Disclaimer: I voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and stand by my choice.

Republican politician and businessman Donald J. Trump has won the 2024 U.S. presidential election in a strong political comeback, despite various pre-election polls showing him neck-and-neck with his opponent Kamala Harris (the current and now outgoing Vice President, a Democrat).

As many who follow the news know all too well, one of his most outspoken allies in this election was none other six-company owner/operator and technology multibillionaire Elon Musk, who committed tens of millions in funding to a political action committee advocating Trump’s re-election.

All of Musk’s technology companies stand to benefit from Trump’s return to office

Musk owns or operates the following companies, all of which stand to benefit from Trump retaking power:

• Tesla Motors: Though Trump has pledged not to enforce electric vehicle mandates or tighter emissions standards, Musk’s popular electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle company could benefit from loosened restrictions on vehicle standards overall, especially with regards to autonomy. Already, Tesla stock is up more than 13% today on the election being called for Trump.
• SpaceX: Musk’s rocketry and spacefaring company has feuded before with the federal government, particularly the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which just last month levied $633,009 in fines to SpaceX alleging it failed to “follow its license requirements during two launches in 2023.” Musk would likely seek to use the Trump Administration to recall this fine and remove future licensing requirements preventing what he sees as necessary speed and nimbleness from the agency or a more “hands-off” approach.
• Starlink: Similarly, Musk’s satellite internet offshoot Starlink, which currently has more than 6,000 satellites beaming internet from orbit, would likely benefit from Trump’s pledges to reduce administrative burdens and red tape from federal regulatory agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and FAA.
• Neuralink: Musk’s experimental brain implant company has reportedly caused the death, injury and dismemberment of test monkeys but also also been successfully implanted into a paralyzed human patient, allowing them to control a computer with their brain signals. Given it is a medical device, it is overseen by the federal Food and Drug Administration, which has already approved Neuralink implantation in humans and trials. But the Trump victory will likely only further clear the way for Neuralink to ramp up its trials on more human subjects and do so faster.
• X: Musk’s social network, the renamed Twitter he purchased for $44 billion two years ago, has already been through a process of mass and targeted layoffs, as well as policy and feature updates permitting more freewheeling and extremist speech and content, and led to a more political right-wing oriented userbase and content. This trend is likely to continue and X to gain even more prominence as a mouthpiece for Musk’s, Trump’s, and their allies’ positions.

xAI may benefit and move from being a runner-up in the AI race to a leader

But most importantly of all, xAI, Musk’s AI startup offshoot of X designed to rival his former company OpenAI, is now likely to become far more of a viable alternative to the U.S. government and military as a contractor and AI technology services provider.

Already, the U.S. government has been courted by and is reportedly working with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta to integrate generative AI models into various departments.

However, now that Musk helped propel Trump to a victory, expect xAI to join in the list of federally approved AI vendors and possibly even preferred AI vendors — though of course, the government is technically supposed to remain vendor-neutral for companies operating within the U.S., signing contracts based on request-for-proposals and the businesses’ fitness for the job.

xAI will also likely benefit from repealed Biden-era AI Executive Order

Yet as AI influencer Andrew Curran noted on Musk’s X network this morning, another direct outcome of Trump reassuming the White House come January 2025 (when he is to be sworn in) is a strong likelihood — outlined in the Republican Party election platform — of the repeal of outgoing President Joe Biden’s Executive Order (EO) on AI, which Biden issued in October 2023 and requires developers of powerful foundation models to share safety test results and other critical information with the US government and subjects companies training AI models to red-teaming exercises by the federal agency The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

While many in the AI industry and outside of it applauded this order as a means of ensuring safety of AI deployments on American and global society, some analysts suggested it could lead to undermining U.S. AI competitiveness on the global stage, both in the commercial (direct-to-consumer and business-to-business) marketplace and the military arena.

As such, with the likely repeal of this EO come January 2025 or early 2025, it could aid xAI and its competitors in shipping new models faster — though as we’ve seen with xAI’s Grok-2 and its permissive image generation feature, that can also lead to a rise in deepfakes and other wild, offensive, but also creative and imaginative AI imagery.

Either way, things are looking good for Musk’s companies and xAI in particular – and that may help the company’s models become more enticing to developers and business customers.

Pinstripe aims to reimagine the secondhand market by offering sellers the opportunity to have both a digital storefront and a physical retail presence.

Launched in June, the platform offers an alternative approach compared with other marketplaces like Archive, Depop, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark. With Pinstripe, sellers take their clothes to local consignment stores, vintage shops, and retailers, where store employees handle the handoff process, freeing sellers from the burden of dealing with in-person interactions. Pinstripe also recently introduced an automated offer system that uses its AI-powered assistant to manage the bid and ask process.

Sellers often face the stress of setting up booths at flea markets or organizing pop-up sales to sell vintage or secondhand clothing, accessories, and other curated items. Those looking to sell clothes from their own closets also encounter challenges, such as the discomfort of having strangers visit their homes or the difficulties of coordinating public meetups. Additionally, the hassle of shipping products can be another huge headache.

With the rise of the secondhand retail market — driven by the increasing acceptance of buying used items and the fast fashion industry’s contribution to landfill waste — Pinstripe founders Sam Blumenthal and Taro Tomiya recognized the need for a better solution.

“Both of us are secondhand shoppers as well as sellers,” Blumenthal told TechCrunch. “The pain point we really identified was it’s easy to shop secondhand, but it’s really hard to sell. The reason that we have landfills that you can see from outer space, that 82 pounds of clothing are thrown away per person in America a year, is because it’s much easier to throw something out than it is to sell or donate it.”

Pinstripe is currently available only to users in New York City, where finding decent closet storage is a significant challenge and stores have ample unused space.

“What we do is we connect people with too much clothing and stores with too much space. We recognize there’s a synergistic exchange, but what the stores want is more traffic and more profit, and what the influencers want is a way to monetize their wardrobe and the way to get rid of it instantly,” said Blumenthal.  

Sellers seem to benefit the most from this arrangement, receiving 70% of the sales revenue. In contrast, Pinstripe takes 20%, while the retail partners receive the remaining 10%.

Even though its retail partners take the smallest slice of the pie, Blumenthal reports positive feedback, as the platform aims to help businesses that lack an online presence or social media marketing teams. However, he also acknowledges that the limited staff at some of these stores could present challenges, as it requires additional storage space and manpower to facilitate transactions.

Blumenthal and Tomiya also recognized that some customers may feel frustrated with other marketplaces because they can’t try on the clothes before purchasing. Pinstripe offers the benefit of allowing buyers to browse and purchase items online while also experiencing the clothing in person. Customers can try on items, and if they aren’t satisfied with them, they can request a refund.

In addition, Pinstripe offers next-day courier delivery for $10. However, it’s important to note that buyers who select the delivery option can’t try before they buy, and all purchases are final. Only in-person shoppers are eligible for refunds.

While Pinstripe stands out from many of its competitors, the app experience is what users would typically expect. 

For buyers, there is an algorithm that curates options based on their personal style. Buyers can filter listings by size, price, brand, color, condition, and more. Additionally, there is a map feature that allows users to discover nearby sample sales, flea markets, pop-up shops, and estate sales. The pickup process is standard; buyers receive an email or app notification when their item is ready. To collect their purchase, they must have the confirmation code.

Sellers can create listings, upload photos, write descriptions, and set prices on the platform. One noticeable difference is there’s no in-app messenger to chat with buyers.

Pinstripe’s new AI-powered feature, called “Offer,” utilizes ChatGPT and open source models to assist sellers in managing the bidding process. Sellers can now request that the AI assistant accept offers automatically.

Also, if an item doesn’t sell after 30 days, sellers can choose to have it donated, and Pinstripe sends local charities to pick it up and donate it on their behalf. 

Pinstripe evolved from a similar startup founded by Blumenthal and Tomiya in 2022 called Banter, an e-commerce platform that featured multiplayer shopping and social elements, allowing consumers to connect with like-minded shoppers. Last February, the startup raised approximately $900,000 in a small pre-seed funding round from Breakers VC, General Advance, Muchmore Ventures, and Unpopular Ventures.

“We pivoted after seeing this massive new trend that my friends, my co-founder, and I are behaving from a consumer standpoint, which is thrifting secondhand fashion. Many of these brands and stores are not capitalizing on [the shift],” said Blumenthal.

Pinstripe is available in the App Store and on the web. It touts a few thousand or so monthly active users and works with almost a dozen retail partners, including Club Vintage, Lahn Shop, Leisure Centre, and the Brooklyn Vintage Club.

The platform also has notable advisers on board, including Ben Max Rubinstein (former Meta) and Julie Bornstein (former Stitch Fix).

Backward compatibility is not a guarantee of success. The Wii U could play most Wii games, and it still ended up being a failure. But it’s a feature that benefits both consumers and the industry at large. In Nintendo’s case, its inclusion was never a sure thing. While bestselling hardware like the Wii and DS were able to play games from their predecessors, Nintendo often started over from scratch with a new console generation — which meant that players did, too.

The library of games you had built up over the lifespan of the Nintendo 64 or SNES stayed with that console. This is what has allowed Nintendo to resell Super Mario Bros. 3 across countless devices; if you want to play the classics on the newest console, you usually have no choice but to buy it again. Otherwise, you’re forced to keep a Wii U around in order to enjoy that copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. It sucks for consumers and it sucks for video game preservation, given how quickly older titles can become inaccessible.

Backward compatibility for the Switch is especially notable given what an incredible library it has accumulated. In fact, while the Switch is Nintendo’s second-bestselling piece of hardware, it has sold more games than any other Nintendo platform. During an investor presentation, the company said that the Switch’s “cumulative software sales have reached 1.3061 billion units, setting a new record for a Nintendo gaming platform. More software has been played on Nintendo Switch than on any other Nintendo hardware.”

The decision to support backward compatibility means that all of those games will immediately be available to anyone who picks up the next console. For existing Switch owners, it imbues their collection with more value; for newcomers, it means they have a huge library to dive into from the jump.

Signs have been pointing to this kind of more unified Nintendo for some time. The company’s account system links together various services and games, and more than a decade ago, Nintendo merged its console and portable game development divisions so that everyone was focused on the Switch. It has created more cohesiveness across the company’s offerings, which has become increasingly important as Nintendo branches out in new directions. This has led to at least one sensible decision that sets up the Switch’s successor for a strong start — now we wait to see what oddball decision will make the new console distinctly “Nintendo.”

Watch The Day of the Jackal online

There aren’t many onscreen stereotypes more enticing than a trained assassin and Eddie Redmayne is bringing the cool, killer vibes to a new 10-episode TV adaptation of The Day of the Jackal to Sky Atlantic in the UK and Peacock in the US. Read on for how to watch The Day of the Jackal online from anywhere with a VPN.

Loosely based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel of the same name, this version brings the action bang up to date with a cat and mouse story set in the modern day. Some things never change, however, and that goes for the steely, secretive contract killer played here by Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).

Sci-fi is a genre that everyone loves, whether it’s hard sci-fi or lighter options that incorporate sci-fi themes. There are classic and new sci-fi movies available to stream on all the top streaming services, including Peacock.

For this month, there are three sci-fi movies on Peacock you need to watch in November. Chances are these are movies you watched when they were first released, dating back to the 1980s through 2010s. But these are films with great re-watch value as well, especially if you haven’t seen them in a while. One, in fact, is among the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.

We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.

Back to the Future (1985)

Stream Back to the Future on Peacock.

Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar, one of the best sci-fi movies in the 2010s, praised for its accurate depictions, including that of a black hole. That’s thanks, in large part, to the fact that Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist, served as executive producer and scientific consultant. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, and Michael Caine, Interstellar earned five Academy Award nominations and, not surprisingly, won for its fabulous visual effects.

Stream Interstellar on Peacock.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

The story centers around Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a paleoclimatologist who warned humanity about the potential for a new ice age before it began. He’s dismissed by Vice President Raymond Becker (Kenneth Welsh), and when the events start to occur proving he was correct, it’s too late. As the storm worsens, Jack is desperate to connect with his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and ensure his safety. Oozing edge-of-your-seat tension, The Day After Tomorrow is arguably one of the best disaster movies ever made.

Stream The Day After Tomorrow on Peacock.