301: Tech Risks Take Center Stage as We Talk DNA Privacy Breaches, Unstoppable Smart‑City Cameras, AI‑Driven Hardware Strain, Wild Research Claims, and Space‑Tech Realities. We Provide Practical Insight and Skeptical Humor | Air Date: 6/2–6/8/26

Episode 301: This week’s episode dives into the tech stories that should keep you up at night. We start with the chilling reality of the 23andMe breach—proof that your genetic code, the one thing you can never change, can be stolen, sorted, and sold to the highest bidder. Then we move to smart‑city surveillance gone rogue, where police camera networks keep recording even after the city tries to shut them down, leaving officials resorting to trash bags and tape while the data quietly flows elsewhere. Add in AI-driven hardware shortages now hitting consumer devices, and the picture gets even more unsettling.

But the unease doesn’t stop there. We tease emerging tech that blurs the line between science and science fiction: Wi‑Fi systems that can identify you through walls, living neuron computers that learn, and AI models struggling to admit what they don’t know. Finally, we ground it all with a space‑tech reality check—from Blue Origin delays to SpaceX’s crypto holdings—reminding listeners that even the companies shaping the future aren’t immune to chaos. If you want the stories that reveal how fragile our digital world really is, this is the episode you don’t skip all coming up on TechTime Radio, with a little whiskey on the side.

-- Full Episode Details:

Your genetic code is now a commodity, and the scariest part is you can’t cancel it, replace it, or reset it like a password. We open with the 23andMe breach and lawsuit, unpacking how credential stuffing can unlock deeply personal genetic data, why DNA privacy is permanent, and what it means when stolen data can be resold and targeted by group. If you’ve ever wondered whether consumer DNA testing is worth the risk, we lay out the tradeoffs in plain terms.

Then we head straight into smart city surveillance with a story that’s equal parts absurd and alarming: police camera networks that can’t be shut off by the city that paid for them. When officials learn data is being shared beyond local law enforcement, the “solution” becomes literal black trash bags over the lenses. It’s funny until you realize it exposes a bigger issue in public tech contracts, license plate reader systems, and who truly controls the technology embedded in daily life.

We also connect the dots between AI infrastructure and your wallet, using the Steam Deck OLED price hike as a real-world signal of component shortages, supply chain pressure, and AI data centers consuming the same memory and compute ecosystem that powers consumer devices. Along the way, we play Two Truths and a Lie with stories about Wi-Fi based person identification and living neuron biocomputing, then talk AI reliability and the push for models that can finally say “I don’t know” instead of hallucinating. We close with a space tech reality check from Blue Origin and a blunt conversation about SpaceX’s Bitcoin holdings and why crypto still feels like speculation to a lot of people.

If you like tech news that’s practical, skeptical, and still fun, subscribe for weekly episodes, share this with a friend who loves debating privacy and AI, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Weekly Lineup

0:00

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, hmmm. 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 Mum. Welcome to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mum, 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 Mum, your host and technologist with over 35 years of technology expertise. Our co-host, Mike Ordet, is in the studio. He's the award-winning author. The award-winning author. Human behaviors expert and famously known on the internet as Mike, the AI guy. Sure. All right. Grumpiest guy on the internet. It's coming up next, right? All right, here we go. We live stream Dearnon's show on six of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, Twitch.tv, Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Kick and Rumble. We encourage you to visit us online at techtimeradio.com. Become a Patreon supporter at patreon.com forward slash techtime radio. We're friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology show possible each week for our family, listeners, and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have Peyton slash Odie, our producer at the control panel today. So we are training a new Odie, a new board person. So sound up, sound down, sound up, sound down. All right, welcome everyone. Let's start today's show. See, it's the red now on today's show. All right, welcome to Tech Time Radio, the pack show. We bring back the most famous technology game in the world on Tech Time Radio. All right, and of course, we have our standard features, including this week in technology, our technology fail of the week, our Nathan Nugget and Pick of the Day whiskey tastings. We have our selection picks here, so Mark's got lots to tell us about. And if we're really, really lucky, we may get Mike the AI guy. But now it's time for the latest headlines in the world of technology.

23andMe Breach And DNA Fallout

2:31

Here are our top technology stories of the week. All right, story number one. California Attorney General says millions of people trusted 23andMe with that data, and that trust has now been broken. I don't know that that's news. We talked about we talked about what was going to happen a year ago. Yeah, we did. We said that what happens when you do that. You know what? We're gonna go to our tech tight insider, Jennifer Merrick, for more on this story. Thanks, Nathan. California Attorney General Bob Bonta announcing a lawsuit against the company now known as Chrome Holding, alleging that its predecessor, 23andMe, failed to protect customers in a massive 2023 breach. Nearly seven million users had deeply personal information exposed, not just names, but genetic traits, ancestry, and even data tied to biological relatives. Investigators say hackers used a common tactic called credential stuffing, essentially reusing stolen passwords from other sites to break into accounts. But the follow didn't stop there. Some of that data was later sold online, with listings reportedly highlighting specific ethnic groups. This isn't just a privacy issue. It's permanent. Now, back to the studio. I think we should just all give just put all of our information on the dark web. Just on the dark web? I think, yeah, I think I think we should just go ahead and just do that ourselves. Well, guess what? You can do that right now. 23andMe's data is available for purchase. Yeah, we thought we talked about that before when they were going through that. The first time when they only got purchased by the Chinese company. Yep, the first time. How much do you think your DNA would be worth on the dark web? I don't know. Wasn't I supposed to ask you that question? You're supposed to ask how much how much is your DNA worth on the dark website? But if I told you everybody's DNA on the dark web is worth eight cents. Eight cents. I can find out all of your DNA information for eight cents. Eight cents. I'm worth eight cents. There is a requirement of that eight cents. I have to spend a minimum of a dollar to get that. So uh to buy 12 people. Yeah, I gotta buy like 12 people's DNA so that I can have the DNA that's available there. So you know, some people treasure DNA, think it's the most valuable part about who you are, but I guess eight cents is uh telling you how much your DNA is worth or thieves. Wow. Now, let me ask a question here. It's okay if your social media account gets hacked. What's the worst thing you do? You change a credit card, you change a password. But guess what? In DNA, you just can't go out and get a new one. You know that? Once your DNA has been leaked out there, it's pretty much gone forever. Now, the case is gonna continue to go on with 23andMe. And the bigger question for the whole tech industry is why is companies not protecting the most personal data we have? Because they don't have to. And because of that, tech gets more personal, the risks get a whole lot bigger. Nobody cares. We are gonna be at a point someday where all of our information will just it'll just be so easy to get that we'll just have to create our own new information. You know, I create my own new information every day. Okay, there you go. All right, so okay. Well, that is the breaking story. It's kind of a sad story. I know we don't like lean out with which we're supposed to eat we're supposed to do the sandwich method. I'm just gonna put it positive, negative, positive. But uh it was kind of positive. At least you know your your DNA is worth a little bit of money. I'm gonna I'm gonna just put it out there. Yeah. We told you so. Okay, all right. We told you. Let's go

Trash Bags Beat License Plate Cameras

6:11

to story number two. I'm sure that's gonna be a much better story. I'm sure it is. Do you know what a flock camera is? Uh flock camera. If L O C K. What's a flock camera? So those are the ones that are you get me for the failing to stop at a stop sign and in and moving through. They they send me a ticket, I think, right? Uh yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the future of smart cities because apparently it now comes with drawstrings and a faint scent of kitchen trash. Oh what? Explain that to me. Imagine cruising through town. Yeah, you glance up at one of those sleek high-tech police cameras, okay, and it's wearing a black garbage bag instead. Okay, is that not broken, not removed, just covered up. Like your leftovers. Okay. Welcome to Dayton, Ohio, where the cutting edge of surveillance technology is currently being defeated by something you can buy at a 7 Eleven. Okay. So why are city workers out there playing ghost costume with expensive equipment? Because those cameras meant to track license plates for local law enforcement, are quietly sharing data with federal agencies like ICE, and yes, officials say it was accidental, which is always comforting, you know, like when you accidentally send a text to the wrong person. Except in this case, it's millions of data points potentially feeding into a national database. Turns out all it took was one misfigured setting, one little checkbox where uh somewhere deep in the menu nobody reads. Now, where it goes from tech hiccup to you've got to be kidding me is when the city realized what was happening. They tried to shut the cameras down, which is a logical move, right? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. But not. Uh, because they don't actually own the cameras. That's right. The city pays for them, installs them, and depends on them, but control lights with the company that owns it. Oh, really? That's gotta be a pretty that's a good gig, right? That's like twenty-three and me. So removing them outright could mean contract penalties and a whole lot of legal headaches. So basically the city found out it's living in its own house, but somebody else has a key. So what do you do when you can't turn something off, you can't remove it easily, and you definitely don't want it running. You improvise. Okay, and then enter the trash bag. So you're saying the most simplest idea here is forking technology today, a trash bag. Officials literally started covering the cameras with black plastic bags to stop them from recording. And honestly, there's something beautifully absurd about that. All this advanced technology, AI systems automated tracking, real-time data, and the best countermeasure is putting a bag over your head. Say kind of like the Cleveland Browns uh football team fans, I guess. You know, they always put the case. I don't know anything about that because I'm not a I'm not a big sports watcher person. There you go. All right. Here's the part that should make everyone pause, though. This isn't just one city, similar situations are popping up elsewhere, raising bigger questions about who really controls the technology embedded in our communities. Because when a system meant to protect quietly turns into something else, and you need a household supplies to shut it down, well, it might be time to rethink who's actually in charge. So then the lesson is simple in the battle between high-tech surveillance and low-tech solution. Don't underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned trash bag. So so there's cameras all across Ohio that now have black trash bags in them. Now you're gonna have private citizens that are gonna go up and put it in. You're now gonna create legislation that says you can't do that. Story number three. You know

Steam Deck Prices Jump 40%

9:51

what? I I just filled up my uh car for some gasoline here. You know, uh guess what happened to the prices? The prices was I think everybody knows what's happening to prices right now. What is it? They're they're going up. They are going, they are they are hitting historical highs. Historical highs. You know what? Well, so prices go up, prices go up, and prices go up, even into technology. Wow. After months of waiting, finally, gamers were excited to see the Valve's new sleek OLED Steam Deck, the brighter screen, better battery, and ultimate portable PC experience. For many, it wasn't just a console, it was their dream device. Is this your dream device? Uh, I have one. Well, but then I I let my one of my kids borrow it. So I don't know if I do if if you let your kids borrow something, do you actually still have it or do you not have it? I uh Mike, if you if what happens to that? Well, I think it depends on whether or not your kid is an adult. Okay, so if it's an adult if it's if it's still your kid, then you own the kid, so anything you give them, you own. Okay, I I get you I get you that. So if it's an adult, does that mean that they now own it? Uh well, if you you know, if you're at beggars nor boroughs be that. That's right. Well, okay, well, here we go. Guess what happens? The price has gone up. No, without a single new piece of hardware, Valve quietly raised the price by more than 40%. Suddenly that 512 gigabyte model jumped from nearly $800, and the one terabyte version now is per is pushing closely to $950 to a grand. The reason not a redesign, not a new feature, just the evolving backbone of tech, raising memory costs, supply chain pressure, and global surges in demands for the same components powered by these AI data centers. See, the everybody wonders why I'm always complaining about AI, but nobody oh whines about it, and then then we come to this, right? Well, a AI is becoming such the hot thing that now this is this is a good social experiment. Yeah to see whether or not all these prices that are going up on all your tech is going to ruin the other sectors of tech industry while AI is ruining the the tech industry infrastructure. Well, gaming PC definitely is competing with artificial intelligence for parts. So now when you're talking about a new machine coming on out for a grand, it may now be fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars. That's yes, that's so nobody nobody buys it. I would hope. I would hope. Well, no, they're still Steam Deck is completely sold out, so you can't even buy one of these devices right now. See, that's that's the I bought the cheaper early version. I was the first. Anybody ever wonders why some of these massively dumb things happen in America? Yeah. Or the world. This is why. Is it all just AI? Because people will still buy it. Okay, that's it. That's the problem with it. All right. Well, guess what? That ends our top technology stories of the week. Next we have the game show, the sweeping the nation, where your listening audience can participate. You have a chance to outdo our studio in two truce and a lie. But right now we're gonna hit 88 miles per hour on our next adventure. See you after this commercial break. Looking for custom glass solutions for your next commercial project? Heartongue Glass Industries is your trusted partner in custom glass fabrication. For over 100 years, Heartongue has delivered proven manufacturing expertise, comprehensive product offerings, and dependable service and quality. From energy-efficient facades to custom shower doors, we create glass solutions tailored to your project needs. With eight facilities across the U.S. and Canada, we combine national expertise with a local touch-insuring faster service and unparalleled customer care. Hardton Glass Industries, where quality meets innovation. Visit Hardtoneglass.com to learn more.

Blind Single Malt Whiskey Tasting

13:52

Welcome back to Tech Time with Nate the Mum. Our weekly show covers the top technology subjects without any political agenda. We verify the facts, we do with a sense of humor in less than 60 minutes, and of course, a little whiskey on the side. Today, Mark Craig, our whiskey connoisseur, is not in the studio. So Odie has helped picking up the Slack by connecting him across the whole pond. Now he's over in Europe, so we do have our tasting. So, Mark, explain to us what are we doing to the listeners and where are you at? Yeah, what are we doing to the listeners? Well, the listeners probably know more than you guys because listeners uh pay attention. Okay. Using the 2025 Flavor Whiskey Aven Calendar. 24 remarkable whiskeys used for our year-long blind. So come along for the ride once a month as they uncover the new taste and train for the second year. See if they can be too Cronus. So today is round one, six of six. So these are the final ones as we go through the first round of all the whiskeys. And hopefully you can choose a winner together, because if not, I will be the your deciding vote. You don't want me voting on today. Today you're you're tasting single malts. Uh mostly American, one from China, just to keep everyone honest. This is a nice reminder that Scotland is no longer the only one allowed to play this game. Now, while Scotch single malt whiskey was first documented back in 1494, American single malt whiskey only became an officially defined category, and the TDB finalized it January 2025. Okay. So tonight's lineup is a mix of old world history, new world ambition, and at least one poor that'll probably confuse somebody in the studio. I'm already pointing to my own. Yeah, Mike's like no. And I'm like, oh, I like this one. And Mike's like, yeah, no. No. So I must be, I don't must be the one that I shouldn't like. Okay. All right. Where are you at over in Europe today? Well, I'm still in Dijon, so I'll be in Dijon for the rest of the time until I uh end up back in the States in about a month. Okay, I still need to set up uh an email. I I had two listeners ask me if uh I had set up the email with you yet so you can go and visit a very nice stove factory, and I did not. So I I need to make sure I do that before the end of today. So look in your inbox, it'll be in there, Mark. So all right. All right, all right. Yeah. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe for our listeners and drink responsibly. Evan can wait. All right, Mark, you're gonna need to stay on for this part here, so don't you go anywhere because we got two truths and a lie. So I'll tell you that I want to make sure that you know what's going on in, of course, the game that is sweeping the nation. All right, with our whiskey tasting completed, let's move on to our feature

Two Truths And A Lie Game

16:40

segment. Today, it's all about the game show. You know what? Two truths and a lie. And now we have two truths and a lie. All right, very simple on how we actually play this game. This game is, I will read to you guys articles that I've printed off online. Two of these stories are legit, and one of these stories is not. Now, the one story that is not legit, use ChatGPT, OpenAI's newest model to create a story that would mimic a tech story that we are covering today. All right, so let me uh go here. Mark, make sure you're paying attention and listening to uh Peyton. Welcome to the show. You get to pay attention to this. You and Odie have to decide together on which one of these stories is going to be here. So, story number one Wi-Fi can now identify people without cameras and privacy. Experts are alarmed. A team of researchers in Germany have demonstrated a technology that sounds like it belongs in a spy movie, not a university lab, that is shown that ordinary home Wi-Fi routers, the same ones sitting in millions of living rooms, can identify who's in the room simply by analyzing how radio waves bounce off their body. No cameras, no microphones, no special hardware, just the router you already own. Here's how it works when the Wi-Fi signal travels through a room, they scatter off walls, furniture, and importantly, people. The research team developed a machine learning model that studies these tiny distortions in the signal. Over time, it learns the unique movement signatures of each person, the way their body shape is, and their micro motions affect how the radio waves bounce back. In controlled tests, the researchers were nearly perfect on identifying accuracy even when people weren't moving that much. What makes it so unbelievable is how passive it is. You don't need to install anything, you don't need any permission. If someone is inside the range of your Wi-Fi, the system can theoretically identify them. So now privacy experts are sounding the alarms. This warns them that this can turn into home router silence tracking. This could be used by landlords, employers, and even governments or Batman. Or Batman without without people ever knowing. Supporters urge that this could be used for elderly care monitoring, fall detection, or security systems that don't rely on cameras. Critics say it opens the door to a whole new era of invisible surveillance. Story number one Wi-Fi can now identify people without cameras. I think that comes right out of the dark night. Right out of the dark night movie itself? Okay, here you go. Story number two. AI is not friendly in the skies yet. Western uh Shuan Regional Airlines, a small commuter carrier based in China, suspended its AI assisted flight program after an autonomous autopilot module made an unexpected altitude change in a short hop. The AI system developed by Shezing Robotics from Aeromine Systems briefly misinterpreted weather radar returns as a micro burst thrust, prompting a rapid climb that triggered the TCAS alert system for the nearby jet. Pilots immediately took manual control and the aircraft aircraft landed safely. China's civil aviation administration ordered the airline halt all AI supported flights while investigators analyzed flight data logs and the AI sensor fusion stack, which blends radar, ADSB, and terrain prediction input models. Aero Mine Engineers says the issues stem from a rare conflict between the aircraft's older Honeywell radar unit and the AI's predictive weather model. The airline has logged more than 200 supervised hours with the system and helps reduce fuel burn and short uh haul turboprop routes. Western Shiz Shizin was temporarily reverted to standard autopilot systems while Airmine prepares a software patch. At all times there is a pilot on board, so no one was ever in jeopardy. Okay. That's story number two. Story number three. Scientists build a living AI computer using human brain cells. And a breakthrough that sounds like a plot from a futuristic thriller. Scientists have successfully created a working AI system built from living human neurons combined with electric circuits. The hybrid device, part biological, part silicone, can learn, adapt, and recognize patterns, making it the first real steps towards what researchers call biocomputing. It isn't a brain, it's not a consciousness, but it's a biological computing device and how it works. Scientists say this could lead to ultra-efficient AI hardware that uses fraction of the power required by today's GPUs. Instead of massive data centers and megawatts of electricity, future AI systems could rely on tiny clusters of the living cells that they learn naturally. Now, here's what makes it extraordinary. Human neurons are incredibly efficient. They can perform complex operations using only tiniest amounts of energy. By growing a small cluster of neurons on a specialized chip, researchers were able to train the cells to respond to electrical signals, strengthening certain pathways and essentially learning in real time. Time. In an early test, the living AI could distinguish between difference of electrical patterns and improve its like accuracy and electricity the more it was trained. Alright, so we got three AI. So this time today's today's Nathan choices are Wi-Fi can identify cameras. Okay. Uh AI is not friendly in the sky. Cyborg. Okay. And normal, normal AI problems. And normal AI problems. So we got two fantastic stories and one non-fantastic story. Okay. Okay. So what it what is what what are you going with here, Mike? I'm not gonna make a decision right yet. Okay, Mark. Coyote says. Uh let's go to Mark, all right. Mark, that you you've been listening to this. Mark, what do you think? Uh let's see. That was a good example for the bat phones. I was thinking dolphins for the first one. Okay, okay, okay. Wi-Fi. All right. And and I like that one. AI from Living Cells seems crazy. So I'm gonna go with the middle one, the one with the AI in the sky. You're gonna go with AI and the sky is fake. Okay, that's that's kind of the my logic when I'm dealing with Nathan's story, is to pick the two that sounds like Nathan, and then the one that's not Nathan is the one that's false. Okay, okay, all right, okay. So you're going with AI not in the sky, too, then, Mike? No, I didn't I didn't say that. I'm just saying that's how I usually the game. That's the game. No, the game is the story. The game is how does Nathan think? How does Nathan think? For anybody playing at home, you're just supposed to pick out the one story that it's not correct. All right, we're gonna go to Peyton. Peyton and Odie, what do you think? Nodi's shaking her head. What do you what are you guys thinking on your guys' board here? What do you what do you guys have? I'm thinking the second one. You couldn't pronounce any of the words. Uh any of the words? The AI is not friendly. Yeah, the AI is not friendly. Okay, that just seems a little extreme. Okay. I don't know. Okay. It's also an anti-AI story, which is not Nathan. That's true. So see how this is how we come to our conclusions. Okay, so this is the psychology of it. Okay, so you're going with the AI in the skies, too. Okay. I don't like the little gleam in your eye that you got. Well, what are you gonna choose? Okay, hold on. I think you should choose that one too. It'd just be a sweep. Uh no, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do that. Which one? Okay, I okay, wait a second. You just choose one. I can't. Which story has sounded the fake? That's it. They all sound fake. I want them all to be fake. Okay. All right, so how this works. Two or true. I think the first one is the fake one. Yeah, it's either the first or the second one. The Wi-Fi can't identify people. Yeah, the Wi-Fi being able to identify you by radio waves. I'd maybe identify me with my phone and what I search on the internet, but by radio waves. Okay, all right. I'm so I'm gonna go with that. That one sounded the the most real to me because that that that's that technology sounds that technology sounds so possible, though. Okay, well, that's that's the problem. It all sounds possible. You know, and I know I know that we're trying to make cyborgs sounds as much as build a living computer, AI computer using human brain cells. Nobody choose that one. All right, that's the most outlandish one. That surely can't be true. That surely can't surely stop calling me surely that is true. Sciences are building a living AI computer with uh the ability of human neurons to add to electronic circuits. So now it comes down to AI in the skies, and Wi-Fi can identify people. Well, let me just tell you, Wi-Fi can now identify people without cameras, and privacy experts are alarmed. It is true. Absolutely. This is fully in place right now. Wi-Fi does more than you think. It can clearly identify everybody in a room, size uh of the person, and identify it taken care of. So the incorrect in the false story was AI is not friendly in the skies yet. Arrow mine systems. You know what happens when you chat GPT write stuff? They actually put all these freaking names in here that you can't read. I didn't and I didn't pre-read it to say that. No, that's not that's not how it works, man. It it works because now I know that I chose the wrong one, but I did it, I did it to, you know, make a point. Okay. That I already identified the the wrong the right one earlier on. Yeah. And then they identified it the right one earlier because we all know how you think. Okay, there you go. AI is not yet in the skies, but you know what? The story does come from a basis of truth where they are now currently testing that with pilots. Uh and they had this problem, but it is not fully developed or have been implemented at this time. So it's a false slash, they're working on it type of thing. All right, no, we're all about AI, so let's move on to our next segment. Now, Mike, I know that you're so excited about Mike the AI guy song. We have the full version that you've asked to play here so we can listen to it to bring you into this segment. We have the grumpiest guy in the world coming up! Somebody still got an iPhone! All right. Yeah. All right.

Claude Opus Learns To Say I Don’t Know

28:36

What do you got for us, Mike? Well, you know. It's AI stuff. Yep. What do you think the hardest things to say in English is three words? The hardest thing to say. What do you think the three words are hard that people find hardest to say? I I I know the I'm sorry. I am sorry. I'm sorry. I am sorry. That is Or I love you. Or I love you. Yeah, no, it's I don't know. I I am sorry, I love you. I am sorry, and I love you. Okay. No, no, no, never mind. For AI is I don't know. Okay. I don't know. All right. Right? So all the geniuses, all those ultra geniuses that are trying to make I AI more human have finally gotten it to admit the the those three words. So it's no longer hallucinating then. Uh well, that I don't think that's true either. Okay, all right. Anthropic just rolled out Claude Opus 4.8, and the biggest upgrade isn't that it's faster or smarter, it's finally able to stop pretending it knows everything. So instead of being a know-it-all, it's not a know-it-all anymore. Okay. Because let's be honest, AI up until now has been like that one friend who answers every question with confidence and is wrong about half of them. Okay. Right? Yeah, that was back that that must have been me back in high school. That's you now. That's me now. Oh wow, all of you guys said that. Wow, okay. Yeah. All right. You ask it something complicated and it goes, yeah, absolutely, and then it uh just invents an answer, like it's writing fanfiction, right? But this new version actually pauses and says, Yeah, I've got nothing. And believe it or not, that might be a breakthrough. It's scoring near perfect on honesty tests, which I'm not sure how they apply that. Meaning instead of making things up, it just admits when it doesn't have an answer, which is wild because now the smartest thing AI can do is know when it's not that smart. So after years of trying to make machines sound more human, we finally taught them the one thing humans struggle with the most, admitting that they don't know everything. That and that's true. Okay. We we never want to admit that we don't have an answer. That is true. Remember that TV show Lie to Me? That is one of my favorite shows ever. I studied I studied all that stuff in my in my uh education track. The biggest thing is is just to be silent. No, if you're silent, right? Then you let the micro. No, no? No, no. I thought you'd ask a question and then just be silent, and then the person would like tell all the information. Now, are you talking about me as the the in interrogator being silent, or you as the person being asked a question? No, the integrity and the person that's asking the questions. Yeah, they need to watch what's going on. Okay, okay. All right. But that has nothing to do with how AI is going to be telling you know it's gonna happen now. What's that? It's gonna overcorrect. What does that mean? That means now it's going to instead of give answers, it's gonna it's just gonna tell you I don't know all the time. It's gonna be honest that it's gonna take over the world. Yeah. You I I think that might be a good thing. Are you are you is AI planning to take over the world? Uh I don't know. So that's just gonna be everything's gonna be. I don't know. I I don't I like I said when we talked about this, um, you know, I stump Alexa all the time. You know, I'll ask it a question and Alexa's like, well, I don't know that. Your your Alexa's really personalized to you because we were we're we were doing that on our prep show. I was I was trying to I was trying to ask it questions and it wouldn't do the same stuff that my Alexa does. No. Your Alexa is a lot more liberal than mine. That's exactly correct. All right, okay. So yeah, so uh now you might be getting uh I don't know's from from your chat GPT, along with all the other stuff that programmers have disallowed your your AI to do, right? No, you can't get your you cannot get your Alexa to swear. You can't get my Alexa yeah, I can't get Alexa to swear. It can't count to 200 or 100, it can't answer direct questions about certain things. But it can sure sell Duracell batteries. Uh it'll tell you. Yeah, it'll it'll tell me all kinds of Amazon purchases that I need to get, but it it will not, it will so this is the problem with this stuff. I this is why I complain about this stuff is that we we are creating this electronic Frankenstein that people are going to trust because our brains work like that, and I don't care what you program it to do, it's still going to give you false information. And now Clyde will just tell you that it doesn't know. Yeah, it'll it'll tell you it doesn't know while it's entering into your into your own computer system and finding all the security holes to breach. You know, the only thing that could be worse is if it kept on asking you why. That's probably next. Why? Why that's probably next. Why? All right, well, Mike, thanks. Nothing better than listening to the AI guy. And now we move on to our secret sound.

Secret Sound And Listener Call-Ins

33:43

And now for our secret sound, brought to us by Elite Executive Services. Visit Tech Time Radio dot com and click on the contact page to submit your answer. Odie, play that sound. All right. Wow. So you know what that secret sound is? The pot is currently at fifty dollars. So if you do, jump online, click on our talk back system, and leave a message at 206-649-6098, 206-649-6098. Uh, we're gonna take a commercial break. Wait, wait. What? Have you changed the the format? No, still it goes up five bucks each week. You're still you're still going with the going up thing. Yeah, we're going up with the thing. So the first person to call in starts with 50 bucks. So all right. We're gonna take this break. When we're gonna return, we have this week in technology. What's that, Mark? Mark, you can't you can't tell the answer on the line uh on the air. So you gotta we we gotta be quiet. I know that most of us know what this is. But it's it's you passing gas. No, that's not me passing gas, or flapping my air, my my hands in an airplane making the sound out of it. All right. We're gonna take a commercial break. So this is a great time to enjoy a little whiskey on the size. See you after this. Hey Mike. Yeah, what's up? Hey, so you know what? We need people to start liking our uh social media pages. If you like our show, if you really like us, we could use your support on patreon.com. Or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, Patreon. If you really like us, you can say I English guy patreon.com. Is it I I butcher the English language? You know you butcher the English language. So it's all the tests. It's patreon. Patreon.com. If you really like if you really like our show, you can subscribe to Patreon.com and help us out. Oh, and you can visit us on that Facebook platform. You know the one that Zuckerberg owns? The one that we always bag on? Yeah, you can 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 there's a trend here. 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. 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. Like and subscribe to our social media. Like us today. We need you to like us. Like us and subscribe. That's it. That's it. That's that simple. And now, let's look back at this week in technology.

Microsoft Nearly Split In Two

36:28

All right, we're gonna go to June 7th, 2000. The decision to not split up Microsoft. A judge made a decision that could have completely reshaped the tech world as we know it. Now, the federal court order was to have Microsoft be split into two separate companies, one for Windows and one for everything else. Sounds huge because it was at the time Microsoft was accused of crushing competition, especially Nextcape, by building its Internet Explorer into Windows itself. But here's what most people don't know. Now the breakup plan was modeled after the ATT split in the nineteen eighties, where regulatories thought that they should reset the tech industry the same way. The judge in the case was literally later criticized for talking to reporters during the trial, which actually hoped Microsoft win its appeal, as reporters would actually explain the technology to the judge and how it worked. And perhaps most interesting, many historians believe that just the threat of breaking up Microsoft opened the door for future competitors, including uh Google. In the end, the breakup never happened. Microsoft stayed intact, paid penalties, and agreed to share some of its technology. But for a moment in 2000, the biggest company in tech almost became two. And the entire history of Silicon Valley would have changed. And that's after after the world was supposed to end. Uh the Y2K. That's correct. That was this week in Technology. If you ever wanted to watch some tech time history or listening with over 300 plus broadcasts spanning five plus years, we're going to take a commercial break here. When we return, we have the Mark Mumble whiskey review. See you after the break. How to See a Man About a Dog. It combines darkly comic short stories, powerful poems, and pulp fiction pros 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. The segment we've been waiting all week for.

Whiskey Review And I Love My Dentist Day

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What? No. We're celebrating uh some type of single barrel something something in France. What? No, no, it's national. I love my dentist day. Oh, okay. Wow, that's gotta be the weakest day ever. Yeah. So let me tell you. I don't care. No, no. Listen, listen, Mike. Check it out. So today is I Love My Dentist Day, which is a way of thanking the people who spend their days poking around in your mouth, and then somehow still ask you if you've been flossing. As if they don't know the answer. Help brighten your teeth and make you smile, Mike. I know, uh I can't help that. Mark's haircut is just so. He looks like Bull from Night Corps. I know he does. Sitting there right now. Continue and on. Mark, sorry about that. Earliest minute Yeah. So dentistry was dates back as a profession, back to the Indus Valley civilization around 7,000 BC. Now by 5,000 BC, people were blaming tooth decay on tooth worms. A theory that lasted until the 1700s. Now ridiculous, yes, but somehow less upsetting than hearing your dentist say you're gonna need a crown. Boom boom boom. Was that supposed to be funny? I don't know. It made Odin laugh, but I don't think it was because of the joke. All right, let's move from the dentist chair to the whiskey table then. Today's four single malts have me thinking a root canal might actually be a better option. Yeah, this problem. Particularly if it meant avoiding the pores in studio with and listening to you guys' nonsense and hot takes. I don't know. But I'll tell you what you're drinking. Okay. Okay. And this and this is in no particular order because I you'll have to tell me later which numbers in which glass. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, we go up by height, right? So this is 12, 13, 16, and 20 on the pole. So I did up by glasses. That doesn't help me. You're you're gonna have to I can't quite see your individual glasses, so you're gonna have to you'll have to tell me after. Okay, we'll tell you which number. We'll tell you which number we select. All right. So you were drinking today, one of them is Lodestar American Whiskey, which is distilled with different distillers in Indiana. It's an American whiskey, non-H-stated, 90-proof. It's a blend of a 70% high rye bourbon and a 30% American single malt. It goes for $35. That's probably the Nathan pick. Then we move on to High Seas San Oaks Chinese Whiskey, the black label, which is made in Shanghai, China. It's a single malt whiskey, non-age dated, 84 proof, 100% Chinese grains, I'm assuming malted barley, $75. Then we move up to Westward Whiskey, Stout Cask American Single Malt Whiskey. This is distilled in Portland, Oregon. It's an American single malt, six years old, 92 proof, 100% Oregon malted barley, and that's $97. And then we go to the final one, which is Courage and Conviction, Double Cash Reserve American Single Malt Whiskey from the Virginia Distilling Company in Livingston, Virginia. American single malt, five years, 96 proof, 100% malted barley, $108. Wow. Wow, okay, $108. That's not gonna be a year's. I can already tell you which one I'm liking. I'm like, this is by far my favorite. How about you, Mike? Yeah. I haven't I haven't picked yet. I've only I've only out outed one. You've only added one. I added, yeah, number 12. Number 12 is like a thumbs down. Yeah. And 13 is the thumbs down for Nathan. Thanks, Mark. All right. Whiskey and technology are such a great pairing. Like the price is right and Bob Barker. All right. Woo! He likes that one. There you go. Let's prepare now for a

Tech Fail Blue Origin Rocket Explosion

42:54

good one. Technology fail of the week by Elite Executive Services. Congratulations. You're a failure. Oh, I failed. Did I? Yes. Did I? Yes. Alright. This week's technology fail goes back to last week's Big Bang Theory. Alright, for poor Blue Origin. Blue Origin's new Glenn Rocket exploded during a ground test. We saw this video. Man, this was just huge. Last week at Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral in Florida, the company was performing a routine static fire test, lighting the engines while the rocket stayed on the pad, but instead of a clean run, the rocket detonated. This wasn't minor either. The vehicle was fully fueled, making it one of the largest rocket explosions in recent U.S. history. And the worst failure Blue Origin has faced. The good news, I guess, all personnel are safe. There's no injuries reported. The bad news this likely delays the new Glenn program, which is key for Amazon satellite launches. NASA's moon mission and the completion of Space X. Now, Blue Origin is calling it an anomaly and says that we got a lot to figure out. All while Elon Musk puts it, rockets are hard, and right now they just got a lot harder. That's exactly what he posted online. Okay. Thanks, Elon. There you go. So uh this is a good thing. That makes me feel good that you're a sad thing because having this actually happen means that now Amazon is behind in the whole process. And Elon Musk is just sitting there enjoying life as it is. Yeah, we're not one step closer to Wally. That's right. All right. And you know what now we need to move into?

SpaceX Bitcoin Stash And Crypto Skepticism

44:36

Our Nathan Nugget. This is your nugget of the week. Okay, guess what? Our nugget is going to be a very interesting segment. And the SpaceX, do you know SpaceX Bitcoin stash is bigger than anyone thought. Now, in a paperwork that was filed with the SEC, it turns out the SpaceX is the largest pile of Bitcoin in any company in the world. The company officially disclosed that it had 18,712 Bitcoin. Roughly 1.45 billion dollars in today's prices. Until now, Bitcoin sluice thought SpaceX had closer to about 8,000 co uh total coins, but they were completely off. SpaceX reportedly built this position back in 2021 during the pandemic crypto boom, spending about six hundred and sixty-one million dollars. The stash shored all the way up to nine hundred and fifty-five million on paper in 2024. And then it dipped again into the 112 million unrealized losses in 2025, but still sits comfortably in the green today. Once the SpaceX IPO hits, the company will instantly become the seventh largest corporate Bitcoin holder, even outranking Coinbase by more than 2,000 coins. Now, Coinbase is the stock symbol that you trade your cryptocurrency. As we see in the studio, we have a a ticker that goes on up there with uh coins and and everything in both crypto and stock market that we look at during the show. It's interesting to see that this rocket company has a significant uh area of Bitcoin. Now Tesla also holds eleven thousand five hundred and nine bitcoins. So let's just pay attention here. Tesla has eleven thousand. And if we go and we take a look at how much SpaceX has, um they are number one and almost number two in bitcoins that are there. So Elon Musk has bitcoins in both of his companies that he has significant value in so let me ask you a question. Yeah. Several years ago, Elon famously went on Saturday Night Live and said it's a hustle. Well, that I think that was kind of about Dodge. Remember, he created his own swing. Yes. But do you think that Doge has something to do with how they acquired all this Bitcoin? Well, I I don't know. You know what? He could because we don't know how much Doge he had. And right now it's uh I just saw the ticker go across there. It's trading for about 10 cents a Dodge coin. During the Saturday night debut, and when he was on Saturday night, it bumped all the way up to a dollar. Yeah. So do you think that's a good thing? So he's on he's on a national, he's on a national TV show and he says it's a hustle. Yeah. You think he knew what he was doing? You think he knew that he was hustling everybody to get this many bitcoins? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he was I you know what? I wonder if he cashed out all of his Dogecoins right in front of the Saturday Night Live type of deal. And then made it all. Isn't that the whole idea behind these uh things is the pump and dump? The pump and dump. That's how you make the money, right? And so let's just be real clear about cryptocurrency. And sometimes we've talked about this and sometimes we haven't. It's a hustle. But none of it. So what is cryptocurrency backed by? Nothing. Nothing. There is nothing that says Bitcoin is going to be worth it. It is taking advantage of human frailty. That's what it is. It's human frailty. Nothing has to do at all with actual backing up of what they have. It is just a thought process that this will be worth X amount at a later time. But you know what? It's kind of like the Pokemon and like baseball cards, all these type of deals where people want to get rich. They think that they can get what they're assigning value to things. Yeah, kind of like the same as the NFTs. Remember the NFTs were the big crazy? I mean, we had you actually doing NFTs. Yeah, did we ever sell any NFTs? They didn't sell a single one. No, we we were we were probably like two months late to that NFT area. Well, you you should have bought it because they're worth millions of dollars now. They still have the the monkeys that are out there though that are worth tons of money that gets traded. So I'm gonna go home and eat real food. Bored apes. Yeah, bored apes, yeah. Remember that? There's still a very trendy NFT that people buy. Do you have any NFTs there, Peyton? No, but at least you can for like a card or something. I physically own it and I can have it in my hand. An NFT, uh it's just a hyperlink at the end of the day. It is all secured because people are dumb. All secured because people want to have stuff. Well, they're not all dumb. People are not all dumb. All right, you know what? I got I gotta I gotta I gotta out Odie here because she she just flashed me a flashcard that said that on it. Okay, now we need to move though to our pick of the day whiskey tastings.

Pick Of The Day And Final Toast

49:39

And now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings. Let's see what bubbles to the top. It's a hustle, Mark. It's a hustle. It's a hustle. Uh Mark, do you have any bitcoins? You want you may you may dance to that? Yeah. Uh-oh. I want to see you dance. Let me see you dance. No, no, no. Oh, look at the moose. All right, okay. Do you have any Bitcoin, Mark? Yes. Okay, okay. All right. You got Bitcoin. Okay, same same here. Just playing around with it. I got Bitcoin too. I got some. I have this plastic thing at home that has a B on it. Is that a Bitcoin? Uh well, it's a plastic coin off of Amazon. That's not the same as actually the encryption that is in there. All right. See, I'm just as well. What are we doing for our pick of the day here? All right. Well, how are we doing? All right. Well, what's your number one? My number one clearly uh night is day is number 16. What it what it what it what which is uh which is a great taste. It's a Glenn Karen. Yep. What do you like, Mike? Uh I'm split between the first three, but I think I'm gonna come down on uh number 13, which is the beer glass. You like that? Uh yeah. Oh, I think it's got a really interesting finish. I had you saying you didn't like that one, Mike, number 13. No, I that was 12. Oh. All right. So you're down on 12. Okay. So we're both down on 12. So and I'm down on 13. So we are not gonna have a decision. I am absolutely not saying that I'm gonna like 13. So I'm absolutely saying I'm liking 16. So we're gonna have to come to Mark. Mark, you're gonna have to make the decision then. I guess you're gonna choose between 13 or 16. Right, the one I would have chosen, neither one of you chose. Which was that, the twenty? Well, let's go through them. So the one you both do not like, number twelve, is the $97 Westward Stout Cask from Portland, Oregon. So that's the one that's uh finished in beer. Keep it weird, keep it weird and keep it out of here. There you go. That's why I didn't like it. It tasted like Oregon. There you go. Okay. All right, continue. The other one that you did not pick is the the Lodestar American whiskey, the $35, the cheapest one. That is a blend of the 70% high-ride bourbon and 30% American single malt. That was in the rocks glass, number 20. Okay. Yeah, which that's one I would have chosen because it's 70% bourbon and it has a little less of the uh see that was my that was my front runner the almost the entire time. Oh, okay. Well, I'll still give that a thumbs up, Mark, but yes, not. Okay, continue. So you got you got 13 or 16. Number 13, chosen by Mike. Chosen by Mike was $108. The Courage and Conviction Double Cast Reserve American Single Molt. Oh. Now I know why Nathan didn't like it because some of it is finished in red wine barrels. And I've said no before. Nathan has never, never, never chosen a red wine barrel. Are you saying that Nathan actually has a pallet? I do. I have a tendency there. That's good. He knows what he does like. He has a consistent th he has a few things he doesn't like, and the rest he dislikes. That's right. That's right. I either don't like it and the rest of it's. So I think we're gonna go with we're gonna go with the outlier. We're gonna choose Nathan's pick, number 16 in the Glen Kirin, which is the Chinese whiskey, the black label from Aussie's Distillery. All right. That goes exactly with Nathan's awesomeness with TikTok. That's right. There you go. He loves TikTok. That's now owned by America, and I don't like it anymore. $75, and it's finished in French, uh oak, American oak, and Chinese oak, and then blended together. So I think that's an interesting uh blend one. And I think that's uh later on, Nathan won't automatically kick it out when we're trying to decide something. So it's gonna make future testings harder. There you go, that makes sense. Well, guess what, Mark? Mike, we're about out of time. We want to thank our listeners for joining the program. Listeners, we want to hear from you by visiting techtime radio.com. Click on be a caller, ask us a question, and we'll uh talk about that on our recording system on the air. So get your free technical questions. Are you signing up from France there, Mark? Uh have a safe journey. Absolutely. You're gonna go have some tastings from all of us at Tech Time. It was an honor to be a host of today's show. Each week we're here to decode the technology that shapes your world. One break through one breach and one bourman at a time. Remember, the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. See you next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. It's a pump on the radio. It's a mic the game. It's a mic dear. Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm today in technology. The fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to TechTimeradio.com 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 YouTube.comslash techtime 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 Mum's the Word. Have a safe and fantastic week.