Cart imitates life
Madison Square Garden is reportedly tracking activists who have publicly criticized the venue’s use of facial recognition. / 404 Media
Grocery stores seem well on their way to introducing AI-enabled shopping carts that track your items and pepper you with targeted ads. / Futurism
It’s Prime Day, which also means it’s Bookshop’s Anti-Prime Day, which means free shipping on all your purchases. / Bookshop
“You, yes you, can make software, and that software might make your life some level of better, or more convenient.” Generative AI is having its Herbalife moment. / What We Lost
Utah is testing out an AI startup that handles prescription refills, bypassing the doctors who might otherwise catch adverse drug reactions. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
See also: Nearly two thirds of US physicians use OpenEvidence, a medical AI platform, often to help make clinical decisions, and frequently without their patients’ knowledge. / NBC News
Related: “Seventy per cent of nurses and 77% of physicians… are worried about losing their skills because of over-reliance on AI systems.” / Nature
Going back—way back—to basics, Dhrutika Khimani is building animations by hand, using physical objects. / It’s Nice That
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A firm with MAGA connections but no energy-sector expertise is hired to run feasibility studies for coal plant extension schemes, setting off alarm bells even with old Trump hands. / Politico
Electricians are divided over working on data centers—one says he avoids talking about his day job because he’s also a “single guy attempting to date.” / WIRED [$]
Unrelated: The newsletters that have become dating services. (This isn’t one.) / The Atlantic [$]
An ode to New York’s dive bars, which are becoming increasingly endangered in a city where the median price of a beer is $9.16. / The New York Times [$]
Step inside a virtual Criterion Closet. / The Closet
A sure sign that we’ve reached dystopia is a platform that now lets users “pay anyone to do anything,” but at least for now it’s mainly crypto scammers. / WIRED [$]
“When [they] played ‘Kokomo,’ the screen morphed into an advertisement for Club Kokomo Spirits.” Now that it’s only Mike Love, every Beach Boys show might be the last. / Slate