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As the official celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence culminate on July 4, a well-financed, privately funded initiative will kick off to try to connect hundreds of millions of Americans with efforts to solve local problems. The “Be The People” campaign aspires to change the perception that the U.S. is hopelessly divided and that individuals have little power to overcome problems like poverty, addiction, violence, and stalled economic mobility. It also wants to move people to take action to solve those problems. Brian Hooks, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit network Stand Together, said the 250th anniversary is a unique moment to show people that they matter, that they have a part to play, and that the future is unwritten, but it depends on each one of us stepping up to play our part. Funded by a mix of 50 philanthropic foundations and individual donors, Be The People builds on research that indicates many people want to contribute to their communities but don’t know how. The initiative is targeting more than $200 million for its first year’s budget. Founding members range from nonprofits including GivingTuesday, Goodwill Industries, and Habitat for Humanity, businesses like Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and the National Basketball Association, to funders like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and More Perfect. Hooks said this is a 10-year commitment toward trying to achieve what would be a profound shift in behavior and culture. He referenced a 2024 Pew Research Center survey that found most Americans in 2023 and 2024 did not believe that the U.S. could solve its most important problems, saying it was a red alert for the country. Hooks said the initiative envisions actions far beyond volunteering or service that people could do in their free time. He pointed to a role for businesses and schools and said the initiative would launch a major data collection effort to track whether people are actually more engaged and whether problems are actually getting solved. Stand Together, which was founded by the billionaire Charles Koch, works across a broad range of issues and communities in the U.S. and has carved out a role for itself as a convener that can bring coalitions together across ideological lines. Be The People, will not incorporate as a new nonprofit, but act more like a banner for groups to organize under and use to connect to resources. As an example, at the Atlanta Hawks game on Monday, Martin Luther King III and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, linked a program they launched last year, Realize the Dream, which aims to increase acts of service, to the new campaign. Our vision is that Be The People helps lift up what is already happening in communities across the country and reminds people that service and shared responsibility are defining parts of the American story, the Kings said in a written statement. Asha Curran, the CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday, said small actions can build on each other like exercising a muscle. Our experience with GivingTuesday is that when people volunteer together, when people work together on something to do with positive social impact, they find it harder and harder to demonize each other, said Asha Curran, its CEO. The initiative comes against a backdrop of deep polarization, economic inequality, and the degradation of democratic norms and institutions in the U.S. Hahrie Han, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, has studied civic engagement and said people need more opportunities to authentically participate as problem solvers when connecting with local organizations. Theyre more likely to be invited into things where people are asked to let professional staff do most of the problem solving and they show up and give their time or their money, she said. The result is that people feel less committed and dont see their participation as helping to achieve their interests or goals. A growing number of private foundations have started funding issues related to the health of U.S. democracy, said Kristin Goss, a professor who directs the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke University. While foundations cannot participate in elections, Goss said they can influence policy or public opinion in other ways. Funders are getting more concerned about of the health of American democracy, the future of the democratic experiment and pluralism and inclusion, Goss said. Another group of funders, including the Freedom Together Foundation, launched a project last year to recognize people and groups who stand up for their communities, which they called a civic bravery award. In a November report, they issued a similar call for funders to invest in helping individuals organize together in response to a rise in authoritarianism. Hooks and the other leaders of Be The People have also convened major communications teams to help tell these stories, which they think are lost in the current information ecosystem. What were doing is were helping to lift up the story of Americans that is unfolding at the local level, but is not breaking through, Hooks said. So were holding up a mirror and a microphone to Americans to reveal to each other who we truly are. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. Thalia Beaty, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
All eyes are on Netflix, which is set to report fourth-quarter earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell. In the ongoing saga over whether Netflix will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the streaming giant is now offering to pay all cash for the deal, revising a previous bid that included a mix of stock with cash, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On Tuesday, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the amended agreement, which simplifies the deal for investors who no longer have to worry about Netflixs fluctuating stock price. The news comes as Netflix continues to stave off a hostile takeover bid from rival Skydance-owned Paramount, led by chief executive David Ellison, who has tried to blow up the deal. The acquisition deal would include Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio, along with HBO and HBO Max, a natural fit for Netflix. (Paramount had been offering an all-cash deal.) The saga started about six weeks ago in early December, when Netflix initially offered to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $27.75 per WBD share ($23.25 per share in cash, $4.50 in Netflix stock), which comes out to about $72 billion in equity value and totals $82.7 billion in enterprise value. Warner has repeatedly rebuffed Paramount’s offer. The WBD Board continues to support and unanimously recommend our transaction, and we are confident that it will deliver the best outcome for stockholders, consumers, creators, and the broader entertainment community, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement. The large scope of the megamerger “would reshape the entertainment industry,” according to CNN. And the back-and-forth developments have had both Wall Street and investors closely watching their share prices. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) was trading up nearly 1%, while Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD) was up 0.58%, to $28.74 midday on Tuesday, at the time of this writing. Analysts expect Netflix to report a solid fourth quarter, with the success of new seasons of shows like Stranger Things, but investors are concerned about the high price tag for the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, which would incur debt, per Yahoo Finance. Netflix has had a string of solid quarters but missed estimates in the third quarter of 2025. The company’s stock price has decreased 30% since October, when rumors of the Warner Bros. Discovery deal first surfaced, CNBC reported. The financial news channel also said Wall Street has focused on Netflix’s ad revenue and whether price hikes are impacting subscriber numbers. Analysts polled by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) expect earnings per share to come in at 55 cents, with revenue of around $11.97 billion.
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E-Commerce
Efficiency dominates conversations about AI. We celebrate its ability to automate and optimize so businesses can move faster and people can work smarter. But AI is becoming more integrated into people’s lives in ways that go far beyond productivity. In a world obsessed with speed and efficiency, the future of AI isnt just intelligentits beautiful. AI is now a force that enhances creativity, self-expression, and confidence. AI does not just optimize lifeit elevates it. Consumers are embracing AI for everything from recipe creation and travel planning to interior design and fitness regimens. They are turning to AI for recommendations on shows, movies, music, restaurants, and, of course, beauty and fashion. In these contexts, AI is enhancing experiences and sparking creativity. Because consumers are using AI to explore and have fun, companies can encourage broader adoption by focusing on building AI products designed to inspire. Brands have more opportunities than ever to build AI into their experiences as access to generative AI and specialized APIs broadens. However, that shift requires rethinking how we design and deploy AI so that it serves as a partner in expression and discovery. BUILD AI THAT DELIGHTS To build AI experiences that consumers genuinely enjoy, we need to understand what makes technology beautiful and inspirational in the first place. Fundamentally, its about aligning how systems function with how people naturally behave, think, and learn. We gravitate toward systems that show cause and effect, where we can see how our unique inputs shape the results. Visual feedback, confidence scores, or small cues that acknowledge uncertainty all make the interaction more collaborative. For example, Neutrogena’s Skin360 helps consumers identify their individual skin concerns and goals, and then suggests products, tips, and ingredients to help them achieve their desired outcomes. The experience gives consumers personalized assistance that makes them feel confident about the products and encourages them to purchase. Inspirational AI also encourages curiosity. AI assistants allow users to try different inputs and discover new outcomes on their own terms. As an example, Hoppers AI travel planner lets users play with different dates, destinations, and budgets, surfacing alternative routes or seasons to encourage experimentation. That experimentation works best when users maintain creative control. AI that provides suggestions rather than conclusions empowers people to make choices that feel personal. This approach transforms digital moments, such as shopping and content creation, into expressive experiences. Similarly, Grammarly and Shopify’s AI suggest edits or design options, but leave final decisions to users. APIs HELP BRANDS OF ALL SIZES UNLEASH CREATIVITY One of the most exciting developments in consumer AI is its accessibility. The proliferation of APIs and generative frameworks now makes it possible for companies of all sizes to experiment, prototype, and deploy creative AI experiences quickly, affordably, and with less risk. These tools allow brands to plug advanced models into existing platforms, test new ideas, and learn from user behavior in real time. A small direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand can integrate a virtual try-on experience or an AI-powered stylist without specialized expertise. They can test whether a feature resonates with users, gather feedback, and deploy updates within days or weeks rather than months. The proliferation of consumer AI APIs also unlocks entirely new categories of creative experiences. Take cultural recommendation engine Qloo, which offers an API that can predict correlations across music, dining, fashion, and film. Brands can explore creative pairings that surprise and delight users. Imagine a fashion brand suggesting a playlist to match a lookthese connections create moments of discovery that feel magical. What makes these experiences particularly powerful is how they reimagine the relationship between users and recommendations. Generative tools shift the paradigm from delivering static recommendations to enabling co-creation. Brands can now offer generative AI tools that let users actively participate in creating something new rather than showing them what they might like based on past behaviordesigning personalized products, generating new looks, or expressing preferences interactively. This transforms passive consumption into active exploration. With this transformation, the metrics of success change. Brands should think of these APIs as creative building blocks to test emotional responses and track indicators of enjoyment that may include time spent experimenting, frequency of sharing, or the likelihood of a consumer returning. New metrics for a beauty brand might look like a consumer spending ten minutes playing with different virtual makeup looks, trying bold colors they had never considered before. With access to this technology once reserved for large enterprises, DTC brands and small-to-medium-sized businesses can compete with brand and retail giants in delivering sophisticated AI experiences. A boutique cosmetics shop can offer the same caliber of consumer AI technology as a multinational beauty company. This democratization gives consumers wider access to inspirational AI experiences across products and services they care about. DESIGN FOR WHAT COMES NEXT Consumer AI is at a turning point. The underlying technology will continue to improve, but adoption depends on how well it understands and serves human emotion. To design AI rooted in inspiration and discovery is to design for trust and for delight, giving users space to explore and create technology that stops feeling like automation and starts feeling like play. Alice Chang is the CEO and founder of Perfect Corp.
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E-Commerce
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