Just following up

Checking back in with a few stories and ideas from past newsletters

Elon Book Interview 

I know I said last week that I was trying to avoid the Elon biography, but then Kara Swisher interviewed Walter Isaacson. I’m a big fan of Kara Swisher and her interview style. I listen to most episodes of her podcasts, and curiosity got the better of me when she started talking to Isaacson. I can now say I am somehow less likely to purchase or read this book than I was before listening to him talk about it. Isaacson comes across as uninterested and unequipped to do more than regurgitate Elon’s own myth of himself. 

Platform Updates

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta Expands Its Paid Verification Program to Business Accounts

• Facebook changed its logo — see if you can tell the difference

• Facebook Will Now Allow Users to Create Multiple Profiles to Explore Different interests (pass)

TikTok

• TikTok introduces a way to label AI-generated content 

• TikTok is testing Google results in its search pages 

YouTube

• YouTube made a video editing app — just like TikTok

• YouTube Shorts to gain a generative AI feature called Dream Screen 

• YouTube Studio to give creators a generative AI tool to suggest video topics

• YouTube to add AI creator tools to find music for videos, add dubs

Twitter

The Product 

• X is shutting down Circles (really working hard over there to make sure what’s left of GayTwitter leaves) 

Twitter Alts 

• Mastodon’s latest release makes the open source Twitter alternative easier to use

• Bluesky sees record signups day after Musk says X will go paid-only

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

• Drew Barrymore and others will pause shows until after writers strike ends

• Max will start offering a live sports tier in October 

Gaming 

• Unity reportedly backtracking on new fees after developers revolt

• What we learned from Microsoft’s big Xbox leak

AI 

• George R.R. Martin and other authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

• First Google Search Result for Tiananmen Square “Tank Man” Is AI Generated Selfie

Scams

• All Those NFTs Are Officially Worthless 

• Elon Musk's Neuralink Seeks Volunteers for Brain Chip Implant Study   

  • The Gruesome Story of How Neuralink’s Monkeys Actually Died

Baldur’s Wait

At the end of August, I warned y’all that two video games were about to eat up my free time. I’ve been enjoying Starfield. At the time of writing this section, I was still waiting for Baldur’s Gate. Larinan Studios pushed back the Mac release of the game a few times before tweeting that it would arrive alongside the latest patch on September 21st. Then, in another tweet, they announced they’re delaying the patch by a day to give them time for testing. All of this is a minor irritation that I, a 30-year-old full-time job, am more than capable of dealing with. It’s just weird to me that they are still treating Twitter, sorry X, as their primary communication tool. 

You couldn’t find this info on their website, or Steam page, or their Instagram, or their Threads feed. Just tweets, sorry posts on X. The site that ruined their user verification system and created a massive impersonation issue. The site hemorrhaging ad revenue due to brand safety concerns and declining users. The site that’s owned by a man actively promoting dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theories. I want to be clear that I’m not accusing Larian of cosigning any of this by tweeting. This used to be a perfectly reasonable corporate comms plan for a game studio, but as time goes on, it will become increasingly odd for companies to keep using X like they did Twitter. 

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Assuming no additional delays, I’ll probably be downloading the game when you read this. Now I have to decide which character I want to play first. I’m thinking either a Dragonborn Storm Sorcer or a Tiefling Paladin/Warlock multiclass. 

Hot Union Summer 

Back in June, I called out some parallels between the Reddit mod protests and the writers' strike. I’d like to quickly summarize some of the major labor-organizing updates since that observation at the beginning of the summer. 

• The actors' union did go on strike against film and television producers

• The actor’s union is now also considering a strike against video game publishers 

• VFX artists working for Marvel Studios voted to unionize 

• The United Auto Workers of America are now on strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis

• Flight attendants with several major airlines are considering a strike 

• UPS workers negotiated a new contract after a walkout

NFT Fails 

There’s a reason I always categorize NFT and Crypto news as “scams” in the link roundup. Despite all of the hype crypto grifters tried to build around them, this newsletter, like many sane people on the internet, knew a scam when we saw one. A new report on the NFT market dropped this week, claiming that 95% of NFTs are now worthless. So, despite being able to add multiple slurp juices on a single ape, the whole thing turned out to be a colossal waste of time. Good job, everyone. 

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