logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2024
1h 7m

Tech Used to Be Bleeding Edge, Now it’s ...

Vice
About this episode

Ten years ago, Big Tech reached a peak. Facebook had wormed its way into the lives of billions of people. The mainstream news covered iPhones releases like they were Taylor Swift concerts. Elon Musk was promising to colonize Mars and fill the streets with self-driving cars. In 2024, the wheels have come off all these dreams. Musk has filled the sky with satellites, but no colonists, and constantly fights people on X. Self-driving cars are killing people. Apple has released a $3,500 VR headset that’s been met with middling reviews. And Facebook’s only recent innovation is eating its own tail to churn out massive profits.


How did it come to this? This week on Cyber, PR provocateur and tech critic Ed Zitron stops by to tell us about everything he saw at the Consumer Electronics Show, the problem with most tech journalism, and why we all turned against Big Tech. He’ll explore these topics more in depth on his new podcast, Better Offline, which launches later this month.


Stories discussed in this episode:


Better Offline


Rabbit AI Introduction Video


Where’s Your Ed At


How Tech Outstayed Its Welcome


Cyber Live is coming to YouTube. Subscribe here to be notified.


Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Feb 2024
Why Congress's Fears of Russian Space Nukes Is Political Theatre
Cyber is a show covering a diverse range of topics. We’ve covered everything from crypto to AI to online cults. If it touches technology or online culture, we’ll talk about it. That’s how you get an episode like today’s, which is both a deep dive into professional wrestling’s lat ... Show More
1 h
Feb 2024
AI Deepfakes Are Everywhere and Congress is Completely Out of Their Depth
An AI-generated Biden called voters in New Hampshire ahead of the primary and told them to stay home. X locked down the search term “Taylor Swift” after AI-generated nudes of the pop giant flooded the platform. In the wake of both scandals, Congress has struggled with how to figh ... Show More
50m 29s
Jan 2024
How to Read Leaked Datasets Like a Journalist
We live in a golden age of data. Every day, hacktivists release terabytes of data on sites like DDoSecrets, but sorting through it all requires some technical knowledge. What if you don’t know XML from SQL let alone how to write a simple Python script?Micah Lee is the director of ... Show More
55m 40s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
Porn, Only Fans and Bodycount - Candice Horbacz
Candice Horbacz is a former adult film star, host of the Chatting With Candice Podcast, a wife, mum and philanthropist. SPONSOR: We use Ground News to escape the echo chamber and stay fully informed. Go to https://ground.news/triggernometry to save 40% on the Ground News unlimite ... Show More
1h 6m
Mar 2025
Trump's confusing crusade against Big Tech
Starlink is in the White House, Siri is still bad, Pebble is back, up is down, everything is chaos. In this episode, Nilay and David start the show by running through some big gadget news, from a Siri-related shakeup at Apple to the new Google Pixel 9A. After that, The Verge's La ... Show More
1h 54m
Mar 2025
Trump 2.0: Group Chats and a New Spat
What does the continuing fallout from the Signal text security breach tell us about President Trump’s cabinet’s approach to blame and accountability?The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman sit down to make sense of the latest week ... Show More
31m 43s
Mar 2017
Extortion claims. Election influence operations seem likely to continue. A Russian bank claims it's being framed by DNS spoofing. "Cyber Pearl Harbor" fears may be a distraction.
In today's podcast, we hear about the claim that "the Turkish Crime Family" is holding iPhones hostage. WikiLeaks grumbles that it has few takers for its Vault 7 bugs. Germany raises its state of cyber alert, pre-election. The US expects more Russian cyber and influence operation ... Show More
16m 19s
Feb 2025
Trump 2.0: Rewriting Histories
This week, President Trump falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war against Russia, ordered federal agencies created by Congress to answer directly to him and installed himself as the leader of Washington’s premiere cultural institution.The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, ... Show More
31m 9s
Nov 2024
FBI fights fake news.
The FBI flags fake videos claiming to be from the agency. Okta patches an authentication bypass vulnerability. Microsoft confirms Windows Server 2025 Blue Screen of Death issues. Scammers exploit DocuSign’s APIs to send fake invoices that bypass spam filters. Hackers use smart co ... Show More
37m 54s
Jan 2025
The Legal Battle Riveting Hollywood
Warning: This episode contains descriptions of alleged sexual harassment, and a fictional portrayal of domestic violence.Over the last few weeks, the Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have gone to battle over exactly what happened during the making and promotion of ... Show More
32m 20s
Sep 2024
Has American politics been taken over by conspiracy theories?
Two days after former president Donald Trump claimed immigrants are eating cats and dogs, and babies are being executed after birth, Jon and Lewis discuss how deep-rooted conspiracy theories have become in American politics. They're joined in the studio by Gabriel Gatehouse, whos ... Show More
34m 27s
Nov 2024
Can parliament control Elon Musk?
Whatever happens on the streets of Britain, there's always an Elon Musk tweet. Often misinformed. Now parliament wants to take Musk on - or "invite him to explain" what's going on. The protests in the summer following the Southport stabbings were a critical example of how fast an ... Show More
37m 2s
Jan 2025
Quantum TikTok + Memecoin Mania + Chris Hayes on the Attention Wars
This week, TikTok died, came back to life — and now exists in a kind of limbo state. We break down what that may signal for how tech does business with the new Trump administration. Then we pump up the fun with memecoins and explore how the Trump family is cashing in. And finally ... Show More
1h 12m