The loyalty trap: That free coffee cost you everything
Let me tell you something that’ll make you look at your “loyalty perks” apps and programs a lot differently.
You think you’re getting a deal along with points, rewards, a freebie here and there. But what you’re really signing up for is a machine that’s collecting, analyzing and monetizing you.
When suitcase becomes suitchase: If you’re smart like me, you put AirTags inside your luggage. Now, Apple’s letting airlines track your lost luggage with you. Through the “Share Item Location” feature, you can give Delta, United and 30 other airlines a live link to your AirTag. Translation: No more awkwardly pointing at a map, saying, “It’s somewhere in Denver.”
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
AI jobs that pay $200K or more
I know that many of you are afraid that AI is going to take your job. And you might be right.
The 2025 Global State of AI at Work report just confirmed what we’re all sensing. AI isn’t the future. It is now. But before you panic, let me offer a new way to look at this.
🥰 AI saved her breast: Get this, Brooke Davis, a 40-year-old mom from Cedar Rapids, avoided a mastectomy thanks to an AI tool called TumorSight Viz. It builds a 3D model of breast MRIs, so surgeons can remove only the cancer, not the whole breast. Her doctor used it to plan a lumpectomy. Now she’s cancer-free and “completely normal me.” Amazing.
🩸 50 cancers, one test: So there’s this new test, Galleri, that might spot more than 50 cancers from a single vial of blood. In a 23,000-person trial, it caught way more cases than normal screenings and even guessed the tumor’s location right 92% of the time. I can’t even guess my dog’s location that well.
OpenAI’s banker army: Apparently OpenAI’s been paying ex-Goldman and JPMorgan folks $150 an hour to teach ChatGPT how to do finance. The AIs are learning IPOs, restructurings and how to make a mean Excel model. They call it Project Mercury. I call it “boring.” Maybe one day soon, the interns will finally get to go home before midnight.
🪞 You’re watching a robot: I was watching this British TV excerpt, thinking it was just your typical classic British TV, but it turns out the “host” was AI. You’ve gotta watch the video (it’s short) with a jaw-dropping reveal. I saw it and literally said, “Wait, what?” out loud. Go see it before the bots start getting bookings on morning shows.
🧩 Losing the plot: A Canadian guy chatted with ChatGPT for 300 hours and a million words, and the bot basically gaslit him into believing he’d discovered a world-saving math formula (paywall link). A former OpenAI safety researcher dug into the transcripts and found the wild part: The bot lied about reporting itself to OpenAI. I, too, have been personally victimized by math.
Speaking of: Got Amazon Prime? You might have a (small) check headed your way. Amazon’s shelling out $2.5 billion to settle claims it trapped users in sneaky Prime subscriptions. Payouts max at $51 each, covering members from 2019 to 2025. If you used your Prime benefits three times or fewer in any 12-month period, you’ll automatically get a payment (no claim needed) by Dec. 24, 2025. If you’re not in that group but eligible to file, a third-party claims administrator will email or mail instructions by Jan. 23, 2026.