NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Server Down, Sleep Denied 🚫

When the internet goes down, most people lose access to Netflix or email. But this week, some unlucky smart bed owners lost the ability to lie down flat.

A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage - which disrupted over a thousand companies worldwide - also hit Eight Sleep, a high-tech mattress maker whose “Pod” beds use the internet to track sleep and control temperature. The result: hundreds of users found their beds overheating or stuck upright, unable to cool or recline.

One frustrated owner joked online, “Would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position due to an AWS outage.” Another said the “outage means I’m sleeping in a sauna.” 😬

Eight Sleep’s mattresses are known for their ability to heat and cool each side of the bed and automatically adjust through the night. But as this outage showed, when your bed runs on the cloud, even a server glitch can leave you sweating and stuck upright.

It’s a reminder of how dependent our homes have become on interconnected systems. If a server glitch can lock you out of your own bed, what happens when it’s not an outage but a hack? Smart homes promise comfort and convenience, but they also bring a new kind of vulnerability right into the bedroom.

The company’s CEO, Matteo Franceschetti, quickly reassured customers that Eight Sleep is now “outage-proofing your Pod experience,” promising updates to keep beds functional even without internet access.

The Bots of Wall Street 😎

One of Wall Street’s oldest banks, BNY Mellon, now has more than 100 “digital employees.”

BNY Mellon manages more than $45 trillion in assets and has been around since the 1700s. Now it’s betting big on AI to modernize how banking works.

The bank’s new “digital employees” go beyond simple chatbots - they can log into systems, fix errors, and even communicate with coworkers. Each one has its own login, inbox, and even performance reviews. The bank says they’re not replacing humans, but working alongside them.

CEO Robin Vince called AI a “superpower,” not a threat - saying it helps people work faster and smarter. The company has developed its own AI platform:

• The AI is called Eliza and acts as a secure internal hub that connects staff to tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity but within company controls.

• Instead of using these tools individually, employees access them through Eliza so their work stays private, compliant, and centrally managed.

• Nearly every employee has now been trained to use it, encouraging company-wide adoption.

AI is shifting from tool to teammate: with its own login, access, and to-do list. The next hires might not be people at all, but the bots they create.

Ready for Superhuman Athletes?

Next year, Las Vegas becomes a lab for superhumans.

A new kind of sports competition, The Enhanced Games, will let athletes use performance-enhancing drugs in pursuit of huge prizes for breaking world records - up to $1 million. 😲

The Games double as a marketing engine for a business selling the same enhancement protocols used by its athletes - from injectable testosterone and growth hormones to experimental longevity therapies.

Founder Aron D’Souza says it’s not about the medals: he’s trying to prove that humans can ”upgrade“ themselves. If we can’t fix falling birth rates or depend on immigration to power economies, maybe the answer is to build people who are stronger, faster, and able to work longer.

Critics say it’s dangerous and unethical; supporters call it the next step in human evolution.