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A Starlink satellite exploded and left 'trackable' debris, Honda will pause production due to a chip shortage, and Trump Mobile's T1 still doesn't exist, but the company is now selling refurbished phones Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

-Orbital tracking company LeoLabs assessed that the issue was caused by an "internal energetic source rather than a collision with space debris or another object." SpaceX said it's working with NASA and the US Space Force to track the remains of the object.

-Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Honda will suspend production in Japan on January 5 and 6. (Honda didn't specify the affected factories.) In addition, all three of the automaker's Guangqi Honda Automobile plants in China will shut down from December 29 to January 2.

-Gizmodo noticed that Trump Mobile is selling these other brands' phones for the same cost, or sometimes more, than the same refurbs from other retailers. Seems pretty par for the course. NBC News opted to order one of the T1 phones in August to track its development.

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Google's Gemini 3 Flash model outperforms GPT-5.2 in some benchmarks Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

So much for OpenAI's triumphant return

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Snoring detection and respiratory health tracking in Ultrahuman's Ring Air, the FTC investigating Instacart over its AI pricing tool, and China's prototype EUV machine Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

-The Ultrahuman Ring Air now has the capacity to track snoring and general respiratory health. This is thanks to proprietary technology called Respiratory Health PowerPlug, which is basically a suite of audio analysis tools along with some "advanced biomarker tracking" and AI.

-A recently published pricing experiment study showed that the Instacart app gave different users different prices for the same items from the same store location at the exact same time. Some of the testers saw prices up to 23 percent higher than what the other testers saw, though the average difference for the same list of items was around 7 percent.

-A report from Reuters claims that scientists in China have created a prototype of a machine that could eventually be used to produce semiconductor chips capable of powering artificial intelligence.

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ChatGPT image generation is now faster and better at following tweaks Dec 17, 2025

Show notes

Plus, there's a new dedicated sidebar with presets and prompt suggestions.

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WBD rejected Paramount's hostile bid, Amazon may invest $10 billion in OpenAI, and a judge ruled that Tesla used deceptive language to market Autopilot Dec 17, 2025

Show notes

-Warner Bros. Discovery's board has formally rejected the $108 billion takeover bid from Paramount Skydance. WBD said it remains committed to its $82.7 billion deal with Netflix, which would close some time next year, pending regulatory approval.

-Amazon is in discussions with OpenAI to invest $10 billion in the company while supplying more of its AI chips and cloud computing services, according to The Financial Times. The deal would push OpenAI's valuation over $500 billion but is likely to raise more questions about the company's circular investment agreements involving chips and data centers.

-Back in 2022, the California DMV accused the automaker of using deceptive language to advertise those products and making it seem like its vehicles are capable of level 5 autonomous driving. Tesla has since added the word “Supervised” to the name of its Full Self-Driving assistance technology.

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Kindle's in-book AI assistant can answer all your questions without spoilers Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

But the catch is authors and publishers can't opt out of having this feature in their works.

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Google is retiring its free dark web monitoring tool, a judge blocked Louisiana's social media age verification law, and Ford is not sunsetting the F-150 Lightning Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

-In Google’s email announcement, however, it said it was discontinuing dark web reports because “feedback showed that it did not provide helpful next steps.”

-A Louisiana law that would have required social media platforms to verify the ages of their users has been blocked by a judge.

- Ford announced plans this week to reboot the F-150 Lightning as an EREV hybrid. An EREV is similar in concept to a plug-in hybrid but with a larger battery that's topped up by a gas generator — the powertrain itself is all electric.

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OpenAI signs deal to bring Disney characters to Sora and ChatGPT Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

OpenAI and Disney are partnering to bring Disney characters to Sora (OpenAI)

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Grok is spreading inaccurate info again, Google pulled AI-generated videos of Disney characters from YouTube, and iRobot has filed for bankruptcy Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

-Grok's confusion seems to be most apparent with a viral video that shows a 43-year-old bystander, identified as Ahmed al Ahmed, wrestling a gun away from an attacker during the incident, which, according to the latest news reports, has left at least 15 dead.

-Google seems to be cracking down on the use of Disney characters in AI-generated videos on YouTube after it was hit with a cease and desist letter.

-iRobot expects the deal to close next February, but says it will continue to operate "with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships or ongoing product support."

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Meta is reportedly working on a new AI model Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

Mark Zuckerberg has been shaking up the company's AI strategy as it pursues "superintelligence."

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