Shopify now blocks hires unless managers show the role needs a human. Also: one tweet wiped out $6 trillion, T-Mobile software glitch, and new research questions how unique your fingerprints really are.
Can you guess if it’s brand new or not true?
ChatGPT
Time for a little game I used to have on the show: Brand New or Not True.
Here’s how it works: There are five AI tools for you below. Some are legit. Some are the twisted inventions of my caffeinated brain.
Think you can tell which is which? It’s a fun Friday!
Let’s play.
🐾 PetGPT – Ever wish your dog could text you back? This AI claims to decode pet behavior so you can “chat” with your furry friend like a modern-day Dr. Dolittle.
Real or Fake?
⚖️ AutoLawyer – Upload your parking ticket or legal beef and get a full-blown AI legal defense, complete with courtroom-ready arguments.
Real or Fake?
🍿 SnackMuse – You type in your mood (“bored but spicy”), and AI spits out the perfect snack idea, complete with a recipe.
Real or Fake?
🎶 Suno – Type a prompt, get an original song from AI. Melody, vocals, lyrics, emotional damage delivered in 30 seconds or less like a Domino’s breakup anthem.
Real or Fake?
How to spot a fake job
A few weekends ago on my national radio show, I shared an amazing gig that pays up to $65 an hour being an AI tutor. You’ll help the chatbot refine answers, prompts and images. Now my inbox is overflowing with people asking how to apply. Here are the sites to check out!
📺 Better Call Saul moment: Russell Kort is basically a real-life Chuck McGill. He claims to have electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which causes headaches, brain fog and blackouts around Wi-Fi. Is it real? Well, it’s not an official medical diagnosis. But it’s kinda strange that there’s barely any research on it. Rumor has it this man would physically explode in a Starbucks.
42%
Less risk of cognitive decline for older adults who regularly use smartphones and computers. Why? Research shows it keeps their brains active and engaged, which may help with memory loss. But hey, that doesn’t mean they should go full TikTok zombie and scroll for hours. Everything in moderation, folks.
Hey! You look good
NativePath.com
Ever wonder why some people just seem to glow with health? No, it’s not a filter or some secret Hollywood lighting trick. (OK, for some people it is.) But for the lucky ones, it’s what’s happening inside their body. And one of the biggest factors? Collagen.
🔎 NotebookLM is getting an upgrade this week: Until now, you had to manually upload files and links for the AI research assistant. Well, not anymore. A new Discover button (look for the magnifying glass) is coming to the Sources panel. Click it, type in a topic or question and the AI will search the web and return up to 10 links with summaries. Pretty neat.
💍 Diamonds aren’t forever: What if a mystery red box with a diamond ring arrived in your mail? Ask Tiffany Grove. She got one from the “Global Gemological Research Academy,” did some digging and realized it was a scam. It came with a QR code for a “warranty” that leads to a phishing site. Apparently, the only gem they’re offering is emotional damage. Don’t scan it, just report it.
3,700 miles
How far a man’s body was flown from the UK to Michigan to be stored in a liquid nitrogen cryogenic chamber. The goal? Freeze now and hope science figures out how to bring him back to life later. Think advancements in AI, stem cell research and nanotechnology. Hey, it’s a long shot, but when you’re already dead, what have you got to lose?
I like big bots and I cannot lie: Your HR department can’t write you up for saying that. Your new coworker could be an AI bot. OpenAI is about to create special “agents” for jobs like sales and software development. They’ll start at $2,000 and go up to $20,000 a month for PhD-level research. Upside: The bots never call in sick.
$100 billion
U.S. investment from Taiwanese chip company TSMC. They make over 90% of the world’s advanced computer chips. That money will go toward three fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities and a major research and development center. That’s a heck of a lot of jobs here in the USA!
Up to $65 an hour
Wage for remote AI trainers. Can you code, research and write? Fact-checking AI data might be up your alley. Perfect for introverts, even if the repetitive tasks are “mind-numbing.” Links here if you want an AI gig.
Deep dive: OpenAI’s Deep research is ready to go for Plus, Team, Enterprise and Edu subscribers. You’ll get 10 deep research queries per month that pulled detailed info from multiple sources. Try it: Select Deep research in the Composer.
Chatbot war continues: Perplexity AI just dropped a deep research tool that gives you detailed reports about nearly anything in two to four minutes. Free users get five queries a day, while Pro subscribers ($20 per month) get 500. Want to test it out? It’s live here.
Take part in research: Apple’s looking for 350,000 people for a new health study about how mental health impacts heart rate and sleep affects exercise. Spoiler: Joining means sharing a lot of personal data. Hopefully, we’ll get another useful tool like the AirPods hearing test.
You might need this: OpenAI’s fancy ChatGPT deep research agent pulls info from multiple sources but takes 30 minutes per search. It’s coming to Free and Plus tiers pretty soon, not just the $200-per-month option. The catch? Plus users get 10 prompts a month and Free users get two. I’ve mentioned before this is great to use with medical issues, business ideas and just about anything that needs a ton of research.
🎈 American tech spying on Americans: It turns out the 200-foot-tall Chinese spy balloon shot down two years ago was packed with U.S. tech from at least five American companies, including Iridium Communications, Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors and Onsemi. China claims it was a weather research airship that accidentally strayed into U.S. territory. Yeah, right.
💻 The nerd in me loves this: The world’s fastest supercomputer just went online at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The $600 million El Capitan is powered by 44,544 AMD chips. Its job is to secure the U.S. nuclear stockpile, run national security research and crunch other classified tasks. How fast is it? Its peak performance is 2.746 exaflops. That’s about 69 million times faster than a top-of-the-line MacBook.
OpenAI's newest tool is a direct challenge to DeepSeek
China’s AI is winning? OpenAI hits back with Deep Research, an AI that compiles full reports in minutes.