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Pinterest, a platform Futurism described as being strangled by AI slop, is not having a great day. The image-based social media company yesterday released its third-quarter earnings and, despite a 17% increase in revenue year-over-year (YOY), its shares took a tremendous tumble. Pinterest stock (NYSE: PINS) dropped about 20% through after-hours trading and into premarket on Wednesday, sitting at 18.6% down at the time of publishing. Well get into the AI slop factor, but first its worth noting that Pinterests revenue might have improved YOY, but it only just met Wall Streets expectations of $1.05 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Pinterest also missed earnings per share estimates of 42 cents, reaching an adjusted 38 cents instead. Meanwhile, the company predicted its fourth-quarter revenue to reach between $1.31 billion and $1.34 billion, not exactly comforting to investors when Wall Street had projected the highest end of that range. Pinterest also missed estimated figures for third-quarter sales in the U.S. and Canada ($786 million versus $799 million) and global average revenue per user ($1.78 versus $1.79), according to separate consensus estimates cited by CNBC. How does AI factor into Pinterests report? Pinterest released its third-quarter earnings only a couple weeks after rolling out new generative AI controls. Following a sea of user complaints, the new tools allow users to dial down orif they really wantup the level of AI-generated content on their feeds. Users had openly criticized the AI slop, with one person stating on X, I hate how Pinterest is just AI and ads now. Its just unusable.” The post received 21,000 likes. Despite the pushback, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready doubled down on AI in an earnings call, referring to it as the heart of the Pinterest experience. He even went so far as to call Pinterest an AI-powered shopping assistant, further centering AI at the company. The good news for Pinterest Pinterest saw a 12% increase YOY in global monthly active users, reaching 600 million. In July, the company shared that men were joining the platform at record rates, making up over one-third of users. As for the advertisements they see, Ready states that Pinterest has built a performance ads platform that is harnessing our users commercial intent and AI-driven automation to improve performance and simplify campaign creation for advertisers. He goes on to claim that advertiser outbound clicks have improved by 40% YOY. In response to a question from an analyst about Pinterest’s new AI controls, Ready further addressed the complex issue of identifying AI-generated content, claiming that no platform could catch 100% of uses. That’s why we say see less, not see none of, because the ability to precisely spot that is not perfect for any platform, he said on the call. He then made the case that AI will eventually follow in the footsteps of Photoshop and play at least a small part in editing most, if not all, content.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump is heading to Miami on Wednesday the anniversary of his reelection to a second term to speak to a forum of business leaders and global athletes about what he sees as his economic achievements.The Republican president’s speech to the America Business Forum will be a broad look at his economic agenda and how investments he has secured abroad help U.S. communities, according to a senior White House official. It’s a significant effort from Trump to put a positive spin on the economy at a time when Americans remain uneasy about the state of their finances and the cost of living and when major campaigns in Tuesday’s election were centered on affordability and the economy.The AP Voter Poll survey, which included more than 17,000 voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City, suggested the public was troubled by higher prices and fewer job opportunities despite Trump’s promises to tame inflation and unleash growth.In his speech, Trump will touch on deregulation, energy independence and oil prices, and affordability, said the White House official, who insisted on anonymity to preview the president’s address.Trump spent five days in Asia last week with stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. He worked to ease trade tensions with Beijing in a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In Tokyo, he promoted several major energy and tech projects for the U.S. that will be funded by Japan.Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he thinks Trump’s recent travels “have been transformational in his presidency” and said his speech will be a highlight of the forum, which organizers have described as a more accessible version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, or the Milken Institute Global Conference, which gathers the world’s elite for discussions on the economy.“This conference not only is creating this incredible collection of people, but it’s also creating them in a particular moment in time,” said Suarez, a Republican.Trump’s visit also highlights how the Miami area is playing a key role during his second term.Trump is set to host leaders of the world’s leading rich and developing economies at next year’s Group of 20 summit at his golf club at the nearby city of Doral, despite what critics say is the appearance of impropriety.Trump’s sons have taken over running the Trump Organization while their father is in the White House, and the president has insisted that his family’s business will not make any money by holding the summit at the golf club.The city is where Trump wants to locate his future presidential library, which is now facing a legal challenge over whether the plot of land in downtown Miami is being properly transferred. Miami is also one of the U.S. host cities for next year’s World Cup, which Trump has eagerly promoted as the kickoff to several major global sporting events for which the U.S. is playing host. Ensuring the success of the World Cup has been a top priority for the Trump administration.FIFA President Gianni Infantino, with whom Trump has developed a close friendship, is scheduled to speak at the Miami forum later Wednesday. This story has been corrected to show the name of the event is the America Business Forum, not the American Business Forum. Seung Min Kim, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026 and, with it, the power to thwart or advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.The approval of Proposition 50 gives Democrats a shot at winning as many as five additional seats, just enough to blunt Texas Republicans’ move to redraw their own maps to pick up five GOP seats at Trump’s urging. Texas’ move and California’s response have kicked off a flurry of redistricting efforts around the country, with Republican states appearing to have an edge. Deeply blue California is Democrats’ best opportunity to make up seats.Midterm elections typically punish the party in the White House, and Trump is fighting to maintain his party’s slim House majority. Republicans hold 219 seats to Democrats’ 213.Tuesday’s results mark a political victory for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cast the measure as an essential tool to fight back against Trump and protect American democracy.Speaking to reporters in Sacramento, Newsom cast the California vote as part of a broader national rejection of Trump’s policies that saw Democratic governors elevated in New Jersey and Virginia. But he warned the more consequential battle would come next year.If Democrats win the House majority, they can “end Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it,” Newsom said. “It is all on the line, a bright line, in 2026.” Measure supported by Newsom and Obama California’s Proposition 50 asked voters to suspend House maps drawn by an independent commission and replace them with rejiggered districts adopted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Those new districts would be in place for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.The recast districts aim to dilute Republican voters’ power, in one case by uniting rural, conservative-leaning parts of far northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.The measure was spearheaded by Newsom, who threw the weight of his political operation behind it in a major test of his mettle ahead of a potential 2028 presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama urged voters to pass it as well.“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama said in one ad. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”Critics said two wrongs don’t make a right. They urged Californians to reject the measure, even if they have misgivings about Trump’s moves elsewhere.Among the most prominent critics was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former Republican governor who pushed for the creation of the independent commission, which voters approved in 2008 and 2010. It makes no sense to fight Trump by becoming him, Schwarzenegger said in September, arguing that the proposal would “take the power away from the people.”“I don’t want Newsom to have control,” said Rebecca Fleshman, a 63-year-old retired medical assistant from Southern California, who voted against the measure. “I don’t want the state to be blue. I want it to be red.” A lopsided campaign foreshadowed the vote After an early burst of TV advertising, opponents of the plan struggled to raise cash in a state with some of the nation’s most expensive media markets.The campaign followed an unusual trajectory. A handful of Republican congressmen who will see their districts dramatically reshaped and their jobs endangered mostly stayed away from the campaign spotlight. With opponents short on cash, Newsom and his supporters dominated TV screens in the critical closing weeks.Total spending on broadcast and cable ads topped $100 million, with more than two-thirds of it coming from supporters. Newsom told people to stop donating in the race’s final weeks.The GOP congressmen Reps. Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao and Doug LaMalfa will see right-leaning voters reduced and left-leaning voters boosted in their respective districts in a shift that would make it likely a Democratic candidate would prevail in each race.Issa issued a defiant statement, saying: “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll continue to represent the people of California regardless of their party or where they live.”Calvert said Newsom engineered a “power grab” while housing costs, gas prices and taxes continue to strain family budgets. “I am determined to keep fighting for the families I represent,” he said in an email. AP poll finds voters motivated by political reasons Proposition 50 won a swift and decisive victory, as the AP declared a winner when polls closed statewide. Early returns were strongly in favor of the measure, as were preliminary results from the AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 voters in California.Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was “very important” to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, according to the AP Voter Poll.About 8 in 10 California voters who supported the ballot measure said it was necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states, while only about 2 in 10 said they supported it because it was the best way to draw maps, AP Voter Poll found.Trump, who overwhelmingly lost California in his three presidential campaigns, largely stayed out of the fray. A week before the election, he urged voters in a social media post not to vote early or by mail messaging that conflicted with that of top Republicans in the state who urged people to get their ballots in as soon as possible.In a post Tuesday on his social media platform, the president called the state’s voting process “RIGGED” and warned that it was “under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!” Secretary of State Shirley Weber called that “another baseless claim.” The national House map is in flux Congressional district boundaries are typically redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts documented in the census. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, absent a court order finding fault with the maps in place.Beyond Texas, Republicans expect to gain one seat each from new maps in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio. Five other GOP-led states are also considering new maps: Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska.On the Democratic side, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Virginia have proposals to redraw maps, but major hurdles remain.A court has ordered new boundaries be drawn in Utah, where all four House districts are represented by Republicans, but it remains to be seen if the state will approve a map that makes any of them winnable for Democrats.Siddhartha Deb, 52, has lived in the U.S. since he was 7 years old but he just became a citize Tuesday. Immediately afterward he registered to vote at San Francisco City Hall and cast his ballot in favor of Newsom’s measure.“I don’t like the way the Republican Party is basically trying to rig elections by gerrymandering,” Deb said. “And this is the only way, to fight fire with fire.” Associated Press writers Amy Taxin and Terry Chea contributed. Jonathan J. Cooper, Michael R. Blood and Trān Nguyn, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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