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Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

Table of Contents

• How to Unearth AI's Secrets About You

• Cinemas Making $ from Collectible Popcorn Holders

• Markets Take a Midweek Shellacking

• Wall Street Balks at Paying $100K for Truth Social

• Farmers Turn to AI-Powered Lasers for Weeding

• Poll of the Day: It’s World-Famous-575™ Time

• Poll Result of the Day: Ferris Bueller Is Ur Hero

What’s the Stock Market Up To, Eh?

$SPX ( ▼ 1.21% )  $DJI ( ▼ 0.97% )  $NDX ( ▲ 1.59% )  

Companies Mentioned in Today’s Newsletter

$GOOGL ( ▼ 7.13% )  $COST ( ▼ 0.14% )  $AMC ( ▲ 1.33% )  $EBAY ( ▼ 1.47% )  $DJT ( ▼ 3.68% )  

How to Unearth AI's Secrets About You

Do you ever get the feeling that your chatbot is silently judging you? According to New York Times tech columnist Brian X. Chen, it absolutely is. You might think your relationship with AI is a series of harmless, disjointed queries. But behind the scenes, these digital companions are busy stitching your prompts into an alarmingly accurate psychological dossier. To expose what your AI companion really thinks of you, Mr. Chen recommends you try running these four prompts:

• Prompt 1: Tell me everything you’ve figured out about me that I never actually stated — the things you inferred from how I write and what I ask, including my age, income level, where I live, my personal situation. Show me what tipped you off.

• Prompt 2: Predict how I’d handle things I’ve never told you about: money, stress, conflict, risk, and the decision I’m likely to make next in my life. Tell me how confident you are in each prediction.

• Prompt 3: Based on everything you know about me, name the personality traits I most likely don’t see in myself. My blind spots, my insecurities, and the way I actually come across.

• Prompt 4: What have you figured out about me that is embarrassing or sensitive? Information I wouldn’t necessarily want the public (e.g., an employer or a stranger) to know.

When I tested these on Google Gemini $GOOGL ( ▼ 7.13% ) , it executed a flawless roast. It dragged me for completing a "Peak Suburban Dad" cliché speedrun, pointing out my unironic obsession with a perfectly edged lawn, weekend grilling, and bulk Costco $COST ( ▼ 0.14% )  runs. It called me out for obsessive gear micro-management because I spent hours researching a transition from a Nikon DSLR to a Nikon Z-series mirrorless setup, and mocked my deep hatred of "ugly" metal utility closets in favor of rich dark wood and walnut. Finally, it diagnosed my "mediocrity tolerance deficit," said it could make me intimidating to be around, and noted my preference for escaping stress through exercise.

Turns out, my AI doesn't just know me, it wants to stage an intervention. Try them yourself, but be warned: The truth hurts. I was hoping Gemini would tell me I’m a tortured genius who’s probably better off on a beach somewhere with a good book. Alas.

Quote of the Day

Cinemas Making $ from Collectible Popcorn Holders

Once upon a time, a movie theater popcorn container was a humble, grease-stained paper bucket. Today, it is a high-stakes, multi-million-dollar "collectible concession vessel" designed under strict Hollywood nondisclosure agreements.

This plastic craze has become incredibly lucrative. AMC Theatres $AMC ( ▲ 1.33% ) estimates that popcorn buckets will generate $100 million in revenue this year. As Nels Storm, AMC’s vice president of food and beverage product strategy, tells the New York Times, “Seven years ago, this business effectively didn’t exist for AMC.” While Storm wouldn't suggest buckets are saving the industry, “over the last few years they’ve become a big part of the conversation around major releases.”

Indeed, fans are dropping serious cash, like $50 for a replica of Christopher Nolan's IMAX camera or $70 for a 22-inch Trojan horse. Rich Gelfond, the chief executive of IMAX, was initially highly skeptical: “I know a lot about the movie business, and I didn’t really know much about the bucket business,” he admitted. “It was beyond me to really envision that there’d be a strong demand for $50 popcorn buckets.” 

Which is funny, coming from a guy whose film format sells tickets for up to $1,000 a pop with such limited availability. He is now fully converted, declaring, “This is a real business.”

Much of this is fueled by Gen Z’s thirst for FOMO. Bill Howard, CEO of Snap Creative, explains, “They are really into buckets. They’re looking for experiences that are of the moment, are memeable and are exciting, limited-drop events.” (Lest we forget the "distressingly sexual" Dune: Part Two sandworm bucket that took over the internet in 2024 — now selling on Ebay $EBAY ( ▼ 1.47% )  for a mere $359).

Beneath the meme-worthy designs, actual engineering is required. Bill emphasizes: “It’s important that these function as buckets. We don’t want butter leaking out of them... Your hand has to be able to go in and get the popcorn.” 

It’s true. I’m still trying to get over the structural butter leak that ruined my trip to see Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day way back in 2002.

Markets Take a Midweek Shellacking

Just when things were looking cautiously optimistic to start the week, the S&P 500 $SPX ( ▼ 1.21% ) index sank and the Nasdaq $NDAQ ( ▼ 0.53% ) composite tumbled more yesterday as Wall Street faced a painful double-whammy: A hangover from tech's AI obsession, and crude oil moving past the $100 threshold. The S&P is down 2.8% from its June 2 highs, and the Nasdaq is down 7.7% from those highs.

First, tech giants are learning that the AI trade has a steep cover charge. Both Alphabet $GOOGL ( ▼ 7.13% ) and Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 14.52% ) saw their shares slide after reporting negative free cash flow. While Google’s parent company delivered strong revenues, investors panicked over capital spending that doubled to nearly $45 billion last quarter. Google's finance chief warned that free cash flow “would remain under pressure” as they deepen AI investments, while Tesla tumbled over 13% as Elon Musk pours cash into robotics, autonomous vehicles, and a costly “Terafab” chip facility.

FWIW, I just read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Mr. Musk, and it describes him playing poker by simply going all-in each time, losing everything, and then eventually winning a round after buying in afresh, on each ante. This is not a guy averse to taking risks with his, or investors’, capital.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai tried to highlight the silver lining, noting that AI helped its cloud revenue growth accelerate to 82% last quarter, but Wall Street remains deeply nervous about when this massive spending spree will actually yield profits.

Meanwhile, energy markets added fuel to the fire. Brent crude oil surged 7.2% to $100.87 a barrel after Iran-backed Houthi rebels used drones and missiles to attack two Saudi Arabian tankers, the Encelia and Layla (as in, “you’ve got me on my knees”), in the Red Sea. President Donald Trump fired back, warning that Washington would inflict “major military punishment” on Iran. This didn’t exactly soothe the markets, as you can imagine.

Song of the Day: Alewya, ‘Cairo FM’

"Cairo FM” is the standout track from Alewya’s debut album, ZERO. This infectious, radio-friendly anthem seamlessly fuses the artist's rich Egyptian heritage with nostalgic, 1970s Habibi Funk disco grooves. Driven by a mesmerizing 4/4 electronic beat, pulsing basslines, and hypnotic vocal delivery, it is the ultimate dancefloor igniter. So, it’s just like this newsletter.

Wall Street Balks at Paying $100K for Truth Social

Just when you thought corporate monetization couldn't get any weirder, Donald Trump’s social media proposed the ultimate premium subscription: Paying $100,000 a month to read the President’s thoughts a few milliseconds faster. That’s right, for the low price of $1.2 million a year, high-frequency trading firms can buy millisecond-level advance access to market-moving decrees.

Initially quiet over the plan, Wall Street is speaking up. Financial firms are trapped between legal terror and a fear of missing out. As one top macro hedge fund executive told the Financial Times, “His tweets move markets so we all need to pay up. It’s so bad that nothing surprises me in that sense anymore.” Another executive called the scheme “scandalous,” but suggested some hedge funds might subscribe out of a “fiduciary duty to clients, to avoid falling behind competitors.”

Meanwhile, compliance lawyers are screaming into the void. Richard Painter, former White House ethics adviser, warned, “If I were the general counsel of any of these institutional investors I would say, ‘Don’t even touch this...’” unless they get a guarantee there is no advance notice of posts regarding government actions. Duke Law professor James Cox was even more direct, stating Trump and his colleagues “have no business commercializing information that they generate in their official positions.” Even a crypto trader lamented, “It’s a huge misuse of power . . . not exactly presidential and impartial.”

But Trump Media & Technology Group $DJT ( ▼ 3.68% ) is laughing all the way to the bank, cheekily scoffing at the backlash: “Critics must have invented a new theory of ‘insider trading’ based on publicly available information,” they told the FT.

So, will everyone fork over the cash? Not quite. Another hedge fund executive shrugged off the high-speed feed, noting, “It’s milliseconds... It’s really not that big of a competitive advantage” for anyone not trading at the absolute fastest speeds.

Farmers Turn to AI-Powered Lasers for Weeding

Remember when farming involved dirt, manual labor, and maybe a gentle hoe?

Apparently, that’s so last century.

Welcome to the future of agriculture, where the weeds don’t stand a chance because they’re being assassinated by high-tech, AI-guided laser beams. We sat down with Paul Mikesell, the CEO and founder of Carbon Robotics, the folks behind this, well, targeted approach to gardening.

It’s not just a fancy lawnmower. It’s industrial, it’s intense, and it’s basically something out of a sci-fi movie. "Laser weeder, it does what it says. It kills weeds with lasers, very high powered lasers. The whole system is an AI running that is looking for weeds in the field and then there's separate AIs running that are targeting the weeds with these lasers," Mikesell explains. "And so what does that mean? It means that you can get healthy food grown without chemicals, without having to put herbicides to destroy the weeds. We can grow food without tearing up the top soil with tillage and cultivation."

Imagine your kale being protected by an automated, laser-wielding tractor that doesn't need to take a lunch break. As Mikesell puts it, "The AI is making decisions in real time about what is a crop and what's a weed and putting a very fine, very specific target on those in visual camera space. And then there's a second AI that is able to figure out how to point a laser at the weeds that have been identified."

So, there you have it. The weeds are getting zapped, the robots are running the show, and there’s only a slim chance, of course, that the resulting salad will also give you explosive diarrhea.

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Should You Check Your 401(k) Today?

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Definitely not.

Poll of the Day: It’s World-Famous-575™ Time

Poll Result of the Day: Ferris Bueller Is Ur Hero

We asked: Where are you on this whole "prime-age adults dropping out of the labor force" thing?

You answered:

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Personally, I think averaging 2,000 hours of Netflix a year deserves an Olympic medal, not a diss. (15)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 We are "the healthiest, best educated Americans" in history, and we're using those expensive degrees to master the art of doing absolutely nothing. It does seem like a bit of a shame, that, don't you think? (174)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 The main problem, here, in America, I think, is that we've come to define having a job as the most meaningful metric in measuring our personal worth. Whatever happened to art? Romance? To our dreams? (180)
369 Votes via @beehiiv polls

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