WEBVTT - What the Tech Happened? Part One 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.520 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:16.160 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, jonvan Strickland. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.560 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.439 Tech Are you. Welcome to my last Friday as the 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.120 host of tech Stuff. You've almost made it. I've almost 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.000 made it. It's really exciting. I thought it could be 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.040 fun to look back on kind of like a big 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:39.120 tech story from each year since I've been a host 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.040 of tech Stuff. So that's from mid two thousand and 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.000 eight to this year or this past year twenty twenty four. 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.280 It's weird for me to say this past year because 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.160 I'm actually putting this together when it has not yet 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.080 turned to twenty twenty five. I also figured this would 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.000 take up a couple of episodes because I'm a chatty 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.120 Cathy and a lot has gone on since mid two 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.720 thousand and eight. So this is part one, and in 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.000 part two we will pick up and continue on. That's 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.399 how parts work now. To be clear, the entries I 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.520 submit to you, these are not necessarily the biggest or 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.920 even the most important techt stories of each year. Instead, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.160 it's a story I picked for whatever capricious reason. Entered 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.440 into my head as I was looking back over everything 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.000 that's happened over the last sixteen and a half years 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.400 in the world of tech. So we started off tech 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.720 Stuff in early June of two thousand and eight. For 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.200 that reason, I went to look at the back half 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:38.679 of two thousand and eight for the tech story to 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.319 talk about, So I ignored anything that happened up until June. 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:47.960 And that brings us to Apple launching the iPhone app Store. Now, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.000 the iPhone had come out the year before, but the 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:55.040 app store would end up becoming a thing one month 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.559 after we started tech Stuff in July of two thousand 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.280 and eight. That's when that app store came online. Now, 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.920 before that, iPhone users had to be content with the 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.000 apps that Apple made available on the iPhone that were 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:12.320 preloaded on the device. Third party choices were not actually 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.600 an option yet. Apple had spent a year, well more 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.080 than a year technically, but a year since the iPhone 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:23.360 had come out, just coming up with a way to 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.919 create an app store, Like, what was the strategy there? 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.960 They didn't want it to just be a fire hose 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.120 of content because then the store would get flooded with 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.000 all sorts of apps, many of which would be pretty terrible. 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:41.000 So their plan included a vetting process for apps, and 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.920 at the best of times, this process was rather opaque 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.000 and obtuse. Sometimes a developer could get an app approved 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.040 and in the store right away without any real revisions. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.000 Other times developers would get pushedback from Apple and they 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.640 would have to tweak their apps for one reason or another, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.600 and that was not always clear, like it wasn't always 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.359 apparent why one app would be accepted and another app 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.320 rejected when they were, at least on the surface, very 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.040 similar to one another. So it raised a lot of 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.160 questions and confusion. And because Apple didn't allow for side loading, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.320 which is when users can install apps from outside an 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:25.639 official app store, this meant that developers had no alternative 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.240 pathway to get to their customer base. It was either 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:33.240 played by Apple's rules or get shut out entirely. Now, 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.040 the app store would have a huge impact on tech 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.560 and how we interact with it, which is putting it lightly. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.720 Not to mention it would help propel Apple's revenue into 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.680 the stratosphere. The company would take a chunk out of 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.480 every purchase made through an app. Now that could also 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.760 include if the app was one where customers had to 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.080 pay to download the app, like if it wasn't a 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.200 free app, if it costs five or ten bucks or whatever, 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.560 Apple got a chunk that, But they also got a 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.160 percentage of all in app purchasing options, assuming it wasn't 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.440 an app like ordering a physical thing, like if you 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.120 were using an app to order food from a restaurant, 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.560 Apple wouldn't get a chunk of that. But if you 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.960 were using an app and the app had features that 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.960 were locked behind a paywall and you paid to get 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.040 to those features, Apple got a cut. So developers were 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.800 obliged to use Apple's own payment processing features, they couldn't 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.719 introduce their own, and Apple took, like I said, a 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.120 percentage with every transaction. And it was that sort of 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:34.279 policy that would eventually land Apple in hot water with 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.680 antitrust regulators who would argue that the company was using 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.800 its dominant position to deny competition in the space. And 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.560 that's something that still plays out to this day, Like 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.480 there's still court cases going on that go one way 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.200 or the other. Some have been kind of an Apple's favor, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.479 some have been against, but it's an ongoing thing. But 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.400 on top of all that, the app store would bring 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.640 about an era in which everyone and their doll began 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.120 to develop apps for the web content creators out there. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.919 This became a real headache because it wasn't enough to 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.719 just optimize your website so that it would look good 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.360 on mobile devices. That was absolutely a necessity, because trends 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:15.479 were showing that more people were starting to rely on 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.120 mobile devices to access the web every single year, but 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.480 you also had to go and make your own bespoke app, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.720 or at least that that was the philosophy. Countless apps followed. 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.640 Some of these would stand the test of time, but 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.520 a lot of them ultimately withered and died. I am 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.240 reminded of the house Stuff Works app, which we actually 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.760 mentioned in a recent episode when I had the boys 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:39.679 of Stuff They Don't Want You to Know on the show. 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.400 The House Stuff Works app served up articles and quizzes 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.279 and such to users, but it was tough to convince 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.280 people to download it. I mean, a lot of folks 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.560 would just go to how Stuff Works if Google pointed 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.719 them that way when they had the question about something. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.200 And it was also really tough to monetize apps. Optimizing 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.240 articles to display in an app meant that you might 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.240 have to issue advertising, So like, if they went to 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.600 the web version of the article, they would get the 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.159 ads and you would get the impressions and that would 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.719 count against whatever the ad deal was. But if it 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.040 was an app, you might not get that. And ads 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.479 were a top revenue driver for a lot of companies, 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.920 including How Stuff Works. So how do you both serve 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.480 content up to people in a streamlined way via an 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.480 app and how do you make money off of that 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.200 as its sponsorships? As that what? A lot of people 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.320 hadn't figured that out, and a lot of other outlets 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.240 encountered similar issues to what we saw How Stuff Works. 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.480 For a while, apps were seen as a possible lifeline 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.640 for content companies that were struggling with the old business model. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.360 You know, maybe you could convince people to subscribe through 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.000 an app and put content behind a paywall. That would 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.520 help push back against the myriad of ways content could 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.359 be shared outside of just visiting the website itself. Sure, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.880 stuff like social media could let you find more readers, 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.640 so a lot of content companies embrace social media early on, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.080 But then people started just skimming content through social media 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.480 and never bothered to click through to visit the home website, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.920 which meant again, you weren't actually monetizing any of that traffic. 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.800 All the traffic was going to the social network, not 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.280 to you. Anyway, the App store made a truly huge 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.600 change on the tech sector. Entire companies built around apps 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.200 were made possible by Apple's move. And while Google would 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.640 launch the Android operating system in two thousand and eight, 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.600 I don't think even the most hardcore Android fan out 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.320 there would be able to stay with a straight face 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.840 that Google would have accomplished the same thing that Apple 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.920 managed to do. Google did some great things and continues 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.680 to do some great things along with some not so 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.000 great things. But honestly, without Apple, I don't think that 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.240 this ecosystem really takes off. Now, let us move on 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.480 to two thousand and nine, and we've got a whole 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:00.840 year to play with this time, just half a year. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.560 So what tech story caught my eye? Well, there were 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.440 a couple of contenders. One is a very sad one. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.200 Steve Jobs's health was in serious decline. And whatever you 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.880 might have thought of Steve Jobs as a person or 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:17.840 a boss, still hard to talk about someone's health deteriorating, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.920 at least it is for me. And journalists were swarming 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:23.680 to find out the truth of what was going on 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.280 with Steve Jobs, which was kind of achy. He initially 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.960 said he was experiencing a quote unquote hormonal imbalance, but 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.920 it later turned out that he had secretly had a 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.600 liver transplant, and part of me is frustrated that he 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.280 actually had to deal with journalists who were prying at 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.400 his personal life at all. But then I also understand 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.120 that since he was CEO of Apple at the time, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.120 there were reasons people needed to know about his health 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.600 because if his well being impacted the company, well that's 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.280 a huge thing, and it impacts thousands of other people. 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.480 So I guess that's one of the trade offs you 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.000 have to accept when you become the head of a 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:06.000 supremely profitable company. And obviously, while his health was big 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.760 news in two thousand and nine, his passing two years 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.480 later would eclipse that. Another big story in two thousand 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.440 and nine was that Microsoft released Windows seven, which would 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.720 go on to be one of the more popular versions 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.600 of the operating system. Microsoft has had an inconsistent track 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.839 record in that regard. People loved Windows XP, but they 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.760 weren't fans of Vista. For example. People liked Windows seven, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.439 but they wouldn't very much care for Windows eight and 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.240 so on. But I feel the story I should really 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.479 touch on is that in two thousand and nine, Facebook 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.440 officially passed MySpace as far as the number of visitors 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.760 going to each site per month within the United States 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.280 is concerned. It is wild to me that tech Stuff 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.320 was around back when MySpace wasn't just a thing, it 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.079 was the dominant thing in the social network space here 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.400 in the States. Of course, by the time time tech 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.320 Stuff got started, MySpace was already getting into trouble and 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.160 Facebook's star was on the rise. In fact, if we 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.680 look at global numbers, Facebook had already surpassed MySpace in 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.400 unique visitors worldwide back in April two thousand and eight, 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.200 which was a couple of months before tech Stuff even launched. But, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.960 as I'm sure you all know, here in the United States, 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.520 folks essentially behave as though nothing matters unless it happens here. 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.160 I'm not saying that's right. In fact, I'm saying it's 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.040 outright myopic and dumb, but it's still how a lot 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.280 of people behave here in the United States. So the 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.520 trajectory Facebook was on would propel the company to incredible 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:40.560 heights as well as set itself up for scrutiny and criticism. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.280 In two thousand and nine, Facebook changed its terms of use. 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.480 The new terms had a concerning clause in them that read, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.040 and this is a long one, but I'm going to 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:54.880 quote it. Quote you here. By grant Facebook and irrevocable, perpetual, 0:10:55.240 --> 0:11:00.480 non exclusive, transferable, fully paid worldwide license would right to 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:06.520 sub license to a use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly, 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:14.160 perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:19.040 create derivative works, and distribute through multiple tiers. Any user 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.760 content you lowercase I post on or in connection with 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.000 the Facebook service or the promotion thereof, subject only to 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:32.000 your privacy settings. Or I enable a user to post, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.160 including by offering a share link on your website, and 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.720 lowercase B to use your name, likeness, and image for 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:43.000 any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of lowercase A 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.320 and lowercase B on or in connection with the Facebook 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:52.760 service or the promotion thereof. End quote. Whew, Okay, that's 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.160 a mouthful. I should have just said the headline of 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.920 the consumerist piece about this particular change, which was quote 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.760 Facebook's new term of service. We can do anything we 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.200 want with your content forever. End quote. It's actually it's 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.600 a great article. So there was a pretty swift and 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.960 negative reaction to this policy change, understandably, and ultimately Facebook 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.720 walked it back, putting up changes to vote among the 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.840 user base, saying, hey, you should be able to have 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.679 a say in this because it's going to impact you, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.960 and a very tiny percentage of users actually bothered to vote, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.319 but critics applauded Facebook's move to at least take user 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.880 concerns into consideration. The honeymoon would not last very long, however. 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.160 In twenty ten, Zuckerberg would claim that privacy was no 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.040 longer a social norm, which I infer as a blanket 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.560 excuse for Facebook to collect as much data from as 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.880 many people and profit as much as possible. And obviously, 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.800 in later years, Facebook would be held accountable for all 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:52.439 sorts of problems it caused or facilitated. But yeah, two 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.520 thousand and nine is a good year to point to 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:59.000 and say, here's where Facebook's journey to becoming a huge company, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:04.319 one of the big five in tech really began. Okay, 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.920 we're up to twenty ten. That's the year we'd get 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.760 the iPad, which I thought would be a flop because 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:11.840 no one had managed to make a tablet computer a 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.560 viable consumer product up to that point. It's also the 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.760 year of Antennagate. You might not remember Antennagate because we've 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.280 had so many iPhones since then, but Antennagate was when 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.400 folks were complaining about connectivity issues with the brand new 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:31.520 iPhone four, and upon closer inspection, it looked like the 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.960 issue was the internal antenna of the iPhone was placed 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:37.840 in such a way that if you held the phone 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.320 like you know, like a human being holding a phone, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.000 you could end up blocking the antenna from getting a 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:48.160 solid signal. And we were all essentially told, you're holding 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.440 it wrong. Thus, Apple pushed the blame onto consumers rather 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.600 than owning up to the fact that the iPhone four 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.520 had a design flaw. But the story that really jumped 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.360 out at me in twenty ten was that the world 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:05.200 learned of stucks net at stux and e T that 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.240 was malware designed for a very specific purpose, specifically to 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:14.480 sabotage nuclear centrifuges that were part of Iran's nuclear program. 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.560 So in order to create a uranium based nuclear power plant, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.920 or indeed a uranium based nuclear weapon, you first have 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.880 to get hold of the right kind of uranium, which 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.360 is the isotope U two thirty five. Trouble is, that 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.080 is really rare stuff. It makes up less than a 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.880 percentage of the uranium we actually mind like zero point 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.000 seven percent. But you need a concentration somewhere between three 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.760 to five percent of uranium two thirty five in your 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.800 uranium mix to have viable material. So we have to 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.520 enrich the uranium. We have to get the right concentration. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.600 Part of that process typically involves using centrifuges to separate 0:14:55.680 --> 0:15:00.160 out you two thirty five from you know, the other stuff. Well, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.240 the stucks Neat virus would do a few things. One 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.480 thing it would do is that it hit itself once 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.840 it was installed in a target computer, so that you 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.360 couldn't easily see that malware was on the device. These 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.520 particular computers were not connected to the Internet, a very 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.800 wise decision. They had what we would call an air gap, 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.040 as in no connectivity to an outside network. So in 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:21.680 order to get the virus on the computer in the 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.560 first place, the malware makers would put this code on 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.320 USB drives like little thumb drives, and then they tricked 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.880 Iranian plant workers to install the malware on these air 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:37.760 gapped machines, so human beings mostly unknowingly carried this and 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.560 ended up installing them on the computers. The code would 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:46.720 send commands to centrifuges and cause the centrifuges to rotate 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.200 faster than what they were rated for, and the intent 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.600 was to break the machinery and sabotage e Iron's nuclear program, 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.840 and it worked. This was not your run of the 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.400 mill hacker attack. Of course. While it's never been officially acknowledged, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.000 at least as far as I know, the generally accepted 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.320 stories that Israel and the United States collaborated on this 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.960 attack for several years before deploying it, and it made 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:11.600 history by being the first major malware attack connected with 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.560 industrial sabotage. That's a heck of a story for twenty ten. 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.080 We got a lot more, but it's time for us 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:30.880 to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. We're 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.640 back and now we're moving on to twenty eleven. Now. 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.680 As I mentioned earlier in this episode, twenty eleven was 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.120 the year that Steve Jobs passed away. By the time 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.080 of his passing, Tim Cook was acting as the new 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.040 CEO of Apple. That's a position he holds to this 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.440 very day. And obviously Steve Jobs's passing was huge news. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.120 Like the tech news cycle and really the mainstream news 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.520 cycle was dominated by that at the time, Steve Jobs 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.360 was kind of he was the face of Apple like 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:04.280 he was the guy who was a co founder of 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:08.960 the company. He famously was banished from the company in 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.359 the early mid eighties, left Apple, went and did his 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.000 own thing for a while, came back to Apple as 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:21.520 a consultant in the mid to late nineties, eventually reassumed 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.919 control of Apple, turned it around from a company that 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.040 was on the brink of potentially bankruptcy it was doing 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.760 so poorly to becoming one of the most successful tech 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:37.760 companies in the world, propelled by successes like the iMac 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.760 and the iPod and of course, later on the iPhone, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.359 largely helped by Johnny Ive, the incredible designer who helped 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.639 create the new look of Apple Like. It is a 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.400 huge story that he passed away. He was also famous 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.840 for being a really tough boss and sometimes a really 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:59.480 really unkind boss. There are some pretty scary stories about 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.920 encounter between employees and Steve Jobs. But while his passing 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.920 was huge, news that wasn't the story I really wanted 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.760 to focus on. Another big one that unfolded in twenty 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.840 eleven was how protesters and countries across the Middle East 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.440 took to social media to argue for massive social changes 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.320 that technically actually started in late twenty ten, but the 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.000 majority of the activity was really spread across twenty eleven. 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.360 This became known as the Arab Spring, and there were, 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.199 you know, variable degrees of success for social change throughout 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.800 the nations that were part of the Arab Spring. But 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.320 what that really did was it highlighted how important platforms 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.320 like Twitter and other social networks at the time really 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.080 are for the purposes of social change. Like we can 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.919 forget that because we often will, or at least I 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.639 will forget that because I will often focus on things 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.479 that are happening, like at the corporate level, where the 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.080 people in charge of those platforms are making questionable decisions 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.879 or ones that I find ethically troubling, but the people 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.639 actually using the platforms can often do so in ways 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:15.040 that evoke positive social change. Also twenty eleven, Google launched 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.240 Google Plus that year, but that network had shut down 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.960 by twenty nineteen, so it barely merits mentioned it was 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.920 just Google making another attempt to creating a social network 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.719 similar to that of Facebook or MySpace before it, and 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:34.280 Google just never really nailed that. They tried several times, 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.000 and I'm sure they'll try again at some point, but 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.040 it is just never stuck. Now, the story I really 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.840 wanted to focus on is one that, at least on 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.240 the face of it, seems like more of a novelty 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.080 and not that important. But I argue it is important, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:53.000 and that is IBM's Watson AI computer famously took on 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:58.399 two returning Jeopardy champions the game show Jeopardy in a 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.760 display of natural language process sing an artificial intelligence powered 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:07.600 problem solving. So Watson played against Ken Jennings and Brad Rudder, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.919 to former champions on Jeopardy. They played a game of 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.720 Jeopardy and Watson came out the winner. Watson was able 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:18.520 to navigate clues that incorporated wordplay and you know, references 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.440 and pop culture and history, all without having an external 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.639 connection to the Internet. So Watson did have access to 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.840 a rather massive database of information that was connected to 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.719 the computer, but it could not you know, dial out 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:35.440 of the studio for example, to get information from the Internet. Itself. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.520 Watson essentially would buzz in if it calculated that the 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.960 probability of its answer being the right answer was above 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.720 a certain threshold. And that's interesting too, writ Like, it's 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.600 not that it quote unquote knew the right answer. It 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:54.080 had an answer. It would analyze the likelihood of that 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.920 answer being the correct one, and if the likelihood were 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.359 high enough, Watson would buzz in. Now, the reason I 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.840 bring it up here is not because a machine beat 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.200 humans in a game, because that's a story we've heard 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.880 many times, like the famous one being Gary Kasparov when 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:14.920 he faced off against IBM's Deep Blue in various chess matches. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:17.960 IBM has a long history of doing this kind of 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.280 stuff too. Instead, the reason I wanted to talk about 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.480 it is because in twenty eleven we would get a 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:28.439 hint of where artificial intelligence, particularly AI that has natural 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.000 language processing capabilities, would be headed. I would say that 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:37.159 today's generative AI resembles Watson in many ways that we 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.880 do have to remember that artificial intelligence isn't always right 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.240 or trustworthy. So just as a reminder, you know, this year, 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.280 this past year, back in twenty twenty four, I gotta 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.960 say twenty twenty four. I'm recording in twenty twenty four. 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:56.120 But I once had AI quote unquote write an episode 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.200 of tech Stuff, and then I did kind of director's 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:03.920 commentary on that. I suppose the AI ended up inventing 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:09.000 supposed experts who didn't actually exist and was quoting them 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.400 as support for the arguments being made in the episode. 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.200 And that's just not cool. I mean, like any any 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.600 teacher could tell you if you are if your students 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:25.240 are rating essays and they're quoting made up experts, that's 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.919 unethical and it's going to get you a failing grade. 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.720 But AI was doing it when I asked it to 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.920 create an episode. That's not great. But let's now move 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:40.840 on to two thy twelve. Microsoft pushed Windows eight out 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.960 the door. It was redesigned to work in a world 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.480 that was now filling up with touch screens. But while 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.920 the touch screen layout may have, you know, really made 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.560 sense for people who are on mobile devices, those who 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.160 are still working on laptops and desktops were less enchanted 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.600 by that user interface. Lots of people preferred sticking with 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.359 Windows seven, even though there was a version of Windows 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:11.400 eight you could activate that was less tile based. That's 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:15.639 what Windows eight called the various little icons that you 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.080 would navigate through the UI. So this was kind of 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.240 another case of Windows Vista all over again, where people 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:27.639 largely rejected the advancements that Microsoft had made and whether 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.720 those advancements actually made sense or not. Users didn't like them, 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:37.240 and so there was a resistance to adopting Windows eight 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:40.800 in large part because of these issues I just mentioned. 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:46.479 Apple also introduced Apple Maps that year. Apple Maps quickly 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:50.120