Measuring AI progress has usually meant testing scientific knowledge or logical reasoning – but while the major benchmarks still focus on left-brain logic skills, there’s been a quiet push within AI companies to make models more emotionally intelligent. As foundation models compete on soft measures like user preference and “feeling the AGI,” having a good […]

GoKwik, an Indian startup that offers a suite of integrated e-commerce products, has raised a small round of $13 million, which it calls a “growth” round, that has boosted its valuation to $450 million pre-money. While the new funding round, led by RTP Global, is 63% smaller than its Series B of $35 million, announced […]

Mattress Mack shouting out Morgan Wallen… what a world we live in, eh? You might not know who Mattress Mack is, and that’s okay. He’s just one of the most legendary gamblers of all time, and he was recently honored with being asked to join Morgan Wallen during his pre-concert walkout ritual at his Houston, Texas concert. Guess you earn that right when you are one of the most well known millionaire gamblers in the world? If you are wondering what Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale does for a living to allow him to place million dollar bets… he owns a furniture store empire in Texas. He’s also incredibly charitable but his real claim to fame is actually making over-the-top bets on sporting events as part of a promotional giveaway for his store, Gallery Furniture. His $4.5 million dollar bet on the Bengals to win the Super Bowl (which they lost), set the record for largest mobile bet in 2022. And occasionally, because he’s rose to fame for wagering (and sometimes winning) millions of dollars, he gets asked to do cool things, like joining Morgan Wallen for his first walkout of his 2025 I’m The Problem Tour. The country music superstar kicked off his summer tour with two straight nights in Houston, Texas at NRG Stadium. Because that’s Mattress Mack’s home turf, it was evidently a no brainer to ask the high-stakes gambler to join in on the walkout. Jim McIngvale explained how he was asked to meet up with the “Last Night” singer for the pre-show moment in a recent Instagram post: “I got a call from my friend Kyle of the Houston Astros on Tuesday. He said ‘Friday night, do you want to do a walkout with Morgan Wallen at the NRG Stadium at his concert?’ I said, ‘Well who wouldn’t it?’ So they were nice enough to give me some tickets. I went down there with my daughter Sydney and her friend Marki. We had great seats on the floor, watched the opening act, it was terrific. Then it was time to go back and meet Morgan. So we went back there and I had a suitcase full of prop money, just like the suitcase I had of real money when we won the big bet on the Astros in 2022.” Here’s the video of it in case you haven’t seen it: @livingwithlyndsey First walk out guest of the Morgan Wallen “I’m The Problem Tour” Mattress Mack #morganwallen #imtheproblemtour #houstontx #mattressmack #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #viral #viralvideo ♬ original sound – Living With Lyndsey Mattress Mack has both clout and rizz. Pretty impressive for a furniture store owner. The world-famous gambler went on to give props to Morgan Wallen for the show that he put on, and called him one of the great entertainers of the modern era: “We talked a little bit, walked on, and he went on the stage and he just knocked the show out. What really impressed me was the way he played to every member of the audience. The guy is just terrific. What a great entertainer. I think all 60,000-70,0000 people in NRG had a terrific time. Hats off to Morgan. He’s a great guy and a tremendous entertainer. It was an honor to walk out with him.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jim McIngvale (@mattressmackofficial) On night two of the I’m The Problem Tour, Morgan Wallen had rapper Drake join him for the walkout, and that started a whole thing online where people condemned Drake for “collaborating with a racist.” Maybe it was a good thing that Mattress Mack got things started off on the right foot on night one… but then again, this outrage stuff is a bit nonsensical considering Drake and Morgan Wallen were in a music video together just two years ago.The post Houston Legend, Mattress Mack, Reveals How He Got To Be A Part Of Morgan Wallen’s Walkout: “He’s A Great Guy” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

No fighting on Cody Johnson’s watch. The talented Texas native is currently out on tour, and a recent stop within his home state in San Antonio included some… let’s just say extracurricular activity out in the crowd. Cody Johnson always puts on a great show, and just as his fans hold him to a high standard, the “Dirt Cheap” singer expects for his audiences to behave in a civil manner when he’s up on stage. When they don’t, he’s not afraid to call them out. The timing of a fight out in the crowd literally could not have been worse. Johnson had just preached to the audience about how important it is to come together, and to choose unity over being divided. CoJo followed up his inspiring words with a performance of “God Bless America,” and ironically, the fists started flying sometime after that. Johnson spotted the unruly behavior breaking out in the pit, and brought the show to a halt, saying: “That’s alright. We got all night.” Being called out by the man the fighting audience members paid to see apparently wasn’t enough for the concert goers to cease their battle, so Cody Johnson continued with some live commentary on the situation: “I mean, this is not a Travis Scott concert. I’m not gonna tell you all to turn on them, but what do you all think about them stopping the show? There’s kids in the crowd, there’s all kinds of things in here that don’t need to happen. There we go… there’s the police officers.” @jlynn2112 The Travis Scott reference had me dead #. #CoJo #CodyJohnsonconcert #countrymusic #sanantonio #crowdfight ♬ original sound – Jennyfer Boom, roasted. That’s obviously a reference to the tragic events that unfolded at the Astroworld Festival back in 2021. Even though Travis Scott realized that something wrong was happening during his concert, he continued his show during a deadly crowd crush that left 10 people dead, dozens hospitalized and hundreds with minor injuries. Cody Johnson doesn’t want his concerts to be anything remotely close to that. And it’s also not the first time that Cody Johnson has used that line. Back in 2024, when a fan in the audience had a medical emergency, the country star pulled out the Travis Scott concert comparison… only that time he was calling out the rapper for not stopping his show when the Astroworld disaster was taking place: @trinityyywalker “this is not a travis scott concert” #codyjohnson #fyp #realcountrymusic ♬ original sound – Trinity Cody Johnson evidently keeps that line in his back pocket. And hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… never hurts to recycle a joke every once in a while.The post Cody Johnson Brings San Antonio Show To A Halt When Brawl Breaks Out: “This Is Not A Travis Scott Concert” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

President Trump on Tuesday said that he does not want regime change in Iran, after bringing it up over the weekend. “I don’t want it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, The Associated Press reported. “I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos and ideally, we don’t want to see so much chaos, so we’ll see how it does.”

Major cities across the United States have ramped up security efforts in case of potential sleeper cells or cyberattacks from Iran, and they are getting the FBI’s assistance. The FBI is reportedly shifting resources in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia towards Iran and domestic threats and away from immigration enforcement. The agency has also told its field offices to be in close communication with the Department of Defense and the National Guard,...