NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey stood alone at the Sphere, attempting to comprehend what she had witnessed after U2’s opening night performance in 2023. Mesmerized by the multisensory event, the Queen of All Media had a thought: Could she use the groundbreaking, 4D capabilities of the globe-shaped arena to help others reach their highest potential?
“You could use this technology as a visual, immersive experience to allow people to go deeper for themselves and walk away with a sense of awe and wonder about what it means to be alive,” the media mogul, whose empire was built largely by inspiring viewers of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” told The Associated Press. “I know that there’s more, and the more could really help people see themselves differently. It has the potential to be an incredible experience of magnificent wonder.”
That initial thought became “Oprah Winfrey's AHA,” taking place April 2-4 at the Sphere, the $2.3 billion state-of-the-art Las Vegas arena that has hosted performances by The Backstreet Boys, Phish, the Eagles and No Doubt — and a popular “The Wizard of Oz” film experience.
The two-hour live event will feature Winfrey with special guests and performances, including multiple Grammy winner Jacob Collier, poet and author Ocean Vuong, musician Ajeet and gospel singer Wintley Phipps. Among all-star collaborators crafting the experience with Winfrey are Oscar-nominated composer Max Richter, Grammy-nominated musicians Jason White and Jon Hopkins, playwright and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Tarell Alvin McCraney and Es Devlin, the stage designer for Beyoncé's “Formation” and “Renaissance” world tours. Tickets go on sale to the general public Sept. 25.
It’s been 15 years since Winfrey ended her iconic talk show, which last week celebrated its 40th anniversary of reaching U.S. syndication. She has stayed busy with her podcast, her CEO duties for her namesake OWN TV network, and various tours and live events. At 72, when many are embracing retirement, Winfrey isn't ready to slow down completely.
“I thought about sitting behind the gate and picking roses,” Winfrey joked. “The truth is, I got another strong decade. I feel the urgency of time, and I feel like I have something to say … and using all of these collaborators to help me say it in a more forceful and phenomenal and immersive way is my offering for this remaining decade.”
Though she no longer greets millions of TV viewers daily, Winfrey’s influence remains massive. Her book club is still a bucket list aspiration for authors, products appearing on her “Favorite Things” list can change a company’s fortune, and politicians still court her support.
“I think that I’ve been given this opportunity because you know I know how to use it, I know what to do with it. But I keep asking this question: Why have I been given it? I realize it’s such a huge opportunity that I’m not supposed to take it for granted,” said the philanthropist, who still writes daily in a journal filled with gratitude entries about all she has accomplished. She hopes “AHA” attendees will be inspired to take advantage of their own opportunities as well.
“Maya Angelou says, ‘Baby, I can see why you are where you are because you have been obedient to the call,’” she said, recalling conversations with the poet and literary giant. “That’s my message to everybody: Everybody has the call. If you are obedient to the call, if you surrender to the call, you will be led to higher ground than you ever even imagined.”
Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.
FILE - Lights from the Sphere illuminate rain clouds above The Strip, Nov. 15, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - Oprah Winfrey discusses the book "Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like To Be Free" at The 92nd Street Y, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Artificial-intelligence stocks are sliding worldwide Monday after leaders of the industry warned a slowdown is needed for the safety of humanity. Another jump in oil prices, meanwhile, sent the bond market to its latest pressure-raising milestone as the yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly touched 5% for the first time since 2023.
Despite all the downers for Wall Street, gains for many stocks outside AI helped limit the market's losses. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite, which has many more tech stocks, dropped a market-leading 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 209 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.
AI stocks have been under pressure a while because of worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. The concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after one of the industry’s leading voices, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called for a deliberate and global slowdown in the development of AI.
He cited safety issues, including the risk that AI becomes capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months.
Nvidia, whose profits have soared because its chips are helping to train AI models, sank 3.1% and was the heaviest weight on the market because of its massive size.
SpaceX, which gets a chunk of its business from AI, fell 0.7% after Elon Musk said over the weekend that he agrees with Amodei. Softbank Group, the Japanese giant that is a major investor of OpenAI, lost 10.7% in Tokyo after OpenAI’s Sam Altman likewise supported the concept of a slowdown.
Altman also said in an interview with Fortune published Saturday that OpenAI would likely wait until next year for a sale of its stock on Wall Street, potentially delaying a gusher of cash for Softbank and other early investors in OpenAI.
In South Korea, the Kospi index dropped 3.3% due to losses for its two most influential stocks, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
President Donald Trump played down the need for his administration to check the development of AI, saying he worried about ceding his country's edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology.
Even with so many voices inside and outside the AI industry calling for a slowdown to protect humanity, Trump said on his social media network Monday that the only guardrail it needs “is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
Helping to limit Wall Street's losses on Monday were several software companies that tumbled earlier on worries AI-powered competitors would undercut their businesses.
Intuit, the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks, rose 4.5%. Autodesk, whose software helps designers, climbed 6%, and Adobe added 3.5%.
Stocks in the oil industry also rose, including a 0.7% gain for ExxonMobil, following another jump in crude prices.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 3.7% to $108.45 as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil.
An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.
Brent has jumped from less than $72 in early July as doubts rise that the United States and Iran can come to an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf through the strait again.
While the prospect of a de-escalation of war in Iran may have dimmed, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary on Monday that the situation is still fluid and “sizable” volumes of oil have still been moving through the strait.
So far, the jump in oil prices has sent the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.
Such upward pressure on inflation has much of Wall Street expecting the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate on Wednesday at the end of its next meeting.
That’s the traditional way the Fed tries to rein in high inflation. Such a move then filters out through the rest of the bond market, slows the overall economy and undercuts prices for investments. That hopefully would remove some of inflation’s fuel, though Trump has been lobbying for lower interest rates instead of higher.
Besides high inflation, worries about rising debt for the U.S. and other governments and other concerns have sent longer-term Treasury yields to their highest levels in years.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury breached the 5.00% level during the morning for the first time in nearly three years. That's up from 4.96% late Friday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began in February. It later pulled back to 4.96%.
The 10-year yield has not consistently remained above 5% since the turn of the millennium, and its jump has already made it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow. That includes the highest average long-term mortgage rate in more than 14 months.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
FILE - A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
A monitor shows the Nikkei 225 stock index in Tokyo Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (Miyuki Saito/Kyodo News via AP)
