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X marks the spot. Elon Musk is reportedly rebranding Twitter as…wait for it… “X Corp.” Apparently, Twitter now “no longer exists,” according to a filed legal document. At this rate, we may need to create a new section just to keep up with what’s going on with the bird app — or should we call it the X app?
In other news… Substack takes on Twitter, ByteDance debuts Lemon8, and the White House scrutinizes AI.
Top Trends
YouTube → Talk to Me
Twitter → Beau is Afraid
Google → The Marvels
Reddit → Sarah Paulson
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TECH
For the short stuff // Illustration by Kate Walker
Substack publishes a Twitter competitor
The Future. Substack is hatching a Twitter clone, dubbed Notes, to make it easier for writers to attract new subscribers all within the Substack ecosystem — no more farming for followers on Twitter. Understandably, Twitter isn’t happy with the added competition in the midst of its financial woes. But the rollout of Notes may be an existential necessity for Substack as it fights its own battle to make money.
The long and short of itSubstack wants to get a bit pithier.
Notes allows writers to share “posts, quotes, comments, images, and links” without having any character limit (although Substack hopes you keep them short).
Writers can include six photos or GIFs, but video isn’t yet supported.
Users can then like, reply, and “restack” (basically retweet) the notes, and they can subscribe to a writer’s substack directly from the post.
Notes will appear as an independent tab on the Substack website and app, with two separate feeds: “Home” (all the people you follow and the people they recommend) and “Subscribed” (just the people you follow).
Marketing migrationSubstack’s Notes feature is the main reason behind Twitter’s temporary suppression of Subtacks links and even talking about Substsack. Musk justified the restriction by saying that Substack was “trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone.” Substack CEO Chris Best said that was nonsense.
What’s happening here is more likely that Musk is not happy about Notes coming in hot, just as Twitter is going through some growing (shrinking?) pains. It’s common practice for writers to market their Substack newsletters on Twitter — the last thing he wants is to lose that engagement.
TECH
Another sugar rush // Illustration by Kate Walker
ByteDance to squeeze more American influence with Lemon8
The Future. ByteDance is gearing up for a full public launch of its lifestyle app, Lemon8, in the US. It’s somehow already popular. While that would typically be cause for celebration, ByteDance is keeping its distance, possibly demonstrating that it doesn’t want Lemon8 to befall the same potential fate as TikTok.
When life gives you lemons…In case you weren’t one of the creators invited to post a few months early (to fill up the app with content), you’re probably wondering what Lemon8 actually is.
The app is reportedly like a mix between Pinterest and Instagram, with two columns of content sitting side by side.
According to FastCompany, “the feed’s focus is images (often product photos) and text (typically tips or recommendations).”
Posts, which can be “blog-length,” typically center around fashion, fitness, cooking, and travel.
Unsurprisingly, it also uses the same addictive algorithm that powers TikTok.
Byte who?Lemon8 has actually been around since 2020, only available in Asia, where it already has over 5 million active monthly users. It quietly launched in the US and UK in February, mostly to get creators posting on the platform. But in that time, it’s become the App Store’s top lifestyle app and has racked up 650,000 users in the US just in the past week.
The outsized popularity likely has a lot to do with the fact that the app comes from TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance… although ByteDance is trying to keep that on the DL, with the whole TikTok-may-be-banned drama at play. Lemon8 is technically owned by Singapore-based firm Heliophilia, but regulatory filings show that that company is housed in TikTok’s local headquarters.
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AI
Generating some regulations
The White House may tie up ChatGPT in some regulations
The Future. The Biden administration is seeking out more information on AI to determine how it should potentially be regulated. With AI’s hypothetical ability to carry out crimes, spread misinformation, and create fake media, the technology may require government intervention before it's able to remake society faster than we can prepare for.
Watch your wordsThe White House has a few questions for chatbots.
The Commerce Department is formally asking for public comment on what “accountability measures” should be put in place for new AI systems.
One of the questions is whether AI should go through a certification process before they are released — no different from food or cars.
The comments will be accepted over the next 60 days, with answers being used to put together policy recommendations for the president.
The Commerce Department’s search into AI joins the Justice Department’s, the Federal Trade Commission’s, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s own looks into the exploding tech. The EU and China are doing the same.
With ChatGPT reaching 100 million users faster than any previous consumer app (per WSJ), everyone’s understandably worried about its scope and power.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Payments get a metaverse
Thanks to Visa, you no longer have to worry about whether your friend pays you back using Venmo, PayPal, or DailyPay. The credit card company is launching Visa+, a new “interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) payment offering” so that you can send money across services. And you won’t need a Visa card to do it — Visa just acts as the infrastructure between the services. It’s set to roll out later this year.
Read more → techcrunch
Google created a digital society with AI
Google and Stanford are playing god for research. The two created a digital world called Smallville, populating it with 25 avatars who were then prompted with AI to act like “believable humans,” giving each a unique backstory. The characters, dubbed “generative agents,” now “wake up, go to sleep, make breakfast, interact with each other, and attend each other’s parties.” Some have even “developed careers and political interests on their own.” Welcome to the beginnings of Westworld.
Read more → vice
Lofi Girl invites Lofi Boy to the stream
Jade, the face of the playlist of “lofi hip hop radio, beats to relax/study to” that has been nicknamed Lofi Girl, has a buddy — Lofi Boy. That’s not his official name, but he’s the face of the team’s new playlist, “synthwave radio, beats to chill/game to.” The new channel, consisting of tracks that feel straight out of a John Carpenter film, launched yesterday with a 24-hour long livestream of music. Considering how insanely popular lofi hip hop radio is, expect this new one to be on repeat for a long, long time.
Read more → engadget
Google Earth enters national parks
Up until now, Google could only get you as far as a trailhead, at best, when users were hitting up national parks all across the country. But thanks to an upcoming update to coincide with National Park Week, Google Maps will now give users the ability to map out any trail at national parks, the ability to download offline maps, trail stats, and photos of park highlights. The features will roll out to global national parks over the coming months as well. Time to go camping.
Read more → theverge
Even Twitter is getting into generative AI
At this rate, Twitter is going to be everything but the best place to share your thoughts. Despite signing that open letter calling for the AI industry to slow its roll for six months to consider its impact, CEO Elon Musk announced that the company is working on an AI feature. It0 reportedly purchased 10,000 graphics processing units to help with the needed computing power and has hired two AI engineers from Google’s DeepMind. We’ll see if this project ever comes to fruition.
Read more → insider
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Edited by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.