Hi,
I’m in New York City today, where hotel prices are over $500 per night. But in what other city could you be mere steps from not one but two active memes for the terminally online? Best city on earth.
Love,
How to sell to bots.
[an excerpt from today’s research post]
People make shopping decisions with little time and imperfect information. Much of modern marketing is built on the back of that assumption, and the industry works by creating shorthand that makes products easier to understand and buy. Nike means something different from Patagonia.
Most advertising is designed to reinforce a promise of a brand.
Your AI bot, however, doesn’t need shorthand in the same way. It is never running late. It is never too tired to read a description. It can process way more information than we can. It has no feelings, so a splashy, emotive super bowl ad signals very little beyond 'this company can afford that ad.' Bots don’t experience status or aspiration. A greased up décolletage does not (yet?) seduce the bot.
For a bot, proving the brand promise matters more than making it.
I did a little mini test of this idea. I wanted to see what would happen when I gave AI two different kinds of marketing. 1) A brand “promise” (brand website) 2) Brand “proof” (3rd party lab report).
Read the full piece for the results.
Quick Hits.
Someone vibecoded an open source Photoshop dupe. Adobe had 24 hrs to respond, and they did not.
A cyber attack on a chain of French supermarkets which caused the fridges to overheat spoiled “€15-25m worth of food.”
Speaking of fridges, is there a rogue AI agent in yours?
An OpenAI engineer was caught doing corporate espionage, badly.
“Pure pain box” re: the new Apple ad.
Be nice to Claude, or else.
Ben Affleck writes Python and understands how AI works on a technical level, and the timeline responded with a perfectly crafted Good Will Hunting meme.
Very niche issue here but are all the tech CEOs drinking 0% Guinness on Cheeky Pint? Stolen valor if so.
If I was in NY this weekend I’d be going to the esoteric PDF meetup.
Moving money onchain should be easy and reliable. With Across, it actually is (The Boys love/use it ourselves!) One API to move size, across dozens of chains. Get there with Across.
