The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Deep Fake Video Proliferation, Twitters Public Square Attitudes & Other Tech News Oct 7, 2019

Episode Date: October 7, 2019

Deep Fake Video Proliferation, Twitters Public Square Attitudes & Other Tech News Oct 7, 2019

Hi folks, Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, the Chris Voss Show. Welcome to the podcast guys, we certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. Today, no interviews of anyone interesting, but we do have news and some discussion of some interesting topics that we've got to deal with. So we'll cover kind of news articles that I think stand out to me today that get my opinion on them. And then we're going to get into two different items that are interesting, how Twitter sees itself. Two of these things we'll be reading about today are on Vice. The other is most deep fakes and how they're being used, these fake videos, if you will, that make it look like you're in them.

So we'll talk about what's going on there and some of the implications of that. But let's start with news. We'll round out through some of the top stories that kind of interest me. According to Mac rumors, Apple has released the macOS Catalina with new apps, Find My, I don't know what that's find my and screen time as well as music TV and podcast apps to replace iTunes, sidecar for companion apps and more. So, uh, it looks like they're, you know, they're hacking up the old iTunes, that old, uh, dinosaur tank that, uh, I've hated for 20 years.

So good. Finally, uh, podcast apps are always good and you can subscribe to those on the Chris Voss show as well. We've got some other podcasts you can see on thecvpn.com. So be sure to check those out as well. Sources, according to Financial Times, the Apple company has recently approved big musical labels about bundling together Apple Music and Apple TV for one flat monthly fee. That might be interesting. I know one of my friends who writes for Forbes did an article and he counted up all the different monthly subscriptions you can get from Apple in payments.

And it's definitely over $150 by quite some. I forget the exact amount. But basically, that's what Apple is now. They're becoming more and more of a software service sort of thing as Tim Cook said they would. And, uh, they're looking to squeeze out as much money as they can out of their stuff. So, uh, good for them. Uh, they probably need the cash or not. Anyway, whatever there's uh more for you to spend on apple good for them that's nice isn't it um i mean yeah hey if you want to play in that ecosphere it's becoming quite the expensive toy these days uh but uh hey you know um i don't know it's kind of like

increasing the price of cigarettes to addicted cigarette makers at this point. I'm just glad I don't have to pay a whole lot of money just to use Google services. I really like that. So I'll just keep my AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note. Next up on our news thing. This is according to BuzzFeed News. Instagram is removing the activity feeds following tab which showed yours users what their friends were liking saying that a few people used it

probably just stalkers probably use that thing let's see what Mary's liking or you know maybe crazy ex-girlfriends or or girlfriends who are like I want to see if he's liking other women. Kill him or wives or something. So I guess a few people are using I don't really care what my friends like. I assume that maybe an algorithm kind of brings me some of the stuff that my friends are engaging with. I think on Facebook it does that. But I'm not really worried about what other people like.

I worry about what I like. I don't care what you like. That's not my problem. That's your like. I worry about what I like. I don't care what you like. That's not my problem. That's your problem. That sounds like a you problem, not a me problem. I got enough me problems as it is. I don't need adding you to my me problem because I got enough me problems as it is. So what you do is what you do.

You do what you do. You do you. I don't know, man. It's Monday. do. You do what you do. You do you. I don't know, man. It's Monday. Give me a break. According to Bloomberg, an Indian hotel booking startup, Oyo, I believe that's how it's pronounced, O-Y-O, they're raising $1.5 billion at a $10 billion valuation, of which $700 million is from the founder. Planning to raise the stake to 30%,

25 year old founder. Wow. What am I doing wrong? Uh, and, uh, it's kind of interesting. There's a lot of interesting stuff that's happening in India and, uh, it's going to give an interesting, uh, you know, as this, as this, I mean, both China and India, given what their populations have some interesting perspective on the future of being much larger economies than us if they ever get all their acts together. So it's going to be interesting to see. Certainly, I mean, it's a hell of a marketplace there in India because of the numbers of population. But the diversity of different languages and people is pretty freaking crazy. But, you know, hey, welcome to India. Next up, Reuters.

SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States, refuses to review a 2018 decision by an appeals court that found that Apple did not infringe on a University of Wisconsin-Madison patent and threw out $506 million in damages. Wow. Geez, wow. Apple's running around beating up on colleges? Oh, well, they got lots of money, too. Amazon launches $110 Kindle Kids Edition because God knows kids are sitting around with $110 in their savings account

just wondering when they can spend it. It's kind of interesting. It comes with four cases, one year free time, unlimited subscription. What is free time? Is that where it measures their free time and how much they use the things? It also has features like achievement badges because gamification towards addiction of electronics is really important. Get those kids addicted early.

Yeah, selling the crack early. Oh, man, how do you parents survive, man? I have a lot of respect for parents that can survive in this world. I have no idea how you would parent in today's world. I would be lost beyond measure. I don't even know how parents can afford it. You know, I've got relatives that, you know, they've got a four've got four, a four kid house, four person household, husband, wife, two kids. And, you know, every, everybody's got to have the latest iPhone.

Every time the iPhone comes out or whatever, everyone's got the latest, this latest, that they all, you know, they all got to have a phone plan. They all got to have iPads. They all got to have Netflix. You know, it's just, it's a lot of money. Holy crap. I mean, when I was a kid, my mom, you know, if we were like, hey, mom, we need something to do. She's like, go play in the yard and throw dirt clods at each other. Go wander some fields or construction properties. Just get out of my hair, get out of my house.

I don't want to see you till dinner. That was how it worked at my, in my generation. You know, we, we'd go out in the yard and, uh, we go out in the fields and we find some tree and we build a tree hut or something. And, uh, then, you know, I don't know, we'd injure ourselves some way, like, you know, hammering, you know, I spent a lot of time in ER rooms and, and, uh, stuff. I don't know. Maybe my parents paid more in ER. I didn't go to the ER that much, but it seemed like in my early 10s, we're spending a lot of time going to ER. So I was always cracking my head open on some, which probably is probably not a surprise to any of you out there listening to me.

He lost it a long time ago all right so what else do we have this is interesting emoji Pedia seriously there's one of those is reporting that in the new iOS 13.1 point to version the Hong Kong users emoji keyboard does not include the Taiwanese flag a year after a more complete ban for the flag for iOS in mainland China. Kind of interesting. So Hong Kong, China is leaning in on people to make sure that, you know, if you're familiar, they have a huge thing with Taiwan. They assume that Taiwan is part of them, yada, yada, yada, and they need to come back to them.

I watched a really good thing, coverage, if you will, on John Oliver's show, and he talked about the implications of the China One policy of having one baby for so many years. Now they're up to two. And what it's really created, it's created a lot of human trafficking. It's created a lot of rich guys dating really almost two young girls. There's probably some child stuff going on there, which isn't right. And it's created this whole generation of, of men because most of

the families who would keep boys, uh, to carry on the, the generations, of course, they, uh, in their culture, they expect the kids to take care of their parents when they get older. Uh, but it's created some interesting dynamics that are, are, uh, you know, threatened to destabilize the Chinese economy because I guess right now they're saying in the near future there will be one person to support four people that are old, grandparents and parents, and that doesn't work well in economies. Like here in America where we're struggling with our thing

with lowering birth rate of people and the ability to pay into social security so that we can just pay out social security for this burgeoning group of people that are much larger at the top that are retiring and honoring our commitment to them. So interesting as to how these dynamics play out both culturally, both financially, and just the future of the planet, the future of our relationships in an economy, future of technology, etc. Yeah, so if you get a chance, catch that on John Oliver's show on HBO. Really, really interesting deep dive into this sort of thing. Here's something that's really cool.

We've viewed these on the Chris Foss show before. This is according to The Verge. Sonos launches Sonos Flex, a subscription service for renting its speakers starting at 15. I'm not sure if that's 15 pounds or 15 quid. I'm not sure. I'm not good at reading English money. But it's only available right now in Netherlands. I guess they're trying it out to see how it works.

Kind of like the idea. Subscription service to check out their speakers. They definitely make some really good speakers, and they are integrated with a lot of IoT stuff. We got the Brilliant Light Switches recently, and they're integrated with them. You should check those out as well. Brilliant home controls.

What else do we have out there in the thing? Tinder is debuting Swipe Night, a choose-your-own-adventure game inside its app with weekly episodes that host and match users based on their in-game choices. So we're further gamification dating to find out, I guess, what choices you make. Does it decide if you make bad choices? This person makes really bad choices,

change the algorithm to feed them really toxic people. I don't know. I'd really like to be in the room that, that figures all this stuff out on the back end of the algorithms of those things. I really like to be the guy who's like, so, so how

does this work and what are we targeting and how does it end up on the other side what what what happens when people make certain choices what results do they get why that could be interesting uh you know more and more it's interesting how we're we're just in this world of where we're just becoming more and more it's interesting how we're we're just in this world of where we're just becoming more and more the play things of big companies and their gamification uh algorithms of of software and when you really think about it that's really all we are i mean we're just like we're like twitter's bitch and facebook's bitch and news channels bitch, and I'm not railing against news. One of the things I do hate is if anybody uses the term mainstream media.

I always find that the people who promote that sort of thing aren't big news media outlets, and they're smaller outlets that are, that are very prejudiced and don't hold to ethical reporting standards. But, uh, it's always interesting to me when I hear that. So, uh, but, but, but in reality we are news is bitch because news does come at us. It's kind of like life. Life comes at you. It's an approaching car.

You have to look at it and go this is gonna kill me or run me over and that's why you watch the news at night they go you know every night local news has something on there that goes today how breathing air can contribute to cancer and kill you news at 11 make sure you tune in find out how the air the air breathing breathing taking oxygen to your lungs has been found to cause death eventually. Can't win. Life, taxes, death, and there's something else. I forget what it is. I always throw it in.

Constants in life, death and taxes, and there's something else. I don't know what it is. Anyway, moving on. Move on, Chris. Get to the meat part. TechCrunch has reported that Roku is going to sell low-cost versions of its smart soundbar and wireless subwoofer under Walmart's OnBrand. Do they really do that?

Are you kidding me? Walmart has a brand called On, O-N-N, and that's in lowercase. Talk about fucking confusing branding. Are you seriously shitting me? On, O-N- and N in lowercase that seems like the dumbest hey did you get the on what the lights are on no just get the on no they're off no did you get the on did you go to Walmart get the on did I get the on no they're off no did you get the on did you go to walmart get the on

did i get it on at walmart stupid fucking name on it's one more on uh people at walmart they're losing it so anyway roku because god knows they need the soundbar and subwoofer. I don't know. Maybe they did. I don't know why. I don't know why they do that. So anyway, let's move on to two of our big top stories, kind of the meat, if you will, the meat.

Let's get into the first one that's kind of juicy. This is being reported by several different outlets today most deep fakes are used for creating non-consensual porn not fake news this is according to vice.com you can go check out the article there it's a really good read i think you should really read this because it impacts the future of all of our lives uh and there's another article from CNN, a California law, laws are being worked on right now,

passing through the legislation to crack down on deep fakes in politics and porn. Now, if you don't think this matters to you, imagine this. Imagine you have a coworker, maybe you have a jilted lover, who decides they want to ruin you and your life. And it's probably happening sometime in life. I've certainly collected my fair share of people who decided they want to try and destroy

me. Uh, I'm, I don't know if there's anybody who can go through life without somebody who decides that they want to just kind of destroy you. It seems to be the popular thing to do these days. So what they do is they go make a deep fake video. Now, you've probably seen these. These are videos that are so well done. They put your image across something like, say, a porn, and they make it look like you're talking. It's got your voice, and it's so good, it looks like you were in a porn. Now imagine what your employer

would do or your prospective employer would do if they were searching you to do their research. You know, employers do that. Now they search you on the internet to see what you're up to before they hire you. Colleges search you on the internet. Uh, a lot of different places check you out. Uh, maybe you go to work for a government job like the FBI or the NSA. And, of course, they're going to do their research on you as well. And they come across your jilted lovers, your fellow employee who wants the promotion and doesn't want you to get it. Or maybe wants you removed from your job so they can get it. And they find a porn of you online.

And you don't get the job you get fired you get uh you know maybe your relationships get fucked up in the future uh i've had a few friends that have had uh uh uh uh shakedown incorrect uh accusations of sexual assault uh and they've beaten them in court and proved the accusers wrong and that they were up to no good. And guess what? It's still on Google. So every time one of their new girlfriends searches them to see if they, okay, who's this guy and he wants to date me,

I should maybe check and see if he's got some sexual assault stuff. He's on some database. He's a weird dude. Guess what? Comes up in Google search and you're fucked. So employers, girlfriends, insurance agencies now are starting to check this stuff out. Prospective colleges, everything else. And evidently, there are thousands of these deepfake videos that are being posted online.

Now, sadly, this is horrific, especially for women. Many of them are being exclusively used to target women. So if you remember revenge porn that got really out of control, it was basically revenge porn was boyfriends or men who had pictures of women naked. Maybe they had been in a relationship and they'd done intimate pictures or videos of themselves doing stuff. When they broke up, they decided to pay that person back with revenge and publish that material uh sadly uh it got really out of hand before finally the legislative bodies around the nation made it illegal started prosecuting people and all that sort of good stuff but uh um did just a just a very ugly thing to take and do now this, this is the new level of that revenge porn.

Basically, they're doing deep fakes of porn, which is very scary. If you're a man or woman, you may want to spend a little bit of extra time double-checking who you're dating or who you're going to be dating because this is pretty crazy. They found that 96% of the total deepfake videos online are non-consensual deepfake pornography. So these guys aren't just making deepfake videos of you saying something like the N-word or something bad in public.

They're taking a picture, a video of you speaking maybe an event and they're editing something awful that you would say they're actually doing porn they found a total of 14,678 deepfake videos online according to giorgio now petrini ceo and chief scientist at deep trace the company then examined examine the gender of targets in the videos from five deepfake porn sites. They actually have porn sites? Oh my God. And 14 YouTube channels. And they found that the deepfake pornography websites

had over 134 million views and all but 1% of the subjects featured in the deepfake photography videos were female actors and musicians working in the entertainment sector. So that's really out of control. And a lot of it's women. So that's even more out of control. So this is getting out of control.

It's targeting and harming women. And I don't think it's going to get any better. I think, if anything, this is going to get really bad. I like that California is leading the charge at taking and designing laws about this. But we need a national law that makes this illegal. Because, certainly, you can damage someone's reputation. I mean, because a lot of these different, you know, insurance agencies, colleges, employers, and other things like that,

they're probably not going to call you up and be like, hey, man, you know, we were searching you and we found this. We found that you did Debbie Does Dallas. You're like the main lead in it. We didn't know that. It's weird because we used to watch it and we didn't see in it then but looks like you're in it now they're not gonna have that conversation with you I mean you don't have conversations I know people and so you know there you go and a lot

of people now you know there's there's a proliferation of what do they call amateur porn where people do a know, there's a proliferation of, what do they call it, amateur porn, where people do amateur pornography. There's different websites now where if you want to, you know, if you're a person who likes to, what's the right word, expose yourself, let's put it that way. I'll just put it that way mildly. If you're a person who likes exhibitionism, I think that's the correct term. If you're an exhibitionist who likes, you know, having sex in public and having other people see you, there's websites for that. So a lot of these companies are just going to be like, well, they're probably in that category. They like making amateur porn. So we just won't hire them.

And you'll probably never know until someone tells you, which is really disturbing. So someone who has some evil intent towards you as a person can do some really harmful damage with that. And then I don't even know how you get that shit off of Google. I mean, I suppose you'd have to file a takedown order, copyright something, and then it takes forever for them to process any of that kind of shit if you can even get anybody to do it right. So I don't know, man. It's pretty fucking scary. Yeah, what are you going to do? So hopefully lawmakers and stuff get this in.

Be wary of this going on and what's up, and be wary of the people you're interacting because certainly you don't need this sort of evil shit going on with you, I'm sure, if you're a good person at least next up on the content to dive down that we want to take and do this is from vice comm as well interesting stuff from vice this is interviews of Twitter former and current employees including executives that explain how Twitter really positions itself and its responsibilities around monitoring speech.

You know, I watched Twitter for a long time, being a fan of it. Twitter has always been the clown car that crashed into success. They seem to keep crashing and somehow still keep being viable. One of the ways it's viable is trying not to be too overbearing on what it allows on its website. They certainly always seem to be the last line of banning the people that all the other platforms seem to ban first. And they've always kind of tailed along at trying to get after this. Twitter does see itself as a public square.

The only problem is it's not a public square. It is a private property. A lot of people, just to make this clear to people who like to pound this drum, where they're like, oh, everyone should have free speech. Twitter is a private property. Twitter is like coming onto my property and trying to yell on it or throw eggs or something. You're on my property. I decide what goes on my property and trying to yell on it or throw eggs or something. You're on my property. I decide what goes on my property.

And if I want to remove you from my property, I have that choice under law. So does Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, et cetera, et cetera. They are not protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. You do not have First Amendment rights there. But Twitter is trying to kind of stay in the mainstream i don't know if they do it because they're financially broke they certainly don't have as much money one thing that was interesting from the article that stuck out at me as you read it is it looks like there's a roughly about 15 000 regulators and moderators at facebook that they have to

um moderate their thing now the platform is much bigger than Twitter, but it looks like there's only roughly 1,500 of its moderators at Twitter. So Twitter's active monthly users are a fraction of the 320 million at Twitter to 2 billion, over 2 billion at Facebook. So you can kind of go, well, okay, that explains why maybe they have a smaller enforcement size. But, yeah, it's interesting. And they have a lot of different conversations about it. I kind of understand why Twitter does not block the president because I think I think Twitter's opinion with the politics

and them is that that we should all see how fucking crazy some of these people are in politics and you know let them give them enough rope and if they decide they want to sink their own boat with that rope then whatever there you go i think i do think it's a service because i mean what if we imagine if nixon had twittered imagine if nixon had taken all the shit he said on the nixon tapes and twittered them i mean very quickly i mean he would have been impeached way faster especially in that day and age. But I think it's good that we have an avenue to know the open mind of what someone is thinking in a thing. Now, given the rise of hate groups, the rise of white nationalists and all these sort of people is highly disturbing,

and yes, they should not be on platforms. There's certain things that are heinous to the world child pornography uh white nationalists uh things of hate um these things do not need to have um a platform to be on that's healthy they can go into the dark corners of their world you know if you're in the kkk you can go hang out in the field and bring your little crosses and and try and hide and stay out of your sight because you cover your faces in shame. The same thing is happening on these websites like Gab AI, etc., 8chan, 4chan. People are hiding behind this thing of their computers, and they're able to propagand hate, conspiracy theories, craziness, and stupidity. It is a balance of First Amendment rules and what's important, but on the other hand, there are serious complications to our culture

and our society, how we view race, how we view religion, how we view the other stuff that gets attacked from these crazy people. So, uh, it's interesting balance. Go and read the article if you can at device.com. I am always interested in stuff because it does have an impact in our society as a whole. Um, whether it's the impact of someone taking a gun, going attacking a school or public property, uh, and killing a bunch of people, or just having a long-term effect on our children, what they're reading, what they're seeing, what the future of their culture and expectations are going to be, and what our culture is now.

So there's that. Anyway, those are some of the items that stuck out to me today, some of the meat to it. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. We're going to go into our next episode with some of the top things that really stuck out to me in product hunt. We're going to talk about those as well today. So be sure to check out the next episode of the Chris Voss today. We'll be talking about cool stuff you can see on product hunt and be sure to check in every day. Be sure to subscribe at thecvpn.com to all the different podcasts we have. And we certainly appreciate you being here. We'll see you next time.