Good morning readers. Navigating the tightrope of boss feedback is like learning a new dance, and some of us have two left feet. Some employees have found themselves iced out for suggesting minor things, like say a tweak in their manager's presentation style. Now they’re all about "the Jacuzzi approach": test the waters before diving into deeper comments. Apparently, we're all a bunch of fibbers, lying thrice in just the first 10 minutes of meeting someone new. But when bosses genuinely seek the truth, how candid should one be? Tiptoeing around touchy subjects or showering them with euphemisms isn't the answer. There's an art to giving feedback, folks. Dive in carefully.

Let’s jump into today’s storylines.

In today’s digest:

• Hollywood writes a new script

• Headline Hustle: Canadian House speaker faces backlash, Amazon invests $4 billion in Anthropic, ChatGPT’s triple threat

• SEC peeks behind Wall Street's veiled chatter

• Pulse Points: What’s Trending

ENTERTAINMENT

Writers reach tentative deal with studios to end strike

In a Hollywood-worthy sequel to months of on-again, off-again drama, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have chalked up a preliminary accord, aiming to wrap the ongoing writers' saga. The details of the deal look a little something like this:

Act 1: The Tentative Agreement

After a number of pauses in negotiations, the spotlight now beams on a freshly-inked labor agreement. As the final contract draft awaits its grand debut, whispers float about the WGA securing pivotal wins—think shields against the AI wave and a bigger cut of the streaming pie.

Act 2: The Motive Behind the Scenes

While the strike saw its fair share of climaxes and dips, the overarching themes were clear: AI's increasing role in the industry and the almighty streaming dollar. Powering this narrative, the collective bargaining tool gloriously played its part, amplifying writers' voices and even earning a nod from President Joe Biden. His review? A standing ovation for the might of collective bargaining.

Act 3: The Repercussions

This deal not only sets the stage for future acts (read: negotiations) with other star casts like SAG-AFTRA but also paves the way for the reel world to catch up with the real world's tech-led evolution. With an impending AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA showdown, Hollywood's boardroom intrigues are far from over.

End credits: As Hollywood adapts its script to modern tech shifts and audience preferences, this potential truce may just be the first of many sequels.

Headline Hustle

🫢 Canadian House speaker faces backlash. Oh, Canada. In a foot-in-mouth moment for the books, Canada's House Speaker, Anthony Rota, is facing some serious backlash. During Ukraine President Zelensky's speech, Rota hailed 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a WWII hero. Turns out, Hunka's past isn't quite so heroic—Jewish groups labeled him a former Nazi officer. The standing ovations Hunka got? Super awkward in hindsight. Rota's apology came quick, saying his aim was highlighting the long-standing Russia-Ukraine conflict. But some aren't buying it. Calls for Rota's resignation have begun. And Trudeau's office? They've washed their hands, stating they had no part in Hunka's invite.

💰 Amazon invests $4 billion in Anthropic. In the latest episode of tech giants playing "who will reign supreme in AI land?", Amazon tosses a cool $4 billion towards AI start-up Anthropic, aiming for a slice of the advanced AI pie. This investment makes Amazon's intentions clear: closer ties with Anthropic’s custom chips and AI software, with a side of integrating their tech into its vast empire. The catch? Anthropic gets to cozy up with Amazon’s cloud, AWS, for “mission critical workloads.”

🤖 ChatGPT’s triple threat. In a bid to keep pace in the AI stakes, OpenAI's ChatGPT has been given a makeover…it can "see, hear, and speak." As part of its most recent update since GPT-4, users can now have voice convos with the bot on its mobile app and even show it images for analysis. But as the AI world welcomes these updates, some are raising concerns at the potential for misused synthetic voices. OpenAI assures that the voices are crafted with collaborators, and they’re not eavesdropping on your voice clips. But I’d be careful using this feature. The company notes that transcriptions are considered inputs and may be used to improve the large-language models.

DATA PRIVACY

SEC to Wall Street's WhatsApp winks: “we're watching”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is rolling up its sleeves, diving into the deep end of Wall Street's private messaging pool. In a bold swoop, the SEC has vacuumed up thousands of staff messages from high-flying investment firms including Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management, and Blackstone, shifting the probe from a gentle nudge to a stern examination of business chit-chat on cozy platforms like WhatsApp and Signal.

This regulatory initiative, simmering for two years with an initial focus on broker-dealers, has already chalked up a bill of over $2 billion in fines for record-keeping mishaps. The rabbit hole went deeper as whispers of off-the-record conversations about trades and deals revealed a broader scope of informal communications, prompting the SEC to broaden its spotlight.

At the heart of this lies the SEC's passionate (borderline romantic) relationship with record-keeping. Think of it as their love letter to financial transparency, especially after JPMorgan Chase's $125 million fine for it’s “lapses” in record keeping practices. This tug-of-war, spearheaded by SEC's captain-at-the-helm Gary Gensler, showcases the classic tension between a regulator's dream of perfect oversight and Wall Street's "we've got this" attitude, especially around the ever-so-sensitive topic of messaging privacy.

Looking ahead…as the line between office chat and private DMs blurs, Wall Street might just need to fine-tune its whispering game. Because in the age of private messaging, some walls might not be as soundproof as they seem.

SNIPPETS

Pulse Points

Space company Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, has appointed Dave Limp, a former executive at Amazon.com, as its new CEO.

Spotify has unveiled a new AI-powered feature that can translate podcasts into various languages using the same voice of the podcast host.

Reddit has introduced a contributor program that allows eligible users to convert their Reddit gold and karma into real money.

Google has revealed plans for another subsea cable system to enhance its internet infrastructure and increase usage of its cloud-based services.

Tinder has revealed a new invite-only subscription called Tinder Select, priced at $499 per month, which allows subscribers to message individuals they haven't matched with.

Yelp and a coalition of news organizations have requested a U.S. judge to disqualify a well-known law firm from representing Google in the ad tech lawsuit, citing a conflict of interest due to its prior advocacy for them in matters related to the case.

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