Hi, Quartz members!
Here at Quartz, we’re always keeping tabs on business vibes, and this week, especially so. Consumer sentiment vibes (excellent). Warren Buffett’s vibes (not as good as the S&P 500’s). The vibes of those who are tired of paying for increased streaming subscription prices (a.k.a. pirate vibes). And the vibes around OpenAI’s latest product, Sora, which generates videos from text (in one emoji: 😲).
But this week’s grooviest vibes came from our Weekly Obsession, which took a look at the economy around the Grateful Dead t-shirt trade. Jerry may no longer be with us, but the buying and selling of the band’s shirts is livelier than ever—a colorful microcosm (with just a little touch of grey) of why band merch captivates the heart and wallet.
Here are our other favorite reads from Quartz and elsewhere from the past week to set you up for the week ahead. Happy reading!
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
🦄 Unicorns are a dime a dozen. Companies with billion-dollar valuations are just not that impressive when they number in the thousands. Quartz’s Michelle Cheng takes a look at the dilution of the term and the rise of the super-unicorn, which for every decade has reared its magical, shaggy head from one specific tech field. For the 2020s, that’s gotta be AI.
👕 Tiny apparel gets tried on for size. A once-beloved, now near-bankrupt children’s clothing chain may be revived by...the family behind Saudi Arabia’s largest private bank? The Children’s Place has been in commercial danger for some time. Now an unlikely Middle Eastern investing firm has swooped in to parent its financial agreements — and the takeover isn’t exactly child-friendly. Melvin Backman offers a compelling look into palace intrigue at the kid’s clothier.
💋 She’s sus. AI girlfriends are not your friends. That’s what *Privacy Not Included, a consumer guide from Mozilla Foundation, has determined, much to the chagrin of lonely hearts who are taking advantage of OpenAI’s new GPT store. They may tell you what you want to hear, but they may also be spilling all your secrets to whoever pays the highest price. Britney Nguyen spills the tea.
🎓 Digital diplomas. Much has been made of how AI will be a key job skill, if it doesn’t replace our jobs first. To make sure it’s the former and not the latter, a new ivory-tower university is joining the (very) short list of colleges offering a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence. Guess which one it is. No, guess again.
🏠 The new AI middle class. But AI could also restore a whole class of careers. MIT economist David Autor published a new paper arguing that big technological shifts result in waves of new jobs. AI, he says, is another such shift, and will need human beings with specialized knowledge to wield it in all sorts of ways.
1 sneak peek
Laura Bratton’s full story on how much bad air is costing American businesses won’t publish until Monday, but we’re giving you a look at her chart early. Keep an eye out!
Declining air quality will cost US business dearly in the next three decades.
✂️ $125 billion: Average annual pay losses U.S. workers incur from bad air quality, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economics Research (NBER)
🪓 $209 billion: Additional loss in pay that will be suffered by the American labor force in 2054, calculated by Quartz using the most recent pollution data from the EPA, figures from the NBER, and estimates from First Street
💼 1.2 billion: Number of workdays lost globally due to air pollution every year
🗓️ What to watch for this week
Here’s what our newsroom will be keeping an eye on:
- Tuesday: Walmart and Home Depot report earnings
- Wednesday: Eyes will be on what’s now the third-largest company in the US, Nvidia, as the chipmaker posts its quarterly results. Rivian and Public Storage are also sharing their earnings.
- Thursday: Expect more financial results from Keurig Dr Pepper, Moderna, and Block (aka Square).
- Friday: Warren Buffett is pivoting from Apple stock ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s expected earnings release. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery could give investors a peek into its new sports streaming service during its call with investors.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, AI degrees, and job postings made possible by AI. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Susan Howson, Gabriela Riccardi, and Morgan Haefner.