WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:06.000 In the future, tech news will be delivered by a holographic host. It'll 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:09.840 be just like the doctor from Star Trek Voyager, except it'll probably be me or 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:14.639 Lionus or Riley instead of Robert Picardo. But we are in talks with 00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:19.359 Picardo. Steam has set a new concurrent player record for itself. Data from 00:00:17.279 --> 00:00:24.320 Steam TV shows that Valve's platform recently surpassed 41.6 million 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:28.880 simultaneous users. That's more than the population of Canada, bud. and nearly 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:33.840 double the player count from just five years ago. Seems like PC gamer growth 00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:37.600 accelerated after the WHO declared a pandemic, the only world event that was 00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:41.120 notable enough to include on their chart. I bet about half that player jump 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:44.879 was from Among Us. >> Pretty silk. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:48.239 >> Steam's new record high comes after Battlefield 6, Hades 2, and Hollow 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:52.000 Knight Silkong all broke their own franchise player records as well. So 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:56.800 clearly the lesson for gaming companies here is to keep pumping out sequels. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:01.120 That's what we all want, right? for Star Wars. >> Do it like the movies do. That said, I 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:06.159 can't help but notice that the total number of users increased more than the 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:09.520 number of users in game, which reads to me like people are spending more time 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:14.000 staring at their bloated Steam backlog than actually playing their games. Let 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:18.320 this be a call to action to you. Go beat something off the backlog. It's time to 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:23.439 finally play Discolesium or Red Dead Redemption 2. No new games until you 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:26.960 beat those ones. Open AAI has stopped letting people generate fake videos of 00:01:25.119 --> 00:01:31.759 Martin Luther King Jr. at the request of the late Dr. King's estate. Apparently, 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:35.759 his family wasn't jazzed about OpenAI's slop only Tik Tok clone being filled to 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:40.560 the brim with disrespectful depictions of MLK delivering a stirring speech on 00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:43.920 the beauty of the female form. >> That's not it was he was doing something 00:01:42.479 --> 00:01:48.079 more vulgar, James. >> Ah, it's yet another feature roll back 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:52.240 from OpenAI who only seems to focus more on the latter part of the move fast and 00:01:50.320 --> 00:01:56.320 break things. But at least OpenAI isn't pulling a Facebook and rumaging through 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:00.799 your phone's local storage and editing one of your photos with AI without you 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:03.040 even asking it to like a cat bringing you a dead mouse. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:07.040 >> What am I supposed to do with this? >> I'm thankful that feature rolled out in 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:12.000 beta this past summer and is now launching more widely for some reason. 00:02:09.119 --> 00:02:15.360 You can opt out at any time if you're aware that it's happening in the first 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:19.120 place and didn't absent mindly press okay when the prompt asked you to and it 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:24.720 just popped out like you know just how it does that and you're trying to do something else. Big tech is looking for 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:28.879 extra uses for AI that people don't even want. It's no wonder they're all 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:32.400 bringing back nuclear power. And even if that is probably a good idea, we should 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:38.640 probably still want to set some ground rules for how AI is used. See MLK Jr. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.160 So, Pope Leo I 14th hosted a seminar at the Vatican this week urging global 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:46.959 cooperation in regulating the technology. The Pope reminded attendees 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:50.959 that AI is above all else a tool. He's he's American though, right? 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:57.440 >> He did the accent was weird. >> And so, we must be careful that in using 00:02:52.879 --> 00:03:00.720 it, we do not ourselves act like tools. 00:02:57.440 --> 00:03:02.159 Amen. And amen to our sponsor, Ground 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:06.720 News, who are trying to do something about the fact that algorithms have divided up the internet into these 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:10.640 information bubbles that stop you from getting a more complete picture of what 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:13.920 the heck's going on because you're packed in. There were so many people you 00:03:12.239 --> 00:03:18.720 agree with and their breath is fogging up the glass. Ah, pop that bubble with 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:22.879 ground news. They aggregate news stories breaking down the political leanings and 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:26.400 ownership of each outlet. Take for example the recent story about Apple and 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:31.040 Formula 1 signing a 5-year exclusive streaming agreement. 38% of the coverage 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:35.360 leans left while only 13% leans right. Even though this is about cars going 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:39.760 fast, which I thought was always a conservative thing, even though NASCAR 00:03:37.200 --> 00:03:45.120 races are just one big left turn. >> I guess I got to question my biases. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:48.720 >> Find out who's reporting on what, so you can understand why. Take the first step, 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.440 get the transparency you deserve from the news, and save 40% on ground news 00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:57.840 Vantage Plan by using our link in the description. Robert Peardo frequently 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:02.080 collaborates with director Joe Dante, who just so happens to be one of the 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:07.040 Quickbits favorite directors. Gremlins is a Christmas classic and Phil Hartman 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:08.319 is sublime in Small Soldiers. Small soldiers. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:14.000 >> Yeah, >> Kip Kelligan. >> They need We need a sequel to that. I'll take a sequel to that. 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:18.720 >> What? There might have been a sequel. >> I don't think so. >> Apple is apparently cutting production 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:23.280 of the new iPhone Air. According to Japan's Mizuo Securities, while the 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:27.600 iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models are seeing higher sales than their 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:30.160 predecessors, the new iPhone Air is a 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:34.639 sales letdown. Now, Apple is chopping production of the 00:04:31.840 --> 00:04:40.160 Air down by up to 1 million units this year. Down by up to what the language. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:45.040 Similarly, a report from News PIM in Korea alleges that Samsung has halted 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:49.040 work on the Galaxy S26 Edge letting employees know that the product line is 00:04:46.880 --> 00:04:54.160 to be discontinued. The news isn't totally unexpected. The S25 Edge didn't 00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:58.880 sell well, and like Gizmodo said, slim phones might be on thin ice. Well, it 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:02.400 looks like these thin phones are about to be skinny dipping in the discount 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:06.960 bin. >> Splash. >> Got them. So good. Google Workspace is 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:12.560 trying to steal some of Microsoft's business customers with the power of SAS 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:17.759 sauce. >> Oh, or sauce if you're in the UK. After 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:23.600 calling out the architectural brittleleness in Microsoft's infrastructure and saying Microsoft 365 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:27.600 crashes are a question of when and for how long, not if, which I'm pretty sure 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:32.479 is the software engineers equivalent of a glove slap. Google talks up its new 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:36.560 cost-effective Google Workspace plans meant to help businesses transition away 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:40.720 from Office, which is now called Microsoft 365. What a boring and 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:45.440 confusing name. Wouldn't you rather subscribe to a workplace plan called 00:05:43.039 --> 00:05:51.199 business continuity or work transformation set? 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:56.320 Wouldn't you? Uber is launching a new program that allows its contractors to 00:05:53.039 --> 00:05:58.320 earn additional cash by telling jokes as 00:05:56.320 --> 00:06:02.240 they drive. you know, testing out new bits. I'm just joking. Um, it's 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:06.560 additional cash by completing micro tasks that train AI models. That's way 00:06:05.039 --> 00:06:10.400 worse. These tasks include everything from voice recordings to capturing and 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:14.960 uploading images to submitting documents in a certain language in exchange for 00:06:12.880 --> 00:06:18.400 variable rewards. In this example, if you upload a picture from a Spanish 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:24.000 restaurant menu, you could earn a whole shiny dollar. One, a green back. I've 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:29.120 always dreamed of being a mental blood bag for AI. This move could help Uber 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:33.520 use its army of freelance workers to challenge companies that train AI models 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:36.880 by having humans annotate and label data. And besides, they're already 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:40.639 constantly feeding customers via Uber Eats. Why not feed the hungry machine 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:44.080 your time, energy, and knowledge as well? It's the same thing. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:51.360 >> It's that's my job. >> And PayPal's blockchain partner, Paxos, 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:53.919 mistakenly minted $300 trillion in PYUSD 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:58.080 stable coin. As pointed out by both CNBC and Ingadget, 300 trillion of these 00:06:55.840 --> 00:07:02.639 stable coins are worth more than double the world's estimated total GDP. It just 00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:07.039 seems like there's something terribly wrong when you can just accidentally 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:11.840 mint more money than the global GDP. Thank thankfully this all appears to be 00:07:09.599 --> 00:07:15.280 a huge and embarrassing gaff. And don't worry, Paxos tweeted to assure folks 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:19.280 that the issue was a technical error and that their customers funds are safe. 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:23.280 Paxos even says they've burned the excess PYUSD. 00:07:21.599 --> 00:07:27.039 I've been known to burn through a lot of excess money myself, but I really hope 00:07:24.960 --> 00:07:30.240 that's not what they mean. The coin's still pegged. Don't worry, guys. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:35.840 >> Yeah. >> And you should know what I mean when I say peg when I tell you to come back on 00:07:33.919 --> 00:07:39.840 Monday for more tech news. I can't promise you we'll have holograms by 00:07:37.520 --> 00:07:42.639 Monday, but I swear I'm working really hard on Picardo.