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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• 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

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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

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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

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What happens if your internet provider gets the blame for what you download? This week, the panel unpacks a billion-dollar copyright battle at the Supreme Court that could upend how we all use the web.

• Justice Alito Makes The Most Sense, Or This Week At The Supreme Court In The Cox-Sony Copyright Case
• First Porn, Now Skin Cream? 'Age Verification' Bills Are Out of
• These new FDA-approved glasses promise to slow nearsightedness in kids. Here's how they work
• Amazon Tests U.S. Ultrafast Delivery Offering
• What the heck is going on at Apple? | CNN Business
• Meta's Zuckerberg Plans Deep Cuts for Metaverse Efforts
• Meta acquires AI device startup Limitless
• Instagram mandates total return to office for employees in 2026
• Is Netflix Trying to Buy Warner Bros. or Kill It? - Slashdot
• School Cell Phone Bans and Student Achievement
• RoboCop statue rises in Detroit: 'Big, beautiful, bronze piece of art'
• People who talk with their hands seem clearer, more persuasive - Fast Company
• (a petition to cancel Twitter's trademark for abandonment)

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Amy Webb, Cathy Gellis, and Brian Woolf

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