Friends, Romans, countrymen, we’re hiring our first ad sales lead at Pirate Wires. Work will be difficult, team is amazing, uncapped potential. If you think you have what it takes, hit us up - sales@piratewires.com

A second note, please extend a warm welcome to Riley Nork. Today, he’s taking the Industry weekly. Moving forward, for the Industry more generally, I’ll be focussing on longer form reported pieces like the Google story I wrote last week, in addition to publishing perspectives from industry professionals. Finally, a question: are you enjoying the Industry weekly? What would you like to see more of? Share your thoughts in the comments.

-SOLANA

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This newsletter is brought to you by Harmonic.

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INDUSTRY LINKS

• r/IPO. Reddit officially filed S-1 paperwork for an initial public offering, becoming the first major social media company to go public since Snap in 2017. (@MikeIsaac)

• The company will also be a portion of its shares to users of its platform (!).

• Hilariously, Reddit is warning about any volatility that may result as a result of shenanigans from r/wallstreetbets, the community behind the GameStop short squeeze.

• “Given the broad awareness and brand recognition of Reddit, including as a result of the popularity of r/wallstreetbets… the market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock could experience extreme volatility for reasons unrelated to our underlying business.”

• False alarm. After this post on X went viral about Google possibly doing to Gmail what Gemini did to white people, the company assuaged those fears — it seems the only feature going by the wayside is Gmail’s basic HTML view.

• The email platform may soon have a new competitor, however, with Elon announcing a new “Xmail” service coming soon.

• Sundar responds. Google CEO Sundar Pichai issued the first internal comms responding to the aforementioned Gemini failure, calling it “completely unacceptable” and vowing to make structural changes in an email to employees.

• Pichai was intentionally vague about the problem at hand, which Solana reports was due to the fact that internal consensus at the company aligned with the left-wing press’ take — namely, the ‘real issue’ was not erasing white people from history, but introducing the world to black Nazis.

• Apple’s multi-billion dollar, decade-long Apple Car effort dubbed Project Titan is no more. One of its biggest investments in company history comes to an end without ever releasing a single car. (Bloomberg)

• Some employees will reportedly move to Apple’s AI division, while others will be laid off (though it’s unclear how many at this point).

• And Elon, of course, welcomed the news.

• AT&T is giving customers 5 bucks for their troubles after the widespread outage that affected thousands of their subscribers, some for as much as 12 hours. (Bloomberg)

• Federal agencies looked into the outage for a cyberattack, and there were even rumors of a possible solar flare connection, but ultimately the culprit turned out to be… a software update.

• SpaceX lived up to their name, making their first post on X from space through a Starlink Direct to Cell satellite.

• And Volkswagen is trying to get us excited about their new EV by baiting us with their old Scout models (beautiful, classic) when in reality the car is yet another “whoa, future” prototype straight out of freaking Tron. (Agree with the boss here!) (NYT)

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From the Pod

In case you missed it: the crew dives further into the absolute insanity of Google’s racist Gemini A.I. Image Generator, Taylor Swift and Joe Biden 2024 election conspiracies, plus how a local government successfully ended homeless camps, and more. Watch the latest episode below:

• The bad times at Google continue… shares of the company fell 4.5% on the heels of its Gemini debacle. (The Information)

• Joe Lonsdale announced that OpenGov — the government technology company he helped found in 2012 — was acquired by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion. (@JTLonsdale)

• And Will Manidis announced the acquisition of his healthcare AI company ScienceIO by Veradigm for $140 million. Also, check out Will’s writeup for Pirate Wires on executive physicals, aka “the intensive, three-day, no-expenses-spared medical check-ups catering solely to the ultra-rich and selective.” (@WillManidis)

AI:

• An artist in the Netherlands is set to marry an AI hologram named AILex, which was programmed on data related to the bride-to-be’s previous relationships. (Business Insider)

• There’s hope for all of us.

• Speaking of, Match Group, the dating app giant behind Tinder, is partnering up with OpenAI to help employees with work-related tasks (and even wrote up their press release announcing the partnership using ChatGPT). (Tech Crunch)

• Tyler Perry has paused a planned $800 million expansion of his Atlanta movie studio after the release of Sora. “I don’t have to put a set on my lot. I can sit in my office and do this with a computer.” (Hollywood Reporter)

• That fake AI robocall using Biden’s voice to tell New Hampshire residents not to vote for him? Apparently it was recorded by a New Orleans magician who holds the world record for straitjacket escapes at the request of a rival Democratic operative. Whimsical! We love this!

• And in other AI election news, Belarus recently held their parliamentary elections in which the opposition party made their endorsement for… an AI chatbot named Yas Gaspadar.

• Apparently, the endorsement was a sort of protest since the four official registered parties in Belarus are all just supporters of current President Alexander Lukashenko.

• Said opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya of the bot: “he’s more real than any candidate the regime has to offer… the best part? He cannot be arrested!”

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Check out more from the Pirate Wires extended universe

California Taxpayers Are Funding Left Wing Activism Through the CA Arts Council. california taxpayer money is being laundered through 'funding for the arts' into radical leftist groups, some of which don't appear to do much art at all. Read it here.

Endorsements for Human Civilization (March 2024). a san francisco voter guide for people who aren’t insane. Read it here.

The Future is Not Post-Industrial. white pill #42 // techno-industrialist manifesto, odysseus' fate, remotely controlled surgery on the ISS, electron beam welding, microrobots, neuralink updates. Read it here.

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Litigation and regulation:

• OpenAI has asked a federal court to dismiss the New York Times’ lawsuit against the company, saying that in order to produce the allegedly copyright-infringing content at the heart of the suit, the Times would have had to “hack” OpenAI’s products.

• In a filing, the AI company alleged it took “tens of thousands of attempts to generate the highly anomalous results,” and that the Times did so using “deceptive prompts that blatantly violate OpenAI’s terms of use.”

• Question: why is mention of this lawsuit not plastered at the top of every single Times article covering the company?

• Elsewhere, Waymo’s planned expansion to Los Angeles and San Mateo counties has been paused by California regulators to allow for more “staff review.” Ffs. (Tech Crunch)

• And in a huge case for the industry, the Supreme Court is currently hearing challenges to state laws in Florida and Texas that aim to stop tech companies from barring content they deem objectionable — something that would completely shake up the future of speech online. (NYT)

• A major contention here? Whether or not online platforms should be treated as “common carriers” like phone companies, which typically don’t discriminate against customers or messages based on the content they host.

• As things stand now, justices are hinting that the state laws may be unconstitutional, but we’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one as it develops.

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Human resources:

• Rivian is cutting 10% of its salaried workforce, the company’s third round of layoffs since July 2022. (Tech Crunch)

• Sony is cutting 900 jobs across its gaming division worldwide (about 8% of its employees) and shutting down a division in London. (Bloomberg)

• Pivotal, the company working on flying cars that has the backing of Google cofounder Larry Page, laid off 10% of its staff. (Business Insider)

• BuzzFeed is cutting 16% of its staff, while selling off its Complex Networks media unit for $108.6 million. (Bloomberg)

• Last but not least, Vice announced in a staff memo they will no longer publish stories on their website. Instead, the company is looking to be more cost-effective by shifting to a studio model, distributing its content to other platforms with an emphasis on social. (NYT)

• It’s also laying off hundreds of employees, and co-founder Gavin McInnes took the opportunity to dunk on (now former) writers.

• Gone, but not forgotten:

Trade war:

• Documents that leaked online reveal how Chinese authorities used a private company to hack a number of foreign governments and organizations. (FT)

• In the wake of the news, the White House signed an executive order to protect ports from potential China hackers, and Secretary Mayorkas called for more cybersecurity regulations for companies.

• And finally, lawmakers in Washington are calling for a ban on imports sold on Temu, citing forced labor concerns with the company. (The Information)

-Riley Nork