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Automakers Hyundai and Kia must offer free repairs to millions of models under a settlement announced Tuesday by Minnesota’s attorney general, who led an effort by dozens of states that argued the vehicles weren’t equipped with proper anti-theft technology, leaving them vulnerable to theft. Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves. The settlement was reached by 35 states, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The vehicles eligible for fixes date as far back as 2011 and as recently as 2022. About 9 million eligible vehicles were sold nationwide. Thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles soared in part because beginning in 2021, videos posted to TikTok and other social media demonstrated how someone could steal a car with just a screwdriver and a USB cable. Minneapolis reported an 836% increase in Hyundai and Kia thefts from 2021 to 2022. Ellison announced an investigation into the automakers in early 2023. Ellison said the two companies installed engine immobilizers on cars sold in Mexico and Canada, but not widely in the U.S., leading to car thefts, crimes and crashes that injured and even killed people, including teenagers. This crisis that we’re talking about today started in a boardroom, traveled through the Internet and ended up in tragic results when somebody stole those cars, Ellison said at a news conference. He was joined by Twin Cities officials, a woman whose mother was killed when a stolen Kia crashed into her parents vehicle and a man whose car was stolen nine times as recently as Monday night, and including seven times after a previous software fix. Under the settlement, Hyundai and Kia will install a zinc sleeve to stop would-be thieves from cracking open a vehicle’s ignition cylinder and starting the car. Eligible customers will have one year from the date of the companies’ notice to get the repair at an authorized dealership. The repairs are expected to be available from early 2026 through early 2027. In a statement, Kia said the agreement is the latest step it has taken to help its customers and prevent thefts. Kia is eager to continue working with law enforcement officers and officials at federal, state, and local levels to combat criminal car theft, and the role social media has played in encouraging it, and we remain fully committed to upholding vehicle security, the company said. The Associated Press emailed Hyundai for comment. Jack Dura, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. stock market is drifting lower on Tuesday following mixed data on the economys strength, which did little to clear uncertainty about where interest rates may be heading. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% in afternoon trading and remains a bit below its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 1:53 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged. Treasury yields eased a bit, following a larger initial drop, after one report said the U.S. unemployment rate was at its worst level last month since 2021, but employers also added more jobs than economists expected. A separate report, meanwhile, said an underlying measure of strength for revenue at U.S. retailers grew more in October than economists expected. The mixed data initially sent Treasury yields lower in the bond market. The knee-jerk reaction seemed to be that the reports could encourage the Federal Reserve to see the slowing job market as the biggest threat to the economy, rather than high inflation, and cut interest rates further in 2026. But yields quickly recovered and then drifted up and down. What the Fed does with interest rates is a top driver for Wall Street because lower rates can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, even if they also may worsen inflation. A report coming on Thursday will show how bad inflation was last month, and economists expect it to show prices for U.S. consumers continue to rise faster than anyone would like. A report released on Tuesday after U.S. stocks began trading suggested price pressures are rising sharply, with average selling prices for businesses climbing at one of the fastest rates since the middle of 2022. The preliminary data from S&P Global also said growth for overall business activity slowed to its weakest level since June. Higher prices are again being widely blamed on tariffs, with an initial impact on manufacturing now increasingly spilling over to services to broaden the affordability problem, according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.18% late Monday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 3.48% from 3.51%. Helping to keep the overall market in check were continued swings for stocks that have been caught up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Oracle rose 2.4%, and Broadcom rose 0.1%. They both had dropped to sharp losses last week, even though both reported stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But CoreWeave, which rents out access to top-of-the-line AI chips, fell 4.9%. Questions remain about whether all the spending underway on AI technology will produce the kind of profits and productivity that will make it worth the expense. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Pfizer fell 5.2% after giving a forecast for profit in 2026 that was below what some analysts expected. Its forecast for revenue next year, of between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion, was close to analysts expectations. Kraft Heinz fell 0.1% after saying Steve Cahillane, who was most recently CEO of Kellanova, will join as CEO on Jan. 1. After Kraft Heinz splits into two companies, which is expected to happen in the second half of 2026, Cahillane will lead the one that will hold onto the Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac & Cheese brands. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Japans Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% ahead of an expected hike to interest rates by the Bank of Japan later this week. Other markets in Asia also had some of the world’s sharper swings. South Koreas Kospi dropped 2.2%, while indexes fell 1.5% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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E-Commerce
If youve ever been to a museum or on a school field trip, you may have had a tour guide walk you through a historical exhibit of 19th-century households or of ancient Mesopotamian agricultural tools. Now, a current TikTok trend suggests that one day in the future, those exhibits will be the modern workstationstanding desks, Zoom meeting headsets, and all. The viral series titled “Historical tour of a corporate workers desk,” by marketing professional and content creator Heike Young, imagines what that will look like. Now in those times, it would have been really common for a corporate worker to sit at a desk, much like this one, and be on calls all day, she says in the skit, now with over 116,000 views. Behind Young, a standing desk is set up with two screens, one for work and the other for online shopping, she says. The desk is scattered with an assortment of beverages, or brown liquids, plastic food containers, and packets. Believe it or not, this worker wouldve actually been considered very lucky to have a job like this, she continues. People would submit hundreds of applications and submit themselves to many humiliation rituals just to get a job like this one. In another video, Young highlights a few common tabs workers would have had open on their screens. Yes, Amazon. Thats the same name as the extinct rainforest, thats right, she replies to a question. We got some history buffs in here. She also educates on the linguistic practices of the period, more commonly known as business jargon or work voice. There was one sound that always got the laborers moving. It was a mild form of psychological torture, she explains in yet another skit. Our museum’s immersive effects team will play it now. And there were two common variations. One was more typical among workers who used Windows technology. And the next one is often for people who used Apple Mac. The comments are filled with corporate workers who feel horrifyingly seen by the series. With every video I watch, the more Im horrified by the reality of the life I currently live, one commenter posted. Others, though, had the opposite reaction. This made me feel really hopeful in a very strange way, another wrote, finding comfort in the fact that, for better or worse, the current economic reality cannot continue forever. Much of corporate landscape right now is pretty bleak, and its easy to get frustrated with it all, Young told Fast Company. But we are living in one moment. Theres so much history before and after us. With the series, she thought to zoom out and examine the corporate experience from an entirely different point of view, much the same as we might now look back on laborers in the past and their working conditions. When viewing it from the future as a detached museum docent, what is striking? Young continues. What little, mundane details seem quaint, absurd, or even grotesque? As for what anthropologists will be uncovering about the corporate worker experience centuries from now, Young says: A bunch of Amazon returns that may never go back. Chips, gotta have chips. A fork with an empty plastic container. Three different beveragessome for their caffeine and some for the illusion of hydration. And a picture of the people youre doing this for.
Category:
E-Commerce
When the government shutdown came to an end last month, the much-delayed jobs report for September was finally released, revealing that the unemployment rate had inched up to 4.4%the highest it had been in four years. Amid a tough job market and economic uncertainty, its little surprise that unemployment is on the rise again. In the latest jobs dispatch that was published today, unemployment had ticked up to 4.6% for the month of November. But its a specific segment of the workforce that is most acutely feeling the effects of this spike in unemployment: For Black workers, the rate has stretched to 8.3%, up from 6%, in just the last six months. The rate among white workers, by comparison, has remained relatively steady, hovering just over 3%. Why Black unemployment is rising There are many reasons for this particular increase in unemployment. But experts say the dizzying pace of the Trump administrations attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion has notably contributed to the rising unemployment rate among Black workersand, more specifically, Black women, though the new jobs report for November indicates that unemployment among Black men has also increased. The DEI pullback orchestrated by the Trump administration is not solely to blame for this dip in employment, though it plays a significant role. Since assuming office, Trump has taken aim at DEI programs across the public and private sectors. Starting in January, Trump issued a flurry of executive orders that shut down DEI offices across the federal government. He also reversed a key executive action that had promoted racial equity by curtailing discriminatory employment practices among contractors that work with the federal government. In addition, Trump has sought to dissolve DEI efforts across corporate America by directing federal agencies to investigate private companiesa move that has led many employers to reevaluate their DEI policies or eliminate certain programs altogether. The job losses catalyzed by Trumps directive to cut DEI roles across the federal government have affected Black workers, who also tend to hold diversity jobs in higher numbers. Even beyond that, the federal job losseswhich are on track to reach 300,000 by the end of the yearhave hit Black workers especially hard, because they are overrepresented in that part of the workforce. Data from September 2024 indicates that almost half of federal workers are women and about 41% are people of color. An analysis by the National Womens Law Center (NWLC) earlier this year found that women and people of color were overrepresented at many of the federal agencies that saw significant reductions in their workforce. The Trump administrations cuts have also targeted probationary workersthose in their first year of service or people who have recently been promotedwho are more likely to be women. It really boils down to sort of a perfect storm of factors, says Valerie Wilson, the director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute. We have the federal layoffs and job losses. We have the retraction of DEI policies . . . and organizations, including the federal government, that have essentially eliminated DEI departments or roles that were likely held by a large number of Black women. Wilson also notes that job losses across industries have disproportionately impacted womenfrom manufacturing to professional and business services. How the DEI backlash has impacted Black workers While its difficult to quantify the full scope of how anti-DEI measures have impacted Black employment, Wilson says theres no doubt that theres a correlationand that the fallout goes beyond the elimination of DEI jobs held by Black workers. The Trump administrations approach to DEI has also reshaped the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has made unlawful DEI-related discrimination a focus of its enforcement under new chair Andrea Lucas. Wilson argues the administrations actions have a chilling effect, both on corporate DEI efforts and when it comes to how workers can seek recourse if they do face discrimination in the workplace. The fear that they might be targeted or face litigation has already driven employers to make significant changes to their DEI programs in recent years, dating back to the Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action in 2023. Tech companies like Meta and Google have dropped representation goals that were intended to diversify their ranksonce a common practice in the industrywhile major employers like Walmart and McDonalds have stopped prioritizing diverse suppliers and pulled out of the Human Rights Commissions Corporate Equality Index, an influential benchmarking survey that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ workers. Lauren Khouri, the senior director of workplace equality at the NWLC, points out that there are plenty of other programs that have been harmed by federal cuts and, in turn, impact workers of coloreven if they are not explicitly denoted as DEI initiatives. Its not just the cuts that we’ve seen in the federal workforce, she says. If you look at the repercussions of cuts in grant programs across the federal government, we’ve seen an attack on domestic violence and sexual assault service provider organizations across the country, both at the state and local level. We’ve seen an attack on Department of Labor grant programs that specifically went to lifting up women in the trades. Without that funding, those organizationswhose mission and job is to lift up women, people of color, and marginalized communitieshave had to make really hard choices to keep the lights on. The erosion of DEI programs will also play a major role in how Black workers bounce back from this surge in unemployment. I think we have yet to see the full impact, Wilson says. Its going to come into play on the other end of job losses, when we’re looking at how quickly people recoverand not just how quickly they recover, but what kinds of positions they recover into. The purpose of a lot of those programs wasn’t just to hire a more diverse set of workers for any kind of roleit was also [creating] opportunities for people to gain access to higher-level positions. What it will take to recover jobs When Black employment is lagging, it is often a sign of a broader economic downturn, according to Khouriso its not just Black workers who might be faced with job insecurity, if thats any indicator. Since Black workers are concentrated in lower-wage jos that are more vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy, they are often impacted first when a recession is on the horizon. (This was evident during the pandemic, when unemployment spiked to over 16% and Black workers experienced job losses at a record high.) The ongoing backlash to corporate DEI programs is, however, far more likely to impact Black workers seeking out jobs in industries that have historically shut out those workers. In the tech industry, DEI initiatives had slowly helped bring more underrepresented groupsnamely Black and Latino workersinto technical and leadership roles (even if that progress had been halting). The finance industry had made marginal progress on promoting Black employees into senior roles, and Black representation on boards had improved amid calls for greater diversity. A Bloomberg analysis found that in 2021, after many companies made significant investments in DEI efforts, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobsand a whopping 94% of those jobs were filled by people of color. Amid an ongoing federal hiring freeze and slowing employment, Black workers may also face an uphill battle even when it comes to finding steady employment in the federal workforcewhich, until now, had been a more reliable path to the middle class for Black Americans. The reason why we have a more diverse federal workforce is because at one point, the federal government was actually willing to sort of be a leader in establishing more equitable employment practices that were ultimately adopted in states and cities and, to some extent, the private sector, Wilson says. So when we start cutting federal jobs, we’re actually cutting jobs from a sector that hadat least since the 1960sbeen more of a leader in establishing equity. That may not be messaged or presented as explicitly anti-DEI, but it has that effect. The federal government was once a model for how equitable hiring practices could actually transform the workplace and cultivate true diversity. Now, not only has Trump culled the federal workforcebut he has also chipped away at the very DEI policies that could have offset those losses and empowered Black workers to find work in the private sector.
Category:
E-Commerce
AI has now arrived at the Treasury Department. Sam Corcos, a former startup leader and Department of Government Efficiency affiliate now serving as chief information officer at the Treasury Department, appears to have approved spending at least $1.5 million on up to 3,000 licenses for ChatGPT, the OpenAI platform, federal spending records show. The agency has obligations to spend $1.5 million on the services, and has already outlaid more than $500,000 for the technology, those records show. Fast Company obtained a user agreement showing that Treasury is allowing employees to use ChatGPT for authorized mission purposes. Such purposes include using the technology, in certain circumstances, with whats known as controlled unclassified information, a government designation thats given to information that isnt classified, but still requires some safeguarding. The expanded use of the tool comes amid growing pressure on federal agencies to adopt artificial intelligence systems, which advocates say can increase efficiency and cut down on excess bureaucracy. In this case, the rules laid out in the user agreement include strong limits on how AI systems might be usedparticularly, for example, with regards to personally identifiable information, market-sensitive economic information, and federal tax data. The rules also forbid Treasury staffers from trying to tamper with or evade an AI chatbots security measures without express authorization. Employees arent supposed to use the output of an AI system without a human reviewing that work, or obfuscate the role AI played in making a particular product, according to the user agreement. A violation of these rules could lead to someone being fired, the agreement states. One former Treasury official said department staff are probably using the tech on heavy lifting for tasks that would normally take a long time. Tony Arcadi, the official that Sam Corcos replaced, tells Fast Company that there were myriad use cases that could benefit from the technology, including automating administrative work. Done correctly and with robust controls, LLMs could be a force multiplier for intelligence, operations, finance, enforcement, and public engagement,” he says. The agency had previously invested in a smaller cache of ChatGPT licenses.The Treasury Department and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. Still, in September, the agency released a compliance plan focused on promoting the use of AI, as well as a strategy spelling out its approach to the technology. Amid the move to speed up the use of AI throughout the government, including the militarys new GenAI.mil tool, theres still the serious risk of government officials putting too much faith in the far from faultless technology.For example, it seems like a recent report from the Department of Health and Human services may have been created using artificial intelligenceand included fake citations. Federal clerks have used ChatGPT and Perplexity and have ended up including misquotes and other errors in documents.
Category:
E-Commerce
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