The PCWorld Guide to Consumer AI
Make sense of AI with practical tips, real-world guides, and expert analysis. Learn how to use today’s AI tools effectively, stay relevant at work, and cut through the hype.
News Analysis
Big AI is about to get a big reality check
Tougher regulation of the biggest AI providers may soon become reality following this week’s electoral rout.By Ben Patterson6 days ago
Feature
My AI agents sent emails without my OK. This simple prompt stops it
AI agents tend to act first without permission. This prompt makes them wait for your explicit approval before significant actions.By Ben Patterson7 days ago
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I vibe-coded a Windows app with ChatGPT. Getting it to work was another story
I tried to vibe-code a local voice transcription app with ChatGPT to replace my Otter subscription. It was easy, but here's what it cost me.By Mark Hachman7 days ago
Sponsored DealPost
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Feature
Nvidia's RTX Spark laptops make no sense — until they do
We’ve tested Nvidia’s wild new chips for AI, gaming, and everyday work. Here’s where RTX Spark kicks ass—and where it doesn’t.By Brad Chacos1 week ago
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Lawyers say vibe-coding your own app is low risk. But there's a catch
Telling an AI to clone a named app, or feeding it screenshots, can raise your legal risk. Here’s how to prompt safely instead.By Mark Hachman1 week ago
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It's not just Sam Altman: AI will ruin PC gaming in ways you don't expect
From platforms like Steam to giant publishers like EA to the continuing RAM crisis, AI is making pretty much everything worse for the world's biggest entertainment medium.By Michael Crider1 week ago
News Analysis
Claude won’t reverse-engineer games for you anymore
The party’s over for AI users who’ve been asking Claude to recreate Grand Theft Auto, Diablo, and other well-known video game titles.By Ben Patterson1 week ago
News Analysis
Sam Altman says your PC's memory should belong to him
In an interview, the CEO of OpenAI and boss of ChatGPT says it would be far more efficient if all the RAM in your gaming PC was reserved for a data center.By Michael Crider1 week ago
Opinion
I burned through 220,000 AI tokens just because I could
The real promise of local AI isn’t saving money. It’s making ridiculous amounts of experimentation cheap enough to stop asking “Should I?” and start asking “Why not?” I hadn't really appreciated this until I began testing an RTX Spark laptop.By Brad Chacos1 week ago
Tip
Google's AI can turn almost anything you read into a podcast
Google's Gemini Notebook and Illuminate can turn long documents and dense research papers into easy-to-follow and engaging audio discussions between two AI hosts.By Sam Singleton1 week ago
Feature
This is why you can’t build your own RTX Spark PC
My monster PC has 128GB of memory. AI doesn’t care.By Brad Chacos2 weeks ago
News Analysis
I thought my homelab was secure. AI showed me how wrong I was
AI is finding bugs on the internet that were lurking for years, and Claude Code warned me I wasn't immune.By Ben Patterson2 weeks ago
Reviews
This $7,000 RTX Spark laptop had no business beating my RTX 5090 — but it did
Asus’ $7,000 ProArt P16 with Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip has 128GB of unified memory and a very particular set of skills. My absurd AI workload found them.By Brad Chacos2 weeks ago
Tip
One prompt made ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini stop acting like my buddy
I merged my three favorite AI prompts into one custom instruction, then tested it on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Here it is and what changed.By Ben Patterson2 weeks ago
News Analysis
‘Extraordinary potential’ and ‘catastrophic’ risk: Anthropic’s 5 biggest IPO head-turners
Its models could transform work as we know it, cure disease, and/or destroy humanity. No, Anthropic’s IPO filing is not like the others.By Ben Patterson2 weeks ago
Reviews
This $7,000 Asus RTX Spark laptop feels like Darth Vader’s MacBook Pro
I’m putting Asus’ 128GB RTX Spark monster through intensive real-world AI testing. But first, we need to talk about this gorgeous hardware.By Brad Chacos3 weeks ago
News Analysis
Meta just reminded us that sharing AI chats is a terrible idea
Researchers uncovered more than 6,000 shared Meta AI chats, including some with sensitive personal and financial data. The problem? A simple URL.By Ben Patterson3 weeks ago
Tip
I needed 20+ years of address history. Gemini found it for me in minutes
Mortgage and rental forms want years of past addresses. Here's an AI prompt that finds them in Gmail, and how to verify the results.By Ben Patterson3 weeks ago
News Analysis
1Password opens the door to AI agents — without handing over your passwords
1Password now allows ChatGPT Dot, Grok Bot, and other AI agents to handle your usernames and passwords without the agent actually seeing them. What happens next is up to you.By Ben Patterson3 weeks ago