A.I.'s Effect on the Economy, and Why Men Won't Go to the Doctor

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From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today is Wednesday, August 27th.

Here's what we're covering.

Last night, the pop star Taylor Swift and the football tight end Travis Kelsey.

I'm not going to do that.

Okay, here we go, for real this time.

Here's what we're covering.

Today, the world's most valuable company, the chipmaker NVIDIA, is set to release its earnings report.

Investors are expecting it to be big.

The question is, how big?

As it's become increasingly clear that spending on artificial intelligence is helping to prop up the entire U.S.

economy.

NVIDIA, whose chips are the backbone of AI tech, now accounts for almost 10% of the value of the entire S ⁇ P 500.

And nine out of the top 10 most valuable companies right now are tech companies that have gone all in on AI.

A A big chunk of that investment has gone into massive infrastructure projects, things like new data centers and semiconductor factories that can employ thousands of electricians, engineers, and other workers.

But when it comes to the AI tech itself, the chatbots, et cetera, that's not actually a big moneymaker yet.

While most companies say they now use AI to some extent, they also say it's still had no significant impact on their bottom line.

That often happens with new tech, where upfront costs can be huge before there's a payoff.

Though, with AI, experts say that these companies will need to generate enormous profits to make up for this current spending spree.

Earlier this month, one of the industry's most prominent figures, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, did urge some caution on that.

He called the AI industry, quote, overexcited, and said that he expects some companies to lose a lot of money.

Meanwhile, the AI industry is gearing up for a political fight.

Meta, OpenAI, and other Silicon Valley giants have just pledged up to $200 million to two new super PACs designed to force out politicians who aren't supportive enough of the technology.

The pro-AI PACs, which are the first of their kind, are being launched as the companies are facing increasingly urgent questions about the impact of AI.

That includes everything from whether the tech might eventually cause widespread unemployment to concerns over utility costs skyrocketing as data centers gobble up electricity and water.

Now, two updates on the Trump administration.

One of the world's big producers has essentially just been pushed out of the game of selling to America.

As of 1201 this morning, President Trump's dramatic 50% tariffs on goods from India have kicked in.

Those are some of the highest he's put on any country so far.

And my colleague Alex Trevelli says Americans will likely start to notice the effect in the next few months as U.S.

companies run out of products they've stockpiled.

Stuff like clothes, fabric, furniture, gems, also industrial chemicals, lots of electrical equipment.

And that's really the tip of the iceberg.

Soon pharmaceuticals from India, electronics might join the list also.

Those things are going to have to become more expensive, and that's going to be felt by the American consumer.

Trump pushed the tariffs in part as punishment for India buying Russian oil, and Alex says they're significant enough that they could end up causing India's whole economy to slow.

And the Federal Emergency Management Agency has suspended about 30 employees after they signed an open letter warning that the administration is gutting the agency's ability to respond to natural disasters.

The letter was timed to the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it accused the White House of undoing efforts that Congress took to strengthen the nation's disaster response in the wake of the deadly storm.

They said they hoped their warning would come in time to prevent, quote, another national catastrophe.

More than 180 FEMA staffers backed the letter, though most stayed anonymous since they were worried about retaliation.

The agency did not provide a reason for the suspensions.

In the past week, terrifying moments at Villanova University when a hoax led to a swarm of police.

Reports have happened at Iowa State, the University of Arkansas, the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.

Students and staff at about a dozen colleges across the U.S.

have been sent scrambling after fake reports of active shooters on campus.

There were no shots fired.

There was no shooter here on campus.

Still, it sent fear and chaos across Villanova.

There were at least six on Monday, and there were several more yesterday.

The FBI said it's been seeing an uptick in this kind of hoax called swatting.

Experts say there can be all kinds of motives behind this.

Sometimes students call them in as a distraction, hoping to disrupt a big exam or something.

There are also serial swatters out there who are basically just trying to cause chaos.

And while the reports are fake, the terror that they can create on campus is real.

There's an emotional toll for the people who think they're in danger.

And in rare cases, the police response can create its own risks.

An expert who tracks swatting at schools says there were at least two incidents in past years where responding officers fired their weapons.

The Times has been looking at a stubborn trend in the U.S.

healthcare system.

A lot of men just don't go to the doctor.

Research has shown that once they age out of seeing a pediatrician, they largely just drop off the map, and they often only go in once they're facing serious issues, at which point treatment is harder and outcomes are worse.

This is a problem I see all the time in emergency room.

I often see patients when they have cancer that spread everywhere or I've had a patient come in with a massive heart attack and when you look at their medical charts, they're almost completely blank because they haven't seen a doctor in years.

Helen O.

Yang is a practicing physician and a contributor to The Times magazine.

In covering the issue, she says there are a lot of factors at play.

Some involve how the system is set up.

Unlike women, who tend to go see a gynecologist regularly, men have no clear equivalent.

Other factors are cultural.

Some men may feel the pressure of stereotypes about masculinity, like toughing it out and not asking for help.

But Helen says that now a handful of providers around the U.S.

are experimenting with how to encourage men to seek regular care, including the Cutler Center outside Cleveland.

When I stepped off the elevator, I could see a difference immediately.

There were pool tables and foosball tables and giant screen televisions.

The medical assistants were dressed in athletic wear.

I shadowed one doctor who was a urologist.

He was very casual with his patients.

He made jokes while he was doing prostate exams and biopsies.

You can tell that the patients were treating the doctors more like their friends.

Another fascinating aspect of the center is a support team, which they call the Joes.

They act as navigators for annoying healthcare stuff, like making appointments and scheduling tests, but they also help with life stuff.

They'll text you on Mother's Day if you forget.

They'll help you find a real estate broker if you need one, or help you write a first-time resume.

I think at the core, they're trying to make healthcare fun and easy and hope that that will get men to have an ongoing relationship with the clinic and keep up with appointments and tests, everything they're supposed to be doing.

Helen says that the center is fully aware that if what they're doing doesn't produce results, then it's just kind of a superficial experiment in giving a clinic sports bar vibes.

But there are some early signs it's working.

Cutler patients are more likely to have attended a doctor's visit in the last year and more likely to have well-controlled blood sugar, a sign that their approach could be translating to better health outcomes.

One of the staff said she'd also noticed a shift in men taking ownership of their visits, saying, quote, when we first started, a lot of wives would call.

Now, more guys are calling themselves.

And finally, for real this time, the pop star Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelsey announced their engagement yesterday in a highly produced post on Instagram.

Because if it's not on Instagram, did it even happen?

The couple wrote, quote, your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.

Both famous in their own right, ever since Swift and Kelsey got together roughly two years ago, their relationship has become one of the most scrutinized, gossiped about, and obsessed over.

Did you hear?

Taylor Swift is Kelsey.

Okay, we have some details about Taylor Swift's engagement ring.

Taylor, I need answers.

You cannot even escape this news on Google today.

If you search for Taylor Swift, a bunch of confetti just fills the screen.

Those are the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

We'll be back tomorrow.