Meta's standalone Meta AI app, launched in April 2025, offers an uneven experience, often hallucinating facts and failing to provide personalized responses (Bloomberg)
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DEEP DIVE: Metaâs consumer-facing AI app offers an uneven experience, exposing the gap between Zuckerbergâs bold ambitions and what the tech actually offers users
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Headed soon to Dataharvest conference in Mechelen, Belgium to present on our process and crowdsourcing tips from Bloomberg's investigation on Uber and Lyft ride share lockouts.
It'll be my first dataj event in Europe - please say hi! #EIJC25
dataharvest25.sched.com/event/1zv0e?...
scoop: Food delivery company Grubhub is reviving the quarter-century-old Seamless brand in New York, its biggest market, in a bid to drive growth in a key city as it lags behind rivals nationally
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
I wrote today that Tinder is leaning into AI bots in new voice-based game that uses OpenAI's 4o + 4o-mini to test usersâ flirting skills.
Stay tuned for tomorrowâs tech newsletter for my first-hand experience interacting with them.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Tinder is finding different ways to boost engagement among Gen Z daters (50% of user base). Ot has been testing a double-dating feature, and as I found out, is taking another page from mobile games by promising more in-app matches and rewards if users log into the app consistently for a week:
Also note: Lyft is catching up here in terms of launching driverless rides with its AV tech partners. Atlanta would be its first market with autonomous cars.
Uber and Waymo are also launching in ATL this summer. It will be their 3rd market together after Phoenix and Austin.
Lyft just gave a more precise timeline for its planned 2025 autonomous launch with May Mobility in Atlanta, saying it will roll out "as soon as this summer".
A company blog post today also addresses its vision for the future of its (human) gig workforce đ
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Bumble is adding ID verification to its dating app alongside other new features, an attempt to court safety-conscious younger users key to its turnaround plans.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Note: Founder Wolfe Herde is returning as CEO today, >1 year after handing reins to ex-Slack CEO Jones.
Details in Match new CEOâs note to employees today:
Co will âstreamlineâ ops, invest in growth areas and set up a confidential channel for its employees to share ideas with leadership to rebuild user trust in its dating apps
(Co has 3 activist investors to date)
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
A Lyft spokesperson now confirms Lyft Silver, the offering designed for senior riders, is coming later this year.
Users can sign up to get notified when it launches in their markets here:
lyft.com/rider/silver
Scoop: Lyft is working on a simplified version of its app for elderly riders, according to a Bloomberg review of the iOS app code, as Lyft seeks to further differentiate itself from rival Uber
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
London-based Wayve has been testing its driver-assistance software on the road beyond the UK, first in SF last Oct. and in Germany earlier this month.
"500 hours to generalize to California is remarkable, and we saw that even less has been required for our launch in Germany," CEO Alex Kendall said.
Wayve, the self-driving co that raised >$1b last year from SoftBank, NVDA, MSFT, Uber, said itâs nearing a commercial debut with major automakers.
It also published new data claiming its AI model can adapt to US behaviors faster, with less $ than existing methods.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Here is the companion podcast to our investigation if you prefer the audio format.
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1FoN...
Our reporting shows the prevalence of Meta, Tinder and Airbnb in Colombia & reveals how encrypted tools and loose oversight over platform users pose low barriers to predators seeking to lure minors into sex work and arrange dates and accommodations with tourists from abroad.
In the past year, we have spoken to several girls who said they were victims of sexual exploitation in Colombia, as well as more than two dozen representatives of law enforcement, academia, local businesses and nonprofits seeking to curb child trafficking.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
New investigation: We have been digging into how US apps like FB, Tinder & Airbnb are used for sex trafficking in Colombia. Headlines have focused largely on how men are killed by their Tinder dates. BTS, the women are often controlled by gangs who exploit the apps to conduct business.
Gift link đ
Uber sues DoorDash, accusing it of anticompetitive practices like coercing restaurants to exclusively work with DoorDash for parts of their delivery business (Heather Haddon/Wall Street Journal)
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News on Uber's latest lobbying effort: a multimillion dollar ad campaign to push for reforms in insurance policies that it says have been exploited by personal injury lawyers and contribute to higher ride prices
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Exclusive: MyFitnessPal, the food and calorie-tracking app, bought AI startup Intent and will soon debut AI-powered meal plans, a feature the company hopes will boost sign-ups and subscriptions
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
NYC rideshare regulator said Uber and Lyft are âspreading disinformationâ in their new email campaigns to drivers and riders about proposed rules that would give drivers a roughly 6% pay hike www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
scoop: FTC is probing whether Uber, Lyft illegally coordinated to limit NYC driver pay. The firms confirmed they received official info requests from the agency.
A 2024 Bloomberg investigation showed how the firms used lockouts to save them millions in driver pay.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Sources: the highest ranks of the US Office of Personnel Management now include former employees of Elon Musk's companies, including xAI and the Boring Company (Vittoria Elliott/Wired)
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scoop: I reviewed Uberâs iOS app code and found that it has been working on a new $2.99 pass that would let commuters lock in prices for frequent rides ahead of time, rivaling a popular feature that Lyft launched five months ago
Details here:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Three former engineering leaders from Google, Meta and Samsung have raised $10 million for a new startup focused on making artificial intelligence-powered customer sales agents more polite and brand-aware www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Grindr unveils new features, including an opt-in AI chat summary, plans to launch six features in 2025, and says 10K users are testing its AI-powered "Wingman" (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)
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You'll likely see more competing op-eds about short-term rentals in NYC this year. Both Airbnb and the well-resourced hotel union are funding and running ads voicing out on a municipal bill that'd roll back parts of the city's Airbnb ban
(article from last week:)
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
NYC is trying to close a loophole that Uber, Lyft have used to deny drivers $mlns in pay with a raft of new measures that would effectively raise their rates by roughly 6.1%.
The regulator has vowed to amend rules after a Bloomberg investigation on the practice:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Tinder warns of declining to flat direct revenue through 2026, below estimates, and says it plans to prioritize improving its user experience over monetization (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)
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