Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 42

How Bad News Might Be Making Us Worse Humans

We might all be getting addicted to bad news. I was thinking about this point as I considered my own reactions to two other disturbing stories I read this week. The first was about an outbreak of measles in a Broward County Florida school where 11 kids were unvaccinated and over 100 may now be at risk.

The second was a new campaign by controversial political activist group The Lincoln Project which used AI to bring Donald Trump’s emotionally abusive father back to life to berate his son about how...

How AI Might Be Getting “Lazier” And What to Do About It

What if you had to “convince” ChatGPT to give you a better or more in-depth answer? Some users are suggesting a “winter break hypothesis” to explain why AI sometimes seems reluctant to do hard work. While the claims are unproven, OpenAI acknowledged the criticism from several users via Twitter and noted that they are “working on it.”

To some, this quirk makes sense. After all, if the language learning models are trained on our behavior, why wouldn’t they also simulate seasonal depression? It’s a ...

The Real Reason HBO Is Waiting 4 Days to Share Clips of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

HBO announced they will now force people to wait four days before sharing on YouTube the highlights from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Of course, fans of the show online were pointlessly indignant. Their fury demonstrates exactly what the problem has become for most entertainment creators and news organizations alike online … people expect content to be free.

In response, HBO candidly share that they hope this move will entice more fans of the show to subscribe to Max so they can watch the ...

The African Media Streaming Brand That Just Turned Down $1.7B

One of the most famous streaming media brands in the world is one that you may not have ever heard of. It’s called MultiChoice and they are the “king of content in Africa,” owning the #1 streaming platform on the continent known as Showmax. They dethroned Netflix last year for the biggest market share in Africa, holding 40% compared with 35% for Netflix.

More importantly, they feature much more local content, own rights to broadcast the hugely popular English Premier League soccer matches and hav...

Decline of Wine? Spirits Attract Celebrity Partners and Outsell Wine for First Time in 45 Years

Boomers love wine, but that may not be enough to keep it flying high. A new report of sales figures from 2023 shows that spirits outsold wine for the first time in 45 years. Combined with a story I shared recently about how Gen Z is not drinking as much alcohol as previous generations, it seems the wine industry overall has been struggling to reach younger consumers. In contrast, despite the early demographic data around Gen Z drinking habits being lower, spirits experienced a 13th straight year...

Instead of Binge Watching, Why Not Try “Stinge Watching”?

Last month my wife and I binge watched For All Mankind on Apple+. The show was highly original, smartly written and now that we’re done with Season 4, we are stuck waiting for a new season and we miss it. This is a familiar emotion for any of us who have gotten into a new show, devoured it and then felt the angst of a new entertainment void to fill. Instead of watching that way, what if you took longer … on purpose.

I am a big Star Trek fan, but new shows from this universe on Paramount+ are ones...

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...