Say hello to a wonderful Wednesday! Let’s get the ball rolling with tech trivia. What did Elon Musk try for two days then give up? Was it … living only on carrots, getting his Ph.D., living in a space simulator or Twitter? The answer’s at the end.

🚀 I had a blast putting this newsletter together. Warning: Massive tech know-how ahead! — Kim

It's the night before your wedding. You're frantically trying to pen your vows — you know, the most important exchange you'll ever have with your sweetheart on the most memorable day of your lives! No pressure.

If your last name isn't Shakespeare and you don't write greeting cards for Hallmark, maybe a little artificial intelligence (AI) secret sauce could help. 

Nowadays, more and more couples rely on tools like ChatGPT to make their “I do's” flawless.

‘AI promise to love and cherish you …’

One woman started using ChatGPT to come up with cheesy references to her and her husband as a joke. Elyse Nguyen eventually realized there was something more to it.

Elyse wound up tailoring prompts to her partner's interests, made a few edits and included some personal info. She says ChatGPT helped her include creative metaphors she wouldn't have thought of herself. No, she didn’t ask AI to come up with a poem line that rhymes with “the way you shake that booty.”

The trend is catching on and others are following suit — including wedding party members. I sure wish this was around sooner based on some of the best man and maid of honor speeches I’ve heard over the years.

A very robotic romance

ChatGPT isn't the only program couples are using to plan the big day. Joy's Writer's Block Assistant tool can help those who have no clue where to start crafting the perfect wedding website. The tool is excellent for things like "About us" pages and messages for thank-you cards.

Need to nail a best man, maid of honor or father-of-the-bride speech? Check out ToastWiz. For $29.99, you get three ready-to-go, custom speeches based on a questionnaire and some prompting.

Not just for weddings

If you or someone in your life is putting together a reunion, anniversary party, retirement gala, end-of-life celebration or whatever, let AI help do some of the hard work.

• Thank-you notes: AI can easily draft a template to start from. Just be sure to add a personal touch to keep things meaningful.
• Budgeting: An AI personal finance tool can help track your budget and pay vendors on time.
• Signage wording: AI’s great for pumping out options for a cute saying for the cocktail menu or seating chart.
• Aesthetic planning: Use an AI art generator to create images or even give you decoration inspo.
• Social media: Need help crafting the perfect Instagram caption? ChatGPT will probably do a better job than most people ... just saying.

AI can be terrific, but remember to put in your personal touches. Speaking of weddings … I went to the most beautiful wedding a few weeks ago. Even the cake was in tiers.

🖥 Update your Windows PC: The latest update fixes two zero-day flaws (i.e., hackers know about these and are using them to steal from people) and 87 annoyances that aren’t quite that big of a deal. So, press your Windows key + I on your keyboard to open your Settings menu. Click Update & Security > Windows Update. Install any available updates and reboot for good measure.

Brainy tech: Elon Musk’s Neuralink just scored $280 million for research and development from Peter Thiel’s venture capital fund (Thiel’s a billionaire and co-founder of PayPal). Musk wants humans and AI machines to work together using brain implant technology. Yup, total sci-fi movie plot coming to life.

Ramsey’s top 5 careers of millionaires: Posted on X: Engineers, accountants, teachers, management and attorneys. “Teachers?” yelled teachers everywhere. My list by industry: Tech, health care, real estate, entrepreneurship and finance/investments. You can use my list instead, Dave.

🔥 This car’s on fire: Some 92,000 Hyundai and Kia SUVs and sedans are a huge fire risk. Own one? Park outside, away from your home. This list includes the new Hyundai Elantra, Kona, Palisade, Sonata and Tucson models, plus Kia’s Seltos, Soul and Sportage vehicles. Want more info? Call Hyundai at 855-371-9460 or Kia at 800-333-4542.

“The Voice” from home: Starting today, China-based app TikTok is accepting 30-second audition vids for "Gimme the Mic," its music contest. The winner takes home 50,000 … diamonds? That's in-app currency exchanged for real money — but it's unclear how much that actually is. I'm seeing estimates of around $2,500. Big whoop.

🐕 Bork, bork: It’s not just chatbots — AI animals are here, too. Go1 is the first smart robot pet, developed by China’s Unitree Robotics. OK, no vet bills, pee or food. (It is $2,700, though.) If you ask me, a robot can’t replace the love and companionship of a real animal.

Small-biz warning: The government’s handing out Employee Retention Credits, which aren’t the same as the PPP COVID-19 payments. If anyone claims you need to pay them to get this money or you have to pay it back to avoid penalties, it’s a scam. Get the details here.

🙃 Riveting: YouTuber Mrkeybrd didn’t trust the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra folding phones were as sturdy as the companies say. He started a livestream to prove it. Since Aug. 2, testers have been flipping the phones open and closed continuously. At the time of this writing, the Razr crapped out at 126,367 flips. The Galaxy phone is still flippin’. Yup, people are watching this night and day.

I make the complex world of tech simple and approachable. From explaining the latest gadgets in plain English to offering easy-to-follow cybersecurity advice, I’ve got you covered.

👉 Tech understanding is just a click away!

Are there certain phone numbers you never answer? If I see one that starts with the same few digits as mine, I know it's likely a scam. That's one of the tricks they use to get you since you're most likely to answer if the number’s vaguely familiar.

By now, you have a good idea what the scams are: Failed package delivery, you won a prize, there's trouble with your student loan! But what about the numbers themselves? Here are a dozen you should never answer calls or texts from.

The dirty dozen

You might ask, "Where'd these come from?" BeenVerified, a for-pay people-search site, has a reverse phone number search tool you can use to see who’s calling you. Of the more than 150,000 numbers run through this tool over the past two years, these are the top 12, along with their corresponding scam:

1. (865) 630-4266: Text claiming your Wells Fargo account was locked.
2. (469) 709-7630: A fake failed delivery attempt.
3. (805) 637-7243: You won Publisher’s Clearing House! Not. Also used to impersonate the Visa fraud department.
4. (858) 605-9622: Your PNC, Chase or Wells Fargo account is on hold. (It’s not.)
5. (863) 532-7969: Call to unfreeze your debit card. 
6. (904) 495-2559: You won a prize! (You didn’t.)
7. (312) 339-1227: Track your delivery … or click the link to lose weight.
8. (917) 540-7996: In March, someone could have Ghostface from the movie “Scream” call your phone. It was a marketing tactic … and freaked out a lot of people.
9. (347) 437-1689: Used for tax scams and a fake Dyson vacuum bill.
10. (301) 307-4601: Your package is on hold! (It’s still not.)
11. (878) 877-1402: Your card is locked.
12. (202) 221-7923: Uh-oh, your student loan forgiveness deadline is looming. (Nope.)

Go further: Forward spam texts to the FCC at 7726 (that's SPAM). For scam calls where you lost money or have info, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov. For quicker reporting, go to DoNotCall.gov.

🇵🇱 What do you call a Polish telemarketer? A telephone Pole.

Here’s a powerful trick that can save you lots of time and annoyance: Text replacements. Set up shortcuts to replace longer phrases, like “GM” for “Good morning!” 

Just think of the possibilities. The @ symbol becomes your email address, and something like “myhome” can shortcut your address.

On an iPhone:

• Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.
• Tap the plus icon, then enter your phrase and shortcut. Tap Save.

For Android, you can do this using the Google Keyboard: 

• Open Gboard’s Settings > Dictionary > Personal dictionary and choose your language.
• To add, tap the plus sign. In the first field, type in the word or phrase you want Gboard to remember. In the second field, type in the shortcode you want to pull it up. 

🎁 Now, as my gift to you, a dumb joke short enough to text: How long did Cain hate his brother? As long as he was Able.

A virtual private network, or VPN, is a great place to start. A VPN encrypts your data and hides your IP address, giving you an extra layer of protection from snoops, advertisers and Big Tech companies looking to profit off you.

Some VPNs slow your connection or, worse, track your internet activity and compromise your security. Not ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN’s servers run on RAM, or volatile memory, that’s cleared each time the server is reset — meaning they don’t save your data. You can connect in just one click from a Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, you name it.

🚨 Deal alert: Get an extra THREE months free since you subscribe to my newsletter.

I have a feeling his kids get some premium bedtime stories.

The answer: Elon Musk dropped out of Stanford University's Ph.D. program in applied physics and materials science after just two days in 1995. In an interview, he said, “I could either do a Ph.D. or watch the internet happen."

That same year, Musk co-founded Zip2, a city guide software company, which he sold to Compaq in 1999 for approximately $300 million. Don’t think he needed that degree after all …

🙏🏻 Thanks for letting me in your inbox. Be sure to forward this email to a few folks. Together, we can make this world a better, safer tech place with the best tech newsletters out there! — Kim