766: Skibidi!

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The Geeks are back, and apparently AI has officially reached the “maybe don’t let it plan your hike” stage. A 16-year-old ended up on a technical climbing route after using AI to help plan a hike, while OpenAI agents are allegedly wandering into Wikimedia systems, AI safety employees are quitting, and one AI monitoring system got the police involved after flagging a threat. Naturally, the proposed solution to all this is more AI. Because what could possibly go wrong? Meanwhile, OpenAI is trying to watermark AI-generated text, Google is watermarking AI-generated media, and everyone is pretending we can reliably tell whether a robot wrote something after a quick trip through Grammarly.

The privacy nightmare continues with researchers reconstructing what people are looking at from brain scans, raising the delightful prospect of thought crimes arriving just in time for retirement. Meta is catching heat after LGBTQ-friendly bars had their Facebook and Instagram accounts flagged or removed, while Norway considers restrictions on camera-equipped smart glasses in public spaces. Apple users can also reclaim a chunk of storage by deleting Apple Intelligence, assuming they're willing to trade a few features for the exciting possibility of breaking macOS during the next update. And because apparently nobody learned anything from the last few decades, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are teaming up on satellite connectivity—not out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, but because Starlink and Amazon are coming for their lunch money.

Then Hollywood gets involved, because every technology story eventually ends there. Paramount and Warner Bros. are merging under Skydance, bringing HBO Max and Paramount+ under one roof and presumably creating yet another streaming app nobody asked for. Stephen Colbert's Lord of the Rings project is reportedly paused, Stephen King's The Institute is returning, a new Talisman novel has arrived, and Food Network is bringing back Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking. Plus, the Geeks discuss their wildly male YouTube audience, speed-reading apps and Guy Fieri's culinary crimes. Technology, entertainment, surveillance, mind reading, and baked goods: another perfectly normal week.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/766

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/11y9DwqIxlw

SHOW NOTES

New Mexico wants Meta to pay $40 billion in penalties for Cambridge Analytica scandal

Teen Left Stranded on a Cliff After Letting AI Plan Hike

Lawmakers Introduce Multiple Laws to Curb Flock After 404 Media Coverage

Trump announces an AI czar for his newly created 'Super Intelligence Force'

Anthropic Reports User to the Police

Former OpenAI employee says AI should be regulated like nuclear power plants

OpenAI fires three employees who allegedly shared info with an external AI safety group

Wikimedia links OpenAI agents to an outage and unauthorized activity

OpenAI details new text watermarking system for ChatGPT, Codex, and the API

Google rolls out improved SynthID AI content detector, now available globally

Meta Is Kicking Gay Bars Off Its Apps While Allowing Videos of Graphic Child Abuse

New AI Can Figure Out What You’re Thinking About From a Brain Scan

This tool frees up Apple Intelligence storage on macOS, but think twice before using it

Norway Considers Most Drastic Smart Glasses Ban Yet

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have officially teamed up to end coverage gaps

ReadMe! (Spritz & BeeLine)

Soon-to-be merged Paramount and Warner Bros. will be known as Skydance going forward

Stephen Colbert’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Reportedly ‘Paused’ Over Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger

‘The Institute’ Season 2 Trailer Teases the Tense Road Ahead

Food Network Announces Season 3 Premiere Date, New Judges for Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking (Exclusive)

Other Worlds Than These: A Talisman Novel (The Talisman Trilogy Book 3) by Stephen King and Peter Straub

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