Computer Talk Radio

09/10/2026

A former Anthropic researcher chose to quit this last week, and threw a lot of people into a panic with claims that AI is out of control and could doom us all within the coming years. He wasn’t the only one, with another active employee saying similar dystopian views. This comes at a time when we have already been seeing dire warnings, but offering no solutions. Sure, there’s an idea that legislation is needed, but the other side of the coin is that other countries may advance while we stop to take a breath. This requires better minds than the legislators, and more clarity than techies obsessed with moving forward. I don’t have the answer, though, and don’t know who does.

A colleague at Anthropic responded by saying the company has no plan to address alignment risks from superintelligence

Source: Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic over self-improving AI safety fears


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Jacob Coxon quits Anthropic over self-improving AI safety fears

A former Anthropic researcher chose to quit this last week, and threw a lot of people into a panic with claims that AI is out of control and could doom us a ...

09/10/2026

Twitter was famous known for having a bird as it’s icon, and referring to tweets as their messages. When Elon Musk bought Twitter, and renamed it to X, an upstart company named Bluebird came along and said “we want the name and logo”. The claim was that X wasn’t using any of it, so someone else could, and oddly enough, they gained some ground in court this past week. X retained the Twitter portion, as they still use that in their “formerly known as Twitter” taglines, but somehow the term tweet and the bird logo went to Bluebird. Bluebird is still in early stages, stumbling as they now lose twitter.now, and have moved to tweet.app for their own short message app. Only time will tell if they succeed, as they are charging $20 or more for usage… and only have 170,000 signups, a drop in the bucket compared to X’s 557 million monthly active users.

X’s continued need of “formerly Twitter” just won it a preliminary injunction.

Source: Judge Lets Musk Keep ‘Twitter’ for Now but Forces Him to Release the Bird – CNET


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Judge Lets Musk Keep ‘Twitter’ for Now but Forces Him to Release the Bird – CNET

Twitter was famous known for having a bird as it's icon, and referring to tweets as their messages. When Elon Musk bought Twitter, and renamed it to X, ...

09/10/2026

Flock will continue in the news, as well Axon, and other ALPR competitors as negative sentiment grows against these cameras along the roads. Last week, a New Mexico man, after his local city cut ties with Flock, decided to pull up 10 of these and turn them into his local sheriff’s office. Instead, the sheriffs found they only owned two of these, and local HOAs owned the rest, so they arrested him on felony charges. This wasn’t his first offense, so that’s not a good approach. A Wisconsin based Navy veteran, after legally recording a traffic stop is throwing a federal lawsuit against Waukesha County, after the local sherrifs there tracked him over 100 times using Flock. The argument is retaliation for legal activities, and that continues to underscore a growing concern that Flock and it’s competitors are unchecked tools for malicious-style activity.

The New Mexico man livestreamed himself taking one of the cameras down.

Source: Man Arrested After Showing Up at Police Station With a Truck Full of Flock Cameras


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Man Arrested After Showing Up at Police Station With a Truck Full of Flock Cameras

Flock will continue in the news, as well Axon, and other ALPR competitors as negative sentiment grows against these cameras along the roads. Last week, a Ne ...

09/10/2026

This one get’s wonky, so I’m keeping some terminology simple. This past week, some folks calling themselves white-hat-hackers drained 4,000 bitcoins out of a Bitcoin sidechain, or simply a variation of Bitcoin itself called Liquid. They leveraged a new bug, then told the owners about it, and then put back 3400 bitcoins, keeping the remaining as a self-titled reward of about $47 million. Now, I mentioned they called themselves white-hat-hackers. Let’s define the hats… out of the cowboy movie eras where the good guys wore white, villains wore black, and the remaining had grey. We’ve used these terms for years. White hat hackers work with permission, and keep nothing for themselves. Grey hats work in a less altruistic manner, and may ask for or keep a small finders fee. Black hats keep the plunder and move on. At a $47 million pricetag, or about 15% of the original value, one has to wonder if the hats were indeed the deep dark black of space.

Hat color is one of several lingering questions.

Source: Hackers Drain $320 Million From Bitcoin’s Liquid Network, Keep $47 Million for Themselves in ‘White Hat’ Operation


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Hackers Drain $320 Million From Bitcoin’s Liquid Network, Keep $47 Million for Themselves in ‘White Hat’ Operation

This one get's wonky, so I'm keeping some terminology simple. This past week, some folks calling themselves white-hat-hackers drained 4,000 bitcoi ...

09/10/2026

This week, a large YouTuber channel announced they had proof that hackers could get into your LG smart TV and gain all of the conversations in the room. This was then extended to all smart TVs, and then LG denied that claim. Claims went flying that everyone is listening to our every spoken word. I think the biggest concern is hackers, not the big manufacturers, as they simply don’t have the bandwidth to leverage this kind of intrusion. Even with AI becoming mainstream, the interest in whether you want macacroni or hotdogs for dinner isn’t going to be leveraged soon. This does mean that people are thinking about the future, and we could have problems then, but destroying your big screens this weekend is not the route to go. Don’t overreact, but don’t ignore the potential either.

Researchers say that they exploited the microphone and content recognition features of an LG TV to listen to user conversations.

Source: LG Denies Its Televisions Record Ambient Conversations for Ad Targeting – CNET


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LG Denies Its Televisions Record Ambient Conversations for Ad Targeting – CNET

This week, a large YouTuber channel announced they had proof that hackers could get into your LG smart TV and gain all of the conversations in the room. Thi ...

09/05/2026

This weeks Computer Talk Radio broadcast has been uploaded at http://computertalkradio.com/podcastCTR/?."name=ctrpodcast-2026-09-05.mp3

09/05/2026

This weeks Computer Talk Radio broadcast has been uploaded at http://computertalkradio.com/podcastCTR/?."name=ctrpodcast-2026-08-29.mp3

09/03/2026

Unlike Apple, and many of the other hardware manufacturers, where devices are announced annually, AI models get updated far more frequently. This week was an oddity, however, with new models from all over. OpenAI announced GPT-6 Astra, Claude came up with Fable 5.1 (and Mythos for the special users), Meta released Muse Spark 1.3, and Google brought forth Gemini 3.8 in their family of models. This constant shift chases after more improvements, each on their own platforms, and represents an amazing progression. OpenAI is now on the 15th release, and their 4th year starts in November. Our experience with these is going to constantly change, and hopefully for the better.

It’s been a busy week for AI developers.

Source: GPT-6 Stole the Show, but Anthropic, Meta and Google Also Had New AI Models This Week – CNET


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GPT-6 Stole the Show, but Anthropic, Meta and Google Also Had New AI Models This Week – CNET

Unlike Apple, and many of the other hardware manufacturers, where devices are announced annually, AI models get updated far more frequently. This week was a ...

09/03/2026

Do people frequently complain that you used to be happier? Do you doomscroll at lunch? A new study at Texas A&M found that employees who consume negative news during the workday are more likely to stay focused in that negative space. Now, you may think it’s only the workspace, but think instead about the other ramifications in your life. This impact upon us, through all aspects of our life should be concerning. I’ve long said that it’s important to take a break, and to also ensure that you don’t fall into deep dark rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, or other areas of the internet where we forget about the ones closest to us. I personally set short timelines, and use relaxing distractions instead of focusing on things that have minimal impact on my own life.

The effects of consuming negative news during the workday can linger in employees’ minds long after they stop scrolling.

Source: Doomscrolling at work wastes time, but the real cost is what happens after – Texas A&M Stories


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Doomscrolling at work wastes time, but the real cost is what happens after – Texas A&M Stories

Do people frequently complain that you used to be happier? Do you doomscroll at lunch? A new study at Texas A&M found that employees who consume negativ ...

09/03/2026

AT&T filed a lawsuit against Charter, known as Spectrum to home users, over the use of the term “fiber.” Wait… is it over the word itself, as I have fiber internet? OK, now before you go stir-crazy, it’s part of a long-standing feud between the two, where AT&T delivered fiber direct to your house, while Spectrum uses fiber only up until the last mile before they convert to coax. This distinction is the real battle, over truth in advertising. Even though the ads and contracts have smaller print, it’s still not truly fiber going to the home, and AT&T feels that it competitively hurts them. The best details to look for on any internet service provider, however, are your upload and download speeds, which tell the real differences.

Two of the country’s largest internet service providers are going to court over the use of the word “fiber” in advertising.

Source: AT&T Sues Charter Over ‘Fiber’ Internet – CNET


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AT&T Sues Charter Over ‘Fiber’ Internet – CNET

AT&T filed a lawsuit against Charter, known as Spectrum to home users, over the use of the term "fiber." Wait... is it over the word itself, a ...