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TikTok’s latest feature lets college students find and connect with classmates, Meta is shaking up it AI org again, and Google pays out $30M Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

In a move reminiscent of Facebook’s early days, TikTok is launching a new feature that allows college students to find and connect with others on their campus. The feature, called Campus Verification, lets users add their college campus to their TikTok profile and browse a list of students at their school. Also, On Friday, The Information reported that Meta was preparing to tear down its existing AI org and reorganize it into four new groups. Four days later, the change was made official with an internal memo, as reported by Bloomberg and The New York Times. The changes were announced by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as chief AI officer in June. And, a lawsuit alleges that Google collected data from children watching YouTube videos; while this kind of data collection has become common, it remains illegal to collect data from children under the age of 13, per the longstanding COPPA legislation.

Though Google will settle the case, the company denies these allegations.

It’s possible that up to 45 million people in the U.S. could be eligible to receive small payments from this class action, which encompasses anyone in the U.S. who watched YouTube while under the age of 13 between July 1, 2013 and April 1, 2020.

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X’s declining Android app installs are hurting subscription revenue plus Spotify’s latest feature Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

Elon Musk’s X is struggling on Android devices in terms of new installs, even while App Store downloads grow, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. In July 2025, X downloads on Google Play saw a significant decline, as new installs dropped by 44% year-over-year worldwide, even as iOS downloads grew by 15%. In other news, Spotify is introducing a new feature that allows subscribers to create more professional, personalized playlists. On Tuesday, the company launched a custom transitions feature that lets you either automatically add transitions between a playlist’s tracks or customize your own using preset options like fade, rise, or blend, along with other options.

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‘Crazy conspiracist’ and ‘unhinged comedian’: Grok’s AI persona prompts exposed, also Grammarly gets a design overhaul with multiple AI features Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

xAI’s website for its Grok chatbot is exposing the system prompts for several of its AI personas, including a “crazy conspiracist” that seems designed to handhold a user into beliefs that “a secret global cabal” controls the world. Also, the new interface adopts a block-first approach, letting you insert tables, columns, separators, lists and headers. You can also add rich text blocks to highlight information, add tips, or alerts. A sidebar hosts the AI assistant, which can summarize text, answer your questions, and provide writing suggestions.

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‘Stranger Things’ creators may be leaving Netflix plus AI stuffed animals and Anthropic says some Claude models can now end ‘harmful or abusive’ conversations Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

Earlier this week, Variety and other Hollywood publications reported that Matt and Ross Duffer, the brothers who created “Stranger Things” (and wrote and directed many episodes), were in talks to sign an exclusive deal with Paramount (now under the ownership of David Ellison’s Skydance). Then on Friday evening, Puck’s Matthew Belloni posted that the Duffers had in fact “made their choice” and were going to Paramount. Also, do A.I. chatbots packaged inside cute-looking plushies offer a viable alternative to screen time for kids? That’s how the companies selling these A.I.-powered kiddie companions are marketing them, but The New York Times’ Amanda Hess has some reservations. And, Anthropic has announced new capabilities that will allow some of its newest, largest models to end conversations in what the company describes as “rare, extreme cases of persistently harmful or abusive user interactions.” Strikingly, Anthropic says it’s doing this not to protect the human user, but rather the AI model itself.

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Bluesky rolls out massive revamp to policies and Community Guidelines and Louisiana's attorney general sues Roblox Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

Two years after launching, social network Bluesky is revising its Community Guidelines and other policies, and asking for feedback from its users on some of the changes. The startup, a competitor to X, Threads, and open networks like Mastodon, says its new policies are meant to offer improved clarity and more detail around its user safety procedures and the appeals process. Also, the attorney general of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of failing to implement basic safety controls and making the site the “perfect place for pedophiles." The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by Attorney General Liz Murrill, alleges that Roblox “has and continues to facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the sexual exploitation of Louisiana’s children.”

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Co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI departs the company plus a worthy music experience in a Waymo Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

Igor Babuschkin is leaving xAI less than three years after he co-founded the startup with Elon Musk, following a series of scandals at company.

Also, riding in the back of a Waymo that’s autonomously navigating the busy streets of San Francisco and doing so with relative ease thanks to 29 external cameras, six radar, and five lidar sensors all feeding into an AI model is nice. For just 15 bucks, you get to experience what feels like a miracle of modern technology, and yet, there’s a nagging thought you can’t shake.

The music sucks in here.

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How we found TeaOnHer spilling users’ driver’s licenses in less than 10 minutes Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

Exclusive: A dating gossip app for men exposed thousands of users' personal data, including scans of driver's licenses. CEO Xavier Lampkin won't say if he plans to notify affected users about the app's security lapse.

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How a once-tiny research lab helped Nvidia become a $4 trillion-dollar company Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

Nvidia's research lab developed the technology that took the company from a video game GPU startup to a $4 trillion-dollar company.

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Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to ‘all three branches of government’ for $1 Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

Anthropic’s escalation – a response to OpenAI’s attempt to undercut the competition – is a strategic play meant to broaden the company’s foothold in federal AI usage.

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Ford throws out Henry Ford’s assembly line to make low-cost EVs in America Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

The automaker is investing $2 billion into the Louisville Assembly Plant with a $30,000 EV pickup slated for 2027.

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