đ§ On the pod:Is your rent super high? Just wait until 2026.
NEWS FLASH
đ€ A challenger appears: Chinese tech company Alibaba debuted its newest AI reasoning model, QwQ-32B, claiming it rivals â and uses less data than â DeepSeekâs R1 and âalmost entirelyâ surpasses Open AI-o1-mini, OpenAI’s most cost-efficient reasoning model. Alibabaâs Hong Kong-listed shares were up 8%+ on Thursday on the news. Meanwhile, Manus, another Chinese AI tool available via invite-only preview, claims it can perform real-world tasks, such as generating curricula, itineraries, and analyses, and can outperform OpenAIâs Deep Research.
đ Video games⊠yum. Science has brought us one step closer to actually being able to taste delicious-looking food on our screens. A team of researchers created e-Taste, a human-machine interface device, which delivers salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami chemicals directly into usersâ mouths. It uses an electromagnetic pump to respond to remote stimuli before sending flavored gels through a tab to the tongue. While we are obviously focused on finally getting to taste the food in movies and TV shows, other potential applications include immersive gaming, online shopping, education, physical rehab, weight management, and more.
đïž Post help: Reddit introduced new features for posters. Rules Check will help users see if their posts are violating a subredditâs rules. This tool will first test on iOS and Android before fully rolling out. Post Recovery will prompt users when their post has been removed and offer a link to post in a different subreddit, while Post Insights will show users how many views, upvotes, shares, and crossposts theyâve achieved. Both of those tools are available now on both Redditâs website and app.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Kraft Heinz is getting boozy. Fret not, the brand isnât pushing ketchup-flavored vodka. But it is launching a Crystal Light Vodka Refreshers hard seltzer line after estimating that 20% of the lineâs customers already use it as a mixer for alcoholic drinks.
Bottoms up, boomers: Speaking of booze, baby boomers are drinking it. The percentage of Americans over 55 who say they drink alcohol has increased from 49% in the early 2000s to 59% today, per Gallup data. For those aged 18-34, it fell from 72% to 62%.
Dice games: The forthcoming Monopoly film has tapped screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The duo also wrote another feature based on a Hasbro property: 2023âs Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
DECODE CODING
Level up by learning how to code
It starts with a simple personal profile card.
Youâll also tackle landing pages, contact forms, and other solid website staples. (Event page. Image gallery. Online poll. FAQ. âComing Soon.â)
By the end of the day, week, month â whatever it takes â youâll be the proud owner of basic and beautiful projects.
Then, youâll mental-blender all of those skills to manifest one pretty tricked-out site.
Publish it, kiss it farewell, on to the next.
The end-game prize: a glistening portfolio of projects that keep getting better.
The most enigmatic role in Hollywood is that of a movie producer, whose contributions to filmmaking are important and yet often undefinable.
But you donât really need to know what they do to become one.
Hooray for crowdfunding
Twelve years ago, Veronica Mars became the most-backed campaign in Kickstarterâs history, surpassing its goal of $2m to reach a $5.7m budget.
But todayâs filmmakers are moving away from Kickstarterâs âgive us moneyâ model.
Instead, theyâre giving fans a say in a projectâs development and even equity in its success.
Thatâs how production company Legion M works, with crowdfund contributors receiving a cut if a film does well at the box office or gets bought by a distributor.
Contributors can also peek behind the scenes, potentially getting more invested in a projectâs success (pun intended).
Investment platform Republic and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (of Sin City and Spy Kids) are launching something similar with Brass Knuckle Films, a studio dedicated to fan-backed action movies, perFast Company.
Rodriguez says thereâs an insatiable appetite for action movies, no matter who makes them.
Why not let fans fund the movies, profit from them, get involved in the production, and even pitch their ideas?
The key gimmickâŠ
⊠with Brass Knuckle is that every investor can submit a movie idea.
Rodriguez will pick the top 10.
The finalists will pitch their movies, âSharkTankâ-style, and Rodriguez will select one to actually make.
In theory, everyone involved will then be invested (pun intended, again) in the film being a hit.
Financial specifics, including whether the original creator gets a larger cut or whether unchosen creators retain the rights to their pitches, remain to be seen.
Maybe check on that before submitting your dream idea about a retired assassin who comes back for one last job.
Millionaire by age 18? Not out of the question for these three high school founders.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
How much Neon spent marketing director Sean Bakerâs indie romance Anora. Stunts included a popup shop in Los Angeles and an online store where fans could find merchandise such as T-shirts, underwear, and prints.
Thatâs not a lot compared to other films â Barbie had a reported $150m budget â but it is 3x the $6m it took to make Anora.
Despite its small budget and indie status, Anora won big at the Academy Awards, scoring the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
AROUND THE WEB
đ On this day: In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for best director with The Hurt Locker.
đ See you at SXSW: Get on the guest list for our party on Monday night, co-hosted with HubSpot for Startups. Hustle subscribers skip the line and most importantly, get first dibs on free BBQ (password in Mondayâs email).
Columbia University sophomore Roy Lee came to despise the Big Tech interview gauntlet, particularly the tedious coding-heavy technical stage. So, he did what anyone would do: he built Interview Coder, an AI program that he claims successfully passed him through the stage at Meta, TikTok, and Amazon.
Unfortunately for Lee, someone forgot the whole âsnitches get stitchesâ thing and tattled on him. Amazon revoked a job offer, and Columbia set a disciplinary hearing for next week â which Lee told Gizmodo he wonât be attending. Heâs leaving school behind and has started selling $60/month subscriptions to Interview Coder.
According to Lee, thereâs no time to waste when it comes to making a living: âMost human intelligence work is going to be obsolete in two years. So I have two years to make something happen.â Bleak.
SHOWER THOUGHT
Airheadsâ White Mystery Flavor is top-tier genius marketing.SOURCE
Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Sam Barsanti and Kaylee Jenzen. Editing by: Ben âMmm, delicious âFalloutâ Nuka Colaâ Berkley.
