Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
The US debt ceiling deal passed a House vote. More Democrats than Republicans approved the Biden-McCarthy agreement, which now heads to the Senate.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) slapped two fines on Amazon. The company has to pay $30 million for privacy violations via its Ring and Alexa devices.
The US Department of Justice is suing the son of West Virginia governor Jim Justice. Coal companies linked to Jay Justice owe $5 million in fines racked up for more than 130 breaches of environmental regulations.
The “Great Resignation” has ended. The quits rate among American workers is back down to pre-pandemic levels.
Pride Month is forcing a reckoning for companies courting the “pink dollar.”Appealing to LGBTQ customers requires a consistent commitment.
What makes Nvidia’s chips so special anyways?
Nvidia’s microprocessors are tiny big deals. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for instance, reportedly runs on thousands of Nvidia A100 chips.
Nvidia’s journey to the top is partly about the capability of its underlying technology, and partly about being at the right place at the right time. Quartz’s Michelle Cheng explains what led Jensen Huang’s company to this particular moment, and how its boom is affecting chip peers. Read the full report.
Pop quiz: Will the one with the AI speech please stand up?
Which sentence—from the recent address made by Denmark prime minister Mette Frederiksen—wasn’t written by ChatGPT?
😌 “It has been an honor and a challenge to lead a broad government in the last parliamentary year.”
🫱🫲 “We have worked hard to co-operate across parties and ensure a strong and sustainable future for Denmark.”
🪜 “We have taken steps to combat climate change and ensure a fairer and more inclusive society where all citizens have equal opportunities.”
🤖 “What I have just read here is not from me. Or any other human for that matter.”
The answer may be clear, but the chatbot’s full power sure isn’t.
Google’s algorithm isn’t making a news echo chamber
“It’s quite plausible that Google could just say, we know what kind of news websites you frequent, and so we’re going to prioritize them in our search results; and people might be happier that way. But they don’t. They tend to show diverse content, diverse choices.”
—David Lazer, a Northeastern University professor who co-authored a study that found Google doesn’t disproportionately lead people to click on partisan and unreliable news. Read our story on the study.
Quartz most popular
🚀 North Korea can build rockets. Can it build a satellite?
🧜🏿♀️ IMDb sensed something fishy in The Little Mermaid reviews
😛 Delta is being sued for claiming to be a carbon-neutral airline
💥 Experts in AI are warning it poses a “risk of extinction” akin to nuclear war
🙄 India’s response to wrestlers protesting sexual misconduct was forceful removal and detention
✈️ China’s domestically built C919 plane is full of foreign technology
Surprising discoveries
Perfume is back, baby! Sales are way up because the number of sprays are way up—probably because most people don’t know where ambergris comes from.
But liquefied natural gas-carrying ships are only back temporarily, baby! Analysts optimistic about a global transition from fossil fuels say we’ll soon be left with a glut of useless, specialized, just-built cargo ships.
Hugging Face is machine learning’s very own GitHub. It’s named after the 🤗 emoji, and Microsoft has already made it a key part of its overall AI strategy.
The world’s deadliest spider can adjust the deadliness of its venom. You wouldn’t like the Australian funnel-web spider when it’s angry.
The URL on nearly 800,000 Maryland license plates will take you to an online casino. Authorities are trying to wrest the address back from a site that is decidedly not the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, spider relaxation techniques, and bets made while driving to [email protected]. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Sofia Lotto Persio, Morgan Haefner, and Susan Howson.