January 27, 2025 • 59 mins
Catch the Latest Episode of The JMOR Tech Talk Show! 🌐💡
🔹 Mark Zuckerberg Shifts Focus from Media Partnerships Mark Zuckerberg has pulled back from his earlier commitments to media partnerships as part of a broader strategy to rethink Facebook's approach to combating misinformation and hate speech. This move signals a significant shift in how social media giants are engaging with news outlets, highlighting the growing tension between platform responsibility and content moderation.
🔹 DOJ Links Soldier to AT&T and Verizon Data Breaches In a major cybersecurity story, the Department of Justice has linked Cameron Wagenius, an arrested soldier, to the massive data breaches involving AT&T and Verizon. Stolen records from the breaches, compounded by the companies’ inadequate security measures, have exposed sensitive user data, sparking intense discussions about privacy protection and corporate accountability in the tech world.
🔹 PowerSchool Breach Victims Take Action Victims of the PowerSchool data breach are uniting to crowdsource cybersecurity solutions after the company’s lackluster communication in the wake of the breach. This collaboration among affected individuals aims to create a more transparent and secure approach to handling sensitive student data, highlighting the critical need for schools to invest in robust cybersecurity infrastructure.
🔹 EV Startup Canoo Files for Bankruptcy Electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy, citing mounting financial struggles and failed partnerships as key factors in its downfall. Despite earlier hopes for disrupting the EV market, the company couldn’t overcome financial instability and operational challenges, raising questions about the future viability of new players in the highly competitive EV industry.
🔹 Amazon Pauses Drone Deliveries Amazon has put a pause on its ambitious drone delivery program after testing revealed crashes that highlighted serious safety concerns. The company is now refocusing its efforts on software improvements and expanding its drone initiatives internationally, signaling the complexity of rolling out such cutting-edge technology on a global scale.
🔹 ChatGPT Product Head to Testify in Google Antitrust Case In a pivotal moment for the tech world, the product head of ChatGPT is set to testify in Google’s antitrust case, which could have significant implications for the role of artificial intelligence in shaping competition and market access. This testimony will shed light on how AI tools like ChatGPT are reshaping the dynamics of the digital marketplace.
🔹 Netradyne Secures $90M to Expand AI Dashcams AI technology company Netradyne has raised $90 million to accelerate the development and global rollout of its AI-powered dashcams. This funding will help Netradyne expand its operations internationally, reinforcing the growing demand for AI-based solutions in industries like transportation and fleet management.
🔹 Perplexity Acquires Read.cv to Boost Networking Perplexity, a fast-growing platform in the professional networking space, has acquired Read.cv to strengthen its position in the market. The acquisition is set to enhance Perplexity's capabilities, allowing users to connect and collaborate more effectively, further solidifying its reputation as a leader in social networking for professionals.
🔹 Bluesky Expands Moderation Team Amid Rapid Growth Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform, has seen a surge in moderation reports following rapid user growth. In response, the platform is expanding its moderation team and enhancing its tools to manage content more effectively, aiming to balance user freedom with necessary controls as it scales.
🔹 ChatGPT Enhances Custom Instructions for Users ChatGPT is rolling out enhanced custom instructions that allow users to personalize their interactions more deeply. This new feature is designed to improve the user experience, enab
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hi everyone, I'm John C. Morley, the host of
The JMOR Tech Talk show and inspirations for
your life.
(00:57):
Well, hey everyone, it is John Seymour here,
serial entrepreneur.
It is great to be with you on
The JMOR Tech Talk show for the week.
It has been a little bit crazy, so
sorry about that.
That's why Friday's show is just getting recorded
now.
But welcome everyone to The JMOR Tech Talk.
(01:19):
This is the place where we go through
everything that's happening with technology.
So it's so great to have you here.
Can you believe, ladies and gentlemen, that we
are actually on, yes, we're on series for
and we're actually on show number four.
So I think that's a pretty amazing thing,
(01:42):
if I do say so myself.
It is great, great, great to be with
everyone here on The JMOR Tech Talk show.
Hope you guys have been following a lot
with technology, you know, and what's been going
on, but there's been a lot going on.
So let's just dive right in the title
for today's show, which I think you guys
(02:04):
are going to find pretty apropos, and it's
from Facebook retreats to breakthrough A.I. and
cybersecurity battles.
Again, this is series for show number four.
Of course, if you missed any of the
shows or you want to check out other
amazing content I produce, just visit BelieveMeAchieved.com
(02:25):
and I'm sure you'll be dazzled and be
able to enjoy the great content.
So welcome, everyone.
I am your host, John Seymour, lead serial
entrepreneur.
I'm not only a host, but I'm also
a podcast coach.
So welcome, everyone, to the latest episode of
The JMOR Tech Talk show.
A little bit late, but we do get
them out again.
It's been a little bit crazy with my
(02:46):
master's program and some other stuff happening.
So trying to see how we can get
these out a little bit earlier, but it's
just been nuts.
All right, everyone.
So welcome.
Feel free to go get something if you
need to at the kitchen there, whether it's
something hot, something cold, something, I don't know,
healthy, something sweet, whatever it is, go ahead
(03:06):
and grab something.
The first thing I want to talk about
is Mr. Mark Zuckerberg.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, he's been a trip.
So Mr. Mark Zuckerberg turns his back on
the media.
Yes, Mark Zuckerberg, once committed to addressing misinformation
and hate speech on his platform, has now
(03:30):
shifted his approach to now suddenly distancing himself
from the media and stepping back from his
previous efforts to work with them.
I don't know what Mark's up to.
In 2018, Zuckerberg shared plans to improve content
moderation after facing backlash over Facebook's role in
(03:50):
spreading disinformation.
However, over the past two years, his company
has increasingly adopted a new strategy, wicking its
commitment to truth and moving away from its
past media partnerships.
This marks a significant turn in Zuckerberg's relationship
with both the press and content regulation.
So I've lost a lot of respect for
(04:12):
Mark.
I mean, you know, the way he started
his company was basically, in my book, a
crime.
He robbed things right from people that, you
know, he knows.
But the fact that Zuckerberg, you know, turned
his back on the media, I think this
is really a big problem and something that
(04:35):
I think needs to be addressed by the
DOJ and definitely the Digital Services Act, European
Union, because, you know, those are the people
that actually seem to give a darn.
Everyone else doesn't really care unless it becomes
a problem for them.
Right.
All right.
So just want to let you know what's
happening there.
(04:55):
And it's a problem that he did this,
you know.
The way Facebook is now trying to combat
misinformation.
It's it's a problem, it's really a problem.
So we'll keep you abreast of what's happening
with that.
And the DOJ does something very interesting.
It confirms an arrested soldier that was linked
(05:16):
to an AT&T Verizon set of hacks.
U.S. prosecutors have confirmed that Cameron John
Wagnus, a U.S. Army communications specialist who
was arrested recently in December last year, is
connected to a massive data breach involving AT
(05:36):
&T and Verizon.
Wagnus is accused of unlawfully transferring confidential phone
records, a case linked to previous hacks at
cloud company, you probably know the name Snowflake,
which impacted multiple companies, including AT&T and
Verizon.
The hackers stole sensitive data such as phone
(05:58):
records, personal details and financial information.
This breach, one of the largest cyber attacks
of the past year, was reportedly made possible
by stolen employee passwords and a lack of
multi-factor protection at Snowflake.
So, I mean, who do you blame in
(06:19):
this case?
Right.
I mean, obviously, it's the person that did
something wrong.
But I mean, I mean, why, I guess,
why is it that, you know, John Wagnus
was able to get away with this?
Do we blame Snowflake?
I would kind of have to say yes.
I would say that they were definitely negligent
(06:42):
in what happened.
So, you know, it's interesting that this came
up and, you know, the U.S. attorney,
Tessa Gorman, told the Seattle court that both
cases that were heard arose from the same
(07:03):
computer intrusion and extortion and included some of
the same stolen victim information.
As such, these cases rely on overlapping evidentiary
material and legal process and arguably present common
questions of law and fact.
The question is what, this is my big
question, what is Snowflake, you know, doing now
(07:28):
to protect itself?
You know, it's crazy that this can actually
happen.
You know, and with the fact of them
charging these two hackers, I mean, I know
just in my own town, I'm not going
to mention the name of the company, but
there were several people that worked at this,
(07:51):
I'll call it a makeshift cellular company in
Franklin Lakes.
And basically they own several stores.
They were owned for many years and they
still operate others.
But the people they bring on, well, let's
just say they're kind of characters and I
don't mean Disney people.
Well, it was so bad that actually Franklin
(08:12):
Lakes Police Department had issued warrants for four
people's arrests.
I believe two or three were found and
I think one was actually able to leave
the country somehow.
I don't know why, but there is one
hacker, Alexander Mucha, I think he was the
(08:33):
he was arrested.
And the second, Conor Riley Mucha, is in
Turkey.
Both were arrested for extorting dozens of victims.
So this is a very, very big problem,
I want to say.
And despite these successful takedowns, there's still a
third hacker that is now out there on
(08:55):
the loose.
And this hacker is known as Kipper Phantom,
could well be a U.S. military member
stationed in South Korea.
Oh, that is terrible.
I hope Mr. Trump, President Trump, actually gets
involved with these things.
So the type of data available, whether personal
or corporate, makes it particularly alluring and lucrative
(09:16):
for such cyber terrorists.
Though complex, the typical process involves data exfiltration,
followed by ransom demands or the selling off
of the data.
That means that sensitive business information could leak,
leading to lost revenue or reputational damage.
Moreover, individuals could fall victim to identity fraud.
(09:37):
This is just crazy.
My question is, what is Snowflake now doing
to protect itself?
And I don't really know if they're doing
much or they've really made it public.
They've explained, you know, kind of what happened.
(09:57):
And they said a limited number of customer
accounts were affected.
And Snowflake initially had stated this.
But with what we now know, it was
a full blown malware attack that led to
high volumes of compromised customer data ending up
on the dark web.
So the breach was really, really big.
(10:17):
Snowflake hasn't really come clean on everything.
Nevertheless, we were able to find out that
they were responsible for, lack thereof, securing their
data.
And the third party contractor theory was further
strengthened by the hacker themselves.
A Shiny Hunters representative told several places that
(10:40):
they were first breached as a third party
contractor.
It all started when InfoStealer malware accessed an
employee's computer and stole unencrypted Snowflake credentials stored
on JIRA, which is a project management system.
The hackers were then able to log into
Snowflake account because multi-factor authentication wasn't enabled.
(11:00):
Shame on you, Snowflake.
You should require everyone to enable two-factor
authentication.
I think that is really, really bad.
How did Snowflake resolve it?
Well, they involved the cybersecurity expertise of what
they called Mandiant to investigate the matter.
After it identified what had caused the breach,
Snowflake informed its customers of the breach and
recommended that they implement MFA multi-factor authentication.
(11:24):
Great, Snowflake.
Thank you so much.
That's like telling us, you know, what we
need to do after the fact.
I mean, why weren't you proactive in the
beginning?
That's my concern.
So I have really lost a lot of
respect for Snowflake and I've lost a lot
of respect for how the military is really
(11:45):
keeping tabs on people, people in the military.
So Snowflake is an American cloud-based data
storage company.
It's headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, and operates a
platform that allows for data analysis and simultaneous
access of datasets with minimal latency.
It operates on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure,
(12:07):
and Google Cloud's platform.
Unfortunately, they need to really step up their
security.
So we'll have to see what happens there.
We will definitely keep you in the loop
to what is going on.
All right, everyone.
And here's one I think you guys are
going to find enlightening.
PowerSchool.
(12:28):
Do you guys know what PowerSchool is?
So PowerSchool is one of several, let's call
it applications, software as a service systems that
are supposedly there to help schools track all
(12:48):
their information about students, get their assignments.
They can do all kinds of stuff.
They can market the students to the parents.
Now they have PowerSchool AI and they have
things like PowerSchool AI, PowerBuddy, PowerBuddy for assessment,
(13:12):
PowerBuddy for college and career.
So this is not just for the lower
grades anymore.
So I think it's interesting that this is
being used.
But what's really interesting is that PowerSchool had
a breach and victims decided to take action.
Victims of the PowerSchool data breach are uniting
(13:35):
to crowdsource cybersecurity solutions after the company's lackluster
communication in the wake of the recent challenge
and breach.
This collaboration among affected individuals aims to create
a more transparent and secure approach to handling
sensitive student data, highlighting the critical need for
(13:57):
schools to invest in robust cybersecurity infrastructure.
So my question right now is, what is
PowerSchool doing about the breach?
And following the recent data breach, PowerSchool, they
say, claim, quote unquote, is actively investigating the
extent of the breach, notifying affected individuals and
(14:19):
offering two years of complimentary identity protection service,
whoopee, including credit card monitoring for adults to
all students and educators who information was compromised.
Big deal.
They're also working with law enforcement to monitor
for any future data exposure and are reviewing
their internal security measures to prevent future incidents.
(14:40):
That's a very, very vague statement.
So the fact that PowerSchool is providing free
identity protection services through Experian for affected individuals,
credit monitoring for adults.
OK, it's a nice little appetizer.
And they're actively contacting schools, individuals whose data
(15:01):
may have been compromised.
Well, I mean, you have to do that.
If you don't do that, you wouldn't be
very ethical.
And PowerSchool is still investigating.
The breach allowed hackers to access PowerSchool student
information system, SIS, essential database containing a wealth
of student and staff data.
PowerSchool didn't begin to communicate with customers about
(15:24):
the data breach until January 7, 2025.
I don't know, PowerSchool.
I have a real, real big problem with
this.
I mean, you got to come clean.
They claimed on January 24th that their site
(15:44):
will be updated as they learn about more
information and take additional steps in response to
the recent security incident attack.
As part of the commitment to their customers,
individuals whose information was involved, as I said,
they have expanded their resources to include additional
FAQ sections and things like that.
But that's nice.
And they thank you for your continued support.
(16:05):
But my thing is, you know, you might
be asking, so what does PowerSchool store?
Well, the question is, what doesn't it store?
It's a cloud-based software system that stores
and manages student information, documents and grades.
It also allows users to electronically sign documents
and distribute them to faculty.
(16:26):
So we're talking about medical records.
We're talking about student grades.
We're talking about behavior management.
We're talking about their email distribution system.
And so people ask this question, what database
does PowerSchool use?
(16:48):
Well, their server, it's a Microsoft Windows solution
with an Oracle database and the PowerSchool Tomcat
application node resides on the same server.
This covers the needs of all districts of
up to 3,000 student enrollment at one
time with having this system.
(17:08):
So people say to me, you know, what
are the disadvantages of PowerSchool?
Let's talk about that.
Scheduling students could use a lot more streamlined
approach.
This is from many administrators.
This doesn't come from me.
Learning how to use PowerSchool can be a
little bit of a learning curve and quite
intimidating at first, as many school administrators and
teachers have said.
(17:29):
Some of the selections in the program are
small and hard to read or see.
So I guess they really got to work
with the UI a little bit better.
PowerSchool offers cloud-based solutions that deliver a
full range of mission critical capabilities K through
12.
But they're expanding now to colleges.
And so, yes, PowerSchool, you know, is using
(17:53):
SQL for extracting, analyzing educational data, and structuring
large scale databases to track student performance and
outcomes.
So I just have a problem, Leijon, with
the fact that PowerSchool was so lackadaisical, carefree,
was a big problem for me.
(18:13):
All right.
And a new EV, well, not a new
EV, but it's been around for a while.
The EV startup Canoo files for bankruptcy.
Electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy,
citing the mounting financial struggles that were happening
and failed partnerships are the key factors in
why it had gone downhill.
(18:35):
Despite earlier hopes for disrupting the EV market,
the company couldn't overcome financial instability and operational
challenges, raising questions about the future viability of
new players in the high competitive EV industry.
I think, you know, there's so many players
trying to come into the EV world, but
it's like, you know, everybody wants to open
(18:56):
a business, right?
But they don't realize that you have to
do certain things, right?
Like get insurance.
So let me just operate like a lot
of these people on, let's say, on the
street, they go and open a pop up
stand to sell things or a truck.
I mean, yes, they have to get their
health permits and things like that, but there's
more to it than that.
And so a lot of businesses can skate
(19:19):
by and not do the appropriate things.
And there's some sad times for Amazon.
Amazon pauses their drone deliveries.
Yes, they pause their drone deliveries on their
ambitious drone delivery program after testing revealed crashes
that highlighted serious safety concerns.
(19:41):
The company is now refocusing its efforts on
software improvements and expanding its drone initiatives internationally,
signaling the complexity of rolling out such cutting
edge technology on a global scale.
My big question is, will there be a
rider offered soon for those that use drone
(20:06):
delivery?
People are asking, does it have a future?
It's the commercial relative of the military and
industrial drone application, and it's ready to scale,
they say.
There's been lots of back and forth in
2022, operational pilots, iterations, technological advancements.
(20:29):
And in 2023 and 2024, it started to
take off, but it's hitting some roadblocks to
say the least.
Amazon Prime Air had, like I said, launched
their service, but later have decided to table
it until they can get their software working
better.
But the question is the real truth about
(20:50):
drone delivery.
No one is really talking about.
So when will drone delivery become a reality?
People say it's sweet to order stuff online
and get it dropped off super quickly.
But are there other challenges that we're not
aware of?
Yeah, there are.
Drone delivery has been over all the news
(21:10):
with Amazon and many others.
In fact, in 2015, Dave Voss, the former
head of Google's Project Wing, said to the
audience, quote, Our goal is to have commercial
businesses up and running in 2017.
FedEx, UPS, DHL and Walmart have announced they
are interested in drone delivery.
But, you know, if we fast forward, we'll
see that a lot of them are having
(21:32):
problems like the FAA's Part 107 drone regulations.
Part 107 does not allow air carrier operation,
meaning a citizen of the United States undertaking
by any means directly or indirectly to provide
air transportation, means foreign air transportation, interstate interstation
or the transportation of mail by aircraft.
So they're going to have to change some
(21:54):
stuff, right?
I mean, they always find loopholes, right?
There's another problem.
The FAA section 44807 exemption for commercial drone
operations.
So Part 107 does not allow the drone
delivery to the general public.
The other way is to fly under Part
91, which requires the aircraft to be airworthy.
(22:16):
Here's our problem.
There are no drones with airworthiness currently out
there.
The way around this is the operator obtains
a section 44807 exemption determination from the DOT,
Department of Transportation, saying the drone doesn't need
an airworthiness certificate.
It's a very lengthy process and requires a
lot of paperwork.
(22:36):
The section 44807 is only for the aircraft.
You still need an exemption from parts of
Part 135 to carry packages for other people.
If you think the exemption process is a
little bit challenging and confusing, wait till you
get to Part 135.
The aircraft carriers process can be brutal.
So problem three, states, counties, cities and towns
(22:59):
all regulating drones to death by a thousand
paper cuts.
Amazon's business model is that the drones will
provide a lower cost of delivery.
But we saw what happened to them.
So the question is, is it going to
be a while?
It's going to be a while.
We're not getting deliveries with drones for a
little while now.
(23:20):
Could that be six months?
I don't know the exact date, but the
question is, you know, it's taking a lot
of money to even get these things close
to operations.
We see what happened with Amazon with their
pause on Amazon drone delivery just not too
long ago.
(23:40):
They've realized that they've got to spend more
time.
And even though they had the FAA like
kind of, you know, in their ball court,
now that they've made some mistakes, the FAA
is kind of like, wait a minute, like
maybe we've got to be a little more
strict.
And ChatGPT now has announced that their product
head is going to testify in a Google
(24:02):
antitrust case.
This is a pivotal moment for the tech
world and the product head of the ChatGPT
is set to testify in Google's antitrust case,
which could have significant implications for the role
of artificial intelligence in shaping competition and market
access.
This testimony will shed light on how AI
tools like ChatGPT are reshaping the dynamics of
(24:23):
the digital marketplace.
Netrodyne secures a $90 million set of funding
to expand AI dash cams.
This is new AI technology and it's a
company that just popped up, Netrodyne.
They've raised the $90 million to accelerate the
development and the global rollout of its AI
powered dash cams.
(24:45):
This funding will help Netrodyne expand its operational
internationally, reinforcing the growing demand for AI based
solutions in industries like transportation and fleet management.
So the question, ladies and gentlemen, is, you
know, how is this going to affect everyone?
The question is, will people use Netrodyne?
(25:06):
And I think there's a lot of, I
think there's a lot of unanswered questions about
that.
They call it seriously intelligent fleet technology with
seriously impactful results.
So they're not designing this for your car,
they're designing this for companies that have large
fleets of drivers.
(25:27):
They say the system stays sharp, attention so
your drivers can, too.
No napping on the road, neither by your
drivers nor your coaching software.
Their technology says it detects distracted driving behaviors
like being overcome by drowsiness or the urge
to text about sports.
An audio alert brings driver focus back to
the road, helping to avoid accidents.
(25:49):
So this is pretty interesting that this is
all happening.
I'll tell you, there are cars out there
now.
My own car does this.
And so if you happen to like not
have the full touch on the wheel, guess
what's going to happen?
It's going to give you a little chime
and it indicates that it's time for you
to take a break.
(26:09):
I think that's great.
I think that's something that every car should
have.
It shouldn't just be on the more luxury
cars and that should be a requirement.
And I think eventually it will be.
Perplexity, yes.
Perplexity acquires Read.CV. Well, who the heck
is Read.CV?
So Read.CV is winding down and it
(26:33):
was a professional networking platform similar to LinkedIn,
but not quite as robust as that.
And Perplexity acquires Read.CV. So you might
be asking me, who is Perplexity?
That's a great question.
Perplexity right now is a free AI powered
(26:55):
answer engine that provides accurate, trusted and real
time answers they claim to any question.
So the thing is, you might be asking,
how does Perplexity make its money?
And I think it's in its beginning stages.
(27:22):
Perplexity generates revenue with a paid version of
the search engine that generates more detailed responses
than the free edition.
So the question you might be asking, and
it's a very good question to ask, how
much is Perplexity?
Well, again, there is a free version and
the professional is $20 per month or $200
(27:42):
per year and over 300 pro searches per
day.
Access to the advanced AI models like GPT
-4 and Cloud3, unlimited file uploads, image generation
tools and $5 per month in API credit.
So it's obvious that they want to give
us something free so you can play with
(28:03):
it and see if it's something that you
want to pay more money on.
And Blue Sky expands moderation team amid rapid
growth.
Blue Sky, the decentralized social media platform, has
seen a surge in moderation reports following rapid
user growth in response to the platform expanding
its moderation team and enhancing its tools to
(28:25):
manage content more effectively, aiming to balance user
freedom with necessary controls as it scales.
So I think this is just a concern
for a lot of people because they don't
necessarily know what's going to happen.
Like, you know, what is the fate of
Blue Sky?
And again, to meet the demands, they are
launching more moderation.
(28:47):
And so in Blue Sky's world in 2024,
it went from 2.89 million users to
25.94 million users.
Wow.
In addition to users hosted on Blue Sky's
infrastructure, there are over 4,000 users running
their own infrastructure, PDS or personal data servers,
self-hosting their content posts and data.
(29:08):
So to meet the demand caused by user
growth, they increased their moderation team to roughly
100 moderators.
There have been lots of challenges.
There have been lots of spam.
There have been violations.
There has been misleading data.
There has been a ton of sexual content
that is inappropriate.
(29:28):
There has been rude content.
And of course, there's been others.
In the late August, there was a huge
increase in user growth for Blue Sky from
Brazil, and they saw spikes of up to
50,000 reports per day.
Prior to this, the moderation team handled most
reports within 40 minutes.
For the first time in 2024, they had
a backlog in moderation reports.
(29:49):
To address this, they increased the size of
their Portuguese language moderation team, added constant moderation
sweeps and automated tooling for high-risk areas
such as child safety, and hired moderators through
an external contracting vendor for the first time.
So why are they doing this?
Basically, they had anti-social behavior reports of
(30:10):
harassment, trolling, or intolerance, 1.75 million.
That's absurd.
Misleading content, including impersonation, misinformation, or false claims
about identity or affiliations, 1.20 million.
Spam, excessive mentions, replies, repetitive content, 1.40
million.
Unwanted sexual content, nudity, or adult content that
(30:32):
was not properly related, 630,000.
Illegal or urgent issues, clear violations of the
law or other terms of service, 933,000.
And other issues that don't fit into any
one of these categories, 726,000.
So again, the top human applied labels were
sexual figurative at 55,422.
(30:54):
Rude, 22,412.
Spam, 13,201.
Intolerance, 11,341.
And threats at 3,046.
In 2024, 93,076 users submitted at least
one appeal in the app for a total
of 205,000 individual appeals.
For most cases, the appeal was due to
(31:14):
disagreement with label verdicts.
In 2024, Blue Sky Moderators took down 66
,308 accounts.
And automated tooling took down 35,342 accounts
for reasons such as spam and bot networks.
Mods took down another 6,334 records, posts,
(31:35):
lists, feeds, et cetera.
While automated systems removed 282.
In January, this month, 2025, they've already built
in policy reasons to Ozone, their open source
moderation tool.
And it will give them more granular data
on the takedown rationale moving forward.
(31:56):
In 2024, they received 238 requests from law
enforcement, government, legal firms, and they responded to
182 and compiled with the compliance for 146.
The major of the requests came from German,
US, Brazilian, and Japanese law enforcement.
So just to give you a little bit
(32:18):
of a, an understanding, user data requests, 111
responded, 87 data preservation requests, eight responded, eight
emergency data requests, 13 responded to 12 takedown
requests, 45 responded to 22 inquiries, 44 responded
to 36 subpoenas by court 17, they responded
to every one of them 17.
(32:40):
So, um, I think as any company grows
and gets bigger, there's always these kinds of
challenges.
So we'll keep you in the loop of
that.
Ladies, gentlemen, and chat GPT enhances custom instructions
for users.
Chat GPT is rolling out enhanced custom instructions
that allow users to personalize their interactions more
deeply.
(33:00):
This new feature is designed to improve the
user experience, enabling individuals to set specific preferences
and tailor their chat GPT interactions to better
suit, uh, their, their life and their world
on chat GPT.
So you might be asking, and it's a
very good question.
Uh, what were specifically, and I'll give them
to you, what were some of these enhancements?
(33:21):
You know, what, what were, um, some of,
um, the, um, enhancements.
And so I think the easiest way to
say this is that, um, you know, the
custom instructions allow you to share anything you'd
like chat GPT to consider in its response,
(33:41):
um, customer interactions were added to new conversations
that could go forward, uh, customer interactions are
available on all plans on the web, iOS
and Android.
So, um, how would you like to chat
with GPT?
Like examples, limit the scope, et cetera.
Um, there were things about, uh, how to
(34:04):
customize chat GPT to be flirty, how to
write instructions for chat GPT, um, you know,
so things like that, but they also allowed
people to, if I will, um, create the
way to avatar the way the system responds,
uh, just to give you an example with
(34:26):
chat systems, you have to be extremely specific
on what it is that you want it
to do.
You can't say edit this or edit that
you have to be very specific.
And ladies and gentlemen, Amazon, uh, leads, I
don't know if you know this in renewable
energy purchases, Amazon is leading, um, the change,
(34:50):
uh, and the, and the field of renewable
energy, uh, purchases outpacing its closest competitor, ladies,
gentlemen, in both scale and ambition, the company's
commitment is sustainability is making waves in the
corporate world as Amazon continues to push toward
its ambitious goals of achieving net zero carbon
emissions.
(35:10):
Now you might be asking this question, who
are Amazon's closest, uh, competitors?
Uh, and as you probably would guess, uh,
there are a few, uh, believe it or
not.
Walmart is a competitor of Amazon eBay, Netflix,
(35:31):
Alibaba, Etsy.
Um, these are all competitors of, uh, of
Amazon.
So it's interesting, but I think at the
same token, just because they're doing something good,
doesn't mean we can overlook all the bad
things that they're doing.
See, they're trying to do this stuff so
(35:51):
that, you know, we get on the map,
but I think there's more to it than
that.
Ladies, gentlemen, I really do.
All right, let's move on to another important
one, which is Europe demands X's or Twitter's,
uh, algorithm documentation in a move to enforce,
uh, stricter regulations.
European authorities are demanding that X formerly Twitter
(36:12):
provide detailed documentation of its algorithm to comply
with the digital services act, the DSA.
Uh, this deemed from the demand highlighting the
increasing regulatory scrutiny social media platforms are facing,
particularly regarding transparency and how content is moderated.
Now we know that Twitter and X good
(36:33):
old Elon really didn't want to give these
documents.
So the question is, and this is a
very good question.
Uh, will X give Europe, um, the algorithm
docs?
Um, they've asked for them.
Uh, they've ordered X to, to hand them
(36:56):
over.
Um, and, uh, the EC has also requested
access information, how X moderates and amplifies content.
Um, the question you might ask is, uh,
when, uh, does X have to give the
documents to the European union by?
(37:16):
Um, and so they, uh, I've requested information
and so it needs to be done pretty
quickly.
I think the last time they requested it,
they said that the internal documents to X
have to be provided by February 15th.
It's part of an investigation by the European,
uh, commission under the DSA, the digital services
(37:37):
act.
So we know a lot of platforms that
got in trouble, whether we're talking about Google,
whether we're talking about, uh, Amazon, even Yelp,
right?
A lot of these platforms are just doing
things because they think they can, because they
have so much money, but they're starting to
realize that they're going to get burned.
RLA gentlemen and Apple decides to halt AI
(37:59):
news summaries amid some big backlashes, Apple has
decided to halt its AI generated news summaries
after facing backlash over inaccuracies in the summaries.
The company has supposedly pledged to improve the
transparency and reliability of all its AI tools,
underscoring the challenges tech companies face when using
(38:20):
AI to generate content for more consumption.
Wow.
That's a lot of, that's a lot.
I mean, the question that I have for
everyone is how will Apple know that the
information is truly right?
We all know how well that AI just
kind of like messes things up.
(38:42):
And, uh, MIT spinout is kind of interesting
neuro bionics, pioneers, medical advancements, neuro bionics, a
spinout from MIT is making a groundbreaking set
of strides in medical technology was pioneering brain
fiber insertion technique.
This next generation approach to medical advancements has
(39:02):
the potential to revolutionize treatments for neurological conditions,
highlighting the intersection of technology and health innovation,
so I think one thing about AI is
that it's really giving people, um, more information.
The question is the information that's first coming
off is not always that good.
(39:25):
You probably knew that, right?
It's not always that good.
And if it's not always that good, how
do we know when the data actually is
good?
I think that's a, I think that's a
real, real problem for a lot of people,
but I think it's something that we all
need to be concerned about because AI is
everywhere, you know, whether you're at the airport
(39:47):
and although you can choose to mitigate what
information you pass off to AI, uh, there's
still some breaches.
There's still some leaks happening.
All right.
So I think this is a serious situation,
but getting back about technology right now, you
know, we think about, you know, what's going
(40:07):
on, like what is the latest uh, AI
tech now, and if we had to, you
know, dive into that, um, it's more about
generative AI, um, you know, things like, uh,
people want to use technology to solve problems
(40:28):
in a quicker way, but quicker doesn't always
mean better.
Right.
We're seeing it in healthcare.
We're seeing it in biometrics.
We're seeing it in, uh, reinforcement learning.
We're seeing it in predictive AI analytics.
We're seeing it in chatbots and virtual assistants,
sales and marketing.
We're seeing data analytics.
So, you know, robots are not new, but
(40:50):
I think the interesting part is that now
that we couple AI with it, it opens
up a whole new set of Pandora's boxes.
Multimodal models in AI can depict information from
different data types, whether it be audio, video,
um, you know, still images and even plain
(41:11):
text.
So the technology is enabling search and content
creation tools to become more seamless.
Um, some of the latest tools you might
be familiar with, like DALI that can take
things and literally you type them and it
supposedly gives you a graphic.
I've tried it.
Uh, it's not perfect.
Uh, but the big thing in AI that's
(41:33):
coming is agentic AI.
It's a form of AI that can be
autonomously, uh, used without constant human guidance.
It's capable of learning from interactions.
And, uh, it's supposedly the new branch of
AI, and I think it'll really help a
lot of different disciplines.
One of the most advanced AIs is being
(41:55):
used in robotics.
Ameka, uh, the world's most advanced human shaped
robot represents the forefront of human robotic technology
designed as a platform for development in future
robotic technologies.
Ameka is the perfect human eyed robot platform
for human robot interactions.
And we're seeing so many other companies dive
(42:16):
into AI and trying to decipher, you know,
is it really better to do something with
AI or is it just better to do
it in person?
And I think AI is very good for
doing tasks that we're able to, uh, repeat
and we get it to understand.
So if we wanted a human to, let's
(42:37):
say box a million records, well, that's something
that a machine is better off doing the
other benefit of using artificial intelligence is that
it keeps the human safe now safe, meaning
that if there's a task it's doing, like
maybe it's doing, um, toxic cleanup.
Right.
Uh, you see these people with these suits
and they used to charge a couple thousand
(42:58):
dollars an hour, a hazmat, right?
And so, you know, that's a, that's a
big thing.
And I think that's an interesting question to
ask, you know, what does, if we, if
you had a spill, God forbid, uh, what
does hazmat charge per hour?
Uh, to, to clean up and the number,
(43:20):
um, you know, has dramatically gone up depending
on the threats and things, but you're talking,
uh, per hour.
And that's a man hour.
You're talking roughly about a thousand dollars.
Um, if you're talking about, you know, that's,
that's your state.
So you're talking about your basic stuff, but
(43:42):
if you're talking about a typical, you know,
like a typical set, you're talking somewhere around
a project, $3,000 to $5,000.
Uh, biohazards can be anywhere from 10, 30,
50 to even million thousands to millions of
dollars.
So a crime scene, uh, cleanup can cost
(44:03):
a thousand to $5,000 to decontaminate, et
cetera.
So, um, laboratory workers come in when there's
a hazmat spill.
I know a lot about hazmat because my
parents had a dry clean plant, uh, that
they sold in 2004.
And I have to tell you that we
were always very particular about our chemicals, how
(44:26):
they're being used, what the process was.
So when we finished with a chemical that
we were safe and we were, you know,
in good way, we put the gloves on,
we ventilated.
We also did something called the, uh, OSHA
occupational for safety and health administration.
I'm not sure if you guys know OSHA,
OSHA and the, what we call the right,
uh, to know.
(44:48):
And so the reason I bring this up
to you, it refers to the requirement under
the occupation for safety and health administration, OSHA,
a hazard mitigation standard, which mandates employers to
inform their employees about hazardous chemicals present in
the workplace.
Essentially, it gives workers the right to know
about potential dangers they may face on the
job.
It is their choice whether they want to
(45:09):
stay working there or not.
Um, I think when we talk about AI
and we talk about it making decisions, I
think it's good to help us infer the
data or maybe give us some guidance, but
I don't think that we should be using
AI in a manner that is going to
(45:31):
replace humans.
Another example of AI might be, uh, there's
a bomb threat.
So they send, uh, robots under the building
and in the building to make sure that
everything's okay.
Or, uh, maybe there was a fire and
they want to check some things out.
I remember living in a building and they
sent, um, this robot, which is probably no
(45:53):
bigger than how, maybe it was probably no
bigger than I'm going to say about maybe
the third or one fourth the size of
my keyboard, probably no bigger than maybe a
little bigger than my telephone on my desk.
So thinking about AI has opened up so
many potentials to people that want to make
(46:14):
money.
The biggest challenge I see with AI is
people are rushing in to go build everything,
but then you know what happens?
They actually are doing the wrong thing because
they haven't done the right research.
They haven't figured out what's going to work,
what's not going to work.
And I feel this is our biggest, uh,
nemesis when it comes to AI.
(46:35):
The fact that people want to make money
with AI, I don't have a problem with
that.
But the fact that people want to suddenly
skip the line and just use AI in
a manner that is very, very unprofessional.
I have one more topic I want to
talk about, and that is the, um, you
know, will TikTok, uh, get banned?
(46:58):
And, um, you know, Trump, uh, signed an
executive order, if you remember, but actually it
was last Saturday, I believe it was last
Saturday.
Uh, they had to be offline by, I
believe it was 12 noon.
And so, um, they had to be offline
by 12 noon, uh, actually 12 midnight, sorry.
(47:21):
And so they took themselves down at 1030
and lots of people were complaining they couldn't
use TikTok.
They couldn't use CapCut and all this other
stuff they couldn't use.
So when people tried to sign on, they
got, uh, basically thank you for your patience,
uh, or something to the fact that, you
know, you can't use TikTok right now because
it wasn't TikTok that shut down.
(47:42):
It was all the US contractors and conglomerates
around the United States that didn't want to
get hit yin-yang with these large fines.
So Trump signed an order, uh, meaning for
TikTok and who might buy it.
In fact, after they talked with, uh, Donald
Trump actually made a post on one of
the boards that was enough for them six
(48:05):
years later to turn on TikTok that Sunday.
So, uh, their message was welcome back.
Thanks for your patience and support.
As a result of president Trump's efforts, TikTok
is back in the United States.
You continue to create, share, and discover all
the things you love on TikTok.
So the US president Donald Trump signed an
executive order granting TikTok a 75 day extension
(48:28):
to comply with a law banning the app
if it has not sold.
The social media platform briefly went dark, as
you remember, in the US just days before
he took office after the Supreme Court denied
a bid by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to
overturn the legislation.
TikTok came back online with a short message
(48:49):
thanking Trump for its efforts, as I mentioned.
So has Trump overturned the TikTok ban?
So the executive order is an instruction of
the president, which has the weight of the
law behind it.
But Trump's order does not overturn the ban.
Instead, it tells the US Attorney General not
to enforce the law for now, something experts
had expected would be his first move.
(49:11):
That buys time for the administration to, as
the order puts it, determine the appropriate course
of action.
So I think that's pretty much what they're
doing right now.
And so, you know, what this means is
Trump has floated the possibility of TikTok becoming
a joint venture, telling reporters he was seeking
(49:32):
a 50-50 partnership between the United States
and ByteDance.
Though he did not give any future details
on how that might work, he just stated
that I think TikTok was where I think
he wanted, I think he wanted something like,
I think the value of TikTok, if you
remember now, the value of TikTok was like
200 million.
The value of TikTok was like, yeah, 200
(49:53):
million.
But he made a very interesting point, is
that if the US don't come online, then
TikTok's worth nothing.
So that's why he feels that the US
should get 100 million for, you know, being
partners and managing it and things like that.
Again, for now, the order creates a situation
(50:17):
where the president is directly opposing a ruling
made by the Supreme Court, which upheld the
law to ban TikTok on January 17th.
And it's interesting.
It said the ban was designed to prevent
China, a designated foreign adversary, from leveraging its
control over ByteDance to capture personal data of
(50:37):
the US TikTok users.
Technically, even after 75 days have passed, it
would be possible for Trump to allow the
law to stand, but tell the Department of
Justice to continue to ignore it.
The government would be effectively telling Apple and
Google they will not be punished for continuing
to allow people to download TikTok onto their
devices.
Meaning the law would remain in place, but
(50:59):
would essentially be redundant.
Sounds like a mess, if you ask me.
It's not clear whether the firms would continue
to offer the app under these circumstances, and
could TikTok ever be banned in the UK?
Well, that's a very good question.
Analysis have suggested it's just a matter of
time until the US ban on TikTok spreads
(51:21):
to allied countries and beyond, if Trump's administration
decides to keep it offline.
The app has been switched off in America
as the US lawmakers had come back with
their voice.
And the incoming President Trump indicated, though he
is opposed to the ban, it will find
a way to reverse it.
In fact, a member originally, he said that
(51:41):
the reason, the real reason he wanted to
keep TikTok up and running was because it
actually helped bring him some of the younger
votes.
So I think we're going to just have
to wait and see, you know, what's happening
with TikTok.
You know, where are they going?
What's going to happen?
Will the same thing happen again?
(52:01):
I mean, it was like nobody could breathe.
I got so many messages.
Oh my gosh, what am I going to
do?
I can't use this app, can't use that
app.
So what is it about TikTok that draws
Americans to it?
I mean, what if we had our own
platform in the United States and it would
definitely be better?
I know it's an international platform.
I know they have these crazy dance routines
(52:23):
that people always try to do, but they've
had a lot of bad things on their
platform too.
So does it just mean that we've got
to step up moderation?
Does it mean that US data only gets
held in the United States and that that
data is separated from the data that ByteDance
has in another country?
I don't know.
But these are the questions that I think
(52:43):
many people have to get answers to before
we know what's going to happen.
And the other big question you might be
asking is who will buy TikTok?
Well, that's a more loaded question.
The outlet reported the White House is negotiating
a deal with the company and a group
of investors that would allow TikTok's turn owner,
(53:05):
Chinese company ByteDance, to maintain a minority stake
in the company while Oracle controls its algorithm,
data collection, and software updates according to two
unnamed sources.
Who's thinking of buying TikTok?
Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O'Leary, Canadian investor and
star of the reality television show Shark Tank,
has expressed strong interest in buying TikTok.
(53:27):
He has joined the People's Bid for TikTok,
an effort led by Project Liberty founder Frank
McCourt.
Does Mr. Beast want to buy TikTok?
Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, he was excited
as he told his tens of millions of
TikTok followers about his bid to buy the
platform.
(53:49):
I don't know.
Everything that he does, though, is usually for
some kind of notoriety.
It's not for anything that's going to help
anyone else.
I mean, at least that's what I've seen.
Everything that he does, it's about money.
He has done some good things for people
that are in need, but most of the
stuff he does, it's kind of crazy.
I mean, building a bunker and having people
(54:10):
live down there and giving them money, I
mean, I get it.
But like, it's just a very, I don't
know, very off balance idea, if you ask
me.
And I think right now, as we wait,
you know, for the answer for TikTok, and
this is interesting.
So when will TikTok be sold?
(54:31):
And I think the answer to that, ladies
and gentlemen, is we don't know.
Is TikTok going to be sold to Elon
Musk?
Well, Bloomberg News reported last week that Chinese
officials were in preliminary talks about potential option
to sell TikTok's operation in the United States
to Musk, though the company has denied that.
(54:52):
So it seems like TikTok is very picky
who they sell it to.
Um, I think it's something that a lot
of people are concerned about.
And the thing that's very interesting that President
Trump said is that the reason that TikTok
has so much power is because it has
(55:13):
so many users.
If the US were to drop out tomorrow,
TikTok might not even be worth $10,000.
So that means the bulk of the users,
and this is a very good point, the
bulk of TikTok users come from where do
(55:34):
you think they come from?
Yes.
The bulk of the users, okay, come from
the United States compared to other countries.
Um, so that's quite a bit.
(55:55):
In fact, the US has 120.5 million.
Uh, the currently the, um, Brazil has 105,
Mexico 77 million, Vietnam is 65 million.
So it has a very large reach.
(56:19):
And if you want to know who basically
connects with TikTok the most, um, it's a
little split, but it's users, male 25 to
34.
And that's about 90%.
On the other hand, the spectrum, males and
females, 55 plus, are the smallest group of
3.7%. Um, and the country with the
(56:42):
most TikTok downloads is India.
Now my question is, will India ever ban
TikTok?
Well, um, will it get banned?
In 2020, TikTok was banned in India on
(57:02):
the national security grounds.
Uh, the Ministry of Electronics and IT opposed
the misuse of the mobile applications.
So the question is, can I use TikTok,
uh, in India right now?
And it works on Wi-Fi in India,
but it does not work on the rest
(57:22):
of their networks.
Well, we have gone through a lot.
Like I said, from the Facebook retreat of
Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, all the way out to
the breakthroughs in AI, some good, some bad.
Ladies and gentlemen, you know who I am
by now, but if you do not know,
please allow me to give you my name.
I am John Seymour, a serial entrepreneur.
(57:44):
I am a podcast host and a podcast
coach, and I create lots of content to
empower you.
So ladies and gentlemen, I encourage you to
go check out believemeachieved.com for more of
my amazing, inspiring creations.
And you know what?
I'm going to catch you guys next week,
(58:05):
which incidentally, that will be the last episode,
uh, in January.
Uh, and then, um, we'll be going on,
uh, to, uh, February.
Have yourself a fantastic, uh, rest of your
day and your week.
Catch you real soon, everyone.
Hi everyone, I'm John C. Morley, the host of
The JMOR Tech Talk show and inspirations for
your life.
(00:57):
Well, hey everyone, it is John Seymour here,
serial entrepreneur.
It is great to be with you on
The JMOR Tech Talk show for the week.
It has been a little bit crazy, so
sorry about that.
That's why Friday's show is just getting recorded
now.
But welcome everyone to The JMOR Tech Talk.
(01:19):
This is the place where we go through
everything that's happening with technology.
So it's so great to have you here.
Can you believe, ladies and gentlemen, that we
are actually on, yes, we're on series for
and we're actually on show number four.
So I think that's a pretty amazing thing,
(01:42):
if I do say so myself.
It is great, great, great to be with
everyone here on The JMOR Tech Talk show.
Hope you guys have been following a lot
with technology, you know, and what's been going
on, but there's been a lot going on.
So let's just dive right in the title
for today's show, which I think you guys
(02:04):
are going to find pretty apropos, and it's
from Facebook retreats to breakthrough A.I. and
cybersecurity battles.
Again, this is series for show number four.
Of course, if you missed any of the
shows or you want to check out other
amazing content I produce, just visit BelieveMeAchieved.com
(02:25):
and I'm sure you'll be dazzled and be
able to enjoy the great content.
So welcome, everyone.
I am your host, John Seymour, lead serial
entrepreneur.
I'm not only a host, but I'm also
a podcast coach.
So welcome, everyone, to the latest episode of
The JMOR Tech Talk show.
A little bit late, but we do get
them out again.
It's been a little bit crazy with my
(02:46):
master's program and some other stuff happening.
So trying to see how we can get
these out a little bit earlier, but it's
just been nuts.
All right, everyone.
So welcome.
Feel free to go get something if you
need to at the kitchen there, whether it's
something hot, something cold, something, I don't know,
healthy, something sweet, whatever it is, go ahead
(03:06):
and grab something.
The first thing I want to talk about
is Mr. Mark Zuckerberg.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, he's been a trip.
So Mr. Mark Zuckerberg turns his back on
the media.
Yes, Mark Zuckerberg, once committed to addressing misinformation
and hate speech on his platform, has now
(03:30):
shifted his approach to now suddenly distancing himself
from the media and stepping back from his
previous efforts to work with them.
I don't know what Mark's up to.
In 2018, Zuckerberg shared plans to improve content
moderation after facing backlash over Facebook's role in
(03:50):
spreading disinformation.
However, over the past two years, his company
has increasingly adopted a new strategy, wicking its
commitment to truth and moving away from its
past media partnerships.
This marks a significant turn in Zuckerberg's relationship
with both the press and content regulation.
So I've lost a lot of respect for
(04:12):
Mark.
I mean, you know, the way he started
his company was basically, in my book, a
crime.
He robbed things right from people that, you
know, he knows.
But the fact that Zuckerberg, you know, turned
his back on the media, I think this
is really a big problem and something that
(04:35):
I think needs to be addressed by the
DOJ and definitely the Digital Services Act, European
Union, because, you know, those are the people
that actually seem to give a darn.
Everyone else doesn't really care unless it becomes
a problem for them.
Right.
All right.
So just want to let you know what's
happening there.
(04:55):
And it's a problem that he did this,
you know.
The way Facebook is now trying to combat
misinformation.
It's it's a problem, it's really a problem.
So we'll keep you abreast of what's happening
with that.
And the DOJ does something very interesting.
It confirms an arrested soldier that was linked
(05:16):
to an AT&T Verizon set of hacks.
U.S. prosecutors have confirmed that Cameron John
Wagnus, a U.S. Army communications specialist who
was arrested recently in December last year, is
connected to a massive data breach involving AT
(05:36):
&T and Verizon.
Wagnus is accused of unlawfully transferring confidential phone
records, a case linked to previous hacks at
cloud company, you probably know the name Snowflake,
which impacted multiple companies, including AT&T and
Verizon.
The hackers stole sensitive data such as phone
(05:58):
records, personal details and financial information.
This breach, one of the largest cyber attacks
of the past year, was reportedly made possible
by stolen employee passwords and a lack of
multi-factor protection at Snowflake.
So, I mean, who do you blame in
(06:19):
this case?
Right.
I mean, obviously, it's the person that did
something wrong.
But I mean, I mean, why, I guess,
why is it that, you know, John Wagnus
was able to get away with this?
Do we blame Snowflake?
I would kind of have to say yes.
I would say that they were definitely negligent
(06:42):
in what happened.
So, you know, it's interesting that this came
up and, you know, the U.S. attorney,
Tessa Gorman, told the Seattle court that both
cases that were heard arose from the same
(07:03):
computer intrusion and extortion and included some of
the same stolen victim information.
As such, these cases rely on overlapping evidentiary
material and legal process and arguably present common
questions of law and fact.
The question is what, this is my big
question, what is Snowflake, you know, doing now
(07:28):
to protect itself?
You know, it's crazy that this can actually
happen.
You know, and with the fact of them
charging these two hackers, I mean, I know
just in my own town, I'm not going
to mention the name of the company, but
there were several people that worked at this,
(07:51):
I'll call it a makeshift cellular company in
Franklin Lakes.
And basically they own several stores.
They were owned for many years and they
still operate others.
But the people they bring on, well, let's
just say they're kind of characters and I
don't mean Disney people.
Well, it was so bad that actually Franklin
(08:12):
Lakes Police Department had issued warrants for four
people's arrests.
I believe two or three were found and
I think one was actually able to leave
the country somehow.
I don't know why, but there is one
hacker, Alexander Mucha, I think he was the
(08:33):
he was arrested.
And the second, Conor Riley Mucha, is in
Turkey.
Both were arrested for extorting dozens of victims.
So this is a very, very big problem,
I want to say.
And despite these successful takedowns, there's still a
third hacker that is now out there on
(08:55):
the loose.
And this hacker is known as Kipper Phantom,
could well be a U.S. military member
stationed in South Korea.
Oh, that is terrible.
I hope Mr. Trump, President Trump, actually gets
involved with these things.
So the type of data available, whether personal
or corporate, makes it particularly alluring and lucrative
(09:16):
for such cyber terrorists.
Though complex, the typical process involves data exfiltration,
followed by ransom demands or the selling off
of the data.
That means that sensitive business information could leak,
leading to lost revenue or reputational damage.
Moreover, individuals could fall victim to identity fraud.
(09:37):
This is just crazy.
My question is, what is Snowflake now doing
to protect itself?
And I don't really know if they're doing
much or they've really made it public.
They've explained, you know, kind of what happened.
(09:57):
And they said a limited number of customer
accounts were affected.
And Snowflake initially had stated this.
But with what we now know, it was
a full blown malware attack that led to
high volumes of compromised customer data ending up
on the dark web.
So the breach was really, really big.
(10:17):
Snowflake hasn't really come clean on everything.
Nevertheless, we were able to find out that
they were responsible for, lack thereof, securing their
data.
And the third party contractor theory was further
strengthened by the hacker themselves.
A Shiny Hunters representative told several places that
(10:40):
they were first breached as a third party
contractor.
It all started when InfoStealer malware accessed an
employee's computer and stole unencrypted Snowflake credentials stored
on JIRA, which is a project management system.
The hackers were then able to log into
Snowflake account because multi-factor authentication wasn't enabled.
(11:00):
Shame on you, Snowflake.
You should require everyone to enable two-factor
authentication.
I think that is really, really bad.
How did Snowflake resolve it?
Well, they involved the cybersecurity expertise of what
they called Mandiant to investigate the matter.
After it identified what had caused the breach,
Snowflake informed its customers of the breach and
recommended that they implement MFA multi-factor authentication.
(11:24):
Great, Snowflake.
Thank you so much.
That's like telling us, you know, what we
need to do after the fact.
I mean, why weren't you proactive in the
beginning?
That's my concern.
So I have really lost a lot of
respect for Snowflake and I've lost a lot
of respect for how the military is really
(11:45):
keeping tabs on people, people in the military.
So Snowflake is an American cloud-based data
storage company.
It's headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, and operates a
platform that allows for data analysis and simultaneous
access of datasets with minimal latency.
It operates on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure,
(12:07):
and Google Cloud's platform.
Unfortunately, they need to really step up their
security.
So we'll have to see what happens there.
We will definitely keep you in the loop
to what is going on.
All right, everyone.
And here's one I think you guys are
going to find enlightening.
PowerSchool.
(12:28):
Do you guys know what PowerSchool is?
So PowerSchool is one of several, let's call
it applications, software as a service systems that
are supposedly there to help schools track all
(12:48):
their information about students, get their assignments.
They can do all kinds of stuff.
They can market the students to the parents.
Now they have PowerSchool AI and they have
things like PowerSchool AI, PowerBuddy, PowerBuddy for assessment,
(13:12):
PowerBuddy for college and career.
So this is not just for the lower
grades anymore.
So I think it's interesting that this is
being used.
But what's really interesting is that PowerSchool had
a breach and victims decided to take action.
Victims of the PowerSchool data breach are uniting
(13:35):
to crowdsource cybersecurity solutions after the company's lackluster
communication in the wake of the recent challenge
and breach.
This collaboration among affected individuals aims to create
a more transparent and secure approach to handling
sensitive student data, highlighting the critical need for
(13:57):
schools to invest in robust cybersecurity infrastructure.
So my question right now is, what is
PowerSchool doing about the breach?
And following the recent data breach, PowerSchool, they
say, claim, quote unquote, is actively investigating the
extent of the breach, notifying affected individuals and
(14:19):
offering two years of complimentary identity protection service,
whoopee, including credit card monitoring for adults to
all students and educators who information was compromised.
Big deal.
They're also working with law enforcement to monitor
for any future data exposure and are reviewing
their internal security measures to prevent future incidents.
(14:40):
That's a very, very vague statement.
So the fact that PowerSchool is providing free
identity protection services through Experian for affected individuals,
credit monitoring for adults.
OK, it's a nice little appetizer.
And they're actively contacting schools, individuals whose data
(15:01):
may have been compromised.
Well, I mean, you have to do that.
If you don't do that, you wouldn't be
very ethical.
And PowerSchool is still investigating.
The breach allowed hackers to access PowerSchool student
information system, SIS, essential database containing a wealth
of student and staff data.
PowerSchool didn't begin to communicate with customers about
(15:24):
the data breach until January 7, 2025.
I don't know, PowerSchool.
I have a real, real big problem with
this.
I mean, you got to come clean.
They claimed on January 24th that their site
(15:44):
will be updated as they learn about more
information and take additional steps in response to
the recent security incident attack.
As part of the commitment to their customers,
individuals whose information was involved, as I said,
they have expanded their resources to include additional
FAQ sections and things like that.
But that's nice.
And they thank you for your continued support.
(16:05):
But my thing is, you know, you might
be asking, so what does PowerSchool store?
Well, the question is, what doesn't it store?
It's a cloud-based software system that stores
and manages student information, documents and grades.
It also allows users to electronically sign documents
and distribute them to faculty.
(16:26):
So we're talking about medical records.
We're talking about student grades.
We're talking about behavior management.
We're talking about their email distribution system.
And so people ask this question, what database
does PowerSchool use?
(16:48):
Well, their server, it's a Microsoft Windows solution
with an Oracle database and the PowerSchool Tomcat
application node resides on the same server.
This covers the needs of all districts of
up to 3,000 student enrollment at one
time with having this system.
(17:08):
So people say to me, you know, what
are the disadvantages of PowerSchool?
Let's talk about that.
Scheduling students could use a lot more streamlined
approach.
This is from many administrators.
This doesn't come from me.
Learning how to use PowerSchool can be a
little bit of a learning curve and quite
intimidating at first, as many school administrators and
teachers have said.
(17:29):
Some of the selections in the program are
small and hard to read or see.
So I guess they really got to work
with the UI a little bit better.
PowerSchool offers cloud-based solutions that deliver a
full range of mission critical capabilities K through
12.
But they're expanding now to colleges.
And so, yes, PowerSchool, you know, is using
(17:53):
SQL for extracting, analyzing educational data, and structuring
large scale databases to track student performance and
outcomes.
So I just have a problem, Leijon, with
the fact that PowerSchool was so lackadaisical, carefree,
was a big problem for me.
(18:13):
All right.
And a new EV, well, not a new
EV, but it's been around for a while.
The EV startup Canoo files for bankruptcy.
Electric vehicle startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy,
citing the mounting financial struggles that were happening
and failed partnerships are the key factors in
why it had gone downhill.
(18:35):
Despite earlier hopes for disrupting the EV market,
the company couldn't overcome financial instability and operational
challenges, raising questions about the future viability of
new players in the high competitive EV industry.
I think, you know, there's so many players
trying to come into the EV world, but
it's like, you know, everybody wants to open
(18:56):
a business, right?
But they don't realize that you have to
do certain things, right?
Like get insurance.
So let me just operate like a lot
of these people on, let's say, on the
street, they go and open a pop up
stand to sell things or a truck.
I mean, yes, they have to get their
health permits and things like that, but there's
more to it than that.
And so a lot of businesses can skate
(19:19):
by and not do the appropriate things.
And there's some sad times for Amazon.
Amazon pauses their drone deliveries.
Yes, they pause their drone deliveries on their
ambitious drone delivery program after testing revealed crashes
that highlighted serious safety concerns.
(19:41):
The company is now refocusing its efforts on
software improvements and expanding its drone initiatives internationally,
signaling the complexity of rolling out such cutting
edge technology on a global scale.
My big question is, will there be a
rider offered soon for those that use drone
(20:06):
delivery?
People are asking, does it have a future?
It's the commercial relative of the military and
industrial drone application, and it's ready to scale,
they say.
There's been lots of back and forth in
2022, operational pilots, iterations, technological advancements.
(20:29):
And in 2023 and 2024, it started to
take off, but it's hitting some roadblocks to
say the least.
Amazon Prime Air had, like I said, launched
their service, but later have decided to table
it until they can get their software working
better.
But the question is the real truth about
(20:50):
drone delivery.
No one is really talking about.
So when will drone delivery become a reality?
People say it's sweet to order stuff online
and get it dropped off super quickly.
But are there other challenges that we're not
aware of?
Yeah, there are.
Drone delivery has been over all the news
(21:10):
with Amazon and many others.
In fact, in 2015, Dave Voss, the former
head of Google's Project Wing, said to the
audience, quote, Our goal is to have commercial
businesses up and running in 2017.
FedEx, UPS, DHL and Walmart have announced they
are interested in drone delivery.
But, you know, if we fast forward, we'll
see that a lot of them are having
(21:32):
problems like the FAA's Part 107 drone regulations.
Part 107 does not allow air carrier operation,
meaning a citizen of the United States undertaking
by any means directly or indirectly to provide
air transportation, means foreign air transportation, interstate interstation
or the transportation of mail by aircraft.
So they're going to have to change some
(21:54):
stuff, right?
I mean, they always find loopholes, right?
There's another problem.
The FAA section 44807 exemption for commercial drone
operations.
So Part 107 does not allow the drone
delivery to the general public.
The other way is to fly under Part
91, which requires the aircraft to be airworthy.
(22:16):
Here's our problem.
There are no drones with airworthiness currently out
there.
The way around this is the operator obtains
a section 44807 exemption determination from the DOT,
Department of Transportation, saying the drone doesn't need
an airworthiness certificate.
It's a very lengthy process and requires a
lot of paperwork.
(22:36):
The section 44807 is only for the aircraft.
You still need an exemption from parts of
Part 135 to carry packages for other people.
If you think the exemption process is a
little bit challenging and confusing, wait till you
get to Part 135.
The aircraft carriers process can be brutal.
So problem three, states, counties, cities and towns
(22:59):
all regulating drones to death by a thousand
paper cuts.
Amazon's business model is that the drones will
provide a lower cost of delivery.
But we saw what happened to them.
So the question is, is it going to
be a while?
It's going to be a while.
We're not getting deliveries with drones for a
little while now.
(23:20):
Could that be six months?
I don't know the exact date, but the
question is, you know, it's taking a lot
of money to even get these things close
to operations.
We see what happened with Amazon with their
pause on Amazon drone delivery just not too
long ago.
(23:40):
They've realized that they've got to spend more
time.
And even though they had the FAA like
kind of, you know, in their ball court,
now that they've made some mistakes, the FAA
is kind of like, wait a minute, like
maybe we've got to be a little more
strict.
And ChatGPT now has announced that their product
head is going to testify in a Google
(24:02):
antitrust case.
This is a pivotal moment for the tech
world and the product head of the ChatGPT
is set to testify in Google's antitrust case,
which could have significant implications for the role
of artificial intelligence in shaping competition and market
access.
This testimony will shed light on how AI
tools like ChatGPT are reshaping the dynamics of
(24:23):
the digital marketplace.
Netrodyne secures a $90 million set of funding
to expand AI dash cams.
This is new AI technology and it's a
company that just popped up, Netrodyne.
They've raised the $90 million to accelerate the
development and the global rollout of its AI
powered dash cams.
(24:45):
This funding will help Netrodyne expand its operational
internationally, reinforcing the growing demand for AI based
solutions in industries like transportation and fleet management.
So the question, ladies and gentlemen, is, you
know, how is this going to affect everyone?
The question is, will people use Netrodyne?
(25:06):
And I think there's a lot of, I
think there's a lot of unanswered questions about
that.
They call it seriously intelligent fleet technology with
seriously impactful results.
So they're not designing this for your car,
they're designing this for companies that have large
fleets of drivers.
(25:27):
They say the system stays sharp, attention so
your drivers can, too.
No napping on the road, neither by your
drivers nor your coaching software.
Their technology says it detects distracted driving behaviors
like being overcome by drowsiness or the urge
to text about sports.
An audio alert brings driver focus back to
the road, helping to avoid accidents.
(25:49):
So this is pretty interesting that this is
all happening.
I'll tell you, there are cars out there
now.
My own car does this.
And so if you happen to like not
have the full touch on the wheel, guess
what's going to happen?
It's going to give you a little chime
and it indicates that it's time for you
to take a break.
(26:09):
I think that's great.
I think that's something that every car should
have.
It shouldn't just be on the more luxury
cars and that should be a requirement.
And I think eventually it will be.
Perplexity, yes.
Perplexity acquires Read.CV. Well, who the heck
is Read.CV?
So Read.CV is winding down and it
(26:33):
was a professional networking platform similar to LinkedIn,
but not quite as robust as that.
And Perplexity acquires Read.CV. So you might
be asking me, who is Perplexity?
That's a great question.
Perplexity right now is a free AI powered
(26:55):
answer engine that provides accurate, trusted and real
time answers they claim to any question.
So the thing is, you might be asking,
how does Perplexity make its money?
And I think it's in its beginning stages.
(27:22):
Perplexity generates revenue with a paid version of
the search engine that generates more detailed responses
than the free edition.
So the question you might be asking, and
it's a very good question to ask, how
much is Perplexity?
Well, again, there is a free version and
the professional is $20 per month or $200
(27:42):
per year and over 300 pro searches per
day.
Access to the advanced AI models like GPT
-4 and Cloud3, unlimited file uploads, image generation
tools and $5 per month in API credit.
So it's obvious that they want to give
us something free so you can play with
(28:03):
it and see if it's something that you
want to pay more money on.
And Blue Sky expands moderation team amid rapid
growth.
Blue Sky, the decentralized social media platform, has
seen a surge in moderation reports following rapid
user growth in response to the platform expanding
its moderation team and enhancing its tools to
(28:25):
manage content more effectively, aiming to balance user
freedom with necessary controls as it scales.
So I think this is just a concern
for a lot of people because they don't
necessarily know what's going to happen.
Like, you know, what is the fate of
Blue Sky?
And again, to meet the demands, they are
launching more moderation.
(28:47):
And so in Blue Sky's world in 2024,
it went from 2.89 million users to
25.94 million users.
Wow.
In addition to users hosted on Blue Sky's
infrastructure, there are over 4,000 users running
their own infrastructure, PDS or personal data servers,
self-hosting their content posts and data.
(29:08):
So to meet the demand caused by user
growth, they increased their moderation team to roughly
100 moderators.
There have been lots of challenges.
There have been lots of spam.
There have been violations.
There has been misleading data.
There has been a ton of sexual content
that is inappropriate.
(29:28):
There has been rude content.
And of course, there's been others.
In the late August, there was a huge
increase in user growth for Blue Sky from
Brazil, and they saw spikes of up to
50,000 reports per day.
Prior to this, the moderation team handled most
reports within 40 minutes.
For the first time in 2024, they had
a backlog in moderation reports.
(29:49):
To address this, they increased the size of
their Portuguese language moderation team, added constant moderation
sweeps and automated tooling for high-risk areas
such as child safety, and hired moderators through
an external contracting vendor for the first time.
So why are they doing this?
Basically, they had anti-social behavior reports of
(30:10):
harassment, trolling, or intolerance, 1.75 million.
That's absurd.
Misleading content, including impersonation, misinformation, or false claims
about identity or affiliations, 1.20 million.
Spam, excessive mentions, replies, repetitive content, 1.40
million.
Unwanted sexual content, nudity, or adult content that
(30:32):
was not properly related, 630,000.
Illegal or urgent issues, clear violations of the
law or other terms of service, 933,000.
And other issues that don't fit into any
one of these categories, 726,000.
So again, the top human applied labels were
sexual figurative at 55,422.
(30:54):
Rude, 22,412.
Spam, 13,201.
Intolerance, 11,341.
And threats at 3,046.
In 2024, 93,076 users submitted at least
one appeal in the app for a total
of 205,000 individual appeals.
For most cases, the appeal was due to
(31:14):
disagreement with label verdicts.
In 2024, Blue Sky Moderators took down 66
,308 accounts.
And automated tooling took down 35,342 accounts
for reasons such as spam and bot networks.
Mods took down another 6,334 records, posts,
(31:35):
lists, feeds, et cetera.
While automated systems removed 282.
In January, this month, 2025, they've already built
in policy reasons to Ozone, their open source
moderation tool.
And it will give them more granular data
on the takedown rationale moving forward.
(31:56):
In 2024, they received 238 requests from law
enforcement, government, legal firms, and they responded to
182 and compiled with the compliance for 146.
The major of the requests came from German,
US, Brazilian, and Japanese law enforcement.
So just to give you a little bit
(32:18):
of a, an understanding, user data requests, 111
responded, 87 data preservation requests, eight responded, eight
emergency data requests, 13 responded to 12 takedown
requests, 45 responded to 22 inquiries, 44 responded
to 36 subpoenas by court 17, they responded
to every one of them 17.
(32:40):
So, um, I think as any company grows
and gets bigger, there's always these kinds of
challenges.
So we'll keep you in the loop of
that.
Ladies, gentlemen, and chat GPT enhances custom instructions
for users.
Chat GPT is rolling out enhanced custom instructions
that allow users to personalize their interactions more
deeply.
(33:00):
This new feature is designed to improve the
user experience, enabling individuals to set specific preferences
and tailor their chat GPT interactions to better
suit, uh, their, their life and their world
on chat GPT.
So you might be asking, and it's a
very good question.
Uh, what were specifically, and I'll give them
to you, what were some of these enhancements?
(33:21):
You know, what, what were, um, some of,
um, the, um, enhancements.
And so I think the easiest way to
say this is that, um, you know, the
custom instructions allow you to share anything you'd
like chat GPT to consider in its response,
(33:41):
um, customer interactions were added to new conversations
that could go forward, uh, customer interactions are
available on all plans on the web, iOS
and Android.
So, um, how would you like to chat
with GPT?
Like examples, limit the scope, et cetera.
Um, there were things about, uh, how to
(34:04):
customize chat GPT to be flirty, how to
write instructions for chat GPT, um, you know,
so things like that, but they also allowed
people to, if I will, um, create the
way to avatar the way the system responds,
uh, just to give you an example with
(34:26):
chat systems, you have to be extremely specific
on what it is that you want it
to do.
You can't say edit this or edit that
you have to be very specific.
And ladies and gentlemen, Amazon, uh, leads, I
don't know if you know this in renewable
energy purchases, Amazon is leading, um, the change,
(34:50):
uh, and the, and the field of renewable
energy, uh, purchases outpacing its closest competitor, ladies,
gentlemen, in both scale and ambition, the company's
commitment is sustainability is making waves in the
corporate world as Amazon continues to push toward
its ambitious goals of achieving net zero carbon
emissions.
(35:10):
Now you might be asking this question, who
are Amazon's closest, uh, competitors?
Uh, and as you probably would guess, uh,
there are a few, uh, believe it or
not.
Walmart is a competitor of Amazon eBay, Netflix,
(35:31):
Alibaba, Etsy.
Um, these are all competitors of, uh, of
Amazon.
So it's interesting, but I think at the
same token, just because they're doing something good,
doesn't mean we can overlook all the bad
things that they're doing.
See, they're trying to do this stuff so
(35:51):
that, you know, we get on the map,
but I think there's more to it than
that.
Ladies, gentlemen, I really do.
All right, let's move on to another important
one, which is Europe demands X's or Twitter's,
uh, algorithm documentation in a move to enforce,
uh, stricter regulations.
European authorities are demanding that X formerly Twitter
(36:12):
provide detailed documentation of its algorithm to comply
with the digital services act, the DSA.
Uh, this deemed from the demand highlighting the
increasing regulatory scrutiny social media platforms are facing,
particularly regarding transparency and how content is moderated.
Now we know that Twitter and X good
(36:33):
old Elon really didn't want to give these
documents.
So the question is, and this is a
very good question.
Uh, will X give Europe, um, the algorithm
docs?
Um, they've asked for them.
Uh, they've ordered X to, to hand them
(36:56):
over.
Um, and, uh, the EC has also requested
access information, how X moderates and amplifies content.
Um, the question you might ask is, uh,
when, uh, does X have to give the
documents to the European union by?
(37:16):
Um, and so they, uh, I've requested information
and so it needs to be done pretty
quickly.
I think the last time they requested it,
they said that the internal documents to X
have to be provided by February 15th.
It's part of an investigation by the European,
uh, commission under the DSA, the digital services
(37:37):
act.
So we know a lot of platforms that
got in trouble, whether we're talking about Google,
whether we're talking about, uh, Amazon, even Yelp,
right?
A lot of these platforms are just doing
things because they think they can, because they
have so much money, but they're starting to
realize that they're going to get burned.
RLA gentlemen and Apple decides to halt AI
(37:59):
news summaries amid some big backlashes, Apple has
decided to halt its AI generated news summaries
after facing backlash over inaccuracies in the summaries.
The company has supposedly pledged to improve the
transparency and reliability of all its AI tools,
underscoring the challenges tech companies face when using
(38:20):
AI to generate content for more consumption.
Wow.
That's a lot of, that's a lot.
I mean, the question that I have for
everyone is how will Apple know that the
information is truly right?
We all know how well that AI just
kind of like messes things up.
(38:42):
And, uh, MIT spinout is kind of interesting
neuro bionics, pioneers, medical advancements, neuro bionics, a
spinout from MIT is making a groundbreaking set
of strides in medical technology was pioneering brain
fiber insertion technique.
This next generation approach to medical advancements has
(39:02):
the potential to revolutionize treatments for neurological conditions,
highlighting the intersection of technology and health innovation,
so I think one thing about AI is
that it's really giving people, um, more information.
The question is the information that's first coming
off is not always that good.
(39:25):
You probably knew that, right?
It's not always that good.
And if it's not always that good, how
do we know when the data actually is
good?
I think that's a, I think that's a
real, real problem for a lot of people,
but I think it's something that we all
need to be concerned about because AI is
everywhere, you know, whether you're at the airport
(39:47):
and although you can choose to mitigate what
information you pass off to AI, uh, there's
still some breaches.
There's still some leaks happening.
All right.
So I think this is a serious situation,
but getting back about technology right now, you
know, we think about, you know, what's going
(40:07):
on, like what is the latest uh, AI
tech now, and if we had to, you
know, dive into that, um, it's more about
generative AI, um, you know, things like, uh,
people want to use technology to solve problems
(40:28):
in a quicker way, but quicker doesn't always
mean better.
Right.
We're seeing it in healthcare.
We're seeing it in biometrics.
We're seeing it in, uh, reinforcement learning.
We're seeing it in predictive AI analytics.
We're seeing it in chatbots and virtual assistants,
sales and marketing.
We're seeing data analytics.
So, you know, robots are not new, but
(40:50):
I think the interesting part is that now
that we couple AI with it, it opens
up a whole new set of Pandora's boxes.
Multimodal models in AI can depict information from
different data types, whether it be audio, video,
um, you know, still images and even plain
(41:11):
text.
So the technology is enabling search and content
creation tools to become more seamless.
Um, some of the latest tools you might
be familiar with, like DALI that can take
things and literally you type them and it
supposedly gives you a graphic.
I've tried it.
Uh, it's not perfect.
Uh, but the big thing in AI that's
(41:33):
coming is agentic AI.
It's a form of AI that can be
autonomously, uh, used without constant human guidance.
It's capable of learning from interactions.
And, uh, it's supposedly the new branch of
AI, and I think it'll really help a
lot of different disciplines.
One of the most advanced AIs is being
(41:55):
used in robotics.
Ameka, uh, the world's most advanced human shaped
robot represents the forefront of human robotic technology
designed as a platform for development in future
robotic technologies.
Ameka is the perfect human eyed robot platform
for human robot interactions.
And we're seeing so many other companies dive
(42:16):
into AI and trying to decipher, you know,
is it really better to do something with
AI or is it just better to do
it in person?
And I think AI is very good for
doing tasks that we're able to, uh, repeat
and we get it to understand.
So if we wanted a human to, let's
(42:37):
say box a million records, well, that's something
that a machine is better off doing the
other benefit of using artificial intelligence is that
it keeps the human safe now safe, meaning
that if there's a task it's doing, like
maybe it's doing, um, toxic cleanup.
Right.
Uh, you see these people with these suits
and they used to charge a couple thousand
(42:58):
dollars an hour, a hazmat, right?
And so, you know, that's a, that's a
big thing.
And I think that's an interesting question to
ask, you know, what does, if we, if
you had a spill, God forbid, uh, what
does hazmat charge per hour?
Uh, to, to clean up and the number,
(43:20):
um, you know, has dramatically gone up depending
on the threats and things, but you're talking,
uh, per hour.
And that's a man hour.
You're talking roughly about a thousand dollars.
Um, if you're talking about, you know, that's,
that's your state.
So you're talking about your basic stuff, but
(43:42):
if you're talking about a typical, you know,
like a typical set, you're talking somewhere around
a project, $3,000 to $5,000.
Uh, biohazards can be anywhere from 10, 30,
50 to even million thousands to millions of
dollars.
So a crime scene, uh, cleanup can cost
(44:03):
a thousand to $5,000 to decontaminate, et
cetera.
So, um, laboratory workers come in when there's
a hazmat spill.
I know a lot about hazmat because my
parents had a dry clean plant, uh, that
they sold in 2004.
And I have to tell you that we
were always very particular about our chemicals, how
(44:26):
they're being used, what the process was.
So when we finished with a chemical that
we were safe and we were, you know,
in good way, we put the gloves on,
we ventilated.
We also did something called the, uh, OSHA
occupational for safety and health administration.
I'm not sure if you guys know OSHA,
OSHA and the, what we call the right,
uh, to know.
(44:48):
And so the reason I bring this up
to you, it refers to the requirement under
the occupation for safety and health administration, OSHA,
a hazard mitigation standard, which mandates employers to
inform their employees about hazardous chemicals present in
the workplace.
Essentially, it gives workers the right to know
about potential dangers they may face on the
job.
It is their choice whether they want to
(45:09):
stay working there or not.
Um, I think when we talk about AI
and we talk about it making decisions, I
think it's good to help us infer the
data or maybe give us some guidance, but
I don't think that we should be using
AI in a manner that is going to
(45:31):
replace humans.
Another example of AI might be, uh, there's
a bomb threat.
So they send, uh, robots under the building
and in the building to make sure that
everything's okay.
Or, uh, maybe there was a fire and
they want to check some things out.
I remember living in a building and they
sent, um, this robot, which is probably no
(45:53):
bigger than how, maybe it was probably no
bigger than I'm going to say about maybe
the third or one fourth the size of
my keyboard, probably no bigger than maybe a
little bigger than my telephone on my desk.
So thinking about AI has opened up so
many potentials to people that want to make
(46:14):
money.
The biggest challenge I see with AI is
people are rushing in to go build everything,
but then you know what happens?
They actually are doing the wrong thing because
they haven't done the right research.
They haven't figured out what's going to work,
what's not going to work.
And I feel this is our biggest, uh,
nemesis when it comes to AI.
(46:35):
The fact that people want to make money
with AI, I don't have a problem with
that.
But the fact that people want to suddenly
skip the line and just use AI in
a manner that is very, very unprofessional.
I have one more topic I want to
talk about, and that is the, um, you
know, will TikTok, uh, get banned?
(46:58):
And, um, you know, Trump, uh, signed an
executive order, if you remember, but actually it
was last Saturday, I believe it was last
Saturday.
Uh, they had to be offline by, I
believe it was 12 noon.
And so, um, they had to be offline
by 12 noon, uh, actually 12 midnight, sorry.
(47:21):
And so they took themselves down at 1030
and lots of people were complaining they couldn't
use TikTok.
They couldn't use CapCut and all this other
stuff they couldn't use.
So when people tried to sign on, they
got, uh, basically thank you for your patience,
uh, or something to the fact that, you
know, you can't use TikTok right now because
it wasn't TikTok that shut down.
(47:42):
It was all the US contractors and conglomerates
around the United States that didn't want to
get hit yin-yang with these large fines.
So Trump signed an order, uh, meaning for
TikTok and who might buy it.
In fact, after they talked with, uh, Donald
Trump actually made a post on one of
the boards that was enough for them six
(48:05):
years later to turn on TikTok that Sunday.
So, uh, their message was welcome back.
Thanks for your patience and support.
As a result of president Trump's efforts, TikTok
is back in the United States.
You continue to create, share, and discover all
the things you love on TikTok.
So the US president Donald Trump signed an
executive order granting TikTok a 75 day extension
(48:28):
to comply with a law banning the app
if it has not sold.
The social media platform briefly went dark, as
you remember, in the US just days before
he took office after the Supreme Court denied
a bid by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to
overturn the legislation.
TikTok came back online with a short message
(48:49):
thanking Trump for its efforts, as I mentioned.
So has Trump overturned the TikTok ban?
So the executive order is an instruction of
the president, which has the weight of the
law behind it.
But Trump's order does not overturn the ban.
Instead, it tells the US Attorney General not
to enforce the law for now, something experts
had expected would be his first move.
(49:11):
That buys time for the administration to, as
the order puts it, determine the appropriate course
of action.
So I think that's pretty much what they're
doing right now.
And so, you know, what this means is
Trump has floated the possibility of TikTok becoming
a joint venture, telling reporters he was seeking
(49:32):
a 50-50 partnership between the United States
and ByteDance.
Though he did not give any future details
on how that might work, he just stated
that I think TikTok was where I think
he wanted, I think he wanted something like,
I think the value of TikTok, if you
remember now, the value of TikTok was like
200 million.
The value of TikTok was like, yeah, 200
(49:53):
million.
But he made a very interesting point, is
that if the US don't come online, then
TikTok's worth nothing.
So that's why he feels that the US
should get 100 million for, you know, being
partners and managing it and things like that.
Again, for now, the order creates a situation
(50:17):
where the president is directly opposing a ruling
made by the Supreme Court, which upheld the
law to ban TikTok on January 17th.
And it's interesting.
It said the ban was designed to prevent
China, a designated foreign adversary, from leveraging its
control over ByteDance to capture personal data of
(50:37):
the US TikTok users.
Technically, even after 75 days have passed, it
would be possible for Trump to allow the
law to stand, but tell the Department of
Justice to continue to ignore it.
The government would be effectively telling Apple and
Google they will not be punished for continuing
to allow people to download TikTok onto their
devices.
Meaning the law would remain in place, but
(50:59):
would essentially be redundant.
Sounds like a mess, if you ask me.
It's not clear whether the firms would continue
to offer the app under these circumstances, and
could TikTok ever be banned in the UK?
Well, that's a very good question.
Analysis have suggested it's just a matter of
time until the US ban on TikTok spreads
(51:21):
to allied countries and beyond, if Trump's administration
decides to keep it offline.
The app has been switched off in America
as the US lawmakers had come back with
their voice.
And the incoming President Trump indicated, though he
is opposed to the ban, it will find
a way to reverse it.
In fact, a member originally, he said that
(51:41):
the reason, the real reason he wanted to
keep TikTok up and running was because it
actually helped bring him some of the younger
votes.
So I think we're going to just have
to wait and see, you know, what's happening
with TikTok.
You know, where are they going?
What's going to happen?
Will the same thing happen again?
(52:01):
I mean, it was like nobody could breathe.
I got so many messages.
Oh my gosh, what am I going to
do?
I can't use this app, can't use that
app.
So what is it about TikTok that draws
Americans to it?
I mean, what if we had our own
platform in the United States and it would
definitely be better?
I know it's an international platform.
I know they have these crazy dance routines
(52:23):
that people always try to do, but they've
had a lot of bad things on their
platform too.
So does it just mean that we've got
to step up moderation?
Does it mean that US data only gets
held in the United States and that that
data is separated from the data that ByteDance
has in another country?
I don't know.
But these are the questions that I think
(52:43):
many people have to get answers to before
we know what's going to happen.
And the other big question you might be
asking is who will buy TikTok?
Well, that's a more loaded question.
The outlet reported the White House is negotiating
a deal with the company and a group
of investors that would allow TikTok's turn owner,
(53:05):
Chinese company ByteDance, to maintain a minority stake
in the company while Oracle controls its algorithm,
data collection, and software updates according to two
unnamed sources.
Who's thinking of buying TikTok?
Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O'Leary, Canadian investor and
star of the reality television show Shark Tank,
has expressed strong interest in buying TikTok.
(53:27):
He has joined the People's Bid for TikTok,
an effort led by Project Liberty founder Frank
McCourt.
Does Mr. Beast want to buy TikTok?
Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, he was excited
as he told his tens of millions of
TikTok followers about his bid to buy the
platform.
(53:49):
I don't know.
Everything that he does, though, is usually for
some kind of notoriety.
It's not for anything that's going to help
anyone else.
I mean, at least that's what I've seen.
Everything that he does, it's about money.
He has done some good things for people
that are in need, but most of the
stuff he does, it's kind of crazy.
I mean, building a bunker and having people
(54:10):
live down there and giving them money, I
mean, I get it.
But like, it's just a very, I don't
know, very off balance idea, if you ask
me.
And I think right now, as we wait,
you know, for the answer for TikTok, and
this is interesting.
So when will TikTok be sold?
(54:31):
And I think the answer to that, ladies
and gentlemen, is we don't know.
Is TikTok going to be sold to Elon
Musk?
Well, Bloomberg News reported last week that Chinese
officials were in preliminary talks about potential option
to sell TikTok's operation in the United States
to Musk, though the company has denied that.
(54:52):
So it seems like TikTok is very picky
who they sell it to.
Um, I think it's something that a lot
of people are concerned about.
And the thing that's very interesting that President
Trump said is that the reason that TikTok
has so much power is because it has
(55:13):
so many users.
If the US were to drop out tomorrow,
TikTok might not even be worth $10,000.
So that means the bulk of the users,
and this is a very good point, the
bulk of TikTok users come from where do
(55:34):
you think they come from?
Yes.
The bulk of the users, okay, come from
the United States compared to other countries.
Um, so that's quite a bit.
(55:55):
In fact, the US has 120.5 million.
Uh, the currently the, um, Brazil has 105,
Mexico 77 million, Vietnam is 65 million.
So it has a very large reach.
(56:19):
And if you want to know who basically
connects with TikTok the most, um, it's a
little split, but it's users, male 25 to
34.
And that's about 90%.
On the other hand, the spectrum, males and
females, 55 plus, are the smallest group of
3.7%. Um, and the country with the
(56:42):
most TikTok downloads is India.
Now my question is, will India ever ban
TikTok?
Well, um, will it get banned?
In 2020, TikTok was banned in India on
(57:02):
the national security grounds.
Uh, the Ministry of Electronics and IT opposed
the misuse of the mobile applications.
So the question is, can I use TikTok,
uh, in India right now?
And it works on Wi-Fi in India,
but it does not work on the rest
(57:22):
of their networks.
Well, we have gone through a lot.
Like I said, from the Facebook retreat of
Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, all the way out to
the breakthroughs in AI, some good, some bad.
Ladies and gentlemen, you know who I am
by now, but if you do not know,
please allow me to give you my name.
I am John Seymour, a serial entrepreneur.
(57:44):
I am a podcast host and a podcast
coach, and I create lots of content to
empower you.
So ladies and gentlemen, I encourage you to
go check out believemeachieved.com for more of
my amazing, inspiring creations.
And you know what?
I'm going to catch you guys next week,
(58:05):
which incidentally, that will be the last episode,
uh, in January.
Uh, and then, um, we'll be going on,
uh, to, uh, February.
Have yourself a fantastic, uh, rest of your
day and your week.
Catch you real soon, everyone.
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