Good morning. Dave & Busters, the Chuck E. Cheese for adults, is launching a new program where adults 18 and older can place real money wagers on arcade games with friends via its app, in an attempt to cash in on the $6 billion social-betting market.

That being said – anyone tryna challenge the Pop-A-Shot king? (This writer🏀👑.) These streaming subscriptions are getting expensive.

In today’s edition:

• ⚡ America’s largest nuclear power plant is finally online
• 👔 Walmart is going bougie
• 🤔 Will marijuana soon be re-Scheduled in the US?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~5.25-minute read (1,397 words).

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.”

–Plato (428 B.C.E. – 347 B.C.E.)

Last month, the Justice Department revealed that it’s closely monitoring the AI industry for potential conflicts of interest stemming from the widespread presence of shared board members between AI competitors.

• Federal officials said maintaining competition remains their top priority as the private industry turns its focus to AI.
• But they also noted that companies sharing board members can lead to conflicts of interest that end up slowing innovation and disenfranchising workers, shareholders, and consumers.

Interest-ing… Microsoft is a prime example of overlap within the industry. The tech giant has positioned itself as an AI frontrunner through its ~$13 billion investment in OpenAI, where it holds a non-voting board seat and serves as a strategic partner.

At the same time, Microsoft has invested a combined $2+ billion in startups Mistral, G42, and Inflection AI – all three of which are technically competing with Microsoft, OpenAI, and each other to build generative AI technology.

A few other examples:

• Amazon, which recently completed a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, has a board member who leads the venture capitalist AI Fund, and has made numerous exclusive AI investments.
• Meta’s board includes a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen, whose VC fund has invested in generative chatbot startup Character.AI, as well as Elon Musk’s buyout of X/Twitter (meaning a16z likely owns equity in Musk’s chatbot startup xAI).
• Google – which has its own AI chatbot and is invested in Anthropic – has a board member who also serves on the board of Salesforce, another major AI player with investments in Anthropic, Mistral, and Together AI.

📝 Bottom line: With nearly every major tech company developing their own AI product verticals, Big Tech firms could end up competing directly with the start-ups they – or their board members – invest in.

And, in a worst case scenario, this could lead to collusion and/or monopolistic conduct in the AI industry, since overlapping board members across companies would incentivize avoiding competition in certain product domains, or in hiring specific AI engineers.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, should regulators be concerned about the potential conflicts of interest within the AI industry?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

Editor’s note: Once again, there aren’t any op/eds today due to a lack of available coverage.

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🇨🇳 China released a timeline to become the first country to collect samples from Mars. A top Chinese space official said Beijing plans to launch a spacecraft “around 2030” to gather rock samples collected by its Mars rover and bring them back to Earth. If China’s timeline holds up, their mission would return sooner than NASA’s current plan to collect Martian rock samples gathered by its Perseverance rover, setting up what some analysts call a “Space Race 2.0.”

💨 G7 countries agreed to shut down coal-powered plants by 2035 – with a catch. The new agreement bans the use of “unabated” coal past the deadline, a term that leaves room for countries to use coal-powered plants past 2035 if their carbon pollution is captured before entering the atmosphere. The agreement also includes a caveat that countries can phase out coal usage in a more ambiguous timeline “consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5°C temperature rise within reach.”

🇮🇳 India’s government reportedly approved a failed assassination attempt on US soil last November. A new Washington Post report, which cited multiple unnamed sources, said the alleged plot to kill a US citizen and Sikh activist living in America was approved by senior-level members of India’s intelligence agency, including its chief at the time. India’s government denied the report and said it plans to conduct its own investigation into the matter.

Get your expensive china ready: Walmart, the country’s largest grocer, yesterday unveiled a new private-label, premium food brand called Bettergoods.

The brand will carry plant-based, gluten-free, and higher-end food – but priced to be affordable. According to Walmart, more than 70% of the products – which encompass ~300 food-items, including cardamom rose raspberry jam and curry chicken empanadas – will cost less than $5.

Between the lines: Walmart already owns one of the largest food and consumable brands in the US: Great Value. But GV mostly focuses on selling basic, everyday items at lower prices than other national brands.

Bettergoods, on the other hand, is expected to appeal to both younger and more affluent shoppers – key demographics that, as inflation continues to persist, are being increasingly attracted to Walmart and its low-priced reputation.

• The company’s research indicates these consumers want “elevated culinary, inspirational types of items” and healthier foods like plant-based products.
• Bettergoods’ products will fit into three major areas: items with more of a culinary flair, plant-based items, or items that exclude certain ingredients (like gluten).

Walmart’s move comes as consumers are being more thoughtful about purchases. McDonald's, 3M (maker of Scotch tape and Post-it Notes), and Newell Brands (Coleman and Rubbermaid), all revealed on earnings calls over the past week that they’re seeing consumers be increasingly cautious with discretionary spending.

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This week, a new reactor unit at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power plant entered commercial operation, completing a 15-year expansion that makes the site America’s single largest provider of clean energy.

The new Unit 4 reactor came online less than a year after the similarly built Unit 3. Together, they represent the first US reactors built from scratch in three decades, and can provide enough energy to power a combined 1 million homes.

Their completion marks the end of an arduous journey. When construction of the two nuclear plants began in 2009, the project’s total costs were estimated to be $14 billion, with the plants projected to come online in 2016.

• In reality, Units 3 and 4 ended up with a price tag north of $30 billion, and entered commercial operation 6-7 years behind schedule.

Big picture: Analysts say the struggles associated with Vogtle’s new plants are a major reason why the nuclear industry has turned away from large nuclear projects in recent years, with no such facilities currently under development in the US.

👀 Looking ahead… The Vogtle situation has inspired companies to pursue potentially cheaper alternatives, such as small nuclear reactors – though US firms have yet to develop a system that works at scale.

💬 Quoted: "This is going to help to normalize cannabis more than anything that's ever occurred in the US since they started the war on drugs."

• Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland submitted a proposal for White House review that says weed is tight would reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. More specifically, the proposal would move marijuana from its current Schedule I status – a category that includes heroin, ecstasy, and LSD – to Schedule III, alongside substances like ketamine, testosterone, and anabolic steroids. While the move wouldn’t federally legalize cannabis for recreational use outright, it would allow marijuana businesses to claim many otherwise ordinary tax deductions, and would also ease many of the current restrictions that prevent US scientists from fully researching marijuana.

💎 Stat of the Day: Forget Super Mario Bros. – a team of scientists recently completed the greatest speedrun in history. South Korean researchers developed a procedure that successfully grew diamonds in roughly 150 minutes, instead of the 1-3 billion years it typically takes the gemstones to form in nature, according to a new study.

🤔 Did You Know? Gotham City, home to Batman and his merry band of arch-nemeses, is canonically located in New Jersey.

📰 Worth a Read: Meet the Giant Salmon With a Weaponized Mustache → (Atlas Obscura)

• ☝️ The most expensive home in Boca Raton, Florida, just closed for $40 million – with a catch. The buyer of the 1.7-acre property plans to tear down the 1990s home and guesthouse and rebuild across 400 feet of water frontage.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Top Tree Herbs

• 💰 US markets closed down across the board (S&P: -1.6%; Dow: -1.5%; Nasdaq: -2.0%). | 👎 US consumer confidence is at its lowest level since July 2022, per new data.
• 🪙 Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for failing to establish adequate anti-money laundering protections. | 💼 Tesla, around two weeks after initiating layoffs for ~14,000 staffers (10% of its workforce), is initiating another round of layoffs; those affected include senior execs and the majority of its Supercharging team.
• 🏢 More than $38 billion of US office buildings are threatened by loan defaults, foreclosures, or other forms of distress; that’s the highest amount since Q4 2012. (Read more)

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🥊 The Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing match (July 20) will be classified as a sanctioned, professional fight.
• 📱 Instagram is overhauling its Reels algorithm to boost "original content"; the move is expected to benefit creators with smaller followings.
• 🏆 The Tony Awards unveiled its 2024 nominations; Hell's Kitchen and Stereophonic lead the pack with 13 nods apiece.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Commons

• 🎗️ Women should get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40, according to new guidance issued by the US Preventive Services Task Force.
• 💊 The FTC is challenging “junk” patents held by ten drugmakers, including for Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic.
• ⚖️ Eight US regional newspapers owned by investment giant Alden Global Capital are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. | ✍️ OpenAI signed a deal with UK news publisher the Financial Times; the deal allows OpenAI to use FT content to train models and include in ChatGPT responses.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🎓 Israel-Hamas student protests: Dozens of Columbia University protesters breached an administrative building yesterday and barricaded themselves in, with school officials warning any involved students will face expulsion; police entered the campus and removed protestors late last night. | Protesters broke into Portland State’s main library Monday night amidst a wider demonstration. | Brown and Northwestern both reached agreements with student protesters to end their encampments.
• 📝 The NSA disclosed classified information about Americans who appeared in foreign spy reports authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – a process called “unmasking” – over 31,000 times last year, nearly triple the amount in 2022.
• ⚖️ The New York judge presiding over former President Trump’s hush-money case issued a $9,000 fine to Trump yesterday and threatened to throw him in jail for repeatedly violating a gag order regarding public statements about potential witnesses. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🍿📅 The full list of movies coming to theaters and streaming this summer.

When Lyft driver Ryan Pasch received a $5 cash tip from one of his riders, he impulsively decided to use it to buy himself a Strike It Rich scratch-off ticket.

🏆 Winner winner... The Virginia man was understandably shocked when his ticket was a $150,000 winner. 

• While he hasn't said what he plans to use the winnings for, Ryan shared that he "was pretty stoked" when he won. "I got a little light-headed!"

For each of the following: Name the movie associated with the following poorly explained plot.

1. Uncle tries to kill nephew and frame him for murder. Nephew flees and lives worry free, until someone reminds him of his past.
2. AI spends 2 minutes on the internet and decides that mass genocide is the only answer.
3. Unhinged scientist lures visitors into death trap.

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1. The Lion King (1994)
2. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
3. Jurassic Park (1993)