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The Mandalorian, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and a few Jedis walk into a bar. And Sam Altman walks out carrying a billion dollars in a custom Moana branded tote bag. Disney just announced a content licensing deal with OpenAI. Did Mickey bend the knee and cede to the inevitable? Or is joining forces with an AI leader the best way to turn a potential beast into a profitable beauty? More importantly, is this really the world we want Grogu to grow up in? We don’t yet know how this toy story will play out, but the deal marks a big change in AI relations for an industry that felt like it was Epcot with its pants down. “In a watershed moment for Hollywood and generative artificial intelligence, Disney said on Thursday that it would buy a $1 billion stake in OpenAI and bring its characters to Sora, the A.I. company’s short-form video platform.” (This is sort of like Gepetto investing a billion dollars in Monstro the Whale just before he and Pinocchio are swallowed by it.) NYT (Gift Article): Disney Agrees to Bring Its Characters to OpenAI’s Sora Videos. “Disney is the first major Hollywood company to cross this particular Rubicon. Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery and the like have spent the past couple of years trying to sort through major concerns about how generative A.I. software is built, how copyright holders are compensated and how Hollywood unions may react.” (The truth is that no one really knows how to react to any of these advances. We’re all on a nonstop ride on Space Mountain—lots of high speed turns and drops, all taking place in total darkness.)
+ Wired: The Disney-OpenAI Deal Redefines the AI Copyright War.
+ As for OpenAI’s competitors? Frozen... Disney Hits Google With AI Copyright Infringement Cease-and-Desist Letter.
+ Meanwhile, The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year. (Although it seems more like the magazine is celebrating the CEOs who employ the architects of AI.)
+ And if you missed it yesterday, I covered one of the more ridiculous stories of a ridiculous era: The State Dept and the fight over woke fonts. The Highway to Helvetica. “Apparently, the Trump administration doesn’t know that sans serif typefaces are more straight.”
2
Oslo and Behold
“Hours after missing the ceremony in Norway’s capital that awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize, the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in the city’s streets after midnight on Thursday, greeting a cheering crowd.” NYT (Gift Article): Venezuelan Dissident Appears in Norway After Missing Nobel Ceremony.
+ “Wearing a wig and a disguise, María Corina Machado began her escape from Venezuela on Monday afternoon ... Over the course of 10 nerve-racking hours, Machado and two people helping her escape hit 10 military checkpoints, avoiding capture each time, before she reached the coast by midnight, said a person close to the operation.” WSJ (Gift Article): Disguised and in Danger: How a Nobel Peace Prize Winner Escaped Venezuela. (With a little more effort and heroism, she could have qualified for the FIFA Peace Prize...)
+ The political environment that María Corina Machado faces is even more perilous than her journey to Oslo. And it’s getting more so by the minute. Trump says the U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
3
Refugee Whiz
They “commonly start out in poverty when they arrive in the U.S., but catch up quickly, according to studies of U.S. Census Bureau data. They have high rates of entrepreneurship and over time produce more in tax revenues than they receive in government benefits, a number of studies of census data show.” America’s current policy regarding refugees is saddled by an ethical deficit and an economic one. WSJ (Gift Article): Are Refugees Good or Bad for the Economy? Here’s What the Numbers Say.
+ Not everyone is barred from entering. The Trump Gold Card applications are now open. (Please send a check for a million bucks and a list of your sexual crimes.)
4
Making Allowances
“Around the 1920s, a certain class of parents—those with enough money to indulge their kids from time to time—started to panic. Toy companies and trinket manufacturers were buffeting kids with ads, and children were pestering their parents for gifts. Many parents wanted their kids to have these new luxuries, but they also wanted them to understand that money had limits. Parenting magazines suggested an intervention: small weekly payments, called allowances, that kids could squirrel away and use to buy toys or other treats on their own.” Cut to today. “As credit cards, digital investment tools, and ‘buy now, pay later’ apps have proliferated, some parents (especially wealthier ones) are using the payments to introduce their kids to more complex aspects of the financial ecosystem: bank fees, interest rates, investing, credit scores, loan payments.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The New Allowance.
5
Extra, Extra
Weaponized Profits: “The militarization of the police in the US is nothing new. Local police departments splurged on vehicles, weapons and tactical gear as part of the Nixon, Reagan and Clinton administrations’ fight against drugs and the Bush administration’s war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. But the size of those buildups is dwarfed by President Donald Trump’s push to vastly expand immigration arrests and make Democratic-run cities a proving ground for domestic military operations.” That’s good news for the companies that sell the weapons. Bloomberg(Gift Article): The Military Suppliers Behind Immigration Raids.
+ Shot Caller: “A laser-guided bomb had killed nine of the 11 people on board, sunk the boat’s motor and capsized the vessel’s front end, according to people who have viewed or been briefed on a classified video of the operation. As smoke from the blast cleared, a live surveillance feed provided by a U.S. aircraft high overhead showed two men had survived and were attempting to flip the wreckage.” WaPo (Gift Article): How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors. (As you’re reading this, keep in mind the bigger story is not what decision Adm. Frank Bradley made, but that he was put in a position to have to make it in the first place.)
+ Detention Contention: Judge orders immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention. (It’s a safe bet that the administration will come up with another way to arrest this guy.)
+ The Other Big House: In a story that has completely consumed sports media (and still features many unanswered questions), Sherrone Moore went from being Michigan’s football coach to being fired to being arrested in a matter of hours.
+ Battle of the Bulg: “Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced he was stepping down, becoming the latest leader to leave in the past four years, amid public anger over corruption and democratic dysfunction.” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Resigns in the Face of Mass Protests.
+ A Tough Cell: “We learn that prisoner number 320535 had a 12 square metre cell, equipped with a bed, desk, fridge, shower and television. There was a window, but the view was blocked by a massive plastic panel placed outside.” Nicolas Sarkozy releases prison diaries about his 20 days behind bars.
6
Bottom of the News
“Seems some folks were planning an early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner along with their marijuana and cigarettes.” Crab legs, steak, and drugs sent by drone to a South Carolina prison.
+ That thing when you go skydiving and your parachute gets tangled up with the plan