WEBVTT - Tech News: Tech Knows Where You Are 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.680 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:19.800 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and How the Tech 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.280 are you Today? We're going to cover the tech news 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.159 for Thursday, March nine, twenty twenty three. But before I 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.920 get to that, I just want to thank bridget Todd, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.880 host of There Are No Girls on the Internet, or 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.240 taking over the show yesterday. I hope you enjoyed that episode. 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.280 You should definitely check out There Are No Girls on 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.560 the Internet. There are three seasons of episodes. Season four 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.400 is around the corner, and she does really great work 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:52.120 and talks with some really smart and passionate people, and 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.840 if you are one of those folks who gets really 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.320 riled up about issues in society in general and tech 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.760 in particular, you'll definitely want to tune into that. Okay, 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.000 let's get to the tech news, and we're going to 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:07.960 start off by following up on a story I talked 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:12.800 about earlier this week, the sad Tale of Silvergate Bank. So, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.440 before twenty fourteen, this bank was primarily focused on serving 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.520 as a financial institution in the real estate market in 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.840 southern California, but then it hitched its wagon to the 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:30.320 cryptocurrency market and started to work with crypto clients. So 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.760 these markets need to connect to traditional financial institutions to 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.160 be useful beyond the insular ecosystem of the crypto world. 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.680 It wouldn't do you much good if you had all 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.280 of your money in bitcoin, if there were no way 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.240 to get your money out of bitcoin. Sure, you could 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.040 use bitcoin to purchase some stuff, but the vast majority 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.040 of transactions that you would need to make in your 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.000 day to day life would likely exist outside of the 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:04.160 cryptocurrency ecosystem. So you need financial institutions to facilitate movement 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:09.040 on and off that ecosystem. Plus companies dealing with crypto 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.200 they need banks too, and so Silvergate began to cater 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.400 to this world. But as we all know, last year 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.520 saw a series of disasters hit the crypto markets. Some 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.519 cryptocurrencies imploded, we talked about that earlier this week. Crypto 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.240 lenders and exchanges went under, and this ripple effect extended 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:36.160 out beyond the immediate cryptocurrency ecosystem into the classic financial 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.480 world in the form of Silvergate. The bank had operated 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:45.240 its own exchange known as Silvergate exchange Network, which the 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.960 company has already shut down. It held deposits for various 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.639 crypto companies, but in the wake of these crypto disasters 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.640 last year, particularly with FTX collapsing, customers withdrew an astonishing 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.320 eight point one billion dollars from their silver Gate accounts. 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.400 The company Silvergate had a billion dollar loss following this event, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.600 and now it sounds like the actual situation at Silvergate 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.400 was even more dire than the PaperWorks seemed to indicate. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.000 This has led the Silvergate Capitol Corporation to announce that 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.440 the bank is closing. It will return deposits to customers 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.240 and then shut down, and it credited quote recent industry 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:31.760 and regulatory developments end quote as the reason behind closing 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.760 up shop. And to be fair, the US government is 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.440 expected to look into Silvergate, possibly to see if there 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.360 were any hinky things going on between Silvergate and FTX. 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.360 But the fact of the matter is, even if nothing 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.880 untoward was happening, even if everything was on the up 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:55.560 and up, there was enough momentum and this collapse to 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.160 lead to Silvergate's downfall. Now this news is bad for 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.880 the entire crypto world. For one thing, the number of 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.200 regulated financial institutions that can serve as a bridge for 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.680 the crypto world has dropped by one, and there were 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.119 not that many to start with. For another, we might 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.120 see a rise in crypto companies being willing to make 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:23.320 use of poorly regulated or even unregulated organizations for banking. 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.480 And as we've already seen with crypto, a lack of 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:31.200 regulation may not really be the feature, it might really 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.480 be the bug. You know, we've had a lot of 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.320 crypto enthusiasts say that the lack of regulation is a 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.040 good thing, but twenty twenty two really showed that without 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.840 regulation there's a lot of potential for things to go sideways. Now, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.800 if everyone's behaving properly, regulation wouldn't be necessary. But that's 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.719 kind of true in most cases, regardless of what industry 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.240 we're talking about, right, And we know that there are 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.279 a lot of folks in the crypto community who are 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.520 not having well. They are specifically looking for ways to 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:08.320 take advantage of others. They are opportunists who don't mind 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:13.320 speculating and ramping up and then rug pulling. It's clear 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.000 there are plenty of folks who fall into that camp. Now, 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:21.160 there's a third concern about Silvergate's collapse, which is that 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.760 as Silvergate was in the eyes of say, regulators and governments, 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:30.560 a quote unquote real financial institution, we're likely to see 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.880 governments take a closer look and a deeper concern in 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.919 the crypto market in general than we have already seen. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.039 Because it's one thing for these ephemeral ecosystems to crash 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.520 in on themselves, right, that's a problem. People lose money, 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.800 real people lose real money in the process. So governments 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.320 are already concerned about that. But now we have an 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:58.039 example of an established quote unquote real world bank also 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.960 having to shut down as a result of the crypto 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.839 market involvement. And when the consequences of the crypto world 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.120 spill over into the traditional financial world, things can look 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.160 really scary for governments and regulators. So, if anything, I 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.440 imagine this is going to escalate efforts to regulate the 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.640 crypto market, and in the meantime, I suspect we're going 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.640 to see more volatility in the crypto world, which I mean, 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:30.320 that's nothing, right, That's like throwing a dart and then 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.080 drawing the dartboard around it, So you get a bullseye 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.000 to say that there's going to be volatility in the 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:39.680 crypto market. US Senator Ed Margie has promised to reintroduce 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.040 a proposed ban for the federal government making use of 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.760 facial recognition technology. Now, this comes in the wake of 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:51.240 the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU, publishing a piece 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.040 that says the FBI and the Pentagon are both developing 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.240 facial recognition technology, and as we have mentioned dozens of 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.839 times on this show, this technology is inherently dangerous. Not 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.560 only have we seen multiple instances in which a bias 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.920 in the facial recognition model leads to misidentification, particularly for 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.240 people of color. This in turns makes these people of 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:21.240 color disproportionately affected by this technology's performance and leads to 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.720 all sorts of terrible outcomes. But also, as Ed Markey 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.600 points out, the use of such technology implies that all 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.920 of us are being treated as if we are already 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.520 suspects of a crime. From square one, everyone is being 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.240 surveiled as if they are under suspicion. Everyone is being 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.880 identified so that they can be tracked, so that when 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:46.120 they do something wrong, we can be taken in. So, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.720 Marky argues that surveillance technology and facial recognition combined have 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.560 served as a threat to individual citizens privacy and security. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:56.840 I find it really hard to find any fault in 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.240 that argument. I agree with it. And here in the US, 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.520 it's not just that the FBI wants to know who 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.360 you are, it's also that it wants to know where 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.320 you've been wired. Has a report that the FBI has 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:14.480 been found to circumvent the normal legal process, and in 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.840 fact has admitted to this. So normally the FBI would 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.920 have to secure some sort of permission in order to 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.679 get a look at someone's location data. Typically you're talking 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.880 about a warrant process where you have to go to 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:33.040 a court, submit your request, have a judge look it 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.839 over and approve it, and then you could go and 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:40.400 get hold of geolocation data. Instead, the FBI has admitted 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:45.240 that in the past it has purchased US location data 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.920 just like an advertising company would. In fact, Chris Ferray, 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.720 the director of the FBI, said that that's essentially what 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.440 the FBI did. It bought data from a broker, just 0:08:55.640 --> 0:09:00.559 like it had been an advertising company. And privacy advocates 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.000 argue that all data being scooped up online is potentially harmful. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.400 They've been saying this for years, and this is the 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.280 kind of thing that they're talking about as being one 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.079 of the worst case scenarios, right, not just that private 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.560 companies or even publicly traded companies have data about you, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.320 but that you start to see governments take advantage of 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.280 loopholes and instead of going through due process in order 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.080 to gain permission and have everything be documented when it 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.720 comes to tracking people, it just sidesteps that and just 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.920 buys the information outright instead of going through what it 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.720 should be doing, because there aren't any specific rules or 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.000 regulations to stop that from happening. Now, there are some 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.559 rules in place that are meant to stop it, but 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:51.400 federally speaking, it's not really been the highest of priorities, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.440 especially for US government agencies. Right. A lot of privacy 0:09:55.520 --> 0:10:01.720 laws specifically exclude government agency when it comes to the 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:07.320 protection of private citizen data because here in the US 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:12.000 we tend to favor the law enforcement over the citizens 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.040 in some cases. So for the FBI to sidestep a 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.400 legal process in order to get desired data that kind 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.440 of stuff should concern everybody, regardless of how squeaky clean 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.800 you are. The processes are there for a reason, and 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.280 it's really to ensure that the government doesn't overstep and 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.600 violate a citizen's rights. So when a law enforcement agency 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.800 finds a loophole, that's a bad thing. The FBI admitted 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.280 this particular instance during a Senate hearing on Global Threats. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.840 That's when Christopher Ray said that it was something that 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.640 the FBI had done in the past, but that to 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.280 his knowledge, the FBI was not currently doing it at 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.760 this very moment. The admission raised concern the Senate, But 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:53.719 the truth of the matter is that the US has 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.640 been really lousy when it comes to protecting citizen data. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.200 So I don't know why anyone is surprised by this 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.240 or shocked by it. They should be concerned about it, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.760 But to hear people express surprise that this has happened 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.480 seems disingenuous to me. But then again, it's also to 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.600 be fair, a lot of people who are in politics 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.720 in the United States are so out of touch when 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.560 it comes to technology, and especially when it comes to 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:26.720 things like data collection and data analysis. Maybe they're genuinely 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.920 surprised because of a large blind spot in their knowledge base. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:37.000 Not that same hearing, FBI's director Ray told the Senate 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.439 that TikTok is a potential national security threat, which echoes 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.679 the concerns of lawmakers around the world. So Ray claimed 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.679 that TikTok could potentially give parent company byte Dance the 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.760 ability to quote control data and software on millions of 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.440 devices in the US and drive narratives to divide Americans. 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.319 End quote. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying Ray 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.160 said that specifically. That's how it was worded by Bloomberg. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.760 They did not use quotations, so this is not Ray 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.160 saying it, but it's what Bloomberg said Ray said, I 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.800 honestly don't know about this claim. I don't even know 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:16.560 if Ray actually said that TikTok could potentially control software 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.199 on millions of devices. I haven't seen any security experts 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.560 suggest that TikTok has that ability, and I think that 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.440 would be a massive headline. I mean, if someone found 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.120 that a single app on a device had the capability 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.400 to potentially control other software to any real degree, that 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.480 would be huge news. And I don't know that Ray 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.360 said anything close to that. This could just be Bloomberg 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:45.319 mischaracterizing what Ray was saying. Anyway, I'm not surprised by 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.720 this take. Right It's a pretty popular view in the 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:54.640 government right now that TikTok is potentially a surveillance tool 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.640 for the Chinese state, and if it isn't right now, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.120 it has that ability in the future. So this kind 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.840 of goes along with other things we've been hearing recently 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.240 in those circles. Okay, let's get back to geolocation data 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.120 tracking before we take our first break. Google has agreed 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.920 to pay out a nearly three hundred ninety two million 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.880 dollars settlement to end a massive lawsuit involving the state 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.880 attorneys general for forty out of the fifty US states. 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.959 So the core issue is that these state attorneys general 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.319 had argued Google had misled users when they chose to 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:36.400 turn off location data tracking because Google was still collecting 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.839 location information about these users. And yeah, that does seem 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.200 like there might be a bit of a disconnect, you know, like, oh, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.480 you've turned off location tracking, but don't worry, we're still 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.240 keeping track of where you are. You know, you don't 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.600 seem to understand what location tracking means and what it 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:51.960 means to turn it off. So Google said that this 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.319 issue was related to quote, outdated product policies that we 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.800 changed years ago end quote. So they're not denying that 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.160 they did this, they're saying they don't do it anymore. 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.440 So according to Google, now when you turn off location tracking, 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.240 then it for reels would turn it off, at least 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:11.280 for Google anyway. The details of the settlement include requirements 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.200 that Google has to meet in order to institute some changes, 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:18.200 such as introducing more alerts whenever a user activates a feature, 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.240 whether an app or otherwise that would turn on or 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:26.200 off a location related data tracking component. So that's good, 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:28.480 all right, We're gonna take a quick break. When we 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.920 come back, We've got some more tech news to talk about. 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.040 We're back. Not that long ago, I talked about Anonymous, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:49.760 the loosely organized activist group, and according to Taiwan News, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.520 this group has claimed responsibility for hacking into a Chinese 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:58.240 weather balloon that flew over India twice. And then they 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.720 hacked into a Chinese website that actually related to a 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:07.239 study abroad program, and there they posted not a manifesto 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:12.800 but are really kind of rambling list of complaints and allegations, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.720 as well as screenshots of the hacked control panel of 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.680 the weather balloon. Now, presumably Anonymous decided to target this 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.680 balloon after the recent discovery of surveillance balloons of Chinese 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.560 origin that flew over North America and eventually the US 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.920 shot him down. Anonymous but also throw in some other 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.600 reasons on this website, so it starts to almost feel 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:41.400 like a laundry list of unconnected complaints. So one of 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.400 the things that they cited was China's response to COVID 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:50.400 nineteen and how the government has treated that over the 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.480 last couple of years, So that was part of the 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.360 stuff that was included in there, but also there were 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:01.600 bits praising Taiwan. Taiwan and China have a contentious relationship, 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.760 to say the least, technically both sides lay claim to 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:10.320 the other. On the web page, Anonymous also railed against 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.760 some unrelated stuff that has nothing to do with China, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.280 like Wikipedia and its policies. Anonymous said that women are 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:22.080 underrepresented in Wikipedia articles and that there might be an 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.920 issue with bias within Wikipedia, and that the articles occasionally 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.720 engage in outright trying to manipulate perspectives in points of view. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.320 There's also some stuff about people who have been killed 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:42.000 by US police and various police incidents, so kind of 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.520 a related to Black Lives Matter. There were also parts 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.240 arguing that the Soviet Union which hasn't been a thing 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:54.440 for decades now, But how the USS are endangered human 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.280 lives and outright killed animals as part of the space race. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:04.240 So again, it's like this mishmash hodgepodge of complaints that 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.040 don't necessarily have a centralized theme that appeared on this 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.880 web page. It almost seemed like, well, we've got the opportunity, 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:17.080 let's take it. I don't pretend to understand it, but 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.440 it's not a huge surprise, right, if you know anything 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.320 about Anonymous, it should not be surprising that it would 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.800 be a little disjointed, because Anonymous is such a loose organization, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.200 and it's filled with people who have overlapping but not 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:38.440 necessarily identical motivations and priorities. So you could say, well, yeah, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.560 it seems a bit a bit chaotic, but then so 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:47.199 is the very nature of Anonymous itself. That's part of 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:52.040 its its structure. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.879 German government is considering a ban on Huawei components in 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.360 its five G networks, along with components from some other 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.440 Chinese companies as well. Now, as I've talked about before, 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.199 the US instituted such a ban out of concern that 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:10.960 Huawei could essentially tap into, you know, the communications infrastructure 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.640 and then spy on communications within the US. The UK 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:20.119 has taken similar measures now. Huawei has repeatedly denied these 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.160 allegations and suspicions, saying that the company has never done 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.919 such a thing, that there aren't any backdoors or anything 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.159 built into the technology that would allow for it in 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.480 the first place. A spokesperson for China's embassy in Germany said, 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.880 whahwe follows EU and German laws and there's no reason 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.919 to suspect that the company would undermine those laws, and 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.640 that China is just very disappointed in Germany right now 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.919 and expected better. So this decision hasn't yet been finalized. 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.040 Its possible that Germany will not pursue this route. Even 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.639 if it does, it would probably take years to fully 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:02.720 decouple Germany's telecommunications infrastructure from Chinese components. But it does 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.600 show that there is this growing concern about how technology. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.800 You know, more and more of our technology is ultimately 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:15.199 just meant to direct information somewhere, and that if you 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.439 could end up directing that information in a way that 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.400 benefits one country at the expense of others, that ends 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.199 up being a big concern. Whether or not that's actually 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.680 happening is still at question, but even just the potential 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.280 for it is enough to give companies pause. And to 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:40.360 be clear, I don't know if Huawei has actively participated 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.760 in surveillance on behalf of China, but I do know 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.159 that there is a very large concern for that. And 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.240 it doesn't help that the Chinese government has essentially given 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.600 a directive to citizens and companies that they are to 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:03.000 participate in information gathering activities would benefit China. So whether 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.119 it's happening or not, I can't say. I can just 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.919 say that there are enough pieces in place that I 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.040 can understand the concern. Toward the end of last year, 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.600 YouTube changed some rules that ended up having a massive 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.280 impact on YouTubers. If you follow any particular channels, you've 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:24.879 probably noticed this, either explicitly as people have actually addressed 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.320 this in their videos, or just through the process of 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:33.040 watching it and thinking, huh, something's changed here. So late 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.520 last year, YouTube started to really crack down on stuff 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.800 like profanity, and any video that included profanity within the 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.000 first fifteen seconds of the video starting was automatically made 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:49.760 ineligible for monetization. Didn't matter how severe it was. It 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:51.880 just meant that, you know, if you had a profanity 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.640 incident within those first fifteen seconds, boom monetization switched off 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.800 for that video. And if you were a YouTuber with 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:03.600 an intro like what the beep is up? This is 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.800 your beep, Homeboy, Beep Smith, Beep the beep like that, well, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.320 then you'd be looking at all those videos that start 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.840 that way getting demonetized. Because this change wasn't just for 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.920 all videos moving forward, it was a retroactive change. YouTube 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.400 would scan the content of all videos posted, and if 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.080 any of them were detected to include profanity within the 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.840 verse fifteen seconds, boom shut off. And a video on 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:34.760 YouTube can have a really long life. You know. Typically 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.960 you see your biggest amount of engagement shortly after a 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.560 video publishes, but some videos have a really long tail, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.720 especially if something relevant happens in the world that brings 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.440 back a video that was recorded a long time ago. 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.199 I'm reminded of a video I did years ago at 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.399 how Stuff Works about the Transatlantic accent. You know that 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.320 old timey radio voice. I did a video about at 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.960 and every few years it seems to bubble back up 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.600 and get popular again. So while it did pretty well 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.240 when it launched. In subsequent years, it would get tons 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:15.479 more views. Well, if I were depending upon monetization of 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.960 videos like that, I don't own those videos that belongs 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.840 to how stuff works. But if I did, and if 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:27.119 those videos violated a brand new rule from the platform, 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:29.880 well that would have an enormous impact on my ability 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.240 to make a living. Right, And because I don't control 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:36.159 the platform, I'm at the whim of that platform. This 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.840 is why it's risky to depend upon a third party 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.280 in order to reach your audience. If the platform makes 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.920 a change to its business model, you end up being affected. 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.480 I'm minded of When I talked to Bernie Burns, one 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.040 of the founders of Rooster Teeth, this was one of 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.040 his big concerns. He said, you don't want to put 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.560 all your eggs in the basket that belongs to someone else, 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.600 because if they change their mind on how stuff works, 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.679 you end up being hit by that. Well, now YouTube 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.119 is relaxing some of those rules. They're not getting rhythm, 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.840 but they are relaxing them a little bit. Videos that 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:14.560 include moderate profanity within the first fifteen seconds can get 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:18.840 some limited monetization. Videos that don't involve a ton of 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.760 profanity and they avoid it within the first seven seconds 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:26.560 are eligible for full monetization. And YouTube is also introducing 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:28.879 a review process to look into creators who have been 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:33.560 hit hard by this change in monetization, where like they 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:38.200 may have seen their income go close to zilch after 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:42.240 the results. The new adjustments went into effect this week, 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.560 so hopefully creators who are hit really hard we'll see 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:48.119 some relief. I will admit there's some channels I watch 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:53.320 where there were people who would occasionally use profanity, and 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.080 they now tend to beat that stuff out rather than 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.480 actually say the words, which they used to do. And 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.480 I think the reason for it is because they don't 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:08.280 want to see those monetization switches get hit and then 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:14.040 they take a massive revenue loss. Over at Meta, there's 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:19.000 been a leak. Meta introduced its own large language model 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:23.760 aka Lama, and they opened it up to a very 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:26.280 small group of people. It's like invitation only, case by 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:31.040 case basis and includes like academics and researchers, a few companies, 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:37.840 and they're essentially asking these folks to test the language model, 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:42.240 to provide feedback let Meta help improve it over time. 0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:45.119 The company did not release it to the general public, 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:51.080 probably because like all other generative AI models, Meta's approach 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:56.280 is prone to doing stuff that isn't always appropriate. Generative 0:24:56.280 --> 0:25:00.600 AI can sometimes spout out misinformation. They compare it speech, 0:25:00.640 --> 0:25:04.560 It could call for violence, like it can generally behave 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:07.919 in ways that are not a good look for the 0:25:07.960 --> 0:25:13.040 company that spawned it, particularly a large, public facing, publicly 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:18.040 traded company. So Meta did a limited release because this 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:20.879 model is still under development. It is not ready to 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.800 be deployed. It's still being built. But someone went and 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:28.600 leaked the model. Word popped up on four Chan, and 0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:32.400 initially you started to see torrents and peer to peer 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:37.119 network sharing kind of spread this around, and eventually somebody 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:42.280 put it up on GitHub and people have included instructions 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:45.920 on how to download and access the language model. I'm 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:48.840 sure folks at Meta are stressed out about this, but 0:25:48.960 --> 0:25:52.280 some people in the AI industry argue that the tool 0:25:52.400 --> 0:25:55.560 is far more likely to improve quickly if it's in 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:58.600 a wide release as opposed to trusting a relatively small 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:02.040 base of researchers kind of the open source approach. And 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:05.239 that is true, but it also you know, you can 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:08.280 understand the concern on Meta's part, right, like if it 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:10.399