This Week in Tech (Video)

Kathy Gellis, a Supreme Court-experienced tech attorney, Brian McCullough, tech reporter and podcaster, and Harper Reed, entrepreneur and AI practitioner, discuss landmark rulings tying platforms to addictive design. They cover Section 230 implications, a major PyPI supply-chain malware, AI agents and personification risks, FCC router guidance, and high-profile legal battles shaping tech liability and security.

Elon Musk faces a multi-billion dollar verdict after a California jury finds his tweets misled Twitter shareholders, raising the stakes for tech CEOs with unchecked social media influence. Plus, CBS kills its legendary radio news service while podcasting explodes, signaling a dramatic shift in how America consumes, trusts, and pays for news. CBS News Shutters Radio Service After Nearly a Century A US appeals court puts on hold an earlier ruling that had blocked Perplexity from using its agentic shopping tool to shop on Amazon's marketplace FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms The 49MB Web Page Microsoft unveils MAJOR improvements coming to Windows 11 this year — movable Taskbar, reduced RAM usage, less AI and ads, and much more CONFIRMED: "We are evolving how Windows is built behind the scenes to raise the quality bar" Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access in June Meta changes course on Horizon Worlds VR shut-down Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5's generative AI glow-ups Jury agrees that Musk's tweets during Twitter takeover misled investors After three months, Samsung is ending sales of the $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold 200,000 Devices Erased? Pro-Iran Hackers Hit US Firm With Data-Wiping Attack Japan to allow 'proactive cyber-defense' from October 1st Sears Exposed AI Chatbot Phone Calls and Text Chats to Anyone on the Web Arizona AG files criminal charges against Kalshi over 'illegal gambling' Major League Baseball Steps Into the Prediction Markets, Strikes Deal With Polymarket Polymarket is opening a bar where you can drink and watch the world unravel in real time It's been 20 years since the first tweet Project Hail Mary is movie medicine The futurist who helped define tech trend reports just killed them (literally) This new cassette player has USB-C and Bluetooth, in case you want to ditch Spotify Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Janko Roettgers, Dan Patterson, and Lisa Schmeiser Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meter.com/twit shopify.com/twit outsystems.com/twit preview.modulate.ai

From "gainfully employed robots" to AI that accidentally ruins lives, this week's conversation unpacks the real-world fallout of futuristic promises. Leo, JPT, Iain, and Richard tackle energy sources, social media effects, tech layoffs, and the algorithms quietly taking charge. Meta is planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount Meta Said to Push Back Launch of Avocado Model Social media addiction trial: the plaintiff, Meta, and YouTube make closing arguments; jurors begin deliberations Friday on liability for harm to children Trump administration will reportedly get $10 billion for brokering the TikTok deal Bluesky CEO Jay Graber will step aside Digg's open beta shuts down after just two months, blaming AI bot spam X says it suspended 800 million accounts in 2024 over spam and manipulation Fake AI Content About the Iran War Is All Over X Musk admits xAI 'not built right' — weeks after Tesla invested $2 billion Nvidia Is Planning to Launch an Open-Source AI Agent Platform Amazon Wins Court Order To Block Perplexity's AI Shopping Bots Social Security watchdog investigating claims that DOGE engineer copied its databases DOGE Deposition Videos Taken Down After Judge Order and Widespread Mockery U.S. State Bans on Lab-Grown Meats Challenged in Court Easy-to-use solar panels are coming, but utilities are trying to delay them EcoFlow brings its plug-in solar power plant to US homes (related to the plug-in solar story) TerraPower gets permit to build reactor Ex-Uber CEO Kalanick Debuts Plan for 'Gainfully Employed Robots' Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud Justice Department and Live Nation Reach Settlement Terms in Antitrust Case Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power Palantir's lethal AI weaponry deployed to find chairs for US government staff How Pokémon Go is giving delivery robots an inch-perfect view of the world 'Flying Cars' Will Take Off in American Skies This Summer YouTube surpasses Disney, Paramount, WBD in 2025 ad revenue Ig Nobel Prize flees US for Switzerland after 35 years over safety concerns Swiss e-voting can't count 2,048 ballots after USB keys fail to decrypt them Tony Hoare, Turing Award-Winning Computer Scientist Behind QuickSort, Dies At 92 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Iain Thomson, Richard Campbell, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: expressvpn.com/twit preview.modulate.ai monarch.com with code TWIT spaceship.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit

Between copyright-free AI art, government blacklists, and data brokers run amok, this episode spotlights the fierce new battles for privacy, agency, and control in our digital lives. Plus, hear Cory Doctorow break down why the AI gold rush may be headed for a colossal crash. Pentagon Officially Tells Anthropic It Is a Supply Chain Risk Trump moves to blacklist Anthropic AI from all government work If AI is a weapon, why don't we regulate it like one? Sam Altman's greed and dishonesty are finally catching up to him ChatGPT user base surges 350% in 18 months as it nears 1 billion weekly active users AI-generated art can't be copyrighted after the Supreme Court declines to review the rule Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens Grammarly is using our identities without permission Alphabet Grants Sundar Pichai Stock Awards Worth Up to $686 Million Google vs Epic Games ends with Android app stores, lower fees Google Ends Its 30% App Store Fee, Welcomes Third-Party App Stores - Slashdot Xbox CEO confirms next-gen 'Project Helix' console will play PC games Motorola Partners With GrapheneOS - Slashdot Data Broker Breaches Fueled Nearly $21 Billion in Identity-Theft Losses CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples' Movements Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time South Korean Police Lose Seized Crypto By Posting Password Online Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers Charter Gets FCC Permission To Buy Cox, Become Largest ISP In the US How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents Anne Wojcicki's Plan to Revive 23andMe: Rich Donors, Improved Tests—and Maybe Even MAHA Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through Doom 10% of Firefox crashes are caused by bitflips Seagate Just Unleashed 44TB Hard Drives Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Joey de Villa and Cory Doctorow Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT meter.com/twit NetSuite.com/TWIT bitwarden.com/twit

Anthropic's clash with the Pentagon pits tech ethics against government demands, raising explosive questions about AI's role in surveillance and weaponry. If you care about who controls the future of artificial intelligence, this episode is a must-listen. Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines in Pentagon fight The whole thing was a scam OpenAI allows NSA to use GPT for surveilling Americans Anthropic's Claude hits No. 1 on Apple's top free apps list after Pentagon rejection Layoffs at Block Crypto exchange Gemini plans to lay off up to 200 staff, exit Europe, and Australia Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for Paramount Takeover An update on our model deprecation commitments for Claude Opus 3 \ Anthropic Keep Android Open Colorado moves age checks from websites to operating systems | Biometric Update Open source calculator firmware DB48X forbids CA/CO use due to age verification New Apple product launch starts Monday, Tim Cook confirms Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked: The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy Buds 4 and more Here's how the new Samsung Galaxy S26 compares with last year's S25 Hacked Prayer App Sends 'Surrender' Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli and US Strikes The Big One: The cyberattack scenarios that keep officials up at night CISA replaces acting director after a bumbling year on the job New AirSnitch attack bypasses Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises Victory! Tenth Circuit Finds Fourth Amendment Doesn't Support Broad Search of Protesters' Devices and Digital Data Enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET—scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio, study shows | TechCrunch Burger King Will Use AI To Check If Employees Say 'Please' and 'Thank You' Uber Previews Its Dubai Air Taxi Service - Slashdot Rob Grant, creator of Red Dwarf, has died Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, Song of Kali, dead at 77 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Molly White, Owen Thomas, and Harry McCracken Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: Melissa.com/twit expressvpn.com/twit canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit helixsleep.com/twit

What do jailbreaking fighter jets, lost Amazon vans, and swapping your phone's smart features for a handful of mud have in common? TWiT dives into the wild, occasionally absurd future of tech, where yesterday's sci-fi is tomorrow's supply-chain headache. Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in court Instagram Boss Says 16 Hours of Daily Use Is Not Addiction Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push To Advance AI Agenda - Slashdot Australia's Social Media Ban Is Isolating Kids With Disabilities—Just Like Critics Warned Google I/O 2026 set for May 19-20 Pixel 10A hands-on: More like a slightly better Pixel 9A than a slightly worse Pixel 10 Google announces Gemini 3.1 Pro, says it's better at complex problem-solving Tucson Daily Brief Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand 'Search Party' Surveillance Beyond Dogs A $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloud Amazon delivery van accidentally gets stuck in the sea in Britain Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans Government Docs Reveal New Details About Tesla and Waymo Robotaxis' Human Babysitters The Supreme Court's Tariff Ruling Won't Bring Car Prices Back to Earth A flood of cheap used EVs is coming Signal guide for everyday folks PayPal discloses data breach that exposed user info for 6 months Federal ban on TP-Link routers shelved, but Texas fights on You probably can't trust your password manager if it's compromised Mississippi health system shuts down clinics statewide after ransomware attack Fake Job Recruiters Hid Malware In Developer Coding Challenges F-35 Software Could Be Jailbreaked Like an IPhone: Dutch Defense Minister - Slashdot In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud — 'The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't,' notes the experiment creator | Tom's Hardware Lab-Grown Meat Exists (But Nobody Wants To Eat It) CERN rebuilt the original browser from 1989 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Sam Abuelsamid, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, and Nicholas De Leon Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit365 threatlocker.com/twit expressvpn.com/twit meter.com/twit shopify.com/twit

Is social media addictive by design or just irresistible entertainment? The panel tackles the lawsuit that's dragging tech giants onto the witness stand and how surveillance tech is quietly expanding while lawmakers and users scramble to catch up. Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at landmark US trial Instagram Chief Says Social Media Is Not 'Clinically Addictive' in Landmark Trial Section 230 turns 30 as it faces its biggest tests yet Meta apparently thinks we're too distracted to care about facial recognition and Ray-Bans Amazon Ring's Super Bowl ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash TikTok is tracking you, even if you don't use the app. Discord backtracks on controversial age verification rollout...kind of Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor that this man remotely accessed thousands of them HP's laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP FTC Ratchets Up Microsoft Probe, Queries Rivals on Cloud, AI T-Mobile announces its network is now full of AI by rolling out real-time translation Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags SpaceX Prioritizes Lunar 'Self-Growing City' Over Mars Project, Musk Says Elon Musk declares victory with Medicaid data release Waymo Is Getting DoorDashers to Close Doors on Self Driving Cars Backblaze Drive Stats for 2025 $1.8 million MST3K Kickstarter brings in (almost) everyone from the old show OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China's ChatGPT Fans Aren't OK Hideki Sato, designer of all Sega's consoles, has died Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78 Launching The Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Wesley Faulkner, Stacey Higginbotham, and Thomas Germain Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security monarch.com with code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/twit helixsleep.com/twit cachefly.com/twit

Will Elon Musk really launch a million data centers into orbit, and why is McDonald's so worried about you using "McNuggets" as your password? This week's tech roundtable takes on wild new frontiers and everyday security headaches with insight and a bit of irreverence. More schools are banning phones so students can focus. Ohio's results show it's not that simple After Australia, Which Countries Could Be Next to Ban Social Media for Children EU says TikTok must disable 'addictive' features like infinite scroll, fix its recommendation engine Anthropic and OpenAI release dueling AI models on the same day in an escalating rivalry Sam Altman says Anthropic's Super Bowl spot is 'dishonest' about ChatGPT ads, but he agrees it's funny Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 uncovers 500 zero-day flaws in open-source code Alphabet reports Q4 2025 revenue of $113.8 billion Amazon's blowout $200 billion AI spending plan stuns Wall Street A New Gilded Age: Big Tech goes on a $600 billion AI spending splurge Hidden Cameras in Chinese Hotels Are Livestreaming Guests To Thousands of Telegram Subscribers AI-generated ads hit the Super Bowl SpaceX acquires xAI, plans to launch a massive satellite constellation to power it Russia suspected of intercepting EU satellites Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors New York Wants to Ctrl+Alt+Delete Your 3D Printer Western Digital Plots a Path To 140 TB Hard Drives Using Vertical Lasers and 14-Platter Designs A Crisis comes to Wordle: Reusing old words The Wayback Machine debuts a new plug-in designed to fix the internet's broken links problem Project Hail Mary is getting its own LEGO set Dave Farber Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Larry Magid, Mike Elgan, and Louis Maresca Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.com/TWIT meter.com/twit trustedtech.team/twitCSS zscaler.com/security

What happens when AI bots get their own social network, Silicon Valley execs cozy up to power, and Apple takes a cut from creators? This week's panel calls out the bold, bizarre, and often problematic ways tech's biggest players are reshaping everything from AI assistants to your everyday privacy. There's a social network for AI agents, and it's getting weird Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet right now Exposed Moltbook Database Let Anyone Take Control of Any AI Agent on the Site Pentagon clashes with Anthropic over military AI use, sources say Salesforce signs $5.6B deal to inject agentic AI into the US Army Angry Norfolk residents lose lawsuit to stop Flock license plate scanners SpaceX wants to put 1 million solar-powered data centers into orbit Elon Musk reportedly wants a June SpaceX IPO to align with his birthday, the planets Tesla hits a grim milestone: its second straight year of decline Tesla says production-ready Optimus robot is coming soon Microsoft reports strong cloud earnings in Q2 as gaming declines What We Learned From Meta, Microsoft and Tesla Apple tells Patreon to move creators to in-app purchase for subscriptions by November Apple CEO Tim Cook 'heartbroken' after repeated ICE killings in Minneapolis A rival smart glasses company is suing Meta over its Ray-Ban products TikTok, YouTube, and Meta are headed to court for a landmark trial over social media addiction The 'Social Media Addiction' Narrative May Be More Harmful Than Social Media Itself TikTok users freak out over app's 'immigration status' collection — here's what it means A Waymo hit a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign Samsung's TriFold phone will cost $2,899 in the US Groundhogs are bad at predicting weather, but they're valuable animal engineers\ Satellites encased in wood are in the works Belkin reminds users that its Wemo smart home products are shutting down this week Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Gary Rivlin, Devindra Hardawar, and Victoria Song Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit helixsleep.com/twit canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/twit

Microsoft quietly hands over BitLocker keys to the government, TikTok's new privacy terms spark a user panic, and Europe's secret tech backups reveal anxious prep for digital fallout. Plus, how gambling platforms are changing the future of news and sports. You can bet on how much snow will fall in New York City this weekend Europe Prepares for a Nightmare Scenario: The U.S. Blocking Access to Tech China, US sign off on TikTok US spinoff TikTok users freak out over app's 'immigration status' collection -- here's what it means Elon Musk's Grok A.I. Chatbot Made Millions of Sexualized Images, New Estimates Show Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw - Forbes House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16 Overrun with AI slop, cURL scraps bug bounties to ensure "intact mental health" Route leak incident on January 22, 2026 149 Million Usernames and Passwords Exposed by Unsecured Database Millions of people imperiled through sign-in links sent by SMS Anthropic revises Claude's 'Constitution,' and hints at chatbot consciousness The new Siri chatbot may run on Google servers, not Apple's A Wikipedia Group Made a Guide to Detect AI Writing. Now a Plug-In Uses It to 'Humanize' Chatbots GitHub - anthropics/original_performance_takehome: Anthropic's original performance take-home, now open for you to try! Telly's "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they're actually delivered - Ars Technica Toilet Maker Toto's Shares Get Unlikely Boost From AI Rush - Slashdot Dr. Gladys West, whose mathematical models inspired GPS, dies at 95 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Alex Stamos, Doc Rock, and Patrick Beja Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com/twit meter.com/twit redis.io expressvpn.com/twit shopify.com/twit