WEBVTT - Tech News: Google's AI Admits it Plagiarizes 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.320 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.919 domind executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech are you. 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.960 It's time for the tech news from March twenty third, 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:28.400 twenty twenty three. Oh wow three two three two two three. 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.880 Sorry got distracted. Okay, let's jump start this episode with 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.400 more AI news stories. The story of twenty twenty three. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.320 So first up, Avraham Pilch of Tom's Hardware wrote an 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:48.560 article titled google Bard plagiarized our article, then apologized when caught. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.680 So google Bard is Google's version of you know, the 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.800 chat box features that are built on top of a 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.720 large language model. It's similar in many ways to chat 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.880 g PT that's incorporated into stuff like bing. Bard is 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.560 currently in beta testing, so it's not openly rolled out 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.559 to everyone. Pilch's article explains that he was testing Bard 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.440 and asking it to compare two different processors against one 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.600 another and to recommend which of the two processors would 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:24.759 be fastest. And Bard generated a response, and Pilch saw 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.960 that some facts looked awfully familiar, and it ended up 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:34.560 being because the information that Bard was referencing originated in 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:39.320 a benchmark test article that was also published on Tom's 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.360 Hardware just a couple of days earlier. So Pilch asked 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.640 Bard for the source of the data, where did you 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.040 get this information. That's when Bard explained it had pulled 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.160 the info from the Tom's Hardware article. And at that 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:57.760 point Pilch essentially asked Bard if that perhaps constituted plagiarism, 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:02.840 and Bard kind of said yeah. And this is just 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.320 one of the concerns folks have about chat bot AI 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.280 tools like Barred and chat gpt, that they could pull 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.560 data from sources without giving credit, and that both denies 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:19.120 the original creator of that content any recognition or ability 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.800 to monetize their work, and it also makes it difficult 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.639 to fact check the answers. You know, the information has 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.240 to be coming from somewhere. These AI chat bots are 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:35.120 assembling answers based off available information. They're not just inventing it, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.480 they're not just lying. In other words, but you don't 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.720 necessarily know where they're pulling that information from, and that 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.200 means not only that it may or may not be trustworthy, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.440 but also that someone somewhere is getting the short end 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.440 of the stick. They generated that content, and yet you 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.280 know they're not being compensated for that, right. So it 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.480 reminds me of how content creators were really worried when 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.280 Google would start to include short descriptions on a search 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.440 result page that could potentially negate the need to click 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.000 through to an actual page on that topic, thus denying 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.360 those pages of views and ad revenue. Why would you 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.160 write stuff for the web if that stuff ends up 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:23.600 being appropriated by some AI chatbot and then regurgitated to 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.360 users who never see your actual article, and thus the 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.080 website never gets any visitors, and eventually the website stops 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.360 employing you because they can't afford to do it. Like 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:41.160 it just becomes this kind of self defeating cycle. But anyway, 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.400 go check out the full article on Tom's hardware. Again, 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.640 it's called Google bard plagiarize our article, then apologized when 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.040 caught because I actually do believe in sending people to 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.280 the proper sources. James Vincent of The Verge has a 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.440 different warning relating to AI chat I can't actually give 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:06.240 you the full title of the article because it ends 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.600 with some profanity, but I'll give you most of the 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.760 title of the article. It's called Google and Microsoft's chat 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:18.360 bots are already citing one another in a misinformation insert 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.960 profanity here. It's a kind of storm, I'll say. In 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.440 the article, Vincent mentions a peculiar series of responses that 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.640 when one asked Microsoft Bing if Google had shut down 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.760 It's Bard chat bot, then Bing would say yes. Essentially, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.440 Bing would say yes, Bard has been shut down by Google. 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.320 Now as evidence, Bing was citing a tweet in which 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.720 someone said that they had asked Bard when Bard would 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.520 get shut down, and Bard claimed it already had been. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.080 So where was Bard getting this information, because clearly that's 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.640 not true, right, Bard was answering the person, so it 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.320 could not have been shut down. Well, Bard was pulling 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.279 its information from a joke that someone left in the 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.920 comment section of a Hacker news piece, and then someone 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.440 else had taken that joke and generated a chat GPT 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.280 article around it, like they actually gave that chat gpt 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.320 to write an article about Bard being shut down by Google. Again, 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.000 this is all a joke at this point, but Bard 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.240 cites this joke as if it's an actual news item. 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.200 This tweet talks about how Bard said that it was 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.040 already shut down, and then Being says yeah, Bard's been 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.240 shut down because it's citing the tweet. So again, this 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:42.440 really makes a very salient point about you know, this 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.599 goofy little tweet ended up being used as if it 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:51.680 were reliable hard news information, and that AI chatbots aren't 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:56.800 capable of telling the truth from humor, or, lies or satire. 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.799 That you could end up asking these chatbots a question. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.159 It is entirely possible that they might reference a site 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.680 like The Onion, for example, and the Onion is a 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:11.400 satire humor website, like it's meant to write articles that 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:16.320 are not true for the purposes of humor, and the 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.440 answer you get from AI would probably be interesting, but 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.640 it would not be reliable. Goodness knows, there are already 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.600 tons of sites out there that claim to be satire. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.120 Usually this claim is hidden in a little about page 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.520 somewhere that makes it really hard to tell at first. 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.960 Like I've seen so many, not as many these days 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.200 as maybe five years ago, but man, I used to 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.279 come across them all the time. And in reality, these 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.440 websites only existed to publish fake news that would then 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:52.359 go viral on various social platforms. So if you dug 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.000 down deep enough you would find some disclaimer on the 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.279 website somewhere saying this is meant for entertainment and satire. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.839 It wasn't satire, it was just lies because it wasn't 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.600 humorous at all. It wasn't presented to be humor or 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.640 to give any insight. It was just meant to go viral. Well, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.840 AI chatbots don't know necessarily that that kind of content 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.440 isn't reliable and could present it as such. So yeah, 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:23.960 another example of how chatbots can give us some misleading information. 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.800 Not all uses of AI are bad, of course, you 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.960 be soft. The video Game Company released a video showing 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:36.360 off an AI tool called ghost Writer Write Her, not 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.120 ghost writer as in the Biker with a Skull flaming 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.360 Skull for ahead. So ghost Writer aims to make the 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.920 tedious task of generating background chatter for NPCs in games 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.000 and automated task. So if you've played any open world 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.600 style games, you're probably familiar with hearing NPC's holding conversations 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.119 around you, or maybe even commenting on your appearance as 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.360 you move into view. Even if you haven't played a 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.600 lot of games, chances are you've heard people reference the 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:12.200 iconic line from Skyrim. I used to be an adventurer 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.680 like you, then I took an arrow to the knee. Well, 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.400 someone has to write all these little lines of NPC 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.480 dialogue like that. Someone's job is to flesh out a 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:27.360 world by writing all these possible lines that people could 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.400 say in the background, some that players may never even 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.240 consciously register. It's just chatter in the background. So it 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.280 can get pretty dull, particularly if you're trying to work 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.880 in enough variety to make the world feel like it's 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.880 inhabited by actual people and you don't have everyone just 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.360 saying rhubarb, rhubarb in the background. So what ghostwriter does 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.800 is helped generate variations of dialogue options, so you can 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.400 kind of put in a line and it will start 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.920 to use tools to express the same thought but in 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.800 different ways, and you can actually go through and edit 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.719 the responses so that way, if there are any grammatical 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.480 mistakes or anything like that, you can fix them. You 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:16.440 can accept or reject suggestions, and over time, ghost writer 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.640 gets better at learning what it is you're trying to do, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.600 and it starts to give you better suggestions the next 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.280 time you use it to generate stuff. This gives writers 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.440 the chance to flesh out their game much more quickly 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.959 and dedicate more of their efforts and their brain power 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.679 and creativity to writing the stuff that really matters and 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:41.240 helps drive the game's narrative forward. I think it's pretty cool, though. 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.400 I kind of want to have a game now where 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.760 your character passes into a world that's just populated by 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.480 NPCs from all sorts of different games. You know, kind 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.400 of like if Central Casting had been in charge of 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.360 everything and they just grabbed anyone they could and shove there, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.840 and it's all random INPCS. So you've got fantasy and 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.000 you know, modern day crime in PCs, all sorts of stuff, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.760 all just intermingling and trying to have conversations, and you 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.240 start to hear these iconic in PC lines from all 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.160 the different famous games out there as you move through 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:17.319 the area. Someone make that for me. Okay, I've got 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:19.720 a lot more stories to cover before we get to those. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:32.240 Let's take a quick break. Okay, we're back. Let's shift 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:37.360 to talk about TikTok So she Too, the CEO of TikTok, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.840 submitted testimony in advance of his appearance before Congress, which 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:45.400 is happening as I record this episode. He's currently in 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.080 front of Congress to answer questions about TikTok as the 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:53.960 US government ramps up resistance to the app and the company. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.560 So in the testimony he submitted, Cho claims that the 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:02.199 average US user of TikTok is quote an adult well 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:06.240 passed college end quote. This was reported in Insider. The 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:10.600 Insider piece also cites a sales presentation within TikTok that 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.040 leaked in twenty twenty one and said that around seventeen 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.640 percent of users were between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.160 and forty two percent were between eighteen to twenty four. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.760 And you might think, well, why does this even matter. Well, 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.120 some of the arguments that politicians have made against TikTok 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.959 focus on how the app can promote harmful messages, particularly 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.959 to younger users, and that this can range from misinformation 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.520 to glorifying self harm to encouraging people to participate in 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.520 dangerous viral challenges. Now, I suppose if TikTok were to say, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.400 but the people who use our app are actually older 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.880 than that, that it's not that many kids, it's mostly adults. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.679 That I suppose removes a tiny bit of the oath 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.160 behind the argument that TikTok is bad for kids. But 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.720 I mean if it is true, then that is super 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.480 bad news for Meta because for the last couple of years, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.760 Meta has looked at platforms like TikTok and also to 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.200 others like Snapchat as dangerous competition. That's where the young 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.800 people were going to instead of to Meta. And meanwhile, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.600 Meta's user base is aging, but there are fewer young 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.040 people coming in, which is bad for long term success 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.320 for the platform. But if it turns out that TikTok 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.000 is not the place where young people are going, then 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.560 who the heck is Meta gonna copy in order to 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.520 try and get those users. Anyway, I'm certain Congress will 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.160 have plenty of other concerns they want to addressed. In fact, 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.920 I know they do because I dipped in just briefly 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.840 to watch a little bit of the hearing. They really 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.280 want to know more about things that honestly, TikTok has 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.600 tried to address multiple times in the past, namely the 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.679 company's relationship to its Chinese parent company Byte Dance and 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:59.079 then bitte Dances, obligations to the Chinese government, and whether 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.480 or not TikTok is actually keeping safe you know, private 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.679 information and that kind of stuff, or if it's just 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:11.560 acting as a data siphon for China. You know again, 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.360 TikTok reps repeatedly have said that they have taken steps 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.960 to prevent that kind of stuff from happening. But those 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.920 excuses or reasons, however you want to look at it 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:29.160 continued to raise skepticism in US government quarters. Yeah, it's 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.400 a complicated thing, and I'm sure I'll talk more about 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.040 this probably next week when we have heard all the 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:37.560 outcomes of this hearing. ABC News reports that the US 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:43.560 Securities in Exchange Commission, or SEC, is going after Justin Sun, 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:49.080 a cryptocurrency company founder who the SEC claims was transferring 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:54.080 large amounts of specific cryptocurrency tokens back and forth between 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.160 two different wallets that he owned. So they were both 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.640 his wallets, and he was just transferring large amounts back 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.040 and forth again and again. So why would he do that? 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.280 While according to the SEC, it was an effort to 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.560 inflate the trading volume of the tokens, but to do 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:13.880 so artificially. So, in other words, if someone from the 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:19.040 outside's looking in says, oh wow, are these tokens are 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.200 being traded back and forth a lot? This is actually 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:25.880 being actively used as a currency that helps stabilize the 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.200 value of the tokens because people have a confidence in 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.080 that token for it to hold onto that value if 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.400 in fact it's being actively used and not just hoarded 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.480 or sold off. And it also gave sound the ability 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:44.720 to try and offload stuff without it impacting the value 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.200 of the tokens itself. So that's what the SEC was saying, 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:53.400 that he was manipulating the system in order to profit 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.560 off of it. He was fixing the game. In other words, 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.360 there's another charge as well that enlisted the help of 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:07.560 celebrities to endorse these various cryptocurrency tokens, but there was 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.840 no attempt to divulge the fact that they were being 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.479 paid to do this. So, in other words, the celebrities 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.440 were coming across as if they had just personally researched 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:23.760 this cryptocurrency and that they were engaged with it on 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.840 their own and they were promoting it because they thought 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.240 it was really cool, as opposed to, hey, i've partnered 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.320 with such and such and they make this thing and 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.840 you should check it out right. So there are very 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.120 specific rules that are in place for endorsements. You have 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.640 to divulge the relationship you have with a sponsor. If 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.680 you are an endorser. You're being paid to endorse something, 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.640 you have to make it clear to people. Otherwise it's 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.640 considered a type of false advertising because it gives the 0:15:55.640 --> 0:16:00.680 appearance that you are independently excited about this product that 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:02.560 you might not have even heard of had it not 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.320 been for this relationship. So that's a big no no 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.040 here in the US is not acknowledging that there was 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:13.360 payment exchange for that endorsement. Some of the celebrities named 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.760 in the operation have already agreed to hand back the 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.320 money that they had been paid to endorse the crypto 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.840 tokens in the first place. There are a couple of 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.280 holdouts whom I expect will discover the government would very 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.960 much like to have a talk with them. I haven't 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.560 covered stories about tech companies cracking down on remote work 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.560 for a while, largely because a lot of the big 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.360 companies have essentially put in tough restrictions or have just 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:41.600 outright denied work from home approaches, but platformers Zoe Schiffer 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.840 reports that Apple is taking steps to keep tabs on 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.680 employees to make sure they come in at least three 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:52.640 times per week by monitoring their employee badge activity, so 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.960 like a security padge when you tap in or in 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.520 some cases out of a building. I don't know if 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.920 Apple requires you to tap in and out. I remember 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.160 back in the day Discovery did, which became a big 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.919 deal because we when we would visit Discovery back when 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.760 I was part of How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.879 got acquired by Discovery for a while, How Stuff Works 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:19.560 still had security, but a less thorough security approach where 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:21.840 let's say that I was arriving at the office with 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.080 my arch nemesis Ben Bolin, I might tap in and 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.120 then both of us just walk in. At Discovery, each 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.000 person was required to tap in in sequence. Like it 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:33.960 didn't matter if you all arrived at the building in 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.040 a big group, you each had to tap in. I 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.200 assume Apple is the same way. So now, according to Schiffer, 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.600 Apple is tracking that data and if someone is not 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.160 tapping in and out three times per week, they get 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.000 a warning, and if they do it again, they get 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:55.720 an escalating warning, which presumably ultimately leads to some form 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:01.000 of reprisal. So that's fun. Nothing like being monitored at work. 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:06.760 It's the best really helps drive up productivity. Now, I 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.960 will say that my guess is that in the current 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:14.280 work environment where you have so many big companies laying 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.520 off thousands of employees. I mean, I think even indeed, 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.240 a company that's meant to help people find the right 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.000 kind of staff, they laid off a couple of thousand 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:28.440 people recently, like fifteen percent of their staff. When that's 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.199 the kind of lay of the land, I imagine there 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.200 are a lot of employees who don't feel comfortable advocating 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.160 for remote work solutions, and so they will do their 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.080 best to conform with these kinds of policies where you 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.440 have to come in a certain number of times per week. 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.760 But yeah, it's not a good luck. But again, the 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:51.879 work environment being what it is, I don't know that 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.439 people feel like they have a lot of alternatives. The 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.280 United States Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is really stepping 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.760 up recently. The reason I say that is that the 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:06.480 Verge reports that the FTC is saying subscriptions should be 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.520 just as easy to cancel as they are to initiate. Now, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.720 I'm sure a lot of you have encountered the experience 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:18.280 of needing to cancel a subscribe service. Maybe it's your ISP, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.520 maybe it's a phone plan, maybe it's a streaming subscription, 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:27.400 or Heaven help you, it's a gym membership, and you've 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.360 probably encountered a situation where you had to go through 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.080 like a wild goose chase just to get out of 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.720 this stupid subscription. I'm actually reminded of when Ryan Block 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.639 tried to cancel his service with Comcast and he was 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.800 put through a ridiculous routine which he recorded and then 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.320 later shared online back in twenty fourteen, and just as 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.280 a personal anecdote, when that story broke, I read about it. 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.800 They didn't initially identify it as Ryan Block, so I 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.040 read it and it's like, oh man, this poor this 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.879 poor guy. He was really just run up the wall 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.720 with the sales representative. I can't believe it. And then 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.719 when I found out who it was, I laughed and 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.480 laughed because I don't know Ryan personally, but I've known 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.520 his wife for like a decade, So when I found 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.200 out it was happening to someone you know that I 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:23.000 kind of know, it got particularly absurd to me. Anyway, 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.800 the FTC wants that kind of stuff to be buried 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.520 in the past and for companies to adopt a click 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.439 to cancel policy that makes getting out of a subscription 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.959 way less of a hassle. It's supposed to be just 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.080 as easy to end a subscription as it is to 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.840 start one. And since I don't think companies are going 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.080 to win to make it more challenging to sign up 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.439 for a service. You know, the harder it is for 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:49.359 you to join a service, the less likely you're going 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.960 to do it. Like you might be convinced at first, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.840 Oh yeah, no, that doesn't sound bad, I'm in. But 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.240 if you start to see there's a curve, like a 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.199 barrier to entry, you might bounce. Those people don't want that, Like, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.320 they want you to be as committed as you possibly 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.600 can be to the point where you are actually hooked in. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:10.640 So they're not going to make signing up more complicated, 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.400 but it does mean that they have to make it 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.040 less complicated to cancel out of something. It would also 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.679 mean that companies that use various incentives to try and 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.600 keep customers on board would have to offer some sort 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.760 of total opt out pathway for people who just don't 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.840 have the time to listen to that kind of pitch. 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.439 So again, if you ever tried to cancel out of 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.560 a phone plan, you probably heard well, you know, if 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.000 you decide to resign with us will give you blah 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.480 blah blah blah blah blah blah this new set of rules. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.080 Say no, no, no. You can just say right off 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.520 the top, I'm not interested in hearing any other offers. 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.720 I just want out. However, this particular set of rules 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:53.679 would not apply to non commercial services, so stuff like 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:58.680 charitable donations or political donations those would not necessarily get 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:02.080 covered by these rules. The proposal received a three to 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.160 one vote in the FTC. The one person who voted 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.600 against it is the Loan Republican member of the FTC board. 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.159 But it's still going to be open for public comment, 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.479 so people can actually weigh in on what they think first, 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:20.919 and that'll all happen before the FTC can adopt the rules, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:25.560 which they may end up changing before they adopt. Also, 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.119 the FTC itself would not actually be taking action against 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.879 companies that failed to comply with these rules. Instead, the 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.919 rules would give regulators the ability to enforce them, So essentially, 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:40.919 it's saying regulators who are already in charge of enforcing 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:44.159 other rules for companies would just have new rules that 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.400 they could continue to enforce. So pretty good news if 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.520 you have ever suffered the experience of having to try 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.640 and cancel out a something that was designed to make 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.520 it very hard to do that. Okay, got a few 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.760 more stories to go, but before we get to that, 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:11.480 take another quick break. Before the break, we were talking 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:15.280 about the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission. Now let's talk 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:21.040 about the FCC or Federal Communications Commission. It is taking 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:25.439 aim against spam text messages the same way that the 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.600 agency targeted robocalls a couple of years ago. So if 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:32.200 you're in the US, you might remember that the FCC 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:37.320 passed rules for telecom companies to shut down robo calls 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:41.480 whenever possible. It actually led to one network getting shut 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.640 out of the American telecommunications infrastructure where they weren't able 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:49.040 to interface with any other telephone network because they were 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.920 failing to shut those down. So that was a fair success. 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:58.320 I mean, I still get robocalls, so I don't think 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.960 it was a total success, but it definitely has cut 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:06.840 back on that activity. Now they want to do the 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:09.920 same thing but for spam text messages. So the new 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.000 rule says that phone companies will have to block text 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:19.639 messages originating from quote invalid, unallocated or underused end quote 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:22.640 phone numbers. So if it's a phone number that has 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:26.919 been associated with spam, then the phone company should just 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:31.600 block those text messages as a rule of thumb. The 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:37.040 vote passed unanimously within the FCC, So that makes sense 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.639 because there have been a lot of reports of fraud 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:42.280 connecting to spammy text messages that have been on the 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:44.399 rise in recent years, and so there's a real need 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:50.320 to protect the public from scam artists and people who 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:53.960 are you know, trying to fish for data that kind 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:56.760 of thing. And you know, some people are really really 0:24:56.840 --> 0:25:01.160 vulnerable to that, particularly the older generation tend to be 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:06.360 more susceptible to those kinds of attacks. So yeah, I'm 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:11.400 glad to see this happening as well. I honestly remember 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:14.720 a time where I would get a phone call that 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:17.479 you know, obviously I wouldn't answer it. I would go 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:20.840 online and try and search up the number to a 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.360