It's Thursday and Elon Musk has a new vision for the future: in 10-20 years, he predicts, AI will “eliminate poverty,” “work will be optional,” and money won’t exist.

Today’s News

PLATFORM HEADLINES

YouTube is testing DMs

The test feature: YouTube is sliding into your DMs (at least, if you’re an adult living in Ireland or Poland). According to the platform, users over the age of 18 in those countries can now “share videos…and have conversations about them directly on the YouTube mobile app.”

A Google Support thread notes that the ability to share and receive DMs has been a “top feature request” from members of its community, so a wider rollout is likely (but not guaranteed) to follow the initial testing phase.

The history: This isn’t YouTube’s first foray into direct messaging. While the platform’s history with messaging features goes back to the site’s early days (when response videos and comment threads fostered a sitewide spirit of open discussion), it first debuted a literal take on direct messaging in 2017. By 2019, however, YouTube was already moving away from its DMs to “focus more on improving public conversations.” The Community tab eventually emerged as a primary forum for those public, one-to-many communiques, and its rebranding as ‘Posts’ further deepened YouTube’s suite of social features.

The context: So, why is YouTube reintroducing DMs now? The simplest explanation is that the world’s biggest entertainment site is accepting its identity as a social media hub.

Platforms have long tried to evade that characterization due to intense scrutiny from regulators, but YouTube is already being included in sweeping restrictions—whether leadership likes it or not. If the world is going to frame the Google-affiliated platform as an inherently social entity, then it might as well make itself more competitive in that arena.

Messaging is also hot right now. Instagram, for example, recently started packing its DMs full of new features in a bid to take on Snapchat and has tested a design that would put those messages front and center. Given the social media landscape, YouTube’s choice to lean into DMs makes sense.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Major League Baseball has announced a three-year media rights agreement with Netflix that will expand its “engagement with MLB…to live baseball event coverage for the first time.” (Major League Baseball)
  
  

• OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT for Teachers, a free and “secure ChatGPT workspace that supports teachers in their everyday work so they can focus on what matters most.” (OpenAI)
  

  
  

• President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling over an executive order that would trigger the creation of an “AI Litigation Task Force” dedicated to challenging state AI laws. (The Verge)
  
  

• Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann Lecun, has announced plans to depart the company, where he has worked for over a decade. (CNBC)

AI ERA

TikTok will let users choose how much AI they see

The AI toggle: AI is everywhere. It’s all over our Top 50 charts, hiding behind creator-uploaded videos, and filling feeds on dedicated apps launched by OpenAI and Meta. With so much slop floating around, it’s no wonder some consumers are experiencing AI fatigue.

To combat that issue, TikTok is giving users control over how many AI-generated items make it onto the For You Page. A new toggle has been added to the “manage topics” section of the TikTok app, where viewers have the ability to adjust how frequently certain topics show up on their feeds.

The infrastructure: By beefing up its virtual control room with an AI slider, TikTok will theoretically allow viewers to banish AI from their feeds altogether (if they wish to). ‘Theoretically,’ however, is the operative word here—because in reality, TikTok can only limit exposure to AI videos if it can actually identify them as AI.

That’s where the app’s partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) comes in. Last year, TikTok became the first major social platform to adopt the C2PA’s Content Credentials (which are essentially labels that “instantly recognize” AI-generated content even as it moves from one platform to another).

As part of its latest update, TikTok is testing “invisible watermarking” that will improve its ability to recognize AI content. The goal, as explained in a Newsroom post, is to maintain C2PA-style labels even as AI videos are doctored, reuploaded, and moved around the internet.

If successful, that undertaking will allow TikTok to support its broader goal of supporting mental health. In addition to its new AI toggle, the platform has debuted fresh features dedicated to mindfulness practices like journaling and breathwork—all of which will, hopefully, contribute to a more positive user experience.

SPORTS STUFF

Creators are becoming wrestlers, so the WWE is turning its stars into creators

The channel launch: The biggest combat sports brand on YouTube is leveling up its content strategy for the creator era. The WWE has announced a new channel dedicated to The Undertaker, a wrestling legend who spent three decades on the WWE circuit.

The Undertaker’s official YouTube home will offer a potpourri of content from the star’s long career, including full matches, short-form highlights, and episodes of his Six Feet Under podcast.

The context: Thanks to a thoughtful content strategy and a willingness to embrace tech trends, the WWE has held its position near the top of the YouTube charts for nearly two decades and now claims over 100 million subscribers.

Despite that long-term success, however, the wrestling promotion isn’t resting on its laurels. In the world of combat sports, creators like Logan Paul (who inked a multi-year deal with the WWE in 2022) are quickly becoming some of the biggest draws. The WWE has kept up in the increasingly influencer-focused ecosystem by tapping content creators and positioning its wrestling stars as creators, too.

That strategy dates at least as far back as 2017, when the wrestling promotion signed YouTuber Innara Sarkis to a development deal. More recently, the reversal of a restrictive policy gave WWE stars the freedom to stream on Twitch.

Launching a channel dedicated to the Undertaker is a smart next step. After all, thanks to nearly 20 years of viewership data from its main YouTube hub—where some of its all-time most-watched videos are battles starring The Undertaker—the WWE already knows what types of videos the wrestler’s fans want to see.

WATCH THIS 👀

Here’s a new way to play Minecraft on hard mode:

The challenge: Over the years, gamers have discovered countless ways to ramp up the difficulty of Minecraft. GuyBordo joined in on that fun about two years ago, when he started posting gems like “Minecraft, but I can’t break the Ten Commandments” on YouTube.

Fast forward to 2025, and Bordo has moved on from juggling a mere ten laws to over six hundred—aka the 613 commandments of Judaism.

Does the creator actually tackle all 613 laws in his latest run of Minecraft? Well, not exactly. But if you’re looking for some good old-fashioned sandbox fun and a quick hit of religious history, GuyBordo’s attempt at beating the game without breaking the laws of Judaism is worth a watch.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen.