Good morning. In this edition:

• 🤖 Are we in an AI bubble?
• 🦷 Regenerating tooth enamel with sheep wool
• 🎭 The world's longest-running play

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.23-minute read (860 words).

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“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”

–Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

US investors’ torrid love affair with AI showed signs of slowing yesterday, following a pair of recent developments that cast doubt on the technology’s widely hyped potential.

Analysts say the poor performance for the tech-heavy Nasdaq (-0.7%) can be largely attributed to a new MIT report that found investments in AI have yet to pay off for nearly all companies that have adopted the technology.

• The report came on the heels of a recent interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in which he suggested investors may be caught in an AI bubble.

Breaking down the potential bubble

The MIT report—based on executive interviews, employee surveys, and an analysis of 300 public AI deployments—found that investments in AI haven’t seen much success thus far.

• “Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable impact,” the report said. Essentially, that means “95 per cent of organizations are getting zero return” from their AI usage.
• MIT researchers largely attribute these failures to corporate “learning gaps” and flawed integration within companies, rather than the AI models performing poorly.

The findings echo Altman’s earlier comments. At a dinner with reporters in San Francisco last week, the OpenAI CEO said he believes AI is “the most important thing to happen in a very long time,” but that people have become overexcited and created a bubble fueled by relentless hype.

• He likened it to the dot-com era, when early internet companies stoked massive investor enthusiasm in the late 1990s…but then failed to generate revenue or profits, causing the Nasdaq to lose ~80% of its value from March 2000 to October 2002.

Big picture: VC funding for internet startups surged from ~$6 billion to $30+ billion between 1995 and 2000, the height of the dot-com era, with an estimated 39% of all US venture-capital investment directed toward internet companies.

In Q1 2025, AI startups accounted for 71% of all US VC activity, or ~$57 billion. That figure is almost exactly equivalent to having $30 billion in 2000, according to the Labor Department’s CPI Inflation Calculator.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏦 President Trump calls on Fed governor Lisa Cook to resign after housing official alleges she submitted what he called fraudulent information on two mortgage applications. | China reportedly considering yuan-backed stablecoins to boost its global currency usage.
• 🎯 Target CEO Brian Cornell to step down in February after 11 years at the helm; he'll be replaced by COO Michael Fiddelke, who started at the company with an internship two decades ago; the bullseye retailer also reported declining sales as well as decreasing store and website traffic for fiscal Q2.
• 🍟 McDonald’s reportedly lowering the cost of its combo meals amidst a broader push to restore its reputation for affordability.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with SuperMoney

• 🏌️ Tiger Woods will lead a committee to modernize the PGA Tour’s competitive model, WSJ reports; possible changes include fewer events, smaller fields, and higher stakes.
• 📺 Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer sign new four-year exclusive deal with Paramount that will see them leave Netflix in April 2026.
• ⚾ MLB is “close to being done” with new set of media rights deals through 2028, per Yahoo Sports’ Kendall Baker; under the reported terms: Apple is out, NBC/Peacock is in, Netflix snags the Home Run Derby, and ESPN buys out-of-market streaming service MLB.tv.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 Space Force’s “secret” X37B military plane will take off later today on its eighth orbital test flight, which includes a new quantum navigation system. | NASA’s James Webb Telescope spots previously unknown moon around Uranus that’s six miles in diameter.
• 🦷 New study shows keratin extracted from sheep’s wool can effectively regenerate lost tooth enamel in humans, which doesn’t naturally regrow.
• 👁️ Surgery-free alternative to LASIK that uses electricity instead of lasers can successfully correct vision in minutes, per new rabbit tests.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ Justice Department launches investigation into allegations that Washington, DC, police falsified data to artificially lower crime rates; move comes a week after President Trump deployed 800+ National Guard troops to combat crime in DC.
• 🗳️ Elon Musk is “pumping the brakes” on his vow last month to start a new political party, and considering putting support behind VP Vance in 2028, per new WSJ report.
• 📜 Federal judge rules Texas can’t require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

☝️ Forget bedtime stories: Startup Curio is selling stuffed animals with hidden AI voice boxes that can chat with kids. While cuddly, screen-free and interactive play time may sound appealing to modern parents, some worry the stuffies pose privacy and development risks.

🤔 Did you know? The world’s longest-running play is The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The show has been performed over 28,000 times since opening in London’s West End in 1952 (pausing only for Covid). To make it even more fun, audiences are traditionally asked not to reveal the mystery killer at the end—which also makes it the longest-running spoiler alert in history🎭.

📰 Worth a read: How Superman became a character for the ages

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Yesterday we covered a new study that suggests social media is inherently flawed and impossible to fix in its current form due to certain fundamental features that seem to be unavoidable.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, does social media need fixing? And if so, how would you fix it?

• “Social media needs modest fixes, but the bigger solution will come from humans developing resilience to the technology through things like data literacy, critical thinking, and evolution.”
• “It does need fixing, but I believe it's beyond repair. As much good as social media has done, I believe it has done far more harm and the worst offenders (the largest contributors to the toxic discourse) should no longer exist. “
• “Yes. But because we live in America and have the freedom of speech, even though there are those that grossly abuse it on both the right and the left. It would be walking a fine line to do anything about it. So the best answer is. If you find it offensive, stop participating in it. Don't read or respond to it.”

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

+Note: Some responses may be slightly edited for clarity/length; Sample size: We received 89 longform responses.

Two US states share a border with a record-high eight other states. Can you name them?

🐕 A Pittsburgh pup recently guided a stranger to his unconscious owners, potentially saving both their lives and earning a temporary home for himself until they recover.

Tennessee and Missouri