🌊 People Are Boycotting AI

“Hi, I’m Wall-E, and I’ll be taking care of you today.”

The dawn of the robot era is upon us. We’re reading about a Denny’s in California that uses robots — its most popular one is named “Lilly” — to deliver food to tables. Now we have some questions: 1) Do robot waiters ask for tips? 2) Do southern robot waiters have accents? 3) When dads say “How about a million dollars?” in response to the query “Can I get you anything else?” do the robots know to fake laugh?

These critical questions aside, we want to hear how you feel about the robot waiter era. That is the subject of Today’s Question (below).

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Swedish “Child Soldiers”

Denmark will increase border security with Sweden because of “hired child soldiers”

• In recent years, a major surge in gang-related violence has turned Sweden from one of Europe’s safest countries to one of its most violent. Swedish gangs often use children to commit crimes because they receive light prison sentences

• Last week, Denmark announced that Danish gangs had hired Swedish “child soldiers” to commit crimes at least 25 times since April, including at least three shootings in Denmark in the last two weeks. Denmark is now expanding border checks between the countries

Dig Deeper

• The border checks are the latest anti-crime policy enacted by Denmark’s government, which has also tightened criminal penalties and begun forcefully moving minorities from neighborhoods where they are in a majority because crime is focused in so-called “majority-minority” neighborhoods

KEY STORY

FDA Rejects MDMA

The FDA rejected an application for approval of MDMA-assisted therapy (MAT) to treat PTSD

• MAT involves a patient undergoing talk therapy while on MDMA, aka Molly or Ecstasy. Studies have found that MAT can reduce PTSD-related symptoms far more than existing treatments

• Lykos, a startup pharma company, had submitted such findings to the FDA for approval. The FDA rejected the application, although apparently more for specifics about Lykos’ studies than MDMA itself

• It’s a setback for MDMA proponents, including various veterans groups, but Lykos has said it will re-apply

Dig Deeper

• The rejection came after a group of experts who advise the FDA urged against approval, citing flaws in Lykos’ studies

• Among various reported flaws were that the studies weren’t “controlled,” because people could feel if they had taken MDMA; that the treatment triggered memories of other traumas and sparked suicidal thoughts; and that 40% of Lykos’ study participants had prior experience with MDMA, suggesting a skewed sample

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KEY STORY

Won’t Buy AI

People are significantly less likely to purchase products that are built using AI, a new study found

• Researchers presented consumers with identical products differing only in labeling; some were described as “AI-powered,” others as “high-tech”

• In every instance, people were less likely to purchase the products – which included everything from household appliances to self-driving cars – when they were labeled with “AI”

• Researchers attributed the findings, in part, to a lack of trust following prominent AI snafus, like Google’s failed AI search overview tool launch earlier this year

Dig Deeper

• Researchers also blamed the AI aversion on a lack of transparency

• Instead of using AI as a buzzword, companies should be specific about how AI helps them create a better offering, they said

KEY STORY

Olympics Get TV Gold

The Olympics delivered monster TV ratings for NBC

• Over the first 13 days of the Games, the network averaged 32M+ viewers across its coverage. That marks a 76% jump from the Tokyo Games in 2021 and a 10% jump from the Rio Games in 2016

• The men’s basketball championship – in which the US won gold – drew 7M more viewers than the most-watched 2024 NBA Finals game

• The live gymnastics finals, which aired during the afternoon of a work day, averaged 12.5M viewers, 3M viewers more than the most-watched 2024 MLB World Series game

Dig Deeper

• The numbers were a surprise, given that a Gallup poll from before the Olympics had found that a record 30% of Americans intended to watch “none” of the Olympics. Furthermore, the opening ceremony drew widespread criticism online for its alleged mockery of the Last Supper

• The ratings for the 2028 Games are expected to soar even higher. It’s possible that Olympic stars Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin, and Kevin Durant will all return

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🗣️ Elon Musk interviewed Donald Trump on X. Hours prior, Trump began posting on the platform for the first time since January 2021. Also on Monday, the EU warned Musk that X could face penalties if it allows the spread of hate speech, citing his interview with Trump

🇷🇺 Russian authorities announced that 133,000+ Russians had been displaced because of Ukraine’s incursion into the country. That – the first ground invasion of Russia since World War 2 – continued into Monday, with Russian forces unable to dispel the Ukrainians

⚠️ Israel put its troops on high alert after reportedly observing Hezbollah and Iran preparing for an attack. It’s the first time it has done so since Hamas’ leader was assassinated in Iran last month. Meanwhile, the US ordered further reinforcements to the Middle East to deter an Iranian attack

🔥 Greece’s worst wildfire of 2024 spread into the Athens suburbs, forcing hundreds to flee. On Monday, firefighters reported that the flames had reached deeper into Athens than any fire in over two decades, with no signs of abating. Despite efforts from 700+ firefighters, 199 fire engines, and 35 aircraft, the blaze continues to advance, prompting Greece to seek EU assistance 

💰 Kamala Harris raised $13M at a Silicon Valley fundraiser on Sunday, where tickets cost up to $500,000. The event attracted 700 people to the grand ballroom of San Francisco’s ritzy Fairmont Hotel. It was preceded by a series of exclusive receptions that denoted the hierarchy of donors, per the NYT

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What makes you proud of the town/city you live in? You can answer for your hometown, if you prefer.

🧠 Today’s question: How do you feel about robot waiters?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🟤 Code Brown: The Secret Service apologized to a Massachusetts salon owner for breaking into her business to use the bathroom during preparations for a Kamala Harris fundraiser

🐢 Slow and steady wins the highway: An Arizona state trooper rescued a sulcata tortoise attempting to cross a busy highway. The tortoise had escaped from an ostrich ranch a few miles away

🦠 Gold medal superspreader? Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles was seen partying in Paris just days after his bronze medal finish in the 200M race, during which he allegedly had Covid

🐦 Gulls gone wild: A Scottish sandwich business might introduce a £1 “seagull insurance” fee on all purchases due to the birds stealing food from up to 30 customers daily

😴 Snore loser: A court sentenced a 56-year-old Pennsylvania man to 11.5 to 23 months in jail for the stabbing death of his neighbor during a dispute over loud snoring

ROCA WRAP

Roca Votes: Stigmatize Drugs?

Is the term “substance abuse” obsolete?

The US government’s National Institute for Drug Abuse has shifted its recommended term for unhealthy drug use from “substance abuse” to “substance use,” arguing it would “reduce stigma and negativity around substance use disorders.”

Is this a good idea?

In recent years, US drug overdose deaths have soared. In 2023, according to the CDC, there were 112,000 drug overdose deaths, four times the total from just two decades ago. For adults ages 18-45, opioids are the single biggest cause of death.

Or are they?

Last week, we interviewed Carl Hart, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, on our podcast, We the 66. Dr. Hart, who openly uses drugs including heroin and cocaine, believes these numbers are misleading. He argues they are akin to people dying with Covid rather than from Covid, and that overdose deaths are inflated to include people who died with drugs in their system rather than from drugs. He also argues that there’s an infrastructure of scientists, activists, and organizations who are incentivized to exaggerate the scale of the opioid crisis to unlock funding.

Dr. Hart also argues that the US misunderstands and wrongfully stigmatizes drugs. He emphasizes that most of the 50M Americans who use an illegal drug in a given year have positive experiences, and he believes that policies and rhetoric surrounding drugs have focused only on the bad outcomes. At least 70% of people who try heroin don’t become addicted, he points out, essentially arguing that drugs aren’t the problem – people are.

The National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) makes a different case: That the term “drug abuse” discourages people from seeking treatment. That is part of a broader push by primarily progressive activists to reclassify how drugs and addiction are dealt with.

This group seeks to shift addiction treatment from a strategy of stigmatization and treatment or punishment to one of “harm reduction,” such as by providing fentanyl-testing kits and clean needles. Meanwhile, outreach groups build ties with drug users so that when they are ready for treatment, they can get it.

This debate played out in Oregon, which decriminalized personal use of all drugs in 2020. Roca visited the state and reported on the effects of this in 2022.

Among various policies, the state’s drug decriminalization law stipulated that government funds could not be used to prevent drug use – that was deemed “stigmatizing” – and only for harm reduction and voluntary treatment.

Activists were divided over this: Some were fully in favor, arguing that “harm reduction” had proven a success elsewhere, such as Portugal; others said all efforts should be taken to deter people from taking drugs. Oregon repealed that law earlier this year amid soaring overdose deaths.

To Dr. Hart, one counterargument is that most overdose deaths are of young people who wouldn’t otherwise be dying. A 25-year-old dying with fentanyl in his body is different than a 90-year-old dying with Covid in theirs. And even if it’s true that most drug users’ experiences are positive, a non-trivial portion have negative – or even fatal – experiences or end up dependent on drugs.

And to the NIDA: Shouldn’t words mean something? Isn’t its job to define reality? And won’t “destigmatizing” drug use lead to more people using drugs?

In a routine about euphemisms, comedian George Carlin said, “I don’t like words that hide the truth. I don’t words that conceal reality. I don’t like euphemisms.” 

He described the evolution of “shell shock” to “operational exhaustion” or “post-traumatic stress disorder” as both misleading and costly: “I’ll bet you if we’d have still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed.”

So what do you think? Is the drug crisis exaggerated? Have we watered down our language too much? Reply to this email to let us know!

ROCA VIDEO

Asking the Most Pro-Brexit Town If They Regret It

We traveled to Boston, UK. The city is known for being the most pro-Brexit city in the UK. During our trip, we talked with locals and asked them their thoughts on Boston and Brexit.

Some of the respondents are so quintessentially British, you’d think they’re paid actors.

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

We didn’t get as many answers as usual to yesterday’s “What makes you proud of your hometown?” question of the day. Does this mean you’re not proud of your hometown? Or does it mean that you have no interest in telling two Maxes you’ve never met why yours is special? Or should we just chalk it up to #Monday?

Either way… we’re *cringe* proud of you.

–Max and Max