#42 The Weekend Download – Catching Up on What Matters
Essential insights you need to stay ahead
📩 Issue #42 – 06/12/2025
⚡ Quick Hits – What You Need to Know
🧠 Google’s “Gemini” becomes 2025’s #1 trending search term
An almost sci-fi data point: the most-searched word on Google this year… was Google’s own AI model.
Read More (TechCrunch)
📡 Everything AWS announced at re:Invent 2025
Amazon went full throttle on AI: new chips, new agents, cheaper compute. All part of a strategy to keep cloud dominance as competitors surge.
Read More (TechCrunch)
🎬 Netflix is buying Warner Bros. What’s the endgame?
A mega-acquisition that signals the death of old-school Hollywood and Netflix’s ambition to control the whole content pipeline.
Read More (The Guardian)
⌚ Meta buys AI-wearables startup Limitless
Meta acquires Limitless, maker of an AI-first recording wearable that turns your life into searchable data.
Read More (Reuters)
🕶️ Meta plans deep cuts to its metaverse efforts
Zuckerberg’s company is reportedly slashing VR/AR budgets to redirect talent and cash into AI. A major symbolic shift.
Read More (Bloomberg)
🔥 Top Insights
🕊️ Oxford Word of the Year 2025: “Rage-bait”
Nothing says 2025 like content engineered to enrage.
Read More (Oxford University Press)
🏆 TIME100 Impact Awards
A global snapshot of the people reshaping AI, climate, politics, and culture across continents.
Read More (TIME)
📸 TIME’s 100 Photos of 2025
The year’s most powerful images — conflicts, climate, culture, sports, and everything in between.
Read More (TIME)
📹 Mashable 101: Top Creators of 2025
A look at the creators shaping taste and culture more than any algorithm.
Read More (Mashable)
💡 Something to Think About
🧒 How AI is rewriting childhood
AI tutors, companions, algorithms and a generation being shaped by systems no one fully understands.
Read More (The Economist)
📚 The debate over 2025’s “best vs. favorite” books
The Atlantic asks: who decides what good means in a year ruled by algorithms?
Read More (The Atlantic)
📉 The “Cloud Dancer” economy
Pantone’s pick triggered debates about class aesthetics, economic anxiety, and who gets to define “taste” in a downturn.
Read More (The Verge)
✍️ Why Does A.I. Write Like… That?
AI-generated prose has developed its own instantly recognisable cadence, raising questions about authenticity and the future of human writing.
Read More (The New York Times)
📊 Movements to Watch
🏛️ Accommodations surge at elite universities
Selective schools like Brown and Harvard are seeing a sharp rise in students receiving extra time and other accommodations, driven by more ADHD/anxiety diagnoses and streamlined approval processes.
Read More (The Atlantic)
🍼 Gen Z is renting… everything
From strollers to streetwear, renting is becoming the default mode for an entire generation.
Read More (Business Insider)
🌀 Offbeat & Unexpected
🤯 The spectacle of Bryan Johnson’s livestreamed shrooms trip
Tech’s most extreme biohacker turned psychedelic therapy into a global broadcast: the future of bio-influencer culture?
Read More (TechCrunch)