AI: The Fifth Beatle 🎸🎵

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the exciting news that the Beatles are back. Well, sort of. The legendary troubadour Paul McCartney has revealed he is using AI to complete the Beatles ‘final’ song, a track that will use AI to extricate John Lennon’s voice. It’s exciting for fans of the Fab Four, sure, but this process hints at what is to come with AI and music, and we think not everyone will be happy. In other news this week, we cover the great Reddit blackout, as communities on the platform protest changes to API charges. There’s coverage of Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami, but was Apple behind the deal to bring the Argentinian magician to America? Our Stat of the Week looks at Amazon’s incredible R&D expenditure. And What’s dAppening pours over the dogfight between the SEC and two huge crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Binance.

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Takes 🎬️

🎸🤖 AI – Sir Paul McCartney Employs AI to Complete Beatles Track

The Beatles. Arguably the most iconic band in history and certainly one of the most influential. There’s so much to discover in a back catalog that delivers masterpiece after masterpiece. But how about some new material from the Beatles? Well, you are going to get it thanks to AI. Paul McCartney, one of two surviving members of the band, has promised to finish the ‘final’ Beatles track using AI this year. McCartney will employ the AI to extricate John Lennon’s vocals from a demo tape so they can complete the song, rumored to be the 1978 Lennon composition Now and Then. The demo comes from the mysterious tape labeled “For Paul” that was uncovered after Lennon’s death in 1980. Obviously, this is a gift for fans of the Beatles – including some in-house at 3Advance🎸 – but it says a lot more about where we might go in the future with AI and music. Might we get to hear the fabled ‘lost’ album by The Doors? Or what about all the music left behind by Prince that did not get finished? Icons from Tina Turner to David Bowie to Lou Reed, who we have sadly lost over the last decade, could be brought back by AI. Of course, that leads to some ethical questions, not least over whether it would besmirch the legacy of a dead artist for financial gain. But it’s interesting that we see a titan like Sir Paul McCartney embrace AI. If there was a sense that – Grimes aside – most artists were against the use of AI to create or recreate music, then this is a statement of support from one the industry’s most influential figures. Yes, what McCartney is doing is microsurgery compared to some of the full-blown AI resurrections predicted for the near future. But it’s an important milestone nonetheless. The Beatles were always considered ahead of their time in musical experimentation. It seems they still are. #HelloGoodbyeAI Read more here.

🥊↘️ Reddit – Community Blackouts Raise Questions About API Charges

Thousands of Reddit communities went ‘dark’ in the early hours of Monday morning to protest changes on the platform. By ‘’dark’ we effectively mean offline, and the changes refer to Reddit’s plans to start charging for the use of its API. The protest is expected to last two days (it’s ongoing), with some communities (known as subreddits) claiming they will go dark indefinitely. Reddit does not get the same kind of MSM exposure as other social media platforms, but it has more active users (430 million) than Twitter (350 million), and some of these shutdown communities have tens of millions of users. The beef comes as Reddit looks to monetize its API, charging third-party app developers to use it. You’ll have seen a similar story with Twitter in recent weeks. But why does Reddit want to change? Well, one salient reason is generative AI. There’s a lot of information on Reddit’s forums, and it’s a goldmine for training AIs like ChatGPT. Reddit wants to cash in on all that data, and it’s going to hit some legacy users in the pocket. It’ll be interesting to see who backs down first. #DarkReddit Read more here.

🍏⚽ Apple – Lionel Messi MLS Deal Said to Include Payments from Apple TV

The greatest player in modern soccer is set to join Inter Miami in a stunning coup for a team currently sitting at rock bottom in the MLS standings. Lionel Messi’s arrival has parallels with the great Pele coming to New York Cosmos in 1975, helping grow the profile of the MLS worldwide – and American soccer in general before the 2026 World Cup. But could Apple be behind some sweeteners in the deal? Apple TV+ has shelled out $2.5 billion for 10-year broadcasting of MLS, and reports claim they have offered Messi some serious cash to come stateside, potentially including a share of subscription and MLS merchandising revenue. Messi has already partnered with Apple for a World Cup docuseries due out this year. The Messi effect on MLS is already starting to filter through, with ticket prices going for five times face-value on Ticketmaster for his expected debut against DC United on July 8th. It remains to be seen whether the Argentinian Wizard can reverse the fortunes of Inter Miami. But for Apple TV, it looks like a great deal regardless. #MessiTV Read more here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $78B on R&D

🤳📸 Amazon – Research and Development Expenditure Reaches Record

Big Tech companies lead the world in R&D spending, so you’ll often see the likes of Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple among the highest spenders. But nobody – we stress, nobody – does it quite like Amazon, which has spent a record $78 billion on R&D – what Amazon calls “technology and content” – in a year up until March 2023. That’s almost twice as much as it was in 2020 ($40 billion). It’s an incredible figure, more than the combined annual revenues for Starbucks, Activision Blizzard & Nike for 2022. What does Amazon do with all this research money? Everything from drone delivery technology to AI researchers. Will we see the fruits of that capital expenditure in the coming years? #BigSpenders Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

⚖️👮‍♂️ SEC – Lawsuits Against Coinbase and Binance Prompt Political Maelstrom

We have touched on the subject of the SEC’s uneasy relationship with crypto in recent months, but things came to a head last week when the agency filed dual lawsuits against Binance US and Coinbase, the two biggest exchanges in the country. The particulars of the lawsuits are complex, but they can be boiled down to the accusation that these exchanges offer unlicensed securities (certain crypto), whereas the exchanges argue that the SEC has no clear rules to follow and is indulging in regulation by enforcement. The argument got political, too, as crypto-friendly lawmakers launched a bill to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler. It’s all a bit messy. But our worry remains the same – the US is in danger of falling behind in web3 and blockchain technology. Just this week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed the arrival of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to open its first overseas office in London, claiming that the UK would become the global leader in web3. And the Bank of China issued its first digital securities on the Ethereum blockchain. Hong Kong also invited Coinbase to come to the region and launch an exchange there. The point, as such, is that the world won’t wait around for the US to lead it in web3. It still might, but the lack of regulatory clarity is causing the flight of capital and, perhaps more importantly, talented people from the US web3 sector. #SECLawsuits Read more here.

Meanwhile at 3Advance…

It's our mission to be YOUR Product Team. We're kicking off a new segment of our video series, "Getting to Know 3Advance" where you can catch up on our work, clients, employees plus more. First up, join Sope as she chats with Jeff from Brightn, discussing everything from how they started to why they chose 3Advance as their product team. This and more in our 5-part interview. Be sure to watch this episode to follow along and get the entire experience - you won't want to miss it!

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