WEBVTT - Tech News: Meta is working on an AI to make ads better 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.320 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.319 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.000 are you. It's time for the tech news for Thursday, 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.560 April six, twenty twenty three. Earlier this week, I talked 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.880 about how Germany is considering a ban on open ais 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:35.360 chat GPT out of privacy concerns following Italy's move to 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.199 do just that very thing. Italy has issued essentially a 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.800 ban and Germany's considering the same sort of thing. Well. Today, 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.800 open Ai is scheduled to present Italian regulators a plan 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:52.560 to address their concerns and to essentially patch some vulnerabilities 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.040 in an effort to get that band lifted and perhaps 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.960 prevent a domino effect throughout the rest of the European Union. 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.679 As I mentioned in Tuesday's episode, the concerns here really 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.880 have nothing to do with chat GPT's reliability as an 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:13.120 information source, So this isn't concern about misinformation or anything 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.440 like that, or plagiarism. It's rather how open ai and 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:22.920 Microsoft handle user data and privacy, and it's also meant 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.240 to ensure that underage users are unable to access the tool, 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.600 and again this is a get due to the sensitive 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.600 nature of their personal information. So it's more about how 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:38.000 our companies like open ai and Microsoft getting EU citizen 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.800 information and how are they using it, and they want 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.160 to make sure that all of that is by the 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.960 regulations of the EU. We've known that Meta, the parent 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:51.120 company of Facebook and Instagram, has been working on its 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.680 own AI. The company has already made its large language 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.680 model called LAMA available to academics, and at least one 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.000 of those academics subsequent leaked the code to get hub. Now. 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.400 The financial newspaper Nica Asia reports that Meta is preparing 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:13.840 to launch a commercial AI product using generative language features 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.920 by the end of this year, so something similar to 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:23.280 Google Bard or Chat GPT. This doesn't necessarily mean that 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.480 the average Meta user will have direct interactions with this 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:34.480 generative AI. Rather, one potential use could be totally behind 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:39.120 the scenes, with the AI helping Meta's advertising division to 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:44.240 work with clients to create more effective ad campaigns. Maybe 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.120 you've seen what amounts to be the exact same ad, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.280 but the ad itself is clearly geared for different demographics. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:55.160 I'm reminded of seeing the same commercial in English and Spanish. 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.160 It was the exact same commercial with the same beats 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.000 and everything, but it did have a totally different cast 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.520 for the English version that from the Spanish one. It's 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.080 just that they were both working from the exact same script. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.240 That's the sort of stuff that AI might help with. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.800 It might help craft approaches that it calculates will be 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.560 most effective depending upon the audience. So an AI version 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.560 of this might actually not use the exact same script. 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.360 It might use a different script that the AI has 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:29.240 calculated will be more effective for the intended viewer. Further off, 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.400 a potential use of this AI might come in handy 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.400 for Meta's version of the metaverse. I think this one 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.720 is probably a bit more blue sky as it stands, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:44.240 but the article mentions the use of describing a virtual 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.560 landscape that you have in mind and the AI can 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.920 help craft it for you. So instead of you having 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.680 to go through the trouble of learning how to use 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:59.200 the graphics tools or programming or whatever the UI is 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.680 for that meta space, you just tell the AI what 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:07.000 you want and it makes it kind of like your 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.600 own genie. Of course, that's only gonna matter if anyone 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.920 actually wants to go to the metaverse. We'll chat more 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.000 about that later in this episode. Anyway, it will be 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.520 interesting to see if Meta does indeed launch these or 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:26.240 other commercialized applications involving AI, particularly because the conversation around 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.200 AI has been getting a little bit spicy lately. People 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.240 have started to say we should pump the brakes on AI, 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.960 and I'm wondering, how is that going to impact initiatives 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.680 like this one. It might not. The initial thoughts of 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.800 using it to help with advertising seem like it would 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.680 be less obvious to the average person and therefore might 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.039 slip under the radar and be considered perfectly fine. We'll 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:57.479 have to wait and see. Speaking of Meta and AI, yesterday, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.800 the company showed off its segment Anything model, or sam 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:07.000 This model can apparently identify objects in videos and still images, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.760 even if the model had never been trained on those 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.120 particular objects. I'm not sure how the heck that works, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.960 but that's how Reuters reported it. The Reuters report also 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.240 mentions that there were a few ways to interact with 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.599 the model. So for example, you might have a picture 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:28.159 opened up and you've got the sam AI agent active. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.800 At the same time, you could ask it to outline 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.520 something specific in the picture. So, for example, maybe it's 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.840 a college dorm room and you tell Sam, hey, can 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.400 you outline the pizza in this picture, which, of course, 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:44.719 as we all know, will be stuck to the ceiling 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.280 or whatever. Anyway, Sam would then draw a little rectangle 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.120 around the item in question once it identified it in 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.720 the picture. This technology is in some ways an extension 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.600 of stuff that Meta has been doing for years, like 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.919 identifying specific people in photo. Admittedly, it has been a 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.760 while since I've been on Facebook, but I do remember 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:09.200 uploading images and then immediately seeing suggestions for tagging people 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.479 in my pictures because Facebook was helpfully letting me know 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.880 that it knows what all of my friends look like. Well, 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.880 now Facebook is essentially telling me that it knows what 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:25.400 everything looks like. I bet nothing can go wrong there. Finance, 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.520 the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, continues to be at the 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.360 center of scrutiny. Most recently, the company has shut down 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:38.320 its derivative businesses in Australia after the country essentially revoked 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.880 Binance's financial services license there. Now. This is due to 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:49.120 an ongoing probe in which Binance apparently miscategorized some retail 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:54.960 investors as wholesale investors, and you might be left saying, well, wait, 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.159 so they lost their financial services license over what could 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:03.080 have been a clerical error. Here's the rub. See, Australian 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:09.039 law provides greater protections for retail investors. For the average 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.960 person who's investing, the government protects them more because they 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:18.080 don't have the same resources that a company investor would have. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.120 Right so the government steps in and says the investor 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:26.520 deserves some protection. So the country's regulators are pointing out 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:31.040 that Binance was possibly categorizing investors as wholesale in an 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.560 effort to bypass that higher level of protection. Australians will 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.800 still be able to engage with the exchange, so people 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.640 who have money in crypto and they live in Australia 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.800 will still be able to use Binance for that purpose. However, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.360 Binance will not be allowed to create derivative businesses in 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:55.120 Australia for at least the near term. The collapse of 0:07:55.280 --> 0:08:00.400 FTX continues to have a massive impact beyond the crypt world. 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:04.560 You might remember FTX was the second largest crypto exchange 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.920 before things went pair shaped toward the end of last year, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.360 and one of the things that did early last year 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.840 before everything went totally bonkers, was it established a philanthropic 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:24.880 agency called the FTX Foundation. This foundation would issue grants 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.640 to various applicants for all sorts of stuff. Well, since 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.840 FTX went belly up last year, that funding source has 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.360 been cut off. And worse than that, some folks who 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.040 have received grants are now scrambling to try and pay 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:43.079 that money back before it becomes legally mandated that they 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.200 do so. And as you might imagine, this has had 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.880 a huge impact on various research projects as well as 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.440 independent researchers. This includes students who have since had to 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:59.600 drop out of school because the foundation was funding their 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.600 education and that money is gone. Routers has a whole 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.240 piece about this. It's a pretty sad story if you 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.120 want to read more about it. And it really isn't 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.440 the fault of these researchers and students. It's not the 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.520 fault of the people who receive the grants. It's not 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.840 the fault of the people who gave the grants. The 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.080 group that was put in charge of the FTX Foundation 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.400 appeared to have been sincere in their efforts to help 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:28.680 fund these projects. The problem was that FTX was engaged 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:33.199 in shenanigans. And while you would say the people who 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.720 receive the grants aren't at fault and they should not 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.760 be penalized, you also have to think about the customers 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:44.200 of FTX who saw their investments mishandled and essentially stripped 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.120 away from them, and that they deserve to have as 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.960 much of their money returned to them as they possibly can. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.920 And unfortunately that also means the money that had been 0:09:54.000 --> 0:10:00.880 directed toward foundation efforts. It is an ugly, ugly situation. Well, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:15.000 before things get uglier, let's take a quick break. We're 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:19.480 back the verges. J Peters, who actually wrote a couple 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.199 of articles we'll be talking about today. He has an 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.720 article that argues it might just be the absolute worst 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.840 time for Apple to jump into the mixed reality space, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.439 and I'm inclined to agree. You might remember that everyone 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:38.120 expects Apple to announce its mixed reality headset. It's a 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:43.080 VR slash AR headset, a far cry from the original 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.680 concept of a pair of eyeglasses that were capable of 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:53.040 handling AAR functionality. This is more of your standard, you know, 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:59.120 headset with a full display in front of it. It's yeah, 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.560 it's a rough times Peter's points out the market for 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.640 high end VR headsets isn't exactly taking off like a 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.280 rocket right now, where sales are pretty bad. Whether it's 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.960 Meta's Quest Pro, which originally had the staggering price tag 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.480 of fifteen hundred dollars, which, to be fair, is only 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.760 half of what we expect Apple's headset to cost. Also, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.240 Meta has since slashed that price down to a thousand dollars, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.080 all the way down to Sony's VR setup for the 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.719 PS five. That demand just hasn't pulled through either. It 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.720 hasn't been there. There have been modest sales of lower 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.960 priced VR headsets, but they have been really modest. On 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.920 top of that, CNBC reports that research firm Piper Sanders 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.200 surveyed teens who had VR headsets and found that only 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:55.000 four percent of them would use their headsets daily and 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:00.560 fourteen percent would use them once a week. That's not 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.800 great like those numbers. That's you know, you're talking about 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.560 the people who have already bought a headset and they're 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.640 not using it that frequently. That's that's bad news for 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.880 a lot of companies right now. And worse than that 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.520 is that both of those numbers are taken out of 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.560 the teens who actually have a VR headset, and they 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.559 only make up twenty nine percent of all the teens 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.800 that were surveyed for this research. So the other way 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.079 to think about this is that less than a third 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:35.000 of all the teens surveyed in this project own a 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.960 VR headset. Out of them, only four percent of that 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:44.720 twenty nine percent use it every day. Yikes. I don't 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.760 find this really surprising personally, but that's due to two 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:54.680 really big factors. One is that VR tends to be expensive. 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.120 There are lower cost headsets out there, and some of 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.319 them are pretty good, although you know, you often need 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.000 to have a really decent computer to run the software, 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.280 so even if the headset isn't that expensive, you might 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.320 need an expensive computer to really make the most out 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.760 of it. And you're still talking about hundreds of dollars 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:19.160 or even a cheap headset. And while a team might 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.360 save up for a phone, you know, a lot of 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:26.880 smartphones cost around a thousand dollars. That's really expensive. But 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.680 a phone is something you can carry with you wherever 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.840 you go and you can use it pretty much anytime, 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:38.160 whereas a VR headset is only a sometimes technology. To paraphrase, 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.800 cookie monster. So it's a really big thing to ask 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.280 a consumer to hand over several hundred bucks or more 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.360 for some technology that they're only occasionally going to use. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.440 Despite the efforts of companies like Microsoft and Meta trying 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.000 to convince us that the future is virtual. By the way, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.120 I find it really fascinating that you have companies that 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.360 are pushing for this vision of the future where we're 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.760 going to interact with one another in a virtual realm. Meanwhile, 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.800 those very same companies are requiring employees to come back 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.760 into the office to work there because they don't want 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.960 them to work remotely. That seems like a mixed message 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.200 to me, does it. Not like they're saying, Hey, the 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.080 virtual world, that's gonna be amazing. Everyone's gonna want to 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.400 work there. You're gonna want these devices because it's going 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.760 to make work better, but you need to come into 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.600 the office disconnect there anyway. That's one big factor is 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.720 just the cost of these things. I think that's a 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.960 big barrier to entry. But the other one is content. Now, 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.920 there are some truly great VR experiences out there, but 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:48.200 there's not an overabundance of them. The library for really 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.680 good VR experiences is fairly thin, and this actually creates 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.800 a catch twenty two situation. Developers are not eager to 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.880 jump into creating really good VR experiences because they're not 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.560 likely to make back their investment because the installed base 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.960 for VR is pretty small. But the install base is 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.920 small in part because there's a lack of content, so 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:18.000 this sort of perpetuates itself anyway, long story short, I 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.520 remain skeptical that VR is going to emerge from being 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.800 a niche technology and become a mainstream tech for the 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.520 common consumer, at least in the near term. If it 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.600 does happen, it's going to take a lot more time, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.920 and that's probably going to take even more steam out 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.840 of a lot of metaverse projects that are also connected 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.080 to this concept of VR and AAR. And we've already 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.040 been seeing cutbacks to metaverse divisions as companies look to 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:51.000 control costs. So I think the metaverse quest in general 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.640 is taking a really massive hit right now. Not all 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:59.320 metaverse projects involve VR or AR. A lot of them do, 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.800 but not all of them do, but I think pretty 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.240 much all of them have had the rug pulled out 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.720 from under them. Google has updated its developer policy for Android. 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.360 It will require developers to make it easier for users 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:18.160 to delete all their personal data off the respective apps, companies, services, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.960 should they choose to do so so. Before Google required 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.920 developers to make it possible to delete an account. This 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.440 was a prerequisite for having an app on the Google 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.880 Play Store. So not only could you delete the app 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.680 off your phone, which would remove the app from your phone, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:39.760 but it wouldn't magically delete your account with that app. Developer. 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.920 Now you would be able to actually go and say, hey, 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.760 take out my account entirely, delete the account, delete all 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.480 the information you have on me. That was something Google 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:54.840 had already demanded the developers supply. However, they didn't have 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.520 any rules in place about how developers could implement that policy, 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.040 which meant a oliper could have made it possible, but 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.560 really bloody annoying to delete an account. So you know, 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.040 you can make it a standard practice that if you 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.199 wanted to remove your app, sure you could uninstall it, 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.000 but if you wanted to delete your account, you had 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:18.439 to contact the developer and request a manual deletion, and 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.359 a lot of people just don't go to that step. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.800 Now Google is saying that developers will have to include 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.720 a way for users to initiate account and data deletion 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.000 online or from within the app itself. So that way, 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:35.680 if you find out, say that the recipe app you've 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.480 been using, has been secretly selling your information to China, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.160 you could hit self destruct on your account and your 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:47.880 data while also uninstalling the app, and hopefully that's exactly 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.360 what would then happen. It's a good step toward consumer protection, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.080 but it is unclear how Google plans to actually enforce 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.480 these policies and to make sure that developers actually follow 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.440 the rules. I mean, you might have a button that 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.760 says delete my account, and the developer says your account 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.800 has been deleted, and nothing actually happened. So how does 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.679 Google make certain that the developer is following through on 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.800 the policy. Hopefully this will get sorted out and it 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.879 doesn't just become something that Google can point to and say, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:19.920 but we told them it's against the rules, so it's 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.679 not our fault. You can tell that I don't have 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.479 a whole lot of faith in this kind of stuff. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.840 Earlier I mentioned an article by j Peters of The 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:30.440 Virgin I said he was going to come up again, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.200 and here it is. Mister Peters has been a busy 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.960 Little Bee this week. Yesterday The Verge published a piece 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:42.080 written by Peters about his experiences at fashion week. I mean, 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:47.359 to be more specific, Metaverse fashion Week held at decentra 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.600 Land and if you want a scathing indictment of the 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:56.000 metaverse concept in general and decentral Lands history in particular, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.639 you have got to watch the video. The future is 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:04.120 a ed mole Decentraland and the Metaverse by Folding Ideas. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.480 I've recommended the Folding Ideas channel before. He did a 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:12.080 really fascinating piece about NFTs. He's talked about the crypto world. 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.959 It's funny because he started off really being a channel 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.879 that analyzed it, dived into deep analysis of film and 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:25.800 television and narratives, and now he's tackling everything and his 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:31.840 work is truly it's phenomenal. At Peter's of The Verge, 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.960 he also mentions this specific video in his own coverage, 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.840 and his experience and the video from Folding Ideas both 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.240 paint a fairly bleak or at least bland image of 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.200 the metaverse, rather than a virtual world teeming with cool 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.560 avatars doing six stunts while daft punk is playing in 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.439 the background. It sounds like most of the experience is 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:59.080 pretty empty, like there are virtual landmarks and stuff, but 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:03.239 not that many people populating it, and the avatars you 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.760 do see can often just be standing idle. Maybe they're 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.520 logged in just for the purposes of being logged in, 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:13.520 possibly to accrue some sort of credit in the process, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.200 kind of like those time wasting games that you have 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.879 where you make a turn and then it says you 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.240 have to wait five minutes for your next turn. Maybe 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.000 that's kind of what's happening. Peter says that the Metaverse 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.639 Fashion Week quote felt kind of like a County fair 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.679 end quote with its layout, so you could actually wander 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.720 from booth to booth and check things out. Peter said 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.200 most of the spaces weren't very interesting, and the bits 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.840 that were meant to be interactive frequently didn't work well, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.919 if at all, so it could be a frustrating experience. 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:52.159 And yeah, you could look at virtual fashion and potentially 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:56.920 even purchase some with in world currency so that your 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:03.120 avatar could wear a bespoke virtual fur code or something, 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.760 but it wasn't you know, it didn't come across as 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:07.960 a ringing endorsement of the Metaverse in general, or at 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.920 least decentral Lands version of it. Folding Ideas found similar 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.639 issues when exploring decentral Land in general, including issues with 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.399 collision detection, which made it all but impossible to you know, 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.320 like climb a staircase to go to our virtual building's 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.280 second floor or you know, first floor if you happen 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.359 to be in England or something. Peter said the only 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.399 time he really saw users interacting with one another was 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.640 at the closing party for Fashion Week, when quote dozens 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.760 of avatars grooved on a virtual dance floor as a 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.480 video of a human DJ played on a big screen. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.760 End quote. Based on Peters's article and the Folding Ideas video, 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.439 which again Peter's also references in the article, the current 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.480 incarnation of the Metaverse, or at least decentral Lands version 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:59.200 of the Metaverse, is pretty boring. Decentral Land, by the way, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.080 is one of the groups that has abandoned plans to 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:07.600 incorporate VR into its version of the Metaverse, So instead 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.840 of going with a virtual reality approach, which is sort 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.960 of what Meta has been hinting at, they're looking at 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:19.359 going with the third person avatar approach, similar to what 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.400 you would see in a massively multiplayer online role playing game. 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:28.240 So maybe it's unfair to say that the metaverse is 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:32.320 kind of pointless and boring. Maybe you could argue we're 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.280 still a year or two out from being able to 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:38.320 see stuff that's really compelling beyond narrow use cases. That's 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.800 entirely possible. But even if that is the case, there 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:43.960 is a lot of work that has to be done 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.840 to make the metaverse something interesting enough for me to 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.520 want to check it out beyond say, you know, checking 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.800 out a curiosity. Like if one of my favorite bands 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:56.760 was going to do a virtual concert, I might check 0:22:56.800 --> 0:22:59.640 that out because I like the band and I might 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:03.639 be enjoy being able to hear them play a set, 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:06.520 even though I wouldn't actually be there in person. I 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:09.840 might check that out. But I can't imagine going to 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:14.760 the metaverse just to go and that. Until that changes, 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.440 I think the metaverse is kind of at a non 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:21.080 starter for me. Okay, we got a few more stories 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:23.360 to cover before we get to that. Let's take one 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:36.800 more break. We're back. Vietnam has joined the list of 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:41.760 countries currently investigating TikTok So. In this case, Vietnam's government 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.760 says that this investigation is to ensure that TikTok is 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:48.600 complying with laws and regulations, and also that you know, 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.920 it's paying its proper taxes. Plus there are some concerns 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:58.639 about content, with government official Lee Kuangtudo saying quote the 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.320 platform needs to aid by local regulations on both content 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:06.880 and tax obligations end quote. And also that some content 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:13.000 on TikTok was quote toxic, offensive, false, and superstitious end quote, 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:18.200 which yeah, I mean that's true, But then there's also 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:20.480 a lot of that kind of stuff on pretty much 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:24.040 every single platform that allows for user generated content on it. 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:26.880 But I do get it. TikTok is built in such 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:31.959 a way that bad content can go viral awfully fast, 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:35.119 and next thing you know, people are watching videos that 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:39.119 convince them to try stupid, dangerous stuff, or they're watching 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.040 videos that contain blatant lies that are being passed off 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:44.800 as fact. And if you trust TikTok more than you 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:49.480 know a credible source, you're bound to get into trouble. Previously, 0:24:49.560 --> 0:24:53.640 upon the request of Vietnam's government, TikTok removed one point 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:57.080 seven million videos off the platform. This was just toward 0:24:57.119 --> 0:24:59.440 the end of last year. So we'll see if there's 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:01.760 going to be a similar purge. In the wake of 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:06.040 this new investigation, Toyota appears to be ready to dive 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:11.520 into electric vehicle development with real fervor after years of 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:15.359 resisting it. According to Reuters, the company has long leaned 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:20.400 on alternatives to pure electric vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles 0:25:20.400 --> 0:25:26.199 and hybrids. The general perception in the car world that 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:29.439 I have picked up on is that Toyota's really dragged 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:32.359 its feet when it comes to electric vehicles and really 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:37.040 tried to push hard for different approaches. But after a 0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:42.000 massive change in leadership, including a new CEO, the company 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:46.800 now appears to be repositioning to focus seriously on electric vehicles. 0:25:47.440 --> 0:25:49.680 Whether or not Toyota can make up for a lost 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:54.040 time remains to be seen. The company is definitely behind 0:25:54.119 --> 0:25:58.080 its competitors when it comes to creating the infrastructure needed 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:03.000 to build electric vehicles apidly at scale, but better late 0:26:03.000 --> 0:26:10.000 than never. Sometimes international law enforcement activities get badass mission names. 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:14.320 Such is the case with a recent operation that seized 0:26:14.520 --> 0:26:18.960