Intent

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Lab-grown meat might go mainstream soon

Midjourney: a futuristic lab making meat using algorithms and data science, hyper-real, robots and people --ar 4:1 --v 5.1

The USDA recently approved lab-grown meat. Here’s what it means, what companies have tried (and failed) before, the future of foodtech, and what comes next.

Late last month, the US Department of Agriculture granted approval for the production of “cell-cultured meat” for the first time ever. The two companies are GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. Currently, they both produce so-called “chicken,” with other formats still on the way.

The process:

• Factories extract a very small amount of cells from a selected chicken cell line.

• Cells are placed into an incubator-of-sorts.

• Nutrients are mixed in to cultivate those cells.

• Out comes full slabs of slaughter-free meat.

What other companies are cooking

This is a real breakthrough for what’s been dubbed the “cultivated food” industry — Silicon Valley startups like Wildtype have been trying to get cell-based seafood on the menu for years. So, with this new approval, might we see a cascading effect on the rest of the farming and food world?

Foodtech has had plenty of ups and downs over the last several years, with companies trying to remove pieces of the process from the equation in the name of innovation.

• Companies like Beyond Meat and The EVERY Company have made a name for themselves producing meatless…meat.

• And in the robotics sector, Bowery, CafeX, and Sweetgreen’s “Infinite Kitchen” have leveraged machines to remove human elements through robotic farmers, baristas, and chefs.

• Even companies like Series A-funded Suvie are bringing robochefs to the consumer kitchen by pairing pre-made meals with proprietary oven tech.

On the other hand, robo-pizza startup Zume catastrophically failed to automate the Pizza Huts of the world out of the market, and Juicero infamously tried to sell what amounted to a $400 toothpaste squeezer (but not before both raised hundreds of millions in capital).

Next steps for UPSIDE and GOOD Meat

UPSIDE has already announced plans to 20x their production as they expand into a massive new factory, with GOOD Meat breaking ground on a new, state-of-the-art production plant. Exact timelines are still TBD when it comes to food hitting the shelves.

On the surface, the positives for globally relevant issues are pretty clear: it’s hard to overlook new biological breakthroughs, plus cascading effects across world hunger, carbon emissions, and ethical farming.

Our gut feeling is that pricing will have to come down to make this more than a niche product at a commercial level. But as new approvals roll in and competition begins to pop up (and as VC funds dedicate themselves to this future), the next phase of food might not be so far away.

Follow the money

You should also know: according to Crunchbase, the USDA was a leading investor in both GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods (and GOOD Meat even added the former USDA secretary to their advisory board). So, if you want to know what foodtech startups you should be tracking, the USDA investment portfolio might be a good place to start.

Funding info: GOOD Meat, $267M raised | UPSIDE Foods, $598M raised | The EVERY Company, $240M raised | Suvie, $726K raised
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Writing on the edge

Midjourney: a robot writer writing a screenplay --ar 4:1 --v 5.1

Last week, actors joined writers in their ongoing strike against media giants and streaming companies. At its root, compensation, business models, and tech-replacing-creatives are all a part of the conversation, but there are nuances at play – streaming shortcomings, AI, and good old-fashioned economic theory.

While AI isn’t at the top of the unions’ lists of concerns, many writers, actors, and commentators are primarily concerned about the inevitable new shape of the industry. Let’s dive in to what that future might look like.

Tech on set

AI tools are already being utilized across filmmaking.

• Hyper-real generative content creation startup Metaphysic helped to de-age Tom Hanks in his movie, Here.

• VR solution company DGene is helping production teams write algorithms of all sorts to speed up visual effects and other tedious aspects of filmmaking.

• Runway helped with green-screening on Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Startups are quickly innovating for streaming audiences—and their offerings are cheaper, faster, and often, more realistic than traditional VFX and CGI.

Beyond the writing room?

While we haven’t heard about generative AI writing end-to-end screenplays, LLMs are being deployed in writers’ rooms already.

• Writers from the show Mrs. Davis used algorithms to generate episode titles, and there are whispers of plotline brainstorms, character development, and line-by-line dialogue redrafts happening in collaboration with ChatGPT.

• For years now, studios have been using AI pre-production in deciding which films to produce – analyzing historical data about performance, cross-referencing it with information about themes and key talent, and using ML to find patterns to fund.

• There have been (sometimes terrifying) AI-produced children’s shows on YouTube for a long time, and Genius Brands just announced it’s using GPT and image generation to release brand new kids' programming – in the form of a show called Kidaverse Fast Facts.

Tensions rise? Earlier this month, a long-running screenplay-writing competition, Scriptapalooza, apologized and canceled an AI-centric event after backlash. For the time being, AI is limited in where it can play, but it’s gaining complexity and nuance. So, it makes sense that the WGA is bringing it up in hopes of pushing for regulations in an effort to prepare for whatever the future might throw at them

Streaming struggles shift

Here’s the deal:

1. There is another truth at hand: most of us want something to watch, and networks want to give it to us. It doesn’t matter if shows are delayed and SNL is paused, we’re already addicted to entertainment. A long strike, like 2008, gave rise to the low-cost and viral rise of The Apprentice. Writers face more than just lost wages – they risk teaching the execs how to work around their absence.
   

2. While budgets have gone up over the past decade and median writer-producer pay has fallen, the hardest truth is that the streamers don’t make money either way. The budgets are huge, yeah, but they’re spending them all on blockbusters, celebrity showrunners, and massive production costs. Tech companies are losing money to build their content divisions. Old media (think Lionsgate and AMC) is the worst-positioned, and experts are predicting a catalyst for more mergers and buyout activity among smaller outfits.
   

3. Social media—specifically TikTok, YouTube, Reels, and however many more are going to pop up in the meantime—are going to continue to steal streaming platforms’ audience with ad-supported content. Why rely on professionals and streaming companies when you can watch amateur content that’s arguably just as entertaining? TikTok surpassed Netflix as the world's most-used app by those under 35. Snapchat has merged reality TV and streaming with its social media services, and its user growth is already increasing at a higher rate than in past quarters.

Zoom out?

Nerves are both excited and frazzled. Productions like Deadpool 3 and the next installment of the new Mission: Impossible are being halted, but AI innovators keep tweeting about their latest generative creations in the meantime. We’ll have to see what the screenplay of life has in store for us next.

Funding info: Metaphysic, $7.5M raised | DGene, $41.3M raised | Runway, $236.5M raised | Genius Brands is a publicly-traded (OTC:GNUS) global brand management company

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Fiat says gray is out

• Last week, Italian car manufacturer Fiat decided to halt their production of gray cars in conjunction with their latest slogan: “Italy, the land of colors. Fiat, the brand of colors.”

• The new palette honors the Italian landscape, which means bright oranges, yellows, and blues. Could this signal a broader focus away from grays and beiges in general?

• We’ve had a minimalist decade, and if history rhymes, it might be time to bring back a version of the bright, colorful, and gaudy aesthetics that came with the iPod Nano.

• Designers in tech have reintroduced radial gradients, surrealism, 80s street style, and retro-futurism over the past few months, and this might be the dawn of a new era of looks.

Thanks for reading, we welcome your feedback!

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