Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤖 Growing AI backlash
• 🦠 Ebola emergency in Africa
• 🎾 Hacky sack comeback

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.42-minute read (909 words).

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“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of their opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of their difficulties.”

–Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

Artificial intelligence leaders and major companies have largely treated rapid adoption of AI as inevitable. But many Americans still aren’t convinced the tradeoffs are worth it.

This tension surfaced at a University of Central Florida commencement ceremony this week, when a speaker praising artificial intelligence as “the next Industrial Revolution” was met with boos from graduates in the crowd.

It’s not just students

A recent wave of polling suggests Americans are becoming increasingly uneasy about AI’s growing role in daily life:

• 71% of Americans say AI development is moving too fast, per a recent Economist/YouGov poll.
• Negative views of AI have risen from 34% three years ago to just over 50% today, separate YouGov polling found.
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans expect AI to reduce available jobs over the next 20 years, according to Stanford research.

Many Americans, particularly younger workers, remain uneasy about what AI could mean for long-term job security and traditional entry-level career paths.

This negative sentiment is having an impact

Proposed AI data center projects across the US have faced pushback from local communities concerned about electricity demand, water usage, noise, land development, and environmental strain.

At least 20 such projects were canceled following community opposition during Q1 2026 alone, according to Heatmap Pro, representing a combined $41+ billion in planned investment.

• The backlash is also creeping into investor conversations.
• Morgan Stanley analysts recently warned public resistance could become a meaningful constraint on future AI expansion, while investment bank Jefferies described canceled data center projects as “sapping confidence” across parts of the sector.

Bottom line: The AI race has largely been framed around who can build the most powerful systems first. Increasingly, though, the bigger question for AI success is whether the public fully embraces a future where those systems become embedded in nearly every corner of daily life.

📊 Flash poll: In general, what is your personal sentiment towards AI products and companies?

• Positive
• Negative
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• ⚡ NextEra, America's biggest utility company, is nearing a deal to combine with Virginia-based Dominion Energy in one of the largest deals of all time, per multiple reports.
• 🤖🏦 OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance; new feature lets users connect their bank accounts to receive a dashboard of their financials (portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, etc.) and ask detailed questions.
• 🍨 Straus Family Creamery recalls multiple organic ice cream products sold across 17 US states due to the potential presence of metal fragments.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏌️ Aaron Rai becomes first English golfer in over a century to win the PGA Championship. | 🏀 NBA Conference Finals are set: the defending champ #1 Thunder face the #2 Spurs in the West, while the #3 Knicks play the #4 Cavaliers in the East. | 🏆 OKC Thunder G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins second straight NBA MVP award.
• 📲 Instagram launches Instants, a new feature that allows users to send unedited disappearing photos.
• 🪩 Bulgaria wins the 70th Eurovision Song Contest for the first time with its song “Bangaranga.”

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦠 WHO declares global health emergency over the spread of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda; officials say there are nearly 250 suspected cases and ~80 deaths, but risk posed to the whole world remains tiny.
• 🏥 PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a condition that affects ~1 in 8 women, has been renamed as PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome) by an international consortium of doctors and researchers.
• 🪐 NASA's Psyche spacecraft slingshot past Mars on its way to investigate a rare metal-rich asteroid, which orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🗳️ Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) lost his re-election bid in the GOP primary, finishing a distant third after President Trump called for his ouster.
• ⚖️ Harvey Weinstein’s third Manhattan sex crimes trial ruled a mistrial after jury says it remains deadlocked; Weinstein remains behind bars because of other sex crimes convictions in New York and Los Angeles.
• 🏛️ Senate parliamentarian nixes GOP attempt to include $1 billion in a budget reconciliation bill to help finance President Trump’s White House ballroom.

👆 Hacky sack is making a comeback. The classic ‘90s game has recently surged in popularity among high-schoolers and college aged Americans, with some toy stores reportedly seeing their highest demand in decades. The trend has also turned into a running joke online, with social media accounts posting fake rankings, recruiting updates, and Division I hacky sack “commitments.”

🤔 Did you know? When you close your eyes in a pitch-black room, the color you see isn't actually black; it's a dark gray known by the German word eigengrau (intrinsic gray).

📰 Worth a read: Why aren't brain transplants possible?

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The most important invention from every state
• How to raise curious kids in a world designed to distract them
• Why is Americana everywhere right now?

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On Friday, we covered new economic data in recent weeks that highlights growing strain across the US economy, increasingly challenging the White House’s bid to lower costs and improve Americans’ financial outlook.

❓ Our question to you: To all working professionals: would you consider the growth outlook in your industry/sector of the economy to be positive or negative over the next 12 months?

• Positive: 16%
• Negative: 76%
• Unsure/other: 9%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 485 votes and 39 longform responses.

Monday: NBA Conference Finals tip off (Thunder v. Spurs)

Tuesday: Plant Something Day

Wednesday: Nvidia reports earnings; Fed publishes minutes from its latest meeting; Jack Ryan: Ghost War debuts on Prime Video; NHL Conference Finals begin

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims; Walmart reports earnings

Friday: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words:

1. Corn
2. Fruct
3. Lun
4. Oner
5. Psych

💸 A Polish influencer collective raised $50+ million for children with cancer during a nonstop nine-day livestream. The event turned a rap diss track aimed at cancer into one of Europe’s biggest online charity movements ever.

1. Corn = Horn (e.g., unicorn)
2. Fruct = Fruit (fructose)
3. Lun = Moon (lunar)
4. Oner = Burden (exonerate)
5. Psych = Mind (psychology)

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