 This 10th year of Daily Tech News show is made possible by you, the listener. Thank you, including Justin Zellers, Pepper Geesey and Eric Holm. Coming up on DTNs, we're going to talk about that Netflix live stream Fiasco and whether Samsung is really going to ditch Google for Bing. You really going to do that? This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, April 17th, 2023 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt from lovely Cleveland, Ohio. I'm Richard Raffalino, even the heart of Texas. I'm Justin Robert Young. And I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. Oh, my friends, all of you out there working hard, working out, taking a dog for a walk. Let's get you the tech news starting with the Quick Kits. Sega is about to get some avian rage. It announced it intends to acquire Rovio for 706 million euros. Rovio, of course, best known for the Angry Birds game franchise. Subsequently, became a profitable source of licensing for the company. Rovio says its games have been downloaded more than five billion times. Sega hopes Rovio will help it expand its presence in the mobile game market. The Montana House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it illegal for app stores to offer TikTok in the state. The bill now goes to Governor Greg Gianforte for signature. If the bill becomes law, it goes into effect in January, and then there will be fines against app stores in TikTok of $10,000 per day for giving someone in the state the ability to download the app. And just to clarify here, it does not make it illegal to use the app. It's focused on downloads. I just want to see big roadside Wi-Fi stands at the Idaho border. Apple launched a Goldman Sachs-backed savings account for Apple Card users. Gives you a 4.15 annual percentage yield. Users can have their daily cash rewards from using the Apple Card automatically put right into that account. You can also deposit funds from elsewhere as well. Users can change the bank account for daily cash deposits at any time. Big thanks to Big Jim because he mailed in to let us know that the company Merlin plans to start tests of its autonomous flight control systems on single-engine Cessna caravan planes over the next couple of months. Merlin wants to demonstrate that the autonomous planes can deliver cargo to underserved communities in Alaska. They're going to be having a couple routes originating in Fairbanks. Human safety pilots, of course, will be on board to monitor the system. Big Jim works in the industry in logistics and said there is a decent amount of express cargo that moves via these smaller planes all over the U.S. and Canada, and that this could be a big deal. Adobe announced additions to its Fireflyer suite of generative AI beta programs. These are in beta. Among the new features though are the ability to write text that will boost color levels, insert placeholder images, add effects, and recommend B-roll for you. You'll also be able to adjust brightness and saturation or even shift the apparent time of day or time of year all with just some natural language prompts. For audio editing, you'll be able to write to text to add background music and sound effects. Firefly also can create personalized how-to programs to help users learn how to use the new features. Adobe's tools are built on its own Sensei AI platform. All right, let's talk about that thing that happened with Netflix yesterday. In March, Netflix proved it could pull off a massive live streaming event by delivering a worldwide live stream of Chris Rock's comedy special, Rock Solid. Sunday, Netflix kind of blew that live streaming credibility. A live reunion special for the cast of the reality show Love is Blind was first delayed and then eventually canceled. Netflix proceeded to tape this special, I guess record is the right word, record the special and post it on demand afterwards. The stream started at 8 p.m. with reportedly a few people able to actually see it live, but most people could not, so it was delayed and delayed and delayed. And after an hour and a half of delays, Netflix posted an apology, adding on Twitter, we're filming it now and we'll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Allegedly, some folks were able to still see that live and it went up on demand a few hours later for everybody else. Justin, how bad is this? I mean, number one, a classic Logan Roy move to destroy the competition and preserve the HBO airing of Succession. So hats off to him and his memory. Uh, this is bad in all seriousness. Live streaming is one of those things that you either do it all the time perfect or you have failed. And we don't think of it like that when we think of broadcast television, but that's what we expect. We expect when we turn on the television, a picture meets us and if it's supposed to be live, that it definitely is. Netflix is just getting into this world. They would rather this be the one that doesn't go well and not the Chris Rock one where they are a lot of heat. So not the worst thing on the planet. It just means that days since gigantic live stream catastrophe go back to zero and then Netflix off. Yeah. Yeah, it seems like in this is one of those things like when we were first talking about Netflix, getting into streaming and reliant, you know, potential reliability issues there, where in a couple of years we'll look back and like I'll look through the rundown of the show and be like, Oh yeah, they had that giant failure as they're, you know, doing live streams constantly. But Justin, I love that point of we don't even we don't think of live stream as such an internet term that like for broadcast, we just assume it's always going to work unless there is, you know, something truly exceptional happening going on. And we just kind of take that for granted as opposed to Netflix, which is just starting to build that credibility. You don't get credit for the good one. No one, no one, no one says, well, no, the good when it works, it's like, yeah, it's supposed to when it's bad, then you then you get faulted. I saw a lot of people talking about, well, didn't Netflix know how many people would want to watch this, which is always the knee jerk commentary on this sort of thing. It's never that simple. It's always a matter of provisioning enough capacity to meet the demand and Netflix has loads of capacity. So I was pretty sure that wasn't it. Netflix has not said what caused the issue. They probably won't is my guess. So I went to a friend of mine who works in the industry and they said there are two likely possibilities. Connectivity could have failed from the studio where it was being filmed. That would allow them to record it for VOD. But the fact that some people were getting it live implies that the connectivity from the studio wasn't the problem. So it was more likely a situation where it wasn't going out into the regional CDNs, not to go too far down this rabbit hole, but it's not served from one server. There's like thousands of servers around the world near the people who want to stream them to be able to stream. And if something goes wrong in the encoding and the packaging before distributing it to those CDNs, that could stop replication. They said there is technology called an origin shield that exists between the primary feed out of encoders to the CDN. I'd look there to see if some were getting it and some were not. Given that reportedly some people could see the live stream though. It seems possible it's probably somewhere around there. I'm going to guess some kind of weird configuration error rather than a capacity issue. Can I make a little journalism guess here? Sure. Yeah, yeah. A few days down the road, we read a story about this and it totally trashes something. It's because Netflix wants to trash a vendor that either they don't want to pay or feel has been materially negligent in their job. If it's internal, I think you're right. We don't hear anything. It's just growing pains. The best laid plan didn't work. They're not going to throw it under the bus. But if it's a vendor, one more thing on this, I believe right now the National Association of Broadcasters is having their annual meeting. I will say if you walk the floor of that convention, you ain't going to see a whole lot under four figures. And there's a reason why because broadcasting equipment traditionally has been extraordinarily expensive. And what Netflix is doing is on a larger scale in many ways than any kind of broadcaster really has. I mean, we're only looking at like world cups and Super Bowls and stuff like that. UEFA championships that are normally broadcast simultaneously live across the world, different technology there. But but still this is hard. This is difficult. We have a very weird sense of what it takes to go live because we can do it on our cell phones right now. A lot of people have made it very, very easy for us to the point where you don't necessarily think that it's as difficult as it truly is. Is this the like, I guess for only their second live stream, it's kind of hard to call it this, but like they're jacking the box moment where like this is like the next live stream is going to be the most perfect live stream that is ever conceivable because they're going to over engineer that to the nth degree to make sure that they, you know, within their next couple of big premier ones that nothing could possibly go. I mean, as much as they possibly could. Right. I think the problem with Netflix is that they're largely doing things ad hoc. So even if it's the same team, they're setting up for a big thing and they're doing it. Compare that to something like Amazon Prime, which they had Thursday night football. That was the same team that was working every single time. One week after another, they could re-strategize and immediately deploy the next thing. We don't know what the next big Netflix thing is. And the layoff in between it is something that I think is interesting. It makes you wonder if maybe down the road, they want to look at something that's a little bit more weekly because I assume that part of this is them getting their muster up so they can go bid for live sports as those rights become more migratory towards streaming. Yeah, I do think that this is a, it didn't feel like a capacity issue because, for instance, when BTS streamed live from Busan to the world, it sort of worked and then didn't work. And then it would come back and then it would go away. And that's what you see when it's a capacity issue. This just didn't work. It either worked for people or it didn't. And to me, that's something internal in which case, yeah, maybe doing it on the regular just helps you work out all of those kinks so that you're not ramping up and missing something when it comes to that. Well, one thing that worked for the German artist Boris Eldagsen, he recently won the Sony World Photography Awards in the creative category. So that was working out really well for him. He won with his entry, pseudomnesia, the electrician. It's important to note though that before he was announced as the winner, he confirmed he was talking with the organizers and the judges that the piece was made with AI. The World Photography Awards said the use of AI was within its rules for the creative category because it encourages and quote various experimental approaches to image making from things like cyanotypes to radiographs to cutting edge digital practices. Certainly AI would fall within that last one. However, Eldagsen turned down the award calling himself a cheeky monkey. Eldagsen said AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Eldagsen said he hoped the award would create a discussion about the future of photography and also likely to start a discussion kind of in a different medium, but along the same vein, is a video from At Ghost Rider, which was created by generative AI and trained on the music of the weekend. And Drake, the video was labeled Ghost Rider, Heart of My Sleeve, Drake AI song featuring the weekend. So gentlemen, are these the best ways, I guess, to, you know, go through the issues of generative AI? I mean, we have something that seems like it's poised for litigation. And I like the comparison here. I like the comparison. On the one hand, you have an artist is like, I'm going to fool these people and start a discussion. And the people are like, oh, you used AI. Great, that's within the rules. We'll give you the award. He's like, no, no, don't give me the award. I want to start a discussion. And on the other hand, you have Drake. Justin, how has Drake responded to this? Drake actually has not responded to Ghost Rider. He did respond to another viral clip that was him rapping the Ice Spice song, Munch, in which in his IG stories this weekend, he said it was the last straw. Also reports that Universal Music Group has told AI services to not use their music. So I believe that we are on the cusp of lawsuits. Especially as resulting to what it means to create a Drake or weekend song on AI. And what you train it on, I don't know where this ends up. I do know that artists are going to get mad. Artists are mad about AI. And that is going to result in money flying into lawsuit coffers unless they are replaced by AI as well. So let me set the legal table as best I can here. It is not a copyright violation to make a song that sounds like Drake in the weekend. It is not a trademark or copyright violation to say this song sounds like the weekend in Drake as long as you're not trying to pretend that you are the weekend in Drake, which he clearly didn't. He said, this is AI. I made it. It sounds like the weekend in Drake. So he's safe on that end. The end that's going to get all the litigation that you're talking about, Justin, is yes, but he used the weekend in Drake to train the algorithm so that it could sound like them. Is that allowed? Is that a fair use? Is it even a copyright violation when you're not copying? You're just saying, look at these bits. Now create your own bits that are similar to those. And that there isn't an answer yet. We have to decide as a society what we think the answer to that is because I don't think legal precedent really covers it very well. And much in the same way that when Metallica went after Napster, that didn't destroy file sharing, right? Because the technology had outpaced the desires of the music industry to police exactly how their music was sold. What eventually got the music industry back on track was iTunes and streaming. Now it's a smaller pie and that sea change did affect it. The question that will come after this, number one, someone's going to get pissed and just file a lawsuit because that's what happens, right? For reasons much smaller and more petty than what we are seeing right now, which is largely Drake being displeased while looking at TikTok and seeing himself wrap much by ice spice. But at some point, someone's going to release a song that is almost indistinguishable from a style of or sound of another artist's voice. And it might be one that is not super distinctive, not going to get Jay-Z or Biggie Smalls, but maybe a raspy voice that kind of sounds like DMX or kind of sounds like Ghostface or kind of sounds like a fun song. But you could do that now with a sound-alike singer. But yes, and something's going to be an actual hit. Be something that sells a bunch. And that's where we're going to see even more anger, depending on where you're actually trained on. There's laws on that already, right? This is new tech, right? And someone's going to try it. Someone's going to say, no, we're going to run this up the flagpole and we're going to see exactly how far this law stretches. Going back to the photography thing just real quick, I would not be surprised because Eldexon's whole thing is this is not photography. That's why it can't win, even though people spotted it as AI and appreciated it as such. I think we'll just see a shift in nomenclature on this end of it. I would not be surprised if we see the Sony World Imaging Awards within a couple of years or whatever the phrase tends to be because I feel like he's right that photography feels unnecessarily prescriptive in what would be allowed. But I don't think that means we're going to further narrow it. I think we're just going to come up with, I don't know if we'll change the term or something like that, but that seems to be where that... I feel like the photography association was more prepared for this than the music industry, for sure. They seem much more chill about it. He just wanted to make a big stink about it. Thanks for coming clean on that. But yeah, this is the category where we let you use stuff like that. We were totally cool with that, don't worry. Yeah, I think part of it is the money and also that the music industry entirely makes money by policing exactly how and when you can buy music. Yeah, I also think there's an interest in not restricting it too much, which is the same interest of samples. I think it could be very similar to the discussion and arrangements that went around sampling and we're still having lawsuits about things sounding too much. That is an SK scenario because what the music industry would love is to say, great, train it on all of our artists, please. Just pay us this much. Or you don't even have to sign on for it. You can do it and talk to Universal. Train your Drake AI all you want, as long as when you publish it, you come back to Universal Music and give us a little taste, let us wet our beaks. It's all they want, it's all they're asking for. Hey, folks, if you have figured out this and you're like, no, no, the way it'll work is this, we would love to get that email or any other email you have for us. Feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com. The New York Times sources say that Google employees learned in March that Samsung is considering replacing its default Galaxy phone and tablet. So all the Galaxy devices search engine with Bing, that would be a bad thing for Google. These default search deals are a big deal for Google. They pay money because they bring in users that they can sell ads to. The Times estimates Google pays around $3 billion a year with its current Samsung deal. Depending on where you look, it sounds like they pay between $15 and $20 billion for the default search on Apple deal. Again, they pay that much because they make way much more than that from the people who you see the ads because it's the default search. That Apple deal also up for renewal this year. And if you're like, wait, doesn't Apple use Bing? For Siri search results, it does use Bing. So Bing's already on Apple a little bit. Samsung's still negotiating, so they could still stick with Google. But The Times also noted that Google is working on adding AI features to its existing search for a limited launch in May while they are also working on what they've been working on for a long time, which is a full rebuild of search based from the ground up on AI, which will happen someday in the future. Now, I know Sundar Pichai has said Google is not in panic mode, but Justin, is Google justifiably in panic mode? 20 years ago, this weekend or last weekend was the premiere of Kill Bill Volume 2 in which the bride played by Uma Thurman arisen from a grave that she was put in by her old mercenary compatriots went on to complete her bloody list of revenge. That is how I imagine Microsoft coming after Google. They believe that they were targeted in a dirty way by Google when they were on the way up by making free competitors to a lot of their office suite software. They have gone, they have long harbored a grudge and now they are going to take Google at every possible turn now that they believe they have the technological advantage. Yes, that's the reason why I believe that they are going after a Samsung search. I believe that if it meant driving a barge of cash from Redmond to Seoul, they would do it via various barges and pulleys. I think for Google, yeah, they should be panicked because guess what? The AI rebuild of search is what the only thing they should be talking about. The fact that they're even in the barred release or the, oh, we're going to do a little bit of a beta version. This is Google's development process, which has long been slow and sometimes underwhelming, kind of biting them in the butt because there's one thing that they need to get right. And that is a AI powered Google search, the best search in the business matched with AI capabilities that is not embarrassing. And right now, barred compared to its competitors is embarrassing. What shocked me about this is more I thought about this. The more this feels like Google, or Google is in an untenable position with this, right? Because you're right, Justin, Microsoft can just back up a boatload of cash to win this deal. And Google is in this position where they built up giant market share, in part because they had a superior technical product or at least a leading edge technical product when it came to search. Their search was good. And the rub on Google recently is, oh, their search is maybe not as leading as it once was, but it's the default everywhere. You say Google because Google is the default search. And now with Bing coming out and being so aggressive with their AI offerings and kind of showing a bright light on, we're doing something that Google cannot do right now in a comparable way. It's not just on a technological level, on a functionality to consumer level. It's like a confidence level for Google of not being the default is like a really big deal, not just from even a business standpoint, but from a, how a company is perceived in culture. To not, like the Samsung deal is one thing, obviously the app, like combined with those two things, the predominant way that we are searching is on our phones. That feels to me so untenable for Google in that if Samsung wants to, they can just say, we're going to take whatever the giant sum of money that Microsoft gives us as opposed to Google and do that. And they, like there's not much of a response to that. And it feels very weird for Google to be in that position. It feels like for the first time in a long time they've been in that position. Everybody settled down. The Google's not going anywhere. No, no, no, no, no. Not saying, I'm not saying Google's not going anywhere. One thing on Rich's point though, what is Samsung very, very famous for with their phones? Touting features, whether or not they work. They want the feature that you talk about and they will throw it on the phone no matter what. Do you think for one second that they are not going to put the marketing headlock on the phrase AI? Like of course they're called. Absolutely, absolutely. That seems like the most Samsung. And that's how Google keeps this account. They're bolting on AI into search to launch in May. So that they can tell Samsung, great, market yourself to death around this stuff. Here you go. It's not impossible that Samsung carves out something where they put open AI powered Bing search somewhere else on Samsung. But I think Google will do everything, including pre-launching things that they're not ready to launch to keep that Samsung contract. While they say, and you don't want to be caught behind the eight ball when we launch the real thing whenever that is. So stick with us. We'll give you these features that you can market. And then when the real thing comes, you'll be glad you waited around. Honestly, the most Samsung thing that they could do was come out with Bixby AI chatbot or something like that that uses neither of these. Because just to your point, actually, the more I think about it, Samsung really likes to roll their own. They actually really don't like being dependent on Google for a lot of these services. And I don't think they like being dependent on Microsoft. Bixby powered by stable diffusion. Exactly. Well, to me, the functionality of that almost is beside the point because there's so many different ways that they could roll that in. It really is like, whose giant pile of money are we going to accept if we choose to change this? Because they can roll out any number of apps. They can partner with OpenAI. They can partner with any number of apps. Like they have that cloud. They have that power and the technical know-how to make it a compelling consumer offering. So Microsoft's got that money. And that's why this is interesting. Exactly. Yeah, I bet Google ends up paying a little more. That's where I think this ends up. Well, Tom, would you pay more, perhaps, for maybe a peripheral that was customized to your hand? I don't know. I use a Logitech B100 mouse. I'm the wrong person to ask this question. Well, we've seen personalized keyboards. You can change up your switches, your layouts, your lighting, anything you want on your keyboard. But mice, we might be entering into the age of the customized mouse. That's right. The Tarr and Ronto startup, Formify, is trying to bring a different level of personalization. They have a Kickstarter going for a mouse where you can send a photo of your hand. And they'll use machine learning to identify 10,000 data points, look at hand shape, curvature, finger length, and more to create a custom 3D printed outer shell for your mouse made specifically for your hand. They're on Kickstarter. They're crowdfunding it. Models are starting at $189 Canadian. And it hadn't funded, at least as of the time I was looking at their Kickstarter earlier. So one photo, you send them one photo of your hand. Step two, machine learning. Step three, they 3D print it for you. I'm getting a little whiff of snake oil here. I'm not sure. Oh, interesting. I will say, I'm less concerned about that. I'm more concerned that interfacing with something where my hand is going to be on for a large portion of my computing time with something that's 3D printed is generally not known for being like the most satisfying tactile experience. That to me is like more of the, I know they're not using like your desktop 3D printer. I'm sure they're using something more sophisticated than that. I just don't trust that that's not going to feel like slimy garbage. I put it this way. This could be a 100% legitimate, right? I just, I couldn't tell from looking at the Kickstarter for sure. I could use a few more reassurances. Old genial Tom taking big shots at the Kickstarter. I don't know. I don't know. If anybody jumps in on the Kickstarter, it's only 189 Canadian, I'd love to hear back. I'm not, I'm not trying to impugn the character of these folks. It just, I don't know. I'm like, I could use a little more info. That's all I'm saying. One photo. One photo? Really? Just one photo. All right. Let's check out the mail bag. Yeah. We got a great email from Professor Metcalf talking about Twitter. He writes in, I opted to remove the app from my phone for mental health reasons, but I still log in to from the web once or twice a month. So of the hosting guests reiterated on our show that the point of engagement on Twitter was low. And that's been my experience as well. I feel like anything I post there just disappears into the void. To paraphrase an old geek friend of mine, this feels like a right only platform. Ooh, Justin, is Twitter feeling right only to you? Is it that bad? I don't know. I mean, I feel like there's, there's always been a limited reach for people that aren't actively trying to kick the hornet's nest every day on that website. But sure, I don't know. I don't know how much of that is real numbers versus people just, you know, having personal feelings about Twitter these days. I have noticed less uptake for myself, and I have no feelings. I am emotionless when it comes to Twitter. I am Vulcan regarding Twitter. And I've noticed that I've noticed getting less stuff, but maybe it's the people I interact with. All the ones, you know. So everybody has their own little bubble. Justin, Robert Young speaking of bubbles, you've been blowing bubbles in celebration at the launch of World's Greatest Con. Congratulations. It is wonderful. Thank you. Yes. Episode three up now. demonic. It's my favorite episode of the season. Go get it. World's Greatest Con, wherever you get podcasts. demonic. Yeah. All right. Well, it's Monday. Not everybody's favorite day, but it's one of my favorite days because we got some brand new bosses. That's right. We have Bohan R and Big Dave joining the patron ranks. That is awesome. Thank you so much, Bohan R and Big Dave. You made my Monday special. Thank you. Yes, thank you. And they now, other patrons, please welcome them into the club. They get to stick around for the extended show Good Day Internet. We're going to be talking about this Wall Street Journal article that implies that providing long-term software support and encouraging a used phone market is what led to Apple dominating U.S. smartphone sales. And they think it could happen outside the U.S. as well. Stick around. Remember, you can also catch the show live Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern, 200 UTC. Find out more at DailyTechNewShow.com. Slash live. We'll be back tomorrow talking about how the Fediverse works on Macedon with Annalie Newitz. See you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at FrogPants.com. Ironman Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.