2026-05-18: Fast food chains are walking back AI drive-thrus after customer backlash and SEC fraud charges

Show Notes - 2026-05-18 Stories Covered: - Today: (https://www.theverge.com/column/928096/chatbots-ai-drive-thru-mcdonalds-wendys) - GM is laying off IT workers to hire AI engineers. (https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/techcrunch-mobility-the-ai-skills-arms-race-is-coming-for-automotive/) - Samsara found a revenue-generating AI use case. (https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/techcrunch-mobility-the-ai-skills-arms-race-is-coming-for-automotive/) - Graduates are booing AI cheerleading. (https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/if-youre-giving-a-commencement-speech-in-2026-maybe-dont-mention-ai/) - Trust is the theme at the Musk-OpenAI trial. (https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/why-trust-is-a-big-question-at-the-elon-musk-openai-trial/) - Apple is relaunching Siri with privacy as the differentiator. (https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/apples-siri-revamp-could-include-auto-deleting-chats/) - PayPal aims to support 25 million small businesses by 2030. (https://smallbiztrends.com/paypal-aims-to-empower-25-million-small-businesses-by-2030/) - Gartner says PR budgets will double by 2027 because of AI search. (https://www.inc.com/victoria-watters/gartner-says-pr-budgets-will-double-by-2027-ai-search-is-why/) - Don't force AI on your customers. - If you're hiring tech talent, there's a buyer's market right now. Full brief: https://carolinacleartech.com/ai-brief/2026-05-18/