Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 09/19 – Pokémon: No!

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 TechMemebride Home for Thursday, September 19th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. Looks like they finally got around to suing that PAL World game. Google volunteered to break up some of its businesses, but the EU said no.

Starting point is 00:00:47 AI is coming to YouTube in a big way. A new social media platform is entirely AI. And Amazon wants to get into the Shark Tank business. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Hey, remember this story? Nintendo and the Pokemon company have sued Powell World developer Pocket Pair, accusing it of infringing on, quote, multiple patent rights. Powell World, you might recall, sold more than 5 million copies back in January, and people were like,

Starting point is 00:01:19 hey, doesn't that look a lot like Pikachu? Quoting the verge from Nintendo's press release. This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Powell World, a game developed and released by the defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. In response, Puckett Pair issued a statement saying it was unaware of any patents it had violated and was not, quote, notified of such details. Nevertheless, it would begrudgingly begin investigating the claims, quote, it is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas, end quote.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Paul World, which is still in early access, became one of the first big gaming hits of 2024 when it launched in January, selling more than 5 million copies in three days. The survival slash crafting game, which has been described as Pokemon with guns, has your character working with monsters or pals. But some of Palworld's monster designs are remarkably similar to Pokemon, and people almost immediately called out Pal World for the apparent ripoffs, end quote. sources are telling Reuters that Google tried to end an EU antitrust probe by offering to sell its ad marketplace adX or ad exchange, but European publishers rejected the proposal. Quote, Google's lucrative ad tech business attracted EU regulatory scrutiny last year following a complaint from the European Publishers Council. The European Commission subsequently charged Google with favoring its own advertising services, opening its fourth case against the world's most popular search engine. Google has never before offered to sell an asset in an antitrust case, according to three lawyers involved in antitrust cases who did not have permission to speak publicly.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Publishers rejected Google's proposal because they want it to divest more than just AdEx to address conflicts of interest due to its presence in almost all levels of the ad tech supply chain. The people said, they said the EU antitrust enforcer was aware of the offer. AdX or Ad Exchange is a marketplace where publishers can make their unsold ad space available to advertisers for purchase. on a real-time basis. EU antitrust chief Margath Vestager last year suggested that Google divest its cell-side tools, DFP, and AdEx to end conflicts of interest. Still, the commission is unlikely to

Starting point is 00:03:51 force Google to divest assets for now, but may instead order it to stop its alleged anti-competitive practices in the coming months because of the complexity of the case, other sources have told Reuters. They said a divestment order could come later if Google fails to comply with the first EU decision likely to be issued in the coming months, end quote. Google has been adding a bunch of AI stuff to all of its products like everybody else is doing. So why not add AI to YouTube as well? Well, a flurry of announcements. First, YouTube has added an inspiration tab in the YouTube studio app that lets creators use AI to generate video concepts,

Starting point is 00:04:32 also create titles and thumbnails, and even write scripts, quoting the verge. The first feature is the new Inspiration tab in the YouTube Studio app, which YouTube has been testing in a limited way over the last few months. The tab's job is essentially to tell you what to make. The AI-powered tool will suggest a concept for a video, provide a title and a thumbnail, and even write an outline and the first few lines of the video for you. YouTube frames it as a helpful brainstorming tool,

Starting point is 00:05:01 but also acknowledges that you can use it to build out entire projects. And I'm just guessing here, but I bet those AI-created ideas are going to be pretty darn good at gaming the YouTube algorithm. Once you have some AI inspiration, you can make some AI videos with VO, the super-powerful deep-minded video model that is now being integrated into YouTube shorts. VO is mostly going to be part of the dream screen feature YouTube has been working on, which is an extension of the green screen concept, but with AI-generated backgrounds of all sorts. You'll also be able to make full VO videos too, but only with clips up to six seconds long.

Starting point is 00:05:39 After a few seconds, AI video tends to get, you know, really weird. Vio is integrated right into the normal shorts editor, quote, just like its footage from my camera roll, says Sarah Ali, a director of product management at YouTube, but she emphasizes that it's still dependent on the creator's vision to pool it all together. The clips will also be watermarked with DeepMind's synth ID tool, plus a visual indication that it's generated by AI. Both of these features are rolling out slowly and should appear to creators late this year or early next.

Starting point is 00:06:09 There are other AI features coming to YouTube 2. The platform's auto-dubbing feature, which converts video to multiple languages, is coming to more creators and languages. It's also giving creators AI tools with which to interact with fans through the new community section of the app, end quote. Yes, more on that. They announced communities, a space where creators can let fans post content and chat using AI, and Community Hub, which shows creators all their channels activity.

Starting point is 00:06:37 There's also AI tools to, help creators write comments and responses to comments, the better to interact with your community. And finally, there's also hype, a promotional system that lets users boost smaller creators with a hype button after liking a video. The most hyped videos will appear on a leaderboard. The EU Commission says Apple must get in line with strict new DMA laws on making operating systems fully functional with other technology. They've given Apple six months. months to comply with this. So what does that mean? Quoting Bloomberg. While the announcement is a step shy of being a formal investigation, the EU aims to compel Apple to re-engineer its services to allow

Starting point is 00:07:25 rival companies to access the iPhone and iPad's operating systems. Today is the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations, EU competition chief Margath Vestager said in a statement, effective interoperability, for example, with smartphones and their operating systems plays an important role in this. Cupertino-California-based Apple said it's created ways for developers to request additional interoperability with iPhone and iPad operating systems while protecting user's security. Undermining protections built into its systems over time would put European consumers at risk, the company added. The EU may later decide to launch a formal probe if Apple doesn't

Starting point is 00:08:08 step into line with the DMA, which could eventually lead to hefty fines of up to 10% of global annual sales. It is already facing a parallel investigation into its App Store rules for developers, which could also lead to hefty penalties, end quote. A new study says unintended electromagnetic radiation from the second generation Starlink satellites up there are stronger than the first-gen satellites, causing 32 times more interference with radio telescopes, 32 times. Quoting the BBC, The radio waves from Elon Musk's growing network of satellites are blocking scientists' ability to peer into the universe, according to researchers in the Netherlands. The new generation of Starlink satellites, which provide fast internet around the world, are interfering more with radio telescopes than earlier versions, they say. The thousands of orbiting satellites are blinding radio telescopes and may be hindering astronomical research, according to Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy.

Starting point is 00:09:10 SpaceX, which owns Starlink, has not replied to a request from the BBC News for comment. The satellites provide broadband internet around the world, often to remote places, including challenging environments like the Ukraine and Yemen. They are also used to connect remote areas of the UK to fast internet. In 2022, tests showed that Starlink could deliver internet speeds four times faster than the average, according to the Department for Digital Culture, Media, and Sport. But astronomers say this comes at a cost. Every time more of these are launched with these kinds of emission levels, we see less and less of the sky, Professor Jessica Dempsey, of Astron, told BBC News. We're trying to look at things like the jets, which are emitted from

Starting point is 00:09:51 black holes in the center of galaxies. We also look at some of the earliest galaxies, millions and millions of light years away, as well as exoplanets, she said, highlighting the areas the satellite radiation is affecting. Interference from the second generation or V2 satellites was found by Astron to be 32 times stronger than the first generation. The amount of radiation emitted exceeds regulations set by the industry body, the International Telecommunications Union, Dempsey added. One estimate suggests that there are 6,402 Starlink satellites currently in orbit around 342 miles above the Earth, making it the largest provider by far. The satellites are relatively large with three meter flat panels and an eight meter solar array for power. SpaceX's

Starting point is 00:10:35 main competitor, One Web has fewer than a thousand satellites, but it is a growing business area. Amazon is developing its own network and hopes to launch at least 3,000 in the next few years. By 2030, the number of satellites in orbit is expected to surpass 100,000, end quote. A couple of things to hip you to today. First up, social AI is a new iOS app that looks like a micro-blogging social network, but is filled with bots. And let's users populate their network with up to 32 different types of bots. So you're basically talking to bots, quoting TechCrunch. Are we at peak social media yet? It's an interesting question to ponder after the launch. of an iOS app offering a social media experience just for one. At a glance, social AI, which is billed

Starting point is 00:11:26 as a pure AI social network, looks like Twitter, but there's one very big twist on traditional microblogging. There are no other human users here, just you. In a nutshell, social AI lets you share your thoughts with an infinite supply of ever-available AI-powered bots that can endlessly chat back. Think about it. No remark you post to social AI will ever be greeted with silence nor fail to engage en masse. You simply can't get ghosted. The apps faux users exist to hang on your every word, leveraging programmed enthusiasm, to chip canned commentary into your replies. Even the sarcastic, snarky, and pessimistic bots can't resist joining these continuous scroll comment pylons. And the best thing is, you can be rest assured that there are no

Starting point is 00:12:06 actual humans to harsh your vibe. We've seen human AI social networking blends before, but this is a pure bot network minus you. As the sole human in the chat room, you are by default, the main character in your own private online drama each and every day you choose to log on. While a bot-filled universe may sound like a fairly accurate description of Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter these days, the big difference is that on social AI you can be 100% sure it's 100% bots 100% of the time, because literally everything else is bot. Social AI is radically transparent that every user you encounter is code. It also pledges that all your foe social encounters are totally private. So while the interface apes the look of classic social media apps. This is really something else entirely.

Starting point is 00:12:53 A social space with zero prying eyes and a bunch of AIs to help you explore your curiosity. Founder Michael Saman, a New York-based 28-year-old developer who spent a chunk of his teens working for Facebook coding Snap-style features, calls the apps vibe liberating. His company-friendly apps raised a $3 million seed round back in May 2022 before it had built any product. Discussing the response to the apps launch late Monday, he expresses surprise and delight that the MVP has triggered such an early buzz. Social AI will feel instantly familiar to anyone who's ever used Twitter or any of its clones, but scratch the surface and you'll quickly see the facade of traditional social media drop away. Sure, just like any social app, you can post comments

Starting point is 00:13:34 and replies and like others' comments, but every interaction the app serves you has been artificially generated. The most obvious point of difference versus traditional social apps is social AI users need to choose the categories of their followers by picking from a long list of bot types, such as oddballs, nerds, intellectuals, and trolls, or liberals, conservatives, and jocksters, and many more besides. You must select a minimum of three types of followers to populate your network, but there's no upper bound. You can opt in to every single type offered a full 32 at launch if you want to really mix things up, or, well, as much as a feed of AI-generated content can truly range off pre-programmed rails. Or you can opt to keep things.

Starting point is 00:14:15 cleaner and leaner with just a handful of types. The types you pick will determine the flavor of the AI-generated chatter coming back at you. But Samen says the app is also designed to learn and adapt to its user over time based on the sorts of followers and content you're engaging with, end quote. And finally, would you watch this? Amazon has a new competition TV show debuting October 30th that will have entrepreneurs pitch judges, including Amazon executives. Finalists products will be sold then on Amazon. So it's Shark Tank, but with a built-in platform. Quoting the journal, the e-commerce giant plans to introduce a new competition show next month in which entrepreneurs pitch their products to a studio audience, as well as to judges including Amazon executives and

Starting point is 00:15:03 celebrities like Goop founder, Gwyneth Peltro, and designer Christian Seriano. Finalists will have their inventions sold in a new Amazon Buy It Now online store, and the winner of each episode will earn $20,000. The show is the retailer's latest to marry content and commerce, persuading consumers to shop through internet-enabled televisions has long been a goal of traditional entertainment companies, but getting viewers to scan the QR code can be difficult. By creating shows that highlight its sellers and their products, Amazon has a better shot at getting viewers to shop, especially younger audiences who are already doing this on apps like TikTok, said Bernstein analyst Mark Schmullick. This feels more elegant than QR codes,

Starting point is 00:15:42 Schmullick said, of Amazon's new game show. Over the past few years, Amazon has introduced ads with QR codes in about 100 shows and movies, including the summer I Turned Pretty, the Boys, and more recently NFL football games. Its previous attempts at creating shows with tie-ins to commerce have been hit or miss. In 2017, after less than a year, Amazon canceled its QVC-like show Style Code Live, featuring experts sharing fashion tips and promoting products that the audience could buy. Other shows that use a competition format like Making the Cut, featuring rival fashion designers and hosted by Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn lasted three seasons. In that show, the winners could create a co-brand with Amazon fashion and launch their

Starting point is 00:16:17 existing lines in that store. In each episode of the show, which is scheduled to debut October 30th, and is hosted by comedian J.B. Smove of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entrepreneurs have 90 seconds to pitch their invention to a studio audience. The audience votes on whether the product should go to the judge's panel that includes former skateboarder Tony Hawk, blackish star Anthony Anderson, and actress Tabitha Brown, end quote. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 09/19 – Pokémon: No!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.