AI slop is going to get real in 2026

Honda thinks hybrids should sound good

Honda is making its hybrids louder for Americans.

A Honda engineer told CarBuzz that the brand’s next-generation hybrid system will have a specific exhaust tune for the US because American buyers like louder cars. The setup uses the familiar 2.0-liter four-cylinder hybrid found in the Accord and CR-V, with a “vastly improved” exhaust note that reporters heard in person.

This feels like Honda quietly admitting that efficiency alone does not move metal in the US, especially when the driveway is full of crossovers. Sound still matters, and even a hybrid humming through traffic at 45 mph on an afternoon commute is part of how drivers judge whether a car feels dull or alive.

If Honda follows through and limits the sportier exhaust to certain trims, it opens the door for sound becoming a paid upgrade in hybrids, not just performance cars. It also hints that future hybrid V-6 models like the Pilot and Ridgeline will lean harder into character as EV adoption stalls.

Once hybrids get louder, where does “quiet efficiency” actually fit anymore?

AI fortunes are arriving before proof

A lot of AI wealth showed up early.

A new class of AI founders became billionaires after valuations spiked, often within three years of founding their companies. Some firms like Thinking Machines Lab and Safe Superintelligence hit $10 billion and $32 billion valuations without shipping a product, while others like Cursor jumped to $27 billion after a single recent funding round.

This looks less like rewards for execution and more like investors racing each other with checkbooks, late at night, staring at the same pitch decks. The money is real, but the businesses are still mostly untested, which makes the word “billionaire” feel premature.

History suggests a few of these founders will turn into long-term power brokers, while many others will quietly slide back into the pack once growth slows or margins disappoint. The bigger signal is how fast capital now moves when a company sits close to core AI infrastructure.

When fortunes arrive before products, what happens when results finally have to show up?

The feed people remember is gone

Instagram’s own boss says the grid is over.

In a Threads post this week, Adam Mosseri said the polished square-photo feed that made Instagram famous has already faded as AI images flood social apps. He pointed to tools like Midjourney and Sora, and said that for users under 25, personal updates now happen through DMs with quick shoe shots and awkward candids instead of public posts.

This reads like an executive admitting defeat, and it feels overdue if you have opened Instagram at night and scrolled past rows of perfect faces that all look generated. When flattering images are easy and cheap to make, the feed loses meaning, and Instagram has less leverage over what feels human.

Mosseri floated labels, identity transparency, and even cryptographic camera signatures, which suggests platforms expect to lose the ability to tell what is real. That pressure will push creators toward messier, faster content that still signals a real person behind the phone.

If raw becomes the rule, what actually stands out next?

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