FRIDAY WRAP: ChatGPT as answer for all things, New Mexico likes child care, the anti-ESG crusade is well reasoned, and high heels on candy is less woke than sneakers

LIVE from your mom’s Trump-friendly Insta-account, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at January 27th Street Studios, featuring Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, Matt the BS lord.  I’m off-off-off-off-brand MSCI-flavored Doritos. On today’s weekly wrapup: Story of the Week, Goodliest of the Week, Assholiest of the Week, and Exhaustingest of the Week!  

Story of the Week (DR):

1. ChatGPT’s continuing surge AB MM JS

1. Buzzfeed stock surges 200% on plans to use OpenAI to write stories

1. BuzzFeed shares soared 203%, trading at an intraday high of $2.88 on Thursday.

2. The media firm will churn out content with the help of the ChatGPT creator, and has inked a partnership with Meta. 

3. BuzzFeed laid off 12% of its staff in December, axing around 180 roles.

2. AI chatbot’s MBA exam pass poses test for business schools

1. ChatGPT passes exams for MBA courses and medical licences

3. The CEO of the company behind AI chatbot ChatGPT—Sam Altman—says the worst-case scenario for artificial intelligence is 'lights out for all of us'

2. Delaware says stuff

1. A landmark Delaware chancery court ruling this week could put a whole new rank of company officials in the legal firing line for breaches of fiduciary duties — not just the board.

2. “Duty of oversight” extends beyond directors.

3. Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled that David Fairhurst, former global chief people officer at McDonald’s, could be sued by shareholders who accused him of allowing a “culture of sexual misconduct and harassment to develop” at the company.

4. When it comes to breaches of fiduciary duties — like so-called “duty of oversight” — Delaware courts have typically ruled that the buck stops with the board. Fairhurst had sought that very legal protection, but Mr. Laster, in a first-of-its-kind ruling for the court, rejected the argument.

5. This has huge implications for officer liability. Giving company executives the “duty of oversight,” given that they manage much of a company’s daily operations, means they can be sued for big money — millions, or even billions.

3. Toyota Makes a Change at the Top as a Toyoda Steps Aside

1. Akio Toyoda, a grandson of the company’s founder, who has been a vocal skeptic of the global efforts to shift to battery-powered electric cars, will step down as CEO and become the company’s chair on April 1

2. Toyoda was the sixth (and final?) family member to run Toyota

3. He will be succeeded by Koji Sato, a top executive at Toyota’s luxury subsidiary, Lexus.

4. Toyoda’s reluctance to embrace the auto industry’s turn toward electrification has made him the subject of fierce criticism and raised concerns among some shareholders that the company, which once led the world in the development of eco-friendly cars, could be left behind.

5. He is credited with making Toyota a leader in more energy-efficient vehicles — symbolized by its best-selling Prius, a hybrid-electric car — but Mr. Toyoda has been slow to respond to the industry’s recent movement toward full electrification.

4. M&Ms replacing spokescandies with comedian Maya Rudolph

1. M&Ms announced Monday that it would be taking "an indefinite pause from the spokescandies."

2. Conservatives have criticized the brand's rebranded female M&M candies, dubbing them "less sexy."

3. The brand began making changes to its walking, talking M&M's characters early last year, replacing the shoes of both the brown and green female M&M's. Most notably, Mars Wrigley, the maker of the popular chocolate candy, replaced the green M&M's high-heeled go-go boots with sneakers. 

5. Meta is letting Trump back onto Facebook and Instagram

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. New Mexico child care workers got the state to invest in their industry JS MM

1. Thousands of workers, nearly all women, and predominantly Latina, are celebrating the important victory: the state will pay child care providers more money per child, more families will be eligible for free childcare, and workers will get permanent raises

2. The millions of dollars now set aside for the early childhood education system  is expected to be approved by NM governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the only Latina governor in the country

3. This relentless 11 month grassroots campaign could offer a roadmap for workers and officials in other states looking for solutions to the child care crisis

2. Microsoft and ArcelorMittal back MIT spinout trying to green the $1.6 trillion steel industry DR

1. Arguably one of the biggest problems to decarbonizing industry is the production of building materials, such as steel

2. Steel production is responsible for 7-9% of global co2 emissions. Giant share. And the second largest steel producer in the world, ArcelorMittal, and Microsoft are investing in Boston Metal, a company that spun out of MIT and developed a new way of making clean steel.

3. A process that two MIT professors first published about in 2013, with lab results proving that it is possible to generate steel without releasing CO2 emissions, will now lead to a ramping up of production at its pilot facility in Massachusetts and the construction of a Brazilian subsidiary where construction of a demo steel plant is slated for 2024 and a commercial sized plant in 2016. THE FUTURE IF STEEL MIGHT BE HERE.

3. High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

1. According to a new study most US workers are putting in fewer hours, but men in the top 10% of earners cut back their time on the job the most! (Average 173k)

2.  WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH THE EXTRA TIME? Chores.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Anyone who hasn’t read our predictions paper already JS MM

2. Chevron Posts Record Profit, Bolstering $75 Billion Buyback Plan DR

1. I think this is the moment we can officially call share buybacks bribes

2. From Strive’s letter to Chevron:

1. We are concerned that Chevron faces immense pressure from its large institutional “shareholders” including BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard to adopt value-destroying limitations on its business that do not align with Chevron’s best interests. 

2. why is it in Chevron’s best interest as a business to adopt Scope 3 emissions reductions? The organization who submitted the Scope 3 proposal was transparent that its singular goal was to address climate change, but the duty of Chevron’s board is to exclusively look after the best interests of its shareholders. 

3. BUT CHEVRON HAS BEEN DISCRIMINATED AGAINST!  

3. The word “pecuniary” AB

1. Pe·cu·ni·ar·y; /pəˈkyo͞onēˌerē/. Adjective. Relating to or consisting of money.

2. It’s the key word in this headline: Republican AGs Broaden Anti-ESG Crusade by Targeting Proxy ... - Law.com

1. This is from the UT and TX AGs, and it’s the greatest worst reasoning in the history of humanity that we will mock their grandchildren about if we live that long:

1. The IEA describes the pathway to net zero as “perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced.”In other words, it is far from certain that any of this will occur. In one of your reports, you repeatedly cite the IEA pathway, yet ignore statements of the pathway’s improbability. A rational company acting in the best interests of its shareholders would not voluntarily incur the massive expense estimated by the IEA pathway

2. They say this of ISS/GL support for diversity and racial equity audits:

1. you appear to provide advice that, if taken, could expose both States and companies to significant legal liability for discriminating on prohibited bases.

3. THEY SAID IF SOMEONE TAKES THEIR ADVICE - so they admit that it’s just some advice provided, that it’s voluntary to take it, but somehow it’s illegal to have said it?

3. The conservative argument is that none of these things are pecuniary - that climate change and diversity have nothing to do with money - while oil companies have made more money than in history this past year and no company has underperformed ever in history because of diversity

4. On the upside, the war on woke has a new awesome group attached to it:

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1.  First it’s M&M’s Spokecandies and now it’s Xbox: Why conservatives are accusing the Xbox of being ‘woke’ MM DR AB

1. Microsoft said earlier this month it will update Xboxes to run more efficiently, saving users money on their electric bills and trimming the gaming industry’s carbon emissions

2. Now conservative commentators and politicians are lashing out at Xbox, calling the brand “woke” for worrying too much about the planet

3. “It’s crazy what they’re doing,” Fox News host Jimmy Failla lamented in a recent segment. “They’re trying to recruit your kids into climate politics at an earlier age.”

2. This is what happens when you have too much money: A 45-year-old tech CEO is spending millions a year to be 18 again—even though his doctor admits the results are minimal

1. Bryan Johnson, a wealthy entrepreneur based in Venice California, is 45 and is obsessed with the idea of being biologically young again

2. he is on the path to spending over $2 million this year alone on a host of medical interventions and tests aimed at helping him be younger 

3. Johnson sees a team of 30 doctors for regular, and sometimes invasive, tests for what they have named Project Blueprint

4. The best part- his doctor, Oliver Zolman shared, “We have not achieved any remarkable results. In Bryan, we have achieved small, reasonable results, and it’s to be expected.”

3. I truly don’t even know what to say about this: Audi’s new EV is a luxury SUV with augmented reality that doubles as a pickup

1. Why, whyyyyyy augmented reality in a car.

2. This feels super dangerous. They’re calling it Audi Dimensions and it’s an invisible or digital layer of the vehicle that will allow you to see what otherwise would be on a dashboard  (speedometer, temp controls, etc). So now you’ll have to reach for your VR headset or glasses, while OPERATING A VEHICLE to see if you’re going the speed limit or how much charge you have

4. LA, You Exhaust me

1. 7-Eleven is quietly testing self-driving robots to deliver Slurpees and Big Bite Hot Dogs in LA

2. Apparently traffic is hindering Los Angelinos’ ability to quench their thirst with a cup of icy SUGAR or hunger with a long oval of leftover pork trimmings SO MUCH SO that 7-Eleven is partnering with Serve Robotics to deliver them around the city

3. Ugh. I’m annoyed by 7-Eleven that THIS is what they’re spending time/energy on and I’m annoyed at LA for being a market open to this. I thought people in LA were supposed to be into wellness and healthy things???

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: families not named Toyoda

2. AB: 

3. MM: Chatbots

4. JS: Maya Rudolph

Predictions

1. DR: While fooling around with ChatGPT it accidentally fires me from Free Float, Jessie and Ari celebrate with a $130 bottle of Prosecco

2. AB:. 

3. MM: All our 2023 predictions come true

4. JS: Goop singlehandedly stops 7-eleven bots