🥃 AI Just Out-Whiskied Humans

In today’s email:

💡 Stuck on your next big research idea? MIT’s “SciAgents” are here to save the day—an AI-powered squad brainstorming groundbreaking hypotheses, no PhD required.

🥃 Whisky lovers, take note! AI just schooled humans in tasting notes and molecular mastery, revolutionizing the distillery game while keeping whisky nerds on their toes.

📱 AI scams are gearing up for 2025 with deepfakes and romance chatbots—here’s how to stay one step ahead of the bots.

Intrigued? Let’s dive in!

💡 Need a Research Hypothesis? Call AI

MIT’s researchers have whipped up an AI framework, “SciAgents,” to help scientists stop stressing over their next big research idea. Instead of spending forever deciding what to study, now AI can brainstorm for you!

The AI System

• How it works: Multiple AI agents, each with its own superpower, work together like a team of Marvel superheroes (but nerdier).

• Key players include:

  • The Ontologist: Defines fancy terms and maps out connections.

  • Scientist 1: Throws out research ideas like it’s Shark Tank.

  • Scientist 2: Adds experimental spice and makes ideas practical.

  • The Critic: That one friend who always finds flaws but makes everything better.

Highlights:

• AI proposed cool stuff like using silk and dandelion pigments for tougher, eco-friendly materials.

• It even thought up better adhesives, stronger scaffolds, and bioelectronic gadgets.

• Plus, it critiques itself, so you’re not stuck with some half-baked hypothesis.

The dream? Drag and drop ideas into a future app and let AI do the heavy lifting. MIT’s vision makes labs optional till the final stretch.

🥃 AI Puts Whisky Experts on the Rocks

AI is now better at sniffing out the difference between Scotch and American whiskey than humans! Scientists in Germany, led by Andreas Grasskamp, trained an AI called OWSum to tell apart whiskies using either flavor descriptions (like "smoky" or "fruity") or chemical data. Spoiler alert: the AI nailed it.

Here’s how it all went down:

• Flavor Notes Game: AI scored a solid 94% accuracy just by analyzing tasting notes. Humans? Eh, not as good.

• Molecule Mastery: When they gave the AI a cheat sheet of 390 whisky-related molecules and some fancy chemical data, it hit a perfect 100% at telling Scotch from bourbon.

• Keyword Wizardry: The AI even beat humans at predicting whisky aromas based on the chemicals inside. Humans scored 0.57; AI scored 0.72.

The researchers say this tech could be a game-changer for distilleries: think quality control, sniffing out fake whiskies, and even crafting new blends. But don’t worry, whisky nerds—humans are still needed to train these machines. For now, anyway.

📱 How to Avoid Getting Catfished by an AI Bot in 2025

AI scams are getting slicker, and 2025 is looking like the year they really take off. Here's the lowdown on what to watch out for:

• AI-Powered Email Scams: Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are getting a major upgrade with AI deepfakes. Scammers can now impersonate execs in video calls and get employees to send huge sums of money.

• Romance Scams with Chatbots: Forget human scammers; now chatbots are stealing hearts (and cash) 24/7. These bots are smooth talkers and can pretend to be anyone, making their schemes more convincing.

• Pig Butchering Scams: AI is making these scams worse by automating messages and using deepfakes to reel people in.

• Deepfake Extortion: Scammers are using deepfakes to blackmail high-profile folks, and soon, execs worldwide could be the target.

• Digital Arrest Scams: Using deepfakes, criminals are impersonating law enforcement to trick victims into paying fines.

How to stay safe?

• Don’t trust random calls or texts asking for info.

• If a loved one calls in an emergency, ask something only they’d know.

• Be wary of vague social media messages.

Other cool AI stuff that is trending right now 🔥🔥

🗺️ AI might help us find landmines but leave humanity’s fate to an algorithm, and we could be stepping on one ourselves—UN chief warns it’s time for global guardrails before things go full sci-fi. - Read more

💣 AI in warfare: a mix of killer robots and spreadsheets, with Gaza as ground zero for how terrifyingly fast tech can rewrite the rules of war—10% error rate included. - Read more

🎅 Forget the mall Santa—Tavus just unveiled an AI-powered Santa that can chat with you in real-time, in 30 languages, and even answer your holiday trivia… all with less than a second of delay. - Read more

💰 AI coding assistant Cursor just turbo-leveled its valuation 6.5x in 4 months—$100M raised, $2.5B valuation. - Read more

🖼️ Instagram’s cooking up AI tools that’ll let you tweak your videos with just a text prompt—think outfit swaps, wild backgrounds, or even turning yourself into a puppet—because why edit like a human when you can let the robots do it? - Read more