WEBVTT - Tech News: OpenAI Gets That Cheddar 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.479 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:16.400 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.799 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:23.800 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for Friday, 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:29.840 October fourth, twenty twenty four. So this week, California Governor 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:34.320 Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that was aimed at putting 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.360 some guardrails up on major AI companies in the state 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.920 of California. Newsom says that he vetoed it because he 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.720 felt the bill was too weak, that it wasn't addressing 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:50.680 certain elements of AI that he thought were really important, 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.319 and instead was kind of framing it the wrong way. Now, 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.040 tech journalist Casey Newton says in his tech newsletter, which 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.600 is well worth subscribing to, and I have no connection 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.120 to Casey. I just really like his work Anyway, He 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.520 says that most folks he chatted to are not really 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:15.639 buying Gavin Newsom's explanation for why he vetoed the bill. 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.440 The bill would have mandated safety testing for AI models 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.280 that had cost more than one hundred million dollars to train, 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.000 so that would have covered the major players in the space, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.440 most of which have been headquartered in California. So Newsom 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.480 has said, well, yeah, I mean these are really big models, 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.399 but what about smaller models that are trained to do 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.080 things that are inherently risky. This has no coverage for them, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.399 So it does go deeper than that. In addition, the 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.320 bill would have allowed judges to levy punishments for cases 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.800 in which AI was found to have caused harm. You 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.800 might think, well, of course they should be able to 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.640 do that, but until it becomes established law, you can't 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.640 just hand out punishment. If there's no law covering what 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.760 is at least being perceived to be a crime, then 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.360 that's an issue. Ca C. Newton does go on to 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.200 say that in recent months Gavin Newsom, Newsom and Newton 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.640 a little too close anyway, Gavin Newsom has signed eighteen 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:22.080 other AI bills into law, so that is significant, right, Like, yeah, 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.440 this one he vetoed, but he has signed more than 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.200 a dozen regulations into law. Though some of those laws 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.000 AI companies are going to have like a full year 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.880 grace period before they go into effect because they are 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:41.440 not going to become actual effective laws until twenty twenty six. 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.280 These new laws carry out that groundwork I was talking about. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.680 They create the legal pathways for victims to pursue with 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.480 regard to AI related abuse. So, for example, if someone 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.520 were to use AI to generate nude images of you, 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.359 and then they demand money from you, saying, hey, we're 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.000 going to release these pictures and they look real and 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.400 they are of you, and you're naked. So unless you 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.320 pay us, we're going to flood the Internet with these things. 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.639 Well that would now be a crime. And again you 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:14.280 would think, well, that sounds like that should be a 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.440 crime already it's blackmail, and yes it is, but the 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.960 AI generated element of it, you know, a lawyer could 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.360 have argued, well, this isn't really a picture of you. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.079 It wasn't taken of you, it's generated by AI. It's 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.440 not really a picture of you, and that creates this 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.680 this wiggle room. So that's what these laws were meant 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.680 to do, is to kind of eliminate those gaps. So 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.640 really it's all about, you know, filling in the blanks 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.080 for stuff that's clearly wrong but until recently wasn't actually 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.320 defined as a criminal act. Amazon got a bit of 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.600 a win in court this week, so the company saw 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.640 a partial dismissal of a lawsuit that the United States 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.440 Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has brought against it. So 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.840 the heart of the matter is that the FTC has 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.600 claimed Amazon has engaged in anti competitive behaviors in order 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.880 to acquire and hold a dominant position in online marketplaces, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.960 and Amazon asked for a dismissal of the court case, 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.479 arguing that the FTC did not have sufficient evidence to 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.680 show that the company was actually harming consumers, because I mean, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.560 that's ultimately what anti competitive stuff is supposed to be about, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.800 is that the reduction of competition in the market hurts consumers. 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.160 You know, competition is good for consumers. The judge has 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.840 dismissed at least some of the FTC's charges, but not 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.680 all of them, and I don't know which ones because 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.320 the judge issued this as a sealed ruling, so it's 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.760 not public information about which elements of the lawsuit have 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.320 been dismissed and which ones remain. But the judge also 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.799 denied another one of Amazon's requests, which was to combine 0:04:55.920 --> 0:05:00.680 both a trial and the FTC's proposed solution to this 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.840 alleged anti competitive issue in a single case. So the 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.080 judges ruled that that will instead be two separate cases. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.440 So it suggests to me that there is at least 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.320 a sufficient amount of charges left in the FTC's case 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:20.360 against Amazon to necessitate that ruling. Right. So, don't know 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.200 how much of the case was dismissed, but Amazon gets 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.520 a little bit of a win there. It was a 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.800 huge week for open Ai this week. So over the 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.760 last few months, I've seen lots of different analysts sort 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.159 of projecting that open ai could find itself out of 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:41.800 money unless it had another significant round of investments, and 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:46.719 that round happened this week, and it was indeed significant. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.760 Open Ai raised around six point six billion with a 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:56.279 B dollars in investments. About three quarters of a billion 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.719 dollars came from Microsoft, which continues to financially back open 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:05.640 Ai pretty enthusiastically. Now, this huge influx of cash has 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:10.200 analysts now valuing open Ai at a staggering one hundred 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:15.400 and fifty seven billion dollars. Once again, I'm left to 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.520 grapple with a paradoxical situation because here's a company that 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:24.520 really burns through cash fast. And that's not blaming open Ai. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.600 I mean I mentioned earlier this week in other tech 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.159 stuff episodes AI R and D is mega expensive. It 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.320 is so expensive to not just do research and development 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.279 and AI, but then to run AI applications. It costs 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.680 a lot of money. And some folks were saying that 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.720 open ai might actually spend itself out of business by 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.560 early next year. But now we turn around and it's 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.400 being valued at one hundred and fifty seven billion buckaroos. 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.839 The finances just don't make sense to me. Like, I 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.120 get that in the in the moment, it's worth a 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.080 huge amount of money. But this is the same company 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.320 that people are saying it's going to spend itself out 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.560 of business, and it's not like anything there has changed, right, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:09.560 It's still going to have to spend huge amounts of 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.040 money and it's not going to bring in enough revenue 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:16.320 to cover the costs. So this will power open ai 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.640 for some foreseeable future, but we're still going to have 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.640 to wait and see if open ai can get to 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:27.080 a situation where it will generate enough revenue to cover 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.960 the costs of doing business, or if we'll just get 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.120 right back into the situation where at some point open 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:37.120 ai needs to hold another significant round of investments in 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.840 order to stay going right, it's kind of crazy. On 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.280 top of the funding news, by the way, Reuter's reports 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.559 that open ai also secured a four billion dollar line 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.560 of credit, so on top of the six point six 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.600 billion that was invested into it, it means that it 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.800 has more than ten billion dollars of liquidity to its 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.840 name right now, which is a big old yeah. Ten 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.720 billion dollars now. Again, that doesn't guarantee that open ai 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.000 is going to be able to leverage all this money 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.600 and turn Ai into like a sustainable business that actually 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.400 can you stand on some own. We'll still have to 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.000 see or maybe we'll get to a point where not 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.560 only are they going to need investment, that investment is 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.320 going to go directly to paying off interest on a 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:31.400 four billion dollar line of credit. Yikes. Meanwhile, over at 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:36.400 open AI's former headquarters, Elon Musk, a guy who never 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.680 met a grudge he couldn't hold, held an event for 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.240 his own AI startup, which is called x Ai, and 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.360 I would say that it's it's pretty much in character 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:52.840 for Elon Musk to hold a recruiting event for his 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:59.720 own AI startup in the open ai original headquarters because 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.280 he got I remember, Musk was a co founder of 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.760 open ai years ago, but he had a massive falling 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:09.679 out with others in the organization and he bailed. There 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.199 were rumors that he was attempting to essentially take over 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.360 open ai, and when he encountered resistance, he decided he 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.640 would go and make his own AI company. It's one 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.400 of those like Futurama type moments. He has since argued 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.200 that open ai has largely abandoned its initial mission of 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:31.200 being an open, transparent, non profit organization that's dedicated to 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.160 the safe and responsible development of artificial intelligence. And y'all, 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.040 I do not agree with Elon Musk on many things, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.160 but I do think that particular criticism is one hundred 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.480 percent on target. I think there's no way to argue 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:49.920 against that Open ai has certainly transformed dramatically from that 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.720 open and transparent nonprofit organization into very much a for 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.480 profit company that of fuse skates a lot of what 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.360 it works on. Now. That's not to say that I 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.640 think Musk would have done things differently had he actually 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.760 been the one in charge of open ai. I think 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.400 if he had one that struggle, if in fact, there 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.360 was one a few years ago, and if he had 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.160 become the head of open ai, he would either be 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.200 doing something not too different from what open ai is 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.199 doing now, or he would have run the company out 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.720 of business one of the two. And the reason I 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:31.280 say that is again, AI is really expensive, like it 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.479 just it burns through money so fast because the technology 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.839 you need to run AI applications. First of all, the 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.240 chips are in short supply, so those are expensive, and 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.320 then you have the electricity needs. Those are expensive. It's 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.920 just hard to do. And if you're going to run 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.439 it as nonprofit, it means you do need to have 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.960 that constant influx of cash in order to fund your work. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.200 And I'm not sure that Elon Musk would have managed 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.559 to do that. So it's not that I'm saying he 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.440 would have mismanaged it, just rather I don't know how 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:09.040 you get a nonprofit to work anyway. Musk addressed a 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.760 group of engineers at this event to recruit them for XAI. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.439 At the event, Musk talked about his desire to create 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.760 a quote digital superintelligence that is as benign as possible 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.320 end quote. He also said he thought we'd achieve artificial 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.959 general intelligence within a couple of years. That seems overly 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.800 ambitious to me. But then again, Musk has also frequently 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:35.040 made some rather grandiose predictions about AI that just haven't 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.080 you know, shaken out, Like specifically in the autonomous car space, 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.720 he has thought that we were going to hit a real, 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:46.560 true autonomous car future much earlier, and you know, obviously 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.719 we're still not there yet, but he thought it was 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:50.760 already going to be here, and that has not happened. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:55.720 So I would not bank on artificial general intelligence within 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.200 the next couple of years. Maybe. I mean, I don't 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.480 know for sure. I just know that it's a really 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.600 hard goal to hit. He also mentioned the desire to 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:09.360 create a supersonic passenger aircraft company in the future. That 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.080 probably merits a separate discussion. That's a really tricky thing. 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:17.600 But yeah, that's what happened with his recruiting event this week. Okay, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.880 I've got a couple more stories to talk about Before 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:32.080 I do that, let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.199 So Victoria Song of the Verge has a piece titled 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.520 college students used Meta's smart glasses to docs people in 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.160 real time. Now. As that headline indicates, this is about 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.080 how a pair of students used some ar glasses that 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:53.280 are outfitted with cameras and Internet connectivity to essentially run 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.880 an app that they had built that relies on things 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:01.400 like facial recognition and personal idea databases in order to 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.160 return information about the people that are within view of 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:10.439 the glasses camera. As songwrits, quote, the tech works by 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:15.319 using the meta smart glasses ability to livestream video to Instagram. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.280 A computer program then monitors that stream and uses AI 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.200 to identify faces. Those photos are then fed into public 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:28.920 databases to find names, addresses, phone numbers, and even relatives. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.480 That information is then fed back through a phone app 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.880 end quote. So the students call their Techi x ray, 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.679 and I'm sure you could immediately imagine how that technology 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.720 could be abused, And in fact, there are very few 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.280 use cases that are benign. Right, And the students have 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.320 stressed they're not releasing this technology. This is not meant 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.080 to be an app that you're going to be able 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.359 to download and then walk around and know everybody's secret identity. 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:05.160 They recognize how technology is inherently abusable, like it's again 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.600 very hard to use it in a way that isn't 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:14.000 malicious or at least irresponsible. So just imagine someone wearing 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:19.200 glasses like these and then pretending to know complete strangers 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.440 because they've got on their phone a quick dossier about 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.680 the person. They've got their name, their address, they have 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.640 relative names, all that kind of stuff. They're able to 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.480 actually reference this. Like I used to do a goofy 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.080 version of this at stores where I would walk in 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.440 and like the employees would have a name tag on, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.800 and I would just address them by their name tag 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.480 in the store, Like not outside that's creepy, but in 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.840 the store. And sometimes they would forget that they were 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.920 wearing a name tag. They're like, how did you know 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.760 who I We know each other. I'm like, no, you're 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.760 wearing your name literally on your shirt and they say, oh, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.480 right right. You know, just one of those moments where 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.320 you just you're not even thinking about it. Well, as 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.360 silly a little interaction as that is, you can imagine 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.800 one being much more serious. Let's say it's at a bar. 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.560 You can easily imagine someone trying to prey upon people 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.520 at a bar by pretending like they either know this 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.080 person from way back, or they know someone that knows 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.040 this person, and they're trying to get an end that way. 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.400 So the students say their intent was to raise awareness 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.480 that this capability isn't just some hypothetical future technology. I mean, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.040 this is something people have been warning about for a while, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.320 but the students are saying, listen, we're done warning. It's here. 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.520 We did it. It is possible. And if we did it, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.440 even though we're not gonna do anything with this technology, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:41.640 that doesn't mean the next person will do the same. 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.880 So you have to be aware what this technology can do. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.360 I think it also again goes back to showing how 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.120 terrible a job the United States has done when it 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:58.680 comes to citizen data privacy. It's criminal, if you ask me, 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.840 because the fact that there have been no real rules 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:06.200 about this make things like this totally possible and in fact, 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.800 like you could even imagine a much deeper dive for 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.200 this kind of thing, because those databases out there are 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:18.120 enormous and comprehensive. Even for people who aren't online. If 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.080 they're showing up in pictures that are on friends, you know, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.560 social profiles or whatever, and they're identified in the photos, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.040 that's enough. They don't even have to participate directly in 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.600 the system to be abused by it. So yeah, pretty 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:38.560 sobering example of how technology can interfere with privacy and 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.120 potentially put people at risk. Google is apparently rolling out 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:46.120 a verification feature on search results. Just Weatherbed also of 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.520 the Verge, reports that some users are getting results back 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.920 that include blue check marks next to certain entries. Those 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.440 check marks indicate sites that Google has verified as being 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.840 a legitimate business. So if you're searching for something, let's 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.120 say like you're searching for I don't know, durable camping equipment, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.000 when you get your search results back, you are going 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.920 to see if you're part of this anyway, you would 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.080 see that some of the companies that are listed would 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.200 have this blue check mark. Other companies may be ones 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.159 that are trying to pose as if they are a 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.240 more established, reputable company, They're not going to have that 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.160 check mark. So it's an immediate visual indicator of which 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.280 businesses are trustworthy or at least more likely to be trustworthy. 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.120 So it's really all about identifying businesses in this case. 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.320 That's it, not like people or anything like that. And 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.800 it sounds like this initiative is in a very limited rollout. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.240 Not everyone's going to see check marks in their results, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.160 and I don't I did quite a few different searches 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:47.480 just to see if any of these popped up for me, 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.320 But no matter what I searched for, I didn't get 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.960 anything that had check marks on it. So I am 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.320 not part of this rollout, and of course there's no 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.119 guarantee that Google will ever roll it out to the 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.200 general public. It may just be that this is a 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.720 test and nothing else comes of it, but we'll have 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.919 to keep your eyes out. Finally, for some recommended reading, 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.159 I suggest Eric Berger's piece in Ours Tetnica. It is 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.280 titled NASA is working on a plan to replace its 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.720 space station, but time is running out. So the current 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.520 plan for the International Space Station is for it to 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.720 fly into the sunset, or more accurately, for it to 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.440 deorbit in twenty thirty. But unless the pace really picks 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.760 up and soon, that's going to happen without a new 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.080 space station taking its place, that would mean the good 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.560 old US of A would no longer have its own 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.240 research facility in orbit. Complicating matters is the fact that 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.080 NASA also has plans to return to the Moon and 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:47.080 potentially to set the stage for further human exploration, potentially 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.320 the places like Mars. So I recommend reading Burger's article 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.919 to get a full picture of the situation. That's it 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.720 for this week. I hope all of you out there 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.800 are doing well, and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:11.560 Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.600 visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:16.679 to your favorite shows.