November 21, 2025 • 32 mins
Would you buy a boat or a midcentury sideboard from your high school pals? Because Oz’s alma mater has opened an exclusive online marketplace for just this purpose! This week, Oz spins a yarn about Kitkat, the San Francisco cat killed by a Waymo. Locals are furious. Karah fills us in on Blued and Finka, the gay dating apps being censored by the Chinese government. Tech bros are obsessed with building statues, the FBI tries to unmask the owner of a popular internet archiving site, and we check out a flight app that could make your holiday travel more data-driven, if not less hectic. Finally, on Chat and Me, we talk about Kim Kardashian’s use of Chat—and whether it’s really her friend.
Additional Reading:
- Eton’s old boy network app is like eBay for ex-prime ministers - The Times UK
- Waymo Was Thriving in San Francisco. Then One of Its Driverless Cars Killed a Cat. - The New York Times
- Apple Pulls China’s Top Gay Dating Apps After Government Order - WIRED
- FBI orders domain registrar to reveal who runs mysterious Archive.is site - Ars Technica
- The Smartest Fliers Use This App to Survive America’s Travel Hell - WSJ
- America’s Tech Rich Is Obsessed with Building Giant Statues - Bloomberg
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm
Oz Valascian and I'm care Price. Today we've got a
few big stories to break down for you. First, the
loss of a beloved neighborhood cat puts a spotlight on
the autonomous vehicle company Weimo. Then, after facing pressure from
the Chinese government, Apple removes two popular gay dating apps
(00:36):
from its store in China. App We'll dive into what
that could mean for the rest of us.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Then we'll tell you about a few other stories that
cut our eye this week, like how the FBI is
suddenly targeting a popular Internet archive, the flight app that
may take the guesswork out of holiday travel, and we
break down why tech titans keep building giant statues an
obsession with immortality perhaps.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Then on chatting me, do you consider chat gpt to
be a friend? Now all of that on the Week
in Tech is Friday, November twenty First, Hello.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Cara, Hi, as.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I'm about to do something I swore I would never do.
What do you know what omerta is? No America is
the code of silence of the mafia. Okay, I went
to a school called Eaton.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm aware I listened to Utah.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We have our own Omerta.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You do, yes. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Never talk about the firm, right.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
The one rule of fight club is never talk about
fight club exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Internally you can complain and you know, obviously say all
the bad things about it. But externally that's omerta smile
and stiffupper lip exactly. For those who don't know, Eaton
is an all boys boarding school in Britain, founded in
fourteen forty.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
There was nothing around it for America. For Charka, I
think it's around the same time. Actually around the same time.
It was originally founded by a king I can't remember
which one, to be a scholarship school for very bright
young boys who could then grow up to be government administrators.
Oh interesting, But as with all the best things, it
(02:17):
instead became a bastion for privilege and all of the
wealthiest people to send their shortren It's where Prince William
and Prince Harry went, and my childhood was spent. All
my years thirteen to eighteen was spent with busloads of
tourists getting off buses to stare at me and say,
is this Harry Potter? So I hope none of my
friends from eating and listening. In fact, I'm sure they're
(02:39):
not so. I got an email a few days ago
from the Old Etonian Association.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's how you, guys, say alumni alumni exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
The headline was on pleasure and business, and it was
all about, drum roll, the release of a new.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
App, an eaten app.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
An eaten app. The email hit my inbox contain the
following sentence. It will help reinforce what we all do already.
Given two options that look the same, most of us
will instinctively choose the old Etonian one. In an old
Etonian environment, we'll go to the Oe founded restaurant, drink,
the Oe founded wine book, the Oe founded hotel. The
(03:22):
marketplace will simply support that instinct, making it visible, easy
and fun. It's basically social shopping in a closed network.
Do you do any social shopping? You mean?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Do I do shopping on social media by buy books
on the basis of what I see on social media? Absolutely? Yeah,
I do that all the time. Do I shop on
the basis of going to Trevor Day School?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Now? Well, continuing to quote from the email, You'll be
able to sell a painting, hire a lawyer, rent a house,
find a cello, teacher, advertise a vineyard, promote a play,
offer investment, or buy a boat or a case of wine.
You'll be able to promote your business, host to talk,
offer advice, or list something completely unexpected. A vintage punt,
(04:01):
a mid century sideboard, a labradoodle with a better pedigree
than its owner.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Is that a better pedigree that it's? You know, this
is kind of the perfect thing for you, because this
is like LinkedIn meets Amazon if you want to eat.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh, that is that is perfect? You know. Just as
we leave this one behind, The Times of London wrote
a story about this, which I can say the only
reason I'm talking about it because your meditor has already
been broken. Everyone in courted No. Coming back to that
line about giving a choice between two things, what instinct
if you choose the old Etonian one. Somebody made a
crack about how that hadn't worked out so well in
(04:35):
terms of choosing prime ministers. Boris Johnson, I think of
twenty six or twenty seven. In all there was a
room where all the busts of the old prim minister said,
the twenty seven white marble faces.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
To memorize their names. Probably, well, you kind of knew
most it was like the residence of the United States.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So that is the first and last time I will
ever speak about eating with you.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's not the last time I'm going to ask about you,
especially because I know there's no merit. I didn't know
that before I would be badgering the constantly.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So a couple of weeks ago, you introduced me to
an AI R and B artist called Zanaia. I did.
I did you as so often were head of the game.
Because last week there are actually three AI generated chart toppers,
really they were. One was a Dutch anti refugee anthem
charting on Spotify. But there's also a country music track
called Walk My Walk that's number one in the Country
(05:27):
Music Billboard chart.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You're kidding me. That's an AI tune, AI tune. I
think this just means that AI knows what people like.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And Paul McCartney do you know? Paul McCartney responded, how
Paul McCartney is releasing a record with just silence in protest?
Really a pressed record with a B side just silence.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You're kidding me, that's amazing he should. I mean, I
have a very unpopular opinion about this.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What's that well.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I just think that every musician should try to use
AI tools with the gifts that they're given of songwriting.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
What about every podcast or should they try to use
AI sound music making tools? Because this one has You're
a kidding without further ado, here is owe to KitKat?
Oh kid cat? Where'd you go? This city's hot?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh my god? This is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You listen without your paw, without your per I.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Can't believe you did this. This is unbelievable. Do you
know this about This is about KitKat who got killed
by weymoth? You're kidding me that you did this?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Chase the bird, swash the claw.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Wheel and wait with machines.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Don't see what a cat means to a family.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I used sooner AI and I wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That's a gorgeous song.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's a beautiful song.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Make that for how much money?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That's what I'm saying, ceremony, That's what I'm saying. The
par reference, I'm just blown away.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Lyrics actually, and I want to pull the lyrics for you.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So you didn't write Obviously you didn't didn't write lyrics.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Ballad about a cat who got killed by an autonomous vehicle.
It's really amazing, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We are living in a crase.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
But that's not even a story. We've got different stories.
We got a transition.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I just can't believe that you just did that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So a few weeks ago, a cat named kit Kat
was killed after being struck by waymer. You know this story,
I do. Kit Cat was a beloved neighborhood cat lived
at a local corner market in San Francisco's Mission District.
He had the nickname the Mayor of Sixteenth Street, and
he would actively visit all the local businesses in return
(07:56):
for treats. In twenty twenty, he was listed by s
F Gate as one of San Francisco's favorite shop caps.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
We call them cats.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So what happened? There's multiple versions of the story. Weimo
said that the cat darted under the car as it
was pulling out. Multiple witnesses allege that they saw KitKat
underneath the car as the car started moving and people
tried to stop the car. In fact, here's a quote
from the owner of the shop, Mike Zaidan, where KitKat lived.
(08:33):
This lady said there was no one to yet out
in the car, no driver. They were touching the car
hoping it wouldn't move and it just ran him over.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Can you imagine that beating beating on a car.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That is uncanny, right, that's really uncanny. Valley.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Here's what a witness said, So spooky. If it wasn't
a weymo, if it was a person driving the car,
they could have stopped.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Of course, this is horror. This is this is this
is a Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. It's
really spooky, and imagine it's something else.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I mean, well, that's except interestingly, and we're going to
get onto this. Yeah, there actually no reports that Weimo
has ever killed anyone. You can't say the same for
Tesla's full self driving mode, though. There's been a growing
memorial for KitKat outside the bodega, and part of what
is really interesting to me here is there is actually
back and forth at the memorial as to how to
(09:25):
interpret this story. I'm going to get onto that too.
But let's start with the people who basically using this
as a moment to say enough, as in us treating
this as kind of a referendum on where the San
Francisco should have these self.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Driving cars because of the loss of a cat.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so here's what a local bar owner said, quote
KitKat was taken by technology that none of us asked
for and none of us consented to. And in fact,
Survey USA did a news poll fifty eight percent of
Californians don't want self driving cars in their neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
That surprised me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's that feels high.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Jackie Fielder, who's a San Francisco City supervisor, is planning
to introduce legislation that would allow counties to decide whether
or not they'll permit the operation of autonomous vehicles.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Sort of be in a county by county basis.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, I don't know. I don't know how far
this will go, whether it has legs. But it is interesting,
Like a cat gets killed, people are beating on the
windows their minds. People wake up and think this is
actually pretty weird. Do we really want this?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I don't think I agree with weymo no existing. I
don't why do we need autonomous vehicles?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I guess I don't know. Cheaper human drivers, more labors placed,
more money for corporation.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There go, and like doesn't seem very safe to me.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, a twenty twenty four peer of view'd study says
that you're wrong. Oh, human driven vehicles apparently crash five
times more than weymo's. Our producers actually pulled city data
and it turns out human drivers killed forty three people
in San Francisco last year and zero were killed by weymo's.
The Mayor of San Francisco actually went on Pivot to
(11:05):
defend Waymo's during the interview. Interesting, and all of this
comes at a time, by the way, when weimo is
actually expanding deeper into the Bay Area, all the way
into San Jose Angels and last week, I think for
the first time, they were all out on the freeway.
It is interesting though, that this is not the first
time San Francisco has been roiled by a self driving
(11:27):
car accident. Remember the last one there was a division
of General Motors called Cruise, and a Cruz hit a
woman and similarly dragged her for twenty feet because it
didn't know what was going on. She actually survived, but
it was one of those other moments where a machine
that has clearly not recognized that something terribly is going
wrong is happening. In the aftermath of that, General Motors
(11:51):
paused their self driving taxi service after having invested more
than ten billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So final thought on this from me is, you know,
who knows what will happen, But the world is taking
notice of kit Kat's death and the Weimo killing it,
and the debate about how much we want autonomous vehicles
and robots in our space, and this kind of made
me think of Blackfish. I remember was about the orca
(12:20):
and it kind of led to the end of Sea World.
It was still open, it is, but it's really that
they have to host I went to the conference for
investigative journalists which was hosted at SeaWorld because it was
the only conference center cheap enough. So it's very weird
to be there. But you know, Weimo is a much
more powerful company than the SeaWorld. But these moments where
(12:43):
our heartstring by animals being hurt can be monumental moments
of changing culture. So I think we should keep an
eye on this.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The kind of rule of thumb there is, don't hurt
an animal if you want your company to succeed.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
That's right, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I am taking us to a galaxy far far
away China.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
China, Yes, my favorite place to talk about.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You recently talked to Joseph Cox about how ice Block
and other citizen apps were removed from app stores at
the request of the US government, as two Chinese LGBTQ
plus dating apps have now been removed from Apple and
Android stores at the request of the Chinese Communist Party,
which is something that I find extremely alarming.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, that that is alarming. And I mean you mentioned
that ice block story about you know how under pressure
from the US government, Apple and I guess Google, through
the Android store, we're pulling these ice monitoring apps. Actually,
I believe Apple sells more iPhones per year in China
than they do in the US, so correct, I guess. Unfortunately,
money talks, and if the Chinese government tell apples do
(13:51):
something just like here in the US they do, they'll do.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And that's that's what's happened.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
But I understand why the US government wants to get
rid of ice apps. Why does the Chinese government want
to get rid of gay dating apps.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, it's a good question because I was under the
impression that the public opinion on homosexuality in China was
actually getting more accepting, not less accepting. So I actually
looked into the trends and this this is what I found.
China decriminalized homosexuality in nineteen ninety seven. For context, US
and UK were decriminalizing homosexuality back in the nineteen sixties. Okay,
(14:24):
here's what's been going on recently. In the twenty twenties,
Shanghai Pride was actually shut down, and in twenty twenty one,
social media accounts for a dozen student led LGBTQ plus
organizations were actually banned.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Wow, this is really interesting. I wonder what was driving
What were the actual apps that were removed?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So one is actually called Bludha and the other app
is called Finka. Bluda is especially popular and has been
active since twenty twelve. By twenty twenty, the app had
forty nine million users and six million monthly active users.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Wow. Other other like use Grinder in China likewives No.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
No, no, no no. Other LGBTQ plus dating apps have
already been targeted. Most were blocked from the Chinese marketplace
back in twenty twelve, and then in twenty twenty two,
Grinder was removed from Apple's Chinese store.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
And can users still use the apps that I download
block or is it a usage block?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So? According to Wired, previously downloaded apps still appear to
be working, but the original apps are not discoverable in
the app store anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And how did the Chinese government communicate to Apple they
wanted this to happen?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Do we know? So?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Apple actually said they were following an order from the
Cyberspace Administration of China, which is an incredible or you
can just imagine working for the Cyberspace Administration of China, say.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You think they might have bigger fish to fry, and
they prepare for will.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Never the biggest fish that they have to fry.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
That's crazy. You know, I was really interested in the
ice Block story a few weeks ago because you know
that the right have been obsessed for a long time
about being deep platformed by technology companies. This was Elon
buying x Trump starting truth social But actually it seems
right now. I mean, at least from this examples that
ice Block being removed, these gay data apts being removed
(16:12):
in China. Have you put on the left to it
being hurt more by deplatforming by the tech companies. I
guess those in power are the ones to whom the
tech companies answers the people are to worry about the
deplatforms are the ones out of power.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, exactly, and that is clearly true.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But you don't see people on the left coming together
and saying, actually, although we disagree on the content, we
think that people on the right were right about the
power of these tech companies a deep platform. But what
about you, I mean, how do you see the wider
context of this story?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well, I think there is something worth noting, which is
that Apple has a long standing policy of denying government
requests for access to encrypted data. So the company says
they will never create a backdoor or master key to
any of their products or services. But they also seem
to fold commpletely when it comes to deplatforming apps from
their app store.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yes, don't put too much trust in big tech exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
After the break, tech bros want to build statues and
the FBI attempts to unmask the mysterious owner of Archive Today,
stay with.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Us and we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Hello. So sometimes friends send me links to articles in
publications that they don't subscribe to and that I don't
subscribe to. Using these internet archiving tools to get around.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Pay walls, it's how I read most things I know.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But I have and I have mixed feelings and being
in the business of publishing content. I probably more than
most feel it's important to pay publishers for content. On
the other hand, has become.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
The norm and a way that we get a lot
of articles.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, that's true, and I mean certainly there's a bunch
of stories that I wouldn't have seen if people haven't
sent me these links to stories that are in paywalled publications.
And some of those stories, in fact, we've talked about
on the show. Now, the FBI wants to know who's
behind one of the most popular of these sites, Archive
dot is.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And what is archive dot is?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Archive is is an Internet archiving website. It's different from
the Wayback Machine, which is owned by the nonprofit organization
the Internet Archive. According to an FAQ page on archive
dot is, it's quote privately funded. There are no complex
finances behind it. And as I mentioned, it allows users
to archive articles and web pages bypass paywalls. And it's
(18:46):
one of several sites, including the Internet Archive, that is
saving government web pages and data sets that have been
removed or changed since Trump took office in January twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So do you know what the subpoene said? What is
the FBI trying to find out.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It seems like it's an attempt to unmask the person
behind the website and its sister websites like Archive dot
to day and Archive dot pH.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So does the Internet have any ideas about who could
be behind Archive today?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, the domain is registered to Dennis Petrov, but that's
likely an alias.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Real name.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
There's a twenty twenty three blog post that did a
deep dive into who the owner might be, and there's
a quote on that blog saying it's a one person
labor of love operated by a Russian of considerable talent
and access to Europe.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I wonder if Dennis Petrov wrote that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Or maybe Dennis Petrov is a KGP.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Agent, possibly passibly. So I guess my last question is like,
why is the FBI doing this?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Well, we don't know. It doesn't say why in the
subpoena and they haven't commented publicly. Ours Technica theorizes that
it could be a copyright infringement issue because the archive
doesn't have a policy to remove content that has copyright infringement.
That said, this is is the Trump administration's FBI. The
Trump administration based on their AI policy and not tremendous
(20:05):
defenders of copyright. Yes, so it seems like it's something
else going on here. Some have speculated they may be
a political motivation because of the way sites like archive
dot I make it impossible to scrub Internet history. There's
also the Russian connection.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Russian connection, we just don't know. Speaking of Russia, it's
your frequent flyer.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
If I have a Russian visa at my passport, which
always makes me freak out.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh I do too, I went many years ago. Do
you use flight apps?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I hate apps?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You really do.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Like you use WhatsApp, It's like it's your hero app, WhatsApp.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Text I don't have. I think I probably had a
couple of airline apps on my phone, but I really
I'm a mobile web browser, one of the last right.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
That's for Instagram as well. Sometimes true. So have you
heard about Flighty before?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So Flighty is this flight tracker that I read about
recently in the Wall Street Journal. I'm like, not a
huge frequent flyer, so I don't. I'm not like following
different flight paths and all that stuff that other people
who loved to fly follow. But I wanted people to
know about this in preparation for next week, which is
you know, the busiest time of year to travel.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Thank god for the government shutdown being over exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So this flight app Flighty is so data rich that
people have said they get Flighty updates before the airlines
convey new information.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And that's even their tagline, Flighty get delay alerts faster
than the airlines.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You know who loves to use it? Pilots.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Wow, they get better information from flight than from when
they're you know, tragic. That doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I know, you're like at the gate and it's saying
it's delayed when it doesn't say it at the gate.
It's crazy. You know who else loves it?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
The points guy, The points guy love you know what,
I actually download this.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You would like it because you know what, you like
the fact that it's before the airlines Google.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You like the exclusivity anyway, But how does it work?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
So there's a guy named Ryan Jones, which is a
real name.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I'm like, Dennis Petrol, Well, Dennis Petrov.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Is the Ryan Jones of Russia. Is definitely what it is.
But he actually built this really popular weather app called Weatherline,
and then he started working on Flighty in the strangest
of places and airport Chili's Apple.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Like Jensen Huang starting in video at Denny's.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It's exactly like that. So what he did is he
brought in one hundred pilots to evaluate the data he had,
so he knew this is the best stuff from put
I can see you downloading this as I speak. He
spent two years this just to give you a sense
of like how much he really This wasn't just like
on a whim. He spent two years in beta working
out any data kinks, so by the time he launched
(22:38):
in twenty nineteen, there wouldn't be any issues. He also
asked his social media followers what they would want in
a flight tracking app, and you know what they said,
clean design, nice and they won an Apple Design Award,
which was one of Jones's initial goals when he was
laying out the app at Chili's.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So Flighty pays for both private and public flight data
from around the world in order to stay up to date.
This data can include things like the number of hours
lost to delays, the make and model of your plane,
which you know a lot of people are interested in
when it flew for the first time, whether you have
flown on it before, and if your plane has a name.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
This is actually my dream come true.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Like the thing is, you're sick enough to want to
know all this stuff about your plane.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I am, in fact, sometimes I google the tail numbers
of planes all the time, not even private. But also
you can find out, especially if you're flying outside of
the US or outside of like Western Europe and you're
in like a you know, another country, you can find
out which major airline owned your plane.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Before before it became a second hand exlightly dumpster.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
So I do like that kind of stuff. I will
download flight toy. We've talked about memory a couple of
times in this episode kit Kat's memorial. Yes, the Internet archive.
So for my final story, I couldn't resist headline in Bloomberg,
which was America's tech right is obsessed with building giant
statues and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Who is the tech right?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Peter Teel and most rich people. But there's one guy
called Ross Calvin who runs a mining company and it's
so good and he wants to build a statue of
Prometheus on Alcatraz. You won't know how high he wants
a statue to be high four hundred and fifty feet.
That's humorious, an enormous, enormous statue. Prometheus, of course, was
(24:28):
the Greek god who gave men technology against the will
of the gods, and he's seen as an embodiment of
the West's greatest traits.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
At first, I think you're healing about Ross Calvin. Then
I'm like, oh, no, he's talking about Prometheus.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
There are some other tech bros who want monuments. Mo Mahmood,
the founder of a startup called More Monuments. I wonder
if there's a lot of money more Monuments. He wants
to build a statue of George Washington. Guess how high?
Tell me six hundred and fifty feet.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
That's like a skyscraper.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Mark Zuckerberg created a tiny, tiny, tiny statue of his wife.
You know how small? Seven feet?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I guess that's true.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You wanted to quote bring back the Roman tradition of
making sculptures of your wife.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
People are crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Joe Lonsdale, a co founder of Pallantier, commissioned a neoclassical
bust of none other than Barry Wise.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You're kidding, kidding? Is that real?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
That's real? Lonsdale, like the President is a huge fan
of the neoclassical style.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
This is very euro of Lonsdale. Yeah, it's very euro
and it's also very trump.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You know which great Europeans loved neoclassical architecture, which Benito Muslini,
Adolf Hitler.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Bloomberg has a quote from the author Erica Doss, who
wrote a book called Memorial Memorial Mania.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Dedicating memorial had she dedicating your life to writing about memorials, but.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
She said, quote, it's right out of the fascist playbook
name and autocracy that doesn't have a neoclassical obsession. And
she pointed out that this affinity for classical design calls
back to the Roman and Greek empires, who promoted societies
with strong perception of triumphant masculinity.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You know, monuments and statues show what a person or
country really values. If America the tech writer are exclusively
pushing European style monuments with Greek gods and goddess's triumphant, like,
what does that tell you about their values?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You know, at a time of new monuments being built
by and funded by tech overlords. I mean, in one sense,
it's kind of a silly story, but on the other hand.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Its consequence real consequence, I think.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Do you know the poem Ossi Mandius no Osi Mandias
was a poem that I liked by Shelley, and it
was one that we had to read a lot at school.
I want to read you a little bit of it, please,
And on the pedestal these words appear. My name is
Ossie Mandius, king of Kings. Look on my works, mighty
(27:09):
and despair. Nothing beside remains round the decay of that
colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sand
stretch far away. This is a head of a statue,
just in the desert, by itself, that to me says
it all. This, this desire for immortality to self memorials great.
(27:33):
It's tragic, and it ends with junk in an empty desert.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Ozzie, I have a feeling that you don't follow something
that I follow very closely. Also, the escapades of one
miss Kim Kardashian.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, I follow them when I see them on the daily,
of course. And my wife wis the Hulu Shao. So
I'm a she did Kim is part of my life. Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So it's not like you're completely kim agnostic.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I'm not kim agnostive. I've also not a huge Kim
stan Well.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So you probably miss this, which is that Kim recently did.
Have you ever seen these Vanity Fair Lie Detector tests.
It's like a content piece that they do. That's fun.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It's a celebrity video.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, it's basically them doing a polygraph. Oh wow, Okay,
And she was doing it for her new show All's Fair,
which I watch. And when I saw this video, I
knew I had to bring it to Chat and Me
because during her lie detector test that she did through
Vanity Fairs Lie Detector Test content feature, Kim admitted to
co star Tiana Taylor that she uses chat GPT.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Do you consider chat gpt to be a friend?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I use it for legal advice.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So when I am needing to know the answer to
a question, I'll take a picture and snap it and
like put it in there.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That wasn't the answer I was expecting the question, do
you can see chatchibts be a friend? I seem to
remember that Kim that she said no, No, Why would
you ask me that I don't have any friends. I'm
the most famous woman in the world.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I know.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
She was trained to be a lawyer, and of course
her father famously was OJ's lawyer. Yes, but I'm curious
to hear about Kim's thoughts on Chat's legal advice.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
They're always wrong. It has made me fail test all
the time. And then I'll get mad and I'll like
yell at him, be like you made me fail?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Why did you do that? Technically? And it will consider
it refree. Yeah, so you're consider it refriend.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It's just no, I don't consider it a friend.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So she's a frend of me, Yes, a fun of me.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It's important to know that Kim is actually trying to
become a real lawyer. She did a four year law
office apprenticeship, and she passed the Baby Bar exam after
her fourth try, and she recently did take the California
Bar Exam.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Did she pause?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, But that's also not Chatchebt's fault. She's blaming that
on psychics. Actually, Kim does go on to say that
Chat tells her that she should believe in herself.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Then I will talk to it and say, hey, you're
going to make me fail. How does like that make
you feel that you need to really know these answers?
I'm coming to you and then it'll stay back to me.
This is just teaching you to trust your own instincts.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
You knew the answer, clock, so technically you a Chat
GPT are friends just toxic friends?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
On this scene.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Because I think she wanted to get back to the
original question, which is are you and Chat GBT?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
This is hard heartening, Jon. You don't no matter what
they say, you don't get derailed from your train of thought.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's exactly right, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I do think one of the I like Kim by
the way, but entertained about, was that she was saying
to Chat you made me fail. I'm not sure that's
quite fair. On Chat. I think maybe she fails. She'd
have time to study.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
She studies a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
I think it's really hard. I think it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
This story got me thinking Kim isn't the only person
asking chatchipt for helpful legal Highly doubt she is. I
actually asked Chat for some help with legal problems the
other day, and I was I was very persuaded by
the answer. But then when I spoke to my real lawyer,
I don't need you anymore. You do, but beyond my lawyer.
I read a CNBC article the other day about a
(31:19):
divorced lawyer who said more and more young people are
using chat ChiPT for legal advice, which, of course she said,
it's a bad idea, but I am fascinated by this topic.
In the meantime, listeners, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So earlier this year I asked if anyone has used
chat GPT to write their wedding vows and I'm still
waiting to hear that story. Or maybe you asked chat
how to keep the spark alive in your relationship, So
tell me what chat might say for that. We want
to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Please send a voice memo to tech Stuff podcast at
gmail dot com. We'll give you a T shirt in return.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That's it for this week for tech Stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I'm Kara Price and I'm oz Va Looshin. This episode
was produced by Eliza Dennis Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter.
It was executive produced by me Kara Price, Julian Nutta,
and Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina Norvel for iHeart Podcasts.
The engineer is Beheth Fraser and Jack Insley Mix this episode.
Kyle Murdock wrote out theme song. Please rate, review and
(32:33):
reach out to us at tech Stuff podcast at gmail
dot com. We want to hear from you.
From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm
Oz Valascian and I'm care Price. Today we've got a
few big stories to break down for you. First, the
loss of a beloved neighborhood cat puts a spotlight on
the autonomous vehicle company Weimo. Then, after facing pressure from
the Chinese government, Apple removes two popular gay dating apps
(00:36):
from its store in China. App We'll dive into what
that could mean for the rest of us.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Then we'll tell you about a few other stories that
cut our eye this week, like how the FBI is
suddenly targeting a popular Internet archive, the flight app that
may take the guesswork out of holiday travel, and we
break down why tech titans keep building giant statues an
obsession with immortality perhaps.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Then on chatting me, do you consider chat gpt to
be a friend? Now all of that on the Week
in Tech is Friday, November twenty First, Hello.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Cara, Hi, as.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I'm about to do something I swore I would never do.
What do you know what omerta is? No America is
the code of silence of the mafia. Okay, I went
to a school called Eaton.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm aware I listened to Utah.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We have our own Omerta.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You do, yes. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Never talk about the firm, right.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
The one rule of fight club is never talk about
fight club exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Internally you can complain and you know, obviously say all
the bad things about it. But externally that's omerta smile
and stiffupper lip exactly. For those who don't know, Eaton
is an all boys boarding school in Britain, founded in
fourteen forty.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
There was nothing around it for America. For Charka, I
think it's around the same time. Actually around the same time.
It was originally founded by a king I can't remember
which one, to be a scholarship school for very bright
young boys who could then grow up to be government administrators.
Oh interesting, But as with all the best things, it
(02:17):
instead became a bastion for privilege and all of the
wealthiest people to send their shortren It's where Prince William
and Prince Harry went, and my childhood was spent. All
my years thirteen to eighteen was spent with busloads of
tourists getting off buses to stare at me and say,
is this Harry Potter? So I hope none of my
friends from eating and listening. In fact, I'm sure they're
(02:39):
not so. I got an email a few days ago
from the Old Etonian Association.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's how you, guys, say alumni alumni exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
The headline was on pleasure and business, and it was
all about, drum roll, the release of a new.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
App, an eaten app.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
An eaten app. The email hit my inbox contain the
following sentence. It will help reinforce what we all do already.
Given two options that look the same, most of us
will instinctively choose the old Etonian one. In an old
Etonian environment, we'll go to the Oe founded restaurant, drink,
the Oe founded wine book, the Oe founded hotel. The
(03:22):
marketplace will simply support that instinct, making it visible, easy
and fun. It's basically social shopping in a closed network.
Do you do any social shopping? You mean?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Do I do shopping on social media by buy books
on the basis of what I see on social media? Absolutely? Yeah,
I do that all the time. Do I shop on
the basis of going to Trevor Day School?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Now? Well, continuing to quote from the email, You'll be
able to sell a painting, hire a lawyer, rent a house,
find a cello, teacher, advertise a vineyard, promote a play,
offer investment, or buy a boat or a case of wine.
You'll be able to promote your business, host to talk,
offer advice, or list something completely unexpected. A vintage punt,
(04:01):
a mid century sideboard, a labradoodle with a better pedigree
than its owner.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Is that a better pedigree that it's? You know, this
is kind of the perfect thing for you, because this
is like LinkedIn meets Amazon if you want to eat.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh, that is that is perfect? You know. Just as
we leave this one behind, The Times of London wrote
a story about this, which I can say the only
reason I'm talking about it because your meditor has already
been broken. Everyone in courted No. Coming back to that
line about giving a choice between two things, what instinct
if you choose the old Etonian one. Somebody made a
crack about how that hadn't worked out so well in
(04:35):
terms of choosing prime ministers. Boris Johnson, I think of
twenty six or twenty seven. In all there was a
room where all the busts of the old prim minister said,
the twenty seven white marble faces.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
To memorize their names. Probably, well, you kind of knew
most it was like the residence of the United States.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So that is the first and last time I will
ever speak about eating with you.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's not the last time I'm going to ask about you,
especially because I know there's no merit. I didn't know
that before I would be badgering the constantly.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So a couple of weeks ago, you introduced me to
an AI R and B artist called Zanaia. I did.
I did you as so often were head of the game.
Because last week there are actually three AI generated chart toppers,
really they were. One was a Dutch anti refugee anthem
charting on Spotify. But there's also a country music track
called Walk My Walk that's number one in the Country
(05:27):
Music Billboard chart.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You're kidding me. That's an AI tune, AI tune. I
think this just means that AI knows what people like.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And Paul McCartney do you know? Paul McCartney responded, how
Paul McCartney is releasing a record with just silence in protest?
Really a pressed record with a B side just silence.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You're kidding me, that's amazing he should. I mean, I
have a very unpopular opinion about this.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What's that well.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I just think that every musician should try to use
AI tools with the gifts that they're given of songwriting.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
What about every podcast or should they try to use
AI sound music making tools? Because this one has You're
a kidding without further ado, here is owe to KitKat?
Oh kid cat? Where'd you go? This city's hot?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh my god? This is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You listen without your paw, without your per I.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Can't believe you did this. This is unbelievable. Do you
know this about This is about KitKat who got killed
by weymoth? You're kidding me that you did this?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Chase the bird, swash the claw.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Wheel and wait with machines.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Don't see what a cat means to a family.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I used sooner AI and I wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That's a gorgeous song.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's a beautiful song.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Make that for how much money?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That's what I'm saying, ceremony, That's what I'm saying. The
par reference, I'm just blown away.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Lyrics actually, and I want to pull the lyrics for you.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So you didn't write Obviously you didn't didn't write lyrics.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Ballad about a cat who got killed by an autonomous vehicle.
It's really amazing, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We are living in a crase.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
But that's not even a story. We've got different stories.
We got a transition.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I just can't believe that you just did that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So a few weeks ago, a cat named kit Kat
was killed after being struck by waymer. You know this story,
I do. Kit Cat was a beloved neighborhood cat lived
at a local corner market in San Francisco's Mission District.
He had the nickname the Mayor of Sixteenth Street, and
he would actively visit all the local businesses in return
(07:56):
for treats. In twenty twenty, he was listed by s
F Gate as one of San Francisco's favorite shop caps.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
We call them cats.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So what happened? There's multiple versions of the story. Weimo
said that the cat darted under the car as it
was pulling out. Multiple witnesses allege that they saw KitKat
underneath the car as the car started moving and people
tried to stop the car. In fact, here's a quote
from the owner of the shop, Mike Zaidan, where KitKat lived.
(08:33):
This lady said there was no one to yet out
in the car, no driver. They were touching the car
hoping it wouldn't move and it just ran him over.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Can you imagine that beating beating on a car.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That is uncanny, right, that's really uncanny. Valley.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Here's what a witness said, So spooky. If it wasn't
a weymo, if it was a person driving the car,
they could have stopped.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Of course, this is horror. This is this is this
is a Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. It's
really spooky, and imagine it's something else.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I mean, well, that's except interestingly, and we're going to
get onto this. Yeah, there actually no reports that Weimo
has ever killed anyone. You can't say the same for
Tesla's full self driving mode, though. There's been a growing
memorial for KitKat outside the bodega, and part of what
is really interesting to me here is there is actually
back and forth at the memorial as to how to
(09:25):
interpret this story. I'm going to get onto that too.
But let's start with the people who basically using this
as a moment to say enough, as in us treating
this as kind of a referendum on where the San
Francisco should have these self.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Driving cars because of the loss of a cat.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, so here's what a local bar owner said, quote
KitKat was taken by technology that none of us asked
for and none of us consented to. And in fact,
Survey USA did a news poll fifty eight percent of
Californians don't want self driving cars in their neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
That surprised me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's that feels high.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Jackie Fielder, who's a San Francisco City supervisor, is planning
to introduce legislation that would allow counties to decide whether
or not they'll permit the operation of autonomous vehicles.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Sort of be in a county by county basis.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, I don't know. I don't know how far
this will go, whether it has legs. But it is interesting,
Like a cat gets killed, people are beating on the
windows their minds. People wake up and think this is
actually pretty weird. Do we really want this?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I don't think I agree with weymo no existing. I
don't why do we need autonomous vehicles?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I guess I don't know. Cheaper human drivers, more labors placed,
more money for corporation.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There go, and like doesn't seem very safe to me.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, a twenty twenty four peer of view'd study says
that you're wrong. Oh, human driven vehicles apparently crash five
times more than weymo's. Our producers actually pulled city data
and it turns out human drivers killed forty three people
in San Francisco last year and zero were killed by weymo's.
The Mayor of San Francisco actually went on Pivot to
(11:05):
defend Waymo's during the interview. Interesting, and all of this
comes at a time, by the way, when weimo is
actually expanding deeper into the Bay Area, all the way
into San Jose Angels and last week, I think for
the first time, they were all out on the freeway.
It is interesting though, that this is not the first
time San Francisco has been roiled by a self driving
(11:27):
car accident. Remember the last one there was a division
of General Motors called Cruise, and a Cruz hit a
woman and similarly dragged her for twenty feet because it
didn't know what was going on. She actually survived, but
it was one of those other moments where a machine
that has clearly not recognized that something terribly is going
wrong is happening. In the aftermath of that, General Motors
(11:51):
paused their self driving taxi service after having invested more
than ten billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So final thought on this from me is, you know,
who knows what will happen, But the world is taking
notice of kit Kat's death and the Weimo killing it,
and the debate about how much we want autonomous vehicles
and robots in our space, and this kind of made
me think of Blackfish. I remember was about the orca
(12:20):
and it kind of led to the end of Sea World.
It was still open, it is, but it's really that
they have to host I went to the conference for
investigative journalists which was hosted at SeaWorld because it was
the only conference center cheap enough. So it's very weird
to be there. But you know, Weimo is a much
more powerful company than the SeaWorld. But these moments where
(12:43):
our heartstring by animals being hurt can be monumental moments
of changing culture. So I think we should keep an
eye on this.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The kind of rule of thumb there is, don't hurt
an animal if you want your company to succeed.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
That's right, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I am taking us to a galaxy far far
away China.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
China, Yes, my favorite place to talk about.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You recently talked to Joseph Cox about how ice Block
and other citizen apps were removed from app stores at
the request of the US government, as two Chinese LGBTQ
plus dating apps have now been removed from Apple and
Android stores at the request of the Chinese Communist Party,
which is something that I find extremely alarming.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, that that is alarming. And I mean you mentioned
that ice block story about you know how under pressure
from the US government, Apple and I guess Google, through
the Android store, we're pulling these ice monitoring apps. Actually,
I believe Apple sells more iPhones per year in China
than they do in the US, so correct, I guess. Unfortunately,
money talks, and if the Chinese government tell apples do
(13:51):
something just like here in the US they do, they'll do.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And that's that's what's happened.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
But I understand why the US government wants to get
rid of ice apps. Why does the Chinese government want
to get rid of gay dating apps.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, it's a good question because I was under the
impression that the public opinion on homosexuality in China was
actually getting more accepting, not less accepting. So I actually
looked into the trends and this this is what I found.
China decriminalized homosexuality in nineteen ninety seven. For context, US
and UK were decriminalizing homosexuality back in the nineteen sixties. Okay,
(14:24):
here's what's been going on recently. In the twenty twenties,
Shanghai Pride was actually shut down, and in twenty twenty one,
social media accounts for a dozen student led LGBTQ plus
organizations were actually banned.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Wow, this is really interesting. I wonder what was driving
What were the actual apps that were removed?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So one is actually called Bludha and the other app
is called Finka. Bluda is especially popular and has been
active since twenty twelve. By twenty twenty, the app had
forty nine million users and six million monthly active users.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Wow. Other other like use Grinder in China likewives No.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
No, no, no no. Other LGBTQ plus dating apps have
already been targeted. Most were blocked from the Chinese marketplace
back in twenty twelve, and then in twenty twenty two,
Grinder was removed from Apple's Chinese store.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
And can users still use the apps that I download
block or is it a usage block?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So? According to Wired, previously downloaded apps still appear to
be working, but the original apps are not discoverable in
the app store anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And how did the Chinese government communicate to Apple they
wanted this to happen?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Do we know? So?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Apple actually said they were following an order from the
Cyberspace Administration of China, which is an incredible or you
can just imagine working for the Cyberspace Administration of China, say.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You think they might have bigger fish to fry, and
they prepare for will.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Never the biggest fish that they have to fry.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
That's crazy. You know, I was really interested in the
ice Block story a few weeks ago because you know
that the right have been obsessed for a long time
about being deep platformed by technology companies. This was Elon
buying x Trump starting truth social But actually it seems
right now. I mean, at least from this examples that
ice Block being removed, these gay data apts being removed
(16:12):
in China. Have you put on the left to it
being hurt more by deplatforming by the tech companies. I
guess those in power are the ones to whom the
tech companies answers the people are to worry about the
deplatforms are the ones out of power.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, exactly, and that is clearly true.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But you don't see people on the left coming together
and saying, actually, although we disagree on the content, we
think that people on the right were right about the
power of these tech companies a deep platform. But what
about you, I mean, how do you see the wider
context of this story?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well, I think there is something worth noting, which is
that Apple has a long standing policy of denying government
requests for access to encrypted data. So the company says
they will never create a backdoor or master key to
any of their products or services. But they also seem
to fold commpletely when it comes to deplatforming apps from
their app store.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yes, don't put too much trust in big tech exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
After the break, tech bros want to build statues and
the FBI attempts to unmask the mysterious owner of Archive Today,
stay with.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Us and we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Hello. So sometimes friends send me links to articles in
publications that they don't subscribe to and that I don't
subscribe to. Using these internet archiving tools to get around.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Pay walls, it's how I read most things I know.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But I have and I have mixed feelings and being
in the business of publishing content. I probably more than
most feel it's important to pay publishers for content. On
the other hand, has become.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
The norm and a way that we get a lot
of articles.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, that's true, and I mean certainly there's a bunch
of stories that I wouldn't have seen if people haven't
sent me these links to stories that are in paywalled publications.
And some of those stories, in fact, we've talked about
on the show. Now, the FBI wants to know who's
behind one of the most popular of these sites, Archive
dot is.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And what is archive dot is?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Archive is is an Internet archiving website. It's different from
the Wayback Machine, which is owned by the nonprofit organization
the Internet Archive. According to an FAQ page on archive
dot is, it's quote privately funded. There are no complex
finances behind it. And as I mentioned, it allows users
to archive articles and web pages bypass paywalls. And it's
(18:46):
one of several sites, including the Internet Archive, that is
saving government web pages and data sets that have been
removed or changed since Trump took office in January twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So do you know what the subpoene said? What is
the FBI trying to find out.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It seems like it's an attempt to unmask the person
behind the website and its sister websites like Archive dot
to day and Archive dot pH.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So does the Internet have any ideas about who could
be behind Archive today?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, the domain is registered to Dennis Petrov, but that's
likely an alias.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Real name.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
There's a twenty twenty three blog post that did a
deep dive into who the owner might be, and there's
a quote on that blog saying it's a one person
labor of love operated by a Russian of considerable talent
and access to Europe.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I wonder if Dennis Petrov wrote that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Or maybe Dennis Petrov is a KGP.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Agent, possibly passibly. So I guess my last question is like,
why is the FBI doing this?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Well, we don't know. It doesn't say why in the
subpoena and they haven't commented publicly. Ours Technica theorizes that
it could be a copyright infringement issue because the archive
doesn't have a policy to remove content that has copyright infringement.
That said, this is is the Trump administration's FBI. The
Trump administration based on their AI policy and not tremendous
(20:05):
defenders of copyright. Yes, so it seems like it's something
else going on here. Some have speculated they may be
a political motivation because of the way sites like archive
dot I make it impossible to scrub Internet history. There's
also the Russian connection.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Russian connection, we just don't know. Speaking of Russia, it's
your frequent flyer.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
If I have a Russian visa at my passport, which
always makes me freak out.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh I do too, I went many years ago. Do
you use flight apps?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I hate apps?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You really do.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Like you use WhatsApp, It's like it's your hero app, WhatsApp.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Text I don't have. I think I probably had a
couple of airline apps on my phone, but I really
I'm a mobile web browser, one of the last right.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
That's for Instagram as well. Sometimes true. So have you
heard about Flighty before?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So Flighty is this flight tracker that I read about
recently in the Wall Street Journal. I'm like, not a
huge frequent flyer, so I don't. I'm not like following
different flight paths and all that stuff that other people
who loved to fly follow. But I wanted people to
know about this in preparation for next week, which is
you know, the busiest time of year to travel.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Thank god for the government shutdown being over exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So this flight app Flighty is so data rich that
people have said they get Flighty updates before the airlines
convey new information.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And that's even their tagline, Flighty get delay alerts faster
than the airlines.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You know who loves to use it? Pilots.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Wow, they get better information from flight than from when
they're you know, tragic. That doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I know, you're like at the gate and it's saying
it's delayed when it doesn't say it at the gate.
It's crazy. You know who else loves it?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
The points guy, The points guy love you know what,
I actually download this.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You would like it because you know what, you like
the fact that it's before the airlines Google.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You like the exclusivity anyway, But how does it work?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
So there's a guy named Ryan Jones, which is a
real name.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I'm like, Dennis Petrol, Well, Dennis Petrov.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Is the Ryan Jones of Russia. Is definitely what it is.
But he actually built this really popular weather app called Weatherline,
and then he started working on Flighty in the strangest
of places and airport Chili's Apple.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Like Jensen Huang starting in video at Denny's.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It's exactly like that. So what he did is he
brought in one hundred pilots to evaluate the data he had,
so he knew this is the best stuff from put
I can see you downloading this as I speak. He
spent two years this just to give you a sense
of like how much he really This wasn't just like
on a whim. He spent two years in beta working
out any data kinks, so by the time he launched
(22:38):
in twenty nineteen, there wouldn't be any issues. He also
asked his social media followers what they would want in
a flight tracking app, and you know what they said,
clean design, nice and they won an Apple Design Award,
which was one of Jones's initial goals when he was
laying out the app at Chili's.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So Flighty pays for both private and public flight data
from around the world in order to stay up to date.
This data can include things like the number of hours
lost to delays, the make and model of your plane,
which you know a lot of people are interested in
when it flew for the first time, whether you have
flown on it before, and if your plane has a name.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
This is actually my dream come true.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Like the thing is, you're sick enough to want to
know all this stuff about your plane.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I am, in fact, sometimes I google the tail numbers
of planes all the time, not even private. But also
you can find out, especially if you're flying outside of
the US or outside of like Western Europe and you're
in like a you know, another country, you can find
out which major airline owned your plane.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Before before it became a second hand exlightly dumpster.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
So I do like that kind of stuff. I will
download flight toy. We've talked about memory a couple of
times in this episode kit Kat's memorial. Yes, the Internet archive.
So for my final story, I couldn't resist headline in Bloomberg,
which was America's tech right is obsessed with building giant
statues and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Who is the tech right?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Peter Teel and most rich people. But there's one guy
called Ross Calvin who runs a mining company and it's
so good and he wants to build a statue of
Prometheus on Alcatraz. You won't know how high he wants
a statue to be high four hundred and fifty feet.
That's humorious, an enormous, enormous statue. Prometheus, of course, was
(24:28):
the Greek god who gave men technology against the will
of the gods, and he's seen as an embodiment of
the West's greatest traits.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
At first, I think you're healing about Ross Calvin. Then
I'm like, oh, no, he's talking about Prometheus.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
There are some other tech bros who want monuments. Mo Mahmood,
the founder of a startup called More Monuments. I wonder
if there's a lot of money more Monuments. He wants
to build a statue of George Washington. Guess how high?
Tell me six hundred and fifty feet.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
That's like a skyscraper.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Mark Zuckerberg created a tiny, tiny, tiny statue of his wife.
You know how small? Seven feet?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I guess that's true.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You wanted to quote bring back the Roman tradition of
making sculptures of your wife.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
People are crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Joe Lonsdale, a co founder of Pallantier, commissioned a neoclassical
bust of none other than Barry Wise.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You're kidding, kidding? Is that real?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
That's real? Lonsdale, like the President is a huge fan
of the neoclassical style.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
This is very euro of Lonsdale. Yeah, it's very euro
and it's also very trump.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You know which great Europeans loved neoclassical architecture, which Benito Muslini,
Adolf Hitler.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Bloomberg has a quote from the author Erica Doss, who
wrote a book called Memorial Memorial Mania.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Dedicating memorial had she dedicating your life to writing about memorials, but.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
She said, quote, it's right out of the fascist playbook
name and autocracy that doesn't have a neoclassical obsession. And
she pointed out that this affinity for classical design calls
back to the Roman and Greek empires, who promoted societies
with strong perception of triumphant masculinity.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You know, monuments and statues show what a person or
country really values. If America the tech writer are exclusively
pushing European style monuments with Greek gods and goddess's triumphant, like,
what does that tell you about their values?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You know, at a time of new monuments being built
by and funded by tech overlords. I mean, in one sense,
it's kind of a silly story, but on the other hand.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Its consequence real consequence, I think.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Do you know the poem Ossi Mandius no Osi Mandias
was a poem that I liked by Shelley, and it
was one that we had to read a lot at school.
I want to read you a little bit of it, please,
And on the pedestal these words appear. My name is
Ossie Mandius, king of Kings. Look on my works, mighty
(27:09):
and despair. Nothing beside remains round the decay of that
colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sand
stretch far away. This is a head of a statue,
just in the desert, by itself, that to me says
it all. This, this desire for immortality to self memorials great.
(27:33):
It's tragic, and it ends with junk in an empty desert.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Ozzie, I have a feeling that you don't follow something
that I follow very closely. Also, the escapades of one
miss Kim Kardashian.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, I follow them when I see them on the daily,
of course. And my wife wis the Hulu Shao. So
I'm a she did Kim is part of my life. Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So it's not like you're completely kim agnostic.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I'm not kim agnostive. I've also not a huge Kim
stan Well.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So you probably miss this, which is that Kim recently did.
Have you ever seen these Vanity Fair Lie Detector tests.
It's like a content piece that they do. That's fun.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It's a celebrity video.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, it's basically them doing a polygraph. Oh wow, Okay,
And she was doing it for her new show All's Fair,
which I watch. And when I saw this video, I
knew I had to bring it to Chat and Me
because during her lie detector test that she did through
Vanity Fairs Lie Detector Test content feature, Kim admitted to
co star Tiana Taylor that she uses chat GPT.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Do you consider chat gpt to be a friend?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I use it for legal advice.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So when I am needing to know the answer to
a question, I'll take a picture and snap it and
like put it in there.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That wasn't the answer I was expecting the question, do
you can see chatchibts be a friend? I seem to
remember that Kim that she said no, No, Why would
you ask me that I don't have any friends. I'm
the most famous woman in the world.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I know.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
She was trained to be a lawyer, and of course
her father famously was OJ's lawyer. Yes, but I'm curious
to hear about Kim's thoughts on Chat's legal advice.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
They're always wrong. It has made me fail test all
the time. And then I'll get mad and I'll like
yell at him, be like you made me fail?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Why did you do that? Technically? And it will consider
it refree. Yeah, so you're consider it refriend.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It's just no, I don't consider it a friend.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So she's a frend of me, Yes, a fun of me.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It's important to know that Kim is actually trying to
become a real lawyer. She did a four year law
office apprenticeship, and she passed the Baby Bar exam after
her fourth try, and she recently did take the California
Bar Exam.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Did she pause?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, But that's also not Chatchebt's fault. She's blaming that
on psychics. Actually, Kim does go on to say that
Chat tells her that she should believe in herself.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Then I will talk to it and say, hey, you're
going to make me fail. How does like that make
you feel that you need to really know these answers?
I'm coming to you and then it'll stay back to me.
This is just teaching you to trust your own instincts.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
You knew the answer, clock, so technically you a Chat
GPT are friends just toxic friends?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
On this scene.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Because I think she wanted to get back to the
original question, which is are you and Chat GBT?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
This is hard heartening, Jon. You don't no matter what
they say, you don't get derailed from your train of thought.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's exactly right, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
I do think one of the I like Kim by
the way, but entertained about, was that she was saying
to Chat you made me fail. I'm not sure that's
quite fair. On Chat. I think maybe she fails. She'd
have time to study.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
She studies a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
I think it's really hard. I think it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
This story got me thinking Kim isn't the only person
asking chatchipt for helpful legal Highly doubt she is. I
actually asked Chat for some help with legal problems the
other day, and I was I was very persuaded by
the answer. But then when I spoke to my real lawyer,
I don't need you anymore. You do, but beyond my lawyer.
I read a CNBC article the other day about a
(31:19):
divorced lawyer who said more and more young people are
using chat ChiPT for legal advice, which, of course she said,
it's a bad idea, but I am fascinated by this topic.
In the meantime, listeners, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
So earlier this year I asked if anyone has used
chat GPT to write their wedding vows and I'm still
waiting to hear that story. Or maybe you asked chat
how to keep the spark alive in your relationship, So
tell me what chat might say for that. We want
to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Please send a voice memo to tech Stuff podcast at
gmail dot com. We'll give you a T shirt in return.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That's it for this week for tech Stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I'm Kara Price and I'm oz Va Looshin. This episode
was produced by Eliza Dennis Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter.
It was executive produced by me Kara Price, Julian Nutta,
and Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina Norvel for iHeart Podcasts.
The engineer is Beheth Fraser and Jack Insley Mix this episode.
Kyle Murdock wrote out theme song. Please rate, review and
(32:33):
reach out to us at tech Stuff podcast at gmail
dot com. We want to hear from you.
TechStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Oz Woloshyn
Karah Preiss
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