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Newcomer Pod · 4 min · Jun 8, 2026

Tech firms pushed AI into products before users asked for it

Ed Zitron · Founder & CEO, EZPR

Ed Zitron argues AI adoption was not simply organic: companies inserted assistants and summaries into everyday products.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 12:01AI subscriptions hide the real cost of a unit of workPro pick 7 min
  2. 33:06Data center expansion depends on an enormous debt marketPro pick 2 min
  3. 41:37Executive demos can make AI look more capable than it is7 min
  4. 8:56Anthropic’s reported profit coincided with a compute discount2 min
  5. 27:17Anthropic has not defined its reported run rate5 min
  6. 37:59Tech firms pushed AI into products before users asked for it4 min
  7. 50:49Some AI safety stories omitted how tests were staged3 min
“we have had it shoved in google we've had it shoved in every app we use every single goddamn app summaries generations where we don't need them shoved”
Ed Zitronat 38:39 · Newcomer Pod
38:39

Takeaways

  1. He points to AI features added to Google and other products.
  2. He contrasts imposed defaults with users choosing to try a product.
  3. He says job-loss messaging added pressure to adopt AI.

About this segment

Ed Zitron argues AI adoption was not simply organic: companies inserted assistants and summaries into everyday products. He says workplace pressure and media coverage helped normalize the rollout.

Ed Zitron

Ed Zitron is a writer and podcast host.

Hosts Better Offline and writes Where's Your Ed At, a prominent critic of AI industry hype.

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    Eric Newcomer, Host · Newcomer

From “Ed Zitron Unfiltered on OpenAI, Anthropic & Why the Whole Thing Is a Con”, Jun 8, 2026. Watch the full episode

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 38:04

    But Apple is the great marketing company. Like, the iPhone was sold to America in a way that, like, the AI providers are fairly clumsy marketers. What are you talking about? Do you think the AI companies are good marketers? My man, what are you talking about? everyone has been talking about ai non-stop for three because as a culture we're interested in no because it's the stuff of science fiction like come on it is not the companies forcing us to do this it is something that humanity eric is in every country in the world is interrogating eric since 2023 we have stories in mainstream media saying we should be scared of these things we've had stories in the new york times saying turn it off because it conned a task rabbit when it didn't actually do it we have had it shoved in google we've had it shoved in every app we use every

  2. 38:49

    single goddamn app summaries generations where we don't need them shoved it's taken over google search it's been crammed in everything every company has been saying well from ai is coming along it's going to take your job every news outlet has been talking about ai ai ai and it's been done on the terms of the company every product is forcing you to apple intelligence that was not a consensual right apple intelligence i'm negative on certainly they forced chat gpt on people they forced ai on people google microsoft puts copilot everywhere how how can you say with a straight face that this was a consensual exploration of this tech people were not told take your nokia 3210 throw it in the trash you'll lose your job take the iphone you pig that never happened there was no pressure campaign like there has been there's been this thing of but my point

  3. 39:38

    is that it is a sort of certainly there's pressure like bosses want employees to use AIBs they see value but it is to me when you you say it's sort of like a marketing effort on the part of the companies like I think this is a organic idea that people are excited about something. I think you are ignoring things I think you were ignoring the fact that both Altman and Amaday. The Superbowl ads that they ran, like, An anthropic Super Bowl ad was like not effective.

  4. 40:02

    It was like one of the worst ads that's ever been run. Like, they're bad marketers. Except they managed to pretend they weren't involved in the war in Iran. And then I managed to get Katy Perry and a bunch of other people to say, je suis Claude, because nobody paid attention to the fact that they've been working with the government since 2024. But the point I'm making is Altman. That was a pretty big veer.

  5. 40:23

    I mean, that's what happened. But we can get back to that in a second. The point I'm making is Altman has been doing the big, scary technology thing. Mira Murati was on The Daily Show in November 2022. Like, this is not something where this is manufactured consent at scale. iPhone didn't happen. I promise you, because I remember being at PC Zone magazine and turning to my editor and going, we should write about apps on smartphones.

  6. 40:45

    He went, ah, mate, it's not going to happen. I'm serious. I don't push back on this because I'm just being a hater. Like, I push back on it because it is. it is manufactured consent for a technology and an anti-labor technology at that and more importantly the media fell for it for it to be anti-labor it needs to work no it doesn't why it just needs to be an excuse but if the jobs weren't needed in the first place then what do you mean the jobs weren't needed to fire people that the companies were not finding value from how do you know they weren't no i'm asking you it's an excuse to do what it is an excuse to start chopping off some people arbitrarily in a way that's damaging the companies because they are companies to decide like that companies hire and fire based on the value like i mean i advise you speak to people