Mike's Industry View - Issue #152
AI / Creativity
Stroke of Genius: GauGAN Turns Doodles into Stunning, Photorealistic Landscapes — blogs.nvidia.com A deep learning model developed by NVIDIA Research uses GANs to turn segmentation maps into lifelike images with breathtaking ease.
How Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn Was Smuggled Out of Japan — www.bloomberg.com An elite extraction team spirited the former CEO out of Japan by studying hotel layouts and airport security.
Business/Marketing/Adv
23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline, CEO says she was 'surprised' to see market turn — www.cnbc.com Consumers aren't flocking to DNA tests like they used to, explains 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki
The Rationale Behind S4 Capital’s Acquisition Of Digital Agency Circus Marketing — adexchanger.com
S4 is merging Circus into MediaMonks. Why? An expanded footprint, more capacity in existing markets and data, data, data.
Interestingness
The museum that defines the Instagram age wants visitors to ditch their phones — qz.com As social media enters a new era, Instagram-friendly businesses like the Museum of Ice Cream look ahead to what's next.
Exclusive look at Cruise’s first driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals — www.theverge.com
The vehicle, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, is designed to be more spacious and passenger-friendly than typical self-driving cars. Cruise says the electric vehicle will be deployed as part of a ride-hailing service, but declined to say when that might be.
Wellness
'Sense of urgency': Ad agencies are now offering more mental health and wellness benefits to employees — digiday.com
“You’re not making a product that’s tangible, and there’s a lot of mental stress in creativity or problem solving on the production end,”
Platform News
Instagram drops IGTV button, but only 1% downloaded the app — techcrunch.com
At most, 7 million of Instagram’s 1 billion-plus users have downloaded its standalone IGTV app in the 18 months since launch. And now, Instagram’s main app is removing the annoying orange IGTV button from its home page in what feels like an admission of lackluster results.
Facebook creates 1,000 new UK jobs — www.bbc.co.uk The firm says the new roles will include adding to its team tackling harmful online content.