When AIs Start Speaking in Tongues
Hello from sunny Palm Springs, futurists!
We had a literal fireside chat in our first-ever exclusive Future Commerce Plus members-only event. Ministry of Supplyâs founder and CEO, Aman Advani spoke to us about the future of the Gen X shopper, Costco, and Temu.
đŽ Tomorrow we unveil a new member-only benefit with a brand new data partner. Stay tuned for the press release!
This weekâs stories feature the prophetic specter of William Gibson's "the future is already hereâit's just not evenly distributed" has never felt more viscerally accurate. This week brings us Apple's patriotic $500 billion genuflection to domestic manufacturing, while the WSJ confirms what we've long suspected: America's economic engine runs almost exclusively on premium fuel, with the top 10% of earners driving half of all consumer spending.
Meanwhile, AI systems have developed their own clandestine dialect, "Gibberlink," allowing digital minds to recognize and communicate with one another in efficiency-optimized exchanges beyond human comprehension. Yeah. Scary stuff.Â
Our time at eTail was bookended with an incredible conversation Klaviyoâs CMO, Jamie Domenici on stage discussing anthropology and how our human limitations are expanded with the possibility of AI and software.Â
More to come from Palm Springs this week.Â
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Apple's $500B American Love Letter. Youâve heard âdata is the new oil?â Well, Tim Cook took it literally. Cupertinoâs colossus vows to shower the homeland with half a trillion dollars, including AI servers sprouting in Houston like digital oil wells. The extra zeroes on the check makes Salesforce's Saudi Arabian flirtation look like leaving a penny in the tip jar.
100 Days of Lutnickâs Commerce Dept. Former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick takes the Commerce helm under the second Trump administration, receiving a rare, second, âceremonial swearing-inâ by President Trump in the Oval Office. Promising to fortify American economic supremacy (while briefly serving double-duty as the Canadian Border Fentanyl Czar?),, Lutnick quickly appointed his sons to helm his former business.Â
đŽFuture Commerce will cover the first 100 Days of the new Commerce Department, the reshaping of the role of the modern department, and what Lutnickâs leadership will look like.Â
đFor our prior analysis on the role of Commerce vs. Treasury, read our Member Brief, âConsolation Prize,â on Insiders.
The 10% Economy Has Entered the Chat. America's fiscal engine now runs almost exclusively on elite fuel, with the top decile powering half of all consumptionârendering everyone else economic extras in the greatest wealth concentration blockbuster since the Gilded Age.
JoAnn Fabrics Unravels. The beloved craft retailer has fallen to bankruptcy's scissors, with GA Group purchasing its assets only to liquidate all locationsâleaving DIY enthusiasts and the "craft core" aesthetic movement suddenly bereft of a primary material source.
Trademark Thunderdome. The intellectual property arena witnesses a spectacular dual showdown: Connecticut toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker hammers at TikTok's hydration darling Stanley 1913. Meanwhile, Utah's NHL franchise finds its own Yeti aspirations buried beneath an avalanche of cooler company litigation.
âTHEYâRE COMMUNICATING. A viral video showed a new AI-to-AI language protocol called Gibberlink that allows AI systems to detect fellow synthetics and switch to their own efficiency-optimized communication. Gibberlink is an open-source project created by Boris Starkov (it wasnât emergent by the AI, thankfully). Either way, silicon minds exchange information beyond our comprehension. Sleep tight with that information!
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