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(NEW YORK) — While experts disagree about whether AI poses an existential threat, Dan Hendrycks, a researcher and the director of the Center for AI Safety, or CAIS, is among those who believe the technology could destroy humanity in a variety of ways.

A bad actor could gain possession of a future version of generative AI, ask it for instructions on how to make a biological weapon and set off devastation, he told ABC News. Or, he added, the efficiency delivered by AI could force widespread business adoption, leaving the global economy in its thrall; alternatively, it could also worsen the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

The end of humanity, Hendrycks said, is hardly a remote possibility. “If I see international coordination doesn’t happen, or much of it, it’ll be more likely than not that we go extinct,” he added.

Experts who lend credence to the threat told ABC News that the massive potential risks require urgent attention and stiff oversight; while skeptics warned that grave forecasts fuel a misunderstanding about the capabilities of AI and distract from current harms caused by the technology.

In recent months, dire warnings about the massive threat posed by AI have ascended from the corridors of computer science departments to the halls of Congress.

An open letter written in May by CIAS warned that AI poses a “risk of extinction” akin to pandemics or nuclear war, featuring signatures from hundreds of researchers and industry leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s AI division.

Altman, whose company developed the viral AI sensation Chat-GPT, in May told a Senate subcommittee: “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.” In an interview with ABC News, in March, Altman said, “I think people should be happy that we are a little bit scared of this.”

OpenAI and Google did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Other AI luminaries, however, have balked. Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, told the MIT Technology Review that fear of an AI takeover is “preposterously ridiculous.” Sarah Myers West, managing director of the nonprofit AI Now Institute, told ABC News: “A lot of this is more rhetoric than grounded analysis.”

The divide over the existential threat posed by AI looms over recent advances in the technology as it sweeps across institutions from manufacturing to mass entertainment, prompting disagreement about the pace of development and the focus of possible regulation.

“We’re looking to experts to tell us,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor of management at Yale University who convenes gatherings of top CEOs. “But experts are split on this.”

As AI develops, however, an imperative for onlookers is clear, he said: “We can’t sit on the sidelines.”

Concern about the risks posed by AI have drawn greater attention lately in response to major breakthroughs like ChatGPT, which reached 100 million users within two months of its launch in November.

Microsoft launched a version of its Bing search engine in March that offers responses delivered by GPT-4, the latest model of ChatGPT. Rival search company Google in February announced an AI model called Bard.

“AI in previous instantiations was a largely invisible system,” Myers West said. “It wasn’t something we interacted with in a tangible way. This has had a really visceral effect on the broader public in that it’s contributing to this wave of both excitement and a tremendous amount of anxiety.”

Doomsday forecasts, however, lack granular specifics and overstate the potential for self-awareness to form within generative AI like ChatGPT, which scans text from across the internet and strings words together based on statistical probability, Myers West said.

“At present, essentially the way these systems work is akin to applied statistics, so they don’t have any capacity for deeper understanding, don’t have any capacity for empathy and certainly not sentience,” Myers West added.

But the risk posed by AI stems from its potential to exceed human intelligence rather than mimic it, Stuart Russell, an AI researcher at the University of California, Berkeley who co-authored a study on societal-scale dangers of the technology, told ABC News.

“If you make systems that are more intelligent than humans, they will have more power over the world than we do, just as we have more power over the world than other species on earth,” he said.

Acknowledging a lack of specifics in some prominent messages about the extreme risks, such as the open letter released by CAIS in May, Russell said: “Once you get into specifics, you end up with arguments about which is the most plausible.” Hendrycks, of CAIS, added: “Since AI touches on many aspects of society, we end up finding there are many, many risk sources.”

Key remedies, such as robust government oversight and liability for AI developers, can help deter a range of catastrophic scenarios, Hendrycks said. “We don’t need to know exactly what’s going to happen to make interventions to reduce risk,” he said.

To be sure, while acknowledging the risks of AI, experts heralded its potential benefits. Proponents of AI say the technology could increase productivity, automate unpleasant or mundane tasks and afford the opportunity to focus on creative and innovative endeavors. AI has been touted as an aid for endeavors ranging from the fight against climate change to the diagnosis of cancer.

Senate Majority Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released a framework last month outlining four pillars that he hopes will guide future bipartisan legislation governing AI: security, accountability, protecting our foundations and explainability.

The framework is not legislative text, and it’s not clear how long it will take for Congress to begin putting together legislative proposals. There has not yet been any comprehensive legislation introduced in Congress to deal with regulating AI, though a bicameral group of lawmakers introduced a proposal last month that would create a blue-ribbon commission to study AI’s impact.

“We have no choice but to acknowledge that AI’s changes are coming, and in many cases are already here. We ignore them at our own peril,” Schumer said last month in prepared remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, appeared last month at a roundtable event focused on AI in California, describing artificial intelligence as something that has “enormous promise and its risks.”

An effort to ward off hypothetical long-term dangers could distract from present-day damage caused by AI, said Isabelle Jones, campaign outreach manager for Stop Killer Robots, which aims to establish an international agreement prohibiting the use of autonomous weapons.

“I think that to purely focus on the future is to the detriment of the existing harms that are coming about or that there’s an immediate risk of,” Jones told ABC News.

Policymakers can address current and future dangers at the same time, Russell said, just as they do in combating climate change. “I think the narrative that you can either do one or the other but can’t do both is actually poisonous.”

Regardless of whether they believe or question forecasts of extreme risk, experts who spoke with ABC News called on the government to regulate the technology.

“My biggest thing is regulation and international coordination,” Hendrycks said. Jones cited international accords on issues like nuclear proliferation as a model for reigning in autonomous weapons.

Still, Myers West said, differences could again arise on the issue of specifics. “The devil is in the details,” she said.

ABC News’ Alison Pecorin contributed reporting.

 

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(NEW YORK) — As long-standing recession alarms continue to blare from some forecasters, investors don’t appear to hear them.

The S&P 500 — the index that most people’s 401(k)s track — has climbed more than 18% since the start of this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has jumped a staggering 35%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has jumped some 6% this year, notched its eighth consecutive day of gains on Wednesday, the longest such streak since 2019.

The blockbuster stock market performance this year owes much to a significant cooldown of inflation that has bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve can bring price hikes to normal levels without causing a severe downturn, analysts told ABC News.

Those analysts also noted that enthusiasm about artificial intelligence has provided a boost for major tech stocks that are disproportionately reflected in the gains of major indices weighted toward the biggest firms.

Analysts differed, however, in their opinions regarding whether the strong performance will last. Some said that in the coming months, investors will sour on the sky-high stock prices, while others said room for growth remains.

“It’s pretty amazing that we’re seeing such robust market returns this year, especially in the face of a looming recession,” said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer at PNC Financial Services. “You have to claim victory and be thrilled.”

The U.S. economy has proven more resilient than many expected amid an aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve that are intended to fight price increases by slowing the economy and slashing demand, analysts said.

Consumer prices rose 3% in June compared to a year ago, marking a significant slowdown from a peak inflation rate last summer of more than 9%, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.

Some key economic indicators, meanwhile, have demonstrated robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market slowed but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.

The growing possibility of a ”soft landing” has cheered markets, John Stoltzfus, managing director and chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer Asset Management, told ABC News.

“What we think is happening here is primarily recognition by the market that indeed the Fed is having real progress against inflation,” Stoltzfus said.

Meanwhile, an upswell of optimism about the benefits of AI has compounded that positive market outlook, Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at broker OANDA, told ABC News.

“It has been resilient because of the AI movement,” Moya said. “There needed to be a fresh catalyst.”

Major indices like the S&P 500 are weighted proportionately toward the largest firms, made up mostly of big tech companies, which have delivered better-than-average returns amid the ongoing AI fervor and consequently buoyed the performance of the overall indices, Moya added.

Shares of Google, which unveiled its generative AI product, Bard, in February, have climbed roughly 36% in value this year. Microsoft, which owns a major stake in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, has seen its share price jump 46%.

“There’s been a huge disconnect between the top 10 biggest names driving price returns and what everybody else is doing,” Agati said, noting that performance of the S&P 500 this year, when excluding the ten largest companies, stands at single-digit gains.

Looking ahead, Agati and Moya said they expect the stock market to decline over the remainder of the year, ending 2023 with positive but modest returns. The full economic cooling-off effects of central bank rate hikes have yet to take hold, they said, adding that inflation may not return to normal levels as soon as investors hope.

“The rally will stall out here,” Moya said.

Stoltzfus, however, said there’s a “good chance” the stock market will end the year higher than it currently stands.

“We have maintained a fairly bullish posture,” he said. “Where the market is trading right now would suggest to us that it has further to go this year.”

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(NEW YORK) — A winning ticket for the $1 billion Powerball jackpot was sold in California.

The winning numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing were 7, 10, 11, 13 and 24, and the Powerball was 24. The jackpot ticket was sold at the Las Palmitas Mini Market in Los Angeles, the California Lottery said.

The jackpot has a cash value of $516.8 million, before taxes.

Three tickets sold in Florida, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island won $2 million, Powerball said. There were also several Match 5 winners in California (seven), Connecticut, Florida (four), Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts (three), Maryland (two), Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey (two), New York (five), Ohio, Texas (four), Wisconsin and West Virginia. Each ticket won $1 million.

The Powerball jackpot is now reset to $20 million.

The Powerball, which was last hit on April 19, had 38 consecutive drawings without a winner.

The winner has the choice between annual payments over 30 years, which increase by 5% each year, or a lump sum payment.

“This has turned into a historic jackpot run; this is only the third time in Powerball’s 31-year history that a jackpot has reached the billion-dollar threshold,” said Drew Svitko, Powerball product group chair and Pennsylvania Lottery executive director. “It only takes one ticket to win this massive jackpot or any of Powerball’s other cash prizes. If you win the jackpot, sign your ticket, put it somewhere very safe, and reach out to your local lottery.”

The biggest jackpot in Powerball history was a $2.04 billion prize claimed by a man in Altadena, California, in November 2022. The only other time the Powerball jackpot crossed a billion was when three tickets won a $1.586 billion prize in January 2016.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.

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(SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.) — Face masks that were in during the COVID-19 pandemic will officially be out at some In-N-Out Burger locations across five states, according to a company memo.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration declared the U.S. is no longer officially in a COVID-19 emergency for the first time since the pandemic began three years ago.

The popular West Coast burger chain released an internal memo last week notifying employees in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah of a mask policy update “to show our Associates’ smiles and other facial features while considering the health and well-being of all individuals.”

The memo, obtained by ABC News from a Scottsdale, Arizona-based employee, stated that “No masks shall be worn in the Store or Support facility unless an Associate has a valid medical note exempting him or her from this requirement.”

Employees who do wear a face mask for a medical reason will be required by In-N-Out to “wear a company-provided N-95 mask,” according to the memo. “A different type of mask may only be worn with a valid medical note exempting the Associate from the N-95 mask requirement.”

There are also exemptions to the policy for employees “who are required to wear masks or other protective gear as part of their job duties (e.g., patty room Associates, lab technicians, painters, etc.).”

According to the memo, employees who fail to comply with the updated policy may face “appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, based on the severity and frequency of the violation.”

In-N-Out did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

The company plans to review this “periodically to ensure its effectiveness and compliance with evolving health guidelines,” according to the memo.

The rule will take effect August 14, the memo says.

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(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot has grown to $1 billion for Wednesday night’s drawing, the game’s third-largest prize ever.

The jackpot has a cash value of $516.8 million, before taxes.

The Powerball, which was last hit on April 19, has now had 38 consecutive drawings without a winner.

The winner would have the choice between annual payments over 30 years, which increase by 5% each year, or a lump sum payment.

“This has turned into a historic jackpot run; this is only the third time in Powerball’s 31-year history that a jackpot has reached the billion-dollar threshold,” said Drew Svitko, Powerball product group chair and Pennsylvania Lottery executive director. “It only takes one ticket to win this massive jackpot or any of Powerball’s other cash prizes. If you win the jackpot, sign your ticket, put it somewhere very safe, and reach out to your local lottery.”

The biggest jackpot in Powerball history was a $2.04 billion prize claimed by a man in Altadena, California, in November 2022. The only other time the Powerball jackpot crossed a billion was when three tickets won a $1.586 billion prize in January 2016.

The drawing will be held just before 11 p.m. ET.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.

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(NEW YORK) — Summer air travel is already off to a bumpy start for many travelers experiencing more flight delays than usual and now there’s a new alert for when it’s time to rebook.

With flight delays higher than last summer, stuck travelers are trying to avoid the lines and calling to rebook — and that’s where the trouble can start.

Shmuli Evers told ABC News he was in a jam on Sunday evening at JFK Airport in New York City when his Delta flight to Florida was canceled. While in a line of other stranded passengers at the help desk, Evers said he searched online for a number for Delta customer service. He called the number listed and eventually got an automated prompt.

Evers said he was almost scammed.

“There was like two options — like is this for this airline, that airline,” which he recalled thinking was weird. “‘If this is Delta’s number, this should be just Delta?’ which was, looking back now, already a little bit strange.”

He told ABC News that the call dropped and a different number called him back, asking for his name and flight confirmation number.

Evers claimed they tried several times to get his payment information, but told ABC News he noticed too many red flags.

“I asked him, ‘Where are you located?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m in Rochester, New York.’ [I asked], ‘How far is that from New York City?’ He’s like, ‘It’s about two hours.’ And so I’m like, ‘OK, that’s not the way it is,'” he recalled.

Delta told ABC News in a statement, “Whenever we become aware of an alleged scam targeting our customers, including in this situation, we immediately conduct an investigation. Using the facts gained from an investigation, when able, we can then address each unique situation as appropriate with the necessary legal means at our disposal.”

But this isn’t the first time would-be scammers have attempted to target unsuspecting airline customers.

Another traveler, Kathleen Marcozzi, said she tried to search online for her airline’s phone number to rebook a flight, but the person she eventually spoke to told her it would cost $400 and sent a document to sign from an unrelated company.

“I said, ‘I’m not signing this.’ And he said, ‘You have to sign it or you’re going to lose your flight,'” she said.

The Better Business Bureau says it has received nearly 200 reports of similar airline travel scams, many of which have involved operators posing as airline employees, rebooking or canceling flights without refunds and even using images or logos of valid companies.

Experts say if you suspect you’re being scammed, contact your bank followed by the real travel company.

“Tell them what happened to you,” Theresa Payton, CEO of Borderless Solutions and former White House chief information officer, said. “Report the fraud and see if they can help you and get rebooked.”

“If you find yourself in this situation where you have been scammed, time is of the essence,” she said.

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(LOS ANGELES) — As the Hollywood-paralyzing strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) went into its fifth day Tuesday, the studios and producers accused the union of mischaracterizing the labor negotiations.

The Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP) released a statement, claiming the actors’ union walked away from a $1 billion deal.

“SAG-AFTRA continues to mischaracterize the negotiations with AMPTP. Not only does its press release deliberately distort the offers made by AMPTP, it also fails to include the proposals offered verbally to SAG-AFTRA leadership on July 12,” the studios and producers said in a statement released on Monday.

The AMPTP statement apparently came in response to one issued by SAG-AFTRA on Monday, in which the union accused the studios and producers of taking advantage of workers.

“Here’s the simple truth: We’re up against a system where those in charge of multibillion-dollar media conglomerates are rewarded for exploiting workers,” the union statement reads.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted Thursday to go on strike after it said negotiations that started on June 7 broke down. The union’s 160,000 members formed picket lines Friday morning from Hollywood to New York.

The union’s contract expired at 11:59 p.m. PT Wednesday.

Currently, no negotiations are going on and both sides appear far apart in their demands.

It is the first time since the 1960s that both SAG-AFTRA and the 11,000-member Writers Guild of America are striking at the same time. The writers union has been on strike since May 2.

The biggest roadblock in the negotiations are concerns over streaming residuals, the impact of AI technology and union member earnings.

AMPTP represents such companies as Amazon, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, HBO and The Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News.

In its statement released on Monday, SAG-AFTRA claimed that AMPTP is “committed to prioritizing shareholders and Wall Street.”

The union is asking for a 11% general wage increase in the first year of a new contract, but claimed the AMPTP is only offering a 5% wage hike.

In addition to a pay hike, SAG-AFTRA said it proposed a comprehensive set of provisions to grant informed consent and fair compensation when a “digital replica” is made or an actor’s performance is changed using artificial intelligence. The union also said it proposed a comprehensive plan for actors to participate in streaming revenue, claiming the current business model has eroded our residual income for actors.

The AMPTP claimed it offered the union increases in wages, pension and health contributions and residuals totaling more than $1 billion over a three-year contract. The producers and studios claimed their offer also included protections with respect to the use of AI.

The producers and studios claimed the proposal it offered the union is “the most lucrative deal we have ever negotiated.”

“The AMPTP’s goal from day one has been to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with SAG-AFTRA,” the AMPTP statement on Monday said. “A strike is not the outcome we wanted. For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best.”

Actor Kenrick Sampson of the HBO series “Insecure,” was among the union members walking a picket line in Los Angeles on Monday. He accused the AMPTP of “being greedy and inhuman.”

Traditionally, actors have been paid a residual every time a TV show or movie they appeared in is aired in syndication or anywhere in the world. With streaming, shows don’t go into reruns, but live perpetually on platforms and can be played by viewers anytime. Sampson and other actors said residual payments for streaming programs have been reduced to meager amounts.

For example, Sampson told ABC News’ “Nightline” that he received an envelope last week with more than 50 residual checks for streaming programs he appeared in.

“And out of 50 of them, I wouldn’t even venture to say 10 of them equaled a dollar,” Sampson said.

A video that actress Kimiko Glenn, who starred in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” posted on TikTok of her foreign royalty statement from streaming residuals recently resurfaced, showing that out of nearly 60 recurring appearances on the show, she received $27.30.

“The sad reality is that for the past 10 years my residual checks have looked like this,” Glenn told “Nightline.” “At this point, you have to get a side hustle, you have to sort of have several different income streams to make this life work. And it didn’t use to be that way.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot has ballooned to $1 billion after Monday night’s drawing produced no winners, the third-largest purse in Powerball history.

The winner numbers in Monday’s drawing were 5, 8, 9, 17 and 41, and the Powerball was 21.

The estimated cash payout would for the next draw is $516.8 million.

There was no Powerball jackpot winner in Saturday night’s $875 million drawing either, Powerball said Sunday.

There have been 37 consecutive drawings without a jackpot, Powerball officials said in a press release. The most recent jackpot winner was in the April 19, 2023, drawing, which had a grand prize worth $252.6 million, the lottery said.

The $900 million jackpot trails only two previous drawings, the lottery said. A ticket in California won a $2.04 billion jackpot in November 2022 and tickets in California, Florida and Tennessee hit a $1.586 billion jackpot in January 2016.

Saturday’s winning numbers were 2, 9, 43, 55 and 57, and the red Powerball was 18.

Two tickets in Texas and one in Colorado matched all five white balls, winning the $1 million prize on Saturday.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

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(NEW YORK) — An estimated $1 billion jackpot is up for grabs in the next Powerball drawing.

It’s the third-largest purse in the game’s history and the seventh-largest U.S. lottery jackpot, according to a press release from Powerball.

The grand prize has an estimated cash value of $516.8 million, Powerball said.

Here’s everything you need to know:

What days are the Powerball drawings and when is the next one?

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also livestreamed online at Powerball.com.

The next drawing is on Wednesday, July 19.

Where are Powerball tickets sold and how much do they cost?

Powerball tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In Idaho and Montana, Powerball is bundled with Power Play — a feature that allows a winner to multiply the original amount of non-jackpot prizes — for a minimum purchase price of $3 per ticket.

More than half of all proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was purchased.

Can Powerball tickets be purchased online?

Players can buy Powerball tickets in person from retailers in authorized participating U.S. states. In certain U.S. states, Powerball tickets can be purchased online through the state lottery agency.

Players can also take part through online lottery ticket company Jackpot.com by going to the website or downloading the mobile app.

What are the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot?

The Powerball jackpot grows based on game sales and interest, but the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million.

Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. Both advertised prize options do not include federal and jurisdictional taxes.

All winning tickets must be redeemed in the jurisdiction in which they are sold.

How to play Powerball

Select five numbers between 1 and 69 for the white balls, then select one number between 1 and 26 for the red Powerball. Choose the numbers on a play slip or let the lottery terminal randomly pick them.

Add the Power Play feature for an additional $1 to multiply non-jackpot prizes by two, three, four, five or 10 times. The multiplier number is randomly selected before each drawing.

The 10-times multiplier is only in play when the advertised jackpot annuity is $150 million or less, while the Match 5 prize with Power Play is always $2 million.

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(NEW YORK) — A better-than-expected inflation report last week bolstered hopes that a prolonged bout of severe price hikes is near its end — but the costs of some staple items continue to soar.

Consumer prices rose 3% last month compared to a year ago, marking a significant slowdown from a peak last summer of more than 9%, government data showed.

The aftereffects of pandemic-induced supply chain blockages and the Russia-Ukraine war, however, have kept price hikes elevated for some crucial goods, such as bread and frozen vegetables, experts told ABC News.

Here’s what to know about which prices are still rising and what’s causing the surge.

Bread and beer

The price of bread jumped 11.5% in June compared to a year prior, marking a cost increase nearly four times higher than overall inflation. The cost of cookies jumped 8.8% over that period, while the price of beer leapt 5.4%, according to government data.

Taken together, these sharp price hikes stem in large part from grain supply shortages imposed by the Russia invasion of Ukraine, the world’s fifth-largest exporter of wheat, said Mark Hamrick, a Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.

“It begins with the war in Ukraine,” Hamrick told ABC News. “And there have been ripple effects from that.”

On Monday, Russia paused its participation in a key deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain, potentially exacerbating the global supply shortage, said David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University.

And even as global supply chains have tried to adapt to the grain shortage, elevated fuel prices have added transport costs, Ortega said.

“There’s a reality of higher energy costs compared to pre-COVID,” he said.

Processed fruits and vegetables

Some of the most eye-popping price increases have struck packaged fruits and vegetables.

Frozen vegetable prices soared more than 17% in June compared to a year prior, which makes for an inflation rate nearly six times higher than the overall pace. The cost of canned fruits jumped more than 8% over that period, meanwhile, and the price of canned vegetables rose more than 5%, government data showed.

Such foods have resisted a cooldown in prices because they require a “long supply chain” that calls for packaging and processing, which in turn exposes them to elevated supply costs as the global economy works out remaining kinks from the pandemic disruption, Ortega said.

By comparison, Ortega noted, price increases for fresh produce have slowed significantly. The prices of fresh fruits and vegetables climbed just 1.1% in June compared to a year prior.

“In the perimeter of stores, we’re seeing food prices abating,” Ortega said, highlighting the presence of fresh food in that area. “In the center of the store, that’s where we’re seeing food-price inflation persist.”

Underwear and jewelry

Price hikes also remain sky high for some apparel goods. The prices for women’s underwear and swimwear jumped more than 7% in June compared to a year ago; the price of men’s underwear climbed over 4% during that period.

“I did purchase underwear myself recently and literally made a comment to the store clerk saying it’s getting expensive to wear underwear these days but there’s no alternative,” said Hamrick, of Bankrate.com.

In general, such price spikes result from a “mismatch between supply and demand,” Hamrick added, noting that he did not know the exact cause of the rise in underwear prices.

Similarly, the price of jewelry jumped more than 7% in June compared to a year ago, far outpacing the inflation rate for overall apparel costs during that period, which stands at 3.1%.

Other notably high price increases over the past year include a roughly 12% leap in pet food costs and a nearly 9% rise for tools and outdoor equipment, government data showed.

The price of eggs, which spiked last summer due to an avian flu outbreak, has fallen nearly 8% over the past year.

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