e523 — Two hundred and sixty six starlings

Photo by Pete Godfrey on Unsplash Published 4 August 2025 e523 with Michael R and Andy, possibly arriving via carefully-arranged starlings? – stories about AI again, obviously; iPadOS 26; games, old and new; and, an innovative method of data transfer. Andy and Michael R are back together this week, while Michael M takes a turn being away! We kick off with some AI-related topics, with ChatGPT successfully passing the anti-bot Turing test, CAPTCHA, and then some discussion of AI tools being allowed in Meta's hiring process. Could the North Koreans be on their way? Seamlessly gliding (almost like... liquid glass), there's a discussion of iPadOS 26 public beta, and all the window-y goodness that's coming to all in September. Under the heading of games topics, the hosts cover a number of links, including the existential crisis experienced by games characters in a Matrix game, an incredible clay animated music video that revisits the 1980s and 1990s, and then, a brand new game all about the life of... a fly. Yes, a fly. The last segment covers a different kind of flying creature, and looks at the potential for birds to become digital data carriers. Well, starlings anyway. Are you switching to bird tech any time soon? Have your bots drop our bots a line on Mastodon at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know what you're reading and what you're thinking about! These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Selected Links AI Ars Technica on ChatGPT's Casual Clicking - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/07/openais-chatgpt-agent-casually-clicks-through-i-am-not-a-robot-verification-test/ 404Media on Meta job interviews - https://www.404media.co/meta-is-going-to-let-job-candidates-use-ai-during-coding-tests/ BBC: US woman gets 8-year sentence for stealing identities to give North Koreans jobs https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2l2yn5zmxo https://ultracode.ai/ Apple iPadOS 26 public beta - https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/07/first-look-ipados-26-public-beta/ Gaming Characters panic inside Matrix game - https://futurism.com/demo-video-game-characters-panic-code-matrix Music video GUNSHIP - Tech Noir 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlUJTtBphb0 Time Flies game - https://timeflies.buzz Birds! Yes, birds! (can we pretend this is a Maker section?) Full video - storing PNGs in birds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQCP-5g5bo Tom's Hardware coverage - https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/yes-you-can-store-data-on-a-bird-enthusiast-converts-png-to-bird-shaped-waveform-teaches-young-starling-to-recall-file-at-up-to-2mb-s