ChatGPT, take the wheel

July 8, 2025

ChatGPT, take the wheel: In a simulated space mission, researchers handed ChatGPT the controls of a spacecraft, and it didn’t crash into a moon. In fact, it placed second (behind math), beating several AI systems trained like actual astronauts. Translation: A chatbot that forgets what you just said five seconds ago can still land a spaceship. Allegedly.

Tags: crash, math, researchers, space, translation

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250 million

That’s how many views over 9,000 pirated movies and shows pulled on YouTube, before anyone noticed. From Netflix exclusives to box office hits, pirates uploaded it all (paywall link). YouTube’s algorithm even gave them a boost.

🔥 Fire stick buffering? Your device doesn’t actually turn off, it just goes to sleep. A quick restart might help performance issues. Go to Settings > My Fire TV (or Device & Software) and hit Restart. Or hold the Select and Play/Pause buttons on your remote for a few seconds to reboot it.

Scam emails

Scam emails? So 2022. Phishers now are spinning up entire scam sites faster than you can microwave leftovers. Okta, a login security company, caught bad actors using v0 (a site-building AI tool by Vercel) to launch convincing login clones, including one of Okta’s own.

30 seconds

That’s all it took to spin up a fake Okta login page with generative AI.

$1.5 billion

That’s how much Figma could raise in its IPO, if Wall Street swipes right. That would match CoreWeave for biggest tech IPO of the year. Still a bit of a haircut, given that Adobe tried to buy it for $20 billion in 2022. Now it’s flaunting 91% margins like it’s back on the dating scene with a six-pack.

2 days

How long it took AI to figure out why some superbugs are immune to antibiotics. The shocker? A team of microbiologists spent 10 years getting to the same answer. The bot even came up with four new ideas they hadn’t considered. And get this: It couldn’t have copied them … their research wasn’t published.

Stop trolls on Instagram: You can filter out nasty comments. Go to Profile > Settings and activity > Hidden Words (under How others can interact with you). Tap Manage custom words and phrases to build a block list, then toggle on Hide comments. Anything with those words stays hidden from your followers.

37 out of 50

That’s how many top news sites saw traffic drop after Google’s AI took the wheel. Despite wild headlines covering assassination attempts, election chaos and tariff wars, users stayed on the search page. Why? Google’s Gemini bot summarizes the news, grabs the eyeballs and leaves publishers ghosted like a bad Tinder date.

$1 billion

That’s Rivian’s latest cash infusion from Volkswagen. It’s the second billion in a $5.8B tech JV, paid out after Rivian hit gross profit (finally). The deal: VW gets EV software; Rivian gets a lifeline. Think of it as funding your roommate’s startup in exchange for their Wi-Fi password.

Over 1 million

That’s how many robots are working in Amazon warehouses. They do everything from moving packages to sorting items. The scary part? Robots already help with 75% of deliveries and are on track to outnumber human workers soon. First they take our jobs, then it’s the world. Better be nice to your Roomba.