WEBVTT - Tech News: Augmenting (Or Outright Replacing) Reality 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.680 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.120 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.159 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.319 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:25.599 the weekending Friday, August twenty third, twenty twenty four. And 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.000 first up, we have what I guess you could call 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.000 non news news. So recently online tech news outlets began 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.280 to report that Google was essentially killing off the Fitbit brand. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.280 Google acquired Fitbit back in twenty nineteen, and over time, 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.280 the company has incorporated more of the same sort of 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.559 tech found and Fitbit activity trackers into the Google branded 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.920 smart watches. So the reporting seemed to suggest that Google 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.840 was going to sunset the Fitbit brand, or at least 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.120 reduce Fitbit to just a few models of its fitness trackers, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:05.319 while the fit Bit branded smart watches like the Sense 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.800 and the Versa would essentially go away. However, Sharon Harding 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.199 of ours Tetnica followed up on this. She contacted Google 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.960 directly and asked if, in fact, the company was going 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.200 to reduce the fit Bit line to activity trackers like 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.319 the Inspire and the charge models. The rep from Google 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.880 said the earlier reporting was inaccurate, that Google, in fact 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.360 had just released a fit Bit branded smart watch for kids. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.039 This is like a tongue twister, and I'm terrible at 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.679 those anyways. Harding points out the concerns about Google killing 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.200 off product lines. That's understandable because Google has a huge 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.760 body count when it comes to products and services that 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.520 it once launched that have long since pushed up the daisies. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.000 But it seems like Fitbit is not going to be 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.880 one of those, at least according to company representatives. The 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.680 vergess Lauren Finer has an article titled Google sales reps 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.200 allegedly keep telling advertisers how to target teams. So this 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.560 relates to a story I talked about recently on Tech Stuff. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.280 Google follows an industry practice that, in theory at least 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.160 means the company does not engage in targeted or personalized 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.200 advertising for any user under the age of eighteen. However, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.760 according to multiple sources, now Google has made use of 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:26.320 a bit of a loophole. The company can target unknown users. 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.840 So these are users who do not have age information 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.560 built into their profiles, like they have not indicated what 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.600 their age is to Google, so there's no confirmation one 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.120 way or the other to say the user is above 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.280 or below the age of eighteen. So you could say 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.440 this is kind of a case of plausible deniability. But 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.240 as I'm sure you're well aware, it really does not 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.840 take much work to get a general feel for someone's 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.440 age based upon their web activity. So with even a 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:01.680 relatively simple data analysis, pass can start putting folks into 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:07.040 various buckets, including by age range. So while technically the 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.919 unknown users aren't registered as teens, you can effectively target 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.280 teens with advertising through this kind of roundabout approach. Finer 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.000 cites an article on Adweek and another in Financial Times 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.040 indicating that this is an issue that multiple outlets have 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.520 looked at recently. Google's response includes a statement from Josell Booth, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.639 a spokesperson for the company, who categorically emphasized that Google's 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.160 policy is not to personalize advertising for anyone under the 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.720 age of eighteen, regardless of whether it's through direct data 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.920 or inferring age from supporting data, and that the company 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.160 would stress this to sales reps so that you know 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.360 they stop suggesting it to potential clients. That Google can 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.720 you know totally get advertisers linked up to impressionable teenagers 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.120 to knock that stuff off. Alex Heath, also of The Verge, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.000 has a piece that lets us know reality is about 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.520 to get a bit more augmented. That is, both Snap 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.240 and Meta have plans to unveil AR glasses in the 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.680 upcoming weeks. In Snap's case, this would be the latest 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.440 version of the company's Spectacles product. This would be generation 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.600 number five for those of y'all keeping count. According to Heath, 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.719 Snap will be showing the soft terraing Snap's partner summit 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:23.680 on September seventeenth, Then just a week later, Mark Zuckerberg 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.640 plans to unveil Meta's own AR glasses, which are code 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:32.320 named Orion. However, Heath's sources tell him that in neither 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.359 case will these products ever hit the consumer market. These 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.400 are more like Microsoft's HoloLens in that regard. These pieces 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.560 of hardware are really meant to give developers a platform 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.400 to build upon. The issue here is that while the 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.400 potential for AR seems pretty darn limitless, the truth is 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.599 very few apps have been built that leverage AR in 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.080 a way that makes it the best tool for the job. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.679 As we have seen with Apple's vision headset. Having great 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.520 hardware where isn't necessarily enough. You need the applications to 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.120 be there too. So while we should be seeing some 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.440 impressive demonstrations of this technology, assuming everything goes as planned, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.839 we won't actually be using this stuff anytime soon. Heath 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.240 says that Snap will have around ten thousand units produced 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.080 and Meta will have even fewer than that, and I'm 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.080 sure that won't stop some tech enthusiasts from trying to 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.320 get their hands on these things, despite the fact that 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.799 there just isn't much you can do with them yet. 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.839 Some folks just have an almost pathological need to have 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.400 the latest technology. I should know. I used to be 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.640 one of them. Time to talk about AI for a 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.320 good long while, because I mean, it's twenty twenty four, y'all. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.279 So first up, multiple news outlets have reported that Meta 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.080 has rolled out a couple of new web crawling bots 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.880 designed to gather data for the purposes of training AI models, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.960 and further that these bots ignore attempts to block them, 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.760 so web page builders, in case you've never done this before, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.479 they have the option to include a little line of 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.160 text that essentially tells bots to buzz off, so you 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.200 might want to do that if you do not want 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.000 your web page indexed for like search purposes, And you 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.720 might want to do that if you only wanted authorized 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.440 individuals to even know about the page in the first place. 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:19.320 But these bots reportedly ignore these kinds of lines of text, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.760 and they will crawl a site even if the web 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.800 administrators said, please don't index the site. And I find 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.120 that really interesting because Meta very much takes the stance 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.680 that crawling sites like Facebook and the like is expressly 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.760 against their rules, that no one is supposed to treat 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.920 Meta that way, and yet here they are producing bots 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.080 that are apparently engaging in the very same behavior that 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.719 Meta prohibits on its owned and operated sites. How about 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.640 that anyway, This is really all part of the AI 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.479 arms race, where various AI companies are desperate to get 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.520 ever larger pools of data in order to train their 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.520 large language models and make the next AI tool guaranteed 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:07.600 to create massive ethical problems. Web administrators can end up 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.280 in a pickle when companies like Meta and Google engage 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.760 in this kind of activity, because often it means that 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.680 if you are successful in blocking the AI crawlers, it 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.240 means you're also having to block the index bots, which 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.240 means your site is not going to pop up in 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.600 like search results and such. So website operators they're pressured 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.280 to allow this AI crawling activity or else potentially miss 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.240 out on being discoverable on these massive platforms. And it 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.360 doesn't do you much good if you built something and 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.680 no one knows about it, right, So it becomes this 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.320 double edged sword. It could be like, well, yeah, I 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.520 want to be in search because I want people to 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.280 be able to find me, but I don't want it 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.720 to be crawled for the purposes of AI. Well, when 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.360 it's the same companies doing both, that becomes a problem, 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.440 and it's kind of like extortion if you think about it. 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.440 It's almost as if some of these big companies act 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.280 in ways that can be a bit anti competitive. Folks 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.840 over at the University of Texas have developed an earthquake 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.120 detection tool that uses AI to look for signals that 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.360 could indicate an upcoming earthquake, and the results have been promising. 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.400 According to SyTech Daily, the researchers achieved a seventy percent 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.640 accuracy rating in predicting earthquakes a week before the earthquakes 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.840 actually happened. The research was conducted in China. I think 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.320 this is pretty darn cool, but we do need to 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.200 remember this is by no means a perfect tool. It's 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.920 got a long way to go. But according to the researchers, 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.600 there were eight false positives, meaning the tool predicted an 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.800 earthquake but nothing actually happened. That's an issue. Also, the 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.520 predictions weren't exactly laser precise. According to the article, the 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:50.280 fourteen earthquake predictions that the researchers counted as successes were 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.880 within two hundred miles of an actual earthquake. That does 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.000 make one wonder if the tool was successful at predicting 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.160 the earthquake, or maybe it was just a matter of coincidence. However, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.480 according to the article, the predicted strength of the earthquakes 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.440 was very close to what actually happened. That makes me 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.760 more inclined to think that this is not just coincidence. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.480 It's one thing to say an earthquake is going to 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.679 happen on this day, generally around this time, and at 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.600 about this strength. If you were only getting like an 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.280 earthquake happening within two hundred miles of where you predicted, 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.280 but the strength wasn't anywhere close to what you predicted 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.199 that to me would feel like coincidence. Getting the strength 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.920 just about right. That seems to whittle that down a bit, 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.319 but it does mean there's a limitation as to how 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.880 precise this tool can be when it comes to locating 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.640 where an earthquake is going to happen. The research obviously 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.920 needs to continue. A lot more work needs to be 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.720 done in order to turn this into a really useful technology. 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.640 As it stands, sending out a warning a week ahead 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.800 of time that someone might be within a two hundred 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.840 mile radius of a future earthquake, that seems limited in 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.840 its usefulness unless we're talking about like a real whopper 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.120 of an earthquake, in which case it could potentially help 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:04.000 save countless lives, assuming that people actually heeded the warning. Okay, 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.960 we've got a lot more to talk about in today's news, 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.559 but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.560 We're back and we're headed back to the Verge. Last 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.079 week it was all ours Technica. This week gets the Verge. Anyway. 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.520 There are a pair of articles covering the same general 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.160 topic over on the Verge. One is by Alison Johnson, 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.400 the others by Sarah Jong, but they're both about Google's 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.920 Reimagine function in the new Google Pixel nine smartphones. So 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.800 this feature allows you to make some pretty massive changes 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.560 to photos that you've already taken, and you can use 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.120 text based prompts to have AI alter those images in 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.800 various ways. So one example that the articles used was 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.760 they showed a photo of just a street, just a 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.400 normal street, and then a subsequent text edit added in 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.480 a massive pothole incorporated into that street, and sure enough, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.520 it was an edited photo that looked very convincing, like 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.200 like the pothole was actually there. Both Johnson and to 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.160 a greater extent, Johng point out that the feature allows 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.160 for fakery and image manipulation on a grand scale. Once 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.079 upon a time, you needed at least to be proficient 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.040 with tools like Photoshop to manipulate images convincingly, and even 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:29.360 then there were like telltale signs that some altering had happened. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.640 But now AI takes care of all of this for you, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.680 and it can be pretty darn good at fooling folks. Now, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.000 the AI is supposed to have guardrails that are meant 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.959 to prevent users from doing really awful stuff, like you 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.920 wouldn't want someone to have a photo and then use 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.080 AI to just litter the ground with like dead puppies 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.040 or something that would be horrifying. But the folks at 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.079 the Verge found they were able to insert a great 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:58.080 deal of troubling imagery into photographs just by adding some 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.800 creative thinking to get around the guardrails. While being direct 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.720 and blunt in your text directions might result in a 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.679 denial saying no, that's against the policy or whatever, if 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.320 you're a little more circumspect, you can often get the 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.120 same results. And so the Verge showed off images that 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.280 appear to portray such disturbing scenes as a collision that 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.320 happened between a car and a bicycle on a city street, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.560 or images where there appears to be a body laying 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.560 underneath a bloody sheet on the ground. It's not exactly 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.680 the most positive showcase for an image manipulation tool using AI. Moreover, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:36.280 even if we remove the obvious cases of like unintended consequences, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.360 the end result is that this tool means seeing is 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:43.840 absolutely not believing. When image manipulation is so easy that 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.880 anyone with the right kind of smartphone can do it 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:51.319 with no training needed, what does that mean for information? 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.360 How do we know what to trust. How could such 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.400 a tool be used to deceive others, either just for 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.160 kicks or for personal gain or whatever. Are the benefits 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.920 of this technology such that they actually outweigh the risks. 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.959 Then there's also the element of the liar's dividend. This 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.000 is the defense that someone who is absolutely guilty of 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.920 something could use. They could say, Oh, sure it looks 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.560 like that was me robbing that convenience store, but that's 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:22.080 clearly an AI altered image. I'm innocent. That's the liar's dividend. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.920 Making matters worse is that Reimagine, at least currently doesn't 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:30.760 apply a digital watermark to altered images like purely AI 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.400 generated images often have a water mark, but not these. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.559 Johnson points out that the meta data for the image 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.400 includes a record that it was edited through Reimagine, But 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.480 she also points out that you can get around that 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.480 just by taking a screenshot of the photo in question. 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.240 That just strips out all the metadata, because now you 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.360 just have a picture of a picture and there's no 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.680 record there that Reimagine was used to alter it. Blah. 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:58.880 You might remember that way back when the twenty twenty 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.920 four Democratic primary were going on, which seems like it 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.120 happened in a different world at this point. But you 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.520 might remember there were reports of an AI generated voice 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.800 that was impersonating US President Joe Biden, and it was 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.439 going out to potential voters in New Hampshire, and the 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.680 voice was urging voters to just stay home and not 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.560 go and vote in the primaries. Well, now the Federal 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:24.120 Communications Commission, or FCC has ordered the telecom company Lingo 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.400 Telecom to pay a one million dollar civil penalty for 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.080 allowing those calls to go out over its network. Now, 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.880 to be clear, Lingo Telecom wasn't responsible for creating those calls. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.480 That honor falls to a political consultant named Steve Kramer, 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.680 who in turn was working on behalf of a candidate 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.080 named Dean Phillips who was running an opposition to Joe Biden. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.880 But Lingo Telecom allowed the calls to go over its network, 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.720 which the FCC deemed as a violation of the know 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.680 your Customer and Know your Provider sets of rules. Kramer 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.960 is also facing a fine could be up to around 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.760 six million dollars. These penalties are meant to send a 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.280 message to folks who are considering a similar scheme that 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:07.920 if you do this kind of thing, it's going to 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.040 cost you. As for Lingo, the company also agreed to 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.160 make some changes to how it operates to WITT, weeding 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.840 out spoofed phone numbers and only presenting a number when 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.480 Lingo can verify that it's exactly where a call is 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.360 really coming from. Presumably you would otherwise see something like 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.360 unknown caller or something like that on your caller ID. 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.000 Lingo must also verify the identities of customers and work 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.440 with upstream providers that have quote unquote robust robocall mitigation. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.240 So yeah, this is really sitting a message of saying 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.200 this kind of thing will not be tolerated. In twenty 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:47.480 twenty three, GM's cruise business shut down effectively after one 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.160 of its autonomous robotaxis dragged the pedestrian for twenty feet 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.680 in San Francisco before it came to a stop. The 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.520 pedestrian had already been struck by another car that one 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.760 was operated by a human. Pretty awful, like a really 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:04.600 hard ruble sequence of events, and CRUZ faced a massive investigation. 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.160 The CEO of the division promptly jumped ship, as did 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:11.240 several other leaders, and GM laid off a significant number 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.920 of workers within the Cruz division. But now Cruz is 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.360 back in the news, having struck a partnership deal with Uber. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.160 New CEO Mark Witten said, quote, we are excited to 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.520 partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.520 autonomous driving to even more people, unlocking a new era 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.920 of urban mobility end quote. Which is interesting to me. 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:40.240 Uber itself really was aggressively pursuing robotaxi strategies several years ago, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.040 because I mean, cutting human drivers out of the equation 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.240 means more money for the home office. Am I right? 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.000 But snarky comments aside. Uber pretty much pulled the plug 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.720 on its own efforts after a tragic incident in twenty 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.840 eighteen involving another pedestrian accident. Uber then switched to partnering 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.840 with companies in the autonomous vehicle space rather than pursuing 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.600 their own program. So can these two companies, each with 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.119 blemishes on their respective records, team up to create something 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:11.680 that's safe and reliable. Cruz is currently conducting autonomous vehicle 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:16.400 testing with supervising safety drivers in cities like Houston and Phoenix. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.359 No word yet on when those driver lest Uber rides 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.960 will become a reality, or specifically which markets that might 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.680 happen in I know what you're thinking, you know, Jonathan, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.720 it's been a hot minute since I've learned about a 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.399 new streaming video service launching. Well, rumor has it that 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.679 we might be getting yet another one from a seemingly 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.080 unlikely source. That source is Chick fil A, the fast 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.840 food restaurant known for chicken, among other things. Deadlines Peter 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.680 White reports that Chick fil A is planning a service 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.879 centered primarily around reality television and unscripted content and game 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.959 show programming, all with like a family friendly focus. Presumably 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.720 the programming on this service would in some way advertise 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.000 or promote the company, perhaps through the production of branded content. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.479 How many folks are out there itching to sign up 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.359 to yet another streaming service, let alone one spearheaded by 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.679 a restaurant company. I have no clue. I'm not going 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:08.359 to write it off just yet, as it could always 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.600 surprise me. But my first impression is this is going 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.480 to be a very tough sell, particularly during a time 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.760 when people are already taking a harder look at their 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.639 family budgets for stuff like entertainment. Jesse Kiff is in 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.360 hot water for hacking into a government registry in Hawaii 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.040 for what purpose? Faking his own death. Kiff hacked into 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.240 the Hawaii death registry system and marked himself down as 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.720 previously alive or no longer breathing, or debt as a doornail. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.280 To be honest, I don't know what the checkboxes actually say, 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.880 but the point is Kiff was faking his own debt. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.359 He was also using fake credentials in an effort to 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.800 secure a credit card or debit a card account. It's 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.439 awfully hard to navigate the modern world unless you've got 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.600 access to that cheddar. So why was Kiff doing all this? Well, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.719 apparently it was in order to avoid having to make 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.879 child support payments. He's already been tried and found guilty. 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.040 He faces a prison term of sixty nine months. Nice 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.720 he'll have to serve eighty five percent of that sentence, 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:03.880 after which he will be released, but will remain under 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:08.280 supervision for three years. Now for some recommended reading, So 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.120 first a recommend checking out Eric Berger's piece for Ours 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.240 Tetnica titled Against All Odds and Asteroid Mining Company appears 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.640 to be making headway, which is a cool story. We've 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.280 been hearing about potentials for asteroid mining for several years now, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.639 so it's neat getting an update. Next up, Patrick George 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:26.800 has a piece in the Atlantic titled The Hardest Sell 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.720 in American Car Culture, and it's about how the Ford 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.800 Car Company wants to encourage American car shoppers to think 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.080 about smaller vehicles rather than the trucks and SUVs the 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.560 industry has kind of migrated to in the US over 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.080 the previous years. And that's because smaller cars are lighter. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.679 Lighter cars are easier to move, and that means the 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:49.080 battery requirements for EV's that are smaller are more manageable 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.679 than for those big old chonkers that are currently favored 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:53.920 by the US. So if the US is to move 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.560 to more evs, part of the picture may also mean 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.440 driving smaller vehicles. That's it for this week. I hope 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.960 you are all well and I'll talk to you again 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:13.520 really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:18.320 podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.280 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.