| | | Earlobes have no confirmed biological purpose. They don't help you hear. They serve no survival function. Scientists have spent decades investigating and have concluded they are essentially just there. | The best theory anyone has come up with is that they evolved to be an erogenous zone to help humans stay monogamous. Evolution really said jewellery and romance or nothing. | What’s in store: | | Read Time: 5 minutes |
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| | | | | OPENAI | | | OpenAI is testing a new Ultrafast mode for GPT-5.6 Sol that can run up to 14 faster than its Standard mode, starting with a limited release through the OpenAI API. | Powered by Cerebras, Ultrafast can produce up to 750 output tokens per second. | It’s designed for tasks where fast responses really matter. | Until now, getting fast AI responses often meant using a smaller model. | OpenAI says Ultrafast is meant to offer both speed and stronger AI performance. | Early uses include: | Checking logs and code while an outage is happening. Answering questions, checking stock and fixing issues in real time. Analysing information, testing ideas and spotting suspicious activity faster.
| Done choosing between brains and speed | OpenAI is also using Ultrafast internally for engineering and research, where quicker responses can help teams test ideas and make decisions faster. | For now, Ultrafast is only available to a small group of customers, with wider access planned later. | Can’t wait for tokens to be spent in 2 minutes. - MV | How impatient are you with AI responses? | | Vote for live results + see results and opinions from yesterday at the bottom of the email. |
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| | | | | AI PRODUCTIVITY | | | Every day, same ritual: re-explain your voice, re-paste your context, re-train your assistant from zero. It's not the AI's fault. It's a setup problem — and Enovair, an AI workflow studio, already solved it. | They built 11 copy-paste AI skills that install your brain into Claude, ChatGPT, or Codex permanently. | Get instant access to: | Brand voice skill: AI writes like you, every time Inbox triage skill: priority emails, zero re-explaining Meeting prep skill: context loaded before every call Feedback synthesis skill: customer signals, instantly organized
| Build one skill today, reuse it forever. | |
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| | | | A bag has 6 red, 4 blue, and 10 green balls. What's the probability of NOT drawing green? | Find the answer at the bottom of the email! |
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| | | | Google briefly killed Sam Altman because Wikipedia had a bad morning | Google briefly told people that Sam Altman had died, after vandals edited his Wikipedia page to falsely claim he’d been assassinated. The bad information then appeared in Google Search before both Wikipedia volunteers and Google cleaned it up. | The edits were reversed within minutes, but not before the internet noticed. It’s a neat reminder that even polished search results can still inherit nonsense from the public web when someone decides to spend their morning causing chaos. |
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| | | | | MICROSOFT | | | Microsoft is merging its consumer Copilot app with Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing both versions into one place. | As part of the reshuffle, several features are being removed, including Copilot’s animated mascot, Mico. | Mico, Microsoft’s blob-like AI companion, will disappear from Copilot during August, although it isn’t vanishing completely. | Microsoft says the character will move to Learn Live, where it will act as a tutor. | In short: | Microsoft is combining its consumer and business Copilot apps. Mico is leaving Copilot and moving to Microsoft Learn Live. Group Chat, Podcasts, Deep Research and Copilot Labs are being removed on 18 August.
| Mico has been handed his notice | A few other Copilot features are also being retired. | Group Chat, Podcasts, Deep Research and Copilot Labs will all shut down on 18 August, along with any content created using them. | Users who want to keep that content will need to export it beforehand. | Microsoft says the changes are designed to make Copilot simpler and more consistent across consumer and business use. | Mico’s been moved to Learn Live, which is corporate for “we found you another department.” - MG |
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| | | | Health: The NHS will offer lenacapavir to people whose HIV has become resistant to standard treatments, providing a new option for patients at risk of developing life-threatening illness.
Gaming: Footage from the cancelled Star Wars: Magellan has surfaced online, revealing an unreleased multiplayer action RPG featuring Jedi and Mandalorian-style characters
Movies: Heroes, Nashville and Scream star Hayden Panettiere has reportedly died aged 36, with her family announcing her death and requesting privacy. | Don’t Miss: Amazon has updated its terms to require most customer disputes to go through binding arbitration instead of court, while also introducing a class action waiver. The change could make it harder for customers to collectively sue Amazon, though courts may ultimately decide whether the new terms are enforceable. |
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| | | | Image of the Day |  | Artwork submitted by Mindstream reader mwalsh: “The most advanced retro flip phone” |
| Daily Image Prompt | Athens city poster from 1920s |
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| Submit your artwork to Mindstream → |
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| | | | “These agents invented contests and truces on their own. Should developers encourage this kind of problem-solving, or shut it down?” | Encourage it. This is progress, even if it’s messy. - 32% | Shut it down. We need to stay in control of the situation. - 68% ✅ | Your Views: | “Not surprising considering AI is modeled after human “intelligence”. We should try to develop something different and better.” - glickma | “Without control—at least during live testing —- the Wild West scenario will lead to disaster and loss of purpose! ” - jgmdic | “Last time I Checked Bots were eating tokens to do their work. Seems like a waste of them for a turf war. There are lots of ways we don't want out bot emulating office politics and real life.” - jcweav | Submit your opinions in our polls to be featured! |
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| Number Crunch Answer: 50% or 1/2 | #1175
Break on through to the other side! |  | | | |
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