WEBVTT - Tech News: YouTube Ramps Up Strategy Against Ad Blockers 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.559 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.440 Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.720 an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech are you. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.000 It's time for the tech news for November two, twenty 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.800 twenty three, rapidly running out of days. In twenty twenty 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.800 three and yesterday, I did an episode about the history 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.000 of ad blockers, But one thing I didn't really cover 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:41.680 in great detail was YouTube and YouTube's battle against ad blocking. Well, 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.600 the platform has been rolling out an escalating response to 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:51.240 users who have been employing ad blockers on YouTube while 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.560 trying to watch YouTube videos. Gizmoto's Kevin Hurler has a 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.880 piece on this on Gizmoto titled YouTube's ad blocker crackdown 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.280 is getting harder to dodge, and he explains that earlier 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.240 in October, YouTube began to show a pop up notification 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.800 to ad blocker users, and the notification said that video 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.160 playback would not work until the user disabled ad block 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:22.720 or otherwise whitelisted YouTube. Now, initially, folks could just close 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.400 out the pop up and continue on their merry way. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.080 A little bit later, YouTube beef this up. They then 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.399 had a little checkbox you had to click on to 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.759 notify YouTube that you were acknowledging you had been alerted 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.399 to this policy, that you should not be using ad blockers, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.440 that this is against YouTube's terms of service, and then 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.720 you could go on your merry way. Now, YouTube will 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.520 just keep that pop up in place, and it'll block 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.120 all activity. You won't be able to do anything else 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.720 on YouTube until you actually take the steps to either 0:01:55.240 --> 0:02:00.520 disable or pause ad blocking entirely, or to whitelist YouTube. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.600 Hurler also points out that the Wall Street Journal has 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.040 tracked YouTube's ad revenue over the last three quarters and 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.440 that revenue has been on the decline. So we're not 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.200 saying that YouTube is losing money. It's not that. It's 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.600 just they're not making as much money as they had previously. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.760 It's going down. That's a trend that most companies are 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.960 not super happy about. YouTube has been pushing for a 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.160 lot more folks to subscribe to YouTube premium. That's been 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.720 a campaign that's been going on for several months now, 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.080 and they have also introduced a lot of new types 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.360 of ads, including unskippable ads, longer ones too like it 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.760 used to be that an unskippable ad would last maybe 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.280 five or ten seconds, but now we have full thirty 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.200 second unskippable ads on say YouTube TV, for example. And 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.880 it has also started to remove some of the controls 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.680 that video creators had when it came to where they 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:58.640 would place ads against their content. I remember talking about 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:03.360 how some ASMR creators were very upset because at least initially, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.119 it looked like they wouldn't have the opportunity to specify 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.440 that ads should only be pre roll, for example, a 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.679 not post roll, and that by removing that control, it 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.240 meant that an ASMR AD or an ASMR video rather 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.200 might have allowed an intrusive ad play after the video, 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.560 thus potentially undoing all the work that the ASMR video 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.440 was intended to do. Well. I suspect we're going to 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.800 continue to see shifts in strategy from YouTube because they're 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:35.880 going to continue to try and find the most lucrative 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.800 way to make as much money as possible. That's kind 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:43.000 of what businesses do. And I'm sure we'll also see 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.480 new approaches to ad blocking go on as well. And 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:52.280 so it goes. David Ingram and kat Tinbarge have a 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.320 really good piece over at Nbcnews dot Com. It's titled 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.720 critics renewed Calls for a TikTok band, claiming play has 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:06.400 an anti Israel bias. So the journalists walk a pretty 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.840 tight line in an attempt to be really objective in 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:14.320 this piece, and they explain that several politicians are saying 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.640 that TikTok is spreading propaganda to young people and favoring 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:24.240 a pro Palestinian stance over a pro Israeli stance that 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.080 with regard to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.120 But the reporters actually found that if you look at 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.200 the stats on TikTok in the United States over the 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.480 last month or so, the period of time covered by 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.919 the point when Hamas attacked Israel and then Israel's response 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.600 to that attack, not only are posts with a hashtag 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.680 such as stand with Palestine not outpacing ones that have 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.960 the hashtag stand with Israel, but also that those Israel 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:02.320 posts are actually outperforming the Palestine ones. So, in other words, 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:07.320 the stats seem to directly contradict the claims these politicians 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.800 are making. They're saying there's this anti Israel bias across TikTok. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.000 The reporters are saying, well, based upon what we're seeing 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.440 at least over the last thirty days or so here 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.240 in the United States, there doesn't appear to be any 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.960 indication of bias. In fact, we're seeing a trend toward 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.240 the opposite if you're looking at those stats. The reporters 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.000 say that the claims appear to be based mostly on 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.239 anecdotal evidence, and also by taking sort of a longer 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.320 view across the entire history of TikTok. Like if you 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.159 look at all of TikTok's history and you're looking at 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.080 the trends of you know, stand with say, stand with 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.240 a Palestine or stand with Israel, then things get a 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.400 little less clear, right, because you're looking across the entire 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:59.640 history of the platform, but not the current events. And 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.039 we all also know that anecdotal evidence is really useless 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.880 with TikTok, right because TikTok's algorithm looks at what content 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.760 you are engaging with on the platform, and then TikTok 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:16.440 essentially draws the conclusion of, Oh, this is what this 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.720 person wants to see, so let me just give them 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.000 a whole bunch more of that. It reminds me of 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.480 a routine that Patton Oswalt used to do where he 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.400 talked about tvo, where he said he used TVO to 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.719 record a couple of Westerns that he wanted to watch, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.839 and then TVO made the conclusion that he just really 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.520 liked content that had horses in it, and so he 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.360 got a whole bunch of horse content recorded on his behalf. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.479 This is sort of what it's reminding me of, which 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.200 means that, you know, if you were to go on 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.960 TikTok and let's say you actually did see a pro 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:54.800 Palestinian video and you objected to that video for whatever reason, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.920 and maybe you even leave a comment giving your different 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.720 point of view and what I am sure would be 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:06.520 a reasonable and polite way, then TikTok doesn't see that as, Oh, 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:11.040 this person ends up disagreeing with this content, I should 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:16.040 show other points of view instead, TikTok says, Oh, this 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.520 user has engaged with this content, I should show them 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.280 a whole bunch of the same sort of stuff. So 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.280 to you, the user, it seems like there's just this 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.880 flood of content presenting just one side of an issue, 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.720 and you might not see very many, if any, examples 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.520 of the other side. But that's a very different thing 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.240 than arguing that the entire platform has a bias. In fact, 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:44.040 the reporters even point out that in other nations governments 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:48.320 are actually arguing that the opposite is true, that TikTok 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:54.360 has a pro Israel and anti Palestinian bias. So there 0:07:54.440 --> 0:08:00.120 are different governments making opposite conclusions about a supposed bias 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.960 within TikTok. And I think the truth of the matter 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.440 is this is really more to do with the sort 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:11.080 of brute force approach of TikTok's algorithm. That is probably, 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:16.320 in my opinion, what is fueling this, and that you know, 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:18.920 I'm not a huge fan of TikTok, right, I do 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.000 have some concerns about the potential link to China. That 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.880 is something that I worry about, although I also acknowledge 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.600 that as far as I can determine, there's not really 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:35.800 much evidence to point to actual cases of Chinese officials 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:42.080 using TikTok to you know, surveil national security matters or 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.760 anything like that. But the potential is there, and that's 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.520 what is I think a little concerning. But I don't 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.880 really know that it's you know, that this particular argument 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.680 has much merit. In fact, I think it doesn't have 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.680 much merit the argument that TikTok has some sort of 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.640 specific bias when it goes to the ongoing conflict between 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:06.720 Israel and Hamas. I think that in most cases it's 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.960 either a failing of critical thinking, or perhaps it's someone 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.440 who's trying to score political points by you bashing against TikTok, 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.280 or perhaps a combination of the two that's really to 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:23.040 blame here. Next up, Scarlett Johansson is the latest famous 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:27.600 person in a face off against artificial intelligence. The Verge 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.160 reports that Johansson's lawyer is taking legal action against a 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:36.280 software developer company. That company is called Convert Software or 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.000 Convert Software. The company creates an app that's called Lisa 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:46.320 AI nineties Yearbook an avatar and ran an advertisement about 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.840 this app, and it included an AI generated copy of 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.319 Johanson's voice. So it starts off with like a little 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.640 segment of a behind the scenes thing from her filming 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.800 of Black Widow, and then you get the a imitation 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.760 of Johansson giving information about this app. Apparently this was 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.240 all done without Johanson's knowledge or consent. And while the 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.960 ad did feature a little bit of text that said 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.440 the person in the app doesn't have anything to do 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.839 with the app itself. Her lawyer is saying, that doesn't 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.640 really cut the mustard, and we are definitely getting into 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.000 some tricky territory here. As I've talked about before, the 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.560 laws here in the United States aren't exactly up to 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.800 date with technological capabilities. There are very few protections in 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:36.880 place when it comes to impersonation. Now, there are limits, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:38.120 like if you were to go so far as to 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.280 impersonate someone in an effort to slander them, for example, 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.880 that would be something that you could take legal action 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.559 against because it goes under slander. Or if you were 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:53.800 to impersonate someone and have that person apparently endorse a product, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.480 not just voice an ad, but to actually say that 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.640 they had used and approved of that product. That could 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.600 get you in some big legal trouble too, because the 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.720 law states that in order to make an endorsement, you 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.360 have to have actually used the product or service in question, 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.559 and you have to give your real opinion about it, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:18.880 and that otherwise the endorsement can be misleading and false advertising. 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.000 So obviously, if you're using an impersonation of a celebrity 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.040 to make an endorsement, that would be a huge problem. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.240 But there doesn't seem to be, as far as I'm aware, 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:36.000 very much information legally about impersonating someone in an effort 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.480 to just do a regular ad, not an endorsement, but 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.320 a regular ad. So I don't know if there is 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.560 a legal basis to hold convert software accountable, but I 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.640 suspect that cases like this one and a few others 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.640 that have popped up over the last year or so 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.440 are going to lead to new legislation that will expressly 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.200 cover these situations in the future. All right, So who 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.920 do you go to? If you're employe lets you go 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.000 in order to automate your job and then hand your 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.920 job over to AI? What do you do? Well? May 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.800 I suggest that you use an AI powered career counselor 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.920 to get you out of the situation? Sounds a bit trippy. 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.320 So this actually has to do with LinkedIn. LinkedIn has 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.120 deployed an AI chat bot feature that's meant to serve 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.440 as a kind of career advisor. At the moment, the 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.520 feature is in limited run. Only the people who are 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:36.240 actually LinkedIn premium subscribers can use this feature right now. 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.520 And you don't just sit down with this AI chatbot 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.440 and then have a deep soul searching heart to heart 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.000 about where your career needs to go at the stage 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:51.760 in your life. Instead, the chatbot will activate when you 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:56.200 are attempting to evaluate a job offer or maybe a 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.800 job listing and you're trying to figure out am I 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.360 a good fit for this position? Neuel. You can ask 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.360 those specific types of questions and a little drop down menu, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.000 and the chatbot will essentially do an analysis of your 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:13.040 resume and job experience that kind of thing, and then 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.920 also analyze the job listing in particular and give you 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.080 some guidance as to whether or not maybe you're a 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:26.120 good fit for the job, or maybe you're just pooling 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.240 yourself and you should go back to being a sign spinner. 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.120 No shade on sign spinners, by the way, folks got 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.760 to get that Dala dolla, and goodness knows, I'd be 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:35.520 the worst sign spinner in the history of the gig 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.040 if I were to give it a try. Also, real talk, 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.600 let's say I lose my job. I honestly do not 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.840 know what I would do for a living at this 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.040 point in my life. It is a sobering thought, and 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.160 I think a lot of people struggle when they find 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.400 themselves in a similar situation where maybe they've done a 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.880 specific job for a very long time, maybe there aren't 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.640 that many analogs out there where they could port their 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.800 skins over to something else. It's terrifying. So I think 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:08.000 a tool that can help someone prioritize their own time 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.200 when they're in a job search mode, I think that's 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.840 a great thing. I think that's a very good use 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.560 of technology to help people kind of narrow their focus. However, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.240 several things need to be true in order for me 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:27.160 to be really one hundred percent in favor of this tool. First, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.280 the tool needs to work right. It needs to actually 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.200 work well. Second, I would want to see this tool 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.160 rolled out to anyone who's a LinkedIn user, not just 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.560 those who are premium subscribers, because I mean, if you're 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.920 in a position where you need to find a new job, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.560 you might also be in a position where you can't 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.960 really afford to pay for extras in order to get 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.640 that new job. And I would like to see the 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.280 people who need this the most have access to it 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:02.160 without having to sacrifice to pay for that access. Three, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.240 I also hope this AI powered tool isn't prone to 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.200 unfair bias. So, for example, I would hope the tool 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.560 doesn't assume that a woman would just be a bad 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.480 fit for an engineer position because she is a she. 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:17.160 I would want all those things to be true in 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.920 order to really feel good about this tool, So hopefully 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.720 those are all true eventually. Okay, we've got a lot 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:26.520 more news to go, but before we get to that, 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:39.120 let's take a quick break. We're back. So the Attorney 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.240 General for New York is going after a group of 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:47.560 companies that are in the cryptocurrency space, and she's arguing 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.840 that these companies have defrauded customers out of more than 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:56.400 a billion dollars yikes, and they do have a connection 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:01.680 with some pretty infamous failures in the crypto space from 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.800 last year. So the companies that are part of this 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:11.280 entire investigation and legal action include the Digital Currency Group, 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.800 which is the parent company for another party in this 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:20.560 in this legal action, Genesis. That's a crypto lending company, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.200 as well as a crypto exchange company called Gemini or 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.720 if you preferred Gemini, and Gemini is the one that 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.120 was co founded by the infamous Winkle Voss twins, you know, 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.800 who also played a part in the early days of Facebook, 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.840 and that's why it's called Gemini, right, Gemini are the 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.600 twins when you're talking about astrology, So very clever. But 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:48.880 the charges allege that these companies incurred massive losses and 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.640 then tried to hide that information from investors because they 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:54.840 wanted to keep the money flowing in. And if you're 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.040 telling investors we're losing lots of money, chances are they're 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.560 not going to be super willing to invest more into you. Now, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.960 one key element of the case involves what was a 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:12.640 collaboration between Gemini, the crypto exchange, and Genesis, the crypto 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:20.400 lending company. The service was called Gemini Earn Earn, So basically, 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.720 the idea was that the investors who were using the 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:30.640 crypto exchange Gemini, could loan money out to the crypto 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:35.080 loaner company, Genesis. So Gemini customer says, all right, I 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:39.119 will give X amount of my cash out to Genesis 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.840 as a loan. Genesis in turn would loan that investor 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:48.679 money out to its own customers, and the idea was 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.000 that the customers would pay interest on the loan, Genesis 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.280 would pay interest on the loaned money from the investors, 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.720 and the money would trickle back up the chain and 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:03.840 everybody would make cash right, So the interest rates were 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.560 listed as high as eight percent. At certain points, you 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.280 get eight percent return on your investment. Not bad. And 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:16.600 according to the lawsuit, Gemini performed a risk analysis on 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:21.480 Genesis and then determined that it would actually be really 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:26.760 risky to loan money to Genesis, but Gemini did not 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:31.640 communicate the information to its customers to the investors on Gemini, 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.600 so they didn't tell the investors, hey, heads up, this 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.560 is a risky loan. Instead they said, yeah, dog, it's 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.480 totally safe and you can increase your wealth this way. Meanwhile, 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:47.280 Genesis totally fumbled the bag because it was loaning out 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:52.240 considerable amounts of money to entities that then went broke, 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.280 one of which being Alimator Research. So if that name 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.480 sounds familiar, that's because Alimator Research was one of the 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:04.320 two crypto companies that Sam Bankman Freed co founded, you know, 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.600 the other one being obviously the FTX Exchange, and Alimator 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.080 Research went bankrupt. So this huge amount of money that 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:18.639 was loan to Alamator Research was effectively lost. So this 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.280 lawsuit is saying that JEM and I became aware that 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.800 Genesis earned was not a good investment opportunity from a 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.560 risk standpoint, but then specifically did not tell their own 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:33.720 customers this information, which allowed the investors to continue to 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.440 funnel money into an operation that was really not likely 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.320 to create a return and in fact ended up being 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.199 a huge failure. So this is another story pointing out 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:47.760 how precarious a lot of the crypto community is. That's 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.120 not to say that all cryptocurrency companies or crypto companies 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.919 in general are in the same boat. I'm not saying 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.440 they're all just a guaranteed loss. That's not what I'm saying. 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.280 I am saying there are lots of examples of companies 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.439 that are in that space that tried to capitalize on 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.119 a boom period, Like they were really quick and rushing in, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.680 and they made some big, risky decisions, and then when 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.600 that boom kind of ended, these companies found themselves out 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.840 of their depth and a lot of them ended up collapsing. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.840 So just again a word of caution before you start 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:30.320 investing into cryptocurrency. I'm not a financial advisor. I cannot 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:35.080 give any sort of advice. Personally, I think that it 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.000 is not worth the risk in most cases. I'm still 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.800 not sold on cryptocurrency in general, I feel like it's 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:48.200 largely a technology that benefits a few at the expense 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.840 of many, similar to things like a pyramid scheme or 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.520 a Ponzi scheme. I'm not saying that all cryptocurrencies are 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:59.159 a Ponzi scheme either, just that there are some similarities, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:04.000 and I haven't seen a lot of evidence for, you know, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.640 like ones that are treated less as a commodity exchange 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.520 and more like an actual currency. It's just it's rare. Okay. 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.440 Reuter's reports that the company we Work could be filing 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.760 for bankruptcy as early as next week. So first of all, 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.639 to get this out of the way, we Work isn't 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.880 really a tech company really, but I cover it because 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.439 everyone treats it like it was a tech startup. It 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.840 was a darling among tech venture capitalysts when we Work 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.440 first launched, despite the fact that We Work's entire business 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.520 model was predicated upon an idea that wasn't remotely new 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.800 or innovative. It's it wasn't like we Work was breaking 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:52.600 the mold and coming up with something that had never 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.760 been tried before. It was actually a business idea that 0:21:55.800 --> 0:22:00.280 traditionally had proven to be really challenging, and one had 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.439 pretty low profit margins. So we Work's business model, in 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:08.080 case you're not aware, is the company purchases or leases 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:14.919 office space in large, typically urban communities, and then it 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:20.360 will lease or sub lease those spaces to various individuals 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.639 and small companies so that they will have an office 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.720 location they can use, but they don't have to go 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:30.200 to the extent of actually, you know, purchasing or renting 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:35.840 dedicated office space that would require a much larger financial investment, 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.560 so they can save money by renting at a smaller 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:44.199 fee a section of office space in this communal office 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.320 location run by we Work. Now, that's it as far 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.040 as the business plan goes. But the WeWork story has 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.840 all sorts of bizarre twists and turns. Some of it 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.199 is your classic conflict of interest stuff because it was 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:03.879 discovered that the company's founder was acquiring a real estate 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:08.320 on his own and then using we Work to purchase 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:13.600 a lease from him for that property, which is certainly questionable. 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.920 Right Like if you run a company and then on 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:18.800 your own, you go out and buy something and then 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.320 you direct your company to purchase the thing you bought 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:25.800 at a huge profit for you personally, that there is 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:30.000 pretty darn questionable. But on top of that, his wife 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:34.399 was drafting some very weird corporate documents that seem to 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.399 have more in common with Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop company, which 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:40.159 you know, kind of makes more sense when you realize 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:43.000 the two women are actually related to each other. The 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.040 whole story is weird. There are entire documentaries about it, 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:51.840 and great YouTube videos as well. Maybe at one point, 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:53.640 we Work was seen as a being at like a 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:57.320 massive disruptor in office real estate, but now the company 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.880 finds itself on the verge of obsolescence tech stuff. We're 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:04.880 more of a general kind of business podcast. I would 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:07.760 probably do a full series of episodes about we Work 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:14.160 and really dive into the evolution and fall of that company, 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:16.639 but I think I'm going to leave that to other shows. 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:19.840 It just figured I should cover this because we Work 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:23.240 was treated as though it were a tech startup from 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.680 the very beginning, and now we're seeing the end of it. 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:31.920 Now let's talk about an actual tech company. So by 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:37.520 the end of today, you know, Thursday, November two, Apple 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:44.800 is expected to post a quarterly result that will indicate 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:48.520 a decline in revenue for the fourth consecutive quarter. So, 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:52.600 in other words, over the course of a year, Apple's 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:57.119 revenue has declined quarter by quarter at least compared to 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:02.879 the same time last year, right, and revenue decline is 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.040 not something that you really want to see. This is 0:25:05.040 --> 0:25:07.960 all according to CNBC. Now, this is not to say 0:25:07.960 --> 0:25:11.520 that Apple is in trouble. That's not the case. Again, 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:15.120 we're talking about decline in revenue, but we're not talking 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:17.880 about the company losing money. It's just not making as 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:20.639 much money as it did this time last year. The 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:25.600 company is still making boatloads of money every year. The 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:29.479 expectation for this quarter, which will know for sure by 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:32.240 the end of today, but the expectations that Apple's going 0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:36.320 to report on making around eighty nine point two eight 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:41.399 billion dollars in sales. That's billion with a B. That 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.360 is an unimaginable amount of money to me. And that's 0:25:45.440 --> 0:25:49.840 just one quarter of the year. However, even at eighty 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:52.960 nine point to eight billion dollars, that's still a one 0:25:53.040 --> 0:25:56.960 percent drop from what the company made in sales this 0:25:57.080 --> 0:26:02.160 time last year. Now, they're probably tons of reasons for 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:04.520 this decline, and a lot of those reasons, I would 0:26:04.600 --> 0:26:08.080 argue are totally outside of Apple's direct control right, like 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:12.240