Gm. I pray none of you are sports gambling degenerates, but if you are, you probably saw the Barstool Sports news. Dave Portnoy is reacquiring the company back that he sold for $500MâŠfor $0. Itâs a super interesting story, and Adam Ryan breaks it down well. TLDR: Portnoyâs word is law once again.
â Stephen Flanders
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đ AI
Drama At Stability AI
When they write the history of this AI hype cycle, Stability AI will be right up there with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Midjourney.
By creating Stable Diffusion, the London startup played a key role in popularizing text-to-image generation. And they were rewarded handsomely for their efforts.
A $101M raise that turned it into a Unicorn. Employees and executives from Google, Amazon, and Adobe flocked to hop on the train. And they were rightfully adored as one of the startups on the absolute cutting-edge of the AI revolution.
But now, internal conflict threatens to tear it all down.
Churn, Money Problems, and Lawsuits
It has been anything but smooth sailing for Stability since March:
At least six of its senior ranks are gone, including the chief operation officer and head of research.
They failed to raise new funding at their desired $4B valuation.
Theyâve been accused of not paying their bills on time.
One of the co-founders is suing the company alleging that he was duped into selling his shares for $100.
Founder and CEO Emad Mostaque chalks this up to the usual ebbs and flows of running a startup, but whether that is true or not, one thing that is undoubtedly true is that Stability has not yet found a sustainable business model.
Show Me The Money
And if some internal reports are to believed, it is Mostaqueâs chaotic management style that is keeping the company from turning a profit:
Former head of research David Ha says that Mostaqueâs constant pursuit of new ideas made it difficult to figure out what exactly the company should focus on.
A former contractor described the startup as âsiloed and secretive, with a confusing corporate structure and little communicationâ.
Mostaque himself acknowledges that Stability has âstruggled to professionalizeâ.
In any case, Stability has to find a way to start making money, and fast.
AI isnât the Wild West anymore. The big boys are here, and they are spending ungodly amounts of money to take over.
Letâs hope one of AIâs pioneers can figure things out.
A Drying Moat: Stability has largely hitched its wagon to open-source models, but Meta and Alibaba are now getting in that game as well. Will they be able to compete with those giants? I donât know, but Iâm excited to find out.
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đ SCIENCE
Weâve Found Nuclear Fusion (Again)
We at Homescreen are loud and proud fans of nuclear fusion. Why wouldnât we? Itâs limitless and carbon-free energy, for Peteâs sake.
For the none nuclear scientists out there, fusion is when two light nuclei merge to create a single heavier nucleus. Because the new single nucleus is lighter than the two original nuclei, there is some leftover mass floating around. That mass becomes energy.
And not just any old energy, but an extremely powerful form of energy. Nuclear fusion powers the sun after all, and if itâs good enough for the sun, itâs good enough for us.
It sounds amazingâŠexcept that itâs basically impossible to do. Since the 50s, each fusion attempt consumed more energy than it produced.
That changed last December when researchers at the federal Lawrence National Laboratory in California finally cracked the fusion code using a process that involves lasers and is fully understood by maybe 100 people in the entire world. But, in case youâre curious, hereâs how the process works:
And now, we know it wasnât just luck, as theyâve done it again, and even better this time.
We might be, dare I say it, so back.
Why should I care? Do you like having electricity? Do you like not living on an inhabitable burning rock? Then you should like fusion power.
đââïž QUICKIES
What else is going on?
The superconductor dreams are over (for now). Guess the flying cars will just have to wait a bit.
Apple is testing Macs with state-of-the-art M3 chips.
WeWork is about to go swimming with the fishes.
Microsoftâs Bing Chat is coming to third-party browsers, including those on your phone.
Stat: 3x: How much stronger Nvidiaâs new GH200 AI chip is compared to its predecessor. The king is solidifying his hold on the throne.
Rabbit hole: The Real Web 3 (Vikas Paruchuri)
đ WACKY AI WEDNESDAY
I donât even know what to say about this one.
đ€„ 3 LIES & A HEADLINE
News is so weird these days. Three of these headlines are fake stories from The Onion while one is actually true. Can you spot the truth amongst the fakes?
A. Study Finds US Employees Waste 2 Million Hours Annually Spending Time With Friends, Family
B. Sports Official Suspended For Nepotism After Painfully Slow 100M Race
C. Biden Forgets Nationâs Name
D. Water Shortage Forcing More Golf Courses To Use Insulin
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3 LIES ANSWER
B.