Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and a law of all things tech. And this is
Speaker 1: the Tech News for Thursday, February twenty one. And starting
Speaker 1: with this episode, the news episodes are gonna get a
Speaker 1: little shorter so I can really focus on a few
Speaker 1: big headlines as opposed to really trolling the news and
Speaker 1: trying to pad out an episode. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: not doing anyone any favors. So we're going to really
Speaker 1: focus from here on out. So let's get started. Researchers
Speaker 1: with M I. T. Harvard University and E. T. H.
Speaker 1: Zurich are working on using machine learning to help treat
Speaker 1: patients with COVID nineteen. So just quickly, machine learning refers
Speaker 1: to a study a field of study within computer science
Speaker 1: where you're using algorithms that can self improve over time.
Speaker 1: So the goal with this particular study was to find
Speaker 1: effective treatments for severe COVID nineteen symptoms within vulnerable population,
Speaker 1: specifically elderly people who have COVID nineteen. The researchers identified
Speaker 1: a potential starting point related to lung tissue, because as
Speaker 1: we age, our lungs tend to become stiffer, and that
Speaker 1: condition can make respiratory illnesses more difficult to manage. The
Speaker 1: researchers wanted to see if there are any existing medications
Speaker 1: that might be effective for treating those symptoms. While other
Speaker 1: teams of doctors and researchers are working to develop new
Speaker 1: medications all the time for COVID nineteen and everything else,
Speaker 1: that process is very slow, and for good reason. You
Speaker 1: have to make sure that the treatment has a high efficacy,
Speaker 1: and you have to learn what side effects the medication
Speaker 1: might have. Existing medications have already gone through this uncle
Speaker 1: testing process, so we have a good understanding of what
Speaker 1: those medications do and the potential side effects of them,
Speaker 1: but we don't necessarily know if any of them would
Speaker 1: be particularly helpful in treating COVID nineteen symptoms. So the
Speaker 1: team decided to look at genes and proteins that are
Speaker 1: related to aging in general and this tendency for lungs
Speaker 1: to grow more stiff over time. In particular. They're using
Speaker 1: machine learning algorithms to whittle down a large list of
Speaker 1: medications that might help to address the expression of those genes,
Speaker 1: perhaps even going back several steps to the genetic root cause,
Speaker 1: because you can really think of this as you know,
Speaker 1: a series of things that lead to this outcome. Now,
Speaker 1: the algorithm looked at how various drugs affect the expression
Speaker 1: of these particular genes and cross referenced that with another
Speaker 1: data set about how genetic expression would respond after a
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen infection, and then the algorithm looked for drugs
Speaker 1: that might have an impact on gene expression that could
Speaker 1: in turn decrease the severity of COVID nineteen symptoms. The
Speaker 1: team is sharing their information with pharmaceutical companies, which can
Speaker 1: then begin their own clinical trials to test the results
Speaker 1: against you know, reality, and if it works, it could
Speaker 1: make an enormous difference in the quality of life of
Speaker 1: elderly COVID patients and potentially decrease mortality rates. Over at YouTube,
Speaker 1: the company recently shut down nearly three thousand channels that
Speaker 1: it says we're part of a state backed influence operation. Now,
Speaker 1: the states in question were Russia and China. YouTube says
Speaker 1: that most of the channels were part of these Chinese
Speaker 1: programs meant to spread propaganda about stuff like US politics
Speaker 1: and the COVID nineteen pandemic, all of it buried deep
Speaker 1: in tons of videos about far less weighty matters like
Speaker 1: you know, celebrity gossip and pop culture topics. We're seeing
Speaker 1: a more proactive approach from YouTube after years of criticism
Speaker 1: about how the company's moderation policy. These allowed misinformation campaigns
Speaker 1: to run wild, and videos promoting extremist views were able
Speaker 1: to get a foothold on the platform. Meanwhile, over at Weymo,
Speaker 1: another company in the Google family, engineers are getting ready
Speaker 1: for a really big test. Weimo is in the autonomous
Speaker 1: vehicle business. In case you didn't know, it had previously
Speaker 1: conducted tests of self driving cars in Phoenix, Arizona primarily,
Speaker 1: but now the company is preparing to launch an autonomous
Speaker 1: vehicle testing phase in the San Francisco area. Weymo hasn't
Speaker 1: built their own vehicles. Instead, they took existing models from
Speaker 1: other car companies and then change those models to make
Speaker 1: them self driving. The Jaguar or if you prefer, Jaguar
Speaker 1: I Pace, which is an electric vehicle suv, and the
Speaker 1: Chrysler Pacifica, which is a kind of minivan, make up
Speaker 1: the models in the fleet of autonomous cars. The goal
Speaker 1: is to build out an autonomous taxi service in the future,
Speaker 1: but Weymo reps are really quick to point out that
Speaker 1: there's still a long way to go before we get there.
Speaker 1: The tests in the Bay Area will still include a
Speaker 1: human driver or quote single vehicle operator, as a Weymo
Speaker 1: rep told venture Beat. The company said that the test
Speaker 1: will last several weeks. It begins this week and they
Speaker 1: have already conducted and they continue to conduct tests in
Speaker 1: other parts of California. This test won't be open to
Speaker 1: the public, so you're not gonna find yourself getting into
Speaker 1: a Weymo driver less taxi just by happenstance. If you
Speaker 1: happen to be a Weymo employee, maybe then you can
Speaker 1: participate in the study. While Weymo has been working hard
Speaker 1: to improve its technology, it also has had a small
Speaker 1: number of cases in which a human operator felt it
Speaker 1: necessary to take control of the car. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: rare thing, however. Engadget reports that Weymo filed a report
Speaker 1: with the California Department of Motor Vehicles that explained that
Speaker 1: there were just twenty one cases and which an operator
Speaker 1: felt it was necessary to take over the control of
Speaker 1: the vehicle over a test period that included six nine
Speaker 1: thousand miles driven by autonomous vehicles. Still, when it comes
Speaker 1: to autonomous cars and safety, the bar is incredibly high,
Speaker 1: and you could argue it's justifiably so, because we've seen
Speaker 1: what kind of tragedies can happen when an autonomous or
Speaker 1: semi autonomous system fails to prevent an accident. Over in Australia,
Speaker 1: the government is preparing to vote on a bill that
Speaker 1: would require internet companies like Google and Facebook to pay
Speaker 1: journalistic outlets media companies for content appearing on those tech
Speaker 1: companies platforms. So the argument is that if a company
Speaker 1: like Facebook makes use of content from an Australian media company,
Speaker 1: then Facebook should pay that media company for use of
Speaker 1: that content. The legislation would create regulations forcing tech companies
Speaker 1: to negotiate with media companies and agree upon a rate,
Speaker 1: which might be a lump sum or it might be
Speaker 1: a per click rate. It all depends on how the
Speaker 1: legislation gets hashed out. The Treasurer of Australia developed this
Speaker 1: idea after a study showed that companies like Facebook and
Speaker 1: Google receive a really big share of advertising dollars while
Speaker 1: much of the content that was appearing in Australia we're
Speaker 1: from Australian media organizations. But the tech companies have objected
Speaker 1: to the wording of the proposed legislation, and now Facebook
Speaker 1: says it will not allow Australian users and media companies
Speaker 1: to share links to news articles on Facebook. The managing
Speaker 1: director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand wrote, quote, the
Speaker 1: proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and
Speaker 1: publishers who use it to share news content. It has
Speaker 1: left us facing a stark choice attempt to comply with
Speaker 1: the law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or
Speaker 1: stop allow news content on our services in Australia. With
Speaker 1: a heavy heart, we are choosing the ladder end quote.
Speaker 1: The sarcastic tone is purely editorial. Further, Australian users will
Speaker 1: not be able to see posts that include links to
Speaker 1: international news sources, and international users won't be able to
Speaker 1: view or share Australian news content on Facebook. Effectively, Australian
Speaker 1: Facebook users are in a media blackout while they use Facebook. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a really complicated issue, one that actually goes
Speaker 1: beyond technology, but I do think this move might add
Speaker 1: more fuel to the fire for criticisms that companies like
Speaker 1: Facebook and Google are monopolistic or anti competitive. And it
Speaker 1: also kind of devalues Facebook's news feed if no news
Speaker 1: is allowed to be in it. Huh hey, do you
Speaker 1: remember the Sony Pictures hack? Back in quick refresher, a
Speaker 1: group of hackers who identified themselves as the Guardians of
Speaker 1: Peace infiltrated Sony Pictures systems and stole a crap ton
Speaker 1: of data, including copies of unreleased films, emails, and personal
Speaker 1: information about Sony Pictures employees. The group indicated that the
Speaker 1: hack was a response to Sony Pictures producing a movie
Speaker 1: called The Interview. Uh. The plot of that comedy revolves
Speaker 1: around an assassination attempt on Kim Jong un, the leader
Speaker 1: of North Korea. Sony ultimately canceled the theatrical release of
Speaker 1: that movie and switched to a digital delivery method of distribution.
Speaker 1: And here we are seven years later in the U. S.
Speaker 1: Department of Justice has charged three hackers that they say
Speaker 1: were involved in the Sony Pictures hack, as well as
Speaker 1: some other cyber criminal activities like the development and distribution
Speaker 1: of the Wanna Cry ransomware, malware, and hacks on various
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency exchanges. The d o J says that the three
Speaker 1: hackers all belonged to hagging units that fall under the
Speaker 1: authority of the North Korean military. In addition, the d
Speaker 1: o J revealed that a Canadian American citizen has pled
Speaker 1: guilty un charges of money laundering on behalf of North
Speaker 1: Korean hackers. Now, if you did follow the Sony Pictures
Speaker 1: case when it happened, you probably remember that North Korean
Speaker 1: officials denied that there was any connection between the North
Speaker 1: Korea government or military and these hackers. You probably also
Speaker 1: remember that a lot of cybersecurity experts were, let us say,
Speaker 1: skeptical of that claim. These charges continue to reject North
Speaker 1: Korea's objections to them, and as for the charges, it's
Speaker 1: very hard for me to imagine a scenario in which
Speaker 1: North Korea would ever agree to extradite those charged to
Speaker 1: stand trial for the allegations. So really these charges are
Speaker 1: more of a name and shame approach. In the world
Speaker 1: of tech conferences, there are a few standouts that merit
Speaker 1: special attention. Ce s as a big one as his
Speaker 1: E three, but a third one is the Mobile World Congress,
Speaker 1: which holds events in different parts of the world throughout
Speaker 1: the year, but it reserves its main exhibition for Barcelona, Spain,
Speaker 1: and as the name implies, the tech trade event for
Speaker 1: focuses on mobile devices and apps for those devices. Now,
Speaker 1: in a normal year, more than a hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: attend the event. The g s m A, which organizes
Speaker 1: the conference, canceled the Barcelona event in due to the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic, but plans are in place for the
Speaker 1: twenty one event to happen, though it is going to
Speaker 1: take place later in the year by swapping places with
Speaker 1: the Mobile World Congress Shanghai event. In addition, attendees won't
Speaker 1: be required to receive a COVID vaccination prior to going,
Speaker 1: probably because there's still a lot of uncertainty about who
Speaker 1: will be able to receive a vaccine win in many
Speaker 1: parts of the world. Instead, attendees will have to test
Speaker 1: negative for COVID nineteen within seventy two hours of the
Speaker 1: event kicking off on June. The g s m A
Speaker 1: also says that it will limit attendance and expects no
Speaker 1: more than fifty people to go. Now I mean, I
Speaker 1: sincerely hope that this event and the Shanghai event are
Speaker 1: safe for every one concerned, but I have to admit
Speaker 1: that these kind of big events still make me a
Speaker 1: little nervous in a time when we're not really sure
Speaker 1: what the status is going to be for vaccinations. And finally,
Speaker 1: engineers with the University of California, San Diego showed off
Speaker 1: a really cool soft robot. It uses pressurized air to
Speaker 1: provide the needed to move around, and most astonishingly, it
Speaker 1: has no electronic components on board. Everything relies on tubes
Speaker 1: and valves to send pressurized air to specific limbs. The
Speaker 1: robot has four legs. The team based the robots motion
Speaker 1: off of an African side necked turtle, utilizing quote diagonal
Speaker 1: couplet git patterns end quote. Now, that essentially means that
Speaker 1: the turtle walks by moving diagonally opposite limbs at the
Speaker 1: same time, like if it's taking a step forward with
Speaker 1: its right front leg, it also moves its left back
Speaker 1: leg forward at the same time and vice versa. Now,
Speaker 1: the robot does this with a valve system controlling which
Speaker 1: limbs receive air, causing them to extend. The valves have
Speaker 1: a delay, so the air flows into pairs of limbs
Speaker 1: at different times, and the coordination of this results in
Speaker 1: the robot walking. Although walking is a generous term, it's
Speaker 1: more of a coordinated wobble. But then most days that's
Speaker 1: all I can manage too, So who am I to talk?
Speaker 1: Soft robots could have a lot of really cool potential uses,
Speaker 1: including interacting and human environments where a soft robot poses
Speaker 1: less of a risk to we squishy humans. Think bay
Speaker 1: Max from Big Hero six. And that wraps up this
Speaker 1: quick fire news round for Thursday, February twenty one. We'll
Speaker 1: be back next week with more episodes of tech Stuff
Speaker 1: and more news. If you guys have suggestions for things
Speaker 1: I should cover on tech Stuff, please let me know.
Speaker 1: The best way to do that is on Twitter with
Speaker 1: the handled text Stuff H s W and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I
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