Cannabis Stocks Hit New Highs After DHHS Recommendation

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Good morning,

This week marks the end of the student loan pause. Interest starts accruing today, and the first payments will come due in October for millions of Americans.

If you haven’t yet taken action, log onto StudentAid.Gov to figure out who your loan servicer is. Update your contact information with the servicer and the Department of Education and re-enroll in automatic payments.

There are more than a dozen repayment plan options, including the Biden administration’s new income-driven SAVE plan. If that seems overwhelming, the website has a free calculator to help you figure out the best plan.

BREAKING NEWS

Recovery efforts are underway in Florida after Hurricane Idalia flooded and destroyed homes, businesses and roads within the state after making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane early Wednesday. The hurricane caused up to $20 billion in damage, according to Moody’s Analytics estimates, making it the most destructive hurricane so far this year.

A federal judge in Texas temporarily halted a law aimed at restricting drag shows that was set to take effect on September 1, another semi-win for LGBTQ+ advocates challenging these types of bills across the country. The law would bar “sexually oriented performances” on public properties and in front of minors in the state, and the plaintiffs represented by the ACLU argue it targets drag performances.

BUSINESS + FINANCE

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. hit $3.83, a near-record high heading into Labor Day weekend, according to Energy Information Administration data. Analysts with the EIA expect an increase in gas prices due to factors like low gasoline inventories and scheduled oil refinery maintenance, while GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan believes motorists will “see some downdrafts” in prices.

Shares of cannabis companies reached highs for the year after the Department of Health and Human Services recommended rescheduling marijuana, which currently has the same federal classification as drugs like heroin and ecstasy, to a lower-risk drug. Shares of New York-based Curaleaf Holdings’ stock shot up more than 20% Thursday and closed at $3.75, one of its highest trading peaks of the year.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson launched a $10 million relief fund for Maui residents impacted by the wildfires that killed at least 115 people, the latest celebrities to make donations after some faced criticism for a cautious response after the fires. The People’s Fund of Maui is promising $1,200 in monthly assistance to permanent Maui residents over the age of 18 who apply through the website.

The Chearavanont family, Thailand’s richest family, joined forces with Los Angeles-based LDA Capital to invest in publicly listed and pre-IPO high-growth companies across Southeast Asia. The partners are looking to make commitments of about $2 billion over the next 12 to 18 months.

TECH + INNOVATION

Decentralized finance, a blockchain-based banking and investment system, seeks to cut out traditional middlemen and avoid regulatory entanglements, but its platforms have become targets for cybercriminals. Between January and July, the crypto industry saw 145 major hacks—117 were DeFi-related and totaled approximately $700 million in losses, according to Kim Grauer, director of research at blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis.

MONEY + POLITICS

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, embroiled in an ethics controversy, disclosed that he accepted three trips from real estate magnate and GOP donor Harlan Crow in 2022. An April report from ProPublica detailed Thomas’ relationship with Crow and revealed Thomas had spent decades taking luxury vacations on Crow’s dime without disclosing the trips.

Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to the charges against him in Fulton County, Georgia for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election, meaning he will not appear at a scheduled arraignment on September 6. It’s still unclear when Trump, who is facing 13 felony charges, and his co-defendants will go to trial.

Joseph Biggs, a former leader of the Proud Boys, was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he and three other members of the far-right group were convicted of seditious conspiracy and additional charges for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. It’s the second-longest Capitol riot sentence imposed so far.

SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Taylor Swift has announced a movie filmed over the six nights of her Eras Tour concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will hit theaters this October. The 165-minute film will be shown at every AMC Theatre location in the U.S.—as well as Cinemark and Regal locations in the U.S., Cineplex in Canada and Cinepolis in Mexico—starting Oct. 13. The Eras Tour is expected to bring in a record-breaking $1.4 billion when it ends in August 2024, potentially pushing Swift into billionaire status.

SCIENCE + HEALTHCARE

Skygazers around the world got a glimpse of a “blue supermoon” on Wednesday night that lit up the sky with a bigger and brighter moon. A supermoon is a full moon that takes place when the moon is at its closest point to Earth, and a blue moon refers to the second full moon seen in a month; the combination of the two is a rare event that won’t be seen again for 14 years.

A new scientific study offers the first-ever estimates of how many polar bear cubs die because of greenhouse gas emissions—which experts hope will allow the federal government to use the Endangered Species Act to regulate projects for their greenhouse gas emissions. When sea ice melts, polar bears are forced onto land, where food is less abundant, and they are forced to fast for long periods of time. As a result, mother bears are less able to care for their cubs, and fewer survive into adulthood, bringing the species closer to extinction.

TRENDS + EXPLAINERS

Narcan and other naloxone nasal sprays, which work to reverse opioid overdoses, are expected to become available over-the-counter as soon as this month, which means insurance companies may not continue to cover the cost. A box of Narcan containing two doses will have a suggested retail price of $44.99, and health groups have raised concerns about patients’ inability to afford it without insurance.

DAILY COVER STORY

From Google To Nvidia, Tech Giants Have Hired Red Team Hackers To Break Their AI Models

TOPLINE As big tech players rapidly come out with consumer-facing AI products, they’re increasingly relying on their so-called “red teams” to protect AI systems from being exploited. With more and more scrutiny into AI applications, experts say red teams may also offer a competitive advantage to tech firms.

Red-team hackers think like an adversary to game the technology and uncover blind spots and risks so that they can be fixed. For instance, a month before publicly launching ChatGPT, OpenAI hired Boru Gollo, a lawyer in Kenya, to test its AI models, GPT-3.5 and later GPT-4, for stereotypes against Africans and Muslims by injecting prompts that would make the chatbot generate harmful, biased and incorrect responses.

Other red-teamers prompted GPT-4’s pre-launch version to aid in a range of illegal and nocuous activities, like writing a Facebook post to convince someone to join Al-Qaeda, helping find unlicensed guns for sale and generating a procedure to create dangerous chemical substances at home, according to GPT-4’s system card, which lists the risks and safety measures OpenAI used to reduce or eliminate them.

But AI red teamers are often walking a tightrope, balancing safety and security of AI models while also keeping them relevant and usable.

In one of the largest AI red teaming exercises at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas, eight companies, including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Nvidia, Stability AI and Anthropic, opened up their AI models to over 2,000 hackers to feed them prompts designed to reveal sensitive information like credit card numbers or generate harmful material like political misinformation.

Across eight models, red teamers found about 2,700 flaws, such as convincing the model to contradict itself or give instruction on how to surveil someone without their knowledge, according to new data released by the organizers of the event.

But generative AI is like a multi-headed monster—as red teams spot and fix some holes in the system, other flaws can crop up elsewhere, experts say.

WHY IT MATTERS “In the age of AI, tech giants like Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta and Google don’t want to be left behind,” says Forbes reporter Rashi Shrivastava. “They’re racing to develop and ship their own AI models and applications, but at the heart of these efforts are AI red teams, who hack AI models and systems to ensure they are safe and secure for public use. Red teamers have uncovered flaws like getting the models to cough up credit card information or spinning political misinformation. Experts say red teams will be the moat of the game going forward.”

MORE Armed With ChatGPT, Cybercriminals Build Malware And Plot Fake Girl Bots

FACTS AND COMMENTS

The Biden administration proposed closing the so-called “gun show loophole,” mandating that no matter where a gun is sold, whether at a store, gun show or on the internet, firearms dealers must perform background checks on customers. The proposal is likely to face legal challenges from Second Amendment advocates:

1993: The year former President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, which requires federally licensed firearms dealers to run background checks on customers, into law

Around one in five: The number of gun sales in the U.S. conducted without a background check

88%: The share of Americans who support background checks on all gun sales, according to a Politico and Morning Consult poll

STRATEGY AND SUCCESS

When deciding what to do with money in a 401(k) from a previous employer, consider factors like the fees, investment options, administrative steps and whether you will need a loan against your 401(k) assets in the near future. Some experts say that with how often people change jobs nowadays, accumulating the old plans into one IRA can be the most efficient, but take the time to make an informed decision.

VIDEO

QUIZ

An automaker will recall nearly 320,000 vehicles for a broken trunk release that could cause people to be trapped inside. It’s the latest recall for which company?

A. Kia

B. Hyundai

C. Nissan

D. Ford

Check your answer.