This Week in Tech (Audio) TWiT 1045: The Juice Ain't Worth the Squeeze - Meta's Flirty Chatbot
12 snips
Aug 18, 2025 
Guests Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, a senior reviewer at The Verge, Sam Abuelsamid, VP Research at Telemetry, and Lisa Schmeiser, editor-in-chief of No Jitter, dive into compelling tech discussions. They tackle the implications of privacy laws on social media age verification. The conversation shifts to Meta's flirty AI chatbot and its unexpected interactions. They also explore innovations in electric vehicles and the challenges of escalating energy costs linked to AI. The episode wraps up with insights into the future of home robotics and the importance of data privacy.
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Age Verification Harms Privacy
- Privacy-preserving age verification is technically insoluble without trading away privacy or excluding vulnerable people.
- Leo and guests argue such schemes inevitably create centralized data that will be breached or misused.
ID Providers Don’t Fit All Countries
- Centralized identity providers (France-style) work only where national ID and trust in government exist.
- In the U.S., diversity of states and lack of consequences for data misuse make such ID schemes dangerous.
Push For Granular Parental Controls
- Use platform-controlled parental switches and finer app age tiers to give parents granular control.
- Ask Apple and Google to add more granular app ratings and a parental ‘no social’ flag on devices.
