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Imagine a Yelp-style user-review site that lets users generate and post AI video reviews of local businesses. Say one of these videos presents a business in a bad light, and the business owner sues for defamation. Can the business sue the reviewer and the review site that hosted the video? In the near-to-immediate future, company websites will be infused with AI tools. A home decor brand might use a bot to handle customer service messages. A health provider might use AI to summarize notes from a patient exam. A fintech app might use personalized AI-generated video to onboard new customers. But what happens when someone claims they’ve been defamed or otherwise harmed by some AI-generated content? Or, say, claims harm after a piece of their own AI-generated content is taken down? The fact is, websites hosting AI-generated content may face more legal jeopardy than ones that host human-created content. That’s because existing defamation laws don’t apply neatly to claims arising from generated content, and how future court cases settle this could limit or expand the kinds of AI content a website operator can safely generate and display. And while the legal landscape is in flux, knowing how the battle is being fought in courtrooms can help companies plan ahead for a world in which AI content is everywhereand its veracity unclear. In 1996, at the dawn of the internet, forward-thinking lawmakersOregon Senator Ron Wyden and then-California Representative Chris Coxfeared that libel lawsuits and aggressive regulation by Washington, D.C., could overwhelm budding internet companies, which could operate forums, social networks, or search engines, stifling growth and slowing investment. Wyden and Cox proposed Section 230, a statute in the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ensuring that no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. In other words, if a website had a hand in creating the content, its legal immunity would vanish. Since then, Section 230 has proved surprisingly durable, surviving relatively unscathed through the internet boom, the social media craze, and the mobile revolution. At the same time, it has become something of a political lightning rod in recent years as policymakers have explored ways of regulating social media. But the next revolution in techgenerative AImay not enjoy any of Section 230s protections. Our current AI models do something like co-create content alongside the user, who prompts the model to generate what they want. Based on that, tools like ChatGPT and Sora would seem to be excluded from Section 230 legal immunity. Alas, it may not be that simple. The duality of Sora Generative AI companies have been sued several times for libelous output, but none have lost, and none have yet resorted to Section 230 in their defense. In one of the more widely known cases, syndicated radio host Mark Walters sued OpenAI for defamation after ChatGPT falsely claimed that Walters had been accused of embezzling funds from a gun rights group. OpenAI won the case without having to claim Section 230 protection. The chatbot had generated the false information after warning that the accusation had occurred after its training data cutoff date. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on whether the company has used Section 230 as part of a legal defense. It gets even trickier with OpenAIs new Sora app, which lets users generate AI videos and then share them on its TikTok-style social feed. (The Meta AI app does essentially the same.) Using the language of Section 230, Sora is both an information content provider (a speaker or creator) and a provider of an interactive computer service (a host). Sora, and hybrid apps like it, may raise the stakes on the question of when Section 230 should be applied. Chatbots can defame with words, but Sora quickly generates alarmingly realistic video, which can convey a message more believably by showing, rather than telling. Combine that with Soras seamless distribution of the video and, in the wrong hands, you have an all-in-one tool for defamation. A borderline case At some point, AI companies are likely to reach for Section 230, possibly as a last resort, if sued, according to some legal experts, including Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA and a leading thinker on AI and libel. Thorny questions about how the provision applies to their technology (whether they can use its protections to mount a defense) may well arise. And despite the fact that the language of 230 would seem to preclude it, its conceivable that a court could, in certain circumstances, accept it as a valid defense. Suppose a Sora user generates a video showing a public official taking a bribe, triggering a libel suit. This, Volokh argues, would amount to something of a borderline case: Sora creates the video itself (meaning the content is provided by itself). On the other hand, Volokh says, it’s generating the video based on a query or based on a prompt submitted by a user. So you might say the defamatory elements of that stem from what the user is contributing, not Sora. OpenAIs lawyers would likely point out that the platform itself doesnt decide on the content of the videos it produces, only that its implementing its users wishes, Volokh says. That is to say, without specific prompts from the user, the AI would never have acted to create the offending video in the first place. Yet a court may still hew to the letter of Section 230, which states that if at least part of the creation of the video happened during its generation, it isnt covered. The fact that OpenAIs Sora provides both a mechanism for creating and distributing a video may weaken its case for 230 protection. Libel law, Volokh says, would require a generated video to be published in order to be considered defamatory information. In theory, a court could argue that OpenAI should reasonably foresee that a video created on its platform would, then, be distributed, Volokh says. And therefore it is basically aiding and abetting this defamation through its own actions of generating the video, he adds. The shield and the sword Yet theres a case to be made that generative AI platforms do deserve the legal protections afforded by Section 230, even if they help both create and distribute the content, says Jess Miers, a law rofessor at the University of Akron. Like social media companies, these services face constant challenges from users who generate problematic content, and they need incentives to both allow expressive activity and build guardrails against harmful or infringing outputs. Indeed, that was the original intent of Section 230, as Wyden told me in 2018. Section 230 provides both a shield and a sword to internet companies. The shield protects them from liability for harmful content posted on their platforms by users. The sword is the laws good samaritan clause, which provides legal cover for actively removing harmful content from their platform. Before Section 230, tech companies were hesitant to moderate content for fear of being branded publishers and, thus, liable for toxic user content. With generative apps like Sora, OpenAIs developers effectively co-create content with the user, Miers says. The developers choose the training data, train the models, and do the fine-tuning that shapes the output. The user contributes the prompts. Congress may need to craft a new kind of protection that captures this co-creative dynamic to preserve expression, safety, and competition in this evolving new market, Miers says. Congress might try to rewrite Section 230 (or construct a new law) that distinguishes between defamatory intent on the users part versus the AIs. This would involve digging into the details of how AI models work. Lawmakers might start by studying how users could misuse models to create harmful content, such as bypassing safety guardrails or eliminating made by AI labels. If thats a recurring problem, then a 230-style framework shielding AI companies from liability for users misuse could make sense, Miers says. As many Sora app users have noticed, OpenAI is playing it very safe with the kinds of videos it allows. Its already taken down many, many videos, and has agreed to restrict the use of images of public or historical figures (such as Martin Luther King Jr.) upon request. This suggests that while a Section 230 might protect AI companies from libel suits in some circumstances, OpenAI isnt eager to test the theory.
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E-Commerce
Some seven million Americans are now on GLP-1 weight loss drugs, a figure expected to rise to 24 million by 2035. These medications curb users’ appetites for fatty, ultra-processed foods, and grocery stores are noticing: total sold units of doughnuts, cakes, and cookies are down by 10%, 19%, and 13%, respectively, compared to five years ago. With this drop in revenue from junk food, grocery stores need to think about how to make more money from other categories. For Whole Foods, there’s one aisle that brims with potential: supplements. Today, Whole Foods is introducing a new line of Japanese-inspired supplements called Apothékary onto its aisles. The brand is known for its distinct form factor factor: While many supplements are sold as gummies, capsules, or powders, Apothékary sells tinctures, which can be dropped under the tongue, or incorporated into drinks. Apothékary is part of the booming supplements industry, currently valued at $192 billion, and projected to grow to $415 by 2033. The brand has been growing rapidly thanks to its recent expansion into all 350 of Ulta Beauty stores and 400 Sprouts grocery stores. But the move into Whole Foods is its biggest one yet, and offers insight into how consumers are spending their grocery dollars as their food spending goes down. [Photo: Carl Ostberg/Apothékary] Modernizing tradition Shizu Okusa launched Apothékary in 2020. She had previously founded a cold-pressed juice brand called Jrink, which had 14 retail locations and was sold at Whole Foods. In 2019, Okusa sold Jrink to Puree Juice Bar, and began plotting out her next business. This time, she wanted to launch a company that was more deeply connected to her own roots. Okusa’s father grew up in Japan. After dropping out of high school, he decided to take a boat to Canada, where he got a job as a laborer on a dairy farm. Eventually, he decided to start his own farm, one where he could use traditional Japanese techniques, such as space-saving vertical farming. As Okusa grew up in this farming community, she learned about the Japanese approach to health and medicine, which is intimately connected with the land, herbs, and plants. “In Japanese culture, we often talk about nature as medicine,” she says. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of pills. Instead, my family relied on plant-based remedies.” In Japan, there is a herbal medicine tradition called Kampo. It goes back to the Sixth century, when the Empress of Japan sent a group of doctors to China to learn about the medical practices that had evolved there. These doctors brought back the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine to their homeland, then localized them to the ingredients that are abundant in Japan, like seaweed. Today, Kampo continues to be practiced in Japan. Doctors and researchers are now modernizing Kampo practices and performing clinical studies on formulations. There are also hospitals in Japan, such as Tohoku University Hospital and Okayama University Hospital, which integrate both traditional and Western medicine into their treatments. (This is similar to what is happening in China, with traditional Chinese medicine.) Okusa believed that there was an opportunity to bring traditional Kampo formulations to the Western market, particularly as many Americans are embracing other Japanese wellness practices. And she relies on ingredients that are backed by peer-reviewed studies. “There is growing awareness about meditation and even the matcha tea ceremony, which are both Japanese,” she points out. [Photo: Apothékary] The Evolving Supplement Landscape Okusa launched Apothékary with a collection of herbal formulas designed to improve sleep, digestion, and energy. Apothékary’s original formulas came in powders, but Okusa realized that to stand out in the market, she needed to innovate. She had the idea of changing their form factor to tinctures, so she began to make liquid supplements that could be taken under the tongue or in beverages. “The tincture form has been around for a long time, particularly in Eastern medicine traditions, but it wasn’t very common in the U.S.,” she says. “It added novelty and also convenience, because you can just put it directly into your mouth.” This new format was key to driving the brand’s growth. During the pandemic, many people realized they were drinking too much and wanted to curb their alcohol consumption. Apothékary launched a collection of alcohol alternatives, like Wine Down, Take The Edge Off, and Rose-Tinted Glasses, which were tinctures that could be consumed in a mocktail. As little jars of liquid, they looked much more like spirits and they were designed to provide many of the benefits people are looking for in an alcoholic cocktail, like relaxation and better sleep. Apothékary’s unusual approach to delivering the supplement was partly what made Whole Foods bring the brand into its stores. “Whether you take [the tincture] directly or mixed into mocktails, it provides an engaging format,” says Abbey Appel, a Whole Foods merchant who specializes in functional foods and supplements. [Photo: Apothékary] As the pandemic was waning, the next big trend was the rise in GLP-1 drugs, which the FDA approved for weight loss. As adoption of these drugs spiked, people began consuming less junk food and alcohol. Okusa saw a spike in Apothékary’s sales, as people seemed to turn to these tinctures, which are tasty despite being calorie- and sugar-free. “We could not have predicted how GLP-1s would change people’s consumption patterns, but our brand has benefited from this new reality,” she says. “We’re creating an alternative for people who have stopped buying as many chips and cookies, and are more focused on their health.” As GLP-1s increase in popularity and Americans continue to seek out products that promote wellness, grocery stores are introducing new brands into their mix. Whole Foods has been actively seeking out interesting new supplements to bring into their aisles. Appel says that the brand’s non-Western approach to wellness was intriguing. “The founder’s genuine connection to Japanese heritage resonates with our customers,” says Appel. While demand for wellness products continues to grow, the market is also getting more crowded, as new brands pop up. Okusa believes that the key to the brand’s success so far has been it’s ability to be agile and innovative. “Consumer behavior is constantly evolving,” she says. “It’s important to keep evolving too.”
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E-Commerce
My first time plopping down on my therapists couch, I tried to breeze through the basics. Yes, upbringing, romance, family, social lifeall important. But I entered that softly lit space to vent about the place that eats up a third of my waking life. I was there to talk about the office. The physical location wasnt the issue; the office snacks were elite. The problem was the people: the supervisor with no respect for work-life balance, the snooty coworker firing off slick emails, the boys club that would always look out for its own. Being the only Black employee there wore me out in ways I couldnt always name. And talking it out with a licensed professional who looked like meincense smoke in the airhelped me locate my peace from 9 to 5. Im thankful those healing sessions a few years ago kept me from crashing out on Brayden in sales. But I never anticipated theyd also make me a better manager once I had a team of my own to lead. My most recent job had its share of team drama when I arrived. Morale was in the gutter, but workplace woes seemed to weigh heaviest on Gina, one of my direct reports. She was checked out like bell hooks books at the library. The go-getter energy she had when she started had devolved into bare-minimum effortand a creative interpretation of the companys unlimited vacation policy. The 1.0 version of me mightve addressed the situation by mirroring the coldness I experienced early in my career, parroting those icy conversations, questioning whether I had what it takes to be successful in a place like this. Corporate America can be cutthroat, especially when deliverables are regularly behind schedule and quotas are missed. But I felt an obligation to help my team shine, which meant pulling from the lessons I internalized back on my therapists cozy black upholstery. I sat with Gina in a 1:1 meeting to remind her that the companys PTO policy is at managements discretion. But then I got curious about her apathy. Turns out, she said shed been slept on more than Tempur-Pedic during promotion considerations. Even worse, before my arrival, she had been pushed into a role that was vastly different from the one she initially signed up for. I let her know I understood her frustration, like, for real. After all, Id previously been in her New Balances as I tried to climb the corporate ladder. I cut her a deal: If she stepped up on the nonnegotiables, Id give her a chance to prove herself as the point person on more challenging projects. The results didnt show themselves overnight. Shed been burned before, so it took some time and patience for her to fully buy in. But she took our handshake agreement and ran with it. Within a few weeks, she was hitting deadlines, contributing valuable ideas during brainstorming meetings, and even turning on her camera during Zoom calls. I gave her verbal flowers in her next performance review and got props from my boss, who was impressed at how I became an even better motivator than Jeezy. The thing people dont discuss enough is the way therapy teaches you the art of real talkthat is, effective, empathetic communication. You learn to listen actively, validate peoples feelings, and respond constructively. At first, it took conscious effort, but eventually it became second nature. That doesnt mean I turned into some kumbaya caricature of a manager. Accountability still mattered. I developed a knack for delivering (and receiving) tough feedback. I understood how to make people feel seen. The value of talking through interpersonal challengeseven the unsolvable ones. And because my team rocked with me, they wanted to kill it to make us all look good, I think. (Although in my self-conscious moments, I can only imagine what theyre telling their therapists about me. None of my business. Boundaries!) I can trace so many of my management wins back to my therapists office, a safe space where I was challenged to pause before reacting, to see the bigger picture, to regulate before responding. So, no, I dont recommend therapy just to survive toxic workplaces. I recommend it because it helps you build healthier ones. The Only Black Guy in the Office is copublished with Levelman.com.
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E-Commerce
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