Latest / Connecting the Dots / ChatGPT Becomes a Platform, Satellites Go Direct-to-Phone, and Europe Pushes Back

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ChatGPT Becomes a Platform, Satellites Go Direct-to-Phone, and Europe Pushes Back · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Good morning and welcome back to Connecting
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  the Dots. I'm Alex, ready to help you navigate
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  the chaos of the technology world. And I'm Morgan,
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  here to provide the context. Happy Wednesday
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  and happy December 24th, 2025. Right. A time
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  of year when things usually slow down, but not
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  in tech. It feels like everything is hitting
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  the accelerator. It really does. We have a lot
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  to get through today. We do. But first, let's
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  get grounded, especially for our listeners here
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  in Sacramento and right across California. We
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  have to talk about this weather. Yeah, you can't
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  ignore it. It's a major system. What meteorologists
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  call an atmospheric river is just, well. slamming
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  the west coast. Which is basically a giant fire
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  hose of moisture from the Pacific. That's a great
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  way to put it. Yeah. And it is dumping a ton
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  of rain. So the LA basin is getting hit the hardest
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  right now. Exactly. We're seeing some pretty
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  serious concerns for flash flooding, urban flooding
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  all across Southern California today. So if you're
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  down there, you should be really careful on the
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  roads. And if you were thinking of a holiday
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  trip over the Sierra Nevada mountains, maybe
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  don't. Yeah, I would genuinely reconsider this
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  year is getting feet of snow, not inches and
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  some really high winds. Those mountain passes
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  are going to be incredibly difficult, if not
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  just impossible. So check Caltrans before you
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  even think about it. You do. OK, so from. messy
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  weather to some much calmer money markets. It
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  looks like that positive momentum is holding
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  strong to close out the year. It is. The rally
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  is continuing. The Dow Jones closed yesterday
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  at 48 ,558 .84. That's a solid daily gain of
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  0 .28%. A very solid gain. And the broader market,
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  the S &P 500, followed right along. It closed
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  up 0 .14 % at 6 ,914 .78. So traditional markets
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  feel pretty robust. They do. The only real volatility,
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  and this is pretty common lately, is in crypto.
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  Bitcoin saw a little dip. Just a little one.
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  Yeah, down about 0 .70%, closing at 86 ,821 .22.
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  But, you know, overall, it's a remarkably positive
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  picture heading into the holidays. A strong note
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  to end on. Now, before we get into the Morningstar
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  right, let's jump in. We're looking at the three
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  biggest tech stories of the morning, and we're
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  covering everything from, well, AI becoming your
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  App Store, to a new space race happening right
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  above our heads. Let's start with that first
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  one. A huge announcement from OpenAI's Dev Day
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  2025. The chat window is no longer just for chatting.
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  It's basically an App Store now. It's a total
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  foundational shift. I mean, for years, chat GPT
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  has been about conversation. You talk to it,
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  it talks back. But it's clear the vision now
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  is to make it a real digital assistant. something
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  that actually does things, not just talks about
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  them. Exactly. To make you, as CEO Sam Altman
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  put it, more productive, more inventive, to learn
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  faster. And they're doing that by pulling third
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  -party apps directly into the chat. And we're
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  talking about big names here. Spotify, Zillow,
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  Canva, Expedia. Figma, Coursera, Booking .com.
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  The list goes on. And the key is... You never
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  leave the chat window. Right. It's not just a
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  link that sends you somewhere else. It happens
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  right there. It's full integration. So you can
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  just type, you know, Coursera, teach me about
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  machine learning, and the app experience just
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  starts. Or like in that demo, Figma, turn this
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  sketch into a workable diagram, and it just does
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  it right there in front of you. The Zillow demo
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  was the one that really got me. You ask it to
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  find apartments, and instead of a list of texts...
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  An interactive map just pops up? A fully interactive
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  map. You can zoom. You can click. You can keep
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  talking to the AI to filter the results. It's
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  a whole new level of interaction. So how does
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  that even work, technically? It's a new system
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  they call the Model Context Protocol, or MCP.
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  Think of it less like an old API that just shuffles
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  data back and forth, and more like embedding
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  a tiny working website inside a text bubble.
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  Wow. It lets the app render a full UI, even video,
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  right inside the chat. It turns the AI from a
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  simple tool into a real platform. And here's
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  where it gets a little wild for everyday life,
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  this idea of contextual surfacing. Right, the
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  AI won't always wait for you to call up an app
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  by name. So if I type, I need a playlist for
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  a party, Spotify just appears. That's the idea.
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  And they're saying DoorDash, Uber, and Instacart
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  are coming soon. Imagine planning a dinner and
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  having the delivery options just show up in the
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  conversation. OK, but that brings up the business
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  side of this. OpenAI has what? 800 million weekly
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  users. They're on track for 13 billion dollars
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  in revenue, but their costs are insane. Astronomical.
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  They have to make money. And being the front
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  door to all these other services, maybe taking
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  a cut through something like an instant checkout.
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  Yeah. That's the fastest way there. But doesn't
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  that immediately create a competition problem?
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  How does chat GPT choose between DoorDash and,
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  say, Instacart? That is the billion dollar question,
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  isn't it? They'll say it's about the best user
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  experience, but you have to imagine companies
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  will eventually pay to be the default choice.
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  So AI optimization becomes the new SEO. It's
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  the new battleground. Yeah. And what about the
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  privacy? If I'm chatting with Zillow inside ChatGPT,
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  how much of my other conversations does Zillow
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  get to see? Right. If I was just talking about
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  my salary, does Zillow now know that? That's
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  the part that needs some serious scrutiny. The
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  AI needs context to work. but sharing that context
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  with all these third -party companies is a, well,
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  it's a huge leap in how much of our data is being
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  shared. That is a massive story. Okay, let's
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  move from the digital world up into the atmosphere.
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  Our second story is about a literal space race.
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  This is a really fascinating play by AST Space
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  Mobile. They're going head -to -head with players
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  like SpaceX, but with a totally different approach
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  to satellite internet. They just launched something
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  called Bluebird 6, and the scale of this thing
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  is just incredible. It is genuinely enormous
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  and its size is the whole point. What they're
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  building is a space -based cellular network that
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  connects directly to a normal standard smartphone.
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  The one that's in your pocket right now. Exactly.
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  No special dish, no bulky antenna, no satellite
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  phone. The goal is just to make your current
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  phone work everywhere. To finally kill the dead
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  zone. That's the mission. But your phone's antenna
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  is tiny. It's made to talk to a cell tower a
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  few miles away. To get it to talk to a satellite
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  hundreds of miles up in space. The satellite
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  needs a really, really big year. A very big year.
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  And that's Bluebird 6. It has the largest commercial
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  phased array ever put in low Earth orbit. We're
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  talking nearly 2 ,400 square feet. 2 ,400 square
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  feet. That's the size of a house. unfurling in
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  space. It's a technical marvel and it acts like
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  a giant orbiting cell tower that's powerful enough
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  to hear all those little weak phone signals from
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  down on Earth. So it's an ambitious plan. What's
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  their timeline for actually getting this up and
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  running? They're moving incredibly fast. They're
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  planning five more orbital launches by the end
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  of the first quarter of 2026. Wow. And they're
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  aiming to have 45 to 60 of these satellites up
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  by the end of 2026. That would be enough for
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  continuous coverage across the U .S. and a few
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  other markets. That is an aggressive schedule.
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  But we have to talk about the money, right? These
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  space ventures are famously expensive. And that's
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  the tightrope they're walking. The launch news
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  gave the stock a little bump, which shows investors
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  are optimistic about the tech. The company is
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  still burning through cash. They just missed
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  their Q3 revenue targets and reported a bigger
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  loss than Wall Street was expecting. So it's
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  a classic growth story. They're betting big on
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  the future, but they have to survive the present.
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  It's a high wire act. A very high wire act. Every
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  single one of these launches has to go perfectly
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  to keep that investor confidence high. OK, from
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  the future of connectivity in space, let's come
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  back to a regulatory fight on the ground. Our
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  third story, Italy versus Metta over WhatsApp.
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  And this gets to a really core question for the
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  AI era. Can a company that owns a dominant platform,
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  like a messaging app everyone uses, use that
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  power to favor its own AI? And Italy's antitrust
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  regulator thinks the answer is a clear no. They
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  do. They've ordered Meta to immediately suspend
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  new terms that would block rival AI chatbots
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  from using WhatsApp. So what did Meta actually
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  do to trigger this? Back in October, they updated
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  their terms for the WhatsApp business solution.
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  And the new rule basically said if your main
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  business is offering an AI service, you can't
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  use our platform. Wow, that's pretty direct.
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  Very direct. And regulators see that as pure
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  abuse of power. I mean, in Italy, Over 37 million
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  people use WhatsApp. It's essential for business.
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  So by blocking competitors, Metta is essentially
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  forcing businesses to use its own Metta AI. That's
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  the argument. That it completely distorts the
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  competition in this brand new AI chatbot market
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  before it even gets off the ground. What's Metta's
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  side of the story? What's their defense? Metta
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  is saying the ruling is fundamentally flawed.
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  They're making a technical argument. They claim
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  the WhatsApp business API was just never built
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  for this kind of traffic from general AI chatbots.
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  So they're saying it would strain their systems.
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  Right. They're framing it as a stability and
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  system integrity issue, not a competition issue.
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  So Meta says we're protecting our platform and
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  the regulators are hearing you're protecting
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  your monopoly. That's the conflict right there.
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  And the stakes here are Enormous. If Metta is
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  found to be abusing its dominant position under
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  EU rules, the fine could be massive. How massive
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  are we talking? Up to 10 % of its global turnover.
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  10 % of their worldwide revenue. Yep. Based on
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  their 2024 numbers, that could be a fine of over
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  $16 .4 billion. That's a number that gets your
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  attention. It's a number that forces companies
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  to completely rethink their strategy. It shows
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  you just how seriously Europe is taking this.
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  com. Okay, so let's do a quick recap. Three huge
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  stories today. First, ChadGPT is no longer just
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  a chatbot, it's becoming an integrated application
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  hub. Changing how we interact with everything
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  from Spotify to Zillow. Second, the space race
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  is heating up with AST Space Mobile's giant Bluebird
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  6 satellite. A 2 ,400 square foot marvel designed
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  to bring cell service to your standard phone
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  everywhere. A direct shot at eliminating connectivity
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  gaps across the globe. And finally, a big regulatory
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  showdown in Europe. Meta is facing serious heat
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  for allegedly using WhatsApp's dominance to shut
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  out competing AI chatbots. The big theme connecting
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  all this is really about building new infrastructure,
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  isn't it? AI is becoming the new digital middle
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  layer for everything, while things like the Bluebird
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  satellites are rewriting the physical infrastructure
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  of the planet. You know, thinking about that
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  Bluebird satellite, it makes you wonder. How
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  long until that kind of space -based service
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  isn't just a backup for when you're hiking? But
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  the main way we communicate. Exactly. When does
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  the cell tower on the ground just become obsolete?
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  That is a fascinating thought to chew on. We're
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  here to help at Snarfles, so reach out on our
• 11:58
  website if you have any more questions. That's
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  a wrap on today's top stories. Remember, tech
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  doesn't have to be complicated, and we're here
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  to help connect the dots. If you've got questions
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  or want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
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  time.