A new documentary follows photographers and scientists deep into Florida’s most remote swamps in search of answers to one of botany’s most enduring questions: what pollinates the elusive ghost orchid. Long considered one of North America’s rarest and least understood flowers, the species has resisted decades of study, with its reproduction largely undocumented in the wild.
The more visceral the message, the more it spreads; the more polarizing it is, the more profitable it becomes
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The heroine of the story, Gloriana Grant, whose portrait is on the cover, inherited an ancient clipper ship from her father, a former shipping tycoon. The square rigger, named Guinevere, is docked on a cushion of muck in the East River and serves as a “Ship Shelter for Working Girls.” It houses fifty women wage earners carefully handpicked by a charity organization, and there is a phenomenally long waiting list.
Gloriana visits the shelter frequently. She knew how to mix and she liked doing it. Her father had achieved his place in the shipping business by knowing how to do it. The gangplank was no ordinary ship carpenter’s handiwork: “It was a fairy bridge that Gloriana had spun. Over it one walked from a day of headachy toil straight into the realm whence had come the Guinevere’s name.” [From the story]
By the 1920s, the great age of American sail was long over, and many once majestic clippers and barques were laid up in harbors, mudflats, or riverbanks. Some were used as storage hulks, training ships, museum curiosities, or floating restaurants. But purpose built social shelters aboard old ships were rare. The specific concept of a “Ship Shelter for Working Girls” is a literary invention rather than a documented social practice.
Wright gives us Gloriana Grant in full upward gazing radiance. It’s the perfect face for a heroine who inherits a clipper ship and promptly turns it into a sanctuary for working women. The Guinevere — a once proud square rigger now resting in East River muck — becomes a floating refuge, a kind of maritime boarding house with better lineage than most Fifth Avenue families. And Gloriana, who “knew how to mix,” strides across her fairy tale gangplank like a benevolent captain of industry. Wright’s portrait catches that blend of privilege, pluck, and theatricality that made 1920s magazine heroines so irresistible.
For a reader in 1925, the idea of a once glorious clipper turned into a haven for wage earning women would have felt slightly eccentric but not impossible. It’s a perfect example of how “Collier’s” fiction often blended social realism with romanticized Americana.
[Source: Microsoft Copilot]
Over the past decade, compensation for artificial intelligence (AI) professionals has surged at an unprecedented pace, reshaping the talent market and redefining what employers must offer to attract and retain top-tier technical talent. As companies across nearly every sector race to integrate machine learning, automation, and generative AI into their operations, the demand for skilled AI engineers, researchers, and product leaders has vastly outstripped supply. The result is a compensation environment that is not only highly competitive, but increasingly aggressive.
What makes this shift especially striking is how rapidly it has accelerated. Even five years ago, AI roles commanded above-average compensation, but nowhere near the levels seen today. Now, seven-figure packages for senior AI experts are not only possible, they’re becoming increasingly common.
This surge is driven by a unique convergence of market forces: the explosion of generative AI capabilities, a shortage of qualified talent, escalating corporate reliance on AI strategy, and the emergence of new startup and investment ecosystems flush with capital. Together, these factors are pushing AI compensation to historic highs, with no signs of slowing down.
And of course, this article was written with the research assistance of AI.
AI is one of the few fields in which global demand massively exceeds global supply of qualified professionals. Only a small subset of software engineers possess the deep expertise required for advanced machine learning, reinforcement learning, natural language processing, and large-scale model development. Even fewer have hands-on experience with cutting-edge deep learning architectures or the ability to integrate foundation models into commercial products.
Companies are discovering that they are effectively competing for the same limited pool of elite talent. And that competition is fierce.
Here are a few key reasons AI talent is scarce:
This scarcity alone would elevate compensation, but the explosive commercial potential of AI has supercharged it.
The release of large-scale generative AI models has catalyzed a gold rush. Companies of all sizes now recognize that AI will determine competitive advantage in the coming decade. As firms shift from “AI experiments” to “AI strategy,” the urgency to hire expert talent has become acute.
Generative AI has created entirely new job categories, including:
In many cases, these roles did not exist 18 months ago. Now, they are some of the highest-paying jobs in the technology sector.
Compensation varies widely based on geography, seniority, company size, and specialization. But one trend is clear: AI salaries are increasing across the board, often dramatically.
Typical U.S. salary ranges for AI roles:
And these figures do not account for extreme outliers—most notably the seven-figure offers made by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, and specialized hedge funds or trading firms.
Compensation for AI talent is highest in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco area, followed by New York and then Seattle.
AI startup funding is booming. Investors are pouring billions into companies developing foundation models, AI infrastructure, and vertical AI applications. With capital plentiful and competition intense, startups are offering generous equity to lure experienced AI hires away from Big Tech.
What startups are offering:
For highly specialized engineers, particularly those with LLM or multimodal model experience, equity stakes can be extremely significant.
The big players are stepping up as well. In late 2025, OpenAI’s average stock compensation reportedly reached $1.5 million per employee for its 4000 person workforce.
AI is no longer limited to technology firms. Industries such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail, defense, and media all have aggressive AI build-out strategies. This has expanded the competition for talent beyond Silicon Valley, creating upward pressure on compensation.
For example:
These companies often have substantial cash reserves, enabling them to offer compelling salary packages more commonly associated with Big Tech.
Remote-first hiring has created a global bidding environment. Companies that once paid lower regional salaries are now forced to match global standards—especially when competing against deep-pocketed AI enterprises and venture-backed startups.
As a result:
This globalization has further driven compensation upward.
As poaching becomes rampant, companies are creating elaborate retention structures, including:
Companies recognize that replacing a senior AI engineer or researcher is extremely costly, and often impossible in the short term.
Companies should expect:
Organizations that fail to invest in AI talent will struggle to compete strategically, technologically, and operationally.
For employees, the moment is historic. AI expertise, especially in LLMs, applied machine learning, infrastructure, safety, and AI product design, is one of the most valuable skill sets in the global economy.
Professionals should:
Those with the right skills can expect strong compensation growth for the foreseeable future.
This section outlines the most important strategies, components, and negotiation techniques AI employees can use to maximize compensation and secure long-term professional protection.
A common mistake candidates make is focusing on base salary alone. In AI roles—especially at high-growth startups—base salary may not be the most important part of the package.
AI employees should evaluate:
Total compensation packages in AI can vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on equity and incentives, making it essential to evaluate the full structure.
AI startups and AI-first public companies rely heavily on equity to attract top-tier talent. But equity terms are nuanced and highly negotiable.
Key equity terms you should negotiate:
A single percentage point of equity at a strong AI startup can be worth millions of dollars in a successful exit. Do not underestimate your ability to negotiate this component.
Pro tip: Ask for your equity in terms of percentage ownership, not number of shares. This forces companies to reveal the fully diluted share count.
AI work is often tied to quantifiable outcomes: model accuracy, latency improvements, deployment milestones, or product releases. This makes it easier to negotiate objective bonus structures, rather than subjective or discretionary ones.
You can negotiate:
Beyond salary and bonuses, benefits protect well-being and support work-life integration—particularly important for senior leaders.
Benefits can include:
Given the velocity of change in AI—funding cycles, pivots, acquisitions, and leadership turnover, severance protections are essential. They are highly negotiable for AI professionals.
Negotiate for:
Many AI companies do not offer severance by default, but will add it if asked by a senior or highly valuable hire.
AI employees who interview with multiple companies often have dramatically better outcomes. Even one additional offer can significantly increase your negotiation leverage.
Tips for handling competing offers:
Companies expect AI talent to be in high demand. You should expect and encourage competition.
AI work often includes high-stakes systems, regulatory exposure, or sensitive data. Professionals should negotiate strong protections.
You can ask for:
AI professionals involved in model development, compliance, or safety can insist on explicit liability protection.
AI talent is global, and many companies are remote-first. If location flexibility matters to you, negotiate it early.
You can request:
Given how scarce AI talent is, many companies will accommodate flexibility for the right candidate.
Here are some additional important issues to consider when negotiating an employment contract or offer letter:
AI compensation packages, especially those involving equity, are increasingly complex. Understanding tax implications, vesting schedules, and contract terms often requires professional review.
An attorney or advisor can help you:
A modest legal investment can protect hundreds of thousands—and sometimes millions—of dollars in future compensation. And sometimes you can negotiate for the company to reimburse your reasonable legal fees incurred.
AI employees today are in a uniquely powerful negotiating position. Compensation is skyrocketing. Companies are racing to hire scarce talent, and the strategic importance of AI expertise has never been higher. By approaching negotiations with clarity, confidence, and a deep understanding of total compensation, AI professionals can secure packages that reflect both their current value and their long-term contribution.
In an era defined by rapid innovation and intense competition, negotiating well is not just a financial decision, it’s a strategic career move.
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SINGAPORE: Singapore is asking employers to do more than just hire older workers. It wants them to rethink how jobs are built.
A new push from policymakers and industry groups is putting the focus on flexible roles, job redesign, and practical changes at the company level. The message is that older workers can stay, but the work itself must evolve.
Senior Minister of State for Manpower Dr Koh Poh Koon said many firms still struggle with two issues: limited flexible work options and a lack of know-how to retrain seniors for different roles.
He urged companies to take a more active role instead of waiting for policy fixes. Government support can help, but real change depends on what employers do on the ground, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reports.
Singapore is set to become a “super-aged” society this year. More than one in five residents will be 65 or older.
That change is already shaping hiring decisions as companies face a tight labour market, and older workers are becoming part of the solution.
Dr Koh pointed out that many seniors want to keep working. Income matters, but so does routine and social connection. There is also a health angle; staying active at work helps slow physical and mental decline.
Around 30 companies are now working with a tripartite group to test new ways of structuring careers across different life stages.
One example comes from Tower Transit, which is piloting new roles for bus captains aged 60 and above.
From May, 15 senior drivers will try out three career pathways designed to reduce physical strain while keeping their experience in play. They can rotate between driving and working as interchange officers, helping with operations and basic digital tasks.
Another option is becoming a “buddy,” guiding new drivers on routes and safety practices. A third pathway allows part-time driving. These roles didn’t exist before. They were created to stretch careers without stretching bodies.
Without such options, most bus captains would continue full-time driving until 75, the licence limit.
One veteran driver, who has spent about three decades on the job, is moving into a mentoring role instead of retiring. He plans to pass on his experience to younger colleagues.
Retention is a key factor. Tower Transit employs about 1,600 bus captains, with 14 per cent aged 60 and above. Keeping experienced staff helps ease hiring pressure.
Managing director Winston Toh said the challenge is making these changes work without raising costs. The company will review the pilot after a year before deciding whether to expand it.
Beyond job redesign, the company has introduced tools like wearable exoskeletons to help older technicians handle physically demanding tasks. The goal is to keep skilled workers productive for longer.
Singapore National Employers Federation vice-president Tan Hwee Bin described these efforts as practical steps that demonstrate how companies can better deploy senior workers and ease labour shortages.
The bigger picture is less about extending retirement and more about redesigning work itself.
Companies that adapt early may find it easier to retain experience, reduce hiring pressure, and maintain operational stability.
Those who don’t may face growing strain as the labour pool tightens.
Keeping seniors employed shouldn’t mean asking them to do the same job for longer. It means reshaping work, so experience matters more than physical strain.
The companies that get this balance right will solve manpower issues and build workplaces that reflect the reality of Singapore’s demographic shift.
A practical next step is to review existing roles, remove unnecessary physical demands, and create pathways that enable people to contribute in different ways as they age.
Read related: Singapore employees fear job loss amid higher flexible work approvals
This article (Koh Poh Koon: Singapore companies must take active role, as job redesign and flexible work help retain older workers) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.
SINGAPORE: Flexible work is easier to request in Singapore today, but using it tells another story.
A Channel NewsAsia (CNA) report on Apr 22, 2026, shows many workers still face subtle pushback after getting approval. Some are ignored in text or email messages. Others feel watched more closely. A few even fear losing their jobs.
One father, who works from home twice a week to care for his toddler, said his colleagues became less responsive. Meetings shifted to in-person. Work slowed. Despite strong performance, he worries his arrangement may cost him his role.
His case is not rare; other workers have also said that such work flexibility often comes with hidden penalties. These include slower career progress, strained relationships, and social isolation at work.
On paper, the progress on flexible work approvals looks solid. Around 70 per cent of firms now offer flexible work options, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
A 2025 survey by the People’s Action Party (PAP) Women’s Wing and National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) found about 90 per cent of requests were approved, fully or with changes. Yet one-third of workers still avoid asking to use it, citing the stigma associated with it.
That hesitation says more about workplace culture than policy.
Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) chief executive officer Aslam Sardar said some work leaders struggle to move away from “presenteeism”. That means judging a worker’s effort by time spent in the office rather than by their results.
That leads to micromanagement. Workers reported being checked on frequently when working from home. Some felt they had to prove they were not taking advantage.
A museum employee who cared for a sick parent said a senior manager monitored her closely. And after her parents passed away, expectations from her work tightened. She believed it affected her career prospects.
A study by National University of Singapore (NUS) assistant professor Wang Senhu and King’s College London researcher Chung Heejung found obvious work bias.
Managers rated remote workers lower on commitment and promotion potential. This was based on a 2022 survey of 473 managers.
The effect was stronger for fathers than for mothers. Fathers who asked for flexibility were seen as breaking the “ideal worker” image of full availability.
The study also found framing matters. When flexible work is seen as a benefit for caregivers, it looks like a special favour. This weakens its professional standing.
For some, the career stakes are high. In one case, a father of a child with special needs said he was warned he could be dismissed after working from the hospital during a family crisis. He later changed jobs for more flexibility but now avoids asking for it.
Another senior employee filed a complaint with the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) after her request was rejected. The dispute remains unresolved.
These cases show how quickly flexibility can shift from support to risk.
Flexible work is no longer a fringe perk. It shapes hiring and retention, as a 2024 MOM survey found 65.4 per cent of workers consider flexibility when choosing jobs. Only salary ranked higher.
One worker even said uncertainty over remote work is holding him back from having another child. This then also links workplace culture directly to birth rates in Singapore.
Some employers, however, are adapting more quickly to changes in work-life balance than others.
One marketing head in an investment firm works from home twice a week with full team support. Meetings are planned around her schedule. Her performance is reviewed regularly, with no issues raised.
Another firm offered a part-time permanent role to a returning mother, with benefits and structured hours. This shows flexibility can work when designed well.
Experts agree that the next phase is not to add more work rules. It is better to improve the execution of work instead.
Managers need to focus on outcomes, not attendance. Decisions must be transparent. Flexible workers shouldn’t face hidden career threats and costs.
NTUC assistant secretary-general Yeo Wan Ling said policies can guide change. Workplace culture decides if they actually work.
Flexible work is already here, so the next question is whether companies treat it as normal work practices or a special exception.
If someone meets deadlines, supports the team, and performs well, their work location should no longer matter.
Anything else is just old habits dressed up as effective management.
This article (Singapore employees fear job loss amid higher flexible work approvals) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.
Framework arrived on the scene with its debut Laptop 13 back in early 2021, touting its modularity, customizability, and extreme repairability. The company arrived with big dreams of totally disrupting the "incredibly broken" computing market. While this dream remains in progress, Framework has left its mark, and its brand-new, redesigned Framework Laptop 13 Pro carries the torch forward in interesting ways, doubling down on the goals of its predecessor.
Since 1989, Utah’s Great Salt Lake has lost some 70% of its surface area, reducing its ecosystem services and creating stretches of drying lake bed (playa) that send toxic dust into the air.
That drying ground has also provided opportunities for scientists to survey what lies below the lake’s floor. In a study published in Geosciences, researchers revealed glimpses of fresh water and salt water, with some fresh water lurking only a few meters below the surface. The work could provide clues for conserving the lake, a crucial resource for both the ecology and the economy of the region.
In 2023, Michael Thorne and colleagues began using a technique known as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), which can reveal the presence of fresh or salty water, at dozens of spots near the southern and eastern edges of the Great Salt Lake. Thorne is a geophysicist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and a coauthor of the new study.
The lake’s desiccation allowed the researchers to access areas where “at previous times, you would never be able to do measurements because [they] would be underwater,” said Thorne.
Establishing a network of ERT sensors requires robust fieldwork. Over the course of long days in the field, Mason Jacketta, lead author of the new study, and others placed electrodes into the ground a few meters apart, making lines that stretched hundreds of meters. Between pairs of electrodes, they measured the resistance to electrical current. Salty water, filled with electricity-conducting ions, has lower resistance than fresh water.
Paired with information on the rock and sediment beneath the surface, as well as with measurements from nearby wells, the ERT data allowed the team to work out a profile of how electrical resistance varied with depth and to figure out what kind of water seeped through pores in the ground below. The team shared the results of their work on the southern part of the lake in Geosciences, while more in-depth findings about the eastern shore will appear in an upcoming publication.
“What this is really showing is that [fresh water is] prevalent all over the place.”
At many of the sites, Jacketta and others found fresh water near the surface.
“What this is really showing is that [fresh water is] prevalent all over the place,” said Elliot Jagniecki, a geologist at the Utah Geological Survey who wasn’t part of the work.
That fresh water was often in close proximity to patches of salty groundwater. At one spot in the southeastern part of the lake, the team found a shallow layer of brine. But right below that, at only 5 meters of depth, they encountered fresh water. At the team’s most northern study site, they found fresh water around 2 meters deep. On the southern shore, they found fresh water in some places as shallow as 2.8 meters.
The team’s results also helped explain curious features around the Great Salt Lake, including mounds made of salt and islands made of reeds.
The lacy-looking layers of the lake’s so-called mirabilite mounds form in the winter, when the cold freezes upwelling salty water, concentrating its salts. With measurements taken next to where some mirabilite mounds form, the researchers could visualize the underground conduits that send salty water to the surface.
While mirabilite mounds form close to shore, mounds made of Phragmites reeds appear in the lake’s interior as well as along its periphery. Thorne and his colleague William Johnson first noticed these mysterious circles popping up in Google Maps more than a decade ago. When they went to investigate, they found Phragmites.
“The population of Phragmites around the Great Salt Lake is really not allowing fresh groundwater to go back into the Great Salt Lake.”
In the new work, the team placed a line for electrical resistivity tomography straight through a Phragmites mound. These reeds wouldn’t be able to survive in the lake’s briny water, Thorne said, but the team’s results showed fresh water rising right to where the invasive reeds grew thick.
“The population of Phragmites around the Great Salt Lake is really not allowing fresh groundwater to go back into the Great Salt Lake,” said study coauthor Tonie van Dam, a geophysicist at the University of Utah. The reeds suck up some 70,000 acre-feet of fresh water that could go back into the lake, she said. In “sucking up [fresh water] for their own existence,” van Dam explained, the reeds crowd out native plant species that provide habitat for native birds.
Overall, the study provides a new picture of the fresh and salty groundwater beneath the lake and how these resources feed what people observe at the surface.
It’s also helped to prompt other work, Thorne said, including one recent study in which researchers used a helicopter carrying a wire loop to create and sense electrical currents underground. That study, published in Scientific Reports, suggested there could be a large amount of fresh water under one part of the lake.
But that work is a proof of concept, Jagniecki said, and accessing such potential aquifers might not be sufficient to help address the lake’s current desiccation. Even if they could, refilling them could take thousands of years. “I just don’t think that’s a solution,” he said.
Saline lakes are fragile ecosystems sensitive to climate change, Jagniecki said. The Great Salt Lake harbors plenty of life, such as brine shrimp that become food for a host of migratory birds that use the lake as a stopover. Mineral extraction and the use of brine shrimp for feed in aquaculture are important drivers of Utah’s economy.
Getting a better understanding of how saline lake systems function could be helpful in conserving them and maintaining the resources they provide humans, Jagniecki explained.
“It’s actually more than that. It’s a beautiful landscape,” he said.
—Carolyn Wilke, Science Writer
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