Yet Kiara Nirghin, a Stanford technologist and Gen Z entrepreneur, sees Gen-Z’s comfort with AI as an asset. “The younger generation isn’t adopting AI, we’re growing up fluent in AI,” she said at Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. 

Nirghin, who co-founded Chima, a U.S.-based applied AI research lab, explained that young entrepreneurs see coding as something to be done alongside AI agents, rather than done alone and from scratch. 

AI “fundamentally changes how you write, how you take tests, [and] how you apply to jobs or different applications—because it’s not from the ground up. It’s actually being able to do that with different models or agents, side by side,” Nirghin said. AI fluency sets Gen Z individuals apart from their older peers, allowing them to pioneer use cases and applications of AI that have yet to be unlocked, she explained. 

Some experts have argued that AI has eroded our critical thinking abilities. A 2025 study by researchers from MIT’s Media Lab found that users of ChatGPT “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”

But Nirghin argued that this isn’t always true.“ The biggest misconception is that young people are using AI to not think things through, [but] I think that really intelligent Gen Z individuals are using it to think even deeper,” she said.

The entrepreneur pointed to how running complex research reports through AI could generate insights they may not have thought of otherwise—hence allowing users to get a fresh perspective.

Moving with the AI models

AI isn’t just for the young, however, and Nirghin stressed the technology’s ability to help workers at all levels of their careers. “We’re [only] at the beginning. It is only going to get faster, more advanced and more intelligent each and every model from here on out,” said Nirghin. 

She likened AI anxiety to climate anxiety—in that it stems from humanity’s fear of not moving fast enough to stay ahead of the game.

“In the past couple of weeks, [there’s] been two model releases that have engulfed the benchmarks in such an enormous way that pretty much everything you’ve ever used AI for can now just be 10x-ed,” Nirghin explained.

And to avoid being left behind, workers can familiarize themselves with “main model players” like ChatGPT and Gemini, and learn to use them as co-pilots and tools in everyday life. By continuously using the newest AI models, users will be more comfortable with the new technology, and thus lose their anxiety, she said. 

“The models right now are as dumb as they are ever going to be, [and] a couple months down the line, we are going to be in a very different landscape. Being able to be really comfortable with that, and having your core tools that you use and get comfortable with is really important.”

In an interview, Gabelli said Paramount will ultimately have to increase its $30-a-share bid for Warner Bros. and that Netflix Inc. will also likely counter with a higher offer. Saying he supports the Paramount tender is a way of signaling he prefers more competition for the company.

“We’re in the early rounds,” Gabelli said. “Round five of a nine-round challenge.”

Warner Bros. shares were up 3.8% to $28.26 at the close in New York on Tuesday.

The longtime media investor attended Paramount’s presentation at a UBS conference on Tuesday and walked away impressed. Management “did a very good job” addressing potential regulatory challenges including at the state level, he said.

Gabelli’s firm and funds hold almost 5.7 million Warner Bros. shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, worth about $160 million based on Tuesday’s closing price. He also owns shares in Paramount and Netflix.

Warner Bros. agreed last week to sell its streaming and studios businesses, including HBO, to Netflix for $27.75 a share in cash and stock. Paramount on Monday went public with an all-cash tender offer for Warner Bros. and has been looking to convince investors its bid is better.

Gabelli plans to tender because the “terms of trade favor Paramount,” including an all-cash proposal that doesn’t rely on publicly traded stock or the spinoff of Warner Bros.’ cable networks, as Netflix’s offer does. 

Gabelli wouldn’t say which company was a better fit for Warner Bros.

“I don’t like to endorse things,” he said. “That’s why you play that card (a tender offer). It’s Texas hold ’em.”

On Tuesday, Gabelli’s company said in a regulatory filing it purchased more shares of the cinema and hotel company Marcus Corp.

Movie theater chains, which have been battered by tepid ticket sales and the threat of cutbacks in Hollywood releases, are a buy, Gabelli said. Paramount winning Warner Bros. would be “clearly better” for theaters because management believes in traditional film releases. 

A to-do list and travel plans found during Luigi Mangione’s arrest and revealed in court this week shed new light on the steps he may have taken — or planned to take — to avoid capture after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killing last year.

“Keep momentum, FBI slower overnight,” said one note. “Change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows,” said another.

The notes, including a hand-drawn map and tactics for surviving on the lam, were shown on Monday at a pretrial hearing as Mangione’s bid to prevent prosecutors from using evidence seized during his Dec. 9, 2024, arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Excerpts of body-worn camera footage of the arrest, previously unseen by the press or the public, were released on Tuesday.

Police said they discovered the notes in Mangione’s backpack, along with a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors said matches the one used to kill Thompson five days earlier; a loaded gun magazine and silencer; and a notebook in similar handwriting which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.

Mangione’s lawyers haven’t disputed the authenticity of the notes or the provenance of the gun, pocket knife, fake ID, driver’s license, passport, credit cards, AirPods, protein bar, travel toothpaste, flash drives and other items seized from him and his backpack.

But they argue that anything found in the bag should be barred because police didn’t have a search warrant and lacked the grounds to justify a warrantless search. Prosecutors contend the search was legal — officers said they were checking for a bomb — and that police eventually obtained a warrant.

The notes, along with other evidence highlighted at the pretrial hearing, underscore that Mangione’s stop in Altoona, a city of about 44,000 people about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, was only meant to be temporary.

One note said to check for “red eyes” from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio or part way to Cincinnati (“get off early,” it reads). The map drawn below shows lines linking those cities, as well as other possible destinations, including Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind and then fleeing the area. Over the next hours and days, police released photos of a suspect — first showing him in a mask and hooded coat and then his face and thick eyebrows.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The pretrial hearing, which resumes for a sixth day on Thursday, applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Among the notes revealed this week was one with a heading “12/5” and a starred entry that said: “buy black shoes (white stripes too distinctive).”

Another, also written in to-do list style, suggested spending more than three hours away from surveillance cameras and using different modes of transportation to “Break CAM continuity” and avoid tracking. Below that, it said: “check reports for current situation,” a possible reference to news reports about the search for Thompson’s killer.

According to prosecutors, Mangione fled to Newark, New Jersey, immediately after the shooting and took a train to Philadelphia. Among the evidence shown at the pretrial hearing was a Philadelphia transit pass purchased at 1:06 p.m. — a little more than six hours after the shooting — and a ticket for a Greyhound bus, booked under the name Sam Dawson, leaving Philadelphia at 6:30 p.m. and arriving in Pittsburgh at 11:55 p.m.

A note with the heading “12/8” lists a number of tasks, including an apparent trip to Best Buy to purchase a digital camera and accessories, “hot meal + water bottles,” and “trash bag(s).” Under “12/9,” the day of Mangione’s arrest, the note lists tasks including “Sheetz,” an Altoona-based convenience store chain, “masks” and “AAA bats.” Under “Future TO DO,” it listed “intel checkin” and “survival kit.”

Mangione had a Sheetz hoagie in his backpack when he was arrested, along with a loaf of Italian bread from a local deli, according to police officers testifying Monday and Tuesday. It had been raining, and the bag and items inside it were wet, the officers said. They were heard on body-worn camera footage played in court theorizing that Mangione had gotten soaked walking from the city’s bus station.

Police responded to the McDonald’s after a manager called 911 to relay concerns from customers who thought that Mangione, eating breakfast in a back corner, resembled the man wanted for killing Thompson. On the call, played in court, the manager could be heard saying that because Mangione was wearing a medical mask, she could only see his eyebrows and that she searched online for a photo of the suspect for comparison.

Altoona Police Officer Stephen Fox testified on Tuesday that Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, expressed concern for the 911 caller’s wellbeing. Fox said Mangione asked if police had planned on releasing her name, which they didn’t. The officer recalled him saying: “It would be bad for her” and “there would be a lot of people that would be upset.”

At another point, Fox said, a shackled Mangione stumbled while trying to keep up with the brisk-moving officer. Fox said he apologized and said, “I forgot you were shackled.”

He said Mangione responded: “It’s OK, I’m going to have to get used to it.”