October 2, 2023

what we've been watching...

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

Business

AI is coming for your phone: OpenAI and Jony Ive (the designer of the iPhone) are in talks to build a consumer device for AI (or the next iteration of the smartphone). The venture may be fueled by a $1BN investment by SoftBank. While we never asked for a smartphone, we suspect it will be hard to pry it from our hands, but we wonder what the next iteration of hardware will be.

EV subsidies: While US autoworkers are on strike for better wages and against the production of EVs (EVs are often made in non-union shops), the EU is also getting into the fight against Chinese-made EVs. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the organization will be launching an “anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China.” China has become a major exporter of cars due to its low-cost EVs, and is threatening the dominance of European automakers like Volkswagen (for the first time in Dec 2022, Europe imported more cars from China than it exported, yet half of these imports were made by foreign companies (Tesla) or joint ventures). Chinese automakers can produce the cars more cheaply than European automakers and due to government incentives or subsidies to purchase EVs, the cost of shipping is negated. The EU may be on the road to high tariffs on Chinese autos (similar to the US where there are no Chinese vehicles on the road), but that could also raise the political tensions as well as hurt the investments of its large manufacturers.

New hook for startups: In the past, when VCs would peacock for startups, they would tout their relationships with banks or other founders. Now VCs are competing by purchasing access to artificial intelligence chips. Because many cloud providers won’t work with small scale startups, the investment firms are buying access to the GPU servers, and then making the service available to their founders. One VC fund, which recently raised $1BN targeted at AI investing, announced they “had bought 2,512 Nvidia H100 server chips—a higher number than the sum total of Nvidia GPUs available to Microsoft’s entire AI research arm —to give to founders.” In 2021, Nvidia itself partnered with VC firms creating the Inception VC Alliance, giving them account managers, customer support and rebates. If the chip shortage continues, maybe the VCs will move toward the next means of mass energy production — nuclear power.

Femtech is still struggling: In the past few years, we’ve seen a trend of startups focusing on women’s health, and it felt like finally, VCs had recognized that yes, actually, you can make money by focussing on half the population. Unfortunately, while 75 percent of entry-level health workers are women, only 32 percent of the health care C-suite is made up of women. “We still do not have enough female leaders, whether it’s in Congress or in venture firms, or CEOs or entrepreneurs,” says Maneesh Jain, the CEO and co-founder of Mirvie. Femtech companies continue to face discrimination in getting investment, because the investors often can’t relate without first hand experience. (ie they are still mostly men). Also, most clinical trials in the US underrepresent women, due to concerns about childbirth. One way of boosting the sector: give it a rebrand — focus on the technology rather than the gender and forget that it is a niche market.

Banking for Buds: The legalization of marijuana in the US has had one major stumbling block: banking. Because marijuana is still illegal federally (despite being legal in 39 states), banks can’t do business with the companies, and the businesses are forced to be cash-only. (With a cash-only business comes security and money laundering concerns.) This regulation may be about to change, as the Senate Finance Committee passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act which would allow state-licensed cannabis businesses access to traditional financial services. The bill has yet to reach the full Senate floor and may have difficulty reaching the House. Legislators are already calling for amendments that would oppose the legalization of marijuana without Congressional approval as well as a request to the FDA not to remove the drug from the schedule of controlled substances. But take this change with a grain of salt, there is also language in the bill relating to gun manufacturers and energy companies, stating that “all legal businesses should have access to bank accounts.”

Technology

Swifties break the Internet, Again: Taylor Swift and Google partnered up to create an “easter egg” in Google search that led to a series of word puzzles that when solved would reveal the names of Swift’s upcoming songs. Unfortunately, the challenge was only complete when 33M individual puzzles were solved (each individual was faced with 89 puzzles in reference to her album 1989). But leave it to the Swifties, they were faster than Google, and the puzzles were solved in a few hours, but during that time, there were complaints that the game was glitchy and had stopped working. At one point, Google even admitted to technical issues: ““Swifties, the vault is jammed! But don’t worry, there are no blank spaces inside. We’re in our fix-it era and will be out of the woods soon.” While the Swifties have spent the week learning the rules of football, there is no doubt, that this is Taylor’s world, and we are just living in it.

Data Privacy: H&R Block, Google and Meta are being charged with illegally scraping users’ tax data and using that data for targeting advertising. H&R Block installed trackers on its site (through its advertising analytics), and then shared this data with tech companies. The lawsuit refers to these trackers as “spy cams” which would then allegedly scan tax documents and reveal a variety of personal tax information, including a filer’s name, filing status, federal taxes owed, address, and number of dependents. This data was in turn used to train AI algorithms. The IRS has strict data privacy protections and the main plaintiff is from California, a state with strict privacy protections as well. This suit could be an interesting challenge to Meta and Google’s advertising business, but if you’ve used H&R check your class action status.

Celebrity AI: Meta announced several updates to its AI platform this week including new Ray-ban smart glasses, mixed reality headset, and an AI chatbot “powered” by celebrities. MetaAI has partnered with over 2 dozen celebrities (Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Naomi Osaka, and Mr Beast, for instance) to create a variety of chatbots with unique personalities. For instance, if you talk to Dwayne Wade’s likeness, you’ll be getting a “motivational ironman triathlete,” while Snoop Dogg is the Dungeon Master, a bot for roleplaying adventure games. What trouble could we possibly get into?

AI Microscope: Google and the Department of Defense have teamed up to create and AI-powered microscope. The scope, or Augmented Reality Microscope, will be used to help doctors spot and identify cancer. The goal is not to replace pathologists but to reinforce their diagnoses when they are in need of a second opinion. The AI is able to outline where the cancer is located and determine how bad it is, by generating a heat map. The ARM is still undergoing testing and working out the kinks, but the hope is that it will be made available commercially in the near future.

Visionary Tech: While a lot of news this week was about the fact that ChatGPT can now see, hear and talk, one app is taking this functionality further for the use of the blind. Be My AI (from the maker of Be My Eyes) rolled out a visual recognition app for accessibility. “Be My AI is perfect for all those circumstances when you want a quick solution or you don’t feel like talking to another person to get visual assistance.” If you’d like to get more insight into the visually impaired, have a listen to the Talk Description to Me podcast, where the hosts describe the visuals of current events and culture in vivid detail.

Bennu phones home: NASA has retrieved samples from the asteroid Bennu and safely brought them home to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx mission launched in 2016, studied the asteroid for 2 years, then used a robotic arm to take a 245g sample of material, and flew 1.2BN miles back to drop off its sample in protected air space in Utah. The sample will be used to investigate how the solar system was formed, and potentially how organic materials might have landed on Earth. OSIRIS isn’t done, however. It is traveling around Venus trying to catch up with another asteroid for study in the year 2029.

Tour our Convenience Overlords: Are your kids asking for a trip to Disney, but it’s just too expensive or too far away? Why not take them on a tour of an Amazon Fulfillment Center. Yes, Amazon offers “free public warehouse tours at select locations across the world.” Feeling like you’d rather stay away from the robots and loud noises, no worries, you can take video or virtual tour too. (Guess we’ll have a leg up on our next job interview when AI takes our job.)

Culture

Blank Canvases: Have you every gone to a modern art museum and stared at a canvas and wondered “I can do that” or “my child can do that” or “why is that art?” Well, a Danish museum commissioned and installed two canvases from the artist Jens Hanning that were titled Take the Money and Run and were admittedly completely blank. The artist was intending to make a statement on the arbitrary value of art (depending on the context). In the end, the artist was ordered by a court to pay the museum back approximately $70K.

Tattoo Rewrite: If you’ve acquired some body art that reminds you of an ex, and you’ve been waiting for an excuse to change the artwork, Tinder is partnering with London’s Sixty Ink to open its first tattoo parlor, called Ink Twice. The parlor is specially created to turn “a tattoo that makes you cringe” into one with new meaning. Tinder also launched a $6k a year VIP membership that lets you DM someone you haven’t matched with. Did they say cringe?

Your next concert: While we all might be scarred from having U2’s album placed on our iPhones without consent, you might want to rush to buy your tickets for U2’s Vegas residency, even if you don’t care for the music. U2 has taken up residency in The Sphere, and the venue looks incredible — even the “cheap” seats have an amazing view. Or rather whoever was in charge of the animations should be paid more than Bono.

Bad Remix: Got an earworm stuck in your head? Well, head on over to There I Ruined It, where Dustin Ballard remixes and mashes beloved songs in an attempt to ruin them, and your earworm will be replaced with a hearty laugh. His latest mashup: Eminem set to the Super Mario theme song.

Anti-consumerism: In need of a gift for the friend who has everything? Why not buy them the Nothing Subscription. The $8 per month subscription service provides a certificate that proclaims that you are subscriber, and that is about it. The service is an attempt to get consumers to reflect on everything they already have in their life, and if not, the money does go to charity.

Evolution of Language: We are just learning to understand what “rizz” means (charisma), and now we have a new phrase to contend with. Apparently, there is a new trend of using “whom of which” rather than just “whom” to make your syntax sound more formal. The trend was studied by an MIT professor, and while it is colloquial, it is governed by specific laws. We’ll now fret about our FOBO (fear of being obsolete), while we quickly study Merriam Webster’s 690 new words recently added to the dictionary.

Vietnamese Coffee Ritual: The Vietnamese coffee culture is coming to Los Angeles: Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe (a 30-year old brand from Little Saigon) is opening its first US store. The legendary cafe has been operating four factories and 110 stores in Vietnam, and will use 100% Vietnamese-grown Robusta and Arabica beans at its LA-based cafe. Vietnamese coffee is more than just a drink, it is a ritual: “it’s more about sitting down, enjoying each other’s company, and building connections with people.” We recommend the iced, egg coffee.

Wikiracing: We’ve played Six Degrees of Separation, but have you ever tried to get between two obscure wikipedia articles with the fewest amount of clicks? No, we haven’t either, but there is an international competition for it called Wikiracing. While we suspect this sport might be reserved for Wikipedia editors or late night college dorm rooms, the participants claimed that this year’s event had the feeling of “F1 Grand Prix energy.”

Storm Chaser: Do you have a fear of flying or a fear of turbulence? If seeing storm clouds from a new, beautiful perspective might reduce your anxiety, check out the photos of Santiago Borja, who is an airline pilot and takes photos of storm clouds from the cockpit of his 767.

Inconceivable: The Princess Bride turned 30 last week. ifykyk

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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