Tesla’s bartender bots were controlled by humans at ‘We, Robot’ event

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Many expected autonomous robots at Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ event, but humans were actually pulling the strings. Also, #Facebook shifts focus to Gen Z, a man sues for $647 million over a lost crypto hard drive, and a new Gmail scam is making rounds.


🦉 Owl that talent: A 10-year-old boy has racked up millions of views online for his spot-on bird calls. At a school talent show, he hooted like a great horned owl, honked like a Canada goose and gobbled like a wild turkey. He’s so good that he can fool bird ID apps! It’s no surprise when he grows up, he wants to be an ornithologist (bird expert). Isn’t that amazing?

Tropicana Las Vegas implosion

The site of the former 23-story, 917,400-square-foot hotel is becoming a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s, who are relocating to Las Vegas. The controlled demolition used 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord, dang.

2,200 pounds

Of explosives used to implode the Tropicana Las Vegas. The site of the former 23-story, 917,400-square-foot hotel is becoming a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s, who are relocating. The controlled demolition used 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord. Dang! Watch it happen here.

🚀 Touchdown complete: SpaceX nailed the upright landing of one of its massive Starship rockets. As it fell from the sky, thrusters slowed it down before it was caught by two “chopstick” arms attached to a giant metal tower. Why’s this a big deal? It’s a step toward reusable rockets. The video is incredible.

17 days

A dozen drones flew over secure U.S. military locations. They zoomed over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, moved over the home base of the Navy’s SEAL Team Six and, finally, surveyed the world’s largest naval port (paywall link). U.S. officials don’t know where they came from or how to stop them. Ahem, China? These yours?

⚠️ Use Windows Enterprise software? There’s a critical vulnerability rated 9.8 out of 10 (really bad) in Microsoft Configuration Manager. CVE-2024-43468 is extremely dangerous, allowing hackers to take control of your system and network remotely. You can’t fix this with a normal patch; it requires an in-console update inside the Configuration Manager. Full steps here.

🖼️ Google Images results are flooded with AI-generated pics: Case in point: Baby peacock images that look nothing like the real thing popping up alongside genuine photos. It’s going to take a while for Google to label AI images in its search results. Until then, don’t believe everything you see.

Apple’s Vision Pro won’t be around much longer: In September, only 10 new apps dropped for the Vision Pro. It’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem (paywall link). Developers don’t see enough customers, and people aren’t excited to spend $3,500 on an AR headset without much content.

A long road ahead: An Arkansas father faces first-degree murder charges after shooting a man he found with his missing 14-year-old daughter — a 60-something former Indiana police chief with a history of internet stalking and sexual assault against minors. Dad is now out on bail and raising money for his legal defense.

🚨 Gmail scam spreading: This is frightening. Watch out for fake Gmail account recovery request notifications that look like the real deal. Hackers try to convince you to sign in through a phony login page, where they can then capture your password. Ignore or decline the request and they’ll follow up with an AI-generated Google support call in which the caller claims someone has accessed your account and stolen your data. Ignore that, too. Pass this on so everyone knows this is happening.