⚠️ Why I’m done with AI chatbots

Imagine spending $5 million to build the future, only for Apple to kill your business with a single button. Welcome to your Monday tech burst, {{first_name | friend}}.

Back in 2005, a startup called Odeo had dreams of being the ultimate platform for finding and subscribing to every podcast. They were the kings of the hill, until Apple put a Podcast button inside every single iTunes account. Long story short: RIP, Odeo.

😶‍🌫️ During a desperate 24-hour brainstorming session, the team pivoted to a weird side project. What was it? A) Slack, B) Twitter, C) Shopify or D) Pinterest? One of these went from a Hail Mary to a $44 billion empire. Scroll down to the end and see if you’re a true tech historian!

0️⃣ Zero, zilch, nada: My privacy secret weapon eliminated spam calls and texts on my phone. Silence feels so good. I negotiated a 60% discount just for you. You’re gonna love it! — Kim

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I’ve always said the way we work with AI chatbots today is, frankly, pretty dumb.

Think about your current routine. You go to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude and type a prompt. It spits out a paragraph of text, and then what? You’re stuck doing the grunt work. You copy that text into an email, or you take the travel tips it gave you and manually hunt for flights on a different website. It’s clunky, it’s manual, and at its core, it’s really only a more polished version of a Google search.

But in 2026, all of that changes. We are moving away from passive chatbots and toward AI agents. You’re going to start hearing that term everywhere, and it’s the biggest shift in computing since the smartphone.

If 2025 was the year AI talked to you, 2026 is the year AI acts for you. We’re moving toward actionbots.

Imagine saying to your phone, “I need to be in Dallas for a wedding on June 12. Find me a flight under $500, book a hotel near the church, and put the itinerary on my calendar.”

In the old way, a chatbot would give you a list of links. In the new way, your AI agent actually opens a browser, navigates sites, and fills out the forms. You aren't searching anymore; you’re simply approving the final result.

This creates a fascinating new world where it’s not just your AI working for you. It’s your AI negotiating with other AIs.

Your agent will talk to the airline’s AI to snag a seat upgrade or haggle with a customer service bot for a refund. We are entering an era where our digital assistants strike deals on our behalf while we sleep.

You know what comes next? My agent will talk to your agent.

Of course, I’m always looking for the catch. First, if a chatbot lies today, you get a wrong answer. But if an agent with access to your credit card lies? It could book a non-refundable trip to the wrong city. The stakes for AI trip-ups are suddenly very expensive.

Then, there’s the privacy.

For an AI agent to be your digital chief of staff, it needs the keys to your kingdom, our bank info, home address, and private calendar. If it’s clicking for you, it’s seeing everything you see.

Don't worry. As this tech rolls out, I’ll be right here to cut through the hype and show you how to use this new frontier safely. I’ve got your back.

Pass it on! Don’t let your friends stay stuck in the dumb chatbot era. If this helped you see the future, forward this to one person who needs to stay ahead of the curve.

I talk to Randy from Kansas City, who lost his life savings to a crypto romance scam. Plus, a new low: Scammers are face-swapping lost dog photos to extort owners. Then, inside tech billionaires’ doomsday bunkers and Will Smith’s hilarious AI video fail.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Komando.”

🚨 Wired's massive leak: A hacker using the alias Lovely claims to have leaked a database containing 2.3 million records from WIRED magazine. The data includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays. They’re threatening to drop another 40 million records from other properties like Vogue and The New Yorker next. Keep a sharp eye out for phishing emails, calls and texts. Hackers love to use leaked phone numbers and birthdays to make their scams look official.

Gmail’s glow-up: Hold onto your inbox, Google will soon let you change your Gmail email address. Yes, really. No more being stuck with “coolguy_2004” or applying to jobs with “ashleysucksatmath92.” The feature’s quietly rolling out (starting in India), and if you’ve got it, you’ll find it in Settings. It’s like a digital name change without the DMV lines. You keep your old address, too, working something like an alias.

Robotaxi’s open door policy: You’d think a multi-billion dollar self-driving car would know how to close its own doors. Nope. Waymo is currently dealing with a glitch where its robotaxis are getting stuck with their doors wide open, blocking traffic and looking helpless. The fix? Waymo’s paying people roughly $22 an hour to stand on street corners and manually shut the doors when the cars get confused. Tow truck operators found a new gig, too.

The new Ivy League: In Massachusetts, vocational high schools are so popular they have massive waitlists (paywall link). Why? Students are seeing AI eat up white-collar entry jobs and are going for AI-proof careers. You can’t automate a burst pipe or a wiring overhaul. These kids are graduating debt-free into high-paying, essential roles. Smart move.

🛡️ Your antivirus is a sitting duck: Think antivirus is set it and forget it? Think again. Today’s malware uses AI to bypass old-school security. If your protection is more than a year old, you’re basically leaving the front door unlocked. Webroot is built for the now, it’s lightning-fast, blocks threats in real-time, and won't hog your system resources. Deal: Get 75% off Webroot Essentials today.*

Medicare’s new AI middleman: Starting January, doctors in NJ, OH, OK, TX, AZ and WA will need AI preapproval for 17 Medicare services, including deep brain stimulation, knee scopes, skin grafts and impotence treatments. Skip it? You risk no reimbursement. And yes, the AI vendors get paid more when they deny more care. What could go wrong? Hope your chatbot had its morning coffee. This is almost as bad as having an automated “press 2 for emergency 911.”

I teamed up with the internet’s favorite scambaiter, Kitboga, to turn the tables on these crooks. You will not believe the chaos when he uses his voice changer to pretend to be my husband. Bonus: Want to make $65/hr from home? Here’s an AI job that requires no degree.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Komando.”

Bad actors are getting smarter, but these low-tech and high-tech fixes keep you two steps ahead.

Privacy first: eufy S120 Solar Wall Light Cam (35% off, $64). This wireless 2K camera is solar-powered, meaning two hours of sunlight a day keeps it running indefinitely. It’s also a motion-activated wall light with AI detection to tell the difference between a person and a stray cat. Best part? No monthly subscription fees. Your data stays private on its built-in local storage..

🚗 Invisible shield: Lanpard Faraday Pouch 2-Pack (25% off, $14). Tech-savvy thieves can now bridge the signal from your keys sitting on your kitchen counter to your car in the driveway. Just drop your fobs in these signal-blocking pouches to go completely off the grid and keep your car where it belongs. These are an Amazon #1 Best Seller with over 55,000 positive reviews.

Front porch pro: eufy Security Video Doorbell Camera C31 (30% off, $69) Upgrade your entryway with a Head-to-Toe view that ensures you never miss a package again. This 2K camera offers crystal-clear live video and supports both battery or wired power for ultimate flexibility. Like my other eufy picks this one has no monthly fees and is compatible with HomeBase S380 for expanded local storage.

🏨 Traveler’s best friend: Addalock The Original Portable Door Lock ($14.95). A must-have for anyone who stays in hotels or Airbnbs. It adds a physical piece of reinforced steel to the door frame in seconds. Even if someone has a master key, they aren't getting in while you're inside. It’s peace of mind you can fit in your carry-on.

Digital pickpocket protection: SaiTech IT 5 Pack RFID Blocking Card (23% off, $9.99) Only one of these cards protects your entire wallet or purse from digital pickpockets. It blocks NFC and RFID signals cold, keeping your credit card and ID info safe while you’re out and about. At $2 per card, you can protect the whole family.

🔥 Stay secure: Don't wait until you're a target. I've curated a full list of must-haves on my Amazon shop to lockdown your life. From ID rollers that shred your info without the mess, to webcam covers that keep peeping Toms out, and anti-theft crossbody bags that are total lifesavers for travel, find the gear I trust to keep you safe.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Bet you didn’t know that you can use voice dictation to type emojis on your iPhone and Android. Tap the mic icon at the bottom and say the emoji’s name, like “grinning face emoji,” and it drops straight into your message. The only trick is knowing the exact name. The good news? I’ve got the whole list for you.

Take care of your Android: Don’t blindly install apps from the Play Store. Before downloading, open the app page and tap Data safety. You’ll see what info the app collects, like photos, web browsing or contacts, and whether that data is encrypted in transit. Oh, and scroll through recent reviews to see if anyone’s flagging issues.

😅 Hide your Instagram stories before NY Eve: You may not want colleagues watching your alter ego come out. To keep your updates private, go to your profile, then Settings and activity > Who can see your content > Story and location > Hide story from. Select the accounts you don’t want and tap Done. HR meeting avoided.

Set email reminders on iPad: Got an important work email you can’t deal with right now? Open the Mail app, swipe left on the message, and tap Remind Me. Choose Tonight, Tomorrow or Later and set your own date and time. When the reminder goes off, the email pops back to the top of your inbox. FYI, this doesn’t send a notification.

💻 Shrink your taskbar icons: Windows lets you switch to smaller taskbar icons, which is handy if you’re working on a smaller screen. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors. Scroll to Show smaller taskbar buttons and change it to Always. Bonus: Right-click the desktop and select View > Small icons for even more room.

Disney just gave Olaf real legs, with joints and everything.

Researchers turned the animated snowman into a walking robot, using reinforcement learning and some sneaky mechanical tricks, like hiding uneven legs under a foam skirt and controlling his googly eyes with spherical linkages.

Basically, it’s Pixar meets Boston Dynamics. They even taught it to walk quietly, so it doesn’t clomp around like a demented Roomba. Look for the little robot showing up in Disney Parks soon.

Olaf’s head is so big it risks melting his motors. Relatable.

🕊️ Your digital life shouldn't be a locked box when you're gone. Most people assume their family will figure it out, but without the right settings, your photos and accounts could vanish forever. Tomorrow, I’m giving you the step-by-step blueprint to secure your digital legacy. Trust me, your loved ones will thank you for reading tomorrow's email. This is the #1 free tech newsletter in the USA.

🐦 The answer: B) Twitter. When Apple buried the Odeo podcasting dream, the team pivoted (read: panicked) and built a little SMS-based status app they called “twttr.” That weird side project ended up becoming Twitter, one of the most powerful platforms on the internet, sold in 2022 to Elon Musk for a mere $44 billion and he renamed it X. Yup, the Twitter Files are now the X-Files.

Fun fact: Originally, Twitter limited posts to 140 characters because of SMS limits. The team liked the creative constraint, plus they were broke and character limits were cheaper to support.

👉 Wait, one more thing: Incogni has requested my info be removed from over 4,000 different data-broker and people-search sites. I’ve tried doing this myself over the years, and I was happy if I got to a dozen. Incogni offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose. Use my link for 60% off.

🛏️ Don’t let the AI hype rattle you. It can write a poem in seconds, but it still can’t figure out how to fold a fitted sheet. We’re still winning. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Gemini, Uni-ball, DisneyResearchHub

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