News: 0180699188

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

'Call Screening is Aggravating the Rich and Powerful' (msn.com)

(Friday January 30, 2026 @11:41AM (msmash) from the would-you-think-of-the-rich dept.)


Apple's call-screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 last year, was designed to combat the more than 2 billion robocalls placed to Americans every month, but as WSJ is reporting, it is now creating friction for the rich and powerful who [1]find themselves subjected to automated interrogation when dialing from unrecognized numbers.

The feature uses an automated voice to ask unknown callers for their names and reasons for calling, transcribes the responses, and lets recipients decide whether to answer -- essentially giving everyone a pocket-sized executive assistant.

Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk said his first reaction when encountering call screening is irritation, though he understands the necessity given the spam problem. Ben Schaechter, who runs cloud-cost management company Vantage, said the feature "dramatically changed my life" after his personal number ended up in founding paperwork and attracted endless sales calls.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/cybersecurity/call-screening-is-aggravating-the-rich-and-powerful/ar-AA1VgE1G


It's always funny to me as an American (Score:3)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

When we noticed that we have a ruling class. It doesn't happen very often because they are careful to hide themselves. But every now and then they peek their heads out and we notice. Then we go back to sleep.

Re: (Score:2)

by VampireByte ( 447578 )

Rich people: we're putting AI into everything, don't call it slop

Also Rich people: wah, I have to deal with AI if I want to spam somebody

Annoying to everyone, bad journalist (Score:2)

by gurps_npc ( 621217 )

What I take away from this article is the journalist is a moron that either thinks call screening is not annoying to everyone else, or somehow thinks the rich and powerful are different than anyone else (besides being rich and powerful).

We put up with it because the spam callers are far more annoying.

Re: (Score:2)

by korgitser ( 1809018 )

The problems of regular people are not newsworthy. Regular people can go and fuck themselves.

OH NOES! (Score:2)

by fropenn ( 1116699 )

Feature on phone that most people love causes SLIGHT IRRITATION to rich person! This deserves IMMEDIATE ATTENTION with an article and headline!

Wilhoit's Law (Score:2)

by sphealey ( 2855 )

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect"

To conservatism I would add billionaireism.

[note that this is not Wilhoit the academic political philospher, but a different Wilhoit]

This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough
hunchbacks.