WEBVTT - Tech News: Google Warns Employees Not to Use AI Chatbots (Including Google's) 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.479 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:16.040 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.840 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.720 are you. It's time for the tech news for Thursday, 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.599 June fifteenth, twenty twenty three, and first up, Google leadership 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:31.040 have reportedly warned employees against using chatbots to do stuff like, 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.920 you know, organize information that could include sensitive or proprietary data, 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:42.959 and that also includes Google's own chat bot Bard. And 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.159 you might think that that's a bit concerning that a 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.040 company that has developed an AI chatbot and is actively 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.640 marketing that chat bot to business customers has now warned 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.400 its own staff against using such tools in the first place, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.600 for everything from organized information to developing code. And I 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.240 also think that's concerning. Google's messaging has been that the 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.479 company wishes to remain transparent that it acknowledges that these 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.920 tools are far from perfect. Not only can they generate 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.080 responses that are unreliable through AI hallucinations, they also have 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.800 the potential to incorporate any information that you submit to them. So, 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.400 in other words, if you're using an AI chatbot to 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.600 help you create a presentation meant for an internal meeting, 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.800 and that data includes stuff that's not meant for public consumption. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.960 It's possible the chatbot could essentially absorb that data and 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.840 who knows, maybe populate some future response with information you 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.520 provided to it to someone else, perhaps a competitor. We've 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.480 already seen how an unintentional error could compromise information you 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.200 shared with a chatbot. Chat GPT famously had a glitch 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.320 in which users were able to see past conversations that 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:02.960 other people had had with chat gpt. Interestingly, Google does 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.520 offer a version of BARD to commercial customers that, for 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.280 a price, will keep conversations strictly on the DL that 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.920 is barred, won't incorporate data entered into such interactions into 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.919 the larger public database of information. I think the story 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:23.000 really reinforces the fact that Google rushed into the AI 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.320 space and felt pressured by the launch of chat GPT, 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.320 and that the company had not intended to go to 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:34.280 market so soon with BARD. But that's already known. But 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.480 the fear is that tools like chat GPT could potentially 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.440 spell disaster for traditional web searches, and so to Google, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:46.280 the emergence of generative AI represented an existential threat. With 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.280 Google's business so heavily dependent upon ad search, a hit 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.080 to the search business would be potentially devastating, and so 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.919 the company barreled into launching its own AI chatbot. Whether 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.920 this ultimately keeps Google's business safe remains to be seen, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.639 but based upon the company's warning to its own employees, 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.320 I'm not confident that it's the best tech to push 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.080 out worldwide. I guess Google's former motto don't be evil 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.119 is now do as I say, not as I do. 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:23.480 Vira Jarova, the VP of the European Commission's Office of 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.680 Values and Transparency, is calling for EU legislators to update 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.120 the Code of Practice on Disinformation to include new rules 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.240 about generative AI. She is calling for tech companies in 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.840 the space to create guidelines and rules that will protect 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:45.520 EU citizens against misinformation and disinformation created by AI, and 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:50.040 that could include things like labeling when content was generated 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.120 by AI in the first place. According to pcgamer dot com, 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.400 she was asked if the new rules would have a 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:01.560 negative impact on the freedom of expression. To that replied quote, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.120 I don't see any right of machines to freedom of 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:10.120 expression end quote. That's an interesting point, saying that well, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.760 machines don't have that right. They're not people. The EU 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.279 is also a region where in the past advocates have 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.560 argued that they should consider if robots have a right 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.360 to personhood. And I know robots and AI chatbots are 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.400 different things, but they start to bleed together awful quickly, 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.200 so it might sound a bit premature to hold conversations 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.839 about whether or not robots should be treated as people. 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.960 To be clear, we are a very long way away 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.880 from machines that have a sense of self. But part 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:47.479 of this call for such consideration was to help lay 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.040 out clear rules as to whom should be held responsible 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:56.440 if a machine operating under artificial intelligence causes harm either 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.840 to people or property. Should the manufacturer be responsible in 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:06.440 that effect? Should programmers the end user? These are big questions, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.320 and they are relevant in a world where we have 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.200 stuff like vehicles that are operating at some level of autonomy. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.840 If there's an accident, who whom should be held responsible? 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.960 But back to Jarova's point, She believes that the Code 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.800 of Disinformation needs updates, specifically to adjust the threat of 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:28.560 generative AI, and that any restrictions on that communication can't 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.919 be considered a violation of free speech. I'm not sure 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.080 that argument would actually fly here in the United States, 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.560 not because there's a strong legal basis to provide freedom 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.400 of speech to machines, there's not, but because such speech 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:47.000 could be seen as an extension of a corporation's communications, 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.400 namely the company responsible for creating the AI in the 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.040 first place. And as I'm sure most of you all know, 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.360 here in the United States, corporations are legally considered to 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.400 be people, complete with the right to expression. So it 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.839 will be interesting to see where this goes from here, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.680 whether it will progress in the EU, and how companies 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.000 and the government in the United States might end up 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:15.360 shifting as kind of a result of that. Now Here 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.960 in the US, there is a bipartisan effort to alter 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:23.000 a different law to make exceptions for generative AI. This 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.800 time we're talking about the infamous Section two thirty. Now, 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.159 generally speaking, this law limits the liability of web based 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.680 platforms for the stuff that their users are posting to 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.200 those platforms. So, in other words, because of Section two thirty, 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.839 if someone were to post illegal material on Facebook, Meta 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.479 would not be held responsible for hosting that information. Now, 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.920 this rule has its own limitations. Platforms are supposed to 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.160 take reasonable steps to address illegal material, And there are 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.080 further questions as to what role the platforms actually play 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:03.640 in disseminating information, including misinformation and illegal material, because obviously 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.560 these platforms have their own recommendation algorithms, So there are 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:13.440 questions about, well, if a platform is promoting something, then 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.560 doesn't that mean the platform is at least partly accountable 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.320 for it. But generally speaking, platforms enjoy a great deal 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.040 of legal protection regarding the stuff that people post to them, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.480 which has vexed both sides of the political aisle here 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.800 in the United States for very different philosophical reasons. Now, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:38.560 Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Josh Holly have proposed a 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.120 bill that would essentially say content from generative AI exists 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.080 outside the protections of Section two thirty. So if this 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.080 bill were to become law, there would be a legal 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.240 foundation to bring lawsuits against platforms that allow harmful generative 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.400 AI content on them that includes stuff like deep fake 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:03.360 videos or a I impersonations of people's voices. So if 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.840 this did become law, and someone uploaded a deep fake 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.480 video that appears to show you committing illegal or awful acts, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.560 you would have the legal foundation to bring a lawsuit 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.920 against not just the person responsible for creating the deep fake, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.320 but against say Meta for allowing it on the Facebook 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.600 platform in the first place. I imagine the various platforms 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.440 out there will have a lot of objections to this proposal. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.600 Most of them have limited, if any, involvement with actual 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.719 generative AI as it stands. And it also raises the 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:41.480 question of what makes AI generated harmful material different from 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.840 harmful material created by a person. Right if Meta can't 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:51.679 be held responsible because Jimbo posted illegal material, but it 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.760 can be held responsible if Jimbo bought posted the illegal material, 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.679 what's the reasoning behind that? Why is one allowed and 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.800 one not? Or why is one protected in one not? Now, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.120 I suppose one major difference you could argue is that 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.560 you could create a whole lot of harmful material using 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.000 AI a whole lot faster than if you went you know, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:20.000 the more bespoke malicious content route. This content was handcrafted 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.760 to be evil. Anyway, this is still in the bill phase. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.920 It will have to move through a lot of different 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.920 steps if it ever is to become law. There's no 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:34.560 guarantee that that will happen. But it is interesting that 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.760 it's a bipartisan proposal. Do you need a get rich 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.240 quick scheme? Well, how about creating an AI centric company? 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.200 The Financial Times reported on a new startup in the 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.800 EU called Misstral, which is like a month old. And 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.240 you might wonder what is Mistral or right now? It's 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.720 a company that has about a dozen staff and no product. 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.400 It's also a company that received more than one hundred 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.280 million dollars in C funding over the last month. So 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.680 you've got yourself a small staff, you have nothing to sell. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.600 What could possibly make this company worth that much of 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.800 an early investment. Well, Mistral's goal is to produce its 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.480 own large language model. That means it would be in 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.960 competition with the likes of companies like Google and open Ai, 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.559 among many others. And it shows how the AI gold 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.319 rush is still going strong, that lots of people are 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.160 betting big on AI having a huge impact moving forward. 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.240 For that to extend to investing in small startups early on, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.520 when you've already got established players like Google and open 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.200 Ai out there is pretty remarkable. And the investors are 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.000 folks who are heavy hitters, including a former Google CEO 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.520 namely Eric Schmidt. Now I should add that's not like 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.720 Mistral has just a bunch of folks who don't know 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.600 what they're doing. It's not like a bunch of people 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:54.320 who said we're going to make some AI and they 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.760 have no background. That's not true. In fact, the CTO 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.640 for the company is Tim Lacroix, who cut his teeth 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.800 over at deep Mind. That is the AI focused subsidiary 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.600 of Alphabet, which, in case you've forgotten, is Google's parent company. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.800 So I suppose that knowing the expertise of the team 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.720 in place goes a long way with raising expectations among 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.440 investors and gives them the confidence to pour that kind 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.600 of huge money into a small company that doesn't have 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.800 anything to show for it so far. All right, We've 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:29.640 got some more news items we're going to cover in 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:42.319 this episode, but first let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.240 So tech Crunch reports that Twitter's offices in Boulder, Colorado 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.280 are headed toward eviction. The Chicago based company that owns 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.160 the office space sought approval to evict Twitter after the 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.360 company failed to pay three months worth of rent. In fact, 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.480 according to tech Crunch, Twitter was using a letter of 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.280 credit worth nearly a million dollars with this landlord and 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.040 simply was drawing upon that letter of credit to cover 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.160 the rent month after month until the credit ran out 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.920 back in March of this year. Now a judge has 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.360 ordered the Sheriff's office to assist in the eviction before 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.120 the end of July. We've heard time and again that 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.160 part of Twitter's cost saving strategy was, you know, to 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.240 just stop paying vendors and rent and stuff. I'm sure 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.760 this move didn't come as a complete surprise to the 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:30.960 company when they were told that their offices were going 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.000 to get evicted. I'm also pretty sure that after all 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.200 the rounds of layoffs, there probably aren't that many Twitter 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.760 employees left in Boulder to begin with. But it's another 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.720 ugly chapter in the post Elon Musk takeover Twitter story. 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:49.920 The United States Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, previously approved 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.679 a label law that applies to broadband service providers. Now, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.120 this law is meant to make the various elements of 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.120 a customer's bill more transparent, so that consumers can actually 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.400 see what they're really paying for, like how much of 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.920 the bill is going to cover the base service versus 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:13.080 government fees versus you know, weird service fees that don't 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.960 seem to cover anything other than boosting up the bill. 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:22.319 And Comcast, a ginormous broadband service provider that also owns 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.040 lots of other stuff, including NBC Universal, has filed a 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.760 request to drop some of the requirements of the labeling, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.000 stating that quote two aspects of the Commission's order impose 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:38.920 significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.840 broadband label requirements end quote. Now I'm not sure that 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.320 arguing that your fees are so complicated that explaining them 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.640 is a hardship is the right way to go, but anyway, 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.880 the purpose of the rules is to make it harder 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.280 for broadband providers to offuskate how much consumers will actually 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.600 pay when they sign up for service. So the argument 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.440 goes that providers will often run promotions that will make 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.240 it seem as if customers will pay relatively low monthly bills, 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.360 but then when it actually comes time to pay the bill, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.840 the customer will see all sorts of different fees piled 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:18.360 on top of their basic service, which inflates the amount significantly. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.320 So the rules are meant to force providers to be 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.880 more upfront about such things, and Comcast is essentially saying 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.840 this is too hard now to be somewhat fair to Comcast, 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.640 some of the rules do get pretty involved. For example, 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.320 providers have to keep a record of when they provide 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:42.320 labels to customers through quote unquote alternate sale channels, and 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.240 that can include stuff like if you were to have 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:49.600 an interaction with someone at a kiosk like a Comcast 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.880 kiosk in a mall, or if you were to call 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.000 up a customer service rep and you were to ask 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.920 to be told the label over the phone. All of 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.280 those would count as an alternate sales channel, and Comcast 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.040 is supposed to keep a record of every single one 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.840 of those. And Comcast argues that the company has millions 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.040 of interactions with customers and potential customers, and recording every 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.640 single time that a Comcast employee communicates the label information 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.920 to a customer would rapidly become very difficult to manage. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.600 And you know what, I think that's probably true. But 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.200 at the same time, the FCC wants to hold these 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.200 companies accountable, and part of that is keeping track of 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.880 when they're following the rules and when they fail to 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.000 do so. So I'm not sure there's an easy solution here. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:38.000 I do think that more transparency is absolutely needed because 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.000 a lot of those fees, if I'm being honest, same 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.119 a bit sus if you're asking me. San Francisco, California, 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.080 has become the first city in the United States to 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.080 have more than half of its car sales to be 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.760 either in electric or hybrid vehicle categories. Now, technically the 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.560 city hit that benchmark in March. April sales figures showed 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.880 that even and there was even more of a tendency 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.000 for car shoppers to go electric or hybrid. And that's 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.400 particularly good news for Tesla because about half of all 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.280 those vehicles actually came from Tesla, So about a quarter 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.320 of all car sales in San Francisco or Tesla vehicles. 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.840 That's incredible. Now, this doesn't necessarily mark a trend for 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.920 the larger United States. For one thing, you do have 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.560 states like Wyoming that have obstinately introduced legislation that would 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.480 actually phase out new electric vehicle sales, which was just 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.120 a response of being told that they should phase out 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.760 internal combustion engine vehicle sales. I should also add that 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:43.120 those states have very small populations, so ultimately they don't 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:44.760 have a whole lot of say in the matter, because 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.119 the automotive industry is going to respond to the majority, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.920 not the minority. So you know, it doesn't make sense 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.720 to produce internal combustion engine vehicles if it's only the 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.200 state of Wyoming that's buying them. But anyway, another reason 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.480 why this isn't necessarily a trend across the entire country 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:08.320 is that electric vehicles are still more expensive than other vehicles, 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.040 and the people who buy them typically are on the 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.679 affluent side, and that is a large part of the 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:16.960 population of San Francisco. Obviously, there are a lot of 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.919 people living in San Francisco who are not affluent, but 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.399 it has a larger affluent population than a lot of 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.240 other cities do, and so we're not likely to see 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.119 a huge shift toward electric vehicles just because San Francisco 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.880 did it. But it still has become the first US 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.199 city where more than half of the cars purchased in 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.399 a month went to electric or hybrid vehicles. Finally, a 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.440 rear admiral for the country of Iran recently showed off 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.280 what was claimed to be a quantum processor. It was 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.880 a circuit board with lots of chips installed on it. 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.000 There was like a circular array of chips. It looked, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.360 you know, circuit boardy, but if you know anything about 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.600 quantum computers, you would probably think, well, that can't be right, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.680 and you would have been correct. The circuit board, while 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.600 admittedly kind of nifty looking, turned out to be nothing 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.520 more than a z board Zinc seven thousand development board. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.120 So it's a system on a chip or an SoC 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.480 and it's meant for developers to use, you know, develop 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:19.160 applications and software and stuff. It is not a quantum processor. 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.320 It's a classic computer processor or system on a chip. 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.200 And it's not even that powerful either. It has five 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.360 hundred and twelve megabytes of dd R three RAM. Now 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.440 note I said megabytes, not gigabytes, as a dual core 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.080 arm Core tex A nine processor, so it's not the 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.560 kind of equipment you would need to keep cubits in 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:43.560 superposition as you run incredibly complicated quantum algorithms through the system. Now, 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:47.280 I'm not sure if the Iranian government or the Iranian 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.879 military was behind this as kind of a way of 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.600 posturing and making claims that they don't actually you know, 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.120 they can't back up, or if perhaps the authorities had 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:02.160 been hoodwinked by some snake oil salespeople who passed off 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.600 this development board as a quantum processor and said, yeah, yeah, sure, 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.600 sure it's quantum now cough over the dough Mac. Because 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.920 there's a history of tech scam artists in the Middle 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.480 East passing off substandard or outright fake technology as if 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.520 it were the real thing, so it's hard to say. Now. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.159 Before I go on Monday, we will be publishing an 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.480 episode of IBM Smart Talks in the feed, so you'll 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.640 see that as opposed to a normal tech Stuff episode. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.560 And yeah, that's about it for that. We'll be having 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.720 more Smart Talks episodes, publishing about once a month moving forward, 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.600 and everything else is all Jonathan all the time. So 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.720 I hope you are all well and I'll know I'll 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:58.280 talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:03.800 iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.119 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.