I’m nasty, I’m nice. Nothing works.”

— Donald Trump, bashing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates... and proving that the system works!

BRAIN (ROT) CHILD

Does using ChatGPT actually rot your brain? If you’re an avid fan of artificial intelligence, you might not like the early findings.

Every once in a while, a new technology enters the mainstream and reshapes how we spend our time and interact with each other. Artificial intelligence chatbots are the latest boom, with an estimated 800 million weekly users worldwide, according to the OpenAI founder Sam Altman. That’s up from 200 million weekly users last summer. Like it or not, AI chatbots are an integral part of American life, and they ain’t goin’ nowhere. But is that a bad thing?

Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab are certainly concerned. In a recent study, they split people between the ages of 18-39 into three groups to write SAT essays. One could use ChatGPT, another had Google, and the final group could only use their good ol’ brain juices. The findings: ChatGPT users’ brain engagement was the lowest of the groups, and they “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” The users became lazier with each essay and, eventually, started using copy-and-paste. (This study has not been peer-reviewed yet.)

That’s frightening, especially since kids are using ChatGPT to cheat their way through school. One college student went viral for bragging about using AI on final projects at graduation. That’s not to mention the other negative consequences of this new tech, including its heavy toll on climate change and even interpersonal relationships. One man, whose wife allegedly assaulted him after a fight over her obsession with ChatGPT, said she dropped into a “hole three months ago and came out a different person.”

Using AI does, however, have undeniable benefits. But it also ushers in a new era of the way humans work and think.

In many cases, artificial intelligence makes life easier. The case studies are compelling: Learning foreign languages, helping kids with disabilities in school, writing work emails, cleaning up résumés. Almost every journalist I know (myself included) uses the same AI tool to transcribe interviews. For many, it has become a new search engine: “A.I. has essentially replaced Google for me for basic questions,” New York Times columnist Kevin Roose recently said. “What setting do I put this toaster oven on to make a turkey melt? How do I stop weeds from growing on my patio?”

It’s also reshaping how we work. Federal workers worry that DOGE uses AI to spy on them, as What A Day reported with The Guardian. Last month, a top AI executive warned that unemployment will soon spike because of the technology. This week, Amazon announced that AI will take workers’ jobs at the company. When I was a reporter at Politico, this was a visceral concern in the newsroom: Axel Springer, the outlet’s parent company, signed a deal allowing ChaptGPT to summarize our articles in its responses. Making things worse, Axel Springer’s CEO warned that AI could replace journalists.

Many of the critiques are existential. Spotify is filled with AI-generated music, which could lead to real human musicians receiving an even smaller payout than they already receive for streaming royalties. Some visual artists worry about AI-created art, saying that its popularity has already affected their income. Snobby readers often say “literature is dead,” and AI probably won’t help with resuscitation efforts.

“It destroys the purpose of humanity. We have so many amazing abilities to create art and music and just appreciate what’s around us,” a 21-year-old college student told the Washington Post. “Some of the things that are the most important to us are being replaced by things that are not real.”

Another massive downside of AI: It’s becoming damn near impossible to tell what pictures and videos online are real or fake — an especially challenging task for Boomers on Facebook. We’ve come a long way from Pope Francis in a puffer jacket.

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WHAT ELSE?

American officials are bracing for a possible U.S. strike on Iran in the coming days, even as soon as the weekend, Bloomberg reports. Today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will make a decision whether or not to strike within two weeks. Only 25 percent of Americans support attacking Iran, according to a Washington Post survey.

Senate Democrats (and even one House Republican) are pushing a last-ditch effort to require Trump to seek Congress’s approval before striking Iran. This comes as the White House shuts lawmakers out of the decision process, Senate Democrats say. The Trump administration is expected to brief lawmakers on the Israel-Iran conflict sometime next week.

The State Department directed staff to begin screening the social media profiles of every foreign national who applies for a student visa. I bet they’re gonna find tons of dank memes making fun of Vice President JD Vance, which could probably land you in hot water these days. Is it worth it? In my mind… yes.

A new strain of Covid-19 may be causing “razor blade” sore throats around the world. Doctors say you shouldn’t be too concerned about it, but I would, um, prefer not to experience what this strain feels like. Thankfully, we have an administration that cares about the virus and recommends Covid vaccines to children and pregnant women. Oh, wait…

Another SpaceX rocket exploded into a million tiny pieces during a launch in Texas last night. The company, owned by Elon Musk, described the massive fiery inferno in the sky as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” In reality, it should’ve been called “OH MY GOD THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN HOLY SHIT!”

The first heat wave of the summer is expected to affect 200 million people across the country. The so-called heat dome, starting Friday and lasting through the week, will bring temperatures over 100 degrees in some places, and humidity similar to a tropical rainforest. Who needs to vacation in the tropics, when the tropics can come to you???

Speaking of stupid-high heat, rising global temperatures are expected to cause the production of some crops to drop by 50 percent in the United States by the end of the century, according to an analysis conducted over eight years. My grandkids are gonna be pumped to receive their inheritance: 10,000 cans of beans that I'm gonna start saving NOW.

THERE'S MORE IN STORE

Good news! When you buy something from the Crooked Store, you'll get a promo code for a free 30-day trial of Friends of the Pod, our subscription community. That means a full month of ad-free pods, exclusive subscriber-only shows, and access to our Discord server completely free. So if there’s a t-shirt you’ve had your eye on or you need something to wear to the next protest, volunteer event, or angry walk around your neighborhood, now’s the perfect time to grab it. The offer ends TODAY. So support the mission. Get the merch. Head to crooked.com/store now.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a twice-yearly shot to prevent HIV, a much more convenient alternative to existing daily pills. Unfortunately, the Trump administration cut funding that would provide this type of treatment to poorer countries. But it’s still being touted as a way to potentially end the HIV epidemic.

Two genealogy websites are adding tons of historical information about enslaved people to their databases, which could help descendants better track their ancestry.

Archaeologists in London completed the ultimate puzzle, piecing together thousands of fragments of a 2,000-year-old fresco that depicts musical instruments, birds, flowers and fruit. The wall painting is so ornate that the master puzzlers described the neighborhood it resided in as the “Beverly Hills of Roman London.” That sounds like a great name for a reality TV show.

The Lithuanian government issued a permit for local hunters to shoot a young female bear who was exploring some neighborhoods — but all the hunters refused. “She was scared but not aggressive. She just didn’t know how to escape the city but she didn’t do anything bad,” the leader of the country's hunting association said. I’m convinced that this is the type of energy that will save humanity.

A 3-pound husky puppy, who was found at the bottom of a trash can in Texas, was nursed back to health at a clinic and is happily chewing bones at her new owner’s home. Staff named her Kiss, “because everyone wanted to give her a big kiss,” the clinic’s medical director said. Look how precious she is.

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