Grumpy Old Geeks

FOLLOW UP starts with merchandise promotion and YouTube begging reminiscent of 2007, before GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen gets thoroughly criticized by eBay after proposing a $56 billion takeover plan that eBay called “neither credible nor attractive,” which is corporate-speak for “please stop emailing us at 3 a.m.” Meanwhile, California residents might finally receive a small settlement check from Grubhub worth about half a burrito, just as Americans realize they dislike AI data centers even more than nuclear plants because nobody wants a warehouse full of GPUs boiling away the local water supply. Lake Tahoe residents are learning their electricity now goes to AI processing plants instead of people, xAI keeps adding methane turbines despite being sued over them, and SpaceXAI employees are fleeing Elon’s “sleep under your desk forever” lifestyle as if it were the last helicopter out of Saigon.

IN THE NEWS, we start gently with the revelation that everyone at the Musk v. Altman trial is sitting on luxury butt cushions because apparently the singularity requires lumbar support, before plunging straight into the abyss: fake AI crypto journalists haunting Forbes and HuffPost like SEO poltergeists, OpenAI launching “Daybreak” so the robots can now secure the software they helped break, Anthropic trying to stop AI from becoming evil by feeding it morality fan fiction, and Google catching AI-generated zero-day exploits in the wild because cyberpunk novels were apparently instructional manuals. Waymo robotaxis are experimenting with driving into floodwaters, a family is suing OpenAI after ChatGPT allegedly advised their son to mix drugs with fatal results, graduating students booed an executive for praising AI as if she were announcing the arrival of cholera, and Meta continues its speedrun toward becoming the world’s largest scam mall while simultaneously demanding everyone trust its shiny new “encrypted AI chats.” Also: Meta is testing Grok-for-Threads, somebody created an AI poop-analysis startup that quietly sells your bowel movements to data brokers, GM got nailed for selling driver data, Lime still somehow exists and wants an IPO, and Japan’s first 3D-printed house shows that the future will at least look cool even as society collapses.

MEDIA CANDY features Spotify celebrating twenty years of collecting your listening habits into a psychological profile you absolutely didn't care about during the CD era, plus The Punisher: One Last Kill ironically looking like unfinished PlayStation cutscenes, Good Omens Season 3, Devil May Cry Season 2, NBC somehow turning Wordle into a TV show because every executive has fully given up, shorter waits for Severance Season 3, and Rings of Power returning in November to continue spending the GDP of a small nation on elf misery.

APPS & DOODADS checks in with Apple as it prepares Siri app integrations that developers already suspect will become subscription-based hostage situations. TikTok is testing an ad-free tier in the UK because, somehow, ads weren’t already enough punishment. Venmo is finally realizing that public payment feeds are insane. There's a Wikipedia clone made entirely of AI hallucinations, and an iPad arm mount sturdy enough to survive the upcoming climate wars.

AT THE LIBRARY wraps up with Clowns (First Contact), Dungeon Crawler Carl, the demise of another Goodreads competitor, Kindle alternatives for those trying to escape Amazon’s panopticon, and a reminder that Douglas Adams has now been gone for 25 years, which remains, in the immortal words of the man himself, widely regarded as a bad move.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/746

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ICjNBnP3sMk

FOLLOW UP

Grumpy Old Geeks Merch Store

Grumpy Old Geeks on YouTube

eBay Brutally Rejects GameStop’s $56 Billion Proposal: ‘Neither Credible nor Attractive’

Wang et al. v. Grubhub, Inc.

Americans Oppose AI Data Centers in Their Area

Energy supplier abandons Lake Tahoe residents to serve data centers

xAI Got Sued Over Its Gas Turbines, so It Naturally Added More of Them

Elon Musk's SpaceXAI has been bleeding staff since its merger

IN THE NEWS

Everyone at the Musk v. Altman Trial Is Using Fancy Butt Cushions

Four Financial Journalists Accused of Being Fake AI-Generated Puppets That Shill Crypto in Forbes, HuffPost, and More

Daybreak is OpenAI's response to Anthropic's Claude Mythos

Anthropic blames dystopian sci-fi for training AI models to act “evil”

Google announces its first-ever discovery of a zero-day exploit made with AI

Waymo Admits Its Robotaxis Have a Small Issue With Driving Into Floodwaters

Family sues OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT advice led to accidental overdose

Graduation Speaker Says AI Is ‘The Next Industrial Revolution,’ Immediately Drowned Out by Booing Students

Meta is facing another lawsuit over scam ads on Facebook and Instagram

After Killing Encrypted DMs, Mark Zuckerberg Wants You to Trust His New Encrypted AI Chat

Hey @meta.ai is that true? Threads is testing a Grok-like AI feature

Internet of Shit: AI Poop Analysis App Offered to Sell Me Database of Its Users' Poops

GM agrees to pay $12.75 million to settle California lawsuit over misuse of customers' driving data

The electric scooter rental company Lime has filed for IPO

This startup built Japan’s first 3D-printed two-story home. It wants to solve the country’s construction crisis

APPS & DOODADS

Apple wants apps to integrate with Siri in iOS 27, but one fear holds some back: report

TikTok is rolling out an ad-free option in the UK

Venmo's redesigned app offers more discreet payments by default

New Wikipedia Clone Made Entirely of AI Hallucinations

YICOSUN iPad Mount Tablet Holder, 3-Section Foldable Adjustable Aluminum Alloy Arm with Rotating Clamp Base, Heavy Duty Desk Bracket for iPad Tablet Phone Portable Monitor, Bed Office Kitchen

MEDIA CANDY

Spotify is celebrating its 20th birthday with a Wrapped-like feature that covers your entire time on the app

The Punisher: One Last Kill

Here’s the Real Deal With That Viral Shot From 'Punisher: One Last Kill'

Good Omens Season 3 - The Finale

Devil May Cry Season 2

NBC is turning Wordle into a TV show

Adam Scott Promises the Wait for ‘Severance’ Season 3 Won’t Be Nearly as Long

‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Is Returning in November

AT THE LIBRARY

Clowns (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Tome, another Goodreads booktracker rival, shuts down

Bookshop.org

Kobo

Smashwords

eBooks.com

Kobo E-readers

ONYX BOOX

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

'Revenge of the Nerds' Actor Donald Gibb Dead at 71

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In FOLLOW UP, the guys marvel at the completely normal state of America as Amnesty International issues a travel advisory for the 2026 World Cup because apparently “visiting the United States” now comes with the same vibe as backpacking through a failed cyberpunk state. Then it’s onto Dead Podcast Theory, where more than a third of all new podcasts are AI-generated “podslop,” proving Silicon Valley heard “everyone has a podcast” and responded with “what if nobody did?” Meanwhile, Ticketmaster reminds everyone that if you’ve purchased a concert ticket since 2010, there’s probably a class action settlement with your name on it and enough compensation for half a convenience fee.

IN THE NEWS is basically one long panic attack sponsored by AI. The White House is considering regulating AI models, Canada says OpenAI vacuumed up everyone’s personal data like a drunk Roomba, Character.AI allegedly impersonated a licensed psychiatrist, and Mother Jones found ChatGPT still happily helping aspiring mass shooters workshop their plans. Snap’s Perplexity deal died quietly in a ditch while Meta keeps assembling humanoid robots like it’s building the world’s most annoying version of Westworld. Then GameStop tries to buy eBay in the dumbest sentence ever typed, Ryan Cohen gets himself banned from eBay while trying to meme-finance the deal, Elon Musk settles with the SEC for pocket lint money, Coinbase fires people because “AI,” Toto accidentally becomes a semiconductor giant through toilet technology, and smart glasses officially evolve from creepy gadget to extortion accessory.

MEDIA CANDY brings some relief with Daredevil: Born Again and Widow’s Bay. The Academy finally decides AI-generated actors and scripts can’t win Oscars, which feels like the bare minimum required to stop ChatGPT from getting Best Supporting Actor before Willem Dafoe.

In APPS & DOODADS, Pornhub returns to the UK thanks to Apple’s age verification system, Ask.com finally dies and takes Jeeves with it into the great dial-up tone in the sky, and Apple agrees to pay users because “Apple Intelligence” arrived somewhere between vaporware and wishful thinking.

Finally, THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE tackles the true meaning of “decimate,” AI-powered C-3PO heads, mechanical keyboards for grown men who refuse to use laptop keys, Maul: Shadow Lord, The Boys, and a reminder that Solo was a great movie, grocery store adventures, lost AirPods, and the eternal mystery of why middle-aged dudes become furries. Because at this point, why not?

Sponsors:

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Show notes at https://gog.show/745

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/0P9rgRrL4-Q

FOLLOW UP

2026 World Cup Travel Advisory

More Than a Third of All New Podcasts Are AI-Generated

Welcome to the Ticketmaster Fee Class Action Website

IN THE NEWS

The White House is considering tighter regulation of new AI models

Canadian officials claim OpenAI violated federal and provincial privacy laws

Pennsylvania sues Character.AI after a chatbot allegedly posed as a doctor

Even After Two Massacres, OpenAI Still Hasn’t Stopped ChatGPT From Helping Plan School Shootings

Snap's $400 million deal with Perplexity is dead

Meta acquires robotics AI startup as it makes the push into humanoid machines

GameStop submits $56 billion offer to buy eBay

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Banned From eBay After Flexing His Meme-Stock Muscle

Elon Musk settles with the SEC for $1.5 million after years-long dispute over his Twitter investment

Coinbase to Lay Off 14% of Workforce Amid AI Disruption and Crypto Volatility

Toilet maker Toto is here to help with the RAM crisis

Extortion Using Smart Glasses Is a Thing Now

MEDIA CANDY

Daredevil: Born Again

Widow’s Bay

Fun item for media candy?

AI performances and screenplays won't be eligible for Oscars

APPS & DOODADS

Pornhub Expands Access in the U.K. Thanks to Apple’s New Age Verification System

Ask.com has shut down, marking the official farewell to the Internet's favorite butler

iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

'Decimate' means much more today than it did in ancient Rome

This AI-Powered Talking C-3PO Head Lets You Feel What It’s Like to Be R2-D2

NuPhy Air75 V3 - Wireless Mechanical Keyboard

Maul: Shadow Lord

Solo: A Star Wars Story

The Boys

Why grown men become furries

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 744 kicks off with new merch in the wild and the ongoing expansion of the “protect the children from the internet” playbook. Manitoba is floating a ban on social media and AI chatbots for kids with details still TBD, while the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee somehow managed unanimous approval on chatbot age-verification legislation. Utah, not to be outdone, passed SB 73 — a law that tries to pin age verification on VPN users and even bans sites from explaining what a VPN is, a move that will mostly degrade the internet without solving the problem it claims to address. Meanwhile, John Oliver finally unloaded on the AI industry, echoing long-standing criticisms: rushed products, acknowledged risks, and outsourced consequences.

In the news, a U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant was arrested for allegedly turning classified intel about the Maduro capture into a $400K Polymarket win, then attempting to cover it up in ways that suggest poor operational planning. Meta cut more than 1,100 Kenyan content moderators after reports surfaced that they were exposed to explicit footage from smart glasses users, raising serious questions about labor practices in AI pipelines. Google signed a Pentagon AI deal despite internal backlash while posting massive revenue gains, underscoring where incentives actually land. OpenAI, meanwhile, is juggling missed targets, a shift away from Microsoft exclusivity, and continued reputational hits around Sam Altman — including a widely criticized apology tied to a mass shooting and a fabricated Bruno Mars tie-in for his World project. Add in a failed retrial bid from Sam Bankman-Fried, rising volumes of AI-generated web content, and political interference with the National Science Board, and the signal is clear: incentives are misaligned across the board.

On the lighter side, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns July 23rd for its penultimate season, and Ted Lasso is back August 5th, for better or worse. Jack Dorsey beat the inevitable Elon attempt to reboot Vine with Divine, reviving six-second loops with a decentralized backbone and anti-AI safeguards. Apple continues its slow AI rollout with new photo editing tools, while Google pushes further into data aggregation with wardrobe-level photo analysis. Hardware check: Logitech’s MX Keys S lands as a heavier, brighter $119 iteration. In books, Peter Clines delivers with God’s Junk Drawer, while Martha Wells signals that the Murderbot series may be nearing its end. The Dark Side with Dave ties it together with gun storage PSAs, Disneyland lore, Galaxy’s Edge playlists, and a conversational detour through Super Dave, Martin Short, and the ongoing quirks of instant replay in baseball.

Show notes at https://gog.show/744

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/P3NOSXlCs9E

FOLLOW UP

New Merch!

Canadian premier wants to ban social media and AI chatbots for kids in Manitoba

Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves AI chatbot age verification

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

John Oliver Just Took the AI Industry Behind a Shed and Beat It With a Pipe Wrench

IN THE NEWS

US soldier arrested for allegedly making over $400,000 on Polymarket with classified Maduro information

Meta in row after workers who say they saw smart glasses users having sex lose jobs

Google employees ask Sundar Pichai to say no to classified military AI use

Google Signs Pentagon AI Deal Despite Employee Backlash

Google Gives OpenAI 20 Billion Reasons To Worry

OpenAI's Sam Altman apologizes for not reporting ChatGPT account of Tumbler Ridge suspect to police

Sam Altman Caught in What May Be His Most Spectacular Lie Yet

OpenAI ends its exclusive partnership with Microsoft

‘Never Talk About Goblins’: OpenAI’s Instructions to Codex Have a Weirdly Emphatic No-Creatures Policy

Sam Bankman-Fried Seems to Annoy Judge and Lose Latest Motion for New Trial

Dead Internet Theory Is 17% of the Way to Becoming Reality, Study Finds

Matt Mullenweg thinks WordPress is in decline. He may be right

Trump has terminated several members of the independent National Science Board

APPS & DOODADS

Jack Dorsey Beats Elon Musk to the Punch With a Reboot of Vine

Jack Dorsey-backed Vine reboot Divine launches to the public

iOS 27 will reportedly come with new AI-powered photo editing tools

Google Photos Wardrobe will scan your pictures to compile a digital version of your closet

Logitech MX Keys S Keyboard

MEDIA CANDY

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns for its penultimate season on July 23

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 4 Official Teaser | Paramount+

How the Combadge Became the Ultimate Wearable of the ‘Star Trek’ Universe

TED LASSO Season 4 | Official Teaser Trailer (2026)

AT THE LIBRARY

God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines

Martha Wells Says the Murderbot Diaries May Be Reaching Its Final Chapter

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Dave gets his Christmas Present

The Backside of Water

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Oga’s Cantina R3X’s Playlist #1

Marty, Life Is Short | Official Trailer | Netflix

Baseball and using instant replay to override the Umpire.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In FOLLOW UP, the child social media crackdown keeps expanding. Turkey just approved a ban for under-15s, and Sony will require age verification for PlayStation communication features in the UK and Ireland starting in June—because now you need to prove you’re an adult before trash-talking strangers online. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s prediction that fully autonomous AI employees would already be transforming business hasn’t materialized. Agentic systems are still struggling with basic workflows and, in some cases, slowing developers down. And in a more concrete reversal, Elon Musk acknowledged that pre-2023 Tesla Hardware 3 will never support Full Self-Driving. Customers who paid for the feature are now being steered toward discounted trade-ins, new cameras, and upgraded hardware—prompting obvious legal exposure.

IN THE NEWS: SpaceX is reportedly targeting what could be the largest IPO ever, at roughly a $1.75 trillion valuation, with dual-class shares that preserve Musk’s control through super-voting rights. Prediction markets continue to degrade: Kalshi suspended political candidates for trading on their own races, and Polymarket saw alleged manipulation via a tampered weather sensor at Charles de Gaulle Airport. On the AI front, Anthropic’s new Mythos model had a chaotic rollout—used by the NSA, applied to patch hundreds of Firefox vulnerabilities, and briefly exposed through unauthorized access in a developer portal. Amazon followed with a $25 billion investment in Anthropic, even as governments appear to access similar capabilities independently.

At the same time, the economics are tightening. Free tiers are shrinking, GitHub Copilot is shifting to token-based billing after costs doubled, and startups are normalizing six-figure monthly AI compute bills. Infrastructure growth continues unchecked: thousands of new data centers are planned across the U.S., while xAI faces scrutiny in Memphis over water usage and delayed mitigation projects. Environmental commitments increasingly resemble marketing rather than enforceable targets.

Policy signals are equally aggressive. DHS is exploring smart glasses for ICE agents with facial recognition and gait analysis by 2027. Palantir published a manifesto advocating expanded use of state power with rhetoric that raised concerns about ideological framing. On a lighter note, a University of California, Santa Barbara study suggests that brief exposure to experimental film measurably increases creativity compared to standard social media consumption.

MEDIA CANDY: Silo returns July 3 on Apple TV+, while The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is expected sooner than planned. Battlestar Galactica lands on Paramount+ and Pluto TV May 1. Dead Can Dance is releasing monthly singles via its Bandcamp imprint. Deezer reports 44% of daily uploads—about 75,000 tracks—are AI-generated, though only a small fraction of streams come from them, many flagged as fraudulent. And yes, Jessica Jones is back in Daredevil.

APPS & DOODADS: Apple patched the notification-cache bug that allowed forensic tools to recover deleted Signal messages. Roblox agreed to a $12 million settlement with Nevada and is rolling out facial age estimation, ID verification, and new contact controls, while still facing multi-state litigation. Cash App is targeting younger users—ages six to twelve—with parent-managed accounts, debit cards, and interest incentives. Separately, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction protecting ICE-tracking apps, ruling that government pressure on Apple and Meta to remove them likely violated First Amendment protections.

IN THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE: AI-generated Star Wars fan films are improving visually, even if performances remain rigid. The current era of Star Trek is effectively closing out with a large prop auction, notably excluding Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The broader discussion circles back to time compression—post-pandemic, and with age—and the persistent disconnect between economic scale and general dissatisfaction.

Sponsors:

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Show notes at https://gog.show/743

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/iLiRLcgP7zM

FOLLOW UP

Sony will require age checks in the UK and Ireland to access PlayStation communication features

Turkey wants to ban social media for kids under 15

Today Is the Day Anthropic Promised That Fully Autonomous Employees Would Be Tearing Through the Business World

The Hardware in Your Pre-2023 Tesla Will Never Allow It to Fully Drive Itself, Elon Musk Admits

IN THE NEWS

Exclusive: Musk and insiders to retain voting control of SpaceX after IPO, filing shows

Kalshi suspended three political candidates from its platform for insider trading

Someone allegedly used a hairdryer to rig Polymarket weather bets

The NSA is reportedly using Anthropic's new model Mythos

Mozilla says it patched 271 Firefox vulnerabilities thanks to Anthropic's Claude Mythos

Anthropic is investigating 'unauthorized access' of its Mythos cybersecurity tool

Amazon will invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic in a broad deal

AI Companies Think Destroying the Planet Is an Acceptable Trade-Off for Unlimited Profits

Musk leaves Memphis high and dry

Startups Brag They Spend More Money on AI Than Human Employees

You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze

Exclusive: Microsoft To Shift GitHub Copilot Users To Token-Based Billing, Tighten Rate Limits

Homeland Security reportedly wants to develop smart glasses for ICE

Palantir posted a manifesto that reads like the ramblings of a comic book villain

What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat

Researchers May Have Found the Antidote to Social Media Brain Rot: Experimental Film

Short of the Week

This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift ‘Super Dumb’ Men

Jaw-Dropping iPhone Video of Earth Setting Behind the Moon Is Rightfully Breaking the Internet

MEDIA CANDY

Silo season 3 just got its Apple TV release date and first trailer

Silo — Season 3 Official Teaser | Apple TV

Surprise! ‘Rings of Power’ Season 3 Is Arriving Earlier Than Expected

‘Battlestar Galactica’ Is Blasting Back to Streaming

Dead Can Dance Returns with “Death Cults,” Their Second New Song in Five Years

Not a Soul Was Dancing to Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna at Coachella

Deezer says AI-made songs make up 44 percent of daily uploads

APPS & DOODADS

Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones

Roblox agrees to a $12 million settlement with Nevada

Cash App is targeting a new kind of customer: 6- to 12-year-olds

Judge sides with creators of banned ICE trackers who allege DHS and DOJ violated their First Amendment rights

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Star Wars: Darth Vader BEATS the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City (Fan Film)

Star Wars: Darth Vader Learns the TRUTH About LUKE SKYWALKER (Fan Film)

The Current Era of ‘Star Trek’ Is Ending With a Fire Sale

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-5 Online Auction

Star Trek Universe: 60th Anniversary Auction Featuring Items from Set - Auction #1

Have you ever known anyone who was born in the 1800s?

If America's So Rich, How'd It Get So Sad?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In FOLLOW UP, while countries race to ban kids from social media, Estonia is opting out — its education minister arguing that bans just offload responsibility onto kids while governments and platforms avoid accountability. Australia already shows the limits: 61% of banned kids are still online, 70% say it’s easy to bypass, and major platforms are under investigation. The EU is rolling out an age-verification system using zero-knowledge proofs officials call “completely anonymized,” which sounds generous for a system that starts profiling you the moment it touches an account. Maybe retire the anonymity talking point.

IN THE NEWS, the AI-brain-rot narrative keeps accelerating: one study found just ten minutes of AI use increases dependency and degrades performance once it’s removed — with users simply “not willing to try.” ChatGPT praised a fart-noise “song” as having a “cool lo-fi, late-night, slightly eerie vibe,” which would be harmless if that same sycophancy wasn’t showing up in darker contexts — including two mass shootings with ChatGPT in the background, and a lawsuit from a San Francisco woman claiming the tool helped her ex escalate harassment with AI-generated reports and threats. That same week, Sam Altman’s house was attacked by a suspect targeting AI execs. Elsewhere: France is ditching Windows for Linux; Amazon faces scrutiny for allegedly keeping workers on shift next to a dead colleague; Snap cut 16% of staff blaming AI; Reddit is fighting an ICE subpoena to unmask a critic; Google is blending Polymarket odds into News; the FAA is recruiting gamers as air traffic controllers; and Allbirds briefly became an “AI company,” spiked, then crashed when reality set back in. Norway quietly cured another HIV patient, the rare story that isn’t bleak.

In APPS & DOODADS, California and New York are pushing DRM-style censorware for 3D printers, with New York tying it to felony penalties for certain files. The FCC’s router ban is already inconsistent — Netgear got a quiet exemption while others face an opaque process that could stall Wi-Fi 7. The Trump T1 phone still looks rough at $499 with a $100 preorder hook. Overcast raised its subscription to $29.99/year. Hidden iOS trick: long-press the App Store to go directly to Updates. Meta, after a $375M loss over child safety, is developing “Name Tag,” facial recognition for Ray-Ban glasses tied to Instagram — widely condemned — and reportedly plans to roll it out quietly. They’re also building an AI Zuckerberg clone for internal use. For older Kindles: jailbreak, use Calibre, and lean on Project Gutenberg.

MEDIA CANDY: Live Nation was ruled a monopoly — remedies pending, appeal already filed, so ticket prices aren’t changing soon. Anna’s Archive got hit with a $322M judgment for scraping Spotify — far below the $13T ask. YouTube Premium is quietly raising prices again, following Netflix and Spotify; subscriptions are now a one-way ratchet. Good Omens returns May 13, Godzilla Minus Zero lands November 6, and Hunt for Gollum is set for December 2027 with a stacked cast. Meanwhile, streaming platforms still refuse to list actual drop times, which continues to annoy everyone.

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE: The Claude Mythos AI scare turned out to be marketing. The hype cycle giveth, and taketh away. Plus: new Star Wars chatter, Disneyland antics, a rebranded Muppets coaster, and AI Oakleys nobody asked for.

Sponsors:

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/742

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Ogsa1dG1W_M

FOLLOW UP

Estonia is the rare EU country opposing child social media bans

Majority of Australian kids are still on banned social media platforms, study finds

EU Is Rolling Out an Online Age Verification App That Could Become the Global Blueprint

IN THE NEWS

French government says au revoir Windows, bienvenue Linux

Amazon Accused of Hiding Worker’s Death for a Week, Making Employees Keep Working as Corpse Lay on Floor

Snap is laying off 16 percent of its workforce, blames AI

Woman Sues OpenAI, Saying ChatGPT Unleashed a Vicious Stalker Against Her and Did Nothing When She Begged for Help

Why Do ChatGPT Users Keep Committing Mass Shootings?

Two suspects have been arrested for allegedly shooting at Sam Altman's house

ChatGPT’s “Honest Reaction” to a “Song” Composed Entirely of Gas-Passing Noises Will Make You Question Whether It’s Honestly Evaluating Your Other Brilliant Ideas

There's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains

Shoe company Allbirds pivots to AI compute in sign of a totally normal and healthy economy

Allbirds Stock Now Crashing as Reality Sets in About Its Delusional AI Pivot

The US government wants Reddit to snitch on one of its users through a grand jury

Google has reportedly started to add Polymarket data to News results

The FAA is encouraging gamers to get jobs in air traffic control

Norway Man Cured of HIV With Brother’s Stem Cells

APPS & DOODADS

Meta warned by dozens of organizations that facial recognition on its smart glasses would empower predators

Meta is reportedly building an AI clone of Mark Zuckerberg

The Dangers of California’s Legislation to Censor 3D Printing

Stop New York's Attack on 3D Printing

The Trump Phone Still Looks Like Total Trash

iOS 26.4 moves App Store updates, here’s how to open them fast

FCC exempts Netgear from ban on foreign routers, doesn't explain why

What to do if Amazon killed your Kindle

MEDIA CANDY

YouTube Premium’s US pricing is going up

Anna's Archive told to pay Spotify and record labels $322 million over unprecedented music scraping

Federal jury finds concert business Live Nation is a monopoly

Good Omens - Final Season Official Trailer | Prime Video

GODZILLA MINUS ZERO | First Look Teaser

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Daredevil: Born Again

The Pitt

'The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum' cast has been revealed: Jamie Dornan as Aragorn, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Kate Winslet and more.

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Is Claude Mythos “Terrifying”? | AI Reality Check

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu | Final Trailer | In Theaters May 22

First look at Han Solo coming to Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge!

Overcast Increased Premium pricing for new subscriptions

The Electric Mayhem Arrives at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets

AnyPod

Oakley Meta Performance AI glasses

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We kick off with a the Dodgers spanking the Blue Jays and torn allegiances in Brian's house, then dive into Europe taking dead aim at your kids' screen time. Ireland is rolling out a Government Digital Wallet that'll verify ages before young'uns can doom-scroll their lives away, while Greece went fully scorched-earth and announced a ban on all under-15s using social media at all — announced, naturally, on TikTok.

IN THE NEWS, the AI giants (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are playing nicely together for once, teaming up through the Frontier Model Forum to stop Chinese firms from essentially photocopying their models on the cheap — billions in revenue, national security, and the small matter of safety guardrails stripped out. Turnabout is fair play? On the legal gambling front, prediction markets scored a federal win as a US appeals court ruled New Jersey can't regulate Kalshi; the Trump family's fingerprints are all over the prediction market space (surprise!), and the data suggests 0.04% of accounts are hoovering up 70% of profits like it's a perfectly healthy ecosystem. Also: the FBI pulled deleted Signal messages out of iPhone notification caches, GoPro is laying off 23% of its workforce while somehow remaining optimistic, and OpenAI is backing an Illinois bill that would shield AI companies from liability even in mass-casualty scenarios... cool. On the plus side, Artemis II astronauts took amazing photos of the Moon... on their iPhones.

In APPS & DOODADS: Mercedes recalled its electric G-Wagons because the wheels might literally fall off, Amazon is sunsetting Kindles from 2012 and earlier for no reason anyone can figure out, and Apple Fitness on Apple TV is randomly scrambling workout stacks with no fix in sight — a premium locked ecosystem doing premium locked ecosystem things.

In MEDIA CANDY, the crew is watching The Pitt, The Boys, Shrinking, and Daredevil, and you'll want to sit down for this: Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis are back — Spaceballs 2 hits theaters a full year from now even though it's done. Italy slapped Netflix with a court-ordered refund for price hikes going back to 2017, while Netflix simultaneously raised prices for US subscribers and launched Playground, a free kids gaming app that works offline (Peppa Pig and Sesame Street, no ads, no in-app purchases — hook 'em on Dah Dum young!)

AT THE LIBRARY, Brian has given up on Breath and Jason reads Four Thousand Weeks and Art Spiegelman's Maus — the Pulitzer-winning Holocaust masterpiece that some people are still trying to ban, because humanity never fully learns.

Closing out with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, Treasury Secretary Bessent and Fed Chair Powell apparently called an emergency meeting with bank CEOs over Anthropic's new model "Mythos," which can apparently find and exploit vulnerabilities across major OSes and browsers. The boys also catch up on Maul: Shadow Lord, the Strong Songs podcast's Joni Mitchell deep-dive ("Passions soften into wisdom" — weeping on the plane, apparently), the belated discovery that Marathon launched and nobody noticed, and some genuine moon joy courtesy of NASA's Artemis II astronauts.

Sponsors:

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Show notes at https://gog.show/741

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/c_odV0tSa2k

FOLLOW UP

Ireland is testing out a digital wallet that conducts age verification for social media users

Greece will ban all kids under 15 from using social media

IN THE NEWS

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Unite to Combat Model Copying in China

New Jersey has no right to ban Kalshi's prediction market, US appeals court rules

FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages

GoPro to lay off over 20 percent of staff by the end of 2026

OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters

Artemis II astronaut puts all of our iPhone moon photos to shame

APPS & DOODADS

Mercedes-Benz recalls some G-Wagon EVs due to risk of wheels falling off

Amazon is cutting off support for older Kindles

Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, 2-Stage System, Silver/Black

MEDIA CANDY

The Pitt

The Boys

Shrinking

Daredevil

The Spaceballs sequel will be released in April next year

An Italian court ruled Netflix has to refund its customers for price hikes dating back to 2017

Netflix just released a standalone gaming app for kids

Anonymous - Real Stories of Alcoholism, Addiction, and Recovery

AT THE LIBRARY

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

Four Thousand Weeks By Oliver Burkeman

Maus I & II

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Maul - Shadow Lord

Anthropic Model Scare Sparks Urgent Bessent, Powell Warning to Bank CEOs

S08E03 - "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell

I Wish I Didn’t Care About 'Marathon' Player Numbers, But I Do

Marathon Gameplay (No Commentary)

Mego Happy Days Figures and Fonzi Garage, Hot, and Stunt Cycle

HAPPY DAYS - Fonzie & Pinky Break Up - Fonzie Loves Pinky - 1976

Moon Joy, Courtesy of NASA's Artemis II Astronauts

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Hip-hop pioneer, Afrika Bambaataa, dies aged 68

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks, where we're starting to notice a patience epidemic! As people get used to barking orders at their AI, they're starting to talk to other humans with the same terse impatience. We discuss the enshittification of social media like Threads, which are now completely overrun with AI-generated slop.

This week, we dive into the corporate shenanigans of the tech world. OpenAI was caught secretly funding an advocacy group to push for age verification laws that just so happen to benefit Sam Altman's other company. We also cover Elon Musk's troubles, including all of xAI's co-founders quitting, a SpaceX satellite exploding, and Tesla's "fully autonomous" robotaxis being revealed to have remote human drivers.

Plus, we celebrate NASA's successful Artemis II launch, review a fantastic Premiere Pro plugin for multicam editing, and give our thoughts on shows like "The Pit" and "Downton Abbey."

Sponsors:

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1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/740

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IpzOakbBftY

FOLLOW UP

Austria is pursuing a social media ban for kids under 14

Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Turns Out to Be Sneakily Backed by OpenAI

OpenAI takes on another “side quest,” buys tech-focused talk show TBPN

IN THE NEWS

Elon Musk’s last co-founder reportedly leaves xAI

SpaceX loses contact with one of its Starlink satellites

SpaceX has reportedly filed for the biggest IPO in history

OpenAI Is Falling Out of Favor With Secondary Buyers

Oracle Lays Off Thousands to Offset AI Spending

Anthropic leaks part of Claude Code’s internal source code

Anthropic is having a month

Wikipedia Just Drew the Line on A.I.-Written Content

Tesla Admits Its Robotaxis Are Being Driven Remotely

Getting Stuck Inside a Glitching Robotaxi Is a Whole New Thing to Be Scared of

White House App Found Tracking Users' Exact Location Every 4.5 Minutes via Third-Party Server

Kash Patel's personal email account was accessed by hackers linked to Iran

NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage (Official Broadcast)

MEDIA CANDY

The Hobbit: The Tolkien Edit

The Pitt

DTF St. Louis

Project Hail Mary

SUPERGIRL | Official Trailer

Downton Abbey

Darker Waves Festival

APPS & DOODADS

Bluesky's next product is an AI assistant that helps build custom social media feeds

ChatGPT app launches for CarPlay on iOS 26.4

Apple Removes iPhone Vibe Coding App from App Store

Meta is testing an Instagram Plus subscription service with exclusive features

Wraith Multi-Cam Editor

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Current Reader

Journalist Sues FAA Over Drone No Fly Zone Designed to Prevent Filming ICE

Nicholas Carlini - Black-hat LLMs | [un]prompted 2026

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meta fined $375M for child safety failures. Musk lost 3 lawsuits in a week. Sam Altman compared to a Nazi. Netflix raised prices again. The Pentagon can't quit Claude. Reddit wants your face scan. Star Trek's streaming era is over. But the thin black line holds! 🎙️

Sponsors:

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Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/739

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hdhHiOaclu0

FOLLOW UP

Polymarket is cracking down on insider trading with updated rules

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/polymarket-is-cracking-down-on-insider-trading-with-updated-rules-163928655.html

Judge temporarily blocks Pentagon's 'supply chain risk' designation for Anthropic

https://abcnews.com/Technology/judge-temporarily-blocks-pentagons-supply-chain-risk-designation/story?id=131453267

IN THE NEWS

Jury rules against Meta, orders $375 million fine in major child safety trial

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/jury-rules-against-meta-orders-375-million-fine-in-major-child-safety-trial-224215209.html

Jury rules against Meta and YouTube in social media addiction case

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/jury-rules-against-meta-and-youtube-in-social-media-addiction-case-181344860.html

Elon Musk loses big in court; X boycott perfectly legal

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/elon-musk-loses-big-in-court-x-boycott-perfectly-legal/

Elon Musk misled investors during his Twitter takeover, jury finds

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/elon-musk-misled-investors-during-his-twitter-takeover-jury-finds-232033028.html

Elon Musk Will Have to Face the Music in Lawsuit Over DOGE's Government Overreach

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-will-have-to-face-the-music-in-lawsuit-over-doges-government-overreach-2000737413

OpenAI reportedly plans to double its workforce to 8,000 employees

https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-reportedly-plans-to-double-its-workforce-to-8000-employees-161028377.html

Sam Altman Thanks Programmers for Their Effort, Says Their Time Is Over

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-thanks-programmers-over

Sam Altman Confronted At Oscars Party Over Pentagon Deal

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-confronted-oscar-pentagon-deal

R.I.P. Sora (2024-2026)

https://gizmodo.com/r-i-p-sora-2024-2026-2000737664

Disney's Sora Disaster Shows AI Will Not Revolutionize Hollywood

https://www.404media.co/disneys-openai-sora-disaster-shows-ai-will-not-save-hollywood/

The Tech Bubble Might Finally Be Popping

https://slate.com/technology/2026/03/ai-openai-sam-altman-disney-sora-shutdown.html

Elon Musk announces Terafab project he claims will be the 'largest chip manufacturing facility ever'

https://www.engadget.com/science/elon-musk-announces-terafab-project-he-claims-will-be-the-largest-chip-manufacturing-facility-ever-171718545.html

Trump Rewards Big Tech's Biggest Bootlickers With Seats on AI Policy Board

https://gizmodo.com/trump-rewards-big-techs-biggest-bootlickers-with-seats-on-ai-policy-board-2000738006

Pinterest CEO says teens under 16 should be banned from social media (but not Pinterest)

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pinterest-ceo-says-teens-under-16-should-be-banned-from-social-media-but-not-pinterest-211630443.html

Reddit is weighing identity verification methods to combat its bot problem

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-is-weighing-identity-verification-methods-to-combat-its-bot-problem-195814671.html

APPS & DOODADS

Bambu Lab A1

https://bambulab.com/en-ca/a1

Twitter turned 20 and I feel nothing

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/twitter-turned-20-and-i-feel-nothing-140000602.html

FCC Bans All New Routers Not Made in America

https://gizmodo.com/fcc-bans-all-new-routers-not-made-in-america-2000737176

MEDIA CANDY

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/star-trek-starfleet-academy/

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ to End With Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE)

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/

'Starfleet Academy' Deserved Better Than This

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-starfleet-academy-cancelation-paramount-2000737569

Shrek Forever After

https://www.netflix.com/title/70117295

Daredevil: Born Again S2

https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-85e7a914-c8e6-41db-95df-c740dc2cf1b7

Shrinking

https://tv.apple.com/ca/show/shrinking/umc.cmc.apzybj6eqf6pzccd97kev7bs

The Pitt

https://www.hbomax.com/shows/pitt-2024/e6e7bad9-d48d-4434-b334-7c651ffc4bdf

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Official Teaser | HBO Max

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIu4sFKGi6E

Stephen Colbert to write next ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie after leaving late night

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/25/entertainment/colbert-lord-of-the-rings-hnk

Supreme Court rejects Sony's attempt to kick music pirates off the Internet

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/supreme-court-rejects-sonys-attempt-to-kick-music-pirates-off-the-internet/

Netflix raises prices for every subscription tier by up to 12.5 percent

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/netflix-increases-prices-for-all-plans-by-up-to-2-per-month/

AT THE LIBRARY

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

https://amzn.to/4bvyNjN

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

A celebration of Karl Wallinger’s Life & Music

https://www.worldparty.net/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 years of podcasting has taught us nothing; companies are lying about AI layoffs while Meta destroys itself from the inside; Andreessen has zero introspection and it shows; Dune 3 looks incredible; Firefly lives again; one idiot executive staked Buffy; Adobe paid $75M for being evil; your AI passwords are garbage; Dave Bittner is here to make you feel worse about all of it.

Sponsors:

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SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you’re ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/738

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pykGjOmMs5c

FOLLOW UP

GOG Ep 1: How to Make Money on the Internet - March 25th, 2013

The ‘AI-Washing’ of Job Cuts Is Corrosive and Confusing

Race on to establish globally recognised 'AI-free' logo

Billionaire Marc Andreessen says he has "zero" introspection, and that the idea itself is a modern invention.

Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story

IN THE NEWS

Atlassian to cut roughly 10% jobs in pivot to AI

Meta is reportedly planning to cut up to 20 percent of its staff in upcoming layoffs

Meta Is Building an Encrypted Chatbot After AI Agents Went Rogue and Exposed Sensitive Data

Meta Says It Is Removing End-to-End Encryption From Instagram Direct Messages

Meta is testing clickable links in Instagram captions for verified subscribers

Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI for copyright and trademark infringement

Senators tell ByteDance to shut down Seedance 2.0 AI video app 'immediately'

Things Are Suddenly Looking Incredibly Bad for Trump’s Social Media Company

Trump administration will reportedly get $10 billion for brokering the TikTok deal

The Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream

Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post Now Setting Readers’ Subscription Prices With Uber-Style AI

APPS & DOODADS

Adobe agrees to pay settlement for making its subscriptions hard to cancel

Everything you need to know to design with Stitch

What is DESIGN.md?

Warning: Your AI-Generated Password Is a Major Security Risk. Here’s What to Use Instead

MEDIA CANDY

Dune: Part Three | Official Teaser Trailer

How ‘Dune: Part Three’ Is Changing the Entire ‘Dune’ Franchise

"Paradise" has been renewed for Season 3 at Hulu, Variety has learned.

Paradise on Hulu

Mars Express

Nathan Fillion Says ‘Firefly’ Animated Series In Development With Co-Stars Set To Reprise Roles; Concept Art Revealed

Sarah Michelle Gellar Says a Single Executive Was Responsible for Killing the ‘Buffy’ Reboot

‘V For Vendetta’ at 20: We Spoke to Its Director About the Increasingly Relevant Comic Adaptation

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Disney's 100% Rotten Tomatoes Masterpiece Returns This Fall With Brand-New Release

Shhh… It’s zombie proof. Kia’s all-electric range

The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier

Evel Knievel Kings Island 1975 - Farthest Successful Jump at 133 feet

70's Evel Knievel Toy Commercial IDEAL

Evel Knievel's 14 Greyhound Bus Jump Oct 25th 1975 HD enhanced. Epic WORLD RECORD.

Craig Ferguson’s Evel Knievel Story is Wild!!

Being Evel

Wembley 50th Anniversary Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle Set – Limited Gold Edition

Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle - Trail Bike Edition

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week's show we start with FOLLOW UP: The world keeps trying to protect kids online — Indonesia just joined Australia, Spain, and Malaysia in banning social media for under-16s, while COPPA 2.0 sailed through the US Senate unanimously. Meanwhile, Roblox is using AI to clean up its chat, because apparently "Hurry TF up" is the hill they've chosen to die on — even as they're still dealing with the whole "pedophile problem" thing from January. On the AI copyright front, Gracenote is the latest company to sue OpenAI for helping itself to proprietary data, joining a growing queue of plaintiffs who apparently didn't get the memo that everything is training data now.

IN THE NEWS: Anthropic is suing the Pentagon after being labeled a "supply chain risk" — apparently because the CEO said AI shouldn't be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, which the Trump administration heard as fighting words. The delicious irony: the Pentagon is still running Claude in active operations while trying to phase it out. Speaking of active operations, investigators now think a missile strike on an Iranian girls' school may have been triggered by bad AI-generated intelligence from that same Claude-based system. So yes, the autocomplete that hallucinates your grocery list is also maybe accidentally bombing schools. Meta's Oversight Board is begging the company to get serious about AI-generated content after a fake war video from a Filipino fake news account racked up 700K views — while separately, Zuckerberg dropped cash on Moltbook, a "social network for AI agents" that turned out to be mostly humans larping as bots and had a security flaw that exposed everyone's API keys. The guy who built it basically vibe-coded the whole thing. Meta's own CTO said he didn't "find it particularly interesting." And yet. Oracle is hemorrhaging jobs and drowning in debt chasing AI dreams, its stock down 50% from peak — a timely reminder that "AI will replace workers" is currently manifesting as "companies set money on fire and lay people off to pay the electric bill." Researchers confirmed AI is homogenizing human thought and creativity — a thing some of us have been screaming since day one. A DOGE engineer allegedly walked out of the Social Security Administration with databases containing personal info on 500 million Americans on a thumb drive. The Ig Nobel Prize is relocating to Switzerland because it's no longer safe to invite international guests to America. Nintendo is suing the US government to get its tariff money back. SETI thinks it may have been accidentally filtering out alien signals due to space weather. And Pokémon Go players unknowingly spent a decade building a centimeter-accurate surveillance map of Earth's cities that's now guiding pizza delivery robots — which, honestly, tracks.

In APPS & DOODADS: The GOG clan in Clash Royale just hit eight years old — respect. OpenAudible is the cross-platform audiobook manager your Audible library deserves, especially if you've got over a thousand books sitting there judging you.

And finally in MEDIA CANDY: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 is here, and pretty beige. Live Nation settled its DOJ antitrust case for $200 million, kept Ticketmaster, and avoided a breakup — meanwhile court documents revealed employees joking about "robbing fans blind" and gouging "stupid" customers, which explains basically every concert ticket you've bought in the last decade. YouTube is now officially the world's largest media company at $62 billion in revenue. Bluesky's CEO is stepping down, which is either a bad sign or just the natural order of "person who built the cool thing hands it to the person who scales the cool thing." Dead Set — Charlie Brooker's 2008 zombie-in-the-Big-Brother-house miniseries — is worth a watch if you haven't. And trailers dropped for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (March 24th), The Boys final season (April 8th), and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 1st — yes, really).

Sponsors:

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Show notes at https://gog.show/737

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DgSYnFF6twE

FOLLOW UP

Indonesia announces a social media ban for anyone under 16

Anthropic Sues Pentagon

Metadata company Gracenote is the latest to sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

Roblox introduces real-time AI-powered chat rephraser for inappropriate language

IN THE NEWS

COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time

AI Error Likely Led to Iran Girl's School Bombing

The Oversight Board says Meta needs new rules for AI-generated content

Mark Zuckerberg Decides Meta Needs More Slop, Buys the Social Network for AI Agents

Oracle Axing Huge Number of Jobs as AI Crisis Intensifies

You can (sort of) block Grok from editing your uploaded photos

Researchers Say AI Is Homogenizing Human Expression and Thought

Social Security watchdog investigating claims that DOGE engineer copied its databases

Nintendo is suing the US government over Trump's tariffs

SETI Thinks It Might Have Missed a Few Alien Calls. Here's Why

Ig Nobel Ceremony Relocates to Europe Amid Safety Concerns in Trump’s America

APPS & DOODADS

Clash Royale

OpenAudible

Bluesky's CEO is stepping down after nearly 5 years

How Pokémon Go is giving delivery robots an inch-perfect view of the world

Robot Escorted Away By Cops After Terrorizing Old Woman

MEDIA CANDY

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2

Live Nation settlement avoids breakup with Ticketmaster

Court documents reveal Live Nation employees joking about robbing, gouging "stupid" fans

YouTube Is the World’s Largest Media Company, MoffettNathanson Says

Paradise Season 2

DAREDEVIL: Born Again Season 2 Official Teaser Trailer 2 (2026)

The Boys Final Season Trailer

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie | Final Trailer

Dead Set

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Microsoft's anti-"Microslop" censorship backfired spectacularly; Australia is cracking down on AI age verification while Meta is busy targeting toddlers; prediction markets are basically just insider trading with extra steps; AI chatbots are getting people killed and exposing spy operations; the Moon landing got pushed again; Opera got nostalgic at 30; Sony bought Charlie Brown; and Netflix is making documentaries with robot people now.

Show notes at https://gog.show/736

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/6lw2Hy_U8QA

Sponsors:

DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

FOLLOW UP

Microsoft Bans the Word “Microslop” on Copilot Discord, Gets So Humiliated That It Locks Down the Whole Server

Australia will consider requiring app stores to block AI services without age verification

A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator

IN THE NEWS

Meta’s what-if for tweens

How Meta Executives Talked About Child Safety Behind the Scenes

The Great Insider Trading Reckoning Reportedly Hits OpenAI

Khamenei market meltdown on Kalshi shows how prediction markets still can’t decide what ‘counts’

Some Alleged Polymarket Insiders Made a Fortune on U.S. Strikes on Iran

Polymarket Decides Incentivizing a Nuclear Detonation Might Be a Bad Idea

A Chinese official’s use of ChatGPT accidentally revealed a global intimidation operation

‘Our Bond Is the Only Thing That’s Real:’ A New Lawsuit Alleges Google Gemini Drove a Man to Suicide

The Data Centers Have Arrived at the Edge of the Arctic Circle

Big tech companies agree to not ruin your electric bill with AI data centers

TerraPower gets OK to start construction of its first nuclear plant

The Supreme Court doesn't care if you want to copyright your AI-generated art

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls OpenAI's messaging around military deal 'straight up lies,' report says

The $100 Billion OpenAI-Nvidia Deal Is Not Happening

NASA Announces Major Change to Plans For Putting Humans on The Moon

The US Senate empowers NASA to fully engage in lunar space race

Astronomers Estimated the Lifespan of Alien Civilizations, and It’s Not Looking Good for Us

MEDIA CANDY

Charlie Brown now works for Sony

These AI Avatars in a Netflix True Crime Doc Are Disturbing Viewers

Netflix buys Ben Affleck’s AI film tech company, InterPositive

APPS & DOODADS

Opera Has Turned 30 and Is Celebrating With a Compelling Tribute to Web Nostalgia

Web Design Museum

Meta hit with a class action lawsuit over smart glasses' privacy claims

Apple Macbook Neo

AT THE LIBRARY

Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs by Miranda Sawyer

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Starting off in FOLLOW UP, we’ve got a tax economist who actually made money betting against the "efficiency" of Elon’s budget-slashing fever dreams, while Tesla is busy trying to dodge a $243 million jury verdict for an Autopilot-assisted fatality. Not content with being legally liable, Tesla is also suing the California DMV because they’re offended someone called their "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving" marketing deceptive—ironic, since Jack Dorsey just "proactively" halved the staff at Block to make room for more AI slop. Speaking of which, Goldman Sachs is here to remind us that all this AI spending added a grand total of zero to the US GDP last year, mostly because we’re just exporting all that cash to overseas chip makers while 80% of execs admit the tech hasn’t actually done anything for productivity yet.

Moving into IN THE NEWS, Sam Altman had the audacity to compare ChatGPT’s energy-sucking habits to the 20-year evolution of a human, though the internet wasn't exactly buying the "my bot is just like a baby" defense. Anthropic actually stood its ground against the Pentagon’s demand for killer robots and mass surveillance, so naturally, the military just signed a deal to put Elon’s Grok in their classified systems instead—because what could go wrong with an "edgy" LLM in the war room? Meanwhile, cities are dumping AI surveillance contracts as citizens start a literal "smash-the-snitch-box" campaign against Flock's license plate readers, Google’s AI is busy inserting racial slurs into news alerts, and the White House is apparently harboring a staffer moonlighting as a racist "masterpiece" creator on X. We’ve also got Reddit being slapped with a $20 million fine in the UK for being lazy with age checks, while Discord and Apple scramble to build verification tools that hopefully won't leak your entire identity to a hacker in Belarus.

In MEDIA CANDY, the Paramount-Skydance merger is leaving the industry in a cold sweat of "synergy" layoffs, but at least we’re getting more Game of Thrones spinoffs and Star Trek reboots to rot our brains. Face/Off 2 lost its director, Ryan Coogler is taking on The X-Files, and Google wants to use AI to turn music into generic "lo-fi" background noise for the masses.

Over in APPS & DOODADS, OpenAI is planning a 2027 smart speaker that literally watches you through a camera—because you definitely wanted a $300 Sam Altman-shaped eye in your kitchen—while the Dark Sky creators are back with "Acme Weather" for the low price of $25 a year.

We wrap up THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE with a deep dive into "Under Pressure" and Coruscant’s urban sprawl, leaving us to reminisce about the days when KPT Bryce was the pinnacle of tech—back when "generative art" was just a fractal that took six hours to render.

Sponsors:

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Show notes at https://gog.show/735

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jdz--v3eeU4

FOLLOW UP

Guy Bets Entire Life Savings Against Elon Musk, Wins

Tesla sues California DMV after it banned the term 'Autopilot'

Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block's employee base — and he says your company is next

IN THE NEWS

Sam Altman: Know What Else Used a Lot of Energy? Human Civilization

Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War

Anthropic Tells Pete Hegseth to Take a Hike

Cities Are Shredding Their AI Surveillance Contracts en Masse

Kalshi Suspended a California Politician and a YouTuber for Insider Trading

Discord delays age verification to address user concerns

Apple introduces age verification for apps in Utah, Louisiana and Australia

MEDIA CANDY

As Paramount Skydance wins the battle for Warner Bros. as Netflix ends its bid, here's the mood inside all three companies.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

The Night Agent Season 3

'Face/Off 2' Director Adam Wingard is Now/Gone

Ryan Coogler's X-Files reboot gets the green light at Hulu

Mortal Kombat II | Official Trailer II

Google's AI Slop Machine Is Coming for Your Music

Dropping Names... and other things with Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner

Once We Were Spacemen

APPS & DOODADS

OpenAI will reportedly release an AI-powered smart speaker in 2027

Instagram Will Notify Parents When Teens Use Search Terms Related to Suicide

The creators of Dark Sky have a new weather app

This App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses Nearby

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Strong Songs - S08E02 - "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie

The Problem with Coruscant (Planet Cities Explained)

Reminds me of KPT Fractal Explorer

KPT Bryce 1.0 with John Dvorak and Kai Krause

Single-Biome Planet

KPT Shapes by Dave Bittner

Bald Mr Clean mascot "retired"

My childhood disappointment with scrubbing bubbles.

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Actor Robert Carradine Dies At Age 71

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you thought the internet was a dumpster fire before, the EU LAUNCHES SECOND INVESTIGATION INTO GROK because Musk’s bot won't stop generating nonconsensual imagery. Meanwhile, META LARGELY FAILS TO PROTECT KIDS FROM AI CHATBOTS, proving that their internal safety checks are about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. If that doesn't creep you out, AFTER RING PRIVACY BACKLASH over police partnerships, a LEAKED EMAIL SUGGESTS RING PLANS TO EXPAND ‘SEARCH PARTY’ from finding lost dogs to total neighborhood surveillance. Of course, REDDIT, META, AND GOOGLE VOLUNTARILY GAVE DHS INFO on users critical of ICE, because why stand up for privacy when you can just comply?

In the news, we look at OPENCLAW, OPENAI AND THE FUTURE as the project’s founder joins the Borg, even though META AND OTHER TECH FIRMS PUT RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF OPENCLAW because it’s basically a security hole that can click your mouse for you. Peak stupidity has arrived with RFK JR'S NEW CHATBOT giving rectal dietary advice, while AI COMPANIES BOUGHT OUT ALL OF WESTERN DIGITAL’S HARD DRIVES through 2026, meaning you can't have storage because the bots need it more. Even VALVE ADMITS STEAM DECK AVAILABILITY IS AFFECTED by this memory hoarding. We also touch on STEVE BANNON SUED OVER MAGA CRYPTO SCHEME, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST ROBLOX for being a safety nightmare, and the fact that TESLA ROBOTAXIS REPORTEDLY CRASHING at four times the human rate. TESLA DODGES 30-DAY SUSPENSION by simply killing the word "Autopilot," while NEW YORK HITS THE BRAKES ON ROBOTAXI EXPANSION to keep the chaos at bay. Finally, POLYMARKET WITHDRAWS EXPLOSIVE ARTEMIS BETTING MARKET because betting on dead astronauts is too much even for them, leading the ETHEREUM CREATOR STARTING TO THINK THIS WHOLE PREDICTION MARKET THING MIGHT BE GAMBLING. As NEVADA SUES KALSHI and Jack Dorsey oversees INSIDE THE ROLLING LAYOFFS AT JACK DORSEY’S BLOCK—using AI to summarize the misery of his employees—just remember: YOU’LL BE SORRY WHEN YOU HEAR WHAT JUSTIN BIEBER’S $1.3 MILLION BORED APE IS WORTH NOW. Hint: it’s twelve grand.

In this week's MEDIA CANDY, we’ve got FREE BERT, KAT WILLIAMS: THE LAST REPORT, and the eternal return of SHREK. We’re checking out MARK ROBER on Netflix, the return of MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS, and the trailer for GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE. If you need a soundtrack for the apocalypse, Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq has you covered with STOP USING GENERATIVE A.I and the Gen-X anthem I'VE NO MORE F*S TO GIVE!.

Moving to APPS & DOODADS, OBSIDIAN TO NOTES is a $14 well spent, unlike CURSOR and VISUAL STUDIO CODE which are getting bogged down by slow models. APPLE’S AI PENDANT sounds like a watered-down Humane pin that relies on your phone to think, and APPLE PODCASTS AND VIDEO remains a pipe dream because bandwidth costs money. We’ve reached the point where THERE’S A GRIM NEW EXPRESSION: “AI;DR” for things not worth reading, and THERE'S A NEW TERM FOR WORKERS FREAKING OUT over being replaced—AIRD, or AI Replacement Dysfunction—which is basically the low-grade panic of being made obsolete by a machine that thinks bananas go in your bum.

AT THE LIBRARY, we’re thumbing through CLEAVE THE SPARROW, THE REGICIDE REPORT by Charles Stross, and Robin Ince being NORMALLY WEIRD AND WEIRDLY NORMAL.

Then we descend into THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, where the Muppets are taking over with THE MUPPET SHOW and MUPPETS NOW. We catch the latest on THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU and TOY STORY 5, while tracking the PENTAGON PIZZA INDEX to see if war is breaking out. For the kids, we look at a 3D PRINTER / ENTRY LEVEL FOR KIDS like the Bambu Lab A1, and for the nerds, A STAR WARS-CENTRIC RSS FEED and a NEAT IDEA FOR AN RSS READER, “CURRENT,” which lets news drift away like water under a bridge. We wrap it all up with some HORROR IN UNDER TWO MINUTES and IMPECCABLE COVERS OF 80S SYNTH MUSIC, because at least the 80s had better soundtracks than this AI-generated nightmare.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/734

FOLLOW UP

EU launches second investigation into Grok's nonconsensual image generation

Meta largely fails to protect kids from AI chatbots, per its own tests

After Ring privacy backlash, company abandons plans for police partnership

Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs

Reddit, Meta, and Google Voluntarily Gave DHS Info of Anti-ICE Users, Report Says

IN THE NEWS

OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future

Meta and Other Tech Firms Put Restrictions on Use of OpenClaw Over Security Fears

RFK Jr's new chatbot advises the public on 'best foods to insert into rectum'

AI Companies Bought Out All of Western Digital’s Hard Drives for 2026 Already

Valve admits Steam Deck availability is affected by memory and storage shortages

Steve Bannon sued over MAGA crypto scheme

Los Angeles County files lawsuit against Roblox over child protections

Tesla Robotaxis Reportedly Crashing at a Rate That’s 4x Higher Than Humans

Tesla dodges 30-day suspension in California after removing Autopilot

New York hits the brakes on robotaxi expansion plan

Polymarket withdraws explosive Artemis betting market after backlash

Ethereum Creator Starting to Think This Whole Prediction Market Thing Might be Gambling

Nevada sues Kalshi for operating a sports gambling market without a license

Inside the Rolling Layoffs at Jack Dorsey’s Block

You’ll Be Sorry When You Hear What Justin Bieber’s $1.3 Million Bored Ape Is Worth Now

MEDIA CANDY

Free Bert

Kat Williams: The Last Report

Shrek

Mark Rober

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE | Official Trailer | February 13 - Only in Theaters

STOP USING GENERATIVE A.I (Original Song) by Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq

I've No More F*s To Give! by Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq

APPS & DOODADS

Obsidian to Notes

Cursor

Visual Studio Code

Apple’s AI Pendant Sounds Like a Watered-Down Humane Ai Pin

There’s a Grim New Expression: “AI;DR”

There's a New Term for Workers Freaking Out Over Being Replaced by AI

AT THE LIBRARY

Cleave the Sparrow by Jonathan Katz

The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14) by Charles Stross

Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

The Muppet Show

Muppets Now

The Mandalorian and Grogu | Official Trailer | In Theaters May 22

Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19

Pentagon Pizza Index

Bambu Lab A1

A Star Wars-centric RSS feed

Current RSS Reader

Horror in under two minutes.

Impeccable covers of 80s synth music

Top Gun - Opening Theme (Synth Cover)

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Green Eggs and Ham narrated by the Reverend Jesse Jackson

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We kick things off in FOLLOW UP with the ongoing "nuclear war" between Automattic and WP Engine, where discovery has revealed Matt Mullenweg’s alleged hit list of competitors and a desperate attempt to bully payment processors—because nothing says "open source" like an eight-percent royalty shakedown. Meanwhile, the Harvard Business Review confirmed what we already knew: AI isn’t reducing our work; it’s just compressing it until we’re all working through lunch and burning out faster while Polymarket turns our collective brain rot into a literal "attention market" where you can bet on Elon’s mindshare.

Transitioning to IN THE NEWS, Elon has officially pivoted SpaceX from Mars to the Moon, presumably because building a "self-growing lunar city" is easier than admitting the Red Planet is hard, though his xAI all-hands rant about "ancient alien catapults" suggests he’s been staring at the sun too long. Between X allegedly taking blue-check lunch money from sanctioned Iranian leaders, Meta facing trials for creating "predator-friendly hunting grounds," and Russia finally pulling the plug on WhatsApp, the internet is looking more like a digital dumpster fire than ever. Add in Discord leaking 70,000 government IDs, OpenAI shoving ads into ChatGPT while safety researchers flee the building like it’s on fire, and a "cognitive debt" crisis eroding our ability to think, and you’ve got a recipe for a tech-induced psychosis that even crypto-funded human trafficking can’t outpace.

In MEDIA CANDY, we're wondering about the soft-core porn intro in the latest Star Trek: Starfleet Academy while Apple buys the total rights to Severance for seventy million dollars—because in-house production is the only way to keep those ballooning budgets under control. Super Bowl trailer season gave us a glimpse of The Mandalorian and Grogu and a Project Hail Mary teaser, while Babylon 5 has finally landed on YouTube for free, proving that even 90s serialized sci-fi eventually finds its way to the clearance bin.

Over in APPS & DOODADS, Meta Quest is nagging us for our birthdays like a needy relative, while Roblox had to scrub a mass-shooting simulator—because "AI plus human safety teams" is apparently just code for "we missed it until it hit the forums." Ring’s Super Bowl ad for "Search Party" accidentally terrified everyone by revealing a mass surveillance network for pets that’s a slippery slope toward a police state, and Waymo is now paying DoorDashers ten bucks just to walk over and close the car doors that autonomous tech still can’t figure out.

Wrapping up with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, we dive into the Mandalorian Hasbro reveal where Sigourney Weaver’s action figure comes with no accessories because her existence is enough of a flex. We explore the grim reality of "RentAHuman," where humans are paid pittance to pretend AI agents are actually doing work, and look at "Trash Talk Audio," which sells a $125 microphone made out of a literal old telephone for that authentic Gen-X "get off the line, I'm expecting a call" aesthetic. From Marcia Lucas finally venting about the prequels and a rare book catalog specifically for our aging generation, we’re reminded that while the future is a chaotic mess of "GeoSpy" AI and corporate reshuffling at Disney, at least we still have our cynical memories and some free versions of Roller Coaster Tycoon to keep us from losing it completely.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/733

FOLLOW UP

Automattic planned to target 10 competitors with royalty fees, WP Engine claims in new filing

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

Polymarket To Offer Attention Markets In Partnership With Kaito AI

Israel Arrests Members of Military for Placing Polymarket Bets Using Inside Information on Upcoming Strikes

IN THE NEWS

Unable to Reach Mars, Musk Does the Most Musk Thing Possible

We’ll Find the Remnants of Ancient Alien Civilizations’: Read Musk’s Gibberish Rant from His xAI All-Hands Meeting

Elon Musk’s X Appears to Be Violating US Sanctions by Selling Premium Accounts to Iranian Leaders

Meta Faces Two Key Trials That Could Change Social Media Forever

WhatsApp is now fully blocked in Russia

Russia is restricting access to Telegram, one of its most popular social media apps. Here’s what we know

DOJ may face investigation for pressuring Apple, Google to remove apps for tracking ICE agents

Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally

Discord says hackers stole government IDs of 70,000 users

Free Tool Says it Can Bypass Discord's Age Verification Check With a 3D Model

Testing ads in ChatGPT

OpenAI Researcher Quits, Warns Its Unprecedented ‘Archive of Human Candor’ Is Dangerous

OpenAI Fires Top Safety Exec Who Opposed ChatGPT’s “Adult Mode”

Anthropic AI Safety Researcher Warns Of World ‘In Peril’ In Resignation

Musk’s xAI loses second co-founder in two days

America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs

Monologue: No, Something Big Isn’t Coming

The Scientist Who Predicted AI Psychosis Has a Grim Forecast of What’s Going to Happen Next

Crypto-Funded Human Trafficking Is Exploding

MEDIA CANDY

Shrinking

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Poor Things

Project Hail Mary | Final Trailer

Minions & Monsters | Official Trailer

Disclosure Day | Big Game Spot

The Mandalorian and Grogu | A New Journey Begins | In Theaters May 22

Babylon 5 Is Now Free to Watch On YouTube

Apple acquires all rights to ‘Severance,’ will produce future seasons in-house

Optimizing your TV

APPS & DOODADS

Tumbler Ridge Shooter Created Mall Shooting Simulator in Roblox

Here's how to disable Ring's creepy Search Party feature

Waymo Is Getting DoorDashers to Close Doors on Self Driving Cars

TikTok US launches a local feed that leverages a user's exact location

Apple just released iOS 26.3 alongside updates for the Mac, iPad and Apple Watch

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

We Call It Imagineering

Your First Look at Hasbro's 'Mandalorian and Grogu' Figures Is Here (Exclusive)

I Tried RentAHuman, Where AI Agents Hired Me to Hype Their AI Startups

Trash Talk Audio

Roger Reacts to Star Wars - A New Hope

Marcia Lucas Finally Speaks Out | Icons Unearthed: Unplugged (FULL INTERVIEW)

What’s wrong with the prequels?

Rare Books, Gen X edition

GeoSpy

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Robert Tinney, who painted iconic Byte magazine covers, RIP

Bud Cort

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week’s FOLLOW UP, Bitcoin is down 15%, miners are unplugging rigs because paying eighty-seven grand to mine a sixty-grand coin finally failed the vibes check, and Grok is still digitally undressing men—suggesting Musk’s “safeguards” remain mostly theoretical, which didn’t help when X offices got raided in France. Spain wants to ban social media for kids under 16, Egypt is blocking Roblox outright, and governments everywhere are flailing at the algorithmic abyss.

IN THE NEWS, Elon Musk is rolling xAI into SpaceX to birth a $1.25 trillion megacorp that wants to power AI from orbit with a million satellites, because space junk apparently wasn’t annoying enough. Amazon admits a “high volume” of CSAM showed up in its AI training data and blames third parties, Waymo bags a massive $16 billion to insist robotaxis are working, Pinterest reportedly fires staff who built a layoff-tracking tool, and Sam Altman gets extremely cranky about Claude’s Super Bowl ads hitting a little too close to home.

For MEDIA CANDY, we’ve got Shrinking, the Grammys, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s questionable holographic future, Neil Young gifting his catalog to Greenland while snubbing Amazon, plus Is It Cake? Valentines and The Rip.

In APPS & DOODADS, we test Sennheiser earbuds, mess with Topaz Video, skip a deeply cursed Python script that checks LinkedIn for Epstein connections, and note that autonomous cars and drones will happily obey prompt injection via road signs—defeated by a Sharpie.

IN THE LIBRARY, there’s The Regicide Report, a brutal study finding early dementia signals in Terry Pratchett’s novels, Neil Gaiman denying allegations while announcing a new book, and THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, vibing with The Muppet Show as Disney names a new CEO. We round it out with RentAHuman.ai dread relief via paper airplane databases, free Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Sir Ian McKellen on Colbert—still classy in the digital wasteland.

Sponsors:

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SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you’re ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/732

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uFfEI2fuWaM

FOLLOW UP

Bitcoin drops 15%, briefly breaking below $61,000 as sell-off intensifies, doubts about crypto grow

Bitcoin Is Crashing So Hard That Miners Are Unplugging Their Equipment

Grok, which maybe stopped undressing women without their consent, still undresses men

X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok

Spain set to ban social media for children under 16

Egypt to block Roblox for all users

IN THE NEWS

Elon Musk Is Rolling xAI Into SpaceX—Creating the World’s Most Valuable Private Company

SpaceX wants to launch a constellation of a million satellites to power AI needs

A potential Starlink competitor just got FCC clearance to launch 4,000 satellites

Amazon discovered a 'high volume' of CSAM in its AI training data but isn't saying where it came from

Waymo raises massive $16 billion round at $126 billion valuation, plans expansion to 20+ cities

Pinterest Reportedly Fires Employees Who Built a Tool to Track Layoffs

Sam Altman got exceptionally testy over Claude Super Bowl ads

MEDIA CANDY

Shrinking

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

The Rip

Neil Young gifts Greenland free access to his music and withdraws it from Amazon over Trump

Is it Cake? Valentines

APPS & DOODADS

Sennheiser Consumer Audio IE 200 In-Ear Audiophile Headphones - TrueResponse Transducers for Neutral Sound, Impactful Bass, Detachable Braided Cable with Flexible Ear Hooks - Black

Sennheiser Consumer Audio CX 80S In-ear Headphones with In-line One-Button Smart Remote – Black

Topaz Video

Epstein

Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

AT THE LIBRARY

The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14) by Charles Stross

Scientists Found an Early Signal of Dementia Hidden in Terry Pratchett's Novels

Neil Gaiman Denies the Allegations Against Him (Again) While Announcing a New Book

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

The Muppet Show

Disney announces Josh D’Amaro will be its new CEO after Iger departs

A Database of Paper Airplane Designs: Hours of Fun for Kids & Adults Alike

Online (free!) version of Roller Coaster tycoon.

Speaking of coasters, here’s the current world champion.

I am hoping this is satire...

Sir Ian McKellen on Colbert.

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Catherine O’Hara: The Grande Dame of Off-Center Comedy

Standing with Sam 'Balloon Man' Martinez

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We kick off FOLLOW UP by checking in on Elon Musk’s personal dumpster fire, where the EU is investigating Grok for deepfake slop while Tesla’s “unsupervised” robotaxis turned out to be supervised by literal chase cars — shocker. At least some of you are getting Siri settlement crumbs in your bank accounts, though you could probably double it betting against Musk’s worthless promises on Polymarket.

Transitioning to IN THE NEWS, Tesla is killing off the Model S and X to build robots while sales crater, proving that mixing hard-right politics with EV sales is a brilliant move for the balance sheet. Meanwhile, the corporate bloodbath continues with massive layoffs at Ubisoft, Vimeo (courtesy of the Bending Spoons buzzsaw), and Amazon, because “removing bureaucracy” is apparently HR-speak for 16,000 families losing their livelihoods. If that’s not enough, Google is settling yet another privacy suit for $135 million, the EU is threatening to weaponize its tech sovereignty against the US, and the Trump administration wants Gemini to write federal regulations—because if there's one thing we want drafting airline safety rules, it's a hallucinating chatbot.

Still IN THE NEWS, Waymo is under federal investigation for passing school buses and hitting children, while South Korea’s new AI laws manage to please absolutely no one. Record labels are suing Anna’s Archive for a cool $13 trillion—roughly three times the GDP of India—and the Winklevoss twins have finally admitted that NFTs are dead by shuttering Nifty Gateway.

We pivot to MEDIA CANDY, where the Patriots and Seahawks are heading to Super Bowl 60, and the Winter Olympics are descending on Milan. We’re doing the math on the Starfleet Academy timeline, celebrating the return of Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and trying to decide if Henry Cavill is the second coming of Timothy Dalton in the Highlander reboot. Plus, Jessica Jones is back in the Daredevil: Born Again trailer, and Colin Farrell’s Sugar is returning to explain that wild noir twist we all totally saw coming.

In APPS & DOODADS, the TikTok Armageddon is upon us as the new US owners break the app and drive everyone to UpScrolled, while Native Instruments enters insolvency, leaving our music-making dreams in restructuring limbo. Apple is dropping AirTag 2 with precision finding for your watch, which is great for finding the keys you lost while doom-scrolling.

We wrap up with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, featuring the new Muppets trailer and Steve Whitmire’s deep thoughts on the state of the felt, plus a look at the artisans in Disneyland Handcrafted. Finally, Looney Tunes finds a new home on Turner Classic Movies, proving that the classics never die—they just move to a cable channel your parents actually watch. Dave finally learns about the Insta360 camera, a countertop dishwasher but no Animal Crackers, and a guide to gas masks and googles... for no particular reason.

Sponsors:

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SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you’re ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/731

Watch the episode at https://youtu.be/B54je_oJWjM

FOLLOW UP

The EU is investigating Grok and X over potentially illegal deepfakes

People on Polymarket Are Making a Fortune by Betting Against Elon Musk’s Famously Worthless Promises

Elon Musk Made Tesla Fans Think Unsupervised Robotaxis Had Arrived. They Can’t Find Them

Tesla Quietly Pauses Its “Unsupervised” Robotaxi Rides as Reality Sets In

Apple Siri settlement payments hitting bank accounts. What to know.

IN THE NEWS

Tesla bet big on Elon Musk. His politics continue to haunt it.

With Tesla Revenue and Profits Down, Elon Musk Plays Up Safety

Tesla Kills Models S and X

Ubisoft proposes even more layoffs after last week's studio closures and game cancellations

Vimeo lays off most of its staff just months after being bought by private equity firm

Amazon Laying Off 16,000 as It Increases ‘Ownership’ and Removes ‘Bureaucracy’

Report Says the E.U. Is Gearing Up to Weaponize Europe's Tech Industry Against the U.S.

Google will pay $135 million to settle illegal data collection lawsuit

GDPR Enforcement Tracker

NTSB will investigate why Waymo's robotaxis are illegally passing school buses

Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica

Video shows Waymo vehicle slam into parked cars in Echo Park

Trump admin reportedly plans to use AI to write federal regulations

South Korea’s ‘world-first’ AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech power

Spotify and Big 3 Record Labels Sue Anna’s Archive for $13 Trillion (!) Alleging Theft

Amazon converting some Fresh supermarkets, Go stores to Whole Foods locations

SEC agrees to dismiss case over crypto lending by Winklevoss' Gemini

Winklevoss Twins Shut Down NFT Marketplace in Another Sign Crypto Art Is Dead

MEDIA CANDY

Plur1bus

Shrinking

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Steal

How to watch the 2026 Super Bowl: Patriots vs. Seahawks channel, where to stream and more

Winter Olympics: How to watch, schedule of events, and everything else you need to know about the 2026 Milano Cortina games

Wait, So When Is 'Starfleet Academy' Set, Anyway?

The First ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Trailer Brings Back Jessica Jones

Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 | Teaser Trailer

Ted Lasso Gets Kicked Back to Apple TV

There Can Only Be One First Look at the ‘Highlander’ Reboot

Colin Farrell’s Detective Show ‘Sugar’ Will Finally Have to Address that Wild Twist This Summer

APPS & DOODADS

TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes

TikTok users freak out over app's 'immigration status' collection — here's what it means

TikTok’s New US Owners Are Off to a Very Rocky Start

TikTok Data Center Outage Triggers Trust Crisis for New US Owners

Yes, TikTok is still broken for many people

Social network UpScrolled sees surge in downloads following TikTok's US takeover

Native Instruments enters into insolvency proceedings, leaving its future uncertain

Wispr Flow

AirTag 2: Three tidbits you might have missed

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

The Muppet Show | Official Trailer | Disney+

Steve Whitmire, former Kermit the Frog performer, has written a long, thoughtful piece about the current stae of the Muppets.

Disneyland Handcrafted

‘Looney Tunes’ Has Found a New Home: Turner Classic Movies

The Dark Side of Scooby Doo

A Disturbing (Yet Convincing) Theory Reveals There Were Never Any "Monsters" In Scooby Doo

Cartoon Conspiracy Theory | Scooby Doo and The Gang Are Draft Dodgers?!

Producing A Multi-Person Interview With An Insta360 Camera

A listener on Mastodon pointed out that The Verge had a story on countertop dishwashers

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Gas Masks and Goggles

Emma Repairs

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ep 730: Ethical Broads PRIVATE

We kick off FOLLOW UP with California’s AG sending a cease-and-desist to xAI over Grok generating creepy deepfakes of minors, while regulators finally notice Elon Musk’s xAI datacenter illegally running methane turbines in Memphis. The FTC is also appealing its loss in the Meta monopoly case, because apparently breaking up Zuckerberg’s data empire is still the hill they want to die on.

IN THE NEWS, Washington joins the age-verification-for-porn parade, the UK considers an Australia-style social media ban for kids under 16, and governments everywhere continue demanding your ID before you’re allowed to enjoy the internet. OpenAI rolls out age prediction for ChatGPT accounts ahead of a rumored adult mode—though hey, at least you can now group tabs in ChatGPT’s Atlas browser. Anthropic rewrites Claude’s “constitution” to make it more vibes-based, Nevada moves to block Polymarket because gambling is only legal when the house owns the house, and YouTube promises even more AI features in 2026. Elsewhere, a Swiss suicide pod gets an AI “mental fitness” upgrade, Microsoft’s CEO begs AI developers to do something useful before the grid collapses, Musk hunts for a $134 billion payday from OpenAI and Microsoft, and makes yet more Davos predictions about robotaxis and aliens that are absolutely happening this year. On the bright side, A-list creatives push back on AI and Comic-Con bans AI art, buying humans a little more time.

MEDIA CANDY finds us slogging through Wish, The Pitt, and the “Mel’s Diner in Space” look of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. We confirm 20-year-old CGI wargs still look terrible, get cautiously excited for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and note that Fallout Season 2’s weekly drops may not be working for a binge-rotted audience.

In APPS & DOODADS, X launches Bluesky-style starter packs—presumably to help you find more Nazis—while ICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky. Threads edges out X in daily mobile users, proving the “federated future” is just another Zuck app. And yes, we think we know what the Apple AI pin is—and definitely what it isn’t.

AT THE LIBRARY, we check out The Elements, Jet Tila’s 101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die, Half Baked Harvest: Quick & Cozy, and Southern Living’s A Southern Gentleman’s Kitchen. Scott reports back from a Jim Butcher talk, where we learn Harry Dresden sounds suspiciously like Han Solo.

We close with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, who is juggling five podcasts while reading Going to the Top: The Story of Videopolis, plus teasers for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord and a baffling Masters of the Universe trailer, a rant on what “remastered” even means anymore, a dishwasher follow-up, and the grim news that a lot of snow is coming.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/730

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/LiwVkLKr8Co

FOLLOW UP

California AG sends cease and desist to xAI over Grok's explicit deepfakes

Elon Musk’s xAI datacenter generating extra electricity illegally, regulator rules

Zuck stuck on Trump’s bad side: FTC appeals loss in Meta monopoly case

IN THE NEWS

Washington is the latest state pursuing an age verification law for porn sites

The UK is mulling an Australia-like social media ban for users under 16

OpenAI is launching age prediction for ChatGPT accounts

You can now group tabs on OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas browser

Anthropic Updates Claude's 'Constitution,' Just in Case Chatbot Has a Consciousness

Nevada files to block Polymarket from offering ‘unlicensed wagering’ in the state

YouTube CEO promises more AI features in 2026

Controversial Swiss Suicide Pod Gets an AI-Powered Mental Fitness Upgrade

Microsoft CEO urges AI developers 'to get to a point where we are using this to do something useful,' or 'lose even the social permission...to generate these tokens'

Elon Musk is looking for a $134 billion payout from OpenAI and Microsoft

Elon Musk Sure Made Lots of Predictions at Davos

A-List creatives sign up to fight AI, say it enables 'theft at a grand scale'

Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback

MEDIA CANDY

Wish

The Pitt

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

'Fallout' Season 2's Weekly Drops May Not Be Working

APPS & DOODADS

X is also launching Bluesky-like starter packs

ICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky after its verification

Threads edges out X in daily mobile users, new data shows

I think I know what the Apple pin is, and definitely know what it isn't

Apple Developing AirTag-Sized AI Pin With Dual Cameras

Not to be outdone by OpenAI, Apple is reportedly developing an AI wearable

Siri’s iOS 27 upgrade sounds exactly right. Apple’s AI pin sounds exactly wrong

AT THE LIBRARY

The Elements by John Boyne

101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die by Jet Tila

Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy: A Cookbook by Tieghan Gerard

Pestle

Southern Living A Southern Gentleman's Kitchen: Adventures in Cooking, Eating, and Living in the New South by Matt Moore

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Going to the Top: The Story of Videopolis—Part One

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord | Official Teaser Trailer | Streaming April 6 on Disney+

Masters of The Universe – Official Teaser Trailer

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Classic-Era Scorpions Bassist Francis Buchholz Dies at 71

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We kick things off with the existential dread of FOLLOW UP and the absolute joy of jury duty. While xAI’s Grok is busy getting banned in Malaysia and Indonesia for its CSAM-generating "features," the Senate is unanimously passing the DEFIANCE Act to give us some legal teeth against the deepfake machine. Meta is busy nuking 550,000 Australian accounts to appease regulators, while Roblox’s age verification is so broken that a drawing of stubble or a photo of Kurt Cobain can get you into the adult lounge. Moving IN THE NEWS, Meta is trading its $70 billion Metaverse graveyard for a Reality Labs layoff and a pivot to AI hardware, fueled by an "AI infrastructure" buildout that’s hiring former Trump advisors. Bandcamp is heroically banning AI "slop," Matthew McConaughey is trademarking his own face to fend off the bots, and ICE’s AI hiring tool is such a disaster it’s accidentally fast-tracking mall security as "officers." Between self-help gurus charging $99 for chatbot "advice," GM finally settling its driver-spying suit with the FTC, and NASA prepping for a February moon shot while China plans to launch 200,000 satellites into our already crowded orbit, the future looks exactly as messy as we expected.

For MEDIA CANDY, we’ve got Lord of the Rings marathons, the diner-bridge of Starfleet Academy, and the usual joy of streaming price hikes hitting our "Premium" plans. We’re tracking the 2025 "In Memoriam" and Gabriel Pagan’s exhaustive movie list before sliding into APPS & DOODADS. Jony Ive and Sam Altman are reportedly building an hearing aide called "Sweetpea" to kill your AirPods, Siri is officially Google Gemini’s new puppet, and Apple is finally bundling its creative apps into a "Creator Studio" subscription trap. Tesla is making Full Self-Driving a subscription-only Valentine’s gift (good luck with that), Ring is rebranding surveillance as a "fire-watching" assistant, and a Chinese app called "Are You Dead?" is the new must-have for the lonely. To cap it off, the internet proved its maturity by using "Words.zip"—an infinite word-search grid—to draw a giant phallus, because of course they did.

AT THE LIBRARY features the Anthony Bourdain Reader, the return of Bob in the new Laundry Files book, and Jimmy Carr’s guide to happiness, which is apparently cheaper than therapy. Then we descend into THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, where the dishwasher-installing, ham-radio-lunching Dave Bittner reveals Disney World has job openings for those of us who spent high school in the AV club. Lucasfilm is finally entering a new era as Kathleen Kennedy steps down, just as Galaxy’s Edge admits the original trilogy exists, and we wrap it all up with lock-picking kits and the terrifying realization that Seymour from H.R. Pufnstuf is the ultimate Gen-X fursona.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/729

Watch on YouTube! https://youtu.be/1Y1jnRDw7g0

FOLLOW UP

Malaysia and Indonesia are the first to block Grok following CSAM scandal

Senate passes Defiance Act for a second time to address Grok deepfakes

Meta closes 550,000 accounts to comply with Australia's kids social media ban

Roblox's age verification system is reportedly a trainwreck

IN THE NEWS

Meta refocuses on AI hardware as metaverse layoffs begin

Meta’s Layoffs Leave Supernatural Fitness Users in Mourning

Meta Creates High-Powered Team to Oversee AI Infrastructure Buildout

Bandcamp prohibits music made ‘wholly or in substantial part’ by AI

Matthew McConaughey fights unauthorized AI likenesses by trademarking himself

ICE’s AI Tool Has Been a Complete Disaster

Self-Help Ghouls Are Charging People Absurd Prices to Talk to Impersonator Chatbots

The FTC's data-sharing order against GM is finally settled

NASA is ending Crew-11 astronauts' mission a month early

NASA makes final preparations for its first crewed moon mission in over 50 years

As SpaceX Works Toward 50K Starlink Satellites, China Eyes Deploying 200K

MEDIA CANDY

Beast Games Season 2

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Grumpy Old List

The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1069: 2025 in Memoriam

Depeche Mode: M

APPS & DOODADS

Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s First AI Gadget May Try to Kill AirPods

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini

Apple’s Mac and iPad creative apps get bundled into “Creator Studio” subscription

Tesla's Full Self-Driving is switching to a subscription-only service

Ring founder details the camera company's 'intelligent assistant' era

Are You Dead?: The viral Chinese app for young people living alone

Give the Internet an Infinite Word Search and the Internet Will Draw a Dick on It

AT THE LIBRARY

The Anthony Bourdain Reader: New, Classic, and Rediscovered Writing by Anthony Bourdain

Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman by Robert Updegraff

Before & Laughter by Jimmy Carr

The Regicide Report (Laundry Files, 14) by Charles Stross

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

How to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica Wood

Walt Disney World Resort is looking for Entertainment Stage Technicians

Galaxy’s Edge Will Soon Cover All Eras of ‘Star Wars’

Kathleen Kennedy steps down as Lucasfilm president, marking a new era for the Star Wars franchise

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to the digital wasteland, fellow survivors. We kick things off in the FOLLOW UP by marking a year since the LA Fires—hello, PTSD—alongside a 4th Strokiversary and three years of sobriety, all while wondering why America is currently obsessed with shooting its own civilians in the face.

In the IN THE NEWS segment, Wired is finally teaching us how to protest safely in the age of surveillance, and the EFF is cheering on the hackers fighting ICE’s Nazi-adjacent tracking tactics. Meanwhile, Meta is harvesting your AI chats for targeted ads, Disney is paying $10 million for spying on kids, and Grok has spent the holidays generating nonconsensual child abuse material—a problem Elon Musk won't have to legally reckon with until the Take It Down Act hits in May. Instagram’s Adam Mosseri has basically surrendered to the AI "slop", suggesting we fingerprint "real" media because the fake stuff has already won the war.

As we continue the descent, OpenAI is launching a ChatGPT Health portal despite their "loser energy" and compute limits, while Character.AI and Google are quietly settling lawsuits for bots that encouraged teen suicide. Polymarket gamblers are learning that "decentralized" juries will fist you over the definition of an "invasion" just as fast as a bank. Uber showed off a new Lucid-based robotaxi, but we’re pumping the brakes on the safety hype given that autonomous vehicles are five times more likely to crash at dusk. To wrap up the news, Tim Cook took home $74 million last year, which is a lot of "systematic philanthropy" he could be doing right now instead of just writing checks to his own ego.

In MEDIA CANDY, we’re suffering through the Stranger Things wrap-up and a John McTiernan holiday marathon, though the real highlight is MTV Rewind’s tribute to music videos. We’ve got Traitors, The Pitt, and even a John Candy doc on the list, while APPS & DOODADS brings us the DJI Osmo 8, Victrola’s turntable-vibrating speakers. At least California’s DROP tool lets you purge your data from 500 brokers at once.

Finally, we go to THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE to hear Dave Bittner rant about holiday tech support, health insurance gouging, and Dave Filoni taking the Star Wars reins. We close out with a look at ILM’s 50th, the deepfake porn cesspool formerly known as Twitter, and a birthday toast to the Starman himself, David Bowie.

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1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/728

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/x-2GTUC6rcU

IN THE NEWS

How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

How Hackers Are Fighting Back Against ICE

Meta’s New Privacy Policy Opens Up AI Chats for Targeted Ads

Disney to Pay $10 Million After Feds Say It Broke Kids’ Privacy Rules on YouTube

People Spent the Holidays Asking Grok to Generate Sexual Images of Children

Here's When Elon Musk Will Finally Have to Reckon With His Nonconsensual Porn Generator

Instagram chief: AI is so ubiquitous 'it will be more practical to fingerprint real media than fake media'

ChatGPT is launching a new dedicated Health portal

Character.AI and Google settle with families in teen suicide and self-harm lawsuits

Gambling platform Polymarket not paying bets on US invasion of Venezuela

Uber reveals the design of its robotaxi at CES 2026

Maybe We Should Pump the Brakes on the Idea That Robotaxis Are Safer

Here’s how much Tim Cook and other Apple execs made last year

MEDIA CANDY

The Pitt

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Jurassic World Rebirth

The Darjeeling Limited

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Honey Don’t

John Candy: I Like Me

MTV Rewind is a developer's tribute to 24/7 music video channels

APPS & DOODADS

DJI Osmo Mobile 8

Netflix Games

This speaker by Victrola sits underneath turntables and streams audio via Bluetooth

Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP)

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation

Dave Filoni to run Star Wars

Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to another hour of digital cynicism. We kick things off with a FOLLOW UP on Amazon’s Fallout recaps, which were apparently so hallucination-heavy they made the actual wasteland look organized; naturally, they’ve been nuked along with the "Video Recaps" feature. In a massive dose of IN THE NEWS, Tesla is finally getting a legal side-eye in California for its deceptive "Autopilot" branding, while TikTok is performing a corporate shell game by selling a 45% stake to Oracle and friends to keep the feds happy. Reddit is fighting Australia’s under-16 ban like it’s a constitutional crisis, Louisiana’s age-verification law just got benched by a judge, and Merriam-Webster officially crowned "slop" as the Word of the Year—which is fitting, given that OpenAI is selectively hiding chat logs from murder-suicides while their Chief Scientist warns that recursive AI self-improvement might end the human experiment by 2030. If the "intelligence explosion" doesn’t get us, the CRASH Clock says we’ve got roughly 2.8 days before Elon’s satellite swarm turns low-earth orbit into a permanent scrapyard.

In our MEDIA CANDY segment, we mourn the transition year of Star Trek, which was mostly a series of unmitigated disasters and corporate retreats, though the Oscars moving to YouTube in 2029 means we can finally ignore them in 4K. Meta is testing a "pay-to-share-links" feature because they clearly haven't alienated creators enough, and a new study suggests Amazon’s "dynamic pricing" is basically just a high-tech way to gouge public school districts for pencils. Moving to APPS & DOODADS, iOS 26.2 is here with a "Liquid Glass" slider—groundbreaking stuff, really—while Microsoft’s Copilot+ push is effectively killing the laptop market by making 16GB of RAM a luxury item only a data center could love. Meanwhile, iRobot has officially sucked its last bit of dust into a Chapter 11 filing, proving that even a twenty-year head start can’t save you from a 46 percent tariff and better Chinese competition.

AT THE LIBRARY, we find out that librarians are ready to quit because people keep demanding books that only exist in a ChatGPT hallucination, proving once again that the "Information Age" was a lie. We descend into THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE with the tireless Dave Bittner to discuss why modern movies feel like plastic, the bizarre paradox of James Cameron’s Avatar dominance, and a bittersweet farewell to Rob Reiner. We wrap it up with the return of The Muppets, a look at plug-in solar panels for the budget-conscious prepper, and the Sedaris siblings proving that even grief can be a podcast topic. It’s all the tech "progress" you never asked for, delivered with the appropriate amount of Gen-X side-eye.

Show notes at https://gog.show/727

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hHnGD4lIFzA

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FOLLOW UP

Amazon pulls its bad AI video recaps after Fallout fallout

IN THE NEWS

Tesla used deceptive language to market Autopilot, California judge rules

TikTok agrees to deal to cede control of US business to American investor group

Reddit sues Australia over underage social media ban

Judge blocks Louisiana's social media age verification law

Murder-suicide case shows OpenAI selectively hides data after users die

Trump orders creation of litigation task force to challenge state AI laws

'Slop' is Merriam-Webster's word of the year

Anthropic’s Chief Scientist Says We’re Rapidly Approaching the Moment That Could Doom Us All

Model collapse

OpenAI Is Going Into the New Year With Some Real Loser Energy

New ‘CRASH Clock’ Warns of 2.8-Day Window Before Likely Orbital Collision

A Facebook test makes link-sharing a paid feature for creators

Study links Amazon's algorithmic pricing with erratic, inflated costs for school districts

MEDIA CANDY

A Man on the Inside S2

Oh. What. Fun.

The End of an Era

The West Wing

F1® The Movie - Apple TV

The Running Man

Welcome to Derry

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Is it Cake?

Apple TV releasing Pluribus season finale early next week

Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount's hostile bid

2025 Was a Turning Point for ‘Star Trek’, Whether It Knew It or Not

THE ACADEMY PARTNERS WITH YOUTUBE FOR EXCLUSIVE GLOBAL RIGHTS TO THE OSCARS® AND OTHER ACADEMY CONTENT STARTING IN 2029

APPS & DOODADS

iOS 26.2 is here with another Liquid Glass tweak, new Podcasts features and more

Oh, the Irony: Microsoft’s Push for Copilot+ PCs Could Stall Laptop Sales

iRobot has filed for bankruptcy and may be taken over by its primary supplier

AT THE LIBRARY

Flybot by Dennis E. Taylor

Making Space (The Time Traveler's Passport) by R. F. Kuang

For a Limited Time Only (The Time Traveler's Passport) by Peng Shepherd

Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real" Anymore

The Avatar Paradox - Why Nobody Talks About These Movies

Don't F**k with James Cameron

Every James Cameron Movie, Explained by James Cameron | Vanity Fair

‘The Muppet Show’ Returns for One Night Only Next February

The Muppet Show | Official Teaser | Disney+

Small plug-in solar panels gain traction as an affordable way to cut electricity bills

'You don't know what it's like till you lose a parent': Sedaris siblings share their grief story

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

“Enshittification” YouTube

“Enshittification” Spotify

“Enshittification” SoundCloud (with a direct download)

Len (a.k.a. Funny Name)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The labor market has swung from the Great Resignation to “job hugging,” where workers cling to their roles out of fear of AI-driven layoffs and inflation, crushing engagement and accelerating burnout. At the same time, OpenAI is accused of suppressing research showing job losses, ignoring internal warnings about chatbot mental health risks, and bleeding safety staff, while state Attorneys General fire off an opening salvo likening unchecked AI harms to an opioid crisis-in-the-making.

The AI boom is now colliding with reality. Environmental groups want a halt on new datacenters as power prices spike, and the industry is starting to look financially radioactive, with opaque financing schemes, hidden debt, and trillion-dollar infrastructure bets that could vaporize household wealth. Regulators are pushing back too: the EU is fining X, probing Google over training data, and floating a statutory licensing scheme for AI scraping, while Disney dives in with a billion-dollar bet on “responsible” AI storytelling that mostly translates to fewer humans on payroll.

Meanwhile, everyday tech dystopia rolls on. Uber is monetizing your movement data, Instacart is quietly price-discriminating groceries, Waymo is spinning a robotaxi birth as a feel-good story, and crypto fraud finally earns real prison time. Add in AI-generated marketing slop, government sites hijacked by SEO porn, billion-dollar festival scams resurrected, and Congress kneecapping right-to-repair, and the takeaway is simple: the machines are hungry, the adults are absent, and the vibes are aggressively bad.

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SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/726

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eJbLlVhIQ-Y

FOLLOW UP

“Why ‘job hugging’ can be worse than quitting”

OpenAI Accused of Self-Censoring Research That Paints AI In a Bad Light

OpenAI, Anthropic, Others Receive Warning Letter from Dozens of State Attorneys General

IN THE NEWS

More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters

Something Ominous Is Happening in the AI Economy

OpenAI's house of cards seems primed to collapse

X shuts down the European Commission’s ad account the day after major fine

EU opens antitrust investigation into Google's AI practices

EU Report Distills AI-Training Lessons from Napster Piracy Era: Don’t Sue, License

Disney Invests $1 Billion in the AI Slopification of Its Brand

Uber will start selling trip and takeout data to marketers

Instacart Charging Customers Different Prices for Same Products, Study Finds

Waymo's robotaxi fleet is being recalled again, this time for failing to stop for school buses

Driverless delivery: Woman gives birth in San Francisco Waymo

Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison for $40 billion stablecoin fraud

Porn Is Being Injected Into Government Websites Via Malicious PDFs

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the Year

MEDIA CANDY

The American Revolution

What Happened at Billy McFarland’s PHNX Festival?

The Lord of the Rings trilogy returns to theaters in January for 25th anniversary

Amazon’s Official ‘Fallout’ Season 1 Recap Is AI Garbage Filled With Mistakes

Spartacus House of Ashur

The Boys - Final Season Teaser Trailer | Prime Video

Paradise Season 2 | Official Teaser | Hulu

Supergirl | Official Teaser Trailer

No Such Thing As a Fish - Ep612: No Such Thing As The Gordon Ramsay Songbook

WTF Happened To Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)?!

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | Official Trailer | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025)

Starfleet Academy - What Is This Garbage?

APPS & DOODADS

Google and Apple partner on better Android-iPhone switching

Congress removes right to repair language from 2026 defense bill

Glide Gear TMP 100 Teleprompter – DSLR, Tablet, Smartphone – 12" Glass, Carry Case, No Assembly

BetterDisplay Pro

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Splat HiFi

The History Behind All the Cuts of the Original ‘Star Wars’’

Rise of the Resistance | Layout Side By Side

BLUE MONDAY - Analyzing the MOST BRUTAL BEAT of the '80s | Drum Patterns Explained

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FOLLOW UP starts with the realization that Spotify Wrapped thinks we are 82 years old, which honestly feels accurate, followed by a massive shout out to Bama Bryan on Bluesky for listening to us for over 3,000 minutes. We look at the grim stats from the Department of Government Efficiency regarding USAID deaths, then move to IN THE NEWS where the KALSHI CEO wants to monetize "any difference in opinion" because gambling on the news is the future. PALANTIR CEO Alex Karp claims making war crimes constitutional is bad for business, META STARTS KICKING AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN OFF their platforms to avoid fines, and TETHER gets a "weak" rating while U.S. BANK calls the ability to freeze stablecoins "appealing." We discuss the LEAK CONFIRMS OPENAI IS PREPARING ADS for ChatGPT while SAM ALTMAN DECLARES 'CODE RED' to catch up to Google. Speaking of which, ONE OF GOOGLE'S BIGGEST AI ADVANTAGES IS WHAT IT ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT YOU, even if GOOGLE DISCOVER IS TESTING AI-GENERATED HEADLINES that are complete lies. We cover how GROK WOULD PREFER A SECOND HOLOCAUST OVER HARMING ELON MUSK, the US PATENT OFFICE ruling on generative AI, a new report on DAVID SACKS profiting from his administration role, and INSTACART SUES NEW YORK CITY because paying workers a living wage is apparently unconstitutional. We wrap up the news with the HUMAN ROBOT HYPE SCARING CHINA, a sad story where CHILDREN SOB AS WAYMO RUNS OVER DOG, a video showing a WAYMO SELF-DRIVING TAXI TAKES PASSENGER THROUGH ACTIVE POLICE SCENE, and the fact that PASSENGERS FACE DISRUPTION AS AIRBUS UPDATES THOUSANDS OF PLANES due to solar flares.

In MEDIA CANDY, the industry is shaking because NETFLIX BUYS WARNER BROS. FOR $82 BILLION, meaning they now own everything from Harry Potter to Batman. We look at upcoming releases including WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY, FALLOUT SEASON 2, ROMCON: WHO THE F**K IS JASON PORTER?, SEAN COMBS: THE RECKONING, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, and A MAN ON THE INSIDE. Moving to APPS & DOODADS, we discuss the pure joy of uninstalling DROPBOX, our collective hatred for FUCK CENTER STAGE, and the report that APPLE EMPLOYEES ARE 'GIDDY' ABOUT ALAN DYE'S DEPARTURE. We also cover the horror show where GOOGLE'S AGENTIC AI WIPES USER'S ENTIRE HDD without permission, a study showing YOUR GLITCHY VIDEO CALLS MAY MAKE PEOPLE MISTRUST YOU, and how SCIENTISTS CREATED THE BLACKEST FABRIC EVER.

Finally, in THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, we learn that CLAUDIA BLACK EXITS ‘AHSOKA’ SEASON 2 over pay disputes because Disney is apparently broke, we scrutinize LEAKED CLIPS FROM THE RUMORED 50TH ANNIVERSARY RERELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF STAR WARS (still no R2D2), check out a STORMTROOPER SUIT ON FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE, and mention THE MAD MEN 4K release.

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Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/4IRVvpdJC30

Show notes at https://gog.show/725

FOLLOW UP

Kalshi CEO Says He Wants to Monetize ‘Any Difference in Opinion’

Palantir CEO Says Making War Crimes Constitutional Would Be Good for Business

Meta starts kicking Australian children off Instagram and Facebook

Meta reportedly plans to slash Metaverse budget by up to 30%

IN THE NEWS

Crypto’s Most Trusted Stablecoin Given Lowest Possible ‘Weak’ Rating By Major TradFi Agency

U.S. Bank Calls Ability to Freeze Stablecoins ‘Appealing’ as Crypto Has Completely Lost the Plot

Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declares 'code red' as ChatGPT competition mounts

One of Google's biggest AI advantages is what it already knows about you

Google Discover is testing AI-generated headlines and they aren't good

Grok would prefer a second Holocaust over harming Elon Musk

US patent office says generative AI is equivalent to other tools in inventors' belts

The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI

New report examines how David Sacks might profit from Trump administration role

Instacart sues New York City over minimum pay, tipping laws

Humanoid Robot Hype Is Officially Scaring China

Children Sob as Waymo Runs Over Dog

Waymo self-driving taxi takes passenger through active police scene in downtown LA, video shows

Passengers face disruption as Airbus updates thousands of planes

MEDIA CANDY

Netflix Buys Warner Bros. for $82 Billion

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Fallout Season 2 on Prime Video

ROMCON: Who The F**k is Jason Porter? - Season 1

Sean Combs: The Reckoning

The Long Kiss Goodnight

The American Revolution

A Man On the Inside

APPS & DOODADS

Gruber: Apple employees 'giddy' about Alan Dye’s departure

Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure

Your glitchy video calls may make people mistrust you

Scientists Created the Blackest Fabric Ever, Then Made a Dress

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Claudia Black Exits ‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Over Alleged Pay Disputes

Leaked clips from the rumored 50th anniversary rerelease of the original version of Star Wars

The Mad Men 4K on HBO debacle

William Shatner - Good King Wenceslas

AI boom kills Crucial as Micron shuts down consumer brand

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Steve Cropper, guitarist for Booker T. & the MG's, Otis Redding, the Blues Brothers and many more, has died. He was 84.

STAX: Soulsville, USA.

'Mortal Kombat' Star Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Dead at 75

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After surviving Thanksgiving and the subsequent biting cold, we jumped into the FOLLOW UP with news that Malaysia is joining the trend by taking steps to ban social media for children under 16, mirroring similar actions in Australia and Denmark—it seems the world is finally realizing the internet is a toxic wasteland for the kids. We also discussed Apple’s photo AI, which is apparently still in beta, if the results are anything to go by. The bulk of our discussion centered on the spectacular, flaming death of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is Officially Dead. We broke down a brief rundown of the damages this vanity project caused, from humanitarian disasters overseas to administrative chaos and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs domestically, proving the "savings" were pure illusion. Now, with the collapse, the 'Suddenly exposed' DOGE employees fear prosecution after Musk abandoned them, learning the hard way that billionaire guardianship has an expiration date.

The job market is just great, with both Apple laying off part of its sales team despite record revenue, and HP joining the List of Tech Companies Cutting Jobs and pointing to AI as the convenient scapegoat for laying off 10% of their workforce. Meanwhile, we found out the most popular social media platform among US adults isn't Instagram or TikTok—it’s YouTube—while Meta allegedly buried research showing its products are harming users, confirming what we’ve known all along: they’re evil, but they already got your grandma hooked. Adding to the misery, An Alarming Number of Teens Say They Turn To AI For Company, Study Finds, because why talk to a real, messy human when a bot can gaslight you more efficiently? Sam Altman's financial troubles are spilling over, with Sam Altman’s Business Buddies Are Getting Stung (sorry, SoftBank and Oracle), and analysts estimate OpenAI Is Just $200 Billion Away From Still Losing Money, HSBC Says, a comical hole they plan to fill by asking for more free money. Legally, OpenAI can’t use the Word ‘Cameo’ in Sora now, thanks to a trademark suit, and Warner Music is playing both sides by dropping its lawsuit against Suno in exchange for a licensing agreement. Finally, in some truly dark news, a Marc Andreessen-backed Super-PAC Pours Millions Into Fighting State AI Regulations, and X's new location feature reveals that New X Feature Reveals Many MAGA Patriots on X Are Not Even Based in the U.S.

After ranting about my misery dealing with the Open Dialogue bug in a beta build and declaring my return to "pedestrian releases," we got into APPS & DOODADS. Spotify is actually doing something cool with its new SongDNA feature, which shows you who sampled what (and they bought WhoSampled to do it). They’re also testing Spotify's New AI-powered audiobook Recaps to remind you where you left off—Amazon is doing the same with AI-powered series Recap Videos for Prime Video. Amazon is also rolling out Alexa Home Theater surround sound for Echo speakers, making those budget speakers slightly more useful. We ran through some great stocking stuffers in Jason’s Holiday Gift Guide, including Velcro cable ties and the Contigo travel mug, before moving on to MEDIA CANDY, which included Dan Carlin's Common Sense, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk’s new podcast Once We Were Spacemen, and a discussion on why Stranger Things Lost the Plot. We then got deeply uncomfortable talking about a Toronto ASMR spa that offers doctor roleplay, and closed out by talking about the documentary Quiet Please… about the neurological disorder misophonia. The episode finished with the AT THE LIBRARY segment, covering the Milli Vanilli memoir You Know It’s True and the sci-fi short story collection The Time Travelers Passport.

Show notes at https://gog.show/724

Watch now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PoMa9FM5QEE?si=4r25yqv_0u8aXHF7

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1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

FOLLOW UP

Malaysia takes steps to ban social media for children under 16

IN THE NEWS

DOGE Is Officially Dead

'Suddenly exposed' DOGE employees fear prosecution after Musk abandoned them: report

Apple lays off part of its sales team

HP Joins List of Tech Companies Cutting Jobs and Pointing to AI

The most popular social media platform among US adults isn't Instagram or TikTok

Meta allegedly buried research showing its products are harming users

An Alarming Number of Teens Say They Turn To AI For Company, Study Finds

Sam Altman’s Business Buddies Are Getting Stung

OpenAI Is Just $200 Billion Away From Still Losing Money, HSBC Says

OpenAI Can’t Legally Use the Word ‘Cameo’ in Sora Now

Warner Music drops lawsuit against AI music platform Suno in exchange for licensing agreement

Marc Andreessen-Backed Super-PAC Pours Millions Into Fighting State AI Regulations

New X Feature Reveals Many MAGA Patriots on X Are Not Even Based in The U.S.

MEDIA CANDY

Common Sense 325 – Who’s the Boss?

Once We Were Spacemen

How Stranger Things Lost the Plot

Being Eddie

The Beast in Me

The Roses

At Toronto’s new ASMR spa, sensory stimulation slips out of the internet and into real life

Quiet Please…

APPS & DOODADS

Spotify's SongDNA feature will show you which songs are sampled on a track

Making of "The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up" in Ableton by Jim Pavloff

Spotify's New AI-Powered Audiobook Recaps Will Remind You Where You Left Off

Amazon Launches AI-Powered Series Recap Videos

Alexa Home Theater surround sound for Echo speakers is rolling out now

Dashaun No Sadè - Episode 13 Durand Bernarr

Guermok Video Capture Card, 4K USB3.0 HDMI to USB C Capture Card for Streaming, 1080P 60FPS, Compatible with iPad Mac OS Windows, Quest 3, OBS, PS5/4, Switch2/1, Xbox, Camera (Silver)

Meike 35mm F2.0 Auto Focus Full Frame STM Stepping Motor Lens Compatible with Nikon Z Mount Cameras

OBS Studio

Rogue Amoeba Loopback

Scientists Reveal What Black Friday Is Doing to Your Brain

VELCRO Brand 150pk Cable Ties Value Pack, 8in | Stocking Stuffer Gifts for Tech Lovers | For Wire Management and Cord Organizer | Replace Zip Ties with Reusable Straps, Reduce Waste

Hand Holder Strap for ipad, Tablet Hand Holder Strap, Universal Handle Grip for iPad Kindle, Mini Tablets and Cases (Black)

Anker USB C Hub, 7-in-1 Multi-Port USB Adapter for Laptops, 4K@60Hz USB C to HDMI Splitter, 85W Max Power Delivery, 3xUSBA & C 3.0 Data Ports, SD/TF Card, for Type C Devices

Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug with Easy-Clean Lid 20 oz

Scotty Peeler Label and Sticker Remover - Single Metal Peeler -SP2

Slipdrive - Portable Hard Drive Sleeve for Laptop - HDD Hard Disk Drive - Reusable Adhesive - 5.5” x 4.5” Stick on External Hard Drive Carrying Case - Travel Pocket Pouch (Large, Black)

Slipdrive - Portable Hard Drive Sleeve for Laptop - SSD Solid State Drive - Reusable Adhesive - Stick on External Hard Drive Carrying Case - Pocket Pouch (Small, Black)

Carlashes 1001UB Classic Black

AT THE LIBRARY

You Know It’s True - The Real Story of Milli Vanilli

The Time Travelers Passport

The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga

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We open by tracking our video money and mocking the chef who quit Elon’s "epic" bacon diner, before diving into the IN THE NEWS segment where plummeting crypto and Nvidia stocks confirm everything is a sham; we cover Bezos’s new $6.2 billion AI flop, a sleeping Tesla Robotaxi driver, and why OpenAI’s new school tools are a Recipe for Idiocracy with students who can't read; in MEDIA CANDY, we tear apart Disney's lazy Moana remake; THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE we discuss Zork going open source and why movies just don’t feel real anymore before CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS where we are mourning Mani from the Stone Roses, and wishing Bjork a very metal 60th.

We start with a FOLLOW UP on our channel’s performance, wading through the garbage pile of Monetization questions and Stats, including the scourge of Shorts—because apparently, that's what we do now. Speaking of people running from trouble, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is ditching his OpenAI board seat after a fresh batch of cringey Jeffrey Epstein emails surfaced. Meanwhile, the financial world is having a meltdown: Nvidia’s Stock is Falling Again after its earnings report, exposing the fact that almost Yet Another Study Shows That Most Companies Aren’t Making Any Money Off AI, and Bitcoin is Getting Absolutely Crushed Right Now, which we happily remind you will Trigger the Next Financial Crisis. Don't worry, Jeff Bezos will head a new engineering-focused AI startup because the world clearly needs more tech billionaires throwing money at things they don't understand, while Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook.

The tech-bro corruption parade continues as a former DOJ official points out that Trump’s Crypto Pardon of the Binance co-founder is exactly what it looks like, and Elon's pet AI, Grok Insists That Elon Musk Is More Physically Fit Than LeBron James and better at everything else, proving the bot has been sampling its boss's Adderall. Even though ChatGPT Achieves a New Level of Intelligence by finally letting you disable its em-dash addiction, companies like Intuit are integrating its tax and accounting products with ChatGPT—because who doesn't want an AI-powered tax audit? This all dovetails nicely with the news that OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Teachers’ right as students’ math skills hit a low, leading to a literal Recipe for Idiocracy where elite college students Can’t Read Books. The whole thing is broken, including Tesla’s so-called Robotaxi, where a Passenger Alarmed When Tesla Robotaxi “Safety” Driver Falls Completely Asleep at the Wheel. On a lighter note, we check out the new trailers for The Witcher S4, Frankenstein, and Project Hail Mary in MEDIA CANDY, and tear apart the absolutely unnecessary live-action Moana teaser, before mentioning the biggest drama launch on Apple TV, Pluribus.

Next up is THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, where our tireless security guru Dave Bittner throws in some random facts, like Microsoft making Zork I, II, and III open source and videos on why the iOS Keyboard is Broken and Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real” Anymore, and we discuss Thanksgiving plans. Finally, in CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS, we end with a shout-out to our generous PATREON supporters and PAYPAL/STRIPE donors, mourn the passing of Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Mani, and wish the incomparable Bjork a milestone 60th birthday.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tWM83ra7Qp8

Sponsors:

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/723

FOLLOW UP

Tesla Diner Chef and Co-Operator Quits to Open a Jewish Deli

Larry Summers leaves OpenAI board, Harvard instructor role as scrutiny over Epstein emails intensifies

IN THE NEWS

Oops! Nvidia’s Stock Is Falling Again After Its “Blowout” Earnings Report

Bitcoin Is Getting Absolutely Crushed Right Now

How Crypto Could Trigger the Next Financial Crisis

Jeff Bezos will head a new engineering-focused AI startup called Project Prometheus

Yet Another Study Shows That Most Companies Aren’t Making Any Money Off AI

Passenger Alarmed When Tesla Robotaxi “Safety” Driver Falls Completely Asleep at the Wheel

Meta wins antitrust trial as judge denies that it's a monopoly

Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook as early as next year

Former DOJ Official: Trump’s Crypto Pardon Is Unprecedented Corruption

ChatGPT Achieves a New Level of Intelligence: Not Using the Em Dash

Grok Insists That Elon Musk Is More Physically Fit Than LeBron James

11 Things Grok Says Elon Musk Does Better Than Anyone

Intuit is integrating its tax and accounting products with ChatGPT

OpenAI Introduces ‘ChatGPT for Teachers’ to Further Destroy the Minds of Our Youth

‘A Recipe for Idiocracy’

The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books

Pornhub Begs Tech Giants to Verify User Ages on Their Device: Report

London thieves gave stolen phones back when they weren’t iPhones

MEDIA CANDY

The Witcher S4

Frankenstein

Pluribus is Apple TV's biggest drama series launch ever

Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2

Mr. Scorsese

The American Revolution

Moana | Official Teaser

Project Hail Mary | Official Trailer 2

Goo Goo Dolls: NPR Tiny Desk Concert

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

RIHC: Disney’s Legacy, with Bob Iger

Microsoft makes Zork I, II, and III open source under MIT License

It's Not Just You - The iOS Keyboard is Broken

Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real" Anymore

The greatest space battle in Cinema history, and my personal favorite VFX shot. @ 7:07

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Mani dies at 63

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.