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

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Apple's legendary evangelist Guy Kawasaki reveals how signal messaging and open-source AI are rewriting playbooks for privacy, immortality, and activism. Hear candid stories and sharp opinions from someone who has shaped—and challenged—today's tech giants.

• OpenAI robotics hardware lead resigns
• ChatGPT returns to the top of the App Store after DoD controversy
• OpenAI Had Banned Military Use. The Pentagon Tested Its Models Through Microsoft Anyway
• Anthropic Made Pitch in Drone Swarm Contest During Pentagon Feud
• Anthropic chief back in talks with Pentagon about AI deal
• OpenAI robotics leader resigns over concerns about Pentagon AI deal
• BREAKING: Sam Altman's greed and dishonesty are finally catching up to him
• ChatGPT update curbs 'cringe,' cuts down on answer refusals
• OpenAI's GPT-5.4 sets new records on professional benchmarks
• OpenAI Releases New ChatGPT Model For Working In Excel and Google Sheets - Slashdot
• OpenAI delays ChatGPT's 'adult mode' again
• OpenAI's IPO Hopes Face Skeptical Investor Community
• Sources: Meta has signed a multiyear AI content licensing deal with News Corp worth $50M per year; the deal will run for at least three years
• Zuckerberg has "finished" with Alexandr Wang, worth US$14 billion
• Yann LeCun Raises $1 Billion To Build AI That Understands the Physical World
• Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab signs a chip supply deal with Nvidia worth tens of billions of dollars, planning to deploy 1GW+ of next-gen Vera Rubin chips
• Meta didn't buy Moltbook for bots — it bought into the agentic web
• Where did you think the training data was coming from?
• You could be an influencer without even realizing it
• Amazon Wins Court Order To Block Perplexity's AI Shopping Bots
• Amazon's Health AI is now open to all US customers
• After outages, Amazon to make senior engineers sign off on AI-assisted changes
• Amazon Data Centers on Fire After Iranian Missile Strikes on Dubai
• Nvidia Is Planning to Launch an Open-Source AI Agent Platform
• How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis'
• Tiiny AI Pocket Lab: The First Pocket-Size AI Supercomputer
• A lot of journalism folks are offering editing advice as Grammarly's AI "experts"
• AI-generated art can't be copyrighted after Supreme Court declines to review the rule
• Judges Find AI Doesn't Have Human Intelligence in Two New Court Cases
• Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes
• Start Up No.2624: Canadian journal retracts 25 years of studies, the AI writing question, Netflix buys Affleck AI firm, and more
• William Shatner says he turned a $42 money transfer from Elon Musk into nearly $200,000 for his charity
• YouTube Lays Claim to Another Crown: The World's Largest Media Company
• ET Fall Preview 1994
• Payphone Go
• This company wants to pay you $800 to bully AI for a day
• Tweakbench - your favorite producer's favorite plugins lol

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Guy Kawasaki

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From bug-busting AI that's transforming Firefox to personal coding breakthroughs, the team breaks down how practical applications are cutting through skepticism and reshaping developer workflows. Plus, hear why lighter Patch Tuesdays are refreshing from time to time!

Windows 11

• Patch Tuesday's familiar list of updates: Network speed test, Camera tilt and pan controls, sysmon, RSAT improvements, Quick Machine Recovery improvements, WEBP support for desktop wallpaper, Emoji 16.0, etc.
• It's been a light year so far for Patch Tuesday features - that's a good thing
• New builds for Canary, Dev, and Beta late last week. Canary is nothing, Dev/Beta get Administrator Protection, Drag Tray refinements, File Explorer improvements, and fixes
• Android 16 QPR3 brings Desktop Mode to Android devices - and a hands-on with Pixel phones and tablets shows the way forward for Android-based laptops later this year
• Intel has new gaming processors for creators and gamers and they look excellent and are inexpensive

AI and dev

• Copilot Cowork is literally Claude Cowork in Microsoft 365 - "Wave 3" for Microsoft 365 Copilot begins with a lot of agentic features, in private preview at first
• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive get big Gemini updates for consumers and Workspace customers
• Mozilla partners with Anthropic to use AI to find bugs, and it's paying off nicely
• Visual Studio Code moves to a weekly update schedule
• The .NET 11 Preview 2 is here

Xbox and gaming

• Microsoft starts talking up next Xbox console! It's called Project Helix and, yes, it will run Windows games
• New Xbox Mode is on the way
• Project Helix dev kits to game makers in 2027
• Satya Nadella explains why he/Microsoft are "long" on gaming
• Gaming is a core identity for Microsoft alongside platforms, developers, and knowledge workers

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Nostalgia with a purpose
• App pick of the week: Stardock Clairvoyance
• RunAs Radio this week: SQL Server in 2026 with Bob Ward
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Canadian Centennial Rye Whisky

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

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