Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 05/28 – The Most Consequential Tweets For Silicon Valley of All Time?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Thursday, May 28th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today is the Trump administration finally willing to go to war with big tech.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Another Apple startup acquisition, but also why Fragglerock might indicate a strategy shift for Apple TV Plus. Remember 4K TVs? And the microcredit app that will threaten to shame you to everyone you know if you fall behind on your payments. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. For those of you who hate it when U.S. politics intrude on the show, you know, what can I tell you? Rumors have been swirling all night that President Trump today plans to sign an executive order that would threaten punishment for Facebook, Google, and Twitter, over what is being called content moderation. So that's too big a deal for us to just elide over. Those two little tweets from earlier this week could end up being maybe the most consequential tweets of all time.

Starting point is 00:01:35 at least for Silicon Valley. Now, if you're hearing these words, then that means that at the time of this recording, the order had not yet actually been signed, but this is what it will entail from what we currently understand, quoting the Washington Post. Trump's directive chiefly seeks to emboldened federal regulators to rethink a portion of law known as Section 230, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a document that could still evolve and has not been officially signed by the president. The law spares tech companies from being held liable for the comments, videos, and other content posted by users on their platforms. The law is controversial. It allows tech companies the freedom to police their platforms for abuse without fear of lawsuits. But critics

Starting point is 00:02:21 say those exceptions have also allowed some of Silicon Valley's most profitable companies to skirt responsibility for the harmful content that flourishes on their online platforms, including hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and election-related falsehoods. The order would prompt federal officials to open a proceeding to reconsider the scope of the law, the people familiar with the documents said. A change could mean potentially dramatic, free speech implications and wide-ranging consequences for a broad swath of companies reliant on doing business on the Internet. The order would also seek to channel complaints about political bias to the Federal Trade Commission,

Starting point is 00:02:58 which would be encouraged to probe whether tech companies' content moderation policies are in keeping with their pledges of neutrality. It would also require federal agencies to review their spending on social media advertising, according to the people familiar with the White House's thinking, end quote. So, yeah, because the president didn't like what Twitter did to his tweets, a fundamental law surrounding internet content might be under fire. Pretty big deal, no matter where you are politically. Now, there's also plenty of speculation out there as to how enforceable such an executive order would actually be, but even if unenforceable legally, that doesn't mean that attempts by, say, the FCC and FTC to follow through on such an order would make life difficult for major tech companies.

Starting point is 00:03:50 And recall that tech generally has been holding its breath surrounding regulatory actions anyway. So if Twitter has angered the president enough to actually take the gloves off and go to war with Big Tech, well, let's just say that deep breaths are being held across the Valley right now. Also, eyebrows are being raised about as high as they can be in the Valley right now by this, quoting Fox News. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called out Twitter for attaching a fact check to a tweet from President Trump telling Fox News's Dana Perino that privately owned digital platforms should not act as the, quote, arbiter of truth, end quote. Quoting again, we have a different policy than I think Twitter on this, Zuckerberg told the

Starting point is 00:04:37 daily briefing in an interview scheduled to air in full on Thursday. Quote, I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online, he added. Private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that, end quote. to which Twitter's Jack Dorsey tweeted last night, quote, We'll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally, and we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.

Starting point is 00:05:08 This does not make us an, quote, arbiter of truth, end quote, our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions, end quote. Well, let me end by saying this. If the Trump administration does decide to go full out war against big tech, lots of folks could get caught up in the crossfire from such a war, or even be directly in the crosshairs. And that would include Facebook itself. So the fact that Zuckerberg's immediate response to this controversy was to grant an interview that can

Starting point is 00:05:50 generally be interpreted as letting Twitter twist in the wind, suggesting them as a scapegoat, if you will, while holding Facebook up as an honest broker? Well, let's just say that folks are definitely noticing that, too. Apple is confirming that it has bought Ontario-Canada-based inductive, which develops AI to automate identifying and correcting errors in data. Another way to say that would be Apple has probably bought some machine learning tech to make Siri better, quoting Mark German in Bloomberg. Having clean data is important for machine learning, a popular and powerful type of AI that helps software improve with less human intervention. The work falls under the category of data science, a key element of Apple's broader machine learning strategy. In 2018, the company brought on several engineers from Silicon Valley Data Science, a consulting firm that focuses on this field.

Starting point is 00:06:52 John G. N. Andrea, the Apple executive in charge of Siri and machine learning, has been upgrading the underlying technology that goes into the Siri Digital Assistant and other AI-powered products from the company, end quote. One of the co-founders of Inductive previously co-founded another AI company, Lattice Data, which Apple bought in 2017. The inductive engineering team has apparently joined the Siri team in recent weeks. And here's another interesting Apple acquisition, if you will. Apparently, Apple is involved in a reboot of the once-popular kids TV staple Fraggle Rock. That's been under development at Apple for a while now to be released on Apple TV Plus. It's involving a full partnership with the Jim Henson Company. And it makes sense. As Netflix and Disney Plus have shown, having kids programming is key to getting families to lock into your streaming service. But what? What is new and potentially interesting because it suggests a strategy shift on Apple's part is the further news that Apple has also quietly acquired Fraggle Rock's back catalog. All 96 original episodes of the TV show aired between 1983 and 1987 have been quietly made available to stream on Apple TV Plus.

Starting point is 00:08:15 So is Apple shifting its original strategy of creating original content into a mixed strategy of also licensing existing IP? If so, might that be a tall order? Because I mean, since everyone in their mother is investing in streaming plays right now, why would anyone be willing to part with valuable IP that they could leverage to make their own efforts viable? Quoting the great Julia Alexander in The Verge. As Joseph Adeline reported in Vulture this week, with big studios like Disney, WarnerMedia and NBC Universal, quote, looking to keep their best and brightest titles for their own streaming platforms, there simply aren't enough great titles around to justify making a play for a traditional library of licensed content. Instead, it makes more sense for Apple to look at acquiring

Starting point is 00:09:01 full libraries for shows it wants to reboot. Keeping everything in one place makes for a better consumer experience. Quote, so were Apple to end up doing a deal for the rights to the James Bond franchise, something which has been buzzed about since at least 2017, the company would also likely tried to get the back library of Bond films so it could market itself as the home for all things, 007, Adelaide wrote. Apple, like all streaming players right now, is making licensing bets where they make sense. Apple isn't about to try to use Netflix's licensing strategy, which helped the general entertainment platform catapult into a behemoth for its own gain. As Apple figures out which properties make the most sense to either resurrect, remake, or reboot, building out full collections

Starting point is 00:09:46 is also a smart play. Apple isn't calling this a strategy shift, but it is one. Apple TV Plus launched without any licensed content and CEO Tim Cook reiterated at a shareholders meeting in February that Apple TV Plus wasn't about hosting older series or films, specifically saying that's, quote, not what Apple TV Plus is about. Cook restated that Apple TV Plus is, quote, about original programming, end quote. It doesn't feel right for Apple to just go out and take a rewrite. run, Cook said. Now, the caveat seems to be if that original programming is based on an older series or movie, it's likely that collection will wind up on Apple TV Plus, end quote. I know you like these sorts of segments, so I like sharing them. Stack Overflow has done its annual survey of more

Starting point is 00:10:40 than 65,000 developers, and according to them, Rust remains the most beloved language by programmers at 86.1% on the tomato meter, I guess, 86% certified fresh, if you will. This is followed by TypeScript at 67.1% while Python has dropped to third place, quoting Tech Republic. There aren't many surprises here, as much of the top ranking languages, frameworks, and tools remain the same in 2020. One upset, however, comes in the decreasing popularity of Python, which dropped to third in the rankings for most popular language, behind top-ranked Rust, now in its fifth year as leader, and newly minted second place TypeScript, which pushed Python down a spot. VBA, Objective C, and Pearl are the most hated languages, which Stack Overflow notes are currently highly used, but the developers

Starting point is 00:11:34 coding with them have, quote, no interest in continuing to do so, end quote. JavaScript remains the most commonly used language for the eighth year in a row. J-Quiry is still at the top of the frameworks list, and the same goes for. MySQL for databases. 92% of respondents said they were working at least part-time. 65% are satisfied with their jobs and 83% aren't interested in leaving their current positions so it may be difficult for companies in need of developers to attract new talent, end quote.

Starting point is 00:12:06 Although one big caveat around that, this survey was conducted in February, so this reflects largely a pre-pandemic world. Speaking of the before times, remember CES, remember conferences and expos, remember leaving your house, remember flat screen TVs and robots that replace the toilet paper roll for you, remember laughter. Well, despite lots of things getting delayed recently, LG has largely stuck to its release plans for the 4K TVs that we saw at CES, including the $1,500, $400, $4,000. 38-inch 4K OLED TV that got a lot of attention at CES because it might actually be a beast that is still in the attainable range for some of us, especially if you're a gamer.

Starting point is 00:13:02 The LG-48 CX is going on sale in the U.S. in late June, and quoting in gadget, it is the first time LG has sold an OLED in this size, and it comes with features that could make it perfect to rely on as a supersized gaming monitor. With its small size and high resolution, LG claims its pixel density compares to a 96-inch 8K display. Like other 2024K OLEDs from LG, it includes Nvidia's G-Sync tech for tear-free high-frame rate PC gaming. The website states FreeSync support will arrive with a software update. It can handle up to 120 frames per second 4K content using Dolby Vision or HDR-10 Plus. It has enhanced audio return channels, auto low latency mode, and a variable refresh rate that should

Starting point is 00:13:53 make it ready to deal with the Xbox Series X and PS5 this fall, end quote. So there you go. We can still have some nice things. Here's a new one. Ocash is a popular microcredit app in Kenya that has a novel way of making sure that you don't fall behind on your loan payments. in essence, they will threaten, threaten to shame you, but they will do so in a very modern way. Pay up deadbeat, Ocash says, or they'll notify everyone on your contact list that you're a deadbeat. Quoting, rest of the world.

Starting point is 00:14:38 Skip tracing, the ancient art of finding someone who owes you money and making them pay, was virtually non-existent among fintech companies until early 2018. coincidentally, that was the same year that OPE, a fintech company partially owned by the software maker Opera, launched Ocash in Kenya. The majority of OPA's operations had been bought by a consortium of Chinese investors two years earlier, and shortly afterward, the company went on an expansion spree announcing plans to invest $100 million in East Africa. While Opera's then managing director, a former banker named Edward Nichu, said at the time that the app would protect users' personal information, he never explained. how the company planned to safeguard its financial investment. But the answer was buried in Ocash's terms and conditions. When users download the app, they give it permission to access their contacts. To combat Ocash's subsequent debt collection practices, some people have started gaming the

Starting point is 00:15:33 system. One Ocash user told me that she wrote to her entire contact list to say that her phone had been stolen and that they should ignore any fraudsters who might text them. Then she deleted the app. Another posted in audio recording of himself yelling at Ocash debt collectors. Others have simply refused to pay back their debts even after their friends and relatives have been contacted. Such responses inevitably raised the question of whether social shaming can be the foundation of a sustainable business strategy. While Opera's FinTech Arm reported enormous growth between September and November of 2019, tripling its revenue to $39.9 million, the company's credit losses simultaneously expanded totaling nearly $20 million during that same period, end quote.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Finally today, this is what I've been waiting for. A startup called Nero says that its driverless delivery robots will begin transporting medicine from CVS pharmacies to customers in Texas, quoting the verge. Neuro, the autonomous vehicle startup founded by two X Google engineers, will use its small fleet of road legal delivery robots to transport pharmaceuticals to CVS customers in Houston, Texas. The company is announced on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:16:51 The deliveries will start in June and will come at no extra charge to CVS customers in Houston. To start out, Nero will use its fleet of Toyota Priuses outfitted with self-driving technology to make the deliveries and will switch to its purpose-built driverless R2 vehicles later. The company will only make deliveries from one CVS pharmacy as part of its pilot program before branching out to serve other stores. This represents a shift in Neuro's typical operations which are focused on grocery and food delivery in Arizona and Texas. In addition to a small number of R2 vehicles, the company also conducts deliveries using its retrofitted Toyota Priuses with two safety drivers in each. But due to social distancing rules, the company is only using one safety driver per vehicle for its delivery routes in Arizona and Texas,

Starting point is 00:17:38 and it's mostly operating its vehicle manually. Last month, Nero said it would begin using its R2 vehicles to transport medical supplies around two California stadiums that have been converted into treatment facilities for people with COVID-19. The company has the distinction of being the first autonomous vehicle operator to receive a federal exemption to mass-produce driverless vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels or side-view mirrors. Nero also was recently approved to test its driverless delivery robots on public roads in California, becoming only the second company to receive such a permit, end quote.

Starting point is 00:18:19 That is all for today. Again, if the actual executive order comes down after I hit publish today, we can parse the actual language and implications tomorrow. If it does end up being a big deal or just a tempest and a teapot, which is still very much a possibility, of course. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 05/28 – The Most Consequential Tweets For Silicon Valley of All Time?

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