News in Brief

 

Italian chefs fight blue crab invasion from kitchens (The Washington Post/Getty Images) Chefs in Venice and the surrounding areas of Italy are putting blue crabs on menus in a campaign to protect the upper Adriatic Sea from the invasive species that gobbles up the young clams, oysters and mussels that are key to traditional Venetian cuisine. "The versatility of the blue crab meat allows you to have a good base for working and studying new pairings and bolder dishes," says Daniele Zennaro, executive chef at Algiubagio, noting that the meat has become more savory as the animals have dined in local waters in recent years.  Full Story: The Washington Post (8/12)  Soy sauce splashes flavor into diverse drinks Just a dash of soy sauce can tame bitterness and highlight sour or sweet notes in cocktails, including drinks at New York City's Wenwen restaurant and at Oyster Club in Mystic, Conn., which uses Moromi Shoyu, a small-batch sauce made nearby. "If we feel like something is missing, a bit of soy sauce will combine all the flavors," says Ajit Gurung, co-founder of Hong Kong's Savory Project, where the popular whiskey drink Gari Gari is made with passion fruit, gari or Japanese pickled ginger, seltzer and a bit of citrusy soy-based ponzu.  Full Story: Punch (8/7)  A dive into the custom AI world at DDB Worldwide George Strakhov, global head of creative technology at DDB Worldwide, shares insights about the agency's bespoke AI tools, including DoneOrNot, which determines if creative ideas are original or not, and Freak Factory, which helps creatives think about client problems from different perspectives. In addition, the agency built LesGPT, a chatbot version of Les Binet, global head of effectiveness at Adam&eveDDB, which can be deployed for clients globally and is trained on his unpublished and published research to dispense marketing knowledge.  Full Story: Ad Age (tiered subscription model) (8/13)  Court rejects Meta efforts to block metrics lawsuit Meta must face a class-action lawsuit brought by Facebook and Instagram advertisers over allegations that the social media giant artificially inflated its user numbers, a federal appeals court has ruled. The initial complaint, filed in 2018, noted that Facebook's reach estimates for each state exceeded state populations.  Full Story: MediaPost Communications (free registration) (8/12)  X hit with new privacy complaints in 9 EU countries X, formerly known as Twitter, has agreed to stop using European Union customers' data to train its AI models, but the privacy advocates known as Nyob want more and have filed nine complaints in nine separate countries, accusing the social media platform of violating the General Data Protection Regulation. The group called the Irish Data Protection Commission's actions against X "half-hearted."  Full Story: Forbes (tiered subscription model) (8/12)