🤖 AI in action

👋 Good morning. Ever wish you could ride to work on a giant Pokémon? The designers at Honda understand. They must, since the company is creating a concept motorcycle in the shape of Koraidon, a dragon-like pocket monster. The project took eight months and the work of ~40 Honda engineers to complete, and will be rideable and able to walk on four legs and stand upright by itself using the company’s self-balancing tech.

🎧 On the pod: How often are Americans actually using AI?

NEWS FLASH

🐭 A bit small, but still impressive: Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas startup that wants to bring back the woolly mammoth, made a woolly mouse by implanting genetically modified embryos in female mice. The result: very fuzzy mice with thick, golden-brown hair and fat similar to a mammoth, characteristics that Colossal believes would help the mice survive in cold weather. The company may still be a long way off from its plan to implant modified embryos in elephants, but the mice are, as one expert put it, “pretty adorable.”

🚗 Uber rides, minus the awkward small talk: As of yesterday, Uber customers in Austin, Texas, can hail a driverless Waymo car. Riders can boost their odds of getting matched with a Waymo by adjusting their rider preferences in the app, or they can request a different car if they’d prefer a human behind the wheel. The launch, which covers 37 square miles in Austin, will be followed by autonomous expansion in Atlanta, scaling to hundreds of vehicles over the next few years.

🔪 Going under the knife soon? Don’t save it for a Friday. Pre-weekend surgeries have a 5% higher combined risk of deaths, complications, and short- and long-term readmissions than those done earlier in the week, according to a new study that analyzed the data from nearly 500k patients. What’s behind the added risk? It’s not that your surgeon is dabbling with a happy hour margarita — there’s likely a decrease in hospital staffing over the weekend, which could lead to subpar outcomes in post-op care on Saturdays and Sundays. While Fridays might be a no-no in general, researchers found no evidence that patients in the OR on Friday the 13th fared any worse.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

That’s a lot of billions: Anthropic raised $3.5B in its most recent fundraising round, valuing the company at $61.5B.
You think your morning to-do list is daunting? Try mapping 450m galaxies. That’s the job of NASA’s space observatory, launching into orbit this week to map the entire sky four times over the course of two years.
EventBrite revamped its app, giving it a new look and adding curated “It-Lists” and new tools for hosts, including the ability to add video. The aim, per Fast Company, is to “be the Spotify of events.”

AI TOOLBOX

Matt Wolfe’s favorite time-savers

As a tech-focused ‘Tuber with 700k+ subs and running, Matt has tried a swarm of AI tools.

These are his recommendations across categories, from copy and images and videos to workflow and journaling and strategy.

Find ways to free up more time. Or frick around and find out if you’d like.

Try these chatbots

THE BIG IDEA

It seems most everyone’s finally using AI

Several recent studies have shed a light on the speed of AI adoption among everyone from toddlers to the UN.

What we’ve learned: a lot of people are using AI and, much like with everything else, moderation is key.

Let’s start…

… with a Stanford University-led study examining the adoption of AI writing tools. It found that by late 2024, significant chunks of AI-generated or modified text were identified in 18% of US consumer complaints, 24% of corporate press releases, up to 15% of job postings, and 14% of United Nations press releases.

Other takeaways:

Smaller, younger firms — and those in the science and tech sectors — were more likely to use AI in press releases and job postings.
Among consumer complaints, areas with lower education levels showed slightly higher AI adoption — a reverse from typical tech adoption, indicating people with less writing experience may be using AI as an “equalizing tool.”

Who else?

A 2024 Goldman Sachs survey that found 69% of small businesses were using AI for time and/or money savings. Adoption shot up from 56% the year prior, with common uses like writing code or content, screening job applicants, and inventory management.

One thrift store owner told Fox Business that an AI-powered scanner shaved hours off pricing duties, allowing him to pay his entry-level employees more.

Meanwhile, a Common Sense Media survey found that nearly a third of children ages 0-8 have used AI for school-related learning. Of those, 23% of parents found it had a mostly positive impact on their child, while 55% said it had no impact.

Is this good or bad?

It seems to depend on whether we use it as a tool or to do everything for us.

A Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research study found that the more people relied on AI, the less critical thinking they employed. However, many still used those skills through fact-checking, editing, and analyzing AI’s answers versus simply accepting them.

Similarly, the Stanford study suggested that while AI could “democratize content creation,” overreliance could lead to mistrust and a lack of authenticity.

It wouldn’t be the first time tech offered to take the wheel: Most of us don’t remember many phone numbers these days — but we do memorize those we’d need in an emergency.

🔗

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Increase in searches for #TravelRing on TikTok, per Axios. “Travel rings” are cheaper dupes of engagement or wedding rings that people can wear on vacation or anywhere else they’d be worried about losing the real thing. The trend is on the rise even though a majority of consumers insure their rings.

The faux-rings swap diamonds and precious metals for less expensive stones and materials. They can be ordered off Amazon or custom-made. Some brands, including Frank Darling and Wove, even sell or include fakes of their rings.

Another use we’d consider: dupe rings for single people who just don’t feel like being chatted up.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1953, Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow.

🥾 That’s interesting: The story behind iconic shoe brand Doc Martens.

🔎 How to: hunt for jobs in the age of AI.

🏓 That’s cool: “Pong” in 240 browsers tabs.

🐱 Aww: Intruder alert.

QUOTE OF NOTE

Start planning your dream itinerary — and then immediately scrapping it in favor of a government-mandated one — because North Korea is once again open to Western tourists (though you can’t enter with a US passport).

A sanctioned five-day tour costs around $725, a good value considering it covers lodging, meals, and propaganda.

But don’t expect the most restful time: one British national who visited last week said he was regularly nervous about running afoul of the totalitarian regime — and nearly started an international incident during his trip. His heinous crime? Writing a wish for world peace in a guestbook.

SHOWER THOUGHT

If you are alone when you crack open a peanut shell and eat the peanut inside, you are the only person in the world to have ever seen that peanut. SOURCE

Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Kaylee Jenzen.
Editing by: Ben “Lost in Pyongyang” Berkley.

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