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BORN TO SCROLL

Nearly 40% of kids under 2 years old interact with smartphones, according to their parents

A new Pew Research study outlines just how pervasive technology use among US children has become.

10/10/25 6:27AM

As parents in 2025 know, they really do grow up so fast. First words today, first Google query tomorrow. Then, before you know it, they’re asking ChatGPT to read them a bedtime story...

On Wednesday, Pew Research Center published a survey assessing how parents in the US with children under 12 manage their kids’ screen time, which revealed that 61% of respondents overall reported their child ever uses or interacts with smartphones — including 38% of those with children under 2 years old.

Much of this smartphone screen time is likely made up by parents streaming kid-friendly cartoons for their little ones to watch on the go: the study also found that YouTube use among children under 2 has risen sharply from 45% to 62% over the last five years. But it appears that most American toddlers only need to wait a few years before they can get devices of their very own.

Smartphones children Pew Research — Sherwood News

The same survey showed that almost one in four US parents overall allow their children aged 12 and under to have their own smartphones, and this ballooned to nearly 60% when just looking at kids aged 11-12 years old.

Indeed, even with statewide smartphone bans spurring an old-school iPod revival, most parents — the vast majority of whom (92%) reported being concerned about staying in contact with their children — are allowing their descendants who’ve barely hit double digits to have devices to use in their free time.

Pre-teens, post-screens

While traditional cable viewership continues to sink, TV remains the screen of choice for kids’ entertainment, permitted by 90% of parents surveyed. However, moms and dads may now be faced with a whole new hotbed of childcare worries: the study also found that some 8% of kids aged 5-12 have interacted with AI chatbots.

As an overwhelming majority of parents (80%) still harbor concerns over the harms of social media, the negative consequences of this relatively novel, extremely powerful tech for a whole cohort of young people may become even more stark in years to come — through screens or otherwise.

Rani Molla3h

Google’s YouTube maintains its top spot as streaming accounts for nearly half of all TV-watching time

People spent a record 47.5% of their TV-watching time on streaming platforms in December, according to new data from Nielsen, up from the previous record of 47.3% in July. Google’s YouTube once again was the most popular streaming service by time spent, but Netflix’s share inched slightly upward to 9% from 8.8% in July, while YouTube’s fell to 12.7% from 13.4%. The jump was largely thanks to “Stranger Things,” which was the most watched streaming title last month.

Rani Molla4h

Amazon CEO says tariffs are inflating prices and buyers are looking for bargains

While the legality of President Trump’s tariffs winds its way through the courts, their effects are beginning to show up in prices.

During an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he is starting to see tariffs “creep into” pricing, as some sellers are “passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices.”

Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.

“I think that wherever they can, they are trying to trade down in price — they are looking for bargains wherever they can find bargains,” he said. “I see people a little more hesitant on higher-priced discretionary items.”

Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.

Amazon CEO Jassy says Trump's tariffs have started to 'creep' into prices

Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.

Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.

Rani Molla7h

Musk: Tesla restarting Dojo supercomputer effort as “AI5 chip design is in good shape”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X over the weekend that the company plans to restart work on its Dojo supercomputer, dubbed Dojo3, saying that the AI5 chip the company had been developing is in “good shape.”

The Dojo supercomputer trains Tesla’s AI models, including the one behind its all-important Full Self-Driving tech. The company stopped work on Dojo in August. “It doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs,” Musk said at the time. “The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training.”

“Pretty good” appears to be good enough.

Now that the AI5 chip design is in good shape, Tesla will restart work on Dojo3.

If you’re interested in working on what will be the highest volume chips in the world, send a note to AI_Chips@Tesla.com with 3 bullet points on the toughest technical problems you’ve solved.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2026

In the interim, Tesla relied more on companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for AI training. Restarting Dojo suggests Tesla plans to bring at least some AI training back in-house.

Musk also runs AI company xAI, which has its own supercomputer and a substantial business relationship with Tesla. A plurality of Tesla shareholders recently voted in favor of investing in Musk’s AI company, but the board declined to approve the measure because of a large number of abstentions.

Jon Keegan

1/16/26

OpenAI set to start rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users

OpenAI says user conversations will be kept private from advertisers, and answers will not be influenced by ads.

Jon Keegan1/16/26

EPA: xAI’s Colossus data center illegally used gas turbines without permits

The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that xAI violated the law when it used dozens of portable gas generators for its Colossus 1 data center without air quality permits.

When xAI set out to build Colossus 1 in Memphis, Tennessee, CEO Elon Musk wanted to move with unprecedented speed, avoiding all of the red tape that could slow such a big project down.

To power the 1-gigawatt data center, Musk took advantage of a local loophole that allowed portable gas generators to be used without any permits, as long as they did not spend more than 364 days in the same spot. That allowed xAI to bring in dozens of truck-sized gas generators to quickly supply the massive amount of power the data center needed to train xAI’s Grok model.

The new EPA rule says the use of such portable generators falls under federal regulation, and the company did need air quality permits to operate the turbines. xAI is also using dozens of such generators to power its Colossus 2 data center just over the border in Alabama.