WEBVTT - Tech News: Tesla - The Good, The Bad, and the On Fire 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.640 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.360 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:27.520 tech news for Tuesday, August three one, and we've got 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:29.400 a ton of it, So this might be a slightly 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.200 longer news episode than I usually do. And we're gonna 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.199 start off I'm not burying the lead. I've titled this 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.680 Tesla The Good, the Bad, and the on Fire. We're 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.120 gonna get right to it with a trio of Tesla 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.599 stories and we're gonna start off with the first one 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:52.599 being a positive story involving Tesla autopilot. Now, we typically 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.920 hear about autopilot when something goes wrong, sometimes tragically wrong, 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.640 but this is different. In Norway, a Tesla owner was 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.319 driving their car apparently well under the influence of alcohol. 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.080 Now that bit is awful. It never should have happened. Obviously, 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.920 no one should ever drive under the influence, but that's 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.319 what was going on with this case, apparently, and the 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.360 driver allegedly passed out behind the wheel of their car. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.680 And obviously this could have led to tragedy, but the 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:31.679 Testla system. The autopilot system detected that the driver was unresponsive, 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.720 and it thus went into what it was supposed to do, 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.440 so at that point, the system kept the car traveling 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.000 smoothly within the lanes of the road until it could 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.120 come to a safe spot on the side of the 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.200 road and come to a stop. The driver was later 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.360 found unconscious behind the wheel of the vehicle and received 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.560 medical treatment. That driver also denied two authorities that they 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.720 had been operating the vehicle while intoxicated, but that story 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.480 was somewhat undermined by the fact that other motor had 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.440 apparently captured video of this driver unconscious behind the wheel 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:09.519 of the car. The authorities subsequently put a temporary suspension 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.679 on that driver's license and filed a criminal complaint against them. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.200 So this is a case of Tesla's autopilot, which I 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.440 should remind you is not technically a fully self driving system, 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.760 but rather a driving assist system that was working just 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.399 as it was intended. The autopilot checks for driver responsiveness 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.120 to make sure that you are attentive and that you 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:38.160 are prepared to take over driving, and in cases where 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.560 that isn't happening, it will prompt the driver to take 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.240 control of the vehicle, essentially alerting you so that like 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.440 if you dozed off, you wake up and you can 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:48.880 put your hands in the wheel and that way you 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.040 can't just you know, engage the autopilot system and read 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.520 a book or go to sleep or watch the next 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.440 episode of ted Lasso or whatever. You have to be 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.280 an active driver, and if you ignore the alerts, then 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.400 the car does what we saw in this case, it 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.119 will come to a stop on the side of the road. So, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.040 thanks to autopilot, a possible catastrophic car wreck did not happen. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.920 Though again, we do need to remember we're still a 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:18.120 long way away from a fully autonomous consumer vehicle, and 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.240 if we need another reminder, we can move on to 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:26.080 our next story about Tesla. This one's also about autopilot, 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.040 but it's less good. It's not terrible, it's just not good. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.800 And this story actually comes from last week, but I 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.440 only just saw it today, so I thought I would 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.920 include it in our Tesla trio of news stories. A 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:44.760 Twitter user named Jordans Nelson posted a video that showed 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:49.640 that the Tesla they were in mistakenly identified the moon 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.120 as a yellow traffic light, and thus the autopilot system 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.040 was that was guiding the car, told the car to 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.200 slow down in anticipation of a red light, that there 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.600 will be a red light, so let's slow down. This 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.760 can happen on any stretch of road in which the 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.240 car is facing a low yellow moon, even if you 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.440 happen to be, say on a highway. You could see 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.240 how that could be something of an issue if you 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.320 were engaging autopilot at that time. And in this case, 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:23.320 the autopilot mode was actually Tesla's full self driving feature FSD. 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.120 That's what Tesla calls it, which I would argue is 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.760 another somewhat confusing name. I've often said I don't like 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.240 the name autopilot. I think it gives the wrong implication 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.160 as to what that system actually does. Well, I feel 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.400 the same about the full self driving feature because Tesla 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.520 has fully admitted that none of its vehicles qualifies being 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.880 truly autonomous vehicles, and so even in FSD mode, the 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.240 vehicle needs to operate under human supervision. So yeah, that 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.360 name doesn't really work. But then I guess calling it 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.040 almost full self driving doesn't have quite the same ring 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.880 to it. Now, that moon issue that Jordan Nelson ran 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.240 into is not likely to happen all the time. Obviously, 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.720 it would only happen if the moon were particularly yellowish 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.719 that night and low in the sky enough so that 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.039 it would look kind of like the height of a 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.240 traffic light. The car would obviously have to be facing 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.520 that direction as well. But this does illustrate how the 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.360 challenges of developing autonomous cars can include stuff that we 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:32.000 humans just wouldn't take into account. Right, humans wouldn't mistake 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.360 a yellow moon for a yellow traffic light. Of course, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.080 in the future, we might have some infrastructure like traffic 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.680 lights that maybe contained a little transmitter that can communicate 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.600 directly with compatible vehicles, and thus cars on the road 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.040 would quote unquote no if a light were about to change, 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.839 because they'd be in communication with the infrastructure. However, if 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.480 that is ever to happen, it's pretty darn far off. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.160 Because here's the thing. While that technology isn't necessarily that 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.560 complicated or futuristic, it's something that we could probably do today. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.880 The scale of rolling it out practically of actually installing 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.440 it would be enormous even for just a single city, 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.480 let alone the entire world. But a feller can dream 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.680 canny and now our third Tesla story rounding them out. 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:27.280 Last Friday, Tesla had a true disaster on its figurative hands. 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.920 A Tesla Mega Pact battery, which is a thirteen ton 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:36.920 lithium battery, caught fire. Now, the Mega Pac is meant 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:42.320 to store electricity for utility scale projects. Like imagine you've 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.240 got some sort of huge work site and you need 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.120 to supply electricity there. Or maybe you've got, you know, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.560 some form of electrical generation facility and you need a 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.040 place to store excess electricity. That's sort of the kind 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.560 of thing we're talking about. This isn't a car battery 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.719 or anything like that. It's order of magnitude larger than that. Anyway, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.479 one of these things caught fire on Friday in Australia 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.560 and it took four days, thirty fire trucks and one 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:15.560 hundred fifty firefighters to extinguish that fire. Now, if you 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.640 remember back when Samsung had issues with the Samsung Galaxy 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:26.320 Note seven battery which exploded in several different instances, you 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.360 remember how that issue was incredibly serious. Right, the reaction 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.840 is violent, it's it can be deadly. Uh, it also 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.280 can release a lot of toxic fumes, and that threat 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.920 was serious enough to prompt airlines to prevent passengers from 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.840 carrying a Note seven on board the aircraft. They were 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.320 essentially told they had to hand in their phones and 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.720 which would not be allowed on the plane, or they 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.200 themselves would not be allowed to get on the flight. Well, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.000 this is kind of like that, only instead of being 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:03.000 a battery that fits inside handheld smartphone, it's a thirteen 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:09.000 ton monstrosity. The battery itself was inside a shipping container, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.360 which was likely a good thing because it probably helped 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.160 prevent the fire from spreading to other megapact batteries at 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:20.040 that site, because if there's anything worse than one thirteen 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.320 ton battery catching on fire, it's a bunch of them 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:28.720 doing it. Australian authorities say the fire was brought under 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:33.640 control on Monday, so that's a good thing. But yeah, 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.880 it's a scary story and a reminder that batteries with 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.559 volatile components are a bit dangerous. If the battery should 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.200 be damaged in a way that the path for the 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.199 electrons to travel from the negative terminal to the positive 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.840 terminal opens up, you know, without having to be connected 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.360 to some sort of circuit, well then the battery is 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.440 going to discharge rapidly, right, the electrons are just going 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.400 to rush from one part of the battery to another. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.040 This will end up causing the battery to start to 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.320 heat and then overheat, and that can lead to issues 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.480 like a fire or explosion. Now I'm not certain if 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.120 that's what led to the fire in this particular case, 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.839 but just based on how batteries work, I figure it's 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:18.320 a decent bet. Right. If you create a shortcut or 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.760 a short circuit between terminals, then this is the sort 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.120 of thing that can happen. Moving on from Tesla, a 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.640 cybersecurity firm called threat Fabric reports that the company's researchers 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.680 have found instances of Android apps downloaded from the Google 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.280 Play Store that are attempting to steal banking log in information. 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.240 This malware, which the firm has called Volter, which is 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.640 like Vulture but without E at the end, essentially takes 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.040 a screenshot when someone uses a bank app to log in. 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.440 So you launch your bank application and the malware notices this. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.480 It attacts the data entry form format and it uses 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.439 the screenshot coupled with a key logger, so a program 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.360 that records key strokes in order to get the user 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:10.200 name and password uh for whatever that that application is, 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.000 and as I said, it's mainly banking applications. Then the 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.080 malware uses the phone itself to send that data off 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.040 to whichever computer the hackers are using to gather log 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.280 in information. The researchers found that most instances of this 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.319 did seem to target banking information, but some were also 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:33.199 apparently logging stuff like social media account logins and so 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.520 far and looks at this malware is mainly concentrated in 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:42.720 Europe and Australia. The Cybersecurity company suggests that Android users 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.200 install anti virus apps to try and detect if you 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.440 happen to have any malware on your phone, because it 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.600 can be a little tricky to figure it out if 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.360 it's on there just by yourself until it's too late. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.240 I would also recommend having a really good password vault 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.760 that allows you to have a secure place to store 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:08.160 passwords where it can automatically insert the password into whichever 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.320 you know log inform you need, which means there are 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.520 no key strokes for it to log right if it's 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:19.640 an automated process where you need a master password to 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.480 log into your account, or if it has biometrics like 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.040 an ice scan or something that can be more secure, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.800 assuming that obviously they're not key logging your password account, 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.800 which could be devastating. If they add access to all 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:36.760 your passwords, that's even worse. So I think that a 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.520 password vault and anti virus app is those are two 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.880 good things to have on an Android phone. Um keeping 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.640 in mind nowhere can also affect iOS devices. It's just 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.480 that with Google it has been more of an issue 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.720 more frequently, partly because the Android operating system is on 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.079 way more phones around the world than iOS is, so 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.560 it's a target rich environment. We have lots more stories 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.520 to go, but before we get to any of those, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:15.640 let's take a quick break. I got a question for you, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.720 dear listener. This is back into the news, and my 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.520 question to you is how much are your biometrics worth 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.160 to you? How much would a company need to pay 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.920 you in order to, say, register your fingerprints or your 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.880 retinal scan or maybe a palm print. If your answer 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.760 is ten bucks, well I have some great news for you, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.320 at least if you happen to live somewhere close to 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.240 one of Amazon's checkout free stores. So the company is 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.800 offering a ten dollar credit to customers who allow their 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.400 palms to be scanned by the company and then linked 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.640 to their Amazon accounts, and the idea being that then 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.320 the customers could walk into one of these Amazon stores, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.560 they pick up whatever it is they want, and as 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.640 they're leaving, they just scan their palm and that links 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:08.200 to their Amazon account and payment is automatically transferred to Amazon. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.200 And that's it. That's the payment. You just, you know, 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.400 you Jedi style, waive your palm and say these are 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.000 the eight apples I'm looking for or whatever, and you 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.120 can go on your married little way. Uh. As you 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.359 might imagine, this move has prompted a rather divisive response, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:27.600 and there are some people who just shrug their shoulders 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.240 and say, this is just tech creating a convenient method 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.520 for transactions, and that's kind of cool. And I like 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.120 the idea of being able to do this without having 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.440 to fumble for a credit card or put in some 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:43.040 sort of code for a transaction. This makes it even 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.959 more convenient and futuristic. It isn't the future awesome. Then 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:47.800 there are some people who take kind of a middle 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.319 ground approach and they say, well, yeah, it's more convenient, 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.680 but it's also another way for Amazon to tie purchases 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.920 to a specific person. I would argue that the company 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.760 could pretty much do it anyway, because presumably all purchases 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.520 would be linked to an Amazon account in the first place. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:07.960 Though I guess you could have a household has a 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.520 shared Amazon account and thus you can't really target the 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:16.280 specific person in that case. So anyway, by linking purchases 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.760 to an individual, Amazon could potentially target ads more precisely 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.600 to that person. And then it gets to be a 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:27.480 little kind of big Brother creepy invasive. And then you 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.640 have the more extreme privacy advocates. And I use extreme 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.000 not to you know, downplay them, but rather just to 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.200 say they take privacy far more seriously than most people do. 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.200 They are obviously deeply concerned as Amazon has had a 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:48.080 pretty shaky record with biometrics, including facial recognition technology, and 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.320 that that that ten dollar credit makes it sound like 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.840 the company is paying people to, in the words of 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:58.800 Albert fox Cohn, a privacy advocate, sell their bodies. That 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.920 doesn't sound great. Con also pointed out that with many 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.200 aspects of your life, you can make changes if you 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.280 need to get like a fresh start. Let's say something 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.680 terrible happens. You know, maybe you made a terrible mistake 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.160 and then you had to go to jail for it. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.720 Maybe you were, you know, mistakenly identified for something. Maybe 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.400 you just maybe you just need to start over because 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:28.560 of your life experiences. So you could move across country, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.240 you could change your name, legally, you could try and 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.280 start out fresh, but biometrics stick with you and could 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.520 potentially link you back to a time that you would 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.200 rather leave behind. And I figure that I am actually 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.640 falling somewhere in that middle camp where I'm not sold 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.840 on the convenience over privacy feature, but I'm also not 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:55.040 quite so dystopian in my mindset as some privacy advocates are. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.720 And I want to just point out again that that's 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.200 just me, and that could be a failing on my heart. 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.760 I might be giving this far too much credit, and 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.960 that maybe I do need to be as paranoid or 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.760 as passionate is probably a better word for as some 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.480 of these privacy advocates are. So I'm not saying they're wrong. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.240 I'm just saying that's not where I'm at at the moment. 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.120 Moving on, the United States Air Force, specifically, the Special 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.360 Operations Command commissioned a study from the RAND Corporation to 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.600 look into the issue of disinformation campaigns online. As Popular 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:37.080 Science reports, disinformation is a deliberate attempt to mislead a target, 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.160 like a target audience, by feeding that target a false 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:47.200 narrative of some sort, so it is purposeful. Misinformation is 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.640 something that could be passed on by accident. You know, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:54.280 maybe you omit certain facts and not necessarily on purpose, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.120 or maybe you just get something wrong in the communication 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.160 of it and it becomes misinformation, whereas disinformation is done 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:06.359 on purpose with the intent to mislead. Well. The report 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.640 gives a pretty dismal assessment of the U. S government's 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:16.040 response to disinformation campaigns, calling it dubiously effective and fractured 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.879 and uncoordinated. So the takeaway is that the entities behind 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:26.000 these disinformation campaigns, such as various Russian operatives and Russian 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.080 troll farms, they tend to be at least they tend 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.399 to operate in a way that that makes them seem 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:37.879 highly organized and accurate in their targeting, whereas the response 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.200 to these attacks is slipshod and inconsistent. The report also 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.400 found something that I think a lot of people are 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.679 probably at least you know, unconsciously aware of which is 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:53.520 that these disinformation campaigns don't necessarily invent issues out of 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.560 whole cloth. It's not like they create a story and 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.960 push it out there and just hope it takes hold. Instead, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:05.240 they usually leverage existing gaps that are in philosophies within 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.000 the United States, and then they exacerbate those gaps. So, 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.760 for example, before the pandemic even happened, there was already 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.720 a community of people who were distrustful of vaccines, the 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.240 anti vaxers. And they're not just in the United States, obviously, 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:25.520 there are anti vaxers everywhere. And much of that initial 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:30.160 distrust here in the United States hinged upon published works 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:35.080 in respected journals. But later those works got retracted because 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.040 people discovered that the actual results that were reported had 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:45.440 been falsified, that the papers that had been published themselves 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:52.280 were disinformation. And yet that distrust remained, you know, the 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.199 distrust towards vaccinations remained within that community, even though the 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:01.359 supposed evidence that supported that narrative had been proven to 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.159 be false. Like, they had already bought into the idea 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.480 and it didn't matter that the foundation for that idea 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:13.479 turned out to be false. Well, disinformation campaigns pounced on 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:17.840 that existing undercurrent of anti vax fear and fed into it, 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:22.000 creating doubts about the COVID Night teen vaccines, spreading fear 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:26.720 and uncertainty and doubt. The Good Old Food Brand evaluated 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.360 the Air Forces very young fourteen F Information Operations Division, 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.880 something that has really just recently come into its own. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.040 In fact, the first trainees of that division graduated very 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.639 late last year. And according to Rand, that division is 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.200 a good idea, it's a nice step. However, the people 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.880 and it still lacked the training to really recognize and 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.000 react to modern disinformation campaigns, and they also lack the 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.080 resources needed to make any sort of real difference. In fact, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.879 they were saying they might identify disin fformation campaign, but 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.639 they don't have the resources to actually, you know, act 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.280 on that and to make aware all the other divisions 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:14.320 to be able to counteract those disinformation campaigns. So you 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.960 would just have a division saying, yeah, we know about it, 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.440 but we can't really do anything about it. That's not great. 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.440 And while that assessment was specifically aimed at the Air 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.800 Force and disinformation campaigns that could impact say, military operations, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.800 I'm pretty confident to say the same as true across 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.920 the board for disinformation campaigns in general, we are as 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:40.640 a rule sorely underprepared and under provisioned to deal with them. 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.399 And that's why they can be incredibly effective because we 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.760 don't have the resources to deal with them, and people 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:52.240 who buy into these disinformation campaigns can become evangelists and 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.879 effectively they become unwitting agents of the disinformation campaign itself 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.120 and spread it further. Disinformation really in itself is like 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.359 a virus, and there is no real vaccine for it 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:09.280 apart from critical thinking skills, so as always I advocate 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:15.880 to you to exercise critical thinking and compassion. Moving on, 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.280 ours Technica has a great article titled big tech companies 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.399 are at war with employees over remote work, and it 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.600 touches on things that we've talked about in other tech 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:29.560 news episodes, like how Apple's CEO Tim Cook would really 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.680 very much like to get all Apple employees back into 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.120 Apple offices for at least three days a week soon, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.840 like in September, so that you know that super high 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:44.000 tech and incredibly expensive Apple campus isn't left empty all 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:48.320 the time. Cook's memo to employees feels a bit out 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.000 of touch to me and honestly, not just to me. 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.679 The Verge reported that an employee survey revealed that the 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.000 vast majority of Apple employees felt the memo was out 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.080 of touch. But Cook isn't the only tech leader pushing 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.719 to get folks back into offices. Google had plans to 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:10.360 do the same, as did Lift and other big tech companies. 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.600 The Delta variant of COVID has changed things, delaying those 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.880 plans in several cases. But as the RS Technica piece 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.080 points out, the pandemic may have simply rushed what was 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.440 an already growing movement within the corporate world in general, 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.719 the tech world in particular, that for at least several 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:32.600 types of jobs, remote work is totally feasible and just 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.560 as effective, sometimes more effective than going to the office, 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.639 And for people working for companies in the Bay Area, 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.880 it opened up the possibility of relocating to a part 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:46.880 of the country that isn't as insanely expensive to live 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.080 in as the Bay Area. So the idea of getting 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.680 a Bay Area tech salary but living in a place 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.720 with a lower cost of living is really attractive to 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.359 a lot of people. And plus you take out the 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.000 commuting and the other aspects of living in an expensive city, 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:05.560 and you start to see a lot of pros and 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.960 only a very few cons. Heck, there's also this general 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:12.680 move in the corporate world to the open floor plan. 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:15.360 I don't know about any of y'all who have worked 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:17.520 in offices with open plans, but I can tell you 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:20.920 that in my office it is not a popular thing, 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.280 at least not among the editorial team. It turns out 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:27.280 editors and writers like having a bit of space that 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:29.119 kind of shuts out the world around them so they 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:31.520 can focus on their jobs. I suspect a lot of 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.720 other people feel the same way on their jobs. So 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:39.440 there's this escalating tension between companies pushing to get back 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:43.800 to this corporate norm that feels a bit oppressive and 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:46.640 a bit you know again, big brother ish, like, like 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:50.840 they only feel comfortable if they can see what everyone's 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:53.639 doing all the time. And then you have the folks 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:55.960 who would really rather work remotely if it's all the 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:58.920 same to you. And for some companies that does seem 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:02.000 to have sunk in. At Twitter, the remote work policy 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.159 has effectively become at least semi permanent, setting Twitter apart 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:09.000 from some of the other big tech companies. It's also 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:11.440 kind of funny to see these tech companies that base 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:15.320 part of their reputations on innovation as being beholden to 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:19.640 this older idea of what work should be. Anyway, as 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:23.239 Samuel Acson of Ours Technica points out, we're likely at 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.360 the beginning of a pretty big shift in work cultures 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.240 in general and in the tech sector in particular. I've 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:32.560 got a few more tech stories to come up, but 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:42.600 before we get into that, let's take another quick break. Now, 0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:45.240 if you've been listening to my tech news episodes, you 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:49.120 might remember one that I talked about last month, I think, 0:24:49.200 --> 0:24:52.080 in which the video game publisher Electronic Arts was hit 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:55.080 with a hacker intrusion in which the hackers were able 0:24:55.119 --> 0:24:59.240 to steal a good amount of digital information. Um. By 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:02.320 a good amount, I mean nearly a terrabyte of data, 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:06.920 like more than seven fifty gigabytes of information, and that included, 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:09.920 as it turns out, the source code for the company's 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:13.600 FIFA twenty one soccer game or football if you prefer. 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:17.439