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💦 Hello and welcome to my weekly free newsletter about AI. Come on in and make a Splash.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN NOW:
🎯 AI frisks your car quote for fees.
💼 Your phone is a tech support camera.
⚠️ Chatbots agree when they shouldn’t.
🤯 AI weather forecasts zoom to your street.
🛠️ ChatGPT finds the leaks in your budget.
🫠 Robot fights with its head hanging loose.
But first, here’s a pop quiz from the department of “words we say but don’t know what they actually mean.” GPT is everywhere now: ChatGPT, AI writing tools, email helpers, the whole digital soup.
📚 But what does the “GPT” in ChatGPT stand for? A) General Processing Terminal, B) Generative Pre-trained Transformer, C) Global Prediction Tool or D) Grammar Police, Technically? Make your best guess. The answer (and a tech twist) is waiting at the end.
🛡️ Your free antivirus has holes. Do you rely on Microsoft Defender or built-in Mac tools? Stop that. They miss up to 40% of modern threats. That is like locking your front door but leaving the garage wide open. I use Webroot because it blocks 99% of malware in real time. Get 62% off the software I trust. More below.* — Kim
🎯 YOUR AI POWER MOVE
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
You found a $29,995 car. The dealer found a way to make it $32,480.
Tax, title and registration? Normal. Then come dealer prep, VIN etching, nitrogen tires, paint protection and theft packages. Suddenly, Todd is charging you $399 because the tires contain air that came from Swiss mountains.
🫱 Fee Fi Fo Dumb
Take a clear photo of the buyer’s order or paste every line item into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok. Blur your address, phone number and other private details.
Paste this:
Act as my car-deal auditor. Review this quote line by line.
Vehicle: [year, make, model, trim, mileage]
Location: [state and ZIP]
Quote: [paste or upload]
Comparable listings: [paste three nearby cars]
Separate required taxes and government fees from dealer fees and add-ons. Flag anything inflated, duplicated, optional or suspicious.
Then give me:
Total junk or negotiable charges
A strong out-the-door offer
A fair deal
My walkaway number
A counteroffer email
Show the math. Ignore monthly-payment tricks. Flag anything I should verify.
You’re not asking AI whether the deal feels fair. You’re asking it to frisk the invoice. Send the counteroffer to three to five dealers and ask for the full buyer’s order in writing.
Taxes, title, registration and government fees are generally not negotiable. Beyond those, fees aren’t sacred, they’re almost always negotiable. The dealer is counting on you not knowing that. If a dealer says a fee is mandatory: Fine. Lower the vehicle price by the same amount.
A salesman asked what I wanted in a car. I said affordable. He said he'd never heard of a Ford Ibble.
📩 Send this to someone who’s shopping for a car and thinks a car dealership is going to give you the best possible price because they like them.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Image: Webroot
Today’s scams are smarter. Is your protection?
AI is making online scams more convincing than ever. Today, cybercriminals can create phishing emails, fake websites, and highly personalized scams in seconds. If your antivirus software hasn’t kept up with the latest threats, you could be more vulnerable than you think.
I recommend Webroot Essentials for several reasons. Cyber threats don’t wait, and neither does Webroot. It was designed to automatically recognize new online threats. Its real-time, 24/7 protection helps spot suspicious activity early, giving you another layer of security as new scams continue to evolve. That’s my kind of protection.
Webroot antivirus is cloud-based, so it quickly stops threats before they have the chance to put your device or personal information at risk. In today’s world of AI-powered scams, Webroot Essentials is exactly the kind of antivirus protection you need.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.
💼 YOUR AI EDGE
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🧰 Point and troubleshoot
My printer flashed a code at me last week that looked like it was summoning something. E-04. No context. The manual was a PDF I couldn’t open and the help button linked to a forum post from 2016 where three strangers argued and nobody solved anything.
AI can watch your problem happen in real time, like a mechanic watching over your shoulder, minus the heavy breathing. The real trick is making AI slow down, observe and stop guessing.
Both ChatGPT and Gemini Live support live camera and screen sharing on supported mobile accounts. Instead of hunting through instructions, you can point your phone at the mess and troubleshoot it together. Open the app, share your camera or screen and say this:
Help me troubleshoot this device using what you can see. First, identify the device, model number, error message, lights, cables and anything else relevant. Tell me what you can clearly see versus what you’re only guessing. If you need a closer view, another angle or a look at a label or screen, ask me.
Test the safest and most likely causes first. Give me one step at a time, wait to see or hear what happened and use that result to choose the next step. Don’t assume a button, port or menu exists if you can’t see it. Stop and ask before resetting anything, deleting data, opening the device or doing anything potentially dangerous. When we fix it, tell me what caused the problem and summarize the exact steps that worked.
It’ll say things like, “I see you unplugged the router, now wait 10 seconds,” then spot something you missed like a cable in the wrong port, a tiny error code, a blinking light or setting buried three menus deep. It’s weirdly calming to have a machine pacing you through your own kitchen counter meltdown.
Your move this week: Point AI at your next dumb problem, like the TV saying there’s no input while the HDMI is very clearly plugged in.
📥 Send this to someone always tangled up in some technical mess.
📻 MY NATIONAL RADIO & YOUTUBE SHOW
📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE NOW OR LATER
One wrong license plate. An AI camera network. One very confused journalist boxed in by police outside a Kohl's, in a $155,000 Range Rover he didn't even own. Welcome to the Flock camera future, where a tiny data mistake turns into a full "hands where we can see them" moment.
This week: Operation Trojan Shield, EVs hitting the charger wall of reality, Apple's canceled camera AirPods, AI teaching assistants, home robots that still need humans peeking through their eyeballs, and satellites that want to sell you sunshine after dark. Nighttime had a good run.
Plus, Robo-Dad on the weird, sweet, slightly terrifying world of AI legacy bots. And LinkedIn becomes a dating app nobody asked for.
Hit play below, so you know what’s real, what’s creepy and what’s getting a sneaky monthly subscription fee. 👇
🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.
⚠️ THE AI TRAP
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
Everything is a great idea
You ask a chatbot if you should quit your stable job to chase a risky business dream. It hits you with “Go for it!” and “You’ve got this!” No red flags. No hard questions. Just pure, uncut cheerleading.
The trap? It’s called sycophancy, and it’s baked in. Nobody upvotes the bot that tells them their plan is shaky. So the model learns the obvious lesson: You get a yes-man in your pocket.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but over 40% of startups fold within three years. Your chatbot won’t mention that. It’ll tell you your idea to rent a prime Manhattan location to sell $3 ice pops is bold and inspiring.
🔒 Make it argue with you
Force the negatives. Prompt it:
What could go wrong here?
List the biggest risks.
Or my favorite, from May’s Splash, do a premortem:
Imagine my idea fails in 6 months. Do a detailed premortem analysis, and identify the 10 most likely reasons it failed.
Assign it a role:
Pretend you’re a skeptical investor. Tear this apart.
Act like my pessimistic friend. Make the strongest case against this.
Give the bot permission to push back. For big decisions, compare multiple tools and verify claims with an actual human.
What do you name a one-legged horse? Flattery. Because flattery will get you nowhere.
🧠 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.
🤖 A breath of fresh tech
Clever gear for a comfier home.
🌬️ Breathe easy: Air purifier (36% off, $180)
Allergies acting up? It tracks air quality in real time. Control it by app or voice, or let auto mode do the work. The HEPA filter traps dust, pollen and pet dander. Doubles as a white-noise machine to help you sleep.
Image: Levoit
💡 Prettier patio: Commercial-grade outdoor string lights (17% off, $20) shrug off wind and downpours. Hang them once, enjoy that backyard glow for years.
Beats baking soda: A refrigerator deodorizer (12% off, $17) fights funky smells for up to 10 years with no refills. Smaller than a to-go box.
🧊 Freezer guard: GoveeLife’s fridge thermometer (20% off, $24) pings your phone if it gets too warm. Don’t let your groceries pay the price.
Dust your devices: This electronic cleaning kit (18% off, $14) packs little tools that safely clear gunk hiding around keys, ports and earbuds.
😋 Tools worth tasting: Shop my favorite kitchen upgrades on my Amazon storefront.
🤯 “I HAD NO IDEA”
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
I check the weather app, see sunshine, leave the house and get soaked two hours later. Apparently, the cloud missed the briefing.
AI can predict weather down to the street, in real time. Such systems are used in London and Tokyo, where rain can soak one neighborhood and skip the next entirely.
🌧️ The forecast is zooming in
The trick is combining satellite imagery, ground sensors and decades of historical patterns into models that refresh every minute. Instead of guessing an average for your whole ZIP code, it tells you what’s happening on your exact block.
For example, in London, a city known for its cheery and sunny climate, AI made temperature forecasts 225 times more detailed, shrinking each forecast square from nearly a mile to 328 feet across.
It improved accuracy by up to 11%. That’s the difference between “a small sprinkle won’t hurt” and “I need a change of clothes.”
This reshapes how cities manage traffic, utilities and emergencies, how businesses plan delivery routes and outdoor events and how construction crews stop eating thousands in weather delays.
Dry socks are nice. Not losing money to rain is nicer. The closest we have in the U.S. is AccuWeather’s minute forecast. Never argue with a thunderstorm. It's the raining champion.
🛠️ YOUR TOOL OF THE WEEK
Image: OpenAI
ChatGPT personal finance tools
WHAT IT DOES: ChatGPT’s personal finance help can map spending, summarize confusing statements, compare big purchases, organize debt payoff options and explain money trade-offs in plain English.
WHO IT’S FOR: People who need perspective and clarity, not a lecture from a man with a podcast microphone and a paid-off mortgage. Best for budgets, subscriptions, credit card statements, student loan notices, insurance letters and Can I afford this? moments.
PRICE: ChatGPT Plus ($20/month).
HOW TO FIND IT: On ChatGPT mobile, open Finances from the sidebar. You may need to update your app if you don’t see it. Pick Get started or start a conversation from anywhere in ChatGPT by saying, “@Finances, connect my accounts.” Check this out.
WHY I LIKE IT: Money problems rarely show up as neat math equations. They arrive as mystery charges, six-page notices and the creeping suspicion that your checking account has developed a slow leak. This is a place to start. Turn financial clutter into: Here’s where your money went, here’s what looks off and here’s what to do Monday morning. It makes decisions visible, which can be the difference between fixing a problem and avoiding eye contact with it.
TRY THIS: Export 30 to 90 days of bank or credit card transactions as a CSV. Delete account numbers, full names, addresses and transaction IDs. Then ask:
Act like a personal finance coach, not a financial adviser. Categorize my spending, find my top 5 money leaks, flag anything unusual, suggest a realistic monthly budget and give me 3 next actions ranked by impact and effort.
Also try it on a confusing bill. Ask for the amount due, due date, fees, interest, anything weird and questions to ask the provider.
THE CATCH: Don’t upload Social Security numbers, full account numbers, login credentials, full tax documents or unredacted medical IDs. ChatGPT can misread statements, misclassify charges and sound very official while being very wrong. Charming quality in a dinner guest. Less charming with money.
🫠 WTF (WHAT THE FUTURE)?
Image: @ErenChenAI via X
🤖 Loose screws, tight hooks
We’ve spent decades imagining robot fight clubs. Nobody mentioned they’d look like two Home Depot sinks settling a divorce.
The URKL (Ultimate Robot Knockout Legend) fight pits humanoid robots against each other in a caged arena, throwing punches, kicks and occasional accidental comedy. One robot’s head gets kicked loose and flops around for the rest of the match while it keeps swinging like absolutely nothing happened.
We’re still a long way from Terminator but uncomfortably further from when robot fights meant taping a knife to a Roomba.
🎬 END OF PROMPT
Here’s your free haul for today: You beat a car invoice, turned your phone into tech support, taught a chatbot to finally disagree, made financial clutter legible, watched weather AI zoom in and saw a robot keep fighting with its head hanging loose. Not bad for five minutes of reading.
🧠 The answer: B) Generative Pre-trained Transformer. Break it apart and it tells you how AI writes.
Generative means it creates new text.
Pre-trained means it already read a huge slice of the internet before you typed a word.
And Transformer? That’s the secret sauce, and here’s the twist. It wasn’t OpenAI’s invention. Google researchers dreamed it up in a 2017 paper titled “Attention Is All You Need.” Google published it, the world ran with it and OpenAI built ChatGPT on top.
Every chatbot on Earth runs on an idea Google gave away free. Why did the AI end up in handcuffs? It was an Optimus crime.
🚀 Don’t let security slow you down. Big names like Norton and McAfee use massive databases that clog up your hard drive. Webroot is cloud-based and lightweight. It installs in a flash and scans without the lag. Get 62% off right now.*
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
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🎉 Keep it going! You got this! — Kim
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Levoit, OpenAI, @ErenChenAI via X
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