It’s only February, and an outbreak of measles infections is already inching toward nearly 1,000 cases this year in the U.S.
Infections are at an all-time high as a result of declining vaccination rates, following a steep rise in cases in 2025 at 2,280 cases, the highest in 33 years. This week saw new outbreaks concentrated in both South Carolina and Florida.
Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
As of Thursday, February 12, there were 910 confirmed measles cases in 24 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Another six cases were reported among international visitors coming to the U.S.)
Those states are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, per CDC data.
There have been five new outbreaks reported in 202690% of which are associated with outbreaks that started in 2025.
Cases in South Carolina and Florida are spreading
In South Carolina, the largest outbreak continues to spread with over 900 cases since last September, CBS News reported. The South Carolina Department of Health reported 933 cases centered around Spartanburg County as of February 10.
Meanwhile, in Florida, more than 50 nursing students at Ave Maria University near Naples have contracted the virus, bringing the total there to 57 cases, USA Today reported.
What is measles?
Measles is a highly contagious virus. A person is contagious four days before showing signs of a rash, meaning they can spread the virus without knowing they are infected. The virus can stay in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves.
It causes a blotchy, red rash that usually appears on the body three to five days after initial symptoms. Getting the measles vaccine (MMR and MMRV) is the best way to protect against it.
Who is contracting measles?
Of the 910 cases in the U.S. in 2026, 94% of those that contracted measles were either unvaccinated or of unknown vaccination status, according to CDC data. Only 2% received one vaccine dose, while only 3% received both doses.
A majority of those infected (58%) are aged 5-19 years old.
Of the 910 cases, 277 cases (25%) were in people under 5 years, 527 cases (58%) were in people aged 5-19 years, 136 cases (15%) were in those aged 20+ years, and 20 cases (12%) were in people of unknown age.
Wendys is moving ahead with its plans to close hundreds of restaurants, amounting to between 5 and 6% of its total stores in the U.S., according to its fourth quarter earnings report.
The report, published on February 13, showed that Wendys business in the U.S. is currently lagging behind its international efforts. Total same-store sales fell 10.1% over the quarter, driven by performance in the U.S., where same-stores sales were down 11.3% compared to 2% at international locations. Overall, global systemwide sales were $3.4 billion, a decrease of 8.3% from the previous quarter.
According to Wendys interim CEO Ken Cook, one way the company is addressing this trend is through ongoing system optimization, which includes the closure of consistently underperforming restaurants to allow franchisee partners to focus on more profitable locations.
Shares in Wendys Co. (Nasdaq: WEN) jumped about 5% in early Friday trading, but the companys stock prices overall are nearing lows that havent been seen since 2013.
Wendy’s closure updates
Wendys first announced plans to shutter several hundred U.S. stores in November 2025. At the time, Cook told investors that some current restaurants do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective. Based on todays update, some of those closures have already taken place: Cook shared that 28 restaurants closed during the fourth quarter of 2025.
In total, he added, the company expects to close 5% to 6% of its total U.S. restaurants, with all remaining closures slated for the first half of 2026. Given that Wendys operated about 6,000 U.S. before any of the closures, that means that it plans to shutter between 300 and 360 locations. Cook said that the closures were decided in partnership with franchisees, who were allowed to flag the restaurants they were interested in to the company.
We established a disciplined process with our franchisees to approach this restaurant-by-restaurant, working with them to make the best decisions that strengthen the system in the long term, Cook said, adding, Obviously, it takes time to work with landlords and achieve what will be a win-win for both the franchisees and the Wendy’s company for those sites that we’re in, so that’ll take a little bit longer to see the rental income impact versus the closures.
Wendys did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for more information on the specific numbers and locations of the closures.
A quarter of those under 30 say theyve used AI for companionship, according to Associated Press-NORC polling.
The one thing missing? Somewhere to take your AI Valentine on a date.
Ahead of Valentines Day, EVA AI decided to solve that problem. The appwhere users can text or, more recently, video chat with AI datesorganized a pop-up social experiment at Same Same Wine Bar in Manhattan this week.
Over February 11 and 12, the dimly lit space was filled with patrons seated at tables for one, their AI companions propped up on phone stands. Attendees could bring their own existing AI partners or speed date from a selection of 100 characters.
This is another step in the companys long-term strategy to push the boundaries of interaction with AI and make AI relationships a new normal, EVA AI said in a press invite to the event, Wired reports.
The platform connects users with a virtual partner who listens, supports all your desires and is always in touch with you, its website reads. It promises that you can build relationships and intimacy privately on your terms.
[Photo: EVA AI]
While this may sound like the future the sci-fi movie Her was warning about back in 2013, organizers say the goal is not to replace human relationships. Instead, they aim to normalize AI companionship for those already interested in it, or curious about trying it.
Surveys suggest younger adults are increasingly open to the idea. A nationally representative survey of 1,060 teens ages 13 to 17 found that 72% have used AI companions at least once, and more than half qualify as regular users in 2025. Of those surveyed, 13% say they use them daily.
More broadly, people are turning to AI platforms for romantic connection. Indiana Universitys Kinsey Institute, a leading sex research center, found that 16 percent of participants were using AI as a romantic partner in its Singles in America survey published last year.
That shift comes as singles grow increasingly disillusioned with dating other humans. Amid an era of swipe fatigue and dating app burnout, AI is playing a growing role in peoples dating lives. Just over a quarter of singles already use AI wingmen to enhance their dating prospectsup 333% from 2024, according to a recent study.
Not everyone would feel comfortable sitting across from an AI companion in a crowded bar, surrounded by human couples. But the experiment underscores how quickly AI is seeping into everyday life.
If youre single this Valentines Day, theres always Chad the AI chatbot waiting for the chance to sweep you off your feet.
Could a film industry entirely crafted from AI ever exist? Social media is abuzz with movie scenes made with Seedance 2.0, the latest tech in AI video generation, including everything from a fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to an alternate ending for The Lord of the Rings.
The tech’s proponents predict AI is the future of moviesbut an actual brain behind Hollywood hits, Ben Affleck, is trending for his counterargument: AI may be a powerful tool, but its nothing without human creativity.
Affleck recently shared his take on AI-generated writing in an appearance on a podcast. As an Oscar-winning screenwriter himself for Good Will Hunting (not to mention an acclaimed actor, director, and producer), Affleck knows a thing or two about the movie business, and he summed up AI-generated creative writing in one word: shitty.”
By its nature, it goes to the mean, to the average,” he said on a January episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “And its not reliable. I mean, I cant even stand to see what it writes.”
I actually dont think its very likely that its going to be able to write anything meaningful or, and in particular, that its going to be making movies from whole cloth, Affleck said. He predicted instead that for filmmaking, AI is gonna be a tool, just like visual effects.
As a guy who works in tech, is building with AI, and writes a weekly newsletter on the topic, I can't explain as well as Ben Affleck.How is that possible? pic.twitter.com/Gj6dNwaDgj— Katyayani Shukla (@aibytekat) February 12, 2026
But if Affleck is right, then why are artists of all kinds being fed the narrative that AI will be stealing their jobs? Fearmongering from the AI industry is to blame, he claims.
Theres a lot more fear, because we have this sense, this existential dread: Its gonna wipe everything out! Affleck explained on the podcast. “But that actually runs counter, in my view, to what history seems to show, which is, A, adoption is slow. Its incremental.”
I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies, where they go, Were gonna change everything! In two years, theres gonna be no more work!” he continued. “Well, the reason theyre saying that is because they need to ascribe a valuation for investment that can warrant the cap expend theyre gonna make on these data centers. (Affleck’s comments come as Big Tech spending on AI data centers has swelled in the last year.)
Afflecks take went viral again this week, thanks to a post on X, from a self-described “guy who works in tech” who is “building with AI and writes a weekly newsletter on the topic”which joked that Affleck could explain AIs applications better than industry experts.
Affleck concluded that in filmmaking, LLMs will likely “be good at filling in all the places that are expensive and burdensome,” but that “its always gonna rely fundamentally on the human artistic aspects of it.”
Now, some on social media are pointing out that in a sense, Afflecks point proves itself: The human touch of a creative writer led to clear, digestible communication. Funny how that works.
Starbucks competitor Dutch Bros saw its stock price rise in premarket trading on Friday after the coffee chain posted double-digit revenue growth in its most recent quarter. However, shares were flat as of late morning, with the stock (NYSE: BROS) hovering at just over $50 a share.
Perhaps even more important for the stockand for those investors who are long on itis the coffee chains announcement that it is on track to nearly double its store footprint by 2029. Heres what you need to know.
Dutch Bros has a record Q4 2025
Dutch Bros was founded in 1992, but its only in recent years that the coffee chain started to become a household name, thanks to its ever-expanding footprint.
And while the chain isnt yet as well known as Starbucks, the company is increasingly looking like a significant threat to the Seattle coffee giant.
Yesterday, Dutch Bros reported its fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 results, showing impressive gains in nearly every key metric, including:
Total revenue: $443.6 million (up 29.4% year over year)
Net income: $29.2 million (versus $6.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier)
Systemwide same shop sales: up 7.7%
Adjusted EBITDA: $72.6 million (up 48.8%)
The company also issued strong guidance in many metrics for its current fiscal year 2026, including projected total revenue of between approximately $2 billion and $2.03 billion, and same shop saels growth of 3% to 5%.
But besides its financial numbers, Dutch Bros also revealed something else: that its aggressive store expansion plans are on track for 2029, and if it achieves the goals, the companys footprint could nearly double in the next three years.
Dutch Bros plots new store opening for 2026 and beyond
While same-store sales are increasing for Dutch Bros, one of the fastest ways for any chain to boost overall sales is to open more locations. And that is exactly what Dutch Bros has been doing.
In its full-year fiscal 2025, which just ended, Dutch Bros said it opened 154 new stores across 22 states. That put its total number of locations at 1,136 stores in 25 states, as of December 31.
And its aggressive rollout is continuing in 2026. In a supplemental earnings slide deck the company released, it revealed that it expects at least 181 new Dutch Bros stores to open in 2026. Those new openings are in service of the companys lofty 2029 goals.
By that year, the company says it aims to have 2,029 stores across the United States.
BROS stock rises today, but is still red for the year
After announcing its record-breaking fiscal 2025 results, Dutch Bros stock jumped by nearly 4% in early-morning trading. However, as of the time of this writing, much of those gains have been given back.
The early-morning stock price gain was no doubt welcome to investors. However, the company, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange half a decade ago, still has a ways to go if it wants to regain its all-time highs.
Since 2026 began, BROS stock has now declined by nearly 13%. Over the past year, BROS is down more than 36%. During those same periods, the NYSE Composite Index is up about 5.8% year to date, and over 15% over the past twelve months, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Dutch Bros stock hit an all-time high of above $79 a year ago this month.
A key measure of inflation fell to nearly a five-year low last month as apartment rental price growth slowed and gas prices fell, offering some relief to Americans grappling with the sharp cost increases of the past five years.
Inflation dropped to 2.4% in January compared with a year earlier, down from 2.7% in December and not too far from the Federal Reserves 2% target. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose just 2.5% in January from a year ago, down from 2.6% the previous month and the smallest increase since March 2021.
Fridays report suggests inflation is cooling, but the cost of food, gas, and apartment rents have soared after the pandemic, with consumer prices still about 25% higher than they were five years ago. The increase in such a broad range of costs has kept affordability, a topic that helped shape the most recent U.S. presidential election, front and center as a dominant political issue.
And on a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.2% in January from December, while core prices rose 0.3%. Core inflation was held down by a sharp drop in the price of used cars, which fell 1.8% just in January from December.
Inflation continues to decelerate and is not threatening to move back up, and that will enable more rate cuts by the Fed, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust.
There were signs in the report that retailers are passing on more of the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs to consumers for goods such as furniture, appliances, and clothes. But those increases were offset by falling prices elsewhere. In other areas, Trump has delayed, scrapped, or provided exemptions to his duties.
Furniture prices jumped 0.7% in January from the previous month and are up 4% from a year ago. Appliances rose 1.3% in January though are only slightly more expensive than a year earlier. Clothing price rose 0.3% in January from December and have increased 1.7% in the past year.
Some services prices also rose: Airline fares soared 6.5% just in January, after a 3.8% jump in November, though they rose only 2.2% from a year earlier. Music streaming subscriptions increased 4.5% in January and are 7.8% higher than a year ago.
Yet those increases were largely offset by price declines, or much slower price growth, in other areas, including many that make up a greater share of Americans’ spending.
The cost of used cars, for example, plunged 1.8% in January, the biggest decline in two years. Gas prices fell 3.2% last month, the third drop in the past four months, and are down 7.5% from a year earlier. Grocery prices rose just 0.2% in January, after a big 0.6% rise in December, and are up 2.1% from a year ago. Hotel prices ticked down 0.1% in January and have fallen 2% from last year.
Rental prices and the cost of owning a home, which make up a third of the inflation index, both rose just 0.2% in December, while rents increased only 2.8% from a year earlier. That is much lower than during the pandemic: Rents rose by more than 8% in 2022.
The tariffs have increased some costs and many economists forecast companies will pass through more of those increases to consumers in the coming months. A study released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that U.S. companies and consumers are paying nearly 90% of the tariffs’ costs, echoing similar findings in studies by Harvard and other economists.
Yet the increases haven’t been as broad-based as many economists feared.
Tilley said that the higher tariffs have pulled some consumer spending away from other services, which has forced companies to keep those prices a bit lower as a result.
We dont think consumers are in a place to take on price increases across the board, so youre not seeing those price increses, he said. Hiring was particularly weak last year, slowing wage growth, and many Americans remain gloomy about the economy.
Some economists note that the rental figures were distorted by October’s six-week government shutdown, which interrupted the Labor Department’s gathering of the data. The government plugged in estimated figures for October which economists say have artificially lowered some of the housing costs.
Companies are still grappling with the higher costs from Trump’s duties, though some have benefited from tariffs being delayed or scrapped.
Arin Schultz, chief growth officer at Naturepedic, which makes organic mattresses in Cleveland, breathed a sigh of relief when Trump postponed import duties on upholstered furniture until 2027. They would have substantially pushed up the cost of the headboards the company imports.
Schultz welcomed the decision to lower tariffs on imports from India to 18%, from 50%. Naturepedic sources a lot of the cotton fabrics and bedding that it sells from India. When that reduction kicks in, he said, the company could even cut some prices.
Still, Naturepedic’s costs jumped because of duties on imports from Vietnam and Malaysia, where it sources its organic latex, which can’t be grown in the United States. Naturepedic makes its mattresses in the United States at a factory in Cleveland and employs about 200 workers.
We’re paying more now for that, he said, and the company raised its prices about 7% last year as a result. “Tariffs are awful. We are less profitable now as a company because of tariffs.
If inflation gets closer to the Federal Reserves target of 2%, it could allow the central bank to cut its key short-term interest rate further this year, as Trump has repeatedly demanded. High borrowing costs for things like mortgages and auto loans have also contributed to a perception that many big-ticket items remain out of reach for many Americans.
Inflation surged to 9.1% in 2022 as consumer spending soared as supply chains snarled after the pandemic. It began to fall in 2023 but leveled off around 3% in mid-2024 and remained elevated last year.
At the same time, measures of wage growth have declined as hiring has cratered. With companies reluctant to add jobs, workers don’t have as much leverage to demand raises.
Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
When most founders begin their journey, they focus on a good product and the right market. But what happens when your customers dont yet know they have a problem? What happens when theres no market, even when you know you have a solution people need?
Its rare to find success stories of simultaneous company and market building because its not a challenge that every organization faces. But if youre innovating within your industry, its a problem you should expect and prepare for because it means having to operate in two realitiesthe internal reality where you know the challenges in your industry and how youre going to solve them, and the external reality where nobody else has recognized the problem that needs to be solved.
In a highly regulated industry like healthcare, safety, and stability create an inertia that often works against innovation. Many products fail simply because they lack market demand and infrastructure. To succeed, you should look beyond the solution and craft a compelling narrative that tells the entire story of your product and why its needed.
As a founder of Paragonix, I navigated these two worlds firsthand during the development of our organ preservation technology. For decades, people transported fragile human organs on ice in coolers you can find in a hardware store. No one was really asking Is there a better way to do this? until we did.
Here are five things I learned about bridging the gap between internal conviction and market skepticism:
1. Name the market
When youre defining a market that doesnt exist yet, one of the most overlooked steps is giving it a name. A name gives stakeholders a tangible anchor and helps sell the version of reality where the market is already real.
Then the focus shifts to creating shared belief, and that only happens by getting out there and talking to people. Its a lot like painting a landscape. Your company may ultimately be just a small piece of the background, but the more detail you give your audience, the more theyll come to understand the whole picture and how you fit into it.
Ironically, you may start to see competitors using the language youve created, but thats still a win. After all, if someone else uses the market terminology I created, its a huge validation of the landscape I painted.
2. Compile ample data
Particularly in the healthcare industry, compelling data about your product is the proof of concept that unlocks belief. You need strong basic science or engineering validation to demonstrate how your product works, which helps your future customers realize that something theyre doing isnt working.
Then, you need clinical science showing that your product is not only effective but safe and superior to the existing standard of care. In my experience, that massive data collection effort is what ultimately convinces the market that they need your product.
Before we created the Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System, our first portable donor organ preservation system, close to 100% of donor hearts arrived at their destination without any temperature control, monitoring, or reporting, potentially impacting patient outcomes by injuring donor hearts. From the data we collected, we knew there was a dire need for a solution and that our technology could provide the answer.
3. Amplify early adopters
Healthcare is an industry where adoption risk is high, and validation relies heavily on peer trust, making it vital that you amplify success cases from early adopters. These initial risk-takers are more than customers; they are essential co-creators of the new market category and can help you actively cultivate conviction within the industry.
Whether you choose to create a structured advisory council or not, check in often and give them ample opportunity to provide feedback. Doing so doesnt just secure their commitment to sharing positive outcomes with the public; it helps you transform implementation hurdles into strategic operations.
4. Consider the entire ecosystem
As your market scales, its important to study the entire product journey and its surrounding ecosystem. You need to know the adjacent problems, complementary products, and be able to spot future technological needs that sit on the border of your current solution. This is the part that keeps you innovating in a smart, seamless direction, putting you one step ahead of the competition.
As a founder, Ive seen firsthand the importance of talking to not just stakeholders but also end-usersthe clinicians, administrators, buyers, and even patients who arent decision-makers but can amplify your product and market vision. They can offer feedback on workflow integration, usability, and pain points that ensure youre delivering solutions people both love and leverage.
5. Listen to negative feedback
When youre in the early stages of company development, a positive outlook is almost a requirement for overcoming the fear, anxiety, and worry that can threaten to hold you back. Thats one reason that it can be hard to accept feedback from people who dont like your product, dont grasp your vision, or who actively avoid collaborating with you.
But as a company leader, you need to listen to what detractors say. When theyre right about something, it can be a tough pill to swallow, but acting can protect the health of your company as it grows. If theyre wrong, its still important to listen. Developing thick skin is a skill that no one can take away from you and will be useful throughout the entire journey.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Building a company is hard, but building an industry is harder. Markets dont emerge on their own, but leaders who are willing to question long-standing assumptions and replace them with evidence and structure can build them.
When you succeed, the impact extends far beyond your organization because you did more than win the market; you raised the standard for an entire industry.
Lisa Anderson is the president and cofounder of Paragonix Technologies, a Getinge company.
Much of healthcare still operates like a series of snapshots.
For most routine care, you go in once a year for a physical. Maybe you get a few labs drawn. If something looks off, you might get a follow-up or a prescription. But within the constraints of a short visit and limited longitudinal data, care often ends with broad guidance like eat better or check back next year.
Meanwhile, your health is changing every day. Metabolic function, inflammation, aging, and chronic disease dont switch on overnight. They unfold gradually over time, shaped by lifestyle factors including sleep, nutrition, movement, stress, as well as genetics and environment.
But unless you cross a diagnostic threshold or show up with symptoms, the system doesnt intervene. Too often, care is triggered only when something has already gone wrong. Thats because were still practicing episodic, event-driven care, not trend-based care.
THE LIMITS OF EPISODIC DATA
You cant deliver truly personalized proactive prevention with episodic data alone.
A single cholesterol reading can be clinically meaningful, particularly at extremes. The same is true for a day of elevated blood sugar. But outside of acute thresholds, context and trajectory matter. To detect risk early and intervene meaningfully, we need a care model informed by continuous trends, not isolated events. This is where AI, and specifically agentic AI, can make a difference.
WHAT AGENTIC AI REALLY MEANS
When people hear agentic AI, they often assume it means handing over decisions entirely to machines. In reality, agentic AI refers to systems that can act autonomously within defined goals, constraints, and oversight.
Think of autopilot in aviation. Autopilot manages routine complexity by continuously monitoring conditions, detecting turbulence, and making micro-adjustments. Pilots maintain oversight and control, but theyre no longer burdened with manually managing every variable.
In healthcare, agentic AI functions the same way. It continuously observes multiple data streams, identifies subtle but meaningful changes, and delivers timely, relevant insights that enhance clinical judgment, not replace it.
This is not theoretical. Health systems are already integrating AI into diagnostics, operations, and clinical workflows, embedding it into electronic health records, imaging systems, and decision-support tools to manage complexity and surface risk earlier. These deployments signal a shift from isolated AI applications toward infrastructure-level intelligence operating continuously alongside clinicians.
FROM VOLUME TO MEANING
We already have more health data than we know what to do with. The challenge isnt collection. Its synthesis.
Agentic AI helps us move from data overload to actionable insight. By analyzing longitudinal signals, including biological, behavioral, and environmental data, it reveals patterns that allow us to act before risk escalates. This is especially powerful in managing chronic conditions, aging, and metabolic health, areas where prevention is possible, but only when signals are caught early. Research shows that combining longitudinal wearable data with clinical records improves our ability to predict future risk. What agentic systems add is the ability to translate those predictions into timely, predefined actions rather than leaving insights dormant until the next visit.
PATIENTS ARE ALREADY LIVING IN A CONTINUOUS WORLD
At the same time, people are increasingly turning to AI tools to fill the gap. Recent reporting from OpenAI shows that more than 40 million people use ChatGPT daily for health questions, with roughly 70% of those conversations occurring outside normal clinic hours. OpenAI also reported about 600,000 health-related queries per week from underserved rural communities. The behavior is clear: People want real-time answers that the healthcare system is often not structured to provide between visits.
This creates a growing gap between how people live and how medicine is practiced. Agentic AI offers a way to close it by acting as the connective tissue between daily life and clinical care. It doesnt replace clinicians. It doesnt make healthcare autonomous. It makes it responsive.
A NEW INFLECTION POINT
Autopilot didnt revolutionize aviation by removing the pilot. It changed aviation by making the system manageable, extending human capability through continuous support.
Healthcare is now at a similar inflection point. Data volumes will continue to rise. Clinical capacity will remain limited. And episodic care will grow more misaligned with how disease and aging actually develop. Agentic AI offers a path forward by enabling systems to take bounded, predefined actions in response to continuous monitoring, whether by surfacing emerging risk patterns to clinicians or by triggering patient-facing actions like scheduling follow-up visits when concerning trends persist. The result is care that occurs earlier, with better timing, rather than at the moment of acute decline.
The technology for agentic AI already exists. Regulatory pathways are emerging as well, but adoption depends on whether incentives, workflows, and leadership priorities evolve to support continuous care.
Like autopilot in aviation, agentic AI in healthcare will be introduced gradually, first in well-bounded, lower-risk workflows, then expanding as systems, incentives, and governance structures evolve to support continuous intelligence at scale.
To unlock its full potential, healthcare needs reimbursement models that reward prevention, clinical architectures designed for longitudinal data, and governance frameworks that enable responsible deployment without freezing progress. Agentic AI doesnt require a reinvention of regulation, but it does require modernizing operations, governance, and accountability. The systems that move first will define the next era of healthcare.
Noosheen Hashemi is founder and CEO of January AI.
Ellie Frazier first started posting content three years ago, sharing day-in-the-life vlogs and content tips for fellow creators.
As her following grew, she began noticing other creators posting videos with uncannily similar scripts to her own. The clips felt the same. The editing style, identical.
In one example, Frazier stretched in front of a window; another creator stretched in front of a window. Frazier chopped vegetables; the other creator chopped an orange. On its own, that might not seem especially striking. But the voiceover script used by the other creator was also almost verbatim Fraziers words.
Theres a very stark difference between taking inspiration from everybody and giving credit, versus stealing somebody’s voiceover script word for word multiple times in a row, says Frazier in a recent post. Taking credit in the comments for it being their own work.
@elliewfrazier its just not cool she doesnt even follow me #contentcreators #contentcreatortips #socialmediatips original sound – ELLIE FRAZIER
Plagiarismpresenting another person’s ideas, words, images, or work as your own without creditwhile often difficult to litigate, is a cardinal sin in most industries. And yet social media largely operates as a law unto itself.
TikTok will remove content that violates or infringes someone else’s intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark. However, many posts on the platform do not clearly meet the legal threshold for copyrightable intellectual property, meaning enforcement is often left to creators themselves.
With swaths of content uploaded every day, copycat creators frequently weigh the risk of being discovered against the possibility of profiting from a viral concept with minimal effort. There is even content devoted to explaining exactly how to plagiarize others work.
@josh.little_ Good artist copy, great artists steal. @@Josh original sound – Josh Little
Determining who copied whom is also largely a futile exercise. On a platform that thrives on mimicry, true originality is rare. The lifecycle of a trend is familiar: One person creates an original video. If it goes viral, thousands copy it. Some tag the original creator. But as the trend snowballs, that credit is often lost to the algorithm. Once it has been replicated enough times to be labeled a trend, the concept is widely regarded as fair game.
Frazier isnt the first to spotlight the growing issue of digital plagiarism. In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought in 2024, one TikTok creator attempted to sue another for copying her neutral, beige, and cream aesthetic and posting content with identical styling, tone, camera angle and/or text.
More than a year later, the so-called Sad Beige Lawsuit was dismissed after the claimant chose not to move forward.
Imitation may be described as the sincerest form of flattery, but online plagiarism ultimately benefits no one. The original creator loses credit for their idea. The copycat forfeits an opportunity to develop a distinct voice. And audiences are left scrolling through an endless stream of low-quality videos, each one nearly indistinguishable from the last.
As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies and not regular people must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence.
But that might be where the agreement ends.
The price of powering data centers has become deeply intertwined with concerns over the cost of living, a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and governors offices.
Some efforts to address the challenge may be coming too late, with energy costs on the rise. And even though tech giants are pledging to pay their fair share, there’s little consensus on what that means.
Fair share is a pretty squishy term, and so its something that the industry likes to say because fair can mean different things to different people, said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University.
It’s a shift from last year, when states worked to woo massive data center projects and Trump directed his administration to do everything it could to get them electricity. Now there’s a backlash as towns fight data center projects and some utilities’ electricity bills have risen quickly.
Anger over the issue has already had electoral consequences, with Democrats ousting two Republicans from Georgia’s utility regulatory commission in November.
Voters are already connecting the experience of these facilities with their electricity costs and theyre going to increasingly want to know how government is going to navigate that, said Christopher Borick, a pollster and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
Energy race stokes concerns
Data centers are sprouting across the U.S., as tech giants scramble to meet worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that require large amounts of computing power to train and operate.
The buildings look like giant warehouses, some dwarfing the footprints of factories and stadiums. Some need more power than a small city, more than any utility has ever supplied to a single user, setting off a race to build more power plants.
The demand for electricity can have a ripple effect that raises prices for everyone else. For example, if utilities build more power plants or transmission lines to serve them, the cost can be spread across all ratepayers.
Concerns have dovetailed with broader questions about the cost of living, as well as fears about the powerful influence of tech companies and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Trump continues to embrace artificial intelligence as a top economic and national security priority, although he seemed to acknowledge the backlash last month by posting on social media that data centers must pay their own way.
At other times, he has brushed concerns aside, declaring that tech giants are building their own power plants, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright contends that data centers don’t inflate electricity bills disputing what consumer advocates and independent analysts say.
States moving to regulate
Some states and utilities have started to identify ways to get data centers to pay for their costs.
They’ve required tech companies to buy electricity in long-term contracts, pay for the power plants and transmission upgrades they need and make big down payments in case they go belly-up or decide later they dont need as much electricity.
But it might be more complicated than that. Those rules can’t fix the short-term problem of ravenous demand for electricity that is outpacing the speed of power plant construction, analysts say.
What do you do when Big Tech, because of the very profitable nature of these data centers, can simply outbid grandma for power in the short run? Abe Silverman, a former utility regulatory lawyer and an energy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. That is, I think, going to be the real challenge.
Some consumer advocates say tech companies’ fair share should also include the rising cost of electricity, grid equipment, or natural gas thats driven by their demand.
In Oregon, which passed a law to protect smaller ratepayers from data centers’ power costs, a consumer advocacy group is jousting with the state’s largest utility, Portland General Electric, over its plan on how to do that.
Meanwhile, consumer advocates in various states including Indiana, Georgia, and Missouri are warning that utilities could foist the cost of data center-driven buildouts onto regular ratepayers there.
Pushback from lawmakers, governors
Utilities have pledged to ensure electric rates are fair. But in some places it may be too late.
For instance, in the mid-Atlantic grid territory from New Jersey to Illinois, consumer advocates and analysts have pegged billions of dollars in rate increases hitting the bills of regular Americans on data center demand.
Legislation, meanwhile, is flooding into Congress and statehouses to regulate data centers.
Democrats bills in Congress await Republican cosponsors, while lawmakers in a number of states are floating moratoriums on new data centers, drafting rules for regulators to shield regular ratepayers and targeting data center tax breaks and utility profits.
Governors including some who worked to recruit data centers to their states are increasingly talking tough.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for reelection this year, wants to impose a penny-a-gallon water fee on data centers and get rid of the sales tax exemption there that most states offer data centers. She called it a $38 million corporate handout.
Its time we make the booming data center industry work for the people of our state, rather than the other way around, she said in her state-of-the-state address.
Blame for rising energy costs
Energy costs are projected to keep rising in 2026.
Republicans in Washington are pointing the finger at liberal state energy policies that favor renewable energy, suggesting they have driven up transmission costs and frayed supply by blocking fossil fuels.
Americansare not paying higher prices because of data centers. Theres a perception there, and I get the perception, but its not actually true, said Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, at a news conference earlier this month.
The struggle to assign blame was on display last week at a four-hour U.S. House subcommittee hearing with members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Republicans encouraged FERC members to speed up natural gas pipeline construction while Democrats defended renewable energy and urged FERC to limit utility profits and protect residential ratepayers from data center costs.
FERC’s chair, Laura Swett, told Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, that she believes data center operators are willing to cover their costs and understand that its important to have community support.
Thats not been our experience, Landsman responded, saying projects in his district are getting tax breaks, sidestepping community opposition and costing people money. Ultimately, I think we have to get to a place where they pay everything.
Marc Levy, Associated Press
