Michael Grynbaum on his new book 'Empire of the Elite' and the state of the media
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Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Would I want to manifest my 'dream life' using AI? Hmm …
It's a TikTok trend that's been going on for some time now — people using ChatGPT and other AI tools to "manifest" their dream lives. So far, I've avoided it, but when one of my editors noticed it trending again, I had to at least consider it: Am I the type of person who'd manifest? And then use AI to show me what my ideal life would look like? My colleague Ana Altchek noticed the trend back in September. "Users are sharing how AI has helped them enhance their traditional manifestation practices, such as visualizations, vision boards, positive affirmations, mantras, and rewiring negative beliefs," she reported at the time. ChatGPT shows your dream life I decided to investigate for myself, and I found that people essentially prompt AI to create a story about their dream life, based on their goals. Let's say your goals were to be rich, have flawless skin, snag a hunky husband and two kids, and live in a villa in Italy where you garden tomatoes. Enter those goals — manifest them, if you will — and it would whip up a story for you. Then, you could use it to create an action plan to actually get there. I tried this out myself, asking ChatGPT to tell me a story about a day in my life in that Italian villa. I can't deny it delivered an appealing tale: The sun slipped gently over the Tuscan hills, casting gold across the rolling vineyards and awakening Villa Rosabella, your sun-washed estate tucked among olive trees and cypress-lined roads. The sheets were linen, cool and crisp, and the smell of blooming jasmine drifted in through open French doors. You stretched, not a wrinkle on your face, your skin dewy and flawless, like you'd just walked out of a spa in Capri (because you had — last weekend). But when I asked it to give me steps to achieve this dream life, things got a little wonky. Although it had some decent practical advice about how to achieve flawless skin ("get a consultation with a top dermatologist,") things got slightly more complicated when it came to the "becoming rich" part of the dream. It suggested things like, "Scale income to $500K+ annual revenue," which ... OK, sure? To be fair, had I given it slightly more specific goals, it might have come up with a better plan. But I need to admit my bias here: I'm not really into the idea of manifesting. I'm happy for anyone who finds this useful, but it's just not for me. A while back, I DM'ed some of the people I'd seen talking about this life hack on social media. A few of them told me they really did believe in the power of manifestation — and had clear life goals in mind. (I realized that these women were younger than I am, just starting out in their adult lives. Whereas I'm old enough that my only life goal is just to ride this thing out.) Manifesting on video There's also a new twist to the AI manifestations: video. The New York Times reported last week that people are using tools like Runway, Google's Veo 3, or a tool called Freepik to enter a real image of themselves that's then used to illustrate a real (fake) life. For example, I could upload a picture of myself, and then have AI create a video of me sauntering around my Tuscan tomato grove. I wanted to give it a try, so I tried to use Freepik, which one of the women interviewed by the Times used. But there was a catch: Freepik required a paid account to create video— and there's no way I'm going to scale my income to $500,000 if I'm throwing it all away on AI tools, so I declined. Personally, I don't think I want to see a video of myself in a dream life, anyway. I don't think it would make me feel bad per se — or jealous of my dream AI self. And I'm not afraid that the AI version of me might come to life and murder and replace me. I simply do not wish to engage with such content. It just does not appeal to me at all. Perhaps I lack a growth mindset — the desire to truly improve my life. Perhaps I should be more open to AI manifesting! But also, I am happy to just use my imagination, and tend the one scraggly cherry tomato plant in my yard.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,502: Clues and answer for Wednesday, July 30
Hey, there! We've reached the midway point of the week and, as ever, there's another Wordle word to figure out. No spoilers just yet, but it's a tough one! In case you need a little help, here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Wednesday's puzzle (#1,502). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. What is Wordle? Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. There is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. How to play Wordle To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. How to play Wordle more than once a day If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,500 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Previous Wordle answers Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Tuesday, July 29 — OMEGA Monday, July 28 — SAVVY Sunday, July 27 — WHOLE Saturday, July 26 — HAUNT Friday, July 25 — GOFER Today's Wordle hints explained Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Today's Wordle help Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: Assess the purity of precious metals. Are there any double letters in today's Wordle? There are two pairs of repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. What's the first letter of today's Wordle? The first letter of today's Wordle answer is A. The Wordle answer today This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... ASSAY Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Forbes
Today's NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Wednesday, July 30th
Looking for help with today's NYT Mini Crossword puzzle? Here are some hints and answers for the ... More puzzle. In case you missed Monday's NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you can find the answers here: It's Odin's Day, smackdab in the center of the week. For a long time, when I was a child, I thought Wednesday must be for wind or weddings, but the Norse god is much better. In any case, we have a NYT Mini to solve, so let's dive right in! The NYT Mini is a smaller, quicker, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword, and unlike its larger sibling, it's free-to-play without a subscription to The New York Times. You can play it on the web or the app, though you'll need the app to tackle the archive. Spoilers ahead! Before we get to the answers, here's the first letter for each word in today's Mini. Across 1A. Fire-resistant part of a redwood – B 5A. App featuring personalized videos from celebrities – C 6A. Where to find sponges that are always wet – O 7A. Rousey in the U.F.C. Hall of Fame – R 8A. Upturned parts of a canoe – E Down 1D. Bring home the ___ – B 2D. Change, as a bill – A 3D. Passes time at the beach, maybe – R 4D. Beer brand with the Longboard Island Lager and Big Wave Golden Ale – K 5D. What planks, Russian twists and mountain climbers help to exercise – C Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead! Across 1A. Fire-resistant part of a redwood – BARK 5A. App featuring personalized videos from celebrities – CAMEO 6A. Where to find sponges that are always wet – OCEAN 7A. Rousey in the U.F.C. Hall of Fame – RONDA 8A. Upturned parts of a canoe – ENDS Down 1D. Bring home the ___ – BACON 2D. Change, as a bill – AMEND 3D. Passes time at the beach, maybe – READS 4D. Beer brand with the Longboard Island Lager and Big Wave Golden Ale – KONA 5D. What planks, Russian twists and mountain climbers help to exercise – CORE Wednesday NYT Mini Crossword July 30th I started off getting BARK right away, followed immediately by BACON. This was a good start, basically confirming that both these were correct. I moved on to 4-Down and KONA after that and then 7-Across with RONDA and 6 with OCEAN. From here, I had enough to start filling in everything I wasn't sure about. READS and ENDS and then finally, CAMEO which wrapped up AMEND as well. This one took me 1:28. How did you do? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. If you also play Wordle, I write guides about that as well. You can find those and all my TV guides, reviews and much more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!
