Rappers discover Claude

Hello again my friend,

This week's newsletter is a little different. I usually write about business, careers, working at beehiiv, and the occasional personal note on dealing with people. But this week, the AI world delivered so many gems that I couldn't not share them.

These aren't random headlines. Sometimes to make the most of a career, you need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. They all come together to prove one point. There’s never been a better time to get into this new tech.

Let's lock in.

This one made me smile. Meek Mill (the rapper) went on X this week and started posting about how he's been using Claude AI to organize his entire music career. Tracking royalties. Locating money. Finding red flags in his business. Creating a family office structure. Planning.

His words: "I've been waiting my whole life for tools like this."

Then he’s talking about putting AI classes in public schools and underprivileged communities. Calling on Google, Nvidia, Meta, and Anthropic to help make it happen. The replies were incredible.

There were some hecklers taking shots, but they quickly took it back after he called them out.

Here's the thing that caught me off guard. This is Meek Mill. He's worth tens of millions of dollars. He has managers, lawyers, accountants, business advisors. You'd think someone at that level would already have all of this on lock with every dollar tracked, every contract reviewed, every red flag caught. But apparently not.

If someone like Meek Mill is finding gaps in his business that AI can fill, imagine what the rest of us are missing.

That's the energy. You don't need to understand how the technology works under the hood. You need to understand what it can do for you and start. No hesitation, no "let me wait until I understand this better." Just go.

Ben Affleck quietly co-founded an AI company called InterPositive. It builds tools designed to help filmmakers during post-production, fixing continuity errors, enhancing scenes, streamlining editing workflows. Not generating content from scratch. Not replacing anyone. Just making the process faster and better.

Netflix acquired it in what's reported to be a deal worth up to $600 million. That would make it one of the largest acquisitions in Netflix's history.

Now here's what makes this interesting. Affleck was publicly skeptical about AI in filmmaking not that long ago. He said the tech wasn't smart enough. He positioned himself as a defender of the craft, someone who believed in the human side of storytelling. And the whole time, behind the scenes, he was building an AI company.

I'm not saying he was lying. Maybe his thinking evolved. Maybe he genuinely changed his mind as the tech improved. But let's be real, he was playing both sides. Publicly cautious, privately building. Saying AI isn't ready while quietly preparing to cash in when it was.

And honestly? That's what a lot of smart people are doing right now. The ones who are loudest about AI's limitations are often the ones positioning themselves the hardest behind closed doors. Pay attention to what people do, not what they say.

But here's the part that should fire you up instead of discourage you. If people are publicly downplaying AI while privately building with it, that tells you everything you need to know about how big the opportunity actually is.

They're being strategic, not cautious. They're keeping people out of the game so there's less competition, so their game is easier. That's an even bigger reason to go for it. While everyone else is debating whether AI is overhyped, the Ben Afflecks of the world are quietly building $600 million companies.

After pouring roughly $80 billion into its Metaverse vision (including changing their name to Meta), Meta announced it's shutting down Horizon Worlds in VR. The company is going all-in on AI instead.

Horizon never gained mass appeal. Even VR enthusiasts weren't sold. And now the company that literally renamed itself after this concept is walking away from it to chase something else entirely.

Well, almost walking away. Meta backtracked slightly after the announcement, saying existing users can still access Horizon Worlds "for the foreseeable future." They framed it as supporting the community.

But let's read between the lines. Real people spent real money buying properties and building in the Metaverse. Meta can't just pull the plug overnight without a massive backlash from people who invested time, money, and trust into a platform Meta told them was the future. So they're doing the slow fade instead of the clean break. Imagine their stock price as their users lose millions on the shutdown.

Still, the direction is unmistakable. The Metaverse, as Zuckerberg pitched it, is done. And what stands out to me isn't the failure, companies pivot all the time. Meta especially has tons of failures.

It's the scale of the pivot. $80 billion in sunk costs and they still changed course. Most people can't even walk away from a job that's making them miserable because they've put "too many years in." If Meta can stomach writing off the most expensive bet in tech history, you can let go of whatever isn't working in your life right now (and switch to AI like they are).

This one is wild. Sora launched in 2024 to massive hype. The videos looked incredible. Everyone was saying it would change filmmaking forever. Disney signed a billion-dollar content partnership to let users generate videos with characters like Mickey Mouse and Yoda.

Less than two years later, it's over. OpenAI has shut down both the consumer app and the professional platform. The Disney deal is being wound down, reportedly before any money even changed hands.

Sora generated $1.4 million in total revenue. For context, ChatGPT made $1.9 billion in the same period.

So what happened? Sora was hype and brainrot. The product attracted people generating slop nobody was asking for. And here's the business problem with that: nobody wants to advertise next to it.

No brand is paying to reach an audience of kids and degenerates pushing AI-generated clips into the void. There's no money there. Nobody is stopping the scroll on a Sora video to view an ad.

But yes, the videos were entertaining.

Still, compare that to ChatGPT, which people use to solve real problems every day, writing, research, coding, business planning. One product built utility. The other built a spectacle.

The lesson for anyone building something: cool demos don't matter. Solving real problems does. If nobody's willing to pay for what you're making, or advertise alongside it, it doesn't matter how impressive the technology looks under the hood.

Four stories. Four completely different corners of the AI world. But the thread running through all of them is the same: the landscape is shifting fast, and the people who are winning right now are the ones who are paying attention, adapting, and moving.

Meek Mill didn't wait for permission. Affleck positioned himself while everyone else debated. Meta cut an $80 billion loss. OpenAI killed its most hyped product when the numbers didn't work.

None of that is comfortable. But all of it is inspiring, because it means the window is wide open for anyone willing to act. The playing field has never been more level. The tools have never been more accessible. And the gap between "thinking about it" and "doing it" has never been smaller.

The only question is whether you're going to move. Please do.

Thanks, as always, for reading.