Records Broken
Or a race to bottom of the barrel
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Friends,
If you ever needed a climate alert this is it: Tuesday was world’s hottest day on record – breaking Monday’s record. Yah - it’s feeling hot and I know that I need to invest in the aircon or a heatpump. Other records: Threads Becomes Most Rapidly Downloaded App, Raising Twitter’s Ire. Instagram’s new app was downloaded more than 30 million times in 16 hours - and reached 1M users faster than ChatGPT. I’m not sure this is the Twitter alternative that people want, but let’s see. I subscribe to the hypothesis that the age of social is somewhat over…but I bet Zuckerberg is happy though on scaling a new channel. Elon isn’t and - and is threatening to sue Meta - and maybe their actual IRL cage fight might actually happen. Do we need another social channel in a world where we are increasingly unsocial in real life - where people lead parallel lives? Do we need something different - a way to actually be more social? And do we need a replica channel of users consuming content in a slightly different way. Last year, the metaverse was the solution for Facebook - so much so that they renamed themselves Meta. This year, I'm somehow guessing that they’ll rename to “Thre”. Threads was built in a short period of time - we will see some usage of it, but I don’t think it will be the channel that we need. And I don’t think it will solve the problems that Meta currently has in reinventing themselves post Privacy-gate. Is this the race to the bottom of the barrel of social media age - the one that started with Six Degrees and Hi-5 and MySpace and accelerated to steal our data? Time will tell.
Last weekend, we, as a family, undertook a mid-year review. It’s surprising how quickly this year has gone. (I blame the AI bubble for causing time to speed up!) What was also surprising was how behind I was in my reading goals. So, next week, I’ll be away on holiday, and will give you the list of books that I am hoping to read at some point. I’ll be reading one or two of them, poolside, in between sun-induced naps.
Wish you a wonderful Summer break - if you get one - that’s not too hot.
Stay Curious - and don’t forget to be amazing, - catch you proper in a couple of weeks.
PS. Found out recently about this AI edtech literacy company called Ello, leveraging AI to help kids to learn to read. Being a new parent these days is going to be tough - or not! Would love to hear about anyone who has used this.
PPS: Jen.ai from the block?:
Here are my recommendations for this week:
Now
News Without Motives: 1440 is the daily newsletter helping 2M+ people stay informed—it’s news without motives, edited to be unbiased as humanly possible. A five-minute read each morning, 100% free: Sign up now!
How to Cope With Anxiety About AI: Got AI-nxiety? Accept that AI is already here, prepare for new career prospects, go for a walk in the woods, and read up on regulation. Related: Google Isn’t Grad School and 5 Uses for ChatGPT that Aren’t Fan Fiction or Cheating at School + The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence
Life Lessons you wish you taught your kids sooner: It’s never too late. Related(ish): How to Prepare Your Digital Life for Your Death: Here's how to make things easier for your loved ones and designate legacy contacts on Google, Facebook, Apple, your password manager, and more.
Can a ‘robotherapist’ deliver as good a massage as a human? - Backhug’s 26 mechanical fingers offer personalised joint care. How much can it do for me in six weeks?
I was having trouble making friends as an adult. When I started having 'arranged friendships,' everything changed. - An issue that spawned from our digital society?
Stop Firing Your Friends: “Eventually, comes a minor affront, a misunderstanding, a misalignment—then another, and another. They’re all small things, of course, but like, she always does this. And then, all too often, comes what is known in therapy circles as the “giant block of text.””
Next
Trends.vc: Join 50,000+ founders and investors discovering new markets and ideas. Our readers are saving 2,000+ hours of market research with free 5-minute reports on AI, Crypto and more. Sign up now!
Fungi bacon and insect burgers: a guide to the proteins of the future - Humanity needs to eat less meat. Here are seven alternatives. Food is about to go cray. Food related: We Ate at Netflix’s New Restaurant—So You Don’t Have To
Job title of the future: metaverse lawyer - Madaline Zannes’s virtual offices come with breakout rooms, an art gallery… and a bar.
OpenAI is forming a new team to bring ‘superintelligent’ AI under control: OpenAI predicts that AI with intelligence exceeding that of humans could arrive within the decade. This AI — assuming it does, indeed, arrive eventually — won’t necessarily be benevolent, necessitating research into ways to control and restrict it
How Will the “Disruption” of Hollywood Play Out? A Framework for Thinking Through the Speed and Extent of Disruption Shows Hollywood’s Vulnerability
The Implications of Canada’s Online News Act: Last week, Canada passed the Online News Act, legislation that requires tech platforms to remunerate Canadian news outlets, and the platforms are not happy. In response, Google announced it will remove links to Canadian news outlets from its products. Meta also said it would remove Canadian news from Facebook and Instagram.
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