TWiT 1089: Robot Butt Crack - Anthropic Banned, But Winning

TWiT 1089: Robot Butt Crack - Anthropic Banned, But Winning

June 21, 2026 · 3h 20m · Episode 1089

About this episode

The episode discusses the intersection of AI, politics, and major tech industry developments.

AI giants are battling not just in code, but in politics, with behind-the-scenes lobbying, strategic naming, and rumors of blockbuster deals at the heart of this week's wildest tech stories. Get the inside scoop on who's pulling the strings. Apparently The Real Reason Anthropic's Models Are Offline: A Six-Year-Old Trump Grudge Trump says he no longer views Anthropic as a national security threat after G7 meeting with CEO Exclusive | Apple to Raise Prices Due to Memory Chip Crunch, Tim Cook Says Elon Musk's Next Move May Be a Mega-Merger of SpaceX and Tesla Anthropic's latest feud with the Trump admin may actually help it, sales data suggests Google's Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer is leaving for OpenAI Google's Secret Warrant Fight Over DOJ Pipe Bomb Probe Revealed The UK Places a Sweeping Ban on Social Media for Kids Under 16 Meta lobbies Congress for protection from child-harm lawsuits Waymo recalls nearly 4,000 robotaxis to stop them driving into highway construction zones Snap Launches $2,195 Specs, Declaring Glasses the Next Computer Fox wants to take over your TV — and the tech inside it Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans Nothing cancels…

People in this episode

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Iain Thomson, Owen Thomas, Doc Rock

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Anthropic, Apple, SpaceX, Tesla, Google, Meta, Waymo, Snap, Ubisoft

Places: UK

More episodes of This Week in Tech (Video)

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the This Week in Tech (Video) podcast page.