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Could a film industry entirely crafted from AI ever exist? Social media is abuzz with movie scenes made with Seedance 2.0, the latest tech in AI video generation, including everything from a fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to an alternate ending for The Lord of the Rings. The tech’s proponents predict AI is the future of moviesbut an actual brain behind Hollywood hits, Ben Affleck, is trending for his counterargument: AI may be a powerful tool, but its nothing without human creativity. Affleck recently shared his take on AI-generated writing in an appearance on a podcast. As an Oscar-winning screenwriter himself for Good Will Hunting (not to mention an acclaimed actor, director, and producer), Affleck knows a thing or two about the movie business, and he summed up AI-generated creative writing in one word: shitty.” By its nature, it goes to the mean, to the average,” he said on a January episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “And its not reliable. I mean, I cant even stand to see what it writes.” I actually dont think its very likely that its going to be able to write anything meaningful or, and in particular, that its going to be making movies from whole cloth, Affleck said. He predicted instead that for filmmaking, AI is gonna be a tool, just like visual effects. As a guy who works in tech, is building with AI, and writes a weekly newsletter on the topic, I can't explain as well as Ben Affleck.How is that possible? pic.twitter.com/Gj6dNwaDgj— Katyayani Shukla (@aibytekat) February 12, 2026 But if Affleck is right, then why are artists of all kinds being fed the narrative that AI will be stealing their jobs? Fearmongering from the AI industry is to blame, he claims. Theres a lot more fear, because we have this sense, this existential dread: Its gonna wipe everything out! Affleck explained on the podcast. “But that actually runs counter, in my view, to what history seems to show, which is, A, adoption is slow. Its incremental.” I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies, where they go, Were gonna change everything! In two years, theres gonna be no more work!” he continued. “Well, the reason theyre saying that is because they need to ascribe a valuation for investment that can warrant the cap expend theyre gonna make on these data centers. (Affleck’s comments come as Big Tech spending on AI data centers has swelled in the last year.) Afflecks take went viral again this week, thanks to a post on X, from a self-described “guy who works in tech” who is “building with AI and writes a weekly newsletter on the topic”which joked that Affleck could explain AIs applications better than industry experts. Affleck concluded that in filmmaking, LLMs will likely “be good at filling in all the places that are expensive and burdensome,” but that “its always gonna rely fundamentally on the human artistic aspects of it.” Now, some on social media are pointing out that in a sense, Afflecks point proves itself: The human touch of a creative writer led to clear, digestible communication. Funny how that works.
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E-Commerce
Starbucks competitor Dutch Bros saw its stock price rise in premarket trading on Friday after the coffee chain posted double-digit revenue growth in its most recent quarter. However, shares were flat as of late morning, with the stock (NYSE: BROS) hovering at just over $50 a share. Perhaps even more important for the stockand for those investors who are long on itis the coffee chains announcement that it is on track to nearly double its store footprint by 2029. Heres what you need to know. Dutch Bros has a record Q4 2025 Dutch Bros was founded in 1992, but its only in recent years that the coffee chain started to become a household name, thanks to its ever-expanding footprint. And while the chain isnt yet as well known as Starbucks, the company is increasingly looking like a significant threat to the Seattle coffee giant. Yesterday, Dutch Bros reported its fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 results, showing impressive gains in nearly every key metric, including: Total revenue: $443.6 million (up 29.4% year over year) Net income: $29.2 million (versus $6.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier) Systemwide same shop sales: up 7.7% Adjusted EBITDA: $72.6 million (up 48.8%) The company also issued strong guidance in many metrics for its current fiscal year 2026, including projected total revenue of between approximately $2 billion and $2.03 billion, and same shop saels growth of 3% to 5%. But besides its financial numbers, Dutch Bros also revealed something else: that its aggressive store expansion plans are on track for 2029, and if it achieves the goals, the companys footprint could nearly double in the next three years. Dutch Bros plots new store opening for 2026 and beyond While same-store sales are increasing for Dutch Bros, one of the fastest ways for any chain to boost overall sales is to open more locations. And that is exactly what Dutch Bros has been doing. In its full-year fiscal 2025, which just ended, Dutch Bros said it opened 154 new stores across 22 states. That put its total number of locations at 1,136 stores in 25 states, as of December 31. And its aggressive rollout is continuing in 2026. In a supplemental earnings slide deck the company released, it revealed that it expects at least 181 new Dutch Bros stores to open in 2026. Those new openings are in service of the companys lofty 2029 goals. By that year, the company says it aims to have 2,029 stores across the United States. BROS stock rises today, but is still red for the year After announcing its record-breaking fiscal 2025 results, Dutch Bros stock jumped by nearly 4% in early-morning trading. However, as of the time of this writing, much of those gains have been given back. The early-morning stock price gain was no doubt welcome to investors. However, the company, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange half a decade ago, still has a ways to go if it wants to regain its all-time highs. Since 2026 began, BROS stock has now declined by nearly 13%. Over the past year, BROS is down more than 36%. During those same periods, the NYSE Composite Index is up about 5.8% year to date, and over 15% over the past twelve months, according to Yahoo Finance data. Dutch Bros stock hit an all-time high of above $79 a year ago this month.
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E-Commerce
A key measure of inflation fell to nearly a five-year low last month as apartment rental price growth slowed and gas prices fell, offering some relief to Americans grappling with the sharp cost increases of the past five years. Inflation dropped to 2.4% in January compared with a year earlier, down from 2.7% in December and not too far from the Federal Reserves 2% target. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose just 2.5% in January from a year ago, down from 2.6% the previous month and the smallest increase since March 2021. Fridays report suggests inflation is cooling, but the cost of food, gas, and apartment rents have soared after the pandemic, with consumer prices still about 25% higher than they were five years ago. The increase in such a broad range of costs has kept affordability, a topic that helped shape the most recent U.S. presidential election, front and center as a dominant political issue. And on a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.2% in January from December, while core prices rose 0.3%. Core inflation was held down by a sharp drop in the price of used cars, which fell 1.8% just in January from December. Inflation continues to decelerate and is not threatening to move back up, and that will enable more rate cuts by the Fed, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. There were signs in the report that retailers are passing on more of the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs to consumers for goods such as furniture, appliances, and clothes. But those increases were offset by falling prices elsewhere. In other areas, Trump has delayed, scrapped, or provided exemptions to his duties. Furniture prices jumped 0.7% in January from the previous month and are up 4% from a year ago. Appliances rose 1.3% in January though are only slightly more expensive than a year earlier. Clothing price rose 0.3% in January from December and have increased 1.7% in the past year. Some services prices also rose: Airline fares soared 6.5% just in January, after a 3.8% jump in November, though they rose only 2.2% from a year earlier. Music streaming subscriptions increased 4.5% in January and are 7.8% higher than a year ago. Yet those increases were largely offset by price declines, or much slower price growth, in other areas, including many that make up a greater share of Americans’ spending. The cost of used cars, for example, plunged 1.8% in January, the biggest decline in two years. Gas prices fell 3.2% last month, the third drop in the past four months, and are down 7.5% from a year earlier. Grocery prices rose just 0.2% in January, after a big 0.6% rise in December, and are up 2.1% from a year ago. Hotel prices ticked down 0.1% in January and have fallen 2% from last year. Rental prices and the cost of owning a home, which make up a third of the inflation index, both rose just 0.2% in December, while rents increased only 2.8% from a year earlier. That is much lower than during the pandemic: Rents rose by more than 8% in 2022. The tariffs have increased some costs and many economists forecast companies will pass through more of those increases to consumers in the coming months. A study released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that U.S. companies and consumers are paying nearly 90% of the tariffs’ costs, echoing similar findings in studies by Harvard and other economists. Yet the increases haven’t been as broad-based as many economists feared. Tilley said that the higher tariffs have pulled some consumer spending away from other services, which has forced companies to keep those prices a bit lower as a result. We dont think consumers are in a place to take on price increases across the board, so youre not seeing those price increses, he said. Hiring was particularly weak last year, slowing wage growth, and many Americans remain gloomy about the economy. Some economists note that the rental figures were distorted by October’s six-week government shutdown, which interrupted the Labor Department’s gathering of the data. The government plugged in estimated figures for October which economists say have artificially lowered some of the housing costs. Companies are still grappling with the higher costs from Trump’s duties, though some have benefited from tariffs being delayed or scrapped. Arin Schultz, chief growth officer at Naturepedic, which makes organic mattresses in Cleveland, breathed a sigh of relief when Trump postponed import duties on upholstered furniture until 2027. They would have substantially pushed up the cost of the headboards the company imports. Schultz welcomed the decision to lower tariffs on imports from India to 18%, from 50%. Naturepedic sources a lot of the cotton fabrics and bedding that it sells from India. When that reduction kicks in, he said, the company could even cut some prices. Still, Naturepedic’s costs jumped because of duties on imports from Vietnam and Malaysia, where it sources its organic latex, which can’t be grown in the United States. Naturepedic makes its mattresses in the United States at a factory in Cleveland and employs about 200 workers. We’re paying more now for that, he said, and the company raised its prices about 7% last year as a result. “Tariffs are awful. We are less profitable now as a company because of tariffs. If inflation gets closer to the Federal Reserves target of 2%, it could allow the central bank to cut its key short-term interest rate further this year, as Trump has repeatedly demanded. High borrowing costs for things like mortgages and auto loans have also contributed to a perception that many big-ticket items remain out of reach for many Americans. Inflation surged to 9.1% in 2022 as consumer spending soared as supply chains snarled after the pandemic. It began to fall in 2023 but leveled off around 3% in mid-2024 and remained elevated last year. At the same time, measures of wage growth have declined as hiring has cratered. With companies reluctant to add jobs, workers don’t have as much leverage to demand raises. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
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