Grumpy Old Geeks

The inevitable decline of civilization takes center stage as the show kicks off with the miserable results of the FACEBOOK SETTLEMENT, confirming Brian's $4.01 payout, followed by a discussion of the SPORTS BETTING SCANDAL, where MLB players are rigging games over prop bets, confirming that gambling is now actively killing sports; moving to the news, the guys celebrate the DENMARK SOCIAL MEDIA BAN...

This episode proves that nothing gold can stay, especially your 401k, as we kick things off with the revelation that October saw the worst tech layoffs since 2003, all while "Big Short" genius Michael Burry decided to bet a billion dollars on the inevitable AI bubble bursting. The villains of the week are legion: the FCC is officially making it easier for internet companies to charge us even more...

This week’s episode started with the usual existential sigh before tumbling straight into the corporate bloodbath. Amazon chopped 14,000 jobs under the noble banner of “embracing AI,” which CEO Andy Jassy insists isn’t about money—despite swimming Scrooge McDuck–style in profit. GM’s cutting 1,700 workers, YouTube’s dangling “voluntary” buyouts, and economists can’t decide if AI is killing jobs or...

We open with a sobering follow-up: the future is less about AI toast (though Red Dwarf predicted it) and more about a soul-stripping "infrastructure of meaningless" after an AWS outage proved how fragile the internet is. Corporate overlords, like Elon Musk, are taking note: he finally addressed Starlink's use by Asian scam syndicates, but his attention is mostly on superintelligence, which Wozniak...

This week, Guest Host Donovan Adkisson joins Jason DeFilippo to wade through the usual tech chaos; California is attempting to regulate the inevitable AI companion chatbots, which is timely, considering ChatGPT is about to launch erotica (with age verification, natch). Turns out, most of the world is less stoked about our algorithmic future than Silicon Valley is. Speaking of chaos, Elon Musk’s Bo...

The Dutch courts finally did something useful: they told Meta to quit force-feeding algorithmic slop to everyone, so Facebook and Instagram users might actually see posts from friends again—if they can remember who those are. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s Sora 2 rollout is the kind of chaos that makes you wonder if the company replaced QA with a TikTok filter, as outrage videos flood the internet faster tha...

The world is a dumpster fire, confirmed. Following California's landmark AI safety bill SB 53, the head of Nvidia is allegedly "quaking in his boots"—which is a good sign, unlike the news that the "Nirvana Baby" Spencer Elden's lawsuit was finally dismissed. Meanwhile, corporate America continues its pivot to chaos: Spotify shuffled its execs, Meta is charging UK users for ad-free Facebook and Ins...

Grumpy Old Geeks is back with another round of righteous griping and eyebrow-raising headlines in Episode 715: Our Wizard Lies . We kick things off in FOLLOW UP, where TikTok is still the geopolitical hot potato that both the U.S. and China promise to sort out “someday, maybe,” while Wired ’s global editorial director explains how tech’s growing political clout is playing out under Trump. From the...

The internet continues its chaotic march, with a TikTok deal potentially happening (for real this time, maybe), while LimeWire bought the Fyre Fest brand, because more viruses are always a great idea. Corporate America is going full AI-bro with massive layoffs at Fiverr, xAI, and Google, while OpenAI reveals people are using ChatGPT for pretty much everything but coding. Age verification is coming...

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks, we're diving headfirst into the digital dumpster fire, starting with follow-up that will make you wonder if the rich are finally getting their comeuppance. It seems Tesla's market share is plummeting, and Elon Musk has been unceremoniously knocked off as the world's wealthiest person. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Microsoft are flirting with new partnership terms, and OpenAI...

The internet's still broken, folks, and apparently, AI's here to make it more awkward. Intel caught a break from Uncle Sam's CHIPS Act, cool for them, not so much for those 'flashing warning signs' in the job market. Meta's been letting celebrity chatbots run wild (and creepy), Midjourney's getting sued by Warner Bros. for stealing IP (who'da thought?), and OpenAI thinks an AI hiring platform is a...

Remember when we thought AI was going to bring about utopia or Skynet? Turns out, it's mostly just a bunch of fancy spreadsheets, a potential bubble ready to burst (looking at you, Nvidia), and a legal minefield. We're talking wrongful death lawsuits because a chatbot encouraged suicide, OpenAI admitting their 'safety controls degrade,' and then secretly siccing the cops on users. Plus, the Citize...

Remember all that "AI is gonna change everything" nonsense the kids were screaming about just a few months ago? Yeah, about that. It turns out 95% of corporate generative AI pilots are, to use a technical term, completely shitting the bed, according to a report from MIT. This shocking revelation has sent Wall Street into a tizzy, wiping trillions off the market as investors suddenly realize they'v...

Well, strap in, because this week the tech world decided to set itself on fire just for kicks. First up, Elon Musk’s much-hyped Tesla Diner in Los Angeles is already a culinary disaster, slashing its menu faster than you can say “over-promise and under-deliver.” Speaking of rolling garbage fires, the Cybertruck now apparently sounds like Fred Sanford’s junk pickup rattling down the street, a fitti...

Alright, buckle up, buttercups, because this week's "Spicy Mode" episode of Grumpy Old Geeks proves that while things change, they mostly stay the same—just with more AI and less common sense. First up in FOLLOW UP , some poor schmoe automaker actually got a federal exemption for automated vehicles . Because what could possibly go wrong when we let robots drive? Then we dive headfirst into IN THE...

While Brian frolics somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, Jason brings in cyber-sleuth Dave Bittner for a jam-packed episode covering everything from Gen X’s slow descent into obscurity to furries, feds, and face-scanning your way into porn. The guys start with a salute to the late, great Tom Lehrer—a math nerd with a piano and zero tolerance for BS—before diving into the avalanche of cyber screwups...

This week, we're drowning in the genius of our tech overlords as Elon Musk opens his Tesla diner, complete with $17 hotdogs and a blocked apartment view, while his $9 billion Neuralink startup claims it’s a "disadvantaged" business. Not to be outdone, SpaceX is mad about other people's space junk, France is criminally probing X for algorithm manipulation, and Meta is giving the EU's AI code of pra...

Kicking things off, Jack Dorsey—a man with too much time on his hands—has vibe-coded his beard into an insecure messaging app that the company admits you shouldn't trust... yet. Meanwhile, if you want a piece of a legendary disaster, the Fyre Festival brand sold for a mere $245k after some shady bidding that might be a "shitty agentic AI" at work. In the world of our future robot overlords, Nvidia...

Apparently, you can’t keep a good grifter down, as Billy McFarland ’s seven-figure Fyre Fest deal collapsed, so he’s hawking the brand on eBay like a box of junk. Meanwhile, Indeed and Glassdoor are laying off over 1,000 workers, probably to pay for the AI that’s jacking up our electric bills. Speaking of AI, a Tesla robotaxi crashed itself while Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot went full Nazi , which is...

This week, we saddle up for another bumpy ride through the dystopian tech clown show. We kick off with the surveillance state’s greatest hits: ICE raids sweeping L.A., a website literally called FuckLAPD.com that lets you ID cops by their mug shots, and a Norwegian tourist who learned the hard way that having a JD Vance chipmunk meme on your phone is now grounds for deportation. Pro tip: if you’re...

In this week’s episode, Trump delays the TikTok ban for the third time—because procrastination is the new policy—and Twitter’s old sign finds new purpose as desert firewood. Tesla continues its streak of “hold my beer” engineering by blowing past a school bus in FSD tests, then mysteriously dumps Cybertrucks in Jersey parking lots while prepping a July 4th factory nap. Meanwhile, Elon’s xAI is inc...

This week, we light a candle for lost legends and torch a few bad takes. In Follow Up , Molly White reminds us that giving a damn still matters—despite the rising tide of apathy (and flaming robotaxis in downtown L.A.). Protesters across the country chant “No Kings!” while Elon does his best impression of a bootlicker groveling back to Trump. Meanwhile, we take a moment to reflect on 2025’s greate...

On this week’s episode of Grumpy Old Geeks , we kick things off with the glorious meltdown of two of our least favorite Bond villains: Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Not only is their public pissing match tanking Tesla’s market cap, but now Trump’s launching a crypto wallet to… fund freedom? Or at least funnel it straight to his latest shell game. Meanwhile, someone at DOGE admitted the U.S. governme...

In this week’s “we told you so” edition, we kick things off with the latest AI faceplant—go ahead, Google “Is it 2025?” and try not to spit coffee on your keyboard. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Zuckerberg’s brilliant idea to loosen content moderation has, shocker, led to more harassment and violent content. Elsewhere in tech dystopia: Texas is trying to ground all minors off social media, Germany want...

This week, we kick things off with the return of Space Karen’s meltdown tour: Elon Musk got flustered in an interview, sputtered out one-word answers, and called the journalist an “NPC,” which is rich coming from the guy whose only real upgrade since PayPal is yelling “freedom” in meme fonts. Meanwhile, 23andMe sold your DNA to Regeneron at a bankruptcy auction, proving once and for all that your...