👓 Eye to the future

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👋 Good morning. Are you nursing a Met Gala-induced hangover from last night? Odds are, probably not. The exclusive event is invitation-only — the guest list is approved by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour herself — and individual tickets to this year’s event rang in at $75k, with 10-person tables starting at $350k. We prefer to critique the outfits from the comfort of our couches, anyway, thank you very much.

🎧 On the pod: President Trump proposed a 100% tariff on foreign-made films entering the US. What could happen if these tariffs go through?

NEWS FLASH

🚙 There are about to be Waymo robotaxis. (We’re going to be reusing that pun a lot in the future, bear with us.) But really, Alphabet announced that it’s adding 2k more autonomous Jaguars to its fleet in 2026, in addition to the 1.5k already operating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin. Waymo now averages 250k paid passenger trips per week and is eyeing expansion into Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, DC. The company’s Jaguar I-Paces will ultimately be phased out to make way for new Zeekr RT robotaxis.

🍿 Google’s 100 Zeros is a partnership with production company Range Media Partners in which it looks for projects that Google could fund or produce. The goal is to increase adoption of its tech among creatives and promote a positive opinion of Google and technology, per Business Insider. It’s already helped market Cuckoo, Neon’s indie body-horror film. Interestingly, 100 Zeros doesn’t plan to release projects on YouTube, owned by Google parent Alphabet, but other Hollywood studios and streamers.

🩻 Testing, testing: Function Health, a startup that offers annual subscribers 160+ blood tests for $499, acquired Ezra, a full-body MRI and CT scanning company, for an unknown sum. Ezra’s scans were expensive, starting at ~$1.5k, but Function just dropped a 22-minute scan for $499. The medical community has doubts about full-body scans, considering they’re both expensive and perhaps unnecessary, but influencers and celebrities like — Who else? — Kim K have increased their popularity.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

That’s a brand we don’t talk about often… Skechers is being acquired by 3G Capital for $63 a share — a 30% premium of the footwear company’s current valuation.
Here lies Skype, the latest tech to meet its maker. Parent company Microsoft officially laid the video-calling platform to rest yesterday after 23 years. It’s survived by its more corporate sibling, Microsoft Teams, where users can migrate their data.
Amazon will invest $4B to triple its delivery network in the rural US by the end of 2026. Other carriers, including UPS and FedEx, add surcharges for remote ZIP codes.

DELEGATE THOSE TASKS

Make AI Your Personal Assistant. Save These Spreadsheets

The best way to do less work?

We’re all about decreasing the degree to which we hurt our necks while sitting at our desks.

That’s why AI plays are becoming so essential: to free up more time slots for sunlight and stretching.

Use these five AI task-delegation templates to assemble a playbook that saves you time at work, helps other hustlers on your team, and makes you feel like an employee of the future.

A triple threat, indeed. We wrapped it up for you.

Automate your workflow

THE BIG IDEA

A person wearing glasses looks thoughtful against an abstract, tech-inspired background.

A future for four-eyes

Bifocals were invented in the 1700s and transitions came out in the 1990s, but that’s about it as far as innovations in corrective lenses go.

Or at least it feels like that sometimes.

Seeing is believing

Finnish startup IXI has raised $36.5m to develop the world’s first autofocus glasses, per GamesBeat.

The glasses use “cutting-edge technology” to track the wearer’s eyes.
The lenses adjust focus in real time — which is pretty crucial to wearing glasses — to help you see more clearly.

Better yet, the glasses actually look like glasses, not some kind of big nerd machine strapped to your face.

IXI is prioritizing aesthetics with a “design-first mindset,” and envisions its glasses as a “tech-enhanced lifestyle accessory,” GamesBeat writes.

How does it work?

A close-up on its website shows that a lot of technological components go into these glasses.

As for autofocus lenses in general, they use mirrors or algorithms to compare versions of the same image and determine how to focus it.
Sometimes they point an infrared beam at the target.
With IXI glasses, that will all likely have to be instantaneous and seamless.

If the tech works as intended, perhaps we could someday live in a utopian society where glasses are cool — and more functional than they were in the 1700s.

🔗

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

The percentage of business buyers who say “semi-active” is their ideal post-acquisition level of participation, according to Contrarian Thinking’s 2025 State of Main Street Report.

There’s a massive small-business handoff underway: 70% of small-business owners have no succession plan, but roughly a third plan to transition ownership within five years, per Live Oak Bank data.

But Contrarian Thinking's report shows the owners of tomorrow have a different idea of what leading a business looks like; many entrepreneurs are looking to build wealth without getting bogged down in day-to-day operations.

Plus, they’re open to less “sexy” options than attempting to build the next tech unicorn from scratch.

Most (77.9%) are interested in buying a biz in the home services industry — e.g., HVAC, plumbing, landscaping — followed by professional services, and health and wellness.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1840, Great Britain’s “Penny Black” stamps became available. They was used for a little over a year before the Treasury switched to Penny Red stamps.

🗞️ Newsletter: Marketing is a game. We help you play it smarter. Masters in Marketing is your cheat code for fresh insights, expert advice, and strategies that actually work.

💍 That’s interesting: The founder of a dating app has an idea: a ring that could detect a cheating partner.

❓ Haha: Hello, fellow adults. Here’s a guide to what the kids are saying these days.

🐱 Aww: Chomp.

QUOTE OF NOTE

Text saying: "The average American has fewer than three friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's something like 15 friends or something."

Speak for yourself: In a new interview, Mark Zuckerberg essentially called Americans friendless losers who want many more companions than they have, and suggested that, instead of fostering more human connections (there are only 8B+ of us, anyway), people supplement their IRL friendships with AI ones.

Wondering where he pulled those stats from? Effectively, his ass. The Meta CEO cited his own experience “from working on social media” for those woeful figures.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Coffee is technically a fruit juice. That makes it the most popular fruit juice at breakfast. Beating out all the other fruit juices combined. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Sam Barsanti, Singdhi Sokpo, and Kaylee Jenzen.
Editing by: Ben “Squinting while I type this” Berkley.

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