🦄 SVN: OpenAI Says "WDYM existential threats?"

Good day, party-people. Welcome back to Silly Valley News! Lets do this thang-thang.

This Week’s Piping 🔥⛺️ (Hot ‘Tent)

• OpenAI Disbands Team Focused on Existential AI Threats

• We’ve Reached Peak Wedding Season Of All Time

• Are Dumbphones Back?

• Amazon vs. Walmart

The Silly Valley

🤖 OpenAI Disbands Long-Term Risk Team To Ensure Future Robot Takeover. Last Tuesday, Jan Leike, who ran OpenAI’s team focused on existential threats resigned following the resignation of OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. For those who recall, Sutskever was one of the leaders who tried ousting Sam Altman back in November claiming that Altman focused too much on profit and not enough on the risks associated with AI. While you can argue that the move is more about inter-office politics, it comes right after the launch of Chat-GPT 4 which can mimic human emotions and flirt. In other words, be afraid. Be very afraid.

🚙 Lyft & Uber Trial Seen As Referendum On Gig Economy. The battle over ride-share driver employment classification has reached Massachusetts. Prosecutors argue the companies misclassification of independent contractors saved Uber and Lyft $266.4 million over the course of a decade. Uber and Lyft are still fighting a California law that reclassified drivers as employees and are threatening to leave Minneapolis over local wage requirements. Uber's defense warned that Massachusetts riders might face fewer rides and higher costs if prosecutors win meaning taxis have come full circle.

🧑‍🌾 California Forever CEO Sues Local Farmers. Jan Sramek, CEO of California Forever, wants to build a city on thousands of acres of Bay Area farmland. He’s spent years secretly buying up parcels of land until he was forced to explain his strategy after scrutiny from local media. In one case, a local farmer refused to sell and Sramek sued them for “price fixing.” While Sramek has invested $900M of his own money in this mission to solve the Bay Area housing crisis by building a walkable, energy-efficient city of 400,000 residents, he has to win a ballot measure to continue construction and by all accounts the locals can’t stand this guy.

Outside The Bubble

☎️ Dumbphones are Making a Comeback. What’s a dumbphone, you ask? A dumbphone is an app-less phone so you can avoid brain melting doomscrolling. DumbWireless saw a massive surge in year over year dumbphones sales along with other accessories like SIM cards and phone cases. While dumbphones aren’t exactly capturing huge marketshare, the increase in sales points to an uptick in people looking to ween themselves off their social media addiction as well as parents trying to regulate social media usage for their kids. Unfortunately though, dumbphones can’t follow @Corporate.bro...

💍 Have Weddings Peaked? The average cost of a wedding rose from $30K to $35K in 2023 as more than half of newlyweds took on debt to pay for their nuptials. While the wedding industry is raking in profits, 31% of newlyweds say they regret how much they spent. This has led to industry newcomers to start offering cheaper alternatives. Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, and Shein have launched wedding and bridal collections that include dresses and suits for less than $200. Or you could do what I did and stay married to the friggin game 🤙💸 

🛒 Did You Know 90% of Americans Shop at Walmart?! While Walmart’s market value topped $500B as shares rose 22% YTD, their decade-long tenure as the country’s #1 revenue producer could be ending soon. This past year, Walmart made $648B in annual revenue, but Amazon is hot on their heels earning $590B. More significantly, Amazon’s revenue grew 12% from the previous year compared to a 6% increase for Walmart. One issue that Walmart faces? Apparently 90% of the friggin country is already a Walmart customer so Amazon has more opportunity for growth. As of last year, only 50% of the country (or 167M people) are Amazon customers.

Sales Fact of the Week

Last Week’s Piping 🔥⛺️ (Hot ‘Tent)

What embarrassing your family on LinkedIn will teach you about B2B Sales… 🧵

That time I became boys with Matty McCoughnaghey…

corporate.bro

View more on Instagram

Resources