Forbes Talks

Nothing to wear? Check out Alta, Jenny Wang’s AI-powered stylist and shopping app. Upload photos of items you own (or recent shopping receipts) to create a digital closet. The New York–based startup will then list outfit suggestions or—and this is where Wang hopes to make money—recommend new stuff to buy based on the weather, season and occasion. “Fashion is so interesting from a data perspective,” says Wang, a Harvard-trained engineer. “Alta is both utilitarian in that it helps you decide what to wear and buy, but it’s also just aspirational.” Amid the sea of AI-powered closet startups, Alta is backed by both venture and fashion heavyweights, including Menlo Ventures, which led the company’s $11 million seed round in June, LVMH-backed Algaé Ventures and Michelle Obama’s stylist, Meredith Koop.

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Imagine a Tesla for watercraft. Jonathan Lord and cofounders Ben Sorkin and Daylin Frantin started building electric boating company Flux Marine in 2018 after years of research at Princeton University. Seven years later, the pair have raised more than $30 million in funding to develop EVs for the sea. “Since age 14, I spent many days out on the water. I had the opportunity to see a beautiful environment—except for the noise and the smell of these gas engines,” Lord says. Flux Marine operates out of Bristol, Rhode Island, and builds high-performance electric outboard motors (up to 150 horsepower) and battery systems for small boats. Flux largely works with existing manufacturers to power new builds—boats with Flux engines cost around $120,000. But it also offers some “repowers,” in which they’ll swap out old engines to make existing boats more climate-friendly. “The electric revolution is happening,” Lord says. “We’re really just at the beginning.”

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Louis Carr, the President of Black Entertainment Television (BET), sits down with Forbes senior writer Jabari Young on The Enterprise Zone at Nasdaq MarketSite. With more than 30 years at BET, Carr shares his vision for the network as it enters a new chapter with Paramount Skydance. He talks about bringing back a popular awards show, explains the decision to cancel 106 & Sports, and opens up about his Chicago roots, real estate investments, and what he looks for in up-and-coming media executives.

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On "Forbes Newsroom," former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), a chair of "Our Republican Legacy," discussed President Donald Trump issuing a threat that a "whole civilization will die" hours before announcing the U.S. and Iran agreed to a temporary ceasefire, plus his thoughts on lawmakers vacationing during this uncertain time.

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President Donald Trump announced the U.S. and Iran reached a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday night, less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or "a whole civilization will die." Just one day later, Iran on Wednesday accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire agreement and reportedly announced it closed the Strait of Hormuz. The White House said that what Iran is saying publicly about the closure is different what they are telling the Trump administration privately. Clayton Allen, the head of Eurasia Group's U.S. practice, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the "fragile" state of the ceasefire.

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Forbes Reporter Phoebe Liu sat down to discuss the escalating legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ahead of their upcoming April trial. Liu also discusses the allegations of anti-competitive behavior and the financial pressures facing leading AI firms as they navigate rapid innovation, massive capital requirements, and intense competition for market dominance in the emerging artificial general intelligence sector.

InJanuary, OpenAI’s CEO of applications Fidji Simo defended OpenAI’s spaghetti-at-the-wall product approach—ads, shopping, health, a social network, browser, physical devices, video generation and an App Store-like marketplace—as variations on the same theme. “AI is going to transform everything,” Simo told Forbes at the time. “And so we don’t really think of these as completely separate bets.” 

But just two months later, OpenAI reversed course on its flashiest initiative yet: its once-viral, beloved-by-some Sora video model and app, and a “landmark” licensing deal with Disney that was set to include a $1 billion equity investment. The retreat points to a strategic shift toward more financial discipline within the company. Facing pressure to build products that actually make money ahead of a potential upcoming IPO — and with rival Anthropic gaining steam — OpenAI has been shedding so-called “side quests” left and right. With $13 billion in 2025 revenue but still deeply unprofitable, the company is now refocusing on areas where demand is already proven: coding and enterprise productivity tools.

Every startup pivots if things aren’t working. “We will make some good decisions and some missteps, but we will take feedback and try to fix the missteps very quickly,” CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post about Sora in October. 

But OpenAI’s reversals have felt like whiplash. And with many other projects and deals announced but not yet realized — like an AI hardware product designed by famed Apple designer Jony Ive, whose company OpenAI acquired for more than $6 billion in (mostly unvested) stock, or a secretive social network based on people’s biometrics — it’s not clear which of Altman’s many promises will turn into reality. 

Here are all the products and deals that OpenAI announced which haven’t lived up to the hype, whether it’s because they’re dead, delayed or still to be determined.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2026/03/31/openai-graveyard-deals-and-products-havent-happened-openai/

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The number of Americans eligible for Social Security has been rising, but the number of workers at Social Security Administration is down 20% over the last decade. Meanwhile, delays in the processing of social security survivor benefits can produce real hardship for retirees, with the median retired widow or widower relying on Social Security for 75% of their total income. Kelly Phillips Erb, a Forbes senior writer and tax attorney, experienced this firsthand: When her father died in October, it took the help of a congressman to ensure her mother received the social security survivor benefits she was owed. Erb spoke to ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath about her experience.

In the days that followed, as our family processed our shock and grief, we had to deal with some very practical issues, including money. As retirees, my parents had relied largely on their individual Social Security checks and his small pension to pay the bills. We assumed that, following my dad’s death, she could continue to draw income from those two sources. Plus, my mom had me—an estate and tax lawyer and journalist who has advised dozens of families and written extensively about Social Security—to help make sure the transition went smoothly.

Doris and Wayne Phillips, the author's parents, as newlyweds in 1968.

Instead, it took five months, numerous phone calls, letters and faxes and help from my mom’s Congressman, to get all of the Social Security she was owed. Along the way, we got contradictory answers from the Social Security Administration (SSA) on the phone and conflicting letters in the mail, including one advising my mom to call a toll-free number that was disconnected. 

We also saw Social Security payments appear and disappear from her bank account and began to fear that her health coverage might lapse too, since she was paying her Medicare premiums (as the majority of seniors do) through deductions from her Social Security check.

Sadly, our experience was not all that unusual. Even as the number of Americans eligible for Social Security has been rising, the SSA has shed thousands of employees. After President Donald Trump set billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency loose on the federal workforce in January 2025, more than 7,200 positions were eliminated. Additional cuts have left the agency with just 52,045 workers as of January, down almost 20% over the last decade. (See chart.) 

With automation, some functions still run smoothly. An SSA spokesman pointed to agency stats showing Americans are completing a growing number of transactions through online my Social Security accounts. But problems pile up when interaction with a human agent is required, as it is for survivor benefits. 

Delays in the processing of survivor benefits can produce real hardship, considering the median retired widow or widower relies on Social Security for 75% of their total income. Compounding the problem: One thing the SSA does automatically (and quickly) is cut off benefits after notice of a death is received, usually from the funeral director. Eligibility is all-or-nothing for a month and benefits are paid in arrears. 

Courtesy the Phillips familySo if a retiree dies on October 22, as my father did, SSA will typically pay the already-in-progress October benefit in mid-November, and then withdraw the money from the decedent’s account, even if it’s a joint account shared with a widow struggling to pay funeral expenses on top of normal bills.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2026/04/04/social-security-benefits-after-death-of-spouse/

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On "Forbes Newsroom," Emerson Senior Director Matt Taglia discussed NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's standing after 100 days in office.

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Matthew Martin, a senior U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, discussed the effect of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire on global markets, the price of oil, and international trade.

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President Donald Trump announced the U.S. and Iran reached a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday night, less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or "a whole civilization will die." Just one day later, Iran on Wednesday accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire agreement and reportedly announced it closed the Strait of Hormuz. The White House said that what Iran is saying publicly about the closure is different what they are telling the Trump administration privately. Clayton Allen, the head of Eurasia Group's U.S. practice, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the "fragile" state of the ceasefire.

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