Week of April 20, 2026
(see last week)
How Gas Prices Vary Widely Across the USA
In preparing Consumer World every week, MrConsumer scans thousands of headlines to find the three dozen or so stories he includes here. One source is Bing News. But when searching there recently, he discovered that some stories shown as mere hours old were in fact years old!
That story is in Mouse Print* this week.
A new study reveals that AI chatbots are not very good, at least initially, at diagnosing a medical condition based on a limited number of facts you enter. [Original study] Another AI tool, not mentioned in the Brigham study, is called Ada. It is supposedly better than plain vanilla ChatGPT-type services because it asks a lot of follow-up questions. Of course, talking to your own doctor, assuming he or she is a good diagnostician, is always recommended.
If you order food for delivery from a restaurant or supermarket, you often pay more than the price you would if you picked it up yourself. Now the FTC is opening an investigation into high and hidden fees and they are seeking your input.
Property taxes are rising faster than inflation in some parts of the nation. See the rates around the country according to a new study. [It is not uncommon in the Boston area to find condo owners paying a $1,000 a month in property taxes alone.] Here is advice from the New York Times on how to deal with high property taxes, including seeking an abatement.
Consumer AlertFTC Tackles Hidden Fees for Food and Grocery Deliveries
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