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An opportunity to choose chance. Thats what social platform startup 222 claims to offer its members. It isnt a dating apptheres no swiping, and, more notably, theres no actual choosing of who you might be meeting. Instead, an AI-driven algorithm does it for you. We wanted people to be out and meeting each other.It was [based] on this whole idea of the death of third places, and that people arent just running into each other anymore, says 222 cofounder and chief operations officer Danial Hashemi. Theres no more chance encounters, so the whole [algorithm] has always been about engineering chance. A backyard origin story In 2021, twenty-something-year-old friends Keyan Kazemian, Arman Roshannai, and Hashemi came up with the idea for 222 as part of an independent research project. They created a personality questionnaire and asked friends and strangers to complete it. Participants were grouped based on their answers, then invited to Kazemians backyard for wine and food. Afterward, the trio would assess how well everyone got along. It convinced us of two things: one, it is possible to solve the social isolation problem by using machine learning and AI, and two, that even at its [initial] stage, with just us randomly assigning people, they enjoyed it so much, Hashemi says. Social isolation isnt a new problem in our increasingly digitized lives, but it remains a persistent one. Despite access to every niche thought, community, or subreddit imaginable, society is, statistically, lonelier than ever. According to a 2023 report from the Department of Health and Human Services, we are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. Between 2003 and 2020, time spent alone increased by 24 hours per month nationwide. Over the same period, time spent engaging with others dropped by 10 hours per month. In 2018, only 16% of Americans felt connected to their communities. So, can AI truly be the cure to social isolation? Hashemi thinks it canthrough 222, which he believes can deepen relationships and connect people to their cities. How it works The name 222 comes from the street address in Los Angeles where the idea was first developed. The platform is accessible via both app and website. There are no profile photo uploads, and the experience begins with what feels like the final boss of personality quizzes. With prompts ranging from favorite movies to political views to how likely would you be to do cocaine?, the algorithm gathers input through a labyrinth of questions. These span categories like identity, interests, and media, shaping each users curation profile. Eventually, users receive curated invite cards to activities like dinner and a comedy club or pickleball and lunch, matched to their algorithmic personality type. To acceptand to help fund the app alongside its investor backingusers can pay a per-event curation fee of $22.22, subscribe monthly for the same price, or choose a discounted three-month or annual plan. Were not trying to be some novel experience that someone tries one time and then doesnt come back, Hashemi says. Were trying to build the lasting product that people build their social infrastructure on top of. After each group event, users can give feedback on whether theyd like to hang out or date specific individuals. This helps fine-tune the algorithm and increases the retainment factor, according to Hashemieither deepening existing connections or making space for new ones. It just feels like were more divided than ever and theres more echo chambers than ever, Hashemi says. All of these social media platforms are only showing you what you love and arent challenging you. Originally launched in L.A., 222 has since expanded to New York City, San Francisco, and most recently, Chicago. To date, 222 has raised $3.6 million in seed and angel investments from the likes of General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Upfront Ventures, and the 1517 Fund. On July 2, the platform will become available internationally for the first time, launching in Toronto, with London and D.C. to follow later in the month.
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E-Commerce
The big question following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program is: What remains of it? U.S. President Donald Trump has said three targets hit by American strikes were “obliterated.” His defense secretary said they were “destroyed.”A preliminary report issued by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as a result of Israeli and U.S. strikes, the agency has “seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran,” including those three. Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by “many years.”Officials and experts are still assessing the damage, and their evaluation could change.Two of the major questions they are trying to address are where Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is and what is the state of the centrifuges that enrich the fuel.The answer to the first is not clear, but the IAEA believes significant damage was done to centrifuges at the two enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordo.The IAEAand the worldwant to know the state of both the uranium and centrifuges because if Iran chooses to make a nuclear weapon, then making the fuel required would be just a short, technical step away.Iran has always maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.But it has enriched significant quantities of uranium beyond the levels required for any civilian use, and Israel launched strikes on nuclear and military targets on June 13, accusing Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons.The U.S. joined that attack on Sunday, dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs on two sites. Iran retaliated with strikes on Israeli and American targets. Israel and Iran have since agreed to a ceasefire.Here’s what we knowand don’t knowabout the state of Iran’s nuclear program. It’s possible the nuclear fuel was moved At least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium may have been moved before the U.S. strikes, the assessment from the DIA suggests, according to two people familiar with the evaluation. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.That would mean that some of the stockpile may have survived.The assessment was preliminary and will be refined as new information becomes available, the agency has said. Its authors also characterized it as “low confidence,” an acknowledgement that the conclusions could be mistaken.The White House has called the assessment “flat-out wrong,” pointing to the power of the bombs to back up the president’s characterization that the sites hit had been destroyed.Iran has previously threatened to hide its enriched uranium if attacked, and reiterated its pledge the day Israel launched its military campaign. Enriched uranium is stored in canisters that can be moved around fairly easy.In May, the IAEA, which is the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said Iran had amassed 408.6 kilograms (900.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%. If it is further enriched to 90%, it would be enough to make nine nuclear weapons, according to the U.N.’s yardstick, though a weapon would require other expertise, such as a detonation device.Before the war, experts believe the stockpile was mainly stored in two places: underground tunnels at a facility in Isfahan, and in a heavily fortified underground enrichment site in Fordo.U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Thursday that he was “not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to bemoved or otherwise.” Trucks seen at nuclear facility prompt speculation Satellite imagery showed trucks and bulldozers at the Fordo site beginning June 19, three days before the U.S. struck.Eric Brewer, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and now deputy vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said it’s “plausible” that Iran used the trucks to take nuclear fuel away.But Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Breugel think tank in Brussels, disagreed: “I think that that was a decoy more than anything else.”Subsequent satellite imagery “revealed that the tunnel entrances into the underground complex had been sealed off with dirt prior to the U.S. airstrikes,” said Stephen Wood, senior director at American satellite imagery and analysis firm Maxar Technologies. “We believe that some of the trucks seen on 19 June were carrying dirt to be used as part of that operation.”Trump offered a similar explanation.In a post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, he wrote: “The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the bombs were dropped onto the two main ventilation shafts of Fordo.He said Iran attempted to cover the shafts with concrete before the U.S. attack, but the cap was “forcibly removed by the main weapon.” Centrifuges are highly sensitive and vulnerable to damage Inspectors from the IAEA have remained in Iran throughout the war, but they are currently unable to inspect any nuclear sites due to safety concerns.But with the “explosive payload utilized, and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges,” the agency believes “very significant damage is expected to have occurred” as a result of U.S. airstrikes at Fordo, according to a statement from IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to the agency’s board earlier this week.The centrifuges there are “no longer operational,” Grossi told Radio France Internationale on Thursday.Centrifuges are used to enrich uraniumand could eventually bring it up to weapons-grade levels, if Iran chooses to do so.Natanz, Iran’s biggest enrichment site, also houses centrifuges.In its underground plant, the IAEA believes most if not all of the centrifuge cascadesgroups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uraniumwere destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site.Its aboveground plant has also been “functionally destroyed,” the agency said.Strikes also caused “extensive damage” at Isfahan, according to the IAEA, especially at the uranium conversion facility and the plant for making uranium metal that’s vital to producing a nuclear bomb. What the damage means for Iran’s program is disputed Much like Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Iran’s nuclear program has been brought “to ruin.”The Israel Atomic Energy Commission believes the recent strikes have set back Tehran’s ability to develop an atomic weapon by years. Israel officials have not said how they reached this assessment.The DIA assessment, however, suggested that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, according to the people familiar with it.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in an interview with Politico, limited his own evaluation to saying Iran was “much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action.”Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Trump “exaggerated” the impact of the American strikes. Associated Press writers Sam McNeil in Brussels, Michelle L. Price and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report._ The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. _ Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/ Stephanie Liechtenstein, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Apple has revamped its app store policies in the European Union with hopes of fending off escalating fines under the 27-nation bloc’s digital competition regulations.It’s a last-minute bid by the iPhone maker to avoid further charges following a 500 million euro ($585 million) penalty in April. The bloc’s executive Commission punished Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store, and gave it a 60-day deadline, which expired Thursday, to avoid additional, periodic fines.The changes made by Apple will make it easier for app makers to point users to better deals on digital products and options to pay for them outside of Apple’s own App Store, including other websites, apps or alternative app stores.The California company is also rolling out a two-tier system of fees to accommodate app developers that want to use alternative payments.“The European Commission is requiring Apple to make a series of additional changes to the App Store,” Apple said in a statement. “We disagree with this outcome and plan to appeal.”The commission noted Apple’s announcement and “will now assess these new business terms for DMA compliance,” referring to the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The rulebook was designed to rein in the power of big tech companies under threat of hefty fines worth up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.Among the DMA’s provisions are requirements that developers inform customers of cheaper purchasing options, and direct them to those offers.Apple’s restrictions preventing developers from steering users to outside payment channels had been fiercely opposed by some companies. It’s the reason, for example, Spotify removed the in-app payment option to avoid having to pay a commission of up to 30% on digital subscriptions bought through iOS. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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