Women as Objects 2.0: AI Sexbots and the latest Trumpdates
+ drop me in the middle of a tech event and here's what you get
Amgels!! Hi!! God, thank you for the continuous love on these latest newsletters. It’s been a crazy week, and I personally cannot wait for the weekend. I need a SLEEP!
As always, if you love these news updates (and you want me to be able to afford to keep writing them every day) please consider becoming a paid supporter! We adore people who pay for the media they love!!!
⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ IN THE NEWS⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖
Today’s Trumpdates:
Trump pardons anti-abortion activists ahead of March for Life rally
Who’s surprised? On the eve of the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump has granted pardons to 23 anti-abortion activists. Among these activists are individuals convicted of blockading a reproductive health clinic and intimidating both staff and patients. Yikes.
Trump Orders Declassification of Records Related to JFK, RFK, and MLK Assassinations
“Everything will be revealed,” Trump said as he signed an order to release thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Along with releasing info about JFK, the order also aims to declassify the remaining federal records about the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
According to TIME, the public shouldn’t anticipate any earth-shattering revelations, but there is still an intense interest in details related to the assassinations and the events surrounding it (especially for conspiracy theorists.)
“There’s always the possibility that something would slip through that would be the tiny tip of a much larger iceberg that would be revealing,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century.” “That’s what researchers look for. Now, odds are you won’t find that but it is possible that it’s there.”
Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship
A federal judge, who - thank god - has some sense and decency, has issued a temporary restraining order to block Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, saying it was “blatantly unconstitutional.”
A reminder - here’s what ending birthright citizenship would look like:
It would mean children born in the USA would no longer automatically receive citizenship at birth, regardless of their parents’ citizenship or immigration status.
In the U.S., this is actually a right that is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”
I’ve been in San Jose covering the latest Samsung drop and here’s what I learnt xxxx
This section was brought to you by the angels at Samsung NZ!!!
Ok so as a die-hard iPhone girlie I was both honoured and a little intimidated when the Samsung NZ team asked if I wanted to come over and report on their latest event ‘Samsung Unpacked.’ But, I love tech, and I love when people take me seriously as a media outlet (I was the only news source from NZ that got to come) so here I am!!!!
I’m going to do a bonus newsy/ diary edish about my crazy week in the States leading up to the event (since I’ve been here there’s been a new president and a tiktok ban) but I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what I’ve learnt so far since being here:
Drop a gen z girlie in the middle of Samsung Unpacked and here’s what you learn:
Vibes:
Everyone is a tech bro, or dressed in ‘tech bro chic.’ Lots of shades of grey, statement sneakers and slim little backpacks. Me? I was in a pair of denim overalls with a little cat on the front :)
People are SO excited to be here. And they applaud when there are new feature announcements as if we’re watching a concert. I’m not judging - we know I love people with hobbies!!
Their execs didn’t attend Trump’s inauguration which is a slay
The new Galaxy S25:
The camera is fucking unreal. Sorry iPhone but the zoom on these phones is insane and you can do zoom to 100x!!! I need to go to a Harry Styles concert and test it out ASAP.
There’s a feature called ‘audio eraser’ where you can literally filter out different background noises from your videos. Want to keep the waves but remove the wind? You can do that! Want to remove everything except the birds? Yuuuup, you can do that too!
The battery life will let you watch videos for 31 HOURS. That’s a lot of Harry Styles fan edits.
In terms of AI, I know we feel complicated about this - me too! I don’t love the idea of AI interfering with creativity because hi! I’m literally a writer! But it seems like the team are focusing more on productivity rather than creativity. I went to a panel about this yesterday, where Dr Chris Brauer said that they ran a study where last year only 16% of participants were making daily use of AI in their everyday lives - but six months time that’s doubled. When they asked ‘why,’ 2/3 of respondents said it was for ‘productivity’ reasons - which got me thinking about you guys and the reality of this for the SYSCAhood: how many of you use AI in your daily life?
Idk how to write this in a non-nerdy way, but there’s seamless action across apps, which means you can ask the phone to search for something (like an upcoming Harry Styles concert), add it to your calendar, and text the details to the girlies, all just by using your voice. The phone does all the work!
And of course, it wouldn’t be a tech event if the company didn’t talk to us about their sustainability efforts. It was all the usual stuff, but I did appreciate that Samsung are creating a circular battery recycle chain that reuses batteries from older products to reuse cobalt from previous devices!
I’m gonna make a reel about all of this and write you a special diary edish about what it’s been like in the States lately, but here are my current hot takes!
China’s next-gen sexbots powered by AI are about to hit the shelves. Eeek.
Ok this is freaking me OUT: Basically Chinese scientists and engineers are applying ChatGPT-like technology to sex robots to make them more… lifelike. They want them to interact “vocally and physically” which makes me feel, a type of way.
“We are developing a next-generation sex doll that can interact vocally and physically with users, with prototypes expected by August this year,” CEO Evan Lee said early this month.
“The new generation of sex dolls, powered by AI models and equipped with sensors, can react with both movements and speech, significantly enhancing user experience by focusing on emotional connection rather than just basic conversational abilities,” Lee said. - South China Morning Post.
I just don’t even really want to go into the consequences of this, particularly when it comes to incel culture. But if you’re interested, you can read more on it here.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ ON THE WEB ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
So many of us have grown up having everything available and accessible to us all the time - which is AMAZING for so many reasons, but there is a cost to free things - even if you can’t see it.
In a world that feels more mystifying by the day, where journalists are constantly being laid off, and misinformation spreads faster than a leaked Harry Styles song, finding media that you trust, understand and actually want to read is so important.
I know you value what I do - so many of you email me saying how much you love the newsletter, thanking me for explaining topics you might not have heard of, and telling me how much it means to you that you’ve got a friend on the other side of this thing (🥺🥺🥺) If you believe in paying for the media (or the person???) you love, then please consider becoming a supporter.
(◔_◔)✓✘ TODAY’S MUNDANE POLL (◔_◔)✓✘
☆Other good shit☆
Order our book Make It Make Sense here!
Join our Book Club here!
Become a Close Friend on Instagram here!
Drop a question for our weekend advice column ‘Make It Make Sense’ here!
Support the independent media you love by becoming a paid supporter here!
PS, if you wanna chat to me about anything I’ve written today, your latest crush, or if you just want a pen pal, reply to this email and we can be friends 𓆩♡𓆪
Thank you for all the work you do!!! Also loving the “Trumpdates” both the term and function. It’s not fear mongering or filled with advanced gymnastics to be “bi-partisan.”
re: the ai poll -- I think people don't realize that they're using AI all the time! Like using grammarly/Gmail recommendations, when your photo app suggests edits, asking your Google home a question... it's complicated!!