(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk earlier this month pledged to step down as the head of Twitter as soon as he finds someone “foolish enough to take the job.”

Musk’s tentative resignation followed a Twitter poll posted by the billionaire entrepreneur in which 57.5% of respondents called on Musk to stop leading the company. Musk said he will retain control over the software and server departments, important teams that will grant him significant control over how the social media platform operates.

It remains possible that Musk may reverse his decision to step down, since he has changed his mind about previous policy decisions at Twitter, such as a proposed content moderation council, which he ultimately abandoned.

He hasn’t shared further details on the search for a successor or the traits he’s looking for in one, but that ambiguity hasn’t stopped some candidates from putting their names forward, including rapper Snoop Dogg and YouTube personality Mr. Beast.

Still, a set of viable candidates will likely emerge in the coming weeks or months.

The position brings formidable challenges. ​​Musk, who admitted he overpaid for the platform at the purchasing price of $44 billion, said last month that the company was losing $4 million a day.

Since Musk retains a major public profile and ultimate authority as owner, the incoming CEO will need to implement Musk’s vision and cede the spotlight, Peter Harms, a professor of management at the University of Alabama who has studied corporate leadership, told ABC News.

“It’s not going to be your typical CEO,” Harms said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here’s a list of who could be the next CEO of Twitter:

People close to Elon Musk

The next CEO of Twitter is perhaps most likely to come from a group of people close to Musk, whether inside or outside the company.

Jason Calacanis, a friend and public supporter of Musk, carries years of experience in tech and media. A former general manager at Netscape, Calacanis now works as an angel investor with stakes in Robinhood and Uber, among other startup successes.

Another friend of Musk’s, David Sacks, is co-founder and partner at a venture capital firm called Craft, which boasts investments in Lyft, Palantir, Slack and Twitter.

Earlier this month, Calacanis tweeted a poll asking users whether he, Sacks, or a partnership of the two should run Twitter after Musk. The response that garnered the most support was “Other,” which drew 39% of the vote.

A couple of other individuals in Musk’s orbit have drawn attention since his resignation announcement: Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter employee brought back by Musk in October to help make improvements; and Steve Davis, the CEO of another Musk venture called The Boring Company, who reportedly slept at Twitter headquarters with his wife and newborn to help out with the acquisition, business publication The Information reported.

John Legere

Amid the flurry of half-joking celebrity requests asking to lead Twitter, an experienced candidate volunteered himself for the position: John Legere, former CEO of telecom company T-Mobile.

Legere, who led T-Mobile from 2012 to 2020, drew plaudits for rescuing T-Mobile from difficult times and making it the third-largest mobile carrier in the U.S.

In a Twitter post addressed to Musk, in November, Legere said, “You can stop managing daily business, and ‘content moderation’ and then support product/technology, let someone else ‘run’ @Twitter.”

“I’m expensive but so is what you paid for Twitter,” he added.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor of management at Yale University who convenes gatherings of top CEOs, told ABC News that Legere’s skills match the job, since he knows how to resurrect a well-established company.

Legere “could parachute in tomorrow and make it a lot better,” Sonnenfeld said. “This is a turnaround, a recovery, not an entrepreneurial start up.”

For his part, Musk appeared to rebuke Legere’s candidacy. In response to Legere’s post suggesting he lead the company, Musk simply tweeted, “no.” However, Musk has reversed his position on major decisions before, including the acquisition of Twitter.

Jack Dorsey

Another potential candidate to run Twitter is former CEO Jack Dorsey, a friend of Musk’s who departed the company and returned to lead it on a previous occasion.

Dorsey, who helped found the social media company, posted the platform’s first tweet in 2006 and was named CEO a year later. However, his tenure only lasted until 2008. Years later, however, as user growth plateaued and employee morale flagged, Dorsey came back to lead the company from 2015 to 2021.

Currently, Dorsey runs Block, a fintech company formerly called Square, which he co-founded more than a decade ago.

The return of a former Twitter CEO, like Dorsey, may be unlikely, since Musk has reversed some of the company’s previous policies and sharply criticized others. The company’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack, one of the most high-profile choices made under Dorsey, was undone by Musk last month.

Further, Musk has granted journalists access to internal company documents for a series of stories called the “Twitter Files,” in which they allege bias and censorship previously undertaken by the platform.

Meanwhile, Dorsey said in May that he does not want the role of CEO. When a user predicted that Musk would ultimately appoint Dorsey as CEO, Dorsey replied, “Nah I’ll never be CEO again.”

Sheryl Sandberg

Few potential candidates boast the qualifications of Sheryl Sandberg, who stepped down as chief operating officer at Facebook-parent Meta in September.

Facing a pause in advertising from major brands, Sandberg could restore the platform’s credibility on Madison Avenue and ensure that the company optimizes revenue through other means.

Sandberg, who joined Meta in 2008, led a dramatic increase in Facebook’s revenue by revamping its advertising business, turning the operation into an industry powerhouse that helped small and large businesses target users through data collected by the platform. Before that, she served as vice president of global online sales and operations at Google.

She worked closely with Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for nearly 15 years, navigating a relationship with a higher-ranking, tech-focused executive that bears resemblance to the possible dynamic between an incoming Twitter CEO and Musk.

But the sources of potential tension between Musk and Sandberg are manifold. Sandberg holds a significant public profile of her own, built in part on Lean In, a 2013 book that encouraged women to be assertive in the workplace. A powerful CEO, as Sandberg would likely be, could face disputes with Musk over the direction of the company.

Musk and Sandberg could also clash over their political views, especially as content moderation remains a polarizing issue. Sandberg was a major donor to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. By contrast, Musk last month encouraged Americans to vote for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.

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(NEW YORK) — Apple is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor is racially biased against people with dark skin tones.

Experts say accuracy problems have been reported for these devices industry-wide. It’s not clear if Apple’s products are any better or worse than others.

The product’s feature, the Blood Oxygen app, allows users to measure their blood oxygen level directly from their wrist, according to Apple’s website.

The lawsuit claims plaintiff Alex Morales was aware of this feature when he purchased an Apple Watch between 2020 and 2021, assuming it would work “without regard to skin tone.”

Morales alleges Apple did not disclose any potential “biases and defects” on the product’s label, despite a large body of research indicating similar pulse oximetry devices — usually placed on a fingertip — were “significantly less accurate in measuring blood oxygen levels based on skin color,” the lawsuit states.

“The ‘real world significance’ of this bias lay unaddressed until the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which converged with a greater awareness of structural racism which exists in many aspects of society,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Dec. 24.

Pulse oximetry devices were widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor patients’ conditions, which would help determine whether they received certain medicines, oxygen therapies and hospital beds when all were in limited supply.

The devices work by shining a light into a person’s finger or wrist and sensing how much is absorbed by their red blood cells, ABC News medical contributor Dr. Darien Sutton said.

“How much light is absorbed tells you how much oxygen you have because red blood cells carry oxygen,” he said. “The problem is that darker skin also absorbs light, so it can give you a falsely elevated reading.”

While it has been known for decades that the technology tends to overestimate oxygen levels for darker-skinned patients, recent medical studies highlighted the negative impact on such patients. For example, Hispanic and Black patients with the coronavirus were less likely to be recognized as eligible for treatment, according to a study published in May.

Researchers say reliance on the technology and the potentially flawed readings it yielded may have contributed to greater deaths among Black and other dark-skinned patients during the pandemic.

In light of these studies, the Food and Drug Administration recently launched a review of pulse oximeter technology to improve its efficacy and accuracy for all skin pigmentations.

It is unclear if Apple’s technology carries the same problem. An October study found the commercial smartwatch’s blood oxygen sensor is on par with “medical grade” devices, though there was no mention of including people of color in the study.

Apple did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The company released its own observational study in June, which found that blood oxygen level readings were not meaningfully different between white Apple Watch wearers and nonwhite users.

The company’s website also states that measurements taken with the Blood Oxygen app are “not intended for medical use and are only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes.” Pulse oximeters used in hospitals must meet a higher standard of testing and accuracy, Sutton said.

Doctors stress that anyone who is struggling to breathe should seek emergency care, and at-home devices are prone to false readings due to human error, and a range of other issues.

While the website makes no mention of a user’s natural skin color interfering with the device, it does include a disclaimer that “permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact performance” of the Blood Oxygen app. In 2015, several Apple Watch users said their black wrist tattoos interfered with the device’s heart rate sensor.

Morales filed the lawsuit on behalf of all New Yorkers who purchased an Apple Watch during the statutes of limitations. He also sued on behalf of residents in Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming under those states’ consumer fraud laws.

The lawsuit also accuses Apple of breaches of express warranty, fraud and unjust enrichment, claiming violations of New York General Business Law and State Consumer Fraud Acts.

Morales’ attorney Spencer Sheehan told ABC News that as scientists work to improve pulse oximeter technology, Apple has an obligation to be transparent with consumers about its devices’ possible flaws.

“It’s not comfortable to recognize and to acknowledge that this technology has an inherent bias,” Sheehan said. “But I think that we have to do that in order to chart a better path forward, to have a technology that does a better job in terms of the information it provides without accounting for a person’s skin tone.”

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(NEW YORK) — A massive storm has triggered widespread flight cancellations, most notably at Southwest Airlines, which has canceled more than 15,000 flights since last week, stranding droves of customers during peak holiday travel season.

The problems continued for passengers on Thursday, when Southwest canceled about 2,300 flights or 58% of its flights scheduled for that day, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. But the company said in a statement that it plans to return to “normal operations with minimal disruptions” on Friday.

After a flight cancellation, airlines are typically willing to rebook passengers on the next available flight. Since flights are scarce and some airlines are overwhelmed, customers may prefer a refund.

Any potential refund depends on a passenger’s communication with the airline, Clint Henderson, a managing editor for news at The Points Guy, told ABC News.

“Be your own best advocate,” he said. “You really have to appeal to the airline directly – there’s no third party that takes care of it for you.”

Here’s how to get a refund if your flight has been canceled:

Seek a cash refund for the ticket

If an airline cancels a flight and a customer decides that he or she does not want to rebook an alternative one, the customer is entitled to a full refund by law, according to the Department of Transportation. That requirement applies no matter the reason for the flight cancellation, the agency said.

In such a circumstance, the customer can demand reimbursement directly from the airline, Henderson said.

“A lot of times airlines will try to give you a voucher but you’re entitled to cash back,” he said.

Pursue a refund for food, lodging and other expenses

In light of the holiday disruption that has stranded many customers, Southwest Airlines has vowed to “honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation,” the company said.

The offer to refund non-flight expenses only stands for customers who suffered a cancellation or “significant delay” between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2, Southwest Airlines said.

It remains unclear exactly what costs Southwest Airlines will cover. Before affected customers take on sizable costs, they should note that “there’s a lot of wiggle room in the word ‘reasonable,'” Henderson said.

Ultimately, Southwest Airlines will refund customers for food, travel and lodging fees, even if they exceed typical rates, Henderson predicted, since the company will want to restore its reputation and respond to criticism from elected officials.

“I do think they’ll make good even if you’re spending $1,000 on a last-minute flight or renting a car for $300 a day or airport hotel prices jumped dramatically and you spend $500 a night for a hotel,” he said.

Send receipts to the airline as soon as possible

Southwest Airlines has posted a web page where customers can submit receipts for expenses that resulted from travel disruptions over the holidays.

The company has warned, however, that reimbursements may take an extended period of time due to the severity of the current problems.

“As our focus remains on stabilizing and restarting our operation, of which we’re seeing very positive signs, our teams will then take on the task of processing the requests. It will take some time given the scale,” Southwest Airlines told ABC News.

In turn, customers can expedite the process as much as possible by submitting receipts to the company soon after the relevant purchases.

Henderson said he did not know how long reimbursements would take but said customers should not expect them anytime soon.

“Usually this kind of thing takes weeks and weeks, if not months,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a speedy timeline.”

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