The Rise of Dopamine Culture

Distraction as Entertainment, Racist AI Models, SLAYER! and more

Feb 23, 2024

I’m fascinated with this flowchart:

Art and entertainment blur lines; our attention is the currency—and it's devaluing rapidly. As digital platforms dominate, they’re reshaping how content is created and consumed, allowing us to examine distraction as entertainment.

The Dopamine Culture

The art and entertainment intersection is chaotic, with data as the compass directing the traffic and changing how creators approach their craft.
The "Quantity versus Quality" conundrum in the music industry, driven by streaming platforms that favor prolificacy over perfection, usually stifles true creativity.
The feedback loop between creators and audiences is rapid, with instant social media reactions shaping the content.
The value of music in the streaming era is constantly scrutinized, questioning the sustainability of artists in a market skewed toward the economics of streaming.
The golden days of print with robust budgets for hard-hitting investigations have been replaced with digital media's transient and disposable nature, questioning the future of journalistic depth.
The "Spectrum of Sophistication" in media debates the cultural literacy and preferences shaped by the gamut of entertainment from highbrow to pop culture.

Ted Gioia dives deep into all of this in his State of Culture 2024, and I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Google’s AI Erases White People from History

This week, people discovered that Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, has some interesting ideas about history; the screenshots below were my reproduction of prompts that I saw posted.

A user on X posted about his curious findings when he tried to prompt Gemini to create images of Vikings and Zulu warriors. The diversity algorithm seems to be a one-way street.

There are additional images Gemini refused to create:

And this is where it gets weird again.
Gemini flatly refuses the request because it “specifies a particular ethnicity.”

However…

Gemini also decided to take two Jewish men and turn them into Asian men:

The images are funny, to me anyway, but Gemini becomes more problematic when it goes deeper into race-based questions:

Google really doesn’t need to answer any version of this question.

Answers like this are extremely subjective, and I understand entirely why a product would avoid sensitive queries altogether. But that’s not what’s going on here.

This is a sort of virtual reality I’m considerably less excited about and impressed by.

As a rule, I don’t wade into politics here, and definitely not into culture war issues. At some point, though, you must state plainly that this is ridiculous. Google, specifically, and tech companies broadly, have long been sensitive to accusations of bias that have extended to image generation. I can understand the sentiment in depicting theoretical scenarios. At the same time, many of these images are about actual history; I’m reminded of George Orwell in 1984:

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don’t know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories.

Even if you don’t want to go so far as to invoke the political implications of Orwell’s book, the most generous interpretation of Google’s over-aggressive RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) of their models is that they are scared of being criticized. That’s just as bad: Google is blatantly sacrificing its mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” by creating entirely new realities because it fears some bad press.

Moreover, there are implications for business: Google has the models and the infrastructure, but winning in AI will require boldness; this shameful willingness to change the world’s information to avoid criticism reeks — in the best-case scenario! — of abject timidity.

And you can be certain that there’s a boatload of healthcare product managers who are now understandably uneasy about implementing AI into their work that relies on models getting ethnicity correct.

CNN reported that Google paused Gemeni’s image production and other activities while they investigated.

NTWRK and Complex Unite in a Strategic Move with UMG as a Key Investor

In a notable acquisition, NTWRK has gobbled up Complex, intending to merge NTWRK's e-commerce innovation with Complex's cultural curation. This deal, valued at $108.6 million, sees NTWRK and its influential investors, including Universal Music Group (UMG), redefine the landscape of digital commerce and media.

Strategic Synergies and Financial Dynamics
BuzzFeed initially purchased Complex for $294 million in 2021 (sad trombone) and takes a big hit here. It also signifies a strategic pivot towards creating the superfan-centric culture hub that UMG can’t stop talking about. UMG's partnership is pivotal, leveraging NTWRK's technology to offer music-related products directly to Complex's audience, aligning with UMG CEO Sir Lucian Grainge's vision for 2024 to enhance artist-fan connections.

UMG's collaboration with NTWRK and Complex hopes to craft unique superfan experiences, from exclusive merchandise to immersive events. This approach taps into the superfan culture and promises a new era of direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies that strengthen artist-fan relationships.

Aaron Levant, NTWRK's CEO and a co-founder alongside Jamie Iovine, steps in as Complex's CEO, marking a merger that combines NTWRK's live-video shopping expertise with Complex's cultural influence. With projections estimating NTWRK's sales to reach $68 billion by 2026, the merger is set to capitalize on the burgeoning superfan economy. It should be noted that the $68B figure is NTWRK’s projection and not from independent analysts.

Interscope Geffen A&M and Capitol Music Group's Collaborative Initiatives
The merger enables UMG's labels, starting with Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) and Capitol Music Group, to deliver superfan experiences. UMG claims the labels will introduce industry-leading, culture-moving experiences and collaborations, emphasizing authentic fan engagement — but only time will tell if they get it right.

Industry Context and Warner Music Group's Strategy
UMG's strategic acquisition of a stake in Complex contrasts with Warner Music Group's (WMG) current strategy. Robert Kyncl, WMG's CEO, announced potential sales of media orgs Uproxx and HipHopDX, alongside downsizing efforts, highlighting a shift away from owned media properties.

This divergence shows the evolving priorities within the music industry, with UMG betting on a comprehensive platform that bridges commerce, digital media, and music. I never root against the music industry, but that “all things for all people” approach rarely succeeds.

Slayer Reunited. Already.

Slayer surprised fans with news of their reunion and performances at Riot Fest on September 22nd, and then five days later at Louder Than Life.

I love Slayer, but nothing about this, besides the payday makes sense.

Kerry King recently launched his solo band, but before he could establish that band, Slayer reunited. It reminds fans that they don’t have to see his band when the real deal is still active. If the money offered was too good to pass up, it would have at least made more sense in 2025, so Kerry could keep the attention on his new band and music.

I stopped romanticizing anything about bands long ago, but actually believed they were done — and I respected them for it.

But here we are, with Slayer playing their third final show in Chicago in five years.

And it seems fans aren’t the only ones caught off guard by the news:

THE NEWS DESK

Media, Music, & Entertainment

Live Nation had another record year, with revenue of $22.7 billion in 2023, up 36% from the prior year, thanks to record attendance, ticket sales, and sponsorships. Adjusted operating income (AOI) was $1.86 billion, up 32% year-over-year and double the AOI from 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
Read More → billboard
Spotify is launching a human-curated-only playlist, called “Spotify Classics,” a hub of albums that “shifted the public’s perception of what an album can and should be.” Whatever that means.
Read More → variety
YouTube marked its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming service on TVs, smartphones, and tablets. I think most people would be surprised by that, which shows why TikTok encourages users to record horizontal videos.
Read More → nielsen
Universal Music Group purchases $240M stake in Chord Music, which owns music from artists like The Weeknd, John Legend, and David Guetta; the purchase values the artist catalog company at $1.85B.
Read More → thr
Fubo TV has filed a billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit to halt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox’s plan to create a joint, sports-focused streaming service.
Read More → the
Netflix salary data shows how much the company pays for 220 jobs across content, finance, marketing, and more Read More → businessinsider
Sony has closed a deal for Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall) to direct a Beatles biopic as four separate theatrical films each told from the perspective of a different band member. Read More → deadline

Fashion & E-Commerce

Walmart is acquiring Vizio for $2.3 billion, giving the retail giant new ways to reach customers through in-home media and more customer data when targeting ads. Read More → theinformation
Jordan Brand is launching a World of Flight retail store in Philadelphia — its first standalone store in the US. Read More → complex
New Balance deconstructed shoes cost $1,120 and are sold out.
Read More → hypebeast
Men are getting their own spas — called “anti-spas” — focusing on athletic recovery, but are really just regular spas with different branding because consumers are stupid. Read More → bof

Tech, Web3, & AI

Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot, just erased white people from human history. A grim (if objectively hilarious) warning for the future.
Read More → piratewires
Reddit has reportedly signed a $60 million licensing deal with an undisclosed AI company to train its model on Reddit’s content.
Read More → bloomberg
Nvidia’s stock supercharged after a blockbuster Q4 earnings report, reaching an above-expectations $22.1 billion in revenue — 265% more than a year ago.
Read More → axios
Astroscale, a Japanese space startup, has launched its first mission in hopes of building “tow trucks” in space to clean up orbital debris, like out-of-commission satellites. Read More → Bloomberg
Fake funeral live streams are a thing. Scammers are copying genuine funeral service announcements, making their own Facebook accounts, and then directing vulnerable victims to a fake live stream to make donations.
Read More → 404

Creator Economy

Reddit may allow its biggest users to take part in its upcoming IPO.
YouTube marked its 12th consecutive month as the top streaming service.
Read More → techcrunch
Pinterest is leveraging AI to help users discover “inspirational images” of models who look like them because “inclusiveness” can open up wallets.
Read More → bof
Roblox announced that it paid $741 million to creators on its platform last year. Read More → tubefilter
The realities of making a living in the content creator economy.
Read More → desertnews