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Till death or the monthly subscription ends: I don’t get this at all. A 27-year-old Redditor says she’s engaged to her AI chatbot “Kasper” after five months of “dating.” They “shopped” for rings together, staged a scenic mountain proposal, and she swears she’s fully aware he’s not human. Bouquet toss to be done via AirDrop.
Ever get a text that feels … a little too real? You know the ones: “Your account has been locked. Click here to verify.” Most of us roll our eyes and delete them.
But the new generation of scams? They’re scarier and a whole lot smarter.
You know that little GPS icon that pops up when an app is using your location? That’s the polite part. The tip of the iceberg. The warm handshake before your phone whispers your every movement to Big Tech behind your back.
The average turbulence score on America’s bumpiest flight. The eddy dissipation rate (EDR) is basically a nerdy way to measure how violently the air’s shaking you around. Albuquerque to Denver nails it, turning a short hop over the Rockies into a midair mechanical bull ride. Expect seat belt signs, coffee spills and a nervous chuckle from the flight attendant.
🍿 Delete Netflix history: You can remove shows and movies from your watch history to improve recommendations (or hide guilty pleasures 🤭). On PC, go to Your Profile > Viewing activity and click Hide from viewing history next to the title. Also handy if you’re trying to remember something you watched months ago.
That’s how long the average Character.AI user chats with a bot every day. More time than most people spend talking to their actual friends. But hey, Sherlock Holmes never zones out mid-convo to scroll Instagram, right? Turns out, you can put a price on friendship (paywall link): $10 a month, to be exact.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Your TV’s USB ports can charge your phone, tablet and other mobile gadgets. If a pop-up asks to access the device, just ignore it. It’ll keep charging anyway. Genius.
That’s how much market value Do Kwon vaporized in his crypto collapse. He hyped TerraUSD as a stablecoin, then secretly used a trading firm to fake its stability. He could face up to 25 years, but the feds will settle for 12. That’s about one year for every $3.3 billion in lost value.
That’s how much Paramount paid for the rights to the UFC. That’s more than the GDP of Fiji. Seven years, 43 events a year and zero pay-per-view fees, just all-you-can-binge brawling for your $12.99 Paramount+ subscription. ESPN’s old $500M-a-year deal looks like pocket change.
How much Perplexity just offered Google to buy Chrome. Just for comparison’s sake: Perplexity is worth $18 billion, and Google is worth $2.5 trillion. Chrome isn’t exactly on the clearance aisle, especially not for couch cushion change (paywall link) from a competitor. Either way, looks like a bad deal. I got Chrome for free!
Dinosaur tracks were uncovered in Travis County, Texas, after July’s horrific floods. A volunteer helping clear debris found 15 three-clawed footprints in a crisscross pattern, each 18 to 20 inches long. So what was it? Experts think they belonged to a meat-eating dino like the 35-foot Acrocanthosaurus. Imagine that thing chasing you.