WEBVTT - Tech News: WeOutOfWork and Getting Burned by NFTs 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.840 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.279 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.560 tech are you. It is time for the tech news 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:28.120 for Tuesday, November seventh, twenty twenty three. First up, last week, 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.360 I mentioned that the company we Work was rumored to 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:36.040 be headed for bankruptcy. Now the company has filed for bankruptcy. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.280 So at its height, we Work was worth somewhere in 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.560 the neighborhood of forty seven billion with a B dollars. 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.080 Currently it's worth less than fifty million dollars. That is 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:53.360 an incredible fall from grace. We Work is not actually 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.520 a tech company. It was treated like one. It was 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.560 treated like it was a tech startup, but you know, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:04.800 it is just all about buying or leasing office space 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:09.080 and then subleasing that to customers. We Work was already 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:13.360 in a rough spot before the pandemic even hit, and 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.560 obviously in the wake of the pandemic, Corporate America has 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.039 changed its approach to work in quite a few places. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.280 So this doesn't actually mean that we Work is totally 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.200 going to go out of business. That's not what bankruptcy means. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:27.640 What it means is that the company is going to 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.199 receive protection against you know, it's various creditors because it's 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.440 in deep, deep debt. And reps are saying that the 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.360 plan is to reorganize the company and to have as 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.360 little disruption in business as possible, while it will likely 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.840 have to get rid of certain properties, you know, sell them, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.320 offer or cancel leases or whatever, they want, to keep 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.520 as many properties in operation as possible. At least that's 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.960 what the reps are saying. Personally, I think we Work 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.640 as a business plan has never been so super strong. 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.440 The whole concept isn't a new one, and it typically 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.560 has pretty small profit margins. So I'm not saying it's 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.320 impossible for we Work to find stability, but I'm personally 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.720 pretty pessimistic about it. Open Ai held its first developer 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:21.120 conference yesterday. They called it dev Day, and early on 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.799 open Ai kicked things off by giving developers an incentive 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.760 to make apps built on top of the GPT technology 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.079 through a five hundred dollars credit. The company showed off 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.520 some new capabilities to developers, including a simplified way to 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.840 create customized GPT agents using natural language which is pretty 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.560 incredible really. Open ai is also going to launch an 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.239 online store where developers will be able to sell their 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.680 custom GPT agents to customers. The company also announced it 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.680 would offer protection to developers against copyright infringement claims, so 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.600 open ai says it will cover costs or those kind 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:05.880 of legal claims against developers. The company also announced that 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:10.160 it hit a huge milestone of one hundred million weekly users, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.399 and it sounds like things are just getting started, which 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.359 I'm sure is the source of anxiety for a lot 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.920 of creative types out there who are already concerned that 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:23.480 models like GBT may be devouring their work and ultimately 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.359 will set up technologies that compete directly against them. Tech 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.000 explores Rob Nichols has an article titled do you trust 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:35.160 AI to write the news? It already is and not 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.240 without issues. So in this article, Nichols tells the story 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:44.160 of how Microsoft reposted an article that was originally published 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.120 in The Guardian. So, in the repost of this article, 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:53.000 Microsoft also enabled an AI generative tool that automatically created 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.320 a poll and connected it to the news story. Unfortunately, 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.680 this news story was about the murder of a young 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.160 woman in Australia. Named Lily James, and the poll was 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.920 asking readers to speculate about the nature of her death, 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.880 which is absolutely horrifying. Right. It's clearly negligent on the 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.880 part of Microsoft to allow that through, and The Guardian 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.640 had no involvement with the use of this AI tool. 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.599 As Nichols points out, media companies are experimenting with AI 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.359 to generate stuff like poles because poles are proven to 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.400 boost engagement, but they also take time away from staff. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.159 I'm reminded of when I was working for houstuffworks dot 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:39.640 com and we would have things like quizzes and galleries 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.360 and this kind of stuff that took a lot of 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.080 time to create. They did create a lot of engagement, 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.719 which is why the company loved them so much, but 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.360 it meant that we weren't actually spending time doing stuff 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.120 like researching and writing articles, which is really what most 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.560 of us wanted to do. So why not offload those 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:04.120 kinds of somewhat mindless tasks to AI? As the story indicates, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.520 the subject matter of the news article is incredibly important. 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.840 Nichols goes on to reference various media companies that are 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.400 even going a step further. They're leaning on AI to 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:20.599 actually generate articles, not just supplemental material, but full on 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.080 news articles. And I've talked in the past about again 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.640 how my former employer How Stuff Works did that for 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.240 How Stuffworks articles. I have not actually been back to 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.560 the website for a few months now to see if 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.479 that's still the case, but that's what it was like 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:41.560 in the summer. Nichols argues that AI's shortcomings can create unfortunate, tragic, 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.000 and even dangerous consequences, and I think that's right on 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.320 the money. With a very strong editorial staff, you could 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.640 potentially weed out articles that are misleading or harmful, But 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.200 at some point you're asking editors to act both as 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.839 an editor and as a writer to rewrite pieces, and 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.360 then you start getting into these unmanageable workloads. So I'm 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.840 not entirely convinced that it even makes sense from a 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.159 business perspective. It certainly isn't going to help things like 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:18.200 editorial morale. Meanwhile, the News division of CBS has launched 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.840 a unit dedicated to investigating things like deep fakes and misinformation, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:28.320 particularly from generative AI. The unit has the name CBS 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.760 News Confirmed, and they will have actual real life human 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.920 beings at the helm. Thankfully, Claudia Milne and Ross Dagan 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.040 are going to oversee the department. The company is looking 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.000 to hire experts in journalism and AI. Again, this is 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:50.040 really encouraging, y'all. I mean not to get on a soapbux, 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.880 but journalism in general has taken a real bad hit 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.000 over the last couple of decades. And to see a 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:00.359 company say, no, we want experts in journalism and in 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.760 artificial intelligence so that we are taking a responsible and 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.440 accountable approach toward reporting on this kind of stuff, I 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.600 think that's a huge step in the right direction. And moreover, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.480 this is something that's arguably already in necessity because generative 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:21.640 AI tools are pretty sophisticated, and they are widely distributed, 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.840 and they are largely unregulated, So it is something that 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:28.960 we do need to be put in place in order 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:36.560 to prevent harm from being committed across entire populations. Microsoft 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.880 announced a partnership with in World AI to create Xbox 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.320 developer tools that well, I mean within World AI. I'm 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.520 sure you've already guessed it. They're going to integrate AI 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.760 in various ways in the game development cycle. So the 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.360 idea is that developers will be able to create AI 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.880 powered elements in their games, including stuff like AI generated 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.320 stories and quests, and even characters. Tom Warren of The 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.480 Verge wrote about this, and his piece actually surprised me 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.920 because originally I assumed that these AI tools would only 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.400 cover the actual game development phase on the back end, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.920 that developers would be able to use these tools to 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.960 flesh out content in a game, while the human writers 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.560 would focus on the most important parts of the game. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.720 So your human writers might be crafting a really satisfying 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.240 and emotional story, right, and you might offload things like 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:38.960 random NPC conversations to your AI so that you're not 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.400 spending a ton of time just generating minds that players 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.760 may or may not ever encounter. But according to Warren, 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.360 the tool will also allow quote and AI character engine 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.160 that can be integrated into games and used to dynamically 0:08:54.240 --> 0:09:00.440 generate stories, quests, and dialogue end quote. Now, maybe my 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.640 interpretation is off, but by my reading, that sounds like 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.640 it could mean that you could have these active within 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:10.800 a game, not just in the game development, but in 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.040 the game itself, so that as you're playing the game, 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.640 you are encountering characters who are dynamically generating dialogue. At 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.320 that moment, as opposed to having done it during the 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.560 game development phase and then humans say yes, let's include 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.400 that in the game, or no, that doesn't really work, 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.160 let's strike it. If it's something that's truly dynamic, then 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.520 it may be like in the game itself. So you 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.120 could have a conversation with a character and it could 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.320 be totally different than someone else who's playing the game 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.000 and having a conversation with that same character. That to 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.880 me is really interesting. Now that's assuming that my interpretation 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.400 is correct, and I could be wrong. But if I 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.439 am right, that means that we could see an end 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.440 to NPC spouting off the same lines over and over, 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.480 which would mean that we would have no more memes 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.440 like I used to be an adventurer like you, and 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.240 then I took a arrow to the knee. Microsoft said 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.040 that developers will determine if and to what extent they'll 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.200 use AI, so it's not like this is mandated, and 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:13.800 obviously this is also a very sensitive topic. You can 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.959 frame this as a way for developers to make better 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.080 use of their time and to be more efficient, but 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.960 you could also frame this as a way to take 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.720 work away from people. Right, whether it's a voice actor 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:33.520 with a simulated voice, or game developers or writers, et cetera. 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.240 There's this deep concern that some game studios could choose 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.480 to go with the cheaper AI option rather than to 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.760 pay you know, those pesky human beings to do the work, 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.200 and among gamers there's also a concern that AI generated 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.880 games will not measure up to the top tier of 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:56.720 titles that human beings have made in past years. On Saturday, XAI, 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.520 the artificial intelligence startup from x Obsessed Elon Musk, launched 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:08.679 a chatbot called groc Grook. If you're curious what sets 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.200 groc apart from other chatbots, well, to the shock of 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.200 absolutely no one, it's a bit of a potty mouth. 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.760 It takes a more grouchy and vulgar approach to answering questions, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.439 almost as if the chatbot is insulted that's being bothered 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.240 to answer those questions in the first place. In some cases, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.160 Elon Musk was very coy about gosh I wonder who 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:34.680 decided that the chatbot should have an attitude anyway. Xai 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.360 has indicated that the actual chatbot will have a couple 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.560 of different modes. It'll have the fun mode, which presumably 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.040 is the one that has all the attitude, and then 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.160 I'm guessing it'll have an alternative that'll be a little 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.720 more straightforward and standard, something that's more in line with 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:52.920 the other chatbots that you can find out there. Musk's 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.319 plan is to release the chatbot to ex premium subscribers 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.559 once it emerges from beta, which is pretty darn funny 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.719 because for ages, Musk has argued that one of the 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.720 biggest problems with Twitter are the bots, and now he's 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:10.480 releasing one to Twitter. But whatever, Okay, I'm gonna take 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.600 a quick break to thank our sponsors. We'll be back 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:24.680 with some more news in just a moment. We're back. So. 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.679 Lucas Ropeck of Gizmoto has an article titled Cruz robotaxis 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.800 require remote human assistance every four to five miles. As 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.480 that headline suggests, it has been a bumpy road for 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.560 the autonomous taxi company, and you've got to remember it. 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:44.720 Cruise is also owned by General Motors. Just recently, the 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.120 state of California revoked Cruse's license to operate autonomous vehicles 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.280 due to concerns that the company vehicles were quote an 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:57.160 unreasonable risk to public safety end quote. This news story 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.560 is that apparently staff at Cruz frequently have to intervene 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.920 and provide what was called remote assistance to Cruise vehicles 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.079 due to the tendency to encounter situations that the vehicles 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.920 aren't able to navigate. Tiffany Testo, spokesperson for Cruz, said 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.160 this happened every four to five miles of travel among 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:20.160 the company's vehicles, so not four to five miles per vehicle, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.040 but rather across the fleet every four to five miles, 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.480 there was a need to provide remote assistance. Ultimately, the 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.000 story seems to reinforce that we're still pretty good ways 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:33.240 from a future of truly autonomous vehicles and that human 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.120 intervention is still a necessary component. I will add that 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:42.640 it wasn't very clear what extent that assistance goes to, right, 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.880 whether it's just providing a little bit of data and 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.640 then the car takes care of everything else itself, or 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.640 if it goes so far as to require remote operations. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.200 TikTok is ending its Creator Fund on December sixteenth, So 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.560 in case you're not aware, the Creator Fund is a 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.960 pool of money. Currently it is valued at around two 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.880 billion dollars, and TikTok uses that pool of money to 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.199 issue payments to creators who generate a ton of videos 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.439 from their work, so or a ton of views, i 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.680 should say, for their videos. So the whole idea was 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.200 this would be a direct way for TikTok stars to 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.560 monetize their work because in the past they really had 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.880 to hustle. Right, they could go viral, but there was 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:26.880 no way to make money off of that unless they 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:31.600 also landed a sponsorship deal with a third party. The 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.600 Creator Fund was meant to be a more direct path 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.240 to monetization, but it didn't get very good reception. Lots 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.640 of creators complained that when they did receive a payout 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.320 it was pennies on the dollar. They were barely making 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.160 any money at all, and it wasn't worth the amount 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.920 of work, nor did it reflect the tremendous number of 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.600 views some of these folks were stacking up. So that 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.440 program is going to go away on December sixteen. However, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:02.200 TikTok does have an alternative in place called the Creativity Program, 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.680 and it sounds to me like it's pretty similar to 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.720 the Creator Fund, except this one is specifically focused on 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.040 longer form videos, stuff that's at least you a longer 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:18.000 than a minute, and I'm not sure if this also 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.640 means that TikTok will be better when it comes to 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.240 storing creator data. It came to light earlier this year 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.960 that some creator financial data, like personally identifying and very 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.480 private financial data of creators, was being stored on servers 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:41.040 in China. This was despite the fact that TikTok representatives 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.480 had been claiming that all that kind of information would 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.320 only be on servers in the United States or in Singapore. 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.880 But Forbes investigated this and found that at least some 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.280 of it was showing up on servers in China, which 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:58.680 is concerning. Sony is following Microsoft's lead by discontinuing the 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.360 PS four and PS fun integrations with x also known 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.160 as Twitter. Microsoft ended integration for the Xbox way back 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.720 in April. Sony has not commented on the reason for 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.320 ending integration with x but if I had to guess, 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.920 I would say it has something to do with X's 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:20.920 change to its API or Application programming interface. So back 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.400 in April, Twitter at that time shut down most of 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.320 the features that were found in the free tier of 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:32.520 its API. Instead, they introduced these very hefty paid tiers 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:38.320 and the enterprise level tier had potentially really hefty price tags. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.160 Wired reported last May that some companies could be looking 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.680 to pay as much as forty two thousand dollars a 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.920 month in order to make use of this enterprise API. So, 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.800 assuming Sony was incurring substantial fees to allow for x integration, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.200 it's no wonder that they've decided to shut it down now. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.720 It's more surprising that it actually stuck around half a 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:05.040 year longer than Xbox did, so that's something. Now. You 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.119 might remember that Epic Games, the maker of the insanely 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.600 popular title Fortnite, got into a massive legal battle with 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.600 Apple regarding how Apple handles payments within iOS. That is 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.280 still not fully resolved because while a judge ruled mostly 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.320 in Apple's favor, the judge did give Epicic some considerations. 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.119 That whole case is now headed toward the US Supreme 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.800 Court to weigh in on it. Meanwhile, Epic is now 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.000 pursuing a similar legal strategy against Google. So, like Apple, 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.600 Google strategy and mobile is to funnel payment options through 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.080 Google itself, and that allows Google to take a commission, 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.399 sometimes as large as thirty percent per payment. Epic argues 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.320 that Google's policies are anti competitive, and that they hurt 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.800 consumers and they drive up prices. Whether the court will 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.439 follow the path that the Apple lawsuit took remains to 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.639 be seen. Complicating matters is the fact that Google is 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.119 currently in the hot seat with the US government in 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:06.200 a much larger antitrust investigation. You know, I've often talked 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.800 about how the way NFTs got rolled out was a 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.760 total disaster that while I don't necessarily think NFT technology 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.920 has no place in the world, the way it has 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:20.800 been introduced was really really dumb. They didn't really amount 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.919 to much more than a digital receipt, despite promises that 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.600 NFTs were going to enable all sorts of interesting implementations. Instead, 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.600 it just became a speculative circus that ultimately ended in disillusionment, 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.720 with the texts reputation suffering a massive and maybe even 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.720 fatal blow. But despite all that, there are still true 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.359 believers out there. Some of them are pretty badly burnt. 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:47.960 And I don't mean that they were burnt by NFT 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:53.400 values crashing. I mean they literally got burnt. You see, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.159 in Hong Kong there was this big event called Apefest, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.320 which was for devotees of the board Ape Yacht Club 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.800 NFTs and while there, a bunch of attendees reported that 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.480 they later suffered really bad pains. Some of them even 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.800 weren't able to see. And while I haven't seen any 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.240 definitive proof about the matter, the speculation is that the 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.240 venue hosting this event was using these powerful UV lights 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.800 as part of its lighting rig and those lights overexposed 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.320 attendees to UV radiation, so they essentially got sun burnt 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.800 inside and they even suffered burns to their eyes. According 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.119 to Jess Weatherbed of The Verge, a totally different event 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.120 in Hong Kong that happened way back in twenty seventeen 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.760 had a similar problem. Folks discovered that the venue was 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.320 using UV lights that were meant to be used to 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.320 disinfect stuff, so they were emitting UV at a much 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.040 higher intensity than say, your average black light. Now, just 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.280 to be real here, I'm wishing everyone affected a swift 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.000 recovery because it just sound it's awful. And that's it 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.160 for the Tech News Today for November seventh, twenty twenty three. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.399 I hope you are all well, and I'll talk to 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:19.560 you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.880 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:30.880 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.