Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤖 Talking to animals using AI
• 🔥 LA wildfires
• 📈 History content is on the rise

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.91-minute read (1,041 words).

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“Youth has no age.”

–Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Earth Species Project is a California non-profit with a lofty goal: use AI to translate animal languages into something humans can understand. Meaning, we may not be too far off from a reality where you can talk to your pets like Dug from Up.

• The project, which…..🐿️……was founded in 2017 with backing from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, recently secured $17 million in grants to continue its work on the AI model, called NatureLM.

How it works: NatureLM is the first audio-language model specifically designed to analyze animal sounds – essentially a “GPT-4 of animal communication” that’s trained on a mix of human language, animal noises, and environmental sounds.

When given an audio clip, NatureLM can already identify the species of animal speaking, as well as its approximate age and whether it’s indicating distress or play.

But…Becoming a real-life Dr. Dolittle is especially difficult compared to normal language translation, since humans have a limited understanding of how animals “talk” – and what they’re capable of communicating.

• For example: researchers just recently learned that many species have individual names for one another.
• And some, like prairie dogs, have a sophisticated vocabulary of nouns and adjectives to describe predators.

🌎🤖 Zoom out: The Earth Species Project is one of several efforts aimed at using AI to enhance humans’ relationship with nature. Project CETI last year used AI to decode a sperm whale “alphabet” – while Microsoft last month launched SPARROW, an AI system aimed at measuring and protecting Earth’s biodiversity in remote areas using solar-powered sensors and sound monitors.

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Los Angeles County firefighters are struggling to handle a series of ongoing and deadly wildfires, which have grown more dangerous and destructive in recent days due to a powerful windstorm.

What’s going on? As of yesterday evening, there were six wildfires raging across Los Angeles county: the larger Palisades and Eaton fires (covering 10,000+ acres apiece), as well as four smaller blazes covering ~500 acres or less. Local firefighters are struggling to handle the fast-moving fires, which were all 0% contained as of last night.

• Officials said the Eaton fire had caused at least five deaths, while the Palisades fire had destroyed 1,000+ structures to become the most destructive fire in city history.
• First responders and a “high number” of residents who didn’t evacuate their homes have also suffered significant injuries from the blazes, per local authorities.
• 150,000+ local residents have received evacuation orders, per a CNN analysis. That includes members of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which features some of LA’s wealthiest residents.

👀 Looking ahead…Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the fires – though progress has been slow due to empty fire hydrants and near hurricane-level winds (up to 60 MPH), which are expected to continue through today.

Say goodbye to the same five ads on repeat every time you open Max.

Comcast this quarter is launching Universal Ads, an advertising platform aimed at attracting small- and- medium-sized businesses in an effort to keep up with the industry's ever-changing landscape.

The program is designed to streamline and simplify the process of purchasing ad space on streaming networks, similar to how it works on social media sites such as Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, where buying ads is easier and requires a much lower starting budget.

• NBCUniversal, Xumo, A+E, AMC Networks, DirecTV, Fox Corp, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery have all joined Universal Ads.
• Others are expected to follow suit in the coming months.

Big picture: With the move, participating streamers are looking to divert marketing spend away from social media. Social media ad spending is estimated to have reached ~$90 billion in 2024, up roughly 19% from the year prior. It’s expected to rise another 14% this year, according to eMarketer.

📰 In other streaming news: Disney revealed yesterday its streaming platforms have an estimated 112 million US monthly users on its ad-supported tiers.

The market had an amazing 2024, driven by an AI revolution that reshaped industries and ignited 27% gains. Analysts predict 2025 could surpass even that, with groundbreaking innovation fueling massive growth opportunities.

According to BlackRock, we are on the precipice of something monumental: a new era of investing that favors the bold rather than the passive.

The Motley Fool has identified 15 stocks they believe are poised to lead this charge. These companies aren’t adapting – they’re shaping the future.

The exclusive report, “Stock Advisor’s Stocks for 2025 and Beyond,” highlights these potential game-changers. As of Dec. 18, Stock Advisor picks have averaged a staggering 916% return since inception.

Click here to access this report and join Stock Advisor today at an exclusive rate.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📊 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.2%; Dow: +0.3%; Nasdaq: -0.1%). | 🏦 Fed minutes suggest officials will hold rates steady for now.
• ⚖️ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was accused of sexual abuse by his sister in a new lawsuit; Altman denies the claims.
• 📱 Meta is allowing some eBay listings to appear on Facebook Marketplace. | 🤝 Union dockworkers and port employers reached a tentative six-year labor agreement ahead of a January 15 deadline; it still needs to be ratified by union members. (How did we get here?)

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Live It Up

• 🏈 Notre Dame and Penn State will face off tonight in the first game of the College Football Playoff semifinal.
• ⛳ TGL, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's indoor golf league, saw average viewership of 919,000 in its Tuesday night debut; that's ~2x the viewership of the PGA Tour's final round broadcast of The Sentry (461,000).
• 🎤 2025 Bonnaroo Festival will feature Luke Combs, Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo, and Hozier, among others; it takes place June 12-15. | 🏆 2025 SAG Award nominations were released: Wicked and Shōgun lead the film and TV races, with five nods apiece. See the full list. 

*From our partners: 🥦🙌 Daily nutrition, simplified: Get balanced energy, gut health, and immune support in one scoop with Super Greens by Live It Up. 20+ all-natural superfoods per scoop, voted best-tasting by Verywell Health, and loved by 180k+ customers. Save 10% with code DONUT10.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🕷️👃 Spiders smell with their leg hairs: A new study found olfactory hairs along male spiders' legs act as a nose to detect pheromones from females.
• ♨️🌊 Scientists discovered a hidden “hotspot” that helped create the Great Lakes ~20,000 years ago.
• 🏥💊 Medicare drug plans can now cover Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound for obstructive sleep apnea, per federal officials.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Kanguro

• 🗽🚦 New York City has the slowest car travel among all US cities, followed by San Francisco and Honolulu, per a new TomTom analysis.
• 🙏 Today is a national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter, whose official state funeral will be held this morning in Washington, D.C.
• 🏛️ The DOJ said it intends to release special counsel Jack Smith’s report into President-elect Trump’s alleged election interference, but will temporarily keep under wraps Smith’s report on Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. | ⚖️ Trump filed a last-ditch request asking the Supreme Court to block his New York hush-money sentencing set for tomorrow.

*From our partners: 🐶❤️ Protect your pets and your peace of mind with Kanguro Insurance. Quick reimbursements, 24/7 bilingual vet access via online chat, customizable plans, and big savings for pet and renters insurance. Rated Excellent on Trustpilot, loved by thousands. Learn more about Kanguro.

Like 15-inch Kickers in the trunk of an SUV, history content is booming. Per a new report from Bloomberg:

• In 2023, people in the UK and Ireland spent more on history books than at any point since Nielsen BookData’s records began in 1998.
• Ancient history sales rose 67% from 2013 to 2023, while books focusing on “specific subjects” – individual stories of lives, events, or movements – climbed 70% over the same period.
• In the US, where the overall book market is flat, history sales have grown 6% in the past year alone. And for the first time in an election year, history as a category outsold politics (by two to one).

The rise is mostly being fueled by social media (think: TikTok + Roman Empire), books, and podcasts, such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History and Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. And it comes as history majors have fallen out of style – US spring enrollment for history by undergraduates on four-year courses has fallen by 15+% since 2019.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the 2024 reFocus Awards, which aim to celebrate the enduring appeal of photography.

🤔 Did You Know? Birds have pneumatic, hollow bones filled with air sacs, meaning they’re able to turn the voids in their bones into extra lung space when they breathe in.

📰 Worth a Read: Predicting the “digital superpowers” we could have by 2030 → (Big Think)

🖱Clickbait: The Income Needed to Join the Top 1% in Every US State.

Yesterday, we covered a new report intended to shape federal dietary guidelines has reignited a debate over the potential health benefits of moderate drinking.

❓ Our question to you: Do the US government’s Dietary Guidelines affect your personal decision making when it comes to health?

• 👍 Yes: 24%
• 👎 No: 76%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,161 votes and 226 longform responses.

Construction company owner Tim King was renovating the bathroom in his parents' home when he found something unexpected in the wall: a lost Christmas gift from 1978. 

"We took out a medicine cabinet before we drywalled and I thought, 'I'd better just look in there to make sure nothing's back there,'" he told People. "And then there it was!"

• The small present was addressed to Tim, who would've been 6 years old the Christmas it disappeared.

 ✈️ The big mystery: When he opened the present, he found a box containing now-vintage Matchbox model airplanes.

The island of Curaçao belongs to which European nation?

Saving up referral points? Check your balance and upcoming milestone prizes here. (And if you haven’t claimed, just reply to this email and we’ll get you sorted👍🍩.)

The Netherlands