Whatâs 3.75k lbs. and orange all over? The largest-ever gummy bear, of course â recently crafted by 20+ Dutch confectioners. The size of ~850k standard gummy bears, it took nine days for the over 8-foot-long candy colossus to solidify in its mold.
In todayâs email:
We regret to inform you: AI is bound to bypass your spam filters.
Video: Could a little financial paranoia actually be a good thing?
Treasure chess: Teens will, teens will rook you.
Around the Web: A cool article reader, the psychology of buying, Norwayâs cyclist tunnel, and more internet finds.
The big idea
Oh, cool. AI is expected to bring about a spam renaissance
Advances in AI also mean advances in scamming, bringing about a new set of tools for gaining and exploiting subjectsâ attention.
2023-04-27T00:00:00Z
Ben Berkley
It can be exciting to know that people in every profession are looking at AI and imagining ways it can revolutionize the way they work â until you remember spamming is also a profession.
Think todayâs junk-ducking obstacle course (say, repeatedly silencing âUnknown Callerâ and hitting âReport Junkâ on a half-dozen fake UPS delivery texts every day) is a headache? Keep some ibuprofen handy â youâre not gonna love the AI-powered future of spam.
Enabled by generative AI, spammers will be better equipped to get their messages in front of people â also meaning their nefarious counterpart, scammers, will be better equipped to squeeze susceptible populations, warns computer science expert John Licato in The Conversation.
More tools, more fools
This How-To Geek article on teaching ChatGPT how to write in oneâs personal writing style feels different through the lens of the classic âtrick people into thinking their boss is emailing themâ scam.
And thatâs just the start of the trickstersâ paradise ahead, per The Conversation:
Current spam filters will need to be remade; while AI can sharpen new anti-spam tools, it can also be used to evade them.
AI will help cyberpests better target individuals â able to more easily tap into subjectsâ personal data (ahem, social media), spammersâ and scammersâ persuasion skills will magnify.
Convincing voice and image generation add yet another extortion tool for criminals, as proven by this AI-enabled kidnapping scheme every mom in the world breathlessly shared on Facebook this month.
Pouring gasoline on a nuclear explosion
Cybersecurity firms are on the case and OpenAI is agreeable on setting guardrails, but trying to stay ahead of (increasingly emboldened) bad actors would be an expensive game of Whac-A-Mole.
Training models to register spam, expanding ID-verifying programs, and educating users are all resource-intensive work.
And theyâre up against a tough opponent: cybercrime is a booming, if mega-illegal, industry. If it continues to grow at its current 15% YoY rate, the global annual toll will hit $10.5T by 2025.
Just goes to show: Teach a man to phish, youâll unfortunately feed him for a lifetime.
Getting your bubbly less chubbily: A French team has uncorked a Champagne bottle with a record-low weight of 1.76 lbs. â about the same as a 28 oz. can of soup. The key to shedding heft: better glass distribution in the bottleâs âshoulders,â the sloping area between its neck and body.
SNIPPETS
You canât always get what you want: Microsoftâs $69B acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard hit a hurdle yesterday, with the UKâs antitrust authority blocking the deal. A high-stakes appeal is forthcoming â the purchase will likely be off if Microsoft loses.
Better Zuck this time: Meta had a rosier earnings report than expected, beating revenue and daily active user projections, and vindicating Mark Zuckerbergâs AI-forward strategy â which has totally always been the plan, rather than something like the metaverse, which was definitely never the plan.
Good news for those of you tired of real-life dystopian thoughts like, âWhen will I be replaced by AI?â Netflix announced âBlack Mirrorâ will return for its sixth season in June following a three-year break.
Metaverse Beauty Week will debut on Decentraland, Roblox, and Spatial from June 12 to 16. The event will include gamified brand interactions, including treasure hunts and NFT wearables.
Bummer: Japanese space company ispace lost contact with its lunar spacecraft moments before what would have been the first commercial moon touchdown. CEO Takeshi Hakamada said the company had to assume the vessel didnât complete the landing.
Closing time: Texas real estate agent Ben Caballero has been profiled in this very newsletter for his absurd ~16-a-day home-selling rate. His 2022 was similarly nuts: Caballero set a new record for real estate volume, selling $3B worth of houses.
Bed Bath & Beyondstopped honoring its famous 20%-off coupons this week as the chain settles its affairs and prepares to leave the mortal coil. At its peak, the company mailed out ~1B of its Big Blue coupons every year.
⌠Donât toss those coupons out yet: The competition will still give you 20% off â The Container Store says itâll honor Bed Bath & Beyond coupons through May 31, in case you need somewhere to store the shoes you used to kick their old rival while theyâre down.
Late-night cravings: Wendyâs has served chili in its restaurants since 1969. This spring, youâll be able to buy it in a can at the grocery store for $4.49 thanks to a partnership with Slim Jims-maker Conagra.
Not again: Ticketmaster canât seem to stay out of hot water. This time, fans claim it bungled the ticket giveaway to King Charlesâ coronation concert with a confusing, contradictory system.
Where, kitty, kitty? Tile unveiled a new $40 cat-tracking tag with a collar attachment. Tile claims it has a 250-foot range and a battery that can keep tabs on your tabby for up to three years.
Cheat codes: If youâre a creator, this clip breaks down 10 websites you may not have heard of that can make your life way easier.
Want to think more creatively to solve business problems? Itâs actually a skill you â and your team â can foster. Hereâs how to do it.
VIDEO
From the pod: To achieve greater financial success, do yourself a favor and become⌠insecure.
Okay, not exactly â but we did recently speak with Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, about how some good olâ paranoia can help set you up for a healthy financial future.
You can check out the two-minute clip by moving your thumb half an inch and tapping the link below. Just donât let these financial tidbits get to your head, or one day you might end up naming a yacht âCompensation,â and nobody wants that.
Well⌠youâre marketing to the internet, anyway. Might as well make it official.
To help you craft a universally sound strategy, we made the Global Marketing Playbook with the juggernauts at Lokalise and Rock Content. Enjoy the tag-team effort of this free ebook.
From the global marketing guide:
Prep for world domination
Map out strategy, stakeholders, and KPIs
Lay out long- and short-term goals
Build a talented team of niche experts
Bolster your process with SEO, automation, and more
The âQueenâs Gambitâ moment may have passed, but for millions of young people, the game is still only heating up.
2023-04-27T00:00:00Z
Sara Friedman
Did you log on to Chess.com after watching Netflixâs âThe Queenâs Gambitâ just to make sure you werenât an undiscovered chess prodigy?
Us, too (we werenât, so weâre still writing this newsletter). But, according to The New York Times, the youths persevered with the hobby long after we toppled our queens.
And weâre not just talking a handful of nerds
Since November, the number of Chess.com daily active users has surged from 5.4m to 11m+.
The biggest growth came from players ages 13-17, and 549k of them used the site in January and February (18-24 is the second-fastest-growing age group).
A site record of 31.7m chess games were played on Jan. 20.
While Chess.com lets users play for free, paid plans ranging from $4.17 to $10/mo. offer features like educational videos, unlimited lessons and puzzles, and game reviews.
Whatâs driving the surge?
It started how most trends do â with influencers. In 2020, the site began hosting tournaments with prominent influencers like xQc, Ludwig, and MrBeast.
If all of thatâs not enough to blow your mind, we present to you: chess boxing.
AROUND THE WEB
âď¸ On this day: In 2005, the double-decker Airbus A380 took its maiden flight. Despite being the largest passenger airliner in the world, it couldnât compete with the Boeing 747 and production ceased in 2021.
đ´đžââď¸ Thatâs interesting: Norway built a 1.8-mile-long tunnel exclusively for cyclists.
đ§ Smart: Want to learn buyer psychology in three minutes a week? Why We Buyâs free newsletter explores the hidden reasons why people buy.
đ Useful: An app that saves articles, then reads them back at up to 4x the speed.
đ Aww: And now, is there anything more serene than this lamb?
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