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“The Premonition of Kate Middleton’s Photo Retouching Controversy”

Kate Middleton Ai
After frenzied speculation that a recent photo of Kate Middleton and her children was AI generated, the Duchess of Cambridge herself had to address the controversy. It’s an appropriate amount of hands — eight hands for four people — but they all look a bit off. So when official Royal Family accounts published the suspicious-looking photo of Kate and her children, the internet had a field day. Even British celebrities like Piers Morgan have weighed in, raising the question of why the Royal Family won’t quash the conspiracy theories by just releasing the unedited photo. It’s a good thing that the public was so skeptical about Middleton’s sketchy photo, since she admitted that it was edited.

“Micro Fund Survival: The Positive Significance of Countdown Capital’s Demise”

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Last week, my colleague Aria Alamalhodaei wrote an exclusive on defense and space tech venture firm Countdown Capital’s plan to shut down. But Countdown shutting down is likely more of an isolated event than a sign of what’s to come for micro funds this year. That’s changed today, and it isn’t surprising given the sheer amount of capital it takes to get defense startups off the ground; the costs are incomparable to a category like SaaS. This is also why Countdown’s fate doesn’t portend cloudy skies for micro funds in other categories. So despite the category heating up, a $500,000 check can still net a firm meaningful ownership at the pre-seed stage, they said.