Gm. Another day, another $250 million.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

CRYPTO

SBF finds $250 million under mattress

Sam Bankman-Fried is a lucky dude.

He was extradited to the US this week and a judge set his bond for $250 million. Fortunately, he could afford the bill.

Although Bankman-Fried recently said he only had $100k left, he posted bail for $250 million and will be living with his parents in Palo Alto. This man really paid $250 million to sit in his parents' basement and play League of Legends all day.

What's Next?

The next court hearing is set for January 3. The WSJ reported that SBF will be entering a plea on charges that he engaged in "fraud and other offenses".

Considering his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison and his former business partner Gary Wang already turned against him, it makes sense SBF will enter a plea deal.

What I'm most curious about is SBF's "other offenses" the WSJ reported on.

Other Offenses SBF Definitely Did

1. Bad fashion. Definitely offended my girlfriend's fashion taste (but made my style look much better in comparison, thanks SBF).

2. Bad at League of Legends. Apparently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is better and she's busy in Congress.

3. Bad company name. Dude what the heck does FTX mean? Alameda? Better options would've been Fraudbase or MetaFraud.

4. Stimulant of choice. Red Bull gives you wings, Adderall gives you securities fraud.

5. Being a vegan. Bro, there's no way this man lied about everything in his life and somehow told the truth about not eating bacon. Not a chance.

— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin)

AI

Unstable Diffusion Gets The Boot

There will be no artificially created NSFW content on Kickstarter’s watch, as the AI startup Unstable Diffusion has been kicked off the crowdfunding platform.

The decision signals the end to Unstable Diffusion’s weeks-long fundraising efforts on Kickstarter. Why the sudden shift?

Answer: Intense pressure from artists.

Thunderdome: AI vs. Artists

Unstable Diffusion became the latest battle in the AI vs. artists war.

The artist's gripe with AI concerns how it’s trained off actual human art. In essence, they don’t find it fair that their work is used without their consent to empower the technology that will put them out of a job. The AI advocates, on the other hand, argue that this is the future, and they have the right to embrace it and create freely.

This battle came to a head with Unstable Diffusion.

Unstable Diffusion was to be trained off millions of NSFW images across the web.

The artists didn’t want their art to be used to train a tool that can potentially create non-consensual pornography, and they let Kickstarter know about it on Twitter.

Eventually, this pressure campaign won out.

AI-Art Going Forward

Getting Unstable Diffusion off Kickstarter was a small win for artists, but the fight is far from over.

There is no more vocal anti-AI party than artists, and they are active on multiple fronts, including in the government. AI, meanwhile, is constantly growing in both capability and popularity.

I have no idea who will ultimately win this war, but I know it’s one of the main stories to watch in 2023.

— Stephen Flanders (@SteveFlanders22)

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: $1.2 billion: The amount of cryptocurrency that North Korea has stolen since 2017. Feel like that's something we should try to prevent in the future.

Story we're watching: Holiday shipping is going smoother than last year, but it still takes double the time to ship from China to the U.S. compared to pre-pandemic. It will be interesting to see how the continued supply chain jams impact the economy in 2023.

Rabbit hole: Consoles and Competition (Stratechery)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Twitter rolled out a new feature where if you search for a cashtag, it displays its current price.

• Vertical farms have had a tough year.

• If you keep your passwords on LastPass, now might be a good time to change them.

• Publicly traded Bitcoin miner Core Scientific has declared bankruptcy. Not what the crypto bros were hoping to see for Christmas.

GUESSTIMATE

How much is Tesla stock down YTD?

LAYOFFS TRACKER

TrueUp

Notable Layoffs This Week:

TuSimple: 350 people (25%)

Micron: 4,800 people (10%)

Xiaomi: 5,000 people (15%)

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this week that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🤖 I made a free Reddit for Founders Guide covering how to acquire users and newsletter readers by posting and engaging with users on Reddit.

🧬 I'm a longtime subscriber of the MIT Technology Review. Highly recommend. Thoughtful articles ahead of the mainstream media curve.

😎 This week, I did an AMA on Reddit and gained 20+ new email subscribers. Try doing an AMA in a subreddit related to your industry and you might get some free users. Check out r/iama for examples.

GUESSTIMATE ANSWER

69%. Hah.