May 22, 2024

The Appetizer

“It’s been a while since I won.”

• Xander Schauffele after winning the 2024 PGA Championship, his first major championship title.

Now, on to the numbers. Drum roll, please …

• 872: The number of trading sessions through last Wednesday for the Dow to reach its latest 10,000-point milestone of 40,000.
• 67: The number of minutes that it took Chilean tennis player Alejandro Tabilo to beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
• 90%: The percentage of companies that said cybersecurity risks have risen over the past year.
• $1.12 trillion: The collective amount that Americans owed on their credit cards in the first quarter of 2024.
• 1.4 million: The number of words that can be analyzed by Google’s newest AI model, Gemini 1.5 Flash, doubling Gemini’s context window.

Dig In
ChatBots

We’ve crowned winners in the streaming and sneaker wars – but what about the “bots?” Over the past couple of weeks there have been new releases of some of the most commonly used large language models (LLMs), so we figured it might be time for a quick update.

LLMs allow the user to ask for help like one would a human, and they can handle tons and tons of data to do things like code, craft stories, or even dish out food tips. ChatGPT is the most popular one, but there is also Gemini, formally known as Bard, CoPilot (Microsoft), xAI Grok (X platform), LLaMa (Meta), and many more.

Google initially stumbled in the AI arena, facing skepticism with inaccurate images and flawed responses, sending users back to the OG, ChatGPT. Yet, Google’s recent launch of Astra, powered by Gemini, changes the game. Imagine using AI to see and interpret the world around you and tell you what it sees – pretty cool, right? While OpenAI is brewing up something similar, Google seems to have taken the lead here.

Just like picking your go-to e-mail or music app, people are fast aligning themselves with their favorite AI bot to assist them at work, in daily life, and in choosing tonight’s dinner spot. Unlike past showdowns, the Battle of the AI Bots is just starting, with constant innovation and upgraded versions keeping the race alive and kicking!

Weekly Specials

After 10 long years, the female winner of the 2014 Boston Marathon finally got her prize money. But get this – it wasn’t from the race committee. Nope, a local fan stepped up and wrote the check. The check’s recipient initially finished second, but the original winner was disqualified for doping.

There are not many Chinese-made EVs that are currently sold in the U.S. Just about 9,000 Polestars, which are Chinese backed , were sold in 2022. To keep it this way, for now, the Biden administration imposed 100% tariffs on EVs imported from China.

Flexible work arrangements following the pandemic are bringing more women into the workforce, especially moms! A record share of women ages 25-54 are working part-time. The rate among women with a child under five years old surged to nearly 70% in March. This is up from the average of 65.7% in the five years prior to the pandemic.

At Duke, graduates got wisdom from Jerry Seinfeld, but at D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York, an AI robot took the stage. In an AI-savvy era, why not? Meet Sophia, who urged students to believe in themselves. Some left scratching their heads at this unconventional and rather unrelatable speaker choice.

Corporate Lunch

Tesla is offering 0.99% annual percentage rate (APR), also known as interest, financing, also known as loans, on Model Ys.

Apple is selling the Vision Pro outside the U.S. with 0% financing available. How do you like them apples, Tesla?

Sweetgreen stock jumped 37% after the U.S. rollout of steak dishes. Apparently, customers said they wanted meat with their salads.

Just in time for Father’s Day, John Deere has partnered with Sketchers to make some sneakers, complete with a Goodyear rubber sole.

Home Depot’s sales missed estimates this past quarter. Just wait until they start selling the Deere shoes.

Uber is acquiring the Taiwan business of Foodpanda, a delivery service that accounts for the 52% of delivery market share in Taiwan that Uber has not already captured.

Walmart is relocating remote workers, from the den to the living room? Just kidding, they are given the option of one of three offices.

Netflix isn’t just for the yule log this year. It is in the process of closing a deal for NFL games on Christmas Day.

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