WEBVTT - Tech News: More Aftermath From OpenAI's Chaotic Weekend 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey therein 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.880 Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.639 an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the tech 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.759 are you. It's time for the tech news for Tuesday, 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:28.520 November twenty first, twenty twenty three. And first up, of course, 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.720 we have some updates to the open ai situation. Now. 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.280 If you want to hear what led to open AI's 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.760 board of directors to fire CEO Sam Altman last Friday, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.640 check out yesterday's Tech Stuff episode. I did a full 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:48.680 episode kind of about what led to that event and 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.360 what is happening in the aftermath. But I do have 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.160 a couple of new bits to add to that. First up, 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.720 According to The Verge, Sam Altman is still seeking reinstatement 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.760 as open ai CEO. Yesterday I talked about how Altman 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.920 claimed he would never wear a guest badge to open 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.640 AI's headquarters again. He did it once in order to 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.360 return to negotiate for his potential return to the company. 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.240 Once the board of directors said whoop, see those negotiations 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.840 went nowhere. So then he reportedly joined Microsoft and he 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:25.240 will be named CEO of an advanced AI division within Microsoft, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440 or maybe a spinoff company, But apparently that's just one 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.520 likely scenario, and the ink has not yet been put 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.000 to paper on that deal, so it's not a certainty 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.080 that he will be part of Microsoft. There is another 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.520 possibility that should the board members who voted Altman out 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.240 step down, Alman would return to the company as CEO, 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.440 but that was the main sticking point in the negotiations 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:54.360 over the weekend. However, since then, one board member, Elia Sutzkiver, 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.480 has come forward to express his regret for taking part 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:00.600 in the whole thing and said it was a mistake 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.440 and that he now sides with Altman, which means there 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.000 are just two members left on the open AI board 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.359 of Directors who would have to change their opinion, and 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.360 there's tremendous pressure on them to do it and to 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.639 step down. Not only do you have the pr nightmare 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.600 of going through perhaps what has been the worst CEO 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:27.960 firing in recent history, but you've also got an angry 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.400 corporate partner in the form of Microsoft, and you've got 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.639 the threat of perhaps hundreds of employees leaving the company 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:39.440 in solidarity with the ousted CEO. So refusing to step 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.160 down could mean open ai would be set back years 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.600 because of this. But then the reported reason that this 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.840 board fired Altman in the first place was that they 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.639 were concerned he was pushing hard to develop and deploy 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.240 AI tools without really giving proper regard to safety, and 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.040 that's the whole reason open aa Eye exists in the 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.959 first place. So this could be a case where those 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.400 board members decide they have to go down with the 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.320 ship that what does it mean to have an organization 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:15.720 ostensibly dedicated to developing AI in an ethical and safe 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.120 way if you don't do that? Or perhaps the threat 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.720 to open ai has actually been overstated, Maybe it's not 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.919 really in such a precarious position. Maybe the organization will 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.120 be fine after passing through, you know, a period of 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:37.040 turmoil that's unavoidable. Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.920 in an interview on CNBC and also with Bloomberg that 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.120 its clear open ai quote has to change around the 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:50.120 governance end quote, perhaps hinting someone from Microsoft should also 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.320 sit on the board of directors for open Ai. After all, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:58.040 Microsoft has committed to investing ten billion dollars into open 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.040 ai and already has sent a few billion of those 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.960 to the company. The chaos at open Ai has had 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.560 some odd rippling effects as well. For example, when word 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.400 got out that Microsoft was apparently hiring both Sam Altman 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.000 and former open Ai president Greg Brockman, the company sought 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.279 stock price increase. In fact, Microsoft's stock value rose to 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.480 three hundred and seventy seven dollars forty four cents per 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.480 share yesterday. That is the highest closing stock price in 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.080 Microsoft history. It's pretty wild to me that a couple 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.680 of executives coming over from another company could be enough 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.440 to boost stock prices like that. Also, in a similar move, 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.279 when word Firse got out that open ai had fired 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.160 Altman last Friday, Microsoft sought stock price dip by one 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.080 point seven percent. I think this really shows how people 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.599 feel AI is a critically important technology. I'm still not 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:00.000 convinced that very many of them actually understand artificial intelligence, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.279 but then I'm not getting rich off the stock market, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.719 so what do I know. Then you have the various 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.719 companies that are champion at the bit to get their 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.840 hands on the talent at open Ai. Hundreds of open 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.200 ai staff, some of the most knowledgeable people in the 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.159 discipline of artificial intelligence, have indicated a willingness to leave 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.400 the company if Altman doesn't return as CEO. And one 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.240 company that has expressed interest in hiring that talent that 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.280 may feel like a change of scenery is merited is Salesforce. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.000 CEO Marc Benioff posted on x the platform formerly known 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.520 as Twitter and a company that we'll be talking a 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.520 lot about later in this episode, said that quote, Salesforce 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.520 will match any open Ai researcher who has tendered their 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.520 resignation full cash and equity, ote to immediately join our 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:56.159 salesforce Einstein Trusted Ai research team under Silvio Sevres. So 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.599 that's end quote, by the way. So that's another big 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.400 threat that's facing open Ai. There are other companies that 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.599 recognize the value of the knowledge held by their staff, right, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.239 That's one of the big things that open ai has. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.360 Before they came out with chat GPT, you could argue 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:18.680 that the most valued asset of open ai was its talent. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.560 There were people who were taking jobs at open Ai. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.520 They could have made more money somewhere else, but they 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.039 took it at open ai because it meant working with 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.600 the best people and on a very challenging goal. So 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:31.960 obviously there are a lot of companies that would really 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.559 love to be able to bring those folks on board 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.760 to their own teams, and they're already coming forward with 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.880 offers should those people decide to leave open AI. So again, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.360 immense pressure on the board of directors over at Open AI. 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.679 According to an article by Rob Thubrunn of tech Spot 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.520 or Thubron, I'm not certain how to say your last name, Rob, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.320 don't know you, but I like your work anyway. According 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.960 to this article, more than half of tech workers view 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.520 AI as being overrated and overhyped now. This in turn, 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.880 comes from a survey that a company called Retool conducted. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:11.520 So Retool puts out this survey and asks various tech 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:17.040 workers to evaluate how AI is treated how it's viewed 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:21.160 in the tech sphere. Now, the simple size is not 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:26.520 particularly large. Retool surveyed around fifteen hundred tech professionals across 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:32.360 the industry. Everyone from programmers to designers to executives, like 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.200 pretty much every kind of role that's in tech was 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.640 represented in this survey. According to the survey, only twenty 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.720 three percent of the respondents felt as though AI is 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.679 more or less fairly assessed in the industry as a whole. 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.240 That the attitude and hype, or maybe hype is the 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.080 wrong word because that has a negative connotation, but the 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.480 treatment of AI is appropriate, that it's the right level. However, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.000 fifty one point six percent of them feel that AI 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.480 is overrated and perhaps overhyped. This also means, by the way, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.920 that about twenty five percent of the respondents actually feel 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.840 that AI is underrated. So keep that in mind, and 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.320 it seems like the type of job you have in 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:20.000 tech has a big influence on how you view artificial intelligence. 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.000 Executives seem more inclined to say AI was either rated 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:29.520 fairly or was actually underrated. And as Rob points out, well, yeah, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.720 of course executives think that because they're looking at artificial 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:37.280 intelligence largely as a cost benefit analysis, and they're salivating 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.079 over the thought of replacing all those expensive human drones 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.960 with more economical AI powered algorithms, So of course they 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.839 think that it's as important, if not more important, than 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.880 the way the industry treats it. Meanwhile, the folks who 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.160 actually have to interact with AI on a daily basis 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.360 in order to do their work. Now, the people who 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.680 are using AI to do stuff like write code, for example, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.520 they were far more likely to call AI overrated. Presumably 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.040 that's because so much of their time has to be 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.760 spent checking for errors and correcting them and that sort 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.679 of thing. So with the sample size of fifteen hundred people, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.120 I'm not sure we can actually draw any sweeping conclusions 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.360 from this survey. And again, it's a survey that's talking 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.200 about people's opinions toward AI. It's not like it's a 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.839 metric that actually measures AI itself, but rather our perception 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.160 of artificial intelligence. I would say that the survey indicates 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.320 it's probably a good idea to pay attention to the 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.440 people who are working directly with the artificial intelligence powered tools, 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.040 because if your staff is indicating that the AI is 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.240 actually making their jobs more frustrating or inefficient, that is 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.120 worth paying attention to. Otherwise, the leaders might find that 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.359 they have committed to a solution that is actually a problem. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.040 And I don't think we're careening toward a world of 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.160 automation and that we'll never be able to turn back 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.040 and once we turn that corner, it's all downhill from there. 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.120 I don't think that's the case. I do think that 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.520 a lot of companies need to be careful in how 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.800 they implement AI if they don't want to rush into 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.439 an expensive and complicated mess I think that there are 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.960 ways to incorporate AI that can have a direct benefit 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.560 to both the overall company and to the employees who 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.960 are making use of the AI. I think there are legitimate, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.160 good uses for this technology, but I also think it's 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:38.080 very easy to implement it willy nilly, and to do 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.760 so in a way that ends up being counterproductive. And 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.440 that's what companies really need to be careful about. All Right, 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.160 we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.840 I got a whole lot of news about everybody's favorite 0:10:50.840 --> 0:11:04.280 social network platform, X, But first let's thank our sponsors. Okay, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.840 we're back. And I mentioned before the break that we 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.280 would be talking about X today, So here goes. First up, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.360 the company has filed a lawsuit against a media watchdog 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.840 group called Media Matters. The group had previously published a 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.000 report indicating that ads could appear next to objectionable material 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:27.200 such as extremist and racist messaging, including antisemitic messaging. That 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.720 obviously is something that does not go over well with 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.360 advertisers as they are trying to promote and protect their brands, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.640 and last week, several major advertisers left X after Elon 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:45.040 Musk indicated support for a conspiracy theory promoted by anti 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:50.199 Semitic groups and white supremacists. So clearly it must have 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.600 been Media Matters that was the real problem, not the 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.880 fact that the owner of the company was elevating this messaging. 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:01.199 You know. Anyway, some big names in in companies had 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:08.400 halted all advertising on X. They include media companies like Paramount, Disney, NBC, Universal, 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.840 Warner Brothers, Discovery. They include telecommunications companies like Comcast and 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.839 tech companies like Apple, among many many other companies. And 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.240 the thought is that their departure is probably going to 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:26.080 prompt other companies to follow suit. Now, x's complaint against 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:31.040 Media Matters is that Media Matters supposedly manufactured the images 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.520 it showed in its report by creating a test account 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.520 on X and then just refreshing the view over and over, 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:43.760 like following some specific accounts that were posting problematic stuff 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.160 and then just hitting refresh until they started to get 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:52.440 ads to appear next to some of these entries. And 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.120 so what X is saying is that this is not 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.680 representative of the typical experience on X. Most people on 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.320 X would never see this thing at all. Media Matters 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.280 had to game the system in order to get these 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:12.600 sorts of results. That's what X is arguing personally. I mean, 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.480 that might be a legitimate argument that Media Matters perhaps 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.640 kind of orchestrated this so it would appear this way. However, 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.360 you still have the issue of the owner of the 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:30.400 company promoting these messages, which whether whether Media Matters orchestrated 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.600 anything is still an issue. Media Matters, by the way, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.439 says that they disagree with X's accusations and that they 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.840 are willing to go to court and to prove that 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.319 their methodology was legitimate. So so far there's no one 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.760 backing down from this fight. Musk continues to behave in 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.240 a way that is really alarming to advertisers, and that 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.080 means that X is going to have a problem no 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.400 matter what any watch dog group says. You don't even 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.520 need watchdog groups to bring these matters to attend if 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.600 you've got the owner of the company doing these sorts 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.640 of things, because that is so newsworthy that you know 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.320 that's going to be brought to attention and be put 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.000 in the spotlight, whether whether there's a watchdog group dedicated 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.880 to it or not. On a semi related note, I 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.920 deactivated my own account on X. I had not been 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.600 checking it regularly for weeks, so I decided it was 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:22.880 just time to walk away. Part of it is that 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.480 I don't want to be on a platform where a 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:31.520 fundamentally important person on there is promoting things that can 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.760 cause direct harm to others. So my apologies to anyone 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.600 who's trying to use X to get in touch with me. 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.280 It no longer will work. But let's talk about X 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.360 some more, because of course we're not done yet. Tech 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.320 Crunch reports that the mass exodus of advertisers, which really 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.280 happened last week, is likely to have a pretty darn 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.400 hefty impact to x's bottom line. You got to remember, 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.840 ninety percent of X's revenue came from advertising, and when 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.200 a bunch of advertisers leave, it means the company is 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.440 going to have a lot of trouble bringing in revenue. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:10.320 They had already seen some drastic drops in revenue in 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.920 the wake of Elon Musk purchasing the company last year, 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:18.080 so this was already an issue before last week. In fact, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.320 analysts from Insider Intelligence estimated that X was going to 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.600 see a fifty four point four percent decline in ad 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:29.240 business year over year, but now that's likely to be 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.480 an even more dramatic decline. Linda Yakarino, the CEO of X, 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.080 has said that data will show X is actually dedicated 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:42.320 toward fighting misinformation and racism, including anti Semitism, and that 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.440 they will prove that in fact, the company has been 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:51.040 working hard on this, despite the fact that Elon Musk 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:56.720 famously dismissed almost the entirety of the content moderation departments 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.920 within Twitter when he purchased the company. Reportedly, several advertisers 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:05.440 have actually urged Yakarinos to step down as CEO, going 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.320 so far as to suggest that she is potentially causing 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:12.840 irreparable damage to her own reputation by serving as CEO 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.680 of X, Like they're essentially saying, you're better than this. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.160 You need to get away from this company. It is 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.440 toxic and it is bringing you down with it. Yakarino 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.480 so far has rejected these calls. I think she's going 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.600 to continue to find it challenging to champion X's policies 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.520 while the owner continues to promote content that appears to 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:35.000 contradict her. So that's a mess anyway. That's the update 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.120 on x let's now switch over to YouTube for a moment. 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:45.119 Amir Siddicky of Android Authority posted an article titled YouTube 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.960 is reportedly slowing down videos for Firefox users. So essentially 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.120 the story says that folks who are using non Chrome browsers, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:58.760 primarily Firefox and Microsoft Edge, have reported that when they 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.800 try to launch a video on YouTube, they're encountering a 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.000 delay in playback, and it's a delay that lasts several seconds, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.120 like five seconds. But if they close out that browser 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.160 and open up Chrome and go to YouTube, they can 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.479 try and load that same video and there's no delay. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.960 Now that is troubling. It could indicate that Google is 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.919 purposefully throttling performance on non Chrome browsers in an effort 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:29.359 to coax folks to use Chrome instead. Now, this is 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.080 preferential treatment that could be seen as anti competitive. In fact, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.080 I think, especially in the current climate in the United States, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.800 it would automatically be listed as being anti competitive behavior. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.480 And considering that Google is currently in the hot seat 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.719 for that sort of thing, that's not good. It definitely 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.879 is not in line with the concept of net neutrality. 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:55.480 But YouTube has responded to this report and has claimed 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.200 that it really doesn't have anything to do with which 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:03.440 browser someone's using. That is immaterial according to Google. Instead, 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:08.639 what's happening, YouTube says is that it is putting in 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.720 delays for people who are using browsers that have ad 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.560 blocker extensions activated on them. So it's a way to 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.520 fight ad blocking. The statement says, quote users who have 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:24.560 ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.560 browser they are using. End quote. I don't doubt that 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.440 Google is using this approach to discourage ad blockers, as 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.880 the company has taken a pretty hardline stance against ad 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.440 blockers this year in particular. But I'm curious to see 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.320 if that's as far as this goes, because the stories 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.800 that were being shared seem to suggest that Chrome users 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.680 were getting a better experience. Now, maybe it was that 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.520 they had ad blockers installed on their non Chrome browsers, 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.560 but for whatever reason, they had not installed ad blockers 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:01.200 on Chrome. Maybe it's that Google has been rolling out 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:07.399 this feature to affect non Chrome browsers first, like they 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.360 are designing YouTube so that it can detect the presence 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:14.200 of ad blockers on each browser, and Chrome just hasn't 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.679 been rolled out yet And that eventually, no matter what 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.440 browser you're using, you're going to have this issue. That 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.680 might be true, but it still kind of smacks of 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.080 being anti competitive to me to because again, Chrome gets 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.600 preferential treatment. If your perception is that, oh well, as 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:34.479 long as I'm on Chrome it's better, I might as 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.040 well just use Chrome, that's an issue. If it's not 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:42.879 just legit a natural advance of Chrome. If the system 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.760 is being gamed on the back end, that's bad. So 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:50.000 we'll have to wait and see if more developments happen 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.920 in this story, because again, Google is currently in the 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.040 hot seat with the US government when it comes to 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:05.199 anti competitive behaviors, and there's a real threat that the 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.639 government will demand Google break apart into different pieces as 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.240 a result of this. Whether it actually gets to that point, 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.399 I don't know. I personally kind of doubt it, simply 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.399 because the last time we saw something this big happen, 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.680 the US government ultimately reversed its decision to break apart 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.320 a big tech company. In that case, it was Microsoft. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.639 So not that it's impossible, but it hasn't happened in 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.719 a very long time, so I would be surprised if 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:37.360 it went that far. But we'll have to see. All right, 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.000 We're going to take another quick break. When we come back, 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:54.200 I've got a couple more stories I want to talk about. Okay, now, 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.679 let's have a quick story about Nothing. This is not 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.160 a Seinfeld reference. It's nothing like that. We're talking about 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:06.880 the Nothing Company, the makers of the Nothing Phone. That's 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.080 a smartphone. It runs on Android. It had a lot 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.120 of hype when it was first launching. There were all 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.159 these kind of hopes that the Nothing Phone was going 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.880 to be a really awesome flagship Android phone with really 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.000 cool features like these glyphs that light up on the 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.600 back of the phone indicating whether you got a text 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.000 message versus an incoming call or whatever. But so far, 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.000 the Nothing Phone has fallen. I think it's fair to 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:35.280 say it's fallen short of expectations since the original announcement 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.560 for the project. But this story specifically has to do 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.919 with an app that Nothing put its name on. Nothing 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:49.000 launched an app called Nothing Chats, and this app claimed 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.480 it could, among other things, let Android users get a 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.800 taste of the promised land. That is, if the promised 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.280 land is made up of blue chat bubbles in Apple's 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.960 I message. All right, so I've talked about this a 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.919 little bit recently, mostly because I find it all really exasperating. 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:12.720 But there's this perception among certain iPhone owners, particularly here 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.480 in the United States, that people who use other types 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:20.520 of phones, you know, non iPhones, are the dirty, unwashed 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.400 masses who lack sophistication and intelligence, and they should be 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:30.679 ostracized and ridiculed and shunned. And the dead giveaway if 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.399 it's not just looking at what the phone is when 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.840 they're holding it, is that when you are messaging with 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:40.120 them and you're using an iPhone, so you're an eye message, 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:44.320 their messages show up in little green bubbles rather than 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:49.360 little blue bubbles. So iPhone users all get blue bubbles, 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.600 but an Android user, they are completely restricted to green, 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:57.480 and they should be shunned. I guess I don't know. 0:22:57.520 --> 0:22:59.880 I'm an Android user who doesn't really I don't care 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.679 about any of this stuff. I don't care if anyone 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:05.320 makes fun of me for the type of phone I use, 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.719 because if that's the kind of person they are, then 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.280 they're not worthy of me being worried about them. They're 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:15.959 beneath my concern, is what I'm saying. So yes, I 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:20.080 have my own issues of superiority. But I do understand 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.040 that other people care a lot about this stuff, and 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.600 they care about it so much that they will go 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.359 out of their way to make folks feel inferior about 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.320 not having an iPhone. And that is just lame. I mean, 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.440 you know, I get that, Like, especially like school kids 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.520 and stuff, they'll always find ways where they define a 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:42.600 group and they define outsiders to the group. Like that's 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:47.560 just kind of how it goes. But it's lame, y'all. Anyway. 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:52.360 Nothing claimed that the nothing chats app would let Android 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.320 users appear to be iPhone users in I Message conversations, 0:23:56.320 --> 0:24:00.280 that their texts would appear in little blue bubbles. It 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:04.000 turned out that nothing Chats was actually a reskin of 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:08.240 a different app called the Sunbird app, and installing the 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:12.720 app would prompt Android users to submit their Apple username 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:17.880 and password, and then the app would reportedly log into 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.280 I Message on the behalf of the Android user and 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.399 kind of act like a middleman. And supposedly it was 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:28.680 going to include end to end encryption, except folks discovered 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:33.520 that Sunbird was not protecting this information at all. This 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:38.000 is a huge, huge security and privacy problem. So again, 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:40.479 the app claimed that it was incorporating into enn encryption. 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:45.280 It wasn't. Sunbird was logging and storing messages in plane 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:50.480 text in multiple places, not just in one location, which 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:54.840 makes it doubly vulnerable, right because that means hackers have 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.600 multiple targets they could look at in order to get 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:03.600 access to Lane text messaging. Researchers show it was possible 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:06.159 for a hacker to infiltrate a message server and to 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:09.920 read the messages sent via this app, which is actually 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:13.119 the opposite of what end to end encryption is supposed 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:15.399 to do. And the apps are no longer in the store. 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:18.960 They disappeared after just a day. But the whole thing 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:23.480 indicates that both Sunbird and Nothing have not taken proper 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:26.679 steps to actually be serious about security and privacy, not 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:29.480 even a little bit. Now. If you want to learn 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:34.040 more about this, I recommend Ron Amadeo's article in Ours Tetnica. 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:37.640 It is titled Nothing's I Message app was a security 0:25:37.640 --> 0:25:42.160 catastrophe taken down in twenty four hours. Now. Our last 0:25:42.160 --> 0:25:46.680 story is that the test launch of the SpaceX Starship 0:25:46.760 --> 0:25:51.760