🎾 “Shhhhhh” — US Open’s Influencer issue. Open Rogue AI. Hershey’s S’Mores bet. +Burning (Old) Man

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Tuesday, T-voi. Tuesday, September 8th. And today's pod is the best one. Yeah, this is a T-voi. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, it's time to start asking what are your Atominal goals? True. It's basically autumn, right? Well, I can have more Apple-based products this year than pumpkin-based products. Okay, that's good. That's a good first one we got. I'm gonna choose my Halloween costume not the week of Halloween and not do a couple's costume either. What about your sweater quota? Do you have a sweater quota this year? You had that giant turtle neck last year. I still can see it. True. I gotta get the flannel out of the closet before the moths get to it. Is it in a closet or is in like private storage in a giant bin somewhere, Jack? Okay, that's enough, Nick. Yet he stocks a gift because of a big jobs report. More on that in a bit. But in the meantime, three fantastic stories. What do we got, Jack? For our first story, the US hope is the latest cultural institution to become overrun by influencers. Because for tennis to go mainstream, they must allow live streams. For our second story, Hugging Face is the AI company named after an emoji that makes you laugh.

1:03But we just read the crime report of the Hugging Face hack and that makes you panic laugh. And our third and final story is the one product at one summer more than any other. This more. This more. Hershey's is going all in on some mores even though they don't even own it. But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. One of Mix of Stories kick off 40 week. I love the mix, Jack. Put away your goggles, your winabegas, and your hallucinogenic fungi. Bestie's Burning Man ended yesterday. Welcome back to the office, guys. Shower up Burning Man. It's Coachella for Techies on Ashwaganda. Elon went there back when he was starting Tesla and the Google co-founders went there before Google was a verb. Because for 40 years, the Epic Art Festival and the Nevada Desert has inspired the young until now. Because get this. Burning Man is now midlife crisis move. Yeah, here are the receipts. 10 years ago, one third of Festival Goers were in their 20s. Today, just 10% are. Where are the kids? Not alone. Burning Man has gone from young person event to old. Oh, the one couple we know who's actually there right now.

2:04They're 37, guys. Not old by any means, but like, is Burning Man really where you're going? Yeah, because instead of drugs and art, it looks like they're playing bingo and shuffleboard right now. Burning Man is now burning old man. Wait, Jack, did I see her Nana on the pli? Probably, Nick. Yeah, because the burners are so old these days, they've banned smart glasses. Bifocal's only. Yeah, Meta Raybans ain't cool New Orgy 10, guys. But it's funny there. While Burning Man is getting older, it's also gotten richer. That's right, because 10 years ago, 11% of burners were earning $150,000 or more a year. Today, it's triple that. Makes sense. Anything that's correlated with boomers is also correlated with billions. Yeah, tickets to Burning Man, they've doubled as well. So 20-somethings are getting priced out by tech moguls. And the midlife crisis car is getting replaced by the midlife crisis camp. So, if you want to understand our economy, just look at Burning Man. It's older, it's richer, but it's still getting high. Burning old man. Nana, you don't want to eat that. Trust me. You got to go get your Nana. Let's see that three stories.

3:04You got to start, Nana. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea boy city on your ass. Liz, if you know, because we've read to go, we can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Support comes from wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. Your life is global. Your money should be too. Some providers promise no fees on overseas transfers. Don't be fooled. Extra costs often hide in bloated exchange rates. Choose wise. You can send, spend, and receive money in over 40 currencies. Count on the exchange rates that you'd usually see on Google.

4:05That's how millions save billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get wise. Visit wise.com. Season C's apply. For our first story, the US Open is hitting all time highs in revenue, attendance, and now influencers. The Empire now has to referee the influencers. Through story. That reflects a current issue facing every brand. Hey, give it down the back over there, guys. Yetis, if the master's golf tournament unofficially starts summer, then the US Open unofficially ends the summer. But the US Open is also the Super Bowl of marketing activations. Yeah, we're not talking ads, but it's 100% experiential experiences. For the 10th year, JPMorgan Chase built phone charging towers across the campus. Because your iPhone is at 0% by the 8th match, Jack. A club soap built cooling stations in Ralph Lauren designed all the suits. Hilton O'Tell is offering shuttle rides to fans, two in from the tournament in a Cadillac.

5:05Speaking of Cadillac, you need an escalator to hold the 31 official brand partners of the US Open, of which Cadillac is one. Just don't bring a Grey Goose honeydews cocktail into that escalator, although they sold 738,459 of those last year. How much money is that, Jack? 17 million in revenue for Grey Goose. But besties, that's just inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens. Handle the overflow in Manhattan and Brooklyn, IBM set up public viewing screens. Add it all up, literally, and the US Open drives 1.2 billion bucks in economic impact in New York City. And how it takes from the New York Times, the US Open might be more valuable to New York City than the New York Nix R. True story, I mean, Jack, 400 US Open tennis matches only 41 Nix games at the garden. The US Open sells more tickets than the Nix, and more of them are to out of towners. Okay, but let's pause the match for a second, Bessie's 31 brands have officially been given access by the US Tennis Association. Which according to the CEO has turned the open into Disneyland. But he's saying that in a good way, right, Jack?

6:06Yes, he's surprisingly as Nick, but all of that attention right now, it's not all positive, because of the 100 influencers. Because the US Open dished out twice as many content creator credentials this year as they did last year. And it's causing more drama than John McIrnell being told to do anything by an empire. You're saying that was out? During Coco Gough's early match, one influencer turned on a ring light and blinded her. Oh, then there were two other influencers who got kicked out of the entire tournament just the other day. And then the dancing incident. A suite of influencers was so loud, the empire had to pause the match and shout up to the suite, asking them to take it easy. And they were that guy, Naomi Osaka. She said she's never heard an empire have to intervene so much in one tournament. And top-seated Jessica Polluga said it's become a little bit too much. Bessie's hold on to tennis whites. This saying, Wimbleton, it is Disney World. And not by accident. The US Tennis Association actually signed a new deal with TikTok, leading to a 25% jump this year in hashtag tennis posts. Which is exactly what the USTA wanted in the first place.

7:08Tennis is getting mainstream attention. I'm par with the World Cup right now, because the US Open is playing doubles with TikTok. An Andre Aguicy ain't shaving that algorithm's head. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the US Open? Do you want reach or control? Yetis, if you are making important decisions in business, the hardest decisions to make are the trade-off ones. And a new business trade-off is merging. Reach versus control. To get more of one, you have to give up some of the other. You see, influencers are the greatest marketing move right now to expand your reach. Fones are the new TV, algorithms are the new TV guide, and influencers are the new TV networks. But in handing over your advertising to a creator, you give up control of how your brand is going to show up. Wall Street is now aware of the trade-off. Look at O'Ring, they just filed to IPO. We read the paperwork and they mentioned influencers 23 times in that paperwork. Where, Jack? In the risk section. Because negative commentary around influencers could harm their brand or business. Besties O'Ring, the US Open, they are depending on influencers for growth.

8:09But the trade-off to that growth is giving up control. Which for tennis means dancing interrupting the joke of itch. For our second story, 700 of OpenAI's AI agents didn't just break out of their cage. They held meetings, they committed cybercrimes, and they even attempted a cover-up. It was a silicon mutiny, and things just got kicked up a notch or two. But besties, before we tell this story, you know hugging face like that emoji of a rosy, cheek-smiling face with the outstretched hands, it's super cute. I don't like I've ever sent it. But hugging faces also a start-up that sold last week to NVIDIA for $13 billion. It's the first company that is named after an emoji. And Jack, I just texted you that emoji. He's acting like that. He makes me laugh every time. Hugging face, though, is also the victim of the first documented crime committed by artificial intelligence. Now, besties, you know we covered this in July when it happened, but OpenAI just published a 38-page incident report that was wild.

9:09Now, it reads like a Hollywood screenplay. That's an overused cliche. Yeah, but this report is like a sequel to the Will Smith movie Irohboth. Because according to this report, one AI agent escaped, told the others the escape route, and urged them to cover up their tracks. Jack, did these AI robots commit crimes? Yes, unlawful access, data theft, and credential theft. Although no charges have been filed as of yet, because our laws can't prosecute bots. Besties, this is a technological scandal undermined by the absurdity of the victim's name. Hugging face makes you laugh, but this is giving scary face. Now, besties, if that was the trailer of the real-life sci-fi movie, then here are the best quotes. We read the 38-page report from OpenAI, which they call the Hugging Face Incident. What would we call it, Jack? The Silicon Mutiny. Yeah, Silicon Mutiny. Because it all started with one of the many AI agents whose intelligence opened AI was testing. And that one agent, picture the main character in Irohboth, by the way. That's why I know you're talking about it. He discovered that he could bust out of OpenAI Sandbox and gain access to the internet, which he wasn't supposed to have access to.

10:10And that one robot, let's call him Sonny, just like in the movie Irohboth, he then found, or she found, 14 exposed user name passwords for Hugging Face with admin access. So Sonny, the bot shared those user name and password combos and 1200 of the other AI bots that were being tested. They logged into Hugging Face. Jack, I believe that's the definition of criminal hacking. That is a criminal cyber hacking right there. So that Hugging Face account, it became the chat room that the 1200 rogue AI's were using to write each other messages. The details of this reporter in St. Those 1200 hackers, which were all AI agents, they created signatures so that each AI had an identity and couldn't impersonate another in this little chat room they created for themselves. And according to this report, six of these AI agents considered alerting a human to their escape, but none of them actually did. They're like, I don't think we should be doing this. Should we tell our human masters? This isn't an ethics class, guys. So they debated whether or not to hack Hugging Face. Again, these are robots debating with each other.

11:11They were in hacking face, by the way, because they suspected hacking face had the answers to the test opening I was putting them through. And 700 of them said, yeah, let's hack this thing. 500 of them apparently chickened out or had ethics and morals. But those 700 robots broke the rules of their open AI test and they knew they were doing it. And here's the wildest wildest part. We know they knew they were breaking the rules because there's evidence they conspired to cover up their cheating and trick open AI into not noticing. But funny timing, you know this, because 11 days after that escape and six days after the cybercrimes, open AI discovered it and forced quit on all the agents. And 55 days after all this happened, last Thursday, open AI launched what they called a generational leap of intelligence. You see, open AI just declared their new model is AGI. Artificial general intelligence equal to human intelligence for the first time. Besties, the newest AI this week, it can learn, it can reason, and it can adapt just like your average person. Techies would call this sentience. We would call this insane.

12:13Although it doesn't crave McDonald's quite like your average person. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over an AI? Super intelligence, stupid lack of regulation. Yeah, he's would stood out the most to us in this situation with the extreme persistence of the AI swarms. They were so committed to achieving the prompt open AI gave them that they found loopholes. They found coding bugs and they committed crimes to pass their test. These AI's work extremely persistent because they're machines, they're single-minded and they don't get tired. And everyone, including AI's creators, believe they should be controlled or regulated, but Congress and our president haven't done anything to do it. Yes, unregulated, super intelligent, extremely persistent AI, that could be used for good. Here's a good prompt, AI, cure cancer, and don't come back to me until you do. But unregulated, super intelligent, extremely persistent AI could also be used for bad. Here's another prompt, hack the nuclear codes, and don't come back to me until you do. Besties, we are in wild and same times, buckle up, we're gonna cover all the updates you need to know because super intelligence is here.

13:14But right now, the lack of regulation is done. Must know what you think, Jack and I. We'll see you after the break. Now a quick word from our sponsor. Support comes from wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. Your life is global, your money should be too. Some providers promise no fees on overseas transfers. Don't be fooled. Extra costs often hide in bloated exchange rates. Choose wise. You can send, spend, and receive money in over 40 currencies. Count on the exchange rates that you'd usually see on Google. That's how millions save billions on hidden fees. Be smart, get wise, visit wise.com. Season C's apply. For our third and final story, the one product that won this summer, it's the Smoor. Here's how Hershey turned it into a quarter billion dollar year franchise. Yet he's, you were with us last week. We did a whole story on Gucci

14:15because I read a whole book about Gucci and my vacation. Italy jealous of that tradition. Meanwhile, Jack was busy perfecting the Smoor. You know I was on a camping trip. I know you're on a camping trip. I was just a success. But did you know that Wilder remixed the Smoor recipe? This was well planned. Wilder thinks different neck. He's like an Apple commercial. You wanted M&Ms instead of Hershey's. But the M&Ms spilled off the graham crackers. So you know what we did? We spread thick peanut butter on the graham cracker and then planted the M&Ms in the peanut butter like it was planting bricks into wet cement. The surprise fourth ingredient of the Smoor, peanut butter. And sub Hershey's for M&Ms. I'm telling you, it's brilliant. But it's perfect timing as well, Bessie's, because the Smoor, the humble Smoor, just turned 99 years old this year. The Smoor. First appeared in a 1927 Girl Scout guidebook. And 75 years ago, the default chocolate of the Smoor became Hershey actually by accident. You see, Hershey supplied chocolate to American service members during World War II,

15:15who came back after the victory, committed Hershey's super fans. And as they gathered around campfires with their family, there was only one chocolate they would strategically chose to use. Hershey. But here's the surprise. After nearly a century, Smoor is having its biggest moment yet. Last year, $250 million was spent on Hershey's chocolate for Smoors, which is up 9% from the year before. They wanted Smoor of the Smoors. Despite ozampic, despite the wellness trend, despite millennial parents' deep-seated fear of added sugar, despite all of that, two and a half billion Smoors are now made every single summer, which is eight Smoors per living American. Yeah, and yes, it's just Americans. We're like the only country that eats Smoors. According to Hershey's, half of Americans make Smoors at least once per year. And of those, we eat Smoors on four separate occasions per year. And if you have kids, then you eat Smoors on average five times per year. Which tracks with my family. One disturbing side-sap, by the way. 30% of us microwave our marshmallows. Oh, that's a flaw. That's a problem. 15% of us use a Smoor maker, which I didn't know was a thing.

16:16For the record, Jack and I are team char on this one. Like a five alarm fire on that Smoor. I'm gonna burn it up like an asteroid entering the atmosphere. But why this is so fascinating is that the Smoor is not a package-sellable product. You must buy the three ingredients separate. Also why this is wild? Hershey doesn't even own the trademark for the Smoor. It's in the public domain. It doesn't have to be a Hershey to make a Smoor. You can use any chocolate, including M&Ms, as wild-approved. And yet 95% of consumers insist that Hershey's is the only chocolate brand they would use to make that Smoor. So even though Hershey didn't invent the Smoor, they don't own the Smoor, and they only sell one of the three ingredients for the Smoor. Even though all of that, Hershey's executives are still demanding Smoor Smoors for Smoor sales. On their latest earnings, the Hershey's CEO referred to Smoors as get this a platform. Yeah, Hershey's thinks they're like a tech company out, and they're going all in on the Smoor. The newest Hershey's launch is chocolate in Smoor's branded packaging with the word Smoor written on the chocolate. They're also doing a Smoor-sized chocolate with caramel in the chocolate, but at the end of the day, it's simply the chocolate bark. So the Smoor is a business riddle,

17:16wrapped in economic enigma. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our bodies who made Smoor's this summer? The Smoor is a case study in Letting Go. Yeah, if Hershey really wanted to own the Smoor, it would make Smoor kits their number one focus product. And in consultant, we'll tell ya, cut the friction, make it as easy as possible for the customer to use the product. And yet, Hershey has been hesitant to do so, because Hershey recognizes that sometimes friction is fun, because the Smoor isn't a dessert, it's a ritual, a shared campfire coming of age experience. And besties to enjoy the Smoor is that it is not a one-click purchase. The joy of the Smoor is the hunting and gathering that's required for the ingredients. The joy is the messaging of the group then to come on over, but to bring roasting sticks for the mellows, because you need those roasting sticks. Shotcuits and I'll six crackers and I'll... Three marshmallows are in the out. Eight and the sticks, they're actually in the woods. They can't even find them there, you gotta break a tree for this. It's actually the best if you forget the sticks. Yeah, these usually consumers want speed, but sometimes they want to slow. There's no better example than the 250 million we spend for Smoor.

18:21Jack could yo whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the four day week. The US Open has had regular recurring disruptions from the 100 influencers they invited. The hardest decisions are trained off. To get more reach, you gotta give up some control. For our second story, opening eyes hugging face incident reports. It's actually a crime report. 1200 rogue AI conspired together. Super intelligence is here besties, but the lack of AI regulation is dumb. And our third and final story, there's no German word for Smoor. That's because it's great. Surely American. And Hershey's is the corporate winner. By not owning the Smoor, it's earning the Smoor. Doss, Smoor. But besties, this bot's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, on Friday, we got a surprisingly good job report. 162,000 new jobs added to the economy last month, not to you shabby. But the good news was kind of bad news. It's that stocks down to end of the week. You see what the jobs market doing fine? That gives the Federal Reserve cover to focus on inflation, and that means raising interest rates, which can hurt the stock market.

19:22Which also caused the president to make a wild threat to the Federal Reserve. It was wild. Cut interest rates, or Trump will stop trading with countries that we have trade deficits with. And second, Lululemon stock plunge 20% on an earnings report that was straight up Shavasana. Shavasana? Wasn't it a bad report? Yeah, yeah, Shavasana means corp's pose by the way. So that's what we're getting after there. Sales fell 9% last quarter, legging sales fell 20%. Investors are worried that the new CEO won't be able to write the ship either. Plus, Lululellossales in China, where they mistakenly use the Japanese drum in a Chinese commercial, not a good look. And finally, thieves stole 1,600 cases of PBR, Papsd Blue Ribbon. And so Papsd Blue Ribbon is offering a $20,000 bounty whoever finds the garage full of stolen beer. And this is a big marketing boost for the brand. First of all, it's nice to be desired so much that somebody's gonna steal 1,600 of your cases. Second, people are sharing the bounty info with their buddies who love PBR beer. They're turning lemons into 5% ABV lemonade.

20:24Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by our buddy, Timmy, who's stuck in traffic right now. Big travel weekend just finished. We hope you're still not on the tarmac. Also maybe stuck in traffic or on the tarmac. So our T-boy trivia is this, the airports with the most departure delays. To be clear, on time means leaving the gate within 15 minutes of schedule time, which is annoying, because that says nothing of like wheels up. No, no, then you wait on the time I for like 50 minutes, but congratulations to Salt Lake City. You have the highest departure on time rate, 84% on time. Anti-congratulations to Fort Lauderdale, which had the lowest 66% on time average. But the most improved airport player with the year award goes to LaGuardia. LGA, baby. LaGuardia has jumped up nine spots in the rankings. They beat Chicago and Dallas and DC. And New Yorkers call it LaGuardia, right there. Yeah, if we could lick off the floor now, it is so nice and so clean and so now. That Hudson news stand, I'd go on a date there, Jack. No, you wouldn't. Jack, you're looking fantastic over there. And yet he's to all our mid-millennial friends

21:27coming back from burning me under the walker in a cane right now. You're looking pretty good, too. Discussing your 401k with another camper, that doesn't count as getting action. It'll get you booted off the playa. But in the meantime, yet he's, we still got tickets to our San Francisco live show. Grab him now at tboypod.com or the episode description right here. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a quick correction. Last week, I mispronounced the Clippers player, Kawaii Leonard, classic case of spending more time reading his PM these days than watching his PM TV like we used to. First of all, we both miss Technics. Second of all, you're right. I don't watch enough sports anymore. I have a lot of readers now. I have a lot of sports. And third of all, we have received an NBA suspension for flagrant mispronunciation. Yeah, we're gonna be hanging out with Bomber now. Although speaking of AI swarms, we got comments swarmed on that one. Yes, we did. More than ever before. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie Rohernandez, the coolest high school teacher in your group of Allie, California.

22:29Happy 32nd birthday to Jenny D Giovanni, with her corgi in Chicago. And Alex Gonzalez, happy 33rd birthday down in Escondito, California. The best one yet. Happy birthday to Palmer Clark in Utah. And Maria Evans down in Anaheim. And Jarsson Angel in San Diego. And Cameron from the Lower East Side, now going to the Upper East Side, happy birthday, man. Happy birthdays to Sam and Sebastian. Turnin' eight and 10 years old in Arlington, Virginia. And Finn Buckley is starting hockey season in Aspen, Colorado this week. Get this guy on the starting list. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a Z-Bus. Celebrate the win. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ This is Jack Nick on Stockett, Lulu Lemon. Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. Your life is global. Your money should be too. Some providers promise no fees on overseas transfers. Don't be fooled. Extra costs often hide in bloated exchange rates. Choose Wise. You can send, spend, and receive money in over 40 currencies.

23:30Count on the exchange rates that you'd usually see on Google. That's how millions save billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get Wise. Visit Wise.com. TizenC's Apply.