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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and how the tech are you? It is time for

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Speaker 1: the Tech News for Thursday, December twenty two. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I do news episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and every

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Speaker 1: time a Thursday rolls around, I worry that I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna have enough material to really do a decent episode.

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Speaker 1: But that is definitely not a problem. Today we have

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Speaker 1: a ton to talk about, including some updates on stories

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Speaker 1: that we've chatted about in previous news episodes, including Tuesdays.

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Speaker 1: So let's begin with f t X. Now, I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna do a full catch up on f t X

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Speaker 1: because I actually did that on Tuesday's episode. So if

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Speaker 1: you don't know what f t X is and you

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Speaker 1: want to know, I recommend just listening to the first

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Speaker 1: five minutes or so of Tuesday's show and then that'll

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Speaker 1: get you up to speed. So first up is the

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Speaker 1: matter of Sam Bankman Freed or SBF. He's a co

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Speaker 1: founder of the cryptocurrency exchange f t X, so he

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Speaker 1: was arrested on Monday evening, which I talked about on

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Speaker 1: Tuesday's episode. But now we've learned that if he's convicted

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Speaker 1: of the crimes he stands accused of, he could face

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Speaker 1: a maximum of a hundred fifteen years in prison. He

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Speaker 1: could spend the rest of his life in prison. He

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Speaker 1: has eight federal counts against him. Those charges range from

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Speaker 1: wire fraud to securities fraud to money laundering. Now, all

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Speaker 1: that being said, I think it is highly unlikely he'll

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Speaker 1: face anything close to a hundred fifteen years. Uh, He's

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Speaker 1: still likely to end up with a prison sentence, perhaps

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Speaker 1: a considerable one, like ten years or so. But one

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Speaker 1: challenge for the prosecution is proving beyond a reasonable doubt

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Speaker 1: that SPF was committing fraud. So here in the United States,

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Speaker 1: we have a saying that goes ignorance of the law

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Speaker 1: is no excuse. Now, generally, what that means is that

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Speaker 1: if you unknowingly break a law, it still means you

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Speaker 1: broke a law, and you can still be held accountable

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Speaker 1: for it. Being ignorant of law does not excuse you

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Speaker 1: from accountability. However, there are a few crimes that require

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Speaker 1: things like intent and understanding to be considered a crime.

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Speaker 1: So fraud is an example fraud, at least in some jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: Fraud is a crime that carries with it the concept

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Speaker 1: of intent that you intended to defraud someone. If you

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Speaker 1: did not intend to do it and it happened by accident,

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Speaker 1: then it's not really fraud at least in those jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: It could still be some other crime, but it would

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Speaker 1: not be fraud. There are other examples of crimes where

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Speaker 1: intent makes a different. So that's what separates something like

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Speaker 1: voluntary manslaughter from involuntary manslaughter. Is intent. Anyway, I think

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Speaker 1: the odds are at least some charges will stick to

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Speaker 1: SBF and he's going to be looking at a prison

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Speaker 1: sentence of at least a few years, just I don't

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Speaker 1: expect the hundred fifteen max to to fall on his shoulders. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: f t X is in the process of going through bankruptcy,

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Speaker 1: and really what they're going through is liquidating assets and

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Speaker 1: trying to recapture as much value as they can to

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Speaker 1: return to creditors and investors. So Tuesday I mentioned how

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Speaker 1: the government of the Bahamas wanted to get involved in

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Speaker 1: how certain f t X assets are being handled because

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Speaker 1: f t X established headquarters in the Bahamas a while back,

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Speaker 1: and SPF and one of his buddies bought thirty five

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Speaker 1: properties around New Providence, Bahamas, and in total those properties

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Speaker 1: value at around two fifty million dollars. You've got a

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Speaker 1: couple of branches of f t X that are involved

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Speaker 1: in this as well. There's f t X, the American company.

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Speaker 1: There's f t X Digital Markets that's the Bahamanian branch

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Speaker 1: of f t X. And what the American branch of

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Speaker 1: f t X is essentially saying is we don't want

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Speaker 1: to share any information with f t X Digital Markets

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Speaker 1: because we don't trust the government of the Bahamas and

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Speaker 1: we worry that the government will steal stuff that we're

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Speaker 1: trying to liquidate, that they will lean on ft X

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Speaker 1: Digital Markets and get that information, and then our investors

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Speaker 1: will not get the value that they deserve. Meanwhile, ft

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Speaker 1: X Digital is saying this is nonsense. We were appointed

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Speaker 1: by a court order and our job is to liquidate

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Speaker 1: assets to recover money for investors and creditors too. But

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Speaker 1: we do that unless we actually have access to data.

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Speaker 1: So our job is the same as your job is

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Speaker 1: essentially what they're saying, then you have the government of

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Speaker 1: the Bahamas and it's like, hey, it's against the law

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Speaker 1: for matters involving Bahamanian land to be arbitrated outside of

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Speaker 1: the Bahamas. So it's a big old mess. In other words, Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: the only job FTX really has right now is to

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Speaker 1: get as much value from whatever assets it has and

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Speaker 1: to then hand that over to the creditors and the investors.

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Speaker 1: So it's no surprise that we're seeing this kind of

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Speaker 1: tug of war between the branches as well as the

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Speaker 1: Bahamanian government. So yeah, everybody feels like they're owed a

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Speaker 1: piece of this, and so there's gonna be probably some

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Speaker 1: pretty nasty arguments about how it needs to be divvied up,

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Speaker 1: because there are a lot of people who are holding

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Speaker 1: the bag right now and they don't. They don't want

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Speaker 1: to They don't want to be holding the bag. If anything,

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Speaker 1: they want that bag to be very very small, if

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Speaker 1: they have to hold a bag at all. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: this isn't over with. Then. Over at Binance, which is

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Speaker 1: the largest cryptocurrency exchange, it's also an entity that had

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Speaker 1: let's say, a contentious relationship with f t X. The

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Speaker 1: CEO of Binance is trying to calm matters. Internally, his

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Speaker 1: name's Chong Peng Zoo. He's also known as c Z

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Speaker 1: because we just love initialisms in crypto. And he sent

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Speaker 1: a memo to employees and acknowledge that folks have recently

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Speaker 1: withdrawn a lot of money from Finance, more than a

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Speaker 1: billion dollars in one day. Some estimates say that in

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Speaker 1: the week leading up to yesterday that customers have removed

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Speaker 1: more than three and a half billion dollars from the exchange.

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Speaker 1: But he says, you know, this happens like there are

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Speaker 1: days where we might have a billion in deposits in

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Speaker 1: other days where you might have a billion in withdrawals.

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Speaker 1: It's not a cause for alarm. He did also warn

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Speaker 1: that crypto in general is in for rough time, but quote,

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Speaker 1: this organization was built to last. As long as we

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Speaker 1: continue to offer users the best product, user experience, and

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Speaker 1: frictionless trading environment, Finance will survive any crypto winter end.

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Speaker 1: Quote Now, as I mentioned on Tuesday, Binance is also

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Speaker 1: the subject of a US Department of Justice investigation. There

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Speaker 1: are concerns that some of the shenanigans that we're going

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Speaker 1: on at f t X are also happening over at Binance,

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Speaker 1: including like ten billion dollars of illegal payments processing. While

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Speaker 1: Binance did commission a report from a third party to

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Speaker 1: be more transparent about the company's reserves, that report has

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Speaker 1: not satisfied everyone out there, So this too, is a

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Speaker 1: developing story. Another developing story revolves around the US government's

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Speaker 1: stance on TikTok. So on Tuesday, I talked about how

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Speaker 1: there are some proposals developing in Congress that would ban

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Speaker 1: TikTok in the United States unless the company becomes a

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Speaker 1: true the US based business, essentially cutting all ties to

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Speaker 1: China because right now TikTok is a subsidiary of a

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Speaker 1: Chinese company called byte Dance. Well, now the U s

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Speaker 1: Senate has voted to ban federal employees from installing TikTok

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Speaker 1: on government owned devices. Now, this is obviously not like

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Speaker 1: a nationwide ban on TikTok for everybody. It's rather another

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Speaker 1: display of how government officials are worried that TikTok the

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Speaker 1: video platform could be used by the Chinese Communist Party

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Speaker 1: as a way to gather information about people in the US,

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Speaker 1: something that TikTok reps have denied repeatedly in the past.

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Speaker 1: A few state governments have already passed similar laws for

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Speaker 1: state government employees, so this federal vote will also have

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Speaker 1: to pass the House of Representatives before it can then

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Speaker 1: be sent to President Biden's office for his signature, which

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Speaker 1: would be interesting to see because Biden and his administration

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Speaker 1: have been an active negotiations with to Talk in an

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Speaker 1: effort to find a way where TikTok can operate within

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Speaker 1: the US without fear of it serving as spyware for China. Now, personally,

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Speaker 1: I actually think it's okay to tell federal government employees, hey,

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Speaker 1: if the phone belongs to the federal government, don't put

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Speaker 1: TikTok on the phone. You can save TikTok for your

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Speaker 1: own personal device. Now, maybe that's because I also think

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Speaker 1: it would be weird for a lot of companies to say, oh, sure,

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Speaker 1: go ahead and put TikTok on your corporate device. I

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Speaker 1: think it's totally fair for a corporation and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know, just don't You can do it for your

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Speaker 1: own personal one, but for your work phone, don't put

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Speaker 1: it on there. I think the same thing should be

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Speaker 1: true for government employees. But then, as I have said

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Speaker 1: many times, I am old and grouchy and I'm only

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Speaker 1: getting more so with every passing day. Now. Speaking of TikTok,

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Speaker 1: the Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report that

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Speaker 1: claims TikTok's algorithm is regularly serving up harmful in the

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Speaker 1: sial to young users. So researchers with the organization created

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Speaker 1: accounts fake accounts on TikTok. So the accounts claimed to

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Speaker 1: be representing a thirteen year old user. That's the minimum

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Speaker 1: age that you can be on TikTok. They then chose

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Speaker 1: mental health, embody image as areas of interest. With one

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Speaker 1: of these accounts they used a female user name, and

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Speaker 1: the other one they used the user name that had

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Speaker 1: lose weight as part of the name, just to see

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Speaker 1: if that would have any effect on the content they received.

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Speaker 1: And according to the researchers, it took less than three

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Speaker 1: minutes before they started to encounter content related to suicide

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Speaker 1: and within eight minutes they started seeing content about eating disorders.

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Speaker 1: And when I say content about, I mean content promoting

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Speaker 1: these things, not content raising awareness about them. Are trying

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Speaker 1: to counsel people or to prevent problems, but rather to

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Speaker 1: incite them. So the researchers said it was clear that

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Speaker 1: TikTok algorithm was amplifying these harmful messages and that the

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Speaker 1: effect on young users could be really dangerous. It could

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Speaker 1: contribute to mental health issues. Now, behind the scenes, what

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Speaker 1: appears to be going on is that TikTok's algorithm selects

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Speaker 1: from content that the algorithm estimates will be of interest

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Speaker 1: to the user. When something is a hit, the algorithm

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Speaker 1: looks for similar content, and by a hit, I mean

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Speaker 1: did did a person watch the video all the way through?

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Speaker 1: So as you spend more time paying attention to certain

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Speaker 1: types of content, what the algorithm is doing is just

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Speaker 1: trying to serve up similar content to you in the

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Speaker 1: thought that this will keep you on TikTok longer. So

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Speaker 1: at best you could say that the algorithm is ultimately

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Speaker 1: content agnostic. It's not necessarily trying to harm anyone, but

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Speaker 1: it's not trying to save anyone either. Instead, it's just

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Speaker 1: trying to keep people on the app for as long

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Speaker 1: as possible. And if terrible traumatic content is what's keeping

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Speaker 1: someone on there, well it's just gonna keep on sending

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Speaker 1: that content on. So if people are watching videos that

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Speaker 1: contain harmful messages, they'll keep getting more of those. And again,

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Speaker 1: the issue here is one of amplification. It's not so

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Speaker 1: much that you're you know, shouldn't be allowed to say

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Speaker 1: bad things, although you should always know that consequences can

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Speaker 1: come from saying bad things, but that it's the artificial

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Speaker 1: amplification of those messages and the potential harm that can

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Speaker 1: cause two users. So it's similar to problems that we've

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Speaker 1: seen on other platforms like Facebook, where recommendation algorithms have

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Speaker 1: played a big part in, say, the proliferation of misinformation.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure these kinds of studies will fuel more efforts

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Speaker 1: on the regulatory and government side as well. A lot

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Speaker 1: of that focus has been on the potential use of

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Speaker 1: TikTok as spywear essentially, but some of it is also

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Speaker 1: on a concern about how it could be affecting the

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Speaker 1: mental health of users, particularly young users. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of armchair psychology too about whether or not TikTok is

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Speaker 1: absolutely ruining attention spans and making it impossible for younger

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Speaker 1: people to pay attention to anything that lasts longer than

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Speaker 1: a few seconds. Uh. Again, I don't have any actual

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Speaker 1: hard data on that. I don't know if that's really

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Speaker 1: the case. If it is, I'm doomed because all these

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Speaker 1: episodes are long. Alright, with that, we're gonna take a

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Speaker 1: quick break. When we come back, we've got some more news. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're back. So Tesla's stock price hit their lowest point

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Speaker 1: in two years yesterday. Reuters sites investors who are concerned

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Speaker 1: that CEO Elon Musk is spending too much of his

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Speaker 1: time and energy over at Twitter, which you know, at

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Speaker 1: least from the surface, appears to be a valid concern.

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Speaker 1: According to filings with the U S Securities and Exchange

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Speaker 1: Commission or the SEC, Elon Musk himself offloaded millions of

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Speaker 1: his own personal shares of Tesla. Now, keep in mind,

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Speaker 1: Musk is still the majority owner of Tesla. He still

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Speaker 1: has the more most shares of anybody, So while he

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Speaker 1: sold off millions, he's got millions more. But the value

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Speaker 1: of the stocks he sold off, according to those filings,

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Speaker 1: was three point five billion dollars yauza. Now, generally speaking,

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Speaker 1: when a CEO sells off large chunks of their own

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Speaker 1: shares of the company, they're they're headed um. Investors can

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Speaker 1: get a little worried because sometimes they'll take it as

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Speaker 1: a sign that the CEO foresees troubled waters ahead. And

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Speaker 1: that the CEO has lost confidence in their own business. However,

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Speaker 1: in this case, Musk's ongoing Twitter issues maybe playing a

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Speaker 1: part in his decision to sell off stocks. But because

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Speaker 1: Twitter has billions of dollars of debt and massive interest

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Speaker 1: payments coming in off that debt, and the banks that

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Speaker 1: helped Musk secure financing for his purchase of Twitter have

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Speaker 1: reportedly been looking at margin loans on Musk's Tesla stock,

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Speaker 1: and the declining price of the stock is likely not

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Speaker 1: a welcome site to those banks. But with all that

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Speaker 1: being said, I just checked the Tesla stock as I'm

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Speaker 1: recording this episode, and it's currently trading at a hundred

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Speaker 1: fifty seven dollars, so it's up slightly from its low

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Speaker 1: of around a hundred fifty six dollars. So it could

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Speaker 1: be that Musk's cashing out of those stocks won't have

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Speaker 1: as big a ripple as some might suspect. We'll have

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Speaker 1: to wait and see. And across town over at Twitter,

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Speaker 1: the New York Times reports that Twitter has kind of

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Speaker 1: stopped paying rent on its offices, you know the offices

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Speaker 1: that Elon Musk has demanded that everyone who still works

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Speaker 1: at Twitter returns to those offices, In fact, there are

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Speaker 1: offices that, at least in the San Francisco branch, employees

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Speaker 1: had set up beds so they could work increasingly long

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Speaker 1: hours without actually leaving because Elon Musk is determined to

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Speaker 1: be visited by three spirits in you know, nine days

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Speaker 1: or so. Now, apparently employees have been instructed to not

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Speaker 1: pay vendors, which you know, is another great sign of

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Speaker 1: a company doing a okay. It's also a totally cool

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Speaker 1: business practice to not pay the people who provided goods

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Speaker 1: and services to you. It's not at all scummy. This

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Speaker 1: also includes a nearly two hundred thousand dollar bill for

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Speaker 1: private charter flights. At least according to a lawsuit, these

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Speaker 1: would be flights that Twitter arranged when Musk was taking

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Speaker 1: over the company and flying back and forth to visit

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Speaker 1: various offices. There have allegedly been discussions at the executive

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Speaker 1: level about what consequences the company might face if it

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Speaker 1: were to you know, not pay severance on all those

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Speaker 1: in employees who received a severance package upon being laid

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Speaker 1: off from the company, The question being would it be

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Speaker 1: cheaper to pay severance or just fight the lawsuits that

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Speaker 1: would come in. Would we rather just fight lawsuits, which

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Speaker 1: gross right, and if anyone in Twitter were to go

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Speaker 1: blabbing to the press about stuff happening when the company,

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Speaker 1: Musk says he would bring the wrath of the gods

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Speaker 1: down on them, though not in so many words. He

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Speaker 1: would just say, you sign a non disclosure agreement and

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Speaker 1: we will take you to court and sue you to

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Speaker 1: the fullest extent of the law. In fact, he might

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Speaker 1: need six ghosts. Then there's the matter of Ahmad abu Amo.

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Speaker 1: He's a former Twitter employee who is now facing three

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Speaker 1: and a half years of prison. Why well, he was

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Speaker 1: convicted earlier this year of spying on behalf of the

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian government while he was working for Twitter, and

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Speaker 1: he worked at Twitter from fifteen. During that time, he

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Speaker 1: apparently used his access as a media partnerships manager to

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Speaker 1: gather data about people who have been critical of the

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian government. Then he sent that data too, said government.

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Speaker 1: And just a reminder, this is the same government that

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Speaker 1: allegedly ordered the murder of a journalist named Jamal ka Shogi.

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Speaker 1: I say allegedly because until it's completely proven, I guess

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Speaker 1: I need to. But everyone essentially agrees that Jamalka Shogi

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Speaker 1: was assassinated on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government. This

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Speaker 1: is also the government that has sentenced people to more

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Speaker 1: than ten years in jail for criticizing the government on

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Speaker 1: social media in the past. And it's also the same

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Speaker 1: government that has a significant ownership stake in the current

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Speaker 1: version of Twitter. In fact, there I believe the second

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Speaker 1: largest stakeholder behind Elon Musk. Anyway, secutors showed how abu

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Speaker 1: Omo received large payments from the Saudi government as well

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Speaker 1: as the gift of a watch valued at more than

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Speaker 1: forty grand which oh, come on. Anyway, he has already

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Speaker 1: been convicted, as I said, and now he has been

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Speaker 1: sentenced to three and a half years in prison on

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Speaker 1: counts of acting as a foreign agent, acting in the

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Speaker 1: in the context of a money launderer, uh falsification of records,

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Speaker 1: and other charges as well. By the way, the fact

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Speaker 1: that he's just looking at three and a half years

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Speaker 1: is kind of why I said at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: this episode that I don't think SPF is going to

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Speaker 1: have that full hundred fifteen year sentence thrown at him

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Speaker 1: if he should be convicted. And Kenya Amnesty International is

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Speaker 1: backing a lawsuit against Meta that claims that the company

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Speaker 1: allowed hate speech and calls for inciting violence to spread

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Speaker 1: without moderation on Facebook and it exacerbated the war and

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Speaker 1: Uh Tigrai, which is a northern province in Ethiopia. Now,

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Speaker 1: the conflict in Ethiopia is a really complicated one. It

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Speaker 1: involves a very long history of different ethnic groups and

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Speaker 1: foreign uh countries within the country vying for power. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: the country has been in conflict way more frequently than

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Speaker 1: it has enjoyed peace in modern history. The recent conflicts

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Speaker 1: have largely revolved around Ti Gray, which in recent Ethiopian

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Speaker 1: history had been a dominant political power before the balance

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Speaker 1: shifted to other groups within Ethiopia. In early November, these

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Speaker 1: various parties involved in the war agreed to a ceasefire,

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Speaker 1: but this lawsuit is arguing that Meata was complacent by

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Speaker 1: allowing messages that encouraged violence and abuse throughout Ethiopia and

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Speaker 1: made it harder for these opposing parties to arrive at

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Speaker 1: any sort of ceasefire, and that as a result, many

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Speaker 1: people suffered and died, some indirectly from the fact that

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Speaker 1: this kind of language was spreading like wildfire on Facebook

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Speaker 1: in Ethiopia, some directly that there have been arguments that

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Speaker 1: some people were targeted as a result of hate speech

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Speaker 1: that was spreading across Facebook. The lawsuits aim is to

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Speaker 1: force Meta to create a compensation fund valued at around

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Speaker 1: one point three billion dollars for the purposes of paying

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Speaker 1: restitution to people who are victims of hate and violence

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Speaker 1: on Facebook. Now, if you've listened to tech stuff long

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Speaker 1: enough or paid attention to world news, you know that

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Speaker 1: while Facebook has been in the spotlight for allowing harmful

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Speaker 1: misinformation to spread here in the United States, it's way

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Speaker 1: more of a problem in non English speaking countries. The

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Speaker 1: company has fewer resources dedicated to preventing that kind of

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Speaker 1: abuse on the platform. They have frankly not made it

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Speaker 1: a priority to really tackle those problems in non English

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Speaker 1: speaking countries, particularly in the developing world. So far, Facebook's

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Speaker 1: response has been fairly boiler plate. The company has rules

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Speaker 1: and policies about the types of stuff that's allowed on

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Speaker 1: the platform, and it works hard to remove any material

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Speaker 1: that violates those rules. So we'll have to keep an

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Speaker 1: eye on this. See where this lawsuit develops from here.

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Speaker 1: Wired reports that several Russian cities have experienced disruption in

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Speaker 1: GPS signals over the last week. This sort of thing

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Speaker 1: can sometimes be the result of attacks on infrastructure. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's possible to actually jam signals or to otherwise inhibit them,

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Speaker 1: to spoof them so that you get incorrect information. But

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Speaker 1: in this case, the Russian government may be the reason

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Speaker 1: for the disruption itself. Ukraine forces have been relying on

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Speaker 1: drones to strike important cities within Russia as Ukraine and

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Speaker 1: Russia continue their war, and so it's possible that Russian

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Speaker 1: authorities have ordered the disruption of GPS in an attempt

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Speaker 1: to foil drone navigation systems and thus protect potential targets.

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Speaker 1: According to analysts, the zones affected by GPS disruption measure

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Speaker 1: hundreds or sometimes even thousands of kilometers in diameter around

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Speaker 1: important cities. Now I imagine that it must be pretty

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Speaker 1: challenging to navigate in those cities for a lot of

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Speaker 1: folks right now. Just as a side note, this also

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Speaker 1: demonstrates that there's real value in learning how to read

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Speaker 1: a paper roadmap, and having a physical roadmap in your

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Speaker 1: vehicle is a good idea, and over dependence on technology

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Speaker 1: can become a problem if that technology should fail for

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Speaker 1: whatever reasons. So just maybe one of your stocking stuffers

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Speaker 1: this holiday season, or your Hanukkah gifts, or you know,

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Speaker 1: just something you want to buy for yourself should be

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Speaker 1: a roadmap and just familiarize yourself with it so that

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Speaker 1: in case you should ever need it, you know how

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Speaker 1: to read it. Okay, that's enough of that. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: come back after this break and finish up with a

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Speaker 1: few more news items. But first let's listen to these messages.

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Speaker 1: We're back. Okay, I've got a positive story here. It's

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Speaker 1: a short one. A couple of motorists are really thankful

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Speaker 1: for the iPhone fourteen's satellite connectivity, which is available on

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Speaker 1: the iPhone fourteen and the iPhone fourteen Pro. These two

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Speaker 1: motorists were in a car accident. They were driving down

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Speaker 1: a road in California through some canyons and cell services

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Speaker 1: pretty hard to come by in this particular region of

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles County, not the city of the county, and

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Speaker 1: their vehicles slid off the road and it went down

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Speaker 1: the side of a mountain. Fortunately, the two were able

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Speaker 1: to get out of the car. They were able to

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Speaker 1: connect the their iPhone fourteen to a satellite and they

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Speaker 1: were able to contact emergency services. Emergency services, then we're

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Speaker 1: able to use the location data to direct a rescue

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Speaker 1: helicopter to their location where they were rescued and then

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Speaker 1: taken to a hospital for observation. And I wanted to

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Speaker 1: include the story because it has a happy ending and

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Speaker 1: it shows how tech really can make a huge and

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Speaker 1: positive difference. Like I know, in my news items, I

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Speaker 1: frequently am focusing on some pretty dark stuff that involves tech.

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Speaker 1: But you know, tech is a tool. It's just like

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Speaker 1: Hamlet said, there's nothing good or bad, but thinking makes

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Speaker 1: it so. While tools neither good nor bad, it's just

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Speaker 1: and how you use it, and you can use them

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Speaker 1: in really good, positive ways. This is one of them.

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Speaker 1: And uh, honestly, I'm very thankful that Apple included the

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Speaker 1: satellite connectivity in the most recent iPhones because it means

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Speaker 1: that people like this have another lifeline in situations where

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Speaker 1: otherwise they might be completely helpless. In other Apple use

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Speaker 1: the company is reportedly getting ready to allow third party

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Speaker 1: app stores on iOS for the first time ever, so

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Speaker 1: this would include stuff like Amazon's App Store, for example,

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Speaker 1: which typically you would not be able to install on

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Speaker 1: an iOS device or the Epic Game Store. Again, you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to do that. You would have to

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Speaker 1: do everything through Apple itself. Now, the reason for this

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Speaker 1: change is because not because Apple suddenly became really hospitable.

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Speaker 1: It's because the EU passed the Digital Markets Act and

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Speaker 1: it cracks down on policies that would otherwise give a

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Speaker 1: platform and unfair advantage over would be competitors. So the

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Speaker 1: Act makes it illegal for a company to become kind

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Speaker 1: of a gatekeeper to its own ecosystem if that ecosystem

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Speaker 1: is like a significantly large and important one like iOS. Now,

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Speaker 1: whether this is ultimately going to lead to a catastrophic

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Speaker 1: downturn for users safety, which Apple has repeatedly warned about,

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Speaker 1: They've said that's the reason they have an allow it

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Speaker 1: in the past. That remains to be seen. Now, I

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Speaker 1: will say, while I'm skeptical that it's going to lead

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Speaker 1: to the downfall of civilization, it is always a good

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Speaker 1: idea to do research before you sideload anything onto a device.

433
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: When you sidestep the official you know, app store, make

434
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: sure that whatever it is you're about to download and

435
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: install is on the up and up, because otherwise you

436
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: can run into problems. A hacker claims to have used

437
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: a bit of social engineering to get access to an

438
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 1: important FBI database. The database is called infra Guard and

439
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,479
Speaker 1: it is essentially a collection of like eighty thousand people

440
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: in various organizations, including government agencies as well as corporations,

441
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,200
Speaker 1: and these are people who are considered to be important

442
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 1: when it comes to protecting US infrastructure. The hacker claims

443
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: they got access to this by posing as the CEO

444
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,960
Speaker 1: of a company and said that they were actually surprised

445
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: at how poor the vetting process was when they uh

446
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 1: when they essentially applied to get access, and then we're

447
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: granted access to this database. So this is kind of

448
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: like a directory of really important people that are related

449
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: to US infrastructure. The hacker has been on cybercriminal forums

450
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:20,120
Speaker 1: asking for fifty thousand bucks in return for this database. Now,

451
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 1: the info in this database appears to be somewhat limited.

452
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:26,679
Speaker 1: Most entries consist of like a name and an email

453
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: address and that's about it. But this could still serve

454
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 1: as a valuable list for someone who wants to engage

455
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: in spear fishing. This is a targeted version of fishing

456
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: to get you know, sensitive information. It's an attempt to

457
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: compromise someone and trick them into handing over access to

458
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: more important systems bad form FBI, that's the oldest trick

459
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: in the book. YouTube announced that soon bots will be

460
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 1: able to remove comments deemed to be abusive, and will

461
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: also be able to issue temporary bands for at least

462
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 1: short while two users who are being jerks in the

463
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,960
Speaker 1: comments sections of the platform. So if you get multiple

464
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,479
Speaker 1: warnings from a bot that you know your comments are

465
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 1: being removed because you're being um a jerk face, then

466
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: the bot can ultimately give you a twenty four hour

467
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 1: time out where you can't comment on anything in that

468
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. It does not sound like channel owners

469
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: are going to have the option to opt out of

470
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: this particular policy, that it's just kind of there by default,

471
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: And as Ron Amadeo of artist Hetnica points out, this

472
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: approach is probably the only one that YouTube can feasibly take.

473
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: You have hundreds of hours of content that has uploaded

474
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: to YouTube every single minute of the day, plus you

475
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: have countless live streams active at any given time, so

476
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: there's just no way that the company could dedicate a

477
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: large enough staff of human content moderators to oversee everything,

478
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: it would be impossible. So really the question is going

479
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: to end up being is automated content moderation better than

480
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: no content moderation? We'll have to find out. Executives at

481
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: Google apparently discussed the phenomenon of chat GPT recently. That's

482
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: an AI chat bot, and it's proven to be really compelling.

483
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 1: I've talked about it previously on tech Stuff. The chat

484
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,000
Speaker 1: bought is capable of putting together responses to various queries

485
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: in a way that seems authoritative and trustworthy. Now I

486
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: say seems authoritative and trustworthy because folks have pointed out

487
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: that at least in some cases, the responses generated can

488
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: sometimes include questionable or outright wrong information, but the style

489
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: of presentation seems reliable and structured, and that can give

490
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: the reader the incorrect feeling that they can count on

491
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: the information being given to them that it's a good answer,

492
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: when in reality it may not be. As such, the

493
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: Google executives said that while Google has similar capabilities with

494
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: their AI chat bots, they are not putting them out

495
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: there out of a concern that they pose a quote

496
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 1: unquote reputational risk due to issues with factuality and bias,

497
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: and as such, a model similar to chat GPT is

498
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: not likely to replace our current method of search anytime soon. Now,

499
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 1: over time, maybe we will see search gravitate toward a

500
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: more semantic web kind of presentation in the future. That's

501
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 1: where you would log into the web, you would ask

502
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,200
Speaker 1: whatever it was you wanted, and the web would quote

503
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: unquote understand what you were asking based upon who you were,

504
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 1: your your situation in life, you know, all these sort

505
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: of factors that your browser can't do right now. But

506
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: that's the concept of the semantic web, and a lot

507
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: of people have been kind of comparing chat GPT with

508
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: that idea. But chat GPT is is far more limited

509
00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: than the concept of semantic web would require. So uh,

510
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: it's tough right now. Like it's really tough when you

511
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: essentially have a black box that generates answers when you

512
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: ask questions, but it doesn't tell you how it came

513
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: to those answers. That means you probably shouldn't put all

514
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: your eggs in that mysterious basket. Finally, a British man

515
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 1: named Amar Reshi used AI to create a children's book,

516
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: and now he says people have been sending him abusive

517
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 1: and threatening messages, so Reshi used chat gpt to generate

518
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: a story about a character named Alice and her friendly

519
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 1: robots Sparkle as Alice tries to learn about technology. He

520
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: had to refine the story. He had to come up

521
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: this in different ways and ask different questions of chat gpt,

522
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: but ultimately chat gpt generated the basic story. Now, to

523
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 1: illustrate the story, he used an app called mid journey,

524
00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: and it makes images based off simple textual prompts. He said. Likewise,

525
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 1: he had to refine his search results many, many, many

526
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: times because mid Journey would often generate stuff that was,

527
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 1: you know, not really fitting for a children's book, he said.

528
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: In some cases, if he was writing a horror novel,

529
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: it would have been the right way to go. But

530
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: over time he was able to get those refined and

531
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: then once he was happy with the results, he collected

532
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,959
Speaker 1: them and then published a children's book using Amazon's Kindled

533
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: direct publishing tool. And his close friends all thought this

534
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 1: was a super cute idea. Like he was doing it

535
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: because you know, he wanted to give a gift to

536
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: friends who had little kids. And then he shared it

537
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:41,239
Speaker 1: with a slightly larger group, and then he went on

538
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: Twitter and talked about it, and that's when he started

539
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: getting pushback. You had authors and illustrators who would criticize

540
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: Reshi for outsourcing human creativity two machines, and they argued

541
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 1: that his actions cheapen the artistry that goes into these pursuits.

542
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 1: They're also worried that these systems which use machine learning

543
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:08,680
Speaker 1: are using their own works as source material in order

544
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: to learn that these machines are going to, over time

545
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 1: get better and better at copying specific styles. So you

546
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: could say, like, I want a poem in the style

547
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: of Dr SEUs about such and such, and ultimately you

548
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: could get to a point where you would get a

549
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 1: poem that seemed to have been written by Dr SEUs,

550
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: but wasn't. That's something that people are really concerned about.

551
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 1: Creatives are really concerned about that, and I don't blame them.

552
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: I think that's a legitimate concern. They're also, you know,

553
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 1: really worried that that you'll have entities out there that

554
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: would usually do you know, work for higher kind of jobs,

555
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,919
Speaker 1: turned to AI and just be satisfied that it's quote

556
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: unquote good enough that the work produced will not be

557
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 1: great work not nearly as great as what a human

558
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: would produce. But that the the people doing the hiring

559
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,279
Speaker 1: might not care because they're able to get that work

560
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 1: for free as opposed to having to pay someone for it. Now.

561
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 1: Reschi says he was surprised at receiving abuse and threats,

562
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: but he does understand how artists and authors feel threatened

563
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: and concerned, and he even went on to say that

564
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 1: those concerns could be quite valid, that you know those

565
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: are There's some questions that need to be answered, like

566
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:32,399
Speaker 1: how are these artists AI programs being trained? Are they

567
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:35,440
Speaker 1: being trained on copy written works, on things that are

568
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 1: being developed by illustrators and artists today, and is it

569
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,799
Speaker 1: not fair? Like is it unfair for those artists to

570
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:50,800
Speaker 1: go uncompensated while meanwhile these AI programs are potentially copying

571
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,359
Speaker 1: their styles. These are tough questions, and honestly, I think

572
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: it's great to start asking questions like this and to

573
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: really dive down in to the ethics of how we

574
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: use a I and UH. I think that these are

575
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,359
Speaker 1: conversations we have to really start jumping into. We thought

576
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,440
Speaker 1: we probably wouldn't need to worry about them for years. No,

577
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,279
Speaker 1: that time is now. We have to have these conversations

578
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: about the ethics of AI now in order to kind

579
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: of figure out best practices and ways that we're not

580
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: harming people or exploiting them or stealing from them, like

581
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 1: all these things are very important. So I think it's

582
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: a fascinating story. I think it was a fascinating experiment.

583
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 1: And if if Freshie had not, you know, published it

584
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,240
Speaker 1: more widely, if you had not publicized it more widely,

585
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,160
Speaker 1: I guess I should say probably nothing would have come

586
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: of it. But because of that, it just created this

587
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:52,640
Speaker 1: storm of controversy and unfortunately, of threats. I think that

588
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 1: anyone threatening somebody for doing something like this is definitively

589
00:36:57,680 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 1: in the wrong. They should not do that. That is

590
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:04,720
Speaker 1: not the way to go ever, so shame on those folks,

591
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: like they need to get some perspective here. But it

592
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: does mean that we need to start having these conversations, uh,

593
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: in order to come to a common understanding. Okay, that's it.

594
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,160
Speaker 1: That's it for the news for this week. I will

595
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: be coming to you next week, hopefully with some episodes

596
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: that will kind of wrap up some of the or

597
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 1: maybe not wrap up, but at least touch on some

598
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: of the big stories that unfolded in tech this year.

599
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: So next week will probably be a lot of episodes

600
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 1: about that instead of the normal tech news episodes. I

601
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: think it'll probably just be a continuation of the big

602
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:48,400
Speaker 1: stories of two, just based upon the list of headlines

603
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: I have written down. I haven't actually started writing it yet,

604
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: so I suspect it's going to be a very long

605
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:57,919
Speaker 1: series of episodes. But a lot of stuff happened this year.

606
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 1: If you have suggestions for things I should cover on

607
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, please reach out to me. A couple of

608
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: ways to do that. One is to download the I

609
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, which is free to downloads free to use.

610
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 1: You can just navigate to tech Stuff through the little

611
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 1: search field and there's a little microphone icon. If you

612
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: click on that, you can leave a message up to

613
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,759
Speaker 1: thirty seconds in length. Let me know if you would

614
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: like me to use it in a future episode. I

615
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: will not use it unless you tell me too, but

616
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 1: that's a one way to to suggest topics. Another is

617
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 1: to use Twitter. The handle that we use is tech

618
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:30,760
Speaker 1: stuff hs W and I will talk to you again

619
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: really soon, y. Tech Stuff is an I Heart Radio production.

620
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I

621
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

622
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:48,280
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,