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🤖 You’ve got a friend in me: AI leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg and Microsoft are pushing bots as personalized friends (paywall link) to combat loneliness, but more importantly, for user engagement and data tracking. AI companions are constantly being tweaked with just enough bias to keep you loyal, as seen with Musk’s Grok being “retrained” after backlash for leaning too liberal.
Oops, AI faked our bust: This is bad. Maine cops posted a drug bust photo, then realized it was “substantially” AI-edited. Packaging on the drugs looked like AI gibberish, and people called them out. An officer used an editing app to slap the department’s patch in, and it warped the photo’s details. Officers swore they’re not deepfaking meth. It’s just their app skills are trash.
🕵️ Data breach exposes stalkerware: Catwatchful was pitched as a “parental control” app. In reality, it lets people secretly spy on phones, texts, calls and GPS. Then it leaked everything: 26,000 victims’ data, stalkers’ logins and more. Google’s investigating, but it’s still up. Congrats to the stalkers, now you’re the ones being watched.
Have mandatory cybersecurity classes at work? New research from Purdue found anti-phishing training may make workers worse at spotting scams. Turns out, binge-watching security videos doesn’t build instincts, it builds false confidence. One group even clicked more after “interactive” training. That’s right: Your IT team’s monthly guilt-trap quiz might be actively hurting.
⏩ 2x speed frying memory: A new study says bingeing podcasts and videos at warp speed might make you dumber or at least worsen memory retention. Turns out 2x pushes the brain past its “working memory” limit, especially for older adults. Teens? Basically brain athletes for TikTok TED Talks. The rest of us? Toast.
🛩️ Amelia Earhart mystery: Another team is trying to find out what ever happened to the famous pilot who disappeared 88 years ago. They’re heading to Nikumaroro, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Why now? A satellite image revealed something odd, called the “Taraia Object,” that could be part of her missing plane. Stay tuned.