Speaker 1: From Mahart where Innovation, Money and power.
Speaker 2: Collie in Silicon Valley, Nbon.
Speaker 3: This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlove.
Speaker 3: I'm Parolin Hine on Blooberg's world headquarters in New York
Speaker 3: and Ludlow he's off today. This is Bloomberg Technology. Coming
Speaker 3: up Microsoft and Activision. They extend their deadline for closing
Speaker 3: that sixty nine billion dollar deal as they seek approval
Speaker 3: in the United Kingdom. I've got the latest plus streaming
Speaker 3: giant Netflix reporting earnings later today. How has the password
Speaker 3: crackdown impacted the business? And what does strikes in Hollywood
Speaker 3: mean for the company. And we'll sit down with the
Speaker 3: CEO of Weight Watchers. We're going to discuss the company
Speaker 3: embracing technological advances in medicine to support its business.
Speaker 4: All that's so much more to come.
Speaker 3: The first sets check in on those markets and Zada
Speaker 3: Green Abigail.
Speaker 5: It certainly is a day of Green Caroline. This year's
Speaker 5: melt up continues. We have the S and P five
Speaker 5: hundred up for a third day. The NASAK one hundred
Speaker 5: is higher. We also have the nicy Fang Index. Some
Speaker 5: of those big megacap tech stocks, including China Tech, which
Speaker 5: is outperforming not on our board, but up more than
Speaker 5: two percent. So the stock bulls remain in control as
Speaker 5: we start to move through earning season, and of course,
Speaker 5: the financials overall have reported well. Carvana, their results came
Speaker 5: out that stock is absolutely soaring right now, it's up
Speaker 5: about forty three percent. They beat estimates both for adjusted
Speaker 5: earnings in terms of a narrower loss and expected revenues.
Speaker 5: So this online car platform, which earlier this year had
Speaker 5: been a sub five dollars stock, now up more than
Speaker 5: one thousand percent. Some of this positive attitude also has
Speaker 5: to do with restructuring their debt.
Speaker 4: The question is, as the other big.
Speaker 5: Tech companies roll in, and this is not a big
Speaker 5: tech company, but as the big tech company earnings roll in,
Speaker 5: you're mentioning Netflix, this stock up about sixty one percent,
Speaker 5: will investors deem those earnings to be big enough, robust
Speaker 5: enough to support the moves? Because Netflix on the year
Speaker 5: up sixty one percent, we have meta Amazon up about
Speaker 5: an equal amount, Microsoft and Apple as well.
Speaker 4: Yet if I take a look at.
Speaker 5: How much revenue is growing for Netflix, it's expected to
Speaker 5: grow mid single digits. Same deal for Amazon and Microsoft, Apple, Caroline.
Speaker 5: It's actually expected for its June quarter revenue to decline
Speaker 5: by more than one percent. So it's going to be
Speaker 5: interesting to see whether these quarters come in where they're expected,
Speaker 5: what the outlooks are. Will we see this stock rally
Speaker 5: continue based on the results that come through.
Speaker 3: All baited breath for those big names later off to
Speaker 3: the bow, Abigail, thank you so much. Let's get more
Speaker 3: updates so on well, the ever grinding story that is
Speaker 3: Microsoft and Activision the deal. We understand the extension in
Speaker 3: the deadline has been given for three months to get
Speaker 3: this deal done. There's also updates to the changes in
Speaker 3: which termination could be three and a half billion dollars
Speaker 3: if indeed they do walk away. There's three months time.
Speaker 3: Let's get over to Catherine Gammel. I'm praised to say,
Speaker 3: who has been really thinking about why this ultimate deadline
Speaker 3: that was meant to be July the eighteenth has been
Speaker 3: extended and it's because of UK regulators correct, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Exactly, Thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 6: Yes, so today we've seen that this deadline has officially
Speaker 6: been extended by the companies.
Speaker 4: I mean this was expected and.
Speaker 6: Bloomberg reported earlier in the week that this will be
Speaker 6: the case, and this is really just so that the
Speaker 6: companies can get over the UK hurdles. So the UK's
Speaker 6: Competition of Markets Authority is the only agency that's standing
Speaker 6: in the way of this stale closing at the moment.
Speaker 4: And last week we saw them.
Speaker 6: Put out a statement that would say that they're going
Speaker 6: to reconsider some structural remedies for the companies after the
Speaker 6: FTC's defeat in court. So you know, since then we've
Speaker 6: had quite a lot of update it's a big floody.
Speaker 6: We've seen them extend their deal probe to the end
Speaker 6: of August to twenty ninth, and then to also clarify
Speaker 6: that if they are being offered a restructured deal that
Speaker 6: you know that this will go to a fresh probe
Speaker 6: so that it can give both sides times to you know,
Speaker 6: veni bosh and really thresh out the details on this one.
Speaker 3: Shareholders might be a bit pleased, of course, two companies
Speaker 3: are going in the activision can issue at one time
Speaker 3: dividend of up to ninety nine cents to which shareholders
Speaker 3: before that deal closes. Of course, regular dividends had been
Speaker 3: put on ice prior to this, but it's so notable
Speaker 3: how the moon music has shifted, not only after the
Speaker 3: FTC failed to get it the deal put on ice
Speaker 3: here in the United States, but what on about turn
Speaker 3: to occur in the United Kingdom. We are expecting more
Speaker 3: changes to the business model, but ultimately anything that could
Speaker 3: still stand in the way, it can still Spencer of
Speaker 3: Microsoft standing pretty upbeat.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it seems like the companies are both feeling pretty
Speaker 6: confident about this one. I mean, I would just caution
Speaker 6: that the CME still needs to consider these remedies and see,
Speaker 6: you know, whether it all address the competition concerns at
Speaker 6: the heart of the reason behind the cmeme's first fetle.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, we've wienberg Used last week reported
Speaker 6: that there's considerations of offering up some Microsoft's UK clothed business.
Speaker 6: We don't know yet if that's actually going to be
Speaker 6: officially offered right now. The negotiations are still at an
Speaker 6: early stage, and on Monday they will just kicked off.
Speaker 6: After that because we got a pause of the ukcmmes
Speaker 6: and the Microsoft's appused proceedings at.
Speaker 3: The competition and peep tribe, you know, we want to
Speaker 3: thank you, Catherine, thank you so much. Kathinkamut on all
Speaker 3: things Microsoft and Activision. Let's get on to Netflix as well,
Speaker 3: of course, which once one a time was talking about
Speaker 3: how gaming was its key competitor. Of course, it's going
Speaker 3: to be reporting earnings today after the ball and please
Speaker 3: to say that we mentioned you're an entertainment correspondent. Chris
Speaker 3: pal Mary is standing by in LA and first, well,
Speaker 3: we are expecting subscriptions to pick up. It's all about
Speaker 3: that password crackdown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this tree is looking at about a
Speaker 1: two million subscriber edition of this quarter. That's about the
Speaker 1: same as the last quarter. Not as big as the
Speaker 1: blowout one we saw in the last quarter of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, but much better than the losses they had
Speaker 1: at the start last year. So there is a general
Speaker 1: feeling that Netflix has figured this out with a new ad,
Speaker 1: cheaper ad tier, with the crackdown on passwords, that they're
Speaker 1: resuming growth again.
Speaker 3: And within this context, I'm still trying to understand whether
Speaker 3: a strike among actors among writers is going to be
Speaker 3: difficult for Netflix doesn't have live sport. But is it
Speaker 3: a boon because we know how much Netflix has gone
Speaker 3: in terms of content in the back office.
Speaker 1: I would say the stream, given that you noted a
Speaker 1: sixty one percent increase in the price this year, thinks
Speaker 1: that they're gonna weather this strike.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 1: You know, the company's line has been that they have
Speaker 1: this content pipeline, it's all set and they'll be able
Speaker 1: to go through the.
Speaker 4: End of the year at least.
Speaker 1: We'll be looking for any updates on the call today
Speaker 1: to see if their position on that has changed. You
Speaker 1: could certainly make the case that people will be spending
Speaker 1: a lot more time just streaming older shows and spending
Speaker 1: more time watching Netflix if you know, new programs are
Speaker 1: not on the air in the fall, So there is
Speaker 1: that dynamic.
Speaker 3: Chris pa Mary is going to be glued to the
Speaker 3: screens when those numbers drop. As always, we thank you
Speaker 3: the Big bell Weather for the start of earnings in tech.
Speaker 3: Let's get to the other key, Big bell Weather. It's
Speaker 3: the biggest traded company here in the US. Apple, of
Speaker 3: course coming out with well breaking news that we understand
Speaker 3: that Apple is indeed racing to develop its own generative
Speaker 3: AI tools to catch up with Open ai now. According
Speaker 3: to Bloomberg, the sources are saying it's building a large
Speaker 3: language model AI framework dubbed ajax. It's created internal chatchebt
Speaker 3: style blot for employees already.
Speaker 4: What's notable is this is helping in Video's share price.
Speaker 3: It's quickly turned positive, up more than zero point four percent, because,
Speaker 3: of course, what do they need compute power. On the downside, interestingly,
Speaker 3: Microsoft is falling to session lows down by about as
Speaker 3: you'll see, currently off by three tens percent. They were
Speaker 3: off at well eight tens percent a little bit earlier.
Speaker 4: Because this is competition, folks, if they're seeking to.
Speaker 3: Take on open AI and indeed being it'll be a
Speaker 3: great conversation to have with a Microsoft executive. We've got
Speaker 3: coming up later in the show. Apple shares and a
Speaker 3: new record high. Why while reporting coming from our own
Speaker 3: Mark Gum and that Apple is quietly working on an
Speaker 3: artificial intelligence tools that could challenge those of open AI
Speaker 3: of Google's barred. Of course, this is all to do
Speaker 3: with generative AI. The only thing we can really talk
Speaker 3: about here on Bloomberg Technology. It's releasing, we understand, but
Speaker 3: there's no real clear strategy for the technology getting into
Speaker 3: the hands of consumers. What we do understand is the
Speaker 3: IFOM maker has built its own framework to create large
Speaker 3: language models an AI based system at the heart of
Speaker 3: the offering.
Speaker 4: We understand, of course it's called ajax.
Speaker 3: This is going to take on Bard, going to take
Speaker 3: on chat GPT, And in fact they've already created a
Speaker 3: chatbot service that some engineers called Apple GPT for their
Speaker 3: own internal employees. But in recent months this AI push
Speaker 3: has become a major effort for Apple.
Speaker 4: Notable that, of course Tim Cook hasn't discussed it.
Speaker 3: We were all waiting to see whether we did it
Speaker 3: the Worldwide Developers Conference a month ago. We'll see as
Speaker 3: to whether, of course it starts to factor in their
Speaker 3: earnings calls. As we know all anyone can talk about
Speaker 3: in those earnings things like AI. But we know that
Speaker 3: Apple has woven AI features into products for years, and
Speaker 3: now it's trying to play a little bit of catch
Speaker 3: up in what is ever more buzzy market for generative
Speaker 3: tools overall. But we'll see whether people can be creating essays, images, video.
Speaker 3: I wanted to shine a light on what's happening in
Speaker 3: competitors Microsoft, of course, which has evolved the open AI
Speaker 3: relationship to become one that's really integrated within being. Within
Speaker 3: Microsoft co pilot three sixty five, we disc discussing that
Speaker 3: in a moment with an executive. But it's down some
Speaker 3: seven tens percent. As we talk about this new potential competition,
Speaker 3: Apple up more than two percent and a new record,
Speaker 3: and even in video, of course, the big compute power
Speaker 3: is on the higher side because of this. Let's get
Speaker 3: to the man that broke the story, Mark Goom, and
Speaker 3: I'm pleased to say is on the phone, and I
Speaker 3: mean some real digging here. We were all waiting for
Speaker 3: Apple to wear in on AI.
Speaker 2: And here we are. I'm told that Apple is quietly
Speaker 2: working on a set of new generative AI tools with
Speaker 2: the idea of catching up to open API, Google, Microsoft, Amazon,
Speaker 2: everyone you've seen entering this buzzy new AI space recently.
Speaker 2: Two pieces of information here. One, they've created an underlying
Speaker 2: framework to create large language models or LMS. That's the
Speaker 2: tech at the heart of Chat, GPT and Google Bard
Speaker 2: being AI, these other services. Apple's internal framework, it's called AJAX.
Speaker 2: Now on top of that framework or with that framework,
Speaker 2: they've also created an internal chat GPT like system that
Speaker 2: some people on Apple call Apple GPT that works similarly
Speaker 2: at GPT that we know today. So clearly Apple is
Speaker 2: all in on LMS. They have multiple teams working on this.
Speaker 2: The big caveat at this point though, is they do
Speaker 2: not have a clear strategy for consumers yet, But the
Speaker 2: work is happening and they'll get there eventually.
Speaker 3: Many have perhaps grinded their teeth with frustration at Siri.
Speaker 3: That seems an obvious area that generative AI could improve.
Speaker 3: Where else though, could consumers interact with anything that Apple
Speaker 3: would offer?
Speaker 2: Yeah, in terms of generative AI, you can see this
Speaker 2: across all platforms. You can see this across many applications.
Speaker 2: There are places where this could be used in productivity apps,
Speaker 2: let's say in Apple spreadsheet or work processing or slide
Speaker 2: presentation apps, you can have a generative AI system theoretically
Speaker 2: to help you build those presentations and get work done
Speaker 2: for you. Like you said, you can see it happen
Speaker 2: in Siri, a more chatbot like interface with improved data
Speaker 2: based on what it's trained with and improved back and forth,
Speaker 2: so to speak, or more information able to come in
Speaker 2: a more clear form into sery. You can see it
Speaker 2: in terms of app development right even on a place
Speaker 2: like the Vision pro headset, where you don't necessarily have
Speaker 2: a keyboard and mouse at all times, and you're going
Speaker 2: to want official intelligence system to give you a leg
Speaker 2: up on development when you don't have those standard input methods.
Speaker 2: So there's all sorts of places where generative AI can
Speaker 2: be placed. Apples hiring for people in the inlich model space.
Speaker 2: They're looking for people who can apply generative AI to
Speaker 2: help people communicate, create, connect and consume media, the company says,
Speaker 2: and some job listings, so they're all in on this. Well,
Speaker 2: Apple doesn't have a definitive plan yet. People involved in
Speaker 2: these projects believe that Apple's preparing to make some sort
Speaker 2: of major AI announcement sometime as early as next year.
Speaker 3: Wow, Marc German, always with the latest and breaking when
Speaker 3: it comes to Apple, Thanks so much for us quickly
Speaker 3: jumping on the phone with us. Meanwhile, well, let's turn
Speaker 3: to a company that's become ever more technologically native. In fact,
Speaker 3: they've hired a previous Silicon Valley style weight watchers of course,
Speaker 3: known as WW International. In this week's Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 3: is part of Well, the cover story, it's all about
Speaker 3: the sixty year old company bet On Pharmaceuticals is the
Speaker 3: next frontier for innovation in the weight loss space.
Speaker 4: In a bit to keep up with the times. Now
Speaker 4: let's discuss all of this.
Speaker 3: Hope, please to welcome the CEO, Sema Sistani, who joins
Speaker 3: us now. And you were building house party, you were
Speaker 3: deeply within the tech space, building companies, selling them, innovating.
Speaker 3: Your job now is to innovate at weight watches and
Speaker 3: part of that is making acquisitions in the telehealth space.
Speaker 3: Just talk to us about how this key acquisition is
Speaker 3: helping you drive forward with pharmaceuticals.
Speaker 8: Yes, thank you for having me so coming in as CEO.
Speaker 8: What is just a year and change now? I knew
Speaker 8: part of the vision was about rethinking the business from
Speaker 8: a digital first perspective, one based on community, which is
Speaker 8: as you mentioned, where I've spent most of my career
Speaker 8: in growth tech doing. I had first experience first as
Speaker 8: a member on the program, and so I was really
Speaker 8: excited about bringing something new and fresh to the product
Speaker 8: on a global scale and something that would allow me
Speaker 8: to take all my growth technoledge to growth tech experience
Speaker 8: excuse me and knowledge and then have meaningful outcomes.
Speaker 4: For global health. Well.
Speaker 8: So, anyways, I had been looking at this research on
Speaker 8: blue zones and how to create a digital blue zone,
Speaker 8: and we investigated new modalities both across functional and clinical,
Speaker 8: and what stood out most is that obesity is a
Speaker 8: chronic condition. It still hasn't been addressed truly in that manner,
Speaker 8: when in fact, for over ten years it's been scientifically
Speaker 8: recognized as a chronic condition. And so we wanted to
Speaker 8: enter the space and be able to extend our toolkit
Speaker 8: to not only behavior change and functional but also clinical interventions.
Speaker 3: What's so interesting is yesterday we learned that another tech executive,
Speaker 3: social media tech executive, Jeff Cook, is joining Noon, which
Speaker 3: is a kind of competitor which is also in the
Speaker 3: weightless startup transition prescribing obesity drugs. How do you compete,
Speaker 3: how do you stand out? How do you make sure
Speaker 3: that you're loyal following doesn't become disenchanted by the shift?
Speaker 8: Well, well, I mean I think that there are two
Speaker 8: There are two questions in there, and the first one
Speaker 8: that I want to address is the prevalence. And you know,
Speaker 8: of obesity in the US, take for instance, since nineteen
Speaker 8: ninety three, the prevalence was about thirteen percent and now
Speaker 8: we're talking forty two percent prevalence, and you know, the
Speaker 8: trajectory is going to get us to fifty percent prevalence
Speaker 8: of people living with obesity by twenty thirty. So this
Speaker 8: is a matter of rising tides.
Speaker 2: Lifts all ships.
Speaker 8: We are we are as the leaders in the space,
Speaker 8: wanting to make sure that this is something that we
Speaker 8: can address globally and that we're doing it responsibly. And yes,
Speaker 8: you know, certainly there have been members who who we
Speaker 8: have to bring along in the journey, and it's on
Speaker 8: us to really destigmatize this category and people understand that
Speaker 8: it's not just about willpower. For many, it's not a
Speaker 8: moral failing that this is a chronic relapsing condition and
Speaker 8: in some cases requires a clinical intervention for people to
Speaker 8: see long term success and longevity.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about any program you might launch, whether
Speaker 3: or not it's through sequence that people managed to access
Speaker 3: these obesity drugs, whether it's somewhere else. You're sort of
Speaker 3: trying to build a program, as I understand it, to
Speaker 3: do with this acquisition that helps people build a lifestyle.
Speaker 3: How many people do you think would ultimately sign on,
Speaker 3: When might we see such a launch and how sure?
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I think it's important to remind people that
Speaker 8: the medications and particularly the clinical trial was called step
Speaker 8: that really led to the media being excited and really
Speaker 8: the zeitguy shifting to thinking about these medications. This was
Speaker 8: a trial that was run alongside lifestyle treatment, meaning that
Speaker 8: these patients were receiving guys on diet and activity. They
Speaker 8: were done in conjunction with a calorie deficit. And so
Speaker 8: it's a misconception that these are a magic pill that
Speaker 8: you just take and lose weight. You must do them
Speaker 8: alongside lifestyle intervention. And that's what the medications help you
Speaker 8: do is have greater adherence to the healthy habits that
Speaker 8: come naturally to something. And so what we are developing
Speaker 8: alongside of our tried and true number one doctor recommended
Speaker 8: program for behavior change is one that is very specific
Speaker 8: to people who are on the g LP one journey
Speaker 8: because they need help with maintenance of lean muscle mass,
Speaker 8: nutrient density, and and doing so alongside of the titration
Speaker 8: the dosage tried excuse me, titration is going to be
Speaker 8: really important to achieving the best outcomes. And so we
Speaker 8: plan to introduce this program in the fall, and that
Speaker 8: would be for people who get the medications through our
Speaker 8: virtual clinics sequence or not. So if you are somebody
Speaker 8: who who's gotten the medication through your healthcare provider. You know,
Speaker 8: these providers in a lot of cases are not trained
Speaker 8: in OBCIA medication. Less than one percent of doctors are,
Speaker 8: and so this will be a program that will be
Speaker 8: able to have a higher touch support for those people.
Speaker 3: Fascinating innovations. We'd love you to come back and talk
Speaker 3: about it a little bit longer next time. We thank
Speaker 3: you for your time. Wait watch your CEO Semasustani as
Speaker 3: it's known as WW International, but.
Speaker 4: It's Ticka from New York. This is Blue Veg Technology.
Speaker 3: It's time now for work shifting when we look at
Speaker 3: the changing landscape of the labor market amid advances in technology,
Speaker 3: and you know, we've got to talk about AI. We've
Speaker 3: got to talk about Microsoft's new artificial intelligence tools for
Speaker 3: its office software Microsoft three sixty five Copilot. It's going
Speaker 3: to cost you thirty dollars a month you want to
Speaker 3: use it on top of what most business customers will pay.
Speaker 4: What are you getting in terms of that value?
Speaker 3: Microsoft Vice President and Modern Life Devices Group usef Mehdi
Speaker 3: is with us. I'm so pleased to welcome you about
Speaker 3: YUSUF to the show and being Chat enterprise, whether it's
Speaker 3: being more specific with your data and ensuring that it's
Speaker 3: safe and also co pilot.
Speaker 4: What are you offering here that's distinct Hi.
Speaker 7: Carolin, First off, great to see again, Great to continue
Speaker 7: the conversation from our launch back in February. The big
Speaker 7: thing that we're announcing really yesterday is I think probably
Speaker 7: arguably the biggest thing that's going to happen in AI
Speaker 7: in the next twelve months, and that is that we're
Speaker 7: unlocking the ability for people at work to be able
Speaker 7: to use generative AI to help them in their jobs.
Speaker 7: Up to this point, people have not used it because
Speaker 7: of concerns of their data leaking out of the organization.
Speaker 7: All that changes now with the launch of bing Chat
Speaker 7: Enterprise and Microsoft threugh certenty five copilot.
Speaker 4: Ultimately, what has the demand been like?
Speaker 3: I mean, we heard from executives that they were sort
Speaker 3: of inundated with CEOs asking them to get using this
Speaker 3: sort of product. What industries are being most impacted for you?
Speaker 7: Well, the nice thing about this technology is really horizontally
Speaker 7: very valuable for people who are writing documents, writing software code,
Speaker 7: doing analysis, doing strategy. So whether you're in healthcare or
Speaker 7: architecture or automotive, there are many companies that want to
Speaker 7: use this powerful technology to help their employees be more productive.
Speaker 7: And we've seen that with much software certenty five copilot,
Speaker 7: where we've had companies like Chevron and others using it
Speaker 7: already and seeing great capabilities. And then with being Chat
Speaker 7: and being Chat enterprise, where really every major company I
Speaker 7: talk to wants to be able to unlock the creativity
Speaker 7: power for their employees.
Speaker 3: So if they once said no, you can't use chat,
Speaker 3: youbt at works something, they can say yes, but it's.
Speaker 4: Got to be the big chat enterprise.
Speaker 3: What's the interesting there's some really specific lms and general
Speaker 3: to AI being focused at different industries. I think of
Speaker 3: Harvey within the law world. Is that something that you're
Speaker 3: going to work alongside?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a great question. The way I think about
Speaker 7: it is there will be these foundational models, so they'll
Speaker 7: be a couple in the world that will be the
Speaker 7: most advanced things like open AI, is chat, GPT or
Speaker 7: GPT that we work with GPT four that power incredible capabilities.
Speaker 7: And then companies will take those foundational models and they'll
Speaker 7: do their own training, they'll do their own special capabilities
Speaker 7: for their applications will enable those in being chat for
Speaker 7: everybody through our plugin system. Think of it as like
Speaker 7: having skills in the AI. So that's kind of how
Speaker 7: it'll work.
Speaker 4: Less than a minute left.
Speaker 3: But I've got to ask you, what do you think
Speaker 3: about the news that Apple's in on the game of
Speaker 3: general to AI with ajax.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, looks it's just such a hot area
Speaker 7: people have to get after it. It doesn't surprise me
Speaker 7: that companies like Apple want to get in there. You know,
Speaker 7: we've been at it for multiple years. We have a
Speaker 7: very unique lead with chat EGPT four, with our role
Speaker 7: in the enterprise, and you know the excitement of people
Speaker 7: wanting to go do that work on Windows and yesterday's
Speaker 7: announcements with support for met Islama on Azure, I really
Speaker 7: speak to the unique leadership role that we're playing right now.
Speaker 3: Love to have you back to talk about the open
Speaker 3: source models versus those more closed source foundational models.
Speaker 4: We thank you so much for your time there today.
Speaker 3: Microsoft vice president of one Life and Devices company that
Speaker 3: is use many of that group. Welcome back to Blueberg Technology.
Speaker 3: I'm Karen Hired in New York ed Ludlow. He's off,
Speaker 3: He's missing the action when it comes to the publicly
Speaker 3: trade and markets. Let's get into them, because we've got
Speaker 3: another day of slight gains up just about a tenth
Speaker 3: of a percent. The moon music came from across the
Speaker 3: Atlantic when the UK's inflation number also take lower. Look,
Speaker 3: Europe's still not pulling back as much as we'd expected,
Speaker 3: but really the UK did plummet and we saw therefore
Speaker 3: NASDAC just managed to get a bit of a push highers.
Speaker 3: The world seems to be grappling with slightly less issues
Speaker 3: when it comes to inflationary push forward, and that means
Speaker 3: false interest rates perhaps won't have to rise up at
Speaker 3: quite the rate we'd anticipated. The pound look at that
Speaker 3: down a percentage point.
Speaker 4: Versus the US dollar.
Speaker 3: After that, inflation data came in cool and then expected,
Speaker 3: But the Bloomberg Mantity index maybe says, look, don't hold
Speaker 3: your horses on inflationary pressures. Oil spiking wheat on the
Speaker 3: upper side that as we understand that Russia was really
Speaker 3: not going to be wanting to see any sort of
Speaker 3: movement in terms of voyages in and out of the
Speaker 3: Ukraine at the moment, So keep an eye on the
Speaker 3: geopolitical risk there when it comes to commodities. Moving on, though,
Speaker 3: let's get back to this world of tech individual movers.
Speaker 3: The news coming from one Mark gum and that Apple
Speaker 3: is now getting all in on the generative AI game.
Speaker 3: We understand ageax is its foundational model that it's been
Speaker 3: trying to work with. We know that they already potentially
Speaker 3: have a chat Gypt like model being used by.
Speaker 4: Employees Apple GPT.
Speaker 3: It is up at a new record high at one
Speaker 3: point where one hundred and ninety five, up two thirds
Speaker 3: of a percentage point. Microsoft, interestingly having rallied hard yesterday
Speaker 3: after its own AI enterprise announcements, we were just talking
Speaker 3: about it with use of medi we're seeing it just
Speaker 3: giving about a little bit of that profit perhaps we
Speaker 3: saw it down a percentage point profit taking and indeed,
Speaker 3: while more competition to come, keep an eye on those
Speaker 3: particular names. But now, well, let's go back to a
Speaker 3: company that was once public and now isn't Bloomberg reporting
Speaker 3: to then after Ecil Musk's Twitter acquisition and indeed, the
Speaker 3: series of content policy changes that ensued, it's led to
Speaker 3: a dramatic spike in well, hateful, violent, and indeed inaccurate
Speaker 3: posts on the platform. We understand that's after the story's publication.
Speaker 3: We understand that Linda Yacarino, the new CEO, tweeted calling,
Speaker 3: look that researchers findings are incorrect, they're misleading, and indeed
Speaker 3: they're outdated.
Speaker 4: How do we get this original research?
Speaker 3: Let's go through it all with Bloomberg, Sarah Fryer, who's
Speaker 3: been editing this story, and Sarah. Ultimately we've got not one,
Speaker 3: not two, but sort of three different research houses pointing
Speaker 3: to an optic in hateful speech and inaccurate speech since
Speaker 3: Lilon Musk took the company private.
Speaker 9: Yes, even more than that sided in the story. This
Speaker 9: is really a broad survey of researchers from the Anti
Speaker 9: Defamation League, the Center of Recountering Digital Hate Media Matters,
Speaker 9: universities across the board looking at issues like anti LGBT content,
Speaker 9: racist slurs against African Americans, anti submitted content, q andon support,
Speaker 9: a number of different factors that if you look at
Speaker 9: the numbers, all have gone up either in the last
Speaker 9: year or in the first few months after takeover. The
Speaker 9: dates range because these are separate organizations, right, they're not
Speaker 9: working together on this.
Speaker 4: But when you look at.
Speaker 9: The full picture from these various organizations and what they've
Speaker 9: found looking at the data on Twitter of what people
Speaker 9: are sharing, what hashtags are trending, what people are seeing.
Speaker 9: It doesn't paint a healthy picture of the platform. In fact,
Speaker 9: it is a huge challenge for the company to try
Speaker 9: to convince brands to spend their money on promotions there,
Speaker 9: given this reputation that the company is built. And one
Speaker 9: reason we did this story is just because we've been
Speaker 9: hearing for the last few months from brands saying, you know,
Speaker 9: I don't really know if I want to start spending
Speaker 9: again on Twitter. It's become kind of assessed pool, it's
Speaker 9: become dangerous, and we were a little skeptical and we
Speaker 9: wanted to ask, you know, the third parties that have
Speaker 9: been looking at this, is that true? Have you seen
Speaker 9: this with the data? And this story is the result
Speaker 9: of looking at that data.
Speaker 3: Let's go back to the woman who's got to lead
Speaker 3: about this change convince marketers to come back with their money,
Speaker 3: and is one Linda Yakarina. And as we're just showing
Speaker 3: some of her tweets in response to this particular article,
Speaker 3: in particularly, she says that more than ninety nine percent
Speaker 3: of content uses and advertises what they see on Twitter
Speaker 3: is healthy. Can you just go back to what they
Speaker 3: are currently doing internally at Twitter to try and write size.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 9: I think that this is a very common line that
Speaker 9: you hear from social media platforms when they're called out
Speaker 9: for the harmful or violence or hateful content that is
Speaker 9: seen on their platforms.
Speaker 4: They say, well, look at the overall picture.
Speaker 9: Nine percent, you know, very high percentage of tweets are good. Well,
Speaker 9: that's sort of besides the general point that people are
Speaker 9: seeing these harmful posts and that the harmful posts are
Speaker 9: affecting the user experience. What I think Linda Yakarino said
Speaker 9: that she's trying to do, and indeed, what Elon Musk
Speaker 9: has said that he's trying to do is go for
Speaker 9: this policy of freedom of speech, not reach, not a
Speaker 9: new idea, but implemented a Twitter in such a way
Speaker 9: that the posts themselves may remain on the platform, but
Speaker 9: they're focused on reducing the reach of those posts and
Speaker 9: reducing how many people see them. And one big initiative
Speaker 9: from Yakarino's camp is to try to improve the adjacency
Speaker 9: of those bad tweets to advertiser content and give advertisers
Speaker 9: the option to say I want to show my companies
Speaker 9: tweets next to this kind of content. So you know,
Speaker 9: we've heard from them that that there's been some uptake
Speaker 9: on that offer, that some advertisers are signing up for it.
Speaker 9: From our sources internally, we've heard that, and I think
Speaker 9: that that shows some progress. But it's like, as our
Speaker 9: story demonstrates, it's going to be a very long road ahead.
Speaker 9: Twitter is still down fifty percent in advertising since must
Speaker 9: took over, and they're still cash flow negatives, so there's
Speaker 9: a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 4: We'll keep an eye.
Speaker 3: We understand that in the next few weeks they gonna
Speaker 3: be further expanding that ad placement controls to better support
Speaker 3: the growth of video consumption on the platform. Sarahphy, just
Speaker 3: great reporting across the board. Thank you for articulating all
Speaker 3: of the shifts going on when it comes to Twitter.
Speaker 3: And let's talk about the rest of the world of
Speaker 3: social media, because well, TikTok, we understand, isn't fully compliant
Speaker 3: withoutcoming European Union rules governing content. Surprisingly, according of course,
Speaker 3: to the results of a test conducted by the blocks
Speaker 3: governing vol pleased to talk us through it is Alex
Speaker 3: Barenka and boy, we were just hearing about the trials
Speaker 3: and tribulations if your Twitter, and of course, well, TikTok
Speaker 3: has long been on the focus of the EU in
Speaker 3: particular because it's got itself got to get ready for
Speaker 3: some new digital acts coming into place.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, and to be clear, this is a voluntary stress
Speaker 10: test that happened on Monday that TikTok invited in the
Speaker 10: regulator who will be overseeing these new rules that go
Speaker 10: into play on September first, and said, hey, take a
Speaker 10: look at what we're doing. Now, take a look at
Speaker 10: our content moderation policies or data privacy and sharing practices,
Speaker 10: how much illegal content we have or hopefully don't have.
Speaker 10: And the Commissioner came out after that and said, TikTok,
Speaker 10: you're still not doing enough. More needs to be done
Speaker 10: to get you up to snuff, but the rules aren't
Speaker 10: in play yet. I will say, Caroline, this is a
Speaker 10: really interesting change in tone. The Commissioner, Terry Breton, actually
Speaker 10: had some words about TikTok in January, saying that the illegal,
Speaker 10: dangerous content on the platform was unacceptable, and this week
Speaker 10: you see him actually applauding the social media platform for
Speaker 10: going through this voluntary test for spending on improving the platform.
Speaker 10: So it's not quite a full thumbs up for the
Speaker 10: rules that will come into play in September, but you know,
Speaker 10: it is an interesting kind of reveal of what to
Speaker 10: expect from TikTok that they're perhaps inching closer, though they
Speaker 10: still have some more room to run.
Speaker 3: That's such a good point given, you know, the tough
Speaker 3: space that TikTok has been in in the EU and
Speaker 3: the US of many considering not only some of the
Speaker 3: content and the impacts on mental health and the like,
Speaker 3: but also ultimately its ownership right, and I'm interested as
Speaker 3: to whether you think that's a pendulum that's swift shifting
Speaker 3: in any way.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, and you know, with the ownership TikTok is owned
Speaker 10: by Byteedowan's it's a Chinese company that has proliferated these
Speaker 10: concerns across as you mentioned, the EU and the US
Speaker 10: with questions of whether or not the Chinese government could
Speaker 10: unduly influence what you see on TikTok the algorithm because
Speaker 10: it has that Chinese ownership. Now, this DSA really has
Speaker 10: to do with content moderation, so absolutely kind of the
Speaker 10: EU regulator looking under the hood and looking for any
Speaker 10: concerns around anything that's untoward definitely plays into that. TikTok
Speaker 10: is also doing something very similar called Project Clover in
Speaker 10: the EEU that is doing here in the States under
Speaker 10: Project Texas. They're saying they're actually going to bring all
Speaker 10: of the data for users in the block to servers
Speaker 10: that exist in the EU to kind of cording off
Speaker 10: or wall off any potential sensitive information from their both
Speaker 10: their Chinese owner and any influence the Chinese government might
Speaker 10: have on byteedance. So certainly this is an added pressure
Speaker 10: on TikTok that a lot of the other tech firms
Speaker 10: that do have to comply with these new EU regulations
Speaker 10: are not necessarily having to deal with.
Speaker 3: Great analysis Mags, Alex Brink, thank you so much for
Speaker 3: bringing that story wolf across the world when it comes
Speaker 3: to social media. Meanwhile, coming up, we're going around the
Speaker 3: world in terms of tech and art. The auction house
Speaker 3: Christie's is kicking office Ardent Tech Summit right here in
Speaker 3: New York. We'll discuss with the head of its venture
Speaker 3: arm about all things art.
Speaker 4: Technology and investing. That's next.
Speaker 11: This is Blomberg Technology, Christie's Art and Tech Summit.
Speaker 3: It's back for its seventh edition now highlighting the latest
Speaker 3: impact of AI, fintech, Web three, blockchain on the art world,
Speaker 3: as well as that intersection of luxury, fashion and tech,
Speaker 3: and much more to be discussed. Christie's, in fact, was
Speaker 3: the first auction house if you're remember to register a
Speaker 3: sale on a blockchain platform. In wants to stay abreast
Speaker 3: of innovation in the art world, and one way of
Speaker 3: doing that is.
Speaker 4: Author It's vcarm Ristie's Ventures.
Speaker 3: So today the Adventure Spotlight is all about Christie's Venture
Speaker 3: Global head Devang Thako, who's joining us. And Devang first
Speaker 3: and foremost, what is Christie's Ventures.
Speaker 12: And thank you for having me. I think Christie's Ventures
Speaker 12: is our effort at trying to put our investments where
Speaker 12: our intent is. We've been in the art world for
Speaker 12: two hundred and fifty seven years. We've seen technology pass
Speaker 12: through these doors and doors across our forty six different
Speaker 12: offices for centuries, and we've had founders, creators, influencers tell
Speaker 12: us about everything they were building. That's deal flow, that's
Speaker 12: what venture capital is all about. And especially after the
Speaker 12: deeper auction in twenty twenty one, we had everyone who
Speaker 12: was building anything sending us pitch decks sending us information
Speaker 12: about how cool their product was versus all the other products,
Speaker 12: and I just thought that was the right moment for
Speaker 12: the first time in our history, where Christie's was a
Speaker 12: detectorganize as someone who is adopting technology at its very
Speaker 12: early stage, and so the venture capital arm allows us
Speaker 12: to capitalize on some of those deals and really invest
Speaker 12: in companies that come across our desk.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm pretty sure post people Web three became a
Speaker 3: really focal point, but we were just looking at some
Speaker 3: of your portfolio companies there, and there's also holographic technology.
Speaker 3: What are the other intersections that you feel really benefit Christie's.
Speaker 12: Yeah, we have four pillars that we look at from
Speaker 12: Christy's Venture's advantage point one, As you mentioned, in holograms,
Speaker 12: we look at hardware that helps people consume art better
Speaker 12: wherever they are in the globe. So holograms is the
Speaker 12: way we've replicated masterpiece objects like Degas and Jacques Medes
Speaker 12: in photo realistic fashions. In holograms, we looked at Web three.
Speaker 12: Of course, that's around ten to fifteen percent of our portfolio,
Speaker 12: mostly focused on fundamental picks and shovels sort of investment.
Speaker 12: So you've looked at a company that we work with
Speaker 12: called Manifold Technologies that helped us Christie's build our own
Speaker 12: on chain auction platform that we use today. We're looking
Speaker 12: at AI and data because again with three hundred years
Speaker 12: of being in business, we have the tremendous amounts of
Speaker 12: data and knowledge that we can encapsulate. And finally, fintech
Speaker 12: people think by now pay later is a huge innovation,
Speaker 12: which it is. We've been doing that since the dawn
Speaker 12: of Christies, like people do buy paintings and pay over time.
Speaker 12: So from the consumer point of view, we look at
Speaker 12: these four pillars and others as technology evolves around us.
Speaker 3: Well, so interesting we go back to those heady days
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty one when people's an FT reached sixty
Speaker 3: nine million and we all just set up and sort
Speaker 3: of gasped, And now the world is very different.
Speaker 4: NFT prices have plummeted.
Speaker 3: You are all about creating value, continuing value. And when
Speaker 3: you see companies, interestingly, what Gucci's going to be at
Speaker 3: your event later today the summit, how are brands thinking
Speaker 3: about web three and NFTs is something that isn't losing
Speaker 3: value but can actually build loyalty.
Speaker 12: No, I think that's a great question. I think when
Speaker 12: people came about, I think the interest levels just styrocketed
Speaker 12: over the last six seven nine months, they've sort of stabilized.
Speaker 12: Whether you look at the overall crypto ecosystem, things have
Speaker 12: stabilized at a level. Whether this is the new level
Speaker 12: or not, I'm not the expert at it, But in
Speaker 12: terms of brands, I think brands have found this as
Speaker 12: a new way to engage communities, whether it's the communities
Speaker 12: that follow artists, whether it's the communities that follow a
Speaker 12: certain tech trend. And I think brands have to keep
Speaker 12: themselves innovative as they have sort of evolved themselves, they
Speaker 12: can't maintain status quos. I think this technology specifically allows
Speaker 12: them to evolve with the trends in the market, and
Speaker 12: that's how I see brands using them. And I think
Speaker 12: this Gucci auction is an example where they're working directly
Speaker 12: with artists to curate a very fashion forward sale called
Speaker 12: future Frequencies. But artists are exploring generative art and generative
Speaker 12: AI and as it would apply to fashion, so I
Speaker 12: think the intersection is quite interesting there.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that the generative AI element, because well,
Speaker 3: it must is also as much as there's interest, there
Speaker 3: must be quite a bit of fear.
Speaker 4: We think of people worrying about copyright.
Speaker 3: We think about artists and authors and those that are
Speaker 3: creating ultimately worried about or the democratization of their workspace.
Speaker 4: How is this something that Christie is thinking.
Speaker 12: No, I think that's also a great question. I think
Speaker 12: the way I see it and the way where Christie
Speaker 12: see it, as any new technologies, it's going to come
Speaker 12: with its sort of learning cycle. Now it's going to
Speaker 12: come with its own sort of interest cycle, but then
Speaker 12: it's learning cycle. So we see as our role being
Speaker 12: the sort of neutral party that brings together academics, regulators, artists, technologists,
Speaker 12: business leaders at this conference. Again, I'll do a plug
Speaker 12: for the conference. The reason we do this is because
Speaker 12: no one alone is going to solve any of these challenges,
Speaker 12: whether it's hallucination of AI or whether it's the ethics
Speaker 12: around using other people's sort of content. I think with AI,
Speaker 12: specifically to your question, I see it as augmenting intelligence
Speaker 12: rather than artificially replacing intelligence. I think that's where I
Speaker 12: think improving the productivity of creator as well as other
Speaker 12: human beings is where I SEEI fitting in and that's
Speaker 12: sort of the theme of the two days, like how
Speaker 12: does some of these technology applied artists lives.
Speaker 3: Less than a minute left the bank? The companies you
Speaker 3: invest in, why are they being built? How international are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 12: I know we have companies from Vancouver, Canada to Australia,
Speaker 12: so we're covering the entire spectral of the globe.
Speaker 3: Great to have some time with you. I'll catch up
Speaker 3: with you later. Devang Thacker, of course, Christie's venture global head.
Speaker 3: Talking about that key art and tech summit right here
Speaker 3: in New York.
Speaker 8: I'm really excited about bringing something new and fresh to
Speaker 8: the product on a global scale and something that would
Speaker 8: allow me to take all my growth technoledge to growth
Speaker 8: tech experience excuse me and knowledge and then have meaningful
Speaker 8: outcomes for global health.
Speaker 3: CEO of WW earlier in the show, just discussing the
Speaker 3: steps they're taking to modernize weight Watchers the business.
Speaker 4: So I stay in the world.
Speaker 3: Of health technology have been preventative health company vow leverage
Speaker 3: is artificial intelligence to obtain insights derived from unique micro
Speaker 3: file as well as human gene expressions. Now this is
Speaker 3: translated into health schools personalized health recommendations for customers.
Speaker 4: We understand now, I pleased.
Speaker 3: To say, Navien Jane, here's Voom founder, once an early
Speaker 3: employee of Microsoft, well has founded several companies.
Speaker 4: You can come to us with VM today.
Speaker 3: And what's so interesting is how microbiole as well as
Speaker 3: human gene expressions can be identified in an at home test.
Speaker 4: So what is it that you're offering and why is
Speaker 4: it differents?
Speaker 13: First all, Caroline, you know that the care that you
Speaker 13: know our health has been always delivered at the hospital.
Speaker 13: But I think the future of healthcare is going to
Speaker 13: be delivered at home. In the medicines of the futures
Speaker 13: are going to come from a farm, not a pharmacy.
Speaker 13: So what we do at WYOM is give you at
Speaker 13: home tests. With a simple split off your saliva, fingerprick blood,
Speaker 13: and a touch of your stool, you are able to
Speaker 13: analyze everything that's happening in your gut, in your mouth,
Speaker 13: and all over your body, all the inflammation market. We
Speaker 13: can tell you your biological age, your cognitive health, your
Speaker 13: heart healths, your gut health, your oral health, and then
Speaker 13: we can tell you exactly what foods you should eat
Speaker 13: and why, what food you should avoid and why? And
Speaker 13: what turns out that there is no such thing as
Speaker 13: universal healthy food. So many of us eat spinach and kale.
Speaker 13: We hate it, but we eat it because it's good
Speaker 13: for us. Well, it turns out half of us actually
Speaker 13: are harmed by that. So if you have you cannot
Speaker 13: digest oxolate, you should be eating spinach.
Speaker 4: And if you cannot.
Speaker 13: Digest you have high sulfide production, then you should be
Speaker 13: eating broccoli or avocado if you have high uric acid production.
Speaker 13: So literally every person has a unique microbiome thirty nine
Speaker 13: trillion living in our gut, one hundred trillion all over
Speaker 13: our body, inside our mouth, inside our nose. These microbes
Speaker 13: work with us as human hosts, and we outsource many
Speaker 13: of the functions to them. So when we eat food,
Speaker 13: they digest the food for us, and in turn they
Speaker 13: release the nutrients. So what we do is, after you
Speaker 13: do at home tests, we tell you what's happening in
Speaker 13: the body. We tell you what foods are good for you,
Speaker 13: and these are not forever. Every six months when you
Speaker 13: do a retest, the foods that were bad again yes.
Speaker 13: And by the way, it's like you know, people say,
Speaker 13: how long do I have to do that. It's like asking,
Speaker 13: well I worked out about a year ago, do I
Speaker 13: have to work out again?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 4: How much we know? How much in subscription?
Speaker 5: Is?
Speaker 4: How much is one of your tests?
Speaker 3: And if you're doing it repeatedly over six months.
Speaker 13: So first of all, you know our cost just about
Speaker 13: you know, five years ago was one thousand dollars now
Speaker 13: just come down to ninety nine dollars and we literally sell.
Speaker 4: Them at cost.
Speaker 13: So our tests, three of them, saliva, blood and stood
Speaker 13: all combined are for two hundred and ninety nine dollars.
Speaker 3: Right, So if you're selling a cost, whereas the money
Speaker 3: for you, I know that you're using altificial intelligence for example,
Speaker 3: to drive the platform is about economies of scale.
Speaker 13: Things is first of all is economies of his skill
Speaker 13: and secondly that amount of information. So we have now
Speaker 13: collected over seven hundred and fifty trillion data points from
Speaker 13: six hundred thousand plus samples. That allows us now to
Speaker 13: diagnose early stage cancer. So for example, with a spit
Speaker 13: of a tube, just we can diagnose a stage one
Speaker 13: cancer in your mouth or throat.
Speaker 4: And we received.
Speaker 13: FDA Breakthrough Device designation for accelerated approval that for stage
Speaker 13: one cancer ninety percent sensitivity, ninety five percent specificity.
Speaker 4: Never heard of it like that of God thirty seconds.
Speaker 3: But I think a prenativer scans, it's all about how
Speaker 3: you deal with that from a mental perspective.
Speaker 13: How do you so first of all, is that not
Speaker 13: only you get to know what's happening, but you're able
Speaker 13: to deal with it because we are measuring your gene expression,
Speaker 13: so we can tell you the foods and by the way,
Speaker 13: we custom make the supplements for each individual, so we
Speaker 13: tell you what nutrients you need, and we literally make
Speaker 13: the powder and put them in a capsule and send
Speaker 13: it to you. So everything is made for you, made
Speaker 13: for it, for your human biology and everything you do.
Speaker 13: We have shown the efficacy that your depression, anxiety, you know,
Speaker 13: acony and all those things actually.
Speaker 2: Do get better.
Speaker 3: So individualized leaving Jane all the energy. If I am founder,
Speaker 3: we thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4: That does it. From this edition of boom Back Technology