Sponsored by
📬 Someone forwarded this? Smart friend. Every Thursday, I tell you what to try, what to dodge and what makes you the smartest person at the table. Sign up free at SplashOfAI.com.
🙋♀️ Hello to you this fine Thursday, friend. Welcome to another jam-packed week of AI, a field where the talent war is the most expensive recruiting brawl in tech history.
💸 Meta has reportedly thrown around $100 million signing bonuses like party favors to lure OpenAI researchers. Some packages climbed to $300 million per person. Meta’s total budget for buying brains? A whopping $10 billion. Too bad I picked radio.
The crazy part? Money is only Plan A. Mark Zuckerberg gets personal. To seal the deal with recruits, Zuck literally drove it across town, rang the doorbells of employees he was trying to poach and gave them something they wouldn’t forget.
Can you guess what he hand-delivered to his rival’s researchers? A) Vintage wine from his personal cellar, B) Homemade soup, C) A signed Meta Quest VR headset or D) A llama wearing a Meta hoodie? The big reveal is parked at the end. — Kim
🎯 YOUR AI POWER MOVE
AI exposure therapy
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
I plugged my LinkedIn into ChatGPT and asked it to score my online exposure from 1 to 10. It gave me an 8. Eight out of 10 would be an OK score if this were Yelp. For privacy, it’s a small house fire. Now I’m a public person whose career depends on being findable.
AI does something no sane human has time to do. It connects dots. Your hometown from a reunion post. Your kid’s school from a photo. Your travel schedule from a speaker bio. Your neighborhood from a tagged dinner. Your harmless posting becomes a beautifully labeled trail of breadcrumbs to your front door.
Twenty seconds. Full report card. No hacking required. All a person needs is a chatbot with too much time and zero conscience.
🔍 Run this on yourself
Open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok and paste this:
Act as a privacy and security expert reviewing my public online footprint. Using only what’s publicly visible from my LinkedIn profile [paste URL] and any other easy public sources, audit my exposure. Tell me: 1) My top 5 privacy risks, ranked by severity. 2) The exact post, photo or detail that created each risk. 3) The 3-minute fix for each one with specific menu paths, not vague advice. 4) A 1-10 digital exposure score with a one-sentence explanation. 5) The single thing I should change today before anything else. Be direct. Skip the disclaimers.
That last line is the secret weapon. Without it, AI wraps every answer in so many caveats you want to throw your laptop out a window. AI loves disclaimers the way toddlers love asking why.
🛡️ Fix these first
Strip location tags from old photos in your camera roll. Every single one. Nothing says “come find me” like a backyard pic with metadata.
Lock old Facebook posts: Tap Settings > Privacy > Your Activity > Limit Past Posts.
Remove your employer name from your public bio if your job allows it.
Audit your check-ins. Your gym, coffee shop, airport gate. That’s a schedule handed to a stranger.
Remember, hackers don’t care if you’re interesting. They simply need you to be findable and a little sloppy.
BTW, if your results include data broker and people-search site listings, my sponsor Incogni makes those disappear. Get 60% off right now. I use it myself. No kickbacks if you sign up.
📩 Send this to someone who still swears they’re “too boring to be hacked.” Use the links below to do it in a snap.
No bots. No awkward intros. Just great notes.
Ever had a meeting where a random bot joins the call and suddenly everyone’s distracted?
Granola works differently. No meeting bots. Nothing joins your call.
It transcribes directly from your device’s audio; on your computer or phone. Works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and even in-person conversations.
You stay focused. Jot down notes like you normally would. Granola quietly handles the rest in the background.
Want to be extra thoughtful? You can auto-send a quick consent note beforehand, too.
💼 YOUR AI EDGE
Most people use AI after something breaks. Rewrite the angry email. Summarize the meeting where everyone ignored the spreadsheet like reading it put them in a higher tax bracket. Draft the apology that says “we value your partnership.”
That’s backward.
☠️ It’s called a premortem
Gary Klein popularized the term in the Harvard Business Review. You imagine the plan already failed, then work backward to figure out what killed it. Brutal. Effective.
AI is perfect because it has no feelings. It will tell you where the bodies are buried before anyone’s actually buried.
Before you send that proposal, change vendors, announce a new policy or have the big conversation, paste this:
Act as a skeptical reviewer conducting a premortem. Assume this plan launched and failed six weeks later. Identify the 10 most likely reasons it failed. For each failure point, include: the weak assumption, who would object or be affected, the earliest warning sign, the likely business impact, one prevention step and one question I should ask before moving forward. Rank the risks by likelihood and severity. Finish with a “Do this before launch” checklist. Plan: [paste your goal, audience, timeline, budget, stakeholders, dependencies, approvals, constraints and anything already making you nervous.] Do not reassure me. Treat optimism as unverified data.
That last part is load-bearing. Without it, AI defaults to cheerleader. You don’t need a cheerleader. You need the one person in the room with nothing to lose. Use it as radar. Not a mop.
Your move this week: Pick one thing launching in the next 30 days. Run the premortem tonight. If nothing comes back scary, you either have a bulletproof plan or AI is being too nice. Run it again and add “skip the diplomacy.”
📻 MY NATIONAL RADIO & YOUTUBE SHOW
Watch now or bookmark for later
An AI model found security holes in every major operating system, browser and network. Anthropic says it’s too dangerous to release. Plot twist: Unknown actors may already be inside. I break down what that means for your devices.
Plus, a caller’s sister is handing six figures to a scammer and still won’t believe the romance is fake. I walk the family through exactly what to do, even when the victim won’t cooperate. And a Chinese car with a built-in toilet. We cover everything.
Hit that pic above or this link below to watch now or bookmark it for later. 👇
🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.
⚠️ THE AI TRAP
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
You trust DaveFromOhio more than the mattress company. That’s not crazy. That’s how broken this got.
Here’s the problem.
AI can crank out hundreds of fake reviews in minutes. Sellers flood listings with fake 5-stars. Competitors bury rivals with fake 1-stars. Each comes dressed in a costume: busy parent, angry traveler, local homeowner. Vague enough to sound real. Specific enough to feel personal.
The platforms reward the activity. Volume, recency and rating swings read as trust signals. Fake reviews get the listing promoted.
The FTC treats AI-generated reviews as illegal, with civil penalties for businesses that buy, sell or spread them. Knowing it’s illegal hasn’t stopped them.
🤥 Get the truth
Sort reviews by newest. Copy 10 to 20 into an AI chatbot with the date, star rating and text. Then prompt this:
Scan these reviews for manipulation. Look for repeated phrasing, date clusters, generic language, missing specifics and templated copy. Quote the clearest examples. Tell me: trust it, check more or avoid it.
AI spots patterns humans miss. Though it still can’t verify whether DaveFromOhio actually owns a mattress, a spine or a zip code in Ohio.
🧠 SMART STEALS OF THE WEEK
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
✈️ Gadgets that go places
⚡ Charge safe: USB data blockers (10% off, $9)
4.3 ⭐ 300+ reviews
That “free” charging kiosk at the airport? Juice jacking lets hackers pull your data the second you plug in. These blockers let the power through but not your info while you recharge.
Image: BUISAMG
🔋 Pull for power: This wall charger (21% off, $30) packs three ports and a retractable cable into one block. Fewer cords, more charge.
Outlet translator: Get a universal travel adapter (15% off, $20) that covers 150+ countries. Saves you from panic buying at the airport.
Tidy tech bag: An electronic cable organizer (24% off, $10) gives every charger, earbud and adapter its own zippered pocket.
🤯 “I HAD NO IDEA”
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🐦 Your yard has a house band
I've spent years listening to my trees make 14 different noises and filing the whole concert under bird.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology's free Merlin Bird ID app has a Sound ID feature that listens in real time and names what's singing. Download it, grab the bird pack for your area, tap Sound ID, hold still 20 to 30 seconds, and it hands you names with photos: Carolina wren, northern cardinal, mourning dove.
Here's the wild part: a northern mockingbird can rip through a dozen copied songs, so Merlin may flag one bird while surfacing all the patterns it's imitating. The tree isn't packed. One guy is just doing impressions.
✅ Get it free at allaboutbirds.org/merlin and try it. My neighbor's parrot can say 30 phrases, each one more offensive than the last. I say parrot. It's more of a mockingbird.
Btw, if you want to go full backyard scientist, confirm what you saw and log it in eBird, a database getting 100 million-plus sightings a year. Toucan play that game.
Hair Dye Causes New Problems. We’ll Fix the Original One.
Hair dye fixes gray. It also gives you roots, a smell, and a hairline that looks painted. Particle Anti-Gray Serum works at the root to gradually restore your natural color — hair and beard — no dye, no mess. Thirty-day guarantee. Get 20% off now with the code BH20.
🛠️ YOUR TOOL OF THE WEEK
🎨 Google Mixboard
WHAT IT DOES
Turns a mushy idea into a visual concept board.
WHY IT’S COOL
Creates an entire mood board from basic prompts, then lets you expand, remix and refine the direction. Most ideas start as soup. Miami real estate newsletter for high earners isn’t a direction. Mixboard helps with the missing step between having an idea and knowing what it should look like.
WHO IT’S FOR
Great for writers, marketers, founders, creators, designers, brand people and anyone who thinks visually.
WORKS ON
Web, through Google Labs.
PRICE
Free as a Google Labs experiment/public beta. No paid Mixboard tier listed at launch. You’ll need a Google account.
HOW TO USE IT
Go to Google Labs Mixboard: https://mixboard.google.com/. Paste this prompt:
Create a visual concept board for: [IDEA]. Audience: [WHO IT IS FOR]. Desired feel: [3 ADJECTIVES]. Avoid: [CLICHÉS OR WRONG DIRECTIONS]. Include: color palette, visual references, typography direction, image style, layout ideas and 3 alternate creative routes.
THE CATCH
Don’t expect brand systems, polished layouts or production-ready ads. Try it for the first 10 minutes. Skip final design work. Its best job is helping people stop pretending everyone knows what “elevated but approachable” means.
🫠 WTF (WHAT THE FUTURE)?
Image: @cixliv via X
🥊 Rock ’Em Sock ’Em
The first rule of robot fight club? Post the whole thing on social media.
A viral Bay Area video shows two humanoid robots boxing while a human referee supervises, which feels less like the future and more like BattleBots with a LinkedIn profile.
One bot is from Engine AI, built for “real-world deployment” jobs like logistics and factories. The other is Unitree, the jumpy stair-climber that can cruise past 4.4 mph.
Watch the action here. Remember this: 19 and 20 had a fight. 21.
🗂️ ALSO IN THE MACHINE
Stories I didn’t have time for this week, but you’ll want to read anyway.
Your brain skipped leg day: The more you let AI think for you, the worse your brain gets at thinking. Scientists call it "cognitive offloading." I call it a problem. The effects compound over time, so the lazier you get today, the lazier you'll be tomorrow. Use it as a tool. Not a brain transplant.
Silicon Valley found religion: Anthropic, Google, and others are now consulting Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist leaders on AI moral decisions. Turns out "don't be evil" is harder to code than it sounds when 8 billion people can't agree on what evil means.
Bot the bug hunter: Google's AI found a zero-day security flaw before hackers did. The vulnerable software? SQLite, a tiny database that lives inside practically every device with a screen. Including yours. The good news: the AI got there first. This time.
Lawyers hit with $110K AI-fabrication fine: Two Oregon attorneys got slapped with a $110,000 federal fine for filing legal documents stuffed with cases that don't exist. A chatbot made them up. They didn't check. Their client's case. Their licenses. Their problem. If your lawyer is using AI, ask them what they're verifying. Then ask twice.
Claude says go to bed: People were asking Anthropic's Claude perfectly normal questions after 11 p.m. and it started telling them to put down their phones and get some sleep. I kind of love that my chatbot is more concerned about my sleep schedule than I am.
🎁 Your free prompt cheat sheet
All prompts from today’s issue, formatted and ready to save. Grading your online exposure. Stress-testing your next big plan before it face-plants. Sniffing out fake reviews before DaveFromOhio ruins your lumbar support. Yours free.
Screenshot it. Save it to your photos. Send it to a friend who needs it more than they know.
🥣 The answer: B) Homemade soup. Really. Mark Zuckerberg cooked soup himself, drove it over and knocked on OpenAI employees’ doors to recruit them. In a talent war where compensation packages reach up to $300 million per person, the most unexpected flex was apparently broth.
Meta went after 50% of OpenAI’s chief research officer Mark Chen’s direct reports. Most said no. But the soup wasn’t a one-off. Chen has since started delivering soup to Meta employees he wants to recruit.
Soon, one of these new recruits is going to be a bouillon-aire. (Ouch.)
Forward this to ONE person who needs to be with the AI program. Thanks for diving in, see you next time! — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
😎 SHARE SPLASH OF AI
Your referrals get you great rewards!
Send your unique link below to friends and family.
👉 Your link is: ai.thecurrentnewsletter.com/subscribe?ref={{rp_referral_code}}
They get AI smart. You get prizes. Win-win. The more referrals, the more prizes. (Yes, even a meet and greet with me. I’d love that!)
Your referral count is: {{ rp_num_referrals }}. FYI: This only changes if the people you refer actually click to sign up for this free newsletter.
You’re {{ rp_num_referrals_until_next_milestone }} referrals away from {{ rp_next_milestone_name }}.
🎉 Keep it going! You got this! — Kim
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, BUISAMG, @cixliv via X
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.