🫶🏻 My mom, remade by AI

Welcome to your Sunday, {{first_name | friend}}. Ever go digging for one thing and end up finding something completely unexpected? Like when you’re cleaning your fridge, and behold, a golden mustard bottle from 2018. Well, in 1985, a Cold War naval operation scanning the North Atlantic with sonar equipment for abandoned nuclear submarines hit the mother lode of accidental discoveries. 

🌊 Pop quiz, and it’s a good one: A top-secret military mission sent a team to search the Atlantic seafloor. What did they actually stumble upon? A) An uncharted trench, B) A sunken Soviet satellite, C) Two WWII minesweepers or D) One of history’s most iconic ocean liners? Take a wild guess, then voyage to the bottom of the newsletter for the correct answer. 

💪🏻 Your body runs on collagen, so give it the best stuff. NativePath Collagen is clean, pure and backed by science. Just two scoops a day, and I feel the difference. Right now, get 45% off, free shipping and a free frother. Oh, they’re throwing in a free sample of Collagen PM, too. That’s a win for your body and your wallet!* — Kim

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🕯️ This is very personal.

An AI company reached out to me recently with an interesting offer. They’d take the photos, videos and voice recordings I have of my mom and use them to create an AI version of her. Not a slideshow or tribute video. Something interactive. When they were done, I could talk to my AI mom and have it talk back to me.

My mom passed away after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer on Sept. 19, 2021. I say a prayer for her every morning when I wake up, and for my father, too. I know they’re reunited in heaven. 

That photo above is my college graduation. I love that my parents are holding hands. As a prank, they brought me an AT&T T-shirt and balloon because I was interviewing for a job. Now you know it’s in my blood.

After my father died, my mother moved in with me when I was 27, and we became more sisters than anything else. When Barry asked me to marry him, I said, “You do know that Mom and I come as a set.”  

I miss her every day. My heart still aches. I’m pushing back tears now writing this. I talk to her like she’s in the room, sometimes pointing out a great sunset or telling her she was right about the throw pillows. There really are too many on the couch.

The idea of hearing her voice again feels comforting and frightening at the same time. Could I sit across from a screen and listen to her give advice or make me laugh with her great one-liners? Would it feel like a gift or a ghost?

This isn’t sci-fi. It’s real, right now. 

These digital recreations, often called “deathbots,” use artificial intelligence trained on someone’s personal data to bring them back in a virtual form. Through them, some families talk to parents, spouses, even children who are no longer here. 

In one case, a journalist interviewed an AI recreation of a school shooting victim. In China, companies offer this service as part of the grieving process.

The tech behind this is evolving fast. Google researchers are working on “generative ghosts.” These aren’t just replicas. They are digital stand-ins that can learn, grow and even make decisions on someone’s behalf. 

Think about an AI version of your grandmother telling you what it was like to start a window washing business in NYC when she only spoke Ukrainian (mine did). Or a digital parent reading bedtime stories to the grandkids he never met.

Some say it brings closure. Others say it crosses a line.

Therapists warn this could complicate grief. That people might hold on too tightly. These bots can create idealized versions of loved ones and blur the line between memory and reality.

And what about consent? If someone didn’t explicitly say yes to being turned into a bot, should it happen? Only a handful of states have laws that protect your image or voice after death. In most places, it’s a gray area. I’m not sure how my mom, a devout Catholic, would have felt about it.

I’m still sitting with the offer. I certainly have everything they’d need. Videos. Voicemails. Photos. A lot of audio of me interviewing her on my show. 

Should I? If you had the chance to hear the voice of someone you’ve lost, even if it wasn’t really them, would you want to? Or is it better to let those memories stay just that? I truly can talk myself into either place.

When you rate this newsletter at the end, tell me. I’d really like to know. If you’d like to come on my show and talk about it with me, be sure to leave your email address. I’d love that.

Her truck crashes. She’s unconscious. Her iPhone automatically calls 911. Plus, wonder about that true-crime podcast you loved? Here’s why it might be gone for good. Also: YouTube’s surprising way to steer you from politics (yes, cute kittens are involved).

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:

🥕 Musk’s trillion-dollar carrot: Tesla’s board dangled a “bribe Dad to stay home” pay package that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, but only if Tesla’s value jumps from $1.1T to a wild $8.5T. If it works, he pockets 423M shares worth $143B today, plus keeps steering Tesla into robotaxis and humanoid robots. 

🔞 Ad clicked, life ruined: Watch out! Fake TradingView ads on Facebook hand you an app that asks for your PIN while pretending to “update.” It’s called Brokewell, which feels a little too on the nose. Because, well, you end up broke. Once in, it watches your screen, steals your money and sends your texts to a hacker.

✝️ “God’s Influencer” becomes a saint today: Carlo Acutis was a 15-year-old Italian who died from leukemia in 2006. He attended daily Mass, built a website documenting 196 miracles, performed his own miracles and is being canonized today by Pope Leo XIV. His body is on display in jeans and a track jacket in Assisi with a silicon mask of his face. There’s a live webcam stream on his tomb you can see here. Interesting, there is a “No Photos” sign next to it.

Cellphone bill too high? Mine was. I switched to Consumer Cellular. Same nationwide coverage, half the price. Two lines for just $60, plus save $25 with code KIM25. AARP discounts, too. Check it out now. You’ll be glad you did.*

Makin’ a comeback: AirPods are out, tangled cords are in. Celebs like Emma Watson and Harry Styles are bringing back wired headphones, and Gen Z is riding the nostalgia wave straight to 2007. No charging. No losing one earbud at brunch. If your headphones aren’t in an impossible knot, are you even cool?

🏡 Don’t buy any Google Home products now: On Oct. 1, looks like at least one new Nest Cam and doorbell with Gemini built in will drop. That means natural language commands, like asking for recipes, getting info on everyday topics and troubleshooting home appliances. And yes, there’ll be both free and paid versions. I’ll keep you posted.

🤝 Free Perplexity, kinda: If you use PayPal or Venmo, they’re handing you a free year of Perplexity Pro (normally $200) and early access to its AI browser. Just tap a button in the app. Only catch? You’re paying with your data, obviously. And yes, it auto-renews at the $200 price, because of course it does.

Forget pricey food-savers. Press one button, and boom, it seals tighter than your grandma’s Tupperware lid.

🧊 Collapsible cooler bag (23% off): Holds up to 60 cans. Perfect for tailgating or when you’re “just grabbing a few things” from the store.

🍳 Square grill pan (8% off): No griddle? No prob. This pan has high ridges to give you those steakhouse-quality grill marks.

🍗 Chicken shredder tool (6% off): Saves you 10 minutes of wrestling with forks. Just twist, shred and you’re all done.

🎉 Elastic tablecloth (43% off, two-pack): Turns your folding table from “garage sale” to “fancy party.” Toss it in the wash, reuse, repeat.

😋 These are just the starters: Head to my Amazon shop for 35 more gadgets I handpicked to make cooking and hosting way easier.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: In Gmail on desktop, you can change how closely emails are spaced in your inbox. Go to Settings > Density and choose Default, Comfortable or Compact.

⌚ Keep your Apple Watch screen awake longer: If the display goes dark too fast, press the Digital Crown and go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Wake Duration. Change it to Wake for 70 Seconds. Now, when you tap the screen, it’ll stay on long enough to actually finish what you’re doing.

Passwords everywhere can be a nightmare: That’s why I trust NordPass. It securely stores all my logins and fills them in instantly, so I never get locked out. Get NordPass today for $1.34 a month and experience a smarter way to manage passwords!*

Use Guest mode in Chrome: Handing your computer to someone else? Ditch Incognito and go with Guest mode. Unlike Incognito, it’s a totally blank profile, so users won’t see your bookmarks, saved passwords or browsing history suggestions. To access it, click your profile icon in the top right and select Open Guest profile.

🔥 Free up space on Fire Stick: You don’t need to delete apps to boost performance. Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Installed Applications. Open each app on the list, select Clear Cache and hit Confirm. This removes junk files while keeping the app and your login details saved.

🔋 iPhone Clean Energy Charging: By default, your iPhone checks the grid and schedules charging when power is cleaner. That means it may charge slower or delay topping up. Need full power right away? Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging, and toggle off Clean Energy Charging. Bet Apple didn’t tell you that.

🥳 Watch this: My son Ian and I created a new company together to provide the highest quality supplements. Our latest product is GLP-1 Support, designed to promote healthy weight management and average blood sugar levels. I take it everyday and so should you! We sat down in the studio to break it down.

💥 Put your typing to the test: See how fast your fingers really are with this speed test. 

Design with your space bar: Tap to generate color palettes on demand. Lock the good ones, remix the rest.

🗺️ Build a world: Create your own kingdoms, coastlines and fantasy lands, no cartography degree required.

Was it raining? Look up the exact weather on the day you were born (or got married or graduated).

🛰️ Broadcasting brilliance: Click to hear what you missed on my show.
📱 Listen on Apple Podcasts. 🎧 Stream on Spotify. 🌐 Play full episodes on Komando.com. 📻 Find your local radio station.

⚓️ The answer: D) One of history’s most iconic ocean liners, yep, the Titanic. America found Titanic in September 1985 the way we find most things – by accident while looking for nukes. Robert Ballard was wrapping up a Navy job looking for two missing nuclear submarines and had 12 days left, so he scanned the ocean and, boom, found a rusty boiler, then the Titanic herself. Happy 73rd, queen. 

Alas, no jokes about the Titanic. I can’t sink that low.

💡 Before you go, stay strong, stay active, stay you. As we get older, less collagen means stiffer joints, weaker muscles and skin that’s lost bounce. Two scoops of NativePath Collagen a day can help keep you moving, active and feeling like yourself. Right now, you can get 45% off, plus free shipping, a free Collagen PM sample and a free frother. It’s a small habit that pays off every single day. 

This is the best tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow: How to get the best deals on eBay using AI. Amazing.

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😁 Phew, look at you! The next time your phone dings, you’ll know more than most. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Kim Komando, LOVE MOMENT

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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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