🦄 SVN: Incels Host Miss AI Pageant

They say you shouldn’t tie all of your self-worth to your job performance, but I am currently riding a 4-game winning streak in fantasy baseball so yeah, I’m a motherfucking god-level genius. Anyway, how bout some news stories?

This Week’s Piping 🔥⛺️ (Hot ‘Tent)

• Miss AI Pageant Scary On Multiple Levels

• BeReal Sells for $500M Despite Zero Monetization

• 10 “Impossibly Unaffordable” Cities

• Inside Out 2 Brings Back Box Office Hopes

• And more juicy knowledge tidbits…

The Silly Valley

💸 OpenAI Doubles Revenue to $3.4B in the last 6 Months. Thanks to a new focus on selling enterprise services, OpenAI has doubled their revenue to $3.4B in just 6 months, according to a report by The Information. The report comes after they completed a tender offer that valued the company at $86B(!) and hired their first CFO, former CEO of Nextdoor Holdings, Sarah Friar. As the competition for AI services heats up, OpenAI has firmly established a lead for themselves vs. the likes of Google, Anthropic, and Elon’s new xAI. I think it’s officially safe to call 🧢 on that “capped-profit” model.

🤖 Incels Do Incel Things and Host First Ever AI Beauty Pageant. The world's first beauty pageant for virtual women is underway. The pageant dubbed “Miss AI,” features AI influencers judged on their appearance, technology, and social media influence. Hosted by Fanvue, the competition includes 10 finalists and offers a $5,000 prize to the winning developer, with additional PR services and AI mentorship for the top three. Hopefully Miss AI can answer why 1/5 of Americans can’t locate America on a world map. (Check out one of the contestants do a terrifying lip-syncing impression below)

ailyalou

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by 🤳 BeReal Sells for $500M. Despite 40 million active users and 50% of those using the app at least 6x per week, BeReal was not in great financial shape. During an all-hands meeting in March, employees were told they only had about 10 months of runway left. The company was acquired by Voodoo, a french mobile game and app unicorn that plans to monetize the platform with ads. CEO Alexandre Yazdi says they are “never going to break [BeReal’s] DNA of authenticity.” What better way to not break that than with advertisements in your feed.

🍎 This last one isn’t an article, but I mean… FINALLY!

Sales Tip of the Week

Outside the Bubble

🏠 Good Luck Living In These 10 “Impossibly Unaffordable” Cities. While home prices have skyrocketed nearly everywhere over the past two decades, a new report labels these 10 cities as “impossibly unaffordable” by comparing average incomes with average home prices. The ten cities are:

1. Hong Kong

2. Sydney

3. Vancouver

4. San Jose

5. Los Angeles

6. Honolulu

7. Melbourne

8. San Francisco/Adelaide

9. San Diego

10. Toronto

The three most affordable cities of the 94 surveyed worldwide are Rochester, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis so let’s just all agree to move to one of those cities, and then really quickly move back to where we want to live before prices go back up.

🧑‍🚀 4 Astronauts Experience Genetic Changes After 3 Days in Space. After spending three days in space, four astronauts experienced physical and mental changes such as cognitive declines, stressed immune systems, and even genetic alterations. Most of the changes reverted back to normal after returning to earth, but definitely throw a wrench in the “Let’s all move to Mars” camp. The extensive medical experiments the crew participated in showed telomere length changes and RNA alterations, similar to that of high-altitude climbers. Molecular changes in kidneys were also discovered. These changes might lead to kidney stone formation during longer missions. This isn’t new to astronauts, but the medical research conducted by Space Omics and Medical Atlas is and they’re looking for ways to counter the effects. So maybe the “Let’s all move to Mars” camp still has a shot. I wonder what mortgage rates are up there 🤔

🍿 Inside Out 2 Earns Big Win For Box Office. Starved for a box office win, ticket sales in the movie industry have been lagging behind its 2023 numbers. Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 delivered by outperforming expectations 60% and earning $155M domestically and $295M globally this weekend. It’s the largest opening weekend of the year beating Dune 2 ($82.5M) and the first since Barbie to break $100M. It’s also the 2nd largest animated debut of all-time after Incredibles 2 ($182.7M in 2018). The film cost $200M to produce and is on its way to be the first 2024 film to eclipse $1B. Let’s hope this leads to more investment in theatrical releases cough S.A.D. The Movie cough (pulls back muscle coughing f*** me).

Last Week’s Piping 🔥⛺️ (Hot ‘Tent)

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