Tech • AI • Robotics
OpenAI suspends its AI, hackers are crushing us, Google too + AI Act = back-to-school, basically!
5/10TL;DR
A French tech creator reopened the season of Renault Des Codes with a revamped format, a publishing schedule of three live shows a week, and a new embodied AI assistant called Joshua.
KEY POINTS
Season relaunch with a tighter schedule
The program returns with a new season built around regular live slots on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon. The relaunch was presented as a more structured version of the show, while keeping its informal tone and focus on digital culture, artificial intelligence and online platforms.
New set, sound and visual identity
The return came with changes to the studio setup, including a refreshed background, revised audio, updated graphics and a new theme. Technical glitches marked the opening minutes, with some cameras failing and sound adjustments still being fine-tuned, but the broader aim was clear: a more professional production without abandoning the show’s familiar style.
Joshua, an AI assistant with a physical body
The main novelty was the arrival of Joshua, an AI assistant now embodied in a small desktop robot based on a Richy Mini device. The robot can move its head, track attention, speak through the computer audio chain and interact live. It was described as an intentionally sarcastic but useful assistant, designed to appear regularly during broadcasts.
Expansion of the online community platform
The associated website, renault-descodes.fr, is being positioned as a permanent hub for the community beyond livestreams. Free access includes forums, tools, classified-style posts, app recommendations, games and productivity resources, all intended to keep discussion going at any time of day.
Club subscription adds private sessions and training
Paid members of the club gain access to private weekly video meetings held on Thursday at noon, networking spaces and structured training content. New additions include short seven-module guides and workshops on focused topics such as local AI tools and practical onboarding to the current AI ecosystem.
Editorial focus remains tech literacy
The show’s stated mission remains to decode major developments in AI, the web, digital services and social platforms so audiences can better understand how those systems affect everyday life. The editorial line emphasizes practical literacy, skepticism toward hype and the need to separate useful innovation from harmful or misleading trends.
Criticism of French politics on youth and social media
A major point of discussion was the failed French attempt to ban social media for users under 15. The measure was criticized as legally incoherent because regulation of large platforms falls largely at the European level, and because the public debate often confuses screens, smartphones and social networks as if they were the same issue.
Constitutional rejection seen as a warning sign
The decision by the Constitutional Council to strike down the measure was presented as evidence that the law had been poorly written and politically performative. The broader critique was that many elected officials still speak about digital life without understanding basic distinctions between taking photos, using a phone, browsing online and participating in social platforms.
Debunking misleading AI search advice
Another segment challenged a viral claim that Google hides a special switch that must be enabled for a site to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or AI search results. The explanation was that the setting in Google Search Console is neither hidden nor related to those third-party tools, and in fact concerns opting out of appearance in AI Overviews, not opting in.
CONCLUSION
The relaunch combines a stronger production format with a wider push into community tools, training and AI experimentation. It also underscores a broader theme likely to shape the season: separating real technological change from political confusion, marketing exaggeration and platform misinformation.
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