This Week in Tech (TWiT 1072): "The Devil's Advocate"

Date: February 23, 2026
Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Nicholas De Leon (Consumer Reports), Father Robert Ballacer (The Digital Jesuit), Sam Abuelsamid (Wheel Bearings Media, Telemetry)

Episode Overview

This lively and opinionated roundtable covers a wide array of timely tech topics:

• The legal and ethical landscape of social media "addiction" trials
• Tech's responsibility for mental health
• AI's relentless takeover of tech resources
• The future of self-driving and robo-taxis
• Consumer privacy, data breaches, and personal security
• Fun debunkings (can you hear audio differences over wires, mud, or bananas?)
• The very real, ongoing threat of ransomware
• Highlights from the guests’ own projects, including an AI-driven Tucson news podcast

Leo and the panel frequently spar, play devil's advocate, and bring in their personal tech wisdom and humor.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Social Media "Addiction" Trial: Who's Responsible?

[04:14-10:13]

• Big LA trial: 20-year-old sues over life “ruined” by social media; Snapchat & TikTok settled, Meta and YouTube still fighting.
• Mark Zuckerberg made headlines showing up in Ray Ban smart glasses; judge banned recording devices.
• Panel is divided on whether excessive use is truly "addiction" or just “problematic.”
• Father Robert: Empathizes with harms but says, “This is adulting. You have to be an adult now, you know?”
  [05:41]
• Adam Mosseri (Instagram chief) claimed 16hrs/day is 'problematic' but not addiction, compared it to bingeing TV which the panel debates.
• Psychological addiction vs. physical addiction discussed at length.
• Memorable Quote:
  “16 hours a day doing anything is an addiction. 16 hours a day doing anything is probably not healthy.” – Father Robert [09:19]

2. Responsibility & Regulation: Section 230 & Age Gating

[13:09-18:18]

• Debate over who is responsible: platforms, parents, users?
• Concerns that big lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, etc., could ensnare small businesses and individuals (Section 230 impact).
• Zuckerberg’s pitch: Apple should handle age verification via device-level APIs.
• Panel skeptical that these technical or regulatory fixes are actual solutions.
• Loss of online spaces for marginalized groups (e.g., autistic teens in Australia after bans) is serious collateral damage.
• Nicholas: “We’re still at the ‘who’s responsible’ stage… I don’t know why I need the judiciary to step in when I can close the laptop. Is that facile?” [18:28]
• Father Robert: “If it’s an actual addiction, you can’t just say, ‘Just change your attitude.’” [19:51]

3. AI Mania: Is AI Crowding Out Everything Else?

[37:41-49:45]

• Roundtable “AI check-in.” Sam is "middle," sees value but lots of overhyped uses.
• Nicholas: Tech news is now “just talking about AI and it’s the same very small number of news developments… video games are shrinking, and all the cool stuff I thought was forever, now it’s just AI.” [48:20]
• OpenAI rumored to be closing a $100B round; could society benefit more from directing some of that capital elsewhere?
• Memorable Exchange:
  Leo: “My plan was I was going to cut off Claude when I went to Codex... but it’s like breaking up with a girlfriend.” [39:08]

- AI Tools in Real Life

Nicholas’ Tucson Daily Brief Project
[60:21-65:25]

• Automated pipeline pulls headlines, summarizes with Claude, converts to audio (11Labs TTS), and posts as podcast/blog.
• Cost: about $20/mo, runs on a basic Linux laptop.
• “I’ve never been more informed about Tucson in the past week.” [62:07]
• Philosophical warning from Father Robert: “They’re operating at massive losses. We’re in a false economy... We don’t have transparency into how much my project would cost in the real world.” [65:54]
• Concerns about closed, static LLMs; LLM “dead end” for AI’s next generation? Also warning of coming price “squeeze” (Uber analogy).

- Scary-good AI Voice Cloning Demo

[76:05-76:13]

• Anthony, a community member, demonstrates Leo voice clone using Qwen TTS, made in “a minute or two.”
• Outcome: “Terrifying, right? Everybody should be very afraid.” – Leo [76:13]
• Panel discusses the need for pass phrases/“challenge words” with family to avoid scams.

4. Self-Driving Cars and Robo-Taxis: Progress & Pitfalls

[93:14-107:53]

• Tesla RoboTaxi in Austin: 14 incidents in 7 months; 5 new crashes in Dec/Jan alone.
• Tesla is allowed by NHTSA to redact most crash report data, frustrating comparisons.
• Waymo: 127M driverless miles, 51 incidents, allegedly far better safety vs. humans—but data nuance discussed.
• Myths about “remote control from the Philippines”—not true.
• Zoox demo: symmetrical, carriage-seating, easy entry/exit, fully redundant, “living room on wheels.”
• Sam: “Ultimately, this is the direction that robo-taxis need to go.” [103:07]
• Cameras and smoke detectors in robo-taxis: “If you do anything inappropriate, they will let you know.” [109:16]

Additional Highlights & Memorable Moments

- Amazon Ring, Surveillance, and Zero Crime?

[84:06-88:33]

• Ring's “search party” for dogs: precursor to blanket surveillance.
• Email: “Soon we’ll have, in his words, zero crime.” [84:06]
• Panel warns: “Zero crime is fundamentally incompatible with the Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment. Founders wanted crime to be able to happen because the only way for crime not to happen is total surveillance.” – Father Robert [88:13]

- Consumer Security: Breaches & Routers

[132:12-145:15]

• PayPal data breach: working capital app exposed full PII (names, SSNs, account numbers) for six months—company's transparency “not great.”
• Ongoing router security drama:
  • TP-Link (Chinese company, 65% US market share) not banned, despite government probes; Texas sues for deceptive marketing.
  • “Keep your router up to date” is the core advice.
• Password manager research: Niche server-side downgrade attacks possible, but good companies responded quickly; update your settings, use strong keys and features like Argon2.

- Social & Cultural Throwbacks

[167:42-169:09]

• Blind audio test: audiophiles can't tell the difference between music piped through mud, copper, or bananas—“the mud should sound awful, but it doesn’t.”
• Wide-ranging nostalgia for early internet, BBS, and the thrill of “first discovering the Net.”
• Geneva’s original World Wide Web browser available online [173:47].

- Miscellaneous Fun

• Lab-grown meat: scientifically viable, not yet economically or culturally embraced [170:35].
• Dutch defense minister: F35 fighter software can be “jailbroken like a phone” [151:05].
• Social commentary on parents/kids in restaurants glued to devices; historical analogies (adults in the '40s buried in newspapers).

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Social Media Addiction Trial & Definitions: [04:14-13:09]
• Section 230 and Content Provider Liability: [13:09-18:18]
• AI and the “AI Squeeze” & Nicholas’ Tucson Brief: [37:41-65:25]
• AI Voice Cloning Demo: [76:05-76:13]
• Tesla RoboTaxi & Waymo Comparisons: [93:14-107:53]
• Amazon Ring & Surveillance Society: [84:06-88:33]
• Consumer Security, PayPal, Routers, Password Managers: [132:12-145:15]
• Audiophile Blind Test (mud, bananas, copper): [167:42-169:09]
• Lab-Grown Meat Adoption Barriers: [170:35-172:28]
• Original World Wide Web Experience: [173:47-174:42]

Notable Quotes

• “16 hours a day doing anything is probably not healthy. So let's just call it that. Call it that. Be honest with me…” – Father Robert [09:19]

• “We have this conversation every day for the past 20 years... I'm 40 years old now, and I was 20 when we were having these discussions.” – Nicholas De Leon [18:18]

• “16 hours a day using anything isn't an addiction? That's beyond gaslighting.” – Father Robert, paraphrased [09:59]

• “If you're going to do that, then we should just not communicate with anyone at all because I don't know your mind.” – Father Robert [15:33]

• “The founders wanted crime to be able to happen because the only way for crime not to happen is to have 24/7 surveillance.” – Father Robert [88:13]

• “The mud should sound awful, but it doesn’t.” – Pano, quoted by Leo [168:05]

Tone & Style

Conversational, nerdy, sometimes playful but also deeply thoughtful. Panelists comfortably challenge each other's ideas and assumptions; humor and gentle ribbing add balance to the show's rich technical and ethical explorations.

Conclusion

A classic TWiT: big ideas debated, news analyzed, stakes explored, and tech’s quirks and joys celebrated. The panel refuses to accept simple answers in nuanced problems from algorithmic platforms to AI’s runaway hype, regulatory dilemmas, and our increasingly surveilled society. Whether you listen for the news, the history, or the devil’s advocate arguments, there’s something for every curious techie.