While the normies were resting, we mainlined tech discourse all weekend to bring you the latest trends, rumors, fights, and innovations from the most manic corners of the internet. This week: AI insurance startup Corgi launches a one-week ‘artist residency,’ The Stud ends up in Meta’s crosshairs, and Elon dreams of Mars amid embarrassment here on Earth.
This is Manic Monday.
You can’t spell artificially intelligent insurance without ‘art’
Do you got that dog in you? Is that dog an artist? Corgi, the AI insurance company that runs the slightly dingy but always-packed Corgi Cafe downtown, is opening a second local 24-hour cafe in Dogpatch and commissioning local artists to decorate the interior. Because every tech company is apparently a design studio/fashion house/tastemaker now, they’re calling the one-week gig an “artist residency.” Artists are encouraged to work in whatever medium they wish — murals, video, light installations — as long as they incorporate the brand aesthetic, which according to the application webpage, is “orange and/or corgi.” Pay is up to $1,000 (note the “up to”), plus another $1,000 for materials. With opening day slated for August 2, Corgi’s in-house artist Sam Taylor has already started work on the exterior, painting a mural that features her signature noodle-like corgis. Some people online have responded with bewilderment — why is an AI insurance startup doing all this? — while others are leaning into Corgi’s new identity as a mythical site of nonsense and chaos. — Cydney Hayes
Nvidia’s circle game
Amid pumping out the world’s fastest graphics chips and making cutting-edge interfaces for data processing, Nvidia somehow found time to finagle a few global mega-deals to expand its AI development, including financing the largest-ever proposed data center to the tune of $250 billion in guarantees. As sentient bullhorn Jim Cramer said on X: “First National Bank of Nvidia is starting to really cause people to freak out…”
The $250 billion is slated for an OpenAI data center, and it’s an unusual promise by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang and Co. AI critic Ed Zitron wondered where the money would come from and whether OpenAI can even afford to operate the proposed data center. Who cares about that, anyway? “No worries no thoughts ai bubble in the bag,” Zitron joked.
That, plus Nvidia’s planned $500 billion-plus deal with South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc., is making investors go bearish (Nvidia’s stock is down 5 percent today) while fears of a “circular financing” crisis arise. In layman’s terms, Nvidia is spending its own money to boost the revenue of companies that need Nvidia chips, which could artificially inflate the market and ultimately collapse it. Some wonder if actual banks are going to steer clear of other circular financing plays, even if Nvidia can afford to plow ahead. “Now, whether it’s a good idea is an entirely different story,” Jack Farley of the Monetary Matters podcast quipped. — Eddie Kim
Tate gets shanked by Die Menswear Guy
After years of being zinger-mogged on Twitter, alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate appears to have had just about enough teasing from men’s fashion writer Derek Guy. “ok reasonable,” said Guy this morning after Tate blocked him. Guy took the opportunity to share a few critical hits (including repeated examples of Tate dressing like Kamala Harris) in his battle against the manosphere influencer, who is currently awaiting trial in Miami on charges of rape and sex trafficking. This one exchange from yesterday was probably Tate’s last straw: In response to Tate complaining about the dirty water in prison, Guy called him an “in cell,” and when someone suggested Guy still had less online clout than Tate, Guy responded, “don’t know, but I can walk out of my room.” 10/10. —C.H.
The Stud ends up in Meta’s crosshairs
The Stud’s Instagram page was suspended this weekend after owners say it was accused by bad-faith actors of “human trafficking” because of a months-old party post. That the suspension happened ahead of The Stud’s longstanding party for the Dore Alley street fair, a key weekend for the bar, was especially brutal, but not a surprise. Relying on a service like Instagram for “marketing, ticketing, and communications with clients and performers,” is particularly challenging for a largely queer and trans-friendly business, as Stud co-owner and general manager Rachel Ryan told Mission Local. Meta’s moderation strategy is unknowable, and has apparently decided to target pages for LGBTQ events, businesses, activist groups, and nonprofits. The Stud’s account was recovered only after hundreds of online critics, among them Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Stud co-owner/San Francisco politico Honey Mahogany, publicly called the company out. — Joshua Bote
Crashing out on Mars
This column is not intended to be a space for the regular mockery of Elon Musk, but boy does he make it easy. He blew his interview with The Economist, getting so flustered by editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes that he started short-circuiting into insults about how everyone hates journalists.
Naturally, Elon retreated to his man-cave, better known as X, to proclaim that he doesn’t “pay the protection money to the media” (where’s our cut?) and resume daydreaming of a life beyond the earthly hellhole where plebians get to ask questions of billionaires. He will “never forget about Mars,” or apparently his love of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, which is a critique of individuals accumulating wealth and capital in order to exert control on the masses. Irony aside, at least when Elon colonizes Mars, he won’t bring any pandemics with him because flying to the red planet takes six months, and that’s basically a quarantine! (No, really, he believes that.) — E.K.
The week ahead: Famously nonsensical astrology app Co-Star stays exactly the same after its acquisition by AI startup Midjourney, as users deduce that it was, perhaps, AI slop the whole time.
