TWiG 752: The Mole Man of Hackney - Media Layoffs, Rat Selfies, Ello's Demise

• Told You So: Amazon, Google Quietly Tamp Down Generative AI Expectations
• European Lawmakers Approve Landmark AI Legislation
• TikTok Will Use Every Legal Tool to Fight a Forced Sale
• ex-Activision CEO Bobby Kotick expressed interest in buying TikTok, floated the idea of partnering w/ Sam Altman and others
• Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies
• Karl Bode breaks it down at TechDirt
• Ed's podcast episode about Musk's Uncharitable Charity
• Elon boots a Don Lemon show after a tough interview
• Trump asked Elon Musk if he wanted to buy Truth Social
• New Google Messages Feature Lets You Turn Blue Chat Bubbles Green (or Orange, or Purple)
• Google's updated sign-in page appears to be rolling out widely
• The Disruptors
• AP launches e-commerce site with Taboola
• Last pressrun at the LA Times

Hosts: Jeff Jarvis and Paris Martineau

Guest: Ed Zitron

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• OpenAI and Elon Musk
• Something Like Fire
• Former Twitter Executives Sue Musk Over Unpaid Severance
• Spain tells Sam Altman, Worldcoin to shut down its eyeball-scanning orbs
• Life House CEO Departs After The Information's Report on Company
• South Korean streamers struggle with Twitch's sudden exit
• Here Come the AI Worms
• Open letter: A Safe Harbor for Independent AI Evaluation
• Microsoft engineer who raised concerns about Copilot image creator pens letter to the FTC
• Pixel phones just got next-gen call screening
• Complying with the Digital Markets Act
• GOOGLE PREPARES TO LAUNCH NEW APP STORE CALLED "APP MALL" FOR CHROMEOS
• Google is starting to squash more spam and AI in search results
• Google Maps is testing a feature that shows you where to enter a building
• Google Business Profile websites are now redirected to Google Maps
• Pixel feature drop: New productivity tools and advanced health features
• 6 updates to Waze to help you get around safely and conveniently
• Satellite SOS showing up on some Pixel phones
• classvsoftware/under-new-management: Detect when your installed Chrome extensions have changed owners.
• Air Force employee charged with giving classified information to woman he met on dating site
• Paying with VisionPro
• When students use generative AI, it's "cheating." When teachers use it, it's efficiency....
• Rogue Editors Started a Competing Wikipedia That's Only About Roads

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

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• Gemini and Google's Culture
• Klarna says its OpenAI virtual assistant does the work of 700 humans
• OpenAI says New York Times 'hacked' ChatGPT to build copyright lawsuit
• Tyler Perry halts $800m studio expansion after being shocked by AI
• Kids left disappointed by Willy Wonka theme park grift
• Google co-founder Sergey Brin sued over a plane crash that killed two pilots last year
• MWC 2024: Motorola's Rollable Concept phone laughs at your silly foldable
• Peering through Lenovo's transparent laptop into a sci-fi future
• Samsung unveils the Galaxy Ring as a way to 'simplify everyday wellness'
• The Humane AI Pin worked better than I expected — until it didn't
• New bitcoin spot ETF trading volume sets daily record, besting launch day
• Supreme Court Arguments on Social Media Laws Are Scrutinized
• Nevada sues to deny kids access to Meta's Messenger encryption
• Third Time's a Charm — Lunar Library Successfully Lands on the Moon — Backup of Human Civilization Will Last for Up To Billions of Years.
• AT&T is giving customers a bill credit following massive outage
• Reddit files to list IPO on NYSE under the ticker RDDT
• Jensen Huang, CEO of #Nvidia, argues that we should stop saying kids should learn to code.
• Doomsters write another letter
• Wear OS is revamping notifications to improve battery life
• Google brings Gemini to Messages and adds AI text summaries for Android Auto
• Chrome's new AI feature can help you write on the web
• Meta Wants Llama 3 to Handle Contentious Questions as Google Grapples With Gemini Backlash
• Google Maps is finally making glanceable directions widely available
• Some Kind of Heaven
• Mom's first VR
  

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

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• Introducing Molly White
• Reddit Is Said to Sign AI Content Licensing Deal Ahead of IPO
• Quora raised $75M from a16z to grow Poe, its AI chat bot platform
• End of an era: The phone book goes the way of the fax machine as it drops through doors for the very last time after almost 150 years
• Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline's chatbot
• Sam Altman Seeks Trillions of Dollars to Reshape Business of Chips and AI
• How Google is killing independent sites like ours - HouseFresh
• Walmart agrees to buy Vizio to grow ad business
• Nielsen crowns YouTube #1 Streamer in America 12 months straight!
• Untranslatable foreign words
• Molly on Sam Bankman-Fried
• Inside the Funding Frenzy at Anthropic, One of A.I.'s Hottest Start-Ups
• Kids Online Safety Act secures enough support to pass Senate
• New Google sign in
• Waze new features
• 'Rat Dck' Among Gibberish AI Images Published in Science Journal
• TikTokker vs her breakdancing bitcoin dad
• Mathematical and Puzzle Fonts/Typefaces - Leo's Pick
• chocolate 3-d printer
• 'I love to twirl the cord': the young people pushing for a landline renaissance
• wiki edit wars
• ChatGPT goes temporarily "insane" with unexpected outputs, spooking users

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Molly White

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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• rocketmoney.com/twig

• Leo opens his copy of "Shift Happens"
• Nvidia CEO calls for "Sovereign AI" as his firm overtakes Amazon in market value
• Sarah Silverman's copyright infringement suit against OpenAI will advance in pared-down form
• The rise of obituary spam
• Biden administration taps Gina Raimondo to direct new AI Safety Institute
• University of Pennsylvania announces first AI undergrad degree
• When Your Technical Skills Are Eclipsed, Your Humanity Will Matter More Than Ever
• "Societal misalignments" could pose AI dangers, OpenAI CEO says
• Zuckerberg says Quest 3 is 'the better product' vs. Apple's Vision Pro
• TikTok tunnel girl says project at Northern Virginia home is moving along
• Everyone keeps asking me to talk about this Tunnel Guy so I'm finally doing it
• New Mass Gmail Rejections To Start April 2024, Google Says
• Google One AI Premium is $19.99/month with Gemini Advanced
• A crowd destroyed a driverless Waymo car in San Francisco
• Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media
• The Web Design Museum on Instagram
• ohmygit.org
• in Finland, Windows95Man is going to Eurovision.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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• Miro.com/podcast
• kolide.com/twig

• Apple vision pro talk
• Your phone isn't listening to you: The myth and its origins
• Bluesky Opens Up
• Taylor Swift joins Elon Musk in trying to silence student who tracks celebrity jets
• UMG Pulls it's music out of TikTok
• The unlikely 3 million electric toothbrush DDoS attack
• YouTube TV Number of Subscribers Revealed in Neal Mohan Letter
• ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to form sports streaming service venture
• Blazing Saddles 50th bday
• Google Bard to become 'Gemini' on February 7 with Android app
• Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake 'chief financial officer'
• Microsoft in deal with Semafor to create news stories with aid of AI chatbot
• Amazon debuts 'Rufus,' an AI shopping assistant in its mobile app
• Did You Use ChatGPT On Your School Apps? These Words May Tip Them Off
• AI trained on a baby's experiences yields clues to how we learn language
• Elon Musk Almost Sold Tesla To Google for $11 Billion
• TikTok's grammy
• TikTok: Call the Raclette police
• wkrp | Aw Phooey
• ASCII Theater
• This impromtu Punxsutawney Phil musical on TikTok!!
• The rebuttal duet
• Pew social stats
• NYT 1985: "laptops are a small niche market, not a mass market.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, Paris Martineau, and Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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• babbel.com/twig

• Social Media CEOs Testify
• The 27 Bills That Became Law in 2023
• Google parent Alphabet ad revenue disappoints, CapEx up; shares sink 6%
• There Are 14 Billion Videos on YouTube
• Elon Musk: First Human Receives Neuralink Brain Chip
• Amazon Drops $1.4 Billion iRobot Deal; Vacuum Maker Cuts Jobs
• Rhyming AI-powered clock sometimes lies about the time, makes up words
• Police Arrest Teen Said to Be Linked to Hundreds of Swatting Attacks
• Finding The Air Cannon
• Universal Music Group Says It Will Pull Songs From TikTok
• Ring to Stop Allowing Police to Request Videos From Security Cameras
• Elon Musk's $55 Billion Tesla Pay Package Struck Down by Judge
• The Information's Creator Summit (at a Ritz!)
• Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes Take Podcast to SiriusXM for $100 Million-Plus
• HP CEO says the quiet part out loud: 'Make printing a subscription'
• In Loving Memory of Square Checkbox
• A video of Elon's Las Vegas Loop tunnel at "full capacity"
• Lumiere
• Google significantly reduces recaptcha free tier, introduces new pricing models
• Google Eases Passkey Adoption for Pixel Users
• Google quietly releases eSIM Transfer Tool — why it's a big deal
• cooked.wiki
• AI app to describe your screenshots (h/t ben evans)
• Crosswords moral panic
• The Pine Bush UFO Museum

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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Sponsors:

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Most Top News Sites Block AI Bots. Right-Wing Media Welcomes Them

Don't Fuss About Training AIs. Train Our Kids

Sports Illustrated Thrown Into Chaos With Mass Layoffs

Is it time to give up on old news?

Instagram's new 'nighttime nudges' aim to reduce teens' time on the app

The Quiet Death of Ello's Big Dreams

The FTC orders Intuit to stop promoting its products as "free" unless they are actually free for all consumers, after an FTC judge found TurboTax ads misleading

An online pastor indicted in a $1.3 million crypto scam releases video explaining that God told him to sell crypto and spend proceeds on home remodel

The TikTok 'Tunnel Girl' Is Not Alone

Rat selfies

Disney offers an elegant solution to VR's movement problem

Starting Feb 22, you can no longer use Google Groups to post to Usenet, if you were still doing that

The Traitors (on Peacock) is actually quite good

Herman Miller power boxes

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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Sponsor:

• kolide.com/twig

• Is A.I. the Death of I.P.?
• Samsung Unpacked recap
• Google Is Laying Off Hundreds of Workers in Its Voice Assistant, AR Teams
• Google Formally Endorses Right to Repair, Will Lobby to Pass Repair Laws
• Google Maps now supports Bluetooth beacons in tunnels
• Apple revises US App Store rules to let developers link to outside payment methods, feat a scary message!
• Jeff's op-ed proposing that Bell Labs be turned into a Museum and School of the Internet
• Peacock's AFC Wild Card game was the "most-streamed event ever in the US."
• Verizon To Keep Charging Controversial Fee Despite $100 Million Settlement
• Tom Coates on Meta and the Fediverse
• Fox puts its stuff on the blockchain
• Functions Google is killing in Assistant
• Google quietly updates Chrome's incognito warning in wake of tracking lawsuit
• Google updates Chrome Incognito disclaimer amid $5 billion lawsuit settlement
• Google introduces 'Circle to Search,' a new way to search from anywhere on Android using gestures
• GPT Store opens
• Glenn's thing: How Infrastructure Works
• Paris's thing: 1990s internet directories
• Jeff's Thing: swarovski's world-first AI binoculars that identify species on their own

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Glenn Fleishman

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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Sponsors:

• meraki.cisco.com/twit
• Miro.com/podcast

• Paris' big story: A Healthtech Unicorn Leaves a Trail of Clinic Complaints, Concerns Over Billing Practices
• The Information's 10th Anniversary
• Plagiarism Is Fine
• OpenAI's response to the NYT lawsuit
• Fair Use, The Internet Archive, And Why We Bother To Have Copyright Law At All
• Gaming voice actors blindsided by 'garbage' union AI deal
• Asus' new laptop has two screens and a removable keyboard
• I.R.S. to Begin Trial of Its Own Free Tax-Filing System
• EFF Unveils Its New Street Level Surveillance Hub
• FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete collected data | TechCrunch
• Rabbit R1 AI Assistant: Price, Specs, Release Date
• Layoffs at Humane AI
• Walmart debuts generative AI search and AI replenishment features at CES
• Volkswagen says it's putting ChatGPT in its cars for 'enriching conversations'
• We Need To Talk About "Chunkus"
• This Week in Tunnels (Brooklyn edition)

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paris Martineau

Guest: Cathy Gellis

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

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