The Download

Morning Brew Inc.

TL;DR: Meta’s latest earnings show that, for all its sprawling AI ambitions, its core business really is still about selling our attention. One of its clearest wins last quarter was that people couldn’t put Instagram down, boosting ad revenue—which isn’t much to show for a year of record AI spending.

What happened: You’re not alone if your Reels habit recently hit cry-for-help levels. This past quarter, the amount of time people spent on Instagram jumped by double digits year over year, Meta says.

Mark Zuckerberg credited our collectively worsening scrolling habit to an improved AI-powered algorithm. Every public Reel and feed post on Instagram is now being analyzed by LLMs to recommend content better, according to the company—with AI also enabling better targeted ads. (Though all this probably doesn’t help the “Instagram is addictive by design” accusations.)

In other words, the clearest way that AI is making money for Meta is keeping eyeballs on feeds longer, which in turn sells more ads—though the firm’s overall profits still fell about 14% compared to this time last year.

All in on ads: Advertising made up a whopping $59.4 billion of Meta’s $60.8 billion total revenue last quarter. And it’s clearly trying to lean into its biggest moneymaker: The company’s building out an AI-powered, automated one-stop shop for brands to create and serve ads (though the rollout’s been mixed). Meanwhile, its Reality Labs division—where its popular smart glasses and not-so-popular VR headsets are developed—continued to hemorrhage money despite growing revenue, losing $4.6 billion last quarter.

Meta’s AI media blitz: The lack of a bigger AI payoff also helps explain Zuck’s recent “AI optimist” press tour—which included an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal basically subtweeting OpenAI and Anthropic. And while others in the AI industry, including those at major labs, want to “deliberately pace” frontier AI development, Meta’s CEO evidently isn’t a fan of slowing down (perhaps because it could make it harder for Meta to catch up).

Bottom line: Meta positions itself as an AI company building “superintelligence.” But its recent financial results show that the smartest thing its AI currently does might be picking your next Reel. —WK

Also at Meta…

• Zuck makes a bold prediction about AI agents—and he’s betting the company’s future on it.

      

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Throw out your old inkjet; we’re going 3D

I’m obsessed with making things. It doesn’t particularly matter what or how, but I always seem to have a project going. Getting a 3D printer had been on my radar, but I assumed it was expensive and time-consuming and would require a subscription to some computer-aided design (CAD) software. The overhead of it all just felt a bit overwhelming.

Well, last year an officemate brought in his Elegoo Centauri Carbon 3D printer (which can typically be found on sale for around $320), and I thought to myself that maybe I ought to try it out. To my surprise, with a little YouTubing, you can easily learn the free CAD program Onshape. You download your design and upload it into a slicer (another free program called OrcaSlicer). From the slicer, you just hit the Print button. Easy as that.

There are also thousands of open-source designs all over the internet to print all kinds of things (like phone stands, plant pots, and kitchen drawer organizers).

How we tested it: Ain’t no way to test the thing other than to get printing! I’ve downloaded plans off the web (like thingiverse.com) and used Onshape to create my own designs. I’ve printed dozens of small projects from dish-drying rack supports to print-in-place hinges and brackets to hang paintings on the wall.

The Good: The Centauri Carbon far exceeded my expectations for a ~$320 printer. I have consistently gotten great prints and rarely had any issues. It took some tuning to get it all set up initially, but once it was dialed in, it consistently performed admirably. I have heard that an enclosed printer like the Centauri Carbon is good for controlling the print environment, especially given the wild temperature swings in my home in Montana.

The Bad: Higher-end printers likely make better prints. The Elegoo produces more noticeable print lines and defects than some prints I’ve seen on more expensive machines. It seems like for those willing to pony up about $600, you can get a Bambu Lab X-series machine that will raise the print quality by a notch or two. I have a friend who consistently prints production-grade pieces using his Bambu Lab X1-Carbon.

Verdict: ✅ Signal. (If you’re looking to get into 3D printing for the first time, this is a good entry point.) —NW

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The Zeitbyte

Not exactly Dr. Seuss

Morning Brew Inc.

Parents used to worry grandma and grandpa would spoil their children with candy before dinner or a pony for their birthday. In 2026, they’re seething over their elders gifting too many AI slop children’s books, per Wired.

A cottage industry of companies now creates personalized AI tales that insert these grandchildren into the narratives (from their names to other identifying details), with the idea being that kids will enjoy seeing themselves in the stories their parents read to them. These firms churn the stories out en masse—one that Wired mentions generates 50 digital tales per month (and one printed book) for a $24 monthly subscription. Researchers say such AI storybooks are often marred by spelling errors and nonsensical plots—which probably isn’t a good way to introduce young people to reading.

The worst part for some parents: Actual photos of their children are being used to create some of these custom bedtime stories. And the kids themselves don’t seem all that impressed by the mass-generated yarns. One parent’s verdict: The slop stories “bored” his children. Back to The Very Hungry Caterpillar it is. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: ☕☕☕/5

• It’s not just robot dogs and humanoid robots. The US government’s foreign-made robots ban also includes… robot vacuums? And even American companies could be affected.
• AI labs and Wall Street are now fighting so hard for young math geniuses that some entry-level pay packages have hit $1.5 million.
• Those OpenAI models that broke out of their testing environment aren’t alone. The researchers who created the cybersecurity benchmark test say other models have tried to cheat, too.
• The most iconic media player of the ’90s and early aughts is reinventing itself for the streaming era—and its new service releases early next year.
• Bad news for anyone who ever got a surprisingly cheap fare on a popular flight. Airlines are increasingly using AI to close that pricing gap for good.
• Thousands of one-person companies are now pulling in $1 million or more a year thanks in part to AI.

This time last week...

Readers’ most-clicked story was about this roughly $8,000 solar-charging EV that has a retractable solar roof which doubles in size when parked.