This week in tech

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

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
• canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT
• monarch.com with code TWIT
• Melissa.com/twit
• redis.io

• AI video generation
• TWiT turns 20
• Harper Reed on vibe-coding
• Job loss and AI
• Apple's iPhone 16 event
• Amy Webb's crazy husband talks about his anonymous computer

Host: Leo Laporte

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

Sponsor:

• zscaler.com/security

After a year tangled in political drama, AI hype, and regulation battles, the TWiT crew explains how many of tech's "biggest stories" simply fizzled into nothing or left us with new headaches by year's end.

• Year-end tech trends: AI, politics, and security dominated 2025
• Major stories faded fast: TikTok saga, political tech drama, DOGE scandal
• TikTok's ownership battle—Oracle, Trump donors, and US-China tensions
• China tech fears: banned drones, IoT vulnerabilities, secret radios in buses
• Rising political pressure for internet privacy and media literacy reform
• Surveillance and kill switch concerns in US grid and port infrastructure
• Convenience vs. privacy: Americans trade data for discounts and ease
• Age verification, surveillance, and flawed facial recognition across countries
• Discord's ID leak highlights risks of rushed compliance with privacy laws
• Social media's impact on kids pushes age-gating and verification laws
• ISPs monetize customer data, VPNs pitched for personal privacy
• Global government crackdowns: UK bans VPN advertising, mandates age checks
• The illusion of absolute privacy: flawed age gates and persistent tracking
• AI takes over: explosive growth, but profits elusive for big players
• Arms race in LLMs: DeepSeek's breakthrough, OpenAI/Meta talent bidding war
• Ad-driven models still rule; Amazon's playbook repeated in AI
• Humanoid robots and AGI hype: skepticism vs. Silicon Valley optimism
• AI-generated art, media, and the challenge of deepfake detection
• Social platforms falter: Instagram and X swamped by fake or low-value content
• Google's legal, regulatory, and technical woes: ad tech trial, Manifest V3 backlash
• RAM price spikes and hardware shortages blamed on AI data center demand
• YouTube overtakes mobile for podcast and video viewing, Oscars move online
• The internet's growth: Cloudflare stats, X vs. Reddit, spam domain trends
• Weird tech stories: hacked crosswalks, Nintendo Switch 2 Staplegate, LEGO theft ring
• Sad farewell: Lamar Wilson's passing and mental health awareness in tech
• Reflections on the year's turbulence and hopes for a better 2026

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Mikah Sargent, Paris Martineau, and Steve Gibson

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
• zscaler.com/security
• Melissa.com/twit
• ventionteams.com/twit
• auraframes.com/ink

Are we witnessing an AI-fueled gold rush or the early signs of an epic crash? Listen to these hard-hitting discussions on bubbles, breakthroughs, and the real impact behind Silicon Valley's AI obsession.

• Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year': the Architects of AI
• The AI Wildfire Is Coming. It's Going to Be Very Painful and Incredibly Healthy.
• 'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges
• Trump Pretends To Block State AI Laws; Media Pretends That's Legal
• It's beginning to look a lot like (AI) Christmas
• Amazon Prime Video Pulls AI-Powered Recaps After Fallout Flub
• Could America win the AI race but lose the war?
• Google Says First AI Glasses With Gemini Will Arrive in 2026
• Border Patrol Agent Recorded Raid with Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses
• The countdown to the world's first social media ban for children
• US could demand five-year social media history from tourists before allowing entry
• Reddit making global changes to protect kids after social media ban - 9to5Mac
• There are no good outcomes for the Warner Bros. sale
• Paramount CEO Made Trump a Secret Promise on CNN in Warner Bros. Convo
• Whatnot's Schlock Empire Shows Digital Live Shopping Can Thrive in America
• The Military Almost Got the Right to Repair. Lawmakers Just Took It Away
• Apple loses its appeal of a scathing contempt ruling in iOS payments case
• Japan law opening phone app stores to go into effect
• Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable - Slashdot
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sweeps The Game Awards — analysis and full winners list
• Microsoft promises more bug payouts, with or without a bounty program
• An ex-Twitter lawyer is trying to bring Twitter back

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Iain Thomson, Owen Thomas, and Jason Hiner

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:

• shopify.com/twit
• NetSuite.com/TWIT
• ventionteams.com/twit
• zscaler.com/security
• helixsleep.com/twit