Bryan Johnson Planning To Sell His Anti-Ageing Company: "It's Pain-In-The-A**"
"Honestly, I am so close to either shutting it down or selling it," Mr Johsnon told Wired in an interview when quizzed where his commercial and philosophical interests start and stop.
"I've been talking to people about this. I don't need the money, and it's a pain-in-the-ass company," he said, adding: "The problem is now people see the business and give me less credibility on the philosophy side. I will not make that trade-off. It is not worth it to me. So yeah, I don't want it."
Mr Johnson gained international fame for his full-time commitment to stop his body's ageing process. He allegedly spends $2 million a year on medical diagnostics and treatments combined with a meticulously crafted regimen of eating, sleeping, and exercising to see if he can slow, and perhaps even reverse, the ageing process.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson's startup sells wellness products, claiming to help customers slow down their ageing process. However, a recent New York Times report highlighted the integrity of the products and the financial health of the startup. Asked if the report was the reason behind shutting shop, Mr Johnson.
"It has nothing to do with The New York Times. I am not hiding from the New York Times article. I'm happy to take, head-on, every single allegation they made. I will say [their reporting on] the business, that was f--ing made up," said Mr Johnson.
As per the report, Blueprint has been struggling financially, missing its break-even point by at least $1 million a month, despite reporting a revenue increase.
"Mr Johnson, who had put in $25 million as Blueprint's sole investor, warned executives that the company was running out of money," the report claimed.
However, Mr Johnson has denied that the company is in trouble, despite suggesting that he may shut down the shutters.
"We are break-even, and I've said that publicly many times. We've had profitable months, we've had loss months," he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Time of India
Industry needs to distinguish between ‘Doing AI' and ‘Using AI'
According to a recent media report, healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson has pivoted its AI strategy and wants to focus on only the highest-value GenAI use cases and shut down pilots that were redundant or underdelivering. This means a shift away from broad experimentation to a more focused approach so that projects that are redundant or simply not working, or where a technology other than GenAI works better are is not unusual. In fact, it is in line with what is happening across the world. Many organizations tend to burn huge amounts of money and waste resources on experimentation. Johnson & Johnson is no exception. Unprecedented hype around Gen AI There is a huge hype around Gen AI across industries and sectors. The hype very often than not translates into unrealistic expectations which means that every department within large organizations and enterprises is vying to implement and showcase AI initiatives. This can lead to federated projects and initiatives across the organization, without yielding much value overall. "This is a very practical approach to experimenting with new technology," says Jagdish Ramaswamy, Digital Transformation Advisor and former President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Hindalco Industries Limited. Difference between 'Doing AI' and 'Using AI' This is a level headed approach and this is the difference between 'Doing AI' and 'Using AI' aver experts. While 'Doing AI' just needs investment in terms of tools and infrastructure along with educating the employees, on the other hand, 'Using AI' needs value measurement , change in decision making styles and most importantly, reconfiguring end-to-end process flows. ' 'Using AI' will need value measurement, change in decision making styles and most crucially - sensibly reconfiguring the end-to-end reimagined process flows. I find most of my corporate clients being fixated on the GenAI archetype - the Diagnostic, Prescriptive and Autonomous AI archetypes have to be appropriately used in conjunction," says Abhay Johorey, Managing Director, Protiviti India Member Firm and former Head of Digital Strategy at ICICI Bank. Implementation needs to be based on use cases Many organisations are focusing on the top 3-5 use cases with impact. Testing and learning can be a good indicator of tech capabilities. "Many organisations are pivoting to focus on top 3-5 use cases with impact. Testings and learnings would be good to showcase capabilities and some initial tech feasibility. Beyond that Responsible AI and overall AI governance frameworks are discouraging the smaller pilots with the kind of intense pre-work required," says Sushma Chopra, Global Lead - Innovation CoE and Digital Evangelist at Mondelez International. "Sensible step. Limited use cases will give the right ROI and prevent various associated overheads. Based on the learning curve, one can start adding more use cases. However, closed source models will not find space in enterprise due to data privacy issues. Open source Small LLMs have their own challenges in terms of localised training and fine tuning. But they will lead the race compared to closed source LLMs," says another tech leader, requesting anonymity. Will efforts to centralize AI initiatives bear fruit? Johnson & Johnson's centralization of governance and its approach to bringing all experiments under one roof-categorizing them into three buckets to track performance seems to be the most practical strategy for a number of technology experts. "I wonder how much money has already been burned on PoCs alone. That's why it's crucial to channel all PoCs into a single program and build a pipeline. This allows us to fail fast, fail cheap, and ultimately identify the right use cases to scale," says Rajendra Deshpande, Partner, INGROUP Consulting Services and former CIO of Intelenet Global Services. In conclusion The bottom line is that centralizing governance, prioritizing the most impactful use cases, and eliminating the irrelevant ones is the right strategy towards implementation of a robust Gen AI strategy.
Economic Times
a day ago
- Economic Times
PM Modi defiant as Trump steps up pressure on India's Russia oil purchases
Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a defiant tone in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariff threats, urging the nation to buy local goods as his administration signaled it would continue buying Russian government hasn't given India's oil refiners instructions to stop buying Russian oil, and no decision has been taken on whether to halt the purchases, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Both state-run and private refiners are allowed to buy from preferred sources, and crude purchases remain a commercial decision, several of the people the weekend, Modi underscored the importance of shielding India's economic interests during uncertain global conditions. The comments came just days after the Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on Indian exports to the US. The White House is also threatening more action if India continues Russian oil purchases. 'The world economy is going through many apprehensions — there is an atmosphere of instability,' Modi said at a rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. 'Now, whatever we buy, there should be only one scale: we will buy those things which have been made by the sweat of an Indian.' India has become one of Trump's top targets as he looks to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine. The US president lashed out at India last week, criticizing it for joining the BRICS grouping of developing countries and maintaining close ties with Russia, saying 'they can take their dead economies down together.' The rebuke marked a stunning shift in tone for the US, which for years had overlooked India's close historical ties with Russia as it courted the nation as a counterweight in Asia to China. Now, Trump appears willing to undo that strategy to gain leverage against Putin, who has resisted the US president's efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine. Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, on Sunday accused India of imposing 'massive' tariffs on American goods and 'cheating' the US immigration system in addition to purchasing about as much Russian oil as China. 'President Trump, he wants a tremendous relationship and has had always a tremendous relationship with India and the prime minister,' Miller said. 'But we need to get real about dealing with the financing of this war.''So, President Trump, all options are on the table to deal diplomatically, financially and otherwise with the ongoing war in Ukraine, so we can achieve peace,' Miller last week told reporters he 'heard' India would no longer be buying oil from Russia, calling it 'a good step.' Bloomberg reported last week that refiners were told to come up with plans for buying non-Russian crude, but one of the people said the instruction amounted to scenario planning in case Russian crude were to become New York Times reported Saturday that India would keep buying Russian crude despite a threat of penalties from Trump, citing two senior Indian officials it didn't identify. An Oil Ministry spokesperson didn't reply to messages from Bloomberg seeking comment outside of regular business refiners have been singled out by the European Union and the US for supporting Moscow during its war in Ukraine with the oil purchases. It has become the world's biggest buyer of Russian seaborne exports of crude, soaking up discounted barrels and ramping up its purchases from almost zero to about one-third of its China is the primary economic and diplomatic backer of Russia, Trump's leverage against the world's second-biggest economy is limited due to Beijing's control of rare-earth magnets the US needs to make high-tech goods. The US and China have held talks in recent months aimed at stabilizing the relationship after they both hiked tariffs on each other's goods well beyond 100% earlier this year. India has defended its ties with Russia, one of its biggest suppliers of weapons dating back to the Cold War. The two nations have a 'steady and time-tested partnership,' Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Friday. 'Our bilateral relationships with various countries stand on their own merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country,' Jaiswal said. Asked about ties with the US, he added that he's 'confident that the relationship will continue to move forward.'India expects US trade negotiators to visit the country toward the end of the month to continue talks on a bilateral deal, an official in New Delhi said Friday. The nation will hold its ground and won't give the US access to its dairy and agriculture sectors, the official said, citing political and religious sensitivities. Modi's renewed emphasis on domestic manufacturing and consumption echoes his long-standing 'Make in India' initiative. However, the message has taken on new urgency after the US tariffs.'The interests of our farmers, our small industries and the employment of our youth are of paramount importance,' Modi told the rally on Saturday.
Economic Times
2 days ago
- Economic Times
India hasn't given refiners directions to stop buying Russia oil
India hasn't given the country's oil refiners instructions to stop buying Russian oil, according to people familiar, as officials grapple with meeting energy needs and maintaining ties with Moscow without further angering US President Donald Trump. ADVERTISEMENT No decision has been taken as yet on stopping imports from Russia, the people said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Both state-run or private refiners are allowed to buy from their preferred sources, and crude purchases remain a commercial decision made by them, several of the people said. Trump blasted India on Wednesday for continuing to purchase most of its military equipment and energy from Russia. The US leader imposed a surprise 25% tariff on India and threatened an additional penalty for its close ties with Moscow. Two days later, Trump told reporters he 'heard' India would no longer be buying oil from Russia, calling it 'a good step.' India has maintained its energy purchases are driven by market forces and price. Last week, refiners were told to come up with plans for buying non-Russian crude, people familiar said to Bloomberg. The government asked state-owned processors to prepare an outline of where alternate barrels can be sourced and at what volume if Russian flows get stopped, they said. One of the people said the instruction amounted to scenario planning in case Russian crude were to become New York Times reported on Saturday that India will keep buying Russian crude despite a threat of penalties from Trump, citing two senior Indian officials it didn't identify. An oil ministry spokesperson didn't reply to messages from Bloomberg seeking comment outside of regular business hours. ADVERTISEMENT India's refiners have been singled out by the European Union and the US for supporting Moscow during its war in Ukraine with the oil purchases. It has become the world's biggest buyer of Russian seaborne exports of crude, soaking up discounted barrels and ramping up its purchases from almost zero to about one-third of its or stopping Russian oil purchases would force India to source oil once again from Gulf nations — which costs a premium — and New Delhi isn't keen on adding to its import bill, one of the people said. ADVERTISEMENT Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintains close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, having visited the country in October. Putin is scheduled to visit India later this year. State-owned Indian Oil Corp. bought at least 5 million barrels US crude, on top of 2 million barrels of supplies from Abu Dhabi, traders told Bloomberg last week. The purchases were both large and for relatively immediate delivery by the company's usual standards. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
