Do mountain lions just see red, or are their thumbs just green? How about both? A new study found their gruesome dinner theater benefits vegetation, with decomposing carcasses leading to more protein-rich grasses. (And yes, we know they donât have thumbs.)
In todayâs email:
The latest in AI: It isnât all bad⌠but it isnât all good either.
Video: The weird world of hole-in-one insurance.
Return to spender: More retailers are charging for online returns.
Around the Web: A creepy tale, Marvel post-credits rankings, supermassive black holes at scale, and more internet finds.
Kick in the Bot
The AI giveth and the AI taketh away
A roundup of the latest gifts and rifts surrounding AI.
2023-05-11T00:00:00Z
Ben Berkley
Read enough about AI and two givens emerge: itâs the most constructive thing to ever exist⌠and also the most destructive.
Hereâs the latest on AIâs capricious ways.
Giveth: More money to those who haveth
Economist Yingying Lu sees one consensus forming about money in an AI age: inequality will increase.
Why?
As AI replaces labor, the working class (and unions) hold less leverage.
Capital-rich institutions, meanwhile, wield more power.
Further, governmentsâ power to redistribute wealth could diminish as labor reductions shrink tax bases.
But thereâs another way AI could shrink company sizes: leading by example.
Take OpenAI for instance: The ChatGPT maker shifted society with only ~375 employees. (Quite a different model from Metaâs ~66k-person workforce.)
Giveth: Improved vaccines
Baidu Research scientists developed an AI tool that can build more intricate mRNA structures, a development they expect will produce more potent vaccines with longer shelf lives.
The tool has only been tested for covid and shingles in mice so far, but antibody response has been encouraging.
Taketh away: Any doubt who Americaâs sweetheart truly is
Snoop Dogg isnât an AI expert; he confirmed as much during a panel last week.
On investing in AI, the rapper said: âI’m like, are we in a fucking movie right now, or what? The fuck, man?⌠Shit, what the fuck? I’m lost. I don’t know.â
But give the man credit: He distills the feelings of this dizzying AI moment perfectly.
Donât like getting dilation drops at the eye doctor? How about an ophthalmic spritz instead? Eyenovia Inc. got FDA approval this week on pupil-dilation spray Mydcombi, meant to deliver more accurate doses â and make the 106m exams performed annually in the US more efficient.
SNIPPETS
Googleâs been pretty busy: During its annual I/O event, the company rolled out three new Pixel devices, including the much-hyped foldable phone, priced at ~$1.8k â and then began the AI bonanzaâŚ
⌠Bardâs waitlist is gone, for starters. Google says its chatbot is ready for the masses and also announced that AI will be increasingly baked into Google Search, Android messaging, photo editing, and its Workspace suite.
Congratulations to Buddy Holly, the first petit basset griffon Vendeen to win the Westminster Dog Show. Of course, we think all dogs are winners and wouldnât be mad if you sent us pics of yours.
TurboTax will pay $141m to 4.4m customers to settle claims that it tricked millions into paying for tax services advertised as free. (Previous coverage here.)
Clean energy: Microsoft signed a deal to use Helion Energyâs fusion electricity by 2028.
Frank Nocean: A scammer allegedly made thousands of dollars selling âleakedâ Frank Ocean songs, but they were all AI-generated.
Meanwhile, in China, a man was arrested for allegedly using ChatGPT to fabricate a news article about a deadly train crash that didnât happen.
Etsyadded a wedding registry option for couples who prefer that handmade touch.
Coca-Cola expects to break ground on a 745k-square-foot Fairlife production facility in Webster, New York, in 2025, thatâs expected to add ~250 jobs.
Garbage day: Pencil in 2026 for the first-ever space trash collection mission â Swiss startup ClearSpace signed a launch contract with French rocketeer Arianespace to send its debris-collecting spacecraft into orbit.
Variety is the spice of life: Hot sauce leader Cholula is expanding beyond its famous wood-capped bottles for the first time with two new product lines â salsas and taco seasonings.
Whatever you need, youâll likely find it on YouTube. And the options can be overwhelming. So we did the heavy lifting and rounded up five business creators you should know about.
Putting green
Watch: Who pays for a golferâs hole-in-one?
On a warm day in September 2009, Jason Hargett, a 35-year-old restaurant manager and father of four, stepped up to the tee at Red Ledges golf resort in Heber City, Utah.
It was the end of a charity tournament and a big prize was on the line: Anyone who sunk a hole-in-one would win $1m.
Hargett took a swing
The ball careened 150 yards through the air, plopped onto the green, and slowly rolled back into the hole. Cheers erupted from the small crowd as Hargett sprinted down the fairway in disbelief.
But one entity wasnât celebrating: the insurance firm that had been hired by the organizers.
Trouble with a tee
If youâve ever watched a golf tournament or charity event, youâve probably seen some kind of prize for acing a specified hole. The chances of this happening for an amateur golfer are minuscule (~1 in 12.5k).
But most organizers canât risk getting stuck with the bill.
Instead, they turn to hole-in-one insurance firms that assume the risk for a small fee â we made a quick video to show you how these arrangements work.
Companies are ditching free returns, much to their customersâ displeasure.
2023-05-11T00:00:00Z
Sara Friedman
You know the drill: You find a great pair of shoes online but are between sizes, so you order two pairs and return whichever one doesnât fit.
It was a foolproof, reliable system. It worked. That is until retailers said, âPay up, losers.â
OK, they might not have used that exact language, but the sentiment stands: Per The Atlantic, an estimated 41% of retailers charged some kind of return shipping fee in 2022, up from 33% in 2021.
DSW charges $8.50 for returns
LL Bean takes $6.50 per returned package
Abercrombie & Fitch deducts $7 for online returns
Even Amazon started charging customers $1 for dropping packages at select UPS stores
While most retailers wonât charge if you return your rejected items at a brick-and-mortar location, standing in line at a cash register really takes the joy out of online shopping.
(We wanted to order our adult onesies and self-help books in private â that was the whole point!)
Why the change?
The average online purchase return rate is 15%-30%, and Americans returned $800B+ worth of goods in 2022. Thatâs a lot of boxes.
To make matters worse, a single return can cost a retailer $10-$20, not including transportation back to a warehouse, per The Atlantic.
Makes sense butâŚ
⌠customers still arenât pleased. More than half believe retailers should cover the cost of returns, and 62% said theyâd shop elsewhere given a poor return experience with a brand.
While returns are more expensive than ever, so is therapy â so we might just stick with online shopping as our coping mechanism for now.
AROUND THE WEB
đź On this day: In 2000, newborn Aastha Arora became Indiaâs one billionth citizen. Wanna feel old? A BBC reporter who visited her in 2022 learned sheâd just started working as a nurse.
đ Thatâs cool: Just how big is a supermassive black hole? Allow NASA to illustrate.
𦸠Haha:Inverseranked all 52 Marvel post-credits scenes, which people are definitely not going to get into heated arguments over, right?
đą Spooky: The Bell Witch of Tennessee is the supposed haunting that inspired The Blair Witch Project, but it began nearly two centuries ago.
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/logo_glow.png?upscale=true&width=1000&upscale=true&name=logo_glow.png 500w” sizes=”(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/eye.png?upscale=true&width=280&upscale=true&name=eye.png 140w” sizes=”(max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/laptop_icon.png?upscale=true&width=320&upscale=true&name=laptop_icon.png 160w” sizes=”(max-width: 80px) 100vw, 80px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Daily%20Newsletter%20Images/May%2011%2C%202023/meme_5_11.png?upscale=true&width=2120&upscale=true&name=meme_5_11.png 1060w” sizes=”(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/amb.gif?upscale=true&width=2400&upscale=true&name=amb.gif 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px”>
