Instagram’s Oscars

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Happy Tuesday, Future Party. A new player has entered the war around OpenAI’s Sora — MrBeast. The top YouTuber posted on X: “When AI videos are just as good as normal videos, I wonder what that will do to YouTube and how it will impact the millions of creators currently making content for a living. Scary times.” If MrBeast is sweating AI’s impact on his business — and the broader digital creator ecosystem — no one’s immune from the entertainment vibe shift. If anything could unite digital creators and Hollywood alike, it might be the fight against generative AI.

Instagram is debuting an awards body for the creator economy — Instagram Rings.

The Big Picture: The creator economy is now a fully mature industry, competing with film, TV, music, and video games for cultural attention — and, in many ways, winning. So, it was only a matter of time before an official awards ceremony emerged to celebrate the talent involved… or at least give a boost to creators on the platform who’ve seen extra monetization opportunities disappear like an Insta Story.

Behind The Awards: Instagram has three billion monthly active users. The inaugural Rings awards will celebrate just 25 of them.

Final Tally: Winners will receive both physical and digital gifts — including a gold ring designed by Wales Bonner for both their finger and their profile picture, the ability to customize the background color of their profiles, and featured placement in a dedicated spotlight and feed within the app.

That last perk may be the biggest win of all, especially after marketing firm Kajabi found that brand deals on the app have shrunk 52% over the past year and Bank of America reported that sponsorships are now primarily focused on the biggest creators in the game.

Prediction: Mirroring the “Oscar effect,” expect lesser-known creators who score a Ring to see their profiles skyrocket in ways that could change their lives overnight.

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OpenAI announced that it’s rolling out the ability to use interactive, third-party apps within ChatGPT.

Why It Hits: OpenAI is taking another shot across the bow at Google with the ability to converse and activate tasks with other platforms — all within ChatGPT — essentially extending the premise of the prompt to any company that connects to the system.

Behind The Code: Figma, Coursera, Zillow, Expedia, DoorDash, Booking.com, Spotify, Canva, Instacart, Uber, and AllTrails have already created apps within ChatGPT — or will be rolling them out soon.

The Future: Any brand will be able to build ChatGPT-native apps using OpenAI’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) and new Apps SDK to connect their data sources to the AI system and develop their own apps. But TechCrunch expects some drama over how these apps are recommended by the chatbot — potentially pitting corporate rivals like DoorDash and Instacart, or Expedia and Booking.com, in a heated battle to gamify which prompts surface them  the most.

Projection: When OpenAI eventually releases its own device, the new ChatGPT apps feature will likely form the basis of the company’s unique OS.

95.7% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Do you typically keep condiments on hand at home?

“We usually just have ketchup, mustard, mayo, and hot sauce. Any other condiments in the fridge are leftovers from takeout orders.”

“Besides every conceivable kind of mustard, I’ve cornered the market on all sorts of aiolis, hot sauces, Asian condiments, chili onion crunch — plus all the obvious ones.”

“Condiments are the cherries on top of so many dishes! I always keep a few on hand because they can instantly transform a simple meal into something flavorful.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, 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.

🍿 Taylor Swift dominated the box office this weekend, pulling in $34 million with the single-weekend release of The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.

🎤 Hybe America has launched Hybe Label Services — a new venture to push the label’s artists into global markets.

💿 Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar’s “goosebumps” has gone 17x platinum, topping Drake’s “God’s Plan” as the highest-certified rap song.

🤖 OpenAI has struck a five-year deal with AMD to purchase six gigawatts of chips, potentially giving the AI firm a 10% stake in the chip giant.

📱 Verizon has named former PayPal boss Dan Schulman as its new CEO, replacing Hans Vestberg.

💰 Nineteen-year-old Dhravya Shah has received $2.6 million from execs at Meta, OpenAI, Google, and others for his AI-memory startup, Supermemory.

🏦 Comerica and Fifth Third are merging in a $10.9 billion deal to create the ninth-largest bank in the US.

👗 Gucci’s plan to have Demna’s first collection immediately available in stores after its first look in a branded short film has boosted sales.

👕 The Virgil Abloh Archive is collabing with the Paris Saint-Germain football franchise on a limited-edition shirt to support youth programs.