Lab Weekly - 04/05/2024
Climate Anxiety’s impact on consumer trends, Plus, the latest news about Vision Pro, Perplexity AI, Amazon's "Just Walk Out" tech, and more
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How Climate Anxiety Is Upending Business As Usual
Climate anxiety’s impact on consumer behavior extends far beyond EVs and sustainable products — from emerging travel trends such as “cool-cationing” and “last-chance tourism” to fortifying our home to be a sanctuary from worsening weather conditions, climate anxiety is manifesting in unexpected ways. Let’s explore some of the less discussed aspects of consumer trends that are tied to our emotional response to the ongoing climate crisis.
In case you missed it…
2024 IAB PlayFronts Recap: Optimism Abounds
Optimism abounds when it comes to activating in gaming in 2024 –esports, influencers custom editorial with publishers — but two channels have prevailed as most popular with brands advertisers in the last year — mobile and immersive digital environments.
The Rising Ozempic Economy & Its Wide-Ranging Impact
In an era where pharmaceutical innovations may dramatically alter economic landscapes, the emergence of the so-called "Ozempic economy" has captured quite a lot of eyeballs and mindshare lately. In this week’s original article, we take a close look at the behavioral changes that could be potentially unleashed by the new class of weight loss medications.
The AI Hype Cycle: Are We on the Precipice of Disillusionment?
As market research firm Gartner puts it in its 2023 AI Hype Cycle published last summer, generative AI was already reaching the “peak of inflated expectations” and close to tumbling into the infamous “trough of disillusionment.” Taking a deeper look at the AI market as it stands reveals at least two major issues that could trigger a reevaluation of the AI gold rush: the profitability issue and the regulatory issue.
Perplexity AI Announces Plan To Add Sponsored Questions To Chatbots [AdWeek]
As I recently wrote in my analysis on the AI hype cycle, AI companies are in desperate need to figure out a viable business model in order to sustain the accelerated growth of consumer AI products. Through this lens it is easy to see why Perplexity AI, which initially positioned itself as a search engine free from ad-driven influence, is now planning to introduce ads in the form of sponsored questions.
Similarly, Google is reportedly considering charging users to access “premium features” including AI-powered search. If true, this would be a huge departure from Google’s ad-based business model. Google reported $175 billion in revenue from search and related ads last year, more than half its total sales.
Both stories point to a broader trend in the AI industry towards monetization, revealing the economic realities of operating advanced AI systems. After all, running massive LLMs at a consumer-facing scale can be costly, which understandably prompts companies like Perplexity to explore advertising as a way to offset these operational expenses.
Integrating advertising into AI chatbots raises fundamental questions about the future direction of these technologies and the tradeoffs between commercial success and maintaining a trustworthy, high-quality user experience. In a sense, Perplexity could serve as a case study for the broader media and tech industry, providing insights into balancing these competing priorities in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Related: Microsoft is working on an Xbox AI chatbot [The Verge]; OpenAI discussed plan to train AI on public YouTube video transcripts [WSJ]; DoorDash poaches AI startup talent to bolster voice ordering [Bloomberg]
Apple Vision Pro’s Persona Feature Gets Collaborative [TechCrunch]
A common criticism of the Apple Vision Pro is that it tends to create a somewhat solitary experience for its users, despite the various features intended to offset this sense of detachment from one's environment. With the introduction of new collaborative capabilities for the Persona feature (essentially more detailed and realistic 3D Memoji), up to five Vision Pro users can now enjoy films and television, play AR games, and collectively work on projects together no matter where they are.
Although these updates aim to enhance the social connectivity of the Vision Pro, this benefit is limited to the early adopters of the device. This limitation does not address the core issue of Vision Pro users being isolated from those in the same vicinity who do not use the device. The EyeSight feature, which attempts to digitally replicate the user's eyes for others, has been criticized for its eerie and unnatural effect. Without significant improvements to this feature, the Vision Pro's social functionalities will continue to be inaccessible to non-users. And maybe that’s OK — it is meant to be a personal computing device after all.
Related: Meta is adding AI to its Ray-Ban smart glasses next month [The Verge]; Meta is aiming to reveal and demo Orion, its first true AR glasses, at its fall developer conference [Business Insider]
Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores [Gizmodo]
Two crucial aspects from this story: one, the presumably fully automated “Just Walk Out” system actually relied on more than 1,000 oversea workers in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. According to The Information, 700 out of 1,000 Just Walk Out sales required human reviewers as of 2022. Such heavy reliance on human reviewers obviously didn't align with its automated vision, and it is obviously not easily scalable.
In response, Amazon's decision to phase out its "Just Walk Out" checkout technology in favor of Dash Carts and self-checkout counters marks a significant pivot in its approach to in-store shopping technology. This strategic shift suggests that while Amazon is still committed to innovating the grocery shopping experience, the company is thankfully taking a more transparent and practical route.
Related: Amazon's no-checkout flop shows AI's limits [Axios]; Amazon’s palm-scanning service now lets you sign up from your phone [The Verge]; Amazon Fresh layoffs point to company's grocery store struggles [NPR]
Situational Awareness:
Hulu with Live TV adds MLB Network just as baseball season gets underway [The Verge]
Good timing on Disney’s part! Its biggest competitor YouTube TV still doesn’t get the MLB Network yet, but as the baseball season starts, expect the league to cut a deal with the Google subsidiary soon.
The AltStore, an alternative app store coming to the EU, will offer Patreon-backed apps [TechCrunch]
Fascinated to see how fast this AltStore would go in the EU. My bet is that it will need to add more than just Patreon-backed apps to really gain traction.
OpenAI built a voice cloning tool [TechCrunch]
I hope they have strong, detectable AI watermarks built-in, because this country certainly doesn’t need an AI-enabled Watergate-esque scandal in this election year.
Robinhood’s new credit card goes after Apple Card with ability to invest cash-back perks [TechCrunch]
Interesting proposition to facilitate retail investment and savings using the cash-back rewards. More credit card providers should explore innovative ways to help their customers form healthy financial habits.
Yahoo is buying Artifact, the AI news app from the Instagram co-founders [The Verge]
Surprised it took this long for Yahoo to pop up and buy an AI content company. Also surprised that Artifact, which was trying to be “TikTok for news stories” before shutting down in January, actually got acquired, presumably for its content recommendation algorithms.
Facebook’s new full-screen video player looks a lot like TikTok [The Verge]
Facebook finally fully embraced the vertical video format. Better late than never, I guess.
One year after YouTube turned on revenue sharing for its shortform video feature, a growing chunk of creators are getting paid for it. More than 1 in 4 creators in YouTube’s Partner Program are now earning money with YouTube Shorts, the company announced last week. Given there are over 3 million creators in YouTube’s ad sharing program, that amounts to roughly 750,000 Shorts creators in total.
Gamers are mostly playing older games. A recent report by Newzoo found that 60% of playtime in 2023 went to games that are six-year old and older, such as Fortnite, GTA, Call of Duty, and Roblox. The report also found that the PC and console game market grew and reached $93.5 billion in revenue in 2023.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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