Power move

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Historic brewing institute heads north, almond milk gets a glow-up, Google releases major updates to its AI platform Gemini, and iHeart radio goes all in on humans 🤗

Let’s get into it!

The Siebel Institute of Technology is a historic brewing school that’s called Chicago its home for over 150 years. Last week, it announced it will relocate to Montreal on Jan. 1, citing the policies of the current American federal government as its reason for moving to Canada.

“Recent regulatory changes in the U.S. have made it much more challenging for many of our international students, who have become the majority of our student body, to attend classes in person,” John Hannafan, the institute’s director of education, wrote. “This relocation of North America classroom operations to Montreal allows us to pivot without sacrificing the student experience.”

Chicagoans familiar with the school have called it a gut-wrenching loss for the city, but consider it a silver lining that it’s Montreal that the Institute will soon call home.

“It truly is a Chicago institution. If you talk to brewers of the modern era—not just in Chicago, but across the nation—it really is the place where people go and learn the trade,” said Liz Garabay, executive director of the Beer Culture Center.

“One thing that we in Chicago are proud of is our food and beverage culture,” she said. “For anyone who has ever gone to Quebec, that’s there. It is ever present.”

The school will open on Sainte Catherine Street, just a few blocks from the original location of Molson’s—North America’s oldest brewery.

Food and beverage brands have been trying to crack the code for driving sustainable demand for plant-based items, and for years have been focused more on the fact that the food or drink isn’t animal-based.

However, seemingly fewer resources have been invested in promoting the benefits of the thing itself. Danone is trying to pivot towards that with its launch of Silk Protein, zeroing in on the modern consumer obsession with protein specifically.

Silk Protein contains 13 grams of protein—50% more than a serving of milk, with half the sugar. It has no artificial sweeteners, contains three grams of fiber, and is the most protein-packed refrigerated milk product now on the market.

According to Wendy Nunnelley, president of plant-based for Danone North America, 75% of consumers are actively looking for ways to increase their protein consumption, while 66% are consuming more plant-based alternatives to dairy.

“We really see a gap in the marketplace for a good plant-based, higher protein offering that just hasn’t been there, and that consumers are demanding,” Nunnelley told Food Dive. “We’re seeing consumers move into protein in such a strong way.”

For years, doubters expressed concern that Google was falling behind in the AI race—including high level executives at Google itself. In hindsight, it seems almost comical that anyone would suggest a multi-trillion dollar company with aspirations to compete in AI wouldn’t be able to.

The company’s stock has taken off in the last six weeks, perhaps acting somewhat as a safe haven for investors who were spooked by the bubble speculation surrounding some of Google’s competitors in the field, such as Nvidia, Meta, OpenAI, and others.

It’s almost unfathomable how much value Google has added since October, nearly hitting US$4 trillion in market capitalization while adding about $1 trillion in just six weeks.

“Google has arguably always been the dark horse in this AI race,” said Neil Shah, analyst and cofounder at Counterpoint Research. “[It’s] a sleeping giant that is now fully awake.”

Perhaps it was always the case that Google would just wait for investors to call B.S. on its competitors; after all, unlike many of them, Google could afford to wait, having such a dominant position in so many aspects of technology. It’s a full stack producer, making both hardware and software for every touchpoint in nearly every tech business model.

Growing by a trillion dollars in under two months is somewhat scary, but Google is likely just getting started.

Comfort creep and problem creep are fairly new names for concepts that have existed for all of human history; however, as life has gotten easier—and is continuing to do so at a faster rate—both concepts have probably become easier to recognize.

Comfort creep refers to the way we take things for granted today that were considered luxuries yesterday. On a long-term scale, imagine complaining about the room temperature being a little too hot while conversing with someone alive in the Middle Ages? On a shorter-term scale, imagine telling your younger self that one day you’d be upset at your own kids for not responding to a text message within five minutes.

Human beings are wired to adjust to the most common environment, so when unthinkable luxuries become expected amenities, comfort creep sets in.

On the other hand, problem creep refers to how otherwise unproblematic things become problematic when there isn’t actually anything wrong. Research into this phenomenon suggests people just “need” to have a certain amount of problems in their lives, and will find a way to create one out of nothing. Where one person is thrilled to have internet access, another will complain about how it takes 10 seconds to download an entire movie instead of five.

Perception can so often become reality, and perspective is important. Many like to focus forward, but sometimes it’s healthy to look backward to truly appreciate the present.

Chief programming officer and president of iHeartRadio, Tom Poleman sent out a memo to staff last week announcing the “Guaranteed Human” pledge would come into effect as of Nov. 24, ensuring all iHeart properties would be programming shows with real human personalities and music composed, performed, and recorded by human beings.

“‘Guaranteed Human’ is a core part of our brand,” Poleman wrote. “You’ll hear it in our imaging, and we want listeners to feel it every time they tune in. Remember, this isn’t a tagline—it’s a promise, and it’s part of every station’s personality.”

Initiatives like Poleman’s are perhaps the only things standing in the way of a full takeover of artificial intelligence in music and podcast streaming. While it would take time, the reality is humans have a difficult time actually telling the difference, according to a study conducted by French streaming service Deezer.

The study asked participants to listen to songs and/or podcasts, and found 97% of them weren’t able to tell the difference between human-created and AI-generated content. The service says about 50,000 AI-generated songs are added to its platform every day, and according to Billboard, AI music generator Sumo is churning out 7 million songs on a daily basis.

Day by day

Hey Staker, today’s Thursday! And that right there might give you the jump because we’re quizzing you about…days in today’s trivia. 🤪

That’s right, we’ve got 10 questions about songs that reference a day of the week. Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified on Friday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox and don’t forget to check your spam folder!*