This Week in Tech (Audio)

• Big Tech Backed Trump for Acceleration. They Got a Decel President Instead
• Trump delays TikTok ban again
• Amazon Said to Make a Bid to Buy TikTok in the U.S.
• China is Already Testing AI-Powered Humanoid Robots in Factories - Slashdot
• Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots
• Starliner's flight to the space station was far wilder than most of us thought
• With new contracts, SpaceX will become the US military's top launch provider
• Eric Raymond, John Carmack Mourn Death of 'Bufferbloat' Fighter Dave Taut

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm

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Leaked Signal group chat, xAI x X merger, Studio ChatGhibli-T

• Hayao Miyazaki's AI Nightmare
• Studio Ghibli has few legal options to stop OpenAI from ripping off its style
• No elephants: Breakthroughs in image generation
• Okay, I'm Starting to Think AI Can Do My Job After All
• Clearly we're talking about the WH Signal Leak
• Is it safe to travel with your phone right now?
• Musk shuffles $80 billion in assets, reshapes gov't — just another week at the office
• 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy and CEO Anne Wojcicki has stepped down
• Replit CEO Amjad Masad says learning to code is a waste of time, citing Dario Amodei's prediction that AI may generate essentially all code by next year
• As AI Takes His Readers, A Leading History Publisher Wonders What's Next
• Madison Square Garden's surveillance system banned this fan over his T-shirt design
• China bans facial recognition without consent; where's US law on this?
• Google's new experimental AI model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, is now available to free users too

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Alex Kantrowitz, Iain Thomson, and Jacob Ward

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• Intel's new CEO to host Vision 2025 Opening Keynote on March 31st
• Apple Can't Beat Spotify
• Google says its test removing European news content for 1% of users in eight EU countries found that there was no change to Search ad revenue due to the removal
• Democratic Senators Team Up With MAGA To Hand Trump A Censorship Machine
• Vance Expects Outlines of TikTok Deal to Become Clear by Early April
• Telegram's Pavel Durov, Charged With Range of Crimes, Is Allowed to Leave France
• Alphabet's Starlink competitor Taara is spinning off into an independent company
• Commerce Official Gives Elon Musk Middle Finger Over Starlink
• Facial Recognition Company Clearview Attempted to Buy Social Security Numbers and Mugshots for its Database
• Scientists Achieve Record-Breaking Fusion Stability, Bringing Us One Step Closer to Clean Infinite Energy
• Police Warn iPhone, Android Users As Dangerous Texts Soar 600%
• Do school phone bans actually work? A new study says not really
• Klarna's deal with DoorDash is a dystopian reminder that groceries are so expensive you need a loan to shop

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Harry McCracken, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, and Patrick Beja

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The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics

• An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected
• DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags
• Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG.
• Intel has a new CEO
• Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi
• Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games
• Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie
• Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090
• Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic
• Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination
• TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app
• F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries
• Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges
• Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot
• Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28
• Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent

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• 'Spring forward' no more: Trump and Musk want to end Daylight Saving Time changes. Here's what health experts say
• The $100 Trillion Disruption: The Unforeseen Economic Earthquake
• Apple Is Delaying the 'More Personalized Siri' Apple Intelligence Features
• An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time
• Digg is getting another revival, this time with an injection of AI
• The Weird and Wacky Gadgets We Saw at MWC 2025
• AMD finally has a decent NVIDIA killer with the Radeon 9070 + 9070 XT
• Sources: there haven't been negotiations between ByteDance and prospective TikTok US buyers, amid confusion over who's leading Trump administration negotiations
• Crony Crypto Capitalism
• Utah Passes First US App Store Age Verification Law
• The modern era of low-flying satellites may begin this week
• YouTube Premium and Music Surpass 125 Million Subscribers
• America's Justice Department Still Wants Google to Sell Chrome
• Remembering 'Space Ghost' Voice Actor George Lowe

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Mike Elgan, and Louis Maresca

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• Amazon Alexa event live blog: all the news from the keynote
• Amazon announces AI-powered Alexa Plus
• An in-depth look at Apple's AI crisis, as some in Apple's AI division believe that a true conversational "LLM Siri" won't be ready until iOS 20 at best in 2027
• Google's co-founder tells AI staff to stop "building nanny products
• 'I want him to be prepared': why parents are teaching their gen Alpha kids to use AI
• Skype is shutting down after two decades
• Researchers accuse North Korea of $1.4 billion Bybit crypto heist
• House Democrats take aim at $TRUMP crypto meme coin
• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggests UK broke agreement in secretly asking
• Apple to build iCloud backdoor
• Biden Justice Department downplayed U.K. demand for Apple 'back door'
• "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cybercommand to "stand down" on Russia
• Meta Apologizes for Error That Flooded Instagram With Violent Content
• YouTube Says It Now Has More Than 1 Billion Monthly Viewers of Podcast Content
• 'The Brutalist' Director Brady Corbet Responds to AI Backlash
• Netflix is building an anti-Disneyland
• An small microbial ecosystem has formed on the International Space Station
• All 50 States Have Now Introduced Right to Repair Legislation

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Emily Forlini, Doc Rock, and Janko Roettgers

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• Over $1.4 billion taken from Bybit crypto exchange
• Apple Removes Cloud Encryption Feature From UK After Backdoor Order
• iOS18.4 Beta adds priority notifications, support for robot vacs in Apple Home, but no smarter siri
• Amazon's revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event
• OpenAI now serves 400M users every week
• The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom
• Amazon Appstore for Android is shutting down in August
• Spotify is making it easier to release audiobooks narrated by AI
• California privacy regulator seeks to fine Florida data broker after huge breach of Social Security numbers
• Donald Trump Is Turning CISA Into The Embodiment Of His Election Conspiracy Theories
• Asus Continues Fragrant Device Trend With an Aromatic Mouse - Slashdot
• iPhone 16E: all the news on Apple's new $599 phone
• Smart ring tracks health, fitness data with long battery life

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, Abrar Al-Heeti, and Larry Magid

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• TikTok is back on the App Store and the Play Store in the U.S.
• Elon Musk's DOGE Website Is Already Getting Hacked
• IRS Acquiring Nvidia Supercomputer
• Elon's bid for OpenAI is about making the for-profit transition as painful as possible for Altman,
• Intel has spoken with the Trump administration and TSMC over the past few months about a deal for TSMC to take control of Intel's foundry business
• Broadcom Joins TSMC In Considering Deals For Parts of Intel
• Arm to start making server CPUs in-house
• Thomson Reuters wins the first major US AI copyright ruling against fair use, in a case filed in May 2020 against legal research AI startup Ross Intelligence
• Perplexity just made AI research crazy cheap—what that means for the industry
• YouTube Surprise: CEO Says TV Overtakes Mobile as "Primary Device" for Viewing
• Google Maps now shows the 'Gulf of America'
• Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral
• Google CEO Sees 'Useful' Quantum Computers 5 to 10 Years Away
• Trump says he has directed US Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing rising cost
• Nearly 10 years after Data and Goliath, Bruce Schneier says: Privacy's still screwed
• Amazon's revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event
• Meta's Brain-to-Text AI

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Wesley Faulkner, Iain Thomson, and Brian McCullough

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• UK orders Apple to give it access to encrypted cloud data
• Google rolls back DEI efforts, including hiring goals
• Brits Want to Ban 'Smarter Than Human' AI
• Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl 'Trades' Pit State Regulators Against Feds
• Google pulls incorrect Gouda stat from its AI Super Bowl ad
• "Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right": Meta emails unsealed
• Amazon's AI revamp of Alexa assistant nears unveiling
• Google starts testing new Search 'AI Mode' internally – Here's an early look at it
• In Upholding The TikTok Ban, SCOTUS Compromises, And With It The First Amendment
• TikTok advises Android users in the US to sideload the app
• In Other SCOTUS First Amendment News, It Also Just Heard Oral Argument Over Yet Another Texas Law Censoring The Internet
• Teen on Musk's DOGE Team Graduated from 'The Com'
• CISA staffers offered deferred resignations, extending broader cybersecurity fears
• Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff 'AI-First' Is the Future of Key Government Agency
• German civil activists win victory in election case against Musk's X
• Trump Ends Legal Challenge Over Twitter Ban After Jan. 6 Riot
• Crypto-stealing apps found in Apple App Store for the first time
• Apple's Long-Awaited Overhaul of iPhone SE Nears Release
• Former iOS engineer sued by Apple issues apology as lawsuit is dismissed
• PS5 sales more than twice Xbox Series X/S reveals Take-Two by accident

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Daniel Rubino, Cathy Gellis, and Lisa Schmeiser

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• Takeaways From a Monumental Week for AI
• Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the 'wrong side of history' concerning open source | TechCrunch
• DeepSeek's AI success is overshadowed by a serious security breac
• AI systems with 'unacceptable risk' are now banned in the EU | TechCrunch
• OpenAI partners with U.S. National Laboratories on scientific research, nuclear weapons security
• The NTSB chooses Elon Musk's X to update the press on plane crashes
• OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest 'reasoning' model | TechCrunch
• Rabbit R1 and Pebble
• Apple's AI and AR Struggles Show It Has Lost Some of Its Product Edge
• Elon Musk's X begins its push into financial services with Visa deal
• Elon Musk's X sues Lego, Nestlé and more brands, accusing them of advertising boycott
• Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday
• Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems
• Elon Musk seizes computer system, locks out senior government officials
• Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to 'Gulf of America' in Maps app after government updates
• Comcast unveils ultra-low lag Internet connection
• 23andMe might sell itself as it runs out of money
• Streaming prices climb in 2025 after already surpassing inflation rates
• Super Bowl Sundays are really noisy everywhere in the US

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Shoshana Weissmann, Christina Warren, and Dan Patterson

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