Hello, World!

Last week in Stratechery, Ben Thompson dropped AI and the Human Condition. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. It’s refreshing to read something about AI that isn’t all doom and gloom.

My takeaway: historically, publishing helped create nations by giving people shared stories. Today, its opportunity is less about mass narratives and more about building communities around shared meaning. We all see this playing out on Substack and through podcasts!

The current use cases of AI are pretty bad at the whole community and meaning thing. Outputs are individualized and private, which makes them great for productivity but shitty for common culture.

At the same time, AI has the chance to free humans from purely economic labor, increasing the value of beauty, craftsmanship, and human presence. Even in a world of abundance, people will continue to value human work and human connection, creating enduring economic and cultural value simply because it comes from other humans.

If AI maximizes productivity, then humans are left to scale meaning, community, and connection. The work that becomes more important is the effort put into creating spaces that bring people together.

Tech News

Polymarket Roundup

• Polymarket signed an exclusive partnership with Dow Jones to supply real-time prediction market data across outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch. (Bloomberg)

• Polymarket also signed an exclusive partnership with the Golden Globe Awards to display real-time prediction market odds during the 2026 ceremony and official viewing party. This was the first time a major awards show had integrated live market forecasts into its broadcast and digital coverage. (Variety)

• Polymarket declined to settle a market on whether the US “invaded” Venezuela after US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro, arguing that the operation did not meet its definition of an invasion because it did not involve taking control of Venezuelan territory. As a result, more than $10.5M in bets remain unresolved, drawing renewed attention to how prediction markets define and adjudicate outcomes. (Financial Times)

Future of TV

• FIFA said parts of the 2026 men’s World Cup will be broadcast live on TikTok under a new partnership with the platform. The deal also gives select creators access to press conferences and training sessions to post behind-the-scenes content during the tournament. (The Athletic)

• Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said the first fully AI-generated hit movie could be released within the next three years. I predict an awful shift in our collective humor and quality expectations when this happens. (Variety)

Grok Roundup

• xAI said it raised $20B in Series E funding, exceeding its $15B target, with participation from investors including Valor Equity Partners and Nvidia. The company says the funding will support AI development as its next model, Grok 5, is currently in training. It needs all the help it can get. (xAI)

• X restricted image generation and editing features in its AI chatbot Grok to paying subscribers after criticism that the tool was being used to create sexually explicit and violent imagery. Verified, paying users retain access, though some versions of the tool remain available elsewhere. (The Guardian)

• Indonesia temporarily blocked access to Grok on January 10 after the chatbot generated sexualized and non-consensual deepfake images. The country’s communications minister said the content violates human rights and digital security, making Indonesia the first country to block the tool. (Reuters)

Healthcare

• OpenAI is rolling out a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT tailored for clinicians and healthcare organizations to assist with medical reasoning and administrative tasks. (Bloomberg)

• Pomelo Care, a New York-based virtual healthcare startup offering 24/7 support for women and children, raised $92M in Series C funding at a $1.7B valuation. The company plans to expand beyond pregnancy care into additional services for women and kids. (Forbes)

• Utah is testing a new pilot program with health-tech startup Doctronic that allows an AI system to automatically renew some prescriptions for people with chronic conditions. The system reviews patient information and prescription history before approving refills for a limited list of common medications. If something looks unusual, the case is sent to a human doctor. The system does not handle high-risk or controlled drugs (Politico)

Products

• Meta paused the launch of its Ray-Ban Display smart glasses in several countries, including the UK, France, Italy, and Canada. The company said demand was much higher than expected and supply was limited, so it is prioritizing US orders for now. International sales will resume once inventory increases. (Engadget)

• Nike quietly sold RTFKT, its digital fashion and NFT company, about a year after shutting down its NFT projects. We all saw it coming. Nike acquired RTFKT in 2021 but did not disclose the buyer or the sale price. (Oregonian/OregonLive)

Capital

• Telegram had about $500M of bonds frozen in Russia’s National Settlement Depository due to Western sanctions, despite founder Pavel Durov trying to distance the company from Moscow. Telegram’s revenue in the first half of 2025 rose about 65 % to $870M, even as the company posted a net loss after crypto write‑downs. (Financial Times)

• Mobileye agreed to acquire Israeli humanoid robotics startup Mentee Robotics, cofounded by Amnon Shashua, the founder of Mobileye and the well-funded AI company AI21 Labs, in a deal valued at approximately $900 million. Mentee will continue operating independently as Mobileye expands beyond self-driving technology into robotics.(Bloomberg)

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