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👋 Good morning. Careful where you’re walking — the baby squirrels are back. This year’s first babies have been born, according to the New England Wildlife Center. The helpless little things do sometimes get separated from their mom, so give it ~12 hours before lending a hand. If you do attempt a rescue, putting the stray in an elevated basket and playing baby squirrel noises on YouTube could lure mom back. Your video recommendations are about to get so weird.

🏆 Drumroll please… The Hustle has been nominated for Webby Awards in the Websites & Mobile Sites and Video & Film categories. If a little coffee has ever sprayed out of your mouth while reading our jokes at your desk — throw us a vote (and sorry about that stain). You’ll notice some other familiar faces: HubSpot Media’s My First Million and Marketing Against the Grain are up for awards, too.

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NEWS FLASH

🚀 Will space tourism finally take off? Richard Branson still thinks there’s a chance. Virgin Galactic reopened bookings for commercial suborbital trips after almost two years of delays. Unfortunately for starry-eyed travelers, inflation seems to exist in outer space as well: Tickets for the 90-minute flights are $750k per seat — up from $450k in 2021.

🎸 A day in the life: Paul McCartney’s Reddit account was temporarily banned for sharing photos of a concert in the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit, which is admittedly very funny. One theory suggested a bot made the call as Reddit does not allow self-promotion. It was ultimately determined that his account only appeared banned due to a glitch. As Reddit claimed in an email to 404 Media, “No one would ban one of The Beatles.”

🎮 As if we needed another time-waster: TikTok added a hidden emoji game that players can access by sending an emoji in any chat, per TechCrunch, to make messaging more fun. Instagram introduced a similar game two years ago, and Threads is prototyping its own messenger games now. The New York Times has seen massive success with its Games app, and even LinkedIn got in on the trend by adding a handful of puzzle games with a social component.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Holy smokes: OpenAI closed a $122B funding round, bringing its valuation to $852B ahead of a possible IPO. The company says it’s generating $2B in revenue per month, compared to $1B per quarter in 2024.
Rough landing: Allbirds, once valued at $4B, sold its assets to American Exchange Group for $39m. While its shoes were popular, attempts at diversification — including workout gear, underwear, and other types of shoes — failed to take off.
Outer space arms race: A flexible robotic arm developed by China’s Sustain Space could one day remove space debris and enable satellite servicing and refueling.
AI did take a writer’s job… just not in the way we predicted. The New York Times cut ties with a freelance journalist after discovering he used AI — which borrowed closely from another publication’s work — to write a book review.

FROM OUR FRIENDS AT MINDSTREAM

The company building a digital twin of your body

It’s not the stuff of sci-fi — New York-based startup Mantis Biotech is building digital twins of human bodies.

Don’t worry, though, it’s for a good cause: The startup says these twins could be used to test procedures, train surgical bots, and predict future medical problems.

👉 Read more on Mindstream.

THE BIG IDEA

(Image: e.e.r.s)

When you need answers, this startup can help

Kyiana Williams is the founder and CEO of e.e.r.s, a multilingual chatbot that provides official info in the event of a crisis. And for Williams, it’s a personal mission.

Williams’ family home burned in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. First forced to evacuate, her family then had to navigate how to relocate, recover, and rebuild.

That information can already be confusing and difficult to parse, but Williams also learned that bad actors were soliciting sensitive info from victims under the guise of assistance programs, exposing them to identity theft and fraud.

“My goal for e.e.r.s is to make sure that when you have questions, that they get answered by a source that you can trust,” she told The Hustle.

It didn’t start that way

Williams initially founded entertwine, a platform to connect aspiring filmmakers to opportunities, but people often remarked that its recommendation engine could be used for something “bigger.”

The company first looked at 988, the national suicide prevention hotline. Finding that overwhelmed workers often fielded calls from different states, they developed a platform that could source relevant resources.

Williams describes e.e.r.s as a “slight pivot,” as it’s always been about connecting people with what they need.

How it works

Municipalities — federal, state, county, or city — can integrate e.e.r.s. with their existing platforms or websites.
Residents can chat or text with e.e.r.s. like they would any other chatbot and receive conversational answers in 140 different languages. For example, someone could ask for help finding an open shelter, transportation, or financial aid programs.
As municipalities provide e.e.r.s. with info, it never sources the broader internet. If a question is beyond its scope, it will either redirect the user or decline to answer.

What’s next?

E.e.r.s is actively seeking municipalities open to piloting the software, and working to find ways to communicate when WiFi isn’t an option.

While e.e.r.s’ main goal is to help in and after emergencies, the platform could also be used to help residents prep for disasters (e.g., “What do I need in an earthquake kit?”) or even answer general questions (e.g., “Where can I drop off my compost?”).

Williams also noted an added ROI for cities: If residents had one reliable place to ask questions, they’d be less likely to call 911 or other emergency departments for non-emergency questions.

🔗

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

“Said no prospect ever.” Here’s how those four simple words could change your writing forever.

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How much of the time scientists’ jokes actually land, according to a recently published survey, which analyzed 500+ science conference presentations over two years to determine that the folks charged with curing cancer and saving the Earth — well, they aren’t very funny. While 40% of presenters avoided humor altogether, 66% of those who did try were met with either “polite chuckles or straight-up dead silence,” per TechCrunch.

We’d say formulating a joke isn’t rocket science, but that might be exactly why the brainy bunch can’t crack the code on comedy.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered.

🛰️ That’s cool: A map of Starlink satellites.

📰 Newsletter: Tactics offers one practical AI tactic every Saturday, with three ways to use it.

🍄 Game: Mario, in CSS.

🐶 Aww: So brave.

SHOWER THOUGHT

It must suck to be born with six fingers nowadays. Everyone will think every picture of you is AI generated. SOURCE

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Editing by: Sara "Sounding the alarm" Friedman.

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