Dez Reads. hi im roy.

Smart marketing will always be a potential differentiator in crowded markets.

The generative AI space is the definition of crowded, with more enterprise platforms coming online by the day. As a leader of a medium-sized business reliant on cutting-edge tech, even I struggle to understand the differences between one platform and the other.

Helen Taylor leads us this week with a look at Cluely’s comically viral Times Square billboard; now I know that the company exists, and where it may fit into the tech stack of a high stakes communications firm. I’m particularly heartened by the fact that even as marketing tactics are rapidly evolving, Times Square remains a prominent platform for telling an American story.

In a major development this week, Dez lifer Fred Brown finally makes his Dez Reads debut. Fred Brown does not like the spotlight, and he does not like to see his name in print. Please join me in thanking Fred Brown for his submission on the potential slowing of progress in the AI field. You can read Fred Brown’s full bio here.

Jen’s on the horned rabbit beat this week, and Phil’s back with an insanely serendipitous dinosaur story. Katie Runkle brings us home with an examination of the concept of genius, one of the most important components of a society that seeks to keep moving forward.

Thanks, as always, for reading along with us.

Here we go.

The Anti-Ad That Won Times Square

Famous Campaigns. Cluely’s brutally honest Times square ad is the anti-ad flex

While riding through Times Square in a cab this past week, one billboard cut right through the neon overload for me: a plain white panel that read, “hi i’m roy im 21, this was very expensive, pls buy my thing.” Simple. Awkward. Brilliant.

Cluely’s honesty ditches the flashy ad game and feels more like a text from a friend than a sales pitch. In a place obsessed with polish and CGI, that raw, self-aware vibe somehow shouts the loudest. It’s pure Gen Z – meme-worthy, direct, and totally clear about what it’s doing.

Designed to be screenshotted and shared, Roy’s billboard turns an expensive ad spot into viral content. That’s why it works: it’s human, it’s funny, and it makes you want to spread the message. In Times Square, nothing pops more than just being real.

– Helen Taylor

AI Tapped Out?

The New Yorker. What If A.I. Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This?

OpenAI’s highly anticipated launch of GPT-5 and its less-than-stellar reception raises the question of whether we’re really on the verge of a hyper-advanced AI takeover.

The New Yorker dives into the “scaling law,” the once-widely accepted idea that language models would keep improving if you just kept making them bigger. But recent results suggest the curve may be flattening. Despite billions in capital and computing power, OpenAI and others are seeing diminishing returns – prompting a pivot to “post-training improvements” over breakthrough leaps.

This doesn’t mean A.I. won’t continue to advance. But for companies hoping to swap out roles that rely on actual human intelligence (cough cough, crisis management consultants), they may have another think coming.

– Fred Brown

Frankenstein Bunnies and the Virus That Sparked Cancer Research

NBC. Rabbits with ‘horns’ in Colorado are being called ‘Frankenstein bunnies.’ Here’s why.

What’s Dez Reads without a nod to Labubu’s? Turns out, Colorado has its own real-life version: Cottontail rabbits are hopping around with twisted, black, horn-like growths jutting from their faces. No, these aren’t creations of wild taxidermy or the handiwork of a rogue mad scientist. These are the unfortunate bunnies “chosen” by the Shope papillomavirus.

This virus, first studied by Dr. Richard E. Shope in the 1930s, doesn’t just give rabbits a monstrous makeover. It causes wart-like tumors that can harden into dramatic keratin spikes, made from the same protein as your fingernails. And here’s the cool bit of science: Not only did this weird virus likely inspire jackalope legends, but its study actually helped scientists uncover the link between viruses and cancer. So next time you spot one of these Labubu lookalikes, remember, they’re nature’s odd sense of humor in action and unlikely pioneers in cancer research.

– Jen Hirshon

Dino Bones Under the Dino Museum

AP. A Denver dino museum makes a find deep under own parking lot

Did you ever have the feeling that you or something around you just belonged there? Well, here’s a new definition for that concept: the Denver Museum of Natural Science.

It turns out this museum, which houses sizable dinosaur exhibits, had dinosaur skeletons lying right under its own parking lot. While boring a 750-foot hole no wider than a hockey puck to sample soils for a study, they drilled right through the spine of a 67.5-million-year-old duck-billed Thescelosaurus that died in a prehistoric swamp.

The museum’s curator called it luck, like “hitting a hole in one from the moon.”

I would like to think the museum, which entertained kids for decades with its dinosaur exhibits – and that pond, which was probably filled with dinosaurs 67.5 million years before, were destined to be in the very same spot. The pond was a little nature museum in its own right, filled with animals interacting with nature’s grand displays and doing the prehistoric equivalent of exhibit hopping.

How can you call that chance? It’s only fitting that it would serve the exact same purpose for us humans tens of millions of years later.

– Phil Bogdan

What Even Is Genius, Anyway?

The Atlantic. What Does ‘Genius’ Really Mean? – The Atlantic

Ever wonder what Rugrats, Leo Tolstoy, and QVC have in common? Pure genius, according to Helen Lewis in an article on what genius really means. But does one naturally possess genius? Or achieve it? Is it earned, or an essence you’re born with?

In her studies on achievement, Lewis found that implying a level of luck in success insulted such individuals but aptly recalls “that Cromwell and Napoleon needed their revolutions.” After all, Darwin couldn’t have created natural selection without the right species to observe, nor could Alexander Graham Bell have changed the world of iPhone and AI.

I’ve recently used genius to describe tinted Sun Bum lip products and a plot device in Sally Rooney’s novel Intermezzo, while my 65-year-old dad shared the same sentiment about a tactic to keep deer out of his garden and a way to use his binoculars. It’s definitely subjective, and Lewis agrees.

– Katie Runkle

Don’t forget to check out the latest monthly issue of Our Take!

Subscribe now