Facebook Hopes You'll Befriend AI Influencers - AI Phishing, Retro Tech Revival, Passkey Predicament

In the first episode of 2025, Mikah and Abrar discuss Meta's plans to add AI bots to their social media platforms, the rise of AI-generated phishing scams, the trend of parents giving their kids retro tech devices to reduce screen time, and the current state and future potential of passkeys for secure logins.
• Meta plans to populate Facebook and Instagram with AI-generated bot accounts that can create content, share posts, and interact with users, in an effort to drive engagement as user growth stagnates. Abrar and Mikah debate the pros and cons of AI bots on social media.
• Cybersecurity experts have seen a significant increase in sophisticated phishing scams using AI to generate hyper-personalized messages mimicking people's communication styles, with over 90% of successful cyberattacks now beginning with phishing emails. Abrar and Mikah discuss cybersecurity training and email filtering used by companies to combat this.
• There's a growing trend of parents gifting their kids retro tech like Walkmans, portable CD players, and MP3 players in an effort to reduce screen time. Mikah and Abrar reflect on the appeal of single-purpose devices and bonding over music.
• Passkeys, a new login technology aiming to replace passwords, have seen increasing adoption but face usability challenges and inconsistent implementation across sites and devices. Mikah explains how passkeys work and recommends using password managers for now, as both hosts agree passkeys aren't quite ready for mainstream adoption yet.
Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Abrar Al-Heeti
Tech News Weekly episode 368
More Info: twit.tv/shows/...
Sponsors:
• zscaler.com/security
• joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT
• cachefly.com/twit
Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at twit.tv/shows/...
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at twit.tv/clubtwit
Products we recommend: www.amazon.com...
TWiT may earn commissions on certain products.
Follow us:
twit.tv/
/ twit
/ twitnetwork
/ twit.tv
bsky.app/profi...
About us:
TWiT.tv is a technology podcasting network located in the San Francisco Bay Area with the #1 ranked technology podcast This Week in Tech hosted by Leo Laporte. Every week we produce dozens of hours of content on a variety of programs including Tech News Weekly, MacBreak Weekly, This Week in Google, Windows Weekly, Security Now, and more.