This week on Science Faction, summer is in full swing as the hosts swap stories about kids, water parks, drama camp, and surviving the relentless heat. From AI writing Firefox extensions and Apple’s latest legal battle with OpenAI to why horror suddenly clicks for one of the hosts, the conversation bounces between technology, entertainment, and the strange ways artificial intelligence can make us more confident while making us less correct.
Real Life
Steven’s household traded the Renaissance Faire for a visit from his nephew, which led to the realization that “boy energy” really is its own force of nature. While the kids spent the week at drama camp, thoughts turned to Shakespeare, with the conclusion that Romeo + Juliet would be vastly improved if Dream Theater handled the soundtrack. Book club is also gearing up for Macbeth, because apparently there’s never a bad time for a little murder and prophecy.
Ben has been embracing peak summer with trips to the water park, while Devon is trying to survive the brutal Texas heat. His family’s solution? Buying an old-school lawn sprinkler so the kids could cool off the classic way. Once again, the phrase “boy energy” proves to be an unexpectedly recurring theme.
Technology also found its way into everyday life. Ben explained how AI helped him build a Firefox extension that converts webcomics into CBZ files, explored locally running language models with OpenCode, and used AI to determine which models would best fit his hardware. In one particularly fitting moment, he asked an AI how to repair some aging Python code, only for it to recommend an existing Firefox extension that solved the problem entirely. The hosts also wondered who keeps naming Google’s AI products after notebooks before discussing https://notebooklm.google.com/.
The conversation then shifted to Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI over allegations of trade secret theft involving former employees. You can read more about the case here:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/apple-sues-openai-alleging-misappropriation-trade-secrets-court-records-show-2026-07-10/
Entertainment wrapped up the segment with Steven declaring that all five episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 2 are absolute bangers, along with praise for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and a reminder that Assassin’s Creed Origins includes one of gaming’s coolest educational features: an interactive museum tour through ancient Egypt. Ben also celebrated the release of Heave Ho 2, while everyone wondered whether it’s destined to become a terrible influence on Devon’s kids.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2802740/Heave_Ho_2/
Future or Now
The hosts somehow found themselves discussing more Game Changer chaos before moving into horror.
Devon admitted that he may finally be developing a taste for the genre after watching Backrooms and Obsession, both of which started life as YouTube shorts before becoming full productions. He praised Backrooms for its eerie liminal-space atmosphere, while describing Obsession as a more traditional “be careful what you wish for” horror story. If you’ve been horror-curious but never quite crossed over, these might be good starting points.
Ben then highlighted a fascinating study showing one of AI’s biggest hidden dangers. Researchers found that people using AI assistance became three times less accurate while also becoming twice as confident in their answers. Even more striking, the willingness to simply admit “I don’t know” dropped from 44% to just 3% when AI was available. It’s a reminder that AI works best when treated as a helpful assistant—not an unquestionable authority.
https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-advice-suppresses-critical-thinking-wrong-answers-study
Finally, the crew couldn’t resist talking about the newly revealed Star Trek crossover sets coming to Magic: The Gathering. Whether you’re a Trek fan, a Magic player, or just someone whose wallet is already crying, the crossover looks like another ambitious mashup worth checking out.
https://trekmovie.com/2026/07/18/magic-the-gathering-star-trek-sets-revealed-preorders-open-now/
Steven rounded out the week by admitting that, for once, he didn’t have a specific science story to bring—which may have been the most surprising revelation of the episode.
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