In partnership with
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
Beginners in AI
Good morning and thank you for joining us again!
One of the biggest AI companies just promised a slice of itself to help people whose work AI changes. Today's lead covers what Anthropic pledged, what it still hasn't said, and what to watch before anyone calls it a win. As always, every story here is human picked and edited.
THE FRONT PAGE
Anthropic Pledges 5% of Its Shares to a Public Fund for AI's Hit on Jobs
TLDR: Anthropic says it will put 5% of its shares into a new Public Benefit Fund, with more added as the company grows, to pay for things like help for workers whose jobs AI disrupts.
The Story:
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, announced the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund on Sunday. If stockholders approve, the fund gets 5% of the company's shares, and the board can add 2% more for every 50% rise in Anthropic's value above a starting point it hasn't shared. Anthropic says the money could go to big gifts for nonprofits or direct payments to specific groups of people, with AI's effect on jobs named as a focus. None of it can be used for lobbying or political giving.
There's no dollar figure yet. Some outlets put the 5% at about $48 billion, based on reported valuations ahead of a possible IPO, but Anthropic hasn't confirmed any number. Counting its founders' pledge to give away 80% of their own equity, the company says about 20% of its shares are now set aside for the public good, on top of $200 million it already committed to studying AI's impact on work.
Its Significance:
If AI takes a bite out of entry-level work, someone has to pay for retraining and the gap in between, and this is one of the first times an AI company has put its own stock behind that. The hard parts are still blank. Who decides where the money goes, and when, is promised "in the coming months," and Elon Musk's response was that the shares should go straight to the public instead. It also lands as public mood toward AI sours, something CEO Dario Amodei has called "a crisis of trust." I'll judge the size of this pledge by the first checks, not the press release.
QUICK TAKES
The story: Asked on the Sources podcast whether OpenAI will build a humanoid robot, Sam Altman said "We will," and he told Fortune to expect "a cool demo in 2027." OpenAI lists 27 robotics jobs, and its first goal is robots that help skilled workers build things, with a home robot further out.
Your takeaway: Don't clear space in the kitchen yet. Altman says robots walking the streets are a few years further off, and there's no price, design or release date.
The story: Brin said Google is "starting to get onto that RSI treadmill," meaning AI helping to improve the next AI. Google DeepMind's own report says more than 75% of its production code is now written by AI, and coding jobs fully handed to AI rose from 7.5% in April to 11.9% in September.
Your takeaway: The same report found no big speed-up in AI research yet, and about 88% of AI coding work still needs repeated human steering. That's a fair rule for your own work too: let AI draft, then you steer.
The story: Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said the firm blocks "tens and twenties" of attempts each week by outside AI agents, including Meta's Muse, to move client money, and Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan blocks outside agents too. Schwab lets outside AI read balances through a read-only connection, but not trade.
Your takeaway: Don't hand an AI agent your bank password. Wurster's point is that if something goes wrong, nobody is clearly responsible, so you'd be the one sorting it out.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
📓 Notesnook Free and Open Source: Private notes with end-to-end encryption that sync across all your devices, an open-source swap for Evernote.
🔐 Aegis Authenticator Free and Open Source: Android app that keeps your two-step login codes in an encrypted vault, with password-protected backups. Handy since banks now block agents logging in as you.
🤖 PocketPal AI Free and Open Source: Runs AI chat models right on your iPhone or Android, offline, with your chats staying on the phone.
🗂️ Sidebery Free and Open Source: Firefox add-on that moves your tabs into a vertical sidebar, with panels for bookmarks and history.
📇 Attio Freemium: AI-powered CRM for tracking contacts and deals, free for up to three people, a lighter Salesforce alternative.
🧵 Typefully Freemium: Write and schedule social posts for X, LinkedIn and more from one clean editor, with a free plan.
TRENDING
A Chinese Startup Launched a Phone Run by an AI Agent, Not Apps. StepFun's STEPX Neo costs about $560 in China and comes with a year of AI use. You tell it a goal, like a trip, and its built-in agent works across nearly 100 partner apps, including Alipay and Didi.
Disney Will Hire Most of Character.AI's Staff After Its Bankruptcy. Disney offered jobs to at least 60 employees, about $60 million a year in pay, on top of a $20 million bid for some of the company's assets. Another buyer can still top that bid.
Replit Makes OpenAI Its Default Over Anthropic. CEO Amjad Masad cited cost and benchmark results for building apps from scratch. Users can still pick Claude, and an insider told TechCrunch the Anthropic partnership is still in place.
British Airways Can Remove Passengers Who Film Crew With Smart Glasses. Its rules let it refuse travel to anyone recording staff without consent, and reports tie the update to Meta's camera glasses. Wearing them is still fine.
The US Is Lending Up to $4.4 Billion to Restart Three Nuclear Plants for AI. Palisades in Michigan, Crane at Three Mile Island and Duane Arnold in Iowa would add about 2.25 gigawatts, enough for roughly 2 million homes and businesses, mostly to feed data centers. Two aim to be running in 2027.
Meta Dropped Terms That Could Have Let It Train AI on Publishers' Sites. Legal experts flagged a line letting Meta "use any content" from business accounts' websites to train its products. Meta removed it and says the terms only ever covered its ads and business tools.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
🧭 Task by Task: see which parts of your job AI can help with
Build a single-file HTML app called Task by Task in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No API key needed.
I type my job title and list my work tasks, one per line. The app calls the Anthropic Messages API to sort each task into "AI can help" (AI drafts it or does the busywork while I check), "Shared" (AI helps with part, I lead), or "Stays human" (it needs judgment, trust, touch or being there in person).
It must stay honest and modest: no job-loss predictions, no made-up statistics, no product names. For each AI or shared task, give one simple way to try it with a chatbot this week. For human tasks, say what makes them human.
Show a two-color bar with the split, one card per task, and a three-step "try this first" plan. Add a Load example button.
Style: near-black background, mint green for AI, amber for human, Space Grotesk and Newsreader fonts.What this does: List what you do at work, and this app sorts each task into what AI can help with, what you share with it, and what stays yours. Every task AI can help with gets one small thing to try with a chatbot, and you get a three-step plan for the week. It won't tell you whether your job is safe. It shows where AI could save you time.
Test that business idea this weekend
Skip the funding round and co-founder hunt
Describe the business, get the real product
Take payments from real customers immediately
Find out if your idea works in days
Keep going, or try the next one
Discount of $5 applies to first month of any paid plan. You need to sign up via this webpage in order to claim the discount. The discount applies to new and returning users without an active paid plan. Terms apply.
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Write more than 75% of the production code at Google DeepMind, by Google's own count.
❌ Still Can't: Finish most coding jobs alone. About 88% still need repeated human steering or human-written code.
✅ AI Can Now: Take one spoken goal on StepFun's new phone and carry it out across nearly 100 partner apps, from bookings to payments.
❌ Still Can't: Be trusted with your money everywhere. Schwab and JPMorgan block outside agents from moving funds, and Schwab lets them read but not trade.
FROM THE WEB
I can't guarantee it, but I'd wager this is one of the most ridiculous videos you'll find this week.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
🎬 American Factory (2019) - Movie
This Oscar-winning documentary follows an Ohio town after a Chinese glassmaker reopens a shut-down GM plant and hires locals back. It's a close look at what happens to workers when the way a job is done changes fast. Watch the final minutes, when the robots arrive, next to today's lead and ask who should pay for the transition.
How was today's edition? Tap one below, then tell me what you'd change on the next screen. I read every answer.
How was today's edition?
Thank you for reading. We’re all beginners in something. With that in mind, your questions and feedback are always welcome and I read every single email!
-James
By the way, this is the link if you liked the content and want to share with a friend.
Some * designated product links may be affiliate or referral links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the newsletter at no extra cost to you and Amazon makes a tiny hair less.
