News from the Edge

Business

Hustling for Headlines: As the race to develop powerful AI large language models (LLMs) intensifies, internet publishers like Reddit, Vox, and other news organizations are finding a new revenue stream by licensing their vast troves of content to tech giants. These data deals, which can generate millions of dollars, are becoming increasingly vital for LLM vendors seeking to improve their AI's performance and outpace competitors. For publishers grappling with declining ad revenue, selling data could become a high-margin lifeline, potentially leading to ad-free environments and transforming internet's business model. While these deals provide a much-needed revenue stream, they also raise concerns about the future of traditional reporting and the role of newsrooms in an AI-driven media landscape. As publishers allocate more resources to creating and curating data for AI consumption, some fear that investigative journalism and local news coverage may suffer, further eroding public trust in media. Moreover, the shift towards data licensing raises ethical questions about user privacy, content ownership, and the potential for AI-generated news to spread misinformation, blurring the lines between fact and fiction in an already fragmented media ecosystem.

Summer Bummer: Fasten your seatbelts, travelers - this summer's flight plans are hitting some serious turbulence. US airlines are slashing seats from their June-through-August schedules, with the South bearing the brunt of the cuts. The culprits — Boeing's delivery delays, Airbus engine woes, and a good old-fashioned case of over-optimism. According to Bloomberg, carriers have reduced about 6.2 million seats from their summer schedule. The silver lining in this capacity crunch — ticket prices are stabilizing, offering a glimmer of hope for budget-conscious vacationers: Travel search engine Hopper Inc. estimates that the average domestic round-trip fare for the summer will slip to $305 from $324 last year, the first year-over-year decline since 2020. However, don’t wait too long for that vacation — Boeing and Airbus delays will continue to reduce fleet size through the back half of the year, just in time for your winter travel.

Carbon Cashout: Vermont is taking a stand against the fossil fuel industry with a first-of-its-kind law that demands companies pay for the consequences of their carbon emissions. Modeled after the EPA's superfund program, the "Climate Superfund Act" aims to alleviate the financial burden on taxpayers by making polluters contribute to the costs of recovering from and preparing for climate change-fueled weather disasters. Though the law is likely to face legal battles, environmentalists are celebrating this bold step in holding corporations accountable. As other states consider similar policies, Vermont's trailblazing legislation could set a precedent for tackling the costs of climate change.

Spotify’s Dubious Math: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently posted: “Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero…” Unfortunately, Ek seemingly forgot that i) good content isn’t free or free to create; ii) Spotify is a platform that hosts “content” and charges for it, and iii) creative work is not merely “content.” Needless to say, Ek’s post was not received kindly. The Future of Music Coalition responded, “It actually can still be expensive to make records, especially if you care about paying your collaborators fairly.” Ek effectively needs his assumption to be true for Spotify to prosper, especially in the age of AI content creation. The implication is clear: if creators won't accept pennies for their work, they'll be relegated to the dustbin of history. We tend to agree with Dada Drummer Almanach, “today, [creators] create content. Tomorrow, [we] expect to be paid for its use.” And we’ll send our Spotify subscription money elsewhere.

Prime Air Takes Flight: Just when you thought Amazon delivery drivers couldn’t clog up your neighborhood any further, the company has secured a crucial clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration for its Prime Air drones. This Beyond Visual Line of Sight approval allows pilots to operate drones remotely, even when they can't physically see them, greatly expanding the potential range of deliveries. Amazon's drones, currently limited to carrying five-pound packages, have undergone rigorous testing and demonstrations to prove their safety and navigational capabilities. While the certification currently only applies to an expanded delivery area around Amazon's Fulfillment Center in Texas, the company has ambitious plans to integrate drones into larger delivery networks and offer 30-minute-or-less package deliveries across wider areas by the end of the decade, and a goal of 500M annual drone deliveries by 2030.

Diamonds Lose Their Sparkle: De Beers, the world's leading diamond company, has decided to pull the plug on its six-year experiment selling lab-grown diamonds through its Lightbox brand. Surprisingly, De Beers's initial strategy was not to dominate the synthetic diamond market but rather to sabotage it from within. By selling its own lab-grown gems at a fraction of the price of its competitors, the company sought to undermine the value of synthetic diamonds and maintain the prestige of its natural ones. And it worked – perhaps a little too well. Today, lab-grown diamonds, virtually indistinguishable from their natural counterparts to the untrained eye, are selling at a staggering 90% discount compared to the real deal. While this may be a dream come true for budget-conscious couples looking to tie the knot, it's a nightmare for a company that built its empire on the premise of diamonds being a rare and precious commodity. With consumers increasingly prioritizing affordability and choice over tradition and exclusivity, one can't help but wonder if De Beers' decision to ditch the lab-grown game might prove to be a diamond-studded misstep in the long run.

Technology

Total Recall or Total Reveal: Microsoft is gearing up to launch Recall, an AI-powered feature that continuously screenshots users' activity on their PCs, as part of its new Copilot Plus computers debuting June 18th. Microsoft announced Recall with the intended benefits of allowing users to quickly retrieve anything they might have seen or done on their computer, leading to better productivity and improved organization. While the tech giant claims Recall data will remain encrypted and stored locally, cybersecurity experts have discovered that the feature stores information in a plain text database, potentially making it easy for attackers to steal sensitive data using malware. With Recall set to be enabled by default on Copilot Plus PCs, privacy advocates call it a "privacy nightmare," prompting the UK's Information Commissioner's Office to inquire about the feature. As the launch date approaches, all eyes are on Microsoft to address these security concerns before Recall becomes a hacker's best friend or it enters the tech dustbin alongside Clippy.

Google’s Gaffes: Google's new AI Overview feature, which uses large language models to synthesize search results into summary paragraphs, has produced a series of embarrassingly incorrect and incoherent outputs. (Telling users to put glue on their pizza, suggesting they eat rocks or gasoline can be used in recipes, for instance.) Rather than the plausible falsehoods often generated by chatbots, these errors arise from the AI model faithfully summarizing and combining wildly inappropriate source material, like an old joke on Reddit. This points to a fundamental misunderstanding by Google of its product's strengths, aka “Does Google know how Google works?” - providing a diverse array of results for users to contextualize and choose from, not definitive answers synthesized from a narrow slice of top results. Unfortunately, when AI Overview first launched, it was nearly impossible to turn it off and return to the old blue links pages. But Google seems to have noticed the backlash (maintaining that these errors are isolated incidents stemming from uncommon queries). The company has begun manually correcting erroneous responses and temporarily disabling problematic AI-generated summaries. When you are the world’s information source, we wonder if the $60M it paid Reddit for access to its content for training data was worth it.

Tailor-made: In a world-first, England’s NHS is fast-tracking thousands of cancer patients into groundbreaking trials for personalized cancer vaccines. These custom-built jabs, tailored to each patient's unique tumor, aim to hunt down and destroy any lingering cancer cells post-surgery, preventing the disease from staging a comeback. With dozens already enrolled and thousands more expected to join across 30 NHS sites, the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad is being hailed as a "landmark moment" and potential "gamechanger" in the fight against cancer. While still in early stages, experts are hopeful these bespoke bullets could be the key to permanently curing various forms of the disease. 

Galactic Record: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered the most distant galaxy ever observed, JADES-GS-z14-0, which existed 300 million years after the Big Bang. This cosmic record-breaker, and its runner-up JADES-GS-z14-1, are part of the JWST's mission to study the early universe during the cosmic dawn. JADES-GS-z14-0 is incredibly distant and surprisingly large and bright for its age, suggesting rapid and intense galaxy formation in the early universe. Another surprise was that the galaxy contained oxygen, which could indicate that at least one generation of stars had already formed and died in this early galaxy.

Culture

Block or Charge: Jennifer Lopez has abruptly canceled her highly anticipated "This Is Me ... Live" summer tour, leaving fans disappointed and speculating about the reasons behind the decision. The cancellation comes amidst the singer's recent projects, including her Netflix movie "Atlas" and her multimedia project "This Is Me ... Now." The tour seemed to be struggling with ticket sales. While Lopez cited the need to spend time with her family as the reason for the cancellation, the sudden announcement has only fueled further speculation about her personal life. We would point to the constant speculation about Bennifer (her marriage to Ben Affleck) heading to the trash heap of history. Or even mightier, the “newfound” dislike for the megastar for her lack of authenticity and diva attitude - we are all Sterling Howard at this point.

Unreal Deal: The newly opened Banksy Museum in SoHo is the latest in a series of unauthorized exhibitions cashing in on the enigmatic street artist's popularity. Don't expect to find any authentic Banksys here - the museum features 167 reproductions of his works, displayed in a faux street setting that's more theme park than art gallery. At $30 a pop for adults, it's a pricey proposition considering the real deal is available for free on the streets outside. While the museum's existence might be the kind of ironic statement Banksy himself would make about the commodification of his anti-establishment ethos, we aren’t so sure about the capitalist statement of paying up for fakes.

Whales Just Wanna Have Fun: Remember when killer whales were ramming luxury yachts, and we just assumed the Earth was fighting back? Well, scientists have finally come up with an actual excuse. The orcas’ destructive behavior is not driven by aggression or territory, but rather by a combination of free time, curiosity, and a natural inclination for play. The culprits are primarily juvenile and teenage male orcas, who have apparently adopted this boat-bumping fad. Since 2020, there have been a reported 673 interactions between marine animals and watercraft, with at least 4 sinkings. Sounds like someone needs a time out or a lesson on peer pressure.

Pee Wee’s Playhouse: If you’ve got $5M to spare, head out to the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA, and purchase Paul Reuben’s former estate (aka Pee Wee Herman). Not only are the views spectacular, but “Go ahead, scream your head off! We’re miles from where anyone can hear you!”

Abracadabra: Apologies for the language, but if you, like us, are huge fans of The Steve Miller Band and Eminem, Eminem’s new video has it ALL — including the return of 2002 Slim Shady recreating the Without Me video and the modern Eminem offending as many people as possible. Even Steve Miller posted a tribute to Eminem in honor of the sampling. Apparently, Slim Shady may be the one thing actually to bring Millennials and GenX together.

thanks for reading!

if someone sent this to you or you haven’t done so yet, please sign up below so you never miss an issue.

if you have any feedback or want to engage on any of the topics discussed, please feel free to reply to this email.

banner images created with Midjourney