If you’ve been conscious for even five minutes over the last six months, then you’ve heard someone utter the term “AI.”

It’s taken over headlines, board meetings, and Zoom calls, but we wanted to know how much real estate it’s taking up in your mind.

According to the results, not a ton. Just 26.7% said they care a lot about AI and think about it all day, every day.

But more (33.8%) said that while AI is cool, they’re getting sick of hearing about it. A smaller crowd is on the fence (21.3%), only cares if AI comes for their job (12.9%), or promises they’ve never cared and never will (5.4%).

Those who are using AI in their day-to-day shared their favorite use cases, which included summarizing research, writing cover letters, studying for college, and, uh, “texting significant others.”

And others shared some thoughts:

• “I have not found it to do a single thing well. Vastly overrated IMO!”
• “I use it for writing sincere emails when I might not feel so sincere…”
• “I am NO FAN. I actually consider the singularity, and fear that we as humans will become more and more dependent on technology to the point we can do nothing. Case in point examples: Road maps, remembering phone numbers, sending letters in the mail, writing checks. We are destined to be more dependent than I am comfortable with.”
• “We humans sure do love opening Pandora’s box…”

Plus, a pretty fair take: “I don't use it. It honestly scares the shit out of me.”

You can mull, moan, mourn — but there are still only 24 hours in a day.

If you find yourself wishing for more, consider us facilitators.

Operate at work like a bona-fide titan of industry with this free productivity kit by ClickUp and HubSpot. It has tips and templates to help you purge procrastination and punch the metaphorical workplace clock with pride.

Amplify your output:

• Respectably work from home
• Maintain flow-state efficiency
• Visualize goals and progress (two templates)
• Calculate labor hours for long projects
• Prioritize with a PIE scoring chart

Stop slackin’. Get crackin’.

EVs have kept us busy in the last six months: Tesla, of course, and Elon Musk. Rivian and the growing group of EV competitors vying for the top spot. Plus, the many challenges standing in electrification’s way.

And our readers seem just divided as the country as a whole.

On the extreme ends of the spectrum, 43.1% said they don’t have an EV and never will because they love themselves some gasoline.

Then, there were different shades of “yes”: 17% already own EVs, 12% said they don’t have an EV yet, but plan to, and 24.4% said they’ll get one if costs come down.

The remaining 3.5% keep it even greener by not having a car at all.

Then, since we like to stir shit up, we asked the EV lovers and haters to defend their side.

The EV owners wrote in with the things they love:

• “Driving past gas stations and not caring what the price board says.”
• “Ease of use, never having to go to a gas station, performance, low maintenance.”
• “Everything. Makes gas cars seem like a horse and buggy.”
• “I like how it drives. I like not buying gas. I like not hurting the environment (as much). I like being a forerunner. I like the car's environment. Very simple and clean. Very Mac/Apple-like.”

And those who have sworn off EVs explained their stance:

• “Lack of range, hassle of finding a charging station, and just not American!”
• “Too many expensive repairs. I want something I can maintain on my own and will hold up over time.”
• “Love the idea and effort — but still unsure about the future sustainability of the batteries, disposal issues, and costs to replace them. So for now I stick with the devil I know.”
• “Not totally sworn off, just waiting for better technology. I don't agree with rushing into electric powered vehicles before the technology can support the needs ie: public transport, cargo transport, batteries catching fire, etc. Research is in progress for better, more sustainable batteries, I'll wait.”

Apparently important to both sides: A car that makes them feel really cool. Noted.

In the last six months, Boeing has pushed the limits of the “all press is good press” adage.

As whistleblowers and travelers question the safety of Boeing’s aircrafts, we wondered how significantly the onslaught of bad news has actually affected your travels.

As it seems, not that much. The majority — 48.7% — said they book flights without checking the plane make or type at all.

For 25%, they’ll only go with Boeing when they have no other choice. Then there were the 16.2% who said it’s totally safe, and the 10.1% who said a resounding “hell no.”

As far as what the aircraft maker could do to win passengers back, many said they wanted increased transparency, ramped up quality assurance, and, you know, airplanes that don’t fall apart.

People had ideas of what Boeing could do to win them back:

• “Publish that they have stopped cutting corners. That all QAs & QCs are done correctly.”
• “Major quality control overhaul. The incidents are far too many. Also pull existing planes so they can fix any manufacturing errors that they have.”
• “Change leadership and internal comp plans that incentivize managers to cut corners.”
• “I believe the company is due for a complete C-level management change. Cutting corners when it comes to public safety is unconscionable.”

And some thought the public is overreacting:

• “Regulators overreacting = good thing. Average airline passenger overreacting = useless, slightly annoying, and probably just leading to hair loss and high blood pressure.”
• “Given the number of planes in the air, the volume of problems is minimal.”
• “For me it's still a game of odds. Flying, even in a Boeing plane, is still the safest by far.”
• “The dangerous part of the trip is the drive to the airport.”

A great remedy for stress: Offering a different thing to stress about. Mission accomplished.

This year, we wrote about Larry Page, the billionaire who bought an island for $32m, Yvon Chouinard, the billionaire Patagonia founder who gave away his wealth, and Mark Zuckerberg who is busy building his doomsday bunker.

What did those stories show us? That there are many ways to blow billions of dollars. So we polled readers on which billionaire vibe spoke to them the most.

Here’s how you answered:

• 73.4% said they’d be a philanthropic live-in-the-shadows billionaire.
• 16% voted for the private island billionaire.
• 5.5% would be a billionaire who builds a bunker.
• 2.7% are the type of billionaires who build concept cities in the desert.
• 1.6% are space race billionaires.
• 0.8% would acquire a social media company with their billions.

For a crowd who reads a business/tech newsletter, you’re all a bunch of bleeding hearts.

Some had other ideas for what type of billionaire they’d be:

• “The ‘hand out $5k prepaid Visa cards to strangers’ billionaire.”
• “I would be the kind that makes sure my family can live comfortably and reputable charities are funded. I don't have a need for excess material things, especially an island.”
• “Pranking. Think drones spelling out non sequiturs, Super Bowl ad buys with a blank screen, flash mobs performing random nonsense, etc.”
• “I voted ‘Philanthropic live-in-the-shadows’ but in reality I would be a ‘Philanthropic live-in-the-spotlight.’ If I'm doing good, I better get proper credit.”
• “The ‘Let me live in peace and quiet and run an animal sanctuary’ billionaire.”

But you know who deserves to hit the jackpot? The reader who came up with this perfect plan:

“Can I be both a private island billionaire and a philanthropic hide-in-the-shadows one? I want to help people — just not be near them. Where better to hide than on a private island (or five)?.”

Things got really real when President Joe Biden signed a bill in April to ban TikTok if it’s not divested from ByteDance within a year. And since then the clock has started to, well, tick and tock.

Turns out, 50% of you support a ban. A smaller but still mighty 26% oppose the ban, while 15% said they don’t care about the issue at all and 9% said they’re not sure how they feel.

To put those results in context, 37% said they don’t use TikTok at all and another 45% don’t have the app but watch the videos on other social platforms.

The remaining 13% said they use the app and 5% said they’re on TikTok way more than they should be.

As for what the new reigning video app will be if the ban goes through: Most said Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or a new, American-made TikTok clone.

And you all had some solid predictions on the future of social media:

• “I expect new video apps will be launched to replace it. I feel like this is gonna be like a whack-a-mole scenario where the more they get banned the more another will pop up.”
• “They will sell it. Follow the money. Banning gets zero dollars. Selling makes a fortune.”
• "A new, equally addictive and problematic app [also owned by China]... We just never learn our lesson, sigh.”

The change has left some scared of the future: “I dunno. All I know is that thanks to my wife's love of/addiction to TikTok, I get to watch whatever I want on TV. If they ban it, I'll have to go back to compromising on viewing choices. Goodbye Expendables 2, hello Property Brothers. No! Long live TikTok!”