FRIDAY WRAP: AI's voluntary guardrails (that always works!), OilyFans BP billboard, tech bro layoff earnings, and how women more likely to be replaced by AI

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG salad bar, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at July 28th Lane Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, BS-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: 

Story of the Week (DR):

1. White House Says Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft,  Agree to (Voluntary) AI Safeguards

1. Anthropic, Inflection, and OpenAI DR

2. Tesla Appoints Zhu Xiaotong as Deputy CEO Amid Pressure for Elon Musk’s Resignation

1. I could have picked X but I don’t care

3. NatWest CEO Alison Rose resigns over Nigel Farage Coutts accounts row

1. Bank’s first female CEO steps down after admitting being the source of BBC story about former Brexit leader Nigel Farage

2. Dame Alison Rose, the CEO of NatWest Group, has stood down after a row over the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts with the private bank Coutts, which NatWest owns.

3. Rose resigned from the banking group after the former Ukip leader complained to the BBC about a report that claimed his accounts with Coutts were closed for commercial reasons. The broadcaster has since apologised and amended its story.

4. Coutts CEO Peter Flavel latest to quit at NatWest over Farage debacle

5. NatWest chair Sir Howard Davies says he won't quit over Farage row

6. Rose (18%); Davies (16%); CFO Katie Murray (11%); Senior Independent Director Mark Seligman (14%)

4. ‘Barbie’ slammed by conservatives as ‘man-hating woke propaganda’ amid box office success MM

5. ESG Month guest Sean Casten JS

I’m realizing my stories fall under the same five categories each week: 1) Something related to the eventual destruction of humanity because of unregulated brotechian dictatorship BS; 2) Some level of Free Float self-promotion; 3) Musk; 4) A CEO Scandal 5) Anti-Woke/Anti-ESG Wars

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. OnlyFans billboards in London replaced with ‘OilyFans’ raising awareness of BP CEO’s pay doubling JS DR

1. Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Had Best Opening Weekend For Female-Directed Film

1. Of the 200 biggest opening weekends at the domestic box office just 11 are directed by women—and three of those films, Captain Marvel, Frozen II and Brave, were co-directed by a man

2. $162M; #-20 (#-1 is Avengers: Endgame $357M)

2. BS power MM

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. The Business Roundtable

1. Business Roundtable Welcomes House Action to Protect Shareholders and Promote Sound Corporate Governance Practices

1. Business Roundtable applauds the U.S. House Financial Services Committee for its ongoing commitment to reform the proxy voting and shareholder proposal processes, provide vital oversight of proxy advisory firms and serve as a check on the SEC’s systematic regulatory overreach.

2. Tech bro groupthink

1. First banks (the tech bro exodus killed SVB), now earning on your job

2. Mark Zuckerberg is $9 billion richer after Meta earnings, and has more than doubled his net worth in 2023 to $118 billion

1. Meta, the Bay Area’s foremost social media giant, has laid off around 21,000 workers since November

2. “Now that we've gotten through the major layoffs, the rest of 2023 will be about creating stability for employees,” he said, adding that he will focus on running the company, “as lean as possible.” 

3. Alphabet shares jump on beat and strong cloud growth

1. Alphabet cuts 12,000 jobs after pandemic hiring spree, refocuses on AI

4. Here’s who’s making money off your job cut:

1. Zuck

2. Sheryl Sandberg

1. Momentive board with 11% layoffs, revenue rise

2. Meta board with 13+% layoffs, earnings crush, Zuck net worth triples

3. Sheryl loves working for dictators - Zuck with 79% influence, Ryan Finly with 67% influence

3. Andrew Houston

1. Dropbox dictator with 16% layoffs, 17% earnings beat, more than 50% stock price rise (he owns 500k shares), 81% influence

2. Meta board, 4% influence

4. Tony Xu

1. Doordash dictator, 6% layoffs, 33% influence

2. Meta board, 3% influence

5. Marc Andreessen

1. Coinbase board (20% layoffs, 152% earnings beat in March), 5% influence

2. Meta board, 2% influence

6. Larry, Sergei, Sundar

7. John Doerr

1. Alphabet board, 3% influence

2. Doordash board, 4% influence

5. Every time you sign into to Facebook, Instagram, Threads, use Google, Bard, Google Cloud, Gmail… you should think “I just paid these fuckfaces to layoff their workers!”

3. Seawater Near Florida Reaches Hot Tub Temperatures As It Hits Record Levels

1. A buoy in Manatee Bay—on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula—recorded a water temperature of 101.1 degrees on Monday evening, after hitting 100.2 degrees a day earlier, the Associated Press reported citing meteorologists.

2. The steep ocean temperatures have had a devastating impact on aquatic life in the area with researchers reporting “100% coral mortality” in some areas near the Florida coast.

3. Not to mention that Manatee Bay no longer has any manatees: Florida manatees dying off at an alarming rate, experts say

4. But don’t worry, Meatball Ron won’t politicize the weather

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Casino magnate Steve Wynn expected to agree to $10 million fine over workplace sexual misconduct claims

1. In 2018, amid growing allegations, Wynn sold his 12.1 million shares of Wynn Resorts Ltd., raising about $2.1 billion through the stock sale

2. 210 TIMES THE AMOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENT

3. Under terms of the deal, Wynn will be allowed to maintain "passive ownership" of up to 5% of "a publicly traded corporation" registered with the Gaming Commission, but no "control, authority, advisory role or decision making power." Violating the pact could lead to a finding of "unsuitability" for association with Nevada casinos and an additional fine, it said.

4. He’s denied all allegations

2. Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse losses pass $40 billion. Here's why that's suddenly OK.

1. Q2 results show that Reality Labs, the metaverse unit at Meta, has now surpassed $40 billion in losses

2. Yet, investors sent Meta's stock up 7% on Wednesday, after hearing Zuckerberg's explanation

3. "This is a very long-term bet," Zuckerberg said on a call with analysts. "I can't guarantee you that I'm gonna be right about this bet. I do think that this is the direction that the world is going in."

4. WHAT IS SO CONVINCING ABOUT THIS???

3. Women will be more likely to be forced to switch occupations than men because of A.I. wave

1. 🙄🙄🙄

2. A new McKinsey & Co. report that examines US labor-market trends through the end of 2030 reported that women are 1.5 times more likely to need to move into a new occupation than men during that period. 

3. The reason: They’re over-represented in the industries with lower-wage jobs the report reckons will be most impacted by automation, including office support and customer service.

4. Blacks and Hispanics will also be adversely affected as demand for food and production workers shrinks.

5. AI: Created by bored white men, for the benefit of bored white men

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Sean Casten

2. AB: 

3. MM: Air conditioners - UPS workers will get them!

4. JS: I’m a week late, but Christopher Nolan. We all went to see Oppenheimer last night and were blown away

Predictions

1. DR: I keep saying I’m going to go see Barbie but never 

2. AB: 

3. MM: Illinois Rep Sean Casten’s upcoming town hall in Willowbrook Village Hall, 7760 S. Quincy St. at 11am on Saturday honoring the winners of a Congressional Art Competition, Greta Serniute, the overall winner and local high school swimmer and artist will ask Casten in the Q&A session why Representative Andy Barr hates black people and is trying to ban ESG, a question he answers by referring to his recent appearance on the Business Pants podcast from Wednesday

1. Winning piece: 

4. JS: Hollywood AKA

1. Amazon Studios- BEZOS

2. Apple Studios- COOK & LEVISON

3. Lionsgate- JON FELTHEIMER

4. NBCUniversal- ROBERTS 

5. Netflix- HASTINGS

6. Paramount Global- SHARI REDSTONE (female but daughter of media mogul)

7. Sony Picture

8. Walt Disney Company- IGER 

9. Warner Bros. Discovery- STEVEN MIRON & DAVID ZASLOV

   take notes from UPS and realize female leaders, like Carol Tome, are the key to reaching an agreement with SAG-AFTRA, not a room full of men and their bruised egos.