TechTime with Nathan Mumm

203: Exploring AI Voices vs Real Voices, Ethical Dilemmas in Orca Rescues, Party Robots, and Actor Digital Clones. How "May The 4th" was created, and why RAZER has to pay a million dollar fine, all this and more | Air Date: 4/28 - 5/4/24

May 01, 2024 Nathan Mumm Season 6 Episode 203
203: Exploring AI Voices vs Real Voices, Ethical Dilemmas in Orca Rescues, Party Robots, and Actor Digital Clones. How "May The 4th" was created, and why RAZER has to pay a million dollar fine, all this and more | Air Date: 4/28 - 5/4/24
TechTime with Nathan Mumm
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TechTime with Nathan Mumm
203: Exploring AI Voices vs Real Voices, Ethical Dilemmas in Orca Rescues, Party Robots, and Actor Digital Clones. How "May The 4th" was created, and why RAZER has to pay a million dollar fine, all this and more | Air Date: 4/28 - 5/4/24
May 01, 2024 Season 6 Episode 203
Nathan Mumm

Embark on a technological safari as we harness the power of AI to rekindle the bond between an orphaned orca calf and her family. Feel the pulse of human emotions intersecting with innovations, where even the glitz of Party Robots at posh events doesn't outshine the ingenuity behind Hollywood's latest trick—digital clones. Joined by our co-host human behavior expert Mike Gorday, we navigate the ethical landscapes and wizardry of this brave new world, where actors, like omnipresent specters, grace our screens in multiple forms.

Imagine the awe of children meeting their favorite characters, now picture the same thrill at weddings with performers cloaked in robot attire. We debate the authenticity of these mechanical masquerades, drawing parallels to magical theme park encounters. As we commemorate Star Wars Day and toast to the craft behind Cooper's Craft Barrel Reserve Bourbon, we blend the nostalgia of Mr. Potato Head with the future's allure, and our feature segment will challenge our auditory senses to separate AI-generated voices from the real McCoy.

The episode crescendos with a serious note on the repercussions of deceptive advertising in tech. Reflecting on Razer's Zephyr face mask debacle, we dissect the reverberating disappointment felt by consumers and the accountability of modern tech giants. Throughout the episode, the insights come from whiskey aficionado Marc Gregoire, who injects a rich layer of expertise, making this a must-listen for whiskey enthusiasts and skeptics.

Episode 203: Starts at :30

Episode 203:
  Welcome fellow tech enthusiasts to the radio show, where we blend bits and bytes into a delightful digital cocktail with a little whiskey on the side! 

This week on TechTime with Nathan Mumm®, we delve into heartwarming stories that blend technology and emotion.

It's time for TechTime Radio, where we unravel the mysteries of technology, one byte at a time. Join us weekly on TechTime Radio with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go "Humm" Technology news of the week for April 29th – May 4th, 2024

--- [Now on Today's Show]
--- [Top Stories in Technology]

  • NBC will use heart rate monitors to show reactions of parents of Olympic athletes live on air
  • Researchers are hoping AI technology can help a recently-orphaned orca whale calf reunite with her family pod.
  • The robots are coming to help you party at your wedding
  • Hollywood agencies are creating digital clones of top-name actors. 

--- [Pick of the Day - Whiskey Tasting Reveal]
Coopers' Craft Barrel Reserve | 100 Proof | $30

--- [AI Voice or Real Voice - You make the Call]
Today, we have seven voices that we are going to share with our staff. Some of these are authentic voices, and others are AI-generated. We are looking for the Facts; follow us and see if you can pick out the AI vs the real voices.  

--- [This Week in Technology]
May 4, 1979, was the official - unofficial start to the May 4th Star Wars Holiday.

--- [Marc's Whiskey Mumble]
Marc Gregoire's review of this week's whiskey

--- [Technology Fail of the Week]
This week’s “Technology Fail” comes to us from RAZER.

Razer will have to fork over $1.1 million in refunds to customers who purchased its RGB-clad Zephyr face mask, according to a proposed settlement announced by the Federal Trade Commission.

--- [Mike's Mesmerizing Moment brought to us by StoriCoffee®]
Question: Why is the consumer, most of the time, just “OK” with false promises?
 
--- [Pick of the Day Whiskey Review]
Coopers' Craft Barrel Reserve | 100 Proof | $30
Mike: Thumbs Up
Nathan: Thumbs Up

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Embark on a technological safari as we harness the power of AI to rekindle the bond between an orphaned orca calf and her family. Feel the pulse of human emotions intersecting with innovations, where even the glitz of Party Robots at posh events doesn't outshine the ingenuity behind Hollywood's latest trick—digital clones. Joined by our co-host human behavior expert Mike Gorday, we navigate the ethical landscapes and wizardry of this brave new world, where actors, like omnipresent specters, grace our screens in multiple forms.

Imagine the awe of children meeting their favorite characters, now picture the same thrill at weddings with performers cloaked in robot attire. We debate the authenticity of these mechanical masquerades, drawing parallels to magical theme park encounters. As we commemorate Star Wars Day and toast to the craft behind Cooper's Craft Barrel Reserve Bourbon, we blend the nostalgia of Mr. Potato Head with the future's allure, and our feature segment will challenge our auditory senses to separate AI-generated voices from the real McCoy.

The episode crescendos with a serious note on the repercussions of deceptive advertising in tech. Reflecting on Razer's Zephyr face mask debacle, we dissect the reverberating disappointment felt by consumers and the accountability of modern tech giants. Throughout the episode, the insights come from whiskey aficionado Marc Gregoire, who injects a rich layer of expertise, making this a must-listen for whiskey enthusiasts and skeptics.

Episode 203: Starts at :30

Episode 203:
  Welcome fellow tech enthusiasts to the radio show, where we blend bits and bytes into a delightful digital cocktail with a little whiskey on the side! 

This week on TechTime with Nathan Mumm®, we delve into heartwarming stories that blend technology and emotion.

It's time for TechTime Radio, where we unravel the mysteries of technology, one byte at a time. Join us weekly on TechTime Radio with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go "Humm" Technology news of the week for April 29th – May 4th, 2024

--- [Now on Today's Show]
--- [Top Stories in Technology]

  • NBC will use heart rate monitors to show reactions of parents of Olympic athletes live on air
  • Researchers are hoping AI technology can help a recently-orphaned orca whale calf reunite with her family pod.
  • The robots are coming to help you party at your wedding
  • Hollywood agencies are creating digital clones of top-name actors. 

--- [Pick of the Day - Whiskey Tasting Reveal]
Coopers' Craft Barrel Reserve | 100 Proof | $30

--- [AI Voice or Real Voice - You make the Call]
Today, we have seven voices that we are going to share with our staff. Some of these are authentic voices, and others are AI-generated. We are looking for the Facts; follow us and see if you can pick out the AI vs the real voices.  

--- [This Week in Technology]
May 4, 1979, was the official - unofficial start to the May 4th Star Wars Holiday.

--- [Marc's Whiskey Mumble]
Marc Gregoire's review of this week's whiskey

--- [Technology Fail of the Week]
This week’s “Technology Fail” comes to us from RAZER.

Razer will have to fork over $1.1 million in refunds to customers who purchased its RGB-clad Zephyr face mask, according to a proposed settlement announced by the Federal Trade Commission.

--- [Mike's Mesmerizing Moment brought to us by StoriCoffee®]
Question: Why is the consumer, most of the time, just “OK” with false promises?
 
--- [Pick of the Day Whiskey Review]
Coopers' Craft Barrel Reserve | 100 Proof | $30
Mike: Thumbs Up
Nathan: Thumbs Up

:

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

Nathan Mumm:

Welcome to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go technology news of the week. The show for the everyday person talking about technology, broadcasting across the nation with insightful segments on subjects weeks ahead of the mainstream media. We welcome our radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news. I'm Nathan Mumm, your host and technologist, with over 30 years of technology expertise. Our co-host here, mike Rodea, is in studio. He is the award-winning author and he's a human behavior expert. Now, of course, today we're live streaming and doing our show on five of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv X, facebook and LinkedIn, and we encourage you to visit us online at TechTimeRadiocom and become a Patreon supporter at Patreoncom. Forward slash TechTimeRadio. Now, we're all friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology show possible every week for family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have Odi, our producer, at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show.

:

Now on today's show.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. Today on Tech Time with Nathan Mumm, we delve into the heartwarming stories that blend technology and emotion. First we meet brave little Hunter, the orphaned orca calf. Researchers are using AI technology to reunite her with her family pod by analyzing fin markings. Next up we have Weddings. Get a Futuristic Twist with Party Robot, an eight-foot-tall dance partner that keeps the energy high on the dance floor for your weddings. But what else is going on? Hollywood agencies are now creating digital clones of top-named actors, allowing them to be in two places at once, and the Paris 2024 Olympics are partnering with athletes to wear their parents, allow them to wear their heart monitors, giving viewers a real-time glimpse into their emotional roller coaster. So essentially, I guess you get to wear a heart monitor as a parent and you see your kid win, and then you get excited and your heart rate goes up and then, if your kid loses, your heartbeat stops pounding. I mean, this could be our little recipe for disaster here.

Mike Gorday:

I don't know about that. I think it's kind of inane, because when you're actually competing in something, your heart rate's going to go up anyway. It's not going to relay any anxiety or anything.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, well, they're all excited about it.

Nathan Mumm:

They made a big press announcement, so we're covering it then. And, of course, now we're going to be celebrating the iconic Star Wars Day, a date etched in hearts and fans across the universe. Set mark. Ah, may I ask you, may the Force be with you. This was a clever pun, essentially, for may the force be with you. Jedi Masters utter these words throughout the saga, and on today we're going to actually go back and see how it actually was created. Do you know that the UK is essentially the originator of the famous holiday?

Mike Gorday:

Okay, I didn't know that.

Nathan Mumm:

In addition, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment, our technology fail of the week, a possible negative, of course, our pick of the day, whiskey tasting To see if our selected whiskey pick gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show and you brought this in yourself here, so that's going to be interesting.

:

I don't know, greg, while over here, if he's going to give it a thumbs up or not, but we're going to take a look at that. Now, though, let's start our show with the latest headlines in the world of technology.

Nathan Mumm:

Here are our top technology stories of the week. All right Story number one NBC will use heart monitors to show reactions of parents of Olympic athletes live on the air. Let's go to Corinne Westland for more on this story.

Speaker 8:

Putting technology into the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nbc is planning to use five heart rate monitors to show the reactions of parents of certain athletes during events. For example, viewers would see the heart rate of the parent of a swimmer or runner as they watch their child compete on screen along with the actual event. The Olympics will not be the first time NBC Sports has tried out a heart rate display, having used it at the US Track and Field Outdoor Championships last July. Is this a good idea? I can think of all kinds of interesting data that could come from this. Back to you guys in the studio.

Mike Gorday:

Well, he doesn't know anything Well so, in addition to heart monitors, this is heart monitors that the parents are going to be using. The parents are where.

Nathan Mumm:

So you're thinking it's the athletes?

Mike Gorday:

I was thinking the parents are watching the heart monitors of the athletes.

Nathan Mumm:

No, so they're going to have on the parents in the stands of these people and they're going to be watching then how they do with their kids performing. What do you think of that? Does that bring any interest to you? No, well, you know what? Let's do something different. How about if we had rapper Snoop Dogg that will also be featured in a primetime broadcast, along with NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and singer Kelly Clarkson, all co-hosts? Opening the ceremonies of the NBC broadcast Mike Tirico.

Mike Gorday:

Are they going to talk about the heart monitors?

Real Voice:

Are they going to?

Mike Gorday:

be reporting on the heart monitors.

Nathan Mumm:

Mike Tirico and the Tonight Show host, jimmy Fallon, will also be a part of this.

Mike Gorday:

So they are trying to get anybody to watch the Olympics. I'm sorry, but I think this is patently stupid. You don't think Snoop Dogg? What's Snoop Dogg going to do? I don't really have any problem with Snoop Dogg, but this whole heart monitor thing is I don't really see as but maybe I'm wrong Maybe people will be enjoying to watch somebody get anxiety when they're watching their kid do stuff. I don't know. I don't know. They want to live vicariously through a heart monitor, I guess.

Nathan Mumm:

So what happens if you put the heart monitor on a dad and he's watching something and he's just totally bored of it and he's going to fall asleep and he has no excitement at all.

Mike Gorday:

That would be the worst. That would be kind of fun to watch. And you know he's watching the game on his phone.

Nathan Mumm:

Something like that.

Mike Gorday:

So all of a sudden he's dozing off and all of a sudden his son or daughter is participating. Yeah, but you know you can go to church every day and see that happening.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, all right. Well, you know what. Let's move on to story number two, mike, okay Well.

Mike Gorday:

I don't know how to follow that one. Scientists are hoping that AI technology can reunite an orphaned orca calf with her family. At the end of March, a pregnant orca and her two-and-a-half-year-old calf entered a lagoon off Little Espinoza Inlet in British Columbia, Canada. The mother left the calf alone there while she went hunting, but it appears that she tragically became stranded and died nearby, oh, that's sad. The calf was named something by the members of the First Nation, one of the First Nation tribes in Canada. I can't pronounce either of those names, so I'm not going to try.

Mike Gorday:

But the name translates loosely into brave little hunter, and the calf quickly became the focus of much concern. A variety of different ideas were tried, from a giant net to sing songs, but Brave Little Hunter managed to evade all attempts to help her escape from the lagoon.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, hang on here. It said nets and singing songs, so they're like singing songs to help her follow the music.

Mike Gorday:

There's a spiritual component there with the Native Americans from that area and whales. Okay, that makes sense. For nearly a month, she swam back and forth, likely aware that her mother wasn't there to help, but unsure of the humans trying to assist her. Finally, though, at about 2.30 am in the morning of April the 26th, she found her way to freedom all by herself, after most everyone had left to get some sleep. A small group of the remains stood as witnesses to watch her swim under the bridge and down the inlet. The team later found her in Espinosa Inlet and followed her from a distance as she moved towards the Esperanza Inlet proper. This morning, they will encourage her out towards the open ocean where it's hoped that she will find her pod. Okay, although her chances of survival are pretty good, they're far better if she's able to reunite with her pod.

Mike Gorday:

A British Columbia-based research group called Bay Cetology is behind the idea, and they've offered access to their online AI-assisted photo database to local photographers and whale-watching tour operators in an attempt to locate Brave Little Hunters' pod For over 50 years.

Mike Gorday:

This is why, for over 50 years, scientists have used fins and markings to identify and track individual whales, and many of them are in that database. Okay, to identify and track individual whales and many of them are in that database. So this is just a sort of an extension of that research methodology, and it started with film and then it went digital and now they're transitioning into deep learning, machine learning or artificial intelligence models to conduct the work. Moving forward, the AI program is called FinWave. It is still in beta testing but it has an accuracy rate over 90% when identifying images of whales. Hopes are high that Brave Little Hunter will find her pod on her own, but any help will be welcomed. Brave Little Hunters pod was spotted off Euclid, bc, about 90 miles south of Zebulos. Hope is high that she can make it back through that pod and continue to live a long and healthy life. I guess this is sort of the same type of system that helps identify Mark's geese.

Nathan Mumm:

Yep, yep, yep. I think it's kind of the same deal. It's interesting that a lot of the data that's available have been collected for many years for scientific research programs being kept in databases and now having the AI language and the AI processes being able to go through that, I think these are effective uses of technology, because this type of thing can identify certain features quicker than a human can.

Mike Gorday:

That makes sense, yeah, but on the opposite side of that is that they are giving the pictures of the pod to human beings and the human beings are actually having to look for the whales themselves.

Nathan Mumm:

So it's using technology in a good way, but not replacing humans' jobs by any means. You still have to have the human to help it.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, they're not using the AI to scan the whales and identify them and then drive to them automatically. Yeah, they're using the database to give people the scanned images so that they can identify the whales, so it's a step in that direction that means some great technology Using useful technology.

Nathan Mumm:

let's go to story number three.

Ody:

Well gone are the days of photo booths and sparklers and fun party guests. How about a huge, eight-foot humanoid robot at your wedding party?

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

Ody:

Yeah, so instead no. What do you mean?

Nathan Mumm:

no, why are you so against it? What are you going to do with the robot? Okay, well, tell me about this robot.

Mike Gorday:

I'll tell you why as soon as you finish talking about it.

Ody:

Okay, so Party Robot is a robot that you can have for hire at a wedding or any sort of fun event, from anywhere from like $500 to about $1,200 an hour, okay, and it'll keep the energy high with nonstop dancing. It'll make the reception feel like a Vegas nightclub, or like a future that is not so dystopian, a world where robots and our overlords are hype men.

Mike Gorday:

Are wingmen, see, maybe that's why Are 24-hour party people Okay, 24-hour party people.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, 24-hour party people. Yeah, so where is it? Is this like Optimus Prime, or is it comes out in?

Ody:

It looks like Optimus Prime in my eyes, okay, you know as an eight-foot.

Nathan Mumm:

So how does this robot work?

Ody:

It's not a robot.

Mike Gorday:

What, yeah, which breaks my heart.

Ody:

That's exactly why I said that Okay, but it looks cool, we're not at.

Mike Gorday:

It's someone dressed up in a suit. That's not crazy, though. Okay, so it's like a.

Nathan Mumm:

DJ guy dressed up as a robot, yeah, and he comes on it.

Ody:

Yeah, he's on stilts or they're on stilts, okay, and they, you know they're. What do you call it their? They, you know their, what do you call it? Their suit has a bunch of light up LEDs and with strobes and all that, and they're just part of the entertainment for a wedding, or so they come out and they like sing and dance.

Nathan Mumm:

They dance.

Mike Gorday:

It just boils down to hiring somebody to come to your wedding and do stuff. So instead of hiring a singer, you can now hire a robot. You can hire some guy that dresses up like. Optimus Prime.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, would you hire somebody like that for $500? No, no, I don't know. I think that would be kind of cool.

Mike Gorday:

There are cooler guys that are dressed in similar outfits, that do a lot more stuff than this guy does.

Ody:

What do you mean? A lot more stuff. This is the hype man. Imagine a fog machine coming out of arms.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh yeah, is there fog machines in?

Ody:

these robots? No, but I'm thinking ahead. Oh, okay, odie's got the version 2-0 robot.

Mike Gorday:

I can understand your awesomeness, but as soon as you can do it, when you can take the guy out of the suit and the thing moves on its own, that's really you know. You can't really call it a party robot.

Ody:

It's kind of like so are you saying Chuck E Cheese is all a facade?

Nathan Mumm:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. What Well, hello, chuck E Cheese is real. Are you talking about?

Ody:

the animatronics? No, not the animatronics. Or the guy that's dressed up in the mouse suit. Okay, what about Disney World? Yeah, those, mickey Mouse is a facade, that's the same thing, You're going to hire somebody to

Mike Gorday:

dress up in a mouse suit to your wedding. You can hire somebody to dress up in a robot suit.

Ody:

I don't need to tell anyone. Oh, it's a human in a suit.

Nathan Mumm:

I'm sure they probably know it's a human in a suit.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, as soon as he has to take a pee or something, they're going to find out real quick. Oh wait a minute, that's not a real robot $1,200 an hour.

Ody:

Well, $500 to $1,200. I want to understand the difference in the price ranges.

Nathan Mumm:

Do you get additional special lights that go on? Oh, does he?

Ody:

just stand there. And then the other one he moves sideways back and forth.

Nathan Mumm:

The other one, he's dancing up and down. This is kind of so. Have you ever been to Universal Studios?

Ody:

Yeah.

Nathan Mumm:

Yes, okay, so they have people dress up as Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. That's fine, but you understand that going in, this is no, there's kids there that do not think that that's a person.

Mike Gorday:

It's all part of the illusion, Mike. That's the illusion that the child comes away with.

Ody:

Do you not believe in magic, in wonder, in the joy of entertainment?

Mike Gorday:

I'm too old to believe in that crap.

Ody:

So you watch TV and you're like this is all fake, this is all boring. How dare they no?

Mike Gorday:

I watch TV and enjoy what I'm watching, but I never get into the idea that, oh, that is so-and-so. I need to call him and tell him that the killer is coming to get him, which is, you know, that's a delusional pair relationship that some people form with actors and their characters.

Ody:

Okay, All right, well, I'd hire them.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, that sounds like fun. Would you hire them?

Nathan Mumm:

But you're young, I would expect that from you?

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, you know I may.

Nathan Mumm:

So if it was, an event.

Mike Gorday:

I wouldn't expect that from him, because it's too much money $500, $600?

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, yeah, probably for a couple hours.

Ody:

Maybe $1,200 for the whole day. Yeah.

Nathan Mumm:

You come here for two hours and you're dancing by that time. I'm too tired and drunk to worry about anything else. So yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, Okay whatever dude. You know, whatever floats your boat, Okay, let's do it. Mark's friction to talk.

Marc Gregoire:

He's like new thing it is sweeping the nation.

Mike Gorday:

So I understand you don't want to do it, mike, but you are in the minority on this. I can be in the minority, mr. I don't like Star Wars.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, wow, okay, hang on, hang on Story number four, hollywood agencies are creating digital clones of top name actors. Let's go to David Larson for more on this story of top-name actors.

Speaker 14:

Let's go to David Larson for more on this story. Speaking of AI fakes, Attack of the Clones may soon be a phrase that doesn't just refer to Star Wars Episode 2,. Creative Artists Agency, the talent organization that manages stars including Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Reese Witherspoon, has been working on AI clones of its top-tier clients, with approval from the actors. Last fall, the talent agency started testing a new initiative called CAA Vault with certain A-listers that allows them to make a digital double of themselves. That includes a 3D scan of their body and face, as well as capturing their voice to make an AI clone. I am sure this is something that will make the tech timers go, hmm.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. So here we go. Now, all of a sudden, you can have Tom Hanks in two movies at the same time filming, so you can get double the booking, because actors have signed up to give CAA Vault the ability to create digital twins. Now the CEO, brian Lord, told the Wall Street Journal that, essentially, this is the new high for actors. This comes after Hollywood and creatives came to an agreement last year outlining ways that films and production companies might use AI, while addressing concerns that they might exploit actors and writers by taking their artificial property and replacing them with AI work. This in turn, though, could allow for big name stars and their AI generated clones to feature in multiple projects at once, pushing out emerging actors as Hollywood becomes awash with synthetic performers.

Nathan Mumm:

Now the CIA isn't the only company experimenting with ways to prepare for their most valuable clients for AI in the future. James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, signed over digital rights to his Vader voice two years ago so it could be generated by AI for future Star Wars productions. Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has already noted that. In February, tyler Perry paused his plan for his $800 million expansion of the studio in Atlanta. He told the Hollywood Reporter that AI technology, like OpenAI Sora, which we talked about text-to-video model, may cause a rethinking of how production are made. Production might not have to travel to two locations, since they can build digital sets with the AI technology itself. Now our digital twins are famous actors a good or bad thing. Like anything, it kind of depends on the clones itself. But let me tell you, a bad written film with a great AI clone still will not make that movie any better. What do you think about that?

Mike Gorday:

I don't know that I need to think about it at all. I think it's a bad idea, tom.

Nathan Mumm:

Hanks, and and what about James?

Mike Gorday:

I think they probably took the step that they took because basically, somebody was going to do that illegally. Now they get to benefit from that. Now they get to benefit from that. But I think it opens up a door to other problems, like it said in the article that it might push out. I didn't even consider that, but it might push out emerging actors and then when I go to a movie to watch an actor, I'm expecting to see the actor. I'm not expecting to see a CGI clone of that actor, unless it's something like what they did in Rogue One where they put in Princess Leia. But you could tell that was still AI and it was a good plot device because it connected movies together. So what about James Earl?

Nathan Mumm:

Jones' voice.

Mike Gorday:

I'm a little disappointed in Tom Hanks and James Earl Jones doing that, but I guess I can understand why they did it, because there was probably a lot of pressure to do so in order to they have a distinct.

Nathan Mumm:

These are people with distinct voices, right.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, but so Tom Hanks has a very distinct voice. Yeah, but anytime that you decrease the supply or increase the supply of something, what happens? In basic economics. When you increase the supply, what happens? Your prices go down, Values plummet. That's right.

Nathan Mumm:

And that's what they're doing. Actors and actresses are going to make less and less money.

Mike Gorday:

I think that in the future, we're going to see these top-billed actors and actresses making less because they have CGI clones. There you go, okay.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, that ends our top technology stories of the week. She was doing something. What was that?

Ody:

I was going to say I agree with Mike. I only agree with him in the sense of you know where they did with what's her name?

Nathan Mumm:

Princess Leia, princess Leia Carrie.

Ody:

Fisher.

Mike Gorday:

Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing Yep.

Ody:

And George Harrison Ford last year with what is that? The last Indiana Jones movie?

Mike Gorday:

The.

Ody:

Indiana.

Nathan Mumm:

Jones movie, yeah, where they de-aged him, but they still paid him him as an actor. They just de-aged him for those scenes and he actually participated in the scenes and then they de-aged him later.

Ody:

Right, but I agree with that. But anything new, just like putting in the actor in just to throw them in, I think is ridiculous.

Mike Gorday:

What happens when some enterprising person gets a hold of a likeness and says well, I'm going to make Tom Hanks be the next Conan the Barbarian. And they make this really awful film and he pays money and he gets some royalty into his family or his estate. Does he have any control over what they use that image for?

Ody:

That's not acting anymore.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, that's right, you know borderline animation but this is what I've been saying the whole time about AI. It is taking away from the creative outlets of people like writers. Right now it may not be the best writer, but as it gets better and better and better, it's going to replace some of that. So BuzzFeed already replaced some of this writers with. Ai, so it's already showing that it is taking value away from these things. I think this is going to do the same thing, hey.

Nathan Mumm:

well, speaking about AI-generated voices, we have a Tech Time special coming up next.

Mike Gorday:

Oh no.

Nathan Mumm:

Essentially, we're going to have AI voices that all of you in studio here are going to decide on if it's a real voice or if it's an AI voice piggybacking on our main story that we just ended here. Voice piggybacking on our main story that we just ended here. So all of you that are listening at home, you're going to want to join us in this game. Also, we're going to see if you can distinguish what is an AI voice and what is a true voice. We'll see you after this commercial break.

Speaker 15:

This is Mark and Greg for copiers Northwest with a terrific offer called printer care Plus. It's simple by HP printer cartridges from copiers Northwest and we'll service your current printers for free. That sounds too good to be true. It's made possible due to our HP-Copiers Northwest relationship. Copiers Northwest is an HP Platinum partner One of only two in the entire Northwest and now with PrinterCare+, copiers Northwest will provide free printer service as long as they purchase genuine HP cartridges from Copiers Northwest. That's right. It departments no longer have to service printers or fix paper jams. With PrinterCare Plus, they can focus on more strategic initiatives and let our experienced technicians keep their HP printers up and running. Sounds like a love-love relationship for IT departments. Don't get too carried away. So how do they get more details on?

AI Voice:

PrinterCare Plus.

Speaker 15:

Call Copiers Northwest today, 206-282-1200, or visit copiersnwcom. Copiers Northwest New ideas new solutions.

Nathan Mumm:

Welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan. Our weekly show covers the technology subjects without a political agenda. We verify the facts and we do it with a sense of humor, in less than 60 minutes and, of course, with a little whiskey on the side. Today, mark Gregoire, our whiskey connoisseur, is in the studio. So, mark, what have you chosen for us today?

Marc Gregoire:

That's my introduction. Where's my eight-foot giant robot?

Nathan Mumm:

It's not a robot, it's a guy in a suit, that's a robot.

Marc Gregoire:

Alright, we are drinking today the Asimo 500. Cooper's Craft Barrel Reserve 100 proof. Now from Cooper Craft's website. They say Cooper's Craft Barrel Reserve is born from a one-of-a-kind, chiseled and charred American white oak barrel. This expression is a bold and complex Kentucky bourbon, bottled at 100 proof. It brings to the palate caramel and cotton candy, coated fresh apple, pear and citrus fruit atop of vanilla wafers dusted with a sharp cinnamon.

Mike Gorday:

Sharp cinnamon. I don't know who sits around coming up with these flavors, but I can definitely taste the cinnamon I can taste the cinnamon.

Marc Gregoire:

They do say. On the finish it has an assertive cinnamon spice and it softens to a lingering apple and a clean oak note.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, it's a very pleasant after. It's a very pleasant finish.

Nathan Mumm:

I guess that's apple. Is that what I'm thinking? Yeah, I can taste that?

Mike Gorday:

I think you can say that.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, now this is from Brown Forman Corporation, which is distilled in Kentucky. It's a straight bourbon, so it's at least four years old, as we mentioned. 100 proof. It is 75% corn, 15% rye, 10 malted barley, and it goes for $30. Oh, oh $30.

Mike Gorday:

I didn't know that, yeah, $30. I didn't know that. Who got that for you? Well? I assume you did. I got it at your party, oh is that the gift exchange.

Marc Gregoire:

It was the gift exchange. Oh, that's right. We had a $35 limit, so $30 plus tax hit right at that $35.

Mike Gorday:

Was it Mark? Was it you I brought?

Nathan Mumm:

it. Okay, that's good. That little marble game was a little aggressive. You like that game?

Mike Gorday:

It was funny. It was funny, wasn't it.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Especially the fight over the helmet. There you go.

Marc Gregoire:

You know what else is fun, Nathan? What's that? To like and subscribe your show.

Ody:

Okay.

Nathan Mumm:

In addition, leave us a comment. Let us know about whiskeys that you would like to see on the show. Alright, you know what? I think everybody was just waiting for whiskey, because our numbers and our viewers just wait for you to be on the show, and then they all start showing up and arriving.

Marc Gregoire:

I think they just love our chemistry. Is that what it is?

Nathan Mumm:

It's more than chemistry there, Alright well with our first whiskey tasty completed, let's move on to our special featured segment. Today we have seven voices that we're going to share with our staff. Some of these are real voices and the others are AI-generated. We're looking for facts, just the facts. Follow us and see if you can pick out what is AI and what is real voices.

Mike Gorday:

Let's start this segment, I'm going to make some predictions. Just the facts, man.

Marc Gregoire:

All right, I'm going to make some predictions about this before we start.

Nathan Mumm:

What's your prediction?

Mike Gorday:

Well the first is I think we're probably not going to do that well at it because we're only getting one input and that's hearing. We don't have the benefit of seeing any facial expressions or anything behind it. And secondly, I'm going to guess, predict that Odie might be better at this than we are.

Ody:

Okay, Wait, why me?

Mike Gorday:

Because women typically have a more acute hearing.

Ody:

Yeah, Not because I'm cool.

Mike Gorday:

No, it's not because.

Marc Gregoire:

I'm cool. No, it's not because you're cool. All right, here we go, let's start. I think you've got younger ears than us.

Nathan Mumm:

Let's start.

Marc Gregoire:

So you're going to play the voice.

Nathan Mumm:

And Odie. We may have to play it twice for these old ears here.

AI Voice:

So we'll play voice number one. A floppy disk or floppy diskette, casually referred to as a floppy or a diskette, is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk, of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay.

AI Voice:

So these are a bunch of okay.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. So Mike says AI Odie. What do you say? I say real, you say real I. Mike says AI Odie, what do you say?

Ody:

I say real.

Nathan Mumm:

You say real, I'll go AI, ai. The answer is that was an AI-generated voice. Let's listen one more time. This is AI-generated voice.

Mike Gorday:

I don't want to know about floppy disk there you go.

AI Voice:

A floppy disk or floppy diskette, casually referred to as a floppy or a diskette, is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk, of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. So Odie was the one that got it wrong. So there you go. Okay, right. The prediction is that she's going to get them right, so maybe she's no.

Mike Gorday:

I didn't say she was going to get them right. I said she has an advantage over us. Men are typically more visually oriented, whereas women are more auditorily oriented, so they can pick up inflections better than men do.

Nathan Mumm:

generally speaking, let's go to voice number two.

Real Voice:

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has hardly opened its eyes and the universe is new, more mysterious, more beautiful than humanity's dreams. The largest telescope ever flown launched into deep space on Christmas Day 2021.

Nathan Mumm:

All right AI or real?

Mike Gorday:

That's all right. I'm going to say AI, I'm on the fence. But I'm going to go to AI. All right, ai or real, that's all right. I'm going to say AI, I'm on the fence but I'm going to go to AI, all right.

Ody:

Odie, you know I'm just going to go with real. These are something me.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, these are real Okay.

Marc Gregoire:

Are you going to go real? I'm going real. If that's AI, that's a well done AI.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, so that is. Is real.

Real Voice:

That's from 60 Minutes. Let's replay that again 60 Minutes. Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope has hardly opened its eyes and the universe is new. You got it. More mysterious, more beautiful than humanity's dreams. The largest telescope ever flown launched into deep space on Christmas Day 2021.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, Okay so yeah, that's fine. Yeah, one and one.

Mike Gorday:

I was on the fence on that.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, mark's 2-0. Can we stop the game now?

Nathan Mumm:

No, All right, here we go. Voice number three no, we can't stop until he wins. Voice number three. I'm not, I just got the voices With over 590 hotels 190 hotels and resorts across the globe.

Real Voice:

Marriott Hotels celebrates the curiosity that propels us to travel.

Nathan Mumm:

Book your next journey at Marriott.

Ody:

Hotels.

Nathan Mumm:

AI, ai, okay, ai, ai, I'll go. Ai, that is incorrect. What that is a real live voice? Then they're saying Marriott wrong. Well that's just the way the person's doing it. I can't help it. That's the way he pronounced it. Okay, wow, I stumped everybody on that one. All right, let's go to the next voice first of all, all these horses look healthy and happy, there's nothing wrong with taking your horse through a drive-through.

AI Voice:

Uh, they obviously just wanted to have some fun with their horses I think that's great real.

Marc Gregoire:

Real, real, real, real Real.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, that is correct, that is a real voice. All right, let's go to our next voice. Is this voice number five? Then Voice number five.

AI Voice:

The lion is a large cat of the genus Panthera, native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body, a short, rounded head, round ears and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. Ai, AI.

Nathan Mumm:

AI, ai, ai. All three of you guys said AI, that's AI. That's AI. That is correct. That one was AI. All right, let's go to the next one.

AI Voice:

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from the 6th of February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was Queen Regnant of 32 sovereign states over the course of her lifetime and remained the monarch of 15 realms by the time of her death.

Mike Gorday:

Real.

Nathan Mumm:

Real Odie.

Marc Gregoire:

I don't know Tartar with the accent isn't Real Odie. I don't know Tartar with the accent, isn't it Odie?

Ody:

No, not that I'm just trying. You know I'm listening to the breath control and I'm trying to decipher. Okay, are they for a news segment and they're using AI when they really shouldn't be using AI.

Nathan Mumm:

These are either real voices of people or they're AI generated without any changes to the AI, nothing like that I'm going to say AI. Oh, okay, you say AI, it's real. It's real. Odie's. The only one correct? It is AI.

Marc Gregoire:

They did a good job on that one.

Mike Gorday:

It's hard with the accent for me.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

That's me, okay, that's fine. Okay, I mean, I'm looking for natural pauses and breath sounds.

Real Voice:

Yeah, that's just a cut and paste that had breath sounds in it.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah yeah, and that other guy that was real, did not.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, I can't help it if I get somebody that is not taking a pause.

Mike Gorday:

Well, I can't help it if I get somebody that is not taking a pause. I'm just saying that this is why this is difficult, because we're only getting one aspect of the sound.

Nathan Mumm:

I was just showing you what is available. Now this is all done on 11sio. This is a website that we do. I've used it occasionally for different stuff. This last one is going to be very interesting. I'm curious on what you guys think with this. So here we do. I've used it occasionally for different stuff. This last one is going to be very interesting. I'm curious on what you guys think with this. So here we go. Let's do voice number seven.

AI Voice:

In February, us company LanzaJet, which produces sustainable aviation fuel, saf, from ethanol, announced that it intended to build a second, larger plant on U on US soil. The Inflation Reduction Act, ira, was a big influence, says Jimmy Smartids, its chief executive. The second plant would add to its facility in Silberton, georgia, the world's first commercial-scale ethanol-to-SAF plant.

Nathan Mumm:

Real or AI Mike?

Mike Gorday:

My initial urge was to say real but as I listened to it. I was starting to change it over to AI, so which one are you going to choose? I'll just go with real. You'll go with real, okay.

Ody:

I feel like it's purposely been told to mess up.

Mike Gorday:

That's why.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, so let me just tell you, cut and paste was just put in there, right? But if so, there's nothing been told to mess up. That's why, okay, so let me just tell you, cut and paste was just put in there. Right, but if so, there's nothing been told to mess up on anything.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, so what you're saying is that these are real recordings that are filtered through an AI system to change the voice?

Nathan Mumm:

No, is that what you're saying? No, these are voice areas that are in there that you just cut and paste, and the AI generates these. Right, but the AI could be you take the words Yep, like the script and you put it into the AI and the AI decides how they spit it out, okay, all right, you say the first. You said that was AI. Is that what you said?

Mike Gorday:

My initial one was that it's real, but as I listened to it, it started to change over to AI because of some of the inflective choices.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, I don't know, I see, okay, you don't know I'm saying AI. You're saying AI yeah.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, I had the same thing as Mike. It sounded real and then it just sounded too fake as it went on, so I'm going to go AI.

Nathan Mumm:

It is AI. So that's a cut in pace and pace and the AI has the advancement in that to have the person stutter, have the person almost mispronounce stuff, have them take deep breaths, so that we're getting to the realm where the AI will just randomly create. Now, if I did the same exact cut and paste and I did that for this last voice, that we just did this and it came out with five different variations of the one, I chose the one with kind of the stumbling and everything. Some of them was very clear but didn't change anything. Don't make any difference, it's a cut and paste and the computer decides how it wants to pronounce those words.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, is that concerning to you?

Nathan Mumm:

Is it concerning to you? I mean, that sounded pretty close, I mean. So you guys are struggling through that. Was there one or two? You pretty much knew was AI right.

Marc Gregoire:

Yes.

Real Voice:

Or real.

Nathan Mumm:

Or real, but one or two of them you knew was real and then the rest are kind of just borderline right. You're kind of taking what's the background noise? What are they talking about? I mean the horse lady.

Marc Gregoire:

There's about four that were pretty obvious and then four that we had to think on, and of those four I got two right and two wrong.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, all right, that is what our AI is available right now, today, to do.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, are you going to answer the question? What's that? Do you find that? Concerning?

Nathan Mumm:

Ah, it is getting. Yeah, I mean I do now because it is getting to the point where, if all of a sudden you're cutting and pasting stuff in there and it's coming up with inflections and it's coming up with mispronounced words a little bit, and stumbling I mean the stumbling on that last. If you listen to that last one, that is amazing how it stumbled through.

Mike Gorday:

You can still hear it, you can. You can still hear the Give it three years.

Marc Gregoire:

And you have to be paying attention, though, but you know you can see there's a lot of great, great benefits with it, and it can be abused tremendously. All of a sudden, it's going to be your father's voice calling you, asking you to please send him money. This is already happening, yeah.

Mike Gorday:

We've reported on this many, many times about people using these AI clones to call up people and have them transfer money and give them passwords and stuff. Yep.

Nathan Mumm:

All right. Well, that ends our segment. Ai or Not AI. Up next, we have this Week in Technology, so now would be a great time to enjoy a little whiskey on the side, as we'll be doing so during the break. You're listening to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm. See you in a few minutes.

Speaker 13:

Join the fun and grab tickets to GeekFest West the See you in a few minutes.

:

And now let's look back at this week in technology.

Nathan Mumm:

All right, we go back to May 4th 1979. It's at the official slash, unofficial start of May 4th, the Star Wars holiday. Essentially, on May 4th 1979, britain's new prime minister, margaret Thatcher, assumed office and a clever newspaper writer declared in a full page ad may the 4th be with you. It started as a grassroots phenomenon and now has transcended the English language pun that inspired it. Around the world, many may the fourth be with you is always known as the Star Wars Day of Holidays.

Nathan Mumm:

Now Randy Tom, who today is the director of the sound and design studio at Skywalker Sound, was working on the return of the Jedi production unit in Northern California. As they shot in the Redwood Forest, dubbing for the moon of Endor. May 4th 1982 happened to be a working day and Tom recalled thinking of the pun on his own and contemplating the date. He shared it with others on the set and soon everybody was going around saying may the 4th be with you. Since 2013, the Walt Disney Company has officially observed this holiday with several Star Wars events and festivals at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and across the nations. Disney had purchased Lucasfilms rights in 2012 and immediately embraced may the fourth be with you.

Mike Gorday:

Has it already been that long?

Nathan Mumm:

It's already been that long 2013.

Mike Gorday:

Man, I can't keep up with this there you go.

Nathan Mumm:

That was this week in technology. If you ever want to watch some Tech Time history, with over 200 weekly broadcasts spanning four plus years, videos, podcasts and blog information, you can visit us at techtimeradiocom to watch our older shows. We're going to take a commercial break.

Speaker 2:

When we return, we have our Mark Mumble whiskey review. See you after the break. Hello, my name is Arthur and my life's work is connecting people with coffee. Story Coffee is a small batch specialty coffee company that uses technology to connect people to each product resource, which allows farmers to unlock their economic freedom. Try our Medium Roast Founder Series coffee, which is an exotic bourbon variety that is smooth, fresh and elegant. At storycoffeecom, that's S-T-O-R-I coffeecom. Today you can get your first bag free when you subscribe at storycoffeecom with code tech time, that's S-T-O-R-I coffeecom.

:

The segment we've been waiting all week for Mark's Whiskey Mumble.

Marc Gregoire:

Oh, this day is so exciting because it's not May the 4th today.

Nathan Mumm:

Today is April 30th gentlemen, let's celebrate today, okay, well, our show goes until May.

Mike Gorday:

What's today? What is today, four days before the May of the 4th?

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Yes.

Marc Gregoire:

Today is a day I know Nathan is going to be happy about.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, I don't know. Today was a really tough day to find stuff. In our production meeting last night we were trying to find stuff for this day and we couldn't find anything.

Mike Gorday:

Why are you trying to pre-guess everything? Everything?

Nathan Mumm:

I don't know, I have no clue today.

Mike Gorday:

I know it used to be. He would just wait for Mark to come up Now. Then he's like oh, I need to beat Mark at this game now.

Nathan Mumm:

I have to figure out what it is, I don't know. Today would be okay. Today would be something about inspirational leadership and yeah, I know.

Ody:

Mark, I have two clips. One of them is a bunch of sound bites, and then the other one is a dedicated song.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay.

Ody:

Shall we have them guess it and see if they can, or is that too early?

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, let's do that. I love that game, Odie.

Speaker 14:

Ages three and up. It's on my box Ages three and up.

Mike Gorday:

I'm not supposed to be Princess.

Speaker 14:

Drew, look, I'm Picasso.

Mike Gorday:

I don't get it, you want poached swine.

Speaker 14:

What are you looking at? You hockey puck. You all take stupid pills. This morning.

Mike Gorday:

National Potato Head Day. Oh, is that what it is, yeah that's. Mr Potato Head, oh there you go?

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, that was Mr Potato Head. You know I hate that ride at Disney, Disneyland.

Ody:

Slinky Dog Dad no the. Shitty Gallery.

Nathan Mumm:

I go on that with my wife. I lose every darn time.

Speaker 2:

I try to cheat.

Nathan Mumm:

I cannot get the little rings when you throw them on the aliens and they shoot up and everything. I can never hit the aliens. I do like Mr Potato Head.

Marc Gregoire:

Yes, I'm sure you have some classic Mr Potato Head stuff I just ordered'm sure you have some classic Mr Potato Head stuff.

Nathan Mumm:

I just ordered some on eBay.

Mike Gorday:

Somebody threw potatoes at his head once.

Marc Gregoire:

Hey, this day has been celebrated since April 30th 1952, when Mr Potato Head was the first toy to appear on television targeting children specifically. Oh, featuring a plastic body potato, it has a variety of other plastic parts that can be attached, like the cap, nose, mouth, eyes, ears and even feet. The list of accessories has now grown to even include such items as a car and a boat trailer.

Nathan Mumm:

Oh, remember when he used to have the little smoking cigar that he had.

Marc Gregoire:

Yeah, he'd put a mustache.

Nathan Mumm:

A little mustache with the smoking cigar on there. Remember that.

Marc Gregoire:

Yes, I do that was back when smoking was cool, I thought it was a pipe.

Nathan Mumm:

It was a pipe.

Marc Gregoire:

It was a pipe, all right well let's talk about Pipes are still cool, let's move on to our whiskey gentlemen. That, gentlemen, that is why I am here, hey. So Cooper's Craft was created to honor the Brown Foreman barrel makers. Now, since 1945, they have remained the only major distiller to own a new barrel cooperage. Now, side note, the local craft distillery, woodinville also has their own cooperage. Now, like Mr Potato Head, by having your own cooperage, this allows them to completely control the bourbon making process from start to finish.

Marc Gregoire:

Now, coopering is a highly skilled tradecraft passed from one generation of master coopers to the next, because the barrel contributes over 50% of the bourbon's flavor and 100% of its color. Making quality barrels, which the coopers call raising, is essential to crafting quality bourbon. So today's Coopers Craft Barrel Reserve 100 Proof is a robust and flavorful bourbon whiskey. Now, with its 100 Proof, I believe it delivers a bold and intense experience for whiskey enthusiasts. Even If you want good quality, inexpensive bourbon, this fits right in there. With, like Old Forrester 100, old Granddad 114, or Early Times, one can either sip it or use it in a cocktail. They're all around that $30 price point.

Mike Gorday:

You didn't mention Jim Beam. Wow, he's like wow, Look at that face.

Nathan Mumm:

So you have a Cooper's. The real thing is do you have a Cooper's on your shelf?

Marc Gregoire:

I don't, you don't, but I bought this one and then one of the good friends of mine, chris, who you know. I know, chris, we drink. He has a bottle, so I haven't bought one for my shelf yet Okay, that's actually pretty good.

Mike Gorday:

This pretty good, but definitely, this is pretty good, you should. Oh, I like it. I like it. This will be done.

Nathan Mumm:

I'm going to give it a thumbs down just because I like it. Don't do that. Well, ok, mark, thanks for that mumble. You're welcome. Like whiskey and technology, think of the pairing of Luke Skywalker on solo. Now let's prepare for the technology fail the week Fail by elite, by elite executive services, technology experts to help you out of a technology fail. We are out of time.

Real Voice:

Congratulations, you're a failure. Oh, I failed. Did I yes, did I, yes, did I?

Nathan Mumm:

Yes, all right. Well, this technology fail comes to us from Razer R-A-Z-E-R, the computer game accessory world leader. I have the Razer mouse I've got from Razer R-A-Z-E-R, the computer game accessory world leader. I have the Razer mouse. I've got a Razer keyboard. But Razer made a million dollars.

Mike Gorday:

I think we talked about this, didn't we?

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, we talked about this when it came out on CES two years ago. They made a million dollar CNN mask with RGB and the FTC is not pleased, so they made a million dollars on this mask. Now the Razors alleged misled customers by saying that a cyberpunk style face mask was N95 grade during the COVID time area, and Razor is now going to have to fork over $1.1 million in refunds to customers who purchased the RGB clad Zephyr face mask. According to the proposed settlement announced by the Federal Trade Commission on Monday, the company claimed the face mask used N95 grade filters, but the FTC alleges Razer never submitted them for testing and only stopped the false advertising after receiving negative press coverage and consumers' outrage at the deceptive claims. After receiving negative press coverage and consumers' outrage at the deceptive claims, razer first released its Zephyr mask back in 2021 as a nifty, cyberpunk-esque alternative to the traditional face masks worn in the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Razer initially marketed the $100 mask as having an N5 grade filter, it scrubbed any mention of the grade after the YouTuber Nomi Wu tore down the mask and found that it wasn't N95 certified at all. N95 masks are supposed to filter out at least 95% of air carbon particles, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. Essentially, this is going to cost Razor in civil penalties over $100,000, and it says that most people will receive their full money back.

Nathan Mumm:

Did you buy one? I did not, actually. Oh, that's the first I did not. Now they also talked about when they originally came out with this. They were going to have voice-altering version of this so you could talk in like Darth Vader. You could talk in all these different deals. They never got around to doing that.

Mike Gorday:

I guess that was probably after they went for the certification for the N95 part. Well, they didn't go for certification, they just said, hey, this is N95 compliant here. Wear this instead and people bought it.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, so I actually watched the video. Essentially, the filter was made in China. Okay, doesn't that make you feel comfortable that the N95?

Mike Gorday:

protection. Most of our things are made in China, so you know All right.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, now, though, let's move on to our Mike's Mesmerizing Moment. This is Mike's Mesmerizing Moment, presented by Story Coffee. Visit storycoffeecom. All right, mike. Technology companies say that they're going to do one thing, and oftentimes that does not happen. It happens with Kickstarter events. It happens with new releases of technology, software updates for video games, games that are going to have these features available and not. But why is the consumer, most of the time, just okay with the false promises that these companies do?

Mike Gorday:

I don't know, because you really hit a chord with this, because I have a big beef with advertising. So I don't think most people are okay with these things, because when you expect to get something, you want to get what you have been told was coming down.

Mike Gorday:

So it's a bait and switch, but we are so inundated with all these things happening all the time that we can't fight that battle every time. And with the advent of I don't know if you've dealt with tech companies, but they have a very not unique anymore way of avoiding any responsibility.

Nathan Mumm:

Okay, right by doing those disclaimers when you load stuff.

Mike Gorday:

No, they don't do disclaimers, they just never answer your support tickets, that's right. They don't answer the phones, they don't answer any chats or they give very vague information.

Mike Gorday:

They probably use chat GPT to answer your questions. So they know they're not giving what they promised, but they do it anyway because they're chasing the dollar. And I don't really think that we are okay. It's just too much energy for us to continually fight that battle over and over and over and over again. So you get people like this YouTuber who tore down the mask she did a lot more damage to the company than all the people that were saying hey, what's going on with this? And trying to go through the official network. So this is one of the reasons why social media can be a good thing, because it can create issues that need to be addressed by the Federal Trade Commission.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, they came down pretty hard on that. I mean that's kind of a big deal.

Mike Gorday:

You say you're going to have a filter in the mask, but this happens a lot more.

Nathan Mumm:

I mean, I think we could probably do shows every week and not do a technology show just on software companies. Forget all companies, Software companies promising something or hardware companies and technology promising something, never delivering. And yet that was what they built their whole marketing campaigns on, of what they would have.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, but even if you just wash it out, look at the advertising, look at marketing in general. Marketing is all about not the facts. Yeah.

Mike Gorday:

Marketing. Marketing is pretty much a scam. They're trying to find a way to take advantage of your psychology in order for you to buy their product. It has nothing to do with how good the product is, it has nothing to do with how effective or whatever. So with these kind of things, they're relying on the cool factor. Oh, we're going to grab this market that's in the cyberpunk and then they can walk around outside looking like some character from a cyberpunk game or whatever it is, all right.

Nathan Mumm:

Well, you know what? Let's go. You know what we're going to skip to Nathan Nuggets. This is about a four-minute segment, but I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. Hopefully, we get to it next week. We're going to be talking about portable AI devices that aren't ready for prime time. Every portable AI device Well, there's like four or five in here that I want to talk about that next week. It's not necessarily time sensitive, but it's going to be a very interesting story and you're probably not going to like what I'm going to tell you at the very end of that.

Mike Gorday:

So let's leave it on a much more positive note.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, that's right.

Mike Gorday:

Are you going to be a negative nancy?

Nathan Mumm:

Well, we're going to talk about some stuff on some devices.

Mike Gorday:

Are you going?

Nathan Mumm:

to be Mike. I don't know if I'm going to be quite Mike or anything to that extent, but there may be some. I'll take the positive one.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, you can take the. You can have some positive ones. This week.

Nathan Mumm:

I won't be the curmudgeon that talks about how bad everything is. Okay. Well, let's now move to our pick of the day.

:

And now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings. Let's see what bubbles to the top.

Marc Gregoire:

All right, all right, all right. Today we are drinking Mike's bottle of bourbon that I brought to Nathan's Christmas party. That is correct. Which is Cooper's Craft Barrel Reserve 100 Proof. It's from Brown Forman Corporation, kentucky Straight Bourbon. It's at least four years old 100 proof, and it's about $30 before taxes.

Nathan Mumm:

And this was a hot item at the Gets Exchange. People were taking the whiskey.

Mike Gorday:

This was not the hottest item.

Nathan Mumm:

It wasn't the hottest item, but it was a video. This was one of the top items.

Marc Gregoire:

It was one of the hotter items that fit the rules of what people were supposed to bring.

Nathan Mumm:

Yeah, somebody brought like a $75 thing my uncle did and that was a little bit.

Marc Gregoire:

I think it was a expensive.

Mike Gorday:

What a butthead. I know, all right, okay, is it a thumbs up for you, I'm going to give it a thumbs absolutely up.

Nathan Mumm:

I actually liked it. I did not like it at first, but then I had a little bit of a bitter taste to it.

Mike Gorday:

It had a very big spicy burst at the very beginning that cinnamon is really predominant and that apple is also very good. Yep, I'd give it a thumbs up, mike.

Marc Gregoire:

I'd give it a thumbs up. $30? Yeah, put it on your bar cocktail or sip it. Oh, that's the way I like it.

Mike Gorday:

Now I have to figure out how to get it home without it spilling.

Nathan Mumm:

Thanks, for that. Well, you just put it in your trunk. Yep, that's what Mark does all the time, all right. That's how you do it, Mike and listeners, we want to hear from you. Visit us at techtimeradiocom. Click on the via caller and ask a question of technology in our talkback recording system. You can always stay connected with us by going online at techtimeradiocom. From all of us at Tech Time Radio. Remember the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. See you next week Later.

Marc Gregoire:

Bye-bye.

:

Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. Bye-bye connected and winning some really great monthly prizes. We also have a few other ways to stay connected, including subscribing to our podcast on any podcast service, from Apple to Google and everything in between. We're also on YouTube, so check us out on youtubecom. Slash tech time radio. All one word we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did making it for you. From all of us at tech time radio. Remember mums the word. Have a safe and fantastic week.

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