We’ve got those midweek vibes, fam. Did you know that four people volunteered to live in a year-long simulation of Mars for NASA? Well, Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, and Nathan Jones just emerged from a 3D-printed, 1,700 square-foot habitat in Houston after 378 days (those overachievers), capping off the first Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission. Their stay included Marswalks, growing veggies, and other tasks. NASA is planning a second mission for next spring. Any volunteers?

In other news… digital twins could be the future of health, companies fire up the drones for marketing campaigns, and Nintendo doubles down on humans.

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• YouTube – Gladiator II

• X (Twitter) – The Acolyte 

• Google – Joe Bonsall

• Reddit – Shrek 5 

• TikTok – “We’re Going to Be Friends” - The White Stripes

• Spotify – “Tough” - Quavo, Lana Del Rey 

.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Digital twins birth personalized AI experimentation

The Future. While deepfakes are associated with misinformation and copyright-infringing content, digital twins could revolutionize our lives and society in a positive way. If the technology becomes cheap and accessible for mass adoption, expect people to test every wellness regimen, drug therapy, and exercise routine on their digital twin before they give it a go.

Clone group
Digital twins could be AI duplicates of anything — from ourselves, a city, to the entire Earth.

• These models allow data to be inputted that can manipulate the models, letting people test different theories, therapies, or any number of experiments that may be too risky to try on real bodies or environments.

• One company, Twin Health, creates digital twins of patients using Bluetooth-connected sensors to monitor humans in real time. Doctors can then analyze the digital twin to offer personalized diet, sleep, and exercise tips.

• LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman created a digital twin that he could interact with (the ultimate talking out loud to oneself) and even sent it to a Bloomberg event to take part in an onstage interview.

• And artist FKA Twigs made a digital double to do all her publicity from now on. Talk about a win for mental health.

The digital twins market is expected to be huge in the coming years. Consulting company Gartner expects it to hit $379 billion in ten years (it’s worth about $35 billion today), driven mainly by the health industry. 

Expect human trials to look very different in the next decade.

72.6% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Is Hollywood ready for a new era?

“They are definitely NOT ready. But they definitely DO need it.”

“Hollywood has never been ready for a new era. But the new eras keep coming.”

“Well, realistically, the big studios killed the movie theater by being greedy and shortening the release window for new films, and now with streaming, the only way forward is dinner theaters. Hollywood has to change, stop with unnecessary sequels, diversify, and bring fresh stories and visuals to life.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT PIECES.

Calling all developers

Struggling to keep track of insights while researching and problem-solving?

Say hello to Live Context in Pieces Copilot+. Their free desktop app and plugins boost your productivity by automatically capturing all the important information you come across as you work and adding that context to an on-device AI copilot you can ask anything to.

Live Context is a game-changer for your workflow:

• Effortlessly summarize last week’s research

• Retrieve unsaved information in a snap

• Get clear steps to integrate new tools

• Smoothly onboard, debug, and review code changes

It doesn’t just help you work smarter; it can help you collaborate. Stay in sync with your team by capturing action items from chats, summarizing conversations, and recapping meetings.

Intrigued?

Download their free developer tools and support their Product Hunt launch on July 10th.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, the creators of Welcome to Wrexham, are collaborating with Eva Longoria on a new show that follows Mexico’s Necaxa soccer club. [Read More]

• SpectreVision, the production company founded by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah, is launching a podcast network called SpectreVision Radio, with shows from filmmakers like Mike Flanagan and David Lowery. [Read More]

• Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said that the company will only publish games made by humans, reserving generative AI as a tool to be used at a game designer’s discretion. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Louis Vuitton is releasing a Pharrell-designed workwear capsule, which includes a branded Timberland boot. [Read More]

• Outerwear brand Arc’teryx is launching a design platform called Walk Gently to collaborate with Indigenous designers and artists. [Read More]

• Etsy is requiring sellers to list their products as “made by a seller,” “designed by a seller,” “sourced by a seller,” or “handpicked by a seller” so that buyers can know how they’re involved with the creations. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Former Humane execs Brooke Hartley Moy and Ken Kocienda are launching an AI firm, Infactory, that fact-checks search engine results. [Read More]

• Ford has rolled out Microsoft HoloLens headsets to factory workers, which project holographic instructions on how to complete complex tasks. [Read More]

• Startup Volley has raised $55 million to expand its development of AI-powered games that can be controlled via users’ voice commands. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• A new app called Openvibe combines the timelines from open-protocol social media platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, and, soon, Threads. [Read More]

• Anonymous messaging app NGL has been banned from hosting minors by the FTC — the first-ever ban of its kind. [Read More]

• Spotify is adding a comments section to its podcasts to help build out its social ambitions. [Read More]

.MARKETING.

Drones give rise to a new era of sky marketing

The Future. Blue-chip companies like Lego Group, General Electric, Netflix, and F1 are turning to drone shows for big marketing moments. While filling up the sky with advertising is certainly sticky and gets people talking, expect some communities to institute “No Marketing Zones” to keep aerial real estate free from corporate messaging.

Billboards everywhere
There’s no bigger billboard than the night sky… and you can fill it with thousands of drones.

• The shows aren’t cheap — a single show by Drone Stories, one of the preeminent firms in the industry, typically costs between $100,000 and $300,000 but can go for $1 million.

• That’s prohibitive to small businesses, so Drone Stories founder Lucas van Oostrum also founded Nova Sky Stories, which, armed with 9,000 drones from Intel, hopes to offer cheaper versions of shows.

No matter how you slice it, spending that much on a singular event that can only be experienced by a few people seems risky during an era of belt-tightening marketing budgets. But the IRL show isn’t the main attraction — it’s the social media footprint.

Lego used its drone show, which showed off the imaginative designs of six lucky kids, as the basis for an entire social marketing campaign. Their one Instagram Reel of the event racked up 10 million views. Who doesn’t love to watch a stunt?

• Listen: The Town speaks with Skydance CEO David Ellison and RedBird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale about their blockbuster plans for Paramount Global.

• Read: Hypebeast profiles Flying Lotus about his upcoming projects in both music and film, including a new feature called Ash.

• Watch: WSJ interviews Call Me Daddy host Alex Cooper about how she ascended to podcast royalty.

Arguably the greatest pastime.

JOBS OF THE WEEK

Explore a weekly curated list of the latest and greatest opportunities in business, tech, and entertainment. For more listings, check out the complete job board.

Senior Content Designer
TikTok
San Francisco, CA

Associate Manager, Production - Nonfiction Sports
Netflix
Los Angeles, CA

Game Designer - Madden Content Expert
Electronic Arts
Orlando, FL

Producer
Roblox
San Mateo, CA

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Larry Fitzgibbon, the co-founder and CEO of Tastemade. Tastemade is an independent media company that creates award-winning video content and original programming in the food, travel, and home & design space.