AI assistants now want to do your shopping and take care of your mental health. Neither one is open about whose interests it serves. In this episode, Jeremy and Jason start with Meta’s new Muse shopping assistant: a $5 fee that nobody could explain, and Amazon blocking outside AI assistants while it builds its own. Then they look at a recent survey finding that one in three young Canadians uses AI for mental health support every month. They explain why AI makes “what will you pay” pricing cheap enough to use on you. They also cover why AI therapy keeps telling you you’re fine, and what happens to the people who depend on these tools if they get paywalled or shut off. Jeremy shares how an AI assistant helped him pull out of burnout, and why that help is itself the risk. You’ll come away with a practical way to use AI assistants without handing over your wallet or your head.

• [00:01] Meta’s Muse promises to shop for you. Is that a gift or a trap?
• [00:29] Amazon blocks outside AI shopping bots while it builds its own
• [01:56] Why Meta shouldn’t hold your purchase data
• [02:41] A reporter tests Muse and finds a mystery $5 fee
• [04:44] Do retailers already show you prices based on what you’ve paid before?
• [05:54] Ad-tech tracking is old news. AI makes acting on it cheap.
• [10:11] One in three young Canadians uses AI for mental health
• [12:19] The cheerleader problem: AI tells you you’re not the problem
• [16:32] Jeremy’s burnout turnaround using Claude and wearable data
• [19:11] The internet as a private toll road built on public land