WEBVTT - Tech News: Faking the Deepfakes 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.880 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.840 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.480 are you. It's time for the tech news for Tuesday, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:28.600 May ninth, twenty twenty three, and we begin, as is 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:33.040 our custom, with some AI related stories, but it's a 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.120 little bit different this time around. So first up, the 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.320 Wall Street Journal has an article titled chat gpt Fever 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:46.120 has investors pouring billions into AI startups no business plan required. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.720 If you've been around for a while, that headline's going 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.400 to sound really familiar to you because you've seen the 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.520 same darned thing happen before. I mean, it happened in 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.959 the nineties with webs startup companies as investors flooded fledgeling 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.600 companies with more money than they knew what to do with, 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.680 and a lot of those companies didn't have any kind 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.759 of business plan that would allow them to actually work 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:12.800 in the long run, and a lot of those companies 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.360 collapsed a year or two later and all that money 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.240 went away. The dot com bubble was brutal. It happened 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.800 again in two thousand and eight, with the real estate crisis, 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.080 banks were issuing loans to folks who really couldn't afford 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.080 to pay those loans back, and then banks were selling 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.720 that debt to other institutions that were buying debt in 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.440 order to try and make even more money. It all 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.880 collapsed on itself to disastrous effect. It happened with cryptocurrency 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.080 and blockchain companies that really flared up with NFTs. We 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.800 saw it happening with the metaverse as well. So pretty 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.200 much anytime there's an interesting technological innovation that emerges, folks 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.200 will get hit by fomo super hard. But fomo is 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.840 a fear of missing out in case you didn't know, 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.480 and they don't want to be the person on the 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.120 block who can't afford to move into a mansion because 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.920 they didn't go and pour their life savings into some startup. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.880 We all want to be the investor who got into 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.280 Apple just before Steve Jobs came back and took the 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.960 company to the stratosphere. Or we want to be one 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.720 of the people who put money into Google when it 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.800 was just a startup working out of a garage. But 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.280 this behavior ends up being self destructive and destructive in general, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.640 even assuming that the people behind an AI centric company 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.160 are on the up and up, there's no guarantee that 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.639 their idea is going to be practical or monetizable in 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.280 the long run. Then there are all the opportunists who 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.760 see a chance to make a killing by presenting a 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.880 cool sounding idea without having any intention of seeing it through. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.240 They might promise the moon and stars because they see 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.400 that there are a lot of suckers out there with 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.000 a ton of money to invest, and they're excited about 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.440 the prospect of an AI company. It is a perfect 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.440 storm for parting a fool with their money. In other words, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.560 now that's not to say that every AI company out 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.400 there is a bad idea or a scam. I'm sure 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:09.720 there are a lot of great ideas too that are 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.440 built on a foundation of a solid business plan. But 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.760 we're also rushing toward a time where regulators around the 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.200 world are starting to square off against AI. Now I 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.880 am no financial advisor, and goodness knows, I have got 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.280 a terrible track record at predicting whether something is going 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.440 to be a hit or not. I would just suggest 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.600 that before anyone invests serious money into any startup, they 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:39.200 use some critical thinking and careful consideration before paying out 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:44.240 a mountain of cash. Today, IBM launched an AI platform 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.320 called Watson X. Now you might remember that Watson is 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.440 IBM's AI platform that famously competed on the game show 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:57.640 Jeopardy way back in twenty eleven. For IBM, that exhibition 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.120 was really a whole lot of advertising for Watson, and 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.760 the company was hoping that other companies would come up 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.720 with cool business ideas that would require AI, and since 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:12.400 AI was really really hard to do well, those companies 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.960 would hire on IBM and pay to use Watson as 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.680 the foundation for their idea rather than have to build 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.320 everything from the ground up. But this was more than 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.159 a decade ago, and it was mad expensive to pay 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.520 for that kind of computing power. But now that we're 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.640 starting to see insane amounts of investment pour into AI, well, 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.719 IBM sees that the iron is hot, so it's time 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.400 to strike. So again, Watson X is meant as an 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.120 enterprise product, So it's meant for companies that want to 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.440 leverage AI to do something, maybe even something that will 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.640 end up eliminating jobs for people like you know, programmers, 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.000 for example, and then they will lean on a IBM 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.760 to provide the horse power while they take advantage of 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.840 the capabilities to do whatever it is they plan to do. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.720 That's the basic concept behind watson x. NPR's Shannon Bond 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.600 has an article titled people are trying to claim real 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.680 videos are deep fakes. The courts are not amused, and 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.000 the headline gives you a strong hint at the contents 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.039 of that article. The article's great, by the way, you 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.400 should definitely read the whole thing. I think we can 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.080 all recognize the potential for deep fakes to cause a 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.480 person real harm. So imagine that a video pops up 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.479 online that makes it look like you were part of 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.000 some illegal activity that you had nothing to do with, 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.280 or that you were doing something you personally object to. 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.560 You have been robbed of your agency. Someone has effectively 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.560 forced you, or at least an image of you, to 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.400 do something that you wouldn't do. That's a violation and 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.640 it could do you serious harm. Imagine that your employer 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.400 sees a video of you appearing to deface property or 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.800 to take part in some violent act. It doesn't take 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:58.600 long before you start to come up with all sorts 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.680 of scenarios that are ugly and harmful, but then there's 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.279 the other side of the deep fake coin. Imagine someone 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.880 who was legitimately caught on camera actually doing something illegal 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.400 or unethical or immoral, and imagine that that person tries 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.119 to weasel out of accountability by claiming that the video 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.200 is in fact a deep fake. That's not me, that's 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.919 computer generated. When deep fakes get so good that we 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.520 can't tell their deep fakes, the sword cuts both ways. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.080 Bobby Chesney and Danielle Cetron coined the phrase the liar's 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.680 dividend to describe this situation, one in which a person 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.800 can deny responsibility for their actions that were caught on 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.440 video by claiming it was faked footage. The NPR article 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.279 cites a case in which lawyers for a certain Elon 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.680 Musk claimed that a recorded statement made by Musk was 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.720 actually a deep fake. The judge was not having it. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.320 In fact, she said that to accept the claim that 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.920 the audio was not real would effectively say legal precedent 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.880 that would let Musk say whatever he wants to, no 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.000 matter what the consequences might be, and then fall back 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.159 on claims that it was all just generated by AI 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.640 in order to avoid accountability. I imagine such a precedent 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.320 would be gleefully adopted by countless public figures. It really 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.640 helps them fight against these so called cancel culture. The 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.800 play to foist blame on deep fakes so far has 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.240 not been successful in court, as the headline of the 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.800 article suggests, and there are companies that develop tools that 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.960 look for tiny indications that a video was actually faked. 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.880 So it's not like deep fake technology is perfect and 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.480 that it can go undetected. But that's how things are 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.640 right now. There's no telling if or when we'll get 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.160 to a point when the fakes are indistinguishable from the 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.240 real thing, and we may see court systems adopt practices 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.880 that require anyone using a deep fake defense to provide 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.960 proof of their claim. However, the article also points out 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:01.720 that the opposite effect could end up happening with that approach. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:06.760 Right so, instead of proving that something isn't fake, the 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.560 increase in the costs and time on part of prosecution 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.640 to provide evidence that, yeah, this is a real video, 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.960 it's not fake. That could mean that the prosecution never 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.560 submits the video in the first place because of the 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.400 defense can say no, that's fake. You have to prove 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.800 it's true, and the cost of proving it's true is 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.880 super expensive. Prosecution might say, you know, we can't submit 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.080 that as evidence because we don't have the money to 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.040 pay to prove that it's that it's real. And so 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.640 it could be that the requirement to provide proof, you know, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.920 ironically prevents anyone from submitting video evidence in the first place. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.480 And really it just means that we're heading toward a 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:57.040 future where people can't trust reality, which is terrifying. Sam 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.600 Bateman Freed aka SBF aka the founder of the cryptocurrency 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.520 exchange FTX, you know, the one that went belly up 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.720 late last year, says it's all been fun and stuff, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.960 but maybe the courts could just like toss out the 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.000 charges against him. Not all of the charges, mind you, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.760 but you know, ten out of the thirteen. So if 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.600 you don't remember what happened, here's the super fast version. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.600 SBF had two cryptocurrency companies that he co founded. One 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.200 was Alameda Research that's an investment fund or it was 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.679 an investment fund that would take investor dollars and then 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.760 put them into various crypto companies. The other one was FTX, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.800 which was an exchange where you could exchange one type 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.280 of currency for some other type of currency. Someone leaked 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.360 an internal document that showed that Alameda had secretly been 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:49.439 funneling money belonging to FTX customers in order to pay 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.040 off Alameda investors, and they were essentially counting on the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.200 fact that the FTX community would keep enough of their 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.800 cash inside FTX to cover the transfer, the idea being that, Okay, 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.360 when we make the money back, we can cover this. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.079 But when news got out that this was happening, there 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.160 was essentially a run on the bank and everyone started 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.600 to try and pull their money out of FTX, and 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.360 it all came tumbling down. The FED stepped in and 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.760 seized assets in an attempt to get as much money 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.920 back for customers as possible, and folks like SBF were 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.960 on the hook for committing lots and lots of crimes. Now, 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:27.079 SBF is saying that prosecutors unfairly targeted him and that 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:31.440 FTX wasn't the only cryptocurrency to collapse last year. It's 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.000 not like it was an outlier. So essentially SBF's lawyers 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:39.160 are saying because other companies failed, ftx's failure wasn't special 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.640 and thus did not warrant the speed and ferocity of 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:47.240 prosecution that it got, except that some of SBF's compatriots 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.480 have already pleaded guilty to charge as a fraud. And 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.400 also it sounds like it's kind of too coke reasoning. 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.280 Like you also the idea being, hey, because this person 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.679 did a crime, that means my crime's not as bad. No, 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.040 it just means that two people have comit a crime. Anyway, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.520 the document showing the transfer of funds that came out 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.160 before FTX collapsed, I think that's a big problem. I mean, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.240 I'm not a legal expert. Maybe it's not a big problem. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.640 I would just assume that when you have a document 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.720 that indicates that something hinky is going on and then 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.079 the company goes under, that does warrant a closer look. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.559 So there may be aspects to SBF's claims that I 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.360 am completely missing, or maybe even some of his lawyer's 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:37.200 complaints against prosecutors and government officials are accurate. But for 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.640 the moment, I remained skeptical that this ploy is going 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.040 to work. Sticking with crypto, yesterday, the cryptocurrency exchange called 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.000 Bittrex Incorporated filed for bankruptcy protection. So just under a 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.400 month ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.640 alleged that Bittrex was acting as an unregistered securities exchange. 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.320 Following that accusation, the company shut down operations in the 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:06.560 United States. So Bittrix Incorporated is the US arm of 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.160 this crypto exchange. This is not unusual. There are a 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:15.040 lot of crypto companies that maintain a separate entity, specifically 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.960 for the United States. You can also see ftx's former 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.640 chief rival, Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange. It does this too. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:29.720 And while Beatrix Incorporated appears to be going under Bittrix Global, 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.160 the part of the company that sees business everywhere besides 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.480 the United States, has no future like that in store 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.600 for it. It's, still, according to the founders, going strong. 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.240 So the US branch says it still has its customer 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.679 funds in its possession and it's requesting a time during 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.800 bankruptcy proceedings to allow customers to retrieve their money before 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.600 it becomes a big part of this messy bankruptcy proceeding. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.000 Investigations into Bittrex indicate that perhaps something hinky was going 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.320 going on, and perhaps there was an effort to cover 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:08.079 up said hinkiness. Though the company has denied any such hincosity. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.880 It did agree to pay twenty nine million dollars in 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.120 fines to the Treasury Department relating to stuff like money 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.480 laundering and sidestepping international sanctions against other countries. So you 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.680 know that's totally different. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.920 and when we come back, I'm gonna talk about ads 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:38.360 a little bit. We're back, okay, and I know, in fact, 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.200 if there's just one thing I know, it's that people 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.560 do not like ads. They tell me that all the 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.360 time regarding my show. Also, just quick moment of me 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.120 being real with all of y'all. So I work for 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:54.560 a really big media company, right, Folks, way higher up 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.559 on the ladder than I am, decide how many ads 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.440 get served on shows like mine. I don't get to 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.360 make that decision. That decision is made and I have 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.200 to abide by it. Now, those ads pay the bills 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.920 and they keep shows like this one going, so they 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.200 do serve a purpose. Just No, I'm not the person 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:14.960 sitting in the big old chair pet and the kitty 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.360 cat while laughing maniacally. It's one of my bosses. I 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:23.520 won't say which one or ones. Anyway, The Verge reports 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.640 that Google is inserting more ads into Gmail now. Previously, 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.320 Google inserted ads into the top sections of the promotions 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.480 and social inbox tabs, you know, the ones that you 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.840 hardly ever check. In fact, I never checked those unless 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.080 I was expecting something and I couldn't find it in 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.160 my inbox, so then I looked to see if maybe 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.360 it got shuffled into one of those tabs. Now Google 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.960 is testing the ads in other places, such as in 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.440 the updates filter. So this filter creates a view of 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.160 your email that shows messages that you know give you 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.000 updates about stuff. So let's say you ordered a product 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.680 and you did it online and you just want to 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.880 see where in the delivery process it is what was 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.880 the last update. You might use the update filter that 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:09.840 kind of weed up all the other stuff in order 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:14.280 to find this specific update more efficiently. Well, if you 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.280 are in the test group, then when you use that filter, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:23.240 it would also show you ads incorporated within the results 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.560 of this filter, presumably ads for stuff that's not necessarily 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.200 related to your actual updates. And as I'm sure you 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:33.400 can imagine, Google users who have seen this as part 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.040 of the test are not super happy about this change. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.800 Some users shared screenshots that showed the ads appeared in 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.480 between valid email messages, so you'd have like an email, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.680 an email, and email, an AD that looks like an email, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.880 but it's labeled AD if you looked off to the side, 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.160 and then more emails, so it's like filtered into it 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.920 as opposed to all gathered at the top, which is, 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.800 you know, kind of how Google had in doing things 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:02.680 where all the ads were at the top. You would 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:04.160 scroll past the ads and you would get to the 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.800 actual content. Now they're being interspersed, so that also is 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.720 something people are objecting to, and in fact, it's something 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:16.600 that podcasters subject to too. A lot of podcasters like myself, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.360 we want to have a clear delineation between the episode 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.240 and the ad breaks, and so that's why before every 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.640 ad break, I say we're going to take a quick break, 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.760 because I want to make sure that it's clear we're 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.320 transitioning into ads and it's not like some bait and switch. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.200 So Google's doing something that the rest of us figured 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:41.280 out is not good and ends up undermining trust, but 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.640 they're doing it anyway, at least in this test. Whether 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.720 this gets rolled out to the general public, we have 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.400 to wait and see. But I will say, if Google 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.200 sees that it's making them more money, I think it 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.120 would be unrealistic to expect them to just back off 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.440 of it. So we'll see now. At the same time, 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.640 Microsoft is effectively turning to Google to say hold my beer. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.240 So tech Radar reports that Microsoft appears to be pushing 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.360 more ads into the Windows eleven experience now as it stands, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.080 when you open up the start menu on Windows eleven, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.359 you can see a display of ads for other Microsoft services, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:21.960 typically stuff like cloud storage or access to other Microsoft 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:26.080 suites of programs. So it's not just that it's an 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.159 operating system, it's also serving as an advertising platform for 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:33.640 other Microsoft products. Tech Radars Darren Allen says we might 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:38.600 see something similar roll out into the Settings app within Windows, 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:40.399 so like if you ever have to go into Windows 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.359 to change settings for something, you might end up seeing 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.320 ads for Microsoft services in there as well. A Twitter 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.320 user with the handle at the book is closed they 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.520 also go by Alba Core shared some images that were 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.199 said to be screenshots of the setting's homepage in a 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.360 test build of Windows eleven, and sure enough, there are 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.800 more ads for Microsoft products, specifically the image that Albacore 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.600 shared had an ad for Microsoft three sixty five embedded 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.639 in the Settings home view. It appears that the price 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:19.840 you pay for using Microsoft Windows computers is a persistent 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.320 barrage of notices urging you to, you know, buy more 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:27.920 Microsoft products and services. Now, I should add this has 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.840 not been rolled out to Windows users in general. In fact, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.480 it's not even been confirmed to be real yet when 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.560 I was recording this. But assuming that there are beta 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.479 testers out there who are encountering these kinds of things, 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.840 we can only hope that they push back against this practice. 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:49.040 If nothing else, it's really not doing Microsoft any favors 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:53.600 because various regulators around the world are scrutinizing the company 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:58.560 over matters of anti competitiveness. And if you're integrating ads 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:03.560 for your own products into your own operating system, that 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.880 feels to me like it could be treading dangerously close 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:13.080 to territory that regulators would latch onto and say you 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.600 are using an unfair advantage here because you have a 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.679 dominant position in the operating system market. For you to 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.240 be using that to advertise your own services, but say 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.400 not anyone else's is potentially anti competitive. I'm not saying 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.359 that regulators are necessarily going to clamp on down to that. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.560 But like, it just surprises me that Microsoft would even 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.159 pursue this based upon the pushback the company has received 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.720 recently around the world. You know, when everyone's giving you 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.320 side eye, maybe you should cool it for a little bit. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.560 Here in the United States, the Department of Defense is 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:52.080 seeking a way to fund new tech projects without first 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:57.359 gaining congressional approval. Now that notice gave me a knee 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.800 jerk reaction of WHOA, that's not good. But then I 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.440 read it and I started to get a deeper appreciation 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.720 beyond the surface level reaction. So the way things normally 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:14.160 work is that the Pentagon identifies a technological need for 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.280 matters of defense. Right they figure out, we need this 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:22.439 program in order to stay current and to give the 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.440 nation the best security possible. And the need then has 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.280 to be presented to lawmakers for approval before it can 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.760 move forward and then get funding. And then there's the 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.120 actual round of securing funding for the new project. It's 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.560 to incorporate it into the budget and to be able 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.480 to actually pay to have this tech project put into action. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.280 This whole process of approval and budgeting can take a 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:55.080 really long time. The concern is that as time passes, 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:59.000 while you're just waiting to get started, adversaries are rushing 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.919 ahead with their own because they're relying on less oversight, 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.240 or they have a streamline process, or they're being run 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.760 by the military, so they just approve everything without having 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.399 to go to anyone else. And so the proposal is 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.680 for a three hundred million dollar allowance within the DoD 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.200 to use to fund new projects without first getting Congressional 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.920 approval for them. Now, these projects do have to hit 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.680 several criteria in order to merit a share of that 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.080 three hundred million dollars. They have to be new projects. 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.760 Any existing project requires the old budgeting approach, that three 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.080 hundred million comes out the overall budget for the Department 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.720 of Defense. So this is not like a three hundred 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.600 million dollar check handed out by Congress. Congress is saying you, 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.959 or the proposal is saying Congress would allow the Department 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.600 of Defense to carve out three hundred million dollars within 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:57.000 its budget to serve for this purpose, where in return 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.359 for not having to seek Congressional approval, this one hundred 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.800 million can be used to fund various stuff, and any 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.399 project leader would have to get a sign off from 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.840 the Secretary of Defense first before the project would move forward. 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.600 The Secretary of Defense would have to determine that waiting 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:16.680 for the normal budget cycle would result in being too 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.919 far behind that that would be a dangerous thing. So 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.600 there are a lot of boxes that have to be 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:29.200 checked marked before this proposal would even be a thing now. 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.199 As I said, my first reaction upon reading the headline 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.560 was to be nervous, because I'm not a fan of 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:40.919 military organizations having less governmental oversight. But on the flip side, 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:44.920 it is undeniable that the pace of technology is way 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.840 way faster than the political system, which moves at a 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:54.000 more glacial speed. And it's not like there's no oversight 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.840 at all. Nor is it like giving the DoD a 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.480 blank check to do whatever they want with it, and 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.119 the next you know, you've got robot soldiers. So as 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:08.320 the proposal stands, I'm cautiously in favor of it, but 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:11.560 I'm also old enough to be ready to regret saying that. 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:16.200 Further down the line. Okay, we've got a few more 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:18.720 news stories to get to, but it's time for us 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.359 to take another quick break and we'll be right back. 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.480 So we're back. Ours Technica has a great piece that's 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:39.320 titled white House challenges hackers to break top AI models 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:43.880 at def Con thirty one. So def Con is a 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:48.520 hacker and cybersecurity conference. It's the type of event where 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.639 you don't want to bring a personal laptop or smartphone 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.480 with you. Now burn our phones only please. It's a 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.159 place where folks have created all sorts of device is 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:02.560 meant to siphon information from all types of sources, so 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:06.600 we're talking things like RFID readers and NFC sensors and 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:10.920 sniffers and other stuff as well. It is not unusual 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:14.639 for the US government or for various companies to issue 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:18.120 a challenge to attendees in an effort to find security 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:22.560 vulnerabilities and thus get the chance to patch those vulnerabilities 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:25.920 early on before someone figures out a way to exploit 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:29.040 them in like a zero day attack. And as we 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.720