Big Lots has been through a wild ride since the home discount retail chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September.
In December 2024, the company announced that it would hold going-out-of-business sales at its remaining store locations. The following month, however, Big Lots announced that Variety Wholesalersa retail company based in North Carolinawould acquire and operate hundreds of existing Big Lots stores.
After a period of remodeling and restocking, Variety Wholesalers has since reopened 219 Big Lots stores in a handful of states. The openings took place in four waves, starting in April and ending in June. The final reopening phase concluded with the reopening of 78 Big Lots stores on June 5.
While return of Big Lots is good news for fans of the brand, it may be exposing some unsuspecting bargain hunters to scamsparticularly, for shoppers who prefer to buy things online.
Big Lots warns of online scams
Earlier this month, Big Lots took to social media to alert customers about the presence of online scams, explaining that its current website has no e-commerce component.
“BIG LOTS! no longer operates any ecommerce website,” the retailer wrote on its Facebook page. “These are scam websites using our name and logo. Any purchases made through these websites should be IMMEDIATELY reported to your bank or credit card company. Our official website is biglots.com.
The post attracted hundreds of comments, with some commenters saying they’d fallen victim to the bogus offers.
Scammers have been targeting consumers with online ads impersonating Big Lots. Links within these ads direct hopeful shoppers to fake websites that are not affiliated with the official retailer. Be aware that any advertisements promoting online Big Lots deals are not legitimate.
Some products are still listed on the official Big Lots website
A section of the retailer’s official website highlights products that Big Lots stores actually sell. Although there are no capabilities to make a purchase through the official Big Lots website, product listings include photos, descriptions, and prices.
Jeff King, vice president of sales and marketing for Variety Wholesalers, told Fast Company that the products listed on the Big Lots website are meant to illustrate the deals available in-store.
“We do have products listed on our website to show the great values on the large variety of products we carry in our stores,” he said. “We do this to encourage customers to visit our stores and see what deals they can find.”
Bottom line: It’s essential to be vigilant against online shopping scams. If you’re hoping to shop at Big Lots, you’ll need to visit a physical store.
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.
Bringing AI to the doctors appointment
AI in healthcare is top of mind this week, thanks to a viral story on Reddit about a man who said ChatGPT saved his wifes life. She had undergone a cyst removal and wasnt feeling well, but was on an antibiotic and decided to wait it out. After the man described her symptoms to ChatGPT, the chatbot advised him to take his wife to the ER. He didand likely saved her life. Doctors diagnosed her with sepsis.
Stories like these arent new. Over the past year, weve seen a number of ChatGPT-saved-my-life anecdotes popping up online. Meanwhile, two-thirds of doctors now reportedly use ChatGPT to help them home in on a diagnosis, often with good results.
The models powering ChatGPT are trained on medical textbooks, research journal articles, medical guidelines, and health websites such as WebMD. That training gives them broad knowledge of anatomy, diseases, symptoms, treatment options, and drug interactions. OpenAI also fine-tuned the models by using feedback from health professionals. While AI modelseven highly specialized onescant yet replace human doctors, researchers are working hard to improve their accuracy and reliability.
AI is also having an immediate impact in clinical documentationan area thats long been a pain point for doctors. Many physiciansespecially primary care doctorsspend an extra 90 minutes to three hours per day completing patient records. Combined with the pressure to see more patients, this contributes heavily to burnout.
Increasingly, health systems are deploying AI scribes to ease this burden. Such tools can record a patient encounter and generate summaries for the electronic medical record (EMR). The Cleveland Clinic, for example, implements a clinical documentation and point-of-care coding solution from San Francisco-based Ambience. Using Ambiences app (which itself is powered by OpenAI models), the clinician records a patient visit, reviews an AI-generated summary of everything discussed in the meeting (including the billing codes), then approves the notes for inclusion in the EMR.
According to Cleveland Clinics chief digital officer Rohit Chandra, 4,000 of the organizations physicians are already using the tool. It makes their jobs a ton easier, and it makes the patient interactions a lot better because now patients actually engage with the doctor, he says.
Looking ahead, AI scribes could go far beyond basic documentation. Future versions may be able to document a medical exam with full contextual knowledge of the patients history (past problems and conditions, treatments, tests, and medications). We believe that with some work and attention, AI will become smart enough to understand the fullness of a patient’s health journey, as opposed to just a discreet encounter, Chandra says.
For example, if a new condition arises during an exam, the AI might flag connections to prior complaints or lab results. It could help a physician prescribe new medications and guard against bad interactions in patients who may already be taking multiple drugs. The AI can also prepare a pre-read for the clinician: a summary of a patients current complaintin the context of the individuals past historythat a physician (who may have already seen 10 patients that day) can read outside the door of the exam room.
I’m hoping that we can keep building on the success that weve had so far to literally drive the documentation burden to zero, Chandra says. If we do that well, we should eliminate a huge handicap that currently sits around our doctors, and we can bring the joy back to caregivingthats a literal quote from a doctor.
And with so much promise for easing physician burnout and improving patient care, investors are taking note. Ambience raised a $70 millionB round in February 2024, co-led by KleinerPerkins and OpenAIs Startup Fund, reportedly putting its valuation at $1 billion.
Ambience competes with Abridge, which performs a similar function of transcribing physician-patient conversations. Like Ambience, it has an integration with the popular Epic electronic medical records platform. Abridge recently raised $300 million in a SeriesE funding at a $5.3billion valuation.
Health AI may have a breakout star in OpenEvidence
The healthcare industry moves very slowly, until it doesnt. A company called OpenEvidence is tackling clinical decision supportone of the most challenging areas in medicineand appears so far to be winning over doctors at an impressive pace. In February, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company reported that 250,000 U.S. doctors were already using its product, and by mid-June the number had climbed to 350,000. Some industry observers say its the fastest-growing platform for physicians in history. OpenEvidence recently closed a $75 million A round led by Sequoia Capital that pushed its valuation to $1 billion.
The product functions a bit like Perplexity, but for healthcare. Its an AI-powered search tool, along with a chatbot, that lets doctors keep asking questions until they get what they need. Specifically, the tool locates evidence-based medical information from peer-reviewed journals, then summarizes it to answer a given question. The platform searches across 35 million medical publications, and recently announced a strategic partnership with The New England Journal of Medicine, giving it access to decades of premium medical content. OpenEvidence also recently signed a multiyear deal with the JAMA Network that provides its AI tool with access to content from the networks 13 medical journals.
Unlike other platforms, OpenEvidence doesnt rely on random health information found on the open web. The outputs are grounded in trusted medical literature, and if the literature is inconclusive, OpenEvidence simply doesnt attempt an answer.
One of the hardest things about being a doctor . . . is that theyre expected to keep up with a fire hose of medical information, said OpenEvidence CEO Daniel Nadler in a recent podcast. So this is really not appreciated by people who are not doctors, but there are two new medical papers published every minute, 24 hours per day.
Hume AIs emotionally intelligent models are finding new applications in eldercare and mental health
Theres growing evidence that, for many people using AI chatbots, one of the main attractions is companionshipoften even a shoulder to cry on. For this to work well, a chatbot must have a easonable amount of common sense (to help users keep their problems in perspective), but also strong emotional intelligence, especially empathy. New York-based Hume AI specializes in emotionally intelligent AI voice models. CEO Alan Cowen told me that these models enable a chatbot to detect the users emotional state and respond appropriately. The models can also speak and listen simultaneously, allowing the AI to fully process what the user is sayingand know when to stop talking and simply listen.
One of the most compelling applications of Hume AIs emotionally intelligent AI voices is a smartphone app called EverFriends, which provides conversation and companionship to seniors struggling with isolation and loneliness. Grand Rapids-based EverFriends.ai, the apps developer, believes its critical that the app can detect a users mood and adapt its tone and responses accordingly. For users with dementia, the app can slow down its speech and repeat its outputs when needed. Along with companionship, EverFriends can help older users remember to take medications, attend appointments, and do home health routines such as balance exercises. And the app can automatically send out an emergency alert to caregivers or family if something goes wrong.
Hume also supplies the EQ AI behind a platform called Hpy, which is used by therapists. The platform serves as a scribe by listening in on therapy sessions and generating comprehensive session notes, which cuts down on the time therapists must spend on documentation. While creating the notes, Hpy also draws on Humes Expression Measurement API to detect emotional cues in the clients wordsinsights that may shape the therapists approach. Finally, Hpy uses Humes Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) to give clients an AI companion to talk to between sessions with the human therapist. Clients can have guided sessions with the AI voice to work on specific therapeutic goals, or just have an open conversation with the AI. The AI, in turn, is able to maintain a meaningful dialogue, thanks to its awareness of the clients needs from earlier sessions.
More AI coverage from Fast Company:
The AI baby boom is here. But can ChatGPT really raise a child?
Anthropics AI copyright win is more complicated than it looks
Ive become an AI vibe coding convert
Genesys wants agentic AI to make customer service less robotic
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As you scroll through your FYP, a sweet elderly man or woman appears, asking for a moment of your attention to help save their struggling animal shelter.
Please stay 8 seconds so I dont have to shut down my cat shelter I poured my love into, the text on screen reads. You stay and watch. After all, its only eight seconds. Maybe you even buy the slippers theyre selling to raise additional funds.
Its a scam.
The man in the video is real, but he doesnt run an animal shelter. He owns a menswear and tailoring shop in Canton, Ohio.
One night I was scrolling on TikTok watching videos and I see my dads face pop up, saying Stay for a few seconds and help my husband or grandpas cat shelter, And Im like, What? Daisy Yelicheck told WMBF News. Then Im getting text messages from family members across the country, saying, Do you know your dads being used in these videos?
Daisys father, George Tsaftarides, 84, does post on TikTok, where he teaches his 41,000 followers how to sew. Now, bad actors have taken his content, edited it, and used it for their own gain.
@georgethemastertailor
Tsaftarides isnt the only target. Charles Ray, an 85-year-old retiree in Michigan, has also had videos from his TikTok account repurposed without his permission. In one instance, scammers used a clip of him rubbing his eye, making it look as if he was crying, he told The Guardian.
TikTok, in a statement to the Guardian, said its community guidelines prohibit impersonation accounts and content that violates intellectual property rights. Still, both Tsaftarides and Ray have had difficulty getting the stolen videos removed, even after reporting them.
Beyond stolen content, the Better Business Bureau has received reports of AI-generated scams designed to solicit fake donations. According to an FBI report, American consumers lost $12.5 billion to cybercrime last year, a 25% increase from the year before.
Now, some TikTok users are stepping in to raise awareness, warning others not to fall for every cat shelter or cow farm asking for donations. The sob story, after all, is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
@sesagraham wtf is going on and shame on you @MilkStep @KittyBags @LINK IN BIO TO SUPPORT #scammer #fakepages #help #scam #scammers original sound – Sesa
Israel and Iran seemed to honor the fragile ceasefire between them for a second day Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace.Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going “very well,” and added that Iran was “not going to have a bomb, and they’re not going to enrich.”Iran has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog that has monitored the program for years.Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for refusing “to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” that the U.S. carried out Sunday.“For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will move forward at a faster pace,” Qalibaf told lawmakers.IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he wrote to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the U.S. strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to reassess the country’s stockpiles.“We need to return,” he said. “We need to engage.”French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. France was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear program, but the agreement began unraveling after Trump pulled the U.S. out in his first term. Macron spoke multiple times to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the war.International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that Iran must quickly resume cooperation with international inspectors, telling French broadcaster France 2 that the IAEA had lost visibility over sensitive nuclear materials since the onset of hostilities.Grossi said Iran is legally obligated to cooperate with the IAEA under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.“During a war, inspections are not possible. But now that hostilities have ceased, and given the sensitivity of this material, I believe it is in everyone’s interest that we resume our activities as soon as possible,” he said.Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged.
Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes
The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the U.S. and Israeli strikes have “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” It did not give evidence to back up its claim.The U.S. strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said “completely and fully obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. When asked about a U.S. intelligence report that found Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage.“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, refusing to go into detail.He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy program.“Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances,” he said.Witkoff said late Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that Israel and the U.S. had achieved their objective with “the total destruction of the enrichment capacity” in Iran, and Iran’s prerequisite for talks that Israel end its campaign had been fulfilled.“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “No one’s shooting at each other. It’s over.”
Hopes for a long-term peace agreement
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to “quiet for quiet,” with no further understandings about Iran’s nuclear program going ahead.Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land “a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire.”“We’re already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,” Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising.However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had “torpedoed diplomacy” with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority.“We have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they’re talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country,” he said.Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution.“Out of the bad things that military conflict brings, there’s also now a possibility, an opening,” he said. “We shouldn’t miss that opportunity.”
A rare video by Mossad
Israel revealed details of the intelligence and covert operations that it said allowed the country to effectively target Iranian military commanders,nuclear scientists and key facilities.In a rare video released by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over years to achieve what was “unimaginable at first.”“Thanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the air force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat,” the agency said in a Facebook post alongside the video.Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, asserted that commandos had operated secretly “deep inside enemy territory” during the war.Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476.The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces.At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials.In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday.
Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Chris Megerian and Sylvie Corbet in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press
Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported slightly stronger second-quarter profit on Thursday, an encouraging sign as CEO Daniel Erver tries to attract more shoppers with trendier clothes.
H&M shares were up 4% by 1000 GMT as investors focused on the profit rather than second-quarter sales, which fell slightly more than predicted. Erver has said his focus is on profitability rather than solely sales growth.
The world’s second-largest listed fashion retailer also said it expected sales in June, measured in local currencies, to rise 3%, an improvement after a 6% fall in the same period a year ago.
“Our collections are more current, they are more on trend, more fashionable, and the customer reception has been strong throughout this quarter,” Erver said in a press conference.
Erver said gingham and check patterned dresses, blouses and skirts have been especially popular this season, with the trend continuing into the autumn. Accessories sales have picked up, with social media also driving a craze for mini-accessories on bags, sneakers, and cellphones, he said.
In the U.S., where H&M has around 500 stores, Erver said consumer sentiment has dropped significantly due to the “turbulent” tariffs situation since President Donald Trump hiked duties on imports, and competitors have started raising prices as a result.
H&M, which sources its products primarily from China and Bangladesh, is focused on keeping prices competitive, Erver said, as consumers are particularly price-sensitive given uncertainty around the economy in the U.S. and globally.
H&M’s sales were 56.7 billion Swedish crowns ($5.99 billion) in the March to May quarter, down from 59.6 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast revenue of 57.0 billion crowns.
Zara owner Inditex earlier this month also reported disappointing sales, in a sign consumers are pulling back from spending on clothes as U.S. tariffs create risks for global economic growth.
H&M’s second-quarter operating profit was 5.91 billion crowns, beating analysts’ forecast of 5.88 billion, and the operating profit margin was 10.4%, down from 11.9% a year ago but still better than analysts had feared.
“The slightly better than expected margin delivery sends a positive signal to the market,” said Alphavalue analyst Jie Zhang. “The brand upgrading strategy has started to pay off.”
H&M said its higher-priced brand COS had done especially well and shoppers are opting for more medium- and high-priced items across the board, helping to boost profitability.
But Erver flagged more discounting in the June to August quarter as he said summer markdowns across the market were highly competitive.
Even as it reduces store numbers globally, H&M is also searching for growth in new markets with a growing middle class, with plans to open its first stores in Brazil in the second half, as well as in El Salvador and Venezuela, and to launch in Paraguay next year.
($1 = 9.4635 Swedish crowns)
Greta Rosen Fondahn and Helen Reid, Reuters
On Tuesday, New Yorkers lined up to cast their vote in the city’s Democratic primaries, hoping to elect its next mayoral candidate nominee. But while some turned to the polls, others took to election bettingand made thousands along the way.
In the weeks before the election, the race seemed to be between two candidates: former governor Andrew Cuomo, who left office following sexual harassment allegations in 2021, and state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
As votes started to kick in on Tuesday for the first round of the ranked-choice election, the race seemed uncertain. Early polling showed Cuomo leading the way by at least a 12-point lead weeks before. Yet tides quickly shifted, with a recent Emerson poll showing a statistical tie between the candidates.
As the votes were counted, Mamdani surged as the likely nominee with Cuomo conceding later in the night.
But before that happened, the internet had already crowned its winner on the prediction market trading platform Kalshi, where U.S. users can bet on current events like yesterday’s elections.
“Zohran had one of the most impressive runs we’ve ever seen on Kalshi,” Jack Such, business and media development lead at Kalshi, told Fast Company. “He was at 7% to win this earlier, less than a month ago.”
What is election betting?
Election betting is like betting on any other current events, positing the probability of one event happening over another. Still, it is a somewhat recent phenomenon.
Kalshi operates like a stock market, with two parties on each side, some buying or selling sharesor bets in this case. Each “yes” or “no” contract is capped at $1 dollar, usually going between zero and 99 cents, with the price reflecting the probability of an event happening according the bets.
Election betting gained notoriety during last year’s presidential election, bringing in upwards of $3.6 billion to Polymarket, another betting platform that supposedly does not allow U.S. users.
While criticism surrounds the ethics of the practice, as some argue that it may commodify decision-making and it does not promote responsible participation, it seems as if it is poised to grow. Just a day after the New York election, Kalshi hit a $2 billion valuation following a recent funding round.
Additionally, the live aspect of the projection is attracting the attention of users yearning for faster results.
Kalshi’s projection showed Mamdani surpassing Cuomo as soon as 9 a.m. that morning. While the projection fluctuated during the day, the platform called the election in favor of Mamdani at 9:43 p.m. on social media, before Cuomo conceded.
“People who just want to know who wins love the markets because they just work faster than anything else,” Such says.
Kalshi calls a victory once one of the sides reaches 99 cents for at least 10 minutes. “It’s basically like a 99% confidence interval,” Such says. “It indicates that this market is going to resolve a certain way.”
High returns
For those who jumped on the election market and bet on Mamdani early, returns will prove financially beneficial should Mamdani become the Democratic nominee for mayor as expected.
The best single trade for the market will see a payout of $85,650, as the trader bet $3,426 in favor of Mamdani when his probability to win was just 4%.
Another user commented on the market saying, “I want to thank all the unimaginative centrists out there,” following his $41,099 payout.
During the election, the market had a live voting count powered by Decision Desk HQ, showcasing voting results in real time for users to follow. However, not all bets are made solely based on polls and electoral results, Such explained.
For instance, Kalshi reported that 71% of pro-Mamdani bets were placed by women users, echoing the popular “hot girls for Zohran” grassroots movement.
“What makes prediction markets efficient is this ability to aggregate all the information that’s available,” Such says. “like polling data, but also everything else: sentiment, what your neighbors think, what your family thinks.”
While completing a master’s degree in data analysis, Palwasha Zahid moved from Dallas to a town near Silicon Valley. The location made it easy to visit the campuses of tech stalwarts such as Google, Apple, and Nvidia.Zahid, 25, completed her studies in December, but so far she hasn’t found a job in the industry that surrounds her.“It stings a little bit,” she said. “I never imagined it would be this difficult just to get a foot in the door.”Young people graduating from college this spring and summer are facing one of the toughest job markets in more than a decade. The unemployment rate for degree holders ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years, excluding the coronavirus pandemic. Joblessness among that group is now higher than the overall unemployment rate, and the gap is larger than it has been in more than three decades.The rise in unemployment has worried many economists as well as officials at the Federal Reserve because it could be an early sign of trouble for the economy. It suggests businesses are holding off on hiring new workers because of rampant uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s tariff increases, which could slow growth.“Young people are bearing the brunt of a lot of economic uncertainty,” Brad Hersbein, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute, a labor-focused think tank, said. “The people that you often are most hesitant in hiring when economic conditions are uncertain are entry-level positions.”The growth of artifical intelligence may be playing an additional role by eating away at positions for beginners in white-collar professions such as information technology, finance, and law.Higher unemployment for younger graduates has also renewed concerns about the value of a college degree. More workers than ever have a four-year degree, which makes it less of a distinguishing factor in job applications. Murat Tasci, an economist at JPMorgan, calculates that 45% of workers have a four-year degree, up from 26% in 1992.While the difficulty of finding work has demoralized young people like Zahid, most economists argue that holding a college degree still offers clear lifetime benefits. Graduates earn higher pay and experience much less unemployment over their lifetimes.The overall U.S. unemployment rate is a still-low 4.2%, and the government’s monthly jobs reports show the economy is generating modest job gains. But the additional jobs are concentrated in health care, government, and restaurants and hotels. Job gains in professions with more college grads, such as information technology, legal services, and accounting have languished in the past 12 months.The unemployment rate has stayed low mostly because layoffs are still relatively rare. The actual hiring ratenew hires as a percentage of all jobshas fallen to 2014 levels, when the unemployment rate was much higher, at 6.2%. Economists call it a no-hire, no-fire economy.For college graduates 22 to 27 years old, the unemployment rate was 5.8% in Marchthe highest, excluding the pandemic, since 2012, and far above the nationwide rate.Lexie Lindo, 23, saw how reluctant companies were to hire while applying for more than 100 jobs last summer and fall after graduating from Clark Atlanta University with a business degree and 3.8 GPA. She had several summer internships in fields such as logistics and real estate while getting her degree, but no offer came.“Nobody was taking interviews or responding back to any applications that I filled out,” Lindo, who is from Auburn, Georgia, said. “My résumé is full, there’s no gaps or anything. Every summer I’m doing something. It’s just, ‘OK, so what else are you looking for?'”She has returned to Clark for a master’s program in supply chain studies and has an internship this summer at a Fortune 500 company in Austin, Texas. She’s hopeful it will lead to a job next year.Artificial intelligence could be a culprit, particularly in IT. Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, has calculated that employment for college graduates 28 and above in computer science and mathematical occupations has increased a slight 0.8% since 2022. For those ages 22 to 27, it has fallen 8%, according to Martin.Company announcements have further fueled concerns. Tobi Lutke, CEO of online commerce software company Shopify, said in an April memo that before requesting new hires, “teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”Last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI would likely reduce the company’s corporate work force over the next few years.“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a message to employees. “We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”Zahid worries that AI is hurting her chances. She remembers seeing big billboard ads for AI at the San Francisco airport that asked, “Why hire a human when you could use AI?”Still, many economists argue that blaming AI is premature. Most companies are in the early stages of adopting the technology.Professional networking platform LinkedIn categorized occupations based on their exposure to AI and did not see big hiring differences between professions where AI was more prevalent and where it wasn’t, said Kory Kantenga, the firm’s head of economics for the Americas.“We don’t see any broad-based evidence that AI is having a disproportionate impact in the labor market or even a disproportionate impact on younger workers versus older workers,” Kantenga said.He added that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have also slowed hiring in tech. Many IT firms expanded when the Fed pinned its short-term rate at nearly zero after the pandemic. In 2022, the Fed began cranking up rates to combat inflation, which made it harder to borrow and grow.In fact, IT’s hiring spree when rates were lowfueled by millions of Americans ramping up their online shopping and video conferencingleft many firms with too many workers, economists say.Cory Stahle, an economist at the job-listings website Indeed, says postings for software development jobs, for example, have fallen 40% compared with four years ago. It’s a sharp shift for students who began studying computer science when hiring was near its peak.Zahid, who lives in Dublin, California, has experienced this whiplash firsthand. When she entered college in 2019, her father, who is a network engineer, encouraged her to study IT and said it would be easy for her to get a job in the field.She initially studied psychology but decided she wanted something more hands-on and gravitated to data analysis. Her husband, 33, has a software development job, and friends of hers in IT received immediate job offers upon graduation a few years ago. Such rapid hiring seems to have disappeared now, she said.She has her college diploma, but hasn’t hung it up yet.“ will put it up when I actually get a job, confirming that it was worth it all,” she said.
AP Writer Matt Sedensky in New York contributed to this report.
Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
Robotaxis are crashing into the rideshare market.
Drivers for apps like Uber and Lyft are growing worried about autonomous vehicles. Waymo has already deployed their vehicles across a handful of cities, taking riders from place to place without the need for a human driver. Waymo partnered with Uber in Austin, where Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the robotaxis were busier than over 99% of all drivers. The gig workers worry that their demand may be crushed, or that their wages and tips will be suppressed, thanks to the growing self-driving alternative.
As Lyft dips into the AV race, the rideshare company is hoping to involve its drivers directly into the process. Lyfts new Driver Autonomous Forum will convene 6 to 10 drivers to discuss individual points of challenge in the AV expansion. Lyft envisions the program as a direct channel between drivers and senior leadership. The first will be held in Atlanta, where Lyft is soon debuting their partnership with May Mobility.
We know AVs are going to transform the transportation network business, and we know this is something that drivers who come to Lyft care about deeply, Jeremy Bird, Lyfts executive vice president of driver experience, writes in an email to Fast Company. We wanted to create an intentional, structured way to gather their feedback on how we can innovate in a human-centered way.
Inside the Lyft Driver Autonomous Forum
As Lyft debuts its Atlanta AV options, the company is looking for feedback. The company has no plans to eliminate human drivers entirely; Bird continuously refers to a hybrid economy of human-driven and autonomous vehicles. But Lyft understands that robotaxis will necessarily distort the rideshare labor market.
We’re using qualitative datathings like driver ratings and loyalty statusto identify drivers who are both highly qualified and invested in our shared success, Bird wrote. Some drivers will participate in multiple meetings to ensure continuity, while others will rotate in based on their specific expertise or regional knowledge.
Rideshare drivers have already seen their business hurt by robotaxis. Phoenix and Los Angeles are especially overloaded with Waymos. Drivers from those cities told Business Insider that they saw decreased earnings after the deployment, and that they had to focus on more lucrative airport trips to earn their living.
As these self-driving vehicles flood the market, part of the battle might be shifting gig-work drivers to other positions. Lyft understands this; the Driver Autonomous Forums will spend time discussing the growth of alternative work. Things like remote vehicle support, fleet management, or other roles we haven’t even thought of yet, Bird wrote.
How can rideshare companies prepare their drivers for robotaxis?
Most rideshare companies are unwilling to claim that their drivers will be directly replaced by robotaxis. In his email, Bird noted that AVs don’t just compete with drivers for a slice of the rideshare pie; they grow the pie. Ubers robotaxi chief Andrew McDonald previously said that there will be more Uber drivers in 10 years, not less.
But drivers are worried. Michele Dottin is a longtime rideshare driver and the executive director for education at the Independent Drivers Guild. She doesnt want to temper or collaborate on the robotaxi expansionshe wants to stop it.
How many hundreds of thousands of drivers are going to be out of work? Dottin asks. These vehicles wont be buying food. They wont be going to the grocery store or buying clothes. Not only does it affect our immediate economy, but it affects all the other industries that rely on people to go out and shop.
Dottin makes the comparison to the shift from in-person retail to e-commerce. Customers were told that the solution was more convenient. How many teenagers used those jobs in the summer to make a little money? Now theres nowhere for them to go, Dottin says. The drivers Dottin has spoken to arent just worried about a loss of incometheyre also worried about a loss of independence, just like those retail workers now relegated to an Amazon warehouse.
Lyft and Uber drivers operate in the gig economy, where their work is highly variable. According to a 2015 survey, 69% of Uber drivers had other part-time or full-time jobsa number experts expect has increased in the proceeding decade. In high-cost New York City, the average Uber driver makes about $32 per hour, though their income varies based on the time and distances they drive, as well as how many rides they take on.
Because of the variable market, Andrew Garin cautions against thinking of robotaxi replacement as job loss. Garin studies the gig economy as an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. His research demonstrates that ridesharing is not the primary job for most drivers. Drivers may not be losing their 9-to-5, but they could be losing an income stream.
Its going to be hard to make the same living you did when there were great jobs waiting every second when you drop someone off, Garin says. So yes, its going to cut into that.
Lyfts Driver Autonomous Forum isnt going to change these market conditions. It wont stop the shifting demands for a labor market already hit hard by COVID-19, and it wont make sure high-tipping riders are always available for human drivers. But it will, at a minimum, hear them out.
We’re committed to managing this transition in a way that continues to support drivers who come to our platform and recognizes their enormous contributions, Bird wrote.
Shares of Nvidia Corp (Nasdaq: NVDA) reached a new record high on Thursday in premarket trading.
As of the time of writing, the stock had peaked at $156.99 before slightly sliding to $156.68. The uptick follows Wednesdays all-time high closing price of $154.31, which rose to $154.59 in after-hours trading.
DeepSeek and tariffs worried investors earlier this year
Nvidia has been a de facto representative of AI investment in the market. It reached a high of $153.13 in early January, but its shares soon tumbled alongside Chinas success with AI company DeepSeek and uncertainty around tariffs. DeepSeek used Nvidia chips to build its AI systems despite the United States banning their sale to China.
The stock hit a low of $86.62 on April 7, just five days after President Trumps Liberation Day, on which he announced a series of tariffs worldwide.
But now, at nearly double that price, it has recovered its lossesand signaled a renewed investment in AI. However, it comes as the dollar hits a three-year low after reports that Trump will move up his selection of a new Federal Reserve chair, the Wall Street Journal reports.
What’s fueling Nvidia’s recent rally?
The chipmakers current ascension was fueled in part by Loop Capitals decision yesterday to raise its price target from $175 to $250. Our work suggests we are entering the next Golden Wave of Gen AI adoption, and NVDA is at the front-end of another material leg of stronger than anticipated demand, Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah stated in a client note, according to Reuters.
Helped along by Nvidias 4% rise on Wednesday, the Nasdaq composite also neared its record high with a 0.3% increase.
Oprah Winfrey arrived in Venice on Thursday, leading a star-studded guest list of celebrities descending on the lagoon city for the weekend wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez.Winfrey’s private jet landed at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. Former American footballer Tom Brady arrived soon thereafter.The bride and groom pulled into the Aman Hotel dock on the Grand Canal on Wednesday, traveling via water taxi with security boats in tow. A few hours later they slipped out of the hotel, with Sánchez wearing a sleek black and white striped, one-shoulder gown.The details of the nuptials have been a tightly kept secret, though the locations now appear to have firmed up as has the guest list.Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and their three children arrived Wednesday.Other celebrities on the guest list, according to two people close to the wedding who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, include: Kim Kardashian Mick Jagger Leonardo DiCaprio Orlando Bloom Microsoft founder Bill Gates Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller Katy Perry had originally been expected but the latest update had her as not attending.The wedding has divided Venice, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.One group called Extinction Rebellion staged a small protest in St. Mark’s Square on Thursday featuring a masked bride and groom and people holding posters decrying climate change and income inequalities.“The planet is burning but don’t worry, here’s the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sanchez,” read one, a reference to the bride’s reported wedding weekend wardrobe.Protesters said that their plans to disrupt the arrivals of guests at one of the wedding venues forced organizers to move the event to the more secure Arsenale area beyond Venice’s congested center.The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as keeping with Venice’s tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.“We will always respect the right to speak out, but we reject every form of intolerance and prejudice,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in Thursday’s edition of Italian newspaper Il Foglio Quotidiano. “No one in Venice can claim the right of deciding who can enter, who can love, who can celebrate.”
Luca Bruno, Associated Press
