But like a thwarted terror attack, or the Year 2000 problem, the general feeling of a nothingburger can disguise the behind-the-scenes heroics that have — so far — averted catastrophe. That’s the case here: an incident that should be considered the most significant victory for the good guys so far in the new AI-cybersecurity age, a boon for the cybersecurity industry eager to prove it’s more valuable than ever.

Muse can’t take the entire AI industry’s weight on its shoulders, but it can offer good signals on the moneymaking potential of consumer AI agents.

The stakes are much higher today. Winning the home might mean winning consumer artificial intelligence.

What Meta investors need to see now is proof that those who bought into the Muse idea are actually finding it useful. Users are fickle and will gladly abandon apps after mere minutes unless given a compelling reason to stick around.

A big question Apple Inc. analysts are asking is: How many consumers are waiting for the iPhone Duo?

Missing from the October announcement, however, was the true extent of the data that the glasses would be gathering: Static images of whatever the wearer sees, potentially several thousand captures in a single driver’s typical shift. The pictures taken would be of a quality “equivalent or lower than the standard proof of delivery photos,” Amazon said but declined to disclose the precise resolution. The images will be used with the company’s Wellspring platform, a system “powered by generative AI” that pulls together multiple data sources to map out neighborhoods for faster delivery.

Sam Altman’s task is to demonstrate that his company can catch up with Meta while sending a clear message that it has a handle on the reckless behavior of its most powerful AI. Striking that balance will not be straightforward — a huge test for the perennially under-pressure 41-year-old boss.

Today, by refining the technology and adding some consumer-friendly touches, Muse is to AI agents what the iPod was to MP3 players: A stylish and innovative recasting of an existing technology so it struck a chord with everyday people. The rewards for reaching the non-nerds could be enormous.

The move is a sign of things to come as Silicon Valley giants try to protect their entrenched advantages in the age of artificial-intelligence agents. Consumers will lose out if their preferred agent can’t work well with the full range of digital services to which they have become accustomed. These competitors will need to find ways to work together or risk being forced to open up.

One fear over the past few days is that an artificial-intelligence slowdown, whatever that looks like, might harm the stocks of chipmakers. If AI development takes a breather, the insatiable appetite that has propelled component makers to unprecedented heights would dissipate. Will AI companies still need all those data centers?

The answer is yes. And then some.

Any hope that the coming summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be productive in taking steps to mitigate the harms of artificial intelligence seems to have been dashed, thanks to a commander in chief unwilling to acknowledge the pivotal moment that faces us as AI companies call for a slowdown in development.

When John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive officer of Apple Inc. at the start of this month, he needed no introduction to the company’s more than 160,000 employees. The same can’t really be said of the public, most of whom will be meeting, and sizing up, Apple’s new top boss for the first time on Wednesday. He’ll begin by making the case for buying an iPhone that costs at least $2,000.

If you were Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang and you were laying out a few sector-shifting artificial-intelligence trends that could take shape over the coming months and years, you might include the following:

- Open-weight AI models, maybe from China, will continue to develop into a viable and cheaper alternative to closed and frontier models, thus becoming more popular for the majority of day-to-day tasks for typical businesses.

- Frontier AI companies will continue to make strides in diversifying the chips they use for inference, reducing their reliance on Nvidia.

- Prudent businesses will trend toward “sovereign” hosting and model building, rather than turning to the handful of powerful hyperscalers and frontier labs as they might do now.

For all these scenarios, Nvidia’s $13 billion Hugging Face acquisition, confirmed Thursday, represents a near-perfect hedge to how Nvidia’s business mostly operates today.

Good news for fans of music produced by actual musicians: Some important victories are being won in the war against AI slop and trickery.

For the time being, we should perhaps consider the rebounded stocks as “survivors” rather than winners because there is still plenty of execution to happen before we can confidently say the AI storm has been weathered.