Dumb TikTok prank: Kids are sneaking up behind people in stores, tapping their phone to your phone and playing the Apple Pay “ding” sound. No, they’re not stealing your money. They’re just faking it with a sound clip. It gets worse. Someone’s filming your reaction. Because apparently, that counts as great content now.
57%
Of all spam emails in the world come from the U.S. We’ve got loads of data centers, which makes it difficult to enforce regulations properly. This isn’t just inbox clutter, either; 67% of those messages contain phishing or malware links. You could say we’re the outbreak monkey of the internet.
🧳 TSA bans chargers: Portable chargers and power banks now have to go in your carry-on only. Why? Most use lithium-ion batteries, which can catch fire in a plane’s cargo hold (paywall link). Easy rule to remember: If it can spark, leak, ignite or explode, it doesn’t belong in your suitcase.
📡 Siri’s not OK: Maybe you’re like me getting so frustrated at it because it just sucks. Apple’s AI fix is … other people’s AI. Siri flopped so hard, Apple’s sending us off to ChatGPT (and maybe Gemini and Perplexity, too) to avoid embarrassment. A shiny new, non-humiliating Siri is in the works, but don’t hold your breath. It’s not even invited to Apple’s developers conference in June.
🤖 AI > teachers? Duolingo’s CEO says AI will out-teach humans … it knows what you know, when you know it and maybe when to yell at you with eerie accuracy. He expects computers to do most instruction “in a few decades,” but schools won’t go extinct, only because we need childcare, at least until ChatGPT can watch toddlers at home.
🚨 Biggest social media data breach ever: A cybercriminal gang calling themselves ByteBreaker says they scraped 1.2 billion Facebook records. We’re talking names, emails, birthdays and more being sold on the dark web. Meta says it’s just 2021 leftovers, but do we really believe them? Either way, it’s a buffet for scammers. You know the drill. Change your passwords. Freeze your credit. Put alerts on your bank accounts. Dang, I feel like there have been so many data breaches that hackers are deleting duplicates of my data to save on space.
🤖 Vader unhinged: Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader went rogue less than 90 minutes after launch. Built with James Earl Jones’ voice and Google’s Gemini AI, Vader now responds to player prompts, sometimes with profanities and slurs (paywall link). Epic rushed a “hotfix,” but let’s be real: The Dark Side has Wi-Fi now, and it’s unmoderated.
Right place, right time: A man started having heart attack symptoms mid-flight, but luckily, a cardiologist was on board. Even better? The doctor had all the tools to help, including a pocket-size electrocardiogram to monitor abnormal heartbeats. He gave the man medication, stabilized him and saved his life. Wow.
🥳 Airbnb’s anti-party tech: This summer, they’re once again cracking down on high-risk bookings. The system looks at length of stay, how close you live to the rental and whether it’s last-minute. If you get flagged, you’ll be blocked and sent to a different listing. Don’t believe it? Last year, they stopped over 50,000 people.
10
That’s how many NFL stars could make up Team USA’s Olympic flag football roster in 2028. The NFL just gave its blessing for players to suit up for the red, white and blue. Get ready for Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Tyreek Hill to turn the Games into a glorified Pro Bowl.