The Federal Reserves favored inflation gauge accelerated slightly in August from a year earlier.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index was up 2.7% in August from a year earlier, a tick higher from a 2.6% year-over-year increase in July and the most since February.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation showed a 2.9% increase in prices from August 2024, the same as in July. The increases were what forecasters had expected.
Prices rose 0.3% from July, compared to a 0.2% increase the month before. Core prices rose 0.2%, the same as in July.
Separately, the report showed that inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose a healthy 0.4% from July, the same as the month before, largely on a 0.7% increase in spending for goods; spending on services such as travel and dining out rose just 0.2%.
The resilience of the U.S. consumer was on show once again,” Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics wrote, though he cautioned that spending is being driven by households at the top of the income distribution.”
Incomes rose 0.4%, the same as the month before. Income for the self-employed and business owners rose 0.9% for the second straight month. Wages and salaries rose 0.3% from July, dipping from a 0.5% increase the month before.
Inflation has come down since rising prices prompted the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. But annual price gains remain stubbornly above the central banks 2% target.
Last week, the Fed went ahead and reduced the rate for the first time this year, lowering borrowing costs to help a deteriorating U.S. job market. But its been cautious about cutting, waiting to see what impact President Donald Trumps tariffs on imports have on inflation and the broader economy.
For months, Trump has relentlessly pushed the Fed to lower rates more aggressively, calling Fed Chair Jerome Powell Too Late and a moron and arguing that there is no inflation.
Last month, Trump sought to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Feds governing board, in an effort to gain greater control over the central bank. She has challenged her dismissal in court, and the Supreme Court will decide whether she can stay on the job while the case goes through the judicial system.
The Fed tends to favor the PCE inflation gauge that the government issued Friday over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.
By Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
Christine Renauld, CEO and Co-founder of Braindate, discusses how her app is revolutionizing networking by turning it into purposeful, meaningful conversations.
Don’t look now, but President Trump just issued more sweeping tariffs. This latest round stands to affect two groups particularly hard: homeowners and furniture and home furnishing companies. Thats because the new round of Trumps tariffs will see up to 50% fees applied to kitchen cabinets and upholstered furniture imported into the United States. Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
Yesterday, the president of the United States took to his social media platform to announce another sweeping round of tariffs, including a 100% tariff on some pharmaceutical products and a 25% tariff on heavy trucks. But smack in the middle of those two high tariffs was another tariff Trump announced, this one of 50%.
The president said that from October 1, there will also be new, 50% tariffs on select home items, including bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, as well as other associated products. But Trump didnt stop there. He said that from the same date, there would also be 30% tariffs on upholstered furniture.
The reason for this is the large scale FLOODING of these products into the United States by other outside Countries, the president wrote. It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process.
While Trump said that pharmaceutical companies that are breaking ground on manufacturing facilities, or have facilities under construction, in the United States wont be hit with the 100% duties, he gave no indication that companies could escape the 50% kitchen cabinet and 30% upholstered furniture levies.
Swedish furniture company Ikea could be hit hard
Shortly after Trumps latest tariff announcements, Ikea tariff began trending on social media. Its easy to see why. The Swedish company Ikea is the most prominent name in the home furnishing space in America. The companys store locator tool lists more than 50 locations in the U.S.
Whats especially bad for Ikea is that relatively few of its products are manufactured in America. The company has previously said that only about 10% of the products it sells in the United States are made in North or South America. Roughly 90% of its products are imported from overseas.
In a FAQ on Ikeas Spanish website, the company says that it has over 1,200 furniture suppliers around the world, and notes that The five countries that supply the majority of products and services to Ikea are China, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden.
Given the number of products that Ikea sells that would be covered under Trumps new 30% to 50% tariffs, the company now risks a major hit to its margins in the United States.
Fast Company has reached out to Ikea for comment on how Trumps new tariffs will affect the company.
What do the new tariffs mean for homeowners?
Of course, Ikea and similar home furnishing companies are the only ones Trumps new tariffs will hit hard. American homeowners and renters are likely to feel the pain of the new tariffs, too.
Its highly unlikely that Ikea, like most companies, will simply absorb the cost of the tariffs themselves. They will first try to offset some of those costs by asking for price concessions from their suppliers. However, the next step is usually to raise the prices of the tariffed items, so the end-buyerthe American consumerpays more for them.
This means that homeowners and renters seeking new furniture for their dwelling will likely see a hike in prices in the near future after the tariffs come into effect next Wednesday.
How are furniture and home furnishing stocks reacting?
Ikea is a private company, so its shares arent traded on the public markets. However, there are plenty of other publicly traded furniture and home furnishing companies. Surprisingly, many of their investors seem to be taking the news pretty well.
Most of the stock prices of the home furnishing companies below are trading relatively flat as of the Time of this writing.
Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSET): up 2.4%
Hooker Furnishings Corporation (Nasdaq: HOFT): down 1.6%
La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE: LZB): up 1.6%
RH (NYSE: RH): down 0.7%
Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W): up 0.2%
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM): down 1.6%
One reason for the general steadiness of these stocks may be that investors have become almost desensitized to the near-weekly tariff announcements from the president. Additionally, in November, the Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge regarding the constitutionality of Trump’s levying tariffs against countries and industriesa power historically reserved for Congress.
If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, all of the tariffs he imposedincluding the home furnishing ones this weekcould be revoked.
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Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman issued a housing market warning during a speech at the Kentucky Bankers Association Annual Convention in Asheville, North Carolina on September 23.
Bowman noted that housing activity has slowed significantly, with declines in single-family construction and sales coinciding with rising inventories and falling house prices in many markets.
Declines in housing activity, including single-family home construction and sales, have been accompanied by higher inventories of homes for sale and falling house prices, suggesting that housing demand has also weakened, Bowman said. Elevated mortgage rates may be exerting a more persistent drag as income growth expectations have declined while house prices remain high relative to rents.
The result has been persistently low housing affordabilitya factor that has kept existing home sales depressed since 2023, stuck near levels last seen in the early 2010s in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
“Given very low housing affordability, existing home sales have remained depressed since 2023, and at levels only comparable with the early 2010s following the financial crisis. I am concerned that, in the current environment, declines in house prices could accelerate, posing downside risks to housing valuations, construction, and inflation,” Bowman cautioned.
Her comments underscore growing unease within the Fed about the housing sectors trajectory. While the central bank has held interest rates at elevated levels to bring inflation back toward its 2% target, the cost of borrowing has cooled housing demand more deeply than some policymakers expected.
If Bowman is right and a sharper decline in home prices materializes, it could ripple across the economy, weakening household balance sheets and slowing residential constructiona sector that has historically helped pull the broader economy out of downturns. Her remarks suggest that policymakers are increasingly weighing how housing stress could complicate the Feds path forward on rates, particularly if falling home values begin to weigh more heavily on consumer spending and confidence.
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Whats happening to house prices right now?
According to ResiClubs analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, U.S. home prices are down -0.01% year-over-year between August 2024 and August 2025. That rate has deceleratedback in August 2024, the year-over-year national home price growth rate was +2.5%.
As ResiClub has documented, this year weve been amid a widespread softening. “Widespread softening” here doesnt mean home prices are falling in every marketthey arent. Rather, it means home price growth has decelerated across most markets, and more markets are seeing home price declines compared to a year ago.
On a regional and local level, home price shifts vary significantly right now.
Some regional housing markets in states such as Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, and Louisiana, where inventory has risen above pre-pandemic 2019 levels, are experiencing mild home price corrections. Meanwhile, tight-ish inventory markets in some pockets of the Northeast and Midwest remain resilient-ish, with home prices pushing up a little this spring.
Precision agriculture uses tools and technologies such as GPS and sensors to monitor, measure, and respond to changes within a farm field in real time. This includes using artificial intelligence technologies for tasks such as helping farmers apply pesticides only where and when they are needed.
However, precision agriculture has not been widely implemented in many rural areas of the United States.
We study smart communities, environmental health sciences, and health policy and community health, and we participated in a research project on AI and pesticide use in a rural Georgia agricultural community.
Our team, led by Georgia Southern University and the City of Millen, with support from University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, local high schools and agriculture technology company FarmSense, is piloting AI-powered sensors to help cotton farmers optimize pesticide use. Georgia is one of the top cotton-producing states in the U.S., with cotton contributing nearly US$1 billion to the states economy in 2024. But only 13% of Georgia farmers use precision agriculture practices.
Public-private-academic partnership
Innovation drives economic growth, but access to it often stops at major city limits. Smaller and rural communities are frequently left out, lacking the funding, partnerships and technical resources that fuel progress elsewhere.
At the same time, 75% of generative AIs projected economic impact is concentrated in customer operations, marketing, software engineering and research and development, according to a 2023 McKinsey report. In contrast, applications of AI that improve infrastructure, food systems, safety and health remain underexplored.
Yet smaller and rural communities are rich in potentialhome to anchor institutions like small businesses, civic groups and schools that are deeply invested in their communities. And that potential could be tapped to develop AI applications that fall outside of traditional corporate domains.
The Partnership for Innovation, a coalition of people and organizations from academia, government and industry, helps bridge that gap. Since its launch almost five years ago, the Partnership for Innovation has supported 220 projects across Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and Alabama, partnering with more than 300 communities on challenges from energy poverty to river safety.
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One Partnership for Innovation program provides seed funding and technical support for community research teams. This support enables local problem-solving that strengthens both research scholarship and community outcomes. The program has recently focused on the role of civic artificial intelligence AI that supports communities and local governments. Our project on cotton field pesticide use is part of this program.
Cotton pests and pesticides
Our project in Jenkins County, Georgia, is testing that potential. Jenkins County, with a population of around 8,700, is among the top 25 cotton-growing counties in the state. In 2024, approximately 1.1 million acres of land in Georgia were planted with cotton, and based on the 2022 agricultural county profiles census, Jenkins County ranked 173rd out of the 765 counties producing cotton in the United States.
The state benefits from fertile soils, a subtropical-to-temperate climate, and abundant natural resources, all of which support a thriving agricultural industry. But these same conditions also foster pests and diseases.
Farmers in Jenkins County, like many farmers, face numerous insect infestations, including stink bugs, cotton bollworms, corn earworms, tarnished plant bugs and aphids. Farmers make heavy use of pesticides. Without precise data on the bugs, farmers end up using more pesticides than they likely need, risking residents health and adding costs.
While there are some existing tools for integrated pest management, such as the Georgia Cotton Insect Advisor app, they are not widely adopted and are limited to certain bugs. Other methods, such as traditional manual scouting and using sticky traps, are labor-intensive and time-consuming, particularly in the hot summer climate.
Our research team set out to combine AI-based early pest detection methods with existing integrated pest management practices and the insect advisor app. The goal was to significantly improve pest detection, decrease pesticide exposure levels and reduce insecticide use on cotton farms in Jenkins County. The work compares different insect monitoring methods and assesses pesticide levels in both the fields and nearby semi-urban areas.
We selected eight large cotton fields operated by local farmers in Millen, four active and four control sites, to collect environmental samples before farmers began planting cotton and applying pesticides.
The team was aided by a new AI-based insect monitoring system called the FlightSensor by FarmSense. The system uses a machine learning algorithm that was trained to recognize the unique wingbeats of each pest insect species. The specialized trap is equipped with infrared optical sensors that project an invisible infrared light beam called a light curtain across the entrance of a triangular tunnel. A sensor monitors the light curtain and uses the mahine learning algorithm to identify each pest species as insects fly into the trap.
FlightSensor provides information on the prevalence of targeted insects, giving farmers an alternative to traditional manual insect scouting. The information enables the farmers to adjust their pesticide-spraying frequency to match the need.
What weve learned
Here are three things we have learned so far:
1. Predictive pest control potential AI tools can help farmers pinpoint exactly where pest outbreaks are likelybefore they happen. That means they can treat only the areas that need it, saving time, labor and pesticide costs. Its a shift from blanket spraying to precision farming and its a skill farmers can use season after season.
2. Stronger decision-making for farmers The preliminary results indicate that the proposed sensors can effectively monitor insect populations specific to cotton farms. Even after the sensors are gone, farmers who used them get better at spotting pests. Thats because the AI dashboards and mobile apps help them see how pest populations grow over time and respond to different field conditions. Researchers also have the ability to access this data remotely through satellite-based monitoring platforms on their computers, further enhancing the collaboration and learning.
3. Building local agtech talent Training students and farmers on AI pest detection is doing more than protecting cotton crops. Its building digital literacy, opening doors to agtech careers and preparing communities for future innovation. The same tools could help local governments manage mosquitoes and ticks and open up more agtech innovations.
Blueprint for rural innovation
By using AI to detect pests early and reduce pesticide use, the project aims to lower harmful residues in local soil and air while supporting more sustainable farming. This pilot project could be a blueprint for how rural communities use AI generally to boost agriculture, reduce public health risks, and build local expertise.
Just as important, this work encourages more civic AI applications grounded in real community needs that others can adopt and adapt elsewhere. AI and innovation do not need to be urban or corporate to have a significant effect, nor do you need advanced technology degrees to be innovative. With the right partnerships, small towns, too, can harness innovations for economic and community growth.
Debra Lam is a founding director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation and the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Atin Adhikari is a professor of biostatistics, epidemiology & environmental health sciences at Georgia Southern University.
James E. Thomas is a senior lecturer in health policy & community health at Georgia Southern University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Theres no doubt we are witnessing a quiet shift in labor: artificial intelligence is no longer confined to experimental labs or consumer chatbots, it is now eroding the foundation of human labor in ways that are less visible, but potentially more consequential, than the headlines about AI assistants or superintelligence.
Last week, Google abruptly terminated 200 AI contractors, many of them involved in annotation and evaluation work. Officially, the company described this as part of a ramp-down, but workers pointed mainly to low pay and job insecurity. What matters is that the roles being cut are precisely those that ensure human oversight of AI systems: the raters, annotators, and evaluators who form the invisible scaffolding of smart or intelligent products.
In parallel, at an Axios event, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI is on track to displace many white-collar jobs within five years. Not decades. Not in some speculative future. Within the next cycle of corporate planning, the world of professional work, from law, finance, consulting, or even management, may look very different.
From invisible work to invisible loss
For years, the human labor that powers AI has been hidden behind the curtain: underpaid annotators in developing countries, moderators exposed to traumatic content, contractors who quietly clean and structure data so models can be trained. These jobs were rarely acknowledged, let alone respected. Now they are being erased altogether, as companies shift from human-in-the-loop to automation-in-the-loop.
The question is not only about employment. It is about what disappears when we remove human judgment from the system. Annotators catch ambiguities, flag dangerous edge cases, and apply moral reasoning that models cannot replicate. Raters provide cultural and linguistic nuance. When those roles are automated away, the systems may still functionbut blind spots deepen, errors multiply, and biases are amplified. Efficiency rises, but resilience declines.
White-collar work on the clock
Amodeis warning points to a broader reality: AI is moving up the value chain: it is no longer confined to support tasks, it is encroaching on analysis, writing, design, and even decision-making. The professional classes that once considered themselves insulated from automation are now squarely in the crosshairs. If blue-collar workers were the first wave of technological displacement in the 20th century, white-collar workers may be the second in the 21st.
The rhetoric from tech leaders often frames this as an opportunity: liberation from drudgery, new roles created, productivity unleashed. But the record of previous technological shifts is sobering. Yes, new roles emerge, but not necessarily for the same people, in the same places, or at the same wages. The painful transition costs are borne not by shareholders but by workers.
Regulation in fragments
Governments are beginning to notice. Italy has just introduced an AI legislative package that tries to target harmful deepfakes, set workplace standards, and enhance child protections. It is among the first attempts to go beyond reactive guardrails and impose preemptive controls on how AI can be used. Whether this becomes a model for others remains uncertain.
Spain, by contrast, is coming up with a mixed model: on one hand, it has enacted laws requiring labeling of all AI-generated content with heavy fines and formed the AESIA (Spanish AI Supervisory Agency) to oversee compliance; on the other, it is also heavily subsidizing AI development and innovation. The tension is real: measures meant to protect truth and transparency may impose burdens on small startups; enforcement capacity is far from guaranteed; and legislative clarity lags behind technological change. The Spanish case exemplifies a border zone: regulation and innovation both encouraged, but not always reconciled.
The irony is that regulation is moving fastest on visible harms that generate social alarm such as deepfakes, disinformation, and child safety, while the invisible erosion of labor goes largely unaddressed. It is easier to ban a fake video than to confront a business model that treats human judgment as a disposable cost.
Efficiency is not ethics
This moment forces a deeper question: just because AI can replace a human ole, does it mean it should? Not every gain in efficiency is a gain in ethics. Removing moderators may cut costs, but at what price to safety? Automating evaluation may accelerate deployment, but at what risk of error? Displacing white-collar workers could improve the margin, but the costs to social stability are pretty clear. Are we all now behaving like Meta, moving fast and breaking things, focusing on profitability without paying attention to other potential consequences?
We should all exert some caution from a future in which AI not only mediates our information but also dictates our labor markets, silently restructuring what it means to be useful. Companies should not outsource that responsibility to regulators. They must recognize that the invisible revolution they are driving has significant human consequences, and those consequences will eventually come back to shape their own legitimacy.
The real invisible hand
The invisible hand in todays AI economy is not Adam Smiths market. It is the invisible labor that has powered machine learning, and the invisible losses that come when that labor is discarded. The layoffs at Google and the warnings from Anthropic are signals, not outliers. We are watching the early stages of a transformation that could redefine not just how we work, but what kinds of work society still values.
If companies want AI to be sustainable, they need to treat human judgment not as a temporary scaffold to be eliminated, but as a core component of systems that aspire to interact with the world. Without that, we risk building an economy where jobs are interchangeable, oversight is optional, and the human cost of efficiency is hidden until it is too late.
NBCUniversal may soon be pulling its programming from Google’s YouTube TV. The news comes as a dispute between the companies over carriage fees and terms is ramping up.
NBC began warning customers on Thursday evening that its programming would leave the streaming platform if the companies don’t reach an agreement by Sept. 30, the date its contract is set to renew. If a blackout were to occur, popular programs such as Sunday Night Football, The Voice, NBA games, and the Oct. 4 premiere of Saturday Night Live, wouldn’t be viewable on the platform.
However, a separate spat between YouTube TV and TelevisaUnivision comes at the same time, as both companies’ contracts are set for renewal on Sept. 30. If both networks pulled their programming, two major hispanic networks, Univision and NBCU-owned Telemundo, would no longer be accessible on the platform.
TelevisaUnivision alleged that YouTube TV was being discriminatory in an open letter published on Sept. 24. “YouTube TV will force millions of Hispanic viewers to pay an 18% premium a Hispanic tax to maintain access to trusted Spanish-language news, sports, and entertainment,” it said.
NBC issued its own statement on the dispute. “Google, with its $3 trillion market cap, already controls what Americans see online through search and adsnow it wants to control what we watch, NBC said, per Axios. YouTube TV has refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplaceall under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer.
NBCUniversal has never before pulled its programming from a streaming platform.
YouTube says it’s committed to negotiating with the network, but the price is too high. “NBCUniversal is asking us to pay more than what they charge consumers for the same content on Peacock, which would mean less flexibility and higher prices for our subscribers,” it said in a Sept. 25 statement. The company announced it would reimburse customers $10 if the blackout occurs for an extended time.
While the dispute could have big implications, it seems to mark a growing trend, as digital live TV providers, like YouTube TV which has more than 10 million subscribers, continue to grow. And it’s not the first time YouTube TV has dug its heels in. In August, the company said it would drop Fox Corp. channels if an agreement wasn’t reached ahead of football season.
The companies reached an agreement days later. “We have reached a short-term extension with Fox to prevent disruption to YouTube TV subscribers as we continue to work on a new agreement,” YouTube TV said in an Aug. 25 blog post. “We are committed to advocating on behalf of our subscribers as we work toward a fair deal and will keep you updated on our progress.”
Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s national carrier, has announced plans to add 225 Boeing aircraft to its fleet.In an a declaration to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Friday, the airline said it has decided to purchase 75 Boeing B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft and has completed negotiations with Boeing to acquire 150 737-8/10MAX models.The announcement was made a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.Turkish Airlines will place 50 confirmed and 25 optional orders for the B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft, scheduled for delivery between 2029 and 2034. The B787-9 and B787-10 are advanced, fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft designed for international travel, the airline said in a statement.The company is in negotiations with Rolls-Royce and GE Aerospace for the procurement of engines, spare parts and maintenance services for the aircraft, the statement said.Separately, Turkish Airlines said it has finalized negotiations with Boeing for 150 737-8/10MAX aircraft, with 100 confirmed and 50 optional, and will proceed with the order once talks with engine supplier CFM International are successfully concluded.Turkish Airlines operates one of the world’s largest flight networks.On Thursday, Trump signaled the U.S. may soon lift its hold on the sale of advanced fighter jets to Turkey, a NATO ally. During Trump’s first term, the U.S. removed Turkey from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 following Ankara’s purchase of a Russian-made air defense system.
Associated Press
A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots.U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court Thursday after the two sides worked to address his concerns about the settlement, which will pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement. It does not apply to future works.“This is a fair settlement,” Alsup said, though he added that distributing it to all parties will be “complicated.” About 465,000 books are on the list of works pirated by Anthropic, according to Justin Nelson, an attorney for the authors.“We have some of the best lawyers in America in this courtroom and if anyone can do it, you can,” Alsup said.The Association of American Publishers called the settlement a “major step in the right direction in holding AI developers accountable for reckless and unabashed infringement.”“Anthropic is hardly a special case when it comes to infringement. Every other major AI developer has trained their models on the backs of authors and publishers, and many have sourced those works from the most notorious infringing sites in the world,” said Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the publisher group.San Francisco-based Anthropic said it is pleased with the preliminary approval.“The decision will allow us to focus on developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems. As we’ve consistently maintained, the court’s landmark June ruling that AI training constitutes transformative fair use remains intact. This settlement simply resolves narrow claims about how certain materials were obtained,” said Aparna Sridhar, deputy general counsel at Anthropic.The Authors Guild, meanwhile, said the settlement “marks a milestone in authors’ fights against AI companies’ theft of their works. It sends a clear signal to AI companies that infringement of authors’ rights comes at a steep price and will undoubtedly push AI companies towards acquiring the books they want legally, through licensing.”A Monday filing sought to convince the judge that the parties have set up a system designed to get out robust notice to all authors and publishers covered by the agreement, ensuring they get their cut of the pot if they want to sign off on the settlement or opt out to protect their legal rights moving forward.They also tried to assure him that the author and publishers group that cobbled the deal together are not doing any “back room” dealings that would hurt lesser-known authors.Alsup’s main concern centered on how the claims process will be handled in an effort to ensure everyone eligible knows about it so the authors don’t “get the shaft.” He had set a September 22 deadline for submitting a claims form for him to review before Thursday’s hearing to review the settlement again.The judge had raised worries about two big groups connected to the case the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers working “behind the scenes” in ways that could pressure some authors to accept the settlement without fully understanding it.Attorneys for the authors said in Monday’s filing they believe the settlement will result in a high claims rate, respects existing contracts and is “consistent with due process” and the court’s guidance.Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites to help improve its Claude chatbot.Bestselling thriller novelist Andrea Bartz, who sued Anthropic with two other authors last year, said in a court declaration ahead of the hearing that she strongly supports the settlement and will work to explain its significance to fellow writers.“Together, authors and publishers are sending a message to AI companies: You are not above the law, and our intellectual property isn’t yours for the taking,” she wrote.Alsup also said in the courtroom Thursday that he plans to step down from the bench by the end of the year. President Bill Clinton nominated him for the federal bench in 1999.AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island.
Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will put import taxes of 100% on pharmaceutical drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, 30% on upholstered furniture and 25% on heavy trucks starting on Oct. 1.The posts on his social media site showed that Trump’s devotion to tariffs did not end with the trade frameworks and import taxes that were launched in August, a reflection of the president’s confidence that taxes will help to reduce the government’s budget deficit while increasing domestic manufacturing.While Trump did not provide a legal justification for the tariffs, he appeared to stretch the bounds of his role as commander-in-chief by stating on Truth Social that the taxes on imported kitchen cabinets and sofas were needed “for National Security and other reasons.”Under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the administration launched a Section 232 investigation in April about the impacts on national security from pharmaceutical drug and truck imports. The Commerce Department launched a 232 investigation into timber and lumber in March, though it’s unclear whether the furniture tariffs stem from that.The tariffs are another dose of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with a solid stock market but a weakening outlook for jobs and elevated inflation. These new taxes on imports could pass through to consumers in the form of higher prices and dampen hiring, a process that economic data suggests is already underway.“We have begun to see goods prices showing through into higher inflation,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned in a recent news conference, adding that higher costs for goods account for “most” or potentially “all” of the increase in inflation levels this year.The president has pressured Powell to resign, arguing that the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates more aggressively because inflation is no longer a concern. Fed officials have stayed cautious on rate cuts because of the uncertainty created by tariffs.Trump said on Truth Social that the pharmaceutical tariffs would not apply to companies that are building manufacturing plants in the United States, which he defined as either “breaking ground” or being “under construction.” It was unclear how the tariffs would apply to companies that already have factories in the U.S.In 2024, America imported nearly $233 billion in pharmaceutical and medicinal products, according to the Census Bureau. The prospect of prices doubling for some medicines could send shock waves to voters as health care expenses, as well as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, potentially increase.The pharmaceutical drug announcement was shocking as Trump has previously suggested that tariffs would be phased in over time so that companies had time to build factories and relocate production. On CNBC in August, Trump said he would start by charging a “small tariff” on pharmaceuticals and raise the rate over a year or more to 150% and even 250%.According to the White House, the threat of tariffs earlier this year contributed to many major pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, among others, to announce investments in U.S. production.Pascal Chan, vice president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans’ health with “immediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of patients rationing or foregoing essential medicines.”The new tariffs on cabinetry could further increase the costs for homebuilders at a time when many people seeking to buy a house feel priced out by the mix of housing shortages and high mortgage rates. The National Association of Realtors on Thursday said there were signs of price pressures easing as sales listings increased 11.7% in August from a year ago, but the median price for an existing home was $422,600.Trump said that foreign-made heavy trucks and parts are hurting domestic producers that need to be defended.“Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions,” Trump posted.Trump has long maintained that tariffs are the key to forcing companies to invest more in domestic factories. He has dismissed fears that importers would simply pass along much of the cost of the taxes to consumers and businesses in the form of higher prices.His broader country-by-country tariffs relied on declaring an economic emergency based on a 1977 law, a drastic tax hike that two federal courts said exceeded Trump’s authority as president. The Supreme Court is set to hear the case in November.The president continues to claim that inflation is no longer a challenge for the U.S. economy, despite evidence to the contrary. The consumer price index has increased 2.9% over the past 12 months, up from an annual pace of 2.3% in April, when Trump first launched a sweeping set of import taxes.Nor is there evidence that the tariffs are creating factory jobs or more construction of manufacturing facilities. Since April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that manufacturers cut 42,000 jobs and builders have downsized by 8,000.“There’s no inflation,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “We’re having unbelievable success.”Still, Trump also acknowledged that his tariffs against China had hurt American farmers, who lost out on sales of soybeans. The president separately promised on Thursday to divert tariff revenues to the farmers hurt by the conflict, just as he did during his first term in 2018 and 2019 when his tariffs led to retaliation against the agricultural sector.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
