WEBVTT - Tech News: US Senator Asks Apple and Google to Ditch TikTok 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.640 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.239 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.119 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:27.800 tech news for Thursday, February second, twenty twenty three into February. 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.680 Already on Tuesday, I mentioned that this week has a 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.080 lot of tech companies holding earnings calls and sharing with 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.879 their investors news about the company's performance. Tuesday's episode went 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.880 out before Snap, the company behind Snapchat, held its call. 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.559 But once that call did happen, things did not go 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.000 so well. Also, things will start to sound a little 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.120 bit topsy turvy as we talked through these first couple 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:58.360 of stories. All right, so what did Snap have to report? Well, first, 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:03.000 it's twenty two Q four results, because these earnings calls 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.240 are for the end of last year. Showed that revenue 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.760 was up slightly compared to Q four twenty one, So 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.560 year over year earnings were slightly up or revenue was 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.600 slightly up. That's good, right, But Snap has also phase 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.360 challenges when generating revenue, largely due to the digital ad 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:27.400 market decreasing as companies across all industries are watching costs. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.360 This is what happens during periods of economic uncertainty and recession. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.520 And while revenue grew year over year, it was at 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.200 a rate of twelve percent, which was slower than what 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:43.720 the company had estimated for two. So remember, it's not 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.280 good enough for a company to generate one point three 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.920 billion dollars in revenue. You also have to make sure 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:53.080 you're generating more revenue than you did before, and that 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.320 you're doing it at a significant rate if you want 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.840 to keep your investors happy. Now just to drop the 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.760 snark for a bit. If your revenue isn't growing quickly 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.520 but your costs are, that does actually become a really 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.359 big problem. And Snap reported that it had a net 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.720 loss last quarter of two eight million dollars. So it 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.399 generated one point three billion in revenue, but it operated 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.920 at a loss of two eighty eight million. Now you 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.800 compare that to the net gain Snap had of twenty 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:30.040 two point five million dollars a year previous. So at 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.359 the end of one they had a twenty two point 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:39.240 five million dollar net profit. Then you know this past 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.640 quarter it was a two million dollar net loss. That 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.840 is bad. And what Snap had to say next really 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.160 made investors unhappy that as of right now, Snap is 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.799 seeing revenue for the first quarter of twenty three at 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.960 a seven percent decline compared to last year. It's really 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.320 bad news when the number doesn't go up enough, but 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:07.160 even worse news when the number actually goes into negative territory. 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.760 So Snap is hitting a real rough patch right now. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.800 Last year saw four straight quarters of losses, and you 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.519 can't deny that Snap faces fierce competition in the social 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:23.680 platform space, both from enormous, well established companies like Meta 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.640 and relatively younger juggernauts like TikTok. We have more to 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:33.000 say about both of those companies anyway. Snapstock dropped from 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.920 around eleven dollars fifty cents per share on Tuesday two 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:42.280 below ten dollars per share by Wednesday, although as I 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.400 was writing this episode, there was a little bit of 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.600 a recovery and it was trading at about ten dollars 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.320 thirty six cents per share when I started to record 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:56.960 this episode. Then on Wednesday yesterday, we got Meta's earnings call, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.640 and things went a little differently for Meta than they 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.440 did for Snap. Now. On the news front, it was 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.200 kind of a mixed bag. Meta post declining sales for 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.080 the third quarter in a row and a twenty two 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.960 Q four revenue of thirty two point two billion dollars. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:18.800 That's how much they brought in in revenue at last quarter. However, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:25.960 that was down four point five from but even though 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:30.000 it was down from one, that thirty two point two 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.440 billion dollars in revenue was still higher than what Wall 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.120 Street investors had estimated it was going to be. So 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.960 Meta didn't do as well as last year, but it 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.320 did better than what investors had predicted, and I guess 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.359 that makes all the difference. Now, the company did also 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.919 post a profit of four point seven billion dollars for 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.640 last quarter. That's a heck of a chunk of change. 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.279 It is still below what some analysts expected were some 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:01.720 who are thinking it was going to be as much 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.000 as six billion, But the company also revealed it had 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.800 drastically reduced spending and has cut its estimation for its 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:14.680 three expenses. So originally Meta estimated that it was going 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.719 to spend somewhere between ninety four billion and one billion 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.520 dollars this year. Now the company says no, it's gonna 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.760 be closer to eighty nine billion to nine five billion 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.239 now I've got to admit I cannot wrap my head 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:35.560 around even just one billion dollars, let alone these astronomical amounts, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.920 So it starts to just get conceptual to me. I 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.560 can't I can't really apply any meaning to it. If 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.039 you told me that I was going to lose eighty 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.080 nine billion dollars versus ninety four billion dollars, I'd probably 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.840 be like, that's more than I will ever see in 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.640 my lifetime. So it really doesn't matter between the two. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.520 But for a company like Meta, obviously it does matter, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:04.800 and were over to the investors it does matter. Zuckerberg 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.080 also mentioned that Meta is pushing AI innovation that will 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.160 have a big impact on business in the future, and 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.880 Meta saw growth in its user base. They passed the 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:20.799 two billion daily active users in Q four. That is phenomenal. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.799 Remember for a while, well specific platforms have been seeing 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.720 a decline, and I don't know if they broke it out, 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.880 if this was just Facebook that saw two billion daily 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.720 active users, or if this was across the company. I 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.880 didn't see that in the little earnings report I was reading. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:39.480 I'm sure they did break it out in the call, 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.520 but the article I read did not Zuckerberg also said 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.400 that three will be a year in which Meta focuses 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:51.960 on efficiency that can be code for cost cutting measures, 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.360 including more layoffs. It's definitely going to include a change 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.440 in their data center strategy because Meta has announced it's 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.240 going to cancel a multiple data center projects. In that 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:07.119 earnings call and after hours trading, the company stock price 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.720 increased by twenty percent. So yeah, dramatic difference between Snap. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.800 Snap saw a drop in its stock price, met Us 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.160 saw a big boost after its earnings call, even though 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:24.240 both companies reported disappointing results for the last quarter. It 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:29.000 just shows that people view this very, very differently. Today 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.640 we're gonna get more earnings call reports from Amazon, Alphabet 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.720 and Apple, so I'm sure I will mention a little 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.440 bit of that next week. Now. I did mention TikTok earlier, 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.240 and that has often been cited as one of the 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:47.240 biggest players and biggest competitors in the social platform space, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.320 but it's also been facing increasing scrutiny and criticism from 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.960 various US leaders, including Senator Michael Bennett from Colorado. Bennett's 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.360 sent a letter to Apple and to Google as both 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.520 companies to remove TikTok from their respective app stores. And 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.520 you might wonder why, Well, Bennett wrote, quote TikTok's vast 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.400 influence and aggressive data collection pose a specific threat to 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:18.400 US national security because of its parent companies obligations under 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.000 Chinese law end quote. So what Bennett is referring to 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.400 is a law in China that places obligations on all 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:30.720 Chinese companies and citizens to assist in matters of intelligence 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:35.240 gathering espionage work. In other words, if you have a 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:40.599 way of getting details on one of China's um adversaries, 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.360 maybe rivals other nations, if you want to just be 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.400 really generic, you're supposed to pass that on to the 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.760 Chinese government. And so Bennett's argument is similar to other 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.280 ones we have heard in the past that because TikTok's 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:57.880 parent company, which is Byte Dance, is a Chinese company, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:02.240 and because you have this policy in China, then it 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.760 stands to reason that Bye Dance could use TikTok to 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:11.160 further Chinese intelligence operations, and that perhaps that has already 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.839 been happening. Generally speaking, the government of one country it's 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.959 never too keen to open the doors to another country's 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.440 intelligence operations. That's considered bad if you just open up 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.200 the door and let all the spies come in and 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.240 steal all the info, or at least get a good 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.600 look at it. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been in 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.360 negotiations with TikTok business leaders to try and craft away 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.280 from the company to operate within the US while still 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.000 assuring the US government that it's not funneling tons of 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.920 information to Chinese intelligence and other U s leaders meanwhile 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.280 are proposing or passing legislation that is banning TikTok, at 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.360 least from government owned devices, and I've heard that there 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.520 are a few schools that have done this as well. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.040 So we're not at a point where it's like a 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:02.120 nationwide ban on TikTok full stop, but we're kind of 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.400 dancing close to that. And if you end up, you know, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.000 compelling Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.600 then it's it's not technically a ban on TikTok, but 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.440 if you can't get it, then it amounts to very 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.120 much the same sort of thing. All Right, we're gonna 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:22.839 take a quick break. When we come back, We've got 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:34.520 some more news stories to talk about. We're back, and 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:36.840 I've got a couple of Google related stories to cover. 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.560 One is that a collection of workers whose job is 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:46.160 to rate search results are protesting their pay. So Google 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:50.120 does this where they pay really the contract with another 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.800 company to have people review search results in order to 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:58.319 improve Google's performance over time so that search results become 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:04.319 more relevant and compelling. And Google guarantees its own employees 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.960 and contract workers who are working thirty hours or more 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.120 a minimum wage of fifteen dollars per hour. But the 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.559 folks who are doing this search results rating are technically 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.840 working for another company called Appen Limited, and it contracts 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.680 with Google in order to provide this this work to 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.240 the company, and these contract workers are getting less than 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.480 fifteen dollars per hour. Plus they are frequently finding themselves 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.600 scheduled for less than thirty hours, and that means they 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.040 dip below the cut off where they would receive the 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.800 same benefits of a Google temporary contract or vendor employee 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:47.040 also known as TVC workers. TVC benefits include stuff like 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.280 healthcare and tuition reimbursement. So not only are these contractors 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:55.319 receiving less than the minimum wage of other Google contractors, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.600 they also find themselves ineligible for these Google benefits. Many 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.600 of these workers have traveled to Google HQ in order 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:09.040 to protest this situation. They've received some support from other 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.200 contractors who work with Google, and I hope it all 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.800 works out. But we're also in an economy where companies 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.440 like Google are famously laying off thousands of employees right now, 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.240 so it might be very much an upheld battle. Alphabet, 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.520 Google's parent company, has some AI projects in the works 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.120 that appear to be at least in part a response 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.320 to the rise of chat GPT, So we'll talk more 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.720 about chat GPT later in this episode as well. But 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.360 there's this general concern that chat GPT can make web 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.959 searches moot, you know, irrelevant, at least for a lot 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.840 of different topics. So instead of searching for a web 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.600 page that might be able to answer a question you have, 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.480 you instead just ask something like chat GPT and you 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.079 would get the answer directly. That would be cobbled together 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.760 by all the different sources on the web that this 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.720 particular tool uses, and that would have a massive impact 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.160 on Google because Google depends upon ad revenue in its 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.440 search results for a lot of the overall revenue for 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.679 the company. Reportedly, Google is developing its own chat bot 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.520 called apprentice Bard. It hasn't been released to the public, 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.400 but according to c NBC, Google employees are testing out 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:29.240 apprentice Bard internally. These AI projects don't actually sound like 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.920 they're that new inside Google, but rather now Google is 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:39.199 putting a new emphasis on specific projects, including apprentice Bard, 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.800 potentially as a response to the rise of chat GPT 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:48.120 that that chat GPT represents a potential existential threat for 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.160 Google's business. Now, all of this is interesting, and it's 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.400 also kind of concerning to me in many ways. It's 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.439 a manifestation of the concept of the semantic web. So 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.720 the semantic web I idea was this concept of a 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:06.320 futuristic version of accessing the web where your experience is 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.400 totally unique to you. It's not you going to the 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.160 same web pages as everybody else. Instead, your web browser 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.480 actually learns more about you the more you use it, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.320 and it learns how to gather information and present it 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.440 in a way that grows increasingly more relevant and digestible 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.800 to you as you use it. So ultimately, instead of 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:34.040 using your browser to search topic and then visit specific 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.560 web pages to get an answer, it curates and arranges 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.360 information from across the entire Internet in order to present 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.040 it to you in a way that works best for 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.600 your needs. Now, this is a much less complex level 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.520 of of answering questions with chat GPT, but it is 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.560 a similar idea. It's just not nearly as sophisticated as 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.000 the concept of semantic web is. But it's doing a 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.280 similar thing. It's pulling information from across the web and 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.840 then presenting it to you generatively. It is creating that 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.920 answer as you ask questions, and presumably apprentice bar is 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.360 doing a very similar thing. But this comes with some 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.880 really big potential problems. Uh. One of them is that, 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.320 as I said, Google relies on those digital ad spends 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.720 in search result in order to get revenue. So if 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.920 Google ends up supplying its own alternative to the traditional 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.480 web search, then the company has to figure out a 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:38.120 different way to generate income. Do you serve ads against responses? 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.160 I guess you could do that. I mean, there's nothing 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.600 saying that you couldn't, but I don't know if that 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.160 would end up generating the same kind of revenue that 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:53.120 the traditional ad search ad income does. But even bigger 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.120 than that problem is a wider ranging issue of web 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.360 page owners. So if no one is being listed in 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.280 search results anymore, and there are no more users that 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.560 are clicking on links in order to visit your web page, 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:14.000 then you might see your own ad revenue drop incredibly low. Right, 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.160 Because a lot of websites out there depend upon search 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:21.240 engine traffic to bring visitors in. I mean, there's this 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:26.440 whole area of marketing called search engine optimization that's all 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.480 about getting that that sweet position in search results so 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.680 that more people visit your site. Well, if search results 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.840 just go away because people aren't using search anymore, they're 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.920 asking questions directly to a tool like apprentice bard or 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.480 chat gpt, then they're never going to any of these sites. 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.280 They're not even seeing the links. They don't even know 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.640 where the information they're getting came from, right because chat 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.520 gpt at least doesn't cited sources, So you wouldn't even 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.480 know to go to this specific web page to learn 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.320 more about the thing you just asked. You would just 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.120 keep asking the tool to get you more information and 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.760 to clarify things, which then means that these web pages, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.359 if they get a huge drop in revenue, maybe the 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.080 companies go out of business and then the web pages 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.000 ceased to exist. And if that happens, then tools like chat, GPT, 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.800 and apprentice bard will have fewer and fewer sources to 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.280 pull information from, which means those tools will actually get 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.920 worse over time if all this happens, so it becomes 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:33.680 a really big domino effect. At least that's one potential possibility. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:39.520 That's how I see things possibly evolving if this continues. Now, 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:41.600 there are a lot of people who are way smarter 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.720 than I am who are are presumably working on this, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:46.760 So it may very well be that all of my 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:51.000 concerns are completely unfounded. It's just my first reaction. Two 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.800 learning more about what's going on here, and then one 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.240 more Google story. Actually this is for both Google and Apple. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.520 Both companies are facing renewed pressure from the US government 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.159 to change how they handle their policies around their respective 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:10.520 app stores. The Biden administration has recommended Congress order these 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.239 companies to change. There's those app store policies, and they 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.280 range from things like how Apple and Google typically required 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.919 developers to use their respective in house payment systems. Like 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:27.639 Apple requires that iOS apps if they have in app transactions, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.399 that they have to go through Apple's payment system in 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.920 most cases, and then Apple gets a cut of every transaction. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.960 Similar thing for Google now. Apple in the past has 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.080 sort of complied with this kind of request, and I 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.560 say sort of because Apple's m O was to try 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.840 and make it as inconvenient and as expensive as possible 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.680 for a developer to use an alternative payment system rather 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.640 than use the one that Apple relies upon. And while 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.800 Google has allowed Android users to side load apps, meaning 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.919 that you could go into your Android devices settings and 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.359 you could change some options that would allow you to 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.879 download Android apps that are offered outside of the official 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.440 Google store, Apple has resisted doing that for a very 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.600 long time. But even as Apple has shown moves to 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.920 budge on that front. The argument is that these two 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:27.240 companies are overwhelmingly dominating the app marketplace for mobile and 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.399 the Biden administration argues that there needs to be some 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.000 increased competition and that would be a very good thing. 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.760 Like if other companies could have their own app stores 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.520 where iOS or Android users could go to this alternative 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.760 app store and get innovative apps that aren't covered or 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.960 are carried by either Apple or Google. That would be 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.800 a good thing. It's increased consumer choice. Apple and Google 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.520 both argue that this introduces dangers with malware, which is 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:01.120 true it does um although we've also seen malware creep 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:07.160 its way into official Apple and Google um UH operations, 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.880 so you know that's a thing. There's also the matter 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.399 that Apple in particular has a rather mysterious process for 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:19.080 evaluating and approving apps before allowing them in the App Store, 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.880 and that there is a lack of transparency in how 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.280 Apple does this, and both Google and Apple have faced 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.960 criticism in the past that the companies have promoted their 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.639 own in house apps over those from independent developers who 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.640 have created apps that do something similar to an official 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.720 Apple or Google app. Now, it is important to remember 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.760 that Biden, while he is the President of the United States, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.720 is not allowed to make laws himself. He can't do that. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.560 That is Congress's job. That's why the Biden administration has 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:54.359 sent this recommendation to Congress. And while we've seen some 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.400 proposed legislation from folks like Senator Amy Klobuchar that addressed 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.600 some of these concerns in the past, those proposals never 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.320 actually progressed to the point where leaders put it up 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.440 for a vote. Now that might change. With the President 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.320 weighing in on this. We'll have to see. Okay, we're 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.400 gonna take another quick break. When we come back, I've 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:24.080 got a few more news items to cover. We're back, 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.800 and we're gonna chat about chat GPT a little bit 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.880 more so. Open Ai, which is the company behind chat gpt, 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.920 has now launched chat gpt Plus. It's in a limited 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.760 launch program right now, and this is a subscription service 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:43.080 that charges twenty bucks a month. And seeing as how 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.720 the basic version of chat gpt is free to play with, 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.480 what does that twenty dollars a month actually get you. Well. 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:52.919 According to open a I, subscribers will be able to 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.520 access chat gpt anytime they like, even during times of 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.119 peak demand. Whereas people who are using the free version 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.760 may occasionally encounter a message that tells them the service 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.119 is too busy to accommodate them and they need to 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.520 try again later. Subscribers will not get that message. They 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.760 will be given priority. Subscribers are also supposed to see 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.600 better response time from the app with viewer delay, so 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.480 it's kind of a a new and improved version of 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.080 the service, and in the future, when open ai introduces 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.480 new features, the subscribers are supposed to be the first 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.800 to get a chance to use them. Now, I'm not 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.439 sure if these benefits are going to be worthwhile to 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.840 the average chat GPT user. But the folks who are 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.600 in the field of AI research, or they're in just 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.439 R and D in general, or some developers out there, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.280 I could see this being a justifiable expense. PC World 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.560 reports that despite the fact that PC sales have dropped 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:53.800 drastically in recent months, a m D S CPU and 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:57.920 GPU chips have not dropped in price, And you might 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.440 wonder why is that. If DeMay and has dropped, why 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:06.080 aren't these chips, why are they getting cheaper? Well. In 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.000 an earnings call with investors earlier this week, a m 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.119 D S CEO revealed that it's because the company is 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:16.679 purposefully holding back on shipping more chips to the market. 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:20.719 That they've manufactured lots more chips, but they're just holding 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:24.720 them an inventory and they're really controlling the supply that 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:29.600 gets out two retailers, so they are keeping the supply low. 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:32.760 If a m D doesn't ship the stuff they make, 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.440 then they can try to counteract the drop in demand 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.440 by obviously limiting supply, and apparently the company plans to 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.120 continue this strategy through the beginning of this year, though 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:47.239 reportedly not quite as as strict as they had at 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.840 the end of last year, and it makes good business sense, 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.880 but it is likely to be frustrating to consumers, particularly gamers, 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.879 who are hoping that the decline and cryptocurrency mining and 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.800 the drop in peace SEE sales would mean that they 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:03.560 would finally be able to get their hands on a 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:08.879 great GPU for a great price. Instead, due to several factors, 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:13.320 including in Vidio's most recent generation of GPUs, which underperformed 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:18.280 in the market, last generation hardware is still pretty expensive. 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:22.160 I should also add, it's not as ridiculously expensive as 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:24.760 it was back when folks were still using GPUs to 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:29.000 mine ethereum. Ethereum has since migrated to a proof of 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.720 steak model instead of a proof of work model. Anyway, 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:35.200 with all the various factors that play, it's very difficult 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:37.840 to predict where prices are going to go. So I 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:39.879 guess you'all out there who are looking to buy a 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.320 new CPU or a new GPU really should just keep 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:46.160 your eyes peeled because you never know when companies will 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:49.960 release more inventory in order to drive more sales. Um 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:54.800 It's hard to say, so just be patient, or if 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:58.240 you can't wait, just know that, yeah, this was all 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:01.600 done by design. Last year, Netflix revealed that one of 0:25:01.640 --> 0:25:05.800 its strategies to help deal with some corporate setbacks was 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:09.280 to cut down on account sharing. Netflix has already introduced 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:11.800 away for account holders to add kind of like a 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:15.600 secondary account that they can then share with someone outside 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.960 of their immediate household. They pay a slight increase in 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:22.040 their own monthly subscription fee, but then they can share 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:25.920 an additional account to someone. But how is Netflix actually 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:30.040 going to detect and stop account sharing? Well, according to 0:25:30.040 --> 0:25:35.119 sky News, Netflix plans to associate Netflix accounts with things 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:38.640 like IP addresses and device i d s, So as 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:42.879