Edition #17 - Robotaxis Stall, AI Buzzwords To Know, S&P 500 Breaks Records, and NU‐9 Targets Alzheimer’s Before Memory Loss

Welcome to FUTURE PROOF, the newsletter dedicated to equipping you with the insights and strategies to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. Each week, we bring you the most impactful news in tech, economics, business, finance, science and health, analyzed through the lens of how you can leverage it to secure your future.

Here's what's caught our attention this week (Dec 21–28, 2025):

MIT Technology Review’s “AI Wrapped” rundown of 14 defining AI terms—from “superintelligence” to “slop”—captures how quickly the vocabulary of AI risk, regulation, and culture has evolved. Terms like “alignment,” “copyright laundering,” and “AI pollution” moved from niche research chats into boardrooms and legislative hearings as policymakers tried to frame rules for rapidly scaling models and content. The list is less about jargon for its own sake and more a map of where power and attention flowed this year. (MIT Technology Review)​

What it means for you: Learning this language is increasingly part of basic tech literacy, especially if you work with policy, product, or content. Understanding how these concepts are used (and misused) will help you cut through hype in vendor pitches and public debate.

MIT Technology Review highlights how 2025’s “agent boom” has shifted from demos to live pilots, with AI systems increasingly tasked with chaining actions together across tools, APIs, and internal apps. Companies are experimenting with agents that can monitor security logs, triage support tickets, or manage back‑office workflows with minimal human supervision, while regulators worry about compounding errors and opaque decision paths. China’s Manus agent ecosystem is also spurring a wave of local competitors that build tightly around domestic platforms and controls. (MIT Technology Review)​

What it means for you: Expect more products that quietly wrap “agent” logic around existing workflows rather than offering yet another chatbot UI. The real leverage will come from being the person who can design, supervise, and audit those agents—not just prompt them.

Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco after a massive power outage left many of its vehicles stalled at intersections, blocking traffic and prompting a wave of viral videos. The company said its cars are designed to treat dark traffic lights as four‑way stops, but the scale of the blackout created a backlog of safety checks that kept some vehicles stationary for longer than normal, leading to gridlock. Service resumed the next day, with Waymo pledging to integrate lessons from the incident into updated emergency protocols. (TechCrunch)​

What it means for you: As cities lean on autonomous fleets, resilience depends on how vehicles handle rare but predictable failures in power and communications, not just clean test routes. For policymakers and residents, it raises the stakes on planning for “graceful failure” when critical infrastructure breaks under stress.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is rolling out an annual review feature called “Your Year with ChatGPT” that gives eligible users a personalized snapshot of their 2025 usage, including stats, an archetype, a poem, and an AI‑generated portrait based on chat history. The feature is initially available in English‑speaking markets like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but only for users who have chat history and memory features enabled and have met a minimum activity threshold. Team, Enterprise, and Education accounts are excluded, and OpenAI describes the experience as “lightweight, privacy‑forward, and user‑controlled.” (TechCrunch)​

What it means for you: Expect AI tools to lean harder on gamified recaps and personal analytics to keep you engaged and sharing screenshots. Before opting in, check what data is being logged and how memory features are configured so you’re comfortable with the tradeoff between insights and long‑term tracking.

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The S&P 500 closed at a record high after third‑quarter U.S. GDP was revised to a 4.3 percent annualized gain, beating economist forecasts and marking the fastest growth in two years. The report, delayed by the government shutdown, showed consumer spending doing most of the heavy lifting, reassuring investors that the economy is still expanding despite earlier worries about AI‑related capex and rate uncertainty. Other major indices also gained, with small caps and cyclicals catching a bid on the growth surprise. (The Wall Street Journal)​

What it means for you: Markets are signaling more confidence in a “growth without crisis” scenario than many pundits a few months ago. For your own planning, it’s a good time to ask whether your portfolio assumes a recession that hasn’t arrived—or ignores the risk that growth could cool quickly in 2026.

Gold and silver prices hit fresh record highs as tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela escalated, pushing more investors toward perceived safe‑haven assets. The same geopolitical jitters helped lift oil futures, while the U.S. dollar weakened against major currencies, adding fuel to the precious‑metals rally. Central‑bank buying and trend‑following funds have also reinforced the move through 2025. (Investing.com)​

What it means for you: Surging metals prices are a reminder that geopolitics and currency fears can matter as much as inflation when it comes to hedges. If you hold little or no exposure to real assets, decide whether that’s a deliberate choice or just inertia before the cycle turns again.

Shares of Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery jumped after reports that Paramount had ramped up efforts to acquire Warner’s parent, backed by over 40 billion dollars in financing from Larry Ellison and rival bids financed for Netflix. A tie‑up would radically reshape the streaming and studio landscape, concentrating more franchises and sports rights in fewer hands as traditional cable bundles continue to erode. Antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad would likely be intense, with regulators weighing consumer prices against the viability of smaller players. (MarketWatch via Morningstar)​

What it means for you: For viewers, consolidation often means fewer services controlling more must‑watch content, which can drive both subscription fatigue and price hikes. For careers in media and tech, it reinforces the trend that scale—data, IP, and distribution—beats niche unless you occupy a very defensible corner.

Earlier in the week, the S&P 500 hovered near record territory as investors weighed the odds of a “Santa Claus rally” against lingering concerns that AI‑linked stocks might be overextended. Two delayed reports on inflation and employment did little to clarify the 2026 outlook, leaving markets to oscillate in a narrow band while positioning and sentiment did most of the work. The Bank of Japan’s recent rate hike added another wrinkle, reminding traders that not all major central banks are on the same path. (MarketWatch)​

What it means for you: Short‑term “will we get a rally?” debates are mostly noise unless you’re a very active trader. A more durable move is to decide what exposure to AI, cyclicals, and foreign markets you actually want heading into 2026 and adjust gradually toward that target.​

Researchers developed an imaging and computation tool that reveals previously invisible communication networks inside tumors, showing how different cancer cell clusters coordinate growth and drug resistance. By combining high‑resolution microscopy with machine‑learning analysis, the system can highlight “hub” cells that orchestrate behavior across the tumor, potentially giving oncologists new targets beyond individual mutations. The work helps explain why some cancers shrug off therapies that appear well‑designed on paper. (ScienceDaily)​

What it means for you: Future cancer treatments may be designed not just around what mutations you have, but how your tumor’s internal network is wired. That could lead to more precise combinations of drugs aimed at breaking coordination rather than just killing cells indiscriminately.

A new study describes an experimental drug, NU‑9, that appears to halt early Alzheimer’s‑like damage in mice by protecting neurons before they start dying. The compound reduced inflammation, preserved neuron structure, and prevented the breakdown of key cell components linked to early cognitive decline, suggesting it might work best years before obvious symptoms. Researchers now face the challenge of designing human trials and figuring out how to identify at‑risk people early enough. (ScienceDaily)​

What it means for you: Alzheimer’s care may eventually pivot from reacting to visible symptoms to intervening much earlier based on biomarkers and imaging. That makes it more important over time to track family history and participate in screening programs if and when they become widely available.

Year‑end reviews of 2025’s biggest medical advances highlighted the first personalized CRISPR gene‑editing therapy given to a baby with a lethal metabolic disorder. Doctors used lipid nanoparticles to deliver gene‑editing instructions directly to the liver, enabling production of a missing enzyme and dramatically reducing the child’s dependence on supportive drugs. Early results suggest the treatment could be curative, and other hospitals are now designing similar single‑patient therapies for ultra‑rare conditions. (National Geographic)​

What it means for you: “One‑off” gene editing is moving from thought experiment to real clinical option for some families, which will reshape how insurers, regulators, and patients think about cost and access. If rare disease runs in your family, major academic medical centers may increasingly have trials or bespoke programs worth asking about.

A year‑end review of health research pointed to a cluster of major advances: earlier cancer detection, new mRNA vaccine trials for HIV and other diseases, and progress toward safer xenotransplants using pig organs. At the same time, clinicians and regulators emphasized that many of these breakthroughs come with unanswered questions about long‑term safety, equitable access, and how to integrate them into already‑strained health systems. The picture is one of rapid innovation alongside structural constraints. (Yahoo News)​

What it means for you: The menu of powerful medical tools is expanding faster than most people realize, but access will vary sharply by geography, income, and insurance. Staying plugged into reputable health news—and cultivating a relationship with a primary care clinician who keeps up with guidelines—will matter more as options multiply.​

That’s it for this week. Stay alert, stay curious, and keep taking proactive steps to shape your resilient future!