😱 AI sees dead people

Plus: Chick-fil-A’s global domination, a digital museum, mushroom elixirs, a cute copycat, and more. [View Online]( [The Hustle] When dismissing a harassment case between neighbors, Canadian judge Dennis Galiatsatos ruled that flipping the middle finger is “a God-given, charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian.” In today’s email: - Supercore inflation: What it has to do with haircuts. - Chart: Chick-fil-A counts its chickens. - Dead heat: Should AI crawl obit photos? - Around the Web: A virtual museum, how to have fun, a neat game, and more. 🎧 On the go? [Listen to today’s podcast]( to hear about Chick-fil-A’s plans for global domination, what happened in banking on Monday, data showing how people are buying fewer gifts, and more. The big idea [inflation]( What is supercore inflation? “Supercore inflation” is a term used to describe the rising cost of goods and services, minus food, energy, and housing. 2023-03-14T00:00:00Z Juliet Bennett Ryla You know, that’s a great question and it’d be great if there were one concrete definition, but… there isn’t. So, we’ll just talk about how the Federal Reserve uses it. - The consumer price index (CPI) [measures]( the monthly change in US consumer goods and services prices. - [Core inflation]( excludes food and energy, as prices can be volatile (e.g., bird flu and [egg]( prices; the war in Ukraine and energy costs) - Supercore inflation also excludes housing data, which lags and has been more volatile since the pandemic, [per]( Business Insider. What the Fed looks at… … when it talks about supercore inflation is the price of services (e.g., getting a haircut, hiring a plumber). Service prices have [increased]( as consumers prioritize them over goods, and as labor shortages drive higher wages, which are passed on to the consumer. So, prepare for more hikes Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell [said]( that supercore inflation must be lowered to restore price stability, noting that “strong wage growth is good for workers but only if it is not eroded by inflation.” And while the Fed can’t control bird flu, it can bump interest rates to cool off business growth, consumer spend, and the cost of labor, per [The Wall Street Journal](. Thus — SVB debacle aside — experts [expect]( the Fed to continue hiking rates until it reaches its 2% inflation target. Currently, one estimate pegs supercore inflation at 4.6% YoY. BTW: There are critics of the Fed using supercore as a key metric, [pointing out]( that food, energy, and housing… we need that stuff. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=What+is+supercore+inflation%3F%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F03142023-Supercore-inflation%3Futm_campaign%3DTuesday%2BEmail%26utm_content%3D03142023-Supercore-inflation%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( TRENDING [eyeball wearing a hat] Cordyceps. Hot off its star turn in HBO’s hit “The Last of Us,” a “sparkling mushroom elixir” raked in a Series A haul. The energy drink’s maker, Odyssey Wellness, has raised $8.3m to date. SNIPPETS People love [swag from failed companies](. Case in point: Sellers have [flocked]( to eBay with SVB merch, including cups, hats, and cardboard boxes. Following SVB’s US implosion, HSBC UK [acquired]( Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1. The Bank of England confirmed depositors’ funds are safe. Brain dump: Telehealth startup Cerebral is [under fire]( for sharing 3.1m patients’ personal data with the likes of Google, Meta, and TikTok. The US Department of Health and Human Services is on the case. Pfizer plans to [acquire]( biotech company Seagen Inc., best known for antibody drugs that target tumors, for $43B — assuming antitrust regulators don’t halt the deal. Volkswagen will build a [battery plant]( in Ontario, Canada, as it expands in North America. It’s expected to start production in 2027. Meanwhile: Rivian is looking [to end]( an EV van exclusivity agreement with Amazon. Go Fish: Campbell Soup Co. [says]( the big cheese of its snack division, Goldfish, is on track to hit $1B in annual sales. A Reddit user’s viral in-depth [investigation]( into Samsung’s 100x “Space Zoom” camera feature concluded the tech is generating moon details almost entirely with AI. Aw, rats: Big Sky Balloons, maker of the giant $10k Scabby the Rat inflatables that accompany union protests, [reportedly]( sold to a new owner that plans to stop making the rats. Up your productivity: These [tips and templates]( will help you purge procrastination, and punch the metaphorical workplace clock with pride. FROM THE BLOG [laptop] Being a good leader can be challenging. But sometimes the best way to inspire others is to lead by example. [Here’s how]( to be the change you want to see in your team. CHART [breaded chicken sandwiches ordered by year]( Singdhi Sokpo Chick-fil-A gears up for global domination Get ready, Europe and Asia. 2023-03-14T00:00:00Z Jacob Cohen Despite the mediocre flying capabilities of its namesake, Chick-fil-A is ready for takeoff. The company reportedly has a [$1B plan]( under its wing to expand into Europe and Asia by 2026, per The Wall Street Journal. - In the US, Chick-fil-A’s sales have quadrupled in the past decade, and it’s now the third-biggest fast-food chain by sales after McDonald’s and Starbucks. - Despite being closed on Sundays, Chick-fil-A’s ~2.7k US locations averaged $6.3m each in 2021 revenue, ~4x that of KFC and Popeyes. Since hatching in 1967, Chick-fil-A has tried at international expansion — in South Africa in 1996, and the UK in 2019 — to meager results and local opposition. It now has eight locations in Canada and three in Puerto Rico. Currently, KFC runs the hen in Asia’s ~$33B fast-food chicken industry, with 39% market share. It also leads the way in Western Europe’s $6.1B market. BTW: Last year, KFC owner Yum Brands [opened]( a new restaurant around the world every two hours. [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=Chick-fil-A+gears+up+for+global+domination%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F03142023-Chicken-Sandwich-boom%3Futm_campaign%3DTuesday%2BEmail%26utm_content%3D03142023-Chicken-Sandwich-boom%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( Free Resource The world needs more women founders Only ~10% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, which feels flat- out wrong. This Women’s History Month, learn about [the women]( from around the world who are blazing a better path for us all. HubSpot for Startups founders who are kicking ass and taking names: - Suneera Madhani’s old bosses snickered when she pitched a payment platform… so she built the billion-dollar business herself. - Dawn Dickson was the first Black woman to raise $1m in VC funding, which, of course, was just the warmup. - Sophie Winwood invests in Europe’s rising female founders, and also hosts events to unite women in VC. - Serene Cai is revolutionizing the health care industry in cities across Singapore and Malaysia. Queue Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women.” [Women founders stories →]( Ghost Protocols [AI woman]( The next frontier in facial-recognition tech: Not stealing dead people’s pics, ideally A face-search engine scraping obit photos shows off the lawless land of post-mortem privacy. 2023-03-14T00:00:00Z Brad Wolverton Can’t an ancestor just get some shut-eye? Between [TikTok trends](, [celebrity ancestry shows](, and ubiquitous DNA testing, it’s hard for a forebear to simply rest in peace nowadays. Add this to their list of troubles: PimEyes, the controversial face-search engine that crawls the web to ostensibly help individuals monitor their online presence. The facial scanner was found populating its database with images of the dead, [per]( Wired, scraping digital memorials from Ancestry.com without permission. Creepy? Yes. Ethics and privacy fiasco? Also yes. For PimEyes’ part, they say their raising-of-the-dead was unintentional, and that they have blocked their crawlers from Ancestry and deleted the images in question. For everyone else’s part, it’s another major “yikes” added to the tally of AI’s ethical repercussions. PimEyes has already been [on the radar]( of privacy advocates, who worry the face scans may be used to gather sensitive personal info without consent. Watchdogs fear the tech — good enough to ID subjects wearing sunglasses and masks, and accessible to anyone with $21 — could also be used for nefarious purposes, from stalking to identity theft. The Wild West of post-mortem privacy This bizarre PimEyes story highlights how few hard-drawn limits exist for facial-recognition engines — and on the privacy of the deceased in general. More regulations seem likely. Post-mortem privacy has increasingly [factored into]( high-profile cases, and EU policies already bar pictures of dead people when they carry a privacy interest for the living. - Plus: Direct legal action against AI companies is [on the rise](. PimEyes [isn’t immune](. Until the courts say otherwise, the only certainty here is PimEyes’ dominion over Haley Joel Osment as the most unsettling case of “I see dead people.” [Share on Facebook]( [Share on Twitter]( [Send as email to a friend](mailto:?subject=The%20Hustle%20wrote%20something%20I%20think%20you%27ll%20like...%0A&body=The+next+frontier+in+facial-recognition+tech%3A+Not+stealing+dead+people%E2%80%99s+pics%2C+ideally%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fthehustle.co%2F03142023-Facial-Recognition%3Futm_campaign%3DTuesday%2BEmail%26utm_content%3D03142023-Facial-Recognition%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Ddaily%0A%0AYou%20can%20subscribe%20with%20my%20link%20here%20to%20get%20the%20latest%20in%20tech%20and%20business%20daily:%0A [View on our website]( AROUND THE WEB ⚖️ On this day: In 1964, nightclub owner Jack Ruby was [sentenced to death]( for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in the US’s first televised courtroom verdict. 🍞 Learn: [The Hunger Museum]( is an online project that explores the politics, economics, and culture surrounding hunger in the US over the past century. 🪁 How to: [Have more fun]( — and why you should. 🧳 Cure boredom: If you love organizing, try this oddly [relaxing game]( about neatly packing a trunk for a road trip. 🐶 Aww: And now, a [copycat](. TWEET [corporate email meme] Subject line: Friendly Reminder. ([Link](.) TELL FRIENDS → GET PRIZES Help your friends aboard our growing pirate ship. Share The Hustle Daily to start winning loot. [all prizes]( [Share The Hustle 🤠→]( Or copy this custom referral link: [ Your referral count: 0 How did you like today’s email? [Love It]( [Meh]( [Hate It]( Today's email was brought to you by [Jacob Cohen]( and [Juliet Bennett Rylah](. Editing by: Ben “Half of Goldfish’s annual sales” Berkley. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. 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