This is Nick. This is Jack. And today is the Sports Equinox (Sports Solstice?). 5 of the biggest sports leagues in the US have games tonight. The NFL has Monday Night Football (Raiders vs. Lions), the MLB has the World Series (Rangers vs. Diamondbacks), the NBA has 11 games, the NHL has 9 games, and the MLS has playoffs. Don’t let us down, Comcast, don’t let us down.

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1) Your Real Landlord Is an Algorithm

Did your rent just go up again? According to the WSJ, your landlord isn’t choosing the price themselves or even considering the human living in the unit—software decides what you pay. And guess what the landlord’s algorithm recommends? Raising rent. So the Department of Justice is investigating.

Buying homes is expensive, but renting ain’t cheap:

• The average monthly apartment rent in Manhattan hit $5,588 over the summer. Our readers in Des Moines just spit out their coffee.

• And it’s not just the Big Apple: Nationwide, rent is up (we see you, Muncie). But don’t blame just the landlord…

Blame their computers. 2 software companies, RealPage and Yardi (formerly called “RentMaximizer” but that felt too on the nose) use algorithms to advise landlords on setting optimal rent prices. If enough landlords use the same software to decide rent, it could be considered illegal collusion. That’s why the DOJ is looking into AI landlords. 🤖🏠

The Takeaway →

This software teaches landlords a greedy truth: more vacancies = more money. You’d think landlords want 100% occupancy—empty units don’t pay rent. But higher rent on 95% of the units makes up for the empty ones. It sounds counterintuitive, but landlords have realized that some empty units are healthy, even if it prices out a family or leaves an empty eyesore of a storefront. Classic landlord algos.

2) Amazon Leads in R2D2s

The winner of last week’s Big Tech earnings? Amazon. The TL;DR on Amazon’s Q3: Net income more than tripled to $10B for Q3. The reason? Artificial intelligence. Not Amazon’s AI. Other companies' AI.

• 🧑‍💻 Amazon CEO Andy Jassy name-dropped Adidas, Merck, and United Airlines as clients that are turning to AWS (Amazon Web Services) to power their generative AI.

• Amazon is a leader in cloud computing, and investors realized AI needs lots of it. That’s why the stock jumped 7% on Friday. But enough of this cloud computing stuff…

Let’s talk robots. Amazon leads in robot tech, too. According to TechCrunch, it has a fully operational droid army of 750K autonomous mobile robots (picture huge Roombas moving pallets of product) working in warehouses. But a robotics exec at Amazon said the company is now testing out humanoids too—robots that look and walk like us 🦾 (but don’t need a bathroom break like us).

The Takeaway →

Historically, robots don’t take humans’ jobs. They liberate humans to do other jobs. Is all this robot talk bad news for humans? Not necessarily. Amazon’s actually hiring 250K temp workers for the holiday season to pack and ship your stocking stuffers. There are more robots and more automation in the workforce today than ever before, and yet our human unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in decades (3.8% in September). So far, automation hasn’t replaced human workers—it’s freed them up for new opportunities.

On the Pod

💄Glossier made a huge decision this year: The DTC beauty brand started selling indirect to consumer in Sephora stores. The results? Sales are up 73%.

More on today’s pod. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s what else you need to know today:

🤖 President Biden started the week by issuing the 1st executive order on artificial intelligence and launching AI.gov. He also called on Congress to pass a law governing AI safety.

💰 Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, is selling 1M of his shares (worth about $140M) starting next year. It's common for execs to do this—but the stock still fell on Friday.

💃 Taylor Swift is the newest billionaire. She also just released 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

🧑‍⚖️ Sam Bankman-Fried, the “introverted” crypto king of FTX, took the stand in his own trial. His defense team didn’t make much progress with his testimony, though.

🛻 Stellantis (owner of Jeep and Chrysler) reached a tentative deal with the auto workers. GM is the last of the Big 3 automakers whose unionized workers are still on strike.

🪄 Disney is now delaying films like Snow White as the actors’ strike continues.

🛍️ Shein's relationship with its former rival, Forever 21, is getting serious. A co-branded clothing line is on its way.

🧴 You can now buy some of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop products at Target and on Amazon. Jade eggs are still online only.

🎣 Country music singer Garth Brooks is releasing a new album…but it’s only available at Bass Pro Shops. Meet your customers where they are.

And one more thing. What game are you watching tonight?

—Nick & Jack