Austin Carr
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austincarr.bsky.social
Austin Carr
@austincarr.bsky.social
3.1K followers 150 following 36 posts
Features writer at Bloomberg Businessweek magazine & Bloomberg News.
Signal: acarr.54
X: https://x.com/AustinCarr
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Reposted by Austin Carr
reckless.bsky.social
If you thought social media had scrambled America’s CEOs just wait until they’re fully cooked by AI apple.news/AJ_ht7MMyT9G...
Copilot consumes Nadella’s life outside the office as well. He likes podcasts, but instead of listening to them, he loads transcripts into the Copilot app on his iPhone so he can chat with the voice assistant about the content of an episode in the car on his commute to Redmond. At the office, he relies on Copilot to deliver summaries of messages he receives in Outlook and Teams and toggles among at least 10 custom agents from Copilot Studio. He views them as his AI chiefs of staff, delegating meeting prep, research and other tasks to the bots. “I’m an email typist,” Nadella jokes of his job, noting that Copilot is thankfully very good at triaging his messages.
May 16, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Reposted by Austin Carr
dinabass.bsky.social
2 years ago Microsoft set out to spin an early GenAI lead (courtesy of the OpenAI deal) into corporate & consumer AI gold. @austincarr.bsky.social I take a look at how it's gone, how Satya is hedging bets, building new AI models & navigating changing OAI conditions www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Microsoft’s CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His
Nervous customers and a volatile partnership with OpenAI are complicating things for Satya Nadella and the world’s most valuable company.
www.bloomberg.com
May 15, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
caleweissman.bsky.social
I still have an app on my phone called "birthcandle" that i downloaded at a bar over 10 years ago so my friend could blow out candles on her birthday. The app no longer opens but I refuse to delete it. bsky.app/profile/aust...
January 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
God, I really miss the simpler days of Yo and HQ Trivia...

New @bloomberg.com essay on why I keep "ghost apps" on my iPhone like Foursquare & Vine:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
The Case for Keeping Dead Apps Around on Your Phone
Obsolete apps like Flappy Bird and Yo hearken back to a time when Silicon Valley wasn’t so fraught.
www.bloomberg.com
January 24, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
staceyshick.bsky.social
In today's Businessweek Daily, @austincarr.bsky.social has some color (I'm sorry, I'm sorry) on the work that goes into the fire retardants being airdropped in Los Angeles www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
Ground Crews Keep Red Stuff Flowing to Fight Wildfires
Perimeter Solutions’ flagship product is hard to miss. Plus: Green tech optimism, and the lure of Buc-ee’s.
www.bloomberg.com
January 23, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
alexblechman.bsky.social
Walgreens lost $200 million installing 10,000 video doors nobody wants or needs. We could already see soda bottles through the glass. What they should have done is install 10,000 video doors that all display Han Solo frozen in carbonite
Those stupid video screen fridge doors at Walgreens that show bottles on a shelf. The bottles behind the door
January 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
January 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
royalpratt.bsky.social
Walgreens is at center of some really baffling decisions, and this Bloomberg story about the drama behind their video freezer screens is a great read www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco
A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.
www.bloomberg.com
January 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
The guy who led Walgreens' investment in Theranos bet on another startup:
techmeme.com Techmeme @techmeme.com · Jan 16
A look at the legal dispute between Walgreens and Cooler Screens, which installed 10,000 smart doors that track shoppers and show ads at Walgreens' US stores (Austin Carr/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
January 16, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
amandamull.bsky.social
This is such a satisfying @austincarr.bsky.social story about a niche disaster that has fascinated me for years: The Walgreens video cooler door fiasco. A true retail cautionary tale. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco
A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.
www.bloomberg.com
January 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
Walgreens putting food and drinks behind high-tech refrigerator screens also turned out to be a disaster.

New @bloomberg.com feature on the $200 million lawsuit sparked from Walgreens' attempt to digitize the cooler aisle
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
January 16, 2025 at 2:13 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
Wrote about some of the best AI interface design of 2024, including from Anthropic, Granola, Cove and OpenAI www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
OpenAI’s Voice Mode for ChatGPT Among Best AI Product Design in 2024
As part of our end-of-year newsletters, I’ve been reflecting on the best AI product design of 2024. But first...
www.bloomberg.com
December 28, 2024 at 2:04 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
They also can be insanely profitable on secondary markets if you're clever enough www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
December 22, 2024 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
bostonglobe.com
Heavy rains Wednesday night flooded a ramp in the Ted Williams Tunnel along with other highways and left some 2,000 customers without electricity early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service and MassDOT. trib.al/WEqmC4a

(Video courtesy of @mariabarajas_ and @drevankappler)
December 12, 2024 at 2:31 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
Imho, ChatGPT Plus remains a steal at $20/month, and I imagine OpenAI could get away with charging a lot more than $200/month for ChatGPT Pro considering what it includes
www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
OpenAI Tests Limits of AI Enthusiasm With $200 ChatGPT Plan
OpenAI is looking to answer exactly how much we’re all willing to pay for the best artificial intelligence tools around. But first...
www.bloomberg.com
December 9, 2024 at 2:34 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
A bit alarming that my most played Spotify song is the 50 Cent cover from "Anatomy of a Fall"
December 4, 2024 at 10:38 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. Grateful to get to spend another turkey day with this turkey
November 28, 2024 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
mkarolian.bsky.social
Traffic from Bluesky to @bostonglobe.com is already 3x that of Threads, and we are seeing 4.5x the conversions to paying digital subscribers.
November 26, 2024 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Austin Carr
shiraovide.bsky.social
Anyway, tapping this sign from the lesser-cited part of Michael Crichton's “Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.”

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
“Futurists don’t know any more about the future than you or I,” Crichton said, later ripping into the cheapness of heralding the world of tomorrow. “You can’t lose. Even though the speculation is correct only by chance, which means you are wrong at least 50% of the time, nobody remembers, and therefore nobody cares. You are never accountable.”
November 22, 2024 at 9:14 PM
austincarr.bsky.social
Another 4 billion reasons Amazon needs Anthropic's help to improve its struggling AI: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Amazon Investing an Additional $4 Billion in AI Firm Anthropic
Amazon.com Inc. is boosting its stake in OpenAI rival Anthropic, builder of the Claude generative artificial intelligence software.
www.bloomberg.com
November 22, 2024 at 2:32 PM