The financial promise of weight-loss drugs is giving another company a boost: This time it's Hims & Hers.
Zoom in: The telehealth company's stock soared over 27% Monday after it said it would begin selling compounded versions of the GLP-1 injections that are soaring in popularity.
OpenAI is pulling back its flirty and "very friendly" voice amid backlash that the tech company is catering to male fantasies with its latest ChatGPT update.
Why it matters: Female voices and personalities have long been used as the default for virtual assistants, which experts say reinforces gender stereotypes and fuels misogyny.
The intrigue: OpenAI's volte-face comes a week after CEO Sam Altman tweeted just one word — "her," the name of the 2013 Spike Jonze film about a man who falls in love with an AI.
In the movie, the AI's voice was played by Scarlett Johansson.
💭 Our thought bubble, via Axios' Scott Rosenberg: OpenAI hasn't indicated it has any qualms or concerns about the over-friendliness of "Sky," the voice in its demo. But the company wants everyone to understand that "Sky" has no relationship whatsoever to Johansson.
Why it matters: The outlook is no doubt better than four years ago, when most entered college alongside a pandemic-wrecked economy. Still, grads are grappling with high-stakes questions similar to those facing economists — including when price hikes will slow and how much the labor market might need to soften for that to happen.
OK, you might be thinking, those things sound fine, but why do these projects need to pay participants in these networks in magic space money?
Why not just actually pay them?
The answer: Because tokens allow participants in the network to share ownership and risk.
Example: Let's imagine I wanted to start a company to measure water levels and flows in bodies of water (rivers, lakes) all over the world. So I create specs for devices and software to do it well.
I manufacture some but I also open-source it all so that other people could build similar devices to spec, right?
One option: I could try to raise money, but it would be impossible to know how much would be needed and investors might not bite.
San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly told Axios on Friday that it's not clear whether inflation is definitively receding and there is no "urgency" to adjust interest rates.
Why it matters: Inflation cooled for the first time in 2024 last month, relieving economists that progress might not have stalled out. But one month of data has not convinced Fed officials that price pressures are evaporating in a way that puts near-term interest rates back on the table.
Michael Sonnenshein has stepped down as chief of Grayscale Investments, the issuer behind the largest spot bitcoin fund best known by its ticker, GBTC.
Why it matters: Prior to bitcoin ETF approvals in January, The Grasycale Bitcoin trust had been the only game in town since 2013 — but it has started buckling under new competitive pressure since its conversion, hemorrhaging assets and suffering several consecutive weeks of outflows.
The Biden administration released a memo to its allies outlining its actions to combat rising costs — and blaming Republicans for blocking its efforts.
Why it matters: It's an attempt to tell Americans that the White House is focused on bringing prices down at a time when voters are unhappy with the economy, and hold the president responsible for inflation.
Large U.S. cities are grappling with too many underpopulated schools, forcing school districts to make difficult decisions on closures.
Why it matters: Most states allocate school funding based on student populations. Losing students can result in cuts for classes, extracurriculars or sports as a result of lower demand.
