Weekend Briefing No. 582
Vibeworking -- Why We Play -- The Great AI Art Heist
Welcome to the weekend.
Sorry for missing my normal time. I was on a hike this morning, got back and my sister was like… “Hey! I don’t see the Weekend Briefing.” Turns out I scheduled it to send on the wrong day. My apologies. Enjoy!
Prime Numbers
132,000,000 — The shift to streaming music has significantly increased the number of Americans paying for music, with 132 million paid subscribers in 2024 compared to just 14 million who admitted to pirating music that year.
100,600,000 — New York City's congestion pricing program has generated $100.6 million in its first two months and is on track to meet its $500 million annual funding goal for infrastructure projects, with nearly 482,000 vehicles entering the zone south of 60th Street daily.
35 — The Wikimedia Foundation is experiencing significant strain from artificial intelligence scraping, with bots accounting for 35% of total pageviews and, more critically, AI scrapers responsible for 65% of the most resource-intensive requests to their systems that host Wikipedia and 144 million media files.
Vibeworking
What if we could speak entire projects into existence with just a few words? Professor Ethan Mollick demonstrates how AI is transforming creative work through "vibeworking" — using conversational English to collaborate with AI on complex tasks rather than relying solely on specialized technical skills. With minimal technical expertise, Mollick created a functioning 3D fire truck game by simply describing what he wanted, though debugging still required $8 worth of AI assistance. This new paradigm doesn't eliminate expertise but redistributes it; humans provide essential guidance, evaluation and troubleshooting while AI handles execution. The challenge becomes identifying the "minimum viable knowledge" necessary to effectively collaborate with AI and finding "the right points of collaboration for each specific task." While building an interactive elevator pitch course took mere minutes instead of days, Mollick's most impressive achievement was collaborating with AI to produce a research paper using complex crowdfunding data in under an hour — work that would have previously taken weeks. The relationship between human knowledge and AI capabilities remains fluid, creating a transitional moment where the greatest value comes from finding the optimal collaboration points for each specific task. One Useful Thing (12 minutes)
Why We Play
What if our most unnecessary activities are precisely what make life worth living? From Einstein's creative breakthroughs through "combinatory play" to the cave paintings that served no survival purpose, our most meaningful human experiences transcend mere utility and enter the realm of play. Historian Huizinga boldly suggested that play isn't just frivolous but fundamental to how civilization develops, challenging a world fixated on practicality. While evolutionary theory struggles to explain play's purpose, Huizinga suggests its very irrationality proves we are "more than merely rational beings," offering escape from the rigid binaries of right and wrong that constrain our daily lives. Far from frivolous, play may be civilization's foundation, demanding "fair play" as "good faith expressed in play terms" and creating a space for "happy inspiration" untethered from propaganda or political manipulation. Marginalia (7 minutes)
Navigating Crypto Taxation
Cryptocurrency taxation is complex, ever-evolving and filled with opportunities — if you know how to navigate it properly. The IRS classifies crypto as property, meaning every transaction — selling, exchanging, gifting, trading, receiving or making purchases — can trigger capital gains or losses. Without a strategic approach, you risk leaving money on the table or facing unexpected tax liabilities. A significant advantage? Cryptocurrency isn't subject to the wash sale rule, making tax loss harvesting a powerful strategy to offset gains and minimize tax burden. However, various crypto activities — mining, staking, airdrops, non-fungible tokens, Decentralized Autonomous Organizationss and dividend tokens — each carry distinct tax implications. Incorrect reporting can result in penalties or overlooked deductions. TaxFrame doesn't just ensure compliance — they optimize tax strategies to help clients retain more of their hard-earned crypto. Whether you're an investor, trader or business accepting cryptocurrency, their experienced tax professionals ensure you leverage every available tax-saving opportunity. Schedule a consultation today and take control of your crypto taxes! TaxFrame (Sponsored)
The Great AI Art Heist
What if your artistic style could be stolen with a single keystroke? When Belgian artist Kim Van Deun emailed the University of Chicago's SAND Lab seeking protection for her fantasy illustrations against AI scraping, she inadvertently sparked a technological revolution in artist protection. Led by Professors Ben Zhao and Heather Zheng, the lab developed two groundbreaking tools: Glaze, which shields individual artists by disguising their style to AI models (while keeping it visible to human eyes), and Nightshade, which goes on the offensive by poisoning AI training data to disrupt model functionality. As generative AI continues to threaten creative livelihoods by eliminating entry-level positions and erasing a generation of young artists, SAND Lab's innovations represent a crucial counterattack against what Zhao calls "the most useless of AI things" that's "destroying its own future because it's destroying the pipeline." Chicago (18 minutes)
Brain Computer Interfaces
Despite the excitement, brain-computer interfaces face significant technical obstacles before widespread adoption can occur. The durability of implants, limited control capabilities and questions about long-term functionality remain substantial barriers to commercialization. Companies are exploring radically different approaches — from Synchron's vessel-based stentrode offering basic "switch" control to Neuralink's more invasive but precise electrode threads — each with distinct tradeoffs between simplicity and functionality. Nevertheless, the surge in private investment and simultaneous clinical trials has created unprecedented momentum, with researchers like Michelle Patrick-Krueger expressing confidence that brain computer interfaces will finally "translate into a product" rather than remaining confined to research settings. The next five to 10 years represent a critical window that will determine whether these technologies can evolve from impressive demonstrations into life-changing tools for paralyzed individuals. MIT Technology Review (7 minutes)
On Bicycles and Love
What if a simple invention completely transformed who we could fall in love with? Before bicycles appeared in 1817, the average distance between birthplaces of married couples in England was just one mile, as Yale professor Stephen Stearns discovered through studying parish registries. Beyond dramatically expanding our genetic diversity by enabling people from different villages to meet and marry, bicycles revolutionized women's liberation, with Susan B. Anthony celebrating how cycling "has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." Geneticist Steve Jones even declared the bicycle "the most important event in recent human evolution" for its profound impact on human relationships and society. Interesting Facts (3 minutes)
Google Playing Catch Up
The 2022 launch of ChatGPT plunged Google into a code-red crisis, forcing a trillion-dollar corporation to suddenly operate at startup speed after OpenAI's surprise success threatened its core search business. Executives assembled "Team Bard" within days, demanding a ChatGPT competitor in just 100 days while simultaneously merging Google's two AI research powerhouses — DeepMind and Google Brain — to build "Gemini," the model that could restore Google's AI leadership. This frantic sprint fundamentally changed Google's culture, forcing painful trade-offs between safety and speed as the company's once-cautious approach to AI gave way to increased risk tolerance, compressing processes that previously took months into days and causing burnout among teams working holidays and weekends for three consecutive years. While these efforts have restored investor confidence — with Alphabet shares nearly doubling since their post-ChatGPT low — the race toward artificial general intelligence continues unabated, revealing how even the mightiest tech giants can be transformed when their supremacy is threatened. WIRED (16 minutes)
Should We Work Together?
Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a one-on-one call with me.
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Weekend Wisdom
Play is the highest form of research. - Albert Einstein