WEBVTT - The Big Tech Stories of 2024 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.480 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.320 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.599 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.880 tech are you. Well, it's time for us to look 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.360 back on some of the big tech stories that shaped 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.840 the last twelve months. I always like to take some 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.000 time at the end of a year to reflect back 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.960 on what has happened, and this year, there was an 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.839 awful lot of stuff going on. So we're just going 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.160 to look at some of the big stories and headlines 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.159 in tech in twenty twenty four. This is by no 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.640 means an exhaustive list, and of course some of these 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.920 stories continue to play out. Some of them are arguably 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:54.560 not as big as ones that I left out of 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.000 this list, But these were ones that I thought were 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.840 kind of interesting because I feel like they're a commentary, 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.480 no just on where we are in tech, but where 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.480 we're going. But that's enough jibber jabber. We got a 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.479 lot to get through. Let's get started, and where else 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.720 to begin but to talk about AI. No one was 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.560 surprised that artificial intelligence dominated the news cycle in twenty 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.679 twenty four. Everyone said it was going to happen, because 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.800 it was clear that that's how it was going to 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.880 turn out, and it did. The gears were already turning 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.600 in twenty twenty three. In fact, in late twenty twenty two, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.080 that's when AI really started to capture the public's attention. 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.600 Generative AI in particular has received a ton of focus. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.959 Though this is a good time to remind all of 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.319 y'all that generative AI is just one subset of artificial 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.400 intelligence disciplines. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.800 seeing as how much of our attention goes to generative AI. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.200 But there are lots of other types of AI. But 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.160 one company that's always at the forefront of these conversation 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.520 is open Ai. That's the company that's perhaps best known 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:09.200 for chat GPT. Open ai began as a non profit 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.600 organization a few years ago, and it was dedicated to 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.680 the responsible and safe development and deployment of artificial intelligence 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.480 with kind of an open approach. Thus the name like 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.799 this idea that they were going to share their findings 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.560 and research and knowledge with others in order to ensure 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.920 that the AI that the company developed would ultimately be 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.440 put to beneficial use with the lowest risk of harm, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.880 but that nonprofit would spawn a for profit arm because, 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.280 as it turns out, AI is crazy expensive. Yo. I mean, 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.239 R and D costs a lot, but just running the 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.080 stuff you've already developed also costs a huge amount. And 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.040 I've talked in the past about how AI applications typically 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:02.200 require enormous amounts of compute power, and that stuff isn't free. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.280 In fact, in September of this year, New York Times 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.680 reporters Mike Isaac and Aaron Griffith wrote a piece about 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.959 how much money open ai was making versus how much 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.520 it was spending, and the numbers are jaw dropping. The 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.200 article is titled open ai is growing fast and burning 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.959 through piles of money, and it published on September twenty seventh, 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.600 twenty twenty four. In that piece, the authors revealed that 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.359 open AI's revenue reached three hundred million dollars in August 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.800 of this past year. Now that's a lot of cash, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.960 and the company overall expected a three point seven billion 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.200 dollars in sales by the end of twenty twenty four. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.840 Now that's even more cash if I'm doing my math right. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.760 Let's see three point seven billion versus three hundred Yeah, no, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.560 that's a lot. However, this same company was on track 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:58.600 to lose five billion dollars in operating costs. Even with 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.120 all that in consideration, that's how expensive it is to 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.960 run a cutting edge AI company. Some of that money, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.680 of course, went to normal overhead operations that any regular 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.840 business would encounter, you know, stuff like salaries and office 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.480 space and that kind of stuff. But the bulk of 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.200 it presumably went to running operations and R and D work. Now. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.440 I say presumably, because, as Isaac and Griffith point out 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.720 in that article, there were quote several large expenses not 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:31.239 fully explained in the documents end quote. The cash churn 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.279 prompted several pieces that were speculating that without a truly 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.520 massive influx of cash from investors, open Ai could spend 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.799 itself out of business. But then, like literally, the next week, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.040 headlines announced that open ai had brokeered a six point 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:53.279 six billion dollar round of new investments. Covering the spread 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.960 if you will. This would put the valuation of open 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.200 Ai at around one hundred and fifty seven billion dollars, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.160 and the company predicted it would hit one hundred billion 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.359 dollars in revenue by twenty twenty nine. Which might be 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.479 the case, and investors might be eager enough to see 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.279 that happen in order to, you know, like, they'll continue 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.800 pouring truckloads of cash into the company at a rate 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.359 that just outpaces open AI's spending habits in order to 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.960 actually get to that destination. I always get nervous about 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.520 stories like these because it's hard to believe that this 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.119 is all sustainable. But I guess if folks are determined enough, 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:37.960 then if they have access to enough resources, anything is possible. Now, 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.440 Earlier this month, I talked about another story involving open Ai, 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.719 one that has raised many concerns. Open Ai has signed 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.000 a deal with the defense tech company and a Rill, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.960 which is a total keen reference. That company was founded 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:58.360 by the creator of the Oculus VR headset, Palmer Lucky. Now, again, 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.680 the original pitch for open ai is that it was 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.360 meant to be an organization dedicated to the safe and 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.240 responsible development of AI. So this announcement has caused a 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.719 lot of concern with people in the AI space, including 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:17.360 people who were formerly part of open ai itself. So specifically, 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.000 these two companies are working to improve US military technology 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.880 in order to defend against unpiloted aerial attacks. So you 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.279 can think of it as all right, they're working to 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:34.960 create systems that can identify target and bring down unmanned drones. Now, 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.400 considering that the end of this year has also brought 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.919 with it reports of mysterious drones flying over places like 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.520 New Jersey and Pennsylvania and other areas, you could argue 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.880 that there's a growing need for this kind of technology. 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.920 But critics worry that the same tech could be used 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.080 to identify target and bring down normal aircraft, you know, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.680 the kind that's actually piloted by a human being in 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.960 the cockpit, And that definitely does not sound like it's 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:07.200 a safe or responsible application for artificial intelligence, especially when 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.800 you consider that AI is far from perfect. It can 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.440 make some mistakes. Now, there's a lot more we could 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.960 say about open AI, but let's move on to some 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:22.120 other companies that made headlines that involve artificial intelligence. Now, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.520 one of those was in Vidia, which is perhaps best 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.520 known as a company that designs graphics processing units or GPUs. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.120 Those are the things that gamers and some cryptominers really 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.920 want to get hold of. Well, it turns out that 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:41.239 parallel processing, which is what GPUs really specialize in, also 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.200 happens to be really great for at least some AI processes, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.200 and so Nvidia has embraced the AI industry really. In 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.920 Vidia now identifies itself as an AI chip maker and 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.480 has turned out lots of chip designs meant to handle 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.800 large AI compute loads. This has more than doubled Nvidia's 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.720 value from the end of twenty twenty three to the 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.840 end of twenty twenty four, which is huge because at 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.160 the end of twenty twenty three, and Video was valued 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:13.520 at one point two trillion dollars already. That was a 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.320 two hundred and forty percent increase over what it had 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.920 been in twenty twenty two. However, today, in twenty twenty four, 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.640 and Vidia's value is at more than three trillion dollars. 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.080 In fact, it puts in Vidia in the top three 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:30.720 most valuable publicly traded companies, and depending upon when you're 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.160 looking at that list, it typically falls right behind Apple 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.720 and right in front of Microsoft. That kind of depends 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.640 on which day you look at that list, because these 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.600 numbers do shift around a lot. But yeah, Nvidia had 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.040 a pretty huge year in twenty twenty four. Now that 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.960 being said, as I record this episode which is on 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.000 December nineteenth when I'm recording it. Just to be transparent, 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.320 Nvidia is currently recovering from an overall market dip that 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.079 saw shares of Nvidia drop by around fourteen percent, And 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.920 when you're valued in the trillions, any single percent represents 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.640 a whole lot of money, so that that represents a 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:15.040 considerable drop, But the estimates I've seen recently seem to 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.560 say that it's a very temporary situation. One more AI 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.920 related story that I would like to touch on, keeping 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.640 in mind that, of course there were countless other noteworthy 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.800 AI stories the unfolded this past year is that twenty 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.080 twenty four is the year where we started seeing companies 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:34.400 incorporate processors meant to handle AI applications on the device level. 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.240 So Open AI's business model largely focuses on companies and 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.440 other customers using an Internet connection to tap into like 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:47.319 massive server farms that have the awesome powers of AI processing. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.960 But another approach is to dedicate processors at the device 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.719 level so that you can do AI implementations on your 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:59.160 own computer, you know, or whatever other device. Earlier this year, 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.240 I did an episode about the Yoga laptop from Lenovo 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.920 that's a copilot plus PC and Copilot is Microsoft's AI product, 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.320 and the laptop I talked about features an NPU that's 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.120 a neural processing unit. So just as a GPU is 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.200 optimized to process graphics, and NPU is optimized to handle 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.640 AI applications. Now, there are several benefits to having AI 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.600 native on a device, and the big ones really are 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.600 security and privacy. With cloud based AI computing, there's always 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.000 a risk of data breaches. You don't have full control 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.640 over your information because it's being handled by a third party. 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.800 There's also a risk that the provider you use might 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.240 train future AI models on your information, and if that 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.400 data includes proprietary information or trade secrets or something like that, 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.160 that represents a huge security risk. And I bring it 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.439 up because we have seen examples of AI agents revealing 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:02.439 stuff that they shouldn't, stuff that involved other users of 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.280 the AI agents. Where let's say person one is using 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.440 the AI agent too, I don't know, plan out their 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:13.679 insurance and then person two, while asking questions, happens to 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:19.080 start getting information about Person one and the situations they're 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.400 in that are leading to them to seeking these solutions 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:28.000 to their insurance problem. That's a terrible, terrible privacy problem 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.200 and a security problem for companies particularly. You don't want 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.760 your trade secrets to become industry wide knowledge, so moving 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:41.439 AI applications to the device level somewhat mollifies those concerns. Now, 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.880 of course, you still have to practice good security protocols. 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.120 You also have to maintain control of your device so 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.040 that someone else doesn't get physical access to it and 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.000 then is able to see it. But that's true no 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.840 matter what. But the fear of some other company profiting 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.520 off of your information or potentially leaking your data to 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.520 others is greatly reduced. At least, I expect we'll continue 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.280 to see more on device implementations of AI, and I'm 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:08.199 not the only one making that. Guess Gartner predicts that 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.080 all aipcs rather will make up like forty three percent 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.080 of all PC shipments by twenty twenty five, and you know, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.920 by my calendar, we're nearly there. So we'll have to 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.320 see if that becomes truth. Now, before we go to break, 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:25.640 I mentioned earlier that Copilot is one of Microsoft's products. 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.600 Microsoft was in the news a lot in twenty twenty 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.520 four for a lot of different reasons, but one story 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:36.319 focused on a different feature found in some Copilot plus PCs, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:41.400 and that is Microsoft Recall. So the company announced this 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.840 feature in June of twenty twenty four, and the reaction 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:50.000 was rather critical. To put it gently, Recall takes screenshots 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:54.760 of your activities on your PC. These screenshots are searchable, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.560 and it's intended to make it easier for users to 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.840 look back on their past activities in order to find 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.319 like files or data or whatever. You know, if you've 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:07.440 ever said, gosh, what was that website I visited where 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.920 I found that awesome recipe or something like that, and 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.920 you didn't bookmarket or whatever, screenshots is one way that 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.320 you might use to try and track that information down 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.480 by searching the database that's on your machine. Now, some 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.840 folks worried right away that recall would be sending screenshots 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.319 back to Microsoft, which obviously would represent a huge threat 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.240 to both privacy and security. So imagine being an executive 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:32.959 at a big company and working on an internal report 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.960 only to find out that your computer has been screenshotting 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.480 everything and then sending it off to Microsoft servers. That 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.679 would surely violate company policies at the very least, But 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.320 Microsoft was quick to state that the screenshots would not 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.560 be sent over the Internet to any other location. They 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.559 would live squarely on the native device. However, this did 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:58.680 not stop the criticism. Now, originally recall was apparently unencrypted, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.360 meaning it would store these screenshots essentially in plain text 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.240 on the user's computer, So if someone gained access to 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.880 your machine, even if it wasn't administrative access, they would 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.400 be able to go back and look at all those screenshots, 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.880 which potentially could include stuff like login information for various 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.840 accounts and services. So again the concerns around privacy and 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:24.720 safety were flaring up. Ultimately, these and other criticisms prompted 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.480 Microsoft to delay recalls rollout and ended up turning it 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.400 from a mandated feature to an opt in feature so 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.160 you can actually elect to make use of this feature. 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:44.040 So they also would go back and change it so 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.680 that the screenshots are encrypted, so you should only be 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.360 able to access these if you have administrative level like 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.240 access to the machine. However, that also could mean that 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.000 perhaps a company could have access to that sort of stuff, 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.400 right like, if you have an employer provided computer as 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.120 part of your work, then presumably your employer or someone 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:13.200 at the company you work for has that administrator level 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.240 access to the machine, which means they can go back 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.800 and look at all the screen shots, which could potentially 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.640 become a monitoring issue if some bosses decide, hey, this 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.800 is a great way for me to see if you know, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.880 Jonathan over there is actually doing his work, or if 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:32.400 he's goofing off, you know, playing Galaga or something and 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.040 on his company machine, which he should not do. So 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.240 there are those concerns still, but again, since it's opt 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:43.560 in unless your company forces you to activate it, I 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:48.240 don't think it's that big of an issue. Microsoft also 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.520 enabled some security and privacy features that are meant to 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.600 obscure stuff like your login credentials. You know, in theory, 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.160 the screenshots will skip screens where you're filling in that 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:59.880 kind of info, so that if someone were somehow to 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:02.960 get access to your machine, even if they searched through 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.200 for log in stuff, they wouldn't find it. However, some 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.840 folks have found that this is not foolproof because sometimes, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.560 like if someone's filling out say a PDF, an interactive PDF, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.640 then they put login information on that. Well, Microsoft doesn't 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:22.840 necessarily detect that the PDF is related to logins, and 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.120 so you might end up with screenshots that show in 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.880 plain text. Well, once you decrypt the screenshot but show 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.440 that log in credential. So there are still some concerns, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.880 but from one to understand, it's miles better than what 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.800 the company initially announced when they rolled it out. The 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.720 tool is now out for Windows eleven users. I have 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.200 not seen any stats on how many people are actually 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.200 using it. It'll be interesting to hear in twenty twenty 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.640 five if it becomes a more widely accepted feature. Okay, 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.480 we're going to take a quick break for our sponsors. 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.720 When we come back. More top tech stories of twenty 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:11.120 twenty four. We're back so here. In the United States, 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.520 several big tech companies have faced scrutiny from regulatory agencies 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:18.960 such as the Federal Trade Commission or FTC this year. Microsoft, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.479 for example, has recently found itself the subject of an 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.000 antitrust investigation, not for the first time, but in this 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.400 case it's in businesses ranging from cloud computing to cybersecurity. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:34.320 Other members of the Big five tech companies, those being Apple, Amazon, Meta, 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.200 and Google, have also felt the heat. As Christine Bartholomew 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:43.120 of pro Market wrote, quote, anti trust enforcers filed new 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:47.159 Section two claims against Amazon and Apple while continuing to 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.920 prosecute older cases like the Federal Trade Commissions suit against 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.280 Meta originally filed in twenty twenty end. Quote that section 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.320 two that Bartholomew mentions refers to a section in a 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.960 very old piece of legislation, namely the Sherman Act, which 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.399 is an anti trust piece of legislation. But Google in 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:10.200 particular could potentially face government mandates to spin off certain 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.000 key business units or face massive consequences. So the US 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.240 Department of Justice alleged that Google has engaged in anti 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.600 competitive practices, one of which is the company's practice of 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.240 paying other platforms so that Google Search remains the default 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.720 search engine on those platforms. So Google spends billions of dollars, 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.480 in fact, it spends billions of dollars paying Apple alone 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.399 in order to be the default search engine of choice, 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.240 and the DOJ has argued that Google is effectively suppressing 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.480 competition this way. The case has made its way to court. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:47.920 A US district judge named Ahmit Meta ruled against Google, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.919 and that brings us up to what happens next. So 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.520 the answer to that is that it's not going to 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.080 unfold until later in twenty twenty five, and depending on 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.920 how things go with the courts maybe even later than that. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.960 These things can stretch on for many years, as was 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.800 indicated by Bartholomew. You know that FTC case that started 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.960 in twenty twenty. But the DOJ wants to make Google 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.800 divest itself of several business units, including the Chrome browser, 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.080 and to stop entering into those exclusionary agreements with companies 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.159 like Apple and such. The recommendations go much further, and Google, 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.240 understandably has protested them all. The company has argued that 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.760 it didn't really do anything anti competitive in the first place, 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.639 no matter what that judge thought. And anyway, if the 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:35.920 DOJ gets its way, it's going to have a huge 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.680 harmful effect on the tech sector, nay, the very world. 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.840 It definitely gets a bit over dramatic. I think both 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.240 sides get over dramatic to be fair. Now, a separate 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.800 judge is going to have to decide which measures should 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.720 actually be enforced against Google later in twenty twenty five, 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.959 so the story is far from over. One thing that 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.840 was a potential concern is that the change in administration 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.399 could affect the outcome. So typically when we see a 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.040 big shift in power dynamics here in the United States, 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.960 we also see a lot of change in practices and policies. However, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.920 in this case, pressure against big tech is something that 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.439 both sides of the aisle feel is necessary, although often 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.080 for completely different reasons. But that pressure actually began under 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.760 Trump's first presidential administration, so there's every reason to believe 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.360 that the same will be true this go around. Now, 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.080 while I expect the Trump administration to stick generally to 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.719 big businesses are great and they should get away with 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.760 whatever they want, I think big tech companies are a 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.600 potential exception to that rule, though a lot of analysts 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:46.119 say that they'll probably face lighter consequences. They won't be 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.640 forced to divest themselves of business units. Perhaps under Trump's 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:54.639 DOJ We'll have to see Something else in tech that 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.240 is a looming question mark. Is the fate of TikTok 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.560 in the United States. A huge story in twenty twenty 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.479 four was that the legislative branch of the US government 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.000 passed a law that requires TikTok's parent company, Byte Dance, 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.720 to divest itself of TikTok or else face a ban 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.880 for the app throughout the entire United States. Now, byte 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.560 Dance is a Chinese company, and the lawmakers share a 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:20.840 concern that the app could serve as a way to 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.520 siphon data from the United States and send it on 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.520 over to China. Plus it could serve as a delivery 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:32.560 platform for Chinese propaganda. Basically, these claims, even if they 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.560 were to turn out to be one hundred percent true, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:38.359 are kind of moot as far as I'm concerned, because 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.119 China can both collect data from other sources and deliver 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:47.119 propaganda using other platforms without ever needing TikTok. So to me, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:49.720 this is kind of missing the forest for the trees 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.199 sort of situation. But then TikTok is also an easier 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.600 thing to wrap your head around as opposed to the 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.159 whole US approach to data privacy and security, which I 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.439 feel is severely out of touch. Now. President Biden signed 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.040 that bill into law earlier this year, and byte Dance 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.439 faces a deadline of January nineteenth to divest itself of 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.440 TikTok or else TikTok gets the ban hammer now. Back 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.280 in twenty twenty, President Trump at that time was all 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.600 gung ho on banning TikTok, even sign an executive order 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.600 ordering as much, but it got overturned. More recently, he's 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.679 changed his tune for reasons that remain rather opaque, at 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.639 least if you take his own statements at face value. 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.280 I won't get into that, but people have been listening 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.159 to the show for a wild No more about that story, 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.040 But anyway, Trump doesn't come into office until January twentieth, 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.080 twenty twenty five, So the deadlines of the day before that. 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.200 Byte Dance and TikTok are hoping to extend that deadline 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.520 so that Trump can weigh in on this and potentially 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:54.200 reverse course before a ban is actually put in place. 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.880 But that would require intervention from the US Supreme Court, 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:00.960 and right now that intervention is are from certain. It 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.879 might happen, but it might not. So it could be 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.600 that one day before Trump takes off as TikTok gets 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:09.480 banned here in the United States. Now what happens after that? 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.920 I got no clue. TikTok still maintains there's no feasible 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.320 way to separate from its parent company, which I also 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.320 find a little hard to believe, but it may be true. 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:23.720 I am no expert in these matters. Okay, more big 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.560 stories from twenty twenty four. So early in the year, 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.399 the US Senate Judiciary Committee called leaders of several social 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:34.480 media companies to testify about how social platforms have contributed 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:39.439 to harming children. Folks like Mark Zuckerberg, who actually offered 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:44.040 an apology, were compelled to listen to numerous cases brought 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:47.120 before them by parents who had tragic stories to share 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:51.360 about their kids. The overall response from the committee side 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:54.720 was that none of the tech leaders actually acquitted themselves 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:58.199 very well or appeared to make any concrete plans to 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.000 actually address the underlying con concerns. There was also a 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:05.800 lot of lawmakers questioning Section two thirty. That's a law, 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:09.119 or rather it's part of a law that provides protection 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:14.359 to online platforms. Essentially, Section two thirty says online platforms 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:17.120 cannot be held legally liable for the stuff that their 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:21.520 users post to those platforms. But even those protections do 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:24.159 have limits. So, for example, if a platform becomes aware 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:27.840 of illegal activity, it is supposed to take action. But 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:30.320 the thing that drove me bonkers with this hearing was 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:33.159 that some of these lawmakers seemed to behave like Section 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:37.000 two thirty was written by the social media companies and 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.679 it wasn't. It was actually created by Congress as a 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:42.960