743: Category Five Dystopia

In FOLLOW UP, the child social media crackdown keeps expanding. Turkey just approved a ban for under-15s, and Sony will require age verification for PlayStation communication features in the UK and Ireland starting in June—because now you need to prove you’re an adult before trash-talking strangers online. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s prediction that fully autonomous AI employees would already be transforming business hasn’t materialized. Agentic systems are still struggling with basic workflows and, in some cases, slowing developers down. And in a more concrete reversal, Elon Musk acknowledged that pre-2023 Tesla Hardware 3 will never support Full Self-Driving. Customers who paid for the feature are now being steered toward discounted trade-ins, new cameras, and upgraded hardware—prompting obvious legal exposure.

IN THE NEWS: SpaceX is reportedly targeting what could be the largest IPO ever, at roughly a $1.75 trillion valuation, with dual-class shares that preserve Musk’s control through super-voting rights. Prediction markets continue to degrade: Kalshi suspended political candidates for trading on their own races, and Polymarket saw alleged manipulation via a tampered weather sensor at Charles de Gaulle Airport. On the AI front, Anthropic’s new Mythos model had a chaotic rollout—used by the NSA, applied to patch hundreds of Firefox vulnerabilities, and briefly exposed through unauthorized access in a developer portal. Amazon followed with a $25 billion investment in Anthropic, even as governments appear to access similar capabilities independently.

At the same time, the economics are tightening. Free tiers are shrinking, GitHub Copilot is shifting to token-based billing after costs doubled, and startups are normalizing six-figure monthly AI compute bills. Infrastructure growth continues unchecked: thousands of new data centers are planned across the U.S., while xAI faces scrutiny in Memphis over water usage and delayed mitigation projects. Environmental commitments increasingly resemble marketing rather than enforceable targets.

Policy signals are equally aggressive. DHS is exploring smart glasses for ICE agents with facial recognition and gait analysis by 2027. Palantir published a manifesto advocating expanded use of state power with rhetoric that raised concerns about ideological framing. On a lighter note, a University of California, Santa Barbara study suggests that brief exposure to experimental film measurably increases creativity compared to standard social media consumption.

MEDIA CANDY: Silo returns July 3 on Apple TV+, while The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is expected sooner than planned. Battlestar Galactica lands on Paramount+ and Pluto TV May 1. Dead Can Dance is releasing monthly singles via its Bandcamp imprint. Deezer reports 44% of daily uploads—about 75,000 tracks—are AI-generated, though only a small fraction of streams come from them, many flagged as fraudulent. And yes, Jessica Jones is back in Daredevil.

APPS & DOODADS: Apple patched the notification-cache bug that allowed forensic tools to recover deleted Signal messages. Roblox agreed to a $12 million settlement with Nevada and is rolling out facial age estimation, ID verification, and new contact controls, while still facing multi-state litigation. Cash App is targeting younger users—ages six to twelve—with parent-managed accounts, debit cards, and interest incentives. Separately, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction protecting ICE-tracking apps, ruling that government pressure on Apple and Meta to remove them likely violated First Amendment protections.

IN THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE: AI-generated Star Wars fan films are improving visually, even if performances remain rigid. The current era of Star Trek is effectively closing out with a large prop auction, notably excluding Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The broader discussion circles back to time compression—post-pandemic, and with age—and the persistent disconnect between economic scale and general dissatisfaction.

Sponsors:

DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.

Shopify - Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at Shopify.com/grumpy

Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.

SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!

1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password

Show notes at https://gog.show/743

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/iLiRLcgP7zM

FOLLOW UP

Sony will require age checks in the UK and Ireland to access PlayStation communication features

Turkey wants to ban social media for kids under 15

Today Is the Day Anthropic Promised That Fully Autonomous Employees Would Be Tearing Through the Business World

The Hardware in Your Pre-2023 Tesla Will Never Allow It to Fully Drive Itself, Elon Musk Admits

IN THE NEWS

Exclusive: Musk and insiders to retain voting control of SpaceX after IPO, filing shows

Kalshi suspended three political candidates from its platform for insider trading

Someone allegedly used a hairdryer to rig Polymarket weather bets

The NSA is reportedly using Anthropic's new model Mythos

Mozilla says it patched 271 Firefox vulnerabilities thanks to Anthropic's Claude Mythos

Anthropic is investigating 'unauthorized access' of its Mythos cybersecurity tool

Amazon will invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic in a broad deal

AI Companies Think Destroying the Planet Is an Acceptable Trade-Off for Unlimited Profits

Musk leaves Memphis high and dry

Startups Brag They Spend More Money on AI Than Human Employees

You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze

Exclusive: Microsoft To Shift GitHub Copilot Users To Token-Based Billing, Tighten Rate Limits

Homeland Security reportedly wants to develop smart glasses for ICE

Palantir posted a manifesto that reads like the ramblings of a comic book villain

What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat

Researchers May Have Found the Antidote to Social Media Brain Rot: Experimental Film

Short of the Week

This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift ‘Super Dumb’ Men

Jaw-Dropping iPhone Video of Earth Setting Behind the Moon Is Rightfully Breaking the Internet

MEDIA CANDY

Silo season 3 just got its Apple TV release date and first trailer

Silo — Season 3 Official Teaser | Apple TV

Surprise! ‘Rings of Power’ Season 3 Is Arriving Earlier Than Expected

‘Battlestar Galactica’ Is Blasting Back to Streaming

Dead Can Dance Returns with “Death Cults,” Their Second New Song in Five Years

Not a Soul Was Dancing to Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna at Coachella

Deezer says AI-made songs make up 44 percent of daily uploads

APPS & DOODADS

Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones

Roblox agrees to a $12 million settlement with Nevada

Cash App is targeting a new kind of customer: 6- to 12-year-olds

Judge sides with creators of banned ICE trackers who allege DHS and DOJ violated their First Amendment rights

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Star Wars: Darth Vader BEATS the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City (Fan Film)

Star Wars: Darth Vader Learns the TRUTH About LUKE SKYWALKER (Fan Film)

The Current Era of ‘Star Trek’ Is Ending With a Fire Sale

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-5 Online Auction

Star Trek Universe: 60th Anniversary Auction Featuring Items from Set - Auction #1

Have you ever known anyone who was born in the 1800s?

If America's So Rich, How'd It Get So Sad?

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