Meetings now come with surveillance

It doesn’t bother me anymore, but it used to. Maybe it’s happened to you. You’re in a Zoom call, wearing pajama bottoms, and someone casually says, “Oh, my AI assistant is taking notes of everything everyone is saying.”

Wait, what?! There’s a digital stenographer silently documenting every sigh, awkward pause and half-baked idea you mutter?

AI meeting assistants like Otter.ai, Fireflies, Notion and others are the new must-have workplace tool. They can:

  • Transcribe every word, so you can focus instead of frantically typing.
  • Summarize key points, so you don’t have to rewatch the whole meeting.
  • Highlight decisions and deadlines, so you know what matters.
  • Assign tasks automatically based on what’s said. No more “Who was supposed to do that?”
  • Even integrate with your apps like Slack, Trello or email to keep the ball rolling.

Super helpful, right? But just because you can bring AI into the boardroom doesn’t mean you always should.

🤖 Rule #1: Be up front

If AI is eavesdropping, slip in a casual, “Hey, I’ve got AI taking notes.” Be cool about it. Don’t drop it like a Bond villain mid-meeting: “Ah yes, my transcription robot is always listening.”

📩 Rule #2: Offer the summary

Want to be everyone’s favorite? Share the AI-generated recap. 

People love walking away from a meeting with clear notes, even if they were only half-paying attention (you know who you are). Sharing = good karma.

🛑 Rule #3: Respect boundaries

If someone isn’t comfortable being recorded or transcribed, don’t push. Hit pause on the AI. Forcing it makes you look tone-deaf and can even lead to people opting out of the meeting entirely.

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A case for HR

A humanoid robot in China malfunctioned, flailed around, and thrashed wildly at factory workers during a routine test. Naturally, some humans online are calling the start of our AI judgment day, while others are still debating 100 men vs 1 gorilla. Cool, cool.

Hide the mess, not your sanity

🙈 No shame in a bit of clutter, but let’s make it easier to hide.

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🤖 Lazy cleaning FTW: Kick back while this robot vacuum & mop (38% off) handles those dust bunnies.

Bitcoin goes mainstream. Time to buy? — May 24th, Hour 3

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It’s official: Wall Street’s biggest names are getting into crypto. Should you? By the way, don’t fall for the AI puppy ads. What shows up isn’t a smart robot dog. Plus, the world’s first mass-produced flying car and an AI that could transform health care.

Uber’s luxury clone army: It’s throwing hundreds of millions at Lucid and Nuro to deploy 20,000 self-driving Gravity SUVs by 2030. Lucid builds the luxe EVs, Nuro wires the robot brains, and Uber handles the rides. It’s their biggest AV deal ever. Roll out is in 2026, city TBD. 

17 

How many tasks a robot nailed, solo, during a gallbladder surgery. Johns Hopkins’ new AI-powered bot followed instructions, learned from voice commands, adapted mid-op and even corrected itself like a good surgical intern. Only it never gets tired, flustered, needs snacks or even requests a student loan deferment. 

Desk all set

👩‍💼 Midweek slump? Time to freshen up your workspace.

  • This mini desk vacuum (11% off) is like a robot maid.
  • Look sharp on video calls with an LED lamp (39% off).
  • A bladeless desk fan (32% off) helps you beat the heat.
  • Clip a rotating headphone hanger (41% off) to your desk.
  • Scroll hands-free with a foldable phone stand (29% off).

🔌 Ten ports = one hub: Grab this neat USB charging hub (33% off) and power up all your tech at once.

🧪 GPT-5 is coming: OpenAI says it’s done juggling 5 billion models. GPT-5 will unite its smartest (the “O” series) with its most extra (GPT-4o) into one huge robot brain. Expect it within a month, with sharper reasoning, more senses and fewer tabs making your laptop beg for mercy.

5 to 3

That’s the final score in a soccer match where no one broke a sweat, or had a pulse. Tsinghua’s robot squad took the W against China Agricultural University in the world’s first all-autonomous 3v3 match. Strategy, teamwork, AI, basically FIFA meets I, Robot. Coming soon: an algorithm for yellow cards. 

 🍳 AI hits Applebee’s: This is flipping great! IHOP and Applebee’s are rolling out AI for everything from upselling pancakes to spotting dirty tables. The idea? Less drama, more sales. Soon, a robot won’t forget your preferred side of ranch dressing and spin an iPad with a 25% recommended tip.

🚨 Fake CAPTCHAs: You know those little tests that ask you to prove you’re not a robot? Scammers are planting fake ones on sketchy sites (like free movie pages) that ask you to press keys or download software. Some even redirect you to a browser extension or tell you to run a command. Plot twist: It’s malware.

Walt Disney lives again? Kinda. He’s being turned into a lifelike robot for Disney parks, so guests can see what it might’ve been like to meet him. It’ll look like him at age 62 and use real lines from his speeches. The twist? His granddaughter says he would never want this

Lot cop unleashed: Walmart’s testing a security robot in its parking lots. It has wheels, cameras and apparently a dude behind the mic, whispering “Yo, what you say?” to shoppers. Is it surveillance? Art? Cyberpunk cosplay? Either way, the vibes are dystopian. Next up: R2-D2 with a gun.  

🤖 Humanoids at your doorstep: Amazon’s testing humanoid robots that might literally leap out of delivery vans. The company’s building a “humanoid park” to train these robot couriers to drop packages while dodging pets, toddlers and possibly your Ring camera judgment. Humans may still drive the vans, for now.

🤖 Fake dog alert: Those viral ads slinging “military-grade robot dogs” for $49? Total scam. They’re Frankensteining DARPA clips, festive music and lies at scale. YouTubers are debunking it so you don’t spend your rent money on a vibrating Furby with one wheel. And yeah, TikTok is letting it happen anyway.

🤲 Amazon’s touchy new robot: Vulcan has a “sense of touch,” which is either a sci-fi dream or the start of our future metal overlords politely handing us our orders. Amazon swears it’s “not replacing workers,” just lifting the heavy stuff so humans can … watch? For now, it’s just in Spokane, but Germany’s next.

🚨 Windows alert: New password-stealing malware is spreading fast. It shows a fake “I Am Not A Robot” CAPTCHA and tells you to open the Windows Run box and type a command. Huge red flag. No legit site will ever ask you to do that. If it pops up, close the page immediately. And yes, real-time protection helps. I use TotalAV.

1 billion

The number of humanoids Morgan Stanley expects to exist by 2050. Yes, that’s one bot for every eight people on Earth. So if your coworker gets replaced by a robot, don’t panic, statistically, so will you. If you’re picturing WALL-E with better knees and worse social skills, you’re not far off.

Robot strawberries: In Virginia, a vertical farm is growing 4 million pounds of strawberries a year indoors, on two-story towers, with no soil, no bees and a whole lot of AI. The system analyzes 10 million+ data points a day. It’s less “Old MacDonald,” more “Black Mirror: Produce Edition.” Can’t wait for my future salad to come with bug patch notes.

🤠 I’m trapped in a Waymo in Texas: No, it’s not the latest country music hit. Two women were stuck in a Waymo in Austin. The doors wouldn’t unlock but did open after they threatened to go live on TikTok. Waymo says they hit the “pull over” button. Nothing like threatening a viral video to make a robot say “my bad” and let you out.