
• PhilPapers is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. We monitor all sources of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, and open access archives.
• Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: Challenges and Triumphs in the Pursuit of Equality
• arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
• Kind Connector - Kindness matters and so do you. Each of our kind acts is bonded together as part of our global community and movement.
• https://www.aclu.org/
• The Philosophy Forums at OnlinePhilosophyClub.com aim to be an oasis of intelligent in-depth civil debate and discussion. Topics discussed extend far beyond philosophy and philosophers.
• https://www.edx.org/search
• https://distillsocial.com/

I’m hoping someone has an easy tutorial to edit a photo.
Took a great photo of myself but it has my corporate work badge in with confidential info on it.
I have affinity on my iPad (without my pencil here). What’s the best way to remove or cover the badge before I share the photo?
Thanks in advance