TechTime with Nathan Mumm
You can grab your weekly technology without having to geek out on TechTime with Nathan Mumm. The Technology Show for your commute, exercise, or drinking fun. Listen to the best 60 minutes of Technology News and Information in a segmented format while sipping a little Whiskey on the side.
We cover Top Tech Stories with a funny spin, with information that will make you go Hmmm. Listen once a week and stay up-to-date on technology in the world without getting into the weeds.
This Broadcast style format is perfect for the everyday person wanting a quick update on technology, with two fun personalities driving the show Mike and Nathan. Listen once, Listen twice, and you will be sold on the program. @TechtimeRadio | #TechtimeRadio.com | www.techtimeradio.com
TechTime with Nathan Mumm
EP 240: Tech Revolution: Amazon's Office Mandate Sparks Union Talks and Online Dating Evolves Video Games, Guest Nick Espinosa from Security Fanatics Join the Show, and the IRS has a Super Computer | Air Date: 2/18 - 2/24/2025
Could the shift back to the office spark a unionization movement at a tech giant like Amazon? Tune in to TechTime Radio as we dive into this pressing topic and more. We discuss the logistical mess stemming from Amazon's return-to-office policy, leaving employees grappling with issues like desk-sharing and insufficient parking. These workplace hurdles are igniting serious discussions about remote work and the possibility of unionizing.
Nick Espinosa from Security Fanatics returns to shed light on the collaboration between state-sponsored hackers and cybercriminals, alongside the far-reaching implications of a landmark copyright lawsuit involving AI.
As technology continues to influence our everyday lives, we're also observing changes in the world of online dating. Rather than merely swiping left or right, individuals are now forming connections through shared interests, creating deeper bonds that transcend the surface-level interactions of traditional apps like Bumble and Tinder.
SUPERCOMPUTER: The IRS's curious dealings with NVIDIA and a warning story regarding a pirated game that threatens personal data.
Additionally, enjoy our lighter segments, including Mike's captivating moment, the week's tech fail, and our beloved whiskey tasting. This episode is brimming with insights, surprises, and a healthy dose of entertainment, all in the spirit of technology.
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, mmmmm. 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 mmmm. 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 micro days in the studio, and he's the award-winning author and our human behavior expert and our biggest fan of AI. Now, of course, we're live streaming to you on our show On four right no, okay, all right On four of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv, facebook and LinkedIn. We encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradiocom and become a Patreon supporter at patreoncom. Forward slash techtimeradio Now. We're friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology show possible weekly for our family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have ODR producer at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show.
Speaker 1:Now on today's show.
Nathan Mumm:All right. Today on the program, nick Espinoza from Security Fanatics joins the show to shed some light on obscure items, including a state-sponsored hackers collaborating with cybercriminal groups, making it even more challenging to track. Ai has faced a significant defeat in copyright and intellectual property lawsuit, establishing a new industry precedent, and we're going to cover some startling news that Apple has been mandated to secretly circumvent its own encryption. Next, we'll dive into the evolution of dating, examining how Bumble and other dating apps are becoming irrelevant in the new landscape that creates initiatives and individuals to connect online. The IRS is making waves with NVIDIA. We'll provide further details on this. And lastly, be cautious of a pirate game that can steal your real money and account information while you play. In addition, of course, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment, our technology fail of the week and a possible Nathan nugget and, 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. But you know what?
Speaker 1:Now it's time for us to head to the latest headlines in the world of technology. Here are our top technology stories of the week.
Nathan Mumm:All right Story number one Amazoncom has instructed hundreds and thousands of employees to return to their office full time or seek new employment. But many office lack the support with desks, chairs and even the space to put people in these offices. Let's go to Corinne Westland for more on this story.
Speaker 4:Amazon has a space shortage and this has caused the e-commerce giant to delay the return-to-work mandate at numerous locations in the US. This includes Houston, Atlanta and New York City. Workers assigned to certain offices are still waiting for clarity on when they can return to the workplace full-time. Others, who are back five days a week, find themselves without any teammates nearby. They struggle with parking, securing a workspace and finding private rooms for video calls. Is hot swapping desks the new normal for Amazon?
Nathan Mumm:That question will be best discussed with you guys back in the studio.
Mike Gorday:All right, have you heard about?
Nathan Mumm:this hot swapping desk idea, mike, not no, what is it? Tell me about it. Okay, okay, so the idea here so amazon has 350 000 corporate workers that we're all told to return to office five days a week. So since they have shifts, right, so they have, like delivery people that are a part of this.
Mike Gorday:so they're just common desks. You don't get to. You don't get to. Uh, claim it as your own desk.
Nathan Mumm:You don't and what they do is they literally. Right now, amazon, specifically down in the bay area, is having problems with um having people come on in in the queue like 30 minutes before their shift starts at their desk so that they can then wait for the person to end their shift, take their pc, unplug it from their docking station and then they get their pc out of a locker and they put it in and they plug it in and then they start working yep, this is a prime example of how a corporate entity has no idea what human behavior is like and is only interested in getting their money.
Nathan Mumm:Okay, well, this is what's this was happening to amazon, yes, od they got rid of the work from home aspect right yes, everybody. According to, according to Andy Jesse, the chief executive officer, he deemed that everybody had to return to the office for work. Do they explain why? This is just a mandate and if you didn't return to work then you would lose your job.
Mike Gorday:This is an arbitrary FU to employees across the company.
Ody:And I get that. I understand you want to supervise your workers in like a corporate mindset, but if you don't have the space for it, why bother?
Nathan Mumm:Well, listen to that. San Francisco Bay area has 18 offices and out of those 18 offices, in most of the area the company is short. At least 800 desks, yeah. So they don't even have desks for these people to come into, not even for hot swapping. No, that's the problem.
Mike Gorday:You know, when the pandemic happened and we were all forced to do this, they looked at this and said, hey, this is a really good idea to get rid of some overhead. So they dropped a bunch of their office leases, right yeah, they got rid of their infrastructure because everybody was at home. And now, when we've come out of the pandemic and everybody's like, oh, we need to go back to the old way of doing stuff, they're ordering people to come back to the office, but they're not providing the infrastructure and they're forgetting a lot of things that are going to cause them problems when this goes into full effect. And they probably are experiencing this because, as people, we, we we don't work well when we don't have spaces that we can personalize or claim or whatever. So this is a big problem.
Nathan Mumm:Bay area uh, employees are having to park almost a mile away to find significant parking areas that will allow them to park their vehicle there at an affordable rate so they can go to work. So just think about taking that good seven minute mile. In high school you remember running that mile back in track and everything like that. So you're going to park and probably be about 20 to 30 minutes away on a brisk walk for you to get to the office itself. Yeah well, 600 employees have signed a spreadsheet supporting an initiative that they are requesting the company. These never work. But okay, 600 employees are signing a spreadsheet to support an initiative that they want to go back to, not working on site yep yep, so those are 600.
Mike Gorday:This is a prime. This is a prime open doorway for unionization.
Nathan Mumm:Well, there we go. So an AWS employee in Portland, oregon recently shared on LinkedIn her experience during her first week back at the office full-time. She mentioned sitting at three different desks, lacking direct coworkers in the same location and needing to store belongings in a locker overnight or to take them home. So they get these little cubicle lockers. Did you ever go to a roller rink? Know you'd put your shoes in this little locker and it had a little lock and you'd kind of like put in the little metal box they have like metal boxes here that the employees put stuff into and lock them on site and then so if you want a picture of your family, you know you take it there, and then you, oh yeah, it's just.
Nathan Mumm:Yeah, it's just, it's crazy. All right, well, amazon says that they will continue to have the uh mandate in place, and if you're not able to make it, then hey, good job amazon, you know, you go buddy there, you go um jobs will be available.
Mike Gorday:You're gonna reap some. You're gonna reap some rewards here, there you go all right.
Nathan Mumm:Well, it's interesting because amazon's big, big downtown seattle area when we're broadcasting the seattle area, so a big individual. They had plenty of office space downtown in our local area. So it's really the bay area, new york area and some of these areas that they reduced their footprint during the uh yeah they didn't plan for people to actually come back or even know how many employees they had in their local regions to go to these things.
Mike Gorday:Yeah, this is yeah. Before, before you make mandates sending people back to work, you need to provide an infrastructure for them to work in, because they're going to they're. I'm sure they're already suffering some consequences of this, but it's going to create more problems down the road, all right. And it's going to create more problems down the road, all right. And it's not something you can create by saying, oh well, you have to. Humans don't work that way.
Nathan Mumm:Okay, all right, here you go. Story number two this is a really interesting story.
Mike Gorday:Well, yeah, if you're into dating online, Well, you've done online dating, haven't you? Mr Buddy yeah yeah, and I can tell you it's miserable. Okay, so Bumble and Tinder are on the way out. Okay Is kind of the headline here Okay.
Mike Gorday:So dating apps are encountering a lot of challenges as alternative ways to meet people are gaining traction. For couples like Jess and Nate who I don't know, they don't know who they are they're discovering love through shared hobbies, which is gaming is increasingly on the rise, which is kind of a funny statement, because that's usually how people in the past would meet through shared experiences or shared hobbies. Jess and Nate crossed paths at an esports event in 2023, but fostered that relationship while playing World of Warcraft together online. You're World of Warcraft lovers, okay.
Nathan Mumm:I've played it a little bit. I didn't really like the game myself, you know.
Mike Gorday:I have never played it online. I have never been a WoW guy.
Nathan Mumm:I played it, it was okay. It just was a lot. I mean, you have to grind a lot and you have to really play in the world to do that.
Mike Gorday:This has nothing to do with dating. Well, keep on going. Sorry, Sorry, Keep on going. But these people, this couple, went off in game from morning to night and now they're engaged. Nate feels that his gaming experience experience providing him with deeper bonds than dating apps can offer. Okay, Uh, just nice journey reflects a wider trend. According to a 2024 OSCOM report, usage of dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and hinge has seen significant drops. Uh, meaning young individuals are increasingly turning to hobby focused platforms. The user base for the fitness app Strava grew by 20% last year, while the film review site Letterboxd experienced a remarkable 50% surge. What is driving the shift? Experts such as Carolina Bandanelli from Warwick University. In case the Gen Z craves less pressure. Hobby-centric apps centered around activities like running or gaming enable users to connect organically without the stress of self-promotion. This is so interesting that Gen Z is rediscovering what we all Gen.
Nathan Mumm:X discovered.
Mike Gorday:No, we all did. Yeah, this is how we got dates when we were young. And if you've been on a dating app, which you haven't, I know it's really a job interview, is it? Yeah, okay, you look at people's pictures, so you're automatically working from Objectifying people immediately.
Mike Gorday:No you're just automatically working from a very superficial level, okay, then you have everything that they want and all their preferences, and then they kind of match you together and then when you actually talk to them, then it becomes like a. It really is, it's like a job interview. During the pandemic, of course, dating apps began to resemble social media more closely. However, most cannot sustain this evolution and we've seen a lot of changes on dating apps over the past few years. In response to that, apps are now offering niche options, like dating for fitness enthusiasts or vegans. Some applications, like Breeze, completely remove pre-date messaging, while others hide their photos until users have communicated adequately. Nevertheless, there is a word of caution. Even hobby oriented apps can have limitations. Communities like strava and letterbox exists primarily for shared interest, not dating, and users may not appreciate romantic advances in these environments okay, but that's old school too, right?
Nathan Mumm:so I mean, if you went down to this the rink we're going back to the skating rink, right and there's a cute girl over there in the side and you wanted to go date her, and you say, hey, would you like to go on a date? And she's like, oh, you're a creep. She'd just tell you, no, I need to continue on, right.
Mike Gorday:But that's one of the that's one of the big arguments about there is a lot more fear and reluctance involved in doing cold approaches.
Nathan Mumm:Really yeah, oh, back in the old way. You just keep on going down, and down and down, until the one girl said, yeah, I'm interested in holding your hand.
Mike Gorday:Yeah, you were the numbers guy. Right, I was, that's right.
Nathan Mumm:Number eight hit and then I'm like, okay, great Number eight is what I wanted.
Mike Gorday:Mr Sales, over here. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, what does the future hold, who knows? In-game and virtual spaces could enrich relationships during initial meetings and might not just encompass offline interactions. Instead, apps simulating the best elements of face-to-face interactions while utilizing digital innovations could lead the way forward.
Nathan Mumm:Yeah, so people are getting married in these events, right?
Mike Gorday:This is like Facebook relationships. When Facebook really started rolling out, we saw a lot of this too. Facebook became like this way of meeting and connecting people in groups. There's a problem with this, however, and even in the gaming existing space, the, there is a problem, and that problem is that we have two entities that are communicating over a specific uh style of of communication. You know this would be in-game chatting and and whatnot. Yeah, uh, so they're not having any physical uh proximity with each other to get to know how they work in the environment or how they live in the environment. So there's some problems with that, okay all right, right.
Nathan Mumm:Well, would you rather meet on a dating app with somebody? I?
Mike Gorday:really don't like them. I think they're pretty bad All right.
Nathan Mumm:So you'd rather meet in a game and if you have some common interests, go from there.
Mike Gorday:Yeah, that's really how you want to meet people that have these shared interests, instead of looking at a bunch of stuff that says, hey, I'm into hiking and whatnot and I'm a fully independent person and I just need somebody to travel with, and it's just crazy, all right.
Nathan Mumm:Here's our next story, story number three.
Nathan Mumm:This includes Trump and George Takei from Star Trek. How the heck can I get those all together? Here we go. Story number three google map blocks gulf of america reviews after renaming and receiving negative feedback. So if you go and you take a look at google maps and apple maps right now, what do you have going on? You can see now the gulf of america, not the gulf of mexico. So donald trump got that named.
Nathan Mumm:Interesting because George Takai has gone on record on Blue Sky, which he urges his 1.1 million Blue Sky followers. We've talked about Blue Sky, the alternative to Facebook, which is gaining more and more momentum. He's asked them to report the name location on Apple Maps as incorrect, so this causes a huge queue up in Apple's support calls and he is telling everybody right now. He also then took a screenshot of that and posted it on X, saying to do exactly the same thing. So we had somebody rename something. George Takai from Star Trek is not happy with it. He used Blue Sky as his social media platform to reach out and tell people what are you plugging Blue Sky or? George Takai from Star Trek is not happy with it. He used blue sky as a social media platform to reach out. What are you?
Mike Gorday:plugging blue sky or George Takai Well.
Nathan Mumm:I'm just kind of interesting. Well, the kind of you know what. You can get a map change for different stuff, and so there you go. There you go, story number three and story number four. What do I have for story number four?
Nathan Mumm:Oh, iphone SE releases this week. Apple's Tim Cook teases a Wednesday launch, so it's either the Apple SE phone or it's going to be a new tagging, gps. It's unknown what Apple's going to release. They have both of these things in the pipeline, so I don't know exactly what the announcement's going to be, but they have a big announcement coming on up tomorrow, on Wednesday, that Tim Cook is going to essentially make an announcement on whether it's a brand new SE phone, which they've been talking about for a long time, or a new air tag that would be available there.
Nathan Mumm:It's interesting because Apple has been spending a lot of time working on their own Apple designed 5g modem. So they've been working on this 5g modem that they're been touting. They can work with satellites. If you paid any attention to the Super Bowl commercials, there was a big T-Mobile commercial that they have now partnered with Starlink. So anytime you're up in the middle of no man's land you can get your phone, and this was one of our predictions that satellite phones are going to become kind of like this new thing with Starlink.
Nathan Mumm:So big announcement tomorrow, apple is either announcing a brand new AirTag or the potential of no more home button, a larger screen on their lower end model, iphone SE.
Mike Gorday:Do you know why you can't fart in an Apple store?
Marc Gregoire:Why is?
Mike Gorday:that they don't have windows, all right.
Nathan Mumm:Well, that ends our top technology stories of the week. When we return, Nick Espinosa from Security Fanatics will join us to discuss DeepSeek. We're going to talk about the AI that China says will take over open AI at half the cost. Should we be worried? All of this, plus many other information and questions from Nick. We'll see you after the commercial break.
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Nathan Mumm:All right, Welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. Our weekly show covers the top 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 office. What do we have to taste today?
Marc Gregoire:Today is Wild Turkey 101, but the Jimmy Russell's 70th anniversary release. So, from Wild Turkey's website, this collector-worthy release is an eight-year-old, 101-proof bourbon with an additional blend of eight to eight-year-old 101 proof bourbon with an additional blend of eight to nine year old whiskeys, hand selected from a few of jimmy's favorite rick houses. The bourbon offers rich aromas of oak honey, cinnamon and tobacco and a palette marked by sweet cream, butterscotch and black tea notes that transitions to bitter chocolate, dark cherry and burnt sugar. Now, this is from campari's group, of course, from wild turkeys distillery in Zishun Sub-Bitter Chocolate, Dark Cherry and Burnt Sugar. Now, this is from Campari's Group, of course, from Wild Turkey's Distillery in Lawrenceburg, kentucky. It's straight bourbon. It's at least eight years old, 101 proof 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley, and it goes for about $50. Oh, this is fantastic.
Nathan Mumm:I love this. I don't know about Mr Gorday. What are you thinking on this so far? You know it's kind of nice. I don't want to give away. But wow, I haven't had. You don't want to give it away. Oh, this is really good. I haven't had really good whiskey in a while.
Marc Gregoire:The question is what does Mark think about it? We will see during the mumble.
Nathan Mumm:After we do your mumble, I have something special for you and your whiskey connoisseurs.
Marc Gregoire:Is it a Valentine's Day gift? A belated one.
Nathan Mumm:It's kind of a belated Valentine's Day gift for all of those people there.
Marc Gregoire:Don't forget to like and subscribe. In addition, please comment. Let us know if there's a whiskey you want us to review. If we have it, we'll put it on for you and we'll tell you what we think about it. And drink responsibly. Heaven can wait.
Nathan Mumm:Perfect. Thank you so much. All right, with our first whiskey tasting completed, let's move on to our feature segment. Today, our technology expert, Nick Espinosa, is joining the show. He's an expert in cybersecurity and network infrastructure, has consulted with clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 100 level. In 1998, at the age of 19, Nick founded Windy City Networks, which was later acquired in 2015. He then created Security Fanatics, where he is the chief security fanatic. We welcome Nick to the Comcast video stream. Let's start our next segment.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the segment we call Ask the Experts With our tech time radio expert, Nick Espinoza.
Nathan Mumm:All right Hi.
Nick Espinosa:Nick, how you doing Good. Good, you know I got to say something, mike. Honestly I wouldn't knock online dating man. I mean my chatbot wife and six AI kids take exception to this.
Mike Gorday:Sorry, I didn't mean to offend them, that's all right's right, all right, okay.
Nathan Mumm:Well, nick, tell us a little bit about yourself for new listeners that are listening to our program. Tell us a little bit your background. Uh, besides being on our show for going on three plus years now as a special guest, tell us a little bit about that yeah, yeah.
Nick Espinosa:so I'm the chief security fanatic of security fanatics. We do all all things cybersecurity, cyber warfare, cyber terrorism, infrastructure, government compliance. I've done a few Ted talks, all that kind of stuff. You know I have a regular podcast and write for Forbes on occasion and some other outlets, so I love hanging out online. So come say hi, I'm happy to be here.
Nathan Mumm:Perfect, all right. So, nick, we got to talk about DeepSeek, right? So the AI that can replace all AI companies for fractions of the price, time and labor. It's going to make us all use this AI. Now I tried to sign up for DeepSeek and it was crashing, so it didn't allow me to sign up. And then I tried to sign up for it again and it crashed and didn't allow me to sign up. So tell us a little bit. What is DeepSeek From your point of view as an expert? Are we concerned about this Chinese AI alternative?
Nick Espinosa:What Chinese products are possibly bad and harmful and malicious People. Comrades, the DeepSeek AI is here for all of us. Now. This is absolutely insane. I did, I've done actual testing. You can literally go watch videos I've done on this, and probably one of my most viral social media posts was actually testing to see if it was sending back to China. But yeah, to your point. Essentially this is the bomb that that knocked a trillion dollars off the economy globally in a single day, because they basically put out a chat gp. Uh, chat chat gpt. Competitors said they did it for a mere fraction of the cost and then gave it away to the world. Anybody can go download this thing on github and run it on much less firepower than a chat gpt need, so it absolutely changes the game. Now, is it as good as chat gptT? Well, I tested it against 01, chatgpt 01, and yeah, it's pretty solid. It's actually a lot faster to calculate and respond and whatnot.
Nick Espinosa:I also tested it from the website, but I found a couple of different things that I thought was absolutely fascinating. First things first. It absolutely is bias and censorship. I mean, does the Chinese government like to talk about Tiananmen Square? Neither does their AI, and I think those are things basically to talk about, but I think part of it too is that it may have the ability to insert some pro-China disinformation into the world.
Nick Espinosa:So one of the questions that I actually asked it when I was experimenting with it and then comparing the exact same question to the response of ChatGPT, was which 10 countries are the worst or, I'm sorry, which 10 countries are the best countries in the world? You know, and it gave me very similar lists, et cetera, et cetera. Norway and Canada and most of Scandinavia was on the list, you know. But it also had some interesting ones, because when I really started going after it and asking about the top 10 greatest leaders in the world, it actually introduced Mao into the equation. Now, Mao, by all means, has a whole lot of human rights violations to his name, but here we are and these AIs sound really authoritative and so, by virtue of that, people would say that and say, oh, mao's one of the top 10 leaders number nine for the record on Deep Seek, when all historians would totally disagree with that one. On top of it. I asked it what 10 countries were the worst for human rights. It actually spit out an answer, immediately deleted it and then told me sorry that's beyond my current scope, but I read what it wrote and it started to say the top three, which were North Korea, syria and China. So it understands it.
Nick Espinosa:Like I said, I did an entire slideshow on YouTube on this one. It was wild. I also caught it in our lab at work, basically sending data back to China on a completely clean computer. The only place the computer had ever gone to was the DeepSeek official website and I took screenshots and all that. You can find that on social media. It's absolutely nuts.
Nathan Mumm:All right, absolutely nuts. So are you worried about it taking over for OpenAI or any of these other American competitors out there?
Nick Espinosa:Yes, here's my biggest fear with DeepSeek Is that, because it's free to the world, research institutions, companies, all this kind of stuff are going to say, wow, we get a chat GPT model, essentially for free, that we can download, manipulate and use, and nobody's going to go through the code, you know, to basically get rid of the data mining or surveillance aspects or really understand the potential biases that it can slowly creep in, you know, over time.
Nick Espinosa:And so, by virtue of that, what you're doing is you're essentially training generations to basically learn from artificial intelligence, just like a chat GPT, but the information delivery may be very skewed towards a pro-China position, when the facts of the world may not say that. On top of it, again, if this is being adopted by corporations essentially to tweak it for their own needs, could this potentially data mine as well? What we need is code-based reviews on this. And, for the record, they say they got this going for $6 million. Nobody believes that. It definitely costs them more than that, but it's still a fraction of what ChatGPT is. So this is literally, I think, just a virtual bomb drop in the AI community.
Mike Gorday:See and this is why I love AI buddy.
Nathan Mumm:This is why you love AI All right, okay, well, speaking about AI, they just lost a major copyright intellectual property lawsuit which sussed presidents for other lawsuits. Can you explain a little bit about this ruling here?
Nick Espinosa:Yeah, I'm actually a big fan on this one and this is something that I think is a long time coming, and Thomson Reuters just basically has a shot in the arm to the creators of intellectual property against AI, because Thomson Reuters just won the first major copyright case against artificial intelligence in the United States. So back in 2020, thomson Reuters filed a lawsuit against an AI startup called Ross Intelligence. They focused on legal AI, in other words, if you're a lawyer, you can go use them and so in this complaint, thomson Reuters basically said that Ross Intelligence reproduced material from Westlaw. Thomson Reuters owns Westlaw, which is essentially like a terminal and access for lawyers to get essentially access to all the legal precedent and rulings, et cetera, et cetera, across the United States. And so a couple of days ago, a judge actually ruled in Thompson Reuters' favor, basically saying that, yeah, they totally ripped you off and they were trying to spin up a competitor to Westlaw using Westlaw's intellectual property, and so it opens up two major things. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Nathan Mumm:No, we were just laughing, I was laughing things.
Mike Gorday:I'm sorry, go ahead. No, we're just laughing. I was. I was laughing, it's all. It's funny to me that, uh, this whole thing started with one law firm using the law to get unlawful information from another competitor well, you know, hey, lawyer ball is lawyer ball, right and lawyers will tell you to get it in writing and then the other lawyer will tell you it's not worth the paper it's written on.
Nick Espinosa:So you know you can do the math on that one.
Nathan Mumm:That's why they charge you $399 an hour for that. There you go.
Nick Espinosa:Legal fees ain't cheap, that's right. Not at all, but you need a good lawyer in your life at some point, hopefully not criminal. So with that major cans of worms here across, basically, the legality of artificial intelligence. First, it's obviously a clear win for creators like George RR Martin of Game of Thrones fame, like he's in the process of suing OpenAI, as is Sarah Silverman, the comedian who wrote a book, et cetera, et cetera. It's also, though, a blow to platforms that use the concept of fair use. Now, artificial intelligence companies will basically defend, saying that there's a four-pronged system of fair use, and courts use this to determine whether, essentially, an AI is ripping off or any other intellectual property.
Nick Espinosa:So they look for the reason behind the work, like why is the work being created? They look for the nature of the work. Is it, you know, like letters, poetry, nonfiction, any other kind of creation, artwork, et cetera, et cetera. The amount of copyright work used. In other words, are you making a derivative of the original? There's a very famous Andy Warhol case about that, with Prince, I believe was the subject of the picture and then, finally, how basically it would impact the market value of the original. So if you're stealing Westlaw stuff, repackaging it as Ross Intelligence, then, yeah, you're definitely going directly after, essentially, westlaw and Thomson Reuters. So they won and here we are, so it's a good thing.
Nathan Mumm:All right, there we go. So let's talk about some state-sponsored hacking groups now working with cyber criminal gangs and at the same time, I want you to kind of talk about our nation's cybersecurity protection at the moment. So I talked about this on last week's show, where we have some of our smartest minds that have decided to take a nine-month journey of retirement in payment, so kind of in the same type of deal. How is our nation's cybersecurity protection at the moment? And talk to us a little bit about these state-sponsored hacking groups.
Nick Espinosa:Sure. So, as it stands right now, when I'm thinking about, essentially since the inauguration, what has happened, it's all aboard the hot mess express, because basically within the first 48 hours, we saw top advisory roles, meaning those veterans in cybersecurity, at CISA, secret Service and just Department of Homeland Security in general, essentially lose their jobs. Now I've been through transitions of presidential transfers of power from one president to another, and there's usually a handoff the incoming team basically gets up to speed with the outgoing team on what they're tracking philosophy, intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. Now, the incoming team may have a different standard or different process, but the point is there is a handoff, there's mutual respect and we're talking about nonpartisan people that serve the government, right? And so the way, the only way I can think about it is, if we're on a battlefield, I mean, imagine the general coming and saying let's pull all the top commanders and let the privates figure it out. They'll win the battle for us, right? And so, by virtue of that, there have been reports that have showed that we lost track of Salt Typhoon. This is the Chinese hacking group that essentially was, you know, wiggling their way through our major telecom providers, like the T-Mobiles and Verizons of the world, and so, by virtue of that, it's going to be very hard to play catch up to that and, quite frankly, that's not political, that's just what happened. So I don't know if it's this whole Doge thing where they're just trying to take a flamethrower, to mention the furlough issue of taking a, take the severance, and you know you got nine months off, so so, so these are.
Nick Espinosa:These are very serious issues, and that also dovetails with these new tactics that we're really starting to see, which is state sponsored hackers are essentially collaborating with cyber criminal gangs, as you mentioned, and it makes them much harder to track, and there's this growing collaboration.
Nick Espinosa:So you've got, essentially, espionage on behalf of nation states. On one hand, you've got the ransomware gangs that want financial gain, on the other hand, in other words, they're just ripping you off for money, and so, for the record, there's always been some kind of overlap there, but it's really coming to a point and we're really starting to see that. So Mandiant, the security outfit owned by Google, started recently tracking this, and now we're starting to see other research outfits, from Palo Alto Networks, semantic and some others starting to see similar tools being used, and so, basically, what we're seeing is agencies like Russian and China Intel. They're using ransomware to make themselves look like a gang going after money, when they're actually after espionage. And on top of it, you also have the ransomware gangs that are now leveraging these special hacking utilities that have only previously been identified as being used by intelligence agencies, and so the collaboration is there. The ransomware gangs can do the dirty work as a cutout or possibly augment the workforce. It's a huge mess either way, and it's a very difficult thing for us to address.
Nathan Mumm:Yeah, so it has me concerned a little bit too. We talked about it, and what's really concerning for me is some of the security individuals I know specifically that work for the FBI, cia, different agencies the next day because they have the skills to be successful. And the people that are still working for our government are the ones that aren't able to necessarily get the job, and they're the ones now we're trusting for our government security processes to be in place, and I just hope that we don't continue to go down that rabbit hole and then have just this huge opening Right.
Nick Espinosa:Well, I mean, if you think about it this way, when the cybersecurity infrastructure, security agency is replaced by the cyber ninjas, we're going to have a bit of an issue on our hands. And that's not to mention the fact of the collaboration we have through Five Eyes, the collaboration we have with the Cyber Army, as essentially, you know, russian intelligence is very active, obviously in the war zone, you know, on the technology side. So it's just a problem all around right now.
Nathan Mumm:All right. Last thing here in a couple of minutes Can you explain what happened with Apple that was ordered to secretly break its own encryption and tell the world? They did this. We talked about this I think this was about two weeks ago, was it that it came on out here, but we kind of talked about it briefly. Give us kind of a recap of what happened, why they announced it and why did they decide to actually do this?
Nick Espinosa:Yeah, yeah, this is insane. I absolutely hate this news, but they essentially to your point. They've reportedly been ordered by the UK United Kingdom government. To your point they've reportedly been ordered by the UK United Kingdom government to essentially create a backdoor that would give security officials access to encrypted iCloud backups. Now, this has been the cry of governments all around the world that law enforcement needs to break encryption or have backdoors into encryption in order to catch the criminals. Essentially, what we're doing is creating laws to the lowest common denominator in society, and, by virtue of that, most of us get caught up in it, like 99% of us. Right, we're not murderers, we're not criminals, we're definitely not terrorists, et cetera, et cetera, but now they have access to our stuff in that same way. So here's the thing, though If this was implemented in the UK, british security services wouldn't just have backups to citizens of the UK under their purview, they'd be cracking it for all of iCloud, meaning, why wouldn't they go into an American or a Canadian or Australian account?
Nick Espinosa:That's the problem that we've got, and so, by virtue of that, they were ordered to do this, essentially under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. And essentially in England for the record, it's called the Snoopers Charter. That gives them this right, but they've ordered Apple to do this. Now Apple can appeal, but that doesn't stop the deadlines. In other words, apple still has to do this while they're under appeal and they've also been ordered again under this Snoopers Charter, if you will, to not tell anybody, so as of right now they charter. If you will, to not tell anybody, so as of right now. They could have cracked iCloud, given it to basically the Brits, and we have no idea because they're legally not allowed to tell us. So, essentially, what we know they're going to do is they're going to stop using the advanced data protection. Apple is in the UK, but that doesn't actually satisfy the order that the UK government gave them. It's absolutely insane.
Nathan Mumm:it is all right, well, nick, thank you so much for being a part of our show. How you feeling, mike?
Mike Gorday:nick. Nick is always a good reality. Slap to the face this is why we drink yes I'm reaching for mine right now all right.
Nathan Mumm:can you tell people how they can get in touch with you again after the show if they want to listen to your X posts or other stuff?
Nick Espinosa:Absolutely, you can like share. Follow me on Facebook. I'm still on Twitter slash X, but I'm also on Blue Sky Macedon and YouTube slash Nick Espinosa. So come hang out, come say hi.
Nathan Mumm:All right. Well, we thank you so much for being a part of our show. Bye.
Nick Espinosa:Nick. Thanks, nick, see ya.
Nathan Mumm:All right, that ends our Ask the Expert with Nick Espinosa. Now we have Mike's mesmerizing moment. Welcome to Mike's mesmerizing moment. What does Mike have to say today? All right, mike, here's my question what makes in-game dating something that would become more popular than dating apps?
Mike Gorday:Well, okay, so it's not proximity, but it's length of time that you're communicating with somebody, all right. So one of the interesting things about this is this is not a new thing. I don't know that this is necessarily something that's on the rise, because human beings do this naturally anywhere they go. I I love this idea that we think that, uh, matchmaking is not something that we do in certain areas, but we do this everywhere. Every time you meet a new person you're, one of the key indicators that your brain is going to look for is if it's a mating potential. Okay.
Mike Gorday:So when you're doing these games, you are talking to them and sharing information and sharing, sharing life pieces and experiences. So you're naturally going to create a bond with this, and this doesn't just happen with romantic interest. This happens with online friends. So this is a format, and then we have the length of time that people spend together on these things, like the example we used in the article was that these two people were online from morning to night, and so in that length of time, they're going to share a lot of information that you're just not going to get on a dating app. You just can't get it until you start, but when you go dating. That's your natural inclination is to look for those shared interests.
Nathan Mumm:Okay, okay, all right. Well, that was Mike's mesmerizing moment.
Marc Gregoire:I don't know if it was that mesmerizing, no it is.
Nathan Mumm:You actually have kind of a good experience on this, all right. Well, we're going to take a commercial break when we return. We have this Week in Technology, so now would be a great time to try a little whiskey on the side. See you in a bit. Hey, mike.
Mike Gorday:Yeah, what's up, hey.
Nathan Mumm:So you know what we need people to start liking our social media page If you like our show, if you really like us we could use your support on Patreoncom.
Mike Gorday:Or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, Patreon. If you really like us, you can like us in Patreoncom.
Nathan Mumm:I butcher the English language. You know, you butcher the English language all the time.
Mike Gorday:It's Patreoncom Patreoncom. If you really like our show, you can subscribe to Patreoncom and help us out.
Nathan Mumm:And you can visit us on that Facebook platform. You know the one that Zuckerberg owns, the one that we always bag on. Yeah, we're on Facebook too. Yeah, like us on Facebook. Do you know what our Facebook page is? Tech Time Radio. At Tech Time Radio. You know what? There's a trend here.
Mike Gorday:It seems to be that there's a trend and that's Tech Time Radio, or you can even Instagram with us, and that's at Tech Time Radio.
Nathan Mumm:That's at Tech Time Radio. Or you can find us on TikTok, and it's Tech Time Radio. It's at Tech Time Radio.
Mike Gorday:Like and subscribe to our social media. Like us today.
Nathan Mumm:We need you to like us.
Mike Gorday:Like us and subscribe.
Nathan Mumm:That's it. That's it, it's that simple.
Speaker 1:And now let's look back at this week in technology.
Nathan Mumm:All right, we're going back to February 19th 1971. The first warrant to search for computer data was issued. Now the first warrant was issued in california to search for computer storage. The warrant allowed for the search of key punch computer cards to punch with a proprietary remote plotting program, computer printout sheets of proprietary remote plotting programs, computer memory and other data storage devices magnetically imprinted with proprietary computer programs. The event would lead to an increasingly sophisticated methods of encryption to hide computer files from law enforcement agents. Now law enforcement sees tapes and a directory of files held by a magnetic drum mass storage system built by Spiri ran corporation for a Univac called fast Tran. There you go. That was this week in technology. If you ever wanted to watch some tech time history, with over 230 plus weekly broadcast spanning over four plus years in video, podcasts and blog information, you can visit tech time radiocom to watch our older shows. We're going to take a commercial break. When we return we have Mark's mumble whiskey review. See you after this.
Speaker 3: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. That's S-T-O-R-I-Coffeecom.
Speaker 1:The segment we've been waiting all week for.
Mike Gorday:Mark's Whiskey Mumble. That title says it all, mark, there you go. We're always more concerned about the whiskey than all the other crap that's going on in the world.
Marc Gregoire:All right, what do we got? I've been looking so forward to today, february 18th what?
Nathan Mumm:what is this? Is somebody calling somebody? What was that? Uh-oh, all right, there we go. Was that, mr gorday? Are you getting a personal uh phone call?
Mike Gorday:here. Yeah, hold on, I've I've gotten all my chinese people to to talk to me about what they're getting for us.
Nathan Mumm:All right, okay here. Okay, here we go. Sorry about that. All right, mark, continue on.
Marc Gregoire:Well, today's an exciting day.
Nathan Mumm:All right.
Marc Gregoire:What is today? Today is cow milk while flying in an airplane day. Cow milk while flying in an airplane day. I knew that would wake up Mike from his phone.
Nathan Mumm:There you go. How would you what is who came up with this day? Explain this to us so?
Marc Gregoire:this day commemorates, from 1930, a cow named Nellie J, also known as Elm Farm Ollie, who became the first cow to be flown and milked in an airplane. The event was part of a scientific effort to study the effects of height on cows' ability to produce milk. In the 72-mile flight over Bismarck, missouri, ollie's milk was then put in paper cartons and parachuted down to the spectators to generate publicity, oh wow.
Nathan Mumm:See, it's not just Elon who sends things into space, so you have other people do it, okay, so that became, and today is the official day for that. Other people have celebrated it since then. Or was this a one-time deal?
Mike Gorday:Yeah, this is totally my biggest calendar day of the year right, is it? Yeah.
Marc Gregoire:Totally Now. While Nellie J is celebrating 95 years celebration today, today we're also celebrating 70 years of master distiller Jimmy Russell's 70th anniversary with Wild Turkey, making him the longest tenured spirits master distiller in the world. Wild Turkey is not only lucky to have one Russell, they have three. Okay, grandfather Jimmy, who we just talked about, father Eddie, who is also the master distiller there, and their son, Bruce, who is an assistant distiller there. Now this whiskey, let's okay. Now this whiskey, let's talk about this whiskey.
Marc Gregoire:All right for me drum roll yes, this whiskey is a treat okay, similar to their regular wild turkey 101. However, it dials down the rice spice and increases sweetness and sugar. This is a delicious treat okay for for $50, you cannot go wrong. I just got this bottle and, as you can see, it's nearly empty. I loved it so much I went out and picked up two more bottles. Did you really? I did.
Nathan Mumm:Did you have to buy it someplace special, or was it just available online?
Marc Gregoire:I did not buy it online. Total Wines was carrying it Wow okay.
Mike Gorday:You didn't use your little underground whiskey market.
Marc Gregoire:I did not no, no, total Wines had some shipments and I found out when they came in and went and got myself a few more bottles. Okay, I wish this was a standard for Wild Turkey and not just a special release, because it definitely makes you go, mmm.
Nathan Mumm:That's right, okay, well, you know what? What a great pairing whiskey and technology. Just like scotty pippen and michael jordan can't have one without seriously. Yeah, those are the best two basketball players.
Marc Gregoire:That's a great analogy, you know. But hasn't pippen come out and said he would have been just as great or greater without michael?
Nathan Mumm:yeah, but then he went and played for portland and he wasn't really good, so I don't know what that?
Speaker 3:goes like there All right?
Nathan Mumm:Well, you know what? You can't wait because when we do our pick of the day, I got something special for your group staff coming on up, so let's move now to our technology. Fail, we are out of time. Congratulations, you're a failure.
Speaker 8:Oh, I failed. Did I yes, did I, did I yes, did I yes, did I.
Nathan Mumm:Yes, all right. Well, this week we're going to be talking about a company called Steam. The online game software distributor allowed a game on a system that provided users with malware. Now, I'm a big fan of pirate games, and most pirate games have themes of plunder, sword play and sneaky tactics. So now we have Pirate Fi, a free-to-play video game that steals your credentials and money without you knowing it in real life. The free-to-play game named PirateFi was available on Steam from February 6th to 12th, was downloaded by over 1,500 users, and the game contained the VIDAR info-stealing malware, leading Steam to advise users to reinstall Windows and run a full system scan with updated antivirus software. See, the problem with this malware is it actually went on in and stole any key logging information and screen captures of your uh pc, so anytime you log into your bank or anything like that, it would have your credentials, information and different items. Now users should also check with unfamiliar software and consider an OS reformat as a necessary step.
Marc Gregoire:Holy crap, that's significant. Now, do you think that the game developers knew about this? Oh, absolutely.
Nathan Mumm:Piratefi, developed by Seaworth Interactive, received positive reviews before the malware was discovered. The game was described as a survival game to set with a low poly world. Despite its initial reception, the malware hidden in pirateexe comprised users with credential and data breaching tools. The malware of IDAR targeted users' interest in Web3, blockchain, cryptocurrency and other themes. Steam removed the game and notified users. Impacted users posted warnings on the Steam community page. The developer account was flagged, the game files were modified several times to avoid detection and the original files that were released did not have this malware, so it only had it. As they had an update coming and another update coming, they put this malware in there. The threat actor altered game files, changed command and control servers for credential exploitation. Based on statistics, up to 1,500 people were affected, with some having cryptocurrency withdrawals and bank accounts compromised at over $1.3 million lost. Wow.
Marc Gregoire:How do you like that? So is the theme Don't Play Pirate Games.
Nathan Mumm:Well, you better. Yeah, it's really interesting. So is that Steam's fault because they produced it. So this is going to be a pretty big deal. You got to be careful about any publishers that you load that don't come from probably 1A, 2a or 3A title publishers, and this is PirateFi. Do not load it on your machine unless you want to share money with these pirates.
Marc Gregoire:All right, we're going to head out for our last commercial break. I'm still with Mike, mike's favorite line. I mean, what's my favorite line?
Nathan Mumm:Nothing in life is free.
Mike Gorday:Well, nothing in life is free. I think it's pretty funny that they Pirated your information with a pirate game.
Nathan Mumm:It is kind of funny, isn't it? Alright, we're going to head out For our last commercial break. When we got back, our Nathan Nega is going to surprise you To the utmost. See you after this.
Mike Gorday:How to see a man about a dog. It combines darkly comic short stories, powerful poems and pulp fiction prose to create a heartbreaking and hilarious journey readers will not soon forget. Read how to see a man about a dog. Collected writings for free with kindle unlimited ebook available on kindle. Print copies available on amazon the book pository and more this is your nugget of the week yes, nathan's nugget, we are excited to hear it.
Marc Gregoire:All right here we go.
Nathan Mumm:Oh there, I was running to the whiskey uh table to get what we have here. So let's talk about our Nathan Nugget. Let's say you're the government and you're the IRS and you just decided to remove a whole bunch of people's jobs, but you still want to make sure that you can collect your taxes and evade anything. That goes on. Well, what is the IRS doing? The IRS is planning to acquire the NVIDIA SuperPod AI supercomputer to boost its machine learning capabilities for fraud detection and analyze tax payers behavior. Leon musk's department of government efficiency is establishing a presence in the irs as part of a larger initiative to modernize the federal bureaucracy with a brand new machine, and it's called the sophisticated nvidia superpod ai computer cluster. Who, who's selling it to them? Well, nvidia is going to be.
Speaker 8:Well, maybe Tesla threw it.
Nathan Mumm:Okay, according to a February 5th acquisition document. The configuration integrates 31 individual NVIDIA servers, with each server hosting eight of the company's leading Blackwell processors intended for training and operating AI models that power applications like chat, gpt. The hardware is estimated around $7 million that they decided to put on in to replace individuals that were previously combing through tax information as an individual. Now, we believe the technology here will help identify fraud, theft behavior and make sure that you continue to pay your taxes. There you go, yep. Isn't that great Yep? Alright, now we need to move on to our.
Marc Gregoire:So what's the nugget in there?
Nathan Mumm:What's the nugget, the nugget is that it hasn't been really released. Nobody's talking about this. So the nugget is nobody's talking about it. It's kind of been shuffled underneath. You had to go into some back-end documents to see the February 5th. February 5th's a while ago, so no one's talking about this. I hope that we can get it out there talking about it and people may say, hey, let's keep our regular people instead of other people being replaced with a computer AI. All right, now let's move on to our pick of the day.
Speaker 1:And now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings. Let's see what bubbles to the top all right.
Marc Gregoire:What do we have mark? Well, turkey 101. This is jimmy russell's 70th anniversary release, so it's a special release.
Nathan Mumm:This year, jimmy russell picked those barrels themselves and you got three of these at home then, or do you have two at home and this is the third? This is my third.
Marc Gregoire:This is the third. I got two at home so I got. I got one that's in my box. That will when. I have a craving that I'll grab. And then I got one under the closet or in the closet, deep hidden for in the future In the future.
Nathan Mumm:All right, what are you going to give this? Are you giving this a thumbs up, mike? Yeah, I'll give it a thumbs up.
Mike Gorday:It's not on my really big standout thing, but it is very pleasant and tasteful.
Marc Gregoire:It must have been. I got an empty glass here already.
Mike Gorday:That's more due to the news than the actual flavor.
Nathan Mumm:Is that Nick being on the show?
Mike Gorday:Yeah.
Nathan Mumm:Nick always makes us happy Now love Nick Mark. Yes, your whiskey tasters. This was a whiskey bottle that is no longer being printed from a local distributor. It won our first year's pick of the year. This is law dog. It's a mo whiskey distilled spirits 90 proof. This is one of the remaining two or three bottles that exist of this company because they no longer do a whiskey. I'm going to give this to you guys.
Nathan Mumm:You guys can crack the cork there you go and tell us what you guys think about that. Make sure, chris gets that.
Speaker 1:Everybody else in your little group.
Nathan Mumm:We'll do that at our next whiskey tasting and then you can tell if it's a thumbs up or thumbs down. All right, all right. You know it's been a great show today. You know nothing like learning about AI taking over the.
Mike Gorday:IRS Skynet is waking up folks.
Nathan Mumm:It is. It's going to all be available there because we don't want to pay other people. You know what it's been a great time being on the show today. I always love meeting with everybody here on the roundtable and all of our fans Remember, and all of our fans Remember the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. See you guys next week All right later. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm moment today. In technology. The fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom and join our fan list for the most important aspect of staying 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 techtimeradio. 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 mum's the word have a safe and fantastic week.
