🚀 Starlink flips the switch on Congo’s internet future | 🤖 AI’s promised time-savings spiral into meeting mayhem | 🧒 Google’s Gemini opens the chatbox to under-13s

Warm-Up

Welcome to your Saturday scroll, where the Wi-Fi is strong and the coffee stronger.
• A new study says AI giveth time—and taketh it right back.
• Starlink flips the script in the Congo’s connectivity saga.
• Google’s Gemini cracks open the Kids menu.
• A 21-year-old’s hypersonic startup just wooed $100 M.
• Meet Freddy, the ’70s robot whose downfall froze UK AI for a decade.

🚀 Today in Tech

Productivity Treadmill: AI’s time savings ‘eaten by new tasks’

Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/time-saved-by-ai-offset-by-new-work-created-study-suggests/
TL;DR: A multi-country survey of 20 k workers finds 8.4 % now spend more hours because automation spawned extra emails, meetings, and oversight steps, effectively cancelling AI’s vaunted productivity boost.

Congo gives Starlink the green light after last year’s red

Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-grants-licence-starlink-reversing-earlier-ban-2025-05-02/
TL;DR: Kinshasa reversed its 2024 ban, letting SpaceX roll out low-orbit broadband to the 70 % of Congolese still offline—despite military worries that rebels might piggyback on the service.

Gemini for under-13s: Google extends AI access to kids

The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/news/660678/google-gemini-ai-children-under-13-family-link-chatbot-access
TL;DR: Parents using Family Link will soon get an opt-in that lets children ask homework questions or bedtime-story prompts; Google swears the chats won’t feed its training data (but warns “Gemini can still be weird”).

Mach Industries raises $100 M to build hypersonic kit

TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/01/rising-star-defense-tech-startup-mach-industries-is-raising-100-million-sources-say/
TL;DR: The 21-year-old MIT dropout behind Mach is about to close a Khosla-led round valuing the defense-tech upstart at $470 M; at this rate their cash is travelling Mach 3—faster than my dad when he hears “free buffet.” (Yep, that’s your lone Dad joke.)

Freddy the Robot: How one clunky bot sparked a UK AI winter

IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/freddy-robot-british-ai-winter
TL;DR: A deep dive into Edinburgh’s 1973 Freddy II—able to assemble toy cars in 16 hours—shows how funding politics and unmet hype kneecapped British AI for a decade, offering a retro cautionary tale for today’s boom.

🎲 Link Grab-Bag

• TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/02/ai-chatbots-are-juicing-engagement-instead-of-being-useful-instagram-co-founder-warns/ — Instagram’s Kevin Systrom says chatbots are “all juice, no brains.”
  

• IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/video-friday-robots-extreme-environments — Watch a wheeled-legged ‘wheg’ robot sprint across rubble.
  

• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/may/02/your-new-celebrity-best-friend-its-just-a-deepfake-trying-to-con-you — Deepfake celebs slide into DMs—and bank accounts.
  

• The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/news/660548/firefox-google-search-revenue-share-doj-antitrust-remedies — Mozilla warns losing Google cash could sink Firefox.
  

• Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/pentagons-ai-metals-program-goes-private-bid-boost-western-supply-deals-2025-05-01/ — Pentagon hands its AI metals market model to a new non-profit.
  

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Keep your curiosity patched and your cookies crumb-free—see you tomorrow! ✌️