Subway’s 2024 resolution to destroy our arteries is coming along nicely: The sandwich chain reported it sold 3.5m+ items off its new Sidekicks menu, which includes footlong cookies, churros, and pretzels, in its first two weeks. That translates to a whole 662.9 miles of snack, or ~100x the height of Mount Everest.
In today’s email:
Wild cards: How AI is fueling the business of bogus IDs.
Super Bowl LVIII: Get prepped on who’s getting paid.
Data point: Bye forever, incandescent bulbs.
Around the web: Golf on the moon, a “brand”-new game, and more.
👇 Listen: So, AI is helping to make fake IDs now? Great, just great.
The Big Idea
Great, AI can create realistic fake IDs now
Another day, another scary thing AI can do.
2024-02-06T00:00:00Z
Juliet Bennett Rylah
Every day, a new report details how AI can be used for evil when all we really want is the “Star Trek” replicator. It’s a damn shame, but we cover what we must.
Like this: Joseph Cox of 404 Media used a site called OnlyFake to create realistic images of bogus IDs, which he then used to create an account on a crypto exchange.
How it works
The user enters a name and biographical data, uploads a photo (or chooses one from OnlyFake’s archives), and selects an AI-generated signature.
In minutes, OnlyFake generates images of the fake ID’s front and back, which users can attempt to upload to any website that requires ID verification.
It can whip up fake passports and licenses from myriad countries and states.
OnlyFake claims it can generate up to 20k documents per day, including hundreds at the same time via an Excel table.
Barriers do exist for sites that require video proof or photos of users holding up their own IDs, but naturally, people are working to bypass these, too.
So much yikes
This certainly has scary implications for any site that requires ID verification, from banking to Airbnb — but it’s also another reason why legislation, companies, and, well, everyone needs to be hypervigilant about AI and how fraudsters may use it.
Already, bad actors have used AI to scam victims out of money by impersonating their loved ones and churn out fake books and articles written by fake people.
One report even suggested that driverless vehicles could be hacked and used as weapons, which, OK, please stop.
And for companies, it’s shaping up to be a very annoying game of Whac-A-Mole, routinely combatting new scams as tech evolves — something Microsoft recently learned after its tech was used to create nonconsensual deepfakes of superstar Taylor Swift. Sigh.
Free Resource
Why Apple’s Vision Pro shows promise
Apple’s answer to the AR/VR revolution is impressive. But:
It costs a charming $3.5k (~2k McChickens).
It’s very heavy for a head. And the battery’s still shit.
Users look like tools/fools in 100% of outside situations.
Yes, it’s a trinket for the rich, but it’s also the most powerful “spatial tech” headgear on the market — so why did top companies like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify hit pause instead of launch floating apps?
Our CMO Kipp Bodnar clarifies the hype, tech, and pitch behind Apple’s Vision Pro on Marketing Against The Grain. He highly recommends you watch the product demo, which is straight from the Steve Jobs playbook.
Join us in waiting for the day when all of this is coded into contact lenses.
Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, who escaped his enclosure in the Central Park Zoo last February, celebrated one year of survival in New York City. Flaco has not only improved his flying skills and learned to catch his own rats — he’s inspired his own merch and multiple X accounts dedicated to tracking his every move.
SNIPPETS
Tarnation: Boeing is in “the last chance saloon,” according to Emirates president Tim Clark. As the embattled plane manufacturer tries to restore its safety reputation, Clark’s words hold weight — his airline placed a $52B order with Boeing in November.
Research firm Graphikatraced the explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift that circulated on X back to 4chan. The message board, known for hosting hate speech and conspiracy theories, is increasingly publishing harmful AI-generated images.
Whoa: Amazon spent $18.9B on creating and acquiring content last year across Prime Video, MGM, Freevee, and live sports — astonishingly up from 2022’s $16.6B figure, despite Hollywood strikes halting production for half the year.
Novo Nordisk’s parent company is acquiring Catalent in a $16.5B deal. The acquisition, which includes three of Catalent’s manufacturing sites, will help the Danish drug company double down on weight loss injectables.
Sphere Entertainment Corp. earned $314.2m in its first quarter as a public company, including $167.8m from the Las Vegas Sphere. Despite operating on a loss of $159.7m largely due to an abandoned London sphere, the company said it remains confident about the concept.
byeRobot: The NYPD is retiring its Knightscope K5 security bot. By all accounts, it wandered around the Times Square subway station for two months doing mostly nothing.
Congrats: Thirty current and former employees of a Kentucky middle school won the $1m Powerball, each taking home $24k after taxes. The group had been playing the same numbers since 2019.
Why coders pick Python: And marketers and data analysts, too. Learn why Python powers everything, from websites to software to AI, inside the Intro to Python.
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Leveraging selfish sales tactics can cost you big time — see four of the main culprits that might be costing you deals.
Watch
Why artists don’t get paid for the Super Bowl halftime show
Ahead of Sunday, you can read up on the Super Bowl basics anywhere. Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, first Super Bowl played in Las Vegas — boring.
Let’s stick to the part of the Super Bowl that matters most: who’s getting paid.
Winning players will each get a $164k bonus — oh, and also a ring and eternal glory or whatever. The losing players get a $89k consolation prize.
Chiefs mascot K.C. Wolf ($65k salary) out-earns 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam ($60k).
The NFL hired Tiësto as its first-ever in-game DJ (for some reason). And while it’s unclear how much he’s making for the Big Game, he reportedly makes $200k-$500k per set. Not bad.
And now that you’re primed for the good stuff, we’ve got the best stuff for you: the big money behind the halftime show.
When Usher takes center stage this Sunday, despite 100m+ eyeballs on him, he actually won’t get a paycheck. But trust us, he’s still going to make bank. How?
There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify today’s billion-dollar brand?
Clue 1: You could reasonably argue that this financial giant, the product of many mergers, was founded in 1822, 1848, 1966, or 2000.
Clue 2: Its logo is called the “courbe d’envol,” AKA the curve of taking flight. If that tested your French skills a little too hard, its slogan may be easier: La banque d’un monde qui change.
Clue 3: It sold off its US retail banking subsidiary, Bank of the West, last year in a $16.3B deal with BMO Financial Group. And one can only assume that money will go toward fueling this company’s tennis obsession; it’s the title sponsor of many a tournament.
👇 Scroll to the bottom for the answer 👇
Data point
Light bulb moment: If you’ve noticed that museums, concerts, immersive experiences, and tourist attractions have been looking a whole lot brighter in recent years, you can thank the LED light bulb. In 2010, LEDs only made up 1% of the global lighting market; by 2019, they accounted for ~50%. And as LEDs became more common, their prices plummeted by as much as 44% each year. Plus, they’re more energy efficient, long-lasting, and customizable than incandescent bulbs. Throw in the Biden Administration’s ban on most incandescent light bulbs, and it’s safe to say LEDs are the brightest tech in the lighting industry.
AROUND THE WEB
🏌️ On this day: In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard played golf on the moon using a modified club.
🔎 Game: From brand management platform Frontify and illustrator Gus Morais, can you spot the brands?
❄️ Chill out: Perhaps literally, with these 15 photos of animals enjoying snow.
🎧 Another Bite: Get totally tubular with the latest innovation in longboarding. Will the sharks cut these skater boys a deal, or will they pull the brakes and say, “See ya later, bois”?
