Sam Altman says Miyazaki should get over it, AI vs A1, and Zuck testifies

AI

1. Meta wants you to use your phone as a 'second screen' in movie theaters to interact with a chatbot

1. More specifically, the technology, called Movie Mate, will allow those who attend the special screening to interact with a M3GAN chatbot during the movie on their phones. They will also be sent exclusive content like trivia and behind the scenes facts — all in real time while the movie is running.

2. Landmark antitrust trial could force Zuckerberg to sell Instagram

1. A trial in the landmark antitrust case against social media giant Meta kicked off in Washington on Monday.

2. Lawyers for the US competition and consumer watchdog allege Meta unlawfully quashed rivals by purchasing Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago.

3. "They decided that competition was too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals than to compete with them," said Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawyer Daniel Matheson.

2. Jamie Dimon hates how cell phones have ruined productivity in meetings—and experts are rejoicing at someone finally stating the obvious

1. “I see people in meetings all the time who are getting notifications and personal texts or who are reading emails,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. “This has to stop. It’s disrespectful. It wastes time.”

2. “Dimon's bluntness is refreshing,” Melody Wilding, an executive coach, told Fortune. “Finally, someone with power calling out what we all see happening. The core issue here is respect for everyone's time though, not the tech itself.”

3. Former Google CEO Tells Congress That 99 Percent of All Electricity Will Be Used to Power Superintelligent AI

1. "What we need from you," Eric Schmidt told lawmakers, "is we need the energy in all forms, renewable, non-renewable, whatever. It needs to be there, and it needs to be there quickly."

4. A tech CEO has been charged with fraud for saying his e-commerce startup was powered by AI, when it was actually just using manual human labor

1. Startup tech company Nate promised consumers easier shopping with the help of artificial intelligence. But the Justice Department says there was no miracle tech behind the checkout app’s transactions. Instead, they were handled by humans in the Philippines and Romania.

2. Officials at the U.S. Attorney’s office have indicted Albert Saniger, the former CEO of Nate, for defrauding investors with misleading statements about the firm.

5. DoorDash is now sending food in delivery robots. That’s as good and bad as you think

1. The delivery giant is adopting Coco—who looks like a small cooler on wheels—as its newest sidewalk courier in Los Angeles and Chicago.

6. If It Exists, Someone Has Left It in an Uber

1. The company’s annual list of items passengers have left behind includes a mannequin head with human hair, a urinal and a chain saw.

7. Sam Altman Says Miyazaki Just Needs to Get Over It

1. In the wake of OpenAI releasing its new server-melting image generator that went viral for creating soulless simulacra of Studio Ghibli-style illustrations, CEO Sam Altman is slamming the haters — including, it seems, the man whose art he's cribbing.

2. During an interview with tech founder and YouTuber Arun Mayya, Altman dismissed newly-resurfaced criticisms from Studio Ghibli cofounder Hayao Miyazaki, who in 2016 lambasted an AI-generated animation he was shown as "creepy" and "an insult to life itself."

3. When Mayya — who says he created and deployed AI avatars of himself that allow him to enjoy "permanent vacation" — suggested to Altman that artists' concerns about AI are legit, the OpenAI cofounder claimed that the "trade-off is worth it."

4. He then claimed that it was "impossible" to make videos — or as they used to call it back in the stone age, being a filmmaker — just a few decades ago.

5. "Think what it was like to try to do what you do 30 years ago," Altman implored Mayya. "I mean, you'd need like a camcorder and like VHS tapes and then you'd have to like edit it in some complicated way. And then even if you did that, you would have to, like, distribute tapes, because there was no internet and no YouTube."

8. McDonald's is doubling down on lemonade

1. McDonald’s made the announcement on their website describing the lemonade as “featuring real lemon juice, bits of lemon pulp and real cane sugar and handcrafted by our beverage experts.”

9. Vimeo CEO says not using adverbs helps put the focus on customers—here’s why he thinks it helps companies to not ‘lose their way’

1. “When we would write press releases, we weren’t allowed to use adverbs,” Moyer tells Fortune. “We had to actually not talk about the features of our products, but instead the problems we were solving for customers. And I would tell you that it was a really instructional reset in the language that I had to use.”

2. Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer's official executive bio uses 4 adverbs while the press release announcing his appointment as CEO uses 10 adverbs'

MAYBE

1. Walmart CEO says ‘there will be a Christmas’ despite lingering fears of a trade war

1. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told investors that the world’s largest retailer has navigated many periods of uncertainty before, including the tariff hikes of 2018 and the post-pandemic inflation surge. And he assured them the company had a strategy moving forward: “We have a plan to execute. There will be a Christmas, and people will celebrate Christmas, and they will buy items, and we will sell them those items.”

2. Billionaire CEO Behind America's Largest Digital Media Company That 'You've Never Heard Of' Sells Florida Mansion For $73 Million In All Cash Deal

1. Ric Elias, the billionaire CEO of Red Ventures, which owns Bankrate, CNET, and The Points Guy, has just sold his Palm Beach, Florida mansion for $73 million.

3. Billionaire Warren Buffett made his first million by 32—now he’s telling Gen Z that the key to getting rich isn’t just hard work, but the company you keep

4. Boss uses a recruiter-approved coffee cup test in every interview—and he won’t hire anyone who fails it

1. The trick was described by an Australian boss, Trent Innes, who is the former managing director of accounting platform Xeno, and now works as the chief growth officer at SiteMinder.

2. Innes said he always takes prospective employees for a walk to the kitchen for a beverage—and although he calls it a coffee cup test, it’s not about whether you take your caffeine hit black or with sugar. You could even forgo coffee for water or tea and still pass the test. It’s what you do with your cup afterward that he’s keeping an eye on.

5. Linda McMahon mixed up AI and A.1. — so of course now the steak sauce is all over it

1. The Secretary of Education made a tasty mistake, which the company behind A.1. savored

NO

1. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms adds former Trump advisor to the board days before an antitrust showdown with the FTC

1. Dina Powell McCormick is a veteran global finance executive and former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term. Powell McCormick also previously served as assistant secretary for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the George W. Bush administration.

2. She will join Trump ally and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White at Meta.

2. Callide Power Station CEO and general manager step down after explosion

1. Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie: "The CEO, my understanding, had indicated last week that they intended to resign," he said. "We have asked that particular individual to bring forward their resignation, which was effective on the weekend.”

3. Look inside Mark Zuckerberg's $23 million Washington mansion

4. Defense tech giant Palantir wants to poach top high school grads with a new anti-college internship: 'Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination.'

1. "Opaque admissions standards at many American universities have displaced meritocracy and excellence," the Palantir posting says. "As a result, qualified students are being denied an education based on subjective and shallow criteria. Absent meritocracy, campuses have become breeding grounds for extremism and chaos."

5. Scotts Miracle-Gro Cutting Ties with Cannabis Investments for Now as Federal Legalization Stalls

1. Weed-killing company kills weed, again?