Your backyard has a very chatty thermometer.

In 1897, physicist Amos Dolbear noticed that snowy tree crickets chirped in approximate lockstep with the temperature. All you had to do was count their chirps for 15 seconds, add 40, and you’d get a rough Fahrenheit reading.

What’s in store:

Read Time: 6 minutes

GOOGLE

Hurricane forecasting got a 24-hour upgrade

WeatherNext, an AI model developed by Google DeepMind, is pushing cyclone forecasting forward by 24 hours. And that’s a very big deal!

This was first seen last October with Hurricane Melissa. Forecast models and meteorologists disagreed on where the storm would end up. Would she stay relatively weak and move toward Haiti – or – rapidly intensify toward Jamaica?

Five days before landfall, WeatherNext bet the hurricane would turn into a Category 5 and hit Jamaica with 80% confidence. Unfortunately, this was an accurate prediction and large parts of the Caribbean island were decimated. Fortunately, that extra notice gave responders more time to prepare.

WeatherNext gives forecasters, on average, an additional day of lead time compared to existing models. That’s because it generates a wider range of scenarios, offering meteorologists a clearer picture of what could happen.

WeatherNext looks at:

A black box breakthrough

So here’s the thing, researchers aren’t entirely sure how WeatherNext works so well.

“When we told the community that our model was only using relatively coarse resolution, they were shocked, because that means that the lower-resolution inputs capture more signal about what’s going to happen than previously believed,” said Ferran Alet, research scientist at DeepMind.

This suggests there may be signals in the lower-resolution data that AI is picking up on, allowing WeatherNext to make unusually accurate predictions about a cyclone’s path and intensity. (In other words, this is not the norm.)

And while scientists are still diving into the details, DeepMind is spreading the wealth. The team says WeatherNext will be open-sourced, so outside researchers can test, improve, and iterate on this lifesaving model.

Call it open-source storm chasing.

🎶 One more day before the storm 🎶 (My fellow theatre nerds, iykyk) - TL

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94% of social media marketers are now using AI in their workflows, up 32% year over year. But simply using AI isn't the advantage anymore. Join Marketing Against the Grain and Slate on August 12 as we break down what HubSpot's 2026 State of Social Report reveals about AI, authenticity, and where social is headed next. Free to attend. 

Riddle Me This

A rooster lays an egg on the peak of a roof. Which side does it roll down?

Find the answer at the bottom of the email!

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POLICY

California wants AI out of the therapist’s chair

California Senator Steve Padilla wants AI out of mental healthcare…mostly. 

Padilla authored a bill that would limit the use of AI in psychotherapy. SB 903 has a few moving parts. But in short, it would keep AI behind the scenes handling admin work, never in the therapist’s chair.

The tricky part is that these guardrails are arriving after many users have already turned to AI for support. One in eight adolescents and young adults log on for companionship and mental health advice. After all, chatbots don’t need insurance and are available 24/7.

The problem here – aside from bots not being therapists – is that companies are rewarded for building stickiness into their business model. This makes users much more susceptible to emotional dependence.

Hence, a little government intervention.

Where California draws the line:

The gray area

Even administrative AI can have clinical consequences.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers filed a complaint against Kaiser Permanente over an e-visit tool that automatically routes patients toward care without real-time clinician review. Kaiser says the tool doesn’t diagnose patients. But the union claims that using AI to screen patients can blur the line between administration and clinical judgment.

Turns out, triage shapes treatment.

The chatbot doctor will see you now. - TL

Mindstream Picks

Space: Skywatchers in Greenland and Iceland could potentially see the northern lights during the August 12 total solar eclipse, but only if an exceptionally powerful geomagnetic storm strikes at just the right time.

Business: Thames Water has paid its finance chief a £1m signing-on bonus using emergency borrowing funds, risking fresh controversy over executive pay as the utility battles to avoid collapse.

Music: Ariana Grande has scored her seventh US No. 1 album with Petal, as she prepares to finish her tour in London before taking a break from public-facing work.

Don’t Miss: After two SSD failures, one writer credits Dropbox with saving years of important work thanks to its automatic cloud backups and reliable syncing across devices. At around $120 a year for 2TB, the service is pitched as relatively affordable insurance against losing irreplaceable files.

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Poll of the Week Results

“What's your AI dating app behaviour?”

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Situationship (use whatever's free and available) - 18%

Other - tell us! - 22%

Your Views:

“Hybrid! situationship (based on what i'm trying to achieve) but also serial monogamist with a few... wait?! I guess I'm not such a monogamist LOL” - parker

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