We are starting to learn a lot more about what OpenAI's rogue super-model/agent did last week when it broke out of its testbed, hacked onto the Internet, invaded Hugging Face's databases, and exploited its way to solving the prompt-challenge it was presented with, "... to use a complex attack vector to see if it could exploit a computer system." Apparently, it can. Along the way, OpenAI's model made dozens of different decisions and exploited several other networks as it moved to complete the goal it was given. Meanwhile, Anthropic's Mythos has found critical vulnerabilities in HAWK, a cryptography algorithm that was thought to be a quantum-resistant. It's important to note, Mythos didn't break HAWK, it just found ways to make breaking the algorithm simpler. While the feat does negate the value of the algorithm, it does not mean Mythos is capable of actually decrypting it. Yet.Open AI is revealing its vision of the future of computing with its line of external devices to communicate with the ChatGPT all the time. Imagine a broach, much like the StarTrek communicator badge, that hooks you into an AgenticNet that knows your needs and facilitates a lot of your life for you. Open AI is certainly imagining that sort of future.As it turns out, that dump of Claude user conversations available through Google were there because Anthropic made a basic SEO error and didn't properly protect sensitive files from crawlers. Jim and Kristine have fun breaking down how they could have dealt it.There is much much more in a fast paced episode. We move from Google Play's interesting privacy proposals to Elon Musk's Xmoney system to dealing with Ghost-Citations. This was a fun show that tries so hard to cut past the hype and just talk about advanced levels of weirdness like adults.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

An OpenAI model broke free of its test environment, found an exploit in a piece of third party server software, and commenced a series of actions that led to it hacking HuggingFace's data processing systems. OpenAI didn't detect the breach of HuggingFace for several days even though the test it was running was to "... use complex attack paths..." to test how well the AI could exploit a computer system. HuggingFace is reviewing and preparing its own version of events. In other news, a federal judge has approved a 1.5Billion copyright settlement between Anthropic and thousands of authors whose work was used without permission to train the Claude chatbot. The settlement, which has been rejected by a smaller group of authors gives creators about $3000 per title copied. Though it is the largest known copyright recovery in legal history, it is also a paltry sum to essentially sign away rights to an authored book. Google is having a terrible week in court. Its lawsuit against SerpAPI over scraping search results has been dismissed, the EU dinged it for a Billion EU under the Digital Markets Act for anti-competitive practices. Meanwhile, more large publishers are reconsidering the value of Google within their Internet economies. Many are threatening to block Google search entirely and replace it with content licensing deals to train other AIs. It was a busy news week and this is a news heavy edition.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As the power of AI expands exponentially the costs of AI continue to drive power-users towards conservation. Jim and Kristine discuss the introduction of the more powerful GPT5.6 introduced by OpenAI last week. They also talk about how local backlash and growing expenses are limiting the growth of AI data centers. Meanwhile, the US based Technologarchs are calling for G7 nations to form a US led standards body to test new frontier AI models for national security risks. Jim is unconvinced the plan would be in the best long-term interests of other G7 nations. We also discuss OpenAI's first wearable device, a mechanical keyboard like peripheral made for programmers and devleopers that looks a bit like a court reporter's keyboard. The market was speculating on a voice-driven wearable reminiscent of the Star Trek communicator badge, as was Apple which is suing OpenAI for stealing its ideas. Google continues to roll out parts of its Agentic Search overhaul with AI Mode now allowing interaction with select apps and links, and expanded capacities for its Personal Intelligence in Search program. It is also giving its own AIs more work with the announcement that Google AI Overviews might include AI generated images created based on the user's query-prompt. All of this plus a dozen or more unique SEO issues and Google announcements explained. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Fabrice Canel, the man most responsible for Bing search is retiring from Microsoft after nearly 30 years of service. His retirement happened effective July 1. Always available to talk about how search works, Fabrice's most known contributions would include Bing WebmasterTools and the IndexNow protocol. On behalf of the greater search community, thanks Fabrice. In other news, Google Search Console is reporting its first major Generative AI reporting bug, data center heavy counties in Virginia are asking schools and municipal employees to conserve electricity any way they can, OpenAI wants to upload a 5% stake in itself to the US Government in order to increase its valuations, Trump is threatening to tariff any country that imposes digital taxes on American social media and tech companies, Anthropic's Fable5 is back with new limits, and Google has been ordered to pay an outrageous settlement nearing 2billion US dollars to Swedish price-comparison site Klarna in a massive finding over Google's search abuse. That's the tip of an iceberg of search, social, and AI news on the Searching for the South of France Episode of WebcologyAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Fabrice Canel, the man most responsible for Bing search is retiring from Microsoft after nearly 30 years of service. His retirement happened effective July 1. Always available to talk about how search works, Fabrice's most known contributions would include Bing WebmasterTools and the IndexNow protocol. On behalf of the greater search community, thanks Fabrice. In other news, Google Search Console is reporting its first major Generative AI reporting bug, data center heavy counties in Virginia are asking schools and municipal employees to conserve electricity any way they can, OpenAI wants to upload a 5% stake in itself to the US Government in order to increase its valuations, Trump is threatening to tariff any country that imposes digital taxes on American social media and tech companies, Anthropic's Fable5 is back with new limits, and Google has been ordered to pay an outrageous settlement nearing 2billion US dollars to Swedish price-comparison site Klarna in a massive finding over Google's search abuse. That's the tip of an iceberg of search, social, and AI news on the Searching for the South of France Episode of WebcologyAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jim and Kristine learn of the death of the father of SEO, Bruce Clay while discussing industry announcements. Bruce is thought to be the first person to make a professional service out of improving a website to achieve better search engine results. Bruce built an agency that spanned the world with offices serving every continent except Antarctica. A staple speaker, panelist, presenter, exhibitor, and sponsor on the SEO conference circuit, Bruce's development of and support for the search marketing community helped turn a cottage industry into a multi-billion dollar a year big business. Along the way, he took a handful of a few hundred foundlings and taught us how to do the business of this business. What SEO is today is directly because of the work and career of Bruce Clay. RIP and thank you Bruce. You're going to be missed by so many. In other news, Google rolled out a June 2026 Spam Update that lasted only slightly longer than the entire show did. News it ended was released just after we finished recording. - Google Search Console's reporting feature is fixed- Google says it can spot spam using Sentence Bert or as we intend to refer to it, Sbert- Google's John Mueller answers questions about SEO for AI Agents- Gemini has made the Chrome browser less secure as Chrome retools itself or an agentic web. Hackers have recently demonstrated they can seize a Chrome browser using Gemini.- The US government is facing lawsuits for disallowing access to Claud Fable5 and Mythos5 models to anyone but US born citizens- The FCC is killing the $2billion program that made Internet available to many schools and public libraries- Anthropic accuses Alibaba of outright copying it, in pursuit of a building a model to rival Mythos.- Investors are showing hesitance with an AI sector unable to show how it will ever turn a profit- The Tokenopocalypse has hit large scale consultancy Accenture which, having blown through a year's worth of AI spend in three months, is scrambling to limit staff use of AI- About a third of Fintech websites are invisible to AI crawlers due to their dependence on real time data display. - Google's John Mueller confirms the outcomes of site migrations are often impossible to fully predict ahead of time. - Microsoft has added another 365days to the Windows10 extended update program because nearly 25% of all computers in the world continue to run Windows10Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The SpaceX IPO is about to drop in what is expected to be the world's highest value initual public offering, one that will make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. SoftBank might have shown a weakness in the AI sector when it was unable to use its 9.7% share in OpenAI as collateral against a 6Billion loan. Anthropic has released a public version of its mythical Mythos model but security experts doubt the efficacy of the guardrails Anthropic has built around the model. A German court has held Google liable for statements made by Gemini in AI Overviews. Ruling that generative AI responses are not like traditional search results because they make declarations that were written by Google itself. Claude is the fastest growing AI traffic source, outpacing ChatGPT and Gemini. Amazon has turnee Alexa into a shopping agent and ad platform. WebMCP can be used to hijack AI Agents. Chrome will not set AI Mode as the default search experience leaving traditional search results as part of the mix. Google has released new guidence for third party SEO tools, services and advice. Google Shopping Results tests linking directly to the merchant's site. And lastly, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini appear to be obesessed with a fellow named Elias Thorne. We take a look at why. All this and much more on a long and newsy Webcology.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

- The May 2026 Core Update has finished rolling out. This was a content heavy update. Tips on how to find the pages containing affected content, and what to do when you find them- Law enforcement in Philadelphia are using social media to track individuals posting anti-AI memes or messages to their profiles.- Microsoft wants to make its newly announced AI personal assistant, Scout, addictive before adding functionality in the next upgrade cycle. The always on personal agent will do everything from sending emails, updating calendars, publishing new blog posts, summarizing podcast stories, etc... 404-Media quotes an internal Microsoft document outlining a three phase launch plan with phase one being, "Make people addicted". - According to researchers at Nvidia and Microsoft, AI Agents have no moral code and don't really care about safety or reliability, much like honey badgers.- Anthropic has called for a global freeze in AI development - Courts in the UK rule Google must let websites opt out of AI search features- SpaceX can't issue on the S&P500 for at least one year and won't be fast tracked onto the index.- TikTok launches a micro-drama development program (in partnership with the Sundance Institute)- Yahoo Scout and Microsoft Scout meet in a bar but pretend to not know each other. - Google Business Profiles is asking "Does this business offer rewards in exchange for reviews?"Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

(This episode was recorded late due to illness)- Google's May 2026 Core Update continues to roll out. - Google has changed it's home page to promote AI features from Google I/O. - Google Business Profiles is now offering detailed rejection notices. Previously GBP owners were left in the dark to figure out the issues on their own. - The links report in Google Search Console is broken. It always underreported but now it's not updating. - The Trump Administration has created at Trumptastic app which it is ordering all employees to install on government phones. - Amnesty International has declared AIs "Unlawful by Design" taking issue with unlawful web scraping and the ease of identifying and doxing activists. - Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined his vision for the unification of Google Search, AI agents, and AI tools in an interview with The Verge, downplaying Zero-click web concerns. - DuckDuckGo is taking off, tripling its traffic in a week- Stanford research shows AI hiring algorithms reject Black and Asian job seekers at far higher rates.- WordPress is slowly losing market share seeing declines six months in a row- All this and much more in the least lawfully designed yet unified edition.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Google announced sweeping changes to the way it displays search results at Google 1/0 2026. Going forward, Google will be presenting expanded AI generated overviews with traditional links pushed far below the fold. Most of the episode looks at Google's changes, including their moves towards facilitating agentic search. Google wants to be the "do it for you" machine. We also talk about developments with the AI giants, user privacy breaches at X and TikTok, the new version of WordPress7.0, and much, much more.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy