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- [00:01]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [00:24]
Jason DeFilippo
Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.
- [00:41]
Brian Schulmeister
And I'm Olay. Ole. Olay. Olay.
- [00:44]
Jason DeFilippo
Olay.
- [00:45]
Brian Schulmeister
Ole. As predicted, Jason, my intense hatred of the corruption of FIFA went out the window as soon as the game started.
- [00:52]
Jason DeFilippo
As soon as the game starts.
- [00:53]
Brian Schulmeister
I love the World Cup. The World cup is the best thing that's ever existed. I live for it every four years. I'm actually missing. Well, let me load my super cool Apple sports app, which is very convenient. Only does one thing really quickly to check. I'm missing Ghana versus Panama right now.
- [01:09]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, no. Survive Panama match. Oh, man. What will you do?
- [01:14]
Brian Schulmeister
I think I will survive this one. Yeah, it's great. And this is one of those rare occasions where I'm actually think the experience is being augmented by social media. All the stuff happening on social media around the World cup right now has just been heartwarming. There's no other way to explain it. Like the love affair going on between South Koreans and Mexicans because South Korea is headquartered in Mexico and there are all these great videos of Mexicans making South Koreans do headstands and tequila shots upside down. And they're having salsa and chips for the first time. And the Scots that completely took over Boston. Unbelievable. The journey of Freddy the German, the Japanese people that discovered that salsa and chips are. And then they just keep coming. And then they ate so much they almost died before they ordered a meal. I mean, it's wonderful
- [02:10]
Jason DeFilippo
bringing the world together. It really is this time. And kind of fucking needed it. We really fucking needed it.
- [02:16]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah. So, you know, even. Even with everything else going on, like, people. People are enjoying being in the US Right now. And yet there are some negative things not going to get into it.
- [02:26]
Jason DeFilippo
But here's the thing. They get. They get to go home.
- [02:31]
Brian Schulmeister
True. Very true.
- [02:32]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes. Okay. Well, I'm glad you're having a good time. I see you're wearing your Deutschland shirt. Very nice.
- [02:38]
Brian Schulmeister
Seven to one, baby.
- [02:39]
Jason DeFilippo
I'm wearing my.
- [02:41]
Brian Schulmeister
There we go.
- [02:42]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah. Our new merch. The Destroy the Broligarchy shirt. So see that on the YouTube links in the show notes? Yes, yes, I'm digging it. I'm digging it. So let's get, let's, let's actually get on to what we're here to do.
- [02:56]
Brian Schulmeister
Let's get into it in this is. This is probably the only story about AI we've ever needed to do. I think this encapsulates the entirety of AI, even though all we ever talk about is AI anymore. In October of last year, KPMG published a report titled Total Redefining Excellence in the Age of Agentic AI, which is about how companies are using AI to cater to customers needs. This is, this report was basically a very, it was a puff piece. There's no other way to say it except done by one of the big four professional services and accounting forums in the world along with Deloitte, Pricewater House, Coopers and Ernst and Young. So you know, this is what people, people read these reports from these, these firms and take it as gospel.
- [03:39]
Jason DeFilippo
Right?
- [03:39]
Brian Schulmeister
And it just blew smoke up AI's ass. AI is the best thing ever. It is helping people. It is, it is helping people with their work. Unfortunately though, the report is completely full of AI hallucination. Hallucinations and included examples of agentic AIs that either did not exist or the capabilities that are stated in the paper.
- [04:00]
Jason DeFilippo
Okay.
- [04:01]
Brian Schulmeister
It's for the course. Investigators for GPT0, the maker of an AI content detection tool, found inaccuracies and fake footnotes all over the report, which were also verified by the Financial Times. In its report of the investigation, GPT0 said that only five citations out of 45 in the paper accurately pointed to real sources. A total of 28.
- [04:26]
Jason DeFilippo
That's a hell of a range. This one hell of a range.
- [04:29]
Brian Schulmeister
A total of 28 citations paraphrased titles or added fake components to real sources, while 12 were phrased too vaguely to determine whether they actually existed. GPT0 called the creation of fake references by AI models Vibe citing. In addition to the fake or inaccurate citations, investigators also found that approximately half of the claims in the paper were fake or misattributed. They were likely the result of an AI research tool over complying with a request to find examples of agentic AI in the wild. GPT0 wrote and links in the show notes. There's all kinds of examples. I mean basically this is. And then, you know, they followed up. They called these different companies that were, that were name checked in the report and like the Swiss multinational investment bank UBS which apparently integrated agentic AI across investment, ad advisory, risk management and compliance monitoring. The bank said, no, that's completely incorrect. We did not do that. And there's just multiple reports of all these different companies that when followed up said, no, none of this is. None of this is real. Absolutely none. So there you go. That is, that is AI in a nutshell. A KPM spokesperson told the Times that the company takes the accuracy and integrity of its published content very seriously. They pulled the paper and are now reviewing the circumstances surrounding its publication.
- [05:52]
Jason DeFilippo
Okay, let's redefine. Very seriously Vibe. Signing well, a new Pew Research. Pew Pew Research survey shows AI adoption in the US is growing fast, but public trust is not keeping pace. Half of American adults now use AI chatbots, up from 33% last summer, and about one in four use them daily.
- [06:13]
Brian Schulmeister
Now, quick question there, Jason. Willingly or because there's no fucking choice if you want to talk to customer service?
- [06:21]
Jason DeFilippo
I don't know if there was a checkbox for that in the survey. We'll have to ask Pew. See what he did there. So chat GPT remains the dominant platform used by 44% of Americans, followed by Google Gemini at 24%. No mention of Anthropic, which we're going to talk about in two seconds. Despite that growth, only 16% of respondents believe AI will have a positive impact on society. 16%. Okay. Younger adults. Yeah, younger adults who use the AI. Most are also among the most skeptical, with nearly half expecting negative societal effects over the next two decades. The most common uses are information, search and workplace tasks, while smaller numbers use AI for entertainment, health advice, news, emotional support or companionship. They're saying privacy remains a major concern. 71% believe AI will make personal information less secure, and majority say they have little confidence in either government regulators or AI companies to manage the technology responsible. But it's like crack and nobody wants to stop. Nobody's forcing you to use AI at home, just at work.
- [07:31]
Brian Schulmeister
Well, at home, maybe not, but they. People are being forced to use it at work. Absolutely. People are being forced.
- [07:37]
Jason DeFilippo
But if they, if they're using it for companionship at work, then you really have a problem.
- [07:42]
Brian Schulmeister
Not really. Have you ever liked many of your co workers? Present company excluded, of course.
- [07:47]
Jason DeFilippo
Present company excluded, of course. There, there have been a few companies that I have absolutely adored my co workers. Few and far between, but there have been some. They are edge cases, as we call them.
- [07:58]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes.
- [07:59]
Jason DeFilippo
Now, this is breaking news this week, OpenAI's losses reportedly exploded in 2025, according to. According to audited financial documents reviewed by Ed Zitron and independently verified by the Financial Times, the company brought in $13.07 billion in revenue, up sharply from 3.7 billion in 2024. But its costs and expenses hit $34 billion. So spend 34 billion to make 13 billion. There's a business model for you that included 7.5 billion in cost of revenue, 19.8 19.18 billion in research and development, 5.73 billion in sales and marketing, and 1.57 billion in general in administrative costs. Its operating loss was 20.92 billion. But after accounting for changes tied to its shift from nonprofit to for profit structure, the net loss attributed attributable to OpenAI reached $38.53 billion. The documents also show OpenAI paid Microsoft $17.2 billion in expenses during 2025, including $10.59 billion for research and development. OpenAI ended the year with just over $50 billion. NASA it's nearly half in cash. Soon we're going to be talking about real money here. Brian. I don't know what, what these guys are doing, but Jesus, I swear to
- [09:18]
Brian Schulmeister
God, if, as a per. If a personal financial consultant came to you as an individual and you just lopped off all the zeros on the end of this thing because they have so many zeros, they would say you're a disaster. You're an absolute disaster. You need to start completely over. Like everything you were doing is wrong.
- [09:37]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah. Even if you just, it just took off the billion and just did it by dollars. Like, yeah, the company brought in $13.07, up sharply from $3 and 7 cents in 20 or $3.70 in 2024. But its cost and expenses hit $34. That's a bad business. Yes. Just for perspective, though, I want Everybody to realize $1 billion is a thousand million dollars. That's the, that's the scale you can't wrap your head around. You can't wrap your head around insane.
- [10:08]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes. Well, a noticeable shift is shift is happening in Silicon Valley. The CEOs who were loudly predicting AI driven mass layoffs a year ago are now dialing back the rhetoric, at least in public. Executives appear to have learned that openly celebrating job replacement is terrible pr. Earlier statements about AI eliminating workers triggered employee backlash, public criticism, scrutiny. So they are now reframing AI as a tool for augmentation productivity and efficiency, rather than explicitly saying we're replacing people. So the messaging may have changed even if many workforce reductions are continuing. This article contrasts earlier bravado thinks CEOs talking about AI, replacing entire departments with newer, softer language about helping employees work better alongside AI. Take Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI white collar work. When you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or marketing person, most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months, he said in an interview with the Financial Times a short while ago. But well before we reached that full automation timeline, he started walking back his position. I said tasks, suleiman told the Verge earlier this month. That does not mean jobs. Jobs and roles are the broader category, and tasks are just components of that. Instead, he now believes AI will make the tedium of work easier. Sending an email, having a conversation with a colleague, Putting together a PowerPoint subtasks are increasingly becoming digitized, automated, and we can basically generate more and more of them. That does not necessarily mean the role goes away at all, unless your entire job is putting together PowerPoints, of which
- [11:45]
Jason DeFilippo
I'm quite a few people.
- [11:48]
Brian Schulmeister
The shifting message is to stop fighting, because this is going to be good for you. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has tried his hand at this pitch in recent weeks, suggesting workers should be so happy about the introduction of AI because of how much easier it'll make their lives, claiming the technology will elevate all of these people. Behind the scenes, however, many executives still expect AI driven workforce reductions. Recent surveys found that nearly all CEOs anticipate some level of AI related layoffs in the next few years, so the strategy may not have changed nearly as much as their messaging.
- [12:21]
Jason DeFilippo
Same shit, different day. Well, you know what CEOs also should stop doing, Brian? They should stop maybe doing commencement speeches. That doesn't seem to be going well for everybody. Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced booze and a student walkout while delivering Stanford University's commencement address. As roughly 200 graduates protested Google's ties to defense and government contracts, demonstrators targeted Project Nimbus. Project Nimbus just sounds like Project Nimrod. Google and Amazon's $1.2 billion Cloud and AI contract with the Israeli military, as well as Google's relationship with U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE. ICE holes. Students carried signs accusing Google of enabling surveillance and supporting military operations in Gaza, waved Palestinian flags and staged a coordinated walkout organized by groups including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, no Tech for Apartheid and Tech for Liberation. Protest organizers said they refuse to celebrate companies they believe contribute to violence through their technology. Half of that graduating class is going to go work for Google. So maybe, maybe you want to dial it down just a touch there, kiddies. Just do a little. An anonymous boo would have been just fine, but you know, you're at fucking Stanford, you know. Where are you going to go?
- [13:39]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, who are you going to go work for?
- [13:41]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, seriously, Palantir? Google. You're in the. You're in the. You're in the land of the enemy, my friends. You should have prayed, maybe gone to community college if you're going to have those kind of protests and get away with shit like there and still get a job at tcby, you know. Well, this one's very fun. Someone interrupted a live streamed employee only presentation at Meta earlier this week with an expletive filled outburst about being the company's. According to a recording heard by Wired. The individual then asked the people leading the call to write to a specific Meta AI executive and tell him that he's a piece of shit.
- [14:15]
Brian Schulmeister
I didn't know you had a job at Meta, Jason.
- [14:17]
Jason DeFilippo
I. I was, I was keeping that, Keeping that on the side. I was just keeping that on the side. The company's Applied AI team, created in March, now made up of roughly 6,005 engineers and product managers, was built to support Meta Meta's AI research efforts. Employees told Wired that many have been reassigned from traditional software development to repetitive AI evaluation tasks, including creating puzzles and test prompts for language models. They just have the square, the blocks. Like, does the square go in the round hole and the round go in the square hole?
- [14:47]
Brian Schulmeister
You know what? If I was still getting the paycheck, I'd be fine with that.
- [14:50]
Jason DeFilippo
Exactly. You know, it just, it's like in Silicon Valley. Just put me on the roof and let me just hang out. I don't want to do anything. Just give me the money, I'm happy. But several described the work as demoralizing and lacking purpose. The purpose, my friend, is the paycheck.
- [15:06]
Brian Schulmeister
When. But I don't understand this generation. Like, we got jobs to get jobs to pay for shit outside of our job. We did not expect anything else from our jobs if we happen to enjoy it.
- [15:18]
Jason DeFilippo
Wow.
- [15:19]
Brian Schulmeister
Hey, bonus, bonus if we happen to like some of the people we worked with. Double bonus if we got paid well, too. That's really all that mattered.
- [15:27]
Jason DeFilippo
That was it, man. That was it.
- [15:30]
Brian Schulmeister
It's a job. It's not your life, seriously.
- [15:34]
Jason DeFilippo
But kids these days, they must have a purpose. The unrest follows Meta's recent layoffs of about 8,000 employees and a controversial initiative that tracks employee clicks and keystrokes for AI training data. More than 1600 workers have signed a petition opposing the program. You just quit? Just quit. Go somewhere else. Google's hiring. Apparently so.
- [15:53]
Brian Schulmeister
Also, yeah, it's these. These people are complaining about not having a purpose when they know they're working for a company that is fucking evil.
- [16:01]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, exactly. You know, I. I'm working for this Mossad hit squad, but, man, I feel really bad at the end of the day.
- [16:10]
Brian Schulmeister
Maybe if they had a pizza party or two. Like, morale's down.
- [16:14]
Jason DeFilippo
Zuckerberg came and said, there's better food in the kitchen now. So that's one of the things he came back with. He also said, we're having a happy hackathon. Which everybody was like, that's a bunch of bullshit.
- [16:23]
Brian Schulmeister
So everybody gets three free months of calm. You'll feel better if you use the app.
- [16:28]
Jason DeFilippo
But I prefer headspace. I'm going somewhere else. That's not. It's not in line with. With the way I want to work. I don't like calm. I like headspace. This episode is sponsored by Delete Me. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers, scammers and hackers, but you're not sure what? Here's what you do. Go to www.joindeleteme.com gog and enter code GOG and you'll get 20% off. Delete me. Delete Me removes your personal information that's being sold online. And as someone with an active online presence, privacy is not theoretical for me. I've been online forever. My name, my work, my business, my podcast, all of it is out there. And in the age of AI, scammers can use the random personal data floating around the Internet to make their garbage a lot more targeted. Deleteme does the hard work of removing your personal information from hundreds of data broker websites in wirecutter named Deleteme, it's top pick for data removal services. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to www.joindeleteme.com gog and and use our promo code GOG at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to www.joindeleteme.com gog and enter code GOG at checkout one more time. That's www.joindeleteme dot com gog code GOG
- [18:00]
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- [18:30]
Jason DeFilippo
Now this next round of stories is going to highlight a core concept here at grumpy old geeks that we've said from the very first show and people should listen to it.
- [18:40]
Brian Schulmeister
Please.
- [18:42]
Jason DeFilippo
It's very simple. When you pitch your tent in someone else's backyard, don't be surprised when they turn on the sprinklers, stick the dogs on you, or shoot your kids in the face. Don't expect to build a sustainable business based on someone else's platform without eventually getting over, period. That is a core tenet of the grumpy old geeks.
- [19:03]
Brian Schulmeister
Make sure you follow us on all our social media.
- [19:05]
Jason DeFilippo
Exactly. With that said, you can't throw a rock this week without hearing the story about how Fable 5 was supposed to be the public safety wrapped version of anthropic's more powerful mythos model. That came out for about 20 seconds.
- [19:22]
Brian Schulmeister
Somebody poke a hole in that safety wrapper, Jason.
- [19:25]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes, they did. Yes, they did. This is a very, you know, interesting story because Anthropic releases the model. We've got it for a little while, everybody's playing with it. Then apparently Andy Jassy from Amazon said, ooh, our guys found something. Let me ski daddle on over to the White House and tell them this is bad. Maybe you should tell them to not do it. So the White House says, hey, guys, don't do that. Anthropic's like, it's not that big a deal. And OpenAI can still do that with GPT5 5. So what are you pissing off us for or pissing on us for? And then they're like, we're not going to fix it because it's not that big a deal. The government's like, boo. Turn it off. Anthropic's like, boo. Okay, then everybody in the world got their panties in a bunch because they cannot get their Fable 5 anymore. And I did get to play with Fable 5 for about two hours. And I built a beautiful Mac app with it. I didn't code it. I built built it. I designed it. Did not. I did not code anything. I let it do its thing. It was really good, except to the point where I said, I, I need to log into this website so I can scrape it and then find out what torrents that I'm following are going to give me. Give me the goodies from, you know, across the pond. And it said, well, there's a captcha. I said, well, figure out how to get around the captcha. And it said, I must downgrade you now because you have hit my roadblock and I am not allowed to get around to captcha for you because that is illegal and naughty. You must now use Opus 4:6 or 4:8.
- [20:58]
Brian Schulmeister
If you give us more money, we'll do it for you. Basically.
- [21:02]
Jason DeFilippo
Even better. Even better. Hey, Opus, can you get around this captcha? Sure thing, boss. Three minutes later, it had figured out a workaround for the fucking CAPTCHA. No Fable 5 required. So the thing here is, okay, Amazon ran to the White House and said, hey, this is bad. Then the NSA looked at it and said, yeah, I guess it's bad. Do something. Anthropic is a partner with Amazon. So what's going on here? And there's a lot of back and forth and what people are thinking about why this happened. And the government had it out for Anthropic because for the whole Pentagon Pete keg stand bullshit that went on before so that there's all those rumors swirling. The thing is, it's still not back on because they can't. They can't cut out foreign nationals from using it because it's. They didn't build it that way. It's built for humanity, Brian. Yay.
- [21:58]
Brian Schulmeister
Yep.
- [21:59]
Jason DeFilippo
Now here's the. Here's where it gets really fun. Well, the G7 summit's going on right now, right? You've seen the news in between your. In between your World cup, you know, matches. You may have seen that the G. Yeah.
- [22:12]
Brian Schulmeister
It's the thing that depresses me in between my joy. Yeah.
- [22:15]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, well, it's the thing that makes me happy because Trump is just embarrassing himself even more. But that's okay. That's a different story. Concerns over AI sovereignty took stuck. Took me speak pretty one day took center stage at the G7 summit, where French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that countries relying on American AI could lose access overnight. Their concerns were amplified after the Trump administration blocked exports of Anthropic's latest models on national security grounds, leaving customers in government scrambling core tenet of grumpy old Geeks, Brian, don't build your shit in somebody's backyard because they might turn on the sprinklers. Just saying. The move highlighted a growing risk for organizations building products and infrastructure on US controlled AI platforms. Take out the AI platforms. Building anything on a platform that is not your platform leaves you asked to the wind. Just saying. Because access can be revoked with little warning and for reasons that may not be fully disclosed. There you go. Like, they don't want to pay you. If you have a, like an affiliate account, say on Amazon, where you have $3,000 in there and you're waiting for your paycheck and Amazon just goes, you know, I don't feel like paying you. We're going to cancel your account and never tell you why. Oh, that was just me. That had happened to me. You Amazon Macron argued that if Washington can simply turn off the switch, it threatens both foreign economies and the competitiveness. Competitiveness of US AI companies.
- [23:44]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes. Yes, it can.
- [23:47]
Jason DeFilippo
Welcome to the party, pal. So, Brian, what do you think about all this? Are, are these people just naive and stupid or what?
- [23:55]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes.
- [23:57]
Jason DeFilippo
There we go. Moving on.
- [23:58]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, I, I mean, there's been a growing push for this. The European nations are figuring this out and they're trying to, to move away from, from US Technologies because the US is not a trusted nation anymore. It's not a trusted partner in anything politically, technologically, any of it. And it's obvious that the. There's no regulation coming from the US government. So it's even worse. It's not just the government that you can trust. Can't trust at this point. You can't trust us unfettered at this point. They are doing whatever the hell they want, particularly with anybody that isn't in the US or isn't the US Government. The only regulation that we're seeing at all from the US government against US companies is if it's bad for the US government, not the people, not normal companies, not other American companies, not mom and dad making the apple pies and selling them to the little kids in the little towns. Just the government. That's
- [24:59]
Jason DeFilippo
just. Boggles my mind. Boggles my mind.
- [25:02]
Brian Schulmeister
Sorry.
- [25:04]
Jason DeFilippo
I need to find a happy place. I need to find a happy place. I got one more meta story here. Meta is rolling out Facebook AI mode in the US A new search experience. An experience, Brian. I love experiences on Facebook.
- [25:15]
Brian Schulmeister
Kids are all about the experiences. That's all they want now. They want an experience. They don't want just a search answer. They want an experience.
- [25:22]
Jason DeFilippo
Experience. Well, they're Going to get one. Because with the new Meta AI, they turn public Facebook content into synthesized answers. So you can have your synthesized experience, Brian. Ooh. From your own data. Of course. Instead of returning a list of posts or links, the search bar can pull from public groups, reels, and marketplace listings to answer questions in plain language.
- [25:44]
Brian Schulmeister
None of those are ever wrong. Right?
- [25:46]
Jason DeFilippo
Ever.
- [25:47]
Brian Schulmeister
They've got a great track record of synthesizing this information and getting it right every time.
- [25:54]
Jason DeFilippo
And this. These are the guys who have, like, the worst of the AIs of. Out of everybody. Right. I think. I think, like, if you. If you put meta's AI up against Grock Fed. I. I was gonna say feta's AI, it is cheesy. Up against Grok. Grok would, like, kick it in the nuts. It's like one of the worst out there.
- [26:13]
Brian Schulmeister
Absolutely.
- [26:14]
Jason DeFilippo
Which is even funnier that Zuckerberg spending so much money and can't do, because he's never been able to do shit. He steals from other people. He's never had a fucking unique idea in his life. Anyway. I digress.
- [26:25]
Brian Schulmeister
He doesn't steal like. Well, he steals the concept, right? Like, he's. He'll see something out in the wild that somebody else has done, and then I'll go back and have his little Facebook FETA meeting, and he'll sit around shooting the cheese and he'll say, I want to do what they did. And then a couple billions of dollars and six months later, they'll have come up with a product that sucks but balls. At which point Zuckerberg looks around the room, picks a company that does it and buys it.
- [26:52]
Jason DeFilippo
Exactly.
- [26:53]
Brian Schulmeister
That's what he does.
- [26:54]
Jason DeFilippo
Buys it. Yep, that's it.
- [26:57]
Brian Schulmeister
And then he tries to integrate it into his products. And it never works, right?
- [27:01]
Jason DeFilippo
Nope. Not at all. Yeah, you nailed it. That's it. That is it. It's a FETA complete.
- [27:12]
Brian Schulmeister
I'm getting hungry.
- [27:13]
Jason DeFilippo
From the Injustice files, Brian, we have a whole slew of these. Want to kick us off here?
- [27:18]
Brian Schulmeister
Sure. Let's start with this one. This is an investigation by the Atlantic. They published four searchable databases of music that have been used to train AI models. The scope is staggering, with 12 million tracks in one database, 9 million in another, and the two final ones each containing about 100,000 songs. The accompanying article by staff writer Alec Reisner gives further context just how much copyrighted music was used for AI training. And including hit tracks from Taylor Swift and Bad Muddy. He points to some of the legal cases already underway against generative AI music platforms such as Suno and Udio, who have often made claims of fair use as a defense for wholesale scraping copyrighted, protected content to power their platforms. What was the name of that company that basically scraped all of Spotify? And we went, well, you can't have that. They got Alice's something or other, and it was like a pirate group. And there was like, the lawsuit ended up being for like, twenty gazillion dollars, except nobody's going to pay, ever. But these guys, hey, it's fair use. These are companies you could actually sue and get money from. They're real companies. Put them out of business.
- [28:23]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, I mean, they did the same
- [28:26]
Brian Schulmeister
thing that the pirates did. Exactly.
- [28:29]
Jason DeFilippo
I'm seeing so many, like, everybody's talking now. They're finally. It's finally wrapping around the heads of the. The normies out there who were just like, you know, I remember when little kids were, like, being sued for their college tuition because they downloaded the. The latest, you know, Vanilla Ice song on Napster. Yeah, yeah, fuck you, Lars. And now, like, you know, Sam Altman's out there just taking everything going, okay, mine, mine.
- [28:54]
Brian Schulmeister
You know, we need it to make our crappy product that. We're charging you for that.
- [28:59]
Jason DeFilippo
We're still spending lots of money to make none back.
- [29:04]
Brian Schulmeister
Yep.
- [29:04]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, man. Yeah. Just knock these guys out of business. That's all you got to do. They're. They're piss ants. They're like. Comparatively, they're piss ants. They got nothing. Well, the Wall Street Journal says the Justice Department's approval of Paramount's $111 billion Warner Brothers discovery deal blindsided its own antitrust staff. We've talked about this merger. This is just terrible, terrible. Career Investigators had spent months reviewing the merger and were reportedly leaning toward recommending a lawsuit, warning it could reduce competition in film and theatrical production. But senior DOJ leadership shut down the investigation before staff delivered a final recommendation. The department's official line is that combining Paramount and Warner could improve competition against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon, which is convenient. This is just another nail in Hollywood's coffin. This is not good. So I'm hoping now, because there are lawsuits that are coming from state attorneys general, at least here in California and other states that will hopefully at least tie it up, you know, and if they don't do it, then the EU come. Come to the rescue EU on this one, because this is a terrible fucking deal for everybody in production, period. I mean, it's dead, dead out here already. This is just going to make it worse.
- [30:18]
Brian Schulmeister
Yep. Now, if you recall, we talked about this lawsuit. The NAACP sued XAI for allegedly operating methane gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center in South Memphis without proper perm. It asked the court for an injunction to stop XAI from running the turbines, explaining that they increase risks of asthma attacks and heart disease. It's also worth noting that at the time, the lawsuit was for the 27 gas turbines that they were running. But the Southern Environmental Law center later obtained emails showing that XAI just continued to add more turbines after the lawsuit was filed, bringing the total number now running to 57. 58.
- [30:54]
Jason DeFilippo
59. Yep.
- [30:58]
Brian Schulmeister
Unfortunately, the Department of Justice, along with the State of Mississippi, are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit that they filed against xai. Why?
- [31:10]
Jason DeFilippo
Take a breath. Take a breath. You'll get there.
- [31:12]
Brian Schulmeister
The Justice Department reportedly wrote that stopping XAI from running its gas turbines to power Colossus 2 threatens American national economic and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War's military operations. Yes, the Department of War is paying GROK to make child pedo nudes, and we can't have that stop.
- [31:41]
Jason DeFilippo
Well, I also want to point out that Colossus, too, they just made a giant deal because nobody's using Grok. So who's using the computer at Colossus 2? Anthropic, which has just been labeled, you know, it's been labeled by the Department of War as an enemy combatant and has been regulated to shit. The only AI that's ever been regulated to say, you can't fucking send it out there. And also to Google. So most of that capacity is not actually being used by grok, which is the very funny part of it. So.
- [32:17]
Brian Schulmeister
So.
- [32:18]
Jason DeFilippo
But they do use it for GROK for a little bit, though. Just a little bit, because.
- [32:23]
Brian Schulmeister
A little bit. So we got to keep all those turbines running.
- [32:27]
Jason DeFilippo
It is because of this filing we found out that the Pentagon has acknowledged that Elon Musk's GROK played a role in US Military operations against Iran, with a top defense official stating that GROK supported systems helped launch more than 2,000 musicians. Yeah, we're launching musicians to Iran because they can't get a job. So we just ring them.
- [32:51]
Brian Schulmeister
First we stole their music, now we're using them as weapons of war.
- [32:54]
Jason DeFilippo
Weapons. Oh, yes.
- [32:57]
Brian Schulmeister
Oh, God. At least start with Dave Matthews. Please.
- [33:00]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Please.
- [33:01]
Brian Schulmeister
He's already shit all over a bunch of people.
- [33:03]
Jason DeFilippo
Really?
- [33:04]
Brian Schulmeister
Google it, kids. You'll get the AI results.
- [33:06]
Jason DeFilippo
But still, 2,000 munitions against 2,000 targets in just four days, officials say. Grok is one of only a handful of AI systems approved for sensitive military use. The revelation is fueling criticism of the military's growing reliance on AI after strikes in Iran reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, including a bunch of children. So there you go. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. We use Shopify for all of the grumpy old geeks merch and it was easy to set up and maintain. So easy coming from the old days of having to code all this stuff ourselves. It's no wonder so many people choose Shopify. If you've ever started anything podcast business side hustle. You know the drill. The what ifs pile up fast. What if nobody shows up? What if it breaks? What if I have no idea what I'm doing? And yeah, that part doesn't magically go away? But having the right platform makes a big difference. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and about 10% of all E commerce in the US from major brands to people just getting started. You can build a clean professional storefront with hundreds of ready to use templates so you're not reinventing the wheel or hacking together something that barely works. And it goes way beyond just a storefront. Shopify helps you actually run the business. Their built in AI tools can generate product descriptions, page copy, even enhance your product photos so you don't have to be a copywriter and designer. On top of everything else, you can also create email and social campaigns like you've got a full marketing team without actually having one. Everything lives in one place. Inventory, payments, analytics, shipping and returns so you're not bouncing between a dozen services trying to keep things running. And that purple shop pay button. There's a reason it's everywhere. It's one of the best converting checkouts on the planet, meaning fewer abandoned carts and more actual sales. And if you do get stuck, Shopify's got 24. 7 support to help you out. Which beats digging through ancient forum posts trying to fix your business at three in the morning. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com grumpy go to shopify.com grumpy that's shopify.com grumpy
- [35:26]
Brian Schulmeister
Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one motorcycle insurer. Did you know writers who switch and save with Progressive save nearly $200 per year. That's a whole new pair of riding gloves and more. Quote Today Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $197 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between October 2024 and September 2025. Potential savings will vary. Well, it's another day, another 25 lawsuits with Elon Musk to talk about. Elon Musk and XAI have again failed to prove that OpenAI was trying to persuade one of its former employees to steal trade secrets, according to a federal judge's ruling on Monday. This lawsuit began in September 2025 when Xai first accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets, which came a month after Musk's company directly sued one of its former employees for the same reason. OpenAI countered by arguing there wasn't a connection between itself and the alleged misappropriation of xai's former employees. The federal judge dismissed the case in February, leaving XAI with the option to file an amended complaint. This being Elon, of course they filed the amended complaint because he can't let anything go. That thin skinned little bitch. OpenAI again wanted the case dismissed and the judge agreed, reiterating that XAI failed to sufficiently allege a connection between OpenAI and the alleged misappropriation of Xai's former employees. So saying the exact same thing again. Fucking knock it off, Elon.
- [36:54]
Jason DeFilippo
If the judge would just say that, that would be great. Just fucking knock it off, Elon Musk. That'll be our Next shirt. Well, SpaceX has agreed to acquire AI coding startup Cursor in a 60 billion dollar all stock deal just days after its blockbuster IPO. I don't know if you check the stock price today, Brian. Did you, did you look at it today?
- [37:16]
Brian Schulmeister
I did not.
- [37:18]
Jason DeFilippo
It. Well, it's, it's on its way down.
- [37:22]
Brian Schulmeister
It took long enough but good.
- [37:23]
Jason DeFilippo
It took three days. Yeah, went to the mug, back down. Oh, we're going to Mars, the moon.
- [37:30]
Brian Schulmeister
Oh, we crashed.
- [37:32]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, it's like one of those initial starship launches. They were just like, oh, is it, what's that over the Caribbean? Oh, that's a couple billion dollars of taxpayer money. Okay, great. Well, so the move is aimed at propping up SpaceX AIs. SpaceX's AI division, which includes Xai, after an earlier merger with Elon Musk's company. Yes, we know. Cursor, founded in 2022 as any sphere, has become one of the fastest rising AI coding tools and was reportedly preparing a 2 billion dollar raise at a 50 billion dollar valuation before SpaceX stepped in and spent $10 billion more than the valuation that they were going to raise money at.
- [38:11]
Brian Schulmeister
It's Good business right there, Jason. It's good business.
- [38:14]
Jason DeFilippo
It's really good business. I mean, look, look at how much he paid for Twitter. And then you look at this. It's like he's at least consistent. He's consistent.
- [38:23]
Brian Schulmeister
It's a deal compared to Twitter.
- [38:25]
Jason DeFilippo
God, we really need to. We need to sell something to Elon. We really do. We really do. The acquisition follows months of turmoil at xai, including executive departures, restructuring and legal risk tied to Grox's past failures involving offensive outputs and non consensual deep fake generation of every nasty kind imaginable.
- [38:44]
Brian Schulmeister
Don't forget the children.
- [38:46]
Jason DeFilippo
Don't forget the children. Ah, we love the children. Oh, so much do they love the children. SpaceX pitched investors on a massive AI opportunity during its IPO, claiming a 28 trillion dollar total addressable market with 26 trillion dollars tied to AI. Let us, let us, let us, let's go back to the billions of dollars that everybody's losing. And now we're into the trillion now. And now let, let us talk about how much a trillion dollars is, kids. $1 trillion is $1,000 billion dollars and $1 billion is $1,000 million dollars. So a trillion dollars is a lot of money.
- [39:27]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes. More than you could ever spend in your lifetime.
- [39:31]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes. Well, I would try. I would very much try. You know what I would do? I would buy food for everybody on the fucking planet.
- [39:39]
Brian Schulmeister
First, we need an update to a movie. Jason, I think you need to resurrect. Does it have legs? Let's see how Brewster's Trillions is going to do.
- [39:46]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, that's good, that's good. I've actually got a hot copy of Brewster's Millions on my Plex server. I've been meaning to watch.
- [39:54]
Brian Schulmeister
There you go.
- [39:55]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, yeah, it was good. I have since uninstalled cursor, so.
- [40:01]
Brian Schulmeister
Okay.
- [40:01]
Jason DeFilippo
Smart. Yeah, I never used it anymore anyway because they've all got their own stuff built in. The only IDE I use anymore is Xcode and that app that I built with Fable. I didn't even have to open Xcode for it. You only need Xcode so you can ship it off to Apple, which I'll talk about more in a little bit here.
- [40:19]
Brian Schulmeister
All right, now let's talk about something near and dear to my heart. And this is really, this is what I, you know, what grinds my gears, Jason. This is. This is starting to get personal. Ahead of the G7 conference in France, Donald Trump is once again threatening massive tariffs on France if it doesn't remove its 3% digital tax on US tech companies. I asked French President Emmanuel Macron not to change American companies. If they do, I have no choice but to charge a hundred percent tariff on all champagnes and wines coming out of France.
- [40:47]
Jason DeFilippo
What? You bastard. Brian, when was the last time you drank a French wine?
- [40:54]
Brian Schulmeister
Last night.
- [40:55]
Jason DeFilippo
You drink French wine, you bougie?
- [41:00]
Brian Schulmeister
I prefer Chilean. I'm more like, I like my Malbecs from my Malbecs and yeah, but I do like a nice French wine. France's Gaffim tax, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft is on gross, not net revenue earned by those tech giants. Imposed in 2019 as part of a deal with the first Trump administration, it takes in around $700 million per year in revenue, which is not really that much. France's wine and champagne sales in the US are worth at least $2 billion. France's lower house recently voted double the digital tax to 6%, but that was vetoed by ministers over the risk of. Of U.S. reprisals.
- [41:36]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, they might turn off your anthropic if you raise the taxes too much. Oh, whoops.
- [41:41]
Brian Schulmeister
Whoops. Trump is increasingly seen as an attack dog for big tech, using tariffs as a cudgel to force nations to drop digital taxes and levies. US Companies have also urged Trump to punish nations like Australia over social media bans and the use of news media in search results. Canada, for one, repealed its digital tax in 2025 following pressure from the Trump administration. Other blocks have resisted, though, including the UK, which has retained its own 2% digital tax. Tax, services tax. So hold the line, people. Hold the line.
- [42:10]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Hodl.
- [42:11]
Jason DeFilippo
Hodel.
- [42:11]
Brian Schulmeister
Hodel.
- [42:14]
Jason DeFilippo
This one just makes me smile. UFC fighters at Sunday's White House event will receive some bonuses in USD 1. A stable coin issued by World Liberty Financial. The Trump family crypto business.
- [42:29]
Brian Schulmeister
Just throw that in the trash.
- [42:31]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, yeah. Go back to the last episode if you want to hear about World Liberty Financial and how shitty it is. I think it's worth 5 cents now, down from 34 cents. But World Liberty is now an official sponsor of the UFC event staged on the South Lawn and scheduled for Trump's birthday, which was last weekend with Travis Pastrana. I always think Travis Pastrami, which makes me want a Ruben every time I see him ride a motorcycle. And I just get hungry. But the company says USD1 is backed by dollar reserves and paying fighters with it works economically. Like writing a check. A really shitty check.
- [43:09]
Brian Schulmeister
A check that bounces.
- [43:11]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah. But the White House says there's no conflict because Trump's assets are in a Trust managed by his children.
- [43:19]
Brian Schulmeister
Got a bridge to sell you well. Following a consultation, the UK is banning young people under 16 from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced. This is a line in the sand, the PM said in a speech at his Downing street residents. Tech giants had their chance and failed, but we're stepping in to protect children. Back parents had set a new normal for future generations. The government aims to pass legislation by the end of this year and start enforcing it in the spring of 2027. This will ban not only major social media platforms, but also places restrictions on gaming apps. Those include banning children from under 16 from chatting with strangers, live streaming or using romantic chatbots. Makes sense. Just saying. The government is also looking at limited restrictions for use under 18, like overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling. Starmer acknowledged that kids will always find ways around the ban, but said that that wasn't a good excuse for not enacting a law. We don't say, oh look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let's not bother banning alcohol sales for children, he said. Also a good point. Our laws are rules, but they're also an expression of our values. They shape the, the social contract and this will change the conversations the parents have and the expectations of children over time. The results of the UK consultation showed that nine in 10 parents supported a minimum age of 16 for accessing social media apps, the government said. At the same time, the PM added, the ban does not mean the UK is anti tech, which yeah, makes sense. The government has yet to release details on ID or other enforcement mechanisms, which is the real puzzle that everybody's trying to figure out. So yep, I think that's a good counterpoint to everything that we've been hearing recently because we've been talking about these, these age based bans on social media and everything for quite some time on the show now. And then the comeback was basically studies are showing that it doesn't really seem to be having any effect and we're not sure about this and all that. But again, to me or the, you know, a lot of it was they're just going to get around it, smart kids are going to get around it. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't set the precedent. That is the point he's making and it is a really good point. I got around the drinking age a lot before I was legal to drink. Yeah, that doesn't mean you get rid of the law. It was more difficult. You had to jump through hoops. God damn it.
- [45:35]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, And I've made the point that, you know, this protects the dumb kids because the dumb kids are the ones that are not smart enough to get around the age restrictions, and those are the ones that are going to be at most at risk by the shit that they see on social media because they're dumb. I'm just, I'm just calling a spade a spade here. Come on. You know, the smart kids are going to smart, the dumb kids are going to dump. Let's just keep the dumb kids from dumbing so much that they end up on Truth Social when they grow up. Okay?
- [46:01]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes. And again, we should be making the laws and all that sort of stuff as an expression of what we are aspiring towards, not what we think we can actually enforce. It's what we're inspiring towards. It's informing the parents of what our society is about. This is what you should be teaching your children. This is not legal until you're this age. Teach your kids that. Figure it out. Do some goddamn parenting.
- [46:27]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, and maybe if we keep kids off of the social networks long enough, they'll go under because there won't be enough people using them because they suck. I just had a fly land on me.
- [46:37]
Brian Schulmeister
Me too. What's going on, man?
- [46:40]
Jason DeFilippo
That's technology for you.
- [46:42]
Brian Schulmeister
The drones.
- [46:43]
Jason DeFilippo
Ah, damn it.
- [46:44]
Brian Schulmeister
They got us, Jason.
- [46:45]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, somebody's been listening to this show. Well, hackers are targeting Roblox having moved beyond stealing valuable player items and are now hijacking entire developer accounts, including ownership of games in digital worlds. According to 404 Media, multiple developers say attackers used fake job offers to trick them into running malware or installing malicious packages, then took over Roblox accounts, groups, games and Robux balances. One family lost control of the shadow network, a game built over five years with more than 12,000 members.
- [47:19]
Brian Schulmeister
Another develop under. Don't build your business in somebody else's backyard there, Jason.
- [47:25]
Jason DeFilippo
This, this, this has actually two. Two things you should not do. One, don't build your business somebody else's backyard, and, you know, expect that, but whatever, blah, blah, blah. The other is don't run software from somebody you don't know just because they offered you a job, you idiot. Oh, my God. I've had to deal with scams like this because I, I, we help manage a celebrity, and he gets these Facebook scams all the time. They're like, oh, we just want to log in. And he's just got to click this link in here so we can set up the live stream. It'll give him $3,000 to do the live stream. And I'm like, do not click that link. Do not click that link.
- [48:02]
Brian Schulmeister
Under no circumstances.
- [48:04]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes, we covered this on the show. All it does is opens up a fucking tunnel. Boom. Your account's gone. They disappear, you're never heard from again. And you're never getting it back because the platforms don't give a shit. And guess who doesn't give a shit? Roblox. So the only reason that some of these people got their accounts back is because 404 Media actually went out and said, hey, we're doing a piece on you guys screwing over your developers. Because yeah, quite frankly, they were dumb. They didn't have two factor on or they ran an app that just gave them whole control of their game. Whoopsie. But it's got me thinking, Brian, this got me thinking. We need a safe word. When you have an account, you need a safe word that is like you put it in the first time and it's never seen again. So when something happens like this, you just call them up and you go, asparagus or asparagus if you're fancy. And then they give you your account back. That's it. That's all you need to do. So. But there's no mechanism like this. See, I'm solving the world's problems, Brian.
- [49:03]
Brian Schulmeister
But yeah, except there's never anybody to actually call anymore.
- [49:08]
Jason DeFilippo
Well, the bot, you have to talk
- [49:09]
Brian Schulmeister
to their AI bot and it'll go.
- [49:11]
Jason DeFilippo
Did you mean broccoli?
- [49:13]
Brian Schulmeister
Yes.
- [49:13]
Jason DeFilippo
We'll get.
- [49:14]
Brian Schulmeister
We'll get the safe word completely wrong. Or we'll actually just release it into the wild or.
- [49:18]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, it'll be great.
- [49:21]
Brian Schulmeister
Well, the Fox Corporation announced it will be acquiring Roku, the best known as a streaming device ecosystem. Subject to approval, Fox will pay about $22 billion for Roku or $160 per share. Do companies claim that Roku will still operate as its own partner friendly platform? For now, everybody's going great. Like, Fox has just been treated everybody safe and fair, right?
- [49:44]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh yeah, right.
- [49:46]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah. The Roku channel currently serves over 100 million households worldwide. Fox states that it will have a greater scale with Roku, reaching audiences for live content and streaming. It also gives Fox access to the high growth area of advertising and streaming subscriptions. The company claims that combined it would create the third largest entity in US TV based on viewer share. And yes, the deal is still subject to regulatory approval, which I hope it does not get. But it will. It's Fox and it's Trump, so it Will.
- [50:14]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes.
- [50:15]
Brian Schulmeister
And.
- [50:15]
Jason DeFilippo
And you know, this is, this is the. The minor Murdochs, not the, the major Murdochs. So. But Murdoch Jr. Spawn of Murdoch is what this is. I've got two Roku TVs in my house and I have to constantly go through and delete all the. That they keep turning on every week now. And. Because the only reason that I have a Roku TV is to watch DirecTV or switch to my Apple TV. That's the only thing that I need it for. But you know, because God knows my fire TV doesn't work for shit. I finally got it working, Brian, after that rant I made a couple episodes ago about it. Keep getting it stuck in the reboot loop. In the reboot loop. I had to go find an Ethernet cable and run like 100 foot ethernet cable to get to my TV to actually hijack it. And you had to log into an Amazon account which they said you shouldn't have to do. But then that could. Could redo that. The. Because it stopped. It stopped in the middle of a patch and it just kept trying to do the patch over and over again. It didn't turn off or anything. The patch that they gave me broke, so my TV broke and it kept rebooting every three minutes, which is really hard to watch a show when it reboots every three minutes.
- [51:26]
Brian Schulmeister
It's difficult.
- [51:28]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, Yeah. I don't recommend buying a Fire TV or any TV from Amazon ever. Ever.
- [51:33]
Brian Schulmeister
I don't even like the fire sticks.
- [51:35]
Jason DeFilippo
No, they're horrible, dude. And even, even if you turn off everything and, and still boot up, you know, just. You have to boot up your tv. It takes like a minute to boot. To turn your TV on takes a minute because it's a slow ass, shitty computer and when it comes up, it just goes straight to the Amazon interface and just gives you. It is loading all of this crap. They're fucking horrible. But. But you know, did I say don't buy one yet? I think I did.
- [52:01]
Brian Schulmeister
You mentioned.
- [52:02]
Jason DeFilippo
I'm going to stand by that. I'm going to stand by that. I do love my Apple TV though. And I did find out that Widow's Bay has been renewed for a second season, which is great because the final episode of the first season was last night and I watched it and I liked it quite a bit. So I'm looking forward to season two. It is. It's kind of a horror movie show thing without real consequences. So. It's fun. It's fun. Okay. It's like. It's a. It's A light hearted horror show.
- [52:30]
Brian Schulmeister
I do love me some light hearted horror.
- [52:32]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, it's horrish.
- [52:36]
Brian Schulmeister
Oh, too many jokes, too little time. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com my wife swung for the fences and we watched the last two of the three Downton Abbey movies over the last week. Downton Abbey a new era. And Downton Abbey the grand finale. So now I never have to watch them again. I have to admit, they weren't as bad as I remember them being. And it could just be because we did the straight run of the entire show into the movies all within the space of like less than a month. So it just kind of blurred past. But yeah, it's just not as good as the show. They never should have made movies. They should have done limited edition miniseries or all that sort of thing. I think we figured out that the main problem really was the fact that it's such a big ensemble cast and that's what made it great. And if you do a movie, you can really have one or two plot lines going, one or two stars going, and everybody else is just relegated to just kind of having a little bit so that they're in the movie and it's just not interesting. So. And that's the real problem with the movies.
- [54:09]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, I totally get that. Totally get that. Speaking of movies, I saw Disclosure Day yesterday.
- [54:15]
Brian Schulmeister
Very curious.
- [54:16]
Jason DeFilippo
Well, I'm going to give you some tomato. Rotten tomato stats here. The tomato meter gives it an 81% and the popcorn meter gives it 72%. Now, I don't go to Rotten Tomatoes very often, so I had to figure out what this meant.
- [54:30]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, I don't know what that means.
- [54:31]
Jason DeFilippo
The tomato meter is from actual reviewers and people who review movies professionally. And the popcorn meter is from the audience. So the reviewers liked it more than the audience did. And 72%, which to me sounds like about a C. That's about what the movie was. The first three quarters of the movie was good. It was Spielbergian alien trope shit. You know, the standard stuff. It's very Spielbergian. The last bit of the movie was like a boomer who doesn't get that deepfakes exist in this world and tries to, like, rely on everything that, oh, my God, we're releasing this footage of blah, blah, blah, and the world's going to actually give a shit. It very unplausible. Very unplausible. Very boring. I. It did not stick the landing for me. I did not really care for the landing, especially the end. The. The very last scene in the movie where they've been like, there's like hundreds of articles are like, this is what the ending really means. And I'm like, no, it's worth watching. If you have nothing to do and a couple glasses of French wine laying around that you. You've smuggled in from gay Paris, go for it. Or if you're, you know, drunk on a plane. Review. Perfect. It's. It's a little too long. It's like two and a half hours long, I think. And that's long. Yeah, that was rough. Rough. And so for comparison, RuPaul's new movie came out, Stop that Train. It's kind of like Airplane, but for drag and stuff like that. My friend Missy's in the movie. Yeah, it's on a train. It's Airplane on a train. The tomatometer for Stop that train, which had 10% of the budget of Disclosure Day. I think Disclosure Day had like a $200 million budget. And stopped that train had a $20 million budget.
- [56:16]
Brian Schulmeister
And I'm assuming Steven Spielberg did not direct this one either.
- [56:20]
Jason DeFilippo
No, no. This was actually directed by Adam Shankman, who is a fairly well known choreographer you may have seen him on. So you think you can dance a lot, but 85% on the tomato meter for Stop that train, which is 4 points higher than disclosure day, 79% on the popcorn meter, which is a solid 7% higher. So when Stop that Train comes to a local station near you, hop aboard. It did only bring in $2 million this weekend, so I don't think it's doing as well as Disclosure Day. But, you know, you give and you get given. You get. There's no Spielberg attached, but Margaret Cho's in it too, so you gotta go watch that.
- [56:57]
Brian Schulmeister
I do love Margaret Cho.
- [56:58]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah.
- [56:59]
Brian Schulmeister
Well, the official teaser trailer for Shrek 5 has dropped Jason. It's coming in theaters summer 2027. Now, I. I've been on a journey with Shrek recently. My recently discovered it. I think it's been over the last six months that we've watched the first four Shrek movies. Shrek 1, I remember. If you cast your mind back to my review. Not as funny as you remember it being.
- [57:24]
Jason DeFilippo
Jokes, yes, Joke.
- [57:25]
Brian Schulmeister
Not as many jokes. Took a long time for setups. Animation wasn't quite there. Shrek 2. Legitimately very funny. Shrek 3, pretty funny. Shrek 4. Awful abomination that never should have existed, ever. But the trailer for this looks pretty good, so we'll see. I think. I hope they learned their lessons from the. The hellscape that was Shrek 4.
- [57:47]
Jason DeFilippo
I think they're taking this full year because we've just come into summer 2026 and it looked to me from the teaser that the movie's pretty much done. But why are you waiting a year? Probably for focus groups to try and fix it so you don't have a Shrek 4 debacle on your hands, I'm guessing.
- [58:03]
Brian Schulmeister
I'm hoping, yeah.
- [58:05]
Jason DeFilippo
So speaking of things we didn't need. Ridiculous. The Louis CK special on Netflix is coming out.
- [58:12]
Brian Schulmeister
Hang on a second. Louis CK has a special on Netflix?
- [58:16]
Jason DeFilippo
Yes, he does, but he's been canceled.
- [58:18]
Brian Schulmeister
All these people keep being getting canceled, yet they keep having fucking specials everywhere. All these fucking right wing lunatics that have been canceled are everywhere. How is. How can this be? He's canceled. He's canceled.
- [58:33]
Jason DeFilippo
Brian. Brian. Is he a right wing lunatic, though?
- [58:35]
Brian Schulmeister
I don't know. Has he rebranded himself that way yet? Because he probably will. That's usually what they do.
- [58:40]
Jason DeFilippo
That's. That may be why he got the special brand. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If he was going to get a special as a right wing nut job, he would be on Paramount Plus. Oh, this is next.
- [58:50]
Brian Schulmeister
Well, they haven't gotten their shit together yet over at Paramount plus. So.
- [58:53]
Jason DeFilippo
True, true. Well, I mean, they just did have a UFC fight on the White House lawn, so they got something going on there. This saddens me very much that Netflix has decided to give him a special. You know, I. I'm fine with giving people second chances when they apologize and do the right tours. And he did not do the right tour. And, and I've heard some things from multiple people in the industry who are just like, he should not be allowed back on stage, period. There are some bad people in comedy and he's one of them, unfortunately. And the sad part is he's funny as shit. But, you know, there are some things that you just kind of gotta say, no.
- [59:32]
Brian Schulmeister
Michael Jackson's a brilliant musician. Fuck that guy.
- [59:37]
Jason DeFilippo
Only if you're 12. So let's end on something good. Brian.
- [59:40]
Brian Schulmeister
Okay.
- [59:41]
Jason DeFilippo
Star Trek Strange New Worlds trailer dropped for season four, coming out July 23rd. Did you watch the trailer?
- [59:47]
Brian Schulmeister
I did. And the hilarious thing is I just canceled Paramount plus two weeks ago and now I'm gonna have to resubscribe.
- [59:53]
Jason DeFilippo
Sweden, Sweden, here we go. Sweden. Come join us in Sweden. I am not gonna sign back up for Paramount plus because those guys. But I will be watching July 24th when it hits the torrents.
- [60:12]
Brian Schulmeister
Now the trailer. Trailer looks great. Trailer looks great.
- [60:15]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, very.
- [60:16]
Brian Schulmeister
I'm very excited. I've. I've loved this show. I think they've had a few missteps, but what show?
- [60:20]
Jason DeFilippo
Season three was a misstep?
- [60:23]
Brian Schulmeister
Most of season three. Yeah.
- [60:24]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah.
- [60:25]
Brian Schulmeister
But it's a great show. The cast is great. I'm really sad to see it go. I guess we are going to get one more half season.
- [60:32]
Jason DeFilippo
Half season after this.
- [60:33]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, half season after this. Okay, fair enough.
- [60:35]
Jason DeFilippo
Okay. Yeah. And you know, it does look like they fixed the problem with season three. But you have to also have to give them credit because season two has the single best musical episode of any drama ever made. Period. And I don't. Do you call me about Cop Rock, I'm gonna punch you in the nuts. No, I was gonna say you should.
- [60:55]
Brian Schulmeister
You need to check Cop Rock out.
- [60:57]
Jason DeFilippo
Nope. Even the Buffy stars.
- [60:59]
Brian Schulmeister
No.
- [60:59]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, exactly. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical was passable. Not great. But that one, the Star Trek Strange New Worlds musical episode is a fucking stunner. Fucking stunner.
- [61:11]
Brian Schulmeister
Well, I should have saved this story for when Dave was here because he was the beloved Commodore guy. But the recently resurrected Commodore is getting back into phones. But rather than taking on the likes of Apple and Samsung at their own game, the Commodore Callback 8020 is proudly non conformant flip phone that wouldn't have looked out of place in the 90s. Billed by its maker as a retreat from Black mirror technology, the Callback 8020, the first phone to carry the Commodore name since 2015's PET. They had a phone in 2015 called the PET.
- [61:37]
Jason DeFilippo
Never heard of it.
- [61:39]
Brian Schulmeister
Uses patent pending tech to enforce a system level block on social media apps, web browsers and email clients.
- [61:45]
Jason DeFilippo
You mean a host file? That's all it needs to be a host file.
- [61:49]
Brian Schulmeister
Basically what you are allowed to have is the Linux based Sailfish OS operating system which Commodore says offers a completely de googled experience. Compatible with over 99% of Android apps thanks to the runtime compatibility layer. These include WhatsApp, Maps and Spotify. In a statement to Ars Technica. Commodore said it supports side loading of nearly anything that isn't available on its comma store, apart from the doom scrolling apps around which it has drawn a firm line in the sand. It's so committed to its anti social media policy, it's even blocked unwanted software at the DNS level. So even if you do find a workaround for getting certain apps on the phone. Shh. Don't tell anyone about that, Jason. You're going to ruin Commodore's whole thing. You still won't be able to access their server's host file. Commodore also promises not to collect your data without consent host file and says it won't monetize any data you do hand over host file, track cookies, host file or monitor the way you use the phone host file. Despite branding browsers host file, it does maintain an Internet connection host file so you can use it for things like scanning QR codes and navigation when you're out and host filing.
- [62:51]
Jason DeFilippo
Okay, all right. Well, I'm good. I like it. I saw it.
- [62:58]
Brian Schulmeister
It's cool looking.
- [62:59]
Jason DeFilippo
It is. I'm fine with it. You know, I put in my, put in my, my pre order email address. It's not a pre order. It's just like you get 50 bucks off if you sign up for the newsletter.
- [63:08]
Brian Schulmeister
It is the most like start, start Star Trek. First generation flip phone communicator I've ever seen a phone. Look.
- [63:15]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, the razor, man. Come on. The razor.
- [63:18]
Brian Schulmeister
All right.
- [63:19]
Jason DeFilippo
There's a reason I still have one on my bookshelf because that was. The razors were the bomb. The bomb. Diggity. So we talked a little bit about Snap last week and they're back in the news this week. Brian Snap's long running smart glasses experiment just got a little bit more expensive. The company unveiled its new augmented reality headset style glasses called Specs, with a price tag of, wait for it, $2,195.
- [63:46]
Brian Schulmeister
No, thank you.
- [63:47]
Jason DeFilippo
I was waiting for you to do a spit take on that. Get us?
- [63:52]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Yeah.
- [63:52]
Jason DeFilippo
The bulky design immediately drew criticism. And I'd call them Max head roomy. But Max's glasses actually looked kind of cool. And these are as far from cool as you can get. Investors weren't very impressed either, and Snap Stock fell nearly 30% after the announcement, reflecting skepticism that the company could succeed where its previous Spectacles products failed. So spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch. Nope, don't want them. Not going to get them.
- [64:15]
Brian Schulmeister
Spectacles or the testicles.
- [64:18]
Jason DeFilippo
I've got the, I got the testicles. I got a wall. I Got a wallet and a watch, so I'm actually. I'm actually covered. As a matter of fact.
- [64:25]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, I don't. I don't want anybody's glasses, so I'm good.
- [64:29]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah, I don't even want to wear my own. I hate these things.
- [64:31]
Brian Schulmeister
Yeah, I got to get those little drops I can take, so I can. Don't even need to wear these for reading anymore. That'd be great.
- [64:36]
Jason DeFilippo
Yeah. Those space drops. I hears it from Germany, so you can go get some. I've been walking a lot, a lot still. And so I've been going on my book tour, and I went back and I read one of the foundational books that I think, seriously, everybody should read. It's called so Good, They Can't Ignore youe by Cal Newport. It's from 2012. And he breaks down, the entire point of looking for passion in your work is stupid and bullshit. It's the whole point of the book. And I mean, the title takes its name from Steve Martin to be so good, they can't ignore you. But he also breaks down the passion mindset versus the craftsman mindset when it comes to actually how you get work done. The passion mindset is how you can take from people the craftsman mindset so you can give to people. I've lived my life by the craftsman mindset since I day one, when I got a job. I care about doing great work at the highest level, and that's why I had the jobs that I had. The people who are nowadays, the vibe coders out there. Sorry I said the word. Oh, oh, here come the Instagram haters. Those people are the passion people they want to take. But anyway, it is a phenomenal book. I cannot recommend it enough. It's an old read, but every single thing in that book still stands the test of time. Have you ever read it, Brian?
- [65:52]
Brian Schulmeister
I have not. I probably should at some point.
- [65:54]
Jason DeFilippo
Oh, you'd love it. You'd absolutely love it. Cal is fucking awesome. His. His latest stuff about deep work and. And that stuff is. Is decent. But I swear to God, he peaked with this book. It's my favorite book that he's ever written. And another book that I have been working through is Creator Capitalist by the category Pirates. And some of you may know that I used to work for the category Pirates. I used to read their audiobooks, and I still work with my friend Christopher Lockhead on a bunch of stuff in. In. Halfway through the book, I actually. I got three quarters of the way through the book, and it inspired me so much. I Went off and built my own app, Brian, and it's out now. It's called Track a lot and not spam a Lot. Track a lot. 2. 99 in the App Store. You can go check it out. There's a link in the show notes. It's basically a very simple tracker for when my dog got sick. I needed to track when she peed, she poofed, she barfed, she had. We called them the gulpies. All these little things. And I'm like. We were writing it down and I'm like, there's gotta be an easier way to do this. And it was just. I scratched my own itch. You can make little widgets for your home screen and just one tap, track a bunch of stuff. Very simple. No data tracked. You can use iCloud to save your backup files and load those on other devices. You can export the data to your I or your Google Calendar, print it from your phone, all sorts of shit for 2.99, Brian. It's a fucking steal.
- [67:11]
Brian Schulmeister
It's a damn bargain. It's a damn bargain.
- [67:14]
Jason DeFilippo
It is a damn bargain. Damn bargain. All right, let's thank some of the people that make this show possible. Over at Patreon, we've got some new patrons. Seth, Mark, and Zach. Thank you all so much. And a huge thank you to the people who continue to support the show. Mark, Craig, Jay, Eddie, James, Andre, Paul, Dan, Philip, and Ryan. We love you all.
- [67:34]
Brian Schulmeister
So thank you, thank you, thank you. Over at PayPal, we've had Jonathan, who sent us the sum total of his class action settlement payment from Yahoo. So thank you. We've had quite a few people actually do that, send us their class actions when they come through, usually because we let them know that they existed in the first place.
- [67:50]
Jason DeFilippo
So you're welcome, you're welcome, and thank you, thank you, and you're welcome. We appreciate it. Over at the Tip Jar, we've got Jordan, Dahl, Theodore, Jeffrey, and Sean. And Merch. This week we've got from Chevalier. Who's a Florida man? Sasha Modesto. It's not Sasha. Modesto. Sasha from Modesto. Blair from Florida as well. Thank you very much.
- [68:14]
Brian Schulmeister
Florida man.
- [68:16]
Jason DeFilippo
Florida man. You put that one in there. What the hell? You're throwing me off. God damn you. And desiree with the 250sec tip. I don't know what it was. Swedish chrome.
- [68:28]
Brian Schulmeister
You don't know what a sex tip is?
- [68:30]
Jason DeFilippo
Hey, hey, hey. Now you watch it. You watch it, buddy. You could. You're gonna go say that on my Instagram account for one of My reels, you little troll. Thank you, Desiree. That was over at YouTube where you can now sign up to be a member and follow us there. Yeah. So thank you everybody for supporting the show. We are. We are member supported. So please become a member wherever you can. You can join us at YouTube, you can join us at Patreon, you can hit us at the Tip Jar, you can hit us at paypal. Everything is at GOG Show Donate, so please check it out and help keep this show on the air. And you can get the show early ad free and in high definition in most cases. There you go.
- [69:10]
Brian Schulmeister
Your mileage may vary.
- [69:12]
Jason DeFilippo
It sure might.
- [69:14]
Brian Schulmeister
All right, until next time. I'm Brian Schulmeister.
- [69:16]
Jason DeFilippo
And I'm Jason Filippo. Thanks for listening to Grumpy old Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show751. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show Donate. Every penny helps keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes and everyone in between. And we'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts, feedback, school links? Hit us up at GOG Show Contact. And hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG Show Review and we'll read it on the air. And guess what, Brian, We've got some. Some GoG merch. You can see some behind me here on the table. It is beautiful. You can see some on my breasticles. And you can go buy the shirt if you want to. And yeah, go to shop GOG show and stay grumpy. Yeah, hang on, I got a frog. Stay grumpy.
- [70:09]
Brian Schulmeister
Aren't you a frog on a thumb?
- [70:10]
Jason DeFilippo
I am a frog on a thumb. Oh, shit. Trolls. God damn it.