Bonjour,
A lot has happened this week. A Dimes Square institution decided taxes weren't a thing for them, got shut down, the internet lost its mind and held a candlelight vigil. We had Barron's reporter Nick Devor and David Rosenberg from Notion on the livestream. Tap in here if you missed it.
Also I attended Coinbase's System Update, drank the Kool-Aid on capitalism being good for all, and got a free pair of AirPod Maxes.
ily,
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Our friends at Vercel launched The Agent Stack this week, giving you all the building blocks you need to create and ship production-grade agents. The days of stitching together solutions or rebuilding infrastructure every time a new model drops are over.
Big week for hardware on the timeline. Snap revealed its new augmented reality glasses and Midjourney dropped a full-body medical scanner.
On Tuesday Snap Inc., debuted their $2,195 AR glasses called SPECS. The stock fell nearly 10%. CEO Evan Spiegel laid out the vision: a wearable "computer of the future" that can bring real-world tools into your daily life seamlessly and hands-free, like directions that appear as you move through a city, or playing Candy Crush while getting interviewed by CNBC.
The promises are even bigger than the glasses, with capabilities seemingly more advanced than the Meta Ray-Bans, which mostly focus on audio like taking calls and listening to music, and vision like taking photos and recording, unlike this face computer. But the response from the market was extreme hate due partially to the price point but mostly because they look ridiculous.
The editorial campaign that rolled out alongside the announcement featured Jack Harlow, Kaia Gerber, Jung Ho-yeon, Jimmy Butler, and Imogen Heap. It did not help the situation.
To which my first thought was, Jack, stay in your big hats lane! You can't have BOTH!
Anyway, IMHO SPECS is a classic example of no one being willing to say, "My man, bad idea!"
Then yesterday, Midjourney, the AI image generation platform, announced Midjourney Medical, a new division that’s building the company's first hardware device.
The device is the first full-body ultrasound CT scanner in which your body will be submerged underwater and after 60 seconds you’ll have a 3-D body map with no exposure to radiation.
In their announcement they wrote:
“We’re building a bold new kind of machine to reimagine the foundations of healthcare and our relationships to our bodies.
We’ve dreamed of something as powerful as MRI, and as casual as a trip to the spa, and we’re unveiling a path to that - today.”
The rollout also included the announcement of a Midjourney Spa in San Francisco, where the first device will debut.
It is a surprising move from the company that produced this when I asked for 'margot robbie as barbie taking communion.’
And it might end up being an Instagram vs. reality moment once the rollout happens in 2027, but the launch video is worth a watch.
I'm genuinely hearted to see an AI company building into trends around experiential, longevity, biohacking, and health autonomy, while also delivering on the promises the future of AI made us, to transform medical innovation from head to toe, care to cost.
Anyway if anyone reading this newsletter works at Midjourney please email [email protected]. We love spas.
