The Best One Yet - 🐭 “Mouse Trap” — Disney’s epic shareholder vote. Billie Eilish’s anti-AI letter. Amazon’s Just-Walk-Out shutdown.

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Disney’s Shareholder Day included an epic vote to determine the future of the company — CEO Bob Iger prevailed, but the activist investor won too. Billie Eilish, Nikki Minaj, Pearl Jam, and 200 other artists wrote an open letter asking tech platforms to cease using AI to steal their work — But can the tech genie be put back in the bottle?And Amazon’s most ambitious new technology was supposed to be “Just Walk Out” — But now they’re shutting that business down, because it was more trick than magic.Plus, new work data should that Thursday is the new Friday (literally). $DIS $SPOT $AMZNSubscribe to the best newsletter yet: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday. Literally. April 4th, and today's pod is the best one yet. You'll see what we mean in a minute. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Okay, but first, Jack, happy national burrito day to all those who celebrate.

I am absolutely treating myself to some carnitas today. I mean, Jack, may thy barbacoa love thy carnitas. The only issue, I hope Chipotle stacked up some extra tortillas. That'd be so disappointing if I went through on Burrito Day and couldn't get a burrito. But yeah, he's remember, even. though it's Burrito Day, guac is still extra. It's always extra. That's a PSA. If you know, you know. But first story for today's T-Boy, what do we got, Jack? For our first story, Disney just got through its most awkward day since the goofy movie. Who survived the big

Disney shareholder vote? Jack and I will tell you who. For our second story, Amazon is killing its ambitious Just Walkout store concept. Amazon just walked out on Just Walk Out. And our third and final story, Nikki Minaj, Billy Elish and Pearl Jam, all just asked the music industry to stop using AI to steal human creativity. America's biggest music stars. Just ask the music industry

to put the AI genie back in the bottle. Can you put the genie back in the bottle? Or is this a toothpaste and tooth situation? I feel like this is a Christina Aguilera song situation, Jack. But yet is, before you hit that wonderful mix of stories. A fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix today, Jack. Nick, what do we say about Thursday?

We say Thursday is the new Friday. Well, according to the data, Thursday is the real Friday. Oh, yeah. Actually, yeah, he's happy Friday. It is Friday right now. According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans are working less on Fridays than we ever have before. Look, we're working hard Monday to Thursday. Friday, not so much.

Here's the data. In 2021, American workers on average called it quits at 501 p.m. on Fridays. But today, workers are calling it quits at 403 p.m. on Friday. So in three years, we've cut a full hour off our Friday work day. Jack, that is a full extra hour of I'm out of here, baby. Casual Friday is now casual Friday. You're clocking out after you're waking up, aren't you, man? But here's the best part.

What are you doing with that extra hour that you're not at work? Yeties, well, work has gone down on Fridays. Workouts have gone up on Fridays. According to data from Class Pass, Friday is now the most popular weekday for yoga, for haircuts, or for spa treatments. Cancel the 4 p.m. meeting and make that a massage. Drop the 3 o'clock one-on-one with Barry and hit up Barry's boot camp. Sorry, Frank from finance. I'm already yachting. So America hasn't yet embraced the four-day work week. But America has embraced the half-day Friday. Pretty sure we're doing half-day Fridays

all summer, right, Nick? Have we discussed this? Thursday is the real Friday. It better be. Basically, we're working all the time, all the other times. So yeah, it is happy pre-Friday. Jack and I are around up if you are. And we know you are. You're probably already at home right now. Thursday, it is the new Friday. Let's hit our three stars.

Which means Wednesday's the new Thursday? 15 years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. Need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list.

If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story yesterday was the biggest corporate showdown we've ever seen. And it all happened at Disneyland. Disney CEO Bob Eager defeated the activist investor Nelson Peltz in a tale as old as time. That is yesterday, we were reminded that publicly traded companies, you know what?

They're actually democracies. They are. And we saw it yesterday at Disney's annual shareholder meeting. Ah, the annual shareholder meeting of Disney. when everyone who owns Disney stock was invited, and it all ends with like a really fun, scary vote. I don't know about scary. It depends on what side you're on, Jack.

Well, each of the 1.8 billion shares of Disney entitles the owner of that share to not only come to Los Angeles for the shareholder meeting, but to vote. Full disclosure, Jack owns shares of Disney. And Jack, what's going on with you, man? I own 304 shares of Disney, so I got to vote 304 times, and I did.

Well, Yeties, if you own one share of Disney, Disney, that entitles you to pack your bags, grab your mouse ears, and head on down to Disneyland. Honey, we're voting in the shareholder meeting. I voted absentee, full disclosure. All those who vote, yay, raise your magic wand. So although this happens every year, this was by far the most dramatic of all of the Disney annual shareholder votes. Yet is this happened to be the biggest vote at Disney since Steamboat Willie, because it involved

the control of Disney's future through the board of directors. Yesterday, Disney shareholders voted for their board members, but it was really a vote over just two men. It was Disney's CEO Bob Eiger, first activist investor Nelson Peltz. And this was a Star Wars-style epic showdown of two powerful forces battling over control of the universe. Yet he's on one side of this battle was the creatives who support the current CEO, Bob Eiger. He's actually the two-time CEO, because Bob was CEO from 2005 to 2020. In that period, he acquired Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar, and then he stepped down right before the pandemic. But that Bob returned two years ago and has been helping Minnie Mouse get her groove back ever since.

Bob had the support of the Disney Old Guard, including Disney family members and the biggest shareholder, which happens to be George Lucas of Star Wars. All right, Jack, let's put down the rope. The lightsaber? I couldn't think of a Disney accessory for a moment I blinked. There's a lot of Disney accessory. accessories, man. Infinity Stones. Sorry, Tinkerbell. All right. Nemo. Okay. Opposite Bob Eiger, who is the other option you could vote for? Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who's been doing finance since he was born.

Yeah, he's a hedge funder, an activist investor, and he acquired a whopping 2% of Disney, so he's got a powerful say in its future. Nelson Peltz believed that Bob Iger blew it by failing to pick the right CEO to succeed him back in 2020. And Nelson Peltz thinks Disney's got too political. Disney Plus streaming, it needs a little more pixie dust. So he campaigned Disney shareholders for change. He asked Disney shareholders for two seats on Disney's board of directors. Well, besties, over the last year, these two sides have battled intergalactically. The two sides spent to combine $65 million on like political style mailers and text messages to influence Disney shareholders.

Hey there, a vote for Bob is a vote for Disney. And all of it, all of it, all 65 million. million dollars. This epic, epic battle, it came down to one big vote yesterday. And the winner, Jack, was Bob Eiger, who took home 69% of the vote in a blowout election. Disney's current CEO Bob came away the winner. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are anyone in the stock market? Activist investors can win even if they lose. Yeah, it is one of the reasons Disney's Bob Eiger beat investor Nelson Peltz, it's because Bob was already doing what Peltz wanted him to do. Peltz wanted Disney to restore the magic. He wanted a return of magical profits.

Well, when we look back on the last couple of years, clearly Bob Iger heard that message. After all, the minute he took over again two years ago, he laid off thousands of Disney workers to restore profits. Bob Iger narrowed losses on Disney streaming and he doubled down on Disney's most profitable business, Disney theme parks. And that's the key reason the activist and investor lost the election yesterday. Because Disney already started doing what he wanted them to do. But doesn't that mean the activist investor kind of won overall? He got what he wanted. Disney's return to focus on profits. It's just like politics. A politician who loses can still move the country. Well, an activist investor who loses can still move the company. That's why activist

investors can win even if they lose. Nelson, you're still a winner. For our second story, Amazon's most ambitious innovation yet was just killed. We're talking about just walkout technology. Because consumers like watching a magic show, but they don't like being in one. All right, Jack, one of our favorite takeaways ever. The biggest enemy of commerce is friction. So the goal of so much technology is to eliminate friction. Well, Yeties, that's why six years ago, Jeff Bezos, as CEO of Amazon,

revealed his favorite pet project. Yeah, that's right. Jeff had a favorite project. It was called Just Walk Out, a cashierless, checkoutless, human-free retail experience. A physical Amazon store with 100 cameras and thousands of sensors on the ceiling that would track what you take out so you can just walk out. It was a completely frictionless retail experience. It made a store feel like it was your store. Just grab what you want and leave.

Jack, we jumped in T-Boy style a couple years ago. Remember 59th and Lex we went in there? It felt like magic. First, you would scan your mobile phone so they knew who you were. And then you could just walk around the store and like, put a banana in your pocket, put a milk in your pocket, a protein bar. Jack was getting French sardines. And since you scanned your Amazon app, you could just walk out and eventually they'd email you the receipt of the things that you left with. Yeties, this was the centerpiece of Amazon's ambition to transform physical retail by solving the most annoying part of retail.

And what is that, Jack? The waiting in line to check out. That's why Amazon was going to put just walk out in all of their Amazon and, and Whole Food stores, as well as like Kroger's, who was going to pay Amazon to license that technology. But here's the news. What is it, Jack? Amazon just confirmed. They're ditching. They're Just Walkout Initiative. Sese, Amazon is removing Just Walkout technology from Amazon grocery stores and pivoting to smart shopping carts instead. So Nick and I got to ask, why are they walking out on Just Walkout?

It's actually like a pretty funny reason, isn't it, Jack? It wasn't a magic trick at all. It was just a trick. It was just a trick. Because when you walk in, you would see there were like a hundred cameras on the ceiling that were tracking what you were doing, right? Jack, they were following you around the store. And artificial intelligence would analyze the footage and recognize that you picked up that type of granola. So they're going to charge you for that. Jack grabbed raspberry granola, not blueberry granola.

But here's the thing. Those cameras weren't just using AI to track the things that you grabbed. They were also using human being. Get this. According to the information, a team of 1,000, Humans in the country of India was watching you the entire time behind those cameras. It wasn't AI. So it wasn't Amazon technology.

It was Amazon paid humans in India who reviewed 70% of the transactions that were happening in stores. Okay. What we're saying here is that Amazon didn't replace human cashiers with technology. They replaced human cashiers in the store with human low paid workers in India. That doesn't sound like tech innovation at all. It just sounds like a consumer inconvenient outsourcing. And those humans ended up revite. viewing 70% of the transactions to be like, is that a blueberry granola or a raspberry granola?

Now, yeties, here's the deal. Amazon hoped that those human workers would just be temporary. They figured eventually the system would get smart enough that they could do the work without human involvement. Well, here's the problem. That never happened. The tech kept making mistakes so humans continued to be needed to correct those mistakes. Is it blueberry or raspberry or is it raspberry and blueberry? So the technology that was supposed to eliminate the friction of humans,

relied on humans. I mean, it just wasn't working. Yeah, it wasn't scalable. It wasn't profitable. Frankly, it was more of a trick than a magic trick, and Amazon is out of there. But our takeaway reveals another problem with just walk out technology. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon? People like watching magic tricks, but they don't like being in the trick. That is, one of the big overestimations of the tech industry you've noticed, it's that users love innovation like the founders do.

Here's the thing. People only like innovation if that innovation leads to convenience. Here's the key. Even if Amazon fixed the technology and didn't need human checkers anymore, it turns out just walk out wasn't actually seen as convenient. Now, sure, there was a use case. Like people on the go trying to catch their subway, but wanted a quick Starbucks macchiato. An Amazon Go store just to walk out technology is perfect for them. And Amazon is keeping their go stores for that reason. So you can walk in, grab the bar, and walk right out. But a family of five, with a whole, whole bunch of bags of the full week's worth of groceries who want their receipt to check,

like before they leave the store, they hated it. I family five would walk in and like little Johnny would sneak like three little chocolate bars in there and mom doesn't know and then they walk out. And I paid for it? What did I pay for? So when it came to groceries, a large portion of the population found Just Walk Out, annoying and unhelpful. They felt like they were stuck in the Magic Trick, not enjoying the Magic Trick.

That's why Amazon is killing the Just Walk Out magic trick at all of their groceries. stores. Because people like watching magic tricks, but they don't like being on stage in the magic trick. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Grammy winners, Billy Ilish, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jim, and 200 other musicians are calling on the platforms to stop stealing their work with AI. But you can't put the AI genie back in the bottle. Or can you? The open letter. It's when a private. letter is just like not enough. When it comes to artificial intelligence, everyone's writing open letters these days. Everyone's writing open letters. Who do you address these two, by the way, Jack?

To Sam Allman, to chat CPT? I think just to the tech industry. That's who you write it to. Dear tech, here's an open letter. One year ago, there was a huge open letter signed by 34,000 technologists calling on the tech industry to pause all work on artificial intelligence for six months. Well, the reason for that big open letter one year ago? The profound risks to society and humanity that are posed by AI. But one year later, big tech companies have ignored that open letter. Sachin Adela has got a chatbot to build. But now, musicians are grabbing the pen.

They just wrote their own epic letter about artificial intelligence. And here's the news. 200 musicians. We're talking Billy Isles, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jim. Nikki Minaj got involved. They wrote an open letter to tech companies and music platforms, and they would like your attention. This is the biggest group of musicians to come together since we are. are the world, we are the people. Yeah, this is like the greatest hits album, but instead of songs,

it was like a lot of concerns. Yeah, their top concern and their top ask was that tech companies stopped using AI to replace their music with AI music. Here's the key. Nikki Minaj is worried about artificial knockoffs of her music, but she's more annoyed that AI trains on her music to make those knockoffs. These musicians fear of future when Spotify or Apple Music create new musicians called like Illy Bylish, which is Spotify's AI knockoff of Billy Ilish. Yeah, they're worries that the music is 99% the same coming from Illy Bylish as Billy Ilish, but Spotify and Apple don't have to send royalties to the AI version of Billy Ilish. They get to keep all the royalties because they created that AI.

That's why Billy Ilish isn't a fan of Ily Bylish. And that's why these Grammy award winning musicians wrote the letter finishing with this sentence. This assault on human creativity must stop. Coldplay I should never be created. Lana Del Reyai shouldn't be there. Will I am AI? I mean, the sixth spice girl, artificial spice, not happy about this. But here's the big question.

The AI genie is already out of the bottle. It's been out for like 18 months. So, can you contain that which is out of the bottle, Jack? Aladdin says no. But our takeaway says maybe. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the music industry? New technologies actually can be put back in the bottle. No, you may be thinking, this is a futile effort.

History shows us that technology cannot be stopped. It's unstoppable. Artificial intelligence has so much investment, so much hype, so much momentum, there's no turning back now. But Jack and I think that that's incorrect. History also shows us that we can stop technology. We can put the genie back in the bottom. Okay, a couple examples, Jack, the food industry.

Let's talk about that. Genetically modified organisms. There's a huge tech breakthrough, a huge tech advancement, but governments, industry, and consumers have limited their use. And Jack, let's talk about the weapons industry. Look at chemical weapons. They were widely used in World War I, but today, they're banned across the developed world.

Well, the way we see it, artificial intelligence music could be next, just like those. And the movement against AI music, just started with a big open letter. Besties, new technologies can't be put back in the bottle, but they can be contained. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways force for the new Friday? Bob Iger's board members won the dramatic Disney shareholder election yesterday,

with 69% of the vote. But even though the activist investor lost, activists investors still kind of win. For our second story, Amazon is removing their just-walk-out technology from all their Amazon grocery stores. Because people like magic, tricks, but they don't like being on the stage in the magic trick. And our third and final story, 200 musicians just said stop using their music to train AI

and don't replace their music with AI either. Technology, it can't be put back in the bottle, but it can be contained. But yet, he's this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Costco's newest product is weight loss drugs. Costco is now going to sell Ozempic to its members. Costco launched a three-month wellness program in partnership with a company called Sesame, which includes an optional Ozempic prescription, if you can get one.

So, Jack, let me make sure I got this trade. Costco is selling $1.50 cent hot dogs in perpetuity and also selling Ozempic. Close. $1.50 hot dog plus soda combo and Ozemic. I think this is what our business school professor is called the flywheel effect. That's what this is. And second, Caitlin Clark, the legendary basketball player from Iowa, set another record on Monday. night when her team beat the LSU Tigers.

Okay, the average viewership of this women's college basketball game was 12 million people. That is better than every game of the World Series and all but one game of the NBA finals. 12 million viewers is the most viewers ESPN has ever had for any college basketball game, men or women. And finally, Dollar Tree is once again raising their prices above a dollar. It's not a dollar store anymore. The max price of a thing you can find at Dollar Tree, it's now six.

Seven bucks. The dollar store is, you need a credit card. And yet they still call themselves dollar tree. Seven dollar tree. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Mariana Niembro, who's studying over at Stanford University. Today is National Barrito Day, right? Well, you know Burrito's biggest rival.

It's the Taco. Taco's got Tuesdays. Burritos got Nata, Jack. Well, it was actually a Taco versus Burrito debate across America. Some cities lean taco, some cities skew burrito. Yeah, it turns out Boulder, Colorado is a burrito city, but Tucson, Arizona is a taco town. So where exactly are all those burrito-loving cities that are celebrating today?

The cities that love burritos tend to be in the Midwest and Northwest states. But the heaviest of the burrito-loving cities is Indianapolis, which eats two burritos for every one taco. That's right. 62% of Indianapolis eaters are eating burritos over tacos. Not too shabby. There you go. Should point out, every city in Texas is obsessed with tacos. They don't even do burritos down there.

Jay, I think someone in Texas once had a badly wrapped burrito and just never recovered from the experience. Happy Burrito Day to all those who celebrate, we know you're not celebrating Texas. Yeties, you're looking fantastic for the new Friday, which is really the real Friday. Congratulations, basically Friday. And remember, if you want to help grow the show, tell your buddy today when you're grabbing a burrito, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. It stands for have you had the best one yet. Gwock's still extra, if you know, you know.

What this show is. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Matt and Sienna, who are getting married in Dahlanega, Georgia, home of the country's first gold rush in 1829. Congratulations. Congratulations to Nick Le Cicero, who passed his architect registration exams over in Queens, New York. Legendary Yeti, Nick, you can design our T-Boy headquarters very soon.

We're ready for you, Congratulations to Tim Ober, who's launching his mindfulness course in Wellington, Florida. And Heather Rogers is getting her English as a second language certification in Spring, Texas, the best middle school teacher yet. Happy 10th birthday to Ananya Sulaia in Chandler, Arizona. And Radical Rachel, happy belated birthday. The bullish bears fan is living in Dallas. Happy birthday to Jaislin Beatty from Chicago, who slid into our DMs to let us know she's a year older. Keep crushing that side hustle, Jason.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Disney, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple, Chipotle, and Spotify.