This Week in Tech 1048: Tiny Steering Wheel

Aired: September 8, 2025

Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Harry McCracken (FastCompany.com), Alex Wilhelm (Cautious Optimism, This Week in Startups)

Episode Overview

This episode dives into a week packed with major tech legal news, speculation around Apple’s imminent hardware event, the evolving state of AI, cloud services, and browser innovation. The panel—Leo, Harry, and Alex—unpack recent antitrust developments involving Google, the seismic settlement between authors and Anthropic, the future of search, privacy threats, and the cultural quirks of tech leadership and innovation. The episode's title, “Tiny Steering Wheel,” refers to a segment on brain-mapping and how mice operate small steering wheels for scientific research.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Google Antitrust Decision: Slap on the Wrist?

(02:06 - 22:25)

• Context: Judge Amit Mehta wrapped up the penalty phase for Google’s search monopoly case surprisingly lightly, ruling that Google can maintain most of its current practices.
• Outcome:
  • Google does NOT have to sell Chrome or divest Android.
  • They can keep paying Apple, Mozilla, Samsung, etc., for default search placements.
  • The main restriction: Google must drop exclusivity requirements tying device makers’ access to the Play Store to setting Chrome/Google Search as defaults.

Market Reaction:

• Google stock soared by 9% after the decision, indicating Wall Street saw it as a non-event for Google.

Panel Takes:

• Leo, on the mood at Google:
  “I can imagine the boardroom with Google lawyers all sitting around hearing this judgment and giggling wildly…” (03:03)

• Alex:
  Calls it “pretty much a nothing burger, a disappointment for folks who were concerned about Google search monopoly...” (03:55)

• Harry, as a tech historian:
  “I feel like I’ve spent my entire career waiting for some big antitrust decision that actually does have seismic impact on the industry. And it seems like they all fizzle out eventually.” (04:31)

Data Sharing Remedy:

• A committee will oversee Google for six years, checking compliance. Google is required to give competitors a one-time, limited snapshot of search index data—hardly transformative.
• Harry, skeptical:
  “That doesn’t sound all that valuable.” (17:48)
• Alex, frustrated:
  “It’s like being invited to a lunch and, and then arriving and being handed one crouton and a small cup of water and being told that you should be very, very happy.” (18:02)

AI Changed the Legal Landscape:

• Judge noted the rapid rise of AI has changed the game, echoing how Microsoft’s antitrust threat faded once the web and smartphones upended the PC era.

• Harry:
  “There’s at least some possibility that not only Google, but kind of all of the incumbents may run into trouble with AI now…” (12:25)

• Alex:
  “What pisses me off... is that I think people are saying that because ChatGPT is challenging them now, nothing else matters. And to me that’s freaking bullcrap...” (14:39)

2. EU and US: Google’s Ad Dominance & Geopolitics

(19:02 - 22:25)

• EU fined Google $3.5 billion for playing both sides of the ad tech market.
• The US and EU are out of sync on antitrust and privacy approaches—and trade tensions complicate enforcement.

3. Search Engines: AI, Alternatives, & Competition

(22:25 - 30:39)

• Alternatives:

  • Kagi is a paid search engine increasingly used by tech insiders for privacy and customization.
  • ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other LLM-based AIs complement/bypass traditional search.

• Harry on Kagi:
  “There are certain things like Google Books where there’s not a Kagi equivalent. ...In cases where I really want to see everything, Google will give me more results.” (23:45)

• AI Search's Dilemmas:

  • Google is stuck providing a lackluster AI assistant to protect ad revenue, while more advanced AI modes (“AI search”) are hidden away.

4. Privacy, Surveillance, and Federal Inaction

(29:45 - 33:23)

• Panel laments growing surveillance state—cameras, AI, lack of privacy laws.
• Alex, personal journey:
  “If you have levers of power in a government that can be used for good, then when you lose... they turn those levers into wrenches to hit you with.”

5. Apple Event Speculation: New iPhones, AirPods, Foldables

(39:00 - 54:52)

• Leaks point to multiple iPhones (including an iPhone “Air”/“Slim”), improved AirPods (possibly with heart rate monitors), and Apple Watch Ultra 3.

• Foldables:

  • Harry is interested in foldable phones becoming thinner. Speculation that Apple’s work on thinness sets the stage for a viable foldable iPhone.
  • Harry: “I’m still excited though, just in terms of it being a genuinely new experience…” (44:17)

• Phones vs. PCs:

  • Leo contends for many, the phone is now the primary computer, justifying high prices.
  • Alex: expresses skepticism—but emulates “kids these days” who only know phones/tablets.
  • Harry: Longtime iPad-as-primary-computer advocate.

6. Anthropic Authors’ Lawsuit & Copyright

(59:32 - 71:41)

• Landmark Settlement:

  • Anthropic pays $1.5B+ interest to authors for unauthorized book usage, but crucially, the judge allowed scanned used books to be fair use for AI training.
  • Leo: “I think it is fair use, and I think the judge made... the right decision in this case.” (68:39)
  • However, using pirate-source copies is ruled infringement; Anthropic must destroy that data.

• Implications:

  • Sets a precedent: Big AI firms can scan and ingest books for training—if from legitimate copies.
  • Small startups could struggle to afford compliance, possibly entrenching AI’s biggest players.
  • Media companies increasingly block AI crawlers and seek payment.

7. AI, Media, & Newsletters

(76:05 - 82:14)

• The panel discusses how AI-driven search will impact web traffic, with concern for media.
• Harry: “At a pretty high percentage of media companies [we’re] becoming a lot more serious about getting readers to pay for our stuff.”
• Newsletters are now a critical channel for direct audience engagement, bypassing algorithm gatekeepers.

8. The White House Dinner: Tech’s Proximity to Power

(90:37 - 99:54)

• High-profile A.I. and tech leaders wined and dined with President Trump—excluding Elon Musk and Jensen Huang.
• Panel’s Reaction:
  • Disturbed by the obsequious praise for the President, likening it to authoritarian regimes.
  • Alex: “The disappointment to me is that it turns out all these incredibly powerful people are not powerful enough to possibly weather a couple quarters of lower earnings because of the President’s ire. And so they have to collapse ... at his feet and kiss the shoes and so forth.” (95:34)
  • Discussion of state capitalism’s dangers, referencing China, Argentina’s Perón, and the loss of competitive innovation.

9. Technology Odds & Ends

Undersea Cables & Fragility of the Internet (116:55 - 120:07)

• Microsoft’s Azure services hit by Red Sea cable disruptions—shows physical vulnerabilities of the “cloud.”

Facebook Poke Returns (121:11 - 127:57)

• Facebook (Meta) has revived the “poke” feature as a minor nostalgic play.

AI Image Copyright Lawsuits (154:22 - 156:08)

• Warner Bros joins Disney in suing Midjourney over images of DC/Disney characters.
• The difficulty for brands and AI firms to police or segment proprietary imagery and styles.

Tesla Renames “Full Self Driving” (143:30 - 149:07)

• Now labeled “full self-driving supervised”—hedging legal bets after high-profile settlements.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Google’s Antitrust Win:
  “I guess not disappointed isn’t the right word, but I feel like I’ve spent my entire career waiting for some big antitrust decision that actually does have seismic impact on the industry. And it seems like they all fizzle out eventually.”
  — Harry McCracken (04:31)

• On Market Self-Regulation:
  “I do think that over time, the market changing so rapidly tends to do a decent job of policing things, because even the largest, most powerful companies, if they do rest on their laurels, they get into trouble. ...And there’s at least some possibility that not only Google, but kind of all of the incumbents may run into trouble with AI now...”
  — Harry McCracken (12:25)

• On Legal Remedies & AI Disruption:
  “I think people are saying that because ChatGPT is challenging them now, nothing else matters. And to me that’s freaking bullcrap, I think is the appropriate Twit way of saying that.”
  — Alex Wilhelm (14:39)

• On Paid Search (Kagi):
  “People have kind of started to grok on the Internet is you either pay for it or your data is going to be mined.”
  — Leo Laporte (29:03)

• On Apple Event Hype:
  “Is that a man bursting with excitement and ripping his credit card out and racing to the Apple store to camp out because he has to get the iPhone 3GS?”
  — Alex Wilhelm (41:30)

• On Cloudflare’s Copyright Model:
  “Cloudflare becomes a toll booth on the information superhighway. ...They have started to act as if they are the keeper of the Internet and they are not true and they should not.”
  — Leo Laporte (71:48)

• On Tech Leaders and Authoritarianism:
  “...the disappointment to me is that it turns out all these incredibly powerful people are not powerful enough to possibly weather a couple quarters of lower earnings because of the President’s ire. And so they have to collapse ... at his feet and kiss the shoes and so forth.”
  — Alex Wilhelm (95:34)

• On the Flickering Future of Media:
  “It’s tough. It’s a grind. But my open rate is pretty much static as my audience grows, which means that I’m able to actually reach out and communicate to people without any intermediary apart from their inbox…”
  — Alex Wilhelm (78:25)

Memorable, Lighthearted Moments

• On the Facebook Poke:
  “Just in case, Carissa writes, you weren’t on Facebook two decades ago, poking was something of a novelty in the early days of social network. ...Show of hands, how many of you remember getting into just little poke battles with your friends where you’d poke them and they’d poke you back, and now you gotta poke them again, and it just goes on and on.”
  — Leo Laporte (122:99)

• On Tiny Steering Wheels:
  The title is explained in the segment about neuroscience research with mice:
  “The mouse could get a reward, a sip of sugar, if they quickly moved the circle toward the center of the screen by operating a tiny steering wheel in the same direction.”
  — Leo Laporte (130:26)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Google Antitrust Decision: 02:06 – 22:25
• Search Alternatives & AI Assistants: 22:25 – 30:39
• Apple Event/Foldable Phones: 39:00 – 54:52
• Anthropic Lawsuit – Books, Copyright, Fair Use: 59:32 – 71:41
• AI & Impact on Media, Newsletters: 76:05 – 82:14
• White House Tech Dinner & Capitalism’s State: 90:37 – 103:26
• Facebook Poke Returns: 121:11 – 127:57
• Tesla “Full Self Driving” Renaming: 143:30 – 149:07

Episode Takeaways

• Antitrust enforcement remains tepid, relying more and more on the market or emergent technologies (like AI) to disrupt dominant incumbents, rather than strong remedies.
• AI’s hunger for data sparks new copyright battles, setting legal precedent, but posing new questions about access and fairness for small vs. big tech.
• Search is transforming—paid, privacy-respecting search like Kagi and LLM-powered search are slowly gaining traction among power users.
• Media and journalism adapt by going direct to audience (newsletters, subscriptions), wary of depending on AI or platform gatekeepers.
• The intimacy of tech and political power is more visible under authoritarian posturing, raising alarms among the panel for innovation and democracy.
• Apple and other tech launches are becoming less exciting, as incremental upgrades fail to inspire even seasoned journalists.
• Nostalgia abounds (Facebook pokes, Batman, primary computing devices), but the future looks bumpy for both consumers and creators.

For full details, jokes, and candid conversations—listen to the episode!