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🧠 3 AI upgrades changing your tech

🧠 3 AI upgrades changing your tech

From smarter shopping to streaming shakeups — here’s what’s new this week.

Matt Altebrando
May 06, 2025

👋 Morning, Merge Fam.

Mistral’s open-weight AI is gunning for the crown, Pinterest is making your Sunday scrolls a lot smarter, and FanDuel’s streaming play is racking up subs like parlays in October.

TL;DR: The future of tech looks fast, open, visual — and maybe just a bit degenerate.

What’s Merging Today:

• 🧪 Merge Mindblowers get weirder
• 🖼️ New AI Artwork
• 🧠 Mistral AI hits the big leagues
• 📌 Pinterest supercharges visual search
• 📺 FanDuel’s streaming network scores

MERGE MINDBLOWERS

🦷 Sharks are older than trees. Sharks have been around for over 400 million years — trees only showed up 50 million years later.

⏳ There are more possible chess games than atoms in the universe. That’s 10^120 variations vs. ~10^80 atoms. Grandmasters = galaxy brains.

🧠 Your brain can power a lightbulb. It generates about 20 watts of electricity — even when you’re asleep. Not bad for a soft organ.

🪐 There’s a planet made entirely of diamonds. 55 Cancri e: twice the size of Earth and shinier than your ex’s Instagram.

📬 The U.S. once tried missile mail. In 1959, the Navy fired a cruise missile loaded with letters to test mail-by-missile. It worked. Then we just… stopped.

AI PHOTO OF THE DAY

🖌️Artwork submitted by Merge reader @TechTina:

🎨 Friday’s Prompt (Your Turn!)

Sam Altman as a 1920s mob boss, holding an AI-generated 'speakeasy cocktail' made of code.

Submit your artwork to The Morning Merge →

TODAY IN AI

Mistral AI Gunning for OpenAI’s Throne

Image created by The Morning Merge with AI assistance

Paris-based Mistral just hit 1M downloads of their mobile chatbot "Le Chat" — in under two weeks. With $415M raised and a radically open-source strategy, they’re offering weight access, no logins, and developer-friendly vibes.

🔓 Open-weight models = no API paywall
📱 Le Chat is quietly dominating French app stores
🇪🇺 Mistral is now Europe’s flagship AI play

Takeaway: While OpenAI licenses, Mistral liberates. The model wars just got spicy.

TODAY IN TECH

Pinterest’s AI-Powered Search Leveled Up

Image created by The Morning Merge with AI assistance

Pinterest just deployed smarter visual search tools that let users refine results by color, fabric, and style — all driven by AI.

🎯 Drag an image, then filter by aesthetic
🛍️ Results now feel like scrolling through a curated boutique
📌 A major push into AI-powered commerce discovery

Takeaway: Pinterest isn’t a social network anymore — it’s a shoppable mood board with a PhD.

TODAY IN BUSINESS

FanDuel Streaming Network is Crushing It

Image created by The Morning Merge with AI assistance

FanDuel Sports Network is racking up subscribers thanks to original shows, betting segments, and exclusive coverage. Think ESPN, but with more gambling and fewer ties.

📈 Sub count rising fast
🎙️ Live sports talk with real betting integration
💰 They’re targeting the casual sports fan next

Takeaway: Sports betting media is the next streaming frontier — and FanDuel’s already in the end zone.

MERGE TOOLS

New + Noteworthy

🧠 Preswald — Build data apps, dashboards, and reports with zero code.
🤖 AI Interviewer by Hyring — Automate job interviews with an AI recruiter.
🎨 Pablo.Design — Generate your website layout straight from your logo.
📹 Creatify Product Video — Turn product shots into scroll-stopping video ads.
🎥 DeepLiveCam — Stream your face as anyone, in real time.

🛠️ Want More? Check out our Top 50 AI Tools.

PRESENTED BY THE AI REPORT

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WHAT ELSE IS MERGING

📉 S&P 500 rally ends — The S&P 500 fell, snapping a nine-day winning streak, as investors reacted to President Trump's latest tariff announcement ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision.

🛢️ Oil prices dip — Oil prices dropped to over four-year lows after OPEC+ decided to accelerate output hikes, increasing supply in the market.

📦 DoorDash changes earnings date — DoorDash announced a change in its Q1 2025 earnings release schedule, moving the date to May 6, 2025, before market open, with a conference call at 8 a.m. ET.

🏘️ Real estate startups slash broker fees — Several startups are offering alternatives to traditional real estate agents, helping home sellers save on commissions by providing innovative platforms and services.

📱 Spotify's “Vibe Check” feature leaked — Spotify is reportedly developing a new AI-powered feature called "Vibe Check," which creates playlists based on users' mood and voice tone.