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It’s no secret that Gen Z has a less optimistic economic outlook than older generations. So, it’s no wonder many of them are engaging in so-called “financial nihilism,” applying a gloomy outlook to their financial mindset, resulting in a new and different take on investing. Zoomers grew up with smartphones, the internet, and social media during difficult times like the 2008 economic crisis and Great Recession, and the subsequent protest movement, Occupy Wall Street. And as such, they’re disillusioned with traditional ways of doing things, which extends to how they invest and conduct their own finances. What is ‘financial nihilism’? First coined in 2021 by Demetri Kofinas, the host of the Hidden Forces podcast, “financial nihilism” is a trend that describes how Gen Z and even some younger millennials, who are profoundly disillusioned with the traditional financial system, believing its unfair and unpredictable, are finding it pointless to save for retirement or invest in the stock market, or in bonds, or other conventional ways. That’s given the state of things such as: stagnant wages, the soaring cost of living, massive student debt, and the difficulty of homeownership. Basically, they believe the American Dream is a scam, and they may have to live with their parents forever without ever owning a home. Gravitating to crypto, meme stocks, and ETFs Instead of playing the stock or bond markets in traditional ways, Gen Z is gravitating to more rewarding, but riskier strategies like investing in cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and meme coins, as well as meme stocks and sports betting platforms, CNBC reported. According to the outlet, Gen Z is the most likely generation to say they were either curious about or planning to invest in cryptocurrencies over the next five years, per a recent U.S. Bank survey. In short, what we are seeing is a loss of faith in the real value of money and the function of the market. Perhaps Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson summed it up best when he said: “It’s hard to fault people for wanting to get rich quick if they have lost faith in their ability to get rich slow.”
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These days, investors, founders, analysts, and tech loyalists cant stop talking up how artificial intelligence will radically remake the future of work. But a new study suggests that while AI might have some amazing future uses, at the moment, it’s not doing much good to anyone. In a “State of AI in Business 2025” report, researchers at MIT Media Lab found that despite enterprise investments of as much as $40 billion in generative AI, 95% of organizations have seen no return on their investment so far. “Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable P&L [profit and loss] impact,” the report reads. “This divide does not seem to be driven by model quality or regulation, but seems to be determined by approach.” Tools like OpenAI’s Chat GPT and Microsoft’s Copilot have been widely tested, with more than 80% of organizations either exploring them or using them in pilot programs. But while these tools boost individual productivity, when it comes to overall P&L, there’s very little measurable impact, the study found. Enterprise-level AI systems aren’t doing a lot to impress either. While 60% of the enterprise companies that the researchers spoke with said they evaluated these tools, only 20% made it as far as the pilot stage. And just 5% took those to a full production model. A lack of contextual learning, brittle workflows, and misalignment with day-to-day operations were cited as the chief reasons the tools were rejected. The slop problem Behavioral researcher BetterUp Labs, in collaboration with the Stanford Social Media Lab, says it has identified one possible reason enterprise companies are rejecting AI: slop. Employees, the two labs say, are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable-looking work. They’ve taken to calling this “workslop”well-formatted slides, reports, summaries, or code that might seem helpful at first, but that ultimately prove to be incomplete or missing context, shifting the burden of work to someone else. “Of 1,150 U.S.-based full-time employees across industries, 40% report having received workslop in the last month,” the groups wrote. “Employees who have encountered workslop estimate that an average of 15.4% of the content they receive at work qualifies.” There is one advantage for workers when it comes to AI not living up to its billing: Job losses, so far, haven’t been as bad as doomsayers have predicted. Should more companies stick with AI integration, however, that could change. “While most implementations don’t drive head count reduction, organizations that have crossed the GenAI Divide are beginning to see selective workforce impacts in customer support, software engineering, and administrative functions,” the report reads. Dispelling doom When it works, AI can cut back-office operational expensesfor example, in administration, finance, and human resourcesthe MIT researchers found. In addition, it can improve customer retention and sales conversion by using automated outreach and by following up intelligently. Best of all, few of these improvements come with a human cost. “Early results suggest that learning-capable systems, when targeted at specific processes, can deliver real value, even without major organizational restructuring,” the report reads. That’s likely a relief to some workers who have heard little but fatalistic scenarios. In July, for instance, Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, warned that recruiters and executive assistants could be made extraneous as AI browsers become more prevalent. And in May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios that AI could wipe out roughly 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, which he said could cause unemployment to spike to between 10% and 20%. That warning, he said, was aimed at both lawmakers and his peers in the AI world. “Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it. . . . We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.”
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Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season. Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026. Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher, or batter signaled by tapping their helmet or cap and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards. Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers, and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct. Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards. Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way thats acceptable to players, Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today. ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for thats year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022. At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS. MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges. At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%. In the first test at the big League All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassognas calls were successful in July. Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining. MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%. This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts, and larger bases. The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete. Not that everyone loves it. The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch thats not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension, former manager Bobby Valentine said. Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978-87, maintained old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: ’If you do that again, youll never get a strike.’ Im cutting out some words. Management officials on the competition committee include Seattle chairman John Stanton, St. Louis CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner. Players include Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit’s Casey Mize, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, and the New York Yankees’ Austin Slater, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams. Ronald Blum, AP baseball writer Bill Miller is the umpire representative.
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