Brilliant Weekend Edition

AI-inspired gorilla couches, necklace friends, solar-powered hats and more!

Aug 11, 2024

A Chinese furniture company started making and selling gorilla-themed sofas after AI-generated images of such sofas went viral on TikTok. A design blog called Inspiring Designs posted ridiculous AI-generated gorilla couches. Somebody posted the pictures on TikTok, and viewers went bananas for them. So a company called Sunyao Furniture designed, made and now sells the simian sofas. You can buy one on Amazon for around $10k but, hey! — free delivery!

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This AI necklace friend will always hang around

A so-called “digital activist” named Avi Schiffmann invented a wearable device called “Friend” that hangs around your neck and listens to everything. (You can also choose a feature that listens only when you push the button.) It then uses AI to offer advice and input based on your conversations via an app running on a Bluetooth-connected smartphone. When it has something to say, it rings or buzzes your phone and talks to you with smartphone notifications. In the promotional video, one woman even refers to Friend as “Her.” The necklace is just a Bluetooth-connected microphone that conveys encrypted voice to the app. The app prompts AI to generate casual contextual responses. Friend is marketed as a substitute for human friends.

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If you’re going to be a cyborg, at least be a solar-powered one

With the advent of wearables, including smart glasses, we’re all slowly becoming cyborgs, augmenting our biological selves with connected digital parts. Now, thanks to the Ecoflow power hat, we can also wear electricity generation. The hat is made mainly out of solar panels. The water- and dust-proof foldable hat has both USB A and USB C ports, and can charge a smartphone in a few hours or smart glasses in less than an hour.

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