The effects of the fatal bridge collapse in Baltimore will be felt for months
- This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories.
Are you an early riser? I'm not, so I was impressed when a colleague set out to replicate Apple CEO Tim Cook's daily routine, setting an alarm for 4.45am. She finished the week exhausted and with a budding caffeine addiction.
On the agenda today:
Sam Altman is rubbing some VCs the wrong way.
America is in the midst of a retirement crisis.
Microsoft Copilot users want it to be more like ChatGPT.
Japan's economic recovery is a warning shot for China.
But first: The effects of the fatal bridge collapse in Baltimore will be felt for months. Here's a rundown in under 200 words.
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This week's dispatch
A disaster in Baltimore
At 1:28 a.m. ET Tuesday, the 984-ft long container ship Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, bringing it down.
The ship had lost power and called in "mayday." On-site officers can be heard holding traffic from the bridge in dispatch audio. The impact was captured on a livestream. A small construction crew had been fixing potholes on the bridge itself. Six are presumed dead.
The Port of Baltimore is now closed "until further notice," halting some $15 million in daily economic activity. Cruise ships have been rerouted. The auto industry is facing supply chain concerns, with the port the top US handler for auto imports and exports.
There are environmental concerns. The ship carried 764 tons of hazardous material, and some containers have been breached.
And there's a bill to pay. The ship's owner is expected to invoke an 1851 law to limit its liabilities. A historic market in London will face billions in claims.
The crash was a tragic accident. It's also what happens when 95,000 tons of modern cargo ship meets America's aging infrastructure. And it's a reminder of the precarity of just-in-time supply chains and global trade.
VCs are over Sam Altman
The critics are quietly coming for one of the biggest names in tech.
Few in the business world have seen their star rise as quick and as high as Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO. But some venture capitalists are growing tired and skeptical of what they view as self-mythologizing from Altman.
The criticism, though, mostly takes place behind the scenes, as VCs recognize the power Altman holds in the industry.
Sam Altman's act is wearing thin on some.
America's retirement crisis
Older Americans are having a tough time walking away from work due to their financial situation.
Just under 20% of Americans 65 and older were employed last year, compared to 11% in 1987, according to a Pew report. And conditions could worsen as young people struggle to save while paying off homes and student loans.
As one worker in her 70s put it: "I think I'm going to die in this job. I'm going to die in this office because I have no way to get out."
Meet the Americans who can't retire.
Also read:
Microsoft's Copilot conundrum
Microsoft is facing a common complaint among users of its AI tool, Copilot: It doesn't work as well as ChatGPT.
Feedback for the tool has been mixed to leaning positive, but comparisons with ChatGPT continue to pile up, according to Microsoft employees who spoke to BI.
One of the problems, according to Microsoft, is that customers aren't using the new tools properly. That's why the company is paying a partner to create videos to teach users how to write better prompts.
How Microsoft's navigating Copilot complaints.
Japan's recovery is a warning shot for China
Japan is finally climbing out of an economic hole it dug in the early 1990s due to a real-estate implosion. The country's stock market exceeded all-time highs, and Wall Street sees more promise.
Now, China is in a similar situaJtion as Japan once was, as it stares down a property market collapse. But Japan's recovery won't be easy to replicate for China, which has resisted stimulus packages and faces a difficult trade market.
Why China might struggle to replicate Japan's turnaround.
This week's quote:
"You should figure out how to do this."
Mark Zuckerberg in an email to one of his employees
More of this week's top reads:
Elon Musk is taking ketamine and techies are microdosing mushrooms. So it's OK to do drugs at work now?
Billionaire Marc Andreessen is selling his home for more than $33 million.
Warren Buffett's favorite market gauge hit a 2-year high, signaling stocks are heavily overvalued and could crash.
I thought the Apple Vision Pro would bring about utopia. Now it scares the hell out of me.
Trump got a huge 62% discount on his bond. That's extremely rare, legal experts say.
What everyone's getting wrong about the housing market right now.
In an ocean of white data, this founder is trying to make AI less biased. Just don't call it 'BlackGPT.'
The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.