NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included “clever, even provocative language” and was “definitely going to push buttons,” the company’s chief marketing officer told trade media outlets.

It has. The question now is whether some of the public reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended.

Titled “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word “genes” instead of “jeans” when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series “Euphoria” and “White Lotus.”

Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits.

Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said the criticism could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the “genes” pun.

“You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,” Collins said. “Either one of the three aren’t good.”

Other commenters on social media accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign’s message.

“I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her ‘good genes,’” former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X.

American Eagle didn’t respond to queries from AP for comment.

A snapshot of American Eagle

The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported in late May that total sales were down 5% for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier.

A day after Sweeney was announced as the company’s latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle’s stock closed more than 4% up. The company’s shares were trading nearly 2% on Wednesday.

Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce.

Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, “You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields’ age.

“It’s the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,” he said.

Billboards, Instagram and Snapchat

Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers told industry news website Retail Brew last week that “Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle,” and the company planned to promote the partnership in a way that matched.

The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. Her image will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, on Snapchat speaking to users, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature.

American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence and to donate the sales proceeds to the nonprofit .

In a news release about the ads, the company noted “Sweeney’s girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.”

Jeans, genes and their many meanings

In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great genes.” She crosses out “genes” and replaces it with “jeans.”

But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”

The video appeared on American Eagle’s Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the official campaign.

While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in , and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler’s plan for an Aryan master race.

Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right’s promotion of the “great replacement theory,” a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people.

Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle’s “genes” versus “jeans” because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty.

“American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,” Shankar said. “And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.”

A cultural shift in advertising

Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters.

Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologed and pulled the ad.

The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races.

Some marketers say they’ve observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies.

Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she’s noticed while shopping with her teenage daughter more ads and signs that prominently feature white models.

“I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,” Burrell said.

American Eagle’s past and future

American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 for customers who wore the traditional Muslim head scarves. Its Aerie lingerie brand was recognized for creating a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis player Coco Gauff.

The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion program that is primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality and social justice initiatives.

Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding “good jeans” will be good for business.

“They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment,” Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. “But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand.”

Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the “sake of the brand.”

Other experts say the buzz is good even if it’s not uniformly positive.

“If you try to follow all the rules, you’ll make lots of people happy, but you’ll fail,” Adamson said. “The rocket won’t take off. ”

Starbucks says it’s confident that new products coming next year — including a cold foam protein drink, coconut water-based beverages and improved baked goods — will help turn around the company’s lagging U.S. sales.

In the meantime, slow U.S. demand continues to be a drag on the company’s results.

Seattle-based Starbucks said Tuesday its revenue rose 4% to $9.5 billion in its fiscal third quarter. That was better than the $9.3 billion Wall Street expected, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

But same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 2% in the April-June period. That was a bigger decline than Wall Street expected, and it was the sixth straight quarter that Starbucks reported lower same-store sales.

Same-store sales were up in China, Starbucks’ second-largest market, but they fell 2% in the U.S.

Starbucks is spending heavily to turn that around. One big expense in the quarter was a two-day meeting in Las Vegas, where the company hosted 14,000 store managers and regional leaders.

The company said its adjusted earnings fell 46% to 50 cents per share for the quarter. That was lower than the 65 cents analysts had forecast.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Residents in the Southeast U.S. are no strangers to heat in the summertime, but this week’s sweltering hot weather set at least one record and has forecasters urging residents to limit time outside on Tuesday if possible — and stay hydrated.

The all-time high temperature at Tampa International Airport was broken on Sunday when the thermometer hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius). The previous record had been 99 F (37.2 C) in June 2020.

The National Weather Service said Tuesday the prolonged heat is expected to peak in the Southeast at mid-week. A strong upper ridge also was generating a “dangerous and prolonged” heat wave in the central and eastern sections of the country.

No relief in the shade

In Savannah, Georgia, landscaper Darius Cowherd took a break Tuesday in the cab of his work truck after spending the morning mowing grass, trimming bushes and blowing leaves in Forsyth Park in the coastal city’s downtown historic district.

Sipping from a giant water bottle almost the size of a gallon jug, he said, “I filled it with ice at 7 this morning and it’s all melted by 10:30.”

A canopy of live oak trees in much of the park provided little relief.

“It’s hot even when you’re working in the shade,” said Cowherd, who wore a wide-brimmed hat to shield his face and neck.

The National Weather Service predicted temperatures in Savannah would reach 97 F (36 C) Tuesday, with heat index values — what the temperature feels like — approaching a broiling 110 F (43 C).

Breaking records

The heat wave was expected to set new records across Florida on Tuesday, with highs around 100 F. Heat index values in the Tampa Bay area were expected to range from 113 to 118 F (45 to 47.7 C).

“We have extreme heat warnings in Georgia, down through northern Florida that would also include places like the Tampa Bay and Orlando metro areas,” said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “We’re going to see today more opportunities for temperatures to be near 100 again.”

However, rain is in the forecast for Wednesday, which will likely cool things off a bit.

Extreme heat warnings also were issued in the country’s center from New Orleans up to St. Louis, the meteorologist said. The heat index value on Tuesday was expected to reach as high as 110 F around the St. Louis area and in southwest Illinois.

‘Too much’ heat

In downtown Savannah, scattered tourists trudged along the sidewalks despite the heat. A few carried umbrellas to keep the sun at bay.

A block away, Luis Hernandez was working in direct sun on a ladder painting second-floor windows on a 19th century home. He wore long sleeves to protect against sunburn.

Hernandez said a co-worker made sure he and his fellow house painters had a cooler filled with drinking water. About every two hours, they would go inside to take breaks in the air-conditioning.

“Sure, it’s hot,” Hernandez said — almost “too much.”

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Mike Hempen in College Park, Maryland, contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn’t afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year.

But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire.

A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich.

“Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,” says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. “It’s no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It’s the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.”

Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found , with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year.

Thirty years ago, with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase.

The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest , according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names.

Federal Reserve . Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth.

Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she’s stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work.

Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come.

“Did you know that we’re millionaires?” she asked her husband.

“Good job, honey,” Barley says he replied, unfazed.

It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags.

Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child.

“But it’s not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,” she says.

All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it’s a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago.

A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, “millionaire” is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich.

“It’s a nice round number but it’s a point in a longer journey,” says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. “It definitely gives you some room to breathe.”

No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates.

Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today’s millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children.

“The dream of becoming a millionaire,” Carow says, “has become more obtainable.”

Jim Wang, 45, from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially “a non-event” for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights.

The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security.

“It’s possible, even with a regular job,” he says. “You just have to be diligent and consistent.”

The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don’t earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes.

Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early.

Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay.

Now, . Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they’re in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel.

Hitting their goal hasn’t translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota.

“It’s not a golden ticket like it was in the past,” Breck says. “For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We’re not yacht rich, but for us, we’re time rich.”

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s official: Older Americans worried about cognitive decline can stay sharper for longer by exercising both their bodies and their brains and eating healthier.

That’s according to initial results released Monday from a rigorous U.S. study of lifestyle changes in seniors at risk of developing dementia. People following a combination of healthier habits slowed typical age-related cognitive decline — achieving scores on brain tests as if they were a year or two younger, researchers reported in JAMA and at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

It’s not too late to get started — study participants were in their 60s and 70s — and it doesn’t require becoming a pickleball champ or swearing off ice cream.

“It was the first time I felt like I was doing something proactive to protect my brain,” said Phyllis Jones, 66, of Aurora, Illinois, who joined the study after caring for her mother with dementia and struggling with her own health problems.

It’s too soon to know if stalling age-related decline also could reduce the risk of later Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. But Jones and other study participants underwent brain scans and blood tests that researchers now are analyzing for clues – such as whether people also saw a reduction in Alzheimer’s-related protein buildup.

“We’re all on a cognitive aging clock and anything we can do to slow that clock down, to me, that is a significant benefit,” said Laura Baker of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, who led the study.

What’s good for the heart is good for the brain

Doctors have long encouraged physical activity and a healthy diet for brain fitness. Those steps fight high blood pressure and cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes, factors that increase the risk of dementia.

But until now the strongest evidence that specific lifestyle changes later in life could improve how people perform on brain tests came from a study in Finland.

Would it work for a more sedentary and culturally diverse U.S. population? With funding from the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Aging, Baker’s team tested the strategy for two years in 2,100 adults ages 60 to 79.

Here’s what study participants had to do

Half of participants were randomly assigned to group classes for exercise and dietary changes plus brain-challenging homework – with peer support and coaches tracking their progress.

They did a half-hour of moderately intense exercise four times a week — plus twice a week, they added 10 to 15 minutes of stretching and 15 to 20 minutes of resistance training.

They followed the “MIND diet” that stresses lots of leafy greens and berries plus whole grains, poultry and fish. Nothing is banned but it urges limiting red meat, fried or “fast food” and sweets, and substituting olive oil for butter and margarine.

They also had to meet someone or try something new weekly and do brain “exercises” using an online program called Brain HQ.

Other study participants, the control group, received brain-healthy advice and minimal coaching — they chose what steps to follow.

Both improved but the groups fared significantly better.

Combining social engagement with exercise and dietary steps may be key, said Jessica Langbaum of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, who wasn’t involved with the study.

“Americans want to have that one easy thing – ‘If I just eat my blueberries,’” Langbaum said. “There is no one magic bullet. It is a whole lifestyle.”

How to exercise your body and mind on your own

Moderately intense physical activity means raising your heart rate and panting a bit yet still able to talk, said Wake Forest’s Baker. Pick something safe for your physical capability and start slowly, just 10 minutes at a time until you can handle more, she cautioned.

Make it something you enjoy so you stick with it.

Likewise there are many options for brain exercise, Baker said – puzzles, joining a book club, learning an instrument or a new language.

Jones, a software engineer-turned-tester, learned she loves blueberry-spinach smoothies. Her favorite exercise uses an at-home virtual reality program that lets her work up a sweat while appearing to be in another country and communicating with other online users.

One challenge: How to keep up the good work

Researchers will track study participants’ health for four more years and the Alzheimer’s Association is preparing to translate the findings into local community programs.

Will people with stick with their new habits?

Jones lost 30 pounds, saw her heart health improve and feels sharper especially when multitasking. But she hadn’t realized her diet slipped when study coaching ended until a checkup spotted rising blood sugar. Now she and an 81-year-old friend from the study are helping keep each other on track.

The lifestyle change “did not just affect me physically, it also affected me mentally and emotionally. It brought me to a much better place,” Jones said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK (AP) — When Amrita Bhasin, 24, learned that products from South Korea might be subject to a new tax when they entered the United States, she decided to stock up on the sheet masks from Korean brands like U-Need and MediHeal she uses a few times a week.

“I did a recent haul to stockpile,” she said. “I bought 50 in bulk, which should last me a few months.”

South Korea is one of the countries that hopes to secure a trade deal before the Aug. 1 date President Donald Trump set for enforcing nation-specific tariffs. A not-insignificant slice of the U.S. population has skin in the game when it comes to Seoul avoiding a 25% duty on its exports.

Asian skin care has been a booming global business for a more than a decade, with consumers in Europe, North and South America, and increasingly the Middle East, snapping up creams, serums and balms from South Korea, Japan and China.

In the United States and elsewhere, Korean cosmetics, or K-beauty for short, have dominated the trend. A craze for all-in-one “BB creams” — a combination of moisturizer, foundation and sunscreen — morphed into a fascination with 10-step rituals and ingredients like snail mucin, heartleaf and rice water.

Vehicles and electronics may be South Korea’s top exports to the U.S. by value, but the country shipped more skin care and cosmetics to the U.S. than any other last year, according to data from market research company Euromonitor. France, with storied beauty brands like L’Oreal and Chanel, was second, Euromonitor said.

Statistics compiled by the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, show the U.S. imported $1.7 billion worth of South Korean cosmetics in 2024, a 54% increase from a year earlier.

“Korean beauty products not only add a lot of variety and choice for Americans, they really embraced them because they were offering something different for American consumers,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said.

Along with media offerings such as “Parasite” and “Squid Games,” and the popularity of K-pop bands like BTS, K-beauty has helped boost South Korea’s profile globally, she said.

“It’s all part and parcel really of the same thing,” Lovely said. “And it can’t be completely stopped by a 25% tariff, but it’s hard to see how it won’t influence how much is sold in the U.S. And I think what we’re hearing from producers is that it also really decreases the number of products they want to offer in this market.”

Senti Senti, a retailer that sells international beauty products at two New York boutiques and through an e-commerce site, saw a bit of “panic buying” by customers when Trump first imposed punitive tariffs on goods from specific countries, manager Winnie Zhong said.

The rush slowed down after the president paused the new duties for 90 days and hasn’t picked up again, Zhong said, even with Trump saying on July 7 that a 25% tax on imports from Japan and South Korea would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia subsequently reached agreements with the Trump administration that lowered the tariff rates their exported goods faced — in Japan’s case, from 25% to 15% — still higher than the current baseline of 10% tariff.

But South Korea has yet to clinch an agreement, despite having a free trade agreement since 2012 that allowed cosmetics and most other consumer goods to enter the U.S. tax-free.

Since the first store owned by Senti Senti opened 16 years ago, beauty products from Japan and South Korea became more of a focus and now account for 90% the stock. The business hasn’t had to pass on any tariff-related costs to customers yet, but that won’t be possible if the products are subject to a 25% import tax, Zhong said.

“I’m not really sure where the direction of K-beauty will go to with the tariffs in place, because one of the things with K-beauty or Asian beauty is that it’s supposed to be accessible pricing,” she said.

Devoted fans of Asian cosmetics will often buy direct from Asia and wait weeks for their packages to arrive because the products typically cost less than they do in American stores. Rather than stocking up on their favorite sunscreens, lip tints and toners, some shoppers are taking a pause due to the tariff uncertainty.

Los Angeles resident Jen Chae, a content creator with over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, has explored Korean and Japanese beauty products and became personally intrigued by Chinese beauty brands over the last year.

When the tariffs were first announced, Chae temporarily paused ordering from sites such as YesStyle.com, a shopping platform owned by an e-commerce company based in Hong Kong. She did not know if she would have to pay customs duties on the products she bought or the ones brands sent to her as a creator.

“I wasn’t sure if those would automatically charge the entire package with a blanket tariff cost, or if it was just on certain items,” Chae said. On its website, YesStyle says it will give customers store credit to reimburse them for import charges.

At Ohlolly, an online store focused on Korean products, owners Sue Greene and Herra Namhie are taking a similar pause.

They purchase direct from South Korea and from licensed wholesalers in the U.S., and store their inventory in a warehouse in Ontario, California. After years of no duties, a 25% import tax would create a “huge increase in costs to us,” Namhie said.

She and Greene made two recent orders to replenish their stock when the tariffs were at 10%. But they have put further restocks on hold “because I don’t think we can handle 25%,” Namhie said. They’d have to raise prices, and then shoppers might go elsewhere.

The business owners and sisters are holding out on hope the U.S. and Korea settle on a lower tariff or carve out exceptions for smaller ticket items like beauty products. But they only have two to four months of inventory in their warehouse. They say that in a month they’ll have to make a decision on what products to order, what to discontinue and what prices will have to increase.

Rachel Weingarten, a former makeup artist who writes a daily beauty newsletter called “Hello Gorgeous!,” said while she’s devoted to K-beauty products like lip masks and toner pads, she doesn’t think stockpiling is a sound practice.

“Maybe one or two products, but natural oils, vulnerable packaging and expiration dates mean that your products could go rancid before you can get to them,” she said.

Weingarten said she’ll still buy Korean products if prices go up, but that the beauty world is bigger than one country. “I’d still indulge in my favorites, but am always looking for great products in general,” she said.

Bhasin, in Menlo Park, California, plans to keep buying her face masks too, even if the price goes up, because she likes the quality of Korean masks.

“If prices will go up, I will not shift to U.S. products,” she said. “For face masks, I feel there are not a ton of solid and reliable substitutes in the U.S.”

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AP audience engagement editor Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Harold Terens fought in World War II. He’s lived almost 102 years, celebrating his birthday a couple weeks early with family and friends in Florida. But he has something more to look forward to.

His bar mitzvah.

Terens said at his birthday celebration Saturday that his brother got the traditional Jewish ceremony marking the beginning of adulthood when they were kids living in New York, but he did not.

“My mother came from Poland. My father came from Russia. And my mother was a religious Jew. And my father was anti-religious. So they had two sons. And one son, they compromised. One son got bar mitzvahed, the other son didn’t,” he said.

Early next year, Terens said he will finally enjoy that ceremony. At the Pentagon outside Washington, no less. Terens said that came about when he was talking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on a TV panel and a rabbi overheard the conversation.

“I mentioned that I would like to be bar mitzvahed at 103 and he’s the rabbi of the Pentagon so that’s my next bucket list. I am going to be bar mitzvahed in the Pentagon,” Terens said.

Terens turns 102 on Aug. 6. So Saturday’s party was a little early.

On D-Day — June 6, 1944 — Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He said half his company’s pilots died that day. Terens went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs back to England.

Terens was honored in June 2024 by the French as part of the 80th anniversary celebration of their country’s liberation from the Nazis. But that isn’t all that happened on those Normandy beaches.

He married Jeanne Swerlin, now 97.

“I thought my wedding in Normandy last year was the highlight of my life. Number one of all the moments of my life. You know, that’s the saying, that life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away,” Terens said.

He survived World War ll, was involved in a secret mission in Iran, another time barely escaping a German rocket after leaving a London pub just before it was destroyed.

“My life has been one huge fairy tale, especially with this new wife that I have. Who I love deeply and who I am going to spend the rest of my life till death do us part, as the mayor had us say in Normandy,” Terens said.

After the German surrender in 1945, Terens helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later.

He married his wife Thelma in 1948 and they had two daughters and a son. He became a U.S. vice president for a British conglomerate. They moved from New York to Florida in 2006 after Thelma retired as a French teacher; she died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. He has eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Terens gets asked a lot about his secret to longevity.

“I think if you can learn how to minimize stress, you’ll go a long way. You’ll add at least 10 years to your life. So that is number one. And 90% is luck,” he said.

UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (AP) — In a rugged patch of the Appalachian Trail in eastern Tennessee, volunteers size up a massive, gnarled tree lying on its side. Its tangled web of roots and dark brown soil, known as a root ball, is roughly the size of a large kiddie pool.

The collection of volunteers and staff from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and local organizations, doesn’t plan to move the tree. Instead, their job is filling the gaping holes left by it and many other downed trees along iconic East Coast trail.

Almost a year since Hurricane Helene tore through the mountains of the Southeast, restoration is still ongoing. In places like the Appalachian Trail it’s powered primarily by volunteers, at a time when federal resources are strained and uncertain. That labor, made up of people spanning several generations and continents, aims to not only return the trail to its former glory but make it more resilient against future inclement weather.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Appalachian Trail,” said Jake Stowe, a program support specialist with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Stretching more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) miles from Georgia to Maine, the trail attracts more than 3 million people every year, according to the conservancy. Some committed hikers traverse its entire length to cross it off their bucket list. Others visit sporadically just to indulge in its scenic views.

Last September, Helene killed more than 200 people and wrecked entire towns. Many rural businesses have struggled due to the drop in tourism, Stowe said, such as in places seeing fewer trail hikers. Directly after the storm, more than 430 miles (690 kilometers) of the trail were closed, the conservancy said. That’s down to 5 miles (8 kilometers) today.

Hikers still have to take detours around two damaged sections of the trail, both in Tennessee, according to the conservancy.

One spot where a bridge collapsed requires a 3.6-mile (5.8-kilometer) walking detour. The other location is near the destroyed Cherry Gap Shelter, where an Associated Press journalist accompanied volunteers this week making the area passable again for visitors who currently have to take a 6-mile (10 kilometer) detour.

Fixing trails is hard work

Local groups typically take on day-to-day trail maintenance, such as hacking back plant overgrowth, Stowe said. Larger organizations like the Appalachian Trail Conservancy step in to assist with severe damage, although in Helene’s case, safety concerns delayed restoration.

“At the time, we weren’t really in the position to put people in the woods,” Stowe said. “It was such bad damage that it was just- you couldn’t safely do that.”

The area near Cherry Gap has already been “sawed out,” meaning downed trees that blocked the trail have been cut and moved out of the way. But root balls are still a major problem because of how labor-intensive it is to deal with them.

When a tree tips over, the root ball lifts a big chunk of earth with it. Filling that hole can sometimes take a week, said Matt Perrenod, a crew leader with the conservancy. The trail runs along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, and that rough terrain means crews must rely on hand tools like shovels, rakes and pruners to do the job, rather than heavy equipment.

The conservancy also has to consider more sustainable improvements to the trail, such as building steps or features like water bars, which are essentially little ditches that divert rainfall off the side of the trail.

It’s a slow process, Perrenod said, but a worthwhile venture to improve the experience of hikers.

“You don’t actually want to think about the thing you’re walking on very much. You just want to walk on it,” said Perrenod, who hiked the Appalachian Trail’s entirety about a decade ago. “Well, if we don’t do the work, you won’t be able to do that. You’ll spend all your time climbing over this tree and walking around that hole.”

Volunteers travel the world to help out

Partnering with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service has long been a critical component of preserving the Appalachian Trail. Through contracts, Perrenod said the agencies fund equipment, gas and the wages of some Appalachian Trail Conservancy staff members like himself. The Forest Service also helps the group lug their gear up to the trail, he said.

That’s why Perrenod says it’s imperative the federal government does not slash those agencies’ budgets and workforces. Disrupting support for volunteers could be detrimental for the trail’s restoration, as volunteers provide “a lot of muscle” to complete the vast majority of its maintenance, he said.

In Helene’s aftermath, volunteerism across the region was “super high” because everyone wanted to help, Stowe said. This year, interest in volunteering has dipped, Stowe said, but he’s heard from people all over the country — and the world — who cited Helene as a major reason they wanted to come out and help.

Among the volunteers on the July maintenance trip were three visitors from Japan who work on long-distance trails back home. They were enthusiastic to learn about best practices for improving trail longevity and take those ideas back to Japan.

The trio was also motivated by their own experience with natural devastation. After Japan’s massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami, volunteer Kumi Aizawa said people from across the globe came to rebuild.

By restoring part of the Appalachian Trail, she’s returning the favor.

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Seminera reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s paved makeover of the White House’s Rose Garden appears to be nearly finished.

The garden’s previously grassy lawn was fully covered by pavement as construction crews put the final touches on Trump’s project Friday. The last rows of pavers were put in place as workers taped off their edges.

It’s part of Trump’s bigger plan to add his own flourishes to the Executive Mansion and its grounds. His updates have already added flagpoles to the North and South Lawns, and he wants to build a new ballroom on the grounds.

The Republican president said in March he’d pave over the Rose Garden because the grass is always wet and is an inconvenience for women in high heels. The project was expected to be finished in August.

The Rose Garden was created during Democrat John F. Kennedy’s administration. Presidents have used the space for everything from big announcements to Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremonies.

It’s Trump’s second makeover of the garden just outside the Oval Office. In 2020, first lady Melania Trump announced an update that included a limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. It also improved drainage and added accessibility for people with disabilities.

This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.

The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday.

Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States itself. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule.

“The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,” said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster.

Now grappling with concerns over its financial viability, the independent agency has had a long and colorful history. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people.

America’s first postmaster

When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it had two main priorities: appoint a commander to lead the war against Britain and appoint a postmaster to oversee communication among the colonies.

Franklin was chosen because he had served in the British postal service for North America. He’d been dismissed in 1774, in part for his radical views.

The early American postal service linked colonial leaders and the Continental Army. It also helped unify the diverse, fragmented colonies by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets.

“People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,” Kochersperger said.

Settlers, migration and roads: A nation connected

When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes — many along existing Native American trails. These post roads, first used by mail carriers on horseback, were upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today.

Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes.

As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months.

A new business model: Putting a stamp on it

Before the advent of stamps, postage was generally collected in cash from the recipient.

“By the mid 19th century, the problem is developing that the post office is carrying a lot of letters for which it’s never actually getting paid,” said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

With no home delivery, recipients either didn’t want the letters or were unaware of them. Postmasters paid to publish in newspapers lists of people with mail piling up.

In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. Making postage prepaid saved the post office the trouble of chasing down its money.

“That’s a business model that’s pioneered in 1847 that is still the basic business model of the postal service today,” Piazza said.

A postal precursor: The Pony Express comes … and goes

While the Pony Express is legendary, it only lasted about 18 months.

Operated by private carriers from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861, a relay system of riders on horseback carried mail, often from San Francisco or Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days.

As a West Coast stock market emerged, most mail was financial, Piazza said. Businesses needed to send stock quotes and commodity prices across the country.

“And so they’re willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to do that,” Piazza said. “The Pony Express was very, very expensive.”

While U.S. postage to send a letter was 10 cents in 1860, it initially cost an additional $5 to send mail by Pony Express — close to $200 today. Piazza said the service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph.

Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days.

A war and sad tidings streamlined home mail delivery

After early experimentation, free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in the nation’s largest cities in 1863.

During the Civil War, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. The postal service let soldiers send mail for free and vote by mail — an early forerunner of mail-in ballots.

Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. Sometimes they got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed.

“And that was a terrible scene at the post office that played out almost every day,” Kochersperger said.

Postal officials in Cleveland decided to take mail to people’s homes out of compassion, he said. The idea spread quickly.

City home delivery proved popular, but nearly two-thirds of Americans still lived in rural areas by the end of the 19th century. Demand was so great that rural free delivery, or RFD, began expanding rapidly around 1900.

Postal innovations: Using Army planes and pilots

While authorized air mail flights began in 1911, the nation’s first regularly scheduled air mail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes.

The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines.

In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed, including four whose planes caught fire in flight, according to the National Postal Museum. There were no commercial aviation systems, navigational tools or radios, and pilots relied on landmarks to find their way.

“These pilots were flying in open cockpits and all kinds of weather. It was very risky,” Kochersperger said.

FDR’s New Deal brings the nation new post offices

Part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal plan to address the Great Depression was to put people to work on federal construction projects. That included roughly 2,000 new post offices.

A portion of each building’s budget was reserved for artwork, such as murals. Hundreds of post offices still house original art from the era.

During World War II, the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, or the Six Triple Eight, an all-Black and all-female unit of the Women’s Army Corps, went overseas to tackle a massive backlog of undelivered mail for troops in Europe, many of whom had been reassigned.

The unit’s motto was, “No mail, low morale.” It cleared the backlog in three months.

A population boom and five digits transform mail service

After World War II, the economy boomed — and so did the population.

The post office needed a faster way to sort massive amounts of mail. It could no longer do so by hand.

On July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code.

“Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail,” Kochersperger said. “With the ZIP code, you didn’t have to memorize anything.”

The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster.

It took some getting used to, but it worked.

“Today, can you imagine life without a ZIP code?” Kochersperger asked.

A mail workers’ strike led to restructuring and bargaining rights

In 1970, a strike was called over low wages by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York and quickly broadened in scope.

After about 200,000 workers joined the first U.S. postal strike, President Richard Nixon called up the National Guard to help sort mail. But it was a “disaster” after two days, Kochersperger said.

The strike led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers. It also transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch.

The postmaster general would work for a board of governors instead of reporting to the president. The U.S. Postal Service would set its own rates, control its finances and decide post office locations.

How anthrax attacks reshaped the postal service

Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail, including to two U.S. senators. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C., died after breathing in the spores.

Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened. Following a nine-year investigation, authorities concluded the person who mailed the anthrax had taken his own life in 2008 and the case was closed, but new precautions were added to protect workers.

“It changed the whole way that we sorted mail at that time,” Kochersperger said.

Years later, postal workers would be designated essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and don protective gear again.

What’s next for the USPS?

The advent of the internet and private companies like Amazon has taken a bite out of mail volume, threatening the postal service’s financial viability. A 10-year modernization effort was launched to keep up with the times.

Reaction has been mixed, but David Steiner, the agency’s newly appointed postmaster general, says some improvements have been made.

Steiner, a former FedEx board member, wants to help keep the service self-sustaining. He has said he opposes privatization, an idea raised by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and believes the agency has a bright future as an independent entity.

“There is much to build upon in the years ahead,” he said.

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Haigh reported from Hartford, Conn.

Pura Scents is recalling more than 850,000 diffusers because some magnets may detach and cause a possible ingestion hazard to children.

The company is recalling about 851,400 Pura 4 Smart Home Fragrance Diffusers with detachable covers. It said an additional 1,100 were sold in Canada.

Pura Scents said that the magnets on the inside cover of the product can detach, posing an ingestion hazard to children. When high-powered magnets are swallowed, the ingested magnets can attract each other, or other metal objects, and become lodged in the digestive system. This can result in perforations, twisting or blockage of the intestines, infection, blood poisoning and death.

The company has received three reports of magnets detaching from the cover. No injuries have been reported.

The diffusers were sold at Target, Scheels and other stores nationwide from August 2023 through May 2025 for about $50. They were also sold online through Pura’s website, as well as online at Amazon, Target and Scheels.

Pura Scents is offering a free replacement cover. Consumers are advised to immediately dispose of the existing detachable cover and to keep the diffusers out of the reach of children and pets.

To receive the free replacement cover, individuals may contact Pura Scents at 855-394-5292 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT Monday through Friday. The company can also be emailed at replacement@pura.com. Consumers may also visit the company’s website and click on “Recall” at the bottom of the page for more information.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ken Silver knows beef because he knows Philly cheesesteak. He hopes that a summer spike in how much he pays for his restaurant’s main product doesn’t cause heartburn for him or his customers.

Silver, president of Jim’s South St. in Philadelphia, said the price of beef from his supplier now is about $1 more per pound than it was a year ago. And that is on top of a roughly 50% increase when he reopened in 2024 after a fire — “crazy,” as he put it.

U.S. beef prices have been steadily rising over the past 20 years because the supply of cattle remains tight while beef remains popular.

“Our strategy right now is just absorbing the price and hoping that we see a reduction after the summer months are over, the grilling season and all the rest,” Silver said Wednesday.

He said a cheesesteak sandwich at Jim’s South St. costs $13.49, up from $11.49 in 2022, when the popular eatery was forced to close for nearly two years because of a fire.

Cheesesteaks typically are made with thinly sliced beef, cheese and onions, though other toppings are possible, too.

For consumers, the average price of a pound of ground beef rose to $6.12 in June, up nearly 12% from a year ago, according to . The average price of all uncooked beef steaks rose 8% to $11.49 per pound.

“We’ve taken a hit, profitability-wise, just to maintain what our customers would expect to get when they come to us: a reasonably priced cheesesteak of the best quality they can find,” Silver said.

If supply costs don’t ease, Silver said he might have to raise menu prices or declare a market price, which fluctuates and is commonly associated with seafood.

“I really hate to do that,” said Silver, whose father started the business in 1976.

A customer, Bryan Williams, suggested a price hike wouldn’t discourage him from placing an order.

“That’s just how things are going lately,” he said. “There’s really nothing that they can do about it.”

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White reported from Detroit.

Here’s the good news: The Hershey Co. says it’s not raising prices for Halloween candy this year.

But here’s the bad news: Hershey and other chocolate makers are continuing to hike prices, saying a volatile cocoa market gives them no choice.

Hershey, the maker of Reese’s, Whoppers, barkThins and other chocolate candies, said Wednesday that it will be raising U.S. retail prices later this fall. In some cases, pack sizes will get smaller; in others, list prices will rise. The average price increase will be in the low double-digit percentages.

“This change is not related to tariffs or trade policies. It reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa,” Hershey said in a statement.

Hershey stressed that the price increases won’t apply to products specially packaged for Halloween.

On Tuesday, Swiss chocolatier Lindt said it raised prices by 15.8% in the first half of this year. The company said it was able to offset some of the higher cost of cocoa with long-term contracts but had to pass much of it on to consumers.

“The development of the global chocolate market in the first half of 2025 was a continuation of what we saw in 2024, with cocoa prices remaining close to record highs,” said Adalbert Lechner, Lindt’s CEO, in a conference call with investors.

Cloetta, a Swedish confectionary company, told investors last week that it raised chocolate prices in the second quarter. And Nestle raised U.S. prices for products like Toll House chocolate chips in the spring.

Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the past two years due to poor weather and disease in West Africa, which supplies more than 70% of the world’s cocoa.

Cocoa futures, which are binding contracts for a specific quantity of cocoa, stood at $7,380 per metric ton on Wednesday, according to the International Cocoa Organization, which releases a daily average of prices in London and New York.

That’s down from December’s peak of $11,984, but it’s still 121% higher than two years ago.

And the situation remains volatile. According to the International Cocoa Organization, prices surged in early June on concerns about production in Ivory Coast but eased on optimistic forecasts for production in Ghana and Latin America. They rose again in late June after heavy rains in West Africa, which could worsen the outbreak of diseases that harm crops.

“It’s almost a bit dangerous to comment on this because it’s changing so fast,” Cloetta Chief Financial Officer Frans Ryden said last week in a conference call with investors. “This is something that’s moving hugely up and down all the time.”

Meanwhile, prices have been rising on store shelves. The average unit price of a chocolate bar in the U.S. in July 2021 was $2.43, according to Nielsen IQ, a market research company. As of last week, it was $3.45, a 41% increase.

That’s hurting customer demand. Nielsen said unit sales of chocolate fell 1.2% in the year ending July 12.

Tariffs could also impact U.S. prices. President Donald Trump threatened a 21% tariff on cocoa and other products from Ivory Coast in April, for example, but then paused the tariffs’ implementation.

The National Confectioners Association is asking the Trump administration to protect cocoa from tariffs. The group says the U.S. imports nearly $4.4 billion in chocolate, cocoa and candies each year, and the association’s members export nearly $2 billion in American-made chocolates and candy annually.

As artificial intelligence technology becomes part of daily life, adolescents are turning to chatbots for advice, guidance and conversation. The appeal is clear: Chatbots are patient, never judgmental, supportive and always available.

That worries experts who say the booming AI industry is largely unregulated and that many parents have no idea about how their kids are using AI tools or the extent of personal information they are sharing with chatbots.

shows more than 70% of American teenagers have used AI companions and more than half converse with them regularly. The study by Common Sense Media focused on “AI companions,” like Character. AI, Nomi and Replika, which it defines as “digital friends or characters you can text or talk with whenever you want,” versus AI assistants or tools like ChatGPT, though it notes they can be used the same way.

It’s important that parents understand the technology. Experts suggest some things parents can do to help protect their kids:

— Start a conversation, without judgment, says Michael Robb, head researcher at Common Sense Media. Approach your teen with curiosity and basic questions: “Have you heard of AI companions?” “Do you use apps that talk to you like a friend?” Listen and understand what appeals to your teen before being dismissive or saying you’re worried about it.

— Help teens recognize that AI companions are programmed to be agreeable and validating. Explain that’s not how real relationships work and that real friends with their own points of view can help navigate difficult situations in ways that AI companions cannot.

“One of the things that’s really concerning is not only what’s happening on screen but how much time it’s taking kids away from relationships in real life,” says Mitch Prinstein, chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association. “We need to teach kids that this is a form of entertainment. It’s not real, and it’s really important they distinguish it from reality and should not have it replace relationships in your actual life.”

The APA recently put out a on AI and adolescent well-being, and .

— Parents should watch for signs of unhealthy attachments.

“If your teen is preferring AI interactions over real relationships or spending hours talking to AI companions, or showing that they are becoming emotionally distressed when separated from them — those are patterns that suggest AI companions might be replacing rather than complementing human connection,” Robb says.

— Parents can set rules about AI use, just like they do for screen time and social media. Have discussions about when and how AI tools can and cannot be used. Many AI companions are designed for adult use and can mimic romantic, intimate and role-playing scenarios.

While AI companions may feel supportive, children should understand the tools are not equipped to handle a real crisis or provide genuine mental health support. If kids are struggling with depression, anxiety, loneliness, an eating disorder or other mental health challenges, they need human support — whether it is family, friends or a mental health professional.

— Get informed. The more parents know about AI, the better. “I don’t think people quite get what AI can do, how many teens are using it and why it’s starting to get a little scary,” says Prinstein, one of many experts calling for regulations to ensure safety guardrails for children. “A lot of us throw our hands up and say, ‘I don’t know what this is!’ This sounds crazy!’ Unfortunately, that tells kids if you have a problem with this, don’t come to me because I am going to diminish it and belittle it.”

Older teenagers have advice, too, for parents and kids. Banning AI tools is not a solution because the technology is becoming ubiquitous, says Ganesh Nair, 18.

“Trying not to use AI is like trying to not use social media today. It is too ingrained in everything we do,” says Nair, who is trying to step back from using AI companions after seeing them affect real-life friendships in his high school. “The best way you can try to regulate it is to embrace being challenged.”

“Anything that is difficult, AI can make easy. But that is a problem,” says Nair. “Actively seek out challenges, whether academic or personal. If you fall for the idea that easier is better, then you are the most vulnerable to being absorbed into this newly artificial world.”

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

No question is too small when Kayla Chege, a high school student in Kansas, is using artificial intelligence.

The 15-year-old asks ChatGPT for guidance on back-to-school shopping, makeup colors, low-calorie choices at Smoothie King, plus ideas for her Sweet 16 and her younger sister’s birthday party.

The sophomore honors student makes a point not to have chatbots do her homework and tries to limit her interactions to mundane questions. But in interviews with The Associated Press and a new study, teenagers say they are increasingly interacting with AI as if it were a companion, capable of providing advice and friendship.

“Everyone uses AI for everything now. It’s really taking over,” said Chege, who wonders how AI tools will affect her generation. “I think kids use AI to get out of thinking.”

For the past couple of years, concerns about cheating at school have dominated the conversation around kids and AI. But artificial intelligence is playing a much larger role in many of their lives. AI, teens say, has become a go-to source for personal advice, emotional support, everyday decision-making and problem-solving.

‘AI is always available. It never gets bored with you’

More than 70% of teens have used AI companions and half use them regularly, according to from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using screens and digital media sensibly.

The study defines AI companions as platforms designed to serve as “digital friends,” like Character.AI or Replika, which can be customized with specific traits or personalities and can offer emotional support, companionship and conversations that can feel human-like. But popular sites like ChatGPT and Claude, which mainly answer questions, are being used in the same way, the researchers say.

As the technology rapidly gets more sophisticated, teenagers and experts worry about AI’s potential to redefine human relationships and exacerbate crises of loneliness and youth mental health.

“AI is always available. It never gets bored with you. It’s never judgmental,” says Ganesh Nair, an 18-year-old in Arkansas. “When you’re talking to AI, you are always right. You’re always interesting. You are always emotionally justified.”

All that used to be appealing, but as Nair heads to college this fall, he wants to step back from using AI. Nair got spooked after a high school friend who relied on an “AI companion” for heart-to-heart conversations with his girlfriend later had the chatbot write the breakup text ending his two-year relationship.

“That felt a little bit dystopian, that a computer generated the end to a real relationship,” said Nair. “It’s almost like we are allowing computers to replace our relationships with people.”

How many teens are using AI? New study stuns researchers

In the Common Sense Media survey, 31% of teens said their conversations with AI companions were “as satisfying or more satisfying” than talking with real friends. Even though half of teens said they distrust AI’s advice, 33% had discussed serious or important issues with AI instead of real people.

Those findings are worrisome, says Michael Robb, the study’s lead author and head researcher at Common Sense, and should send a warning to parents, teachers and policymakers. The now-booming and largely unregulated AI industry is becoming as integrated with adolescence as smartphones and social media are.

“It’s eye-opening,” said Robb. “When we set out to do this survey, we had no understanding of how many kids are actually using AI companions.” The study polled more than 1,000 teens nationwide in April and May.

Adolescence is a critical time for developing identity, social skills and independence, Robb said, and AI companions should complement — not replace — real-world interactions.

“If teens are developing social skills on AI platforms where they are constantly being validated, not being challenged, not learning to read social cues or understand somebody else’s perspective, they are not going to be adequately prepared in the real world,” he said.

The nonprofit analyzed several popular AI companions in a “ ,” finding ineffective age restrictions and that the platforms can produce sexual material, give dangerous advice and offer harmful content. The group recommends that minors not use AI companions.

A concerning trend to teens and adults alike

Researchers and educators worry about the cognitive costs for youth who rely heavily on AI, especially in their creativity, critical thinking and social skills. The potential dangers of children forming relationships with chatbots gained national attention last year when a 14-year-old Florida boy died by suicide after developing an emotional attachment to a Character.AI chatbot.

“Parents really have no idea this is happening,” said Eva Telzer, a psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “All of us are struck by how quickly this blew up.” Telzer is leading multiple studies on youth and AI, a new research area with limited data.

Telzer’s research has found that children as young as 8 are using generative AI and also found that teens are using AI to explore their sexuality and for companionship. In focus groups, Telzer found that one of the top apps teens frequent is SpicyChat AI, a free role-playing app intended for adults.

Many teens also say they use chatbots to write emails or messages to strike the right tone in sensitive situations.

“One of the concerns that comes up is that they no longer have trust in themselves to make a decision,” said Telzer. “They need feedback from AI before feeling like they can check off the box that an idea is OK or not.”

Arkansas teen Bruce Perry, 17, says he relates to that and relies on AI tools to craft outlines and proofread essays for his English class.

“If you tell me to plan out an essay, I would think of going to ChatGPT before getting out a pencil,” Perry said. He uses AI daily and has asked chatbots for advice in social situations, to help him decide what to wear and to write emails to teachers, saying AI articulates his thoughts faster.

Perry says he feels fortunate that AI companions were not around when he was younger.

“I’m worried that kids could get lost in this,” Perry said. “I could see a kid that grows up with AI not seeing a reason to go to the park or try to make a friend.”

Other teens agree, saying the issues with AI and its effect on children’s mental health are different from those of social media.

“Social media complemented the need people have to be seen, to be known, to meet new people,” Nair said. “I think AI complements another need that runs a lot deeper — our need for attachment and our need to feel emotions. It feeds off of that.”

“It’s the new addiction,” Nair added. “That’s how I see it.”

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.