NeverNews: Dispatch from XOXO Fest

As you're reading this, Mike, Hans, Jason, and I (Georgia) are in Portland preparing for our liveshow at XOXO Fest on Friday! So hooray to the lucky ducks who are able to attend this historic and sure-to-be life-altering event — we'll be performing at Revolution Hall on the main stage at 8:30 PM in what is going to be not only our first live show but also a damn good show if I do say so myself. What delights await ye? You will have to find out (if you're an XOXO attendee, that is).

But! If you're tragically unable to attend XOXO Fest and are near tears with the realization that you won't know what incredible things we have in store for that event, never fear, for we have a treat for you — barring any seismic audio problems in the recording of said liveshow, we will be AIRING our performance as next week's episode of Never Post! Witness us dazzle and amaze a Portland audience FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME!!!!

But before then, we must newsletter. And so, let's begin:

In not exactly Internet news but news that feels close enough: enjoy the unsanctioned and highly controversial Brooklyn goldfish pond. Also, real life dupes of those creepy AI-generated videos. Speaking of artificial intelligence, Nvidia is in trouble for unethical training of its AI. And dear god, please stop asking ChatGPT to roast your Instagram. Bots-fueled influence campaigns run rampant across Twitter to virtually zero pushback from Elon Musk. Honey look: the two biggest drop ship giants are fighting! The "golden age of hackers" is over in Las Vegas — a tragedy for me, a person who just learned about this. And, finally, a reader of The Cut asks a question that is usually left to drinks with the girls: why won't my boyfriend post me on Instagram?

404 MEDIA: Ticketmaster has us in a chokehold

The situation with concert ticket purchasing/reselling has become so dire that I'm kind of amazed there hasn't been some massive reckoning of the entire system — until now, it seems. I've been especially interested in this whole mess since I started hearing about unbelievably high resale ticket prices for the likes of Beyonce and (especially) Taylor Swift concerts within the last year or so ($20,000?! FOR TICKETS??). As this piece explains, there has been a DOJ investigation of Ticketmaster's practice of trapping users with completely untransferable tickets, forcing them to use Ticketmaster's resale site instead of any competitors. And, as it turns out, that's a no-no.

SHOW NEWS: XOXO, more hashtags, MORE news memes incoming

As per the top of this newsletter, we'll be at XOXO Fest ALL WEEKEND! If you're at the fest, come say hi to us! But since we're traveling, you'll have to wait for our extended segments a bit longer than usual. But if you can EVEN BELIEVE IT, we'll be treating you to extended cuts of both of our segments from last week's episode — an extended version of Hans's conversation with Lia Haberman about the death of the hashtag, and an extended version of my conversation with Whitney Phillips about memeing the news. (Ina Garten voice) How fabulous is that?

NBC NEWS: Fake Taylor Swift loves Donald Trump

Donald Trump recently posted something especially strange on (gigantic sigh) Truth Social — an obviously AI-generated image of Taylor Swift fans wearing merch in support of his campaign for the presidency. I'm not especially surprised that we're seeing stuff like this — it's an election year in the midst of the frenetic explosion of AI being used in strange and all-encompassing ways. But what struck me about this specific example is how everyone basically knew it was AI from the jump, and simply didn't care. Even Trump's own supporters pointed out that this wasn't a real image, but just reaffirmed that Swifties should support him. It makes me wonder what exactly is the point of these images if they're instantly understood to be fake...but that's a question for another day.

VOX: Teaching a robot to love isn't so hard after all

Everyone, come quick: the movie Her is real and it's here! I guess it was just a matter of time before we had to have a serious conversation about falling in love with robots. But in all seriousness, this is an incredibly interesting and nuanced look at the way we create emotional relationships with voice-equipped AI, and how that impacts us. This article also does something I've never really encountered in this conversation: it likens our emotional bond-building to a kind of addiction, where we find ourselves drawn closer and closer to this simulacrum of an interpersonal relationship until it starts negatively affecting the rest of our lives. It also points to what I can only describe as the blind hedonism of AI development, as OpenAI enthusiastically rolls out these new models despite already seeing how it is impacting the people who use them in increasingly worrying ways.

That's all from me for this round of Never News. If you need me, I'll be wandering the mist-covered woods of the Pacific Northwest, looking for some Oregon-based version of the Cullen vampire clan in the hopes of them allowing me to join their ranks. Fingers crossed!

But before I go, here's a clip of me writing this week's newsletter: