Lufthansa announced on Monday it plans to cut thousands of workers as it aims to increase profitability and efficiency, in part by relying more heavily on artificial intelligence.
The airline group said it will eliminate a total of 4,000 jobs worldwide by 2030, the majority of which will be in Germanywith a focus on administration roles, not operational ones.
“The Lufthansa Group is reviewing which activities will no longer be necessary in the future, for example due to duplication of work,” the company said in a statement. “In particular, the profound changes brought about by digitalization and the increased use of AI will lead to greater efficiency in many areas and processes.” (The Lufthansa Group includes Germany’s Lufthansa, in addition to Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia.)
That restructuring will include the largest fleet modernization in the company’s history. To that end, the Lufthansa Group expects to add more than 230 new aircraft by 2030, including 100 long-haul aircraft.
The Cologne-based German carrier said it plans to invest in the growth of its core business, expanding locations and its international presence, including in Canada and Portugal. It also plans to extend its digital business models, as part of its Ambition 2030 program. The changes are expected to significantly increase revenue and profit by 2030.
The airline also set new financial targets for 2028 to 2030, saying it expects its adjusted operating margin to reach 8-10% and over 2.5 billion euros in adjusted free cash flow per year.
Lufthansa, like a number of companies including Klarna, Duolingo, and Salesforce, has recently turned to AI. Some of those companies even instituted AI-first workplaces as a way of slashing workforces toward greater profitabilitybut not without some missteps.
According to a recent Nexford University survey, in the past year, around 65% of companies conducted layoffs, with 68% of companies identifying cost-cutting as the culprit, and 27% citing AI adoption.
Lufthansa financials
Lufthansa reported strong Q2 2025 results with considerable year-on-year growth, including a 27% increase in its operating profit compared to 2024, and a 3% increase in revenue (from 10 billion to 10.3 billion).
Last year, Lufthansa increased its revenue by six percent year-on-year to EUR 37.6 billion as it offered more flights, making it the highest revenue in its history. However, the operating profit (adjusted EBIT) was EUR 1.6 billion, compared with EUR 2.7 billion the previous year, as the airline faced strikes and higher global costs.
Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG), which is traded under the stock ticker LHA on the Xetra and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges, closed up slightly on Monday.
Electronic Arts has announced plans to go private in what will be the largest leveraged buyout in history. The $55 billion purchase of the entertainment giant behind franchises that include Madden NFL and Battlefield is set to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will be, by far, the majority investor in EA, one of the largest third-party publishers of video games. Silver Lake and Affinity Partners (whose CEO is Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner) will own minority interests. CEO Andrew Wilson will continue to head EA.
The all-cash deal calls for a buyout of EA stock at a price of $210 per share. The company was trading at $202 per share Monday afternoon. On Thursday, before The Wall Street Journal reported a buyout was imminent, shares were trading at roughly $171.
EA is a longtime stalwart in the video game industry, but like many publishers of late, it has been somewhat stalled financially as the gaming boom of the pandemic has slowed considerably. In 2022, EA reported $7.2 billion in revenues. The following year, it saw an increase to $7.6 billion, and in 2024 the figure was $7.4 billion. The stock has also lagged far behind the S&P 500’s gains.
Was EA sold for too little?
While the industry has been in the midst of a consolidation trend, both in terms of buyouts and revenues, some analysts think EA might have been undervalued in this deal.
“While the $210 per share take-out price represents a substantial premium to EAs unaffected trading levels, we continue to believe the transaction undervalues EAs long-term earnings power,” wrote the Benchmark Co.’s Mike Hickey in a note to investors. “We value EA at $250 per share, with a best-case path to $300 if Battlefield evolves into the market share leader.”
The leveraged buyout, Hickey argues, transfers what he expects will be a “franchise-defining growth cycle” to new owners before current shareholders can realize those gains.
“In our view, this transaction is a self-serving, opportunistic move by management and the investor group,” he wrote.
Wedbush Securities’ Alicia Reese didn’t go quite so far as Hickey, but she did point out that the purchase price (about 20 times the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA) was a lower multiplier than the Activision deal (which worked out to 21.5 times) and roughly on par with the industry average over the last five years of 19.8 times. EA, with its rich catalog of intellectual property (IP), would presumably be able to command a higher multiple.
Boon for Riyadh
Assuming the deal closes, the buyout will be a victory for the Saudi Arabia PIF, which has been expanding its interests in the video game world in recent years. The group holds stakes in several well-known publishers.
Prior to Monday’s deal, the PIF owned roughly 10% of EA’s shares. It also holds 6.2% of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive Software and 4.2% of Nintendo. This spring, the PIF purchased Niantic, maker of Pokémon Go, for $3.5 billion and also paid $4.9 billion for Scopely, the maker of mobile gaming hit Monopoly Go.
The deal comes as criticism continues about the Saudi Royal family’s record of human rights abuses.
While the $55 deal is expected to set a record as far as leveraged buyouts (CNBC reports EA has 45 days to solicit a better offer, though the deal was unanimously approved by the company’s board), it still falls short of an overall industry record. Microsoft’s $69 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard remains the industry’s most expensive acquisition to date. Microsoft faced several hurdles from regulators in the U.S. and U.K. as it attempted to close that purchase.
The Microsoft/Activision deal closed in 2023. In July of this year, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 9,100 workers, with many of those cuts coming in the gaming division. That followed an additional 6,000 jobs lost in May of this year.
Here he is, depicted at six months in office, chiseled and brawny, as mighty as the very nation. Here he is as a Star Wars Jedi wielding a patriot-red lightsaber, rescuing our galaxy from the forces of evil. Here he is taking over Gaza, transforming the strip into a luxury resort complete with a golden effigy of himself.
You can be anything, perhaps you were told growing up. Doctor. Astronaut. Maybe, one day, the president. But even the chief executive of the United States, the free worlds leader, frames himself as something more epic as someone not entirely himself.
On the social media accounts of Donald Trump and his second-term administration, a new, less official image of the president is emerging bit by bit: one generated artificially.
A sign of the times, certainly when the appeal of reimagining yourself with artificial intelligence has trickled up from us everyday citizens. Bored with your selfies? Join a viral trend: Theres an image generator or a chatbot that can turn you into a Renaissance-style painting, a Studio Ghibli character, or an action figure with box art and accessories.
Artificial imagery isnt new for Trump, an early target of AI-generated simulacra who later exploited the technology during his 2024 campaign for the presidency. It works both ways, the Republican president said of AI-generated content at a news conference earlier this month. If something happens thats really bad, maybe Ill have to just blame AI.
The AI images of Trump posted by him and his team opt for the alternative not deceptive but self-evident in their fictitiousness. Pope Francis dies, and Trump jokes to reporters that hed like to be pope. A week later, he is, but in an AI-generated image that he posts, reposted by the White House. Trump likens himself to a king in a Truth Social post in February, and AI makes him one in an X post by the White House less than an hour later.
The artifice arrives in Trumps usual style brassy, unabashed, attention-grabbing and squares with his social media teams heavy meme posting, which it has promised to continue. The administrations official social media accounts have grown by more than 16 million new followers across platforms since Inauguration Day, a White House official told NBC News.
The White House recognizes the appeal. In July, it posted to its X account: Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we cant post banger memes. Attached to the post, a photo of a sign on the White House lawn parodying the naysayers: oMg, diD tHe wHiTE hOuSE reALLy PosT tHis?
Behind the commander in chiefs desire to craft an AI self not itself uncommon an infantry of official communications channels stands at his ready. And we, the people, cant help but tune in.
Feelings dont care about your facts
Like so much on the internet these days, Trumps AI portraits are primed for people to react, says Evan Cornog, a political historian and author of The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush.
By the time youve seen it, youve understood it. And thats, of course, the efficacy, Cornog said. It requires no effort, either for the person generating it, but particularly for the person consuming it.
The expressive power of political imagery, regardless of the truth of its message, has long been understood by politicians and their detractors.
President William Henry Harrisons log cabin and hard cider campaign symbols, representing him as a man of the people, helped him win the election of 1840. Thirty years later, political cartoonist Thomas Nast would turn public opinion against William Marcy Boss Tweed with his scathing portrayals of the politician, whom he depicted satirically overweight from greed. Lets stop those damned pictures! Tweed once said, or so the story goes.
The decades since witnessed the birth of photo, film, TV, the internet, computer printers, image-editing software and digital screens that shrank until they could fit in our pockets, making it increasingly easy to create and disseminate and manipulate imagery.
By contrast, todays generative AI technology offers greater realism, functionality and accessibility to content creation than ever before, says AI expert Henry Ajder. Not to mention, of course, a capacity for endless automated possibility.
Past presidents had to actually have fought in a war to run as a war hero, Cornog says. Now, they can just generate an image of themselves as one. On a horse or no, a battlefield. With an American flag waving behind him and an eagle soaring.
The AI images of Trump shared by him and his administration chase a similarly heroic vision of the president. Potency his and the countrys is a consistent theme, Cornog added.
Indeed, generative AI allows for an exposure of perhaps uncomfortably intimate inner worlds as people use such technology to illustrate and communicate their fantasy lives or cartoonish versions of themselves, says Mitchell Stephens, author of The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word.
But it can just as easily fulfill an inverse desire: to depict or reinforce a subjective concept of reality.
Quite a lot of people are sharing AI-generated content, which is clearly fake but is almost seen as a revelatory kind of representation of someone, Ajder said. This content feeds a mentality that mutters, We all know theyre really like this.
And so, even if people know its fake, Ajder said, they still see it as kind of reflecting and satisfying a kind of truth their truth about what the world is like.
Commenters take up the mantle
The lack of subtlety in Trumps AI images of himself helps explain their consistent virality.
Commenters can be found lamenting the demise of presidential decorum (I never thought Id see the day when the White House is just a joke. This is so embarrassing.) or relishing those very reactions (Watching the left explode over this has been a treat.).
Other responses, even from the presidents base, remain unconvinced (as one X user griped under the White House post of Trump as pope: I voted for you, but this is weird and creepy. More mass deportations and less of whatever this is.).
But that is tradition for Trump, who finds no trouble cashing the currency of our attention economy: Whether you cracked a smile or clutched your pearls, he still made you look.
In his first administration, he used Twitter in a way no president had, said Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project, an organization that facilitates the transition between presidents. What they do in this administration is taking it further, as youve had an increase in what can be done online. Or, as one Reddit user referred to the president: Troll in Chief.
Does Trump really think he should be pope? Does the White House really think him a king? Accuracy isnt the point, not for a man who frequently arbitrates what counts as truth. Trump’s use of AI sticks to a familiar recipe for bait: crude comedy sprinkled with wishful thinking.
Its fine, Trump said in May, when asked whether the AI-generated post of him as pope diminished the substance of the official White House account.
Have to have a little fun, dont you?
Luena Rodriguez-Feo Vileira, Associated Press
On September 25, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol informed his employees in a public memo that the company would be cutting 900 corporate roles and closing down stores.
However, the memo didnt share exactly how many stores would close and where theyre locatedleaving employees scrambling to compile that information on their own.
Starbucks is framing the restructuring as a part of Niccols broader Back to Starbucks plan, a sweeping initiative designed to return Starbucks to its heyday in the mid-2010s. That includes redesigning store interiors, rethinking menus, and making the ordering experience feel less transactional.
As of right now, Starbucks is still on shaky financial ground, facing a six-quarter streak of same-store sales declines. It appears that the new job and store cuts are intended to set Starbucks up for the next phase of Niccols turnaround plan.
During the review, we identified coffeehouses where were unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we dont see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed, Niccol wrote in his recent memo.
While Niccols letter shared a broad sense of the reasoning behind the move, it skirted around giving exact figures on store closures, only noting that employees would be informed within the week if their location is shutting down.
For employees, thats meant gathering on Reddit forums, shared spreadsheets, and Google Maps to figure out just how many coffeehouses are closing down.
How many Starbucks locations are closing?
In his note, Niccol wrote that, our overall company-operated count in North America will decline by about 1% in fiscal year 2025 after accounting for both openings and closures, adding that the company will end the fiscal year with nearly 18,300 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
However, given that the 1% number accounts for both openings and closures, its unclear exactly how many stores are actually closing.
Reached for comment by Fast Company, Starbucks declined to share details about the fate of specific locations. It said customers were informed via emails and signage and that the Starbucks app has already been updated to reflect the closures.
Given this uncertainty, employees are taking the tabulation into their own hands. In the subreddit r/Starbucks, several threads discussing the closures have amassed hundreds of comments from employees and customers.
Moderators of the subreddit have begun directing users to update a shared Google Sheet with confirmed closures.
As of this writing, the document contains over 520 locations across the U.S. Redditors are also actively compiling the spreadsheets results into a map format that designates each store by its status in Starbucks union.
Starbucks did not provide a comment on the accuracy of the list, and its important to note that this is an active, crowdsourced document.
However, many of the stores indicated on the spreadsheet have disappeared from Starbucks’ store locator tool or are marked permanently closed on Google.
Starbucks Workers United, a union that represents baristas at some locations, referred Fast Company to a statement it released last week in the wake of Niccol’s announcement. The statement opens by claiming that things are only going “Backwards at Starbucks” under Niccol’s leadership.
“Yet again, were experiencing new policies and major decisions being made with zero barista input,” the union wrote. “Workers United is sending a formal request for information to Starbucks about the planned closures. We expect to engage in effects bargaining for every impacted union store, as we have done elsewhere, so workers can be placed in another Starbucks store according to their preferences.”
Burger King is getting into the Halloween spirit. The fast food chain just introduced its first-ever Monster Menu to kick off spooky season.
According to a news release, the vamped up menu will drop on Sept. 30. “BK fans have come to expect something spirited from us during the Halloween season, and each year we try to bring even more fun to families, said Joel Yashinsky, chief marketing officer, Burger King US&C in the release.
Yashinsky continued, This year, weve dialed up the fun and flavor, not only with our Monster Menu line-up complete with themed menu innovation, packaging and a special crown, but also with collectible buckets and Scooby-Doo toyscreating even more experiences for everyone.
The menu will feature Halloween-themed twists on fan-favorites, such as the Jack-o-Lantern Whopper, which comes on a bright orange bun topped with black sesame seeds, Vampire Nuggets which come in the shape of fangs, Mummy Mozzarella Fries, and a Franken-Candy Sundae. Of course, there’s a special-edition meal just for kids coming too. The King Jr. Meal, featuring Vampire Nuggets is coming, too, along with a line-up of spooky collectible toys.
To make the Monster Menu drop even more exciting, guests can also leave BK with a limited-edition Monster Menu-inspired Halloween Bucket, but not until starting October 13.
BK is not the first fast food brand to get in on spooky season. McDonald’s announced it will bring back its Boo Buckets and its Halloween-themed menu this year, too. Wendy’s also introduced Wednesday-inspired Meal of Misfortune, as well as a Frosty Frights Kids’ meal.
Last year proved to be a big one for brands sinking their teeth into Halloween. Even businesses like Chipotle and Bush’s Baked Beans had a case of the seasonal scaries, as they sold costumes of their own beloved food itemsmany of which even turned out to be popular selections for the scariest day of the year.
AstraZeneca laid out plans on Monday to switch to a direct listing of its shares in the United States, as the drugmaker seeks to maximise gains from a booming U.S. stock market, even as it said it was not exiting London.
The decision to remain UK-based and listed there will be of some relief to British investors after media reports suggested the Anglo-Swedish drugmakerLondon’s most valuable companywas considering ditching its UK listing in favour of the U.S.
London’s stock market has been shrinking due to companies moving away for higher valuations and access to deeper capital markets elsewhere, particularly the U.S., prompting listing reforms from regulators to score some wins.
AstraZeneca said it would list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange and move away from the current depositary receipts structure, with trading expected on February 2, 2026.
Trading in fully listed stocks is generally more liquid than in ADRs, attracting more investors.
The company will remain headquartered in the UK and listed in London and Stockholm, with the plan subject to a shareholders’ vote on November 3.
Its London-listed shares rose roughly 1% on Monday, taking the company’s gains for the year to about 6%.
They have underperformed domestic rival GSK, which is up 13.6%, and the UK’s broader, blue-chip FTSE 100 index which has gained 14.2%.
Commitment to UK
Nearly 22% of AstraZeneca’s shareholder base is from North America, its biggest, according to LSEG data, in line with other top UK-based blue-chip companies.
Iain Pyle at Aberdeen Group, a shareholder, said the main takeaway from the announcement was AstraZeneca’s “re-commitment” to the primary listing in the UK.
“From our point of view, (AstraZeneca) remains an attractive investment on a fundamental basis, with a broad pipeline still undervalued by the market – the listing location doesn’t alter that view.”
AstraZeneca Chair Michel Demare said the proposed “harmonised listing structure” would support the company’s long-term growth strategy.
“Enabling a global listing structure will allow us to reach a broader mix of global investors,” he said.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Treasury welcomed AstraZeneca retaining its London listing, while the London Stock Exchange said that there would be no change to the drugmaker’s place on the FTSE 100 following the switch.
Peel Hunt analysts viewed AstraZeneca’s plans to stay in the UK as positive in the short term, but cautioned that U.S. success might prompt others to follow suit.
U.S. investment and visibility
Over the past decade, the FTSE 100 has severely underperformed U.S. markets, gaining only 53% while the S&P 500 more than tripled in value.
Wall Street indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, hit multiple record highs this month, broadening the market’s appeal.
Companies are also ramping up U.S. investments to avoid hefty tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump’s administration.
AstraZeneca has pledged to invest $50 billion by 2030 in manufacturing in the U.S., its biggest market by sales. It has also said it will cut some direct-to-patient U.S. drug prices as drugmakers face pressure from the Trump administration to reduce prices.
The U.S. market remains pivotal for AstraZeneca, accounting for more than 40% of revenue in 2024.
The company is betting on its U.S. expansion and expected launches to reach $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030 and offset generic competition.
Earlier this month, AstraZeneca paused a planned 200 million pound ($268.80 million) investment in its research site in Cambridge, England, the latest drugmaker to pull back from the UK, citing a tough business environment.
($1 = 0.7440 pounds)
Pushkala Aripaka; Additional reporting by Maggie Fick, Josephine Mason, Sarah Young, Charlie Conchie, and Danilo Masoni, Reuters
In the absence of stronger federal regulation, some states have begun regulating apps that offer AI therapy as more people turn to artificial intelligence for mental health advice.
But the laws, all passed this year, don’t fully address the fast-changing landscape of AI software development. And app developers, policymakers and mental health advocates say the resulting patchwork of state laws isn’t enough to protect users or hold the creators of harmful technology accountable.
The reality is millions of people are using these tools and theyre not going back, said Karin Andrea Stephan, CEO and co-founder of the mental health chatbot app Earkick.
___
EDITORS NOTE This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
___
The state laws take different approaches. Illinois and Nevada have banned the use of AI to treat mental health. Utah placed certain limits on therapy chatbots, including requiring them to protect users health information and to clearly disclose that the chatbot isnt human. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California are also considering ways to regulate AI therapy.
The impact on users varies. Some apps have blocked access in states with bans. Others say they’re making no changes as they wait for more legal clarity.
And many of the laws don’t cover generic chatbots like ChatGPT, which are not explicitly marketed for therapy but are used by an untold number of people for it. Those bots have attracted lawsuits in horrific instances where users lost their grip on reality or took their own lives after interacting with them.
Vaile Wright, who oversees health care innovation at the American Psychological Association, agreed that the apps could fill a need, noting a nationwide shortage of mental health providers, high costs for care, and uneven access for insured patients.
Mental health chatbots that are rooted in science, created with expert input, and monitored by humans could change the landscape, Wright said.
This could be something that helps people before they get to crisis, she said. Thats not whats on the commercial market currently.
That’s why federal regulation and oversight are needed, she said.
Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was opening inquiries into seven AI chatbot companies including the parent companies of Instagram and Facebook, Google, ChatGPT, Grok (the chatbot on X), Character.AI and Snapchat on how they “measure, test and monitor potentially negative impacts of this technology on children and teens. And the Food and Drug Administration is convening an advisory committee Nov. 6 to review generative AI-enabled mental health devices.
Federal agencies could consider restrictions on how chatbots are marketed, limit addictive practices, require disclosures to users that they are not medical providers, require companies to track and report suicidal thoughts, and offer legal protections for people who report bad practices by companies, Wright said.
Not all apps have blocked access
From “companion apps to AI therapists to mental wellness apps, AIs use in mental health care is varied and hard to define, let alone write laws around.
That has led to different regulatory approaches. Some states, for example, take aim at companion apps that are designed just for friendship, but don’t wade into mental health care. The laws in Illinois and Nevada ban products that claim to provide mental health treatment outright, threatening fines up to $10,000 in Illinois and $15,000 in Nevada.
But even a single app can be tough to categorize.
Earkick’s Stephan said there is still a lot that is very muddy about Illinois’ law, for example, and the company has not limited access there.
Stephan and her team initially held off calling their chatbot, which looks like a cartoon panda, a therapist. But when users began using the word in reviews, they embraced the terminology so the app would show up in searches.
Last week, they backed off using therapy and medical terms again. Earkicks website described its chatbot as Your empathetic AI counselor, equipped to support your mental health journey, but now its a chatbot for self care.
Still, were not diagnosing, Stephan maintained.
Users can set up a panic button to call a trusted loved one if they are in crisis and the chatbot will “nudge users to seek out a therapist if their mental health worsens. But it was never designed to be a suicide prevention app, Stephan said, and police would not be called if someone told the bot about thoughts of self-harm.
Stephan said she’s happy that people are looking at AI with a critical eye, but worried about states’ ability to keep up with innovation.
“The speed at which everything is evolving is massive, she said.
Other apps blocked access immediately. When Illinois users download the AI therapy app Ash, a message urges them to email their legislators, arguing misguided legislation has banned apps like Ash “while leaving unregulated chatbots it intended to regulate free to cause harm.
A spokesperson for Ash did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
Mario Treto Jr., secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said the goal was ultimately to make sure licensed therapists were the only ones doing therapy.
Therapy is more than just word exchanges, Treto said. “It requires empathy, it requires clinical judgment, it requires ethical responsibility, none of which AI can truly replicate right now.
One chatbot company is trying to fully replicate therapy
In March, a Dartmouth University-based team published the first known randomized clinical trial of a generative AI chatbot for mental health treatment.
The goal was to have the chatbot, called Therabot, treat people diagnosed with anxiety, depression or eating disorders. It was trained on vignettes and transcripts written by the team to illustrate an evidence-based response.
The study found users rated Therabot similar to a therapist and had meaningfully lower symptoms after eight weeks compared with people who didn’t use it. Every interaction was monitored by a human who intervened if the chatbots response was harmful or not evidence-based.
Nicholas Jacobson, a clinical psychologist whose lab is leading the research, said the results showed early promise but that larger studies are needed to demonstrate whether Therabot works for large numbers of people.
The space is so dramatically new that I think the field needs to proceed with much greater caution that is happening right now, he said.
Many AI apps are optimized for engagement and are built to support everything users say, rather than challenging peoples thoughts the way therapists do. Many walk the line of companionship and therapy, blurring intimacy boundaries therapists ethically would not.
Therabots team sought to avoid those issues.
The app is still in testing and not widely available. But Jacobson worries about what strict bans will mean for developers taking a careful approach. He noted Illinois had no clear pathway to provide evidence that an app is safe and effective.
They want to protect folks, but the traditional system right now is really failing folks, he said. So, trying to stick with the status quo is really not the thing to do.
Regulators and advocates of the laws say they are open to changes. But today’s chatbots are not a solution to the mental health provider shortage, said Kyle Hillman, who lobbied for the bills in Illinois and Nevada through his affiliation with the National Association of Social Workers.
Not everybody who’s feeling sad needs a therapist, he said. But for people with real mental health issues or suicidal thoughts, “telling them, I know that theres a workforce shortage but here’s a bot’ that is such a privileged position.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Devi Shastri, Associated Press health writer
Do you suffer from time anxiety? Before you answer, consider if any of the following scenarios sound familiar:
You get a late start, and the whole day you’re running behind.
You always feel rushed, to the point that you start to get panicky.
You look at your task list at the end of the day, and you’ve only finished half of what you planned.
You constantly feel that time is slipping away.
In other words, you’re constantly battling the feeling that theres simply not enough time.
But what if you could reframe the way you think about time?
Well, you can. It involves learning a little ancient Greek, and getting to know that societys approach to time. As you do, youll have an emotionally intelligent tool that allows you to see time through a different lens.
I like to call this tool the Kairos Rule.
What is the Kairos Rule? And how can it help you manage your emotions, reduce anxiety, and make the most of your time? To answer those questions, lets take a lesson in ancient Greek. (Sign up here for my free email emotional intelligence course.)
Chronos, Kairos, and the ancient Greek view of time
In her book Tiny Experiments, neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff explains how the ancient Greeks had not one, but two words to speak of time:
Chronos refers to quantity. This is the time of clocks and calendars, productivity tools, and linear goals.
Then, there’s kairos. Kairos expresses the quality of time, as opposed to the quantity. It recognizes each moment as unique, rather than a fixed, mechanical unit.
Le Cunff describes moments of kairos as those instances “suspended in time,” where you are caught up in a moment with loved ones, or when youre deeply engaged in self-reflection.
“Kairos,” she says, “is when you feel like this moment, right now, is perfect.” (Interestingly, the Japanese have a similar expression: Ichi-go ichi-e, or “once in a lifetime.”)
The Kairos Rule, then, basically says this:
Not all moments are created equal, and the value of time depends on the situation.
The Kairos Rule is helpful because of the world we live ina world that idolizes productivity, but the wrong kind of productivity.
Toxic productivity
Nobody really wants to live a productive life, writes Le Cunff in Tiny Experiments. We want to express ourselves, connect with others, and explore the world. Productivity is just a means to those ends; it should certainly not come at the expense of actually living life.”
Le Cunff argues somewhere along the way society’s ideas of productivity went bad, to the point where we downplay the meaning of rest, reflection, and meaningful engagement.
“Each project needs a clear outcome,” writes Anne-Laure. “Conversations become transactional. So-called unproductive moments of playful curiosity and quiet contemplation where our most profound insights can arise are eliminated.”
Its this broken view that causes many today to measure productivity in the short term, versus looking at the big picturewhich is why we see so much stress-related sickness and burnout, and so many mental health issues.
In contrast, the Rule of Kairos encourages you to make the most of those moments of playful curiosity and quiet contemplation. It empowers you to prioritize and maximize the minutes, hours, and days with friends and loved ones.
So, how can you use the Rule of Kairos to reframe the way you think about time?
I recommend using the following questions:
How much time am I taking for the things that really matterlike spending time with loved ones? Or taking time to reflect, recover, and recharge?
Do I really need to get everything on my task list done? If I do, will it come at the expense of more important things?
What changes can I make to use my time more wisely, with the big picture in mind?
Remember: Not everything you do will feel productive. And that’s OK. Instead of focusing on productivity, strive to see the unseen.
See the kairos moments.
If you do, you’ll start to realize something important: You’re not running behind at all. In fact, you’re right on time.
By Justin Bariso
This article originally appeared on Fast Company‘s sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
I vividly remember the first time that I buckled my 8-year-old son into a 4,000 pound, AI powered robot, pressed a button, and sent us careening through the streets of San Francisco with no one behind the steering wheel.
We were riding a Waymo, one of the first self-driving cars to offer public rides in selected U.S. cities, our own city of San Francisco included.
After a few minutes of riding, I asked my son what he thought. I feel . . . he said, taking a long pause before responding, . . . uncomfortable. But, its really cool!
I suspect hes not alone in feeling that way. According to data from AAA, 61% of Americans consider themselves afraid to ride in a self-driving car, with only 13% saying that they fully trust the technology.
Yet people are immensely fascinated by these AI-powered machinesand surprisingly inclined to use them. A study in the journal Science and Public Policy explored early public dialogue around self-driving vehicles, finding that The investment and excitement surrounding self-driving vehicles are huge.
Thats borne out by real-world data. In cities like San Francisco that adopted self-driving tech, autonomous rides now account for over 25% of all rideshare trips, surpassing the market share of companies like Lyft. Waymo has nearly 1,000 self-driving cars cruising the citys streets on any given day.
I ride self-driving Waymo vehicles 23 times per week, and heres what I can tell you: They’re surprisingly boring. And thats their superpower.
Summon the robots
When I tell friends and colleagues from other cities about my Waymo habit, they usually assume that summoning a self-driving car requires some kind of high-tech, sci-fi-like process.
Perhaps theres a glowing pendant you hold up in the sky, or some kind of supercomputing device that the company secretly issues to its cabal of riders. Maybe there are incantations.
In reality, the process of calling up a Waymo is almost exactly like booking an Uber or Lyft. Waymo has an app with a user interface that looks entirely cribbed from the apps of its human-driven competition.
You specify your destination, enter a credit card, and watch as a little animated car slowly approaches you on a map. Except instead of meeting John in a Kia Optima with a 4.93 rating, your vehicle is an anonymous robot with a rapidly spinning laser scanner on top.
When your Waymo arrives, it pulls to the side of the road, trying its best not to block traffic. As annoyed human drivers curse under their breath and assertively careen around you (just like with a real Uber!), you climb inside, buckle your seatbelt, and press a button on the dashboard.
Its steering wheel spinning as if controlled by some benign, rideshare-giving poltergeist, your Waymo turns into traffic, and youre off.
During my first Waymo trip, I felt much like my sonnervous, excited, in awe of the tech. By my second Waymo ride, it was already starting to feel old-hat.
Today, after more than a year of riding the cars all over San Francisco, it feels entirely normal. The fact that Im being chauffeured around town by an AI-powered, laser-studded robot barely registers.
What does register is the surprisingly delightful sensory experience of riding in one of these super high-tech carsand the immense, almost subversive pleasure of being totally alone.
No person, please
Sartre famously said Hell is other people. He was talking about the existential angst of the human condition. But he could just as easily have been describing a bad Uber ride.
As a professional news and travel photographer, Ive taken a lot of Ubers. And while most drivers are great, Ive had some truly bad experiences.
Ive had drivers who appear to be on substances, who ask me probing questions about my life (one demanded to know, point-blank, How much do you make per year? and was unwilling to accept a noncommittal answer without a dollar figure attached), and drivers who seem to believe my airport ride across the Bay Bridge is secretly a time trial on the Nuremberg ring.
And Im luckymany experiences are far worse. Data from the Government Accountability Office shows that over 4,600 people were sexually assaulted in rideshare vehicles in 2019. At least 19 people were killed in rideshare-related assaults. Both drivers and riders are at risk.
To be clear, the vast majority of traditional rideshare trips end well, and rideshare companies are doing more and more to keep people safe.
Still, even if a trip isnt outright dangerous, there are times where you simply dont feel like sharing space with another personsmelling their cologne, breathing their air, and answering their questions about your life.
Without a human driver, Waymos offer something that no rideshare vehicle can providesolitude. As you cruise through your city in one of the companys cars, youre present in the world around you. Yet simultaneously, youre totally alone.
Relaxing spa music plays over the cars speakers. The leather-wrapped seats are clean and cool to the touch (Waymo uses Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, a luxury electric SUV that retails for over $75,000). A map shows your surroundings and ride time, complete with cheerful icons representing cyclists, pedestrians, and fellow drivers.
Its pleasant, almost meditative. And people appear to love it. Again, when given the choice between Waymo and traditional rideshare vehicles, San Franciscans are increasingly choosing Waymoeven though a study by the rideshare data company Obi shows Waymo rides cost up to $11 more.
Why? As Obis chief revnue officer told TechCrunch, they like being alone.
Back to the future
Self-driving car skeptics usually criticize the tech on safety grounds, or claim that its an overhyped, faddish technology that riders will try once and abandon. Most critics compare the tech to traditional rideshares.
What theyre missing is the fact that riding in a self-driving car isnt like a traditional rideshare at all.
Indeed, the whiz-bang sci-fi coolness of the tech quickly becomes boring. Its the unique solitude and independence of the experiencenot the fancy AI techthat makes it an entirely new way of traveling.
As with public transit, youre moving through your city without needing to directly move yourself. Yet on public transit, youre always surrounded by other people. Here, youre not.
In a private car, youre alone. But you can never direct your attention away from the road for long enough to truly notice and experience your surroundings.
During a recent Waymo ride, I realized that the technology reminded me most of a far older piece of transportation techthe horse.
If youve ever ridden on horseback, you know that you can never truly control your horseyou can merely suggest to it where youd like it to go, and trust that the horsean autonomous entity capable of acting on its ownwill decide to act on your suggestions.
You also cant crash a horse. If you direct your attention away from the task of ridingor even drop the reins entirelyyour horse will keep right on following its path. It can sense the space around it, and wants to walk into a tree even less than you do.
As a kid, I even remember riding on old rental horses that knew their trails and routines so well, theyd turn around and head back to the stable of their own accord when your 60 minutes of riding time was up.
Riding a Waymo feels similar. Youre in charge to a degree, but ultimately youre ceding the task of moving your body to an independent, nonhuman intelligence.
You give up control, yes. But you gain something elsethe ability to move through the world while fully experiencing it.
Alone and freed from the task of directing your own movement, you can open the window and watch city life unfold around you in an almost cinematic wayor just close your eyes and truly tune out for a moment.
The AI is the boring part
If the AI powering your Waymo constantly made its presence known, it would distract from this experience. Instead, the fact that the AI tech quickly becomes mundaneunnoticable, evenfacilitates this entirely new way of moving.
Last month, I took another first-time rider on a Waymo trip; my boomer-age mom. Seated behind the nonexistent driver, my mom told me she quickly forgot we were riding in an AI robot. We could chat and catch up without another person eavesdropping onor perhaps joining inour conversation.
It was a pleasant ride. Waymos AI facilitated the experience, but nothing about it felt especially high-tech or futuristic.
Ultimatelybeyond the economics, or the novelty, or the safetythats why self-driving cars will succeed. Theyre a uniquely pleasant way to get around. Their technology is boring, fading into the background. And thats what makes them great.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams ended his struggling reelection campaign Sunday, an acknowledgment that he was no longer a credible contender after a year of scandal and political turmoil.In a video released on social media, Adams spoke proudly of his tenure as mayor. But he said his now-dismissed federal corruption case left voters wary of him, and “constant media speculation” about his future made it impossible to raise enough money to run a serious campaign.“Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign,” he said.Adams did not endorse any of the remaining candidates in the race, but he warned of “insidious forces” using local government to “advance divisive agendas.”“That is not change, that is chaos,” Adams said. “Instead, I urge New Yorkers to choose leaders not by what they promise, but by what they have delivered.”Adams’ capitulation could potentially provide a lift to the campaign of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow centrist who portrayed himself as the only candidate able to beat the Democratic Party’s nominee, state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.It is unclear, though, whether enough Adams supporters will shift their allegiances to Cuomo to make a difference.Mamdani, 33, would be the city’s youngest and most liberal mayor in generations if elected. He beat Cuomo decisively in the Democratic primary by campaigning on a promise try to lower the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa remain in the race
In a statement after Adams’ announcement, Mamdani took aim at Cuomo, who is trying to make a political comeback after resigning the governor’s office after being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.“New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another. On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of,” Mamdani said.Cuomo, in a statement on social media, praised Adams for “putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition.”“We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them,” Cuomo said.Republican Curtis Sliwa also remains in the race, though his candidacy has been undercut from within his own party; Trump in a recent interview called him “not exactly prime time.”
Rough showing in polls
Speculation that Adams wouldn’t make it to Election Day has been rampant for a year. His campaign was severely wounded by both the bribery case and liberal anger over his warm relationship with President Donald Trump. He skipped the Democratic primary and got on the ballot as an independent.Polls conducted in early September illustrated his challenges. One poll by The New York Times and Siena University and another by Quinnipiac University showed likely voters favoring Mamdani over Cuomo, with Sliwa and Adams trailing further behind.The Quinnipiac poll suggested the gap between Mamdani and Cuomo could narrow if Adams dropped out. The Times/Siena poll suggested that if both Adams and Sliwa withdrew, Mamdani’s advantage over Cuomo could shrink even further.Sliwa, though, has repeatedly insisted he will not quit.“Curtis Sliwa is the only candidate who can defeat Mamdani,” his spokesperson, Daniel Kurzyna, said Sunday.In recent weeks, Trump administration intermediaries interested in blocking Mamdani’s path to victory by getting him into a one-on-one matchup with Cuomo had approached Adams to see if he could be coaxed out of the contest with an offer of a government job.Amid reports on those discussions, Adams called a news conference where he pledged to keep running and derided Cuomo and Mamdani as “spoiled brats.” Later, on social media, Adams called Cuomo “a liar and a snake.”
Indictment overshadows progress
Adams, 65, is the city’s second Black mayor. A former New York City police captain and Brooklyn borough president, he took office in 2022 promising to crack down on crime and revitalize a city still bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic.On his signature issue, he succeeded. Crime rates that ticked upward after COVID-19 hit the city have fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, though it’s unclear how much that had to do with Adams’ policies.But scandals and corruption probes have crippled Adams’ chances at another term.Over a head-spinning period of weeks last year, his police commissioner, schools chancellor and several deputy mayors resigned following a series of federal raids on their homes. None have faced criminal charges.Then, in late September, federal prosecutors brought fraud and bribery charges accusing Adams of accepting illegal campaign contributions and steep travel discounts from a Turkish official and others, and in exchange later accelerating the opening of Turkey’s diplomatic building, among other favors.
Trump intervenes
Adams denied wrongdoing and pledged to remain in office. He also began speaking warmly about Trump, then seen as having a growing chance of regaining the White House. He defended Trump in media briefings, urged his party to tone down rhetoric against the Republican and refrained from criticizing him.After Trump won, Adams met with Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan.Then, in February, Trump’s Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop the charges against Adams so the mayor could assist with the Republican president’s immigration agenda.The extraordinary intervention triggered fresh tumult in City Hall and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, with some of Adams’ closest allies suggesting he had struck a deal with the White House for his freedom.Adams announced he would skip the June Democratic primary but would stay in the race.In late August, Adams former top adviser who served as a campaign volunteer was hit with fresh bribery charges. Another former aide was removed from the campaign after handing a potato chip bag full of cash to a local reporter.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has endorsed Mamdani, said after Adams’ announcement that she has been proud to have worked with him for the past four years, adding in her statement that he leaves the city “better than he inherited it.”
This story has been corrected to reflect that Adams said “New Yorkers should choose leaders” by what they have delivered, not “leaders should choose leaders” by what they have delivered.
Jake Offenhartz and Anthony Izaguirre, Associated Press
