Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence?

Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances
Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence
Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers
OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance
Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools
Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives
Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model
OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+
Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park
U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills
Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion
U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages
FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped
Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues
School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks
MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access
RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply
CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype
Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa

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:

The Culture War on Table Top w/ Incel Riot Studios: The J. Burden Show Ep. 396

The J. Burden Show

Shifting careers from illustration to board games

The AI-powered Podcast Player