Amazon wants to play the AI game too!
Plus, WHOOP Coach and the Taylor Swift economic revolution
It’s October?! Feeling real spooky! Today’s article is a run down on the last month, talking about food, people, and I might mention AI once or twice. Writing these wrap ups is a fun time for me to think back on what resonated with me that month, and write about things outside of data and tech. Let’s dive right into it!
Talk nice to your body!
We’ve all spent hours on WebMD when we feel way more exhausted than usual, digging for answers, when ideally, we’d be able to figure out what from our week led us to a given moment. Enter WHOOP Coach. In collaboration with OpenAI, WHOOP launched their new product, WHOOP Coach, in an effort to make better understanding your body a process that can happen through natural language. The company held an AMA on Reddit, which revealed their plans to one day build custom-made strength training routines, that they still have research to do before launching “Sleep Impact”, and made sure that concerned users knew that WHOOP coach is not supposed to give financial advice, provide celebrity gossip, or discuss religion.
“WHOOP Coach takes proprietary WHOOP algorithms, a custom-built machine learning model, the latest in performance science and research, and your unique biometric data to identify patterns and connections in your WHOOP data. With OpenAI’s latest technology, WHOOP Coach generates highly individualized, conversational responses to your health, fitness, and wellness questions – all within seconds.” — from WHOOP.
Ok, I think I typed WHOOP enough for the month!
Tech doesn’t sleep and neither do we
In the new VC lingo I’m learning the time after Labor Day is better known as “deal season!” as the end of summer lulls turn into a frenzy of finding incredible companies and meeting amazing people. The tech industry has been busy too, so here’s some highlights:
Amazon announced a $4B investment in Anthropic AI to continue their collaboration around building foundation models, and the utilization of Amazon’s chips for Anthropic’s research.
Google turned 25 on September 27th. The company birthed by two students looking to make the web easier to search is now a behemoth. And of course we got a doodle to celebrate!
Twitter/X might soon behind a paywall for everyone. Even though Linda Yaccarino is X’s CEO, it’s clear Elon Musk still has his hands on the wheel. In a talk at CODE that resulted in far too many memes, there was also mention of millions of daily active users leaving the app in the time since Musk’s takeover.
Open AI released DALL-E 3. Google Bard can talk with your emails. And I’m still skeptical!
Taylor Swift IS the economy
I know, I’m late to the game in the Taylor Swift press, but I’m still thinking about the mayhem of her Eras Tour that I just felt like I needed to address it. I hope my handful of friends reading this that know I am not a Swiftie are ecstatic seeing her mentioned. August meant the wrap up of Taylor’s US tour (or so we thought — she’s coming back!) and September shot her right back to stardom as Taylor was spotted with Trevor Kelce, making waves for a demographic (avid football fans) she probably hadn’t captured before. I wanted to share my friend Lucas’ piece on the economic impact of the Eras tour, which as of August was on track to yield $5B. That’s greater than the gross domestic product of 50 countries! Head over to Lucas’ Newsletter, whether you’re a Swiftie or not!
Erewhon, is that you?
In a major moment for foodies all over NYC, Happier Grocery opened on Canal Street in Manhattan recently. The store is reminiscent of a cult classic from the west coast — Erewhon — known for being a boujee grocery store, where private chef’s for LA’s elite spend $1,500 on their hauls and the health-centric go crazy over the neatly organized shelves. Vanity Fair writes articles about how it’s LA’s hottest hang out spot, while they offer $22 smoothies made in collaboration with Hailey Bieber.
Well, Happier Grocery might just try to have the same effect on NYC. The store boasts that they have the highest standards for food quality and preparation, and are fully stocked with fresh and prepared foods (I even heard a rumored Michelin star chef will be running the sushi dept??).
While I think NYC is ahead of the game on a lot of things, I believe LA will always be the birthplace of food trends, particularly the hyper-health oriented ones to me. I remember visiting LA as a kid and seeing shops selling acai bowls everywhere, and now in NYC, there’s a smoothie shop on every corner. However, we can’t talk about pricey glamorous grocery stores without addressing that food deserts exist all over the NYC metro area. As of 2021 reporting, the Bronx is one of the most food insecure areas in the country, with access to fresh, healthy food being especially hard for its residents. Organizations like BronxWorks are making strides in food equality for all of New York’s residents, alongside GrowNYC’s plan to build a facility in the Bronx to increase distribution efforts for healthy food in NYC’s underserved communities.
Here’s to the fall!
I hope your October is starting off strong! Next weekend, we’ll have a throw back post, sharing a favorite of mine from the early days. I’ll be a bit busy running 26.2 miles around the Windy City. Send good vibes for nice weather and a successful go! Have a great week everyone!
I think that Swiftie spending just replaced spending elsewhere rather than injecting additional money into the economy, along with likely increasing credit card debt for those big spenders. Wages at the bottom ten percent are certainly up; no one talks of the need for a $15 minimum wage law when McDonald’s offers more than that without a law. The economic problem continues to be the millions of working age people who choose not to seek employment. Having those people working and creating wealth would have a larger, more enduring economic impact than any concert tour, with all due respect to Swift’s economic impact and charitable activity.
And California will always have a natural climate advantage over New York in having access to a variety of fresh, healthy foods.
Well done.