Tech News Weekly 425: Ring's Lost Dog Ad Was Never About Dogs
Date: February 19, 2026
Host: Micah Sargent
Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (The Verge), Tarek Malik (Space.com)
Episode Overview
This week’s episode tackles three standout stories in the tech world:
- The controversy swirling around Amazon Ring’s “Lost Dog” Super Bowl ad, mass surveillance concerns, and the now-canceled partnership with Flock.
- LEGO’s ambitious “Smart Brick” innovation—a deep dive into the product’s eight-year development.
- NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars making history with its first AI-planned drive, and what this means for the future of autonomous space exploration.
Micah Sargent hosts in his signature relaxed and insightful manner, joined by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy from The Verge for the Ring segment and Tarek Malik from Space.com for the Mars AI milestone.
1. [00:00–24:02] Amazon Ring’s Lost Dog Ad: Surveillance, AI, and Privacy
Main Themes
- Amazon’s “Lost Dog” Super Bowl ad introduced a feature called Search Party, using AI to help find lost dogs via Ring cameras.
- The feature reignited fears of mass surveillance and controversial partnerships between big tech and law enforcement agencies, particularly around data sharing with organizations like ICE.
Key Discussion Points
The Super Bowl Ad and Search Party
- The heavily broadcast ad sparked confusion and concern about privacy and surveillance.
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy: “Ring ran an ad during the super bowl explaining this in 30 seconds, which I mean I just explained in 30 seconds. So you'd think it would be quite easy to do. But somehow the ad that they ran made it look like... a mass surveillance tool.” [03:40]
- Anyone—not just Ring users—can upload a missing dog’s photo to Ring's app, initiating a “search party” across neighbor cameras.
Surveillance Imagery & Public Backlash
- The ad’s visual of blue surveillance cones from every door stoked the “mass surveillance” narrative.
- Ring’s law enforcement ties have been controversial for years, with previously canceled police-sharing partnerships and recent reinstation of a community request system.
Flock Safety Partnership & ICE Concerns
- Partnership with Flock Safety, known for license plate tracking tech and law enforcement collaborations, increased public unease.
- Tuohy: “Ring responded by actually canceling the partnership with Flock. But they didn't say it was because of... concern... It said it was due to... time and money. And I was like, no, I don't think that's why you decided to do this.” [09:00]
- Worries persist that Ring users’ footage could be routed to organizations like ICE via law enforcement intermediaries.
Facial Recognition & Community Requests
- Amazon Ring recently rolled out facial recognition; while not tied to Search Party, the underlying tech could easily be expanded.
- Default-on features like Search Party make users feel out of control: “Search party was on by default.” – Tuohy [23:13]
- Micah Sargent: “The default option should be let the user be in control of the thing they purchased.” [23:33]
Civil Liberties & Community Impacts
- Search Party currently only searches for pets, not people, but “the pieces are there” for broader surveillance.
- The discussion references cases where surveillance footage helped solve crimes, raising “good vs. bad tech” ethical debates.
- Sargent: “It's the same thing as the lawmakers who put forth these different ideas as ‘Save the Kids.’ It's hard to argue against that aspect of it... but the potential for the bad is always there.” [20:04]
- Community-based sharing can be fraught with racism and bias concerns, as seen in social media neighborhood platforms.
Notable Quotes
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy: “Ring has created a tool that allows the cloud data to be scanned to search for something. Right now, it’s dogs... but that doesn’t mean it can’t one day become a tool that could search for people.” [15:30]
- Micah Sargent: “I have to tell you, I was honestly surprised to see Amazon back away from Flock. ...Now double down feels like the narrative of everything at the moment.” [21:12]
Key Timestamps
- [03:40] – How Ring’s “Search Party” feature works and why the ad caused a stir
- [06:55] – Flock Safety’s law enforcement connections and ICE surveillance fears
- [11:24] – Ring launching facial recognition, and privacy implications
- [14:52] – AI-driven video search and “communal” Ring features; comparison to competing products
- [20:04] – Ethical dilemmas and community impact
2. [24:25–35:04] LEGO’s Smart Brick: Inside an Eight-Year Innovation Journey
Main Themes
- An exclusive Wired article explored the birth and evolution of LEGO’s “Smart Brick,” a sensor-rich, motorized, and fully wireless brick launching March 1st.
- The Smart Brick’s development story highlights creativity, technical challenges, and product design focused on universal play.
Key Discussion Points
Product Vision & Design
- Smart Brick is the brainchild of Tom Donaldson, inspired during a home repair project.
- Three guiding insights:
- Technology should be distributed among many bricks, not one big unit.
- Universal compatibility across LEGO sets.
- Wireless charging for easy, scalable battery management.
Deep Tech Features
- Embedded components include LEDs, accelerometers, speakers, sound/light sensors, wireless charging coils, and custom chips.
- NFC tags in “smart tiles” and minifigures enable dynamic play, turning each interaction into a new experience.
Technical Innovations & Challenges
- Miniaturization and wireless charging were major hurdles—LEGO achieved what even Apple couldn’t with “AirPower,” letting multiple bricks charge on a single pad.
- The charging and NFC positioning system was inspired by F-16 fighter jet helmet tracking technology.
Play-centric Prototyping
- Iterative, kid-focused prototyping every two weeks shaped the final design.
- Influences from ‘80s game cartridges—each tag acts like a “game” for the universal brick “console.”
Commercial Implications
- The brick's flexibility could theoretically reduce the need to buy new playsets, showing LEGO prioritized play innovation over near-term profits.
Notable Quotes
- Micah Sargent (summarizing Wired): “They said, you know, what we can do is look back to 1980s game design and see what all was able to be encoded at that level.” [28:55]
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy: “The nearest thing we saw close to this was in the F16 fighter jet, which in the helmet has something inside to know where you’re looking relative to the seat.” [34:14]
Key Timestamps
- [24:25] – Introduction and the vision behind the Smart Brick
- [27:00] – Key technological innovations
- [31:00] – Design challenges: wireless charging and NFC-based interaction
- [34:14] – F-16 fighter jet inspiration and similarities to LEGO’s system
3. [36:16–56:08] Mars Perseverance Rover: AI Plots a New Course for Space Exploration
Main Themes
- NASA’s Perseverance rover completed its first AI-planned drives, a leap in Mars exploration efficiency.
- AI route-planning, new autonomous localization systems, and their impact on future missions—Moon, Titan, and beyond.
Key Discussion Points
What Happened on Mars?
- For the first time, Perseverance drove a significant distance on Mars using a route fully mapped by generative AI, reducing human intervention and delays.
- Traditionally, NASA “rover drivers” on Earth plan routes, but time lags (12–15 minutes each way) and daily check-ins make progress slow and prone to error.
- With AI, drives that would take weeks can be completed much faster.
How the AI Works
- NASA partnered with Anthropic’s Claude model, using vision-language AI to analyze high-res images and maps, plot hazard-avoidant paths, and set waypoints.
- Tarek Malik: “It can take, you know, days for NASA... to plan a drive... But AI was able to look at all the data, identify hazards, and upload the entire multi-waypoint route—so the rover could just keep going.” [37:03]
- The rover can now localize its position within about 10 inches, using a system originally built for the drone helicopter.
Implications for Future Exploration
- Increased rover autonomy means more science with less lost time—crucial for expensive, distant missions.
- AI automation will be key for future Moon, Titan, and other deep space exploration where latency or human attention may be in even shorter supply.
Evolution of Space Robotics
- Hardware upgrades: Perseverance features advanced cameras and two “brains” for faster image processing compared to Curiosity.
- Real-world digital twins and Mars “testing yards” help engineers validate AI-generated plans on Earth before executing on Mars.
Big Picture
- AI’s success here sets the stage for autonomous vehicles across the solar system—on the Moon with Artemis, on Titan via drone, or even in human astronaut support roles.
- Malik: “Everything from having someone to talk to on those long, dark trips... to planning their days or their calendars... what we use AI to do now on Earth, they'll use it to optimize their days on the moon or Mars.” [54:59]
Notable Quotes
- Tarek Malik: “If they can do it on Mars, they can do it on the moon when we have people living there... NASA wants to send a helicopter to Titan... and I’m pretty sure the folks building that mission are watching this right now too.” [47:34]
- Micah Sargent: “The scrappy, innovative nature of space scientists and engineers is just incredible to me... the fact that they said, let's try to do some, and you're doing it with tech that is as old as it was when it left ...is just mind blowing.” [45:05]
Key Timestamps
- [36:16] – Mars rover’s AI drive overview
- [41:00] – Traditional process: latency, planning, risk of errors
- [43:40] – New autonomous localization “GPS” for Mars explained
- [48:40] – Mars vision-language AI vs. Earth applications
- [51:47] – Future applications: Moon, Titan, astronauts’ daily support
Memorable Moments & Quotables
-
On the Ring Ad's Effect:
“If you googled Getty for the ideal image for mass surveillance… that’s what that image looked like.” — Jennifer Pattison Tuohy [05:50] -
On Tech’s Double-Edged Sword:
“You wish that you could have the good without the bad, but the potential for the bad is always there and has to be considered.” — Micah Sargent [20:54] -
On LEGO’s Innovation Culture:
“This project was not put forth as this idea of what is the new thing that we can do to make the most money. Frankly, this has the risk of making LEGO less money... this was really about kind of making something cool.” — Micah Sargent [34:30] -
On AI and Mars:
“We are seeing AI in all of our daily lives. And this is a very stark example about how it can make something much faster and efficient when it comes to robotic exploration of space.” — Tarek Malik [47:34]
Additional Resources
- Jennifer Pattison Tuohy’s work: TheVerge.com, @SmartHomeMama on Threads and Bluesky
- Tarek Malik’s work: Space.com, @TarekjMalik, and co-hosts "This Week in Space" on TWiT
Conclusion
Episode 425 of Tech News Weekly is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of consumer technology, privacy, and space innovation. The show’s in-depth analysis—tempered by both skepticism and curiosity—offers clarity on issues that affect millions, from doorbells to Mars.
Listen for:
- Eye-opening realities behind “cute” tech ads
- The magic (and challenge) of invention at LEGO
- The future, here now: AI charting the way on another planet