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Top headlines
Lead story
Have you ever clicked “Buy now” on your phone? Ever picked from “For you” recommendations? These features of online shopping can be convenient. You might not realize it, but they also reduce your options and ultimately diminish your control over how you spend your money.
AI is poised to make shopping even more convenient – and even less under your control. OpenAI and Google have released protocols that link their AI chatbots to e-commerce systems that underpin millions of merchants, from mom-and-pop shops to household brand names. The moves mean you’ll be able to have these AI agents buy things for you.
Coastal Carolina University marketing professors Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui and Patrick van Esch explain how people tend to change their behavior when technologies offer convenience, and what it means to have AI put your purchasing on autopilot.
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AI could soon be buying things for you – maybe without even asking.
Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment via Getty Images
Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui, Coastal Carolina University; Patrick van Esch, Coastal Carolina University
AI agents are poised to do your online shopping for you, with major consequences for the e-commerce industry – and your ability to make choices.
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Politics + Society
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Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University
Once a democracy starts to erode, it can be difficult to reverse the trend. What does it take for democracies to bounce back from periods of autocratic rule?
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Daniel J. Mallinson, Penn State
Pennsylvania has been without a state budget for over 100 days, and House Democrats and Senate Republicans are $3 billion apart on how much should be spent.
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Environment + Energy
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Navid Tahvildari, Florida International University
Storm surge is the No. 1 cause of deaths and damage during a hurricane, yet detailed storm surge forecasts are difficult to create. AI could turn that around.
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Dana Zartner, University of San Francisco
Approaches vary in terms of who is filing the lawsuit, against whom and whether it is based on protecting human rights or the rights of the environment itself.
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Economy + Business
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Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University
Once a modest fall festivity, Halloween has transformed into a monthslong commercial phenomenon. You can hardly blame retailers.
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International
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Andrew Latham, Macalester College
From 19th century British navy to US destroyers in the Caribbean, diplomacy at seas has been accompanied by military might.
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Arts + Culture
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George Anastasia, Rowan University
Longtime mob reporter George Anastasia explains how intensive electronic eavesdropping revealed dialogue that surpassed Hollywood scripts.
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Charles Vanthournout, Université de Lorraine
There was a reason Southern businessmen and thinkers were inspired by ancient Egypt: To them, it served as proof that all great civilizations were hierarchal societies sustained by enslaved labor.
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Michael Watson, University of South Carolina
Pointy shoes have been all the rage across cultures for centuries, and their role as status symbols continue today.
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Science + Technology
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Jordan Bretzfelder, Georgia Institute of Technology
A planetary scientist who has participated in analog missions describes their value for planning space exploration – and learning about extreme environments on Earth.
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