Today in Tech

With a second Trump presidency on the horizon, many are wondering whether this will save TikTok from a complete U.S. ban (with a Jan. 19 deadline approaching) or if it continues to move ahead. Guest co-host Jack Gold joins the show to discuss this and other tech news from recent weeks, including OpenAI getting into the agentic AI space, AMD’s layoffs and what this means for any Nvidia competition, and why people still use horrible passwords.

With more states and countries filing lawsuits against TikTok, the tide appears to be turning against companies in the social media space to get them to do more about protecting children and teens from addiction and self harm. Dr. Lisa Strohman, founder and CEO of the Digital Citizen Academy, talks about the latest movements in the TikTok lawsuits, but also provides warnings about other areas of technology that parents need to stay aware of when it comes to people looking to harm kids (gaming platforms, AI and VR ‘dark sides’).

Apple Intelligence is about to be unleashed to iPhone users, but will its limited features appeal to customers who want to do more AI on their smartphones? RJ Bardsley joins as guest co-host to discuss this issue and other recent technology news, including some new possible reasons for return-to-office mandates, why the government doesn’t want companies paying ransomware, and whether more business events are including “forced fun” activities such as pickleball and lazy river innertube races.

David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health, shares insights on the future of health data tracking, emphasizing the explosion of health monitors by Big Tech. He discusses the benefits of voice analysis for mental and physical health, and the generational shift in attitudes towards personal health monitoring. Liu highlights the importance of local data processing for privacy and security, while also tackling ethical concerns and the risks of misuse. As health data becomes ubiquitous, he calls for transparency and responsibility from both consumers and tech companies.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are all investing millions of dollars into nuclear power, driven by a need for more power for both data centers and artificial intelligence processing. RJ Bardsley joins the show as guest co-host to discuss this stories and other tech news from recent weeks, including the good/bad news week for SpaceX and Tesla robots, and whether the logistics industry really cares about the porch pirate epidemic.

Ramon Llamas, Research Director for mobile and AR/VR at IDC, shares his insights on the future of augmented reality glasses. He discusses the implications of Meta's Orion AR prototype and its impact on industry giants like Apple and Google. The conversation also delves into how AR can revolutionize training and practical uses across various sectors. Llamas highlights the balance between aesthetics and functionality while considering the consumer's demand for engaging content in AR technology.

A series of lawsuits by state attorneys general spells more bad news for TikTok, whose use of algorithms that help kids get addicted to the app is at the heart of many of these lawsuits. Guest co-host RJ Bardsley joins the show to discuss this story and others, including whether robotaxis will ever take off, the dangers and scariness of infrastructure hacking, and why we should all use an AI tool to help us apply for 30,000 jobs on LinkedIn.

A recent survey of large enterprises about their AI implementation shows that companies continue to be concerned about security (hallucinations, data leakage and privacy), a shortage of in-house expertise, and the lack of compliance and regulations in the space. Adnan Masood, Ph.D., chief architect for AI & Machine Learning, UST, chats with Keith about how companies can overcome some of these hurdles, and what might be on the horizon with new LLMs and AI models.

The old-school AI assistants are now evolving into fully fledged AI agents, which can perform more action-oriented tasks than just giving answers, thanks to perception tools, sensors and the use of large language models. Ritu Jyoti, GM and group vice president, AI and data, IDC, joins the show to discuss how AI agents represent the new phase of artificial intelligence for consumers and businesses moving forward.