Clearly a problem world-wide.

Not so clear what to do about it, although education helps in some countries.

... is full of eels!

Google has allowed Android phone owners to install any app that they want for years now, without even having to install some special "app store" to get them. I haven't heard of any large-scale problem with Android phone owners being ruined by side-loaded apps. The most common vectors have been malicious apps they got from the Google Play Store, and phishing of the user themselves for financial info, not pilfered with some spy app. The same as people on the Apple iPhone side.

Fair, but in the business world of people who buy that type of software, being the official authors of WordPress does give them cachet. The Automatic.CSS name was absolutely picked to piggyback off it.

Not just possibly, but absolutely valid. This is exactly the kind of thing trademarks exist to prevent. They aren't claiming the word "automatic", they're claiming that naming a framework that's meant to work with their product (WordPress) a name that differs from their own by only 1 letter, particularly such a non-obvious difference (many people won't notice the existence of an extra 't') is meant to cause confusion an think it's an official part of their offerings. Because it is. If the other company doesn't change the name they will be destroyed in court. And frankly they'll deserve it. Whoever chose that name was either a total idiot with no concept of the law, or a scammer who meant to prey on Autmattic's good name.

I cannot find anywhere how they collected this data or the methods they used to analyze it

I will let you into a secret ...
It was made up on the spot by "AI".

Just reads to me like an indication that Isaacman has sold out for the chance to lead NASA, and will be doing whatever his master wants.

Remember that J.D. Vance once referred to Trump as a Nazi, and look what tune he's singing now.

... you cannot send Guinness down an optical fibre at anything like the rate at which most civilised people would drink it!

The third-party AI might also do a better job (from the customer's perspective) depending on the data it has vs. Alexa, because the third-party AI can make buying decisions based solely on the information it has on the user. As someone else mentioned, the third-party AI wont favor brands/items/sellers Amazon is promoting.

Making the new machine's screen a slightly different size than their existing MacBook Air 13. Gotta start production on a one-off chassis now when they have stacks of the MBA ones already done.

This is literally the same strat Amazon has. They want Alexa to buy products unprompted for Prime users as well, based on the customer's previous buying habits. They're just annoyed someone else is doing it.

Ought to be a crime under EU legislation!

I have heard the suit used to be green. But Coca-Cola made it red, and that stuck.

... when they get it on an 8" floppy disk.

I asked Gemini and it went the "Ancient Astronaut Theorists" route instead:

The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has been part of human culture for thousands of years, appearing in ancient myths and legends. However, the term "artificial intelligence" was officially coined in 1955, marking its beginning as a formal academic and technological field.