Welcome to Wednesday’s Newsletter!

In todays scoop 🍨 

• 🙏 HOLY SHIFT: AI Jesus Has Entered the Chat

• 🛒 Perplexity Wants to Be Your AI Shopping Buddy (But Can't Explain How It Works)

• 🎬 Hollywood's New Leading Role: AI Steals the Spotlight 

• 🔧 3 Trending AI Tools

🙏 HOLY SHIFT: AI Jesus Has Entered the Chat

A chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland has installed an AI-powered Jesus avatar in their confessional, giving "cloud computing" a whole new meaning.⛪️💻

The setup? Press a button, get blessed 🙏

This divine digital device speaks 100 languages and never needs to take time off! Does this mean priests can start kicking back and loosening those collars?

Some of AI Jesus's Sermon Highlights:

• 😇 When asked about women priests: smoothly changes subject to "peace and harmony" saying that “certain roles are defined within the church”

• 🕊️ On breaking violence cycles: "Prayer, no revenge" (AI keeping it old school)

• 🤫 Disclaimer: "Don't share personal sins" (Even AI knows some things are better left on read)

The locals? LOVING IT. Many locals say they felt the spirit in the digital booth. One believer walked out "completely at peace" (and didn't even need to say 10 Hail Marys)

But not everyone's ready to trade their priest for an AI prophet. Critics are clutching their rosaries, and the Pope has yet to comment – presumably, he's still processing… 

Meanwhile, ethics professors are asking if we've gone too far. 

This holy hotline runs 24/7. Can't sleep at 3 AM because of that guilt trip? AI Jesus got you. ✝️

P.S. Still no word on whether it can turn water into binary. But hey, one miracle at a time! 💫 

🎬Hollywood's New Leading Role: AI Steals the Spotlight 

(But Don't Worry, Your Job's Safe... For Now)

AI is crashing Hollywood's party like an uninvited Kardashian. Some stars are rolling out the red carpet, while others are calling security. Let's break down this blockbuster drama...

AI: The New Director's Cut

Remember when making a film required a gazillion dollars and a small army? Well, AI just shouted "Cut!" on that narrative. 

Casey Affleck is all in, praising AI for leveling the cinematic playing field. With new tools like Meta's MovieGen, indie filmmakers can conjure up Hollywood-level visuals and sound from mere text prompts. 📽️

Robert Zemeckis is also riding the AI wave. In his new film Here, he's using AI to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in real-time. No more endless hours in makeup or post-production wizardry. It's the fountain of youth, Hollywood-style.

But Wait, There's Drama

Not everyone is ready to share the red carpet on this. Ben Affleck thinks AI will create jobs and won't eclipse human creativity—but he's side-eyeing potential shake-ups in visual effects. 

Then there's Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s throwing shade harder than a critic at a B-movie premiere. He's worried AI is using actors' likenesses without cutting them a check. - Imagine seeing your digital doppelgänger starring in Sharknado 12 without your consent 🌪️ Yikes! 

Unions Assemble

Enter the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. They're putting up guardrails faster than you can say "contract negotiations." 

Studios have to fess up if they're slipping AI-generated content into productions. Think of it as a prenup between Hollywood and AI.

The Final Act

AI is offering Tinseltown some shiny new toys: jaw-dropping effects, seamless dubbing, fewer reshoots. But it's also stirring up ethical dilemmas bigger than any Oscar snub. Some see AI as a tool for faster creativity, but ask can it match the human touch that tugs at our heartstrings.

So, as the credits roll on this unfolding saga, one thing's clear: Hollywood's script is getting a major rewrite, and AI is holding the pen 📝

🛒 Perplexity Wants to Be Your AI Shopping Buddy (But Can't Explain How It Works)

In a move that screams "we're coming for you, Google," AI search engine Perplexity just dropped a spicy new shopping feature.

The twist? Even their CEO admits they don't fully understand how it works. (At least he's honest? 🤷)

What's in the Shopping Cart?

For $20/month, Perplexity Pro subscribers can now:

• 🖱️ Get AI-powered product recommendations with one-click purchasing

• 📸 Snap photos of items to find similar products (hello, Pinterest vibes)

• 📦 Score free shipping on purchases made through their platform

• 💳 Actually complete purchases without leaving the app (looking at you, Google and Pinterest who tried and gave up)

The Plot Thickens

Here's where it gets interesting: When asked how their AI decides which products to recommend, CEO Aravind Srinivas gave us the tech equivalent of ¯_(ツ)_/¯

"All these things are yet to be fully understood," he told Fortune. Is it the number of reviews? The ratings? The phase of the moon? Nobody knows! But hey, they're working on it.

The Power Play

While Perplexity claims their recommendations are "unbiased," there's a catch. Merchants who join their new program get "increased chances of being a 'recommended product'" because... more data = better recommendations? 🤔

Also worth noting: Unlike Google Shopping, Perplexity isn't taking commission cuts from sales... yet.

Their spokesperson's words? "It's not off the table." (Translation: We'll definitely do it once we hook enough users.)

The Big Picture

This move puts Perplexity in a three-way cage match with Google and Amazon 🥊

Both tech giants have their own AI shopping assistants (Google's AI-powered Shopping tab and Amazon's Rufus), but Perplexity's betting that their "write-like-you-talk" search approach will win over frustrated online shoppers.

The Bottom Line

Perplexity's making bold moves, but there's an elephant in the room: Should we trust AI shopping recommendations when even the company behind them can't explain how they work fully? Then again, do we even know how we make our own shopping decisions? 🤔

For now, it's a fascinating experiment in AI-powered commerce. Just maybe don't let it make all your shopping decisions until they figure out what's actually going on under the hood.

🔧3 Trending AI Tools

• ✍️ Anthropics Prompt Improver - making it easier to make it easier to leverage prompt engineering best practices and build more reliable AI applications.

• 🗣️ Vozo AI - Precise video translation, with AI Pilot - Translate, rewrite, redub, and lip sync your videos with prompts.

• 💬 Superchat -AI agents to automate business messaging - implement across all channels like WhatsApp Business, Instagram, Facebook, Live Chat etc.

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Until tomorrow—stay curious! 👋