Eighteen months ago, it was plausible that artificial intelligence might take a different path than social media. Back then, AIs development hadnt consolidated under a small number of big tech firms. Nor had it capitalized on consumer attention, surveilling users, and delivering ads.
Unfortunately, the AI industry is now taking a page from the social media playbook and has set its sights on monetizing consumer attention. When OpenAI launched its ChatGPT Search feature in late 2024 and its browser, ChatGPT Atlas, in October 2025, it kicked off a race to capture online behavioral data to power advertising. Its part of a yearslong turnabout by OpenAI, whose CEO Sam Altman once called the combination of ads and AI unsettling and now promises that ads can be deployed in AI apps while preserving trust. The rampant speculation among OpenAI users who believe they see paid placements in ChatGPT responses suggests they are not convinced.
In 2024, AI search company Perplexity started experimenting with ads in its offerings. A few months after that, Microsoft introduced ads to its Copilot AI. Googles AI Mode for search now increasingly features ads, as does Amazons Rufus chatbot.
As a security expert and data scientist, we see these examples as harbingers of a future where AI companies profit from manipulating their users behavior for the benefit of their advertisers and investors. Its also a reminder that time to steer the direction of AI development away from private exploitation and toward public benefit is quickly running out.
The functionality of ChatGPT Search and its Atlas browser is not really new. Meta, commercial AI competitor Perplexity, and even ChatGPT itself have had similar AI search features for years, and both Google and Microsoft beat OpenAI to the punch by integrating AI with their browsers. But OpenAIs business positioning signals a shift.
We believe the ChatGPT Search and Atlas announcements are worrisome because there is really only one way to make money on search: the advertising model pioneered ruthlessly by Google.
Advertising model
Ruled a monopolist in U.S. federal court, Google has earned more than US$1.6 trillion in advertising revenue since 2001. You may think of Google as a web search company, or a streaming video company (YouTube), or an email company (Gmail), or a mobile phone company (Android, Pixel), or maybe even an AI company (Gemini). But those products are ancillary to Googles bottom line. The advertising segment typically accounts for 80% to 90% of its total revenue. Everything else is there to collect users data and direct users attention to its advertising revenue stream.
After two decades in this monopoly position, Googles search product is much more tuned to the companys needs than those of its users. When Google Search first arrived decades ago, it was revelatory in its ability to instantly find useful information across the still-nascent web. In 2025, its search result pages are dominated by low-quality and often AI-generated content, spam sites that exist solely to drive traffic to Amazon salesa tactic known as affiliate marketingand paid ad placements, which at times are indistinguishable from organic results.
Plenty of advertisers and observers seem to think AI-powered advertising is the future of the ad business.
Big Techs AI advertising plans are shaking up the industry.
Highly persuasive
Paid advertising in AI search, and AI models generally, could look very different from traditional web search. It has the potential to influence your thinking, spending patterns, and even personal beliefs in much more subtle ways. Because AI can engage in active dialogue, addressing your specific questions, concerns, and ideas rather than just filtering static content, its potential for influence is much greater. Its like the difference between reading a textbook and having a conversation with its author.
Imagine youre conversing with your AI agent about an upcoming vacation. Did it recommend a particular airline or hotel chain because they really are best for you, or does the company get a kickback for every mention? If you ask abou a political issue, does the model bias its answer based on which political party has paid the company a fee, or based on the bias of the models corporate owners?
There is mounting evidence that AI models are at least as effective as people at persuading users to do things. A December 2023 meta-analysis of 121 randomized trials reported that AI models are as good as humans at shifting peoples perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. A more recent meta-analysis of eight studies similarly concluded there was no significant overall difference in persuasive performance between (large language models) and humans.
This influence may go well beyond shaping what products you buy or who you vote for. As with the field of search engine optimization, the incentive for humans to perform for AI models might shape the way people write and communicate with each other. How we express ourselves online is likely to be increasingly directed to win the attention of AIs and earn placement in the responses they return to users.
A different way forward
Much of this is discouraging, but there is much that can be done to change it.
First, its important to recognize that todays AI is fundamentally untrustworthy, for the same reasons that search engines and social media platforms are.
The problem is not the technology itself; fast ways to find information and communicate with friends and family can be wonderful capabilities. The problem is the priorities of the corporations who own these platforms and for whose benefit they are operated. Recognize that you dont have control over what data is fed to the AI, who it is shared with and how it is used. Its important to keep that in mind when you connect devices and services to AI platforms, ask them questions, or consider buying or doing the things they suggest.
There is also a lot that people can demand of governments to restrain harmful corporate uses of AI. In the U.S., Congress could enshrine consumers rights to control their own personal data, as the EU already has. It could also create a data protection enforcement agency, as essentially every other developed nation has.
Governments worldwide could invest in Public AImodels built by public agencies offered universally for public benefit and transparently under public oversight. They could also restrict how corporations can collude to exploit people using AI, for example, by barring advertisements for dangerous products such as cigarettes and requiring disclosure of paid endorsements.
Every technology company seeks to differentiate itself from competitors, particularly in an era when yesterdays groundbreaking AI quickly becomes a commodity that will run on any kids phone. One differentiator is in building a trustworthy service. It remains to be seen whether companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic can sustain profitable businesses on the back of subscription AI services like the premium editions of ChatGPT, Plus, and Pro, and Claude Pro. If they are going to continue convincing consumers and businesses to pay for these premium services, they will need to build trust.
That will require making real commitments to consumers on transparency, privacy, reliability, and security that are followed through consistently and verifiably.
And while no one knows what the future business models for AI will be, we can be certain that consumers do not want to be exploited by AI, secretly or otherwise.
Bruce Schneier is an adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School.
Nathan Sanders is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
On January 20, Netflix is bringing back the popular talent competition Star Search, with a twist: For the first time in its history, Netflix will let its audience decide the outcome of a show with live voting. However, unlike how shows have done this in the past, audiences wont have to send text messages or call a special number to make their votes count. Instead, viewers will vote with their TVs remote control, or right within the Netflix app if they watch the show on their phones.
Netflix hopes that this level of simplicity will help to make live programs like Star Search a lot more exciting, and offer its audience a chance to experience shared watercooler moments that tend to be missing from todays world of hyper-personalized streaming. You can influence the outcome [together with] everyone at the same time, says Netflix member product VP Elmar Nubbemeyer. Youre part of the Zeitgeist at that moment.
To bring real-time voting to Star Search, Netflix relied on work it previously did for interactive narrative shows. It also snuck voting tests into David Changs Netflix show, and showed focus groups segments from two fake shows it cooked up for testing purposes. The company even built internal tools that will help it to repurpose live voting and polling for other live events and shows in the future.
We are planning more of these types of moments, says Netflix product designer Navin Iyengar. Star Search is really the big unveiling of it.
From ‘Bandersnatch’ to Star Search
When Star Search debuts Tuesday evening, viewers will have two distinct opportunities to make their voices heard. Once a singer or comedian is done with their performance, a graphic will pop up on screen, encouraging each viewer to give it a rating ranging from one to five stars. We knew early on that giving a star rating as an interaction was really important, says Iyengar. Its core to the Star Search IP.
Later on, theyll also get the chance to choose their personal champion of the night out of four choices presented next to each other on screen. Each voting graphic will remain on screen for about 60 seconds, and the shows hostAnthony Anderson, best known for the ABC sitcom Blackishwill respond to the incoming vote tally in real time.
Chrissy Teigen, Jelly Roll, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Anthony Anderson [Photo: Matt Sayles/Netflix 2025]
Its the first time Netflix has done real-time voting like this, but the company has been experimenting with getting viewers more actively involved for almost a decade. In 2017, the streaming service released its first interactive TV shows, which prompted viewers to choose their own adventure through branched narratives. In one scene of “Bandersnatch,” an interactive episode of the dystopian sci-fi show Black Mirror, the viewer has to decide whether the main character should take his medication by pressing left or right buttons on their remote control, with different choices leading to vastly varying outcomes.
Even in those early days, Netflix engineers and designers already thought about ways to bring the same kind of interactivity to live content. We always felt that interactive experiences should go live, because members could actually interact in the moment and impact the story as it’s happening in real time instead of filming all the different potential outcomes, recalls Iyengar.
Netflix eventually discontinued branched narrative shows because they did not take off with consumers, but the company kept pursuing the idea to marry live content with interactivity. And when Star Search came along, it quickly became clear that this was a perfect opportunity to bring back some of that interactive tech first built for titles like Bandersnatch, and use it to improve the way audience participation is usually done.
Talent shows like American Idol used to rely heavily on phone calls to register votes, but nowadays use a mix of online and text message voting. Shows often allow participants to vote multiple times, leading to massive vote counts, which often dwarf the number of voters.
It’s a surprisingly low share of viewers who actually reach out and vote, Iyengar says, adding that industry estimates put that number somewhere between five and ten percent. Voting has always been difficult for these shows, he adds.
Netflix employees believed that the tech first built for Bandersnatch, which allowed viewers to send feedback with their TV remote, would already go a long way towards making it easier to participate. But they quickly realized that great tech alone wasnt enough.
Keeping voting fair, even for Star Search
Netflix began testing prototypes for live voting with focus groups nearly a year ago. To do so, the company repurposed two existing titlesa dating show and a talent competition. We basically made fake shows, Iyengar says. We edited them down to make them feel live and make it feel like your vote was really important.
Then, it put select viewers into a lab designed to look like a living room, with a double-sided mirror to observe how they reacted. We put our prototypes on a TV, Iyengar says. We had a TV remote that could control it. People were sitting on a couch, and we would actually just leave them alone.
Netflix researchers just told test participants that they get to take a peek at a prototype, without explaining that the show would allow them to vote. People really got it, Iyengar recalls. Almost everyone, without prompting from us, would pick up the remote in these moments, and interact.
In fact, people didnt just get itthey got hooked. We found that they got really invested in the stakes of the show, even though it was fake, Iyengar says. They wanted to know what their vote was going to do. Did the person I voted for win? Show me the math for how you actually calculated the vote. People just took the idea of voting and fairness seriously.
Netflix built its voting tech to only allow one vote per Netflix profile. But those early tests showed that fairness was as much about the way different options were presented, and that long held beliefs about UI design could introduce perceived biases.
One example: Designers like Iyengar like to direct the eye to simplify smart TV interfaces. When you open up the Netflix app on your TV, youll find that one title is always pre-selected, which helps to understand what to do if you want to navigate to the title right next to it, or perhap one in a row below. On TV, you should always have something in focus, he says. Otherwise people don’t understand where the focus state is.
When Iyengars team built the interface people will use to award stars to Star Search performers, they initially followed that same principle, and highlighted the third star to direct the eye. Test audiences immediately pushed back. People did not like that we were filling up the stars for them, he says. They were like: why are you voting for me?
Voting on tuna sandwiches and sports competitions?
In addition to the interface, Netflix also built a dedicated tool called Pollster that allows producers to integrate voting into their shows, then trigger each round in real time. To test Pollster and the backend tech for voting ahead of this weeks Star Search premiere, the streamer snuck a few test votes into Diner Time Live, a live cooking show hosted by celebrity chef David Chang.
Diner Time Live is not a competition, so testing star ratings didnt really make sense. David Changs team nonetheless embraced the idea, and let the shows audience rate different kinds of sandwiches. It wasn’t something high stakes, Iyengar says. Audience participation was nonetheless high. I’m really glad we did it, he says. We learned a lot.
The streamer is now ready to put those lessons learned to the test with the premiere of Star Search on Tuesday and already has plans to bring it to additional live entertainment formats in the future. We have many other ideas where we could apply this technology, Nubbemeyer says. One of the things were [considering] is polling. Netflix may, for instance, use its voting tech to ask viewers of a sports event to decide who the most impactful player is.
All these things could enrich the entertainment experience by making it more participatory, Nubbemeyer says.
The average American checks their phone over 140 times a day, clocking an average of 4.5 hours of daily use, with 57% of people admitting theyre addicted to their phone. Tech companies, influencers, and other content creators compete for all that attention, which has incentivized the rise of misinformation.
Considering this challenging information landscape, strong critical reading skills are as relevant and necessary as theyve ever been.
Unfortunately, literacy continues to be a serious concern. Reading comprehension scores have continued to decline. The majority of Gen Z parents are not reading aloud to their young children because they view it as a chore. Many college students cannot make it through an entire book.
With their endless scrolling and easy reposting and sharing of content, social media platforms are designed to encourage passive engagement that people use to relieve boredom and escape stress.
As a cognitive scientist and a literacy expert, we research the ways people process information through reading. Based on our work, we believe that deep reading can be an effective way to counter misinformation as well as reduce stress and loneliness. It can be tough to go deeper than a speedy skim, but there are strategies you can use to strengthen important reading skills.
Deep reading versus doomscrolling
People use smartphones and social media for a variety of reasons, such as to relieve boredom, seek attention, make connections, and share news. The infinite amount of information available at your fingertips can lead to information overload, interfering with how you pay attention and make decisions. Research from cognitive science helps to explain how scrolling trains your brain to think passively.
To keep people engaged, social media algorithms feed people content similar to what theyve already engaged with, reinforcing users beliefs with similar posts. Repeated exposure to information increases its believability, especially if different sources repeat the information, an effect known as illusory truth.
Deep reading, on the other hand, refers to the intentional process of engaging with information in critical, analytical, and empathetic ways. It involves making inferences, drawing connections, engaging with different perspectives, and questioning possible interpretations.
Deep reading does require effort. It can trigger negative feelings like irritation or confusion, and it can very often feel unpleasant. The important question, then: Why would anyone choose the hard work of deep reading when they can just scroll and skim?
Motivating mental effort
Mindless scrolling may come with unintended consequences. Smartphone and social media use is associated with increased boredom and loneliness. And doomscrolling is related to higher levels of existential anxiety and misanthropy.
In contrast, attention and effort, despite being exhausting, can deepen your sense of purpose and strengthen social connection. People also feel motivated to complete tasks that help them pursue personal goals, especially when these tasks are recognized by others. For these reasons, sharing books may be one tool to promote deep reading.
One example is a teacher who guides students through longer texts, like novels, paired with active discussions about the books to reinforce comprehension and interpretation. While the debate over the ongoing practice of assigning excerpts over full books in schools continues, evidence does suggest that sustained reading in social settings can promote lifelong enjoyment in reading.
With social connection in mind, social media can actually be used as a positive tool. BookTok is a popular online community of people who use TikTok to discuss and recommend books. Fans post in-depth analyses of K-Pop Demon Hunters and other movies or shows, demonstrating that close analysis still has a place in the endless scroll of social media.
Slowing yourself down to read deeply
There are steps you can take to meaningfully engage with the constant stream of information you encounter. Of course, this process can be taxing, and people only have so much effort and attention to expend. Its important to both recognize your limited cognitive resources and be intentional about how you direct those resources.
Simply being aware of how digital reading practices shape your brain can encourage new attitudes and habits toward how you consume information. Just pausing can reduce susceptibility to misinformation. Taking a few extra seconds to consciously judge information can counteract illusory truth, indicating that intentionally slowing down even just a bit can be beneficial.
Reading deeply means being able to intentionally choose when to read at different speeds, slowing down as needed to wrestle with difficult passages, savor striking prose, critically evaluate information, and reflect on the meaning of a text. It involves entering into a dialogue with the text rather than gleaning information.
Awareness does not mean that you never doomscroll at the end of a long day. But it does mean becoming conscious of the need to also stick with a single text more frequently and to engage with different perspectives.
You can start small, perhaps with poem, short stories, or essays, before moving up to longer texts. Partner with a friend or family member and set a goal to read a full-length novel or nonfiction book. Accomplish that goal in small chunks, such as reading one chapter a day and discussing what you read with your reading buddy. Practicing deep reading, such as reading novels, can open you up to new perspectives and ideas that you can explore in conversation with others, in person, or even on TikTok.
JT Torres is a director of the Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington and Lee University.
Jeff Saerys-Foy is an associate professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The northern lights have been viewable from locations you don’t normally see them on a number of recent occasions, and on the evening of January 20, the same will be true.
On Tuesday night, the aurora borealis may be visible in parts of more than half of all U.S. states. That’s a few more than the usual six or so Northern states that are used to seeing the colorful lit-up skies. That’s because solar storms can change visibility, making the spectacle visible to additional locations in times of heightened geomagnetic activity.
According to an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), that’s precisely what’s in the forecast this evening as geomagnetic activity has been strengthening, reaching G4 (severe) levels early this morning at around 3:23 a.m. ET. Essentially, when it comes to hopeful viewers, that could mean some amazing visuals, as the heightened activity will make for a stronger aurora.
Just yesterday, the northern lights were visible in more states than usual, too, with the aurora making an appearance in Southern states like Alabama and New Mexico. Tonight, however, far more individuals across the country will be able to catch a glimpse of the event.
According to the SWPC’s projected view line, the lights will are predicted to be visible in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Of course, nothing is set in stone. The view line is just a prediction that could change as the storm shifts, the agency says.
When it comes to seeing the northern lights, NOAA says that close to midnight (within an hour or two before or after) is your best shot. “These hours of active aurora expand toward evening and morning as the level of geomagnetic activity increases,” the agency’s web page explains. “There may be aurora in the evening and morning, but it is usually not as active and, therefore, not as visually appealing.”
If you’ve been wondering why the northern lights have been visible to more locations more often of late, it’s not all in your head. According to astronomers at BBC Weather, it has to do with the sun, which hit the peak of its 11-year solar cycle in 2025. Still, solar activity will remain high throughout 2026. That means more shots at seeing the northern lights.
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.
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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
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.
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.
Stocks slumped in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday after President Donald Trump threatened to hit eight NATO members with new tariffs as tensions escalate over his attempts to assert American control over Greenland.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, pulling back further from the record it set early last week. It was the first time U.S. markets could react to the escalation from Trump, as they were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 536 points, or 1.1%, as of 10:56 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite slumped 1.5%.
The losses were widespread and led by technology stocks, many of which already have more influence over the direction of the market because of outsized values. Retailers, banks and industrial companies also fell sharply.
Nvidia, one of the most valuable companies in the world, plunged 3%. Amazon fell 2%, JPMorgan Chase fell 0.6%, and Caterpillar lost 1%.
The energy sector eked out gains as the price of U.S. crude oil rose 1.4% to $60.19 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.1% to $64.69. Exxon Mobil rose 1%.
European markets and markets in Asia fell.
Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland. The annual combined imports from European Union nations are greater than those from the top two biggest individual importers into the U.S., Mexico, and China.
Gold prices surged 3% and silver prices soared 5.5%. Both reached for records. Such assets are often considered safe havens in times of geopolitical turmoil.
The trade tensions apparently short-circuited a recent rally in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency rose above $96,000 late last week but has dropped back to around $90,400.
Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 3.59% from 3.60% late Friday.
Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last years decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norways prime minister that he no longer felt an obligation to think purely of Peace, in a text message released Monday.
Trumps message to Jonas Gahr Stre appeared to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark.
Trump’s threats have sparked outrage and a flurry of diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the first-ever use of the European Unions anti-coercion instrument.
Tariffs have been looming over the U.S. and global economies since 2024. Trump’s tariff policy has been confusing and uncertain, involving the threat or implementation of tariffs and then often followed by delays or cancellations. Existing tariffs have added more pressure to already high prices on goods and the threat of more to come makes it difficult for businesses to plan ahead.
The threat of tariffs reigniting already high inflation could further complicate the Federal Reserve’s job. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate three times late in 2025 to help bolster the economy as the job market weakened. But, it has taken a more cautious view because of the risk of rising inflation, which remains above the Fed’s target of 2%.
Lower interest rates on loans can help bolster economic activity, but they could also fuel inflation, which could counter any benefit from lower interest rates.
The Fed, and Wall Street, will get another update on inflation on Thursday, when the government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. It is the Feds preferred measure for inflation.
The Fed will meet next week for its policy meeting on interest rates and Wall Street is betting that the central bank will hold its benchmark interest rate steady.
Wall Street is also in the midst of the latest round of corporate earnings, which could help provide more insight into how companies are handling uncertainty from tariffs, geopolitics, and cautious consumers.
Industrial and consumer conglomerate 3M slumped 6.2% after reporting mixed results for its most recent quarter. United Airlines and Netflix will report their results after the market closes on Tuesday. Companies from a wide range of industries will report their results this week, including Johnson & Johnson, Halliburton and Intel.
Damian J. Troise, AP business writer
AP Business Writers By Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Iranians have been struggling for nearly two weeks with the longest, most comprehensive internet shutdown in the history of the Islamic Republic one that has not only restricted their access to information and the outside world, but is also throttling many businesses that rely on online advertising.
Authorities shut down internet access on Jan. 8 as nationwide protests led to a brutal crackdown that activists say has killed over 4,000 people, with more feared dead. Since then, there has been minimal access to the outside world, with connectivity in recent days restored only for some domestic websites. Google also began partially functioning as a search engine, with most search results inaccessible.
Officials have offered no firm timeline for the internet to return, leading to fears by businesses across the country about their future.
One pet shop owner in Tehran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity like others for fear of reprisals, said his business had fallen by 90% since the protests. Before that, I mainly worked on Instagram and Telegram which I dont have access to anymore. The government has proposed two domestic alternatives. The point is our customers are not there they dont use it.
Internet outages are the latest squeeze on businesses
The internet outage compounds economic pain already suffered by Iranians. The protests, which appear to have halted under a bloody suppression by authorities, began Dec. 28 over Irans rial currency falling to over 1.4 million to $1. Ten years ago, the rial traded at 32,000 to $1. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it traded at 70 to $1.
The currencys downward spiral pushed up inflation, increasing the cost of food and other daily necessities. The pressure on Iranians pockets was compounded by changes to gasoline prices that were also introduced in December, further fueling anger.
Irans state-run news agency IRNA quoted a deputy minister of communications and information technology, Ehsan Chitsaz, as saying the cut to the internet cost Iran between $2.8 to $4.3 million each day.
But the true cost for the Iranian economy could be far higher. The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks estimates each day of an internet shutdown in Iran costs the country over $37 million.
The site says it estimates the economic impact of internet outages based on indicators from multiple sources including the World Bank and the International Telecommunication Union, which is the United Nations specialized agency for digital technology.
In 2021 alone, a government estimate suggested Iranian businesses made as much as $833 million a year in sales from social media sites, wrote Dara Conduit, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, in an article published by the journal Democratization in June. She cited a separate estimate suggesting internet disruptions around the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests cost the Iranian economy $1.6 billion.
The 2022 internet disruptions’ “far-reaching and blanket economic consequences risked further heightening tensions in Iran and spurring the mobilization of new anti-regime cohorts onto the streets at a time when the regime was already facing one of the most serious existential threats of its lifetime, Conduit wrote.
More than 500 people were reportedly killed during that crackdown and over 22,000 detained.
Prosecutors target some businesses over protest support
Meanwhile, prosecutors have also begun targeting some businesses in the crackdown.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Tuesday that prosecutors in Tehran filed paperwork to seize the assets of 60 cafes it alleged had a role in the protests. It also announced plans to seek the assets of athletes, cinema figures and others as well. Some cafes in Tehran and Shiraz have been shut down by authorities, other reports say.
Internet cuts drive more outrage
The financial damage also has some people openly discussing the internet blackout.
In the comments section of a story on the internet blackout carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one reader wrote: For heavens sake, please do not let this internet cut become a regular thing. We need the net. Our business life is vanishing. Our business is being destroyed.
Another commentator questioned why the internet remained blocked after days with no reports of street protests.
Its not just the internet blackout that is hurting businesses. The violent crackdown on the protests, and the wave of a reported 26,000 arrests that followed, also have dampened the mood of consumers.
In Iran’s capital, many shops and restaurants are open, but many look empty as customers focus primarily on groceries and little else.
Those who pass by our shops dont show any appetite for shopping, said the owner of an upscale tailor shop in Tehran. We are just paying our regular expenses, electricity and staff but in return, we don’t have anything.
Elena Becatoros and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
For years, leaders have been told that being true to themselves and ignoring what others think represent the gold standard of effective leadership, a kind of moral and emotional north star. But in practice, this type of advice often gets leaders into trouble.
For a vivid illustration, consider how two famous fictional (yet hyper-realistic) characters, namely Don Draper (Madmen) and Michael Scott (The Office) embody these two mantras. Draper clings to a rigid, unchanging identity, using this is who I am as armor to avoid confronting his insecurities, while Scott approaches management with unfiltered candor, oversharing, and acting on impulse. Both believe they are being true to themselves, so others should appreciate it, but in reality they are trapped behind a rigid self-protective shield that excuses poor judgment and blocks growth.
The real problem arises not so much from being untrue to themselves, but rather, from mis-calibrating how they show up, mistaking self-expression for effectiveness. Leaders who are reduced to this kind of pattern routinely erode trust, exhaust their teams, and undermine their own influence while sincerely believing they are acting with genuineness and integrity.
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As psychological research shows, every leader carries internal narratives shaped by early experiences about how to stay safe, earn belonging, or manage uncertainty. These narratives result in behavioral patterns that were once adaptive. But over time, they harden into identity (this is just who I am) and limit leaders flexibility and versatility.
Leaders are therefore presented with a difficult psychological choice, namely: (a) to resist pressures to conform, and act without consideration for what others think, but, in doing so, risk alienating or antagonizing others; or (b) to adjust their behavior to meet the situational demandsmostly, what other people want and need from thembut risk alienating . . . themselves.
The question, then, is how leaders can skillfully navigate the intricate balance between their self-expression needs and their obligation to others. To this end, here are a few science-based recommendations to consider:
Communicate with greater precision and empathy
Leaders dont struggle because they speak the truth, but because they speak it without intention, timing, or attunement. Balancing candor with empathy is the discipline of telling the truth in ways that preserve dignity, empathy, and trust. Heres how:
Pair honesty with intention. Before speaking hard truths, ask: What impact do I want this message to have? Clarifying intent helps you choose language that builds trust rather than simply offloading whats on your mind. Think of it as an emotional aim: honesty without intention is like firing an arrow without checking what or who is behind the target.
Slow the reflex. If you feel urgency to just say it, pause. Urgency often signals an activated trigger, not clarity. This is your minds equivalent of a car engine revving too hot; giving it a moment prevents you from speeding into the wrong lane. Use that pause to let adrenaline fall and cognition rise.
Practice empathetic accuracy. Test your instincts by naming what others might feel, then adjust your delivery in service of effectiveness, not self-expression. Great communicators act like emotional cartographers, mapping the terrain before entering it so they know where the cliffs, rivers, and fragile bridges are.
Regulate emotion before you express it
Vulnerability builds trust only when it is regulated, purposeful, and contained. Grounded vulnerability allows leaders to be real without turning their teams into emotional shock absorbers or co-regulators. Heres how:
Share what is useful, not what is unfiltered. Vulnerability should serve others, not the leaders emotional relief. Raw disclosure is not always courageous; sometimes it is simply an emotional data dump that burdens the listener. Useful vulnerability, by contrast, is like offering a compass: personal, yes, but handed over with the intent to orient others, not to lighten your own load.
Do emotional processing upstream. Use peers, mentors, or therapists as your primary space, not your colleagues. This preserves your teams psychological safety while still giving you the support you need. Upstream processing allows you to show up composed, thoughtful, and ready to metabolize complexity on behalf of others rather than through them. For example, employees often report feeling emotionally hijacked when leaders vent openly about board pressure or uncertainty, unsure whether they are being informed or enlisted as emotional support.
Replace unloading with grounding. Before sharing, ask: Is this helpful to them? Or helpful to me? Grounding yourself first allows you to express vulnerability as perspective, not pressure. Think of grounding as fastening your oxygen mask before assisting others: when you regulate your own emotional state, your words become stabilizing rather than contagious. Leaders who ground themselves create a conversational climate where honesty feels safe instead of sharp.
Balance identity with adaptability
Many leaders confuse integrity with sameness. True reliabiity comes not from repeating the same behaviors, but from expressing the same values with greater responsiveness and emotional range. Heres how:
Redefine consistency. Anchor to values, not behaviors. Values stay largely steady; behaviors can evolve. When leaders treat consistency as performing the same behaviors in every situation, they confuse predictability with rigidity. True consistency comes from being reliably guided by the same principles even as contexts shift.
Try 10% adjustments. Micro-flexibility builds confidence without threatening identity. A modest shift in tone, timing, or format can expand your influence far more than sweeping reinventions, demonstrating that authenticity and adaptability can coexist.
Name what rigidity protects. When you feel resistant, ask: What part of me feels endangered right now? Identifying the fear beneath the resistance opens the door to more adaptive choices. This self-reflection keeps self-expression honest while ensuring that protective impulses do not override responsibilities to the people they lead.
Demonstrate values with judgment, not dogma
Strong values dont require rigid postures. Moral maturity allows leaders to stand for what matters while remaining curious, connected, and oriented toward collective impact rather than personal righteousness. Heres how:
Distinguish values from validation. Ask: Am I standing in a principle or hiding behind it? This distinguishes conviction from ego. By interrogating whether a stance is truly principle-driven or simply self-affirming, leaders prevent rigid authenticity from becoming a shield for stubbornness.
Expand the aperture of right. Seek nuance in situations that challenge your certainty. Curiosity reduces the need to treat disagreement as a moral referendum. By widening their interpretive frame, leaders move from defending their identity to understanding the system they are operating in.
Prioritize impact over insistence. Sometimes the most ethical choice is the one that maintains relationships, not the one that wins the argument. Insisting on being right can satisfy the ego but damage the social fabric leaders rely on to get things done.
In short, if you are interested in being a better leader who is true to her/himself, focus on being your best possible self rather than your unfiltered or uncensored self. Why? Because the less you care about your reputation, the more others will careand not in a good way.
Leadership is fundamentally relational, so leaders professional selves must be optimized to the needs of others. People dont need leaders to share every inner thought but to provide clarity, stability, and a responsible, human presence. Effective leaders prioritize impact over self-expression and treat authenticity as an active, intentional process. By contrast, misguided self-expression creates friction that slows decisions, distorts information, and weakens execution, even in otherwise capable teams.
The best leaders commit to continuous improvement and becoming more effective in their roles. This demands self-awareness and emotional intelligence, recognizing what traits to emphasize or adjust to meet the moment’s demands. Instead of unfiltered self-expression, leaders engage in thoughtful self-presentation tailored to the collective needs of their teams and organizations. As a result, leaders professional reputation becomes a practiced skill of managing how to show up powerfully while staying true to core values, not a static identity to be discovered or defended at all costs.
In summary, effective leadership is less about rigid self-identity and more about strategic self-curation aimed at adaptive effectiveness and relational impact. Leaders who understand this evolve beyond trapped patterns and refine themselves to lead with clarity, competence, and integrity.
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