Today’s topics

• Gold prices have dropped over 5%

• Alphabet (Google) bought 222 startups

• Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Christmas ads

• World’s largest coral colony in the Solomon Islands

  and more…

Stocks tumbled Friday afternoon, with the Dow shedding 0.7% (305 points), the S&P 500 falling 1.3%, and the Nasdaq dropping 2.2%. The week wasn’t much kinder—despite a recent Trump-fueled rally over potential tax cuts and deregulation, all major indexes logged weekly losses, undoing previous week's bullish vibes for everyone but the Nasdaq.

Gold faces worst week in 3 years after Trump victory. Gold prices have dropped over 5% this week, marking their worst decline in three years. Analysts attribute the sell-off to a stronger U.S. dollar and reduced hopes for rate cuts following Donald Trump’s election win. Gold futures now sit at $2,568.20 per ounce, down 8.3% from their October 30 record of $2,801.80.

List of companies buying the most startups. Silicon Valley dominates global startup acquisitions, with six of the top 10 buyers based there. North American companies snatch up startups four times more often than European firms and up to 10 times more than Asian ones. Leading the charge is Alphabet (Google) with 222 deals, followed by Microsoft and Cisco.

Pharma stocks drop as Trump taps RFK Jr. for Health Chief. Shares of major U.S. and European drugmakers fell after President-elect Donald Trump named vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, known for controversial claims linking vaccines to autism, plans to shake up the FDA, eliminate fluoride from public water, and take on ultra-processed foods.

Musk vs. OpenAI: the AI battle just got bigger. Elon Musk is ramping up his lawsuit against OpenAI, adding Microsoft and others to the case. He accuses OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018, of anticompetitive practices and breaking its open-source promises. Meanwhile, Musk’s AI startup xAI is raising $6 billion to buy 100,000 Nvidia chips, valuing the company at $50 billion and making it the 6th most valuable startup globally. With investor cash flowing and political support in hand, Musk is doubling down in the heated AI race, despite OpenAI dismissing his lawsuit as a “PR stunt.”

Uncanny AI Coca-Cola Christmas Ads

Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Christmas ads are getting roasted online—and for good reason. Meant to honor the classic 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” campaign, these new ads are more unsettling than festive. Let’s just say, AI struggles to generate human figures without grotesque distortions, eerie facial expressions, and awkward movements—and these ads are the proof.

OpenAI to launch “Operator” AI agent in 2024. OpenAI is gearing up to launch “Operator,” a powerful autonomous AI agent, in January 2024. This game-changer can control computers and handle tasks all on its own, stepping beyond text and image processing. Debuting as a research tool, Operator joins a heated race with Anthropic and Google, who are rolling out their own AI systems.

Nokia and Motorola are cool again. In 2024, people are unplugging by plugging into something simpler—dumb phones. Sales of basic models like the Nokia 2660 and Nokia 105 are up, with new brands also stepping in, offering phones that focus on calls and texts, leaving out the distractions of modern smartphones. It might seem ironic to embrace old tech to escape new tech, but hey, that’s life in the digital age. At least now, you get to choose just how connected—or disconnected—you want to be.

Meet Daisy: the AI grandma that scams the scammers. O2 has introduced Daisy, an AI-powered “grandma” designed to waste scammers’ time by keeping them on the phone for hours. Daisy is so convincing that scammers believe they’ve hooked a real person, only to get stuck in endless conversations about fake family members or hobbies. The AI bot even gives out fake bank details to keep the crooks distracted. By taking up their time, Daisy helps protect real people from falling victim to scams.

Move over, Stack Overflow

AI coding assistants are becoming developers' new best friends, turning coffee-fueled coding sessions into dialogues with artificial intelligence. Dive in to see why your IDE's about to get a whole lot smarter.

Pentagon logs hundreds of new UFO sightings. The Pentagon has received 757 new UFO reports in just over a year, pushing the total to 1,652. Many of these mysterious sightings happened near military bases, fueling public curiosity and government investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). But don’t get too excited—so far, no aliens or advanced tech have been found. “We’ve got no proof of extraterrestrial beings or their toys,” said Jon Kosloski, head of the Pentagon’s UFO office.

Jake Paul takes down Mike Tyson in 8-ound fight. Jake Paul, 27, scored a unanimous decision win over 58-year-old boxing icon Mike Tyson. Tyson started strong but slowed down as Paul gained control in the later rounds. After the fight, Tyson reflected on X, saying, “No regrets getting in the ring one last time.” Paul, who began fighting professionally in 2020, said he believes he can become a championship fighter within two years.

World’s largest coral found in Solomon Islands. Scientists have uncovered the world’s largest coral colony in the Solomon Islands, and it’s a record-breaking giant. This 300-year-old Pavona clavus measures an incredible 112 by 105 feet—larger than a blue whale—and is even visible from space. Found by the National Geographic Pristine Seas team during their October 2024 expedition, this discovery highlights the extraordinary biodiversity of the Coral Triangle, one of the richest marine ecosystems on the planet.

The first-ever nuclear clock has started ticking. Physicists have built the first nuclear clock, a major step in precision timekeeping. Unlike atomic clocks, which use energy changes in electrons, nuclear clocks measure shifts in atomic nuclei, making them more stable. The prototype, created in Boulder, Colorado, and detailed in Nature, isn’t yet more accurate than atomic clocks but could soon set new records. It promises big improvements for GPS, space navigation, and understanding the laws of physics.

Conan O’Brien to host 2025 Oscars. Conan O’Brien, Emmy-winning comedian and TV legend, will host the 2025 Oscars, marking his first time in the role. He takes over after two years of Jimmy Kimmel, with the show riding high from an Emmy win and 20 million viewers last year.

TikTok of the day: watch here