Ignoring your hyperbole regarding actual prices, the answer is that you are supposed to be willing to pay up, or not to purchase at all. Just like C-3PO, your lot in life is to suffer.

The AI is not convinced that Richard Dawkins is conscious.

There is an entire category of e-bikes that are officially sold for off road riding, whose top speed may be 25mph (and higher in some cases or with trivial mods). And in more urban and suburban areas they are commonly used on sidewalks and roads (their top speed is approximately the same as some road speed limits). They can be a danger to others, and to the riders (who commonly don't wear helmets). I have personally seen them racing around a school yard park (technically after school hours, but some children are still playing). It may not be the fault of the e-bike that the riders are not doing the right thing, but catching (and citing) the riders is hard, so forcing additional performance limits and registration may be the only way forward. All part of the "This is why we can't have nice things" world (it only take a few people to ruin it for everyone).

So how long before some new AI passes the Spotify test and becomes verified?

Canonical is chasing the money, and the enterprises (that actually pay for maintenance, and support Canonical engineering through those subscriptions) mostly want AI to be part of their deployed solution. If you want a company not chasing the money, Canonical may not be the distro for you.

The old adage, "dumb criminals get caught" is still valid.

Musk has been promoting X being an everything app (including banking) since 2022. While some will certainly consider using the X bank, it is unlikely convince many to migrate from their current solution in any large numbers.

The SI standard specifies mean sea level as the base, and gravity compensation is done in different ways depending on the clock type. The clocks are now so precise that they can detect changes in height (gravity) of around 1mm (it has probably gotten better since the last time I talked to some true time geeks).

And while not all films justify seeing them in True IMAX, some arguably are (Nolan strongly encourages that those who can should see his films in True IMAX. His The Odessy will be filmed 100% with IMAX cameras).

Disney could have moved the release back a week (some industry pundits suggested they might do so) to at least gotten a fair number of those who absolutely positively needed to see the movie at the IMAX pricing and experience on that first weekend.

There are some films for which a true 70mm IMAX screen cannot be equaled (Nolan is a fanatic about filming for 70mm IMAX). Sure, there are only (about) three dozen of those theaters in the world (I happen to live close enough to one of them), but watching some films in them can be a really enjoyable experience. For a lot of films, watching them on a 6" phone screen is more than sufficient (nothing to see there anyway).

Follow the money....

And those organizations for which the migration is going to take time (often a lot of time) due to the organizations priorities and funding.

Adam Back is currently a resident of Malta (he stated that UK vs Malta taxes were a reason he moved his primary residence). Malta taxes are different than the US or the UK. I'll would let an actual Malta tax lawyer (I am not, and do not know any) determine how much Adam Back might end up paying, should he every realize some of those gains.

Microsoft has been raising the bar for kernel drivers for a while now. I am thinking that in their enthusiasm for reducing the attack surface (which in the abstract would be a good thing), they have gone too far, or at least too fast.