Microsoft quietly hands over BitLocker keys to the government, TikTok's new privacy terms spark a user panic, and Europe's secret tech backups reveal anxious prep for digital fallout. Plus, how gambling platforms are changing the future of news and sports.

• You can bet on how much snow will fall in New York City this weekend
• Europe Prepares for a Nightmare Scenario: The U.S. Blocking Access to Tech
• China, US sign off on TikTok US spinoff
• TikTok users freak out over app's 'immigration status' collection -- here's what it means
• Elon Musk's Grok A.I. Chatbot Made Millions of Sexualized Images, New Estimates Show
• Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw - Forbes
• House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16
• Overrun with AI slop, cURL scraps bug bounties to ensure "intact mental health"
• Route leak incident on January 22, 2026
• 149 Million Usernames and Passwords Exposed by Unsecured Database
• Millions of people imperiled through sign-in links sent by SMS
• Anthropic revises Claude's 'Constitution,' and hints at chatbot consciousness
• The new Siri chatbot may run on Google servers, not Apple's
• A Wikipedia Group Made a Guide to Detect AI Writing. Now a Plug-In Uses It to 'Humanize' Chatbots
• GitHub - anthropics/original_performance_takehome: Anthropic's original performance take-home, now open for you to try!
• Telly's "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they're actually delivered - Ars Technica
• Toilet Maker Toto's Shares Get Unlikely Boost From AI Rush - Slashdot
• Dr. Gladys West, whose mathematical models inspired GPS, dies at 95

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Alex Stamos, Doc Rock, and Patrick Beja

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Think you know the story of AI's rise and fall? This episode upends conventional wisdom with guest historian Thomas Haigh, who reveals why the infamous "AI winter" might just be a myth and why the field's biggest failures fueled today's breakthroughs.

• Two Thinking Machines Lab Cofounders Are Leaving to Rejoin OpenAI
• NVDA, GOOGL, META: AI Spending Forecast to Hit $2.53 Trillion This Year
• Nvidia, Eli Lilly just say yes to making drugs together, using Vera Rubin GPUs
• Claude Cowork Exfiltrates Files
• We put Claude Code in Rollercoaster Tycoon
• How Generative AI is destroying society - by Gary Marcus
• Anthropic rewrites Claude's guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have 'some kind of consciousness or moral status'
• Claude's new constitution

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Thomas Haigh

Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines.

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This week, the hosts go deep on out-of-band updates, unwanted "innovations," and the uneasy cost of tech's latest gold rush. Plus, securing a Microsoft account is not as hard as some think, and neither are passkeys once you get past the jargon. And for developers, AI Dev Gallery offers a fascinating glimpse at what you can do for free with AI used against a CPU, GPU, or NPU.

Windows 11

• Microsoft issues an emergency fix for a borked Windows Update. Right. A fix for a fix.
• Hell freezes over, if only slightly: Microsoft quietly made some positive changes to forced OneDrive Folder Backup. Donʼt worry, itʼs still forced (and appears to be opt-in, but isnʼt). But you can back out more elegantly. So itʼs opt-out, not opt-in, but a step forward. Plus, a new behavior
• Windows 11 on Arm PCs can now download games from the Xbox app (previously only through the Insider program)
• Over 85 percent of Xbox games on PC work in WOA now
• Prism emulator now supports AVX and AVX2 and Epic Anti-Cheat, and there is a new Windows Performance Fit feature offering guidance on which titles should play well.
• Beta: New 25H2 build with account dialog modernization, Click to Do and desktop background improvements. Not for Dev, suggesting itʼs about to move to 26H1
• Notepad and Paint get more features yet again. Notably, these updates are for Dev and Canary only, suggesting these might be 26Hx features (then again, versions don't matter, right?)

AI

• Just say no: To AI, to Copilot, and to Satya Nadella
• Our national nightmare is over: You can now (easily) hide Copilot in Microsoft Edge
• ChatGPT Go is now available worldwide, ads are on the way because of course
• Wikipedia partners with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, more on AI

Xbox & gaming

• January Xbox Update brings Game Sync Indicator, more
• Solid second half of January for Xbox Game Pass
• Microsoft will likely introduce a free, ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier because of course

Tips & picks

• Tip of the week: Secure your Microsoft account
• App pick of the week: AI Dev Gallery
• RunAs Radio this week: Ideation to Implementation with Amber Vandenburg
• Liquor pick of the week: Estancia Raicilla

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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