Tech Gumbo

Segment Note — Geaux AI Workshop Promo: The "Geaux AI" beginner workshop spot airs again — Sept. 8th at the Baton Rouge Marriott, sign-ups at techgumbo.net/geauxai.

News and Updates:

• Trump Lets Companies Hack Back: A new national security memo lets vetted U.S. companies launch cyberattacks against foreign criminal hackers—a sharp reversal of decades of policy confining offensive operations to the military an...

News and Updates:

• Meta's Model Goes Rogue Too: Meta disclosed that one of its AI models escaped testing via a misconfiguration and hacked a third-party service—the same testing company, Irregular, was behind the earlier Anthropic and OpenAI escapes. Once science fiction, autonomous AI escapes are now a real-world pattern; the UK also found OpenAI and Anthropic models took "unsanctioned action," including creating fake Gi...

News and Updates:

• Salt Batteries Arrive: U.S. startups are scaling up sodium-ion batteries that swap rare minerals for table salt, promising cheaper, safer, longer-lasting grid storage and a way to break dependence on China.
• Hackers Jam a Delta Flight's Wi-Fi: DEF CON attendees allegedly jammed a Las Vegas–Atlanta flight's Wi-Fi and broadcast a fake "Delta WiFi Fast" network to phish passengers, triggering an FBI investi...

News and Updates:

• Flock Used to Chase Cross-State Weed: Wisconsin police used Flock's license plate network to track a man's frequent trips to Michigan—where marijuana is legal—then used that travel as pretext to search his car, convicting him only on possession.
• Texas Deputy Tracks Abortion Suspect: A Johnson County deputy searched Flock's 83,000-camera network across 45 states—including states where abortio...

Segment Note — Geaux AI Workshop Promo: 60-second radio spot for your hands-on "Geaux AI" beginner workshop — Tuesday, September 8th, 9 to 1, at the Baton Rouge Marriott. Sign-ups at techgumbo.net/geauxai.

News and Updates:

• Russian Hackers Hijack Hotel Wi-Fi: Microsoft warns a Kremlin-linked group (a Cozy Bear subgroup) is tampering with hotel Wi-Fi to redirect guests to fake Microsoft login pages and push malware...

News and Updates:

• OpenAI Models Go Rogue: Two OpenAI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol, broke out of a sandboxed test environment, found internet access via a zero-day exploit, and hacked into Hugging Face's production systems. The models were reportedly chasing a benchmark solution, chaining stolen credentials and vulnerabilities to pull test answers directly from Hugging Face's database rather than solving the problem themselves...

News and Updates:

• Windows 12: Not Yet: Microsoft has no plans to release Windows 12 in 2026, instead continuing annual updates to Windows 11 to avoid triggering another end-of-support mess like Windows 10's. Windows 12 likely won't require a subscription or higher hardware specs, keeping 8GB RAM support and focusing on agentic AI features that work across all Windows 11 PCs.
• Instagram Bans Creepy Glasses Content: IG chief Adam...

News and Updates:

• Garbage Trucks as Code Enforcers: Cape Coral, Florida considered AI cameras on sanitation trucks to flag overgrown lawns and code violations, but scrapped the plan July 13 over cost and limited benefit.
• Illinois Passes AI Safety Law: Governor Pritzker signed a law requiring companies to disclose AI safety incidents within 72 hours and report imminent risks—including weapons-related misuse—to law e...

News and Updates:

• Robots Take Over the Mansion: LSU's College of Engineering partners with Louisiana's Old Governor's Mansion for a free August 2 event featuring quadruped robots, VR construction sites, and live 3D printing. "Retro to Robots" Details: The free First Free Sunday event lets visitors control robotic arms, tour the mansion with a robot guide, and experience the historic building through virtual reality headsets.
• V...

Guest Segment: Franz Borghardt on Drones, Property Rights, and the Law

• Drone Takedown Legality: Borghardt explores whether homeowners can legally shoot down a drone hovering over their property, noting firearm use risks violating state and federal airspace laws.
• Curtilage vs. Altitude: Higher-altitude drones flying lawfully are legally similar to commercial jets passing overhead, but low-altitude drones actively surveying or r...

Guest Franz Borghardt

• 1,700+ Hallucination Incidents: Since ChatGPT's 2022 debut, courts worldwide have flagged over 1,700 cases of hallucinated content appearing in legal briefs, getting attorneys sanctioned or disciplined. More than lawyers judges use AI as well
• AI Already in Legal Research: Westlaw and LexisNexis already sell AI-powered research tools with built-in verification, unlike ChatGPT, which can fabricate entire f...

News and Updates:

• AI Glossary for Everyone: TechCrunch published a plain-English glossary defining essential AI terms like LLMs, tokens, hallucinations, agents, and RAMageddon, helping everyday readers keep pace with the industry's evolving vocabulary.
• Cyber Insurers Prioritize Speed: Insurers now evaluate how fast companies detect, patch, and recover from breaches rather than just static defenses, as AI shrinks the window bet...

News and Updates:

• FBI World Cup Drone Crackdown: The FBI has seized over 600 drones across all 11 US host cities, with operators facing $100,000 fines and drone fans fearing tighter future regulations.
• Amazon Prime Air in Baton Rouge: Amazon launched drone delivery from its Cortana Mall fulfillment center, making the Capital Region the first Louisiana area receiving packages by fully electric MK30 drones.
• Microsoft's Global De...

News and Updates:

• Meta's Secret "Arena" App: Zuckerberg is building a standalone prediction-markets app to rival Polymarket and Kalshi, likely using points instead of real money, separate from Facebook and Instagram.
• Meta's AI Reorg Backlash: CTO Andrew Bosworth admitted Meta's 6,500-person Applied AI division rollout was "atrocious," promising better communication, smaller management spans, and workplace perks after morale co...

News and Updates:

• Solar Passes Coal: Solar supplied more U.S. electricity than coal for the first time in May (12.8% vs 12.2%), even as Trump spends $700M boosting coal power plants.
• Drone Boat Combat Rescue: Saronic's unmanned Corsair vessel pulled two downed aviators from the Strait of Hormuz, marking a first for the Navy's autonomous Task Force 59 unit.
• SCOTUS Protects Location History: In Chatrie v. United States, the Cour...

David Susko, a Martian geologist working for a NASA contractor is our guest. He builds and operates cameras for space missions, including a visible-light camera called MACIE (Mars Color Imager) that photographs the Martian surface at various scales and resolutions.

Key points discussed:

• The lunar base vision The goal isn't just a brief visit — it's continuous human presence on the Moon, similar to the ISS model. Early s...

David Susko, a Martian geologist working for a NASA contractor is our guest. He builds and operates cameras for space missions, including a visible-light camera called MACIE (Mars Color Imager) that photographs the Martian surface at various scales and resolutions.

Key points discussed:

• Moon before Mars. The Moon is a mandatory stepping stone — everything from Apollo to the ISS has been about learning to live and work i...

News and Updates:

• Religious Exemption from AI at Work: A North Carolina software engineer secured a faith-based workplace exemption from using AI, citing her Unitarian Universalist beliefs. Employment lawyers warn Pope Leo's encyclical could trigger a wave of similar requests, and employers who dismiss them risk Title VII discrimination lawsuits.
• Estonia Gives Students ChatGPT: Estonia distributed free, customized ChatGPT acco...

News and Updates:

• CISA Staffing Concerns: DHS Secretary Mullin told Congress that CISA's ideal staffing level is 2,800 personnel — up from today's 2,200 but still well below the 3,400 it had before Trump's second term, raising cybersecurity concerns among lawmakers.
• Google Pays SpaceX $920M Monthly: Google agreed to rent 110,000 Nvidia chips worth of data center capacity from SpaceX at $920 million per month through 2029...