Just Win, Baby
OpenAI & Airbnb Evolve • Hollywood Tariffs • Half-Off Movies • Studio Funding • $treaming E$PN • AI Audiobooks • Stargate UAE • AI I/O + Gemini • Apple Batteries & Brains • Pete Rose • Madden Movie
OpenAI had a hell of a tumultuous past week or so. They often do, but this one felt especially jarring given all the changes (and non-changes). It occurred to me that there might be a way to tie it all together, so I attempted to do so:
🌪️ "Not a Normal Company"
But OpenAI may finally be making moves towards becoming one...
• Listening to Apple's new "Sound Therapy" Channels -- not bad! 🎶
• Written on an M4 MacBook Air 💻
• Sent from London, England 🏴 I Wrote...
Who writes up 1,700+ words in summary of a 3,500 word profile? This guy. But seriously, Steven Levy’s profile of Brian Chesky for Wired is well worth the read. As too, I hope are my thoughts about it…
🏡 On the Road to Airbnb's Reinvention
Yet again, they're trying things that historically don't scale. But AI! Maybe!
I Note...
Hollywood
🎬 Why ‘Make Hollywood Great Again’ Makes Sense
I had saved a bunch of articles to read a couple weeks back about Trump’s tariff ideas for Hollywood — then, as is so often the case with this administration in particular, everything was seemingly backtracked and/or changed. As an aside, rule by whiplash is an especially annoying use of power — though I sort of do appreciate that a million thought-pieces are launched only to be irrelevant within hours. Still, I found this column, well after the fact, interesting. Because it’s less about the tariffs themselves — which, obviously never made any sense, certainly not financially — and more about the signal they’re trying to send. To the world, to Hollywood itself, to California, to trade workers. Etc. The China tariffs, at least on paper, made some level of sense as a negotiating tactic. The Hollywood tariffs were pure PR. [FT 🔒]
📽️ Half-Off Movie Wednesdays
For a while, AMC has been offering discounts on movie tickets to their loyalty program members on Tuesdays, now it’s spreading… The fact that this seems to be working might suggest, I don’t know, that people view it as too expensive to go to the movies. After years of ticket price inflation (which far outpaced actual inflation) that inflated the box office numbers (well, really just propped them up in the face of ever-declining attendance), any movement the other way is welcome. It’s 2025, clearly there should be more dynamic pricing in place for movie theaters, just as is the case in basically every other audience-based market. But that’s only half the solution: there are also just too many movie theater screens in general — not the mom and pop theaters, which are generally great, but the AMCs of the world, which are generally not. [THR]
🍿 ‘The Substance’ Studio Eyes $1 Billion Valuation
Sequoia leading a $100M round into Mubi follows Thrive leading a $75M round into A24. While the companies started out quite differently — Mubi had been a more niche streaming service for higher-end films — with this capital, it sounds like Mubi will be going further down the original production lane. Indie movie studios and VC, so hot right now. [Puck 🔒]
Streaming
🏈 Streaming ESPN Will Cost You $30/Month
In confirming the (impressively simple) 'ESPN' name of their new flagship sports streaming service, we also got the price: $29.99/month (or $299.99/year). Most notable there is perhaps that everyone was exactly right a decade ago in guessing the price of a stand-alone ESPN service! Disney also smartly makes their bundle a no-brainer to sign up for with Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN as it’s… $29.99/month. It’s similar to the math equation Amazon leveraged with Alexa+ — you could pay for it stand-alone, or get all the rest for basically free. Of course, that’s only for 12 months, and only if you’re okay with the ad-tier of Disney+ and Hulu (all of ESPN seemingly has ads, perhaps unsurprisingly). After that the bundle will be $35.99/month — or $44.99/month with no ads (again, on Disney+ or Hulu). No, $29.99/month isn’t cheap, but if it was the main thing keeping you on cable, or now a newerfangled vMVPD, you might be able to break free (I actually think I will, of YouTube TV after their non-stop price-hikes). There is also a cheaper tier of ESPN — the 'select' plan — which seemingly just replaces ESPN+ (while throwing in a few more ESPN things) for $11.99/month ($119.99/year). All-in-all, well played, Disney. [ESPN]
AI
🗣️ Audible AI-Voiced Audiobooks
One of those stories that seems like it would have people — and certainly authors — up in arms: AI! Copyright! But when you read that only 2% - 5% of all eBooks exist in audio form right now, this is actually an absolute no-brainer when it comes to the use of AI. Sure, if authors/publishers don’t want their work in audio form, they should be able to opt-out. But also think about the accessibility angle here as well — not to mention the internationalization one. [Bloomberg 🔒]
🇦🇪 OpenAI to Announce Stargate Data Center in UAE
Well, that’s certainly one way to ensure at least some of the funding for Stargate is secured. Though last I checked, the UAE is not in the US, and that’s where the $500B promise was made. Still, one imagines they can help with that too… [Information 🔒]
⚙️ Google Gearing Up for an AI I/O
A Pinterest-like feature (clearly meant to spur commerce), a software development assistant, and the potential of 'AI Mode' rolling out to all users (I, like many, am now seeing it in place of the "I’m Feeling Lucky" button) — which is wild and once again shows how seriously Google is taking this threat — and some AI/XR stuff (which was teased in the Android-focused pre-event yesterday). But the most interesting potential thing here may be the baking of Gemini Live into Chrome. Not so much because of the feature itself, but because it would be Google leveraging Chrome for some level of their AI distribution. That seems… quiet contentious at the moment. Also: what is OpenAI about to show off in the next few days? Since they always like to do try do something to play spoiler to Google… [Information 🔒]
🤖 Gemini Smarts Are Coming to More Android Devices
Related to the above, on one hand, it’s obviously smart of Google to hustle to leverage Gemini in ways that Apple clearly cannot with their own AI services at the moment. That includes bringing the AI to many different types of devices, whereas Apple’s are limited to a subset of newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs (with enough RAM). On the other hand, a lot of these features just sound like things Google was already promising and/or doing in the era before Gemini. As always, the proof will be in how — and if — people actually use these features. [Google]
Apple
🔋 Apple to Unveil New AI Tool to Increase iPhone Battery Life
Speaking of… this use of "AI" is clearly born out of the forthcoming 'iPhone Air', which is obviously going to have a smaller battery to accommodate the thinness of the device. And while Apple can do some physical things trade-off-wise, ultimately physics dictates that the device will have at least slightly worse battery life. Enter "AI" — which honestly doesn’t sound all that different from the things Apple is already doing to maximize battery life across their devices. But "AI" sounds cooler, and you can be sure Apple is going to tout it on stage. [Bloomberg 🔒]
🧠 Apple to Support Brain-Implant Control of Its Devices
One version of this headline was "Apple Wants People to Control Devices With Their Thoughts" which I think is fairly distasteful to what is actually going on here. This isn’t some science fiction project, it’s a way to help people with real disabilities, right now, better use their devices. Will that work lead to more general computing breakthroughs in the future (such as has been the case with Apple’s work with AirPods and hearing loss)? Undoubtedly. But it’s just not the right time to overpromise (or focus) on such things. This is great and it’s great that multiple companies are working these problems. [WSJ 🔒]
I Quote...
"Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game."
— Rob Manfred, the commissioner of the MLB, upon announcing that he was lifting the ban on Pete Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, and a handful of other ballplayers.
As a lifelong baseball fan, I feel quite conflicted about this. On one hand, it’s ridiculous that Rose and Jackson (and Bonds and McGwire and Clemens, etc) are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Various forms of cheating have always been a part of the game, sadly, and drawing certain lines seems challenging at best and arbitrary at worst. On the other, Rose, who I met once long ago in passing, was clearly not a good guy. And this story doesn’t skip past that portion of his life (even outside of the gambling), nor did the recent documentary about him. Then again, neither was Ty Cobb, incidentally the man Rose passed to become the "Hit King" all those years ago.
As I wrote when he passed away, I net out at putting him in the Hall of Fame (and guessed the semantics might be Manfred’s tactic) and just being honest about both the accomplishments and the failings. Let people decide for themselves and perhaps learn something. This, by the way, doesn’t put him immediately in the HOF, the Hall's 16-member Classic Baseball Era Committee will have to vote on it — likely in 2028.
As for the timing of this, clearly this is just Manfred playing to President Trump, who has been calling for this to happen. Incidentally, if you watch that documentary, there’s one person who Rose may remind you of…
I Spy...
Sticking with sports, I still cannot believe the Madden movie is actually happening — and that’s it’s Christian Bale, and not Nicolas Cage, who is playing Al Davis, while Cage plays John Madden (the person, not the game named after the person — which is apparently a focal point of the movie). But, well, promotional stills don’t lie. Unless this is a fantastic AI generated troll. Also, John Mulaney is playing Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. Just win, baby.
