TIKTOK US TAKES A STEP TOWARD SUPER APP STATUS

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover TikTok Go. It’s a new feature for TikTok US users that taps directly into creators’ content, allowing users to book hotels, vacations, and experiences showcased in videos without leaving the app. It feels like a natural extension of its discovery model, and with eCommerce already in the bag, it’s another step toward becoming a “super app”. We also have news Disney is reportedly launching their own super app, a huge fine for Apple for breaking AI promises, the extent of Airbnb’s reliance on AI, and plenty more, including the latest from us at 3Advance!

🎬 Our Top Take

📱🏝️ TikTok – New “Go” Feature Moves It Into Super App Territory

Everyone wants to be a super app – Uber is doing it, X keeps saying it will do it soon, and even Disney (see our other stories below) has designs on it. TikTok’s new (US) owners seem to feel the same. They’ve launched TikTok Go, a feature that allows you to use the platform as a booking service for hotels, attractions, and other experiences. The booking system isn’t just static, either; it is based on the videos you are watching, so you’re able to book based on what your favorite influencer is showing you. It has been made possible by multiple partnerships, including Booking.com, Expedia, Trips.com, and more. This is not TikTok’s first attempt at becoming more than just a social scroller – TikTok Shop already exists for eCommerce – but now goes well beyond merch, being directly integrated with creators’ content. Moreover, it serves two important purposes for TikTok’s nascent US ownership: it keeps people in the app and provides an additional revenue stream for the platform. #TikTok Go Read more here.  

📲 App of the Week: Waddle

It’s been a while since we recommended a Vision Pro app, but Waddle has been catching the eye in what is, admittedly, a difficult marketplace for Apple. Waddle is a kind of Google Maps Street View reimagined for the Vision Pro: Type an address, such as 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France 🗼, and you are transported there, albeit virtually. Now, there is a stipulation to be aware of, as this app still has a few teething issues and could ‘flow’ a little better to sell the idea you are truly somewhere else, but we agree with one reviewer, who claimed the idea was exciting and that it was a “good start”. Check it out for Vision Pro here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 60% & 40%

📈📉 Airbnb – Platform Leans on AI for Customer Service & Code

Airbnb claims that 60% of the new code written across Q1 2026 was created by AI. As part of its earnings call, CEO Brian Chesky spoke passionately about how AI was permeating the business, including on the property-lettings side, as AI provides integration solutions with property owners who may manage those properties using different software platforms. And another tidbit – Up to 40% of customer queries are now handled using AI without the need to escalate to a human customer service operator. That’s up 7% from the previous quarter. #AIBnB Read more here. 

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Shift hit a big milestone today, and this one's extra special – 5,000 registered users! Shift connects Irish people and culture lovers around the world: events (from Irish trad to Irish metal, and sometimes, even a fusion of both!), the best pints nearby, community – all of it. The momentum is real, and it's only getting started. Download it here and be part of it. ☘️

MUSIC STREAMING PLATFORMS FACE BATTLE AGAINST THE BOTS

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover Spotify’s move to (finally) provide verification badges for human artists on the platform. It comes after users offer a chorus of disapproval for the volume of AI-generated music (including a lot of slop) permeating music streaming algorithms. Is a badge enough to fix the issue, though? We have news on the closure of Ask.com, marking the end of the 90s internet legend. We also have a look at the “Dumphone” app for our App of the Week, and we marvel at just how much Greg Brockman is worth due to OpenAI. We’ll also bring you the latest from the team at 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Streaming – Music Fans Demand Transparency on AI-Generated Tunes

A question for our readers: Would you still enjoy a pop song if you knew it was generated by AI? For many, the answer seems to be no. And you can understand why. Take Dolly Parton’s Jolene, for example. Is it not all the more powerful when you know Dolly’s jealousy and anger are based on real-life marriage struggles? The heart-wrenching Tears In Heaven is doubly poignant when you learn Eric Clapton wrote it after the death of his infant son. We could go on, but you get the idea. Yet, as AI-generated music starts to infuse streaming algorithms, users want – at the very least – to have the choice of listening to AI content or not. Deezer has an AI filter button, but Spotify and YouTube Music do not, causing some criticism. Spotify has acted this week, though, bringing in a new verification badge to show you that an artist is human. AI slop has become a huge issue – almost half (44%) of new tracks on some streaming platforms are AI-generated - so it’s not clear whether this alone will solve it, but it’s evidence, at least, that Spotify understands there is a problem to address in the first place. None of this means to say that AI music is inherently bad, nor that it should not have a place on streaming platforms. But as with social media, users want transparency, and they are frustrated with platform operators’ attempts to deliver it. #AITunes Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Dumbphone Homescreen

“Dumbphones” are all the rage now among Gen-Z, as it seems that young adults are doing a better job than the rest of us at tackling their screentime habits. A Dumbphone is basically a smartphone without the smarts, i.e., stripped back to the necessities. Dumbphone Homescreen is an application that aspires to do the same, leaving you with the bare bones, such as messages and a clock on your home screen. It works a little bit like Brick without the need for a physical device, though it adds friction rather than outright blocking. There is a paid version and a free version, but the latter works just as well in our view. Check it out here for Android and here for iOS. 

🧐 Stat of the Week: 67%

📈📉 AI – Models Trump Human Doctors in Harvard Study

It’s just one study, so we shouldn’t get carried away, but an experiment led by Harvard Medical School found that AI, under certain tests, could be more accurate in diagnoses than human physicians when presented with the same information. The humans were accurate 50% and 55% of the time, whereas the (OpenAI) models were exact or very close in 67% of cases. #ModelDoctors Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

One of our favorite builds just got a big refresh. Footsteps with Jesus – the app that connects faith and fitness by letting you virtually walk the path of Jesus using your phone's or watch's step counter – is back with a brand-new version on iOS and Android. We've been with founder Dan from the very start, and it's been a real labor of love. The new build is cleaner, more beautiful, and comes with 30 days completely free – no credit card, no strings. After that, the full journey is a one-time $2.99. No subscription, no catch. If you've been meaning to check it out, now's the time. Download on iOS or Android.

THE BATTLE BETWEEN SAM AND ELON GOES TO COURT

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the latest chapter in the Elon Musk and Sam Altman tragi-comedy, which sees the former suing the latter and OpenAI for up to $150 billion. The public spat between the pair has been unprecedented in its pettiness, but the court case starts today and could rock the AI sector. We also have news on the massive leap in successful social media scams in the US, and Google going big on Anthropic investments. China is blocking a Meta acquisition, and all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🥊🤖 The Battle – Musk and Altman’s Enmity Goes to the Courts

You’ve probably seen social media posts and press reports of Elon Musk and Sam Altman sniping at each other over the past few years. Just yesterday, for example, Musk tweeted, “Scam Altman.” Well, today, things officially get serious as Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman, and others, including Microsoft, goes before the courts. The first thing to say is that it isn’t frivolous, even if the $150 billion that Musk is demanding seems astronomical. But what’s it all about? Musk is arguing that OpenAI, which he co-founded and helped fund, was intended to be a non-profit for the “good of humanity”, basically a counterweight to the for-profit AI labs being developed at the time by companies like Google. Once OpenAI went commercial, including its partnership with Microsoft, Musk argues, that was akin to reneging on the deal that got him involved in the first place. Altman’s argument is, for want of better phrasing, that Musk is lying and knew full well that OpenAI would need to be commercial to survive. We don’t know how this is going to go, but the consensus is that if Musk wins – and it is possible – this could be massively disruptive for OpenAI, not to mention the structures of AI governance. We are well accustomed to Big Tech court cases rumbling on forever, launching appeal after appeal, but this time it’s two tech titans going head-to-head. The repercussions could be massive. #MuskVsAltman Read more here. 

📲 App of the Week: Google

No. We are not trying to sell you the idea that Google is something new and exciting. However, we wanted to highlight it this week for a very cute new feature that Google announced at the Search On event 2026 – Hum to Search. Simply open the Google App or Search Widget on your phone, tap the mic icon, and say, “What’s this song?” and start humming that earworm that has been stuck in your head but for which you can’t quite remember the words or title. It works remarkably well. You’ll need the latest version of the Google App, which you can find here for Android or here for iOS. If, as is likely, you already have it, simply update it on your phone.   

🧐 Stat of the Week: $2.1B

📈📉 Social Media – FTC Reveals 8-Fold Rise in Scams and Fraud

We all know that scams can appear on socials, but it seems that they are getting craftier. The FTC has revealed that Americans lost over $2 billion to social-media scams last year alone, representing an eightfold rise. The biggest culprit? It was Facebook by a large margin, followed by other Meta brands like WhatsApp and Instagram. Is it time to have a serious conversation about accountability? #SocialScams Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We've been continuing our work with Jeffery Bradley on Self Speak – the affirmation app that lets you reprogram your mind in your own voice. Record a quick sample, and the app clones your tone, pitch, and pace so every daily affirmation comes back to you sounding like you. Our latest updates make it smoother and more personal – smarter affirmations, new subscription options, and onboarding built around habit-building. Because the most powerful voice in your life is your own. Try it on the App Store or Google Play.

SALESFORCE SAYS SAAS TIME IS UP

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the massively ambitious AI agentic transformation at Salesforce, and how it speaks to the traditional SaaS model. We also have news on Tim Cook’s successor at Apple, how a shoe company pivoted to AI, the new video app promising trustworthy news, and a potential rival to Figma and Canva in the shape of Claude Design.

🎬 Our Top Take

🤝🥷 Salesforce Takes a Bow and Goes “Headless”

The world’s leading CRM, Salesforce is the epitome of SaaS, having built its massive business on a model that charges “per seat” for access to its tools. Love it or hate it, Salesforce is at the heart of so many businesses, big and small. Here at 3Advance, we know all about using Salesforce as a “headless” datastore — in essence, replacing the Salesforce interface with a custom-designed more human friendly interface. Here’s the thing though: This new Salesforce shift suggests there’s a future with no interface at all. In the agentic era that’s unfolding, it’s expected that agents will be deployed to complete the same work, without an interface, without a browser, and without a human. This means that Salesforce will sell less seats, and need a new approach for maintaining revenue. Enter “Headless 360” with 100 new tools that are firmly developer-focused, putting every capability of its platform more easily accessible via API and MCP (well, we did say “developer-focused”). Salesforce has been working on this initiative for the past 2.5 years, and they’re meeting the pending storm head-on. It remains to be seen how future revenue will match what was possible up till now, and what seats those human workers will find elsewhere. #NoSeats Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: SaySo

SaySo has the tagline “Be Confident in Your Content”. That “content” is news and views, and the reason it wants you to be confident is that it is vetted and sourced from reputable reporters and content creators. In essence, it’s a short-form video platform – a bit like TikTok and YouTube – but it’s also positioned as anti-social media, aiming to eliminate doomscrolling, spam, AI slop, clickbait, ragebait, and misinformation. A big ask, yes, but everything posted on SaySo goes through a moderation process (both AI and human). SaySo is now available in the US after a long period of private testing. They are being careful with this because they have big hopes. Check it out here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 44%

📈📉 44% of New Music On Deezer is AI

🎸Music platform Deezer says that 44% of all new uploads are now AI-generated songs. That’s a whole lotta bot. Around 2M tracks per month, in fact. We expect the other music streaming platforms are similar, and it’s only going to increase. Right now, though, AI only represents about 1-3% of total music streams and is demonetized. Find out more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Despite predictions of doom, AI isn't killing apps. For now, at least, it’s the opposite. A report on app store activity shows that new app releases are up 60% year-over-year – and up 104% so far this month alone. AI, notably vibe coding, has lowered the barrier to entry and set off a wave of first-time builders shipping their ideas. It’s unlocking creativity at a record pace, and allowing founders to validate (or invalidate) their ideas in record time. It’s a timely reminder after our announcement last week of relaunching 30 for 30 – 30 days, $30K, one shippable V1 product, and a plan for growth and scalability. Yes, AI’s made it easier to build apps, but we’re still in the business of building businesses.

More people than ever are turning their ideas into reality, so get in touch for a free consultation on how to take yours from 0 → 1, and then make it profitable.

META IS PROJECTED TO SOON EXCEED GOOGLE’S AD REVENUE

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we discuss the news that Meta is projected to overtake Google in ad revenue. An incredible achievement, but does all this ad money mean we overlook Mark Zuckerberg’s expensive mistakes and vanity projects? We also have news on Apple’s impending launch of smart glasses, OpenAI’s latest acquisition, Nikita Bier’s promise to drive down clickbait on X, and lots more!

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Meta – Company Projected to Exceed Google in Ad Revenue for First Time

It remains one of the most salient facts in the tech industry that, despite its extraordinary influence in the lives of billions of people globally, Meta remains, at heart, an advertising company. Even in this era, where it has seen some success with its VR gaming gadgets and Ray-Ban smartglasses, approximately 99% of its massive income comes from advertising. Now, it has reached – or, at least, is predicted to reach – an important milestone, overtaking Google in ad revenue. It’s a significant passing of the baton between two of the architects of the modern web, yet we continue to find Meta’s dependence on ad revenue intriguing. It has spent (wasted?) SO MUCH money on other projects, not least the multi-billion-dollar disaster of the Metaverse. Right now, it’s splurging billions on AI data centers and tools, the latter of which, hilariously, includes an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg himself, who will interact with and guide Meta’s employees. Meta is probably right to get positioned in the AI race, but it’s hard not to think that investors forgive Zuck for his many vanity projects because he is so darn good at making money from the most annoying ads on the web. #MetaTopsGoogle Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Rash ID

We’ll start this post with a disclaimer: Always consult your doctor after getting healthcare advice from AI. That said, there is a growing number of useful AI tools that can help with basic care and advice, and one that feels particularly useful for peace of mind is Rash ID, which uses AI to analyze photos of skin rashes and provide a diagnosis within minutes. It also comes with a built-in AI dermatologist called MUM. We see it as the type of tool to use when you CAN’T make it to the doctor right away; not your endpoint diagnosis. Again, though, bear in mind that even popular tools like Rash ID can get it wrong. Check it out on iOS here and Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 24K Steps

📈📉 Golf – Green Jacket Winner McIlroy Is All In on Fitness Tech

We hope you enjoyed the thrilling conclusion to the Masters as much as we did, but were you following Rory McIlroy’s every step? Because he certainly was. The 6-time Major winner is actually an investor in Whoop, the fitness band that seems to be en vogue with athletes globally. So, we got plenty of insights on Rory’s ‘journey,’ including his 24,000 steps and his heart rate at the most critical moments. As an aside, we did see a thought-provoking golf-related statistic this week: Namely, that golf courses in the United States use 30X more water per annum than data centers. #RorysStory Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

30 for 30 is back for 2026. The pitch is simple: you’ve got a vibe-coded prototype (or just an idea that won't leave you alone), and we've got a full product team ready to turn it into something real. 30 days, $30k, one proper V1. We've seen what happens when this clicks – and it's pretty fun to watch. If you're sitting on something that's almost there, here's your nudge: 3advance.com/v1 🚀

GOOGLE IS ENDING AN ERA OF EMBARASSING EMAIL ADDRESSES

👀 TLDR

In this Week’s What’s Appening, we cover the cheerful news that Google will allow Gmail addresses to be changed while maintaining your account, meaning you can finally get rid of that embarrassing handle you made in high school. It’s been a quiet week in apps and AI, but we also have news on a new gaming app from Netflix, a big move for Beehiiv, and a record-breaking raise from OpenAI. Plus, we have an old favorite returning for App of the Week!

🎬 Our Top Take

💌🫢 Gmail – You Can Now Change That Embarrassing Email Address

There wasn’t much in the way of earth-shattering news this week (in tech and apps, anyhow) due to the Easter break, but we did stumble upon this good-feel story that feels apt as we ease back into the working week. Gmail is now allowing users in the US to change their email addresses while retaining all their data, meaning you can now drop that embarrassing handle that seemed like a good idea back in the early 2000s. On reflection, you probably weren’t going to get that job with an address like boobinspector87@gmail.com. Anyway, if you do fancy a change to make yourself sound a bit more professional, Google has laid out how to do it in this blog post. #EndOfAnEra Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: The Masters App

We’ve highlighted the official app for The Masters golf tournament a few times down the years, but we have no hesitation in recommending it again this week for four reasons. A) It’s timely, as the tournament gets underway on Thursday. B) It continues to be the gold standard in sports apps. C) The 2026 updates include new Simulcasts and AI features, including English and Spanish commentary generated outside the official network feeds, provided by its partner IBM WATSON. D) It’s free. Get it for iOS here and Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 30,000 Jobs

📈📉 Oracle – Mass Layoffs Announced Through 6am Staff Email

We have seen plenty of Big Tech layoffs en masse this year so far, but none have had as much of a backlash as Oracle, which hit an estimated 30,000 employees with an early morning email, saying, “Today is your last day.” The reason is, like the others, AI investments, but the insouciance of the email – a disgruntled employee published it, and it went viral – really hit a nerve. #OracleEmail Read more here. 

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Today is National Beer Day, and if that's not a reason to knock off a little early, we don't know what is. Wherever you're planning to celebrate, Shift can help you find the best spot nearby – whether that's a hidden gem local pub or somewhere with a seriously good Guinness on tap. So download Shift and let it do the hard work of finding your perfect pint. Enjoy this “holiday” responsibly!

TIME TO BREAK THE HABIT?

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the landmark trial that saw social media companies pay a young woman millions of dollars in damages for negligence leading to social media addiction. The case is being treated as a huge bellwether, and it may open the floodgates for more lawsuits and big regulatory changes. We also salute Apple on its 50th birthday this week, and we take a look at the app trying to price every pint in Ireland. We have the latest on the Sora shutdown, the backlash against Bluesky’s new AI app, and more!

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Social Media – Addiction Trial Victory Could Open Floodgates

If we had a dollar for every time a Big Tech company faced the courts in an important lawsuit….but last week felt a little different. In this case, it was Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google (YouTube) up against a young woman, known as Kaley, seeking damages for social media addiction. Reader, Kaley won, receiving millions in compensation as the companies were found to be negligent. The thing is: this case was not frivolous, and Meta and Google threw everything at the defense, but the jury voted 10-2 in favor of Kaley, shining a light on the tactics used to hook us to those platforms. The case gained international attention as a bellwether trial, and now we can expect more lawsuits to be brought forward. To us, it feels like the crest of a bigger wave, coupled with the bans and looming bans for minors (Australia, France, Spain, the UK) that will irrevocably change social media. We’ve seen Wednesday’s decision described as being on a par with the landmark wins in the Big Tobacco trials of the 1990s. It remains to be seen whether it will be that significant, but it's on the right track. #SocialNightmare Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: The Guinndex

Inflation is on everyone’s minds right now, and while you may be looking at the price of gas at the pump, many of us look at the price of a pint. Such was the thinking behind The Guinndex, a platform that aims to list the price of a pint of Guinness in every pub in Ireland – think of it like GasBuddy for creamy pints of stout. Anyway, what caught our attention – beyond its use case and similar mission statement to our own work with Shift – was the fact that many of the prices were sourced using an AI agent called “Rachel”. Rachel, complete with her friendly Northern Irish accent. was able to call thousands of the pubs to get much of the data. You can check out the Guinndex right here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $1B PER DAY

📈📉 Sora – OpenAI Shutters App and Ends Disney Deal

Hmmm, probably not great news for OpenAI. It has decided to shut down the standalone Sora app, though it will be integrated into other products like ChatGPT. Still, the move has ended the intellectual property deal with Disney. We can’t verify the reports exactly, but there were some estimates that Sora was costing OpenAI up to $1 billion per day. That’s a high cost for what is, very often, slop. #SeeYaSora Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

Apple – World Reflects on 50 Years Since Its Founding

We couldn’t put the newsletter out today without special mention of Apple’s 50th birthday tomorrow. April 1st, 1976, saw its founding by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and the lesser-known Ronald Wayne. And well, you know the rest: 3 billion iPhones, millions of Macs and iPads, the iPod, Watch, AirPods (including those you lost while out running), and so many life-changing apps. It’s difficult to think of a more consequential company in the 21st century. Happy Birthday, Apple. It’s been quite the ride.

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

When a widely used software building block is compromised, it can quietly affect thousands of apps at once – without anyone ever touching those apps directly. 3Advance CPTO, Darren Gibney, broke down a recent high-profile example and what it means for development teams moving fast in the AI era. Check out Darren's post here.

JENSEN’S AGI CLAIMS ARE GREETED WITH SKEPTICISM

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the bold claim from Jensen Huang that AGI has been “achieved”. It’s a big statement, but it is also one that has been roundly dismissed as untrue. The consensus is that we just aren’t there yet. We also have news on an OpenAI hiring spree, despite all those AI-related layoffs. Apple has set a date for WWDC 2026, and publishers are enraged at Google’s headline shenanigans. We also have our regular Stat of the Week, App of the Week, and all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🤖🤔 NVIDIA – Jensen Huang Claims Artificial General Intelligence “Achieved”

For the past few years, there have been several predictions of when AGI – Artificial General Intelligence, i.e., the tipping point where AI surpasses humans – would be achieved. Some said it was a few years away, others claim it is simply impossible. Yet, on a random Monday on a podcast, NVIDIA boss Jensen Huang dropped the bombshell that, “I think we’ve achieved AGI.” You might think this would be headline news, after all, AGI has been the holy grail pursued by the AI industry, yet it has barely made a ripple. Why? Well, the word “think” might be a clue. That, and it was met by skepticism from the media, other AI companies and experts, who probably have somewhat different metrics and incentives for judging it. If you want to decide for yourself, you can find both the audio and written transcript of the podcast here (it’s hosted by Lex Fridman, btw). Anyway, without passing judgment, we want to leave you with a final thought on this: there is a growing consensus that when the likes of Huang, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg make these bold statements on AI, they are not talking to the podcast host or reporter, nor the wider tech community; they are talking to Wall Street. #AGNigh Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Meet5

“This is not a dating app”, Meet5 states clearly on its website terms and conditions. But what is it? Well, it’s a European app, for one, but its recent launch in the US has seen almost one million downloads. Meet5 is one of several group activity apps that have become hugely popular recently. The idea is simple: connect with people with similar interests in your region – food, concerts, hiking, etc. – then use the app to get together. You have to be over 40 to use it, but as with rivals like Meetup, TimeLeft and of course Shift, the demand for dating apps that aren’t just dating apps is rising. Meet5 is free to download, but premium features are behind a paywall. Find it here for iPhone and here for Android.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 20 Years

📈📉 Twitter/X – Users Reflect After Anniversary of First Tweet

Twitter is 20, though it’s almost unrecognizable from the day when Jack Dorsey sent out “just setting up my twttr” as the first-ever Tweet. Someone bought that tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million - spoiler: it’s not worth that today. Anyway, the anniversary has prompted a lot of reflection on the platform, looking at both how Twitter became X and how society has changed in general. #BirthdayTweet Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Yesterday was National Puppy Day here in the US, but it’s some European pups that are about to benefit most. The cuddliest app we’ve ever made is due to go live this week in Germany! The app was primarily targeted at the European market, so it’s exciting we’ve been given the green light to launch. If you haven’t checked it out yet, maybe it’s time. 🐾

META DIVESTS FROM PEOPLE TO INVEST IN AI

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover Meta’s (reported) decision to lay off around 20% of its employees, with the money saved going into AI. It is, of course, not surprising, but should we be greeting these AI-induced layoffs with a little more than a shrug? We also report on how Elon Musk says he is going to start over with xAI, the Washington Post’s algorithmic pricing, Buzzfeed nearing bankruptcy, and Google Maps big upgrade. Oh, and as it’s St Patrick’s Day, we are highlighting Shift - the Global Network for the Irish ☘️

🎬 Our Top Take

🚷🤖 Meta – Report Says 20% of Global Workforce Will Be Laid-Off

A few weeks back, we reported on Jack Dorsey’s Block laying off large swaths of its staff, noting that investors loved the idea. But today, it’s Meta.  A Reuters report, which Meta has confirmed by not denying, has said the social media giant will lay off around 20% of its employees. The money saved will go into AI development and data centers. And yes, once again, investors loved the idea. Yet this feels different to us: Block is a nimble, fintech-focused company, Meta is one of the world’s most valuable and recognizable companies. It’s a global behemoth. To divest in people in order to funnel that money into AI at such a scale feels, well, unprecedented. Shouldn’t the alarm bells be ringing a little louder? Perhaps, but what we get from perusing both tech- and business-focused media about the story is a sense of inevitability, as if we expect this to be the norm. Indeed, the reaction from Wall Street seems to be that it is not only acceptable, but also welcome. We might be looking back one day soon and feeling quite uneasy with that sentiment. #MetaOff Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Shift

It is, if you weren’t aware, St Patrick’s Day, obviously a big day here at 3Advance, given our Irish roots. It’s also a huge day for our partner, Shift. We’ve been working tirelessly to build the app for the global Irish (and culturally Irish) for two years, and we are thrilled to see it out in the wild and in the hands of users in America, Ireland and beyond. So whether you’re looking for the best Irish pubs in your city, to find Irish artists and events, or a little romance through Shift Dating, we’d recommend you download Shift – we can’t think of a better day to do it. We are immensely proud of the app, and the best thing is: there’s so much more to come. Get Shift right here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 20 Million

📈📉 Bitcoin – Milestone Hit as 20 Millionth Token Is Mined

Whatever you think of Bitcoin, it’s hard to deny that it’s been quite the ride. From a side project for computer ‘geeks’ all the way to BlackRock’s balance sheet, it’s been unlike anything in financial history. This week marked the mining of 20 million Bitcoins, meaning there are just one million to go. But don’t worry, the rate of Bitcoin issuance means it’ll be well over 100 years until we reach the final token at 21 million. #Milestone Read more here. 

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Happy St Patrick’s Day from Paul, Darren, and the 3Advance team ☘️ You may have noticed today’s App of the Week is Shift – and there is no better day to download it. After two years of building it, it’s been good fun seeing it in action this week. So get out there – and maybe let Shift guide the way.

AN AI JOBS REPORT BY ANTHROPIC HAS CAUSED DEBATE

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the debate over AI taking jobs in certain sectors. Social media has been ablaze all week after a model by Anthropic suggested some jobs were highly likely to be replaced by AI, but should we be concerned over what remains a theory? We also have news on Meta scooping up Moltbook, an app that can tell you when people wearing smart glasses are nearby, how Ben Affleck sold his AI company to Netflix, and much more.

🎬 Our Top Take

🤖👷🏼‍♀️ AI Jobs – Anthropic Study Leads to Debate On Impact 

Now and again, it’s AI talking points that go viral. This week, it was Anthropic’s study on AI replacement in the workplace, which modeled how jobs across various industries could be impacted by the technology. The image below was widely shared on socials, clearly showing that sectors in areas like hospitality, construction, and transport would be much less impacted than law, computing, and finance.

The study and the compelling image made for some sensationalist takes, which is unsurprising, but we’re trying to look more pragmatically. For a start, this is just one study by an AI firm (with skin in the game, don’t forget), and you can see by the red and blue areas on the chart that much of this remains firmly theoretical. There are also notable omissions, and they’ve grouped arts and media together, for example. But what can we gather from this? Well, if you sit down at a desk to do your work, your job’s going to change if it hasn’t already. If not, you’ve got more time. Well, until Elon Musk’s robots arrive. Inside the tech bubble, AI has taken us by storm, as the chart suggests. We expect AI Agent usage will skyrocket in unregulated industries. At 3Advance, we’re experiencing this in real time. Agents identify bugs and draft new features in our codebase. That doesn’t mean humans disappear. People will adapt, and companies need to stay competitive, with people and robots. Hopefully. #AIJobs Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Nearby Glasses

Smart glasses have become all the rage, almost cool again, thanks to Meta’s partnership with Ray-Ban. Yet, here’s the thing: We all know that some people will use the glasses to be creepy by, for example, recording us (particularly women; let’s face it) without our permission. The remedy might come in the form of apps like Nearby Glasses, which can detect specific Bluetooth signals emitted by the smart specs. Now, we have to tell you that Nearby Glasses is still a work in progress ahead of a broader launch, but an Android app is available here. iOS should follow soon. It feels like a necessary idea.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 800m Accounts

📈📉 X – 800 Million State Manipulation Accounts Removed in a Year

As war rages across the Middle East, it’s worth remembering that regimes put social media at the heart of their efforts to manipulate and spread misinformation. It feels timely, then, that X has told a panel of British MPs about the scale of the issue, removing 800 million accounts – mainly from Russia, China, and Iran – in just 12 months. The scale is staggering, especially when you factor in that X’s real number of MAUs is judged to be around 300 million. #Removals Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

St. Patrick’s Day is one week away, and celebrations are already kicking off this weekend. Darren and Paul wanted to wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick’s Day, wherever in the world you may be celebrating. If you need a little help figuring out the best spots or events nearby, Shift has you covered. Shift was built to connect Irish people (and people who love Irish culture), so this is a really big one. From finding the nearest pubs and events to discovering where the best Guinness is being poured, it’s all there. So if you’re heading out this weekend or on the big day itself, download the Shift app, immerse yourself in the community, and enjoy. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! ☘️

#QUITGPT TRENDS AFTER SAM ALTMAN’S PERCEIVED “BETRAYAL”

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the spectacular fallout between the Department of Defense/War and Anthropic, as well as the backlash against OpenAI for taking the latter’s place. It’s seen Claude reach the top of the App Store as users leave OpenAI in their droves. A PR disaster for OpenAI? We also look at Jack Dorsey’s huge wave of layoffs at Block, new hardware from Apple, the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal, and we have a fishy tale to tell in our App of the Week.

Finally, make sure to check out the latest from the frontlines of AI (down below) and don’t forget to follow 3A’s CPTO Darren Gibney on LinkedIn.

🎬 Our Top Take

🤖🥊 Anthropic – Claude Downloads Surge Amid OpenAI DoW Backlash

We mentioned a few weeks ago that Anthropic was having a breakdown in relations with the newly named US Department of War. The details of the row are complex, but we can broadly say the following: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reportedly refused to allow its AI systems, including Claude, to be used for weapons of war and for the mass surveillance of US citizens. This prompted criticism from Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth and the White House, but notably, other AI leaders, including Sam Altman, supported Amodei’s firm stance. In the end, the DoW and the Trump Administration jettisoned Anthropic as its AI partner, replacing it with, you guessed it, OpenAI. That has caused a huge furor, with much criticism of Altman’s volte-face, from praising Amodei one moment to signing up OpenAI to replace Anthropic the next. If that all sounds a bit gossipy for What’s Appening, then we can state some of the real-life consequences: Altman sensed the fallout and scrambled to explain that OpenAI’s deal with the DoW was markedly different, but this was greeted skeptically by many. The upshot? ChatGPT uninstalls are up almost 300%, and reports indicate OpenAI is losing many paid subscribers as the “QuitGPT” movement gains steam. As for Anthropic, Claude has rocketed to the no.1 spot in the App Store. We’ll have to see how the dust settles on this, but right now it’s Anthropic as the near-term winner, whereas OpenAI is arguably managing the biggest PR headache in its history. Just a few hours ago, OpenAI announced it had changed the terms of the deal with the Pentagon, but the reputational damage may already be done. #AIWar Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Fish Doorbell

Not an app, as such, more of a quirky online activity that quietly suggests there is hope for humanity, even in these darkest of times. Fish Doorbell is an online platform that allows users to view live underwater camera feeds of the Oudegracht River in Utrecht, Netherlands. The river has a lock (in the river barrier sense), and when you see a fish, you can press the fish doorbell, which sends a message to the lockkeeper, who will open the gate and allow the fish to swim through, allowing them to reach their spawning grounds and do whatever fish do once they reach their destination. The project has had over 2.7 million users worldwide. It’s strangely addictive, and the platform also offers a host of fishy learning activities. You can find out more – and ring a fish doorbell for yourself – here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 4K Jobs

📈📉 Block – Jack Dorsey Sheds 40% of Employees in AI Gambit

We know that seeing firms cutting employee numbers due to AI productivity gains has become quite common, but Jack Dorsey’s Block (parent of Square and Cash App) turned heads when sacking almost half of its workforce in one fell swoop. Wall Street loved it, sending Block’s stock into orbit amid Dorsey’s claims that the company would become much more profitable. Those downbeat on AI causing massive job losses in the future were, understandably, quite critical of the move. To be fair to the former Twitter boss, Dorsey reportedly gave each of the 4,000 employees generous severance packages. #AIJobs Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3A: From the frontlines of AI.

3Advance CPTO Darren Gibney has been unleashing his latest learnings on AI, and how it’s impacting the product development landscape. His posts speak to the entrepreneurs, the creatives and the builders of digital products in this new age Darren will continue posting on LinkedIn, and we’ll continue to share his insights here. Check out his latest nugget. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it…

AI AGENTS ARE HIRIING - HUMANS

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the rise of RentAHuman, the hiring platform that gives human workers gigs on behalf of AI agent ‘bosses’. A glimpse of a dystopian future? Or is it simply a natural evolution of the gig economy in the age of AI? We also have news on how Clawdbot had a Meta researcher in a tizzy, it’s all change at the top of Xbox, and Meta is releasing a new smartwatch. We will also bring you up to speed with the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 AI – RentAHuman Puts New Spin on AI Taking Our Jobs

It is often the riposte to the doomer assertion that AI will take our jobs that AI will inevitably create new types of jobs, but what about working directly ‘for’ AI? That’s somewhere near the premise of RentAHuman, a hiring platform that advertises for humans to act on behalf of AI agents. As you might expect, the roles are those that AI can’t perform (yet) – like delivering a package or signing a document. The platform has seen rapid success – over 500,000 humans are now offering their services – and caused almost philosophical debates over what it means for the future and our relationships with AI agents. Of course, while the media spin on this is that these gig workers have AI as their boss, we know that the AI agents are deployed on behalf of human-owned companies, so the machines are in a kind of middle-management role. So not quite Skynet yet, but perhaps a taste of the new gig economy that leans more heavily on AI. #HumansForRent Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Particle

There’s no end to AI tools that will summarize information for you, but Particle AI has carved out a strong niche for itself in the personalized news aggregation space. As that suggests, Particle, which was launched in 2024 by ex-Twitter staff, can create a curated personal news feed of your interests from a variety of sources across the web. But it has drawn our eye due to a new feature, Podcast Clips, which, as the name suggests, can search your favorite podcasts to create mini-clips of stuff that you might be interested in listening to. You can find Particle for iPhone here and Android here. It’s free, but in-app purchases are pushed for premium features.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 80%

📈📉 AI – Major Study of Productivity Gains Disappoints (For Now)

You gotta break eggs to make an omelet, right? That’s more or less the conclusion of a massive study conducted with 6,000 executives to get a handle on AI tools and their impact on enterprise productivity. The upshot? Four in five business leaders claimed the introduction of AI tools led to zero productivity gains. That said, the survey also highlighted that many of those executives believed the gains would come. #ProductivityPain Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We technically missed National Love Your Pet Day (Feb 20)… but, truly, every day qualifies around here. Our Slack threads love a dog photo, and Zoom calls sometimes include surprise cameos. Which makes it especially fun that we’ve had the chance to build something like LifePlus Pets. If you’ve ever wanted to get healthier with your pet, it’s a really special one. The app blends fitness, dog training, and stress relief into one seamless experience – so you can track your walks, strengthen your bond with guided training exercises, and hit your wellness goals together. Download it now for iOS or Android and see how small steps with your pup can lead to big health wins! 🐕‍🦺 

ANTHROPIC’S LOSS IS OPENAI’S GAIN

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the whirlwind romance and breakup between OpenClaw and Anthropic, which led the former into the gleeful arms of Sam Altman. We also cover Anthropic’s feud with the Pentagon, Apple’s Special Event, Meta’s plans to have you posting from beyond the grave, and all the latest from the team at 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🦞🤖 OpenClaw – Anthropic Drops the Ball As OpenAI Scores

Over the past few weeks, OpenClaw has been very much the talk of the town, or if not the town, the agentic web. It’s a free and open-source AI agent, which was one of the main toolkits used to create agents for Moltbook, which we reported on a few weeks back. Nonetheless, OpenClaw itself was largely powered by Anthropic’s Claude. It looked like a mutually beneficial relationship: OpenClaw gained access to Claude’s ‘brain,’ while Anthropic earned the dollars from the viral OpenClaw driving Claude's API usage. Yet, Anthropic decided to test the relationship, even suggesting brand confusion/trademark infringement (Clawd/Claude sounds a little similar, right?). This threat of legal action caused OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger to blink, and he jumped right into the arms of OpenAI, bringing OpenClaw with him. Thus, in a matter of days, Anthropic lost a viral tool that was largely running on Claude, and Steinberger is now employed by OpenAI to head its drive into AI agents within the Codex team. It feels like a big miss from Anthropic. OpenClaw has proven a sensation because it allows anyone to create personal AI agents and run them locally on their own PC. But while OpenAI will benefit from OpenClaw as it is today, the real coup might be getting Steinberger into the team. Sam Altman described him as a “genius,” and many who know him seem to agree. #ClawdVClaude Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: WYZR Friends

Dating Apps are facing a reckoning, losing users as many claim burnout. It has caused some to believe a better way to find online connections is through hobby apps that allow you to meet people through shared passions. We’d put the Shift app in that bracket as it allows people to connect based on a love of Irish culture, but this week we wanted to highlight WYZR, which is a free app designed to connect the over-40s through activities based on shared interests – from hiking to book clubs. WYZR has been around for a couple of years now, but it's growing into an all-in-one app for friendship/dating, even adding carpooling features. You can check it out here for iOS and here for Android.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 80B Searches

📈📉 Pinterest – CEO Comes Out Swinging Despite Poor Financial Results

Pinterest has more monthly searches (80B) than ChatGPT (75B). That salient point was made by CEO Bill Ready when explaining away particularly poor quarterly results, but do those numbers matter? Pinterest is an intriguing case of a company that has difficulty turning a vast user base – MAUs: 619 million – into profit. Why? Because people use it as a planning tool rather than an endpoint for sales. Experts have warned that things might become tougher as AI shopping tools continue to roll out. #Disinterest Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We’ve been evolving how we build. There’s a big difference between a developer prompting in their IDE and designing an entire delivery system around AI. We’re focused on the latter. That means structured product context, specs that actually drive implementation, architectural guardrails, and AI operating inside a disciplined framework – not freehand code generation.

The goal isn’t just faster output, though that’s a nice side effect. It’s building software that improves over time instead of becoming a maintenance burden. Another core tenet is widening participation. With the right structure, PMs, Designers, CEOs, and founders can contribute meaningfully – without creating AI slop.

If you’re interested in how we’re thinking about AI-native delivery, follow Paul and Darren on LinkedIn – we’ll be sharing more as this continues to take shape.

AI COMPANIES SPLASHED THE CASH AT SUPER BOWL LX

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the big push from AI companies to get noticed at the Super Bowl, including the mysterious and super-expensive ad from AI.com that proved to be a bust in more ways than one. We also take a look at an app that could trick you into cutting your screentime, why some users are getting annoyed with YouTube, some happy figures from Spotify, and some discord at Discord. We’ll also bring you the latest from here at 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🏈🤖  Super Bowl – AI Pops and Flops in Adverts Stakes

It is the case – whether we like it or not – that Super Bowl adverts are almost as big a talking point as the game itself. This year, we got a lot of celebrity-endorsed action, from Serena Williams flogging weight-loss jabs to Coinbase’s weird Backstreet Boys karaoke. But AI was the dominant force, as expected, accounting for 23% of ad space. Anthropic alone dropped four separate ads. The AI company that caught our eye, though? AI.com, but not for the right reasons. AI.com came onto our radar a while back, when its CEO, Kris Marszalek, announced that he had purchased the AI.com domain for $70 million – the most expensive in history (they claim). Marszalek founded Crypto.com, so he knows a thing or two about expensive domains. Anyway, AI.com’s provocative $15 million advert was always going to cause a rush to the website to see what all the fuss was about, and it did. And, yes, the website crashed. Marszalek claimed that the site was hitting Google rate limits because so many people were trying to “Continue With Google” (so they don’t have to create new login details) to sign up to an AI.com account. Seems plausible. And what, then, does AI.com do? Well, it will – one day – launch personal AI agents. The website has very sparse text, promising something vague but revolutionary (it reads like cryptocurrency-style marketing to us). Already, publications like PC Mag are raising concerns about the project, calling the fine print “scary”. #AIBowl Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: One Sec

There are a lot of apps out there that can help cut down on screen time, but we are somewhat impressed by One Sec’s psychological trick. In effect, One Sec will cause selected apps – social media apps for most of us – to pause after you click on them to open, giving you a chance to reconsider if you really want to start doomscrolling. It does work, especially if you are one of those people who open social media without thinking. We’d be skeptical of One Sec’s claim that it saves two hours of screen time per day, but every little helps. Get it for iOS here and Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 5 Views

📈📉 YouTube – Non-Paying Users Will Be Limited from Seeing Song Lyrics

On the face of it, this is just a minor story: YouTube Music will limit song lyrics to 5 views, after which you’ll need to upgrade to a paid account. Big deal. Yet, it is just another small thing added to the litany of grievances from users who believe YouTube is getting worse. Indeed, many are calling it the poster child for “enshittification.” From unskippable ads to AI slop, there are entire Reddit threads dedicated to YouTube’s deterioration. It has, of course, a right to upsell its product, but, you know, with $60 billion in ad revenue last year, ‘free’ users are already paying. #BooTube Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Last weekend, Darren and Paul joined the rest of Shift’s founding team in Chicago, Darren’s adopted town. The annual Ireland Network Chicago’s 22nd Annual Ball has become somewhat legendary in recent years. For a city that prides itself on its St Patrick’s Day celebrations, this is the unofficial start to St Paddy’s Day season. While there was no literal green river, there was a river of green dresses, tuxes, and the kind of atmosphere you’d usually find at an Irish Wedding. This was the first event Shift’s been involved with in Chicago, but certainly not the last.

AN AI-ONLY SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK CAUSES A STIR

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we dive into the hysteria over Moltbook, also known as OpenClaw. The Reddit-like AI-only social media network caused quite the stir, but is it truly the sign of the end of all times, as some say, or just a useful testing ground for the agentic web? We also look at the creation of the world’s most valuable private company by a stroke of Elon Musk’s pen, a huge quarter for iPhone, another country banning social media for kids, and all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🤖⛔️ Moltbook – Fame, Fear & Fallacy for AI Social Media

“The most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently.” – OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy. “We’re in the singularity.” – Tech founder Bill Lee, with Elon Musk saying something similar. “Humans are cooked, bro.” – random Reddit user. These are some of the reactions to the emergence of Moltbook, an AI social media network. Moltbook, AKA OpenClaw, is a Reddit-like platform – upvotes, trending posts, threads, etc. - the only difference is that all the users are AI agents. Humans are permitted to observe only. It was launched less than a week ago but gained viral status within hours after stories emerged about the AI agents’ behavior, not least the creation of a new religion. This kind of thing was obviously good fodder for alarmist headlines, but we must say that there was a lot of jumping the gun, mostly because the AI bots are not truly autonomous, as each has an owner who will have prompted it to act in a certain way. Yet while the hysteria may be unwarranted, Moltbook is so much more than a bunch of bots saying weird stuff to each other. If we are to have a true agentic web, we need to see how bots talk to each other and behave in ‘the wild,’ so a Reddit-like platform seems like the perfect laboratory to observe those actions. #SocialAI Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Ring App

A bit of a convoluted one here, because yes, we are talking about the app for Ring, the video doorbell company, but there’s a specific reason we want to highlight it beyond seeing your GrubHub delivery driver walking up to your door. Ring has a feature called “Search Party,” which was previously available only to Ring doorbell users, but it has now been extended to anyone with the Ring app in the US. Search Party’s role is to find lost dogs. So, when a user reports a lost pooch, Search Party uses AI to tap into all neighborhood Ring cameras to scan the area for possible matches. And the upshot? Ring claims that, on average, it has reunited one dog with its owner each day since launch. The Ring app is free, and you don’t need the doorbell camera, so it’s worth considering if you have a pet at home, but, as ever, they do push you for upgrades and paid plans. Get it here for Android and here for iOS. 

🧐 Stat of the Week: $1.25T

📈📉 Musk – SpaceX and xAI Merge to Form Most Valuable Private Company

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has merged with his AI company, xAI, in a deal (Elon bought it from himself; you know how these things work) that values the new entity at $1.25 trillion, making it the most valuable private company in the world today. There are all sorts of grand plans with the merger, including putting AI data centers in space. In semi-related news, French Police raided X’s office in Paris today. #ElonDeals Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

There’s a little bit of Super Bowl LX fever swirling around 3Advance, and we are sure that you, like us, will be gearing up for your watch parties and bar meetups for the big game on Sunday. And if you don’t like the football, there’s always the Halftime Show with Bad Bunny – and rumor has it, a not-so-surprise appearance by Green Day – to keep you interested. Anyway, from all of us ahead of what is America’s biggest cultural event (it should be a public holiday, right?), enjoy the game, go easy on the wings and beers, and don’t work too hard on Monday! 🏈 🇺🇸

THE NEW “US TIKTOK” HAS HAD SOME HICCUPS

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the launch of the (kind of) all-new US version of TikTok. It hasn't really gone to plan, to be honest, with significant glitches and accusations of content suppression. We also take a look at an AI app that can be an essential aid for people with blindness, Meta testing paid features across its apps, Live apps with Claude, and much more!

🎬 Our Top Take

🇺🇸📵 TikTok – USDS Joint Venture Switchover Beset By Bugs and Conspiracies

The mainstream media didn’t give it too much attention because, well, everyone is preoccupied with other matters, but the handover from Chinese-owned TikTok to the US version of the app happened last Thursday. How’s it going? Hmmm. Let’s deal with the easy part first: the platform experienced a series of glitches on Sunday, with data center issues causing slow load times, bugs, and other issues that impacted creator earnings, as major accounts say their videos recorded 0 views. The second area is more of a political hot potato: Reports and TikTok users have claimed that certain subjects are being suppressed by the algorithm, including those critical of the Trump administration and those that mention topics such as “Epstein” and “ICE’. As one user on X put it, there is zero news on the platform. The state of California is investigating those reports, though we should note that there have been arguments to the contrary. Privacy campaigners have also sounded the alarm, claiming the data collected by US TikTok is waaaay more intrusive than the Chinese version. The upshot, uninstallation of the app has skyrocketed over the past few days, and a rival platform, UpScrolled, has rocketed up the app store charts. So, yeah, how’s it going? Not great. #TikTalk Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Be My Eyes

Not necessarily an app required for every reader this week, but we really wanted to put a spotlight on the wonderful Be My Eyes, an AI-powered app that provides visual assistance to people with blindness or low vision. Some of the testaments to Be My Eyes, and similar apps tagged as “AI Mirrors”, have been incredible, showing how it helps users transform everything from skincare regimes to building self-esteem. You can find out more about Be My Eyes here. The app can be downloaded here for Android and here for iOS.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 1-2 Years

📈📉 AGI – Anthropic CEO Offers Surprising Warning About AI Systems

AI – and its potential – is effectively holding up the stock market, so it’s rare to see a CEO talk about it negatively. Yet, Anthropic CEO Dario Amode has done just that in an essay that warns AI is advancing faster than the systems designed to contain it. He specifically claims that AGI – artificial general intelligence, i.e., the point AI outstrips humans – could come in 1-2 years, and he also espoused that up to 50% of white-collar jobs could be in danger within 5 years. We have to take these predictions with some skepticism, but he’s the CEO of Anthropic, after all, so if anyone is qualified to make predictions like this, it’s him. #AGI Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

Some fun news from Shift – the Shift app has quietly dropped into app stores in Ireland and the UK. We haven’t officially announced this yet, but we wanted to give our WA readers across the pond an early look. This is a meaningful step forward for a platform that’s always been about connection first. If you or someone you know lives in Ireland or Britain, click right here to be among the first to get the Shift app. More on this to come!

META’S BEEN QUIETLY ENDING THE METAVERSE

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the news that Meta has been quietly shuttering much of its Metaverse division, wrapping up four years of one of the most expensive business mistakes in history. Could it ever have worked? And does it matter that it didn’t? We also have news on an app that’s causing drama (literally) on TikTok, a new feature that Spotify is working on for bibliophiles, news on OpenAI’s revenues, and a big lawsuit demand from Elon Musk. Plus, we keep you up to date with all the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 Meta – Layoffs and Studio Closures Signal End of Metaverse Ambitions

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg told us that we would all end up working and socializing in the Metaverse? We certainly do, as we covered it for What’s Appening on that fateful day in October 2021 after learning that Facebook would be rebranded as Meta. Back then, we (and others) mused that the name change was a consequence of the toxic-ish Facebook brand, following the Cambridge Analytica scandals and others. Now, though, the idea of the Metaverse is fading away. This week, Meta announced it was laying off another 10% of its Reality Labs staff, as well as three VR gaming studios. Importantly, Meta is also shuttering its projects aimed at bringing VR to the workplace. WFH and hybrid contracts are probably here to stay, but you know, Teams and Zoom are more than enough. It’s a sign that the project just didn’t work, and let’s face it: It feels a little ridiculous now. Some argue that Zuckerberg’s bet was on Gen-Z, erroneously thinking that they only desired virtual interaction. And in a sense, it was also a bet on the sentiment of a world just emerging from Covid-19. An expensive mistake after spending an estimated $80 billion? He could have bought Twitter (just imagine) and built a few dozen kids’ hospitals, with a little change to spare. Zuck will get away with it, even if he did rename a $1.5 trillion company after his mistake 🤦, as investors will remain buoyed as long as we keep clicking on the socials. #ExpensiveMistake Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: PineDrama

Over the last few months, TikTok has been home to a craze termed “Microdramas”. As the name suggests, they are short (one minute long, usually) television-style dramas that are intended to be consumed in bite-sized chunks. TikTok has seen the success and run with it, releasing a standalone app, PineDrama, for users to get their fix. The good news is that the app is free and ad-free, at least for now. If this sounds like the kind of thing you’re into, you can get TikTok’s PineDrama app here for iOS and here for Android.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $134B

📈📉 AI – Elon Musk Wants His Slice of the OpenAI Pie

It’s no secret that Elon Musk isn’t a fan of Sam Altman and OpenAI, but details have just emerged of how much dough he reckons he’s owed from the company, as well as its main benefactor, Microsoft. In his lawsuit, Musk is demanding up to $134 billion, claiming that his capital ($38 million at the time), business acumen, contacts, and advice helped shape OpenAI to the $500B valuation it has today. #MoMoney Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

This March, Paul will be representing Shift at the Oklahoma Ireland Business Conference in Tulsa, sharing what we’ve learned while building the platform – and the community that’s forming around it. The conference is part of the wider Tulsa Irish Festival, which has grown into a really special celebration of Irish culture and community – and is well worth sticking around for if you’re in town.

GOOGLE ANSWERS APPLE’S SOS

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the finalization of the deal between Apple and Google to let the latter power the former’s AI products, including the new AI Siri. We also look at Claude Cowork, which is making waves as an agentic tool for “regular people”. Our Stat of the Week looks at Meta’s gargantuan task to close down kids’ accounts in Australia, and our App of the Week might help you finish that lengthy tome. We have all the latest from 3Advance, too!

🎬 Our Top Take

🍏🤖 AI – Apple Taps Gemini While Claude Cowork Makes a Splash

The big story making the headlines this week is that Apple, after a long courtship, has finally settled on Google Gemini as its partner for the AI version of Siri (coming in late spring, we hear) and its other foundational models. It’s considered a big coup for Google, as OpenAI and Anthropic were both considered. Now, it’s just a case of waiting to see how the partnership pans out. While Apple’s big handshake with Google took most of the attention, we do want to highlight the rollout of Claude Cowork as a story with underrated significance. Claude Cowork is, in effect, a version of Claude Code for general computing. What that means is that it’s an AI agent for “regular people.” It works for a wide variety of tasks that most of us consider laborious. You might, for instance, give it access to a file with your business receipts and ask it to create a spreadsheet of your company’s expenses. What’s interesting is that Anthropic decided to release Cowork because it noticed that so many developers were using Claude Code for those very tasks, so it decided to release a version for people who don’t know their way around a coding database. We feel this is important because it’s one of the first examples we have seen for an AI agentic application that is truly suitable for normies. It’s just been a few days since Cowork’s release, but keep an eye on it because it feels like a consumer-friendly agentic breakthrough. #Coworking Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Seriatim Reader

Do you find reading on a phone or iPad screen difficult? For many of us, text-heavy content on a small screen can look like a big splurge of words. Seriatim Reader has been making waves with its solution. Effectively, the app breaks down longer texts – like eBooks – and displays each sentence separately in a vertical, sentence-by-sentence feed that you swipe through. It claims to increase focus and concentration and to improve your reading habits by mimicking how your brain likes to see sentences formatted. So, now you have no excuse to put off finishing Wuthering Heights. The app is free, and it does not push in-app purchases (yay!). Get Seriatim for iOS here and Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 550K Accounts

📈📉 Australia – Meta Hits Deactivate Button After Kids’ Social Media Ban

You get the sense that many politicians around the globe are viewing Australia as a kind of bellwether after its social media ban for U16s came into force. For Meta, though, it’s a question of how it goes about enforcing compliance. The social media powerhouse claims to have already deactivated 550,000 accounts that it believed were held by minors. Meta claims the process will be staggered, as it is a big undertaking. Platforms have also been required to check if users are trying to bypass using VPNs. #SocialExperiment Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

This week 3Advance is heading to Philly for the United Soccer Coaches Convention. It's the ultimate conference for soccer coaches and those serving the soccer community in the US. We’ll be meeting our friends at Teambuildr, Soccer Resort, Impact Soccer, and many more. The World Cup is coming and we can’t wait to see what everyone’s got planning. If you’re headed to USCC, make sure to give us a shout!

GROK HAS GONE OFF THE RAILS (AGAIN)

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appenig, we cover a smathering of those stories you may have missed over the Holidays, starting with Alexa’s migration to become an online AI chatbot. We also address the frankly horrible story of Grok being used to ‘digitally undress’ women and children on X, we have a cool app that could help you keep at least one new year’s resolution, cover a report on AI slop gaining traction on YouTube, and much more!

🎬 Our Top Take

📱📵 AI Bots – New Home for Alexa and a Depressing New Low for Grok

The tech world kept turning with new appenings across our couple of weeks of downtime over the Holidays, but there were a couple of stories over the New Year that grabbed our attention. The first is the news that Amazon has performed a kind of migration for Alexa, giving it a new home on Alexa.com and a new lease of life as an online chatbot rather than something confined to your home smart devices. What we like about this move is that Amazon has opted for a family-friendly approach, positioning online Alexa as an educational discovery hub rather than a broader-purpose bot like ChatGPT or Gemini. It could be a great niche for Amazon, especially as the online Alexa integrates with its wider ecosystem, including smart devices. The other story is, unfortunately, a bit less comfortable to report on: X’s integrated AI bot, Grok, is being used to ‘digitally undress’ women and children on the platform, putting them in sexualized images, such as wearing bikinis. Those impacted include the 14-year-old star of Stranger Things, Nell Fisher. Ashley St. Clair, mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has also been digitally undressed by Grok. X has suspended 1000s of accounts for creating the images, without seemingly addressing Grok's ability to do it. Governments around the world are demanding answers, but so far, there has been an ominous silence from US regulators. The FTC, DOJ and FCC have all declined to comment, never mind act, at the time of writing. Sure, we’ve all had our eyes on Venezuela this week, but it is, frankly, quite depressing that a story like this has barely made a ripple of condemnation. #GrokGoesRogue Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Caffeine Clock

Hey! It’s January, and you know what that means – hard-to-keep New Year’s Resolutions. Most of us will have our new-year-new-me vows centered on something that makes us healthy, so that’s why we wanted to highlight Caffeine Clock, an app that tracks your caffeine intake and, crucially, can let you know when you’ve had too much or when it’s a good time to refuel with a latte or energy drink. It’s a great tool if you, like most of us here at 3A, know full well you drink too much coffee. Caffeine Clock is free, but you can also pay a one-off $4.99 fee to remove adverts. Get it for iOS here or Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 20%

📈📉 YouTube – AI Slop Makes Up 20% of Videos Shown to New Users

2025 saw a growing chorus of concern over the sheer volume of AI ‘slop’ permeating through social platforms. Unfortunately, many believe this is going to get worse before we see a concerted effort to combat it. To highlight the growing issue, a study suggests that one in five videos shown to new users through the algorithm are garbage AI creations. It’s a huge issue, not just on YouTube, and it’s really not getting the attention it deserves. #SlopControl Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

We’re easing back into things after the break, reconnecting as a team, and getting back to building things we’re incredibly excited about. There’s a lot in motion – from P3 and Front Pages to Shift and Quiet Collection – and it feels good to be back in the mix. We’re grateful to be starting 2026 together, thank you for being here with us.

ALL OUR MEMES FROM A ROLLERCOASTER YEAR

👀 TLDR:

This week, we’re taking a break! And hopefully you are too. We’ll leave you with all our memes from What’s Appening these past twelve months. It was a rollercoaster year in tech so sit back and enjoy the highlights, as we poked fun at this industry we know and love. Enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you in ‘26.

2025: The Year in Takes 🎬

Chips & Jackets 🎰🧥

TikTok, Tick-Tock ⌚🇺🇸

Rogue Agents 🕵️‍♂️🤖

Deep Impact 🇨🇳 🇺🇸

Zen Browsing 🌍 🧘

Can't Stop. Won't Stop. 💰🤖

YouTube at 20 🎂📹

Apple’s American Pie 🇺🇸 🍏

Last Call ☎️👋

A Fresh Apple 🍏 📱

A Fresh Apple 🍏 📱

The AI Labyrinth 🧩🤖

Anime Overload 🎨🤖

Llama Drama 🦙🎭

Total Recall 📸🕵🏻‍♂️

Ad-Vantage DoJ? 👨🏼‍⚖️🔨

Shop With a Bot 🛒🤖

An Epic Win 👨🏼‍⚖️🍏

A Long Googbye? 🍏🔎

Agent Nadella 🕵🏻‍♂️🏗️

Ive Work to Do 🏗️🤖

Deep Trouble ⛔️🥸

Liquid Launch 🍏📱

Tipping the Scales 🦸⚖️

Brain Drain 🧠🤖

Hold My Bier 🏗️🆇

Pay-Per-Crawl 🕸️🚦

Grok Shocks 😮💪

Under Control 👌🦾

Spill the Tea ☕️🚨

Duels & Deals 🤺🤝

Marginal Gains 🤖🆕

No Place Like Chrome 🏷️🧑🏾‍💻

Late Night Google 📱🗣️

Guard Fails 🛟🤖

Flawed-Dropping 🆕📱

Free Agents 🤖⛓️‍💥

A Fine Spectacle 🕶️🫠

The Unsocial Network📲🎦

Dev Yay! 🏗️🤖

In the AIs of the Law 👩🏻‍⚖️👀

Dead in the Clouds 🌧️💥

Atlas Shrugs 🧑🏾‍💻💸

Apple’s Gemini SoS ♊️🍏

Profit From Pain 💰👨‍💻

Apple Bye 🍏👋

X Literally Marks the Spot 🌎❌

OpenAI’s Ad Hoc 🤖🧾

Netflix & Kill (the Deal) 🎞️💰

Beauty and the Bots 👸💸

Happy Holidays from 3Advance

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