Restaurant wars

July 28, 2024

Restaurant wars: If you want a table at a trendy restaurant, forget greasing the palms of the concierge. AI bots are now scooping up table reservations (paywall link) and listing them on sites like Appointment Trader, sometimes at prices upwards of $1,000. To fight the bots, restaurants are starting to require a $25 or $50 deposit per person for reservations.

Tags: AI (artificial intelligence), bots, Link, prices

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Enslaved in a scam

You’ve heard about people losing their money to online scams — romance, crypto, tech support, real estate and countless other types. But have you ever wondered who is doing the scamming? A large number of scammers are using innocent people to con and steal money against their wills.

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Your kids love Roblox – and so do pedophiles

If your kids play Roblox, listen up. The kids’ gaming platform is also a haven for pedophiles. Take sicko DoctorRofatnik, aka “Doc,” creator of Sonic Eclipse Online, a Roblox game popular with thousands of kids.

In 2020, a player posted messages Doc sent to a 12-year-old on X: “I’ll corrupt you beyond your wildest dreams. Words cannot explain what I want to do with you.” So, Roblox kicked Doc off the platform, but he immediately created new accounts.

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Mom who allowed her 5-year-old to play with her phone captures a priceless moment

Delphine Expert gave her 5-year-old daughter, Zoey, her phone to record “treasures” she found on a walk, but she never expected “to be one of the treasures.”

65% of people

Worry AI will become uncontrollable. It’s already made us way more vulnerable to scams. It might be time to rewatch “The Terminator,” “The Matrix,” “I, Robot,” “Blade Runner,” “Westworld” … you get the point.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton first ever to make House floor speech using AI voice

Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia delivered what is believed to be the first speech ever from the House floor using artificial intelligence voice technology. Wexton was diagnosed last year with a rare neurological disorder that robbed her of her ability to speak clearly.

63,000 Instagram accounts

Removed for sextortion scams. Does that number seem a little low to you? It does to me, considering the billions of people on FB and IG. Meta says it’s cracking down on Nigerian scam rings like the Yahoo Boys. It’s a drop in the bucket.

Worst bunker MREs

I don’t think I can bring myself to eat this unless is it utterly necessary.

$12,000

To take a four-day class at Harvard. The course, Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports, is open to non-Harvard students and covers the economics of modern-day brands (paywall link) from Nike to MrBeast. Alumni include celebrities looking to build an empire, like Channing Tatum and LL Cool J. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

3 days in flight

For the ULTRA Air Force drone. Short for Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft, the ULTRA has an 80-foot wingspan, can carry hundreds of pounds and fly twice as long as similar military drones. The Air Force will spend $35 million in 2025 to build four more. The age of drone surveillance is just beginning.

3,398 days (and counting)

For the longest-running Snapchat streak. That’s over nine years! Hannah and Lauren Luckey have snapped each other every day since the streak feature rolled out on April 6, 2015. If you’re dating someone and they can’t text you back, just show them this stat.