WEBVTT - Tech News: X Marks the Spot for an EU Investigation 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:12.560 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey thereon 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.920 Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.200 an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the Tech 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.600 are You. It's time for the tech news for December nineteenth, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.960 twenty twenty three, and first up. Elon Musk has had 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.680 a pretty rocky twenty twenty three in general, I think 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.040 it's safe to say, and these last few months have 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.639 been particularly challenging. I will add that in my own opinion, 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.000 I feel like this is a rocky road that Elon 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.720 Musk himself has paved. Anyway. The latest of those challenges 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.640 is that the European Commission announced an investigation into x, 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.000 the social platform formally known as Twitter. This has to 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.000 do with the new Digital Services Act in the EU, 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.640 which came into effect this past August. This law sets 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:05.119 out rules regarding stuff like disinformation, transparent advertising, and illegal 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:09.319 content on the Internet. So the goal was really to 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.279 bring the member states of the EU, all of which 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.000 have their own local sets of laws on these matters, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.119 closer into alignment to have a sort of universal set 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.399 of rules for the whole of the EU. For my 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.280 fellow American listeners think of it as the difference between, say, 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.960 a federal law regarding a specific matter, and a state 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:36.040 law similar to that. Anyway, the commissioners say that it 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.319 appears X has not been compliant with this new law, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.880 and that the platform has failed to do any significant 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:46.920 work to prevent or respond to illegal content and disinformation 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.800 posted to it. In particular, the focus is on information 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.520 in the wake of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.680 On top of that, the commission argues that X has 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.560 made use of a quote suspected deceptive design of user 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.200 interface in the quote, and you might think, well, what 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.320 the heck do they mean by that? Well, Lisa O'Carroll 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.000 of The Guardian has an explanation. It's due to how 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.600 X markets and operates the blue check mark system. Now 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.120 I'll remind you that back in the Twitter days, a 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.400 blue check mark was a verification mark, right. It was 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.320 meant to verify that an account belonged to the person 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.320 it claimed to represent. So that way, if you saw 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.119 a celebrities account and there was a blue check mark 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.200 next to it, you could be assured that indeed the celebrity, 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.440 or more likely the celebrities PR team owns that account, 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.560 but now a blue check mark merely indicates someone who 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.120 has paid to have the blue check mark, which comes 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.880 with a few little actual benefits in addition to having 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.519 the blue check mark appear next to your name. The 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.240 investigation is in the earliest stages and there is a 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.959 lot to cover, Like they're wondering if does the blue 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:05.800 check mark actually mislead people into thinking that somehow an 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.480 account that has a blue check mark is more reliable 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.480 than one that doesn't. So there's a lot more that 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.840 has to go on. It's just a preliminary investigation at 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.280 this point, and I am sure this comes as unwelcome 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.600 news to mister Musk. If the EU determines that X 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.720 has violated the Digital Services Act, the consequences can be 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.960 pretty severe. Punishments can include a fine of up to 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.600 six percent of the company's annual turnover. That's a UK 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.320 term that essentially means gross revenue, So before you take 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.320 all your expenses out, it's how much money you made 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.760 before you had to deduct expenses For X. That would 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.280 be pretty awful, as the company has already had massive 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.840 drops in revenue as it is. They could even potentially 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.920 block X from operating within the EU. So this is 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.120 a big deal and we'll have to see how this 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.360 story unfolds. If the recent past is anything to go by, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.600 it will probably not go well for x unlast elon 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.880 Musk's asides to remove himself from that situation entirely, which 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:12.840 I don't see happening, but I think that's really the 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.080 only way out for the platform. Next up. Comcast has 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.320 now confirmed has been the target of a data breach, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.360 potentially affecting nearly thirty six million customers. Tech crunches Carly 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.440 Page has a piece on this. It's titled Comcast says 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.080 hackers stole data of close to thirty six million Infinity customers. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.520 So the issue appears to be related to a weakness 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:38.359 in enterprise hardware, namely some networking devices made by a 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.080 company called Citrix. So Comcast uses Citrix devices in its 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.919 own network, and hackers discovered a vulnerability in certain Citrix 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.119 gear last summer. Citrix responded by creating and then making 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.760 available some security patches, but not everyone was right on 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.160 top of the ball there and didn't implement the security 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.479 patches fast enough, including apparently Comcasts, so that gave hackers 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.680 the chance to exploit the vulnerability in Comcasts systems this 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:11.360 past October and access customer data, and we're just hearing 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.960 about it now, right, Like Comcasts found out about about 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.440 a month later and now we're hearing about it. So 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.720 what kind of data was accessed? Comcast hasn't fully explained 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.240 that yet. Apparently they're still investigating it, but they said 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.320 that at least for some customers, it includes a lot 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.120 like their name, their username, a hashed version of their password, 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.200 so in other words, sort of an encrypted version, no 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:41.559 telling how strong the encryption is. The customer's address, their 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.200 other contact informations like email, phone number that sort of stuff, 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.000 their data birth, the last four digits of their Social 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.560 Security number, and any security questions and answers they may 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.520 have provided, you know, the stuff like what was the 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.160 street you grew up on? Kind of questions. Comcast has 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.719 been reaching out the customers and require them to do 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.600 a password reset, while also recommending that they enable two 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.640 factor authentication. This is where I recommend to all of 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.840 y'all that you use multi factor authentication whenever it is available. 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.560 Multi factor authentication does not guarantee that you're absolutely safe 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.640 from attacks, but it does raise the bar enough so 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.800 that I would say most attackers won't bother putting forth 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.880 the effort to get past it. Now I did say most, 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.560 not all. So there is no such thing as a 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:35.040 perfectly safe system. But you can at least improve your 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:39.839 security and thus eliminate like ninety eight percent of the 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.320 potential attacks you could face, and I think that is 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.080 a worthwhile effort. If you're in the United States and 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.279 you are a last minute shopper type and the holidays 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.080 are right here upon us, maybe you were planning on 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.800 getting someone an Apple Watch, specifically a Series nine or 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.480 an Ultra to Apple Watch, you better hop to it, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.760 because once three PM rolls around on the twenty first, 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.640 which is this Thursday, those watches will be off store 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.880 shelves in the US. And that's because Apple is facing 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.640 a ban by the International Trade Center or ITC all 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.040 because of a little sensor that's present in those two 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.440 models of the Apple Watch. So a company called Massimo, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.360 which makes medical devices, is in a patent dispute with 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.040 Apple over a sensor called an SPO two sensor. It's 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:34.800 designed to measure the blood oxygen models. So Massimo or Masimo, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.640 I don't know how you say the name of the company. Essentially, 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.160 they're saying Apple infringed upon a patented technology. It's an 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:45.400 allegation that Apple veheminently denies. But in the face of 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.160 this ITC ban, Apple is preemptively making the move to 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.800 pull all Series nine and Ultra two models off the 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.280 shelves for the time being. Within the US, the matter 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.840 is up for review. President Biden will actually have the 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.960 authority to either veto or allow the ban to continue. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.200 If he does not veto the ban, Apple can still 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.560 actually appeal that decision in federal courts, but it would 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.080 mean that the tech would be off limits for US customers, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.360 at least within the United States. I mean you could 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.040 technically travel somewhere else and buy one of these, I guess. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.040 According to Victoria Song of The Verge, Apple is also 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.080 working on a software solution that, if approved by the ITC, 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.040 could serve as a workaround for the issue, so there 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.120 wouldn't have to be any changes to the hardware and 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.280 Apple could continue to sell them in stores in the 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.600 United States. So I'll have to see what happens with this. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.559 Google has agreed to a settlement with the US States, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.760 as in all fifty United States states in a massive 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:47.640 anti trust lawsuit. So this lawsuit focused on Google's Play Store, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:53.480 the Android App Store essentially, and the United States was 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.560 accusing Google of operating an anti competitive platform by controlling 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.959 the stuff like app distribution and Android device is and 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.880 forcing app developers to pay fees for in app transactions. 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.320 Right like Google would take a cut of all in 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.679 app transactions. That's something that Apple has also faced in 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.400 courts in the United States recently. So if a judge 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.439 approves this settlement, because it has not been approved as 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.320 of the time I'm recording this, Google will have to 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.079 pay seven hundred million dollars and says it will introduce 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.480 greater competition in the play app Store to boot. Of 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.000 that seven hundred million, seventy million would go to a 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.600 fund that the US States would divvy up. The other 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.199 six hundred and thirty million would go to a fund 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.320 that would pay out to Google consumers. In the process 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.240 of the settlement, Google admits no wrongdoing, which is often 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.000 a case with court settlements. Now, this is just the 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:51.319 latest news in an ongoing year of scrutiny on Google 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.680 from various regulators. So I think we're going to have 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.240 a lot more stories about various governmental organizations applying pressure 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.480 to Google next year. But you'll have to listen to 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.680 my Predictions episode that'll be coming up in a little 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.920 more than a week and a half to learn more 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.000 about that. Yep, it's coming back. Speaking of coming back, 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.280 we'll be back to after we take this quick break 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:29.600 to thank our sponsors. We're back. Sean Lenas of CNN 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.240 has a story about how Microsoft believes operatives from China 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.400 are making use of generative AI in an effort to 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.559 mislead US voters. So the images are meant to sow 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:45.000 discord among voters and to push the divide that already 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.920 exists between the left and the right to even greater extremes. Really, 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:53.200 it's about making extremists, and y'all, we do not need 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.400 outside help to do that. We're really good at it ourselves. 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.520 But admittedly, if you put your thumb on the scale, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.600 it does speed things up considerably. So this campaign appears 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.200 to largely center on creating kind of iconic images through AI, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.000 and these images are meant to highlight specific issues in 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.480 the United States to a degree that I would actually 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.400 call absurd. I looked at some of these images and 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.480 I'm thinking this feels like it's parody or satire, right, 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.600 it's so over the top. However, according to at least 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.080 some folks over in Microsoft, the efforts are proving to 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:32.040 be effective because they are driving engagement online at least 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.400 on certain platforms. According to lin Gas, other companies have 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.800 reported a rise in Chinese backed misinformation campaigns as well, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.240 where they've actually taken action to take down these campaigns, 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:45.880 and some of them at least appear to not be 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.319 particularly effective, but they are happening. So it's a reminder 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.480 to not accept everything you encounter online, specifically on social 0:11:54.480 --> 0:12:00.160 networking sites, at face value. Rob Stump of Inside Evs 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.000 has an article titled Volkswagen will bring back physical buttons 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.400 in new cars and Yeah, that pretty much gives away right. 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.040 The title says that the company has decided to walk 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.120 back recent design changes in their electric vehicle line, and 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.760 those design changes saw a lot of touchscreen interfaces and 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:24.079 haptic capacitive buttons replace physical buttons that were on things 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.839 like control panels and steering wheels. So Volkswagen had really 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.400 kind of made this declaration that they were going to 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.840 go buttonless, but it turns out that the customers, the drivers, 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.280 send a very clear message to the company saying don't 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.800 do that. Customers reported that the touchscreen interfaces and those 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:46.480 haptic capacitive surfaces on the steering wheel were distracting and 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.280 frustrating and potentially even dangerous to use. As such, the 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.120 company has started to revise the design on the ID 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.439 two electric vehicle, which reintroduces some but not all, of 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:02.960 the physical control buttons. The whole Brewjaja prompted Volkswagen CEO 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.840 to say the design change to touch interfaces quote did 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.480 a lot of damage end quote to the brand. Now 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.599 keep in mind, Volkswagen is the same brand that was 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.400 behind the diesel Gate scandal years ago. I mean, arguably 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.079 that company is still trying to recover from that brew ha, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.640 So it knows a lot about damaging itself. Yeah, and 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.360 this story mostly is focused in Europe, like that's where 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.400 a lot of these vehicles have been released and the 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.839 objection to them has followed. I will personally say, I'm 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.800 not a driver, so it's not like I have any 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.880 real expertise in this area, but I do find an 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.480 off putting to be in a vehicle where everything is 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.880 like a touch based interface because it requires to me 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.959 at least to spend more time looking at the interface 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:53.560 to figure out what I need to do in order 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.520 to achieve the outcome I want. And if I were 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.120 a driver, that would mean my attention would be off 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:04.480 the road, and that I think is pretty darn dangerous. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.040 I was gonna say reckless, but ironically that seems like 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.400 that would be the wrong word to use. Anyway, Volkswagen 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.839 has said, you know what are bad, We'll go back 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.679 to buttons, so we'll see how those look in future models. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.520 Speaking of cars, this week, Canada is likely to announce 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.520 that all new cars will need to be zero emissions 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.800 vehicles by the year twenty thirty five. And by that 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:32.000 I mean actually, some Canadian governmental agency will issue a statement, 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 not that Canada itself will suddenly gain sentience and begin 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.760 to speak Anyway, The point is it seems like Canada 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.800 is following in the footsteps of several other countries around 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.160 the world that are also setting requirements on new vehicles 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:49.240 to be as carbon free as far as emissions go 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.880 within a little more than a decade. This doesn't cover 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.680 used vehicles. Obviously, you could still have an internal combustion 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.640 engine vehicle in Canada. It's not like they're being outlawed, 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.520 just that any new vehicle from twenty thirty five on 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.160 has to be emissions free. I find it somewhat amazing 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.720 that I could well live to see gas stations become 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:17.239 largely obsolete, like get such an It's such an integrated 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.280 thing in my life I think of, Like I have 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.360 childhood memories of going to gas stations and stuff. It 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.760 is wild to me to think that within ten fifteen 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.800 years those could pretty much become, you know, completely converted 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.560 over into like charging stations and stuff. It just is odd. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.560 I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm old. And 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:43.080 in Space News, NASA demonstrated the enormous power of the 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:48.960 Deep Space Optical Communications project or DSOC by beaming an 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:55.320 ultra high definition video from space to Earth using laser beams. 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:57.960 And I know what you're thinking, a video of what? 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:02.840 What did NASA's video contain? Well, maybe you didn't ask 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.200 that question, you probably can guess. I mean it's a 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.840 digital video. Yes, it was of a cat, because some 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:16.080 memes just won't go away. Now, this particular cat is Tater's, 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:21.000 an orange tabby, and the video shows Taters joyfully chasing 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.239 a little laserbeam dot around an environment, and the transmitter 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.040 is a board of spacecraft called Psyche. That spacecraft is 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.640 nearly nineteen million miles away from us, but you'll be 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.280 relieved to hear that little Taters has his pause firmly 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.400 on the ground. Taters did not go on a ride 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.480 helped to space. What they did was they shot the video, 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.640 or actually they took a video and downloaded it and 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:50.360 then they saved it to Psyche. Spacecraft's hard drive essentially 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.760 sent the spacecraft out into space, and then it beamed 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.240 the video back to us at a speed that was incredible, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.360 faster than broadband speeds here on the ground. It took 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.320 a less than two minutes for the message to travel 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.680 those nineteen million miles. It actually they said it took 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.320 less time for the spacecraft to beam the video down 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.680 to Earth than it took for them to transmit the 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:21.960 video from the receiver station to the headquarters, which is 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.960 pretty amazing. The experiment really helps pave the way for 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.679 long distance transmissions in space. That's something that's going to 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.160 be a key component in missions to places like Mars 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.560 or beyond. If we want to set up really good 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:39.159 colonies on places like Mars or the Moon. Using this 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.320 kind of laser communication technology will be key to bringing 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.440 down the delay times as much as possible and being 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.040 able to communicate seamlessly or as close to it as 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.199 we can. Okay, I've got just one article recommendation for 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.399 you all today. TJ. Thompson and Daniel Angus wrote a 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.520 piece for The Conversation, although so I actually found it 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:06.119 on tech Explore and the piece is titled data Poisoning. 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.880 How artists are sabotaging AI to take revenge on image generators. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.560 And I've talked about data poisoning before on this show, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.320 but it's a good article to get a grounding in 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.280 what's going on. As you probably know, a lot of 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.240 artists are upset that AI companies have been using artists' 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.720 works to train up generative AI, but they haven't gotten 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.359 the artist's consent to do that. So it's sort of 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.200 like if you found out someone was using your work 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.000 to train your replacement without ever telling you, Like they 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.159 might be saying, hey, you're putting in great work, and 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.400 they really mean it, because they mean your great work 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.399 is training up the person who's going to take over 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.880 your job. Anyway, as this piece explains some artists are 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.879 experimenting with ways to trip up AI so that it 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.800 produces really poor output, so check it out. And that's 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.800 it for this episode of tech Stuff. I'll have one 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.480 two other tech news episodes before we close out the year. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.879 I've also got a bunch of special episodes kind of 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.280 looking back over some of the big tech stories of 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.720 twenty twenty three, so check those out. And they'll even 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.400 be special ones publishing on weekends so you can check 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.520 those out too. And yeah, thanks to all of you, 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.720 Thanks to the amazing production staff who have stepped up 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.160 to help me out during the holiday season. I really 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.919 appreciate it, including super producer Tari. I hope you are 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.720 enjoying your holiday and to all of you out there, 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.639 I wish you happiness and health and I'll talk to 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:45.800 you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:51.280 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.720 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.