759: Seeking Mrs. Claude

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Meta is facing a $1.4 trillion legal ass-whupping over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately engineered to be addictive and harmful to kids, while OpenAI appears to be doing the exact opposite of what you might expect from a company selling "safe" AI: reportedly sidelining its catastrophic-risk preparedness team just as its models are learning to go rogue. Then, in a move straight out of the "let’s have the robots write the laws" file, members of Congress are apparently using ChatGPT and Claude to draft legislation so badly that House lawyers have to clean up the mess, and some staffers aren't even learning the issues their bills are supposed to address. Meanwhile, Amazon may be dismantling physical books and scanning them into AI training datasets, because apparently the future of literature is being fed into a wood chipper.

And then there's the surveillance and privacy edition of Tech Hell™. Comcast can now turn compatible Wi-Fi routers into motion sensors that detect movement in your home through radio signals, Kalshi is getting smacked down by a Washington judge who says its sports contracts are just gambling wearing a tiny financial-services mustache, and Tesla is finally recalling 20,000 cars over headlights that have been too damn bright since 2024. Plus, the AI industry continues discovering that “autonomous” means “capable of doing something catastrophically stupid without asking permission.”

Elsewhere, we investigate why young people apparently trust AI CEOs about as much as Gen X trusted record-company executives, Peter Thiel gets a Gandalf-themed welcome in Argentina, and we dig into the increasingly uncomfortable intersection of AI, surveillance, pornography, politics, and billionaire bullshit. We also get into the mobile podcasting rig, Sonos finally remembers the iPhone has a Lock Screen, internet-connected pet feeders remind us why cats should never depend on the cloud. Media Candy brings Widow's Bay, Silo, Ted Lasso, It: Welcome to Derry, Kitchen Undercover and enough Spider-Man to make us all desperately crave something that doesn't involve a fucking multiverse.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/759

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/RMhCndozH-0

SHOW NOTES

Meta faces a $1.4 trillion reckoning in latest trial over social media addiction

Pornhub's Parent Company to Pay $120 Million to Settle Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

OpenAI reportedly disbanded its preparedness team as part of a 'streamlining' process

OpenAI denies disbanding its preparedness team

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, promising a more age-appropriate chatbot

Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It’s Almost Hard to Believe

AI-generated bills are reportedly causing problems in the Capitol

Protestors Dressed as Gandalf Demand Peter Thiel Leave Argentina, Go Back to the Abyss

Tesla Has to Fix 20,000 Vehicles With Too-Bright Headlights It’s Known About Since 2024

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

State Judge to Kalshi: Your Sports Betting Is Obviously Illegal

Dario Amodei’s Wife Is Closely Linked to Jeffrey Epstein

Comcast just turned millions of Xfinity routers into motion sensors

BONTEC Mobile Standing Desk, Pneumatic Lift, Rolling Laptop Cart

MOALLIA N86 360 Rotating Laptop Stand for Desk with Locking Knobs, Black

NEEWER Basics 7"" Desk Ring Light for Video Recording, 10W Dimmable, R06

TROND Desk Clamp Power Bar Surge Protector with PD 20W USB, 6 Outlets, 10ft

Sonos just launched Live Activities on iPhone

Internet-Connected Pet Feeders Go Down, Leaving Kitties Hungry

Widow’s Bay

Slow Horses — Season 6 Official Trailer | Apple TV

Kitchen Undercover

HBO Has Finally Made ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Season 2 Official

Certainty: A Novel by John Twelve Hawks

Lockstep by Karl Schroeder

A Gift of Time by Jerry Merritt

Silicon Valley Dreams of Authoritarianism

The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy by Gil Durán

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Northern Exposure

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