I don’t see myself in this: Omnia is a smart mirror, scale and smartwatch hybrid. Stand on the base, and it’ll take your weight and measure your heart health, then it’ll pull in data from any other tracker you use. The AI assistant gives real-time feedback out loud. Reminds me of Lululemon’s Mirror, which was a total flop.
What you need to know about DeepSeek
I’ve been saying it for years: The country that masters AI will dominate the world economically, politically and militarily. Since ChatGPT dropped, the U.S. seemed untouchable. Most of us Americans assumed we were a couple of years ahead of China in terms of AI, but the game has changed — and fast.
The latest version of DeepSeek AI, an open-source model out of China, is so good, it tanked U.S. tech stock prices (Nvidia lost $593 billion in value!), shot to No. 1 in the Apple App Store overnight and now has the entire world wondering, “If this is what China is showing us, what’s next?”
Move over, OpenAI
DeepSeek was founded in May 2023 in Zhejiang, China. Its first models were nothing to write home about; the latest release, DeepSeek-V3, is another story.
It was developed in just 55 days, trained on 671 billion parameters and performs as well as (or better than) Meta’s Llama, OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5 in math, coding and reasoning. Let that sink in. It took China just two months to beat the American giants.
The money is where it gets really interesting. OpenAI spent $5 billion on its model in just one year. Google shelled out $50 billion on AI development in 2024. Microsoft has invested $13 billion into AI partnerships.
What about DeepSeek? They spent $5.6 million. It’s a cheap Chinese knockoff.
How’d they do it?
China put together a group of young, ambitious, super-smart engineers and researchers who worked under strict limitations. The official story is they couldn’t use Nvidia’s top-tier H100 chips because of U.S. export restrictions. Instead, they worked with less powerful H800 chips.
Rumors suggest China started with over 10,000 super-powered H100 Nvidia AI chips purchased before the Biden administration’s sanctions kicked in. There are also whispers they stole OpenAI’s code as the foundation for DeepSeek-V3.
But here’s the thing: Even if they took someone else’s code, it doesn’t matter anymore. DeepSeek runs efficiently on far fewer chips, uses less electricity and is cheaper to operate than its American counterparts.
The real game-changer is right here
Thank yourself later: Back up your data hourly, daily or weekly using an external hard drive with Time Machine (Mac) or File History (Windows). It protects against crashes, accidental deletes or malware.
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China's DeepSeek lie
China says DeepSeek AI cost $5.5 million, but they spent over half a billion and two years making it. And it’s collecting your data.
🚨 Still waiting on that data breach notice? UnitedHealth’s massive hack hit one in every two Americans, and some of us still haven’t been notified. Change Healthcare is offering two years of free credit monitoring if you were affected. Odds are your data was breached, so sign up now at changecybersupport.com.
819 million
Hours wasted on reCAPTCHA. Choosing images (like which ones have a bike or a bridge) stopped bots years ago, but now they’re useless. So, why do they still exist? When you interact with the boxes, Google gets access to your browsing data to sell to advertisers. They’ve collected $6.1 billion just by making you click. Sneaky dogs.
🔒 Small-biz security 101: The principle of least privilege could save you big headaches down the road. The idea is you only give employees access to the data and systems they absolutely need to do their jobs. The fewer people with admin rights, the better.
I did the work for you: Protecting yourself online doesn’t have to be complicated. I’ve handpicked the five best tools to safeguard your devices, data and identity.
DeepSeek: The AI powerhouse with a hidden price
DeepSeek beats ChatGPT, Llama, and Gemini, but it’s tied to the Chinese government. Here’s how to protect your data if you use it.
Age isn’t a number; it’s a word: Several states now require you to verify your age before accessing porn. To do this, you’ll need to upload a government ID, submit a facial scan or other biometric data, or let a third party verify your identity. That sounds great, but these sites store your data, making it vulnerable to hackers and potentially exposing the fact you watched “The Boobyguard,” not “The Bodyguard.”
A grave situation: People are turning to grief apps like Untangle to cope with the loss of loved ones. These apps let you connect with other mourners, share stories and get advice from AI chatbots. But what about data collection? Many of the apps’ developers sell your info to third parties, who could exploit your mental state.
📊 Make your data pop: Biz owners, AI can turn a dry presentation into something more fun. Just share your data with your AI chatbot. Let it know what stats you wanna show off. Then ask, “Can you turn this data into [an infographic, an interactive quiz, a poll, etc.]?” Your clients will remember it.
Do the same on Android: Woo, it’s just as simple. Open Chrome and tap the three dots (lower right corner). Scroll to Delete browsing data. Choose the timeframe, tap Delete browsing data in red at the bottom, and it’ll ask you to confirm. Back to scrolling!
Retailers have so many ways to track you
Bet you don’t realize all the ways they get their hands on your data.
📊 AI can format data how you want: The trick is knowing what to prompt. There are so many more types of charts than I remember in school. You can also ask ChatGPT, “What type of chart or graph would work more effectively to display this info?”
$50 per month
Starlink’s cheaper internet service plan. The catch? You have to keep your data usage under 50GB, then you’re cut off. The regular plan is $120 per month, so it’s a good price if you use it as a backup and don’t do much that’s data-heavy. Starlink is my backup, and I’d be over 50GB way too fast with my show and podcast recordings!
🦖 No, thanks, Dad: Alex Volkov, an “AI enthusiast,” gave his six-year-old daughter a $200 AI-powered dinosaur from Magical Toys. He showed her how to make the dinosaur talk using AI. She turned it off. Using the app, parents can view their kid’s chat history and give the toy’s AI topics to talk about. I’d never buy it; AI hallucinates, and just think of all the data being collected.
Mining my own business: I’ve followed this story for years. A British judge just said no to a man’s plan to dig up a landfill in search of his hard drive holding the equivalent of $765 million in bitcoin. Why? First, the landfill legally owns the trash. Second, excavating it could release harmful substances and endanger local residents. Oh, and it’s been over 11 years, so there’s no guarantee the data is even recoverable.
What do you mean, “only 7,203 steps”? If your smartwatch data seems way off, it might be a sizing issue. Most accuracy problems are caused by loose-fitting watches that slip around on your arm. Buy one with straps you can adjust. I like these for Apple Watches.
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Living the high life: A ransomware gang swiped data from at least four Stiiizy cannabis shops — driver’s licenses, passports and medical cannabis cards for over 420,000 customers. The stolen info was published after Stiiizy refused to cough up the ransom. The only joint I roll is my ankle.