In theory, AI should have transformed manufacturing by now. From predictive maintenance and fatigue detection to real-time quality control, the promise has always been smarter, faster, and safer operations. But in practice, the factory floor is still a place where AI ambitions often run into real-world limitations.
Thats a huge problem, especially because the size and weight of this industry are hard to ignore. U.S. manufacturing alone contributes $2.9 trillion to the economy, accounting for over 10% of total output and supporting nearly 13 million workers, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. Globally, manufacturing represents 16% of world GDP and a total market value well over $16 trillion, per a new report from Cargoson.
Now, as AI advances even further and policymakers push for reindustrialization in the U.S.aiming to restore domestic production capacity, regain supply chain control, and modernize strategic infrastructurethe spotlight is back on factories. Theres momentum and money behind the movement, but without restructuring the fragmented digital systems that dominate most production floors, that momentum may stall. An estimate by MarketsandMarkets projects the global AI in manufacturing market would grow to $155 billion by 2030, up from $34 billion in 2025 — but that growth will remain theoretical unless companies solve the bottlenecks slowing down adoption.
Outdated infrastructure
According to a 2025 survey of more than 500 manufacturing leaders, 92% say outdated infrastructure is holding back GenAI progress. Another report on the state of AI infrastructure by A10 Networks found that 74% of global IT decision-makers believe their current infrastructure is not fully prepared to support AI workloads. For all the talk of digital transformation, many factories are still running on architecture that predates smartphones, most of which cannot support new AI capabilities.
The hype around AI in manufacturing is real, but so are the technical barriers, Shahid Ahmed, EVP of New Ventures and Innovation at NTT DATA, tells Fast Company. Modern connectivity is unlocking the next wave of AI-driven innovation in manufacturing. Private 5G and next-gen Wi-Fi give manufacturers the speed and reliability to finally turn AI into a productivity engine.
However, better connectivity is just one part of the big problem with getting AI to produce optimal results on the factory floor. Whats really stopping AI from working on the ground isnt just weak networks but also a mismatch between how factories run and how AI systems think.
At aiOla, a conversational AI company that works with Fortune 500 manufacturers, Assaf Asbag sees a common pattern: data silos, fragmented systems, and little end-to-end accountability. Even when manufacturers bring in advanced models and top-tier talent, the results rarely scale.
Even with expensive AI talent, teams cant generate value if they dont have clean, connected data, explains Asbag, aiOlas Chief Technology & Product Officer. You need aligned data, integrated workflows, and clear accountabilityotherwise pilots never scale.
Thats because many manufacturing systems were never built to support AI in the first place. Legacy enterprise systemslike outdated ERP (enterprise resource planning) tools, old-school CRMs (customer relationship management platforms), and manual data entrystill dominate much of the landscape. When critical insights are buried across disconnected platformsor worse, written down in logbooksit becomes nearly impossible to feed AI models the context they need.
Ahmed points to a recent deployment with materials manufacturer Celanese, where private 5G and edge AI were introduced to improve worker safety and equipment monitoring. They were able to identify fatigue risk factors and detect hazards in real time, he claims. It was only possible because the infrastructure was there to support that intelligence.
For him, the key to successful AI deployments in manufacturing isnt just having data but also having the right data, in the right place, and at the right time. Without that, he warns, factories will keep seeing failed pilots, no matter how powerful the model.
Not all use cases are built the same
While the buzz often centers on predictive maintenance and visual inspection, those arent plug-and-play features. They require reliable data flow, ultra-low latency, and hardware compatibility that many plants simply dont have. In remote or offline environments, traditional cloud-based systems cant keep up.
Use cases that demand real-time decision-makinglike voice-enabled workflows or autonomous quality checksare especially sensitive to network and system performance, Asbag notes. Thats why edge computing matters. It allows speech recognition or LLM-driven tasks to happen on-site, without depending on cloud access.
Picture a factory line that shuts down every time it loses Wi-Fi. Without local processingmeaning the ability to run AI tasks on devices in the factory instead of sending them to the cloudeven a short loss of connectivity can stop production and make AI tools more of a problem than a help.
For factories operating with limited or unreliable connectivity, edge AI offers a way forward. By processing data locally, companies can cut lag time, protect sensitive data, and reduce downtime. But again, these benefits only materialize if the surrounding infrastructurefrom sensors to routersis up to the task.
Think of it like trying to run a modern electric vehicle on outdated roads, Ahmed says. No matter how powerful the engine, if the path is broken, youre not going anywhere fast.
Getting real ROI
One of the biggest traps in AI adoption is mistaking model accuracy for business success. Just because a model performs well during testing doesnt mean it will drive positive outcomes on the floor.
The most successful AI initiatives begin with a clear visionimproving quality, boosting efficiency, or unlocking insights, says Ahmed. From there, quick wins build momentum.
Asbag agrees with him. ROI in AI is not about proving that the modelworks or that accuracy improves on a benchmark. Those are technology goals, not business goals, he notes. Companies should avoid fluff by defining ROI in clear, specific business termsfaster processes, better decisions, or measurable savings.
That means tracking metrics like how many more inspections a worker can perform with a voice assistant or how predictive maintenance reduced unexpected machine downtime. When AI is tied to concrete, operational KPIs, it becomes a tool for transformationnot just a tech experiment.
And thats the big difference between the hype-induced claims of faster operations in the AI space and real measurable impact. Its one thing to say your model is 96% accurate in a test environment. Its another to show that it actually helped to cut defect rates by 12% in real production. While the first might get a nod from the technical team, the second gets leadership to sign off on a bigger rollout.
The path forward
Getting AI to work in manufacturing isnt about chasing the most advanced model. Its really about understanding the problem, cleaning up the data, modernizing the systems, and making sure every deployment serves a real business need.
Too many companies fall into endless discussions, pilots, and meetings without ever delivering value, says Asbag. Success with AI comes from being precise about the problem, aligning with the business outcome, and giving teams the autonomy to execute.
Ahmed puts it even more directly: AI without infrastructure is like trying to build a smart city with no roads. You need the foundation in place before you scale. Sateesh Seetharamiah, CEO of Edgeverve, also agrees. Without a defined set of use cases and outcomes, manufacturers will be stuck without a clear strategy to prioritize the right emerging tech capabilities for business success, he says.
Conversations about building AI infrastructure in manufacturing often stall because leaders assume it means ripping everything out and starting from scratch. But meaningful progress rarely requires a full overhaul. Some of the biggest wins come from small, targeted changeslike installing local edge devices to reduce lag, connecting isolated systems, or clarifying who owns what data so teams can move faster.
Manufacturing may be one of the toughest environments for AI, but its also one of the most rewarding. The factories that get it right wont just optimize how work gets done. Theyll also lead a new era of industrial work, while the ones that hesitate may fall behind. This isnt the time to sit on the fence, says Seetharamiah. Manufacturers who delay risk missing out on enormous opportunities to create digital experiences for their customers.
A lot has been written about how AI is coming for your job, but EY’s latest AI survey found some surprisingly results. Out of 500 top executives at major U.S. companies who said artificial intelligence was boosting productivity at their companies, only 17% of those polled actually turned around and laid off workers or cut their jobs.
Instead, the new survey found they are reinvesting those gains back into the company.
“Executives are plowing productivity gains right back into more AI tools and more talented people,” EY America’s consulting leader Colm Sparks Austin said. “The real breakthrough isnt automationits amplification. Leading companies are using AI to scale human capacity at a pace weve never seen before.”
The EY US AI Pulse Survey, the fourth in a series of polls, surveyed 500 key U.S. business decision-makers across sectors (either senior vice presidents and above) and found nearly all organizations investing in artificial intelligence are experiencing some amount of AI-driven gains in productivity (96%), including 57% that say their gains are “significant.”
However, among those organizations experiencing AI-driven productivity gains, only 17% say these gains led to reduced headcount; far more reported reinvesting those gains into existing AI capabilities (47%), developing new AI capabilities (42%), strengthening cybersecurity (41%), investing in R&D (39%), and upskilling and reskilling employees (38%).
While AI readily raises the floor by improving efficiency, the transformative potential comes from raising the ceiling, according to Dan Diasio, EY global consulting AI leader. Organizations that shift from a productivity mindset to a growth agenda are using AI to drive innovation, create new markets and achieve what was previously considered impossible.
Diasio said the survey results reveals that successful companies are reinvesting their gains today to build the businesses of the future, not just optimizing the current operations.
The survey also found the amount of money a company invested in AI, influenced how much productivity gains it saw in 2025. For example, senior leaders at organizations currently investing $10 million or more in AI across all business units or teams (71%) were more likely than those investing less than $10 million (52%) to say their organization has seen significant AI-driven productivity gains over the past year.
Finally, when asked about the impact of AI investments on their financial outcomes, a majority of the senior leaders (56%) who have seen positive ROI from AI investments report it has lead to significant measurable improvements in overall financial performance.
As a result, that performance is leading to increased planned AI spend by companies. While 27% of respondents investing in AI currently commit a quarter or more of their IT budget to AI, that figure is set to roughly double to 52% in 2026; and the group spending half or more of their total IT budget on AI is expected to quintuple, jumping from just 3% in 2025 to a whopping 19% in 2026.
In short, those businesses investing the most in AI today, will likely be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in the future.
The companies out in front on AI investment are pulling farther ahead, Whitt Butler, EY Americas vice chair of consulting explained. The magnitude of investment matters: the organizations committing more funding to AI are seeing the strongest productivity gains, showing that AI is moving beyond pilots to become a true driver of enterprise value.
Across the internet, eagle-eyed sleuths are crying “AI slop” after Saturday Night Live aired segments with what looks like AI-generated imagery.
The first instance, from Saturday’s cold open, shows an illustrated Christmas storybook. The images feature a hazy, yellow-ish hue and an image of streets that don’t connect. The next, in “Weekend Update” showed an image of a woman playing a slot machine in an otherwise empty casino while using an oxygen tank with tubes that weren’t connected.
[Image: NBC Universal]
While the images were on screen for a fraction of the episode, they have led to some very vocal backlash by fans, who are convinced they are AI-generated.On Reddit, viewers called them “gross” and “a shame” while a Bluesky user said simply, “Booooooo.” “That Week In SNL,” a podcast, was having none of it.
[Image: NBC Universal]
AI fatigue is real, and the accusations against Saturday’s episode landed amid a wider conversation about AI-generated media. McDonalds Netherlands pulled an AI-generated ad from its YouTube page last week following widespread negative comments. Meanwhile, the studio behind Coca-Cola’s widely criticized new AI-generated holiday ad admitted it wasn’t 100% ready. Merriam-Webster on Sunday named “slop” its 2025 word of the year.
Slop in an ad is one thing. But slop on a show like SNL strikes a nerve considering how well known the long-running show is for its intricate human-made sets and costuming. This is a show made by hand, and the janky Photoshop jobs during Weekend Update are part of the joke.
SNL has joked about AI in sketches this year, including one in January starring Timothée Chalamet and Bowen Yang that poked fun at AI’s proclivity for producing images of people with extra fingers. And in a sketch last month, Glen Powell played a grandpa pictured in old photos brought to life in an AI app gone wrong.
NBC, which airs SNL, has not confirmed that the images are AI-generated, and the network did not respond to a request for comment.
SNL‘s visual effects workers unionized in July, and their contract included AI protections that VFX artist Richard Lampasone said at the time was “a worker-centric AI policy that will help us keep doing our best work as our craft evolves.”
The holidays are the perfect time to show people that you appreciate their time, their effort, and the value they bring. But when it comes to giving gifts at work, most people are confused about what to do.
Should you, or shouldn’t you, buy your boss a present? What about your coworkers or direct reports? How much should you spend for the office gift exchange? What about your office bestie?
We asked the experts to weigh in, and here’s what they had to say.
Is it acceptable to give holiday gifts at work?
“To gift someone in the workplace is always acceptable, Alyse Dermer, founder of Mr. Considerate, a luxury gift concierge service, tells Fast Company. “Gifting can reinforce positive working relationships, strengthen team connection, and create moments that feel personal in a world that often feels transactional.”
“People work hard,” Dermer adds. “You spend a lot of time with your coworkers, and they want to be seen. Its different from a company bonus. It doesnt need to be expensive, it just needs to be thoughtful. And thoughtfulness really lands.”
Dermer says a good gift shows you appreciate people’s work and pay attention to their interests: “You work with these people everyday, you depend on them, they depend on you”and a gift should reflect that.
Ask yourself: “Where are they in their life?” For example, is someone getting married? How about matching mugs or luggage tags? Or, does your coworker want to learn how to cook? You could get them a cookbook.
Should I get my boss a gift?
“If you feel compelled to gift your boss, it should be something modest,” national etiquette expert Diane Gottsman tells Fast Company. “Something they can use, such as an inexpensive office gadget, baked goods, or a box of fruit. Not wine, cologne, or a tie.”
Choose a minimal price point to show you aren’t sucking up to the boss, or trying to get special treatment from a supervisor or a colleague.
What about colleagues?
“Many offices have a Secret Santa or White Elephant exchange. Always stay within the price range,” Gottsman advises.
But what if you want to gift your office bestie or “work wife” something special?
“Anything else should be given out of the office, if you are only going to gift a few people and not others,” she says. “It avoids hurt feelings.”
What are some expert-approved gifts?
Gottsman recommends a thermal tote bag, a multi-prong cell phone charger, a beautiful bottle of olive oil, or a warm scarf.
“One thing I have been gifting is games,” Dermer says. “Chess, checkers, Rummikub, or a Majong set. Games are fun and they bring you together.”
Some of Dermer’s favorite gifts include:
Flamingo Estate olive oil and vinegar set
Leatherology tech organizer
Aura digital frame
Rummikub set
Backgammon set
Coffee table book
Blunt umbrella
Airbnb may finally pay the price of long-simmering tensions about overtourism in Spain.
The Spanish government announced on Monday that it has fined the online rentals giant 64 million euros ($75 million) for advertising unlicensed rental listings in the country. This decision is the latest in several months of back-and-forths, as the government previously ordered Airbnb to remove more than 120,000 listings it identified as unlicensed.
While Spains Consumer Affairs Ministry said the fine was a final decision and couldnt be appealed, San Francisco-based Airbnb is reportedly planning to challenge it in court. The company didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company.
ADDRESSING HOUSING CRISIS
A record 94 million foreigners visited Spain last year, a 10% increase from 2023, making it one of the most-visited countries in the world by tourists. But the proliferation of private tourist accommodations has contributed to a housing crisis and there have been several, large anti-tourism protests in the country in recent years.
Tasked with addressing the housing crisis is Pablo Bustinduy, the consumer affairs minister.
“There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing situation, while a few enrich themselves with business models that force people out of their homes,” Bustinduy said in a statement. No company in Spain, however large or powerful, can be above the law.”
AIRBNB RESPONDS
Airbnb issued a statement to several news organizations indicating that it has been working with the Spanish government since short-term rental rules changed in July to enforce a new registration system. On its website, Airbnb also has a lengthy explanation about responsible hosting in Spain.
“Airbnb is confident that the ministry actions are contrary to applicable regulations in Spain and we intend to challenge this fine in court,” a company spokesperson said in a statement published by Reuters.
Rental listings in Spain are still available for booking on Airbnbs website. While other companies similarly facilitate private rental agreements, this particular platforms popularity has made it a target of anti-tourism sentiment in Spain and beyond.
In the southern beach town of Tarifa, for example, Airbnb indicates there are more than 800 listings available for a one-week, off-season rental in January. Whats more, there are also dozens of hotels in the area. The town has a population of less than 20,000 people.
For the three months ended in Sept. 30, Airbnb reported quarterly revenue of nearly $2 billion for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, its second-largest market behind North America. That marked a 14% gain from the same period a year ago, more than the companys revenue growth of 10% across all regions.
For a company with a market cap of more than $79 billion, investors dont seem too concerned about the prospect of a $75 million fine. Airbnb shares rose more than 2% in mid-day trading Monday, even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell about 0.5%.
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After announcing another 25-basis-point cut to the Federal Reserves short-term rate, Fed Chair Jerome Powellwhose term ends on May 15, 2026was asked about the U.S. housing market.
Powell acknowledged that recent rate cuts wont restore affordability to the U.S. housing market. He suggested that the country needs to build more housing unitsand noted that central bankers don’t really have the tools to address it.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters on December 10, 2025:
So the housing market faces some really significant challenges, and I don’t know that, you know, a 25 basis point decline in the federal funds rate is going to make much of a difference for people.
You know, housing supply is low. Many people have very, very low, low, low rate mortgages from the pandemic period, and they kept refinancing and caught the really low. So it’s expensive to them to move. And you know, we’re a ways away from that changing.
Also, we’re just, we haven’t built enough housing in the country for a long time, and so a lot of estimates suggest that we just need more housing of different kinds. So housing is going to be, you know, a problem, and you know, really the tools to address it are we can, we can raise and lower interest rates, but we don’t really have the tools to address, you know, a secular housing shortage, a structural housing shortage.
While Powell appears to suggest that a structural housing shortage is the underlying issue in the U.S. housing market, he acknowledged back in October that the Fed may have kept purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for too long during the Pandemic Housing Boomthough he added that its challenging to determine if and by how much it actually helped overheat the housing market during that period.
Over the past year-plus, as the U.S. labor market has softenedwith the last published U.S. unemployment rate (4.4%) a solid clip above the cycle low in April 2023 (3.4%)and as the Federal Reserve has sought to move from restrictive toward neutral policy by making several cuts to short-term rates, weve also seen long-term yields and mortgage rates come down from their cycle highs.
While Powell may be right that Fed policy changes right now alone are unlikely to return the U.S. housing market to average levels of affordabilitywere currently in the upper bandits worth noting that the recent mild decline in long-term interest rates, which the Fed does not directly set but which are influenced by financial markets expectations for the economy and future Fed policy, has been one of the levers that has helped nationally aggregated housing affordability improve a little this year.
Indeed, last week the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, as tracked by Freddie Mac, was 6.22%well below the cycle high of 7.79% reached in October 2023.
“The bottom line is it appears 30-year mortgage rates will be in current range for some time barring a recession or a crisis,” wrote housing analyst Bill McBride earlier this week.
Mortgage rates could still drift modestly lower next year, particularly if the spread between the 10-year Treasury yield and the 30-year fixed mortgage rate continues to compress. But the easiest mortgage-rate declines may already be behind us.
To see a truly material downward shift in mortgage rates next year, many analysts believe it would take a more significant weakening in the labor market.
Hypothetically speaking, if the unemployment rate were to spike and the economy weakened, financial markets could respond with a flight to safetydriving up demand for Treasuries, which would push bond prices higher and yields (including mortgage rates) lower. At the same time, the Fed could respond with emergency cuts to the federal funds rate and, if the downturn were severe enough, potentially resume purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), adding further downward pressure on mortgage rates.
There are boy aquariums all over the United States,” a TikTok creator explains in a recent post.
The video then shows a clip of someone carrying a bucket filled with hockey pucks. Come feed the fish at the boy aquarium with me, the closed captions read. The person tosses the pucks onto the rink as players skate past.
On TikTok, ice hockey arenas have been rebranded as boy aquariums.” Videos show women tapping against the battered Plexiglas, filming the players warming up and encouraging others to go on a girls night to the rink.
The players themselves are in on the joke. Earlier this year, the official TikTok of the Canadian junior ice hockey team Moncton Wildcats posted: So were calling this the boy aquarium now? as the players skate around the enclosed rink. Another video, posted last week, shows the University of Cincinnati mens ice hockey team on a field trip to an actual aquarium.
Fans are encouraging others to go and watch the sport. You look happier, the on-screen text reads on one clip, Thanks, I went to the boy aquarium with my besties.
The National Hockey Leagues fan base overall is young, diverse, and online. Over half, 54%, are under the age of 44, according to Sport Radar, the second-youngest among the four major U.S. leagues. And the new legion of overwhelmingly female fans filling stadiums can be traced, in part, back to the popularity of BookToks favorite ice-hockey romance genre.
The uninitiated may be surprised to learn there are thousands of novels in this niche subcategory, the most popular being Hannah Graces romance bestseller Icebreaker, which went viral in 2022 with the story of a competitive figure skater and hockey team captain forced to share a rink (cue romantic entanglement).
Capitalizing on the hype, social-media teams regularly publish videos of players reading spicy chapters of Icebreaker or Pucking Around, another hockey romance bestseller by Emily Rath.
“Heated Rivalry”, currently airing on HBO Max, has only added to the hockey fever, spawning thousands of reaction videos on TikTok and Instagram. With its steamy gay hockey romance storyline, based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, the Canadian import has topped the streaming charts following the release of episode 4.
While tongue-in-cheek, the boy aquarium trend also risks playing into harmful stereotypes of female sports fans. The puck bunny insult has long been levelled at young female hockey fans, just as groupie has historically been used to belittle female music fans.
Ice Hockey UK and The Elite League recently condemned a Financial Times article about British romance readers discovering ice hockey. The tone of the article is not just absurd and inaccurate in relation to ice hockey, but also to women who watch sport in general, Ice Hockey UK CEO Henry Staelens said in a statement. Something that shouldnt even be a talking point in todays society.
Female sports fans have long fought to be taken seriously, and social media trends – while harmless on the surface – risk erasing their passion and knowledge of the sport, replaced instead by a backdrop for a fictional trope.
Whether lifelong fans, or recent BookTok converts, ice hockey as an industry is heating up. The NHL league’s 32 clubs average valuation climbed 15% year-over-year to $2.2 billion, Forbes recently reported, more than double where they were just three years ago.
While some may come for the fictional hockey players, they stay for the sport.
Its official: 2025 was the year of slop.
Merriam-Webster just announced in a post that its human editors have chosen slop as the 2025 Word of the Year.
The dictionarys official definition of the word is digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence, a far cry from its original meaning. When the term was first coined in the 1700s, slop meant soft mud, before slowly morphing into a synonym for rubbish. Today, it’s the perfect four-letter word for the state of the internet.
In 2025, amid all the talk about AI threats, slop set a tone thats less fearful, more mocking, the dictionary’s post reads. The word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you dont seem too superintelligent.
How slop took over everything
The concept of slop dominated the collective consciousness this year, from the content we consumed to the food we literally ate.
Mere days into 2025, AI slopthe variety of click-harvesting, sensationalized, brain-melting content thats likely taken over your Facebook feedwas already raising alarms. In the wake of the fires that devastated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of L.A. this January, AI clips of heartwarming rescues began circulating to capitalize on the tragedy. In March, a study from Cornell University revealed that an influx of AI slop was slowly beginning to suffocate the web.
Since then, the problem has only escalated. Weve seen a concerning wave of fake Holocaust AI content; AI slop used in political messaging by former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo and President Trump himself; and AI-generated tributes to conservative pundit Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination. AI slop has thoroughly weasled its way into the marketing and advertising spheres, so much so that companies like Pinterest have had to roll out new filters to allow users to dial back the AI content. Everywhere you look, its slop all the way down.
The flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, ‘workslop’ reports that waste coworkers time and lots of talking cats, Merriam-Webster wrote in its report. It added, Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you dont want to touch.
One good slop-based item did emerge this year, though: the slop bowl, a new colloquial term for the preferred meal of office workers that involves a bowl full of a bunch of mixed ingredients. In 2025, we doomscrolled our slop and ate it, too.
The value of cryptocurrency XRP continues to slide, dipping as low as $1.92 as of Monday morning. XRPthe native crypto token of the XRP Ledger, created by Ripple Labshas seen its value hover around the $2 mark for roughly a month, and has been on a downward trend since late July, when values peaked at more than $3.50.
Values remained elevated through most of the summer months, catalyzed by U.S. regulators dropping legal actions against Ripple Labs, which had stretched on for several years. Additionally and subsequently, XRP ETFs have hit exchanges, theoretically broadening XRPs appeal and reach within the crypto space. That, it seems, should have increased demand and XRP prices, but that has not materialized.
The question, then, is why XRPs price has continued to fallor seems stuck around $2?
On a recent episode of the Paul Barron Podcast, Zach Rector, a crypto market analyst, said that the launch of numerous XRP ETFs is going to lead to price action, but as for why the price isnt going up more immediately with recent inflows into the ETFs, Rector says theres a simple answer.
In the month of November, there was $808 million in outflows on centralized exchanges. Thats people selling to dollars or stablecoins and leaving XRP, he said. And on the other side, of the ETF equation, there was $803 million of inflows into the ETFs, he added, saying that in all, the movement of value has been somewhat mutedespecially since some of that money is moving over-the-counter, rather than on exchanges, meaning that it could also have little effect on market prices.
In other words, public and private sales and demand for XRP may not yet be reflected in market value.
Of course, what happens next is anyones guess.
Its also important to note that Bitcoin, the largest and most popular cryptocurrency, has likewise seen values decline over the past couple of months, as has Ethereumso, XRP isnt necessarily alone in experiencing recent price declines. XRPs price history is volatile, too, especially given its legal hangups over the past few years.
While its current sub-$2 valuation is the lowest in some time, XRP prices did hover between $0.30 and $0.80 for most of 2022, 2023, and 2024. It saw a major breakout in October of last year, with values rocketing from around $0.50 to more than $3 by January 2025.
As the rest of the world rushes to harness the power of artificial intelligence, militant groups also are experimenting with the technology, even if they aren’t sure exactly what to do with it.For extremist organizations, AI could be a powerful tool for recruiting new members, churning out realistic deepfake images and refining their cyberattacks, national security experts and spy agencies have warned.Someone posting on a pro-Islamic State group website last month urged other IS supporters to make AI part of their operations. “One of the best things about AI is how easy it is to use,” the user wrote in English.“Some intelligence agencies worry that AI will contribute (to) recruiting,” the user continued. “So make their nightmares into reality.”IS, which had seized territory in Iraq and Syria years ago but is now a decentralized alliance of militant groups that share a violent ideology, realized years ago that social media could be a potent tool for recruitment and disinformation, so it’s not surprising that the group is testing out AI, national security experts say.For loose-knit, poorly resourced extremist groups or even an individual bad actor with a web connection AI can be used to pump out propaganda or deepfakes at scale, widening their reach and expanding their influence.“For any adversary, AI really makes it much easier to do things,” said John Laliberte, a former vulnerability researcher at the National Security Agency who is now CEO of cybersecurity firm ClearVector. “With AI, even a small group that doesn’t have a lot of money is still able to make an impact.”
How extremist groups are experimenting
Militant groups began using AI as soon as programs like ChatGPT became widely accessible. In the years since, they have increasingly used generative AI programs to create realistic-looking photos and video.When strapped to social media algorithms, this fake content can help recruit new believers, confuse or frighten enemies and spread propaganda at a scale unimaginable just a few years ago.Such groups spread fake images two years ago of the Israel-Hamas war depicting bloodied, abandoned babies in bombed-out buildings. The images spurred outrage and polarization while obscuring the war’s actual horrors. Violent groups in the Middle East used the photos to recruit new members, as did antisemitic hate groups in the U.S. and elsewhere.Something similar happened last year after an attack claimed by an IS affiliate killed nearly 140 people at a concert venue in Russia. In the days after the shooting, AI-crafted propaganda videos circulated widely on discussion boards and social media, seeking new recruits.IS also has created deepfake audio recordings of its own leaders reciting scripture and used AI to quickly translate messages into multiple languages, according to researchers at SITE Intelligence Group, a firm that tracks extremist activities and has investigated IS’ evolving use of AI.
‘Aspirational’ for now
Such groups lag behind China, Russia or Iran and still view the more sophisticated uses of AI as “aspirational,” according to Marcus Fowler, a former CIA agent who is now CEO at Darktrace Federal, a cybersecurity firm that works with the federal government.But the risks are too high to ignore and are likely to grow as the use of cheap, powerful AI expands, he said.Hackers are already using synthetic audio and video for phishing campaigns, in which they try to impersonate a senior business or government leader to gain access to sensitive networks. They also can use AI to write malicious code or automate some aspects of cyberattacks.More concerning is the possibility that militant groups may try to use AI to help produce biological or chemical weapons, making up for a lack of technical expertise. That risk was included in the Department of Homeland Security’s updated Homeland Threat Assessment, released earlier this year.“ISIS got on Twitter early and found ways to use social media to their advantage,” Fowler said. “They are always looking for the next thing to add to their arsenal.”
Countering a growing threat
Lawmakers have floated several proposals, saying there’s an urgent need to act.Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, for instance, that the U.S. must make it easier for AI developers to share information about how their products are being used by bad actors, whether they are extremists, criminal hackers or foreign spies.“It has been obvious since late 2022, with the public release of ChatGPT, that the same fascination and experimentation with generative AI the public has had would also apply to a range of malign actors,” Warner said.During a recent hearing on extremist threats, House lawmakers learned that IS and al-Qaida have held training workshops to help supporters learn to use AI.Legislation that passed the U.S. House last month would require homeland security officials to assess the AI risks posed by such groups each year.Guarding against the malicious use of AI is no different from preparing for more conventional attacks, said Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, the bill’s sponsor.“Our policies and capabilities must keep pace with the threats of tomorrow,” he said.
David Klepper, Associated Press
