🧩 OpenAI’s dominance is cracking

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☀️ On this day: On December 11, 1972, NASA's Apollo 17 mission successfully landed on the Moon, with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt becoming the last humans to walk on the lunar surface. Apollo 17 used advanced onboard computing systems, including the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), which was a milestone in real-time embedded computing and played a vital role in spaceflight technology.

What’s happening:

• 🧩 Why critics say OpenAI’s dominance is cracking

• 🥑 Meta’s shifting AI strategy sparks internal confusion

• 💍 Pebble’s founder unveils a $75 AI note-taking ring

• 🎄 McDonald’s pulls AI-made Christmas ad after backlash

• 🚀 SpaceX reportedly planning 2026 IPO with $1.5T valuation target

• + 📊 Daily poll and results

• + 📈 Trending tools and resources

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Hand-picked news:

🧩 Why critics say OpenAI’s dominance is cracking ↗️LINK

• After early success with ChatGPT, OpenAI has lost ground to rivals like DeepSeek, Anthropic, xAI, and especially Google, whose Gemini 3 Pro now leads public model rankings as GPT-5 faces disappointment and user backlash.

• A series of competitive hits — including DeepSeek’s rapid ascent, Microsoft adopting Anthropic models, and Google’s explosive Gemini user growth — has pushed Sam Altman to declare a “code red” and reshuffle teams as OpenAI scrambles to regain momentum.

• Meanwhile, OpenAI’s huge infrastructure spending and dependence on constant fundraising raise concerns about an AI bubble, with rising hardware prices, systemic economic risks, and questions about whether the company can justify unprecedented investment before 2030.

🥑 Meta’s shifting AI strategy sparks internal confusion ↗️LINK

• Meta’s former focus on its open-source Llama models has splintered as the company shifts toward a new proprietary model called Avocado, which has been delayed to early 2026 and raised internal doubts after leadership changes and Llama 4’s weaker-than-expected performance.

• The company is spending heavily, including a $14.3B hiring deal for Alexandr Wang and increased 2025 capex, showing Zuckerberg’s urgency to catch up with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic even as investors question the payoff and point to Meta’s unclear direction.

• Inside Meta, teams are dealing with long hours, reorganizations, and layoffs while products like Vibes trail competitors, leaving the company out of top-model discussions and adding pressure for Avocado to deliver a competitive breakthrough.

💍 Core Devices unveils a $75 AI note-taking ring ↗️LINK

• Core Devices introduced the Index 01, a $75 AI smart ring that records voice notes and uses on-device AI to turn them into reminders, notes, or calendar items — all without subscriptions or an internet connection.

• The ring sits on your index finger with a thumb-activated button for quick, mobile recording; audio syncs to your phone where a local LLM transcribes it using an open-source speech-to-text system. It runs on batteries that last up to two years and supports five-minute continuous recordings.

• After past AI wearables struggled to replace phones, Index 01 takes a single-purpose, reliable approach that could show whether the market prefers focused tools over ambitious all-in-one devices.

🎄 McDonald’s pulls AI-made Christmas ad after backlash ↗️LINK

• McDonald’s Netherlands removed an AI-generated Christmas ad after viewers said its chaotic holiday scenes felt off-putting, with many arguing it clashed with the season’s usual upbeat spirit.

• The production team defended the use of AI as a creative tool that required significant human effort, but critics countered that AI displaced traditional live-action crews, actors, and other workers.

• The controversy arrives as other brands, including Coca-Cola, continue experimenting with AI-generated holiday ads, drawing mixed reactions and renewed debate over AI’s role in commercial production.

🚀 SpaceX reportedly planning 2026 IPO with $1.5T valuation target ↗️LINK

• SpaceX is aiming for a mid-to-late 2026 IPO, seeking to raise about $30B at a valuation near $1.5T—potentially the largest public offering in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut.

• The move marks a shift from earlier plans to spin off Starlink for an IPO, with SpaceX now preparing to take the entire company public, according to reports from Bloomberg, The Information, and others.

• The company has also finalized a new employee share sale valuing SpaceX at over $800B, allowing staff to sell roughly $2B of shares at $420 each as it ramps toward a massive public debut.

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Today’s Poll:

Vote and find out about the result tomorrow.

Yesterday’s Poll Result:

Do you think banning under-16s from social media will actually reduce online harms like bullying and misinformation?

• A: Yes - 84% 🏆

• B: No - 16%

Reader’s opinions:

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