Rebelling against AI

The only thing growing faster than the artificial-intelligence industry may be Americans’ negative feelings about it. In one poll after another in recent weeks, respondents have overwhelmingly voiced concerns about AI, a challenge to claims by industry executives that their technology would gain popularity by improving people’s lives. Consumers resent energy-price jumps exacerbated by the spread of data centres. Workers fear widespread job losses. Parents worry about AI undermining education and harming children’s mental health. In recent months, the wave of anger has brought protests, swayed election results and spurred isolated acts of violence. In April, a 20-year-old Texas man allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman’s home and made threats at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, according to a federal complaint filed against him. A few days earlier, someone fired 13 shots at the front door of an Indianapolis councilman who had recently approved a data centre.

(Adapted from “The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam,” by Amrith Ramkumar, Katherine Blunt, and Lindsay Ellis, published on May 19, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal)

Google’s Gemini

While Anthropic hypes its unreleased Mythos AI model as dangerously powerful, Google is changing the conversation — to cost and speed. Google says its latest Gemini 3.5 Flash model rivals frontier offerings, while saving money for companies that are racking up huge bills by churning through billions of tokens, the core unit of AI usage. “Companies are already blowing through their annual token budgets and it’s only May,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said recently. “If companies used a mix of Flash and other frontier models, they could save a lot of money.” The timing of Google’s new model is no coincidence. As companies embrace token-hungry AI agents, they’re also paying closer attention to their bills. Meanwhile, smaller AI companies under pressure to generate revenue are cranking up the cost of their products. That presents an opportunity to win on value rather than raw capability. It’s also where Google has an edge that will be hard for rivals to replicate — one it’s been working on for a quarter-century.

(Adapted from “Your AI Bill Is Out Of Control. Google Has Been Waiting For This Moment,” by Hugh Langley, published on May 29, 2026, by Business Insider)

Shutting out Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz could find itself shut out of the US auto market under legislation making its way through Congress. New bipartisan legislation aimed at limiting Chinese involvement in the US auto market may sweep in Mercedes-Benz unless the bill is changed or the German automaker’s largest shareholder sells its stake. The bill, the Motor Vehicle Modernisation Act of 2026, would prohibit automakers that have “any direct or indirect equity interest by a foreign-adversary government,” such as China, from importing, selling or manufacturing vehicles for sale in the US Mercedes-Benz’s largest individual shareholder is the state-owned Chinese automaker BAIC, formerly the Beijing Automotive Industrial Corp., with a 9.98pc share. The bill comes as lawmakers in both parties seek to prevent Chinese automakers from gaining a foothold in the US market.

(Adapted from “Mercedes-Benz May Be Shut Out Of US Market Under Bill Aimed At Chinese Automaker Ownership,” by Michael Wayland and Luke Fountain, published on May 29, 2026, by CNBC)

European consumes

A “double scar” of past inflation woes and geopolitical trauma is warping how consumers view the economy and threatening a drop-off in retail spending, new research from the European Central Bank (ECB) showed. According to ECB researchers, euro area households have become more sensitive to the financial consequences of the Iran war due to cumulative economic wounds left behind by the post-pandemic inflation surge and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in soaring energy prices. Data from the ECB’s March 2026 Consumer Expectations Survey showed that consumers had sharply revised inflation expectations upwards by 2.5 percentage points just one month after the conflict in the Middle East broke out in late February. Simultaneously, economic growth expectations fell by about 1.2 percentage points. Oil prices have fallen some 20pc in May, but remain about 30pc above pre-Iran war levels.

(Adapted from “How The ‘Double Scar’ Of Past Inflation Woes And Geopolitical Shocks Amid The Iran War Is Hitting Consumers,” by Elsa Ohlen, published on May 29, 2026, by CNBC)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 1st, 2026