Tech

OpenAI found its next set of training data

Similar to me with a pack of Oreos, ChatGPT is consuming every bit of data it can get its hands on. OpenAI announced a set of licensing deals with The Atlantic and Vox last week, allowing the media companies to train ChatGPT (and future models) by using their content.

These are the latest in a series of agreements made by OpenAI with media companies to train the large language models (LLMs) that fuel ChatGPT. Others that have already secured licensing deals include:

• NewsCorp, which owns the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and The Daily Telegraph.

• The parent companies of media outlets including Business Insider, Politico, People, and InStyle.

• The Financial Times, the Associated Press, Reddit, and more also made deals.

Since I’m 99.9% sure Sam Altman is reading, NextGen News is willing to negotiate terms for an offer… just saying.

Why target media companies?

News articles yield valuable training data for OpenAI’s systems, which is probably why the company came under fire for using them without consent in the past. Because of this, media outlets have either sought upfront compensation or filed lawsuits for using the allegedly stolen work.

OpenAI may be trying to get around future lawsuits by paying the media outlets millions right now, compared to the billions they would likely have to later on (assuming the Times wins its suit).

This comes amid a data shortage…

…for AI chatbots at least. In an article we wrote last month, we said tech companies warned high-quality data could completely run out in the next two years, which is making them rethink how they train their systems.

Tech firms have to get creative if they want to keep their rate of growth steady, which means finding new sources of data for AI training (hence the switch to media content). However, many of these methods can be legally obscure, the NYT reported (irony, am I right).

Business

Abercrombie & Fitch is killing it

The brand you swore loyalty to in middle school has made an all-time comeback. The retailer posted its strongest first-quarter in history last week. And with profits seven times higher than last year, A&F is even outpacing some of the hottest stocks on the market.

Nostalgia bait

Abercrombie & Fitch has seemingly found its way back to young millenials as the only brand worth wearing, because numbers like these don’t come easy:

• Between the first quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2024, sales for all Abercrombie & Fitch brands soared 22%, narrowly surpassing $1 billion and exceeding analysts' projections by almost $40 million.

• A&F brought in $113.9 million, roughly 23% more than Wall Street anticipated.

  • Compared to the brand's reports from the same period last year, they exceeded their net income by seven times.

On top of all that:

• A&F increased their sales growth forecast for the entire year from 4%–6% to 10%, exceeding analysts' projections of 7%.

  • The retailer's revenue has grown for the sixth consecutive quarter.

• With a 52-week growth rate of 500%, the clothing A&F's stock is more than twice as high as Nvidia's percentage stock gains.

After reporting this, Abercrombie & Fitch’s share price shot up over 30% on Wednesday of last week. As of writing, it’s only down around 7% from its new all-time high.

Massive rebound: In 2022, Netflix published a documentary that highlighted several controversies regarding the brand, sinking it further into obscurity. But now, A&F is clearly killing it. The retailer just needs to avoid the previous mistakes that caused its last run to slow to a mild walk.

For him, for her, for… weight loss?

From getting people up to getting weight down, this startup has made it big. Telehealth firm Hims and Hers got popular from selling Viagra generics, but after announcing it would sell a weight-loss drug in May (at a fraction of its typical price), stock soared as much as 38% and is up 40% as of writing.

Following its announcement that it would offer GLP-1 injections with the same active ingredient as Ozempic or Wegovy for roughly $200 a month (which is an 85% reduction over Wegovy's approximately $1,350 monthly cost), the telemedicine company has experienced a sharp increase in demand.

It’s not a rip-off, but it’s not the gold standard

Drug shortages of GLP-1s have hurt Novo Nordisk, which produces the uber popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, particularly hard.

This gave Hims and Hers an opportunity, as the FDA allows pharmacies to make “compounded” (essentially copied) models of proprietary medicine, a practice that Bloomberg says is increasingly popular in the weight loss space.

Take it with a grain of salt… Compounded drugs aren’t susceptible to the same strict regulations and guidelines that brand-name drugs are, and the FDA suggests avoiding them for now if it’s possible.

This is just the start: Hims and Hers stock already jumped over 60% this year before the announcement, and its new weight-loss drug division is anticipated to rake in over $100 million next year.

Grab Bag

US stocks just got easier to trade

Those who were too late to buy GameStop will assuredly be happy about this one. US stock trades will finalize earlier, allowing investors to finalize their transactions in one day as opposed to two.

The expedited process, according to the SEC and those who support the reform, will free up liquidity and lower risk, but there might be some significant obstacles to overcome first.

The consequences of meme stocks

It was decided in 2017 that settlements had to be wrapped up within two business days, as the use of technology vastly reduced the time it takes to clear these complex transactions.

• Then, in 2021, amatuer investors went bannanas for GameStop and other meme stocks, causing Robinhood (an amatuer trading platform) to post collateral for a massive volume of trades during the two-day window.

• However, investors started buying shares so fast and in such large amounts that Robinhood had to halt trading on particular stocks, resulting in investor outrage and an SEC regulation change.

So, how’s it doing so far?

According to the SEC, reducing the finalization interval to one day (or T+1) will maintain market liquidity and reduce broker-dealer transaction pressure.

However, the window for converting foreign currencies to the dollar is now significantly smaller, which increases the chance of error. After the change, banks and other foreign dealers working on deals were bracing for the worst.

But, after a somewhat bumpy two day transition, industry titans are calling the T+1 settlement change a success. Here’s to paying for my meme shares in record time, eh?

A major update hit Major League Baseball

After the race integration in Major League Baseball nearly 80 years ago, the records will finally show it. The MLB announced last week that more than 2,300 players who were left out of the historical record are now recognized by the league, which has fully integrated statistics from the seven Negro Leagues that ran from 1920 to 1948.

Why’d it take so long?

The integration includes results from a three-year examination that was started when MLB officially acknowledged the Negro Leagues as major leagues in December of 2020.

Since then, statistics have been gathered by historians from local press databases, but more information is still needed... according to the MLB’s calculations, box scores from only 75% of Negro League games are available.

A new statbook

The all-time stats now look drastically different, with Josh Gibson, who played for the Homestead Grays, leading numerous categories.

• Gibson has a.372 career batting average, which puts him ahead of Ty Cobb (.367).

• In addition, he tops Babe Ruth in both on-base plus slugging (OPS) and slugging percentage.

Players like Willie Mays who participated in both the MLB and the Negro Leagues will have their statistics altered to reflect their time spent in both leagues.

Fast Facts

Seoul Snooze: Last Sunday, people gathered in Seoul, South Korea, for the annual space-out competition. No, it’s not about astronomy. They literally sit at a park and, well, space out. As in do nothing. 

Humble Horsepower: Porsche announced it’s making the first-ever hybrid version of its iconic 911 sports car.

Cheez Creation: Big news for college students everywhere: Taco Bell is (finally) debuting the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme and the Cheez-It Tostada nationwide on June 6.

Modern Mexico: Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, becoming the first woman to lead Mexico in its 200-year history as a republic. However, 38 candidates were murdered during this election cycle, making it the most violent in Mexico’s modern history. 

Bezos Beverage: After Amazon increased its stake in Grubhub to 18%, it will now let users in the US to order food directly from the Amazon website and app.