Before you pay to speed up your computer, have AI help you check it
Tsugunori Katayama, a retired company executive in Japan born in 1953 who teaches smartphone and AI skills to older adults, saw a pop-up from his own security software offering to make his computer up to 74% faster. Instead of signing up, he photographed the screen, asked ChatGPT what it meant, and then had it walk him through checking his computer himself.
What they did
The offer came from the security program he already uses, so for a moment he wondered if his computer really had slowed down badly. Before agreeing to anything, he took a phone photo of the pop-up and sent it to ChatGPT, which told him it wasn't a test result showing his computer was 74% slower but an ad for paid clean-up software. He then asked ChatGPT how to check the speed himself, and it walked him step by step through Windows Task Manager, his free disk space, and the programs that start up when the computer turns on, with him sending photos of each screen.
How it went
Everything looked fine: low processor and memory use, and most of his hard drive still free. The one thing he found was a meeting app he never uses that was set to start up on its own, so he turned that off. There was no need to buy the software. He says that at work there was always a tech person to ask, but after retiring there isn't, and that's where AI helps. His advice is not to take the AI's word for it but to check things yourself along the way, and he learned three new computer skills in the process. His post is in Japanese.
Worth knowing
His pop-up was a sales pitch from a real company, but scammers use fake pop-ups that look just like it, often claiming your computer is slow, infected, or locked and telling you to call a number or pay right away. Never call a number in a pop-up, never let a caller take control of your computer, and don't pay from the pop-up itself. If you're unsure, close the window and open your security program directly. AI can get things wrong too, so check what it says on your own screen, as he did. In the U.S., you can report scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Try it yourself
Copy this into ChatGPT (or any AI assistant). Replace the parts in [brackets] with your own details.
A message popped up on my computer: [type the exact words, or attach a photo with any account or license numbers covered]. It says it comes from [program or company name]. Please: 1) Tell me what kind of message this most likely is: a real warning, a sales ad, or a possible scam, and why. 2) Before I pay for anything, walk me through how to check for myself whether my [Windows / Mac] computer actually has a speed or security problem, one step at a time, waiting for me to say what I see. 3) List the warning signs that would mean this is a scam, and what I should do instead of clicking it.
Source: 片山嗣規 (Tsugunori Katayama), note (Tsugunori Katayama's blog), Aug 19, 2026. Read the original →
First-hand account by the person who did it. Summarized in our own words.
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