FIFA’s Tech Test Lab

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Happy Fourth of July, Future Party. While much of America is celebrating with fireworks, New York City is hosting a spectacle of its own. Between the nation’s 250th birthday festivities, World Cup crowds, and Taylor Swift’s wedding ceremony at Madison Square Garden, the city is about to become the center of the cultural universe. We’ve got more on the iconic venue — and the fans celebrating Swift’s big day — below.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup may look like the game fans have always known, but behind the scenes, it’s becoming one of the world’s biggest testing grounds for sports technology. Many of the innovations on display this year were first trialed at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar before being rolled out for future tournaments.

Behind The Goal: Qatar’s 2022 World Cup became FIFA’s largest tech test lab, according to WIRED, giving the organization a chance to try out innovations that are now shaping tournaments around the world.

The Test Lab: Qatar’s legacy may extend well beyond hosting the 2022 World Cup. As Thani Al Zarraa, executive director of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, told WIRED, “Since the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, we have done more than host football’s biggest matches; we have helped shape how the game is played, officiated, and experienced.”

What’s Next: Major sporting events are becoming showcases for new technology as much as elite competition. If FIFA’s recent approach continues, future tournaments may serve as proving grounds for the next generation of sports innovation.

France? Argentina? Spain?

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Companies have spent the past year encouraging employees to use AI as much as possible — a strategy known as “tokenmaxxing.” Now, as AI costs become harder to ignore, many are realizing that not every task requires the most expensive model.

Behind The Spending: Earlier this year, tech companies embraced tokenmaxxing, giving employees generous AI token budgets — the amount of AI processing power they were allowed to consume — as they raced to accelerate adoption. Now, those same companies are token-rationing.

Cutting Losses: Tokenmaxxing may have gotten companies to embrace AI, but token-minimizing is quickly becoming the next priority. The goal isn’t to use less AI, but to use it more intentionally as its costs become harder to ignore. AI spending is becoming a meaningful business expense, with executives questioning whether rising costs are delivering enough value.

The Future: As companies become more selective about how they spend on AI, the next race may be less about building smarter models and more about making them more affordable to use.

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46.5% of you voted No, and I’m not considering it in yesterday’s poll: Have you ever used peptides?

“But if there’s an injection that’s regulated and sold legitimately that will help me avoid future surgery on my arthritic hands, I’m down to try.”

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Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, 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.

📉 Hollywood’s workforce shrank again in June, with 3,600 film and sound jobs disappearing as studios continue to tighten their belts.

🇬🇧 The UK could determine whether Paramount’s $110B Warner merger crosses the finish line by September.

🍿 While Paramount waits on UK regulators, Gkids is bringing Studio Ghibli’s film library back to UK theaters, starting with an IMAX release of Kiki’s Delivery Service.

🕹️ Meta is launching Pocket, a new AI-powered social app that lets users create and share interactive mini games from a simple prompt.

🚘 Tesla’s vehicle deliveries jumped nearly 25% in Q2, even as the company shifts its focus toward AI and robotics. 

💰 OpenAI has floated giving 5% of its equity to a US sovereign wealth fund, offering Americans a stake in AI’s economic gains.

💍 Taylor Swift’s wedding is showing just how deep the artist-fan bond runs, with Swifties celebrating the milestone as if it were their own.

👔 Chanel is expanding its fashion footprint with the acquisition of nearly 200-year-old shirtmaker Charvet, preserving one of France’s oldest luxury brands.

🛏️ Forget the side hustle — burned-out Gen Zers are joining “rest clubs” where lying down is the only item on the agenda.