Weather delay. Welcome back, Future Party people. You may have noticed we’ve been MIA the past few days, but we’re back and ready to scroll. We hope everyone had a great time celebrating the July 4th holiday and stayed dry… unlike this year’s hot dog eating contest. The popular summer spectacle was suspended yesterday due to severe storms. Luckily, the weather gods wanted to see a bunch of people eat hot dogs as much as we did, and the event resumed a few hours later.
In other news… AI-powered content spurs corporate adaptation, LinkedIn endorses skills-based hiring, and General Mills brings back the 90s.
Top Trends
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
You are what you share // Illustration by Kate Walker
Generative AI spins a new world wide web
The Future. As generative AI competes with the people and platforms we rely on for information and entertainment, it threatens to damage areas of the internet we find useful (product reviews, blogs, tutorials). If machine-generated content overrides human authorship, some websites could be pushed out of business, possibly leaving AI systems without any new content to repurpose.
How businesses are adapting
Some companies are benefiting from AI’s scalability, while others are reconsidering their platform openness in response to AI firms scraping their data.
Wikipedia is looking into how AI systems can write articles, despite its tendency to fabricate facts and sources.
Google is testing a new search feature where AI-generated summaries replace its 10 blue links, potentially reducing traffic to the original sources.
Reddit plans to increase charges to access its API, with CEO Steve Huffman telling NYT, “We don’t need to give all of [our] value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”
Stack Overflow intends to charge firms that scrape its data while building AI tools of its own.
What lies ahead
Though many site moderators say AI output will lower the quality of the internet in general, some execs say it’s worth the risk due to its raw abundance. But this abundance still relies on human beings to create the underlying data.
While generative AI spins a new web, the old web — and how we’ve traditionally accessed and consumed information online — may be laid to rest.
CULTURE
All the necessary qualifications // Illustration by Kate Walker
LinkedIn endorses skills-based hiring
The Future. The job-networking platform is wagering that employers will one day focus less on applicants’ degrees and previous job titles and more on their skills. Because LinkedIn is already a trailblazer, having revolutionized what’s “acceptable behavior” in the job market, it could break new ground by expanding economic opportunity for people who didn’t go to college.
The new currency
While 80% of employers believe they should hire based on skills, 50% say they’re still hiring college graduates because it feels less risky, according to a 2022 survey.
But the tight job market of the past two years has forced employers to cast a bigger net.
LinkedIn launched a skills-matching feature in February and reports 45% of recruiters now search for candidates using skills data.
License to skill
Employers have leaned heavily on college degrees in the past to verify social skills that are challenging to authenticate. Outside of technical skills, like coding, that are easy to test for, there’s no standard classification system for “soft skills,” like communication and teamwork, which can be just as valuable in a workplace.
Until we have certification for a wider range of skills, employers may just have to trust the applicant’s word on their job profile.
BUSINESS
So good, you just want more // Courtesy of General Mills
General Mills’ fruit brands enjoy a burst of 90s flavor
The Future. When General Mills hired the design agency Pearlfisher to rebrand Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit by the Foot, and Gushers, they got a throwback vibe: the bright colors and graphic aesthetic of the 90s (the snacks’ glory days). While nostalgic branding can appear dated, it can tap into positive emotions if done right — and bring back the consumers who grew up with the products.
Look back to look forward
Pearlfisher’s rebrand was guided by the tastes of young consumers today and by the team’s familiarity with the snacks as kids. Each colloquially dubbed “fruit brand” is marketed toward a different age group.
For Fruit Roll-Ups (middle schoolers), Pearlfisher rolled with the idea of a blank slate of creativity and playfulness and infused the brand’s existing white background with pops of colorful imagery.
With Fruit by the Foot (high schoolers), the agency ran with the concept of stressed-out students unwinding, which the “F” literally does in the new logo.
And for Gushers (later teens), Pearlfisher refined the classic “gushing” backdrop and added a black, hand-lettered logo — a drastic change for the brand.
Unlock the sweetness
After the pandemic, Hamish Campbell, Pearlfisher’s executive creative director, says people are now craving a freedom of expression seen in the 90s… and hoping a colorful rebrand will help them rediscover the deliciousness of simpler times.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Despite labor tensions here, US studios have secured a contract extension with Canadian actors, including a 5% wage increase. Read More → deadline
WBD and Mattel have joined forces with Save the Children (which connects girls around the world to educational resources) to launch a girls’ empowerment initiative ahead of the Barbie release. Read More → variety
Drake's new poetry book, Titles Ruin Everything, sold out online despite haters saying it consists of discarded IG captions. Read More → highsnobiety
Fashion & E-Commerce
H&M appears to be competing with Shein by offering the lowest prices possible: it slashed the cost of a crop top from $4.99 to $1.70. Read More → insider
Crocs has crowned Lil Nas X as its latest global ambassador, who also fronts the brand for its new collection of platform shoes. Read More → variety
Teen girls’ accessories retailer Claire’s has withdrawn its IPO application after it filed to go public in September 2021, about three years after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Read More → forbes
Tech, Web3, & AI
The Italian government has invited Elon Musk to fight Mark Zuckerberg at the Colosseum in Rome. You read that right. Read More → thewrap
Self-driving cars could one day make up 20% of Uber trips, said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Read More → fastcompany
YouTube is testing ways to limit ad blocker use: prompting users to disable it or buy a premium subscription after three videos. Read More → techcrunch
Creator Economy
As BuzzFeed focuses on profitability, the company is working with more external content creators on a contract basis to increase its short-form video output. Read More → digiday
Like long-time faves Apples To Apples and Cards Against Humanity, the new party game, The Audio Game, lets players use popular short-form videos as answers to silly questions. Read More → tubefilter
Since its March launch, TikTok’s STEM feed has increased viewership on STEM-related hashtags by more than 30%, and one in four viewers who visited the science hub returned to it the next day. Read More → tubefilter
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Today's email was brought to you by Kait Cunniff. Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Darline Salazar.