That Call From Your Grandson Might Not Be Him

Good morning.
A voice on the phone sounded exactly like someone's grandson. It wasn't. That's one of the AI stories in this issue. The other involves me, a car dealership, and a decision I'm still a little surprised by. Both happened the same week. Both are powered by AI. One should make you more careful with your phone. The other just made me want a new car.

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FEATURED STORY
🚨 Scammers Are Using AI to Clone Your Grandchild's Voice

Scammers are using AI to clone a grandchild's voice, then calling with a fake emergency that needs cash immediately. The FBI calls it a distress scam. Most people know it as the grandparent scam.

A birthday video, an old voicemail, or one social media clip is now enough to recreate a voice convincingly. The caller sounds scared. The story sounds real. By the time anyone checks, the money is already gone.

The FBI counted $352 million in AI-related scam losses among adults 60 and older this past year. Average losses ran about $38,500 per victim, nearly double what younger adults lose to similar schemes.

A few defenses actually work. Add a trusted contact to any brokerage account, most firms are required to offer one. Ask about temporary holds on suspicious withdrawals. And if a call sounds like an emergency, hang up and call back on a number you already have, never the one that called you.

One more layer of protection worth knowing about: Incogni works to get your personal information removed from data broker sites, the same kind of place scammers pull details from to make a call sound convincing.

Read the full breakdown here 👉 Grandparents Are Identity Theft's Biggest Payday.

HELPFUL EVERYDAY PROMPTS
DO Try This at Home
Just copy-and-paste into your favorite AI tool. Remember to edit any brackets, then follow up with clarifying questions until you get a response that works for you.

Summer Solstice (June 21)
☀️ Use the long day. "Act as an event planner. Suggest three simple ways to make the most of the longest day of the year, using only things I probably already have at home."

Father's Day (June 21)
👔 Say it right. "Act as a thoughtful writing coach. Help me turn three specific memories I'll give you into a short, genuine Father's Day message that doesn't sound like a greeting card."

National Smoothie Day (June 21)
🥤 Use what's in the fridge. "Act as a nutritionist. Build me a smoothie recipe using only the ingredients I list from my fridge and freezer, and tell me roughly how much protein it has."

National HVAC Tech Day (June 22)
🌡️ Check before you call. "Act as a home repair advisor. Walk me through three things to check on my air conditioner before I call a technician, based on the symptoms I describe."

Public Service Day (June 24)
🤝 Give back locally. "Act as a volunteer coordinator. Suggest three specific, low-commitment ways I could give back in my own community this month, based on what I enjoy and how much time I have."

Because you subscribe, you have access to more than 800 Prompts, our Learning Center, Pro Tips and Recommended Tools for home use – Just click Here.

REAL WORLD
How We Used AI This Week
Real people, real uses—here’s how AI is quietly making life better, one small win at a time.

👞 Anthony, Scottsdale AZ, asked ChatGPT to help him shop for men's dress shoes. Wide feet and long days on his feet meant comfort came first. AI compared Rockport, Cole Haan, and Nunn Bush against his budget, then sent him to Nordstrom Rack and Dillard's near SanTan Village in Gilbert. It even built him an in-store checklist: insole cushioning, sole flexibility, leather quality. He walked in already knowing what to look for.

📈 Daniel, Greenville SC, built a personal stock-picking system using AI to track methodology and metrics he trusts. The AI keeps him from pulling the trigger too early. It waits for the price to actually hit his target before flagging a buy. His confidence in his picks is higher, and his itchy trigger finger stays still until the numbers say go.

👉How do you use AI at home? Tell us here.

AI INSIGHT
🚗 Rivian's CEO Says Most Car Companies Are Already Behind

I just got back from test driving the new Rivian R2 in Scottsdale, in the exact color I already put a deposit on. The dealership staff knew the vehicle cold and walked me through every system without missing a beat. I left more sold than when I walked in.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe did not pull punches on a recent podcast appearance. He told Stripe cofounder John Collison that most legacy automakers are running what he calls "little islands of software," separate systems that do not talk to each other and cannot support real AI integration.

His prediction: by the early 2030s, a car company without a unified, software-first architecture, including AI, will not be able to hold onto its market share.

Rivian built its own system from scratch, and the company just locked in a $5.8 billion software partnership with Volkswagen to prove the model works.

Scaringe has skin in this game, so take the confidence with a grain of salt. But the underlying point is hard to argue with. The cars we buy in the next decade may be judged less on horsepower and more on how well their software actually thinks.

Read his full comments here.

READER POLL

NEWS YOU CAN USE
This Matters at Home
Short, practical summaries to help you stay updated on recent AI news—and what it means for everyday life.

📱 Facebook Just Got a Built-In AI Search Mode and a Wardrobe Trick. Meta is rolling out AI Mode for real-answer search inside your Feed, smarter photo collage suggestions, and a tool that puts a World Cup jersey on your profile picture in a few taps.

🛍️ Amazon's Prime Day Returns June 23 to 26, With AI Doing Some of the Shopping for You. Alexa for Shopping can now build a personalized deal guide, track prices on items you want, and automatically buy something the moment it hits your target price.

🔍 Your AI Shopping Assistant Might Not Be on Your Side. A new analysis finds AI shopping agents can quietly steer you toward sponsored or pricier products instead of the best deal, with no rules yet requiring them to disclose it.

💉 AI Just Helped Design a Vaccine That Could Stop the Next Pandemic. Cambridge researchers fed AI genetic data from dozens of coronaviruses, and it built a single vaccine meant to protect against the whole family, including strains that haven't reached humans yet. The first human trial: safe, with no major side effects.

🏛️ The Government May Soon Own a Piece of the Company Behind ChatGPT. The White House and OpenAI are reportedly discussing a government stake meant to funnel some AI profits back to everyday Americans. Still unresolved: how big the stake would be, and what it would actually mean for your wallet.

🤝 Anthropic Is Paying People $85,000 to Bring AI to Nonprofits. The company behind Claude just launched a fellowship placing 1,000 paid workers inside food banks, veterans groups, and community nonprofits nationwide, with more than 400 host organizations involved this year. Applications for the first cohort close July 17.

⚽ The 2026 World Cup Is Also the First AI World Cup. Bank of America says this tournament could generate two exabytes of data, about 45,000 years of nonstop video. Every team gets its own AI model tracking thousands of performance metrics in real time, down to every pass and shot.

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TOOLS FOR YOU
🏠 Tool Spotlight: HomeZada

If you've ever stood in front of your furnace wondering when you last had it serviced, HomeZada might solve that. It is a home inventory and project tool that tracks every appliance, warranty, and maintenance date in one place, the kind of thing that pairs well with this week's AC checklist prompt above. Log your home once, and it quietly keeps tabs on what needs attention before it becomes an emergency. Start here.