VOLUME 40

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today marks 40 volumes of The Pace Report, and we’re still going strong! Here’s to the next 40, 400 and beyond… 🚀

Below we catch you up on all things to do with the world of technology and creators so you can stay in the loop… or up to pace if you will!

It’s an exciting one. You don’t wanna miss out!

— Jacob Pace

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Scarlett Johansson Confronts OpenAI for Unauthorized Voice Imitation

What’s the scoop? Well it looks like no one is safe from AI, not even Hollywood. If you haven’t already heard, movie megastar Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI are in a little bit of a tiff (if you wanna call it that). In a recent incident, Johansson sent legal letters to OpenAI, alleging that the company used her voice without permission for their brand new AI-generated personal assistant called 'Sky.'" Now, that would be a bit of a farfetched claim, however, Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) reached out to Johansson’s team in September of 2023 to have Johansson be the voice of Sky, and she declined, for personal reasons. Which - I guess you might ask, why, that seems so cool. But then imagine your voice being permeated through the world forever and ever in the form of an AI assistant… yeah kind of creepy.

Anyway, back to present day, OpenAI releases GPT-4o with their newly unveiled Sky, which sounds eerily similar to Scarlett Johanson. So, her team sends a slew of letters, demanding to know why this happened, and OpenAI rejects the claims that the voice is an imitation, and is actually the voice of a different professional actress. So then, Johansson reveals that Altman had actually reached out to her just days before the product demo, asking her to reconsider voicing the system… suspicious huh? Lots of experts online speculate that this will usher in a new era of precedents for publicity laws, aimed at preventing the use of an individual's voice and likeness without permission.

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Venture Capital Funding in Crypto Rises to $2.4 Billion

We are so back. According to PitchBook, a leading financial data and software company, crypto startup funding rose to $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2024, marking a 40.3% increase from the previous quarter. The funding was spread across 518 deals, in various categories such as crypto and blockchain Infrastructure, DeFi (decentralized finance) and NFT platforms.

The largest deal of all these was Together AI, a decentralized cloud platform, that raised a whopping $106 million! Interestingly enough, global venture capital investments dropped to a near five-year low this quarter, so that’s quite a contrast to all this growth happening in the crypto space.

While crypto hasn’t hot a hot past couple years, it’s cool to see some growth again! I think with the explosion of blockchain, AI and the creator economy, we’re about to be in for a wild next few years… strap in!

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Patrick Mahomes Launches Ready-to-Drink Iced Coffee

Mahomes is doing what now? First it was Feastables, then it was PRIME— now it’s… drum roll please Throne Sport Coffee! Throne Sport is a brand new ready-to-drink iced coffee launched by NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes and his business partner Michael Fedele, who previously worked at Coca-Cola and played a significant role in marketing BodyArmor, a sports drink brand that Coca-Cola acquired in 2022 for a grand $5.6 billion (with a b)! 

What’s most impressive about this story is that this is actually Mahomes’ first time becoming a lead investor in a business. Prior to this, his role in the business world has typically been that of a minority investor in ventures such as the Kansas City Royals, a Major League Baseball team; Sporting Kansas City, a Major League Soccer team; and the Kansas City Current, a National Women's Soccer League team. Additionally, he has invested in the Alpine Formula 1 Team and the wearable fitness tracker company that everyone can’t stop talking about, Whoop.

To be quite frank, this is a pretty predictable move for Mahomes, but I’m glad to see it.

If you want to try Throne Sport, the drink is available in convenience stores, on Amazon, and through the brand's website. 

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Microsoft’s New Recall Feature Sparks Controversy, and Elon Musk Weighs In

At Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, the organization unveiled more information about Copilot, their AI-powered assistant designed to enhance productivity and streamline workflows within Microsoft systems. Well, there’s one specific feature named Recall that’s been getting a lot of criticism online, and Elon Musk just couldn’t help but add to the fire.

Let’s back up a little bit. The feature, according to Microsoft, is designed to take constant screenshots of users' activities and enable users to search and recall past activities. Well, as you can guess, many people have been comparing it to surveillance tools. Elon Musk even compared the features to a "Black Mirror episode" and expressed his intention to disable the feature, highlighting widespread public unease.

In response to this criticism, Microsoft has assured that all data captured by the Recall feature is stored locally on the user's device, meaning they have full control over their data and can manage or delete as needed. With all this said, I commend Microsoft for being so ahead of the curve on all things AI, despite getting some flack for it. No risk, no reward!

That’s all we have today. If you made it this far, I’d love to hear from you!

Say hi :)