WEBVTT - Tech News: AI Makes Headlines in Early 2023 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.880 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.680 Jonathan Strickland. I'mond executive producer with I Heart Radio. And 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.240 how the tech are you? This time for the tech 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.960 news for Tuesday, January two thousand twenty three. As I 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.080 mentioned last week, c e S recently happened. That's the 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.519 big consumer tech trade show that takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.760 And while I did not go this year, I did 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.000 read up on some of the stuff shown off and 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.200 thought i'd give just a quick glimpse at a few 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.360 things that caught my eye. And first up is a 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.960 nineties seven inch television because of course it caught my 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.840 eye because it blocks everything else that you could be 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:01.200 looking at that is enormous. The TV comes from l 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.040 G and it's an O LED television and nineties seven 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.120 oh LED TV. It also comes in a wireless version 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.000 where you can connect the television to your various components 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.360 without you know, having wires go everywhere. Now, I have 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.720 no idea how much that wireless version will cost if 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:24.120 it does actually become a true consumer product as opposed 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.840 to you know, kind of a concept or proof, you know, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.280 a prototype or something. But the wired version the TV 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.560 is said to come out and around twenty five thousand dollars. 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.399 It's outside of my price range for sure. Still. I 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.600 can actually remember going to c E S back when 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.200 the largest oh LED screens you'd see were like eight inches, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.600 when they were just kind of showing off what oh 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.080 Led could do, Like there was no such thing as 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:55.760 an no LED t V at that point. They had 0:01:55.800 --> 0:02:00.280 little displays sometimes like bendable displays, but they were tie need. 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.960 So this is really an enormous leap from where the 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.600 technology was when I first started going to c e S. 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.359 Samsung meanwhile, showed off a seventy seven inch q d 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.600 oh Lad television, so there were no there's no shortage 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.520 of large TVs boasting great color representation and resolution. So again, 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:24.280 just really phenomenal when you when you've been going long 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.600 enough so that you saw where the technology was when 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.919 you started, versus where it is now. Like I said before, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.720 you would never even see a television with an old screen, 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.799 and now you were looking at, you know, displays that 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.920 are creeping up to the hundred inch size, which is 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:45.520 just unfathomable to me. Yeah, pretty exciting stuff. A R 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.280 and VR also had some entries at c E S three. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.400 Loomis l U m u S showed off their latest 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.680 design for a OUR glasses and they look kind of 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.519 like Black Frame I glasses, actually a lot like them. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.400 Wired reports that they felt like they were a little 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.720 bit larger than your typical glasses are, but they otherwise 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.160 look pretty darn normal. Now, Loomas is in the business 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:15.280 of supplying smart display technology to other manufacturers to incorporate 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.639 into their products, so it's not like we're gonna see 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.760 a Loomis branded set of a R glasses anytime soon. Instead, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.920 you might end up with a Loomis display built into 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.040 some other product, like whether it's a smart window or 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:34.600 a windshield or something along those lines. Meanwhile, HTC introduced 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:39.560 the viv x R Elite VR headset. It's got a 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.840 sleeker form factor, looks a little little way less chunky 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:49.320 than earlier VR headsets. It's also reportedly less than half 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:54.200 the weight of the meta Quest Pro headset, so it's 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.440 pretty lightweight. And keep in mind the meta Quest Pro 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.800 is meta slash, Facebook's attempt to create a headset that 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.920 professionals would use in order in business settings, and if 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:09.840 you have a headset like that, then you want it 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.760 to be lightweight, because if you're wearing it a lot, 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.880 like if you're working a normal work day, then you're 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.240 gonna be using your headset a lot. You definitely don't 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:19.800 want it to be too heavy. So it sounds like 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.359 this one is pretty pretty sleek in that regard, and 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.240 it sounded like it's a fairly impressive piece of technology, 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.800 and it better be because it sure ain't cheap. It'll 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.880 be coming to market in late February for the princely 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:38.680 sum of one thousand dollars, So that's real expensive. You know, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:43.200 it's like the price of a an entry level or 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.119 maybe you could say like a medium level gaming PC. 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.480 It's nowhere close to what you would pay if you're 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.520 wanting to go top of the line, like that's you're 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.479 getting into the multiple thousands of dollars then, But a 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.440 thousand bucks that's a lot to spend on what most 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.479 people look at as a peripheral as opposed to like 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.560 a computer. So yeah, I don't know if this is 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:09.200 going to help usher in a wider acceptance of VR. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.360 It might be really impressive and work really well, but 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.359 at that price point, I think it's still going to 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.599 prevent a lot of people from jumping into the field, 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.640 but I could be wrong. I've been skeptical about VR 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.800 becoming a big thing, Like I've always thought that it's 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.080 more of a niche technology, that it has its place, 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.279 and that you can create really incredible experiences for VR. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.440 But because of things like the cost, as well as 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.520 the fact that some people just get motion sick while 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.279 they're using the technology, means that you're probably not gonna 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:48.280 see it become the mainstream technology that say, replaces computers 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.080 or becomes the next revolution in computing after the mobile revolution. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.840 Every year it's c e s. There are always gadgets 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.320 that get attention because they're different from everything else. They're 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:04.159 not necessarily better or even useful, but they're different, and 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.159 then that gets a lot of attention because people, frankly, 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:13.800 reporters get tired of covering televisions and cars and audio systems. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.960 Like there's certain categories at CES that are always represented, 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.120 and even if you see something that's really good, it's 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.800 like a jump ahead of what the previous models have been, 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:26.159 the fact that you've been covering that for years just 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:27.800 means that you're kind of tired of it, so when 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.640 something different comes along, people notice. I'm actually reminded of 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.200 the haptic fork from several years ago. This was a 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.440 fork that had a motor built into the handle, and 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.080 the motor would cause the fork to vibrate and and 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.919 make food fall off the fork if it detected you 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.480 were trying to eat too quickly. It was a way 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.320 to try and force you to slow down your eating. Well. 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:52.880 This year, one thing that I saw a lot of 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.400 coverage on at c e S was the we Things 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.280 you Scan. Now, this is a device. It's a little 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:04.840 cartridge thing that fits inside your toilet and it analyzes 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.720 your p So the idea is that this thing can 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.200 analyze urine and then report back via an app on 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.080 things like whether or not you're properly hydrated, or maybe 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.360 you're lacking some specific nutrients, or maybe you're using it 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.000 to track your hormone cycle because you and your partner 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.400 want to have a baby and this can help track 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.160 cycles for that kind of thing. There's no one cartridge 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.720 it fits all solution here. It's not like it's not 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.000 like making the claims of Farinus, where one thing can 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.360 cover all eventualities. So instead you have to choose the 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:41.720 cartridge that applies to whatever it is you want to measure, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.360 and then on top of that, you have to subscribe 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.600 to the service. So there's a subscription fee on top 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.560 of the cartridge fee to use the service. The cartridges 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.080 are going to cost around six hundred dollars a pop. 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.000 I'm not sure what the monthly subscription fee is going 0:07:58.040 --> 0:07:59.800 to be. I will say that while I saw a 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.360 lot of outlets report on this technology, it actually surprised 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.520 me that not nearly as many pointed out the concerns 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:10.000 that Cindy Cone of the Electronic Frontier Foundation raised, namely 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:14.200 that anytime you're talking about medical information and you're talking 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.440 about an app ecosystem, you need to be concerned about 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.480 data security and privacy. So Cone asks a really good question, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.040 is there anything being done with that data beyond the analysis? 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.680 Could the we Things company leverage that data for other purposes? 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.280 Could it possibly sell that information to other companies? And 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.360 in the wake of a controversial Supreme Court decision here 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.160 in the US last year, could it mean that state 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.199 governments that restrict women's access to things like abortion use 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.920 data collected by we Things to kind of monitor women 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.240 becomes very invasive, very handmade's tale when you start getting 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.040 into this now. For their part, We Things later responded 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.319 to this criticism, saying that the product and service will 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.640 be subject to company data private CE policies, so U 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.480 big relief there. And last week I mentioned there would 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.240 likely be a few flying cars on display at CES. 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.800 Typically these take the form of what looks like just 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.079 a very large drone with four or more rotors, so 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:22.520 like your typical quad copter design quad copter only refers 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.680 to ones that four rotors, but you know, big enough 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.200 so that you could fit one or two people into 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.480 like a cockpit that's in the center of these things. 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.720 That's what most flying cars look like. But one thing 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:39.240 I didn't anticipate was a quote unquote flying boat that's 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.440 not really flying, but that's kind of what c net 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.160 called it. It is the Candela C eight. It's an 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.520 electric speedboat, so it is an electric vehicle and it 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.760 uses hydrofoils. So these are like wing like structures that 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.000 submerge under the water while the rest of the boat 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.640 lifts up off the surface of the of the sea 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.319 as you start to move up to speed, and the 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.720 hydrofoils act like wings, but instead of the fluid being air, 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.839 the fluid is actually the water of the sea, and 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.680 this reduces the amount of surface area that actually makes 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:14.640 contact with the water. It means that the boat can 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.120 go pretty darn fast, like around thirty four miles per hour. 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.360 That's really a good clip for a boat. But the 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.000 C eight also has some other tricks up its sleeve. 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.200 Because hydrofoils, they're cool, but they're not new. Uh. Some 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.400 of the other things that the C eight has include 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.319 a self piloting feature, so sort of like Tesla's autopilot 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:36.880 that's meant to keep the boat on a set course. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.559 So let's say that you are, you know, going from 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.440 one island to another. It's gonna take about three hours. 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.360 You set the course and the boat keeps you on 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.280 that and it detects when you start drifting due to 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.880 other things like wind or current that kind of stuff, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.560 and can keep you on the right path. It also 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.360 has tons of sensors so that the boat can keep 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.959 itself stable and balanced, which is important when you're raised 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.240 up on hydrofoils. And it will only set you back 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.520 three hundred ninety thousand dollars. Now, of course, there were 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.640 a lot of other items on display at c E 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.120 S three, But since I didn't go and can only 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.800 form opinions based on coverage, I'm gonna just limited to 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.600 those things that thought were kind of neat. Honestly, there's 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.280 so much more for me to read up on. I 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.920 I'm still unaware of a lot of stuff that was 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.880 at c E S. So I'm going to segue into 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:41.040 some other news, But first, let's take a quick break. Okay, 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.920 we're back over in China. Some recent Tesla customers are 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:51.520 really really unhappy. Why. Well, recently, Tesla marked down the 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.000 prices of various vehicles it was selling in China by 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.120 several thousand dollars. So the amount of markdown really depends 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.520 upon the specific model of car, but all of them 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.520 got big price cuts. However, that means that the folks 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.840 who purchased a Tesla in China before the company made 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:14.439 this markdown had paid an earlier higher price for their cars. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.160 Now they're upset that if they had just waited a 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.960 little bit and then purchased their vehicle after the cuts, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.760 they could have done so for a decent discount. And yeah, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.720 you know, this kind of buyer's remorse is pretty common. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.520 I know that I have personally kicked myself for buying 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.360 something that later went on sale, like not long after 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.200 I bought it, and I think, gosh, if only I 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.920 had waited, I could have saved you know, however much money. 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.400 But hindsight, right, you had no way of knowing necessarily 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.640 at the time when you make a purchase that a 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.120 week or a month later, it's going to be significantly 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.960 cheaper unless you have like insider information, you just don't know. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.200 But for some customers in Chengdu, China, things went beyond 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:03.760 buyer's remorse because mers reportedly stormed the Tesla dealership. They 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.320 got inside, they vandalized the dealership. They damaged one of 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.120 the electric vehicles on display and a TV that was 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:14.440 on display. They stole some stuff allegedly uh. They also 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.600 left behind a list of demands, which includes stuff like 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.240 a free lifetime subscription to the full self driving feature 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:26.400 that Tesla offers, plus like ten million Tesla points. I'm 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.800 unfamiliar with Tesla points, so I need to look into 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.120 that to see what. I'm sure it's a loyalty thing, 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.600 but like, what are Tesla points for. They also wanted 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:40.000 extended warranties that kind of thing. Tesla the dealership said, hey, 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.600 we're sorry. There's not like a program in place to 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.880 give you a refund or to give you a rebate 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.679 based upon the change in price. That's just not how 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.360 this works. And the company, I don't think is very 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.640 likely to meet any of these demands. But the Chinese 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.480 media is reporting the matters relating to quote unquote customer 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.440 rights as opposed to reporting on this is like acts 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:05.160 of vandalism. Uh, and that could indicate that Tesla is 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.400 gonna have a tough time handling pr in China in 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.560 the short term. Like when I hear this story. As 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.040 much as I don't like Tesla, I think, well, it's 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.320 unfortunate when you buy something and then the next week 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.120 it goes down in price. That's that stinks. It's never 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.560 fun for that to happen to you. But it's not 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.640 like the company owes you anything like you just it 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.840 was just bad luck, bad timing. Um. So I really 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.800 don't feel that Tesla is in the wrong here, and 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.640 it it's weird that the media is referencing this as 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.280 customer rights. Although China is a very different kind of 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.520 country than the United States, so maybe that has a 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.560 big part of it, but yeah, that's not a not 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.520 a great indication of a solid, you know, reputation for 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:59.880 Tesla within China. Next up, social media companies including Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.160 and snapchat, among others, are facing a new lawsuit, this 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.080 time from the Seattle Public School System. Seattle is in 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.400 Washington State here in the United States. The lawsuit charges 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.680 that these social platforms have violated a public nuisance law 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.040 that they are designed for the purposes of quote, hooking 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.440 tens of millions of students across the country into positive 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.680 feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of defendants social 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.920 media platforms end quote. And you know that's kind of 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.680 hard to deny because every social network out there has 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.240 worked to find ways to keep users engaged on their platforms. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.600 That's what's profitable, and it's way less profitable for someone 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:48.880 to pop into your service, take a look and then 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.800 pop out. You want those eyeballs to stay glued to 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.320 your service for as long as you can possibly keep them, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.920 so you purposefully design your service to encourage extended engagement 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:04.400 by creating these kinds of feedback loops that psychologically reward 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:08.520 the user for sticking with the service. From the network side, 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.520 you can argue this is all in an effort to 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.080 provide the best experience to the user, Like that's how 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:15.800 you can frame it, like we're just trying to give 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.720 the user the best possible experience. However, the flip side 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.600 of looking at this is to say it's really an 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:27.080 effort to make the user increasingly dependent upon the service 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.080 that they become kind of addicted to it. Further, the 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.120 complaint alleges that the networks have perpetuated harm on young users, 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.880 citing research and reports about how the use of social 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:44.960 media can be associated with various mental health issues like depression, anxiety, suicide, 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.480 eating disorders, that kind of thing. Now, whether the court 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.360 system will also find that these companies are responsible for 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:56.520 perpetuating harm and hooking people into the system remains to 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.320 be seen, because we're just at the very beginning of 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.080 this process and I think be very hard to argue 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.920 against it. I suspect that what we'll see as a 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:10.480 settlement at some point, because you know, we've even seen 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:17.280 internal documents from within Facebook slash Meta that essentially support 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.680 at least some of these arguments, And you know, when 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.040 your company's internal documents appear to support the allegations made 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.720 against you, that becomes difficult to defend against. So we'll 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.840 have to see. I mean, you never know. It all 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.400 depends upon the court and how arguments are framed. So 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:36.600 it's not like it's a done deal one way or 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.480 the other yet. Next we're gonna talk about AI. In fact, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.159 we're gonna talk a lot about AI. I think stories 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:48.359 about AI will be a huge thing throughout three. Chat 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.360 gpt kind of got things fired up last November, and 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.400 our first story about AI relates to the AI chat 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.840 butt that has people creating machine generated children's book as 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.159 teachers worried about students using it to cheat. You know, 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.880 it goes from everything from interesting distraction to the downfall 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:13.440 of society. And that of course is chat GPT. Reuter's 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.600 reports that Microsoft is in talks with open Ai that's 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.280 the group that owns and operates chat gpt, and that 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.000 Microsoft plans to invest up to ten billion with a 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.800 B dollars in open Ai. This deal would, reported lea 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:33.600 see Microsoft ultimately take a forty nine steak in open ai, 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.359 and other investors would take up the other and the 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.240 final two percent. Because if you add nine. You do 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.639 not get a hundred. I tried multiple times. I just 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.520 couldn't get there. Now, the final two percent would belong 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.760 to open aies nonprofit parent company. And one thing I 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.960 did not realize but absolutely should have known. I mean 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.040 maybe I knew it at one point and I just forgot. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.840 But it's that open Ai was originally founded by Sam 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.679 Altman and Elon Musk. And once you hear that Elon 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.200 Musk is involved in all that disruptive stuff that involves 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:12.720 like arts and education, makes perfect sense because Elon Musk 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.720 likes to stir uh poo poo, will say, I won't 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.440 use the rude word for it, but yeah, Elon Musk 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:23.920 is uh. I'm sure he thinks of it as being 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.040 a disruptor, which I guess is, you know, putting a 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:31.639 positive spin on it. But he wrecks shop by the 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:36.040 way I put it. And yeah, and that includes creating 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.000 things or funding things he doesn't. Musk is not an engineer, 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.679 but he funds things that end up causing lots of 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:48.240 headaches for established institutions and established ways of doing things. 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:53.800 And frequently, not always, but frequently, the solution proposed by 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.479 Musk is not superior to whatever was happening before it. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.520 So yeah, not a big surprise in the sense of like, oh, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.320 well that all fits. But yeah, I somehow missed that 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:10.040 Elon musk Get co founded open Ai. Now that's not 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.800 the only Microsoft AI story that I have today. Another 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.520 deals with a program called vol E v A L 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.119 L dash E. Now I can only assume that was 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.200 meant as a reference to the Pixar film Wally, But 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:31.240 voll E is an AI system that can synthesize voices 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:36.400 like any voice. So all it takes is an audio 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.280 sample of about three seconds of any voice. And not 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:45.159 only that, Volley can synthesize speech that mimics the emotional 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.920 tone and the acoustics that were present when the speaker 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.439 created the sample. So if you had three seconds of 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.080 someone totally losing their temper and say a tiled bathroom, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.560 the synthesized audio would likely sound livid and in a 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.720 place that has a lot of hard services and echo 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:08.160 to it. Or if someone were chipper and happy than 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.600 they were in a well insulated space for sound, then 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.439 it would come through the same way in the synthesized audio. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.640 So in theory, you could collect audio samples of someone 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.840 in different emotional states, and then using text to speech 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.560 and then switching to preserve the right tone. You could 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:31.080 use this tool to produce like a moving monologue that 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.600 the actual person has never said in their entire life. 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:40.080 This is both fascinating and it's kind of scary. It's 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.760 apparently not always convincing. I have not actually heard a 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:46.760 lot of samples from this, so I haven't had a 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.760 lot of personal experience with it. But from what I've read, 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.280 at least in some cases you can tell, oh, this 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.880 was machine generated, but in others there are some synthesized 0:21:56.920 --> 0:21:59.160 passages that are actually sound like they were read by 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.080 the person who supply the original audio sample, and that 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.640 you could not tell the difference. Now, Microsoft already recognizes 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.480 how this kind of tool could cause serious problems, as 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:15.359 Ours Technically reports researchers have written quote. Since vol E 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:20.000 could synthesize speech that maintains speaker identity, it may carry 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.879 potential risks in misuse of the model, such as spoofing 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:29.719 voice identification or impersonating a specific speaker. To mitigate such risks, 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.720 it is possible to build a detection model to discriminate 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.520 whether an audio clip was synthesized by VOLI. We will 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.840 also put Microsoft AI principles into practice when further developing 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.720 the models. End quote. Also, Microsoft is not sharing this 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:49.639 code that can help reduce the threat of someone using 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.119 it to make it sound like. Let's say a famous 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:54.719 person said things they never actually said. And when you 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:57.520 consider the extent to which trolls on the Internet will 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.919 go to hurt someone just for the lulls, this is 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.040 a very good thing because I can only imagine them 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.120 using a tool like this to make someone they don't 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:09.800 like appear to say the absolutely worst stuff you can imagine. 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:14.199 I'm talking like, truly vile things. That would be the 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.520 first thing I would expect of this tool were to 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:22.040 be publicly accessible, and by preserving emotional tone, it could 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.280 even sound like the person was happy while they were 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.760 saying the worst things you can imagine, which is a 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.280 big old yuck. All Right, I've got a couple more 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:33.439 stories I want to finish out with, but before we 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:45.720 get to those, let's take another quick break. Hey, we're back, 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:47.879 and we got a couple more AI stories before we 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.520 move on to some other stuff. And these involve the 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.920 organization do not pay. So this group does a lot 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.240 of consumer advocacy kind of work. They got their start 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:00.600 as a service that help people identify I and then 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:04.360 cancel subscriptions to stuff that they rarely or never use. 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.800 So you might create an account and then think, oh, hey, 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.280 I haven't watched anything on this streaming platform and months 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:12.639 why am I still paying for it? And then you 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:14.919 want to bail and Do Not Pay would help you 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:17.240 do that kind of thing. Well, something else the company 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.000 has been experimenting with is using AI to help people 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:24.320 when they have to appear in court, and apparently coming 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:27.359 up next month, the organization is working with a defendant 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.040 as they have to go to traffic court to defend themselves. 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.119 The defendant is going to wear an ear piece and 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:38.000