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GM! It’s Brett again. Hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving! It’s the one time of year when Americans explicitly give gratitude, but I think it should be every day, particularly if you’re a founder.

Startups are hard af, but gratitude helps. Since I started reflecting on what I’m grateful for every Friday, my stress has dropped. Plus, recognizing your team’s efforts makes them want to work even harder.

A little recognition goes a long way, and it’s something everyone deserves.

Shoutout to everyone who’s helped bring my wild ideas to life, and to Dolly, our family pup, for always keeping it real. 🐾

🏠 AI

The Open AI Opera

Looks like OpenAI's got another mess on their hands.

Their highly anticipated Sora video model got leaked last week by a group from their early access program.

Here's the deal: They dropped what code suggests is a 'turbo' variant of Sora on Hugging Face, letting anyone generate 1080p 10-second clips. This appears to be faster than February's version, which reportedly took over 10 minutes to process one-minute videos.

Wild stuff, but it only lasted three hours before OpenAI revoked access and temporarily shut down the entire early access program.

The leakers, calling themselves "Sora PR Puppets," weren't just showing off the tech. They're calling out OpenAI for having hundreds of artists do unpaid testing while maintaining strict control over what gets shared. Every output needed OpenAI approval before sharing, and according to the Puppets, while hundreds contribute for free, only select few would be chosen to have their Sora-created films screened.

OpenAI maintains Sora is in 'research preview,' emphasizing they're balancing creativity with safety measures. But the protestors argue this controlled rollout is more about PR than genuine artist collaboration.

The big picture - This isn't just about a leaked model. It's showing how the relationship between AI companies and creative communities is getting complicated. Meanwhile, the AI video space is heating up - Runway partnered with Lionsgate for a custom video model, and Stability AI brought James Cameron onto their board. OpenAI has been meeting with filmmakers and studios too, though no major partnerships have been announced yet. The real question is whether these companies can figure out how to work with creators without, you know, exploiting them

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🤝 THE LATEST IN…

TECH

• Elon files for injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit.

• Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable.

• Character.AI confirms mass deletion of fandom characters.

• Tesla to hire a team to remotely control its ‘Self-Driving’ robotaxis.

AI

• Elon to make games great again with xAI.

• Perplexity to build a ~$50 hardware device, that will answer your questions voice to voice.

• Uber is building a fleet of gig workers to label data for AI models.

• YC F24 is nearly all AI, with 83 out of 95 startups having ‘AI’ in their name or tagline.

• xAI to have its own app.

SCIENCE

• There’s a mysterious compound in US drinking water.

• A twice-yearly injection of Lenacapavir cuts HIV risk by 96%.

• NASA's radar just found a Cold War-era "city under the ice" in Greenland.

• Like brain cells, kidney cells can form memories.

CRYPTO

• Michael Saylor advises Microsoft, ‘Bitcoin’s the best asset you can own’.

• South Korea to postpone 20% crypto tax for the third time.

• MicroStrategy acquires another 15,400 bitcoin for $1.5B.

• Miners to pay 13%-15% tax as Russia’s upper house approves crypto bill.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

Raise: Eyewa, a Middle East-based eyewear retailer, raised $100M in a Series C funding round to expand its retail footprint by opening 100 new stores across the region.

Stat: 54%. That’s the share of longer LinkedIn posts likely AI-generated.

Rabbit Hole: How Founders Are Building Wealth in 2024

🤩 MONDAY MOTIVATION

🛠️ FOUNDERS CORNER

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

🫡 Lovable is the world's first AI Full Stack Engineer.

🕹️ Agentplace helps you build interactive AI websites and apps.

📞 Sparkbase lets you book high-intent sales calls on autopilot.

❓️ AI GENERATED OR NOT

Last week’s answer: If you guessed AI-generated… you were wrong.

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nope (~55%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yeah (~45%)

Here’s the original.

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We're launching in 2025, but if you want early access, sign up for the waitlist at micro.so and respond to the confirmation email saying you came from Homescreen.

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