THINGS GOT WEIRD by Johan Ronnestam. Week 44

Things Got Weird is a weekly newsletter that helps you stay ahead of the future. Weird news. Real consequences. Every Monday.

What a week.

Your assistant calls you first. Your shirt has a screen. A car factory builds robots. And someone might have made gold.

The future wants access. Give it carefully.

Let’s get weird.

1. Next Up Proactive Agents. Here’s Claude Duet.

In my talks I’ve said the next step for AI is proactivity. Last week I wrote that Claude should come out with something soon. Well. Here it comes.

Claude Duet does not wait to be asked. It connects to your apps, keeps an eye on what’s happening and comes to you. A morning brief. A ping when something needs you. It runs its own browser in the cloud and gets work done while you do other things. It asks before it pays, signs or deletes.

Every app you have ever used waited for you. A click. A question. A prompt. This one starts.

And YouTube lit up. Influencers here, there and everywhere.

That is the real shift. From tools you use to colleagues that show up. Whoever writes your morning brief now sets your day. And soon your customer’s AI will reach out to them before you do.

It’s a beta. Paid plans, waitlist, US only for now. So. Are you one of the lucky ones?

Exciting? Hugely. Everywhere? Not yet.

2. Anyone Can Make a Smart TV Dumb Again. Tonight.

I love this one.

Gathin’s parents had a TV that showed a sponsored ad before you could even get to Netflix. So one afternoon he gave Claude Code the model number. It found the TV on the wifi, removed 25 Xiaomi apps and wrote a brand new home screen. His verdict: “Looks like an Apple TV now lol.” 8.5 million views later, he shared the code and a few thousand people tried it within two days.

No developer. No permission. One afternoon.

And that’s the real story. Not the TV. Everyone can code now. Whatever they want. Eighteen months ago you needed a developer. Now you need an idea and a sentence.

Your turn. Vibe code it yourselves.

Your customers can do the same. Your best one can rebuild your product tonight. That is not a threat. That is a FAN.

(This weekend I built my own golf app, new invoicing software, a receipt scanner and a couple of customer journey prototypes.)

3. 1Password Hands AI the Key. Not the Secret.

Boring news. Big deal.

Agents need your logins. Giving a robot your passwords is madness. So 1Password built the lock. The agent asks. You approve on your phone. The password goes in. The AI never sees it.

Access without the secret.

The password manager just became the control room for every agent in your company.

PS. I keep telling my friends, over and over again. You have to use a password manager. Disclaimer: 1Password is my favourite.

4. The Screen Became the Shirt.

Forget headsets. Wear the screen.

A team in Singapore wove a working touchscreen into a sleeve. It plays video. Runs apps. Survived 50 machine washes.

Fifty washes. Still works.

The desk. The pocket. The wrist. Every new screen surface created a new industry. Next one might be your clothes.

Ready? No. Coming? Yes.

5. Kimi Got Smarter. And Worse at Hacking, on Purpose.

Wow. Kimi K3.1 is out. And it’s free, fast and... safer.

Almost as smart as the best AI in the world. Practically level with Claude on a tough coding test. And the tokens... eh... the cost of coding? About a third of the price.

The high speed version? Two to three times faster. From 4 November? Free to download. For anyone.

World class brains. Download price: zero.

The twist. Before giving it to the whole planet, they took out the hacking lessons. Made it a bit worse. On purpose. Nine break-ins out of ten became eight. Their own test, mind you. Then they told everyone.

Bragging about what you DIDN’T build. That's PR.

Ohh. I’m impressed. Kimi just made AI feel a little bit safer for all of us.

Never heard of Kimi? Chinese AI from Moonshot. Think ChatGPT. Personally I’m using most of these models via OpenRouter.

6. Same Factory. Cars Out, Optimus In.

Tesla started building Optimus robots in Fremont. In a space that used to make cars. Elon wants 20,000 a week by end of 2027. Profit fell 43 per cent the same quarter.

Same building. New species.

And Elon keeps saying the same thing. At least two humanoid robots for every human. Ten billion of them. Maybe 20 or 30 billion. More robots than people.

Think about it. Today a family owns a car or two. Tomorrow, maybe more robots than cars.

Massive implications. Every home. Every shop. Every job with hands. Someone has to build them, fix them, insure them, dress them and sell them. A whole new economy. Bigger than cars.

Tesla pays for tomorrow with today. Out loud. Most boards cut the future first when times get tough.

Brave? Yes. Crazy? Maybe a little.

Hmm. No new Optimus video since the spring. From a man who posts about everything. Now Elon promises one “in a month or two”. Not staged, he says.

Something big behind the curtain? Or just a very shy robot.

I guess we’ll see...

7. Daft Punk in LEGO. A Fan Drew It First.

Daft Punk and LEGO? Why is this in Things Got Weird?

No reason at all.

I just wanted to throw some love at two super brands making cool stuff together. Inspired by their fans. And I have always loved both.

LEGO and Daft Punk are making the pyramid stage from the Alive tour. It started as a lockdown build by a father and son in Luxembourg. Now the fan works with LEGO’s own designers.

A stage from 2007. A band that split. A fan who never gave up.

Your best idea might already exist. A customer made it.

8. A Golden Bonus. Is Making Gold High Tech or Dinotech?

A truly weird story. If it’s true.

Every gram of gold on Earth was made when dead stars crashed into each other. Billions of years before the first dinosaur. So not dinotech. Dead Star Tech. Since then, mostly charlatans. And Newton.

Now Marathon Fusion in San Francisco tweeted that it made stable gold from mercury. Ten times faster than CERN. Last month. How much gold? They won’t say. Nobody has checked.

Their words: “We’ve reduced alchemy to a series of difficult but tractable engineering problems.”

Alchemy. Now an engineering problem.

Magic? Basically. Proven? Not at all.

THINGS NOT TOO WEIRD, BUT STILL WORTH READING

• Sweden is buying AI computing power in Finland. 50 million euros over five years. Sovereignty, shared with the neighbour.
• Nvidia now sells laptops with 128 GB memory from 2,399 dollars. Run your own AI. Keep your data home.
• Google’s car assistant can find the place in last week’s photo and drive you there. Not in Sweden.
• Elon says he’ll give a SpaceX share to every child in America. About 72 million kids. No plan yet.

Eight ways to supercharge your Monday

• Write down three things you wish you knew before you asked.
• Vibe code one small tool this week. Anything.
• List every system your AI tools can reach. Find the off switch.
• Look at what your customers wear and touch. That’s your next screen.
• Name one thing your brand refuses to do. Say it out loud.
• Find one future project you cut to save money. Bring it back.
• Find the best idea a customer sent you. Call them.
• Pick one “impossible” in your industry. Check if it still is.

This week the future came in things you can hold. Some of it might even be gold.

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With love

Johan

Johan Ronnestam is a Swedish futurist, entrepreneur and keynote speaker. He helps leaders and brands grow in an AI-shaped world. ronnestam.com