Larry Pages net worth increased by $9.4 billion this week to $106.9 billion, while Sergey Brins rose $8.9 billion to $102.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That was their biggest weekly gain since February 2021.

Google will start experimenting with a more conversational search engine and has made its AI-powered chatbot available more broadly, the Mountain View, California-based company said at its annual developer conference on Wednesday. Thats helping the firm assert dominance in an increasingly competitive field. Shares of its parent, Alphabet Inc., rose almost 1% in New York Friday after surging 8.6% in the two days through Thursday.

Page and Brin, whove been helping with the AI push and are more involved in the company than theyve been in years, are among the biggest gainers of 2023 after adding more than $22 billion each to their wealth. They rank as the eighth- and ninth-richest people in the world, respectively. 

Googles former chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, is another beneficiary of the AI boom. Hes invested in many startups in the field and has rejected public calls to slow down the speed of research, citing concerns over Chinas advances in tech. 

Most of his $23.6 billion fortune remains tied to Alphabet, where hes the third-largest individual shareholder. His net worth has gained $1.8 billion this week. 

In a joint statement, Snyder confirmed that Harris, along with minority owners including billionaire Mitch Rales, Blackstone Inc. executive David Blitzer, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and NBA legend Earvin Magic Johnson, would acquire the football team. 

The deal is valued at $6 billion, Bloomberg previously reported, which would be a record for a US professional sports franchise. The statement didnt specify a price. 

We are very pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of the Commanders franchise with Josh Harris, an area native, and his impressive group of partners, Snyder and his wife Tanya said in the statement.

Other members of the Harris-led ownership group include Lee Ainslie, founder of Maverick Capital, and the billionaire Santo Domingo family, according to the statement.

The consortium is committed to delivering a championship-caliber franchise for this city and its fanbase, Harris, 58, said in the statement. Hes worth an estimated $7.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Harris adds the Commanders to his portfolio of sports holdings. Through Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the duo have stakes in the NBAs Philadelphia 76ers and the NHLs New Jersey Devils. 

Individually, they also own stakes in Crystal Palace FC of the English Premier League and the NFLs Pittsburgh Steelers. Once the Commanders purchase is finalized, they will have to sell the latter.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identified at least nine cases of ruptured air bag inflators that led to injuries, including two deaths, dating from 2009 to as recently as this past March. The parts, made by Knoxville, Tennessee-based ARC Automotive Inc., should be immediately recalled, the agency said in a letter to the company posted online Friday.

The air bags are used by at least a dozen car manufacturers, including General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Volkswagen AG and [hotlink]Hyundai Motor[/hotlink] Co. GM is recalling almost 1 million vehicles from 2014 to 2017 that are equipped with ARC inflators.

Still, the parts maker said its premature to begin a large-scale withdrawal. ARC said in a letter to the agency that it would continue to cooperate with the investigation but doesnt believe NHTSA can compel it to conduct a safety recall. The spat could end up in court if the parties cant reach an agreement. 

The situation echoes the sprawling recall of more than 100 million defective air bag inflators made by the now-defunct Takata Corp., which was the biggest auto recall in US history. While the ARC problem appears to be unrelated, the prospect of recalling tens of millions of vehicles to get repairs would be a significant burden on the industry and car owners.

NHTSA didnt specify every automaker or vehicle model that used the ARC parts.

The GM recall involves 994,763 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia vehicles from model years 2014 through 2017, NHTSA said in a filing. GM shares were little changed in postmarket trading as of 5:38 p.m. in New York.

Strongly Disagrees

ARC said it strongly disagrees with NHTSAs assessment that a safety defect exists in the air bag inflators produced over an 18-year period. The company has been cooperating with the agencys investigation since 2015. 

The alleged flaw in ARCs inflators has key differences compared with the Takata defect, which has been linked to 25 deaths and 400 injuries in the US, according to NHTSA.

Regulators say they have tentatively concluded that welding performed in the manufacturing of ARC inflators until January 2018 may have left debris inside the part. During a crash, gas produced by ignition is supposed to fill up the bag. When the channel is clogged, it can cause excess pressure to build up inside the inflator and potentially spray metal fragments, the agency said.

Seven of the nine incidents cited by NHTSA occurred in the US, including the death of a driver in Michigan in 2021. The agency has also reviewed reports of ruptured ARC inflators in Turkey and Canada, the latter of which killed the driver.

Three of the incidents involve model year 2015-2017 Chevy Traverse SUVs.

Meanwhile, with Takata, the propellant used in its defective parts was based on ammonium nitrate, a chemical explosive that is difficult to keep stable. Investigators found that the propellant could degrade after years of exposure to swings in temperature and humidity. In a crash, unstable ammonium nitrate propellant can ignite with too much force and in turn rupture its metal housing, sending shrapnel-like pieces of metal into the vehicle.

Despite an extraordinary campaign by regulators and automakers to replace defective parts with safer ones, almost 8 million Takata inflators remain on US roads. Continued deaths have prompted some automakers to warn drivers to not drive older vehicles until the parts are swapped out.

At several points during the interview at the Twitter 2.0: From Conversations to Partnerships conference in April, a less determined interviewer might have moved on to other topics, but Yaccarino kept pressing Musk.

The audience was filled with marketing executives, many of whom had become leery of advertising on Twitter after Musks $44 billion takeover last year. Twitters main source of revenue has long been ads, but that tumbled after Muska self-described free-speech absolutistbought the company. Advertisers, fearing that their campaigns would appear near a proliferation of racism, conspiracies, and other objectionable content, had canceled or reduced their campaigns.

I have to push you a little, Yaccarino told Musk, because theres a lot of folks in this room, they vote with their pocketbooks. Some of them, faced with the challenge of Musks controversial points of view (he regularly tweets about politics and business) are still holding back and not advertising, she said, adding, What do you say to them in this room?

Musk replied that the audience should take his tweets with a grain of salt, since its hard to convey tone with a tweet. So something that may be sarcastic or a joke or, something like that, may come across as serious when it isnt. He blamed the media for casting his tweets in the worst possible light because it competes with Twitter for ad dollars.

She then asked if Musk should be held to a higher standard with his tweeting, noting, a lot of people think you might be too provocative. 

Musk replied, I think the same standard should apply to me as applies to everyone on Twitter. He then attacked traditional journalists and emphasized the importance of elevating citizen journalism, saying its very important to hear the voice of the peopleto let the people determine the narrative, and let the people determine the truth, and not five editors-in-chief of major publications.

Yaccarino replied, So let me kind of pull you back into whats important to the people in this room, and thats protection for their ad campaigns. She said there needs to be an opportunity for those people to influence what youre building. 

Musk replied, If I were to say, yes, you can influence me, that would be wrong, that would be very wrong, because that would be a diminishment of freedom of speech.

Rather than move on, Yaccarino pushed more on this point: 

I wanna be specific about influence. Its more an open feedback loop for the advertising experts in this room to help develop Twitter into a place where they will be excited about investing more money: product development, ad safety, content moderation. Thats what the influence is. 

Musk replied, Its totally cool to say you want your advertising to appear in certain places in Twitter and not in other places. But it is not cool to try to say what Twitter will do. And if that means losing advertising dollars, we lose it. But freedom of speech is paramount.

Musk drew applause for that line, at which point another interviewer might have switched topics. But Yaccarino pushed ahead. She noted the old Twitter has a very well populated, much-loved influence councilwhere they had recurring access, or would have, recurring access, to you. Under Musk, Twitter stopped convening its ad influence council, a quarterly meeting between Twitter and about three dozen top advertisers for discussing various business issues.

She described the council as really a recurring feedback loop from your key stakeholders, your advertisers and asked if hed commit onstage to reinstating it.

Musk disagreed with the idea of an influence council but agreed that feedback would be appropriate, adding that if somebody is spending money for their ad campaign, it needs to yield results for their organization or it doesnt make sense. 

As an interviewer that day, Yaccarino was helped in staying on point by knowing the audience: marketing professionals wondering whether they should advertise on Twitter. Nevertheless, she gave a strong performance and showed a willingness to keep pushing Twitters ownerto whom shell now have to answer.