Insider Today: Patagonia's big changes

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. We're running a shortened edition this week after the Thanksgiving break. Speaking of, what's your go-to out-of-office message? A viral TikTok has stirred up a fresh debate about what's appropriate.

On the agenda today:

• Auditing experts can't make sense of Macy's $132 million accounting error.
• Patagonia's big changes are disappointing some staffers.
• AI improvements may have hit a wall. Industry leaders share how to get over it.
• We spoke to 8 families who received universal basic income. Here's how it helped them.

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Macy's missing money raises questions

The retailer announced it was delaying its quarterly earnings after discovering an employee — who has since been fired — deliberately made accounting errors totaling between $132 million to $154 million.

Auditing experts told BI that Macy's must now explain how its controls broke down. One former KPMG partner said, "Somebody else should have been reviewing and catching it."

Why auditing experts are scratching their heads.

Is Patagonia losing sight of itself?

Since its founding in 1973, the beloved brand of mountaineers and Wall Street bros alike has blurred the lines between work and community.

But recently, the company has cut headcount and expedited service to strengthen its business. Some employees say it's lost sight of its values and the mission that once made it so special.

An outdoor brand's internal struggle.

Keeping the AI progress wheels turning

The recent debate over whether the rate of AI model improvement has hit its limit has pushed some CEOs to chime in. OpenAI boss Sam Altman recently took to X and posted, "There is no wall."

Twelve people at the forefront of the AI industry spoke to BI about the challenges and opportunities ahead in the quest for superintelligent AI.

They laid out some of the paths forward.

Does basic income work?

For the past five years, pilot programs in 150 cities have been handing out no-strings-attached cash to low-income Americans.

BI spoke to eight families who received at least $6,000 from these programs to see whether the extra cash helped. Even if it didn't immediately alleviate their financial struggles, most recipients said they found the support incredibly valuable.

Here's how they spent it.

This week's quote:

"The final boss on the way to Elon: Everything goes through him first."

— A former Tesla employee describing Omead Afshar, a longtime lieutenant of Elon Musk who was recently promoted to president of North American and European operations.

More of this week's top reads:

• Government workers on the prospect of DOGE-fueled layoffs: 'It kind of feels like we're being villainized.'
• The Art of the Tariff: Trump's latest trade threat is right out of his negotiating playbook.
• Walmart is scaling back some of its DEI initiatives.
• Marc Andreessen says you shouldn't bring your whole self to work.
• Elon Musk acknowledges something that was obvious about the new Twitter: It's no longer a good place for links.
• The future of customer service is here, and it's making customers miserable.
• How Aldi became America's fastest-growing grocery store.

• California proposed its own EV buyer credit, which could cut out Elon Musk's Tesla.

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  The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.