It's Tuesday and if for some inexplicable reason you'd prefer to consume AI slop by actually drinking it…well, now you can.

Today's News

☕ Starbucks adds MrBeast to the menu
👀 Reddit challenges Google
🎟️ Stranger Things hits the box office
📈 An AI streamer dominates Twitch
🧴 Vaseline takes on TikTok

BEAST MODE

Starbucks is bringing MrBeast to its menu (and sponsoring his Amazon show)

The partnership: Starbucks is launching an official MrBeast drink—and betting big on the creator's $100 million Amazon competition show.

Following in Dunkin's footsteps, the coffee chain is launching its first-ever official digital creator collab beverage. The "Cannon Ball Drink" is part of a larger deal with MrBeast's holding company, Beast Industries, which gave Starbucks a strong presence on the set of Beast Games Season 2.

During filming, the show's 200 competitors could order anything they wanted from a Starbucks kiosk at any time, for free. While most customers probably ordered on-menu items (some of which will likely appear on-screen during Beast Games episodes), one contestant apparently craved something different—and thus the Cannon Ball Drink was born.

The themed beverage is a combination of Starbucks' longtime Refresher flavors, Strawberry Açaí and Mango Dragonfruit, with some extra fruit additions. According to a press release from Starbucks, it was "inspired by and created on the set of season two and will be featured in the 'Cannon Ball Challenge' in the Beast Games x Survivor crossover episode 204, which debuts on Jan. 14." The Cannon Ball Drink will hit the menu at all U.S. Starbucks locations on the same day, and will be available for a limited time.

The context: Starbucks' team-up with MrBeast is far from its first celebrity collab. Stars like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande have graced the menu in recent years, with some celeb-inspired drinks achieving viral fame. This, however, is the chain's first digital creator-specific collab, bringing Starbucks into a realm that brands like Dunkin' have occupied for years.

Considering the breadth of its Beast Games partnership, its recent sponsorship of another MrBeast challenge, and its 2025 hunt for "Global Coffee Creators," we doubt this will be the last time Starbucks dips its toes (or coffee stirrers) into the creator economy.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

As tech giants like Meta and Google go all in on AI-powered advertising, Reddit has announced the launch of its own AI-fueled media-buying tool, Max Campaigns. (AdWeek)
According to a new report from OpenAI, more than 40 million users send healthcare-related prompts to ChatGPT every day. (OpenAI)
X has responded to backlash over Grok's generation of Child Sexual Abuse Material by reminding users that "anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content." (Ars Technica)
Beloved TikTok star Grandma Mary—who appeared in videos with granddaughter Pyxie—has passed away at the age of 98, prompting an outpouring of support from fans. (People)

BOX OFFICE HIT

Theatergoers gave Stranger Things a ~$25M sendoff

The Netflix hit: After nine and a half years, Stranger Things went out with a box office bang. For its last hurrah, the Netflix sensation brought movie theaters a cash injection of $25-28 million by putting its two-hour series finale on the big screen.

Stranger Things' long-awaited last episode premiered almost a decade after the show's first season dropped on Netflix. In that time, the digital media industry has grown to such heights that it now commands equal ground with Hollywood—and Netflix has been at the forefront of that pivot. The streaming service, hungry for Oscars, began releasing its films into theaters in 2017/2018, and has since won a number of Academy Awards. It's also now further expanding its cinematic empire with the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

With all that in mind, it's no surprise Netflix decided to bring Stranger Things' two-hour series finale to theaters.

The box office success: Netflix showed the episode in ~600 theaters, a large portion of which were owned by AMC. But instead of box office-style buy-ins (wherein viewers buy tickets to attend and revenue is split between the production studio and the theater), fans reserved their places to the Stranger Things finale by buying concessions vouchers directly from theaters.

That means all the cash from their attendance went to the theaters—not to Netflix or residuals for the actors. So, how much did participating chains earn from the Stranger Things' finale?

The Duffer Brothers said 1.1 million vouchers were sold across all theaters, with AMC alone generating $15 million from ~753,000 vouchers. AMC and Cinemark both charged $20 per voucher, while Regal and some others charged $11. Depending on the mix of voucher prices, then, the total haul across all theaters falls somewhere between $25 and $28 million for two days of showings (per Variety).

CREATOR COMMOTION

An AI is now the most-subscribed-to "streamer" on Twitch

The chart-topper: Neuro-sama (aka the LLM-powered chatbot made by programmer/streamer vedal987) has beaten her own record for longest Hype Train—and become the most-subscribed-to "streamer" on Twitch in the process.

For those unfamiliar, Hype Trains are viewer-powered marathons in which fans continually gift subscriptions and Bits. On January 1, 2025, Neuro-sama became the world record holder for longest Hype Train when she reached Hype Train level 111 by attracting nearly 85,000 active subscribers.

Then, in December 2025, she surpassed herself by reaching level 123 with almost 119,000 subscribers. Less than two weeks later, on January 5, the AI creator reached Hype Train level 126—a new all-time world high. Thousands of viewers kept the train going, resulting in a final tally of roughly 160,000 active subscriptions. That put Neuro-sama ahead of human streamer Jynxzi, who had around 74,000 subs.

The context: So, should creators be worried that ChatGPT "streamers" are going to start taking records from real people? Probably not—and here's why:

First, Neuro-sama was created back in 2018, long before OpenAI became the AI behemoth it is today. Originally designed to play rhythm game osu! on stream, she was eventually given a VTuber-style animated model, along with expanded capabilities to play additional games and interact more with viewers.

In other words, unlike the vast majority of modern chatbots, Neuro-sama doesn't run on ChatGPT or other recently slopped out big-tech bones. vedal987 built her independently with Unity and coding languages C# and Python, and (according to one fan) has since focused on making her "better at trolling him nonstop."

The resulting personality quirks have helped Neuro-sama attract nearly 1 million Twitch followers and remain in the internet's good graces despite growing tensions between creators, viewers, and generative AI.

WATCH THIS 👀

Vaseline is ready for its viral close-up

The jelly campaign: Vaseline might be a century and a half old, but the iconic petroleum jelly brand isn't stuck in the past. From viral advent calendars to influencer kits stocked with mini blind bags (including tiny purses designed to hold pots of Vaseline), Unilever is on a mission to amp up Vaseline's TikTok presence.

According to Business of Fashion, one of the parent company's efforts to "make Vaseline TikTok famous" in 2025 involved testing out viral hacks and sharing the results with creators across the platform. So, if you're looking for a way to eat spicy chips without overheating your lips, there's a Vaseline-verified hack for that.

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