DNA-testing company 23andMe (Nasdaq: ME), once an industry leader that attracted millions of customers, including rapper Snoop Dogg and investor Warren Buffett, has announced significant cuts to its operations, with plans to lay off 200 employees or roughly 40% of its workforce. The company also said it will discontinue development of its therapeutic programs. Here’s what to know about the latest development and what led up to it.

Board exodus

The latest move comes as the company looks to stabilize after facing significant challenges, including the resignation of all seven independent board members in October.

Data breach

Last year, 23andMe suffered a massive data breach when hackers accessed the personal information of 6.9 million users. The incident led to a class-action lawsuit, which, in September, 23andMe agreed to settle for $30 million.

The problem with SPACs

In 2021, 23andMe went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It later expanded into drug-discovery and weight-loss sectors. However, as DNA test kit sales declined, so did its financial health. By fiscal 2023, it reported a $312 million net loss, with its stock down 98% since going public, currently at about $4 after a reverse stock split in October 2024.

Separate reports have found that things have often not ended well for companies that took advantage of the pandemic-era SPAC boom, which led to billions in losses for investors and a number of bankruptcies for companies.

What’s next for 23andMe and its employees?

The layoffs are expected to result in $12 million in severance, termination, and transition-related costs and are part of a broader plan to streamline the business and achieve annual cost savings of $35 million.

The company says it is exploring various strategic options for its therapeutic programs, including potential licensing agreements and the sale of assets in its development pipeline.

“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said Anne Wojcicki, cofounder, CEO, and chair of the board, in a statement.

Shares of 23andMe were up almost 6% to $4.87 on the news, which was announced late yesterday. The stock is down more than 73% year to date.

Southwest Airlines is offering buyouts and extended leaves of absence to airport workers to avoid what it calls “overstaffing in certain locations,” which it blames on a shortage of new planes from Boeing.

The move on Monday comes as a hedge fund presses Southwest to increase profits and boost the stock price, which has fallen sharply since early 2021.

A Southwest spokesperson said the offers of “voluntary separation” are limited to 18 airports. The company declined to identify the airports or say how many jobs it hopes to eliminate.

All the targeted jobs are in ground operations, including customer service agents, baggage handlers and cargo workers. Pilots and flight attendants are not included in the buyout offer, the spokesperson said.

Southwest officials have said that the Dallas-based airline plans to end this year with 2,000 fewer workers than it started. That is after Southwest grew from 66,600 to nearly 75,000 employees last year. The figures count part-timers as one-half.

“Southwest has reduced overall capacity to meet demand with a constrained fleet due to aircraft delivery delays,” the company said in a statement. “Offering voluntary separation and extended time off to contract and noncontract employees, along with continued slowed hiring, will help us avert overstaffing in certain locations.”

Southwest had originally expected about 85 new Boeing 737 jets this year but has cut that number to 20 because of production problems at Boeing that began after a panel blew out of the side of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max during a flight in January.

The Southwest fleet consists solely of Boeing 737s, including the Max and older versions of the plane.

Starting in June, hedge fund Elliott Investment Management built an 11% stake in Southwest and pressed the airline to improve its financial performance. The two sides reached a truce last month to avoid a proxy fight, but Elliott won several seats on the Southwest board, which it can use to keep pressure on CEO Robert Jordan and other executives.

Even before Elliott, Southwest limited hiring and stopped flying to several airports to save money. It also announced plans to target premium travelers.

Southwest shares rose 3% Monday and are up 13% this year. That is far behind the 117% jump at Delta Air Lines and the 58% gain at United Airlines.

—David Koenig, AP Airlines Writer

The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.

Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors—real and virtual—with an interactive experience.

“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Microsoft’s president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference.

The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day.

“Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house,” Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project’s development teams at an audience Monday.

The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world’s most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in.

But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to “visit” the church and learn about its history.

The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data—enough to fill five million DVDs—Smith said.

The images have already identified structural damage and signs of deterioration, such as missing mosaic pieces, cracks and fissures invisible to the naked eye, with a speed and precision far beyond human capabilities.

Francis has called for the ethical use of AI and used his annual World Message of Peace this year to urge an international treaty to regulate it, arguing that technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great.

On Monday, he thanked the Microsoft team and basilica workers responsible for the project and marveled at how modern technology was helping spread an ancient faith and preserve a piece of world patrimony, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of its consecration in 2026.

“This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” he told Smith and the delegation. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”

Smith declined to give a price tag for Microsoft’s investment in the project, saying only it was “substantial” and was borne of Francis’ initiative in 2018 to bring tech companies together to promote ethnically minded AI.

He said Microsoft had done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and Ancient Olympia, in Greece.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

—Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

If hybrid cars can cut CO2 emissions on the road, can hybrid-electric planes do the same in the air? 

NASA is exploring that possibility, announcing this week two contracts to aviation startup Electra. The company claims it can meet NASA’s goal of reducing airliner fuel use by 60% to 80% by 2035 with a hybrid design that features generators powering motors to drive a large number of propellers. While this may sound like a convoluted way to power an airliner, the company claims it ultimately requires far less fuel than a traditional plane. 

Electra is already flying a two-seat test plane with this kind of system and will debut a nine-seater with a 380-mile range this week. It’s now partnering with American Airlines, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, MIT, and the University of Michigan to guide the design and scale up the tech to airliners.

Electra’s grants, totaling about $3.5 million, are part of the $11.5 million, to four companies and one university for the first phase of its Advanced Aircraft for Sustainable Aviation (AACES) 2050 program. First announced in August 2023, AACES challenges companies to propose aircraft concepts that could help bring passenger and cargo plane emissions to zero by 2050.

The aviation industry has long touted zero-emission fuels (for example, jet fuel made from biomass, or hydrogen produced with green electricity) as the ultimate climate solution. It’s easier to make enough of these fuels if new planes need a lot less of them—hence NASA’s challenge to Electra and the other winners to develop radically more-efficient designs.

The case for electric-powered planes

A number of companies are developing electric airplanes, but most are for short-range air taxi services. Toyota-backed Joby Aviation, for example, promises to put a four-passenger plane into service as soon as 2025. Powered 100% by heavy batteries, packing about 1/40th as much energy per pound as jet fuel, Joby’s plane can fly 100 miles per charge.

Electra stands out as one of the few companies, alongside Sweden’s Heart Aerospace and Ampaire and Whisper Aero out of the U.S., testing different hybrid concepts to dramatically extend range. (NASA has also been testing hybrid tech with other companies.) Electra and its allies’ initial concept for NASA is a 114-seat airliner that can fly nearly 3,300 miles, says Electra’s vice president and general manager, JP Stewart. But he says the tech can scale to NASA’s largest target: carrying about 300 people up to around 8,600 miles.

Electra’s take on hybrid technology is called a “series hybrid.” On a traditional plane, each propeller (or jet engine) requires a big, expensive turbine that burns jet fuel. By using turbines to power generators instead, Electra can run more props using lightweight electric motors. Electra’s initial sketch has five propellers across each wing (plus three in the tail), which the company says can improve airflow and boost the wing’s ability to lift the plane—tech that’s already working on its two-seat prototype. For its NASA proposal, Electra envisions an airliner that uses this hybrid tech and a new design of the fuselage (the tube carrying passengers) to take off with smaller wings, which will produce less drag and save fuel in flight.

Another benefit of hooking a turbine to a generator, says Stewart, is that the turbine can run at its most-efficient speed throughout the flight. Airplane engines have to be very flexible, gunning it on takeoff and landing and running less intensely when the plane is cruising in the air. Turbines that power the propellers directly don’t have the flexibility to do both tasks efficiently; electric motors do. Finally, by adding batteries to the mix, the plane can use a smaller turbine that needs to produce just enough power for cruising, says Electra. For takeoff and landing, battery packs join in to provide the extra oomph only when needed.

Electra’s concept is just one of several ideas NASA has given the green light to. Another contract winner, JetZero, has proposed a liquid hydrogen-powered, “blended wing body” concept for a jetliner or cargo plane that ditches the traditional design of a metal tube with wings and a tail. Instead, it has a tail-less, triangular shape that looks a bit like a B2 Stealth Bomber and promises major fuel savings. 

Other winners include Georgia Institute of Technology, Pratt & Whitney (part of the RTX conglomerate), and Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences, which are working on several engine and body technologies. (Aurora founder John Langford went on to found Electra in 2020.)

The task now for Electra, JetZero, and other winners is to produce a final airplane design in 18 months. Getting real planes in the air will take many more years.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to “pursue energy dominance” to “make the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

Looking forward to getting straight to work as part of President Trump's Cabinet to unleash US energy dominance, make America the AI capital of the world, bring American auto jobs back home, and so much more. pic.twitter.com/zGGLIRMrd6

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) November 12, 2024

Trump announced Monday that he would nominate former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to helm the nation’s top environmental agency, which regulates emissions, when he takes office in January. During Trump’s third presidential campaign, he spoke often of deregulating industries and ensuring environmental protections aren’t hampering businesses.

“[Zeldin] will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social, when announcing the appointment.

Trump’s last go-round in office had wide impacts on the environment. He picked a coal lobbyist to lead the EPA, rolled back more than 100 environmental protections, and exited the Paris climate accord.

It now appears that making sure AI and its energy-sucking data centers won’t be held back are top of mind for the incoming leader. Artificial intelligence is notorious for requiring massive compute to train systems. That, in turn, increases carbon emissions. Goldman Sachs Research estimated in May that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030 as the AI revolution gathers steam and efficiency gains wane.

The Biden administration has also embraced artificial intelligence. The Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security conducted AI pilots to address vulnerabilities in government networks, the Department of Justice and Department of Education worked to combat AI-generated image-based sexual abuse, and the administration issued a first-ever National Security Memorandum on AI “to ensure the United States leads the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI.”

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don’t want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over privacy and digital competition concerns.

Meta Platforms has been offering European Union an ad-free subscription option for about a year to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules, but regulators had accused the company of giving people a false choice.

The company said in a blog post that while people will still be able to choose between the subscription and existing free versions, it would also start giving free users an extra option over the coming weeks to see digital ads that are less personalized.

This means ads will be targeted at users based only on what they see during their current session on Facebook or Instagram going back no more than two hours, plus minimal personal information such as age, location, gender as well as how they engage with ads.

Data from all of a user’s previous time spent on Facebook or Instagram, which is typically combined to precisely target an individual with tailored ads, won’t be used.

“While this new choice is designed to give people an additional control over their data and ad experience, it may result in ads that are less relevant to a person’s interests,” Meta said in a blog post. “That means people will see ads that they don’t find as interesting. This drop in relevance is inevitable given that drastically reduced data is being used to show these less personalized ads to people.”

People who choose the new option will see ad breaks that can’t be skipped for a few seconds, Meta said.

European Union regulators had accused Meta of breaching the 27-nation bloc’s digital rules when it gave user the option to pay a monthly fee to avoid being targeted by ads based on their personal data.

The U.S. tech giant had rolled out the option after the European Union’s top court ruled Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users, in a decision that threatened its business model of tailoring ads based on individual users’ online interests and digital activity.

The company also said Tuesday it’s slashing monthly subscription prices for the ad-free option. Web users will pay 5.99 euros ($6.36), down from 9.99 euros previously, while iPhone and Android users will be charged 7.99 euros instead of 12.99 euros, which includes commissions charged by the Apple and Google mobile app stores.

Meta’s new subscription model could hit the company’s lucrative digital ad business in one of its biggest markets. The company said it has already factored the new offering into its most recent business outlook and financial guidance.

The options are available to users 18 and older in the EU’s 27 member countries, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

—Kelvin Chan, Associated Press business writer

The Aarke Coffee System is built for simplicity and style while ensuring that it brews the perfect cup of coffee every single time.

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Get ready to explore the different methods of automating technical and business challenges with Azure in James Rudley’s new course; Automation With Microsoft Azure. In this course you will learn a range of azure features including: Azure Automation Functions Logic Apps ARM Templates Update Management Azure PowerShell Ready to master Azure? You can buy this [...]

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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Festival of Dangerous Ideas (@festivalofdangerousideas) Thank you Roxane for giving words to this feeling we are all feeling: an age of inelasticity.

What a time to be alive and 18! My daughter Ella just self-published her first poetry book. You can read her poetry over at ellajoy.com and if you enjoy it, support this young poet by buying a copy of her book. What other young poets should be on my radar?

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As the annual Valentia Island lecture series approaches, let's look at the how a single telegram in 1858 paved the way for a cornerstone in modern networks.

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