My main newsletter, Complex Machinery, includes a section called "In Other News..." It's where I list one-liners about interesting articles that didn't fit into any segments.

You can think of this list as a version of In Other News, but with a wider remit than Complex Machinery's "risk, AI, and related topics."

Above the fold

1. A two-minute holiday ad by French supermarket Intermarché has been viewed more than 600 million times online. The interesting part? This movie-quality animation was created, over a period of months, by a team of humans at animation studio Illogic. No AI involved. (Le Monde 🇫🇷, Euronews)
2. This long-read on Crumbl Cookies has it all – business models, franchise operations, and company culture. Come for the cookie tales. Stay for what reads like a twisted allegory of a hot tech startup. (Bloomberg)
3. The Washington Post is using genAI to create customized podcasts for readers. It's going even worse than you'd expect. (Semafor)
4. The story of Jan Marsalek, former exec of Wirecard and suspected Russian intelligence asset, manages to get even weirder. (Financial Times)
5. We all lose things now and then. But have you ever lost a portable nuclear device? The CIA did. (New York Times)
6. A Discord moderator (allegedly, CISO of Anthropic) ignores community wishes and installs an AI chatbot. (404 Media)

The rest of the best

• Short-seller Andrew Left is using genAI to prepare for his upcoming fraud trial. How do I know? Because he accidentally sent some chat transcripts to Business Insider. (Business Insider)
• Thinking of getting someone an AI-backed toy this holiday season? Maybe … don't? They can be extremely NSFW. And not on purpose. (NBC News)
• Crazy things tech CEOs have said, 2025 edition. (Sherwood News)
• Instacart insists that a system which sounds very much like dynamic pricing is not, in fact, dynamic pricing. (TechCrunch, Consumer Reports)
• Interview with Bonnie Brennan, CEO of auction house Christie's, on getting people interested in auctions. (New York Times)
• Some browser extensions that claim to protect you are actually grabbing your data. (The Register)
• DoorDash gets into the discovery space with its new Zesty app. (TechCrunch)
• Music labels dig AI more than musicians do. (The Guardian)
• Phone geolocation data, sold on marketplaces, reveals information about members of France's law enforcement and intelligence services. (Le Monde 🇫🇷)
• News coverage focuses on glitzy AI models, but data labeling and other data prep makes for a solid business. (The Verge)
• Disney's AI strategy reveals a mix of human involvement and internal chatbots. (Business Insider)
• Starting in 2027, German citizens will be able to store ID and other official documents in digital wallets on their phones. (Der Spiegel 🇩🇪)
• Oracle is slowing down the AI stock market party. (Marketwatch, Bloomberg)
• Meta built a fancy new AI team a couple months ago. The incumbent AI team isn't too happy with that. (New York Times)
• Instagram uses AI to write your post titles for you, to lure in SEO bots. (404 Media)

Did I miss anything?

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