Good morning. We’ve been amazed at the responses y’all had to yesterday’s deep dive into ChatGPT, the AI that’s blowing everyone’s minds. Many shared their excitement about how AI could transform art and work as we know it, while others were… just a wee bit terrified their jobs would be replaced by a robot that was smarter, more creative, and somehow even better looking.

The 15,000+ classrooms who read The DONUT were particularly engaged, wondering if this new technology would make it impossible to tell if an essay titled “Catcher In The Wry: Tone and Substance of Holden Caulfield” was written by a human student or an AI assistant. Or if these technological advances in AI will force schools to evolve their curricula to adapt with the changing landscape of what kids will need to know in this new world. Etc., etc.

• Based on these responses, we’ve decided to skip our usual Dose of Discussion segment today to keep this lively AI conversation going. And we want to hear from you!
• Scroll down to participate in our poll, then reply with your thoughts. Bonus points if YOU write it with zero help from ChatGPT.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.23 minutes to read.

“Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body.”

–Paulo Coelho (b. 1947)

While the music hasn’t quite stopped for Sam Bankman-Fried, yesterday may have marked the beginning of the last verse. Federal prosecutors officially unsealed criminal charges against the FTX founder and former CEO in the morning, around the same time the crypto exchange’s newly-appointed CEO John Ray III was testifying in front of Congress.

📝⚖️ What SBF is being charged with: While none of these should come as a surprise if you read last Tuesday’s newsletter, the list of unsealed criminal charges against SBF is quite long. Eight counts long, to be exact, covering wire fraud, securities fraud, and campaign finance violations related to FTX customer funds being allegedly used to illegally donate to both Democratic and Republican groups.

These charges also come quite swiftly considering the type of case, Bloomberg reports. It took more than two years after Enron’s collapse for its CEO – who was ultimately convicted of fraud and other counts – to be charged.

The paper, citing legal experts, attributes the speed in this case to two potential things: 1) an “avalanche of evidence,” or 2) prosecutors feeling pressure to act quickly, since the 14-page criminal indictment was relatively barebones compared to what’s normal in a major fraud prosecution. This wouldn’t be without precedent either; convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff was charged within days of the SEC being told he was perpetuating a Ponzi scheme.

Though there is a third option: there’s no “avalanche of evidence” yet, but the case is fairly open and shut. And that’s also a real possibility, per new FTX CEO John Ray III’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday.

Quick reminder: Ray also oversaw Enron through its fraud and bankruptcy proceedings. And while that fraud was highly sophisticated, per his testimony, the FTX situation appears to be “really just old-fashioned embezzlement” and not all that complicated.

• He described FTX as a company that kept few records, using the small business accounting software QuickBooks, a quite unusual move for a multibillion-dollar company, and tracking invoices in the messaging app Slack (on the disappearing messages plan, no less).
• And speaking of messaging apps – The Australian Financial Review published a report yesterday detailing how SBF and at least three other FTX insiders were part of a Signal group chat named “Wirefraud,” which was used to send end-to-end encrypted information about FTX and its hedge fund, Alameda Research, leading up to its collapse (you can’t make this stuff up).

🇧🇸 Meanwhile, in the Bahamas: SBF was denied bail by a judge yesterday. He’s currently sitting in Bahamian jail awaiting potential US extradition.

🇪🇺 The EU reached an agreement to tax some imports based on the greenhouse gasses emitted to make them. The deal, which would be the first of its kind in the world, is expected to be officially adopted in the coming weeks as part of a wider package of climate-related EU legislation, and will apply a GHG tax to all imports of iron, steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminum, and electricity. EU officials said the measure is designed so that foreign companies will face the same emissions taxes as those who operate domestically.

🇳🇿🚭 New Zealand’s Parliament passed the world’s first age-related ban on tobacco yesterday. Under the new legislation, anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in the country. The bill will also limit the number of retailers able to sell tobacco to 600 nationwide, down from 6,000 currently. New Zealand’s health minister said the measure is projected to save ~$3.2 billion in overall medical costs, though opponents warned it could fuel a tobacco black market.

🇨🇳 China’s government is reportedly working on a $143 billion package for its semiconductor industry. The bill would represent one of Beijing’s largest fiscal packages in at least five years. A majority of funds will go towards subsidies and tax credits to bolster domestic semiconductor production and research in China, Reuters reports, citing three internal sources. Separately, Japan and the Netherlands agreed to join the US in restricting semiconductor sales to China; both countries are home to a major global chip supplier (Tokyo Electron & ASML, respectively).

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI), America’s most widely-used measure of inflation, rose 7.1% in November from the same month a year ago, the Labor Department reported yesterday. That’s down from 7.7% in October.

It's also the index’s lowest figure since last December – and the CPI has now fallen for five straight months, down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June.

🔢 By the numbers: The decline in this month’s index was mainly driven by price decreases for utility gas services (-3.5%), used vehicles (-2.9%), and medical care (-0.7%).

• On a month-to-month basis, the core index – which excludes often-volatile food and energy prices – rose 0.2%, down from 0.3% last month and 0.6% in both September and August.
• On a yearly basis, core inflation increased 6.1%, just shy of a 40-year high that was set in September (+6.6%).

👀 Looking ahead… The Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee is expected to raise baseline interest rates by 0.5%-0.75% after its two-day meeting concludes this afternoon.

Listen up, gamers: all those VBucks you spent on skins and emotes could find their way back into your wallet after all. Per an announcement released on Monday, Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, is partnering with Epic Games to host an in-game Fortnite competition where the winner will walk away with $1 million.

🎮🏝 Here’s what it’ll look like: On December 17, the popular battle royale game will host “MrBeast’s Extreme Survival Challenge,” a virtual gauntlet of timed challenges taking place on a custom-made island.

• The special game mode will only be open from 12pm ET to 3pm ET, during which Fortnite players can make as many attempts as possible.
• Whoever has the best score on the leaderboard after the three hours are up will earn a cool $1 million in cash.

🤑 Zoom out: Though MrBeast, the world’s most popular YouTuber with over 119 million subscribers, has built his career on giving away money, it seems to have been a pretty good investment strategy. In a recent interview, he revealed that he turned down a $1 billion offer to take over his content empire and its associated businesses (though $10 billion would have reportedly done the trick).

And he’s not the only creator being approached by big money people. A WSJ report published yesterday found some VC firms are seeking out YouTubers to purchase the rights to their back catalog of videos. Two firms in particular – Spotter and Jellysmack – have put aside a combined $1.5 billion towards such deals.

💬 Quoted…​​ “[A] reputational risk.”

At an all-hands meeting yesterday, Google employees asked AI head Jeff Dean whether ChatGPT going viral represents a missed opportunity for the tech giant, which is currently developing its own private AI chatbot.

• His response? The company sees too much potential risk in harming its credibility, since chatbots can sometimes provide the wrong information in a convincing manner.

🍿 Stat of the Day: There are currently more than 82,000 movie screens in China, up from ~5,700 in 2010, per The Hollywood Reporter.

🤯 Did You Know?... The most expensive youth sport in the US is ice hockey, which costs parents an average of $2,500+ per year.

📖 Worth a Read: Should a murderer be allowed to publish scientific papers? → (Big Think)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the best Northern Lights photographs of 2022, as chosen by My Modern Met.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤖📞 DoNotPay is launching a new AI-powered chatbot that can communicate with customer service reps on your behalf to negotiate bills and cancel subscriptions.
• 📱🆕 Apple released iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1 yesterday; new features include enhanced iCloud security, a Karaoke feature in Apple Music, and a collaborative whiteboard app called Freeform.
• 🔵🤝 Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council, per an internal email sent yesterday, stating it is “reevaluating how best to bring external insights” and the council is “not the best structure to do this.” | How should tech platforms approach content moderation? Dive deeper + see the 360° view.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Jeff Zucker, the former president of CNN, has partnered with RedBird Capital and International Media Investments to form RedBird IMI, per the WSJ; the new firm has committed $1 billion to invest in large-scale sports and media companies.
• 🏈 Mississippi St. head football coach Mike Leach, 61, passed away on Monday due to a heart condition; the Bulldogs will still play in the ReliaQuest Bowl, with school officials saying it’s "what Coach Leach would expect them to do."
• ⚽ Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 yesterday to advance to the World Cup final; they’ll face off against the winner of today’s match between France and Morocco.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🩹 Researchers at UC San Francisco have engineered molecules that act like “cellular glue”; they can be used to treat wounds or regrow lost nerves.
• 💉 An experimental mRNA cancer vaccine created by Moderna was shown to reduce the risk of recurrence or death from melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, in a recent Phase 2 trial when combined with an immunotherapy drug from Merck called Keytruda; Moderna stock closed the day up nearly 20%.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• ✍️ President Biden signed the Respect For Marriage Act yesterday, officially enshrining same-sex marriage protections into federal law. (Background)
• 🗳️ The 2022 midterms are officially over: Incumbent GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert won the final uncalled House seat in Colorado yesterday after a mandatory recount; starting next year, the House will have 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• 🏛️📱 A group of three lawmakers in the House and Senate – two Rs and one D – introduced a bill yesterday that would ban TikTok from all US devices over national security concerns. | Should the US ban TikTok? Dive deeper + see the 360° view.

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Yesterday, we covered how ChatGPT, the internet’s buzziest AI chatbot, actually works.

📄 Tl;dr: Two weeks after its release, ChatGPT already has 1+ million users, who have prompted the tech to do everything from pen school essays, to write and debug code, to search the web when Google proves lacking.

• And the list could keep going for, well, almost infinity. Its use cases as a chatbot are basically limitless – if you can dream up a prompt, ChatGPT can carry it out.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): How do you see AI technology like ChatGPT changing your professional life? The best responses will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.

Submit a response here.

Nash Johnson wanted nothing more than his own Xbox. But the eight-year-old knew his weekly $5 chore allowance wouldn't buy him one anytime soon, so he decided to take matters into his own hands – by applying for his first job. 

🎮 Making it work... Nash applied to be a dishwasher at Drake's, a new restaurant in town, submitting an application over fall break without his mom knowing.  

• "That kid is not afraid to fail," Nash's mother, Belinda Johnson, said. "He is a go-getter."
• And while Nash is only halfway to the legal working age, Drake's invited him to a special orientation where COO Mark Thornburg gifted him the Xbox he's always wanted. 
• "I was, like, shocked," Nash told LEX18. "I wish I had the job and the Xbox. I do have the Xbox, but I wish I had the job!"

Can you decode these band names written with emojis?

1. 🚪🚪🚪🚪
2. ⤵️💜
3. 🕘📏💅

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. The Doors
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