This Week in Tech (Audio)

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

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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

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Claude isn't just the hottest name in AI right now—it's quietly ushering in a wave of ultra-personalized, vibe-coded software that could transform how we build and use tech in 2026. Find out why coders and normies alike are obsessed and what's coming next.

Claude Cowork Exfiltrates Files

Behind the Curtain: The AI future has arrived

Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World

Musk wants up to $134B in OpenAI lawsuit, despite $700B fortune

Elon Musk's Grok 'Undressing' Problem Isn't Fixed

I asked Grok's AI to undress me after X's new limits. It's still easy on the app.

Senate passes Defiance Act for a second time to address Grok deepfakes

Instagram says it fixed the issue that sent password reset emails

Instagram AI Influencers Are Defaming Celebrities With Sex Scandals

French Court Orders Popular VPNs to Block More Pirate Sites, Despite Opposition

Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia's New Social Media Ban

TikTok has quietly launched a new micro drama app called PineDrama as the category picks up steam in the US

Creator income inequality is rising as top influencers rake in big paydays from brands

Managers on alert for "launch fever" as pressure builds for NASA's Moon mission

Senate passes minibus bill funding NASA, rejecting Trump's proposed cuts

Pentagon Device Linked To Havana Syndrome

Zuck#: A programming language for connecting the world. And harvesting it

Amazon is buying copper harvested by bacteria for its data centers

'Are You Dead?' is now the top paid App Store app in China

Danish dev delights kid by turning floppy drive into easy TV remote

Cinemark will fill almost anything with popcorn this weekend—but there's a catch

Happy Birthday, Wikipedia: We need you now more than ever

Pluralistic: The world needs an Ireland for disenshittification (17 Jan 2026)

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Harper Reed and Abrar Al-Heeti

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Is putting a camera in your toilet the future of health, or have tech companies lost the plot? This episode's panel digs into what's truly innovative versus what's just over the top, as industry leaders spar over privacy concerns and the real impact of AI in everyday devices.

We tried to get humanoid robots to do the laundry

Boston Dynamics unveils production-ready version of Atlas robot at CES 2026

Hair Drying Robot

Jensen Huang Says Nvidia's New Vera Rubin Chips Are in 'Full Production'

AMD's Ryzen AI 400 series includes the first Copilot+ desktop CPU — Team Red refreshes Zen 5 APUs and Strix Halo

Meta's EMG wristband is moving beyond its AR glasses

Lego's Smart Brick Gives the Iconic Analog Toy a New Digital Brain

The Alexa Plus website is now available to everyone in early access

Throne, from the co-founder of Whoop, uses computer vision to study your poop

The Verge Awards at CES 2026

These are the smart home gadgets that impressed me at CES 2026

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, and Jason Hiner

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Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence?

Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances

Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence

Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers

OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance

Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools

Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives

Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model

OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+

Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park

U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills

Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion

U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages

FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped

Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues

School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks

MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access

RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply

CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype

Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa

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