TWiT 1089: Robot Butt Crack - Anthropic Banned, But Winning
This Week in Tech (Audio)
Leo Laporte
3.9 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2026
⏱️ 200 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 this year's CMF phone due to RAM prices
- The AI IPO boom is different
- Joshua Baer, Capital Factory Founder, Dies in Laredo Plane Crash - RuntimeWire
- Ubisoft's co-founder Claude Guillemot dies in plane crash
Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Iain Thomson, Owen Thomas, and Doc Rock
Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech
Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Sponsors:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's time for Twitter this week in tech. Ian Thompson is here. Owen Thomas and Doc Rock. |
| 0:05.2 | We'll talk about Anthropic. It looks like the Trump administration's backing down on its ban of fable. |
| 0:12.0 | We'll see. We'll also get some look at the financials of Open AI. I got a little tip for you. It ain't good. |
| 0:19.0 | And SpaceX's IPO. |
| 0:21.8 | It's stratospheric. |
| 0:23.8 | But how long can it stay up? |
| 0:26.5 | That whole lot more coming up on Twitter. |
| 0:30.5 | Podcasts you love. |
| 0:32.1 | From people you trust. |
| 0:34.8 | This is Twitter. This is Twit. |
| 0:41.7 | This is Twit. |
| 0:48.0 | This Week in Tech, episode 189, recorded Sunday, June 21st, 2026. |
| 0:49.9 | Robot Butcrack. It's time for Twit this week in tech, the show where we cover the week's tech news. |
| 1:01.4 | Hello, everybody. |
| 1:02.3 | Welcome back to one of the longest running shows in podcasting. |
| 1:08.1 | And we have a fabulous panel ready for you from Aloha State in Hawaii. |
| 1:14.1 | Mr. Oh, it says your real name on your Zoom thing. It's Doc Rock. Do you want me? |
| 1:21.8 | I never use regular Zoom. I always use the Zoom that's built in the e-camp. Today I was just being |
| 1:26.5 | brave. You're in regular Zoom. So is it a secret what your real name is? |
| 1:32.3 | I don't think so, but yeah, I never use it. |
| 1:35.3 | You just prefer the branding. |
| 1:37.7 | That's his government name. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Leo Laporte, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Leo Laporte and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.