Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the award-winning actor and entrepreneur, recently put AI companies on blast over their unsustainable business models. He presented these ideas in what the framework rightly calls an “Uplift Valley” future vision, at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026. He’s just getting set to direct a new thriller film on AI for Netflix. Actress and producer Rachel McAdams will play the lead role in the film. The film aims to explore the ethical implications of AI technology against the backdrop of rapid advancements in the field.
Gordon-Levitt has been keeping himself busy with life beyond the cinema. In 2022, he sold his creative collaboration company HitRecord to MasterClass, giving him the freedom to pursue his creative passions—music, writing, art—while remaining connected to technology and ethics. He underscored the need to widen the scope of discussion about artificial intelligence. To make sure we’re getting it right, we need to look beyond the technology and the business incentives that underlie the biggest AI companies.
“It’s not necessarily so much about the tech itself, about the technology, but the business incentives driving some of the biggest AI companies,” – Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Equity and justice AI technologies, by their nature, deepen existing inequities and injustices. Gordon-Levitt’s vision underscores the need for systematic accountability and ethical standards in the way these companies operate. Large language models are based on massive datasets for training, he noted. All of this data is a testament to the boundless creativity, ingenuity, and work that people have put into these projects.
“He said LLMs were trained on everything humans have ‘put their time and energy and labor into.’” – Joseph Gordon-Levitt
While we’re following the CES 2026 developments, plenty of other cool stuff is going on that’s deserving of attention. Tucked in their headlines is Donut Lab’s announcement of a game-changing solid-state battery geared for mass vehicle production. According to StoreDot, its new battery tech can be completely charged in five minutes flat. It boasts probably the best range currently available at up to 600 kilometers (370 miles) on a single charge!
Donut Lab’s Revolutionary Battery Technology
As you can see, Donut Lab is at the cutting edge of innovation. Fellow co-founder Marko Lehtimaki, who now acts as the company’s CTO, was formerly CTO of Verge Motorcycle. Their new solid-state battery is being hailed as one of the biggest breakthroughs to date in EV technology. It addresses historic issues related to charging times and consumer issues like range anxiety.
Through its unmatched attention to efficiency and performance, the Bellevue, Wa.-based company seeks to change the way the world thinks about and uses electric vehicles. By incorporating such a charging speed, the era of charging trips and carefully planned detours to charging stations will pass. Instead, they want the quick power-up that refilling a gasoline-powered vehicle offers.
Lehtimaki’s vision for Donut Lab is perfectly timed with the market demand for sustainable energy solutions. Electric vehicle adoption Even in the face of supply chain challenges, EV adoption is skyrocketing. Advancements such as this new solid-state battery will be critical in reimagining the future of transportation.
Exciting New Products at CES
One of the other big announcements from CES 2026 was Anker’s announcement of their eufyMake E1 UV printer. At a retail price of $2,299, this fantastic invention enables anyone and everybody to personalize virtually anything, from coffee mugs to their very own nail polish. The eufyMake E1 offers a unique blend of functionality and creativity, appealing to both casual users and businesses looking to personalize their products.
The unprecedented versatility of the eufyMake E1 truly inspires endless possibilities for creators and aspiring entrepreneurs. It combines immersive tech with novel downstream applications that meet consumer demands for experience, identity, and customization.
Additionally, Infinite Machine has introduced a new smart ring that allows users to write non-digital notes with ease. This contraption has a neck cramping range of five meters. It can record continuously for eight hours and is likely to retail for less than $200. These innovations signal the rise of the wearables revolution, placed more specifically on making technology more ubiquitous and improving productivity within mundane tasks.
Changing Landscape of Media Consumption
With the rapid development of technology, the changing environment of media consumption is at our fingertips. Our own Darren Schillace has spoken to this transition, explaining how younger generations are cutting the cord from established broadcast networks. He made the point that we need to think about how we deliver content to reach these new audiences.
“We’re never going to drive the younger generations to watch on a network — on a broadcast network,” – Darren Schillace
Schillace put additional priority on defining success to look beyond overall viewership. It should meaningfully engage with a wide variety of demographic groups including Gen Z, Gen Alpha, their parents and their grandparents.
“The metric we use to measure is total viewers, the Gen Zs, Gen Alpha, their parents, their grandparents — I don’t care. I want you to watch.” – Darren Schillace
Media consumption has changed just as much, reflecting society’s changes across the board. The lessons learned from this evolution are valuable reminders for content creators that impact audiences in impactful and authentic ways. Just like today, new technologies are taking center stage at CES 2026. Stakeholders in all transportation industries will need to radically reconsider their tactics to maintain importance and value in this increasingly dynamic marketplace.
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