WEBVTT - Tech News: Is the Honeymoon Over for AI? 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.120 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.119 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.279 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.920 the week ending August second, twenty twenty four. Now, I'm 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.200 sure you all remember the CrowdStrike outage that happened back 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:34.120 on July nineteenth and subsequently caused chaos around the world 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:39.040 as various Windows based machines got caught in a reboot loop. Well, 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.640 we're still seeing the fallout of this classic goofum up, 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.680 because it turns out the problem was CrowdStrike had pushed 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.239 out an update that included ultimately a relatively simple but 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.720 catastrophic error in it a bug. Now, CrowdStrike shareholders are 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:59.360 angrily filing a massive class action lawsuit against the company, 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.120 claiming that it failed to disclose its testing process, and 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.320 the shareholders say that process was by all means inadequate. 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.160 The lawsuit says that CrowdStrike purposefully concealed the fact that 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:14.759 it had not put proper safety measures in place, and 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.840 as a result, this outage followed and then the company's 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.560 stock price tumbled by nearly a third over the course 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:27.039 of two weeks. That represented around twenty five billion with 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:32.479 a B dollars of market value. Yaoza and shareholders are 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.039 not the only ones considering a lawsuit against the company. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.480 Delta Airlines is also apparently doing that, claiming that the 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.760 crowd strike outage led to Delta incurring an expense of 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.600 around half a billion dollars. Another Yaoza, Delta, like some 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.600 other airlines, had to postpone and cancel thousands of flights 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.160 and put travelers up in hotels and such in the 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.240 wake of this tech disaster. And in the interest of 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:03.000 full disclosure, my partner works for Delta. She was asked 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.800 to volunteer to work at the airport, a position she 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.520 had not held for more than twenty years, and she 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.800 did it because she's a rock star. But according to 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.320 Delta CEO ed Bastion, it workers had to manually reset 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.519 around forty thousand servers to get things back to normal 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.600 for the company, and they expect to receive some form 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.800 of compensation for the damages that they incurred as a 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.840 result of this outage. Metta has some good news for 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.880 its shareholders. The company posted impressive revenue growth thanks to 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.920 its advertising business. That revenue growth was enough to mollify 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.800 shareholders who continued to be skeptical over Meta's spending in 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:50.160 the metaverse and AI spaces. Zuckerberg told shareholders that the 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.919 company's spending in those areas had increased by seven percent 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.839 in the second quarter of twenty twenty four, but that 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.080 this was more than covered by the rise of the 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.880 company's operation rating margin, which hit thirty eight percent. Now 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.560 I have no magic ball where I can see what 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.679 shareholders are actually thinking, but I imagine more than a few 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.440 of them are still in the golly. I wish they'd 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.320 stop throwing money away, but I am thankful that the 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.320 digital ad business is going well again. They're in that camp. 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.799 I'm sure some shareholders remain excited about this metaverse concept 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.160 and where AI may be going. But more and more 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.280 I'm hearing folks get a little uncertain about the viability 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.000 of AI, or at least how far off we are 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:39.400 from AI making a real difference in in a revenue perspective. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.839 I think a lot of people are starting to wake 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.480 up to the fact that AI does have enormous potential, 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.600 but that potential is going to take time to be realized, 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.960 and it isn't just a magic button where you press 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.640 it and money comes out. Speaking of AI disillusionment, Bloomberg's 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.320 Julia Love has an article titled big Tech fail to 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.200 convince Wall Street that AI is paying off And I 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:06.840 think that illustrates my point pretty darn well. She argues 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:11.040 that big companies like Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft have all 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.080 failed to prove the massive amount of money that they 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:18.560 have collectively poured into AI research and development has any 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.000 real chance of paying off in the near term. At 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.479 least they failed in the eyes of shareholders. Like it 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.960 might turn out that this isn't true, that it is 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.799 going to pay off, but shareholders are skeptical. These companies 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:35.320 saw their stock prices decline recently, so essentially, the upfront 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.680 costs of AIRE and D are enormous. The ongoing maintenance 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:45.720 costs to operate AI are also skyrocketing, particularly if you're 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.880 doing so at scale the way these big companies are 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.279 doing it, and the opportunities to actually generate revenue off 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.640 of that work are somewhat limited right now. But again, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.960 that's not to say that's always going to be the case. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.640 It may be that down the road this will look 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:04.200 absolutely critical. People will say, Wow, if you had gotten 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.840 in at that time, think of how much money you 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.680 would make. That's a possibility. However, for now, the attitude 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.360 appears to be more like, Ah, this is taking longer 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.200 than I thought it would, so I'm less excited now. 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.720 It's the good old hype cycle trend. Folks get super 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.920 excited about an emerging technology, but then that excitement starts 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.320 to drain away as they realize that the actual capabilities 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.719 of the tech aren't nearly as wild and impressive as 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.839 they had imagined. This does not mean that AI is 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.360 just going to fizzle out like some other stuff kind 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.279 of has. Arguably, NFTs have largely fizzled out. And yes, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.000 I know NFTs are technically there's still a thing, but 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.640 they are a shadow of what they once were thanks 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.960 to the enormous collapse NFTs had a couple of years ago. 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.359 This might mean that companies will need to find some 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.320 creative ways to talk about AI investments in the future 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.680 if they do not want their shareholders getting antsy about 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.520 the whole thing. So, yeah, it's not just the tech, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.440 it's always the money. Microsoft filed an annual report with 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.920 the SEC all publicly traded companies in the United States 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.560 have to do this. And in that report, Microsoft named 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.680 open Ai as a competitor. Now that's got a sting 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.320 for open Ai. It's kind of like hearing an ex 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.920 partner describe you as being okay. After all, Microsoft famously 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:31.760 pumped a thirteen billion dollar investment into open Ai. That's 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.760 a heck of a present, right, I mean, technically it's 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.240 not a president it's a business investment. But you know, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.920 in one section of Microsoft's report, it reads, quote, our 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.720 AI offerings compete with AI products from hyperscalers such as 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.520 Amazon and Google, as well as products from other emerging competitors, 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:57.400 including Anthropic, open Ai, Meta and other open source offerings, 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.839 many of which are also current or putdential partners end quote. 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.559 I love that they put OpenAI second in that list. 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.680 I guess that's, you know, trying to couch things a 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.720 little bit. But obviously Microsoft is not saying that it 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.520 has declared war on open Ai. It's not that kind 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.480 of competitor. In fact, some suspect that this might be 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.080 the people at Microsoft trying to get ahead of any 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.600 regulatory issues that could follow in the future. Microsoft wouldn't 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.840 be considered anti competitive in the AI space, because look, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:31.320 open ai is a competitor for Microsoft, not like a 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.240 best friend forever. Sure, for a while there, Microsoft had 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.040 secured a seat on open AI's board of directors. But 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.640 what does that mean? They don't have it anymore. They 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.800 dropped that seat. It's nothing you need to worry about, regulators, gerl. 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.800 We're all just you know, we're just er. We're competing 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.680 like crazy. Down here. Hey, look there's a three headed monkey. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.360 On a semi related note, Windows Central reported late last 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.960 week that open ai could be facing a pretty grim 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:02.120 future unless it holds another round of massive funding. That 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.400 the company has a projected five billion dollar loss as 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.960 possibly in the books this year. The company reportedly spends 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.960 about eight point five billion dollars a year in operation 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.320 and staffing costs, but it only posts revenue of three 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.880 point five billion. So yeah, if you do the math, 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.800 that means the company is spending five billion dollars more 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.760 in twenty twenty four, then it's bringing in and without 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.880 an influx of more cash, the company could go bankrupt. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.040 Open Ai has released updated large language models and tools 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.640 this year that in turn has led to increased revenue 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.480 for the company. But then running these updated models and 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.960 tools is really expensive, so some of that kind of 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:51.600 washes out. Could Open AI potentially innovate its way out 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.960 of business, or would its competitor Microsoft swoop in to 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.679 keep the ship afloat. I don't know. I guess I'm 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.400 gonna have I have to ask chat GPT what it thinks. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.360 Sticking with Microsoft and AI for just a bit longer, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.120 Four of four Media has a piece titled Microsoft and 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.640 Reddit are fighting about why Bing's crawler is blocked on Reddit? 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.880 All right, So Bing is Microsoft's search engine. It's one 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.880 that's most associated with the Edge web browser from Microsoft. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.320 And search engines use web crawlers to index the web 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.680 so that the search engine can list pages in response 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:35.000 to queries. This is a fundamental function of search engines. However, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.160 web builders they can actually put instructions inside a web 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.960 page that tell these crawlers to scram. Essentially, it's saying, hey, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.560 don't index this web page for your search results. Why 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.200 would you do that? Well, you might want to do 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.480 it if you want a more controlled access to the 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:56.080 page in question. So essentially Reddit has done this across 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.280 its entire site. Because of how companies like Google and 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.920 Microsoft are now crawling websites not just for search purposes, 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.400 but also to train artificial intelligence large language models, and 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.600 Reddit doesn't want any company using content from its site 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.440 to train AI without first ponying up cash to do so. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.880 Reddit doesn't object to AI learning from the stuff that 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.760 its users create and post to the site, but it 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.480 does not give that stuff away for free. Oh, it 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.480 also doesn't share any money with the users who actually 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.120 made the content in the first place. Reddit is like, no, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.720 once you post it here, it belongs to us. It's 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.800 no longer yours, it's ours. But anyway, Reddit is essentially saying, 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.040 if you want to train your AI on our stuff, 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.320 you got to fork over the cash. And Microsoft is 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.720 essentially saying, bro, we're not training AI, We just want 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.160 to index Reddit for the purposes of search, so chill out. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.880 Complicating matters is the fact that Google did pay Reddit 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:03.800 a cool sixty million dollars, and so Google, unlike other 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.480 search engines, is allowed to crawl an index and even 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.640 train AI on Reddit site. So some people are saying, huh, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.079 this is starting to look a bit anti competitive. In fact, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.080 Bing's head of search tweeted out quote Reddit has blocked 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.720 being from crawling their site for search, favoring another search engine, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.880 and impacting competition from being and being powered engines. End quote. 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.920 Reddit reps told four h four Media that nah, nah, 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.040 that's not what's going on. This is totally because Microsoft 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.480 refuses to play by our rules, and that's all there 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:44.199 is to it. So this, I think is an illustration 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:49.319 of how AI, specifically generative AI, has started to really 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.960 impact the way that the Internet works. Typically, you wouldn't 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.679 see sites like Reddit put up a block on indexing 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.840 the page. Like indexing me that more people will go 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.640 to Reddit when they're searching for certain topics and there's 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.800 a Reddit thread all about that thing, so you want 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.800 more traffic to come in. But if it also means 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.840 that you know, people are exploiting that content and they're 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.760 profiting off of that, and Reddit's not getting a piece 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.960 of the action, that's where the problems come up. And 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.800 I think we're going to see more stuff like this 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.400 all the way across the Internet in various incarnations. Well, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.600 speaking about ads and money, it's about that time for 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.079 us to take a quick break to thank our sponsors, 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.800 but we'll be back with more news right after this. 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.920 So we're back, and just this past Tuesday, Microsoft was 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.560 the target of a massive d DOS attack that hampered 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.720 Microsoft three sixty five and Azure services around the Globe 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.280 I measure if you aren't familiar, that's Microsoft's cloud based offerings. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.239 And as a quick reminder, d DOOS stands for distributed 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.480 denial of service and typically this kind of attack involves 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:17.600 sending a gargantuan amount of Internet requests from an army 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:23.280 of compromised computers, often compromised through malware and hacking, and 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.800 directing all of that traffic to a specific target on 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.400 the web, and the target becomes overwhelmed trying to answer 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.880 all these requests and ultimately it can shut down as 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.720 a result. Now, there are actually a lot of mitigation 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.040 strategies that can help decrease the impact of these sorts 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.760 of attacks, like to have an early detection system to say, hey, 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:49.679 something's up. We need to raise defenses essentially raise shields 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.360 in star trek terms. But sometimes it can take a 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.080 little bit before these mitigation strategies can be employed, and 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.400 in the meantime you've got a crisis on your hands. 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.760 Microsoft has not yet identified the threat actor responsible for 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.760 this attack, but the company did admit that a mistake 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.839 in the mitigation deployment delayed a security response, which in 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.320 turn meant the attack had a greater effect than it 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.840 otherwise might have had. So this is, you know, not 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.920 to blame the victim. The hackers ultimately are the ones 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.240 responsible for the outages, but the error on Microsoft's part 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.480 did mean that it took a little longer to respond 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.360 to that than it otherwise would have. Most companies have 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.120 mitigation strategies or they work with a security company that 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.160 provides mitigation strategies for this kind of stuff, and a 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.040 lot of companies have seen pretty massive upticks in attack 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.920 attempts over more recent years. It's always been a bit 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.880 of an issue ever since d DOS attacks became kind 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.040 of a possibility, but they are becoming far more frequent 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.600 these days, as is pretty much every kind of hacker attack. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.680 Israeli hackers claim responsibility for an attack that may have 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.800 disrupted massive amounts of Internet traffic in Iran. So this 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:09.600 happened in conjunction with military strikes that Israel reportedly was 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.800 carrying out against a Hamas target who was in Iran. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.480 These strikes were originally reported as missile based attacks, but 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.880 The New York Times says, actually that local sources claim 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.520 it was an explosive device that was smuggled into where 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.440 the target was staying in Iran. But the hacker group, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.840 which calls itself WE Read Evils or we Read Devils 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.680 if you prefer, that's not how the capitalization goes. But 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:39.359 they claimed to had taken down much of Iran's internet infrastructure, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.760 like leading to a massive Wi Fi outage. However, Forbes 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.240 was unable to confirm the extent to which these attacks 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:52.280 disrupted communications within Iran. As journalist Zach Doffman points out, 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.680 the lines of communication in Iran aren't exactly dependable even 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:57.920 on a good day, so it's hard to say, like, 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.720 was this a devastating attack or did anyone even notice. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.960 It's possible that people just figured it was another typical 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.760 day in Iran. Hard to say, but yeah, not surprising 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:17.760 to hear about hackers aligning with military operations. I don't 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.440 know if there's any evidence to show that We Read 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:26.960 Evils is state backed, Like if they receive support from 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.040 the Israeli government, that is possible they could be a 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.720 state backed hacker group. It's also possible they're acting independently 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.200 and have priorities that are in alignment with Israel's government. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.600 It's hard to say. Net neutrality sure is having a 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.360 rough go of it in the United States. All right, 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.120 let's do a quick rundown on what this is. So. 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.360 Net neutrality essentially says you should be able to have 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.640 the same access to all the stuff on the Internet, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.880 no matter where that stuff comes from, no matter what 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.120 isp you use, no matter what device you are using 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.720 to access it. And companies that provide Internet infrastructure should 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.840 not favor traffic from certain parts of the Internet, while 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.800 throttling traffic from other parts, nor should they deny service 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.879 to anyone just because that person isn't using that company's 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:22.960 own services or products. It should be neutral. During Barack 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:28.120 Obama's presidency, the FCC succeeded in passing some new rules 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.960 that would force service providers to play fair. Essentially, they 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.040 declared that the rules of common carriage would apply to 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:40.240 Internet traffic. During Trump's presidency, that version of the FCC 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.920 overturned those rules from the Obama administration, and now under 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.600 Joe Biden, the FCC reinstated those rules again, slightly different 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:54.200 versions but same idea. However, the Sixth Circuit US Court 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.640 of Appeals has now blocked those rules from going into effect, 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.720 saying that the FCC has failed to meet the high 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.199 standards of a legal argument justifying the rules in the 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.879 first place, and that those rules are not likely to 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.639 hold up to a legal challenge. So instead, the Court 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.520 has said that beginning either in late October or early November, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.480 it will hear oral arguments on the matter before it 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.439 goes any further. Now, considering that US elections happen in 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.320 early November, and that net neutrality was one of those 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.919 tent pole achievements of the Biden administration, this is a 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.679 pretty tough political blow to Democrats. The safe assumption is 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.480 that Kamala Harris, who is on track to becoming the 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:39.199 official nominee of the Democrat Party, will also support net neutrality. 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.080 And we've already seen what a Trump administration thinks of 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.439 the matter, so largely the outcome of the election, I 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:49.439 think will determine the direction that this takes outside of 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.120 the courts, Like the court will ultimately get to decide 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:57.760 whether the matter meets legal standards. But you know, we've 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.360 already seen that with each administration. The FCC's makeup can 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.800 change dramatically, and that in turn changes the policy. Reuter's 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.760 reports that the US Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:16.000 for anti competitive practices. Specifically, the DOJ is interested in 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.920 how Nvidia's AI chip business has kind of taken shape, 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.800 with concerns that the company has abused its position to 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.560 suppress competition in the space. It's not a crime to 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.800 be a successful business, but the DOJ is looking into 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.639 reports that Invidia wasn't just super good at selling chips 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.240 meant to power AI implementations, but also that the company 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.800 was pressuring customers to buy into packages of products. Further, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.280 there were accusations that Nvidia would charge a lower price 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.719 if a customer opted to buy networking gear from Nvidia 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.439 while also electing to have Nvidia's own AI chips integrated 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.560 into that gear, but they would have to pay a 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.840 higher price if they wanted the gear from Nvidia, but 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.320 they wanted to use AI chips from one of Nvidia's competitors. 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.000 So this is just in the investigation phase at the moment. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.520 There's no lawsuit or anything like that yet. It's possible 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.080 that nothing more will come of this, But with Nvidia 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.000 holding such a strong market position like they have like 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.040 eighty percent of the market share for AI powered chips. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.400 I suspect that investigation is going to end up being 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.280 pretty darn thorough more in tech and politics, Yeah, I 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.119 love it too. This week, the US Senate passed a 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.360 bill called the Kids Online Safety Act or KOZA KOSA. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.760 Many people had concerns about this legislation. They argued that 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.080 while it poses as a set of rules that are 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.000 meant to protect children from harmful content and practices online, 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:53.240 it was so vague in defining those quote unquote harmful 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.280 practices that it could be used to persecute folks like 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:02.320 those in say, the LGBTQ community. So understandably, there was 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:04.880 a lot of concern over the fact that it passed 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.320 in the Senate. However, the US House of Representatives is 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:14.560 not following suit. Yesterday, the GOP controlled House announced it 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.639 would not be bringing up COSA for a vote, citing 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:22.600 quote concerns across our conference end quote. So a bill 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.960 has to pass both the Senate and the House before 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.679 it could be signed into law, So KOSA is effectively 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.480 dead in the water. Now, this is actually great news, 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.679 which I'm sure some of y'all will be surprised to 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.080 hear me say, because I think it's pretty clear that 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.520 I do not often align with the GOP. But bills 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.920 like KOSA, which often use the pretense of protecting vulnerable 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.199 populations such as children, often end up serving as a 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:54.400 means to attack other vulnerable populations while restricting freedoms online. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.480 These bills might originally be framed with the best of intentions, 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.639 or maybe they're fraimed from the get go as a 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.359 potential weapon, but in either case, they tend to be 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.040 bad news when they're implemented. So it is good news 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.800 that this particular bill is fizzling out. Senator Ran Paul 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.560 spoke out against this bill in a letter that laid 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.080 out his logic opposing the legislation, and it appears that 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.399 that went a long way in the House of Representatives. 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.840 Intel is facing a really tough future, and a lot 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.000 of folks at the company won't be there to be 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.199 a part of that future. Intel told The Verge that 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:34.680 it will downsize by around fifteen percent, which means more 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.480 than fifteen thousand people, perhaps as many as nineteen thousand 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.680 could be laid off from the company. This is all 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:45.639 part of an effort to cut ten billion dollars from costs. 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.560 Intel is also cutting back on the amount it's going 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:50.600 to spend on R and D, and it plans to 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:55.040 quote stop non essential work end quote. So I imagine 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:56.639 that means a lot of departments are going to be 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:59.160 scrambling to figure out if they can present their work 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.360 in a way that makes it seem as though it's essential. 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.080 WEO that's going to be rough. Pad Gelsinger, who is 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:10.760 Intel's CEO, revealed that the one point six billion dollar 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.359 loss Intel experienced in the second quarter of twenty twenty 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.960 four was quote unquote disappointing. I think that's putting it lightly. 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.520 He also stated that Intel has quote yet to fully 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:26.639 benefit from powerful trends like AI end quote. That seems 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.320 to align what I've covered already in today's episode talking 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:34.679 about the disillusionment that's growing around artificial intelligence. But another 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:39.520 issue is that Intel has been investing heavily in semiconductor manufacturing. 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:43.840 This is an incredibly expensive business to get into. You 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.119 have to build all the facilities to be able to 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:51.280 make these semiconductor chips. Typically, Intel would design the chips, 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:55.920 but then would partner with other companies overseas to fabricate 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:59.600 those chips. However, out of concerns of national security and 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.840 support life chain challenges, there's been a shift to invest 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:06.320 heavily in domestic chip fabrication here in the United States. 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.440 So part of Intel's challenges relate to the fact that 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.560 the company has been investing billions into that effort and 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.440 it's going to take time to realize the benefits. It's 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:19.320 a long term solution in a world that typically focuses 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:23.960 on short term results. Intel also faces increased competition from 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:28.840 companies ranging from Qualcom, AMD, Google, and Apple. I just 0:24:28.880 --> 0:24:30.959 want to say to anyone out there who ends up 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:34.440 being affected by these layoffs, I wish you the absolute best. 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:39.320 I can't imagine how stressful that is, and it really stinks. Okay, 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:42.399 I have several more stories to get through. This was 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:45.720 a pretty heavy week as far as tech news goes. 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:48.000 So let's take another quick break and we'll be right 0:24:48.040 --> 0:25:02.120 back with more news. We're back the watchdog group Global Witness. 0:25:02.359 --> 0:25:05.680 I've talked about them many times before. They have kind 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:10.280 of raked Twitter slash X over the coals multiple times. Well, 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:12.880 they're ready to do it again. They report that there 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.280 are forty five accounts on X, the platform formally known 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:19.720 as Twitter that both appear to be bots and are 0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:25.000 also responsible for promoting content that contains disinformation, racist and 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.960