A robot is taking 250 million from people's bank account for their own good

It's the mantra of many a financial advisor: "It's not what you spend that matters. But the mantra of many respondents is "easier said than done." In hopes of making saving easier, San Francisco-based start-up Digit created a chatbot that helps you put money aside by analyzing your spending history and daily activity. It then figures out where to siphon off small sums of cash on a regular basis. To see how well the bot's algorithms work, I decided to try it out. It took me less than a minute to sign up on Digit's website, where I handed over my email address and mobile phone number. After verifying the email and providing my bank login credentials, the bot kicked in. Within a few days, it started to withdraw small amounts of money (between 0 and 150). The bot isn't supposed to transfer more than you can afford but if it does cause an overdraft, Digit refunds the fee. The funds are then held by Digit in what they call your "Digit account." To withdraw funds you text the bot and the ...