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What's Appening: Musk X UK, Artists vs AI, Crowdstrike Award, Humane AI Pin, T2E Gaming
Newsletter
August 13, 2024
MUSK CONTINUES TO FANS THE FLAMES
👀 TLDR:
In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the growing outrage over Elon Musk’s stewardship of X. Elsewhere, artists are taking Stability AI to court, Apple is juicing its app fees, and Crowdstrike gets an Epic Fail Award. You’ll learn how designers are using Gen-AI to expand their illustrations, and as usual, our weekly recs will keep you very demure, very mindful. 😉
Our Top Take 🎬
🔥X – Musk in Spotlight Amid Riots and EU Legal Action
Oh, Elon, where did it all go wrong? Once a hero for techies with SpaceX and Tesla, Musk's polarizing persona hit new heights last week. As anti-immigration protests turned violent in the UK last week, Musk has been accused of fanning the flames. His “Civil war is inevitable” tweet that directly promoted anti-immigrant opinion got 9.9M views. It’s not just his words that have enraged Prime Minister Keir Starmer (and many others), but the nature of the platform — X’s recently updated algorithm is said to be playing a major role in amplifying violent rhetoric. Meanwhile, he’s making more enemies across the globe: Eight EU countries recently filed privacy complaints against X for illegal data use, while X is now suing advertisers for boycotting the platform. #XtremePivot Read more here.
🗣️ Poll: Has Elon Musk Gone Too Far? |
📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance
As AI developers, we try to practice what we preach. From rewriting policies to writing code, AI has changed almost everything inside our business as well as our apps. This week, our Lead Designer, Kieran Holden has been using Adobe Illustrator’s text-to-vector feature to speed through background graphics for “Footsteps with Jesus,” an app we’re launching in October, and my Goodness, it really works. 🤩 We recommend you try it out, or ask us for help. |  |
🦾 GPT of the WeekSlow Carb Companion is another one of those GPTs that are very specific, and very useful, especially after enjoying vacation a little too much 🍰🍹. Based on Tim Ferris’ “Four Hour Body,” this GPT helps you stay true to the plan, if you’re so inclined. | 📲 App of the WeekSaturn Calendar App is where social networking and study schedules collide. Targeting college students and high schoolers, the app, backed by the guru of Gen Z apps, Nikita Bier, just rocketed to the top of the App Store (also on Android). |
🧐 Stat of the Week: 43%
📈📉 Google – Generative AI Report Shows Early Adopters' Benefits
Surprise-surprise! Generative AI tools boost revenue, customer service, security, and productivity. 43% of businesses saw increased productivity, with 20% doubling it. 39% reported business growth, with AI improving leads and new customer acquisitions. Want to make AI work for your business? Book a free AI workshop. #AIWorks Read more here.
🗞️ Other Stories
👩⚖️ Artists AI Lawsuit Can Proceed. A judge has given the green light for artists to sue gen-AI companies like Stability, which they accuse of stealing their work to train models. Full deets here. 🏆 Crowdstrike President’s PR After Outage. Micheal Sentonas personally accepted a Razzie-type award for “Most Epic Fail” at DEF CON 2024. All is forgiven then, right? More here. 🍏 Apple Juices Its Fees. Apple’s endless battle with the EU has seen it introducing a new fee structure – charging developers up to 20% to link to external payment options. Story here. | 🔏 OpenAI Testing Says ‘Probably’ Nothing to Worry About. A safety test for GPT-4o has proclaimed the AI model has a medium risk in areas like cybersecurity and biological threats. Cool. More here. 📉 More Bad News for Humane. Sales of the wearable Humane AI Pin have only generated $9 million so far, and the rate of customer returns is outpacing those sales. Ouch. Full story here. 🎥 TikTok Takes On the Messenger Boys. TikTok added a new feature for group messages for up to 32 people. A challenge to WhatsApp and Apple Messages? More on this here. |
🕸️ What’s d’Appening
🎮🪙 Web3 – T2E Supplants P2E as the New Game in Town
A few years back, the concept of play-to-earn (P2E) was the hottest topic in web3. We were told that it would be the future of gaming, rewarding gamers with crypto just for playing games. Then P2E kind of disappeared. This summer, though, the new trend in web3 gaming is called tap-to-earn (T2E). The difference is not subtle: T2E games are repetitive and simplistic by nature, giving players what they want – crypto, not entertainment. One T2E platform, Hamster Kombat, has surpassed 200 million users; another, Yescoin, gained 26 million users in a month. Yet, whether you tap or play, the same questions arise about the underlying economic model. Sustainable? #T2EGames Read more here.
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