NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Skip the Interview, Scan Your Face Instead

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have tested an AI system that scans your face and claims to predict how successful you’ll be - including whether you’d make a good hire. 😳

Here’s how they did it: Using 96,000 LinkedIn headshots from MBA graduates, the AI guessed personality traits like extraversion and openness, then compared those predictions to real career outcomes. The team found some facial patterns appeared linked to traits associated with higher pay and job success.

But here’s the problem: Letting AI judge competence from a face is risky. These systems learn from biased image datasets — reflecting race, gender, age, and attractiveness biases — which means their predictions can reinforce discrimination.

Facial-recognition tech already struggles with people who have darker skin tones or facial differences, and critics warn this research could worsen those harms.

The researchers even warn that widespread facial scanning could push people to modify their photos (or even their appearance) to avoid being judged by a machine.

ps. They declined to disclose which specific facial features were linked to “positive” traits to avoid promoting stereotypes.

Fancy a Whiff of AI Perfume?

Most of us don’t think twice about how perfume is made; we just stroll into a store, take a whiff of whatever’s on the shelf, and pick something that feels right.

Now a new installation in New York lets you cook up your own scent with AI. You scan a QR code, answer 20 questions, and watch as tiny bottles roll along a conveyor belt while the machine mixes five custom perfumes in minutes.

You can tweak the formulas on an app and the machine remixes new versions using its 54 ingredients. For $95, it’s a level of control the perfume world rarely hands over.

The creators have also built a bigger version with 300 ingredients that responds to voice commands. Their end goal: recreate specific smells from memory. Would you try it?

Meet Niceaunties, creator of the “Auntieverse”

Celebrating this week’s Woman in Tech 🥳: Meet Niceaunties, the AI artist reimagining one of Asia’s most iconic characters: the auntie.

Born in Singapore and trained as an architect, she grew up in a multigenerational household surrounded by the aunties who raised her: women who cooked, scolded, protected, and loved in their own fierce, complicated ways.

In 2023, she launched Niceaunties, a digital art project that uses AI to build the “Auntieverse” - a surreal world where older Asian women are the heroes. Every single image, narrative, object, and environment in the Auntieverse is crafted entirely using AI.

Her aunties dance on beaches, run futuristic noodle factories, drive tofu-powered Teslas, and navigate cities made of Tupperware.

It’s funny and tender, but also deeply political: a celebration of women who were often overlooked, underestimated, or dismissed.

Her work has exploded globally: She’s been featured at TED Vancouver, Christie’s Art + Tech, the V&A Museum in London, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. In 2025, she was named a finalist for the Lumen Prize, one of the world’s top digital art awards.

📺 Niceaunties also joined me as the very first guest on my new podcast, AI Across Borders. Watch it here.

AI Around the World

In Japan, a surge of AI bear-encounter videos is deepening public fear during a year of record attacks. Clips on TikTok show schoolgirls fighting off bears, “news reports” of sightings, and people feeding the animals. Officials worry the flood of fabricated content is undermining safety guidance.

In Poland, the Polish language has unexpectedly topped in a study from Microsoft and the University of Maryland, showing that leading AI models like OpenAI, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek respond most accurately to prompts written in Polish. It hit 88% accuracy while English came in sixth - the Polish language is famously difficult to learn.

In Nigeria, a new gospel-inspired AI group called Urban Chords is taking over the country’s music charts. Behind the project is Emmanuel Ajayi, a Nigerian who used AI music software to build what sounds like a 50-person choir. The album has already reached No. 43 on Nigeria’s Official Top 100 Albums.