Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to the best new reporting at Puck.

First up today, Ian Krietzberg puts Anthropic’s Claude Code to the test—building two apps on the fly and revealing just how advanced A.I. “vibe coding” has become. It’s one reason why Anthropic might be the fastest-growing startup in Silicon Valley history, outflanking Sam Altman’s OpenAI by focusing on enterprise tools instead of chatbots. But, as Ian reports, Claude hasn’t made professional software developers obsolete… yet.

Plus, below the fold: Peter Hamby and Democratic consultant Adam Jentleson debate whether calls to “abolish ICE” will backfire. Marion Maneker surveys a foursome of new exhibitions animating New York’s art scene. Sarah Shapiro weighs in on the influencer affiliate marketing wars between LTK and ShopMy. And for Inner Circle members, Julia Alexander considers whether NBC Sports’s new tech partnership can pry Gen Z away from TikTok.

Meanwhile, on the pods: John Ourand reunites with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand (!!) on The Varsity to preview the NFL’s looming wave of media rights negotiations. On The Town, Matt Belloni and Sundance director Eugene Hernandez discuss the festival’s final year in Utah. And on The Powers That Be, Peter rings up Dylan Byers for a nonhysterical assessment of the Bari Weiss regime at CBS News.

A.I.

A new wave of A.I. coding tools are impressive and empowering enough to make one imagine a future where we’re all coding our own apps and software engineers are a thing of the past. But these days, it still takes a pro (or armies of them) to get it right.

WASHINGTON

A remarkably candid conversation with Adam Jentleson, the founder and president of the Searchlight Institute, about the rhetorical fight over abolishing ICE that’s raging inside the Democratic Party.

ART

Fresh from their holiday hibernation, New York galleries are once again buzzing with crowded openings and legendary works from the likes of Humeau, Pousette-Dart, Eggleston, and Flavin.

FASHION

With a $2 billion valuation and first-mover advantage, LTK has long been the gold standard in influencer affiliate marketing. But as competition from ShopMy and others heats up, the O.G. company has had to do more to attract and retain users—like sharing some of its previously well-guarded data.

SPORTS

A partnership with Nippon TV will give NBC access to new technology meant to optimize its sports content for younger audiences. It’s a timely play—but one that also belies Peacock’s larger problem with viewer engagement.

SPORTS

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reunites with John to break down the future of sports media rights, with a particular focus on the NFL. They discuss why so many leagues’ next deals hinge on the NFL’s upcoming negotiations, which NFL packages are most vulnerable to streamer disruption, why it’s no longer far-fetched to imagine Amazon landing a Super Bowl, and more. Plus, why Travis Kelce is primed to be the next great play-by-play announcer.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Film Festival, to discuss the festival’s last year in Park City, the decision to leave Utah, and what we can expect in Boulder, Colorado. Then they share some of their favorite stories from their time at the festival over the years.

MEDIA

Dylan Byers joins Peter for a clear-eyed look at the scrutiny facing Bari Weiss’s leadership of CBS News—what her critics are getting right, what they’re missing, and whether she can recover from an increasingly rocky start. Then they game out the Politico succession, and why Axel Springer might favor an external hire to revitalize the business.

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