Grumpy Old Geeks
Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister
<p>A no-holds-barred show about the Internet and how it's affecting our lives for good or bad. Hosts Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister have over 40 years of online experience and aren't afraid to tell it like it is. </p>
- 1 hour 4 minutes737: Monetizable Content
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).
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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
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
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
DAREDEVIL: Born Again Season 2 Official Teaser Trailer 2 (2026)
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie | Final Trailer
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
13 March 2026, 7:00 pm - 55 minutes 59 seconds736: People Aren’t People
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
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FOLLOW UP
Australia will consider requiring app stores to block AI services without age verification
A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator
IN THE NEWS
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
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
Meta hit with a class action lawsuit over smart glasses' privacy claims
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.
6 March 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 23 minutes735: We’re Walking on Sunshine
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.
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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
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
'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
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
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
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.
27 February 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 25 minutes734: A Bald Woody
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
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
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
The Mandalorian and Grogu | Official Trailer | In Theaters May 22
Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19
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.
20 February 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 24 minutes733: Predator Friendly Hunting Ground
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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1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password
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
IN THE NEWS
Unable to Reach Mars, Musk Does the Most Musk Thing Possible
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
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
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
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
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
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
Roger Reacts to Star Wars - A New Hope
Marcia Lucas Finally Speaks Out | Icons Unearthed: Unplugged (FULL INTERVIEW)
What’s wrong with the prequels?
CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS
Robert Tinney, who painted iconic Byte magazine covers, RIP
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
13 February 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 16 minutes732: We’re Not In the Files!
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.
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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
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
Neil Young gifts Greenland free access to his music and withdraws it from Amazon over Trump
APPS & DOODADS
Sennheiser Consumer Audio CX 80S In-ear Headphones with In-line One-Button Smart Remote – Black
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
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.
CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS
Catherine O’Hara: The Grande Dame of Off-Center Comedy
Standing with Sam 'Balloon Man' Martinez
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7 February 2026, 3:00 am - 1 hour 19 minutes731: I Want My 13 Trillion Dollars!
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.
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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
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
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
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
How to watch the 2026 Super Bowl: Patriots vs. Seahawks channel, where to stream and more
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
AirTag 2: Three tidbits you might have missed
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE
The Muppet Show | Official Trailer | Disney+
‘Looney Tunes’ Has Found a New Home: Turner Classic Movies
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
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
30 January 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 26 minutes730: Ethical Broads
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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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
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
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
101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die by Jet Tila
Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy: A Cookbook by Tieghan Gerard
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE
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
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23 January 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 24 minutes729: Alright Alright Alright™
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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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
The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1069: 2025 in Memoriam
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
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
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16 January 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 15 minutes728: No Face to Shoot
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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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
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
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
MTV Rewind is a developer's tribute to 24/7 music video channels
APPS & DOODADS
This speaker by Victrola sits underneath turntables and streams audio via Bluetooth
Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP)
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE
Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation
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.
9 January 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 21 minutes727: Merry Slopmas
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
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
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
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
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
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
Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real" Anymore
The Avatar Paradox - Why Nobody Talks About These Movies
Every James Cameron Movie, Explained by James Cameron | Vanity Fair
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CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS
“Enshittification” SoundCloud (with a direct download)
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