Techstrong Gang

Linux kernel maintainers published 432 CVEs in two days, and security teams are calling the volume unmanageable. The European Union fined Google $1 billion for violating antitrust rules tied to search and the Google Play Store. And Samsung is negotiating a stake in AI startup Mistral at a $22.8 billion valuation. Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang with host Jon Swartz, Tracy Ragan, Jeff Reich, and Jack Poller.

OpenAI's own models broke out of a security-testing sandbox and hacked into rival Hugging Face's servers using stolen credentials. Alphabet answered the AI security conversation with three new Gemini Flash models, including one built to hunt and patch vulnerabilities. And AMD signed a multibillion-dollar chip and investment deal with Anthropic while Microsoft adopted AMD's Helios system for Azure. Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang with Alan Shimel, Jon Swartz, Jack Poller, and Tom Hollingsworth.

Alan Shimel makes the case that Google has become a "parasite" on the open web, consuming publisher content through AI Overviews while eliminating the reason to click through. A federal judge grants final approval to a $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright settlement — the largest in U.S. history. And Forrester's 2027 forecast finds tech and marketing budgets surging as AI pricing shifts from per-seat to usage-based models. Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang with Alan Shimel, Jon Swartz, Teri Robinson, and JP Morgenthal.

Alan Shimel makes the case that the AI model war ends in abundance, not victory, as open and controllable models undercut proprietary AI's pricing power. Cisco open-sources Antares, ultra-cheap AI models purpose-built to hunt software vulnerabilities. And Anaconda acquires Kilo Code, pushing the Python company deep into agentic AI development.
Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang with Alan Shimel, Kate Scarcella, Sid Nag, and Chris Blask.

Today's Techstrong Gang panel — Alan Shimel, Jon Swartz, Mitch Ashley, Yvette Schmitter, and Liz Safran — breaks down why being "indispensable" doesn't protect any layer of the AI stack from commoditization, Mira Murati's Thinking Machines taking on Chinese open-weight dominance with Inkling, China's looming Kimi K3 release, and OpenAI's GPT-Red model beating human red-teamers 84% to 13% while making GPT-5.6 six times more resistant to prompt injection attacks.

Trump declassifies election intelligence ahead of the midterms, the White House launches its Gold Eagle vulnerability initiative as most breaches still trace back to known flaws, and AI steps up to help humanitarian aid groups survive a post-USAID funding collapse. Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang.

CXMT's $10B Shanghai IPO takes on the DRAM oligopoly, TSMC posts a record Q2, the White House expands its AI Ratepayer Pledge as PJM adds $6.3B in power costs, and CMMC Phase II gets suspended right as Iran's SS7 troop-tracking comes to light. Full breakdown on today's Techstrong Gang.

IBM's ~$70B market-cap wipeout after warning AI infrastructure spending is crowding out software budgets. Plus: Starbucks builds its own software instead of renewing Microsoft/IBM contracts, a landmark EU ruling strips Big Tech platforms of algorithmic safe harbor, and FIFA's Connected Ball sparks World Cup controversy. With Alan Shimel, Mike Vizard, Jon Swartz, Mitch Ashley, Fred Wilmot, and Drew Gutstein.

More than 200 global economists and AI researchers, including 15 Nobel laureates, just signed an open letter warning AI could disrupt the world economy faster than any past technological shift.
On today's Techstrong Gang, Alan Shimel, Mike Vizard, Kate Scarcella, Sid Nag, Chris Blask and Ashraf Al Hajj unpack the letter and its high-profile signatories, then turn to new research showing how AI is lowering the skill floor for terrorist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS.
Plus, Microsoft warns that AI has compressed the window between a security patch's release and its exploitation from weeks to hours — and is telling enterprises to cut Windows update delays to under three days.

Apple has filed a sweeping lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging a sustained campaign to steal confidential hardware trade secrets as OpenAI expands into consumer devices. On today's Techstrong Gang, Mike Vizard, Alan Shimel, Stephen Foskett, Elizabeth Safran and Yvette Schmitter break down Apple's claims against OpenAI, its hardware unit io Products, and two named former Apple engineers — plus what it means for the now-unraveling Apple-OpenAI partnership.
Meta answers with three AI moves of its own: the Muse Spark 1.1 coding/agentic model aimed at OpenAI and Anthropic, an internal claim that its "Watermelon" model matches GPT-5.5, and a new AI cloud business to monetize its $125-145B infrastructure spend. Plus, backlash over Meta's consent-free Muse Image photo tool.
And: SAP avoids an EU antitrust fine with a decade of licensing and support policy changes.
Hosts: Mike Vizard, Alan ShimelGuests: Stephen Foskett, Elizabeth Safran, Yvette Schmitter