💦 Welcome to AI Thinking Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. This is the fun one. No meetings, no jargon, just the AI stuff worth trying this weekend. Come on in and make a Splash. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here, it’s free.

HERE’S WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE:

🐶 Turn your pet into an ’80s rock star, free.
⚕️ Make AI read your 2027 health plan before it renews.
🎲 Why ChatGPT never answers the same way twice.
🌪️ A man strictly enforces express checkout rules. Real or AI?
🥾 The AI hiking vision you can’t download (yet).

But first, some trivia. AI can plan dinner, write your grocery list and apparently taste-test your milk like Gordon Ramsay being judgmental. Penn State researchers built an electronic tongue that can tell if milk’s been watered down or juice has crossed over to the dark side. Very sci-fi but still not taking this guy’s job.

For three decades, one man at a big American food company tasted around 60 flavors a day and spit out nearly everything. His bosses were so terrified of losing that magic mouth, they insured his taste buds for $1 million.

👃 What was his job? A) Professional pizza sniffer, B) Official ice cream taste tester, C) Spice-rack sommelier or D) Professional popcorn listener? The answer is chilling politely at the end. — Kim

I make up little songs for Abby and Bella all the time. Now I can go pro. Here’s how to make a theme song for your pets for free.

Snap a pic of your pet, open Gemini, tap Tools, then Create music. Add your pet’s photo and paste this:

’80s rock gets you a power ballad about a sock thief. Country gets you a heartbreak song about the mailman. Add “with a kazoo solo” if you’re feeling brave.

Download the song, and make it your ringtone. Bonus points when you make the lullaby version for a child, with their name in it.

🩷 Love this idea? Post this in your group chat: “Gemini will write and sing a free theme song for your pet. Abby’s is an ’80s power ballad. I get tips like this from Kim’s newsletter at SplashOfAI.com.”

I’d rather read my car’s warranty booklet cover to cover than a benefits enrollment packet. But this month, most people with health insurance get one, and almost nobody reads it.

It’s open enrollment season, and three of them overlap. If you’re insured through work, your window is probably open now. Employers expect health costs per worker to rise 8.2% in 2027, according to a Mercer survey. That’s how their bill becomes yours, and folks expect higher costs across the board.

If you buy your own plan, HealthCare.gov opened Nov. 1. The benchmark silver plan costs 13% more on average, extra federal subsidies have expired and Cigna is leaving the individual market in all 11 of its states. On Medicare, or help a parent who is? The yearly cap on drug costs rises from $2,100 to $2,400.

If you do nothing, most plans simply renew. Same name, new rules. Your insulin can slide to a pricier tier, or your cardiologist can quietly leave the network, and you find out at the pharmacy counter in February.

Grab your 2027 plan documents: your employer’s benefits guide, your marketplace renewal notice or your Medicare Annual Notice of Change.

Paper copy? Download the PDF from your plan’s website instead. It’s the same notice, and the page numbers stay put.

No PDF? Snap a photo of each page, in order. Annoying, I know. List your medications, pharmacy and doctors. Black out your member ID and Social Security or Medicare number first.

Then use this prompt:

Network cuts and repriced drugs tend to land in appendices and formulary updates, because nobody gets to Page 30.

The AI won’t shop plans, and it can’t promise your doctor is still in-network.

On Medicare? Compare 2027 plans in your ZIP code with Plan Finder on Medicare.gov by Dec. 7. Buying your own? Use HealthCare.gov or your state’s marketplace. Insured through work? Ask HR. Then call your insurer and your doctor’s office with the exact page: “Page 12 says Dr. [name] is out-of-network next year. Is that right?”

Customer service gets a lot more specific when you sound like you’ve read the thing.

The whole job takes about 20 minutes. That beats a surprise bill for a drug that changed tiers while you weren’t looking. The cheapest plan only wins if it still covers your pills and your people. AI is a research assistant, not a benefits counselor. For big decisions, call your plan or a licensed agent.

How is a hospital gown like insurance? You’re never covered as much as you think you are.

📩 Send this to someone who’s about to keep their health plan without reading what changed or who helps a parent with Medicare.

The FBI logged more than 22,000 AI-related scam complaints last year, with $893 million in losses. And that’s only what got reported.

Here’s the playbook:

The same trick writes flawless fake emails using your real address, your bank and your kids’ school. No typos to tip you off.

Want to know what crooks can see about you?

✅ Run Incogni’s free exposure scan right now. It takes about a minute.

Fair warning: Most people are shocked by what turns up. I bet you will be, too.

Removing your info by hand from the web means literally hundreds and hundreds of forms. Then the billion-dollar company data brokers quietly put you back online.

Incogni, a sponsor of my show, flips the script. Its AI-powered system, backed by real humans, figures out which of 420+ data brokers and people-search sites likely have your info.

Then it sends legal removal requests on your behalf and follows up every 60 to 90 days, so your file stays off the market.

I’ve used Incogni since October 2023. I tested this myself, and my dashboard shows 3,198 requests sent and completed. That’s 2,245 hours of work I never had to do. You can see my own results in the image above.

✅ Get 60% off Incogni with code KIM60.* What a positive difference Incogni makes in our lives.

Scammers use AI to find you. Use Incogni to disappear. Lock it down with my 60% off deal here.

I asked a data broker to forget me. Now I’m a person of no interest.

Great question, Carol. Short answer: It’s built that way, and sometimes none of them is right.

A chatbot writes its answer one word at a time. At each step, it picks a likely next word, with a little randomness thrown in. Think of asking your aunt for her pot roast recipe. You get the same roast every time, but she never tells it the same way twice.

That wiggle room is on purpose. It keeps the answers from sounding like a form letter. (A robot trying not to sound like a robot. Ironic, I know.) Your settings and saved memories nudge things, too, so your answer may not match your neighbor’s.

Here’s the twist: ChatGPT sometimes shows you two answers side by side and asks which one you like better. You’re helping it decide what to say next time.

Different wording is fine, but if the facts change, like a date, a dose or a dollar amount, that’s the AI telling you it’s guessing.

My take: Let the wording slide. When the facts don’t match, type, “Show me your sources,” then click one and read it yourself. If it changes its story, check the story.

📺 A period that ages you, 17 football fields of computers and a rented voice

Andrew’s daughter had his phone in the front seat as he dictated a text to her mom. She typed, then asked whether to end it with a period so Mom would know it came from an old guy. To Gen Z, a period reads as insincere.

This week, we break down a real data center. Kim parked outside one near the Phoenix airport. The roundup: 17 football fields of computers, about 40 employees, a cooling system filled once with 3.1 million gallons.

Also: An AI clone of Gene Wilder’s voice hosts a $3 million candy contest, a $150 feeder opens for your cat’s face and a robot vacuum tucks a smaller one inside.

Hit play below, so you know what’s drinking the water, whose voice is for rent and whether your punctuation gives you away. 👇

▶️ Why your texts sound old, what’s inside a data center and an AI Gene Wilder →

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

Security cam, express lane, a guy with eight items in the seven-item line. Then a self-appointed hero hoists him up like a sack of potting soil, and the store pays for it: a shattered cooler, a door ripped off its hinges, chips and soda everywhere.

Full-on Avengers aftermath: “We stopped the bad guy’s henchman but destroyed the whole city.”

Real or AI?

Check out the video here.

Nature called. AI answered with a giant red warning sign.

In a viral video, a hiker sees glowing boxes around rocks, with an AI-looking interface recommending each foothold and flagging steep edges. It’s giving Terminator vision, except the mission is surviving a leisurely weekend hike rather than saving humanity.

Looks cool, but it’s only a visual-effects demo, not a real app you can download. Yet. So you’ll still have to watch your own step. Tragic news for anyone hoping to outsource paying attention.

Check it out here.

Always carry some fiber cable with you when hiking. If you get lost, bury it in the ground. A backhoe will be along shortly to cut the cable, and you can ask for directions.

Share it now:

Here’s your haul for today. You turned your pet into a rock star, let AI read the fine print on your health plan, found out why ChatGPT never tells the same story twice and saw what the future of hiking might look like. Not bad for five minutes of reading.

🍨 The answer: B) Official ice cream taste tester. Talk about a dream job. For 30 years, John Harrison was Dreyer’s/Edy’s official taste tester, sampling around 60 flavors a day and spitting out nearly every bite, so his taste buds wouldn’t tap out by lunchtime.

Those taste buds were insured for $1 million, and he used a gold-plated spoon because regular metal can mess with flavor. That’s the most glamorous spoon story in American history. Bonus scoop: Harrison said he avoided onions, garlic, spicy foods, caffeine and alcohol to protect his palate, and he says he came up with Cookies ’n Cream. Sixty flavors a day, and he spit out almost every bite. That’s more willpower than I’ve ever shown near a pint of Cherry Garcia.

✅ Before you close this email, do one thing. See what’s out there about you with Incogni’s free scan. Brace yourself. Most people are shocked. Then let Incogni do the dirty work. It sends removal requests to hundreds of data brokers and people-search sites, then keeps rechecking so your info doesn’t creep back. I haven’t filled out a single form. Use code KIM60 for 60% off, and you’re covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get the deal here.*

📋 AI won’t pick your plan, but it will read the fine print. That’s more than most of us do. Forward this to ONE person who needs to get with the AI program. Thanks for diving in. Wasn’t this a pun-dle of joy! See you next Tuesday! — Kim

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

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, @sensei.william via Instagram, eufy, @VaibhavSisinty via X

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