👕 Clothes shopping at Costco

Happy Friday! It’s October 13 — people are talking about Meta’s new celebrity chatbots, the pros and cons of Costco clothes, and more.

As always, we’ve summarized and organized the different shades of perspective, so you can see the big picture quickly. Here at Shades we believe that seeing multiple points of view is the best way to stay informed.

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🤖 In the news: Billie, the AI chatbot

Meta created a video chatbot that uses the likenesses of Kendall Jenner (whose chatbot is called Billie) and other celebrities. Is this a good idea, or is it too weird?

🤖 Business Insider covers the details: There are reports of the the celebrities involved getting paid as much as $5m. Mark Zuckerberg said the bots were created because there's a “huge need” for AI celebrities.

🤖 The NYT says the AI bots are part of Meta's plan to keep up with the likes of Google and OpenAI. Meta is leveraging its huge user base to popularize the bots.

🤖 Dazed was creeped out, though: It's really odd to see Kendall referring to herself as “Billie”. And Zuckerberg is wrong: This won't help people connect!

🤖 Michael Parekh was more optimistic. We're in an era of mass AI experimentation — Meta just wants to see what sticks.

🤖 @taylorlaios pointed out that Billie had some interesting things to say about the Kardashian clan — very weird!

👕 Cultural trend: Shopping at Costco?

Costco is a major clothing retailer — but should you really buy clothes at the same place you buy a $1.50 hot dog and drink combo?

👕 The WSJ did a deep dive on Costco's clothing offerings. It found that the wholesale retailer did a great job of providing quality clothing that looks nice enough for the unfussy customer.

👕 Reader's Digest is also a fan: Costco sells $7b of clothes and footwear a year! And it's a popular for a reason — they keep their selection small and easy to browse, and rotate it often.

👕 Clark.com said clothing shopping at Costco does have a big drawback, though: no dressing rooms. The clothes are just out on a table, and there's nowhere to try them on.

 👕 And a Redditor on r/Costco thinks the quality just isn't there. Costco sells cheap clothes that “nobody would buy at full price”.

Quick hits

🎮 After British regulators approved the acquisition, Microsoft closed its $69b deal to buy Activision Blizzard. (Reuters)

🇮🇱 The Israeli military told 1m people to evacuate from parts of the northern Gaza Strip. (AP News)

🏛️ A Colorado police officer was convicted of negligent homicide and 3rd-degree assault against Elijah McClain. (The Guardian)

🇺🇸 Steve Scalise dropped out of the House Speaker race a day after winning the nomination. (CNN)

That’s it for today. Reply to [email protected] with any feedback, or ideas for tomorrow’s topics!

- Jeff (co-founder of Shades)