April 20 2023 - AI Drake vs. Real Drake

👋Happy Thursday everyone.

It's time we finally talk about AI Drake and infinite content. Or maybe as Holly Herndon put it– "as a society, do we care what Drake really feels, or is it enough to just hear a superficially intelligent rendering?".

Joe's Quick Take

• Layoff Roundup – Disney layoffs coming next week, they still need to shed upwards of 7,000 roles– will likely start next Monday lasting about a week. Possible shuttering of Instagram London fully and we're hearing R/GA had layoffs yesterday as well.
• Snap with 3 notable pieces of news: 1 - Upping creator revenue to compete with other platforms, 2 - release of a ChatGPT powered ChatBot allowing users to request content/engage in conversation, 3 - new AR mirror product which allows participating brands to embed 3D viewing, AR try-on and an online fit finder into their own apps or websites. Some big updates.
• Pinterest is still worth watching– they also feel well positioned to figure out social commerce given audience, content and intent. Some of the new product updates, design and experiences are quite nice (although not a ton of news on Shuffles their new app/collage tool)

All that and more below–

Disney is set to begin the second wave of layoffs, which will impact virtually every Disney entertainment entity, including TV networks and studios and film studios. The company is looking to reduce its workforce by about 7,000 employees in an effort to reach $5.5 billion in overall cost savings. The sweeping layoffs are expected to last from April 24 to April 27

Pinterest has appointed Sabrina Ellis, formerly of Google, as its chief product officer. Ellis will take over from Naveen Gavini, Pinterest's current senior vice president of product, in May and will lead the company's product management and design teams. The platform's aim is to make everything on Pinterest shoppable, and Ellis will be tasked with further integrating Pinterest's shopping experience into the home feed and search function.

US foreclosure filings increased by 22% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, and repossessions hit a three-year high, according to data from analytics company ATTOM. This trend has been happening for 23 consecutive months after a federal moratorium was lifted. Rising unemployment rates, foreclosures making their way through the pipeline, and other ongoing economic challenges have contributed to the trend. Illinois, Delaware, and New Jersey are currently undergoing the highest foreclosure rates.

Meta's C4 dataset, used to train large language models such as ChatGPT, includes text from right-wing and white supremacist sites, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The dataset also includes text from sites promoting conspiracies, porn, and hate content, among others. In addition, the model took data from half a million personal blogs and content from sites like Medium, Blogspot, WordPress, Kickstarter, Etsy and Patreon– scraping the text and style of people promoting their work online. Two of the largest scraped sites included voter registration databases for Colorado and Florida. Though both sites are technically public information, the data may have scraped private citizens’ data.

Snap has announced the launch of a new "Mirror" product, which will allow users to virtually try on clothes in retail stores. The product is aimed at increasing customer engagement and revenue for retailers. Snap is also expanding its partnership with Live Nation Entertainment and Coca-Cola, using its AR technology for interactive screens at 16 music festivals and soda machines respectively. The announcement comes as Snap faces challenges to its advertising business, which has resulted in a focus on its AR technology for growth potential.

Porto Rocha for Sundance

• Instagram, is reportedly planning to cut or relocate its London-based Instagram employees.
• Tesla reported a drop in profits for Q1 due to the company’s continued price cuts on its electric vehicles. The company's first quarter profits were $2.5 billion, down from $3.7 billion in the previous quarter. Tesla has seen increasing competition from traditional carmakers, such as General Motors, Ford, and Volkswagen, as they have started to sell electric cars that often undercut Tesla on price.

• Stability AI has launched its own LLM called StableLM. Stability hopes to compete with other AI models such as OpenAI's GPT-4, Meta's LLaMA, and Google's LaMDA. However,  initial tests of the model in chatbot form have been awkward, with the AI struggling to perform even rudimentary tasks like creating a recipe for a peanut butter jelly sandwich. The company aims to offer a practical and specialized AI performance, unlike its competitors who aim for all-knowing intelligence.
• Bomper Studio, a Welsh CGI and animation company, has successfully transitioned to a four-day workweek after a six-month trial. The studio remained closed every Friday during the trial, without reducing pay or hours, and worked together to create practices that promoted deep work. Since the change, the studio has not seen any decline in work quality, and staff reported feeling a better work-life balance that increased productivity and creativity. Bomper hopes to encourage other businesses to adopt this model and prioritize work-life balance.
• Snapchat is expanding its revenue-sharing program for creators posting on its stories feature to users with at least 50,000 followers, 25 million monthly views, and 10 story posts per month. The program was previously only available to top creators on the app and has already paid creators amounts ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. Snapchat is also releasing a free AI chatbot called "My AI," which uses GPT-powered AI technology and allows users to ask factual questions, request creative content, and engage in back-and-forth conversations. Users can add My AI to group chats and receive age-appropriate advice. These moves aim to compete with TikTok and YouTube for creators and their fans.
• Spotify has partnered with social media app BeReal to integrate the music streaming service as a feature on its platform. Users can listen to their favorite tracks through the BeReal app, share what they're listening to, and check out what their friends are listening to on their BeReal feed. BeReal's users have dropped by 61% in recent months, but the app continues to try and make a comeback.

• FilmLA has reported that regional filming activity has decreased significantly, with local on-location film production declining in the first quarter of 2023 by 24 percent compared to Q1 2022. Television production posted the largest quarterly decline among the major production categories, falling 35.8 percent. FilmLA President Paul Audley stated that "decisions about future content direction are on hold, pending the outcome of corporate restructuring actions and industry labor negotiations."
• Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a lawsuit that accuses the company of granting Cambridge Analytica and other third parties access to private user data. If you're a US Facebook user who had an active account between May 24th, 2007, and December 22nd, 2022, you may be eligible to receive a portion of the settlement. To make a claim, you can do so online or by mail, and you'll need to file by August 25th, 2023.
• Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, met with India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to discuss business and investment in India. Apple has been cutting its dependence on China and has leveraged the government's financial incentives to triple production to over $7 billion of iPhones in India in the fiscal year ending in March. India now accounts for around 7% of Apple's global iPhone output, and annual sales in the country have surged to $6 billion.

• McDonald's is testing two cold brew coffee options in Southern California, including a traditional black and marble option with syrup and cream. The move is part of the fast-food chain's push to compete with Starbucks in the coffee market, which CEO Chris Kempczinski identified as a significant growth opportunity. The chain's recent McCrispy rebranding for its chicken sandwich also reflects its focus on chicken as a growth area. McDonald's saw 12% global comparable-store sales growth in Q4 2022, compared to 5% growth for Starbucks.
• IBM has forecasted an increase in sales between 3% and 5% for 2023, meeting analysts' expectations  providing a positive signal on technology spending amid an uncertain economy. The company reported Q1 revenue of $14.3bn, almost unchanged from the previous year and slightly below analysts' estimates. Profit, was $1.36 per share, beating analysts' projections of $1.25 per share. IBM CEO, Arvind Krishna, said the company is seeing a slowdown in sales at the end of H1, but growth is expected to improve later in the year.

ghostwriter977

As always, send us feedback at: thebrandtrackers@gmail.com