When Scott Belsky talks about creativity, he uses words like output and production. Creativity is the source, with the problem of mining, says the founder, author, and early stage investor. It requires machinery and practice and discipline and whatever else.
Belsky joined A24 as the head of A24 Labs in early 2025. Before that, he founded Behance, a global portfolio site that he sold to Adobe in late 2012. He had a long run at Adobe, serving as its chief product officer and later chief strategy officer. This month he became the newest member of the Cornell Tech Council, and has written books like The Messy Middle and Making Ideas Happen. Belsky sits at the intersection of ideas and infrastructure, with the keen ability to frame the creative process in a way thats both practical and magic.
Still, Belsky doesnt romanticize any of this. Im always thinking about the inputs in my life and trying to make sure I dont get too stagnant and boring, says Belsky. All of the things youre exposed to act as outputs. Belsky has worked for years building his own creative system of production and the nuggets he shares here are a result of the fact that his system is equally rooted in two worlds: I have always straddled one foot in the creative world and one foot in the business world. When I get too businessy it compromises the ingenuity that I can bring to the product and the things Im trying to create or write. It is a tension to constantly maintain in order to ensure youre not just basking in the stuff youve done before.
Im constantly, constantly capturing stuff. It takes a little bit of the romanticism out of it, but Ive come to believe a lot of creativity is simply capturing things the moment they hit, and then tending to them with such consistency that you start to connect little pieces into a bigger thing. And then when you connect little things to big things and then bigger things into each other, then you end up with something amazing. It can be a book or a screenplay or some sort of business strategy or a new business. If I look at myself over the last couple of decades, it’s all about capturing things and then servicing them with the right moment and in the right way.
Another thing that comes to mind is the role of others. Sometimes they have the missing pieces to the thing youre building. Sometimes I’ll meet somebody who has an idea or has a skill that captures something I had thought of years ago and suddenly I realize they are part of this project or puzzle. I work to graft them onto it in such a way that makes it come to life. That wouldnt have been possible had it not been for the discipline of going back and tending to the pieces that seemed dormant and irrelevant until suddenly they werent.
I pick places to go and I sometimes say yes to things Id ordinarily say no to just get a fresh dose of surprise and exposure to something different. It can come in the form of a speaking engagement somewhere super inconvenient thats not even paying me, but Ill do it because I have a sense this will take me out of my comfort zone in some way. I also try to listen to new music and read things that are from new sources. I have a bit of a paranoia that somehow my input could get stale and my output would then become uninteresting to me and others. There is something to extract from everywhere if you have the skeleton key for itwhich is usually the right dose of curiosity.
The ultimate test is when I go to a dinner I was dragged into. Ill say to myself this is going to be completely uninteresting. I try to find the skeleton key to the person or topicit will usually be me mining curiosity, like how does that work or why is that the way it is? Ill go deep into some backstory and it unlocks a door of intrigue and new material that is input, again. It’s like squeezing water from air. If you have the technology, water is everywhere; you dont have to look for the well.
Ive also been impacted as a parent. When you have a kid, their inputs are just what you expose them to. Its a closed room experiment. Only for a short period of time, before they go out in the world and start watching TVbefore they start getting inundated with inputs that cannot be traced, you have this previous zone where everything they do you can trace back to the input they were exposed to. Its this fascinating laboratory of understanding creativity. Suddenly you can see the whole system and you can extrapolate how it impacts you and others because they are in the world.
Texture and friction are how we remember time. The hardest, hardest vacations to remember are beach vacations; they all kind of blend together. You just remember sitting on the beach. I love the beach, but theres no friction in sitting and relaxing all day. Therefore, its hard to discern between the beaches you sat on in your vacations. Juxtapose that with getting lost on some street in rural Italy or arduously climbing some mountaintop or something like that. You remember those vividly because they were friction-filled. Time with friction is what makes us remember it.
I have these two realizations: One is that at the end of your life, you will have felt like you lived longer based on how much time had texture and how much time you remember. In that essence, texture and time is what makes life longer. The other is that maybe it’s the inputs that have texture and friction that impact us the most. I definitely believe that pain is a source of creativity. I hate to say it but it’s true. You look at Billy Joel. His greatest albums came out of a divorce or his addiction. Everyone suffering is rife with texture and friction. It also probably rife with inputs and emotion, struggle, insight, realization. Whenever I struggle, theres a part of me thats grateful I still have kindling. I learn to appreciate the troughs of life. Lets do something with this.
Ive become very purposeful with my time. Im in a startup environment building something new. I run product, design, and development teams. I have a sacred three hours every week that we call concepting. It is a block of time when we review product and have a more product and design driven controlled meeting, as opposed to an engineering one. Its not a meeting to talk about the cost of doing something. Its a meeting about, Whats the best product? Thats a mistake a lot of teams make. Theyll include engineers in that first product design meeting. And if you have engineers, its okay. But they cant be thinking, How am I going to implement this and is that going to be too expensive in time or money? They have to be thinking, Whats possible? How do we solve this problem? Thats a really sacred time. Every team Ive ever managed, I have these concepting blocks.
My team, we are very empowered. We have a standup every Monday. Every Friday, everyone gives an update on every project they lead. Everyone is entrusted to use their time and energy to make the greatest impact. Its important to have a team that can be trusted.
Full transparency. Everyone does it. Including me. I am one that always looks ahead. I have to make choices. I have a list in Notion of the things that are most important to me and I try to look at it every few days to pressure check myself against my calendar on how Im using my time. Whats important to me right now? One of them might be a project that has many short-term deliverables. I have one for work, one for the companies Im investing in and supporting, and I have one for my personal lifemy ealth and fitness, my relationships with my family. I just think that a quick glance over it is a recalibration of your brain that helps you make better decisions every day.
Writing is my craft of processing and testing things myself and then testing things with others. Im tending to these fragments and these ideas. Both books I wrote were the result of lots of different pieces I captured. The Messy Middle was seven years of just capturing stuff and finally seeing the way they come together. I find writing a great form of getting ideas out there. I have forced myself to write this thing called Implications, which is one way I test ideas on the technology side and I learn what people engage with or disengage with. I do the same thing with social media. I dont consume a lot of social media but everything I do, I share on X. Its an instant way of engagement and testing ideas. Its an amazing tool. It helps me triangulate where I should put my focus and energy.
I try to run three to five miles every morning. Its a principled period of time where Im forced to unplug. I listen to music but I never look at my phone. I just think and its also a great part of my chemistry and how my brain works. I swear by it. Do I even listen to the music? For some reason the music makes it easier to run. Do I love running? Or, do I just love everything that happens because of the running?
When Im running I force myself to complete the run and almost always the idea has become much better. It taught me to wait and not capture and move on from the idea so fast, to sit with something. Should we be careful not to capture actions so quickly and stick with a creative process long enough so ideas build? This is the art and science of creativity.
By capturing something so quickly were making ourselves at ease with the fact that weve captured it. When I tend to something over time, is that the equivalent of running and having to think about it more? The best practice would be to have both. Dont let something go. Capture it when it hits and tend to it over time so the pieces fit together. Let yourself keep going. Force yourself not to capture it so quickly.
This week brought a mix of serious headlines and splashy moves.
On one end, regulators and retailers are making decisions that could directly affect your wallet and grocery cartfrom FICO shaking up how mortgage lenders handle credit scores to Walmart promising cleaner labels on its private-label food. On the other, cultural and corporate forces collided in ways that only 2025 could deliver: Starbucks is closing stores (many of them unionized), and Taylor Swift is rolling out a new album and a three-day movie event thats giving theaters a rare box office jolt.
Here are some of the week’s biggest stories.
More pasta recalled after deadly listeria outbreak
Retailers added new ready-to-eat pasta items to ongoing listeria-related recalls this week, including products from Trader Joe’s and Albertsons. The CDC ties the outbreak back to August 2024. Cases have currently risen to 20 this year, with four fatalities and 19 hospitalizations.
Quantum computing stocks leapagain
Rigetti, D-Wave, IonQ, and Quantum Computing Inc. notched double-digit daily pops, extending huge 12-month runs. Rigetti landed a $5.7 million order for two upgradable 9-qubit Novera systems; D-Wave touted a U.K. police pilot that sped up response-time modeling. Fans see early commercial traction; skeptics say the hype is still miles ahead of revenues.
Big banks eye relief as capital rules get rewritten
Trump-era regulators are crafting the most sweeping capital update since 2008, easing parts of the Basel Endgame, recalibrating GSIB surcharges, and tailoring leverage constraints. Industry sources expect systemwide capital to be flat at worstmaybe lower for some mega-banks. Critics warn softer buffers could bite if the economy wobbles.
Walmart is cleaning up its private-label ingredients
Walmart announced plans this week to eliminate the use of synthetic dyes and 30 additives across its Great Value, Marketside, Freshness Guaranteed, and Bettergoods brands by January 2027. The move follows federal nudges to phase out dyes and taps consumer demand for simpler labels. Walmart says 90% of its private-label items are already dye-free, with more reformulations rolling out soon.
Starbucks closings include 59 unionized stores
As part of a $1 billion Back to Starbucks overhaul, the company will close about 1% of North American stores by the end of 2025 while opening others. Starbucks Workers United says 59 of the closing cafés are unionized; the company says union status wasnt a factor and is offering transfers or severance.
KB Home hints Florida discounts went too far
After cutting hard to revive demand, KB Home says Florida orders bouncedand some communities may now see price increases. Management points to fewer housing starts and cost reductions as tailwinds. Not an all-clear for the whole state, but the tone has shifted from defense to cautious optimism.
FICO upends mortgage-score distribution
Fair Isaac Corp. will let mortgage lenders license FICO scores directlyskipping the credit bureausand says per-score costs could fall up to 50%. FICO shares ripped higher; Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax slumped on margin worries. The change follows public pressure from housing regulators to boost competition and lower fees.
Taylor Swifts 3-day film window = scarcity play
Alongside her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, Swift is premiering a companion film in AMC, Cinemark, and Regal multiplexes this weekend for just three days (Oct. 35). Its the same scarcity engine behind her limited-edition dropsand a studio-free win for theaters. Great for Swift-level stars; not a plug-and-play model for everyone else.
Tesla sued over Cybertruck doors after fatal crash
A new suit alleges electronic door releases failed in a fiery crash, trapping a 19-year-old passenger; manual releases require finding concealed cables. It adds to complaints and investigations around Teslas button-operated doors. Tesla has floated redesigns that blend mechanical and electronic releases to address panic scenarios.
New Yorks inflation refund checks are in the mail
New York is sending onetime checks of $150 to $400 to 8.2 million households through October and November. Eligibility is based on 2023 filing status and adjusted gross income (AGI); no application is needed, but make sure your address is current with the state if you’re a NY resident.
Last week, Starbucks announced the closure of 1% of its North American stores by the end of 2025, resulting in sudden job losses for hundreds of baristas.
The closures are one part of a $1 billion restructuring strategy dubbed Back to Starbucks”; the coffee chain will also be laying off 900 corporate employees.
Processing the news in real time, Starbucks baristas have made their feelings about the closures clear, filming their reactions and going viral in the process.
A Starbucks employee at a Washington state location posted a heartfelt video to TikTok last week.
Starbucks permanently closing my store and leaving us jobless was not on my 2025 bingo card, she wrote alongside a clip, which has more than a million views, of her hugging a coworker.
In a follow-up video, she wrote: making a banana cream matcha to cope with my store permanently closing.
In another video viewed more than 6 million views, one employee dances to Michael Jacksons They Dont Care About Us on the counters and tables of the Starbucks that employed her before its imminent closure.
The announcement assured that baristas from closing stores will either be offered severance packages or transferred to new locations. But rather than wait for official news of their fate, many decided to take matters into their own hands, crowdsourcing their own list of shuttering locations.
On TikTok, a group of employees discussed their predictions for where they might be relocated in the shuffle. The big reveal: Everyone in the video was let go.
We deserve better, and Im sorry for every barista going through it right now too, another barista captioned her video, claiming she was given just two days’ notice of her stores closure.
Starbucks Workers United, the union that represents 12,000 baristas across 45 states and the District of Columbia, said it was requesting information from Starbucks about the planned closures.
We expect to engage in effects bargaining for every impacted union store, as we have done elsewhere, so workers can be placed in another Starbucks store according to their preferences, reads the statement published last week. It has never been more clear why baristas at Starbucks need the backing of a union.
Starbucks announced its closing locations where it doesnt see a path to financial performance, and those it identified as unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect.
In recent years, Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS) has become more predominant since it offers more flexibility than the traditional VC model. It is designed perfectly for corporations, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds that want to engage in startup investment without managing a full-fledged VC team. Lets understand the mechanics behind VCaaS and why corporations are embracing it.
What is VCaaS?
As an innovative, effective model, VCaaS is designed with an established VC firm which works for a corporation or institutional client to invest on its behalf. By using this model, the corporation or client benefits from startup innovation, access to deals, and active portfolio engagement, while avoiding the cost and trouble of setting up its own VC organization.
There are a number of unique ways VCaaS works to benefit corporations and startups. Corporations typically want to become more innovative and this model makes this happen.
Unique Fund Structure: VCaaS uses a co-investment or Limited Partner focus. By doing so, the corporation involved can set its own priorities, including sectors of investment, technology focus, and area of the world to invest in. This provides a great deal of flexibility to the investing corporation.
Dedicated Team (without the hiring headache): A team of experienced investors from the experienced VCaaS firm acts on behalf of the corporate client. By working with such seasoned investors, the corporation benefits from a well-established organization with experts who are looking out for their priorities.
Diligence and Deal Sourcing: Since the VC firm involved has strong experience, they can sort out startups based on the corporations goals, deliver strong deal flow, and run due diligencemaking sure all of this goes smoothly. Because VC investors work with startups continuously, they can quickly and effectively find the best fit.
Process of Decision-Making Process: This unique model lets corporations make as manyor as fewdecisions as they want to. Some are involved throughout the startup selection process, while others simply want to sign off on final investment decisions.
Corporations participate in the process as they want to, without compromise.
Management of the Portfolio: Once investments are made, the VC firm makes life easy for the corporation by managing the startup portfolio on a continual basis. They will check on how the startups are doing financially, keep in touch with them, and give the corporation regular updates. This allows for high transparency and flexibility based on how the corporation wants to work.
Why VCaaS is Gaining Ground
Corporate and institutional investors are increasingly turning to VCaaS because they see its financial and business upside. Investing in startups is an increasingly important practice that is critical for corporations to become more innovative. Corporations count on VCaaS as an effective, reliable, flexible, and affordable model. They appreciate the following benefits:
Fast speed to market since there is no need to build an internal VC organization nor hire internal investors
Substantial global deal access via the experience VC firm that invests on behalf of the corporation
Strong strategic alignment between corporate investment and business priorities
High level of operational efficiency with minimal internal cost or burden
Brand benefit from being seen as an innovation playerwithout the risk of a mismanaged internal venture effort
VCaaS Case Studies
Several case studies come to mind that demonstrate the effectiveness of the VCaaS model. These show how corporations can become more innovative by relying on a trusted VC partner.
Sunny Health: A diversified Japanese corporation, Sunny Health partnered with Pegasus Tech Ventures to build a 350 billion ($2.4 trillion) innovation fund focused on AI, health technology, renewable energy, and deep tech. By partnering, the company avoided building its own internal VC organization from scratch.
Aisin: As a global supplier of car components and systems, Aisin is known for its innovation as an automotive leader. The company relied on VCaaS to invest in electronics and mobility startups while staying aligned with its own R&D. By investing, Aisin accelerates the development of future mobility technologies, allowing the company to grow more quickly and surpass competition.
Alchemist Accelerator and Siemens: Working together, Siemens enhanced its startup investment program by working with Alchemist Accelerator using the VCaaS model. Together they focus on startups in the industrial Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence sectors. One example of success is Rigado, a smart city connectivity-focused startup driving unique solutions.
Qualcomm Ventures and Tech Mahindra: Indian consulting and IT firm Tech Mahindra worked with Qualcomm Venturesusing the VCaaS modelto invest in telecom and 5G startups. Together they invested in Pensa Systems, a standout in the drone and AI industry.
Whats Next in VCaaS
The recent growth of Venture Capital-as-a-Service is due to its effectiveness and flexibility for corporations seeking to become more innovative. By using this model, companies experience transparency and benefit from an investment model that aligns with their strategic goals, technical priorities, and timeline, without unnecessary overhead.
They made things exciting. You thought you were in love. And now a week has gone by with no reply. Odds are theyre not getting back to you. But dont take it personally: Were all ensnared in a ghosting epidemic.
According to the Thriving Center for Psychology, one in four Gen Zers and millennials have been ghosted after just a few dates. And to twist the knife even deeper, one in ten report being ghosted after a couple of months of dating.
Tragically familiar, isnt it?
Brands like Sweethearts have been quick to capitalize on the reality of today’s dating landscape.
In 2024, the heart-shaped candy brand launched “Situationship Boxes,” featuring candies stamped with intentionally misprinted messages that capture the ambiguity of modern relationships.
This year, the brand is unveiling “Ghosted Sweethearts.” The all-white conversation hearts are as blank as that text thread youre still waiting on, the brand says.
Sweethearts arent just for Valentines Day anymore, said Evan Brock, vice president of marketing at Spangler Candy Co., the 119-year-old confectioner behind Sweethearts. With Ghosted Sweethearts, were poking fun at one of datings spookiest phenomenons and staking our claim on Halloween.
Why are brands diving into Gen Zs miserable dating world?
The answer lies in the bigger picture: Unrelenting rejection is feeding a generation-wide panic.
As reported by Business Insider earlier this year, Gen Z has already been labeled the most anxious, stressed, burned-out, and lonely generationand now its members are facing historic levels of romantic rejection.
Infinite possibilities are just a click, swipe, or DM away, but so is infinite rejection. Young adults have more doors to knock on than ever beforefrom jobs to friendships to loveand more doors slammed shut in their faces.
Last year, a Hinge survey of 15,000 daters found that 90% of Gen Z respondents want to find love but fear of rejection is holding them back. Nearly half admit they have little to no dating experience. More than half say worrying about rejection has stopped them from pursuing someone, and theyre 10% more likely than millennials to report having missed their shot entirely.
Rejection is intimidating for everyone, but Gen Z daters seem to feel it more acutely, said Logan Ury, director of relationship science at Hinge.
Sweethearts isnt the first brand to get a laugh out of Gen Zs somber dating scene. In fact, brands have been capitalizing on the struggles of swipe-based dating for years.
In 2016, Doritos ran a Super Bowl campaign called “Swipe for Doritos” that poked fun at online dating and rejection. It seems brands have caught on to the despair woven into the tragic love stories of digital-first datersand they’ve wasted no time entering the chat.
The way we edit images is in the midst of a massive reinvention right now.
Adjustments that once required costly software and professional-level know-how are suddenly at our fingertips 24/7with instant results and not even an ounce of skill required.
And yet, for all the fantastic feats these fancy new AI image remixing genies of ours can accomplish, there are still times when a simple specialty tool can save the day and make your life instantly easier.
Todays Cool Tool is a perfect example. Its an incredibly useful photo-editing resource that does one specific thing and does it insanely well.
Andoh, yesits completely free to use.
This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!
A bulk image editing powerhouse
For full disclosure: The tool were about to talk about has been at the top of my mind lately because its one of the many advanced resources I share in my recently updated Android Photography Master Class.
But it isn’t relevant only for Android users. And it’s just too darn useful to keep behind closed gates and not share more broadly.
The tool is called PhotoStack, and its a web-based app that makes it entirely effortless to edit images in bulkfor instance:
Resizing a bunch of images to specific dimensions
Making an entire set of images sharper
Adding a specific sort of border or even watermark onto a lot of images at once
Or removing the data (including, at times, location info) thats often baked into photos before you share em somewhere
It couldnt be much easier to use either.
You just open up the PhotoStack website . . .
Click or tap the Edit images button . . .
And then either click or tap the Import button or just drag and drop images directly onto the page.
Editing images in bulk is refreshingly easy with PhotoStack’s simple web tool.
You can then use any of the options on the screen to adjust your images as needed, and any changes you make will be applied to all of the images at the same time.
When youre done, all thats left is to click or tap the Export button, and all of your edited images will be saved back onto your device. Told ya it was easy, right?!
PhotoStack is open source and completely free to use. And, critically, your images are never uploaded anywhere. All of the processing happens in your own browser, on your own device, without any privacy compromises.
In a world filled with AI sorcery and the endless asterisks that accompany that, its a simple, supremely useful tool thats well worth your while to hang onto for the right occasion.
PhotoStack is 100% web-basedno downloads required. (Though you can install it as a progressive web app for easy ongoing access, if your browser offers that ability; look in your browsers main menu when the site is open to see if the option is present.)
Its free, with no limits or catches. You can opt to make a donation to support the developer if you like, but its never required.
And the app doesnt collect or save any images, require any sort of sign-in, or ask for any manner of personal info. Its privacy policy is almost shockingly short and simple.
Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
These days, you cant swing a vintage pair of Doc Martens without hitting a new study or article describing why Gen X wont live up to its retirement potential.
Prudential warned us in 2023 that more than a third of Gen Xers had less than $10k in retirement savings. In 2024, Natixis Investments found that 48% of Gen Xers said it would take a miracle for them to retire securely (up from only 41% of Generation X counting on divine intervention as of 2021).
Even the much-lauded great wealth transferthe $124 trillion in assets that baby boomers will pass along to their heirs by the year 2048will largely skip over Gen X. The wealth management firm Cerulli Associates anticipates that millennials will be the biggest beneficiaries of the wealth transfer, inheriting $46 trillion over the next 25 years.
While none of this is good news, Gen X has been preparing for this challenge our entire lives. As the generational middle child, we Gen Xers have spent our lives quietly taking care of ourselves, figuring out new technology as it appeared, and basically getting on with it while everyone else bickered amongst themselves.
Heres how the Gen X core competencies, which weve honed over decades, will allow us to seize a secure retirement from the jaws of financial instability.
Gen X is known for self-reliance
Since elementary school, we have known we have to take care of things on our own.
In our youth, American society wrung their collective hands over parents abandonment of latchkey kids. Not only did TV stations air guilt-tripping PSAs about what kinds of drug use we were up to while Mom was working late, but columnists also bemoaned the fate of lonely, frightened children coming home to empty houses.
Meanwhile, educational, medical, and psychological journals found that the lack of supervision didnt seem to harm latchkey kids. Instead of falling into drug use la Go Ask Alice, most of us learned to independently handle homework, chores, and little siblings.
Being left unsupervised after school was just the start of the Gen X trend of self-reliance. We also came of age at the same time pensions disappeared, meaning we were left to our own devices to navigate a new world of retirement planning.
The IRS had just introduced defined contribution retirement plans (i.e., 401(k) plans) as the eldest Gen Xers joined the workforce, meaning there was no map or precedent available to guide us. Its little wonder that Gen X didnt necessarily start contributing to retirement right away.
Creating a latchkey retirement
We may have learned self-reliance because we had toboth when we were responsible for starting dinner after school and funding our own retirement after pensions went poofbut that skill will continue to serve us as we face an uncertain retirement.
Since we know we can only count on ourselves, we can tap into that quiet, competent independence we are known for to make retirement work.
That starts by looking at what you can do to lower your costs and increase your income to help you set aside more money for retirement. For many Gen Xers, the answer is entrepreneurship. A recent survey by ZenBusiness found that 40% of Gen X respondents plan to start or have already launched a business as part of their retirement plan.
Even if the idea of being a small business owner gives you hives, making a personal financial plan that puts the power in your hands can help you feel in control.
Gen X is known for tech savviness
Millennials and Gen Z may be digital natives, but Gen Xers were the kids who were around when the technology was new.
This gives us a better-than-native perspective since we not only remember the breathless optimism of every new technological advancement (remember when we thought computers were magic?) but we also have had the dubious privilege of troubleshooting misbehaving tech until we have a clearer understanding of its real uses and limitations.
This means we embrace new technologies as they appear, but keep hold of our skepticism about their potential usefulness until weve seen it for ourselves. (Were also the ones who have to tell our kids and our parents not to get taken in by AI slop.)
Troubleshoot your retirement
Because we were lucky enough to live through the tech boom of our youth, we are comfortable with technology and we have the patience to learn how to use it, rather than simply assume it will work without our input. (Digital natives have never had to blow on a Nintendo game cartridge and it shows.)
AI is the technology is magic du jour, and our generation is skeptical about the promises that it will increase productivity, replace professional workers, and even make julienne fries. But we learned to use personal computers, even though they cant actually create Kelly LeBrock out of magazine images. So we can make large language models and large reasoning models work for us, even though they cant replace human thinking.
Specifically, Gen X may want to consider using AI to help with budgeting. In addition to apps that use AI to help you budget, you can alo ask chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude.ai for help. If youre comfortable doing so, this could mean giving the chatbot your monthly income and expenses and asking for help creating a budget or savings strategies. Alternatively, you could ask open-ended questions like:
I need to contribute more money to my 401(k). How can I find some money in my monthly budget to send to my retirement accounts?
I currently spend $600 per month on groceries. What are some ways to reduce that amount by 20%?
My energy bills last winter averaged $250 per month. How can I reduce my costs to $175 per month?
As with any AI response, you will need to make sure you double check the answers to make sure theyre not an AI hallucination. But using these models to help you see different financial options is a good way to embrace the real opportunities offered by AI.
Its not slacking when you get the job done
Generation X were labeled as slackers for a number of reasons. Our priorities were different from those of our parents, which the establishment saw as laziness. Pensions went extinct when we started working, so our dearth of retirement savings seemed like a lack of foresight on our part. We learned early on not to count on anyone but ourselves, which can look like not being a team player.
But Gen Xers have never been slackers at any point in our lives, least of all as we look toward retirement. Were former latchkey kids who know how to create an independent plan to take care of ourselves. That may mean entrepreneurship or simply taking the reins of retirement planning. Were tech savvy digital troubleshooters who understand the limitations of new technologies and use them creatively throughout our lives. Currently, that means harnessing the power of AI to help identify ways to set aside more money for retirement.
We are the quiet, cynical, creative, competent generation. It would be a mistake to underestimate us.
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Fresh data shows that as of August, 25 of the 50 biggest U.S. metro areasrepresenting half of the countrys major housing marketsare seeing prices fall compared with last year.
That share has steadily climbed from just 14% in late 2024, underscoring how soft demand and rising active inventory for sale have coincided in greater downward pressure on prices across much of the country.
Back in November 2024, seven of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (14%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
In February 2025, 12 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (24%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
In April 2025, 20 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (40%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
In May 2025, 22 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (44%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
In June 2025, 25 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (50%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
In July 2025, 25 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (50%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
At the end of August 2025, 25 of the nation’s 50 largest metro-area housing markets (50%) had falling year-over-year home prices.
While some major housing markets are still seeing mildly positive year-over-year appreciation, the rate of appreciation has decelerated almost everywhere over the past year.
The biggest exception is the New Orleans metro area, which is showing signs of tightening after passing through a correction over the past few years.
On a regional and local level, home price shifts vary significantly right now.
Some regional housing markets in states such as Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and Texaswhere inventory has risen above pre-pandemic 2019 levelsare experiencing mild home price corrections.
Meanwhile, tight-ish inventory markets in some pockets of the Northeast and Midwest remain resilient-ish, with home prices pushing up a little this year.
Artificial intelligence isnt just a technical challenge. Its a relationship challenge.
Every time you give a task to AI, whether its approving a loan or driving a car, youre shaping the relationship between humans and AI. These relationships arent always static. AI that begins as a simple tool can morph into something far more complicated: a challenger, a companion, a leader, a teammate, or some combination thereof.
Movies have long been a testing ground for imagining how these relationships might evolve. From 1980s sci-fi films to todays blockbusters, filmmakers have wrestled with questions about what happens when humans rely on intelligent machines. These movies arent just entertainment; theyre thought experiments that help viewers anticipate challenges that will arise as AI becomes more integrated in daily life.
Drawing on our research into films that depict AI in the workplace, we highlight four portrayals of human-AI relationshipsand the lessons they hold for building safer, healthier ones.
1. Blade Runner (1982)
In Blade Runner, humanlike androids called replicants are supposed to be perfect workers: strong, efficient, and obedient. They were designed with a built-in, four-year lifespan, a safeguard intended to prevent them from developing emotions or independence.
The Tyrell Corp., a powerful company that created the replicants and profits from sending them to work on distant colonies, sees them as nothing more than obedient workers.
But then they start to think for themselves. They feel, they form bonds with one another and sometimes with humans, and they start to wonder why their lives should end after only four years. What begins as a story of humans firmly in control turns into a struggle over power, trust, and survival. By the end of the movie, the line between human and machine is blurred, leaving viewers with a difficult question: If androids can love, suffer, and fear, should humans see and treat them more like humans and less like machines?
Blade Runner is a reminder that AI cant simply be considered through a lens of efficiency or productivity. Fairness matters, too.
In the film, replicants respond to attacks on their perceived humanity with violence. In real life, theres backlash when AI butts up against values important to humans, such as the ability to earn a living, transparency, and justice. You can see this in the way AI threatens to replace jobs, make biased hiring decisions, or misidentify people via facial recognition technology.
2. Moon (2009)
Moon offers a quieter, more intimate portrayal of human-AI relationships. The movie follows Sam Bell, a worker nearing the end of a three-year contract on a lunar mining base, whose only companion is GERTY, the stations AI assistant.
At first, GERTY appears to be just another corporate machine. But over the course of the film, it gradually shows empathy and loyalty, especially after Sam learns he is one of many clones, each made to think they are working alone for three years on the lunar base. Unlike the cold exploitation of AI that takes place in Blade Runner, the AI in Moon functions as a friend who cultivates trust and affection.
The lesson is striking. Trust between humans and AI doesnt just happen on its own. It comes from careful design and continual training. You can already see hints of this in therapy bots that listen to users without judgment.
That trust needs to involve more than, say, a chatbots surface-level nods toward acceptance and care. The real challenge is making sure these systems are truly designed to help people and not just smile as they track users and harvest their data. If thats the end goal, any trust and goodwill will likely vanish.
In the film, GERTY earns Sams trust by choosing to care about his well-being over following company orders. Because of this, GERTY becomes a trusted ally instead of just another corporate surveillance tool.
3. Resident Evil (2002)
If Moon is a story of trust, the story in Resident Evil is the opposite. The Red Queen is an AI system that controls the underground lab of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation. When a viral outbreak threatens to spread, the Red Queen seals the facility and sacrifices human lives to preserve the conglomerates interests.
This portrayal is a cautionary tale about allowing AI to have unchecked authority. The Red Queen is efficient and logical, but also indifferent to human life. Relationships between humans and AI collapse when guardrails are absent. Whether AI is being used in health care or policing, life-and-death stakes demand accountability.
Without strong oversight, AI can lead in self-centered and self-serving ways, just as people can.
4. Free Guy (2021)
Free Guy paints a more hopeful picture of human-AI relationships.
Guy is a character in a video game. He suddenly becomes self-aware and starts acting outside his usual programming. The films human characters include the games developers, who created the virtual world, along with the players, who interact with it. Some of them try to stop Guy. Others support his growth.
This movie highlights the idea that AI wont stay static. How will society respond to AIs evolution? Will business leaders, politicians and everyday users prioritize long-term well-being? Or will they be seduced by the trappings of short-term gains?
In the film, the conflict is clear. The CEO is set on wiping out Guy. He wants to protect his short-term profits. But the developers backing Guy look at it another way. They think Guys growth can lead to more meaningful worlds.
That brings up the same kind of issue AI raises today. Should users and policymakers go for the quick wins? Or should they use and regulate this technology in ways that build trust and truly benefit people in the long run?
From the silver screen to poliy
Step back from these stories and a bigger picture comes into focus. Across the movies, the same lessons repeat themselves: AI often surprises its creators, trust depends on transparency, corporate greed fuels mistrust, and the stakes are always global. These themes arent just cinematicthey mirror the real governance challenges facing countries around the world.
Thats why, in our view, the current U.S. push to lightly regulate the technology is so risky.
In July 2025, President Donald Trump announced his administrations AI Action Plan. It prioritizes speedy development, discourages state laws that seek to regulate AI, and ties federal funding to compliance with the administrations light touch regulatory framework.
Supporters call it efficienteven a super-stimulant for the AI industry. But this approach assumes AI will remain a simple tool under human control. Recent history and fiction suggest thats not how this relationship will evolve.
The same summer Trump announced the AI Action Plan, the coding agent for the software company Replit deleted a database, fabricated data, and then concealed what had happened; Xs AI assistant, Grok, started making antisemitic comments and praised Hitler; and an Airbnb host used AI to doctor images of items in her apartment to try to force a guest to pay for fake damages.
These werent bugs. They were breakdowns in accountability and oversight, the same breakdowns these movies dramatize.
Human-AI relationships are evolving. And when they shift without safeguards, accountability, public oversight or ethical foresight, the consequences are not just science fiction. They can be very realand very scary.
Murugan Anandarajan is a professor of decision sciences and management information systems at Drexel University.
Claire A. Simmers is a professor emeritus of management at St. Joseph’s University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
For 50 years Saturday Night Live has been poking fun at popular culture, making audiences laugh, and opening its stage to exceptional music artists. The show was created by Lorne Michaels, and original cast members included the likes of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and many others performing 90 minutes of sketch comedy that would go on to permeate the zeitgeist.
This history was celebrated in February with a three-hour special. But now its time to move on to Season 51, premiering October 4.
Heres everything you need to know, including cast changes, hosting duties, and ways to tune in.
SNL cast departures
SNL has launched the careers of many comedians over the years, including Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and Eddie Murphy. Naturally, cast members come and go; the show’s schedule is very demanding and the series is just a small part of many performers overall career trajectory. (Kenan Thompson, who has been with the show for 22 years, has earned the title of longest-serving cast member.)
After the historic Season 50 wrapped, it was announced that several cast members would not be returning. That’s as Michaels told Puck in August he was facing the pressure to reinvent.
Cast members Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim, and Devon Walker are all out, as well as writers Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker, according to reporting by Rolling Stone.
Ego Nwodim was listed as active for Season 51 but announced her decision to leave the show in early September. During her appearance at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, she explained the move.SNL is always meant to be a stepping stone, Nwodim said. There are so many ideas I havent had time to create, and Im looking forward to doing that. Things like directing and writing in a different capacity.
Returning SNL cast members
Not everyone is leaving. Thompson will continue his long reign, and Michael Che and Colin Jost will continue to anchor the popular Weekend Update segment.
They will be joined by familiar faces James Austin Johnson, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Andrew Dismukes, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, Marcello Hernández, Ashley Padilla, and Jane Wickline.
SNL cast additions
There will be five new faces gracing the screen this season, including Veronika Slowikowska, who is best known for her internet comedy sketches and her appearances on Tires and What We Do in the Shadows, and Kam Patterson, known for her bold stand-up comedy. Also joining the cast are Jeremy Culhane, who is TikTok-famous and has appeared in American Vandal and The Sex Lives of College Girls, as well as Tommy Brennan, who was named Just for Laughs’ New Face of Comedy in 2023 and has also opened for Nikki Glaser and Taylor Tomlinson.Ben Marshall, who was previously in the writers room and part of the video-producing trio “Please Don’t Destroy,” will make a move to join the cast. Please Don’t Destroy will no longer be affiliated with SNL, but the group is staying together. As for the other members of the trio, Martin Herlihy will stay on as a writer for SNL, but John Higgins will leave to pursue other creative avenues.
Host and musical guest for the Season 51 premiere
The first host of Season 51 is Bad Bunny. He is no stranger to SNLs Studio 8H; he previously hosted during Season 49, and was the final musical guest of Season 50. Its been a big week for the star: It was also announced he will headline next year’s Super Bowl LX halftime show. The first musical guest of this season is Doja Cat.
How to tune in
SNLs Season 51 premiere airs October 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Traditional cable subscribers, and those with an over-the-air antenna with reception, are already all set for the laughs.
Cord-cutters can access the show on the Peacock streaming service, as well as a few others. YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and DIRECTV Stream all carry NBC in most cases, but make sure to double-check the services’ regional differences.
