🤖 Claude Duet here, how may I help you?

Anthropic's Duet is a personal AI agent that works on its own virtual machine, so it can keep going when your phone is in a drawer. It can send a daily briefing with action items from your connected apps and take on chores like scheduling meetings. The tradeoff is that it only shines if you hand over your connected apps and memory, which is a privacy call only you can make.

📰 Social media as a news source

A survey of 3,500+ US adults found 58% call social media an important way to get news, and 13% say it's their most important source. In 2022 those numbers were 43% and 5%. The data doesn't break it down by app, so your timeline's news diet is still a mystery.

😵 Heavy scrolling? I can’t remember.

A study from Semmelweis University in Hungary looked at 225 university students. The heaviest scrollers (five-plus hours a day, mostly consuming content) showed the lowest self-control, more FOMO, weaker memory and attention results, and poorer sleep. It's a small, self-reported sample, so it shows a link, not proof of cause. Still, it fits what your thumb already knows at 1 a.m.

💸 Access to my bank accounts? Sure, what could go wrong

Anthropic launched a Personal Finance tool in beta for US Pro, Max, and Ultra subscribers. You connect accounts through Plaid and Claude can sort your spending, flag duplicate charges and creeping bills, and explain terms like APR. It's read-only, so it can't move money, and chats in the Personal Finance hub aren't used for training. Anthropic warns balances can be a day or two old, so check the numbers against your statements before you do anything dramatic.

🎬 Something different perhaps?

Netflix is testing an "AI Discover" tab that suggests shows by theme: "something light," "scare me," "family movie night," "quick watches." You can narrow it down, hit "something different," or exclude titles you never want to see again. It's US-only, English, on supported TVs for now, and Netflix calls it a test kitchen. Wider rollout is promised in the coming weeks. As if we need to spend more time watching a screen. Abort, abort!

🎉 Another party, huh?

WhatsApp is expanding Events with a hub for past and upcoming plans, header photos, custom reminders, and RSVPs. The big change is that you can invite people without WhatsApp, and they can still see details and RSVP. Guests without an account can't see the address until they RSVP, and your number stays hidden from strangers. It's rolling out to everyone over the coming weeks, so the group-chat potluck may get organized after all.

🧒 Meta, Google, and TikTok insist on scrolling

California's law would ban autoplay videos and personalized feeds for under-16s, and platforms would have to delete under-16 accounts if those features aren't turned off. Fines run up to $50,000 per affected user, and it's slated to start at the beginning of next year. All three companies sued the state attorney general, arguing it violates the First Amendment. Whatever happens, this is the fight over whether infinite scroll is a feature or a hazard.

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Till next time,
Jana