The Daily Valet. - 3/7/23, Tuesday
✔️ AI Is Coming to Your Inbox
Tuesday, March 7th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
What childhood drink would you like brought back in a boozy form?
Today’s Big Story
AI Is Coming to Your Inbox
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on who you ask
Forget ChatGPT, the real AI revolution might be going down in your inbox. There are a slew of new companies that want to use artificial intelligence to summarize and organize your emails, but some ethical—not to mention technical—issues probably have to be sorted out first.But make no mistake. There are a lot of emails these days. Some are great (like your favorite morning newsletters!) while others are a complete waste of time. Even carefully deployed filters only go so far to keep the ever-growing volume of unwanted emails at bay. A recent Harvard study found that more than half of our emails were not important, and another study found that one-quarter of an average American's workday was spent answering and reading emails. And this cascade of digital messages is making us miserable.This is usually when technology steps in to help us manage those tedious tasks and make our lives a little simpler. According to Insider, a number of new companies are betting on AI to clean up inboxes in a way we haven't witnessed before. The leader of the pack is Shortwave. Founded by former Google employees, it uses AI to summarize your emails. The app runs on GPT-3, the language model behind ChatGPT. Besides summaries, the program prioritizes conversations with people and creates bundles out of the less important conversations. It also offers AI-generated responses to various common email queries.Shortwave isn't the only name in the game. There are others trying to graft AI onto your inbox. Flowrite is a service that essentially writes emails for you from a few prompts, HyperWrite (same idea but more personalized) and Jasper (more for marketing), along with several other startups.Wired is completely ready for it. After all, they say, “email is one the least authentic forms of communication.” (Your sender probably doesn't care if their message finds you well.) However, like any tech, AI tools can run into bugs and these just might not be ready to fully assist you yet. Often, during trials, Shortwave's summary tool refused to produce more than a sentence or two—leaving it no more useful than the subject line. And that's not even getting into issues of privacy and the biases that experts say regularly cause problems when the conversation about artificial intelligence comes up.
FYI:
In 2023, more than 347.3 billion emails are exchanged daily around the world.
Do We Need to Vaxx the Chickens?
The U.S. is Considering Vaccinating Chickens as this Bird Flu has Killed Millions of Them
You've no doubt heard that the largest outbreak of avian flu in American history has killed 58 million domestic poultry nationwide and caused egg prices to skyrocket. It has already spilled over into mammals (so far mink, foxes, raccoons and bears), raising fears that the virus that causes it—known as H5N1—could mutate and start spreading more easily among people. Even though it's very unlikely, nobody wants that.So now, the federal government is considering the approval of a bird flu vaccine—not for us, but for the chickens. The New York Times reports that officials at the USDA have begun testing a potential avian flu vaccine and are discussing a possible large-scale vaccination program for poultry.A big concern bird famers have is that vaccinations could hinder U.S. poultry exports to other countries worried that shipments of vaccinated birds might contain hidden infections. But the world has had a vaccine available to help stop the spread of the virus since at least 2003. Its use in other countries, especially in Asia, has proven it very effective at halting outbreaks.
The Cost:
Egg prices, which soared in 2022, were 70% higher in January than they were a year earlier.
Stuck With the Seats We’ve Got
U.S. Appeals Court Rules Against Minimum Seat Dimensions on Planes
Airline passenger advocacy group FlyersRights has been lobbying for eight years to set minimum seat dimensions on planes. In 2018 a federal mandate was passed, which set forth a set of requirements for the FAA regarding seat size and the implications it could have on safety (like the need to evacuate in 90 seconds or less).But despite the legislation and being given an additional year to establish a standard, the issue has gone largely unaddressed. And now it seems like nothing might be done after all. A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that FlyersRights doesn't have the grounds to ask the FAA to implement a seating standard because sufficient evidence that tight seating is actually a threat to passengers was not been provided.While the FAA has yet to comment on the ruling, FlyersRights now plans to petition the agency directly. No surprise, airline trade groups have opposed any new seating rules. But back in November, six Democratic U.S. senators urged the FAA to ban airlines from further shrinking seat sizes and condensing leg room. Of course, it's hard to imagine them getting any tighter, right?
Poor FOrm:
A TikToker recently went viral with a hack he's calling the “poor man's first class.”
Our Nostalgia Is Getting Wild
SunnyD Vodka Seltzer Starting to Hit Store Shelves
Hard seltzer is one beverage trend we know is not going anywhere anytime soon. But it seems to have collided with another food trend—nostalgia from our formative years. Case in point: SunnyD Vodka Seltzer has begun hitting store shelves.On social media, images of the orange-y seltzer have started popping up, revealing contemporary slender cans splashed with the familiar logo. “We took your favorite legendary orange flavor and added vodka to create a delightful drinking experience that tastes like you're sipping on sunshine,” the packaging reads.According to Vine Pair, the 4-packs have a suggested price of $9.99 and will also be available in individual cans. One TikTok review described spiked SunnyD as tasting similar to a Mimosa (which seems generous). But I'm curious if this will spur other childhood revivals. Capri Sun? Hi-C Ecto Cooler? Squeezit?
FYI:
The drink may be orange, and it may be juice-like, but Sunny D is, of course, not orange juice. So what exactly does go into a bottle?
In Other News
And there’s growing concern the U.S. isn’t doing enough.
Have you heard about ...
The Long Read
The original creative force at the cult of prep was an enigmatic 21-year-old
This new brand, which had been in the works for some two years before the catalog launched, was not anybody’s passion project. While industry wisdom dictated that a brand-new catalog from a company no one had ever heard of had to be prepared to spend two and a half years in the red, J.Crew broke even within roughly 18 months.”
- By Maggie Bullock
Read It:
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Shopping
What We’re Buying
Indie Eyewear
Italian husband and wife team, Idriss and Federica, have created the OPR Eyewear brand that takes their continental heritage and updates it for the modern wearer. Everything about the process is hands-on, from sourcing the acetate to hand-making the frames with artisans across Italy. With complementary frames to fit a variety of face shapes and skin tones, OPR’s selection is nearly limitless due to their customization options and consultation-like approach to address individual needs for every wearer. A great place to start is with their Stefano frame ($295).
Want More Options?
The five indie eyewear brands you need to know about.
Morning Motto
Your character speaks for you when you’re not around.
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