WEBVTT - Tech News: Is TikTok's Clock Running Down in the US? 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.280 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.959 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.280 are you? So before I talk about the news for Tuesday, 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.720 March seven, twenty twenty three, I want to give y'all 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.920 a heads up that tomorrow a special guest host takes 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.000 over the show, Bridget Todd, also known as the host 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.760 of There Are No Girls on the Internet, among many 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.879 other things, And I'm really excited to have y'all hear 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.080 this special episode. I don't want to spoil anything, but 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.680 I'm definitely looking forward to everyone getting a chance to 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.600 hear it. So make sure you tune in tomorrow to 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.919 get that special episode, and I'll be back on the 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:58.600 following Thursday. But now let's get to the news for today. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.400 And first up, for a change, I really just have 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:07.600 one story explicitly about AI today, and it's about Microsoft's 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:12.160 incorporation of AI. This one was developed by open Ai 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.080 and it has to do with Microsoft's products for enterprises 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.080 for businesses. All right, So, first off, Microsoft had previously 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.800 invested a billion dollars in open ai and more recently, 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.920 the two organizations I've entered into a type of partnership, 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.840 Though details are scarce as to the extent of that partnership, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.720 some folks estimate that the agreement has Microsoft investing ten 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:42.000 billion dollars with open AI over the next several years. Anyway, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.959 this week, Microsoft has unveiled how it is integrating AI 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.480 into suits like power Platform, which is a platform with 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.640 tools for developers that kind of stuff, as well as 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.720 Dynamics three sixty five, which is used for enterprise resource planning. So, 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.640 in other words, these aren't not consumer facing products. You know, 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.279 if you don't happen to work in these fields, you'll 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.600 never really encounter them. They are meant to be tools 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.359 that businesses can use to optimize processes and stuff. So 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.079 the idea is that the AI will assist companies and 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:19.840 employees to do jobs, particularly those that are highly repetitive. 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.520 In other words, Microsoft's pitch is that this AI augments 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.440 what you're already doing, and thus the name they picked 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.600 copilot really makes sense. These tools are not intended to 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.560 replace decision makers. Instead, it's supposed to make their jobs 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.800 easier and less repetitive. And side note my own personal 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.880 opinion is. I think Tesla could probably take notes on 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:50.079 how Microsoft's naming approach went this way, because I think 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.520 Copilot is a much more responsible naming convention than say, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:59.440 full self driving, when the actual technology is not full 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.320 self drive. Anyway, that being said, I haven't personally had 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:08.160 any experience using Copilot. It's really for stuff that's outside 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.960 my job duties, so I can't actually comment on the 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.240 quality of the tools performance, but supposed to do things 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.679 like help marketing departments identify new customers. For example, let's 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:21.960 say you've got a product or a service. Then you're 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.919 doing pretty well, but you're leaving money on the table 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:30.000 because you haven't identified people who would be really good customers. 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.640 You you never reached out to them because you weren't 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.440 aware of them or whatever. This tool is meant to 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:40.560 help people identify those potential customers and then craft communications 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.800 that are likely to resonate with them. That sort of thing. Further, 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.600 when building, say a message to potential customers, Copilot will 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.000 clearly label all the pieces of that communication that had 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.320 been crafted by AI, which will give real human beings 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:02.160 in whatever organization we're talking about a chance to review 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:06.400 these communications to make sure that everything's accurate and appropriate, 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.440 and you know, it doesn't end up just being a 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.720 message that says that, you know, robots should kill all 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.160 humans or something. Last week, I talked about how there's 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.840 a bill in the US House of Representatives that could 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.640 potentially call for the ban of TikTok. Well, the Senate, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.400 which is the other branch of the US Congress, plans 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.400 to unveil a similar bill today. In both cases, the 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.880 aim really does go beyond TikTok. I mean, obviously the 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.200 app is a big reason for these proposals in both cases, 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:42.520 but in neither case is it exclusively the target. So 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.080 the Senate version is said to give the President of 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.240 the US the authority to restrict technology from foreign countries 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.760 if it's reasonable to suspect that those companies might be 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.040 using the tech to compromise the US's national security. And y'all, 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.880 this does get super tricky. I talked last week about 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:03.320 how the ACLU claims that banning TikTok would amount to 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.920 violating the First Amendment, which is the right to free speech, 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.320 and I honestly don't know about that one way or 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.280 the other. There's no doubt that as technology gets more advanced, 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.840 and starts to lean heavier on stuff like cloud computing 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.880 and has the potential to serve as a data gathering system. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.760 We should be concerned, In fact, we should already be 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.880 concerned about this, because it's already happening all around us, 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.200 whether we're talking about companies that are foreign or domestic. 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.960 I mean, that is happening. That's what's going on with Meta, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.440 it's what's going on with Google. Pretty much any big 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.000 tech company is doing this. But here, obviously, the concern 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.000 is tech companies that are ultimately located outside the United States. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.119 From a national security perspective, I can understand that there's 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.720 a fear that foreign companies could potentially pose a threat. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.240 We've already seen similar movements the US against foreign companies. So, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:07.919 for example, the US banned telecom companies from using tech 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.440 from the Chinese company Huawei out of concern that that 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.200 could be used as a massive surveillance system. So Huawei 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.400 makes all sorts of networking equipment, among other things, and 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.000 the fear was that if telecom companies were integrating Huawei 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:27.240 systems within their infrastructure, that it could turn the telecommunications 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.320 industry in the United States into a giant espionage service 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.960 for the Chinese government. That was the fear. And you know, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.159 we in the United States would much rather the NSA 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.479 do all the spying on communications within our country. Now 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:47.080 keep an American anyway. I haven't seen the proposed bill 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.880 yet because it wasn't released while I was writing this. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.120 By the time you hear it, it may have already 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.080 been released. I will say that according to reports, it 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.440 does have bipartisan support, and we've seen other parts of 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.640 the world, like the EU, to a stronger stance against 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:06.040 letting information flow out of a region to foreign countries 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:11.960 without restriction. Right. The EU guards citizen data very carefully 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.880 and is quick to jump on companies that don't follow 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.200 the regulations within the EU, and I have long said 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.120 that the United States kind of fell behind on this. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.120 So in some ways, I think this is correcting a 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:32.840 problem that has been around for ages. And of course, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.200 if you look at China, it actually takes this whole 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.240 concept to an extreme right. It doesn't just limit what 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.240 goes out, it limits what comes in. You know, it 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.080 limits what citizens are able to access. And see you 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.520 can't even access lots of different Western based tools within China. 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:57.760 So there's clearly a spectrum here between letting everything go 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.480 flow in and flow out, everyone access everything and let 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.680 everything access us, and then the extreme of China, where 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.080 you take really authoritative control over what can be seen 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.160 and accessed. And I don't think either extreme is good. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:15.400 I think you need to find someplace in the middle 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.640 where things work out properly. And I honestly don't know 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.760 where this Senate bill is going to fall along that spectrum. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.640 I haven't had chance to read it yet, but I'm 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.240 sure i'll talk about this later on this week once 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.160 we have more information, and I definitely want to see 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:37.120 moves that will protect citizens without escalating into an issue 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.560 where the United States just becomes even more isolationist and 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:46.480 insular than we already are. Okay, do you remember Cambridge 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.200 Analytica and that scandal, So essentially a political marketing company 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.760 was using data that had been collected by an app developer, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.240 a Facebook app developer who had crafted a survey app 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.839 for Facebook. Now, back in the days when this app 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:06.120 was created, Facebook's API was not particularly careful about the 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.760 kinds of information and app could gather, so it was 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.040 possible to design an app to scoop up all sorts 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.880 of data even if that information had nothing to do 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.680 with whatever the app was doing. In the Cambridge Analytica case, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.160 this included getting a look at folks who hadn't even 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.680 used the app themselves. And here's how it would work. 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.640 Person A decides that they want to install this app 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.079 and take the survey, partly because it's a paid survey, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.560 so they have an incentive, a monetary incentive to participate. 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.000 So they install the app on Facebook and they take 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.880 the survey. Now, persons B through Z, who happened to 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:50.040 be friends with person A, they don't download the app. 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.240 They don't install the app and take the survey. However, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:58.000 the app gets access to person A's views as if 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.280 it were person a. So in other words, it can 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.720 actually look at all the profiles of all the friends 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.520 that person A has as if it were person A. 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.360 So it can collect all this information on persons B 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.160 through Z, even though none of them consented to have 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.840 their data shared. They didn't have a say in this. Well, 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:24.840 now Australia, nearly a decade after all this happened, is 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.400 hearing a case about this. The High Court is going 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.120 to hear a case that claims that as many as 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.640 three hundred thousand people in Australia had their data harvested 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.360 thanks to just fifty three people using the quids. Think 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.920 about that, fifty three people use this app and in 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.160 the process, around three hundred thousand people have their information 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:53.320 exposed and gathered by the app developer. And further, the 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.120 case claims that Facebook should be held accountable for allowing 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.240 this data harvest to happen. Now, since this incident that 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.760 happened nearly a decade ago, Facebook has subsequently beefed up 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.439 its restrictions. Further, the company is challenging the validity of 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.800 the case brought against it because at the time of 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.800 the incident, Facebook says it didn't have any commercial business 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:20.440 set up in Australia, no staff, no offices, no real 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.160 means of generating revenue within the country, nothing, and that 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.160 as such, the law that concerns this whole case, the 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.839 law that Facebook has been alleged to have broken, would 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.240 not apply because it has a prerequisite that the company 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.120 that carried out that broke the law rather carried out 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.000 business within Australia. So Facebook is saying, we didn't carry 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.160 out business in Australia, we didn't have any offices here, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.880 we offered our platform here, but we weren't generating revenue. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.959 There was no business being done. Now, there have been 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:59.840 lower courts that have disagreed with that conclusion, but Facebook's 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.760 pushing it as part of their defense. Now, if it 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.720 loses the case, the company faces a two point two 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.080 million dollars fine, which for Facebook that's not that much. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.600 So even if the High Court ultimately rejects Facebook's arguments 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.280 and finds the company guilty, Facebook is not going to 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.760 be taking a massive hit when it's compared to its 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:23.559 overall revenue. And speaking of Facebook slash Meta, numerous outlets 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.960 like Bloomberg have reported that more layoffs are imminent at 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.800 the company. So if you remember Meta downsized by thirteen 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.480 percent late last year and actual numbers of employees, that's 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:40.079 around eleven thousand people who lost their jobs. According to Bloomberg, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:45.080 that initial round of layoffs was really related to a 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:50.960 reorganization effort, which largely included cutting entire teams and also 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.480 managerial levels. The idea being that they wanted to flatten 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.240 out the hierarchy, so they didn't want to have as 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:03.000 many vertical levels between entry level employees and top brass. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:08.040 So this was like a middle management clearinghouse kind of situation. However, 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:13.960 Bloomberg says that the upcoming layoffs will be more about 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:18.880 financial results than a reorganization, So it's possible we'll see 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.760 departments that are not heavily associated with revenue affected the most. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.800 But time will tell a lot of people think that 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.960 this is going to unfold within the week or early 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:32.880 next week, so we'll just have to keep an eye out. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.880 All right, we've got more news to cover, but first 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:49.320 let's take a quick break. We're back. UDN reports that 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.719 Intel has finalized its design of two nanometer and one 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:57.199 point eight nanimeter fabrication processes. Remember a nanometer is a 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.320 billion of a meter. However, when you hear these numbers, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.200 it does not actually mean that Intel is about to 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:09.120 churn out chips that have components that measure two nanometers 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.600 or one point eight nanometers in size. It's actually just 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.240 a naming convention at this point. Once upon a time, 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.480 the numbers actually did refer to the size of the 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.640 individual components on a chip, but we abandoned that several 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.200 generations back. We kept the naming convention, which is odd 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.400 because it's a naming convention where the numbers keep going down, 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.880 but those numbers don't actually refer to the size of 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.400 anything on the chip anymore. Also, I should mention that 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.240 these processes have been designed but not actually built out. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.040 So in other words, Intel has come out up with 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.320 the approach they're going to take, but they haven't actually 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.760 created the manufacturing process itself. So we're not going to 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.360 get chips right away that have these new features on them. 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:01.920 And if you're wondering why we don't go smaller anymore, really, 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:03.440 when it comes down to it, I mean, some stuff 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.160 does get shrunk from generation to generation, but not as 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.120 much as what the Naming Convention would have you think. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.000 And the big reason for that comes down to quantum physics. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:17.080 If you make components small enough, then quantum mechanics come 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.920 into play and electrons will decide to do whatever the 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.560 heck they want to do instead of following these careful 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.400 pathways you built for them with your transistors and whatnot. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.480 That's being a little flippant, but it's also true anyway. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.320 Intel is introducing a lot of stuff all at once 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.440 with the one point eight nanimeter fabrication process, also known 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:40.360 as the eighteen A process. The A stands for Angstrom 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.200 because you know, you have to go down from the 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.680 nanoscale to the Angstrom scale. Intel has a new transistor 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.160 design with this eighteen A approach. It is shrinking some 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.120 components so some things are getting smaller, and also has 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.320 added backside power delivery. And as Tom's Hardware point out, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.800 there's a lot of stuff that has been incorporated into 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.440 this new design. It's a bold and potentially risky approach. 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.560 So typically what Intel does is follow a pretty standard 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.200 tick talk pattern, which means it comes up with a 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.160 new design for chip architecture, and then it builds a 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.840 chip based on that design. Then in the next generation 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:30.640 it optimizes that design, and then after optimizing the previous design, 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.080 Intel goes and makes another new design. So it goes 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:39.920 talk tick talk, So new architecture optimization, new architecture optimization. 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.440 Once upon a time, the architecture really did refer more 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.320 to shrinking things down, Like you would design an architecture 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.920 and then the next generation you would shrink it down. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.640 The next generation you would build a new architecture based 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.080 on that new size you had reached, then you would 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.440 shrink it down. That kind of thing. We're kind of 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.760 beyond that at this point anyway, we're not likely to 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.159 see any chips based off this new process for at 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.879 least a year. Intel hopes to have it in place 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.520 by early twenty twenty four. Earlier on in this episode, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.520 I talked about how Huawei has come under suspicion by 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.040 the US government, which then pushed telecom companies to ditch 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:23.679 Huawei equipment in their networks. Well, in another Huawei related story, 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:28.600 the company recently participated as an exhibitor at the Mobile 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.880 World Congress event in Spain, and visitors to Huawei's booth 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.600 were given personal security badges. They had to wear them 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.640 while they were in the booth, and they were meant 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.800 to hand the badges back when they were ready to 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.800 leave the booth. Only some folks forgot to hand the 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.840 badges back and they ultimately walked off with them, and 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.200 then some of them just left their badges lying around, 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.600 And then of course people got a little curious and 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.239 they took the badge which was on a lanyard, one 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.600 of those extending lanyards where you got the little plastic 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.000 clip that has the spool in site it so you 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.720 can extend and retract your badge. Well, someone found out 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:09.320 that inside that plastic clip, there was a tiny circuit board, 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.080 like they popped the clip open, and besides the spool 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.080 for the lanyard there was a chip, And so folks 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.399 started to speculate what this circuitry could be. Was Whahwei 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:26.920 trying to track people? So the company said, essentially yeah, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.280 because those badges were meant to track where people were 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.080 going within the booth and how much time they were 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.520 spending at specific parts of the booth, that kind of thing. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.080 This in turn would inform Huawei about what people were 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.439 most interested in. Folks were expected to hand over the 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.320 badges after the end of their visit, so it wasn't 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.280 like Huawei was trying to bug someone and track all 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.600 their movements throughout all of Mobile World Congress. They were 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.119 just really, according to what they're saying, interested in what 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.160 people were doing when they were actually visiting Huawei's booth. 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.919 Now there's concerned that individual badges could be connected to 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.679 specific people, like if they were personalized. I don't know 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:09.840 if they were personalized because the report I read it 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.320 and go into detail, but if they were, then there's 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.280 some concern about that data being linked to a specific individual. 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.080 But huawehas said that they're following their privacy policy, they're 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.719 going to protect that information. That that's not really what 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.960 they're really focused on. They're looking at what parts of 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.879 their booth design were effective and what wasn't. Honestly, I 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.800 get the feeling this is a story that's more innocent 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.119 than malicious. I didn't see anything to indicate that the 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.640 circuitry could really do anything sinister. It looks like it's 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.600 a passive RFID and Bluetooth system, so something that when 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.520 it passes within range of an emitter can reflect back 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.080 a response which just gives the system information of where 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.640 someone is and how long they are there. It didn't 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.840 look like it was capable of doing more than that 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.960 to me, but that was at a casual glance based 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.320 upon some photographs, and I just think that this one 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.679 is probably not that big of a deal. Honestly, I 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.719 think Huawei is pretty much telling the truth here. However, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.920 it does really illustrate how Huawei has a reputation associated 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.399 with it. Whether that reputation is fair or not is 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.000 up for debate, but I think it shows that there's 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:27.120 this kind of cloud of suspicion that's associated with the company. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.200 In a new segment that I'd like to call y'all 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.720 got to read this. I want to give a shout 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:37.040 out to Wired. Wired published a piece that's titled Inside 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:42.120 the Suspicion Machine, and it's about governments using systems that 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.760 reduce people to data points for the purposes of making 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.800 really important decisions regarding those people. It opens talking about 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:55.480 a welfare system in Europe and how such an algorithmic 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.879 approach can be used by administrators of these systems to 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:05.000 determine who is taking advantage of the system. As Wired 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.360 points out, they said, it's not like it's being used 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:12.440 to determine how much welfare a person requires, but rather 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:15.679 how likely is it that this person is abusing the system, 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:21.160 like it's taking an accusatory stance out of the gate. Well, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.399 this reminds me a lot about a story we covered 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.399 recently about how a lot of HR leaders expect that 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.800 they will at least partly be relying on AI and 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:35.320 algorithms when it comes to making layoff decisions. So to 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.639 do that, you kind of have to reduce people into 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.520 a collection of data points so that an algorithmic system 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.439 can actually make decisions, and compare this set of numbers 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.639 against this set of numbers. But there are a lot 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.359 of dangers with this approach, including bias potentially leading to 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:56.520 specific populations of people being disproportionately targeted and affected by 0:21:56.520 --> 0:22:00.840 these kinds of decisions. Now, the piece on Wired is extensive, 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.399 it is thorough, it is a great read. So I 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.000 recommend go check out the piece again. It's on Wired. 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:13.159 It's titled Inside the Suspicion Machine. Also, just for the 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.720 interest of full disclosure, I do not know any of 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.280 the people who contributed to that article. I do not 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.040 have any connection with Wired other than being a subscriber. 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.240 It's just my recommendation as someone who reads a lot 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:29.520 about tech. You know, in the early days of the pandemic, 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.600 when everyone was scrambling to find ways to work in 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:37.840 a suddenly decentralized remote approach, conference tools like Zoom really 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.920 took off, followed closely by people determined to disrupt work 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.920 being done through these tools. Well, we haven't emerged from 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.439 the disruption stage yet because recently a meeting that was 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.520 being held by the US Federal Reserve had to be 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:58.400 canceled in process due to a stream hijacker who blasted 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:03.440 pornographic content to the attendees of the Zoom meeting, which 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:06.119 was like a couple hundred people. I think now you 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.280 might remember there were similar stories from just a couple 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:11.040 of years ago about people who found that they could 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.239 access corporate meetings that failed to protect their links, and 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:17.879 also that didn't use any kind of password protection. I 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:22.119 saw a rapid adoption throughout the industry of things like 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:26.120 protected links and passwords after that kind of happened because 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:29.320 it was easy to do. It was pretty easy to 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.720 find links that were being shared publicly, but they weren't 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.760 intended to be public meetings, and then people would just 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.760 crash them. So this is kind of similar to that. 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:43.520 The Federal Reserves Brent Jarks issued an apology for the 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:46.679 incident and committed to finding out how the hijack happened 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:51.040 and how to prevent it from happening again. Okay, I've 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.320 got a couple more news stories, but before I get 0:23:53.359 --> 0:24:05.440 to those, let's take another quick break. We're back. So, 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:10.560 Engadget has a piece about Honda's newest robot, which, unlike 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:15.920 the Tesla Optimus robot, and unlike Honda's own retired Asimo robot, 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:20.640 isn't humanoid. It's not built to look like a human. 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:24.159 It doesn't have legs and arms, no, Instead, Honda's robot 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:28.760 is actually the third generation of its autonomous work vehicle 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.439 or a w V design, So it's a type of 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:37.200 kind of self guided electric wagon. It's meant to carry 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:42.520 payloads and has a large enough surface flat surface that 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.760 can carry two pallets worth of payload, and it can 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:51.360 support up to two thousand pounds per go. It has 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:54.000 a top speed of around ten miles per hour. That's 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:57.720 actually fairly darned zippy for something like this, and it 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.160 reportedly can go for twenty eight miles before needing a recharge. 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:04.359 I don't know if that's under a full load. It 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:07.160 might be less time under a full load. But this 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:09.440 is not the first automous work vehicle, like I said, 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:12.399 it's actually the third generation, and Honda says it is 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:16.320 capable of working either by remote control, so you could 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:21.760 have someone actually steering this remotely, or it can operate 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:27.080 completely autonomously. Honda anticipates that the AWV will have utility 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:31.520 in environments like warehouses and construction sites and that kind 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.320 of thing. That it's designed to also be able to 0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:38.600 travel over rough terrain, so a construction site would be fine. 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:43.040 So Honda now is looking to form strategic partnerships with 0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:47.199 construction companies to kind of test the AWV in the 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:51.479