Good morning! Today we’re looking at how AI is quietly showing up in some unexpected places — from your mailbox to your phone.
In today’s issue: why your medical bills might be getting more complicated, a free way to let your iPhone write texts and emails for you, and how to spot a fake celebrity endorsement online.
Let’s get started.
NEWS
Why That Medical Bill Might Be Getting More Complicated — Blame AI
You may not think AI has anything to do with your medical bills, but it turns out it does. Hospitals have started using AI tools to help fill out the paperwork they send to insurance companies — a process called “coding,” where a visit or procedure gets translated into billing codes insurers use to decide what to pay.
According to an analysis by Blue Cross Blue Shield, AI-assisted coding led to an extra $942 million in healthcare spending over the past two years. The AI tools are increasingly describing patients as having more complex conditions — but there’s no evidence the actual care those patients received changed at all. In other words: same visit, same treatment, but a bigger bill.
Insurance companies are now starting to use their own AI to double-check those claims, so both sides are using AI against each other — and you can end up caught in the middle.
Takeaway: If a medical bill or “Explanation of Benefits” statement looks unusually complicated or the diagnosis language seems more serious than what you remember discussing with your doctor, it’s worth calling your doctor’s office or insurer and asking them to walk you through it in plain English.
TRY THIS
Ask Your iPhone to Write That Text or Email For You
If you’ve ever stared at a blank text message trying to find the right words, Apple’s latest phone software can now help. It’s a feature called “Write with Siri” (Siri is the voice assistant built into iPhones), and it lets you simply describe what you want to say — out loud or typed — and Siri writes a first draft for you.
For example, you could say, “Write a birthday message to my granddaughter” or “Draft an email asking my doctor’s office to reschedule my appointment,” and Siri hands you something you can read over, tweak, and send.
It’s free, but it only works on newer iPhones (iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 and later models) running the newest software update, called iOS 27 — so if your iPhone is a few years old, you may not have it yet. If that’s the case, you can get a similar result by asking a free chatbot app like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to “write a short text message” for you, then copying what it gives you into your messages.
Takeaway: Next time you’re stuck writing a text or email, try describing what you want to say out loud to Siri (or typing it into ChatGPT or Gemini) and let it draft something for you to edit and send.
STAYING SAFE
That Celebrity Endorsing a “Free” Giveaway Online? It Might Be Fake.
You may see an ad or social media post that looks like a famous celebrity is personally recommending a product or a giveaway. Increasingly, that’s not real — it’s a “deepfake,” a fake photo or video created by AI that’s realistic enough to make it look and sound like a real person said or did something they never actually did.
Scammers use a celebrity’s stolen face and voice to make an offer feel trustworthy, then ask you to pay a small “shipping fee” or “processing fee” to claim your “free” prize. AARP’s Fraud Watch Network warns that no legitimate celebrity endorsement should require you to pay money to receive something advertised as free.
Before trusting any celebrity endorsement you see online, search for real news coverage of it or check the celebrity’s own official social media — if it’s genuine, real news outlets will have reported on it too.
Takeaway: If an ad shows a celebrity endorsing a “free” prize or deal and then asks you to pay anything to claim it, treat it as a scam — real free prizes never come with a fee.
— AARP
Until tomorrow,
EZ AI