Regulators vs. Grok, UK privacy crackdown, Gemini-powered Siri + more!

Duration: 09:04

Timestamps:

0:00 the future is almost...now

0:08 UK, US action on Grok

1:55 Cloudflare vs. Italy, UK vs privacy

3:47 Apple picks Gemini for Siri

5:08 QUICK BITS INTRO

5:18 Steam Machine pricing leak

5:57 Uninstall Copilot!

6:51 Micron is just trying their best guys

7:41 SpaceX, China satellites

8:09 Space-based solar power demo

NEWS SOURCES:

MAINS

BETWEEN A GROK AND A HARD PLACE

UK probes X over Grok CSAM scandal; Elon Musk cries censorship

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/uk-investigating-x-after-grok-undressed-thousands-of-women-and-children/

BBC Story about Musk saying it’s just haters hating - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3kqzepp5zo

Democrats ask Apple and Google to remove X’s undressing bot from their app stores

https://www.theverge.com/news/859631/democrats-x-grok-apple-google-app-store

Tim Sweeney Tries To Clarify Grok Comments, Continues To Defend Twitter

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/epic-games-ceo-tim-sweeney-argues-banning-twitter-over-its-ability-to-ai-generate-pornographic-images-of-minors-is-just-gatekeepers-attempting-to-censor-all-of-their-political-opponents/

https://www.thegamer.com/tim-sweeney-grok-controversy/

UK to bring into force law to tackle Grok AI deepfakes this week

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq845glnvl1o

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/xai_grok_uk_regulation/

A CLOUD OF SUSPICION

Cloudflare defies Italy’s Piracy Shield, won’t block websites on 1.1.1.1 DNS

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/cloudflare-may-pull-servers-out-of-italy-over-order-that-it-block-pirate-sites/

UK Is Cracking down on privacy

UK Conservatives are following Australia’s lead - no under 16s allowed to use https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/conservatives_social_media_ban/

UK is trying to sneak a peak at your encrypted messages - client side scanning is to be implemented by ofcom https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-orders-ofcom-to-explore-encryption-backdoors

Discord banned in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Russia – and Proton VPN records massive usage spike (103% increase on saturday)

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/discord-stopped-working-in-egypt-and-proton-vpn-records-massive-usage-spike

SIRI LEARNS THE ALPHABET

Apple picks Google’s Gemini AI for its big Siri upgrade

https://www.theverge.com/news/860521/apple-siri-google-gemini-ai-personalization

https://www.reuters.com/business/google-apple-enter-into-multi-year-ai-deal-gemini-models-2026-01-12/

Apple google joint statement: https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/joint-statement-google-apple/

Google brings buy buttons to Gemini and AI search (they’re developing “a protocol it hopes will become the industry standard for shopping with AI”)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/11/google-launches-universal-commerce-protocol-bets-on-ai-powered-retail.html

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-universal-commerce-protocol-announcement-3631662/

Google says: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/

Google pulls AI overviews for some medical searches

http://techcrunch.com/2026/01/11/google-removes-ai-overviews-for-certain-medical-queries/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/11/google-ai-overviews-health-guardian-investigation?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Concerns over user privacy raised but they proooomise it’ll be fine - https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/12/will-apple-google-ai-deal-impact-user-privacy-heres-what-apple-says/

QUICK BITS

MACHINE EARNING

Steam Machine Price May Have Just Leaked via a Czech Retailer, $950 USD for 512GB Model, $1,070 USD for 2TB

https://wccftech.com/steam-machine-price-leak-valve/

https://www.tomsguide.com/gaming/steam-machine-pricing-may-have-just-leaked-by-retailer-and-its-not-cheap

https://videocardz.com/newz/steam-machine-shows-up-at-first-retailers-but-the-price-looks-like-a-placeholder

FLYING SOLO

You can now remove copilot on the latest insider build as long as the device is “managed” and you are the administrator https://www.techradar.com/pro/good-news-copilot-haters-some-of-you-will-be-able-to-disable-the-ai-tool-on-your-work-device-at-last

https://www.inkl.com/news/admins-finally-get-the-power-to-uninstall-microsoft-copilot-on-windows-11-pro-enterprise-and-edu-versions-devices-must-meet-specific-conditions-to-allow-the-removal-of-the-ai-app

Microsoft blog about it: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/01/09/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26220-7535-dev-beta-channels/#:~:text=Uninstalling%20Microsoft%20Copilot,last%2028%20days

You can activate Windows with Epstein’s product key

https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1qagi9i/you_can_activate_windows_with_epsteins_product_key/

Twitter summary post: https://x.com/i/trending/2010167861440880742

Previous video take down, here is a new one, and the top comment comes from previous poster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmhruBGicXE

I PREFER PAUL MCCARTNEY’S RAM

Micron addresses Crucial exit backlash: 'We are trying to help consumers around the world' — company warns that DRAM drought could last until at least 2028

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/micron-addresses-crucial-exit-backlash-we-are-trying-to-help-consumers-around-the-world-company-warns-that-dram-drought-could-last-until-at-least-2028

https://www.trendforce.com/news/2026/01/12/news-micron-reportedly-sees-memory-crunch-through-2028-oems-keep-consumer-reach-despite-crucial-exit/

PC World did a a good rundown of the ram stuff - https://www.pcworld.com/article/3028843/dram-ssd-shortages-could-last-months-to-years-vendors-say.html

Desperate times

'Um, as a favor, if you buy a new one, please sell your gaming PC to our company' says Tokyo-based computer store

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-pcs/um-as-a-favor-if-you-buy-a-new-one-please-sell-your-gaming-pc-to-our-company-says-tokyo-based-computer-store-as-it-offers-pretty-high-prices/

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

AND SpaceX gets FCC permission to launch another 7,500 Starlink satellites

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/spacex-gets-fcc-permission-to-launch-another-7500-starlink-satellites/

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/fcc-approves-7500-additional-starlink-gen2-satellites

China is launching it’s own starlink - https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3339493/china-applies-put-200000-satellites-space-after-calling-starlink-crash-risk

Donald Trump has stated that he plans to speak with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk about restoring internet access in Iran.

https://www.teslarati.com/donald-trump-turns-to-elon-musk-and-starlink-amid-iran-internet-blackout/

BEAM US UP

Researchers Beam Power From a Moving Airplane Demonstration tees up new scheme for space-based solar power (Announced in December that the test worked, but still a cool concept)

https://spectrum.ieee.org/wireless-power-movin-airplane

Overview energy: https://www.overviewenergy.com/updates/airborne