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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Wednesday, December 24, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today well, it turns out my spidey sense was right because there definitely seems to be a new tech trade war brewing between the US and Europe. Seems like ads are definitely Gonna come to ChatGPT, how Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI and why Netflix wants to get into day parting. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. You may have noticed that your CRM system has become crazy with bots and agents at the Tech Brew Ride Home. We love AI, but not when it's used to commit fraud or launch ransomware. Fortunately, Mimoto, the creator of continuous verification, now offers the next generation of Continuous Captcha. Momoto Continuous Captcha diverts only the agents and bots attempting to gain access to your CRM through registration forms. With Momoto, good agents can do what agents do best enable your customers to have more productive experiences on your website or app while stopping bad agents from defrauding you or your customers. It's a win for everyone except the cybercriminals. Right now, our listeners can purchase a year of Mimoto continuous captcha for $5,000, a 20% discount on their lowest price plan. To learn more, head to Mimmoto AI Ridehome. That's Mimmoto AI Ridehome. Well, I told you I was getting the sense this was coming to a boil. The US has imposed visa restrictions on five Europeans, including Thierry Breton, accusing them of pressuring US Tech companies to censor certain US Viewpoints. Quoting the AP the Europeans, characterized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as, quote, radical activists and, quote, weaponized non governmental organizations, fell afoul of a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreign deemed responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States. For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints They oppose Rubio. Posted on X the Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship, end quote. The five Europeans were identified by Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, in a series of posts on social media. They include the leaders of organizations that address digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over broadcasting an online interview with Donald Trump. Rubio's statement said they advanced foreign government censorship campaigns against Americans and US Companies, which he said created, quote, potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the U.S. the action to bar them from the U.S. is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions. The five Europeans named by Rogers are Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the center for Countering Digital Hate Josephine Bologn and Annalena von Houdenberg, leaders of Hate Aid, a German organization Claire Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index, and former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs. Rogers, in her post on X, called Breton, a French business executive and former finance minister, the, quote, Mastermind behind the EU's Digital Services act, which imposes a strict set of requirements designed to keep Internet users safe online. This includes flagging harmful or illegal content like hate speech, end quote. Europe has responded to this by warning of possible action, saying it will defend its, quote, regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures. This is from the AP again, if needed, we will respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures, the Commission said In a statement without elaborating. The European Commission countered that the EU is an open rules based single market with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments. Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair and level playing field for all companies applied fairly and without discrimination, it said. French President Macron said that the visa restrictions, quote, amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty. He posted on X. Macron said that the EU's digital rules were adopted by, quote, a democratic and sovereign process involving all member countries and the European Parliament. He says that the rules, quote, ensure fair competition among platforms without targeting any third country, end quote. He underlined that the rules governing the European Union's digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe, end quote. So again, this is a thing for tech to think about now, possibly getting swept up in the political part of the term geopolitical. Over the past month, the US paused talks on a tech pact with the uk, canceled a South Korean trade meeting and threatened the EU over big tech regulations and ideological concerns. Quoting Politico, several tech policy professionals and people close to the White House say the recent actions amount to a negotiating tactic, in the words of one former US Trade official. As talks continue with London, Brussels and Seoul, the office of the US Trade Representative is pressing partners to roll back digital taxes on large online platforms and rules aimed at boosting online privacy protections measures, U.S. officials argue disproportionately target America's tech behemoths. One possible action floated by U.S. trade represent representative Jamison Greer, would be launching investigations into unfair digital trade practices, which would allow the administration to take action against countries that impose digital regulations on US Companies. I would just say that's the next level of escalation. I think that's what people are waiting for and looking for, said a representative from a major tech company. Granted anonymity to speak candidly and discuss industry expectations. What folks are looking for is like action over the tweets, which we love the tweets. Everyone loves the tweets, end quote. Even industry officials aren't certain how aggressively they want the Trump administration to be, acknowledging that if the US Escalated its fight with the EU over their tech regulations, it could spark a digital trade war that would ultimately end up harming all of the companies involved, according to a former USTR official. Granted anonymity to speak candidly, end quote. One thing I think we're almost certain to see in 2026 would be ads coming to ChatGPT. It's not just Ben Tys Thompson that sees the inevitability of this, quoting the information OpenAI executives have kept a tight lid on how the company could show advertisements to users of its popular ChatGPT chatbot, leaving the broader digital ad industry eager for clues. Behind the scenes, staff are working through key details. Employees have discussed ways to tweak AI models to prioritize sponsored information and ChatGPT's responses when users ask relevant queries, a person familiar with the discussion said. For instance, a Sephora sponsored beauty product ad could appear when a user is searching searching for mascara recommendations. And in recent weeks, OpenAI employees have been creating mockups for different ways that ads could appear inside ChatGPT. A person who has seen the mockups said. ChatGPT has ballooned to nearly 900 million weekly active users since its 2022 launch, with ambitions to grow to 2.6 billion weekly active users by 2030. That would dwarf all but the biggest social media and search companies and compete in a more than $1 trillion digital ad market dominated by Google Meta and Amazon. Publicly, at least, CEO Sam Altman has downplayed OpenAI's desires to be an advertising powerhouse. But over the past year, OpenAI has been staffing up with digital advertising veterans and adding shopping features that could be springboards into retail focused ads. The company sees an opportunity to create a new type of digital ads, said another person with knowledge of the effort, rather than simply replicating existing formats like social media ads. OpenAI collects a lot of information about users interest from detailed chats and has considered whether ChatGPT can could show ads based on that history the information has previously reported. Analysts and ad industry Executives say that ChatGPT conversations where users are clearly looking to buy something could be an advertising gold mine. One of the options staff has discussed is giving sponsored information preferential treatment in responses to users ChatGPT queries, according to the person familiar with the discussions. For instance, AI models could prioritize sponsored content to ensure it shows up in ChatGPT responses. In recent weeks, ad mockups have included displaying sponsored sponsored information in a sidebar to the main ChatGPT response window, according to the person who has seen them. Employees have also discussed showing a disclosure saying that the results include sponsored results, said the person familiar with the discussions. One focus for OpenAI staffers is evaluating how to show ads without turning off users who might object to chats stuffed with sponsored content or sharing personal conversations if they think responses are influenced by advertisers. OpenAI wants to show ads as unobtrusively as possible to users to ensure that the company doesn't lose users trust, said the person with knowledge of the effort. That could mean ads that show up only once a user's conversation has progressed in a certain direction. One ad mockup showed display ads as a secondary step in ChatGPT once a user has expressed interest in finding more information rather than in the initial ChatGPT response, said the person who saw the mockup. End quote. Everyone's using AI agents to automate tasks, manage workflows, and even make a decision or two. But here's the problem. AI agents can mess up and make mistakes. They delete the wrong files, make changes you didn't want, or just go completely off script. Then you're left to clean up the mess. Unless you've got Rubrik Agent Cloud. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that allows you to monitor, govern and rewind AI agent actions. One platform to help you unleash more agents faster without the risk. If your business relies on AI agents, you need the ability to monitor, govern and rewind their actions right now. Listeners get exclusive early access to Rubrik Agent cloud head to rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com. When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, reach for a Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberries and put your twist on tradition. A bold cranberry and winter spice Flavor Fusion Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry is a refreshing way to shake things up this sipping season, and only for a limited time. Sprite obey your thirst AST Space Mobile launched its largest ever satellite from India, the first in a series of deployments to help the company compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX in delivering space based connectivity to mobile phones. Quoting Bloomb the Bluebird 6 satellite took flight at 8:55am local time from the Satish Dhawan Space center in southern India aboard the Indian Space research organization or ISRO's LVM3 rocket. It reached the low Earth orbit in about 16 minutes, the live cast on YouTube showed. The successful launch is a big boost for the Texas based company as well as India's space program, which wants to build its orbital space station. Among other ambitious projects, ISRO's LVM3 carried AST satellite has launched Chandrayaan 2, Chandrayaan 3 and 21 web missions carrying 72 satellites in the past. AST, which has five smaller commercial satellites in orbit, wants to launch as many as 60 more of the next generation ones in 2026. It also plans on pairing its satellites with typical cellular coverage to serve users in areas that otherwise would have limited or no connectivity, and has signed partnerships with AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone and other cellular providers. The company expects to deliver this service as it becomes operational in some parts of the U.S. and four other countries in early 2026. AST Space Mobile went public in April 2021 after merging with special purpose acquisition company New Providence Acquisition Corp. At the close of trading on Tuesday, the company's stock price had gained about 300% this year, end quote. Speaking of tech stocks that did well this year, bitcoin miners that are retooling data centers to serve the hungry maw of AI have boosted their market caps over 2025. The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF is up around 90% year to date, even as bitcoin itself has slumped. Quoting the Journal it's harder than ever to mine bitcoin, and less profitable too. But mining company stocks are still flying even with cryptocurrency prices in retreat. That's because these fir have something in common with the hottest investment theme on the planet, the massive electricity hungry data centers expected to power the artificial intelligence boom, some companies are figuring out how to remake themselves as vital suppliers to Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and other so called hyperscalers bent on AI dominance. Bitcoin mining, using vast computing power to solve equations to unlock the digital currency has been a lucrative and cutting edge pursuit in its own right. Lately, however, increased competition and other challenges have eroded profit margins. But just as the bitcoin mining business began to cool, the AI buildout turned white hot. The AI arms race has created an insatiable demand for some assets. The miners already have data centers, cooling systems, land and hard to obtain contracts for electrical power, all of which can be repurposed to train and power AI models. It's not a seamless process. Miners often have to build new specialized facilities because running AI requires more advanced cooling and networking systems as well as replacing bitcoin mining computers with AI focused graphics processing units. But signing deals with miners allows AI giants to expand faster and cheaper than starting new facilities from scratch. These companies still mine some bitcoin, but the transition gives miners a new source of deep pocketed customers willing to commit to longer term leases for their data centers. The opportunity for miners to convert to AI is one of the greatest opportunities I could possibly imagine, said Adam Sullivan, chief executive of course Scientific, which has pivoted to AI data centers. The shift has boosted miners stocks. The coinshares Bitcoin mining ETF has surged about 90%. This a rally that has accelerated even as Bitcoin erased its gains for 2025. The ETF holds shares of miners including Cipher Mining and Iron, both of which have surged following long term deals with companies such as Amazon and Microsoft. Shares of Core scientific quadrupled in 2024 after the company signed its first AI contract that February. The stock has gained 10% this year. The company now expects to exit bitcoin mining entirely by 2028. One advantage of running Bitcoin mining operations alongside AI infra infrastructure is the value it offers to utilities. Power companies are searching for partners that can act like a sponge for electricity, and Bitcoin miners like CleanSpark can quickly turn off their power use when the grid is overloaded or unstable, which helps keep the lights on for everyone else. However, traditional AI data centers, which need to be always on, can't offer this flexibility. According to Matthew Schultz, Chief Executive of CleanSpark, if and when there's a weather related event or anything else, we can curtail a portion of the portfolio to help stabilize the grid, he said. And what we found is the demand for that type of load is much greater. End quote. Finally today, and finally this week, one of the inside baseball podcasting stories that I've not really told you about is news that Netflix has been acquiring video podcasts. Basically those interview style podcasts from the likes of the Ringer and Barstool that are everywhere on YouTube. Why? Well, if you're familiar with the term, Netflix wants to get into day parting. Remember when we were kids and on TV in the mornings it was morning shows and game shows, and then in the afternoons it was soap operas and talk shows? That's day parting. And Netflix doesn't want you to just turn to them when you feel like watching a movie or binging a show, carving out specific leisure time for that. They want you to integrate watching Netflix into your entire day. That's probably because, according to this New York Times piece, YouTube dominates daytime TV streaming with 6.3 million viewers at 11am in October, on average, above Netflix's 2.8 million per Nielsen Primetime viewership is even more YouTube has been winning the streaming wars for years, generating more TV viewing time in the United States than Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney plus and every other app out there. In November, it accounted for nearly 13% of viewing time, compared with 8% for Netflix, the next in line, according to Nielsen. Much of YouTube's lead, though, comes from its dominance during the day, adding a challenge for media and streaming executives who are trying to puzzle through how to close a widening gap. At 11am for instance, YouTube had an average audience of 6.3 million viewers in October, Nielsen said. Netflix's audience is less than half of that at 2.8 million. Amazon has about a million viewers at that hour, and some streaming services like HBO Max, Paramount and Peacock drew fewer than 600,000. YouTube, which is owned by Google, continues to hold a commanding lead as the day progresses. It is only in primetime hours that the competition narrows significantly. Netflix's average audience swells to over 11 million viewers at 9pm Only a bit behind YouTube's audience of 12 million, for example. Other large services like Amazon, Disney and HBO Max also close in on YouTube's lead during primetime. Before YouTube's dominance begins again in the overnight hours and continues into the next day, Netflix and others are explicitly looking for content that will get people to click on their apps more frequently in the morning or afternoon. Netflix is bringing at least 34 video podcasts to its service next year, including the Breakfast Club, the Bill Simmons Podcast pardon my take and my favorite murder. In September, Amazon added Travis and Jason Kelsey's popular New Heights podcast to Prime Video. This is all an intentional strategy. Roughly 75% of all podcast listening time happens between 6am and 6pm according to Edison, a research firm. YouTube said viewers watched 700 million hours of video podcasts on living room devices in October, a 75% increase from last year. And YouTube is also the number one platform for podcast listening, with a healthy lead over Spotify and Apple, Edison said. End Quote. Don't really have much in the way of the long reads bag this week because it's been so short and publishing is thin at the moment. But if you do want a long read, here you go from the Journal the story of the hottest toy this year. Have your kids asked you for the NEX playground, but you found out it's sold out everywhere? It's a really interesting story of a tech company pivoting and finding incredible success. So one long read for you at the bottom of the show notes today. And a reminder, I will not be doing a live show again until Monday. Tomorrow you'll get that top 10 tech stories of the Year episode from our friends at the Newsworthy and Friday, the story of the rise and fall of Toys R Us from the RAD History feed. Enjoy that. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. And Doug, here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habit, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.