Good morning and happy Tuesday!

We are less than a week from Super Bowl 58 (NFL Championship) in Las Vegas and it’s a fitting setting for the most gambled-on event of the year in the United States.

Legal Sports Report predicts that Americans will gamble $1.29 billion across 39 regulated markets on the pinnacle of American football this year, a 20% increase from the previous high set last year.

From the result of the opening kickoff to the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach, groups will be huddled around the television or bar getting those dopamine hits from every second of the event.

If you gamble, enjoy responsibly this weekend! If not I’m sure the spectacle that the Super Bowl has evolved into has something else to offer you as a viewer.

-Wally

Main Stories

Speedrun

• Microsoft partners with journalism heavyweights to bring responsible AI to media.

• VCs are still pumping the brakes on tech. User-facing tech products are still at a 95% loss from the start of last year.

• Some AI tools are capable of bypassing crypto exchange KYC systems, creating all sorts of problems.

• Farming on the Moon just became a plausible future.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft's Bold Play: Elevating Journalism with AI Amidst Industry Shifts

In a fresh twist on journalism's evolving landscape, Microsoft is stepping in with a game-changing move: forging alliances with the news elite to weave AI into the heart of reporting. This initiative is not just about keeping pace with technology; it's a strategic response to the industry's uncertain relationship with AI, highlighted by Sports Illustrated's AI experiment fallout.

By collaborating with notable entities like Semafor and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Microsoft is positioning AI as a catalyst for journalistic innovation. Semafor, for example, is tapping into AI to diversify its research avenues, ensuring a robust network of sources. Similarly, the Craig Newmark J-School's program is sculpting a future where journalists are fluent in AI, marrying traditional reporting with increased digital productivity.

This venture is a strategic pivot towards sustainable journalism in an era where the line between AI assistance and overreliance is finely drawn. Amidst the industry's AI gut-check post-Sports Illustrated, Microsoft's approach offers a blueprint for responsible AI integration, ensuring that the essence of journalism—human insight, integrity, and story building—remains the main thing as we enter a new age of digital news and content.

On This Day

2018: Elon Sends a Tesla to Space

In the spirit of our space theme, in 2018 Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its first test of the Falcon Heavy rocket. Onboard was one of Musk’s personal Tesla vehicles. To this day, allegedly, the red Tesla Roadster is still floating out in the cosmos.

Startups

Venture Capital Hesitation Signals Consumer Sector Caution

Venture capital's tight grip on the purse strings in early 2024 echoes last year's cautious stance, with a particular squeeze on consumer-facing startups, which have seen funding plummet 95% from their 2022 levels. This trend raises eyebrows about the potential for choppy waters in the consumer market, VCs are often ahead of the curve on these things.

In 2023, U.S. startups attracted $170.6 billion in investments, a drop from $242.2 billion in 2022, PitchBook data reveals. Despite this overall decline, AI startups emerged as a bright spot, drawing significant attention and funding, kept afloat by the success of technologies like ChatGPT.

With over 700 unicorns poised to seek funding due to dwindling capital, the venture scene is at a crossroads. Venture capital firms, sitting on over $270 billion, raised just $67 billion in 2023, marking a significant downturn and a six-year low. This fundraising slowdown hints at a more selective investment approach moving forward, potentially impacting the availability of capital for startups navigating the challenging terrain ahead.

Headline Palooza

Decent Destinations

Al Ula, Saudi Arabia

Al Ula, nestled in the heart of Saudi Arabia, is a mesmerizing oasis of ancient history and natural beauty. This hidden gem, home to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hegra, boasts awe-inspiring sandstone mountains and millennia-old Nabatean tombs that rival Petra in their grandeur. Al Ula's landscape is a dramatic canvas of desert vistas, where history whispers through the labyrinthine ruins of old mud-brick dwellings and the echoes of ancient trade routes. It's a place where the past and present merge, offering travelers an unparalleled journey through time amidst breathtaking natural scenery.

AI & Blockchain

AI's Dark Side: Deepfakes Undermine Crypto Security

In the digital age where AI's advancement continually pushes the boundary, a new challenge emerges in the realm of cryptocurrency: AI-generated deepfakes are now breaching the fortresses of crypto exchanges. For just $15, these deepfake IDs are fooling Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, a development that creates trouble for regulatory efforts and opens new avenues for nefarious activities.

A service named OnlyFake has been spotlighted for crafting eerily realistic fake driver's licenses and passports from over two dozen countries, including the US, Canada, and members of the European Union. OnlyFake's products have reportedly sailed through KYC checks on several crypto platforms, as evidenced by a successful test with a British passport on the OKX exchange.

This issue is a pretty large hole in the crypto ecosystem's security, offering a golden ticket for hackers and scammers. The ease and affordability of these AI-crafted fakes are the backbone of a growing crisis in digital security, challenging platforms to fortify their verification processes against an ever-evolving threat. With major players like Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase potentially vulnerable, the crypto world faces a pivotal moment in reevaluating and reinforcing its safeguards against the capabilities of AI.

Science

Cosmic Farming: Chickpeas Grow in Moondust

In a groundbreaking experiment that makes ‘The Martian’ with Matt Damon feel like pre-programming, researchers have successfully grown chickpeas in a mix that's largely moondust. This incredible feat, carried out by the team at Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is a giant leap towards sustainable food production for future lunar missions.

Using soil composed of up to 75% lunar regolith, the researchers have shown that, with a little help from organic material from Earth like fungi and worm manure, the lunar dust can transform into a fertile bed for growing crops. This is big news for space exploration. It means astronauts might not have to rely solely on packed meals from Earth but could actually farm their food on the Moon, making long-term space missions more feasible than ever.

They took a bit longer to mature in the moondust blend and showed signs of stress, but the fact that they grew at all is a testament to the ingenuity of science. This experiment opens the door to the possibility of a self-sustaining space habitat, where waste can be recycled into worm manure and used alongside fungi to grow crops, truly making the Moon a place where humans could, one day, live and thrive.

The vision of astronauts tending to chickpea plants on the lunar surface might still be a ways off, but this experiment paves the way for a future where the cosmos could be our new agricultural frontier.

What’s Not News

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk

So much opportunity in this story for the comics out there.

Residents in Lynchburg, Virginia got a startling surprise yesterday when the creek that runs through town had turned completely… white.

According to the Lynchburg Fire Department a drainage sewer that handles the waste from the dairy plant in town had gotten clogged, causing it to bust into the storm drain and come out the other end in the Lynchburg creek.

I wonder if there is a prophecy about this one.

Enjoy your Tuesday😉