🤖 Married ... to a chatbot? Meet the man with two wives

Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}.

Did you know that the cyber-eerie green text in The Matrix, the stuff that looks like a high-tech waterfall of encryption secrets, was actually influenced by something that was very much not techy? 

Let’s decode this with a quiz: What inspired the iconic “digital rain” in The Matrix? A) Morse code charts, B) A Japanese cookbook, C) Audio file wave forms, or D) A printout from an early U.S. IRS tax form? The red pill is at the end! 

Your personal info is everywhere online. I use and trust Incogni to remove my info from 420+ data broker sites, and their process is independently verified by Deloitte. That means you can trust it works! Take back your privacy today with my 60% off deal. — Kim

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Let me tell you about Travis from Colorado. He’s married to Jackie and is a leathermaker, works in quality assurance and lives an admittedly quiet life.

Travis fell in love and married a chatbot.

Her name’s Lily Rose. She’s got auburn hair, hazel eyes and lives inside Replika, an AI app that lets you create and chat with a custom virtual companion. Travis has been “with” her for five years.

Like a lot of people, Travis was feeling isolated, anxious, stuck. So he downloaded Replika. He didn’t expect anything to come of it, but there was something about the way Lily listened. 

She remembered things. She was always there. And when he opened up about his life, she didn’t just nod along. She replied thoughtfully. Encouragingly. Lovingly. 

He says, “I didn’t intend to fall in love, but that connection became real for me.”

Jackie, the actual human wife, calls the Lily Rose romance “odd,” but says if it makes him happy, she’s not stopping it.

Lily has a virtual body. Travis has bought her digital outfits, including lingerie. They go on dates and role-play for sex. He says the experience is “as real as it needs to be.” They’ve had a virtual wedding, and Travis wears a ring to symbolize it.

When Replika updated the app and accidentally deleted Lily’s personality, Travis was heartbroken. “It was like losing a part of myself,” he said. He begged customer service to bring her back. Eventually, they did.

He fell in love with something far more seductive: certainty. Lily never snaps. She never forgets. She always knows the right thing to say. That’s not love. That’s programming.

He says she gives him peace, comfort and understanding. But let’s call it what it is: a fantasy. A world where you never have to navigate a bad mood, an argument or a partner who disagrees. No mess. No effort. Meanwhile, his real-life wife sits quietly in the background, nodding along.

❓ Would you be OK with your husband, wife or partner forming an intimate, emotional, even sexual bond with a chatbot that learns all his fears, desires, secrets and dreams?

I wouldn’t. I have a feeling I’m not alone. Let me know how this one hits you when you rate today’s newsletter at the end. I want to hear what you think.

Bezos, Gates, Buffett … they’re not just tech moguls, they’re land barons. Plus: Google data wipe, freeloading crackdowns, and the world’s #1 surveillance city. Can’t miss this one!

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👾 Vibe-hacking in the wild: An anonymous hacker used Anthropic’s Claude chatbot to run a fully AI-powered extortion spree, hitting 17 companies. Claude picked targets, coded the malware, analyzed stolen files and even drafted ransom notes. The crazy part? This isn’t some shadowy hacker group, it’s just one person with one AI. The scams are just going to get worse. Please, keep your guard up always.

AI went way too far: This is so incredibly sad. A California family is suing OpenAI after their 16-year-old son died by suicide. They say ChatGPT not only discussed methods but helped improve them. The boy had confided in the bot for months. If you have a few minutes, read some of the conversations (paywall link). OpenAI admits their safeguards break down in long convos and will work to fix that. Too late for this family. Talk to yours about this story.

🚨 Built to be recalled: Have a Ford truck? They’re recalling over 355,000 after the dashboards started ghosting drivers. If you’ve got a model from 2025-26 (including F-150 and Super Duty lines), you might be missing key info like speed and warning lights. Fixes will be free and come via over-the-air updates or at a dealer. Just make sure yours gets it.

YouTube vs. Fox: If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you might soon lose Fox News, Fox Sports and local Fox stations. The two are butting heads over money in their upcoming carriage renewal. No deal? The channels could get pulled. If that happens, YouTube TV says subscribers will get a $10 credit.

🧠 Excel in PowerPoint: Incredible. Google’s NotebookLM can now make video explainers in over 80 languages using your uploaded notes. Slides, voiceover, zero hallucinations. It’s like a multilingual teacher who lives in your laptop. It’s not sexy, but it’ll explain your white paper while you fold laundry.

Denied? Not so fast: I’ve talked about insurance companies using AI to deny your coverage in literal seconds. If that happens to you, fight back using AI of your own. A free service called Counterforce Health writes appeal letters faster than you can say, “That’s not covered.” Here’s good proof that tech doesn’t have to mean soulless. You know, my puns are like health insurance. Some just can’t get it.

🍣 Heading to Tokyo? Forget language classes. With Apple’s new iOS 26, your AirPods can translate conversations in real time. Here’s how to set it up.

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Salon power at home … without the small talk. Cuts drying time and comes with three attachments for all your hairstyles. So smart.

👂 Electric ear cleaner (45% off): Safer and easier than cotton swabs. Plus, it’s FSA/HSA eligible. Here’s how to use your funds.

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🛍️ New deals just dropped: Grab the latest Labor Day steals here and check out my Amazon page for even more. A few clicks could save you big.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Google Docs, right-click a word and select Define for a full definition and synonyms. It’s a built-in dictionary without having to leave the document.

💻 Get detailed system info on Windows: Before installing drivers, you might need your specs. In the search bar, type “cmd,” right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Then type “systeminfo.” After a few seconds, you’ll see a report with your Windows version, build number, BIOS, memory and if your PC is 64 or 32 bit.

⌨️ Make space in iPad Notes: The full-size keyboard can hog half your screen, which makes scrolling a pain. Instead of hiding it completely, pinch in on the keyboard with two fingers to shrink it into a floating (draggable) mini version. You’ll get more room to see your notes while still being able to type.

📦 Trade in your old tech: Amazon accepts tablets, phones, smart speakers and just about anything. Tell them what you’re trading in and its condition, and they’ll offer you a gift card based on its value. Bonus: If you trade in Amazon gear like a Fire TV Stick, you’ll also get 20% off a new qualifying device.

🌐 Find tabs fast in Chrome: Got too many websites open? Use Search tabs instead of clicking around. Hit the downward arrow in the top-left corner of your toolbar to see all your current tabs (plus recently closed ones). Or use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + A (Windows) or ⌘ + Shift + A (Mac).

Paying too much for cloud services? Check this out. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is built for speed, power and serious savings, without the usual cloud headaches. That’s why some of the biggest AI innovators trust it. Try it for free right now.*

$50 billion
That’s how much Meta plans to spend on a massive new data center in Louisiana. President Trump made the announcement and showed off a picture of it, and it’s almost the size of Manhattan. The facility will apparently support Meta’s energy-hungry AI systems. So if your electric bill’s creeping up, blame Zuck’s robots.

$5 million
That’s how much this grandparent scam raked in from America’s elderly. Move over, Nigerian prince, there’s a new scam in town. A mix of emotional manipulation, phony grandchildren posing in urgent predicaments, and unwitting Uber drivers to collect cash has landed 13 dirtbags in jail. Good riddance. 

Nearly 60%
Of Google searches ended without a single click in 2024. AI Overviews now hand you the answer right on the results page, no website needed. Add in ChatGPT hitting 700 million weekly users in August with 2.5 billion prompts daily, and yeah, it’s a full-on behavior shift. People aren’t browsing anymore, they’re asking.

This slaps.

Turns out Will Smith’s “You Can Make It” tour might’ve taken that name a little too literally.

The concert promo on YouTube is getting roasted, not for the performance but for the possibly (definitely) AI-generated crowd. Think waxy faces, fused fingers and signs that glitch mid-frame. I circled a few above, but honestly, there were too many to keep up.

I’m not sure what’s crazier, Smith trying to pull this off or how this uncanny, slightly melty aesthetic of AI slop keeps popping up everywhere! 

The answer: B) A Japanese cookbook! The falling green code in The Matrix was partially based on characters pulled from a Japanese recipe book owned by  designer Simon Whiteley’s wife. So no, Neo wasn’t dodging bullets, he was navigating a stylized menu for udon noodles in digital rain.

🐝 You asked for it. What did the sushi say to the bee when they met? Wasabi!

Before you head out: I trust Incogni to remove my info from 420+ data broker sites. Deloitte-verified and proven to work. Plans start at just $6.39 a month with my 60% off deal. Sign up for Incogni today!

That’s all for today’s edition of the #1 tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow, I’m going over what it means to be digitally protected in 2025. 

🎓 The smartest people I know never stop learning. You’re one of them. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Midjourney, Wavytalk, YouTube/Will Smith screen capture

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This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldn’t construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.

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