Today, we’re talking about ChatGPT and the economics of diamond prices. Less heavy on the economics theory, more heavy on the current affairs (and importantly, the Taylor Swift content).

Let’s go!

P.S. For those seeking the answer to Sam’s utterly ridiculous currency-themed riddle in this morning’s TDA Newsletter, here’s your answer: pound, euro, rand and peso.

Fleur and Beppo sat down to work out Sam’s Wednesday riddle. Beppo understood it immediately, but Fleur obviously struggled. Beppo stared at Fleur and sighed, looking around in the hope someone would give them a clue.

You’re not mistaken, there have been a LOT of stories about diamonds in the news recently. Last week, there were obviously a bunch of stories about the cost of Taylor Swift’s engagement ring, which seemed to come in at around a cool $US500,000, though estimates vary. Her ring is a mined diamond, specifically an old-mine cut, making it super rare, and super expensive.

Expensive diamond engagement rings are nothing new. So why are we talking about it?

Well, contrary to what anyone on the precipice of engagement might be feeling, the price of diamonds is falling. Over the last few years prices for mined diamonds have fallen by roughly a third.

Enter lab-grown diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds are diamonds that are created in factories rather than dug out of the ground. About 10 years ago, a lab-grown diamond was about 10% cheaper than a natural one. Today, they’re about 80-90% cheaper.

This price drop has boosted their popularity. In 2015, lab diamonds accounted for just 1% of diamond sales. By 2024, that number was 20%. But it’s more than just the price drop contributing to this increase in market share. Lab diamonds are also positioned as an ethical and more environmentally friendly alternative to natural diamonds.

So, as more and more people are buying lab-diamonds, because they’re cheaper, more ethical, or more environmentally friendly, retailers of natural diamonds have been forced to lower prices to remain competitive.

So what is the outlook for diamond prices? It’s hard to say. Some experts say that the price of lab-diamonds has the capacity to drop a further 50-80%, which could further erode the market share of natural diamonds and push their price even lower.

If you’re interested in this, and want more diamond content, Netflix made this cool documentary about diamonds a few years ago called “Nothing lasts forever”. Give it a watch.

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OpenAI - the company that runs ChatGPT - is set to open its Autralian first office in Sydney by the end of the year.

OpenAI is an American company, founded in 2015, that develops artificial intelligence technologies, like ChatGPT. 

The company is coming to the country because a lot of Australian people and companies use ChatGPT - and other AI chat bots - and that number is growing. 

According to OpenAI, the number of weekly ChatGPT users in Australia has increased by 250% over the past year. They also said Australia is in the top 10 countries of ChatGPT users worldwide. That’s pretty high, considering we are 54th in population. 

They also have a bunch of deals with Australian companies and universities. For example:

Having an office in Australia will help them manage these partnerships and launch more throughout the country. 

Probably. 

OpenAI has met with the government a few times already this year. In June, the chief economist at OpenAI went to Canberra and met with a bunch of politicians, saying that AI could make the Australian economy $115 billion bigger by 2030. And last month, in August, the COO and CSO met with Australia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd to chat about how “Australia can play a leading role in an AI-forward future.” 

What do these meetings with the government mean? They probably mean that OpenAI wants to play some role in deciding the future of AI use and regulation in Australia. There are already some AI regulatory issues on the government’s agenda, including how and whether content creators should be compensated if their data is used to train AI bots. There’s also the topic of what to do about news and AI. Oh, and just about every other industry…

Well, if you’re a computer scientist, time to dust off your CV and apply for a job. For the rest of us more technologically challenged, it’s a sign that ChatGPT is here to stay. Love it or hate it, it’s likely it will pop up in more and more parts of our lives. 

Remember American Eagle's "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" ad campaign? If you missed it, in short, it was controversial because some critics said that the pun - on genes - had eugenic undertones by suggesting that you need blonde hair and blue eyes to have good genes.

Well, amid all that controversy, American Eagle’s sales have skyrocketed, and the stock price has jumped up over 40% this week. The company’s Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers described the campaign as a vehicle for "unprecedented new customer acquisition". American Eagle’s ad is understood to have drawn some 40 billion impressions, adding over 700,000 new customers.

Wild.