Make Burritos, Not Code

Plus: Can AI make better BuzzFeed listicles? Lol. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

January 27, 2023

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Good morning and Happy Friday.

Looking for pro tips to get your teens off TikTok? Well, Morgan Stanley might have one: a seven-figure fine.

The financial services giant is penalizing its bankers up to more than $1 million for failure to comply with a strict new social media policy aimed at preventing the dealmakers and traders from conducting their business on social media platforms like WhatsApp. According to the FT, Morgan Stanley is getting medieval on personal tech after paying $200 million in fines following a broad investigation into the use of unapproved personal devices at the bank.

Morgan Stanley will either claw back the fines from prior compensation or deduct them from future earnings. So think of your teen’s allowance as leverage.

Morning Brief

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The Philippines bounces back, but for how long?

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Chipotle basks in its recession-resistant glory.

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AI scores another new media job.

International

The Philippines Finally Rebounds from Dreadfully Long COVID Policies

(Photo Credit: Fred Moon/Unsplash)

“I have returned,” a triumphant Gen. Douglas MacArthur proclaimed upon wading ashore in The Philippines toward the end of WWII in 1944. If only it could speak, the South Pacific nation’s economy would make a similar claim.

The Philippines, which consists of more than 7,100 islands, recorded its strongest growth in more than 40 years. Many smaller southeast Asian nations are seeing economic boomlets at much healthier rates than larger countries like the US, Japan, and even China for all its end-of-zero-COVID optimism.

Everyone Loves a Comeback

Throughout the pandemic, the Philippines suffered nearly 66,000 deaths and had some of the longest-running COVID prevention measures in place. But since last February, the government began easing restrictions to kickstart the economy, finally making it mandatory for kids to return to in-person school, removing mask mandates for public spaces, and opening up tourism – an industry that raked in more than $9 billion in 2019.

Now, the Philippines is back in business, and business is good. For all of 2022, the nation recorded an economic growth rate of 7.6%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, beating economist expectations of 6.5%. But the Philippines isn’t relying on just white-sand beach lovers and adventurous eaters looking to try their first balut. The federal office attributed the majority of last year’s growth to retail, the vehicle repair industry, manufacturing, and construction.

The Philippines is not an anomaly:

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Neighboring countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam all saw hefty economic growth rates in 2022 with 5.2%, 6.5%, and 8%, respectively. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he expects the country’s economy to continue to grow by roughly 7% in 2023.

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Much of that hopeful outlook depends on China’s success, however, as it is the largest trading partner with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In 2022, China’s economy expanded by just 3%, its poorest performance in roughly 50 years. Three years of zero-COVID restrictions took a heavy toll on pretty much every sector and did little to contain outbreaks.

Easy There: Despite a good rebound last year, and perhaps a promising 2023, the Philippines is suffering from – what’s that word? Oh, right: inflation. The PSA reported the average inflation rate for 2022 was 5.8%, up from 3.9% the year prior. President Marcos, who’s also the agriculture secretary, has called the high price of homegrown food an “emergency situation.” Onions, a staple of Filipino cuisine, now cost more than meat. Economists believe both consumer and government spending will slow, so keeping the growth streak going will be tricky.

– Griffin Kelly

Retail

Chipotle Goes On Hiring Spree

As the tech sector keeps laying people off by volume, “Learn to code” is tired, and “Learn to make a burrito” is wired.

Chipotle announced on Thursday it plans to hire 15,000 full-time and part-time workers across North America ahead of its busy spring season. The restaurant is savoring strong growth and profits and has proved resilient amid inflation, but is nevertheless lobbying hard to avoid paying its workers an extra $6 per hour.

Careful Not To Overstuff

As a large chain, Chipotle fared pretty well through the pandemic compared to smaller, independent restaurants that lacked cash reserves to stay open after getting battered by lockdowns. In February 2022, Chipotle opened its 3,000th restaurant and announced it eventually intends to operate 7,000 locations in North America.

A tumultuous economy hasn’t deterred consumers from eating out at their favorite chains. More concerning to Chipotle is a looming referendum in California that could bloat its operating costs:

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The referendum, due to be held next year, proposes legislation called the FAST Act which would guarantee fast food workers a minimum of $22 per hour, just over the current living wage in California for a person with no children, per the MIT living wage calculator.

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Chipotle joined other fast food behemoths including McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks, in pumping $1 million each into lobbying efforts opposing the law. Given Chipotle pays its workers an average of $16 per hour, you can see how an almost 40% raise could loom large on its income statement, potentially thwarting its expansionist ambitions.

Salad Days are Over: As a small company that delivers fresh, organic vegetables, British food firm Riverford is the polar opposite of a Chipotle or a McDonald’s. It has also seen a huge dive in profits, partly because it raised pay for its workers to qualify as an accredited living wage employer. Staff aren’t the only ones getting a bite of the organic apple, either. Despite profits tanking 56% in its last fiscal year, founder Guy Singh-Watson saw his dividend double to £850,000. Guess you’d call that the carrot and carrot approach.

– Isobel Asher Hamilton

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Media

BuzzFeed Will Start Using AI to Create Content

Buzzfeed just stumbled into its latest listicle idea: Top 5 Ways AI Can Scale Your Business.

On Thursday, the millennial-focused digital publishing outlet told staff it will begin to use AI tools courtesy of ChatGPT creator OpenAI to help create content, according to an internal memo from CEO Jonah Peretti seen by The Wall Street Journal. The company’s oft-beleaguered stock was up by as much as 168% on the news, meaning, for now, Buzzfeed is fittingly bidding hasta la vista to trading below a single buck.

From Viral Quizzes to Turing Tests

BuzzFeed is hardly the first media organization to tap the emerging field of artificial intelligence to handle tasks traditionally reserved for human writers and creatives — though the robots haven’t exactly made a seamless entrance into the field. Most notably, tech publication CNET was forced to do a full audit of the 77 AI-written articles it published after onlookers flagged a series of factual errors, many caused by basic math flubs, as well as multiple instances of the bots possibly committing plagiarism (if CNET needs a good lawyer, AI’s not too good at replacing those yet either).

Still, BuzzFeed is pressing on with its pursuit, though it’s aiming to make AI more of an editorial assistant than a full-blown reporter:

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Peretti posited that AI could be used to write unique and individualized write-up results for the site’s popular quizzes based on users’ answers and responses. Human staffers, meanwhile, would still provide “inspired prompts” and “cultural currency” to guide the AI.

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Even so, Peretti notes in his memo that within 15 years, AI could be used to “create, personalize, and animate the content itself.” BuzzFeed will preview a pilot version of the AI by February, the memo says.

Judgment Day: The increasingly sophisticated world of AI presents something of an existential crisis for writers, artists, designers, and creatives of other sorts. In Hollywood, screenwriters are already fretting about studios turning to AI, even if some of the reboots and sequels we’ve seen do strike us as pretty robotic already. “Whether or not it should happen, I think it’s very obvious that it can or likely will,” Franklin Leonard, founder of the screenwriting-focused organization The Black List, recently told Puck’s Matthew Belloni in a podcast interview. “That will exert serious downward pressure on early career writers… you may end up cannibalizing the very source of future talent that has the potential to make [studios] money.” Of course, we flesh-and-bone writers and editors at The Daily Upside, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

– Brian Boyle

Extra Upside

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The Blair Witch Tactic: Experimental horror film Skinamarink makes $1.5 million at the box office on just a $15K budget.

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Not enough cash to rent an apartment? You’re better off buying a house in these five cities.

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Just For Fun

Almost had it.

Don’t ruin your appetite.

Have a great weekend!

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