Five Things Tech: Autoplay, Humanoid Robots, Tech Workers, Free Computing Power, EV Batteries
This is everything you should read about Tech right now.
Heya and welcome to Five Things Tech!
This week in tech: the grown-ups finally showed up. It has been a banner week for stating the obvious out loud. Brussels has looked at infinite scroll and concluded, after extensive investigation, that it is designed to keep you scrolling - a finding that will shock absolutely no one who has ever opened Instagram “for two minutes.” Meanwhile humanoid robots are being engineered to collapse politely instead of flattening you, Silicon Valley’s workforce is quietly burning out while insisting the tools are great, AI giants are back to buying loyalty with free compute like it is 2013 and we are all rediscovering cloud credits, and EV batteries have committed the ultimate sin of simply refusing to die on schedule. Turns out the machines are more stable than the industry selling them.
Let us dig in.
Disable autoplay and infinite scroll or risk massive fines, EU tells Meta
At this stage, the EC recommended that Meta consider “disabling key addictive features such as ‘autoplay’ and ‘infinite scroll’ by default, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks,’ and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented.”
If Meta fails to make changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, the company risks fines up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover when the EC makes its final decision in the coming months.
“Our starting point is that, based on our findings, this design is too addictive and changes need to be made,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, told Reuters.
“The next step is either that Meta changes its design or a non-compliance decision will follow,” she said, noting in the press release that the EU’s priority is “protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans.”
This is so long overdue. And TikTok should be next.
The Quest to Make Humanoid Robots Safe Enough for Humans
The possible consequences of a humanoid robot losing stability have led an expert panel at the International Organization for Standardization, which creates safety guidelines, to examine the subject. It expects to publish a standard by mid-2028.
Humanoid makers, meanwhile, are coming up with their own solutions.
Neura Robotics, a German company, makes a two-legged, 176-pound model it calls 4NE1. Founder David Reger said it has been engineered to minimize the risk to people nearby. If the robot detects a problem, such as a knee joint that stops responding, it will try to recover its balance; if it can’t, he said, it will collapse onto itself like an imploding building.
I have the feeling that humanoid robots will be everywhere, soonish.
How tech workers are feeling in 2026: a workforce splitting in two
The 2026 workforce is more burned out and less optimistic than a year ago, splitting along the fault line of AI into those who are thriving and those who are struggling, and a large, ambivalent middle caught between. Tech workers are mostly afraid of being squeezed by their jobs and increasing productivity expectations, privately convinced the field is no longer worth recommending to newcomers, while individually still finding real power and even joy in the tools. It’s a complicated moment. It’s also not a hopeless one.
It must be tough to work in tech in Silicon Valley, when all of a sudden execs turn to AI and people are stuck with absurdly high costs of living and then no jobs to be found.
AI Giants Are Handing Out Tons of Free Computing Power to Grab Startup Share
The pitched battle for business users comes as AI companies seek lasting streams of revenue. They hope that by winning startups as customers early in the life of new companies, their tools will become integral to the venture’s growth over time.
OpenAI and Anthropic are offering a string of promotions and one-time bonuses, even as both companies face enormous pressure to improve their margins ahead of expected initial public offerings. They also face competition from increasingly powerful “open weight,” or free models, as well as cheaper ones, many of which were developed in China.
It’s the cloud credit game redux.
EV batteries are lasting much longer than the industry expected
Battery analytics company Recurrent estimates that after five years of ownership, the average EV still retains up to 95 percent of its original driving range, exceeding many early expectations. That improvement is largely due to advances in battery chemistry, thermal management systems, and sophisticated battery-management software that better protects cells from long-term wear.
Just another piece of FUD debunked. I really do not understand why people are so afraid of EV.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading! If you missed last week’s Five Things Tech, you can find it here:
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— Nico