• US Army soldiers experimented with drones at a recent exercise in the Mojave Desert.
• Troops said that the drones offered them new capabilities, extending their sight and reach.
• But temperature, connectivity, and equipment proved challenging.

Two US Army 4th Infantry Division soldiers sat on the barren desert earth at Fort Irwin, California. One wore first-person-view goggles and held a drone controller. The other watched the drone’s feed on a laptop.

After a few moments of setup, the Neros Archer lifted off, the buzz loud up close and still audible at a distance. The small aircraft made a short flight before returning to the launch point and circling overhead. Then, hovering about a foot above the ground, the operator cut the power. The drone dropped silently.

The demonstration only lasted a few minutes, but it offered a glimpse into a much larger Army experiment with drones. As part of the service’s massive transformation initiative, the Army is working to flood the force with small uncrewed aerial systems to prepare soldiers for future wars

Throughout the exercise, soldiers described learning, often through trial and error, what it actually takes to use drones in the field, including when to launch them, how to keep them flying in punishing conditions, what equipment to carry, and how operating them fits alongside troops’ existing jobs.

Drones are bringing new capabilities to the fight

In the desert, Business Insider observed soldiers using a mix of drone technology in demonstrations and simulated combat, including the Archer first-person-view drone, Anduril’s Bolt-M, Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Rogue I, and Teal Drones’ Black Widow. Some soldiers had multiple systems at their disposal and were weighing the pros and cons of each.

The consensus on the positives during the experimentation exercise was that drones could help soldiers spot enemy vehicles or positions and decide how to respond.

“Now my capabilities are just exponentially increasing. I can see further. I can continuously see,” Capt. Dominic Sparkling, a unit commander within the 4th ID, said.

Many warfighting lessons can be learned from Ukraine, where both Moscow and Kyiv’s forces have used drones as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tools to extend what they can see on the field of battle, as well as attack options for striking enemy targets. Some drones are one-way attack systems, while others used in the war drop munitions rather than detonating on target, making the systems reusable for future missions.

Some of the uncrewed systems at Fort Irwin featured interchangeable payloads that could be used to see, sense, and, if needed, strike an enemy with an explosive or fragmentation round.

Depending on the situation, certain payloads could either be launched from the drone or require the drone itself to be expended in the attack. Cpl. Emiliano Lopez, one of the Rogue I operators, said using drones meant soldiers didn’t have to dismount as often because they can use them to extend their sight and reach.

The two soldiers operating the Archer told Business Insider that they had recently completed the monthlong training course for that particular drone and had logged flight time in another class.

“Just being able to go out to the field and test these, we’ve seen the worst scenarios of these things, and we’ve seen the best,” Specialist Christopher Frank, who was flying the drone, said, citing problems like loss of connection and physical damage.

The soldier watching the Archer’s feed on the laptop, called the spotter, served as a second pair of eyes and a guide for the pilot. Sgt. Gabe Tedro assisted Frank and retrieved the drone when it was powered down. Frank and Tedro were the only two scouts in their platoon qualified to use the Archer, though more troops were preparing for future drone courses.

During simulated combat, soldiers using drones often set up on a mountain at their observation post. They’d position a tripod to relay the drone’s signal and keep their equipment plugged in and ready in case they got a call from their commander to launch a drone.

Then, “all it takes is just putting a battery on and tightening the nuts on the rotors, and then we’re sending it,” Frank said.

Beyond UAVs, the Army was also testing uncrewed ground vehicles. Soldiers had used one, the NOMAD, more than a dozen times for logistics and resupply missions. Sgt. 1st Class Alex Alcantar called it “extremely useful,” saying it reduced the risk to troops on dangerous runs.

Punishing conditions reveal challenges

As troops experimented with the systems in the Mojave Desert, they also ran into challenges and unknowns.

Operators told Business Insider that they weren’t pushing their drones in the hot weather, avoiding further distances or long flight times in order to prevent overheating.

“The heat’s been a very big thing when it comes to this drone in particular,” Sgt. Ramontez Bennett said, describing the Bolt-M. Bennett said the temperature limited how long he could fly the drone and prompted him to keep it moving rather than hover in the air, because “the longer you keep it around in the air, it’s gonna overheat.”

The heat caused problems ranging from overheating hardware to reduced battery life. Soldiers improvised some solutions to cool other technology involved in operating the systems, Army leaders told reporters after the exercise. In one example, troops covered an antenna with a T-shirt soaked in ice water.

None of the drones that Business Insider saw were connected to Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, the Army’s new prototype warfighting system, which officials have said is intended to connect drones and weapons across the network.

Army leaders said many of the drones weren’t connected because vendors were still working toward interoperability requirements with NGC2. In some cases, the drones in use were not yet formal Army programs.

In other situations, troops were navigating connectivity problems caused by simulated enemy jamming, desert ridges, and heavy winds. Frank and others said that connection issues, such as static blurring the drone’s camera feed, can come from a range of factors like frequency problems, weather conditions, location, and geography.

Like many drones, the Archer and Rogue I have a “return to home” function should they lose connection with their operators.

But other systems, like the NOMAD ground robot, didn’t have that fallback option. Instead, it stopped where it was when it lost connection and required a soldier to go out and retrieve it. The rocky terrain also reduced the NOMAD’s range, cutting it in half as the vehicle traveled over ridges.

Another challenge was deciding what to carry into the field. Concerns about the added weight and gear came up repeatedly, and soldiers said the trade-offs depended on time, capability, and conditions. If troops needed to move quickly and quietly, that could limit their loadout.

“That’s the trade-off,” Lt. Col. Shawn Scott, a unit commander within the 4th ID, said. “That’s the balance, and it’s always going to be hard to find.”

Frank and Tedro said that at one point, they had received an order to ready their drone while riding in the back of a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. Setting it all up inside the vehicle was risky because a bumpy ride can damage some parts of the system.

They said they’d learned tricks in the field, like leaving the drone case behind when they went up to the observation post because it added unnecessary weight, and carrying only a few batteries while keeping the rest in the Bradley.

Those small adjustments were part of a larger process of figuring out just how drones fit into the way soldiers actually fight. Army leaders said soldier feedback from the exercise was critical for assessing how systems performed. Vendors weren’t present in the field with soldiers, but some troops said they’d received cheat sheets from companies to reference if they ran into problems.

• Sarah Silbiger and her partner, Jason Bernert, took a yearlong sabbatical to road trip the US.
• Living in a van with your significant other for a year can naturally get frustrating at times.
• Here are her top five relationship tips to make life as smooth as possible.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah Silbiger, a 30-year-old freelance video and photojournalist based in Philadelphia. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My partner and I are both journalists. We worked straight through the pandemic, and it was unrelenting. After covering such partisan politics, I really wanted to have a more holistic understanding of what it meant to live in the US.

We’re really outdoorsy and wanted to see the country. Simply put, I was seeking a creative refresh and whimsy.

That led us to take a sabbatical, sell all our stuff, and move into a van.

Being in love was a nice way to keep things amicable. He’s my partner, but he’s also my best friend, so that helped.

Nonetheless, being on the road for so long isn’t easy; here are my top tips and tricks to keep the peace when you’re with someone 24/7.

1. Food can lift morale

Trader Joe’s was an essential stop throughout our trip.

Unlike Costco, you’re not buying huge quantities, so they’re easier to fit in the van. The food is already simplified for you, so you can buy fewer individual ingredients and have easy-to-make meals.

We also connected over food because life on the road isn’t picture perfect every day. After a long day, making a big pot of Thai peanut noodles was great for morale and absolutely kept the peace in our tiny home.

2. Recognize when something else is making you both miserable

When we were traveling around New Mexico, it was super hot, which, when you’re living outside, puts you in a terrible mood. I was with my partner this whole time, so we were obviously getting frustrated with each other.

Coming from Pennsylvania, there’s not a huge difference between the lowest elevation and the highest. But in states like Arizona, Utah, or New Mexico, a completely different climate might be a short drive away. This is where understanding elevation maps came in.

We realized we could drive for 30 minutes to get from a blazing-hot desert to a snowy mountain in Cloudcroft. Everything was fixed. All morale was restored. Peace was restored to our kingdom.

3. Bring your hobbies

I’m a big crafter.
I stuffed an entire storage area with my crafting supplies. I brought my entire tufting setup, including a gigantic canvas and an electric tufting machine.

Bringing along my crafting supplies in the van was super grounding. When your environment is changing so frequently, it feels important to have something that remains consistent.

It always gives you an avenue to have your own space. So anytime I didn’t want to chat with my partner, I would just go do a craft outside on my own.

I think people think they have to go so minimalist with packing that they don’t bring anything except their clothes, food, and a book.

If you’re going to be on the road for a long time, or even if you’re just on a regular camping trip with your partner, I really am pro bringing your hobbies with you.

4. Implement a reset ritual

Spending all your time with someone can drive you crazy at times.

Something we used to reset the energy was these itty-bitty ice-cream cones. If things were going wrong, we would just say: “We need a tiny ice cream.”

We’d eat them, and it was like an instant reset.

Sometimes, if we really needed to put the kibosh on a heated situation, we would take a shot of pickle juice. It was such a funny way to just be like, OK, we’re done. We’re just tired and irritable.

For some reason, that was a really good way to snap out of it.

5. Advocate for your needs

A huge aspect of keeping the peace is advocating for your needs. If you’re tired, you need to say, “I’m done driving, I’m going to go lie in the back. You drive the rest of the way.”

It’s the best way to work out communication in a relationship because otherwise, you’re not going to make it on the road.

For us, it worked out. In fact, we recently got engaged at Green Lake State Park in New York when we went camping in our van again.

• Influencers are getting roasted for using or promoting artificial intelligence.
• AI is deeply polarizing, and using it carries reputational risks for content creators.
• Even creators who are trying to steer clear of AI sometimes get swept up in the controversy.

Being a content creator in the age of AI means navigating a minefield of reputational risks.

Using or simply talking about AI in the wrong way can spark internet backlash, never mind doing a promotional post for an AI company.

Artificial intelligence is highly polarizing, and the backlash against the tech has been ramping up recently. Many factors have contributed to the negative vibes, from unpopular data centers to fears about job displacement and AI-induced price hikes on tech products like video game consoles.

In the particular case of video platforms, AI slop has flooded social feeds with low-quality videos and misinformation, irking some viewers.

In this environment, creators like Hank Green and Cliff Tan have recently faced criticism from their audiences for their associations with AI. There are three main ways creators have been getting raked over the coals about AI in recent weeks.

Here they are:

1. Promoting an AI company

The easiest way for a creator to draw criticism around AI is to post promotional content on behalf of an LLM company or AI firm.

Influencers who posted about attending a luxury OpenAI-hosted “Summer Camp” in early August received a wave of criticism from fans in their comments sections, who variously called it “dystopian,” “gross,” and “morally bankrupt.”

An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that the retreat was an education-focused event, and that “creators are an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products.”

This week, interior design creator Cliff Tan apologized to fans after posting promotional content for the Chinese AI platform, Dreamina, acknowledging the post had disappointed many of his viewers.

Large AI companies have a lot of money to spend on influencer marketing, but creators who want to get that bag should be prepared for potential backlash.

“There’s a PR issue with AI as it relates to taking people’s jobs and environmental concerns around data centers,” Eric Bogard, CEO of the talent firm UnderCurrent Management, previously told Business Insider. “Creators are hesitant to promote AI companies as a result.”

2. Using AI in the wrong way

At this stage, pretty much every influencer is using AI tools in some manner.

If you use Adobe Photoshop or TikTok’s CapCut, or tweak an image or video with an editing tool, there’s a good chance that AI has played a part in your final output.

Audiences generally understand that.

Creators run into trouble when it becomes evident that AI was heavily involved in the making of a finished product.

YouTuber Hank Green learned that lesson when he disclosed he’d used AI as a research tool for one of his shows, and drew an immediate negative reaction from his fans.

“I have been relying too heavily on AI as a research aid,” Green said. “It can be very useful for this task, giving me access to a lot of papers I didn’t know existed really fast, but I think that has been to the detriment of my work because it has not given me the freedom to find all of my own ways into and around a topic.”

The science and educational content creator has since laid out a new policy regarding the use of AI, saying he won’t allow any portion of a script to be written, edited, or outlined by an LLM; that a video’s thesis must originate with a human; and that no image or music in a video will be AI-generated.

3. Getting flagged for using AI, even if they tried to avoid it

Even if a creator goes out of their way to avoid using AI, they may still get nailed for it.

As social apps like TikTok and Instagram try to detect and label more artificial content in their feeds, some influencers are finding their content getting mislabeled as AI-generated.

Creators like Gregory Littley and Lindsey Lee Lugrin found that social posts promoting work they did offline, such as taking physical Polaroid photos or painting by hand, were flagged as AI.

“I cringe when I see that label,” Littley said. “I cringe even more when I know it’s not true.”

Read more about how influencers are dealing with AI mislabeling

• Former Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is bullish on the future of AI for companies.
• The Anthropic board member said, “You’re going to see a lot of companies attacking each other.”
• Having left Netflix completely in June, Hastings said he’s using AI to level up his Utah ski resort.

Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings says CEOs could soon face critical decisions if generative AI continues to rapidly improve.

“You could either cut your workforce in half and stay in the same business lines, or you can use all these new resources to expand against your competitors,” Hastings said during an interview for Semafor’s “The CEO Signal” podcast.

Hastings, who sits on Anthropic’s board of directors, said that in five years, frontier models will be 32 times better than today. If that pace continues, which is not guaranteed but is something many in the industry expect, “then in 10 years, that’s a thousand times better.”

“What do CEOs have to do? It’s like doubling your workforce,” he said.

Many companies, Hastings said, will take it as an opportunity to try to gain a leg up on their competition.

“You’re going to see a lot of companies attacking each other, which is the great act of creative destruction,” he said. “And because it’s gotten easier and easier to make software and soon will be easier to make everything.”

Hastings said all of society, including the C-suite, isn’t ready for what AI will do if the pace of advancement continues.

“I think most humans are underestimating what doubling every year that’s an exponential rate of improvement is going to do,” he said.

The Netflix cofounder also dismissed concerns that only large companies like the entertainment giant he helped create will truly thrive with AI. Larger companies are better suited to funding the high costs of widespread, intensive AI use, though that gap may narrow if AI usage costs decline, as some industry analysts expect.

After leaving Netflix’s board of directors in June, Hastings is devoting his time to Powder Mountain, a Utah ski area, parts of which he’s turning into a luxury, members-only ski community.

“I think sometimes the small companies are the most innovative and will be the most aggressive users of AI to unlock various scenarios to compete with their competitors,” he said. “So it varies quite a bit.”

Instead, Hastings said it’s CEOs like himself who will determine which companies will benefit the most from AI.

“I think it’s more attitudinal than the size of the firm, and certainly depends on the applicability of it,” he said.

Hastings said he’s using AI “all the time” both to expand his own knowledge and to create better experiences for Powder Mountain’s members.

“I’m asking AI to teach me how ski lifts work, how sewer systems work, what property developments have worked and why,” he said. “So I’m the student for so much of the AI session. And then we’re using AI to improve the software in the place.”

• Denise Dresser is leaving her role as chief revenue officer at OpenAI after eight months.
• It’s the latest in a batch of executive shake-ups at OpenAI as it positions for an IPO.
• Dali Rajic, the former chief operating officer of Wiz, will replace Dresser.

OpenAI’s executive shake-up continues.

The company announced Thursday that it is replacing its chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, after only eight months in the role. Dali Rajic, formerly the chief operating officer of Wiz, is taking over the role with the monumental task of preparing OpenAI for its initial public offering, expected next year.

Dresser’s departure joins a wave of change inside OpenAI’s upper ranks. On Tuesday, former chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said he’d be leaving the company — Dresser had been given parts of Lightcap’s former remit as recently as April. In July, OpenAI lost Johannes Heidecke, its head of safety systems, and Joshua Achiam, its chief futurist. Fidji Simo, its CEO of applications, moved into an advisory role due to health reasons.

The dramatic upheaval comes at a crucial juncture for OpenAI. This year, its rivalry with AI lab Anthropic reached a fever pitch, with the companies battling for market share and talent as they speed toward IPOs. OpenAI is trying to parlay its billion users into a sustainable business, scrambling to build data centers and win customers as its core technology evolves.

Dresser joined OpenAI last December to spearhead its revenue growth, coming from a CEO role at Slack within Salesforce. OpenAI’s Thursday release said she would leave after a transition period.

“Denise has led our revenue organization through a formative period for the business and has worked tirelessly to get the team to where it is today,” Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, said in the release.

Dresser thanked the OpenAI staff in a message she posted on LinkedIn on Thursday. She didn’t provide details about her next move, writing that she “made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI in the coming weeks to pursue other opportunities.” Dresser didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

OpenAI told Business Insider that under Dresser, the company now has 2 million business customers, double its count from a year ago. The company aims to generate half of its revenue from enterprises by the end of the year.

Rajic was Wiz’s president and chief operating officer throughout the cloud security firm’s recent purchase by Google. He’d previously held executive roles at Zscaler and AppDynamics.

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• Companies continue to leave Delaware, a state historically known for being business-friendly.
• Elon Musk inspired the exodus in 2024 when he reincorporated SpaceX in Texas.
• DoorDash was the most recent major company to announce its intention to leave the state.

Delaware was once the go-to state to incorporate. That might be changing.

A number of high-profile corporations have picked up and left the state in the last year, citing legal uncertainty and “subjectivity” introduced by the Delaware Court of Chancery, which handles corporate cases and business disputes.

Elon Musk helped spark the trend when he urged companies to avoid incorporating in Delaware last year after a judge voided his $55 billion pay package. Some prominent companies, like Tripadvisor, left even before Musk’s high-profile case.

Although Delaware has a reputation as a business-friendly state, a series of recent court rulings has left executives wondering if they’ll find better legal protections elsewhere. Musk, for example, reincorporated SpaceX and Tesla from Delaware to Texas.

“If the verdict in my case in Delaware is not overturned, it will be used as precedent in every fake shareholder case for every company incorporated in Delaware for the rest of time!” Musk wrote on X in 2024.

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer told Business Insider in February that the state is reaching out to companies and working to address concerns. Meyers approved several changes to the state’s General Corporation Law in March.

Companies incorporated in Delaware account for a substantial portion of the state’s revenue. The Delaware Department of State says that close to 2 million companies, including two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, have made the state their legal home.

“Any company thinking about leaving, we’re actively reaching out, we’re talking to them, we’re understanding what the issues are and understanding what ways we can do better,” Meyer said. “And for those entities that have already made the decision to leave, we’re going to continue to work hard to earn their trust and hopefully to have them come back.”

Here are the biggest companies leaving Delaware.

DoorDash

DoorDash shareholders agreed to end its Delaware incorporation and relocate to Nevada, according to an SEC filing in August.

The company said its concerns around Delaware’s legal system triggered the decision.

“DoorDash’s management and Board believe that the Company will be best positioned to pursue its corporate strategy within the more predictable, statute-based legal environment that Nevada provides,” the company wrote. “However, in recent years, a discussion has emerged in the market over the legal landscape in Delaware, including as a result of cases that reached what many viewed as surprising results, an increasingly litigious environment and high-profile litigation outcomes that involved companies with controlling stockholders.”

Andreessen Horowitz

VC firm Andreessen Horowitz said in July it would reincorporate its primary business — AH Capital Management — to Nevada.

The firm said “legal uncertainty” has created concern among investors and entrepreneurs on company boards.

“As a result, many of the companies we fund and the entrepreneurs that we talk to are taking a second look at whether they should incorporate in other jurisdictions, prompted by the departure from Delaware of significant technology companies like Dropbox, Tripadvisor, and Tesla,” the firm said in a blog post.

Andreessen Horowitz said it could have relocated “quietly,” but it felt it was important to be transparent.

“For founders considering a similar move, there is often a reluctance to leave Delaware, based in part on concerns for how investors will react,” the firm said. “As the largest VC firm in the country, we hope that our decision signals to our portfolio companies, as well as to prospective portfolio companies, that such concerns may be overblown.”

Roblox

Roblox, the online gaming platform, said its stockholders voted to move the company’s corporate home to Nevada, according to a May SEC filing.

In an April SEC filing, CEO David Baszucki wrote a letter to shareholders urging them to support management’s proposals, which included leaving Delaware.

“We believe that Nevada’s corporate law framework and statutory regime aligns with Roblox’s culture of innovation, values, and mission to connect the world with civility and optimism,” Baszucki said. “It also allows us to continue to build shareholder value, by providing a supportive, predictable environment.

Dropbox

The file-sharing and storage company told its stockholders in a January SEC filing that it would reincorporate in Nevada.

Under a section titled “Reasons for the Nevada Reincorporation,” Dropbox said it was in the midst of a “transformational period.”

“The evaluation committee and our board of directors determined that it is important for the Company to be able to operate with agility during this period of business transformation and that it would be competitively advantageous for the Company to have a predictable, statute-focused legal environment during a time of rapid business change,” the company said.

Dropbox added that Nevada might provide a more “predictable legal environment.”

Pershing Square Capital Management

In February, Bill Ackman, the CEO and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, said he would move the legal home of its investment holdings company to Nevada.

Ackman shared the development in a February X post referencing Dropbox, which also said it would leave Delaware.

“We are reincorporating our management company in Nevada for the same reason. Top law firms are recommending Nevada and Texas over Delaware,” Ackman wrote.

The CEO and founder said he was still considering Texas in a separate post.

Trump Media & Technology Group

The Trump Media & Technology Group announced it moved to Florida after shareholders approved a proposal in May. The company operates the Truth Social platform, TV streaming platform Truth+, and Truth.Fi, a financial services company.

President Donald Trump’s political ascent has shifted attention toward Florida, where his private Mar-a-Lago club is located. In 2024, Business Insider spoke to lobbyists who said Florida had become “the power nexus for the country” and “the epicenter of Trumplandia.”

“We’re thrilled to reincorporate our Company in Florida,” CEO Devin Nunes said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to reincorporate our Company in Florida. With its pro-business orientation and respect for the rule of law, Florida is a great place for Trump Media to officially call home.”

The Trade Desk

Ad tech company The Trade Desk included a proposal to reincorporate in Nevada in a late 2024 SEC filing.

The company said its board of directors and management “thoroughly discussed” the proposal.

“These discussions were in response to a number of factors, including developments in the competitive and regulatory landscape in which we compete and views regarding the legal landscape in Delaware,” the company said.

The Trade Desk filed another SEC filing that November, saying its stockholders approved the proposal.

Simon Property Group

Shareholders for Simon Property Group, a real estate investment trust focused on the retail sector, approved a proposal to move its legal home to Indiana, according to a May SEC filing.

Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales called the decision a “significant milestone” in fostering a “business-friendly environment.”

“We are proud to welcome Simon Property Group home. This move is a big win for Indiana — and it sends a strong message that our state is open for business. We look forward to continuing to support Simon Property Group and all companies who choose Indiana as their home,” Morales said in a press release.

Coinbase

The cryptocurrency exchange has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to leave Delaware and reincorporate in Texas, its chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, wrote in a column in The Wall Street Journal.

Texas has become “an increasingly attractive hub for innovative companies like ours,” Grewal wrote. “It’s a shame that it has come to this, but Delaware has left us with little choice.”

He added that recent legislation in Texas has made the state more attractive for the company.

“Senate Bill 29 modernized the Texas Business Organizations Code to codify the business-judgment rule, which rightly empowers directors and officers to make the business decisions they need to innovate,” Grewal wrote, referring to new legislation that gives companies more predictability in corporate governance disputes. “This bill, together with the establishment of the Texas Business Court system, gives companies a business-friendly legal ecosystem with strong protections and efficient dispute resolution.”