Nonrival

Expert analysis from think tanks and academia, on public policy, economics, and technology.
Human experts. AI summaries.

AI Use at Work Is Climbing Fast, But Who Adopts It Has More to Do With the Worker Than the Job

equitable_growth

• A nationally representative Fed survey finds 45% of U.S. workers now use AI on the job, up from 33% in 2024, with adoption highest among tech and professional workers and lowest in hands-on, face-to-face roles.
• Existing 'exposure' models — which predict AI adoption based on job type — explain only about half the variation in actual adoption, and badly misfire in both directions: medical secretaries use AI far less than predicted, while dry-cleaning workers use it far more.
• The strongest predictor of AI adoption isn't job type, age, or education, but prior experience with AI itself — suggesting adoption will keep deepening as more workers get familiar with the tools.

Air Pollution Is Quietly Widening the Achievement Gap in American Schools

nber

• A study of nearly 10 million U.S. high school students found that a year of air pollution exposure reduces learning by 14-19% of typical annual score growth, with effects visible even at pollution levels below EPA standards.
• The damage happens almost entirely during the school year, not summer, suggesting pollution disrupts instruction rather than simply harming health broadly.
• The effects are three times larger in disadvantaged schools and hit Black and Hispanic students hardest, meaning air pollution is actively widening existing educational inequalities.

Americans Now See Their Government as More Corrupt Than Almost Any Other Country in the World

gallup

• A record 89% of Americans say government corruption is widespread, up 10 points in a single year — placing the U.S. at the top of OECD countries on this measure for the first time, and in the company of Lebanon, Peru, Ghana, and Nigeria globally.
• The surge is largely driven by Democrats, whose perception of widespread corruption jumped from 57% in Biden's last year to 91% today, while Republicans have remained consistently high at around 83%.
• Unusually, Americans see government as far more corrupt than business — an 18-point gap that is historically rare and suggests the alarm is specifically directed at political institutions, not a generalized cynicism.

In the News

Meta's $17 Billion Settlement Is About More Than Money — Governments Are Starting to Regulate How Social Media Is Built

the_conversation

• Meta's massive settlement over child safety harms matters less for its dollar amount — about 8.5% of annual revenue — than for what it demands: actual changes to how the platform is designed, including time limits, notification restrictions, and age verification for minors.
• Courts are beginning to pierce Section 230's shield by arguing platforms can be liable not just for user content but for features they deliberately engineered to maximize engagement, a legal theory that could reshape the entire industry.
• The ripple effects are global: Brazil, the EU, the UK, and Australia are already moving to regulate addictive design features like infinite scroll and autoplay, and Meta's U.S. concessions give regulators elsewhere a ready-made benchmark to demand the same.

Analysis

AI Can Now Measure Whether a Corporate Board Actually Fits Its Company — and It Found Problems at Norwegian Cruise Line

harvard_corpgov

• Researchers developed an AI method using transformer-based word embeddings to score how well individual directors' professional backgrounds align with a specific company's strategic identity — a question that traditional skills matrices and proxy advisor tools can't answer.
• Applying the method to Norwegian Cruise Line, they found the board was more homogeneous and less aligned with the company's strategic needs than boards at Royal Caribbean or Carnival — supporting activist investor Elliott's 2026 campaign that led to a major boardroom overhaul.
• After the settlement, NCLH's board-firm alignment rose to match its peers, suggesting the tool could help investors and directors proactively identify and fix governance gaps before activists come knocking.

Also Worth a Look

• AI Is Making It Faster to Write Code, But the Software Still Isn't Getting Out the Door (wharton)
• How Russia Turned a Cheap Iranian Drone Into a Rapidly Evolving Weapon the West Can't Keep Up With (csis)
• AI Scanned 9 Million Local Laws and Found 50 Million Americans Living Under Discriminatory Statutes (stanford_hai)
• Wealthy Parents Can Now Shop for Genetically 'Optimized' Embryos — and No One Is Really in Charge (noema)
• Businesses Are Using AI to Transform Work, Not Cut Jobs (ny_fed)
• AI Is Everywhere at Work, but Most Workers Still Aren't Using It (equitable_growth)
• Domestic Bond Investors, Not Voters or Courts, Are the Real Check on Far-Right Populists (promarket)