🤖 Bots on the run

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👋 “Here we go” — is what we mutter to ourselves before joining a Zoom meeting, and the phrase astronaut Butch Wilmore spoke before taking his first spacewalk alongside Suni Williams. Probably good that the pair stretched their legs, given that they’ve been stuck at the International Space Station for almost eight months after planning to stay for just a week.

🎧 On the pod: Is Barnes & Noble back on top?

NEWS FLASH

🤖 Something teens can hate that isn’t their parents: AI content is duping America’s teens, according to a new study from nonprofit advocacy group Common Sense Media. Of the 1k teens surveyed, 35% said they’ve been deceived by fake content online and 41% reported encountering real, yet misleading, content. Plus, 22% said they’ve shared information that proved to be false. The trickery has grown more common as AI adoption increases: A 2024 survey showed that 70% of teenagers had tried using generative AI.

🦑 Yay, more murder games: Netflix revealed its 2025 film slate, which includes Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein; Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out film, Wake Up Dead Man; and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly. Perhaps most important for the streamer, however, was the news that “Squid Game” will return for its third season on June 27. The breakout Korean drama remains Netflix’s most-watched show, and its second season, which dropped in December, has already racked up 1.2B+ hours viewed.

☕ Coffee snobs are going to lose it over this one: To fancy up your coffee, Dunkin’s latest product is a line of cold foam creamers intended to top hot and cold beverages. Both iced drinks and cold foams are growing trends among coffee drinkers, as is making those premium coffee drinks at home. An analysis of National Coffee Association data found that 81% of past-day coffee drinkers had imbibed at home last year, with many having invested in machines and other accessories amid the pandemic, per FoodDive.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

A mansion in Manalapan, Florida, broke the record for the most expensive new home for sale in the US. The catch? It hasn’t been built yet. The $285m abode will be 50k+ square feet and include a bowling alley, car museum, spa, and shooting range.
Bad blood: New York Blood Center, one of America’s largest nonprofit blood donation centers, is dealing with disruptions after experiencing a ransomware attack. This follows NYBC’s blood emergency declaration last week after seeing a 30% drop in donations.
The Triple Dipper really is that good… or so we’re to believe after seeing Chili’s earnings. The chain saw a 31.4% increase in same-store sales in its latest quarter.

THE BIG IDEA

Robot with white body, red accents, blue eyes, against a backdrop of red swirls and white outlines on light blue; right arm raised, left bent.

May I have this robot dance?

The iconic “robot” dance has been dazzling onlookers since (apparently) the 1920s, but modern robots can do more than boogie.

2025 is already bringing superstrong robot fingers, robot joggers, more robot delivery men, and, well, robot dancers.

The state of robotics

Today’s hotshot bots are hopefully a far cry from the smoke and mirrors Tesla showed off last year.

Those remote-controlled robots seem closer to the “vending machine” side of things.

China is eager to show off its impressive automatons:

This week, handkerchief-twirling humanoid robots performed with human folk dancers in a Lunar New Year celebration.

In April, Beijing will host a humans vs. robots half-marathon in which bipedal mecha-runners from 20+ companies will compete with 12k+ humans.

But who needs legs?

Already popular (or tolerated) in some cities, wheeled robots and delivery drones are becoming more common.

Grubhub will partner with robotics company Avride to bring 100 bots to Ohio State University’s campus, per Engadget.
Grubhub says it has made hundreds of thousands of robot deliveries on college campuses since 2021.

Showcasing the wide spectrum of robot capabilities, Korean engineers have replicated the smashing powers of mantis shrimp with a flexible robot finger.

The shrimp’s secret is a latch-like muscle that stores a mighty wallop of potential energy in its club-like claw, per Ars Technica.
Using the same principles, the team created a stretchy device that can crawl, jump, grab things, and charge up a shrimp-like punch.
They also applied the tech to a sort of robot turtle with tentacles that sounds terrifying.

What’s the practical use for this? Well, knowing how robotics companies are making their money, probably some sort of tentacle-armed waiter.

🔗

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Visitors that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa may receive per day at the Louvre, where a gaggle of viewers get less than a minute to view the famous artwork. This week, Louvre director Laurence des Cars said that while the crowds are a source of pride, the room is a daily “scene of intense agitation,” per the Washington Post.

A redesign of the museum hopes to ease the congestion by placing the painting in its own room underground, accessible by purchasing a special ticket. The renovation, which also includes a new entrance, is due for completion in 2031.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1971, Apollo 14 launched, sending astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa to the moon.

💸 How to: spend less on streaming services.

👀 Art: A stop-motion short about a woman confronting a tornado.

🤖 How to: use DeepSeek — and why you may not want to.

🐶 Aww: A tiny friend.

SHOWER THOUGHT

If you win a year’s worth of calendars, do you only win one calendar? SOURCE

Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman and Sam Barsanti.
Editing by: Ben “Hands off my $285m mansion” Berkley.

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