The newsletter opens with a reflection on how so-called Artificial Intelligence slop, a torrent of low-effort generative content, has entered mainstream awareness through viral clips like rabbits bouncing on a trampoline. The writer describes how many internet users, including themselves, were first fooled by such an Artificial Intelligence video and reacted with disdain, folding it into a broader narrative that “everything online is slop now” and that the internet has been “enshittified,” with Artificial Intelligence heavily blamed. Yet as friends began sharing Artificial Intelligence clips that were strangely compelling, funny, or even subtly insightful, the author realized they did not fully understand what they were rejecting and set out to interview creators, toolmakers, and media scholars, ultimately coming to believe that generative Artificial Intelligence might not ruin online culture after all.
The second main feature examines why CRISPR has not yet transformed medicine at the scale once predicted, despite MIT Technology Review having covered it as a major breakthrough since 2013. It notes that there has been only one gene-editing drug approved so far and that it has been used commercially on only about 40 patients with sickle-cell disease, contributing to a sense that the technology’s impact is smaller than hoped and that the field has “lost its mojo.” A new startup argues that wider access could come from an “umbrella approach” to testing and commercializing CRISPR-based treatments, designed to avoid the need for costly new trials or regulatory approvals for every incremental version, potentially making gene editing more scalable and efficient.
The third major story dissects newly released us dietary guidelines, introduced in the first days of 2026 by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and officials at the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture. These guidelines are controversial because they endorse items such as red meat, butter, and beef tallow, which have been linked to cardiovascular disease and which many nutrition experts have long advised people to limit. Since federal dietary guidelines help shape food assistance programs and school lunches, the piece frames them as highly consequential public policy, and promises a breakdown of the positive, negative, and troubling aspects of the advice. The rest of the newsletter highlights a range of tech stories, from an image-generation suspension on Grok following backlash over sexualized images, to questions about the reliability of Artificial Intelligence-powered doxxing attempts, the impact of Artificial Intelligence data centers on chip prices, and new research suggesting that government spending on R&D remains one of its most effective long-term investments.
