Good morning! Today we’re looking at a big update to one of the most popular AI tools out there, a free helper that might already be hiding in your banking app, and one scam red flag worth remembering.
In today’s issue: ChatGPT’s new picture-and-chart answers, the free AI assistant built into many banking apps, and the one request that almost always means a chatbot is running a scam.
Let’s get started.
NEWS
ChatGPT Will Now Draw You a Picture Instead of Just Writing a Wall of Text
Starting this week, ChatGPT — the free AI chatbot from the company OpenAI — got a lot easier to learn from if you’re more of a “show me” person than a “tell me” person. Instead of answering every question with a long paragraph, it can now build you a picture, a chart, or even a little calculator right inside the conversation.
In a demo, someone asked ChatGPT how an airplane wing manages to lift a plane off the ground, and instead of three paragraphs of text, it drew a labeled diagram. Ask for a recipe and you might get a visual step-by-step card. Ask it to help plan your retirement savings and it can hand you a small calculator you can adjust yourself, right there in the chat.
Paying subscribers got the new look first, on Wednesday, October 7. Everyone using the free version got it the very next day. If you’d rather keep getting plain text answers, you can tell ChatGPT to dial back the pictures and charts.
Takeaway: If you ask ChatGPT a question this week and get a diagram or a little interactive chart back instead of a paragraph, that’s not a glitch — it’s a new feature meant to make answers easier to follow.
TRY THIS
Your Bank’s App Probably Already Has a Free AI Helper Built In
If you bank with Bank of America, there’s a free AI assistant already sitting inside your mobile banking app, called Erica. You don’t need to download anything new or sign up for anything — it’s simply part of the app once you have a recent version of it, and several other major banks now offer something similar.
Erica understands plain, everyday questions. You can type or say things like “show me what I spent at the grocery store last month,” or “lock my debit card” if you’ve misplaced it, and it will do it right away. It can also quietly keep an eye on things for you, such as noticing when a recurring subscription charge goes up and letting you know.
One thing worth knowing: Erica can show you account and investment information, but Bank of America is clear that it doesn’t give investment advice — for that, it connects you to an actual advisor.
Takeaway: Before you call customer service or dig through old statements, try typing a plain question to your bank’s built-in AI helper — it may find the transaction, flag the rising charge, or lock the lost card in seconds.
STAYING SAFE
If a ‘Job Offer’ Chatbot Asks for a Gift Card, It’s a Scam
AARP recently told the story of a retiree who applied for a work-from-home job and spent weeks texting back and forth with what seemed like an unusually responsive, helpful recruiter. It was actually an AI chatbot running a scam — he only caught on because the conversation felt a little too relentless.
This is the uncomfortable new reality: the old warning signs — bad grammar, awkward phrasing, slow or robotic replies — are fading, because AI chatbots are getting better at sounding like a normal, patient person. So instead of trying to “catch” the AI by how it talks, it’s safer to watch for what it asks you to do.
Here’s the one request that almost never fails as a scam signal, whether it comes from a “recruiter,” an online love interest, a “government official,” or a tech support caller: being asked to pay with a gift card, or to deposit cash into a cryptocurrency kiosk or ATM. No real employer, bank, or government agency asks for either one. If you hear that request, the conversation is over — hang up or stop replying.
Takeaway: However warm and human a chatbot or caller sounds, a request to pay by gift card or through a cryptocurrency kiosk is one scam signal that AI hasn’t been able to fake — treat it as an automatic stop sign.
— AARP
Until tomorrow,
EZ AI