🏥 Your health, at risk: Two patient monitors that track your vitals have gaping security holes. Hackers can snoop on data, mess with settings or even assume total control. The Chinese-built models completely ignore network settings, meaning someone with the right know-how can break in. The only fix hospitals have? Unplug it and keep it off the network.
84.5%
Of ChatGPT’s mobile users are guys. With 353 million downloads, there’s a serious gender gap in AI. Women are way more skeptical (not me); about 53% won’t let their kids touch AI, compared to 26% of men. Remember, artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
Update your Apple gear — except your iPhone: Apple dropped updates for new and old devices. Wait a few weeks to update your iPhone, though, because I’m hearing the new update destroys your battery life. On the bright side, the security flaws patched in iPadOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, watchOS 11.3, tvOS 18.3 and visionOS 2.3 keep malicious apps from taking full control of your device. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and get it done. Here’s the full list of fixes.
🌍 Why Greenland? It all comes back to the AI race. The country is rich in precious metals. KoBold Metals is one startup digging up raw materials there to fuel AI production. Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg are all investors. Gotta secure those resources to keep scaling up AI data centers. Follow the money, folks. I really want to go to Greenland.
OpenAI makes a move ahead of schedule: Instead of waiting until spring, OpenAI just dropped its newest AI models, o3-mini and o3-mini-high, which have o1-level reasoning with 4o-level speed. Translation? They’re fast, smart, cheap and built to crush DeepSeek (paywall link). Try them now in ChatGPT under the dropdown Model Menu. I’m using it, and it’s another major jump forward in AI.
DeepSeek’s rise is a wake-up call: China isn’t just catching up; they’re proving they can compete, despite fewer resources and U.S. sanctions in place. If the U.S. wants to stay ahead, we can’t just play defense by restricting China’s access to chips and technology; we need to double down on innovation, AI investment and infrastructure, because, in the race for AI dominance, second place isn’t an option. We need to win!
🇨🇳 Numbers speak: Since DeepSeek was unveiled, OpenAI, which has attracted roughly $15 billion in funding, and Anthropic, with nearly $3 billion behind it, both have seen their valuations dip by up to 20%. DeepSeek led to a massive sell-off in AI tech stocks, with Nvidia losing nearly $600 billion in market value in a single day.
Dress for the job you want: Famous actor John Lithgow took that literally and sent a naked photo of himself to the director of his new film, “Jimpa.” The 79-year-old actor wanted to prove he was game for full-frontal scenes. He’s been nude on stage and screen before and says he likes hanging out.
🧬 Speedrunning evolution: An AI called ESM3 created a protein researchers say would’ve taken nature 500 million years to develop. It’s fluorescent green, similar to those that make jellyfish and corals glow in the dark. Proteins help your body build muscle and fight diseases, so this could lead to the creation of new drugs that target them. Neat!
400 million
Downloads of LibreOffice since 2011. Wowsie! Last year alone, over 35 million folks downloaded the open-source Microsoft Office competitor. I love free, too!
📺 Hotel TVs that don’t suck: Next time you book a stay, ask if they have LG TVs. They’re the first to support Google Cast and Apple AirPlay in hotels. No logins — just scan a QR code to play your shows and music. The connection cuts when you check out. LG didn’t say which hotels got the update, but here are rooms where AirPlay works.
Teenagers have no faith in Big Tech: This is reassuring. In a new study of 1,000 American teens, 64% don’t trust Google, Meta, Apple or TikTok to care about their mental health, and 62% think Big Tech’s profits matter more than their safety. AI isn’t helping, since they know it’s feeding them fake images, inaccurate info and chatbots pretending to be real people.
📚 Spot the bot: Books written by actual humans are getting a special certification. The Authors Guild came up with a way for writers to prove their work isn’t AI-generated. Bonus: You’ll be able to search a public database so you know before you buy.
In security, we trust: DeepSeek’s cybersecurity team left a database wide open, exposing chat histories, API keys, backend details — you name it. And don’t forget their servers are based in China, meaning the communist government is peeking in. Here are my tips to use it safely, if you must.
💰 Silicon Valley’s unicorns fly: The venture capitalists are upset. Communist China’s DeepSeek AI is 30 times cheaper to run than its American counterparts. In an interview, DeepSeek’s founder said he didn’t mean to start a price war; AI should simply be affordable for everyone. Oh, and he thinks AGI (that’s “artificial general intelligence,” when AI becomes smarter than humans and makes its own decisions) is two years away. Sleep well.
8 million
Views on a fake tweet about Elon Musk. It claims an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline got shut down because 90% of calls were about him. Musk is an immigrant from South Africa who became a U.S. citizen. Don’t share if it pops up on your feed.
$100,000
To build a single Apollo spacesuit. They were made by bra company Playtex, whose engineers know all about stretchy fabric. The result? Some 21 layers of fabric and clever “bellows” joints that let Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bend their arms and legs. That’s stellar support.
🍜 Is this pho real? Some idiot tried to steal an $18,000 robotic server from a San Jose Thai restaurant. The guy walked in, asked to use the restroom, then dragged the bot to his car when he thought no one was looking. Employees stopped him, but it almost would’ve been funnier if they didn’t … The robot’s software only works inside the restaurant, so it would’ve been useless.
Out-of-this-world upgrade: Apple’s iOS 18.3 update lets certain T-Mobile customers send texts from anywhere. It’s part of SpaceX and T-Mobile’s direct-to-cell satellite service. If you signed up for the beta in December and got lucky, you should see a toggle in your cellular data settings to enable it. It’s text-only for now, but voice and data connectivity are coming in the future.
Apple-lutely amazing: Most orchards still do things the old-fashioned way, but that’s changing fast. Startups are testing robotic pollinators in places where bees can’t get the job done, saving fertilizer by pinpointing trees that need it the most and using 12-foot robotic arms for harvesting. This is great, because what’s worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm.