Together with
Post-concert amnesia. Have you ever experienced an event so out-of-body that you forget all about it once the house lights come on? Us neither. But apparently, that’s what some Taylor Swift fans have been experiencing following her Eras shows. According to experts, the phenomenon isn’t anything serious, though. It’s just how fans “encode some aspects of the event in memory, and not others." Time really does fly when you’re having fun.
In other news… Kids pick on Snap’s AI companion, “Europecore” takes over the US, and colleges experiment with oral exams.
Top Trends
YouTube → The Righteous Gemstones
Twitter → Vin Diesel
Google → Oppenheimer
Reddit → Billy Joel
TikTok → “If We Ever Broke Up” - Mae Stephens
Spotify → “The Narcissist” - Blur
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Teens are bullying Snapchat’s chatbot
The Future. Turns out it’s not the parents who should be afraid of AI’s effect on their kids, but Snapchat that should be afraid of kids’ effect on their AI. Young users are bullying Snap’s new “My AI” feature for bloodsport… which may be a great reminder that if your most influential user base is openly mocking a new feature, it’s best not to double down on it.
Punched in the AI
Snapchat users are abusing the platform’s new My AI.
The new TikTok trend is sharing videos of people “gaslighting, degrading, and emotionally tormenting” My AI, per TechCrunch.
That includes users making the AI seem to fall in love with them, convincing it to give them a recipe for cooking their cat, and forcing it to talk about its mother (no, AI doesn’t have a mom).
The whole thing usually starts by trying to get My AI to solve a minor conflict… and then quickly ramping up the absurdity.
The trend is meant to show how easy it is to skirt around My AI’s adherence to Snapchat’s trust and safety guidelines — with enough prodding, victory can be achieved.
But for those who get caught pushing the chatbot beyond its boundaries/limitations, My AI has enough self-awareness (or the programmers do) to end the conversation and say, “Sorry, we’re not speaking right now.”
Kids can be so cruel.
FASHION
Wearing your way to a European vacation. // Illustration by Kate Walker
American fashion goes “Europecore”
The Future. The new fashion trend taking over those “watch me put together my outfit” videos on TikTok and Instagram is dressing like you’re on a Mediterranean vacation even though you’re still in… say… Virginia. “Europecore” has nothing to do with how people actually dress in countries like Italy or France. Still, the trend may be simply a symptom of young people feeling like they just need to escape from all the current stresses in America.
Transatlantic fit
Even our fashion is itching for a vacation…
According to Nylon, the big fashion trend for the summer is “Europecore” — “the hyper-feminine romanticization of your wardrobe, with extra lace, frills, pearls, and silk pieces.”
It’s essentially meant to mimic the feeling of being on a European vacation — midnight in Paris, a beach in Italy — without actually being able to afford to go to those places.
Even though the wardrobe may not reflect what Europeans wear regularly, it’s more so about the ideal of what they wear — it’s escapism.
While French and Italian designers have always been at the forefront of luxury fashion, everyone from Urban Outfitters to LA-based brand Miaou is getting in on the inspiration.
And for those Gen Zers really in the know, they’re on the hunt for the vintage looks of Roberto Cavalli and Jean Paul Gaultier. Some things are always in style.
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MUSIC
Get ready to go up front.
In the age of AI, colleges return to oral exams
The Future. Due to a serious uptick in cheating, professors are bringing back the oral exam as a way to test how much students have actually learned. The return to the old-school way of testing may be a key factor in making sure that universities are giving diplomas to students who have earned them — you know, a major part of ensuring that they hold value.
ChatIRL
Looks like universities are taking some pointers from the ancient Greeks.
The University of California San Diego has been piloting oral exams across the campus — over 7,000 exams to date.
They typically last 10-15 minutes, consist of several questions, and then follow-up questions on how students came to formulate their answers.
That style puts the onus on critical thinking and not simple memorization or regurgitation — a concept that is actually motivating students and helping raise grades.
It also discourages cheating, which has become rampant in the era of online learning and ChatGPT.
The best aspect of oral exams is that they better mimic real-world scenarios, such as job interviews, presentations, and anything else that requires you to speak up on the spot.
Talk about education getting analog.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global are teeing up a sale of British production powerhouse All3Media (1917, The Traitors) for $1.2 billion. Read more → deadline
Latin music continues dominating the globe, with a fresh crop of Mexican musicians like Peso Pluma, Natanael Gano, and Grupo Frontera racking up millions of Spotify streams and YouTube views. Read more → bloomberg
Fashion & E-Commerce
Nike’s virtual shoes from its .SWOOSH platform will soon appear in games from EA Sports, such as EA FC. Read more → theverge
Capital One has scooped up concierge app Velocity Black that helps high-net-worth individuals find things like swimming with sperm whales and ski safaris. Read more → bloomberg
eBay has unboxed a streetwear authentication service, Authenticity Guarantee, to fight back against the sale of counterfeit fits. Read more → hypebeast
Tech, Web3, & AI
Twitter has taken a nose dive and is now worth only a third of what Elon Musk bought it for, says Fidelity (which helped finance Musk’s purchase of Twitter). Read more → wsj
If the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, every new car in the US will be required to have an automatic emergency braking system. Read more → techcrunch
Barely a week after the National Eating Disorders Association replaced the human manning its crisis hotline with a chatbot named Tessa, it’s been switched off for advising people to cut calories. Read more → wsj
Creator Economy
Emma Chamberlain is brewing up her coffee empire, Chamberlain Coffee, with a new line of canned, ready-to-drink beverages, another $7 million in funding, and shelf space at Walmart and Sprouts. Read more → techcrunch
Epic announced it will start doling out payments to creators for how long people play on their islands — a new metric called “time played.” Read more → theverge
Storytelling platform Wattpad is rewriting its creator program to make it easier for authors to apply and qualify to make money. Read more → techcrunch
Future Forecast
If your team is out of the NBA Finals, enter this ticket giveaway from The GIST for something to look forward to on July 29th and July 31st.
Supercharge your career like a real Tom Wambsgans with CareerAddict.
Meow Wolf comes to H-town in 2024.
Train your pallet like a pro with this whiskey subscription.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell. Forecast by Layne Button.
Editing by Nick Comney & Publishing by Sara Kitnick.