Together with
Mr. Entertainment. After weeks of speculation, the headliner for this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show has finally been revealed… and it’s the one and only Usher. Following his successful residency in Vegas (which ends in December), we’re not surprised the iconic entertainer will hit the stage, err, field, during February’s big game.
What do you think about the announcement: “Yeah!” or “Don’t Waste My Time?”
In other news… ChatGPT finds its voice, boomers keep network TV on the air, and Getty trains AI on its licensed images.
Top Trends
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Personable programming // Illustration by Kate Walker
ChatGPT gets a voice
The Future. OpenAI is bringing voice assistant capabilities to ChatGPT, giving the generative AI something of a technological personality in the way we anthropomorphize Siri or Alexa. With Apple and Amazon also working on generative AI tools, expect those voice assistants to get an LLM update… potentially making the use of AI a new normal.
Audible AI
ChatGPT can now answer your queries out loud.
ChatGPT’s new voice feature was developed using a new text-to-speech model that can create “human-like voices” from “a few seconds of sampled speech.”
OpenAI also said it teamed up with professional voice actors to create five default voices to choose from.
The feature will be available as an option for paying Plus and Enterprise subscribers in the next two weeks.
As a vote of confidence, Spotify is also slated as a launch partner, with the streamer announcing a new podcast feature that allows creators to share their voices so they can be translated into different languages in their own voice. That’s pretty wild. But the feature is still in a pilot phase with select creators like Dax Shepard and Monica Padman of Armchair Expert and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons.
But with great power comes great risk. ChatGPT’s voice feature could amp up AI-related scams to a whole new level — a threat OpenAI readily admits.
At the very least, it could make Yahoo’s ChatGPT-powered Fantasy Football draft recaps even more cutting.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Broadcastin’ for boomers // Illustration by Kate Walker
Boomers keep broadcast TV alive
The Future. The median audience for programming on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox is now over 60 — much older than what it was just a decade ago. But with TV executives noting the lack of proper tools for universally breaking down how those same shows have a young fanbase when they move to streaming, advertisers may not be properly valuing the universal appeal of broadcast shows. And with the cultural narrative focused on the migration to streaming, broadcast will likely age out with its audience.
In the Primetime of their lives
Broadcast is increasingly for the graying generation.
The median viewership age of most broadcast shows is now over 60, including The Voice (64.8), Grey’s Anatomy (64.1), and Young Sheldon (65+, the highest range that Nielsen labels).
That’s a major jump from nine years ago, when the median age was mid-40s to early 50s, with Brooklyn Nine-Nine even pulling in viewers with a median age of 39.
That shift has led to significant scheduling changes, like ABC moving up The Golden Bachelor (which centers on contestants in their 60s and 70s) from 10pm to 8pm so it could follow Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
It also changes the equation of what scripted shows are greenlit, such as NBC recently rebooting the original incarnation of Law & Order, starring 82-year-old Sam Waterston.
And with the strikes almost jeopardizing the fall TV schedule (filling it with reruns and reality TV), many analysts expect the broadcast audience to age up even more.
But there’s a wrinkle. While broadcast shows bring in an older audience, those same shows attract younger viewership when they hit streamers. Case in point: Abbott Elementary has a median viewership of 60.5 when it airs on ABC but much younger when it streams the next day on Hulu.
It’s not the content that’s older-skewing… it’s the medium.
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Rent like a landlord
For many of us, landlords are the people who take eight months to fix your leak but won’t waste a minute telling you rent’s late. But, hey, guess what? “Landlord” vibes don’t have to be so harsh.
Meet Roots. The real estate fund disrupting real estate stereotypes by giving their tenants a piece of the pie.
Here’s the cool little model:
You invest in the Roots fund (get started with as little as $100!)
Roots buys properties, fixes them up, and rents them out
Renters get invested in the fund for paying on time, taking care of the property, and being good neighbors
And it’s really working. The fund is up 36% since July 2021.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A new vision… only in Getty
Getty Images watermarks its own AI generator
The Future. After suing other AI companies for scraping its images, Getty Images has created its own generative AI tool. The system allegedly pays artists their fair share and protects users from copyright infringement. With Getty working on a feature that would allow artists to upload their works and create generations in their specific styles, the new movement in the stock photo industry may be artists mass-producing oeuvres through the power of the prompt.
Gettyfied
Generative AI by Getty Images is bringing the classic watermark to AI.
Developed in partnership with Nvidia, the tool is trained only on Getty’s immense library of licensed photos and illustrations.
So, members who use it (an additional cost on top of a typical subscription) have “full copyright indemnification” when they use the AI-generated works and have “perpetual, worldwide, and unlimited rights” to them.
That’s because Getty pays photographers and illustrators when they use their work to train its system and pays them royalties for their use — “a pro-rata share in respect of every file and a share based on traditional licensing revenue.”
The generated images won’t be added to the Getty Images or iStock content libraries, though.
Unlike other image-generating AI tools, Getty has barred its system from crafting images of “any real-world person.” Want to generate an image of Andy Warhol dancing in an art studio? Sorry, Getty doesn’t know him like that.
Clearly, the company doesn’t want to be at the center of a “Fashion Pope” controversy.
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Unlimited flights for $299?
YAS. (And yes, it’s all caps worthy.)
With Frontier’s GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly Pass, you can get 5+ months of unlimited flights for just $299! And no, you didn’t read that number wrong.
Anywhere Frontier flies, you can fly, too — both domestically and internationally. That includes the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
So, before you grab your sunglasses and pack your bags, grab your GoWild! pass!
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
With Q4 set to begin on October 1st for entertainment conglomerates, Wall Street is praising the (almost) conclusion of the WGA strike… but is eagerly awaiting a resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike before they let those stocks sing. Read more → thr
Music rights management firm BMI is looking to sell to private equity, with talks of a deal with New Mountain Capital — a move that has many songwriters and publishers nervous. Read more → billboard
Unity Technologies is resetting its controversial new business model after getting killed by video game developers on social media. Read more → theinformation
Fashion & E-Commerce
The hot new skincare trend is putting diamonds on your face. Read more → highsnobiety
For The Hundreds’ 20th anniversary, the fashion brand is spinning off its iconic Adam Bomb logo into its own sub-label. Read more → hypebeast
Uber Eats will start accepting food stamps as a form of payment for grocery delivery sometime next year. Read more → complex
Tech, Web3, & AI
NASA collected its first-ever sample of an asteroid from space, a seven-year, billion-mile journey for roughly a half pound of rock that could unlock the secrets of our universe’s origin. Read more → theverge
Amazon is stepping into the AI wars with a $4 billion investment in Anthropic. Read more → theinformation
With its Google partnership being spotlit in the search giant’s DOJ antitrust lawsuit, Apple is now allowing users to change search engines in iOS 17 more easily. Read more → bloomberg
Creator Economy
Car-enthusiast YouTube brand Donut Media has inked a deal with Zumiez to bring its branded merch to brick-and-mortar retail. Read more → tubefilter
Though most teens use iPhones, MrBeast is happy to be the annoying green bubble in the group text, thanks to a new Samsung partnership. Read more → theverge
Creator-tech company Afterparty has raised $5 million to create AI clones of influencers. Read more → tubefilter
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.