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After a year tangled in political drama, AI hype, and regulation battles, the TWiT crew explains how many of tech's "biggest stories" simply fizzled into nothing or left us with new headaches by year's end.
Year-end tech trends: AI, politics, and security dominated 2025
Major stories faded fast: TikTok saga, political tech drama, DOGE scandal
TikTok's ownership battle—Oracle, Trump donors, and US-China tensions
China tech fears: banned drones, IoT vulnerabilities, secret radios in buses
Rising political pressure for internet privacy and media literacy reform
Surveillance and kill switch concerns in US grid and port infrastructure
Convenience vs. privacy: Americans trade data for discounts and ease
Age verification, surveillance, and flawed facial recognition across countries
Discord's ID leak highlights risks of rushed compliance with privacy laws
Social media's impact on kids pushes age-gating and verification laws
ISPs monetize customer data, VPNs pitched for personal privacy
Global government crackdowns: UK bans VPN advertising, mandates age checks
The illusion of absolute privacy: flawed age gates and persistent tracking
AI takes over: explosive growth, but profits elusive for big players
Arms race in LLMs: DeepSeek's breakthrough, OpenAI/Meta talent bidding war
Ad-driven models still rule; Amazon's playbook repeated in AI
Humanoid robots and AGI hype: skepticism vs. Silicon Valley optimism
AI-generated art, media, and the challenge of deepfake detection
Social platforms falter: Instagram and X swamped by fake or low-value content
Google's legal, regulatory, and technical woes: ad tech trial, Manifest V3 backlash
RAM price spikes and hardware shortages blamed on AI data center demand
YouTube overtakes mobile for podcast and video viewing, Oscars move online
The internet's growth: Cloudflare stats, X vs. Reddit, spam domain trends
Weird tech stories: hacked crosswalks, Nintendo Switch 2 Staplegate, LEGO theft ring
Sad farewell: Lamar Wilson's passing and mental health awareness in tech
Reflections on the year's turbulence and hopes for a better 2026
Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Mikah Sargent, Paris Martineau, and Steve Gibson
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