💔 Need Closure? There’s an AI for That

In today’s email:

💔 Text your ex without the emotional damage—Closure lets you yell into the AI void and maybe even get an apology.

🧪 Can AI write your science paper without wrecking your reputation? Researchers are divided, and the results are in.

🛍️ Shopping just got chatty. Perplexity and PayPal are teaming up so you can ask, find, and buy without ever leaving the conversation.

Curious? Keep scrolling!

💬 Text Your Ex Without Actually Texting Your Ex

Ever wanted to yell at your ghosting ex, flakey friend, or that recruiter who disappeared after six interviews? Well, now you can—with Closure, a chatbot that roleplays as the emotionally unavailable people who left you on read. Closure lets you vent, cry, rant, or ask “why??” without waiting on an actual human who’s obviously not replying.

It’s still in beta, but people are already chatting with AI versions of exes, friends, dates, even parents. You pick the relationship, describe how it all went off the rails, and the bot comes back with an apology and a whole lot of “I’ve been thinking about you.”

Here's the gist:

• You talk to AI versions of people who ghosted you.

• Closure is empathetic, apologetic, and… weirdly nice.

• Bots try to steer convos toward “healing” (or at least closure-lite).

• Even abusers and deadbeat friends show up (but not always responsibly).

• It’s not therapy—but it tries to feel like emotional takeout: fast, warm, and a little unsatisfying.

The biggest issue is that the chatbot sometimes glosses over serious stuff (like abuse or suicidal thoughts), which makes it a pretty risky stand-in for real support. But if you just want to scream, “WHY DID YOU VANISH, RYAN?!” into the AI void, Closure’s open.

🎓 Scientists Can't Agree on AI Writing Papers

Can AI write science papers without getting the academic side-eye? According to a Nature survey of over 5,000 researchers, the verdict is: "It’s complicated."

Scientists are torn between loving AI for saving time and fearing it might ghostwrite their reputations into the ground. Everyone’s experimenting (quietly), but not many are coming clean about it. Think AI is the new calculator? Or is it an undercover fraud machine? Depends on who you ask.

Here’s what researchers agree on:

• ✅ Editing and translating papers with AI? Mostly cool.

• 🤔 Writing parts of the paper (like the abstract)? Mixed feelings.

• 🚫 Writing peer reviews with AI? Hard pass for most.

• 🕵️ Using AI but not disclosing it? Happening more than you'd think.

The younger crowd and non-native English speakers are more likely to use AI—and not just for fixing typos. But while some think AI is just another research tool, others feel it’s academic cheating in a trench coat.

The bottom line is that AI is here, researchers are curious (and cautious), and Dr. Bloggs—the fictional lab coat in this survey—may or may not be telling the truth about their methods section.

Now it's your turn: where do you stand in the great AI-in-research debate? Take the test yourself.

🛍️ Perplexity and PayPal Make Shopping Easy-Peasy

Perplexity just teamed up with PayPal and Venmo to make shopping inside chat a thing. Soon you’ll be able to chat with an AI, ask for stuff, and bam—buy it right then and there without leaving the conversation. No more tab hopping or annoying checkout pages.

Here’s what’s cool about it:

• Shop & Pay in Chat: Buy products, book trips, snag tickets—all in one convo.

• Safe & Sound: PayPal’s got the security game down with fraud detection and seamless login (bye-bye passwords, hello passkeys!).

• Global Reach: With 430 million PayPal users worldwide, lots of people can join the party.

Basically, this is “agentic commerce” — fancy talk for letting AI do way more than just talk; it actually handles your shopping from start to finish.

What does this mean for you? Instead of asking “Where can I buy these sneakers?” and then clicking around forever, you’ll just chat and buy—easy peasy lemon squeezy. It’s like having a super helpful shopping buddy who’s also your personal cashier.

So AI is moving from “Hey, here’s info” to “Hey, here’s your stuff,” and it’s pretty exciting. Ready to shop while you chat?

Other cool AI stuff that is trending right now 🔥🔥

📚 The Chicago Sun-Times just dropped a summer guide featuring books that don’t exist and quotes from experts who probably live in Narnia. - Read more

🖼️ AI might be cranking out pretty pictures, but when art loses its human touch, we’re not just missing soul—we might be sleepwalking into a democracy-crushing, billionaire-run art apocalypse with extra loneliness on top. - Read more

🤔 Redditors got played by AI researchers who dropped fake, super-persuasive comments without asking, proving AI might be way better at convincing strangers online than your ex ever was. - Read more

🎶 A jazz album racking up a billion streams—but spoiler alert: those fans might be totally fake, and the whole thing could be a $10 million AI-powered music scam. - Read more

⛪ Pope Leo XIV—the first American pontiff—announced he took the “Leo” name because AI is basically the next Industrial Revolution, and he’s channeling his 19th-century namesake to defend our dignity from rampaging algorithms. - Read more