Latest / Connecting the Dots / AI Laws Under Fire, GPT-5.2 Accelerates, and Adult Mode on the Horizon

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AI Laws Under Fire, GPT-5.2 Accelerates, and Adult Mode on the Horizon · 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. We're going to give you the three biggest
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  tech stories that actually impact your business,
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  your career, and your family life. But before
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  we get into the Morningstar, we should probably
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  touch on the weather. It is intense out there.
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  It really is. Especially for the listeners up
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  in the Pacific Northwest. Absolutely. Even here
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  in Sacramento, we're waking up to areas of dense
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  fog. It's chilly with a high of only what? 44
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  degrees. And nationally it's much more severe.
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  We're talking catastrophic flooding, landslides
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  across Washington and Northwest Oregon. And then
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  on the other side of the country you've got the
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  severe Arctic air. It's dangerous wind chills
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  hitting the Northern High Plains and moving all
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  the way down into the Mid South. It's a very
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  messy day for a lot of people. A very messy day.
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  And watch out for that narrow band of snow from
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  the Midwest into the Central Appalachians. A
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  harsh welcome to Mid December for sure. Okay,
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  let's pivot quickly to the financial snapshot.
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  It's been a, well, a volatile week and it ended
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  on a bit of a down note. That's right. And that
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  dragged the whole week into the red for the S
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  &P. Yep. down 0 .85 % for the week. And Bitcoin
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  looks like some serious profit taking. sure you've
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  .com. That's one word. Alright, let's jump into
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  the Morningstar. That's our SnarfleTech article
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  report. And today's stories, I think they really
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  define where we are with AI right now. an EO
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  that basically argues these AI laws are too onerous.
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  Onerous. And a threat to US global AI dominance.
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  That is the phrase. And the administration isn't
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  just asking nicely. This EO has some very aggressive
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  enforcement mechanisms built in. Two of them,
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  right? Two of them. The first one is legal. But
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  the second prong of the attack might be even
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  more powerful. It's financial. The E .O. tasked
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  Commerce Secretary Ludnick with figuring out
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  if states with, quote, unfavorable A .I. laws
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  could lose federal funding. And we're not talking
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  about a small amount of money here. No, we're
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  talking about major infrastructure programs.
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  Specifically, they're threatening to withhold
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  rural broadband funding from the BEAD program.
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  The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program.
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  For states trying to close that digital divide,
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  losing billions in BID funding is an existential
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  threat. It sounds like the administration is
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  just putting speed for Silicon Valley ahead of
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  any kind of public safety concerns. But this
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  has caused some really interesting backlash.
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  It has. From conservative, prominent Republicans
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  like Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Josh Hawley.
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  They're criticizing the EO because it goes against
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  that traditional GOP value of states' rights.
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  And they're pointing out what the public is worried
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  about. Exactly. The impact on jobs, the dangers
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  to kids online, and the huge strain these data
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  centers are on the US electric grid. It's a really
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  complex fight that doesn't follow simple party
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  lines. So the goal isn't really to win these
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  lawsuits. It's more about delaying things. That
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  seems to be the strategy. It's cynical, but very
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  effective. This is where the story really connects
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  back to your work. Policy researchers are warning
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  that just the threat of lawsuits, or the threat
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  of losing bead funding, It creates what they
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  call massive legal uncertainty. It's a chilling
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  effect. It's the definition of a chilling effect
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  Think about, if the federal government tells
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  you, hey, if you install that new security system,
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  we might sue you. I'm probably not going to install
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  it. Right, the risk is too high. So it discourages
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  states from passing any new protective laws at
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  all to get what you want, minimal regulation,
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  without ever having to actually win in court.
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  And this whole fight over the future of our country
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  is happening while development is just exploding.
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  Which brings us to our second story. The AMI
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  arms race is in code red. Code red status, officially.
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  Open AI just rolled out of GBT 5 .2 and it was
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  a stunningly fast move. It was less than a month
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  after 5 .1, right? Less than a month. And reports
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  say this was triggered by an internal code red
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  memo that would be linking directly to credible
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  competition. Specifically, Google's Gemini 3.
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  That's the one. They realized they had to move,
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  and they had to move now. It sounds a little
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  like panic, but what's actually new is 5 .2 really
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  moved the needle for, say, a professional listening
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  to us right now. OpenAI is calling this the most
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  capable model series yet for professional knowledge
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  work, and the benchmarks are, well, they're staggering.
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  This is not just a small step. financial modeling,
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  all sorts of complex tasks. And GPT 5 .2 is going
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  to 70 .9%. So to translate that for us, what
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  does 70 .9 % mean? It means the model is now
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  beating human professionals in over 70 % of those
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  tasks. And it's completing them 11 times faster.
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  11 times faster. Is the definition of disruption
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  pretty much everywhere this job there is? It
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  is. We're talking about automating complex spreadsheets
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  and building nuanced presentations. It can even
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  handle multi -step projects. That's the agentic
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  tool calling thing. Right, they can plan and
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  execute a whole process, like read the tax law,
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  draft a summary, and then make a slide deck for
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  the CFO. All in one go. And they halved the error
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  rates on things like chart reasoning, which is
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  huge for finance and science. It is. This is
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  the race to create the ultimate high -speed knowledge
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  analyst for everyone. But all that capability
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  comes with a higher price tag. It does. A real
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  price increase, about 1 .4 times the cost of
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  5 .1. The Tatsu Pro model is now $168 per million
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  dollar output token. $168. That's literally the
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  price of intelligence. It is. And it means you
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  have to be much more strategic about when you
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  use the best model. I tested it on a high -level
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  physics paper I was stuck on, and it explained
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  it perfectly. Update from Fiji Symo, OpenAI CEO
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  of applications. We did. during that same GPT
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  5 .2 briefing. Yeah. And it's later than a lot
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  of people expected. She said, Q1 2026. Q1 2026,
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  what's the holdup? Is it actual content generation?
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  Surprisingly, no. The bottleneck isn't the content.
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  It's the age of prediction and the compliance
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  tech behind it. The priority is safety. So they're
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  building a model to automatically apply safeguards
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  for minors, anyone under 18. Exactly. And they
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  have to be adequately sure they can identify
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  teens, and this is crucial, that they can avoid
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  the misidentification That's a huge PR and legal
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  hurdle if you get that wrong. It's massive. And
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  this focus on age gating is happening across
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  the whole industry because of new laws and public
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  pressure. Everything's connected when the stakes
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  are this high. And then right alongside that
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  safety update we got the strategic kicker of
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  the week. Oh yeah. The massive new three -year
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  licensing deal with Disney. Are we talking about
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  AI -generated fan fiction, or is this something
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  much bigger? It's much bigger. It's about market
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  dominance. This deal gives open AI content diversity
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  that their competitors just can't match. So if
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  you can compliment their model to make a new
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  video with a specific model kit? Well, a competing
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  model can only give you a generic superhero.
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  That's a huge strategic advantage. They're locking
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  down the most valuable IP in the world for their
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  model. That's the ultimate vote. It defines the
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  future of media creation for the next decade.
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  Wow. Okay, before we wrap up our Connecting the
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  and the code is SNORFUL. Alright, so let's quickly
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  recap the three fixed ways that define the week.
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  First, you have the escalating fight between
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  the federal government and states over AI regulation,
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  creating that chilling effect to stop new laws.
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  Second, the just blistering speed of the AI arms
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  race. with OpenAI dropping the super capable
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  GPT 5 .2 just weeks after the last one, all because
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  of a competitive code red. And third, it has
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  a critical focus on safety, which is delaying
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  adult mode until 2026, while at the same time,
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  OpenAI is making huge strategic content deals
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  with companies like Disney. All three of these
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  stories, they really show that the future of
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  AI isn't just about the tech itself. It's about
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  the political, the financial, and the safety
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  boundaries being drawn around it. That's a wrap
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  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
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  have to be complicated, and we're here to help
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  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
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  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.