752: Grandma Got Run Over By a Tesla

This week, the AI industry continues its speedrun toward becoming the tech equivalent of a late-stage casino. Elon Musk insists reports of aid-cut-related deaths don't exist despite mountains of evidence, SpaceX stock slides far enough to knock him out of the trillionaire club, and a startup is literally suing the U.S. government because Anthropic's Fable 5 model got turned off after three whole days of availability. Once again, we revisit the First Commandment of Grumpy Old Geeks: never build your company on someone else's platform.

Meanwhile, gas stations are being accused of using AI to coordinate prices, corporations are discovering that AI tokens cost actual money, and a Microsoft researcher used goats in Age of Empires II to demonstrate that maybe, just maybe, people are projecting way too much intelligence onto chatbots. The goats emerge with their reputations intact. The AI industry, less so.

The workforce bloodbath rolls on as Oracle quietly sheds 21,000 employees while blaming AI, Norway bans generative AI for elementary school students after discovering that children should probably learn to read before outsourcing their homework to robots, and the FCC flirts with rules that could effectively kill anonymous burner phones in the name of fighting scams. Over at Meta, an employee surveillance program accidentally exposed sensitive data to the entire company because of course it did, while Zuckerberg continues his relentless quest to strap cameras to everyone's face and call it progress. Add in YouTube settling another social-media-harm case, Chrome finally kneecapping traditional ad blockers, and prediction markets spreading across tech like mold in a college apartment, and it's becoming increasingly clear that every bad idea eventually gets funded.

In transportation news, autonomous vehicles continue demonstrating that "mostly works" is not a reassuring phrase when attached to two tons of moving metal. A Tesla on Autopilot crashes into a home and kills a grandmother, Rivian faces lawsuits over self-driving promises its hardware allegedly can't fulfill, and Waymo recalls thousands of robotaxis after they developed an unfortunate habit of driving into closed freeway construction zones. Elsewhere, Elon and Bezos are eyeing billions in broadband subsidies, Polymarket is accused of paying influencers to fake betting videos and climate data archivists are preserving public information from political interference.

Media recommendations include The Mandalorian, Silo, Strange New Worlds, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and a reminder that Firefox may soon be the last refuge for people who enjoy both the internet and ad blockers. Some weeks the future feels exciting. This week it mostly feels like an extended warranty scam.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/752

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PGXG0Cjj9T8

SHOW NOTES

These Are the Headlines That Elon Musk Says Don’t Exist

SpaceX Stock Has Fallen So Far That Elon Musk Is No Longer a Trillionaire

Someone Is Suing the U.S. For Making Them Go Without Anthropic's Fable 5 Model

Suit Alleges That Gas Stations Use AI to Hike Gas Prices

The Tokenpocalypse Is Here: Companies Are Scrambling To Stop Spending So Much on AI

Frustrated Microsoft Researcher Uses Goats in ‘Age of Empires II’ to Demo the Absurdity of LLMs

KEVIN THE CUNT

Oracle laid off 21,000 employees over the past year, citing AI as one of the reasons

Norway imposes broad restrictions on AI for elementary school kids

FCC plans ID mandate that could block anonymous use of prepaid burner phones

Meta is 'pausing' employee tracking program after it let the whole company see sensitive data

Meta announces new smart glasses starting at $299, as Zuckerberg keeps pushing wearables

YouTube settles early test case over social media harm to children

A Tesla crashed into a Texas home, killing a 76-year-old grandmother

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer by Elmo & Patsy

Rivian faces a class action lawsuit over self-driving in its early vehicles

Waymo recalls over 3,800 robotaxis that might drive onto closed freeways

Elon Musk and the plot to hijack America’s broadband

Polymarket has reportedly been paying creators to post fake betting videos

Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta to launch its own prediction market

Facebook tests Forecast, an app for making predictions about world events, like COVID-19

Climate.US

US's climate.gov site, taken down by Trump, relaunched by nonprofit

The Trump Administration Wants to Know If It Should Regulate Bets on Reality Shows

The Pirate Bay for Strange New Worlds

Google Chrome’s next update will mark the end of popular ad blockers

‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ Gets Straight-to-Series Order at Peacock From Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door

Trackalot

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