WEBVTT - Tech News: AI Oh No 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.320 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.720 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.159 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts. And how the 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.239 tech are you. This is the tech news for the 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:27.040 week ending on May twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, and 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.280 we've got a lot of AI stories this week, so 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.320 let's get to it. Early this week, the world learned 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.240 of a dispute between actor Scarlett Johanson and open Ai, 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.280 the company behind the chat GPT chatbot, among other things, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.239 and here's how it breaks down. Johansson says that in 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.360 twenty twenty three, she was contacted by open Ai CEO 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.120 Sam Altman and was asked if the company could license 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.600 her voice for the purposes of creating a digital assistant, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.000 something similar to Siri or Alexa, but built on open 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:03.560 ais ai model. Johansson had starred, or at least her 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.920 her voice had starred in the film Her, in which 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.160 a man falls in love with his AI enabled operating 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.240 system played by Johansson. She said she was not interested, 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.959 and then she said that this year, just two days 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.839 before open ai was going to hold a keynote event 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.840 about this digital assistant, Sam Altman reached out to again 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.520 to ask her to reconsider, and she says she didn't 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.440 actually speak with him on this one, and that the 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.880 implication was that she still had not changed her mind. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.039 She didn't want to license her voice. So then the 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:40.360 keynote happens and OpenAI debuted the digital assistant called Sky, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.639 which has a selection of voices that you can choose from, 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.679 but one of those voices sounded an awful lot like 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:51.320 Scarlett Johansson. The actor was quote shocked, angered, and in 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.520 disbelieved that mister Altman would pursue a voice that sounded 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.160 so eerily similar to mine. End quote. Altman denied that 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.880 they had trained the AI on Joehiah's voice at all. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.440 The company has said that they actually used a different actor. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.280 They showed footage of this actor speaking, but the actor's 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.520 face was blurred out, which kind of brings other questions 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.799 up about whether or not that's actually the person talking. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.600 But anyway, out of respect to Johansson, they said they 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.760 would take down that particular Sky voice, which, again, if 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.760 it's not her voice, that's odd, right, Like, why take 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.040 down someone's voice if it's not Like, if it's not 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.080 that person's voice, and the other actor presumably did sign 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.000 an agreement to have their voice licensed for this, then 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.160 that's a different matter. Anyway, Altman's claims of innocence aren't 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.079 helped that he appeared to directly reference the film her 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.280 on X formerly known as Twitter, and did so the 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:46.239 same day that the assistant debuted. So if he's slightly 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.120 giving the nod to a movie in which Scarlett Johansson 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.400 does the voice, it does seem to kind of imply 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:57.560 that perhaps she had some involvement with the actual digital assistant. Anyway, 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.280 that's where things stand now. There's the possibility of Johansson 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.400 pursuing legal action, but honestly, I haven't heard very much 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.560 firmly one way or the other, and there's questions about 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.320 whether that would be possible if in fact open Ai 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.560 did use this other actor's voice likeness as training material 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.520 for the AI. But it's another moment with NAI that 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:23.200 highlights the potential threat the technology poses to creatives. Meanwhile, 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.440 another departure from open ai made news this week. Gretchen Krueger, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.560 who had served as a policy research worker at the company, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.920 posted on X that she had left open ai and 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.880 she had resigned before news broke that Ilia Sutzkever, who 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:39.920 was a co founder and one of the board members 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.560 who had ousted and then reinstated Sam Altman as CEO, 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.640 had also left the company. So she said she had 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.840 made this decision independently, did not know that Sutskev was 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.280 stepping away, but that she just felt she could not 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.000 work for the company anymore, and the reason she felt 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.320 that way was mostly out of concerns that the company 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.560 was ignoring safety protocols among some other things. As well. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.760 She said the company was not doing its part to 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.720 live up to the principles that open ai was founded upon, 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:12.560 such as transparency and quote mitigations for impacts on inequality 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.880 rights and the environment, among other things. I'm including this 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.680 story in the lineup because it really is showing a 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.359 pattern at open ai. Numerous people connected to safety have 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.200 left the company in recent months. It's not just been 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.080 a couple very high ranking executives. Some safety researchers have 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.000 left as well, and this should be something of a 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.160 red flag that open ai isn't being so thorough when 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.440 it comes to developing AI in a safe and responsible way, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.320 which again was the mission statement for the original non 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.719 profit version of open Ai. Of course, when we'd say 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.000 open Ai today, we're largely talking about the for profit version, 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.960 not the not for profit company. Speaking of leaving open ai, 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.760 it turns out that the company has some measures in 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.280 place to make that a really difficult decision for an employee, 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.520 or at least it did have those measures in place 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.919 until word got out about them and the company was 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.920 shamed into changing things. Vox reports that employees leaving open 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:16.240 ai are frequently compelled to sign exit documents, and among 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.400 other things, these exit documents allegedly threatened to dissolve the 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.559 employees vested equity in the company if that employee says 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.440 anything negative about open Ai. So open ai is valued 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.560 at around eighty billion dollars. That's billion with a B, 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.760 and obviously for each individual employee that has equity, that 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.599 can represent a huge chunk of money. We're talking like 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.000 maybe millions of dollars for some of these folks. So 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.279 the implication here is that open ai will hold that 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.560 money hostage in return for exiting employees promising that they're 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.799 not going to bad mouth open Ai. And you might think, huh, 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:56.480 vested equity, not potential equity, but vested equity. That sounds 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.559 like you're at the point where those assets definitely belong 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.599 to them employee and not the company. And since this 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.080 documentation has come to light, open ai has walked things 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.480 back a bit, with Sam Altman himself saying that he 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.080 felt ashamed of it all and that he also he 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.920 totally didn't know about it, despite the fact that some 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.799 of these various documents had C Suite executive signatures attached 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.000 to them, which I don't know seems like the kind 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:24.120 of thing a CEO should know about. Anyway, Altman posted 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.200 that quote, we have never clawed back anyone's vested equity, 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.080 nor will we do that if people do not sign 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.160 a separation agreement or don't agree to a non disparagement agreement. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.719 Vested equity is vested equity, full stop end quote. That 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.880 seems like a reasonable thing to do. I'm just scratching 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.360 the surface of the story, though there's so much more 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.560 to it, and to really dive in, I highly recommend 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.880 you read Kelsey Piper's piece on vox dot com. It 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:57.040 is titled leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.719 employees over at Google. The Internet had field day with 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.640 some rather concerning results from the company's AI Overview product. 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.800 So this is Google's AI enhanced search feature, in which 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:14.080 AI curated information appears above some search results, and folks 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.920 have noticed that the AI has offered up some pretty 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:21.360 weird and sometimes dangerous suggestions. For example, if you were 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.200 to google how do I make pizza so that the 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.760 cheese doesn't just slide right off? One person found that 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.320 Google's answer to this was to add glue to the 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.960 recipe keep that cheese in place, which is a big 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.040 out you. But another one was even more concerning. There 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.960 was someone who was asking about how to sanitize a 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:44.840 washing machine, and essentially the suggestion that the Overview AI 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:49.200 made was the equivalent of mixing chlorine gas in the washer. Now, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.680 in case you didn't know, chlorine gas is very poisonous 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.880 and it can kill you. In another example, it was 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:59.600 clear that Overview AI was essentially plagiarizing content because it 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.600 was for smoothie recipe and the answer that the AI 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:08.480 gave included the phrase my kid's favorite. Now, presumably the 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.280 AI does not have children, but the smoothie recipe that 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.400 it pulled from did use that phrase, So again it 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.720 looks like the AI is actually just directly lifting something 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:25.080 from a source rather than synthesizing information. Right. That's the 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.280 promise we get with generative AI, is that it's synthesizing 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.360 stuff and then presenting it to us in a way 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.679 that we can understand. But when you see instances like this, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.520 it seems to suggest that, well, there's a lot more 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.440 copy and pasting going on than synthesizing, at least in 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.560 some cases, and that's not a good look. Over at 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.440 Meta Yon Lucun, the chief AI scientist, has said that 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.760 while large language models are interesting, they're not going to 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:54.320 lead to AGI, which is artificial general intelligence. That's the 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:56.800 kind of AI you find in science fiction stories in 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.959 which you know, robots or chatbits start to for themselves. 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.760 So Lacun has said that the large language model branch 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.640 of AI isn't going to get us there. Lacun says 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.800 that generative AI models essentially have the intelligence of a 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.800 house cat, which if any cats are listening to this podcast, 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.640 I would just like to point out it was Lacoon 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.080 who said that I think that you are a very 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.400 good kiddy. I'm just covering my bases here. Lacun said 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:26.119 that the chatbots built on lms are quote unquote intrinsically unsafe. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.600 Now by that, he means that a model is only 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.000 as good as the data that you use to train it, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.440 and that if the data has unreliable or wrong stuff 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.840 in it, the LLM will reflect that it doesn't have 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.040 the ability to discern between what is reliable and what 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.400 is not, So you end up with an AI model 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.280 that sometimes gives you incorrect responses, but with the confidence 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.640 of someone who seems to really know what they're talking about. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.720 Lacoon has also expressed that people leaving open AI over 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.080 safety concerns are perhaps blowing things out of proportion. I 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.440 take issue with that. I agree with Lacun that saying 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.280 things like we're dealing with intelligence that we don't really 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.520 understand is perhaps overblowing things. I think that was really 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.520 Lukun's main point. But I counter that it doesn't actually 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.280 require high intelligence for an entity to become dangerous, and 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.240 if a company continuously undermines safety, the matter of how 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.199 intelligent the AI agent is could be a moot point. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.559 It could still be really dangerous. Okay, we've got a 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.640 lot more news to get through before we get to that. 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:37.040 Let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. We're back. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.920 And imagine that you are a computer science student who 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.160 creates a studying tool that makes use of AI, and 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.280 your school is so impressed that they award you and 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.200 your research partner with a ten thousand dollars prize for 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.240 coming up with a great business idea. Then that same 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.400 school says you are suspended or expelled because of that 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.839 exact same tool that they gave you ten grand for. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.320 This is the story of IMRI University, which is located 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.040 in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, and two students who 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.760 built an AI powered studying tool that they called eight Ball. Now, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.000 the tool can do stuff like analyze coursework and create 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.480 flash cards and practice tests, so it helps you study, 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:22.959 and it can retrieve information from a university tool called Canvas. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.400 This is not specific to EMRI University, but it is 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.199 a tool that's available to universities and it's a platform 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.280 to which professors can upload class materials like coursework. So 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.000 the idea is that the teachers use Canvas. They do 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.040 that to distribute the coursework to the students, and eight 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.479 ball can actually pull information directly down from this platform. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.240 Emory's Honor counsel decide that eight ball amounted to cheating 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.600 and that the students were accessing canvas without university permission. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.319 And this is an accusation that the students have denied. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.920 And now one of the students is bringing a lawsuit 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.640 against the school and arguing that the school itself knew 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.840 and approved of their work as evidenced by that hefty 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.400 ten grand the school awarded the two students for this project, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.040 and the student says that the university has no evidence 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.400 that anyone ever used eight ball to cheat. So we 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.200 will see how this unfolds. Now, let's loop back around 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:17.200 to AI powered operating systems. That's how we started this 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.600 whole episode off. Well, Microsoft has been aggressively pushing AI 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.160 features into Windows eleven in preview mode, so it's not 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.199 being rolled out as a general feature yet, but it 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.800 is a preview feature. One of the things that the 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.600 Microsoft has pushed AI to do is called Windows Recall 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.880 or Windows Recall if you prefer. Essentially, it means the 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.480 AI is taking snapshots of what's going on your PC 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.600 every few seconds. That can include everything from which programs 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.000 you're running, you know, any tabs that you have open 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:49.960 on your browser, all that kind of stuff, and it 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:51.800 will just take a snapshot of that, and then you 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.720 can search through them and look through your history of 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.400 activity on your computer. Further, while Microsoft Edge users will 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.600 have at least some controls that allow them to filter 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.160 what is or is not captured by the tool, anyone 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.000 who's using a different browser will not necessarily have that 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.520 same luck. So you might be an incognito mode, but 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.440 it's still going to get captured by Windows Recall. And 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.640 this has led some to argue that Microsoft is trying 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.280 to push more people to adopt Edge as their browser 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.040 of choice because that's the browser that actually does have 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.760 the filter. But whether that's the case or not, plenty 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.560 of people have come forward to criticize Windows Recall. While 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.920 Microsoft says the snapshots are encrypted, some cybersecurity folks worried 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.840 that Windows Recall will create a new target for hackers. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.840 So imagine being able to pull snapshots off a target 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.640 computer and learn about things like login credentials or credit 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.080 card information that kind of thing. Now, a lot of 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:47.320 sites mask that stuff, but some don't, and so there's 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.960 a real worry that Windows Recall will become a security 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.760 and privacy vulnerability that will just encourage more hacking attacks. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.079 Some of the critics have even wondered what the use 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.800 case is for this tool in the first place. I mean, 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:00.880 you can use it to search through as activity, but 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.280 to what end. Richard Speed of The Register also points 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.439 out that this feature is likely going to run into 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:11.280 compliance issues with the EU's GDPR laws. So will Microsoft 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.439 walk this feature back never to speak of it again. 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.920 It wouldn't surprise me, but we'll have to wait and see. 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.120 X AKA Twitter has made a change and it doesn't 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:21.800 have anything to do with AI, So we're off the 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.480 AI stuff now. So now you will no longer be 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:28.040 able to see which posts someone else has liked. You 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.720 will still be able to see which posts you have liked, 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.640 and you'll be able to see who has liked your posts, 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:35.960 but you wouldn't be able to see what old Jimbob 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.560 over there has hit like on. And jim Bob's not 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.240 going to be able to see what you've hit like on. 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.520 So why make this change? Well, according to the director 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.880 of engineering at x QUOTE, public likes are incentivizing the 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.440 wrong behavior. For example, many people feel discouraged from liking 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:56.520 content that might be edgy in fear of retaliation from 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.760 trolls to protect their public image end quote. And I 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.520 can see how that could be helpful if I were 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.520 still on x and if I were using my account 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.680 to say like posts that were made by activists who 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.000 are in the LGBTQ community, I might prefer it if 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.240 trolls who just want to harass people didn't see that 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.600 I was supporting that, although I think public support is 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.760 really helpful in those cases. On the flip side, if 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.680 let's say you're I don't know a justice on a 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.920 Supreme Court, as a hypothetical example, you might not want 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.400 people being able to see that you've liked comments that 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.120 appear to confirm a political bias one way or the other, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.400 since you're supposed to be impartial. I'm not saying that's happened, 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.160 just saying that's a use case. Now. I don't think 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.040 this change really means much to me personally, because I 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.040 left Twitter ages ago, I have no plans to go back. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.120 I feel that Twitter has largely continued to move in 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.920 a direction that is just completely in opposition to the 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.080 values I have. Not saying my values are right, just 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.800 that they're very different from the ones that I see 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.000 on Twitter, but for those people who still are on X, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.720 I can see how this could be a welcome change 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.280 where you know, it's just one less thing for you 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.920 to worry about getting hassled about. Zach Whittaker of tech 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.440 Crunch has a piece about how at least three Windom 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.359 hotels in the United States have had Consumer Grades spyware 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.600 installed in their check in systems, which means those check 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.720 in systems have essentially been capturing screenshots of the login process, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:25.720 not that different from what we were talking about with 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.200 Windows Recall, and then storing these screenshots in a database 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.960 that hackers can access anywhere in the world, which means 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.040 hackers can comb through these screenshots to get personal information 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.240 about guests, including things like potentially credit card information or 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.320 at least partial credit card information. The spyware is called 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.240 PC tattle Tale, and it's usually marketed as a way 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.080 to keep an eye on someone who's like, you know, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.720 your husband or wife or your kids or partner, because 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.440 you don't trust them and you want to see what 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.160 they've been getting up to, you know, healthy, wholesome stuff 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.640 like that. Tech Crunch reports that a flaw on the 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:00.960 app makes it possible for anyone in the world to 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.080 access these screenshots if they know how to exploit the flaw, 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.480 and that despite a security researcher trying to contact the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.920 developers behind this app, there's been no response to their 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.159 inquiries and the flaw has remained in place. Tech Crunch 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.240 chose not to reveal the specifics about these three hotels 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.520 in order to prevent retaliation against employees of those hotels 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.840 who may not be at fault because we don't know 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.160 why the spyware was on the computers in the first place. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.720 It could be that there was a manager who was 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.240 just trying to make sure that their employees weren't goofing 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.680 off while on the job. It could be that hackers 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.359 use social engineering to trick staff into installing something on 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.639 their computers that definitely shouldn't be there. We don't know. 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.720 The Pentagon has revealed that Russia has launched something into 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.760 space that's in the same orbit as a US government satellite, 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.359 and further that this something is likely a counter space 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.480 weapon of some sort. The presumption is that this Russian 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.000 spacecraft has the ability to attack satellites in low Earth orbit. So, 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.520 you know, fun stuff. Okay, let's end with a fun story. 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.879 So this one hits me right in the nostalgia. So 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.199 when I was a kid, I had an Atari twenty 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.480 six hundred game console, and then much later, after the 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.240 video game crash from nineteen eighty three, I got a 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.439 cousin's old intelevision system and a dozen or so games, 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.199 plus a dozen or so controller overlays, only some of 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.240 which corresponded with the actual games I had, So I 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.360 felt like I had the best of both worlds, despite 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.080 the fact that by that time the Nintendo Entertainment System 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.640 was out and was undeniably the superior game console. Anyway. 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.439 This week, Atari, which I should add is not really 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.159 the same company as the one that was in the 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.800 late seventies early eighties, Atari announced that it had acquired 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.040 the Intellivision brand and a bunch of Intellivision games from 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.800 a company that up until now really it was called 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.000 Intelevision Entertainment LLC. SO for several years in Television, which 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.720 has also gone through major changes in ownership and isn't 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.879 really the same company anymore, has been trying to release 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.840 a home video game consol called the Amiko So. Atari 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.640 did not purchase the rights to Amiko. So the company 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.520 in television Entertainment LLC will continue, but it will change 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.000 its name. Don't know what's changing its name too yet, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.600 but it's going to change its name. The Intellivision brand 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.000 and all that stuff is what goes over to Atari, 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.240 and Atari will have purchased the legacy in television system 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.359 and games, so we should see that incorporated in some 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:27.800 way in the not too distant future. I have a 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.040 couple of articles for suggested reading for y'all before I 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.439 sign off. First up is Mike Masnek's piece on tech Dirt. 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.760 It's titled The Plan to Sunset. Section two thirty is 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.399 about a rogue Congress taking the Internet hostage if it 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.280 doesn't get its way. I did an episode about Section 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.800 two thirty back in December twenty twenty. It's a piece 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.520 of legislation that was drafted to give protection to Internet 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.359 platforms in order to allow the Internet to grow, but 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.200 now Congress is debating on sunsetting that protection by the 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.080 end of next year. Masnext piece explains why that would 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.600 be a very bad thing. The other suggests article I 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.280 have is on the Verge and it's by Lauren Finer 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.000 and just Weatherbed and it's titled the US Government is 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.080 trying to break up Live Nation ticket Master. So the 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.440 piece explains how Live Nation has created an insular ecosystem 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:17.080 that is reportedly anti competitive and locks artists and venues 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.200 into using Live Nation and Ticketmaster systems, and how the 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.000 US government is possibly going to bring that to an end. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.320 That could be welcome news to all y'all out there 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.680 who are sick of paying so called convenience fees that 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.760 are almost as much as the show ticket price itself. 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.600 I count myself among you. It is Memorial Day weekend 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.800 here in the United States. There will be a rerun 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.480 episode on Monday and on Wednesday, because I'll be out 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.800 of town. There'll be a new episode of tech Stuff 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.520 next Friday. I hope all of you celebrating Memorial Day 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.480 have a safe and happy holiday. I hope everyone else 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.879 out there has a great weekend, and I'll talk to 0:20:50.920 --> 0:21:00.240 you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeart Heart 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:05.200 Radio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.520 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.