Scar•dip•dap

Head's up

PwC's CEO is on record telling staff to use AI or expect to be removed:

"Speaking to the Financial Times, Griggs indicated that anyone who believed they had the "opportunity to opt out" of AI is "not going to be here that long," and warned senior staff not "paranoid about being AI-first" will be replaced by others who are more comfortable with the tech. PwC is also reportedly rethinking its billing model - in an era where AI is expected to automate tasks - potentially shifting from hourly rates to subscription-style access to AI-driven tax and consulting services."

What makes this directive humorous in my eyes is that PwC published interesting business AI survey findings this past January. In those findings, only 12% of the 4,454 participants reported seeing the lower costs and higher revenues from their AI investments. [1] [2]

Privacy

Lermen et al., 2026:

"Implications. Our findings have significant implications for online privacy. The average online user has long operated under an implicit threat model where they have assumed pseudonymity provides adequate protection because targeted deanonymization would require extensive effort. LLMs invalidate this assumption. As also observed by Staab et al. [29], they do not necessarily do so by exceeding human capability—the signals our models exploit are the same signals that a skilled investigator would recognize—but by reducing cost."

Translation: If you've ever written something online as yourself and also written something under a screen name or other pseudonymous name, if the platform you wrote it on allows AI to train or search its content, your pseudonymous writings can be linked to your real identity relatively cheaply.

Online privacy practices will have to be rewritten to account for this AI-enabled capability. If not, at some point, this will cost people their lives or livelihoods. [3]

Automation

Back in January, Kaycee Hill at tom's guide posted a neat trick for pinging a lost iPhone using a Shortcuts automation. To extend this shortcut, find location as the first step in your automation, then add additional steps for taking a photo with the opposite camera as well for maximum coverage. Multiple variables can be added to a message field, although tapping the spot near the variable to bring up the keyboard and not the variable property sheet is a bit tricky without a mouse. [4]

Sources:

• [1] The Register: PwC will say goodbye to staff who aren't convinced about AI
• [2] The Register: Majority of CEOs report zero payoff from AI splurge
• [3] arXiv:2602.16800 [cs.CR]: Large-scale online deanonymization with LLMs
• [4] tom's guide: You can find your missing iPhone with one text message thanks to Apple Shortcuts — here’s how to set it up

1. Except where explicitly mentioned, absolutely no part of this newsletter was created with AI.
2. All opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer or anyone else.
3. For support with any mentioned product, please reach out to the vendor first.