It was not a joke when the shoe company Allbirds announced last week that it’s pivoting to artificial intelligence. It’s a sign that the AI bubble is about to pop. Or maybe the tech optimists are right, and everything is AI now.

Allbirds was “once the maker of Silicon Valley’s favorite shoe,” said The New York Times, and was previously valued at $4 billion. But the company earlier this year closed all of its stores and sold its assets for a mere $39 million. 

Now the brand seeks a fresh start. The business rebranded itself NewBird AI and announced it had received a $50 million influx to buy up advanced computer chips that will let it enter the AI infrastructure business. NewBird’s stock immediately rose nearly 600%.

‘Surreal moment’
Allbirds’ pivot might look like a “cynical (and very possibly doomed) cash grab,” but it could be an “escape hatch” for the company, said Will Gottsegen at The Atlantic. The industry is “creating enormous wealth” and driving the stock market to record highs despite concerns about the broader world economy. The big question is whether the former shoe company’s “lack of experience” in AI will make it “difficult to turn a short-term stock bump into long-term success.”

“We have seen this movie before,” said Britney Nguyen at MarketWatch. Back in 2017 and 2018, lots of businesses “sought to hop on the blockchain bandwagon.” 

The pivot is also reminiscent of the 1990s, when companies “could slap a ‘.com’ on their names and watch their stocks fly,” said Emily Peck at Axios. Allbirds’ announcement has created a “surreal moment” in the AI era.

Feel of a ‘meme stock’
The shoe company’s “flailing AI embrace” is “not a horrible idea on the surface,” given that it fills a “real business need,” said Nitish Pahwa at Slate. But the AI spending that has “propped up the economy” might not persevere. 

Indeed, Allbirds’ stock started to drop after the initial surge, said Bloomberg. And the market roller coaster ride gives Allbirds the feel of a “meme stock,” said 50 Park Investments’ Adam Sarhan, in which “emotions take over and logic and reason get thrown out the window.”

From ordering groceries online to using AI to write emails, technology is making life exponentially easier. But while that may be appealing, it has also become a crutch, and constantly outsourcing our thinking can be detrimental in the long term, according to experts. A new trend called friction maxxing seeks to reintroduce discordance into our lives.

‘Tolerance for inconvenience’
Tech companies are “making us think of life itself as inconvenient” and that we should be “continuously escaping” from it into “digital padded rooms of predictive algorithms and single-tap commands,” said sociologist ​​Kathryn Jezer-Morton at The Cut. It’s a method that’s “especially evil” because our “love of escaping is one of humanity’s most poetically problematic tendencies, and now it’s being used against us.” 

Enter friction maxxing, which isn’t “simply a matter of reducing your screen time,” said Jezer-Morton. Rather, it requires “building up tolerance for inconvenience,” avoiding “technologies or escape” and then “reaching toward enjoyment.” 

A friction-maxxing practice could include navigating by road signs instead of Google Maps or arranging to meet up with friends without sharing your location. Or it could mean eschewing ChatGPT for information that could be gleaned from a book or asking other people. 

Cognition and meaning
Many of our decisions about convenience are driven by “short-term emotions,” said Forbes. It feels good to scroll because “you know getting into a challenging book will feel lousy (at least initially).” 

But despite how easy technology advancements have made simple tasks, “living a frictionless life may not be the best for your cognitive function over time,” said The Washington Post. It’s basically “having a personal trainer lift the weights for you,” said neuroscientist Lila Landowski to the Post.

And the benefit of friction maxxing isn’t just about boosting cognitive abilities. It helps to create a more meaningful life, said Emily Falk, a professor and the author of “What We Value,” to the Post. 

Friction-maxxing could “play a valuable role in reorienting yourself away from tech dependency” and back toward “embracing the effort that makes people feel genuinely alive and fulfilled,” said Mashable. Perhaps this is an opportunity, said Jezer-Morton, to “think more clearly than we ever have about what’s interesting and essential about being human.”  

Kenyan Sharon Lokedi celebrates as she wins the women’s division of the Boston Marathon today for the second straight year. John Korir won the men’s division, also representing Kenya and taking back-to-back titles. More than 30,000 participants ran the 26.2-mile course.
Charles Krupa / AP Photo 

Critics are sometimes contemptuous of the way superhero entertainment has been embraced by adults, who should presumably be making their way through the Booker Prize long list. But the best of these good-versus-evil narratives can connect one generation to the next, introducing kids to the world’s complexity and keeping grown-ups tethered to childhood wonder.

‘Batman’ (1966-68)
The original ‘Batman’ series (pictured above) is both the first live-action television adaptation of the now-iconic DC Comics character as well as a kind of time capsule that reminds viewers of what the genre can be like when it dispenses with tortured origin stories, brooding anti-heroes and gore. This “Batman” is not only the “most fun” but also the most subversive and truthful ‘Batman’ we can hope to ever witness,” said Jack Bernhardt at The Guardian. (Prime Video)

‘Jessica Jones’ (2015-19)
Arriving just ahead of the #MeToo movement that shook the world, “Jessica Jones” helped give depth and seriousness to the superhero genre that was producing one so-so series after another. Buoyed by a “strong, clear performance” from Krysten Ritter, it’s not an anti-hero narrative but rather a “post-hero story, making it fascinating and unique in a marketplace that doesn’t lack for costumed do-gooders of all types,” said Sam Adams at IndieWire. (Disney+)

‘Legion’ (2017-19)
From “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley, the offbeat “Legion,” loosely located in the “X-Men” universe, remains beloved by critics even if it never quite found a broad audience during its run. A meditation on mental illness, “Legion” is “no ordinary comic-book show. It’s a head trip, and it’s spectacular,” said James Poniewozik at The New York Times. (Disney+)