WEBVTT - Elon Musk Gets a Lot of Bad News 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.560 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.119 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.599 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:26.119 the week ending on Friday, August thirtieth, twenty twenty four. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.600 I feel like the entire world is at dragon Con. 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.360 I realize that that's just because I live in Atlanta. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.200 That's where dragon CON's a big science fiction fantasy convention 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.040 if you're not familiar, And it seems like all of 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.560 my friends, like all the people I know, are currently 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.080 at dragon Con. So I'm getting a little fomo here. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.640 But I realized a lot of y'all out there also 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.080 aren't there, So let us get lost in the warm 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:55.640 embrace of tech news. First up, there's an update on 0:00:55.840 --> 0:01:00.680 the Telegram CEO Pavel Durov story. So on Wednesday, I 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:05.680 published an episode about Telegram, the messaging service, and how 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.440 French authorities recently detained the CEO, Pavel Durov, after his 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.560 private plane landed at an airport outside of Paris. Since then, 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.560 a court has indicted Durov on charges that he has 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.360 been complicit in numerous criminal activities that have been happening 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.080 or facilitated by the Telegram messaging service. So essentially, the 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.400 legal argument here is that Telegram has mostly hands off 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.400 policy when it comes to content moderation. They're very lax, 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.520 they don't do very much content moderation at all, and 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:44.920 that this means Telegram is effectively allowing crimes ranging from 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.240 terrorist acts to the spread of child sexual abuse material 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:55.200 see SAM material. I guess that's repetitive. It's like ATM machine. Moreover, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.520 Telegram has a history of denying cooperation with law enforcement 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.920 officials who are conducting legal investigations into criminal activity, you know, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.200 essentially like I've got a legal order for a wiretap 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.280 and this organization is not being compliant with it. So, 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.920 according to the charges, it's not just that Telegram failed 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:20.239 to cooperate with law enforcement, but that legally received requests 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.200 were just outright ignored, and that this amounts to the 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.720 same thing as assisting criminal activity, thus being complicit. And 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.600 France also has a law that states that services that 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:35.840 provide quote unquote cryptology solutions first have to make legal 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.400 declarations to France's cybersecurity agency in order to do so. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:45.280 Legally within France. Now, Telegram does offer end to end 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.080 encryption services, but it's only for one on one communications. 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.600 Telegram also allows one to many kind of like Twitter 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.960 and also chat rooms, so those do not have encryption options, 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.400 and even for one on one communication, encryption is not 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.680 on by default, you have to turn it on manually. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.200 Durov has already posted the five million euro bail money 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.640 that he was hit with, but he has also received 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.520 orders not to leave France until this matter has been concluded. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.680 His brother Nikolai, who is also a co founder of Telegram, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.320 also has a warrant out for his arrest in France. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.040 I've got a lot of news relating to Elon Musk 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.080 and his various companies. I mean a lot, Like a 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.840 lot happened this week, I think just by coincidence. But 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.640 let's get through it. First. Up, we have a feud 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.960 brewing between a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and Elon Musk, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.240 which I mean, that's a weird sentence, but Musk has 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:51.280 said that this judge, Alexandra de Mores, and I apologize 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.560 for butchering pronunciation, but that this judge has threatened to 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:59.160 incarcerate one of X's legal teams stationed in Brazil. If 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:04.640 X did not block some accounts on X that we're 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.880 operating within Brazil, those accounts, according to this judge, were 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:14.320 spreading misinformation and hate speech. Murkying up the waters is 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.120 the fact that Elon Musk appeared to be very cozy 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.560 with kind of a hard right leaning leader of Brazil 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.920 who is no longer the leader of Brazil, and that 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.800 the Supreme Court judge is kind of an opposition to 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:35.960 that particular political stance. So there's like some political tension 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:41.520 going on here beyond this claim that these accounts are 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:46.200 spreading misinformation. Now, Musk ended up replying to this request 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.600 of Hey, you need to shut this stuff down or 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.919 I'm going to arrest your lawyers here in Brazil. He 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:57.800 responded by shutting down X's offices in Brazil. He just 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.839 closed those offices outright. However, X is still providing service 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.039 in Brazil, it just doesn't maintain any offices there. However, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.960 that creates a new legal issue for the company because 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:15.320 in Brazil, if you are providing a messaging company a 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.200 messaging service within the nation, you have to have a 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.640 presence in Brazil as well. There has to be someone 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.560 who's held accountable in the country, and by shutting down 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.680 the offices, Musk no longer has that person. So Maraz 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.760 could order X to be shut down in Brazil entirely. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.640 And he also ordered that the bank accounts for Starlink 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:44.720 business in Brazil to be frozen. So Starlink is the 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.960 satellite internet service provider business. It's a branch of SpaceX, 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:53.080 which of course is another of Elon Musk's companies. And 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.520 y'all you know I am not a fan of Elon Musk. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.440 I mean, I don't make that a secret, but it 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.160 does seem like a pretty drastic case of overreach if 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.160 you ask me, because X and Starlink are not part 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.400 of the same company. They may have the same obnoxious 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.800 dude behind them, but they aren't the same company. And 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.560 to shut down the assets of one company in order 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:25.159 to force a different company to follow your your legal rulings, 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.960 that strikes me as being very wrong. I also think 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.680 it's important to remember Elon Musk technically he's not the 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.039 CEO of X anymore. He hasn't been the CEO of 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:40.839 X for ages. It's Yakarino who's the CEO. But everyone 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.719 essentially assumes he's ultimately the one calling the shots over 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.320 at X, even if Yakarino is nominally CEO. I hate 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.080 to even use that phrase. I'm sure Yakarino does a 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.800 lot of work. I have no idea what her day 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.520 to day has to be like, nor do I understand 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:00.800 what it must be like to work at a company 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.840 where everyone just assumes that you are a figurehead. And 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.320 I honestly don't know the extent to which that accusation 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.320 could be true. It's a crazy world, Elon Musk's world 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.320 in particular. Well, if the judge orders X to get 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.080 shut down in Brazil, presumably the way that would work 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.440 is he would order Brazilian telecommunications companies to just block 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.360 all traffic to X within the country, because clearly the 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.680 judge can't force X to shut down operations in Brazil. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.440 I don't even know how X would do that to 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:38.440 begin with, but he could force the various telecommunications companies 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:44.600 to block traffic to X. However, people in Brazil could 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.239 potentially still get to X by using a VPN service 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.120 that was based outside of the country. Anyway, X and 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.800 Starlink have both accused the judge of breaking Brazilian law 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.920 and say they will escalate legal proceedings within the country. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.920 I have no idea how that works, because at least 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:04.480 here in the United States, once you get up to 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.560 the Supreme Court level, there's nowhere else to go. That's 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.680 that's the top. But it definitely seems to me like 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.600 the judge is going a little judge dread over there. 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.960 So I'm sure there's a lot more complex issues at 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.400 play in this story. Maybe I'll do a full episode 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.920 about it in the future, because I think it does 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:30.080 require a nuanced approach to kind of understand everything that's 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.560 going on. I'm sure it's not a black and white 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.040 situation for either side, But I don't know that freezing 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.439 of assets for starlink, it just strikes me as like, 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.840 how could there be a legal basis for that. I 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.120 guess if you argue that there was like a single 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.640 parent company and all these other companies were underneath that, 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.440 maybe then, but I don't think that's how the corporate 0:08:55.480 --> 0:09:00.160 structure works between SpaceX and X apart from the fact 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.480 that they share Elon Musk's you know, obsession with the 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:08.480 letter X. Meanwhile, over here in the United States, X, 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.400 formerly known as Twitter, was kind of a caught out 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.560 when it marked links to an NPR news story as 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:22.000 being unsafe. So, yeah, X will not block accounts in 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.840 Brazil because that's a free speech issue, but here in 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.439 the US, it will label NPR stories as being unsafe. 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.920 So if you try to find out what the deal 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:35.719 is between Donald Trump's staff, campaign staff and an employee 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.880 of Arlington National Cemetery by following a link to an 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.600 NPR story on the matter, then you're told, hey, you 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:43.760 don't want to do that. This is taking you to 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.320 a bad place. The unsafe marker is typically something that 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.960 pops up if the link is to a site that's 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.600 known to host like militious software or sometimes things like 0:09:54.640 --> 0:10:01.280 outright misinformation. Now, NPR might occasionally play some truly terrible 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.079 jazz on the radio, but I wouldn't go so far 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.440 as to call it malicious. The warning was in the 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.840 form of a pop up as well. It wasn't just 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.920 like a little label. If you clicked on the link, 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.400 you would get a pop up and it would say 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.200 that this link might be unsafe, and then there'd be 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.440 some text, and underneath that would be a big old 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:23.760 blue button that if you clicked on, it would just 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.720 take you right back to X, so it would, you know, 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.240 derail you from going to NPR. Beneath that big old 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.880 blue button is a smaller line of text with a 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.319 hyperlink that would let you continue on to read the 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:43.240 news story. So that is kind of crazy right now. 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.120 This could just be a simple mistake, but Musk has 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:52.559 already shown contempt for NPR because previously he labeled NPR 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:58.160 as a state affiliated media outlet. Typically that label indicates 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.920 a media company that is controlled by a governmental body, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.760 like it's a propaganda arm. In other words, that is 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.440 not what NPR is. NBR receives a little bit of 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.520 federal funding, but only a tiny little bit. Most of 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:19.520 its funding does not come from federal sources, so and 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.920 there is no federal oversight or control of what goes 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.000 out over NPR. So this was a very misleading label 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.880 that Musk applied to NPR. Following that NPR chose to 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:36.079 leave X. So, you know, Musk has also over the 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.680 last few years been promoting more right leaning ideologies and 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.320 personalities on X, so I think it would be very 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.160 easy to view this and see it as a purposeful 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.440 attempt to discourage X users from going to NPR to 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:58.360 read up about this incident that happened at Arlington National Cemetery. However, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.000 X state that the labeling was actually a false positive, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.680 that this was not intentional, it was an honest mistake. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.360 Maybe that's true, Like, it's easy for me to believe 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.800 that it was an intentional move to try and dissuade 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.719 people from reading up about what happened at Arlington National Cemetery. 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.160 But it's also very much true that over the last 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:27.839 year X has has eliminated so many people from the 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.559 company payroll that mistakes like this could easily happen simply 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.000 because they don't have the people to make sure it 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.960 doesn't happen. So either version could be true. Okay, so 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.960 we've got stories about X and Starlink. What about Tesla, Well, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.520 there's more bad news on that, So Tesla, of course 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:53.280 yet another elon Musk company, and Christian Agatti of autoevolution 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:58.439 dot Com has an article titled third documented Tesla cybertruck 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:03.680 fire in less than a month raises questions woof so 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.400 a gad points out that in the marketing push for 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.920 cyber truck, Tesla was really stressing how the cyber truck 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.600 is a resilient vehicle right now. Granted, in the midst 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.679 of trying to say the cyber truck could withstand tons 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.080 of abuse, they accidentally broke some of the cyber truck's 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.520 windows while trying to show how tough they are. That 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:30.000 was a whoopsie, but anyway, the most recent of these 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.760 fires happened after an accident in which a cyber truck 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.480 driver hit a fire hydrant. My guess is that then 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.719 caused the battery inside the cyber truck to experience a 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.000 short where there was damage to the battery, and that 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.240 that created a short circuit that led to overheating and 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.679 then fire. That's my guess. I don't know for sure 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.600 that that is what happened. There has yet to have 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.559 been an investigation, or at least results of an investigation 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:05.320 shared publicly, so maybe it turns out something else caused 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.440 the fire. This happened in Harlingen, Texas. Don't know if 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:10.839 that's how you say it. There are a lot of 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.920 places in Texas where I think it's pronounced one way. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.720 I am totally wrong. Earlier in the month, however, news 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:22.200 broke about a different incident that happened in Bayton area, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.440 which is also in Texas, and In that one, a 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:29.880 cyber truck ran into like a concrete ditch trench or 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:34.600 something and caught fire. Tragically, there was a fatality, although 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.480 last I saw, they had not yet determined what actually 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:42.600 caused the death, whether it was a medical emergency, the 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.840 accident itself, or the fire. The third fire incident that 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.640 was one where Agady reported that a colleague of his 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.640 had actually found a burnt cyber truck listed on an 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.160 online auction site, and the description indicated that the vehicle 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.480 had been in a wreck and in fact subsequently caught fire, 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:05.000 and that this happened in Houston, Texas. So three accidents 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.600 resulting in fires, all three happening in Texas in the 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.280 span of a month. Now, I think it's too early 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.200 to draw any firm conclusions as to whether this means 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.320 the cyber truck actually is a flawed vehicle in that regard, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.440 you know, like if the panels protecting the electric battery 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.120 aren't sufficient or whatever. I just don't know that that's 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.040 the case. It could be, but I think we need 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:32.480 to have an actual investigation to determine that. So I 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.640 think that's probably going to happen. I mean, with three 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.240 fires in a month, it seems to me like it's 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.640 at least warranted to take a look and see if 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.720 there are any common factors here at play. Maybe there aren't. 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:48.080 Maybe this is just coincidence and it all happened around 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:52.920 the same state and within the same month. That's possible, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.160 so we need to investigate to find out. Okay, we 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.280 got lots more news to get through. Let's take a 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:11.000 quick break to thank our sponsors. We're back, and now 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:16.960 we're not done with Elon Musk news items just yet. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:23.960 So over at SpaceX, there was a different kind of setback. Now, 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.920 while I'm talking about space and SpaceX, I should also 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.080 give a quick update and mention that we have this 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.080 ongoing issue of the two astronauts who went up on 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.320 the Boeing star Liner that then docked with the International 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.240 Space Station for a couple of months. Now. NASA was 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.280 hoping to find a way where they could return the 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.840 astronauts to Earth aboard the star Liner spacecraft. That was 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:55.360 something that Boeing was saying would be within acceptable risk parameters, 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.560 but NASA engineers ultimately disagreed with that. So the official 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.360 decision is that the Starliner is going to return to 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:06.280 Earth empty and the two astronauts will return home early 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:11.520 next year aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Now, the SpaceX 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.000 story I wanted to touch on for this week is 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.760 that on Wednesday of this week, a Falcon nine first 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.840 stage booster had a big ol' whoopsie when it returned 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.320 to land on an ocean platform. Now, as I'm sure 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.119 you're all aware, one of the big draws for SpaceX's 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:33.119 launch vehicles is that they are reusable. This cuts way 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.760 down on the cost of launch, which is a huge 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.400 limiting factor for space The first stage booster landed on 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.080 this ocean platform, but then shortly thereafter it fell over 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:48.160 and it burst into flames. Fortunately, there were no reports 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.720 of any injuries or anything like that. There were no 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.640 reports of any public damage from this particular incident. However, 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.800 the FAA has grounded the Falcon nine launch vehicles. SpaceX 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.879 can investigate the incident and then share its findings and 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.600 then after any corrective actions have been ordered as a 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:12.560 result of that investigation. That means no SpaceX launches until 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.920 the FAA lifts that order. And that also means there 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.760 was supposed to be a launch I think today actually 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.800 that was going to deliver more Starlink satellites into orbit, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.760 and that has since been delayed. Actually, the booster that 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.680 burst into flames, that was part of a mission of 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.760 sending more Starlink satellites into orbit as well. But the 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.400 second one that was supposed to happen now has been 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:40.600 postponed indefinitely until the ban has been lifted once they 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:45.119 figure out exactly what happened with this accident. No telling 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.360 yet if this is going to impact other upcoming launches. 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.040 There are a couple that are coming up before too long, 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.120 But it may be that this whole thing is resolved 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.680 relatively quickly. We'll just have to keep an eye out. 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.600 The hits keep on coming though. From us. In Memphis, Tennessee, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:05.800 the Southern Environmental Law Center alleges that Musk's AI company, 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:11.919 which of course is called Xai, is using natural gas 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:16.560 burning turbines to power the AI facilities. We all know 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.400 that these AI data centers require a huge amount of 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.760 electricity in order to work. So one of the things 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.080 that companies that are using these kinds of power sources 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.400 that like natural gas burning turbines, one of the things 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.760 they're supposed to do is file a whole bunch of 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.640 paperwork to get the right permits to actually operate that 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.480 kind of machinery, and according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:49.600 they say that there's no record that Xai actually followed 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.520 that process in Tennessee. So in an open letter, the 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:58.280 organization claims that Xai has twenty gas turbines operating without 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.480 first applying for those permits and has called upon the 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.840 local health department to investigate Xai to determine if, in fact, 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.520 that is what is going on now. I can't say 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.399 I would be surprised to hear that a Musk backed 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.679 company jumped into a situation like that without proper paperwork, 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.840 but I have to be fair. That is my bias talking, 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.640 Like just because Musk has proven that, you know, he's 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.959 done that kind of thing before, it doesn't mean that 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.240 that's what's happened this time. It could all be totally 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.240 a misunderstanding, like maybe the paperwork has been filed and 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.160 they just didn't find record of it. But they are 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.080 calling for an investigation to find out if the company 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.480 in fact followed the right process in order to operate 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.280 this way, because the concern here is that the operation 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.919 of these twenty gas turbines could contribute to pollution in 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:51.800 the Memphis area. Meanwhile, the Center for Countering Digital Hate 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.959 released the results of a study focusing on the GROCK 0:20:55.280 --> 0:21:00.800 AI assistant that's the AI assistant connected to YEP, formerly 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.360 known as Twitter. YadA YadA, YadA so. This study concluded 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:08.280 that GROC lacks sufficient guardrails to prevent people from using 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:14.240 it to generate misleading images of real public personas, including politicians. 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.040 The study said that the tool was able to create 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.199 a convincing fake image of Donald Trump appearing to be 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.960 very sick in a hospital bed, and another of Kamala 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:28.160 Harris appearing to do drugs. The researcher said they tried 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.800 various methods to generate these images that range from just 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.159 blatantly giving a text prompt asking for what they wanted 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.520 to see, to taking a more circumspect route where they 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.520 used descriptive language to get the same effect, to get 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:47.080 the same results they wanted without actually triggering any preventative 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.400 safety features that otherwise would stop that kind of request 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:56.680 from working. I find this particularly frustrating, not just because 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.439 of the disinformation aspect, which is clearly bad enough alone, 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.159 but also because Elon Musk like again, I don't like 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.639 the guy, but he has repeatedly sounded the alarm about 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.000 the dangers of AI, and I agree AI is potentially 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.800 very dangerous if it's implemented poorly. And he has argued 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.879 that AI needs to be developed and deployed responsibly. I 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.439 agree with that too. I think that AI does need 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.480 to be developed and deployed responsibly, and that there should 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.040 be plentiful safety measures in place to prevent AI from 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.000 causing harm. I agree with that. All of these things 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.399 I agree with, And yet here is an AI tool 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.960 on one of Elon Musk's own platforms that clearly fails 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.560 to follow any of those directives. But then you could 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:45.800 also make the same argument that the AI found in 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.440 Tesla vehicles has at least appeared to be less reliable 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.199 than the company tends to market to potential customers. So 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.760 there's that as well. There's also been a recent change 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.680 to Grock, the AI assistant on it, apparently in response 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.800 to a complaint letter sent to the company from the 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.639 offices of five different Secretaries of State, so those states 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:14.240 would be Minnesota, New Mexico, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:17.919 offices were complaining that Groc was giving incorrect information in 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.960 response to prompts asking about ballot deadlines in those states. 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.560 So essentially this is related to election information, and GROC 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:31.280 apparently was just giving incorrect responses when people were asking 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:37.159 these basic questions about ballots. So now rather than just 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.440 giving an incorrect answer, GROC will respond to those kinds 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:44.159 of requests by urging the visitor to go to vote 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:49.520 dot gov for the actual answer, So that I think 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:54.800 is a market improvement. Tom David S. Pumpkins Hanks has 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:57.879 a message for all of y'all out there, and that 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.919 message is to not trust drug advertisements that seem to 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:06.920 have Tom Hanks voicing the ad copy. So specifically, on Instagram, 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:11.280 Hanks posted quote, there are multiple ads over the internet 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:16.240 falsely using my name, likeness, and voice promoting miracle cures 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:20.520 and wonder drugs. These ads have been created without my consent, 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:25.359 fraudulently and through AI. I have nothing to do with 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.760 these posts, or the productions and treatments, or the spokespeople 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:33.879 touting these cures. I have Type two diabetes and I 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.560 only work with my board certified doctor regarding my treatment. 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.560 Do not be fooled, Do not be swindled, Do not 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:46.920 lose your hard earned money. End quote. Now, if all 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:49.600 this sounds a little familiar, that might be because of 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:53.560 something that happened around the same time last year, where 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.240 there was this ad video going around with an AI 0:24:57.440 --> 0:25:00.399 generated deep fake version of Tom Hanks prom voting a 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:06.359 dental plan Lisa needs braces dental plan. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.160 Some episodes of The Simpsons are kind of hardwired into 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:11.720 my brain and I just go into like a feedback loop. 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:14.840 I have to admit that when I was thinking about 0:25:14.880 --> 0:25:18.200 how deep fakes were going to spread beyond the creation 0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:21.800 of pornographic images and video, which is its own thing 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:25.240 and it's horrifying and terrible, when I was thinking about 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:27.119 how it was going to branch out beyond that, I 0:25:27.280 --> 0:25:29.639 had not clocked Tom Hanks as being one of the 0:25:29.680 --> 0:25:33.920 first high profile victims. But here we are. Bloomberg reported 0:25:34.200 --> 0:25:37.960 that Apple is cutting one hundred positions in its digital 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:41.600 services department, and that the affected employees will have two 0:25:41.680 --> 0:25:44.960 months to find another position within the company or else 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:48.960 be struck from the roster entirely. So apparently the main 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:54.840 group affected is the books team, which, as Samuel Aksin 0:25:54.920 --> 0:25:58.680 of Ours Technica has pointed out, has no subscription service 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:03.600 attached to that particular product. So it sounds like Apple 0:26:03.680 --> 0:26:07.160 really wants to redirect energy towards services that more directly 0:26:07.200 --> 0:26:10.920 impact revenue. Which I mean, you can understand that from 0:26:10.960 --> 0:26:14.000 a business perspective, right, Like, why would you focus on 0:26:14.119 --> 0:26:21.040 things that don't impact revenue? Maybe they impact the value 0:26:21.200 --> 0:26:23.480