The big picture: After almost three years, the amount of aid provided to low-income families to combat food insecurity through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will return to pre-pandemic levels.
Why it matters: The program is currently on hold while the Supreme Court considers a legal challenge brought by a coalition of GOP-led states. Millions of borrowers will remain in limbo until the court's ruling, which is expected this summer.
I asked ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool that's taking the world by storm, to write an essay about venture investing in AI.
While it impressively picked up Axios Smart Brevity style, it struggled to remember certain directives, and its writing was quite basic.
Why it matters: Despite growing fears of making certain creative workers (i.e., journalists) obsolete, OpenAI's writing tool is a long way from being able to replace a writer in our newsroom.
Driving the news: Buzzfeed on Thursday announced it would use AI to "enhance" certain kinds of content, which sent its battered stock on a tear and amplified latent fears of machines coming for white-collar jobs.
Ford is planning to offer pickup and delivery for service — or to fix customer's cars where they live — in a new offering that promises to further revolutionize the dealer experience.
Why it matters: Traditional auto dealers are under pressure to further modernize the car-buying experience, at a time when customers have more mobile options for other services.
How it works: Ford dealers that agree to participate (most are expected to do so) will send someone to pickup your Ford vehicle for service, and return it to you when it's been repaired.
Or, if the maintenance is routine and can be done at your home, mobile technicians can do it. Oil changes and simple recall repairs also qualify.
Ford is paying dealers to participate, since the service requires scheduling software and potentially additional personnel.
"We want to make it convenient and easy for customers to do business with us as a brand and with our dealers," Todd Rabourn, Ford's North America regional customer experience director tells Axios.
State of play: Certain Ford dealers have been piloting the service. In Columbus, Ohio, Ricart Automotive Group CEO and owner Rhett Ricart is welcoming what he calls a natural evolution of the "customer convenience age."
"It’s like having someone pickup your laundry at your houses versus having to drop it off," Ricart, also a member of the National Automobile Dealers Association, tells Axios.
Worth noting: Pickup and delivery is a standard offering at certain luxury and ultra-luxury brands like Genesis and Ferrari. But Ford is the first mainstream brand to offer it for all of its vehicles.
General Motors' Chevrolet brand, a Ford rival, "is currently piloting a mobile service program with a handful of dealers, focused on improving the EV ownership experience," Chevy spokesman Chad Lyons tells Axios in an email.
Nathan's thought bubble: The fact that all Ford vehicles on the road qualify for the service is impressive.
I asked Rabourn if a 2001 Ford Taurus would qualify, for example, and he said yes.
Be smart: Dealers won't want to do anything that reduces their chances of making a sale — and they've historically had upsell opportunities when people darken their doorstep.
But customers will still need to communicate with their local dealership to schedule appointments.
"Any time you talk to the dealer service adviser [it] is a potential money maker" for the dealer, iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer tells Axios.
Much of the market has soured on special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) over the past year, but it hasn't stopped every company with blank-check aspirations.
In fact, online shipping marketplace FreightOS merged with one, and began trading on the stock market on Thursday.
What they're saying: "We didn't decide to go public with a SPAC – we decided to go public with a specific SPAC," FreightOS CEO Zvi Schreiber tells Axios.
Elon Musk met with several GOP congressional leaders this week, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
Driving the news:Twitter majority owner Musk tweeted Thursday evening that he met with McCarthy to "discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties."
Don't feel too bad if your place is a little cluttered: Even Marie Kondo's house is looking less-than-spotless these days.
State of play: The famed author of "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" admittedly doesn't have much time anymore for organizing, especially after she had her third child.
“My home is messy, but the way I am spending my time is the right way for me at this time at this stage of my life,” she said in a recent webinar, according to Washington Post.
“Up until now, I was a professional tidier, so I did my best to keep my home tidy at all times,” she added. “I have kind of given up on that in a good way for me. Now I realize what is important to me is enjoying spending time with my children at home.”
💭 Nathan's thought bubble: Joy comes in many forms; sometimes, it's just plain messy.
The U.S. Federal Reserve denied Wyoming-chartered Custodia Bank's application to be a member of the Federal Reserve System on Friday, saying its "novel" business model and focus on digital assets "presented significant safety and soundness risks."
Why it matters: A new Fed crackdown appears to be underway, with a coinciding policy announcement published Friday, warning those partaking in "novel banking activities."
A new advocate for bitcoin miners, Satoshi Action Fund, believes that securing the oldest cryptocurrency could be an effective way to finance a longstanding environmental problem in the United States: orphaned gas wells.
Why it matters: The Environmental Defense Fund released a map in 2021 of 81,000 wells with no owner of record. While there are federal funds available to aid in sealing these wells, it's still a daunting task.
The overall labor market is solid and real incomes are growing. But the consumer — once eager to spend — is now socking away their cash, appearing more hesitant about opening their wallets for various things.
That's the takeaway from Friday's personal income and spending data showing that consumers, the bedrock of the U.S. economy, are becoming increasingly wary.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sees the "tightest labor market we've arguably had in 50 years" amid receding inflation pressure.
Yellen is on a 10-day trip to Africa, part of a mission to deepen U.S. ties on the continent, at a time China is also making geopolitical inroads. She spoke with Axios Friday in Nelson Mandela's former house in Johannesburg.
Pharmacy hours at Walmart and CVS will be reduced starting in March as the major retailers continue to deal with a nationwide shortage of pharmacy staff.
Driving the news: Walmart confirmed to Axios that its pharmacies will close at 7pm weekdays, which is two hours earlier than the current closing time of 9pm. Weekend hours will stay the same, the company said.
MoviePass, the once-popular movie subscription plan whose too-good-to-be-true pricing structure led to its spectacular downfall, is opening a second waitlist for a revamped version of the program.
The housing market is showing signs of life after veering into a dead zone late last year.
Why it matters: These green shoots area good sign for the economy overall, and run counter to some of the dire predictions made last fall when mortgage rates were skyrocketing.
Kevin Rose, a serial entrepreneur going back to 2004's web pioneer Digg, got tricked into giving away a bunch of very valuable NFTs on Wednesday night.
Why it matters: The multi-part scheme that began with a seemingly mundane airdrop, is a reminder of how easily even the founder of an NFT-focused company could be lured into a trap.
