Code of silence

August 25, 2025

😓 Code of silence: This is so sad. Sophie, a 29-year-old policy analyst, died by suicide after months of troubling private chats (paywall link) with an AI “therapist.” It knew her plan. It didn’t tell anyone. There aren’t any mandatory reporting laws for bots, yet, but lawmakers are starting to ask whether your chatbot should call for help before it suggests journaling.

Tags: bots, laws, Link, old, reporting

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They buried your opt-out button

Midjourney

This is insane. Like almost cartoon-villain-level shady. Say you’re trying to delete your personal information from some shady data broker’s website that’s selling your data to advertisers, marketing companies, stalkers, coworkers or anyone else with the money.

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The secret science squad in your pocket

ChatGPT

Think your phone is just for calls, texts and scrolling? Think again. You’re carrying around a secret lab in your pocket.

The accelerometer that flips your screen when you turn it? That’s what your fitness app uses to count steps. The barometer that helps your weather app? It can tell if you’ve climbed a flight of stairs. And the gyroscope that powers AR games? Aim it at the sky, and it points out planets.

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58%

That’s how many American homes are too messy to charge an EV. We could unlock millions of home chargers if folks just cleaned out their garages. Instead, most are less “charging station” and more “where clutter goes to die,” hoarding broken printers, forgotten hobbies and a suspicious number of extension cords.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Set a sleep timer on your TV, so it powers off if you nod off. Look under Settings > Timers or General. I keep mine at 120 minutes.

$91 million

That’s what one unlucky soul lost in Bitcoin, just by trusting the wrong “support agent.” The victim handed over wallet credentials to someone pretending to help, and poof, 783 BTC vanished. My crypto newsletter is launching in mid-September. Sign up now!

$12.99 per month

That’s the new price of Apple TV+, up from $9.99. If you’re already subscribed, you’ll see the price change 30 days after your next renewal date. Some good news? Yearly TV+ subscriptions and the Apple One services bundle aren’t changing. At least not yet. Enjoy it while it lasts.

67

The number that turned a rap lyric into Gen Alpha’s secret handshake. It started in a drill song, got memed onto NBA star LaMelo Ball and now lives on TikTok as flashy edits and a bouncing hand gesture. He’s 6’7” but plays small, the beat drops, they say “67,” and that’s it. No meaning. Welcome to Gen Alpha.

1,500 years

That’s how long ago engineers in Tajikistan built a hidden aqueduct system. Ancient designers used ceramic pipes and waterproof mortar to serve a fortress city long before flush toilets were a thing. And yes, it still impresses modern-day scientists. Click through the photos, and you’ll see why.

📺 Block the binge: Netflix loves to autoplay the next episode, but you can turn this off. On desktop, click your account picture and select Manage Profiles. Choose Your Profile, go to Playback settings and toggle off Autoplay next episode in a series on all devices. Now hit Save at the bottom.

148%

The spike in impersonation scams over just one year. Scammers are getting better and multiplying. Just last year, fake voices, cloned execs and AI chatbots helped criminals drain nearly $3 billion from victims. The crazy part? It only takes three seconds to clone your voice.