Lab Weekly - 08/02/2024
A busy week in AI Search; Plus, the latest news about ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice mode, TikTok’s Olympic moment, Meta’s AI Studio, and some cool stats
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The Crucial Differentiator in the AI Search War
The burgeoning AI search war carries far-ranging implications for the future of the web and digital advertising. Everyone needs the latest news content to keep their AI search engines up-to-date, and access to quality content has become an increasingly important differentiation point.
In case you missed it…
Decoding the Ongoing “Vibecession” & Spreading Financial Anxiety
Despite job growth and rising wages, financial anxiety looms large for many U.S. consumers, negatively coloring an individual’s outlook on the economy and impacting consumer behavior. While conventional metrics for macroeconomic health are looking good, prevailing challenges in housing affordability and inflation’s lingering effects continue to stoke economic pessimism.
What’s Next for the Entertainment Industry?
This summer has been one of turmoil and reorganization for Hollywood. Still recovering from the historical double-strikes that put the industry on pause last summer, the entertainment industry is trying to realign its streaming-led business model with the post-streaming-wars market reality. The streaming services are all in on ads, yet Hollywood needs to look both outward and inward to find its future.
The Rise and Fall of a “Brat Summer”
Last week, brat summer breached barriers of its online niche and crossed over into the mainstream news cycle, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris embracing the Brat memes as she launched her presidential bid. What is brat summer? Why is it having such a cultural moment? And what brands can learn from its rise and fall?
OpenAI Starts Rolling Out Its Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT [The Verge]
OpenAI has started rolling out an advanced voice mode for ChatGPT to a limited number of ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Initially demonstrated at the GPT-4 launch event in May, this new feature faced criticism for sounding similar to Scarlett Johansson and was subsequently delayed. Now that this feature has started to officially roll out, judging by the examples of the advanced voice mode that are circulating online, it would seem that most users are still treating it like a toy, which makes sense due to ChatGPT’s lack of access to personal information and other apps.
Compared to Google’s Gemini, which is being integrated into a wide range of Google services, or the upcoming Apple Intelligence that Apple just released a developer beta earlier this week, ChatGPT is at a competitive disadvantage to perform utility-driven tasks, despite its impressive capacity to answer broad questions, handle conversational disruptions, and even simulate emotional responses.
To compete with more utility-driven AI systems like Apple Intelligence, ChatGPT needs to evolve, focusing on enhancing its capabilities while addressing privacy and personalization challenges. The future success of ChatGPT's voice mode will depend on its ability to integrate more utility-driven features and secure strategic partnerships that enhance its practical applications. Until then, ChatGPT will be firmly stuck in the toy / companion category of use cases. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it does raise questions about its monetization prospect.
Related: Spotify launches a new voice and language for its AI DJ [The Verge]; Google added Gemini-powered AI features to Chrome [TechCrunch]
Meta Rolls Out its AI Studio in the US for Creators to Build AI Chatbots [TechCrunch]
This is interesting news following Meta’s decision to scrap the celebrity AI chatbots that they rolled out a year ago and fell flat with users. AI chatbots have been herald as both useful as digital assistants and entertaining as 24/7 conversation partners, and the use cases of LLM have been largely developed along that dichotomy. Now, with the AI search war starting in earnest (see the long-form piece above), the industry is also trying to figure out how to monetize companion-driven AI chatbots.
Meta is now positioning the AI Studio as a way for creators to easily build chatbot versions of themselves for fan engagement. Creators can control the topics and links they want the chatbot to avoid, and turn auto-replies off to limit who their AI replies to. This roll out follows Meta’s pilot test on Instagram with a limited set of influencers back in April.
Will creators see this feature as a useful engagement or monetization tool? During the early days of generative AI, there were reports of popular influencers charging fans to interact with AI chatbot versions of themselves. But if every creator can make an AI chatbot of themselves to interact with fans, that’d also run the risk of flooding the market with too many AI creator bots vying for attention.
Related: Meta scraps celebrity AI chatbots that fell flat with users [The Information]; Canva acquires Leonardo AI image startup to bolster generative offerings [VentureBeat]
TikTok Emerges as a Hub for Olympics Content, Memes, and Fandoms [The Verge]
Yes, all the Paris Olympic content is streaming on Peacock, live or on-demand. But what makes sports interesting is never just the actual games — it’s the narrative that fuels them. Just like you can’t be a pop star in 2024 without some lores attached, it turns out that you can’t get people’s attention without some behind-the-scenes lores to draw people in. To become a true cultural phenomenon, to fully eventize your media inventory, is to unleash the creative power of the masses. And that is exactly what TikTok is all about. As the Verge notes, “TikTok has become a place for more offbeat or niche subplots, many of which have bubbled up organically from individual athletes and fans.”
For their part, NBC has hired a cadre of more than two dozen influencers to post content from the Olympics across social media including TikTok. These influencers are not just sharing highlights; they are creating narratives, generating memes, and fostering a sense of community and fandom around the Olympic Games. By tapping into this power, NBC and the Olympics are not only reaching a wider audience but also redefining what it means to be a part of the Olympic experience. TikTok’s ability to amplify user-driven, affiliate content around global events stands in stark contrast to the uncertainties surrounding its future in the US market.
Related: How a Norwegian swimmer made chocolate muffins a hit at the Olympics via his TikTok videos [New York Times]; Harris campaign embraces TikTok as efforts to restrict app sputter along [Axios]
Situational Awareness:
Balenciaga and Rimowa launch apps for Apple Vision Pro [MacRumors]
Fashion and luxury brands have been at the forefront of embracing augmented reality and immersive content, and now they are naturally extending their interests into mixed reality as well.
Sony signs a deal to be the NFL's official tech and headphones partner [Bloomberg]
As part of this multi-year deal, Sony will produce the official NFL headset in 2025 that coaches and other team employees wear during the games. For Sony, this partnership guarantees premium in-game product placement that will reach for millions of NFL fans.
Senate passes the Kids Online Safety Act [The Verge]
This landmark legislation now heads to the House, but House Republicans reportedly will not take up the bill in their current form. Regardless of whether this passes or not, how to regulate internet content for the sake of underage audiences will remain a contention point for lawmakers and platform owners.
Twitch completes its TikTok makeover with new app update [The Verge]
Another day, another app gives into the pressure to have an algorithmic feed that can serve up personalized content with minimal friction for mindless browsing.
WBD, Disney, and Fox plan to launch their joint sports streaming venture Venu for $42.99 per month initially [Variety]
The service is expected to debut in the fall in conjunction with the start of the next NFL season. $43 per month for most of the live sports content seems like a pretty good deal for cord-cutters — until you remember that all the NFL games playing on CBC and NBC won’t be included.
TikTok was reportedly paying almost $20 million a month to buy OpenAI’s models through Microsoft, making up nearly 25% of Microsoft’s AI model sales, The Information reports. Meanwhile, ByteDance's short-form video editing app CapCut, which has 318 million MAUs outside China, compared with 97.4 million MAUs that its main competitor Canva has, and has made $125 million so far in 2024 on mobile, per Sensor Tower’s tracking data.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian tells CNBC the CrowdStrike-caused outage will cost the company $500 million in damage, after canceling 6,000+ flights, and Delta will seek legal compensations.
WhatsApp is gaining ground in the US with 100 million monthly users, Bloomberg reports. While the app has amassed billions of users worldwide, its presence in the US has lagged behind its global dominance. Meta recently ran a series of TV ads promoting WhatsApp featuring the cast of ABC sitcom Modern Family.
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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