Chaos & Amazement #2513 ChatGPT Ghiblification, the Assholocene, and Prince of Prussia

Mar 29, 2025

TikTok Shop is heading to France, Germany, and Italy on March 31. While its future in the US is up in the air, Europe gets a front-row seat to the scroll-to-buy era. https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-shop-steps-up-europe-expansion-with-us-future-unclear-2025-03-27/
- Meanwhile in the US: support for a TikTok ban is dropping (34% now vs. 50% last year), and fewer people see it as a national security threat (49% vs. 59%). As TikTok expands in Europe, the US debate seems to be cooling off. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/25/fewer-americans-now-support-tiktok-ban-see-the-platform-as-a-national-security-threat-than-in-spring-2023/
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends report, Gen Z trusts influencers more than traditional TV and movies. To them, social media content feels more relevant, and viral videos are the new primetime. Meanwhile, streaming fatigue is real, and studios must adapt. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/2025.html
Welcome to the Assholocene : A guide to surviving collective grief, where Netflix binges, pandemic PTSD, and workplace emotions collide. Not just personal, but a universal mood board of our messy times. https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/read/a-glossary-for-generation-grief

ChatGPT’s new image generator dropped, and wow! I’m speechless. https://openai.com/index/introducing-4o-image-generation/
- Social media instantly flooded with AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style memes. Fun for users, a headache for OpenAI’s GPUs, and a copyright controversy waiting to happen. Ghibli founder Miyazaki would *not* be amused. https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/openais-viral-studio-ghibli-moment-highlights-ai-copyright-concerns/
Earlier this week Google dropped Gemini 2.5 Pro—a smarter, always-thinking AI model that tops most benchmarks, including coding. But with OpenAI stealing the spotlight a day later, did anyone even notice? https://blog.google/technology/google-deepmind/gemini-model-thinking-updates-march-2025/

23andme has filed for bankruptcy, and its genetic database may be sold. For anyone who shared their DNA, this raises serious privacy concerns—your most personal data could end up in unknown hands. https://bnox.be/2025/03/the-dna-dilemma.html
Autonomous Killer Drones keep me up at night https://bnox.be/2025/03/autonomous-killer-drones-keep-me-up-at.html
Does your brand really need social media anymore? https://bnox.be/2025/03/does-your-brand-really-need-social.html

Find the fart (harder than you think) https://wordnerd.co/findthefart/
Prince of Prussia: Free browser game combines Wolfenstein's Nazi-slaying with Prince of Persia's brutal platforming. 15 challenging levels of retro fun from Adamatomic - playable now at https://adamatomic.itch.io/prince
5 years in the making! Sci-fi short film "Spiral" is finally premiered on DUST! It's a post-apocalyptic story about connection, hope, and the power of communication.