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Quick Hits
Fast-casual IPO: Fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava IPOs.
AI app store: OpenAI considers launching its own app marketplace, Reuters reports.
Monopoly suit: USA Today’s owner sues Google, claiming monopoly.
Black(Cat)mail: BlackCat hackers play hardball with Reddit, threaten to release internal data.
AI no A bomb: Comparing AI revolution to nuclear tech is off mark, Oppenheimer movie director says.
Tesla vs. China: Shanghai-based Nio gets $740M injection from Abu Dhabi to compete with Tesla.
Empty offices: Office vacancies in Silicon Valley remain unusually high despite return-to-office mandates.
Data needed: Generative AI startups flush with VC funding are in pursuit of something potentially more valuable these days: training data.
Portugal tries 4-day workweek
Portugal is the latest country to test out a four-day workweek. Nearly 40 businesses are participating in a government funded pilot with 4 Day Week Global, the nonprofit behind several prominent four-day workweek experiments around the world. They’re using the 100-80-100 model: Workers get 100% of their pay for 80% of the time they normally work, with a promise to deliver 100% of their usual output.
The momentum for a shorter workweek is picking up across the globe, with trials underway in Iceland, Wales, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, and Scotland, among others.
Cancer detecting AI
Doctors, scientists, and researchers in the United Kingdom built an AI model that accurately identifies cancer in a development, potentially speeding up diagnosis and treatment.
“Through this work, we hope to push boundaries to speed up the detection of the disease using innovative technologies such as AI,” a doctor overseeing one study tells The Guardian.
In Scotland, radiologists are using AI to help detect breast cancer in mammograms. Doctors there say this could help alleviate challenges posed by chronic shortages of radiologists.
Playing golf with ‘digital Jack’
In Japan you can now play golf with a digital Jack Nicklaus, and TikTokers everywhere can interact with a digital version of former NBA star Carmelo Anthony. Athletes and celebrities are working with AI startups to create their digital clones to lend out to companies willing to pay for it. It’s easy money for them—sit down for a quick recording one day, and tech companies have what they need to create content for years to come.
Celebrities “get paid, but they don’t have to turn up,” says Tom Graham, chief executive of AI startup Metaphysic.
Quantum breathing
University of Washington researchers discovered a method to identify atomic "breathing," the rhythmic vibration across dual atomic layers, by observing the unique light emissions triggered by laser stimulation. This could provide a new pathway for scientists to encode and transmit quantum data. The scientist also developed a new device they say could serve as a new type of building block for quantum tech.
The Weekly Pulse
Money flows into AI
Generative AI startups are flush with cash after venture capitalists poured a record $12.7B into them in just the first 5 months of the year. That’s a major jump from the $4.8B invested in all of 2022. As a result, there’s a bevy of AI job openings offering $100k+ positions.
Tweet of the Week
Podcasts of the Week
Slate Money: Could Global Inequality Actually Be... Good?
Science Vs. AI - Is it Out of Control
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know: Strange News - Secret Chinese Spy Station in Cuba, UFOs in Vegas, A Saturn Moon is Habitable
What We’re Reading
AI Leader Proposes a New Kind of Turing Test for Chatbots (Bloomberg)
Silicon Valley’s Newest Unicorn Is a Mining Company (WSJ)
Snapchat Users’ Embrace of AI Could Improve Ads, Snap CEO Says (WSJ)
Rivian to Use Tesla’s EV Charging Standard (WSJ)
ChatGPT might kill us all... with dad jokes (Washington Post)
Looking for a career with big money and perks? How much jobs in artificial intelligence pay (USA Today)
Wharton professor says employees are hiding A.I. use—and potentially transformative productivity gains—from employers (Fortune)
Startups Hiring Now
- Kea: Customer identity platform | 14 open roles
- Squint: AR platform on a mission to accelerate human potential | 3 open roles
- Layer3: (re)discover web3 daily | 6 open roles