The internet remains all worked up over concession prices at last weekend’s F1 race in Miami (see: $180 nachos), but they’re ignoring the real story here: Humanity still lacks the technology to make nachos with full topping coverage that don’t get all soggy and weird at the bottom. Get the planet’s brightest minds on this problem immediately — there’d be no price too high for a plate like that.
In today’s email:
AI girlfriends: They’re here and they’re pissed.
Hand sanitizer: Once worth $6.3B, the market is drying up.
Weird patents: Taking a swift kick in the butt literally.
Around the web: Competitive puzzle-solving, a tricky word game, a cool giraffe, and more.
👇 Listen: Should we really be taking relationship advice from AI?
The Big Idea
Can a moody AI girlfriend make men more emotionally intelligent?
A relationship boot camp for straight men is here.
2024-05-09T00:00:00Z
Sara Friedman
You leave a pile of dirty dishes stacked in the sink for your girlfriend to find when she gets home from work. This makes your girlfriend feel ___.
If you can’t fill in that blank, you might need AngryGF.
The new app is an AI-powered relationship simulator that walks straight men through gamified versions of common conflicts with wives and girlfriends.
Here’s how it works:
Users can choose from a set of prewritten challenges — for example, “Your girlfriend and mother fall into a river at the same time. You save your mother first. Your girlfriend is very angry.” — to practice comforting an angry partner. A scale displays a “forgiveness level” that users have 10 attempts to get to 100 for a successful resolution or zero for failure.
There’s also an AI chatbot that can answer specific relationship questions in real time. (The app spit out 10 pieces of advice when prompted with “What should I do if I forgot my girlfriend’s birthday?”)
AngryGF co-founder Emilia Aviles said she was inspired to create the app by past romantic relationships where she noticed “a lack of emotional support during difficult moments.”
The app, which was built on OpenAI’s GPT-4, offers limited scenarios and chatbot messages for free, but is $7 per week or $20 a month for increased access with a pro subscription.
Love in the time of AI
AngryGF isn’t the first AI app to try tackling relationship problems:
Relish analyzes communication patterns to give couples personalized relationship advice.
Maia helps couples work through fights, have conversations, and find date night ideas.
Lovewick has anniversary reminders, couples games, and video date packs for long-distance relationships.
And there are plenty more springing up for matchmaking, platonic friendships, and managing emotions and communication.
Our relationship advice: If you do dabble with AngryGF, maybe don’t tell your partner you needed AI assistance to understand why she’s mad that you can’t stop talking about your ex.
Free Resource
Surface trends and turn them into startups
Oh, you’re still waiting on us to surface that one genius slice of inspiration that leads to a million-dollar idea?
Stop that. Take our trend-sourcing strategy guide to start diving into Discords, pitch decks, and blogs, and spotting trends that haven’t hit the masses.
Congratulations to the team of French bread makers who baked a 461-foot-long baguette on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Suresnes. This breaks the previous world record established in 2019 by a group of Italian bakers whose baguette was 435 feet long. Attendees were invited to try the baguette spread with Nutella, and we are jealous.
SNIPPETS
FTX payday is coming: The fallen crypto exchange said its customers will get all their money back. The firm’s bankruptcy lawyers have rounded up $16.3B in assets to repay the company’s ~$11B in debt.
Upvoted: Reddit’s first quarterly earnings report went well, highlighted by its increased user base and better-than-expected revenue numbers. The company still posted a $575m loss, though.
Panera Bread is discontinuing its Charged Sips drinks. The beverages, which were linked to two wrongful death lawsuits, contain 155-302 milligrams of caffeine.
Steward Health Care, which owns 31 US hospitals, filed for bankruptcy protection and put all of its facilities up for sale to cover $9B in debt.
Amazon Prime Video ads will now include pauseable shoppable carousels and brand trivia. Sounds annoying, but we still hope the Fallout adsare for Nuka-Cola.
Mmm: Scientists made cold brew in under three minutes — a process that typically takes 12-24 hours — using an ultrasonic reactor. Study author Francisco Trujillo said he plans to license the tech to coffee maker companies.
Oh: Norwegian Cruise Line and Bare Necessities are partnering on The Big Nude Boat, an 11-day, 2.3k-passenger nude cruise around the Caribbean. Passengers can’t put bare butts on seats or wear “excessive genital jewelry.” You’ve been warned.
BTW: People apparently love cruises so much that Royal Caribbean is recruiting another ~10k workers this year to keep up with record demand.
Candace Parker, the women’s hoops legend who retired from the game less than two weeks ago, already has a new job — as president of women’s basketball for Adidas.
Don't miss this...
How do MrBeast, Cocomelon, and Like Nastya absolutely own YouTube? Consider this million-dollar strategy, a key driver behind the internet’s biggest stars.
Data Point
More than four years after the pandemic’s onset, memories of wiping down groceries with disinfectant have been repressed for many. And there’s another thing being forgotten: hand sanitizer businesses. The global hand sanitizer market, which was valued at $1.03B in 2019, skyrocketed to $6.3B in 2020 as the world rushed to keep its hands clean. But, as the frenzied shopping cooled, sales dropped — revenue hit $3.52B in 2021, $2.95B in 2022, and stayed around $3B for 2023 and 2024.
While companies raced to produce surgical masks and hand sanitizer in 2020, those who stuck with it have had to pivot as demand has cooled, perThe Wall Street Journal. Some have found ways to keep the lights on, expanding into more hygiene-conscious geographies, adding additional offerings to product lines, or reverting to pre-pandemic business models. Another option? Going viral on social media. Touchland, with ~170m organic social media impressions, saw 180% YoY growth in the last quarter of 2023 and 292% YoY growth at Sephora.
Fit The Bill
There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify today’s billion-dollar brand?
Clue 1: It’d be hard to move this company too far away from its founding locale — it’s named for the city and its logo represents a city landmark.
Clue 2: It was temporarily the world’s most valuable company in 2000, when its stock was trading at ~240x earnings. It’s still massive today, but you better believe that bubble popped pretty quick.
Clue 3: The good news is that the US government entrusts its networks to this tech giant; the bad news is, well, hackers recently bypassed its firewalls.
👇 Scroll to the bottom for the answer 👇
Weird Patents
Listen… this feature is called weird patents, OK? Clearly Joe Armstrong of Tennessee gets it, because he patented a “user-operated amusement apparatus for kicking the user’s buttocks” in 2001. The contraption would let the user turn a crank so that a wheel of flexible, shoe-shaped paddles would deliver a tuchus kicking. Why? “To provide amusement to the user and the viewers of the paddling.” So, if someone ever said you need a good kick in the caboose, know that this exists. It’s also, apparently, foldable and shippable — for that special someone.
AROUND THE WEB
📕 On this day: In 1950, L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which would eventually become the basis for Scientology.
Yesterday, we asked if you’re catching a flight on a Boeing plane anytime soon. Here’s how you answered:
The majority — 49% — said they book flights without checking the plane make or type at all. For 25%, they’ll only go with Boeing when they have no other choice. Then there were the 16% who said it’s totally safe, and the 10% who said a resounding “hell no.”
As far as what the aircraft maker could do to win passengers back, many said they wanted increased transparency, ramped up quality assurance, and, you know, airplanes that don’t fall apart.
Then there was this reader who made a pretty solid point (and might’ve explained a couple bald spots): “Regulators overreacting = good thing. Average airline passenger overreacting = useless, slightly annoying, and probably just leading to hair loss and high blood pressure.”
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