Bank Of South Park

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Halfway through the week, Future Party. One of the most interesting bidding wars taking place in the NBA isn’t over a player — it’s for Kevin Durant’s former home in Oklahoma City. The current owner, who bought it from Durant in 2017 for $1.15 million and preserved nearly everything (furniture, artwork, etc.) just as Durant left it, recently listed the four-bedroom, four-bath townhouse for just $35. Yep, no zeroes missing. The goal was to lure Durant fans and spark a bidding frenzy... and it’s working, with 22 formal offers already on the table. Talk about taking the collectors economy to the next level.

Paramount has inked roughly $2 billion in deals to exclusively stream past episodes of South Park and produce a new batch of the R-rated animated TV series — potentially the biggest TV deal ever.

The Big Picture: As more data is released, showing just how much overall viewing time on streamers is relegated to a small subset of popular titles, the battle to secure those films and shows has heated up. The deal highlights how South Park (still among the top 20 most-watched shows despite debuting in 1997) remains one of the most enduring IPs in Hollywood.

Behind the Scenes: For Paramount — still trailing its competitors in streaming market share — snapping up the rights to one of its marquee shows became a high-stakes, go-for-broke negotiation.

New Season: Nailing down South Park was of the utmost importance to both the existing and incoming Paramount regime. Parker and Stone were preparing for a legal battle amid ongoing merger drama, which is the last thing that anyone wanted before the premiere of the 27th season today (and a separate high-profile Paramount movie with Kendrick Lamar coming out next summer).

In the end, the agreement is just another reminder that the South Park guys probably have the best deal in town. Thanks to a joint venture with Paramount called South Park Digital Studios, Park County receives about half of the streaming revenue generated by the show… which means even more money for Parker and Stone.

Up Next: South Park on Paramount+ could finally give the streamer the edge to become a mainstay subscription for audiences… as long as they never lose Taylor Sheridan.

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Emerging studies are showing how the interaction between AI and toddlers could have profound effects on child development.

The Big Development: Chatbot development is moving at lightning speed these days, typically with little oversight on how it’s affecting the adults who use it. But even less attention is being paid to how kids — now growing up in a world saturated with AI — are being shaped and molded by the tech that’s showing up in… well… everything.

Behind the Code: Like social media before it, chatbots could have several adverse effects on the youngest generation if proper regulations aren’t in place.

The Future: Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric physician and expert on early childhood and early language development, said that AI could literally “rewire” kids’ brains, because "children naturally anthropomorphize.” While kids naturally do this with action figures and stuffed animals, it is their brain (or the brain of someone playing with them) that’s filling in the conversation, not code from a chatbot.

Yet AI can also help expand a kid’s creativity, especially in areas like art and storytelling. But studies show that it can have as much impact as a parent or guardian interacting with their child. In other words, interaction itself is what’s important.

Prediction: With tech bigwigs like Marc Andreessen teaching their kids AI from an early age, the classroom could one day be unofficially split — educationally, socially, emotionally, etc. — between kids who use the tech and those who don’t.

66% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Do you tend to avoid using public restrooms?

“But of course, it depends on how bad I have to go vs. how far the next private one is!”

“When I’m in the United States, absolutely. But in countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, their public bathrooms are somehow immaculate. I once voluntarily took a barefoot shower at the South Korean airport and felt more comfortable than my own gym in the US.”

“Women’s restrooms (especially at drinking establishments) are a sacred land of camaraderie and friendship.”

“I was in the military; a lot of the world just has a hole in the floor. How is a public toilet dirtier than a hole in the ground?”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🤖 Former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is officially stepping in to lead OpenAI’s product and growth efforts as she begins her role as CEO of Applications.

🥴 xAI had its employees record their facial expressions as training data to help “give Grok a face.”

🧖‍♂️ Bryan Johnson, the longevity activist who’s trying to hack a way to live forever, is likely selling his anti-aging startup to focus on his newly created religion. (Wait, what.)

✈️ Bernard Arnault’s PE firm, L Catterton, led an $800 million funding round into private-jet company Flexjet.

😴 Sleepwear may be emerging as the new activewear as comfort fashion reaches its inevitable apex.

🥤 Coca-Cola is set to offer a cane-sugar version of Coke in the US after pressure from Donald Trump… because, let’s be honest, nothing tastes as good as Mexican Coke.

📱 Blackstone has decided to opt out of joining the consortium of buyers for a US version of TikTok.

👩‍💻 Instagram is doubling down on getting users’ posts to appear in search results in an effort to drive more engagement.

👀 A federal court has upheld Mississippi’s social media age verification law.