WEBVTT - Tech News: X Marks the Spot (For Disinformation) 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.079 welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.720 an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech are you? 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.720 It is time for the tech news for October tenth, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:29.200 twenty twenty three, or ten ten twenty three, or if 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.920 you're in the UK, ten ten twenty three. Let's start 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:39.360 off with a bunch of X news that is not 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.760 stuff that used to be news but isn't news anymore, 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.760 Not that kind of X news. I'm talking about news 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.400 about X formerly known as Twitter. We've got a bunch 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.200 of stories about it. So first up is one about 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:58.200 misinformation and disturbing content. So during times of turmoil, we 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.960 tend to see a lot more misinformation and outright disinformation 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.959 flood social media platforms. That's kind of par for the course. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.160 That is the case. As Israel has gone to war 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.720 with Hamas, it should come as no surprise that this 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.720 war brings with it numerous instances of falsehoods and misleading 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.120 information spreading online across all different platforms. Even in the 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.440 pre elon Musk days, Twitter would have to step up 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.600 to deal with this sort of thing. But right Now 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:32.560 it's even harder because Musk's X has famously made severe 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.400 job cuts to the content moderation teams. In fact, most 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.120 reports say that those teams are effectively just gone that 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.280 you might as well just say there is no content 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.600 moderation team at X at this point, because it's it's 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.160 been whittled down so much so that means there's not 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.440 really a dedicated team in place to handle a crisis 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.040 like this, and that means that these instances of misinformation 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.559 and disinformation and disturbing matter can proliferate with very few 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:07.160 checks to prevent it from happening. Making matters more complicated 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.080 are the various changes Musk has made to X in 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.480 recent weeks. So, for example, he decided that article headlines 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.400 really mess with the esthetic he's going for. So now 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.680 when you post an article on X, it shows the 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.799 lead image and maybe a small blurb, but you don't 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.080 get a headline. You don't get information about what the 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.320 article is about, which makes it harder for reporters to 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.440 actually get their stories out on X and have people 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.720 read it, because those images don't necessarily convey the information 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.680 that tells folks why they should read a particular story 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.520 for outlets that haven't bowed to Musk's demand that they 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.119 pay for a verification check, their reach has been sort 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.040 of artificially limited, or maybe you could argue that if 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.920 they paid for the verification their reach would be boosted. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:04.800 Musk also hasn't helped matters because he has this awful 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:09.040 tendency to promote accounts that have been linked to misinformation 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.120 in the past, including one that has posted outright antisemitic messaging. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.560 So you can imagine in a war between Israel and Hamas, 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.799 that's going to have some repercussions. Now, you contrast this 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.480 with the role that Twitter played, say back during the 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.359 Arab Spring in the early twenty tens. Back then, people 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.160 were able to use Twitter to communicate, they used it 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.840 to organize, They used it to make sure aid was 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.400 getting to places where it was needed and that you know, 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.680 emergency services could could respond to the right place, and 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.440 you know, it played a pivotal role in that particular, 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.040 you know, very important political event. But with the chaotic 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.480 mess that is X today, it's a very different story. 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:59.440 X's algorithm promotes posts that drive engagement, and unfortunately those 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.160 posts often include ones with wildly inaccurate or false claims 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.760 as well as disturbing imagery via photos or videos. It's 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.600 enough to have some open source intelligence experts or osi 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.800 in T experts say that x is essentially a lost 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.760 cause for their line of work because of the sheer 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.960 volume of disinformation present on the platform. You'd be spending 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:27.240 all your time trying to verify a point of information. Meanwhile, 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.920 floods of more posts are coming in and you would 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.240 never be able to get to a point where you 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.480 actually know what's going on. So a lot of people 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.960 are saying like it's just not even worth it to 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:44.480 try and vet information on the former Twitter right now. Meanwhile, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.040 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC, has 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.760 sued Elon Musk again. So you might wonder why. Well, 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.680 back in May of this year, the SEC served a 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.480 subpoena to Musk to compel him to appear for the 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:05.280 SEC and provide testimony with regard to his acquisition of Twitter. 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.240 So the SEC is concerned that some people may have 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.880 committed securities fraud during the whole Twitter acquisition process. So 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.600 this is an investigation into the acquisition and the deals 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.400 that surrounded it, looking to see if any illegal activity 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.200 was included in that Musk was supposed to appear before 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.479 the SEC back in September, but he protested it and 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.680 then he didn't show up. So now the SEC has 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.960 sued Musk in an effort to compel him to provide testimony. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.400 This is not the first time the SEC and Musk 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.159 have clashed, not by a long shot. Musk has earned 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.440 a reputation as a sort of a bad boy in 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.040 the eyes of the SEC. So back in twenty eighteen, 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.720 Musk posted to you know, Twitter that he had secured 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.640 funding that would take the company Tesla private at the 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.880 staggering price of four hundred and twenty dollars per share. 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.880 Now this was probably in part a weed joke, a 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.000 bad one. Musk has a certain fixation associated with Mary 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.520 Jane as well as the letter X. But the SEC 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.679 takes this kind of stuff seriously because if the chairman 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.360 of the board of directors for a company claims that 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.960 the company has secured enough funding to go private and 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.440 then doesn't do that, what it looks like is market manipulation. 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.640 Because think about it. If Tesla's shares were trading a 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.760 I don't know, let's say Tesla shares were trading at 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.400 three hundred dollars per share, but the chairman of the 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.839 board announces that they've secured funding to take Tesla private 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.760 at four hundred twenty dollars per share. Well, let's say 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:42.600 you're not an investor. You might think I need to 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.000 sink as much money as I possibly can into Tesla 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.720 right now because there's going to be a buyout, and 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.960 that means like one hundred and twenty dollars on top 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:51.520 of what I'm paying right now, So I need to 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.680 buy as many shares as possible. This ends up being 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:59.479 a rush in investment, which drives stock prices up. But 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.279 if there's no deal there, well that just means that 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.800 the chairman manipulated the stock price of their own company. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.520 That's a huge no no. So the SEC filed a 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.240 lawsuit against Musk. Eventually, Musk and the SEC settled out 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.360 of court. Musk had to pay twenty million dollars and 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.720 he was told to step down as the chair of 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.280 Tesla's board and also to agree to not do that 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.600 kind of thing again. He did later contest this and 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:32.160 argue that he was he was forced into this agreement 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.640 and that it was all an infringement upon his free speech. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.720 You know, Elon Musk is very, very very concerned about 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.720 free speech when it applies to him, for a guy 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.840 who frequently holds the title of the wealthiest person in 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.680 the world. Honestly, the SEC fine was a slap on 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.720 the wrist. This new lawsuit really just comes down to 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.160 making Musk testify in front of the SEC. And since 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.280 the SEC has legitimate power to subpoena people, the general 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.680 wisdom is that Musk eventually will have to do it 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.920 because there's not really a legal reason why he could 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.680 have it thrown out. Now, we're not done with X 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.680 just yet. The platform also has a new feature for 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.160 those who subscribe and they get that little verification check. Now, 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.040 a verified account holder can restrict posts so that only 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.040 other verified accounts can reply to those posts. So if 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.920 you don't have a verified account, well then your input 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.280 is not welcome there. You do not get to be 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.600 part of the discourse. Ya free speech. Musk says that 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.319 the control should help with spam bots, which could actually 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.440 be a thing. And to be fair to X and 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.520 to Musk, I'm being very very snarky here, but let's 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.000 be honest. Twitter has actually done similar things in the past. 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.760 It's not like this is totally new. It wasn't a 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.640 verification thing. But back in twenty twenty, Twitter introduced a 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.080 feature that would let you limit replies to your post 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.199 to just accounts that you follow, So you could say, 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.760 all right, only people that I follow can reply to this, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.520 so you cut out all the trolls and stuff, unless 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.240 you're following a lot of trolls, I guess. So if 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.480 you were really active on Twitter, but you were only 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.800 interested in having a discussion with the people that you 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.080 are following, then you could do that. Or you could 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.920 limit the replies so that only accounts that were mentioned 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.800 in the original tweet could reply, So it becomes more 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.800 of an actual one on one conversation that just happens 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.560 to be publicly viewable. So I do get a little 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.200 snarky about this where it turns into a paid for feature, 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:35.360 but it's not exactly unprecedented, so I'm not that head 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.080 up about it. It does seem to me like it's 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.400 another tactic to try and drive users to subscribe to 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:45.520 get that verified status. And rounding out our ex news 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.320 block is that Linda Yakarino, the CEO of X, canceled 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.960 her appearance at the tech Live conference, which is happening 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.000 next week. So tech Live is a Wall Street Journal 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.200 hosted event, and the Akarino was scheduled to speak there, 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.320 but X sent the Journal a statement saying, quote, Linda 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.719 Yakarina will be unable to attend the WSJ tech Live 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.360 conference next week. With the global crisis unfolding, Linda and 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.520 her team must remain fully focused on X end quote. 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.800 Presumably the global crisis alluded to is this war between 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.240 Israel and Hamas, and now X has been inundated with 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.400 horrific and misleading material. Certainly it would have been difficult 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.199 to field the pointed questions that attendees might have had 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.080 for X's CEO. The Verge points out that when she 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:41.079 attended their Code conference, she quote deflected most questions in quote, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.920 so I imagine she wasn't keen to repeat that experience 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.640 in an even more critical setting. I do hope that 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:52.520 X's response to the crisis involves re establishing a content 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.720 moderation team and strategy. While I am very much an 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:01.800 outspoken critic of Elon Musk and X, it's not that 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.040 I want to see the platform fail. I would much 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:09.240 rather see it improve and to make some decisions that 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.720 end up demonstrably improving the service and protecting the people 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.680 who use it and making it useful for as many 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.240 people as possible. I just very much have the opinion 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.800 that that has not been the direction of the company 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.679 for the past year. Really, Okay, we're going to take 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:29.360 a quick break. When we come back, we've got some 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:41.280 more tech news to talk about. We're back. So I 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.040 mentioned in a previous tech News episode that the US 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.880 Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has put net neutrality back 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.920 on the table. This was something that was a big 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.440 deal during Obama's administration and then got tossed out during 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.480 Trump's administration, and now it's coming background again. So ours 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.319 TETNACA has a great article titled net Neutrality's court fate 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:10.600 depends upon whether broadband is telecommunications? Okay, so y'all. This 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.400 gets a bit frustrating because it mostly ends up being 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.959 about how we define things, and arguably this ultimately becomes 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.199 an arbitrary distinction, right that we call something one thing 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:27.240 versus another thing. And yet that arbitrary distinction can determine 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.160 if the FCC actually has authority to reinstate net neutrality 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.080 or not. The gist of it is that any move 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.400 by the FCC to regulate Internet service providers is likely 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.439 to result in lawsuits against the FCC brought by those 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.480 same ISPs that all contend that the FCC doesn't actually 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.280 have the authority to make those regulations. And this all 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.400 has to do with the classification of broadband services. If 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:01.120 you classify them as a telecommunications service, then that means 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.480 they fall under Title I of the Communications Act, and 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.000 the FCC has authority to regulate that industry. They would 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.559 count as common carriers, so they'd have to follow certain rules, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.960 and the FCC would have the authority to enforce those rules, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.839 or at least to make those rules, and then you 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:24.800 have other elements of the government enforce them. But right now, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:31.000 the ISP broadband industry tends to fall under the classification 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.600 of information services. This was something that was created back 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.720 when the Communications Act was being hashed out out of 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.359 concern that if you were to heavily regulate a new industry, 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:48.120 that of Internet service providers, it could end up hurting 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.080 innovation and adoption, and so, in an effort to avoid that, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.640 these were called information services, not telecommunication services. So the 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:01.600 argument now is that these companies are far more than 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.160 just an information services company. It is a telecommunications company, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.960 and thus it should be classified as such, and the 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.560 FCC would have authority. Obviously, the companies would oppose that. 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.880 They would much prefer to operate without that regulatory authority 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.080 over them. In fact, a lot of the companies are 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.360 also telecommunications companies, like they have a telecommunications business on 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.360 top of their ISP business, and yeah, I mean they 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.480 already have the experience of working under regulations, so they 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.920 would much prefer it if they didn't have to do that. 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.600 There was a recent report that stated that the FCC 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:44.000 may end up facing a reversal from the Supreme Court 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.760 if they were to attempt to assert this authority, saying 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.760 that the Supreme Court's conservative makeup at this point means 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:59.080 that more than likely it would be overturned. However, Ours 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.320 Technica piece men that the legal experts who wrote this 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.840 were paid by the broadband industry, or at least a 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.080 couple of companies that are broadband companies, So you could 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.200 argue that maybe there's a bit of poisoning the well 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.920 going on here. Anyway, it should come as no surprise 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.160 that we're seeing opposition from ISPs to this move. It 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.040 pretty much comes with the territory, so we'll have to 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.880 keep an eye on this and see how it develops. 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.200 I'm somewhat skeptical that it would go all the way 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.560 to the Supreme Court. The court would have to choose 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.320 to take out the argument, and I don't know that 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.360 it would, so I think that it is possible that 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.360 that report that was written was somewhat alarmist and meant 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:47.480 to try and dissuade the FCC from pursuing this line 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.200 of action in the first place. But we'll have to see. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.120 A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how the 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.960 video game development world had turned on the company Unity. 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.359 Unity makes a popular, or at least a formerly popular 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.840 game engine. So you can think of a game engine 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.480 as a set of tools that game developers can use 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.640 when they're building out the game that they want to make. 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.000 So the developers don't have to create everything from scratch 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.360 because they have this set of tools they can use. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.320 And as long as the set of tools supports whatever 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.960 the gameplay is that the developers have in mind, everything 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.440 can go fairly smoothly. I mean, there'll always be hiccups 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.400 and development, but you don't have to create everything from 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:34.760 scratch anyway. Not too long ago, Unity changed its policy 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.280 and said it would start charging developers what amounts to 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:44.400 royalties as defined by installations. So, in other words, at 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.320 a certain point, when someone installs a game that runs 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.760 on Unity, that counts toward the royalties, and developers will 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.000 have to pay Unity a certain amount of money for 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:02.280 that installation. Initial Unity was saying they would count every 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.719 single installation, which means that if you, as a player, 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.800 installed a game, then you uninstalled it, then you installed 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.600 it again, then that would count as two installations. So 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.880 if you really hated a game company, ironically you could 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.159 hurt it by buying a copy of their game, installing it, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.159 uninstalling it, and doing it again and again, over and 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.280 over and over again, because that would mean that the 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.200 company would have to pay out the royalties for each 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:32.240 of those installations. Now, eventually Unity walked that back and 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.960 then said, okay, well, we'll only count it for the 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.959 first install per device. So if someone installs it on 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.600 like eighteen computers, that will still count as eighteen installations. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.800 But if then they were to uninstall and reinstall, those 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.080 would not count as additional ones. On top of that, 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:54.399 this still created a big kerfuffle in the game development world. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.000 It flew in the face of Unity's earlier philosophy, like 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.560 Unity had made a fairly big deal that they weren't 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:07.320 going to charge for installations or sales of games or whatever, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.960 that there would just be kind of a flat fee 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.760 that you would pay for a certain level of access 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.040 to the Unity Engine and development tools, editing tools, that 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.280 kind of thing. So there was this big negative reaction 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.800 in the game development world. And now the CEO of Unity, 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.959 a guy named John riche Tello, has become the former 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.959 CEO of Unity. He resigned from the company in a 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.760 fairly sudden move, and now a guy named James M. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.600 Whitehurst is serving as the interim CEO and president of 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.720 Unity while the company searches for a permanent replacement. How 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:47.960 this is going to affect Unity in the long haul, 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.119 obviously remains to be seen. I'm not sure how the 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.679 game development community will respond. I know that there was 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.760 a lot of trust lost as a result of this 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.359 recent change, so I think it's going to take a 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.240 lot of work to repair those relationships. And I don't 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.439 know how that meshes with the company's business strategy. Right, Like, 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:14.320 if the business strategy depends upon pursuing this kind of 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:20.040 revenue generation approach, then it's gonna be an uphill battle 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.720 to repair those relationships. And now for a tiny bit 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:29.040 of possible generative AI news, the jury's still out a 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.240 little bit. As befitting the god of mischief, the Verge 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.119 reports that a promotional poster for season two of the 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.680 Low Key series on Disney Plus may have been made 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:45.560 at least in part by Generative AI. Further, it appears 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.760 that the poster is using a stock image from Shutterstock 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:55.080 as the background, so it's this background image that is 0:19:55.200 --> 0:20:00.359 presumably created through generative AI. The image in question appears 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:06.080 to be called Surreal Infinity Time Spiral Space Antique, a 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.160 great name, and the details in the image have some 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.719 of the tailtale signs of generative AI, like some like 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.160 superfluous little scribble marks and stuff that make it look 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.720 like it might have been created by AI, which can 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.680 get a little messy when it's making stuff like little 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.240 details can end up being kind of messy when you 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.240 look at it very closely. Now, this is a problem 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.280 not necessarily for Disney, which, as far as I know, 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:37.520 follow the rules for this stock image like you can 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.200 purchase stock images for commercial use if you have the 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.080 right license, and as far as I know, Disney did 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.680 all of that. But Shutterstock has a policy that does 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.800 not allow for AI generated images on the platform unless 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.240 they were created through the platform's own AI generative tool. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.560 And you might think, well, that seems like gatekeeping, but 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.840 really it's to ensure a chain of IP ownership, because 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.000 things get really complicated. This is a brave new world 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.560 of AI generated content. So let's say you got an artist. 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:15.000 This artist uses some other generative AI tool to help 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.840 create their image. They do some work themselves, the AI 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.239 generative tool does some of the work. Then they end 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.720 up submitting that image to shutter Stock, and shutter Stock 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.920 puts it up in its marketplace. Well, there could potentially 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.320 be a very messy disagreement as to who or what 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:38.840 actually owns the IP of that image. So you could 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.399 make the argument that the artist who submits that image 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.240 to shutter Stock might not technically have the legal right 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:49.000 to do it because this other generative AI tool took 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:53.360 part in making that image. It's all very muddy, right. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.520 It's indicative of how generative AI makes stuff like intellectual 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:03.200 property and copyright and trademarks and all of these related subjects. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.600 It makes them much more complicated than they already were. 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.920 And then there's the issue of human artists, right, who 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.959 are number one, concerned that work that normally would go 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.560 to a person is at least in part being handled 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:23.280 by algorithms, and that number two, those algorithms require training 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:27.760 material in order to work, right, So the portfolios from 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:31.560 human artists are in a way being used to help 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:36.800 eliminate work for those human artists. Disney hasn't commented on 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.320 any of this so far, and you know, you could 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:44.159 argue that maybe Disney didn't know that it was an 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.120 AI generated image. See when it's on Shutterstock and it's 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:52.280 being used through the actual AI tool on Shutterstock, the 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:55.800 image gets a label that indicates that it was at 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.639 least in part AI generated, so you don't you're not 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:04.000 caught surprise when you're looking at Shutterstock's own library of 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.959 AI generated images. But this one didn't have that. It 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:10.639 appears to have been a case where someone was able 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:15.159 to slip in an AI generated image and Shutterstock didn't 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.399 detect that and ran it as a normal one. So 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:20.679 you could argue Disney didn't know although a lot of 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:24.040 the reports I saw said, come on, they knew because 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.879 the again it had those telltale signs of generative AI. 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.200 All right, I've got a little bit more news for you, 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:33.720 but before we can get to that, let's take another 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:47.000 quick break to think our sponsors. Okay, we're back. So 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.480 SpaceX's Starlink was never the only game in town when 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:57.680 it comes to satellite provided Internet connectivity. In fact, satellite 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:01.640 connectivity has been around for quite some time, but SpaceX 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:06.200 and starlink they use fleets constellations, if you will, of 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:09.320 tiny satellites, as a new way to achieve that outcome 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:15.480 as opposed to having a satellite in essentially geostationary orbit. 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:19.800 You have this fleet of satellites and as they pass overhead, 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:23.680 your antenna locks onto one, and then when it starts 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:25.960 to pass out of view, it locks onto the next one. 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:32.320 So that's kind of SpaceX's approach with starlink. And now 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:38.600 Amazon has launched literally a competitor to SpaceX's starlink service. 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:43.000 Amazon's version is called Kuiper, named after the Dutch astronomer 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:47.200 Gerard Kuiper, whose name also graces the Kuiper Belt. It's 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:49.320 a disc in our solar system made up of these 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:54.719 small bodies of mostly frozen voladoles like ammonia and methane. Anyway, 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:58.680 last Friday, and Atlas five launch vehicle carried a pair 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:03.080 of Amazon proto type Kuiper satellites and its payload and 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:05.520 delivered them to orbit, and Amazon said it was able 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:07.720 to make contact with both of them within an hour 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:13.040 of them having reached orbit. Amazon's plan is to use 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:17.199 a constellation of more than three thousand of these satellites 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:22.520 to provide Internet communication links, similar to how SpaceX's Starlink 0:25:22.720 --> 0:25:26.240 does it. While satellite connectivity is a huge help to 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.320 people who could be in remote areas who might find 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:34.320 it difficult to get terrestrial Internet service because ISPs are, 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:41.160 let us say, reluctant to provide infrastructure to remote areas, 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:46.520 it does have a benefit. However, astronomers are really concerned 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:50.520 that as we fill out our orbits with small spacecraft, 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:53.400