On any given day, Groundwork's analyses, op-eds, reports, and commentary are featured in leading publications and on the most influential news programs and podcasts.
Families face double-digit price increases for index cards, scissors, notebook paper, and lunchbox favorites as school year begins.
This prompt was eye-opening for Lindsay Owens, the chief executive of Groundwork Collaborative, a nonprofit focused on economic policy that has been studying the impact of A.I. on consumer privacy. ChatGPT made correct observations about her busy schedule as a frequent traveler and mother of a young child, as well as her shopping behavior.
As major retailers and tech giants like Walmart and Google roll out AI assistants that help consumers shop, purchase, and invest, questions remain as to whether these tools truly aim to help shoppers or are built to pad corporate profits.
This issue has caught the attention of the Groundwork Collaborative, a public policy advocacy group. In a The Capitol Forum op-ed, executive director Lindsay Owens wrote, “Troubling for users and economic fairness writ large, it is increasingly apparent that their choices are determined not by the consumer’s interest but by the bottom line of the companies that build and deploy them.”
"There has been a learning process in being able to take what Trump and the Republicans are doing and make sure that [candidates] are coming back to the real-world economic implications of whatever that might be," said Democratic strategist Alex Jacquez, who served in the Biden White House. "That's where maybe [Democrats] haven't always, in the recent past, made the full connection all the way through."
Federal Reserve contacts report any increase in sales was due to higher prices, not volume, as Americans are forced to spend more to get less in Trump’s economy.
Despite exporting more gas than usual, the U.S. isn’t experiencing a shortage, said Alex Jacquez, head of policy, advocacy and research at left-leaning think tank Groundwork Collaborative and a former Biden administration adviser.
But it also opens the door for requiring projects to pay into a grid modernization fund. Such a fund could finance upgrades, set up new virtual power plants, or pay for new sources of zero-carbon energy, the order says. That idea — which resembles proposals from the Searchlight Institute and Groundwork Collaborative — suggests that the state is exploring ways to harness the AI boom for the public. "We want to make sure [data center developers] are investing in the grid," Hochul said on Tuesday, "but they're not being asked."
Falling gas prices are already in the rearview mirror as Trump’s ceasefire crumbles and core inflation remains high.
With any luck, it will backfire. “Surveillance pricing is the intersection of two things Americans hate: being spied on and being overcharged,” Lindsay Owens, author of the upcoming “Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — and What That Means for Your Wallet,” told The Post.