WEBVTT - Tech News: The News Out of CES 2023 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.200 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.239 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:26.640 tech news for Thursday, January five, two thousand twin D three, 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.440 and let's start off with some of the stuff that's 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.560 been revealed at c S, the Consumer Electronics Show, which 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.920 is currently underway in Las Vegas, Nevada. To cover everything 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.040 would actually take hours of coverage, and trust me, if 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.519 you're curious about it, you can actually find tons of 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.040 outlets giving exhaustive reporting from the show. But we can 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.320 chat about a few of the interesting announcements so far. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:54.640 And I do this knowing that a ton of stuff 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.440 is going to be announced today as well, So really 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.240 it'll be next week when we can take a look 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.440 back and say, what were the most interesting things that 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:04.960 actually might be a full episode of tech Stuff, because 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.640 chances are there will be more than what we would 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:10.600 want to put into just a news episode, So let's 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.600 get to it. Last night, Sony held it's c e 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.280 S press conference, and I've been to a couple of these, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.559 the Sony events sometimes they can be a little weird, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:22.880 like there was the time I was there and Seth 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.600 Rogan came out to halfheartedly talk up the company as 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.800 part of this promotional tour for green Hornet. It did 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:31.640 not look like he wanted to be there, and by 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.600 the end none of us wanted to be there either. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.440 That was awkward. But this one this year was a 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.880 little more straightforward. The company for once did not promote 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.759 its lineup of television's TVs just weren't part of this 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:48.200 press event. Instead, there was a large focus on PlayStation 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.640 VR gaming in general, and also a partnership with Honda. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.040 So here are a few different things that we learned 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.320 in the course of this event. Sony executive Jim Ryan 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.960 said that gamers should be able to get a PlayStation 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.280 five without nearly as much of a hassle as they 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:09.920 did since it launched in twenty indicating that the days 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.959 of shortages are mostly at an end and that is 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.840 really nice. If you have been trying to get a 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.840 PS five, it sounds like either now or in the 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.120 near future, that will be easy enough to do if 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.080 you've got, you know, the cash for it. Of course, 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.799 now we're in a period of economic uncertainty, and you 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.800 might want to hold onto that cash in case you 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.760 need it for something else, but that's another matter. Anyway. 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.919 This should also inspire game developers to start making true 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.800 next generation titles rather than games that span two different 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.600 generations of consoles, because as it stands right now, a 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.200 lot of the titles that have come out have been 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.360 PS four slash PS five titles, and in order to 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.280 do that, it means you're kind of pulling your punches right. 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.440 You're not swinging as hard as you could for the 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.960 PS five type stuff. You're not taking full advantage of 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.839 the PS five skip abilities typically. Well, now that might 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.600 start to change as the console has become more available 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.520 and more people buy them and you have a larger 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.519 user base. Considering that the PS five is a couple 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.239 of years old now, it was a pretty slow start 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.840 for the console. Not entirely Sony's fault. There were a 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.400 lot of mitigating factors like semiconductor shortages and such, and 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.079 a pandemic, so not I can't really blame the company, 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.320 but it has been a frustrating couple of years. If 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:31.240 you are a gamer and have consistently found shortages in 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.360 the various you know vendors where you would buy a 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:40.200 new console. Sony also announced Project Leonardo. This is a 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.560 new controller for the PS five that the company designed 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:48.280 with accessibility in mind. So it is a highly customizable 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.720 controller so that players who might have limited mobility or 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:58.000 dexterity can tune this controller so that they can participate 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.800 more easily in gaming. They can do things like map 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.320 buttons with each other and all sorts of stuff that 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.600 really can streamline the use of the controller for people 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.440 who have these these issues, and I think that's super cool. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.320 We've been seeing a rise in attention to accessibility over 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.839 the last couple of years in gaming, and it's it's 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.600 really great to see because the industry had largely paid 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.640 very little attention to such things in the past, Like 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:28.320 you might have a mode for people who have color blindness, 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.720 but beyond that, there were a lot of games that 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.680 just didn't have many, if any accessibility features, and we're 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.680 starting to see that change. That's great and good job 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.680 Sony for doing this. Also, the video that they showed 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.960 off with various gamers talking about how accessibility is important 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.760 to them personally as a gamer, is really sweet. It's 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.440 worth watching. The other cool announcement that Sony had was 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.920 the unveiling of the FILA, which is a new brand 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.200 of electric cars. It's spelled A F E E l A. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.200 This is the partnership between Sony and Honda. So the 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.160 company showed off a prototype and announced that the plan 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.880 is to have production cars ready for the United States 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.160 by twenty six. Sony said the three main themes for 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:18.040 this vehicle brand our autonomy, augmentation, and affinity. So I 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.159 guess it's a triple A vehicle, which you know, Sony 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.040 triple A studio. There you go. It sounds like these 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.400 vehicles while have features that are on you know, lockdown 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.599 unless owners opt into subscription services. That's been a pretty 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.800 contentious practice recently. It's a little frustrating to purchase a 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:41.560 vehicle that's technically capable of doing certain things, but you 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.839 aren't able to actually tap into those features unless you 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.400 first pay a monthly fee on top of everything else. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.240 That has not gone over well recently, but it looks 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.320 like more and more car companies are are at least 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.560 experimenting with that that business model. It sounds like the 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.880 car will be absolute at least stacked with various sensors 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.360 and other tech meant for driver assist or autonomous driving features. 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.800 And also it will have, as you would expect a 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:13.520 lot of entertainment features coming from Sony. Considering how autonomous 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.680 driving has started to hit the steep part of the 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.760 evolution curve towards full realization, it will be interesting to 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.160 see how advanced their autonomous features will be by the 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.880 time it comes to market, and you know whether or 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.239 not it will be builled as more of a driver 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.440 assist feature or truly driverless vehicle technology, and you know, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.919 how are they going to market that to customers, because 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.000 we've seen with Tesla that if you don't haven't truly 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.840 nailed it down, you can run into some legal problems 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.560 down the line. In other ce S news, alien Ware 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.760 announced it has a new five hundred Hurts desktop gaming 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.840 monitor coming out. This will make Dell Slash alien where 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.400 the first company to offer such a thing for actual purchase. Now, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:06.120 there have been prototypes of five Hurts monitors from companies 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.279 like a sous in the past, but they weren't ready 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.400 for the consumer market. Now. In case you're not familiar 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.080 with refresh rates, that refers to the number of times 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.880 per second the display you're watching will refresh the image 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.800 that's on the screen. Five hurts means that the screen 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.520 is doing that five hundred times per second, which is 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.800 a lot. Now, granted, this monitor is just one part 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.360 of the equation needed to provide that experience. You also 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:38.480 need a graphics processing unit or GPU that can deliver 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.000 that signal to the monitor properly. You also need games 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.040 that are compatible with it, so if you have any 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.800 one component falling short on this, you don't get that 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.520 super fast refresh rate. Really, when we start talking about 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.760 specs at this level, I think the only people who 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.240 really need to be focused on it are the elite 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.720 of the elite, like gamers who are at the top 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.840 of their industry. They would probably want something like this 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:12.000 where every micro second of advantage matters. For other people 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.040 like shlubs like myself, it would be a total waste 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:16.920 of money for me to get this kind of monitor. 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.440 I would not be able to take advantage of whatever 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.160 the monitor was able to do for me, except maybe 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.560 I would actually recognize that I was totally dead meat 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:30.160 even earlier in a deathmatch. Anyway, Alien Wears monitor will 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.360 show up a little later this quarter, and as of yet, 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.800 Dell has not announced any price attached to it. Phillips 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.959 Hugh is giving you lightbulb owners a chance to synchronize 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.559 their lights with their entertainment, assuming that the lightbulb owners 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.520 also own a Samsung television from twenty two or later. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.800 So to do so, the Hugh slash Samsung TV owner 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.679 will have to purchase a Samsung TV app for the 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.160 cool price the princely sum having used that phrase in 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.559 a long time of one dollars. Then they will be 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.360 able to sink their lights to their television and the 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.000 next time they watch an explodee bang bang, shoot him 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.560 up kind of movie, the lights can time with like 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.280 muzzle flashes and explosions and mood lighting. Now, to me, 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.360 this sounds interesting as a concept, but I have a 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.480 feeling that if I actually used this kind of feature 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.960 I would quickly get very tired of it in practice. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.200 But you have to keep in mind I am also 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.720 old and I am grouchy. Plus it's hard for me 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:32.880 to justify spending a hundred thirty bucks to make my 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.319 lights flash with my television. But for certain home theater enthusiasts, 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:39.800 I'm sure this will be a super cool compliment to 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.000 their setup. It's not for me, but you know, other 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.520 people might absolutely love this feature. At c E S A. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.480 M D held a keynote event and Panos pan A 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.880 of Microsoft appeared as part of that event, and he 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.680 declared that artificial intelligence will be a major component in 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.560 future Windows builds and that it will quote reinvent everything 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.840 on Windows quite literally end quote. What that actually means 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.440 in practice is more of a mystery. He did indicate 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.400 that AI might help with certain tasks to make them 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.760 more energy efficient, so they would consume less battery power, 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.200 like being able to keep a camera in focus effectively. Uh, 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:23.960 might end up being more power efficient. And yeah, that's 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.839 not super sexy or anything like that, but it is 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.400 a very practical application of the technology, and I think 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.760 that's pretty cool. I realized that, you know, it's not like, oh, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.360 this is gonna help you get better at call of 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.600 duty or something like that, or it's going to give 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:45.120 you more of an augmented approach when you are composing 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.040 emails or writing reports or anything like that. Oh, that 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.920 would be neat too, But even this kind of stuff 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.679 where it's just managing things in the background so that 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.640 you get the most out of your battery power you're 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.360 also consuming less energy overall. I think that's really a 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.720 great idea. Fans of Night Rider might be interested in 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.600 a prototype from BMW called the I Vision D. That's 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.000 d e E, which according to BMW stands for Digital 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:16.080 Emotional Experience. This concept car is an electric vehicle that 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.560 has a voice activated digital assistant, So when you talk 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.439 to your car, this one can talk back to you. 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.800 So that way, if you say something like come on, baby, 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.800 you can do it while you're trying to accelerate up 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.280 to highway speed. As you see a semi truck getting 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.120 very large in your rear view mirror, it can say, well, jeez, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:38.000 I'll help you, are right, Probably not in that voice. Apparently, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:39.640 the grill on the front of the car has lights 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.360 that change in color and can even form different quote 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.800 unquote expressions, which is I guess where the emotional stuff 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.640 comes from from that emotional experience name. Anyway, this is 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.760 a concept car that means we're likely only going to 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.280 see elements of the design potentially make it into future 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.880 production vehicles, but we won't see this actual car become, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.600 you know, like a street vehicle. And finally, in our 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.720 c E S News, Luminar a company that makes lidar hardware, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.560 has purchased a lidar data company called Civil Maps. So 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.360 this was announced at a ce S press event. So 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.439 the long term plan is for Luminar to leverage the 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.720 data from Civil Maps as the company works to advance 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.959 autonomous vehicle technology. So lightar is kind of like radar, 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.120 except obviously uses lasers instead of radio waves to send 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.560 signals out and then it kind of listens for the echoes. 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.560 Those echos can tell a lightar system the distance to 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.080 an obstacle, as well as information like how quickly the 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.200 object may be moving toward or away from you, how 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.720 big it is, that kind of thing. So the idea 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.040 is that Luminar is is getting access to a ton 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.480 of information that can help the company build out products 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:59.840 that further advance the goal of autonomous vehicle technology. Famously, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:05.400 Tesla had dismissed lidar as a technology and and moved 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.720 more toward optical cameras instead of lighter But where it 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.720 is that Tesla has been internally testing lighter systems even 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.840 though publicly they had kind of poo pooed the whole technology. 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.440 So interesting there. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.720 When we come back, we'll have some other tech news. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.560 All right, we're back and we're moving away from c 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.719 e S. We've got a few stories we need to 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.600 talk about. First up, New York City's Education Department has 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:48.480 issued a ban on chat GPT. That's the AI powered 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.080 chat bot that I've been talking about a lot recently. 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:56.400 Yesterday's episode was partly about chat GPT, and this chat 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.680 bought generates responses to queries in real time, and it 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.720 creates them, you know, at the time of the query. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.959 It's not like they have a whole bunch of responses 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.320 to stuff and just serves it up. It actually makes 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:14.080 the response in time of your question. And the responses 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:19.320 are frequently very compelling and authoritative in style. So they're 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.360 presented in such a way where it feels like you're 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.920 getting a reliable source of information, right like if you 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.480 were to open up an encyclopedia, you would get something similar. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.880 This has been causing some concern in the education field. 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.560 Teachers have been worried about students using the tool to 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.200 generate stuff like essays, which means that students would be 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:43.440 plagiarizing chat GPT and cheating on their homework. Or their exams. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.320 To that end, the New York City Education Department will 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.080 ban the use of chat GPT on Education Department networks 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.480 and devices, so you won't be able to access it 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:59.800 on school networks, and any school issue device will block it. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.800 Schools that want to access chat GPT for the purposes 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.200 of teaching AI classes like saying, Hey, here's an example 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.920 of an AI powered chat bot. We're gonna learn how 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.200 it works. Um, what's limitations are that kind of thing? 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.480 They will be able to do that if they first 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:20.160 request special permission from the Education Department. Honestly, based on 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.240 how chat GPT has limited ability to provide good answers. Uh, 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.960 The answers it gives appear good like appears like authoritative 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.640 on the surface, but frequently the answers themselves are somewhat lacking. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.200 The real worry is that students are just going to 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.920 cheat themselves out of an education, and in the process 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.920 they'll get bad grades because the stuff they hand in 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.480 won't be very good. So it's kind of a lose 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.120 lose situation for students who depend on chat GPT for help. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.120 But chat GPT is not the only tech boogeyman out there. 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.760 There's also TikTok, which continues to be the target of criticism, 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:03.520 particularly in the United States among authorities, and recently, Anton Deborah, 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.360 a cybersecurity expert, gave an interview with Futurity about the app, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:13.200 and Deborah said that TikTok could amount to a threat 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:17.320 on national security, which echoes things we've heard out of 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.440 the f c C and out of other government agencies 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:26.520 and and UH and representatives. So Deborah argues that TikTok 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.040 has the capacity to gather information on individuals in the 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.680 US on a grand scale. And you might think, well, yeah, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:36.840 but if I have TikTok, I mean, what the heck 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.760 does the Chinese government want with my personal information? Like 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.440 who am I to them? There'll be no reason for 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:48.120 them to do that. So really I'm not concerned about 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.720 it because why would I be a target? Especially like 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.720 you look at TikTok and you see things like like 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:58.760 various trends, some of which are somewhat dangerous. You see 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.680 you know, people say ng or lip syncing, you see 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.359 people dancing, you see people doing live hacks or like 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:07.560 recipes that kind of stuff. You think about, what's the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.040 harm here? What use is this? But the Borrow points 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.720 out that the kind of data that TikTok could be 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.560 gathering might be used as a first step. That the 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.199 next step could be that TikTok starts to look for 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:25.960 people who might say work in companies or offices of interest, 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:31.040 Like what if someone happens to work as a defense contractor, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.800 or they work in a company that's important for US infrastructure, 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.120 or they work in a government office that kind of thing. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.400 This could then be used as sort of a launching 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.080 ground for a deeper dive into that person's information. So 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:50.920 TikTok might not be the front door into a wealth 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.760 of protected data that the Chinese government could then exploit, 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.760 but it might be the first indication that this is 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.040 a person we should look at more closely, because if 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.280 we can compromise them, we get access to stuff we want. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.960 So it could serve as a very large net to 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.080 catch tons of stuff. That stuff could then be put 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.480 through a sieve to filter out and everything that's irrelevant 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.760 and then just really allow the Chinese government to focus 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.840 in almost like a spear fishing attack. And while you 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.520 might not have any direct connection with something that the 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.959 Chinese government is actively interested in, there's a chance someone 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.320 in your life could and that you could then be 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.720 the connective tissue that allows for this exploitation to begin. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.359 That's what Deborah is saying, and I can see his point. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.800 I it's hard to disagree with that from you know, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.439 the perspective. Is this possible, Yes, it is possible. We 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.920 actually don't know for sure that by Dance is doing 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.760 anything like this with TikTok data by Dance being a 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.200 Chinese company, but it is possible. And we do know 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.560 that the company has engaged in some spying on journalists 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.480 and the like in the past in a report that 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:10.080 definitely didn't do TikTok any favors. So whether this is 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.960 like a clear and present danger kind of situation, I 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.200 can't say, but it's definitely something we have to at 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:21.439 least be wary of. Meta is also having a pretty 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.800 rough twenty three already. Yesterday, regulators in the European Union 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:31.800 issued a four hundred fourteen million dollar fine on Meta 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.280 for forcing users to accept personalized targeted ads whether they 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.720 wanted to opt in or not. That's a big old 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.760 deal in the EU, where the g d p R 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.959 laws protect citizen data. So generally speaking, the g d 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.840 P R is meant to give EU citizens the power 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.200 of when, where and how they shared their personal information 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.720 with companies. That seems like a pretty darn reasonable thing 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.800 to me. I mean, because this is information that belongs 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.920 to and pertains to a person, So should that not 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:10.760 be the default domain of that person and not some corporation? 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.000 Like it's it's like this stuff belongs to you. Some 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.600 corporation can't just come and take it. They have to 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.679 be able to negotiate with you about whether or not 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.240 you allow them to use the information. That's the g 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:30.080 d p R kind of domain. Well, the regulators say 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.800 that Meta was collecting and exploiting EU citizen data for 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.600 the purposes of targeted advertising, and the users essentially had 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.680 no option but to allow it or else they couldn't 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.240 use meta platforms at all. That Meta's terms of service 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:50.480 essentially said, hey, it's my way or the highway. If 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.240 you want to use meta platforms, then that means you are, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:21:00.320 by default, uh, acknowledging and and allowing this kind of 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:05.560 data collection and exploitation. The EU is saying that's not 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.520 good enough. If you want to operate here, you have 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.280 to change. There's essentially saying you've got to come up 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.000 with an alternative where people can still use your platform 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.679 but opt out of any sort of targeted advertising or 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.240 else you are not going to be allowed to operate 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.240 within the EU. And now Meta has three months to 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.640 come up with a plan on how the company will 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:31.040 comply with this EU ruling. This is a pretty big 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.360 blow to Meta. You know, you gotta keep in mind 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:37.280 Meta relies on advertising revenue for the bulk of the 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.560 money that the company makes, and of course Meta has 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.920 already seen some hits to its revenue due to Apple's 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.920 policy changes that let iOS users opt out of certain 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.680 types of tracking. Uh, it'll be interesting to see how 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:58.280 this will affect Meta. Investor confidence in the company has 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.080 had some really rough earnings calls where investors have been 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:09.440 frustrated that the company's revenues are are in a shaky's ground. Essentially, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:15.119 they haven't exactly plummeted, but they have taken ahead. And meanwhile, 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.560 the company has been, you know, famously spending billions of 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.600 dollars trying to develop the metaverse, which is still something 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:27.160 that a lot of skeptics, including myself, have questioned whether 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.520 or not that's really ever going to be a major 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.439 thing I certainly don't believe it's going to be the 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:38.919 future of the Internet or of online connectivity. But again, 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.680 I could just be very shortsighted. Uh. So well, I 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:48.399 guess we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, bad start there. Okay, 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:50.439 We've got a few more news stories that I want 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.040 to cover before we wrap up. But before we do that, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:23:06.120 let's take another quick break. Okay. Uh, these next couple 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.800 of stories are pretty big bummers because it's about people 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.359 losing their jobs. Last year, we saw a lot of 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:18.959 tech companies make some pretty tough decisions to reduce headcount. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.680 Uh and that has continued into three So now Amazon 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:27.360 corporate employees received some pretty bad news. The company now 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.920 plays to lay off more than eighteen thousand corporate workers. 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:35.639 So previously the reports were that Amazon was looking to 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:40.400 cut around ten thousand jobs. Now it's eighteen thousand. That's 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:44.119 a pretty big jump. Now that cut represents only five 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.600 percent of Amazon's corporate workforce. That alone is pretty astonishing. 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.919 You know, you sit there and think, oh wow, eighteen thousand, 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:56.240 and that's just five When you look at company wide numbers, 0:23:56.640 --> 0:23:59.119 it really gets mind blowing, at least for me, because 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.439 Amazon employe is around one and a half million people 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:04.760 across all its divisions. Because you've got to keep in 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:08.320 mind the corporate workforce doesn't include stuff like warehouse personnel, 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:14.320 right or delivery drivers. Previously, Amazon had focused cutbacks in 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:19.400 divisions that were not particularly profitable. That included some hardware 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:23.399 divisions within Amazon itself. We heard that the and I 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.000 apologize for using the name, actually I won't use the 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:30.960 name Amazon's voice activated assistant product, you know, the name 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:36.280 That division was massively cut back earlier, or at least 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:39.640 that's what we heard, because the company had been struggling 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.240 to find a way to make that division a revenue 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:46.680