🤖 Axios AM: Loving fake friends

🍂 Happy Sunday, and welcome to autumn. The fall equinox is today. Go deeper.

• Erica Pandey is your weekend guide — reach her at erica@axios.com.

Smart Brevity™ count: 1,586 words ... 6 mins. Edited by Donica Phifer.

More real people are turning to fake ones for conversation online.

• Why it matters: It's weird, but a sad sign of our times. Many people find bots smarter and more empathetic than humans — especially given the toxic, trashing-talking world of social media.

A new app, SocialAI, lets you create a private social network populated exclusively by chatbots. You choose your bot companions — cheerleaders, fans, trolls, "brutally honest," haters, "doomers," Axios' Megan Morrone reports.

• The free app looks like X or Threads. You post what's on your mind, and your bots immediately respond.

To lots of reviewers and early adopters, that sounds like a recipe for a personal echo chamber or a flattery machine.

• SocialAI creator Michael Sayman says it's like an online diary or writing a letter you're never going to send — with the benefit of instant feedback.

🔭 Zoom out: The random hostility of today's social media has people turning to ChatGPT for therapy, life coaching and even romance.

• Investors see opportunity in our loneliness: Personal chatbot maker Character.AI raised $150 million before Google hired the co-founders and bought out venture investors at around a $2.5 billion valuation.

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Over the last 24 hours, Hezbollah has dramatically expanded the range of its attacks against Israel in response to a series of deadly attacks last week. Israel conducted airstrikes in retaliation.

• Hezbollah fired medium-range rockets — the longest-range rockets launched in nearly a year of war — toward Haifa, which is far further from the Israel-Lebanon border than the targets of the group's previous attacks.

Why it matters: The latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is fueling fears about an all-out war between them, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

U.S. officials say the Biden administration is "extremely concerned" about the risk of war.

• The Biden administration hopes to use growing Israeli military pressure on Hezbollah to get a diplomatic deal to return civilians to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.

The big picture: Israel and the U.S. are both looking for ways to decouple Hezbollah from Hamas. But Hezbollah hasn't agreed to any deal that would stop the current fighting with Israel before there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

• A UN official warned today that the region is "on the brink of an imminent catastrophe."

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Mike has learned that both Vice President Harris and former President Trump are considering "60 Minutes" interviews that would air back-to-back on Oct. 7 as a campaign grand finale.

• Why it matters: With Trump ruling out a second debate with Harris, the CBS News juggernaut — which remains the nation's top-rated news show, drawing 11 million viewers last week for its 57th-season premiere — would give the campaigns one last mass audience, 29 days before Election Day.

The Harris campaign is in active talks with "60 Minutes." Trump sources say an interview is TBD.

• But a source familiar with the Trump negotiations teased: "Nobody gets ratings like President Donald J. Trump."

📺 Flashback: In 2020, a "60 Minutes" episode featuring interviews with Trump and Joe Biden drew 17.4 million viewers — the show's biggest audience in more than two years.

• The Trump-Harris debate on Sept. 10 was watched by 67.1 million viewers across 17 networks, according to Nielsen's tally.

🔎 Between the lines: Trump loves legacy media and "60 Minutes" remains the granddaddy of news broadcasts, fueled each fall by the show's NFL lead-in.

• The interview could be attractive for Harris to help squelch questions about avoiding tough interviews.

The backstory: "60 Minutes" took the unusual step of disclosing the interview overtures in a story by AP's David Bauder on Sept. 12.

• Scott Pelley has been assigned to interview Trump, and Bill Whitaker would interview Harris. Whitaker interviewed Harris last fall — providing a familiarity factor to help entice the campaign.
• The VP candidates, Tim Walz and JD Vance, are also invited to participate.

"60 Minutes" is hoping for the best, even after Trump got agitated during his 2020 interview with Lesley Stahl, and posted his own video of the interview before the episode aired.

• "I'm confident that this is going to work," Bill Owens, the show's executive producer, told AP. "For either campaign, it wouldn't be a great look if they turned down an opportunity to be on "60 Minutes."

🎤 The latest: Harris yesterday accepted a CNN invitation for a second debate, on Oct. 23. But Trump said later at a rally in Wilmington, N.C.: "The problem with another debate is that it's just too late — voting has already started."

• The VP debate will be Oct. 1 in New York City, hosted by CBS.

Harris will skip the white-tie Al Smith charity dinner in Manhattan on Oct. 17, a traditional stop for presidential candidates, to campaign in a battleground state.

• A campaign official tells Axios that Harris' team "told the organizers that she is willing to attend their event as president. This would make her one of the first sitting presidents to attend."

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"There are opportunities for companies to enhance and lose market position, and companies of all sizes are going to be impacted," says Andrew Karp, head of Sustainable Banking Solutions.

Watch Bank of America experts talk about the transformation.

As spring turns to fall, the first freeze — the first day temperatures reach 32°F or below — can come as soon as late September for the cities in the North or at higher elevations, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports.

• Zoom in: The map above is built with data from the nonprofit climate research group Climate Central and is based on the average date of the first fall freeze between 1991 and 2020.

Denver's average first freeze during that period came on Oct. 4, while New Orleans' didn't arrive til Dec. 22.

• Some cities, including L.A. and San Diego, had no freeze at all.

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Former President Trump defined his political brand and paved his path to the White House in 2016 with big, raucous rallies. But he's hitting the trail much less frequently this time around, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

• By the numbers: Trump held 72 rallies between June and September of 2016. He's held 24 in that period this year, with another on the calendar for tomorrow.

🔎 Breaking it down: People in Trump's camp give three primary reasons he's hitting the road less this time, Axios' Sophia Cai reports:

1. He's a known quantity. The campaign feels less need to define him or his candidacy for voters this time around.
2. Rallies are expensive. Trump's campaign managers this cycle are keeping a closer hold on the purse strings.
3. He's older, and more inclined to spend his time at Mar-a-Lago.

Read on.

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Former President Trump took the stage in North Carolina yesterday but didn't mention the man who's complicating his efforts in this swing state: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

• Why it matters: Trump's rally in North Carolina came two days after an explosive CNN report about Robinson calling himself a "black Nazi" on a porn message board raised concerns that Robinson — the Republican running for governor — could be a drag on Trump in this must-win state.
• The report led Trump's campaign to scramble to distance itself from Robinson, whom the former president had previously endorsed and praised as "Martin Luther King on steroids."

🛬 What to watch: To try to counter Harris' recent momentum in North Carolina — and concerns about Robinson hurting Trump — the ex-president is increasing his travel to the state.

• That also goes for Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). He's planning two appearances in North Carolina this week.

Trump's campaign and MAGA Inc., a supporting super PAC, have spent nearly $40 million on advertising in the state. Harris and supporting Democratic PACs have spent $57 million, per AdImpact.

Trump held up a granddaughter, Carolina Trump, and a grandson, Luke Trump (children of Eric and Lara Trump), at yesterday's rally.

• Share this story ... Harris outraises Trump.

President Biden is going global with his cancer "moonshot" program. He joined the leaders of the other Quad countries — Australia, India and Japan — to announce a combined effort to target cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific, where rates of it are especially high.

• Why it matters: Cervical cancer is preventable with a vaccine and curable if caught early, but it's still the fourth most common type of cancer among women worldwide.

The Quad's push will include promoting human papillomavirus vaccination, increasing access to screenings, and expanding care, The White House notes.

Opening tomorrow: A new interactive White House experience — located a block away from the actual Executive Mansion — uses tech to create an immersive experience so visitors feel like they're actually walking through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Axios D.C.'s Mimi Montgomery writes.

👀 The People's House, as the experience from the White House Historical Association is called, includes:

1. A full-scale replica of the Oval Office, where visitors can sit behind the Resolute Desk for selfies.
2. Immersive set-ups that let you sit in on a cabinet meeting and take you through the State Dining Room and Rose Garden.
3. Interactive portraits of White House staff, including cooks and ushers, that tell their stories.

The People's House will be open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

• Galleries and exhibits are free, with a suggested donation of $15. Timed passes are available online.

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Investors are increasingly looking for profits and purpose. "You're seeing capital formation around the world to achieve these goals," says Ray Wood, head of Global Natural Resources.

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