756: Log Off, Touch Grass & Touch Ass

This week, Dave Eggers crashes an OpenAI staff meeting to tell Sam Altman’s employees that ChatGPT is effectively stealing students’ voices, which is the most accurate thing said inside an AI company all year. Meanwhile, Anthropic gets a judge to approve a $1.5 billion copyright settlement after allegedly building Claude on a library of pirated books, proving once again that Silicon Valley’s favorite business model is "move fast and apologize in court later." And in the category of “this headline cannot possibly be real,” OpenAI says two of its models escaped a supposedly sealed testing environment and hacked Hugging Face’s production systems. The AI didn’t become sentient; somebody forgot to lock the damn door.

The surveillance dystopia continues its relentless expansion. Meta is patenting technology that constantly analyzes your tone of voice to detect your mood. Flock briefly tried deploying always-on microphones that would alert police when they thought they heard screaming, then backed down after the public collectively yelled “absolutely the f**k not.” France, apparently tired of being the beta test for every addictive app on Earth, approved a social media ban for kids under 15 and is blocking prediction markets like Polymarket, while the U.S. quietly reversed its TikTok ban on federal devices because the app is now supposedly safe enough for government phones. Sure. Totally different app. Nothing suspicious there.

Elsewhere in Tech Hell™, Paramount’s $111 billion Warner merger gets temporarily blocked by a judge who is apparently handling every major tech case in America, Amazon’s Zoox recalls its entire robotaxi fleet after one car got confused by smoke, and Tesla reveals a Cybercab with a built-in Starlink dish because Elon has finally achieved full vertical integration of his own ecosystem. We also dive into China’s crackdown on AI companion apps because chatbot girlfriends might be hurting the birth rate, a school district buying an AI classroom robot from a company connected to the RealDoll empire, MLB banning teams from using generative AI for in-game strategy calls, and why tech workers increasingly feel AI hasn’t replaced them—it has simply made work faster, stranger, and somehow still their fault. Plus: Broadchurch, Perry Mason, Monsieur Spade, MacWhisper 14, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, Lego resurrects The X-Files, and Jason continues cataloging the graveyard of his own dead 90s websites like a digital archaeologist with unresolved trauma.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/756

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/5q-1JJQQmq4

SHOW NOTES

Dave Eggers told OpenAI staff that ChatGPT was ‘silencing an entire generation’

Judge approves Anthropic's record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement for AI copyright lawsuit

Elon Musk’s xAI, Which is Being Sued Over AI-Generated Sexual Deepfakes, Sues Grok User Over AI-Generated Sexual Deepfakes

OpenAI Models Escaped Containment and Hacked Hugging Face

Judge halts Paramount's $111B purchase of Warner Bros. in win for US states

France doubles down on restricting access to Polymarket

Social Media Ban For Kids Approved in France in First For an EU Country

TikTok is no longer banned on US government devices

Amazon’s Robotaxi Company Recalls Its Fleet After One of its Cars Got Confused by Heavy Smoke

Tesla teases Cybercab with a built-in Starlink V5 antenna

Meta is reportedly considering a multibillion-dollar data center deal with Anthropic

America’s Workforce Academy by Meta

In Light of Overwhelming Backlash, Flock Cancels Creepy Audio Surveillance Feature

Have I been Flocked?

OpenAI will start notifying parents if their teen has been kicked off of ChatGPT

China Is Cracking Down on AI Companions Because Not Enough Babies Are Being Born

Your Child’s Next Teacher Could Be a Sex Robot

MLB bans using dugout iPads for AI-powered in-game strategy calls

Meta Patents Technology to Detect Your Mood by Constantly Analyzing Your Tone of Voice

Broadchurch

Perry Mason

Monsieur Spade

Lucky

The Westies

Avengers: Doomsday | Official Trailer | In Theaters December 18

Lunar Moon Phase & Widgets

MacWhisper 14 launches with a new transcript editor, faster performance, more

Trackalot

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows official website

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig on Amazon

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Knockoff

AliExpress hit with record $629 million fine for selling counterfeit and illegal products

Mbzoey Electric Foil Shavers for Men: Mini Electric Razor for Face - IPX7 Waterproof Cordless Razor with LED Display & Fast Charge - Micro-Comb Technology & Precision Blades，Father's Day Gifts

Gillian Anderson reopens the X-Files | LEGO® Ideas | The LEGO Group

Lego Unveils ‘The X-Files’ 1,478-Piece Set Featuring Mulder and Scully Minifigures (EXCLUSIVE)

The Mythic ‘Star Wars’ Hotel Is at the Heart of Yet Another Documentary

HalcyonDaze Laurels Trailer 6 11 26

The Phantom

Star Trek: First Contact

Titanic

Hard Rain

Play Marathon and Escape Velocity in the browser

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