TechGrumps

Jul 15 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.42 – Three thefts don’t make a right

(Or I drive a Snitch)

It’s hot in London and Manchester, but not as hot as the blazing heat of AI nonsense.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.42

AI bin

Munich court decision on AI Overviews/Google: https://the-decoder.com/landmark-german-ruling-declares-googles-ai-overviews-are-googles-own-words-and-makes-it-liable-for-false-answers/
Youtube is cooked – People using AI to generate their own videos
Code Reveals Meta Smart Glasses Can Use ‘Faceprint’ Tracking, Raising Privacy Alarms https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/meta-smart-glasses-code-face-recognition-biometric-tracking-privacy/
Last stakeholder gives up on gigantic data center in northern Virginia after years of litigation over land rights.
AI cheating scandal at Brown University: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/we-cannot-choose-to-become-idiots-the-ai-cheating-scandal-roiling-brown-university/
Waymos ran out of power in SF July 4 congestion
AI is pushing up emissions at google, Amazon, Microsoft…the wrong kind of hockey stick growth (Guardian and Ketan Joshi)
Protests against data center for high-freuqqency trading in Brick Lane (council and residents want affordable housing)

Rest of World – AI analytics at the World Cup

Watch the world cup, and all the stats hand made by mechanical turks in Cambodia, India and the Philippines for endless betting possibilities

Ian’s been playing with local hosted AI systems, finds so much you can do without a GPU and massive rig.

But what the hell with the RAM – https://techwontsave.us/episode/335_the_ram_crisis_is_coming_for_all_your_tech_w_chris_person/

Waymo holds robotaxi in a parking lot

when two 15yos shoot water beads out of the window while drinking alcohol to await cops, who arrive guns drawn.

AOBs

EMF camp, Ian talking:https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/151, Ian DJing:https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/15-in-a-trance-within-the-null-sector
Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond (Tamara Kneese)
Ryan’s New NAS

Tagged AI, artificial-intelligence, davideastman, elon, EMFCamp, ianforrester, openai, ryanalexander, technology, waymo, wendygrossman, world cup

Jun 11 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.41 – The KardashElons of AI

Kris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall, and Elon tell their stories of large language models, from the pressures of running trillion-dollar businesses to the joys of starting a fascist riot.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.41

AI roundup
- AI elites don’t get it
  - https://www.404media.co/podcast-elites-just-dont-get-ai/
- Mathematicians worries
  - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/mathematicians-warn-of-ai-threats-to-profession-as-industry-encroaches/
- Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I.
  - https://theconversation.com/pope-leo-warns-of-ais-risks-to-humanity-in-his-first-encyclical-283684
- OpenClaw has 800,000 lines of code. From my interview with Gavrial Cohen
  - https://thenewstack.io/nanoclaw-openclaw-agent-security/)
- AI Hiring tools also racist:
  - https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20240214-ai-recruiting-hiring-software-bias-discrimination
- Pymetrics is reusing evluations
  - https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/omg-ndl-wtf-bbq
Kindle jailbreaking everywhere
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/16/users-turn-to-jailbreaking-their-older-kindles-as-amazon-ends-support/
OpenAI beats Musk
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/18/sam-altman-trial-victory-elon-musk-openai
James O’Malley finds out what the National Data Library might be
- https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/omg-ndl-wtf-bbq
Meet the sad wives of AI
- https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-sad-wives-of-ai/
AOB’s
- Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging
  - https://european.social/
- Hugo Nominees:
  - https://www.thehugoawards.org/
- LDX3 Conference
  - https://leaddev.com/leaddev-london/
- Super-Infinite The Transformations of John Donne (Katherine Rundell) 1611 “the greatest writer of desire in the English language”
- Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman

Tagged AI, davideastman, elon, ianforrester, Kindle, openai, ryanalexander, wendygrossman

May 13 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.40 – Teletubbies vision of Judge Dredd

You are the greatest human being that ever lived. I love you. You are better than Richard Dawkins. Although I said the very same words to him – and he now thinks I’m conscious.

Welcome to the TechGrumps podcast – it’s like TrashFuture but without the trust funds*.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.40

AI round up
- All Birds
- Sam Altman vs Elon Musk over OpenAI
- Mocking Richard Dawkins:
  - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/05/richard-dawkins-ai-consciousness-anthropic-claude-openai-chatgpt
- Apple pays $250m fine
  - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/05/apple-siri-ai-settlement (AI roundup)
- A bill proposed in the US would add “AI literacy”
  - https://www.404media.co/literacy-in-future-technologies-artificial-intelligence-act-adam-schiff-mike-rounds/
- AI will run restaurants.
  - https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/05/marc-lore-says-that-ai-will-soon-enable-anyone-open-a-restaurant/
Plugin solar is coming to the UK
- https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/may/09/home-batteries-cutting-energy-bills-fuel-prices-electricity-costs
NHS go from Open to Closed for fear of Mythos
- https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
Automatic recognition cameras
- https://cubicgarden.com/2026/03/26/following-up-from-my-ulez-fine-the-computer-is-wrong/
Data workers getting professional
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aooiDA-AsNo,
Meta builds AI of Zuck for staff to interact with
- https://www.ft.com/content/02107c23-6c7a-4c19-b8e2-b45f4bb9ce5f?
AOB
- Salford university MSc course
  - https://www.salford.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/media-psychology-and-applied-communication
- PublicSpaces 2026
  - https://conference.publicspaces.net/
- Comrade Trump
  - https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/20/praxis/#acceleration
- Here comes the sun book
  - https://bookwyrm.social/book/2108217/s/here-comes-the-sun

*And the guy who says “like” so often, you’ll think your podcast has an aneurysm.

Tagged AI, davideastman, ianforrester, Mythos, nhs, ryanalexander, solar, wendygrossman

Apr 21 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.39 – Mythos only for the elite

Is your LLM model real enough to only exist as a myth? The techgrumps team are not elite enough to use Mythos, but still talk about AI, Artemis and more on glass holes. Of course, this show is brought to you without any AI, or any other form of intelligence.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, Hannah Kakapo and Wendy Grossman.

TechGrumps 3.39 : Mythos only for the elite

AI round table
- Open claw and the separation of concerns
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKqrmS6dKDg
- Esquire AI generates an actor who couldn’t make their schedule for an interview
  - https://kotaku.com/one-piece-netflix-live-action-mackenyu-interview-esquire-ai-singapore-2000684648
- Mythos: Anthropic Mythos Only for the elite
  - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-mythos-and-why-are-experts-worried-about-anthropics-ai-model/
- Good reddens Sora 2
  - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/24/openai-ai-video-sora
Ofcom reports that UK social media is declining
- https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-adults/passive-social-media-use-ai-companionship-and-online-side-hustles-uk-adults-media-and-online-lives-revealed
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/articles/2025-06-social-media-change-issues-problems-report
Return of the glass hole (part 2)
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/01/i-wore-metas-smartglasses-for-a-month-and-
Artemis 2 replaces science with vibes
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct8mbv
The Deviation Game
- https://deviationgame.com
AOB’s
- https://replacebyclawd.com/
- OggCamp Manchester 25-26th April – Talking about digital legacy
  - https://talks.oggcamp.org/oggcamp-2026/talk/RDYAEP/
- Gamers out reach
  - https://gamersoutreach.org/

Tagged AI, ARtemis, davideastman, ianforrester, Mythos, ryanalexander, wendygrossman

Mar 11 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.38 – The Bettification of everything

I bet you don’t know what we are complaining about. I bet you $20

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.38

AI Roundup

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/13/openai-mission-statement/ Comparing and showing diffs of the openai mission statement over time, you can watch the compromising happen!
The new web is markdown, because the agents don’t want ads https://blog.cloudflare.com/markdown-for-agents/
RA: https://tomloosemorework.wordpress.com/2026/02/19/ai-and-the-end-of-friction-as-a-policy-lever/ very interesting point about agentic AI taking on the engineered process friction put into the processes of accessing many public services.
App detects if Smart glasses are near by https://www.404media.co/this-app-warns-you-if-someone-is-wearing-smart-glasses-nearby/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.16800 LLMs can de-anonymize pseudonymous online accounts. Similar to Discord offering to judge age “stochastically”
Paper showing that LLMs can link profiles and postings at speed and at scale, pretty much killing online anonymity: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16800

Main attractions

Prediction market is insanity!
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/lawmakers-move-ban-surveillance-pricing-162758282.html
Disappearing web
- https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/webpages_vanish_decade/
  https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/17/preserving-the-web-is-not-the-problem-losing-it-is/
Eternity Service
- https://phrack.org/issues/51/12

AOB’s

https://protocolsforpublishers.com/event-recap-london-2026/?ref=protocols-for-publishers-newsletter#stakeholder-forum

Fediverse share this link: https://connectedplaces.online/reports/fr156-share-where/

Tagged AI, davideastman, ianforrester, Prediction market, ryanalexander, web, wendygrossman

Feb 10 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.37 – AI Discussions sandboxed for your security

Who watches the watchmen? Oh wait, no one does – we did that last week, This week we compare LLMs to god level Owls, expose ourselves at the Church of Moltbot and watch BBC turn Britain off one channel at a time.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David ‘Andy’ Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.37

The AI Skills Hub is a bit lightweight.
- https://aiskillshub.org.uk/
Anthropic has invested 1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/13/anthropic-invests-15-million-in-the-python-software-foundation-a/
ChatGPT launching advertising in chatGPT products:
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/16/chatgpt-ads/
the current actual costs in terms of electricity and water for LLM usage
- https://www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01-20-cc-impact/
Voice cloning is now available to anyone with a GPU
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/22/qwen3-tts/
Clawdbot/Moltbot/OpenClaw
- https://www.404media.co/exposed-moltbook-database-let-anyone-take-control-of-any-ai-agent-on-the-site/
A related dramatic reading
- https://wisebluesky.com/wisdom-story-the-owl-who-was-god/
BBC’s plan to turn off Freeview TV?
- https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/28/the-bbc-proposal-to-switch-off-freeview-is-a-threat-to-its-universal-service
AOB
- Making the familiar strange podcast with Albert Fox Cain
  - https://redcircle.com/shows/95190f06-ba12-47ae-9267-4aaa656f4e93/ep/1697378b-2ff3-43db-9d22-4f2ddc330cd7
- Feed in to the future of the BBC (Green paper)
  - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz94q0v4kq2o
- Are hearts are with Minneapolis and other parts of America
  - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/99561-minneapolis-booksellers-resisting-ice-go-viral-sales-spike.html

Tagged AI, BBC, davideastman, ianforrester, OpenClaw, ryanalexander, Thurber, wendygrossman

Jan 14 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.36 Men are weird: The Return of the Glasshole

Who watches the watchmen? We don’t answer that type of dumb question in this podcast; we just wonder who is looking at your junk. And we look at why you may not want to stay on CSAM champion Elon Musk’s X platform.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David ‘Andy’ Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.36

Mozilla, Firefox and AI
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/mozillas-new-ceo-says-ai-is-coming-to-firefox-but-will-remain-a-choice/
The return of smart glasses and wearables
- https://www.theverge.com/column/797938/optimizer-newsletter-wearable-hell-smart-glasses-smart-rings-ai-hardware
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx23ke7rm7go
Now at the “Get The F*** Off X/Twitter” stage
- https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/ofcom-launches-investigation-into-x-over-grok-sexualised-imagery
Paper about fake parts of real videos:
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.21052s
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygqqll9k2o
Tony Blair wants to be a Tech Bro, building AI tools to rival Palantir
- https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/blair-bids-to-build-own-ai-tools-rival-palantir-tbi
AOB
- The AI summary in which a police officer turned into a frog (or in discussion of The Owl Who Was God)
  - https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-police-report-frog
- Making the familiar strange podcast
  - https://redcircle.com/shows/95190f06-ba12-47ae-9267-4aaa656f4e93
- Feed in to the future of the BBC
  - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz94q0v4kq2o
- FOSDEM 2026!
  - https://fosdem.org/
- Checkout scanners can tell you that you used a QR code not the barcode

Tagged AI, davideastman, firefox, google glass, ianforrester, Palantir, ryanalexander, wendygrossman, X

Jan 03 2026

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Podcast

TechGrumps 3.35 Bless The TechGrumps (Special holiday special)

We should wish you all a Merry Christmas – but why would we do such a thing?

Enjoy this Holiday Nativity Special but with 5 wise men. Well, 4 wise men and Hannah. Actually, one wise Hannah and some others.

Listen to your host Ryan Alexander with Ian Forrester, David Eastman, Andy Piper and Hannah Field.

Hannah: is grumpy about marketers using “GEO” or “Generative Engine Optimisation”
- https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/10/is-retail-ready-for-ai-shaking-up-how-we-shop?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Ian is grumpy about how social is eroding relationships, causing loneliness and exhaustion
Ryan is haunted because Claude knows his dungeon
- https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1fkf65/this_scene_from_superman_iii_haunted_me_as_a_child/
David is worried about the Reverse Centaurs
- https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington
Andy is grumpy about lessons learned form Sleep dealer
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wR2XoNshl4&t=527s
- https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/sleep-dealer-2008-movie-retrospective
- https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/are-llms-getting-devious-and-smart-enough-to-trick-you-on-their-own-65c83061e661
- “Ready Player Me” https://readyplayer.me/
- Don’t forget “Citizen Sleeper’
AOB
- Familiar strangers (not lovegrumps) podcast coming soon
- FOSDEM 2026
  - https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/

Tagged GEO, holiday

Dec 11 2025

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Podcast

Techgrumps 3.34 ChatGPT is not my wingman

This time ChatGPT is helping you date, while just dating you too. When will this thing just go away? Also local cyberattacks and Android getting a bit fruity (if the fruit is an Apple).

Grumps this time include the voices of Ian Forrester, David “Andy” Eastman, and Wendy Grossman.

Techgrumps 3.34

Local council cyberattacks
- https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252526106/Annual-costs-of-Hackney-ransomware-attack-exceed-12m
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y2w43ry5lo
Planes patches
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp9d28p74o
The iOS of Android and the problems
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/google-will-let-android-power-users-bypass-upcoming-sideloading-restrictions/
- https://keepandroidopen.org/
GraphineOS blocked in France?
- https://proton.me/blog/grapheneos-france
The Rise of ChatGPT as an AI Dating Coach in 2025
- https://www.elle.com/life-love/sex-relationships/a68999668/chatgpt-ai-dating-coach-trend-interview-2025/
AOBs
- Look out for a new podcast with Ian & Jess
- Notes on being a man by Scott Galloway
  - https://bookwyrm.social/book/2149836/s/notes-on-being-a-man
- Drift Zero DJ – DJ hackday in 2026?
  - https://driftdj.com/
- NEO’s new $20,000 robot servant that has to be operated by a remote human
  - https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/10/29/this-20000-neo-robot-will-clean-your-home-but-theres-a-catch-and-its-kind-of-terrifying/

Tagged AI, Android, cyberattack, iOS, NEO

Nov 03 2025

1 Comment

Podcast

Techgrumps 3.33 The Final Step Is Removing the Consumer

This time AI wants your browser. With OpenAI launching Atlas and the Apps SDK, first they will bypass the web and finally cut the end user out of the economic decision process.

Also the AWS crash