Can an advanced piece of tech convince people they’re better off returning to a time when smartphones didn’t run their lives?

That’s what startup Humane is attempting with its Ai Pin, a futuristic yet in some ways prehistoric “phone” that retails for $699 and requires a monthly $24 subscription. With its highly anticipated release of the pin last Thursday, Humane joins a crowd of companies aiming to replace the smartphone with devices that ditch screens and rely on providing voice prompts to ultra-intelligent chatbots.

How does it work?

Ai Pin has a built-in camera and microphone that ingest information but lacks a traditional screen and keypad. Think of it as a glorified search engine that clips to your shirt and makes everyone in a five-foot radius think you’re recording them.

Unlike smartphones, Ai Pin doesn’t make you download any apps—the device is run by the AI-powered operating system Cosmos, which is reportedly powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 and essentially works by connecting various AIs and other tools as you need them, according to The Verge.

What if you want to look at things? While Ai Pin lacks a screen for scrolling, it will use lasers to project information onto your hand.

Not everyone is excited by or even understands the point of Ai Pin. Ars Technica described it as “if Google Glass had a baby with a pager from the 1990s,” and The Verge wrote, “It’s not yet entirely clear what you’re supposed to use it for.” A more sympathetic reviewer for the NYT called it “equal parts magical and awkward.”

The race to make AI-first hardware is on. If a rectangular block with a screen unlocked the power of the mobile internet, what kind of device could do the same for generative AI? Companies are experimenting with several types of wearables: Humane is going with a pin, Rewind AI created a pendant that records conversations, and Meta is pursuing Ray-Ban smart glasses.

And Fedora AI…well, maybe one day.—DL

Mm-hmm, sure. So what’s the catch?

It may sound too good to be true. But thousands of investors are already smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks.

These results aren’t cherry-picking. This is the whole bushel. Masterworks has built a track record of 16 exits, realizing +17.6%, +21.5%, and +35.0% net returns even while financial markets plummeted.

But art? Really? Okay, skeptics, here are the numbers. Contemporary art prices:

• outpaced the S&P 500 by 131% over the last 26 years
• have the lowest correlation to equities of any asset class

Got your attention yet? Morning Brew readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive link.

Fighting raged around Gaza’s main hospital. The area around Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, was the center of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas and is no longer functioning as a hospital, according to the WHO. The fighting near the hospital has drawn outcry from international health groups, and the US also said it does not want to see “firefights” at medical facilities. Israel accuses Hamas of using the tunnels below Shifa as a command center, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military intends to evacuate all the patients from the hospital. Senior US and Israeli officials indicated that talks to free some hostages taken by Hamas are developing.

Iceland braces for volcanic eruption. Iceland said there was a “considerable” risk of a volcanic eruption in the southwest part of the island in the coming days following a series of earthquakes and the increased spread of magma underground. A town of 3,000 people was told to evacuate ahead of the expected eruption, but flights at the international airport, also in the vicinity, were operating as usual. The Reykjanes Peninsula—the area in question—had not experienced volcanic activity for 800 years before an eruption in 2021.

Marvel hits rock bottom. The studio might be in need of a factory reset because The Marvels just made box-office history in all the wrong ways. The 33rd installment in the franchise brought in a measly $47 million domestically this weekend, the worst opening ever for an MCU movie. And it made over $100 million less than the debut of its predecessor, 2019’s Captain Marvel, the first time a sequel has whiffed by that much in history. While this flop will cause a lot of soul-searching at Marvel, the release wasn’t helped by the fact that the actors weren’t allowed to promote the film due to their strike, which is now over.

The American mind can’t comprehend tipping in 2023.

A new study from the Pew Research Center discovered that 72% of people said the long-standing practice of tipping is now expected in more places than five years ago, which appears to be sowing confusion among Americans.

“Even as Americans say they’re being asked to tip more often, relatively few have a great deal of confidence about when and how to do so,” the authors wrote.

• About a third say it’s extremely or very easy to know whether or how much to tip for different types of services.
• 21% say tipping is more of a choice, while 29% say it’s more of an obligation.

So, where are Americans tipping? The situations when people add a gratuity offer insight into the new tipping landscape.

• Dining at sit-down restaurants (92%). Of note: A majority said they would tip 15% or less for an average sit-down meal.
• Getting a haircut (78%)
• Having food delivered (76%)
• Using a taxi or rideshare service (61%)
• Buying coffee (25%)
• Eating at fast-casual restaurants (12%)

It all comes back to “tipflation.” The influx of automatic prompts at businesses like coffee shops gives consumers more chances to tip, creating a sense of exhaustion. Even some self-service kiosks are asking you to tip these days.—DL

Biden–Xi meeting in SF: President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face for the first time in a year when Xi travels to San Francisco this week. Both leaders have said they want to repair the deteriorating relationship between their countries, the world’s two largest economies. While he’s in SF, Xi will also be the guest of honor at a dinner with the CEOs of top American companies.

Government shutdown looms: Tell us if you’ve heard this one before—the government is set to shut down at midnight on Friday, and lawmakers are scrambling to pass a spending bill to keep the government open. On Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a complex plan to fund the federal government; a vote could come as soon as tomorrow.

Retailers in the spotlight: Retailers including Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and Macy’s take the earnings stage this week to give an update on the state of American consumers. On Tuesday, the consumer price index report will give us the latest inflation numbers.

Everything else…

• Formula 1 hits the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday for its first Grand Prix in four decades. Ticket prices are plunging, btw.
• The first part of the final season of The Crown will premiere on Netflix on Thursday. These episodes will cover Princess Diana’s death in an auto accident in 1997.
• It’s National Unfriend Day on Friday. Go ahead and smash that unfollow button on that annoying social connection without any guilt (please don’t let it be us).

Stat: Despite the Supreme Court striking down President Joe Biden’s signature $400 billion student loan relief plan, his administration has still found ways to erase $127 billion in debt for student borrowers. The key has been removing red tape around existing initiatives such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. The Biden administration has now forgiven ~$93 billion through PSLF and IDR plans—up from a cumulative total of less than half a billion before Biden took office, according to Bloomberg.

Quote: “if taylor swift and travis kelce have a baby, it will usher in a new american baby boom as millions of 25-35yo women follow suit. not far behind will be manufacturing, a housing boom, a tremendous lifestyle shift for millions of newly minted families. a new golden era for america.”

Responding to a video of Taylor Swift kissing Travis Kelce after her show in Argentina, @uncledoomer on X laid out one of the most prescient macroeconomic forecasts we’ve seen in a while.

Read: Why Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel turned against Trump. (Washington Post)

Tuber fever: Nine potato soup recipes to keep you warm and starchy.

Storytime: Every story in the world has one of these six basic plots.

List: The 50 best RPGs of all time.

Watch: Time-travel 4.5 billion years in 1 hour in this history of the Earth.

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