Is Obsolescence Planned, or is It Natural? - DTNS 5356
Summary
Host Tom Merritt and guests Molly Wood, Roger Chang, and Amos High debate whether tech companies intentionally engineer planned obsolescence, with Wood arguing business incentives guarantee it while others view it as natural innovation. The panel also discusses the ethics of Apple’s new Siri Recap feature, debating if users should seek permission before AI summarizes conversations. The episode covers news on Motorola’s new device, Waymo’s Singapore expansion, and unsealed documents in the NYT v. Microsoft copyright case.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: Total Human supplements
Sponsor: AT&T Business
Sponsor: Lexus
Sponsor: HeyGen AI
Show intro and weekly big questions
Motorola teaser for new device
Waymo expands to Singapore
Anthropic launches AI biology lab
OpenAI bug bounty and UPI integration
Google Home MCP early access
NYT v. Microsoft/OpenAI copyright docs
US bill on piracy blocking infrastructure
Quantum computing atom movement research
Sponsor: ChatGPT Work
Sponsor: AT&T Business
Sponsor: Cologuard Plus
Debate: Do companies plan obsolescence?
Promo: Live with It and Patreon
Sponsors: Kohler and Wise
Debate: Ethics of AI conversation summaries
Debate: Is there a need for smart glasses?
Len Peralta illustration segment
Outro and credits
Sponsor: Wayfair
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