The Digital Dynasty at the 2024 MLB All-Star Game

If you follow me on any social media platforms, you know Love Island USA consumes my life. The tech girlie in me was even more intrigued after discovering that the show has partnerships with Google Pixel, Spotify, and Tinder. I see you, Peacock.

A peek into today’s edition:

Digital experiences at MLB All-Star
Happy birthday to X and Amazon!
Google Pixel inks new sports partnerships

I spent the first half of the week at the 2024 MLB All-Star Game and related events in Arlington, Texas, to see how the league integrates tech into one of America’s most beloved sports. This couldn’t come at a more perfect time, as MLB could start testing robot umpires at spring training next year to bring them to the league in 2026.

Here’s a snippet of some of my favorite tech and digital activations at this year’s MLB All-Star:

Adobe’s AI-generated Custom Ball: I worked through a few prompts to develop an AI-generated design to display on a supersized baseball.
ADAM, the Robot Bartender: The Texas Rangers teased a new robot bartender named ADAM, who was shaking up classic cocktails in 90 seconds or less. It made me a tasty lemon drop in a souvenir cup.
Ballpark Bites, presented by Mastercard: MLB showed off its new online food delivery menu, Ballpark Bites, which allows fans to enjoy ballpark eats from the comfort of their homes.
Swing Analysis: This fun activation used AI to analyze various data points on my swing to match me with the MLB player I most swing like. I got José Ramírez, the Cleveland Guardians lefty I was rooting for in the Home Run Derby.
Statcast: MLB’s tracking tech platform Statcast showed up in various cool ways throughout the events, but my favorite was seeing the distances and home run recap graphic for each batter during the Home Run Derby.

Read more about my experience here, including learnings from Mastercard‘s ongoing partnership with MLB.

Amazon and X celebrated anniversaries this week as both companies continue to head in new directions.

As we all know, X originally debuted as Twitter on July 15, 2006, as a short text messaging service for groups of friends before transforming into a social network with a similar premise. Much has changed with the platform since then, though X claims to have up to 250 million daily active users today. Elsewhere, X is still battling a trademark infringement lawsuit with X Social Media, a case a judge ruled could move forward this week. Maybe we’ll see the Twitter brand revived after all if this suit doesn’t go in X’s favor. Wishful thinking.

The first iteration of Amazon launched on July 16, 1995, as an online bookstore, and over the years, we’ve watched the company turn into an e-commerce giant. Amazon introduced Prime Day a decade ago to celebrate its birthday each year by providing massive discounts to its Prime subscribers. Tech gadgets, TVs, and beauty products are always hot commodities amongst sale items, and early numbers show sales are up more than 10% compared to last year with $14.2 billion in sales.

Jack Taylor’s Nadine Hachicho and Emily Keret join me on the latest episode of Michelai Money Talks, in partnership with Coinbase. Check it out here to hear about how these two ladies got into crypto and what they invest their money in most.

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Google secured a sponsorship deal to become the official AI partner for Team USA and NBCUniversal for the Summer Olympics. Elsewhere in Alphabet’s biz, Google Pixel teamed up with OneTeam Partners to become the official mobile phone of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA), and the US Women’s National Team Players Association (USWNTPA).
Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Records, and other music publishers sued Verizon in a $2.6 billion anti-piracy lawsuit, alleging that the internet service provider purposely failed to flag users illegally downloading content. The lawsuit comes as music publishers launch a fight against piracy across the tech industry.
Eventbrite and TikTok announced a partnership allowing event hosts to promote their events and sell tickets on TikTok by adding links directly to their videos. TikTokers can discover events and purchase tickets via the Eventbrite integration without leaving the platform.
Instagram was the most downloaded app globally in June, with about 61 million downloads during the month. TikTok attracted about 52 million downloads, though Instagram has been holding down the top spot since last November.
The Las Vegas Sphere announced its first-ever EDM event, featuring an audiovisual show from Anyma on New Year’s Eve. The promo for the show kicked off this week with some scary but intriguing visuals on the outside of the immersive venue.
Balenciaga announced a partnership with Apple to bring fashion shows to Vision Pro via virtual footage and decorated backdrops. The new app is available in select countries, and fans will be able to get front-row virtual seats at Balenciaga’s Spring 2025 show.

Elon Musk confirmed that the Tesla Robotaxi event has been delayed to October due to some last-minute design changes. I’m going to bet that we’ll see at least one more delay with the new vehicle, which is expected to have no steering wheel or pedals.