Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤖 Rising AI business costs
• 🍿 YouTuber’s film earns 100x budget
• 🧠 Time-traveling teen

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.18-minute read (1,113 words).

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“[There] can be no greater gift than that of giving one's time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.”

–Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

After spending the past two years treating AI adoption like a corporate arms race, some executives are starting to realize the technology’s benefits may be arriving slower than the invoices.

A handful of major companies have begun scaling back are beginning to scrutinize their AI spending more closely:

• Microsoft reportedly canceled many of its internal Claude Code licenses in part due to rising costs.
• Uber COO Andrew Macdonald in an interview on Saturday said AI spending is getting “harder to justify,” after the company blew through its entire annual Claude Code budget by April without a proportional increase in production.
• An AI consultant told Axios one company accidentally racked up ~$500 million in AI costs in a single month after failing to put usage limits on Claude for employees.

Why are costs ballooning so quickly?

Most enterprise AI systems charge businesses based on “tokens,” or chunks of data processed by the model, meaning every prompt carries a cost.

• The recent rise of agentic AI systems that repeatedly chain together queries means some tasks are now consuming exponentially more tokens.
• Additionally, employees who are incentivized by internal management to use AI tools often inflate usage scores by routing unnecessary tasks through frontier models

While companies across the board have been quick to adopt new AI tools, many are still struggling to determine whether the productivity gains justify the cost.

• Businesses say AI is improving areas like coding, customer service, and internal workflows, though the exact return on investment remains difficult to measure.
• Coinbase, Shopify, Pinterest, and Block have all linked recent layoffs or restructurings to AI adoption in some capacity, though some economists argue they may be using it as cover for broader cost-cutting efforts.

Employees are also increasingly skeptical. More than 70% of Americans say AI is advancing too quickly, recent polling shows, while just 9% of US workers said they trust AI to handle complex business decisions—compared to 61% of executives.

Bottom line: Few experts and business leaders expect the broader AI boom to suddenly disappear. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Google are collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, while supporters argue the current AI growing pains resemble previous tech revolutions before their business models fully matured.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, is the US economy currently in an AI bubble?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🍿 YouTuber Curry Barker’s indie horror film Obsession has earned $79+ million in its first two weekends—more than 100x its $750,000 budget.

🏓 The number of pickleball courts across America’s 100 most populous cities increased by just 4% from 2025 to 2026. That’s down from 13% growth in 2025, and 14% the previous year.

🍕 An estimated 80% of NYC pizza joints use potassium bromate to help ensure a stronger, chewier product. But that additive—a suspected carcinogen banned in dozens of countries—could soon be on the chopping block following a newly approved NY state bill.

🪙 The number of physical attacks against cryptocurrency holders—including kidnappings, violent assaults, and home invasions—rose by 75% last year to 72 verified incidents, and is on pace to reach 130 tracked incidents this year.

💼 US workers aged 16 to 19 are projected to gain just 790,000 jobs between May and July, which would mark the lowest summer hiring total for teens since at least 1948.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 Average personal saving rate—what’s left of a paycheck after taxes and spending—fell to 2.6% in April, down from 4.3% in January; it’s the lowest mark over the past six decades, outside of two other periods: the mid-2000s, and briefly in 2022.
• 🚨 Google engineer charged with insider trading after allegedly using confidential info to earn $1.2 million in Polymarket bets on the top-searched person of 2025.
• 🤖 Anthropic announces $65 billion in Series H financing at a $965 billion valuation, topping OpenAI ($852 billion) as America’s most valuable AI startup. | Anthropic also releases Claude Opus 4.8, an upgrade to its flagship AI model.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎾 World #1 Jannik Sinner stunned by #56-ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo in second-round comeback upset at French Open amid sweltering heat; it’s the first time a men’s #1 is eliminated before Round 3 at a Grand Slam since 2000.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Matthew Perry’s assistant sentenced to 41 months in prison in relation to the actor’s 2023 ketamine overdose death; he’s the fifth and final person to be tried in the case.
• 📺 CBS announces tech journalist Nick Bilton will take over 60 Minutes, as Tanya Simon departs after 25 years.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🥒 Amputated sea cucumber parts show signs of “immortality” under natural conditions, maintaining their cell functionality but not regrowing into a whole new organism, per new Science Advances study.
• 🪶 Paleontologists discover new species of feathered bird that lived 121 million years ago; the Plumadraco, or “feathered dragon,” was robin-sized with tail feathers about twice the length of its body.
• 🌕 Blue moon, or second full moon of the month, will rise in the night sky on Sunday; it’s the first monthly blue moon since 2023, and the last until 2028.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 💥 Iran war: White House confirms Axios report that US and Iran have “mostly agreed” to terms of a temporary peace deal, though Trump has yet to give his final approval; deal reportedly includes a 60-day memo of understanding to extend the ongoing ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and allow for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
• 🗽 New York lawmakers approve new “pied-a-terre” tax on second homes in NYC valued at $1+ million; it’s expected to raise ~$500 million/yr for the city’s budget.
• ⚖️ Former President Biden sues DOJ to block release of audio recordings between him and an author collected during the DOJ’s classified documents investigation. | DOJ reportedly investigating E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued President Trump for sexual assault, over statements she made in a 2022 deposition about those suits.

☝️ Graduation season is here, which means glue guns are heating up and grad cap creativity is in full swing. Here are some of the best graduation cap designs from high school seniors across the country.

🤔 Did you know? The Earth is traveling through space at ~67,000 MPH as it orbits the Sun. At the same time, the entire solar system is also orbiting around the center of the Milky Way at a speed of ~447,000 MPH. And the Milky Way itself is moving through space at a blistering ~1.3 million MPH relative to cosmic background radiation.

📰 Worth a read: How a blind taste competition launched the American wine industry

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• One teen’s ability to mentally time-travel
• Why broccoli crowns are suddenly wearing luxury price tags
• Move over, seltzer. Non-carbonated drinks are taking the spotlight

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How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

1. A water tank holds 120 gallons when full. It is currently 3/4 full, and then 15 gallons of water are used. How many gallons of water remain in the tank?
2. A train leaves at 8:45 AM and travels for 2 hours and 35 minutes. It then stops for 20 minutes before traveling another 1 hour and 10 minutes. What time does it arrive?
3. Convert 86°F to Celsius.

🐆 An 87-year-old artist has turned his UK town into a "local safari" after installing 300+ handmade animal sculptures across town as a retirement project.

1. 75 gallons
2. 12:50 PM
3. 30°C (Solution: (86 − 32) × 5/9 = 30)

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