Happy Hectic Days

It’s been a week  

This issue is gonna be heavy on the curation and light on the analysis because, to be totally honest, I’m exhausted. On the work front, we’re in the “hey, let’s get one last pitch in front of folks before they check out for the year” mode. On the personal front, we’re in peak “holiday social plans before family obligations and travel start” territory. I’m making it work through the combined power of caffeine and friendship, but I haven’t had the spare cycles to wrap my brain around a mini-essay topic this week like normal. So, instead, we’re gonna tour some of the most interesting non-news content I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks. Starting with hbomberguy. 

Good Videos 

I did not expect a nearly four-hour-long YouTube video about plagiarism on YouTube to be anywhere as engaging and thought-provoking as the latest video from YouTuber hbomberguy. The whole thing is worth a watch, but the last section that explores the incentive structure driving some YouTubers to lean so much on flagrant plagiarism and what that structure means in a world with generative AI will be especially interesting for the Kinda Brief reader. 

Am I actually excited about the upcoming DC movies? Or am I just interested in all of the comics here I haven’t read already? Either way, this is a good watch, and everyone should be required to read Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman.

I feel the same way about George Santos as I do about Melania Trump. Were they fictional villains, I would LOVE them. Unfortunately, they are real humans. Real awful humans. But SNL (which might actually be good again now?) did a great Santos send-off sketch. 

Platform Updates

Instagram & Threads

• Instagram ends the year with some “Trend Talk” about the topics that could define 2024

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos (feel like a lot of us should have been paid for that but whatever)

• Meta is disconnecting Messenger and Instagram chat later this month

• Messenger is finally getting end-to-end encryption by default

• Facebook and Instagram accused of creating a ‘marketplace’ for child predators in new lawsuit

• Meta Adds More Generative AI Elements, Including Post Prompts and Image Creation In-Stream

TikTok

• TikTok Owner Bytedance Is Launching Custom AI Chatbot Creation Tools

• TikTok Expands In-Stream Concert Ticket Sales via Ticketmaster Partnership

YouTube

• Inside the 'arms race' between YouTube and ad blockers 

• YouTube Highlights Its Top Trends, Topics and Creators of 2023

Google 

• Google launches Gemini, the AI model it hopes will take down GPT-4

  • Early impressions of Google’s Gemini aren’t great

Twitch 

• Twitch to cease operations in South Korea over ‘prohibitively expensive’ network fees

Discord

• Discord rolls out mobile update in quest to become better messaging app 

Reddit 

• Reddit Adds Elements to Its Reply Stream Ad Placements 

Tumblr 

• Tumblr tests ‘Communities,’ semi-private groups with their own moderators and feeds

Pinterest (disclosure: I’m currently working as a contractor with Pinterest) 

• Pinterest Opens First Pop-Up Store To Feature Its Shoppable 2024 Trends Predictions (check out all of the Pinterest Predicts trends for 2024 here)

Twitter, Sorry X

The Product 

• X is now licensed for payment processing in a dozen US states (do not give this company any of your financial information) 

Twitter Alts 

• Bluesky rolls out automated moderation tools, plus user and moderation lists 

• Bluesky says it will allow users to opt out of the public web interface after backlash 

• The new Mammoth app is a much simpler take on Mastodon (I’m open to trying Mastodon again if I hear there’s a fun, relevant community for me there, especially if newer apps make it less painful to look at) 

Good Stuff to Do in SF 

I mentioned up top that this week’s been busy. It’s also been so much fun, partly because there’s a lot of great holiday stuff to do in San Francisco right now. So here are two recommendations based on my week. Out-of-town readers, feel free to skip, I guess. 

Golden Girls Live - It’s drag queens doing live stage versions of Golden Girls episodes, and it’s all Christmas-themed. Hilarious, delightful, and uplifting. 

Glow SF - On paper, this sounds like ordinary holiday lights, but the animations projected around downtown SF are really cool and wildly impressive.  

Culture Movers 

Publishing 

• Washington Post journalists launch historic 24-hour strike

Music 

• Spotify to lay off 17 percent of its workforce in latest round of job cuts

Design 

• Pantone reveals Peach Fuzz as its 2024 Color of the Year

Creator Economy 

• John Fetterman paid George Santos $343 for a Cameo to troll Bob Menendez

• Spotify Cancels Two Acclaimed Podcasts: ‘Heavyweight’ and ‘Stolen’ 

Gaming 

• Grand Theft Auto VI trailer breaks MrBeast’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours 

AI 

• OpenAI delays launch of custom GPT store until early 2024 

• a16z Funded AI Platform Generated Images That “Could Be Categorized as Child Pornography,” Leaked Documents Show 

• Nicki Minaj Stans Have Built an AI-Generated, Sci-fi World

• Meta, IBM Create Industrywide AI Alliance to Share Technology

PS

Similar to George Santos and Melania Trump, if the Panera Charged Lemonade that’s so full of caffeine it may have killed two people were a fictional story, I’d love it.