Tech News Time

It’s Pi Day, and while the world celebrates the most irrational number (besides crypto bros), we dive into a different kind of irrationality—the American oligarchy. Speaking of money, Deliveroo finally posted a profit, but their investors still had a hissy fit. Meanwhile, Americans lost a record-breaking $12.5 billion to scams last year, proving that AI, social media, and deepfake grandsons are really leveling up their grift game. The FCC is forming a Council for National Security, which sounds important until you realize it’s mostly about making sure China doesn’t win the AI arms race. And in the latest episode of “How Not to Run a Government,” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired cybersecurity experts like they were spam emails—until a judge called BS and ordered their reinstatement.

Y Combinator just turned 20, and what a legacy—turning gig work into corporate slavery, ruining housing with Airbnb, and ensuring OpenAI floods our lives with AI-generated junk. If that wasn’t enough tech doom, Pinterest wants to steal your content for its AI training, Twitter (sorry, X) went down due to sheer incompetence, and a developer got caught implanting a kill switch at his old job—because passive-aggressively slacking off wasn’t extreme enough. 

It's Pi Day. Here's Why This Special Number Gets a Global Celebration.

The Man Behind The American Oligarchy

Deliveroo turns first annual profit as it plots bigger grocery push

FTC says Americans lost $12.5B to scams last year — social media, AI, and crypto didn't help

Consumer Reports finds popular voice cloning tools lack safeguards

The FCC is creating a new Council for National Security within the agency

DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

Judge Calls DOGE Firings a ‘Sham,’ Orders Thousands of Workers to Be Reinstated ‘Immediately’

20 Plagues Y Combinator Unleashed on the World Over the Last 20 Years

‘We Are Witnessing a New Brain Drain’ as Scientists Flee America for France

Elon Musk claims bad actors in Ukraine are behind “massive“ X cyberattack

The Real Reason Twitter Went Down Actually Sounds Pretty Embarrassing

Developer convicted for “kill switch” code activated upon his termination

Pinterest to Train AI Models on User Content

U.S. Housing Agency Considers Launching Crypto Experiment

Waymo was slapped with nearly 600 parking tickets last year in SF alone

Are We Inside a Black Hole? Wonky Galaxy Movements Suggest It’s Possible, Physicist Says

 If you want more of this amazing goodness head over to https://gog.show/ and subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks podcast. If the news is enough then you may have the rest of the day off!

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Techdirt has finally accepted the inevitable and gone full democracy blog—because let’s face it, politics and tech are now the same dumpster fire. Google rolled out AI Mode for Search, proving once again that the internet is just Clippy with better branding. Meanwhile, Billy McFarland insists Fyre Festival 2 is totally happening, despite Mexican officials pointing out that his coordinates literally lead to the ocean. Speaking of fraud, Tesla sales are in freefall thanks to Elon’s alt-right cosplay, and people are setting Teslas on fire in protest. And in rich-guy disconnect news, Google’s Sergey Brin thinks engineers should work 60-hour weeks to build the AI that will replace them. That’s some late-stage capitalism poetry right there.

Elsewhere, Trump Media paid Don Jr. nearly a quarter of its revenue to show up twice, while indie musicians can’t afford to tour, proving once again that grifting is more profitable than making art. Technicolor shut down overnight, stranding 10,000 workers because Hollywood’s financial planning is apparently as stable as a Starship rocket launch. Oh yeah, SpaceX exploded another one.
 

Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)

Google announces ‘AI Mode’ as a new way to use Search, testing starts today

Government Officials for Announced Fyre Festival 2 Location Say Event “Does Not Exist”

‘I’m selling the Nazi mobile’: Tesla owners offload cars after Musk’s fascist-style salutes

Tesla Just Got Even More Bad News

Tesla Just Got News About Its Sales in Germany, and It Shows That Elon Musk Has Seriously Messed Up

Arsonists Set Fire to a Dozen Teslas, Charging Stations Amid "Anti-Capitalist Coordination to Target Tesla"

Google’s Sergey Brin Says Engineers Should Work 60-Hour Weeks in Office to Build AI That Could Replace Them

Ex-Amazon VP explains why rich a-holes with helicopters and personal assistants don't get why you hate your commute

Trump Media Paid Donald Trump Jr. Nearly A Quarter Of Its Annual Revenue. He Attended Just Two Board Meetings

Cinema Giant Technicolor's Abrupt Shutdown Affects 10,000 Workers Worldwide

US employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009

No part of Amazon is 'unaffected' by AI, says its head of AGI

ChatGPT doubled its weekly active users in under 6 months, thanks to new releases

Hugging Face's chief science officer worries AI is becoming 'yes-men on servers'

A well-funded Moscow-based global ‘news’ network has infected Western artificial intelligence tools worldwide with Russian propaganda

OnlyFans Model Amouranth Held at Gunpoint for Her Crypto in Home Invasion

Crypto Soars Then Plunges Following Trump’s Post About a Strategic Reserve

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile

Trump creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve one day ahead of White House crypto summit

CFPB drops Zelle lawsuit in latest reversal under Trump administration

Canadian Municpalities and the Canadian Supreme Court to stop using twitter.

Ontario once again promises to nix $100 million Starlink deal over Trump tariffs

OpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI 'agents'

Kevin Rose, Alexis Ohanian acquire Digg

Does the World Even Want Digg in 2025?

Scrolling Through Social Media Has a Unique Effect on Your Body

SpaceX's latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion

A second Intuitive Machines spacecraft just landed on the moon — and probably tipped over

Touch down on the moon with private Blue Ghost lander in this amazing video

 If you want more of this amazing goodness head over to https://gog.show/ and subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks podcast. If the news is enough then you may have the rest of the day off!

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