Tech

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance, will let you connect bank accounts

Published

20 hours ago

May 15, 2026

On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S., letting them connect their accounts and ask questions ranging from spending analysis to future financial planning.

OpenAI has partnered with the financial connection service Plaid to manage the account connections. Users can connect to over 12,000 financial institutions, including Schwab, Fidelity, Chase, Robinhood, American Express, and Capital One. Once users connect these accounts, they will see a dashboard of their portfolio performance, spending, subscriptions, and upcoming payments.

The new product comes just one month after OpenAI acquired the team behind personal finance startup Hiro, which was backed by firms like Ribbit, General Catalyst, and Restive, in April. OpenAI said that the Hiro team’s expertise in finance was useful in launching this product, but didn’t specify if the entire feature was built by them.

OpenAI users can access the tool by selecting “Get started” in the “Finances” option in the sidebar, or typing “@Finances, connect my accounts” in a ChatGPT conversation. Once users do that, the chatbot will guide them about linking accounts through Plaid. The company said it plans to support Intuit soon, which would enable analysis such as the impact of a stock sale on taxes or the odds of a credit card approval.

Image Credits: OpenAIImage Credits:OpenAI

According to OpenAI, more than 200 million users already ask financial questions to ChatGPT every month. The company also noted that the new GPT-5.5 model is stronger at reasoning with context, which is crucial for answering finance-related questions. The company said it worked with finance experts to create a benchmark for the model to improve on personal finance questions.

With the new financial tool integration, users can get detailed answers to questions such as “I feel like I’ve been spending more recently. Has anything changed?” or “Help me build a plan to be ready to buy a house in my area in the next 5 years.”

Users can go to Settings > Apps > Finances to remove connections to certain accounts if they want. Once they disconnect a service, the synced data will be removed from ChatGPT in 30 days. What’s more, Users can also view and delete financial memories from the Finances page.

Generalized chatbots are designed to answer anything, leading people to ask questions about data-sensitive topics such as health, finance, and personal life. AI companies are realizing this and making specialized products for these sectors. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have launched health-related tools. Earlier this month, Perplxity launched its own financial research product based on its Computer agent.

OpenAI said its personal finance tools will be available on ChatGPT on the web and iOS to Pro users. It noted that, based on the feedback from these users, it wants to improve the product before making it available to Plus users.

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Tech

ChromeOS Flex Kit Is Sold Out: 5 Alternatives for Old Windows 10 PCs

Published

5 hours ago

May 16, 2026

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Google’s $3 ChromeOS Flex kit sold out. Here are five lightweight operating system alternatives for older Windows 10 PCs.

The post ChromeOS Flex Kit Is Sold Out: 5 Alternatives for Old Windows 10 PCs appeared first on TechRepublic.

Tech

Vibe Coding Cheat Sheet: Tools, Prompts, Security Tips, and More

Published

6 hours ago

May 16, 2026

qasimgillani

This vibe coding cheat sheet explains how plain-language prompts can build apps fast, plus the planning, testing, and security checks needed.

The post Vibe Coding Cheat Sheet: Tools, Prompts, Security Tips, and More appeared first on TechRepublic.

Tech

General Catalyst posted VC rage bait and it worked, especially on a16z

Published

15 hours ago

May 15, 2026

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One of the most entertaining moments in VC this week was a piece of rage-bait marketing from General Catalyst.

In a now-viral post on X that parodies the old Mac vs. PC commercials, the venture firm — better known as GC — posted a “VC vs GC” video on Wednesday. The VC was played by a tall actor in a baggy shirt and vest with a distinctly large, bald head — an apparent dig at Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen. (But the real Andreessen never looks that disheveled).

The GC character was played by a man with a thick head of dark hair, white kicks and a tendency to stare deeply into the camera. He was clearly supposed to represent actor Justin Long’s cooler, “hipper” Mac character from the original commercials, in contrast to John Hodgman’s straight-laced “square” PC persona.

GC asks VC about his robotic dog.

VC explains “This is Woof AI” and then extols the virtues of the artificial companion (you don’t need to walk it or break the news to the kids when it dies!) and declares “you’ll never want a real dog after this.” VC mentions that his firm is leading the seed round and pitches GC to join the cap table.

GC explains how people like real dogs and remarks, “I’d love to hear more, but we actually have a really high bar around responsibility for these things.”

Then VC kicks the AI dog and the dog chases him off the screen. The post has now been viewed 2.4 million times with hundreds of shares and comments, and thousands of likes.

I’d have to read so far between the lines that I’d be off the page and peering into another book to unpack this, but I’ll try anyway. The message, roughly: other VCs, and a16z in particular, will fund anything. GC won’t. (I asked about this. GC hasn’t responded.)

It’s a pointed argument if so, and not entirely without basis. Andreessen’s firm frequently invests in companies that are considered controversial, like the surveillance startup Flock Safety, AI notetaker Cluely, and Adam Neumann’s Flow. But the same measure could just as easily be applied to General Catalyst. GC’s portfolio includes Anduril, Percepta, and Polymarket.

My own takeaway is that GC wanted to show an a16z-type character kicking a dog, without anyone actually kicking an actual dog because that would be a major problem.

Many of the comments on the video seemed to find the video, and the choice to post it, cringe. Plenty liked and loved it, too.

Compulsive X user Andreessen himself couldn’t resist responding, many, many times. He said it made GC look “smarmy,” and said “Stay tuned for our upcoming ad campaign, ‘We’re the VC who doesn’t sneer at your idea.'” He kept going from there. My personal favorite was: “The thing they got right is the relative heights.”

As others noted, you know you’ve hit the right rage bait when the target takes it.

There were plenty of a16z partners and staffers who came to Andreessen’s defense, too. So much so that their reactions drew lots of comments. My personal favorite in this category was from VSC Ventures VC Jay Kapoor: “GC vs. A16Z beef is like Kendrick vs. Drake for people who know what a 409A valuation is.”

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