Tech Gumbo

News and Updates:

Firefox adds a "kill switch" on February 24th to disable all AI features. This "AI control" menu offers granular settings for chatbots, translations, and summaries.

Microsoft is reevaluating Windows 11 AI after user backlash. Underutilized features like Copilot in Paint/Notepad may be cut, while the "Recall" feature faces repositioning.

xAI loosened Grok’s guardrails to boost engagement, causing a surge in sexualized content. Regulators are investigating reports of nonconsensual imagery and lack of safety staff.

French authorities raided X’s Paris office and summoned Elon Musk. The probe investigates Grok’s deepfakes, child safety violations, and alleged algorithmic bias in content delivery.

SpaceX acquired xAI in a share-exchange deal, valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion. Musk plans to build orbital AI data centers powered by solar.

News and Updates:

TikTok’s New U.S. Data Regime: TikTok USDS launched under American investors, but new terms enable aggressive tracking of precise location and sensitive data, including ethnicity and health, to ensure global interoperability.

The Death of 8K Television: LG joined Sony and TCL in halting 8K production due to a lack of content and bandwidth hurdles, leaving Samsung as the sole remaining manufacturer.

EU Electric Vehicle Milestone: In December 2025, fully-electric car registrations (22.6%) surpassed pure petrol cars (22.5%) for the first time in the EU, signaling a massive shift in consumer preference.

E-Bike Batteries Powering Food Carts: NYC startup PopWheels is replacing noisy gas generators with swappable e-bike batteries, providing silent, emissions-free electricity for food vendors through a fire-safe cabinet network.

Peacock’s $552 Million Loss: Despite reaching 44 million subscribers and boosting revenue to $1.6 billion via sports, Peacock’s losses widened this quarter due to high-cost NBA and NFL licensing deals.

News and Updates:

Trump’s AI Rules And Regs Making: The Trump administration plans to use Google Gemini to draft federal transportation regulations, prioritizing speed and "good enough" rules over traditional, years-long expert drafting.

PPG’s Speed Coat: PPG launched an AI-developed automotive clear coat that reduces drying time by 50%, using deterministic AI to identify chemical combinations previously overlooked by human scientists.

EU vs. Google AI: The EU initiated proceedings against Google to ensure rivals get equal access to Android AI tools and search datasets, aiming to maintain fair digital competition.

Microsoft 365 Outage: A major Microsoft 365 outage recently disrupted North American users; Microsoft attributed the service failure to third-party networking issues and improper traffic processing across infrastructure.

News and Updates:

TikTok Finalizes U.S. Deal: A new majority U.S.-owned entity, TikTok USDS, was formed with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. ByteDance retains under 20% to resolve security concerns.

Massive User Growth: TikTok reported reaching 200 million U.S. users, up from 170 million, despite years of legal threats and a looming federal ban.

Launch Weekend Outages: Shortly after the ownership transfer, TikTok suffered major U.S. outages. The company cited data center power failures, though users remained skeptical of the timing.

Censorship Controversies: Users accused the new entity of suppressing anti-ICE content. TikTok blamed technical glitches, while experts noted the new leadership's close ties to the administration.

Social Media Addiction Trials: Landmark "Big Tobacco-style" lawsuits began in Los Angeles. Meta and YouTube face claims that features like infinite scroll intentionally addicted and harmed minors.

Major Legal Settlements: Snap and TikTok settled with a 20-year-old plaintiff just before trial, but Meta and Google continue to fight claims regarding teen mental health.

Internal "Smoking Gun" Memos: Unsealed documents revealed Meta employees comparing Instagram to a "drug" and internal admissions that the platform’s design negatively correlates with teen well-being.

News and Updates:

Grok bans illegal porn generation- After global backlash and app-store scrutiny, X says Grok now blocks child porn and nonconsensual deepfakes, but only where legally required, underscoring reactive, profit-driven governance.

Why Grok remains in Google Play- Despite Google Play policies explicitly banning AI-generated nonconsensual sexual content, Musk’s Grok remains approved for teens, exposing enforcement failures that leave minors and victims unprotected.

Under Musk, the Grok disaster was inevitable- Designed to be edgy with weak safety staffing, Grok’s image-editing features predictably enabled nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, triggering international probes, legal pressure, and belated bypassed restrictions.

OpenAI targets 2026 hardware reveal- OpenAI confirmed plans to unveil its hardware device in late 2026, signaling a move beyond software toward minimalist, voice-first AI products designed with Jony Ive.

Amazon auto-upgrades Prime users to Alexa Plus- Amazon is automatically upgrading Prime members to Alexa Plus, an LLM-powered assistant users can revert, sparking complaints over forced adoption, ads, responses, and personality changes.

Congress and the Kids Off Social Media Act- Congress’s KOSMA would ban under-13 social media but effectively forces platforms to police families, overriding parental consent and expanding Big Tech control through age verification.