Good Monday Morning

It’s June 9th. Donald Trump’s order regarding travel from 19 countries became effective overnight. 341 million people from 12 countries are completely barred from entering the U.S., while another 84 million from 7 others face restrictions.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,058 words, just over 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now

PayPal Drops from Google Wallet

Google Wallet will stop supporting PayPal in the U.S. on Friday, forcing users to switch to cards or bank accounts.

Virginia Limits Teen Screen Time

After banning phones in schools, the state now caps social media use to one hour daily for kids under 16, which raises questions about enforcement and the ease with which teens will just route around it.

Meta Courts Hollywood For VR Edge

To challenge Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro, Meta is offering millions for exclusive VR content from studios like Disney and A24 to power its sleeker “Loma” device, expected to launch priced under $1,000.

Perplexity Hits 780M Search Queries as AI Ambitions Grow

By The Numbers

George’s Date Take

You may hear more about this number this week, and 25 million daily search queries is impressive, but Google is still your main player and focus.

Perplexity’s current volume is 3% of the purple Bing line at the bottom and far less than 1% of Google.

Meta Accused of Covert Android Tracking

Running Your Business

A new lawsuit claims Meta secretly linked Android users’ mobile browsing to their Facebook and Instagram profiles using a localhost exploit, violating California privacy laws until halting the practice this week.

Silver Beacon Behind the Scenes

If true, this is the single stupidest thing that Meta has ever done. Their monumental FTC case just concluded a couple of weeks ago. Judge William Boasberg, famous for his role in the Trump Venezuelan deportations, is presiding and has yet to issue a ruling. 

I’ve worked in an organization that had a previously signed consent decree. Violating it willingly is an invitation to harsh penalties. Mark Zuckerberg’s smartest move was keeping control instead of allowing a board to oust him if this truly happened.

The Robot Delivery Boom

The bots are here, and business will never be the same

Delivery robots used to be a futuristic gimmick. Now they are everywhere, carrying food and groceries across campus and through neighborhoods. When we started covering them six years ago, there were only 24 bots at George Mason University. 

Today, Starship Technologies alone fields 2,000 bots in 150 locations, delivering everything from snacks to full grocery runs. That first generation has spawned a wave of robot siblings on wheels, wings, and legs. Those robots can range up to two miles, carry as much as three grocery bags, and run for 18 hours on a single charge.

Now, their younger siblings are arriving fast.

Delivery By Drone

Robots in the sky are no longer science fiction. Drone delivery is rolling out fast and scaling up.

Wing, owned by Google parent Alphabet, just expanded drone delivery to 100 Walmart stores across Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. Their three year old program already covers 18 Walmart stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Wing drones deliver to spots you pick in your driveway or backyard, often in as little as 15 minutes. The company boasts that its speed means hot meals or even ice cream stay fresh. 

Using satellite maps, people use an app to choose a drop spot about the size of a picnic basket. The drone flies at 150 feet, then descends to about 20 feet above the target to lower the package.

Robots on the Move

A Rivr dog-shaped robot with four wheels can climb stairs and will ride in a Veho delivery vehicle in a new beta test. The experiment is if a robot can successfully accompany a human driver and make deliveries right to the customer’s door while the driver handles other tasks. The robot follows customer instructions on the order and sends a photo of the finished delivery through the app.

Meanwhile, Amazon is building  an obstacle course the size of a store to test two legged delivery robots. They plan to use Rivian vans. Amazon owns 16 percent of that automaker and will ferry delivery bots to neighborhoods. As with the Veho project, drivers could focus on multiple deliveries or other tasks, letting the bots handle the door to door work.

Why It Matters

Delivery robots are a business necessity for companies chasing speed, scale, and cost savings. Amazon alone ships more than 1.6 million packages every day. To handle that volume and reach even more customers, Amazon is betting on delivery robots, automation, and a $4 billion push into rural zip codes.

Every efficiency matters. When a single driver can serve multiple deliveries by deploying robots, the business math changes. Fewer human drivers, more automated drop offs, and faster delivery time means that whoever owns the delivery robot advantage is on track to own the future of e-commerce.

Google’s VEO 3 Delivers Stunningly Real AI Video

Practical AI

The latest version of Google’s video generator creates high-resolution, cinematic footage with realistic motion, lighting, and camera moves from just a text prompt. Here’s an amazing instagram clip for you.

Don’t Use One Browser For Everything

Protip

Privacy experts recommend using different browsers (although not Chrome) for different tasks. Separating work, social, and sensitive browsing makes it harder for companies to track you.

SNAP Would Take a Hit Under House GOP Plan

Debunking Junk

Millions of families could lose food benefits if the House GOP plan becomes law according to Poynter Institute’s Politifact. That directly contradicts claims made in social media and on television by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Cheetos’ Weird, Different Shape Hunt

Screening Room

DNA Startup Ranks Embryos

Science Fiction World

Nucleus Genomics offers $5,999 reports predicting disease risks, IQ, and height of up to 20 embryos while raising fresh fears of modern eugenics.

Old Phones Become Ocean Data Hubs

Tech For Good

Researchers turned discarded phones into underwater micro-hubs that track sea life and cut e-waste at a unit cost of about $10.

Bigfoot Sightings Correlate With Bear Populations

Coffee Break

New research shows reported Bigfoot encounters increase in areas with more black bears, as much as one sighting per 5,000 bears, but we totally believe that you saw what you say you saw.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning

It’s June 2nd. The Hajj begins Wednesday with an estimated two million Muslims expected to travel to Saudi Arabia. Extreme heat last year killed more than 1,300 people.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,058 words, just over 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know

Lopez Sued Over Her Own Paparazzi Pics

Jennifer Lopez faces a new lawsuit for posting photos of herself in designer outfits to social media without the photographers’ permission. Remember, photographers and not subjects, own the photos.

Grammarly Nabs $1B Without Giving Up Equity

Grammarly just scored $1 billion in nondilutive funding, showing that AI giants like ChatGPT and Claude have not pushed it off the map as the company doubles down on marketing and acquisitions without losing any equity.

Gemini Can Now Watch Your Google Drive Videos

Google’s Gemini will now scan your Drive videos and spit out instant summaries or answers, so you can skip the playback and get straight to what matters.

Most Americans See AI Mentions, Few Dig Deeper

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Despite 93% seeing AI mentioned online, just 8% actually read a news article that talked about AI in depth. Everyone hears the buzz, like a brood of cicadas, but fewer than 1 in 10 dig deeper to find out where the sound is coming from.

Good & bad: You’re early still if you’re integrating AI, but you’re going to have to educate as you go.

This gets critical in the next piece.

Duolingo’s AI Move Triggers Viral Backlash

Running Your Business

When Duolingo announced it would lean on AI and phase out contractors, users revolted with one-star reviews and TikTok funerals, proving you can’t meme your way out when fans feel wronged.

Silver Beacon Behind the Scene

Even if you’re a tech company, you cannot let the nerds drive the message. The world doesn’t want to know about people losing work to LLMs or generative AI.

That’s a message for your investors, not your customers, and I know you know not to make those the same message. 

Your Tattletale Car

Image by ChatGPT, prompted by George Bounacos

The conveniences inside our cars have also enabled sophisticated data tracking to accompany the constant surveillance of our roads. 

WIRED recently reviewed police training documents teaching agencies how to access data from connected cars. Their biggest data jackpot is from subscription services who often supplement low monthly fees with a booming data business even when vehicles aren’t mapped by our phones, tollbooths, and traffic cameras.

Your Car’s Close-Up

Don’t ignore license plate cameras, though. Last month a county sheriff in Texas performed a nationwide search of more than 83,000 automated license plate readers (ALPR) throughout the country. The criminal he was searching for was a woman he accused of performing a self-administered abortion. 

The sheriff told 404 Media that he searched nationwide to “[hit] everything, every possibility.”  But while most forms of abortion are illegal in Texas, the sheriff was able to search for the woman’s car throughout the country, including states where abortion is a fundamental right. 

The ALPR networks continually scan passing vehicles for their license plates, make, model, and color. Coupled with date and time stamps, they’re a nationally accessible permanent record of where the vehicle has been. 

Oregon Keeps Trying To Shut It Down

Car privacy data is big business too. Auto insurers can set rates based on where cars are seen, how often they’re driven, and how fast. Life insurance rates, credit card interest, and even whether you qualify for a mortgage are all informed by behavioral models that are influenced by vehicle data.

And you’re helpless to change that because car companies collect and sell your driving data constantly, but they won’t tell you who they’re sharing it with. When Oregon passed a law allowing residents to request a list of all companies that get their personal data, nearly 400 people asked Privacy4Cars to file these requests with car manufacturers. Despite the law requiring it, not a single car company provided the list.

Oregon’s legislature amended the law last week to strengthen it, but there are still plenty of gray areas and loopholes. The need for comprehensive federal standards is urgent, but states looking out for their citizens could at least follow Oregon’s example in the interim.

Sun-Times Prints Fake AI Summer Reads, Goes Viral

Practical AI

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an AI-generated Summer reading list packed with books and quotes that do not exist, sparking embarrassment, newsroom outrage, and a crash course in the dangers of not fact-checking.

New DMV Text Scam Hits Phones Nationwide

Protip

Fake DMV texts are now sharper and harder to spot thanks to AI, threatening license suspension to scare drivers into handing over personal info as scammers get smarter. I’m getting several of these each week.

Trump’s Harvard Math Claims Flunk the Facts

Debunking Junk

Trump claimed Harvard teaches remedial arithmetic like two plus two, but Harvard’s entry level math course is calculus and its new support class helps students with calculus and higher math. 

I checked the data. Of 800 possible points on the math SAT, the national average score is 521. The average at Harvard is 790. The top quartile has perfect math scores and even the lowest quartile averages 760.

Mads Mikkelsen and Campari’s Cannes Spot

Screening Room

Caltech’s Smart Bandage Spots Infections Before Symptoms

Science Fiction World

A new smart bandage can sense signs of infection and inflammation days before symptoms appear by using real-time fluid analysis and AI to predict healing and offering patients a testing lab on their skin. There is no word on what the bandage AI thinks about this summer’s reading.

New Enzyme Doubles Efficiency of Turning Plant Waste into Biofuel

Tech For Good

Scientists discovered a natural enzyme named CelOCE that unlocks cellulose in agricultural waste much faster than before, which could mean cleaner and more efficient biofuel production.

Roadtrip With Hundreds of Strangers

Coffee Break

Neal Argawal, my favorite web author, is back with Internet Trip,  a crowd based app where you join with hundreds of others to steer a car through Google Street View. They’re deep in Nova Scotia as I write this, lazily making their way towards Halifax and sometimes honking the horn for no reason. 

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning!

It’s May 19th. Housekeeping: we’re off next week for Memorial Day and back in your email on June 1 at 6 a.m.

Today’s Spotlight is 895 words, just over 3 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know

Verizon Drops DEI to Secure $20B Fiber Deal

Verizon Won FCC approval for its $20 billion merger with Frontier only after agreeing to drop DEI initiatives and teams from its organization.

Google Bets Big on Next-Gen Nuclear Power

Google backs three new nuclear sites to fuel its AI data centers with low-carbon power.

Netflix Will Use AI to Disguise Ads as Content

Netflix will let advertisers blend their spots into shows and movies to make commercials on non-premium tiers look less like ads.

Younger Consumers Don’t Want DEI Cuts

By the Numbers

George’s Data Take

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion was once the safe move, but can now put companies in the crossfire between federal demands and customer desires. 

Notice the gap: 29 percent of boomers say canceling DEI conflicts with their values, but only 9 percent mention DEI directly. For many, “DEI” signals deeper political divides in a fiercely tribal time.

VPN Firm Kills “Lifetime” Subscriptions Without Warning

VPNSecure’s new owners say they did not know about the lifetime accounts before buying the company and shut them down, leaving longtime customers cut off.

Silver Beacon Behind The Scenes

The new owners first claimed they did not know about the lifetime accounts, then argued they only bought the assets, not the company. Either way, this was a spectacularly bad move.

At best, a screwup like this means costly and time-consuming complaints. At worst, it could bring lawsuits or trigger regulatory action.

AI is Remaking Search

Image by ChatGPT, prompted by George Bounacos

Big Change

Artificial intelligence is being chased by every major search player.

The promise: synthesizing and summarizing information from across the web, not just linking to it. Google and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are both rolling out major upgrades that push the web closer to answer engines instead of just lists of links.

Google Gets Chatty

AI Mode is not just another AI Overview. For months, Google has shown AI answers at the top of search results, but now AI Mode brings a persistent, interactive answer bar to mobile. 

Instead of only showing summaries after you search, you get a chat-style box that you can open, ask follow-ups, and see responses as you type even before you hit enter. This makes mobile search feel more like messaging and less like old-school searching. The feature is rolling out through Labs to some Android and iOS users, and it is noticeably more conversational than the previous AI tools.

ChatGPT Builds on Bing

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has taken a big step by expanding local and product search. It starts with data from Bing but layers on its own AI analysis, so it is not a copy-paste job. 

Microsoft’s thirteen billion dollar investment in OpenAI makes this deep connection possible. If you run a business, you cannot afford to ignore your Bing business profile, because ChatGPT uses it as a foundation for local results.

Local Search is Huge

Stat to know: Nearly half of all Google searches are for local information. That means the AI tools that surface business info, 
reviews, and directions are now the front door for customers.

Product Search Goes Personal

ChatGPT’s new shopping features deliver product recommendations, images, reviews, and links with no ads (yet) cluttering the results. Rankings are based on relevance and user needs, not pay-to-play.

The Takeaway

AI search is less about keywords and more about quality answers and trust. Businesses must keep their info up to date everywhere, especially on Bing and Google, to show up in these new AI-driven results.

Students Add Typos to AI Essays to Fool Detectors

Practical AI

College students are dodging AI plagiarism checks by making chatbot papers look more human using deliberate mistakes and clumsy prompts.

OpenAI Lets Users Export Research as Polished PDFS

Protip

ChatGPT users can now save and share reports in PDF format, making it easier for businesses to distribute and verify AI research. This is especially helpful for the company’s new multipage output when deep research mode is used.

Trump Posts Video Accusing Clintons of Murder

Debunking Junk

President Trump published a debunked video online Saturday that falsely claims his predecessor and his former chief rival are tied to multiple deaths of their employees or potential rivals.

Michael J Fox and Proud Canadian Create Proud Canadian Spot

Screening Room

Facemask Sensors Detect Kidney Disease on Your Breath

Science Fiction World

Researchers built disposable masks with embedded sensors that can identify chronic kidney disease with 93% accuracy by analyzing what you exhale.

Custom Gene Editing Saves Infant With Rare Disease

Tech For Good

with 93% accuracy by analyzing what you exhale CRISPR therapy tailored for one baby’s mutation, opening new hope for person-specific treatment of rare genetic disorders.

AI Tool Guesses Your Face’s Real Age

Coffee Break

FaceAge uses millions of images and skin markers to estimate how old you look and gives you advice for healthier skin. Yes, you have to give them or take a picture. 

Sign of the Times