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Biden, Trump, or spam?
Did ya enjoy Leap Day? We only get one every four years — though it’s a lot more common than February 30th, which only happened that one time in 1712 in Sweden. Leap days occur in every year that’s divisible by four to round out the tiny inconsistencies created by our typical 365-day years. So, we hope you made the most of it.
Btw — thanks to all who gave us solid feedback on the template we’re trying out. Keep it coming!
In other news… advanced deepfakes are coming for the 2024 election, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominate theaters, and customers beef with Wendy’s new “surge pricing” model.
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE
Feb. 29, 2024
Today we get into McDonald's new anime-based promotion, how Reddit is going public, and how Florida passed a new bill trying to ban kids younger than 16 from social media.
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YT: ”End of Beginning” X: Braden Fiske G: Shohei R: Video games TT: “Show Me How” S: “Beautiful Things”
Wendy’s backed down from its planned “dynamic pricing” model when customers criticized the company for it, but the restaurant chain is still rolling out digital menu boards that would make future implementation of the model easier. Read More → cnet
Since Google’s Gemini AI came under fire for depicting white historical figures as people of color, it’s become clear that more capable AI will incite more intense political division about what it should do. Read More → wired
Major layoffs in the video game industry come as AAA titles become far costlier to make, and companies pay for over-expansion as high interest rates make public funding less available. Read More → fastcompany
Bitcoin is trading around $60,000 again after a long crypto drought now that exchange-traded funds are allowing new investors to dip their toes into the asset class of cryptocurrency. Read More → axios
Duolingo’s stock surged yesterday after a Q4 earnings call in which the company reported 44% year-over-year revenue growth and cited the success of its AI-powered subscription tier. Read More → fastcompany
What concert movies have you seen?
69.4% of you voted Yes! in yesterday’s poll: Do you own a home?
“We have lived in the same house that we built, for 38 years. We paid it off in 15 years, and we don’t plan on moving till we expire!”
“Saving to buy.”
“Bought in 2019 (thank goodness) and refinanced during the pandemic for a lower interest! We are on the lucky side.”
.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT AG1.
When it comes to vitamins, just K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple, Silly.
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.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The 2024 election has a deepfake problem
The Future. The recent revolution in generative AI has made convincing deepfakes cheap and easy to make. That’s a serious problem for the upcoming presidential election, because more sophisticated misinformation tools could have a larger impact on voters.
Better means worse
Misinformation has been used in the past two elections, but improved tech means more convincing lies.
The 2016 and 2020 elections saw misinformation spread over Facebook in the form of text- and image-based posts, but generative AI can create audio and even video with the advent of tools like OpenAI’s Sora.
This January, New Hampshire residents received a robocall that sounded like Joe Biden urging them not to vote in the presidential primary — and the call took only 20 minutes and $1 to make.
Such misinformation will likely run rampant on X now that Elon Musk has seriously curtailed the platform’s content moderation policies.
The wild west
Major lawsuits filed against OpenAI by big media players like The New York Times and Getty Images could shut the industry down completely one day. But such cases are notoriously slow, and in the meantime, improved deepfakes are already here.
Be careful — AI is now so good that you can’t believe your eyes.
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Listen: The Art of Accomplishment’s latest podcast features a conversation between executive coach Joe Hudson and nervous system expert Jonny Miller.
Read: Arc’teryx has vaulted to new heights as the king of gorpcore. GQ covers its explosive growth and digs into how it redefined “cool” as we know it.
Watch: Ali Abdaal released a three-part series on how to manage your time better when you have a full-time job.
.ENTERTAINMENT.
AMC’s glitter era // Illustration by Kait Cunniff with Midjourney
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé were the fuel behind AMC earnings
The Future. AMC Theatres recently blew Wall Street predictions out of the water, fueled primarily by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, whose concert movies brought in record-breaking audiences. The success marks a significant pivot for theaters and may pave the way for more musical artists who want to take to the big screen.
AMC meets Do-Re-Mi
The music industry is coming for Hollywood.
AMC Theatres beat Wall Street expectations with fourth-quarter revenue of $1.1 billion, up 11.5% from $990.9 million.
The chain said that its adjusted EBITDA almost tripled, and nearly all of it was directly because of showing Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé in the U.S. and internationally.
The rise of the concert movie
AMC Theatres’ pivot towards concert movies has not only mitigated current industry challenges (an overall down box office) but also positioned it for future growth.
This strategy offers valuable insights for the wider entertainment industry on diversification and underscores broader industry potential for integrating live entertainment with traditional cinema experiences. 2025 may be the year of rom-coms and concert movies.
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Today’s email was written by Luke Perrotta and Melody Song.
Edited by Boye Akolade. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.