WEBVTT - Tech News: Could the US Government Take Control of TikTok? 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.040 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.320 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.120 are you. It's time for the tech news for Tuesday, 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:28.240 August twenty second, twenty twenty three. First up, Microsoft and 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.080 Activision Blizzard are still trying to complete that enormous sixty 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:38.280 eight point seven billion dollar acquisition deal. The main hurdle 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:42.720 now would be the Competition and Market's Authority or CMA 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.320 in the United Kingdom or the UK. Okay, sorry but 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.479 I don't know what happened to me there kind of 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.560 short circuited anyway. One of the objections that the CMA 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.080 has had to this deal is a concern that it 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:03.639 could potentially give Microsoft almost monopolistic command of the cloud 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:09.320 gaming industry, and thus the deal would then be anti competitive. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.039 To amend this, Microsoft has now restructured its deal to 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:18.280 quote acquire a narrower set of rights end quote. This 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.880 is according to Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft. The 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.640 big piece of this deal or this restructuring, is that 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:31.080 Microsoft is handing off the cloud streaming rights for all 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:36.000 current Activision Blizzard games, as well as all new Activision 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.720 Blizzard games for the next fifteen years to another company. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.919 Those rights will actually be held in perpetuity, which means 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.920 the entity that has secured these rights will always have 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:54.240 the rights for those specific titles now presumably in sixteen years. 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.840 Microsoft would then get the exclusive rights to all Activision 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.520 Blizzard games and the cloud streaming space moving forward. Anyway, 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:08.880 the other entity happens to be Ubisoft. That's a games publisher. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.960 It's known for series like Assassin's Creed and numerous titles 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:18.079 in the Tom Clancy universe. This new deal would mean 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.040 that Microsoft would not have the authority to release any 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:27.120 Activision Blizzard titles on Xbox Cloud Gaming as an exclusive. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.440 Those rights would go to Ubisoft, so theoretically that should 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:36.680 quell the CMA's concerns. The CMA has launched a new 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.359 investigation into this restructured deal, and the deadline they have 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.240 to make a decision on whether or not they'll authorize 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.640 the deal is October eighteenth. That also happens to be 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.520 when Microsoft would need for this deal to close before 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.040 having to negotiate another extension with Activision Blizzard. So originally 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.240 Microsoft and Activision Blizzard had play and for this deal 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.200 to already be closed, but because that didn't happen, they 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.800 had to extend the deal once already. So if it 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.360 comes up to October eighteenth, then the decision still hasn't 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.680 been made. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would have to come 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.280 together again and decide whether they wanted to try and 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.000 extend the deal or extend the period before the deal 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:27.920 would close yet again in an effort to secure those rights. 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 We'll have to wait and see if this restructured deal 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:37.120 satisfies regulators. I have really complex feelings about this deal. 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.160 So on the one hand, as I have said many 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.520 times on this show, consolidation and markets rarely leads to 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.840 better outcomes for customers in the long run. But on 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.720 the other hand, Activision Blizzard is a company that has 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.840 a really rough history with regard to corporate culture and 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.680 how leaders have treated employees, to put it lightly, so 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.880 there's a hope that a change in ownership would lead 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:07.200 to better conditions for employees. And that's that's not nothing. 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.400 So yeah, I have complicated thoughts on this, but for 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.280 now that's where the deal is. If I had to 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.880 place a bet, I would say that this new restructured 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.880 approach should end up working because it seems to address 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:28.320 the concerns the CMA had. But then the CMA hasn't 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.600 really reversed its decision on anything for the past several years, 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.760 so we'll have to see. Sticking with Microsoft, the company 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.480 is killing off the Connect. But wait, I hear some 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.080 of you say, I thought they already did that years ago, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.600 and you and I would be in the same boat 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.520 because I remember Microsoft discontinuing the Connect way back in 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.400 twenty seventeen. So for those of y'all out there who 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.440 have no idea what I'm talking about, the original Connect 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:01.080 was a peripheral for the Xbox three P sixty game console. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.920 It uses depth sensing cameras to detect the environment and 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:10.160 to interpret physical gestures as commands, which could be used 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.640 in applications and games. It also had stuff like microphones 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.599 to pick up voice commands that kind of thing. Microsoft 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.159 updated the Connect with the launch of the Xbox One, 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.000 but there was a general kind of lack of interest 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.039 from both developers and gamers. It was sort of a 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.040 chicken and egg problem, right, Like, developers didn't have a 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.599 lot of incentive to make stuff for the Connect because 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.840 there didn't seem to be a large audience for it. Meanwhile, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.479 the audience didn't have very many games they could purchase 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.880 because developers weren't actually making a whole lot of stuff 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:42.640 for it, and some of the stuff that was made 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.160 was some of the most widely panned video games out there. 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.359 So yeah, it kind of led Microsoft to just shelve 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.839 the whole thing in twenty seventeen. Now, what I did 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.960 not realize was that Microsoft actually brought the Connect back 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.360 in two thousand nineteen, but it wasn't for gamers this time. Instead, 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.400 this version was the Azure Connect Developer Kit. So it's 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.599 a tech kit for folks who are working in fields 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.600 like robotics and computer vision and artificial intelligence. So one 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.800 of the fascinating things about areas of computer research is 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.680 that often researchers will take advantage of hardware that was 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:28.080 intended for some other use, like a video game peripheral, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.960 and then repurpose that technology for research. This actually happens 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.880 a lot in areas like mixed reality and artificial intelligence research. Anyway, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.840 Microsoft saw the opportunity to make a little money by 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.279 creating these kits and marketing them to like research groups 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.400 and such, but now Microsoft has discontinued the Azure Connect 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.719 Developer Kit as well, so existing kits will continue to work. 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.679 According to Microsoft, they're not going to turn off support 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.120 for the stuff that's already out there. The company has 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.640 also said it will continue to sell these kits through 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:06.120 October or until they're all gone, whichever comes first. For 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.360 developers who are hoping to take advantage of the Connect's capabilities. 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:14.520 Microsoft also has some suggested alternatives through its various partners, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.320 so you can research that if you're into it. If 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.080 you can't get hold of one of these kits and 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.440 you're in the field. But yeah, the long and winding 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.720 road for the Connect has come to an end again. 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.840 Forbes received a copy of a draft agreement from twenty 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.960 twenty two. This is between TikTok and the Committee on 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.560 Foreign Investment in the United States or SCIPHIUS. That gives 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.200 insight into the negotiations between TikTok and the US government. 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.120 So for those of you not up to speed, one 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:50.800 of the few unifying concepts among politicians in both major 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:55.560 political parties is a concern about TikTok in general, and 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.880 with regard to national security in particular. Lots of government bodies, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:05.160 ranging from local governments to federal organizations, have banned TikTok 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.480 from government owned devices some regions, some states in the 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:14.960 US really one has banned TikTok outright. Others are considering 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.280 similar bands. And this mostly has to do with the 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.440 fact that TikTok's parent company, Byteedance, is a Chinese company 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:28.000 and by extension, a potential conspirator with the Chinese government, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.800 specifically the Chinese Communist Party. So there's a long time 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.880 fear that TikTok could be acting as a funnel and 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.880 be directing information to Chinese agents who could be using 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.480 it as intelligence for all sorts of things, from gaining 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.439 information about US companies and US government agencies and institutions, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.560 to developing new ways to manipulate the American public through 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:58.400 misinformation and disinformation campaigns. This leaked agreement from twenty twenty two, 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:03.319 which came from some unnamed sources, has some fairly dramatic 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.520 stuff in it. So, for example, the terms of this 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.800 agreement would give the US government the authority to perform 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:15.480 reviews of TikTok's facilities and equipment, including their servers, at 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.440 pretty much any time without any warning. The government would 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.360 also have the power to veto changes in TikTok's terms 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.880 of service here in the United States if the government 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.600 had decided that those changes in terms of service were 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:35.680 potentially harmful to national security or American citizens. The government 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.880 would even have a say on the types of executives 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.320 that TikTok could hire, at least for certain positions. They 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.079 would also be able to demand that TikTok temporarily suspends 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.920 service in the United States. So this is pretty extreme stuff. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.640 It is beyond rare to see any kind of document 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.640 that would allow this level of involvement from the US 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:03.120 government into a company's operations. That's just not typically how 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.320 things are done here in the United States. So a 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.520 lot of that document appears to aim at severing byte 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:14.080 Dance's connection to TikTok. Not completely, not forcing byte Dance 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.320 to release TikTok, to spin it off, or to sell 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:23.120 it off, but it does essentially remove any decision making 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.440 processes between byte Dance and TikTok, or at least really 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.640 neuters them quite a bit. As Forbes writer Emily Baker 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:36.720 White points out, this agreement potentially hands the United States 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:40.800 government the exact same power that US politicians are worried 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.719 that the Chinese could abuse or perhaps are already abusing. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.679 Now that shouldn't comfort anybody, because various agencies in the 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.280 United States have shown a distinct lack of restraint when 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:57.120 it comes to surveillance in spying upon American citizens, So 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.640 it should be a concern that the US government would 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:05.600 get that power. It's really trading one government that we're 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.960 worried would conduct surveillance on US citizens to another. It 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.080 just happens to also be the US government. In fact, 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.839 in my opinion, anyone having this capability is concerning to me. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.280 It doesn't matter if it's the Chinese government or the 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:24.599 US government or the company itself. Doesn't matter to me 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.800 if the company is public versus private. I just think 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.440 it's bad news. No matter who is in charge. If 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.720 they're able to get access to that amount of information, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.280 it doesn't turn out well. So, in other words, it 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.120 doesn't really matter who's in charge in the sense of 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.439 the danger is present no matter who's holding the reins. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.240 It's just the question of how is it going to 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.320 potentially be abused anyway. Again, this was a draft agreement. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.720 Negotiations are ongoing between TikTok and the United States. It's 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.640 just wild to say terms like these laid out in 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:06.160 a document between the US government and a company. All Right, 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.040 we're going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:22.120 and we'll be back with more news. We're back so late. 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:27.959 Last week, DC District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.640 that only human beings can hold a copyright, which means 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:39.080 any art, any creative work that AI generates is not 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:44.000 eligible for copyright. The ruling stemmed from a court case 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:48.600 in which a man named Stephen Taller attempted to argue 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.960 that he should be allowed to own a copyright of 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.480 an AI generated piece as though it were a work 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:59.560 for higher piece. So Taller had created this AI tool. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.040 The AI tool in turn generated some art, and Taller says, well, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.199 we should treat that as if the tool is my employee, 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.520 and I hired this employee to create the art for me, 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.800 and I own the copyright on the art. This is 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:17.679 not an unusual thing when we talk about human beings, right, Like, 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:22.000 there are corporations that own the copyright on material that 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:26.440 was created by the corporation's employees or contractors. So while 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.160 the employee or contractor is the person who actually created 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.800 the thing. The corporation is the entity that owns the copyright. 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:37.920 Great example, this show. I don't own the copyright to 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.160 this show. I do all the research, I do all 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.520 the writing, I do all the recording. I do not 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.800 own the copyright. That's a company thing, and it's not 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.600 unusual for that case. So Taller was arguing the same 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.920 consideration should be granted to him. He should be able 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.960 to hold the copyright on AI generated art. Judge Howell 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:01.240 has rejected this argument and said that quote human authorship 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:06.480 is a bedrock requirement of copyright end quote. Taller plans 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.600 to appeal this case, and I'm sure there are a 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:14.600 lot of companies watching this closely. The entire Hollywood establishment 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.200 is probably pretty concerned. There's been a great interest in 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.880 using AI in creative endeavors out of Hollywood. But while 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.200 Hollywood executives might salivate over the possible costs that they 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.040 cut by using AI instead of human beings, the threat 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:36.080 of being unable to secure IP ownership would likely outweigh 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.160 everything else. Right, the studios would be like, well, if 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.800 we don't own the stuff, that's worse. So when you're 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:48.240 looking at greed motivators, I think that the ownership outweighs 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.560 cutting costs by using AI instead of human beings. Honestly, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:56.400 I'm kind of curious how my old employer, HowStuffWorks dot 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.640 Com is looking at this, because they famously, as or 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.400 at least famously on this show, switched over to AI 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:10.880 generated articles, and as such, if that means that how 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.360 Stuffworks cannot own a copyright over that material, that I 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.600 think is a big risk for the company, And right 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.240 now in US law it appears that that's the case, 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.360 that you cannot copyright something that was generated by AI, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:32.920 so definitely complicates matters for companies like that. Anyway, the 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.360 whole issue is far from closed. I imagine it's going 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.400 to take a good amount of time to hash out 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.360 how copyright applies or does not apply to works that 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.560 AI either created outright or helped to create. This is 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.080 going to be probably something that's going to eventually lead 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.360 to new legislation, but right now, at least according to 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.440 Judge Howell, current legislation has no place for it, and 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.480 thus copyright does not apply. Mashable has a piece in 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:06.160 which a third party researcher named Travis Brown analyzed Elon 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:10.680 Musk's followers on x the platform formerly known as Twitter. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:15.520 Musk has the most followed account on the platform. He's 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.280 got more followers than anyone else. On x he has 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.320 around one hundred and fifty three million followers. So Mashable 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.800 was kind of curious about how many of those accounts 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.160 represented real people, or at least, you know, active users. 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:33.000 And while Brown's work cannot give a definitive answer on 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.920 how many followers might be bots, some of the findings 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.480 do suggest that a whole dang bunch of Musk's followers, 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.240 at the very least, are not hardcore users of the platform. 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:50.000 For example, more than seventy two percent of all of 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:54.880 Musk's followers that's around one hundred twelve million accounts have 0:16:55.000 --> 0:17:00.360 fewer than ten followers themselves, and more than sixty five 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.639 million of those accounts have zero followers. So forty two 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.320 percent of all the followers that Musk has have no 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.119 followers themselves. Now, that does not mean that all or 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.320 even most of those accounts are bots, but it's not 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.920 a good sign, right like. It suggests that perhaps these 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:25.680 accounts are are inactive or unseen like, So it seems 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:30.160 like Musk's following is largely inflated, but that's not all. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.960 On top of that, around forty one percent of all 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.680 of his followers, or around sixty two and a half 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.000 million of them, have no posts at all. None of 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:45.720 them like, this's just an empty, empty little account. Now, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.359 Mashable points out, this might not mean that they have 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.320 never posted a message. It is possible that they did 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.639 once upon a time, but then subsequently deleted their history 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.439 of messages. So that's a possibility. And some of them 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.719 could just be lurking, right. They're not there to generate content, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.200 They're there to consume content. More than one hundred million 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:12.600 of his followers have fewer than ten posts on their account. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.159 About a quarter of all the accounts that are following 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.760 Musk have the default user profile image. More than forty 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.440 percent of his followers have a user handle that contains 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.920 four or more numbers in it. Again, when you start 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.320 thinking about things like the generic or the default icon 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.359 for your profile image, or having lots of numbers in 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.800 the name, those are things that often suggest a bot 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.359 account as opposed to a real person. Only zero point 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:48.639 three percent of his followers are ex premium subscribers, so 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.040 while the findings cannot definitively say that the bulk of 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.399 musks following made up of inactive or fake accounts. The 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:02.720 circumstantial evidence suggests that maybe he's not the most popular 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:08.239 person on Twitter. I mean X after all. Speaking of X, 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.920 Over the weekend, the platform experienced a problem that affected 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:17.520 posts made before December twenty fourteen. This problem affected messages 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.360 that contained either an image or it contained a URL 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.640 that Twitter had auto shortened so that it would take 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.520 up fewer characters. Remember, there was a limit to one 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.000 hundred and forty and then later two hundred eighty characters 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.840 on Twitter for a long time, So this meant that, 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.800 at least temporarily, it looked like a ton of material 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.480 had been lost, all of these images and all these 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.000 messages that had contained a link in them. That prompted 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:45.960 a lot of folks to worry that the loss could 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.159 be permanent. But X's support department sent a message stating 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.320 that a bug had made this info inaccessible. They did 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.240 not give details on what that bug was, and that 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.080 all the information was actually safe. Nothing got deleted, it 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.359 just wasn't able to display on X for the moment, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.879 and that the support department had fixed this issue, but 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.240 it would take some time for those older messages to 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.880 essentially repopulate, but according to the support staff, it should 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.040 all be back within a few days, so that's good. Now. 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.600 Normally I would put this next story at the very 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.680 end of the episode because it involves a bit of absurdity, 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:32.200 but this story also relates to Tesla, one of Elon 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.000 Musk's other companies, so I am putting it here instead. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.320 This story came out last week, but I totally missed it. 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.240 Tesla has created kind of a goofy product to promote 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:48.760 the upcoming Cybertruck electric vehicle. This product is a cat bed, 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.000 and the cat bed's frame is made out of cardboard. 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.800 The cardboard folds into this angular shape that's meant to 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.760 remind you of the weird truck bed of the cyber Truck. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.920 The wild thing is that the design of this cat 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:09.800 bed looks almost exactly like one of a cat lounger 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.240 created by a company called Hulu Mao that was released 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.800 way back in twenty seventeen. I mean, if you were 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.720 to put these two products side by side, and you 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.440 were to cover up the brand names that are printed 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.720 on the cardboard, I don't think you would be able 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.600 to tell which one was which at a casual glance. However, 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.320 the creator of the Hulu Mau version said that he 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.200 did not file for a patent on the design of 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.600 that cat lounger. He was actually advised that it would 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.640 have been too complicated and expensive to pursue one as 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.840 sort of a small business pursuit. This is out of Taiwan, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.480 by the way, so technically the creator doesn't have IP 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.119 rights that he can exercise against Tesla. He says that 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.080 he doesn't really have any legal means to go after 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.040 the company because he doesn't hold a patent on the 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:06.240 original design. But it clearly is like it looks like 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.480 a direct copy to me, or at least a very 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.960 very very close copy. Maybe not maybe direct as being 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:18.880 too extreme, but from my limited perceptible abilities, I would 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.840 say that they're almost identical. The creator of the original 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.320 version said it would be really cool for Tesla to, 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.760 you know, compensate Hulumal for the use of that design, 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:33.200 and I agree that would be very cool, but I'll 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:38.440 also be absolutely shocked if that happens. Okay, let's move 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.880 on to a different tech billionaire with grandiose ambitions. We're 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:47.160 talking about Jeff Bezos and his space company Blue Origins 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.600 in this section. So Fortune reports that back on June fourth, 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:56.480 the International Space Station detected a huge methane emission while 0:22:56.520 --> 0:23:01.040 passing over West Texas, which is where Blue Origin will 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:05.800 conduct lots of work. So analysts estimated that the release 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:07.520 of gas was at a rate of one and a 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:12.720 half metric tons per hour, and they don't know how 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.359 long the event lasted. And that makes sense because the 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:19.560 International Space Station orbits the entire planet in about an 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.760 hour and a half, so it's not above any one 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:26.720 point on Earth for a very long time. So what 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.920 was the source of methane? Well, again, Bezos's private space company, 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.200 Blue Origin. It's actually working on a rocket that runs 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:38.959 on liquefied natural gas, which is almost entirely methane. And 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:41.240 so the thought was that this emission came from a 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.199 time when the company was perhaps transferring methane from a 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:48.200 supplier to the company's storage tanks and a bunch got 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.840 released in the process. The state of Texas doesn't have 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.199 limits on methane emissions, and it also does not require 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:59.360 companies to disclose when they release methane into the atmosphere. 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:03.960 So Blue Origin has very little reason to disclose this 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:06.720 kind of stuff. There's no reason to bring attention to it, 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:10.879 right because there's no legal requirement to do. So. What 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:13.560 is certain is that while it's pretty scary to think 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:19.560 of Blue Origin emitting enormous amounts of methane into the atmosphere, 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.399 and it's enough for an instrument that's in orbit around 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:27.639 the planet to pick up on those emissions, it's still 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:32.000 actually a very tiny amount compared to actual natural gas 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:37.040 industry companies. So yes, we could fixate on this, and honestly, 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.359 I think it is a problem that needs to be addressed, 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:44.200 but it's something that needs to be prioritized after we 0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:49.119 address the larger issue of natural gas companies releasing far 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:53.920 more methane into the atmosphere. Prioritize. Don't say one versus another, 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:56.080 just say, Okay, we'll get to that after we get 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:58.960 to this other thing first. But we are going to 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:03.320 have to start actually making movement on that. Okay, We're 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:05.240 gonna take another quick break when we come back. I've 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:17.480 got a few more stories to cover. We're back, Okay, 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:19.879 we're going back to space. We were just talking about 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:25.760 Blue Origins and methane. Let's talk now about Russia. So 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:30.560 this past weekend, the Russian space program experienced a setback 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:35.840 when the Luna twenty five spacecraft, which was intended to 0:25:36.080 --> 0:25:40.720 land on the Moon this week, instead malfunctioned and ultimately 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:44.560 crashed into the Moon. This was to be Russia's first 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.760 Moon mission since nineteen seventy six, that's when the Luna 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:52.400 twenty four landed on the Moon and actually returned moon 0:25:52.560 --> 0:25:56.440 rocks to Earth. But since then, Russia has not been 0:25:56.480 --> 0:26:00.320 able to land another spacecraft on the Moon. In fact, 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:05.080 nobody has except China. Roz Cosmos, which is the Russian 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:08.560 space program, says a full investigation is going to look 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:11.719 into this to find out where things went wrong, like 0:26:11.760 --> 0:26:15.680 what was the cause of this malfunction. The Luna twenty 0:26:15.720 --> 0:26:19.560 five had entered into the orbit of the Moon already, 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:22.920 and the operation that took place on Saturday was meant 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:27.639 to maneuver the spacecraft into a pre landing orbit, and 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:31.440 if everything had gone properly, the actual touchdown on the 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:36.080 Moon's surface would have happened yesterday. Considering the agency has 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:39.840 faced funding challenges over the last several years, this most 0:26:39.840 --> 0:26:43.960 recent setback is really bad news. For Russia's space program. 0:26:44.600 --> 0:26:48.800 Russia is a country that notoriously values results, and when 0:26:48.840 --> 0:26:55.480 there's a failure to produce results, often there's a retraction 0:26:55.680 --> 0:26:59.920 of support, let's say. And plus Russia's having lots of 0:27:00.200 --> 0:27:04.280 political issues at the moment, to put it lightly, so 0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:07.440 it may be that the space program will not have 0:27:07.680 --> 0:27:11.600