WEBVTT - Tech News: ChatGPT Lands Lawyer in Legal Trouble 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey therein 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.320 Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.880 an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech are you? 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.360 It's time for the tech news for Tuesday, May thirty, 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:29.520 twenty twenty three. Nvidia CEO Jensen Wang spoke at the 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:34.440 Computech's forum in Taiwan yesterday and said something that I'm 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.239 sure has a lot of programmers anxious. Huang said that 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:43.040 due to how quickly generative AI evolves, we're entering into 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.720 an era in which essentially anyone can be a programmer. 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.080 It won't require you to have studied computer languages or 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.600 even computer science. All it will take is a sufficiently 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.760 sophisticated AI model to take your prompts and then turn 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.160 that into a well designed program. Wang unveiled a platform 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:09.040 called the DGXGH two hundred, essentially a supercomputing pro platform. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.959 It's designed to help build the next generation of generative 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:18.080 AI models. This actually reminds me of the fictional supercomputer 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.840 Deep Thought in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.039 which explained that it was not sufficiently powerful enough to 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.760 provide the question to life, the universe and everything. It 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:32.880 gave us the answer, but not the question. However, it 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.480 was powerful enough to build a computer that could do that. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.680 That seems to be what this is indicating. It's a 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:45.040 supercomputer meant to build better AI. Anyway, Wang's keynote seemed 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.440 to indicate that not too long from now, you won't 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.640 need a background in programming in order to be a programmer, 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.600 or at least that's how the articles covering his keynote 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.120 seemed to frame it. I'd like to think that generative 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.880 AI will help programmers and help them be more productive 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.160 and more efficient, and that AI will give them the 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.440 tools to build code that contains fewer errors, or to 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:12.640 check for mistakes as they're coding that kind of thing. So, 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.040 in other words, my hope is that this isn't a 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:20.320 step toward invalidating an entire career path or and this 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.320 is really the cynical part of me. I hope it's 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:28.640 not an attempt to justify hiring relatively unskilled employees at 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.280 a much lower salary than what it would cost to 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.880 bring on a qualified programmer. Right. That's the fear is 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.800 that if you've dedicated your time and energy. You pursued 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.919 an education in computer science and computer programming, and you've 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.640 built the skill set that would normally guarantee you a 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.119 chance of landing a lucrative career in the field you love, 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.040 and then you find out, oh, no, you're overqualified. We 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:57.920 just need someone who can talk to this computer and 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:02.200 make the thing that we want. It's not good. So 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.079 my hope is that a lot of the news that 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:11.360 covered this was doing so in a way that was 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.960 perhaps not reflective of what Wang was actually saying. I 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.400 say that because I didn't get a chance to actually 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.200 watch his keynote, so I'm not certain how he worded it. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.040 I can only react to the way it's been reported. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.280 Reuter's reports that deep Media, which is a company that 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.720 works to identify and track the proliferation of deep fake 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.320 videos and other deep fake content online, has indicated that 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.400 there's been a pretty significant jump in the number of 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.040 instances of deep fakes this past year. So, according to 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.360 deep Media, there are three times as many deep fake 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.640 videos circulating this year as there were in the same 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.600 span of time back in twenty twenty two, and there 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:58.520 are eight times as many deep fake voice recordings and 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:03.040 deep fake voice examples. I'm not sure how many examples 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.960 we're talking about with that, because keep in mind, this 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.480 all depends on how many were circulating in twenty twenty two. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.560 They just said it's eight times as many. So if 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.240 only one deep fake voice recording had popped up in 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.479 twenty twenty two, that would just mean that there were 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.400 eight that popped up this year, So the details matter. 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.680 This is also, by the way, when you hear about 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.799 really the growth of any business, but specifically within technology, 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.120 when you hear the growth is being expressed in percentages, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.120 you really need to say, all right, but what are 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.320 the actual numbers, because if the actual numbers are very low, 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.800 a huge percentage in growth still can mean a pretty 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.880 low number, right, That's important anyway. Deep Media estimates that 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.080 by the end of this year, there will be around 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.320 half a million deep fake videos and voice recordings that 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:56.080 will be shared across social media, and as you probably suspect, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.440 a lot of those will likely center around politics and 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.960 misinform As the deep fake generators become more sophisticated, it 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.800 can be a challenge for a normal human type person 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.480 to tell the difference between real videos and deep fake videos. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.200 There are often indicators that you might be able to 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.040 tell if you're looking on a large enough screen and 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.600 a high enough resolution, but if you're like watching little 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.520 videos on your phone, you might not notice. There are 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.960 detection tools that are more effective for spotting really good 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.159 deep fakes out there, but you can imagine the damage 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.560 that can be done with this type of technology, particularly 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:40.440 for people who are already predisposed to believe certain ideologies. 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.200 If there's a video that seems to reinforce that ideology, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.240 they may not take the time to question the authenticity 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.279 of that video. Various companies in the generative AI space 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.000 have been working on different approaches to mitigate this issue 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.880 to prevent the misuse of the technology, but these are 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.160 are nowhere close to being comprehensive or fully effective. Already, 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.200 there have been a few cases in which folks in 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.400 the political sphere I shall not name names, but some 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:14.360 prominent people in politics have shared deep fake videos, sometimes 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.120 with like a half hearted disclaimer of something along the 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.240 lines of, I don't know if this is real or not, 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.720 so just a side note. If you don't know if 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.720 it's real, just don't share it. But you know, no, 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:28.840 I get it. You know. The folks who share this 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.839 kind of stuff typically they don't really care if it's 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:34.680 real or not. They're just looking for the effect. I mean, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.800 if it's real, it's better, but it doesn't really matter 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.480 because they're just looking to stir up a group of people, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.240 so it doesn't really matter if it's real. All I 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.320 can say is that the use of critical thinking is 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.640 more important than ever, that employing critical thinking also takes work. 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.640 You have to be actively working and engage in critical thinking. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.000 You can't just, you know, lean back and rely on 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.600 upon it to kick in. Because goodness knows, I've been 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:04.960 guilty of being too lazy to use it in the past. 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.160 It's happened to me. I talk about critical thinking all 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.040 the time, but I'm also guilty of not employing it 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.720 on occasion. I have to think about it, I have 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.400 to actively do it, and we all need to try 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.920 harder because it's getting tricky to tell the difference between 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.600 fact and fiction. There are a lot of tools out 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.520 there and a lot of bad actors out there that 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:31.160 collectively can start to push false narratives and to trick us. 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.480 And it's across the spectrum. It's not like it's just 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.840 one group doing this. There are lots of different people 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.120 with different motivations doing the same sort of stuff, and 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.560 we have to be on the lookout for it. And 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.680 now for a piece about the consequences of relying on 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:54.200 generative AI. So, a lawyer named Stephen Schwartz apparently used 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.640 chat GPT while doing some legal research on a case 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.240 that he was working. Chat GPT provided some background research 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.920 that Schwartz apparently then used in filing this case. But 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:11.720 there was a truly huge problem. Chat GPT cited other 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.440 legal cases in order to provide support for Schwartz's legal argument, 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:22.760 except those cases weren't real. They had never happened. Chat 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.880 GPT created, or, if you want to use the parlance 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:30.920 of the AI times, it hallucinated these cases. And I've 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.400 talked about AI hallucinations not too long ago on this 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.560 very show. You how generative AI models are essentially using 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:43.679 a complicated statistical model to generate responses. And this model 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.280 draws on a lot of archived information, but sometimes it 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.160 just invents stuff and essentially is saying what word would 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.240 most likely follow this word. Then you get a response 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.240 that sounds perfectly cromulent, as the Simpsons would say, but 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.680 is in fact hogwash or gibber jabber, or balderdash or 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.040 just plain fake. And as you might imagine, presenting fake 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.200 court cases as if they are a legitimate precedent to 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.959 your own case is not looked upon kindly by the court. 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.920 If you claim a precedent, then you should expect the 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.560 court to look into the precedent to make sure that 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.600 what you're saying is accurate. And when the court did 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.480 do that, when they double checked Schwartz's filings, they found 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:34.000 that the numerous cases Schwartz presented as suggested by chat 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:39.040 GPT didn't actually exist. And when pressed, Schwartz said he 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.720 was not aware that chat GPT could just invent stuff. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:47.320 He assumed that everything that chat GPT presented came from actual, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:52.000 real information that had been stored somewhere. Now, the judge 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.840 has ordered a hearing a few weeks from now to 0:09:55.000 --> 0:10:02.440 quote unquote discuss potential sanctions. Woof So. On the one hand, yeah, absolutely, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.400 it would be unthinkable to let people submit fake evidence 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.440 to support their arguments and then receive no repercussions afterward. 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.679 On the other hand, I mean, the hype around chat 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.640 GPT and other generative AI models is absolutely painting an 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:21.680 inaccurate picture of what they can do. Though, honestly, it 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.120 really doesn't take that much work to find out that 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.480 these AI systems are flawed. It's just that I could 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:32.920 understand why someone would put too much stock in chat 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:39.120 GPT's performance because of the way it has been hyped. Again, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.600 it really doesn't take that much work to find where 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.280 the problems are. So I can't give Schwartz a pass here. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.200 I could just say I could understand why he would think, oh, 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:50.839 this is a valid tool for me to use, and 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.240 there shouldn't be any problems. I can kind of understand that. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.160 But if he had taken even just a little bit 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:00.320 of effort, he would have seen that perhaps rely so 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.640 heavily on chat GPT, without you know, fact checking, it 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:08.280 would have been foolish. Okay, we've got a lot more 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:10.720 news to cover before we get to that. Let's take 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:22.319 a quick break. So we're back, and we've got another 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.360 open letter, actually just a short warning from various AI 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.679 experts about the potential dangers of AI. It is very short. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:32.959 It is to the point I'll actually read the whole 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:37.680 thing because it isn't long. Quote. Mitigating the risk of 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.760 extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:46.520 societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war end 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:51.160 quote that is it, that's the warning putting AI on 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.440 the same level as things like pandemics and nuclear war 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.160 as a potential threat to the human race. A lot 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:02.440 of high profile AI experts have already signed their names 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.760 to the statement. That includes Sam Altman, the CEO of 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.120 Open Ai, who's been sending some kind of mixed messages 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.160 about AI regulation in the United States versus in the EU, 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.719 and then the CEO of Google's Deep Mind added their 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.079 signature to it, among other experts. So, in other words, 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.480 this warning has the backing of some very influential, educated 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.120 and knowledgeable people who are in the field of AI. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.040 Of course, that's assuming that the signatures are legit, because 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.200 we did have a case not that long ago where 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.640 there was an open letter warning about AI that contained 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.640 signatures from people who subsequently said they never signed it 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.520 or even heard about it. So assuming that this is 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.200 all legit, it sounds like we should really pay attention, right, 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.600 I mean, these are people who are working in that field. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.280 That being said, I actually worry that some folks are 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.719 going to interpret this as meaning AI is on the 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:04.800 verse of becoming super intelligent and self aware or something. 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.360 As I mentioned earlier, generative AI leans on statistics and 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.560 training to create stuff. It's not thinking in the same 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.440 way that humans do, and I worry that if people 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:20.000 interpreted otherwise, then folks will be focusing on trying to 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.720 solve the wrong problem. AI definitely has the potential to 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.840 cause harm. Don't get me wrong. AI is potentially very harmful, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.840 but it doesn't need to be, you know, brainiac in 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.080 order to be harmful. We can just look at the 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.439 instances of vehicles that have been operating in autonomous modes 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.319 that subsequently got involved in fatal car accidents. That proves 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.240 AI can be harmful and it doesn't need to be 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.319 super intelligent to do so. So I guess what I'm 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.240 saying is I believe that this warning is warranted. I 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.080 do think AI poses a threat and that we need 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.640 to have rules and regulations and approaches to AI that 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.840 are responsible and are least likely to cause harm. But 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.400 you know, it's it's trying to figure out how to 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.400 do that by framing the problem correctly. That's going to 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.360 be a big challenge. Right. You need to make sure 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.080 that you understand what the actual problem is and not 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.800 conflate it with something like super intelligence, in order to 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:26.360 create the proper framework to actually rectify the issue. And 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.320 in fact, like the people behind the statement said that 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.120 the whole goal of making something short and blunt was 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:39.960 to avoid issues of perhaps suggesting an approach that then 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.960 would just devolve into an argument over the best way forward. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.000 But on the flip side, I would argue, well, yeah, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.560 but if we're not suggesting approaches, then what good is 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.280 the warning? Like it's obviously we're not going to stop 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.800 developing AI. I mean, even the people who signed this 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.480 warning are actively pro promoting and developing AI right now. 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.520 There's like an AI arms race going on in the 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:10.800 world of computer science. So if is it just so 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:12.920 that you can fall back and say, well, I know, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.880 we blew up the world, but we warned you back 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.640 in twenty twenty three. I don't know. Maybe I just 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:25.280 am a little too cynical about how these experts are 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.840 viewing the dangers of AI without any actual solutions to 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.240 address the problem. Moving on from AI, Japan's Space Administration 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.080 JACKSA is working with private companies in Japan to do 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.520 something pretty ambitious, So The plan is to launch collecting 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.320 satellites into space as early as twenty twenty five, and 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:51.440 these satellites will collect solar energy, convert that energy into 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:56.080 microwave beams, and then beam that energy down to receiving 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.480 stations here on Earth, which is entirely feasible. Questions remain 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.160 regarding how much energy these satellites will be able to 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.280 collect and transmit, but the point of this project is 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.040 to explore whether or not we can make solar collection 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.440 in space and microwave transmission a part of a larger 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.760 renewable energy strategy. For a country like Japan that might 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:22.680 have limited space for things like terrestrial solar arrays, this 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:24.320 could have a lot of appeal. I mean, it all 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.880 depends on how large the receiving station has to be. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.120 I would imagine has to be quite big, so that 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.160 you're not having a super concentrated beam of microwave energy. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.920 But it's neat like. If you can get this to 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:41.120 work and become a supplemental part of your energy strategy, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.520 then it could be really useful, especially since with the 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.240 positioning of satellites, if you have a whole network out there, 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.160 you can be collecting solar energy twenty four to seven, 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:57.200 So and weather will never be an issue. I mean, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.760 solar weather could potentially be an issue if you have 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.600 like a chronal mass ejection or something like that, but 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.200 you know, terrestrial weather wouldn't be an issue. So a 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.560 lot of the complaints around solar the fact that you 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.400 know you're only collecting when it's daytime and only when 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.600 you have a clear view of the sun, that ends 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.199 up being negated. But you still have questions of all, right, well, 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.240 how efficient is this going to be. How much energy 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.000 are you going to lose converting from solar to microwave, 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.280 you know, how much is lost in the transmission. These 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.480 are all questions that need to be answered as well. 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.240 But this is a cool step toward answering those questions. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.680 Will it pan out, I don't know. I hope it does, 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.040 though obviously it also opens up other things that you 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:44.160 have to consider, like the potential for more space junk, right, 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.080 So there's always other things you have to bring into 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.840 the equation. But I think it's a cool project. Now. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.119 Over this past weekend, I actually went to the amusement 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.040 park six Flags Over Georgia's for the first time in many, 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.960 many years, and I have to say. The park has 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.679 digitized a lot of operations since the last time I 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.119 went there, but at a couple of other Six Flags parks, 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:09.919 not at Georgia, but a couple of other ones, one 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.919 in California and one in New Jersey, that digitization is 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.240 ramping up a bit. And that's because those two parks 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.760 have partnered with Amazon and Coca Cola to incorporate one 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:27.000 of Amazon's grab and go cashierless shop concepts into the parks. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.480 So just as you would in one of Amazon's operated stores, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.200 you would be able to walk into one of these places, 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.720 pick up a product, and then stroll right out, and 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.639 you would be builled automatically through the Amazon system on 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.399 the back end. So products will include stuff like Coca 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.679 Cola products just as you would imagine, plus like snacks 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.919 and other stuff like the New Jersey location says it 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.360 will include necessities like sunblock and rain ponchos, that kind 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.439 of thing. And it's interesting to hear that the parks 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.720 are actually doing this because Amazon has actually shut down 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.600 several of its own locations, I think like eight total 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.280 in cities like New York and Seattle. However, it wouldn't 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.640 surprise me if the plan all along was to attract 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.520 partners like six Flags, where Amazon can serve as the 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.159 back end operations, but someone else is in charge of, 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.240 you know, restocking and cleaning the place and that kind 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.600 of thing. Over the weekend, Toyota entered a hydrogen powered 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.320 racing car into an endurance race in Japan. The company 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.399 said it looked at the race as a sort of 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.560 testing ground for the technology and an opportunity to uncover 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.320 areas of improvement that wouldn't necessarily pop up in a 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.320 laboratory setting, which is understandable, right Like in a lab 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.920 you can test technology quite a bit and see where 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.520 there may be areas that you need to focus on 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.440 to fix things, but it's not until you really get 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.119 something out in the real world and really put to 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.760 the test that some problems will become evident. And let 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.160 me tell you, an endurance race, a twenty four hour 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.960 endurance race. That's a heck of a test for a technology. 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.400 Toyota has actually been working on hydrogen fueled cars for 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.440 a while, and in fact has even fielded hydrogen fueled 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.760 cars in various races, but the big difference in this 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.440 most recent vehicle is that the car was using liquid 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:25.119 hydrogen rather than gaseous hydrogen. Now, liquid hydrogen comes with 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.720 a whole bunch of challenges, like you have to keep 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.520 the hydrogen at a very low temperature to keep it liquid. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.239 But it also means that you end up with a 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:39.639 higher energy density fuel, right because liquid hydrogen packs more 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:45.399 energy per volume than gaseous hydrogen does, which is an 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.120 important consideration for an endurance race. You know, you want 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.240 to have a fuel or an energy rich fuel. I 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.520 should say I couldn't find any information on how well 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.800 it performed. The race happened just this past weekend, but 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:01.639 I did see a lot of articles saying, you know, 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.160 it did it. It didn't tell me how well it did. 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.800 Critics have long argued that Toyota has been dragging its 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:14.639 feet on developing electric vehicles. Obviously that's where the automotive 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:19.359 industry is really shifting toward, and as a result, because 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:24.639 Toyota did not jump onto that particular approach, it is 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.560 now lagging behind competitors as it tries to make up 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:33.240 for lost ground. Toyota, however, has long argued that it's 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.720 going to take longer to transition to pure electric vehicles 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.680 than most people expect and as a result, in order 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.320 to bring down carbon emissions while also transitioning to electric vehicles, 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:50.840 Toyota has said, we need to invest in alternatives to 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.520 just pure electric vehicles. This has been Toyota's message for 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:58.520 years and years, with fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen powered vehicles, 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.080 various hybrids, that kind of thing. There are critics who 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.800 say that Toyota has made the wrong call, that the 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:11.560 company is just trying to justify its approach to a 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:16.679 different branch of vehicle development, and that it's kind of 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:19.480 like it's sort of a sunk cost fallacy. It's gone 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.480 so far that it can't come back. Although the new 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.720 leadership at Toyota has been a bit more pro ev 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:34.239 side than previous leadership has. It's interesting there's a lot 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:39.080 of challenges that are associated with hydrogen based vehicles, including 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.840 how to harvest pure hydrogen without using too much energy 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.120 in the process. You may know hydrogen is the most 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:51.200 plentiful element in our universe, but it binds with stuff, 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.880 which means in order to get hydrogen, we frequently need 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.679 to expel energy to break those molecular bonds to harvest 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:05.680 pure hydrogen. And if you are spending more energy to 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.760 separate the hydrogen from stuff. Then you're getting out of 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.720 the hydrogen itself. Then you're at working at a net loss, 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:16.359 and you may need to just re evaluate what you're doing. 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:18.280 It may turn out that there's a different thing you 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.960 can do where you just eliminate that step and you're 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.639 wasting less energy. I'll have to do another episode in 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:28.440 the near future to kind of go down the list 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.440 of pros and cons of things like a hydrogen based economy. 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:37.720 A few decades ago, that was a really big thing, 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.000 at least in rhetoric in the United States, and we 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:46.760 haven't really seen it mature and turn into a real 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:49.600 technology here in the US, and I thought it might 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:51.440 be a good idea to kind of do a follow 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:55.000 up and talk about what are those pros and cons 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:59.920 and is it really a viable approach and a viable 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:04.200 alternative to your traditional internal combustion engines. Keeping in mind 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.000 a hydrogen based car also uses combustion. It's just when 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:12.440 you are you know, when hydrogen goes through combustion, you're 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:14.560 not getting the same byproducts as you would if you 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.720 were burning gasoline. Okay, I've got a couple more things 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.160 I want to talk about But before we get to those, 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:33.879 let's take one more quick break. We're back. So the 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:38.080 United States is not the only country planning to put 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.840 people on the Moon again. So NASA obviously has Project 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:46.520 Artemis Artemis one, which was a test flight of the 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.920 spacecraft and the launch vehicle. That's already happened, so Artemis 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:57.720 one was a success. Artimist two will see a crew 0:24:58.200 --> 0:25:04.520 of astronauts launch off Earth and then circle around the 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.440 backside of the Moon, not the dark side because there's 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:12.080 the dark side changes, but the backside, the far side 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:14.719 of the Moon, and then return to Earth. They are 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:17.200 not actually going to touch down. And then Artemis three 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:22.840 is the mission where astronauts would land on the Moon again. 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:27.560 That one currently is projected for twenty twenty five. I'll 0:25:27.560 --> 0:25:32.320 be shocked if we make that goal. But meanwhile, China's 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:36.800 Manned Space Agency announced that it plans to land Chinese 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:40.960