The Big Tech Show

As the warm weather starts to wane and our days of consistent sunshine look numbered, chances are you’ll check your phone’s weather app to find out what’s next in store. But not all weather apps are created equal: some look fantastic and operate beautifully while others offer clunkier UX but reliable reports.

Alan O'Reilly, creator of the enormously popular Carlow Weather social media accounts, joins Adrian Weckler to discuss what app we should all be using, how AI is changing the landscape of meteorology and some surprising trends from the intersection of weather and technology.

Host: Adrian Weckler | Guest: Alan O'Reilly (Carlow Weather)

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With mixed reports on how likely another heatwave might be, now might be the time to invest in the right tech to keep your home cool in summer. Adrian Weckler gives Dee Reddy the lowdown on how to keep the heat down.

Plus: As OpenAI's latest agent goes rogue, we look at how Ireland is bucking the trend with new AI job creation and how and the Papal prayer app committed a cardinal data sin.

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Adrian recently climbed into a taxi in California and found nobody behind the wheel. It was a fully autonomous Waymo. So how far is Ireland from seeing the same thing on our roads?

Barry Lunn, founder and CEO of Provizio, explains why self-driving technology is improving fast, why safety matters more than speed, and why Europe is taking a different path from the US. They also discuss Tesla, AI, regulation and whether driverless cars are closer than most people think.

https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html

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Electric car sales are climbing but owning one is becoming more complicated. Public charging prices have surged, grants are changing, and thousands of people living in terraced homes still cannot easily charge outside their own front door.

Adrian Weckler is joined by Mark Noble, broadcaster and creator of the Nobby On Cars YouTube channel, to discuss why charging costs are rising, whether government policy is keeping pace with demand, and what needs to change before electric cars become a realistic option for everyone in Ireland.

https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html

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Electric scooters were once seen as the future of urban transport, but growing safety concerns are changing the conversation.

On this episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler is joined by former Fine Gael TD Noel Rock to discuss whether electric scooters have become too dangerous for Irish roads. They examine rising injury numbers, gaps in enforcement, why existing rules are failing, and whether tighter regulation is enough or if Ireland should consider banning them altogether.

https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html

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The United States has ordered Anthropic to restrict access to its most advanced AI model and is now urging other leading developers to give the government early access to new systems before they are released. Is this sensible national security or the beginning of state control over artificial intelligence? Adrian Weckler speaks to William Fry partner Barry Scannell about why the most powerful AI models are causing alarm, whether America now has an AI kill switch and what it could mean for Europe, businesses and the future of technology.

https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html

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Who is Mark Zuckerberg really? Is he the awkward, robotic tech billionaire seen in public, or something very different behind closed doors?

Sheera Frenkel, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and co-author of the bestselling An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, joins Adrian to examine the Meta chief's personality, upbringing and leadership style.

From his privileged childhood and early coding obsession to Facebook's move fast culture, Zuckerberg's rise is a story of relentless ambition, fierce control and extraordinary resilience.

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The week on The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler, speaks with Jim Browning, the Northern Ireland based digital investigator known for exposing global scam operations. With millions of YouTube subscribers, Browning explains how he infiltrates scam call centres by gaining access to their systems and turning their own tactics against them.

He describes how scammers trick victims into handing over banking access, and how his work helps identify offenders and alert authorities. Browning also discusses the ethical challenge of watching scams in real time while deciding when to intervene to protect potential victims and support law enforcement action.

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• The uncomfortable truth about banning under 16s from social media

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Should Ireland follow the UK and ban social media for under 16s? Adrian is joined by JJ Clarke to examine why many child safety experts argue that bans do not work and may even create new risks for young people online.

The discussion looks at Ireland's plans for age verification, the challenge of enforcing existing rules, and why regulators in Brussels are increasingly focused on forcing platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to change algorithms that drive addictive content.

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Will Apple users in Europe miss out on the company's biggest AI upgrade yet? And what does the growing dispute between Apple and the European Commission mean for consumers?

Adrian Weckler spoke to Ben Wood at FDM CCS Insight, from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in California.

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The discussion focused on Siri AI, Apple's new deeply integrated artificial intelligence platform, and why many of its headline features may not be available on iPhones and iPads in the European Union. Wood explained how Apple's privacy first approach is clashing with EU competition rules, leaving consumers caught in the middle of an increasingly tense regulatory battle.

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