Bugs in the system

June 19, 2025

🦗 Bugs in the system: Insects aren’t paying off. Some of the biggest insect-farming startups have gone bust, and investors are tapping out. The pitch: sustainable protein. The reality: not cheap enough, not scalable yet. But researchers think genetic engineering (without the scary GMO label) could fix it, turning flies into nutrient factories and faster breeders.

Tags: bugs, fix, investors, researchers, system

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5 clever scams spreading now

ChatGPT

Lately, I’ve had way too many calls on my shows from people who have lost thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) to scams. These are so cleverly evil, it’s like Ocean’s Eleven but starring a dude with three Instagram followers and a ChatGPT subscription.

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Digital passport for the AI age

Sam Altman who created ChatGPT now wants to scan your eyeballs with a glowing bowling ball to prove you’re human online, and he made a jingle about it. Seriously. I told you all about it back on May 6. Orb just dropped its first U.S. ad campaign. It’s basically the “If You’re Happy and You Know It” of human verification. It feels like a TSA PreCheck for whatever weird world we’re heading into. It already has 13 million verified humans across 20+ countries, with goals to hit 50 million by the end of 2025. Not me.

$4 million

What MrBeast just dropped on a single YouTube video. That’s a full Hollywood film budget, minus the red carpet and plus way more slime. He spent over a year on it, with 171 days of filming and 11,000 hours of footage. The video is scheduled to drop on Saturday.

Turn off Fire Stick clicks: You know that annoying little sound every time you move through the menu? Leave it on long enough and you’ll start hearing it in your dreams. Go to Settings > Display & Sounds > Audio > Navigation Sounds and switch it Off. Congrats, your sanity just thanked you.

Within 3 years

A brand-new gold car can lose around 34% of its value. Other colors that don’t age well? White drops about 32.1%, and black comes in at 31.9%. On the bright side (had to say it), yellow holds up best at 24%, with orange right behind at 24.4%. Yeah, I’m still not driving a pumpkin car though.

Over 225 billion

The number of cyberattacks Cloudflare sees every single day. The twist? One of the biggest targets is gamers. Hackers love snatching accounts, changing the login details and reselling them. So give your kid a heads-up: Phishing emails are scammers’ favorite move. If a link says “free loot,” it’s a trap.

4,000+

That’s how many natural water brands are out there, and yes, sommeliers are involved. From Tasmanian mist nets to Peruvian snowmelt, hydration’s gone haute couture. Some bottles hit $30+; others wear Swarovski crowns. Welcome to the rise of red carpet hydration. Your Brita? A meager peasant.

100%

That’s how accurate ChatGPT-4 is at making lifesaving cardiology decisions. A hospital in Israel tested whether patients needed a stent or open-heart surgery, and in all 40 cases, the AI made the same calls as senior experts. Cherry on top? It gave answers in 10 minutes instead of the usual 30. Paging Dr. GPT.

Almost every 24 hours

How often Chipotle plans to open a new restaurant this year. To pull it off, they’ll need lots of new hires, and that’s where AI comes in. Their “Ava Cado” tool chats with candidates, collects info and sends out offers. Apparently, it’s so good it’s cut hiring time by around 75%. Wish they could do that for prices.

54%

The percentage of recent grads who say salary talks are scarier than breakups. More than half of recent graduates would rather say, “It’s not you, it’s me” than ask for more money. Nothing beats the panic of discussing 401(k)s with a hiring manager who calls you “buddy.”