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Hello and welcome to this week's Better Offline monologue.

I'm your host, Ed Zittron.

And sorry that there hasn't been a monologue for a few weeks.

These massive episodes I've been putting together took up my time in a way that made them a little

impractical. And as far as the show goes, I know it's been very AI focused. I can't even say

AI right sometimes. But anyway, this is likely going to continue for a while, because, as you

can tell from the news, crazy shit keeps happening every day. Every day Sam Altman tells somebody he's

going to give them a billion dollars. It's all so silly. And I do feel like it's not being covered very

thoroughly. So I'm doing my best to do so. Nevertheless, I promise I'm going to find a way to bring in more non-AI stuff. I'm not really sure how it's going to make it in there. I'll do my best. And I'm already working on CES 2026, which I think is going to be probably the best tech podcast thing ever. Got some incredible guests, Chloe Radcliffe, of course, Edward Lenguoso., David Roth. And yeah, those guests I can't quite talk about yet, but they're going to make you really happy, and it's going to be about more than just AI. That being said, next week's episode is likely to be AI focused, as I've had a lot of people request they do an episode that's a simplified guide to the AI bubble, something that they can share with people that aren't sticking their head in the technological or financial septic tank every day. And look, I think you're going to love it. You can please listen to it anyway. I need the downloads. But in all seriousness, I think it's going to be something, and I've been working on it for a few days now, that's quite short and sharp, but we'll speak to

people who are not technical or financial at all. I think it'll be great, and if not, show's free,

you'll enjoy it. But I also do just want to say, I really appreciate how many of you listen every

week. I really appreciate your patience with the AI stuff. You seem to all really enjoy it,

but I do love to hear from

you whenever I can. So reach out. Please don't be too mean, though. I do have a heart. But yes,

this week's monologue is somewhat of a big story. So two days ago, Fortune published a story

saying that, according to dates from Deutsche Bank, which is a very, very large bank, that OpenAI

subscription growth in Europe has stalled and is, and I quote, flatlining in the major European

markets over the past four months. To quote Fortune, the data was drawn from transactions

processed by third-party financial institutions, really nailed that word, in the UK, Germany, France,

...