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This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.In the last few weeks, a handful of premium publishers have inked partnership deals with the two largest prediction markets in the world, Kalshi and Polymarket.These platforms, whose specific legality remains somewhat uncertain, enable their users to place wagers on the outcome of virtually any event, such as which film will win Best Picture at the Oscars or if the U.S. will strike Iran. They are effectively the spiritual successors of…
The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday it has finalized an order that bans General Motors and its OnStar telematics service from sharing certain consumer data with consumer reporting agencies. The finalized order, which comes a year after the agency reached a proposed settlement with GM, also requires the automaker to be more transparent with its consumers and obtain their explicit consent on any data collection. The finalized order comes nearly two years after a New York Times report showed how GM and OnStar collected, used, and sold drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior to third parties, including data brokers…
Thinking Machines cofounders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz are leaving the fledgling AI lab and rejoining OpenAI, the ChatGPT-maker announced on Thursday. OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, shared the news in a memo to staff Thursday afternoon.The news was first reported on X by technology reporter Kylie Robison, who wrote that Zoph was fired for “unethical conduct.”A source close to Thinking Machines said that Zoph had shared confidential company information with competitors. WIRED was unable to verify this information with Zoph, who did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.Zoph told Thinking Machines CEO Mira Murati on Monday…
Disney is wasting no time shaking things up in the new year.Today, The Walt Disney Company announced that it is creating a new enterprise marketing and brand organization to be led by Asad Ayaz. The executive has also been named the company’s first chief marketing and brand officer.The news of the marketing restructuring, which is looking to align the company’s marketing teams more closely across the business, came in a company-wide email from Disney Entertainment co-chairs Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.In his new position, Ayaz will report to CEO Bob…
Elon Musk said Wednesday he is “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok,” hours before the California Attorney General opened an investigation into xAI’s chatbot over the “proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material.” Musk’s denial comes as pressure mounts from governments worldwide — from the UK and Europe to Malaysia and Indonesia — after users on X began asking Grok to turn photos of real women, and in some cases children, into sexualized images without their consent. Copyleaks, an AI detection and content governance platform, estimated roughly one image was posted each minute on X. A separate…
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last January, the biggest names in tech have mostly fallen in line with the new regime, attending dinners with officials, heaping praise upon the administration, presenting the president with lavish gifts, and pleading for Trump’s permission to sell their products to China. It’s been mostly business as usual for Silicon Valley over the past year, even as the administration ignored a wide range of constitutional norms and attempted to slap arbitrary fees on everything from chip exports to worker visas for high-skilled immigrants employed by tech firms.But after an ICE agent shot…
ADWEEK is putting out a call to nominate yourself or a colleague for one of our various 2026 awards juries.You can complete the form below or access it here. Industry leaders and experts across marketing, media, creative, and tech are eligible to be nominated as a juror. Serving as a juror is an opportunity to help recognize excellence in advertising, shape industry standards, and spotlight the most impactful work and talent of the year.Candidates should bring deep subject matter expertise, a strong point of view, and a commitment to fair, thoughtful evaluation. Past industry awards judging experience is preferred. Submissions are…
The subscription economy helped boost mobile app revenues in 2025, even as app downloads declined for the fifth consecutive year, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures‘ annual report. In 2025, global downloads of all mobile apps and mobile games via the App Store and Google Play reached an estimated 106.9 billion, 2.7% lower than the year prior. Consumer spending, meanwhile, climbed 21.6% to reach an estimated $155.8 billion during the same period. The data indicates that app developers, marketers, and publishers have been successful in getting their users to make in-app purchases or activate subscriptions, even as the number of…
Tired of sitting in a dark office while you work from home? You could save over $40 on one of our favorite LED desk lamps, the Lume Cube Edge Light 2.0. This upgraded LED light can do duty as both a work light for a study or as a main light for improving your webcam quality on work calls. It could even be part of a lighting suite for a proper streaming setup.Lume Cube LED Edge Desk Light 2.0The Edge Light doesn’t just sit there and shine; it has touch controls that let you easily adjust the brightness or color…
The Super Bowl is removing “No Bueno” from its vocabulary.Today, Kinder Bueno released a teaser for its first Super Bowl commercial, introducing its “Yes Bueno” campaign. According to Ferrero North America, the campaign plays off the commonly used phrase “No Bueno,” using Kinder Bueno to “override disappointment.”The brand’s 30-second in-game spot, airing during the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, includes Giggly Squad co-host Paige DeSorbo, who’s also making her Big Game debut, as well as a mystery celebrity that Kinder Bueno will reveal closer to the game. The brand also noted that its ad would be “going out of this…
Netflix is increasing its investment in video podcasts, with its latest projects featuring famous comedian Pete Davidson and Cowboys Hall-of-Famer Michael Irvin. The streaming giant announced on Wednesday two original video podcasts coming to the platform: Irvin’s “The White House,” streaming on January 19, and “The Pete Davidson Show,” debuting on January 30. Both series, available only to Netflix subscribers, are designed to leverage the star power of their hosts. Davidson already has two comedy specials on the service that have performed well for the streamer. Meanwhile, Irvin stands out as a prominent figure in the sports world and was…
How does procrastination arise? The reason you decide to postpone household chores and spend your time browsing social media could be explained by the workings of a brain circuit. Recent research has identified a neural connection responsible for delaying the start of activities associated with unpleasant experiences, even when these activities offer a clear reward.The study, led by Ken-ichi Amemori, a neuroscientist at Kyoto University, aimed to analyze the brain mechanisms that reduce motivation to act when a task involves stress, punishment, or discomfort. To do this, the researchers designed an experiment with monkeys, a widely used model for understanding…
EXCLUSIVE: X Restricts Grok’s Ability to Generate Explicit Images Following Deepfake Scandal xAI has implemented new limits on Grok’s ability to generate sexualized images of real people, the company told ADWEEK exclusively.Anadolu via Getty Images Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has put slightly more stringent limits on its Grok chatbot after it flooded the social app X with nonconsensual, highly sexualized AI-generated images depicting women, and even some children.Grok’s public X account, with which users can engage directly and prompt the AI for outputs, will “no longer allow the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing, for example,…
Over the weekend, Neel Somani, who is a software engineer, former quant researcher, and a startup founder, was testing the math skills of OpenAI’s new model when he made an unexpected discovery. After pasting the problem into ChatGPT and letting it think for 15 minutes, he came back to a full solution. He evaluated the proof and formalized it with a tool called Harmonic — but it all checked out. “I was curious to establish a baseline for when LLMs are effectively able to solve open math problems compared to where they struggle,” Somani said. The surprise was that, using…
Vlad Ionescu and Ariel Herbert-Voss, cofounders of the cybersecurity startup RunSybil, were momentarily confused when their AI tool, Sybil, alerted them to a weakness in a customer’s systems last November.Sybil uses a mix of different AI models—as well as a few proprietary technical tricks—to scan computer systems for issues that hackers might exploit, like an unpatched server or a misconfigured database.In this case, Sybil flagged a problem with the customer’s deployment of federated GraphQL, a language used to specify how data is accessed over the web through application programming interfaces (APIs). The issue meant that the customer was inadvertently exposing…
Private equity-backed Spins has acquired ecommerce and retail data firm MikMak.Spins provides data and analytics for consumer packaged goods brands aimed at helping brands understand who is buying their products in stores and online. MikMak’s analytics and data technology also helps brands track sales; the 11-year-old company also sells shoppable media technology that allows consumers to buy products from social media platforms through landing pages that link to the retailers where products are sold.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.MikMak has raised a total of $14 million from investors including Wavecrest Growth Partners. Tracking retail data to salesSpins’ customers include small…