Business, technology and what comes next.
NextNow / Contributor
Reporting and analysis
U.S. box-office revenue is running ahead of last year, but attendance remains far below 2019. The recovery is increasingly being driven by higher ticket prices, premium formats and event films rather than a broad return to moviegoing.
AI-referred shoppers are arriving with higher intent and converting better than conventional traffic. Retailers are racing to become visible inside ChatGPT and Gemini while drawing a hard line around checkout, loyalty and customer data.
Ralph Lauren is adding younger customers while raising average prices and reducing discount exposure. Its recent growth suggests relevance does not require a heritage brand to abandon the world that made it valuable in the first place.
China’s underwater data centers show real gains in energy, land and freshwater use. But the case for scaling them depends on what happens to the heat, marine habitat, maintenance economics and a seafloor we still barely understand.
Advanced models are gaining the ability to navigate systems, execute actions and circumvent safeguards. The institutions responsible for deciding how much risk is acceptable are still trying to determine what should be tested, by whom and what happens after a model leaves their control.
Store brands are gaining share as household budgets tighten, but current data show premium products remain resilient when consumers understand the value. For boutique food and beverage brands, the challenge is not simply price. It is giving shoppers a reason to keep the product in the basket.
July payrolls missed economists’ forecasts by more than 100,000 jobs. Revisions to prior months, slowing hiring and emerging changes in how companies use labor suggest the decline was less sudden than the headline implies.
The first AI-generated viruses were engineered to kill bacteria, not people. That makes this experiment safer. It does not make the precedent benign.
A New Mexico court found Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance, bringing the company’s total liability in the case to $942 million and imposing five years of youth-safety requirements.
The streaming company says generative AI is moving through its production pipeline, with the heaviest use in post-production.
