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In an eyebrow-raising milestone for art and technology, a portrait of British mathematician <keyword id="20716963" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="alan-turing" source="keywords">Alan Turing</keyword>, crafted by none other than Ai-Da — the world’s first <keyword id="23883869" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="humanoid-robot-artist" source="keywords">humanoid robot artist</keyword> — has skyrocketed <keyword id="23524646" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-generated-art" source="keywords">AI-generated art</keyword> into the realm of high-end auctions. The piece, aptly titled A.I. God, fetched a staggering $1,084,800 at Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale, completely blindsiding initial estimates of $180,000. Ai-Da’s robotic fingers just created history, and people are scratching their heads trying to figure out how they feel about it. <h2>Meet Ai-Da</h2>Ai-Da isn’t your average paintbrush-wielding bot. Designed to resemble a human woman complete with expressive eyes and a bob of brown hair, Ai-Da does more than pose as an artist — she acts as a philosophical commentator on the very technology that powers her. Named after Ada Lovelace, the 19th-century mathematician credited as the world’s first computer programmer, Ai-Da’s artistic journey began as a project by Aidan Meller, a modern art expert. With help from AI wizards at Oxford and Birmingham universities, Ai-Da was equipped with tech that allows her to generate artistic ideas through conversations with her human counterparts. The result is a robot that doesn’t just paint but provokes. "The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies," Ai-Da remarked at Sotheby’s. Her Turing portrait “with muted tones and broken facial planes” seems to symbolise the caution Turing himself had raised in the 1950s about AI’s future. Turing, a code-breaking legend and early computer scientist, had foreseen both AI’s promise and its potential perils. Ai-Da’s portrayal captures that conflict, mirroring today’s conversation: is AI here to serve us, or are we unwittingly feeding our own "god"? <h2>A moment in art history</h2>With A.I. God being the first artwork by a humanoid robot ever to be sold at auction, many see this sale as the dawn of AI’s full-fledged entry into the art world. Others, however, worry this is the beginning of a dystopian trend that could devalue human-made art. For every admirer of Ai-Da’s skills, there’s a sceptic pondering what this means for artists who pour their human soul into their work. As Aidan Meller sees it, Ai-Da is the ultimate artist for our time. "The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time," Meller said, "and Ai-Da is perfectly suited to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy." Whether we’ll look back on this era as a golden age of innovation or as the point where humans began their creative decline is up for debate. <h2>Public reactions</h2>As A.I. God smashed records, it also smashed open a Pandora’s box of mixed reactions. Art critics and tech enthusiasts are intrigued; social media is ablaze with questions about the role of AI in traditionally human spaces. Many are captivated by Ai-Da’s sophisticated process, which involved her choosing colours, textures, and even the tone of the painting after examining Turing’s photograph. But others are alarmed. If robots can generate million-dollar art, where does that leave human creators? Or, more provocatively, what happens when robots develop their own creative ambitions? The public perception of AI art is one big contradiction. On one hand, there’s an undeniable thrill in seeing a machine paint, compose, or even converse. There’s a fascination with this powerful new tool that seems both thrilling and dangerous. On the other, people worry about the commodification of creativity. In an era where everything is data, will AI art soon be mass-produced? Will human-made art become a quaint relic, like vinyl records or typewriters? Beyond the dollars and digits, Ai-Da’s work represents a fundamental question: what is art, and who — or what — gets to create it? Meller argues that Ai-Da serves as a mirror to our modern age, where every advance in technology is double-edged, carrying both promise and pitfalls. Ai-Da’s Turing portrait has sparked a conversation that won’t die down soon. Are we witnessing the rise of a new artistic epoch, or merely the latest novelty to captivate our tech-obsessed world?

Humanoid robot Ai-Da’s portrait of computer legend Alan Turing fetches over $1 million at an art auction

This story was originally published on September 29, 2022.As artificial intelligence has gotten better, fears about our AI-enabled future have grown. Even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/dall-e-mini">small steps toward</a> more sophisticated AI have triggered concerns that robots <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/08/robot-wrote-this-article-gpt-3">will take away human jobs</a> or that AI-generated deepfakes <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/people-applying-remote-tech-jobs-using-deepfakes-fbi-2022-6">will warp our sense of reality</a>.In the world of art, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/06/the-new-generation-of-ai-apps-could-make-writers-and-artists-obsolete">misgivings about AI</a> have been particularly acute. An AI-generated piece of art recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-art-wins-competition-angering-artists-2022-9">won first prize</a> in a competition at the Colorado State Fair, leading to an outcry from artists and critics alike. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/20/ai-art-artificial-intelligence-midjourney-dall-e-replacing-artists">Other experiments</a> with replacing illustrators and writers have caused similar handwringing.Despite this widespread apprehension, Holly Herndon — an experimental musician and artist — doesn't think AI is nefarious or will ruin art. These technologies are here to stay, she told me recently, and we might as well learn how to live with them."I think the best way forward is for artists to lean into developments with machine learning," she said, suggesting that they "think of ways to conditionally invite others to experiment with them."Last year, Herndon launched a project called <a href="https://holly.mirror.xyz/54ds2IiOnvthjGFkokFCoaI4EabytH9xjAYy1irHy94">Holly+</a>, a tool that enables other artists to make music using an AI-generated likeness of her voice. The works created using Holly+ are essentially vocal deepfakes sanctioned and encouraged by Herndon.Herndon's usage of AI shows a way forward for not just artists but also the rest of us. Instead of rejecting new technology, everyone from workers to businesses to amateur creators can learn to use these tools to make their lives easier or open up new creative avenues. By embracing AI, would-be skeptics can help to ensure the burgeoning technology is used for good, rather than leaving it to be shaped by ill-intentioned parties. This doesn't ensure a wholly positive outcome, but with projects like Holly+, Herndon highlights the advantages of a technology like AI, while proving it isn't a mere substitute for human creativity.<h2>From an AI 'baby' to deepfakes and crypto</h2>In Berlin, Herndon has made AI a recurring theme of her work over the past decade, experimenting with human-computer collaboration in her recordings and live performances. An early instance of this was her 2015 album, "Platform," which combined the organic qualities of the human voice with machine sounds and digital-processing techniques. For her 2019 album, "Proto," Herndon took this approach further by creating Spawn, an AI "baby" that merged her voice and the voice of her partner, Mat Dryhurst, into a synthetic female entity that provided additional vocals.<div type="image" title="Holly Herndon surrounded by mics." height="4454" width="3563" msid="100285619" hostid="261" sizebytes="1052832"></div>The Holly+ project synthesizes the insights that Herndon has gathered over a decade of engaging with AI, a process of inquiry that has included her earning a doctorate of musical arts at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. The core of Holly+ is straightforward: Anyone <a href="https://holly.plus/">can upload an audio file</a>, and the tool will create a new version with Herndon's processed voice, ready for download. In her <a href="https://holly.mirror.xyz/54ds2IiOnvthjGFkokFCoaI4EabytH9xjAYy1irHy94">blog post</a> announcing Holly+, Herndon said she envisioned a future where digitally created voices "soon become standard practice for artists and other creatives." A wide variety of music has been created using Holly+, from glitchy electronic tracks to ambient compositions to more conventional pop songs. Many of the tracks push the human voice to its limits, chopping Herndon's voice into nearly unrecognizable fragments or repurposing them as pieces of a sonic collage. Herndon has also used Holly+ in live performances, appearing at the Helsinki Festival with a local choir.While the project has yielded an ever-growing array of fascinating art, Holly+ also raises questions about the future of that art. If AI can replicate a unique voice like Herndon's, or mine the vast archive of existing human-produced content, then will it eventually replace humans' role in making that art going forward? And who owns the art that an AI model produces?<h2>Who owns what? </h2>AI's prospective influence on the art world is not without precedent. The ease of copying, editing, and distributing digital files today means that content can always change, frequently without any acknowledgment that it has been altered. Analog media, in contrast, is more difficult to modify, and doing so typically leaves a mark. Now, the official versions of songs are endlessly remixed, films and television episodes are <a href="https://www.insider.com/movies-tv-shows-changed-edited-september-11">altered</a> after their initial release, and text and images go viral as unattributed, ever-evolving memes. Sampling — reusing a portion of a song in another recorded song — has become a <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/pop-music-regurgitations-switched-on-pop.html">staple of pop music</a> over the past few decades. "In the same way that trying to shut down sampling of media was a dead end, we have entered into an AI era where it will become effortless to generate media using someone's voice, face, or style." Herndon told me. As with sampling, she argued, AI presents a great opportunity for artistic play and innovation "so long as we can mitigate the economic shock of these powerful new tools."Holly+ highlights a few shocks that might come about, particularly around the ability for artists to control their intellectual property — the legal basis for copyright laws. It's hard enough to lay claim to the content you have created now, but emerging AI tools open up a new set of complications. Is an AI-generated image made in the style of a particular artist plagiarism, or is it an original product of the model that generated it? As AI models improve and become more deeply embedded in the digital world, artists will need to understand the nature of the IP they produce and devise strategies for retaining control of that IP."I started the Holly+ project because I think this is a generational opportunity to rewrite how we think about IP," Herndon told me. In the Holly+ announcement post, Herndon said, "There will be demand for official, high fidelity, vocal models of public figures."This is where crypto comes in: the blockchain technology that undergirds crypto allows users to precisely track ownership of digital files like songs and images, while establishing an indelible record of their origins. This enables artists to sell digital works and ensure they will always receive credit for creating them (even if the work itself is copied freely), while giving the works' buyers confidence that they can prove they have the original version — an ability that, in turn, makes them willing to pay more.<div type="image" title="Holly Herndon with the Holly+ logo overlaid in green" height="3996" width="5328" msid="100285620" hostid="261" sizebytes="1565278"></div>Crypto has thus allowed Herndon to help financially reward artists who create songs with Holly+, while receiving compensation herself. To do this, Herndon established a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-a-dao">decentralized autonomous organization</a>, or DAO, which is similar to a worker cooperative. Anyone who owns a specific DAO's crypto tokens becomes a member with voting rights. When other artists create work using Holly+, they can submit it to the Holly+ DAO, whose members vote on which submissions are good enough to be turned into nonfungible tokens and sold via an <a href="https://auction.holly.plus/">auction process</a> — think of an NFT as the definitive "original" pressing of a song. (Anyone can use the Holly+ voice tool itself without submitting the output to the DAO, however.) Like a company's shareholders, the members of the DAO benefit from the overall quality of the Holly+ brand via the value of their tokens. Herndon <a href="https://holly.mirror.xyz/54ds2IiOnvthjGFkokFCoaI4EabytH9xjAYy1irHy94">says on her website</a> that DAO members "are incentivized to only certify or license new works that contribute to the value of the voice."This arrangement benefits Herndon by minimizing the incentives to make bad art with Holly+ or use her voice in a negative way, while relieving her of sole responsibility for managing the tool. The proceeds from each NFT sale are split among the work's creator, the members of the Holly+ DAO, and Herndon — an arrangement that reflects each party's contribution to a given piece. As AI continues to evolve and becomes more central to various creative enterprises, the DAO structure offers a way to credit participants more fairly and help artists retain more control over their work.<h2>AI isn't alien</h2>As technology continues to evolve, artists and creators must keep adapting. Herndon's work, especially Holly+, shows how creative people can approach developments like AI with an open mind, while maintaining a pragmatic awareness of the technology's drawbacks. She said: "Most AI processes we are familiar with now are groundbreaking ways of aggregating the products of human intelligence." In other words, AI can be another tool that artists use, instead of just a threat to their livelihoods. And working with AI can be fun. "I am in love with the submissions!" Herndon said of the works created with the Holly+ tool. "Artists have taken my voice in all kinds of directions. There are trains whistling at me, tender duets, and insane club tracks." Now, Herndon is taking the lessons from Holly+ to her new <a href="https://www.inputmag.com/culture/mat-dryhurst-holly-herndon-artists-ai-spawning-source-dall-e-midjourney">organization, Spawning</a>, which will equip other artists to reap the benefits of AI by using it to enhance their work, while protecting their IP from the threats it introduces. Herndon told me that the organization aimed "to help others take that leap and make their own decisions about how their voices and styles are used."While artists are among the first to seriously grapple with the implications of AI's cutting edge, the technology is likely to affect everyone — whether in their work or in another area of their lives. Holly+ and the Spawning organization both offer models for embracing technological change and making the most of it, rather than trying to resist or avoid it."I see how many things could go wrong," Herndon told me, "but I'm committed to creating ways to steer things in a better direction."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/drew-austin">Drew Austin</a> is a technology critic, writer, and author of the newsletter <a href="https://kneelingbus.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kneeling Bus.</a>

AI music could revolutionize the industry — and this artist is leading the way

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ET EnterprisesArtX founder and CEO Everette Taylor.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Everette Taylor is a man of many strengths. The 29-year-old entrepreneur has established himself as a marketing oracle. A millennial with his finger on the pulse of a generation of young adults carving out their own paths, in careers and in life.</li><li>As owner of ET Enterprises, Taylor has started and developed several companies, including the marketing and software firms MilliSense and GrowthHackers, the data-driven social-media platform PopSocial, the drug-addiction recovery app Hayver, and the charitable foundation, Southside Fund.</li><li>But Taylor is not just a serial entrepreneur, he has sought to help other businesses grow. And now he is set on applying those skills in an entirely new arena: the world of fine art. And, true to form, it starts with building another company, called ArtX.</li><li>ArtX is designed to showcase new artists, give them a centralized platform to promote their work, and reach new audiences and collectors.</li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>For Everette Taylor, a 29-year-old serial entrepreneur who has built a tech and marketing empire over the better part of a decade, his latest business endeavor is more than just a career pivot. He wants to redefine the world of fine art.Taylor has a venerable reputation for his marketing savvy in Silicon Valley. He has built companies with an eye toward growth. His work ethic has earned him considerable success.As the chief executive of ET Enterprises, Taylor oversees several businesses, including the marketing and software firms MilliSense and GrowthHackers, the data-driven social-media platform PopSocial, the drug-addiction recovery app Hayver, and the Richmond, Virginia-based charitable foundation, Southside Fund.Now, after having spent nearly a decade immersed in tech, marketing, and data, Taylor has turned his attention to the art world. His new company, <a href="https://artx.net/">called ArtX</a>, is built to elevate artists of color: showcasing their work, helping build their audiences, and offering them the software and tools they need to run their own businesses and grow their careers.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Deborah RobertsArtX founder and CEO Everette Taylor stands beside the work titled, "He looks like me" a piece from the Nessun Dorma series (2019) by Deborah Roberts, done with paper, pastel, tissue, buttons, ink and acrylic.</div></div></div><h2>Redefining the art gallery space</h2>For Taylor, this latest endeavor started with a simple problem. As a successful entrepreneur looking for tangible ways to invest his money, he decided to start collecting artwork. The practice is a long-held tradition among the wealthy who acquire creative works that appreciate in value over time.But Taylor discovered that breaking into that arena is hard. Sourcing and buying original art is not easy, either. The business of fine art is notoriously insular, and traditional galleries can feel cold and unwelcoming.Taylor told Business Insider in an interview that the types of art he finds in some of those galleries are also lacking diverse representation."There's so many different communities that are creating art that aren't getting a fair opportunity to really show and display their work," he said.The young mogul, a two-time Forbes "30 Under 30" honoree, spent an hour in Business Insider's downtown Los Angeles office earlier this month to talk about ArtX and what it was like navigating the art world as a young black entrepreneur."I would go into galleries and spaces and people wouldn't speak to me or recognize me. I would want to buy art, and I would get the runaround from galleries," Taylor said, recounting the ones that did acknowledge him would sometimes rebuff his attempts to spend any money."I wouldn't even be able to have access to those works unless I was a certain person," he said. "I just thought it was very undemocratic and unfair."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blavity-aaron-samuels-interview-business-insider-ignition-2018-2018-10">How an LA upstart is redefining the media world by helping Black millennials 'tell their own story'</a><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ArtXA view of the artists featured on the ArtX website, May 22, 2019.</div></div></div><h2>Shifting the art culture</h2>The way Taylor sees it, the art gallery model is ripe for reorganization on every level.He says ArtX wants to accomplish that by first showcasing artists of all stripes - particularly those who are underrepresented in the traditional art-gallery world - highlighting their work and their stories. A look <a href="https://artx.net/">at the ArtX website</a> at the time of this writing reveals one compilation by the Pittsburgh art curator Sean Beauford who paired the works of artist Kerry James Marshall with lyrics from the superstar hip-hop mogul Jay-Z as context for the pieces."We want to talk about things that aren't normally written about in the art space," Taylor said. "A lot of the stuff you read about is very academic, so we want to create stuff that's easily consumable for the average person, whether you're someone who holds an art degree from Yale or you're a high-schooler who's just interested in art."Highlighting diverse perspectives, Taylor said, is key to empowering artists of color. During this Wednesday morning interview, he points to the works of the Brooklyn-born Haitian-Puerto Rican artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose work has received critical acclaim.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">ArtXThe ArtX mobile app.</div></div></div>"The art community is more diverse than ever. It's not like the way it used to be," Taylor said. "Early on, it was such a revelation to have someone like Basquiat operating within a mostly white space. Now there's hundreds of thousands of artists like him - maybe not all equal in terms of talent and skill, but the space looks much different."They, too, need a platform to build an audience, share their work, and find potential customers, Taylor said.ArtX is giving artists that platform with the help of <a href="https://amplify.artx.net/">its AI-powered tool, ArtX Amplify</a>, which fuels that part of the business, helping creators build their brand on social media, which ultimately translates into sales, Taylor said.<h2>The way forward</h2>On top of his ambition to elevate a new generation of artists, Taylor envisions ArtX as a future e-commerce hub for the art market.Online art sales have grown in recent years, according to findings <a href="https://www.hiscox.co.uk/sites/uk/files/documents/2019-04/hiscox-online-art-trade-report--2019.pdf">compiled by the business insurance provider Hiscox Ltd.,</a> which said the online art market grew nearly 10% in 2018 to $4.64 billion.That's a slight decline from the 12% expansion the market saw in 2017, but what's key here is millennials make up a sizable portion of these art buyers.According to the 2019 Hiscox online art trade report, 79% of millennials surveyed said they bought art online more than once in the last 12 months. And perhaps most notably, 23% of those millennials said they had "never bought an artwork in a physical space (e.g. gallery, auction or art fair) prior to buying art online." That's an increase from 18% in the prior year, the survey found.But, money and sales aside, Taylor sees ArtX as the most important chapter of his entrepreneurial career. It's for the culture. "I really want to do things that are impactful, and change the world in a positive space," Taylor said."Art is so valuable to who we are as people," he said, recounting an interview during which the artist George Condo declared art is more important than life, "because at least it lives forever."Taylor paused for a moment, his normally resonant, youthful voice taking a contemplative tone."With this project, this is my art piece. This is something I think I can build successfully, and it's going to help people for a long time after I'm gone." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/christies-auctioneer-auction-house-what-it-takes-art-bidding-career-2019-5">What it takes to be an art auctioneer at the largest auction house in the world</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

A millennial entrepreneur who built a marketing empire now wants to change the way you discover and buy original art

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone's cofounder and CEO, is estimated to be worth $57 billion.</li><li>Schwarzman has called Blackstone his family office, but he has another family office, BI has learned.</li></ul>In his book, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-ceo-stephen-schwarzman-best-career-lessons-2019-9">"What It Takes,"</a> Steve Schwarzman recalls being on the verge of graduating from college in 1969 with little sense of what he might do next.A member of Yale's famed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-powerful-members-yale-skull-and-bones-2017-3">secret society Skull and Bones</a>, Schwarzman wrote to one of its most prestigious alumni,<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-bushes--a-wall-street-dynasty-2012-11"> Averell Harriman</a>, for advice. The heir of a railroad baron, Harriman had parlayed his family's wealth into the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman before embarking on a political career that included roles as the governor of New York, the secretary of commerce under President Harry Truman, and America's lead negotiator in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tet-offensive-us-victory-but-turned-americans-against-vietnam-war-2021-1">Vietnam War</a> peace talks.Over lunch at Harriman's Upper East Side mansion in Manhattan, the two men discussed a career in politics for Schwarzman before Harriman asked his guest whether he was "independently wealthy.""That will make a great difference in your life," Harriman told Schwarzman, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-schwarzmans-life-2015-10">middle-class son of a Philadelphia dry-goods-store owner</a>. "I advise you, if you have an interest in politics whatsoever, to go out and make as much money as you can."Schwarzman, 77, never ended up pursuing a career in politics, but as the CEO and a cofounder of the alternative-asset manager Blackstone, he has built a fortune that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">Bloomberg estimates</a> is worth $57 billion — or more than the market value of Ford Motor Co.The 24th richest man in the world, Schwarzman has used his wealth to influence various industries, including politics, real estate, and the arts, as well as culture. A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/finance-ceos-supporting-trump-blackstone-steve-schwarzman-citadel-ken-griffin-2024-10">vocal supporter of Donald Trump</a>, Schwarzman is expected to have a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-advisor-trump-lutnick-schwarzman-warsh-federal-reserve-2024-11">voice in the next White House</a>. His name adorns the New York Public Library and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-schwarzman-name-buildings-yale-2015-5">buildings on prominent university campuses</a> such as Yale's and MIT's. He and his wife, Christine Hearst Schwarzman, have been guests and supporters of the Metropolitan Museum's star-studded Met Gala fundraising extravaganza. They have also been the subject of news stories for their own <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2008/10/steve-schwarzman-apologizes-for-the">elaborate parties</a> (think camels, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/left-management-consulting-become-flying-trapeze-teacher-2022-8">trapeze artists</a>, and Gwen Stefani) and many home purchases.<div type="image" title="Steve Schwarzman and his wife Christine Hearst Schwarzman outside of the Met Gala. Steve is wearing white tie attire, and Christine is wearing a gold." height="2656" width="3984" msid="115333170" hostid="261" sizebytes="476358"></div>Little is known, however, about how the private-equity titan manages his money.At a conference last year, Schwarzman suggested that the firm he <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-deal-to-expand-hq-in-latest-sign-of-growth-2024-6">cofounded in 1985</a> was sufficient to handle his financial affairs."I own a lot of stock, and I invest in all of our funds, so the firm is my family office," Schwarzman said at the Bank of America Securities Financial Services gathering, according to an AlphaSense transcript.Business Insider has learned, however, that Schwarzman also has a family office with a name that harkens back to his childhood. Pennypack is run by a former Blackstone tax expert and employs dozens of people, including housekeepers, lawyers, and personal assistants, according to public records and conversations with people with knowledge of Schwarzman's money-management tactics, some of whom requested anonymity to speak about his private matters.It's secretive, with a nondisclosure agreement at the ready for its contractors, and provides support for at least some of Schwarzman's charitable organizations and political dealings. Pennypack also helps care for and manage many of the Schwarzman family's properties.Here's a look at what it takes to manage billionaire Steve Schwarzman's wealth.<h2 id="061bb84c-1342-46df-a7e6-0fa5a6a820d1">Most of Schwarzman's wealth is tied up in Blackstone</h2>Schwarzman cofounded Blackstone in 1985 with his former boss, Pete Peterson, and $400,000 in seed money. Today, it manages <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-third-quarter-earnings-private-credit-insurance-unit-aum-2024-10">more than $1 trillion</a>, making it the largest alternative-asset manager in the world.He is the biggest single shareholder, with a 19% stake, surpassing institutional giants like Vanguard. Based on a recent stock price of $181.17, his stake is worth $41.7 billion, which means that more than two-thirds of Schwarzman's wealth comes directly from his equity in Blackstone.As a shareholder, Schwarzman also benefits from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-ceo-steve-schwarzman-earnings-in-2017-2018-3">cash dividends</a> the company pays its stock owners. Public records show that in 2023, he took home $777 million in dividends, a 29% decline from the more than $1 billion in dividends he took home in 2022. Before Blackstone went public, Schwarzman received cash dividends as a partner in the firm.Schwarzman is also the largest individual investor in Blackstone's funds, a spokesperson for him said."Mr. Schwarzman is the largest individual investor in both Blackstone's stock and our funds — demonstrating his full alignment with the success of the firm and its clients," the spokesperson wrote.BI could find no evidence that Pennypack invests on behalf of Schwarzman, with no regulatory filings showing that it owns stock.This is unusual but not unheard of, Marc Sharpe, a professor and the chair of the Family Office Association, said. He pointed to Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computer who invests through MSD Capital but also has a separate office to manage and run his personal affairs."There is no single correct way to define a family office," Sharpe wrote to BI. "Oftentimes, they're described as a buffet menu of financial plus concierge services that wealthy families might utilize."<h2 id="37457fb4-3ead-4cc8-a639-7ed014e15612">The name is linked to his childhood</h2>The Pennypack name appears to be a throwback to Schwarzman's youth. His family lived on Pennypack Road after moving from Philadelphia to its neighboring suburbs when Schwarzman was a teenager. Property records show that his parents bought their home, which abuts Pennypack Creek, a 22-mile creek that empties into the Delaware River, in 1960 and sold it decades later, in 2004.<div type="image" title="A railroad bridge over a river, surrounded by a forest in autumn" height="3765" width="5648" msid="115333168" hostid="261" sizebytes="2645164"></div>Pennypack LLC was incorporated in 2018 in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-done-with-delaware-other-corporations-unlikely-to-follow-2024-2">Delaware</a>. It's unclear whether the entity existed before in a different form, and representatives for Schwarzman declined to clarify.According to Blackstone's 2023 annual report, it provides Schwarzman's family office with "offices, technology, and support," though Schwarzman is responsible for reimbursing Blackstone for the costs. Until this year, the company was registered to a Blackstone office address, according to corporate filings.<div type="image" title="Blackstone signage outside Blackstone Group headquarters in NYC" height="2268" width="3400" msid="115333173" hostid="261" sizebytes="564594"></div>Like many family offices, Pennypack is secretive. According to a copy of an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nondisclosure-agreements-silence-control-workers-silicon-valley-2021-7">NDA </a>for vendors that work with Pennypack, obtained by BI, signees are not allowed to disclose information about the "Schwarzman Group."According to the document, the Schwarzman Group includes "all employees of Pennypack, all employees of all residences of Stephen A. Schwarzman and/or Christine Hearst Schwarzman regardless of the location of such residences; and all business entities that Pennypack manages, operates or is associated with, and the employees and agents of those businesses."<h2 id="ce719a95-bc69-41be-9292-52d9184d267d">Who runs Pennypack?</h2>Pennypack is run by John Magliano, a former Blackstone executive and accountant. Magliano's LinkedIn profile says he has been the president of a family office since 2017.He spent more than 18 years with Blackstone, including as the CFO of its private-equity group, which runs its control investments in businesses, and as a managing director of Blackstone's tax group, which helps prepare its tax returns and studies the tax implications of business decisions. After leaving to run Pennypack, Magliano stayed on as a senior advisor to Blackstone through 2021.Schwarzman thanks Magliano in the acknowledgments section of his autobiography, along with Paul A. White, another Pennypack executive. The pair are listed as officers in LLCs tied to a string of Schwarzman's recent home purchases, including his $32.5 million purchase of a mansion on the tony Easton Street in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nantucket-homes-give-away-free-move-houses-cost-reason-2024-4">Nantucket, Massachusetts,</a> which marked the largest private-home sale in the island's history at the time.<div type="image" title="Postcard of the White Elephant, an iconic Nantucket hotel, with sailboats in front of it." height="2673" width="4212" msid="115333174" hostid="261" sizebytes="1269842"></div>The two men are also named as officers of LLCs linked to the $43 million purchase and renovation of two <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gilded-age-mansions-photos-wealth-2024-9">historic Newport, Rhode Island, mansions</a>: Ocean View and Miramar, the latter of which Schwarzman said he would <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a61852950/steve-schwarzman-miramar-private-museum/">turn into a museum</a> when he dies. They are also named as officers of an LLC tied to Schwarzman's $100 million purchase of an estate named Conholt Park, which is about a 30-minute drive from Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.<h2 id="665829e5-e31a-44d6-b0d6-9cfaacbcba9a">The staff</h2>A person with direct knowledge of Pennypack's operations told BI that Pennypack employed over 100 people in various roles, from executive assistants to the housekeepers who clean and maintain his homes.One employee on LinkedIn described their role at Pennypack as providing administrative support to "Mrs.," an apparent reference to Hearst Schwarzman. Listed duties included managing her personal projects and board and foundation endeavors, drafting emails, preparing her for speaking engagements, and tracking auctions for purchases.Another Pennypack employee described themself on LinkedIn as a housekeeper.A list of contractors obtained by BI shows that Pennypack has hired landscapers, ornamental plasterers, construction workers, and architects. The building conservationist linked to Miramar, the Gilded Age Newport home he bought for $27 million in 2021, is on the list.<div type="image" title="Black and white photo of Miramar, taken between 1917-1927" height="1122" width="1536" msid="115333180" hostid="261" sizebytes="64092"></div>Pennypack also appears to play in role in the Schwarzman's family's security. In June, the family office purchased a radio call sign tied to Ocean View in Newport. The Federal Communications Commission application said that "radios will be used to coordinate private security details."<h2 id="d929c107-fbef-4672-bcc4-3c5d65f98c0b">Schwarzman's charities and politics</h2>Pennypack's officers also play a role in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-schwarzman-comments-on-report-cards-2015-11">Schwarzman's charitable works</a>. Public filings show that Magliano is the treasurer and director at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, Schwarzman's main philanthropic arm. Its recent donations include $350 million to MIT for a building dedicated to the study of artificial intelligence and computing, as well as more than $220 million to create a new Centre for the Humanities at Oxford, which is set to include the study of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-steve-schwarzman-on-ai-infrastructure-investment-goals-2024-7">ethics in AI</a>.<div type="image" title="A view of the New York Public Library - Stephen A. Schwarzman Building." height="4128" width="6192" msid="115333177" hostid="261" sizebytes="1646392"></div>Magliano is in charge of the foundation's bookkeeping, the filings show.Filings show that Magliano is also a vice president and the treasurer of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, which runs the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/schwarzman-scholars-in-china-2013-4">Schwarzman Scholars program</a>, a master's leadership program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The program was founded in 2016 to help foster US <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-ceo-stephen-schwarzman-us-china-trade-war-2019-9">relations with China</a>.In 2022, Magliano was paid $300,000 for working 18 hours a week with the two foundations, according to nonprofit filings for the firm.Schwarzman has long been in the political spotlight, most notably as the head of then-President Trump's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-business-council-strategic-policy-forum-why-ceos-left-2017-8">Strategic and Policy Forum</a> and as a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/which-billionaires-support-donald-trump-campaign">prolific Republican donor</a>.<div type="image" title="President Donald Trump listens to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman." height="3557" width="5336" msid="115333182" hostid="261" sizebytes="1969124"></div>Federal Election Commission filings show that Pennypack was paid over $12,000 in March for fundraising consulting by a joint PAC connected to Senator-elect<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-sheehy-montana-wealthy-republican-climate-change-china-investments-2023-11"> Tim Sheehy of Montana</a>.A Schwarzman spokesperson told BI that the payment was a reimbursement for a fundraiser that he held for Sheehy.<h2 id="fab9026e-545d-4685-b7c4-455482025cff">What is a family office, anyway?</h2>The concept of the family office can be traced to the 1838 founding of the House of Morgan to handle J.P. Morgan's fortune. Sharpe, the chair of the Family Office Association, estimated that there were now at least 3,000 family offices serving a single family in North America. Every family office, however, is just as unique as the wealthy family that's spawned it, he said."The term family office," Sharpe said, "is possibly the most misused, overused, and poorly used term in finance today."

Inside the secretive operation helping manage billionaire Steve Schwarzman's vast fortune

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Hello. Breaking news this morning: Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/francis-scott-key-bridge-baltimore-collapses-after-struck-large-boat-2024-3">collapsed on Tuesday</a> after it was struck by a large cargo ship. A representative for the Baltimore Fire Department said the collapse is a "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-bridge-collapse-developing-mass-casualty-event-2024-3">developing mass casualty event.</a>"In today's big story, we're looking into how some in Silicon Valley are starting to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-hype-openai-silicon-valley-venture-capital-2024-3">sour on OpenAI's Sam Altman</a>.What's on deck:<ul><li>Markets: How to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-outlook-prediction-strategy-to-invest-david-rosenberg-2024-3">manage the risk</a> of a massive market downturn.</li><li>Tech: The Apple Vision Pro <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-apple-vision-pro-nightmare-surveillance-privacy-2024-3">quickly became a nightmare</a> for one user and a warning about tech's future.</li><li>Business: The private-equity firms chomping at the bit for a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-owners-meeting-private-equity-ownership-rules-2024-3">chance to invest in the NFL</a>.</li></ul>But first, the tides are turning.If this was forwarded to you, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><div type="image" title="Alastair Grant/AP; Rebecca Zisser/BI" height="1000" width="2000" msid="108796711" hostid="261" sizebytes="42388"></div><h3>The big story</h3><h2>Altman's $100 billion ask</h2>They anointed him the startup industry's latest golden child. Now they're turning on him.Some venture capitalists are growing less impressed with Sam Altman as he reportedly raises a $100 billion funding round for OpenAI, Business Insider's Darius Rafieyan reports.From hardball tactics when raising funds to relentless self-mythologizing about his role in the future of tech, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-hype-openai-silicon-valley-venture-capital-2024-3">Altman's act is wearing thin on some</a>.It's only natural for critics to emerge when a person reaches a certain level of fame. Altman has eclipsed that benchmark, going from a well-known name within tech circles to one of the industry's key players.Even still, he's mostly avoided controversy except for his ouster-turned-return last fall and an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-elon-musk-fight-share-similarities-ai-tech-2024-3">ongoing feud with Elon Musk</a>.However, his wide-reaching ambitions — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-scope-of-sam-altmans-future-ai-empire-open-ai-2024-3">a sprawling network of investments</a> focused on helping humanity — have some feeling they are more about self-promotion.The Altman vibe shift is representative of the fine line founders often need to balance. Investors want to back visionaries whose charisma and determination for their ideas are undeterred, à la Steve Jobs.But when unchecked, those sought-after executives can quickly spiral out of control and fall out of favor with those who initially backed them.Criticism of Altman could also be a bit of sour grapes.Plenty of people owe Altman for kicking off the AI revolution. Young startups raised funding at eye-popping valuations. VCs who got on the trend early secured big wins during a dreadful environment.But those who didn't move fast enough have been left scrambling. Under pressure from their investors, VCs now struggle <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-investments-vcs-startups-valuations-2024-3">to find deals at a viable price point</a>.Even VCs uninterested in AI deals are quickly becoming servants to Altman's AI empire. The number of startups <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startups-are-paying-for-chatgpt-to-level-up-engineering-power-2024-3">paying for ChatGPT has exploded over the past year-plus</a>, reports BI's Samantha Stokes.Analysis from Kruze Consulting found more than 65% of the 800 startups it works with pay OpenAI. The surge shows how generative AI has infiltrated the daily workflow of many tech workers.The price point for some of these companies isn't high — $20 a month gets you access to ChatGPT Plus — but the importance of embedding a product into a workers' routine can't be understated.<h2>3 things in markets</h2><div type="image" title="Jerome Powell" height="1000" width="2000" msid="108796712" hostid="261" sizebytes="82322"></div><ol><li>The biggest thing stopping rate cuts could be AI. Torsten Slok, the chief economist of Apollo Global Management, pointed to the AI-fueled rally in the stock market as the <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/fed-rate-cuts-outlook-economy-inflation-ai-stock-market-rally-2024-3">biggest deterrent</a> to the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates. The result could be a worst-case scenario for the market: no rate cuts in 2024.</li><li>Big market, fall hard. The stock market continues to rip, but some experts remain fearful. Veteran economist David Rosenberg, who has a bearish take on things, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-outlook-prediction-strategy-to-invest-david-rosenberg-2024-3">mapped out steps to hedge your portfolio</a>, like investing in consumer staples, healthcare, and gold.</li><li>Bank of America wants to be the art world's favorite bank. BofA negotiates better deals with auction houses on behalf of its clients. The bank's head of art finance Drew Watson told BI how helping <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-art-collectors-lending-wealth-management-2024-3">sell art, luxury watches, and Birkin bags</a> fits into its grand plan.</li></ol><h2>3 things in tech</h2><div type="image" title="Illustration of blob wearing Apple Vision Pro" height="1000" width="2000" msid="108796713" hostid="261" sizebytes="500788"></div><ol><li>The Apple Vision Pro represents a scary future. The writer's excitement for the headset quickly vanished over security concerns and the digital isolation it creates. And even if the product ultimately fails, it foreshadows <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-apple-vision-pro-nightmare-surveillance-privacy-2024-3">tech trends that are cutting us off from each other</a>.</li><li>Tesla and Space X are collaborating on the new Roadster. While Elon Musk was sparse on details about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-roadster-spacex-technology-elon-musk-interview-2024-3">the collaboration</a>, he told Don Lemon that Tesla will justify the hefty price tag with "something that's never existed before." Musk also mentioned that a flying feature wasn't "out of the question."</li><li>Mark Zuckerberg is pulling out all the stops to recruit AI talent. The Meta boss has been tapping up AI researchers from Google's DeepMind by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-recruiting-google-ai-talent-with-personal-emails-2024-3">sending them personally written emails</a>, The Information reported on Monday. Meta has also been offering jobs to candidates without holding any interviews, per the outlet.</li></ol><h2>3 things in business</h2><div type="image" title="Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is arriving for a meeting with Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in the Hart Senate Office Building, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 2024," height="1667" width="2499" msid="108796715" hostid="261" sizebytes="611338"></div><ol><li>Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is resigning at the end of the year. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-ceo-resigns-amid-alaska-airlines-backlash-2024-3">Calhoun's announcement </a>comes as part of an overhaul of the company's top management — but he insists the decision to leave was 100% his own. The outgoing CEO said the planemaker needs to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-ceo-company-needs-to-slow-down-after-alaska-airlines-2024-3">slow down its production process</a> and put safety before speed.</li><li>Wall Street has its eyes on the NFL. The NFL owners are currently in Orlando for their annual meeting where they'll discuss whether institutional investors can buy passive stakes. If owners agree to the rule change, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-owners-meeting-private-equity-ownership-rules-2024-3">these private-equity firms could benefit.</a></li><li>Adam Neumann is trying to regain control of WeWork. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Neumann has submitted a bid <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-neumann-buy-wework-more-than-500-million-report-2024-3">to buy the bankrupt flexible office provider</a> for more than $500 million, citing people familiar with the matter.</li></ol><h2>In other news</h2><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bond-reduction-civil-fraud-case-rare-legal-experts-2024-3">Trump just got a huge 62% discount on his bond. That's extremely rare, legal experts say</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ron-desantis-bill-barring-kids-under-14-tiktok-snapchat-instagram-2024-3">Ron DeSantis just signed a bill barring Florida kids under 14 from using TikTok, SnapChat, and Instagram</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-attack-could-drive-wedge-between-putin-russia-ally-tajikistan-2024-3">The Moscow terror attack could drive a wedge between Russia and one of its longtime allies</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-new-york-times-value-billion-user-generated-content-2024-3">Why investors think Reddit is worth $1 billion more than The New York Times</a>.</li></ul><h2>What's happening today</h2><ul><li>The US Supreme Court will hear a case regarding the FDA approval of mifepristone, which is commonly used in medically induced abortions.</li><li>Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to announce his vice presidential running mate.</li></ul>The Insider Today team: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-defrancesco">Dan DeFrancesco</a>, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallam-bullock">Hallam Bullock</a>, editor, in London. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/george-glover">George Glover</a>, reporter, in London. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/grace-lett">Grace Lett</a>, associate editor, in Chicago.

Sam Altman's act may be wearing thin

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mona Patel turned heads at the 2024 Met Gala in a custom Iris van Herpen dress styled by Law Roach.</li><li>Patel founded a fashion-focused nonprofit. </li></ul>On Monday night, the biggest fashion event of the year took place in New York City: the <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala">Met Gala</a>.The annual fundraiser benefiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute takes place on the first Monday of May each year.The gala brings together athletes, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-best-and-worst-looks-billionaires-wore-2024-5">billionaires</a>, A-list stars, and powerhouses in the fashion world, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-live-updates-red-carpet-arrivals-outfits-2024-5">the 2024 event</a>, which had a "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-co-chairs-theme-dress-code-explained-2024">Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion</a>" theme, was no exception.Many attendees stood out on the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-looks-red-carpet-outfits-photos-2024-5">red carpet</a> with their outfits, which honored the gala's "<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-2024-theme-sleeping-beauties-reawakening-fashion-stylist-predictions-2023-11">Garden of Time</a>" dress code.But few made as many waves as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/met-gala-entrepreneur-mona-patel-best-dressed-law-roach-2024-5">Mona Patel</a>, an entrepreneur who wore a custom Iris van Herpen gown to her first Met Gala.<h2 id="cca150a4-e51e-4272-8c51-2c4faa5f9c97">Patel is an entrepreneur and philanthropist</h2>Patel grew up in India and first moved to the US to attend Rutgers University, as she shared on her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hautemona.com/about">Haute Mona</a> website. However, she said she only completed one year at the college before returning to India to finish her undergraduate studies.She moved back to the US in 2003 to launch her business career, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mona-patel/?list=next-1000&amp;sh=171ac7611d34">Forbes Next 1000 list from 2021</a>.<div type="image" title="Mona Patel attends the 2024 Met Gala." height="683" width="1024" msid="109986786" hostid="261"></div>Forbes reported the entrepreneur has founded multiple companies since she moved to the US — her first just three years after moving to the States — in a variety of industries, including tech, retail, and healthcare. In its Time 1000 profile of Patel, Forbes also said that her ventures include CareFirst Imaging, a Florida-based medical imaging company, and radXai. Patel <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hautemona.com/projects">noted on her website</a> that radXai is an AI-focused healthtech startup, though the company does not have a public website as of Thursday. Business Insider didn't independently verify Patel's business background or the roles she's held in the companies Forbes listed.Patel did not respond to a request to speak with BI on Wednesday.Patel also founded the nonprofit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coutureforcause.org/">Couture for Cause,</a> which raises money for girls worldwide through the fashion community. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/couture-for-cause-2021">Vogue</a> said that she auctions off pieces from her own wardrobe for the organization, and the outlet spotlighted a Couture for Cause dinner Patel hosted in 2021. Vogue reported that the event's guest list included boutique designers like Alejandra Alonso Rojas and Jonathan Cohen, as well as several Vogue staffers.Patel's work in the fashion industry — and her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MY7RkFo7h/?hl=en">meet-cute with Anna Wintour</a> at a 2020 screening of "Emma" — led to her invitation to the 2024 Met Gala.<h2 id="72ec385e-1f19-40f8-a1fe-e03f4309b587">Mona Patel turned heads at the 2024 Met Gala</h2>Thanks to the dramatic ensemble she wore to make her Met Gala debut, Patel was among the most talked-about attendees of the event.Her Iris van Herpen gown was cream and taupe, and it was designed to look like a butterfly, with architectural detailing on the strapless neckline and ornate embroidery mimicking the shape of wings.<div type="image" title="Mona Patel on the Met Gala 2024 red carpet." height="608" width="811" msid="109986788" hostid="261"></div>Sheer panels of lace covered the sides of the gown, while the train was made of overlapping scallops of fabric that also looked like wings.Patel's arm cuffs were the pièce de résistance of the ensemble. The cuffs were made of butterflies that flapped their wings as Patel walked down the red carpet.According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vogue.in/content/this-indian-fashion-entrepreneur-just-made-her-met-gala-debut-styled-by-law-roach">Vogue India</a>, they were Patel's idea and designer Casey Curran helped to bring them to life.<div type="image" title="Mona Patel at the 2024 Met Gala." height="1024" width="683" msid="109986789" hostid="261"></div>Patel wore her hair in an updo styled by Chris Martin and Edgar Martin, and Sidney Jamila did her dewy makeup.Law Roach — Zendaya's longtime stylist — served as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/law-roach-celebrity-stylist-interview-2023-2">her "image architect"</a> for the event. Vogue India reported that they traveled to Mumbai, India, together in March to visit an Iris van Herpen factory and help bring the look to life.Patel's one-of-a-kind look and collaboration with Roach, who said he <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrity-stylist-law-roach-says-hes-retired-2023-3">retired from celebrity styling</a> in 2023, excited <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/maxs2cats/status/1787677610048155796?s=46&amp;t=ASc5P_DBSSY9YgUKqeYP8Q">social-media users</a>, particularly since many were unsure who Patel was when she first arrived at the event."Overwhelmed by all the love and support from around the world for this look," Patel wrote of people's responses to her outfit in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6rIK9FvpT-/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">Instagram post</a> on Tuesday. "Thank you so much!

Meet Mona Patel, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who stole the show at the Met Gala

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A typical Louis Vuitton handbag can set you back a few thousand dollars, but this microscopic knockoff is even pricier.</li><li>A product of Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, the neon handbag just sold at auction for $63,750.</li></ul>A Louis Vuitton-embossed handbag just fetched more than $60,000 at auction — but it's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-microscopic-handbag-smaller-than-grain-of-salt-mschf-2023-6">way smaller than you'd expect</a> and not even the real thing.The knockoff, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-microscopic-handbag-smaller-than-grain-of-salt-mschf-2023-6">neon yellowish-green handbag</a>, sold for $63,750, more than quadruple the starting bid of $15,000.The bag is "smaller than a grain of sea salt and narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle," according to an Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CtehXZEuZY-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> by its maker, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mschf-company-behind-viral-jesus-shoes-feet-generator-bull-moon-2020-1">Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF</a>.Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF's chief creative officer, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/style/mschf-microscopic-handbag.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">The New York Times</a> that the collective hadn't obtained permission from Louis Vuitton to use the design. LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.<div type="image" title="MSCHF's microscopic handbag" height="1800" width="2400" msid="101374724" hostid="261" sizebytes="79744"></div>The bag was made using "a stereolithographic process commonly used for making tiny mechanical biotech structures," according to its <a href="https://www.joopiter.com/products/mschf-microscopic-handbag" target="_blank" rel="noopener">auction listing</a>, and comes with a microscope featuring a built-in digital display of the bag for viewing."As a once-functional object like a handbag becomes smaller and smaller its object status becomes steadily more abstracted until it is purely a brand signifier," MSCHF said in the listing."Previous small leather handbags have still required a hand to carry them — they become dysfunctional, inconveniences to their 'wearer,'" the listing says. "Microscopic Handbag takes this to its full logical conclusion. A practical object is boiled down into jewelry, all of its putative function evaporated; for luxury objects, useability is the angels' share."<div type="image" title="MSCHF's Microscopic Handbag under a microscope." height="1500" width="2000" msid="101374726" hostid="261" sizebytes="45988"></div>MSCHF has made headlines in recent years for other tongue-in-cheek stunt projects, including <a href="https://www.insider.com/lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-collaboration-human-blood-2021-3">Lil Nas X's controversial "Satan shoes,"</a> a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mschf-new-bwd-shoe-highlights-our-obsession-with-functionality-2023-4">double-sided sneaker</a> that can be put on both ways, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eat-the-rich-ice-cream-popsicle-mschf-gates-zuckerberg-musk-2022-7">"Eat the Rich" popsicles</a> shaped like tech billionaires <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-feud-history-2021-1">Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg,</a> and an AI-powered website that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hot-chat-3000-ai-match-hot-or-not-hotness-mschf-2023-5">ranks and matches you with others based on your "hotness."</a>

A microscopic, knockoff Louis Vuitton handbag smaller than a grain of salt just sold for $63,750

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Austen Chu, 26, is the cofounder of Wristcheck, a platform for buying and selling pre-owned watches.</li><li>He launched the company in 2020 and opened a brick-and-mortar store in a mall in Hong Kong in 2021.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Austen Chu, the 26-year-old cofounder of Wristcheck. It has been edited for length and clarity.I've been addicted to watches since I was a kid growing up in Shanghai. My grandparents were math professors, so I was taught numbers before letters.When I started collecting, there wasn't a huge watch collecting community in China. Watch collecting wasn't in pop culture, like it is now. Everything I learned came from nerdy forums that didn't even have photographs.I bought my first mechanical watch with money I earned from DJing when I was 15. It took me a year to save up for a secondhand Hamilton Jazzmaster Face 2 Face, which <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63ea668620014407a85ec1a5&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hamiltonwatch.com%2Fen-sg%2Fh32856705-jazzmaster-face-to-face.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">costs around $6,700</a> new, while secondhand is a few thousand dollars. I'd contact sellers who said they had it and they didn't, or I'd visit their stores to find the condition of the watch was terrible.When I got to college, I decided I wanted to fix this problem, so I started building my own watch community online and went on to start a watch consignment business called <a href="https://wristcheck.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wristcheck</a> in 2020. We've had more than $80 million in watches consigned to us since we launched, and we've sold watches worth more than $1 million multiple times.<h2>I started posting about my favorite watches on my own Instagram as a teenager</h2>My friends weren't interested in watches, and the older collectors didn't take me seriously because of my age, so I didn't have that many followers.I started buying and selling secondhand watches as a hobby. I didn't have a huge collection — I'd only own three watches at any time. I also got scammed a few times. Not everyone was sending the mint-condition watches they sent photographs of. This led to me owning something that wasn't as valuable as I thought it was, but I was still determined to continue collecting.During my freshman year at NYU Shanghai, I launched <a href="https://www.instagram.com/horoloupe/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@horoloupe</a>, an Instagram page dedicated solely to rare watches and limited-edition pieces. I would visit watch stores and post images of anything that caught my attention. I decided to make the page anonymous so no one knew a teenager was behind it.By graduation, I'd grown the account to 30,000 followers. I started working for a finance company after school, but I was posting constantly, and the limited-edition pieces I was photographing were getting lots of likes. I decided to stop being anonymous, and my profile as a watch enthusiast grew.The ageism never stopped — I just turned being a Gen-Z watch collector into an advantage. It wasn't long before brands were approaching me for collaborations and magazines asked me for interviews.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-audemars-piguet-ultra-thin-royal-oak-watch-50th-anniversary-2022-4">Audemars Piguet</a> reached out and asked me to premier one of its new models on my Instagram page. Then when I met Francois-Henry Bennahmias, the CEO of Audemars Piguet, at an event in late 2018, I asked whether they thought about creating a limited-edition timepiece for China, and they decided to go for it. I was even more shocked when they asked me to collaborate with them on the titanium Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, one of which <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7YTtKUAdw_/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sold at auction for 300,000 Swiss francs, or around $326,402</a>.<h2>As I started working with watch brands, it became clear to me I needed to make a change</h2>I was still working until 10 p.m. each night at the finance company. In 2018, with some savings from my finance job, I decided to quit. I wanted to help other people my age navigate the watch world and create a presale site for Gen Z watch collectors.When I was being interviewed by Hypebeast in Hong Kong, I met my future cofounder and ecommerce expert Sean Wong. When I told my friends about my idea, they thought I was crazy, but Sean could see that it would work.By July 2020, Sean had left his job, and I'd moved to Hong Kong to launch the brand. I knew that Hong Kong would be the perfect launch pad as it had been the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/style/watches-hong-kong.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">number-one export market for Swiss watches for over a decade</a>, and it had no sales tax on luxury goods.<h2>Our aim for the brand was to make the buying and selling process of watches as transparent as possible</h2>Whereas an auction house can make 20-30% from buyers and 10% from sellers, we would take 8% from sellers and 4% from buyers. We'd also authenticate the watches with the brands directly, which helped us build relationships with them.We're a consignment-based company, so we don't buy the watches. We only give the seller the money once we've received payment from the buyer. This means we don't have our money invested in watches and we can focus our spending on growth. Until October 2022, we didn't spend any money on marketing.In March 2021, we listed 80 watches for sale priced from $5,000 to $500,000. My Instagram account gave us a few thousand followers at the beginning and then further interest was gained with media attention. The two of us did everything — taking photographs of the watches, writing the product descriptions, and sending invoices out of our coworking space in Hong Kong. When we rang up our first sale for a vintage Patek Philippe Nautilus 3800, we were ecstatic.<h2>While our goal is to be mostly online, we knew that a store would help build trust with customers who were leaving their expensive watches with us</h2><div type="image" title="The Wristcheck store in the Landmark Atrium mall in Hong Kong" height="5503" width="7337" msid="97886025" hostid="261" sizebytes="803690"></div>My own experience in the secondary market was kind of awful and nowhere near glamorous. The stores were dingy basements in sketchy parts of town, and watches were laid out like dead fish.I wanted our store to take inspiration from an art gallery, where they have knowledgeable gallerists, you get a glass of champagne, and secondhand art is given the same level of respect as brand-new art. While rents were a little cheaper during the pandemic, opening a state-of-the-art store in a mall in Hong Kong was expensive, but we knew it would be worth it to help build trust with customers. Everything from finding a location to finding staff was a learning curve.On September 1, 2021, we opened our store at the Landmark Atrium in Hong Kong. It was one of the best days for the brand as we saw our dreams come to fruition.<div type="image" title="The Wristcheck store in the Landmark Atrium mall in Hong Kong." height="5429" width="7239" msid="97886027" hostid="261" sizebytes="527926"></div>We now have 30 members of staff, including a creative team that produces video content for brand collaborations; a dedicated watch concierge team who previously worked for companies such as Piaget and the watch department at Bonhams; and a tech team.I wake up at 5:30 a.m. so I can answer emails and chat with collectors in Europe and the US. I might start the day with a breakfast meeting with a collector or a brand, but I can still be working until 10 p.m. In my downtime I'm still thinking about watches, but as I've just got a puppy, I now spend time going for hikes and discovering new places in Hong Kong.<h2>Until June 2022, we'd bootstrapped the brand with our savings</h2>We now plan to launch in mainland China, so we decided to seek funding. A lot of our clients are very wealthy, so attracting investors was organic. When we sold our fifth watch, a client asked if he could invest in the company. We didn't take them up on it at that point, but we reached back out.By November 2022, we'd raised $8 million, with our lead investors being <a href="https://www.ent-fund.org/en/news/details/417" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gobi Partners</a>, who manage the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Investment Fund.The money raised will be used to launch an app in the second quarter of 2023, and we're also focused on improving our AI by building a pricing tool that'll show you what the last three versions of your watch sold at and whether your watch is real or fake.

I started an Instagram fan page for luxury watches and turned it into an $8 million resale business — here's how

Hello again, tech fans. Writing to you from New York, I'm your host, Jordan Parker Erb. First things first: results from the 2022 midterm elections are still coming in – <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-results-live-updates-midterm-vote-senate-house-governors-2022-11">follow Insider's live coverage here.</a>But in the tech world: There's one thing we can't seem to escape — layoffs. This morning Meta announced it will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-employees-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-bet-2022-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">lay off more than 11,000 employees.</a> Salesforce is reportedly planning to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-planning-to-slash-2500-jobs-2022-11">cut as many as 2,500 jobs</a>. Elon Musk's Twitter is asking some laid-off workers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-rehire-come-back-2022-11">if they want to come back</a>. Meanwhile, some tech workers who have been laid off are taking to TikTok to post "get ready with me" videos wherein they film themselves — you guessed it — <a href="https://www.insider.com/twitter-employees-grwm-laid-off-tiktok-2022-11">getting ready to be laid off</a>.Therapists recently told us that using TikTok to grieve a relationship <a href="https://www.insider.com/gen-z-tiktok-crying-breakup-videos-why-therapists-support-2022-11">may actually be helpful</a>, which makes me think that posting GRWMs may be the hottest new trend in coping with layoffs. With all the heavy news this week, today's newsletter is a bit of a doozy. Hang in there.If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-in-tech">sign up here</a>. Download Insider's app <a href="https://link.insider.com/click/27645591.160803/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zaWRlci5jb20vYXBwP25yX2VtYWlsX3JlZmVyZXI9MSZ1dG1fc291cmNlPVNhaWx0aHJ1JnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9T3BlbmluZ19iZWxs/62667762063d6b9bef0cffb3Bf9c9aa56">here.</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-employees-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-bet-2022-11"></a>1. Few departments will be spared in Meta's layoffs. Facing slowing growth and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-doubles-down-on-metaverse-spending-despite-calls-cut-costs-2022-10">a shareholder rebellion</a>, Facebook has responded <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-baby-to-be-hit-facebook-job-cuts-2022-11">with plans to slash staff</a> — and even Mark Zuckerberg's beloved metaverse division is expected to feel the heat.<ul><li>Meta said Wednesday it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-employees-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-bet-2022-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees</a>, or 13% of its workforce. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-memo-mark-zuckerberg-employees-mass-layoffs-job-cuts-2022-11">Read the memo Mark Zuckerberg sent to employees</a>.</li><li>According to people familiar with the company, divisions including marketing, partnerships, HR, and engineering will be among the hardest hit. </li><li>Some employees from Reality Labs, the division responsible for the company's metaverse efforts — which one person described as "Mark's baby" — will likely lose their jobs, these people said.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-employees-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-bet-2022-11">Everything we know about layoffs at Facebook.</a>In other news:<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-acquisition-sam-bankman-fried-insolvency-rumors-contagion-fears-2022-11"></a><div type="image" title="This is a photo of Sam Bankman-Fried looking to the side." height="4252" width="5669" msid="95405383" hostid="261"></div>2. Crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his fortune overnight, marking the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-ceo-crypto-binance-sam-bankman-fried-wealth-wiped-out-2022-11">biggest one-day wealth collapse among billionaires on record.</a> His crypto-exchange platform, FTX, was seemingly on the verge of collapse before Binance agreed to buy it on Tuesday — days after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/binance-acquisition-ftx-twitter-spat-sam-bankman-fried-cz-zhao-2022-11">he and the founder of Binance into a very public spat</a> on Twitter. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-acquisition-sam-bankman-fried-insolvency-rumors-contagion-fears-2022-11">Here's how SBF and FTX got here.</a>3. Elon Musk is looking to rehire Twitter workers. Internal messages viewed by Insider show that managers and directors who survived last week's mass layoffs were informed they "had the opportunity" to ask people who lost their jobs "if they will come back." <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-rehire-come-back-2022-11">What we learned from the internal messages.</a>4. Prime members are complaining that Amazon Music is "unusable." Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to the platform, but Prime members can only play individual songs if they upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited for $9 a month — and some are taking to social media to criticize the update. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-music-users-lose-ability-select-songs-paid-upgrade-2022-11">Why Prime members are so frustrated.</a>5. Carvana was hailed as a pandemic era success story. Now its fortunes have soured. Over the last year, 98% of the company's market value has evaporated. So what gives? The online used-car retailer chalks it up to a challenging economy and slowing demand. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-carvana-stock-plummet-used-car-prices-interest-rates-inflation-2022-11">Get the details here.</a>6. VCs share their best advice for startup founders. As the tech industry heads for a historic slump and thousands of workers lose their jobs, investors from 7wire, Interplay, and Menlo shared what founders should do to withstand the downturn. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/7wireventures-interplay-menlo-vc-investor-advice-for-startup-founders-2022-11">Read their advice here.</a>7. Elizabeth Holmes faces sentencing in a matter of days. The Theranos founder has been denied three requests seeking a new trial. She faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the four counts on which she was convicted. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-faces-sentencing-new-trial-request-denied-2022-11">Get the latest here.</a>8. Google is quietly working on a wearable device for preteens. Internally code-named "Project Eleven," the wearable is designed to help older kids form healthy relationships with their phones and social media, employees told us. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/project-eleven-google-wearable-pre-teens-health-safety-features-2022-11">Everything we know about Project Eleven.</a>Odds and ends:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/porsche-taycan-vs-mercedes-eqs-luxury-evs-compared-2022-11"></a><div type="image" title="The Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 (top) and Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo." height="1080" width="1440" msid="95405386" hostid="261"></div>9. We put two EVs from Porsche and Mercedes head to head. Insider's transportation reporter tested out two six-figure cars — the Porsche Taycan and the Mercedes EQS — and shares which one he'd buy, and why. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/porsche-taycan-vs-mercedes-eqs-luxury-evs-compared-2022-11">Read his decision here.</a> 10. The founder of Oculus said he created a VR headset that kills users in real life if they die in a video game. Palmer Luckey, who was later fired by Facebook, said he's always been fascinated by "the idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-creator-palmer-luckey-facebook-meta-vr-kill-real-life-2022-11">upping the stakes of losing in video games to a startling degree.</a>What we're watching today:<ul><li>Rivian, Roblox, and others are reporting earnings. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">Keep up with earnings here.</a></li><li>"The Crown" returns for its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/how-to-watch-the-crown">fifth season on Netflix.</a></li><li>Microsoft cofounder <a href="https://www.christies.com/en/auction/visionary-the-paul-g-allen-collection-part-i-30032/">Paul G. Allen's art collection</a> will be offered at auction today.</li><li>"God of War Ragnarök," an action-adventure video game, will be released on PlayStation 4 and 5. </li><li>Bosch Connected World 2022 is happening <a href="https://bosch-connected-world.com/">in Berlin and online</a>.</li><li>GitHub Universe, a <a href="https://githubuniverse.com/">global developer event</a> for cloud, security, community, and AI, starts today.</li></ul>Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/therefresh">The Refresh from Insider,</a> a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/therefresh">Listen here.</a>Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email <a href="mailto:jerb@insider.com">jerb@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanparkererb?lang=en">@jordanparkererb</a>.) Edited by Lisa Ryan (tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/lisarya?nr_email_referer=1&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=10_things_tech&amp;utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20sai:%20Layoffs%20have%20already%20started%20at%20Elon%20Musk%27s%20Twitter.%20Here%27s%20what%20we%20know%20so%20far.&amp;utm_term=10%20THINGS%20IN%20TECH%20SEND%20LIST">@lisarya</a>) in New York and Shona Ghosh (tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/shonaghosh?nr_email_referer=1&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=10_things_tech&amp;utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20sai:%20Layoffs%20have%20already%20started%20at%20Elon%20Musk%27s%20Twitter.%20Here%27s%20what%20we%20know%20so%20far.&amp;utm_term=10%20THINGS%20IN%20TECH%20SEND%20LIST">@shonaghosh</a>) in London.

Facebook has announced layoffs. Here's which teams are likely to be affected.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/NeilChinese artist Ai Weiwei poses for photographers during a photocall for his exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Britain September 15, 2015. Hall</div></div></div>Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Thursday.1. Hungarian <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/police-fires-water-canon-at-refugees-throwing-stones-2015-9">police fired tear gas and water cannons at rioting migrants</a> who are stuck on the Serbian side of the border after Hungary made it a crime to cross the razor-wire fence that separates the two countries.2. An<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/17/chile-earthquake-massive-83-magnitude-tremor-strikes-santiago-live-updates"> 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile on Wednesday</a>, shaking buildings in the country's capital, triggering tsunami warnings, and killing at least five people.3. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/most-exposed-emerging-market-countries-to-a-federal-reserve-rate-hike-2015-9">US Federal Reserve will announce on Thursday </a><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/most-exposed-emerging-market-countries-to-a-federal-reserve-rate-hike-2015-9">whether or not they will raise interest rates</a> for the first time since the financial crisis, a decision that will have a big impact on economies around the world.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/stock-market-coil-formation-2015-9"></a>4. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-asian-shares-hit-three-week-high-ahead-of-crunch-fed-meeting-2015-9">Asian stocks hit their highest level in three weeks</a> ahead of the huge US Federal Reserve policy announcement.5. The second official US Republican presidential debate among the top 11 candidates was held Wednesday night, with <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/gop-debate-donald-trump-jeb-bush-carly-fiorina-2015-9">many contenders taking the opportunity to attack Donald Trump</a>, who has been leading the polls.6. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/russia-proposes-meeting-us-syria-isis">Russia has proposed talks between the US and Russian militaries</a> on the situation in Syria, as concerns grow about a buildup of Russian forces there.7. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/worlds-largest-travel-services-company-won-approval-to-buy-orbitz-2015-9">US Department of Justice approved Expedia's $1.3 billion (£838 million) purchase of rival travel website Orbitz</a> after finding no evidence that consumers would face higher charges if the two booking companies merged.8. Britain's new Labour leader <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn-at-prime-ministers-question-time-crowdsourced-pmqs-2015-9">Jeremy Corbyn used questions from civilians, instead of coming up with questions himself, in his first Prime Minister's Question time</a> on Wednesday, which cleverly protected him from being mocked.9. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/sabmiller-shares-just-leap-23-on-abinbev-confirmation-of-approach-2015-9">world's two largest brewers, SABMiller and AB InBev, are in merger talks</a> in a deal worth $250 billion (£162 billion) that could see one-third of the world's beer produced by just one company.10. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-millions-of-childrens-lives-saved-as-malaria-deaths-plunge-un-2015-9">Malaria deaths worldwide have fallen by 60% since 2000</a>, which the World Health Organisation has called "one of the great public health success stories of the past 15 years."And finally ...<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-sugar-beet-waste-product-could-be-billion-dollar-wonder-material-2015-9">A Scottish company says it developed a material made from sugar beet waste that's so strong it could one day be used to make aeroplane wings.</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/1998-mclaren-f1-auction-15-million-dollars-2015-6">This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Rsc3hodTqM0OE0pn7eL8MJ-yolA-SZHN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "AI art auction" and got 10 results

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