Better with age

Good morning. Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster The Odyssey is out tomorrow. The follow-up to his Oscar-winning super-smash Oppenheimer is undeniably the most anticipated theatrical release of the year… but it’s not the only new Odyssey adaptation.

Later this summer, AI movie studio Fountain 0 is releasing Odysseus: The Fall, an entirely AI-generated movie also based on Homer’s epic. In an inspiring display of humility, director and Fountain 0 founder Ash Koosha used his own likeness for the hero Odysseus. 

So what will people want to watch more? An impeccably crafted passion project from one of our generation’s most lauded auteurs, or a janky piece of artless garbage? Only time will tell!

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index hit a new record high yesterday as investors cheered an interest rate hold by the Bank of Canada and strong U.S. bank earnings. Meanwhile, SpaceX shares fell to an all-time low and briefly slipped below their IPO price during trading.

Give it enough time, and OpenAI’s upcoming personal assistant might know you better than your own family. 

What happened: The ChatGPT maker’s first-ever hardware device will reportedly be a screen-free AI speaker that serves as a personal home assistant, per Bloomberg News. OpenAI says that the device, which is expected to be unveiled this year, becomes more effective over time as it learns the routines and preferences of the user.

Why it matters: The selling point of the machine, which otherwise sounds like a gussied-up Google Home, is that the personal assistant ages like a fine wine. The more time it spends with its owner learning their routines, sifting through emails, and having conversations with them, the more effective it becomes. 

Yes, but: Apple is suing OpenAI for allegedly poaching talent and urging ex-employees to steal proprietary product details on their way out. OpenAI has denied the accusation, but the lawsuit could delay the speaker’s launch and the four other hardware products that the company has in the pipeline.

Our take: Nobody has figured out what the device will be for the AI age. Some are betting on sunglasses, others on home speakers, but the opening is there for someone to build the smartphone of this era.—LA

Wildfires in northern Ontario cause evacuations and air quality warnings. Toronto recorded the worst air quality of any city in the world for parts of the day yesterday as smoke drifted down from the north, where almost 200 wildfires were burning. Buildings and homes in First Nations communities burned as residents were forced to flee, and a CN Rail crew had to be evacuated in the town of Armstrong, Ont., after the train was engulfed by flames. (CBC News)

The Bank of Canada holds interest rates again. Governor Tiff Macklem kept the BoC’s benchmark rate unchanged at 2.25% for the sixth consecutive time, adding that Canada’s economy has shown renewed signs of growth in the second quarter. While the cost of gas has ticked up due to the war in Iran, Macklem says prices in other categories have remained steady and that overall inflation should ease in the coming months. (CTV News)

Stripe launches US$53 billion PayPal takeover bid. In what would be the largest fintech acquisition ever, payments business Stripe and PE group Advent International made an offer to buy PayPal at a 28% premium to its current stock price. PayPal's Venmo service would give Stripe — which primarily sells to businesses — a foothold in the consumer space. (Reuters)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers detailed its discovery of erythrulose — a type of sugar found in raspberries — floating around in the Milky Way alongside various dusts and gases. Previous studies had identified more than 340 molecules there, but this is the first time that scientists have found sugar in interstellar space. 

Why it matters: Why does it matter that the Milky Way is a little sweet? Because the existence of sugar is proof that compounds essential to human life (like sugar) can exist in the outer reaches of our galaxy — a discovery that could eventually offer new explanations for how life formed on Earth.

Hyundai workers are rallying against robot replacement. It could be a sign of things to come.

What happened: Workers at Hyundai’s main production hub in South Korea have made an auto industry first: going on strike over humanoid robots. While the company hasn’t yet rolled out humanoids on the assembly line, it plans to soon, and so the union has launched a partial strike to secure pre-emptive job protections and other labour and wage guarantees.

Why it matters: It’s unlikely this will be the last strike of its kind. The auto industry will be one of the sectors most impacted by the rollout of humanoid robots. Many major automakers already have humanoid robot plans in place, which has naturally stirred job replacement fears. 

In Canada: In February, Toyota announced it would be the first automaker in Canada to use humanoids at an assembly plant, employing seven Digit bots from Agility Robotics at its Woodstock, Ontario, facility. As of April, three of these bots were hard at work feeding auto parts to the assembly line.—QH

🍺 1 million. Beers that a collective of ~1,000 strangers in a global group chat are trying to drink. Members of the group chat, which was started by a few friends at a London pub, take pictures of their pint and add their tally to the beer total. Most members log an average of half a beer a day, but a few heavy hitters have hit 1,000 beers each in less than a year.

Get cracking! It’s time for today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who.