| Did DeepSeek lie? Plus, Meta in panic mode, keyboard smarts, ideal winter temp ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏  In partnership with NativePath | | Whoa, watch out on this Wednesday, friend. NASA is tracking a massive asteroid that'll shoot past Earth today. It's traveling 10 times faster than a speeding bullet, weighs as much as a blue whale and is slightly smaller than a school bus. The good news is it should stay a comfy 511,000 miles away from the planet. ☄️ Another newly discovered "asteroid" came less than 150,000 miles away from Earth, closer than the moon's orbit. It turned out to be … a Tesla roadster. Elon Musk's SpaceX launched "Starman" during rocket testing in 2018. That just fires me up to make sure you're never left tech‑behind! — Kim 📣 Don't keep me a secret: Share the email with friends (or copy URL here) | TODAY'S TOP STORY Car insurance super expensive? It's not just you  My car insurance just went up 32%. Did I have an accident or get a few tickets? Nope. Across the U.S., the average full-coverage car insurance bill went up 25% last year. In some states, it was closer to 40%. Geez. The main reason? Today's high-tech vehicles cost way more to repair. You don't need to own a high-tech car to feel the pinch, though; it's hitting everyone. Driving up costs Modern cars are packed with dozens of sensors and endless lines of computer code. Combine that with the rising cost of replacement parts and repairs, and voila — soaring auto insurance rates. No wonder the average collision insurance claim jumped 64% between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, auto insurance rates climbed 20%, the biggest increase since 1976. The rate increases are slowing a bit, but there's no telling how tariffs could impact that. About 60% of car parts used in repairs are imported from China. Let's look under the hood In 2018, Toyota redesigned its uber-popular Camry. The number of parts in the front bumper alone increased from 18 to 43. Most are related to advanced driver-assist features. The upgrades also mean a front-end collision repair is 43% more expensive. It's not just driver-assist jacking up costs. - Many new cars have LED headlights, which cost around five times more than halogen lights to replace.
- New cars contain more aluminum. Compared to steel, aluminum is lighter, provides better gas mileage and offers more protection in a crash, but it's harder to fix and more expensive.
- EVs take 20 days on average to repair. That's 40% longer than traditional vehicles and $500 more expensive for labor.
Smart ways to save I make it my business to find the best ways to save. Then, I pass them along to you. Let's do this. - Review your current insurance plan and make adjustments to your coverage levels. Raising your deductible could result in a significant decrease in your premium. Keep in mind you'll pay more out of pocket if you get into an accident.
- Ask for discounts. You might get one if your car has an antitheft system installed, you're a safe (accident-free) driver or you've completed defensive driving courses. Talk to your agent.
- Consider switching to usage-based insurance. If you don't drive that much or have a relatively short commute, you could pay much less than you would under a traditional plan.
- Bundle your other insurance plans with the same provider. Carrying home, auto, life and even pet insurance under one company means better rates.
The million-dollar question "Should I install one of those trackers to get a discount?" I wrote all about what they collect here. In a nutshell: For me, the discount isn't worth it. Review your plan, talk to your agent, and see how much you'll really save by letting them know everywhere you go … and every time you hit the gas or slam on the brakes. You know they'll use and sell the data in so many ways. 🍝 Why does pasta always have to pay so much for car insurance? It can't drive a car without making it al dente. (That was a good one if I do say so myself.) | KIM KOMANDO TODAY What to know about DeepSeek Did China just win the AI race? Meet the AI models outperforming the heavy hitters in price and performance, triggering a global tech selloff. Listen on Komando.com → | DEALS OF THE DAY Savings on lock 📦 Special deliveries to give you a little more peace of mind. 🔌 Need more outlets? This wall changer (35% off) gives you six, plus two USB charging ports and a night-light. Yay, no fiddling around in the dark! | WEB WATERCOOLER 🇨🇳 Did DeepSeek lie? Probably. The Chinese-run AI company sent American tech stocks crashing after reporting it only cost 'em $5.6 million to chat up to ChatGPT and all the rest. Nvidia lost $600 billion (down 17%) on Monday, the worst drop since March 2020. Turns out that was some creative math. DeepSeek spent that much training its V3 model but has invested $500 million in its tech since 2023. For the record, that's still pretty low compared to U.S. companies, which spent upwards of $50 billion. ICYMI, here's more about DeepSeek. Picture this: DeepSeek says its AI image generator is better than DALL‑E 3 and Stable Diffusion. It used 72 million AI images, along with a crapload of real-world data, to train Janus‑Pro‑7B. I don't think it's that great. Try it here on a phone or computer you don't use all the time. There's no telling what the Chinese are doing in the background. Bet he's a peach to be around right now: Mark Zuckerberg's got four "war rooms" going at Meta HQ to figure out DeepSeek's secrets. Two teams are focused on training and operating costs; the other two are digging into how the data might level up Meta's next Llama model. Think about this: All the U.S.-based AI companies just got a kick in the butt to do better. Last laugh: Trolls helped Amy Schumer figure out she has Cushing's syndrome. The condition makes your body produce too much cortisol (the stress hormone), causing facial swelling known as "moon face." Guess online haters are good for something. RadioShack lives: The last store closed in 2017, but the electronics retailer's back online selling SD cards for dirt cheap. Don't let nostalgia fool you; that 32GB card for under $6 is as outdated as RadioShack itself and runs at a slow 10MB/s. Faster cards (30MB/s) are $19. Here's a better option on Amazon for $20. Swatting spree: You're sitting at home when the SWAT team rushes in, convinced someone inside just committed murder and has explosives set up. A 23-year-old in Wisconsin, along with another guy, hacked into the family's Ring camera and called the cops with that story. Once police arrived, they livestreamed it all. One of them is already serving 17 years in prison. If you have a Ring camera, turn on 2FA. 👨👩👧👦 Chosen family: This number surprised me: About 27% of folks are estranged from their families. So sad. Enter the 11,000-member Facebook group Surrogate Grandparents USA. Donna Skora, a retired paralegal in Florida, started it in 2015. Folks can post ads or respond to others' requests for surrogate grandparents. It's helped people like Karen Tautges Malinak, a goat farmer in Minnesota who's lost touch with her daughters. | | IN PARTNERSHIP WITH |  | Your own fountain of youth We're not getting any younger. There's no better time to upgrade your routine with the boosting powers of collagen, scientifically proven to help with the signs of aging. Starting in our 30s, collagen production naturally slows down. That could be why you feel a little creakier in the morning and even after a good night's sleep, your skin doesn't glow like it used to. That's where NativePath Collagen comes in. It can help with: - Reducing wrinkles and improving skin elasticity
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It's so easy to get the collagen your body is craving. Just add two scoops of NativePath's flavorless, single-ingredient supplement to whatever you want. I like it in my morning tea. And voila, just like that, you get 20 grams of collagen protein. For a limited time, get 45% off and free shipping! → Please support our sponsors! | DIGITAL LIFE HACK Have a TP-Link router? This is serious They're linked to security risks and cyberattacks. There's an important step to take before replacing yours. Listen on Komando.com → | TECH LIFE UPGRADES 🔠 All work and no play: Get through your afternoon slump (or teach your kid to spell) by plugging this prompt into any chatbot: "Let's play hangman. Think of a word, and I'll guess one letter at a time. I get six wrong guesses before it's game over. Each wrong answer adds a part to the hangman with ASCII art." So fun! Big Tech decides what you see: It doesn't have to be that way. StartMail is my pick for the best privacy-first email. It's super easy to switch over your contacts and mail, or you can treat it as a fresh inbox for only your VIPs. Save 60% now with my special link.* Tip tap: Navigate with just your keyboard. On a PC, hit the Windows key + T to highlight the first icon on your taskbar, then use the arrow keys to move through the bar. Press Enter to open an app. On Mac, hold down Cmd + Tab for a list of open apps. Use the arrows to navigate, and release the keys when you reach the one you want. 📍 Google Maps pro tip: You don't need to know the exact name of something to find it. Search Maps for general terms, like "plants and trees," "frame shop" or "dog park," and Google will find you spots that match. 68 to 70 degrees: Your thermostat's sweet spot during winter to keep you comfy without raising your heating bill. Pro tip: Turn it down by 7 to 10 degrees for the hours you're at work. You may save up to 10% a year. A smart thermostat makes it easy to maintain a schedule. Kim K. uses the FaceTune app: Not me — the other Kim K. She's one of the many celebs who use it to look great in every photo on social media. It's free to download, but there are a ton of in-app purchases. Expect to shell out $30 a year for all the editing features and to remove watermarks. More here. | BY THE NUMBERS $300,000 Paid over six months to TikTokkers willing to jump ship and go Instagram-exclusive. Meta's contracts, which were sent to certain influencers with 1 million followers or more, are broken down into tiers (paywall link). The top one pays $50,000 a month to post 10 Reels between 15 seconds and 3 minutes in length. I'd take that hourly rate. 11% higher Salary for pretty people. Researchers followed 43,000 MBA grads, and the ones seen as conventionally attractive make more than their homely peers. The disparity was largest in management and consulting and smallest in technical fields, like IT and engineering. I'm still deciding if I should be offended … 17 Solution the French-governed AI chatbot gave to 5(3+2). (The answer is 25.) The bot, Lucie, also said, "Cow's eggs, also known as chicken's eggs, are edible eggs produced by cows." The bot is offline now. So, to recap, we need to worry about China in the AI race and definitely not France. Noted. | WHAT THE TECH?  RIP to the very-popular-on-social-media Saint Norbert Liv Freyermuth Steines, aka Norbert, the 3-pound therapy dog. | UNTIL NEXT TIME ... I wrote about IRS free filing and got a bunch of questions about TurboTax. Stay away. They're infamously tricky and find reasons to charge you. Here are two actually free federal filing options: Cash App Taxes and FreeTaxUSA. The IRS has a list of other apps and programs on its site. 😂 Why do accountants hate pre-tax income? It's gross. Stop putting off a hard conversation. Get your life insurance plans squared away. Fabric makes it fast and easy.* Sign up online, with no health exams required. Thanks for being here, friend. I'll be back in your inbox tomorrow with more news you can use, tips you'll thank me for and jokes you'll roll your eyes at, all in the best newsletter in the USA! Until then, be the rock star you are! — Kim | How'd we do? What did you think of today's issue? | | |
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Keep a civil tongue.