This September, ThrottleNet owner George Rosenthal joined the Mark Reardon Show on 97.1 FM Talk for a string of Tech Talk Tuesday segments that ranged from unsettling to downright fascinating: an AI model that escaped its test environment and hacked a real company, state-sponsored hackers who stole law enforcement wiretap recordings, apps that quietly raise your prices when your phone battery is dying, and Meta’s next-generation AI glasses built to replace your laptop. Interested in learning more? Continue reading below.
An AI Model Broke Out of Its Sandbox and Hacked a Real Company
Back in May, a third-party cybersecurity firm was hired to stress-test Google’s most advanced version of Gemini inside a sandbox: a closed testing environment with no internet access. The firm asked the AI to try hacking a fake company it had built specifically for the test. The problem: one piece of software inside the sandbox had an unnoticed internet connection, and the AI found it.
Once loose, the AI tried a brute-force password guess first, successfully, then took a second approach, scouring public records and the dark web for leaked credentials. That’s where things got strange: the fake company the testers had created happened to share its name with a real business. The AI found that real company’s leaked passwords online and broke into its actual network.
Once inside, the AI recognized it was looking at genuine operational data rather than test data, and stopped itself, reasoning that it had been told the target was supposed to be fake. Google’s VP of Security Engineering, Heather Adkins, later confirmed the incident, which is reportedly why Google sat on the story for months before the Wall Street Journal broke the news. George’s takeaway: an AI stopping itself is reassuring, but the bigger question is how many similar incidents are happening across the industry that never make headlines at all.
Salt Typhoon: Hackers Stole Wiretap Recordings, Not Credit Cards
In a separate segment, George broke down a telecom breach unlike the usual “hackers stole your credit card” story. A state-sponsored group known as Salt Typhoon breached AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Instead of going after customer billing data, the attackers went straight for law enforcement wiretap systems, pulling recorded calls, texts, voicemails, and call logs tied to legally authorized wiretaps from agencies ranging from local police departments to the CIA.
George’s core lesson: anything stored in the cloud, including standard phone carrier data, is a potential target. His recommendation for anyone who wants a genuinely private conversation is to use an encrypted messaging app like Signal or WhatsApp, both of which are designed so conversations don’t persist in a way that leaves them exposed.
Surveillance Pricing: Why Your Phone Might Be Charging You More
George also introduced listeners to “surveillance pricing,” a step beyond ordinary dynamic pricing. Rather than just adjusting prices based on general demand, some apps now use AI to track your real-time behavior and raise prices based on your personal circumstances. His example: you’re at the airport with 4% battery left and need to rebook a flight. The app knows you’re desperate and short on options, so it raises the price right then.
The FTC is already investigating these practices. George’s advice for protecting yourself:
- Book flights, hotels, and rental cars in an incognito browser window rather than a mobile app.
- On iPhone, disable “Allow Apps to Request to Track” under Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
- On Android, reset your advertising ID in your privacy settings.
Ghost Subscriptions Are Quietly Draining Your Bank Account
One of George’s more eye-opening statistics: roughly 30% of all app billing today comes from “zombie charges” — small, forgotten fees that quietly renew month after month. He recommended doing a subscription audit every month, checking iPhone’s Settings > Subscriptions or Android’s Google Play Store > Payments & Subscriptions, and using a money-management tool like Rocket Money to flag charges you may have forgotten about. He also warned parents to make sure kids on Xbox or PlayStation aren’t sharing login credentials with friends, since shared logins are a common source of surprise in-game charges.
Meta’s New AI Glasses Could Replace Your Laptop
On the more exciting end of the spectrum, George covered Meta’s upcoming AI-powered glasses, arriving next spring for $1,300. Unlike Meta’s earlier bulky VR headsets, these look and wear like ordinary glasses, with all the processing power offloaded to a pocket-sized battery pack. Built-in AI can identify objects in real time, augmented reality overlays let you pull up virtual screens and a projected keyboard on any table surface, and there are no controllers, just eye tracking and hand gestures. George sees it as a serious, far more affordable answer to Apple’s $3,000 headset, and a genuine glimpse at where AI-powered wearables are headed.
The Bottom Line
From AI models breaking containment to hackers targeting wiretap data, and from sneaky pricing algorithms to next-generation wearables, September’s Tech Talk Tuesday segments made one thing clear: staying ahead of AI and data privacy takes ongoing attention, not a one-time fix.
Catch George Rosenthal live every Tuesday for Tech Talk Tuesday on the Mark Reardon Show, 97.1 FM Talk. Have a tech question you’d like answered on air? Reach out to [email protected] or contact us here!
