Hi, welcome to your Weekend.

It should be pretty clear by now what a lame idea the whole Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk cage match was. The spectacle of two middle-aged men working out their self-esteem issues by beating on each other was not worthy of their companies—or our time.

But a pitch from the producers of the Discovery show “BattleBots” offered a far more productive use of Mark and Elon’s respective genius. After hearing about the show’s invitation to the moguls to take part in an “ultimate death match” of homemade robots, I reached out to series co-creator and executive producer Greg Munson to find out how serious the show is about this faceoff actually happening. In short, they’re very serious.

“It was the brainchild of BattleBots ref John Remar—Ref John,” Munson told me. “He said, ‘These guys shouldn’t be trying to prove who is more kick-ass at mixed martial arts, they should be doing something for STEM.’” The BattleBots crew has championed learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through the unique form of robot-on-robot warfare for the last 23 years. 

Since they announced the offer on Thursday, “the engagement has been off the charts from our fans and our robots community,” said Munson. “We have not yet heard from Mr. Zuckerberg or Mr. Musk. But we shall see.”

The producer said that Musk once brought his kids to see a BattleBots competition at the BattleBox in Las Vegas. It’s possible that co-creator Trey Roski, who is an acquaintance of Musk, might be able to work backchannels to get both moguls on board. But, for now, the offer stands: make your own robots and bring them to fight in Vegas—or just use one of the classic BattleBots the show keeps on standby. 

“If they really got the right team together, they could do it in a month,” said Munson. That’s how long it took Jay Leno’s crew to engineer his famed Chinkilla bot—and if the former “Tonight Show” host can whip up a sick bot in mere weeks, imagine what the men behind Facebook and Tesla could create. “Let’s see who’s got the better bot!” egged on Munson. “Do it for STEM! Do it for STEM!”

Now onto this week’s stories...

the big read

Rishi and the VCs: London Is Calling, and Silicon Valley Is Happy to Answer

The U.K.’s Stanford-educated prime minister Rishi Sunak is rolling out the red carpet for tech—and U.S. venture firms and companies are eagerly heeding his call. From OpenAI to Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Stokel-Walker breaks down Silicon Valley’s leap across the pond.  

the 1:1

Fifteen Years After Founding Grindr, Joel Simkhai Has ‘Unfinished Business’

After several years out of the limelight, the godfather of gay hookup apps returns with a new service, Motto, and a desire to do it better this time. Cory spoke with Grindr founder Simkhai about his new, premium Grindr-meets-Hinge-meets-Raya.

show us everything

The Cereal Influencers of SoHo

Annie spends a morning with the founders of Magic Spoon, the millennial-branded direct-to-consumer breakfast cereal company, as they survey a very Instagram-y West Village retailer and sample a new toasted marshmallow flavor. 

Noticing: Airbnb’s social streak
There’s the kind of social media marketing that looks forced and boring, marked by a clear #ad in the caption. And then there’s what Airbnb has been doing lately. The company has been on a viral hot streak, repeatedly inserting itself into popular internet discourse. First, there was the situation with TikToker Alix Earle—after discovering that her Italian rental house was a scam, Airbnb swooped in, providing Earle and her group of girlfriends with a sprawling mansion in Positano. “Thank you Airbnb!” the group squealed to Earle’s 5.4 million TikTok followers. Next, CEO Brian Chesky invited a couple influencers and journalists to stay in his own home with him—meeting his dogs, baking cookies—in an effort to promote Airbnb “Rooms.” And finally, this week’s kicker: the massive, fuschia Malibu Barbie DreamHouse, erected in honor of the upcoming movie and available for short stays courtesy of… you guessed it. As one Twitter user joked, all Airbnb needs to do now is to nuke the joint (in partnership with “Oppenheimer,” of course). —Annie

Following: Videos will be longer—or shorter. Or both.
Social media companies can’t decide if the future of media is long or short. Earlier this year, TikTok tried to capitalize on BeReal’s surging popularity by rolling out TikTok Now, a feature that prodded users to post a single image or quick video clip per day. But, alas, the app decided earlier this week to sunset the feature. Instead, TikTok has continued its year-long trudge of convincing creators to upsize their 30-second videos into 10-minute opuses; back in February, TikTok announced a creator fund to reward TikTokers who made longer content. Meanwhile, Snap’s 60-second disappearing stories are more popular than ever. Insider reported this week that some creators are earning over $1 million by posting 100 shorts a day on Snapchat. So, which is it, companies: long videos, mid-length videos or a return to the six-second Vine video? Only time will tell how much time they want from us.  —Margaux

Reading: Bringing up (fake) baby 
You learn something new every day, and today I learned about “reborns”—hyperrealistic baby dolls that are fed, clothed and nurtured by grown adults as if they are actual babies. As explained by frequent Weekend contributor Jessica Lucas in Cosmopolitan,  reborn collectors are victims of near-constant harassment online by those who do not appreciate or understand their hobby. “My husband can play with cars, he can play video games, he can play Lego and everybody’s like, ‘That’s so cool,’” said one reborn mommy named Kiersten. “But the moment I’m like, ‘I play with dolls!’ I’m a weirdo who needs to have a real baby.” The collectors admit to making some mistakes—for instance, posting TikToks of themselves feeding real infant formula to reborns during a global formula shortage—but for the most part, they’re admirably clear-eyed about their hobby. Unlike parents of real children, one said, “I can shove the dolls in a closet whenever I want and go to the movies.” —Jon

Makes You Think

As our colleague Erin responded: “famously balloons go up forever and there are never any issues with that.”

Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.

—Jon

Weekend Editor, The Information