Hello, Sunday! So nice to see you, friends. Grab your coffee or tea and let’s start things off with a bit of fun trivia. You can stay at a lot of weird Airbnbs, including one 4.9-star accommodation in Boise that’s almost always booked. Is it a … caboose, potato, jail cell or treehouse? You’ll find the answer at the end!

✅ Are you hiring for your business or looking for someone to help support your side hustle? Post a job for free on LinkedIn with my special link. Bonus: Supporting our sponsor helps keep this newsletter free to you. Thank you! — Kim

It’s Sunday, so I thought we’d talk about money. Have you ever heard about Burton Malkiel, author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street"? He proclaimed a blindfolded monkey tossing darts at the financial section of a newspaper could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one chosen by experts.

Now, what if that monkey was going up against AI? Here’s a twist for your 401(k) and retirement plans: Chatbots like ChatGPT are better at picking stocks than humans. (Matt, my Morgan Stanley man, if you’re reading this, let’s talk tomorrow.)

Don’t be mean; be above-average

Yes, AI beats humans. According to a new study, researchers asked ChatGPT to pick stocks based on criteria average investors find important, like “grows in value” and “not a total disaster.”

ChatGPT then picked a collection of companies, and they gained value; the 10 leading human-picked investments, however, lost value over the same timeframe. Check this out — another study showed ChatGPT is better at predicting future stock prices than some expensive software planners currently use. Whoa.

Does that mean you should trust your investments (or investments-to-be) to a chatbot? Not exactly.

Ask a fund manager …

… And they’d tell you something like this was coming. Investment managers have been using AI “robo-advisors” (yeah, I got a kick out of that) for years to help predict and choose stocks.

Financial planners are quick to say consumers shouldn’t let chatbots make investment decisions for them — but that’s what they would say, right? Are they just afraid of losing their jobs? The truth is more complicated.

There’s no AI ‘silver bullet’

Asking a chatbot directly for a stock pick is still rolling the dice. It’s like going on Reddit or Google and typing in “best stock ever.” And financial planners have tested this, too. The more parameters you feed ChatGPT — like a portfolio with a certain amount of equity or risk — the more mistakes the chatbot seems to make.

An expert can use chatbots like this to gather tons of info very quickly or get useful summaries to help make decisions. But in the hands of an amateur, complete reliance on AI is less like "The Wolf of Wall Street" and more like … well, the end of "The Wolf of Wall Street," minus the crimes.

This little bot of mine

Whether you like to play the stock market, pick safe mutual funds or just think, “Wow, a retirement fund sure would be nice someday,” AI is definitely gonna be involved. Consumer-friendly chatbots can put a ton of once-unavailable info into the hands of everyday investors.

They’re like the tools fund managers have been using for years, but now you get to peek behind the scenes. You have lots of (free) options to ask, too, like ChatGPT, Bing or Bard.

Remember, these chatbots can also be 100% wrong. That said, here’s what you can do:

• Get a direct answer to a simple question about a stock.
• Compare different potential portfolios to find a good mix.
• Find investments similar to a stock you’ve already bought.
• Double-check financial advice by asking ChatGPT for several similar answers.
• Set a single goal for returns on an investment and ask for ideas.
• Get a summary of the latest news and significant market changes.

✅ Check out my warning on fake investment apps before you jump in. Be careful out there, folks! Where there’s money, you’ll find scammers.

True story: Mom and I dabbled in stocks. I told her to invest $5,000 in a hot battery tech firm. Months later, we're at $15,000. Mom says, "Let's cash out." Boom! We made $10,000. Funny twist? Mom mixed up the ticker and bought the wrong stock. Had we gone my way, we would’ve been down $4,500. Never doubt your mom's stock-picking magic.

Dozens are suing Apple: They claim AirTags are "one of the most dangerous and frightening technologies employed by stalkers.” Victims report finding the powerful trackers in purses, car wheel wells and even stitched into stuffed animals. AirTags can be hard to find, that’s for sure. I have the steps to locate them on my site.

Cyberwarfare: Risk consultants are tracking 10 “pro-Israel” and 48 “anti-Israel/pro-Palestine” groups carrying out cyberattacks against their targets. One group shut down the Hamas and Palestine National Bank websites. Another triggered a fake nuclear missile alert to phones in Israel. And it’s only going to get worse.

❤️ Aorta tell you this important tidbit: Cardiologists (WSJ, paywall link) say tracking your heart rate isn’t reliable, especially if your smartwatch band is loose and you move your wrist when exercising. And that 1970s formula of finding your max heart rate (220 minus your age) can be off by as much as 10 to 12 beats per minute.

Who OK’d that? X (Twitter) is sneaking ads into your timeline with no disclosure they are, in fact, ads. They can’t be reported or blocked, either. Uh, that’s illegal. The FTC says companies can’t deceive us with ads that don’t indicate the content was paid for. Come on, Elon, you can’t be that hard up for cash.

Say hello to my Daily Tech Update podcast. In the first minute, get the latest tech news distilled down to its essence. In the next, learn a practical digital trick that can make your life easier or more fun.

👉 Two minutes to a tech-smarter you

I talk to smart, interesting people every week on my national radio show. With 425 radio stations across the country airing it, I’m sure there’s one near you. This week, I chatted with:

• Ginny Fahs from Consumer Reports and her team, who designed Permission Slip. It’s a free app that helps you request for companies to stop selling your data. Not an easy task!
• Dr. Sharabi from Arizona State University, who studies tech and relationships. She says spouses who meet online are less happy than ones who meet IRL.
• Rick from Oregon, who needed urgent help. His son and daughter-in-law fell victim to phone-porting fraud. A scammer hijacked their number, stole their info and passwords, and now they’re down $9,500 and counting.

Plus, I helped Vivian get a collar to track her beagle, Danny set up his newsletter for success, Paul find cheap gas on the road, Donna make a 3D tour of her church and much more!

✅ You have three ways to catch my show:

1. Find me on your local radio station.
2. Listen now in the Komando Community. No commercials!
3. If you don’t mind waiting for shows to appear, get the podcast, “Kim Komando Today.”

🤗 I’m always here for you. Leave me a note here. I read every single one myself.

Think "hiring" and what site comes to mind? Yup, LinkedIn. Every week, nearly 52 million job seekers visit LinkedIn — and with good reason.

With LinkedIn, you can find the right person for any job, fast and free. Pro tip: Add your posted job and the purple "hiring" frame to your LinkedIn profile photo to spread the word.

Love this: LinkedIn screens questions and has other great tools that automatically weed out resumes that don't fit. Such a timesaver.

Free video-editing software: We're talking 4K editing, color correction and even visual effects. And get this: The basic version is free. Whether you're a YouTuber or indie filmmaker, cut, tweak and polish footage like a Hollywood pro — no film-school degree required. I have more info about DaVinci Resolve on my site.

💳 My shredder is so lonely: Stop all those preapproved credit cards and insurance offers coming to your physical mailbox with this site. You can stop offers for five years or forever. I picked forever.

Please bother me: Sign up for text and email alerts from your bank. I do, and, yes, it’s a bit annoying to approve purchases I made, but it’s also notified me a few times someone got their hands on my card. In your banking app, go into Settings and look for Alerts or Notifications.

⏱️ Too many podcasts in your feed? Adjust the playback speed. Look for 1x or similar in your podcast player. Tap that, then you can adjust, often up to three times the speed. Pro tip: Only speed up your listening by .25 or .5; anything else is jarring, and your brain needs time to adjust.

Quick privacy boost: Turn off your location history in Google. Open Google, go to your account settings and tap Data & privacy. Tap Location History under History settings and select Turn off.

🤢 Oh, gross: Your devices are magnets for dust, dirt, oil and germs. Here’s my guide for correctly cleaning your screens, keyboard, mouse and printer.

Rip-off alert: Depending on where you live and the provider you choose, you might be overpaying for internet. Use this free check to see.

Passwords are out: Passkeys are in. Here’s why Google is trying to get you to switch.

📍 Privacy, please: If you have a loyalty app, you’d better believe retailers use your location and Bluetooth data to know when you’re in the store. Fix that (if you want to).

Andrew’s back: He was on my show for years, and now he stops by every week to record a podcast with me and Allie. Listen to this week’s here. I have a blast with these two.

This one is right up my alley.

🥔 The answer: Recycled from the Idaho Potato Commission’s Big Idaho Potato Tour, this six-ton potato is now a one-bedroom, one-bath Airbnb. It rents for $341 a night, and it’s usually fully loaded.

🍅 Today, I’m going to make vegetable lasagna soup. I always make too much. That’s why I totally love these silicone trays that let you freeze soup (or other leftovers) by the serving. I just pop one out for lunch or whenever.

🔧 Got a burning tech question or stuck in a gadget glitch? The Komando Community Q&A Forum is here to help! Join me, my team of tech gurus and a community full of curious minds, all ready to lend a hand. Grab your 30-day free pass for the Komando Community here. Your support fuels our passion. Thank you! — Kim