When a viral Reddit post revealed that ChatGPT cured a five-year medical mystery in seconds, even LinkedIns Reid Hoffman took notice. Now, OpenAIs Sam Altman says GenZ and Millennials are treating AI chatbots as life advisors. The next step? Always-on AI agents tailored to your health, career, finances, and relationships, a future where personalized AI assistants could redefine how we seek information, leaving traditional search engines in the dust.
A 60-Second Fix That Went Viral
Five years of chronic jaw pain. Multiple doctors, MRIs, and specialistsand still no answers. That was the plight of one Reddit user suffering a persistent jaw clicking (likely from an old boxing injury). In desperation, he turned to an unlikely last resort: an AI chatbot. He typed his symptoms into ChatGPT and waited for the bots opinion. The response was shockingly on-point. ChatGPT suggested the users jaw disc was slightly displaced but movable, and walked him through a simple mouth exercise to reset it. I followed the instructions for maybe a minute max and suddenly no click, the user reported. After five years of just living with it, this AI gave me a fix in a minute. Unreal.
The anecdote might sound like sci-fi wishful thinking, but it quickly went viral across social media. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman highlighted the story, marveling at how an AI delivered relief in seconds after human experts struggled for years. Replies poured in from others with similar jaw issues who finally found answers to their medical dilemmas. Hoffman triumphantly declared Superagency! on Twitterhis term for AIs almost superhuman problem-solving capacity. In other words, this was more than a one-off win for a clever chatbot; it felt like a glimpse into the future of personal healthcare and beyond.
ChatGPT: From Search Engine to Life Coach
The jaw episode underscores a broader shift in how young people are seeking information and advice. Its not just about troubleshooting medical quirks. Increasingly, people are posing all sorts of personal questions to AI, the kinds of questions they might once have typed into an incognito search or perhaps never voiced at all.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a front-row view of this phenomenon. He notes stark generational differences in ChatGPT usage: Older people use [ChatGPT] as a Google replacement, Altman recently observed, whereas many in their 20s and 30s use it like a life advisor.
In other words, younger users arent just asking AI for trivia or weather updates, theyre confiding in it, seeking guidance on college decisions, career moves, and personal dilemmas. Altman says some college students have ChatGPT so deeply integrated into their daily lives that they dont make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do. It has the full context on every person in their life and what theyve talked about. The chatbot has effectively become a confidanta kind of always-available sounding board and advisor in one.
Generational shift
Statistics back up this generational sea change. In a recent Vox Media survey, 61% of GenZ and 53% of Millennials said they prefer AI tools like ChatGPT over traditional search engines like Google. Its a remarkable turning of the tide: the first internet generation, raised on Googling anything and everything, is now swapping keyword searches for conversations with AI.
The reasons are understandable. Rather than wading through pages of blue links and ads, a chatbot gives a straightforward answer or solution, often in a single exchange. Instead of piecing together advice from scattered forum posts and WebMD entries, you get a tailored response in plain English (or whatever language you speak). Unlike a one-and-done search query, an AI conversation can go deeper, you can ask follow-ups, provide context, and get nuanced answers that evolve with the conversation.
Doctors will hate ChatGPT [its] 1000% more useful than WebMD, one user quipped in response to the jaw-fixing story. That tongue-in-cheek comment captures a real sentiment: for a growing cohort of users, AI isnt just an information tool, but a trusted guide. It feels less like using software and more like consulting an ever-patient mentor or coach. Crucially, AI advisers can be brutally efficient. Theyre available 24/7, never get tired of questions, and can recall everything youve ever told themsomething even the friendliest physician or counselor cant match.
A team of AI advisers
Millions are now acclimated to a general-purpose bot like ChatGPT as their all-in-one guru, but an even more profound shift is on the horizon: curated AI agents tailored to specific domains and individual needs. AI agents serve as specialized successors to the chatbots we know today: smarter, more personal, and deeply knowledgeable about you and the topics you care about. Instead of one AI to rule them all, you might soon have a whole team of AI advisors at your side.
This could have profound implications across a variety of use cases, from personalized health and wellness coaches who remember your medical history, track your symptoms, and provide advice accordingly, career mentors who can advise users on interview preparation and networking, to financial advisors who provide dedicated investment strategies that consider risk appetite and savings goals. AI agents can also serve as relationship coaches, mental wellness guides, and a catalog of other functions that are currently reserved for sophisticated human professionals.
AI proxies
These examples are no longer science fiction, with startups and large corporations already working to make domain-specific AI companions a reality. Expert-driven AI personas enable subject-matter experts, whether it’s a doctor, a professor, a financial guru, or a popular podcaster, to create an AI version of themselves that can interact with anyone. Experts upload their knowledge (via articles, videos, and recordings), and the platform trains a customized AI that educates itself based on a flywheel of knowledge from those sources.
The result is a chatbot that doesnt just sound like an expert, but a specific, real person with a verified background. In essence, its a way to bottle up expertise and scale it infinitely: an expert can help thousands of people at once through their AI proxy, without diluting the personal touch.
Expertise on demand
AI Agents will reinvent how people learn, interact, and build community in an AI-enabled society, where knowledge isnt accessed by trawling search results, but by conversing with an intelligent agent that understands a users context and can tap into the worlds expertise on demand. These agents can act independently on a user’s behalf to perform web searches, interface with calendars or other services, curate flight options for travel, and carry out tasks without needing constant supervision.
Crucially, these curated agents promise k trust anchored in expertise and personalization, something todays general chatbots lack. A user might hesitate to take medical action based on a random internet answer, but advice from an AI trained by a respected doctor or a therapist carries more weight. And because these agents retain long-term memory, they offer continuity. Your conversations pick up where they left off, and over time, the AI develops a richer understanding of a user’s needs and preferences. Its the difference between asking a stranger for advice versus conslting a personal coach whos been with you for years.
A Vision of AI-First Knowledge
The implications of this shift are enormous. Were looking at nothing less than a transformation in how humans find information, solve problems, and make decisions. In the past three decades, the phrase Google it emerged as a reflection of the revolutionary idea that any answer was just a web search away. We have already heard in the past few years, Ask your AI, just as often.
That future may seem idealistic, but signs of it are already sprouting. The fact that a 22-year-old today might consult an AI life coach before calling their parents speaks volumes about the comfort level younger generations have with AI. They trust it not just to fetch facts, but to understand and advise. And as the technology improves, these AI agents will only become more capable companions. Theyll feel more natural, more alive, not in a sentient sense, but in their ability to hold extended, context-rich dialogues and proactively assist us. Instead of a one-size-fits-all oracle, well have a collection of personal AIs fine-tuned to different aspects of our lives.All of this raises the question: Do AI advisors spell the end of traditional search engines and conventional advice channels? Its a possibility that Googles leadership is surely pondering. The tech giant has noted the trend of users turning to TikTok or ChatGPT for queries and is racing to infuse its search with AI. Yet, even if search engines incorporate chat features, the paradigm is shifting from searching to consulting. The AI agent model flips the scriptyou dont find information, information finds you via an intelligent intermediary that knows what you need.We are on the cusp of a new era of AI-first knowledge seeking, one that is more conversational, contextual, and personalized than ever before. The transition wont happen overnight, and it wont be without challenges (accuracy, bias, and privacy among them). But as the Reddit jaw-fix story illustrates, people are already discovering that sometimes the best expert is an AI that reads everything and listens without judgment. The generations coming of age now are comfortable asking machines for guidance in a way no generation before was.
In the coming years, curated AI agentsyour always-on career guru, health coach, financial planner, and confidantcould become as commonplace as smartphones. Instead of typing queries into a search bar, well chat with friendly AIs who know us and have a wealth of specialized knowledge to share. The digital knowledge ecosystem is being reshaped around these intelligent agents, moving from the chaotic open web toward more context-aware and continuous interactions. AI agents are poised to fundamentally reshape learning, interaction, and community. And if that vision holds, the way we get advice, from solving minor health annoyances to navigating lifes biggest decisions, will never be the same.
On the second and third floors of New York Citys International Center of Photography (ICP), a collection of over 40 years worth of Edward Burtnyskys vision of industrial, human impact on the planet will be displayed throughout the summer.
Its Burtnyskys first solo, NYC institutional exhibition show in over 20 years, and is more or lessan ode to his lifes work.
[Photo: courtesy International Center of Photography]
From some of his earliest work in the 80s as a student on the upper level, to his newer, larger scaled work on the lower, each piece represents the development of human industry through a concerned photography lens.
[Photo: courtesy International Center of Photography]
All the work kind of pokes around into those zones of globalism and as well as the need for materials, and looking at our population growth, Burtynysky says. I was born in 1955 when the world population was under 3 billion people and now we’re over 8 billion. I kind of knew then that we were talking about a human population explosion.
Mines #13, Inco – Abandoned Mine Shaft, Crean Hill
Mine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, 1984 [Photo: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York]
While studying photography in 1981, Burtynsky was working in big industry to put himself through school. There, he said he decided to focus on big industries like oil and cobalt mining, and define them through photography. Regardless of place or subject, he says he wanted to focus on one continuous idea our impact on the world.
Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA, 2008 [Photo: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York]
The works range in location and anthropogenic effect. From large, aerial views of chain restaurants and gas companies on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to up-close portraits of recycling workers in China, Burtynskys work is meant to feel human and appear visually cinematic.
[Photo: courtesy International Center of Photography]
According to David Campany, ICPs creative director and curator of the show, these photos are not the kind meant to be viewed on a smartphone.
I think when you go to the cinema, you’re part of a slightly more collective consciousness, and I think it’s the same when people stand and look at big images, Campany says.
[Photo: courtesy Internatinal Center of Photography]
The larger scale allows the viewer to get lost in the details within the bigger picture, like being able to look at dusty orange landscapes with sleek linesbut backing up and realizing its a commercial road in the middle of the desert. The show brings together around 70 images of Burtynskys work, and create a survey of the last 45 years of environmental impact. In turn, it makes people look closely at the negative human effect and how each image is interconnected to the larger idea.
You might look at that picture of a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa and think that’s got nothing to do with me, but 70% of the world’s cobalt currently comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Campany says. And when you put your hand in your pocket [and feel for your smartphone], you’ve suddenly got a very intimate connection with that image on the wall.
Although theres no specific method or direction to view or engage with the work, each piece is generally meant to hold equal value when it comes to lighting and subject matter importance.
Burtynsky refers to this as the democratic distribution of light and space. For him, it allows the viewer to fall into the surface of the image itself.
[Photo: courtesy International Center of Photography]
In 1981, which was my student work, I was looking at our relationship with nature containing nature, controlling nature, greenhouses,and large industrial farms, Burtynsky says. Even back then, I realized farming was our biggest impact in the planet, and it’s kind of makes sense to have a farming as a central image for the exhibition.
Despite the works spanning decades of his travels and anthropogenic view, they are all embedded with what he says is a sense of aesthetic, wonder, and impact.
Shipbreaking #49, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2001 [Photo: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York]
Shipbreaking work was some of the most incredible locations I’ve ever photographed and experienced, Burtynsky says. It still stands as one of the most crazy experiences of my life. The pictures that came out of that were sort of wild, and [the one you see when] you come out of the elevator where you see all the menit’s like being greeted by the other world that deals with our shit.
In addition to Burtynskys show, ICP is also showing Panjereh, meaning window in Farsi, from Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani. The exhibition emphasizes her Ghostwriter series, where she explores her parents’ experiences of political exile and migration through layered, magically surreal pieces. Both exhibits can be viewed simultaneously at the ICP. from June 19 until September 28.
Want to save pages on the web for later? You could always bookmark them in your browser of choice, of course. But thats a quick way to end up with a messy bookmarks toolbar. And organizing your browsers bookmarks isnt exactly a pleasant experience.
Services like Pocket solved this problem in their own way, letting you save a collection of things you wanted to read laterand organize that collection. Mozilla bought Pocket back in 2017, and the company is now shutting the service down in the coming weeks.
So what if your browsers bookmark manager wasnt just a list of web pages? What if it was a beautiful and powerful way to collect and organize the things you find online?
Thats the vision behind Raindrop.io, an all-in-one bookmark manager with a swanky interface. Its just an all-around upgrade to the bookmark experience if you want to do anything more than save a few pages for later. Its a great replacement for Pocket, too, with the same basic concept in an even more focused and productive environment.
Raindrop.io was even included in the Fast Company “26 Best New Apps of 2020” roundup. It’s actually been around even longer, but an update that year revamped the service substantially and brought it more into the form it maintains today.
Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures!
Raindrop.io has a wide collection of apps, including:
A browser extension to easily save pages in browsers like Google Chrome
A powerful web interface
Mobile apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad
And desktop apps for Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux systems, too
If youre using Raindrop.io on the web, you just need to sign up for a free account and install the browser extension. Then, with two clicks from your browsers toolbar, you can save anything on the web to Raindrop.io.
Saving an article into Raindrop takes no more than a couple quick clicks (or taps, on a mobile device).
The Raindrop.io interface is moderncomplete with thumbnails, web page descriptions, and optional tags, folder, and filters. You can go deep and set up all kinds of collections to organize web pages so your bookmarks arent a mess.
Raindrop’s collections are an easy way to keep your saved stuff organized.
While Raindrop.io is a slick bookmarks manager, its alsocriticallya convenient and effective way to read things that you’ve saved later down the road. With the Preview option, you can open a bookmarked page right in Raindrop.io without having to hop over to your browser.
Previewing a page in Raindrop lets you read it right then and there, in a nicely optimized form and without ever having to exit the app.
If all of this sounds interesting, whether you’re looking for a Pocket replacement or you’re just ready for a new way to hang onto interesting info for later reading, give it a try! All the basic features you need are completely free with unlimited bookmarks, collections, and devicesand not even any ads, either.
There is a $3-per-month Pro plan that adds extra features like full-text search for your bookmarks, permanent archiving of the page content (so you can see them even if theyre taken off the web) along with daily backups, a broken link finder, and AI suggestions. It’s a nice upgrade, if you decide you like the experience and want those extras, but you definitely dont need that to enjoy Raindrop.io at its most basic level.
Raindrop.io is available on the web and with apps and extensions for every big platform.
Raindrop.io is free without advertising. A $3 per month Pro subscription adds a variety of bonus features.
The developer says Raindrop.io does not sell any user data.
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In the 2018 comedy Tag, a group of childhood friends maintains an offbeat line of connection over 30 years of friendship: the same game of tag, played through weddings, boardrooms, and hospital visits. Its absurd and touching all at once. But the line that echoes throughout the film is where the real wisdom lies: We dont stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
That quote isnt just a nostalgic sentiment. Its a reframing of adulthood itself. What if the erosion of joy, curiosity, and spontaneity is what ages us, not the passage of time, but the loss of lightness?
In my work with leaders and teams, I have observed that when we abandon play, we not only lose levity but also access to resilience, creativity, and connection. And in todays workplace, thats a cost we cant afford.
Why Play Still Matters
Play isnt a childhood indulgence; its a neurological need. When we play, we downshift stress, rewire our thinking, and reopen channels of collaboration.
Play functions on two powerful levels: as a circuit-breaker and a spark plug. As a circuit-breaker, it interrupts the relentless mental loops of stress, perfectionism, and overanalysis, disrupting burnout before it calcifies. As a spark plug, it reenergizes our minds, jolts us out of habitual thinking, and ignites new ideas we didnt know we had. Whether its a burst of laughter, a sideways brainstorming prompt, or a spontaneous creative detour, play restores our capacity to be present, inventive, and connected.
Research confirms it. Studies from Texas A&M and the University of Massachusetts Boston show that even micro-moments of play increase productivity, creativity, and psychological safety. Play lowers cortisol levels, boosts problem-solving skills, and fosters trust across teams. In essence, play isnt the opposite of work: its a critical ingredient for doing it well.
From Micro-Moments to Macro Shifts
At a biotech leadership retreat I recently facilitated, we started with a playful micro-recess, including paper airplane races, a five-minute dance party, and a round of ridiculous icebreaker questions.
What could have felt like a boring corporate event quickly turned into something more real. People opened up, walls came down, and over the course of the day, that energy translated into richer strategy sessions, unexpected insights, and measurable engagement boosts, which increased by 30% in post-event surveys. Thats not magicits intentional play at work. Play doesnt waste time; it reshapes how time is experienced.
Rather than a rigid framework, think of these as three open invitations to shift how you show up that create the conditions for play to thrive.
1. Permission to be unpolished
In many leadership environments, perfectionism masquerades as professionalism. But perfection is the enemy of possibility. Play creates psychological permission to show up unpolished. It softens the need to perform and invites people to explore.
Try starting a meeting not with status updates, but with curiosity: Whats something weird or wonderful that inspired you this week? When the mask comes off, the mind opens up.
2. Reframe the agenda
Play doesnt have to mean ping-pong tables or off-site scavenger hunts. Sometimes its as simple as reframing the purpose of a meeting from decision-making to idea-surfacing.
Swap PowerPoints for paper prototyping. Add 90 seconds of creative reflection before moving into action steps. Break rhythm to unlock insight.
3. Honor the absurd
Not all brilliance is born in seriousness. Some of the most profound breakthroughs come from absurd beginnings. The most innovative teams I have worked with know how to follow a thread of ridiculousness to the edge of real insight.
Celebrate the offbeat idea, the joke that hides a truth, the metaphor that doesnt quite make senseuntil it does.
Designing Cultures of Play, Not Just Moments
Its easy to treat play as a momentary tactica break between real work. But the most forward-thinking organizations embed it into their culture. They dont just tolerate it; they value it.
That could mean incorporating play into onboarding, transforming retrospectives into storytelling circles, or designing workspaces that encourage movement and curiosity. These practices dont dilute performance; they actually fuel it.
Were entering an era that prizes agility over efficiency, imagination over repetition, and emotional intelligence over sheer expertise. In that world, play becomes a strategic skill. It strengthens culture, enhances cognition, and helps prevent burnout. Most importantly, it reminds us that even in high-stakes environments, levity is not a luxury; its how we stay human.
So if your next meeting feels dry, try something unexpected. Pause, play, and let a little laughter in. Because in a world that races to outcomes, those who stay playful often lead with more presence, more creativity, and, yes, more impact.
In 2024, for the third straight year, the median size of a new single-family home in the U.S. has shrunk, to 2,150 square feet. That’s down from nearly 2,500 square feet back in 2013, and startlingly close to the roughly 2,100 square foot average seen in 2009 at the depth of the global financial crisis. It’s a downsizing that underscores just how hard it is for most people to afford to buy a home today, and the extent to which homebuilders are adjusting their offerings to meet demand.
This telling figure comes from The State of the Nation’s Housing, an annual report just released by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The report finds that affordability challenges are reshaping the housing market, right down to the square footage.
Homebuilders are able to make adjustments to meet demand where it is, and what it’s showing is that there’s demand for lower-cost units, says Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. Buyers look like they’re willing to buy slightly smaller homes in order to be able to afford them, given that prices have risen so high over the past three, four, five years, and interest rates remain relatively high as well.
Since 2019, average home prices have risen more than 60%, according to the report. Historically, that average has been skewed by the cost of new homes, which tended to be more expensive than existing homes. But that gap is narrowing. In the 2010s, the typical new single-family home was about $66,000 more expensive than the median sales price of an existing home, McCue says. In 2024, the typical new home cost only about $8,000 more. I take that as a reaction to the lack of inventory and the tightness of existing housing sales markets, McCue says.
Part of this price drop has been engineered by homebuilders themselves. McCue says many builders are trying to help buyers by offering more favorable interest rates and interest-rate buydowns through their own mortgage companies. They’re able to make some adjustments, and in doing so, we’re seeing the price points of new homes coming down to make those sales happen, McCue says.
In addition to reducing the size of U.S. homes, these efforts have had some impact. New home sales in 2024 were up about 3% over 2023, and existing home sales have dropped to a 30-year low. [Homebuilders] have been able to kind of buck the trend by making these hard-fought gains in affordability, McCue says.
But with interest rates hovering above 6% and a general sense of economic uncertainty tied to the Trump Administration’s trade policies, whether sales of new homes will continue to rise is unclear. One of the themes looking forward is how much of these adjustments, and how much of these hard-fought gains will be upended by rising costs due to tariffs, he says.
Another way the shape of housing is changing is in growing numbers of townhomes on the market. The report found that in 2024, builders started 176,000 townhomes, a 59% increase compared to 2019. It’s one example of the way in which buyers and builders are focusing on products that are relatively more affordable, given the affordability constraints, McCue says.
Those constraints don’t look to be going away any time soon, and that’s created a separate but connected boom in the housing market. According to the report, about 93,000 single-family rental homes were started in 2024, which is the highest number on record and more than double the 40,000 rental units started in 2019. As homeownership gets farther and farther out of reach for many Americans, homebuilders appear ready to build rental homes they can afford.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
On a summer night in 2023, an explosion at one of Louisianas biggest petrochemical complexes sent a plume of fire into the sky. More explosions followed as poison gas spewed from damaged tanks at the Dow chemical plant, triggering a shelter-in-place order for anyone within a half mile of the facility, which sprawls across more than 830 acres near Baton Rouge.
For more than a year, a little-known government agency has been investigating the incident. But the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board will likely shut down before completing its probes of the Dow explosion and other such incidents across the country. President Donald Trumps administration has quietly proposed shutting down the board, an independent federal agency charged with uncovering the causes of large-scale chemical accidents.
Near the end of a 1,224-page budget document released with little fanfare on May 30, White House officials said shutting down the agency, commonly called the CSB, will help move the nation toward fiscal responsibility as the Trump administration works to redefine the proper role of the federal government. The CSBs $14 million annual budget would be zeroed out for the 2026 fiscal year and its emergency fund of $844,000 would be earmarked for closure-related costs. The process of shutting the agency down is set to begin this year, according to CSB documents.
Eliminating the CSB will come at a cost to the safety of plant workers and neighboring communities, especially along the Gulf Coast, where the bulk of the U.S. petrochemical industry is concentrated, said former CSB officials and environmental groups.
Closing the CSB will mean more accidents at chemical plants, more explosions and more deaths, said Beth Rosenberg, a public health expert who served on the CSB board from 2013 to 2014.
This shows that the Trump administration does not care about frontline communities already burdened with this industry, said Roishetta Ozane, founder of the Vessel Project, an environmental justice group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Were the ones who have to shelter in place or evacuate whenever theres an explosion or [chemical] release, and now there will be less oversight when these things happen.
The CSB did not respond to a request for comment.
The proposed closure of the CSB follows several other moves by the Trump administration to slash staffing levels at the Environmental Protection Agency and ease federal health and safety regulations.
Founded in 1998, the CSB investigates the causes of petrochemical accidents and issues recommendations to plants, regulators and business groups. The CSB doesnt impose fines or penalties, instead relying on voluntary compliance or on enforcement by other agencies, such as the EPA, to mandate safety improvements.
Of the more than 100 investigations the CSB has conducted, Texas leads the country with 22 cases, followed by Louisiana with 8.
Those numbers tell us that Louisiana and Texas really need the Chemical Safety Board, and there will certainly be negative impacts here if it closes down, said Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.
Along with the Dow chemical explosion, the agency has four other active investigations of incidents in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia. CSB investigations often take several months to complete.
In an update of the Dow explosion investigation last year, the CSB hinted at several events of concern at the chemical complex between Baton Rouge and the town of Plaquemine, Louisianaan area that forms part of the industrial corridor known as Cancer Alley. Among the targets of the investigation were at least two mechanical problems, multiple smaller explosions after the initial blow-up, and the release of more than 30,000 pounds of ethylene oxide, a colorless gas the agency noted is a cancer-causing substance.
The CSBs last completed investigation was a fatal 2024 explosion at a steel hardening facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The CSB identified several safety failures and at least three other dangerous incidents involving similar hazards at other facilities owned by the same company, HEF Groupe of France.
HEF failed to ensure that information about those incidents and lessons learned from them were shared and implemented organization-wide, the CSB investigation, released early this month, found.
A chain reaction of mishaps at the Chattanooga facility resulted in an eruption of hot molten salt that killed a worker, according to the investigation.
On average, hazardous chemical accidents happen once every other day in the U.S., according to Coming Clean, an environmental health nonprofit. Coming Clean documented 825 fires, leaks, and other chemical-related incidents between January 2021 and October 2023. The incidents killed at least 43 people and triggered evacuation orders and advisories in nearly 200 communities.
Trump called for the CSBs closure during his first term but settled for leaving many investigator and agency leadership positions unfilled. Slowing the agencys work resulted in a backlog of 14 unfinished investigations by the time former president Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Under the first Trump administration, investigations were hampered by staffing shortages and monthslong conflicts between the board and the agencys Trump-appointed director, according to a federal inspectors report.
In the new budget proposal, the Trump administration indicated the CSBs duties could be handled by other agencies.
The CSB duplicates substantial capabilities in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to investigate chemical-related mishaps, a CSB budget proposal said. This function should reside within agencies that have authorities to issue regulations . . .
This justification is a lie, said Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA and a former CSB recommendations manager.
While OSHA and the EPA are limited to assessing specific violations of their existing standards and regulations, the CSB can look far more broadly and at the deeper causes of accidents, including worker fatigue, corporate budget cuts, and lax oversight, Barab said.
Even when other federal agencies appeared to ignore CSB recommendations, communiy groups and local governments could cite them when pushing for improved safety standards, Ozane said.
It was scientific evidence we could all use to pressure the state or the federal regulators to do something about pollution and safety in the places we live, she said. This is just another tool and another resource thats been taken away from us.
Tristan Baurick
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/energy/trump-quietly-shutters-the-only-federal-agency-that-investigates-industrial-chemical-explosions/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org
Tesla launched its Robotaxi service Monday in Austin, Texas, with a limited pilot featuring a small fleet of self-driving cars. Tesla has encountered challenges getting its Robotaxi service up and running, and now it’s facing a new hurdle of its own making: the Robotaxi logo.
The self-driving taxis feature a “Robotaxi” logo written out in a graffiti style on the car’s front doors. The scrawled typeface is reminiscent of the branding for the video game Cyberpunk, and hearkens directly back to the Tesla Cybertruck logo (a puzzling choice considering how poorly the Cybertruck has been received).
With its sharp edges and careening forward slant, the logo doesn’t exactly scream safe. And yet, that’s exactly what a new autonomous vehicle brand should be doing. AVs require a higher level of consumer trust than your average product or service, since you’re putting your life in its hands. A logo that looks spray-painted doesn’t communicate that, nor does the pilot program’s flat $4.20 ride fee.
The logo looks sloppy and casual, not reassuring, Eben Sorkin, art director of the type foundry Darden Studio, tells Fast Company, calling it aesthetically anachronistic and out of sync with current cultural vibes.
Would you board a flight with an airline logo that looks like this? he asks.
[Photo: Tim Goessman/Bloomberg/Getty Images]
The Robotaxi rollout represents a chance for the beleaguered electric vehicle company to change the narrative after CEO Elon Musk’s unpopular foray into government. And indeed, after the Robotaxi announcement, Tesla’s stock rose.
From a branding perspective, though, the Robotaxi wordmark isn’t suggestive of a company moving away from the Cybertruck aesthetic that has now become associated with Musk’s DOGE efforts. Rather than using a visual identity that communicates safety, trust, or reliability, the logo is a sign that the company sees the graffiti-style cyberpunk aesthetic of its Cybertruck as the model for branding future products and services.
A good logo always tries to convey the brand promise, says type designer and Hoefler & Co. founder Jonathan Hoefler. And this one definitely foreshadows the tragic collisions ahead.
It doesn’t matter how you spell ithomophones can get you sued for trademark infringement.
The startup iyO has filed suit for trademark infringement against former Apple designer Jony Ive’s company iowhich spells its name differently but sounds the same. OpenAI acquired Ive’s io last month for $6.5 billion with the goal of creating a new family of AI devices; iyO, which launched as an independent company from Google’s moonshot initiative X in 2021, makes an AI device of its own. The company describes its iyO One, an AI wearable worn like an earbud that’s available only as a preorder, as “the world’s first audio computer.” It reportedly pitched to Sam Altman’s investment fund and Ive’s design studio in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Following a ruling from U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, OpenAI erased any mention of its deal with Ive over io on its website Sunday, including a promotional video. The company told The Guardian it took action because of iyO’s legal complaint, which will be addressed in a hearing come October.
This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name io. We dont agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options.https://t.co/suwMRPTHqB— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) June 22, 2025
OpenAI has reason to take iyO’s claims seriously. Trademark infringement has been found in plenty of cases in which defendants mark is spelled differently from plaintiffs but pronounced the same, even when the two terms have different meanings, Alexandra Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University tells Fast Company. The key question in infringement cases is likelihood of confusion.
The singer Pink filed suit last year over Pharrell Williams’s proposed P.Inc trademark, for example, and infringement has been found in cases like Seycos and Seiko, both watchmakers, and X-Seed and XCEED, which both made agricultural seed.
Courts assessing the likelihood of confusion between two marks consider a number of factors, including the similarity of the marks, relatedness of the goods and services, strength of the plaintiff’s mark, and sophistication of the relevant consumers, Roberts says. Similarity weighs toward a likelihood of confusion, and lack of similarity weighs against it.
The I/O naming convention, which stands for Input/Output, is popular with AI companies since their products generate AI output from user input. For iyO, blocking OpenAI from using the io name is about protecting its brand against the combined power of the maker of ChatGPT and a designer who’s worked with Apple on products like the iPhone and iPad. The outcome of the legal dispute could play a role in naming whatever the AI giant and design legend end up creating together.
The most frequently used word to describe the last few months is uncertainty. Our heads have been spinning as we get word almost daily of major policy shifts, market turmoil, new advances in AI, and on and on. Many leaders are feeling a little lost in the wilderness as they navigate the rough terrain.
As you ruminate on these heady problems and how to move forward, how you respond to uncertainty is as important as what you do. To quote Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
There is no doubt that periods of uncertainty call for leaders to make tough decisions and make unpopular choices, but the leaders behavior in doing so may be remembered long after the crisis has passed. Here are 10 mistakes leaders make that break their teams trust and erode loyalty during uncertain times.
Panicking
Nothing destroys a teams confidence in a leader more quickly than panic. Leaders project their energy and emotion onto the rest of the team, and when a leader panics, so does everyone else.
You dont have to be a stoic, but dont catastrophize either. Be authentic in your level of concern and focus. Be honest that you dont have all the answers. Then set the tone for the team to keep calm and carry on.
Withholding Information
Bad news doesnt get better with age. Its painful to communicate bad news to your team, especially when you may not have the solutions worked out.
But its important to realize that your team cant help to solve the problem until or unless they understand whats going on. Trust your team with information so that they can effectively help.
Making Unilateral Decisions
Its lonely at the top. Leaders often feel the full weight of their role in a crisis. With the mantra the buck stops here ringing in your ears, its tempting to be the heroto move forward with haste and make a decision without consulting your team.
Why consult your team? Decisions are better when they have the benefit of a teams wisdom. Your team provides ideas, helps to kick the tires on solutions, and identifies blind spots. Further, its likely theyll have to carry out the decision, so getting their input on the front-end preserves trust and creates buy-in.
Suspending Accountability Structures & Rigor
In moments of uncertainty, it may be tempting to suspend processes, checks and balances, or the established rules of engagement to move forward quickly.
If you feel pressure to transgress your culture or bypass your policies to move forward, think twice. If you do conclude that the situation warrants overriding business as usual, make sure your team understands the rationale and be aware that youll be setting a precedent, which may come back to haunt you later.
Burying Your Head in the Sand
Are you fiddling while Rome burns? Confronting a crisis may involve working through the stages of griefgrief for something lost and a future not yet visible. Leaders who get stuck in denial are paralyzed by inaction. Not identifying and addressing challenges head on causes the team to lose faith in a leader.
If youre feeling overwhelmed and unable to act, use the Boy Scout acronym STOP: Stop, Think, Observe, Plan. And if you find yourself stuck in the thinking stage, engage your team to form a plan. Whatever you do, take steps to move forward. Be a hero, not a Nero!
Playing the Blame Game
Sadly, some leaders are known for their emotionally volatile outbursts and blaming others for their circumstances. These behaviors can be very unsettling to the team and culture of fear, which is never productive.
Spending time revisiting the past isnt healthy and will only serve to slow you down, stifle results, and create a toxic culture. Its important for leaders to soberly accept the situation, take responsibility, and move quickly to solutions.
Shutting Down Ideas
Many leaders trying to move quicklyespecially those making unilateral decisionswill shut down the teams brainstorming and discussion that are necessary to get to the best solution.
Even if the solution you came into the meeting with is the one the team ultimately accepts, the time spent ideating and discussing will serve to both improve it and align everyone around your plan.
Flip-Flopping
Nothing is more frustrating than an uncommitted leader who steers the team in one direction then quickly pivots when he hears another better idea. Frequent pivots erode confidence and present to the team like you dont know what youre doing.
Do your diligence on the front end, pick a direction, and commit to seeing it through. Build in incremental goals and check-ins to monitor progress. If you must pivot, do so with data and a defensible rationale. Your team will give you grace if they understand the why behind your decisions.
Forgetting to Listen
Sometimes the most important thing a leader can do is not act, but listen. Listening helps us to process challenges and source ideas for the path ahead. For leaders in crisis situations, prepare to do a lot of listening.
In fact, get out of your office and go on a listening tour to see how others are experiencing the turmoil. Get their input. But dont stop there. If you take the time to listen, you must circle back to the team to say, This is what I heard, and this is what Im going to do with that information. If you dont take that last step, the team is less likely to provide feedback the next time you ask. Make sure they can see how they added value to the direction.
Tolerating Bad Behavior
In periods of uncertainty, leaders arent the only ones under stress. Others may act out inappropriately as well (see all of the negative behaviors above). Its not enough to keep yourself in check, you must keep the rest of the team in check, too. When negative, trust-behaviors surface, be quick to pull the perpetrator aside for some one-on-one coaching.
Uncertainty is inevitable. How leaders navigate a critical moment can make all the difference. Successful leaders turn toward their teams in times of crisishumbly realizing that they alone do not have all the answers. If you trust your team to help you handle the turbulence, theyll trust you in return.
The night is young when Bilt Rewards founder and CEO Ankur Jain steps inside Manhattans ABC Cocina restaurant on a Monday in early spring. Vintage chandeliers glint overhead as the 35-year-old Jain, in jeans and sneakers, makes his way through the crowd, shaking hands, his winsome smile comfortably affixed. Were here for a recurring comedy show thats offered to members of Bilt, the loyalty program and payments platform for renters that Jain founded in 2019. As usual, the show sold outthrough a combination of dollars and Bilt pointsin minutes. As we find our seats, Jain disappears briefly, reemerging with martinis.
Over the next hour, a half dozen comedians take the stage to deliver their takes on politics, parenting, dating, and more. Jain joins in on the biggest laughs, slapping the table in approval. And when the evenings final comedian takes a dig at Bilt itself, which has close to 5 million members and is valued at more than $3 billion, calling it a cult and suggesting that the audience rob its founder of his billion dollars that very night, Jain doesnt flinch.
In a way, Bilt did start out as a cultone aimed at credit card enthusiasts who collect points and miles with near-religious fervor. The startup first broke through with the Bilt Rewards Mastercard, which offers users rewards points for rent payments. The card launched to the public in March 2022 with a party at One Vanderbilt, Midtown Manhattan’s tallest skyscraper. Mayor Eric Adams attended and A$AP Rocky performed. Credit cards are a cutthroat business, but no one had ever tried securing a place in the wallets of affluent young professionals by focusing on rent, the biggest financial burden for many. (In the U.S., residential tenants pay $750 billion in rent each year.) Eighteen months later, Bilt had activated more than a million accounts and won over the kind of reward maximizers who treat The Points Guy blog as gospel. Brian Kelly, the Points Guy himself, is a Bilt investor.
Yet even as the card took off, Jain turned his attention to a much bigger prize. He began approaching property managers, proposing that they use Bilt to process rent payments. In exchange, Bilt would craft a loyalty program for their residents. Today, a growing number of apartment buildings require tenants to pay via Bilt, which operates a digital wallet that connects with whichever credit, debit, or ACH method tenants prefer. So far, Bilt is the exclusive payment-processing platform for 70% of the top 100 multifamily property owners in the U.S., covering roughly 25% of the multifamily rental market.
Thats why, despite the Bilt Rewards Mastercards buzzy reputation, Jain is quick to note that only 15% of Bilts rewards program members are cardholders. The vast majority simply sign up when they use Bilts platform to pay rent and earn points with each on-time payment. Bilt plans to further expand that model this year with the launch of a program that will give homeowners points for mortgage payments.
Now Jain is on his way to realizing the final piece of his vision. Through the digital wallet that members create when they sign up, he aims to make Bilt into a meta-level loyalty platform that touches just about every aspect of a users life. To enable that, hes knit together a network of some 40,000 merchantsincluding fitness studios, restaurants, and major national brands such as United Airlines and Lyftthat allow members to earn and redeem Bilt points. To complete the circle, members can even put their points toward rent itself or a down payment on a home.
In the process, Bilt has found a clever way to layer itself over a large swath of local commerce. When a member dines out or breaks a sweat at one of Bilts merchant partners, Bilt charges the merchant a fee, using any cards loaded into the members digital wallet to prove attribution. (In the U.S., merchants pay a roughly 3% interchange fee for accepting credit cards, money thats divided up among payments companies, with Bilt now among them.)
Jains plans caught the attention of former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, now a venture investor at General Catalyst. Chenault led Bilts $200 million fundraising round in January 2024 and became board chairman. We want multiple cards to be on the Bilt platform, he says. Use the card that meets your needs for different spending categories, but use the Bilt platform for your spending. According to Chenault, Bilts economics are very, very attractive.
Bilt made $200 million in revenue in 2024. It crossed $400 million in annual run rate in the first quarter of 2025, and expects to cross $1 billion in ARR by spring 2026. Its largest revenue stream derives from its business with property managers: Bilt takes a cut of the $36 billion-plus in annual rental payments that its currently processing and earns a commission for renewals that it helps to facilitate. Its second-largest revenue stream is its expanding merchant network.
Despite its growth, Bilt remains something of an enigma. Each of the individual pieces of its operationsrewards credit card, rental payment processor, local marketing platform, digital wallethas been tried before with mixed success, or at great expense, by other companies. Bilt is the first to try them all at once. As Jain told leading fintech banker Steve McLaughlin during a fireside chat last year: To pull this off, you have to figure out a model where everybody wins.
In Bilts loyalty-based world, property managers and merchants win when Bilt delivers good tenants and customers. Members win when they get a free dessert at a local restaurant or book flights to a beach vacation with Bilt points. And Bilt, of course, wins by sitting at the center of all of these transactions. In a points-based economy, everybody can win. The fine print is that not everybody can win big.
Before he began offering renters lifestyle perks in exchange for on-time payments, Jain was focused on solving generational-scale challenges. Indeed, hes been encouraging business leaders to tackle big markets with big problems since 2008, when he launched the nonprofit Kairos Society, a membership community for mission-driven entrepreneurs, while an undergraduate at the Wharton School at Penn.
During his freshman year, Jain sent 50 letters to executives, asking them to speak to his fledgling Kairos Society. He landed names including Boeing CEO Phil Condit and Virgin Group cofounder Richard Branson. Funded by Jain, the organization continued to operate after he graduated, hosting events that offered entrepreneurs a network of peers, access to people in power, and a heady shot of glitz. To kick off Kaiross 2017 global summit, for example, Jain flew 200 dinner guests to the Hudson Valleys Rockefeller Estate in Blade helicopters.
Jains father, Naveen, had also charted an entrepreneurial path, leaving Microsoft in 1996 to found web-services company InfoSpace. Naveen, who was born in a small village in India, made a fortune as InfoSpaces market cap climbed to its peak of $31 billion in 2000. In 2002, when Jain was 12, Naveen lost control of the company following an accounting scandal and accusations of short-swing trading; he paid a $105 million settlement and denied liability.
Jain speaks of his father with admiration, and often repeats his business adages. But where Naveen navigated InfoSpaces early days as a relative outsider, Jain has built his career around being the consummate insider. He attributes the inspiration for Bilts rewards model to Starwood Hotels and Resorts founder Barry Sternlicht, a regular dinner compnion. He is grateful to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who is a Kairos adviser, for introducing him to Chenault. Those relationships paved the way for Bilt, Jain says. Candidly, youve got to have the right platform, the right idea, the right time,” he adds. “But if you cant call the CEOs of every major airline and hotel, how are you going to move quick enough to do this?
Jain began circling around the right idea in 2019, a few years after he sold his digital Rolodex startup Humin to Tinder, where he stayed on and spent close to two years as VP of product. The avocado toast is not whats stopping us [millennials] from being able to afford a down payment on a home. We rent for, on average, seven years, he told the host of AOLs live-audience show Build at the time. Youre lighting that money on fire every month.
Bilt was just the germ of a concept. But Jain painted his vision with sweeping confidence. Can we build a business model where that rent dollar actually goes toward your future home? So imagine that every single person in this country, just by renting, by the age of 28, 29, 30, has actually saved enough money to be able to afford the down payment on a home.
At some point, however, Jain refined his world-changing mission. Instead of making home-buying more affordable, hed make renting less onerous by plying renters with rewards from airlines and hotels. Hed also offer renters the chance to put rewards points toward a down paymenta benefit thats welcome, but not substantial enough on its own, to turn a renter into a homeowner.
[Photo: Tonje Thilesen]
At first, prospective partners took Jains pitch calls but declined to make any kind of commitment. Property managers wanted to know who his rewards partners were, and airlines and hotels wanted to know which property managers had signed on. Jain realized he needed an elaborate growth hack to get Bilt off the ground.
Enter the Bilt Rewards credit card, which Jain describes as an accelerant to reach customers directly. When companies launch co-branded credit cards, they typically grow the products slowly so they can monitor cardholder behavior and ensure the economics work. Get the model wrong, and the cost of paying out a reward like 3% cash back can be dear. Bilt, in contrast, went all in, with headline-grabbing rewards including one-to-one points transfers with airlines such as United and Emirates and hotels like Hyatt and Hilton. On Reddit forums and blogs, points maximizers cheered.[Bilt] took value that existed [outside of] the points ecosystem and brought billions of dollars of value into consumer pockets, says The Points Guy‘s Kelly. Bilt wasnt necessarily restoring young renters faith in the American dream, but it was giving them freebies that made them feel good.
The runaway growth was a boon for Bilt but a potential challenge for Wells Fargo, Bilts issuing bank. Wells Fargo, which invested in Bilt in 2021, was losing as much as $10 million a month on the card deal, according to a Wall Street Journal report from last summer. Cardholders werent carrying balances at the rates the bank had expected. Wells Fargo is not going to let them keep that deal forever, says Matthew Goldman, founder of fintech consulting firm Totavi and publisher of CardsFTW, an industry newsletter. The card is very, very pro-consumer, but to a fault. Rumor has it that theyre actively looking for a new card issuer, and no ones very interested. Bilts contract with Wells Fargo expires in 2029.
Jain declined to comment on whether Bilt is on the hunt for a new issuer. (Wells Fargo also declined Fast Companys request for comment.) Its not our core business, Jain says of the card. Our job is to provide the best rewards ecosystem, the best commerce platform, the best [customer] acquisition, the best brand, so that our partners can create a great card product around it. In other words, the economics of the card are the issuers problem. Jain doesnt have plans to drop the Bilt card, but going forward, he imagines it occupying a relatively modest place in Bilts overall strategy.
Loyalty programs, after all, are a booming businessand one that extends far beyond credit cards. Restaurants like Chipotle, Crumbl, McDonalds, and Starbucks run app-based loyalty programs. Sephora woos its members with early access to new products and the opportunity to exchange points for beauty samples. PlayStations loyalty program doles out digital collectibles.
Rewards are eating the world, says Kelley Halpin, cofounder and CEO of Mesa, a newly launched loyalty program for homeowners that grants points for mortgage payments. The proliferation of loyalty programs, Halpin says, means that people expect more value back.
But they are also suffering from loyalty fatigue. The average U.S. household belongs to 29 programs, according to a 2017 Accenture analysis. Bilt sees that fatigue as an opportunity to create a streamlined umbrella program, but it will have to stand out. Luckily for Jain, by working with property managers, hes found a captive audience.
The morning after the comedy show, I meet Jain for coffee at Bilts NoHo offices on Bond Street in New York City. Bilt operates a small café on the ground floor and uses the space for one of its recurring monthly “Rent Day” promotions: free coffee, paired with a breakfast treat.
In a clever inversion of the days gloomy psychology, Bilt has transformed the first of the month into an opportunity to drive earn and burn, as the loyalty industry puts it. Pay your rent on time, and on rent day, Bilt showers you with extra rewards, like 50% transfer bonuses with airline partners and special giveaways, including the chance to win a month of free rent. On April 1, New York Citybased Bilt members lined up for coffee and everything bagels from PopUp Bagels while a DJ in sunglasses and a silver chain spun club tracks from behind the counter.
The Rent Day promotion is the perfect encapsulation of Jains win-win-win approach to Bilts network. Bilts linking of on-time payments to deals and rewards encourages tenant compliance. Merchant partners get a dedicated opportunity to introduce themselves to tenants. And members get a glimpse of the credit-based rewards lifestyle. Some people really love aspirational travel, Jain says as we settle into a meeting room, and some people only care about everyday utility. Bilt aims to serve them all.
Jain, sipping a chocolate protein shake, opens his laptop and leans back in his armchair. He wants to demonstrate the tools that have pulled property managers into the Bilt Alliance. If youre in a housing space and you dont have Blt, youre behind, he says, linking his laptop to the presentation screen at the front of the room.
Jain logs in as if he were a property manager looking to improve renewal rates. Depending on the market, roughly 40% of renters move out each year. Landlords are always looking for ways to convince tenants to stay or to at least give advance notice of their departures. Until Bilt, most relied on a combination of rent discounts and gift cards. Bilt says that properties that use its tools have seen a 20% boost in early renewals.
Im a big believer of, fit into the boxes people already understand, Jain says as he pulls up a screen with fields that allow landlords to set an audience for a renewal campaign. Today, he says, imagine that were offering half a month of rent if you renew 30 days early. He selects a region and property type, sets a rent ceiling, and launches the campaign. Based on the building [and] the customer profile, we generate a personalized offer.
If this were a real campaign, Bilt would present each resident with a choice: If they renew 30 days early, they can choose between half a month of free rent or what Bilt deems to be the equivalent, plus a smidge more, in rewards points and promotions. A tenant paying $3,000 in rent might see an offer for $1,500 cash or some combination of Bilt points, partner points, and merchant offers. At their best redemption value, Bilt points are on par with those of market leaders like Chase and American Express.
But the street value of a Bilt point can still vary substantially, from about 1.5 cents per point for rent redemption to 0.7 cents for Lyft rides. Six months into launching the feature, Jain says, just under half of tenants are picking the rewards over the cash. I think that number will go up, he says.
Building features at the behest of property managers has helped Bilt win over some of the largest landlords in the country. Bilt Alliance customers include Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Equity Residential, GID, Greystar, Morgan Properties, and Relatedall of which have also invested in Bilt. Their lease marketing budgets, which Bilt is starting to capture, can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. If you look back at the apartment industry over 25 years, we knew less about our customers than a lot of other industries do, says Greg Bates, GID president and CEO. They apply. We get their credit report. They live with us.
Bilt changes all that. The Bilt program gives us access to a ton of information on how [residents] spend their time and how they spend their money, Bates says. What do they value in the community, in terms of local merchants or restaurants? Are they using Bilt rewards for dog walkers? Because the more we understand someone and what they value, the better products we can offer people. During the leasing process today, rewards can even function as an amenity and help make up for a propertys shortfalls. No resident gym? Bilt deals at SoulCycle can help fill the gap.
Some property technology investors eyeing Bilts rise from the sidelines wonder whether being part of the Bilt Alliance will lose its allure as more properties join the club. But Bilts partners say they see ubiquity as an asset. We manage 220,000 units, says Margette Hepfner, chief operating officer for residential management at Dallas-based Willow Bridge Property Company. Thats a lot, but weve never been able to build a loyalty program for renters. Not one of us owns or operates enough real estate that we can build our own loyalty brand.
Hepfner points to the airline industry as a source of inspiration. The loyalty programs of airlines like American and United are worth billions of dollarsindeed, billions of dollars more than the underlying business of flying planes. Bilt is establishing that kind of program for real estate. We talk about it internally like the Oneworld Alliance, Hepfner says of Bilts property alliance. Maybe you cant fly American, but you can fly one of the other Oneworld partners and continue to build up your points.
Graduate student and part-time tutor Elliott Nixon isnt a born points maximizer. Instead, while living in London on a tight budget, he discovered Bilt after researching ways to earn enough miles to fly home to visit family in the U.S. He signed up for the Bilt credit card and, by chance, later moved to a rental building in New Orleans that has since become a Bilt Alliance property. These days, the 27-year-old estimates that he puts 70% of his spending on his Bilt card, including his monthly rent payments.
The part that caught my attention was saving up for a down payment on a house, Nixon says of Bilts points-redemption offering. Nixon has watched as airlines have devalued their miles, but he views Bilt as a safe harbor. (Bilt hasnt yet devalued its points, but it did lose a prominent transfer partner, American Airlines, last year.) So far, Nixon has booked one trip with his Bilt points. If he were to apply them toward a down payment today, each Bilt point would be worth 1.5 cents, meaning 100,000 points would translate into $1,500. Thats something, but it wont take him very far toward a down payment.
By locking itself in with property managers, Bilt has increasingly easy access to renters like Nixon. (I get paid to acquire customers, Jain says.) But paying rent on Bilt via debit card or ACH only nets the tenant 250 points a month, or 3,000 annually, currently worth about two Pure Barre classes. To win members loyaltyand demonstrate the value of its platformBilt needs them to rack up more points. That means getting them to feel good about putting both bigger-ticket items, such as housing, and everyday essentials on their credit cards.
The Bilt wallet is the companys solution to this problem. Set up a Bilt account, and the company automatically creates a wallet thats preloaded with any cards tied to the users login details; confirm the cards, and Bilt starts awarding points for spending at its merchant partners. The company has also built integrations with its partners loyalty programs.
A couple weeks after creating my Bilt account, I went shopping for Easter basket jelly beans and spent $2.25 at Walgreens, where Im a member of the myWalgreens loyalty program. Three days later, to my surprise, Bilt sent me an email with the subject line: You got rewarded at Walgreens with your Neighborhood Benefits. I had earned my first two Bilt points by making a purchase matched to my account.
What do you already do? Do it through Bilt. We make it better, Jain says. You already pay rent? Pay it through Bilt. We make it better. You already book fitness classes? Book it through Bilt. We make it better. You already go to Walgreens? Just go how youre going. We make it better. Earning points, he says, has to be seamless.
The same is true of his approach to burning points. To design Bilts integration with Lyft, which allows members to redeem Bilt points toward Lyft rides, Jain sketched out wireframes over dinner with Lyft CEO David Risher, seeking to get the user experience just right. In April, three weeks into launching the feature, riders had already spent 100 million Bilt points on Lyft. Thats huge. Thats product-market fit, Risher says.
Points purists might pause here to note that Lyft rides do not offer the best redemption value for Bilt points. In fact, the best redemption value in any rewards scheme is almost invariably a flight or a hotel stay. (Bilt has its own travel-reward booking engine.) Traditionally, loyalty programs have been split into two camps: casual members who like the convenience of a cheap Lyft ride, and points optimizers with the psyche of an FX trader looking for an edge. But Bilts seamless erchant integrations could upend those dynamics.
My pitch has never been to solve the whole housing crisis, Jain says. Im saying that people are spending money today on big life expenses, like rent. Until Bilt, there hadnt been a company embracing all that spend and converting it into rewards. For just doing what youre doing, you can now go on a trip with your friends or visit home. Sure, its just points, but thats a big deal for a lot of people. He leaves unsaid the true price of that free trip: making yourself available as a marketing target to property managers, travel brands, and local merchants.
The night before our interview at Bilts offices, Jain and I had met at San Vicente West Village, an exclusive members club in the former Jane Hotel that had been open for barely a week. Inside, after stickers were placed over the cameras on our phones, a checkerboard hall led us to a mocha-hued dining room. Velvet drapes lined the walls; waiters in crisp white jackets darted past.
Jain, on the verge of losing his voice, ordered an herbal tea with honey and a gimlet. When the manager stopped by to say hello, Jain quickly found common ground: She was from South Africa, where his weeklong wedding celebration kicked off with a safari in 2024. (The wedding was featured in Harpers Bazaar.) Later, as we stood to leave, Jain swung by a banquette where he spotted a familiar face.
Points might get you a free vacation. But the best clubs require a different kind of currency.
