Lab Weekly — 02/07/2025. Closing the “de minimis” loophole...
As the U.S. government moves to close the “de minimis” loophole that allowed packages under $800 of value to enter U.S. duty-free, along with EU regulators planning similar measures, the ecommerce landscape faces a major shake-up that will impact retailers large and small.
Key Takeaways
Three key takeaways from the brouhaha surrounding the new AI challenger. Four cross-category trends from the CES show floor that brand marketers need to know.
Following the DeepSeek shake-up last week, the AI industry continues to double down developing AI agents with more direct use cases. OpenAI’s new Deep Research feature, now available for paid subscribers on the $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier, is one of the latest examples in this regard.
This new AI agent can conduct multi-step research for you by pulling a robust amount of information from the web and synthesizing those sources for you in a comprehensive report. Among people who have tried this new feature, the reported consensus seems to be that it is pretty impressive, especially compared to its previously launched Operator, a more general-purpose AI agent, or Google Gemini’s similarly named “deep research” feature.
AI Advancements
It’s interesting to ponder what this would mean for consumer behavior. Theoretically, someone could make an AI shopping assistant that conducts deep research into a particular category before making its recommendations based on the parameters set by users. The rapid commoditization also suggests that AI-driven experiences will likely become more integrated into everyday applications.
If OpenAI’s tool is cloned in a day, the key competitive advantage may not be the technology itself, but rather the distribution channels and partnerships that determine which AI solutions gain traction.
Google's Partnership with Verizon
Speaking of distribution channels and partnerships, Google’s AI subscription, Google is partnering with Verizon to distribute its Google One Premium subscription as a wireless or home internet add-on starting this week. The subscription unlocks access to Gemini Advanced, which allows access to Google’s experimental AI models and adds Gemini features to Google apps like Gmail or Docs.
Given that Google is integrating Gemini AI into Google TV — which is one of the popular smart TV software in the U.S., with 270 million active monthly users in June 2024 — some Verizon users might encounter Gemini AI soon if their Smart TV runs on Google TV.
Tubi's Growth and Original Content
Tubi, the Fox-owned FAST channel, has been seeing solid growth in recent years. As of January, it has hit 97 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 24% from the 78 million MAUs it reported in May 2024.
Now the ad-supported streamer is up for a supersized push, with the big game streaming in 4K on its platform this Sunday, which would surely drive some new users to try it out.
EV Chargers Expansion
The alliance, formed by noted OEMs including BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota, is set to roll out 30,000 new EV chargers across the country, starting modestly with 1,000 charging stations this year. 64% of Americans now live within 2 miles of a public charging station, according to a May 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center.
Live Events and Digital Trends
This year, the Grammy’s faced a tough task of balancing the tone between a celebratory music spectacle and respectful, somber acknowledgements of the L.A. fires, and to their credits, they mostly pulled it off during the telecast. Going forward, this type of tone-balancing may sadly become more common for live events, especially sports games and awards shows.
Apple's New App and Digital Well-being
Apple surprisingly dropped a new app this week for making e-Invites, with two notable features. One, participants can contribute photos and videos to a dedicated Shared Album within each invite, which is a cool way of leveraging Apple’s ecosystem of apps.
In addition, Image Playground, Apple’s own AI image generator, is also integrated into this new app to help people generate fun, personalized background images for their invites.
This new browser is indicative of a broader trend in digital well-being, where tech companies increasingly acknowledge the growing fatigue associated with excessive screen time and addictive doomscrolling.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at [email protected].
Follow us on Follow for more updates.
Related: OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest ‘reasoning’ model [TechCrunch]; ChatGPT subscribers nearly tripled to 15.5 Million in 2024 [The Information]
