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It’s Thursday, FutureParty people. For those who don’t know, in the event that phone service and WiFi are down, both the iPhone and Google Pixel can connect to satellites to make emergency calls and texts. There are some specific instructions on how to accomplish this, but it could be a lifesaver for those currently dealing with Hurricane Milton.
DAILY TOP TRENDS
YouTube – It’s Florida, Man
X
(Twitter)– Agatha All AlongGoogle – Big Little Lies
Reddit – Keanu Reeves
Spotify – “Mountain out of a Molehill”
TikTokers Break The News For Gen Z
Courtesy of Harry Sisson, Joey Contino, & UnderTheDeskNews // Illustration by Kate Walker
News influencers are growing in popularity on TikTok as more people under 30 turn to the platform for a curated rundown of the biggest headlines.
The Big Headline: The creator economy is transforming every segment of media as people look for voices that they relate to or that feel trustworthy. Influencer-driven news-sharing could ensure that more people are engaged with current events… but heighten the risk of misinformation and bias.
Behind The Camera: Some “newsfluencers” are racking up more views on TikTok than established brands like CNN, MSNBC, and CBS.
Creators like 22-year-old NYU student Harry Sisson, 33-year-old Joey Contino, and V Spehar of UnderTheDeskNews have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.
CredoIQ found that one-fifth of the top 200 politically-focused TikTok accounts this summer were news influencers, and they went viral more often than legacy newsrooms (the newsrooms did have bigger reach, though).
And like anything that catches fire on social media, newsfluencers aren’t just sharing the news, they’re sharing their opinion about it — CredoIQ classified 80% of these personalities as partisan — only 38% of legacy media accounts were classified that way.
Closing Thoughts: Gallup found that Americans’ trust in mainstream media is at a record low — for both justified and unjustified reasons. Regardless, government officials and political candidates know that they need to court news influencers to reach the public. Creators were credentialed as official press during this year’s DNC. Similarly, the Trump campaign hosted creators at a nearby hotel during the last debate. If some of these newsfluencers’ popularity continues to rise, they could eventually be hired by the legacy newsrooms they disrupted.
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You Don’t Have To Attend Your Zoom Meetings Anymore
Clone colleagues // Illustration by Kate Walker
Zoom announced that it’ll allow users to create clips featuring AI avatars of themselves to deliver messages at meetings they can’t (or don’t want to) attend.
The Big Picture: Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has dreams of people sending AI avatars to take meetings for them while they do literally anything else. The new clip feature is the first step in making that science-fiction idea a reality.
Between The Frames: Zoom wants you to BYOD (bring your own deepfake) to the next all-hands meeting.
As part of the platform’s AI Companion add-on that launches next year, users can create lifelike avatars of themselves or choose preset avatars and voices (we’re not sure which is more unsettling).
To build your own, you’ll need to record a video that the system will transform into a lookalike and soundalike clone.
The avatar can then be used to record short clips (only a few minutes long, we’re assuming), which users can program by simply writing their messages.
The Future: While the AI avatars are meant to optimize meeting attendance, they also raise troubling questions about unauthorized deepfakes that could, in a way, hack companies. Zoom chief product officer Smita Hashim said the company is “handling it really carefully with advanced authentication, watermarking technology, and strict usage policies.” In the meantime, expect some meetings to get prioritized as “humans only” for the sake of security.
DEEP DIVES
Read: Variety scored a rare interview with French President Emmanuel Macron about the country’s new cultural initiatives and the threat of AI on society.
Listen: Bloomberg dives into Elon Musk’s ambitious robotaxi plan for Tesla, which he chose to develop over a cheaper EV for drivers.
Watch: Fast Company captured chef Kwame Onwuachi making original recipes inspired by different companies. A taste of the corporate life?
74.4% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Do you read magazines?
“I get Vogue and read it every month. It’s my little treat!”
“Time and Vanity Fair to name a few.”
“Specifically, Wired, Smithsonian, and Popular Science.”
“The American Rifleman. Official publication of the NRA.”
“I legit miss the days of flipping through glossy pages and the discovery associated with it. The nostalgia for that kind of unplugged, Instagram-ish experience is strong.”
“I worked for three magazines earlier in my career and still value the tear-sheets and page-flipping, plus the satisfaction of tossing it in the bin when I’m done.”
“All online. Maybe buy one per year at an airport. Tops.”
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.
QUICK HITS
→ Entertainment / Media
⚾ Baseball legend Derek Jeter is launching a production company that will focus on family-friendly docs and sports-related scripted movies and TV shows.
🤡 Battle of the Clowns: indie slasher Terrifier 3 is expected to beat Joker: Folie à Deux at the box office this weekend.
🤫 The upcoming A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead video game will include an optional microphone feature that will allow creatures to detect when a player makes a noise. Awesome.
→ Technology
🧑⚖️ The Justice Department is considering recommending a breakup of Google from its Android, Chrome, and Google Play store.
🎾 Wimbledon announced that AI will replace human line judges to call faults and outs starting in 2025.
🛰️ Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt launched Aetherflux, a new startup that will deploy satellites to capture solar energy in space.
→ Fashion / E-commerce
🤵🏾♂️ The 2025 Met Gala’s theme will be “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and has tapped A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, and LeBron James as co-chairs.
📦 Amazon is launching a Prime subscription for people 18- to 24-years-old that will include six months for free and a 50% discount onward.
👟 Bad Bunny and Lionel Messi have teamed up for a special adidas Gazelle Indoor.
Let us know how we are doing...
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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.