Host Jim Love returns after the holidays.
Hashtag Trending would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that’s built for performance and scale. You can find them at Meter.com/htt
The episode covers ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 AI video generator, which is producing highly realistic, film-quality scenes and prompting alarm in Hollywood, including comments from screenwriter Rhett Reese and renewed concerns about likeness rights and AI use in entertainment; ByteDance says it is strengthening safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likenesses. The show reports that Peter Steinberger, creator of the open-source agent tool OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI and the project is becoming part of a foundation for future agent-based AI, while also highlighting OpenClaw’s widely discussed security weaknesses and the implications for OpenAI and competitor Anthropic. Western Digital is reported to be sold out of certain hard drive models as AI-related demand absorbs supply, following earlier GPU and memory price pressures. Finally, Ring’s Super Bowl ad about finding a lost dog drew criticism for promoting neighborhood camera networks that resemble distributed surveillance, amplified by scrutiny of a reported partnership with Flock Safety; Ring and Flock say the integration ended and never launched.
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00:00 Hashtag Trending Kickoff + Meter Sponsor Message
00:46 Welcome Back: Smart Speaker/Google Issues & Where to Listen
01:37 ByteDance Seedance 2.0: Hollywood Panics Over Film-Quality AI Video
04:43 OpenClaw Founder Joins OpenAI: The Agent Revolution Meets Security Reality
06:42 AI Infrastructure Crunch: Hard Drive Models Selling Out
07:58 Ring’s Super Bowl Ad Backlash: Lost Dog Story vs Surveillance Fears
09:42 Wrap-Up, Thanks to Meter + Sign-Off
