A newly launched AI assistant is drawing buzz among tech insiders who say it delivers on a long-standing promise: a chatbot capable of booking flights, drafting emails and securing hard-to-get restaurant reservations.

Called Instinct, the startup operates directly within iMessage and WhatsApp instead of requiring users to download a standalone app. The idea is simple: users can send it a message the same way they would text a human personal assistant.

“You can use OpenClaw [a similar product] in iMessage, but they’re clunky experiences — this is the first AI assistant I’ve recommended my wife and kids, who aren’t techies, should use,” said John Borthwick of Betaworks, an early Hugging Face investor who does not hold a stake in Instinct.

The company is reportedly discussing a $1 billion fundraising round that would value it at $10 billion. That figure is more than four times the $2.5 billion valuation investors reportedly assigned to Instinct just a month earlier—an extraordinary jump for a company that launched only in February.

For now, Instinct remains invite-only, a limited rollout that has only heightened interest in the product.

Christopher Rim, CEO of Command Education, said he had previously avoided hiring an assistant because delegating work to another person—and then reviewing and managing that work—often seemed like more effort than handling tasks himself.

“I’m the type of person who likes to just do it on my own,” he told me.

Yet after using Instinct for several weeks, Rim said the service had changed his mind. Once he shared the itinerary for an upcoming Middle East trip, the AI proactively arranged airport car service, a complimentary Emirates first-class benefit he did not know was available to him.

Instinct also contacted his hotel to alert staff to his arrival and proposed changes to his meeting schedule that would create a more efficient route through Dubai, helping him avoid spending the day retracing his path in traffic. In effect, it handled the kind of logistical planning typically assigned to an entire advance team—at no cost.

“It’s insane,” he added.

Borthwick, a top investor, said he likes Instinct because it has found the right voice and cadence with its texts— something which many bots struggle with. People quickly get annoyed and silence or delete apps which overcommunicate or have the wrong tone, research shows.

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Competitors like Poke have unveiled similar products but remain at much smaller valuations, as the market is crowded and cutting through the noise around AI and its adoption is hard.

The only areas Instinct, founded by 23-year-old Noah Shinn, has run into questions about are security and privacy. As with any assistant, product accesses email, messaging, calendar, location, and other data pools — it’s just not clear exactly how much it is storing and what it does with data. Instinct didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Matthew Ammirati, who runs multiple businesses, said he erected guardrails after a few bad experiences with other Large Language Models. “I’m not letting it delete anything,” he said.

He has, however, given Instinct permission to read and write emails. Which has helped him out from under the more than 500 he receives daily.

“It’s giving you the ability to kind of clear your head and focus on the work you actually need to do,” he said.

When I asked Instinct what LLM it uses, it demurred.

It did assure me my data was secure, “Everything stored about you is encrypted at rest, and what gets indexed from your connected accounts (email, calendar, messages) is used only for your experience — never to train models.”

The fact its answer was opaque is enough to give someone pause, although when something works so well, who wants to give it a break?

There’s also a question about what happens when everyone else has a digital assistant acting on their behalf, too.

Resy temporarily deactivated one user’s account after their Instinct assistant tried to book a reservation at 4 Charles in the West Village 200 times in one hour.

Such hiccups aside, there’s a lot Instinct has going for it. From an investment standpoint the service is hot, but the question of whether that enthusiasm for the product justifies a $10 billion price tag, or whether it could be just the latest sign of an AI bubble, remains to be seen.

– Robert Kraft commits $2 million to Middle East humanitarian relief amid controversy over Macklemore’s Gillette Stadium ban
– Pink responds to criticism after condemning Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian concert comments
– Bill Maher criticizes Macklemore’s Gaza views, arguing celebrity “moral confusion” is contributing to antisemitism

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft pledged $2 million in humanitarian aid for the Middle East after facing sharp criticism for barring Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium. Ed Sheeran called on Kraft to match the rapper’s own relief donation after venue owners canceled Macklemore’s opening appearance. Kraft said the money would support innocent civilians, while reaffirming his opposition to political messaging from the concert stage.

Antisemitic incidents are rising, prompting a warning from a civil rights organization. Columbia student David Pomerantz, New Beginnings Church founder Corey Brooks, End Jew Hatred Movement founder Brooke Goldstein and CUNY law professor Jeffrey Lax discuss the growing threats facing Jewish communities and the factors they believe are behind the increase.

Pink responded to heavy criticism after speaking out against Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian concert remarks. In an emotional statement, the Jewish singer defended her right to express concerns about her safety without being labeled pro-genocide. Pink said she would not remain silent when addressing her heritage and the safety of families attending concerts.

BILL GETS REAL: Late-night host Bill Maher addressed the issue on Real Time, accusing celebrities of spreading misinformation that he said is contributing to antisemitism worldwide. Responding to Macklemore’s allegation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Maher argued that the rapper was uninformed about the conflict and described it as a counterattack in a war. The comedian also criticized far-left rhetoric, saying it promotes falsehoods and emboldens hostility toward Jews.

Norway is facing criticism over a proposed bill that could impose prison sentences of up to three years on people who do business with Israeli communities in the West Bank. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and Christian group leaders condemned the proposal as discriminatory, arguing that it would criminalize trade based on Jewish identity and create an anti-Israel boycott through legislation.

Iris Reff Ronen, CEO of Warriors of Israel, writes that as international leaders debate sanctions against Israel, she is focused on wounded soldiers working to rebuild their lives. The rehabilitation leader criticized those advocating economic pressure while overlooking the sacrifices of injured troops. For soldiers recovering in rehabilitation centers, she argues, global political disputes are secondary to the demanding work of recovery.

“Because nowhere has this moral confusion become more obvious than in a place called Gaza. A little strip of land that was not part of the original Israel, but they won in a war launched against them, but then gave back, gave back as a peace gesture — did they tell you that part on TikTok, kids?” – Bill Maher

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New details have emerged about Lady Gaga and her fiancé Michael Polansky’s newborn baby.

A birth certificate obtained by TMZ has revealed the couple’s baby’s name and sex, along with information about her arrival.

Lady Gaga and Polansky welcomed a daughter, Rose Bean Polansky, on June 9 at 11:19 PM at Los Angeles’ renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where numerous celebrities have given birth over the years.

Dr. Robert Katz, an OB/GYN who previously delivered Ciara and Russell Wilson’s daughter Sienna Princess, delivered the baby.

The Daily Mail has contacted Gaga’s representatives for comment and has yet to receive a response.

The name Rose appears to carry special meaning for Gaga. Her maternal grandmother was the late Veronica Rose “Ronnie” Ferrie Bissett.

Gaga also has the title of her A Star Is Born song, La Vie En Rose, tattooed along her spine.

Reports that Gaga and Polansky had welcomed a child first surfaced last week, after the singer quietly stepped away from public view.

Page Six broke the news and published photos of the couple with their newborn baby.

Prior to the baby news, the Born This Way singer was last seen in August during a fan encounter in Northern California that was documented with an Instagram selfie, and she has otherwise kept a low public profile since wrapping up her latest tour, The Mayhem Ball, in April. 

Gaga (real name: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) and Polansky have been engaged since April of 2024, and they began dating back in 2019. 

During an appearance in October 2025 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said motherhood would be her ‘next starring role.’

‘I would like to do many things, yeah, all of these things,’ she said after Colbert asked if she wanted to continue acting in films or performing on Broadway. ‘But, what I really want is to be a mom. That’s my next starring role, I hope.’

While speaking to the New York Times in March 2025, Gaga said she was ‘excited to be a mom,’ even though she ‘used to have a lot of apprehension about it.’

‘I’m also kind of at war with myself sometimes as I get ready to, hopefully, become a mom soon,’ she added. ‘Like, today is wonderful, but the whole day has revolved around me. There’s an incredible amount of narcissism in this.’

Gaga’s plans for becoming a mother may not end with just one child.

‘She has only one sister, Natali, and always wanted more siblings. So she wants her children to have many siblings so they can all lean on each other,’ a source told the Daily Mail.

So far, there’s no word on when Gaga and Polansky plan to tie the knot, but in March of this year she indicated that they planned to wed ‘soon.’

During an appearance on Bruno Mars’s Romantic Radio TikTok Live, the Poker Face singer said via a recorded message: ‘Me and my fiancé have been traveling all year, but we’re getting married soon. We were hoping you could choose a special song for us.’

In her earlier interview with Stephen Colbert, Gaga couldn’t help but sing her fiancé’s praises.

‘He’s my best friend in the whole world,’ she said of Polansky, adding that he ’empowered me as a woman in music with a beautiful partner that has my back every day.’

‘He just blew me away from the minute that I met him,’ Gaga continued. ‘He always, I think, really saw me and I think I always really saw him.’

Back in October of 2024, the occasional actress told Jimmy Kimmel that she and Polansky were considering an elopement involving ‘just going to a courthouse, just the two of us, and ordering Chinese food.’

Gaga and Polansky have been together for six years after meeting in 2019 at a star-studded 40th birthday party in Los Angeles for tech entrepreneur Sean Parker.

They were first seen out together as a couple on New Year’s Eve that year at the Park MGM in Las Vegas before being spotted stealing a kiss on a hotel balcony in February 2020. In the days that followed, they went to the Super Bowl in Miami, then confirmed their relationship on social media with a cozy picture of them cuddled up on a boat.

By 2024, they were engaged. The couple made their red carpet debut that fall at the Venice Film Festival, with Gaga flashing her colossal diamond ring at the cameras.

Polansky, it would later be revealed, had proposed to her five months prior on April Fools’ Day when the couple was out rock climbing.

‘We were just walking back to the room and talking. He actually – it was very Michael – asked me if he could ask me. He wanted to know if it was OK to propose before he proposed. And I was like, “Yes, it’s so OK!”‘ she recalled.

‘He had the ring in his backpack, so it was so super cute. But you know what? I’m a modern lady. I like what he did.’

Now, the couple has started to build a quieter life in the affluent town of Ross in Marin County, close to the home of California governor Gavin Newsom, according to sources.

‘There are tons of Lady Gaga sightings all over Marin, and everyone loves her; she has become a local,’ one resident told the Daily Mail.

California’s two flagship NBA franchises took sharply different paths during the offseason.

The Lakers reshaped their supporting cast around Luka Dončić, bringing in Walker Kessler, Collin Sexton, Quentin Grimes, Matisse Thybulle, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Ziaire Williams, Jaden Hardy and Cameron Carr.

Golden State, by contrast, made few meaningful changes and largely returned the same group.

Still, the two rivals shared one notable offseason disappointment.

Neither landed LeBron James, who departed the Lakers following eight seasons and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.

After winning their first title in a decade in 2020, the Lakers are aiming to return to the NBA’s summit. Their hopes now rest heavily on Dončić, acquired in a blockbuster trade in February 2025.

The Warriors, meanwhile, are attempting to extend the relevance of their modern dynasty. Having captured four championships in an eight-year span from 2015 through 2022, Golden State is focused on giving Steph Curry meaningful games as his career enters its later stages and the NBA grows younger, quicker and increasingly difficult to keep up with.

With the Western Conference as deep as ever, where do the Lakers and Warriors stand heading into next season?

Here are our predictions:

Lakers: No. 3

The Thunder and Spurs sit clearly ahead of the Lakers.

Those teams have no obvious weaknesses. They have youth. They have superstars. They have depth. They have incredible defense. And they’ve proven they have the chemistry and mental fortitude to go deep in the playoffs. 

After revamping their team to get younger and deeper, the Lakers are on their way to being able to compete with the creme de la creme of the West, but they’re not there yet. 

They need an elite perimeter defender. They need time to jell. They’re a few tweaks away from being considered real contenders. 

Could the Lakers finish higher than Nikola Jokic and his Nuggets? Yes. The Nuggets had a disappointing offseason following a first-round playoff exit in April, including losing Peyton Watson, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown. 

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As for the Timberwolves? They could give the Lakers fits behind perennial All-Star Anthony Edwards and four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. The Timberwolves added LaMelo Ball and Jonathan Kuminga to their roster and could be a fringe contender. 

The Rockets are also a team to watch. Sure, the Lakers jumped to a 3-0 series lead over them last postseason without Doncic and Austin Reaves, but both teams are going to look completely different in October. Kevin Durant is expected to be healthy, and Fred VanVleet is returning from injury. As for the Lakers, they’re only returning two starters from last season in Doncic and Reaves.

If the Lakers finish third in the West over the Timberwolves and Rockets that would be an incredible showing for Doncic, who’s eager to prove he can be the Lakers’ next superstar. He wants to win his first championship. He wants to prove his detractors wrong. And now he’s backed by a 17-time championship organization that views anything short of a title as a failure. 

Here’s to betting Doncic is able to carry the Lakers to a third-place finish in the highly competitive West. 

Warriors: No. 8

We held our breath when the Warriors were pursuing Giannis Antetokounmpo. Bust. 

We were on the edge of our seat when they were pursuing James in an attempt to pair him with the team he faced in four straight NBA Finals from 2015-2018. Slump. 

The league is more fun when the Warriors are good. Curry is the greatest shooter ever. Draymond Green is a fiery defender who’s endlessly exciting to watch. Warriors coach Steve Kerr is brilliant. 

But alas, all of the Warriors’ attempts to become contenders flatlined. 

So, as of now, the Warriors are a fringe playoff team. It’s a shame for Curry, who’s turning 39 next season and is still one of the NBA’s top players. Last season, he became the oldest point guard in NBA history to be named a starter on the All-Star team. 

The Warriors are expected to try to work some magic ahead of the trade deadline to breathe some life into Curry’s 18th season.

But until then, with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody set to miss the start of the season due to injuries, the Warriors aren’t expected to make much noise. 

That said, if Curry, Green and Kristaps Porzingis are healthy, this team can’t be counted out. Remember what they did in their first play-in game against the Clippers, when Curry went unconscious finishing with 35 points (27 of which he scored in the second half), Green bottled up Kawhi Leonard (holding him to just two points in the fourth quarter) and Porzingis had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. 

If you add Butler and Moody to that mix, the Warriors could be tough.

But as of now, too many questions surround their health and durability and too many teams with fresh legs are looking to sprint past them, including the Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, Timberwolves, Rockets, Nuggets and Mavericks.

Philadelphia police said they uncovered images of seven missing women while reviewing more than 1 million files seized from a home. Two of the women appear to be unconscious and injured, and investigators also found five urns believed to hold human ashes, authorities said Wednesday.

An initial review of the images identified two missing women — 27-year-old Gabrielle Armando and 26-year-old Marabel Fresses — lying unconscious inside the Chew Avenue residence with what appeared to be injuries, Philadelphia Police Department Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said during a news conference.

Image metadata indicates the photographs were taken in 2017. “Both women remain missing and have not been seen,” Vanore said, adding that “to date, neither their bodies nor any DNA evidence have been recovered.”

The Chew Avenue home belonged to the late pornographer Raymond “R.C.” Horsch and was occupied by his son, Eugene Horsch, whose arrest in June prompted the investigation.

Vanore said a Federal Park Ranger arrested 44-year-old Eugene Horsch on June 19 after investigating him and a female passenger who were sitting in a BMW near Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.

“During the course of that investigation, officers recovered two firearms, narcotics, and identification impersonating a federal law enforcement officer, and he was charged. Task force officers from the DEA were able to develop probable cause that same day and serve a warrant on Mr. Horsch’s residence,” Vanore said.

The woman riding with Horsch gave police false identification in the name of Blair Tonzelli, who has been missing since 2023, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson confirmed to News Media.

Police have not released the actual identity of the woman found in the vehicle. Tonzelli’s whereabouts remain unknown.

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After obtaining a warrant, investigators found “a homemade laboratory of some kind in the basement area, five urns believed to contain human ashes, and a large amount of digital evidence — including computers, hard drives, flash drives, DVRs, cameras, and phones,” Vanore said during the press conference.

Investigators have identified 58 total people in the videos and images they found in the home. Vanore said “four of those identified appear lifeless, with video depicting what may have happened to one of them.”

One video shows R.C. Horsch handcuffing a woman to a bed and zip-tying her neck until she became unconscious. Police identified this woman as Nicole Fusaro, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia.

Another missing woman connected to the home is R.C. Horsch’s ex-wife, Amy McHale, who has been missing since 2016, FOX 29 reported.

Two other missing women have been connected to the home. Police identified one as a 25-year-old woman but did not name her, and the other has yet to be identified, according to FOX 29.

“We have only processed a small fraction of the total media. Thousands of videos remain to be analyzed. We are working to corroborate what we see and gather physical evidence to prove our findings, supported throughout by the FBI as we determine our next steps,” Vanore concluded Wednesday.