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Here’s what you need to know
President Joe Biden wasn’t the only apparent loser of Thursday night’s presidential campaign debate. Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the former president’s far-right social media site Truth Social, fell 10.9% on Friday but still finished the week up more than 18%.
EV startup Fisker is recalling the Ocean SUV — again — after filing for bankruptcy protection. Outer door handles may get stuck, preventing customers from getting into or leaving their vehicles, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Warren Buffett said he’ll donate another $5.3 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust will get $4 billion, and the rest will go to foundations run by Buffett’s kids Susie, Howie and Peter.
Since unveiling its AI strategy in early June, Apple’s stock price has been on the rise. The question is: will its good fortunes continue?
Of course Elon Musk won the contract to crash the International Space Station into the sea. SpaceX will be given $843 million to complete the job of deorbiting the aging space station.
AI “R” Us
Toys “R” Us has released one of the “first-ever” artificial intelligence-generated brand ads — leaving consumers both impressed and skeptical. Ad agency Native Foreign made the ad using OpenAI’s text-to-video tool, Sora, which is not yet widely available to the public. The ad shows the toy company’s late founder, Charles Lazarus, as a child dreaming of the store, and features the company’s mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe.
Nik Kleverov, chief creative officer at Native Foreign, said Sora allowed the teams to make the ad in just a few weeks, condensing hundreds of iterative shots down to a couple dozen. The video generator still needs to fix how it shows hands, and Lazarus’s depictions were different throughout the ad. Viewers who caught the ad on X had mixed reactions, from calling the ad “awesome” and “dope,” to “Terrible and bad and awful” and “brand murder.”
Boeing bashed over comments on crash probe
Comments by top Boeing officials on the federal safety investigation into the door that blew out on an Alaskan Airlines 737 may cost the company its access to the probe. “This disregard of the federal regulations and rules governing NTSB investigations cannot be tolerated,” the National Transportation Safety Board wrote to Boeing. On Tuesday, Boeing described the NTSB’s investigation as a “search to locate the individual responsible” for the door plug’s failure, prompting the Feds’ response.
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Surprising discoveries
The Copa Americas soccer championship has turned into a major mess of mismarketing. Despite some absorbing action on the pitch, this year’s Copa has largely been a dud, hurt by overheated stadiums, poor ticket sales general lack of interest among U.S. sports fans.
The city that gave us Sleater-Kinney and the Decemberists may lose its status as the last Great American Rock & Roll City without a Live Nation venue. The Ticketmaster-twinned music promoter, accused by the Feds of anti-competitive practices, is eyeing a site along the Wilamette River.
Tractor Supply, a kind of Home Depot for the rural set that sells American Flag mud boots, put the brakes on its admirable diversity, equity and inclusion efforts last month, after a one-time movie producer turned conservative activist jumped into action. The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating tale for our times.
Did Microsoft track what consumers were buying at adult toy stores? That’s the allegation contained in a lawsuit brought in federal court by San Francisco resident Stella Tatola against Microsoft and two major U.S. sex toy retailers, claiming their websites are tracking users without their consent.
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