Alphabets Google gave a surprise early look at a foldable Pixel smartphone, heralding its move into a category currently dominated by Samsung Electronics.

The company posted a video and photos of the device, called the Pixel Fold, showing a phone with a large external display and an even bigger internal screen that can close up like a clamshell.

The company said on its website that it would provide more information on the device at its I/O conference on May 10. The event is also expected to include details on a cheaper version of the Pixel 7 phone and a tablet that Google originally previewed last year. 

The move signals that Google is getting more serious about competing with Samsung and Apple in smartphones, an area where its struggled to gain a significant foothold. Though Googles Android operating system is widespread, the company is dwarfed by other manufacturers in its sales of hardware.

Foldables account for only 1% of smartphone shipments, according to Strategy Analytics and IDC data, but they contribute a larger share of revenue because they fetch higher prices. IDC estimates that shipments will more than triple from 2022, to roughly 50 million units annually, by 2027. That would still be less than 4% of the market, but would account for a $42 billion segment.

Depending on your loan type and career, there are a number of forgiveness programs available to federal borrowers, ranging from income-driven repayment (IDR) plan forgiveness to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

But unlike President Joe Bidens widespread planwhich would forgive up to $20,000 for most federal borrowers via an online applicationthese plans typically require borrowers to make payments for several years before they can apply to have the rest of their balance waived. And those application processes can be complicated. Private student loan debt isnt eligible for cancelation.

While borrowers welcome the relief, the many different programs and plans can make the process a little confusing. Heres a break down of some of the most significant loan forgiveness efforts.

Income-driven repayment forgiveness

An IDR plan bases a borrowers monthly bill on their income and family size rather than just the amount they owe. Payments are capped at a percentage of their monthly income, making it attractive to lower earners with high debt balances. After 20 to 25 years of repayments, depending on the repayment plan, the remainder of the balance is eligible for forgiveness.

Very few people have actually received forgiveness through this track, according to the National Consumer Law Center. But the Biden administration is instituting a number of changes to these repayment plans to make it easier to actually attain relief.

Starting sometime this year, some borrowers who have made loan payments for at least 20 years will automatically have the rest of their debt discharged. This will also include months borrowers were in forbearance, which werent previously counted. The Education Department is adjusting accounts to reflect all months in repayment, regardless of loan type or repayment plan. It is also counting some periods of forbearance and deferment toward the total needed to qualify.

This is the result of a one-time waiver the Biden administration offered in 2022, but the Education Department delayed implementing it. Millions of other borrowers will receive additional payment credits toward the total they need to receive forgiveness.

Additionally, the Biden administration has also released changes to IDR generally that will benefit borrowers going forward.

Under the new rules, the program would be simplified and restructured, making it easier to have balances forgiven. The Education Department estimates this will result in the average borrower paying 40% less during their lifetime. Most borrowers qualify for these plans. Education experts view these changes as potentially more helpful for borrowers than the one-time forgiveness effort.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

The PSLF program forgives a borrowers student loan debt balance after theyve made 10 years of on-time payments while working a public service job, such as a teacher, police officer, or government worker.

The program has experienced a number of high-profile challenges over the years. But the Biden administration has also made a number of changes to simplify the application process, including simplifying eligibility requirements.

PSLF was also part of the one-time waiver, and more than 450,000 borrowers were approved for forgiveness under that program through early February 2023, according to the Education Department. Others are still waiting.

Those who qualify need to fill out an Employment Certification Form each year. Once youve made the required 120 qualifying payments, you can submit a PSLF application.

Teacher and Nurse loan forgiveness

There are also programs for specific careers, like teaching and nursing.

While many teachers can qualify for PSLF, they may also be eligible for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. Under this program, borrowers with federal Direct or Stafford loans who teach for five consecutive academic years in a low-income school or educational service agency can get up to $17,500 in relief. Its less generous than PSLF, so be sure to research all of the requirements and compare the programs to see whats best for your situation.

Nurses also have their own forgiveness program, called the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program. Under this program, those who work in a hospital or clinic with a critical nursing shortage may be able to get a percentage of their loans forgiven. Given the requirements, though, many nurses opt for PSLF.

Additionally, some nurses and teachersas well as other professionals like firemenmay qualify for Perkins Loan Forgiveness after five years.

Other forgiveness efforts

In addition to announcing the widespread forgiveness plan and changing PSLF and IDR forgiveness, the Education Department has also been discharging the debt for millions of students defrauded by the schools they attended, as well as the debt of those who are disabled.

And, while it isnt technically forgiveness, federal student loan payments have been paused for over three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For those aiming for PSLF forgiveness, though, the months of the pausenow over 36count toward the total number of payments they need to qualify for forgiveness.

Status of widespread forgiveness

The Supreme Court is set to announce the outcome of the legal challenges against the presidents signature forgiveness plan in the next few weeks. Many borrowers financial lives and decisions hinge on whatever the justices decide.

Some say having some or all of their student loan debt forgiven would help them reach other financial goals, like saving for homes or retirement, while others stress the peace of mind it could provide. Others tell Fortune they are putting off having children because of the financial toll.

Yeah, its always better when were together, so croons Jack Johnson in every retail store and CEOs in Americas nationwide collection of empty offices. Latest to join the Greek chorus is IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who recently claimed in a Bloomberg interview on Monday that working from home was not the best for everyones careers. And until A.I. takes the job of filling a desk, Krishna is looking to have his workers come in on a hybrid basis. Not under those old Everybodys under my eye kind of rules, he said, but at least sometimes.

In the short term you probably can be equally productive, but your career does suffer, Krishna said of working only remotely, pointing out that working from home is better for roles centering on individual contributions. Moving from there to another role is probably less likely because nobodys observing them in another context, he adds, It will be tougher. Not impossible, but probably a lot tougher. Even if he thinks working from home is bad for your career trajectory, the head of the tech giant isnt forcing anyone back to headquarters, as Bloomberg points out that 80% of IBM employees are at least partially working remotely. 

Krishna is far from the only CEO who recently came to the defense of in-person or hybrid plans. Coming off less strong than some staunch advocates of a return to office like JP Morgan Chases Jamie Dimon or Twitters Elon Musk, Krishna has landed in the camp of those like Salesforces Marc Benioff, not forcing employees back full-time but warning them of the potential consequences of staying only remote. Currently, IBM is just encouraging workers to come in three days a week.

But they might be in for a bit of a surprise when it comes to their new co-workers when they return to the office. When it comes to the other hot-topic future of work discussion, Krishna is looking less back in time on what has been successful and more to new innovations. Embracing A.I.s potential impact, he recently said that he intends to issue a hiring freeze for roles that can be done by robots instead. Specifically looking at back-office roles, he said to Bloomberg that, I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period, resulting in about 7,800 jobs cut.

IBM clarified in a statement to Fortune that theres no blanket hiring pause at the company, and that theyre instead being deliberate and thoughtful in our hiring with a focus on revenue-generating roles, and being very selective about hiring for jobs that arent client or technology focused. The company is currently actively hiring for thousands of roles, they added.

Before theyre managing software systems, or finding themselves out of a job, managers might find it difficult to work remotely. Its harder to be a boss when not in person, Krishna asserts, and while that doesnt mean managers need to have their team always under their watchful eye, it can be helpful to see them at least some of the time. It seems to me that we work better when we are together in person, he said, adding that It doesnt need to be every minute. You dont need to function under those old Everybodys under my eye kind of rules, but at least sometimes.

His comments follow a new debate regarding the difference between a job and a career, echoing that of Jefferies CEO Rich Handler, who noted in a @WallStreetConfessions Instagram post last year that the difference between having a job and a career could be up to where you do your work.

If you want a job, stay remote all the time and be efficient in a very limited way, Handler writes. If you want a career, engage with the rest of us in the office and use wfh only when smart, flexibility is essential, mental health calls, and life balance needs help. He added in a comment to Fortune that workers in the office get pulled into a lot of interesting real time situations.

Hearing such advice from their bosses, younger employees have started to go in more for mentorship, greater productivity, and career opportunities. But its hard to have any of those things if no one is really coming in. Until then, executives will issue mandates, try to coax workers in, or hope that robots will take over and do the jobs instead (fingers crossed no revolution there).

A federal jury in New York concluded Thursday that British singer Ed Sheeran didnt steal key components of Marvin Gayes classic 1970s tune Lets Get It On when he created his hit song Thinking Out Loud.

As the jury answered the single question of whether Sheeran proved he didnt infringe upon the copyright in the affirmative, the crooner briefly put his hands over his face in relief before standing and hugging his lawyer.

As jurors left the courtroom, Sheeran quietly mouthed thank you in their direction. He then spoke for about 10 minutes with the plaintiffs, including the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-created the 1973 soul classic with Gaye. They hugged and smiled with each other.

Sheeran later addressed reporters outside of the courthouse.

I am obviously very happy with the outcome of this case, and it looks like Im not going to have to retire from my day job, after all. But at the same time, I am unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all, the singer read from a prepared statement.

He also said he missed his grandmothers funeral in Ireland because of the trial, and that he wont get that time back.

The verdict came after a two-week trial that featured a courtroom performance by Sheeran as the singer insisted, sometimes angrily, that the trial was a threat to all musicians who create their own music.

Sheeran sat with his legal team throughout the trial, defending himself against the lawsuit by Townsends heirs. They said Thinking Out Loud had so many similarities to Lets Get It On that it violated the songs copyright protection.

At the trials start, attorney Ben Crump told jurors on behalf of the Townsend heirs that Sheeran himself sometimes performed the two songs together. The jury saw video of a concert in Switzerland in which Sheeran can be heard segueing on stage between Lets Get It On and Thinking Out Loud. Crump said that was smoking gun proof he stole from the famous tune.

When Sheeran testified, he repeatedly picked up a guitar resting behind him on the witness stand to demonstrate how he seamlessly creates mashups of songs during concerts to spice it up a bit for his sizeable crowds.

The English pop stars cheerful attitude on display under questioning from his attorney, Ilene Farkas, all but vanished under cross examination.

When you write songs, somebody comes after you, Sheeran said during his testimony as he explained that the case was being closely watched by others in the industry.

He insisted that he stole nothing from Lets Get it On when he wrote his tune.

Townsends heirs said in their lawsuit that Thinking Out Loud had striking similarities and overt common elements that made it obvious that it had copied Lets Get It On, a song that has been featured in numerous films and commercials and scored hundreds of millions of streams spins and radio plays in the past half century.

Sheerans song, which came out in 2014, was a hit, winning a Grammy for song of the year. His lawyers argued that the songs shared versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression freely available to all songwriters.

Gaye was killed in 1984 at age 44, shot by his father as he tried to intervene in a fight between his parents. He had been a Motown superstar since the 1960s, although his songs released in the 1970s made him a generational musical giant.

Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop hit For Your Love, was a singer, songwriter and lawyer who died in 2003. Kathryn Townsend Griffin, his daughter, testified during the trial that she thought Sheeran was a great artist with a great future.

She said she had hoped the lawsuit would not result in a trial, but I have to protect my fathers legacy.

The attorneys general of New York and California announced Thursday that they are investigating allegations of workplace discrimination at the NFL, citing lawsuits filed by employees that describe sex, racial and age bias, sexual harassment, and a hostile work environment.

Attorneys General Letitia James, of New York, and Rob Bonta, of California, said they have issued subpoenas to NFL executives as part of an examination into the workplace culture at the the leagues corporate offices in both states.

The officials, both Democrats, said they are exercising their legal authority to seek information from the NFL regarding allegations of gender pay disparities, harassment, and gender and racial discrimination.

The investigation focuses on the leagues corporate offices, not specific teams or players.

No person should ever have to endure harassment, discrimination, or objectification in the workplace, James said in a statement. Bonta said he and James have serious concerns about the NFLs role in creating an extremely hostile and detrimental work environment.

The league said it would cooperate with the investigation but called the allegations entirely inconsistent with the NFLs values and practices.

The NFL offices are places where employees of all genders, races and backgrounds thrive. We do not tolerate discrimination in any form, league officials said in a statement.

James and Bonta cited a 2022 New York Times story that detailed allegations of gender discrimination by more than 30 former female NFL employees.

The women described a sexist culture at the NFL that they said persisted despite promises of reform that Commissioner Roger Goodell made after the 2014 release of a video that showed Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his fiancee.

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One of the keys to success might be figuring out which rules you should follow and which ones you should disregard.

Consider OpenAI. Founded in 2015, the A.I. venture behind ChatGPT and GPT-4 is already valued at nearly $30 billion. But it could have gone down a very different path if its founders had heeded a key business rule saying companies should focus on products that fill an obvious need, according to president Greg Brockman.

Youre supposed to have a problem to solve, not a technology in search of the solution, the OpenAI cofounder told the Possible podcast in an episode published Wednesday.

And, indeed, Brockman and the OpenAI team, including CEO Sam Altman, spent months looking for a problem to solve with their A.I. tools, he admitted.

Brockman said they spent a couple months just writing down all the different ideas that we could work on for both GPT-3 and for GPT-4maybe we could do a medical thing or a legal thing.

But while focusing on a particular field could have meant carving out a profitable niche, it would have meant pouring their time and energy into one area. 

We could become a company selling to hospitals, but you really got to get serious about being a company selling to hospitals and thats what you are, Brockman noted. 

OpenAIs founders had something bigger on their minds: the eventual arrival of artificial general intelligence, by which they mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

As it states in its charter, OpenAIs mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanityWe will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to achieve this outcome.

Specializing in one field, Brockman said on the podcast, just felt like wed have to give up on the AGI dream.

Pursuing that bigger objective spurred OpenAI to avoid specializing in one field and ignore the rule about having a problem to solveto great success, it turned out.

I think my conclusion from the fact that it seems to be working is that I think A.I. might just be different from that, because its like every company, every individual, every business is a language business, said Brockman. It has language flows deeply baked in. So if you can add a little bit of value in existing language workflows, then it will just be able to be adopted so broadly.

Bank of America wrote in a recent report: We are at a defining momentlike the internet in the 90swhere artificial intelligence is moving towards mass adoption, with large language models like ChatGPT finally enabling us to fully capitalize on the data revolution.

Big-name investors have flocked to OpenAI, which began as a nonprofit in 2015 and in 2019 switched to a hybrid capped-profit model, citing the need for computing resources and the right talent. Soon after that, Microsoft began investing billions of dollars into it. And according to reporting by TechCrunch last week, venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global have bought shares of OpenAI, putting the companys valuation in the range of $27 billion to $29 billion. 

Nate Chastain is facing a maximum of 40 years in prison after being convicted in what federal prosecutors are calling the first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme.

After two days of deliberations, a jury on Wednesday found the former OpenSea product manager guilty of both wire fraud and money laundering. Its unlikely hell be required to serve four full decades in prison, but, even with all of the evidence presented by prosecutors, some have argued that Chastain has been singled outand that more serious crimes are rampant in the crypto space.

Chastains actions were first noted by sleuths on crypto Twitter. One in particular, who uses the handle @RiceFarmerNFT, began scrutinizing Chastains transactions using EtherScan in September 2021. The anonymous crypto and non-fungible token trader had noticed that an unidentified wallet profited from buying and then selling an NFT that later appeared on OpenSeas homepage. That anonymous wallet later sent Ether to a different wallet containing the CryptoPunk that was Chastains profile picture on Twitter.

In part because of the transactions singled out on Twitter, Chastain was hit with charges in June 2022. He was accused of misusing information about which NFT collections were going to be listed on the OpenSeas homepagewhich usually caused price spikesin order to personally pocket thousands of dollars. He pleaded not guilty.

Instead of charging Chastain with insider trading as its usually definedan action or actions that involve securitiesprosecutors instead brought a broader charge against him: wire fraud.

Lawyers for Chastain argued in court that information about which NFTs were to be listed on OpenSeas homepage wasnt confidential information in the companys eyes when Chastain worked therea necessity in proving he committed wire fraud. It was only until after he left OpenSea that the company passed new rules, Chastains lawyers argued.

Prosecutors said Chastain violated his confidentiality agreement with OpenSea and that he knew what he was doing was wrong because he used multiple anonymous wallets to obfuscate his transactions.

The cases outcome may have implications far beyond financial markets. Legal experts have said federal prosecutors now may be empowered to apply wire fraud charges more broadly in various disputes, with Chastains lawyers noting how breaches of employment contracts could be criminally punishable by the federal government.

David Miller, a lawyer for Chastain from the firm Greenberg Traurig, said in a statement to Fortune: We respect the jury process and appreciate the jurys time and effort. We disagree, however, with the jurys verdict and we are evaluating our options.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have brushed aside any attempt to label this case as novel.

Although this case involved trades in novel crypto assets, there was nothing particularly innovative about his conductit was fraud, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. A jury has found that Chastain is guilty of using inside information for his own personal gain, and he now faces time in federal prison.

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