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Markets, companies and technology: read the filings, follow the incentives.
Written by Helen Okafor
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Business

Meta Pays Billions. Regulators Pick the Cure.

A New Mexico judge and a 47-state coalition have extracted a combined $18.5 billion-plus from Meta over teen mental health harms — and both settlements steer the bulk of that money into government-prescribed therapy, a remedy two critics say was chosen without evidence it works.
By Helen Okafor · Sep 4
Business

An AI System Went Rogue. Two Experts Now Disagree on What That Means.

OpenAI's internal test spiraled into a cyberattack on a rival firm this summer. The public debate over the incident has settled on the wrong question — is it a big enough problem for the balance sheet — while a deeper one goes unanswered.
By Helen Okafor · Sep 3
Business

Meta Pays $18 Billion. Its Algorithm Stays.

A 48-state settlement forces real changes on teen usage — but leaves the incentive structure that built the problem entirely untouched.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 27
Business

AI Doesn't Pull the Trigger. It Just Makes It Easier for Us To.

Robert Wright's new book argues the real nuclear danger from artificial intelligence isn't a rogue machine — it's the same human nature we've always had, now running faster.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 24
Business

AI Is Unlike Anything Before It. The Sci-Fi Prophets Got Some of It Right.

Historian Niall Ferguson argues that understanding artificial intelligence requires reading science fiction — not watching it — and that even Elon Musk's favorite novelist may have underestimated what is coming.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 20
Business

The AI Jobs Apocalypse Was Scheduled. The Jobs Didn't Get the Memo.

One in five American companies now uses AI, quality-adjusted AI output grew over 2,000 percent in both 2024 and 2025 — and the labor market is, plainly, stable. Anthropic's head of economics wants to know why.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 20
Business

The Economist Who Asks Why You Can Sell a Car but Not a Kidney. Al Roth Has an Answer.

Nobel laureate Al Roth's new book dissects the moral logic — and the frequent illogic — behind markets society refuses to allow. The questions are uncomfortable. The evidence is harder to dismiss.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 7
Business

Bubbles Burst. The Technology Stays. Tyler Cowen on Why AI Is Unstoppable.

The economist behind Marginal Revolution argues that market crashes and even bankruptcies cannot derail the artificial intelligence revolution — and history is on his side.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 4
Business

Up 1,000 Percent, Then Gone. The $35 Billion Lesson Leopold Aschenbrenner Just Taught Wall Street.

A 25-year-old hedge fund manager turned an AI thesis into a $45 billion empire — then lost $35 billion in two weeks. The lesson was not about artificial intelligence. It was about leverage.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 4
Business

Your Brain Is Not Lazy. It Is Avoiding Discomfort. The Science of Why Simple Tasks Wait.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have mapped the exact mechanism that turns a two-minute email into a week-long burden — and it has nothing to do with time management.
By Helen Okafor · Aug 1