Happy Monday 👋! The first full workweek of the year always has a strange energy. Everyone’s back, but the ground hasn’t quite settled yet. New plans are being rolled out, old assumptions are being tested, and a lot of big systems are quietly resetting their expectations.

That’s especially true in tech. After two years of nonstop AI noise, 2026 is starting with a more sober question: not what these systems can do, but how they’re actually going to live in the world.

That’s the frame for today. Let’s get into it.

Driving the news: In its annual outlook, MIT Technology Review sketches a year where artificial intelligence stops being treated as a novelty and starts being judged as infrastructure. The focus isn’t on splashy model releases or benchmark gains. It’s on deployment: AI agents embedded into workflows, software that acts with partial autonomy, and systems that increasingly make decisions alongside — or instead of — people.

What’s striking is how little triumphalism there is. The piece treats 2026 less as a breakthrough year and more as a stress test. Once AI moves from demos into daily use, the hard questions show up fast: reliability, accountability, oversight, and the social cost of getting things wrong at scale.

The stakes: The promise is clear. If these systems work as advertised, they could change productivity across everything from office work to logistics and healthcare. Automation stops being theoretical and starts showing up in balance sheets, headcount plans, and economic forecasts.

But that’s exactly why the downside matters more now. When AI tools are experimental, mistakes are tolerated. When they’re operational, mistakes compound. Errors don’t just look like bugs — they look like lost income, biased outcomes, or institutional failure. The more AI becomes embedded, the less forgiving the environment gets.

The friction: There’s a widening gap between technical capability and social readiness. Companies feel pressure to deploy quickly. Governments are still figuring out how to regulate systems they barely understand. Workers are being asked to adapt in real time, often without clarity on what’s being automated and why.

The result is tension. Speed is rewarded, caution is questioned, and trust becomes fragile. AI doesn’t need to catastrophically fail to run into resistance — it just needs to feel imposed, opaque, or unaccountable.

What this unlocks: 2026 looks like the year AI stops being judged on potential and starts being judged on behavior. It’s no longer enough for systems to be impressive. They have to be dependable, legible, and worth the trade-offs they introduce.

That shifts power away from model builders alone and toward institutions, managers, and policymakers who decide how these tools are actually used. The technical frontier is still moving, but the limiting factor is increasingly human.

The bigger picture: If AI stalls, it won’t be because the models stopped improving. It’ll be because trust eroded faster than capability grew. The MIT Technology Review framing makes that clear: the next phase of AI isn’t about acceleration. It’s about absorption.

For everything else, see below 👇:

AI Predicted to Boost U.S. Productivity
Economists expect AI adoption to begin showing measurable gains across the U.S. economy, with uneven effects by sector. — (J.D. Capelouto for Semafor) — Link

Is “Brain Rot” TikTok’s Defining Aesthetic?
A look at how irony, overload, and deliberate nonsense became core to the platform’s culture. — (Grace Snelling for Fast Company) — Link

New York City MetroCards Are Reselling for Thousands
Obsolete transit cards have become unlikely collectibles — and status symbols. — (Trey Alston for Complex) — Link

Nike Tech Fleece Sells Out After Venezuelan President’s Arrest
A reminder of how fast geopolitics can collide with consumer culture. — (Sophie Caraan for Hypebeast) — Link

The Most Important Branding Tool in 2026 Isn’t What You Think
Why consistency and restraint are becoming more valuable than novelty. — (Tom May for Creative Bloq) — Link

Pizza Sales Are Slipping in the U.S.
Once-reliable chains are struggling as consumer habits shift. — (Heather Haddon for The Wall Street Journal) — Link

‘Zootopia 2’ Becomes One of the Highest-Grossing Animated Films Ever
Disney’s sequel signals renewed strength in theatrical animation. — (Joyce Li Hypebeast) — Link

‘Ne Zha 2’ and ‘Zootopia 2’ Power China’s $7.4 Billion Box Office Year
China’s theatrical market surged in 2025, with local hits and Hollywood sequels reshaping global box-office dynamics. — (Naman Ramachandran for Variety) — Link

Has Hollywood Forgotten About Wildfires?
Climate risk is still being sidelined in industry planning. — (Matthew Specktor for The Hollywood Reporter) — Link

Why So Many People Are Leaving Los Angeles
ICE raids, fires, and instability are reshaping how residents think about the city’s future. — (Lauren Bans for Vulture) — Link