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Good morning readers. Looking to buy a home? Be prepared to cough up a pretty penny in interest payments. Mortgage rates have hit their highest levels since mid-November of last year with the 30-year fixed mortgage crossing the 7% mark April 1st. Since then, it’s climbed to 7.5% and experts don’t see things slowing down anytime soon. Oddly enough, mortgage applications have surged 5% in that time. But brace for impact: affordability is dwindling, and waiting for a rate drop might be a long haul.

Let’s jump into today’s storylines.

In today’s digest:

• Meta releases Llama 3, its most powerful AI yet

• Headline Hustle: India head to the polls in largest election in the world, NYPD arrest 100 pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University, Roberta Karmel (first female SEC commissioner) dies at 86

• Netflix tells investors its no longer reporting on subscriber growth

• Pulse Points: What’s Trending

TECH

Meta rolls out its latest AI model, Llama 3, across all its social platforms

Who says llamas can't be tech innovators? Well, Meta's new Llama 3 might just be the most high-tech llama yet, and it's here to transform how billions interact with AI across social media. Released Thursday, Llama 3 represents Meta's latest foray into the bustling AI arena, upping the ante in Silicon Valley’s competitive AI landscape.

Bigger, better, faster

Llama 3 isn’t just a minor update; it's a significant leap from its predecessors. With two versions to start—one packing 8 billion parameters and another beefier model boasting 70 billion—Meta claims even its "small" version could run circles around the largest iteration of its previous model. This new suite of AI capabilities is set to enhance Meta AI tool, integrating deeply into the search functions across its portfolio of heavyweight platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

But it’s not just about smarter searches or chatbots that chat back.

• Llama 3's open-source nature means anyone can tinker with it, potentially speeding up innovation across the board.

• Chris Cox, Meta’s Chief Product Officer, touted Llama 3 as "the most intelligent and best performative model" that’s freely available, marking a clear shot across competitors’ bows.

Growing (err, training) pains. Meta used synthetic data to train Llama 3, highlighting a growing challenge in the industry: the scarcity of fresh data to feed these ever-hungrier AI models. This workaround not only underscores the innovation at play but also the potential hurdles as companies stretch the limits of what AI can learn and do.

Meta isn’t stopping here. The company plans to release more Llama 3 models with additional capabilities, including multilingual support. Cox hinted at an even larger model under development, a behemoth with 400 billion parameters, set to debut once training wraps up.

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IN THE KNOW

Headline Hustle

🇮🇳 India heads to the polls in the world’s biggest election. India's monumental general election commenced with polls opening for its first phase, marking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid for a rare third consecutive term. With a staggering 969 million eligible voters, the election spans seven phases over six weeks, making it the largest in history. At stake is the trajectory of India's development and the preservation of its secular foundation, challenged by Modi's BJP, advocating Hindu majoritarianism. The opposition, led by the Indian National Congress, promises to uphold the country’s democratic values, as some argue its slipped in recent years under Modi.

👮 NYPD arrest over 100 pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University. The events at Columbia University unfolded with the arrest of 108 protesters amid tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict. President Minouche Shafik cited safety concerns for the university as the reason behind the police intervention. While protesters demanded divestment from companies linked to Israel, critics accused Columbia of unfair treatment towards Palestinian advocates. Shafik defended the university's stance on balancing free speech and safety. The incident underscores ongoing debates on campus activism and freedom of expression.

👩 Roberta Karmel, first female SEC commissioner, dies at 86. Roberta Karmel defied gender biases to become a trailblazer in law and finance. Despite early discouragement, she joined the SEC and later became its first female commissioner, appointed by President Jimmy Carter. Known for her fierce independence, she challenged SEC policies and advocated for statutory compliance. Beyond her legal career, she juggled motherhood and academia. Karmel's legacy encompasses groundbreaking achievements and a commitment to family and education.

MEDIA

Netflix tells Wall Street its not reporting on subscriber growth anymore

Netflix is changing the channel on how it presents its performance metrics, signaling perhaps that the binge-watching boom days may be dialing down. Starting in the first quarter of 2025, the streaming giant announced it will cease the quarterly tradition of divulging membership numbers and average revenue per membership. Instead, it's shifting focus to what it considers a truer reflection of success: revenue, operating margin, free cash flow, and viewing time.

With 9.3 million new subscribers in the first quarter, thanks to initiatives like a global password-sharing crackdown and a budget-friendly ad-supported tier, Netflix seems ready to change how it measures victory.

Why the change?

Netflix suggests the once-critical membership growth metric has outlived its usefulness as a bellwether of potential. "In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential," Netflix explained in its shareholder letter. Now, with robust profits and diverse revenue streams from advertising to premium membership features, the company views raw subscriber counts as just one piece of a larger puzzle.

Traditionally, investors crave transparency, and Netflix's decision to pull back on detailed subscriber data hasn't sat well in all quarters, contributing to a 4% dip in after-hours trading. Yet, this move could compel Wall Street to focus more on profitability and less on user acquisition—a maturation marker for Netflix in the competitive streaming landscape.

Big picture: Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters emphasized the evolution of the company's strategy during the earnings call, noting, "the historical math we used to do is increasingly less accurate." As the company continues to evolve, so too does its narrative to investors, focusing now on a holistic view of financial health rather than just the numbers game of subscriber counts.

SNIPPETS

Pulse Points

• House Republicans have included a bill in a foreign aid package that could fast track the of ban TikTok nationwide, representing the most significant threat to the app's U.S. operations since 2020.

• A New York federal jury convicted a man from Puerto Rico for a $110 million cryptocurrency market manipulation, marking the Department of Justice's first such case.

• A full jury and one alternate were selected for Donald Trump's New York hush money trial, with opening arguments potentially starting Monday.

• The Nordstrom family is exploring taking the company private, forming a special committee to evaluate bids, as announced by CEO Erik Nordstrom and President Pete Nordstrom.

• Apple removed WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese app store on government orders, exemplifying increased censorship as China tightens internet controls.

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