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A few weeks ago, my iPhone woke me up at 3:30am. In a way, it was my fault. Id technically set the alarm for three thirty. In another way, it was Siris fault. Apples AI assistant never thought to question if I was asking for AM or PM. And it simply assumed the most painful option for me. Its just one of countless tiny examples of how Siri, 16 years since Apple acquired the technology, has been a disappointing product. Siri was already looking dusty before modern LLMs, and with the launch of ChatGPT, it has been completely left behind. Which is why in June 2024, with fans and investors growing impatient, Apple promised a new era of AIApple Intelligence. But that new intelligence never arrived. Reports of infighting at Apple abound, talent left the company last year as Tim Cook held an emergency all-hands in August promising a bigger focus on AI. This week we learned the results of that renewed focus. Instead of building a new Siri itself, Apple will license AI from Google, and stick Gemini inside its assistant. Siri will get this more personalized, capable upgrade later this year. This is a significant announcement. Apple had toyed with third party AI before, most recently via an agreement with OpenAI where users could opt in to have Siri ask ChatGPT a question. But this approach was always a silly stopgap. No one wants a go-between between an incapable chatbot and an all-knowing AI. People remove friction from their workflows. They want to just talk to the AI that knows the stuff. The agreement with Google eliminates middle men. Specifically, it doesnt just mean Siri might send a question over to Gemini to get an answer. It means that Siri is Gemini. Siris foundational architecture is Googles AI tech. Apple is Google now. [Illustration: FC] Is this a failure for Apple? (No) Its easy to look at this moment as cementing Apples own failure, as the company underinvested in artificial intelligence for years. But while Im hardly an Apple apologist, Id argue exactly the opposite. Apple doesnt need to make every part of its products to make those products successful. Yes, Apple has been designing its own mobile processors, for instance, since 2010. These processors have allowed Apple to push the boundaries of performance while cutting back power consumption. They are a big reason that Apple phones and laptops are so appealing to creative professionals. But Apple doesnt use manufacturing partners build its own screens, which it buys from LG, Samsung, and BOE Technology. It doesnt make its own RAM, either, which is why so many Apple execs are currently holed up in South Korea, hoping to secure the vital hardware from Samsung as its recently ballooned in price. Even in this challenging supply chain, Apple simply doesnt need to build anything that it cant build best. Screens and RAM are commodities that Apple can acquire, integrate into their products, and no one will know the difference. Increasingly, AI is a commodity, too. Thats one reason that, for Apple, this deal with Google is a steal. While headlines focus on the shocking nature of Google powering Siri, its a fact that, I suspect, most iOS users will forget about in day-to-day use as they encounter more and more touchpoints of Apple Intelligence. Consider that Google pays Apple more than $20 billion a year to be the default search engine on Safari. Cleary, thats considered a worthwhile investment for Google, to get its search engine front and center on Americas most popular phone brand. But all Apple has to do for those dollars is set up a URL. Theres no significant technological investment on Apples part. If Apple was training an advanced LLM on its own, it would cost a lot of money now, and even more into the future. Thats because, on one hand, yes, AI models are increasingly commoditized, and the core science driving them is more widely understood than it was a few years ago. On the other, developing those modelsand specifically, staying on the cutting edge in an industry that feels new every three monthsis still a costly practice thats growing costlier by the day. According to Bloomberg, Apple is paying Google $1 billion a year for AI. Thats a figure remarkably close to the increasing cost of developing AI. Whereas the ChatGPT 3 of 2020 cost a mere $2 to 4 million to train, the latest generations of LLMs built upon vastly more data (like ChatGPT 4 and the latest Gemini) have cost over $100 million to train apiece, with the vast majority of cost going to computing power. And some rumors point to OpenAIs ChatGPT 5 costing another jump more than what weve seen spent thus farbetween $500 million and $2.5 billion according to analysts. Meanwhile, Apple is getting the worlds top AI model for a mere 1% of its annual profits. $1 billion is barely a line item for a company with a company boasting approximately $400 billion in annual revenue. If Apple has done nothing else than lock in a $1 billion rate for the near future, to have a top tier AI service from a proven competitor thats paying 20x that to you for a search referralthen thats a considerable business win. Let the engineers focus on tuning an AI to Apples specifications. Then Apple can focus less on building a competent AI and more on how that AI appears across its products. Indeed, if we should question anything, its how much Apple can lead the industry, not through AI models, but through the design and manifestation of the AI experience. What does the Apple mean in Apple Intelligence? Now that its sitting on a solid technological foundation, thats the question Cupertino finally gets to answer in 2026.
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E-Commerce
Get ready with me as an absolute piece-of-shit ICE agent, one such video begins, posted by comedian Adam Macias. These videos are comedic skits, rather than from the social media accounts of actual ICE agents, but have quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views as the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency faces intense backlash after the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis. I wake up screaming and shooting. Not because Im scared but because my sleep paralysis demon looks like someones tía, the skit begins (tia is Spanish for aunt). I start the day off with a shower but no matter how hard I try I just cant seem to get clean, it continues. After doing laundry and eating breakfast, the ICE agent proceeds to have his second shower of the day. Time for some vocal warm ups, he then says. Self defense, self defense, he yells repeatedly whilst staring himself down in the mirror. Time to go to work, he continues. My commute isnt far because Im literally about to go deport my neighbor. On Wednesday, January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good in her car as she was protesting against the agency’s operations in the Twin Cities. The killing sparked widespread backlash and protests, both on and offline, with thousands in attendance at the ICE out of Minnesota rally and march over the weekend. Wow what a lovely, beautiful day to harass people who are at work, another TikTok creator quips, in a video titled How ICE agents wake up in the morning, viewed almost 3 million times. I hope I get to beat up a pregnant woman, he says, referencing a recent incident where ICE agents detained a woman who was allegedly pregnant, kneeling on her and dragging her through the snow. Maybe today Ill get a DUI with my children in the backseat, he added, again referencing a real incident where an ICE agent was arrested for allegedly driving drunk while he had two young children in his vehicle. Nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask, he concluded the video (a reference from The Dark Knight Rises). Now they just hate me. Since July, there have been 13 recorded instances of ICE agents firing at or into civilian vehicles, a recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal found. In eight of those instances, civilians were shot, and two confirmed dead. At least five were U.S. citizens. Whether its in-person demonstrations or posting skits online, Americans arent afraid to make their feelings known. As one comment read: This is actually an official ICE training video.
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E-Commerce
A political showdown over Greenland, and possibly a military one, is looking increasingly possible as President Donald Trump doubles down on his long-standing threat to take over Denmark’s semiautonomous territory “one way or the other.” In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Venezuela, Europe’s major military powers are taking Trump’s ramped-up rhetoric with renewed seriousness. And in what appeared to be unthinkable just months ago, the escalating geopolitical conflict could pit the United States against its longtime NATO partnersa troubling sign of the U.S.’s eroding relationships with its closest allies. Here’s what to know about the situation. Denmark, Greenland, and U.S. to meet at White House The U.S. and Denmark, both members of the NATO military alliance, are scheduled, along with Greenland’s foreign minister, to meet on Wednesday at the White House. Both Greenland and Denmark have made it clear that Greenland is not for sale, and their people do not want to be a part of the United States. Europe, NATO respond to U.S. threat Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made their position known in a joint press conference on Tuesday: If we have to choose between the USA and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO . . . and the EU, Nielsen said, according to Danish public broadcaster DR. A day earlier, Andrius Kubilius, the European commissioner for defense and space, said that if Denmark requested help in the event of U.S. military action, the European Union could provide security for Greenland, which he said would, in effect, end the NATO alliance, per Reuters. Also on Monday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, “When it comes to the Arctic region . . . collectively as an alliance, the collective defense [of Greenland] is crucial . . . and we do everything to protect that territory.” Why does Trump want Greenland, anyway? Trump, for his part, has said taking over Greenland would prevent Russia and China from grabbing the strategically located mineral-rich region in the Arcticwhich has a wealth of natural resources and sits on the shortest route between the U.S. and Europe. Beijing, however, has argued this explanation is merely “an excuse” for Trump to justify more territorial expansion of the U.S. Remind me, how did we get here? Back in March, the Trump administration sent an uninvited delegation to the autonomous Danish territory, which, at the time, Greenlands Prime Minister Mute Egede called highly aggressive and a provocation. That trip included second lady Usha Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
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E-Commerce
Chris Cuomo is returning to SiriusXM, putting him on the air with morning and evening talk shows. He will host a two-hour weekday show centered on listener calls on the satellite radio company’s P.O.T.U.S. channel, starting Jan. 20 at 7 a.m. Eastern. Guests on his first few shows include Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, sportscaster Bob Costas, and political consultant James Carville, the company said Tuesday. Cuomo previously hosted a show at the network but quit in 2021, shortly after he was fired from CNN when it was revealed that he assisted his brother, former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in fighting accusations of sexual harassment. A former prime-time host at CNN and a reporter at ABC News earlier in his career, Cuomo has reemerged at the cable network NewsNation, where he hosts an evening talk show. Too much of our politics is about teams instead of truth, said Cuomo, also son of the late Democratic New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. ’Cuomo Mornings’ is going to be about breaking through those barriers, asking better questions and bringing people into the conversation instead of talking past them. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Back in November, Fast Company and Johns Hopkins partnered for the first-ever World Changing Ideas Summit in Washington, DC, an event that convened leaders across business and academia to engage with the ideas and innovations reshaping the future. Knowing we were heading into a new year that undoubtedly is bringing new challenges to every industry, we asked some of our speakers working in space, healthcare, AI, and the intersections therein, what would be top of mind for them in 2026: Were in a race against resistance. Akhila Kosaraju, founder and CEO of Pharebio, is using predictive and generative AI to power drug discovery. The startup plans to develop 15 new antibiotics by 2030 that will outpace microbial resistance and cure common but difficult to treat illnesses such as E. coli and C. diff. For Kosaraju, the biggest challenge is time. Were in a race against resistance, she says, noting it can take fewer than six years for bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics. Meanwhile, it can take 13 yearsmore than double that timeto develop new medicine. Phare Bio President and CEO Akhila Kosaraju [Photo: Sardari Group for Johns Hopkins University] The biggest challenge for us is getting these antibiotics into preclinical and then ultimately clinical development, and FDA approved. I think you’ll hear this across AI for drug discoverythere is an impatience to make sure that these AI models are actually working and that patients actually start seeing those results,” she says. “So our team is laser focused on not just building the best model for its own sake, but really ensuring that we are truly accelerating timelines to get these drugs developed, that these drugs are more novel, less toxic, and more efficacious than what currently exists. If we don’t have a solution, America’s presence in space will stop. Saleem Miyan, CEO of Max Space, a company developing new space stations in partnership with the U.S. government and NASA, believes its essential for both American innovation and security to expand the nations presence in spaceespecially given that the International Space Station will be decommissioned in 2030. That will mean, if we don’t have a solution, America’s presence in space will stopand we don’t want that to happen, Miyan says. As a result of that, we’re putting an awful lot of time, energy, effort, [and] investors capital, to make sure that people understand quite how important being in space is, remaining in space is. Max Space CEO Saleem Miyan [Photo: Sardari Group for Johns Hopkins University] And theres no shortage of opportunities for Max Space to capitalize on, Miyan says. We’re seeing so much attention right now from all governments around the world to get the next space race won, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that America maintains that position,” he says. “I think in order to do that, we have to make sure that we are continuing to evolve these incredible ideas that companies like ours have developed from the concept all the way through to productization, so that we as a nation maintain this strength and dominance that we’ve always hadnot just in exploration but also in defense. space is open for innovation. Were trying to get the message out that space is open for innovation, says Molly Mulligan, Chief Operating Officer of SpaceMD, a subsidiary of Redwire Space. The company, which formed in August 2025, is focused on accelerating drug creation by removing gravity from the growth process of antibody crystals. “At Space MD, that’s really the goal: to take the science of making better drugs in space and apply that here on Earth to actually make drugs that are commercially available for people, Mulligan says. SpaceMD Chief Operating Officer Molly Mulligan [Photo: Sardari Group for Johns Hopkins University] SpaceMDs mission takes inspiration from the success of Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug created by pharmaceutical company Merck whose crystals were grown on the International Space Stationa process they are hoping to replicate in the coming years. We want to be the company that takes that next drug through the whole process. And we’re working on that today, trying to take a drug from growing the crystals in space all the way through the preclinical process to an investigational new drug form for the FDA,” she says. “So that’s really top of mind for us is being the company that does that with the second drug and the third drug and a fourth drug to help people every day here on earth.” “patients are waiting for new medicines today.” Isomorphic Labs, the AI-powered drug company spun out of Google DeepMind, has an audacious goal of solving all diseases using AI. The key to doing so largely rets with its AlphaFold AI system which can predict the complex structure of proteins and model how they might internet with, say, DNA or drugs. The discovery earned Google DeepMind the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry. And this past July, the company announced it’s “very close” to human trials. “As we move to the new year, we all know that patients are waiting for new medicines today,” says Ben Wolf, chief medical officer at Isomorphic Labs. Wolf joined the company in June and says his focus is advancing Isomorphic Labs into “an industry leading clinical pipeline.” Wolf says their initial focus is oncology and immunology. Isomorphic Labs Chief Medical Officer Ben Wolf [Photo: Sardari Group for Johns Hopkins University] “One of the challenges is just the heterogeneic [and] intractable nature of many diseases like cancer. So they’re very challenging to crack,” Wolf says. What will be imperative for Isomorphic Labs is coupling AI-based approaches to drug development with precision medicine paradigms, i.e. tailoring treatment to specific patients instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. “Ultimately that will give us the capacity to quickly make safer and more effective medicines for all patients,” Wolf says.
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E-Commerce
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