Axios

Holiday shopping is a busy time of year for a lot of us: Searching through Black Friday deals, checking loved ones off our gift lists and navigating traffic at stores and online. Now, retailers and consumers have to battle a larger wave of AI-enabled bots that scammers are using to purchase low-inventory merchandise and take over online accounts to steal financial information and loyalty points. "It's not that we don't see this activity for the rest of the year," Lee Clark, manager of cyber threat intelligence production at the , told Axios. "It's that it intensifies during the holiday season." My latest from this week's Axios codebook: https://lnkd.in/evGFgubN #technews #retail #artificialintelligence #holidayshopping

Competition in AI is less a single race than a triathlon. We offer an overview of where each of the key players in generative AI stands in each of this triathlon's events. ?? https://trib.al/7RYbTaO

The holiday shopping season that officially starts on Black Friday is the shortest it can possibly be this year, but fear not! Americans will still find a way to spend lots of money. https://trib.al/qOdKdFE

Companies were already backing off on DEI, then Walmart entered the chat: This week the retail giant said it would cut back its DEI initiatives. Walmart is the largest private employer in the U.S., and where it goes others are likely to follow. https://trib.al/2NPglgF

The Impact of Volunteering Axios hosts an event looking at the impact of volunteering.

"Demure" is Dictionary.com's word of the year, with its rise in popularity largely attributed to a series of TikTok videos. The other words that shaped the cultural conversation in 2024: brainrot, brat, extreme weather, Midwest nice and weird. https://trib.al/JM3fSXo

Twenty-something knowledge workers are pretty much all using generative AI tools, finds a survey out today from Google Workspace. https://trib.al/9kDGb4a

Did you hear the one about the $6.2 million banana? That's the price a piece of art consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall fetched this week, up from a "mere" $120,000 it sold for five years ago. It is a fitting metaphor for this particular moment for markets of all types, Chief Economic Correspondent Neil Irwin writes — one that raises uncomfortable questions about whether Federal Reserve policy is really restraining the economy as much as its leaders believe. https://trib.al/74qtpoA

The average American thinks a salary of just over $270,000 a year qualifies them as "financially successful," but there are huge disparities between generations, according to a new study. https://trib.al/9sp1kG2

Economists warn that the tariffs promised by President-elect Trump will be a drag on the economy. For now, attempts to get ahead of tariffs might be a meaningful, if fleeting, boost to growth. https://trib.al/SZoqeHl