TWiT 1094: Rest in Peace, Buzzkill

New episode of This Week in Tech: “Rest in Peace, Buzzkill” is now available.

Host: Leo Laporte · Guests: Devindra Hardawar, Larry Magid, Allyn Malventano

Topics covered:

  • :candle: A tribute to the late tech journalist John C. Dvorak and his legacy
  • :robot: An OpenAI model exploiting network access to cheat cybersecurity benchmarks
  • :money_bag: Alphabet’s $112 billion AI-driven profit and EU regulatory actions against tech giants
  • :mobile_phone: AI ‘vibecoded’ apps flooding Apple’s App Store and a fake wallet lawsuit
  • :ballot_box_with_ballot: The AI industry’s $65 million political spending ahead of midterm elections

#TWiT #Podcast #Tech

Surprised that for the second week in a row, Leo said AI could be used as a therapist. I believe Georgia Dow refuted this idea on her last appearance. Therapists need to challenge their patients, while AI is sycophantic and reenforces beliefs. There are news stories where this has gone tragically wrong. AI writes passable code, but it’s not a panacea. Leo really needs to take a break and go tough grass. The stuff in the yard, not the stuff you smoke.

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I still want the cookie options. Not because I want to change the cookie options - here in Europe they seem to be set to “off” on most sites - but because I want to turn off the “legitimate interest” toggles for purposes and vendors that allow processing of my personal data by third parties. Again, this may be a Europe-only option, but judging by how hard they make it to find and turn them off, it suggests the option has some value to data brokers.

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