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Good morning.<\/strong> What\u2019s your take on AI slop? I now get multiple AI-generated PR pitches every day. The format is comically uniform, from the greeting to the bullet-point topics, and I think it\u2019s a disservice to the person being pitched. We all crave that human touch. More than 1 million people have clicked LinkedIn\u2019s \u201cseems like AI slop\u201d button, and Graphite reports that AI now generates more online articles than humans do.<\/p>\n The explosion of AI-written content is sparking debates over how to handle op-eds like the one that investor Stan Druckenmiller wrote for the Wall Street Journal <\/em>using AI, which sparked a response from his editor, and much debate about what\u2019s appropriate. (My take, with strong caveats, is that editors are to blame if a piece feels manufactured, predictable, and devoid of personality. I also debated the topic yesterday on BBC\u2019s The Media Show.)<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been asking people how AI is shaping what they consume and create. At a party for David Booth\u2019s terrific book Stay Calm<\/em> earlier this week, a prominent academic told me he\u2019s now using AI up to 10 hours every day, admitting he\u2019s both obsessed and worried about what it can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Booth, a pioneer of index investing and founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, is a fine example of what doesn\u2019t change. His book tells a story that only he can tell\u2014how he went from a shoe salesman in Kansas to a $1 trillion asset manager\u2014and it synthesizes a philosophy of investing that he\u2019s discussed and shared for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n Did he use a ghostwriter or AI? If he did, you wouldn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n What\u2019s emerging from my conversations:<\/p>\n AI leaves leaders craving a good read. <\/strong>CEOs tell me they\u2019re reading fewer books and reports because of AI, and that worries them. They\u2019re not alone. About 40% of Americans didn\u2019t read a book last year. One CEO in financial services told me that they\u2019re now trying to read more the old-fashioned way. \u201cI\u2019m paid to think,\u201d they told me, \u201cand I realized I\u2019m losing the nuance and originality of an argument when I read these summaries. A slower read, a deeper read, gives you more time to digest and come to your own conclusions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n We value human creativity. <\/strong>I spoke yesterday with Andy Hunter, CEO of Bookshop.org, which acts as an e-commerce platform for 90% of the country\u2019s 3,400+ independent booksellers\u2014a category that\u2019s booming, by the way. He uses AI for code review but not customer recommendations. He worries less about slop than fraud, as he\u2019s seeing a lot of AI-generated books created on the spot to capitalize on search trends. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of garbage content being created to trick people into buying it; I don\u2019t think Amazon is doing a good enough job of protecting their customers from that,\u201d he told me. \u201cWe want human beings to recommend books to other human beings. That\u2019s what independent bookstores do. The solution to AI slop is human curation, human creation.\u201d<\/p>\n When everyone\u2019s better, it\u2019s hard to be the best<\/strong>. The baseline for content and communication is now around B+. Anyone can tell a coherent story. But having the tools to create a Hollywood movie on an iPhone doesn\u2019t make you a great director any more than the ability to spit out a column makes you a great thought leader. AI expands the mushy middle, where nobody wants to be. As David Meadvin, CEO of One Strategy Group, puts it: \u201cI think the right question to ask here is whether AI is making you a little bit more ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s pay freeze\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s 2027 budget proposal <\/span>would deny<\/span> most federal employees a raise next year, prompting warnings that the move could worsen retention problems and hurt agency productivity. More than 271,000 federal employees have left the government since the administration began.<\/span><\/p>\n Tim Cook stays close to Apple<\/b><\/p>\n Tim Cook <\/span>became<\/span> Apple\u2019s executive chair after John Ternus succeeded him as CEO, with a $2 million annual salary and a $45 million target-value equity award. Apple says Cook will continue to work with policymakers.<\/span><\/p>\n The impact of food recalls<\/b><\/p>\n The FDA issued 26 food recall notices in August, and 94% of Americans <\/span>say<\/span> the frequency of recalls concerns them. More than two-thirds say a recall has made them steer clear of an entire food category.<\/span><\/p>\n S&P 500<\/b> futures are up 0.04% this morning. The last session closed up 0.46%. <\/span>The<\/b> STOXX Europe 600<\/b> was up 0.14% in early trading. <\/span>The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100<\/b> was up 0.13% in early trading.<\/span> The Nikkei 225<\/b> was down 0.17%. <\/span>South Korea\u2019s KOSPI <\/b>was up 0.26%. <\/span>China\u2019s CSI 300 <\/b>was up 0.10%.<\/span> Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng<\/b> was down 0.39%.<\/span> India\u2019s NIFTY 50 <\/b>was down 0.17%. <\/span>Bitcoin<\/b> is up at $78k.<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump Administration says more oil exited the Middle East this week than before the Iran war, but the data says otherwise<\/span> by Jordan Blum<\/span><\/p>\n Big tech is investing millions in data centers and saving a quick tax buck while doing it\u2014leaving some states collecting revenue loss<\/span> by Joshua Hong<\/span><\/p>\n Mamdani to New York City kids: No AI until high school<\/span> by Catherina Gioino<\/span><\/p>\n Despite being a multimillionaire, Suze Orman still cooks at home whenever possible\u2014and says eating out is one of the biggest wastes of money<\/span> by Preston Fore<\/span><\/p>\n New LA Angels owner Stan Kroenke is quietly America\u2019s largest private landowner, boasting 2.7 million acres and besting Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos<\/span> by Sasha Rogelberg<\/span><\/p>\n CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #CEOs #reading #books #AIand #starting #worry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning. What\u2019s your take… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6620,4123,1555,559,2694,156,3751],"class_list":["post-3784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-aiand","tag-books","tag-ceo-daily","tag-ceos","tag-reading","tag-starting","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"\n\nTop leadership news<\/h3>\n
The markets<\/h3>\n
Around the watercooler<\/h3>\n