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Happy Wednesday, Future Party. If you want to know just how expensive eggs have gotten, Waffle House — the all-day breakfast chain famous for low prices — is introducing a $0.50 surcharge for each egg it sells. It’s hoping that’s an easier pill to swallow than temporarily raising prices across the board. It just goes to show how widespread and destructive the current strain of aviation flu has become. Maybe we’ll stick to pancakes…

Viewership of the 67th Annual Grammy Awards may have dipped on CBS, but its social-content ratings skyrocketed to a record high for a televised event.

The High Note: As more people cut the cord, it’s inevitable that broadcast viewership declines for everything from late-night TV to starry awards shows (only the Super Bowl has been spared). But that doesn’t mean the audience has tuned out — they’re content just engaging with the highlights, so they can be in the cultural conversation.

Behind the Curtain: The Grammys audience is very online.

Final Tally: The massive social-media traffic demonstrates that, even if they’re not watching the Grammys, they’re tuned in with what’s happening… especially due to headline-making wins by Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. As perennial broadcast programming finally migrates to streaming (the Oscars on Hulu, the Super Bowl on Tubi, John Mulaney on Netflix), finding a way to make that content easily shareable to socials could open up a major new revenue stream.

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A new bill introduced in California could force AI firms to continually remind young users that their chatbot friend is indeed not a real person.

The Big Picture: AI companies, including Character AI, ElevenLabs, and Replika, have faced major backlash from users and their families after they had to deal with deleted lovers, manipulation toward violence, and, in the most tragic case, teen suicide. California, which is typically ahead of the tech-regulation curve, hopes that forcing chatbots to state their artificiality can save lives.

Between the Lines: California wants to put it in writing that humans and chatbots aren’t the same thing.

The Future: Padilla notes that he’s trying to protect kids from the “addictive, isolating, and influential aspects” of AI — sounds familiar to similar arguments made about limiting social media access, which both the federal and state governments were woefully behind in doing. Considering the impact that platform algorithms had on young users — which are, well, child’s play in comparison to AI — lawmakers may be vigilant in ensuring they aren’t caught so off-guard by the impacts of unregulated chatbots.

79.5% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Have you stepped into a bookstore within the past year?

“My favorite bookstore holds readings and events all the time, so I pop in at least a few times a month!”

“Browsing a physical bookstore is inspirational. After nearly 20 years of ebook reading, I still have several paperback books on the go.”

“I love indie bookstores. Reading, having a coffee, and enjoying the music and the vibe is really inspiring.”

“I just went to Barnes & Noble last week, buying a book apiece for my grandsons and three books for myself, which I’ll add to my Little Free Library after I’ve read them. I still listen to audiobooks, too, but I want to support a brick-and-mortar store, and I crave the experience of being in a bookstore. I don’t go on TikTok very much, so I didn’t know it was helping to revive B&N, which I think is fantastic.”

“My happy place…”

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.

💰 FireAid has already raised a whopping $100 million for wildfire-relief efforts in California.

🤑 Spotify had its first full year of profit in 2024, with over $1.4 billion in operating income.

📺 Fox is planning to launch its own streaming service by the end of the year.

🤖 Cloudflare is considering blocking AI firms from scraping websites that use its service.

👀 An Elon Musk-backed, 25-year-old engineer has commandeered the code to the US Treasury software that handles a fifth of the US economy.

😬 Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said in a leaked memo that the company only has a year left to make the metaverse take off.

🤪 President Donald Trump instituted a sovereign wealth fund and may use it to buy TikTok (don’t hold your breath).

🎮 Developer Voldex has acquired the Roblox game Brookhaven.

📱 Threads is introducing public custom feeds to take on Bluesky.