A year after the LA fires, we spiral into AI surveillance & protest safety to Meta ads, Disney spying, Grok’s legal black hole, robotaxis at dusk & Tim Cook’s $74M payday. Toss in MTV nostalgia, holiday gadgets & tech support nightmares, Stranger Things & Bowie - we we cut through the slop.

Hallucinating AI recaps, Tesla’s Autopilot under legal fire, TikTok’s shell game, Reddit fights age bans, iRobot sucks up Chpater 11 and “slop” crowned Word of the Year. Add orbital junk, fake books & Gen-X sideeye - it’s a packed hour of tech cynicism for the holidays.

Job Hugging is here, OpenAI’s in damage control mode, the AI bubble is overheating the grid, Instagram pricing games, Waymo gives birth and Uber is selling your data. Also: Disney’s AI dreams, EU smackdowns, and Jason without coffee. The tech world is on Fyre!

Spotify Wrapped thinks we’re 82, Palantir thinks war crimes are bad for business, and Google’s AI is wiping hard drives. Netflix buys Batman, Fallout S2, ROMCON, Knives Out, scientists invent the blackest fabric ever and solar flares require a software update for your plane. Buckle up, new episode now live!

The DOGE is dead, Apple and HP are blaming AI for layoffs, teens are lonely (talking to bots!), greedy tech bros are pouring millions into fighting state AI regulations. Welcome to the tech industry, where nothing is a scam until the money runs out.  Also, an ASMR spa? We need a drink. 🍷

From Larry Summers fleeing the OpenAI board to Nvidia tanking, Bitcoin crashing, Grok praising Elon, and a Tesla robotaxi driver asleep at the wheel, yeah, tech is weird. New trailers, open-sourced Zork, broken keyboards, and Björk turning 60. It’s a packed episode so come embrace the chaos with us.

Seriously, after sports betting and social media finally ruined everything, we discuss why AI is still a total fraud and the easiest way to cure all disease is just to stop watching the Victoria Beckham documentary; we also mourn the end of a Star Wars magazine no one knew existed; and we finally figure out that the AI transcription service was just a couple of guys typing really fast.

The tech world is eating its own as mass layoffs hit and the "Big Short" guy bets against the AI bubble; billionaires are busy with illegal schools and trillion-dollar paydays while Meta is earning a fortune on fraudulent ads; at least we have baking championships and a new Commodore 64 remake to distract us from the coming apocalypse.

Amazon fires 14,000 to “embrace AI”; Meta torches billions; Elon recalls Cybertrucks and builds Grokipedia; Microsoft wins OpenAI’s trillion-dollar lottery; Spotify’s still fascist; Grammarly rebrands, Affinity sells out, and Apple’s adding ads to Maps—welcome to the age of Enshittification.

Corporate overlords are ushering in an "infrastructure of meaningless" with AI, automation, and tech that enables scams and creepiness; thankfully, there's still great TV (Gen V, Slow Horses, The Diplomat) to help us cope while we save up for our Tilly Hat; R.I.P. Soft Cell's Dave Ball, and may the sweet scent of spirit duplicator ink forever grace our memories.

As California tries to regulate AI companion chatbots, the inventor of "Vibe Coding" admits the practice is "net unhelpful"; Elon Musk's companies demonstrate continued disregard for rules while a crypto kingpin meets a cinematic end; Windows 10 is slated for obsolescence, and Wi-Fi 8 is already on the horizon; the guys give a huge recommendation for the Gen V series.

The Grumpy Old Geeks delve into government hypocrisy and corporate incompetence as Open AI/Nvidia/AMD are just one massive bubble of floating money; an app to track ICE agents was pulled, only for ICE to make its own surveillance team; Taylor Swift got caught using AI slop for a new album promo; Rivian still hates Apple Car Play; the Echo Show is a constant ad screen; and Peter Cawdron's new book is an unwanted tribute to Kurt Vonnegut.

The world is collapsing under the weight of AI, fake outrage, and inevitable lawsuits; all movies now have "old movie pacing"; please send money so we can keep complaining.

TikTok diplomacy drags on; Amazon pays up; Palantir sells butt shorts; AI is both savior and Antichrist; YouTube flirts with misinformation rehab; Disney jacks up prices; furries ride the Metro.

The internet continues its chaotic march with a TikTok deal looming and LimeWire buying Fyre Fest; layoffs are hitting AI companies across the board, including Google and Elon's xAI, while new age verification laws threaten app stores and online platforms; nudists are feuding with SpaceX, and fans are turning on Elon over his recent antics, leading to a Tesla engineer's spectacular resignation and an NHTSA investigation into Tesla's faulty doors; we're catching up on Foundation S3 and Upload, enjoying the nostalgia of Freaky Friday, and looking forward to The Witcher S4 and a new Lilith Fair documentary, all while dealing with mediocre iOS updates, Meta's dystopian tech, and the surprising success of the Carrot App musical; meanwhile, we're diving into books on meditation, reality, and stand-up comedy, lamenting the demise of Publishers Clearing House winners, and mourning the retirement of Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw and the passing of Robert Redford.

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks, we dissect the digital dystopia where Tesla's market share tanks and Elon loses his richest-man crown; AI copyright lawsuits abound, from Anthropic's rejected settlement to Apple's alleged pirated book use, while Google admits the open web is dying and pushes ads into AI answers; meanwhile, Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey reunite for army tech, Meta whistleblowers spill child safety secrets, and AI-generated content and programming woes plague the tech landscape, culminating in a discussion of MTV's aging audience, AI-powered music, and a pettable Poké Ball Tamagotchi that we all secretly want.

The internet's still busted and AI-driven chaos (from creepy chatbots to automated crime) is running rampant; Elon Musk continues his dystopian clown show with crashing Teslas, trillion-dollar dreams, and questionable Neuralink brain surgeries; all while old-school tech and media offer a fleeting distraction from the ongoing absurdity.

AI is a litigious, safety-challenged mess of bad math and questionable content; tech giants are making dubious business moves, hiking prices, and fostering toxic workplaces; and our entertainment landscape is a chaotic blend of cancellations, remakes, and drone-delivered burritos, proving the future is just as janky as the past.

The great AI delusion is upon us as corporate pilots fail and Wall Street panics, while we also dissect the latest tech grifts from Volkswagen, Robinhood, and the ever-litigious Elon Musk.

This week the geeks wade through the wreckage of modern tech, from the Tesla Diner's instant failure and the disastrous GPT-5 launch that created an army of digital mourners; they mock the billionaire class for building apocalypse bunkers while their AIs feud over who is more full of it; they pour one out for the end of AOL Dial-Up's iconic screech; and find solace in analog escapes like a thousand-dollar Lego Death Star and premium Star Wars playing cards, fully embracing their new Grumpy Old Gardener identities.