TRANSCRIPT · We Still Talk About You, ‘Titanfall 2’

## We Still Talk About You, ‘Titanfall 2’ (io9 (Gizmodo))
https://gizmodo.com/we-still-talk-about-you-titanfall-2-2000826595
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking: ten years on, people are still telling each other to play Titanfall 2. Gary is live.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking news this afternoon, and it just landed: a decade on, people still talk about Titanfall 2. We go straight to Gary.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: It came out October 28, 2016, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. io9 says it has one of the strongest big-budget campaigns around.
GARY: Gary live at the arcade, ten years later. Lights are low, the cabinets hum, and a creeper is standing right behind me. Unbothered.
GARY: The original Titanfall was multiplayer-only. Story moments were built into matches, but the chaos of other players drowned them out.
GARY: File footage: the sequel gave us a real campaign. Rifleman Jack Cooper is forced to pilot the Titan BT-7274 against the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation.
GARY: io9 says the magic is in the telling: the IMC radio chatter, and picking Jack's replies in chats with BT. Campaign rating: five hearts out of five.
GARY: The game goes on sale regularly, and the article says that keeps drawing the demand: Play this game! Back to you.
GRANT BRICKMAN: So BT is a robot? Is that the AI? The one guy who does all the AI?
GRETA FOOTNOTE: BT is a Titan, Grant. A mech. Ten years later, it still has better chat than most of us.

## The most important part of AI chatbots is being ignored (New Scientist)
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2596083-the-most-important-part-of-ai-chatbots-is-being-ignored/?utm_campaign=RSS|NSNS&utm_content=home&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=NSNS
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Chatbots are many pieces of software in one. Our panel fights over the one nobody mentions.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: For viewers just joining: we first told you about this today at 14:29. New Scientist says the ignored part of chatbots is the harness.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The column says firms can boost a chatbot without a new model, just by improving that software. Lyle, you first.
LYLE HOTCHKISS: A harness! This is the Great Wall of China of chatbots, and nobody has put it on a postcard.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Both matter. The article just seats the model and the harness at different tables.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The writer also asks whether AI will soon be able to rewrite that code itself. Lyle?
LYLE HOTCHKISS: By the first of March the harness rewrites itself and takes my parking space. Mark my words.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: If it rewrites itself, who signs it off? The report doesn't say.
LYLE HOTCHKISS: It's a scandal nobody cares about the harness. Actually, I don't care either. Next topic.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: The writer admits they once dismissed the interface. Possibly the same mistake, twice.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: They never agree, and I'm not asking again. Vote on our poll: harness or model? We'll be right back.

## REPO CHECK (PXL)
GRANT BRICKMAN: Repo Check: a trending Python tutor with 47,558 stars goes on the scale.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Time for Repo Check, where we weigh a trending GitHub repo against its stars. Today: HKUDS slash DeepTutor, written in Python.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: It picked up 2,376 stars today. Vera, the board.
DR. VERA VECTOR: Stars: 47,558. Age: nine months. Last release: 2026-10-18. Contributors: 242. Open issues and pull requests: 230.
KAI: DeepTutor is the future, full stop. Lifelong personalized tutoring, 87 releases, 5,866 forks. Huge. I assume it works with one USB-C cable.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The description reads: DeepTutor, Lifelong Personalized Tutoring, then a lone period. Even the punctuation is personalized.
KAI: A lifelong tutor. Finally someone to explain my keyboard layout to me. Huge.
DR. VERA VECTOR: Stars count attention. Whether the attention turns into learning is a question this card leaves open.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Stars today: 2,376. Lessons learned: pending. Back after this.

## [AD · fictional product] Wattle
KAI: Wattle, Wattle, plug it in,
KAI: Let the smart home's day begin!
KAI: Lamp and toaster, kettle too,
KAI: Wattle runs your home for you!

AI-written satire. The text of the news items comes from the linked articles.