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What’s up, Future Party people. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for — GPT-4 is officially here, and it’s already building websites from napkins, finding workarounds to CAPTCHAs, and more. Dig into the story below.
In other news… A24 sweeps the Oscars, the debut of GPT-4, and Rhett & Link launch a 24/7 channel.
Top Trends
YouTube → Mrs. Davis
Twitter → Quentin Tarantino
Google → Reddit
Reddit → John Wick: Chapter 4
TikTok → “Mother” - Meghan Trainor
Spotify → “I Was Not There” - The Antlers
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ENTERTAINMENT
Everything Everywhere All the Awards // Illustration by Kate Walker
A24’s underdog Oscar playbook
The Future. With Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Whale, indie studio A24 once again proved that it could triumph over the big boys by turning brilliant, oddball gems into the big winners of Hollywood’s biggest night — seven for EEAAO and two for The Whale. The success may demonstrate that not even jaded Academy voters are immune from the passion that A24 is able to drum up among its young, diehard fanbase.
Lay on the heartA24 worked hard to convince Hollywood that its unlikely Oscar contenders deserved the gold statues.
A24 leaned on the personal underdog stories and charisma of actors Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Brendan Fraser, and EEAAO filmmakers, Daniels.
Those were superpowers during award circuit Q&As, magazine profiles, and interacting with fans on social media, spearheaded by Cinetic Marketing and Divergent PR.
That strategy is especially amazing considering that EEAAO debuted at SXSW last March — not an Oscar launchpad by any means.
And A24 relied on craft guild screenings of EEAAO for enticing awards voters, with one rival studio exec telling THR that the movie’s fans “were so passionate that they were converting members who were not into it the first time they tried to watch it.”
Silent powerhouseThe care that A24 gave to these films ended up netting the studio nine wins (the most of any studio that night) and the rare distinction of being behind Best Picture, Director, and every Acting award in a single year — all on top of EEAAO being the studio’s biggest commercial hit yet. Not bad for a movie with hot dog fingers and “Raccacoonie.”
But you won’t see co-founders David Fenkel and Daniel Katz doing a public victory lap — they notoriously avoid press, letting the films speak for themselves. Maybe they’re just too busy plotting an expansion with a recent funding injection of $225 million from Stripes. Strike while the iron’s hot.
TECHNOLOGY
Behold the 4 // GIF by Kate Walker
GPT- 4 enters the chat
The Future. OpenAI has lifted the veil on its buzzy new AI system, GPT-4. It’s not the major leap that many were hoping for, but it allegedly improves everything that has made ChatGPT a sensation in the tech world. With rivals quickly popping up to take advantage of the sudden demand for all things AI, ChatGPT’s success may hinge on its ability to prove that it can be a powerful tool while also avoiding the pitfalls that have made it seem at turns hilarious and terrifying.
AI evolutionOpenAI is just getting started with ChatGPT.
Its new GPT-4 system can take both text and image prompts (though only respond via text), provide responses up to 25,000 words, and is allegedly more conversational.
It can also pass exams like the Uniform Bar Exam, LSAT, and SAT with flying colors (to the horror of educators everywhere).
The system is already powering the new Microsoft Bing and is set to be implemented in products like Stripe, Duolingo, and Khan Academy.
The model is available to the public as part of the paid subscription ChatGPT Plus, and will also be available as an API for developers to build on top of (here’s the waitlist).
All of that is not to say that GPT-4 is perfect. Far from it — it can still “hallucinate” wrong information and generate “violent and harmful text,” but to a lesser statistical degree.
Sounds almost human if you think about it.
Claude, the competitorBut there’s a little drama going on in the world of AI. Also released yesterday was “Claude” — the first chatbot from Anthropic AI, a startup founded by ex-OpenAI employees. It provides similar functions as ChatGPT, but Anthropic says that its training on the principles of “constitutional AI” makes it a safer option than its OpenAI rival.
Claude is already being used by Notion, Quora, and DuckDuckGo, which were among its testing partners. Additional organizations can now request to try out the chatbot, but pricing for the general public hasn’t been made available yet.
TOGETHER WITH RYSE
Is this PRE-IPO stock the Apple of window shades?
When it comes to global brand loyalty, not many come close to Apple. Their meticulously designed products inspire a truly unique feeling in their customers.
Companies that can replicate this feeling are poised to create an ecosystem that fosters substantial loyalty with their customers – which is why this smart home company is doing just that.
RYSE is bringing innovative tech into every home with the only solution that converts manual window shades to automated, smart shades. And their sleek designs mimic what you would see from a company like Apple.
With $7M in products sold, missing this investment opportunity would basically mean throwing shade at yourself. We think it’s poised to be the next Ring (acquired for $1.2B) or Nest (acquired for $3.2B) of the smart home industry.
ENTERTAINMENT
Rhett & Link launch a 24/7 channel
The Future. Popular YouTubers Rhett & Link are launching a FAST channel called Mythical 24/7 on Roku. If successful, it could usher in a new wave of ad-supported streaming TV channels dedicated to individual creators — the fulfillment of the grand ambitions of last decade’s multi-channel networks like Maker Studios and Fullscreen.
Never offlineRhett & Link want to make sure fans never turn off the TV.
Mythical 24/7 is a “TV-like, around-the-clock stream” on The Roku Channel of the creators’ various shows, archival content, specials, sketches, and music videos.
That includes Good Morning Mythical (which is reportedly the most-watched daily show on the internet at 70 million average monthly views), “Good Mythical More,” “Mythical Kitchen,” and “Ear Biscuits.”
The channel launched yesterday in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK.
With 77 million subscribers across the various YouTube channels it owns, Mythical has 77 million subscribers… so this thing has the makings of being a creator-driven hit.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FITT INSIDER
Innovation and cultural trends affect the health and fitness industries
With tech advances being made around every corner, we can now keep track of our fitness goals with real-time data analysis and access health records with greater ease - whilst also having more effective remedies at our disposal than ever before. In fact, the trends are moving so quickly trying to keep up can sometimes make you feel like Michael Scott running a 5K right after eating fettuccine alfredo.
Fitt Insider has your back. It’s a free newsletter breaking down trends from wearables to health optimization to the latest updates from companies like WHOOP and Strava, Fitt Insider is the go-to source for fitness and wellness trends.
Check out the latest issue and subscribe to Fitt Insider today!
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
The Oscars win more viewers
With genuine blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water and big indie hits like Everything Everywhere All at Once in contention for awards, the Oscars were hoping for a big boost in ratings. And it got… a little boost. Viewership came in at 18.8 million on ABC, which is a nice 13% increase from last year. That’s a long way off from the 40 million something viewers from a decade ago, but it still made the 95th Academy Awards the most-watched awards show of recent years — 50% higher than this year’s Grammys and 219% higher than last year’s Emmys. This is just the new normal.
Read more → variety
Apple introduces real-people chatbots
While every retailer pivots to AI for customer service needs, Apple is going the opposite route. The company is debuting a new service called “Shop with a Specialist,” which will allow US-based customers the ability to chat with a live person on Apple’s website while shopping for a new device. That’s right — all your questions can be answered by an actual person as if you were at the Genius Bar (but they won’t be able to see you). The service is available every day from 7 am to 7 pm PT.
Read more → techcrunch
Amazon prepares to launch satellite service
Although Starlink is currently crowding up the night sky, Amazon is readying the launch of its own Project Kuiper service sometime next year. Amazon plans to have a fleet of 3,236 satellites blanketing the Earth in coverage. The company is also making sure customer antennas are not ugly to look at, with the smallest one (capable of 100 megabits per second) being barely bigger than a Kindle.
Read more → bloomberg
Colorado heats up geothermal plans
The US only gets 0.5 percent of its energy from geothermal energy… but Colorado wants to blow that up. State leaders are banding together with the industry to provide incentives and a roadmap to making geothermal a bigger part of energy in America. Oil and gas companies love the sound of that, giving them a way to use their expertise in drilling for a more sustainable energy source. Hot.
Read more → fastcompany
Metallica is now the master of vinyl
Metallica is getting in on vinyl manufacturing, acquiring a majority stake in Furnace Record Pressing — one of the premiere vinyl-pressing companies in the world. Several of Metallica’s albums and box sets have been pressed with Furnace, and the stake gives Metallica first dibs in making sure that their albums are pressed on the timeline they want. That’s a big deal considering that, because of the rising demand for records and the lack of high-quality pressing plants, artists sometimes have to wait months after their albums come out to have it put on vinyl.
Read more → variety
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Edited by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.