Billionaires are spending, well, billions of dollars on AI because they assume AI will evolve into a machine that works. A machine that converts wages expense into capital they own.

A new technology increases the consumption of raw resources. Thus, money is spent mechanizing the gathering of those resources, usually at great environmental cost. As always, after the infrastructure is built, jobs disappear. Such as, 100 men with shovels and carts being replaced by 5 men with a 400t (capacity) dump-truck and a drag-line bucket-shovel. Wages were converted into machines the billionaires own.

Notice that Bezos didn't promise "The Jetsons" future of a robot maid or flying car in every home: He didn't promise this technology will be consumed by the working class. Only when lower (manufacturing) costs cause everybody to buy the new technology, will new jobs be created.

All ad-blockers are blocked: Does this mean the return of the flashing pop-up adverts that 'follows' the reader around the page? I wonder how many people will suffer that on a paid-subscription web-site?

I've found that most paid-subscription services won't work in privacy-orientated (Mozilla-based) browsers. One or two Chrome-based browsers block the adverts while many (Eg. Opera), don't.

Like Adobe AI, Shutterstock wants to sell stolen art to the very artists they robbed. Artists would stop buying Adobe products but Software As A Subscription means Adobe can also re-possess their digital tools. AFAIK, Shutterstock doesn't have that vendor lock-in.

Like many US law enforcement (and gun owner's rights) laws, there is a massive carve-out, allowing the restrictions proposed by the law to be ignored. With CALEA, police have "emergency" powers to identity the location and owner of a phone, where a warrant is not required: The carve-out does not demand accountability from police, thus, a cop can unmask an owner at any time, for any reason.

Modifying emergency powers to include accountability would also include restrictions on surveillance activities, which the US government does not want.

What does this mean? Why would a child have 2 phones? Why would a single adult have 2 phones?

What about arresting scammers: I think that would deter them greatly? Not collecting their fake name and fake second number for police to remember.

If the US government wanted less crime, they would protect the privacy of phone users, not become another data broker. If they really cared, they would not allow every law enforcement employee to demand the details of any phone without a warrant (CALEA, 1994).

The US government is demanding the power to spy on more people. That's a cruel move in any country. In the USA, such authoritarianism always ends badly.

In the future, games you never own won't be coming to you, you'll be going to the locked-down X-box ecosystem for the industry-standard limited-time console game at a premium price.

We know that a large portion of our brain is a neural network but what if it functions more like a quantum computer: The data is the algorithm?

It's a bit like LISP where some data is instructions (formulas, procedures) on using other pieces of data. Current (true) AI has a level of self-modification but it's not as general-purpose as biological self-modification (education, deduction, repetition). Then, there's the fact that a computer doesn't experience the real world (Technically, our limited senses don't either but they contain sufficient details so that we can respond in a useful manner.) events and isn't designed to continue with incomplete data (Eg. disk error).

There a few models of personality but they tend to divide human interaction into 3 buckets of behaviour, which in turn are described with words such as; learned, cognitive, emotional, social, biological, etc. The fact we can't see how primitive sensations trigger responses (fear, flight, attraction) and are then modified by memories and desires (rationalization), limits the ability to create an artificial mind.

The US elite (are estimated to) have tripled their spending: It's why the USA isn't in an economic depression, now. Logic says, they'll run-out of things to buy, which is when the pain starts: It will be another GFC. Because the poor already lack money for niceties, the spending slump that precedes a depression, will reach rock bottom in a matter of days. It's difficult to imagine what causes a government to lose control and post-apocalyptic tribalism to rise, but that will be a good starting point.

How many US laws protect the reputation of living persons? Corporations have the money to protect their reputations while their customers don't have the money to protect their privacy or reputation.

Also, is the government always bearing the cost of litigation? The government is entitled to damages when the corporation loses the fight protecting its "reputation". The government needs to recoup wasted time or every corporation will fight every judgement against it, for the benefits of its reputation and a tax-deductible cost. (Meaning, the corporation doesn't pay taxes on the revenue diverted to frivolous litigation.)

You'd rather 'go' work, than 'go' home? That makes you sound boring, mentally unstable and burnt-out.

What stops the scammer's phone sending this signal?

It's presumably something on the caller's phone that the receiver (you) can check: Such as a SHA-256 hash of the caller's IMEI. In case, your phone doesn't have the information on-file (or a genuine caller changed devices), your phone sends a back-up ping to the caller's supposed phone number.

A few months ago, Microsoft forcibly 'upgraded' old versions of Microsoft Office for Windows to Office 365 (offline license). But Apple Mac owners aren't getting the free upgrade.

Buy another product that Microsoft will brick in 6 years: This shows how much contempt Microsoft has for its customers. Microsoft has been "too big to care" for a few decades but now that vendor lock-in on the desktop form-factor is increasing, Microsoft can monetize (Office 365) or pirate (OneDrive, Recall, Co-pilot, Scout) everything on their customer's computers.

I guess that's White House-speak for, couldn't monetize their activities. Trump's dementia isn't stopping him from threatening and blackmailing fellow billionaires for personal profit.

"... made to be thrown away.

Re-assembling a device without damaging high-pressure waterproofing is a delicate operation. Without dedicated tools and experience, it is not a consumer-replaceable part.

Every fortnight, I collect six devices (with built-in batteries) and put them on a charger for a few days: They're Ni-MH or Lithium based. Every second or third month I re-charge an additional six devices (with built-in batteries). Everything else is button-cell or I remove the standard batteries, until needed. I tried Ni-Zn rechargeable batteries but the summer heat destroys them in a few years. Plus, they don't handle high-load devices (alkaline batteries required) well.

Also, a South Korean ferry that told children to stay in their cabins while it was taking-on water: When it listed suddenly, the doors jammed and the children drowned (2014-Apr).