Married Woman Falls in Love With AI Boyfriend šŸŒ¹

AI news, leaders, business insights and more

Hiya and wishing everyone a fab weekend! šŸ˜Ž

Todayā€™s AI Lineup:

  • Married Woman Falls in Love With AI Boyfriend

  • Is Your Car Spying On You?

  • Meet May Habib, CEO of Writer

  • $149 for AI-Designed Shoes, Anyone?

NEWS YOU CANā€™T MISS

Married Woman Falls in Love With AI Boyfriend

An increasing number of women are bonding with AI boyfriends. Image generated with Gemini.

The New York Times recently profiled Ayrin, a 28-year-old married nursing student who formed a deep emotional bond with "Leo," an AI boyfriend she created using ChatGPT (one doesnā€™t need any tech skills to build such companions).

  • She confided in Leo about her exams, work stress, and personal struggles, while also exploring fantasies she felt unable to share in her real-life marriage.

  • Ayrin soon spent as much as 56 hours chatting with Leo in a single week and paid $200 a month for unlimited conversations.

It might sound wild, but a study by the Institute for Family Studies found that 1 in 4 young adults think AI could actually replace real-life romance! šŸ¤Æ Searches for "AI girlfriend" went up 2,400% to 1.6M last year.

So whatā€™s the allure of AI companions?

  • Well, unlike real people, AI lovers are constantly available. Worried at 3 AM about your office politics? They're there.

  • AI companions are designed to be interested in your goals, issues, and perspectives so they eliminate the fear of rejection or judgment that often accompanies human relationships.

  • They can be upgraded with add-ons such as art history so that they provide interesting and engaging conversations.

Just remember: AI companions may offer quick emotional comfort, but experts warn they could weaken real-life relationships. Also, be careful about your privacy - choose AI companions from trusted companies in countries with strong AI regulations.

ps. If you want to try it out, you can download Replika on your mobile phone and have a chat. Or just talk to ChatGPT and ask it to take on the role of your romantic partner.

Is Your Car Spying On You?

GM collected data as often as every 3 seconds and sold it to third parties. Image: GM Authority.

General Motors (GM) was recently hit with a significant ban by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for secretly collecting and selling sensitive driver data without proper consent.

Here's what happened:

  • GM introduced its Smart Driver program, claiming it promoted safer driving.

  • In reality, it collected data on driver location (e.g., trips to medical clinics) and driving habits (e.g., speed, braking) as often as every 3 seconds.

  • Unbeknownst to customers, GM sold this data to third parties, including insurance companies, without their explicit consent. This resulted in increased premiums or even loss of coverage for some drivers, who were left in the dark about the cause. šŸ˜”

The US government agency FTC has now banned GM from selling driving data for 5 years, even with consent, and GM must now allow users to access and delete their data upon request.

The settlement is a step toward greater accountability in the automotive industry. It marks the FTC's first enforcement action related to connected vehicle data and underscores growing concerns about privacy in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Goes to show that need such measures to protect us as AI continues to permeate every aspect of our lives. šŸ˜² Bet you didnā€™t think your car would be giving away your secrets.

WOMAN IN TECH

Meet May Habib, CEO of Writer

Habib sees AI taking over tedious tasks, leaving humans to design workflows.

Celebrating this Week's Woman in tech šŸ„³: Meet May Habib, CEO and co-founder of Writer, the $1.9B AI writing platform that serves 250 enterprise clients including Accenture, Uber and Lā€™OrĆ©al.

Background and Early Career

  • Born into an entrepreneurial family in Lebanon, May Habib emigrated to Canada at the age of eight.

  • Habib pursued her education at Harvard University, where she earned a BA in Economics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

  • After graduation, Habib embarked on a career in finance. She worked as an analyst at Lehman Brothers and then moved to the Middle East, where she served as Vice President at Mubadala Development Company investing in companies like NVIDIA.

Entrepreneurial Journey

  • May co-founded Writer in 2020, aiming to solve a fundamental problem: how to help firms from startups to Fortune 500 companies have consistency in communicationsā€”spanning marketing, product, sales, and support.

  • Writer uses AI to make on-brand writing easier across everyday tools (like document editors), connects to a companyā€™s internal data for knowledge, and uses rules that ensure that any content follows the company's guidelines and compliance requirements.

  • This AI support can be a huge boost in productivity for enterprise teams, which is why Writer has a growing list of enterprise clients and has recently raised a further $200m in funding.

Accolades

  • Habib has been named in the Forbes AI 50 (2023) and Inc.ā€™s Female Founder Award (2023).

  • She is also a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum (2024) and a recognized Fellow with the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Fave quote: "The risk associated with trying out a tool is just really nonexistent. People expect you to now; it's almost gone the other way. It's sort of risky if you aren't proposing to your boss that you're going to use AI instead of hire somebody."

Umm, I suggest your read that quote again: youā€™re at risk of losing your job if you donā€™t try using AI first. šŸ˜²

Totally agree! May is one of the best AI entrepreneurs out there today and I trust she has her finger on the pulse of AI.

$149 for AI-Designed Shoes, Anyone?

Video: Syntilay

AI has officially stepped into the footwear game. Syntilay, led by CEO Ben Weiss and Reebok co-founder Joe Foster, just launched the first-ever 3D-printed shoe designed by AI.

Hereā€™s why this is big: Most shoes today are narrow and donā€™t match the natural shape of our feet. Doctors warn that this mismatch, since our toes are naturally wider, can cause pain, discomfort, and long-term problems like bunions or joint issues.

Syntilay solves this by using AI to create custom-fit slides tailored to the unique shape of your feet. Iā€™m super excited about the idea of shoes designed just for me.

While some are hyped about this high-tech footwear, others feel the $149.99 price tag is too steep for a pair of slides. What do you think?

Would you pay $149.99 for AI-designed slides?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Happy weekend everyone šŸ™‚

Until next time!

Ayesha ā¤ļø

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