Hello Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like the first sip of coffee on a Monday - awakening, refreshing, and the perfect antidote to your Monday blues in the tech world.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• AI Girlfriend makes $72K in 1 week 🤖❤️

• Lyft up for sale? 🛒🚕

• Asteroids ☄️

AI Girlfriend makes $72K in 1 week 🤖❤️

Have you ever wanted to date a Snapchat star? Well, Caryn Marjorie, the 23-year-old influencer, is ready to make that dream come true. Well, sort of.

For $1/minute, you can be the virtual boyfriend of CarynAI, Caryn's artificially intelligent alter ego!

That's right, folks, we're living in a world where you can date an AI and also never be left on read —and they said romance was dead.

Harnessing the power of OpenAI's GPT technology, Marjorie has turned her digital persona into a lucrative business.

• She now has over 11,000 virtual boyfriends engaging in everything from friendly banter to planning their AI-human future and has brought over $72K in just 1 week.

• If just over 1% of her 1.8M followers jump on the CarynAI bandwagon, Marjorie could be looking at a sweet monthly paycheck of $5 million. Holy Cow!

The minds at Forever Voices, the company behind the creation of CarynAI, have reportedly spent 2,000 hours turning Caryn's YouTube content to make this digital doppelganger as lifelike as possible.

However not everything is sunshine and roses.

• Users of the chatbot have at certain instances been able to jail-break it to have some PG13 conversations which CarynAI is not supposed to support.

• This has fairly led to a lot of ethical concerns regarding such applications of the technology which will inevitably profligate such use cases.

• Forever Voices says they are on it, planning to appoint a chief ethics officer to make sure everything's above board.

But for now, she's probably the only gal who won't mind if you forget your anniversary—after all, with over a thousand boyfriends, keeping track of dates can be a bit of a challenge.

Want to try the chatbot out? Chat with CarynAI.

Lyft up for sale? 🛒🚕

Lyft's CEO, David Risher, might just be the most eligible corporate bachelor on the block. In a recent plot twist, he has hinted that he's ready to mingle, or in business terms, open to acquisition offers.

Now, he's not exactly swiping right on every tech giant, but he's not swiping left either.

Risher hasn't had the smoothest of rides since taking over Lyft. His first order of business was a job massacre with more than a 1000 jobs slashed (around 26% of the entire workforce).

Now, let's talk some numbers.

• Currently, Lyft's market cap is a humble $3.1 billion, while Uber’s is strutting around with a valuation 25 times higher.

• Lyft’s share price has taken a nosedive deeper than a submarine in the Mariana Trench dropping a staggering 90% from the time it IPO’ed in 2019 and is already down 26% this year.

• Their market share has been on a steeper descent than a thrill-seeking rollercoaster as well, plunging from 38% to 26% since 2020.

Over the years, Uber's investments in their side hustles have paid off which shows in it’s stock performance which is up by 50% this year.

• Their food delivery biz gave the company a huge boost during the pandemic and has sustained that momentum.

• They were also very generous with the incentives for drivers after the pandemic to join them and leave Lyft in a cloud of dust.

• Uber also has seen some promise with it’s nascent, high-margin advertising business.

So, what's next? Will Lyft find its Prince Charming in the corporate world or continue to ride solo in the tough terrains of the Silicon Valley?

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Netflix is tightening its belt this year, cutting $300 million, curbing password sharing, and even selling ads! Sorry folks, but you might have to shed some more money! 😬💸

Tesla's got a 'braking' news for 1.1 million of its drivers in China, a recall due to a glitch. But don't worry, a wireless software update should put the brakes on this issue. Seems like Elon’s brain child hit a few speed bumps on the way. 😅🚗

OpenAI's ChatGPT is levelling up with some fancy new web-browsing and plugin powers! From weather forecasts to shopping sprees, this AI is becoming quite the multitasker. 🤖💻

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