The Powers That Be: Daily

Julia Alexander joins Peter to dig into a new wave of A.I. agents, from Meta’s Muse to OpenAI’s Dots, and whether these tools can actually reach mass adoption or are simply products of an “optimization culture” bubble. They also get into Disney’s streaming ambitions, following the studio poaching filmmaker Shawn Levy to help lure young male viewers from Netflix to Disney+.

Dylan Byers joins Peter to untangle the game of executive musical chairs at Condé Nast and Paramount–WBD as David Ellison taps outgoing Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as his co-C.E.O., and Condé C.E.O. Roger Lynch in turn announces he’s leaving the media company to take Kreiz’s old job running Mattel.

Marianna Sotomayor joins Peter for a midterm vibe check as Democratic optimism runs high and some in the party are lobbying for eleventh-hour investments in Senate races like South Carolina, stretch Mississippi, and Florida. But Marianna sounds a note of caution, explaining why there’s reason to think Republicans could notch a few surprise wins too.

Marion Maneker joins Peter to debrief on Puck’s second annual Art of Influence conference, where he gathered the art world’s esteemed players for a wide-ranging set of conversations. They discuss museums’ evolution into civic spaces, Christie’s move into pop culture, the challenges facing younger buyers, and more.

Jon Kelly and Peter break down why California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust effort against the WarnerMount deal collapsed into a series of meager concessions, and ponder whether the two studios will eventually merge. Then they pivot to Vertical Leap, film financier John Sloss’s new venture recruiting mid-tier athletes to invest in new sports documentaries.