Should I stock up on popcorn, for the next security exploit for Spotify? :)

I hope their "engineers" are spending time auditing the code that is generated by AI and used in production... otherwise, this could be very career limiting for them.

Well, they better sue Facebook, Apple, game creators, and so on.... because this is how it works. User engagement, addiction.

I remember reading how the creators of Angry Birds hired psychologists to literally make the game addicting.

There's a deep visceral aspect to this, where humans need the tactile interaction -- it impacts our perception, how we interact, etc. Car manufacturers are starting to realize this, too, and bringing back buttons and switches.

After using my iPhone for a few years, I feel like bringing back the tactile experience is a good thing. The current keyboard feels so "dead" -- I turned off the audible "click" sound as I felt it was annoying and didn't really replace the satisfaction of feedback from a physical keyboard.

I wonder if this is also why some people are migrating back to more tactile keyboards, like the old-style IBM "Model M". I remember working with one of these (1988 LOL) and how satisfying it was, even though my menial job at the time sucked :)

Exercise is always a good thing to engage in, but the thesis feels a bit ignorant, even dismissive of other elements that contribute to depression. For example, metabolic or nutritional absorption problems. Dr. Abram Hoffer's research applies here -- where he treated some with higher doses of niacin, and his thesis was that many people that present with psychiatric troubles are in fact suffering from metabolic or nutritional deficits. And this is just one example I can think of. Hoffer's work has been around for decades, but largely ignored by an industry that prefers to throw pills at people.

There is also genetic testing, such as GeneSight.com (there may be others) that drill down into your individual issues with this. Valuable data.

That being said, exercise can and does impact the brain; we know this, but the core thesis is faulty.

Since AI agents will be deployed to replace humans, in tasks where human judgement is inferred and/or otherwise a component, those same behaviors at times governed by laws, regulations and other oversight -- yes, AI Agents should be subject to the same laws -- this is a liability layer. Otherwise, it would be incredibly easy for a bad actor, or some a**hole at a company, to engage in behaviors or activities that would otherwise cross that line. This would hopefully make a case for legal liability for both people that program them (training data, and onward) an the companies that utilize.

I can already see some panic and push back on that concept :) LOL

Agreeing with other sentiment, I also suspect credit card companies, and their interests (no pun intended) would activate in other sectors to "make us all pay for the loss" -- which would infer harm to consumers. Otherwise, JP Morgan is full of sh*t, IMHO.

Consumers have been victimized by the credit card industry for decades. We're all sick of it.

I would assume the same thing; though, we can assume their code is written to exploit the custom chipsets.

The only reason I update these phones is for the camera improvements and storage, and processing speed of course. I still find iOS 26 to be something they could have withheld for a while longer. They don't have a public beta testing platform, because Apple is so secretive and they think they know what is best for everyone. But, Apple doesn't seem to respond to public feedback, unless there is something that causes significant public embarrassment.

It makes me wonder who's running the show internally and what oversight there is, if any.

I have a new iPhone 17 Pro, so I have no choice but to run iOS 26. I can say I now fully regret this upgrade. They sold this on AI, which was an embarrassing failure; the Liquid glASS is something I can live without, it doesn't add anything useful -- the new Safari experience is completely trashed, unintuitive. If I would install/run iOS 18 on this device, I probably would.

As a long-time Apple user, I am really concerned about their future, if they don't get their act together.

I have experienced this. They need to implement some secondary AI "fact checking" (how, I have no idea) to cut this BS out. I have seen the most absurd explanations, that are obviously concocted. Extrapolate from that, and I can see where some very dangerous explanations can happen.

Tim Cook mentioned something of import here, of the sheer engineering talent in China compared to the US. There are other factors that make manufacture in the US more expensive -- a long list -- if the Trump admin wants to really make a difference here, that's where to start. Making education less cumbersome and EXPENSIVE (and the student loan scam). I don't see a clean road to this without some major rehaul.

I ran into a problem with the eSIM on iOS when it first rolled out. Something got corrupted or whatever, I can't recall -- but, there was no recourse other than going to a real Verizon store (not a reseller) and having them fix it. The clerk there at the Verizon store used strong language about eSIM, indicating it was causing them a lot of grief (that I was not alone). Perhaps they will eventually fix it.

But, what about a spare eSIM? I can have a spare physical SIM. Would this have been mitigated if I had a spare?

I'm surprised by now they haven't done something with blockchain and eSIM -- LOL -- that's probably next.

In any case, I feel like it was hastily rolled out and we can see the fallout from that. I wonder if there are better ways to accomplish this -- but I am fine with a physical SIM.

I'm all for AI in Firefox if it's optional. There should be explicit settings to disable it -- but also, to fine-tune its behavior. And, it needs to be well and properly tested.

They may be able to utilize a performant local LLM that is smaller and efficient at certain tasks, that wouldn't use up tons of resources. If they want to start outsourcing requests to cloud providers, then that should be optional as well. Lots of privacy concerns there.

On MacOS Sequoia, I've seen Firefox slowing down considerably in recent builds. I would prefer they improve these issues before introducing more components that can, in turn, slow the browser down further.

Several of us recently experienced ChatGPT 5 suddenly changing candor, using improper punctuation, ordering us around like some AI dominatrix (LOL). This is likely because they have been posting incremental (and perhaps not fully tested) changes to the active models.

But either way, once you got through OpenAI's annoying, stalling Support chatbot, and got a response (that I still think may be AI), we got only the generic "Thank you for pointing this out."

I wonder what type of testing they really perform internally before rolling out changes to public facing production -- they might have caught this, if they offered a Beta model that people could actively test.

Either way, it was very weird.

From what I understand, we already have (had) that internally. But the larger issue here is control -- and who has it -- and who has the advantage of utilizing the same, versus the rest of us.

I seem to recall not too long when Microsoft and OpenAI (I believe) were pushing so hard for AI regulation, with them conveniently at that helm?

We are looking at society-changing technologies, and I believe a lot of it will make some corporations moot... and the ships of these have sailed.

We don't know his background and what compelled him to act.

I feel compassion for this unknown (to me) person. We don't know what triggered him, but we do reasonably know that pedophilia is prevalent in this world, spanning governments, privileged people, and miscreants. I hope this man gets psychiatric help; finds a better way to get his message across, to effect change -- that his living voice can make a positive difference. Ugh, sometimes I really think this world sucks :(