The Mail Cart: Wednesday, September 9th

👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is your spiritual guide and fake Hollywood therapist Warner. Connect with me here + follow our IG page for daily resources.

🎥 Is AI taking your job and gambling with your life? Plus is it cool to get fired?? More below.

📝 Congress is drafting a major production incentive bill to help keep film & TV in the US. Netflix is reporting their box office earnings for the first time ever. The AI music company Suno has been busy, and more.

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📹 AI is coming for your job and gambling with your life

AI is a hot topic. Obviously. One that has only gotten hotter in recent times (uhhh yesterday) with an Anthropic researcher quitting after saying AI is ‘gambling with our lives.’ When asked about how enthusiastic they are about AI, only 18% of Gen Z responded they were. The biggest fear for many, is that AI is going to make it much harder to get a job. It’s proven right to some degree.

One man in media has had his finger on the pulse of the convo more than perhaps anyone, launching a show called The Most Interesting Thing in AI, where he sits down with experts across the landscape to examine how AI is reshaping our world.

Nicholas Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic, a publisher founded in 1857, that has had a resurgence in recent years even becoming.. wait for it… PROFITABLE… after it crossed one million subscribers under his watch three years after losing $20 million in a single year and laying off 17% of its staff.

FUN/CRAZY FACTS WE WILL TALK ABOUT:

He got fired on his first day in the industry
Shortly after, he was kidnapped in Morocco by drug dealers
He has completed the New York City Marathon 12 times and ran his fastest marathon is 2:29 at the age of 44

Thompson joins me on AvA LIVE at 12:30pm PT alongside a 15-year veteran at CAA investing $250M into creator businesses and the CEO of the largest touring festival in the US.

Plus on the topic of getting fired, authors of All the Cool Girls Get Fired, who have served as Editors-In-Chief of InStyle, WSJ & Sotheby's join me to declare: it IS cool to get fired!

Have a question about AI? Music touring? The creator economy? Drop it live. I’d love to ask it.

AvA LIVE Lineup Booked In Partnership With:

⭐ Congress is in the early stages of drafting a 20% federal film incentive to keep productions from leaving the US

Bonuses can bring that total up to as high as 30% if the bill goes through as it is, and ‘would offer a base credit of 20% of all labor costs, both below-the-line and above-the-line.’ This includes a wide range of industries too, ranging from reality TV, animation, and more.

⭐ Netflix is inching closer to a massive 180°

They are set to report their box office earnings for the first time ever across their 6 upcoming theatrical releases, and seem to be tracking towards releasing more films in theaters. This would be an incredible development and further fuel to the resurgence of theaters post-COVID slump.

⭐ AI music company Suno made headlines for a couple of reasons this week

They launched their first label backed generative music engine entitled v6
Music made on Suno is now able to be distributed by TuneCore/Believe
Both of these have to be opted into by artists, but whether this deal will be a net positive for protecting artists work is yet to be seen

⭐ AMC Networks to pay out $120 million to 5 producers after a 9-year legal battle over unpaid profits

⭐ Russell Westbrook retired from the NBA and bought an equity stake in a new global basketball league called Project B just one month later

Project B will feature both men’s and women’s competitions alongside week-long festivals, and multiple WNBA stars have already been recruited, with several reportedly offered equity and salaries exceeding $1 million.⁠