Unemployment rates for NYC graduates and non-graduates are converging.
22- to 27-year-old New Yorkers face similar unemployment rates whether or not they have a degree.
Fewer Americans see college as vital, partly due to rising costs, per a recent Gallup poll.
It's been a cornerstone of the job market for decades: Higher education is the surest path to steady employment. But in the Big Apple, there are signs that may no longer be the case.
The unemployment gap between young New Yorkers with college degrees and their peers without degrees has dramatically narrowed; for a few months this year, the latter actually had slightly lower unemployment than the former — a potential sign that entry-level white-collar roles are succumbing to AI creep.
Business Insider analyzed the 12-month moving average of the unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-olds with and without college degrees in the NYC metro area, using data from the Current Population Survey, accessed via IPUMS.
In June, the unemployment rates for both young New Yorkers without a degree and those with a bachelor's degree or higher were at the same level of 7.7%. By September, non-degree candidates had returned to a higher rate of 8.1%, while those with a degree stood at 7.3%.
A May report from New York City Comptroller Mark Levine found that this was the "first time on record" young adults with a Bachelor's degree or higher experienced an unemployment rate slightly higher than that of those without a college degree.
This historic swap comes after an increase in the unemployment rate among recent graduates and a decrease in the unemployment rate among same-age adults without a degree, which has "historically been relatively high," according to the report.
The decline in New York's college degree premium comes in a broader low-hire, low-fire economy, where layoffs have remained low, and job openings have been fewer. That's especially true for industries hardest hit by AI, such as tech, where there's been a pullback in entry-level job openings.
"This is because technical skills—many supplanted by AI—have become less imperative, while soft skills and specialized company or industry-specific knowledge have become more so," said the report from the New York City Comptroller. That dynamic impacts young workers — who haven't had a chance to accumulate institutional knowledge — the most. On X, Levine highlighted the changing fortunes of the city's young workers as "one more possible sign that AI is already impacting employment in NYC."
That comes as more Americans question whether higher education is worth it, especially in the age of AI. A record low number of 31% of Americans consider college "very important," according to a Gallup poll released in October. The percentage of those who perceive going to college as "not too important" has increased by about the same level. The decrease was seen across demographic groups, including those who typically placed greater importance on college.
These shifts in perspective could be partially tied to the rising cost of college, according to the Gallup report. But, even if AI is making it harder to find a job, the college wage premium hasn't dissipated — it might just take younger workers longer to land those salaries.
Ukraine is heavily reliant on Starlink for military operations.
Inna Varenytsia/REUTERS
Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Kyiv's access to Starlink has been disrupted.
Slower-than-normal speeds have affected military operations, the officials said.
Ukraine is heavily reliant on Starlink, specifically for communications and drone missions.
Ukraine's access to Starlink internet service was suddenly disrupted, interfering with military operations, sources in the country's defense ministry and a top presidential advisor said on Wednesday.
Serhii Beskrestnov, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a social media post that Elon Musk's SpaceX had implemented speed limits for Starlink terminals overnight. He did not provide evidence to support his claim.
Beskrestnov said the restriction throttles the operation of Starshield, the company's dedicated satellite network for military services, at speeds above 100 miles per hour. He said the Ukrainian military was not notified in advance.
Sources in Ukraine's defense ministry confirmed the disruption and told Business Insider it complicates military operations, including logistics and drone strikes. They said the cause is being investigated.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Critical in combat
Starlink has become critically important to Ukraine's military, which has adopted it as a battlefield comms system and also uses it in drone warfare. Drones equipped with Starlink dishes, which can be controlled remotely by pilots hundreds of miles away and adapted to new targets mid-mission, have become one of the country's most potent weapons in the battle against Russian forces.
Ukraine's use of Starlink has made it reliant on Musk and SpaceX, however. In 2023, the world's richest man said he refused a request from Ukraine's military to activate Starlink to assist a Ukrainian assault on Crimea, and Reuters reported last year that SpaceX jeopardized a 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive by cutting Starlink access to frontline troops.
Starlink antennas are a common sight in Ukraine.
Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Recently, Musk has proven to be a more reliable ally. In February, SpaceX clamped down on Russian forces' use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine after Ukraine's then-defense minister made a personal appeal to the billionaire CEO, a move that allowed Ukrainian forces to wage a successful counteroffensive.
'It is clear this action is not coincidental'
Musk has not yet addressed reports of Starlink disruptions in Ukraine. On Saturday, he reignited his past criticisms of Zelenskyy with a post on X that the Ukrainian president had "gone too far" with his strikes on Russian refineries.
The disruption comes after a series of Russian ballistic missile attacks against Kyiv on Monday and Tuesday nights. Ukrainian officials said that in both cases, international partners did not provide an advance warning about their launch, breaking from standard practice.
Elon Musk receives the National Medal of Science from President Donald Trump.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Asked by reporters before the attack on Tuesday if the US would cut intelligence with Ukraine over its strikes on Russian energy sites, President Donald Trump said Washington continued to share it.
Zelenskyy's advisor suggested that the Starlink disruption could be linked to tensions between the US and Ukraine.
"It is clear that this action is not coincidental and is related to the current political situation," Beskrestnov said on Telegram, according to a translation of his statement.
Maxim Konankov; Agnès Bun; Thomas Trutschell; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
Work from home is dead: You've probably heard some version of this declaration from your boss over the past year. But the numbers show that WFH is actually very much here to stay. The prevalence of working from home has barely budged over the last two years, at around 26% of all American work days.
That's a lot less than the 62% we saw in the early months of the pandemic — but a near quadrupling since 2019, when that share was at a miniscule 7%. Had the pandemic never happened, it probably would have taken us 40 years to get to work from home as much as we do today.
We've reached a new normal for the corporate workplace — one where remote jobs have become a bigger minority, and it's also become totally normal for white-collar professionals to work from home at least a day or two a week.
That shift has brought about all kinds of other changes in American life — some profound, some life-saving, some strange and unexpected. Nobody's reflected on those changes more than Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford who's the world's leading expert on remote work.
When I first spoke to him in early 2021, Bloom was right in the midst of helping rewrite corporate America's work policies, presenting his research to managers at companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Apple. He warned that years of intense turmoil would follow as employees and employers fought over the new terms of where we work — and he couldn't have been more right. Now that the dust has largely settled, I caught up with him at his house on one of his WFH days to take stock of the most lasting impacts of America's work-from-home revolution.
1. Saved time
One of the biggest reasons why people love working from home is because it saves them time. The average commute in the US is about 40 minutes each way, and ahead of venturing out into the world, you need to spend a little extra time making yourself presentable to the world by showering and getting dressed. Rolling out of bed and opening your laptop? That takes 30 seconds. By Bloom's estimates, the typical American worker saves an hour and a half for every day they work from home. For those in WFH-friendly sectors like tech and finance, those time savings average about 3 hours a week.
What have people done with that extra time? They're getting more sleep and exercise, and they're cooking — and if they have kids, they're spending a lot more time on parenting. One study in the Netherlands found that when parents were allowed to work from home, their kids scored higher on an important standardized test that helps determine their high school track. "It's because you're home," Bloom says. "You know that your kid is up there doing their homework and you can smell it if they're smoking weed."
2. More workers
In 2020, 77% of Americans without a disability had a job, compared with only 32% for those with a disability. In a lot of cases, disabled people wanted to work but couldn't in an office-only world. Maybe they couldn't drive because they were blind, or they had knee and back issues that made navigating the stairs at the office too difficult.
The boom in remote and hybrid jobs in the pandemic changed that, increasing the ranks of disabled people with full-time roles by more than a quarter million people. Add to that all the women who, thanks to the flexibility of working from home, no longer had to quit working to juggle their childcare responsibilities.
That's been great for those workers, and great for the economy as a whole. "It's not impossible that hybrid increases labor participation rates by 1 to 2%, which probably increases GDP by about 1 to 2%," says Bloom. That would amount to an additional $300 billion to $600 billion in economic value. "This is huge."
3. More babies
From 2023 to 2025, people who worked from home at least one day a week had more babies compared to daily office-goers, Bloom and his cofounders found. They also planned to have more kids in the future. That's likely because of the increased flexibility of remote work that makes having more kids feel feasible — and also some basic biology. "My friend had this great line," Bloom tells me. "He said, 'My wife and I discovered she can't get pregnant by email.'"
Bloom estimates that working from home is associated with a roughly 5% increase in fertility in the US and Northern Europe — statistically significant, but not huge. Still, any increase is desperately needed in much of the developed world, which is fighting a declining birth rate. The fertility bump, Bloom notes, has been the most pronounced among women 30 and older, who have college degrees, and already have one kid.
4. Saved lives
In the early days of the lockdown, urban dwellers around the world got to enjoy better air quality. Did these improvements continue even once the workplace settled into a new hybrid world? Bloom and his coauthors looked at levels of nitrogen dioxide — which is linked to lung and heart conditions — across US cities to see.
In 2025, the largest city centers had 8% less nitrogen dioxide than in 2019. That translates to between 1,500 and 3,500 fewer deaths every year in the country.
5. Struggling cities
One clear loser of WFH has been city centers. Cities from San Francisco to Washington DC are struggling with budget shortfalls that they've attributed to a weaker commercial real estate market (in San Francisco, 29% of office space sat vacant in the second quarter, eight times higher than in 2019). In an even dire state are public transit systems in major cities. BART, which connects San Francisco to its neighboring areas, used to be able to cover about 70% of its operating costs with fares and parking. Now, it's 23%. Next month, Bay Area residents will vote on a ballot measure that would increase the sales tax to keep BART and other public transit systems afloat.
6. The AI takeover
First, it was work from home; now it's AI. Is it a coincidence that these two asteroids hurtled into white-collar work within the span of just a few years? Bloom argues that the two are related. The transition to remote and hybrid work, he says, made way for the rapid uptake of AI in the workplace.
For one, the switch to digital communication — Slack, email, Zoom — created an explosion of data for companies to train their AI models on. Before, these conversations were happening in person, disappearing into the ether as soon as they escaped our vocal cords. Now, so many of them are happening on some digital medium, recorded for posterity to fine-tune the machines.
Businesses can't get enough of this data. That's why Google recently purchased Spirit Airlines for $10 million in a recent bankruptcy auction. Google's goal wasn't to start its own airline, but to get access to Spirit's 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, and 30 million lines of code.
Bloom argues that the shift to digital communication also created new norms for the AI era. Imagine your coworker pulling out their phone to record the audio of a meeting so they could send around their AI-transcribed notes to everyone afterwards. That would have been pretty weird, back in 2019. But that's totally normal now, thanks to the fact that we started using Zoom a lot more in the pandemic, and because Zoom has a record button. "It's just changed a lot of stuff that's made it more feasible to use AI," Bloom says.
Most white-collar workers like that they get to work from home more often than they used to. They see the remote work revolution as largely a positive one. But if it also accelerated AI's spread in the corporate workplace, that's more of a mixed bag. Would they go back to the daily slog into the office if it meant not having to worry about losing their job to Claude?
After all, Bloom notes, it's the fully remote back-office jobs that are probably the easiest to automate. The jobs that still require in-person charm, collaboration, and logistics are the ones the machines still can't touch.
Joanna Strober runs Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause.
Ian Tuttle for BI
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joanna Strober, the 58-year-old cofounder and CEO of Midi Health, a virtual care platform dedicated to modernizing women's healthcare. She is based in Los Altos Hills, California. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I'm the founder and CEO of Midi Health. We started the company to bridge the gap in healthcare by providing specialized, insurance-covered care for women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.
For many years, I didn't have time to take care of myself. Taking care of three kids and working was not easy. It was all-encompassing.
I had a big wake-up call when I was 44 years old and had a small fall and fractured my shoulder. I discovered that I had osteopenia, or low bone density, at a very young age. That was a good indicator that I needed to focus more on prevention and taking care of myself. Now I'm making up for the lost time.
Strober doesn't like to use trackers. Instead, she said she focuses on healthy behaviors.
Ian Tuttle for BI
I wake up at 6:30 a.m., and I walk
I wake up and have two Nespresso pods and two pieces of Levain bread from a bakery called Manresa Bread. It's a very dense multigrain loaf that fills you up. For the past 10 years, I've had this bread every single morning for breakfast, or as soon as the bakery opens.
Strober walks for an hour every morning.
Ian Tuttle for BI
Then I walk for about an hour. That is the most important part of my routine. I listen to podcasts about politics or AI. I like "Hard Fork," "The Daily," "The Ezra Klein Show," and "Call Me Back."
I'm in the office by 8:15 a.m.
The goal is to lift weights after my walk, but it doesn't always happen. I go to the office after, and then I have lots of Zoom calls and product meetings.
I try to schedule another 45-minute walk around lunchtime. I take a lot of phone calls and have been told I talk loudly when I walk. It's actually a joke in my neighborhood.
I allow myself one Diet Coke a day
I mostly drink chamomile tea in the afternoon, but I also let myself have one Diet Coke per day.
Keeping my bones strong is a big focus
I take Midi's Omega-3+, which also has vitamin D and K in it, and that's for my bones because I have osteopenia. I also take creatine and fiber. I either take the Midi fiber gummies or I just make sure I get enough fiber.
I also use hormone replacement therapy to help prevent bone deterioration.
Strober takes an Omega-3 supplement, as well as creatine and fiber.
Ian Tuttle for BI
I'm not neurotic about my meals
I have a salad or a sandwich for lunch, or sometimes I walk somewhere to get lunch.
For many years, my life was structured around getting my kids breakfast or dinner. Now they're no longer home, and it's actually very liberating. It means I can work much later and have fewer guardrails.
I usually get dinner between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Sometimes I'll pick up a random dinner on the way home or make pasta. Or, I'll eat ice cream for dinner.
I watch TV every evening and eat ice cream
I don't drink or do drugs. I love British detective TV shows. I find it very relaxing to watch TV and eat ice cream. I buy low-sugar blackberry jam from the farmers market and eat it with chocolate ice cream every night.
I'm asleep by 9:30 p.m.
Walking keeps me sane
Strober walks The Dish, which is a roughly three-and-a-half-mile uphill hike, at least twice every weekend.
Ian Tuttle for BI
In general, I've been trying different meditation apps. I can't say it's working, but I am trying.
Walking is my best route to sanity. I walk over 10,000 steps every day, but it's less about step count and more about making sure my body moves for multiple hours. My morning walk is in the hills, but when I walk flat, I try to wear a weighted vest.
Every weekend, I walk The Dish at least twice, and sometimes three or four times. It's our local hike in Palo Alto. It's about three-and-a-half miles, and it's uphill. I also schedule at least one or two walks a day with different friends for social activity.
On weekends, I also go to the farmers market and cook.
My 81-year-old mom makes me dinner every Friday
When I was younger and had children, my mom and I made a deal that she would cook dinner for my family every Friday night. Now the kids are gone, and she still cooks dinner for my husband and me every Friday.
It's the one night a week I know I'm going to get good food, and someone is going to take care of me. I feel really lucky.
I think a lot about prevention
Strober said she thinks a lot about prevention and that she prioritizes "sleeping enough, eating the right foods, and getting the right exercise."
Ian Tuttle for BI
I don't want to be crippled as an older lady. I've also watched what it's like to have someone with Alzheimer's in my family, and I'm scared of that. I think a lot about what I can do to stay healthy and prevent heart disease, Alzheimer's, and bone disease.
I don't track macros or anything like that, but I am very neurotic about my cancer screenings and the behaviors that are easy to do to make sure that I stay healthy as long as I can — like sleeping enough, eating the right foods, and getting the right exercise.
I think about what I can do to make sure I can eventually run after my grandkids.
Kelly Clarkson said she was treated like Julia Roberts' character in the '90s rom-com "Pretty Woman" when she visited a Brooklyn toy shop.
Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Kelly Clarkson said a Brooklyn toy shop gave her the "Pretty Woman" treatment.
Here's how the dispute between Clarkson and the store unfolded.
A publicist said a celebrity pile-on can hurt a small business before people know the full story.
A Brooklyn toy shop has found itself at the center of a celebrity internet drama after Kelly Clarkson said she received the "Pretty Woman" treatment when she inquired about a $15,000 item in the store.
In an X post on Saturday, the singer said she had a negative experience at Art of Play, a toy store in New York City.
"Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy and literally was looked at as if I couldn't afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me," Clarkson wrote in her post, adding that the store "just lost a huge sale."
Just drove all the way to Brooklyn to check out this store I thought looked really rad and had a few things in mind to buy and literally was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me. Wow, dude. You’re an idiot and just lost a huge sale. But y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman. For sure, check it out 👎
She then compared her experience to the treatment Julia Roberts' character receives in the '90s rom-com "Pretty Woman," telling people to visit the store if they enjoyed being treated that way.
Clarkson's post on X had received more than 39.4 million views and over 261,000 likes as of Sunday evening.
As her post gained traction, Art of Play responded on Instagram the next day with its own account of the interaction, saying the toy Clarkson had inquired about was a bird automaton that's "permanently attached to the wall and isn't for sale."
The store said it understood why Clarkson's account "would resonate with anyone who has ever felt judged in a shop," but said that it welcomed visitors equally, whether they came to browse or buy.
"Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by 8 million people who have never visited our store. It's been a surreal experience to be the focus of such widespread outrage after just one mention by a celebrity," the store said in a statement on Instagram.
The store then thanked its supporters and said it planned to keep a low profile, while hoping to "clear things up" with Clarkson one day.
The public exchange did not end there.
On Instagram Stories and on X, Clarkson countered Art of Play's account, sharing a photo she said showed the bird's $15,000 price tag, along with additional details about her conversation with a staff member.
"Cool, cool. Sure, it wasn't for sale. That's the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with," Clarkson wrote on Sunday.
She said the staff member "elevator eyed her" and told her "in a condescending tone" that the item was for sale but cost $15,000, before offering to find her a "comparable" alternative.
Cool, cool. Sure, it wasn’t for sale. That’s the narrative Art of Play is gonna go with 👍 so the whole conversation we had when I asked you if it was for sale whilst pointing to the price tag hanging on the wall with the title Singing Bird didn’t happen as you elevator eyed me saying in a condescending tone “yes, it’s for sale but it costs 15,000 dollars so if you’d like me to find something comparable for you I can.” That all never happened and now it’s not for sale. Okay, cool. So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar. Got it ✅
And by the way, I obviously support small businesses because I was literally at a small business trying to purchase things. I love small businesses and know they are important and I always support them, but you don’t get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business. It’s not that hard to be kind. I never blast people but you my friend were an exception.
Your store is really cool.
Unfortunately, you aren’t.
"That all never happened and now it's not for sale. Okay, cool. So you're not only rude, you're also a liar. Got it," Clarkson said in her post.
On Sunday night, Art of Play issued another Instagram statement saying that although the toy Clarkson inquired about was permanently attached to its wall, the creator of the automaton owned a nearly identical bird and was willing to sell it for $15,000.
The store said it had explained this distinction to Clarkson and had also offered to show her a different, German-made singing-bird automaton priced at about $2,000, although she "did not stick around long enough to see it."
It said it had contacted Clarkson directly in an effort to "clear the air."
Clarkson and Art of Play did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment, which were made outside regular business hours.
The internet weighed in
The public back-and-forth also appeared to prompt a bout of review bombing on Art of Play's review pages.
When Business Insider first checked the store's Google Reviews at around 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, it had a 4.7-star rating based on 273 reviews, including several recent one-star complaints that appeared to be connected to the store's ongoing public dispute with Clarkson.
About three hours later, the store's Google Reviews showed a 5-star rating based on 253 reviews. The recent negative reviews Business Insider had viewed earlier were no longer visible.
Google did not immediately respond to questions about whether it had removed reviews connected to the incident or taken other action on the listing.
On Yelp, Art of Play had a 2.4-star rating based on 154 reviews when Business Insider checked the page at 12:17 a.m. ET on Monday, with recent posts reflecting a polarized response to the dispute. Some criticized the store, referencing Clarkson and "Pretty Woman," while others defended it, citing their own positive experiences.
Several reviewers also acknowledged that people were weighing in despite not having visited Art of Play, with one calling on the public to stop attacking a small shop over a celebrity's complaint. Yelp did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Business Insider could not independently verify whether the recent reviewers had visited the store.
The risks of taking a dispute online
Danny Deraney, founder of LA-based Deraney Public Relations, said he doesn't believe there will be a winning side in the dispute.
"Fans will take her side before acknowledging the response of the other party," Deraney told Business Insider.
While Art of Play was right to respond publicly to protect its business, Clarkson should have raised the issue directly with the store rather than on the internet, he said.
Deraney said the incident appeared to involve an individual at the store, and that a public pile-on can put a small business at risk before the full context is known.
"Even if Kelly is right about how she was treated, employees who did not interact with her, and the business, could end up getting the worst of it," he said.
Deraney added that people on the internet should be cautious about judging either side, since they weren't there to witness the exchange.
"It benefits neither the person nor the business when all this could have been resolved through discussion. I do not think there is a need to follow up; letting the issue dissolve is the best course, and it will," Deraney said.
"The Arc," a 5-episode sci-fi series with a runtime of about 83 minutes, was made with AI-generated video.
"The Arc"
Creators behind an AI-generated TV series said they spent about $38,000 in AI credits making it.
The series runs about 83 minutes in total and was made with tools like Seedance and Kling.
The filmmakers said AI freed them from the typical budget constraints in traditional productions.
When the filmmakers behind "The Arc" got approval to create a short narrative series, they didn't yet have a concept. Still, three and a half weeks later, they turned in the final cut of the first episode.
That's because the series was AI-generated. It required no human actors, no sets, and no props or costumes.
The five-episode sci-fi action series was directed by Darin Stewart and executive produced by Simone Ferretti, an AI content creator. The series, which totals about 83 minutes of runtime, was made with and greenlit by Artlist, an AI platform for video content creators. It takes place in a near-future America and follows an incarcerated veteran who must fight his way through deadly historical simulations in order to buy a cure for his dying son. It's available to watch for free on Artlist's website.
The filmmakers said the series was made with a small production team and roughly $38,000 in AI credits supplied by Artlist, a subscription platform that gives users access to multiple AI image and video generators in one place.
"The Arc" spans multiple time periods and settings that would typically require large budgets to pull off.
"We've never been given the budget or opportunity to go to Japan and film a battle scene," Stewart said of his production team, all of whom came from traditional entertainment. With AI, he said, they could produce scenes in 1600s Japan and 1800s Montana without the usual budget constraints.
Director Darin Stewart and executive producer Simone Ferretti said they turned in the first episode of "The Arc" in three and a half weeks.
Randy Shropshire for TheWrap
Stewart said "human ideation was top to bottom" and that the team developed the storyline, characters, and settings.
For each episode, the team would do a 10-minute verbal brain dump outlining what happens, specific dialogue, and desired camera movements. They'd use that as a prompt for Anthropic's Claude and, within a few minutes, would have a workable script they would then edit.
They used ShotDeck, an online library of images from movies and shows, and Figma, a design platform, to make character sheets and mood boards. Stewart said the process was "pretty similar to traditional production." They also used tools such as Google's Nano Banana Pro and GPT Image 2 to generate images.
A dining room in episode five had floors that glowed white, a detail directly inspired by the luminous floors in the 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." The team also specified the objects they wanted in the room, such as a particular stone statue or the paintings that lined the walls. They used Claude as a research assistant to determine what paintings would make sense for the character to have.
"The level of detail is the same level of detail that we would do if we were physically on set," Stewart said.
The series has scenes that take place in Montana in the 1800s and Japan in the 1600s.
"The Arc"
Once the details were worked out, the scenes were generated primarily using Seedance and Kling, AI video generation models. They averaged about $7,600 in AI credits per episode, with episodes ranging from 10 to 22 minutes.
Stewart said that one shot could require eight to 10 generations, and that they used the credits carefully by doing the initial generations at a lower resolution and only increasing the output quality once they had their desired result.
The impact of AI on Hollywood
AI in filmmaking has become a flash point in Hollywood, where some view the technology as a threat to jobs in an industry where many are already struggling to find work. Last year, actors' union SAG-AFTRA condemned Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated character branded as an actor, warning that AI performers threaten actors' livelihoods and devalue human artistry.
Still, some industry giants are embracing it. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on a July earnings call that roughly 300 of its titles used AI at some point in their workflow.
The filmmakers mostly used Seedance for video generation.
"The Arc"
Ferretti said creators and filmmakers have so many stories they'd like to tell but lack the money or connections to get them made. AI could make it so more of those stories get told, he said.
He also said AI gives filmmakers more chances to experiment and follow their creative impulses. On "The Arc," AI made it possible to kill off a character they hadn't originally planned to kill because, unlike a traditional production, doing so didn't require reshoots on the other side of the world.
With a greater budget, Stewart said they would've hired more people to work on various parts of the production, adding, "Everyone on our team got paid their full day rates the same way they would on set."
He also said that while he missed the camaraderie of being on set, the experience of producing a series with AI was exciting because of what the technology allowed him to do with fewer resources.
"For someone who's always wanted to make films and shows and tell stories, it's just the best feeling ever," he said.
The series has had in-person screenings in London and Los Angeles, and the filmmakers are working on getting it in front of more audiences.
Stewart said he wants to get to a place with AI filmmaking where "mass consumers appreciate the art and the story and don't care exactly how it was made."
Merrill Hale has relied on technology for his caregiving.
Jordan Gale for BI
Christina Evers, 42, watches on, holding the back of Merrill Hale's motorized wheelchair, as he controls his screen with his eyes.
It's the only way Hale, 57, has found to effectively communicate with Evers, his caregiver. Hale was diagnosed with ALS a decade ago and has slowly lost the ability to speak, eat, and move.
"Tech is essential to my survival," Hale says, read aloud by a computerized voice.
"He's the brightest guy in the world," his mom, Judy, says as she watches him in their Oregon home.
Hale uses advanced eye gaze technology to communicate.
Jordan Gale for BI
Evers and Hale have formed an incredibly tight bond, Judy says. That's by design. They were matched, in part, by AI.
The two were connected through Home Instead, a home healthcare services company that operates in 1,200 locations across six countries. Home Instead was acquired in 2021 by Honor Technology, which has integrated AI algorithms and machine learning tools to match eldercare workers with clients.
Honor's tech has allowed for "smart matching," using algorithms to analyze caregiver availability, personality traits, skill sets, and prior client familiarity. The algorithms target patterns in how people work, such as ideal schedules or locations for caregivers, based on thousands of data points. The algorithms also anticipate future events, such as identifying when a caregiver may be at risk of missing a shift before it happens.
"I was lucky to have found her," Hale says. "Caregiving, I feel, is deeply personal, and you spend so much time with people at the most difficult time of their lives. I look forward to her visits every time."
Up until 10 years ago, Hale said life was rich and fulfilling. He played sports in high school and held jobs as a drafter, then an engineer, for a railcar manufacturer. He left his two-decade career to pursue music, playing drums in a Led Zeppelin tribute band. He raised two children and had been healthy and active, aside from minor back and knee pain, until his mid-40s, when his body began to shut down. ALS destroys motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and loss of movement.
Hale and his caregiver Christina Evers were connected in part through AI.
Jordan Gale for BI
"The change in roles is difficult, because instead of being equals, it's now caregiver and recipient," said his wife, Karen, who works full-time.
His health has been steady, as the progression of his ALS has been relatively slow compared to other forms. He recently had a tracheostomy to stabilize his condition and make caregiving responsibilities easier for his caregivers. One of Hale's friends had recommended Home Instead as his condition worsened, and he wanted to prioritize at-home care.
Hale said that while he doesn't understand how all the tech works, he has seen the benefits. CEO Seth Sternberg said Honor has been developing an algorithm that analyzes a client's service history and generates summaries that indicate what's most important to them. He said this algorithm has reduced handling time and allowed caregivers to be in agreement about care decisions more easily. Of course, AI makes mistakes sometimes, Sternberg added, but so do humans, and AI is better at taking feedback.
"AI is literally orchestrating all of the complexity about that single client and their whole history, and then making it so that we can have a really smooth, seamless conversation with that person," Sternberg told Business Insider.
Hale controls his screens mainly with his eyes.
Jordan Gale for BI
Sternberg added that the algorithms have reduced staff turnover because caregivers are assigned clients whose needs match their capabilities, and clients are often more satisfied with their care. Sternberg said yearly caregiver churn for Home Instead is about 30%, compared to 80% industry-wide. The tech also reassigns visits when scheduling gaps arise and identifies where a caregiver might need additional education.
"There are exactly zero customers of ours who want to hear about our technology," Sternberg said. "Rather, they want to hear about why their care pro is a better care pro, or why this service is a better service."
Christina Evers hadn't anticipated being Hale's caregiver. Her last client had died, and she thought she would quit caregiving because of the emotional pain. She previously served in the Army and decided to enroll in college to get a master's in psychology to work with veterans with PTSD. Hale resembled her last client, though, and after a few sessions, she committed to staying with him.
McDermott said Home Instead's AI helps with match criteria, but it ultimately requires a human to make the decision. Evers and Hale checked all the boxes: Evers was tech-savvy, equipped to work with high-acuity people, and had a warm personality. Hale was closer in age to Evers and very vibrant.
Christina Evers has cared for Hale for three years.
Jordan Gale for BI
Evers has been his caregiver for three years, working 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. When she started with him, he could speak and had more mobility. She's responsible for bathing him and getting him ready for the day, as well as keeping him entertained. His physical decline hasn't taken away, though, from their elaborate conversations, including their bickering about music or sports. It often takes a minute or two for him to formulate his response with his eyes.
"The lag is definitely a reality for Merrill, and based on what he's told me previously, it's the hardest part about his life," says Rachael McDermott, home care liaison at Home Instead, who was previously Merrill's care coordinator. "The trickiest part about the lag time is that his dad jokes aren't quite hitting because of the pause."
"We're so used to such a quick, upbeat response by people around us that we forget to have patience so they can actually articulate what they're feeling," Evers responds. She adds that he's "the definition of resilience."
Hale and Evers have formed a tight bond over the years.
Jordan Gale for BI
Judy, who is in her 80s, visits most days, helping him when Evers isn't working. Her husband died almost three years ago, and she moved into a retirement community nearby after selling her house.
Hale has embraced tech to bolster his creativity, using computer-aided design software and his 3D printer. He designed and printed a phone holder for watching shows, creating a matching pink one for Evers.
There's plenty to look forward to, Hale says. Spending time with family and friends, watching his kids grow up, and, most importantly, seeing the Chargers win the Super Bowl for the first time, he jokes.
"We share a lot of tears," Evers says. "You're holding onto every moment. I hate to call it a shift because I enjoy coming here."
