What Alexa and Siri don’t want you to know

February 21, 2025

Do they only listen when you call them? Wrong. Here’s the truth about your smart assistant.

🍸 Shaken, not stirred: The Broccoli family has produced every James Bond film since 1962. In 2022, they sold the rights to Amazon for $8.5 billion (as part of the MGM acquisition). After years of power struggles, Amazon now has creative control and hopefully we’ll see a new James Bond soon. Speaking of … Where do James Bond actors go when they die? 00Heaven. (So good!)

Well isn’t that smart

Sweet pants hangers ($17) that don’t take up nearly as much space.
The best hand cream! O’Keefe’s is cheap, unscented and doesn’t leave your hands greasy. They make a lip repair balm, too!
Don’t let a lunch mishap ruin your favorite shirt. Grab a Tide pen stain remover ($7.88). I used one to get mascara off a white T-shirt the other day!
Not much space? These shelves (two for $20) that go over your power socket are genius.
No more jumbled mess of cords for me. I stuck my blow dryer and curling iron in basket that hangs from the cabinet (19% off).

⭐ Your new BFF in the kitchen: A metal scraper you can use to move veggies from the cutting board to the pan, scrape gunk off the counter, cut dough, whatever.

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2 in 2,000

People could spot every deepfake image and video of faces. About 39% of people over 65 hadn’t even heard of deepfakes, and 60% of younger people (18-34) were way too confident they could spot fakes. Take the quiz yourself.

📺 Did Netflix cross a line? If you’ve seen “American Murder: Gabby Petito,” you heard Gabby reading her journals and texts. The filmmakers actually used AI to clone the murder victim’s voice. They say her family approved, but some are calling it “monstrous” to tell her story this way. What do you think?

17 hours

For ransomware gangs to extort you after hacking your network. It used to take days or weeks. Now, some do it in as little as 4 hours. If you run a small or midsize business, you’re a target.

Listen up, Workspace Teams: No more, “I didn’t know.” Your Google Meet AI notetaker is getting an upgrade. Now, meeting transcripts will include a checklist of suggested next steps, complete with tasks, due dates and assigned members.

$40,000

To become an NPC in Elder Scrolls 6 so far in the bidding. The game’s maker, Bethesda, is teaming up with Make-A-Wish in a silent auction to immortalize the winning bidder’s likeness as an NPC (non-playable character). Hurry, auction ends on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST.

💸 An older adult lost a whopping $2.09 million in a gold bar scam: But she’s getting 40% back. Morgan Stanley has to pay her $843K for failing to follow industry standards. Banks are supposed to flag big withdrawals and check with a trusted contact first. They didn’t.

2 days

Time it took AI to crack a 10-year-old mystery. Scientists spent a decade trying to figure out why “superbugs” resist antibiotics. Google’s new co-scientist bot took just a couple of days to spit out the correct answer. I hope they put it to work on cancer.

Bow wow: A former police officer is using a heat-seeking drone to track down missing dogs. So far, he’s reunited 42 dogs with their families. Here’s an adorable clip of a pup lost in the snow. His little tail wags like crazy when he sees his owner. I’m so excited that I’m getting a new puppy. Meet Bella.