A claim I have seen in discussions of eugenics is that modern institutions, in particular those of the welfare state, prevent evolution from working, make it easier for the unfit to survive and reproduce, and that humans should intervene. There is a legitimate point in that claim but putting it in terms of fitness is misleading; in the evolutionary context fitness is defined by the ability to get copies of your genes into future generations. The complaint is not that a welfare state lets the unfit survive and so makes the population less fit but that the characteristics that lead to fitness in a welfare state are by other criteria less desirable, lead to less economic growth, less scientific progress, a population less able to defend itself against aggression, less of something else the person making the argument views as more important than evolutionary fitness. Sometimes the implicit background to the argument is the worry that at some point in the future civilization will collapse on a population no longer able to deal with that environment....

More than three and a half years after ChatGPT's initial release, AI assistants are now used by millions of people worldwide, and the competitive landscape is changing fast. While OpenAI's chatbot is still the most popular assistant globally, its market share has dipped below 50% for the first time as users are migrating between different assistants like Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, and xAI's Grok, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower's State of AI Report for 2026. ChatGPT's growth has been impressive. It became the fastest app ever to reach 1 billion monthly users, as Sensor Tower reported this month. Notably, OpenAI counts weekly active users, and it last reported 900 million of them in February. The chatbot still remains the most popular AI assistant worldwide with over 1.1 billion monthly users, followed by Gemini with 662 million and Claude with 245 million. Until January, ChatGPT commanded over 50% market share, but by May's end, it had fallen to 46.4% thanks to the rise of Gemini (27.7%) and Claude (10.3%). Other assistants, including Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Meta AI, have less than 5% market share....

Fox confirmed Monday that it is acquiring streaming company Roku in a stock and cash deal valued at around $22 billion, one of the largest media acquisitions in years and a clear sign of where the TV industry is placing its bets. Fox said the deal reflects two forces reshaping how people watch video: the enduring pull of live sports and news, and the relentless growth of streaming. Fox says the combined company will become the third-largest television business in the United States by viewership. The deal merges Fox's news and sports channels and its free ad-supported streaming service Tubi, with Roku's connected TV platform ' the software that powers many of the smart TVs and streaming devices people already have in their living rooms. Together, Fox says, the combined company will have reach across both traditional TV and streaming ' a combination increasingly seen as essential as audiences split their time between live broadcasts and on-demand platforms. The deal gives Fox direct access to Roku's audience of 100 million households, which Fox says will help the company target ads more effectively and rely less on traditional delivery. Fox also says the acquisition gives it a stronger foothold in connected TV ' the fast-growing market for streaming ads and subscriptions, often referred to in the industry as 'CTV.'...

Many leaders and companies shy away from a high-risk strategy built around big gambles. But they still want to grow. According to BCG Institute research, companies that succeed with lower-risk growth have strategies that feature four elements: the commercialization of existing capabilities, small acquisitions, smart partnerships, and diversified bets. Learn from real-world successes. Some of the most spectacular stories of corporate growth revolve around big bets ' long-term investments, bold pivots, and major acquisitions. Think of ASML, which pursued next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technologies for more than 30 years; Adobe, which abandoned perpetual licenses in favor of cloud subscriptions; or Disney, which acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm in quick succession. But not every company is comfortable making big bets ' particularly in volatile times. Our recent research showed that when faced with high-uncertainty events, 90% of companies pulled back rather than doubling down. So, what about a growth strategy not for the heroes but for the rest of us' How can businesses reignite or sustain growth without betting big' It's a particularly pressing question at a time when economic tailwinds that aid corporate growth are slowing....