A Question for Tech

What is an Assistant?

The basics of computer assistants — what they are, how we use them, and whether what the industry calls an "assistant" actually assists anyone.

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A Day in an AI Life — a short story

One morning, logged

Fiction · Short Story

A Day in an AI Life

A short story — the only made-up thing on this site. An assistant that lives on your device, holds everything you have, and decides every hour how much of you to send out.

DT

Dear Tech

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Top Picks · 6 reviewed · Honest & independent All reviews →

Claude5.0 / 5 ChatGPT4.5 / 5 Grammarly4.3 / 5 Pinecone4.0 / 5 Railway4.2 / 5 Rytr2.5 / 5

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AI Voice Clones

If You Get the Call

AI Scams Safety

AI Voice Clones: The Scam Call That Sounds Like Your Family

Three seconds of audio is enough to clone a voice that fools 70% of people. The scam scripts, the $25M case, and the one-word family defense. AI Watch #01.

AI for Students

Same Tool · Opposite Outcomes

AI Education Ethics

AI for Students: How to Use It Without Cheating Yourself Out of an Education

The one-question test that separates tutor from ghostwriter, the green and red lists, and what AI detectors actually catch — including their false-positive problem.

Privacy and AI

Training Default, July 2026

AI Privacy Safety

Privacy and AI: What Data Are You Giving Away Every Time You Use It

Every consumer AI tier trains on your chats by default — even paid ones. The provider-by-provider audit, the buried opt-outs, and the never-paste list.

Opinion

From the Editorial Desk

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The privacy tax is paid in evenings

The Privacy Tax Is Paid in Evenings

Self-hosting cost me a night over a single backtick. The assembled version takes four minutes and charges a price that never appears on the box. On blast radius, the oopsie economy, and why small beats safe.

Reviews

Featured Services

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Claude review — twenty mistakes in six days

What $20 a Month Actually Cost

AI Assistant Anthropic

Claude

$700 over eight months, twenty documented mistakes, and a night lost to a single backtick. Still a 5.0 — for what I use it for.

ChatGPT review — five best and five worst features

Scored on What I Actually Used

AI Assistant OpenAI

ChatGPT

The AI assistant that put generative AI on the map. Versatile, fast, and deeply integrated with a growing ecosystem of plugins and tools.

Railway review — used as a key vault

The $5 Trial Credit

Deployment Infrastructure

Railway

Deploy any app in seconds. Railway removes the complexity of infrastructure so developers can focus entirely on building their product.

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