Tech News Weekly (Video)

In this episode, Mikah Sargent is joined by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy of The Verge to discuss NVIDIA's work on an AI platform for American Sign Language and her review of the Skylight Calendar Max. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac talks about the new iPhone 16e, and Scott Stein of CNET discusses the end of the Humane AI Pin.

- NVIDIA is collaborating with the American Society for Deaf Children and creative agency Hello Monday to develop Signs, an online platform that uses AI to help people practice and understand American Sign Language. The platform aims to create a validated dataset to account for variations in signing and provide real-time feedback to learners.

- Jennifer reviews the Skylight Calendar Max, a 27-inch digital touchscreen display for managing family schedules. She finds the AI-powered Sidekick feature, which can parse various data formats to create calendar events, to be incredibly useful and a potential glimpse into the future of AI in smart home devices.

- Zac Hall discusses the newly announced iPhone 16e, which replaces the iPhone SE 3 and iPhone 14. Priced at $599, it offers a modern design with Face ID and an A18 chip for Apple Intelligence features, making it a compelling upgrade for those with older iPhones.

- The Humane AI pin is being sold to HP for $116 million, and users will lose access to its services on February 28th, 2025, with no recourse or refunds for most customers. Scott Stein shares his experience reviewing the AI pin, its shortcomings, and his thoughts on the future of AI-augmented devices and their relationship with smartphones.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Guests: Zac Hall and Scott Stein

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It's an AI-filled episode of Tech News Weekly! Is AI making us think less critically than before? Are AI chatbots accurately summarizing news? A BBC study finds that they are not. Google plans to use machine learning to estimate a user's age. Thomson Reuters wins the first major AI copyright case within the US.

• Amanda Silberling of TechCrunch joins Mikah Sargent this week! Amanda talks about a study on how over-reliance on AI tools can lead to diminished critical thinking skills.


• Mikah shares a BBC study that looked into AI chatbots and how they performed poorly at summarizing news, with over half of the summarizations containing glaring errors.


• Emma Roth of The Verge joins the show to discuss Google utilizing machine learning to estimate users' ages based off their browsing history and YouTube activity.


• And Mikah talks about Thomson Reuters winning the first big US AI copyright case.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Amanda Silberling

Guest: Emma Roth

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In this episode of Tech News Weekly, Mikah Sargent and CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti talk the latest developments in self-driving tech, Sonos' work on a new streaming box, an AI-assisted Beatles song winning a Grammy, and the current state of Meta's Quest platform according to developers.

- Uber is expanding its partnership with Waymo, allowing people in Austin to summon a Waymo robo-taxi through the Uber app. Abrar shares her experiences with self-driving cars and discusses the evolving relationship between Uber and Waymo.

- Sonos is reportedly working on a new streaming box codenamed "Pinewood," which includes an HDMI switch to address inconsistencies in smart TV firmware and software. The device is expected to cost between $200 and $400, and it aims to provide a full-featured streaming sound setup.

- An AI-assisted Beatles track, "Now and Then," won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance, sparking conversations about the role of AI in music and art. The US Copyright Office has stated that AI tools used to assist in the creative process don't undermine the copyright of the work.

- Developers are struggling with declining sales and visibility on the Meta Quest app store, despite record revenue for Meta Reality Labs. Meta's focus on its own Horizon Worlds app seems to be at the expense of traditional VR games. Some developers find it more profitable to sell on other platforms like Steam and PlayStation VR.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Abrar Al-Heeti

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Bookshop.org is now offering a Kindle alternative. How hackers are hijacking WordPress sets to put out malware. And how people are freaking out about DeepSeek since it made a huge splash this past week.

• Dan Moren is joining Mikah Sargent this week! Dan talks about how Bookshop.org is now selling e-books, but Dan has concerns about how this could present technological challenges with DRM and app store fees.


• Mikah shares how hackers are hijacking WordPress sites and using them to push out malware for both Windows and Mac machines.


• Mikah also talks about how DeepSeek has made a huge splash in the technology world since this past Sunday and what has happened with the technology community and AI as a whole.


• And Eric Migicovsky, founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, joins Mikah to talk about exciting news with Pebble.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Dan Moren

Guest: Eric Migicovsky

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A massive data breach affected millions of students, parents, and teachers. Someone discovered security flaws within Subaru vehicles. And everything that was announced at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025.

• Emily Forlini is joining Mikah Sargent this week! Emily talks about a massive security incident with software company PowerSchool, in which 62 million students' personal data was stolen, along with parents and teachers.


• Mikah talks about how a security researcher discovered a security flaw within a Subaru vehicle that gave them access to its location data through web vulnerabilities.


• And Patrick Holland from CNET joins the show to discuss everything unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, including the S25 phones.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Emily Forlini

Guest: Patrick Holland

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