February 18, 2021 • 14 mins
Facebook puts a ban on linking to news stories in Australia and the consequences could be enormous. Waymo starts testing autonomous vehicles in the San Francisco area. And the US Department of Justice goes after hackers connected to an attack on Sony Pictures from 2014.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
and a law of all things tech. And this is
the Tech News for Thursday, February twenty one. And starting
with this episode, the news episodes are gonna get a
(00:26):
little shorter so I can really focus on a few
big headlines as opposed to really trolling the news and
trying to pad out an episode. I feel like that's
not doing anyone any favors. So we're going to really
focus from here on out. So let's get started. Researchers
with M I. T. Harvard University and E. T. H.
(00:47):
Zurich are working on using machine learning to help treat
patients with COVID nineteen. So just quickly, machine learning refers
to a study a field of study within computer science
where you're using algorithms that can self improve over time.
So the goal with this particular study was to find
(01:07):
effective treatments for severe COVID nineteen symptoms within vulnerable population,
specifically elderly people who have COVID nineteen. The researchers identified
a potential starting point related to lung tissue, because as
we age, our lungs tend to become stiffer, and that
condition can make respiratory illnesses more difficult to manage. The
(01:31):
researchers wanted to see if there are any existing medications
that might be effective for treating those symptoms. While other
teams of doctors and researchers are working to develop new
medications all the time for COVID nineteen and everything else,
that process is very slow, and for good reason. You
have to make sure that the treatment has a high efficacy,
(01:53):
and you have to learn what side effects the medication
might have. Existing medications have already gone through this uncle
testing process, so we have a good understanding of what
those medications do and the potential side effects of them,
but we don't necessarily know if any of them would
be particularly helpful in treating COVID nineteen symptoms. So the
(02:14):
team decided to look at genes and proteins that are
related to aging in general and this tendency for lungs
to grow more stiff over time. In particular. They're using
machine learning algorithms to whittle down a large list of
medications that might help to address the expression of those genes,
perhaps even going back several steps to the genetic root cause,
(02:37):
because you can really think of this as you know,
a series of things that lead to this outcome. Now,
the algorithm looked at how various drugs affect the expression
of these particular genes and cross referenced that with another
data set about how genetic expression would respond after a
COVID nineteen infection, and then the algorithm looked for drugs
(02:59):
that might have an impact on gene expression that could
in turn decrease the severity of COVID nineteen symptoms. The
team is sharing their information with pharmaceutical companies, which can
then begin their own clinical trials to test the results
against you know, reality, and if it works, it could
make an enormous difference in the quality of life of
elderly COVID patients and potentially decrease mortality rates. Over at YouTube,
(03:25):
the company recently shut down nearly three thousand channels that
it says we're part of a state backed influence operation. Now,
the states in question were Russia and China. YouTube says
that most of the channels were part of these Chinese
programs meant to spread propaganda about stuff like US politics
and the COVID nineteen pandemic, all of it buried deep
(03:47):
in tons of videos about far less weighty matters like
you know, celebrity gossip and pop culture topics. We're seeing
a more proactive approach from YouTube after years of criticism
about how the company's moderation policy. These allowed misinformation campaigns
to run wild, and videos promoting extremist views were able
to get a foothold on the platform. Meanwhile, over at Weymo,
(04:11):
another company in the Google family, engineers are getting ready
for a really big test. Weimo is in the autonomous
vehicle business. In case you didn't know, it had previously
conducted tests of self driving cars in Phoenix, Arizona primarily,
but now the company is preparing to launch an autonomous
vehicle testing phase in the San Francisco area. Weymo hasn't
(04:34):
built their own vehicles. Instead, they took existing models from
other car companies and then change those models to make
them self driving. The Jaguar or if you prefer, Jaguar
I Pace, which is an electric vehicle suv, and the
Chrysler Pacifica, which is a kind of minivan, make up
the models in the fleet of autonomous cars. The goal
(04:56):
is to build out an autonomous taxi service in the future,
but Weymo reps are really quick to point out that
there's still a long way to go before we get there.
The tests in the Bay Area will still include a
human driver or quote single vehicle operator, as a Weymo
rep told venture Beat. The company said that the test
(05:17):
will last several weeks. It begins this week and they
have already conducted and they continue to conduct tests in
other parts of California. This test won't be open to
the public, so you're not gonna find yourself getting into
a Weymo driver less taxi just by happenstance. If you
happen to be a Weymo employee, maybe then you can
(05:38):
participate in the study. While Weymo has been working hard
to improve its technology, it also has had a small
number of cases in which a human operator felt it
necessary to take control of the car. It's a pretty
rare thing, however. Engadget reports that Weymo filed a report
with the California Department of Motor Vehicles that explained that
(05:58):
there were just twenty one cases and which an operator
felt it was necessary to take over the control of
the vehicle over a test period that included six nine
thousand miles driven by autonomous vehicles. Still, when it comes
to autonomous cars and safety, the bar is incredibly high,
and you could argue it's justifiably so, because we've seen
(06:21):
what kind of tragedies can happen when an autonomous or
semi autonomous system fails to prevent an accident. Over in Australia,
the government is preparing to vote on a bill that
would require internet companies like Google and Facebook to pay
journalistic outlets media companies for content appearing on those tech
(06:42):
companies platforms. So the argument is that if a company
like Facebook makes use of content from an Australian media company,
then Facebook should pay that media company for use of
that content. The legislation would create regulations forcing tech companies
to negotiate with media companies and agree upon a rate,
(07:03):
which might be a lump sum or it might be
a per click rate. It all depends on how the
legislation gets hashed out. The Treasurer of Australia developed this
idea after a study showed that companies like Facebook and
Google receive a really big share of advertising dollars while
much of the content that was appearing in Australia we're
(07:24):
from Australian media organizations. But the tech companies have objected
to the wording of the proposed legislation, and now Facebook
says it will not allow Australian users and media companies
to share links to news articles on Facebook. The managing
director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand wrote, quote, the
(07:44):
proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and
publishers who use it to share news content. It has
left us facing a stark choice attempt to comply with
the law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or
stop allow news content on our services in Australia. With
a heavy heart, we are choosing the ladder end quote.
(08:07):
The sarcastic tone is purely editorial. Further, Australian users will
not be able to see posts that include links to
international news sources, and international users won't be able to
view or share Australian news content on Facebook. Effectively, Australian
Facebook users are in a media blackout while they use Facebook. Now,
(08:31):
this is a really complicated issue, one that actually goes
beyond technology, but I do think this move might add
more fuel to the fire for criticisms that companies like
Facebook and Google are monopolistic or anti competitive. And it
also kind of devalues Facebook's news feed if no news
is allowed to be in it. Huh hey, do you
(08:51):
remember the Sony Pictures hack? Back in quick refresher, a
group of hackers who identified themselves as the Guardians of
Peace infiltrated Sony Pictures systems and stole a crap ton
of data, including copies of unreleased films, emails, and personal
information about Sony Pictures employees. The group indicated that the
(09:12):
hack was a response to Sony Pictures producing a movie
called The Interview. Uh. The plot of that comedy revolves
around an assassination attempt on Kim Jong un, the leader
of North Korea. Sony ultimately canceled the theatrical release of
that movie and switched to a digital delivery method of distribution.
And here we are seven years later in the U. S.
(09:33):
Department of Justice has charged three hackers that they say
were involved in the Sony Pictures hack, as well as
some other cyber criminal activities like the development and distribution
of the Wanna Cry ransomware, malware, and hacks on various
cryptocurrency exchanges. The d o J says that the three
hackers all belonged to hagging units that fall under the
authority of the North Korean military. In addition, the d
(09:56):
o J revealed that a Canadian American citizen has pled
guilty un charges of money laundering on behalf of North
Korean hackers. Now, if you did follow the Sony Pictures
case when it happened, you probably remember that North Korean
officials denied that there was any connection between the North
Korea government or military and these hackers. You probably also
remember that a lot of cybersecurity experts were, let us say,
(10:18):
skeptical of that claim. These charges continue to reject North
Korea's objections to them, and as for the charges, it's
very hard for me to imagine a scenario in which
North Korea would ever agree to extradite those charged to
stand trial for the allegations. So really these charges are
more of a name and shame approach. In the world
(10:40):
of tech conferences, there are a few standouts that merit
special attention. Ce s as a big one as his
E three, but a third one is the Mobile World Congress,
which holds events in different parts of the world throughout
the year, but it reserves its main exhibition for Barcelona, Spain,
and as the name implies, the tech trade event for
focuses on mobile devices and apps for those devices. Now,
(11:03):
in a normal year, more than a hundred thousand people
attend the event. The g s m A, which organizes
the conference, canceled the Barcelona event in due to the
COVID nineteen pandemic, but plans are in place for the
twenty one event to happen, though it is going to
take place later in the year by swapping places with
the Mobile World Congress Shanghai event. In addition, attendees won't
(11:28):
be required to receive a COVID vaccination prior to going,
probably because there's still a lot of uncertainty about who
will be able to receive a vaccine win in many
parts of the world. Instead, attendees will have to test
negative for COVID nineteen within seventy two hours of the
event kicking off on June. The g s m A
also says that it will limit attendance and expects no
(11:51):
more than fifty people to go. Now I mean, I
sincerely hope that this event and the Shanghai event are
safe for every one concerned, but I have to admit
that these kind of big events still make me a
little nervous in a time when we're not really sure
what the status is going to be for vaccinations. And finally,
(12:13):
engineers with the University of California, San Diego showed off
a really cool soft robot. It uses pressurized air to
provide the needed to move around, and most astonishingly, it
has no electronic components on board. Everything relies on tubes
and valves to send pressurized air to specific limbs. The
robot has four legs. The team based the robots motion
(12:37):
off of an African side necked turtle, utilizing quote diagonal
couplet git patterns end quote. Now, that essentially means that
the turtle walks by moving diagonally opposite limbs at the
same time, like if it's taking a step forward with
its right front leg, it also moves its left back
leg forward at the same time and vice versa. Now,
(12:58):
the robot does this with a valve system controlling which
limbs receive air, causing them to extend. The valves have
a delay, so the air flows into pairs of limbs
at different times, and the coordination of this results in
the robot walking. Although walking is a generous term, it's
more of a coordinated wobble. But then most days that's
all I can manage too, So who am I to talk?
(13:20):
Soft robots could have a lot of really cool potential uses,
including interacting and human environments where a soft robot poses
less of a risk to we squishy humans. Think bay
Max from Big Hero six. And that wraps up this
quick fire news round for Thursday, February twenty one. We'll
(13:42):
be back next week with more episodes of tech Stuff
and more news. If you guys have suggestions for things
I should cover on tech Stuff, please let me know.
The best way to do that is on Twitter with
the handled text Stuff H s W and I'll talk
to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I
(14:03):
Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
and a law of all things tech. And this is
the Tech News for Thursday, February twenty one. And starting
with this episode, the news episodes are gonna get a
(00:26):
little shorter so I can really focus on a few
big headlines as opposed to really trolling the news and
trying to pad out an episode. I feel like that's
not doing anyone any favors. So we're going to really
focus from here on out. So let's get started. Researchers
with M I. T. Harvard University and E. T. H.
(00:47):
Zurich are working on using machine learning to help treat
patients with COVID nineteen. So just quickly, machine learning refers
to a study a field of study within computer science
where you're using algorithms that can self improve over time.
So the goal with this particular study was to find
(01:07):
effective treatments for severe COVID nineteen symptoms within vulnerable population,
specifically elderly people who have COVID nineteen. The researchers identified
a potential starting point related to lung tissue, because as
we age, our lungs tend to become stiffer, and that
condition can make respiratory illnesses more difficult to manage. The
(01:31):
researchers wanted to see if there are any existing medications
that might be effective for treating those symptoms. While other
teams of doctors and researchers are working to develop new
medications all the time for COVID nineteen and everything else,
that process is very slow, and for good reason. You
have to make sure that the treatment has a high efficacy,
(01:53):
and you have to learn what side effects the medication
might have. Existing medications have already gone through this uncle
testing process, so we have a good understanding of what
those medications do and the potential side effects of them,
but we don't necessarily know if any of them would
be particularly helpful in treating COVID nineteen symptoms. So the
(02:14):
team decided to look at genes and proteins that are
related to aging in general and this tendency for lungs
to grow more stiff over time. In particular. They're using
machine learning algorithms to whittle down a large list of
medications that might help to address the expression of those genes,
perhaps even going back several steps to the genetic root cause,
(02:37):
because you can really think of this as you know,
a series of things that lead to this outcome. Now,
the algorithm looked at how various drugs affect the expression
of these particular genes and cross referenced that with another
data set about how genetic expression would respond after a
COVID nineteen infection, and then the algorithm looked for drugs
(02:59):
that might have an impact on gene expression that could
in turn decrease the severity of COVID nineteen symptoms. The
team is sharing their information with pharmaceutical companies, which can
then begin their own clinical trials to test the results
against you know, reality, and if it works, it could
make an enormous difference in the quality of life of
elderly COVID patients and potentially decrease mortality rates. Over at YouTube,
(03:25):
the company recently shut down nearly three thousand channels that
it says we're part of a state backed influence operation. Now,
the states in question were Russia and China. YouTube says
that most of the channels were part of these Chinese
programs meant to spread propaganda about stuff like US politics
and the COVID nineteen pandemic, all of it buried deep
(03:47):
in tons of videos about far less weighty matters like
you know, celebrity gossip and pop culture topics. We're seeing
a more proactive approach from YouTube after years of criticism
about how the company's moderation policy. These allowed misinformation campaigns
to run wild, and videos promoting extremist views were able
to get a foothold on the platform. Meanwhile, over at Weymo,
(04:11):
another company in the Google family, engineers are getting ready
for a really big test. Weimo is in the autonomous
vehicle business. In case you didn't know, it had previously
conducted tests of self driving cars in Phoenix, Arizona primarily,
but now the company is preparing to launch an autonomous
vehicle testing phase in the San Francisco area. Weymo hasn't
(04:34):
built their own vehicles. Instead, they took existing models from
other car companies and then change those models to make
them self driving. The Jaguar or if you prefer, Jaguar
I Pace, which is an electric vehicle suv, and the
Chrysler Pacifica, which is a kind of minivan, make up
the models in the fleet of autonomous cars. The goal
(04:56):
is to build out an autonomous taxi service in the future,
but Weymo reps are really quick to point out that
there's still a long way to go before we get there.
The tests in the Bay Area will still include a
human driver or quote single vehicle operator, as a Weymo
rep told venture Beat. The company said that the test
(05:17):
will last several weeks. It begins this week and they
have already conducted and they continue to conduct tests in
other parts of California. This test won't be open to
the public, so you're not gonna find yourself getting into
a Weymo driver less taxi just by happenstance. If you
happen to be a Weymo employee, maybe then you can
(05:38):
participate in the study. While Weymo has been working hard
to improve its technology, it also has had a small
number of cases in which a human operator felt it
necessary to take control of the car. It's a pretty
rare thing, however. Engadget reports that Weymo filed a report
with the California Department of Motor Vehicles that explained that
(05:58):
there were just twenty one cases and which an operator
felt it was necessary to take over the control of
the vehicle over a test period that included six nine
thousand miles driven by autonomous vehicles. Still, when it comes
to autonomous cars and safety, the bar is incredibly high,
and you could argue it's justifiably so, because we've seen
(06:21):
what kind of tragedies can happen when an autonomous or
semi autonomous system fails to prevent an accident. Over in Australia,
the government is preparing to vote on a bill that
would require internet companies like Google and Facebook to pay
journalistic outlets media companies for content appearing on those tech
(06:42):
companies platforms. So the argument is that if a company
like Facebook makes use of content from an Australian media company,
then Facebook should pay that media company for use of
that content. The legislation would create regulations forcing tech companies
to negotiate with media companies and agree upon a rate,
(07:03):
which might be a lump sum or it might be
a per click rate. It all depends on how the
legislation gets hashed out. The Treasurer of Australia developed this
idea after a study showed that companies like Facebook and
Google receive a really big share of advertising dollars while
much of the content that was appearing in Australia we're
(07:24):
from Australian media organizations. But the tech companies have objected
to the wording of the proposed legislation, and now Facebook
says it will not allow Australian users and media companies
to share links to news articles on Facebook. The managing
director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand wrote, quote, the
(07:44):
proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and
publishers who use it to share news content. It has
left us facing a stark choice attempt to comply with
the law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or
stop allow news content on our services in Australia. With
a heavy heart, we are choosing the ladder end quote.
(08:07):
The sarcastic tone is purely editorial. Further, Australian users will
not be able to see posts that include links to
international news sources, and international users won't be able to
view or share Australian news content on Facebook. Effectively, Australian
Facebook users are in a media blackout while they use Facebook. Now,
(08:31):
this is a really complicated issue, one that actually goes
beyond technology, but I do think this move might add
more fuel to the fire for criticisms that companies like
Facebook and Google are monopolistic or anti competitive. And it
also kind of devalues Facebook's news feed if no news
is allowed to be in it. Huh hey, do you
(08:51):
remember the Sony Pictures hack? Back in quick refresher, a
group of hackers who identified themselves as the Guardians of
Peace infiltrated Sony Pictures systems and stole a crap ton
of data, including copies of unreleased films, emails, and personal
information about Sony Pictures employees. The group indicated that the
(09:12):
hack was a response to Sony Pictures producing a movie
called The Interview. Uh. The plot of that comedy revolves
around an assassination attempt on Kim Jong un, the leader
of North Korea. Sony ultimately canceled the theatrical release of
that movie and switched to a digital delivery method of distribution.
And here we are seven years later in the U. S.
(09:33):
Department of Justice has charged three hackers that they say
were involved in the Sony Pictures hack, as well as
some other cyber criminal activities like the development and distribution
of the Wanna Cry ransomware, malware, and hacks on various
cryptocurrency exchanges. The d o J says that the three
hackers all belonged to hagging units that fall under the
authority of the North Korean military. In addition, the d
(09:56):
o J revealed that a Canadian American citizen has pled
guilty un charges of money laundering on behalf of North
Korean hackers. Now, if you did follow the Sony Pictures
case when it happened, you probably remember that North Korean
officials denied that there was any connection between the North
Korea government or military and these hackers. You probably also
remember that a lot of cybersecurity experts were, let us say,
(10:18):
skeptical of that claim. These charges continue to reject North
Korea's objections to them, and as for the charges, it's
very hard for me to imagine a scenario in which
North Korea would ever agree to extradite those charged to
stand trial for the allegations. So really these charges are
more of a name and shame approach. In the world
(10:40):
of tech conferences, there are a few standouts that merit
special attention. Ce s as a big one as his
E three, but a third one is the Mobile World Congress,
which holds events in different parts of the world throughout
the year, but it reserves its main exhibition for Barcelona, Spain,
and as the name implies, the tech trade event for
focuses on mobile devices and apps for those devices. Now,
(11:03):
in a normal year, more than a hundred thousand people
attend the event. The g s m A, which organizes
the conference, canceled the Barcelona event in due to the
COVID nineteen pandemic, but plans are in place for the
twenty one event to happen, though it is going to
take place later in the year by swapping places with
the Mobile World Congress Shanghai event. In addition, attendees won't
(11:28):
be required to receive a COVID vaccination prior to going,
probably because there's still a lot of uncertainty about who
will be able to receive a vaccine win in many
parts of the world. Instead, attendees will have to test
negative for COVID nineteen within seventy two hours of the
event kicking off on June. The g s m A
also says that it will limit attendance and expects no
(11:51):
more than fifty people to go. Now I mean, I
sincerely hope that this event and the Shanghai event are
safe for every one concerned, but I have to admit
that these kind of big events still make me a
little nervous in a time when we're not really sure
what the status is going to be for vaccinations. And finally,
(12:13):
engineers with the University of California, San Diego showed off
a really cool soft robot. It uses pressurized air to
provide the needed to move around, and most astonishingly, it
has no electronic components on board. Everything relies on tubes
and valves to send pressurized air to specific limbs. The
robot has four legs. The team based the robots motion
(12:37):
off of an African side necked turtle, utilizing quote diagonal
couplet git patterns end quote. Now, that essentially means that
the turtle walks by moving diagonally opposite limbs at the
same time, like if it's taking a step forward with
its right front leg, it also moves its left back
leg forward at the same time and vice versa. Now,
(12:58):
the robot does this with a valve system controlling which
limbs receive air, causing them to extend. The valves have
a delay, so the air flows into pairs of limbs
at different times, and the coordination of this results in
the robot walking. Although walking is a generous term, it's
more of a coordinated wobble. But then most days that's
all I can manage too, So who am I to talk?
(13:20):
Soft robots could have a lot of really cool potential uses,
including interacting and human environments where a soft robot poses
less of a risk to we squishy humans. Think bay
Max from Big Hero six. And that wraps up this
quick fire news round for Thursday, February twenty one. We'll
(13:42):
be back next week with more episodes of tech Stuff
and more news. If you guys have suggestions for things
I should cover on tech Stuff, please let me know.
The best way to do that is on Twitter with
the handled text Stuff H s W and I'll talk
to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I
(14:03):
Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
TechStuff News
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