Adobe announced a new multimodal capability for its Acrobat AI Assistant that can analyze legal documents to demystify complex language, summarize key terms and identify differences across multiple contracts, all with a single click. Its called, unsurprisingly, Contracts AI.Contracts is capable of interpreting both digital and scanned documents, automatically identifying contracts as such. The system then tailors the experience, generating a contract overview, surfacing key terms in a single click and recommending questions specific to customers documents, according to the announcement post.Recommended VideosThe AI will also create summaries of the contracts contents, presenting that information to the user in clear and concise language with clickable, verifiable citations. The system can review up to 10 different contracts at a time, allowing the user to quickly find and address discrepancies between them. Users can even e-sign their completed contracts directly within the Acrobat app itself. The company recently conducted a survey of Acrobat users that found nearly 70% of consumers and more than 60% of small and medium business owners have, at some point, signed contracts without knowing or understanding all of the stipulated terms. Contracts AI makes agreements easier to understand and compare and citations help customers verify responses, all while keeping their data safe, Abhigyan Modi, SVP of Adobe Document Cloud, said in a press release.Per Adobe, Acrobats AI features are governed by data security protocols and developed in alignment with Adobes AI Ethics processes. As such, the company does not train its generative models using its customer data and bans third-party developers from using Adobe data on models of their own. The new Contracts feature is available as a $5 per month add-on subscription through either the free Reader app or the paid Acrobat app. Its currently only accessible on the desktop and web in English. The company is working to expand the AIs language options but has not specified a timeline for that yet.Editors Recommendations

Love crossword puzzles but dont have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? Thats what The Mini is for!A bite-sized version of the New York Times well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test your crossword skills daily in a lot less time (the average puzzle takes most players just over a minute to solve). While The Mini is smaller and simpler than a normal crossword, it isnt always easy. Tripping up on one clue can be the difference between a personal best completion time and an embarrassing solve attempt.Recommended VideosJust like ourWordle hints and Connections hints, were here to help with The Mini today if youre stuck and need a little help.Please enable Javascript to view this contentBelow are the answers for the NYT Mini crossword today.New York TimesAcrossT-shirt or blouse TOPDo a novelists job WRITEConfusing answer to So Im supposed to turn left? RIGHTRFrench to be ETRE___-do-well NEERDownFearsome cat, in Spanish TIGREAlternative option OTHERMarcel the monkey, on Friends PETTiny bird with a piercing teakettle-teakettle! song WRENReligious ceremony RITEEditors Recommendations

(Not) Fixed Boeing has now lost $2B on Starliner, but still silent on future plans Boeing has brought back a previous Starliner manager to helm the troubled program. Stephen Clark Feb 4, 2025 8:44 am | 7 A detailed view of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2021. Credit: Photo by Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images A detailed view of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2021. Credit: Photo by Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreBoeing announced Monday it lost $523 million on the Starliner crew capsule program last year, putting the aerospace company $2 billion in the red on its NASA commercial crew contract since late 2019.The updated numbers are included in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods," Boeing wrote in the filing.In 2014, NASA picked Boeing and SpaceX to develop and certify two commercial crew transporter vehicles. Like SpaceX, Boeing's contract, now worth up to $4.6 billion, is structured as a fixed-price deal, meaning the contractor is on the hook to pay for cost overruns that go over NASA's financial commitment.That's exactly what happened. Boeing has registered losses on Starliner in its quarterly earnings reports since 2020, months after the spacecraft's first orbital test flight fell short of its objectives. It has been a steady stream of losses, or charges, on Boeing's balance sheet since then.Boeing officials previously reported the company lost $375 million on the Starliner program in the first three quarters of 2024. Add in another $148 million hit in the fourth quarter, and Boeing's total losses on the Starliner program have reached $2 billion and are likely to rise more.A rough yearThe most recent financial loss comes as Boeing reels from a disappointing test flight of the Starliner spacecraft last year. Boeing and NASA expected the test flight would set the stage for the spacecraft's final certification to begin operational crew rotation flights to and from the International Space Station.Instead, the Starliner spacecraft suffered problems with overheating thrusters and helium leaks after its launch last June aboard an Atlas V rocket. Despite the technical issues, the capsule delivered its two-person crewNASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williamsto the space station as planned. However, numerous tests of Starliner's propulsion system in space and on the ground failed to convince NASA managers that more problems would not develop during the spacecraft's return to Earth.Boeing officials disagreed and asserted Starliner would bring Wilmore and Williams home.But NASA calls the shots on the commercial crew program, and the space agency decided to leave the Starliner astronauts on the space station and return Starliner to Earth without its crew. The spacecraft parachuted to a successful landing in New Mexico in September.Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams are still at the space station. They went outside the station on a spacewalk last week to complete routine maintenance tasks. NASA plans to return the two astronauts to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as soon as early April, although the exact schedule is unclear due to delays in readying SpaceX's Dragon capsule and odd statements from Elon Musk and President Trump last week.What's also unclear is when, or in what form, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will fly again. One option NASA officials have considered is to fly a cargo mission on Starliner later this year, providing an opportunity to validate changes to the spacecraft's propulsion system. An alternative could be to proceed with certification of the Starliner spacecraft for operational crew rotation flights, even though the crew test flight last year was incomplete.The long-term future of Starliner is also in question. NASA's original commercial crew contract for Boeing included six crew rotation flights once Starliner is certified. NASA has formally given Boeing the go-ahead for only three of these operational missions.Meanwhile, NASA has extended SpaceX's commercial crew contract through the Crew-14 mission. Like Boeing's deal, SpaceX originally received a contract for six crew rotation flights, but NASA ordered more amid mounting Starliner delays. SpaceX wrapped up work on its original commercial crew contract in 2023 and is now executing on the extension.NASA plans to retire the International Space Station around 2030, so the opportunities are dwindling for NASA to use Starliner for all six of the crew ferry flights on contract. In November, Musk posted on X: "There is no logical purpose to Starliner, given that NASA plans to deorbit Space Station in ~5 years."Not so new managementIt will fall to a new Boeing manager to oversee whatever becomes of Starliner.Last week, Boeing confirmed John Mulholland is taking over as Starliner program manager. He replaces Mark Nappi, who held the top job on the Starliner program since 2022 and is retiring from Boeing later this month.Mulholland led the Starliner program from 2011 until 2020, when Boeing reassigned him to manage the company's engineering sustainment contract for the International Space Station. This followed Starliner's first orbital test flight, without people aboard, which ended prematurely due to software issues.Although Mulholland was not in charge during Starliner's most recent setbacks, it was under his leadership that engineers made the design decisions that led to many of Starliner's problems. These include the software woes that kept the spacecraft from reaching the space station on the 2019 test flight and the use of valves in the ship's service module that were susceptible to corrosion. In 2023, just a couple of months before Starliner was supposed to launch on the crew test flight, officials discovered a design problem with Starliner's parachutes and found that Boeing installed flammable tape inside the capsule's cockpit.And the problem that caused Starliner's thrusters to overheat in space last year can be traced to the design of the spacecraft's four propulsion pods, or doghouses, that retain heat like a thermos during successive thruster firings. Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne, Starliner's propulsion supplier, approved the doghouse early in the program, years before Starliner ever flew in space.Stephen ClarkSpace ReporterStephen ClarkSpace Reporter Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the worlds space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet. 7 Comments

HACKING SMART CONTRACTS 22-year-old math wiz indicted for alleged DeFI hack that stole $65M 22-year-old Andean Medjedovic of Canada could spend decades in prison if convicted. Dan Goodin Feb 4, 2025 8:25 am | 19 Credit: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images Credit: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreFederal prosecutors have indicted a man on charges he stole $65 million in cryptocurrency by exploiting vulnerabilities in two decentralized finance platforms and then laundering proceeds and attempting to extort swindled investors.The scheme, alleged in an indictment unsealed on Monday, occurred in 2021 and 2023 against the DeFI platforms KyberSwap and Indexed Finance. Both platforms provide automated services known as liquidity pools that allow users to move cryptocurrencies from one to another. The pools are funded with user-contributed cryptocurrency and are managed by smart contracts enforced by platform software.Formidable mathematical prowessThe prosecutors said Andean Medjedovic, now 22 years old, exploited vulnerabilities in the KyberSwap and Indexed Finance smart contracts by using manipulative trading practices. In November 2023, he allegedly used hundreds of millions of dollars in borrowed cryptocurrency to cause artificial prices in the KyberSwap liquidity pools. According to the prosecutors, he then calculated precise combinations of trades that would induce the KyberSwap smart contract systemknown as the AMM, or automated market makersto glitch, as he wrote later.The scheme allegedly allowed Medjedovic to steal roughly $48.8 million from 77 KyberSwap liquidity pools on six public blockchains. He allegedly also tried to extort developers of the KyberSwap protocol, investors, and members of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The prosecutors said the defendant offered to return 50 percent of the stolen cryptocurrency in return for him receiving control of the KyberSwap protocol.In an attempt to launder the proceeds later, prosecutors said, Medjedovic also used bridge protocols to transfer cryptocurrency from one blockchain to another through a cryptocurrency mixer designed to conceal the source of digital assets. After one bridge protocol froze several of his transactions, Medjedovic agreed to pay more than $80,000 to someone he thought had control of the bridge to circumvent restrictions and release approximately $500,000 in stolen cryptocurrency. That transaction, as will be explained shortly, ultimately led to his undoing.The prosecutors said Medjedovic spent months planning the attack by carefully identifying the best time to pull it off.The prosecutors said the other heist occurred in 2021, when Medjedovic used similar tactics to steal $16.5 million in cryptocurrency from Indexed Finance. The index pools on this platform function similarly to mutual funds or exchange-traded funds, except that rather than holding traditional equities, the index pools hold an index of digital tokens, which could be traded on the Ethereum platform.Justice Department officials explained:In October 2021, Medjedovic used manipulative trading to exploit two Indexed Finance liquidity pools on the Ethereum network. Medjedovic used hundreds of millions of dollars in borrowed cryptocurrencies to distort a process called re-indexing, which was used by the Indexed Finance smart contracts to add a new token to the liquidity pools. Medjedovic used the borrowed cryptocurrency to engage in manipulative trading to cause the Indexed Finance smart contracts to set artificial prices during the re-indexing process. He then stole approximately $16.5 million in investor cryptocurrency from the liquidity pools.Beginning after the Indexed Finance exploit, in or around 2022, Medjedovic conspired with another person to launder the proceeds of his illegal conduct through cryptocurrency exchange accounts that were opened using false information, and by using a cryptocurrency mixer. Among other things, Medjedovic maintained a step-by step playbook for moving large amounts of cryptocurrency through the mixer, which he titled a moneyMovementSystem. In other documents, Medjedovic discussed circumventing know your customer or KYC procedures and using cryptocurrency exchange accounts opened with false KYC information for hacks and cashing out.A Canadian national who holds a masters degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Medjedovic has been at large since 2021, when officials in Ontario charged him with pulling off the heist against Indexed Finance. A charging document in that case alleged he leveraged his formidable mathematical prowess to devise and unleash a complex computer attack against Index Finance and essentially induced it to send him $15 million in others cryptocurrency tokens.The prosecutors said files they found on Medjedovics computer showed he planned to buy flights out of Canada to escape capture. The plan ultimately unraveled after he developed a relationship with someone who turned out to be an undercover law enforcement source. Medjedovic allegedly offered to pay the person roughly $86,559 to move funds off of platforms that had banned him for his alleged role in the KyberSwap attack.Details about the vulnerabilities that were exploited aren't clear. The indictment said the exploit "generally consisted of the following:(1) borrowing funds; (2) creating artificial prices in the KyberSwap Elastic liquidity pools; (3) submitting manipulative swaps to cause the KyberSwap Elastic AMM to miscalculate available liquidity at these artificial prices; (4) extracting liquidity from the KyberSwap Elastic liquidity pools; (5) repaying the flash loan; and (6) withdrawing tokens. Although the exploit involved numerous swaps, the swaps used to exploit each liquidity pool were submitted as a single cryptographic transaction, meaning that they were executed in nearly instantaneous succession, and the stepswere substantially similar in each of the drained liquidity pools. Publicly available event logs created during the exploit and programmed by MEDJEDOVIC catalog the steps of the exploit in each of the liquidity pools.The alleged hack is only the latest to target smart contracts, which in theory are enforced by code that can't be interfered with by humans once executed. In 2016, a crowdfunded investment fund known as The DAO was pushed to the brink of collapse after a smart contract drained $50 million in Ether currency by exploiting a bug residing in software functions individual investors used when cashing out of the fund. A similar smart contract hack played out again in 2021.The indictment unsealed on Monday charged Medjedovic with wire fraud, computer hacking, and attempted extortion. If convicted, he faces fines and decades in prison.Dan GoodinSenior Security EditorDan GoodinSenior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 19 Comments

TechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Shopping for an LLM? Here's What to Know About PricingShopping for an LLM? Here's What to Know About PricingCIOs and other smart shoppers who want to watch their AI spending should understand what goes into the bill they'll receive from their large language model providers. Here's what to know to start comparison shopping.Pam Baker, Contributing WriterFebruary 4, 20251 Min ReadTithi Luadthong via Alamy StockRead more about:Cost of AIAbout the AuthorPam BakerContributing WriterA prolific writer and analyst, Pam Baker's published work appears in many leading publications. She's also the author of several books, the most recent of which are "Decision Intelligence for Dummies" and "ChatGPT For Dummies." Baker is also a popular speaker at technology conferences and a member of the National Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, and the Internet Press Guild.See more from Pam BakerNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How the Rubin Observatory will help us understand dark matter and dark energy We can put a good figure on how much we know about the universe: 5%. Thats how much of whats floating about in the cosmos is ordinary matterplanets and stars and galaxies and the dust and gas between them. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious entities aptly named for our inability to shed light on their true nature. Previous work has begun pulling apart these dueling forces, but dark matter and dark energy remain shrouded in a blanket of questionscritically, what exactly are they? Enter the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of our 10 breakthrough technologies for 2025. Boasting the largest digital camera ever created, Rubin is expected to study the cosmos in the highest resolution yet once it begins observations later this year. And with a better window on the cosmic battle between dark matter and dark energy, Rubin might narrow down existing theories on what they are made of. Heres a look at how.Jenna Ahart This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand whats coming next. You can read more from the series here. Anthropic has a new way to protect large language models against jailbreaks Whats new? AI firm Anthropic has developed a new line of defense against a common kind of attack called a jailbreak. A jailbreak tricks large language models (LLMs) into doing something they have been trained not to, such as help somebody create a weapon. And Anthropics new approach could be the strongest shield against the attacks yet. How they did it: Jailbreaks are a kind of adversarial attack: input passed to a model that makes it produce an unexpected output. Despite a decade of research there is still no way to build a model that isnt vulnerable. But, instead of trying to fix its models, Anthropic has developed a barrier that stops attempted jailbreaks from getting through and unwanted responses from the model getting out. Read the full story. Will Douglas Heaven Three things to know as the dust settles from DeepSeek The launch of a single new AI model does not normally cause much of a stir outside tech circles, nor does it typically spook investors enough to wipe out $1 trillion in the stock market. Now, a couple of weeks since DeepSeeks big moment, the dust has settled a bit. Within AI, though, what impact is DeepSeek likely to have in the longer term? Here are three seeds DeepSeek has planted that will grow even as the initial hype fades.James ODonnell This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. If youre interested in learning more about what DeepSeeks breakout success means for the future of AI, watch this conversation between our news editor Charlotte Jee, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and China reporter Caiwei Chen. It was held at noon ET yesterday as part of our subscriber-only Roundtables seriescheck it out! The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Elon Musk's government allies are weighing up using AI to cut costs As part of Musks plans to gut federal contracts across the board. (NYT $)+ A 25-year old engineer now has access to the USs top secret systems. (Wired $)+ Staffers for the US agency that sends aid to the worlds neediest have been locked out of their email accounts. (NY Mag $)+ Such measures would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago. (Vox)+ Palantir CEO Alex Karp is a fan of DOGE. (Insider $)2 China has announced its own tariffs on US importsSparking new fears of a full-blown trade war. (FT $) + The days of cheap Chinese shopping in the US could be coming to an end. (NY Mag $)+ Heres what Trumps tariffs mean for the likes of Temu and Shein. (The Information $)3 US senators blame Silicon Valley for DeepSeeks runaway success Big Techs lobbying for softer export controls created corporate loopholes, they claim. (WP $)+ The rise of DeepSeek doesnt mean the controls have failed, according to ASML. (WSJ $)+ How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review)4 Meta says it wont release AI systems it deems too risky But how that risk is measured is up to Meta. (TechCrunch)+ A new public database lists all the ways AI could go wrong. (MIT Technology Review)5 Gender affirming care is under major threat in the US Advocates fear Trumps executive order will prevent many people from accessing lifesaving treatments. (Undark)+ Many hospitals are continuing to offer their services, though. (Axios)+ New Yorks Attorney General says pausing such care could violate state law. (The Hill)6 The App Store is now hosting its first porn appAnd Apple is not happy about it. (Reuters) + The company has an EU antitrust law to thank. (WP $)7 The Doomsday Clock has been given a makeover We are now 89 seconds away from the end of the world. (Fast Company $) 8 Meet the UKs AI grandmother wasting scammers timeFraudsters have been left frustrated by the bots dithering. (The Guardian) + The people using humour to troll their spam texts. (MIT Technology Review)9 We still dont know much about Mars moons But a new mission could change that. (New Scientist $)10 Mark Zuckerbergs famous hoodie is up for auction If youre so inclined to want to own a piece of nerd history. (Insider $)Quote of the day Itll scare people, itll make people think that the industry is a scam. Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trumps former communications director, doesnt think much of his former bosss memecoin, he tells the Financial Times. The big story The open-source AI boom is built on Big Techs handouts. How long will it last? May 2023 In May 2023 a leaked memo reported to have been written by Luke Sernau, a senior engineer at Google, said out loud what many in Silicon Valley must have been whispering for weeks: an open-source free-for-all is threatening Big Techs grip on AI.New open-source large language modelsalternatives to Googles Bard or OpenAIs ChatGPT that researchers and app developers can study, build on, and modifyare dropping like candy from a piata. These are smaller, cheaper versions of the best-in-class AI models created by the big firms that (almost) match them in performanceand theyre shared for free.In many ways, thats a good thing. AI won't thrive if just a few mega-rich companies get to gatekeep this technology or decide how it is used. But this open-source boom is precarious, and if Big Tech decides to shut up shop, a boomtown could become a backwater. Read the full story.Will Douglas Heaven We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.)+ Today would have been the 112th birthday of Rosa Parks, the civil activist who changed the course of history.+ If youre planning a spring break, consider this well-timed inspiration.+ A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is reportedly in the works.+ Rise up, daughters of grunge!

OpenAI has filed a trademark application for tech such as humanoid robots and AI-powered VR headsets.Sam Altman has hinted at OpenAI's hardware ambitions but says a prototype could still be years away.The move could put OpenAI in competition with Meta, Apple, and other AI-driven hardware players.OpenAI has given more signs that it may be gearing up for a big hardware push.The ChatGPT maker has filed a new trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that could hint at plans to develop humanoid robots, smart wearables, and AI-powered virtual and augmented reality headsets.The application also mentions smartwatches and smart jewelry.While companies often file wide-ranging trademarks for ideas that never come to fruition, OpenAI's application comes as its CEO, Sam Altman, has been talking up the company's hardware plans.On Monday, he told Nikkei Asia that OpenAI wants to develop AI-powered consumer tech "through partnerships with multiple companies." However, he cautioned that even a prototype could take "several years" to materialize.Altman added, "AI is a big enough shift in how we interact with computers that there ought to be a new kind of hardware."Hardware pushOpenAI's trademark application, submitted on January 31, lists "user-programmable humanoid robots" and "humanoid robots with communication and learning functions."It comes as OpenAI rebuilds its robotics team, which it previously shut down in 2020. In November, OpenAI hired Caitlin Kalinowski, Meta's former hardware lead, to lead the company's robotics and consumer hardware efforts. Kalinowski, who oversaw the development of Orion, Meta's prototype AR glasses, has previously said she will focus on "bringing AI into the physical world" through robotics and hardware partnerships.In September, former Apple design chief Jony Ive confirmed that he's working with Altman and OpenAI on an AI-first consumer device.Altman hasn't provided specifics on how OpenAI plans to integrate its AI models with its own hardware, but the company's filing suggests it is laying the legal groundwork for future developments.A move into VR hardware would put OpenAI in competition with Meta's Quest and Apple's Vision Pro, both of which are investing in AI-powered immersive experiences.OpenAI, which has so far been focused on software, has also been linked to custom AI chip development, which could help it reduce its reliance on Nvidia's GPUs.OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.

A mega-bundle of streaming services could soon materialize, TD Cowen analysts predict.The analysts argue it's a better model for traditional media companies and customers alike.However, market leader Netflix may not need to bundle at least in the short term.Traditional media companies that have launched stand-alone streaming services should pivot hard, TD Cowen analysts argued in a recent report.The analysts say Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Paramount should return to the wholesale business rather than continuing to build direct-to-consumer products.Their overall vision is a "mega-streaming bundle" distributed by Apple, Amazon, Google, or cable companies like Comcast."Everyone's producing more content than they used to," Doug Creutz, a senior research analyst at TD Cowen, told Business Insider. "Everyone's advertising for their content more than they used to, and consumer dollars haven't increased that much."A bundle would help players spread the risks associated with content marketing and production. Creutz said he foresees a bundle happening in the next two to three years."Bundling is the right way to go," Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter told BI, similarly predicting a three-year timeframe. Pachter said a bundle would aid content discovery in a fragmented content landscape and make subscriptions stickier.TD Cowen predicted that WBD and Disney would see single-digit DTC profitability in 2025 and that Paramount and Comcast would reduce their DTC losses.standalone ESPN product remains an open question and Comcast and Paramount still aren't close to DTC profitability.Creutz added that streaming services are trying to reach profitability by variously cutting spending, increasing ad loads, and raising prices."You're heading to a place where the consumer experience is getting significantly worse," Creutz said.A potential obstacle to Netflix's world dominationThe big player that doesn't need to bundle imminently is Netflix, which appears to be the clear winner of the streaming wars. (Apple and Amazon exist somewhat separately, Creutz added, given their streamers are tied to other business objectives.)Netflix recently reached a larger market cap than Comcast, Disney, Paramount, Fox, and WBD combined, as media analyst Rich Greenfield noted.A Netflix spokesperson pointed BI to its Q3 shareholder letter, which said the breadth of its content made bundling unnecessary unlike for competitors.That doesn't mean Netflix couldn't be impacted by a potential mega-bundle, however. Creutz said that while Netflix has a "huge advantage" competing against streamers individually, a mega-bundle "could be an obstacle to their path to world domination."And Pachter said bundling could be welcomed by Netflix if the streamer could dictate the terms.Disney is another company that complicates the picture. Creutz said the Mouse House harbors ambitions of being the last man standing with Netflix, and if its stand-alone ESPN product succeeds, "then I think their need for other people diminishes." Disney also offers its own in-house bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.That said, Disney has already shown a willingness to bundle with outside companies. It partnered with WBD on a service that includes Disney+, Hulu, and Max.Creutz acknowledged that assembling a bundle would be difficult, likening it to "herding cats." Other outstanding factors include David Ellison's plans at Paramount, and the speed of linear TV deterioration.There could also be regulatory challenges. TD Cowen referred to recent developments at Venu as "a step backwards," after ESPN, Fox, and WBD killed the sports streaming venture amid legal headwinds.For his part, Pachter said he felt a bundle hadn't happened yet because of inertia."Everybody's too inwardly focused and looking at the past," he said.

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Voxs member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today.Six months ago, young Democrats were preparing for a very different conversation. They were breathing a sigh of relief after Joe Biden formally dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest. Gen Z, some said, was ready to feel the #Kamalove and break with the past that Biden represented. The flurry of Brat summer and coconut-tree memes that filled social media platforms was surely proof that there was a latent enthusiasm for Harris among the youth. It was Bidens sputtering candidacy that had depressed that energy over the last year.The organizations dedicated to engaging, mobilizing, and speaking to and for various youth constituencies thought this reset and the ensuing summer of good feelings would make their civic and campaign efforts much less difficult. The work could now focus more on turning out the youth for a fresh candidate instead of persuading those who had been disillusioned by Biden to drag their way to the voting booth. This election was now more a matter of simply getting youth to show up.At least, thats what was expected.Heres what happened instead. Donald Trumps favorability among young Americans continued to improve, trending up or remaining steady as it had been for most of the last year. He continued his strategy of campaigning through influencers and on unconventional media platforms and podcasts, betting his celebrity appeal and anti-establishment message would reach voters, especially young men, who didnt usually care for politics.On the Democratic side, Harriss honeymoon period ended. The campaign would turn more negative, and polls showed Harris reaching a ceiling in youth support.The end result was a rightward lurch by the youngest cohort of voters. Voters under 30 still preferred Harris to Trump, but by just 4 points, according to an analysis of AP VoteCast data by Tufts Universitys Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). That was a tinier margin than the 25-point advantage Biden had in 2020 and that Hillary Clinton had in 2016 (about 30 points). (VoteCast differs from traditional exit polls, which can be notoriously unreliable, but is still preliminary.) So whats driving Democrats and young voters apart?Did the Democrats and their allies in the youth organizing and activist group space misdiagnose what the youth actually felt and wanted? Were young progressives right that Harris, and Biden before her, should have tacked further to the left to excite and turn out their base? Or do those young-voter organizing groups share the blame for pushing the candidates to address progressive ideological priorities instead of kitchen-table issues?For answers, I talked to youth leaders, organizers, and those who followed their work. I also reflected on my own coverage of the youth vote over the last two years. Combined with election results and post-election polling, these data points paint a nuanced picture of whats underlying Gen Zs rightward lurch: a deep disconnect between the Democratic Party and its youth allies on one hand and young adults on the other.See, theres a fundamental divide between the young people who care about Democratic politics and the kind of people they were trying to persuade.Many of their turnout targets simply didnt trust institutions or the status quo like organizers and young Democrats did. They existed in different information bubbles and media ecosystems, missing persuasion efforts including memes, celebrity endorsements, or digital organizing. Or they just didnt care enough about the complex issues youth activists were talking about, when their concerns were much more basic, like how much a paycheck could afford, whether Democrats could be trusted to help them get ahead financially, and whether Harris or Trump would be a bigger disruptor of the status quo.These are problems without easy solutions, but if Democrats cant fix this divide, they risk losing these voters in election years to come.This problem goes beyond blaming progressives for moving too far leftSince Harriss loss, a loud debate emerged among a class of political commentators and activists over how much blame largely urban progressive and activist groups should bear. Some liberals and moderates accused these groups of having pushed Democratic elected officials, candidates, strategists, and their staffers and campaigns too far to the left, thus missing a rightward shift by the electorate.The organizations Im describing cant be lumped in cleanly with these Groups even if they share some similarities. They wouldnt all call themselves progressive, or even explicitly Democratic. They dont all share the same policy goals or ideological vision. Theyre organized by chapter, like College Democrats, or as a network of smaller local groups, like the Alliance for Youth Action. Some are issue-specific, like the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, gun safety advocates of March for Our Lives, or immigrant-led, like United We Dream. Many got their start during the Trump era, during the rise and peak of resistance politics, especially the 2018 midterms. Others are newer, like Voters of Tomorrow or Gen Z for Change.Cumulatively, these youth organizers and activists made tens of millions of voter contacts during the 2024 cycle. They recruited thousands of volunteers to talk to neighbors and embed in their communities; they pushed for other organizations and formal party operations to dedicate resources and attention to young voters organizing calls and fundraisers to back Harris and Democratic candidates; and they garnered media attention and coverage for a segment of the electorate that isnt usually prioritized.The result of these efforts, along with the Harris campaigns own work, was paradoxical: relatively high youth voter turnout, especially in battlegrounds. But turnout didnt necessarily translate into a bigger Democratic advantage.The youth electorate was a lot more Republican than expectedThe best youth vote estimates we have, assembled from exit polls and AP VoteCast data by CIRCLE at Tufts, suggest that about 42 percent of young voters turned out in November, down from the slightly more than 50 percent who voted in the 2020 election. That comparison should be taken with caution: 2020 was a historic year of turnout across all segments of the electorate, while the 2024 level is more even with turnout in the 2016 presidential election.CIRCLE estimates also indicate that young voters were a smaller share of the electorate in 2024 than in 2016 or 2020, meaning that the vote preferences of other age cohorts were probably more influential in sealing a Democratic defeat.Still, there were significant education, gender, and geographical divides among youth. Young men backed Trump by a 14-point margin, while young women backed Harris by a 17-point margin a 31-point gap. Youth without college degrees and those living in rural areas backed Trump by double digits, while those with some college education and in urban places backed Harris by similar margins. But under those numbers are significant shifts toward Trump since 2020: Young white men shifted by 22 points, young white women shifted by 15 points, and young Latino men shifted by 38 points.On top of that, the pre-election polls of young voters issue priorities turned out to be right: They overwhelmingly ranked the economy, abortion, and immigration as their top priorities, per results from a post-election survey conducted by Navigator Research and shared with Vox. Those who cared the most about the economy and immigration broke heavily for Trump, and there were simply more of these voters than those who cared most about abortion or who trusted Democrats to handle the first two issues.Why the youth groups missed this In my conversations with youth organizers and experts, they offer a few different reasons for the gap between their work and these results. Some make a similar argument to the case against other advocacy groups, that Harris and national Democrats were dealing with the baggage of appearing too progressive, too liberal, or out of the cultural mainstream, putting them out of step with the more conservative and moderate young voters that made up a larger part of the electorate this year. Others make the case that the party positioned itself as too moderate, moving too far to the right on Gaza, immigration, or climate policy, or abandoning a populist working-class message on the economy, giving young progressives less of a reason to turn out.But I can tease out three structural reasons these youth vote groups might have struggled.First, there was an overarching mismatch between the kind of people doing this youth outreach work and the kind of people they needed to persuade.While not all of these youth activists and their organizations are the same, they do tend to take positions to the left of the mainstream Democratic Party and of the electorate at large. They are run by college students, recent graduates, or high school volunteers who might aspire to run for office themselves, or at least work in government. Much of their membership and leadership is hoping to continue to be involved in electoral politics or issue advocacy as they grow older. And they are active news consumers and political junkies.That level of education, ideological bent, political aspiration, urban residency, and engagement with political news and information makes them ontologically different from the average zoomer, who, if not conservative, has always tended to lean more centrist or ideologically moderate than is assumed, probably is not attending a prestigious or selective university (if they were working toward a college degree at all), and is not particularly attuned to political developments.Those who lead and staff these organizations also likely have stronger attitudes about Trump than many of the young people they were trying to reach. Trump played a much more antagonistic role in the political memory of those who started and grew many of these youth-focused organizations, Rachel Janfaza, a Gen Z political analyst and writer who covered young voters extensively in the 2024 cycle, told me.The genesis of these groups was, in large part, in 2018, 2020, or 2022, and at the time, there was a ton of energy and excitement around them, especially online, from a vocal cohort of young people who grew up during Trumps first term in office and who were part of the resistance movement pushing back against many of the actions he took during his first term in office, Janfaza said. Their issue advocacy, their focus on registering and turning out voters, and their understanding of Trump resulted in a series of wins: the blue wave of 2018, Bidens victory, and better-than-expected 2022 midterms.But the 2024 youth electorate was drastically different more conservative, more Republican, less engaged and influenced by pandemic shutdowns and the decentering of Trump as the central figure in American politics.I dont think we can overstate that they lived lives locked down, scrolling endlessly on social media, and when they came back to whether it was high school or college the set of social parameters, world events, and style of communication looks really different than it looked for some of the older members of Gen Z who grew up during the time of the March for Our Lives, climate strikes, and the Black Lives Matter movement, Janfaza said.Current and former members of these organizations dont disagree with this assessment. They agree that they arent necessarily a perfect stand-in for the average young eligible voter.Young voters, [who are often] first-time voters, are less likely to be consuming a ton of political media, theyre not as familiar with policy, they have a lot to figure out, and are thinking about some of these things for the first time, Jessica Siles, the deputy press secretary for Voters of Tomorrow, told me.This divide led to a second kind of mismatch. Youth organizations and their members doubled down on talking about issues, including Republican threats to reproductive rights; Trumps disregard for democratic norms and doubling down on stolen election and authoritarian rhetoric; and action on climate change, gun safety, and social justice. They thought and had reason to believe, based on polling and qualitative research these were topics young people cared about, and they hoped their focus on them could be enough to overcome discontent with the status quo. Sure, they talked about the economy, about inflation, and about Harriss policy vision for a new way forward, but some were hampered by their previous support of Biden, by being unable to present a case for Harris freed from Trump, or by doubling down on talk about jobs created, low unemployment, or rising wages, when that wasnt what young people believed.All this made it more difficult to talk about campaign issues with voters who were distrustful of Democrats and not necessarily convinced to care more about issues other than the economy.In polling they conducted, in conversations they were having with young voters, and in focus group sessions, an overwhelming majority of young people brought up economic concerns as being top of mind, even if they didnt disagree with a more progressive or traditionally Democratic position on other issues, Siles, and others, like Denae vila-Dickson of Sunrise, told me. These young voters specifically meant prices of everyday goods, affordability, and the overall cost of living, but these groups followed the cues of national Democrats, who spent much of 2024 talking about job creation, wage growth, and abstract economic indicators, along with other social and cultural issues.Early on, we were hearing young people telling us that they were struggling to afford rent and groceries, they were concerned about their job prospects, vila-Dickson told me. We tied [climate advocacy] to the jobs aspect. We talked about how JD Vance and Donald Trump were going to cut green jobs and cut energy programs that were going to raise prices.Siles similarly told me that, in retrospect, her organization faced a challenge in trying to talk about economic issues with a cohort of voters that were severely distrustful of the Democratic Party brand. Talking about Biden and Harriss accomplishments, about jobs and the growing economy, fell on deaf ears for the kind of voters they were encountering, who saw Harris as too linked to the past.Young voters were looking at renting for the first time, trying to pick a school perhaps thats affordable, or to not go to school and pursue something else, she said. We knew that the economy was the top issue for young voters and Gen Zers, and we knew that a lot of Gen Z voters have a lot of valid skepticism with the status quo and with the Democratic Party. There was one more structural limit to how much persuasion and campaigning these organizers could do online or through earned and paid media and advertising. Though it was hard to realize at the time, much of the messaging, digital organizing, and campaign outreach these youth groups were doing was happening in digital echo chambers.Liberal and progressive influencers, celebrity endorsers, memes, and digital messaging may only have been reaching like-minded people, who didnt need much work to be convinced to vote at all and to vote for Harris. Here, the Brat summer and coconut-tree memes that filled social media in July and early August function as an easy stand-in. While it felt like the memes and jokes were ubiquitous, saturating young people everywhere, they may have only served to entertain and encourage those users who were already predisposed to like the Democrats or view Harris positively. Polls during the late summer and fall showed just a fraction of the electorate viewed these memes positively, if theyd seen them at all.If youre a young person whos beyond the DC or political bubble, you probably werent seeing that in the kind of way that those of us who are heavily involved in politics were, Janfaza told me. Its also worth noting that the people who were seeing that content or whose feeds were enveloped with that content were probably a particular type of person, whereas, people in other parts of the country were not having that same online experience.These digital echo chambers also limited the reach of these youth groups, a disjuncture made worse by Trump and his campaigns ability to reach disengaged young people. Some organizers told me it felt as though their attempts to reach apathetic or lower-informed youth were overwhelmed by Trumps persona and presence.We need to make sure its going wider than I think it has been and that were breaking out of peoples echo chambers and reaching people that might not have otherwise been introduced to political media, Siles told me. And I think that thats something that, unfortunately, Trump did pretty well. He went on with some of these less-political influencers, on podcasts, and made these media appearances, and I think had just a bit of a wider reach online.These divides between the broader youth electorate and youth activists and campaigners arent etched in stone. In my conversations, young activists were self-reflective on what went wrong, what could have been changed, and how hopeful they are that they can improve and build on their work. Most told me that their organizations must continue to grow and diversify their ranks to include and incorporate young Americans of different socioeconomic backgrounds, educational levels, and ideological persuasions.They dont discard or devalue the work they did and there were surely effects in battleground states, where the limited data we have shows that the swings away from Democrats among young people were not as drastic. They acknowledge they must develop better ways to speak to youth who may be predisposed not to care about politics, political parties, and candidates, and those who are skeptical about voting at all.But there are serious trade-offs ahead. While younger Americans are still more likely to back liberal or progressive policies than older generations of Americans, that doesnt mean theyll back Democrats. Sure, Gen Z, as a whole, is far more likely to identify as Democratic and liberal than older cohorts, and young people of color are more likely to lean left than their white peers. But the 2024 results suggest that a generational shake-up is underway.Indeed, though support for liberal social policies and cultural positions is high among young people, theres a significant amount of persuasion and rebuilding of trust that Democrats and their allied youth groups will have to do in the next four years. Trumps popularity continues to grow; the most recent polling from the Economist and YouGov shows Trumps favorability highest among Americans ages 18 to 29: half approve of him, with just 43 percent viewing him negatively.And theyll have to dig themselves out of a hole even with the young people who could be expected to be the Democratic Partys future. Young Black voters, CIRCLE analysis shows, were much more likely to vote for Trump in 2024 than older Black voters: Trump won 23 percent of Black voters 18 to 29 compared to 6 percent of those over 65. Young AAPI and Hispanic voters also broke for Harris, but at much smaller margins than they backed Biden in 2020.That persuasion element will be important in future elections as the preeminence of economic concerns among Gen Zers in the 2024 election doesnt mean these youth dont care about climate change, racial justice, student loan relief, reproductive rights, gun safety, or immigrant justice. The young electorate that turned out simply prioritized economic concerns and a rejection of the status quo over appeals made based on abortion rights, climate concerns, or social justice.When it comes to talking about the economy, these groups are also learning lessons. Youth activists needed to understand that large numbers of young people dont trust what Democrats say about economic policy, Siles, of Voters of Tomorrow, told me. We needed to take that into account a little bit more during the persuasion stage, and be a little bit more bold and direct and simple and easy to understand for a lot of these young first-time voters, she said. Our conversations [since the election] are more now how can we do a better job of executing and implementing that kind of messaging and persuasion instead of just assuming young people turning out will trust Democrats.Rebuilding and making new connections with these voters will inevitably set up one more divide: between these youth activists and the established Democratic leaders they hope to emulate or replace. Young activists and youth leaders trying to get ahead in Democratic politics have an incentive not to rock the boat, to not confront or speak truthfully to the party establishment. Inevitably, tough conversations will have to happen.Including young people is not just including people who are young, it is about including a wide range of young people who represent ideological and all types of diversity in Gen Z, and oftentimes that requires going out of your way to talk to people and listen to the voices that arent necessarily coming forward and telling you youre doing things right, Aidan Kohn-Murphy, a founder of Gen-Z for Change, told me. People who are eager to tell you that youre doing things right will always tell you that.The coming months will test whether these youth-focused groups can find a way to inspire trust in Democratic leaders, figure out how to escape digital and media echo chambers, and, perhaps more importantly, expand their ranks to incorporate differing perspectives even if doing all this changes their relationship with Democratic powerbrokers.See More:

Welcome to Ask a Book Critic, a members-only feature packed with personalized book recommendations from senior correspondent and resident book critic Constance Grady. To get your own recommendation, ask Constance here, and subscribe to the newsletter here.Hi! Im a little embarrassed to say, but I recently got back into reading after a long time. My re-introduction was through fantasy books (I know, please dont judge me), but I want to read nonfiction, to be more aware of what is happening in the world, and why things are the way they are, but dont know where to start. Thank you!First of all, theres no need for embarrassment on any of this. Lots of people go for long stretches without reading it happens! The world is a busy place filled with lots of distractions, and I dont think you need to feel awkward or ashamed for having taken a break. Theres also absolutely nothing wrong with reading fantasy books, which, after all, only means that youre reading a genre as old as storytelling. Personally, if I wanted to read more books to understand the world, I could do way worse than a little Ursula K. Le Guin.But you asked for nonfiction. So! Probably the best American historian when it comes to writing for lay people is Harvard professor Jill Lepore, whose work you might recognize from the New Yorker. Her book These Truths: A History of the United States is a narrative history that starts in 1492, ends in 2016, and stretches across nearly a thousand pages in the process. Dont be intimidated by its length: Its a rich, readable history that goes out of its way to center women and people of color in the vast contradictory machinery of the American experiment.If youre interested in learning more about what happened to North America from a Native perspective, let me point you toward The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk, a Yale historian. Blackhawk puts Native people at the center of American politics from 1492 through the 21st century. His central question is, How can a nation founded on the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous peoples be the worlds most exemplary democracy?Finally, lets go back before all that to 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by George Washington University archaeologist Eric H. Cline. Also extremely readable, this book focuses on a series of catastrophes that hit the eastern Mediterranean over the 12th century BCE, causing multiple great civilizations to shudder and, for some, collapse. Invasion, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts: the Minoans of Crete and the Babylonians of Mesopotamia crumble and fall, and Pharaonic Egypt shakes. This book has become increasingly popular amid the global instability of the last few years, and it might help you think through the way civilizations have failed before and can do so again.Would like a recommendation for a science fiction or science/space-focused nonfiction book!The strangest and most beautiful book about science and space Ive come across in the last few years is Benjamin Labatuts When We Cease to Understand the World. Labatut is interested in the 20th centurys breakthroughs in theoretical physics, and he excels at evoking the cosmic horror embedded in an idea like a black hole, which he describes as a point where the equations of general relativity went mad: time froze, space coiled around itself like a serpent. This book is part novelistic history account and part philosophical treatise, and all of it is beautiful.Hi there! Im looking for a realistic heist novel with all the twists and turns the cinematic versions offer. I want all the tropes: a motley gang of likable and honorable thieves, chases, plot twists, etc. I love the movie genre and would like to escape in the genre with a different medium. Im not opposed to fantasy/sci-fi settings. I have enjoyed The Six of Crows and The Lies of Locke Lomara, but I think Id prefer something more grounded in reality. Thanks!What you want is Colson Whiteheads Harlem Shuffle and its sequel, Crook Manifesto. Theyre heist novels from the point of view of the fence in this case, Ray Carney, a Harlem furniture seller who considers himself to be not really crooked, only slightly bent. Via his very crooked cousin Freddie, Ray finds himself enmeshed in a plot to rob a hotel known as the Waldorf of Harlem, a plan that goes off with more than a few twists. These books are playful, stylish, and gorgeous to read. See More: