1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,320 Hey, TechLinked, Riley here. How often does tech news ooze out of the ground 2 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,920 so it can be harvested and processed for transport? 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,360 Three times a week. I do not have a full beard. 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:18,160 Apple has sued leaker and YouTuber John Prosser, 5 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:22,360 who shared details and unofficial renders of iOS 26, 6 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:28,280 which was presumed at the time to be called iOS 19, understandable, on his Genius Bar podcast 7 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:32,440 and his front-page tech YouTube channel. The leaks got enough attention 8 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:36,120 that they were called not representative of the real thing 9 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:41,120 by the prime leaker, the GERM smacker, Mark of the GERMs. 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:47,840 But people leak Apple stuff all the time. So why is Apple suddenly choosing John for prosecution? 11 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,120 I'm sorry. Well, in their lawsuit, Apple says they got 12 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:56,080 an anonymous email naming Prosser, his associate Michael Ramachiotti 13 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,540 and Ramachiotti's friend ex-Apple employee, Ethan Lipnick. 14 00:01:00,540 --> 00:01:07,000 The suit also cites an audio message sent to Lipnick from Ramachiotti claiming that Prosser wanted him 15 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,720 to somehow get access to Lipnick's development iPhone 16 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,420 and the tasty trade secrets contained therein. 17 00:01:15,420 --> 00:01:20,920 Now, who knows what the truth is because while Prosser obviously did receive trade secrets 18 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:24,560 somehow, he denies these specific allegations, 19 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,800 tweeting that he didn't plot to access anyone's phone 20 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:33,480 and he says he's got receipts. He then posted a screenshot where he asked someone, 21 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:38,840 presumably Ramallamachiotti, how the hell did you get this LOL? 22 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,760 Which, fair enough, is usually not something you say 23 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:48,240 to someone with whom you schemed and planned ways to get the this in question. 24 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:52,120 US President Donald Trump has signed the Genius Act, 25 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:57,560 the first federal law to put rules in place for stable coins, which is cryptocurrency 26 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:01,900 that ties its value to, say, the US dollar or gold 27 00:02:01,900 --> 00:02:07,320 or something else that is less likely to be worth absolutely nothing after a Paul brother tweets out 28 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:12,160 the digital equivalent of a wet fart. Trump has been pushing hard for regulation 29 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,280 that would legitimize cryptocurrencies in the eyes of more investors, 30 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:20,800 only because he thinks crypto is really good and not because it would be beneficial 31 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,880 to the crypto ventures he's launched in the past year, no. But regardless of the president's motivations, 32 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:31,600 the Genius Act represents the beginning of the end of the Wild West era of crypto 33 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,880 and it'll hopefully do something to prevent more people 34 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:39,040 from dumping their life savings into meme coins that are immediately rug pulled. 35 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,740 It was literally called scam coin, Richard. 36 00:02:42,740 --> 00:02:47,560 Two other crypto bills are still working their way through Congress, but Trump doesn't need those 37 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,120 to reap the benefits of the USD-1 stable coin 38 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:55,160 launched by his, I'm sorry, his son's crypto business, 39 00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:00,040 World Liberty Financial, this is all normal. Lots of AI news to talk about. 40 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,040 OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Agent, 41 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:07,400 a new tool that lets ChatGPT use its very own computer 42 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,760 because ChatGPT, you've been so good lately. 43 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,400 You only make up random bulls*** when you're really upset. 44 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,680 Agent is even more capable than the operator tool, 45 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:23,640 which launched in January and let ChatGPT control a web browser and that went okay. 46 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:26,880 So they're letting ChatGPT go deeper into the machine 47 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,080 and probably just gonna keep doing that until something breaks. 48 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:33,600 Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarando said 49 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,680 in the company's latest earnings call that one of their originals, 50 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,440 the Argentinian sci-fi film, The Eternot, 51 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,880 used special effects generated by AI. 52 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,640 Sarando said that sequence, showing a building collapsing, 53 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,640 is the very first gen AI final footage 54 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,120 to appear on screen in a Netflix original. 55 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,520 Well, except for the pretty obvious AI images 56 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:00,680 almost certainly used in last year's Netflix documentary, 57 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,380 What Jennifer Did, but the creators still deny that. 58 00:04:04,380 --> 00:04:07,400 So, at least they're telling us now. 59 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:12,360 Meta, meanwhile, is telling the EU it won't be signing the European Commission's 60 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,440 code of practice for general purpose AI, 61 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:20,240 which would have meant committing to things like providing documentation about Meta's AI tools 62 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:23,400 and not training AI on pirated content. 63 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,380 It's simply untenable. Well, today, the Commission published guidelines 64 00:04:27,380 --> 00:04:33,240 to help AI companies prepare for the rollout of its AI Act regulation on August 2nd, 65 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,400 which it previously indicated was gonna happen 66 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:41,920 whether Meta's on board or not. So, I don't know if your thing is getting steamrolled. 67 00:04:42,820 --> 00:04:46,120 I'm sure Grock can generate a steamy fanfic for ya. 68 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:48,600 Now, can we do the QuickBits Mark? 69 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:55,480 Come on, QuickBits time! This week, the news non-profit ProPublica 70 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,280 published a deep dive on a Microsoft US government contract 71 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:03,000 that involved using software engineers based in China 72 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,280 to maintain defense department systems. 73 00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:11,120 Now, that's a bit sketchy, so the solution was apparently to pair the engineers 74 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,440 with digital escorts, which were not 75 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:20,440 Grock's not-safe-for-work 3D avatars, but rather US citizens with the proper security clearances, 76 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,760 but not very much technical expertise. 77 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,240 Current and former escorts told ProPublica stuff like, 78 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:32,040 we're trusting that what they're doing isn't malicious, but we really can't tell. 79 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,840 After Senator Tom Cotton sent this report to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 80 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:41,280 he miraculously managed to engage all four of his brain cells to tweet 81 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:46,960 that this shouldn't happen anymore. Then today, Microsoft Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw 82 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:51,720 said, okay, they'll stop. Hopefully, China also didn't notice 83 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:57,280 this was happening until now. Delta Airlines says it's been testing an AI-powered system 84 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,160 for individualized pricing that analyzes a customer's profile 85 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:06,200 and charges the maximum amount it thinks you and only you are willing to pay. 86 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,280 Delta was only testing this system on 3% of its total fares, 87 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,560 but it wants to bring that up to 20% by the end of the year. 88 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:18,800 Unless it can be proven that Delta is offering people different rates based on certain characteristics, 89 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:23,160 like sex or ethnicity, this system isn't technically illegal, 90 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:28,040 but it doesn't need to be to fundamentally undermine the idea of a fair market, 91 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:32,280 which is technically bullshit. Microsoft, one more time, 92 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:35,480 has closed down its movies and TV storefronts 93 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:40,800 on Xbox consoles and Windows. Users will no longer be able to purchase content 94 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:44,520 through the app, but the company says they will still be able to watch 95 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,720 anything they've already paid for. For how long? 96 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:53,440 Intel Microsoft feels like not making that the case. 97 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:57,600 There was never a buy and a rent option. They're both rent. 98 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:03,120 It's rent all the way down, and thousands of very cheap VV bikes sold at Walmart 99 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,400 and Amazon have been recalled after multiple reports 100 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,760 of the bike batteries overheating and catching fire. 101 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:15,360 I can only hope those batteries are different than the ones shown in this video by Chinese company Ubtech, 102 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:21,080 in which its Walker S2 Humanoid robot is shown replacing its own battery. 103 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,200 Those batteries catching on fire would make this an even more appropriate entry 104 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,840 in my favorite video series, existential anxiety inducers. 105 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:34,040 You wanna reduce my anxiety? Come back on Monday for more tech news. 106 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,640 I won't know if you're going to come back until you do though, 107 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,760 so I'll just have to keep it together somehow over the weekend. 108 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:44,360 But how will I feel on Monday? My fate is in your hands. Bye bye.