686: Not All Heroes Vibe Code

This week, the U.S. government takes another L in court as a judge rules that handing out personal data like free candy to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is, in fact, a privacy violation. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani’s dreams of walking free are crushed as a judge upholds their fraud convictions and massive fines. Sorry, no Silicon Valley redemption arc for you. Over in crypto, Bitcoin took a wild nosedive, sending traders into full panic mode before bouncing back. Trump Coin also rode the rollercoaster but, let’s be honest, it’s still circling the drain.

In corporate chaos, Warner Bros. Discovery slashed its gaming division, Google axed more employees while crying about AI costs, and an AI-generated video of Trump sucking on Musk’s toes somehow took over HUD office TVs. Speaking of Musk, federal tech staffers are resigning en masse rather than work for DOGE, and the FAA is cozying up to SpaceX while pretending it’s totally not a conflict of interest. Over in Big Tech, Chegg is suing Google for stealing their content, and Meta can’t stop Instagram from flooding users’ feeds with violent and NSFW Reels. Also, Grok 3, Musk’s AI pet project, handed out chemical weapon blueprints like a particularly unhinged WikiHow before xAI scrambled to cover their tracks.

On the media front, Andor is coming back with a binge-friendly release schedule, Kathleen Kennedy is finally exiting Lucasfilm, and Daredevil: Born Again is getting early buzz. YouTube now claims a billion monthly podcast viewers, Fyre Festival 2 is happening because we clearly learned nothing from the first one, and Jeff Bezos has decided The Washington Post will now be his personal capitalism fan club. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s AI Copilot is helpfully explaining how to pirate Windows, Skype is getting sent to the great app graveyard in the sky, and Google is making it slightly less impossible to remove your personal info from search results. All that, plus Paramount+ is giving us 50 classic MTV Unplugged episodes because nostalgia is the only safe investment these days. Buckle up, it’s a wild ride.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/686

FOLLOW UP

Judge: US gov’t violated privacy law by disclosing personal data to DOGE

Holmes and Balwani's appeal falls flat as court upholds fraud convictions

IN THE NEWS

Bitcoin's slide continues as traders eye further big falls ahead

Warner Bros Discovery slashes gaming business, closing three studios

Google announces layoffs in its HR, cloud units as part of ongoing cost cuts

AI Video of Trump Sucking Musk's Toes Blasted on Government Office TVs

IRS Employees Told They Must Respond to Musk’s Bizarre Email by Midnight

Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE

Amid a Musk-led overhaul, the FAA starts doing business with SpaceX

Educational tech company Chegg sues Google over AI Overviews

Grok blocked results saying Musk and Trump ‘spread misinformation’

Elon's Grok 3 AI Provides "Hundreds of Pages of Detailed Instructions" on Creating Chemical Weapons

Anthropic reportedly ups its next funding round to $3.5B

There’s Something Very Weird About This $30 Billion AI Startup by a Man Who Said Neural Networks May Already Be Conscious

North Korea Stole $1.4 Billion in Largest Crypto Heist Ever, Researchers Say

Fyre Festival 2 is coming, and it already sounds bananas (and not in a good way)

The SEC is dropping an investigation into Robinhood

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance on Thursday saying it does not view most meme coins, which are crypto tokens that originated from

Jeff Bezos Announces That Washington Post Opinions Will Now Exclusively Celebrate the Glories of Capitalism

MEDIA CANDY

The White Lotus

Andor | Season 2 Trailer | Streaming April 22 on Disney+

Andor Season 2 Will Drop in 3-Episode Weekly ‘Chapters’

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to Retire, Ushering in a New Era for Star Wars

Marvel's new Disney+ series 'Daredevil: Born Again' is drawing glowing first reactions by members of the press.

YouTube passes 1 billion monthly active podcast viewers

Will Trent

Paramount+ adds 50 classic MTV Unplugged episodes

Max reverses course, won't charge extra for live sports and news

FCC Launches Probe Into iHeartMedia’s Alleged Payola Practices

APPS & DOODADS

Silicon Valley's next act: bringing 'vibe coding' to the world

Meta confirms Instagram issue that's flooding users with violent and sexual Reels

PSA: Google Is Making It Easier to Remove Your Personal Information From Search Results

iPhones are briefly changing 'racist' to 'Trump' due to an iOS dictation issue

Microsoft's AI offers help with pirating Windows

Copilot exposes private GitHub pages, some removed by Microsoft

Microsoft brings an official Copilot app to macOS for the first time

Skype will take its final curtain (and video) call May 5

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