WEBVTT - Tech News: TikTok and Your Data 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.600 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.920 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.760 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.640 tech news for February twenty second, twenty twenty two, otherwise 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.040 known as the date where you just start hitting the 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.040 number two until it's March. Let's get to it. So, 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.720 back during the Trump administration here in the United States, 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.599 we saw the US government pressure the social network platform 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.159 TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company byte Dance, 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.320 citing a concern that TikTok could be siphoning personal data 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.080 from US citizens and sending that information back to China. 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.800 Claimed that TikTok refuted at the time, and there were 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.600 a lot of other issues that were tied up with 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.480 this as well. It was just that it was this 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.400 larger trade war between the US and China. But it 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.119 turns out that a pair of studies kind of justifies 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.960 those data concerns. A group of cybersecurity experts conducted studies 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:17.360 that we're looking into TikTok's data collection practices and concluded 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.200 that TikTok has been allowing byte Dance to have full 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.960 access to user data on the platform. The security experts 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.840 sent their findings to the news website The Rap and 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.720 The Wrap then did a very responsible thing from journalism standpoint, 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.920 They sought out other experts to independently confirm the findings, 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.760 which they did. TikTok, as of this recording, has not 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.800 yet responded to those reports. Further, the research suggests that 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.280 TikTok engineers have found a way to sidestep code audits 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.840 by both Google and Apple, which could also mean that 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.800 TikTok could potentially change the code without folks really knowing 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.160 about it, which brings up all sorts of issue is 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.960 and it suggests that TikTok has found some loopholes that's 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:08.239 exploiting while other platforms like say Facebook, continued to be 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:13.040 buffeted by recent changes to IOSS privacy and data tracking settings. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.880 You might remember that was a big part of why Meta, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.480 the parent company to Facebook, had such a rough year 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.520 last year. They lost out on an estimated ten billion 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.399 dollars in revenue because Apple changed it's it's data tracking 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:33.079 privacy settings. Now, according to those security experts, the TikTok 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:38.079 application can even query things on whatever devices installed on 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.520 so kind of similar to the data tracking issue, where 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.440 it's not just tracking your activity within the the app itself, 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.560 but other stuff you're doing on your down that same device. 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.520 So essentially TikTok has been able to do what Facebook 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.239 used to do but no longer can do, at least 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.280 if you opt out. My guess is that China isn't 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.040 so much spying on individual US citizens to build out 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.560 you know, dossiers on everyone, but they're rather you know, 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.239 selling that data to third parties that could use the 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.480 information for all sorts of stuff, you know, advertising being 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.800 the obvious one, but not necessarily the only one. Anyway, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.320 It'll be interesting to see if Google and Apple respond 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.200 to this or how or if TikTok will now. Let's 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.600 flip over to Instagram, where the app has quietly made 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.120 changes to a feature that allows users to set a 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.280 daily time limit for their use of Instagram. So previously 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.880 you could go into your settings and set it your 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.640 your daily limit to as low as ten minutes a day, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:41.960 and that would make it easier to be aware of 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.600 how much time you were actually spending on the platform 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.720 and avoid getting sucked into hours of just scrolling. This 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.200 is an opt in feature, so it's not like it's 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.320 on by default, but it was there. But now that 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.960 ten minute and fifteen minute time limit limit options, those 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.320 are both gone. The minimum time limit that you can 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.520 set now is thirty minutes. Now, I am not shocked 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.720 to hear this. After all, Meta Again, Instagram's parent company 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.720 had that earnings call that revealed some pretty rough news 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.240 to investors. Besides that ten billion dollars in lost revenue 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.240 or estimated lost revenue, it's really hard to, you know, 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.760 guarantee revenue that you lost because you didn't make it. 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.799 But anyway, the former iron grip that Facebook and Instagram 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.520 had on the average person's online time is starting to slip. 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.920 So perhaps one way the company is trying to address 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.159 this is to loosen the restrictions a little bit for 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.520 that daily time limit option, saying, hey, you know, thirty 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.640 minutes isn't all that bad. That should probably be your 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.359 upper limit um and have that set as the lowest option. Now, 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.360 some folks who who have used the feature, we'll find 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.640 that they will be spending more time on the platform 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.479 before they bump up against their daily limit. Now, to 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.000 be totally fair, this could just as easily be an example, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.960 but where Meta just saw that very few people were 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.520 opting in for ten or fifteen minute time limits, because 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.160 that is a very short amount of time. So it's 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.920 possible that the company just said, nobody's using these settings 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.400 like that, it's such a tiny thing, it doesn't make 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.240 sense to support it, and they just dropped those options. 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:19.719 Uh so you might as well, you know, ask those 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.799 especially if you feel like you can't afford to discourage 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.839 people from being on your platform anyway. I suspect this 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.080 is just one of a billion different things that the 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.839 company plans to do to try and reverse some concerning trends, 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.760 namely that some platforms like Facebook have seen a decline 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.279 in users or an engagement or both, and that the 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.520 company has had a little bit of trouble attracting younger 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.919 users to its platforms, which means that you know, the 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.080 user base will shrink over time as it ages out. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.560 Pro Publica and The New York Times investigated hundreds of 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.400 accounts on Twitter that appeared to be part of a 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.839 Chinese propaganda campaign during the Olympics, which prompted Twitter to 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:05.240 ban three thousand accounts, and the campaign was doing pretty 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.440 much what you'd expect when you hear the word propaganda. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.359 It was trying to present an overly positive portrayal of 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:16.120 China and the Olympic Games, while simultaneously ignoring or discounting 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.839 stories related to human rights abuses in China, of which 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:24.600 there are many. Twitter reps said that the platform banned 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.039 those accounts because they were violating the company's policy against 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.240 platform manipulation. So essentially the issue here was that these 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.400 accounts were all trying to feed into massive conversations about 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.200 the Olympics and China and to steer those conversations in 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.760 a specific positive way. And you might be familiar with 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:48.080 the term sock puppet account so way back in the 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.160 early days of the Internet, I would spot these on occasion, 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.760 either in chat rooms or on forums. But this is 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.719 where a user creates a separate account, like they have 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.440 an account with whatever it is, but they create a 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.119 separate account in order to achieve some sort of goal. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.640 It's possible that they make the sock puppet, which is 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.120 it's called that because it is under the control of 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.440 another user who's also in the same space. Uh, the 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.200 sock puppet might act like a hype man for the 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.960 primary user like oh yeah, this guy is so great yea, 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.800 Or sometimes the stock puppet stood in as an easily 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.880 defeatable opponent, right, because if you're controlling both sides the argument, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.240 you can easily make the other side lose. So would 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.800 be a straw man for the primary user to to 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.840 tear down and look like a hero. The Twitter situation 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.200 is similar, except instead of one fake account used to 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:45.360 push a narrative, we're talking about thousands. They were all 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.560 pushing to to shape this conversation online in a specific way, 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.920 and Twitter said, yeah, you can't do that. That's manipulating 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.560 the platform for your own purposes. That's against the rules, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.800 And so got to banning a remarkable with three thousand 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.880 accounts there, I wonder how many more are out there. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.360 Over in the EU, a consumer advocacy group called the 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.520 b e u C has called for the Digital Markets 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.320 Act or d m A, which is slowly taking shape 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.320 in the EU. It's set to become you know, law 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.640 before too long. They wanted to include the ability for 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.640 individual users to sue big tech companies for violations, so 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.240 right now, as it is currently formed, the d m 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.560 A would only allow business users to sue companies that 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.640 violate the rules under d m A, but the b 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.719 e u C once that extended to all EU citizens, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:41.560 whether collectively in class action suits or individually. Now, the 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:43.800 d m A sets out the major rules that big 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.719 tech companies have to follow within the EU, and specifically, 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:53.720 it's aiming at gate keepers, and the legislation defines gatekeepers 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:58.280 as large online platforms that quote have a strong economic position, 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.199 significant impact on the internal market, and are active in 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:06.280 multiple EU countries. They have a strong intermediation position meaning 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.800 that they link a large user base to a large 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:12.480 number of businesses, and have an entrenched and durable position 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.200 in the market, meaning that it is stable over time 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:20.520 end quote. So companies like Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, and 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.360 Microsoft would qualify. The regulations guarantee certain rights to third 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.440 parties such as, uh, you know, if you are running 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.760 your business on top of another company's platform, the other 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.960 company whose platform it is, they can't uh promote their 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.000 own products over yours. So the easiest example to point 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.560 out is Amazon, right, because Amazon has its own brands 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.640 and its own partners, and the company has stood accused 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:52.080 many times of promoting its own products over those of 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.319 competing vendors who are using the Amazon marketplace as a 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.520 place to sell their stuff. And Amazon's landed in hot 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.480 water all over the world for this about promoting its 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:09.040 own products over those of the customers that are using 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.959 the platform for their own online marketplace. And so the 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.560 d m A and the EU would make this illegal, 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.920 and it would mean that an individual would be able 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:23.760 to sue, say Amazon, if they violated or they believed 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.560 that Amazon violated the d m A. Anyway, there's no 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:28.640 guarantee yet that we're going to see the d m 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.640 A expand to allow individuals to pursue claims against big 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.760 tech the way that businesses could if it's you know, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.040 when it's finally finalized. So we'll have to keep an 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.560 eye out see what happens. All right, We've got some 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.520 more stories to go into, but before we do that, 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:51.600 let's take a quick break. You know, not too long ago, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.640 I did an update about the hyper loop, which was 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.800 originally started off at least in the public consciousness, started 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:04.760 off as a proposal that Elon Musk made two revolutionize 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.240 short range travel, like travel that send the hundreds of 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.359 miles but not the thousands of miles distances using enclosed 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.880 trains typically the enclosed system would have a lot of 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.599 the air pumped out to cut down an air resistance. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.560 You're usually talking about some sort of mag lev or 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:28.679 other levitation style train. Uh Musk's version used air bearings. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.400 And I talked about how various companies had come up 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.920 trying to make this a reality, including one that became 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.480 known as First hyper Loop Technologies, than hyper Loop one, 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.120 then Virgin hyper Loop one, and now just Virgin hyper Loop, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.520 and that the story was that recently Virgin hyper Loop 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.960 had made the decision to pivot away from designing passenger 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:57.120 style systems and focus more on cargo. And to that end, 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.199 there's more news that now the company has laid off 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.360 more than one hundred employees as part of this, that 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:08.280 they are refocusing on cargo versus passengers, which is you know, 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:13.640 particularly sad because it wasn't that long ago. It was 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.800 just last summer that the company was showing off its 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.680 passenger capabilities. But no, looks like that's not going to 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.080 be at least in the near future for Hyperloop. It 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.480 maybe that they'll eventually get back into that, but for 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.840 now it is off the table. So just a quick 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.719 update that those hundred or so folks. I think it's 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.320 a hundred and eleven actually who lost their jobs. Hope 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.679 they all land on their feet. Uh, but yeah, pretty 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:45.000 disappointing if you were hoping for a revolutionary change in transportation. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.200 Then again, there are other hyper loop companies out there, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.000 you know. And I also mentioned in a different episode 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.480 about how the I r S and the United States 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.320 recently reversed its decision to require people to use video 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.880 selfies and a facial recognition system run by a third 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.120 party i D company in order to access certain I 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.360 r S features online. So if you are a US 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:11.520 citizen and you want to create an ir S account, 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.080 well you can still do that video selfie and facial 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.320 recognition route if you like. You are not required to, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.800 but you can use that. If you don't want to 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.120 use that, then what you have to do is sit 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.760 for a live virtual interview to verify your identity. Now, 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.280 that sounds to me like a pretty labor intensive solution. 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.880 I don't know if the I r S will be 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.440 providing these interviews themselves, or you know, if they'll be 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.800 working with another company, but yeah, it sounds like it's 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.160 still gonna be pretty intense to to get that. I 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:48.640 r S account established last week, a cargo ship carrying 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.839 hundreds of luxury cars caught fire as it was heading 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.679 across the Atlantic from Europe to North America. The cargo 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.920 included cars from Porsche more than a thousand of them 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.880 and Bentley more than a d nine of those, I believe, 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.280 and the cause of the fire has not yet been 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.439 determined or at least not yet announced as I'm recording this, 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.800 but it appears that batteries in some of the electric 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.200 vehicles in the cargo played a part in making the 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.480 fire more difficult to extinguish. So we don't know if 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.800 the batteries actually caused the fire, like if there was 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.040 a short circuit, if one of the batteries was you know, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.640 damaged in transportation or something and that led to it, 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.480 or if they just exacerbated a fire that got caused 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.520 by some other source. But they it definitely made the 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.000 fire worse. Unfortunately, all twenty two crew members of the ship, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.160 called the Felicity Ace were rescued, so there were there 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.600 were no losses aboard, which is the most important thing. 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.960 You know, we can replace stuff, we can't replace people. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.400 But yeah, it's I'm sure for all the luxury car 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.600 lovers out there. They're shedding a tear as they think 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:02.160 of the various Porsche's and Bentley's and uch uh burning 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.520 to a crisp very sad. The United States Copyright Office 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.720 has answered a burning question in science fiction. Can a 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:14.360 robot hold a copyright for a work that the robot produced? No, 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.520 they can't. Actually, to be fair, that is too narrow 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:21.800 a use case. Really, The Copyright Office has said, no 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.920 artificial intelligence can secure a copyright for a work that 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.400 the AI itself creates. So all those interesting projects and 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.200 AI that revolve around computer systems or robots creating art 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.280 cannot get a copyright for any art that they produce. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.040 This is still really too narrow a view because honestly, 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.600 the Copyright Office essentially says for something to qualify for 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.400 a copyright, it has to be the product of human authorship. So, 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.880 in other words, if it ain't made by a human, 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.080 it don't get no copyright. If you had an infinite 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.800 number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters and 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.400 one of them created the best novel ever written, that 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.000 novel would be in the public domain because the monkey 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.440 ain't no human. The same is true for AI, it 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.880 sounds like, and that does make an interesting note. The 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.160 U S Copyright Office is one of the few entities 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.280 I know of that has already determined that artificial intelligence 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.600 cannot be considered equivalent to human intelligence. Now I'm being 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.360 a little flippant here because this doesn't mean one that 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.400 we're always going to see the Copyright Office take this interpretation. 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.200 That could change over time, especially as AI gets more 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.400 you know, sophisticated, and to AI as it stands is incredible, 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.800 but still very much different from and arguably inferior to 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.440 human intelligence when we take intelligence as a whole, not 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.400 just the ability to solve problems, but when you take 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.480 things like creativity, innovation, out of the box thinking, associative thinking, 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.040 all that kind of stuff, things that humans are very 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.000 good at. Most machine systems are not very good at it. 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.560 So in those respects you could argue machines are still 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.240 way behind us. Anyway, if you make a computer program 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.320 that composes music or poetry or whatever, just know that 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.480 the program will not be able to secure a copyright 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.159 on the work it generates. Though I guess you know, 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.240 depending upon how you word it, you might be able 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.600 to get a copyright for the program itself. So that's 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.919 something right. And if your robot gets depressed that the U. S. 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.800 Copyright Office refuses to acknowledge its art, well it can 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.879 always go apply for a job at Whitecastle. Yes, the 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.800 company has announced it will be installing a robot from 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.920 miso or Robotics called the Flippy two in one white 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:34.119 Castle locations. Now, if you're not familiar with White Castle, 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.719 that's a fast food chain here in the United States. 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.720 Harold and Kumar like to go there. In fact, they 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.439 should do another Harold and Kumar movie and make the 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.120 Flippy robots look like the Terminator. That would be awesome, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.560 a great stoner science fiction comedy movie. You're welcome, Hollywood. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.040 I'll take my check. But anyway, the Flippy robot mostly 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.320 looks like a robotic arm mounted to a frame that 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.959 can move between fry stations. It does not look like 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.440 the Terminator. So it would take some you know, poetic 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.399 license to make the movie that I just pitched. But 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.800 this will allow Whitecastle to automate some of the kitchen work. 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.800 It is not the only fast food company that has 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.920 been you know, investing in AI and robotics in order 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.800 to do this. Um, I think if it means that, 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.159 if it means these companies are employing fewer humans, but 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.360 that they're paying the humans that they do employ more 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.159 of a living wage, I'm all for it, although I 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.560 of course worry that it will just mean that they'll say, hey, look, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.320 we got to cut all those salaries out of all 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.360 those uh those uh, those franchises, and now we get 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.640 to keep more money for ourselves. I worry that that's 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.600 how it's going to go, but you know, hasn't been 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.040 written yet. Maybe maybe I should hold out. Hope. That's 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.320 it for today's tech news. Please let me know if 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.600 you have any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.160 whether it's a technology, a company, a trend in tech, 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.879 anything like that. Reach out to me on Twitter. The 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.520 handle for the show is tech Stuff h s W 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:12.320 and I'll talk to you again releases y. Tech Stuff 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.520 is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.360 I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.439 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.