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Welcome to Monday, {{first_name | friend}}. Today’s trivia is a tiny miracle with subtitles. Google Translate handles 240+ languages, including one that was declared officially dead. Not “needs a nap” dead. Properly filed away by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization dead.
Then some schoolkids on a tiny island raised their hands and said, “Um, if it’s extinct, what language are we writing in?” and UNESCO changed the listing. Today, a couple thousand people speak it.
💬 Which language is it? A) Cornish, from the tip of England, B) Manx, from the Isle of Man, C) Yiddish or D) Whatever my teenager speaks? Keep reading, the answer is yapping at the end.
🕵️ Scammers do their homework: Ever wonder how a scammer knows your name, address, age or relatives? Data brokers collect and sell that information. Incogni goes after data brokers and people-search sites to get your personal information removed, then keeps checking. I use it myself. The less strangers can learn about you, the harder you are to scam. Crooks do their homework. They can’t scam you if they can’t find you.* — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Code Red
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
Yesterday morning, Bill Gates said on "Meet the Press" that AI could cause a billion deaths. Every news media is running that story today. The scarier part was quieter.
AI can't easily tell a scientist curing a disease from someone building a bioweapon. Same questions. Opposite goals.
It's already in your house. The AI that writes your reports writes a scammer's fake bank emails. The AI that helps with homework can clone your voice and call Grandma begging for bail money.
It's the oldest story in tech, really. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite to make blasting rock safer. It went on to blow up a lot more than rocks. Fritz Haber's fertilizer breakthrough still feeds billions. He also helped launch poison gas in World War I. Eight years after Kitty Hawk, planes were dropping bombs.
So how do we control AI? Here's the catch. A bad car gets recalled. AI can't be. In 2023, Meta's AI leaked online a week after release. Once it's out, it's out forever.
🍽️ Your dinner table answer
Your one-breath answer: "Lock it up, guard the ingredients and build the antivirus first."
Lock it up before it's out. The most powerful AI stays on the company's own computers. You use it through an app, so the company can watch for misuse and cut people off. A federal lab has run more than 40 tests on top AI models, some before release, with the safety features turned off. Test first. There's no after.
Guard the ingredients. A leaked AI can tell someone how to make something dangerous. It can't hand over the ingredients.
Build the antivirus first. You can't recall a computer virus. So you install antivirus. AI that finds software holes can patch them first. AI that could help design a bioweapon can help doctors spot outbreaks faster.
As I told the Daily Mail, I'm not afraid of AI. I'm afraid human competitiveness will outrun human wisdom.
🔒 Control the AI in your house
Pick a family safe word. If "your son" calls in a panic asking for money, ask for it. A cloned voice won't know it.
Keep AI agents away. I’m talking about AI that clicks and types for you. Don’t give them access to your bank, your main email and anything that gets one-time passcodes. And as I said on my show last weekend, stick with the big AI companies and don’t install any other AI apps.
Be smart. Turn on two-factor authentication and automatic updates everywhere. That's your personal kill switch.
📩 Send this to someone who always brings up AI. Use this link at Komando.com.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
He’d never met her. At 2:39 a.m., he was in her backyard.
Batavia, Illinois. 2:39 a.m. A woman wakes to a flashlight and a shadow outside her window and calls 911. Officers spot a man running through her backyard. A drone and a K9 unit find him blocks away, dressed in black, shoes wet with grass, carrying burglary tools he’d bought hours earlier.
He had never met her. Police say he saw her on social media, then researched her and found her address. He’s a registered sex offender, convicted in a 2024 Navy court-martial of sexual assault and burglary.
She did nothing wrong. She existed online, like the rest of us. Your home address, phone number and relatives’ names sit on people-search sites for less than a cup of coffee. See what a stranger sees. Free, two minutes.
Incogni handles the removal process for you, sending requests to 420+ data broker sites, then re-checking so your file doesn’t creep back. One layer, not a force field. It can’t touch social media or county records. Run Incogni’s free exposure scan. It takes under a minute. No account. No credit card.
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WEB WATERCOOLER
👀 Pay to peek: Would you pay $3.99 a month to find out who’s obsessed with you? That’s the pitch for Instagram Plus. Subscribers see how many times someone rewatched their story and can search whether one specific person saw it. They can also peek at your stories without landing on your viewer list. Instagram calls it an optional upgrade. Sounds like paid snooping to me.
📦 Amazon owes lunch: Amazon may owe you money for a return it told you was fine. A $309.5 million settlement covers certain purchases returned between Sept. 5, 2017, and Feb. 12, 2026, including missing refunds and charges that reappeared after processing. Some shoppers get paid automatically, others must file at returnsettlement.com by Dec. 1, using order numbers and proof. Payments wait on final approval in March 2027.
🚗 Back seat runs headquarters: I respect a CEO who gets into the nitty-gritty of the business. About every six weeks, Lyft CEO David Risher opens the driver app and picks up strangers. His line: “I drive to learn, not to earn.” Yeah, I bet. His comp package was something like $78 million. One rider told him surge pricing made her commute impossible to budget. That chat pushed Lyft’s Price Lock, a feature for steadier fares. Managers, use your own product.
📜 Lead the way: Mount Vesuvius burned about 1,800 ancient scrolls to a crisp in 79 A.D. Now scientists have a new trick to read them. Ink with a little lead shows up to 25 times brighter on X-ray scans. To test it, researchers had high schoolers copy Star Wars lines onto papyrus, then baked the scrolls. Next, handheld scanners will hunt for lead, and AI will help read the words. Tablets were replaced by scrolls. Scrolls were replaced by books. Now we scroll through books on our tablets.
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🎤 PODCAST: DIGITAL LIFE HACK
AI finds cheap Thanksgiving flights
Turkey day will be here before you know it. And flights are disappearing fast. AI finds the cheapest dates to fly and could save you a third off your ticket. Plus, WSB Radio’s Mark Arum and I talk about digital wallets, how to train chatbots to take your job and whether you should donate your old tech.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius, instant lantern: Power’s out and your phone flashlight throws a skinny beam that lights up one spot. Turn on the flashlight, lay the phone face down, and set a clear plastic water bottle full of water right on top of the light. The water spreads the beam and glows like a lamp, filling the whole room with soft light. Hurricane season, camping, hotel blackout. Sorted. MacGyver would be proud.
🚨 Updated Chrome yet? Google’s latest desktop patch fixes 108 security issues. Open Settings > About Chrome and make sure you’re on version 154.0.8037.57/.58. Android got stability and performance fixes, too. Go to the Play Store > Manage apps & device > Updates available. I’d get this one done before opening another 20 tabs.
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Not every app needs to announce itself: In Windows, open Settings > System > Notifications, then scroll to Notifications from apps and other senders. Click an app to turn off its banners or sounds. If something keeps interrupting, check that app’s own Settings > Notifications. Some need to be told twice, apparently.
The trailer was good. The release date? Forgotten: Netflix can keep track for you. Open an upcoming movie or series and tap Remind Me. When it arrives, it’ll appear in My List, and you may get an in-app notification or email. One less date to remember. You only have to remember why you were so excited about it. 😅
📚 All ears, no subscription: Been meaning to get around to the classics? LibriVox has free audiobooks, including the Sherlock Holmes mysteries and The Count of Monte Cristo. Listen online or download one for later. One catch: Volunteers record them, so not every voice will be your favorite. But hey, it’s something different to listen to while you tackle the laundry.
Be on the show! Your story could help millions. Whether tech saved you, stumped you or cost you money, tell me all about it here. I’ll read it.
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
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💼 A case of the Mondays
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WHAT THE TECH?
Image: @JimChuong via X
🎬 Rambo: First bounce
Sylvester Stallone is spending retirement backflipping across the Grand Canyon on trampolines. As one does.
The clip is ridiculous, but it’s rendered realistically enough that your brain needs an extra second to file it under “obviously fake.” Twenty years ago, this would’ve been a centerpiece stunt in a $150 million movie, followed by a DVD featurette explaining how they pulled it off.
Hollywood spent decades perfecting CGI. AI turned it into a meme format.
Watch it on your big screen here. There are a lot of ups and downs.
📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Smart feeder for your cat is here
The jig is up, Mittens! Purina’s new $150 smart feeder uses facial recognition to catch the culprit red-pawed sneaking extra food. Send alerts straight to your phone. Talk about a purr-fect crime solved.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Bill Gates thinks AI could cause a billion deaths, Instagram now sells a $3.99 way to see who rewatched your story, Amazon may owe you money for a return it botched, Lyft’s CEO still picks up riders every six weeks, and a bottle of water turns your phone flashlight into a lantern. Tomorrow, I’ll show you your phone’s built-in tools to save the call, create a transcript and give you receipts when someone gets slippery.
✅ Answer: B) Manx. Yep, the Celtic language of the Isle of Man, a 33-mile island between England and Ireland with its own parliament, its own tailless cat and the kind of motorcycle race that makes a helmet feel not enough.
The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died Dec. 27, 1974. UNESCO called the language extinct. In 2009, the kids at Bunscoill Ghaelgagh (69 pupils, taught almost entirely in Manx) sent their letters, and UNESCO downgraded Manx to “critically endangered.” By 2021, about 2,200 islanders could hold a conversation.
Google added it in the 110-language expansion of June 2024. Check out The Isle of Man: a Celtic Island Nation | Manx Language & Culture on YouTube. Alternate, much shorter: The Manx coming back from the dead.
📞 They know too much: Your phone rings. The caller knows your name, where you live, maybe even your relatives. Data brokers make money collecting and selling personal information about you. Incogni tells those companies to remove your data and follows up. Stop being an easy target. Scammers can’t get you if you don’t exist. Be invisible.*
🌅 Monday tip: Be the person who double-checks. The world needs more of them, clearly. — Kim
Kim Komando • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Amazon, EMEET, @JimChuong via X
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