January 03 2025

1. AI Fuels Surge in US Worker Productivity;
2. Weight Loss Drugs Reshaping Grocery Shopping Habits
3. NYC Subway Violence Continues Alarming Rise
4. Green Beret's Tesla Attack Mystifies Military
5. Dues ex machina: Religious Leaders Embrace AI as Ministry Tool
Notre Dame Upsets Georgia in Sugar Bowl
January 3, 2004: The Mars Exploration Rover “Spirit” safely lands on Mars

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1. AI Fuels Surge in US Worker Productivity;

America is getting better at getting things done. Take Vic Viktorov, a gym owner who increased revenue at his Boston business in 2024 by 30% without adding a single salesperson to the two already on staff. Instead, he has been using an artificial-intelligence model loaded with company documents, sales materials and other information. Now, he can complete in just minutes work that used to take hours, such as writing marketing plans, email drafts and social-media posts. “It allows us to be lean, nimble and fast,” said Viktorov.  Productivity in the U.S., as measured by how much the average worker gets done in an hour, has been on the rise. That matters because the faster that productivity grows, the faster the economy can grow as well. The success of the U.S. economy, and why it has grown so much compared with other countries over the past century and more, has hinged on its productivity.  Productivity—the total output of the economy divided by hours worked—rose 2% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. That marked the fifth quarter in a row with an increase of 2% or better. In the five years before the pandemic, there were only two such quarters.

Article Source: WSJ

2. Weight Loss Drugs Reshaping Grocery Shopping Habits

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are driving down grocery spending, according to a new study from Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business and consumer data firm Numerator. The study, which analyzed U.S. household transaction data over two years, found that households with at least one GLP-1 user reduced their grocery spending by about 6% within six months of starting the medication. High-income households, in particular, saw a reduction of nearly 9%. What’s driving the shift? Consumers are ditching calorie-dense processed foods like savory snacks and turning to healthier options such as fresh produce and yogurt. The savory snacks category alone saw an 11% drop, with spending on chips, sweet baked goods, and cookies seeing some of the largest declines.

Article Source: Quartz

3. NYC Subway Violence Continues Alarming Rise

A woman was set aflame in a subway car in Brooklyn the same day that a man was stabbed to death on a train in Queens. A man was shoved in front of a train in Manhattan on New Year’s Eve and fractured his skull. And on Wednesday, as the new year began, two men were stabbed 17 minutes apart in unrelated attacks at Manhattan stations. The New York City subway system — that crucible of confined space, deadly machinery and the frequent presence of people capable of lashing out — feels more dangerous these days. Statistics show that it may not be just a feeling. While violent crime in the subway has fluctuated in the past few years, there has been a substantial increase in key categories since before the coronavirus pandemic. Felony assaults in the system are up 55 percent since 2019. Murders rose from three in 2019 to 10 in the year that just ended. In 2024, people were pushed to the tracks at least 25 times — about once every two weeks — compared with 20 times in 2019.

Article Source: NYT

4. Green Beret's Tesla Attack Mystifies Military

In July, Matthew Alan Livelsberger was posting to Facebook photos of himself proudly posing with his newborn child. He was in the middle of a highly decorated career in the U.S. military. Six months later, the 37-year-old was dead and named as the man whose Tesla Cybertruck exploded on Wednesday outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. After driving up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for an hour, Livelsberger pulled into the Trump hotel and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the explosion, according to authorities, who found the newly purchased handgun he used at his feet, along with a passport, military ID, credit cards, iPhone and smartwatch.  On Thursday, Army officials were exploring whether Livelsberger was having any personal problems as they scoured his unit, trying to untangle the mystery of how or why a model soldier with a stellar record could potentially be tied to a terrorist event. So far, they remain baffled. He was a decorated master sergeant in the U.S. Special Forces—an Army Green Beret—and a top student who betrayed no signs of distress when talking to members of his unit just a few days ago, according to defense officials.

Article Source: WSJ

5. Dues ex machina: Religious Leaders Embrace AI as Ministry Tool

To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler’s. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself. “The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words,” he said. “But they weren’t.” The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called “Rabbi Bot,” an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an A.I. version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Rabbi Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer. Rabbi Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders experimenting with A.I. in their work, spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer A.I. tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons.

Article Source: NYT

Notre Dame Upsets Georgia in Sugar Bowl

Norte Dame 23 Georgia 10

January 3, 2004: The Mars Exploration Rover “Spirit” safely lands on Mars

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Sources

2. https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/worker-productivity-america-growing-36f4c90c?st=diNrQV&reflink=article_copyURL_share

3. https://qz.com/glp-1-drugs-grocery-bill-spending-retail-food-2025-1851731159

4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/nyregion/subway-violence-stubbornly-defies-all-efforts-to-quell-it.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

5. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/from-bronze-star-to-baffling-end-green-beret-named-in-vegas-tesla-explosion-stuns-army-ce6db464?st=oAPLKK&reflink=article_copyURL_share

6. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/technology/ai-religious-leaders.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare