TechStuff

From catapults to ballista, we explore the world of siege engines. Which ones were real? Which are fantasy? And how did they work? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last April, National Public Radio (NPR) closed out its Twitter accounts. Six months later, NPR leadership says that the impact to NPR has been negligible. Could this mean more organizations will say goodbye to Musk's platform? Plus, news about a massive DDoS attack, why we'll be seeing a lot more of AI in the near future, and an update on Sam Bankman-Fried's court case. See omnystudio.com/listener...

Intelligence researchers lament that X has become so rife with disinformation that there's no good way to use it while tracking tumultuous events like the war in Israel. The FCC is gearing up for a fight with US broadband companies. And did Disney unknowingly use an AI-generated stock image to promote Loki season 2? Plus more! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in 2020, we did a three-part series on the history of Ubisoft. What's been going on since then? And what's the story behind the troubled development of the pirate-themed game Skull & Bones? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From humble beginnings to massive success, we follow the rest of the id Software story. When did the founders leave and why? And what's going on there now? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an episode with perhaps the most SEO-friendly title in TechStuff history, we learn about how someone used an AI-generated version of YouTuber MrBeast to advertise a scammy deal, how the FTC alleges that Amazon used a secret algorithm to fix prices and squash competition, and how Facebook Messenger users proved that Meta's tool for AI-generated stickers might need a bit more work. See omnystudio...

A slightly sick Jonathan is back to talk about some past winners of the Ig Nobel Prize. Learn about how a wasabi-spraying alarm could save lives, how an inventor planned to recreate a classic cartoon trap, and how a bra might be just the thing during the next pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Open-source innovation is the future of AI. In this episode of  Smart Talks   with IBM , Malcolm Gladwell and Tim Harford discuss the open-source AI community with Jeff Boudier, head of product and growth at Hugging Face. They chat about the history and future of open-source AI, its critical importance to AI progress, the IBM watsonx partnership with Hugging Face, and how businesses can leverage o...

It's hard to hold onto information. Paradoxically, it can also be hard to get rid of it. In this episode, we look at why long-term data preservation is a challenge, and the lengths people will go to in order to clear out digital information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They made games like Doom and Quake, but where did id Software come from? In this episode, we explore the origins of a major name in computer games. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chinese-backed hackers are infiltrating computer systems by compromising routers. Some security researchers say that modern GPUs can steal pixels right off a web site. And Microsoft encounters yet more resistance regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1991, the editor of a satirical science journal launched an award for the scientifically ridiculous (and ridiculed), the Ig Nobel Prize. Learn how it all got started and some of the early tech-related prize winners! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the administration of Barack Obama, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tried to codify net neutrality into US law. Then, during the Trump administration, the new FCC stripped net neutrality out again. This week, the FCC once again tries to establish an official US stance on net neutrality. Plus more news! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On September 11th, 2023, MGM Resorts International posted that the company experienced a "cybersecurity issue." That issue links to two different hacker groups, a ransomware attack, and a similar incident that happened to another major casino company earlier in the year. This is the story so far. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is a meme? What are some of the notable tech memes, and where do they come from? How does something become a meme? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A fire in 1836 wiped out nearly every patent on file in the United States. How did the patent office rebuild, and how did a second fire in 1877 change things even more? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US founding father Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for establishing the first process in the US for filing and granting patents. But how did patent law change in those early years, and why does Jonathan say the patent office was like the Game of Thrones?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research often reshape the design and utility of AI in both business and society. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Goldstein explore the conceptual underpinnings of modern AI with Dr. David Cox, VP of AI Models at IBM Research. They talk foundation models, self-supervised machine learning, and the practical applicati...

A world where customers can buy everything they want, whenever and wherever they want isn’t 100% there—but it’s pretty close. And perhaps no company has been up for that challenge as much as Lowe’s.   In this episode of The Restless Ones, I had the chance to sit down with Seemantini Godbole, EVP and CIO of Lowe’s Companies, Inc., whose early start as an engineer has fueled problem-solving througho...

Jonathan sits down with Sudhin Shahani of Surf Air Mobility, who recently went public to talk about the future of travel. What is Regional Air Mobility? Why is Surf Air Mobility electrifying planes? And how might this affect how you handle short-range travel in the future? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was once the computing conference to attend. Today, it's rapidly fading from memory. How did Comdex begin and what happened to it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apple's iPhone 15 reveal fails to impress my producer Tari. Google's antitrust trial is underway. The government starts to ask questions about AI. And much more!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A blog site called Simplicable outlines several "fundamental principles" of technology. We take a look at a few of them, talk about what they mean, and how they relate not just to tech but how we incorporate tech into our lives. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, the US Department of Justice begins its anti-trust case against Google. Should it matter if Google commands more than 90% of the web search market share? Plus, a cybersecurity issue creates a huge headache for MGM Resorts and a former Apple employee brings RICO charges against the company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Figuring out if artificial intelligence wrote a block of text can be tricky. Some companies have created tools that claim to determine if text was likely the product of a human author or AI. But as we have learned, these tools aren't reliable. What makes it so difficult to tell who wrote what? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.