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This week, tech companies were either melting down in real time or promising a future where computers are smarter than we are. Investors panicked, calmed down, panicked again, and then bought T-shirts for sea otters. We saw a giant internet outage that reminded everyone just how dependent the modern world is on one company. We also saw a stock that most people had basically pronounced dead suddenly rip higher like it was 2021 again. There was drama in Washington, too. The White House leaned even harder into AI content as a political weapon, raising a question that has been building all year, which is: Are we entering the AI misinformation era for real, or are we already in it and pretending we aren’t? At the same time, Meta cut jobs in the name of moving faster on artificial intelligence, and Apple gave Wall Street something to cheer about by proving that, yes, people will still buy a new iPhone if you make it fast, thin, and expensive. But the biggest optimism play of the week came from someplace totally different. Taylor Swift wore a vintage aquarium T-shirt, and her fans turned that into millions of dollars for sea otter rescue in a matter of hours. There are very few forces on Earth that can move money that fast. Central banks. Oil markets. Taylor Swift. AWS outage hits much of the internet An overnight outage at Amazon Web Services took down big parts of the internet, including apps and sites like Reddit, Lyft, and McDonalds. The problem was tied to AWS systems in one U.S. region, but because so many companies run through that same infrastructure, the impact went global. Amazon said the root issue was a DNS problem that it has mostly fixed, but a lot of users still saw slowdowns and random errors long after the first alert. The outage was another reminder that a huge amount of the modern economy sits on top of someone elses server. Beyond Meat stock suddenly rips higher Beyond Meats stock shot up more than 60 percent after spending the past few weeks in penny stock territory. The spike does not mean the business is suddenly healthy. Demand for plant-based meat has cooled, sales have dropped, and the company is still deep in trouble. What actually happened is a classic short squeeze in which traders who were betting against the stock got forced to buy shares back fast, which pushed the price higher. Trump responds to protests with AI video After the nationwide “No Kings” protests, President Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself in a fighter jet dumping sewage on protesters. He also dismissed the nearly 7 million people who showed up, saying they do not represent the country. Vice President JD Vance boosted a matching AI-style meme of Trump in a crown. Critics say this kind of content is basically making the protesters point for them and also shows how comfortable the administration is with pushing AI-altered media at scale. Meta cuts 600 jobs from its AI lab Meta said it is cutting about 600 jobs in the new AI superintelligence lab that it launched this year. Leadership says the smaller team will be able to move faster and make decisions with less internal debate. The company has been pouring tens of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence and high-end infrastructure, including new data centers and ad tools. The layoff news barely moved the stock, which suggests investors see this as normal cost control for a company that is still planning to spend heavily on AI. Quantum computing stocks pop on takeover rumors Shares of several U.S. quantum computing companies jumped after reports that the Commerce Department is talking to them about possible government investments. The basic idea is that Washington may want a financial stake in these firms in exchange for federal funding. Traders read that as a sign that quantum is getting treated like strategic tech, similar to chips and rare earth minerals. The result was a fast rebound for names like IonQ and Rigetti after a rough day in the broader market. Gold and silver prices fall hard Gold and silver both dropped sharply after hitting record levels earlier in the week. Prices for gold fell back toward the low $4,100 range per ounce, and silver slid under $50. The pullback suggests investors are feeling slightly less panicked about things like tariffs, inflation, and the government shutdown. In plain terms, money moved out of crisis mode and back toward risk. Iceland finds mosquitoes for the first time Scientists confirmed that mosquitoes have now shown up in Iceland, a country that’s basically never had them in human history. Warmer average temperatures are making the island friendlier to insects that could not survive there before. The specific species they found is cold-tolerant, which means it might be able to last through Icelandic winters and stick around. It is a small discovery with big implications because mosquitoes carry disease, and climate change is helping them expand north. Egg recalls keep growing More than 6 million eggs have now been pulled over salmonella concerns tied to Black Sheep Egg Company and others. The FDA escalated the recall to its highest risk tier and keeps adding new affected lots and brands. Experts say the spike in recalls is not only about farms doing something wrong. It is also about better, faster testing that can spot contamination earlier and force products off shelves before people get sick. Apple hits a record high on iPhone 17 Apple stock hit an all-time high, at around $264 a share, after early data suggested the iPhone 17 lineup is selling faster than last years iPhone 16 launch. The standout this cycle is the new iPhone Air, which is thinner, lighter, and still priced as a flagship. Strong demand in both the U.S. and China helped fuel the rally and gave investors fresh confidence heading into Apples next earnings report. Taylor Swift raises millions for sea otters Taylor Swift wore a vintage Monterey Bay Aquarium T-shirt in her latest concert film, and her fans did the rest. The aquarium brought the shirt back, priced it at $65.13, and raised more than $2.3 million for sea otter rescue and rehab. The campaign ran on Tiltify, which let the aquarium process tens of thousands of orders almost instantly. It was a case study in what happens when fandom, nostalgia, and e-commerce all hit at once.
Category:
E-Commerce
You dont have to be an avid reader of restaurant industry trade publicationsthough I can attest that they are oddly fascinatingto realize that everythings getting more expensive. The good news is that theres an easy way to counteract those rising menu prices. By purchasing discounted gift cards, you can defray the cost of fast-food, fast-casual, and sit-down chains, and maybe even some other retailers that have nothing to do with stuffing your face. All you need is a place to find authentic, cheap gift cards and a little foresight on when to buy them. 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! Gift cards for less? Yes, please! To buy gift cards for less than their actual cash value, head to CardCash.com. It presently only handles orders from within the United States. CardCash connects people who want to sell their unused gift cards with those who want to buy them. It takes just a few seconds to see what gift cards are available, though youll need an account to make a purchase. Most of CardCashs gift cards are digital and arrive via email, so you can start using them instantly. When you search for a retailer on CardCash, youll see a list of available gift cards, with the biggest percentage discounts appearing at the top. You can also sort the list by value and cost. The discounts on CardCash range from pennies to several dollarsor sometimes even moreper card. If youre not looking for anything specific, you can also check out CardCashs Epic 20% Discounts and Deals pages. There youll find cards with greater-than-usual percentage discounts. You can save yourself time and see only cards with especially significant discounts. When looking at discount percentages, keep in mind any cash-back offers youd normally get at the store by paying with your credit card. If your card offers 3% back at restaurants, for instance, a gift card with a 3.5% discount probably isnt worth the trouble. After buying a gift card, youll get a couple of emails from CardCash: One is your order receipt, while the other contains your digital gift card as a PDF attachment. The PDF will show the gift card number, PIN (if necessary), and barcode to scan in-store. All the info you need for any purchased cards comes to you via email. Waitis CardCash actually legit? Ive used CardCash on four occasions over the past few weeks, and on three out of those four occasions, everything went smoothly. A problem arose, though, after purchasing a Five Guys gift card immediately before eating there. The card, which cost $57.65, had an advertised value of $65.29but when I tried to pay, it only showed a value of $11.57. Using that amount drew the balance down to $0. After getting home, I contacted CardCashs customer service and did not identify myself as a journalist so as to avoid getting special treatment. I received a response and a refund for the difference in balance the next day. As CardCash notes on its website, this is an inherent risk with buying gift cards on its platform, which merely serves as a marketplace between buyers and sellers. Theres nothing to inherently stop a seller from using a gift card after selling it, or from selling a stolen gift card that later gets deactivated. For these kinds of situations, CardCash says it guarantees the value of gift cards for 45 days, so you can contact them and get a refund. But it also suggests confirming gift card balances yourself immediately after the purchase, which Ill absolutely be doing in the future. Either way, my experience underscores an important caveat with CardCash: Dont spend more on gift cards than you expect to spend in a 45-day period. For one thing, you might end up accruing so many cards that itll be hard to keep track of them allbut more importantly, youll be out of luck if something happens to the cards value. While Ill keep using CardCash personally, Ill be sure not to stockpile more gift card credit than I need. CardCash is completely web-based. Itll work in any browser, on any deviceno downloads or installations required. Its free to use as a buyer, with the only cost being whatever price you pay for a card. The person doing the selling pays the sites fees. You do have to create an account in order to make a purchase. You can either sign in with your Google account or with any valid email address. The sites privacy policy is clear that no personal info is ever sold or shared in any shady-seeming wa. 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.
Category:
E-Commerce
Like many ambitious tech companies before it, OpenAI introduced itself to the culture at large with big claims about how its technology would improve the worldfrom boosting productivity to enabling scientific discovery. Even the caveats and warnings were de facto advertisements for the existential potential of artificial intelligence: We had to be careful with this stuff, or it might literally wipe out humanity. Fast-forward to the present day, and OpenAI is still driving culture-wide conversations, but its attention-grabbing offerings arent quite so lofty. Its Sora 2 video platformwhich makes it easy to generate and share AI-derived fictionswas greeted as a TikTok for deepfakes. That is, a mash-up of two of the most heavily criticized developments in recent memory: addictive algorithms and misinformation. As that launch was settling in (and being tweaked to address intellectual property complaints), OpenAI promised a forthcoming change to its flagship ChatGPT product, enabling erotica for verified adults. These products are not exactly curing cancer, as CEO Sam Altman has suggested artificial intelligence may someday do. To the contrary, the moves have struck many as weirdly off-key: Why is a company that took its mission (and itself) so seriously doing . . . this? An obvious risk here is that OpenAI is watering down a previously high-minded brand. There are multiple major players in AI at this point, including Anthropic, the maker of ChatGPT rival Claude, as well as Meta, Microsoft, Elon Musks Grok, and more. As they seek to attract an audience, they will have to differentiate themselves through how their technologies are deployed and what they make possible, or easy. In short, what the technology stands for. This is why slop, memes, and sex seem like such a comedown from OpenAIs carefully cultivated reputation as an ambitious but responsible pioneer. To underscore the point, rival Anthropic recently enjoyed a surprising amount of positive attentionan estimated 5,000 visitors and 10 million social media impressionsfor a pop-up event in New Yorks West Village, dubbed a no slop zone, that emphasized analog creativity tools. This is part of a Keep Thinking branding campaign aimed at burnishing the reputation of its Claude chatbot. The company has positioned itself as taking a cautious approach to developing and deploying the technology (one thats attracted some criticism from the Trump administration). It has also made Anthropic stand out in what can be a move-fast-and-break-things competitive field. AI is a field thats spendingand losingvast sums, and lately casting about for revenue streams in the here and now while working toward that promised lofty future. According to The Information, OpenAI lost $7.8 billion on revenue of $4.5 billion in the first half of 2025, and expects to spend $115 billion by 2029. ChatGPT has 800 million monthly users, but paid accounts are closer to 20 million, and these recent moves suggest that it needs to build and leverage engagement. As Digiday recently noted, OpenAI increasingly seems to be at least considering ad-driven models (once dubbed a last resort by Altman). Writer and podcaster Cal Newport has made the case that developments like viral-video tools and erotica chat are emblematic of a deeper shift away from grandiose economic impacts and toward betting [the] company on its ability to sell ads against AI slop and computer-generated pornography. Its almost like a sped-up version of Cory Doctorows infamous enshittification process, pivoting from a quality user experience to an increasingly degraded one designed for near-term profit. This is not entirely fair to OpenAI, whose every move is scrutinized partly because its the best-known brand in a singularly hyped category. All its competitors will also have to deliver real value in exchange for their massive costs to investors and society at large. But precisely because its a leading brand, its particularly susceptible to dilution if its seen as straying from its idealistic promise, and rhetoric. A cutting-edge AI pioneer doesnt want to be perceived as an existential threatbut it also doesnt want to be branded as just another source of crass distraction.
Category:
E-Commerce
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