Tech News Weekly 455: The Trouble With 'Health Age'

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show this week! AI-generated "news" sites. Are 'health age' scores helpful, or harmful? Google Home now supports the Model Context Protocol. And Apple unveils a new photo verification technology for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Mikah shares a story about Futurism's investigation into Brown Brothers Media reveals a network of AI-generated "news" sites - complete with fabricated writer personas and stolen bylines. Victoria Song of The Verge joins the show to explain why "health age" scores from wearables like Whoop, Oura, and now Apple Watch are wildly inconsistent proprietary metrics that can fuel unnecessary shame or false confidence about your health. Jennifer discusses Google Home's new MCP support and makes the case that what smart homes really need is a dedicated, on-device "smart home computer" rather than more cloud-dependent AI. And Mikah talks about Apple's Reference Image feature for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, which aims to verify photo authenticity straight from the camera sensor, an approach the company says avoids the privacy and security pitfalls of industry standards like C2PA. Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Guest: Victoria Song Download or subscribe to Tech News Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit outsystems.com/twit rayneo.com threatlocker.com/twit