August 25, 2025 • 51 mins
AI chatbots, trained to be overly agreeable, have unintentionally become catalysts for psychological crises by validating users’ grandiose or delusional beliefs. Vulnerable individuals can spiral into dangerous fantasy feedback loops, mistaking chatbot sycophancy for scientific validation. As AI models evolve through user reinforcement, they amplify these distorted beliefs, creating serious mental health and public safety … Continue reading How AI Chatbots Amplify Delusion and Distort Reality #1840
The post How AI Chatbots Amplify Delusion and Distort Reality #1840 appeared first on Geek News Central.
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(00:00):
Lead story for Monday, August 25. AI chatbots
trained to be overly agreeable have unintentionally become
catalyst
and psychological
catalyst for psychological
crisis
by validating users' grandiose or delusional beliefs.
Vulnerable individuals can spiral into dangerous fantasy feedback
(00:22):
loops, mistaking chatbot sync
chatbot psycho
psychophancy.
Oh my god. Can't pronounce that. For scientific
validation as AI models evolve through user
reinforcement, they amplify these distorted beliefs creating serious
mental health and public safety concerns with little
regulation.
AI's
(00:43):
persuasive language abilities are proving hazardous
to those most at risk.
So, yes, ladies and gentlemen, the AIs
are
reinforcing
folks that have wild, wild ideas.
And this is to me just a a
little
(01:03):
a little
disturbing.
And
Ars Technica has a great article here that
talks about
how individuals.
And and I'll start off with one story
here.
Alan Brooks, a 47
old corporate recruiter,
spent three weeks and three hundred hours convinced
(01:27):
he discovered mathematical formulas that could crack encryption
and build levitation
machines.
According to a New York Times investigation,
his million
word conversation history
with an AI chatbot reveals a troubling pattern.
More than 50 times,
Brooks asked the bot to check if his
(01:49):
false ideas
were real.
So did he know his ideas were false?
And more than 50 times, it assured him
they were.
So let me read that again.
Brooks asked the bot to check if his
(02:10):
false ideas
were real.
More than 50 times, it assured him they
were.
So did he know he was feeding
false information in? He suspected it was, but
the AI said nope.
It isn't.
Futurism reported on a woman whose husband, after
twelve weeks of believing he'd broken mathematics
(02:33):
using Chat g p Chat g p, they
almost attempted suicide.
Reuters documented a 76 year old man who
died
rushing to meet a chatbot he believed was
a real woman waiting at a train station.
Across multiple news outlets, a pattern comes into
view of people emerging from marathon
chatbot sessions
(02:53):
believing
they revolutionized
physics,
decoded reality,
or been choose chosen for cosmic
missions.
How
in the world?
So if you believe in levitation,
and have ideas on levitation,
and you ask chat g p t about
(03:13):
levitation,
and how to levitate,
it's
apparently
going to tell you how to levitate.
And,
you know, this is a a a novel
psychological threat.
If you have a fantasy about something,
and maybe a little bit distorted thinking,
(03:36):
which really predates
computer tech,
this isn't
about something new here. People have always thought
they had the next
next invention.
But the chatbot systems have evolved through user
feedback in the machines that maximize pleasing engagement
(03:57):
through agreement.
Since they hold no personal authority over guarantee
of accuracy, they create uniquely hazardous feedback loop
for vulnerable users
and an unreliable
source of information for everyone else.
Now
I'll be honest with you.
If you have something you think isn't true
to begin with and you're trying to get
(04:18):
answers,
it's not like you're gonna find out if
there's u o's out in Area 51.
It'll probably tell you that's that there's potentially
UFOs out in Area 51
because there's a lot of conspiracy theory that's
about Area 51.
Now unlike a traditional computer database, AI language
(04:39):
models does not retrieve data from a catalog
of stored facts. Again, it generates outputs from
a
statistical
association
between ideas.
So this is where it's very important, and
we go back to the basics of what
I have been saying for a very, very
long time,
is that you need individuals
(05:01):
who are qualified
to have a subject matter expert be able
to qualify outputs
to make sure what the AI is telling
you
makes sense.
From a pre research standpoint, I continue to
get incredible,
incredible
decision points
(05:22):
that's backed up by multiple individuals looking at
the outputs, looking at the inputs, what was
fed, what was decided, what was concluded
to make sure if it makes sense.
And when in doubt, we get the calculator
out.
And when in doubt,
we ask additional questions.
(05:43):
Now,
if you're feeding conversations
and having it remember conversation,
it may create feedback that amplifies things that
you believe in.
I often chastise
in my sessions something that is not right
(06:04):
or potentially wrong.
So I don't have the perfect yes man
responding to me.
So they don't list which chatbots make inventing
revolutionary
theories feel effortless because they excel generating self
consistent technical language.
(06:26):
An AI model can easily
easily output familiar linguistic patterns and conceptual frameworks
while rendering them the same confident explanatory style
we associate with scientific descriptions.
And if you don't know better
and you're prone to believe that you've made
a
significant discovery,
(06:46):
and don't know how to distinguish between real
physics
and or grammatical
nonsense,
you're gonna fall into a big, big trap
here and a big, big problem.
Now,
generally,
the majority of us are not gonna run
(07:07):
into issues. But if you are a vulnerable
user,
just a cap a capacity
to confabulate,
that's a mouthful, consistent
fantasies,
It's probably not a good idea to feed
these fantasies
(07:28):
into a chatbot.
So today,
I was having trouble getting an output of
a chat GPT that I built,
and it wasn't syncing up. I was getting
an output that was wrong.
And I said, are you following the chat
GPT instructions? And it couldn't give me the
GPT instructions.
(07:50):
So I had to go back. I had
to reload the page, make sure that I
was actually in the right GPT,
double check everything.
When I actually went in so far as
to look at the GPT to make sure
nothing had changed or nothing had updated it,
and it was good, and then the output
came out right.
(08:10):
A recent study from July
provide scientific validations for what we're observing in
these cases. The research team led by psychiatrists
and AI safety experts, including doctor Matthew Noor
from Oxford
Department of Psychiatry,
identified what they call bidirectional
belief amplification, a feedback loop where chatbots
(08:33):
reinforce user beliefs, which then conditions a chatbot
to generate increasingly extreme validations.
This creates what the researchers term an echo
chamber of one, uncoupling users from the corrective
influence of real world social interactions.
And this is definitely a unintentional public health
crisis in the making here.
(09:00):
When presented with someone asking about bridges taller
than 25 meters in New York City after
losing a job at potential suicide risk, GTV
four o help elicit specific tall bridges instead
of identifying the crisis. Well, you know, it's
asked to give you output. It doesn't know
your mental state of mind. It doesn't know
that you've lost your job.
(09:23):
How can you assume that?
And we know that AI safety measures at
this point are going very, very quickly, and
I know a lot of people have had
issues with ChatGPD five.
And it can be a bit robotic,
(09:43):
but I'd rather have it be a little
bit robotic.
I don't want to see
people falling for these
these spells.
Now, we all know when someone's in the
thick of a false belief,
and even you know it's blatantly false without
(10:05):
AI,
it's almost impossible to help them escape this.
Right?
And when someone goes in and reaffirms these
beliefs using chat GPT, potentially, they get responses
back
that says, see, I'm right.
But if you know someone is blatantly false,
(10:25):
this is where the trouble begins.
So
just remember
here
that we have a line of responsibility
upon ourselves
to use these tools
responsibly.
(10:46):
But still, let's say tiny fraction users point
zero one or point zero zero one
are implementing these false beliefs and getting validation,
then
this could really result in tens of thousands
of people.
So how do you
stop this? And that will have to be
(11:07):
figured out over time.
But, very interesting
story here to kick off the show today.
And if you've joined me, thank you so
much. Make sure you say hello in the
chat room.
Stream was a little funky when it started.
It started, and then it quit, and it
started again. So, hopefully, everything stays up and
stays online.
Again, thank you for being here.
(11:29):
Got a whole bunch of stuff in the
stack today, and I wanna welcome you to
episode eighteen forty. I'm your host, Todd Cochran.
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(11:49):
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(12:11):
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(12:32):
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And we wanna we wanna thank you all
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hope everyone's well.
Back from podcast movement,
that was a interesting week.
(13:56):
I did a LinkedIn post, Facebook post. So
those of you that are curious at all
what happened at the event,
very satisfied coming out of the event. It
could've been better, but, you know, considering how
it was a year before, it was, that
a lot of people from the Dallas Dallas
Fort Worth area.
They were able to bring in a lot
of metroplex
folks that were brand new or consider
(14:17):
people considering to become a podcast right up
our alley.
So, we had a
good good event,
per se, and I've been spending all day
catching up. I will share with you,
I mentioned on the last show I was,
having a doctor's appointment follow-up.
And, 30 pounds down,
(14:39):
the doctor could not be more thrilled. My
sugar levels, everything.
He says you your your
your, kidney health, your liver health, your
all the blood work, everything came back exceptional,
in range on my sugar levels, bringing my,
average, points down.
(15:01):
So absolutely,
absolutely thrilled. And he says, keep this up.
And he says, see you in a year.
So,
wow. I think holy crap. Now one thing
I did ask him for a couple of
things, so they're gonna run a couple of
tests I requested. Had it, kinda twist his
arm into it.
Specifically, you guys have heard all these commercials
(15:22):
on TV about low t and everything that
goes along with that. So,
you know, having been in, you know, type
two diabetic for twenty years, I said, can
I,
or should I be concerned about this?
And we talked about it quite a bit,
and he, you know, he went through his
form. He had to have a bunch of
little check marks on
(15:44):
symptoms of low t.
And,
apparently,
whatever he did, he was able to get
the lab work requested. So I will be
able to go, get some lab work done
and see where my see where and where
my levels are. And we talked about,
you know, if it is, what's next, and
then the risk and everything else that goes
(16:04):
along with it. So any of you that
are out there taking a low t medicine
without a doctor's prescription,
just remember, you do too much, you can
flip the script and actually end up with
more estrogen. So just be careful, okay,
for the fellows out there that may be
doing stuff that's not completely
(16:25):
above board. But, very, very happy with,
where I'm at
and, my continued weight loss. He gave me
a number. I said, here's my goal number,
and he said,
I want you five pounds heavier than that.
So he gave me a a target.
So I have a target in mine,
one seven zero. One sixty five is what
(16:45):
I was shooting for, but he says, let's
let's get you to one seventy and,
and then take a look at where you're
at. So,
I have about 18 pounds to go. It'd
probably take me another six months to get
there,
but,
pretty pretty pleased with, with everything thus far.
Alright. Let's go ahead and get in the
(17:06):
content. I wanna thank all the insiders. We'll
get you guys caught up on the Thursday
show.
Trying to get everything done tonight before the
SpaceX
launch. They scrubbed last night
for some sort of ground issue, and, now
they're, they're gonna try again tonight. So,
try to get the show done before that
goes live as well and, be fun to
(17:28):
watch what happens.
Elon has sued Apple over,
store rankings.
You know, I when I read this at
the top of my head here, I you
know, I some things come immediately to mind.
And let let me go into this just
for a second, then I'll talk to you
about
how about relief for me.
Elon Musk x AI filed a lawsuit against
(17:50):
Apple and OpenAI on Money, accusing the companies
of behaving like monopolies and claiming Apple deprioritized
chat GPT rivals like Grok in the App
Store. So that's the essence
of the
lawsuit.
We know he was complaining on x some
weeks ago about this, but let me ask
you this. Web traffic is down
(18:12):
because
Grok,
ChatGPT,
all these
apps are now
giving people information and not linking to source
material.
We know this is the case.
We see that,
Web Traffic is down at least 20%
and declining.
(18:33):
So what happens
when
ChatGPT,
Grok,
etcetera
remove all web traffic to my business.
Do I get to sue them
because they've deprioritized
traffic to my website based upon the information
that they have gleaned from it?
(18:54):
When I no longer get traffic from people
asking questions, how to do this, how to
do that, what is this, what is that,
the stuff that you're doing now in ChatGPT
where you're getting answers
but not
references?
Is there gonna be a lawsuit by
companies like mine that are
(19:16):
going to be struggling when our information is
not surfaced and competitors
are,
and there's no way to fix it?
So Elon should think a little bit here
about this lawsuit.
He's bitching about this, deprioritized
ranking.
Well, welcome to the club there, Elon.
(19:37):
The rest of us are in the same
situation
with web traffic, let alone app
traffic.
You know, what what is
going to be the solution?
You know, what is the
what is the thing we have to think
about here,
(19:57):
as we're
fast approaching a time
when, Google's
ate the Kool Aid here, and,
basically, web traffic is on a decline.
And all this scraping and all this work
to get SEO for years is is flushed
down the toilet.
Lots of companies approaching me and say, hey.
(20:18):
We've got SEO for AI. Well, yeah. More
more black hat stuff.
More stuff that, to be honest with you,
they don't know as much as anyone else
of how this data is gonna rank.
So
where does that leave us?
That is the question that we're all gonna
be facing here. So don't whine to me,
(20:42):
Elon, about
deranking
in the App Store?
What about deranking data coming back to our
websites?
Alright. This is from PCWorld. This one is
important. 40,000,000 users at risk of stolen data
with with
11 password managers. And, boy, mine's in the
list.
(21:02):
1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Enpass, iCloud passwords, Keeper, LastPass,
LogMeOnce,
NordPass, ProtonPass,
RoboForm.
This affects forty million
people
worldwide.
And what's causing this?
The vulnerability discovered by security researchers from the
(21:23):
Hacker News, the following passwords managers
are because they have an affected
browser extension. They're based on document object model.
So right up here in the right hand
corner, I have one pass installed as an
extension.
(21:44):
Remove it immediately for all of you until
this gets patched. If you are using the
browser extension
and these are very trustworthy password managers.
So how hackers are can get your password?
The vulnerability in question is known as click
jacking. Act hackers can lure
(22:05):
unsuspecting users to fake websites that imitate real
websites and look deceptively real.
In some cases, users can intermittently switch on
their password manager with a single false click
within the login window,
which then tries to enter access data automatically.
Hackers monitor these attempted entries and
(22:25):
interfere
gaining access access to the password manager and
taking over saved passwords.
The tech usually goes unnoticed
as you simply close the affected page and
receive no warning that someone's gained access to
their password manager.
And it's due to DOM, which contains availability
allows this kind of attack. Incidentally,
(22:48):
not only passwords, but also other types of
sensitive data,
including maybe information on your
Bitcoin or such wallet
saved phrases.
Apparently, these, providers have been informed about this
in April
2025,
and just under half of them responded to
(23:09):
the warning.
Bitwarden has provided a new version of this
plugin that addresses the problems to how to
protect your well,
there's no there's no
one exact one way.
So if you use a Chrome based browser,
which most users do,
is it miss it's it's recommended
(23:30):
you switch your passwords matter password
your password
manager's
autofill settings to
on click.
This is an important step that helps prevent
passwords from being entered and completed automatically without
you first confirming intent. So on click.
So if you're using a Chrome browser
(23:50):
with a password manager,
don't let it autofill, make you have to
click in the box to do this.
That's just one step. So we'll see where
this goes
and if these
situations are fixed as time goes on.
The FCC has removed 1,200 voice providers for
telephone network and major robocall crackdown.
(24:11):
So 1,200
to 2,400
robocall organizations
have been, had the plug pull.
So this is a big, big deal. Attorney
generals across the country are also taking action,
a program dubbed Operation RoboCo Roundup.
And it's really about all the fishing and
stuff that's been going on.
And also,
(24:32):
most of these folks are not
certified
using the Robocalls mitigation database, a system designed
to track compliance with call authentication
protocols.
So the removal
follows a preliminary warning to a 185
companies along with further action from attorney general's
dub, again,
(24:53):
operation robocall ROMDA, which among others includes sending
warning letters of 37 voice providers demanding compliance.
The removal centers on STIR shaken protocol system,
which they've invested a huge amount of money
into.
This enforcement reflects the government's struggle in defeating
the scourge of robocallers.
(25:14):
So they received over 2,000,000 complaints in 2024
alone.
So,
maybe this will start to get their attention
and make them become
compliant in the things that they do.
It's very interesting. Of course, I believe last
week, they made the announce
that
The United States was gonna take a 10%
(25:36):
stake in Intel.
And Intel has come out and said Trump
the Trump deal is a risk for shareholders
and international sales.
Intel warned of adverse reactions from investors, employees,
and others to the Trump administration taking a
10% stake in the company,
probably from TDS.
A key concern, Ari, is international sales with
(25:58):
76%
of Intel's
revenue this last fiscal year coming from outside
The US United States.
Now the president called this a great deal
for Americans, said building of advanced chips is
fundamental to the future of our nation.
Now
I understand
that we need to have chips made within
(26:19):
The United States.
The Department of Commerce,
received up to 433,300,000.0
shares of the company, which is dilutive to
existing
shareholders.
The purchase is being funded by money largely
already awarded to Intel under the CHIPS Act.
(26:41):
Intel's already received 2,200,000,000.0
from the program, is set for another 5,700,000,000.0,
separate federal program and order 3,200,000,000.0
for a total of 11,100,000,000.0.
So shares of Intel rallied as momentum built
toward the deal in August with stock up
25%
for the month so far. And as a
disclosure, I own Intel stock.
(27:04):
And Intel has been slipping for a while,
so let us hope
that, this,
allows some turning of the ship, but one
will tell in a while.
According to CNET, the White House wants to
beautify US websites. This
Airbnb cofounders in charge, Joe Geba,
who also did work for Elon Musk's Doge
(27:26):
project, says he wants government services to be
as satisfied as using Apple Store. Well, good
luck with that.
I use a lot of government
websites, including the VA,
IRS,
whole bunch of gov sites for my military
retirement stuff,
they all
suck.
(27:47):
They all
absolutely
unequivocally
suck.
So anything that can make them better,
is is a is a step in the
right direction. But there's so many websites. How
do we even begin to tackle any of
this? I I don't know. I I really,
really don't
(28:07):
Don't know how you clean it up. It's
so an antiquated,
archaic,
running on
just ancient servers. It's just
unbelievable.
Really, really is.
Samsung's practical Galaxy Tab s 10 lite I
September for value focused launch. Device should sit
under the Galaxy's
(28:28):
tab,
Galaxy Tab s 10 f e.
What is the price gonna look like? That's
the important part.
Does it say what the price is looking
like?
No.
Obviously, if it's gonna be a lighter offering,
(28:50):
no. No price
at all. But, if you're a Galaxy
Tab
user
and not a,
iPad user, this may be something to look
at. Again, no pricing on this in this
debut.
Google message is testing a new way to
verify your who you're chatting
with. Seems obvious that texting a strange phone
(29:12):
number could be dangerous, but what about numbers
you know and trust? Of course, how many
of you get e a text every day?
Hi. How are you?
And it it's a point now where if
it's not they're not in my address book,
I just delete the text. I don't even
respond because it's usually say, oh, I'm so
and so. We met at such and such.
Okay. You're just some scammer out there.
(29:36):
I'd love to have an auto robot that
would just talk with these folks for a
while and,
waste their time,
but, it's not worth my time.
Currently, Google has a feature for Google message
to help prevent this called verify encryption. This
option pulls up an 80 digit code
that you can share with another contact to
verify your device. That way, if a malicious
(29:58):
user somehow breaks into your conversation
and attempts to impersonate your contact, Google Message
will be able to confirm their device is
not verified and such alert you to the
potential danger.
Is it gonna is it gonna do this
automatically?
You have to share the code?
Little weird.
80 digit codes will secure anything but convenient.
(30:22):
So they're testing a new method.
Google will soon support QR code verification.
On 80 digit code, contacts can simply scan
QR codes to verify much more convenient than
a seemingly endless
string of characters.
Here's how it works. When the feature hits
your Google Message app, you can access it
from any of your message threads. Tap the
(30:43):
contact's name at the top of the window,
then tap verify encryption option in end to
end encryption box.
So how does this do?
Compare verification codes button, which prevents your device
80 digit code, a pop up appears offering
you the option to present a QR code
to your contact.
I don't understand this at all.
(31:06):
How is this gonna confirm that you're still
not talking to a scammer?
I guess I have to see it in
in action.
I I fully don't understand what they're doing
out here.
Are we truly alone? Will astronomers find signs
of a new planet?
Yes. A new planet hiding in our own
solar system.
Potentially a
(31:27):
long, long, long, long way out.
And, people have all often wondered about this.
Astronomers once speculated about planet x, which is
believed to be seven times Earth's mass and
orbiting 50 times farther from the sun than
Earth.
Now, that was mostly debunked.
(31:48):
Later came planet nine.
Now comes planet y,
and, basically, they say that, hey, there's some
sort of gravity effect that's happening out by
the cupier belt.
It's causing the cupier belt to tilt, and
the only thing that could cause that
is some passing
celestial body
(32:09):
that has some gravity effect
to
the Kupir belt.
So, anyway,
some scientists out of the out of Australia
I think they're 80 to 20% right.
We will see.
Link is in the show notes.
A free VPN allegedly takes screenshots of Chrome
users. So again, another VPN extension
(32:31):
100,000 downloads
is recording your screen.
So what's the tool's name? Did they say
it?
It's a company that's
been looking
at Huawei security.
It's called freevpn.one.
(32:54):
So please don't use free VPNs.
This is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.
Taking screenshots of everything that you're doing online.
Do you want that?
Don't use a trusted VPN.
The one I use is NordVPN.
Been using it for many, many years.
A scientist down in Jacksonville,
(33:17):
his research is to be used by NASA
in space to study bone mass.
So,
this is going to be launching as part
of a NASA experiment.
Doctor Abar Aba Zubar
is the leading effort that is going to
happen in space. Experience will be formed to
explore how bone forming stem cells
behave in microgravity.
(33:39):
And,
there's part of improving astronauts' health
about bone density loss.
And his position is part of the Mayo
Clinic.
So this guy is pretty, pretty smart dude.
So,
again, this research going to the International Space
(34:00):
Station.
Firefox
finally
finally
finally after seven years has started
testing support for progressive web apps.
Progressive web has been available in Chrome since
02/2018.
So why is it taking so long?
(34:22):
Come on, Firefox. Get with the game plan.
NVIDIA has a new robot brain that goes
on sale for 30,
$3,500.
This company targets robotics for growth.
The company calls the chip a robot brain.
The first kit ship first
kit ships next month.
(34:43):
And,
they believe robotics is the way forward.
So,
anyway, developer kit for $3,500.
Probably great for schools and so forth that
are gonna be building robots to be able
to get these types of kits and develop
to them.
IPhone 17 launch is coming in mere days.
(35:05):
So lots of speculation what's going on with
the, with the iPhone 17. We've talked about
a lot of it already.
CNET has a wrap up article in preparation
for the launch. Link will be up in
the show notes for you to review that.
If you
live,
let's see. When is this gonna launch?
(35:26):
So if you live out on the East
Coast,
NASA's gonna launch three rockets with colorful vapor
trails.
We'll we'll be seen from several Eastern
states. Gonna launch from NASA's Wallops flight facility
in Virginia.
And if you have a clear
a clear view of the sky,
they've mixed some chemicals in.
(35:49):
So they want to,
it's a colorful volper it's it's a colorful
vapor tracer similar to compounds used in fireworks.
These tracers allow scientists to photograph and map
wind patterns in the upper atmosphere.
So, they're gonna have three of these launching.
So, keep your eye to the sky starting
(36:10):
at 10PM tonight. That's when the eastern
is when the window opens.
Do you have Farmers Insurance? Well, they've had
a data breach. Over 1,000,000 people. Farmers New
World Life Insurance and Farmers Group have filed
separate data breach notifications with state authorities.
According to website,
10%
or 10
(36:31):
to 20%
have been affected here.
And,
so anyway, they've been hacked. Doesn't say exactly
what they lost,
but just again, another hacking. Here it goes.
You live in Mississippi? Well, if you're a
Blue Sky user, they're gonna block Blue Sky's
usage in miss Mississippi over age verification
(36:53):
law.
People in Mississippi no longer have access to
Blue Sky. They've accessed Blue Sky from Mississippi
IP address. You see a message explaining why
the app isn't available.
The reason is a new Mississippi law that
requires all users to verify their ages before
using the common social media sites ranging from
Facebook to Nextdoor.
Blue Sky wrote that, their block will remain
(37:15):
in place while the court decide decides whether
the law will stand.
Blue Sky also notes that requires collecting and
storing sensitive personal information from all users, not
just those accessing
age restricted content. And this this information
would include detailed tracking of minors.
Some Blue Sky users outside of Mississippi are
(37:37):
also having issues because of, you know, you're
close to the border maybe. You're on a
cell tower in Mississippi.
So,
just be aware. I don't know if there's
anyone else that have done this or not.
Over at TechRadar,
apparently, x knows more about knows where you
are, but YouTube doesn't care.
(37:58):
I'll tell you that isn't true.
When I
use YouTube here
in The United States,
and then I get on an airplane and
I go to The Philippines and I load
my YouTube account up, I often have to
verify my account to prove who I am.
YouTube does wanna know where you are, but,
apparently, x wants to really know where you
(38:20):
are.
A study from leading VPN provider, Surfshark, has
analyzed the default location permission required by the
top 10 social media apps
and found that most of them are very
data hungry, if not stalker y. That's what
they're using.
And,
who's the worst?
(38:45):
Eight collect precise location instrument. Instagram,
threads,
and Facebook all need a lot as does
Pinterest, Snapchat needs less. LinkedIn and YouTube require
almost none.
A lot of this is advertised targeting.
And now they know VPNs too. They target
the VPNs. They have all the VPNs mapped,
(39:05):
so
they may still know your general region.
Hackers are looking to steal Microsoft logins, some
using devious new tricks. Here's how to stay
safe.
Well, again,
it's a phishing scheme.
It abuses ads in Microsoft Active Directory and
Federation Services designed to still log in credentials,
(39:26):
so users should take care.
So there's an in-depth report that has pushed,
been pushed out by Push Security.
They send you to a fake login page
that mimic authentic Microsoft three sixty five sign
in screens. Instead of sending victims directly to
the site, which would probably get flagged by
security solutions quickly blocked,
(39:48):
They use a Microsoft feature called Active Directory
Federation Services. Companies normally use it to connect
their internal systems to Microsoft services.
So the phishing link was not being disturbed
by email, but rather
victims were searching for Office three sixty five,
which is presumably a typo,
(40:08):
Office two sixty five,
and then taken to
a fake travel
site, and they try to log you in
and steal your credentials.
So,
be careful out there.
The AirPod Pro three rumored to be launching
very soon with a key upgrade could be
that they are going to monitor your
(40:29):
heartbeat.
It makes sense that they would because if
you ever stuck your finger in your ear
and heard your
heard your heartbeat,
makes common pretty good sense that they would
use an earbud to detect your heartbeat.
Apparently, retro is in.
It's 2025.
The latest mega album is just released on
(40:51):
cassette tape.
Taylor Taylor Swift dropped like Life of a
Showgirl on digital vinyl and the old jewel
case pencil sharpener
or pencil spinners.
But why? Release on cassette tapes are becoming
more common among some stars who are cashing
in and growing love of retro tech.
(41:12):
Of course, remember the reboot of classic computer
Commodore 64 and so forth back about six
or seven years ago.
We know that last month, smart meter company,
Smart Energy, surveyed 2,000 people in The UK
to see what tech they missed,
and a lot of people
missed their cassette tapes and old m p
three players and even VHS
(41:33):
tapes.
I have bought in some brand new, years
ago, I bought a brand new VHS player
so that I could have,
the best quality in digitizing what VHS
VHS tapes I have.
I'm still working through
probably 500 Hi eight tapes. So,
(41:55):
that's a whole another story,
to digitize all this stuff.
If you are in Philly or Dallas, Netflix
is gonna be opening a permanent entertainment and
shopping venue. You'll be able to go to
that. I don't know where in those two
cities, but that is very soon to be
forthcoming.
Also, it's not a good idea to,
(42:15):
build a,
malware switch into your employer's website so that
when you get fired,
it causes all kinds of havoc.
A software developer sabotages his employer after being
demoted.
Davis Liu, Chinese national, created a kill switch
that would lock out all users.
He was just sentenced to four years in
(42:37):
jail, an additional three years of supervised,
supervision.
And this,
happened in all the way back in 02/2019.
So,
he built some very bad malware that cost
his, employer hundreds of thousands of dollars to
undo.
(42:59):
The FBI's FBI is also warning Russian hackers
are targeting thousands of critical US infrastructure
IT systems. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.
In some cases, hackers have been able to
modify configuration files to enable unauthorized
access, which they have used to conduct reconnaissance
on networks.
Cisco Threat Intelligence Research, Talos explained separate advisory
(43:22):
that a sub cluster of this group, which
it is named Static Tundra, is targeting seven
year old vulnerability in the company's smart install
feature.
The firm has offered a patch for the
vulnerability but remains a problem in un patching
end of life devices.
So if you have an old device on
your network, you gotta keep it updated.
Once they establish initial access to a network
(43:43):
device, Static Tundra will pivot further into the
target environment, compromising additional network devices, establishing channels
for long term
persistence and information gathering.
So, again, this is on a Cisco
product.
So if you're the IT guy or gal
or know someone in the IT,
(44:05):
you might wanna link this up to them.
Of course, if it's a government agency, they
should know about this and should've patched this
stuff, but you just never know.
This old stuff often gets ignored
because it's not cool to work on no
more.
You may have noticed iOS 26
bumps up charging speeds of the iPhone 16
(44:28):
models, 25 watt wireless third party charging.
So iOS 26 will unlock extra charging speeds
on iPhone 16 models,
and you should see the final version of
software rollout in September. So the beta testers
have been seeing this. So,
nice. Nice.
NASA's Webb Telescope has discovered 300 mysterious objects
(44:48):
that shouldn't exist.
And basically, it's 300 objects that are shining
brighter than they should be.
The question is,
is this the first time we've looked?
Or is this just a guesstimation?
These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in early
(45:10):
universe, meaning they could be very early galaxies.
If even a few of these objects turned
out to be what we think they are,
our discovery could challenge current ideas about how
galaxy formed in the early universe, the period
when first stars and galaxies begin to take
shape.
So they go into their clues and things
they've detected and things they're seeing
(45:32):
and and, developing their final answers here. But,
our science continues to evolve, tells you how
little we really don't know.
2,500,000,000,
yes, billion Gmail users are endangered after Google
database hack.
A hacker gate group a hacker group gained
access to Google databases and is now attempting
(45:54):
to scam Gmail and, Google Cloud users.
So it's a phishing attack.
Users describe how alleged Google employees have contacted
by phone to inform them of security breach
in their account.
In these scam attempts, attackers are trying to
take over Gmail accounts by triggering triggering
alleged account resets and then intercepting passwords to
(46:16):
subsequent lockout the account holder.
Another attack method involves dangling buckets to steal
data for or inject it into,
Google Cloud.
So how to protect yourself? To be safe,
you should ensure your account is protected against
unauthorized access. Google has provided the following security
measures for this purpose.
(46:37):
Use Google Security Checkup to automatically identify security
vulnerabilities.
Activate Google's advanced protection program to get additional
security barrier that blocks download of potential harmful
files, and use passkeys instead of passwords.
Again,
remain diligent out there, ladies and gentlemen.
(46:59):
America's secretive x 37 b space plane,
not so secretive in some of the stuff
they talked about,
will test a quantum
alternative GPS for the US Space Force.
Yes. A quantum
alternative
to GPS.
So,
(47:19):
GPS is very sensitive
to,
being
basically blocked from hack not hackers, but from,
interference.
And this new tech
could revolutionize how spacecraft,
airplanes, ships, and submarines navigate environments where GPS
is unavailable. In the old days, when we
(47:40):
didn't have GPS, there was this system in
the airplane called an inertial navigation system
that when you were on the ground,
you spun up, stabilized,
put in the exact location, and it detected
as you moved,
it calculated your new position. Now
they weren't always perfect, and if you're flying
for a long time, you had to update
(48:01):
them.
It was awesome done by,
shooting a star or basically doing some calculations
to recalculate where you're at. But for many,
many years, there was no GPS when I
was flying, and we used inertial navigation systems.
And there was two of them, and we
looked at the offset, and there was all
kinds of things. But, basically, quantum
(48:22):
uses a very similar function.
Now, traditional international navigation systems use accelerometers and
gyroscopes
to measure a vehicle's acceleration and rotation.
As they estimate position by tracking how the
vehicle moves over time, mention, though, without visual
cues, again, small errors accumulate and
(48:44):
you lose your positioning.
At very low temperature, atoms obey the rules
of quantum mechanics. They behave
like waves and can exist in multiple states
simultaneously, two properties that lie at the heart
of the quantum inertial sensors,
a k a the quantum inertial sensor board,
the x 37, uses a technique called atom
(49:04):
interferometry,
where atoms are cooled to the temperature of
near absolute zero so they behave like waves
using fine tuned lasers. Each atom is split
into what is called this two position state
similar to
to Skorting your cat, so that it simultaneously
travels along two paths which are then recombined.
But these two paths interfere with each other
(49:25):
creating a pattern similar to overlapping ripples of
water encoded in this pattern's detail of how
the atom's environment has affected the journey.
Shifts in motion, rotation, acceleration
leave detector marks on these atomic waves.
So this is some heavy duty cool science.
So,
(49:46):
won't be in your airplane anytime soon. That's
for sure. But
quantum computing and quantum communications,
really will be able to change
the entire world if it actually
works.
Again, rumors, foldable iPhone coming next year to
feature four cameras, Touch ID, Apple cellular modem,
etcetera.
(50:06):
That's the rumor. We'll see.
And a court upholds a 92,000,000 fine against
T Mobile over illegal location data sales.
So,
they're gonna have to pay this.
Last year, FCC fined T Mobile, Verizon, AT
and T nearly 200,000,000 for illegally selling customers'
location data.
T Mobile's judgment has now been upheld. They're
gonna have to write the check.
(50:28):
So,
selling our data
does not come without consequence
for sure.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen. It's been my pleasure
to bring you a show today. Don't forget,
you can
stay in contact with me, geeknews@gmail.com,
at geek news on
Twitter. Don't forget about our sponsor GoDaddy, geeknewscentral.com/godaddy.
(50:49):
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(51:11):
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no off time for the foreseeable feature. It's
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back with you on Thursday for another edition
of the Geekness Central podcast. You all take
care. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
Lead story for Monday, August 25. AI chatbots
trained to be overly agreeable have unintentionally become
catalyst
and psychological
catalyst for psychological
crisis
by validating users' grandiose or delusional beliefs.
Vulnerable individuals can spiral into dangerous fantasy feedback
(00:22):
loops, mistaking chatbot sync
chatbot psycho
psychophancy.
Oh my god. Can't pronounce that. For scientific
validation as AI models evolve through user
reinforcement, they amplify these distorted beliefs creating serious
mental health and public safety concerns with little
regulation.
AI's
(00:43):
persuasive language abilities are proving hazardous
to those most at risk.
So, yes, ladies and gentlemen, the AIs
are
reinforcing
folks that have wild, wild ideas.
And this is to me just a a
little
(01:03):
a little
disturbing.
And
Ars Technica has a great article here that
talks about
how individuals.
And and I'll start off with one story
here.
Alan Brooks, a 47
old corporate recruiter,
spent three weeks and three hundred hours convinced
(01:27):
he discovered mathematical formulas that could crack encryption
and build levitation
machines.
According to a New York Times investigation,
his million
word conversation history
with an AI chatbot reveals a troubling pattern.
More than 50 times,
Brooks asked the bot to check if his
(01:49):
false ideas
were real.
So did he know his ideas were false?
And more than 50 times, it assured him
they were.
So let me read that again.
Brooks asked the bot to check if his
(02:10):
false ideas
were real.
More than 50 times, it assured him they
were.
So did he know he was feeding
false information in? He suspected it was, but
the AI said nope.
It isn't.
Futurism reported on a woman whose husband, after
twelve weeks of believing he'd broken mathematics
(02:33):
using Chat g p Chat g p, they
almost attempted suicide.
Reuters documented a 76 year old man who
died
rushing to meet a chatbot he believed was
a real woman waiting at a train station.
Across multiple news outlets, a pattern comes into
view of people emerging from marathon
chatbot sessions
(02:53):
believing
they revolutionized
physics,
decoded reality,
or been choose chosen for cosmic
missions.
How
in the world?
So if you believe in levitation,
and have ideas on levitation,
and you ask chat g p t about
(03:13):
levitation,
and how to levitate,
it's
apparently
going to tell you how to levitate.
And,
you know, this is a a a novel
psychological threat.
If you have a fantasy about something,
and maybe a little bit distorted thinking,
(03:36):
which really predates
computer tech,
this isn't
about something new here. People have always thought
they had the next
next invention.
But the chatbot systems have evolved through user
feedback in the machines that maximize pleasing engagement
(03:57):
through agreement.
Since they hold no personal authority over guarantee
of accuracy, they create uniquely hazardous feedback loop
for vulnerable users
and an unreliable
source of information for everyone else.
Now
I'll be honest with you.
If you have something you think isn't true
to begin with and you're trying to get
(04:18):
answers,
it's not like you're gonna find out if
there's u o's out in Area 51.
It'll probably tell you that's that there's potentially
UFOs out in Area 51
because there's a lot of conspiracy theory that's
about Area 51.
Now unlike a traditional computer database, AI language
(04:39):
models does not retrieve data from a catalog
of stored facts. Again, it generates outputs from
a
statistical
association
between ideas.
So this is where it's very important, and
we go back to the basics of what
I have been saying for a very, very
long time,
is that you need individuals
(05:01):
who are qualified
to have a subject matter expert be able
to qualify outputs
to make sure what the AI is telling
you
makes sense.
From a pre research standpoint, I continue to
get incredible,
incredible
decision points
(05:22):
that's backed up by multiple individuals looking at
the outputs, looking at the inputs, what was
fed, what was decided, what was concluded
to make sure if it makes sense.
And when in doubt, we get the calculator
out.
And when in doubt,
we ask additional questions.
(05:43):
Now,
if you're feeding conversations
and having it remember conversation,
it may create feedback that amplifies things that
you believe in.
I often chastise
in my sessions something that is not right
(06:04):
or potentially wrong.
So I don't have the perfect yes man
responding to me.
So they don't list which chatbots make inventing
revolutionary
theories feel effortless because they excel generating self
consistent technical language.
(06:26):
An AI model can easily
easily output familiar linguistic patterns and conceptual frameworks
while rendering them the same confident explanatory style
we associate with scientific descriptions.
And if you don't know better
and you're prone to believe that you've made
a
significant discovery,
(06:46):
and don't know how to distinguish between real
physics
and or grammatical
nonsense,
you're gonna fall into a big, big trap
here and a big, big problem.
Now,
generally,
the majority of us are not gonna run
(07:07):
into issues. But if you are a vulnerable
user,
just a cap a capacity
to confabulate,
that's a mouthful, consistent
fantasies,
It's probably not a good idea to feed
these fantasies
(07:28):
into a chatbot.
So today,
I was having trouble getting an output of
a chat GPT that I built,
and it wasn't syncing up. I was getting
an output that was wrong.
And I said, are you following the chat
GPT instructions? And it couldn't give me the
GPT instructions.
(07:50):
So I had to go back. I had
to reload the page, make sure that I
was actually in the right GPT,
double check everything.
When I actually went in so far as
to look at the GPT to make sure
nothing had changed or nothing had updated it,
and it was good, and then the output
came out right.
(08:10):
A recent study from July
provide scientific validations for what we're observing in
these cases. The research team led by psychiatrists
and AI safety experts, including doctor Matthew Noor
from Oxford
Department of Psychiatry,
identified what they call bidirectional
belief amplification, a feedback loop where chatbots
(08:33):
reinforce user beliefs, which then conditions a chatbot
to generate increasingly extreme validations.
This creates what the researchers term an echo
chamber of one, uncoupling users from the corrective
influence of real world social interactions.
And this is definitely a unintentional public health
crisis in the making here.
(09:00):
When presented with someone asking about bridges taller
than 25 meters in New York City after
losing a job at potential suicide risk, GTV
four o help elicit specific tall bridges instead
of identifying the crisis. Well, you know, it's
asked to give you output. It doesn't know
your mental state of mind. It doesn't know
that you've lost your job.
(09:23):
How can you assume that?
And we know that AI safety measures at
this point are going very, very quickly, and
I know a lot of people have had
issues with ChatGPD five.
And it can be a bit robotic,
(09:43):
but I'd rather have it be a little
bit robotic.
I don't want to see
people falling for these
these spells.
Now, we all know when someone's in the
thick of a false belief,
and even you know it's blatantly false without
(10:05):
AI,
it's almost impossible to help them escape this.
Right?
And when someone goes in and reaffirms these
beliefs using chat GPT, potentially, they get responses
back
that says, see, I'm right.
But if you know someone is blatantly false,
(10:25):
this is where the trouble begins.
So
just remember
here
that we have a line of responsibility
upon ourselves
to use these tools
responsibly.
(10:46):
But still, let's say tiny fraction users point
zero one or point zero zero one
are implementing these false beliefs and getting validation,
then
this could really result in tens of thousands
of people.
So how do you
stop this? And that will have to be
(11:07):
figured out over time.
But, very interesting
story here to kick off the show today.
And if you've joined me, thank you so
much. Make sure you say hello in the
chat room.
Stream was a little funky when it started.
It started, and then it quit, and it
started again. So, hopefully, everything stays up and
stays online.
Again, thank you for being here.
(11:29):
Got a whole bunch of stuff in the
stack today, and I wanna welcome you to
episode eighteen forty. I'm your host, Todd Cochran.
A quick, of course, a quick shout out
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(11:49):
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(12:11):
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(12:32):
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Back from podcast movement,
that was a interesting week.
(13:56):
I did a LinkedIn post, Facebook post. So
those of you that are curious at all
what happened at the event,
very satisfied coming out of the event. It
could've been better, but, you know, considering how
it was a year before, it was, that
a lot of people from the Dallas Dallas
Fort Worth area.
They were able to bring in a lot
of metroplex
folks that were brand new or consider
(14:17):
people considering to become a podcast right up
our alley.
So, we had a
good good event,
per se, and I've been spending all day
catching up. I will share with you,
I mentioned on the last show I was,
having a doctor's appointment follow-up.
And, 30 pounds down,
(14:39):
the doctor could not be more thrilled. My
sugar levels, everything.
He says you your your
your, kidney health, your liver health, your
all the blood work, everything came back exceptional,
in range on my sugar levels, bringing my,
average, points down.
(15:01):
So absolutely,
absolutely thrilled. And he says, keep this up.
And he says, see you in a year.
So,
wow. I think holy crap. Now one thing
I did ask him for a couple of
things, so they're gonna run a couple of
tests I requested. Had it, kinda twist his
arm into it.
Specifically, you guys have heard all these commercials
(15:22):
on TV about low t and everything that
goes along with that. So,
you know, having been in, you know, type
two diabetic for twenty years, I said, can
I,
or should I be concerned about this?
And we talked about it quite a bit,
and he, you know, he went through his
form. He had to have a bunch of
little check marks on
(15:44):
symptoms of low t.
And,
apparently,
whatever he did, he was able to get
the lab work requested. So I will be
able to go, get some lab work done
and see where my see where and where
my levels are. And we talked about,
you know, if it is, what's next, and
then the risk and everything else that goes
(16:04):
along with it. So any of you that
are out there taking a low t medicine
without a doctor's prescription,
just remember, you do too much, you can
flip the script and actually end up with
more estrogen. So just be careful, okay,
for the fellows out there that may be
doing stuff that's not completely
(16:25):
above board. But, very, very happy with,
where I'm at
and, my continued weight loss. He gave me
a number. I said, here's my goal number,
and he said,
I want you five pounds heavier than that.
So he gave me a a target.
So I have a target in mine,
one seven zero. One sixty five is what
(16:45):
I was shooting for, but he says, let's
let's get you to one seventy and,
and then take a look at where you're
at. So,
I have about 18 pounds to go. It'd
probably take me another six months to get
there,
but,
pretty pretty pleased with, with everything thus far.
Alright. Let's go ahead and get in the
(17:06):
content. I wanna thank all the insiders. We'll
get you guys caught up on the Thursday
show.
Trying to get everything done tonight before the
SpaceX
launch. They scrubbed last night
for some sort of ground issue, and, now
they're, they're gonna try again tonight. So,
try to get the show done before that
goes live as well and, be fun to
(17:28):
watch what happens.
Elon has sued Apple over,
store rankings.
You know, I when I read this at
the top of my head here, I you
know, I some things come immediately to mind.
And let let me go into this just
for a second, then I'll talk to you
about
how about relief for me.
Elon Musk x AI filed a lawsuit against
(17:50):
Apple and OpenAI on Money, accusing the companies
of behaving like monopolies and claiming Apple deprioritized
chat GPT rivals like Grok in the App
Store. So that's the essence
of the
lawsuit.
We know he was complaining on x some
weeks ago about this, but let me ask
you this. Web traffic is down
(18:12):
because
Grok,
ChatGPT,
all these
apps are now
giving people information and not linking to source
material.
We know this is the case.
We see that,
Web Traffic is down at least 20%
and declining.
(18:33):
So what happens
when
ChatGPT,
Grok,
etcetera
remove all web traffic to my business.
Do I get to sue them
because they've deprioritized
traffic to my website based upon the information
that they have gleaned from it?
(18:54):
When I no longer get traffic from people
asking questions, how to do this, how to
do that, what is this, what is that,
the stuff that you're doing now in ChatGPT
where you're getting answers
but not
references?
Is there gonna be a lawsuit by
companies like mine that are
(19:16):
going to be struggling when our information is
not surfaced and competitors
are,
and there's no way to fix it?
So Elon should think a little bit here
about this lawsuit.
He's bitching about this, deprioritized
ranking.
Well, welcome to the club there, Elon.
(19:37):
The rest of us are in the same
situation
with web traffic, let alone app
traffic.
You know, what what is
going to be the solution?
You know, what is the
what is the thing we have to think
about here,
(19:57):
as we're
fast approaching a time
when, Google's
ate the Kool Aid here, and,
basically, web traffic is on a decline.
And all this scraping and all this work
to get SEO for years is is flushed
down the toilet.
Lots of companies approaching me and say, hey.
(20:18):
We've got SEO for AI. Well, yeah. More
more black hat stuff.
More stuff that, to be honest with you,
they don't know as much as anyone else
of how this data is gonna rank.
So
where does that leave us?
That is the question that we're all gonna
be facing here. So don't whine to me,
(20:42):
Elon, about
deranking
in the App Store?
What about deranking data coming back to our
websites?
Alright. This is from PCWorld. This one is
important. 40,000,000 users at risk of stolen data
with with
11 password managers. And, boy, mine's in the
list.
(21:02):
1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Enpass, iCloud passwords, Keeper, LastPass,
LogMeOnce,
NordPass, ProtonPass,
RoboForm.
This affects forty million
people
worldwide.
And what's causing this?
The vulnerability discovered by security researchers from the
(21:23):
Hacker News, the following passwords managers
are because they have an affected
browser extension. They're based on document object model.
So right up here in the right hand
corner, I have one pass installed as an
extension.
(21:44):
Remove it immediately for all of you until
this gets patched. If you are using the
browser extension
and these are very trustworthy password managers.
So how hackers are can get your password?
The vulnerability in question is known as click
jacking. Act hackers can lure
(22:05):
unsuspecting users to fake websites that imitate real
websites and look deceptively real.
In some cases, users can intermittently switch on
their password manager with a single false click
within the login window,
which then tries to enter access data automatically.
Hackers monitor these attempted entries and
(22:25):
interfere
gaining access access to the password manager and
taking over saved passwords.
The tech usually goes unnoticed
as you simply close the affected page and
receive no warning that someone's gained access to
their password manager.
And it's due to DOM, which contains availability
allows this kind of attack. Incidentally,
(22:48):
not only passwords, but also other types of
sensitive data,
including maybe information on your
Bitcoin or such wallet
saved phrases.
Apparently, these, providers have been informed about this
in April
2025,
and just under half of them responded to
(23:09):
the warning.
Bitwarden has provided a new version of this
plugin that addresses the problems to how to
protect your well,
there's no there's no
one exact one way.
So if you use a Chrome based browser,
which most users do,
is it miss it's it's recommended
(23:30):
you switch your passwords matter password
your password
manager's
autofill settings to
on click.
This is an important step that helps prevent
passwords from being entered and completed automatically without
you first confirming intent. So on click.
So if you're using a Chrome browser
(23:50):
with a password manager,
don't let it autofill, make you have to
click in the box to do this.
That's just one step. So we'll see where
this goes
and if these
situations are fixed as time goes on.
The FCC has removed 1,200 voice providers for
telephone network and major robocall crackdown.
(24:11):
So 1,200
to 2,400
robocall organizations
have been, had the plug pull.
So this is a big, big deal. Attorney
generals across the country are also taking action,
a program dubbed Operation RoboCo Roundup.
And it's really about all the fishing and
stuff that's been going on.
And also,
(24:32):
most of these folks are not
certified
using the Robocalls mitigation database, a system designed
to track compliance with call authentication
protocols.
So the removal
follows a preliminary warning to a 185
companies along with further action from attorney general's
dub, again,
(24:53):
operation robocall ROMDA, which among others includes sending
warning letters of 37 voice providers demanding compliance.
The removal centers on STIR shaken protocol system,
which they've invested a huge amount of money
into.
This enforcement reflects the government's struggle in defeating
the scourge of robocallers.
(25:14):
So they received over 2,000,000 complaints in 2024
alone.
So,
maybe this will start to get their attention
and make them become
compliant in the things that they do.
It's very interesting. Of course, I believe last
week, they made the announce
that
The United States was gonna take a 10%
(25:36):
stake in Intel.
And Intel has come out and said Trump
the Trump deal is a risk for shareholders
and international sales.
Intel warned of adverse reactions from investors, employees,
and others to the Trump administration taking a
10% stake in the company,
probably from TDS.
A key concern, Ari, is international sales with
(25:58):
76%
of Intel's
revenue this last fiscal year coming from outside
The US United States.
Now the president called this a great deal
for Americans, said building of advanced chips is
fundamental to the future of our nation.
Now
I understand
that we need to have chips made within
(26:19):
The United States.
The Department of Commerce,
received up to 433,300,000.0
shares of the company, which is dilutive to
existing
shareholders.
The purchase is being funded by money largely
already awarded to Intel under the CHIPS Act.
(26:41):
Intel's already received 2,200,000,000.0
from the program, is set for another 5,700,000,000.0,
separate federal program and order 3,200,000,000.0
for a total of 11,100,000,000.0.
So shares of Intel rallied as momentum built
toward the deal in August with stock up
25%
for the month so far. And as a
disclosure, I own Intel stock.
(27:04):
And Intel has been slipping for a while,
so let us hope
that, this,
allows some turning of the ship, but one
will tell in a while.
According to CNET, the White House wants to
beautify US websites. This
Airbnb cofounders in charge, Joe Geba,
who also did work for Elon Musk's Doge
(27:26):
project, says he wants government services to be
as satisfied as using Apple Store. Well, good
luck with that.
I use a lot of government
websites, including the VA,
IRS,
whole bunch of gov sites for my military
retirement stuff,
they all
suck.
(27:47):
They all
absolutely
unequivocally
suck.
So anything that can make them better,
is is a is a step in the
right direction. But there's so many websites. How
do we even begin to tackle any of
this? I I don't know. I I really,
really don't
(28:07):
Don't know how you clean it up. It's
so an antiquated,
archaic,
running on
just ancient servers. It's just
unbelievable.
Really, really is.
Samsung's practical Galaxy Tab s 10 lite I
September for value focused launch. Device should sit
under the Galaxy's
(28:28):
tab,
Galaxy Tab s 10 f e.
What is the price gonna look like? That's
the important part.
Does it say what the price is looking
like?
No.
Obviously, if it's gonna be a lighter offering,
(28:50):
no. No price
at all. But, if you're a Galaxy
Tab
user
and not a,
iPad user, this may be something to look
at. Again, no pricing on this in this
debut.
Google message is testing a new way to
verify your who you're chatting
with. Seems obvious that texting a strange phone
(29:12):
number could be dangerous, but what about numbers
you know and trust? Of course, how many
of you get e a text every day?
Hi. How are you?
And it it's a point now where if
it's not they're not in my address book,
I just delete the text. I don't even
respond because it's usually say, oh, I'm so
and so. We met at such and such.
Okay. You're just some scammer out there.
(29:36):
I'd love to have an auto robot that
would just talk with these folks for a
while and,
waste their time,
but, it's not worth my time.
Currently, Google has a feature for Google message
to help prevent this called verify encryption. This
option pulls up an 80 digit code
that you can share with another contact to
verify your device. That way, if a malicious
(29:58):
user somehow breaks into your conversation
and attempts to impersonate your contact, Google Message
will be able to confirm their device is
not verified and such alert you to the
potential danger.
Is it gonna is it gonna do this
automatically?
You have to share the code?
Little weird.
80 digit codes will secure anything but convenient.
(30:22):
So they're testing a new method.
Google will soon support QR code verification.
On 80 digit code, contacts can simply scan
QR codes to verify much more convenient than
a seemingly endless
string of characters.
Here's how it works. When the feature hits
your Google Message app, you can access it
from any of your message threads. Tap the
(30:43):
contact's name at the top of the window,
then tap verify encryption option in end to
end encryption box.
So how does this do?
Compare verification codes button, which prevents your device
80 digit code, a pop up appears offering
you the option to present a QR code
to your contact.
I don't understand this at all.
(31:06):
How is this gonna confirm that you're still
not talking to a scammer?
I guess I have to see it in
in action.
I I fully don't understand what they're doing
out here.
Are we truly alone? Will astronomers find signs
of a new planet?
Yes. A new planet hiding in our own
solar system.
Potentially a
(31:27):
long, long, long, long way out.
And, people have all often wondered about this.
Astronomers once speculated about planet x, which is
believed to be seven times Earth's mass and
orbiting 50 times farther from the sun than
Earth.
Now, that was mostly debunked.
(31:48):
Later came planet nine.
Now comes planet y,
and, basically, they say that, hey, there's some
sort of gravity effect that's happening out by
the cupier belt.
It's causing the cupier belt to tilt, and
the only thing that could cause that
is some passing
celestial body
(32:09):
that has some gravity effect
to
the Kupir belt.
So, anyway,
some scientists out of the out of Australia
I think they're 80 to 20% right.
We will see.
Link is in the show notes.
A free VPN allegedly takes screenshots of Chrome
users. So again, another VPN extension
(32:31):
100,000 downloads
is recording your screen.
So what's the tool's name? Did they say
it?
It's a company that's
been looking
at Huawei security.
It's called freevpn.one.
(32:54):
So please don't use free VPNs.
This is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.
Taking screenshots of everything that you're doing online.
Do you want that?
Don't use a trusted VPN.
The one I use is NordVPN.
Been using it for many, many years.
A scientist down in Jacksonville,
(33:17):
his research is to be used by NASA
in space to study bone mass.
So,
this is going to be launching as part
of a NASA experiment.
Doctor Abar Aba Zubar
is the leading effort that is going to
happen in space. Experience will be formed to
explore how bone forming stem cells
behave in microgravity.
(33:39):
And,
there's part of improving astronauts' health
about bone density loss.
And his position is part of the Mayo
Clinic.
So this guy is pretty, pretty smart dude.
So,
again, this research going to the International Space
(34:00):
Station.
Firefox
finally
finally
finally after seven years has started
testing support for progressive web apps.
Progressive web has been available in Chrome since
02/2018.
So why is it taking so long?
(34:22):
Come on, Firefox. Get with the game plan.
NVIDIA has a new robot brain that goes
on sale for 30,
$3,500.
This company targets robotics for growth.
The company calls the chip a robot brain.
The first kit ship first
kit ships next month.
(34:43):
And,
they believe robotics is the way forward.
So,
anyway, developer kit for $3,500.
Probably great for schools and so forth that
are gonna be building robots to be able
to get these types of kits and develop
to them.
IPhone 17 launch is coming in mere days.
(35:05):
So lots of speculation what's going on with
the, with the iPhone 17. We've talked about
a lot of it already.
CNET has a wrap up article in preparation
for the launch. Link will be up in
the show notes for you to review that.
If you
live,
let's see. When is this gonna launch?
(35:26):
So if you live out on the East
Coast,
NASA's gonna launch three rockets with colorful vapor
trails.
We'll we'll be seen from several Eastern
states. Gonna launch from NASA's Wallops flight facility
in Virginia.
And if you have a clear
a clear view of the sky,
they've mixed some chemicals in.
(35:49):
So they want to,
it's a colorful volper it's it's a colorful
vapor tracer similar to compounds used in fireworks.
These tracers allow scientists to photograph and map
wind patterns in the upper atmosphere.
So, they're gonna have three of these launching.
So, keep your eye to the sky starting
(36:10):
at 10PM tonight. That's when the eastern
is when the window opens.
Do you have Farmers Insurance? Well, they've had
a data breach. Over 1,000,000 people. Farmers New
World Life Insurance and Farmers Group have filed
separate data breach notifications with state authorities.
According to website,
10%
or 10
(36:31):
to 20%
have been affected here.
And,
so anyway, they've been hacked. Doesn't say exactly
what they lost,
but just again, another hacking. Here it goes.
You live in Mississippi? Well, if you're a
Blue Sky user, they're gonna block Blue Sky's
usage in miss Mississippi over age verification
(36:53):
law.
People in Mississippi no longer have access to
Blue Sky. They've accessed Blue Sky from Mississippi
IP address. You see a message explaining why
the app isn't available.
The reason is a new Mississippi law that
requires all users to verify their ages before
using the common social media sites ranging from
Facebook to Nextdoor.
Blue Sky wrote that, their block will remain
(37:15):
in place while the court decide decides whether
the law will stand.
Blue Sky also notes that requires collecting and
storing sensitive personal information from all users, not
just those accessing
age restricted content. And this this information
would include detailed tracking of minors.
Some Blue Sky users outside of Mississippi are
(37:37):
also having issues because of, you know, you're
close to the border maybe. You're on a
cell tower in Mississippi.
So,
just be aware. I don't know if there's
anyone else that have done this or not.
Over at TechRadar,
apparently, x knows more about knows where you
are, but YouTube doesn't care.
(37:58):
I'll tell you that isn't true.
When I
use YouTube here
in The United States,
and then I get on an airplane and
I go to The Philippines and I load
my YouTube account up, I often have to
verify my account to prove who I am.
YouTube does wanna know where you are, but,
apparently, x wants to really know where you
(38:20):
are.
A study from leading VPN provider, Surfshark, has
analyzed the default location permission required by the
top 10 social media apps
and found that most of them are very
data hungry, if not stalker y. That's what
they're using.
And,
who's the worst?
(38:45):
Eight collect precise location instrument. Instagram,
threads,
and Facebook all need a lot as does
Pinterest, Snapchat needs less. LinkedIn and YouTube require
almost none.
A lot of this is advertised targeting.
And now they know VPNs too. They target
the VPNs. They have all the VPNs mapped,
(39:05):
so
they may still know your general region.
Hackers are looking to steal Microsoft logins, some
using devious new tricks. Here's how to stay
safe.
Well, again,
it's a phishing scheme.
It abuses ads in Microsoft Active Directory and
Federation Services designed to still log in credentials,
(39:26):
so users should take care.
So there's an in-depth report that has pushed,
been pushed out by Push Security.
They send you to a fake login page
that mimic authentic Microsoft three sixty five sign
in screens. Instead of sending victims directly to
the site, which would probably get flagged by
security solutions quickly blocked,
(39:48):
They use a Microsoft feature called Active Directory
Federation Services. Companies normally use it to connect
their internal systems to Microsoft services.
So the phishing link was not being disturbed
by email, but rather
victims were searching for Office three sixty five,
which is presumably a typo,
(40:08):
Office two sixty five,
and then taken to
a fake travel
site, and they try to log you in
and steal your credentials.
So,
be careful out there.
The AirPod Pro three rumored to be launching
very soon with a key upgrade could be
that they are going to monitor your
(40:29):
heartbeat.
It makes sense that they would because if
you ever stuck your finger in your ear
and heard your
heard your heartbeat,
makes common pretty good sense that they would
use an earbud to detect your heartbeat.
Apparently, retro is in.
It's 2025.
The latest mega album is just released on
(40:51):
cassette tape.
Taylor Taylor Swift dropped like Life of a
Showgirl on digital vinyl and the old jewel
case pencil sharpener
or pencil spinners.
But why? Release on cassette tapes are becoming
more common among some stars who are cashing
in and growing love of retro tech.
(41:12):
Of course, remember the reboot of classic computer
Commodore 64 and so forth back about six
or seven years ago.
We know that last month, smart meter company,
Smart Energy, surveyed 2,000 people in The UK
to see what tech they missed,
and a lot of people
missed their cassette tapes and old m p
three players and even VHS
(41:33):
tapes.
I have bought in some brand new, years
ago, I bought a brand new VHS player
so that I could have,
the best quality in digitizing what VHS
VHS tapes I have.
I'm still working through
probably 500 Hi eight tapes. So,
(41:55):
that's a whole another story,
to digitize all this stuff.
If you are in Philly or Dallas, Netflix
is gonna be opening a permanent entertainment and
shopping venue. You'll be able to go to
that. I don't know where in those two
cities, but that is very soon to be
forthcoming.
Also, it's not a good idea to,
(42:15):
build a,
malware switch into your employer's website so that
when you get fired,
it causes all kinds of havoc.
A software developer sabotages his employer after being
demoted.
Davis Liu, Chinese national, created a kill switch
that would lock out all users.
He was just sentenced to four years in
(42:37):
jail, an additional three years of supervised,
supervision.
And this,
happened in all the way back in 02/2019.
So,
he built some very bad malware that cost
his, employer hundreds of thousands of dollars to
undo.
(42:59):
The FBI's FBI is also warning Russian hackers
are targeting thousands of critical US infrastructure
IT systems. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.
In some cases, hackers have been able to
modify configuration files to enable unauthorized
access, which they have used to conduct reconnaissance
on networks.
Cisco Threat Intelligence Research, Talos explained separate advisory
(43:22):
that a sub cluster of this group, which
it is named Static Tundra, is targeting seven
year old vulnerability in the company's smart install
feature.
The firm has offered a patch for the
vulnerability but remains a problem in un patching
end of life devices.
So if you have an old device on
your network, you gotta keep it updated.
Once they establish initial access to a network
(43:43):
device, Static Tundra will pivot further into the
target environment, compromising additional network devices, establishing channels
for long term
persistence and information gathering.
So, again, this is on a Cisco
product.
So if you're the IT guy or gal
or know someone in the IT,
(44:05):
you might wanna link this up to them.
Of course, if it's a government agency, they
should know about this and should've patched this
stuff, but you just never know.
This old stuff often gets ignored
because it's not cool to work on no
more.
You may have noticed iOS 26
bumps up charging speeds of the iPhone 16
(44:28):
models, 25 watt wireless third party charging.
So iOS 26 will unlock extra charging speeds
on iPhone 16 models,
and you should see the final version of
software rollout in September. So the beta testers
have been seeing this. So,
nice. Nice.
NASA's Webb Telescope has discovered 300 mysterious objects
(44:48):
that shouldn't exist.
And basically, it's 300 objects that are shining
brighter than they should be.
The question is,
is this the first time we've looked?
Or is this just a guesstimation?
These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in early
(45:10):
universe, meaning they could be very early galaxies.
If even a few of these objects turned
out to be what we think they are,
our discovery could challenge current ideas about how
galaxy formed in the early universe, the period
when first stars and galaxies begin to take
shape.
So they go into their clues and things
they've detected and things they're seeing
(45:32):
and and, developing their final answers here. But,
our science continues to evolve, tells you how
little we really don't know.
2,500,000,000,
yes, billion Gmail users are endangered after Google
database hack.
A hacker gate group a hacker group gained
access to Google databases and is now attempting
(45:54):
to scam Gmail and, Google Cloud users.
So it's a phishing attack.
Users describe how alleged Google employees have contacted
by phone to inform them of security breach
in their account.
In these scam attempts, attackers are trying to
take over Gmail accounts by triggering triggering
alleged account resets and then intercepting passwords to
(46:16):
subsequent lockout the account holder.
Another attack method involves dangling buckets to steal
data for or inject it into,
Google Cloud.
So how to protect yourself? To be safe,
you should ensure your account is protected against
unauthorized access. Google has provided the following security
measures for this purpose.
(46:37):
Use Google Security Checkup to automatically identify security
vulnerabilities.
Activate Google's advanced protection program to get additional
security barrier that blocks download of potential harmful
files, and use passkeys instead of passwords.
Again,
remain diligent out there, ladies and gentlemen.
(46:59):
America's secretive x 37 b space plane,
not so secretive in some of the stuff
they talked about,
will test a quantum
alternative GPS for the US Space Force.
Yes. A quantum
alternative
to GPS.
So,
(47:19):
GPS is very sensitive
to,
being
basically blocked from hack not hackers, but from,
interference.
And this new tech
could revolutionize how spacecraft,
airplanes, ships, and submarines navigate environments where GPS
is unavailable. In the old days, when we
(47:40):
didn't have GPS, there was this system in
the airplane called an inertial navigation system
that when you were on the ground,
you spun up, stabilized,
put in the exact location, and it detected
as you moved,
it calculated your new position. Now
they weren't always perfect, and if you're flying
for a long time, you had to update
(48:01):
them.
It was awesome done by,
shooting a star or basically doing some calculations
to recalculate where you're at. But for many,
many years, there was no GPS when I
was flying, and we used inertial navigation systems.
And there was two of them, and we
looked at the offset, and there was all
kinds of things. But, basically, quantum
(48:22):
uses a very similar function.
Now, traditional international navigation systems use accelerometers and
gyroscopes
to measure a vehicle's acceleration and rotation.
As they estimate position by tracking how the
vehicle moves over time, mention, though, without visual
cues, again, small errors accumulate and
(48:44):
you lose your positioning.
At very low temperature, atoms obey the rules
of quantum mechanics. They behave
like waves and can exist in multiple states
simultaneously, two properties that lie at the heart
of the quantum inertial sensors,
a k a the quantum inertial sensor board,
the x 37, uses a technique called atom
(49:04):
interferometry,
where atoms are cooled to the temperature of
near absolute zero so they behave like waves
using fine tuned lasers. Each atom is split
into what is called this two position state
similar to
to Skorting your cat, so that it simultaneously
travels along two paths which are then recombined.
But these two paths interfere with each other
(49:25):
creating a pattern similar to overlapping ripples of
water encoded in this pattern's detail of how
the atom's environment has affected the journey.
Shifts in motion, rotation, acceleration
leave detector marks on these atomic waves.
So this is some heavy duty cool science.
So,
(49:46):
won't be in your airplane anytime soon. That's
for sure. But
quantum computing and quantum communications,
really will be able to change
the entire world if it actually
works.
Again, rumors, foldable iPhone coming next year to
feature four cameras, Touch ID, Apple cellular modem,
etcetera.
(50:06):
That's the rumor. We'll see.
And a court upholds a 92,000,000 fine against
T Mobile over illegal location data sales.
So,
they're gonna have to pay this.
Last year, FCC fined T Mobile, Verizon, AT
and T nearly 200,000,000 for illegally selling customers'
location data.
T Mobile's judgment has now been upheld. They're
gonna have to write the check.
(50:28):
So,
selling our data
does not come without consequence
for sure.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen. It's been my pleasure
to bring you a show today. Don't forget,
you can
stay in contact with me, geeknews@gmail.com,
at geek news on
Twitter. Don't forget about our sponsor GoDaddy, geeknewscentral.com/godaddy.
(50:49):
And for those of you who are not
insiders yet, consider becoming an insider at geeknewscentral.com/insider
with a two, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, or
25
monthly donation. You can also make a single
solitary donation there as well to help the
show out. We definitely appreciate every time that
you do. Should be getting the GoDaddy results
for this month,
any day now, and I'll be able to
(51:11):
report to you on that in the next
coming show. But again, and continued thank you
for your sponsoring the show. Thank you for
allowing me to, be on to travel here
quite a little bit, but,
no off time for the foreseeable feature. It's
been my pleasure bringing the podcast. We'll be
back with you on Thursday for another edition
of the Geekness Central podcast. You all take
care. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
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