Welcome to Thursday’s Newsletter

In today’s scoop 🍨 

• 🤖 AI Is Now Your Job Interviewer (And It Just Raised $28.6M)

• 🤝 Google and AP Join Forces

• 💶 Brad Pitt and the €800k Heist

• 🔧 3 Trending AI Tools

🤖 AI Is Now Your Job Interviewer (And It Just Raised $28.6M)

Remember when the scariest part of job interviews was deciding if "I work too hard" was a good answer to your biggest weakness? Well, welcome to 2025, where your next interviewer might be an AI named Maria who never needs a coffee break and can chat in multiple languages.

Maki, a startup that's essentially building the world's most overqualified HR robot, just secured $28.6M in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital. And before you ask – yes, this AI actually calls candidates on the phone and conducts video interviews. Wild times, folks.

The numbers are kind of mind-blowing:

• 🚀 300% growth in 2024

• ⚡ 80% automation of screening processes

• ⏰ 3x faster hiring timeline

• 🎯 20% reduction in employee turnover

But here's where it gets interesting: According to Maki's CEO Maxime Legardez, their AI agent for H&M (named Maria) can assess hundreds of skills through casual conversation, including that ever-elusive "culture fit." It's like having a super-powered recruiter who never gets hangry or plays office politics.

The most surprising plot twist? Candidates actually... like it? A whopping 98% of BNP Paribas applicants rated it as their best recruitment experience ever. Maybe because unlike human recruiters, the AI actually sends personalized feedback and tips when rejecting candidates (ouch, but helpful).

🔑 Takeaway

While there's something undeniably strange about practicing your interview smile for an AI, the stats are hard to ignore. Plus, according to New York state auditors, these digital recruiters show less bias around age, gender, and ethnicity than their human counterparts.

🤝 Google and AP Join Forces

In a move that's basically like giving Gemini a subscription to the world's biggest newspaper, Google just inked a deal with The Associated Press to feed real-time news directly into its AI chatbot. Think of it as Gemini's personal news ticker, but make it AI.

The partnership aims to make Gemini more of a one-stop shop for up-to-date information, though Google's being characteristically coy about exactly when this feature will roll out or which regions will get access first.

Why this matters:

• 🔍 It's Google's first news publisher deal specifically for Gemini

• 📰 AP will provide real-time info feeds to enhance Gemini's responses

• 💡 Builds on a longstanding relationship between the two companies

This deal comes amid a heated debate about AI companies using news content. While some publishers are taking the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, others (looking at you, New York Times) are choosing to fight it out in court.

The elephant in the room? A recent Columbia University study showed that even AI chatbots with publisher agreements still sometimes misquote content. It's like having a friend who always gets the movie quotes slightly wrong – endearing, but not ideal when you're trying to get accurate information.

Cornell University's Tech Policy Institute raises an interesting point: News outlets signing these deals are essentially trading their "journalism gold" for AI training data. It's either adapt or risk being left behind in the digital dust.

🔑 Takeaway

While Google's promising more accurate, timely information through Gemini, the bigger story might be about how traditional journalism is navigating the AI wave. Looks like AI assistants are finally getting their morning coffee from a reliable source. ☕

💶 Brad Pitt and the €800k Heist

Move over "Tinder Swindler" - there's a new con artist in town, and they're using AI to impersonate one of Hollywood's biggest stars. In a scam that reads like a Black Mirror episode meets Ocean's Eleven, a French interior designer was duped out of €830,000 ($855,000) by someone pretending to be Brad Pitt using AI-generated content.

Here's how this bizarre digital deception played out:

• 🎬 The Setup: It started when the victim received a message from someone claiming to be Brad's mom (classic romance scam move), saying her "son needed someone just like her"

• 🤖 The Tech: Scammers used AI to generate fake selfies of Pitt, even creating a deepfake news segment about their "relationship"

• 💔 The Hook: The fake Pitt claimed his accounts were frozen due to his divorce from Angelina Jolie and needed money for kidney cancer treatment

• 💸 The Damage: The victim transferred her entire divorce settlement (€775,000) plus more to an account in Turkey

What makes this story particularly sobering is how the scammers leveraged AI to make their con more convincing. According to McAfee, 1 in 4 people worldwide have either experienced an AI-voice cloning scam or know someone who has.

🔑 Takeaway

As AI tools become more sophisticated, distinguishing between real and fake content is getting harder. Brad Pitt's team reminded fans that the actor has no social media presence - a good reminder that if a celebrity slides into your DMs (AI-generated or not), it's probably too good to be true. Sorry, but your chances of secretly dating Brad Pitt remain at approximately zero percent.

Remember folks: If someone's asking you to wire money for "customs fees" on luxury gifts or "urgent medical treatment," that's a red flag bigger than Tyler Durden's leather jacket. 🚩

🔧 3 Trending AI Tools

• ⏰ ChatGPT Task - Schedule future tasks with ChatGPT, from one-time reminders to recurring actions, and let it handle them automatically.

• 🎙️ Voicezap AI - Use voice commands to trigger Zapier automations, making multitasking effortless even on the go.

• 🤖 DryMerge - AI agents that connect to your apps and automate tasks 24/7, building custom workflows based on simple chat instructions.

✉️ We’d love to hear from you!

Enjoyed today’s edition? Found something interesting, helpful, or even mildly amusing? Hit reply and let us know—we’re all ears! Your feedback helps us keep the scoop fresh and fun.

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Until tomorrow—stay curious! 👋