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The lake scene in ‘Bridgerton’ season 4 is completely different from the books. It was the right choice.

sophie and benedict during the lake scene
Yerin Ha as Sophie and Luke Thompson as Benedict in “Bridgerton” season four.
  • One of the most anticipated scenes from this season of “Bridgerton” is known as “the lake scene.”
  • It’s a pivotal moment in the book, “An Offer From a Gentleman,” but the moment is different onscreen.
  • Major spoilers ahead for “Bridgerton” season four, part one, and “An Offer From a Gentleman.”

Mr. Darcy and Anthony Bridgerton, please welcome Benedict Bridgerton to the “emerging out of a lake” hall of fame.

There are a few monumental scenes straight from the pages of Julia Quinn’s books that fans demanded be included in the Netflix adaptation. You know the ones — remember the carriage scene from season three? Or the mirror scene that ended up being the longest sex scene in the show’s (steamy) history? Or maybe you’re more of a Kanthony fan, which means you were eagerly anticipating a certain bee sting.

This season’s monumental scene was known by the fans as “the lake scene.” It’s a big moment for Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha), the leads of season four. They’ve fully warmed up to each other after a few days at My Cottage, and it’s become difficult to ignore the simmering tension between them.

So, when Sophie accidentally comes upon a nude Benedict taking a swim in the lake in episode three … well, you can guess what happens next.

But it actually goes down quite differently in Quinn’s book, “An Offer From a Gentleman.”

The lake scene is in season 4, episode 3 of the show

benedict and sophie the lake scene
The lake scene between Benedict and Sophie.

It’s a short (but impactful) scene in the show.

After recovering from a fever brought on by injuries he sustained while protecting Sophie’s honor — long story — Benedict and Sophie are spending time at Benedict’s (charming, if inaccurately named) My Cottage so he can recuperate.

While taking a walk, Sophie accidentally spots a naked Benedict taking a swim in the lake. Of course, he promptly spots her and begins teasing her for ogling.

But it takes a turn when Sophie blurts out she “can’t help but notice” Benedict, wherever he is. The two share a passionate kiss before Benedict backs away, apologizing.

The two then go their separate ways, with Benedict (as usual) being charmed by Sophie’s awkwardness.

And that’s it.

Here’s what happens in ‘the lake scene’ in the books

benedict and sophie
The scene in “The Field Next to the Other Road.”

The lake scene occurs in chapter 11, about 40% of the way through the book — and it’s a much longer encounter.

First of all, the kiss is a lot more intense, lasts a lot longer, and has some more flirty banter, including Sophie accidentally calling Benedict by his first name (which he loves) and telling him that she doesn’t normally do this kind of thing.

Where it gets a bit dicey, though, is that this is when Benedict asks Sophie to be his mistress after deducing that she’s been lying about her parentage.

As she does when he makes this offer in episode four, Sophie says no. We don’t know how Benedict will react to this refusal in the show, but we can be almost certain that it won’t be what his literary counterpart does: Blackmail Sophie into working for his mother.

Yes, you read that right. When Sophie refuses to be Benedict’s mistress, he tells her she can either work for Violet or he’ll report her to the police for stealing from him.

Understandably, Sophie is furious about this — and actually punches Benedict in the face when he says she’s “not being intelligent” — but ultimately accepts the offer to work at Bridgerton House.

Thankfully, Benedict’s blackmail scheme seems like it won’t happen on the show

benedict bridgerton
Benedict in season four.

Of the many changes “Bridgerton” showrunner Jess Brownell has made from the source material, this is one we’re quite relieved about.

In the book, Benedict isn’t trying to be slimy when he does this. Ultimately, he’s trying to protect Sophie from having to navigate the world on her own (and he’s basically accepted the fact that he loves her and can’t live without her), but that doesn’t make it any less icky to read.

Instead, the show has actually leaned into the tricky power dynamic between Benedict, a member of the Ton, and Sophie, a maid. Soon after the lake scene in the show, he has a conversation with Mrs. Crabtree, one of the caretakers of his cottage, who warns him that the inherent power imbalance between him and Sophie means that a relationship between them can never truly be equal.

It’s a surprising bit of reality from an otherwise fantastical show.

The mistress offer comes a bit later during what’s been dubbed the “staircase scene” — a show invention — after Benedict has seen that a friend of his has a mistress he’s truly fallen in love with, and, by all accounts, the two seem happy. Benedict is genuinely trying to make it work with Sophie as best as he can.

But we’ll have to wait until part two on February 26 to see how Sophie responds.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Take a look at Savannah Guthrie’s career, from local news reporter to ‘Today’ show star

Savannah Guthri with her mom, Nancy Guthrie
Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie, went missing on February 1.
  • Savannah Guthrie has been a main co-anchor on the “Today” show since 2012.
  • The TV personality got her start in local broadcast before going to law school.
  • Her mother, Nancy Guthrie, has been a guiding force throughout Savannah’s career evolution.

Savannah Guthrie‘s career path wouldn’t be the same without the influence of her mother.

The anchor’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, encouraged her to go to college for journalism and supported her through her early career as a local news anchor, a detour to law school, and her ascent into national television.

Since Sunday, the Guthrie family has been searching for answers after Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

As the ongoing investigation and search for Nancy Guthrie enters its fifth day, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has described the search as “a race against time,” saying he hoped “that window hasn’t closed” as investigators work to locate her.

See how Savannah Guthrie went from local news anchor to national TV anchor — and the role that her mother has played in her journey.

Savannah Guthrie was born in Australia and raised in Arizona.
Court TV correspondent Savannah Guthrie attends Lucky Magazine's VIP Preview to benefit the Robin Hood Foundation at Gotham Hall on November 18, 2004 in New York City.

Savannah Clark Guthrie was born on December 27, 1971, in Melbourne, Australia.

When she was 2 years old, her family moved to Tucson, Arizona, which is where she grew up.

She’s said she was “a slacker” in high school.
Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show in 2017

In 2017, Refinery29 called her “an unlikely role model for the laid-back dreamers.”

“I wasn’t much of a go-getter in my younger years,” Guthrie told the outlet at the time. “In high school, I was kind of a slacker.”

The anchor also shared that she “was never any good at sports.”

Faith played a central role in her upbringing.
Savannah Guthrie promoting her book

Growing up, Guthrie regularly attended church.

Her family spent all of Sunday at the local Baptist church for Sunday school, morning service, choir practice, and night service.

Her parents emphasized character over achievement.
Savannah Guthri with her mom, Nancy Guthrie

“Faith was so woven into our daily lives, we liked to say that God was the sixth member of the Guthrie family,” she wrote in a blog post.

Her parents wanted their children to focus on who they were, not appearances or athletic success.

Her mother, Nancy, became the family’s anchor after the death of Savannah’s father, Charles.
Savannah Guthrie and mom Nancy, Jenna Bush Hager on Wednesday, April 17, 2019

When Guthrie was 16, her father, an engineer, died of a heart attack while working in Mexico.

After her husband’s death, Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, stepped up as the “rock” who held the family together, going back to work so her daughters could go to college.

Until then, Nancy had raised the family full-time. She later landed a job in public relations at the University of Arizona, which meant Savannah and her sister Annie could go to college tuition-free, the anchor told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016.

As for her father’s death, Guthrie said it had made her more sensitive, gentler, and kinder.

“Of course it was terrible, and I think about him every day — but there’s something about a dramatic event like that that makes you a bit more tender, a bit softer,” she told Elle in 2013.

Her mother encouraged Guthrie to study journalism.
Savannah Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie.

Guthrie followed her mother’s advice and earned a journalism degree from the University of Arizona, graduating cum laude in 1993.

“It was only in college when I started taking journalism classes that the fire was lit, and I really wanted to accomplish things. Before that, I was happy to hang out with my friends and listen to grunge music and wear my chunky heels,” she told Refinery29.

While studying, she was published in The Tombstone Epitaph, a community newspaper, and Arizona Illustrated.

Her first reporting job ended almost immediately.
Savannah Guthrie attends TODAY Show Radio Town Hall on SiriusXM at SiriusXM Studios on February 03, 2025

After graduating, Guthrie got her first break as a reporter in a local newsroom of four in Butte, Montana. The station closed down 10 days later.

The closure threw Guthrie’s career trajectory out the window. But it was the beginning of Guthrie’s journey along the “long road” of TV’s minor leagues, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

She returned briefly to Tucson before reentering the job market and getting hired as a reporter and anchor at KMIZ-TV in Columbia, Missouri.

For her work, she was awarded an “Excellence in Legal Journalism Award” from the Missouri Bar.

Back in Arizona, Guthrie was drawn to law and politics reporting.
Nancy Guthrie's, Savannah Guthrie's mother, home in Tucson, Arizona.

In 1995, she moved back to Tucson. For the next four years, she worked as a reporter and anchor for KVOA-TV, focusing on law and politics.

The KVOA reporter Lupita Murillo told Tucson.com in 2012 that it was a joy and pleasure working with Guthrie.

“We would always trade off stories; if I had a court story, and she had something to do with crime, we’d switch,” Murillo said. “She was great even back then.”

Career aspirations led her to Washington, DC.
Savannah Guthrie attends the 2024 White House Correspondents' Dinner at The Washington Hilton on April 27, 2024

In 2000, as she was entering her late 20s, Guthrie moved to Washington, DC, seeking bigger challenges.

Inspired by Court TV’s coverage of major trials, like those of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers, she enrolled at Georgetown Law.

During stressful times, she relied on her faith.

“Each morning in DC, I’d wake up and read the Bible. In a little notebook, I started writing down verses that particularly spoke to me,” she wrote in a blog post. “On nights that I worried about a tough exam or the future that felt so uncertain, I’d turn to those verses to help me sleep, or calm my anxious heart.”

At the same time, she continued working as a freelance reporter for WRC-TV while attending law school, reporting on several big stories, including the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2001 anthrax mailings.

She kept reporting on the side after graduating in 2002, and eventually left her law career.
Today show cohosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on January 04, 2023 in New York City.

While in law school, Guthrie won the International Academy of Trial Lawyers’ Student Advocacy award for her work with domestic-violence victims, NBC News announced as part of her hiring in 2007.

She also topped the Arizona Bar Exam, beating 633 others, per The Hollywood Reporter.

For two years after graduating magna cum laude, Guthrie worked as a lawyer for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld on white-collar criminal-defense litigation.

Though this would be the extent of her law career, she said the legal training helped her in journalism.

In 2002, she joined Court TV as a freelance reporter.

Leaving law to return to TV was one of her biggest career risks.
A crowd watches Joseph Brucia (L) speak with Court TV's Savannah Guthrie (R) during a break in the sentencing phase of Joseph Smith's murder trial November 28, 2005 in Sarasota, Florida.

In a 2019 graduation speech at George Washington University, she said leaving law was “one of the biggest, craziest jumps” she ever made.

“It wasn’t a cliff; it was the federal courthouse here in Washington, DC,” she said.

Months before she was due to start as a law clerk for a federal judge, she had an epiphany.

“It wasn’t my dream,” she said. “What I really wanted was to go back to my roots in journalism. I still had that nagging hope that one day I could really make it in television news.”

Guthrie spoke with the judge. He asked why she didn’t come work for him for a year, since it would help her career, especially since she didn’t have a job lined up.

“And that’s when I looked at him and told him: ‘I know you’re right. What you say makes perfect sense,'” she said. “‘But I also know myself, and if I don’t do this, right this minute, I will never have the guts again.'”

From 2004 to 2006, she was Court TV’s legal-affairs correspondent.

She covered cases like the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, the Boston clergy sex-abuse scandal, and the Scooter Libby case.

She met her future husband while reporting on the 2005 Michael Jackson trial.
Singer Michael Jackson and his father Joseph Jackson depart the courthouse after listening to closing arguements in his child molestation trial at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse June 2, 2005

While covering the 2005 Michael Jackson trial, Guthrie met her first husband, former BBC journalist Mark Orchard.

The two married in 2005 but got divorced in 2009.

“I was doing the best I could in my personal life, and my professional life was going better,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. “So, you know, you just keep doing the thing that works.”

In 2007, she became an NBC News legal correspondent, appearing on top shows.
NBC News Special Correspondent, Savannah Guthrie, White House Correspondent, Brian Williams
NBC News Special Correspondent, Savannah Guthrie, White House Correspondent, Brian Williams

Starting in 2007, Guthrie began appearing as a legal correspondent on some of NBC News’ flagship programming, including “Today” and “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams.”

According to Jacqueline Sharkey, the former director of Arizona University’s School of Journalism, Guthrie’s law degree was invaluable for covering events like Supreme Court decisions and healthcare initiatives.

Guthrie’s big break came when she was sent out to Alaska to cover Sarah Palin.
US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) looks on as his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) gestures to the crowd at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio August 29, 2008.
US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) looks on as his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) gestures to the crowd at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio August 29, 2008.

At the time, Palin refused interviews with a lot of media outlets, but she had a one-on-one with Guthrie about parents with special-needs children, per Adweek‘s reporting in 2008.

Her success with Palin led to her becoming NBC’s White House correspondent in December 2008.
Associated Press White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, in the center seat, and others, prior to the start of the daily press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug., 3, 2010. Front row, from left are, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, Reuters Correspondent Matt Spetalnick, ABC's Yunji de Nies, Loven, CBS's Chip Reid, FOX's Wendell Goler and MSNBC's Savannah Guthrie
Associated Press White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, in the center seat, and others, prior to the start of the daily press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug., 3, 2010. Front row, from left are, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Reuters Correspondent Matt Spetalnick, ABC’s Yunji de Nies, Loven, CBS’s Chip Reid, FOX’s Wendell Goler and MSNBC’s Savannah Guthrie

She covered the White House until June 2011 and was part of the NBC team that won an Emmy for its election night coverage.

“There’s just so much news and information around the White House and Washington that you never can feel that you know it all,” Guthrie told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. “I always felt like I was cramming for exams. I loved it, and I hated it at the same time.”

She hosted NBC’s “Daily Rundown” from January 2010 to June 2011.
MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" TV correspondents Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd during a live broadcast with Rep. John Dingell, at NBC studios in Washington, DC.
MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” TV correspondents Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd during a live broadcast with Rep. John Dingell, at NBC studios in Washington, DC.

According to The Nation, Guthrie was positioned to the side of Chuck Todd, forcing her to lean in.

But that didn’t stop her from being a sharp interviewer and holding her “subjects’ feet to the fire.”

During this stint, she worked closely with Todd.

They worked 12-hour days together in an office described by Todd as a “15-by-8 cell,” and “a horror” by Guthrie. They’re still friends, though, and Todd told The Hollywood Reporter in grim journalistic fashion, “We talk each other off the ledge.”

She met Democratic political consultant Michael Feldman while covering the White House.
NBC's Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie and her husband Michael Feldman, arrive at the White House in Washington, DC, USA on 18 October 2016,
NBC’s Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie and her husband Michael Feldman, arrive at the White House in Washington, DC, USA on 18 October 2016,

It was while she was covering the White House that she met the Democratic political consultant Michael Feldman, a former aide to Al Gore, at his 40th birthday party.

“I met a man named Mike Feldman at a party, a political consultant who made me laugh. We fell in love,” she wrote in a blog post.

Guthrie’s work and her on-air personality were noticed by the higher-ups at NBC.
Ann Curry and Savannah Guthrie appear on NBC News' "Today" show in 2011.
Ann Curry and Savannah Guthrie appear on NBC News’ “Today” show in 2011.

Months before “Today” cohost Ann Curry made a messy departure, Guthrie was being looked at as a potential new host. An unnamed source told New York Magazine in 2013 that, unlike Curry’s intense reporting style, Guthrie had “that girl-next-door quality.”

When Curry left, “Today” lost 500,000 viewers, $40 million in advertising, and “Good Morning America” took its coveted first place in the ratings race.

Guthrie was also cast as “the other woman” who had pushed Curry out, New York Magazine reported at the time.

In 2012, she became an official “Today” show cohost.
Savannah Guthrie, Jim Bell, and Al Roker during the "Today" show's 60th anniversary episode in 2012.
Savannah Guthrie, Jim Bell, and Al Roker during the “Today” show’s 60th anniversary episode in 2012.

On her first day, the new role wasn’t mentioned at all on air. She simply sat down beside Matt Lauer, the LA Times reported at the time. It was hours after the show that NBC put out a press release.

As a host, Guthrie stood out for her versatility.
Savannah Guthrie and John Legend appear on NBC News' "Today" show

What made Guthrie valuable for “Today” was her ability to go from playing piano with John Legend to interviewing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the US Capitol.

Similar to predecessors like Katie Couric and Meredith Vieira, Guthrie could easily swing between the serious and the silly.

Guthrie and Feldman got married in 2014.
Savannah Guthrie and Michael Feldman

In 2013, Feldman proposed to her while they were on holiday in Turks and Caicos, and in 2014, they got married in Tucson.

At the wedding, they announced she was four months pregnant with their first child.

Each of the 80 guests received a handwritten personalized note, each with a monogrammed luggage tag, People reported, a nod to all the flights both Guthrie and Feldman have to take for their careers.

The couple has two kids, Vale and Charley.
Savannah Guthrie and her kids, Charles and Vale, and Hoda Kotb on Friday, April 7, 2023

Even though she’s interviewed the president and worked as a coanchor on a national network, nothing prepared Guthrie for being a mother.

“All the new-mother books and websites and mommy blogs in the world couldn’t ease the helplessness I felt whenever Vale’s blue eyes filled with tears,” she wrote in Guideposts.

As a co-anchor of “Today,” Guthrie starts her weekdays between 3 and 4 a.m.
Savannah Guthrie prepares backstage at the Heart Truth 2013 Fashion Show at Hammerstein Ballroom on February 6, 2013 in New York City.
Savannah Guthrie prepares backstage at the Heart Truth 2013 Fashion Show at Hammerstein Ballroom on February 6, 2013 in New York City.

The anchor typically wakes up between 3 and 4 a.m. for morning broadcasts, The New York Times reported in 2017.

She prepares for the show while drinking coffee and having her makeup done. And according to Refinery29‘s Donna Freydkin, “she never yawns.”

Guthrie likes the early mornings because they mean she gets more time with her kids.
NBC News' Savannah Guthrie appears on NBC News' "Today" show on July 31, 2013.
NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie appears on NBC News’ “Today” show on July 31, 2013.

While it’s demanding and intense, she is home by midday.

“As a working mom, that is a dream come true,” she said.

The mornings also fly by, with barely enough time for a second coffee, as she and her cohosts work inside the studio, go outside to greet fans, race through different segments, and then return inside again.

Being in the public eye, she’s been the target of criticism over the years.
Andrea Mitchell, Savannah Guthrie and Andrew Lack.
Andrea Mitchell, Savannah Guthrie and Andrew Lack.

But Guthrie is also aware of the downside of being in the public eye.

She told The Hollywood Reporter that the criticism she receives is often sexist.

“Everybody gets, ‘You’re biased,'” she said. “But you may also get, ‘Why do you roll your eyes and make that face? Why does your voice sound so shrill?'”

“Honestly, I’m interested in fair criticism. I’m not perfect. I try really hard to stay neutral. But often that’s not what you’re finding on social media. You’re finding people who are very opinionated and detect bias in anyone who does not share that opinion,” she added.

Despite the social-media criticism, she’s gotten support from NBC executives.

In 2016, as ratings for “Today” were on the rise, NBC News and then-MSNBC chairman Andrew Lack had much praise for Guthrie.

“One of the things I really do love about Savannah is she’s game,” he told Adweek in 2016. “She’s up for the question, and damn it, give me an answer. I admire that about her.”

By the end of 2016, “Today” was winning the daytime TV ratings race again.
Sheinelle Jones, Savannah Guthrie, Matt Lauer and Al Roker on Friday, October 20, 2017

As 2016 came to an end, “Today” was once more the most-watched morning show for 25- to 54-year-olds, as well as No. 1 for 18- to 49-year-olds.

Guthrie and Matt Lauer’s strong chemistry was important in the “Today” ratings revival.

It didn’t seem to be an act, either. While on maternity leave in 2017, Guthrie made a surprise reappearance to celebrate Lauer’s 20th anniversary on “Today.”

On that episode, she said, “I just want to say, we adore you. One of the things that is so wonderful about you is that from the second I walked in here, one of the things I noticed is that Matt knows every single person’s first name and last name. He knows the name of their dog. He knows how their mother is doing.”

In 2017, Guthrie published a children’s book called “Princesses Wear Pants.”
Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.
Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.

She co-authored the book with Allison Oppenheim, the wife of then-NBC head Noah Oppenheim.

They wrote it because they wanted their children to know they could be “sparkly, but sparkle inside.” It was a New York Times bestseller.

In November 2017, Lauer was fired amid inappropriate sexual behavior allegations.
Hoda Kotb talks with Savannah Guthrie during a break on the set of NBC's Today Show, November 29, 2017
Hoda Kotb talks with Savannah Guthrie during a break on the set of NBC’s Today Show, November 29, 2017

In 2019, Guthrie said she was “shocked and appalled” by allegations made by Brooke Nevils against Lauer in Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill.”

“I know it wasn’t easy for our colleague Brooke to come forward then; it’s not easy now, and we support her and any women who have come forward with claims,” she said. “It’s just very painful for all of us at NBC and who are at the ‘Today’ show. It’s very, very, very difficult.”

Guthrie and Kotb hosted “Today” together until Kotb’s 2025 departure from the show.

In June 2019, she was one of the moderators for the first Democratic presidential primary debate.
Debate moderators, Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt at The Knight Concert Hall, Miami Florida on Wednesday, June 26, 2019-
Debate moderators, Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt at The Knight Concert Hall, Miami Florida on Wednesday, June 26, 2019-

Slate praised her for being efficient and clear, and pushing candidates to clarify and expand on their positions rather than revert to prepared lines.

During the 2020 elections, she hosted a town hall event with then-President Donald Trump.
US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an NBC News town hall event moderated by Savannah Guthrie at the Perez Art Museum in Miami on October 15, 2020.

During his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump sat down for a town hall on NBC with Guthrie, while then-presidential candidate Joe Biden sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for a town hall in Philadelphia.

During the town hall, the president was pressed about the COVID-19 pandemic and QAnon conspiracy theories.

Today, Guthrie remains a staple of daytime TV.
Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Still serving as a co-anchor on the “Today” show, Guthrie remains a staple of daytime TV, often hosting high-viewership events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting.

In 2024, she released “Mostly What God Does,” a collection of faith-focused essays.
Savannah Guthrie's book Mostly What God Does

Guthrie penned a collection of essays covering personal stories of joy and grief through the lens of her faith.

In February, her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing.
Pima County Sheriff, Chris Nanos, speaks to the media on February 3, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona. He was answering questions about the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of NBC host Savannah Guthrie.

On February 1, Savannah’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing from her Tucson, Arizona, home after failing to show up for church.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI immediately began a multi-agency search for the 84-year-old, treating the disappearance as a criminal case after finding evidence at her residence that suggested foul play.

Her family has shared that Nancy Guthrie has limited mobility and needs daily medicine.

Guthrie pulled out of the 2026 Winter Olympics coverage amid the search for her missing mother.
Sign outside Nancy Gurthie's home in Arizona

As the search for Nancy Guthrie extended, NBC announced that Savannah Guthrie would not be part of the network’s 2026 Winter Olympics coverage in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

On Wednesday, February 4, Savannah and her two siblings released a video on social media pleading with Nancy’s potential kidnappers and asking for proof of life and information about her well-being.

In a Truth Social post, Trump announced he had talked to the “Today” co-anchor and reassured her of the law enforcement effort that was being done to find her mother.

“We are deploying all resources to get her mother home safely,” he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Here’s what smart people are saying about a software apocalypse

A composite of Jensen Huang and Rene Haas
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Arm CEO Rene Haas both think investors are overreacting by selling off major software companies.
  • Stocks are sliding for a third day amid a software-related sell-off.
  • Recent AI advancements have undermined some investors’ faith in established software names.
  • Jensen Huang, Arm CEO Rene Haas, and former Microsoft exec Steven Sinofsky are skeptical of the market’s reaction.

Not everyone in finance and tech is sold on the idea that AI is going to kill the software business.

Wall Street’s fears of AI-related disruption has been driving a sell-off of software stocks after the release of Anthropic’s new industry-specific plug-in.

From Nvidia’s CEO dismissing the concerns, to Zoho’s founder acknolweding the industry is “ripe for consolidation,” here’s what leaders in tech and finance are saying:

Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said software is a tool for AI to use, rather than replace.

“There’s this notion that the tool industry is in decline and will be replaced by AI,” Huang said during a recent Cisco AI event. “You could tell because there’s a whole bunch of software companies whose stock prices are under a lot of pressure because somehow AI is going to replace them. It is the most illogical thing in the world and time will prove itself.”

Huang named ServiceNow, SAP, Cadence, and Synopsis, as bright spots in the industry.

Sridhar Vembu

Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho, a cloud-based software company, said SaaS was “ripe for consolidation” long before the rise of AI.

“An industry that spends vastly more on sales and marketing than on engineering and product development was always vulnerable,” he wrote on X. “The venture capital bubble and then the stock market bubble funded a fundamentally flawed, unsustainable model for too long. AI is the pin that is popping this inflated balloon.”

Vembu said he asks his employees to consider the possibility of the company’s death.

“When we accept that possibility, we become more fearless and that is when we can calmly chart our course.”

Steven Sinofsky
Steven Sinofsky
Steven Sinofsky

Steven Sinofsky, who helped lead the development of Windows 7 and 8, said AI may change “what we built and who builds it,” but tales of software’s demise are just “nonsense.”

“Wall Street is filled with investors of all types. There’s also a community, and they tend to run in herds. The past couple of weeks have definitely seen the herd collectively conclude that somehow software is dead. That the idea of a software pure play will just vanish into some language model,” Sinofsky wrote in a lengthy post on X. “Nonsense.”

Sinofsky said it is true some companies will fail. He also noted that such cycles have happened in retail and media.

“Strap in,” he wrote. “This is the most exciting time for business and technology, ever.”

Rene Haas
Arm CEO Rene Haas
Arm CEO Rene Haas

Arm CEO Rene Haas isn’t panicking.

“As I look at enterprise AI deployment, we aren’t anywhere close to where it can be,” Haas told the Financial Times.

Haas, who leads the SoftBank-owned semiconductor company, said the current market reaction is “micro-hysteria.”

Stephen Parker

JPMorgan analyst Stephen Parker said investors shouldn’t be too worried by the sell-off.

“We’re seeing a rotation,” Parker told CNBC. “It’s about a broadening of the recovery story. Cyclicals are picking up the slack, and it’s not just the AI infrastructure plays and the hyperscalers that are driving markets higher.”

Parker, the co-head of global investment strategy at JPMorgan Private Bank, said AI developments are likely to continue to cause disruption in the software industry.

Read the original article on Business Insider

OpenAI is building an ‘integrity team’ to prevent ChatGPT ads from going off the rails

chatgpt
  • OpenAI wants to ensure its high-profile ads launch takes off without a hitch.
  • It’s creating an “ads integrity team,” per a recent job posting.
  • The team will be responsible for helping OpenAI scale its ad operation without compromising trust in ChatGPT.

OpenAI is building a team to make sure bad ads don’t mess up its highly anticipated introduction of advertising in ChatGPT.

An OpenAI job listing for a software engineer posted late January revealed the company is building an “ads integrity” team.

The ad describes the job as a high-impact role on “a 0 → 1 team,” a commonly used term in Silicon Valley and elsewhere to describe a team being built from scratch.

This person will be responsible for designing systems that enable OpenAI’s ad business to grow without compromising user trust and safety, per the listing.

It’s common for Big Tech companies with large ad businesses to create teams to combat ad fraud and address other issues, such as brand safety. OpenAI, which confirmed last month that it would soon begin testing ChatGPT ads, is building this part of its ad function early.

The job listing also says that its new ad integrity hire will work on developing “know your customer” (KYC) systems to verify advertisers’ identities and assess their risk. KYC, a term most commonly used in the finance industry, is an important but labor-intensive discipline for cracking down on scam ads and other harmful content created by criminals and other bad actors. It’s a particularly pressing issue for Big Tech companies with self-service ad platforms, as a recent Reuters investigation into Meta highlighted. Meta said in early December it had removed “more than 134 million scam ads” in 2025.

Ariella Garcia, chief operating officer of the Check My Ads Institute, said it would be interesting to see how substantive OpenAI’s investment in its ads integrity team would be beyond the initial launch.

“KYC on advertisers is certainly a good foundation, but the materiality of the risk of a large volume of scam ads in the early days is far lower,” Garcia said.

The job listing says that the new ads integrity hire will play a role in determining where and how ads are shown in ChatGPT. OpenAI will need to keep user trust in its organic answers as it ramps up its advertising business. At the same time, advertisers have said that OpenAI will need to prove that ads within AI answers can drive results for their businesses if it has any hope of scaling.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the company will run a small test of ads on ChatGPT’s free version and its Go tier in the US, which users should begin seeing in the coming weeks.

The spokesperson said OpenAI is asking for a minimum spend of $200,000 on ChatGPT ads to participate in the program, confirming prior Adweek reporting. OpenAI will track clicks and impressions, but will likely explore further measurement options as its advertising experiments progress, the spokesperson said.

OpenAI declined to comment on the ads integrity job ad.

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IoT Data Collection in ATEX Environments

IoT Data Collection in ATEX Environments

IoT Data Collection in ATEX Environments

Key Insights (AI-assisted):
Tightening integration between intrinsically safe hardware and modern connectivity is shifting hazardous-area IoT from niche pilots to scalable deployments. As ATEX smartphones gain full cellular, GNSS, and sensor stacks, the bottleneck moves from device capability to interoperability with SCADA, MDM, and line-of-business applications. This forces OT and IT teams to converge architectures and security models, particularly on private LTE/5G. The trend reflects a broader move toward real-time, worker-centric IoT in brownfield industrial environments with stringent safety and regulatory constraints.

Sensors, standards, and operational constraints in hazardous zones

A technician in a chemical plant needs to log temperature readings, check equipment vibration, and photograph a valve assembly. Standard procedure, but in a Zone 2 hazardous area, standard electronics won’t do. The risk isn’t the device itself – it’s what happens if a component fails and creates a spark, or if a surface gets hot enough to ignite surrounding gases.

Industrial IoT in petrochemical, mining, and pharmaceutical facilities comes down to collecting sensor data while ensuring equipment remains intrinsically safe.

ATEX and IECEx Certification Requirements

ATEX and IECEx standards define what is permissible in explosive atmospheres. A device marked “Ex ic IIC T4 Gc” meets Zone 2 requirements: surface temperature stays below 135°C, and the design limits electrical energy to levels that will not cause ignition, even in fault conditions.

This applies to every sensor. Accelerometers, barometers, GPS modules – all must operate within strict energy constraints. Consumer electronics do not, which is why they are unsuitable for hazardous areas.

What Data Is Collected in Hazardous Zones

Sensors are selected for operational necessity rather than convenience:

Barometric pressure sensors monitor confined spaces. A sudden pressure drop of a few millibars can indicate ventilation failure and trigger evacuation protocols.

Accelerometers and gyroscopes detect worker falls and measure equipment vibration. The former supports rapid incident response, while the latter enables predictive maintenance strategies.

Multi-constellation GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou) improves positioning reliability in environments with heavy steel infrastructure, supporting personnel tracking during emergencies.

NFC enables fast asset identification. Technicians can tap a valve or pump to access maintenance records, log inspection data, and continue working without manual data entry, even while wearing gloves.

Data can be transmitted in real time over LTE or 5G, or buffered locally when connectivity is unavailable.

Connectivity Evolution in ATEX Environments

Historically, data collected in hazardous zones was synchronised later via Wi‑Fi in safe areas, introducing delays of several hours.

Private LTE and 5G networks in refineries and large industrial sites are changing this model. ATEX-certified devices with cellular connectivity can now support near real-time sensor telemetry, image capture, and remote collaboration. Certifying cellular radios for intrinsically safe housings remains complex, which explains why such devices have only emerged relatively recently.

Environmental and Human-Factor Constraints

Industrial mobile devices typically require IP68 protection and compliance with MIL‑STD‑810H, covering dust ingress, immersion, drops, vibration, and temperature extremes.

Equally important are usability constraints: touchscreens that function through thick protective gloves, displays readable in direct sunlight, and batteries capable of lasting a full 12‑hour shift with GPS and Bluetooth enabled.

While consumer smartphones often throttle or fail above 45°C, industrial ATEX devices are designed to operate reliably at temperatures up to 55–60°C, reflecting real refinery conditions.

Integration Remains the Primary Challenge

Intrinsically safe smartphones with modern processors, adequate memory, cameras, and Android Enterprise support are now available on the market. Devices such as the Smart‑Ex 203 illustrate how contemporary smartphone functionality can be delivered within ATEX and IECEx constraints.

In practice, the main obstacle is not the hardware itself but integration. Many facilities still rely on legacy handheld instruments and manual workflows. Transitioning to mobile IoT platforms requires middleware compatible with SCADA systems, mobile device management solutions suitable for restricted or air‑gapped networks, and applications designed for one‑handed, gloved operation.

Practical Selection Considerations

When specifying ATEX‑certified IoT equipment, industrial operators should:

Confirm zone classification. Zone 2 / Division 2 covers most accessible areas, while Zone 1 / Division 1 requires stricter certification and typically involves functional trade‑offs.

Verify temperature class. T4 (135°C maximum surface temperature) is sufficient for many hydrocarbon environments, but some chemicals require T5 or T6 compliance.

Assess connectivity requirements. Private cellular, Wi‑Fi, or offline operation with delayed synchronisation will directly influence device selection.

Evaluate real‑world battery life. Manufacturer specifications often assume minimal usage. Continuous GNSS tracking, active Bluetooth peripherals, and frequent screen use typically reduce a 4,500 mAh battery to 8–10 hours of operation.

Conclusion

IoT data collection in ATEX environments is no longer constrained by sensor capability or device availability. The limiting factors are systems integration, workflow redesign, and operational change management. As intrinsically safe mobile platforms mature, organisations that address these challenges holistically will be best positioned to extract real value from hazardous‑area IoT deployments.

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LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman reveals he had more meetings with Epstein

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman
  • LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said he met with Jeffrey Epstein for fundraising purposes.
  • Hoffman previously said his last meeting with Epstein was in 2015.
  • Now he says there were six more meetings, from 2016 to 2018.

Reid Hoffman says he had more meetings with Jeffrey Epstein than he originally thought.

The billionaire LinkedIn cofounder previously maintained that the last time he met with Epstein was in 2015, and that he only knew Epstein via fundraising efforts for the MIT Media Lab.

This week, as the latest tranche of Epstein-related documents from the Justice Department continues to make headlines, Hoffman revised his accounting.

“I was mistaken, as according to calendar entries I have become aware there were additional fundraising meetings in 2016 and 2018,” Hoffman wrote in a post on X on Tuesday night.

Hoffman listed six additional meetings, including various Skype calls and in-person meetings in Cambridge and Palo Alto. The most recent meeting Hoffman listed was a Skype call in March 2018.

“I have done multiple calendar searches, and if I find any other meetings, I will continue to share them,” Hoffman wrote. “The victims of Epstein’s abhorrent and vile actions deserve all the information they are seeking, and I continue to call on President Trump to deliver that for them.”

Hoffman said that those meetings had also been scheduled as part of his fundraising relationship with the MIT Media Lab.

Hoffman has also said he visited Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands. In December, he told a podcast host that he stayed on the island for one night on a trip connected to fundraising activities.

“Note to self: Google before going,” Hoffman said on the podcast.

Hoffman’s appearance in the Epstein files has helped reignite the billionaire’s feud with Elon Musk.

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