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Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC that cheaper AI models are "80 to 95% as good" as more expensive ones.
UNIQUE NICOLE/AFP via Getty Images
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AI is getting expensive. Chamath Palihapitiya says he thinks CFOs may be about to discover those costs the hard way.
Palihapitiya, a billionaire venture capitalist and one of the co-hosts of the "All In" podcast, said Tuesday on CNBC that businesses encouraging employees to consume more AI could face surprise operating expenses — and even earnings misses — as AI-use bills add up.
"The CEOs and the CFOs, in my opinion, probably have no idea how much tokenmaxxing is going on inside of their organizations," Palihapitiya said. He predicted top executives across the US could miss earnings expectations.
That rising price pressure, Palihapitiya said, is coming as premium models from OpenAI and Anthropic face growing competition from lower-priced options that are narrowing gaps in quality.
Tokenmaxxing is Silicon Valley shorthand for using as many AI tokens as possible — the theory is that AI will produce more work, faster. Tokens are units of data processed by AI models and commonly used to calculate customer bills.
Some firms that embraced AI dove headfirst into the AI-optimist-deep end: several introduced company-visible leaderboards and incentives to show which workers were using the tools the most.
Now, the bill is becoming harder to ignore, and Palihapitiya says leaders are adjusting. For example, Uber's CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in April that the company had already exhausted its full-year Claude Code budget, while Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said the company shut down "the silly things" that were burning tokens.
"It is not that hard to build a token incinerator," Mosseri said during a recent episode of "Lenny's Podcast."
At the same time, Palihapitiya told CNBC that tech mainstays like Meta, Google, and SpaceX — which he said have fewer computing-capacity constraints — are closing the gap. They're releasing cheaper models that are "80 to 95% as good," he said.
"I think that you are seeing a convergence; it used to be the case that when a model dropped, it was so superior to everything else," Palihapitiya said. "You're like, 'Oh my God. We went from kerosene to jet fuel.' So of course, I'm going to go to jet fuel."
Instead, he likened recent AI updates to successive generations of the iPhone: They're still improving, but are no longer introducing massive technological step changes.
When asked whether lower-cost models from Grok and Meta were as good as Anthropic's, he said: "For most use-cases, the answer is a screaming yes."
Palihapitiya didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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Ben Shimkus
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Ben Shimkus is a reporter for the Business News desk. He writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's also held staff writing positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU with a Master's in journalism in 2024. Email Ben at [email protected] or message him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.
The Alliance of Women Directors has found a roster of Hollywood mentors for its class of 2026 fellows.
Set to serve as mentors for AWD’s Rising Director Fellowship are Weapons and Barbarian helmer Zach Cregger, True Detective: Night Country creator Issa López, veteran filmmaker and The Baltimorons director Jay Duplass, The Wedding Banquet helmer Andrew Ahn, Little Miss Sunshine co-director Valerie Faris, and Shirley’s Josephine Decker.
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The fellowship was launched to help support fledgling directors as they navigate the “transition to larger-scale projects and advance their careers in film and television” by providing mentorship, community and career advancement opportunities, per the nonprofit.
For the first time in its history, AWD has recruited a roster of producing mentors to round out the fellowship. Joining as inaugural mentors on the producing side are It franchise producer Barbara Muschietti, Oscar nominee Emily V. Gordon, Nope’s Win Rosenfeld, veteran producer Andrea Sperling whose latest is Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, Together’s Julia Hammer and Lucky Lu’s Tony Yang.
Alliance of Women Directors reveals the directors and producers serving as mentors for 2026.
Courtesy of Alliance of Women Directors
As previously announced, the six Rising Director fellows are Aeryn Michelle Williams (Umbrella Academy), Alexandra Hsu (Sophie), Ann Marie Pace (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), Marcella Ochoa (Hour of Blood), Taylor Lee Nagel (Lady Liberty) and Tijuana Ricks (All Souls).
“The Rising Director Fellowship has always been about creating meaningful relationships between emerging directors and accomplished filmmakers. This year, we’re adding another layer by bringing producers into the program,” explained AWD’s executive director Kylie Eaton. “By pairing our fellows with both extraordinarily talented directing and producing mentors, we’re giving them a broader perspective on how projects come together and equipping them with invaluable insights into the collaborative process that drives successful filmmaking.”
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Back when Dragon's Dogma 2 released, getting somewhere was a hassle. I, myself, had one of my journeys utterly dismantled when my ox cart was ambushed, destroyed by my own pawn's ill-advised spell, and summarily attacked by a gryphon that stole me miles away from my original location.
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That was somewhat addressed in a June patch that added the Eternal Ferrystone, which lets you teleport to one of your assigned Portcrystals from the map and, as the name suggests, didn't run out. It's counter to the deliberately thorny design of Dragon's Dogma 2 which, in my humble opinion, makes it appealing.
Still—it was enough of a pain point that Capcom saw fit to address it. And per an interview with Eurogamer, director Kenta Kinoshita maintains that its presence doesn't impact that original vision because, well, you don't gotta use it:
"I feel that we're not forcing anyone to fast travel anywhere; we're just giving those who wish to take that option an alternative—even if they don't use it every time. I'm sure every player has times when retracing the path from the main town back to where they're going, yet again, where they will feel the game is getting repetitive. And everyone has real-world time constraints, so they don't want every session to feel that lengthy. Sometimes you just need to get where you're going. That option is there for you now."
Kinoshita continues: "If a player wants to make a decision to remain in the high verisimilitude version of being an adventurer who has to walk everywhere—or they want to go in the middle and take the ox cart and take the risks that approach has—that's absolutely still an option. It's just you now have a third option."
And, look, maybe I'm just being a stubborn stick in the mud, but I'm not really sure I agree with Kinoshita, there. The presence of a more convenient option heavily impacts whether or not a player is going to use the alternative—and those limitations often push players into experiences they otherwise never would've gone for.
Take me, for example. I don't think I would've used my fragile, flimsy ox carts if I had the option to simply bamf to my portcrystals for free, but because I was forced into it by launch-year DD2, I did, and I had a grand old time!
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
I'd have less of a compunction about the Eternal Ferrystone if it was a late-game item, meant to help smooth things over when you're already deeply acquainted with the game and its many journey-spoiling monsters. But you can get this thing during the Seat of the Sovran quest, a mere handful of quests into the game.
In other words, you unlock the ability to fast travel with this unlimited ferrystone far in advance of actually needing to fast travel anywhere—which, like it or not, disincentivises the long way 'round. Still, Kinoshita maintains: "That's the best way to implement quality-of-life improvements: don't impinge on the original experience, but just give the player more possibilities, if possible."
Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many. %!s()
Ukraine is showing the West that wars may turn on who can innovate, adapt, and act the fastest, not who has the best weapons
By
Sinéad Baker
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Ukraine has cut down the delays between battlefield detection, decisions, and engagements and is innovating weaponry much faster than allies.
Alfons Cabrera/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A key lesson for the West from Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion is that speed of innovation and adaptation in warfare can be decisive on the battlefield, a German military official said.
Locked in an existential fight for its survival, Ukraine is having to develop and test weapons, bring them into combat, and make battlefield decisions at a rapid pace.
Partners want to learn as much as possible from this war as they prepare for a potential large-scale modern conflict. As NATO questions its longtime emphasis on making top-quality weapons, Heico Hübner, vice chief of the German Army, said the speed at which weapons are developed could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
"The war in Ukraine has, to my mind, confirmed one central lesson beyond any doubt," Hübner said, "and that is that the speed of military innovation has itself become a decisive factor of military power."
"The question is no longer simply who develops the better technology," he said, speaking at a drone summit in Latvia. "The key question is who can scale innovation more rapidly and, more importantly, technically integrate it into the force faster."
"Deterrence today is no longer based on mass alone; it depends on the speed," Hübner said. "It depends on connectivity, and more importantly, on adaptability or possibly the armed forces that translate innovation into military effects the fastest will hold a decisive advantage."
Faster battlefield detection and decisions
Hübner said the war is transforming how quickly forces can detect and engage targets.
"We are witnessing a fundamental transformation of land warfare, battlefields becoming increasingly transparent. Sensors, drones, electromagnetic surveillance, and AI-enabled data processing are reducing the time between detection and engagement from previously hours to minutes, sometimes even seconds."
Ukraine has developed a host of systems to speed up battlefield decisions.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
He said the fight shows that "success in warfare depends on who can process information faster, turn it into decisions quicker and act more rapidly or, more generally speaking, translate innovation into operational capability faster than the opponent."
Ukraine has taken a series of steps to speed up its battlefield detection, decision-making, and strikes, including through its Delta system. The platform fuses intelligence from satellites, combat units, and drone feeds, linking battlefield sensors, drones, commanders, and weapons to reduce delays between finding a target, making a decision, and attacking it.
Other militaries are increasingly recognizing the growing importance of battlefield speed.
US Army Capt. Paul Dolan, a battalion intelligence trainer at the National Training Center, wrote last year that "Ukraine has demonstrated the deadly efficiency of modern battlefield targeting," with rapid sensor-to-shooter integration shortening kill chains "to the point where detection often leads to immediate engagement." Within those faster timelines, rapid decision-making is key.
The UK is among the countries that has already begun applying these lessons from Ukraine.Last year, its defense ministry announced a partnership with US data giant Palantir to develop AI-powered capabilities tested in Ukraine and "speed up decision making, military planning and targeting."
The UK's 2025 Strategic Defence Review carried that lesson further, emphasizing faster battlefield decision-making and arguing that autonomous systems and artificial intelligence are needed to ensure military systems operate "at machine-speed."
Innovating, adapting, and fielding at greater speeds
Andris Sprūds, Latvia's former defense minister and now a member of parliament, said at the summit that "the mindset of startup, mindset of innovation, the mindset of ambition" is a key lesson allies need to take from Ukraine."
"The process is as important as actually the outcome, the product itself," he said. "So the speeding process, speeding mindset on different levels, is absolutely crucial."
Ukraine is testing, building, and adapting weapons faster than its allies.
Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images
Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, said earlier this year that "technology matters. But what makes the difference today is not sophistication alone. It is the speed of integration, the speed of adaptation, and the ability to turn innovation rapidly into operational effect."
Ukraine has been able to test, build, and modify weapons faster than what many Western militaries are used to.
"Ukraine has demonstrated how rapidly innovation cycles evolve today," Hübner said. "Adaptation no longer happens over years as in the past. Today, in many cases, it happens within weeks."
He said "this is to my mind the real strategic challenge for both Europe and the United States."
It's a concern echoed across NATO: that the war is showing the West that the way it develops, tests, buys, distributes, and updates weapons isn't fast enough.
Sir John Stringer, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, told Business Insider recently that "one of the things you're seeing in Ukraine is a sheer pace of adoption and adaptation in technology. It is measured in weeks."
He said that Ukraine's front lines don't just have drone operators, "you have tech, you have sort of industrial sense, which feeds an incredibly important and rich lessons picture where lessons are genuinely applied rather than admired." The West needs to learn from that, he said.
Ukraine's industrial base has "scaled phenomenally," going from making thousands of drones in 2022 to millions in 2026, he said. "Are we as alive to that reality, and then how would we apply it west of Ukraine and the nations of NATO? It's a very live discussion."
Speaking in Latvia, Stringer said that a priority for the West needs to be "accelerating capability development, measured in weeks and months, not just years and decades." He said that weapons need to be "good enough, fast enough in terms of delivery, cheap enough, and just enough."
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Sinéad Baker
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Sinéad Baker is a Military and Defense Correspondent based in Business Insider's London bureau, writing about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and NATO actions.Sinéad most often covers soldiers' experiences, military strategy, battlefield developments, the defense industry's response, and geopolitical decisions that surround the war. She has reported from NATO’s frontlines and around Europe, has interviewed multiple prime ministers and defense ministers, has appeared on BBC News and The Guardian's politics podcast, and has been cited by Congressional hearings.Sinéad has also extensively covered US politics and previously led Business Insider's breaking news coverage from London.Sinéad previously completed a master's degree in investigative journalism at City, University of London, and has written for The Guardian, The Observer, and TheJournal.ie. Sinéad is the former editor of the multi-award-winning The University Times in Dublin.Expertise
Experiences of soldiers in Ukraine, including battlefield developments and tactics
Western military responses to the war, and lessons they should learn
New weaponry built for and in response to the war
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Khamosh Pathak is a freelance tech journalist with over 13 years of experience writing online.
An accounting graduate, he turned his interest in writing and technology into a career. He holds a specialization in user experience design from ISDI Parsons in Mumbai, where he sought to deepen his understanding of UX, consumer devices, and interplay between software and technology.
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Khamosh has written thousands of how-tos and guides on every major platform (iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows). He got started writing how-tos and guides for Guiding Tech, where he also published several e-books. His work has also been seen at MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and PCMag. He is truly passionate about brewing good coffee.
Microsoft is testing new updates to Windows Search that prioritize local files and app launches.
Users will get a cleaner search results page, with preview and distinct action buttons.
Microsoft will also offer an option to completely remove web results from Windows Search.
Table of Contents
Microsoft's Windows apology tour continues. After introducing sweeping changes to the Start menu and the taskbar, Microsoft's sights now turn to the infamous Windows Search box. It's no secret Windows Search is bloated with ads and web pages, among other results you likely don't want. Personally, I switched to using the PowerToys Command Palette for all my search needs. But now, Microsoft is slowly testing an updated Search Box that prioritizes local files and apps and doesn't take a century to load. If you're in the Windows Insider program, you can get in line to try the following new changes.
Windows Search has a redesigned UI focused on local search
Credit: Microsoft
Windows Search no longer shows a "Recommended" feed of web content and suggestions. Bring up Search, and what you'll see is a clean list of your recent searches. When you start typing, Microsoft will now prioritize local searches first. That means local apps, files, and folders will show up first and faster. Microsoft is also updating Search with broader parameters, so even if you misspell an app name, it should still show up in the list.
The results page also features an updated design. The results on the left have more breathing room now and show additional context, such as file type, when it was modified, and so on. You'll also see a preview of the file and metadata once you select a result, with better buttons for main actions like "Open." Microsoft is also focusing on reliability, promising a drop in crashes and random glitches. We'll only know how well that really works after testing this out for some time.
The broader search integration isn't completely gone here, however. You'll see a web results section below the local results, though this section also gets a redesign. Before, web search showed a promoted post at the top, hiding the actual result or answer until you scrolled down. Microsoft now shows the direct result at the top, and pushes the promos down below.
What do you think so far?
You can disable web and Microsoft Store suggestions in search
Credit: Microsoft
Finally, there are distinct toggles in Windows Settings to disable the entire web search and Microsoft Store suggestions section, so Windows Search can focus purely on surfacing local files and quickly launching apps. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Show Suggested Search Results and disable the toggles for Web Searches and Microsoft Store.
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