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Axios PM

By Mike Allen · Dec 27, 2023

👋 Happy Wednesday! Today's PM — edited by Erica Pandey — is 642 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Carlos Cunha for the copy edit.

1 big thing: Axios Visuals best of '23

A 1970s Ford F-150 compared to today's. Graphic: Will Chase/Axios

The data visualization journalists, graphic designers and artists at Axios Visuals enlightened us all year with stunning projects that explored weather disasters, deepfakes, the future of cars and more. A tour of the highlights: 🛻 Trucks like the Ford F-150 have been the bestselling vehicles in the U.S. for 40+ years. During that time, they're gone from workhorse mainstays to family-style cruisers. Axios Visuals mapped how trucks have gotten bigger — and more dangerous. 👀 AI image generators have advanced from novelties to powerful tools able to generate photorealistic images, while comprehensive regulation lags behind. Axios Visuals developed a quiz that tests if you can tell the difference between real and AI-generated images. Data: NASA GEOS-FP. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals 🔥 For months in 2023, smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the U.S., causing the worst air quality on record. Using animation, maps, data analysis and infographics, Axios data journalists explained the haze. Go deeper: Explore the charts, illustrations and photos that defined 2023.

2. 🤖 NYT goes after ChatGPT

The New York Times' headquarters. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images The New York Times today sued OpenAI and Microsoft, contending the business model for OpenAI — the parent of ChatGPT — is based on mass copyright infringement. Why it matters: The Times is the first major media company to sue artificial intelligence companies for copyright infringement, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer writes. The forthcoming legal battle could set a precedent for how courts define the value of news in training large language models. 🔬 Zoom in: The complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft's "unlawful use of The Times's work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it threatens The Times' ability to provide that service." The Times argues that while those firms "engaged in widescale copying from many sources," they placed "particular emphasis" on the NYT's content. "Defendants seek to free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment," the lawsuit says. Screenshot: NYT complaint 💼 Case in point: In the complaint, The Times showed how ChatGPT circumvents its paywall when prompted. (See above.) Read on.

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3. Catch me up

Photo: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

⭐ L.A. city officials are confronting an unprecedented question: Can former President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame be withdrawn? A star has never been removed from the Walk of Fame. But a 2020 petition calling for the removal of Trump's star over the Jan. 6 insurrection has received over thousands of signatures. Go deeper. 🚘 Electric vehicle sales in America are slowing despite automakers' big-time investments in EV tech. It takes a dealer around three weeks longer to sell an EV than a gas car, The Wall Street Journal reports. 🗳️ Michigan's Supreme Court rejected an attempt to keep Trump off the 2024 primary ballot today, upholding a lower court ruling. The decision in a battleground state contrasts with a recent Colorado ruling that removed Trump from the state's ballot. Go deeper.

4. 🍝 Going splitsies

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Restaurants are tired of patrons splitting apps and entrees to save money — and they're pushing back, The Wall Street Journal reports. What's happening: The cost of eating out has jumped more than 5% in the last year, and 1 in 5 diners said they split orders to save money in 2022. As a result, restaurants are making some changes to their offerings to get people to order — and pay — more. Look for single-serving dishes, like a duck confit spring roll for one, to appear on appetizer menus alongside shareable favorites like hummus. Other restaurants are leaning into the sharing trend and adjusting their menus for profitability. At Calissa, a Greek restaurant in the Hamptons, the lobster pasta used to cost $60. Now it's a larger portion at $130 and is meant to be split.

A MESSAGE FROM EXXONMOBIL

Let’s deliver carbon capture for American industry

ExxonMobil is working on solutions to reduce carbon emissions in its own operations — like carbon capture — that could help industries in manufacturing, commercial transportation and power generation deliver lower emissions, too. Learn more.