Together with
Northern lights. No, not those northern lights (we know some of you may still be recovering from 4/20), but the ones caused by large bursts of energy from the sun. Apparently, they’ve been spotted in some pretty unusual places lately — Iowa being one of them. If you’re lucky enough to experience this phenomenon firsthand, just know we’re living vicariously through you… and are super jealous.
In other news… Grimes embraces her AI likeness, tech billionaires chase the sun, and Twitter’s Blue overhaul sparks controversy.
Top Trends
YouTube → The Other Two
Twitter → The Northman
Google → James Corden
Reddit → Nicolas Cage
TikTok → “Slow Beat” - DJ Kampung
Spotify → “Sherry Darling” - Bruce Springsteen
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe
FRONT PAGE
All the Grimes // Illustration by Kate Walker
Grimes wants fans to deepfake her music
The Future. On the heels of Universal Music’s takedown of the fake Drake track “Heart on My Sleeve,” Grimes announced that she wants people to use AI generations of her voice in exchange for a cut of the royalties. While that may seem impossible in practice, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for Grimes to pull a Holly Herndon and build a software that creates generations for these random “collaborators.”
Programming royaltiesGrimes is embracing that her likeness will be co-opted for AI… and just wants to make sure she gets a piece of it.
Grimes tweeted, “I'll split 50% royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist I collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings.”
The artist didn’t elaborate on how this would work, but also noted that this arrangement could retroactively apply to AI-generated songs that have already been released and gone viral.
She said she’s happy to play the “guinea pig” to see if this gambit works and that she’s pushing for the open sourcing of art and an end to copyright (words that all labels and many artists probably don’t agree with).
Grimes has been interested in AI for a while. She teamed up with music startup Endel to generate a lullaby for her child, X Æ A-12 — which, as Forbes points out, includes the Elven spelling of AI.
Tech lords want to harness the power of fusion
The Future. A crop of billionaires wants to harness the power of the sun, investing sizable fortunes into the realization that consistent energy from nuclear fusion is only years away. It’s a big, risky bet, but considering that fusion produces almost limitless clean energy with minimal radioactivity, it could be the breakthrough that lets the world ditch fossil fuels once and for all.
No limitsAccording to the Fusion Industry Association, the industry has attracted over $5 billion in private funding — 75% of that since 2021.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has poured $375 million into Helion Energy. Peter Thiel is also an investor.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has invested in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout that hopes to build compact power plants.
Jeff Bezos has written checks for General Fusion, a Canadian startup.
What has kicked off all the activity? In August 2021, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory came close to achieving a “net gain” reaction, meaning that more power is created than lost when creating nuclear fusion. Sensing that it was only a matter of time until they succeeded, investors pounced.
The Lawrence Livermore scientists pulled it off in December of that year. Inevitable indeed.
TOGETHER WITH WANDER
Invest in vacation rentals with just a few clicks
With Wander.com, you can unlock access to vacation rental investing without the hassle and headache of doing it yourself.
Wander REIT is the first and only institutional-grade vacation rental investment product. That means investors get all the tax-advantaged benefits of a REIT in a new asset category: vacation home rentals.
Enjoy targeted 8% dividends and a 14% targeted total return with appreciation from hand-picked, stunning vacation homes — starting with a $2,500 minimum — without having to buy a property, change light bulbs, or deal with guests. And for a limited time, new REIT investors may get an opportunity to invest in Wander’s next round of funding.
Twitter’s new blue checks court controversy
The Future. It’s possible that Elon Musk’s rule atop Twitter — and the many unpopular changes he has implemented —has turned the company so toxic that paying for a blue check is a badge of dishonor. The whole fiasco may become a textbook case of a CEO’s ability to personally damage a brand’s offerings.
Verified problemElon Musk’s overhaul of its verified checkmark program is not going as planned.
Despite legacy blue checks being removed over the weekend, many celebrities with over a million followers (Stephen King, LeBron James) and some deceased ones (Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant) still had theirs despite not paying for a Twitter Blue subscription.
Turns out that Musk decided to personally pay for some of the subscriptions — a decision that angered the famous accounts and ticked off those that did for it.
Unfortunately, this means that Musk has hurt his reputation enough in the past year to make paying $8 for Blue uncool. For many, not paying and letting your check disappear (which, according to the platform’s API, is exactly what most legacy blue checks have done) has become a source of pride.
If Musk’s goal was truly to turn around Twitter’s business fortunes, then things are really not going well.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Gower Street Analytics revised its global box office forecast, increasing it from $29 billion to $32 billion — a 23% improvement from last year. Hooray, cinema! Read more → deadline
Toymaking rivals Mattel and Hasbro have called a truce to partner on co-branded toys to support movies based on their properties, such as Barbie and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Read more → thr
Marvel Comics’ Comixology app is closing its pages in June, but readers can transfer over their purchases to the Marvel Unlimited app. Read more → engadget
Fashion & E-Commerce
The market cap of LVMH, the conglomerate behind Louis Vuitton and Hennessy, surges past $500 billion — a first for a European company. Read more → bloomberg
Nike-owned RTFKT is dropping its much-hyped AF1s as actual, physical sneakers… if you have the NFT needed to purchase them. Read more → highsnobiety
Luxury brands are getting into homeware — sofas, candles, rugs, lamps, etc. — as a way to boost revenue and attract new customers. Read more → businessoffashion
Tech, Web 3, & AI
AI-generative startup Runway releases an app that lets users transform any video with a text, image, or video prompt. Read more → theverge
Apple’s much-anticipated mixed-reality headset is rumored to include several iPad applications and will have a focus on gaming, prompting a battle with Meta. Read more → hypebeast
Air New Zealand and Qantas are preparing to rollout 20-hour-long flights — the longest passenger flights yet — by using AI to determine the most fuel-efficient flight paths. Read more → bloomberg
Creator Economy
After rolling out worldwide, Snapchat’s “My AI” feature fails to impress users, who aren’t pleased that they can’t opt out of it. Read more → techcrunch
CapCut blows up on the app charts after including a template of Pedro Pascal eating a PB&J sandwich goes viral. Read more → theinformation
Rooster Teeth’s Digital Creators Program is back for a second year, giving participants three months of mentorship and access to execs from Warner Bros. Discovery. Read more → tubefilter
TOGETHER WITH GEEKOUT
Meet THE newsletter for social media managers and creators
DON'T spend hours trying to keep up with the latest social media…
Social media super-geek, Matt Navarra, will do it for you — for FREE!
You’ll get one weekly email with everything you need to know.
See for yourself why over twenty thousand people love it.
Future Forecast
For those of you who like to stay a step ahead, here are a few things we’re excited about right now:
Learning data science with a solid community. DataCamp is like a summer camp where the counselors are the world’s top data scientists.
Getting Smrtr Daily with the essential newsletter for curious, future-thinking minds.
Cypher, the new mockumentary about Tierra Whack, premieres at Tribeca in a few weeks.
Quelle langue voulez-vous parler? If you don’t know what that means, try Babbel and brush up on your language skills before booking your summer travel.
Like what you see? Subscribe Now or Partner With Us
Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.