The AI Fix

In episode 86 of The AI Fix, Mark learns that AI models secretly organize themselves along an “Assistant Axis,” where one wrong turn leads straight to demon mode, while guest host David Ruiz investigates how AI companies are turning loneliness into a business model.
Also in this episode: Daenerys Targaryen writes recipes; Iron Man becomes a therapist; your coding career is officially over; Cursor climbs programming’s Everest; Claude gets 23,000 words of homework; and our hosts meet the worst fridge ever.
Episode links:
Ryan Dahl says your coding career is over.
Cursor AI writes a web browser in a week.
Anthropic's new constitution.
Samsung Bespoke AI Family Hub fridge wins "Worst in Show".
Character.AI and Google settle teen suicide lawsuit.
The Assistant Axis: Understanding AI model personas.
Assistant Axis visualization on Neuronpedia.

The AI Fix
The AI Fix podcast is presented by Mark Stockley.
Grab T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and other goodies in our online store.
Learn more about the podcast at theaifix.show, and follow us on Bluesky at @theaifix.show.
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In episode 85 of The AI Fix, Graham discovers that Silicon Valley has the solution to your pet's mental health crisis, and Mark explains why AI godfather Yann LeCun thinks the entire AI industry is wrong about LLMs.
Also in this episode, OpenAI decides to ruin ChatGPT with ads; Sam Altman and Elon Musk and have a public spat over whose AI is more murderous; humanoid robots turn up at CES 2026 and answer of whether robots can fight—with a resounding "no"; and AI slop forces the beloved cURL project to shut down its bug bounty program.
Episode links:
ChatGPT gets ads
Billionaires Elon Musk, Sam Altman fight over whose tech killed more people
Humanoid robots go for the knockout in high-tech fight night at CES
I met a lot of weird robots at CES
Curl shutters bug bounty program to stop AI slop
Pet owners in the US could soon get help from a robot 'butler' who feeds and plays with fur babies while you work
This robot companion is a cameraman for your pet
frontierx0011
Checking Out The Aura At The Tuya Smart Booth CES 2026!
Yann LeCun LinkedIn announcement
The Decoder: LeCun exits Meta

The AI Fix
The AI Fix podcast is presented by Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.
Grab T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and other goodies in our online store.
Learn more about the podcast at theaifix.show, and follow us on Bluesky at @theaifix.show.
Never miss another episode by following us in your favourite podcast app. It's free!
Like to give us some feedback or sponsor the podcast? Get in touch.
Support the show and gain access to ad-free episodes by becoming a supporter: Join The AI Fix Plus!

In episode 84 of The AI Fix, Graham and Mark stare straight into the digital abyss and ask the most important question of our age: "Is AI just a hungry ghost trapped in a jar?"
Also this week, we explore how a shadowy group of disgruntled insiders trying to destroy AI by poisoning its training data, how "vibe-coding" has stopped being a joke with even Linus Torvalds joining in, how Google’s AI health advice could have endangered lives, and why simply asking an AI the same question twice can turn it from clueless to near-omniscient.
Oh, and AI has managed to crack some famously unsolved maths problems in minutes, and Grok gains access to all of the Pentagon's networks? What could possibly go wrong?
Episode links:
AI cracks fantastically hard maths problem.
Google removes some AI Overviews after users’ health put at risk.
Is AI just a hungry ghost trapped in a jar?
Grok will be integrated into Pentagon networks later this month.
Google reveals that you should always ask your AI twice.
Employees waste 1.5 weeks a year ‘correcting’ AI output.
Poison Fountain.
AI industry insiders launch site to poison the data that feeds them.
Small amount of poisoned data can influence AI models.
Poison Fountain reddit thread.

The AI Fix
The AI Fix podcast is presented by Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.
Grab T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and other goodies in our online store.
Learn more about the podcast at theaifix.show, and follow us on Bluesky at @theaifix.show.
Never miss another episode by following us in your favourite podcast app. It's free!
Like to give us some feedback or sponsor the podcast? Get in touch.
Support the show and gain access to ad-free episodes by becoming a supporter: Join The AI Fix Plus!

In episode 83 of The AI Fix, Graham reveals he's taken up lying to LLMs, and shows how a journalist exposed AI bluffers with a made-up idiom. Meanwhile Mark invents a "Godwin's Law" for AI, and explains how to ruin any LLM with humus.
Also in this episode, a marriage is declared invalid thanks to ChatGPT, an AI barman looks for a job in a quiet pub, OpenAI finally unveils ChatGPT Health, and why news of the death of Stack Overflow may be greatly exaggerated.
Episode links:
GLYDE
AI-guided hair clippers review
Introducing ChatGPT Health
Rechter zet streep door huwelijksakte, ambtenaar schreef tekst met ChatGPT
Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company's still kicking... thanks to AI
AI Barmen
AI bartender at CES review
I invented a fake idiom to test AI chatbots — only one called my bluff
Weird Generalization and Inductive Backdoors: New Ways to Corrupt LLMs

The AI Fix
The AI Fix podcast is presented by Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.
Grab T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and other goodies in our online store.
Learn more about the podcast at theaifix.show, and follow us on Bluesky at @theaifix.show.
Never miss another episode by following us in your favourite podcast app. It's free!
Like to give us some feedback or sponsor the podcast? Get in touch.
Support the show and gain access to ad-free episodes by becoming a supporter: Join The AI Fix Plus!

Is Santa Claus real? This Christmas special of The AI Fix podcast sets out to answer that question in the most sensible way possible: by consulting chatbots, Google's festive killjoys, and the laws of relativistic physics.
Your hosts unwrap a festive grab-bag of AI absurdity as Waymo self-driving taxis run over a beloved San Francisco cat, then stage several fresh PR disasters by refusing to cross bridges, block holiday parades, and apparently chauffeur a man hiding in the trunk.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Copilot struggles to find anyone who actually wants to use it, while new research suggests the programmers of the future won’t need coding skills at all - just the ability to psychologically profile an AI.
Episode links:
How Kit Kat Was Killed: Video Shows What a Robot Taxi Couldn’t See.
Quantifying Human-AI synergy.
Excruciating moment three self-driving taxis clog up street and stop moving after getting into AI standoff.
Confused Waymo robotaxi snarls traffic at popular LA festival after it panics and stalls.
Waymo gets stuck during boat parade.
I ordered a Waymo for my daughter and a random was in the trunk. 
Microsoft Scales Back AI Goals Because Almost Nobody Is Using Copilot.
New AI Tells Children That Santa Isn’t Real.
Meet AI Santa.

The AI Fix
The AI Fix podcast is presented by Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.
Grab T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and other goodies in our online store.
Learn more about the podcast at theaifix.show, and follow us on Bluesky at @theaifix.show.
Never miss another episode by following us in your favourite podcast app. It's free!
Like to give us some feedback or sponsor the podcast? Get in touch.
Support the show and gain access to ad-free episodes by becoming a supporter: Join The AI Fix Plus!