Jeremy White / Wired:
How Lego's Creative Play Lab built the Smart Brick, its custom chip, sensors, and proprietary communication system to seamlessly integrate with existing sets  —  Lego's next release is a digital brick loaded with sensors that add new layers of interactivity to its play sets.

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Apple Podcasts' fresh leap into video podcasts accelerates the podcast industry's shift from an audio-centric medium to a decidedly video-focused one  —  Apple Podcasts' fresh leap into video podcasts refocuses the audio medium on visuals  —  Welcome back to Soundbite.

CEPR:
A study of 12K+ EU companies finds AI adoption increases labor productivity by 4% on average in the EU, with no evidence of reduced employment in the short run  —  Artificial intelligence promises to reshape economies worldwide, but firm-level evidence on its effects in Europe remains scarce.

Hazel Gandhi / Rest of World:
Nonprofit What To Fix says Facebook's content monetization program grew from under 3M to over 12M participants in just over a year; 8M+ accounts are in English  —  And Indonesian creators are leading the charge.  —  Facebook's new content monetization program is booming …

Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Apple's 40-day correlation to the Nasdaq 100 fell to 0.21 last week, the lowest since 2006, making it an appealing alternative to the AI-fueled volatility  —  It's been nearly 20 years since Apple Inc. was this untethered from its tech peers, giving investors an appealing alternative …