Unsure of What to Get Your Loved One for Christmas? Seek Advice From ChatGPT

Some individuals enjoy shopping for Christmas presents. Polly Arrowsmith starts jotting down preferences of her friends and family, meticulously hunting for deals. Vee Portland begins her shopping spree in January, selecting a theme each year, ranging from heart mirrors to inspiring books. On the other hand, Betsy Benn devoted so much time to pondering gifts that she launched her own online gifting business.

How will these gift-giving experts react to a trend that could either revolutionize time management or debase the essence of Christmas: relying on ChatGPT to do the work for you?

We’ll have to wait like kids on Christmas Day for the answer. Yet, it appears that people are indeed turning to ChatGPT to craft their Christmas lists. OpenAI’s tool boasts numerous tailored prompts for composing holiday gift lists and has seen a surge in Reddit posts from individuals seeking inspiration through interactions with chatbots.

Is there a significant number of people embracing this trend? ChatGPT’s bots either weren’t privy to that information, or if they were, they kept it under wraps. observer. OpenAI’s spokesperson was unaware that the company was devising Christmas quizzes, designing cards, and formulating “creative responses” to kids’ letters to Santa. (Other AI chatbots like Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI were similarly clueless.)

Even if only a handful of individuals have embarked on this path, AI firms are hopeful that more will follow suit. Perplexity recently rolled out “Buy with Pro” in the US. This $20/month AI shopping assistant enables users to explore products and make purchases on Perplexity’s platform.

This move, right before the peak of the Black Friday shopping frenzy, was viewed as a direct challenge to Google’s supremacy in online advertising, as stated by Jai Khan, Push’s digital marketing agency director.

“While some begin their shopping journey on Amazon and young folks engage with TikTok, Google remains the dominant force,” he remarked. “The repercussions on Google Ads if individuals start turning to ChatGPT for solutions are crucial to us.”

Numerous online Christmas gift guides predict the must-have items for the annual toy craze (from Furby and Beyblade tops to a mother duck leading her ducklings and the comeback of the fart blasters). Lego’s evil Collection, however, is rapidly flying off the shelves.

For 53-year-old Portland, a confidence coach from Winchester, online searches are merely a fraction of her gift-hunting process. “I tend to purchase gifts throughout the year, and it’s frustrating when I find the perfect present in February only to discover it’s sold out by December,” she said. “It also aids in budgeting.”

Betsy Benn sells custom gifts such as Christmas tree decorations. Photo: Emma Jackson

Benn disapproves of the notion of gifting directly to charity shops. “We want our loved ones to feel genuinely acknowledged and valued for their uniqueness,” she expressed. The 49-year-old from Cheltenham established betsybenn.com, a venture specializing in personalized gifts like Christmas tree ornaments.

“Nothing compares to the joy recipients feel when they realize this is exclusively theirs and not just a hastily grabbed bottle of wine in a festive gift bag. Don’t we all crave recognition and understanding? Isn’t that the essence of relationships?”

The challenge arises when gifts don’t reflect the recipient’s taste, leading to scenarios like receiving deodorant, an expired voucher, or oversized red undergarments. There are numerous signs that demonstrate you missed the mark.

Katherine Jansson-Boyd, a consumer psychology professor at Anglia Ruskin University, noted, “60% to 70% of individuals make mistakes while shopping for Christmas presents.” She added, “Looking at shopping patterns, most people postpone their purchases, indicating uncertainty.”

With the added complexity of deciphering the preferences of diverse generations, AI-generated lists could potentially streamline this intricate social exchange.

“In essence, AI is a tool that processes data from the internet to produce logical outcomes,” Jansson-Boyd remarked. “Emotions can’t be inherently emotional or personalized since they can’t be quantified.

“However, in my opinion, this is a fantastic concept as we frequently run out of ideas ourselves.”

YouGov research revealed that last year, 45% of Christmas shoppers found gift shopping to be stressful, prompting some to completely opt out and simply inform others of their wishes.

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For some individuals, even determining their own desires can be daunting. Most AI bots offer users the option to save their conversations for future reference, potentially making AI a solution in that regard as well.

“You can ask ChatGPT, ‘Tell me something I don’t know about myself,'” Khan explained. “The insights gained are fascinating.”

Frequent users might reach a point where they believe their AI bot excels at understanding and interpreting their preferences.

So, how does observerGift Master fare with ChatGPT?

Arrowsmith wasn’t impressed with the suggestions for her sister. The Neom candle was recommended, but “the price was significantly higher than the one I purchased yesterday during the Black Friday sale,” she revealed. “It all felt very generic. I went with a designer handbag instead of a run-of-the-mill tote.”

“I repeated the process for my 83-year-old father, a man with multiple interests,” she recounted. “Options included a foot massager, a personalized cane, a meal delivery service, or a newspaper subscription. However, my father arranged his own subscription, did his grocery shopping, and spent $20,000 every day. You might wonder why I opted for this while he walks around so much.”

Portland pondered what suggestions fit a “time-poor mother of a child with a disability,” finding proposals like spa getaways and extended baths unsuitable. “While those might be what she needs, she lacks the time for such activities,” she remarked. Other potential options included cleaning services, meal kits, and clothing, with size discrepancies posing a befuddling challenge.

“There were also recommendations for gifts for her children, but I refrained. This reflects entirely on her as a mother, not as an individual,” she articulated.

Benn realized that the key to avoiding mundane gifts lay in asking probing questions.

“By injecting curiosity and personality, you unlock much better outcomes, and I relish that,” she shared. “You might strike gold on your initial attempt or draw inspiration from a few suggestions and delve deeper to find something extraordinary.

“If someone reveals they used AI to find a gift for me, the mere fact that they contemplated, assessed options, and landed on what they believed was ideal warms my heart.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Unsure of possibility, gamers rush to conquer 80,000 levels in Super Mario Maker

On March 14, Team 0% was on the verge of finishing their seven-year mission to conquer all 80,000 incomplete levels of the 2015 Nintendo game Super Mario Maker. They only had two challenging maps, “Herb Trimming” and “The Last Dance,” left to conquer. But as time ticked away, Nintendo dropped the bombshell that they would be shutting down the game’s servers on April 8th. Any level unfinished by then would remain that way forever. Unfortunately, Team 0% fell short at the final hurdle.

When Super Mario Maker was released for the Wii U, players discovered the thrill of creating their own levels and sharing them online. However, to upload a level, players had to beat it themselves first. Little did they know that one of the remaining levels was a hoax.

From its launch, Super Mario Maker inspired players to create incredibly difficult levels with inventive designs. A website called Super Mario Maker Bookmarks tracked every uploaded level, generating stats on completion rates. In 2017, a Reddit user named the0dark0one compiled a list of levels yet to be beaten, unknowingly sparking a journey.

Jeffie, the founder of Team 0%, launched a Discord server in December 2017 to tackle the backlog. They faced technical challenges due to the volume of data but persisted, clearing the initial list after eight months. However, new levels kept pouring in, each more challenging than the last.

Super Mario Maker allows players to craft levels using the Wii U’s touchscreen, resulting in a range of creative challenges. Photo: Nintendo

The team developed training levels within Super Mario Maker to teach newcomers the unique skills required to ace tricky levels. As they sharpened their skills, the task became more daunting with the deadline looming, requiring nearly 100 levels to be completed daily.

As the team neared the finish line, they faced suspicions regarding the legitimacy of the last level, “Trimming the Herbs.” Some speculated it might have been completed using cheats like TAS (Tool-Assisted Speedrun). Ultimately, the creator admitted to using TAS, tarnishing the victory moment.

Despite the disappointment, players continue to tackle “Trimming the Herbs” before the shutdown. The accomplishment lies not just in completing every level in Super Mario Maker, but in preserving the efforts of all creators in the game’s history.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Well actually, I’m unsure of how to address my bad habits of drinking beer, vaping, and constantly scrolling on my electronic devices. Any advice on what to do?

BIt's easy to feel a kinship with pop star Selena Gomez, considering her 430 million Instagram followers, reported net worth of $800 million, and close relationship with Taylor Swift. rare. However, 11 days have passed since the new year started, heading “Selena Gomez returns to Instagram, 18 hours after announcing social media hiatus.''

I feel extra conscious of my bad habits – probably due to my depressed body evidence suggests We usually give up on our New Year's resolutions by mid-January.

Info about Selena Gomez

It's not even noon yet and I've spent 45 minutes on Instagram today. She drank two cups of coffee, but I can't rule out the possibility of a third one. My mild headache is a solemn reminder that I ended up having three drinks last night after a sudden hinge date ruined my plans for a quiet evening. And I just took a small swig from her nearly empty vape, which I had vowed to buy one last time.

At least I'm not eating sugar yet.

As you can see, I'm ambivalent about what I consider to be my vices, and I'm more or less attached to them. Most of the time I can ignore them as reliable pleasures in life and they are reasonably tolerable. But peer pressure to be better is always insidious and becomes especially acute at the beginning of a new year..

My newsfeed is full of stories about financial goal setting, improving fitness, non-alcoholic drinks, and sugar substitutes. Friends are pledging to spend the month of dry January taking 10,000 steps a day and cutting out junk food. On the other hand, I think I may be missing out on the tricks of the trade by missing out on the opportunity for a fresh start.


“hand“At this time of year, the focus is on what to start doing and what to stop doing,” says the counselor. georgina starmer. She links it to the excesses of the just-past Christmas season: What do you change? ”

But the flip side of this focus on self-improvement is the need for self-monitoring. We become more aware of our supposed flaws and shortcomings, which may not be particularly harmful and may even bring us joy.

… (content continues)

Source: www.theguardian.com

Coin Cloud, the Bitcoin ATM company, has been hacked and even the new owners are unsure of how it happened.

In November, cybersecurity collective vx-underground wrote on X (formerly Twitter): An unknown hacker claimed to have infiltrated Coincloud.a bankrupt Bitcoin ATM company.

According to vx-underground, the hackers claim to have stolen 70,000 customer photos taken from cameras embedded in ATMs, as well as the personal data of 300,000 customers. Name, surname, email address, phone number, current occupation, address, etc.

No one has publicly claimed hacking. A month later, what actually happened to Coin Cloud remains a mystery, even to the company’s new owners.

Coin Cloud was a company that managed thousands of Bitcoin ATMs in the United States and Brazil. According to the official website, to the company Filed for bankruptcy in February. In July, genesis coinanother Bitcoin ATM provider, acquired 5,700 ATMs from the defunct Coin Cloud. According to a press release issued at the time. Genesis Coin itself was acquired by Andrew Barnard and his associates in early January. Owned another cryptocurrency ATM company called Bitstop.

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Do you have more information about the Coin Cloud hack? We’d love to hear from you. Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai can be reached securely on Signal (+1 917 257 1382), Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or email lorenzo@techcrunch.com. He can also be reached at TechCrunch via SecureDrop.

Mr. Bernard, who serves as CEO, Bitcoin ATMThe company, which rebranded itself after purchasing some of Coin Cloud’s assets in bankruptcy proceedings, told TechCrunch that his company launched an investigation following vx-underground’s tweet, but is unsure when the breach occurred or who identified it. He said he was unable to conclude whether he was responsible. He himself described the incident as a “mystery”.

“Coin Cloud has been hacked multiple times in the past when it was still a commercial company, so the data breach happened a while ago,” Bernard said. “I think the data is being held to ransom right now. It’s impossible to say. [when] There is little control throughout the software development process, with multiple international contractors having access to source code containing secrets. [database]” Bernard said in an email.

“Based on the information we have been shown, it does not appear that any services maintained by Coin Cloud have been recently compromised,” Barnard added. “Therefore, it is reasonable to think that this is data that was already stolen when Coincloud was hacked previously. It is an assumption, but a reasonable one. It’s impossible to say exactly what was compromised; so many vendors and internal employees had access to it that the same thing may have happened at different times over the years. ”

Barnard said that if someone were to obtain the source code containing the database’s administrator credentials, the hacker “would have access to all the files.” [Know Your Customer] Customer information. ”

Know Your Customer (KYC) is a check performed by technology and financial companies to verify a person’s identity to prevent fraud and money laundering. KYC checks often rely on customers submitting scans of their identification documents.

A former Coin Cloud employee told TechCrunch on condition of anonymity that Coin Cloud was “an absolute disaster to work for.”

“We didn’t have a security team,” the former employee said, adding that Coincloud had been hacked at least once in the last year and believed the company stored much of its data in plain text, meaning it wasn’t encrypted. He added that

Source: techcrunch.com