Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a theory about where the next wave of startup opportunity lies, and it starts with a question most founders aren’t asking: what if the business model was giving money back instead of extracting it?

Yang was inspired by Mark Cuban. Not by his wealth, or his celebrity, but by Cost Plus Drugs — Cuban’s startup that sells pharmaceuticals at cost. Yang made a list.

“Housing, education, food, fuel, transportation, media, and wireless,” Yang told TechCrunch on a recent episode of Equity. “The things we all spend money on.”

He picked wireless and last September launched Nobile Mobile, a new mobile virtual network operator that provides cell service for a fraction of what traditional carriers charge and gives customers money back if they use less data. 

As AI threatens to compress wages and displace workers, Yang sees a business opportunity in bringing down the cost of living. Cost Plus Drugs, Noble Mobile, dumb phone makers like Light Phone, and even online grocery store Misfits Markets are early examples of an emerging business category where the startup’s value proposition is the margin it gives back to the customer.

“AI is going to suck up a lot of the value and the jobs, and then Americans are going to look up and say, ‘How do I meet basic needs?’” Yang said. He believes meeting people’s needs “less expensively” is “a very rich vein of opportunity.” 

That instinct didn’t emerge from nowhere. Yang first launched himself into the public eye during his 2020 presidential campaign, during which he advocated for Universal Basic Income as a means of combating AI-related workforce displacement and wealth concentration. The campaign didn’t succeed but the thesis has only grown more relevant.

Yang is still an advocate for UBI, arguing that the value generated by AI companies needs to be redistributed into the hands of the average American. But whether the government will be the vehicle for that redistribution, or whether it will just use any collected wealth to “plug a hole and do something not terribly productive,” Yang is less certain. 

“There is room for a direct connection between the money and the people,” he said. 

That’s where the market comes in. Where policy fails, Yang argues, market incentives can step in. Noble Mobile is his attempt to prove the point. Since its launch last September, the company has grown to “thousands and thousands” of customers and is bringing in “millions in revenue.”

“We’re unit profitable per customer, but we just share the profits with our subscribers with the idea that it’ll make you happy, you’ll stay around, and maybe you’ll tell your friends and family,” Yang said. 

The pitch is simple. Yang noted that the average monthly savings of $50, invested and compounded over 40 years, could amount to $24,000 — enough for a retirement down payment. And in this economy, who isn’t thinking about little ways they can upgrade their personal finance?

Whether investors will share that enthusiasm is another question entirely. Even if the opportunity is real, capital is concentrated heavily in AI right now, while consumer-facing businesses with thin margins and a social mission are a hard sell.

“I had at least one investor say to me around Noble Mobile, ‘Love you, Andrew, want to work with you — if you could just make this an AI company, we’ll invest,’” Yang said. 

The tide might be changing, though, simply because even the most wealthy, extractive companies need an economy in which consumers have enough buying power to purchase their products. 

“The value being concentrated in the hands of a handful of folks and firms is just bad for everybody,” he said. “There are some folks I know in Silicon Valley who are open to that for a variety of reasons…[like] they just don’t want to have to hire private security.”

Yang encouraged founders and investors to take on problems they’re passionate about and find a way to build a valuable enterprise on top of it.

“Think bigger and more broadly about trying to tackle problems and don’t subscribe so much to groupthink, because there are some valuable opportunities out there,” he said.

School’s (almost) out for summer.

When it comes time to throw open campus doors for the new school year in the fall, research tells us one out of every seven teachers won’t be returning — either because they moved schools or left the profession entirely.

But when the going gets tough, teachers don’t necessarily want to leave. Even when they’re burned out, they still love what they do.

So, the concerning data throughout the country tells a story about how stark the conditions of the teacher workforce are. In Wisconsin, for instance, teachers say they are exiting the profession at the highest rate in 25 years thanks to a range of issues, from poor leadership to safety concerns like students bringing guns to school.

Worse, shrinking student populations and rising costs have forced school districts like Portland Public Schools to make staff cuts in the face of astronomically high budget gaps. Early career teachers are thinking hard about whether they even want to continue in their chosen field.

That’s why we at EdSurge want to hear from educators who have recently left or plan to leave their jobs for another sector: What was the deciding factor? What could your school (or district or state-level leaders) have done differently to change your mind?

Your responses will help shape our coverage, and we may be in contact for an interview.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

The Mini Crossword is a long one today, as always on Saturday. World Cup watchers, 4-Down is for you. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Sentry’s “Stop!”
Answer: HALT

5A clue: ___ vera (succulent)
Answer: ALOE

6A clue: “That feeling should fade”
Answer: ITLLPASS

10A clue: $1,000,000, informally
Answer: MIL

11A clue: One of the Three Stooges
Answer: MOE

12A clue: Caller of balls and strikes
Answer: UMP

13A clue: ___-1 (class of drugs that includes Ozempic and Wegovy)
Answer: GLP

14A clue: Crunchy tendril used in Asian cuisine
Answer: PEASHOOT

17A clue: ___ Stadium, former home of the Mets
Answer: SHEA

18A clue: Silverstein who wrote “The Giving Tree”
Answer: SHEL

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Student’s slip
Answer: HALLPASS

2D clue: The “A” of GOAT
Answer: ALL

3D clue: Chop (off)
Answer: LOP

4D clue: Collective objective … or what the ends of 1-Down, 6-Across and 14-Across lead to
Answer: TEAMGOAL

6D clue: “Okay, it’s my turn”
Answer: IMUP

7D clue: The “T” of GOAT
Answer: TIME

8D clue: All by oneself
Answer: SOLO

9D clue: Month #9: Abbr.
Answer: SEPT

15D clue: Librarian’s warning
Answer: SHH

16D clue: Tee-___ (giggle)
Answer: HEE

Deep Robotics sent a modified version of its compact Lynx S10 robot on a research vessel bound for the Arctic Ocean. The goal was straightforward. Engineers wanted to see how the small machine would handle real polar conditions that humans approach with extreme caution. The prototype completed its mission and became the first quadruped robot to step onto Arctic Ocean ice floes.

Given its size and capabilities, the standard Lynx S10 stands out. Even with the battery fitted, it weighs less than 20 kg, allowing one person to transport it to the field and get it up and running quickly. The robot’s sixteen precision joints enable it to fold and twist into tight locations that larger robots cannot access, such as rubble and narrow tunnels. On flat terrain, it moves at 8 meters per second. Furthermore, it can clear obstacles up to 50 cm tall, transition between rolling on wheels and walking on legs as the terrain becomes more difficult, and even rise into a bipedal position when extra height is required.

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Four ultra-wide-angle cameras with high dynamic range lenses, as well as front and rear LiDAR units, feed into a next-generation omnidirectional perception system for clear vision. The robot can generate maps, select paths, and avoid obstacles on its own. That’s because the machine is built to withstand a beating; its IP66 rating guarantees dust, rain, and heavy fog will not knock it down. And it will continue to function in temperatures ranging from -20 to 55 degrees Celsius. The battery life easily exceeds 3 hours, and if the power runs low, the robot can find and travel to a charging station on its own. The effective payload capacity is slightly more than 8 kilograms, with a maximum structural load of 120 kilograms.

When the Lynx S10 was dispatched on the Arctic expedition, the team made a few particular changes. They replaced the standard wheels with large biomimetic paws resembling polar bears’ broad soles. Anti-slip patterns were added to the contact surfaces to promote grip, and crampons provide the robot with extra traction on firm ice. They also tightened the seal on the body to fulfill the IP67 standard. In certain cases, they even increased the surface area of the limbs, allowing the legs to operate as paddles while the robot wades through mixed ice and water.

The studies tested this robot’s boundaries, as we were dealing with snow that periodically masked pools of melt water capable of swallowing a person or a machine whole. The bear-paw feet and crampons kept the robot firmly planted as it crawled and walked over slick, low-friction terrain. There was even one case where the machine simply glided over terrain that appeared solid but was actually sitting on a hidden water pocket. Later studies moved into zones with ice and water mixed together, and the robot’s improved legs simply carried it through the muck.

Now, these runs were more than just a publicity stunt, because the Lynx S10 prototype is still in development and was in alpha when it went on the trip. Deep Robotics worked with professionals at Sun Yat-sen University, Westlake University, and Hangzhou Dianzi University to create the best paw design and control algorithms. Every time the robot stepped on the ice or paddled across the icy water, the crew learned more about its balance, traction, and performance in freezing conditions.

When shopping for a new laptop, most buyers compare specifications like performance, battery life, display quality, and price. But a new AI-powered initiative could soon add another metric to that list: carbon footprint.

Researchers are developing AI agents capable of calculating and displaying the environmental impact of consumer electronics in real time, potentially giving shoppers instant access to sustainability information before making a purchase. The effort aims to bring the kind of emissions transparency already available in services like flight booking platforms to the world of consumer technology.

Today, consumers can easily compare the carbon emissions of different flights through services such as Google Flights. However, similar information is often difficult to find when purchasing electronics, despite the significant environmental impact associated with manufacturing, shipping, and operating devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

The proposed AI system would automatically gather data from multiple sources, including manufacturing information, supply chains, energy consumption estimates, and transportation data, to generate an environmental score that consumers can understand at a glance. The goal is to make sustainability as visible and accessible as price tags and product specifications.

AI could make sustainability information easier to understand

One of the biggest challenges facing environmentally conscious shoppers is the complexity of carbon accounting. Determining the total emissions associated with a laptop can involve analyzing raw material extraction, component manufacturing, assembly, transportation, packaging, and long-term energy use.

Researchers believe AI agents are uniquely suited to handle this complexity because they can collect, process, and summarize large amounts of environmental data far faster than traditional reporting methods. Instead of forcing consumers to sift through lengthy sustainability reports, AI could generate simple, easy-to-understand comparisons between competing products.

The technology could also help manufacturers improve transparency. Companies may be encouraged to disclose more detailed environmental data if AI systems begin incorporating sustainability metrics directly into purchasing decisions.

The broader push comes amid growing concerns about the environmental impact of technology and artificial intelligence itself. Data centers, AI training, hardware manufacturing, and cloud infrastructure all contribute to increasing energy consumption worldwide, making sustainability reporting an increasingly important topic across the tech industry.

The future of shopping may involve environmental scores alongside prices

The concept extends beyond laptops. Researchers envision AI agents eventually helping consumers evaluate the environmental impact of a wide range of products, from smartphones and appliances to vehicles and household goods.

Such systems could also evolve into personal shopping assistants that automatically recommend products based not only on budget and features but also on sustainability preferences. While the technology is still in development, it reflects a broader shift toward greater transparency in consumer purchasing decisions. Just as nutrition labels changed how people buy food, carbon-impact information could eventually influence how consumers shop for technology.

For buyers, that means future laptop shopping may involve more than comparing processors and battery life. An AI-generated carbon score could become another key factor in deciding which device ends up in their bag.

It’s to ensure compliance with a government directive citing national security concerns.