Anthropic’s chatbot tries blackmail — May 31st, Hour 2

Big Tech are email snoops: Gmail, Yahoo and all those other Big Tech companies track your email activity. StartMail puts privacy first! No ads, no tracking, includes encrypted emails and disposable addresses. Get 60% off your first year, and try it free for seven days.

💬 Add and view Instagram captions: Want auto-captions on your story? Tap the (+) icon, upload your video, then tap the Stickers icon and select Captions. To see captions on other people’s stories and reels, go to your Profile > Menu > Settings and activity > Accessibility > Captions, then toggle on Always show closed captions.

That’s how much fraud Apple says it’s blocked since 2019. The App Store stopped more than $9 billion in shady transactions over five years, with over $2 billion just last year. Add in nearly 2 million rejected apps and 711 fake customer accounts, Apple’s basically going full “you shall not pass” mode. 

🏃🏼‍♂️ Fake it ’til you jog it: There’s now an app called Fake My Run that lets you draw made-up jogging routes and upload them to Strava like you’re a cardio god. Inspired by “Strava mules” (yes, people pay others to run for them), the app’s developer says it’s a comment on running’s toxic clout-chasing culture. I was running down the street where the houses were numbered, 64k, 128k, 256k, 512k and 1MB. What a trip down memory lane!

🐶 Puppies vs. cancer: A biotech company is developing a home test to detect cancer using specially trained dogs and AI. You breathe into a mask for three minutes, mail it back and the pups sniff for signs of cancer while AI tracks their reactions. Does it work? Clinical trials showed 94% accuracy. They ain’t woofin’ around.

🗣️ Claude found its voice: Claude Free just leveled up with two new features: voice mode and web search. Now you can talk to Claude like it’s your AI roommate: Ask it to summarize your day, fetch docs, even send emails. And yes, it finally joined the “can Google stuff” club. Bonus: All this without paying a cent; well, you are paying with your data.

🍎 Apple’s rebranding its software: Leaks say instead of iOS 18, you’ll soon see iOS 26. Same goes for macOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26 and more (paywall link). The goal? To cut down on confusion and unify the branding, since some of the OS versions use different numbers. We’ll hear more at their developers conference starting June 9.

Phishing got a glow-up: Scam emails used to scream “Nigerian prince” with typos galore. Now, AI makes them sound more legit than your actual bank. No weird phrasing, no broken English: just a well-written lie in your inbox. Even tiny languages like Icelandic aren’t safe. Slow down reading your email, and don’t jump to act.