The Download

Morning Brew Inc.

TL;DR: For better or worse (probably worse), a new productivity trend has arrived: using AI tools to record, transcribe, and analyze every single conversation. Unsurprisingly, it’s a habit the unknowingly recorded have some objections to—and could also come with big legal consequences.

What happened: You can probably assume you’re on the record everywhere now—work meetings, happy hours, and even first dates—per a viral Wall Street Journal report last week. A growing number of people are capturing every social interaction using AI notetaking apps, slim mics that attach to phones, or wearables like smart glasses, pins, rings, bracelets, you name it.

For these self-appointed stenographers, the payoff is that they never miss a beat: The AI can summarize every convo and even spit out a to-do list. For everyone else, it’s a privacy nightmare, as many of these recording enthusiasts don’t appear to be asking for permission. And there’s a decent chance that they could be running afoul of the law.

The fine print: Most states, including New York, only require one-party consent to record convos—you can tape one you’re part of without the other people’s say-so. But Silicon Valley-ites are in an all-party consent state (of which there are 11), where everyone involved has to explicitly agree to being recorded—not that that’s stopped people.

Then there’s all the other potential liabilities. Lawyers have long sounded the alarm on automated recording tools, warning that inviting an AI bot to meetings is a “ticking time bomb of legal risk,” as the New York Times put it in May. Picture every offhand comment you’ve ever made being subpoenaed or made discoverable in someone’s lawsuit.

Read the room: Beyond the legal issues, there’s the simple fact that constantly capturing everyone’s words probably won’t make you popular, as the online reactions to the WSJ’s report have made abundantly clear. (We’d pay to sit in on the future tech bro etiquette class covering this topic.)

Those who hate the idea of always being recorded are now deploying some inventive methods to show their dissent—like adding “I do not consent to transcribing or recording” to their Zoom display names, per WSJ.

Bottom line: Recording everything might be the newest life optimization hack, but always being recorded isn’t exactly optimal for your stress levels. —WK

      

Sponsored By Salesforce

Dreamforce is back Sept. 15–17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and streaming on Salesforce+, and it’s built for the architects of the agentic era. They’re covering everything from your first Agentforce build to trusted, scaled agentic architecture.

Here’s what’s happening:

• 1,600+ sessions are now live.
• New speakers announced. Hear from global icons and AI visionaries.
• Add Trailblazer bootcamp and get certified.

Dreamforce is better together. Register three or more people, and save over $3,900. Give your whole team access to the skills, hands-on training, and connections that drive results.

Can’t make it to SF? No worries. Dreamforce Live streams on Salesforce+ for free. Keynotes, expert sessions, virtual hands-on training, and product demos. Non-stop agentic innovation—all online. And everyone’s welcome, first-timers and longtime pros alike.

Lock in your pass today.

It’s hard to green-light this $600 showerhead

Disclosure: Companies may send us products to test, but they never pay for our opinions. Our recommendations are unbiased and unfiltered, and Tech Brew may earn a commission if you buy through our links.

As a skincare-maxxer, I was immediately drawn to the idea of a red light showerhead. In theory, it’s the perfect lazy-genius alternative to red light face masks: allowing me to potentially soak up the benefits of red light therapy—which may help reduce fine lines and improve skin texture—during a regularly scheduled rinse.

How we tested it: I had HigherDOSE’s Red Light Showerhead Filter installed for about six weeks and used it during my 20-ish-minute showers (with the crimson glow giving my bathroom a truly diabolical vibe).

How it works: Similar to a ring light, it has a circle of red LEDs that slots around the included nozzle, and you pop off the ring to charge it. Beyond potential skin benefits, HigherDOSE claims that its product can improve scalp health and even help you have good hair days. As a bonus, a built-in filter strips chlorine, mineral residue, and other contaminants out of the water.

The Good: The showerhead emits red and near-infrared wavelengths that roughly match what popular at-home masks do, and it feels like a premium tech gadget (which for the price, you would hope so).

The Complicated: The company says you could see small improvements after a few weeks of use. But after a month and a half, it felt like it had done nothing at all for either my hair or skin. The clinical research is thin on whether red light therapy does much in this form factor (versus being pressed against your face).

The Bad: It’s a $600 device that you have to remember to charge. A full charge lasts about seven hours, or “84 five-minute showers,” per the manual—wildly optimistic if you, like me, have an entire playlist to sing along to while shampooing. The filter also needs swapping every two to three months, at $45 a pop.

Verdict: ❌ Noise. I missed my low-maintenance showerhead—which, crucially, comes with a detachable arm my bathroom cleaning routine can’t live without. —WK

The Zeitbyte

AI is your company’s CEO now

Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

It’s just another day on the wild ride of Silicon Valley innovation: Instead of replacing rank-and-file workers with AI (at least initially), a tech startup called Skyfall is setting out to replace CEOs. It’s planning to buy a small SaaS or e-commerce firm, install a bot as the head honcho, and see if it can double the company’s revenue in six months. Skyfall hopes to “democratize the power of a CEO to all the small businesses around the world,” per an interview with Forbes.

We’ve already seen some AI-operated stores, alongside a whole lot of vending machines—and they’ve mostly been a cautionary tale in inventory mismanagement (like ordering way too many candles and tomatoes). AI lost these ventures money, which is famously bad for business. But Skyfall isn’t alone in its AI leadership ambitions—Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly working on an AI agent to help him be CEO. As for what convinced Skyfall that an AI model was ready for this experiment: It successfully ran a virtual amusement park in the 1999 video game RollerCoaster Tycoon. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: ☕☕☕☕/5

• Turns out the AI-powered hack on Hugging Face we told you about might not have been the AI’s fault—cybersecurity experts say it came down to one human mistake.
• Locked out of your Google account? No worries. You can now get back in with a selfie video.
• A BCI chip implanted behind your eye just got approval in Europe and will begin restoring some blind patients’ ability to read as early as September. The US could be next.
• A new Google study, based on nearly 15 million anonymized Gemini conversations, found that AI now touches 70% of US professions—but it’s only handling about a fifth of the actual tasks.
• Developers found something hidden in Apple’s iOS 27 code: Fall behind on its new iPhone lease payments, and your device could get remotely restricted.
• This roughly $8,000 solar-charging EV has a retractable solar roof that doubles in size when parked.
• OpenAI launched a clothing line, and the reviews are pretty brutal. That hasn’t stopped people from buying, though; the $70 green ChatGPT basketball sold out almost instantly.
• Zuckerberg unveiled a new ad campaign arguing AI should empower, not replace people—and the internet’s reaction has been less than kind.
• Five of the biggest tech companies are reportedly hiding $1.65 trillion in AI-related debt that doesn’t show up in their official public numbers.

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

This time last week...

Readers’ most-clicked story was about it being the ‘80s all over again with this person’s really cool game cartridges for Steam.