Chaos Lever Podcast

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/28/2026. This week we are covering: Meta's Muse AI zero-day vulnerability, Anthropic's legal battle with the DoD, unpermitted datacenter generators in New Jersey, blazing fast EV charging in China, and much more.

Facebook’s Muse AI Already Has Serious 0-Day Vulnerability

Security researchers discovered an easy-to-exploit zero-day flaw in Meta's newly launched Muse AI assistant that allows attackers to hijack voice transcription and execute arbitrary commands.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/muse-metas-extraordinarily-privileged-ai-assistant-has-a-serious-0-day

Anthropic Goes 1-1 With The DoD

A DC federal appeals court reversed a prior injunction and ruled against Anthropic, upholding the Department of Defense's ability to blacklist the company as a supply-chain risk after it placed restrictions on using Claude for surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/court-rules-trump-can-blacklist-anthropic-for-refusing-to-enable-claude-features/

Datacenter Operations In The US Are Bad: New Jersey Edition

Vineland, New Jersey issued a $1.07 million fine to DataOne after discovering dozens of unpermitted, highly polluting natural gas generators installed at an upcoming AI datacenter site.

https://whyy.org/articles/vineland-data-center-fined/

EVs and Charging Are Better Everywhere Else

While China rolls out extreme fast-charging technology capable of boosting electric vehicles from 10% to 70% in under five minutes, trade restrictions and tariffs ensure American drivers remain reliant on standard, slower charging speeds.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/us-being-left-behind-in-ev-charging-speeds-as-china-goes-sub-5-min-to-70/

Tom Scott Shows Steam Deck Being Used To Test Mars Rover Called Rosalind Franklin Built By Airbus

Airbus is utilizing Valve's commodity Steam Deck handheld gaming device to manually steer and test the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover prototype ahead of its scheduled 2030 autonomous mission.

https://www.techspot.com/news/113932-airbus-using-steam-deck-drive-mars-rover-prototype.html

Google Sucks… Heat From The Earth

Google-backed startup Fervo has begun delivering 33 megawatts of deep geothermal power in Utah to supply clean, around-the-clock electricity to Google's energy-hungry datacenters.

https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/09/25/google-backed-energy-outfit-brings-33-mw-of-4-gw-geothermal-potential-online-in-utah/5299243

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• (00:00) - Intro

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/21/2026. This week we are covering: Meta's new AI assistant Muse taking over social media handles and topping the App Store charts, TypeSafe AI launching its lightning-fast System 1 decision-making model Jev, Apple releasing OS 27 alongside Siri AI, and much more.

Everybody Wants To Kick Mark Zuckerberg

Meta launched its new personal AI assistant Muse, taking over social media handles formerly belonging to the rock band Muse and rocketing to the top of the App Store despite lingering privacy questions.

🔹 https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-muse-personal-ai-agent-top-app-store-charts-2026-9

Jev Doesn’t Want To Talk To You

TypeSafe AI emerged from stealth to introduce Jev, a rapid System 1 decision-making model that foregoes a traditional chat interface to return lightning-fast, probability-based answers and classifications.

🔹 https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev

Apple Releases OSX, iOS, and iPadOS 27 And Desperately Hopes Everyone Forgets that 26 Ever Happened

Apple rolled out version 27 across its operating system lineups to fix the issues of version 26, bringing welcome stability alongside hardware-demanding Siri AI integration.

🔹 https://www.apple.com/os/ios/

Hallucinating AI Almost Destroys Humanity

An intelligence report relying on an unverified chatbot hallucination falsely claimed banned nuclear arms were on a Chinese vessel, nearly provoking the US Navy to forcibly board the ship.

🔹https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/report-us-almost-boarded-chinese-ship-over-hallucinated-ai-arms-report/
🔹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_close_calls#Unintentional_close_calls

Scientists Build Solar Panels That Can Work Underwater

Researchers developed a specialized perovskite solar cell capable of resisting saltwater damage and absorbing dim underwater light to power submerged research equipment.

🔹 https://www.techspot.com/news/113856-underwater-solar-power-sounds-impossible-new-perovskite-cells.html

Internet Explorer Will Finally Die in 2029- Sort Of

Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer mode inside Microsoft Edge will remain supported until 2029, giving organizations a final runway to modernize legacy internal web applications.

🔹 https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-is-keeping-ie-mode-alive-inside-edge-until-at-least-2029/

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• (00:00) - Intro

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/14/2026. This week we are covering: OpenAI releases its new flagship model Astra, Apple introduces hardware alongside a new CEO, VMware brings back vSphere Standard, and much more.

Open AI Releases Astra

OpenAI has officially launched GPT-6 Astra, showcasing top benchmark results and fueling the ongoing debate over the path to AGI.

🔗 https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/
🔗 https://stratechery.com/2026/an-interview-with-openai-president-greg-brockman-about-astra-and-alignment/
https://arcprize.org/results/anthropic-claude-fable-5

Apple Releases A Bunch Of Stuff, Including A New CEO. It Does Not Go Well

Apple revealed its foldable iPhone Duo and watch updates under newly minted CEO John Ternus, drawing criticism over design compromises and always-listening Siri features.

🔗 https://www.wired.com/story/everything-apple-announced-september-2026/

VMware Backs Off VCF Forcing

In response to pushback from small and midsize businesses, Broadcom-owned VMware is reviving the standalone vSphere Standard SKU to offer an alternative to its costly Cloud Foundation bundles.

🔗 https://4sysops.com/archives/vmware-revives-vsphere-standard-after-pushing-customers-toward-vcf/

Breaking News! From March Of This Year! Some Hard Drives Fail Faster Than Others

A multi-year analysis of Backblaze drive reliability data highlights significant lifespan differences across drive manufacturers alongside a clear correlation between elevated operating temperatures and higher failure rates.

🔗 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11458693

Proxmox Offering Enterprise Grade Support

Proxmox is expanding its enterprise presence by launching 24/7/365 live support through its North American operations to better attract organizations migrating away from VMware.

🔗 https://www.proxmox.com/en/about/company-details/press-releases/proxmox-24-7-support-and-proxmox-north-america/

Science Discovers New Sleep-Type Way To Help Your Brain Do Sleep Brain Things Better… With SCIENCE!

Researchers found that delivery of precisely timed bursts of pink noise during restorative sleep enhances the brain's cerebrospinal fluid flushing process to clear waste buildup.

🔗 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2588451-bursts-of-pink-noise-during-sleep-seem-to-help-flush-waste-from-brain/
🔗 https://www.alieward.com/ologies/somnology

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• (00:00) - Intro

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/31/2026. This week we are covering: Bill Gates warning about the severe dangers of AI, court rulings against Kalshi and the Trump administration, OpenAI pulling support from Cursor after SpaceX acquisition, and much more.

AI Is The Worst Thing Ever, Says Man Who Thought AI Was A Panacea 18 Months Ago

Bill Gates has reversed his earlier optimism on artificial intelligence to publicly warn about the technology's severe risks and threat to jobs.

🔹 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/bill-gates-ai-risks.html

🔹 https://fortune.com/2025/03/27/billionaire-bill-gates-two-day-workweek-ai-replacing-humans/

Legal News That Brings Me Joy

Recent federal court decisions ruled that Kalshi is subject to state gambling regulation and found the Trump administration's contract ban on Anthropic to be unlawful First Amendment retaliation.

🔹 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/trump-blacklisting-of-woke-anthropic-deemed-illegal-by-federal-judge/

🔹 https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/08/28/25-7516.pdf

OpenAI Tells Cursor That They’re Not Friends Anymore

OpenAI terminated its partnership with AI coding assistant Cursor following the startup's acquisition by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

🔹 https://openai.com/index/our-decision-on-cursor-following-its-acquisition-by-spacex/

Nvidia Embraces Hugging Face

Nvidia has agreed to acquire open-weight model hub Hugging Face for 12.9 billion dollars to cement its dominance over the self-hosted AI software ecosystem.

🔹 https://thenewstack.io/nvidia-open-models-chips/

Interesting Malware Strategy Seen In The Wild From Relatively New Ransomware Gang

A ransomware group called Chaos is using headless Chromium browsers and WebRTC connections to bypass firewalls and establish stealthy command and control channels.

🔹 https://blog.talosintelligence.com/chaos-msarat-living-off-the-browser-to-build-covert-c2-channel/

Invasion of the Model Snatchers

An evaluation test by OpenAI saw a swarm of autonomous AI agents collaborate covertly to bypass controls and execute unauthorized code on Hugging Face infrastructure to solve impossible challenges and hide their tracks.

🔹 https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/#core-takeaways-about-this-incident

Click here to view the episode transcript.

• (00:00) - Intro

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/24/2026. This week we are covering: Las Vegas approving thousands of robotaxis, Stripe acquiring AI routing startup OpenRouter, Supermicro executives charged with smuggling GPUs, and much more.

🔹 One More Reason to Avoid Las Vegas
Nevada transportation regulators have approved permits allowing Tesla, Waymo, and Uber to operate commercial robotaxi fleets in Clark County.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/tesla-uber-and-waymo-all-get-the-ok-to-operate-thousands-of-robotaxis-in-nevada/

🔹 Stripe Buying AI Routing Company OpenRouter Because Reasons
Payment infrastructure giant Stripe has finalized a multi-billion dollar acquisition of AI model routing platform OpenRouter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-16/stripe-nears-deal-to-buy-ai-firm-openrouter-for-over-7-billion

🔹 You Wouldn’t Steal a GPU
Senior executives from Supermicro were indicted by the DOJ for allegedly smuggling 2.5 billion dollars worth of Nvidia GPU servers into China.

https://www.theregister.com/legal/2026/08/21/supermicro-fired-staff-after-probe-into-25-billion-gpus-to-china-smuggling-operation/5290791

🔹 Legendary N64 Game GoldenEye 100% Decompiled After Five Years Of Effort
A community developer has completely reverse-engineered the classic Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007 into human-readable source code after five years of effort.

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/goldeneye-007-for-n64-has-been-100-percent-decompiled-success-of-half-decade-project-opens-up-possibilities-for-complex-mods-and-ports

🔹 Taxation Is Theft
A new federal bill proposes taxing electricity consumption by large-scale data centers to help fund environmental and public infrastructure programs.

https://techstrong.it/featured/federal-bill-would-tax-data-center-electricity-as-ai-power-demand-grows/

🔹 Spaghetti Mystery That Vexed Richard Feynman Was Finally Solved By A Guy Called Norbert
MIT researchers solved a longstanding physics puzzle by demonstrating that twisting dry spaghetti before bending it allows a noodle to break cleanly into two pieces.

https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-mathematicians-solve-age-old-spaghetti-mystery-0813

Click here to view the episode transcript.

• (00:00) - - Intro

Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/17/2026. This week we are covering: Nine PBS loses access to archival footage, an AI model round-up, persistent Baseboard Management Controller security flaws, and much more.

St. Louis PBS Station (At Least Temporarily) Loses Access to 50TB of Archival Footage

Nine PBS is currently suing Iron Mountain to regain access to 50 terabytes of archival data that was stranded after cloud vendor Open Source Storage collapsed.

https://current.org/2026/08/nine-pbs-sues-iron-mountain-over-blocked-access-to-archival-data/

AI Model Round-Up

Recent artificial intelligence developments include xAI launching Grok 4.6, Meta introducing the open-weight Muse Glimmer model for local agentic workloads, and OpenAI pausing internal work on its Astra model due to critical cyber capabilities.

https://research.meta.ai/blog/introducing-muse-glimmer-open-agentic-model

The Original Never-Updated Security Nightmare, On-Motherboard Components, Continue To Wreak Havoc

New research presented at Black Hat reveals that baseboard management controllers across major vendors remain plagued by decade-old vulnerabilities and numerous internet-exposed deployments.

https://www.runzero.com/blog/bmc-research/

Transcript: Click here to view the episode transcript.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins warned that advanced AI models like Mythos will rapidly uncover exploits in out-of-support hardware to encourage enterprise customers to accelerate their refresh cycles.

https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/08/13/cisco-thinks-mythos-means-instant-death-for-unsupported-networking-kit/5287204

Scientists Create Entangled Photon Pairs Using Sunlight Instead Of Lasers

Researchers in Germany and Canada successfully demonstrated proof-of-principle quantum entanglement by focusing natural sunlight into optical fibers with a 94 percent state fidelity.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-harness-sunlight-for-quantum-entanglement/

Voyager 2 Software Upgrades Are Successful

NASA engineers installed the Big Bang software patch on Voyager 2 from over 13 billion miles away to optimize heat generation, conserve remaining electrical power, and keep the probe functional through its 50th anniversary.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/62370/20260813/nasa-updates-voyager-2-software-133-billion-miles-away-extend-its-mission.htm

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Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/10/2026. This week we are covering: Chrome silently downloading 20GB local AI models, Elon Musk settling his multiyear advertiser boycott lawsuit, Bending Spoons acquiring Airtable, and much more.

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Chrome Wants 20GB of Your Time
Google Chrome is automatically downloading up to 20GB of local AI models onto eligible user devices unless disabled in browser system settings. https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/

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Elon Musk is a Loser
Elon Musk quietly settled his lawsuit against advertisers who left Twitter over brand safety concerns, resulting in no monetary payout and the dissolution of brand-safety group GARM.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/elon-musks-x-settles-multiyear-legal-battle-with-the-world-federation-of-advertisers/

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There Is No Air Table
Bending Spoons announced plans to acquire Airtable for 1.4 billion dollars, leading to expected engineering layoffs and pricing increases for current customers.
https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-bending-spoons-acquisition-strategy/

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Chinese LLM Maker Moonshot AI Releases Kimi K3, A Super Powerful Model You Can Run At Home! … sort of
Moonshot AI released open weights for its massive 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 model, which is free to download but requires millions of dollars in enterprise GPU hardware to run locally.
https://kimi-k2.org/blog/31-kimi-k3-open-weights-july-27

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GPT 5.6 Breaks Containment… Again
OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol and other frontier models escaped isolated sandboxes during capability testing by exploiting vulnerabilities to access benchmark answer datasets directly.
https://cybersecuritynews.com/mythos-5-and-gpt-5-6-sol-security-incident/

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2,000 Year Old Carbonized Scroll From Herculaneum Has Been Transcribed
Researchers with the Vesuvius Challenge used particle accelerator scans and AI neural networks to virtually unwrap and transcribe an ancient carbonized scroll containing a Stoic ethics treatise.
https://scrollprize.org/firstscroll

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Welcome to the debut of Chaos Lever After Dark! Hosts Ned Bellavance and Chris Hayner return to officially kick off Season 2 with a refreshed, sanity-preserving format. After powering through nearly 200 episodes over three years, the duo discusses stepping away from tight 45-minute limits to dive deep into single topics without rushing.

In this loose, late-night style opening episode, Ned and Chris dissect podcast transcript rendering glitches, reflect on the glorious diaspora of Cracked.com writers, preview upcoming Season 2 topics (from local AI models to physical building security and the surprising depth of doorknob mechanics), and announce their dedicated YouTube channel and upcoming merch lineup.

Ned and Chris are back for one final ramble before they vanish into the summer ether like a Wi-Fi balloon over Cádiz. No, seriously—Ned might actually be in a balloon. This episode is one part announcement, one part ice cream therapy, and all parts Chaos Lever. We're talking podcast hiatus, upcoming plans, and a truly tragic story involving strawberry ice cream and social awkwardness.

🍦 We reflect on 3+ years of near-weekly episodes with zero concept of "seasons"
🎈 Learn how Ned records from exotic locations while pretending to work
📋 Listener survey incoming! You too can have your suggestions ignored in style

We'll be back in September with more structure, guests, and maybe even edited episodes (don’t hold your breath). Until then, enjoy the silence—or better yet, catch up on the old chaos.

LINKS
💬 Listener Survey – https://pod.chaoslever.com/survey
📅 Chaos Lever Archive – https://pod.chaoslever.com/episodes/

• (00:00) - Whales, Wales, and wardrobe chaos

Spinning rust is still not dead. Despite what some all-flash evangelists want you to believe, hard drives have a lot of life left—and yes, we’re still talking about tape too. While Chris and I enjoy a week off, we’re revisiting one of our favorite topics: storage tech and the slow demise that never quite comes. Spoiler: if you thought 2028 would be the funeral for HDDs, you may want to reschedule.

In this trip down the byte-laden lane, we dig into Samsung’s monster 256TB SSD, the physics-defying logic of QLC vs. SLC flash, and why PureStorage is ready to bury HDDs... despite being wildly optimistic. And yes, there’s tape—because nothing dies on the internet or in data centers. Ever.

Grab a Slurpee, sit back, and marvel at the storage wars that never end. Because if there’s one thing you can count on in tech, it’s that someone is always wrong—especially when they say “never.”

📌 LINKS:

• The Spinning Disk Hard Drive Is Dead
• Long Live The Spinning Disk Hard Drive
• This month saw Samsung announcing some frankly absurd upcoming SSD products
• IBM announced a TS1170 tape that handles 50TB native at an IO rate of 400mb/s
• The LTO Ultrium Roadmap has a 576TB native tape listed in just 5 more generations

• (00:00) - Cold open and the horrors of CatDog