April 10, 2023

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empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Technology

Share at your own Risk: Several of Samsung’s employees seem to have forgotten that ChatGPT is a research project, and anything that you share with it is used to train the model. (Same with image generator Dall-E.) Engineers at the company used OpenAI’s bot to check for errors in their proprietary source code, and unfortunately, some of that code has now been leaked online. Just a friendly reminder, that you shouldn’t share anything private with ChatGPT unless you are using the API or your own private instance.

The New Byte: Despite the threat of global bans (or maybe in an effort to get around them), ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has released Lemon8, an app that resembles Instagram. The app launched in the US in February with influencers reportedly being paid to post, and has about 4M active users, and quickly climbed to the top 10 of the App store. The app is actually a copy of a very popular app in China - Xiaohongshu - which means Little Red Book, and is the go-to online community for learning life hacks. With most US internet companies blocked in China, Chinese startups have an advantage of scale or at least a much larger testing ground. Will be interesting to see if the new app translates to Western tastes before lawmakers realize its ownership.

Space

Put a Ring on It: The James Webb Space Telescope released an incredible image of Uranus showing details of its rings, atmosphere and six of its known moons. When Voyager 2 did a flyby of Uranus 35 years ago, we got to see its stunning blue color and rings for the first time, but the new Webb image is truly other-worldly. You may have thought Saturn was the only planet with rings, but Neptune also sports a lovely pair, and Webb sent back a spectacular photo of those, that you might have missed in September.

JUICE launch: This week the European Space Agency will launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. The JUICE will take about 8 years to reach the planet, as it will do flybys and gravity assists of Venus on its way.

Finance

Surge Pricing Isn’t Just for Uber: You may have heard of the latest “it” bag, dubbed the “Bushwick Birkin,” otherwise known as the Telfar tote. Telfar bags have become a celebrity staple not only for their style but for their affordability (large shopping bags are only $250) and sustainability (faux leather). Telfar Clemens has built his anti-luxury brand on accessibility, attempting to keep his prices low, despite continually selling out. His latest experiment is to have his popularity set the prices for his fashion drops. The new collection starts with a fixed, low price and the price climbs every few seconds. The final price is the sell-out price, and that will be the price for all subsequent collections. As Clemens explains, “it’s the opposite of a sale,” but it gives the fashion house a tremendous amount of data about demand and how much to manufacture.

Failure to Control: The FTX bankruptcy team released its first interim report, and it details a stunning lack of reporting and controls at the now defunct crytpocurrency exchange. FTX executives "stifled dissent, commingled and misused corporate and customer funds, lied to third parties about their business, [and] joked internally about their tendency to lose track of millions of dollars in assets." Evidently, the firm was so lax in oversight, that at the time of bankruptcy, the company didn’t even have a complete list of employees. The team has reviewed over 1 million documents, and has been piecing together items from QuickBooks and Slack messages, although some of the company laptops are still in the hands of Bahamian authorities. There is even an account with 80,000 transactions in QuickBooks entitled “ask my accountant,” while the private keys to millions of dollars in crypto assets were labeled with names like “use this.”

Politics

Crimes against Humanity: Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, died over the weekend at the age of 103. Ferencz was born in Transylvania, and immigrated to New York as a young boy. After graduating law school, he joined the army, participated in Normandy, and became a war crimes investigator. At 27, he was appointed the chief prosecutor for a case in which 22 former commanders were charged with murdering over 1 million Jews. All the defendants were convicted. Ferencz can be seen in Ken Burns’ The US and the Holocaust.

Water, Water, Nowhere: The Drop Store is an online awareness campaign created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The initiative aims to demonstrate how the worsening water crisis could affect everyone’s lives by creating a grocery store of a possible future where a 15ml bottle of water will cost $198.

French Influence: French lawmakers are debating a bill that may force influencers on social media to notify their audience whether they apply filters to their posts, use photoshop to alter their bodies, and if it is a paid promotion. The French are attempting to minimize online scams and reduce some of the mental health harms caused by social media. Paid influencers also won’t be able to promote cosmetic surgery and financial products and services (including crypto). The goal is to make paid influencers subject to the same rules as traditional media. The bill should come up for a vote in May.

French Influence, Part Deux: French President Macron visited China last week, and while he attempted to use China’s influence to “bring Russia to its senses” when it comes to the Ukraine war, he also seemingly wants to walk a somewhat isolationist line when it comes to other conflicts, including Taiwan. Macron has high hopes for the “strategic autonomy” of Europe that will lead it to become a “third superpower.” While Europe doesn’t have its own army, China did launch military exercises stimulating precision strikes against Taiwan, soon after Macron’s departure. Unfortunately, Macron stirred up protests abroad and at home.

Denim goes Digital: If influencers and filters weren’t making us doubt are own bodies, here come the AI models. Levi’s has said that it will begin to experiment with AI-generated models in an effort to diversify its online shopping experience. “While AI will likely never fully replace human models for us, we are excited for the potential capabilities this may afford us for the consumer experience,” said Amy Gershkoff Bolles, global head of digital and emerging technology strategy at Levi Strauss & Co. We guess the days of models not getting out of bed for less than $10k a day are kaput.

Dressed to Kill: The culture wars continues, but I am not sure the legislatures have fully thought through the consequences. For instance, Texas recently passed a law (SB12) aimed at drag performers which prohibits male performers from using makeup while singing or performing before an audience (that may include minors). What happens when Kiss or the Insane Clown Posse (or their cover bands) attempt to play? You can’t tell me Garth Brooks doesn’t wear foundation?

Culture

Wearable Album by Beyoncé: Beyoncé has been known to break the rules when it comes to both music and fashion, and she recently announced that she will be dropping a special collection for Balmain that coincides with her upcoming tour. The “Renaissance Couture” collection was inspired by the tracks on her 2022 album, and was featured in French Vogue. This move also follows Bey’s announcement that she has parted ways with Adidas following disappointing sales of her Ivy Park athleisure line.

Speaking of Queens: Guess we can all go back to trying to figure out how Taylor Swift dives into the stage or whether or not she is single?

Coronation Green: The British Royal Family released the official invitation for the Coronation of King Charles this week. The rather ornate invitation (printed on recycled paper, of course) featured the figure of the “Green Man,” which apparently is “an ancient figure from British folklore.” That is, unless you ask an actual British historian. The Green Man has caused quite the stir, since it can be seen as a sign of paganism, is a popular name for Pubs, and according to several historians, he is a made-up figure of 20th century folklore. Not the best of starts, but then again the first announcement also had a fake go viral with coronation misspelled.

And in case you missed this week’s AI experiment, US presidents but in the form of Jim Henson muppets.

Spice up your Life: You probably spent your Sunday night watching Succession, enjoying Brian Cox playing a ruthless, heartless media patriarch. But if you’d like to enjoy another side of Brian, here he is singing the Spice Girls with Alan Cumming. Can’t say why the two Scotts teamed up for Carpool Karaoke, but we approve.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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