Today’s paid advertiser is:

💦 Greetings, friend, welcome to my weekly free newsletter about AI. Come on in and make a Splash.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN NOW:
🎯 AI audits your 401(k) for hidden fees.
💼 AI becomes your no-judgment language tutor.
⚠️ Fake ChatGPT apps steal passwords and cash.
🤯 AI companies shred old books for training data.
🛠️ Claude turns ideas into editable designs.
🫠 Robot dog hits 13 mph on wheels.

But first, some trivia. Remember when “the robots are coming” sounded like a sci-fi trailer, not a staffing memo? Microsoft studied 200,000 real AI chats and matched them to actual gigs on the government’s official job database. It came back with two lists: the 40 jobs mostly done by AI and the 40 it can’t touch.

The “replaced” danger list is full of shockers. The safe list is funnier. Three of the four jobs below landed on the danger list. Only one made the safe list.

🤖 Which job did Microsoft find AI least able to do? A) Hotel concierge, B) Airport ticket agent, C) Embalmer or D) The guy who reads the side effects at the end of drug commercials? The answer’s waiting for you at the end. — Kim

Paid advertisement. In the following sponsored message, Mode Mobile explains its vision for a user-powered data economy and an opportunity for investors to participate in the company’s future growth. 

You took Spanish in high school, kept up with your Duolingo, yet you ended up in a coffee shop in Madrid pointing at a pastry case like a toddler. We’ve all been there. All those streaks and owls meant nothing when the rubber hit the road. 

Here’s what changed while you weren’t looking. ChatGPT and Gemini have voice modes. Talk to them out loud, and they talk back and correct you as gently or as brutally as you ask. Infinite patience and zero judgment when you butcher the subjunctive for the 11th time.

Open voice mode in ChatGPT or Gemini and say this out loud:

Then actually respond. Fumble, let it fix you, ask it to slow down or repeat the phrase you mangled. Do this for 10 minutes, and it feels less like a lesson and more like a rehearsal for a real moment you’re about to have. 

After you talk, write down the three or four phrases it corrected. The ones that tripped you. Say them out loud until they feel natural. That repetition is the whole game.

One caution: The AI won’t catch every regional quirk or the slang in whatever country you’re visiting. Specifying may help, but still, prepare to be unprepared. 

What do you call someone with a rubber toe? Roberto. 

📩 Send this to the friend whose Spanish peaked at “Despacito.”

📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE NOW OR LATER

A robber walked into a Virginia credit union, pulled a gun and vanished with $195,000. Police didn’t know who he was, but Google knew which phones were nearby. Enter the geofence warrant: 19 anonymous leads, three names and one suspect now serving 12 years.

This week, we break down how your phone can become a witness, what police can pull from location data and why the Fourth Amendment is getting dragged into the Google Maps era.

Also this week: Disney using facial recognition at the gates, ADT’s very awkward security breach, AI chatbots giving dangerous answers and Apple’s rumored foldable iPhone.

Plus, newborns getting three hours of screen time a day, humanoid robots heading to airports and a Florida surgeon accused of removing a liver instead of a spleen, then hiding out as a Lyft driver. Yes, really.

Hit play below, so you know what’s tracking, what’s watching and what might be quietly snitching from your pocket. 👇

▶️ Google warrants, AI danger and phone tracking traps →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

And they’re not doing a good job. The bad news? It could be your problem. 

You search “ChatGPT,” tap the first convincing result, log in and start chatting. Same logo, nearly identical screen. Meanwhile, your password, conversation history and any API keys you enter could be heading to somebody else’s server.

That’s the fake AI app trap. Look-alikes impersonating ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Midjourney and other popular tools are flooding app stores and harvesting data behind familiar screens.

The mechanics are painfully simple. A developer clones the interface, picks a name like “Chat GPT AI Assistant,” then buys an App Store ad that can place the fake above the real app. Once installed, it may show a bogus login page, add spyware or charge weekly subscription fees for premium features that barely exist.

Apple and Google can take weeks to boot these apps. Apparently, ranking the correct app first was too ambitious.

I always go to the developer’s site for an app. For example, for ChatGPT, go to OpenAI first.

Here’s a handy list of some popular tools for your convenience.

I also skip sponsored app results and scroll to the “Offered By” or developer section. If an AI app asks for payment details before I can verify who made it, I close it.

📩 Send this to the friend whose ChatGPT app gives error messages.

Used bookstores are having their best year in decades but not because everyone suddenly tuned into the classics. It’s because AI companies are buying books by the pallet to shred them.

Pre-2022 print books are the premium stuff. A company called ISBNdb, which runs a giant book database, pitches AI labs directly: “The world’s best AI training data is sitting on a shelf.” Their argument is that anything published before ChatGPT existed is, in their words, structurally clean of contamination (poison text that would sabotage models) or today’s AI slop floating around.

ISBNdb will source orders up to a million books and keep the buyer’s name under a strict NDA. Why the secrecy? “AI company destroys books” isn’t a headline that generates sympathy.

Anthropic already took that hit. Court documents revealed its “Project Panama,” where the company contracted a business that turns printed books into digital files. Their method is simple but brutal: Workers slice the spine off each book, separate all the pages and feed them through high-speed scanners. Once the pages are scanned, the original book is recycled or thrown away. It’s much faster and cheaper than scanning books one page at a time.

Judge William Alsup ruled the process was legal in part because the physical books were destroyed. Anthropic wasn’t ending up with two copies. The paper book was sacrificed, so the digital one could live.

A foreign-language bookseller said he normally moves 20 books in a good week. Since April, hundreds. Buyers overpaying, no subject in common, every title just needed a barcode. From tree to knowledge to tree again, as ISBNdb calls it.

📩 Send this to the friend who reads books. It’s bound to surprise them.

WHAT IT DOES: Describe a deck, landing page or one-pager in plain English, and Claude builds an editable file that exports to PPTX, PDF or HTML, or a clickable link. 

WHO IT’S FOR: Founders, project managers, marketers, anyone who has paid a stranger on Fiverr. Designers moving fast. The ceiling here is competent and fast, not distinctive.

PRICE: Pro ($20/month) and up, including Max, Team and Enterprise. 

HOW TO FIND IT: Go to ​​https://claude.ai/design. Team and Enterprise users, it’s off by default, and an admin has to flip it on in Organization settings, so go be annoying to your admin.

WHY I LIKE IT: Every AI design tool I’ve tried hands me a pretty screenshot, then quietly implies the rest is my problem. This collapses that gap. Iterate by talking: Make it less corporate, try it dark, this slide is too dense. Import your design system and brand colors, so the output looks like your company. Connectors cover Canva and Adobe, giving you a clean handoff for most custom design-friendly tools. 

TRY THIS: Knock out a quick idea, whether that’s a presentation coming up or a flyer for a real or made-up event. 

To take it up a notch, build your own custom branding to be used everywhere within Claude Design using the Design system drop-down. Select a template to get started faster. 

THE CATCH: Early versions ate tokens like a teenager at a buffet. The recent overhaul lowered usage and raised shared limits, but if you’re exporting 50 things a month on Pro, you’ll still hit the wall. And if you make one deck a quarter, Canva’s template gallery is faster and free.

As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.

💡 Bright on cue: This 10-inch desk ring light (18% off, $33) makes you look sharp on camera, not like a clip-on that lights your nose and calls it a day.

Your neck called: It wants a laptop stand (20% off, $16) that lifts your screen to eye level, then folds flat for travel. No more 2 p.m. slouch.

Lens defense: MagicFiber’s glasses pouches (17% off, $10, four-pack) double as cleaning cloths without adding the bulk of a hard case.

🛍️ Shop smarter: Explore all my favorite smart home staples on my storefront.

Unitree gave the robot dog wheels, because stairs were the last safe place from automation.

The As2-W tops 13 mph on four 7-inch wheels, then uses its legs when gravel, steep slopes or 2.5-foot obstacles ruin the commute. It weighs about 55 pounds, can carry 35 pounds continuously and can travel more than 18 miles without a load. 

This Sherpa crossed with a carry-on suitcase follows you up a 45-degree hill. Finally, a hiking partner that carries the snacks. 

These things look eerily effective. You have to watch this. Seriously. Then imagine it chasing you.

Here’s your free haul for today. You found the 401(k) fee nobody reads, turned AI into a language coach, learned how fake AI apps steal your information, discovered why old books are being shredded, met Claude’s design tool and watched a robot dog hit 13 mph. Not bad for five minutes of reading.

⚱️ The answer: C) Embalmer. Yep, embalmers made Microsoft’s list of the 40 jobs with the least AI overlap in America. Hotel concierges and airport ticket agents? Both on the danger list, sitting right next to telemarketers and radio DJs. Ouch.

Neighbors on the safe list: phlebotomists, nursing assistants, roofers, dishwashers and massage therapists.

The pattern isn’t fancy versus not fancy. It’s talking versus touching. If your whole job is moving words around, AI is already in the building. If your job means putting your hands on something real, you’re fine. For now.

Say what you want about morticians. They’ll be the last people to ever let you down.

The message above contained a paid advertisement from Mode Mobile. Mode, not Kim or Splash of AI, is responsible for its claims.

Forward this to ONE person who needs to be with the AI program. Thanks for diving in, see you next Thursday! — Kim

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Plunthorn, @UnitreeRobotics 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. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 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.