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- Grok spread misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting
Grok spread misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting
Plus, Facebook Messenger’s desktop app is no more
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Welcome back, AI Admirers!
Breaking News: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok spread false information about the Bondi Beach shooting, mislabeling viral footage and highlighting the unreliability of chatbots during fast-moving news events.
Get ready to dive into the latest happenings in AI.
📢 Today's Headline:
Grok Misfires on Breaking News!
Is Kindle turning into ChatGPT Lite?
Messenger desktop quietly disappears!
NVIDIA launches Nemotron 3 models!
Latest AI Tools & Resources!
Today’s Poll and Results!
Read time: 3.5 minutes!
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Hand-picked News
When tragedy struck Bondi Beach, Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok didn’t just miss the story - it confidently spread falsehoods.
Grok called a life-saving moment “a man climbing a palm tree” instead of identifying a bystander disarming a gunman.
It later misattributed the clip to the Hamas attack and even a tropical cyclone, showing how AI can hallucinate wildly.
Fact-checks had to be added by X users, underscoring how platforms are cutting back on human moderation while bots fill the gap.
On Dec. 14, two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah gathering on Bondi Beach, killing 15. A bystander, Ahmed Al Ahmed, wrestled away a weapon, saving lives. The video went viral but Grok couldn’t parse reality.
⚠️ The takeaway: Chatbots are bad at breaking news. They scrape whatever’s online, including low-quality posts and AI-generated junk, then deliver it with confidence. Without stronger safeguards, misinformation spreads faster than facts.
Quick insight: If you’re building with AI, remember—frequency ≠ accuracy. In fast-moving events, silence or a “no answer” is safer than a wrong one.
The new “Ask This Book” feature promises spoiler‑free answers to your questions, but it’s already sparking debate about how much AI belongs in our reading lives.
Ask This Book lets you highlight text and instantly query the book for details like “Who is this character again?”
A second AI tool, Story So Far, is coming in 2026 to give quick catch‑up summaries when you return to a book after a break.
Early rollout is limited to Kindle iOS in the US, with Android and Kindle devices joining next year.
Amazon is positioning these features as upgrades to the existing X‑Ray tool, but reactions are split. Some readers love the convenience, while others see it as yet another intrusion of AI into spaces that don’t need it.
⚠️ Why it matters: AI is creeping into even the most personal experiences - like reading. For some, it’s a productivity boost; for others, it’s a reminder that AI fatigue is real. The backlash isn’t just about Kindle; it’s about whether we want algorithms mediating every corner of our lives.
Quick insight: If you’re building with AI, remember that context matters. Dropping AI into a beloved product without clear value can feel like disruption, not innovation.
The shutdown signals how little priority Meta now gives to standalone Messenger, pushing users back to Facebook and the web.
Mac and Windows apps vanished overnight, with users redirected to Messenger.com or the Facebook app.
Messenger’s desktop version never kept up with rivals like Zoom, with no screensharing, clunky video calls, and constant tech shifts.
Meta has been slowly merging Messenger back into Facebook since 2023, showing its focus on keeping people inside its flagship platform.
Context: Messenger’s desktop app launched during the pandemic to compete with video chat tools but struggled to gain traction. Over time, it bounced between Electron, React Native, Catalyst, and even a progressive web app, frustrating both developers and users.
⚠️ Why it matters: Meta is consolidating, not expanding. Killing Messenger’s desktop app is a reminder that standalone messaging isn’t Meta’s future - it wants you inside Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where engagement (and ads) are stronger.
Quick insight: If you rely on Messenger for work, set up a PIN and migrate chats to the web now.
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Investment Solution
Wall Street Isn’t Warning You, But This Chart Might
Vanguard just projected public markets may return only 5% annually over the next decade. In a 2024 report, Goldman Sachs forecasted the S&P 500 may return just 3% annually for the same time frame—stats that put current valuations in the 7th percentile of history.
Translation? The gains we’ve seen over the past few years might not continue for quite a while.
Meanwhile, another asset class—almost entirely uncorrelated to the S&P 500 historically—has overall outpaced it for decades (1995-2024), according to Masterworks data.
Masterworks lets everyday investors invest in shares of multimillion-dollar artworks by legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
And they’re not just buying. They’re exiting—with net annualized returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5% among their 23 sales.*
Wall Street won’t talk about this. But the wealthy already are. Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but…
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.
🚨 Quick Poll
Today’s Poll:
Do you trust AI chatbots to explain breaking news events? |
Vote today, see the results tomorrow!
Previous Poll:
Do you think Disney was right to force Google to remove AI‑made character videos?
A) Yes – Protecting their creations – 100%
B) No – Let creators experiment – 00%
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