Professionals are overwhelmed by AI. A majority say learning to use the new tech is like having another job, Axios' Communicators author Eleanor Hawkins writes from a new LinkedIn report.

Why it matters: Few workers have figured out how to use these tools to work smarter and faster — yet that's the expectation. The disconnect is hurting employee well-being, and it's rattling investors who are pinning their hopes on AI.

By the numbers: In a July survey of more than 2,000 U.S. workers, LinkedIn found that employees are increasingly expected to know how to use AI.

• 47% say they're not using AI to its fullest capability. 30% say they rarely or never use AI.
• 39% feel nervous talking about AI in professional settings, because they're worried they'll look uninformed. 41% say the pace of AI change is taking a toll on their well-being.

💡 Feeling lost? Earlier this summer, Mike and Axios CEO Jim VandeHei wrote up a detailed AI survival kit.

Diamonds are having a big moment.

• The bling picture: Newly engaged celebrities are sporting larger rocks, and even everyday buyers are opting for increasingly large diamonds.

Taylor Swift's engagement ring, an antique gem, could be somewhere between 8–15 carats, jewelers told Vogue.

• That's relatively demure compared to the stone that soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo gave Georgina Rodríguez — a diamond so ginormous, an estimated 35 carats, that it obscured about a third of her finger and earned comparisons to a Ring Pop.
• Then there was the massive pink diamond that billionaire Jeff Bezos gave to Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

Between the lines: Lab-grown diamonds changed the game. People who would've bought a small natural gem now buy a bigger, lab-grown version.

• Meanwhile, the supply of less-expensive lab-grown diamonds brought down the price of naturals, too — so you can get more bling for your buck.

Yes, but: One of the biggest suppliers of diamonds to the U.S. is India — and the White House just slapped a 50% tariff on all imports from the country. Prices may rise.

• Celebrities have long flaunted big stones. Back in 1968, Elizabeth Taylor — the original superstar Tay — sported a honking 33-carat model from her ex twice-over, Richard Burton.

The bottom line: The days of so-called quiet luxury may be behind us.

Spotted in the desert: A new immigration detention center recently opened at Fort Bliss, an Army base in Texas.

• The tent city can already house nearly 1,000 adults. The Trump administration says it will ultimately hold 5,000 adults, the largest such complex in U.S. history, NBC reports.

The White House awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to build and operate the facility.

• "More than 80 years ago, the base was an official U.S. Army facility that was used as a temporary internment camp, holding nationals from Japan, Germany and Italy," Derrek Tomine, president of the National Japanese American Historical Society, told NBC.

⚖️ Separately, a judge ruled late yesterday that "Alligator Alcatraz" must shut down by October and will likely be empty within days, according to emails shared with AP.

• The hastily built immigration detention center in the heart of the Florida Everglades has been plagued by reports of unsanitary conditions and civil rights violations.

The storied Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper is going fully digital, writes Axios' Sara Fischer.

• Why it matters: In business since 1868, the AJC is one of the largest papers to stop the presses.

"On December 31 of this year, the AJC will print its last newspaper," president and publisher Andrew Morse announced today in a letter to readers.

• The idea is to focus all resources on digital platforms and products.

🖊️ Morse framed the decision as a proactive measure to help the paper allocate more resources to journalism and digital products that serve readers better.

• "[M]any more people engage with our digital platforms and products today than with our print edition, and that shift is only accelerating," he wrote. "For you, and for us, holding onto the paper can bring a sense of comfort in a world of unrelenting change. But we cannot allow that to hold us back."

📰 By the numbers: The AJC peaked in print in 2004, with a Sunday circulation of 629,505. The current circulation is 115,000 subscribers, of whom about 40,000 receive the printed paper.

Between the lines: AJC is one of the few major metro dailies that's still privately held by a family, not a big conglomerate.

• The AJC's owner, Cox Enterprises, also owns Axios.