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Today’s Agenda

An AI Quiz Like No Other

Remember back in 2023 when Buzzfeed said AI would make its quizzes and launched that weird “cooking helper” called Botatouille?? Everyone was skeptical, but two and a half years later, AI-made sandwich questionnaires are the least of our problems. Police officers are warning about “AI homeless men,” AI hubs are guzzling water around the world and Walmart wants you to use ChatGPT to buy bananas and paper towels.

The technology is so pervasive that more than half of the writing online has been touched by AI in some capacity. Not even Taylor Swift easter eggs are safe.

But what if I told you that there was an AI personality quiz that uses no AI at all? It sounds impossible, but we did it. Designed by our stupendous data viz developer Taylor Tyson and written by tech experts Dave Lee, Parmy Olson and Catherine Thorbecke, Bloomberg Opinion’s new Pinterest-worthy quiz is 100% human-made (although its flawless interface may fool you) and contains a level of nuance that’s absent in most AI-crafted workslop.

In other words: It allows you to have complicated feelings about AI. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.

According to the quiz, my “AI-dentity” is a — spoiler alert! — “cautious optimist,” which tracks. Although I’m impressed by AI and think it has potential (see: this freakishly good Motown version of Gangsta’s Paradise), it’s also kind of terrifying and might need to be regulated!

Parmy says Europe knows a thing or two about tech regulation, but in her accompanying column to the quiz, she says money, not relaxed laws, will get the EU out of its AI rut. The region desperately needs more money to build AI models, and pension funds might help. “Investing 2% of Europe’s pension assets, or $236 billion, could transform its tech sector,” she writes.

Meanwhile in China, Catherine says competition has turned the country’s AI industry into a feral cage match. “With so many companies giving away open-source models and free-to-use products, how can any of them turn a profit? China’s quest to become the world leader in AI depends heavily on solving that puzzle,” she writes.

And in the US, Dave notes how human artists, songwriters and authors are fighting for scraps as Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI train their models on millions of books, YouTube videos and songs. “Throughout US history, new technologies have repeatedly tested copyright law. But the scale of this challenge is unique, with stakes that are economic as well as cultural,” Dave writes. The quiz aims to highlight those issues and help you understand how AI might end up shaping our future.

Out of curiosity, I fed the quiz into ChatGPT and well, what do you know! It got the same result as me:

Either I am slowly morphing into AI, or AI is really that good at telling us what we want to hear.

Youth Revolt

Gen Z is not messing around: After a series of protests claimed the lives of at least 22 people in Madagascar, President Andry Rajoelina is out. Literally — he high-tailed it out of the country on a French plane after soldiers joined anti-government protests calling for his resignation.

Residents ride in vehicles, waving Malagasy flags and chanting slogans, as a crowd follows members of Madagascar’s Army in Antananarivo, Oct. 14, 2025. Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images

Justice Malala says the vanilla-producing nation is the latest battleground in a string of Gen Z-led protests that have rocked Africa, Asia and South America. Thus far, methods for shutting down youth political activism have ranged from unsavory (media blackouts and internet shut-downs) to inhumane (Kenya’s President William Ruto instructed police to shoot protesters in the legs and banned live coverage of demonstrations). But guns and rock slingshots are no match for words. In Morocco, Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch now says dialogue is the only path forward.

“Leaders need to realize that the protesters won’t just go away,” he explains. “That’s because young people, key players in these demonstrations, are dominant in many countries. In Madagascar, 68% of the population is under 30. Nepal’s under-30s make up 56% of the population; in Peru, the number is 47.8%. The median age in Morocco is 29.8 years … In Mozambique, where 250 mostly young people died last December disputing election results, half the population is under 17.”

Telltale Charts

We’re approaching the 14-day mark of the US government shutdown, and Kathryn Anne Edwards says one of the biggest victims — aside from, ya know, the federal employees who can’t collect paychecks — is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “For those of us who live and breathe economic data, a critical window is closing,” she writes. “If the shutdown continues past this week, October’s report will be disrupted or possibly missed altogether.” John Authers, an avid BLS-watcher himself, says the lack of new macro data makes the corporate earnings season — which kicked off today with the big banks — that much more important. “The ‘bar’ for earnings will be somewhat higher than usual because forecast earnings have enjoyed a big surge in the last couple of months,” he notes. From the looks of it, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan — both of which posted record third-quarter revenue — passed that hurdle with flying colors.

The phrase “central bank independence” has probably been muttered millions of times in the hallowed halls of Bloomberg’s New York HQ, but I have yet to hear anyone discuss “rare earth independence,” a concept Thomas Black introduces in his latest column. While the “rare” part is a bit of a misnomer — he says the magnets aren’t actually scarce, they’re just annoyingly difficult to mine — China does have a chokehold on the supply chain and the US could use some independence. Need Shuli Ren remind you, we’re in the midst of a very ugly trade war! And you can’t have cars or planes or even AirPods without rare earths. “Fortunately, an effort has been underway in the US to build out the rare-earth supply chain from mining to magnets. At the current rate, it could take a couple of years,” Thomas explains. “This pace needs to accelerate, which will require additional government support.”

Further Reading

After years of neglect, public debt is a serious risk. — Bloomberg editorial board

GM just delivered $1.6 billion in bad news for EV makers. — Liam Denning

Five economic lessons from a newly minted Nobel laureate. — Allison Schrager

Jefferies braces for more danger after the First Brands fiasco. — Paul J. Davies

There’s such a thing as too much solar on your roof. — David Fickling

Vertical farming is enjoying a second growth spurt. — Lara Williams

The NBA’s return to China won’t be easy in this political landscape. — Juliana Liu

ICYMI

Airports refuse to play Kristi Noem’s TSA video.

Norway suspects espionage after Nobel Peace Prize.

Maria Grazia Chiuri is taking over as Fendi’s creative director.

Kickers

walking stick doubles as a weapon. (h/t Andrea Felsted)

Leaf peeping season is already done?

A match made by mediocrity.

Notes: Please send quiz results and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net.

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