In today’s newsletter we discuss George Clooney’s new French estate, Elon Musk sues Sam Altman & OpenAI, flying kites underwater, Run-DMC & Jam Master Jay’s death avenged, and kids as influencers.

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Brad Pitt Got 10% Of Château Miraval Winery Back From Angelina Jolie

Business

I know what you’re thinking: Oh great, another story about something Elon Musk just did.

You’re not wrong.

This time he’s suing his old friend and former partner Sam Altman over the direction that OpenAI has taken, which deviates from the non-profit that Elon Musk helped co-found.

In 2015 Sam Altman and Greg Brockman approached Elon Musk about co-founding and funding an AI research non-profit with the goal of developing artificial general intelligence for the “benefit of humanity.”

Fast-forward 9 years and those good intentions have been thrown away, and OpenAI’s for-profit arm is now valued at $90 Billion dollars with a capital B, and Elon Musk has gone out and founded his own AI research startup called appropriately enough xAI.

It’s not really clear what Elon Musk hopes to get out of suing Sam Altman and OpenAI. In his suit he says he’s suing for the profits from the for-profit part of OpenAI, but I’m guessing Microsoft, who owns 49% of OpenAI, will have something to say about that.

Also, it’s interesting that Elon Musk didn’t name Microsoft as a defendant in the lawsuit.

I guess when you’re Elon Musk, the richest man in the world with a fortune estimated to be worth $210 billion dollars, you can still be scared of Microsoft, which has a market cap of #3.07 trillion dollars!

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over contract breach

Tech

When I was a kid I used to love to fly kites with my family. Even as an adult and father I still love flying kites with my kids when we go on vacation to the beach in the Summer.

Everyone knows you can only fly kites in the sky, right?

Not any more.

A company from Sweden named Minesto has designed and developed an underwater turbine named Dragon 12 that behaves like a kite underwater in order to harness the power of the ocean’s tides.

Minesto’s Dracon 12 promises to cut the cost of generating energy from tidal flows, and is already up-and-running with a demonstration pilot off the coast of Denmark's Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland. Why there, you might be wondering? Well, it turns out the channel between these land masses offers a funnel that tidal currents flow through that accelerates the water significantly enabling it to generate more electricity.

The tidal pull of the moon could unlock one of the greatest sources of renewable energy known to mankind, if we don’t mind getting a little wet to harness it.

28-ton, 1.2-megawatt tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid

Entertainment

For readers of this newsletter it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m a big fan of Hip-Hop. One of my favorite groups growing up was Run-DMC.

I don’t remember how I came to have a ticket to this sold-out, invite-only concert at a small club in Albany, NY called Valentines on March 15 of 2000, but I was only able to get 1 ticket so I went alone. This wasn’t the 1st or even 10th concert I’ve been to by myself during my lifetime of going to concerts, but it was the most intimate concert venue I’ve ever been to.

As Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay walked through the crowd, no one rushed them to try and get a signature. The crowd sang along to all their hits like “King of Rock” and “My Adidas”, but also some of their lesser known anthems like “Christmas in Hollis”
I remember telling my future wife about the concert afterward, and how much I wish I could have scored an extra ticket. We agreed next time they went on tour we’d go check them out.

Nearly 2 years later Jason Mizell, better known as Jam Master Jay, was gunned down at his recording studio.

For the next 22 years the world would wonder who would ever want to kill such an iconic musician and DJ?

Now we have our answer, and it’s unleashed more questions about who Jam Master Jay really was.

In the aftermath of the trial of Karl Jordan Jr., who was Jam Master Jay's godson, and Ronald Washington, who was one of his childhood friends, both men were found guilty of killing 37-year-old Jason Mizell in 2002 after they were cut out of a lucrative cocaine deal.

That’s right; it turns out Jam Master Jay wasn’t just one of the world's most famous DJs. He was also a prolific drug trafficker who acquired 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine that then decided to cut both Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington out of the deal that could have given them a $200,000 payday.

Greed.

This case came down to a single word, but the ramifications of that word means future generations will never be able to witness the musical genius of Jam Master Jay, and his group Run-DMC would never be the same again.

RIP Jam Master Jay.

2 Men Are Convicted in 2002 Killing of Run-DMC D.J. Jam Master Jay

Social Media

In the beginning of social media you had to already be a famous celebrity, artist, or even an athlete to become an influencer. Then we had a new crop of influencers who were famous for being famous; think Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.

Now there’s a new group of influencers that probably know nothing about the influencers that came before them….because they weren’t even born yet.

I’m talking about child influencers from Generation Alpha, which is one of the worst generational names I’ve ever heard, but no one asked me. This generation is made up of kids born between 2010 and 2024.

Most of these kids aren’t even 10 years old yet, but they are building huge audiences online from their YouTube and TikTok videos, and social media accounts run by their parents - because they aren’t even old enough to have their own accounts!

One of the most cringy lines from this story is “They’re not even trying to be influencers — they just are.”

OMG! Gag me with a spoon already!

Forget about ‘respect for your elders’ and all that talk. These infant influencers haven’t even put in the work to earn their social media badges yet, but somehow they’ve gamed the system to elevate their status to influencer level.

Apparently it's ok for parents to now exploit their children in order to turn them into child influencers, and the world is happy to doom-scroll their TikTok videos on skin care routines and the latest dance fad that will be over by the time you finish reading this post.

I’m pretty sure when we look back on the internet in 100 years the history will agree that social media was the beginning of the downfall of generations to come.

The next generation of influencers are here. And they're younger than 10 years old

Real Estate

George Clooney and his wife Amal have relocated to France to live full time, and now he’s only 30 minutes away from his best friend Brad Pitt’s Château Miraval Winery estate.

The Oscar-winning American actor-producer George Clooney still owns his 25-room mansion on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como, but with his young family they’ve decided they’re looking for more of a sense of community that his Italian estate just doesn’t offer his family.

George and Amal Clooney have been vocal about the lack of community as one of the key drawbacks of living on Lake Como. The result has been their social life revolving around their home and hosting guests such as A-list friends including Julia Roberts, Rande Gerber (who he co-founded the tequila brand Casamigos with) and his wife Cindy Crawford, and Brad Pitt and girlfriend Ines de Ramon.

It’s safe to say that Brad Pitt played a big role in talking his friend George Clooney into moving closer to his Château Miraval Winery estate based on the small picturesque village of Cotignac in the south of France in large part due to his intimate knowledge of local restaurants and places George and Amal Clooney can explore with their young family without without being bothered by the locals.

George and Amal Clooney’s new home is situated on 425-acres complete with a pool, tennis court, a boules pitch, lush gardens for his family to enjoy, and has a 25-acre vineyard. The couple actually purchased their French home, named Domaine Le Canadel, back in August 2021 for a reported $8.3 million.

Now that George Clooney has sold his tequila brand Casamigos, you think he’ll start his own wine brand following in the footsteps of his friend Brad Pitt’s Château Miraval Winery?

George and Amal Clooney Move to France: Inside Their $8.3 Million Estate Near Brad Pitt’s Home

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So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris