WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.840 Tech news, tech news, tech news. 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:09.920 Ha ha ha, tech news. Google has agreed to pay $700 million in damages 00:00:09.920 --> 00:00:15.920 to US consumers as part of a settlement with every state attorney's general, everyone, 00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:20.120 over the search giant's alleged anti-competitive play store rules. 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:25.640 I say alleged because Google has admitted to no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, of course. 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.760 Classic. 700 million is less than what the play store 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:31.920 makes in a month. And of course, Google Play users make up 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.920 a not insignificant percentage of the US population. 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:39.640 Thus, the settlement only guarantees a minimum payout of $2 per user 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:44.080 with more going to higher spending users. But hey, that's just enough money 00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:47.320 to buy Super Meat Boy forever, twice. 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:51.040 Didn't think about that. Two forever's. Google has also agreed to simplify 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:56.720 side loading for at least the next five years and allow Android phone OEMs to pre-install 00:00:56.720 --> 00:01:02.040 more apps on new phones for at least seven years. Yay, more Facebook apps you can't uninstall. 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:06.280 That's raised some concerns that phone manufacturers might pack devices with bloatware 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:10.640 even more than they currently do. In addition, Google's user choice billing system, 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:15.560 which was in the pilot phase, will be expanding so more developers can avoid paying 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:19.640 the play store's default 30% cut. They'll now have the option to pay 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:24.360 a much cheaper Google service fee of only 26%. 00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:27.800 It's not so much better as it is slightly less worse. 00:01:27.800 --> 00:01:32.000 Not a very good discount, but it would be a rich milk. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.520 It seems that messaging service Beeper is struggling to find a permanent fix 00:01:36.520 --> 00:01:41.920 for its Android-based iMessage app, Beeper Mini, after a few weeks of Apple whack-a-moling 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:46.600 the loopholes it was using before. Beeper's new, apparently temporary solution 00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:51.280 requires users to have access to a max unique registration data. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:54.720 The update allows users to share that data with others, 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:59.960 but there's still a finite number of Macs and a finite number of people willing to share that data 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:03.040 just so you can send fancy blue bubbles from your Nokia. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.960 But cool kids will definitely stop swirling you now. One advantage of Beeper's new method 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:13.240 is that the Mac associated with the registration data has no access to the user's account or messages. 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:17.120 Another advantage is that the server farm method used by other bridging services, 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:22.280 and by Beeper themselves before Beeper Mini, potentially creates an anomalous number of users 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.560 all supposedly using one single computer, 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:29.240 which is exactly the kind of thing that draws the eye of Sauron, 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:33.040 and by Sauron, I mean Tim Cook. You cannot hide. 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:37.440 I see you. There is no life in the void. 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:41.640 Only death! AI is undoubtedly coming for everyone's jobs, 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:45.040 but Deloitte, one of the world's largest consulting firms, 00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:48.680 wants to use AI to reduce the need for layoffs. 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:52.160 Deloitte hired 130,000 additional staff this year, 00:02:52.160 --> 00:02:56.640 but found at the same time that thousands of their employees were at risk of redundancy 00:02:56.640 --> 00:03:03.240 due to reduced demand for certain services. Rather than go through large swings of hirings and layoffs, 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:07.320 the entire tech industry, the past year and a half or two years, something, 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:11.720 Deloitte is using AI to assess existing employees' skills, 00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:15.320 then creating a plan to shift them into higher demand roles. 00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:18.600 And strangely, that's not the only positive AI news 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.200 today. Waymo has announced that a statistical analysis of over 7.1 million miles driven by its driverless cars 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:28.920 has found an 85% reduction in crashes resulting in injuries 00:03:28.920 --> 00:03:32.560 and a 57% reduction in crashes reported by police 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:36.320 compared to human benchmarks. It's because AI's don't narc. 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:40.280 I feel like they'll narc even more. Stitches get stitches. 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:44.120 Is that AI? Though anyone interpreting that data 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:50.560 needs to account for the fact that Waymo only operates within a geofenced area in three US cities 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:54.840 and that robotaxis are far more likely to report minor accidents than humans, 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:58.680 many of whom just silently pray that nobody saw them back into that dumpster. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:04.560 But just in case you thought your job was safe again, an AI has also used its little robot fingers 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:08.080 to beat humans at a rotating wooden maze game, 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:13.560 an unusual case of an AI surpassing people at a task that is both intellectual and physical. 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:17.280 So if that's your job, you're in the little maze game. Yeah, I'm the wooden maze, man. 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:21.280 You're in trouble. Let's close out this story with one of the funny reflections 00:04:21.280 --> 00:04:25.920 on our changing relationship to technology. YouTuber Jay Schlatt posted a recent video 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.960 about the growing subgenre of AI covers inexplicably featuring his voice 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:35.760 and distinctive New York accent, to which he responded by releasing his own, 00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:39.600 actually kind of amazing cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:45.440 I did it my way. 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:48.880 Quote, you for trying to replace me. 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:51.480 Hard warming. I'm gonna replace myself. 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:57.960 The only person who's gonna replace me is me. We can forgive scientists for mistakenly thinking 00:04:57.960 --> 00:05:01.320 that the atom was the smallest possible unit of matter for decades, 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:04.880 when actually it's the quick bit, but you know, it's okay. 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:10.440 Telecom giant Comcast says that thanks to the widely exploited network hardware vulnerability 00:05:10.440 --> 00:05:15.120 known as Citrix Bleed, 36 million of their Xfinity customers 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.120 have had personal data like names, contact info, 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.560 answers to security questions, and the last four digits of social security numbers 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.400 stolen by hackers. You know, hey, it's a tough world out there. 00:05:26.400 --> 00:05:31.680 You know, nothing Comcast could do. Except maybe apply the patch that Citrix provided for them 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:35.000 on October 10th instead of waiting a week to get started. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.560 What? They were busy. The internet pipes don't clean themselves. 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:44.400 Comcast CEO is in there wiping them manually. 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:48.440 There's a lot of gunk. Intel thinks it's still on track 00:05:48.440 --> 00:05:52.800 to launch its next gen Battle Mage GPUs in 2024, 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.960 according to a roadmap shared by the company's Japanese branch. 00:05:55.960 --> 00:05:59.240 If that launch goes the way that the first Arc GPU launch went, 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.240 this means that just before Christmas 2024, 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:07.280 you'll be able to go to the store and pick up your phone to read a press release about it. 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:10.480 It's not, because it's not, it's not gonna be there. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:14.160 Intel's Arc gaming cards have gotten way better thanks to driver updates. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:19.240 And by the time Battle Mage comes out, Team Blue may have a DLSS frame generation competitor 00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:24.040 of its own if Intel sponsored research from the University of California is any indication. 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:29.680 So get excited for Intel's new GPUs or at least nice pictures of them to launch next year 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:34.760 or at some other time. Mercedes-Benz wants to use turquoise taillights 00:06:34.760 --> 00:06:38.000 to communicate when a car is driving itself. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.800 Only Nevada and California have approved testing of the light color, 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:46.560 but that's mainly because they're the only two states where the automakers conditionally autonomous 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:50.640 self-driving technology is legal. Frankly, I'm in favor of the choice. 00:06:50.640 --> 00:06:56.160 I can't think of a more soothing color to see before your legs are taken out by a rogue AI. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:00.160 Oh, that's so beautiful. You can always get a job in the metaverse. 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:01.360 Cause they got no legs. 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:08.640 The virtual reality ship keeps sinking, even though Zuck keeps plugging the holes 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:13.560 with billions of dollars. It's not watertight. Industry research firm, Cercana, 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:18.400 says sales of VR and AR devices declined by 40% this year, 00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:21.480 even though Mark Zuckerberg specifically asked Santa 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:25.680 for the metaverse this Christmas. He even added tongue tracking to the Quest Pro 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.080 to better appeal to his fellow reptiles. But it turns out most bearded dragons 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:33.280 can't afford a $1,000 headset. Someone needs to do something. 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:39.000 And the EU is adding three adult sites, Pornhub, Strip Chat, and X-Videos. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.480 I haven't even heard of the middle one. Strip Chat's just about chicken strips. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:45.720 Just a bunch of boys getting together to discuss the best candies. 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:50.600 The EU's adding them to their list of very large online platforms or VLOPS. 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.840 These sites are now in the strictest regulatory classification 00:07:53.840 --> 00:07:57.480 under its Digital Services Act, alongside heavy hitters like Amazon, 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:01.320 Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and Wikipedia. This decision will likely lead 00:08:01.320 --> 00:08:04.640 to user age verification gates on all three sites, 00:08:04.640 --> 00:08:10.880 but also provokes an interesting semantic discussion. Is Pornhub in some sense a social media site? 00:08:10.880 --> 00:08:15.640 Can you be a Pornhub influencer? You can add other users as friends on there. 00:08:15.640 --> 00:08:19.040 You also probably shouldn't, unless it's the guy- Who does calculus. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:23.520 Yeah, he's having a great time. But you should come back on Friday for more tech news. 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:29.200 I promise, they won't get weird. It's not like, it'll be fine. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:31.280 Please.