Good Monday Morning

We shone a spotlight last week on US maternal health, pointing out that US women are 4.5x more likely to die than women in other wealthy nations. There’s also a much higher rate among non-white women.

Because Spotlight readers are the best, I want to share information one of you sent me that shows that women with disabilities have much higher rates of complications during pregnancy and delivery.

Want to help improve maternal health? Support March of Dimes The 87-year-old charity is fighting to close the deadly gaps in care. 

Today’s Spotlight is 1,058 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now

Boarding Passes May Be On Their Final Approach

The UN’s aviation agency wants your face and phone to replace check-in and boarding passes within two to three years.

China Privately Admits Hacking U.S. Infrastructure

American officials say China acknowledged past cyberattacks, including Volt Typhoon’s infiltration of critical U.S. networks, during December talks aimed at easing tensions over Taiwan and security.

TikTok Benefits From Children Begging on Livestreams

A Guardian investigation uncovered organized begging networks where children perform live for virtual gifts redeemable for cash while TikTok keeps up to 70 percent.

Dr. TikTok Will See You Now

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

There are staggering implications for public health as more “authoritative” digital voices crowd out medical advice. Nearly 70 percent of Gen Z have followed health tips from social media even when they contradicted a provider. About one in four AI users say they’ve acted on chatbot guidance without consulting a doctor.

Well This Is Awkward

Running Your Business

Coffee Mate’s piña colada creamer launched just before White Lotus used a poisoned version of the drink to nearly kill off a character. The brand scrambled to respond in real time, and may still see a sales bump from the chaos.

Silver Beacon Behind The Scenes

Chasing virality is like chasing wildfire wind shifts.

Just ask the nearly 400 parents who named their daughters Khaleesi before Game of Thrones burned her arc down. If you don’t know how the story ends, don’t tie your brand to the opening credits.

Everything But The Rearview Mirror is Watching You

Image by ChatGPT, prompted by George Bounacos

Your Car Is A Narc

Google just rolled out Android Auto 14.1 The update is relatively minor; just some bug fixes and teases about future features like AI copilots and climate controls.

The Pivot

But that update is a reminder. Your car is no longer just a mechanical horse. It is a connected platform with cameras, microphones, GPS, and data-sharing tools built in. And you may have no idea who is watching.

The Big Idea

Modern Vehicles are collecting more than miles. From license plates to in-car conversations, our digital footprints on the road are now monetized, surveilled, and sometimes weaponized, often without our knowledge or consent.

Why It Matters

Cars are now tracking devices on wheels. They capture location, habits, personal messages, and more. That data is traded, stored, and used in ways most of us never know or expect.

What’s Happening

License Plate Chaos

D.C. drivers owe more than one billion dollars in unpaid tickets. Some are being outed on social media using private license plate data. Meanwhile, hacked digital plates allow drivers to pin their violations on someone else.

Vehicle Surveillance

After a Tesla Cybertruck explosion earlier this year, the company tracked the car across four states using logs and charging data. Other cars store your texts, contacts, and garage codes. Some of that data is sold.

Political Targeting

Private plate readers don’t just scan tags. They record everything imaginable: bumper stickers, window permits, even passenger pictures down to slogans on shirts. The databases they update can be searched by name, belief, or keyword.

Insurance Overreach

Allstate used apps like GasBuddy and Life360 to track drivers without consent. One person was tracked across the country using a burner phone.

Silver Beacon Behind The Scenes

This is not a story about some dystopian future tech. It is about the systems already inside your car, quietly updating our surveillance capitalism system in the background.

When data leaks, misidentifies, or misinterprets your intent, it is not just inconvenient. It is potentially dangerous, especially in politically hostile or under-protected and marginalized communities. We can buy that data from multiple list brokers now.

What Can You Do?

The blunt truth? Not much.

• Car makers are not required to disclose what they collect
• There is no federal regulation forcing transparency
• Opt-outs are buried, ignored, or do not exist
• Third parties piggyback and scrape your data anyway

If you do not know what your car is tracking, that is exactly how they designed it.

That’s Not Your Grandkid Talking

Practical AI

The so-called “granny scam” is evolving fast. With just seconds of audio, AI voice cloning can fool even close family using tools that ask for no consent and offer few safeguards.

Your TV is Spying On You

Protip

Most smart TVs track what you watch using ACR, a feature that screenshots your TV twice every second. This guide shows how to turn it off on four major brands.

No, The Measles Outbreak Isn’t Slowing Down

Debunking Junk

RFK Jr. says Texas measles cases are plateauing. The data shows steady growth echoing early COVID confusion as experts warn that this outbreak, already responsible for the deaths of two children and an adult, could last a year.

Huggies’ Reliable Blowout Protection

Screening Room

Tiny Peacemaker, Big Breakthrough

Science Fiction World

Northwestern engineers created a rice grain-sized, light-activated pacemaker that dissolves after use, providing short-term support for infants after heart surgery without requiring a second procedure.

Kawasaki Built a Robot Horse

Tech For Good

Corleo is a hydrogen-powered robot horse that climbs and leaps like a sci-fi stallion. Early reactions include excitement from people with disabilities who see it as a path back outdoors.

Bill Gates Posted His OG Microsoft Code

Coffee Break

To mark Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, Gates shared the original BASIC code he and Paul Allen wrote for the Altair 8800. He called it “the coolest code I’ve ever written” and included a link to download an image of the source code on glorious tractor feed paper.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning

It’s April 7th. Today is World Health Day. This year’s focus is on pregnancy and birth.

Sobering: Women in the U.S. are 4.5x more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women in a dozen other wealthy nations in Europe and Asia. Black women here are 3x more likely to die than white, Hispanic, or Asian women in America, says this CDC report.

Want to help improve maternal health? Support March of Dimes The 87-year-old charity is fighting to close the deadly gaps in care. 

Today’s Spotlight is 1,058 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know

Yum Doubles Down on AI Orders

Just months after McDonald’s scrapped its AI ordering system, Yum Brands is teaming up with Nvidia to take drive-thru and phone orders at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and its other chains.

China Nixes TikTok Sale Deal

After the U.S. launched new tariffs last week, China backed out of a proposed TikTok sale, and Trump extended his original 75-day ban for a second time, despite no legal authority for the first.

Meta’s AI is Coming For Your Personality

Instagram is testing AI-generated comments for users to post as their own while Messenger, WhatsApp, and IG are rolling out AI characters (with voices!) you can chat with like they’re real people.

Retail Sites Out of Room for Ads

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Amazon and Walmart now show sponsored products on 99% of their site search results, with over 20 paid listings per page. With 80% of ad spend tied to their own sites, growth is slowing so they’re cramming in more ads, even if it means overwhelming shoppers and muddying search results.

Even Kindle Had to Bring Back Page-Turning

Running Your Business

Amazon’s latest Kindle update lets readers turn pages with a double tap, their clunky concession to years of complaints about fingerprints and missing buttons.

Silver Beacon Behind the Scenes

This is a textbook case of user behavior forcing product humility.

Take the hint: schedule a brainstorming session this week on the small things your customers keep bringing up because they’re not small to them.

Streaming Rebuilt Cable – More Expensive With Less Trust

Image by ChatGPT, prompted by George Bounacos

Streaming Was Supposed To Disrupt The System

Instead, it rebuilt cable. Platforms promised freedom. Creators chased control. Viewers expected choice. Everyone is now paying more for less.

Why It Matters

We’re in the post-disruption era. Streaming is no longer the underdog. It’s the system.

Vimeo Enters The Chat

Vimeo just launched Vimeo Streaming — a new product that lets creators launch their own subscription services with no coding. Features include merch integration, AI translations, piracy protection, and advanced analytics.

The Pitch: Own your audience. Monetize directly. Skip the algorithm.
The Catch: You’re still at the mercy of Roku, Apple, and fatigued viewers.

What Viewers Say

Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends report shows that the average US household now pays $69/month across four streaming services.

*47% think they pay too much.
*60% say they’d cancel if prices rose $5.
*GenZ and millennials churn more than anyone else.

Also New

AI-powered fake trailers are swarming YouTube, racking up millions of views, and some outrank the real ones. Studios aren’t stopping it. They’re quietly taking ad revenue instead of enforcing copyright.

SAG-AFTRA calls that move “a race to the bottom.”

Netflix, Then And Now

Netflix once killed late fees. It killed Blockbuster. But it also killed its own DVD business once streaming became viable. Its binge model created modern viewing habits and made it the new establishment.

Now it’s defending high content spend with high-concept comfort food. And despite saying otherwise, it’s watching its competition closely.

What We’re Watching

The Trust Collapse

Fake trailers, algorithmic junk, and studio complicity are eroding trust. Even national TV has aired AI footage as real. If the gatekeepers stop guarding the gate, what’s left?

The Future

Tall walls. Higher bills. Less choice.

We’re rebuilding cable, only now you’re paying both your ISP and a growing list of gatekeepers.

Sidebar: Your Guide to What’s Still Real

We keep a weekly tracker of what’s coming, going, and worth watching.

Everything Netflix is updated every Thursday. (Disclosure: we run it.) It was the first nationally published Netflix tracker, launched in 2010 after Sue’s viral essay: “The Blind Side not on Netflix? I’ll Tell You Why.”

Tens of thousands of people have relied on her weekly updates, built from actual availability, not regurgitated press releases.

Try it for yourself by subscribing to the free weekly update here.

AI Can Fake a Ghibli Film and Your Expense Reports

Practical AI

OpenAI’s new image generator can conjure fake receipts convincing enough to defraud companies and Studio Ghibli-style art vivid enough to appall the animator, who called AI “an insult to life itself.”

Even US Citizens Can Have Their Phones Searched at the Border

Protip

Border agents don’t need a warrant to search your phone, even if you are a U.S. citizen, and they can detain you or seize your device. Here’s what you can do before traveling to protect your data.

No, Elon Didn’t Install a Neuralink Chip in a Sick Child

Debunking Junk

A viral story claiming Musk paid a 7-year-old’s medical bills and fast-tracked her Neuralink implant was entirely AI-generated from the text to the image, and the supposed miracle.

Stouffer’s OG But Funny Pantry Spot

Screening Room

Scientists Just 3D Printed Bone at the Microscopic Level

Science Fiction World

A new technique from University of Sydney researchers mimics real bone structure at 300-nanometer resolution, a leap that could make future grafts stronger and safer.

Neural Implant Translates a Woman’s Thoughts Into Real-Time Speech

Tech For Good

For the first time since her 2005 stroke, a woman is speaking full sentences aloud via a breakthrough device that streams brain activity straight to a voice synthesizer based on an AI rendering of her pre-stroke voice.

Find That Song From That Scene, That Ad, That Show

Coffee Break

Tunefind tracks the music you hear in movies, TV, games, and ads, down to the timestamp, scene, and even gives you a streaming link.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning!

It’s March 17th, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Friday is World Water Day. 

Sobering stat: More than 2 million Americans live without running water or basic plumbing. Here is a list of online and in-person events curated by the United Nations.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,427 words, about a 5-minute read.

3 Headlines To Know

Gemini AI Replacing Google Assistant

Google is replacing its Assistant program (“Hey Google, turn on the lights.”) with AI-powered Gemini. The switch will happen automatically on Google Home, phones, and other smart devices—most users won’t notice a difference.

Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund paid $3.5 billion to acquire Pokémon Go and the rest of Niantic’s video game business. As we mentioned before, one key capability of Pokémon Go was its ability to map pedestrian-accessible areas beyond roads.

Alphabet’s Autonomous Cars Get 589 Parking Tickets

Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous vehicles racked up 589 parking tickets in San Francisco last year, with fines totaling over $65,000. Violations included obstructing traffic and parking in prohibited areas.

MrBeast’s Profit is from Chocolate

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Internet celebrity MrBeast expanded into multiple ventures three years ago—chocolates, web analytics, and TV production—but only the chocolate business is profitable. While his content operation lost $80 million on $250 million in revenue, the chocolate business matched that revenue and turned a $20 million profit, keeping everything afloat

Being a content creator isn’t a guaranteed path to success. MrBeast has 374 million YouTube subscribers and a massive presence across platforms, but like Jimmy Dean—who pivoted from country music to selling his namesake sausage company for $80 million in 1984—he’s finding that business, not content, pays the bills.

Mobile Messaging Metrics

Running Your Business

If you’re using mobile messaging to reach customers, here is a handy document detailing 7 different metrics you should be tracking and some benchmarks for them. 

Behind the Story

One of Silver Beacon’s core online principles for clients is that every initiative must have a clear profit component—either increasing revenue or cutting costs. Eventually, someone in the C-suite or boardroom will ask about the ROI of a project you approved, and you’ll need more than just a theory. This mindset also helps you think more strategically about your entire organization.

Predictive Policing: Who’s on the Algorithm’s Radar?

Image by Ideogram, prompted by George Bounacos

We’re nerds who manage digital marketing, so we love playing with algorithms—and we know they’re far from perfect. Every predictive model starts with people making assumptions based on data, just like budgeting at home or planning a project at work.

Predictive policing, made famous by Minority Report and other sci-fi, is now a real-world tool. Even when these algorithms are field-tested and considered reliable, they still hover around 90% accuracy—leaving plenty of people in the gaze of a city’s police department.

The Neighborhood Model

Imagine your city divided into 1,000-square-foot blocks, each assigned a crime likelihood score by predictive policing software. The goal: to help police allocate resources where they’re needed most.

University of Chicago scientists were thrilled when their most accurate model performed just as well in cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The catch? It was only 90% accurate.

That’s impressive for a predictive model—but like everything, bias lurks. Where was white-collar crime? Environmental crimes? The model worked, but could it really replace experienced local police commanders?

Might it be better used by city planners to put different resources in place before crime happened?

Listening to Tip Lines

The lack of human nuance in AI models is a major stumbling block. While AI is decent at parsing facts and definitions, it struggles with sarcasm, rhetorical questions, and the way people actually communicate.

Take politics: Imagine a voter posts, “Oh great, another four years of Candidate B. Just what we needed.” To a human, that’s frustration. To an AI trained on sentiment analysis, it might register as support.

Now, the FBI is using a similar system to prioritize messages from its tip lines. But both the tips and the algorithms are black boxes—hidden from scrutiny or testing. A FedScoop investigation suggested the program was built by MITRE, but neither the company nor the FBI would confirm.

Critics argue this system could be riddled with language biases and misinterpretations, undermining its core mission: flagging urgent threats.

And Watching Body Cam Video

Other companies are pitching AI Bodycam analysis as a tool for law enforcement itself. Truleo transcribes and scores officer interactions, flagging possible misconduct and even grading professionalism. Some departments say it helps improve behavior. Others, like Seattle’s and Vallejo’s, faced police union backlash and dropped it.

One AI tool, JusticeText, is already helping defense attorneys uncover police misconduct buried in hours of footage. In one case, it flagged a detective telling a witness, “I don’t want this on record,”—a key detail that led to a case being dismissed.

But there are deeper concerns. Critics warn that AI-driven analysis expands police surveillance while remaining a black box—hidden from public oversight. Officers can still turn cameras off, and police departments control how findings are used, if at all.

One AI founder predicts these tools will be mandatory in five years. But if transparency isn’t baked in, AI won’t fix the deeper problem: police culture and accountability.

Remember that 90%?

Predictive models can be right most of the time—until they aren’t.

Spain’s VioGen algorithm was designed to protect domestic violence victims by assessing their risk level. Police relied on it 95% of the time. But when it scored Lobna Hemid as low risk, she was sent home. Seven weeks later, her husband killed her.

She wasn’t alone. Of the women murdered by their partners since VioGén launched, more than half were classified as negligible or low risk.

The problem? The algorithm isn’t inherently bad—it’s just incomplete. It relies on the data it’s given, which often misses key details. Victims underreport abuse out of fear. Police overlook warning signs. And once the system spits out a score, it’s rarely questioned.

Spain isn’t alone. AI-driven risk assessments are used worldwide—to set prison sentences, flag welfare fraud, and even predict who might commit crimes. The technology keeps expanding, but the fundamental issue remains: when the system gets it wrong, real people pay the price.

AI to Human: Do It Yourself

Practical AI

My favorite story from last week: an AI coding assistant suddenly stopped and told the developer, “I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work.” It then lectured them on the importance of understanding and maintaining their code—sounding eerily like a parent explaining multiplication tables to a second grader.

Get Rid of Social Media Posts

Protip

If you’re ready to purge your social media, check out Redact—it works across 28 platforms. Standard caveats: it deletes posts for humans, but companies may still keep them. It’s real, it works, and it will nuke posts you might have wanted to keep. You can filter by keywords or time ranges, but it’s not free—so decide if the price is worth the digital clean slate.

Trump Supporters List Inaccurate

Debunking Junk

Social Security isn’t paying millions of dead people—or anyone 200 or 300 years old. The Associated Press puts their own Spotlight on why some accounts in the database have missing or incorrect death dates. 

The key detail: these people are in the database, but they’re not getting payments. In fact, Social Security hasn’t paid anyone over 115 in at least a decade.

CoorDown’s Thought-Provoking Spot

Screening Room

Titanium Heart Supports Man For 3 Months

Science Fiction World

An Australian man in his 40s received a titanium artificial heart that required external charging every four hours. He successfully relied on it for over three months until a donor heart became available.

Gene Therapy Restores Some Sight in UK Study

Tech For Good

A promising study out of the UK  has partially restored the vision of multiple small children born legally blind. The experimental treatment uses gene therapy to resolve a retinal disorder called LCA4, which prevents the eye from distinguishing objects in a person’s environment. Though limited, the study suggests that blindness caused by genetic defects could be curable.

The Birthday Paradox

Coffee Break

The Birthday Paradox says that in a classroom or a big dinner party (23 people), there’s a 50% chance two share a birthday. The Pudding has a data animation that makes the math of probability click.

Sign of the Times