This week: Rec Room, the Seattle-based social gaming platform once valued at $3.5 billion, is shutting down — and Snap is picking up some of the pieces. Todd broke the news and talks about what it was like fielding calls from distraught users on the night of the announcement, what the shutdown says about the VR hype cycle, and whether the AI boom should take notes.

Plus: Major League Baseball's new automated ball-strike system is already exposing umpires and creating a whole new kind of showboating — including one player who was so confident the robot would overrule the ump that he just started walking to first base.

Also on the show: Todd road-tests Amazon's new FedEx Office returns partnership (pro tip: don't ask for stamps), OpenAI makes a head-scratching move into media by acquiring tech talk show TBPN, John gets fooled by an April Fools' prank, WSU researchers take on the torpedo bat, and the trivia question ties Apple's 50th anniversary to a word Microsoft tried and failed to make happen.

Thanks to this week's sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Microsoft, proud to call Washington state home and committed to strengthening the communities that made its growth possible — investing in infrastructure, workforce development, education, and nonprofit partnerships to help ensure innovation drives broad-based prosperity across the state. Read more.

With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rec Room shutdown, robot umps, FedEx meets Amazon, and OpenAI's odd media buy

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