Dish Harmony, Fake Partner, & Satisfied 🥣

Are you familiar with the term "upsetting the balance of dish harmony"? You surely are if you’ve ever left a pile of dirty dishes for your partner to find. 

But hey, if you don’t know how to deal with your wife/girlfriend’s anger on finding the grime-filled dishes in the sink, and if you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing and making matters worse, there’s an app that’s meant just for you. 

The new app — AngryGF — is an AI-powered relationship simulator that walks straight men through gamified versions of common conflicts with wives and girlfriends.

How does this work? Easy peasy.
You pick a challenge, like the classic "saving mom first in a river incident," and then navigate through the stormy waters of your girlfriend's wrath to reach forgiveness island. But beware, you've only got ten shots to make it or break it. Alongside this, there’s also an AI chatbot that can answer specific relationship questions in real time. There nifty chatbot is ready to dispense wisdom faster than you can say, "What should I do if I forgot my girlfriend's birthday?" Spoiler alert: the answer isn't "Run for the hills.”

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 better access with a pro subscription. 

But wait, there's more! AngryGF isn't the only startup in the love-tech world. There's Relish, helping couples decode their cryptic communication patterns, Maia (image above), your virtual couple's counselor, and Lovewick, sprinkling romance dust on long-distance relationships. And the list goes on! 

Best of all, if your partner does catch you having a pseudo relationship with your AI girlfriend, the app can help you through the two-timing. 

Nearly 63% of surveyed US workers expressed satisfaction with their jobs, marking the highest rating since the survey's inception in 1987 (yay!). This is according to a new data released earlier this week.  

But don’t get excited/surprised yet. The overall job satisfaction rate increased only slight at 0.4%. Not a very attractive number, yes? 

Well, this positive trend is tempered by year-over-year declines in satisfaction across all 26 specific categories surveyed. While some subcategories, such as commuting, saw minor decreases in satisfaction, others experienced more significant drops. For instance, workers reported diminished satisfaction with bonus plans (-7.6%), wages (-5%), and health plans (-7%) compared to the previous year. 

The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear.
It's possible that workers may dislike many aspects of their jobs but still perceive them as acceptable. Economic factors like inflation or job insecurity could also contribute, leading many Americans to prioritize jobs that simply meet their financial needs. Additionally, the methodology of the survey, such as asking for an overall satisfaction rating at the end of a lengthy questionnaire, may influence respondents' perceptions.

Remember 3 years ago when we were disinfecting groceries to kill Covid germs? Well, that’s a fun memory that has faded into the abyss of the world’s collective subconscious. Likewise, hand sanitizer businesses have also seen their profits fade into the same abyss. 

In 2019, the global hand sanitizer market was worth $1.03 billion. During the pandemic peak in 2020, it soared to $6.3 billion due to heightened demand for cleanliness. However, sales cooled down afterward, with revenues dropping to $3.52 billion in 2021, $2.95 billion in 2022, and stabilizing around $3 billion in 2023 and 2024.

According to The Wall Street Journal, companies that rushed to produce hand sanitizers during the peak of the pandemic have had to adapt to waning demand. Some have expanded into new markets, diversified their product lines, or reverted to their pre-pandemic business strategies. Others have found success by leveraging social media platforms. For example, Touchland experienced significant growth with approximately 170 million organic social media impressions. This translated to a 180% year-over-year growth in sales during the last quarter of 2023 and a remarkable 292% year-over-year growth at Sephora.

🤙 Customer Service - Nearly half of the world’s call centers intend to use some form of AI tech in the next year. So get ready to yell at a machine the next time you're pissed at the customer service executive. 

🙋 Crypto Claims - FTX - the defunct crypto exchange - has agreed to give its customers all their money back. Even more, in fact. 

🪞 Portal Tourism - a pair of “portals” with 24/7 live streaming have been set up in NYC and Dublin to allow passersby to see what’s going on in the opposite city across the pond.

🙇‍♂️ Sorry, But Not Really - Apple is sorry for its terrible new iPad ad that has received universal criticism. But two days later, and the company still hasn't taken down the ad. 

🙀 Rich City - 1 in 24 New York City residents, some 350K people, are now millionaires. That's more than any other city globally

🛳️ Cruise Work - People apparently love cruises so much that Royal Caribbean is recruiting another ~10k workers this year to keep up with record demand.

🍢 Kebab Policies - A German political party said it would propose a government price cap on doner kebabs, a popular street food in the country with $7.5 worth of sales per year.

🫧 A Clean Record - A record-breaking 30% of the world’s electricity was produced by renewables last year as wind and solar power got more popular.