🔎 WormGPT - the criminal version of ChatGPT

Welcome to The Jungle: We are the chutney to your babotie!

Here’s what Tarzan has for you today:

• Cycling Cash: How much money does the Tour de France make?

• Jaded Judge: Judge caught on Facebook during a murder trial.

• Awkward AI: ChatGPT may be getting worse while WormGPT grows.

Business behind the Tour de France?!

As you tune in to the Tour de France, you might assume that the race's primary purpose is to serve as the ultimate cycling challenge for any cyclist. But, in actual fact, the race was born out of severe financial necessity.

The coolest history lesson you’ll get today:

• L’Auto was a failing French newspaper that needed to increase its circulation

• They decided to launch the biggest cycling race France had ever seen in 1903

• Immediate success followed, taking the circulation from 25k newspapers per day to 65k in 1 year.

WWII threw a spanner in the works for the Tour and when the war was over, L’Auto was destroyed and had to part ways as owner of the Tour to another paper, L’Equipe.

Now, show me the Tour’s money, honey! 🤑 

Up until the 1960s, the Tour made money in 4 ways:

1. Auction stops on the route to cities with the highest bid

2. Companies could pay to have their brand on the vans that followed riders

3. Physical ad space was rented out along the route

4. Sponsorships of the Tour de France were restricted to local brands

With these revenue streams, the Tour was making a loss. So, the owners had to sell.

Introduce ASO - Amaury Sport Organisation - in 1965.

With advancements in technology, ASO focused on getting the Tour to the rest of the world. ASO multiplied the Tour’s revenue year after year and is estimated to now bring in over $150 million dollars each year from the following 3 sources:

1. 5% Hosting fees - Cities wanting to host stops on the route have to cough up.

2. 40% Ads & Sponsorships - the 4 special jerseys, worn by the top riders, are covered in branding (Bank LCL spends >$12m for their name on the yellow jersey) while the Tour’s follow vehicles can earn on average $450k in revenue from branding per vehicle.

3. 55% TV rights - The big slice of the pie! 260 cameras, 35 vehicles, 6 aircraft - all streaming the race to 186 countries! Just 1 deal with French TV is worth around $25 million per year - with another 185 countries wanting a piece of the pie, this rakes in the highest proportion of revenue for ASO.

Profit?

ASO is very secretive when it comes to their earnings - they are a private company after all.

But Tarzan was able to sniff around to get some estimates:

• $150 million in revenue

• $25 million in profit!

So next time you think it’s just about the sport, think again! The race is owned by people whose main goal is to make money off of it. 🤑 

Let Tarzan know if you would like an in-depth look into the business behind the teams of the Tour!

Teasers for the office

Office teasers are here for Tarzan to help you stand out in the office or through virtual interaction with your colleagues - it’s a pleasure!

Not really a Teaser for today, but rather we have a crazy story out of the good ol’ US of A - Oklahoma, to be more specific.

A 50-year-old Oklahoma judge who was sworn in this year is already bored with her job. A video surfaced of her texting and looking at Facebook during a murder trial. 😲 This just goes to show that Facebook is for old people 😉 

Check out the article by AP News - We’ve added the image from the video below:

ChatGPT might be getting worse while criminals use a WormGPT!

Research from 2 ivy league schools in the US (Stanford and Berkeley) came to the conclusion that ChatGPT exhibited a significant decline in accuracy between March and June of this year. 💀 

Among several tests conducted during the study, one was to see whether ChatGPT could detect certain prime numbers. The success rate went from 97.6% to only 2.4% in June.

Another highlighted the fact that ChatGPT’s ability to generate functional computer code decreased from 52% to 10% during the same period, often including nonusable text alongside correct code.

OpenAI investigated these changes but the exact reason for the decline is still unknown.

NOW, on to something a bit more exciting than statistics from a university study!

We have a hacker on the loose! 🤖 

Researchers have discovered a new chatbot called WormGPT. It’s similar to ChatGPT except for one big reason… like a student at 2 am on a Saturday, it lacks ethical boundaries and limitations.

Developed by a hacker with malevolent intent, WormGPT is based on the GPTJ language model and has been designed for phishing attacks on a larger scale than ever before.

• The bot was trained on diverse data sources, particularly malware-related data.

• It can create emails for phishing attacks and generate codes for malware attacks.

• It demonstrates remarkable persuasive and strategically cunning abilities.

Basically, it’s an AI chatbot that can raid banks, create malware and impersonate anyone!

Not even a year into the release of the first real AI tool for the public, and now it’s getting worse and there is a criminal version - sheesh! 🙃 

ICYMI

⚡We use technology more than ever, but its not making us more productive - C’mon, Siri - make me productive!!

💰10 SA fintech startups thriving! - $5k to help with investor interactions.

🏡What the average house looks like in SA - The average price of an SA home is R1.47m but the houses vary depending on the province!

Meme of the day

Elon says “cheers” to the Twitter “bird” logo.

Follow us on Twitter to get updated in real-time.

Loved the newsletter? = Please share this email.

Hated the newsletter? = Reply and tell us why.