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• Anthropic is adding a watermark to its LLM outputs to comply with new EU AI rules.
• Tech blogger John Gruber isn’t sold on their approach.
• In a Sunday blog post, he called the new watermark a “perversion of writing.”

Tech blogger John Gruber is joining the chorus of dissent over Anthropic’s plan to watermark Claude’s writing.

On Sunday, Gruber, the popular blogger who writes Daring Fireball, called watermarking plans a “perversion of writing.”

His main criticism: Claude should choose words because they’re best for the user, not because they help make the output detectable.

“The exact words we choose when writing matter. I want any LLM I use to choose the very best, most precise words at every single decision point. An obvious constraint that I accept is time and computation. Within the constraint of executing inference quickly, and at a certain cost per token, I want the best words. The idea that anything other than my needs should factor into the generation of text for me is patently offensive.”

In blog posts, Anthropic says that concerns around writing clarity are unfounded.

The disagreement highlights the confusion surrounding Anthropic’s watermark plan, which has sparked concern among techies and prompted some Claude users to cancel their subscriptions (though the company told Business Insider it hasn’t seen a spike in cancellations).

Anthropic initially described the feature as an “imperceptible watermark” woven directly into Claude’s text. The plan was hatched to comply with the European Union’s AI Act, which mandates that all AI-generated text must be marked in a machine-readable format. Anthropic wrote that other popular models will have to use similar watermarking techniques.

On Friday, in a post titled “How Claude’s text watermark works,” the company wrote that its watermarking method does “not impact the quality of Claude’s output,” and doesn’t use hidden characters.

Instead, Claude’s word-selection process is subtly altered to create a statistical pattern that can later help identify its involvement. Anthropic argues that those changes occur among words that are effectively interchangeable in context.

If the LLM writes a sentence like “The weather today was cold and…”, Claude is likely to choose “gray” or “overcast” for the next word, the company wrote. The sentence’s meaning doesn’t materially change with either word, Anthropic argues.

Gruber isn’t buying it: In his view, once watermarking influences Claude’s word choice at all, something besides producing the best possible prose is shaping the result.

“The exact words we choose when writing matter,” he wrote. “I want any LLM I use to choose the very best, most precise words at every single decision point.”

Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Royal Caribbean has a private island in the Bahamas called Perfect Day at CocoCay. 
• The island has thrilling activities, relaxing beaches, and underwater adventures.
• I went for the first time in 2022. I had fun, but I longed for a more authentic port stop.

At first glance, it may seem like Perfect Day at CocoCay has something for everyone. Royal Caribbean’s 125-acre private island in the Bahamas is filled with thrilling adventures and relaxing beaches for vacationers.

You’ll find overwater cabanas, quiet places to chill, and shorelines bumping party music. Adrenaline seekers can race down gigantic waterslides, zip line across the island, and soar above it in a hot air balloon.

I visited CocoCay during my first cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas in May 2022. Although it provided pretty much every activity I could think of for a Caribbean vacation, the island felt like an extension of the ship. I longed for a more authentic Bahamian experience.

Perfect Day at CocoCay is Royal Caribbean’s 125-acre private island in the Bahamas.

Royal Caribbean isn’t the only cruise line with a private island in the Bahamas. Carnival, Disney, and Norwegian each have their own exclusive Bahamian paradise.

The island is only accessible to cruisers on Royal Caribbean ships.

CocoCay was the final stop of my seven-night Caribbean cruise that sailed out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We also stopped in Roatán, Honduras, and Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico.

As cruisers step onto the island, a band greets them with Caribbean tunes.

I thought the band set the chill, Caribbean vibe as I walked off the dock.

Most attractions on the island are complimentary, including the food and many of the pools and beaches.

Guests could munch on the island’s burgers, hot dogs, salads, and sandwiches. There were also desserts like cookies, brownies, and funnel cakes.

Some exciting features cost extra, like the waterpark and hot air balloon rides.

Other excursions also incurred an additional price, such as zip-lining, snorkeling, and jet skiing.

Maps, signage, and color-coded paths make the island easy to navigate.

Green leads to Chill Island, orange leads to Oasis Lagoon, and blue leads to Thrill Waterpark.

Getting around is easy, too. You can either walk or ride a free tram to different parts of the island.

I thought the tram was a nice touch, but I preferred getting around on foot so I could take my time enjoying the paths in between beaches and activities.

If you’re looking to relax, head to Chill Island. It’s free to access.

Chill Island is the place to spend a laid-back day in a lounge chair in the sand. It has no music, making it the quietest beach on CocoCay. The beach is lined with umbrellas and chairs, all of which are free to use.

If you want more privacy, you can rent a daybed on the beach.

You can also book an over-the-water cabana for an added price.

These floating cabanas cost $1,000 to rent when I visited.

Of course, there is a swim-up bar offshore.

Cruise ship drink packages extend to CocoCay.

For a more active beach day, check out South Beach on the other side of the island.

Here, you’ll find plenty of activities, like basketball, volleyball, and jumbo-sized billiards, among others.

Both beaches offer complimentary amenities, including life vests.

This could be especially useful for families traveling with kids.

Both beaches have snorkeling shacks. I was able to rent gear for $37.

I went snorkeling at Chill Island and saw some neat fish close to the shore.

The beaches have vibrant souvenir shops.

I spotted T-shirts, beachy accessories, and essentials, such as sunscreen, for sale.

If you prefer the pool, head to Oasis Lagoon.

It is home to the largest freshwater pool in the Caribbean, according to the cruise line. The pool features several inviting coves and upbeat music. There’s also a swim-up bar.

Next to Oasis Lagoon, Splashaway Bay is a water playground.

The playground resembles the Splashaway Bay found on Royal Caribbean ships. It is free for guests.

Next door is Thrill Waterpark, where you’ll find the waterslides for the “big kids.”

This area is home to waterslides and a wave pool. When I visited, access cost up to $140.

Thrill-seekers may also be interested in the hot air balloon ride that reaches 450 feet into the air.

When I was on the island, it cost up to $84 per person. I booked a ride, but unfortunately, the winds were too high for the balloon to operate. Royal Caribbean refunded my ride.

Back on the ship, I took in a panoramic view of CocoCay before departing.

I could see some of the other 700 Bahamian islands in the distance, and I wondered what it would be like to visit them.

While I had a fun and relaxing day at CocoCay, it felt more like an extension of the cruise ship than a visit to another country.

Since I’m not into the thrills of waterslides and zip lines, I would have rather spent time on a Caribbean island where I could have learned more about the culture.

For those looking for a resort-style destination, CocoCay has it all. From sports to peaceful beaches, the island is sure to fulfill all your vacation desires.

• US Army soldiers are experimenting with ground robots for logistics and supply runs.
• These drones take personnel out of immediate danger and are extremely useful, troops said.
• But they’re also limited by weather and terrain.

Out in the rocky ridges of the Mojave Desert, US soldiers recently let a ground robot take a run at logistics missions traditionally done by humans.

The uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) used is called NOMAD and is manufactured by Hendrick Technical Solutions. Soldiers told Business Insider that robots like this help keep troops out of harm’s way, but such systems are not without their limitations.

During the Project Convergence Capstone exercise at Fort Irwin in California last month, almost 10,000 soldiers gathered to experiment with new technologies while fighting through simulated combat. While a majority of the drones involved were uncrewed aerial vehicles, there were some ground drones being tested and used in and around the fight.

Soldiers used the NOMAD robot primarily for resupply missions, though they have the potential for involvement in medical operations, such as transporting injured personnel. “We’ve used it probably 12 to 13 times,” Sgt. 1st Class Alex Alcantar told Business Insider, “and it’s extremely, extremely useful.”

Alcantar said that the NOMAD reduced the risk to soldiers who might otherwise have had to run these missions by pushing supplies forward “with minimal force being exposed.” The NOMAD system can be operated by one person via a tablet, which displays the camera view and includes controls.

During the exercise, soldiers said the NOMAD was easy to load supplies onto, taking five minutes or less to set up and deploy. They did encounter some challenges with the system, though. Like a majority of the Army’s systems and technologies at the exercise, the NOMAD was affected by the desert heat.

“Because of the heat, it’s turning that little tablet screen off, or it’s making it glitch,” Alcantar said, adding that he’d figured out a workaround by putting the tablet on ice for a few seconds. Other soldiers said they’d come up with similar solutions for keeping their drones and devices cool.

The terrain, specifically the ridges scattered about the desert, impacted operations as well, reducing the NOMAD’s range of around 600 meters to about 200 meters. And unlike some uncrewed systems, there’s no “return home” feature, meaning that soldiers have to manually retrieve the drones if the connection drops.

To transport the NOMAD, soldiers loaded the drone into a trailer connected to a vehicle. The Army-provided trailer showed wear from the robot’s continued deployment. The ramps on the trailer, in particular, showed signs of damage. A complete breakdown of the ramps could leave soldiers unable to use the NOMAD, but even a partial failure can cause problems, soldiers shared.

In one incident, they said, a ramp gave out, and the bot flipped onto its side. Soldiers were able to right it without any damage to the system, but the situation had made them more careful about using it. The manufacturer didn’t respond to Business Insider’s queries on the robot’s performance.

The soldiers testing drones and other technologies at the exercise were gathering feedback on how the systems performed for the Army and vendors to review. Army leaders said that a main point of the training was to see how technologies performed in extreme conditions and then use feedback to make improvements.

The US Army has long been looking at ground drones as robotic mules, though these initiatives have taken on new urgency as lessons from other conflicts come in. Ukraine has seen success in using UGVs to carry supplies and ammunition to soldiers instead of relying on humans.

For US soldiers, new technology is fundamentally changing aspects of how they do their jobs, but it’s also presenting a number of challenges that they are having to navigate on the fly, especially in more punishing weather conditions. The aim, though, is that peacetime experimentation will ultimately yield sufficient readiness should a real war come.

• Sara Russell took her bath-and-body business full-time after being laid off in 2023.
• She was hesitant to use AI until she started using Claude to help run her business.
• She said AI’s negative impacts could reach a tipping point that would make her stop using it.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sara Russell, a 37-year-old small business founder based in Brooklyn, NY. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve known about AI for a while, but I was always hesitant to use it. I don’t want it to take away my creative freedom.

I’ve run my small bath-and-body business full-time since 2023, and the creative side of the business has never been a problem for me. Building the foundation for a strong, solid company is the part I had very little experience doing.

After I started using Claude projects in February, I had a light bulb moment. I created Claude projects for every business department I needed, which became a game changer for me. I feel like I’m not just turning a hobby into a small business; I’m building a business that could, in theory, scale.

Still, what’s important to me is how I use AI. It’s always going to be a tool, not a partner.

I took my business full-time after my layoff

In 2020, I was on YouTube, and, like everyone else who wasn’t going outside, I kept coming up with new hobbies to try. I came across a video of this woman making soap, and decided to try it out. After making it the first time, I was obsessed.

I made everyone soap for Christmas that year, and in 2021, I launched an Etsy store, which I ran alongside my full-time marketing job. For two years, I slowly built out different collections of soaps on weekends and after work until January 2023, when I was laid off from my full-time job.

I’m very blessed to have a husband who can pay our bills, so I don’t have to make rent from the number of soaps I’m selling. I had already launched wholesale in 2022, and that was slowly growing. So I decided that, for six months, I was going to try to take this full-time.

I didn’t know how to run a company

After about three months, I realized I never wanted to go back to a different job, but I didn’t really know the logistics of running a company. I knew that SEO and Google Analytics data were important, but I didn’t really know what they were. Same with different products and sales terms.

I spent a lot of time Googling things, taking LinkedIn Learning courses, asking people in small business group chats, and watching YouTube. Often, answers I’d find wouldn’t always apply exactly to my situation. I’d spend three hours researching a topic, only to walk away with one actionable thing that makes sense for me.

I would randomly ask ChatGPT questions or see if it could help me with drafting an Instagram caption, but on the copy side, I hated 75% of what it would spit out, and I was never that organized with it for it to feel especially useful. I also didn’t want to use it for visual design. I wanted to maintain that control over my creative eye.

I had a lightbulb moment with Claude this year

Earlier this year, when Claude was in the news a lot, my husband, who uses it at an enterprise level, told me about how I could use it and organize chats into projects. As we kept talking, I realized that this could be super useful to me in the departments of my business that I don’t know how to run.

There’s a lot of hesitation about using AI in the creative community, especially when you’re diving into design and other creative applications. Creating AI photos and videos is very frowned upon, and so there’s a hesitation about what to use AI for.

On the other side of things, several other business owners in the small-business space have started using it to help with their business frameworks. I’m seeing a lot more people who are open to AI in an organizational aspect. So, I decided to try it.

How my AI-led business departments work

I created a brand-new Claude account for $20 a month and told it that I wanted each project assigned to a different department within my company. I wanted a marketing department, sales department, finance department, and product development department. I told all the projects that I want them to be collaborative and to defer to me as the CEO of the company. They can give me ideas, but I’m the authority.

The projects themselves are organized like a C-suite, but the output is treated like that of an entry-level employee. I’ll have my CFO project help me interpret sales data analytics that I don’t know how to read, but I don’t let it make any decisions on my behalf.

I also have a specific chat in my marketing project called Instagram Strategy. I’ll share the baseline of where we’re at and the type of content I’m making, and ask it to research all the different best practices and things we could consider to convert that audience into actual customers.

One of the most useful ways I have my infrastructure set up is through an AI chief of staff who sets up a monthly meeting for me. It compiles a monthly recap of all the chats with my different departments into a single document. Then I go through the document and see what I’ve delivered on, what I haven’t, the sales numbers, what’s coming up, and anything else relevant.

It allows me to stay organized and make all my efforts cohesive across every part of my business.

There could be a tipping point where I stop using AI

The main things I think are scary about AI are the lack of government oversight and regulation, and the potential environmental impacts of data centers.

It seems like I’m constantly hearing negative stories about environmental impacts and wealth disparities caused by AI. I’m doing give-back programs for organizations I support, and I’m going to focus my energy where I can control it, rather than trying to stand on a high horse and say, “I’m never going to use AI because I’ve heard bad things about it.”

I want to be mindful of my overall usage. Which is also why I don’t want to upgrade my plan. Having a usage limit helps me be mindful of how and when I’m turning to AI. Still, I think there could be a tipping point at which I no longer feel I can justify using software that can harm the environment, industries, and people.

I think we are still on the frontier of where it will go.

I’d rather hire more people than pay to use more AI

I’m a small self-funded business, and I’m currently applying for grants. I’d rather use that money to hire a couple of part-time employees, or one full-time employee, to take some of this off my plate, instead of upgrading my Claude account to do more.

Seventy-five percent of the stuff I’m doing now with Claude, I wouldn’t have been able to do before. It’s certainly been very beneficial to me, but I’m always going to prioritize human creativity over being able to do more with AI.

Do you have a story to share about how you’re spending AI tokens? If so, please reach out to the reporter at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.

• Ferrero has spent the last decade buying up some of America’s biggest brands.
• Best known for Nutella, Ferrero has grown its US revenue from $600 million in 2017 to $3 billion.
• Now a $3.1 billion cereal bet could determine how far Ferrero can go.

Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes. They are all now owned by the same Italian company.

Best known for Nutella and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Ferrero has spent much of the past decade buying established American food brands and investing in US manufacturing.

The privately held company now has more than 50 brands in its US portfolio, spanning chocolate, candy, mints, cookies, and breakfast cereal.

The expansion has transformed Ferrero’s US business. The company says the US accounts for about 15% of its global revenue, up from about 4% a decade ago. Since 2017, its annual US revenue has grown from roughly $600 million to about $3 billion.

Ferrero is still smaller than some of America’s biggest snack companies, like Mars and Mondelez, but its acquisition spree has put a growing collection of familiar brands under the ownership of a company once best known in the US for imported European sweets.

We visited Ferrero factories across the US to see how far its American ambitions go.

Ferrero has spent billions buying American brands

Ferrero’s US buying spree kicked off in 2017, when it acquired Fannie May, the century-old chocolate company, for $115 million.

A year later, Ferrero paid $2.8 billion for Nestlé’s US confectionery business, gaining brands including Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, and Crunch.

Then, in 2019, it acquired Kellogg’s cookie and fruit-snack businesses, adding Keebler and Famous Amos.

“Ferrero takes a very different approach, which is buy well-established, loved brands, and then turn them back around,” Michael Lindsey, the president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, told Business Insider.

That strategy gives Ferrero a way to expand without building brand recognition from scratch.

Its biggest US bet yet has taken it beyond the sweets aisle.

In February, Ferrero completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of WK Kellogg, the North American cereal company behind Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, and Rice Krispies.

The deal also presents a challenge. WK Kellogg reported declining sales before the acquisition was announced.

Lindsey said Ferrero has spent more than $5 billion on US investments over the past five years.

Ferrero is adapting its products for American tastes

Acquisitions are only part of Ferrero’s strategy.

In 2023, the company opened a 45,000-square-foot innovation and research center in Chicago, where teams work on products for brands including Keebler, Famous Amos, Mother’s, and Fannie May.

Lindsey said Ferrero has found some notable differences between American and European tastes.

“US tends to prefer milk a little bit more than dark chocolate,” he said. “Americans love peanut in a way that Europe in particular doesn’t really have peanut as part of the palate in the same way.”

That preference helped inspire an unusual change to one of Ferrero’s best-known products.

In April, the company introduced Nutella Peanut, the brand’s first new flavor in more than 60 years. Ferrero spent about five years developing it and $75 million on a production line at its Franklin Park, Illinois, factory.

The launch is part of a broader shift for Ferrero: Instead of relying solely on products developed for European consumers, it’s increasingly developing and manufacturing products specifically for Americans.

Ferrero is making more of its products in the US

Ferrero has also invested heavily in US manufacturing.

In 2024, it opened its first chocolate-processing facility in North America in Bloomington, Illinois, producing chocolate for brands including Kinder, Ferrero Rocher, Butterfinger, and Crunch. It has separately invested more than $200 million to add Kinder Bueno production at the site.

Ferrero’s workforce has grown alongside that expansion. The company says it now employs more than 5,000 people across North America, compared with a few hundred roughly a decade ago.

For Ferrero, the acquisitions and factory investments are part of a longer-term effort to become a much bigger player in the American food business.

Lindsey compared Ferrero’s position in the US with Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the 1920s, when those companies were still building the scale that would eventually make them ubiquitous.

It’s an ambitious comparison. Buying familiar brands doesn’t guarantee consumers will keep buying them, and the WK Kellogg deal gives Ferrero a much larger presence in a cereal business where sales have been under pressure.

But Ferrero is no longer simply the European company selling Nutella and Ferrero Rocher to Americans.

Increasingly, it’s the company behind the American brands already sitting in their pantries.

• Tyga released his ninth studio album, “$tarface,” on July 31.
• The musician used AI to create the 80s-inspired album.
• Some artists are leaning into AI despite intense pushback from fans and peers.

For some artists, using AI during the creative process is like ripping the soul out of an intimate human experience.

Tyga, however, doesn’t have those qualms.

During an August interview with Vibe, the rapper revealed he relied on at least one AI music program while crafting his ninth studio album, “$tarface.” The 80s-inspired project, released last month, sees Tyga don a new “Miami Vice”-esque alter ego who has a penchant for Jheri curls, sleek retro Ferraris, and synthpop.

“I’ve never spoken on this with anybody because I always felt like it’s similar to a magician explaining how he does his tricks,” Tyga told the outlet.

AI has certainly cast a spell across Hollywood, where the technology is transforming how the entertainment industry functions, from studio executives to background actors.

While some creatives view AI as a powerful tool that can speed up production, cut labor costs, and streamline repetitive tasks, others aren’t sold. Many artists are concerned that AI will displace human workers, cheapen the creative process, and steal their work without proper compensation. AI sat at the crux of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes, which both lasted over 100 days, crippling the industry.

Tyga, though, has embraced the adapt or die mentality. He said he used AI to add certain elements to “$tarface,” like 80s-era synths, but did the vocals and lyrics himself.

“I know people are going to be mad about me saying this, but it’s where technology is going,” Tyga told Vibe. “It’s no different than when Auto-Tune came out. Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with using technology as a tool,” he added.

Unsurprisingly, the backlash was swift. Pitchfork rated “$tarface” 0.0 out of 10, the lowest score the music publication has awarded an album since the late 2000s, in part due to Tyga’s use of AI.

“Given the amount of actual effort or even labor put into $TARFACE — which is to say, about zero — the margins on this thing must be amazing,” Drew Millard wrote for Pitchfork. “Stream it out of morbid curiosity if you must, but know that even a single listen runs the risk of making it profitable and therefore encouraging the music industry to commit such atrocities again.”

Doja Cat, who collaborated with Tyga on two songs, criticized his decision during a livestream last week.

“Nobody asked me anything about Tyga, but I felt like saying this,” the rapper said. “Tyga is a penis for making an AI album.”

Audiences on social media haven’t been much kinder. Despite the backlash, Tyga joins a growing number of artists proudly using AI in their artistic endeavors.

Superstar producer Timbaland faced backlash in 2023 for using AI to recreate the voice of The Notorious B.I.G. on a song, but he hasn’t caved to critics in the years since. In fact, he’s gone all-in. Timbaland launched an AI entertainment company, Stage Zero, in 2025 and aims to pioneer a new genre called “A-Pop.” His AI artist, TaTa, released her debut music video that October.

“TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. TaTa is the start of something bigger,” Timbaland told Billboard last year.

Grimes, the dream-pop artist linked to billionaire Elon Musk, has worn AI as a badge of honor. In 2023, she launched Elf Tech, an AI software that allows users to create songs with her voice. Artists can commercially release the finished songs as long as they split 50% of the master-recording royalties.

Nick Carter of The Backstreet Boys has also used AI in new projects. In a 2025 interview with The Comics Beat, Carter said he used AI to create the official lyric video for his “Hey Kid,” and a comic book-themed music video series.

In some cases, the artist isn’t even human. Tilly Norwood is an AI pop star created by Particle6. Her debut music video, “Take the Lead,” has amassed over 475,000 views since March.

Another example is Fenix Flexin, whose summer hit “Rubberz” was ravaged by AI allegations since its release in June. The rapper initially distanced himself from the AI accusations, but later admitted to using the technology during production, according to Rolling Stone. Even so, “Rubberz” resonated with audiences and charted on Billboard’s Hot 100, the Stereogum reported.

Tyga, meanwhile, doubled down on his use of AI during an interview with TMZ last week.

“At the end of the day, I’m better than the AI and I’ve proven that for the last 15 years. So, it doesn’t bother somebody like me, but I think maybe there’s people that are scared that it’s going to, you know, take their position and replace them,” Tyga said. “It’s just a part of technology.”