Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies. Every Wednesday, I do this in Charts of the Week.
CHART OF THE WEEK
The Lensa AI app has seen a dramatically increasing number of downloads since it introduced its AI-generated digital portraits feature. By one analysis, it drove more than a billion dollars of sales in a single day. Rather disturbingly, we quickly found out that it was generating hypersexualised images of women, especially non-white women. I highly recommend reading Melissa Heikkilä’s powerful article about her experience.
WEDNESDAY SURVEY
Source: Messari
Last week, we asked what the biggest estimated source of carbon emissions is for the Qatar World Cup 2022. 53% of readers selected the correct answer: Construction. Congratulations!
The rest of the edition is open to paying members only. Here’s what’s behind the paywall 🔒:
Analysis: How decarbonisation is putting pressure on a flawed lithium market,
EVs now cost less to run than ICE cars in Europe,
The increasing climate polarisation on social media.