The Return of Meme Stock Mania? & New ChatGPT Talks to You

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0:29Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, OpenAI released an incredibly human-sounding voice assistant. Are we about to fall in love with TrapGPT? Then the man, the myth, the Roaring Kitty has emerged from retirement to send GameStop shares flying once again. It's Tuesday, May 14th. Let's ride.

0:54So the Social Security Administration released its annual list of the most popular baby names in 2023. and wouldn't you know it, Toby and Neil are number one and two. Maybe in a few years. But actually, Liam and Olivia topped the list this year. It's no real surprise either. Liam has been on top for seven straight years now while Olivia has held the throne since 2019. Neil, looking through the rest of the top 10, any names stand out to you? I got four big takeaways here. The biggest riser, the biggest winner is Mateo, which entered the top 10, was the only new name in the top 10. It ranks sixth for Baby Boy, So shout out to all the baby Mateos out there.

1:32There was no big bump for Taylor at all, despite Taylor Swift's huge 2023. In 1993, it was the seventh most popular name for girls. Now it's number 261, and it hasn't bumped up at all recently. And then randomly, Khaleesi has so much staying power. Five years after Game of Thrones ended, it hit its peak in 2018. 562 girls were named Khaleesi. And last year, it was 400. So just a slight drop off and final takeaway. There's just so many more names now than there were in the past. In 1973, there were 14 ,000 distinct names given to babies. 50 years later in 2023, there were more than double that 29 ,000.

2:14So they're just a huge more pool of baby names. Parents are getting a lot more creative naming their kids. My predictions, the WNBA kicks off tonight. Caitlin is going to be on the rise. Now let's hear a word from our sponsor, the Wendy's Cinnabon Pull Apart. Neil, I've had some people ask me if the Cinnabon Pull Apart is more of a morning or an evening thing. And to that I say, don't let such a petty thing as the sun govern your internal sweet treat instincts. A sweet treat transcends time and space. There's no AM or PM, morning or night. There's just ooey gooey cinnamon sugar dough. We all have that little voice inside that knows when we need a little pick-me-up.

2:50Mine happens to be talking to me constantly, which is why I have to do marathons and bike races and whatnot. But hey, you got to listen to yourself. Today feels like a morning sweet treat for me. And if you feel the same, head to a Wendy's near you or go to wendys.com slash morning brew. By the way, some of you have been tagging us or sending us emails of you ordering it. We love that. Keep it up. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EPCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about four in 10 people taking EPCLIS achieved its relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.

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3:52Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EpGliss. Before starting EpGliss, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EpGliss and visit epgliss.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979. All right, let's dive in. Well, it happened again. GameStop turned back the clock like Lakers-LeBron and went on a run like it's 2021. At one point, the famous meme stock jumped 119 % and trading was halted for volatility multiple times yesterday. It ended the day up 74 % with a market cap of$9.3 billion.

4:31Why? It wasn't a solid earnings report. It didn't suddenly figure out how to make brick and mortar game shops popular again. Nope. All it took to set off this rally was one tweet from the man himself, Keith Gill, a.k.a. Roaring Kitty. Roaring Kitty was the bandana cult hero behind the first meme stock craze that culminated in a hearing before Congress, a movie made about him called Dumb Money, and an eventual slip into obscurity as he decided to take his family away from the public eye. But for whatever reason, before the market opened on Monday, Roaring Kitty decided to post a meme of a guy leaning forward in his chair that means things are about to get serious.

5:10And that was all the masses needed to once again send GameStop pumping. Neil, we checked again this morning. GameStop is up 40 % pre-market already. What year is it? How did this happen again? Here we go again. So I was looking at my group chat yesterday. My friend texted at about 2 or 3 p.m. Why is GameStop going? What's going on with GameStop right now? And I had to say, realistically, this is what happened. I just wrote, Keith Gill tweeted. I mean, the power of this guy to move this particular stock is insane. Nothing happened with this company. It's still in dire straits. It's not doing well.

5:48And all he had to do was tweet a picture, and it gained billions of dollars in market cap. And people piled in. There's so much FOMO. So I just don't even know what to say. This guy has so much power. He's one of the most influential investors of our time. Yeah. I mean, you say that, but it's not hyperbolic to say that. Let's put it in perspective, though. Despite yesterday's rise, which also had built on a 50 % increase from this month alone, GameStop's stock is still only worth about$30. That's around a quarter of where it peaked at in 2021 before kind of the whole meme stock bubble ended up bursting.

6:23The stock is still down more than 99 % since its 2021 peak. So even though that we did have this big bump already on top of another bump that it's seen throughout this month, we're still not quite at the frothy meme stock levels of 2021. No, and it doesn't appear there's a major short squeeze going on, which is what happened in the past. Short sellers like Melvin Capital, these big hedge funds. That was the battle that played out, this David versus Goliath battle that played out in 2021. There was 140 % of the company's outstanding shares were shorted back then. That helped create that massive spike.

6:58Like right now, that number stands at just about 24%, which is higher than a normal stock, but is not anywhere near the levels where you would get this massive short squeeze that happened in 2021. So I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen from here, but it does appear that retail traders are piling in. The amount of shares traded for GameStop yesterday was 21 times what's been normal, and volume was at its highest level since March 2021. so you see all these people people in our group chats everyone we know a lot of retail investors are saying wait like this stock is going up should i get in there or not should i you know so i'm sure this is good all good for robin hood anyway yeah let's party like it's 2021 it caused a rally in other meme stocks too amc jumped 78 percent reddit itself because it's now a publicly traded company jumped around nine percent so it is a rising tide a rising meme floats all boats you know i'll put you on the spot though what do you think the tweet meant like do you think read into it if you had an exam question that said what did this tweet mean what would you say to that it seems like he's going to be a more active market participant I mean he was making these YouTube videos in the past and explaining his thesis for why he thought GameStop was a good stock and it could be that he will go back to YouTube maybe talk about why GameStop is still a good stock my big question is could he do this with any other stock?

8:26Or is it just the folk aura around GameStop? Like if he just picked another stock, would this happen with somebody else? Like if you're a public company, are you courting him and talking to him and getting him on the phone and saying, hey, here's like what our plan is. Why don't you talk about it? I think if he gave the same level of thought and actually talked through his bull case like he did with GameStop back in the day, then yes, maybe he could pump another stock. I just, my mind immediately went to Berkshire Hathaway. Do you think he could pump Berkshire Hathaway up? I don't know. What would be the hardest possible stock for him to pump?

8:57But yeah, right now, GameStop seems like it's found its groove again. I would say buckle up because this thing is not over. It's going to happen the whole week based on these pre-market moves. Yesterday, OpenAI revealed its big new product update that had been hyped for weeks. Despite swirling rumors, it wasn't a search engine and it wasn't a partnership with Crocs. Instead, it was straight out of a Hollywood movie, Her, where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his AI assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The tech company released an updated AI model called GPT-40 that features a super conversational voice assistant that sounds eerily like Johansson in that movie.

9:35This AI can ramp up its expressive voice if you want it to read you a bedtime story. It can be more robotic if you want more monotone in your life, and it can start singing if you crave a little night music. And it can also translate languages between two speakers in real time. OpenAI said the assistant was not inspired by her, but CEO Sam Altman did not get the memo because he tweeted her after the event and also said it's his favorite movie. You're probably not going to fall in love with chat GPT just yet, but the capabilities on display yesterday make existing voice assistants seem like dial-up internet.

10:09I don't see how Siri can financially recover from this. Yeah, I mean, let's just dive right into that because we've been hearing rumors that there is a partnership brewing between OpenAI and Apple. After hearing this voice mode, this voice assistant in action, you have to think that Apple saw that and said, all right, Siri is a thing of the past. Let's just partner. This is an incredible piece of technology here. It is so much better than Siri. Like, it is night and day. It feels like one is a robot. One feels much more expressive. And it was the biggest thing that stood out to me about some of these demos was the latency and response time.

10:45That's what makes it feel so human. Instead of having it load or having that awkward pause before responding, the latency was as low as 232 milliseconds and an average of 320 milliseconds, which the team is saying, that's human latency time. When I talk to you, you're only taking a few milliseconds to respond to me. That's what this new voice chat assistant can do. Huge unlock right there. I think it's also a shot across the bow, not just to Siri or Google Assistant, but also to these hardware makers that are trying to create AI-first hardware, like the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1, because this thing can do a lot of what those companies are trying to do, recognize images, have a conversation with you and respond to voice prompts.

11:29But this thing can do it so much better than they can. Those were horrible. I mean, Marquis Brownlee said they were some of the worst products that he's ever reviewed. So for all this talk of moving AI to an AI-first hardware, maybe we're just looking at what AI-first hardware is and it's your phone. Right. We did – I mean we said that in our conversation about that is that it felt like an app, but it also just feels like something that if that Apple partnership comes to fruition, then it is something that will just be contained within your phone. Another demonstration showed using the phone's camera function to show the AI model a math problem or something like that, a coding problem, and then have their voice mode walk you through how to solve it.

12:10That felt like a major step forward in education. Can you imagine being all you need? You have a tutor in your pocket. I mean, we've kind of been saying that ever since the internet created, but now you truly do have someone who can walk you through step-by-step how to solve a math problem that you show it via camera. It did have like this very magical feel and made you bullish about the future of education as well. Okay, but why is it so sexy? I know. Yeah, that was, I mean, you say that, but people on Twitter were saying why the voice does come off across as a little more sultry than necessary.

12:44And the team was just saying like we tried to make it sound as human as possible. There are other voices as well. We didn't model it after Scarlett Johansson, but it was genuinely a concern. and it's like the voice comes off a little more sensual than you want it to. So yeah, you're right on that account. There was a major shakeup at the apex of the world of philanthropy yesterday as Melinda French Gates announced she would resign as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation next month. It comes almost three years to the day after the two announced their divorce and is the second high power decoupling of charitable initiatives from ex-husbands after Mackenzie Scott fully separated her charitable ventures from Jeff Bezos back in 2019.

13:25As part of the announcement, Melinda said she would receive$12.5 billion for her charitable work going forward, saying in a statement that it is a critical moment to protect and advance women's rights around the world. The bill in Melinda Gates Foundation is huge. It's doled out$77 billion worth of grant payments since its founding almost 25 years ago, and it currently has around$75 billion in assets under management. And now it's reverting back to just the Gates Foundation with Bill as the sole chair. This is a big shakeup. Yeah, if you're in the philanthropy world or the nonprofit world, whatever happens at the top of the Gates Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, soon to be the just the Gates Foundation, is huge.

14:07It's going to impact everything that you do. Look, reading between the lines, you know, you can say anything about their personal relationship, and we have no idea what that is. But they did have distinct philanthropic visions as well. They both focused on certain areas. Melinda was way more focused on gender equality and minority access in the United States and around the world. Bill was far more focused on health outcomes in developing countries. So there might be a different thinking in terms of where they want to spend their money, and that might have led to this split as well. Right. And then this is not coming out of the blue either.

14:47When they divorced, they did say that they'd allow themselves sort of a trial period to feel out if they could continue working with each other at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So it was a little bit telegraphed. We are coming up to the end of that trial period. And I think you're right. I mean, Melinda definitely sees the current moment where like the world is heading as a very crucial moment for women's rights around the world. I mean, you just look at the road back of Roe v. Wade in the United States. So maybe she did feel like it was time to really take her money and do with it what she wants to do with it.

15:19It also comes as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did rejigger their strategy in general towards how they dole their money out. It used to be they were criticized for being a little too prescriptive, a little too top down, especially with their education initiatives. But now they're kind of giving the money to these organizations, getting out of the way and saying, you do with it what you please. So a lot of things have been changing around this foundation. And that might have been influenced by Mackenzie Scott, who's given out$16.5 billion in philanthropy when she divorced Jeff Bezos. She got 4 % of Amazon stock and has been using that to give away so much money.

15:57and she kind of shook up the world of philanthropy by giving these foundations a blank check and was just saying, here, here's money. I'm going to explain where I'm putting this money, but you really do what you want with it, which was a break from what has done in the past. So Melinda French Gates and Mackenzie Scott are some of the biggest forces in philanthropy right now that are going on their own. Up next, how the heck are we running out of sriracha again?

16:27When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone, all protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to-do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you.

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17:21If you've got a bottle of Sri Racha in your fridge, use it sparingly. no squirts more than necessary on those eggs. If you must have spice, pivot to Cholula. That's because Hui Fong Foods, the maker of the most popular version of Sriracha, told distributors last week that it's stopping production until at least September, sparking fears of a shortage. If you're feeling deja vu, no need to get your head checked out. Sriracha experienced severe shortages last summer too, and other supply snacks have halted production at least three times since 2020. This has been a persistent problem for the brand.

17:55So what's the issue this time? Hui Fang said that the jalapeno peppers it uses for the sauce were too green to proceed with production as it is affecting the color of the product. And those jalapenos are pretty much the entire shebang. 78 % of every bottle of Hui Fang's Sriracha consists of pureed red chili peppers. Okay, my question for you, Toby, is this. Other companies make Sriracha. They use chilies and you're not hearing a peep about any production problems. Is this a Hui Fong specific problem? Yeah, if I'm a customer of Hui Fong, I'm a little upset here. One, because Neil keeps pronouncing my product as Sriracha instead of Sriracha.

18:35But the decision to halt production of its Sriracha sauce has been its third since 2020. How does this keep on happening? And I think the last time people kind of took it in stride and said, hey, you decoupled from your old supplier. You're working out some supply chain kinks. But now here we are years later and we're still having the exact same issue over and over again. Some people were taking to social media and saying, I think it's a gimmick at this point. They're trying to drive artificial scarcity. Every year they're having the same exact shortage issue. But then when I go to the store, I still see bottles there.

19:08So people were trying to dig deeper here and say it can't just be a supplier issue. You must have figured it out by now. But I do think that people are getting a little bit fed up at this point with Huifang. Yeah. So you mentioned this supplier issue. This seems to be the root of the problem. It had this really long relationship with a company called Underwood Ranches, which grew their jalapenos. And they had a three-decade-long amazing relationship. But that broke down in 2017. There was a really nasty legal battle. A jury awarded Underwood Farms$23 million in damages. They separated a few years ago.

19:44And it seems as though Hui Fong has not been able to find another supplier for its jalapenos because it's true. There are a bunch of other companies make Sri Raja, including Underwood. He started a rival Sri Raja brand, but he's saying, yeah, I have plenty of jalapenos. What's going on here? And the only brand that is not able to get this supply that they need is Hui Fong. And other Sri Raja companies are doing perfectly fine. So it does appear like this is a complete own goal by them because they haven't been able to find a reliable supplier after that long relationship broke down. Every year, two other brands do capitalize on this almost yearly supply chain issue.

20:24Tabasco launched an entire website dedicated to helping people find Sriracha substitutes. And then also, you're right, Underwood Ranch has launched its own competing product as well. So it's probably not a grand conspiracy as much as I'd like it to be. It's just they don't have sufficient backup suppliers. And there's also just like the lack of rain in Mexico is something that's very hard to get around. So even though I wish it was some marketing stunt engineered to create artificial scarcity, I do think it's just a simple supply chain issue. Where there are safe medical procedures, there will be cheaper and more dangerous knockoffs.

20:58We've seen it with medical tourism. We've seen it with plastic surgery. And we're seeing it again in the$8 billion cosmetic dentistry industry. And I'm going to dig into that for today's edition of Toby's Trends, where I take a scroll through the internet to find a trend that you should know about. Today's trend is all about viral veneer techs and the illegal procedures they are conducting. Veneer techs are people who take a paid course, print out a certificate, then invite people into their homes to apply fake veneers to their teeth at way below market rates. The cut talked to one woman who wanted an icy white smile, so she found a veneer tech who goes by Princess and booked an appointment for a set of 20 composite veneers for$1 ,500.

21:41They had already started to fall out on her drive home, and in a few days, a dozen had detached. Apologies for anyone who's ever had that teeth falling out nightmare, but that's pretty much what happened. And Neil, this trend encapsulates so much of modern day social media culture, the pursuit of pearly white teeth you see on red carpets, the cottage industry that pops up to support those desires, and the secondary cottage industries that pop up to, quote unquote, certify the people doing the work. It's transeption here. Great, great trend, Toby. It is transeption. One of the veneer tech videos that went viral was not just the people getting them, but the people who were getting certified.

22:22Some guy said, hey, I took this two-week class and now I'm a certified veneer tech. And people were like, what? Are you able to do that? Because you're not allowed to do it unless you're a licensed dentist. And I don't know. Learning about this veneer stuff was alarming and very interesting. Apparently, there are two types. There are these porcelain kind, which require you to shave down teeth a decent amount to put them on. Those are the ones that last 10 to 20 years. And then there are these cheaper versions, composite bonded veneers that are less invasive and you don't have to shave your teeth down all that much.

22:56It appears that the veneer tech quotes in quotes are doing this more composite, cheaper variety. And it's leading to all kinds of problems of these teeth falling out and they're just not lasting as long. Plus healthy people who have, you know, pretty healthy teeth don't necessarily need them at all. Right. And then also veneers are just having a moment in general. The Cut wrote another article that referenced the author was watching The Golden Bachelor. It was like, whoa, every single pair of teeth I see here are just very pearly, pearly white here. And it is definitely something fueled by social media.

23:29There's a cosmetic dentist in Beverly Hills. They have over 750 ,000 followers on Instagram. And then, of course, you're seeing these veneer tech videos popping up on TikTok. People flaunting their certificates saying, I'm making a, it's a great side hustle for me. Take this course. So you're seeing just this assault on all angles of the social media from the certification side to the actual veneers gleaming back at you every time you turn on the TV. So it explains why we're talking about this trend in this current moment. And meanwhile, actual dentists are saying this is not only bad, it is dangerous because these veneer techs can't find infections in your teeth.

24:04And when you put a veneer on, you're basically locking in that infection if it does exist, which could go straight to your brain. So these people aren't able to identify actual problems with your teeth and literally put a veneer, you know, in many senses of the word over the actual problem. Finally, here's an anniversary worth noting. 20 years ago this month, the documentary Super Size Me was released. Yeah, I know. We're old. And it turns out the only thing it supersized was McDonald's business. Two decades after the biggest PR crisis in its history, the golden arches are more powerful than ever, according to a report in The New York Times.