Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 38

The Future of Love in an Age of AI Dating and Chatbot Partners

This past Wednesday was Valentine’s Day, and there were dozens of stories about love in one form or another. Collectively, these stories illustrated how there is a reevaluation happening now around love and how people are experimenting with new ways to find companionship, from AI girlfriends and boyfriends to polyamory experiments to automated dating. Here are just a few stories that stood out:

The guy who automated his conversations with 5000 women through Tinder had his chatbot  set up date...

Perplexity.ai and Testing the Future of AI Generated Search Results

Tech commentator Shelly Palmer offered a ringing endorsement of a new AI extension that can replace Google search called Perplexity.ai and so I decided to give it a try. Instead of a list of links, starting with promoted ads, the search results from Perplexity summarize what it finds on the web. Of course, I started by Googling (Perplexing?) myself.

The results summary opens by describing me as “a prominent figure with diverse expertise.” Ok, I like that. Unfortunately, it came to this conclusion...

What You Should Know About Apple’s New Vision Pro Headset

The early reviews of Apple’s latest flagship metaverse-fueling headset are already mixed. Some say it “lacks polish and purpose” and dismiss it as “spectacular and sad.” More optimistic reviews called it a “revolution in progress” and it is at least delighting financial analysts who already believe it’s a “game changer” when it comes to the financial windfall it could bring for Apple and suggest it could become a trillion dollar product. 

What is so cool about this product and why does it matter?...

The Man Who Wants to Make Extreme Chair Sitting a Competitive Sport

The first time Robby Silk tried his luck at competitive sitting, he lasted only three hours in the Arizona heat. Several years later and during the pandemic, he completed his longest sit: 14 hours and 27 minutes inside Joshua Tree National Park in California. Since then, he has gone to far further locations to practice his extreme sport – including Antarctica’s Cuverville Island.

The idea of it all, he shares, “is to really just be, and not do much of anything.” His sport is one of a dozen compil...

Why We Should Celebrate the Most Underappreciated Agency in Government: The EPA

There are parts of the world where the first thing that residents check on their phones when they wake up isn’t their email or the weather. It’s the air quality report and based on the numbers, they decide if they will go out that day or not. This isn’t a reality that most Americans or Europeans are familiar with. 

This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a stricter standard for fine particulate pollution (otherwise known as soot). While some critics say it’s not far enough, ...

The Truth About Paid Reviews Might Not Be What You Think

I have paid for a book review. Most authors have too, in one way or another. If this fact shocks you, then you might enjoy a piece from Wired that digs into the misunderstood world of paid reviews and why it has become so prevalent across books, movies, hotels and just about any other experience that you can read an online review about.

The first reality check you’ll get from this piece is perhaps the one that’s the most important. Paying for a review and paying for a positive review are two diff...

Super Bowl Marketing Recap: The Best, Worst and Almost Ok Ads From The Big Game

This year’s Super Bowl Ads cost $7 million – and most are being rated today based on their entertainment value. Not exactly the metric I would pick. Instead, I always look at the year’s ads based on the marketing strategy and whether the creative the team used actually delivered on what they might have hoped to get from the big spend. Based on that, some ads were winners, some were total losers and many were “almosts.” They could have been good, but were executed in a way that didn’t work. Here’...

New RXBands Offer a Secret Stretch Code and a Marketing Case Study

Here’s something you probably haven’t seen before … a protein bar company launching a discount code promo that only appears once on an exercise band after it’s fully stretched. This clever stunt comes from RXBAR, which is partnering with three Instagram fitness influencers to give away the bands and free prizes too. It’s a fun and quirky campaign but also a great reminder of the predictable elements of a campaign that stands out and gets attention.

The idea is new and easy to explain. The timing ...

The Dreaded 404 Page and Its Little Understood Cousin: The 402 Error

Did you know that back in the earliest days of the Internet, there were a list of error codes created for situations that the web’s first designers thought would be highly possible in the future? Of course, the dreaded 404-error is the one that most of us know well: page not found. It was ubiquitous among websites of the 90s and continues to be part of our online lives. For some, it has even offered a canvas for creativity as web designers have fun with it.

Far less known is the 402-error...

New Program at Supermarkets Will Use Facial Scanning to Check Age

Welcome to a case study on why facial scanning is a bad idea. Supermarkets in the UK have been experimenting for the past year with technology that estimates the age of shoppers by scanning their faces at checkout. Apparently “Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Co-op have already successfully trialed the technology which allowed anyone that is estimated to be over 25 to buy their alcohol without further checks.”

So the first question that comes to mind is what problem exactly is this technology meant to ...