she’s not real, but brands are still paying ~$40k for 60 seconds of her. fangtaozi started as a character in a chinese ai short drama called the laid-off girl. the creator behind her gained 1.59m followers in just two months. now people know her face, talk about her personality, ship her with other characters and she already has brand deals + a season 2. what’s interesting to me isn’t that ai can make a decent video now. it’s that ai is already good enough to build ip. production is getting cheaper really fast. taste isn’t. the character, the worldview, the aesthetic, even the small details that make her feel like a real person. that’s the part hard to copy. ip is gold. taste is currency.

visited a few robotics companies + factories in shenzhen last month. a few very unscientific takeaways after seeing things irl: -humanoids are exciting, but still feel early. maybe 5–10 years before we see real mass adoption. a lot of what’s impressive today is still very demo-driven. -near term, i’m probably more bullish on boring robots. robots that are designed to do one/few job(s) really well or special uses cases will get adopted much faster. hotel delivery robots are already everywhere in china and just…work. -data is still a huge bottleneck. but something i found interesting: most companies i talked to don’t really want to buy third party data. they’d rather collect their own because of privacy, quality, and how specific the data needs to be for each use case. -the biggest “oh shit” moment for me was probably the manufacturing side. in shenzhen, you can prototype something, change a component, find another supplier, test it and manufacture it all within this insanely dense ecosystem. it made me wonder: if robotics really becomes the next massive hardware platform, how does the us compete with china on manufacturing and speed of iteration? no strong conclusion yet. still learning. but seeing the physical supply chain in person definitely changed how i think about the robotics race.

visited a few robotics companies + factories in shenzhen last month. a few very unscientific takeaways after seeing things irl: -humanoids are exciting, but still feel early. maybe 5–10 years before we see real mass adoption. a lot of what’s impressive today is still very demo-driven. -near term, i’m probably more bullish on boring robots. robots that are designed to do one/few job(s) really well or special uses cases will get adopted much faster. hotel delivery robots are already everywhere in china and just…work. -data is still a huge bottleneck. but something i found interesting: most companies i talked to don’t really want to buy third party data. they’d rather collect their own because of privacy, quality, and how specific the data needs to be for each use case. -the biggest “oh shit” moment for me was probably the manufacturing side. in shenzhen, you can prototype something, change a component, find another supplier, test it and manufacture it all within this insanely dense ecosystem. it made me wonder: if robotics really becomes the next massive hardware platform, how does the us compete with china on manufacturing and speed of iteration? no strong conclusion yet. still learning. but seeing the physical supply chain in person definitely changed how i think about the robotics race.

Set a reminder for Tomorrow! We have a special guest: @veratheape 🔥 Can’t miss it! Co- hosted by @honeybd Enter the @OthersideMeta with us! Set reminder here👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Always a good day when I see someone receive their Welcome Package. Love seeing the addition of the @BoringSecurity X @Ledger hardware wallets helping new Apes stay safe from day one. Those MBA air fresheners from @veratheape are about to have Tevi’s ride smelling brand new, even after he forgets his gym bag in the back seat. Our guy Tevi is officially ApeFest ready with the @ApeChainHUB fanny pack. Huge shoutout to @NFThoarder888 for storing, organizing, and shipping every single package. We couldn’t do this without you.

I heard that all my friends can see me now. Hey 👋 Just had a bored ape tokyo gathering during WebX. Thanks @BoredApeYC @yugalabs for making it possible. IRL is alpha. own a bored ape, gain a worldwide family.

I heard that all my friends can see me now. Hey 👋 Just had a bored ape tokyo gathering during WebX. Thanks @BoredApeYC @yugalabs for making it possible. IRL is alpha. own a bored ape, gain a worldwide family.