Welcome to todays newsletter!

In todays scoop 🍨 

• 🖼️When Robots Paint Gods: Ai-Da’s $1.3 Million Masterstroke at Sotheby’s

• 🪦CheggMate - How ChatGPT Schooled the Homework Helper

• 🙏 Holy Pixels! The Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica Gets an AI Makeover

• 🔧3 Trending AI Tools

When Robots Paint Gods: Ai-Da’s $1.3 Million Masterstroke at Sotheby’s 🖌️ 

Hold onto your berets, art lovers 🎨 —there’s a new Picasso in town, and she’s made of circuits and silicone.

Meet Ai-Da, the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist who just dropped jaws at Sotheby's by selling a portrait, "AI God", for a whopping $1.32M. The painting is an homage to Alan Turing, a British mathematician and computer scientist whose work in codebreaking during World War II and foundational contributions to computing and artificial intelligence have left a lasting legacy.

Developed by British art dealer Aidan Meller, Ai-Da was designed to challenge our notions of creativity and consciousness… Think of her as the lovechild of Siri and Banksy

Art Imitates Life, or Does Life Imitate Art?

Creating "AI God" wasn't just a matter of hitting Ctrl+P. Ai-Da engaged in a simulated artistic process involving prompts and choices, governed by algorithms but eerily resembling human intuition. She even had high-level "discussions" with her creators about tone, texture, and style. Imagine brainstorming with a colleague who runs on batteries and doesn't need coffee breaks.

Ai-Da's got the full artsy package:

• ✨ Realistic human features

• 💇‍♀️ Trendy brown bob (because robots need good hair days too)

• 👀 Expressive eyes that actually scan and process images

• 🧠 AI-powered creative "brain"

The Hot Takes Are... Spicy 🌶️

The art world is having a collective meltdown over this one:

The Haters Say: "It's just a fancy printer with a wig" - Art critics, probably

The Fans Say: "This is the future of creativity!" - Tech bros, definitely

Why This Actually Matters

When a robot can sell art for more than most people make in a decade, it's worth paying attention. This isn't just about a cool robot making bank 💰️ – it's about AI creeping into one of the most human things we do: create art.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Is Ai-Da an artist in her own right or just an elaborate piece of tech? Meller leaves that for us to decide. But one thing's for sure: she's got us talking, debating, and maybe even a little freaked out. And isn't that what great art is supposed to do?

🎓 CheggMate - How ChatGPT Schooled the Homework Helper

Remember that friend who always had the answers to your homework? That was Chegg. But now, they're the ones failing the test. 

During the pandemic, Chegg was riding high.

•  🚀Virtual learning skyrocketed

• 😕 Professors grappled with Zoom

• 🏃 students flocked to Chegg for answers.

• 📈The company's stock soared, and life was good. 

While Chegg was charging students from $14.95/month for homework help from human tutors, ChatGPT rolled up offering the same answers for FREE. 

Fast forward to today, and it's a different story. Since 2021, Chegg's stock has nosedived by 99%, wiping out a staggering $14.5 billion in value. Ouch! 🤯 

Chegg's employees were screaming "AI IS COMING!" back in 2020. But the company's executives played it safe, worried about those pesky "ethical concerns". Meanwhile, students weren't losing sleep over ChatGPT's occasional whoopsies – they were too busy getting instant answers for free. 

🪦 RIP Chegg's glory days - Cause of death: ChatGPT-induced obsolescence 💀📚

In classic "too little, too late" fashion, Chegg tried to join the AI party with "CheggMate" (powered by GPT-4). But by then, students had already swiped left. Their stock took a 48% nosedive in a single day 📉 – the kind of drop that makes crypto crashes look tame!

Now, with 300+ employees laid off and a new CEO at the helm, Chegg's trying to reinvent itself for "curious learners." 

Final Grade

The lesson here? In the AI era, you either adapt at lightning speed or end up as a case study in what not to do. Chegg just learned that the hard way – and paid about $14.5B for the education.

🙏 Holy Pixels! The Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica Gets an AI Makeover

Ever wondered what would happen if you mixed holy water with silicon chips? Well, the Vatican just dropped the hottest collab of 2024 – and it's not with Gucci (though we'd love to see those Pope-branded sneakers 👟).

They've teamed up with Microsoft to create a "digital twin" of St. Peter's Basilica. That's right, the OG influencer (the Church) is now in the metaverse. It's like Cribs: Vatican Edition, but with way more gold leaf and significantly fewer swimming pools 🏊️ 

The Numbers Behind the Digital Makeover:

• 📸 400,000+ holy high-res images captured

• 🤲 22 petabytes of blessed data (that's enough storage to hold every prayer ever whispered... probably)

• 😲 Expected to serve 30M+ pilgrims in 2025

• ⛪️100% less waiting in line than the physical basilica

Using a wild combo of drones, lasers, and cameras (think Ghostbusters meets The Da Vinci Code 👻), they've created a pixel-perfect replica that's so detailed it can spot structural issues the human eye can't see. It's basically giving this 500-year-old architectural icon the ultimate glow-up ✨ 

But here's the real miracle: This isn't just some fancy Vatican Instagram filter. The AI system is helping manage real-world crowds and letting people peek into previously off-limits areas. 🛑 Want to see that hidden tomb or get up close with Michelangelo's handiwork? All this will now be possible because of AI. 

Pope Francis is apparently here for it, seeing AI as the new missionary spreading the good word through code instead of scrolls. Tech execs have also highlighted this as a poster child for collaboration between tech giants and spiritual institutions. 

So whether you're a devout pilgrim or just someone who appreciates cutting-edge tech wrapped in 16th-century glamor, the Vatican's digital twin is a sign of the times. It’s tradition meets innovation, all packaged in a cloud server near you. Cue the virtual choir 🎶

Who knows, this could inspire others to blend bytes with beliefs, proving that technology and spirituality aren’t mutually exclusive—they're a match made in, well, heaven.

🔧3 Trending AI Tools

• 🌴 Stretch My Time Off - helps you maximize your vacation days by strategically planning your time off around weekends and public holidays to create longer breaks without using extra PTO.

• ✍️ Sona - records conversations into valuable insights.

• 📹️ CapCut Commerce Pro - shoppable video creation for ecommerce businesses.

That’s a wrap for today!

If we made you smile, cringe, or question reality, let us know—your feedback is the secret sauce to our algorithm.

Got a spicy topic or a cool tool you want us to dive into? Don't be shy—hit reply and spill the beans.

Until tomorrow, stay curious 👋