Hope for the future: Scientists are developing AI tools to monitor brain health and catch early signs of dementia before symptoms appear. Think headbands or caps that track brain activity, with AI algorithms that spot subtle patterns. In one study, AI identified Alzheimer’s disease with over 90% accuracy. Isn’t that something?!
1,500 miles traveled
To return a kid’s beloved stuffed animal. A Texas woman took to Facebook after her 9-year-old left his stuffed gorilla at a California hotel. A stranger saw the post, went an hour out of her way to pick it up, then documented the gorilla’s journey home. Absolutely watch this if you need a smile!
38,366,479 people
Playing on gaming platform Steam at once, a new record. What’s popular right now? Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, Final Fantasy 16 and Banana, among others. Banana is, I kid you not, just clicking on a JPEG of a banana. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
🇨🇳 Patreon copycat: Communist China app TikTok’s new Subscription feature lets you offer paying subscribers exclusive content, like videos, notes and unique badges. To qualify, you must be 18 or older and have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past calendar month. I wouldn’t put my efforts into this until we know what’s going on with the ban.
Hitman-for-hire: A Tennessee woman will spend over eight years in prison for hiring a hitman to kill the wife of a guy she met on a dating app. She paid him $9,750 in bitcoin, insisting the murder look like an accident. Super scary: She tracked the couple through fitness app Strava so she could tell the hitman when the woman was out for a walk. Yup, make those location settings private.
🌎 Sharper satellite images coming to Google Maps and Earth: The Cloud Score+ AI model removes clouds, haze and mist for a clearer, more vibrant view of the globe. Street View is getting an update, too, with better images across 80 countries. And Google Earth will soon show 80 years of historical aerial and satellite shots. Have a minute? Check out these cool Google Earth images.
Check your phone: Necro malware has infected 11 million Android devices through the Wuta Camera and Max Browser apps. The malware steals info and downloads harmful programs. If you downloaded either app, uninstall it and run a malware scan. My pick is TotalAV.
🏠 Buying or selling property? Scammers are targeting you. A sharp title company owner just stopped a fraudulent sale. The first clue: The seller’s driver’s license was from West Virginia, but the property tax bills had been sent to the Bahamas since 1978. They asked the seller to video chat to confirm, and the seller, a woman who said she was deaf, turned out to be a looped AI video. Here’s what the faker looked like.
100% of the time
AI can beat online captcha tests designed to stump bots. A researcher trained a bot he called You Only Look Once (yeah, YOLO) on images of roads (paywall link). Now, the bot can ace the “Are you a human?” quizzes.