It’s the middle of the week, but don’t expect to get a supercharged pick-me-up from Panera Bread. The restaurant chain announced that it’s discontinuing its “Charged Sips” beverages, which were packed to the gills with caffeine. Why? Multiple lawsuits and a couple of connected deaths make it more of a liability than a thirst-quencher.

In other news… Issa Rae supports a new generation of creators, Amazon brings its retail business to Prime Video, and Kendrick beats Drake on the Spotify charts.

We hope you enjoy this and all upcoming issues, but we have one request: please share your feedback. If you have any thoughts at all about our new look, format, and direction, please reply to this email. It’ll go straight to us. Do not hold back.

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• YouTube – Apple Event

• X (Twitter) – John Mulaney

• Google – Susan Buckner

• Reddit – Participant Media

• TikTok – “Attention” - Bryson Tiller

• Spotify – “Forever Now” - The Avett Brothers

.ENTERTAINMENT.

Issa Rae wants to lift up a new generation of creators

The Future. Just this past week, multi-hyphenate talent Issa Rae helped start two new programs designed to find, finance, and support diverse creators in both Hollywood and the digital creator economy. As Hollywood struggles to train a new generation of film and TV talent behind the camera, the majority of working young creators in 10 years may have graduated from one of Rae’s programs.

Share the spotlight
Issa Rae wants to help people find success the way she did — getting discovered by fans online.

• She’s partnered with Tubi on a “fan-fueled studio” called Stubios, which will let select viewers vote to greenlight projects from aspiring filmmakers and showrunners.

• Rae will provide personal mentorship to the chosen filmmakers and additional creative and production support via her company, ColorCreative.

• She’s also launched Ensemble, which plans to help connect digital creators (it’s already working with 50) with top brands (Chili’s, Popeyes, and Pepsi are launch clients).

• Ensemble has struck a deal with Snap to expand its 523 creator accelerator program, provide mentorship to creators, and give production support.

Somehow, Rae is still finding time to make movies and shows herself. She’s producing a buddy comedy film at TriStar that comes from alums of her Rap Sh!t Max show that’s set to star Keke Palmer and SZA in her Hollywood debut.

That project was developed at Sony’s CoCre Lab — a partnership between ColorCreative and Columbia Pictures to incubate emerging diverse talent. See a trend here?

83.7% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Are you into stand-up comedy?

“I live in a second-tier city: Sarasota. We don’t always have the big acts BUT our local ‘guy talk’ station 102.5 [FM] The Bone has comics on the radio OFTEN. I cannot afford to drive an hour to Tampa for comedy, so I watch comedy specials on Netflix and YouTube!”

“I love going to see comedians. Whether it be in a small venue or a large arena. A good laugh until your stomach hurts kind of night is always welcomed and oh so good for you!”

“Love a good laugh.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT JURNY.

Invest in the AI startup that’s transforming hospitality

The labor-intensive $4.1 trillion hospitality industry is about to change.

Meet Jurny, the AI startup that’s fully automating operations for thousands of hotel and Airbnb property managers worldwide.

Jurny’s system uses specialized AI agents to handle everything from concierge services and guest communications to quality assurance and upselling. Their “agents” work together seamlessly, mimicking a real-world team and providing guests with an exceptional experience and property managers with unmatched efficiency.

Are you thinking what we’re thinking? Jurny is going to change an entire industry. And guess what? You can get in on it.

But first, some Jurny stats: 5x growth last year, $35 million processed in bookings, and over $12 million raised from top VCs and 1,200 individual investors.

Capitalize on Jurney and invest before the round closes.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-diss track, “Not Like Us,” broke the US Spotify record for most streams of a hip-hop song in a single day with a total 10.98 million streams… beating the previous record holder, Drake. [Read More]

• Disney announced that its streaming business had its first profitable quarter… but the company’s stock still slid 10% after it reported bad news for its parks and linear TV business. [Read More]

• Xbox announced that it shut down a number of Bethesda-run game studios after the company’s acquisition of the game developer behind Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Instacart is rolling out a new feature that will let users order food from Uber Eats on its platform, allowing people to get groceries and takeout in one order. [Read More]

• Amazon’s drone delivery service in Arizona won’t be able to make deliveries this summer when temperatures rise over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. [Read More]

• Livestream shopping platforms are wrestling with how to best identify counterfeit goods. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• OpenAI claims that its new AI detection tool can identify deepfakes created using its DALL-E 3 image generator with 98% accuracy. [Read More]

• OpenAI also announced that it's building a tool called Media Manager that will allow creators to “opt out” of their works being used to train its AI systems. [Read More]

• London-based Wayve, an AI startup focused on the autonomous driving industry, raised a billion dollars in a funding round led by SoftBank. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• TikTok has officially filed a lawsuit against the US government over its law that requires ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a ban in the US. [Read More]

• Meta is making it easier for Instagram users to post to Threads with a new cross-posting toggle button. [Read More]

• VSCO, the popular photo-editing app, is launching a marketplace dubbed “VSCO Hub” to connect photographers and brands. [Read More]

.MEDIA.

Prime Video turns your TV remote into a shopping cart

The Future. Amazon is finally blending its namesake retail business with its popular Prime Video service with three new shoppable ad formats. Thanks to the novel tech, expect Amazon’s first advertising upfronts, which take place later this week, to be full of this new format.

Ad surfing
Here are the three ways you’ll be able to shop an ad on Prime Video with only your remote:

• Carousel ads, which will show a swipeable lineup of products from a brand during a commercial. Users will be able to add as many products as they want to their Amazon cart.

• Interactive pause ads, which will play whenever someone pauses a movie or show they’re watching. These ads will include a translucent banner with products.

• Interactive brand trivia ads, which will allow audiences to navigate the ads to learn more about that brand — expect this to be huge during live sports events.

This is a big deal for Amazon, which, like every streaming service, has been trying to figure out a way to make ads shoppable without the need for a QR code. The tech giant, which alleges to reach 200 million customers with ads and recently made Prime Video ad-supported by default, hopes these features will be a massive growth engine.

And look out for NBCUniversal’s Peacock partnership with Instacart for the upcoming Summer Olympics. Don’t be surprised if Amazon also rolls out a Whole Foods-ordering feature to compete.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT NICE NEWS.

A nicer world

A lot is going on in the world right now, but it’s not all a dumpster fire.

That’s why we love Nice News.

Their email digest filters through 100+ sources daily to send you the most uplifting, relevant stories out there. That way, you can stay informed and inspired in just five minutes.

Join over 750,000 readers who wake up to good news.

• Read: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti tells The Information what went wrong at the once-digital media powerhouse over the past few years.

• Listen: Freakonomics Radio dissects how 23andMe went from a cutting-edge startup darling to nearly worthless.

• Play: The horror video game Content Warning lets people play as influencers risking their lives to get footage of monsters so they can go viral on SpookTube. Satire galore.

Even Perry’s own mother was fooled by these AI-generated images that went viral Sunday night.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today we get into how new legislation is aiming at protecting music fans from predatory ticket sales, a professor's idea at how we can save our jobs from AI, and Drake's use of AI in his beef with Kendrick Lamar.