Fresh Air Inside a journalist’s year of using AI for (almost) everything
19 snips
May 12, 2026 
Joanna Stern, tech journalist and NBC News chief technology analyst who wrote I Am Not a Robot, spent a year offloading daily life to AI. She describes wearing AI wearables, running medical scans through algorithms, and relying on chatbots for texts and emotional support. She also explores privacy, job risks, scams, and how fast AI tools change.
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Wearable That Outsourced My Memory
- Joanna wore an AI recording bracelet that passively transcribed everything she said and surfaced reminders for tasks she promised during conversations.
- The bracelet functioned as an outsourced memory, useful in meetings but raising surveillance concerns because it constantly listened and summarized her speech.
ChatGPT Gave My Son False Reassurance
- Joanna and her son asked ChatGPT why their praying mantis turned brown and the model incorrectly said it was pregnant, later proving false when the mantis died.
- The mistaken AI diagnosis taught both of them to question confident-sounding AI answers after seeing real-world consequences.
AI Sees Pixel Patterns Humans Miss
- Radiology AI models trained on millions of images can spot tiny pixel-level patterns humans miss and flag suspicious areas on mammograms and ultrasounds.
- At Mount Sinai the AI sometimes flagged things a doctor would ignore, but also helped doctors be more confident and reduced unnecessary follow-ups.
