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Tinder is turning to a new AI-powered feature, Chemistry, to help it reduce so-called “swipe fatigue,” a growing problem among online dating users who are feeling burned out and are in search of better outcomes. Introduced last quarter, the Match-owned dating app said that Chemistry leverages AI to get to know users through questions and, with permission, accesses their Camera Roll on their phone to learn more about their interests and personality. On Match’s Q4 2026 earnings call, one analyst from Morgan Stanley asked for an update on the product’s success so far. Match CEO Spencer Rascoff noted that Chemistry…
Five years ago, mathematicians Dawei Chen and Quentin Gendron were trying to untangle a difficult area of algebraic geometry involving differentials, elements of calculus used to measure distance along curved surfaces. While working on one theorem, they ran into an unexpected roadblock: Their argument depended on a strange formula from number theory, but they were unable to solve or justify it. In the end, Chen and Gendron wrote a paper presenting their idea as a conjecture, rather than a theorem.Chen recently spent hours prompting ChatGPT in the hopes of getting the AI to come up with a solution to the…
Before the heavy-hitting action on the gridiron kicks off this Sunday night, pet lovers can warm up with some paw-sitively awesome performances as Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl XXII takes center stage on Sunday afternoon.Airing at 2 p.m. ET and simulcasting across the Warner Bros. Discovery family of networks, including Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, HBO Max, and discovery+, the Puppy Bowl is the original and longest‑running call‑to‑adoption television event. ADWEEK can exclusively reveal that this year’s Puppy Bowl will feature 16 brand partners—the largest number of partners for the event thus far. Inaugural brands joining the 22nd edition of the pet-themed…
Forget EVs — stationary batteries are getting all the buzz, and investment, in the U.S. these days. Startup Lunar Energy is the latest example. The six-year-old company, which builds battery packs for homeowners in California, Georgia, and Washington, said Wednesday it has completed two large funding rounds. The startup shared it raised a previously unannounced $130 million Series C and a $102 million Series D. The Series C was led by Activate Capital, while the Series D was led by B Capital and Prelude Ventures. The startup plans to use the funds to scale manufacturing to 20,000 units by the end…
On a forum with over 5,000 members claiming to be current and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, users vent their frustrations and concerns about the agency as it has become the center of public ire.“I’m all for removing illegals, but snatching dudes off lawn mowers in Cali and leaving the truck and equipment just sitting there? Definitely not working smarter,” wrote one user.The forum contains posts dating back over a decade and describes itself as an “unofficial forum for current Deportation Officers, prospective applicants and retired Deportation Officers to have a platform…
TBPN, the hourslong daily tech podcast hosted by the young, brash entrepreneur-investors Jordi Hays and John Coogan, spun up significant cultural cachet—and big sponsorship dollars—in the year-and-change since its debut. Now, the show has bought a regional Super Bowl ad, set to air on broadcast across the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. The 15-second spot, produced in-house, showcases previous TBPN guests, opening with interview clips of Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, investors Mark Cuban and Marc Andreessen, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and others—before panning out to show a colorful collage of business logos that come together to…
Voice AI company ElevenLabs said today it raised $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, which was an investor in the startup’s last secondary round through a tender. Sequoia partner Andrew Reed is joining the company’s board. The startup is now valued at $11 billion, more than three times its valuation in its last round in January 2025. Earlier in the year, the Financial Times reported that the startup was looking to raise at that valuation. The company said that existing investor a16z quadrupled its investment amount, and Iconiq, which led the last round, tripled it.…
If the words “sleeper sofa” still conjure images of a musty, squeaky, lumpy pull-out mattress with the thickness and support of a peanut butter sandwich, you may want to take a look at what’s been going on in the world of convertible furniture lately.Modern-day sleeper sofas now come with luxe, real mattresses, like the Tempur-Pedic in Joybird’s Eliot, or offer multiple sitting and sleeping configurations, like the Koala Wanda. The Neptune, from Montreal-based, direct-to-consumer home goods brand Cozey, aims for something entirely different: a couch with modular components that can be moved or added to, along with seats that pull out to…
Manscaped, the men’s grooming company founded in 2016, is marking its first decade in a big way: by airing its first-ever Super Bowl ad – and it’s a memorable one.The 30-second spot, “Hair Ballad,” was created by Quality Meats, ADWEEK’s 2024 Small Agency of the Year. It features clumps of anthropomorphized human hair, freshly shaved off of various body parts, singing a melancholic ballad about their brief relationships with their male counterparts. With lyrics like, “I was your scruff, your loyal friend,” the spot gives the hair monsters a surprisingly emotional existence.“Hair Ballad” will air right before kickoff at Super Bowl…
Adobe is putting on hold its plan to discontinue Adobe Animate following intense backlash from its customers after it announced plans to shut down the 2D animation software amid an increased focus on its investments in AI. “We are not discontinuing or removing access to Adobe Animate. Animate will continue to be available for both current and new customers, and we will ensure you continue to have access to your content,” the company wrote in a post on Wednesday. Adobe’s Monday announcement about discontinuing Animate was met with incredulity, disappointment, and anger, and users aired concerns about the lack of…
Micro RGB TVs should still offer better contrast than their mini-LED rivals, as their smaller size can theoretically offer more dimming zones for better overall black levels. They may also more readily provide naturalistic and granular color shifts, though we won’t know just how much better or different they are until we’ve spent more time with each variety. Samsung’s 2025 prototype was impressive in the short time I spent with it, with fantastic colors, clarity, and brightness. You can currently buy Samsung’s first Micro RGB TV in a 115-inch size for a cool $30,000, but 2026 will see more accessible…
AI company Anthropic is making its Super Bowl ad debut with a promise that its chatbot Claude will remain ad-free.The new campaign, “A Time and a Place,” created by Mother LA and directed by Jeff Low, launches today (Feb. 4) with four spots that pose the question: Does advertising belong everywhere? Two of the ads will run before and during Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8. The first, “How Do I Communicate With My Mom?” will air in the 30 minutes before kickoff, while a second commercial, “Can I Get a Six-Pack Quickly?” will run during the first quarter of the…
Most of what we know about the ocean just skims the surface, literally. We’ve gathered a large quantity of data on the oceans from satellites, but most of that is based on the top layer of water. Below that, the picture gets murkier. Buoys, ships, and some autonomous rovers have recently added some detail, but it’s nothing like what we get from satellites today. It’s frustrating to everyone from fishermen to the Coast Guard, meteorologists to offshore wind developers. “Getting data from the subsurface ocean has always been really hard,” Ravi Pappu, founder and CEO of Apeiron Labs, told TechCrunch.…
Honorable MentionsWe haven’t tried a vacuum yet that we absolutely hate. These ones below are solid vacuums, and in some cases are much cheaper than our top picks, but we didn’t like them quite as much.Bissell IconPet Turbo Edge for $366: Bissell’s OG stick vacuum is a popular model that’s been around for a while. It does a good job picking up hair and cat litter, and easily turns into a handheld vac too. The battery lasts a little longer, but former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano wasn’t impressed by its Cheerio-gathering skills, and it can’t stand up on its own.Bissell’s…
The Equinox campaign starts with a strong, timely idea: in an AI-saturated world, question what you see and trust your own efforts and discipline. Using exaggerated, AI-generated imagery to contrast what’s fake with what’s meant to be real is a compelling insight for a fitness brand built on performance and personal commitment.For me, the challenge is in the execution. The AI imagery is so obviously fake that it feels like a callback to earlier AI experiments, rather than engaging with the more subtle ways AI now shapes perception and blurs the line between real and artificial. At the same time, some of…
Spotify on Wednesday announced changes to its built-in song lyrics feature, which includes making lyrics translations globally available, offering the ability to view lyrics when offline, and relocating the feature in the app. The changes follow other tweaks the streamer has made to lyrics over the years, hoping to leverage the feature as a tool to push free users to become subscribers. That began with Spotify trying to paywall lyrics in 2024, before loosening its grip later in the year after numerous complaints. Now, the company hopes that the new offline lyrics feature — which will only be offered to…