Total Leo (Audio)

Think you know the story of AI's rise and fall? This episode upends conventional wisdom with guest historian Thomas Haigh, who reveals why the infamous "AI winter" might just be a myth and why the field's biggest failures fueled today's breakthroughs.

Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI

NVDA, GOOGL, META: AI Spending Forecast to Hit $2.53 Trillion This Year

Nvidia, Eli Lilly just say yes to making drugs together, using Vera Rubin GPUs

Claude Cowork Exfiltrates Files

We put Claude Code in Rollercoaster Tycoon

How Generative AI is destroying society - by Gary Marcus

Anthropic rewrites Claude's guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have 'some kind of consciousness or moral status'

Claude's new constitution

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Thomas Haigh

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This week, the hosts go deep on out-of-band updates, unwanted "innovations," and the uneasy cost of tech's latest gold rush. Plus, securing a Microsoft account is not as hard as some think, and neither are passkeys once you get past the jargon. And for developers, AI Dev Gallery offers a fascinating glimpse at what you can do for free with AI used against a CPU, GPU, or NPU.

Windows 11

Microsoft issues an emergency fix for a borked Windows Update. Right. A fix for a fix.

Hell freezes over, if only slightly: Microsoft quietly made some positive changes to forced OneDrive Folder Backup. Donʼt worry, itʼs still forced (and appears to be opt-in, but isnʼt). But you can back out more elegantly. So itʼs opt-out, not opt-in, but a step forward. Plus, a new behavior

Windows 11 on Arm PCs can now download games from the Xbox app (previously only through the Insider program)

Over 85 percent of Xbox games on PC work in WOA now

Prism emulator now supports AVX and AVX2 and Epic Anti-Cheat, and there is a new Windows Performance Fit feature offering guidance on which titles should play well.

Beta: New 25H2 build with account dialog modernization, Click to Do and desktop background improvements. Not for Dev, suggesting itʼs about to move to 26H1

Notepad and Paint get more features yet again. Notably, these updates are for Dev and Canary only, suggesting these might be 26Hx features (then again, versions don't matter, right?)

AI

Just say no: To AI, to Copilot, and to Satya Nadella

Our national nightmare is over: You can now (easily) hide Copilot in Microsoft Edge

ChatGPT Go is now available worldwide, ads are on the way because of course

Wikipedia partners with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, more on AI

Xbox & gaming

January Xbox Update brings Game Sync Indicator, more

Solid second half of January for Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft will likely introduce a free, ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier because of course

Tips & picks

Tip of the week: Secure your Microsoft account

App pick of the week: AI Dev Gallery

RunAs Radio this week: Ideation to Implementation with Amber Vandenburg

Liquor pick of the week: Estancia Raicilla

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Soaring RAM prices are about to hit your security gear where it hurts, and the fallout could change what's protecting your network. Find out who's about to pay and why the AI gold rush is reshaping more than just your server specs.

RAM pricing to affect enterprise firewall equipment.

Anthropic provides sizeable support to Python Foundation.

The FTC clamps down on GM's secret sale of driving data.

"ANCHOR" replaces "CIPAC" for industry-government sharing.

Germany planning to legislate total access to global data.

Grubhub becomes the latest ShinyHunters extortion victim.

Let's Encrypt's 6-Day certs are available to everyone.

Iran planning to permanently take itself off the Internet.

HD Tune before and after a SpinRite Level 3 refresh.

Some great listener feedback, and

More trouble from GhostPoster malicious browser extensions

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1061-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

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You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS.

iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner.

Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release.

The icon history of various Apple software.

New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database.

Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features.

Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches.

The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet.

Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon.

Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center.

Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade.

As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people.

In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb.

End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta.

Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage.

Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results

Picks of the Week

Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt

Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB

Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell

Guest: Stephen Robles

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Claude isn't just the hottest name in AI right now—it's quietly ushering in a wave of ultra-personalized, vibe-coded software that could transform how we build and use tech in 2026. Find out why coders and normies alike are obsessed and what's coming next.

Claude Cowork Exfiltrates Files

Behind the Curtain: The AI future has arrived

Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World

Musk wants up to $134B in OpenAI lawsuit, despite $700B fortune

Elon Musk's Grok 'Undressing' Problem Isn't Fixed

I asked Grok's AI to undress me after X's new limits. It's still easy on the app.

Senate passes Defiance Act for a second time to address Grok deepfakes

Instagram says it fixed the issue that sent password reset emails

Instagram AI Influencers Are Defaming Celebrities With Sex Scandals

French Court Orders Popular VPNs to Block More Pirate Sites, Despite Opposition

Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia's New Social Media Ban

TikTok has quietly launched a new micro drama app called PineDrama as the category picks up steam in the US

Creator income inequality is rising as top influencers rake in big paydays from brands

Managers on alert for "launch fever" as pressure builds for NASA's Moon mission

Senate passes minibus bill funding NASA, rejecting Trump's proposed cuts

Pentagon Device Linked To Havana Syndrome

Zuck#: A programming language for connecting the world. And harvesting it

Amazon is buying copper harvested by bacteria for its data centers

'Are You Dead?' is now the top paid App Store app in China

Danish dev delights kid by turning floppy drive into easy TV remote

Cinemark will fill almost anything with popcorn this weekend—but there's a catch

Happy Birthday, Wikipedia: We need you now more than ever

Pluralistic: The world needs an Ireland for disenshittification (17 Jan 2026)

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Harper Reed and Abrar Al-Heeti

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