today in tabs: don't let ai flirt for you

ALSO: Gen Z is extra picky with their alcohol preferences, Kristi Noem adds to her super villain resume, and more

Jul 03, 2025

Happy Thursday, July 3rd.

Sorry friends, I lied, I’m back with another newsletter this week because there was simply too much news 🫠 This one will be a bit shorter, and we will be back to business as usual on Tuesday!

I also put out a call for folks in the space who wanted to do “Got A Text” interviews (this, this, and this) for the newsletter, and I’ve been so overwhelmed by and so grateful for the response!! Stay tuned, we have some SUPER COOL chats coming – and if you’re interested, my inbox is always open!

And as always, tips, thoughts, concerns, good jokes, bad jokes, tea, etc?

And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), that would be so appreciated 🙏

Penn to Revoke Transgender Swimmer’s Records and Apologize to Female Swimmers

In February, three former Penn swimmers sued the school and the organizers of an Ivy League championship for allowing Thomas to compete, arguing it made the competition unfair. (WSJ, 7/1 – free version)

Lucy’s note: Just a reminder that estimates put the number of trans college athletes in the US at less than 10 (and “physical advantages” in sports happen no matter what)… but hope it was all worth it for these guys to bully and discriminate against a handful of already marginalized kids…

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

In 2023, while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show. (ProPublica, 6/30)

Trump’s New Fragrance Doesn’t Smell Like Success

Victory 47 for Men promises “rich, masculine notes with a refined finish” without actually listing any of the ingredients or its scent profile. Helpfully, early reviews from users at fragrance forum Parfumo describe it as “oriental-fruity” but score it at just 1.9 out of 10. (WIRED, 7/1)

ICE-tracking app tops App Store

Following this comment, ICEBlock grew in popularity overnight, bringing it to the top of the App Store on Tuesday before dropping to the third spot at the time of writing. According to its website, ICEBlock lets users report sightings of ICE officials with “two taps” and view reports that others have made within a five-mile radius. (The Verge, 7/2)

‘It’s almost like we never even spoke’: AI is making everyone on dating apps sound charming

With AI helping everyone sound more charming — and editing out red-flag comments before they are uttered — it’s harder to suss out whether a potential partner is appealing and safe, said Erika Ettin, a dating coach who has worked with thousands of clients. (WaPo, 7/3)

Online Ad Spending in 2024 Election Totaled at Least $1.9 Billion

Although this is the most complete accounting of online spending to influence the 2024 elections to date, it is an underestimate since no law requires platforms to publish information about political spending. Some platforms publish no data on this, and the voluntary disclosures of others are unstandardized and likely incomplete. (Brennan Center, 7/2)

What Gen Z really wants from alcohol brands

Gen Z is less interested in getting drunk and more invested in the how, when and why they drink. They are also drinking less than any previous generation. In the US, only 62 per cent of adults under 35 drink alcohol, down from 72 per cent in 2004 — while nearly 20 per cent of Gen Z are fully teetotal. (Vogue Business, 7/1 – free version)

Women in their 20s and 30s are working more than ever before

The research found women in their 20s and 30s are more likely to be working than older cohorts, with about 78 percent of those born in the 1990s employed. For their moms’ generation, the figure was about 75 percent. (The 19th, 7/1)

The Drink of the Summer Is … Foam

Starbucks, equipped with all kinds of traditional coffee foams, has beefed up its menu this season with an array of flavored cold foams, even promoting “free cold foam days” this spring. Meanwhile, other major coffee players like Dunkin’, Danone, and Nestlé sell whipped cream–like cans of cold foams. (Slate, 6/28)

Gen Z conservatives over-index in sports media consumption, per report

The gap between conservative and liberal sports media consumption, essentially being a manifestation of an ideological gap between genders, makes sense. It’s not necessarily that conservatives enjoy sports more. It’s that men lean conservative at higher rates than women, and men consume more sports. (Awful Announcing, 7/1)

The Olive Oil Crisis

Who thinks they can get away with such buffoonery in a small town, where news travels fast? Stealing olives, of all things? But the theft was on trend. Rising temperatures in the Mediterranean had rendered olive oil scarcer than it had been in recent memory, leaving some of the growing region’s residents desperate enough that such a crime started to make sense. (Bloomberg, 6/30 – free version)

AMC now warns moviegoers to expect ‘25-30 minutes’ of ads and trailers

This already mirrors the estimated runtime of AMC’s preshow content, which includes ads and trailers, but now customers will be better informed if they want to arrive a little later without missing the start of their movie. (The Verge, 7/1)

Extra Credit 🤓

Some newsletters I thought were excellent recently:

“The Socialist Mayors of Madrid and Barcelona” from Waleed Shahid
“An AI Band Went Viral. So What?” from Chris Dalla Riva of Can't Get Much Higher
(another fun one) “On My Eye in July” from Priyanka Aribindi of Shit I Bought And Liked
- I became a Pryanka fan when she was hosting Crooked Media’s What A Day podcast a few years back!

The most-clicked links in the last Open Tabs newsletter were:

That’s all for now – I’ll see you next week, have a great long weekend!

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?