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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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

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

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

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

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