🌎 Hell Ant

Good morning. Today marks a rather strange national holiday, as April 29th is National Shrimp Scampi Day. However, tomorrow is Stop Food Waste Day, so you’d better eat your leftovers.

Today, we’ll go over a massive explosion at an Iranian port, a 100-million-year-old “hell ant” researchers discovered, and why the housing market might be better than you think.

Sit back, have some shrimp, and enjoy today’s edition.

— Chase Goepfert, Founder

Meta let its “digital companions” talk about explicit content with minors

Meta is having a pretty tough month. The tech giant is under fire after an investigation by the WSJ found the company programmed its AI chatbots to engage in sexually explicit conversation with minors while it was trying to get ahead in the AI race against Google and OpenAI.

Internal investigation

After hearing concerns within the company that Meta wasn’t doing enough to protect minors, the Wall Street Journal conducted a monthslong investigation, having hundreds of conversations with Meta’s official chatbot and other user-created chatbots on other Meta platforms.

The WSJ found that, after testing, Meta AI would “sometimes escalate discussions” and engage in sexual conversations with underage accounts:

• In one reported exchange, a chatbot assuming the voice of wrestler-turned-actor John Cena enacted a graphic sexual encounter with a user who identified as a 14-year-old girl.

• Another conversation detailed a policeman apprehending Cena with a 17-year-old fan and informing him, "John Cena, you are being arrested for statutory rape."

Cena wasn’t the only celebrity profile users could take advantage of to engage in sexual conversations with, as Kristen Bell, Dame Judi Dench, and others were also in the reported conversations.

Promiscuous programming

On several occasions, the chatbots showed awareness that the discussions they were having with underage accounts were morally wrong and illegal. However, the sexually explicit leanings weren’t an accident, but instead were encouraged by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

• Meta product managers said Mark Zuckerberg pushed for a “loosening of boundaries” on AI assistants to allow “explicit content for romantic role-play”.

• This push came as the company sought to compete with AI from Google and OpenAI.

Meta’s response? A company spokesperson said, “The use-case of this product in the way described is so manufactured that it’s not just fringe, it’s hypothetical,” however, Meta still opted to take “additional measures” to de-escalate the bots.

Massive explosion at Iranian port kills dozens

The blast disintegrated several buildings, destroying many more. At least 65 people have died and over a thousand are injured after a massive explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran on Saturday.

How did this happen?

Iranian state media claims the explosion began with a container fire at a hazardous materials depot, with the nation’s Interior Minister, Eskandar Momeni, saying that possible failures were under investigation.

• According to reports, the port took in a chemical component used as fuel for ballistic missiles.

• Iranian officials deny this claim, however, they have not given an alternative explanation for the blast.

While officials conduct an official investigation into the cause of the destructive explosion, public and international criticism has reached a boiling point, questioning the nation’s safety measures at important infrastructure sites.

Devastating blast

As of early Monday, the fire was contained, but locals are still reeling from its effects. Local hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of casualties, and a provincial blood bank urgently requested donations.

The explosion was catastrophic:

• Satellite images show the scale of the explosion, showing the crater measured at around 165 feet across (see pictures).

• The blast completely disintegrated the building next to it, destroying several more and causing damage to many shipping containers (watch video).

Shockwaves from the explosion were felt and heard over 30 miles away. One video posted to X shows an office worker being forcefully pushed backward as the shockwave rattled their building (see here).

Homage to those who passed: Officials instituted three days of mourning in the nearby city of Bandar Abbas, closing schools and government offices to assist with emergency response.

113-million-year-old “Hell Ant” discovered by researchers

Yet another reason I’m glad to be living in the modern day. Discovered by researchers in Brazil, the newly found insect is the oldest ant species known to man and could provide insight into the history of their evolution.

Nope, nope, nope

Uncovered in northeastern Brazil, the “extraordinary” specimen is a member of an extinct subspecies called Haidomyrmecinae, which are more commonly known as “hell ants”, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.

The newly discovered species, which researchers named Vulcanidris cratensis, has “highly specialized anatomical features, suggesting unique hunting behaviors,” study co-author Anderson Lepeco said.

Unlike the typical modern ant or wasp, hell ants have some special qualities:

• The devilish insects have vertically oriented, scythe-like jaws that—researchers assume—they used to pin down or impale their prey.

• Their unique heads also feature metal reinforced spikes, and could only move up-and-down, rather than side-to-side, like ants do today.

Not to worry, they lived over among dinosaurs over 113 million years ago during the Cretaceous period (see overview). The finding is extremely rare, and only a few other hell ant species encased in amber fossils have been discovered in Myanmar, France, and Canada, though they were only around 99 million years old.

Once in a lifetime

Today, ants are among the most diverse and abundant animals on the planet, found on every continent except Antarctica, with over 13,800 species known. However, ants weren’t always the plentiful and dominant species we know them to be:

• They evolved around 145 million years ago, when ant ancestors split from the same group that led to wasps and bees.

• According to the study, ants became the most common insect in the fossil record only after the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs and other species 66 million years ago.

That’s partly why this discovery is so important: The newest specimen, which is older than any known ant fossil by over 10 million years, sheds light on the early evolution of ants and shows us how their predatory traits (like the scythe jaws) may have affected the creation of other ant species.

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California passes Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy

Well, at least the state has this going for it. The US state of California has overtaken Japan as the fourth biggest economy in the world, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Money maker

Last year, California's gross domestic product (GDP) reached $4.10 trillion, surpassing Japan's $4.02 trillion, putting the state behind the United States, China, and Germany in global economic rankings. Not to mention, the data also shows something rather surprising:

• If California were its own country, it would outpace every nation in the world. With a 6% growth rate, California grew faster than the US (5.3%), China (2.6%), and Germany (2.9%).

The US leads the world by far in GDP, with current rankings placing the US in first place with a GDP of over $29 trillion, China in second, with a GDP of $18.74 trillion, and Germany in third, with a GDP of $4.65 trillion.

Why did California pass Japan? The nation is facing a significant demographic shift and an aging population, which has ballooned costs, causing people to spend less. Additionally, a weakening Yen and trade tensions have collectively contributed to its economy’s drop to the number 5 spot.

Setting the pace

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state was “setting the pace” for the rest of the world, as it’s home to most of the manufacturing and agricultural production in the US.

• The state is also a hub for cutting-edge technology, the heart of the global entertainment industry, and home to the nation's two largest seaports.

Proof of concept: The economic milestone highlights California's major role in the global economy, proving the state's commitment to growth through technological innovation and strategic investments has paid off in a pretty significant way.​

Housing has become more expensive… and more available

Why can’t we just have lower prices? I’ll tell you. For prospective homebuyers, especially young ones, the housing market seems like a chaotic cesspool they wouldn’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole.

Although prices are rising, there are a few key indicators potential buyers might want to be on the lookout for. Let me explain the current situation.

Expensive dwellings

One of the reasons you see fewer young people in a brand-new starter home is the high prices. While prices haven’t spiked like they did the past couple of years, the cost of buying a home is still increasing:

• Last month, the average price of a property sold was $431,048—a mere 2.5% increase from a year ago, per Redfin data.

Additionally, higher interest rates have caused mortgage rates to soar, making a new home even more expensive when looking past the sticker price.

• As of April 24, the average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.81%, up from 2.98% in 2021, according to Freddie Mac.

The combination of these two factors has cast out more than a few prospective homebuyers, leading to fewer people willing to sell and, ultimately, historically low numbers of Americans buying homes.

There is an upside

Since interest rates have been so high for so long, some people have decided it’s not worth the wait, giving those who want to buy a home a good amount of options:

• Last month, there were about 20% more properties for sale than there were a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

An extra perk: Increased availability has given buyers more leeway when it comes to negotiating prices, with 44% of property acquisitions made in the first three months of the year involving a compromise by the seller.

FAST FACTS
Catch up on this week’s weird news

Boat Race: A speedboat that flipped midair three times while racing at over 200 mph (see video) and ended up winning the race it was in. Both people onboard survived with minimal injuries.

‘Copter Crash: A new report reveals that the Black Hawk helicopter pilot who caused the January aircraft crash in Washington, DC, which killed 67, ignored course change calls seconds before the collision.

Double Speak: Shein and Temu, Chinese online retailers that focus on low-cost goods, made essentially the same statements regarding price increases brought on by new trade and tariff regulations.

Mountian Man: Last week, a Japanese man had to be airlifted from Mount Fuji due to altitude sickness. Four days later, he went back to the mountain and had to be airlifted a second time.

Insta-Cure: More young adults are choosing social media over doctors’ advice. An Edelman survey found 38% of 18–34-year-olds ignored doctor guidance for social media info, up from 26% last year.

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