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☆ Elon Musk really wants advertisers' money. But he also wants to keep tweeting. He can't have both.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

His anti-revenue campaign reached its peak/nadir last fall, when he literally told advertisers to "go fuck yourself." And that's where Musk explained that when he told advertisers to go fuck themselves last year, he didn't mean all advertisers. "It was with respect to freedom of speech," he told Read. AdvertisementMeanwhile, the exodus of big brand advertisers has pushed Twitter ad rates way, way down. And I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time," he told Read.

Persons: —, Elon Musk, Mark Read, Musk, Read, Oliver Darcy, Joe Biden's, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Joe, Puck, there's, It's Organizations: Service, Elon, Business, Cannes, WPP, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, CNN, Associated Press, Washington Post, Democratic Party, Republicans, Google, Media Locations: France, Mexico, Washington

☆ Pay TV is in so much trouble that even its one bright spot is dimming
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Pay TV just suffered its worst quarter in history — a stunning 6.9% drop. The TV industry used to hope that digital services like YouTube TV could make up for losses from regular TV. In fact, YouTube TV just had its first quarterly subscriber loss ever. AdvertisementIf you pay any attention to the TV business, you know that pay TV subscriptions have been falling for years. People who used to pay for TV are cutting the cord, and younger people aren't bothering to sign up for pay TV at all.

Persons: — Organizations: YouTube, Service, MoffettNathanson, Business

☆ Here's another reason for Elon Musk to support Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He also seems increasingly interested in Donald Trump, though he won't come out and say he's formally backing him. So here's another reason for him to move more firmly into the Trump camp: The US Securities and Exchange Commission, currently run by Biden appointee Gary Gensler, keeps dogging him. Caveats: The last time the SEC went after Musk, Trump was in the White House, and Trump appointee Jay Clayton was running the SEC. AdvertisementJust as important: The Journal piece includes lots of to-be-sures from legal experts about the difficulty of the SEC winning a case against Musk. But Musk would certainly prefer not having to go to court to find out.

Persons: —, Elon, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, he's, Trump, Biden, Gary Gensler, Tesla, Musk, Jay Clayton Organizations: Service, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Business, SEC, Twitter, SEC hasn't, Musk, Trump

☆ Did Apple just outthink everyone in AI? A chat with tech analyst Ben Thompson
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

When I try to get my head around big, complicated tech questions, I often rely on Ben Thompson, the influential tech analyst who writes the Stratechery newsletter. And that Apple gets the upside of AI without incurring many of the costs and risks other tech players are taking on. AdvertisementPeter Kafka: You seemed pretty enthusiastic about Apple's AI efforts before they announced them on Monday. One is some massive AI breakthrough, such that the phone becomes the commodity, as opposed to Apple making the AI the commodity. Peter Kafka: You've been speculating about whether Apple is paying OpenAI, or OpenAI is paying Apple.

Persons: —, Ben Thompson, Peter Kafka, They're, Tim Cook, Justin Sullivan, Who's, They've, Apple, You've, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Thompson, Mark Gurman Organizations: Service, Apple, Business, Washington Post, Bloomberg, OpenAI Locations: ChatGPT.com

☆ Elon Musk is going to try courting advertisers. Again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk, who has a ... complicated relationship with advertisers, is going to appear at a big ad conference. It's pretty standard for tech companies to court advertisers at the Cannes Lions event in France. AdvertisementLast fall Elon Musk told advertisers to go fuck themselves. Maybe he has a different message now: The man who bought Twitter, turned it into "X," and saw his advertising revenue plummet, is heading to the Cannes Lions ad summit in France next week. WPP, one of the world's biggest ad companies, said Musk will appear at an event with WPP CEO Mark Read on June 18.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Mark Read Organizations: Cannes Lions, Service, Twitter, WPP Locations: France

☆ Is this 1987 video the origins of Apple Intelligence?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

There's a scary version of AI where AI takes your job and/or destroys the planet. Then there's the version that's much more chill: AI as a personal assistant who helps you with your tasks — remembers things for you, finds stuff for you, helps you create presentations for work. AdvertisementThe kinder, gentler version is the one Apple showed off yesterday, though we won't really know how it works till it goes live later this year. Right now, all we have to go on is Apple's pre-recorded demo video. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Organizations: Business

☆ Apple is stepping up its Vision Pro pitch to Hollywood after soft sales and mixed response to the headset
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewApple is stepping up its efforts to get Hollywood to make content for the Vision Pro as it prepares to roll out the mixed-reality headset internationally to boost sales. Director Jon Favreau brought the dinosaurs on his Apple TV+ show "Prehistoric Planet" to life through a spinoff for Vision Pro. Apple is talking up Vision Pro to talent agencies, filmmakers, and producers to fill the pipeline. Apple TV+ produces some, but not all, of the immersive content that's available on Vision Pro. AdvertisementLike the rest of Apple TV+'s shows and movies, Apple doesn't want controversial content for the Vision Pro lest it undermine sales of its consumer electronics overall.

Persons: —, creatives, James Cameron raved, Jon Favreau, stampeded, Alicia Keys, Chris Parnell, David Manpearl, there's, Parnell, Peter Kafka Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Vision, Business, Apple, Vision Pro, Disney, Netflix, YouTube

☆ Apple wants to put a friendlier spin on artificial intelligence, but many users could miss out
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at all the takeaways from Apple's big event , including its friendlier spin on artificial intelligence . Related VideoBut first, it's not AI; it's Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence — it's AI, just not that AI — is the company's first big swing in the space. Data is the name of the game when it comes to AI, and Apple's iPhones are full of it. However, the Apple Intelligence news and partnership with OpenAI is what really set the billionaire off.

Persons: —, we've, it's, Andrew Burton, Justin Sullivan, Rebecca Zisser, Tim Cook, Apple, Apple's, Insider's Jordan Hart, Katie Notopoulos, Pro Max, BI's Peter Kafka, Max —, wasn't, Elon Musk, Chelsea Jia Feng, Grzegorz Wajda, Elon, Bernstein, Toni Sacconaghi, Point72, Steve Cohen's, WallStreetBets, Tyler Le, OpenAI, Sarah Friar, Kevin Weil, who's, Sam Altman's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Annie Smith Organizations: Service, Business, Tech, Apple Intelligence, Washington, Getty, Apple, Pro, Elon, OpenAI, Academy Investment, GameStop, Planet Labs, Oracle Locations: Apple's, Chelsea, Silicon, New York, London

☆ Can Tim Cook sell you a new iPhone based on Apple's new AI features? It's a huge question for the company.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

That's the scenario Apple sketched out Monday, when it tried to explain how it was integrating AI into its ecosystem. But it's also a very real problem for Apple since Apple is in the business of selling expensive, high-margin hardware. AdvertisementBut I do have a third, vibes-based theory about why the AI that Apple showed off didn't blow me away. And during Apple's Monday demo, the company played on both sides of that line: It would tell you that Apple's AI could instantly make your writing better. In Apple's framing, that's AI that's helpful, but not creepy; immediately useful, but not too disruptive.

Persons: —, Apple, it's, we've, Tim Cook, Craig Federighi Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, iPhones, AIs Locations: emojis

☆ Why a new NBA deal could mean cuts to your favorite NBC and Peacock shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The NBA is close to a series of rights deals that will generate an astonishing $76 billion over 11 years for the sports league. AdvertisementIf you like watching basketball, this will likely mean some change: Right now, national NBA rights are split between Disney's ESPN/ABC and Warner Bros Discovery's TNT; in the future, those will likely be split between Disney, Amazon, and Comcast, which intends to show some games on NBC and some on its Peacock streaming service. So you may need to sign up for some new streamers (just like NFL fans have had to do). This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

Organizations: NBA, Disney's ESPN, ABC, Warner Bros, TNT, Disney, Comcast, NBC, Business

☆ Sam Altman's OpenAI is paying publishers big money for content. That could be a lifeline — or blow up in their faces.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

You've heard this one before: A big tech company is offering a lifeline to distressed media companies. That's the argument against a slew of deals publishers have been making with Sam Altman's OpenAI over the past few months. But the OpenAI deals, the publishers emphasize, are straightforward licensing deals for stuff they're already making. AdvertisementWhich means — they say — at the end of these deals, publishers won't have to regret investing in another defunct Big Tech project. But the thing I'm most worried about as someone who makes words for a living isn't a replay of the old Facebook/Apple/Google deals publishers now regret.

Persons: You've, It's, Sam Altman's OpenAI, Axel Springer, Rupert, Barry Diller's Dotdash Meredith, Laurene Powell, haven't, OpenAI, it's, Jessica Lessin, Lucy, Charlie Brown, —, Let's, Bob Iger, ChatGPT, that's Organizations: Service, Vox Media, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Laurene Powell Jobs, Atlantic Media, Apple, Google, Facebook, The New York Times, Big Tech, New York Times, Microsoft, Netflix, ABC, Disney

☆ With Paramount's long and winding sales process coming to an end, here's what comes next for the media giant
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

AdvertisementThe media giant, which owns Paramount Pictures and CBS, has been in the news as an acquisition target since late last year. Skydance might not be as recognizable a name, but the company's owner and CEO David Ellison is. It's "is Paramount big enough to survive on its own?" The rush to corner the market on data centers is a move by Big Tech to secure the keys to the coming AI kingdom. Big Tech, finance, and consulting jobs are becoming harder to come by, upending the job search for young people.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Rebecca Zisser, Warner, David Zaslav, Byron Allen, David Ellison, Larry Ellison, he's, Phillip Faraone, Peter Kafka, That's, Larry Ellison's, Alyssa Powell, Savita Subramanian, Gary Shilling, Kitty, Keith Gill, Arif Qazi, Jason Zander, they'll, Apple's, Siri, Dominic Bugatto, that's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Annie Smith Organizations: Service, Paramount, Business, Paramount Pictures, CBS, RedBird Capital Partners, KKR, Warner Bros . Discovery, Sony, Hollywood, Getty, Tech, Bank of America, Wall Street, GameStop, Google, Microsoft, Big Tech, BI, Washington Post, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Locations: China, India, Texas, New York, London

☆ Is Jeff Bezos' Washington Post trying to turn itself into BuzzFeed?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Washington Post is in trouble. This third newsroom will be comprised of service and social media journalism and run separately from the core news operation. AdvertisementStill, it's quite clear that Lewis, installed by Bezos last fall, has surveyed the existing Washington Post business strategy — run a newspaper with national ambitions and a subscription-based revenue model — and concluded that it didn't work. The more concerning part of Lewis' plan is that he now has two plans: There's The Washington Post, which will presumably continue to act like the old Washington Post. And there's the new, unnamed version of The Washington Post, which will operate very differently.

Persons: — Jeff Bezos, —, Will Lewis, That's, Lewis, It's, he's Organizations: Service, Washington Post, Business, Bezos, Facebook, Daily, Washington, The Washington Post Locations: —

☆ Letter from Franz Kafka complaining of writer’s block up for auction
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —A letter giving a rare insight into Franz Kafka’s struggle with writer’s block is going up for auction. This means it would have been written while Kafka was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis, with which he was diagnosed three years earlier. Ehrenstein made the request after seeing a newly published work by Kafka – probably the 1919 short story collection “Ein Landarzt” (“A Country Doctor”). We can also all be thankful that Kafka would continue to pick up his pen despite his crippling writer’s block,” he added. At the time the letter was written, Kafka had also begun an intense love affair with Czech journalist and writer Milena Jesenská.

Persons: Franz Kafka’s, Franz Kafka, Kafka, Sotheby's, what’s, ” Kafka, Albert Ehrenstein, “, Sotheby’s, Ehrenstein, Kafka –, Landarzt, Gabriel Heaton, Milena Jesenská, – Organizations: London CNN, Pictorial Press Locations: Prague, Bohemia, Sotheby’s, London, Vienna, Austrian, Czech, ”, Germany, Austria

☆ The Very Online Afterlife of Franz Kafka
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Amanda Hess | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Also, “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, a fat black bug on its cover. The video’s creator is 25-year-old Margarita Mouka — @aquariuscat444 on TikTok, where she frequently posts about Kafka, integrating his work, his likeness and his life story into her online persona of romantic intellectualism. “Franz Kafka becomes an unlikely HEARTTHROB on TikTok — where Gen Zers are swooning over the Czech novelist nearly 100 YEARS after his death,” ran a Daily Mail headline. On BookTok, where a flashed book jacket conveys a glimmer of a user’s inner life, a classic text can leave a durable impression. It plays like a deep cut, reaching back through time to ground a TikToker’s content in a more enduring human experience.

Persons: Ottessa Moshfegh, Sylvia Plath, Franz Kafka, Margarita Mouka —, Kafka, “ Franz Kafka, Zers, ”, Harry Styles Organizations: Daily Mail, The, Austro Locations: TikTok, Czech, Hungarian

☆ For some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they're a fantasy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the movie-ticket-subscription company MoviePass, and is based on award-winning reporting from Business Insider . The big storyRetirement mathGetty Images;Alyssa Powell/BIFor some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they're a fantasy. AdvertisementIt's not the first time we've gotten troubling data about millennials' retirement plans. But it's not just a lack of savings working against millennials' plans of riding off into the retirement sunset. AdvertisementAnd if you're hoping for a Hail Mary in the form of a fat inheritance to jumpstart your retirement plans, that's not looking great either.

Persons: —, MovieCrash, Alyssa Powell, Jacob Zinkula, William Edwards, we've, it's, millennials, Hail Mary, that's, Juliana Kaplan, It's, Johannes Simon, Neel Kashkari, Sam Altman, Justin Sullivan, Oliver Mulherin, Scarlett Johansson, Altman, Jensen Huang, Adam Neumann, Neumann, WeWork, Moviegoing, there's, BI's Peter Kafka, Sheryl Sandberg, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, HBO, Max, Business, Hail, Reserve Survey, Consumer, Wall, Minneapolis, UBS, Google, Nvidia, BI, Hollywood, HP Locations: Swiss, BI Denmark, New York, London

☆ Vivek Ramaswamy has a plan for BuzzFeed. There's just one problem.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced last week he had been buying up shares in BuzzFeed. Which led to the obvious question: Why is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares in BuzzFeed? Related storiesHe's laid it out in a letter to BuzzFeed's board, but if you're in a hurry I can summarize it for you: Ramaswamy wants BuzzFeed to pull an Elon Musk. Another option would be for Ramaswamy to play this out a while longer and watch BuzzFeed shares shoot up based on his saber-rattling. BuzzFeed shares closed at $3 today, up 20% from May 22, when Ramaswamy first disclosed his stake.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, BuzzFeed —, Elon, Musk, Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher, There's, Jonah Peretti, Peretti, Donald, he's Organizations: Service, Republican, Twitter Locations: BuzzFeed, MAGA

☆ The real reason behind Hollywood's miserable weekend
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewThis weekend my family went to the movies, twice. This past holiday weekend was the worst Memorial Day showing Hollywood has seen in decades, with ticket sales down a staggering 40% from last year. One thing Hollywood is very good at is generating explanations for a flop — or in this case, multiple flops. (I paid $44.76 for the two Furiousa tickets I bought over the weekend at my local Alamo Drafthouse. I don't think movies or movie theaters are going away.

Persons: —, Max, Matthew Ball, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Tom Rothman Organizations: Service, Garfield, Hollywood, Business, Sony

☆ Why Google is (probably) stuck giving out AI answers that may or may not be right
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And that most people don't know or care about search answers that tell people how many rocks to eat. Many of the examples we've seen have been uncommon queries, and we've also seen examples that were doctored or that we couldn't reproduce. What happens if people keep finding Bad Answers on Google and Google can't whac-a-mole them fast enough? Because that would be a really, really big problem. And the thing that's very different between the old Google results and the new ones is the responsibility and authority Google is shouldering.

Persons: —, we've, Katie Notopoulos, Katie, it's, Lara Levin, I've, We've, they'd Organizations: Service, Google, Business Locations: ChatGPT

☆ OpenAI's defense: We're not liars; we're just incompetent. Yikes!
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Earlier this week, the consensus around OpenAI was that the company was a lying, rapacious soul stealer. A company that wanted to use Scarlett Johansson to promote its product — and when she declined, went ahead and did it anyway, using a fake Scarlett Johansson. Here's the problem: The second version of reality is the one OpenAI itself is pushing. And OpenAI is a relatively young company, with a particularly chaotic history, which includes a foundational fight with Elon Musk and last year's well-publicized Thanksgiving coup-that-wasn't. Now they're telling us they can't handle the most basic stuff, like telling the left hand what the right hand is doing.

Persons: OpenAI, Scarlett Johansson, —, Scarlett Johansson —, Sam Altman, Johansson —, Altman, Joanne Jang, Jang, Mira Murati, Elon Musk, It's Organizations: Washington Post, bumblers, Apple, Microsoft Locations: Washington

☆ 4 totally unverified theories about Vivek Ramaswamy and BuzzFeed
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Vivek Ramaswamy ran a failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementWhy is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares of BuzzFeed? Let's start by stating the obvious: It is very funny to type the sentence "Why is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares of BuzzFeed?" Ramaswamy, as you may recall, was a fringe candidate in the most recent Republican presidential primary, where his platform consisted of praising Donald Trump and promising to "Take America First further than Trump."

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, What's, —, Ramaswamy, Donald Trump Organizations: Republican, Service, Trump Locations: Iowa

☆ What Comcast's new Netflix, Peacock, Apple TV+ streaming bundle tells you about the industry's economics
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

If you subscribe to Netflix's cheapest plan, and also get Peacock's cheapest plan, and also get Apple TV+, it will cost you $23 a month. So Peacock and Apple would benefit more from being in a bundle with Netflix, so they are more likely to discount their rates to make the bundle work. Digital distributors like Apple have made it very easy for subscribers to turn their streaming subscriptions on and off. Netflix, Comcast, and Apple all declined to comment about bundle economics. AdvertisementSo maybe all streaming subscriptions aren't equal.

Persons: it's, Ted Sarandos, I've Organizations: Service, Apple, Comcast, Business, Netflix, Verizon, Disney

☆ We're reading: Will Google's AI answers mean the end of the web?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Google is shifting to AI-generated answers for search queries to keep users on its site. This shift raises concerns about the reliability of AI answers and the impact on web traffic. You ask it a question, and it sends you to a site on the internet that can answer that question for you. And now the company is super-sizing that effort with AI-generated answers that are going to be the standard reply for all search in the near future. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Google, Service, Business

☆ Heads-up, Apple and the rest of Big Tech: Disney wants better app store deals.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Speaking at an investor conference this week, Iger said he's giving up too much money to the Big Tech app stores that distribute Disney-owned streamers like Hulu and Disney+. "Unlike Netflix, we distribute largely through third-party app stores. App stores and app distribution are a meaningful part of many tech companies' business plans. It's also possible that Disney won't need to leave third-party app stores — or threaten to leave — in order to save money. Maybe one of them will include a way to take a bit less from one of the world's biggest video companies.

Persons: Bob Iger, Iger, Michael Nathanson, I've, It's Organizations: Disney, Apple, Google, Big Tech, Hulu, Business, Netflix, signups

☆ Meme Stock Craze: the Sad Return of Roaring Kitty, GameStop, and AMC
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Gill, who goes by Roaring Kitty on X and YouTube and by DeepFuckingValue on Reddit, was at the center of the 2021 GameStop saga. Shares of AMC, GameStop's fellow meme stock, surged by nearly 80% on Monday and 30% on Tuesday. What's changed is Roaring Kitty is tweeting, and not even really about a company. If you bought GameStop or AMC shares in 2021, it might not be a bad time to consider selling some to break even. Roaring Kitty is back, and people are tossing their money into the GameStop slot machine.

Persons: Keith Gill, Gill, Roaring Kitty, DeepFuckingValue, Davids, — Gill, tweeting, hasn't, me Gill, they're, it's, Robinhood, Bitcoin, Matt Damon, Eminem, Peter Kafka, cryptocurrency, Kitty Organizations: GameStop, YouTube, Porsche, AMC, UFC Locations: Massachusetts, What's, America

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