Coinbase’s Two-Pizza Pod

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Happy Tuesday, Future Party. Reading stories out of the Cannes Film Festival every year, it’s always shocking just how long the standing ovations last. Three films — Her Private Hell, Fjord, and Garance — each received 12-minute ovations. That’s a lot of standing, clapping, and pretending it’s not awkward after the first two minutes. Still, it beats the boos that used to be a regular part of the festival.

The federal jury in the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI principals Sam Altman and Greg Brockman over OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company was dismissed after the claims were found to fall outside the statute of limitations.

Why It Hits: A ruling in Musk’s favor could’ve unraveled OpenAI’s meteoric rise and crippled the company right before its blockbuster IPO. With Musk’s grievances out of the way for now (he plans to appeal, of course), OpenAI’s transformation from a nonprofit into a Big Tech behemoth is nearly complete.

Behind The Lawsuit: Once upon a time (2015), Elon Musk poured $38 million into a little AI lab called OpenAI, which wanted to build systems that benefit society and act as a charitable counterweight to Google’s DeepMind.

Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans.

Final Decision: While the trial ended in a whimper, there were plenty of fireworks along the way, including revelations about OpenAI’s chaotic early days and new details surrounding Altman’s brief firing in 2023. No one emerged entirely unscathed… but Altman still comes out the victor because, legally speaking, he was never found to be untrustworthy — despite carrying that reputation for quite some time.

Musk, of course, plans to appeal the decision… and OpenAI plans to pursue counterclaims accusing Musk of “abusing the legal process” through his lawsuit against the company, per Insider. So, the drama is far from over.

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Coinbase announced that it’s reorganizing its workforce into “pods,” where humans work alongside AI agents.

The Big Picture: The AI-powered employee reorganization is upon us, with companies such as Meta and Block laying off workers en masse in an effort to move faster and operate more nimbly. It’s still too early to tell whether these bets on a smaller workforce will lead to bigger returns, but the idea has gained enough traction to potentially become a trend beyond Silicon Valley.

Between The Pods: Coinbase is downsizing, per The WSJ.

Clock Out: Coinbase’s goal is for each of these pods to operate like a little startup capable of developing and shipping products in record time. Rob Witoff, head of platform at Coinbase, said a pod of three people is currently working on an AI-advisor project that would’ve previously required 10 to 15 employees.

Deepak Singh, a VP at Amazon Web Services, said Coinbase’s pod makeover fulfills Bill Gates’ idea of the “two-pizza team” — the notion that teams should be small enough to feed with just two boxes of pizza. With Coinbase saying it wants to shrink teams down to a single person, those pods may soon have a lot of leftovers.

The Future: Working at a tech company could start to feel a bit like being an entrepreneur-in-residence — essentially, a startup founder operating within a larger organization.

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68% of you voted I’ve never used dating apps in yesterday’s poll: How do you feel about swiping on dating apps?

“I’ve been married for 41 years, so no dating apps for me. We were together long before there was such a thing.”

“They became more popular after I met my partner. Happy I didn’t have to go through it, but kinda wish I got to experience it.”

“Met my long-term partner on Hinge. BEYOND relieved to never have to open one up again.”

“Met my husband on a dating app, but that was 22 years ago. :)”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🎥 Filmmaker Jordan Firstman’s debut feature, Club Kid, sold to A24 for $17 million out of the Cannes Film Festival.

💿 Album design firm Hipgnosis has been sold to Primary Wave for an undisclosed sum.

🎮 Sony is discontinuing sales of single-player PlayStation games for PC.

🚀 SpaceX’s latest iteration of its Starship rocket, the V3, could launch for a test flight as early as this week.

🤖 Pope Leo is set to release an official Church stance on AI next week and will be joined by Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah for the announcement.

🎓 Musical artist will.i.am is teaching a course on AI at Arizona State University.

👕 Bad Bunny has officially debuted his own clothing line, “Benito Antonio,” in a collab with ZARA.

🚗 Carvana is now moving into new-car sales, spooking traditional dealers.

👗 Shein is reportedly acquiring Everlane from L Catterton at a discount in a deal valued at around $100 million.