Chicken Run 2 is having supply chain issues
The perils of group decision making.
Hey there,
It’s been a dramatic week in big tech with the firing and then rehiring of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. The whole sequence of events unfolded like an episode of Succession. Many people have expressed concern about the implications on corporate governance and the consolidation of power to a small handful of companies.
My main takeaway is the perils of group decision-making. Whatever Altman did or didn’t do, the decision by the board to ambush him on a Google Hangout to tell him he was being sacked, was just really bad chess. Given the board members have now either offered grovelling apologies, resigned or remained in post it was clearly not a decision on which they were all aligned. It’s a lesson to all of us to speak up or risk looking really rather silly.
Say the thing,
Hugo
Chairman of the Stuff
The Business of Stuff.
The Stuff
Chicken Run 2 is suffering from supply chain issues 🐔 - just as Dawn of the Nugget is about to be released Aardman Animations is facing a crisis as they can’t get their hands on new Lewis Newsplast, the clay they use to make the models. The only factory to make it, based just outside of Torquay, shut up shop earlier this year. This hasn’t however dampened eggcitement over the sequel, out next month.
Hipgnosis is facing legal action as they seek new auditors 🎶 - the investment trust that has been going around buying everyone’s back catalogues is facing a legal challenge from a previous company set up by the founder, Merck Mercuriadis. It all seems like a bit of a shady affair, and PwC, their current auditors, who have created their own shady affairs recently, want no part in it.
People have literally been losing sleep over OpenAI debacle 😴 - data from Eight Sleep (a sleep-tracking app) saw a 27% increase in people getting under five hours of sleep in the San Francisco area. How good would a dashboard of everyone’s sleep be? Ah, Wigan is on the lash again and everyone in the Watchet area got an early night. That’s the sort of data I want to see.
Black Friday chaos ensues as always 🙄 - it’s that time of year again when we all collectively roll our eyes at late-stage capitalism whilst ordering a new milk frother. HSBC suffered from an outage and a load of Amazon staff have walked out in protest at pay and working conditions.
Nvidia is being sued for sharing the wrong screen on Zoom 🫣 - an employee was presenting to colleagues from a previous company he worked at when they saw code that they claim demonstrated he had stolen their intellectual property. There seems to be no end of calamities caused by screen-sharing, it really doesn’t bode well for when we can see each other’s thoughts.
Abu-Dhabi-backed fund poised to takeover The Telegraph 📰 - it’s a pretty damning inditement of British billionaires that no one managed to scrape the cash together to buy Telegraph Media Group. The purchase by Redbird IMI will be referred to regulators on public interest grounds as there are inevitably concerns about another nation-state owning a major media asset.
Live-action Pokemon is a landmark for the franchise ⚡ - for any child of the 90s Pikachu and co are up there with Harry Potter and the Spice Girls. The makers are intent on keeping said cohort in perpetual childhood with the release of a drama based around the game, called PokeTsume. I’ll give it a whirl realistically, right after I’ve got my ticket to the Spice Girls reunion tour
John Lewis to partner with Randox Health 🧪 - obviously the pandemic is old news now so Randox, or Random as I call them, need to find something else to do. Their plan is to offer full body health checks in John Lewis so you can find out if you’re deficient in Vitamin A (eat some carrots!) between looking for a Christmas present for your mum and gasping at the price of Le Creuset.
Nissan to invest in a new electric vehicle plant in Sunderland 🚘 - the carmaker will make electric versions of the pervasive Qashqai and its funny-looking cousin the Juke. The setup will cost £2bn and preserve the work of around 6000 people who are currently employed.
UK to boost spending on AI and other new-fangled stuff 🤖 - as part of the autumn budget, the chancellor announced increased spending of £500m to bring the total planned investment to £1.5bn. Whilst definitely a good thing, it’s terrifying how this pales into insignificance with the tens of billions spent by big tech. Oh well, what ya gonna do?
Quote of the week
A camel is a horse designed by committee - Alec Issigonis