Elon Musk faces a multi-billion dollar verdict after a California jury finds his tweets misled Twitter shareholders, raising the stakes for tech CEOs with unchecked social media influence. Plus, CBS kills its legendary radio news service while podcasting explodes, signaling a dramatic shift in how America consumes, trusts, and pays for news.

• CBS News Shutters Radio Service After Nearly a Century
• A US appeals court puts on hold an earlier ruling that had blocked Perplexity from using its agentic shopping tool to shop on Amazon's marketplace
• FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
• The 49MB Web Page
• Microsoft unveils MAJOR improvements coming to Windows 11 this year — movable Taskbar, reduced RAM usage, less AI and ads, and much more CONFIRMED: "We are evolving how Windows is built behind the scenes to raise the quality bar"
• Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access in June
• Meta changes course on Horizon Worlds VR shut-down
• Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5's generative AI glow-ups
• Jury agrees that Musk's tweets during Twitter takeover misled investors
• After three months, Samsung is ending sales of the $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold
• 200,000 Devices Erased? Pro-Iran Hackers Hit US Firm With Data-Wiping Attack
• Japan to allow 'proactive cyber-defense' from October 1st
• Sears Exposed AI Chatbot Phone Calls and Text Chats to Anyone on the Web
• Arizona AG files criminal charges against Kalshi over 'illegal gambling'
• Major League Baseball Steps Into the Prediction Markets, Strikes Deal With Polymarket
• Polymarket is opening a bar where you can drink and watch the world unravel in real time
• It's been 20 years since the first tweet
• Project Hail Mary is movie medicine
• The futurist who helped define tech trend reports just killed them (literally)
• This new cassette player has USB-C and Bluetooth, in case you want to ditch Spotify

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Janko Roettgers, Dan Patterson, and Lisa Schmeiser

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:

• meter.com/twit
• shopify.com/twit
• outsystems.com/twit
• preview.modulate.ai

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

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
• preview.modulate.ai
• monarch.com with code TWIT
• spaceship.com/twit
• threatlocker.com/twit

Between copyright-free AI art, government blacklists, and data brokers run amok, this episode spotlights the fierce new battles for privacy, agency, and control in our digital lives. Plus, hear Cory Doctorow break down why the AI gold rush may be headed for a colossal crash.

• Pentagon Officially Tells Anthropic It Is a Supply Chain Risk
• Trump moves to blacklist Anthropic AI from all government work
• If AI is a weapon, why don't we regulate it like one?
• Sam Altman's greed and dishonesty are finally catching up to him
• ChatGPT user base surges 350% in 18 months as it nears 1 billion weekly active users
• AI-generated art can't be copyrighted after the Supreme Court declines to review the rule
• Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens
• Grammarly is using our identities without permission
• Alphabet Grants Sundar Pichai Stock Awards Worth Up to $686 Million
• Google vs Epic Games ends with Android app stores, lower fees
• Google Ends Its 30% App Store Fee, Welcomes Third-Party App Stores - Slashdot
• Xbox CEO confirms next-gen 'Project Helix' console will play PC games
• Motorola Partners With GrapheneOS - Slashdot
• Data Broker Breaches Fueled Nearly $21 Billion in Identity-Theft Losses
• CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples' Movements
• Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester
• COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time
• South Korean Police Lose Seized Crypto By Posting Password Online
• Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers
• Charter Gets FCC Permission To Buy Cox, Become Largest ISP In the US
• How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents
• Anne Wojcicki's Plan to Revive 23andMe: Rich Donors, Improved Tests—and Maybe Even MAHA
• Bundle of human neurons hooked to silicon learns to stumble through Doom
• 10% of Firefox crashes are caused by bitflips
• Seagate Just Unleashed 44TB Hard Drives

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Joey de Villa and Cory Doctorow

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
• joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT
• meter.com/twit
• NetSuite.com/TWIT
• bitwarden.com/twit