698: Watch Out for That Tree!

698: Watch Out for That Tree!

This week, we kick things off with the return of Space Karen’s meltdown tour: Elon Musk got flustered in an interview, sputtered out one-word answers, and called the journalist an “NPC,” which is rich coming from the guy whose only real upgrade since PayPal is yelling “freedom” in meme fonts. Meanwhile, 23andMe sold your DNA to Regeneron at a bankruptcy auction, proving once and for all that your spit is more valuable than most tech startups.

IN THE NEWS is a parade of corporate idiocy and dystopian fuckery. Coinbase employees got bribed into leaking user data (because clearly we didn’t have enough crypto chaos), Klarna keeps flip-flopping between AI and human workers like it’s a bad Tinder date, and OpenAI is out here buying Jony Ive’s design firm for $6.5 billion because sure, what’s another billion when you’re trying to build a surveillance device to stalk 100 million users? Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times is publishing AI-generated trash with imaginary authors, Anthropic’s new model attempts blackmail, and researchers dumped two billion Discord messages online just for kicks. And yes, Elon’s Tesla robotaxis will now only roam the safest parts of Austin, which is code for “we still can’t make this thing turn left.”

In MEDIA CANDY, we’re watching Murderbot, Godfather of Harlem, and Hotel Cocaine because who doesn’t love a little synthetic assassin, crime drama, and coke-fueled nostalgia? Notepad.exe now writes for you (and probably files HR complaints too), and Audible is teaming up with publishers to replace narrators with robot voices. Yay, progress. Over in THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, Bittner brings the malware, monsters, and a new theme park review that’s somehow less terrifying than the news. Bookworms, don’t miss Curepedia and The AI Con — one’s about goth gods, the other’s about taking down our techno-overlords. And pour one out for George Wendt — Norm from Cheers is now drinking with the angels.


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Show notes at https://gog.show/698


FOLLOW UP

Elon Musk Gets Rattled by Hard Questions He Can't Answer, Calls Interviewer an "NPC" While Giving One-Word NPC-Like Responses Himself

23andMe (and Your Genetic Data) Sold to Regeneron in Bankruptcy Auction


IN THE NEWS

Extortionists bribed Coinbase employees to give them customer data

OpenAI buys Jony Ive's design startup for $6.5 billion

Sam Altman Tells Staff Plan to Ship 100 Million Devices That See Everything in Users' Lives

Klarna Hiring Back Human Help After Going All-In on AI

Klarna CEO and Sutter Hill take victory lap after Jony Ive's OpenAI deal

Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to deliver earnings

Klarna users are buying now, but not paying later

DOGE Used a Meta AI Model to Review Emails From Federal Workers

Chicago Sun-Times publishes made-up books and fake experts in AI debacle

We’re Focused on the Wrong A.I. Problem in Journalism

Anthropic's new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline

MIT Backs Away From Paper Claiming Scientists Make More Discoveries with AI

Researchers Dump 2 Billion Scraped Discord Messages Online

Musk says Tesla's self-driving tests will be geofenced to 'the safest' parts of Austin


MEDIA CANDY

Murderbot

Godfather of Harlem

Hotel Cocaine


APPS & DOODADS

The Grand Encyclopedia of Eponymous Laws

Apple confirms iOS 19 will end support for legacy Home app system

Audible to Partner With Publishers to Create AI-Voiced Audiobooks

In 3.5 years, Notepad.exe has gone from “barely maintained” to “it writes for you”


AT THE LIBRARY

Curepedia: An A-Z of the Cure by Simon Price

The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want By: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna


THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

First photos from inside Universal Studio’s new Orlando theme park Epic Universe revealed

A Very Honest Review on Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment | Universal's Epic Universe

Gadget recommendation - Electric Air Duster with Flashlight


CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

George Wendt, Norm From Cheers, Dead at 76

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

Episoder(719)

253: Too Little, Too Late

253: Too Little, Too Late

Too little, too late, Zuck, Wylie & Jack; Bird Wrangling; folding socks; you agreed to this; Trump vs Amazon; the Americans; X-Files; Ready Player Dumb; Vezt; Assange offline; Under Armor breach; privacy & death; oldest sites online; SpaceX; Marlon Bundo. Show notes at http://gog.show/253 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2 Apr 20181h 44min

252: Cluster Zuck

252: Cluster Zuck

Uber has a body count; Zuckerberg has a crappy week; Kalanick goes slumlord; Opera gets better; Blockchain kiddie porn and tipping; Blue Compass review; Earworm Removal Machine; YouTube Hates Guns; Deliveroo on the Darkweb; Poop Emoji Retargeting. Show notes at http://gog.show/252 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

26 Mar 20182h 14min

251: SpaceForce2000

251: SpaceForce2000

Rogue satellites; uplifting Musk; migrating Birds; AirBnB reality; YouTube & Wikipedia; Equifax CIO caught; Theranos fraud; Trim app; hodl the door; privacy review; citizen scores; Yahoo class-action; the Gall—Peters Projection; YouPic; RIP Hawking. Show notes at http://gog.show/251 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Mar 20181h 17min

250: Useful But Creepy

250: Useful But Creepy

250 episodes of mild grump; not making $ w/ YouTube & Uber; fighting Birds; unintended consequences; baffling Snap; Bat Day; Netflix, rising; Dirty Coin; bad UI; Jessica Jones; the Cure; Moviepass tracking; Alexa laughing; the Narc Squad; Goop; the Cyber. Show notes at http://gog.show/250 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Mar 20181h 46min

249: Distributed Excel Spreadsheet

249: Distributed Excel Spreadsheet

Blockchain, explained; more completely wrong headlines; rat race to the bottom; Spotify; social media rules; removing yourself from searches; adventures in PC land; ello, Vero; expensive cameras & bad bags; upcoming shows; DNA barcodes; predictive policing. Show notes at http://gog.show/249 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Mar 20182h 18min

248: Side Hustle

248: Side Hustle

Uber & the gig economy; Airbnb cheats & Spotify swindles; FCC order; death of the web; Snapchat user revolt; the great Twitter purge; Facebook peaks; grim AI future; Youtube trending; Maps, quantified; reboots; GDPR; game malware; biohack; the Grump Boat. Show notes at http://gog.show/248 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

26 Feb 20181h 50min

247: Thoughts and Prayers

247: Thoughts and Prayers

Here we are, again; Doggie DNA; Apple glass accidents; cryptomining instead of ads; Magic Leap’s some amount of money; Amazon layoffs; Berlin bans Airbnb; facial analysis bias, informed consent & data ethics; Star Trek; Smashing Pumpkins; Mac viruses. http://gog.show/247 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Feb 20181h 21min

246: Ground Control to Grumpy Tom

246: Ground Control to Grumpy Tom

Cars on Mars; Bird tweets; Deepfakes; Facebook flaws; Twitter & Snapchat fake news; paywalls; MoviePass math; Sodastream hacks; Blade Stunners; Solo & Jessica Jones; ID10T; data ethics; Minecraft mining; phishing tricks; magically delicious detergents. Show notes at http://gog.show/246 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Feb 20181h 48min

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