Although there is no shortage of AI enthusiasts, the general public remains uneasy about artificial intelligence. Two concerns dominate the conversation, both amplified by popular and business media. The first is AIs capacity to automate work, fueling widespread FOBO, or fear of becoming obsolete. The second is AIs tendency to reproduce or even exacerbate human bias.
On the first, the evidence remains mixed. The clearest signal so far is not the wholesale replacement of jobs, but the automation of tasks and skills within jobs. Most workers are less likely to lose their roles outright than to be forced to rethink what they do at work and where they add value. In that sense, AI is less an executioner than a pressure test on human contribution. As we have previously noted, AI is exposing the BS economy, in the sense of automating low-value activity and commoditizing whats not relevant.
On the second, however, concerns feel more visceral, since theres clear evidence of AI amplifying or at least perpetuating human biases. Indeed, algorithms replicate the loudest and most common outcomes. Tools trained on historical hiring and promotion data mirror the demographic preferences of past decision-makersoverlooking qualified candidates and harming both those individuals and the organizations that end up missing out on better talent. Large language models producing outputs that disadvantage marginalized users because of skewed training data. Add to this the political and moral assumptions embedded, often unintentionally, in AI systems, and its easy to conclude that AI is simply a faster, colder version of human prejudice.
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To be sure, AI will never be bias-free. And yet it can still be less biased than humans (okay, its a low bar). Importantly, under the right conditions, it can make things a lot better.
Humans are biased, but thats not a bug, its a feature. Its a consequence of cognitive shortcuts that evolved for speed and survival. But survival is knee-jerk, and often optimizes for the immediateand shortchanges the long-term success that comes from thoughtfulness and fairness. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman showed us how quick decisions are often suboptimal, yet we rely on those quick, intuitive decisions frequently, and even more frequently when we are under stress and time pressure.
Yet one of the great strengths of humanity is that we are also capable of reflection and correction. And AI is in some ways uniquely suited to help counteract predictable distortions that have plagued humanity for centuries.
Consider six ways this is already beginning to happen.
1. AI can help us better understand others
AI is now embedded in many of the platforms we use to communicate at work. Increasingly, it can analyze patterns in language, tone, and behavior to infer emotional states, intentions, or levels of engagement. Tools like Textio help us get out of our own way by flagging language thats not aligned to our goals. These systems are far from perfect, but they dont need to be. They simply need to outperform the average human in situations where human judgment is weakest.
Research on emotional intelligence shows that people are generally better at reading members of their own group than outsiders. Cultural distance, unfamiliar communication styles, and implicit stereotypes distort perception.
AI systems trained on data from different cultures and groups can sometimes decode signals more consistently than humans navigating unfamiliar social terrain. Theres evidence that using technologies like VR to experience others realities can build lasting empathy. Used responsibly, these kinds of augmentation can support empathy rather than replace it, helping people pause before misinterpreting disagreement as hostility or silence as disengagement.
2. AI can force us to confront alternative viewpoints
One of the ironies of AI criticism is that we often accuse systems of bias as a way of deflecting attention from our own. When people complain that generative AI is politically or ideologically slanted, they are usually revealing where they themselves stand.
Properly designed, AI can be used to surface competing perspectives rather than reinforce echo chambers. Whats more, AI can do this by framing arguments and evidence in ways that make them easier to understand and accept without triggering judgment or combativeness.
For example, leaders can ask AI to articulate the strongest possible case against their preferred strategy, or to rewrite a proposal from the perspective of different stakeholders. In conflict resolution, AI can summarize disagreements in neutral language, stripping away emotional triggers while preserving substance.
This doesnt make AI objective, but it can make us less lazy. By lowering the cognitive and emotional cost of perspective taking, AI can help counteract confirmation bias, one of the most pervasive and damaging distortions in organizational life.
3. AI can improve meritocracy in hiring and promotion
Few domains are as saturated with bias as talent decisions. Decades of research show that human intuition performs poorly when predicting job performance, yet confidence in gut feeling remains stubbornly high.
When trained on clean data and validated against real outcomes, AI consistently outperforms unstructured human judgment for job decisions. This is not just because algorithms can process more information, but because they can ignore information humans struggle to disregard. Demographic cues, accents, schools, and social similarity exert a powerful pull on human decisin-makers even when they believe theyre being fair.
Well-designed AI systems can also be updated as job requirements evolve, allowing them to unlearn outdated assumptions. Humans, by contrast, often cling to obsolete success profiles long after they stop predicting performance. AI does not guarantee fairness, but it can move decisions closer to evidence and further from intuition.
4. AI can make bias visible rather than invisible
One of the most underestimated benefits of AI is its diagnostic power. Algorithms can reveal patterns humans prefer not to see. Disparities in performance ratings, promotion velocity, pay progression, or feedback language are often dismissed as anecdotal until AI surfaces them at scale.
When bias remains implicit, its easy to deny. When its quantified, it becomes discussable. Used transparently, AI can help organizations audit their own behavior and hold themselves accountable.
For example, AI can help identify whether specific interview questions (or interviewers) are driving unexpectedly uneven outcomesso that the questions used are more likely to help pick the most qualified candidates. Importantly, this shifts bias reduction from moral aspiration to operational reality.
5. AI can slow us down at the right moments
Bias thrives under speed, pressure, and ambiguity. Many of the most consequential workplace decisions are made quickly, under cognitive load, and with incomplete information.
AI can introduce friction where it matters. By flagging inconsistent judgments, prompting justification, or suggesting structured criteria, AI can act as a cognitive speed bump. It doesnt remove responsibility from humans. It reminds them that intuition isnt always insight.
6. AI can help us understand ourselves, not just others
Bias does not only distort how we judge other people. It also shapes how we see ourselves. Research on self-assessment consistently shows that people are poor judges of their own abilities, impact, and behavior. We overestimate our strengths, underestimate our blind spots, and rationalize patterns that others notice immediately.
AI can help close this self-awareness gap.
One increasingly common use case is AI as a coach or reflective mirror. Unlike human feedback, which is often delayed, filtered, or softened, AI can analyze large volumes of behavioral data and surface patterns that individuals struggle to see on their own. This might include identifying communication habits that derail meetings, emotional triggers that precede conflict, or leadership behaviors that correlate with disengagement in teams.
Consider how AI is already being used to summarize feedback from performance reviews, engagement surveys, or 360 assessments. Rather than relying on selective memory or defensiveness, individuals can see recurring themes across contexts and time. This reduces self-serving bias, the tendency to attribute successes to skill and failures to circumstance.
The same logic explains the growing popularity of AI as a therapeutic or coaching aid. AI systems dont replace trained professionals, but they can prompt reflection, ask structured questions, and challenge inconsistencies in peoples narratives. Because AI has no ego, no reputation to manage, and no emotional investment in the users self-image, it can sometimes feel safer to explore uncomfortable insights with a machine than with another human.
Of course, self-awareness without judgment is not the same as wisdom. AI can highlight patterns, but humans must interpret and act on them. Used responsibly, however, AI can help individuals recognize how their intentions differ from their impact, how their habits shape outcomes, and how their own biases show up in everyday decisionsand it can help monitor and reinforce progress to support lasting change
In that sense, AIs most underappreciated debiasing potential may not lie in correcting how we evaluate others but in helping us see ourselves more clearly.
A necessary note of caution
None of this implies that AI automatically reduces bias. Poorly designed systems can amplify inequality faster than any individual manager ever could. Debiasing requires intentional choices: representative data, continuous monitoring, transparency, and human oversight.
The real danger is not trusting AI too muchits using AI carelessly while pretending its neutral.
Bias is a human problem before its a technological one. AI simply forces us to confront it more explicitly. Used well, AI can help organizations move closer to the meritocratic ideals they already claim to valueand that help organizations be successful. Used badly, it will expose the gap between rhetoric and reality.
The question is not whether AI will shape workplace decisions. It already does. The real question is whether we will use it to reinforce our blind spots, or to finally see them more clearly.
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Roblox, a gaming app used by nearly half of the entire U.S. population of under-16s, has rolled out a new mandatory safety feature to put a stop to children communicating with adults on the platform.
Starting on January 7, players in the U.S. were required to submit to facial age estimation via the app to access the chat feature, although age verification remains optional to play the games themselves.
Users in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands are already required to complete an age check to chat with other users, but the requirement will now roll out to the U.S. and beyond.
The verification is being processed by a third-party vendor, Persona. Once the age check is processed, Roblox says it will delete any images or videos of users.
If the age-check process incorrectly estimates a users age, the decision can be appealed and the child’s age verified through alternative methods. Users 13 or older may also opt for ID-based checks.
Once users complete the age check, they are assigned to one of six age groups (under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, and 21+). Users can only communicate with players directly above and below their own age group. For example, a 9-year-old cannot chat with users older than 15, and a 16-year-old can only chat with those ages 13 to 20.
The feature is designed to prevent children younger than 16 from communicating with adults. About 42% of Roblox users are younger than 13.
“As the first large online gaming platform to require facial age checks for users of all ages to access chat, this implementation is our next step toward what we believe will be the gold standard for communication safety,” wrote Matt Kaufman, Roblox’s chief safety officer, and Rajiv Bhatia, its head of user and discovery product, in a blog post.
Parental consent is still required for users younger than 9 to access chat features, while age-checked users 13 and older can chat with people they know beyond their immediate age group via the Trusted Connections feature.
Leveraging multiple signals, [Roblox is] constantly evaluating user behavior to determine if someone is significantly older or younger than expected, the company execs continued. In these situations, we will begin asking users to repeat the age-check process.
The face scan is launching as the company faces increased scrutiny over child safety on the app. Attorneys general around the country are investigating Roblox, and nearly 80 active lawsuits accuse Roblox of enabling child exploitation, with some parents alleging their children encountered predators on the app.
Just four days into the new year, awards season kicked off with the Critics Choice Awards. One week later, it’s time for the Golden Globes to shine.
The 83rd edition of this star-studded eventwhich takes place on Sunday, January 11, in Beverly Hills, Californiacelebrates greatness in both television and film. Heres everything you need to know about the big night, including how to tune in.
History and past controversy of the Golden Globe Awards
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the former organization behind the Golden Globes, was founded in 1943. Under this banner, journalists came together to create an awards ceremony to honor the artists they covered. The first event took place the following year, in 1944.
A 2021 Los Angeles Times article revealed several issues within the HFPA, including a complete lack of Black members. This caused many organizations and individuals to boycott the 2022 Globes. NBC declined to air the ceremony, Tom Cruise gave awards back, and several studios distanced themselves.
Because of HFPAs many issues, the organization was dissolved and the Globes were sold to Penske Media Eldridge, becoming a for-profit institution.
Many are critical of this venture, viewing it as a conflict of interest, as the L.A. Times reported. Penske also owns Dick Clark Productions, the producer of the Globes, and several trade publications such as Variety, Rolling Stone, and The Hollywood Reporter.
Who is hosting the 83rd Golden Globes?
Despite the ongoing debate, the show must go on. Funny lady Nikki Glaser will emcee the event for her second year in a row.
She will be backed up by many talented presenters, such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Macaulay Culkin, Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Queen Latifah, and Regina Hall.
Heated Rivalry fans will delight in seeing stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie outside of the “boy aquarium.”
Where are the 83rd Golden Globes being held?
The 2026 Golden Globes Awards will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This has been its permanent venue since 1961.
Who is being honored at the 83rd Golden Globes?
This is the first year that the Globes are presenting Golden Week, featuring multiple events leading up to the big night.
One of these is a new prime-time special called Golden Eve, during which the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Carol Burnett Award, for outstanding contributions in film and television, will be formally presented.
Helen Mirren will receive the former, and Sarah Jessica Parker, the latter. This event aired on Thursday, January 8, but if you missed it, you can watch it after the fact on Paramount+.
Who is nominated for a 2026 Golden Globe Award?
In the movie world, One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Andersons dark action comedy, leads the pack with nine nominations.
Closely on its heels is the Norwegian film Sentimental Value, starring Stellan Skarsgrd. Ryan Cooglers Sinners has seven nods, while Chloé Zhaos Hamnet received six.
Both Wicked: For Good and Frankenstein were honored with five nominations.
In the television realm, HBOs White Lotus continues its dominance at the Globes with six nominations, while all of Netflixs shows combined received 22.
The proposed merger between Netflix and HBO’s parent company could potentially increase Netflixs laurels. Adolescence came in second place with five nods. Only Murders in the Building and Severance tied for third with four each.
How to watch the Golden Globes pre-show
If you are in it for the fashion, you have red-carpet-arrivals viewing options. The official Golden Globes pre-show will be hosted by Varietys Marc Malkin and Angelique Jackson. It begins at 6:30 p.m. ET and can be viewed for free on Fire TV, Varietys YouTube channel, or Variety.com.
Live From E!: Golden Globes 2026 will be hosted by Zuri Hall, Justin Sylvester, and Keltie Knight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET. It is available on the E! network and Peacock.
How to watch the 83rd Golden Globes
Now onto the main event: The 83rd Golden Globes ceremony will air on the CBS broadcast network and on the Paramount+ streaming service.
The awards take place tonight (Sunday, January 11) from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
You will need the Paramount+ Premium service to stream the event in real time. Those with Paramount+ Essential subscriptions will have to wait until the next day to view the awards show.
If Paramount+ is not in your streaming arsenal, consider other live-TV streaming services that carry CBS, such as DirecTV, Fubo, or Hulu + Live TV.
Just be sure to double-check regional differences before committing to another monthly subscription.
And remember that CBS is free if you have an over-the-air antenna.
When the inevitable robot uprising comes, Ill be ready, thanks to some valuable lessons I picked up at CES. First, if given the choice of a dance off versus hand to hand combat, opt for the fight. Second, wear a cup when you do.
Robotics company Unitree showcased its G-1 humanoid robot at the show. The G-1 is a rarity in the robotic world in that its already on the market for under $15,000. Unitrees booth was an ongoing spectacle, surrounded by people eager for a close look at the dapperlooking unit, wearing a white shirt and button down vest, showcasing impressive dance skills, throwing down moves that even Shabba-Doo and Bugaloo Shrimp could respect.
There was another G-1, too — this one with a decidedly more combative directive.
By sheer luck, I found myself being asked if I’d like to strap on the gloves and go a round with the G-1. After being force-fed the technology for the better part of a week, I wasnt going to turn down an opportunity to whale on a robot.
The fight seemed fixed from the start, though. The G-1 had headgear. None was offered to myself or any other meatbag who stepped into the ring. Its gloves were a cherry red pair from Everlast. The ones velcro’d onto my hands? Salmon colored.
As the fight started, I knew I had a few advantages and a few disadvantages. The robot had me beat on strength and stamina, but I had the reach on it. I also had just enough boxing knowledge to know that the best approach was a combination of jabs and upper cuts and to keep my distance.
What I didn’t count on was that my height advantage meant that when the robot began swinging, it was mostly at crotch level.
I landed several solid shots on its chest cavity, sometimes hard enough to push it back and make it stagger — but, good grief, can that thing take a hit. It just kept coming.
The G-1 was terrible at protecting its head, so I focused my next round of punches square in where its nose would have been, had it had to worry about things like oxygen (which, by that point, I was gulping). That hardly slowed it down, but it might have caused some traumatic cranial injuries, as the robot then threw a wild punch combination in the air, completely off target.
In the interest of science, I did allow it to land a few hits (with my hip turned). While it wasnt utilizing all of its robotic strength when it hit me, I could feel it.
After about four minutes, the robot laid down on the ground and pretended to be knocked out — the company’s way of saying “Ok, time for someone else to have a turn.” When it hopped back up, we posed for a picture together. But I swear it looked ready to throw a few more jabs my way.
There are few things more evocative of the free American spirit and the nations wide-open spaces than the image of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle zooming down a stretch of empty highway. But while taking one of the legendary hogs for a spin may still be liberating for riders, the companys independent dealership owners are feeling an increasingly tight financial and business squeeze.
A rash of reports in recent weeks have sounded alarms about the troubles Harley dealers face, and the rising number of dealerships closing shop as a result. While Harley-Davidson still counts more than 650 of those locations in operation across the U.S., specialist automotive media warn that those numbers have been significantly decreasing as sales of the beefy motorcycles decline, and dealer operating costs grow.
I hate to admit this, but there are too many dealers for the number of new vehicles that are being sold today, second-generation Harley dealership owner George Gatto told the motorcycle publication RevZilla. Margins on the new bikes are the worst weve ever seen . . . Theyre not making any money.
As a result, owners of a growing number of Harley-Davidson dealerships have hung the Closed sign for good. Those include some well-known, high-profile stores in New York City and Florida, and the century-old Dudley Perkins location in San Francisco. But reports say many more closures in smaller cities and towns across the U.S. drew far less attention while adding to the tally of shuttered businesses.
That turn of events marks a swift reversal of Harley-Davidsons fortunes, and now leaves many independent dealers and the mother company itself fighting for survival.
As was the case with many companies selling comparatively expensive goods, the effects of COVID-19 created a sales boom for Harley-Davidson and its dealers. Government stimulus checks and rock-bottom interest rates allowed some consumers whod never had the money to afford a hog to buy one after 2020. More conservative consumers whod had the funds but waited also took the plunge.
Meanwhile, as happened in the auto sector, disrupted supply chains limited Harley inventories, allowing dealers to charge top dollar to customers they added to increasingly long waiting lists. Business had never been so good.
Flush with rising revenue, many dealership owners splurged on upgrades and expansions of their showrooms. Those who didnt were eventually obliged to do so by Harley-Davidson corporate policies that require dealers to abide by centralized rules, and adopt decisions made by the mothership.
But once those dealership improvement investments were madedriving occupation, heat, and maintenance costs higher as a resultthe sales boom petered out. Consumers facing spiking inflation, rising interest rates, tightening job markets, and other hardening realities of post-pandemic life could no longer give $24,000 to $40,000 Harleys another thought.
But at the same time, motorcycles churned out by manufacturers seeking to catch up with demand continued flowing into showrooms, further boosting dealer inventory costs. The same was true of Harley-Davidson-branded motorcycle equipment.
Even as that gear gushed into dealerships, Harley-Davidson corporate managers continued developing their booming e-commerce platform, which cut out intermediaries like dealers by selling directly to consumers.
They overproduced, so what do they do? Gatto said of the converging developments that cost dealers dearly. They mark it down 40%, 50%, 60% online, with free shipping. Why would you go into a dealership when youre getting half off online?
According to the recent reports, Harley-Davidsons corporate leadershipnow led by new CEO Artie Starrs, who took over in Octoberresponded to the downturn by shrinking the list of centralized rules dealers must follow. The company reduced other requirements, including minimum inventory volumes, to help ease financial pressure on dealership owners.
While that may ease some of the pain, the fear is that continually falling demand may prove the far more dangerous threat. The COVID-era boom aside, Harley-Davidsons unit sales have dropped by 45% over the past decade. That was again reflected in the companys third quarter 2025 results, which reported a global sales decline of 6%5% in the U.S.
Those latter figures led Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz to warn that it will take a lot of work, and a lasting return of robust sales, for Harley-Davidson and its independent dealers to start riding easy again.
There is little evidence that a recovery for motorcycle demand is in the cards anytime soon, Katz wrote in an investors memo following third-quarter results. After multiple years of inventory reduction at dealers, the firm has yet to find equilibrium and has signaled further unit reductions to protect dealer profitability.
By Bruce Crumley
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
When a grizzly bear attacked a group of fourth- and fifth-graders in western Canada in late November 2025, it sparked more than a rescue effort for the 11 people injuredfour with severe injuries. Local authorities began trying to find the specific bear that was involved in order to relocate or euthanize it, depending on the results of their assessment.
The attack, in Bella Coola, British Columbia, was very unusual bear behavior and sparked an effort to figure out exactly what had happened and why. That meant finding the bear involvedwhich, based on witness statements, was a mother grizzly with two cubs.
Searchers combed the area on foot and by helicopter and trapped four bears. DNA comparisons to evidence from the attack cleared each of the trapped bears, and they were released back to the wild. After more than three weeks without finding the bear responsible for the attack, officials called off the search.
The case highlights the difficulty of identifying individual bears, which becomes important when one is exhibiting unusual behavior. Bears tend to look a lot alike to people, and untrained observers can have a very hard time telling them apart. DNA testing is excellent for telling individuals apart, but it is expensive and requires physical samples from bears. Being trapped and having other contact with humans is also stressful for them, and wildlife managers often seek to minimize trapping.
Recent advances in computer vision and other types of artificial intelligence offer a possible alternative: facial recognition for bears.
As a cultural anthropologist, I study how scientists produce knowledge and technologies, and how new technology is transforming ecological science and conservation practices. Some of my research has looked at the work of computer scientists and ecologists making facial recognition for animals. These tools, which reflect both technological advances and broader popular interest in wildlife, can reshape how scientists and the general public understand animals by getting to know formerly anonymous creatures as individuals.
New ways to identify animals
A facial recognition tool for bears called BearID is under development by computer scientists Ed Miller and Mary Nguyen, working with Melanie Clapham, a behavioral ecologist working for the Nanwakolas Council of First Nations, conducting applied research on grizzly bears in British Columbia.
It uses deep learning, a subset of machine learning that makes use of artificial neural networks, to analyze images of bears and identify individual animals. The photos are drawn from a collection of images taken by naturalists at Knight Inlet, British Columbia, and by National Park Service staff and independent photographers at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
Bears bodies change dramatically from post-hibernation skinny in the spring to fat and ready for winter in the fall. However, the geometry of each bears facethe arrangement of key features like their eyes and noseremains relatively stable over seasons and years.
BearID uses an algorithm to locate bear faces in pictures and make measurements between those key features. Each animal has a unique set of measurements, so a photograph of one taken yesterday can be matched with an image taken some time ago.
In addition to helping identify bears that have attacked humans or are otherwise causing trouble for people, identifying bears can help ecologists and wildlife managers more accurately estimate bear population sizes. And it can help scientific research, like the behavioral ecology projects Clapham works on, by allowing individual tracking of animals and thus better understanding of bear behavior.
Miller has built a web tool to automatically detect bears in the webcams from Brooks River that originally inspired the project. The BearID team has also been working with Rebecca Zug, a professor and director of the carnivore lab at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, to develop a bear identification model for Andean bears to use in bear ecology and conservation research in Ecuador.
Animal faces are less controversial
Human facial recognition is extremely controversial. In 2021, Meta ended the use of its face recognition system, which automatically identified people in photographs and videos uploaded to Facebook. The company described it as a powerful technology that, while potentially beneficial, was currently not suitable for widespread use on its platform.
In the years following that announcement, Meta gradually reintroduced facial recognition technology, using it to detect scams involving public figures and to verify users identities after their accounts had been breached.
When used on humans, critics have called facial recognition technology the plutonium of AI and a dangerous tool with few legitimate uses. Even as facial recognition has become more widespread, researchers remain convinced of its dangers. Researchers at the American Civil Liberties Union highlight the continued threat to Americans constitutional rights posed by facial recognition and the harms caused by inaccurate identifications.
For wildlife, the ethical controversies are perhaps less pressing, although there is still potential for animals to be harmed by people who are using AI systems. And facial recognition could help wildlife managers identify and euthanize or relocate bears that are causing significant problems for people.
A focus on specific animals
Wildlife ecologists sometimes find focusing on individual animals problematic. Naming animals may make them seem less wild. Names that carry cultural meaning can also frame peoples interpretations of animal behavior. As the Katmai rangers note, humans may interpret the behaviors of a bear named Killer differently than one named Fluffy.
Wildlife management decisions are meant to be made about groups of animals and areas of territory. When people become connected to individual animals, including by naming them, decisions become more complicated, whether in the wild or in captivity.
When people connect with particular animals, they may object to management decisions that harm individuals for the sake of the health of the population as a whole. For example, wildlife managers may need to move or euthanize animals for the health of the broader population or ecosystem.
But knowing and understanding bears as individual animals can also deepen the fascination and connections people already have with bears.
For example, Fat Bear Week, an annual competition hosted by explore.org and Katmai National Park, drew over a million votes in 2025 as people campaigned and voted for their favorite bear. The winner was Bear 32, also known as Chunk. Chunk was identified in photographs and videos the old-fashioned way, based on human observations of distinguishing characteristicssuch as a large scar across his muzzle and a broken jaw.
In addition to identifying problematic animals, I believe algorithmic tools like facial recognition could help an even broader audience of humans deepen their understanding of bears as a whole by connecting with one or two specific animals.
Emily Wanderer is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
However uncertain the outlook is for the American auto industry in the age of tariffs, growing competition from China, and the rise of EV upstarts, the view inside the new boardroom at General Motors is stylishly optimistic.
Part of the automaker’s new corporate headquarters that’s opening January 12, the boardroom is a large and elegant space with a massive marble table surrounded by mainstay elements of mid-century modern design. Fluted wood wall treatments, subtle curves, geometric overhead lighting, minimalist bench seating, and sweeping views of a changing downtown Detroit combine to create a physical manifestation of how GM sees itself evolving through the 21st centurydrawing on the past while looking to the future.
When so much of the car industry can feel tossed in an ever-changing sea, the boardroom and the rest of GM’s headquarters evoke a steadier throughline of ambition and legacy.
[Photo: GM]
“It’s culture setting,” says David Massaron, GM’s vice president of infrastructure and corporate citizenship. “I think this space really does a great job of being a beacon of who we want to be, what our identity is. … A headquarters really serves as a reinforcing notion of our culture, of who we are.”
[Photo: GM]
Filling four floors and about 200,000 square feet in a brand-new 12-story tower in Detroit, the headquarters will serve as permanent office space for GM executives and employees in the finance, legal, marketing, and communications departments, and will have open workstations. In contrast to GM’s previous headquarters in the troubled Renaissance Center complex a mile away, the new space is much smaller and more manageable, with room for hundreds of employees, not thousands.
Its design draws heavily on GM’s past. The overarching design language of the space comes from the mid-century modern design of the company’s main real estate footprint, the GM Technical Center, in suburban Warren, Michigan.
[Photo: GM]
Designated a National Historic Landmark, the complex first opened in 1956 with a stunning design by architect Eero Saarinen that let modernist design loose on corporate America and accelerated its infusion into the homes, furnishings, and products of the post-war world. Saarinen’s streamlined design put an emphasis on natural materials and light, and brought art into and around the buildings on the campus in a holistic way.
[Photo: GM]
Crystal Windham, GM’s executive director of global industrial design, says that legacy deeply influenced her team’s approach to the new headquarters space, which was designed with the Gensler architecture firm. Elements of mid-century modernism, and Saarinen’s Technical Center specifically, wound their way into the headquarters in a wide variety of forms, from furniture pieces and material choices to the artwork on the walls.
“Because of the history and the respect for that, there are all types of interpretations here. There are details within it that you can play up or play down. It’s a full palette of moments to pull from,” Windham says.
Some elements are literal recreations. On the wall next to a waiting area outside top executive offices, steel picture frames that mount to the floor and ceiling are near-exact replicas of frames Saarinen designed for the Technical Center campus.
[Photo: GM]
Other items are drawn directly from GM’s large archive. Historic drawings from the company’s 49,000-deep setof patent applications are peppered throughout the space, including in a ring of wallpaper near the top of the building’s atrium. Other notable patents are framed in executives’ officesa mechanical heart in CEO Mary Barra’s, and the first automatic gearshift changer in president Mark Reuss’s.
Scale models of cars, old and new, can be seen in almost any direction. Touches of automotive materials can also be found throughout the space, from throw pillows made out of the interior fabric used in 1956 Cadillacs to chrome pendant lights that recall muscle car tailpipes.
[Photo: GM]
“What we loved when we were working on this project was just going back and relooking at our history,” says Rebecca Waldmeir, design manager of architecture and experience at GM. “[Saarinen] would say that when you’re trying to design spaces to relate to each other, they need to sing the same message. We need to sing some of that message into our space, too.”
This ethos has made its way into the otherwise contemporary setting of this new 12-story mixed-use building in the heart of downtown Detroit. Alongside a 49-story hotel and condo tower, the building is part of the $1.4 billion Hudson’s Detroit project developed by Bedrock, the real estate firm that billionaire Dan Gilbert has steered to redeveloping large swaths of Detroit’s once-crumbling downtown.
[Photo: GM]
For all its effort in honoring a rich design legacy, the headquarters is still a headquarters, with spaces made for the work of a multibillion-dollar corporation to get done. The executive offices and other hoteling workspaces are outfitted with office furniture from Halcon, and there’s at least one Eames lounge chair on the premises.
[Photo: GM]
Shared workspaces are buffered from more active circulation areas, and most of the main executive areas have lounge-like waiting spaces that can double as informal meeting spaces during downtimes. That huge marble table in the executive boardroom was fabricated in GM’s own facilitytypically used to make concept cars and scale modelsand designed to have a solid flat surface free of the holes and ports of modern IT equipment. All that infrastructure is hidden away.
[Photo: GM]
“We wanted, first of all, for the look and feel to be appropriately placed for the time, to be timeless in and of itself, and the layout to be very flexible for many uses and very open and collaborative,” Windham says.
[Photo: GM]
The design also left room for some intentionally contemporary elements. A hallway on each floor features a series of artworks that turn the sound signatures of GM vehicles into abstracted soundwaves. And a vestibule outside the bathrooms on the executive floor is decorated with custom-made wallpaper showing stacks of cassette tapes of some of the estimated 80,000 songs that reference GM carsfrom “Little Red Corvette” and “Pink Cadillac” to the countless country songs featuring Chevy trucks.
[Photo: GM]
The mere existence of this headquarters carries its own message, as GM leaves the Renaissanc Center. Plans are still forming between GM and Bedrock over how to deal with the largely empty 5-million-square-foot space, but GM isn’t looking back. The new headquartersa much smaller footprint, more centrally located in a resurgent downtownrepresents a new chapter for the company’s long history of innovation.
“Being in the middle of the city, being part of that vibrancy is really leaning into the dynamic change that the industry is going through,” Massaron says. “We’re trying to remind ourselves and the world that we’re ready to lead and we’re going to continue to lead.”
Most business leaders view themselves primarily as “productive” rather than “creative.” Productivity is often associated with measurable outcomes, such as efficiency, consistency, and task completion. Creativity, by contrast, is frequently perceived as spontaneous, unpredictable, and elusive. Yet, productivity and creativity are not at odds. In fact, they reinforce each other powerfully.
Leaders who successfully integrate productive habits with creative practices can unlock new levels of innovation, effectiveness, and personal fulfillment. A global Adobe survey found that 75% of professionals report growing pressure to be productive rather than creative at work, while only 25% believe theyre living up to their creative potential. This creativity gap reveals a systemic imbalance: leaders may be achieving efficiency, but theyre underperforming on innovation.
Productivity Without Creativity Leads to Stagnation
Many leaders find themselves trapped in cycles of productivity: checking off tasks, hitting deadlines, and running efficient meetings. However, overemphasizing productivity metrics at the expense of creativity can lead to stagnation, disengagement, and missed opportunities for innovation. According to Gallup, disengagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually. And disengaged leaders set the tone for disengaged teams. In our work with executives, we often hear the same lament: Im getting things done, but I dont feel like I am getting anywhere. The problem isnt a lack of effort. Its that productivity without creativity produces motion without momentum.
Creativity Needs Discipline
The myth of creativity is that it arrives in spontaneous bursts of inspiration. In reality, creativity flourishes when it rests on a foundation of discipline. Cliff knows this from his dual roles. As a songwriter, he leans on courage, openness, and uncertainty. As a recording engineer, he thrives on precision, technical structure, and predictable workflow. Each role strengthens the other. The order of the studio makes space for creative leaps in songwriting. The risks of songwriting push him to keep the studio at peak performance.
Similarly, in my own work, Ive seen how structure creates room for insight. In leadership workshops, I utilize tools like the Illuminated Cubea reflective exercise that provides a framework for individuals to surface their hidden strengths. The structure isnt the end; its the container that makes creativity possible.
As organizational psychologist Adam Grant points out, productivity isnt about more output; its about quality output. And quality often comes from pairing disciplined focus with creative risk-taking. In Grants view, a disciplined focus allows individuals to produce fewer, higher-quality ideas that have a greater overall impact. Disciplined practice also builds the resilience needed to navigate creative challenges and maintain consistency.
Your Spaces Matter, Too
Leaders often underestimate the impact of their environment. But organized spacesboth physical and mentalmake breakthroughs more likely. Cliffs recording studio is a model of meticulous organization. Everything is in its place, technically reliable, and ready to go. That structure frees him to explore ideas in songwriting, knowing the foundations wont fail. He also maintains a daily haiku practicea tiny ritual that trains his creative muscles consistently over time.
Small practices like these work for leaders too: quick journaling, five-minute brainstorms, reflective pauses before meetings. These micro-habits signal to the brain: This is a space where creativity belongs.
Kate ONeill, founder of KO Insights, employs similar strategies, using structured prompts and systematic reminders to maintain consistent creative output amidst demanding productivity schedules. This disciplined consistency allows ONeill to seamlessly integrate creativity into her everyday activities, resulting in more impactful and innovative work.
Incorporating small, consistent creative rituals into daily routines can significantly improve leadership effectiveness. Activities like quick journaling, brief brainstorming sessions, or reflective writing help leaders systematically foster creativity, encouraging long-term innovation and adaptability.
The Creative-Productive Zone
The biggest shift is identity. Too many leaders see themselves as either productive or creative. But the most impactful leaders integrate both. For me, this came from reconciling two identities: The strategist and the artist. For years, I thought of them as separate worlds. However, when I began blending artistic practicessuch as visual thinking, storytelling, and pattern-makinginto my leadership development work, my impact expanded. Creativity didnt dilute my productivity; it deepened it.
Cliffs path illustrates the same lesson. His creativity as a songwriter is inseparable from the technical precision of his engineering work. Together, they create a rhythm of freedom within structure. This integration is what we call the creative-productive zone: a state where structure supports exploration and exploration fuels progress.
How to Harness Productivity and Creativity Together
Bringing productivity and creativity into balance doesnt happen by accident; it requires intention. The good news is that you dont need sweeping overhauls to start. Often, its the smallest shifts in routine and mindset that unlock the most significant breakthroughs. By making space for both discipline and imagination, leaders create the conditions where innovation feels less like a gamble and more like a habit. Here are four practical ways leaders can start today:
1. Build Creative Rituals into Routine. Add small, repeatable practicesa haiku, a sketch, a reflective questionthat keep your creative muscles strong.
2. Organize for Freedom. Create reliable structures (clear processes, tidy workspaces, predictable rhythms) so your mind is free to take risks.
3. Alternate Modes. Design your calendar with intentional blocks for both focused execution and open exploration. Dont try to do both at once.
4. Audit Your Balance. Ask: Am I measuring only outputs? Where am I creating space for ideas, not just tasks?
The future of leadership isnt choosing between productivity and creativity. Its mastering both. When you create the structures that support your craft and the rituals that spark your imagination, you dont just get things done, you create things worth doing.
The leaders who thrive will be those who can deliver results and inspire, who can hit deadlines and spark breakthroughs. In a world overflowing with efficiency, its the capacity to generate meaning and originality that sets you apart. Productivity makes you reliable; creativity makes you unforgettable. The challenge and the opportunity lie in embracing both with equal intention.
Weve had branded entertainment since Procter & Gamble invented soap operas back in the 1930s. But today, brands are forced to diversify the ways in which they gain and hold our attention. Its no longer as viable or effective to depend on traditional paid media tools.
Innovative marketers are increasingly investing in content and experiences that attract and engage audiences rather than interrupt and annoy them. And the shift is driving results. Brands of all stripes talk about brand entertainment, but its the exceptions that truly create actual entertainment.
Ive spent a lot of time this past year writing and talking on the Brand New World podcast about the variety of ways different brands are doing this right. From WhatsApp working with Modern Arts on a Netflix doc about the Mercedes F1 team, to Dicks Sporting Goods formally establishing an internal entertainment studio that has already won Sports Emmys for We Could Be King in 2015 and The Turnaround in 2024, to the unprecedented deal struck between AB InBev and Netflix. The latter, signed in November, puts the global brewer’s major beer brands front and center in Netflixs push into live sports, as well as giving it early access to placement and integration in Netflix shows and movies.
Obviously brands want the shine of legitimate Hollywood entertainment. But production costs and other financial pressures have made working with brands a much more attractive prospect for Hollywood too. So I wanted to check back in with the executives behind some of these projects to find out what they anticipate the biggest developments will be in 2026.
The most significant drivers of these developments stem from the evolving platforms, fueled by audience preferences and behavior, as well as the economic realities driving brands and Hollywood into each others arms more often and in more varied ways.
Marketersand audiences, for that matterare going to see some big changes coming to screens, both big and small. Read on for what to expect.
Shifting platforms
Meta announced on December 16 that it would begin testing its Instagram for TV app in the U.S. on Amazon Fire TV streaming devices. Zac Ryder, cofounder and co-chief creative officer of Modern Arts, says this feature is going to be a game-changer for brand entertainment. Brands as varied as UPS, Bud Light, and Sephora have been building audiences on Instagram Reels and Stories, while other brands are jumping into the micro-drama trend of serialized, bite-size soap operas in vertical video.
Ryder says this shift means brand content on the platform will continue to look even more like entertainment, getting longer and more ambitious to better align with TV viewing behavior. Ultimately, this will further blur the lines between entertainment and social.
Ryder says that as a result we’ll start to see more big swings featuring A-list storytellers and talent this year. This will be especially true for brands who are already very invested in IG and have spent years building their followers. And of course, if brands are going to start dropping more ambitious work on IG, theyll drop it on YouTube as well, he says. In order to compete for brand dollars, streamers will need to become even better partners to brands, all of which will create even more energy in this space and raise the bar even higher.
A growing number of people are watching YouTube (and soon, Instagram Reels) on their TVs. Meanwhile, streamers like Netflix and Disney+ are increasingly utilizing brand partnerships to keep subscriber prices competitive. Many of my sources believe these changing dynamics of how we watch and engage with entertainment will drive where brands can find the best opportunities.
I suspect we’ll see more next-generation partnerships like those we’ve been involved with this past year, especially as the Warner Bros. thing sorts itself out, says Jae Goodman, cofounder and CEO of Superconnector Studios. I bet Skydance/Paramount, Disney, Amazon, Comcast/NBCU will all come to market with brands as true partners in surprising, innovative, mutually beneficial, and I bet very effective ways.
A new strategy
Goodman helped broker the Netflix-AB InBev deal and has also helped giants like Nike and LVMH set up their entertainment strategies. He says the long-standing trajectory of how brands and Hollywood do business has fundamentally changed.
Typically, its TV networks and streamers selling ad space to media agencies, then creative agencies filling the order. Film studios and distributors sell partnerships to brands, then licensing and promotional agencies get creative with the intellectual property.
Brands are now entering the market with real entertainment strategies, Goodman says. And brands are leading the conversation with entertainment entities by asking, What if we wanted to achieve XYZ and then figure out the structure and cost? We refer to it as idea flow before deal flow.
This past year, the Martin Agency worked with Subway Takes creator Kareem Rahma on UPS Business Trips. Martins chief brand officer, Elizabeth Paul, believes branded entertainment is growing up and moving from bloated bandwagons with hundreds of brand sponsors (see: Wicked) to fewer projects with a more focused audience.
UPS is a major brand that could easily jump on the blockbuster movie bandwagon or make a Super Bowl ad. Instead, “UPS Business Trips” was a relatively small, Subway Takes-inspired series in which Rahma and UPS drivers visit small-business customers. According to the agency, it had more than 100 million views across platforms, and generated 1,000% return on ad spend.
For those who truly believe in the space, brand entertainment will stop being treated as a campaign format and start being managed as a portfolio, says Paul, who suggests that the best brands will start thinking like studios, not marketing departments.
We’ve seen this most recently with Dick’s Sporting Goodss new in-house studio division, Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios. Dick’s CMO Emily Silver told me back in Septembr that this move will see the brand be more aggressive in the number of films and pieces of content it releases, as well as help the brand build more of a name for itself in the entertainment industry to attract different writers and projects.
“It gives us the opportunity to put a little more structure and framework around what content we want to produce and where we want to lean in to help build for the long term,” she said at the time.
New economics
The most significant factor in the pace of brand entertainment’s evolution is the business imperative from both sides to make the economics work. North American box office revenue for 2025 was more than 20% lower than pre-pandemic levels. And in the first half of 2025, major streamers ordered 24% fewer first-run and renewed scripted titles than the same period in 2024.
As production costs have skyrocketed, and the ability to get entertainment projects off the ground more difficult, Hollywoods typically cool condescension toward marketers has thawed to the point of giddy embrace. Cynically, even if Hollywood sees brands as logo-plastered ATMs, brands see an opportunity to exploit this need for cash to do cool things that are actual entertainment.
Last year, economic pressure forced marketers to be really choiceful with their media plans, which forced intentionality, says Paul. As brands got more selective, the most successful collaborations meant fewer swings with clearer creative intent. The result wasnt louder brand entertainment, but more considered workprojects that respected fandom, embraced specificity, and trusted audiences to meet brands halfway.
Paul cites the Martin Agency’s work on Bud Lights Armchair Quarterback last year, a Netflix partnership starring Peyton Manning that parodies the second season of the streamer’s show Quarterback. Armchair Quarterback attracted more than 100 million social impressions, thanks in no small part to tapping into the fandom of Quarterback by working with the show, its producersManning’s Omaha Productionsand Netflix.
However, she reiterates that this can’t be a simple exchange of relevance for cash. This is about forging true strategic partnerships that delight fans and move markets.
Talent magnet
The relationship between Hollywood and brands has evolved significantly over the past year. Brand partnerships and content are not embarrassing for studios or streamers anymore, in part because of the aforementioned economics, but also because the quality is higher and the value is clear.
WhatsApp’s film The Seat, for example, cost about as much as it would to make and buy ad time for a 60-second commercial. But it also was high enough quality to stand on its own on Netflix. This is a virtuous cycle: The better the quality, the higher caliber of talent is attracted to subsequent projects, which in turn should continue to boost the caliber of these projects.
Ryder says a growing number of A-list showrunners, writers, directors, and creators have been reaching out to learn more about the brand world in hopes of finding a project to work on together.
LVMH’s entertainment division, 22 Montaigne, for example, is developing projects with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, as well as Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment.
When we started making these kinds of brand projects 10 years ago, everyone on the talent side was so suspicious, Ryder says. Many believed brand entertainment was just a glorified long commercial. That has changed as more high-quality films have dropped. Its a bit like a Michelin chef trying a killer food truck and realizing that could be a new outlet for their cooking, he says. There are just a lot more delicious food trucks out there now.
From the moment Elon Musks artificial intelligence company, xAI, began rolling out its Grok chatbot to paid X subscribers in 2023, it pitched the tool as the bad boy of large language models. Grok would supposedly be authorized to say and do things that its politically correct competitorsprimarily ChatGPT, produced by Musks old nemeses at OpenAIwould not.
In an announcement on X, the company touted Groks rebellious streak and teased its willingness to answer spicy questions with a bit of wit. Although xAI warned that Grok was a very early beta product, it assured users that with their help, Grok would improve rapidly with each passing week.
At the time, xAI did not advertise that Grok would one day deliver nonconsensual pornography on an on-demand basis. But over the past few weeks, that is exactly what has happened, as X subscribers inundated the platform with requests to modify real images of women by removing their clothing, altering their bodies, spreading their legs, and so on. X users do not need to be premium subscribers to avail themselves of these services, which are accessible both on X and on Groks stand-alone app.
Some images generated with Groks assistance depict topless or otherwise suggestive images of girls between ages 11 and 13, according to a U.K.-based child safety watchdog. One analysis of 20,000 images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1 found that the chatbot had complied with user requests to depict children with sexual fluids on their bodies. On New Years Eve, an AI firm that offers image alteration detection services estimated that Grok was churning out sexualized images at a rate of about one per minute.
Ive been sexually assaulted in the past, and it almost felt like a digital version of that, one woman told The Cut after Grok users transformed a picture of her posing next to a Christmas tree while wearing workout gear into a picture of her wearing a thong bikini. It is unfathomable to me that people are allowed to do this to women.
On Thursday, journalist and Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins reported seeing Grok-generated images of Renee Nicole Good, the unarmed 37-year-old woman shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, altered to depict her dead body in a bikini. As Higgins put it: Digital corpse desecration now available to the public.
For all the potential use cases of AI chatbots that AI companies have touted in recent years, bespoke pornography was always the howlingly obvious one. (You dont need to be a behavioral scientist to understand what certain demographics immediately think to do when presented with a tool advertised as capable of magically producing photorealistic images of anything ones mind can dream up.) With varying degrees of success, platforms like ChatGPT and Googles Gemini have at least tried to get ahead of this eventuality, building guardrails that try to limit users ability to customize NSFW images to suit their tastes.
A major difference between these companies and xAI, of course, is that xAI is helmed by Musk, whose ideological commitment to eradicating wokeness and censorship extends to offering amused, winking defenses of nonconsensual adult content published by his companys flagship product.
On his X account, Musk has been firing off prompts treating what would be an existential crisis for any other company as a fun and funny meme. The fact that one of the victims was Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Musks 1-year-old son, did not dissuade Musk from declaring himself unable to stop laughing at an AI image of a bikini-clad toaster.
Both X and Musk have since issued statements reminding users that the X terms of service bar the creation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and pornography. X has also said that it removes CSAM and other illegal content, and permanently suspends accounts that create it. At the same time, it is sort of challenging for the company to position itself as taking a problem seriously when its owner, who is also the most-followed person on the platform, was logging on and treating the entire thing as one big joke.
Normally, the existence of an online tool capable of generating one-click CSAM would prompt widespread outrage and rapid responses from law enforcement. Regulators in countries in Europe, Asia, and South America have promised to investigate, and this week the European Commission extended an order that requires X to retain all Grok-related documents and data while officials take a closer look.
There are existing legal mechanisms in the U.S. for addressing the vile things Grok is doing, too. Less than a year ago, for example, Trump signed into law the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bipartisan bill that requires websites to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours upon the victims request. And although a provision of federal law known as Section 230 generally protects websites and social media platforms from liability for content published by their users, here, Grok itself is doing the publishing by generating the images.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who helped write Section 230 three decades ago, weighed in on Bluesky, arguing that AI chatbot outputs are not protected under Section 230, and that it is not a close call. Along with two other Democratic senators, Wyden has also asked Apple and Google to remove Grox and X from their app stores for violations of the companies terms of service. This would be a significant step beyond what appears to be the only action taken by Apple thus far: raising its age rating of the Grok app from 12+ to 13+.
All that said, Musk, who spent four whirlwind months hacking way at the administrative state as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has plenty of practical reasons not to be worried. Thanks to the political and financial support that Musk and his Silicon Valley peers provide to the Republican Party, the second Trump administration has been enthusiastic about integrating AI productsboth from xAI and from other companiesinto the workings of the federal government.
The fact that Trump immediately designated David Sacks, a tech investor with significant AI and crypto interests (as well as close personal and professional ties to Musk), as his AI and crypto czar is a pretty good indication that meaningful regulation is not coming anytime soon.
Since 2019, states with both Democratic- and Republican-controlled legislatures have responded to the absence of federal action by passing more than 140 state laws regulating AI, according to a Brennan Center analysis. But in December 2025, the White House made what is perhaps its most promising gesture yet to the AI industry: an executive order reiterating Trumps commitment to a building minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI that will sustain and enhance the United States global AI dominance.
Among other things, the order directs executive agencies to identify state AI regulations that the administration deems inconsistent with its agenda, and encourages Attorney General Pam Bondi to form an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge the offending laws in court.
Like most Trump executive orders, this one will not have the immediate impact that some breathless headlines suggest; as the order itself acknowledges, Congress would need to act in order for the substantive provisions to take effect. But for Musk, the message the White House is sending about its priorities is what really matters: Right now, the Trump administration is too preoccupied with starting illegal wars and executing unarmed protesters in the streets to worry about a few risqué images appearing on its social media platform of choice.
When Musk left Washington last year, he did not do so quietly, lashing out at Trump for being insufficiently deferential to his preferences and insufficiently grateful for his support. But eight months later, the fact that the official response to Groks pornography and CSAM features is effectively a disinterested shrug demonstrates that the quarter-million dollars Musk donated to Trump and other Republicans in 2024 was a sound investment in his companys future.
By January 3, while Grok was still spitting out these images upon request, Musk and Trump had reconciled enough to have dinner together at Mar-a-Lago. Afterward, Trump called Musk great and a good guy, and Musk predicted that 2026 would be amazing.
Laws are only as strong as the willingness of the powers that be to enforce them. When you own the people who regulate you, there is no scandal too disgusting for you to laugh off.
