Big Tech’s big plans to destroy the ad industry

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

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Big Tech’s big plans to destroy the ad industry

In a podcast interview with Stratechery, Mark Zuckerberg let slip Meta’s plan to entirely get rid of ad agencies—and “eliminate the entire advertising ecosystem, from creative on down.” Here’s how AI will help seal the wholescale takeover of the advertising business by tech platforms.

The tech takeover: As Zuck laid it out, “if you think about the pieces of advertising, there’s content creation, the creative, there’s the targeting, and there’s the measurement.” First, tech platforms helped businesses “measure” the success of their ads (impressions, clicks etc). Next, they helped these ads target their potential customers (by monetising our personal info).

Point to note: Google went even further with its ad-tech platforms. It forced companies to hand over their entire ad budget to Google. Without its platform, your brand or product will literally never be found. It also held publishing platforms hostage—because they have “no choice but to continue to use Google’s ad tech products, even though the company keeps 20 cents on the dollar from every ad purchase.”

The final nail: in the advertising industry’s coffin is coming soon. Of course, it’s AI. Zuckerberg explained:

But there’s still the creative piece, which is basically businesses come to us and they have a sense of what their message is or what their video is or their image… we just make it for them… in general, we’re going to get to a point where you’re a business, you come to us, you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account, you don’t need any creative, you don’t need any targeting demographic, you don’t need any measurement, except to be able to read the results that we spit out. I think that’s going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising. So if you think about what percent of GDP is advertising today, I would expect that that percent will grow.

Imagine that: thanks to AI, a company will now pay Google or Meta to create the ad, target and run the ad, and ensure its success.

But, but, but: The US courts recently ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly over advertising—and the Justice department has argued that the best solution is to break up Google. Zuck’s dreams could easily turn into a nightmare—since Meta is also being sued for its monopoly over social media platforms.

Reading list: Stratechery has the entire Zuck interview. The Verge sums up Zuckerberg’s remarks. New York Times reports on Google lawsuit and its fallout. Our 2020 Big Story does a good job of explaining how Google uses its search engine to dominate the adtech market.

Australian election: Yet another ‘Trump card’ victory

Donald Trump has been an electoral boon for liberal parties around the world—almost single-handedly bringing down their conservative rivals. Thanks to him, the Mark Carney-led Liberal Party won reelection in Canada. Now, the Labor Party has returned to power in Australia. Anthony Albanese is the first Aussie prime minister to win reelection in 21 years. And as with Pierre Poilievre in Canada, the confusingly-named Liberal Party chief—Peter Dutton—lost his seat. Well done, Donald!

The Trump card: While Trump has not threatened to invade Australia—as yet—voters were unhappy with the tariff wars—and the US, in general. And Dutton managed to paint himself as a Down Under Donald:

Dutton was seen by many as Australia's Trump, which appeared to go down badly with voters, despite his attempts to shake off comparisons made between his policies on immigration, public sector cuts and China, and the Trump administration.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told BBC Newshour that Dutton ran a "very Trumpian campaign", and the US president was "the mood music that had a very big influence on how people perceived" the Liberal-National opposition.

Point to note: Albanese’s poll ratings were at an all-time low at the start of this year. So this is a remarkable turnaround—entirely courtesy Trump.

Reading list: CNN offers a broad overview of the election. This preelection BBC News report is best on the Trump factor.

New GM rice varieties: Reason for hope or alarm?

The context: Due to climate change, farmers are struggling with longer dry spells, erratic rainfall, and shrinking water tables. In India, where the water is already running dangerously low—global warming threatens our food supply, especially crops like rice paddy that require large amounts of water.

What happened now: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has unveiled two genome-edited rice varieties—the first of their kind in India. Called DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1, they need far less water, and deliver bigger yields:

Kamala is drought-resilient—matures 20 days earlier and gives 19% more yield.
Pusa DST Rice 1 can thrive in inhospitable saline, alkaline or coastal soil. It performs 30% better than its parent in coastal areas

But, but, but: GM crops have long been controversial. Many experts argue it is safer and healthier to switch to climate-resilient crops such as millets, jowar, bajra etc. Although these two paddy varieties have received "appropriate biosafety clearance," the long-term health effects of eating genetically modified rice is still unknown.

Why this matters: Paddy is grown on 45 million hectares of agricultural land—the highest in the world in 2020. It accounts for 40% of India’s foodgrain basket—and is critical to our food security. We may not have the luxury of quibbling over GM crops. (Indian Express)

The next uber-luxury (uber-stupid) fad: T-rex leather

An alliance of three companies—genomic engineering leader The Organoid Company, startup company Lab-Grown Leather, and creative agency VML—plan to make “a cruelty-free, environmentally friendly, high-quality alternative to traditional leather.” Sounds lovely—except this ‘green’ option will be made of Tyrannosaurus Rex skin. Here’s the plan:

Using fossilized T-Rex collagen as a blueprint, the production process will involve engineering cells with synthetic DNA. Unlike other bio-based alternatives, Lab-Grown Leather’s ‘scaffold-free’ approach allows cells to create their own natural structure, resulting in a material that is structurally identical to traditional leather.

That big serving of word salad has sparked eye rolls across the scientific community. Let’s start with so-called T-rex collagen:

Collagen is an extremely common structural protein found all across the animal kingdom. It forms the foundation of your skin, bones, muscles, and ligaments. Even if the project could create "T-rex" leather, it's unlikely that the collagen it's made of will be much different from what you'd find in a cow. In other words, there won't be anything uniquely "T-Rex" about the "T-Rex" garments and accessories.

Also this: Others point out that “you can’t make leather from collagen... Leather is tanned from skin”—which consists of “epithelial tissues” that are made of keratin. Turns out it isn’t all that easy to harness “the biology of the past to create the luxury materials of the future”—especially if you get the biology wrong. OTOH, it won’t be all that hard to scam rich people into spending stupid money on dino leather. That said, we totally heart the cheesy AI-generated PR image. (Gizmodo)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Despite the buzz around ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, a major study of Denmark’s job market in 2023–24 finds they’ve barely nudged wages or employment so far.
Plus, it may sound smart, but a new study shows ChatGPT is just as overconfident and biased as the rest of us—falling for nearly half of the classic human thinking traps.
Mozilla says the DOJ’s crackdown on Google could kill Firefox—calling the potential fallout “very frightening” in court.
Yahoo has a good investment tip on what not to do—Gen Z women are being sold the Birkin bag as a better bet than the S&P 500, and it’s as risky as it sounds.
SEBI has accused Pranav Adani—Gautam Adani’s nephew—of leaking insider info about a major green energy deal to his brother-in-law before it went public.
Samsung wants a $520 million tax demand thrown out—telling an Indian tribunal that Reliance did the same with networking gear imports and got a free pass.
Uber has backed out of a deal to onboard 5,000 BluSmart EVs, spooked by the fleet’s price tag and depreciation worries.
India’s screen biz is set to hit $17 billion by 2029—led by a streaming surge to $8.6 billion, while TV hangs on at $6.8 billion thanks to good old living room loyalty.

sports & entertainment

Netflix is bringing Hitchcock to your screen in June—and to the big screen too, with a six-week run at NYC’s Paris Theater.
Vivek Chaudhary’s ‘I, Poppy’—a tale of activism and poppy farming in India—just bagged Best International Feature at Canada’s Hot Docs fest.
Hrithik Roshan is now India’s richest star kid—his Rs 3,100 crore net worth beats out Salman, Alia, Ranbir, and Aryan Khan.
Rajasthan Royals’ stand-in captain Riyan Parag became the first IPL batter to smash six sixes off six balls in a row. But, but, but: it wasn’t enough to prevent an agonising loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders by just one run.

health & environment

Tim Friede spent nearly 20 years injecting himself with snake venom—now his blood has helped scientists create a breakthrough antivenom.
Sitting for over six hours a day? A new study says you're setting yourself up for serious neck pain.

meanwhile, in the world

It’s World Press Freedom Day but the state of press freedom around the world is actually quite bleak. The Hindu breaks down the data.
Some US cities are cancelling cultural events like Cinco de Mayo, out of fear of ICE raids and deportations.
Associated Press has an explainer on Greg Abel—the executive handpicked by Warren Buffet to succeed him as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
Spanish and Portuguese mobile and internet users have turned to Elon Musk’s Starlink in record numbers, in light of last week’s hours-long electricity blackout.
Ahead of a national election, Portugal has announced the expulsion of 18,000 foreign nationals living in the country without authorisation.
Israel is set to call up tens of thousands of reservists to ramp up its assault on Gaza—defying global outrage and growing pressure to end the war.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport has been hit with a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels—disrupting Israeli air traffic.
Meanwhile in Gaza, UNICEF has warned that thousands of Palestinian children continue to face the threat of starvation due to Israel’s total blockade. Over 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition since the start of the year.
Trump-appointed FBI director Kash Patel has been accused of spending more time partying in Las Vegas than performing his duties in office.
Pro-tip—avoid flying into Newark airport if travelling to NYC. Air traffic control staffing issues have caused hundreds of flight delays for the sixth day in a row.
Maldives President Muizzu broke Zelenskyy’s record with a 15-hour press conference—to say there’s nothing wrong with past India pacts, despite his own 2023 campaign claims.

meanwhile, in India

On account of World Press Freedom Day, The Guardian has a good read on the growing threats to journalists in Modi’s India, where fear, violence, and media control are eroding press freedom.
Over 2,000 detained, homes raided, and fear returned—Kashmiris called the crackdown after the Pahalgam terror attack a ‘living hell’.
India has frozen all imports from Pakistan, banned ships bearing its flag from docking, and cut postal ties in a sharp move to sever trade links.
The Print investigates allegations of abuse at Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences—the ‘world’s largest indigenous school’.
The NHRC panel ordered Odisha to probe the death of yet another Nepali student at KIIT after Prisa Sah was found dead in her hostel room.

Five things to see

One: Donald bhakts ticked off the Vatican—and the entire Catholic community—by posting a photo of him as the pope on Friday. The worst bit: It was shared by the official White House handle. A reminder: The nine days of official mourning for Pope Francis has not ended. An even greater eyesore: This AI-generated video of Pope Donald in action—shared and celebrated by MAGA supporters. No, we refuse to embed it. (Associated Press)

Two: We don’t usually carry infographics from other publications. But we were blown away by this chart created by Kashyap Kompella in the Hindustan Times. Look at the circles on the right side—they compare who owned India’s wealth in 1961 and in 2023. Take the top 0.1%, for instance. They accounted for 3.2% of the nation’s wealth in 1961—and a staggering 29% in 2023. For the top 1%, that number jumps from 12.9% to 39.5%. Yes, liberalisation greatly grew the pie of prosperity—but the rich have almost swallowed it whole. (Hindustan Times)

Three: Warren Buffett announced that he will retire at the end of the year—shocking the audience at a shareholder meeting on Saturday. Equally surprised: his vice-chair Greg Abel whom he named his successor as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. At the end of his speech, he got a 10-minute standing ovation. What we loved most was this bit of wisdom in his speech. Nope, it has nothing to do with investing. (The Guardian)

Four: Irrfan Khan’s son Babil posted a video on his Instagram of him crying and calling out Bollywood as “fake.” He also namechecked actors like Ananya Panday, Shanaya Kapoor, Siddhant Chaturvedi, etc. The video went viral, the actor deactivated his Insta—and his family released a statement saying, “Babil is allowed to have difficult days—and this was one of them.” See the viral video below. (Indian Express)

Five: Lady Gaga sang to a record-breaking crowd of 2.5 million people at a free concert on Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro. According to organizers, this was the highest-attended concert by a female artist in history—beating the record previously held by Madonna who drew 1.6 million at the same venue last year. The singalongs were insane—as you can see below. (Variety)