👋 Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope you spend it with the person you love most. But, if it’s not shaping up to be that kind of day, there are alternatives for feeling a flicker of joy. Animal shelters and zoos across the US are running fundraisers that allow scorned lovers some catharsis, whether it’s naming a bug after your ex at the Minnesota Zoo or giving a frozen rat your ex-lover’s name before it’s fed to the raptors at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Something for everyone, really.
Programming note:We’re enjoying a long weekend in observance of Presidents Day, but we’ll see you in your inbox first thing Tuesday.
💥 MrBeast shares his best business advice
Tune in here for a special episode of My First Million featuring MrBeast. The billionaire creator explains the Rule of 100, his recipe for virality, his success mindset, and more.
NEWS FLASH
🏠 Rent too high? Blame the millennial next door. Not only are they still posting “we did a thing” on Instagram, but they’re driving up rents for single-family homes, which have jumped ~41% above pre-pandemic levels, according to Zillow. Multifamily rent has also increased, rising 26% over the same period. The average rent for a single-family home was ~$2.2k as of December 2024, while the typical multifamily unit was listed for ~$1.8k. Why all the demand for single-family homes? The typical renter is no longer a 21-year-old post-grad cramming into a studio apartment: The median age of a US renter was 42 in 2024, up from 33 in 2021.
🔍 So… not true crime? A YouTube video about a murder in Colorado amassed 2m views and had watchers demanding to know why The Denver Post never covered it. Well, because it never happened. True Crime Case Files was a popular YouTube channel with 150+ partially AI-generated videos digging into lurid — but fake — crimes. Its creator told404 Media he wanted viewers to question “why it matters so much to them that real people are being murdered,” and despite weird names and other clues, many never caught on. The channel has since been deleted, but several others with AI-generated stories remain.
🤖 New buzzword just dropped: Coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, “vibe coding” is when you forget the code you’re writing exists and “fully give in to the vibes.” To do this, Karpathy combines multiple AI tools: for instance, using Superwhisper, a voice-to-text tool, to describe what he wants to make to Composer, an AI coding assistant. When Karpathy gets an error message, “I just copy and paste them in with no comment; usually, that fixes it.” There are limitations, and experts note it could produce potential security vulnerabilities and prevent beginners from actually learning about coding.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Step away from the plaid uniform: The cost to attend private schools in the US hit an all-time high. Average annual tuition for day schools is now ~$49.3k, up 7.4% — the biggest increase in 10+ years. It’s not deterring families: 60% of private schools saw enrollment growth in fall 2024 compared to 2023.
This one feels personal: Eating from plastic takeout containers might significantly up your chance of congestive heart failure, according to a new study. It’s not about the loaded nachos your ordered — plastic chemicals from the containers leach into food, ultimately damaging the circulatory system.
Apple will reveal a new product on Feb. 19, per a teaser tweet from CEO Tim Cook. Speculation suggests that it could be the AirTag 2, the latest iPhone SE, or the M4 MacBook Air.
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Meeting someone on the internet was once the geekiest way to start a relationship.
Now seemingly everyone who’s single is on the apps, but even that might not be enough anymore.
Swiping into AI
Dating apps, like every other app, are betting big on AI integration.
Grindr is launching an “AI wingman” chatbot to offer “tailored advice and even suggest date spots,” perWired.
The chatbot doesn’t search the web, so it can only get so specific, but (unlike the PG-rated ChatGPT) it can offer tips for dates that go — ahem — particularly well.
Iris Dating is built around an AI learning your type and then matching you with similar people.
Similarly, app conglomerate Match Group (which owns Match, Tinder, Hinge, and several others) plans to add AI features to its biggest apps.
Tinder’s AI Photo Selector scans your camera roll and finds your best pics.
Hinge now lets you ask an AI for feedback on how to make your profile stronger.
It’s hard out there, even for apps
More dating app users are complaining about fatigue.
The efficiency and inherent superficiality can encourage ghosting and make dating feel like work.
Some apps’ stock prices and user numbers are down — even Hinge, the app that wants to be deleted — though Match Group maintains that things are fine, per Mashable.
That’s where AI comes in. These companies are hoping that removing some of the monotony will bring back the fun of swiping.
Relationship expert Jennifer Gunsaullus told Mashable that communication skills are an important part of dating and that AI removes that — but maybe someday that’ll be like saying dating should still be about winning a princess’s hand in an archery contest, like it was before the internet.
Do you have your personal elevator pitch in order? If not, mastering your professional bio seems like a great place to start.
On today’s Hustle Daily Show:Why your Valentine’s Day chocolate is so damn expensive.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Asking price for a 12.6k-square-foot, eight-bedroom, nine-bath modernist estate, located on Los Angeles’ posh west side. Amenities include a wine storage vault, pool, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, a six-car garage, and a private funicular that leads to a “sun-splashed plateau and two luxury yurts with water and power overlooking Los Angeles,” per Robb Report.
Sure, it’s $40m, but you would be the most-respected glamper in all of LA — though you wouldn’t have its most famous funicular. That would be Angels Flight, located in downtown LA and featured in numerous movies and TV shows, including La La Land and “Bosch.”
Meanwhile, across the pond: A judge ordered a ~$40m refund to a couple whose palatial London mansion came with a spa, pool, movie theater, and gym — but also a severe moth infestation. Yikes.
AROUND THE WEB
🌍 On this day: In 1990, the photo of Earth known as “Pale Blue Dot” was taken from Voyager 1, 3.7B miles from the sun.
🍿 That’s cool: An oral history of John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness.
