TechTime with Nathan Mumm

249: Will We Have an AI Avatar Revolution? Digital Deception Happens With a New Wave of Scams in Person, Then Google is on Trial: Monopolies and Innovation. A New Amazon Holiday: "Amazon Primed, Squared Obtuse" from TechTime | Air Date: 4/12 - 4/28/2025

• Nathan Mumm • Season 7 • Episode 249

Share episode

The line between technological innovation and dehumanization grows increasingly blurred as companies embrace AI solutions that fundamentally alter human interaction. At the forefront of this shift is Otter AI founder Sam Liang, who has developed an AI-powered avatar that attends 90% of his business meetings, complete with voice synthesis mimicking his speech patterns and the ability to make decisions based on his past behaviors. This represents a troubling evolution where leadership presence becomes optional, raising profound questions about authenticity, trust, and what we sacrifice when algorithms replace human connection.

Meanwhile, scammers continue finding sophisticated ways to exploit our trust through technology. A particularly alarming trend involves fake banking apps designed to mimic legitimate banking platforms, allowing fraudsters to display convincing "payment successful" screens while walking away with sellers' goods. The face-to-face nature of these scams blends old-fashioned confidence tricks with digital deception, leaving victims thousands of dollars out of pocket with little recourse.

The tech landscape continues to be shaped by major corporate competition and legal challenges. Google faces its second antitrust loss in a year as a US judge ruled the company maintains an illegal monopoly in online advertising. Simultaneously, Amazon expands its technological empire across multiple fronts—from entertainment franchises to autonomous vehicles with Zoox robotaxis, to challenging SpaceX's Starlink with its Project Kuiper satellite internet service.

These developments highlight the growing consolidation of power among tech giants while raising important questions about innovation, competition, and how technology serves humanity. As AI systems increasingly stand in for human judgment and interaction, we must critically examine whether these advances truly enhance our lives or merely replace authentic connection with algorithmic approximation.

Join us as we navigate this complex technological landscape with humor, insight, and a commitment to understanding how these developments affect our daily lives and future prospects.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Broadcasting across the nation, from the East Coast to the West, keeping you up to date on technology while enjoying a little whiskey on the side, with leading-edge topics, along with special guests to navigate technology in a segmented, stylized radio program. The information that will make you go, mmmmm. Pull up a seat, raise a glass with our hosts as we spend the next hour talking about technology for the common person. Welcome to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm.

Nathan Mum:

Welcome to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. The show that makes you go mmm. Technology news of the week. The show for the everyday person talking about technology, broadcasting across the nation with insightful segments on weeks ahead of the mainstream media. We welcome our radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news. I'm Nathan Mumm, your host and technologist, with over 30 years of technology expertise. I'm excited to be here today with our co-host, mike Gurday. He is an award-winning author and a human behavior expert.

Nathan Mum:

Now we're live streaming during our show on four of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv, facebook and LinkedIn. You can always catch us on Tuesdays at three o'clock Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Time, with our radio broadcast and always catch some of our encore shows that we broadcast throughout the week after that. We encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradiocom and become a Patreon supporter at patreoncom. Forward slash techtimeradio. We are friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology show possible weekly for our family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have Odi, our producer, at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show.

Speaker 1:

Now on today's show. Now on today's show.

Nathan Mum:

All right. Today on Tech Time Radio, we're diving into some intriguing topics that are making waves in the tech world. From a fake banking app that's scamming unsuspected users, to CEOs like Otter AI's Sam Lange embracing ai avatars for office tasks there's plenty to discuss. We also touch on a judge's ruling regarding google's advertising practices. It said that they are unfair. Does that surprise you? Google's advertising practices are unfair.

Mike Gorday:

No, let's let's, let's take, let's take them and break them up, okay, well, we're doing that, like we're doing to uh meta, so we're doing it to every.

Nathan Mum:

The only company getting unescaped from this is microsoft, it seems. And guess what? We're unveiling our own tech time radio created holiday. That's right. Today we are gonna. You know, amazon creates all these holiday sales to sell, we all know how much you hate that. I hate them. So now we are doing one that's called Amazon Prime Squared Obtuse. This is our own holiday. You get an Amazon Prime and then you get Squared and Obtuse. I kept on going on with math.

Mike Gorday:

I actually had a bunch that should have been done last week, when we had that Sucks Day, that Sucks Day.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah Well, this is going to be wild because we have so many stories that are going on in the news with Amazon right now that, as we were going through our show prep, we had to actually just create this whole segment and this whole fake holiday to go through what's going on in Amazon's world. Okay, in addition, of course, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment, the technology fail of the week and a Nathan nugget it's going to be more of a rant, but it's a Nathan rant and, of course, our pick of the day, whiskey Taste, and to see if our selected whiskey pick gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show. Now, I was going back and looking at my whiskey picks Per year I only averaged three thumbs down, so I'm going to be a little bit more judgmental. That's what I average.

Mike Gorday:

Is this like a New Year's resolution that you forgot to do on New Year's?

Nathan Mum:

Well, because it's our holiday Amazon Prime Squared Obtuse Holiday I decided to do a bunch of holiday research, so I have now gone back and taken a look at my whiskey, because it's every.

Mike Gorday:

Amazon Prime Squared Obtuse, so you're going to just change your palate just like blip.

Nathan Mum:

It's going to be, that's right. Okay, because it's a special holiday, so it's going to be very critical today, well let's, let's, let's, but it's got a cork top, so I might be already.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, let's watch that in action shall we?

Nathan Mum:

Okay, all right. Well, now, everybody, it's time for the latest headlines in the world of technology.

Speaker 1:

Here are our top technology stories of the week.

Nathan Mum:

All right. Welcome to the new era of leadership by an algorithm, where you trust a dedicated AI in the cloud. In an article that was just published a few days back in Bloomberg, titled, meanings won't be the same when the boss sends an AI bot. There's a whole bunch of research that is being done on what C-level and high-level managers are doing so they don't have to attend meetings. Let's go to Lisa Walker. More on the story.

Speaker 6:

Otterai is training an AI-powered avatar on what the founder Liang has said in thousands of meetings and written in documents since he co-founded the company nearly a decade ago. Complete with a voice synthesized to sound like him, it is built to handle about 90% of the issues that arise in most business meetings. Liang said it has my knowledge so it knows how. I think it can infer how I would respond to a new question based on all the past interactions. When the avatar gets stumped with, say, a hiring decision, it can ping me in real time for a reply. The bot can be tailored to adopt the mannerisms of the bosses they mirror, like how often they pause while speaking or how frequently they interrupt others. Back to you guys in the studio.

Mike Gorday:

Are you serious?

Nathan Mum:

I'm not only serious. This is a leader in ai and he has a whole bunch of people that he has this ai about going to meetings for now oh yeah, yeah, I get that.

Mike Gorday:

I, you know we. We talk about how everybody wants ai to to replace all these jobs and these these dudes in power like, yeah, let's just let it run our meetings for us so.

Nathan Mum:

So not not only does it do so, it has voice cloning. It's got an avatar that they actually have, an animated avatar that will smile. It'll be like a picture of the, the ceo.

Mike Gorday:

I've seen this. I've seen this in in the gaming world so this is exactly it.

Nathan Mum:

So instead of going to meetings, he sends his ai bot, the owner uh, now, of course, he's an owner of an ai company, so he's going to be uh, otter ai, which is a transcript tool that we use for tech time radio on our meeting notes, and you get little notes when you're at the meeting I've used otter ai.

Nathan Mum:

Okay, so it creates a real-time transcript and then it summarizes, as it's capturing what's going on, and it will make decisions. The bot actually says that's a great idea or that's not a good idea, or let me get back to you on that I, I really, I really want this to backfire.

Mike Gorday:

Do you really want this? Yeah, because this is one of the laziest, effing things I've ever heard of. I, I, this is just crazy. If you don't have enough time to meet with your staff and you want to even, even all the damn meetings that you have to go through on on a regular day is ridiculous in the first place.

Nathan Mum:

Okay, if you have to send an ai bot, but yeah, having an ai bot stand in and that's that's.

Mike Gorday:

That's one of the. You know, if he's going to let it make decisions for him, maybe he doesn't need to be there at all, you know I I.

Nathan Mum:

I worked at a company in Seattle that was owned by the co-founder of Microsoft, paul Allen. He's passed away since this time, but I worked for him and there was a lot of times where I had a large group that was reporting to me over a hundred plus people, including contractors in different areas and so if I couldn't attend a meeting, you know what would happen I would still have those meetings and then I would send an administrative assistant in to take meeting notes and then they could ask me what was going on. But they still had the dialogue between the people themselves. Knowing that I'm not there, and I felt guilty when I did that. I would feel guilty of not attending the meeting.

Mike Gorday:

Clearly, this guy doesn't feel guilty about it. So now you're saying I bought this is completely lazy, this is just what. What benefits do you get from this? I I don't know why you would do this at all. I don't know, but he says it.

Nathan Mum:

Thanks for him he understood, understands how he thinks it.

Mike Gorday:

So if he needs to make a decision, it can basically run the company for him, so um, so why does he? Doesn't need to be there, so fire his. But yeah, keep the ai, you, don't you? You immediately get to save a lot of money because you don't pay, so why does he have to be there? He doesn't need to be there, so fire his butt. Yeah, keep the AI you immediately get to save a lot of money because you don't pay the.

Nathan Mum:

AI. So are we going to go to that now? Or a company's now having an AI engine that's running the whole?

Mike Gorday:

company. If I went into a meeting and my boss was a cloned AI, I would walk out of that place.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, I think in this, none of my meetings that I have would have that, but I don't know. That's the most unpersonal.

Mike Gorday:

Or what, or I would do everything I could to make that AI say things that were just utterly ridiculous.

Nathan Mum:

Or give you a raise, or do this or do that, just keep on asking. Let's see how much we can manipulate the large language model to get it to do stuff. You know, if you have to have a bot go to your meetings, then those meetings shouldn't be probably scheduled.

Nathan Mum:

And if you can't send an assistant or somebody else to take notes for you on meetings, then don't have those meetings. But as soon as we start having AI bots going to meetings, then you know what. We might as well just move to Terminator 2 day, because it should just be here right up the. I mean, that's where we're at if you're gonna have your company's highest ranking officer.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, they're gonna turn it into ed 209. Who's gonna walk in and like mow down everybody?

Nathan Mum:

yep, all right. Well, I hope story number two can, can can get us out of the ai rut. What do we have here for uh?

Mike Gorday:

story number two well, hey, you know we're gonna go. We're gonna go back to the, to real, the real genius of scamming people without the use of ai. We're gonna talk about real people scamming real people.

Mike Gorday:

Oh wow, that sounds exciting that's good, the real people yeah people are being scammed by a fake banking app that makes you lose faith in humanity. Oh no, the app mimics legitimate mobile banking platforms and allows fraudsters to fake bank transfers in person, show the seller a successful payment message and then walk away, leaving sellers thousands of dollars out of pocket. Okay, dr Tim Day lead in doorstep crime and scams for Chartered Trading Standards Institute described the apps as an emerging threat. Okay, uh, dr tim day lead lead in doorstep crime and scams for chartered trading standards institute described the apps as an emerging threat. He added the in-person nature of the scam is unusual. So, apparently, what happens?

Nathan Mum:

as if you're selling something like you sell facebook marketplace stuff right, yeah, facebook, marketplace, ebay, different places, but I do in person some stuff all right, so a couple pinballs for sale.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, you you advertise something on online hey, come buy my. What did you say? It was pinball. I got two. Come, come buy my pinball machine, yeah. So these guys, these guys show up with their mobile phone in the app in hand. They take some information from you, yeah, and then they show it to you and the app mimics your banking app and it basically says that you're, you've been paid okay, and then he gets to walk away with your items, items okay, and you never get money oh, no really yep, on the screen is on the screen.

Mike Gorday:

It has an advert. So for for the example here and there.

Nathan Mum:

So realistic, yep. I downloaded this on my android phone yeah, oh.

Mike Gorday:

So this, this, this person that is in this article, yeah, uh, was selling more than a thousand dollars worth of power tools on the social media platform when he received a message from a profile named liam wright. Okay, when mr wright said he was interested in viewing him, mr rudd invented him to come to his workshop. After he arrived, he checked over the tools, offered a bank transfer and opened what appeared to be the banking app. He handed his phone over to him and he typed in his account details and it collects that in a text file in the app itself.

Nathan Mum:

Yep, so when you type that in there, it actually collects that it collects your banking app or banking details.

Mike Gorday:

He said it looked absolutely genuine. While Mr Wood was waiting for the money to appear in his bank account, he turned his back to pick up accessories to hand over as part of the sale. The scammer used this opportunity to leave with all the tools, but the money never arrived in his account. Wow.

Nathan Mum:

So let me tell you about this app, because I actually downloaded it on Android I kind of feel like you would have done something, so I did play with it.

Nathan Mum:

So when you go on in to simulate what you're doing, it's got like Bank of America, wells Fargo, chase Bank. It's got all the bank names. And so you ask the user so if I'm buying with fake money from you, mr Gorday, and I come in and I say, hey, I want to buy that great Star Wars action figure that you have, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm going to have to pay you through my bank account. What's your bank? And what's the first thing you're going to say Well, I probably use like Chase Bank or something. What's the bank that you use? Just give me an example BECU. Okay, becu. It actually comes on up too. So, okay, great, becu, can you please, because I want to send you an instant transfer from my bank so you can make sure you get paid?

Nathan Mum:

It has the BECU login. It's got the BECU information. Everything that you are familiar with with BECU is in the app itself. You type in your account information. Then I go back and I grab the phone and say, okay, how much do we need to put in there? All right, can I even have you do that? Can you put in how much is in there, because my bank account's already connected to it and it says successfully transferred id number uh, money wire to be taking care of.

Mike Gorday:

This is classic conning.

Nathan Mum:

This is just classic conning, right here so when I loaded this app, I thought maybe this would be the only app. There was three other competitors and some of these wanted me to charge all the way up to ten dollars, nine dollars and 95 cents to download this app. That guarantees it updates within 24 hours of any new screenshots that would come from the bank. So the other ones are a little bit dated, but it and it literally looks. It is so amazing, it looks so legit that I am sure most people would fall for this and this article has got like four people that all fell for it. Yeah well, the point, the point, the point, and this article has got like four people that all fell for it.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, well, the point, the point, the point of this is that there's actually people that are going to these folks's house, or whatever business they are showing their face to this person and talking them through this. So this is a, this is this is this is a pre-internet scam. Almost Okay, Because you know that's how con artists work in the past, right Back in the day yep, so yeah, this is good. So I mean, the good thing is that if they ever catch this guy, at least he'll be able to be identified.

Nathan Mum:

But what happens when you go to the police department and tell them that you were just scammed? What does the police department say to you I don't know, I'm not a cop. Okay, so the police department and most Did you call the cops.

Mike Gorday:

No, no, but most of the time.

Nathan Mum:

I had a person break into my car in downtown Seattle.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, a while ago, and you know what I got broken into when I first moved here.

Nathan Mum:

Okay, the police will give you a record, they'll give you an ID of information and they'll say if we find anything, we will contact you. That's true, and so nothing really happens.

Mike Gorday:

That's true, except they caught my guy. They caught your guy. It was actually not a guy, it was actually a woman, okay, who broke into my place looking for drugs, stole all the computers and all this other stuff, and they identified one of the computers that was stolen.

Nathan Mum:

Did she try to hawk it at some type of oh?

Mike Gorday:

yeah, they found her in her car. Her car was full of stolen items and they were trying to pawn them and it was a so do we go to vigilante?

Nathan Mum:

I mean, the only thing I can think of is, like Marvel superhero stuff. I mean.

Ody:

Another frustrating thing about that is if you are scammed online through like a banking thing, they tell you to make a police report to have record of it, and then the police send you to like an FBI website they used to they used to, but now they no longer have staffing for the FBI because it was a technology deal.

Nathan Mum:

So now what you do is you get. So I had somebody that just got scammed some money and then you'd used to go and fill out an FBI report, which you still do and then you go to contact them and it says that we don't have enough service individuals. If this is an emergency, please contact us. Or if it's over a million dollars that has been lost, then please contact us. So if you're a small person now now you're just kind of out there going.

Mike Gorday:

This is taking advantage of people face-to-face because you know you want to trust people.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Our nature is to want to trust people. Our nature is to want to collaborate, and work.

Nathan Mum:

You figure, if someone is coming to your place, that they're going to be somewhat legit.

Mike Gorday:

Right work is the con artist or the person that is doing the scam. Uh, engenders himself to you, based on on human nature.

Mike Gorday:

So we want personality we want that, we want that connection, we want that, that trust. So they engender that, they they build rapport and then they they allow you to do. And if, if someone came to your house and said here, okay, okay, we can do it on my phone, you would be more likely to say yes to that than if they did an online transaction. That's correct. Hey, I'll just send you a link. So, yeah, you got to be really on your ball when you're dealing with this stuff, when you're dealing with this stuff and it's always interesting to me about how going back to old ways works better now than it did in the old days.

Mike Gorday:

All right, okay, that's all I have to say about that.

Nathan Mum:

So the app is on the store and it's been reported and guess what? Nobody's doing anything really about it, so it's just going to sit there on the app store for people to download and then, hopefully, banks then change their front end transfer information so it doesn't look the same.

Mike Gorday:

Well, I'm guessing this is what you're going to ask me later, so we can see.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, I guess I do have a question out there. All right Story. Number three Google has illegal advertising monopoly Judge rules. The US judge has determined that Google, the tech giant, holds a monopoly on online advertising. Us judges determined that Google, the tech giant, holds a monopoly on online advertising. The US Department of Justice, together with 17 states, filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming it illegally dominates the technology that dictates the placement of online ads. Now the US District Judge Birken Birken Birkema.

Mike Gorday:

Is that Birkema, birkema? No, that's Brinkema, brinkema, brinkema.

Nathan Mum:

Brin, is that birkenau?

Mike Gorday:

birkenau. No, that's a brinkima brink.

Nathan Mum:

It brink brink brinkima okay, all right, whatever decided declared that google had willfully engaged thank you. Anti-competitive acts allowing it to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the market. This marks the second antitrust case google has lost within a year following a rule that establishes monopoly and online search. So Google's in charge of search. They're getting broken up for search. Now they're getting broken up for their advertising because they're kind of the leader of advertising that places you in the search algorithm that they own. So now Google is going to have like 27 AT&T breakup. What is it? Was it Bell? Was it Bell Institutes?

Mike Gorday:

Who is the big phone.

Nathan Mum:

Bell Telephone System.

Mike Gorday:

Bell Telephone System. That was man. That's like that was a long time ago, that's way back in the Well, I'm just saying Is it the 80s, but it was like one telephone company that was a telephone.

Nathan Mum:

No, I think it was 70s A telephone company that was running it. So Google's legal team contends that the case is overly centered on its past actions, while overlooking other major advertising technology providers like Amazon. We're so excited to be celebrating our Amazon Prime Squared Obtuse Holiday, so we don't want to be picking on Amazon at all until at least next segment. Okay, all right. That wraps up our technology stories of the week. Next we're going to dive into our special segment that we have. We'll see you after this commercial break.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, so your palate.

Speaker 9:

Looking for custom glass solutions for your next commercial project? Hartung Glass Industries is your trusted partner in custom glass fabrication. For over 100 years, hartung has delivered proven manufacturing expertise, comprehensive product offerings and dependable service and quality. From energy-efficient facades to custom shower doors, we create glass solutions tailored to your project needs. With eight facilities across the US and Canada, we combine national expertise with a local touch-insuring faster service and unparalleled customer care. Hartung Glass Industries where quality meets innovation. Visit hartungglasscom to learn more.

Nathan Mum:

All right, welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. Our weekly show covers the top technology subjects without any political agenda. We verify the facts and we do it with a sense of humor, in less than 60 minutes and, of course, with a little whiskey on the side. Today, mark Gregoire, our whiskey connoisseur, is in studio.

Marc Gregoire:

What have you chosen today. Today we are drinking Elijah Craig toasted rye, so from Elijah Craig's website. In this expression, we imbue our award-winning straight rye whiskey with even more flavor Once fully matured. We finish toasted rye in a second custom toasted new oak barrel, adding a balanced layer of sweet oak and complexity. Now this is from Heaven Hill, which is one of your favorite companies. This is so good.

Nathan Mum:

How can I be? Critical this is so good. Let's talk about that critical palate you got going on oh man, this is fantastic Well critical just means you're very particular.

Marc Gregoire:

You can still love things on a critical palate.

Nathan Mum:

Oh, this is like butter.

Mike Gorday:

This is so, so, so, so what he just said, is that you have to say thumbs down anyway.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, no, no, no this is from Elijah Craig's Distillery in Bardstown, kentucky. It's a straight rye. It's non-age stated, it's 94 proof, it's barely a rye. So it's 51% rye, 35% corn, 14% malted barley. It is $55. Dollars, man.

Nathan Mum:

this is so so so good yeah it's very sweet do you like it, mike? I don't want to give it thumbs up, I do it's, it's, it's sweet.

Mike Gorday:

Um, it's definitely. You said how much on the corn I can definitely five percent corn so that that's. That's where that sweetness comes.

Nathan Mum:

Absolutely, yeah, look at you, at you, conor Seward. All right, is this from your personal collection?

Marc Gregoire:

This is my bottle.

Nathan Mum:

Oh, you purchased this.

Marc Gregoire:

I purchased it Okay.

Nathan Mum:

It's not very expensive. No, it's not, it's $55.

Marc Gregoire:

I'm going to start paying.

Mike Gorday:

I got it on sale. I got it for $50.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, for $50.

Mike Gorday:

It's got everything that Nathan gives a thumbs up on.

Nathan Mum:

I know it's under $50. It's got a cork top.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, not just a cork, nice wood, it's a wooden cork top with a popping sound.

Nathan Mum:

It gives you that nice cork squeak.

Marc Gregoire:

Alright. Well, don't forget to like and subscribe to the show. It means a lot to us. Drink responsibly, especially on this liquor Heaven can wait.

Nathan Mum:

There you go All right With our whiskey tasting completed. Today we're doing our own holiday. This is Amazon holiday knockoff. We're calling it Amazon Prime Square Obtuse. Let's start this segment now.

Speaker 9:

Welcome to the Tech Time. Fictional holiday amazon prime squared obtuse. What do these crazy guys have in store today?

Marc Gregoire:

all right, so that's what we got. So so why you need, why no plus in it? Oh well, because that, because you know where's the plus hang on, hang on.

Nathan Mum:

amazon has not just one holiday, but they have many holidays throughout the year. So let me just tell you that the voice and that music is not going to be the first time you hear it this year. There will probably be two or three other fake Okay. You know, it's just holidays that we now create for tech time holidays.

Mike Gorday:

This is the Amazon related one. You don't have any idea of how to build suspense, do you? Why is that?

Nathan Mum:

Well, just wait until. Well, you know what we could have like a Google day? We could have an alphabet day. We could have the Muppets. The Muppets come on out and say one of the count counting.

Mike Gorday:

Mark's point we've talked about this before. You should add plus to the end of everything.

Nathan Mum:

You should have plus, yes, and you should than them and be plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. All right, okay, I got story number one.

Mike Gorday:

uh, I got story number two, and then you know what, mike, I'm gonna give you the last two stories you can't pronounce the words no, no, no, all right.

Nathan Mum:

Story number one. These are all related to amazon, so in our pre-show we were doing what we wanted to talk about today, and there was so much that's going on in the amazon world that that's why we created this fake holiday. We have a live action Pacific Rim TV series in development at Amazon, according to a variety of news, for the project was first shared in 2024. But now they've reported gotten the arrival. Screenwriter Eric has here was attached to develop and write the show. The new series will apparently be a prequel to the original Pacific Rim, a movie about fighting giant mechs and the humans that pilot them. What do you think?

Mike Gorday:

about this, what I think about this is that every time Amazon purchases something that I like, they turn it into meat paste. What, yeah, come on Rings of Power is pretty good.

Nathan Mum:

No, what, no? Oh, I think Mark on rings of power is pretty good, no, what no?

Marc Gregoire:

oh, I think, mark, would you disagree with me here.

Nathan Mum:

Do you like rings of power? I like rings of power.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, all right, so see, okay, there you go, I think they have, they have, they have taken, they have taken the narrative out of tolkien's arcs yeah and that's what they do. That's why I don't like rings of power. They did they. They've done a lot of it with other things like uh, the wheel of time series is a complete is a complete horrible.

Nathan Mum:

We tried watching that. It's nothing like the books no, it well it is.

Mike Gorday:

It is kind of no, the main character, that the main the main characters are the same, the stories are related, but they've changed everything around so that it's just. It just sucks, all right, okay, well now, you know I'm not.

Marc Gregoire:

Are you taking on the critical role now?

Mike Gorday:

I I you know I always bitch about this stuff but you like pacific rim, I'm not. I'm not a huge pacific rim fan, but I can't wait to see how they screw this there you go. Okay, all right, can't wait.

Nathan Mum:

Well, you know what, speaking of uh movies, we're going right on the next idea let's let's get more of these in the road to see how they screw this up. There you go. Okay, all right, can't wait. Well, you know what? Speaking of movies, we're going right on to the next idea let's get more of these in the road, robotaxis, right. So we have Waymo. We got everybody out there, but now we have Zoox. Z-o-o-x, the autonomous driving technology company owned by Amazon, is preparing to begin testing its vehicles of all places Los Angeles this summer. What a place to put them in? Why don't you just pick the worst place with traffic, throw them on the freeways and we'll see how well they do that's actually probably a good place to put them, because they're not going to move more than five feet.

Mike Gorday:

There you go.

Nathan Mum:

Founded in 2014 and acquired by Amazon in 2020. Zoox is one of the several efforts to bring self-driving technology into the mainstream. Now Tesla chief executive Elon Musk isn't happy about this. He's been touting the potential of autonomous driving vehicles for you and Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, is already operating driverless taxis in multiple cities, including Los Angeles, san Francisco and Phoenix. Now Zeke's testing in Los Angeles will lay the groundwork for future commercial services. The company spokesman said the company plans to welcome its first public riders in Las Vegas and San Francisco by the end of the year.

Marc Gregoire:

Get on board, boys. This is the wave of the future. It's going to be RoboTaxis. It's going to be a little rough at first, but this is the way it's going to go.

Mike Gorday:

I only want Johnny Cab.

Nathan Mum:

You only want Johnny Cab.

Mike Gorday:

That's what I want. I want Johnny Cab.

Nathan Mum:

Johnny Cab, from what was that? Total Recall, total Recall Okay.

Mike Gorday:

But I think this is one of these things that really is not good for our future, because you have all these companies competing in this one market.

Nathan Mum:

It's like with with virtual reality reality you know where Apple kind of came late and really it's now meta that owns it still.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah so. So one doesn't work like the other, and I don't know Microsoft stopped doing it.

Nathan Mum:

Okay, well, all right. Well news, breaking news. You know we got a big flash going across the top of the internet reader bar right now for our holiday Buy. Now this is a lightning plus sale. So you decided to put the lightning plus sale. You got our next article. Story number three.

Mike Gorday:

You're not going to talk about how they, how they grabbed Highlander rights and they're going to make me talk about that.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, that's your story, you got that one. You talk rights and they're going to make me talk about that. Yeah, that's your story. You got that one. You talk about that. No, I'm supposed to talk about, okay, all right, amazon. Amazon has landed the highliner rights and henry cavill is the star.

Mike Gorday:

As they say, in the highlander franchise, there can only be one there can only no, no, there could be only one, that can only be one.

Nathan Mum:

There can be only one. So okay, and in the case of the latest reimagines new home studio, Amazon's MGM studios and United artists have combined. Sources tell deadline that Amazon's MGM studios have secure the rights to remake a new vision of Highlander A new meat paste version. Are you excited about that?

Mike Gorday:

No.

Nathan Mum:

I mean Amazon. Let me just tell you this they're buying up every intellectual property they can.

Ody:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

They're other than disney and marvel. That has that point. At some point they're gonna own the market. I expect that they're gonna get judged, you're gonna be uh, they're gonna, yeah, they're gonna be declared a monopoly and they're gonna have to go in front probably but you know, we got all right, you got story number four.

Nathan Mum:

And and then we still have another one coming on up for our amazon, yeah well amazon again is taking us one step closer to the reality of what's that?

Mike Gorday:

what's that movie that I love? It's a disney movie. Disney movie tron with the robot tron wally, little more wally.

Nathan Mum:

Yes, we're one more.

Mike Gorday:

We're one step closer to the the reality of wally. Oh, amazon's inaugural, inaugural launch of project what's? How do you pronounce it? Is it coupler, copper, cuper, copper, kuiper, kuiper project, kuiper internet satellites, kuiper won the launch of ula atlas v551 rocket carrying the first production satellites for amazon's project kuiper is now planned for April 28th, I think that's interesting.

Nathan Mum:

That's like Mel Kuiper's draft board thing.

Mike Gorday:

I think that this is interesting, that they call it Project Kuiper, because Kuiper is this big, huge asteroid belt that exists outside of our little planetary system here, oh okay. No, it's between us and Jupiter, I think. Oh, but it's this big asteroid built Okay With Project Kuiper. One of Amazon's goal is to take on SpaceX's Starlink internet service, which started in 2019 and now provides broadband connectivity to individuals and businesses via a growing constellation of small satellites.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, man, that's getting tough. How are you going?

Mike Gorday:

to get through space soon. Soon you're going to have to shoot a shuttle up there. We're one step closer.

Nathan Mum:

There'll be this intersection between the satellites. You can then proceed on. Otherwise you're going to hit all these.

Marc Gregoire:

But it's interesting that Amazon is going in LA against Musk and now they're going into space against Musk.

Mike Gorday:

It's a big Bezos Musk kind of right now it's a huge billionaire pissing contest is what it is Okay.

Marc Gregoire:

I'll have to agree with you, Mike.

Mike Gorday:

For subsequent Amazon's April 28 mission will deploy 27 Project Kuiper satellites to orbit the maximum number of Kuiper satellites that ULA's Atlas V rocket can carry in a single deployment. For subsequent missions, Amazon will also use ULA's Atlas V rocket can carry in a single deployment. Okay, For subsequent missions, Amazon will also use ULA's newer Vulcan rocket, which can carry as many as 45 Kuiper satellites in one flight, as well as the New Glenn, a new lift-heavy rocket operated by Blue Origin. Did you hear?

Nathan Mum:

about the Blue Origin stuff with bases opening up the hatch, and it was already pre-opened. Did you see any of?

Mike Gorday:

that stuff? No, I didn't see that. Oh, it was pretty funny, did they call?

Nathan Mum:

it A1 sauce? No, they did not call it A1 sauce, though.

Mike Gorday:

Amazon is planning to build a constellation of around 3,200 Project Kuiper satellites by 2029. This will be enough to offer global broadband coverage, giving it a chance to compete with SpaceX Starlink service and completely clutter up the heavens that we enjoy.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, you'll be thinking those are stars and those would be satellites. I'll be all moving all over everywhere. Just think, if you look at the constellations it'll be like oh, that's my satellite for internet. Oh, that's my satellite for TV. Oh, that's my satellite for All. Right, well, that ends our tech time radio made up amazon holiday. What'd you guys think about that was that wasn't that exciting. Amazon prime squared, obtuse that that that will probably not be the last time that's.

Mike Gorday:

We have this holiday. That's really exciting. Okay, I'm really excited.

Nathan Mum:

All right, let's move on now to mike's mesmerizing moment. Welcome to mike's mesmerizing moment. What does mike have to say today? All right, mike, what steps can people take to avoid the scam that you talked about today in the first segment? Let's just kind of talk about this how do we avoid? How?

Mike Gorday:

these scams. Well, first off is you don't. You don't trust the tech. Okay, don't trust technology, yeah don't don't trust the tech.

Nathan Mum:

Don't trust the tech. Okay, don't trust technology, yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Don't, don't trust the tech, don't trust the person that's using the tech. Okay, and it's not to be mean to that other person, okay, but you know, back in the day if I were selling a car and I had somebody that came along and was like, hey, can I write you a check for the car?

Speaker 6:

No, go, get the cash Cash in hand right.

Mike Gorday:

So don't be pressured into accepting a bank transfer over an electronic device.

Marc Gregoire:

That's obviously the very basic level that you should be.

Mike Gorday:

Don't hand over the goods until hand over the goods. Until now, if they venmo you, you know, if they use cash apps, you can. You can see this independently on your phone. Yeah, within about a minute, right, so so doing that this way is also recommendable right so if you are going to accept electronic transfers, only use those apps. Don't allow them to use some third party app you've never heard of, or direct transfer if they. If they tell you they can't use a cash app, too bad, or are you gonna say they're already?

Ody:

uh paypal goods and services as well yep, in case it does is a scam. You can get it back okay, so there you go so check your back.

Mike Gorday:

Check your own bank account use paypal will from your advertising all over everywhere on tv.

Nathan Mum:

Right now they're giving away a million. That means they're in trouble. Okay, all right. What else?

Mike Gorday:

anything else um, you know, you can check to see if the the buyer really has a like a brand new social media account. Okay, that's always a suspicious thing.

Nathan Mum:

I sell pinball machines and somebody had never has an account. They all of a sudden said that they wanted to pay me ten thousand dollars if I'd box them up and ship it to them. Never had an account, yeah, so they were going to pay me like almost double what the value of these things are, which should have been the first deal. Like okay, but I have to box him up, take pictures and then send them to him and he'll give me a delivery driver that he knows personally that will pick him up and drive him down to oregon.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, well, I think that. I think the key to this particular scam, though, is the actual face-to-face stuff. Yeah, um, and it's a hard thing to say, just don't trust it.

Nathan Mum:

It is especially when you're talking to the person.

Mike Gorday:

But if you're selling stuff, yeah, if you need to have, you need to have sort of like that attitude. You need to have that distrust of the person don't.

Nathan Mum:

Don't trust until verify, then trust that's right on something that's exactly not trust, and trust that's right when you're selling something that's exactly Not trust. And verify Trust, but verify right.

Mike Gorday:

Or verify, then trust, or whatever. But the point is is that don't allow somebody to use their technology to do the transfer If they can't access Venmo or Cash App. That's a scam. That's the primary. That's one of the primary things that if you hear that I can't use Venmo, well, you can have the tools. There you go. That makes sense.

Nathan Mum:

All right. Well, thank you, mike, for that mesmerizing moment we have up next this week in technology. So now would be a great time to enjoy a little whiskey on the side, as we will be doing so during the break. See you in a few minutes. Hey, mike. Yeah, what's up? Hey, so you know what. We need people to start liking our social media pages.

Mike Gorday:

If you like our show, if you really like us we could use your support on Patreoncom, or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, patreon, if you really like us, you can like us in. Patreoncom.

Nathan Mum:

I butcher the English language you know, you butcher the English language, so it's Patreoncom, patreoncom. If you really like our show, you can subscribe to patreoncom and help us out, and you can visit us on that Facebook platform. You know, the one that Zuckerberg owns, the one that we always bag on. Yeah, we're on Facebook too. Yeah, like us on Facebook. Do you know what our Facebook page is? Tech Time Radio.

Mike Gorday:

At TechTimeRadio, and you know what? There's a trend here? It seems to be that there's a trend, and that's TechTimeRadio.

Nathan Mum:

Or you can even Instagram with us, and that's at TechTimeRadio. That's at TechTimeRadio. Or you can find us on TikTok, and it's TechTimeRadio. It's at TechTimeRadio.

Mike Gorday:

Like and subscribe to our social.

Nathan Mum:

That's it.

Speaker 1:

That's that simple and now let's look back at this week in technology all right on our way back machine.

Nathan Mum:

We're going to april 26, 1999, before y2k. First known flash bios virus. The first known virus to target the flash BIOS. The BIOS is the aspect of when your computer boots up with a hard drive. What's inside of it? Your processors, your memory. The BIOS is the most important aspect of any computer, any tool, including your phone, cell phone. So this is the most important part of any electronic computer device.

Nathan Mum:

Now, this first known virus to target the flash bios of a PC was called the CIH Chernobyl virus. It triggered payload on the day, erasing hard drives and disabling PCs, primarily in Asia and Europe. One of the most destructive viruses in history. It estimated that 60 billion PCs were affected worldwide, causing 1 billion in damage, and that was 95% of the PCs in Asia and Europe.

Nathan Mum:

At the time, the virus had been created exactly one year earlier, on April 26, 1998, by a Taiwanese student, chin Ing Ha, and set to trigger its destructive payload exactly one year later. It began to spread in the wild and was first discovered in June of 1998, given the name CIH due to the author's initials discovered in the virus code itself. From this time forward, it's been reported that a variety of companies accidentally distributed the virus through their own downloads, updates and CDs. So what happened is this became such a low basic code that when people were sharing files and they were creating new stuff, they were actually downloading them. These were distributed by all the American online CDs. You remember getting those American online CDs in the mail?

Mike Gorday:

Oh, yeah, yeah, I used to throw them across the yard or hang them up like direct rations.

Nathan Mum:

I mean you would get one every month. Right, you would get at least one every month.

Mike Gorday:

I made a fountain out of one.

Nathan Mum:

Did you really? Yeah, okay, well, so what happened is they were known. This actual virus was in the American online software update that people were loading. Fantastic, you've got mail. Yes, you got something else. Well, the virus triggered on this date. It just happened to coincide with the date of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. And therefore press began calling it the Chernobyl virus, even though there has never been any evidence to show that it was chosen for this initial reason. That was this week in technology. If you ever wanted to watch some Tech Time history, with over 240 plus weekly broadcasts spanning our 40 plus years, you can check out our videos, podcasts, blog information and, of course, our Whiskey Pick historical records. You can always visit all this information at techtimeradiocom and watch our older shows. We're going to take a commercial break, but when we return we have our Mark Mumbles whiskey review. See you after the break.

Speaker 5:

Hello, my name is Arthur and my life work is connecting people with coffee. Story Coffee is a small batch specialty coffee company that uses technology to connect people to each product resource, which allows farmers to unlock their economic freedom. Try our Medium Roast Founder Series Coffee, which is an exotic bourbon variety that is smooth, fresh and elegant. At storycoffeecom, that's S-T-O-R-I coffee dot com. Today you can get your first bag free when you subscribe at storycoffeecom with code TECHTIME.

Speaker 1:

That's S-T-O-r-i coffeecom the segment we've been waiting all week for mark's whiskey mumble that makes me smile every time I hear that music.

Nathan Mum:

I I love it All right.

Marc Gregoire:

What do we got going on today here? Well, today, april 22nd, we are celebrating School Bus Driver Appreciation Day. Okay, what, oh School?

Mike Gorday:

Bus Driver Is Lunch Lady Appreciation Day in there too, what?

Nathan Mum:

Lunch Lady. Appreciation Day, lunch Lady. Oh okay, I remember this.

Marc Gregoire:

That's a different day that's a different day, so tell us about this. So School Bus Driver Day originated in California and was created to draw special public attention to school bus drivers in California for their enduring and exceptional contribution to students. It's a well-deserved tribute to all the men and women who devote their lives to ensuring that children go to school every day, while remaining patient, helpful and upbeat throughout the day. Okay, did you ever ride the?

Nathan Mum:

bus to school. I did not, I did. Okay, odie, did you ever ride the bus?

Marc Gregoire:

to school. I did not, I did.

Nathan Mum:

Odie, did you ride the bus to school? Oh yeah. What was your experience like?

Mike Gorday:

It depended on which bus driver I had. I had cool bus drivers and then I had Hitler bus drivers. Okay, all right, they were to scream at you all day long they screamed wow, okay. Stop looking, be quiet, alright. Okay, I will throw you out on the road, run you over three times.

Nathan Mum:

Did you not behave in the bus? I behaved. The wheels on the bus go round and round right.

Ody:

When were you on a school bus? That was a long time ago.

Marc Gregoire:

That was a long time ago. That was a long long time ago, whoa whoa, whoa, whoa.

Ody:

Okay, but I was on it from elementary through middle school, but through high school I walked.

Mike Gorday:

I was in it through high school until I got a car.

Ody:

Okay so from elementary through high school.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, I rode buses from very young. Okay, mark, when did?

Marc Gregoire:

you ride yours? Mine was public bus and that was second and third grade. Oh, actually I did ride public bus in my junior high. He didn't say school bus.

Nathan Mum:

It's school bus day, though.

Speaker 5:

He's blending all the bus drivers.

Nathan Mum:

That doesn't count, mark Alright. Continue on about this day. We're excited.

Marc Gregoire:

Alright, well, school bus drivers, like my grandfather who did it after he retired from my uncle's school, here's a toast toasted rye if I had any left, I would be toasting.

Mike Gorday:

I'm done I'm. I finished my glass me too.

Marc Gregoire:

This toasted rye's process begins with the fully matured elijah craig straight rye whiskey, which is then dumped and re-entered at barrel proof into a second custom toasted new oak barrel designed in partnership with the Independent Stave Company. The toast on these secondary barrels is unique to Elijah Craig toasted rye. At the end of nearly an hour-long toasting process, a cap is placed on the barrel to quickly ramp up the heat to an extremely high temperature, allowing the fennels to embed in the surface of the barrel for an added element of smoke to complement the spice and sweetness of the rye. Unlike many other finished whiskeys, this whiskey retains its status as a Kentucky straight rye whiskey because the second finished barrel is both new and charred. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, in September 2020, elijah Craig released their toasted barrel finished bourbon, which you have on your shelf back there. I do. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I know Nathan is, I am, and this is really good.

Marc Gregoire:

That's on the very top shelf. Now that one did make a good cocktail. Now, since then, everybody has been waiting for them to release a toasted rye, and here it is finally. This is good and it is both delicious, neat and in a cocktail. It's not a high-end or overly complex rye. However, for the price it's something to at least try once and second time and the third time and the fourth time, we're both through our thing.

Mike Gorday:

I can see how critical that palate's going. Alright, I can see how critical that palette's going, that's right.

Nathan Mum:

Well, mark, you know what I strive when I retire, to actually be a school bus driver for our local schools also Excellent, but I'm going to probably be that Hitler type that you're talking about. I'd be like don't talk to anybody, you sit down, put your hands by each other so that people feel safe?

Speaker 4:

I don't think I would drive a bus in this day and age?

Nathan Mum:

Really no, I don't think I would drive a bus in this day and age.

Mike Gorday:

Really no.

Nathan Mum:

I think that would be a great way to give back to the community.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, okay, I don't think you would be Unless you drive it off a bridge. I don't think you'd be draconian. You're going to want to swap and trade.

Nathan Mum:

Oh, I may be trading, I may be trading. And toys, oh yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Transformer, with all the behavior problems that are going on in schools right now.

Nathan Mum:

I probably really relate to those kids. What are you talking about?

Mike Gorday:

They'll be like, hey, they're my jam, yeah you probably walk on the bus with a shotgun full of salt. Wow, okay what?

Nathan Mum:

were you going to say Odie?

Ody:

I liked my school bus drivers growing up. They all had their own little thing.

Mike Gorday:

I don't think.

Ody:

I had any Hitler ones.

Mike Gorday:

I had some cool bus drivers, but I often remember the ones that screamed and yelled all the time my parents would drop me off to school in high school until I could drive. Things were a lot different back then, when I was young. The teachers were often nasty evil.

Nathan Mum:

They'd sometimes hit your hands.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, I had a teacher that would throw erasers at your head if you weren't paying attention. She would scream at you in the middle of the class. In fact, she ruled with such fear that people were afraid to ask her to go to the bathroom, so they would just pee in their pants.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh wow, I'm sorry. Is this what's wrong with you? Yeah, no, that wasn't me. I didn't do that, I just watch people do it, Mike.

Nathan Mum:

I'm sorry. Is this what's wrong with?

Mike Gorday:

you? Yeah, no, that wasn't me. I didn't do that, I just watch people do it. I barf dinner laptop, that's a whole story.

Nathan Mum:

Whiskey and technology are such a great pairing, just like potatoes being served with steak. That's a good one.

Marc Gregoire:

You know what have you ever?

Nathan Mum:

gone to a steak restaurant where they didn't have potatoes as a side. No, I cannot think of any place that may have a substitute for pasta, but the main plate is normally steak and it's normally a potato item. You got one, odie. Why are you explaining that to everybody?

Ody:

Culturally I would say beans and rice.

Marc Gregoire:

I love rice with steak. My wife thinks I'm crazy. Well, you know, Mark, you kind of, are she's not wrong?

Mike Gorday:

Okay there you go.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, those two are delicious.

Nathan Mum:

Okay, well, we got lots to talk about, so let's prepare for our Technology Fail of the Week, brought to you by Elite Executive Services technology experts to help you out of a technology fail. Congratulations, You're a failure.

Speaker 9:

Oh, I failed. Did I, yes, did I.

Nathan Mum:

Yes, all right. This week's technology failure comes to us from the Seattle Department of Transportation and having their crosswalks hacked. Seattle crosswalk buttons were hacked all across the nation to sound like Jeff All across Seattle. No, across the nation because they happened in San Francisco. Oh really, yes, it has San Francisco, and it happened in Texas and other locations, oh, okay. So there's a Zuckerberg version.

Nathan Mum:

There's an Elon Musk version and our own Pacific Northwest version is Jeff Bezos. Now, we were lucky enough to capture some of this audio, so, odie, can you play that audio for us?

Speaker 4:

Hi, I'm Jeff Bezos. This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime with an important message. You know, please, please, don't tax the rich, otherwise all the other billionaires will move to Florida too. Wouldn't it be terrible if all the rich people left Seattle or got Luigi'd and then normal people could afford to live here again? Jeffrey Jeffrey Bezos.

Nathan Mum:

All right, so we have that.

Ody:

You know what they're forgetting? What's that? A code word.

Nathan Mum:

A code word. A code word, what's that?

Ody:

To know that it's not actually them.

Nathan Mum:

Oh, okay. Oh, that's right. Oh, that's from last week's episode. They should have said I'm Jeff Bezos. My code word is donkey.

Mike Gorday:

Donkey, it is donkey donkey.

Nathan Mum:

Oh, that's right, that's good. Okay, did you like the got luigi part? So do you know what that means? That's the dude that killed the ceo. Is that they're how they're using it, okay?

Mike Gorday:

because, uh, it used to mean just downgraded to to uh nerf, nerf land okay, where you had to play the basic game because you couldn't do it on normal. Yeah, the crosswalk is sponsored. Couldn't do it on normal.

Nathan Mum:

Yeah, the crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime. It says with an important message don't tax the rich, Otherwise the other billionaires will move to Florida, or you know? Wouldn't it be terrible if the rich people left Seattle and they got Luigi'd and the normal people could afford to live here again? The audio recording at crosswalks play a critical role for people who are blind and have limited vision, helping them cross the street safely. The seattle department of transportation said in an email statement we are concerned that someone would disregard the safety of people to make a political statement and part of south lake union neighborhood, where amazon headquarters campus is located now. Bezos left seattle for south florida in 2023, raising questions at the time whether Washington state's capital gains tax was partly to blame. The Luigi reference is to the man accused of killing United healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York city in December. The audio also includes a snippet of the viral basil song by musician Bo Burnham. Have you guys seen that? Have you? Have you watched that whole video? Oh my gosh, Hilarious, Okay, never mind, All right.

Nathan Mum:

Crashback buttons in Silicon Valley were hacked, also including audio voices that sounded like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and it's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your consciousness. Experience was the Zuckerberg sounding button. I just want to ensure you you don't have to worry, because there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. And then you know what? Why don't you hear? Take a look at Elon Musk's. He says I guess they say money can't buy happiness. I guess that's true. God knows, I've tried. But if you can buy a cyber truck, that's pretty sick, right, Said the Musk button. And then it goes on to swear, saying F, I'm so alone. So there you go. Now it's unknown who's behind this stunt. Actually, it's not unknown.

Nathan Mum:

There's people that have claimed this stunt on the dark web, so it's absolutely known which group did this? I did it.

Marc Gregoire:

Well no, you didn't.

Nathan Mum:

But, all right, the hacker group infiltrated the technology that controls devices which usually emit sound audio commands, or an ai voice that says walk, walk, walk. You know, what I now know is that I don't have to have that animatronic voice of walk. If you spend enough time in the transportation systems, you can come up with a very cool sounding audio to play when I'm crossing the road. So you know what? I think that we need to come up with some cool audios. I mean, everybody's into corporate sponsorships, so we should say hey, you know, this crosswalk is sponsored by XYZ. You know, come join us at the Seattle Mariners game. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Mike Gorday:

As you're walking across. Yeah, let's not do that.

Nathan Mum:

No, let's just keep it like basic and let people live, all right well, there is a whole group that is being encouraged, such as hacktivism, to say right now, things are not going very well. You can take a look at a youtube video. Just search for walk sign hacktivision and you'll find the group that is taking responsibility for this social media hack. Wow, we're gonna take a commercial break. When we return, we have our Nathan negative or Nathan rant, really, and then our pick of the day. So we'll see you after this commercial break.

Mike Gorday:

How to See a man About a Dog. It combines darkly comic short stories, powerful poems and pulp fiction prose to create a heartbreaking and hilarious journey readers will not soon forget. Read how to See a man About a Dog. Collected Writings for free with Kindle. Unlimited E-book available on Kindle. Print copies available on Amazon, the Bookpository and more.

Speaker 1:

This is your Nugget of the Week.

Nathan Mum:

All right, so I want to go back to one of our lead stories here. When an employee, partner or investor interacts with a leader, they are participating in a complex social agreement rooted in vulnerability and shared objectives well you didn't write that sentence? No, he totally didn't why what the heck was that a1 that wrote that for you? No, it was no a1. They observe micro expressions, emotional states and adjusted bases on subtle signals that not ai.

Mike Gorday:

You're giving people too much credit here, man what's that?

Nathan Mum:

so let's talk about this.

Mike Gorday:

Where did you get that, the whole thing about micro-expressions yeah, I was going into this.

Nathan Mum:

I did a lot of research in this, okay, so micro-expressions, yeah. So we talked about litamy.

Mike Gorday:

We've talked about this many times, but micro-expressions happen so fast that most people don't even see them. So, people don't really observe micro-expressions.

Speaker 5:

They can get an idea that something happened.

Mike Gorday:

I think good leaders do yeah, I don't think so.

Marc Gregoire:

Well, we haven't had a good leader. Well, Mike, you mean they don't observe it in general, or they don't observe it consciously, but unconsciously it's taken in.

Mike Gorday:

It's consciously. They might have seen it and they might get something in their, in their head that says, oh, something's wrong here, but they don't actually observe them all right well, so let's talk about this.

Nathan Mum:

When individuals follow leaders, they normally lead by emotion and hope, confidence, security and inspiration that's why I follow you oh all right no algorithm mark, here you're showing your that's right

Nathan Mum:

you can't evoke these genuine emotions right. They can only mimic them. So if I'm going into a meeting and there's an AI boss there that is expressing how I'm doing and talking with me, I have no interest. I will become a curmudgeon, I will be Mr Gourdet and I will get up and walk out if I have to interact with an AI boss, because I would expect some empathy. I would expect some empathy, I would expect some engagement. I would expect to have the ability to have a conversation and be able to read the room on what's going on in the room itself.

Mike Gorday:

This whole day has been sort of a rant, but I'm completely on your side there.

Nathan Mum:

You're on my side. I'm a little disappointed.

Marc Gregoire:

Why is that? I wouldn't mind using this for my team, your current team, because then I could just be at home in the backyard in a jacuzzi having a drink, and he'd just be like, okay, mark.

Mike Gorday:

Can't you? Okay, just thinking about that. Doesn't that sound like the greatest insult to the people you work with?

Marc Gregoire:

Oh it does. I mean insult to the people you work with, oh yeah I mean like be like hey, you know I created a.

Mike Gorday:

I created a, an ai bot for, for you to interact with, so you don't have to talk to me because I am so much better than you.

Nathan Mum:

I am so awesome, I am so much better than you that all you peons I have no interest to talk.

Mike Gorday:

You know this, this, this happened to this uh youtube guy that, uh, not too long ago, was was big into this AI stuff and he created these AI bots that did exactly this. They cloned his voice. He had an avatar that looked kind of like him and it just blew him out of the water. It just destroyed his YouTube career.

Nathan Mum:

But there's no algorithm that can do genuine emotions.

Marc Gregoire:

So at the end of this, no there isn't.

Nathan Mum:

I will. If Odie's looking at me sad about something and I'm talking oh, she just flipped me off and so she does. She does something like that in a nice joking way. Uh, we understand that we're connecting and we're like relating. If I'm an ai bot.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, all of a sudden, I see it right now those are called macro expressions. Yeah, I see those.

Nathan Mum:

I see those, but but all of a sudden, if I'm an ai bot, I'd be be like hi Odie, how are you doing? Oh, I see that you moved a finger, are you okay? Do we need to talk?

Ody:

Yeah, that's my thumbs up. That's your thumbs up, okay, but you know what triggers me.

Nathan Mum:

What's that?

Ody:

Zoom meetings already exist. Yeah, they can't even be bothered to just be present via wherever they are.

Nathan Mum:

And you can turn the video off. So you got your picture. You got your picture, so I could be doing two other things. You just have to respond. Do you know how many meetings I do sometimes with that?

Mike Gorday:

That is exactly why I'm so upset about this is because it is one of the most laziest effing things I've ever heard.

Nathan Mum:

It's more lazy than what's currently available and it's insulting, it is more insulting than saying hey, ever trust an AI bot, I know, it's a common expression.

Ody:

This could have all been an email.

Nathan Mum:

That's right. You know what? Excuse me everybody.

Marc Gregoire:

At the end of this nugget, you're going to let us know how to get one of these.

Nathan Mum:

Well, hang on. Excuse me, I need to ask my Alexa to play my 70s country music to calm me down.

Marc Gregoire:

Alexa play me calming mean 70s country music there you go all right and now you are no longer my, my leader and hero what's that you don't like?

Nathan Mum:

70s country music? No, sir, what? Oh okay, let's now. Let's get an ai bot to change your mind let's move to our pick of the day whiskey tasting and now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings.

Marc Gregoire:

Let's see what bubbles to the top we are drinking elijah craig toasted rye from heaven hill 94 proof, 55 msrp and easily easy to find thumbs up man all the way.

Nathan Mum:

I know it's going to be more critical big surprise to anybody.

Marc Gregoire:

This is so good, maybe you should have your AI bot talk about how valid it is. That's a very 60s psychedelic answer not 70s country, okay, well, you know what?

Nathan Mum:

I have a bachelor party I have to go to this evening and we just may have to scope one of these bottles here. This would make it all much easier. Okay, All right.

Mike Gorday:

What do you think? Oh, I give it a thumbs up. I like the taste. It's got a really good finish. It's a little bit too much on the side of sweet, but it's just enough to still warrant that thumbs up. And Mark, what do you think?

Marc Gregoire:

I enjoy this one. It's not top shelf, but it's a great one to have on your shelf. You can put it like I said it's inexpensive enough. You can throw it in a cocktail for somebody Somebody like you coming over. I'd serve you this versus something else high up, but I still enjoy drinking it.

Nathan Mum:

It's still delicious, all right. Well, all of you guys, it's an honor to be your host on today's show. Remember, the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. We'll see you guys next week Later. Bye-bye. Week Later, bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm moment today. In technology. The fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom and join our fan list for the most important aspect of staying connected and winning some really great monthly prizes. We also have a few other ways to stay connected, including subscribing to our podcast on any podcast service from Apple to Google and everything in between. We're also on YouTube, so check us out on youtubecom. Slash tech time radio. All one word. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did making it for you. From all of us at tech time radio, Remember mums the word. Have a safe and fantastic week.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Nathan Mumm

Host
Head Shot

Mike Gorday

Co-host