Delta Air Lines fired back at lawmakers this week, defending its use of artificial intelligence in pricing airfare.

In a letter to three lawmakers reviewed by TPG, the Atlanta-based carrier again insisted it’s not tapping into customer data or targeting individual consumers as part of a new AI-assisted pricing program.

Delta specifically disputed concerns raised by three Democratic senators who, last month, accused the airline of “individualized” and “surveillance” pricing.

“This is incorrect and this assumption, unfortunately, has created confusion and misinformation in the public discourse,” Delta Chief External Affairs Officer Peter Clark wrote in a letter Thursday. “Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising.”

Delta first revealed it was using AI on a small portion of domestic bookings last fall, likening the technology to a “super analyst” assisting its human revenue management workers.

By last month, the carrier had integrated AI on about 3% of its domestic routes through a partnership with tech firm Fetcherr, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said, noting the carrier hoped to increase its AI usage to about 20% of routes by the end of 2025.

That revelation drew scrutiny from Capitol Hill to the C-suite of top competitors.

Senators Mark Warner (a Democrat from Virginia), Ruben Gallego (a Democrat from Arizona) and Richard Blumenthal (a Democrat from Connecticut) penned a letter to the airline last month, demanding more clarity about the company’s AI pricing tactics.

Then, last week, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Delta’s use of AI was “not appropriate” and contended American didn’t plan to use AI in its fare-pricing practices.

Responding this week, Delta said its new AI program was merely a “decision-support tool” that forecasts demand and recommends fares based on many of the same business considerations that have dictated fares for decades, from booking patterns to route competition and fuel prices.

In some cases, Delta’s AI tool recommends cheaper fares — presumably when seats aren’t selling.

Delta noted it’s also integrating AI into other parts of its business, including in customer service and in predicting when a plane or aircraft part might need maintenance.

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AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are mostly known for helping us get things done. But for younger users, there’s another side, and a more personal one. Unlike people, ChatGPT won’t roll its eyes at your late-night musings or dilemmas—and teens are starting to take advantage of that.

Teens are finding comfort in AI companions for emotional support

No matter where the conversation goes, the bot sticks with you. That consistency has been surprisingly helpful for teens dealing with stress or mental health issues. When things get tough, these chatbots can feel like lifelines, offering advice, support or just someone (or something) to talk to. And unlike people, they don’t judge. It’s just you and the bot, in a private space where you can let it all out.

According to new research by Common Sense Media, over 70% of teens have interacted with AI companions, and half are doing so regularly. These tools, ranging from dedicated platforms like Character.AI and Replika to more general chatbots like ChatGPT or CoPilot, are often used as virtual friends. Whether designed to be emotionally supportive or simply chatty, teens are customizing them with unique personalities and leaning on them for conversation and connection. 

Chatbots are becoming a means to vent and reflect

Some teens use AI to talk about feeling isolated, targeted or left out at school or in everyday life. The chatbot offers a safe space to vent, practice responses or simply feel heard after a tough day. Sometimes, it even helps teens rehearse standing up for themselves or figure out their next moves.

These AI tools aren’t only useful for major problems—they’re equally good for daily advice on boosting your mood, sharpening your thoughts and caring for yourself. 

Sometimes, teens aren’t looking for anything extraordinary. A simple suggestion to breathe, take a warm bath or sip some tea can be exactly what they need, especially when it comes from a space that feels safe and nonjudgmental. They’re not bothered that it’s not a real person talking.

In fact, many teens may prefer it that way. There’s a unique comfort in knowing that everything they say essentially stays within the conversation, existing only between them and the bot, not instantly carried into their real-life world. 

The Common Sense Media study revealed that 31% of teens felt their interactions with AI companions were equally or more fulfilling than conversations with actual friends. Even though 50% of teens don’t fully trust AI guidance, about a third have chosen to discuss major personal issues with AI rather than with other humans.

Even with safe people, a sibling, a parent, a best friend or even a stranger in a quiet moment, there’s still a human instinct that once you speak your truth, it escapes into the world in a way that can feel emotionally counterproductive. 

AI can help teens see their life and struggles more clearly

Teens might not trust every word from a chatbot, but these AI tools help them put their life and struggles into perspective. As they explore their emotions and desires, the chatbots lay out their journey in a way that feels both real and refreshingly clear.

While AI continues to impress with its capabilities, it still can’t perform the kind of deep, critical thinking that can sustainably help young people make sense of their place in the social world. Human connection—the messy, multi-layered kind shaped by culture, family, environment and personality—is something AI can mimic but not truly embody. 

Teens should be aware that their private conversations aren’t ‘private’

Still, teens should be mindful of what they share. Even though conversations with ChatGPT may seem entirely anonymous, that doesn’t mean everything disappears into thin air. The data you enter isn’t instantly wiped away. In fact, chatbots often store your conversations.

Data shared with chatbots can be stored, reviewed and legally used to improve the system, according to OpenAI’s usage policies. Conversations are never entirely deleted, and users who share personal details, names or sensitive information may be unknowingly putting that data at risk. Interacting with a bot demands at least as much caution as typing into a search bar, if not more. 

Just this week, Open AI CEO Sam Altman made this warning all too clear to users. In an interview with Theo Von on This Past Weekend, Altman pointed out that chats with ChatGPT aren’t legally protected the way conversations with doctors or therapists are. “People talk about the most personal sh** in their lives to ChatGPT,” he said, “We haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT.” 

Altman’s remarks follow an ongoing copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times, in which a federal judge recently ordered OpenAI to preserve all ChatGPT user logs, with no timeline set for their deletion. This includes “temporary chats” and API activity, even from users who opted out of data sharing for training. While users can remove chats from their visible history, the underlying data must be retained to comply with legal requirements.

Teens find comfort in AI, but still need real support

A chatbot can reflect back our words, organize our thoughts, and offer practical suggestions. But it can’t really know us—at least not in the way that long-time friends, trusted adults or trained therapists can.

That’s not to say these tools are useless. On the contrary, they’re proving to be meaningful touchpoints for teens who might not have someone to talk to. But they are not replacements and they shouldn’t be. In a perfect world, every teen would have access to affordable, reliable mental health care. Until then, these digital companions are filling a gap. Even a simple chat with a bot can help ease the weight of a heavy day and offer a small sense of relief and calm. 

Photo by Samuel Borges Photography/Shutterstock

Summary

• Windows Recall is back to record your activities on your Windows 11 PC so you can search them later. It’s still a privacy problem for many.
• Windows 11 Pro users can disable it permanently using Local Group Policy.
• Windows 11 Home users can prevent Recall from running by disabling Biometric authentication or device encryption, or not upgrading their PC.

Windows Recall, the AI-powered assistant that takes regular screenshots of your screen so that you can ask it about things you’ve done in the past, is back for good after (yet again) being recalled for privacy concerns. Here’s how Windows 11 Pro users can disable it (again, and this time hopefully forever).

A Windows Recall Refresher

Much has been written about the Windows Recall saga, but it’s worth a quick recap: Microsoft announced that Windows 11 would start taking regular screenshots while you use your PC so that it could be processed by AI, so that you can ask questions and look up your prior activity.

Everyone balked at this obvious security and privacy nightmare. It was then discovered that the screenshots (that would include your private PC usage, such as online banking, personal conversations, and so on) were stored unencrypted where any app could read them, justifying those concerns.

Microsoft then put Recall on hold while it made some tweaks and tried again. Then it came back, and more problems were pointed out, and back to the drawing board they went. Now, Recall is back again in its supposedly final form. Users can now opt specific applications and websites out of being recorded, but it’s almost certainly something that most won’t know about, or bother to do.

While there’s an option to turn off Recall in the Windows Settings app (and even though “off” is now supposed to be the default), some users seek a more permanent solution to make sure it doesn’t sneak back in, especially as Windows features have a strange habit of silently enabling themselves after operating system updates.

Of course, some people find this kind of thing useful and aren’t concerned about potential threats to their privacy. If you’re one of this enviable care-free group, you can skip the rest of this article and go and enjoy yourself. Seriously, ignorance is bliss when it comes to online privacy.

How to Disable Windows Recall on Windows 11 Pro

The Pro edition of Windows 11 lets you access the Local Group Policy Editor (so do the Enterprise and Education editions, but most people don’t use these at home). This tool lets you make tweaks and configuration changes to your Windows system beyond what is available in the Control Panel or Settings app.

Now that Recall is being rolled out for real this time, Group Policy settings are available to turn it off completely, and hopefully permanently. As Group Policy is used by many enterprise entities to control how data is used for compliancy reasons, it’s unlikely this setting will be overruled by a future update.

So, here’s how to disable Windows Recall using Local Group Policy: Right-click on the Start button, click Run, enter the command “gpedit.msc” and then press OK to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.

Then, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI in the navigation tree to the left.

Double-click on the “Turn off saving snapshots for use with Recall” setting to edit it, change its value to Enabled, then click OK to close the change. Close the Local Group Policy Editor, and you’re done. Goodbye Recall.

If you’re curious about the impact of changing this setting, you can read the official Microsoft documentation for it.

Recall Workarounds for Windows 11 Home Users

If you haven’t shelled out the extra money for Windows 11 Pro, you can still make sure Recall can’t run with a few workarounds. You can turn off Biometric authentication or disable device encryption and BitLocker, all of which are system requirements for Recall to function.

To remove biometric authentication and disable Windows Recall, open the Windows Settings app from the Start menu, then navigate to Accounts > Sign-in Options. Select each biometric option, then click the “Remove” button.

Keep in mind that disabling improved authentication methods and disk encryption could be a bad idea if you’re using a portable device or work in a shared environment where your Windows PC isn’t always 100% under your control.

Another option is just not to upgrade your PC to meet Windows Recall’s lofty system requirements, which isn’t all that difficult.

Making Windows More Safe, Secure, and Private

If you want to make Windows 11 more private, here are 6 features to disable, and additional 11 privacy settings to change.

Your operating system isn’t the only thing trying to spy on you: Spyware and malware are still prolific, and hackers and scammers are finding new ways to trick you into giving them access to your devices and accounts (or just steal your money).

Stay vigilant, use best-in-class antivirus, and follow security best practices. You can also give Linux a try—it sometimes takes a little bit of tech know-how, but it puts you in full control of your computing experience.

“People can take control over their own health. They can take responsibility. They can see what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics as they eat it,” he said, referencing his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda slogan. “We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda.”

RFK Jr. has taken his MAHA agenda one step further, making a big prediction on the $80 billion wearable tech industry, which encompasses the $13 billion glucose-monitor market.  

“My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years,” he said.  

RFK Jr., however, walked back his sentiment in a statement about wearables to Axios this week, stating, “They are not for everyone because of concerns like cost and personal privacy.” 

Since taking the helm of the HHS, the secretary has enacted sweeping staffing changes in the department and has championed false claims about vaccines. Still, mitigating chronic diseases in the U.S. through preventive measures is at the forefront of his mind. 

Health wearables, such as sleep rings and glucose monitors, have gained popularity alongside a growing interest in preventive health. They track people’s heart rates, blood-sugar levels, and other vital signs. With arduous wait times and an evolving health care landscape, consumers are opting in for more data on their health outside the four walls of a hospital. 

“We’ve always believed that there’s a transformation afoot in the way people address their health, meaning that they’re going to be in charge of it,” Tom Hale, CEO of Oura, which produces the Oura sleep tracker, told Fortune earlier this month. 

RFK Jr. also previewed a “major advertising campaign” launching next week around preventive health, which will undoubtedly include wearables. 

However, democratizing access to wearables and ensuring they protect people’s privacy were among the key questions posed to RFK Jr. at the testimonial. Experts have widely warned of data breaches, given that tech companies are not subject to the same privacy controls as health systems and insurers. Moreover, wearables only improve health outcomes if people actually make behavioral changes. 

In addressing concerns, the secretary shared, “We are exploring ways of making sure that those costs can be paid for.”