Forecasting with AI, Gaming with Power, and the Future of Biometrics

[00:00:20] Happy to have you along, my fellow tech enthusiasts. I'm Sam Bushman, Jay Harrison with me. We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. Happy to have you along. It is Father's Day weekend. Hope you got a great tech gift for your dad. What if he's not techie? What do you get him? Well, sometimes low tech is just as good as high tech. Depends on what we're talking about, right? But there you have it. The old Volkswagen Beetles in the 60s were low tech. All you had to do is think what? Spark, fuel, and air?

[00:00:47] You can keep that sucker running. So there you go. Welcome to the broadcast, ladies and gentlemen. This broadcast of Tech Watch Radio is brought to you by NetworkProvidersInc.com. You've got a friend in the tech business. Think security. Think small business. Think protection for your company. Training, help desk, and a whole lot more. NetworkProvidersInc.com. For this podcast, NPITechGuys.com is where you go. Jay, hurricane season just started.

[00:01:14] I know it. Here in Florida, we're prepared and ready as best as we can be. Well, that's something always that needs to happen, and I bring it up primarily right this minute because the National Hurricane Center is working with some folks. Looks like they're in Miami, but they're working with Google's DeepMind to use its AI program for improving hurricane forecasts.

[00:01:38] They say this is the first time AI is being used or utilized for what they call storm prediction at the N8C. Now, we've talked about this before, Jay, and there's been some kind of pilot programs, but now they say it's real. DeepMind has supplied a—let me see what this is called. They call it an enhanced weather forecasting model specialized in tracking hurricanes. And I guess it's capable of predicting both the path and the strength of storms up to 15 days in advance.

[00:02:08] And they say this AI model tested to be far more accurate than previous beta models. And normal forecasting traditional methods provides a, quote, crucial advantage in forecasting accuracy without AI. So they say additionally, DeepMind introduced, and this is really the cool part in my mind, they call it a visualization tool called WeatherLab,

[00:02:31] which allows users to compare the AI's, quote, predictions compared to traditional forecasting methods and actual storm tracks after the fact. The model and the WeatherLab will be openly available to researchers and the public. The AI model leverages vast historical data and puts a significant advance when it comes to AI at the center of weather forecasting.

[00:02:58] They say this experimental use, so it's beyond beta, it's not just for researchers now, but it'll be for everybody. But they say that it'll enhance the accuracy of storm forecasts more reliable than those made without AI assistance. The big thing here, Jay, since we've talked about this plenty of times, it's not really new to the table except for that it's real, that it's tied to Miami now, it's Google that's doing it, and the public will be involved.

[00:03:21] So take this mass database of history, put it together with AI and humans, and let people, the average Joe, and the forecasters deal with it, and then, hey, not only compare what they predict versus, you know, traditional models, you know, forecasters doing their best, looking at things, AI models, and then taking all that data and comparing it to what actually happens, this is going to really change the game in my humble opinion. People, you know, we hear all the time that AI is going to make a difference, and it's like,

[00:03:50] oh, AI can shorten a document for you, or AI can fix your spelling, or this is next gen, buddy, and it's going to change our lives significantly, and I pray that it really gives us a handle on not only how to prepare, the forewarnings are good, but maybe over time we can minimize or weaken how bad storms get. They talk about, you know, hey, we don't really need to know if there's a 75-mile-an-hour wind coming. I mean, it's good to know about it, but you don't have to do much. But if there's bursts or quick hairpin turns or, anyway, they go into the details like that saying

[00:04:19] if we can get knowledge about that, when that happens, or what precedes that, it's those details that are going to be so critical going forward. Yeah, I would agree, and I think that AI is going to do a really good job at narrowing that cone. You know, you see the cone is pretty wide as it's pretty far out, and, you know, for example, here in Florida, it could be where it's making landfall could be anywhere from Naples to Pensacola sometimes when it's four or five days out, and the more you can narrow that down with assurance

[00:04:47] to where people can reliably know, hey, that's coming my way, and after people develop trust in these more advanced systems, they'll be able to look at this and say, hey, yeah, this is definitely heading, we're going to head out, we're not going to take the chance, we're not going to take a risk, or we're really going to batten down because we know, and we've got better heads up, I think, that it's coming, and not just, people get a little bit tired after a while and a little bit complacent when it's just like, you know, every other weekend there's another storm coming through, but it always hits somewhere else, and so that will help.

[00:05:17] It also means, too, you know, when they do evacuations, instead of 10 million people trying to evacuate, Jay, maybe we can say, hey, these 400,000 people need to really leave, but the rest, you know what, you really don't. Exactly. If we can get that good, that's huge, too. Yeah. Not only from a dollars and cents point of view, but from a traffic and congestion, I mean, the list just goes on and on of the repercussions. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I dig it. Well, since there's no hurricanes coming now, I think, Jay, you want to start playing with the new Nintendo Switch. It's called the Switch 2.

[00:05:46] It's an updated version of the hybrid gaming console. Now, the interesting thing about this thing is it's $450. Ooh, ouch. It's up from the former one, $300 years ago. That's possibly, you know, inflation, but it's also some of the feature sets that are coming with it. But the new model boasts a larger 7.9-inch screen, improved graphics, faster speeds, and it's compatible with previous Switch games.

[00:06:13] They say it has the same battery life as its predecessor. Now, that to me is a disappointment. One of the big things with all tech stuff, we've got to get better batteries, whether it's cars, game consoles, computer, whatever. We've just got to work on batteries. And every time I turn around, my cell phone has to be plugged in. It's obnoxious. Right. They say the Switch 2 includes two detachable, what do they call these things? Joy-Cons? Is that what they're called? Yeah. Joy-Cons. Those are the controllers on each side. Yeah. Yep.

[00:06:41] So it comes with two of those, whereas some of the previous ones, I guess, didn't come with them. You had to buy them extra or whatever. They came with one or something, right? No, no, no. It always came with two. It always came with two. For the Switch, yeah. Some of the game consoles came with one. Some of the game consoles only came with one. But the Switch actually is kind of integral to have two of them. You have to have two that are good and working. Anyway, they say game prices have also risen. Yep. The new title, like Mario Kart World, costs $80. It's up from $60.

[00:07:07] And this reflects a broader game prices across the industry. And it's really kind of questionable. Is it really going up because of inflation? Is it going up because of the cost? Is it bet that games are more advanced and take longer to produce? Is it inflation? I would submit all the above, Jay. So it's really cool. It's going to be awesome. They sold a ton of them, too, in the first four days. I think it was like three plus million of them. Yeah. Three and a half million in four days. Whoa. They broke their own record for previous releases of not only the Switch, but even the Super Nintendo

[00:07:36] and things that had a lot of hype. They had a lot of hype on this one and a lot of people waiting. I know personally my son, Will, went to a GameStop with some friends of his. And they were there at midnight when the release came out. He bought their whatever extended package. It has a case and a game with it, like I think the Mario Kart game, the new one that's coming out with it. But he paid like $599, $600 for it at GameStop on their launch event. So there was a lot of people like that.

[00:08:06] So they got a lot of publicity out of that. I think the big cost increase just between you and me is the bigger screen, the better screen, the more power. You know, all that kind of stuff is, I think, what really drives some of the cost up, too. Let's be fair about that. Yeah, it is a better screen. It's higher depth. It's a bigger screen. I think they actually increased the battery. But it turns out that you end up being about sixes as far as battery life because you're powering a higher-end chip and a bigger screen and all this stuff. And even with the bigger battery, you're getting about the same.

[00:08:35] So at least it didn't go down in game time. That's a good thing. Yeah, that's the point. And it's hard to debate or discuss this because, you know, we're saying, yes, it has more battery life. But, yes, it sucks more battery. The question is, is the battery more efficient or is it literally bigger? You know, none of that really matters to the average consumer. The point for the Joe Blow play in the game is, hey, you're not going to lose any game time. You won't gain any, sad to say, but at least you don't lose any. And you've got a lot of this extra stuff. Yeah, and you're still going to want to be close to a port or have a battery charger.

[00:09:03] You don't want to back up anyway if you're going to be, like, say, on a long flight or something like that. You're going to need it. Now, one of the cool things about the Joy-Cons is they used to slip in. You know, they used to slide in from the top and they would click down. Yeah, which I didn't like that design at all. Yeah, it's one of the signature things of the Switch was that click and they would use it in advertisements and stuff. But they had some problems with that. They had Joy-Cons that would drift and they had Joy-Cons that wouldn't make good connections. So now they've revamped that entirely.

[00:09:30] It's a fully magnetic catch. Can you say Apple? Yeah, very similar, right? So they just click in with the magnets and there's a little sort of an eject button that pushes it away on one corner and gives you the leverage over the magnet. And that's how you take them off. You just push this little eject button, which forces one side out, and then you can take them out without trying to just yank them off. I mean, you can yank them off, but this is a much more elegant solution. So that's kind of cool.

[00:09:59] Another cool thing about the Joy-Cons is if you turn them sideways and you hold them with that part that connects to the Switch downward, they act as a mouse. So you can put them on a table and you can use them as a mouse with a mouse cursor on the Switch itself. And that's pretty cool innovation there. There you have it. Multiple use for things. I dig it. That's the innovative tech way, right, Jay? Yeah. I'll also say there's a lot of people that are kind of upset with the game system. It used to be you could buy physical games.

[00:10:27] You don't really buy physical games for this anymore at all. You can buy a game in the store, but it's just a license to download it. There are no physical games. You can't resell the games. You really don't own the games anymore, just like any kind of media library, whether it's Apple Music or whatever or your Audible collection. It's that kind of thing where it's all owned by them and you can't really. So that makes it hard to trade them around. Say if you're in a family, you can't just buy one game and then let all your kids play it. But it's tied to one switch.

[00:10:56] And, yes, I think you can move your games. Like, say, you upgrade from one device to another. You can do that. But a lot of people are upset with the licensing terms and not being able to kind of really own their library. Yeah. In the defense of the licensing, folks, though, there's pros and cons. There's a lot of good about this method, too. But yet you're stuck in an ecosystem. And it's kind of like books. Same scenario, right? Hang tight. This is Tech Watch Radio. Sam Bushman, Jay Harrison. We're always talking tech on your radio.

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[00:14:01] Researchers at Israel's Wiseman Institute have discovered that individuals have unique breathing patterns. You say, well, what does that matter, Sam? Well, they're terming it nasal respiratory fingerprints. They say machines can identify this with nearly 97% accuracy now, and they expect that to even go up. Oh, my goodness.

[00:14:26] This finding comes from a study where 100 young adults wore what they call nasal airflow tubes for 24 hours, and the patterns of their breaths inhaling and exhaling, and the pauses between the breaths and the, you know, how quick you breathe in and out, all these details, appeared consistent and distinctive for each person.

[00:14:50] The study, they say, published in Current Biology suggests what they call potential diagnostic applications. So they're talking about, you know, correlations between specific breathing patterns and, say, self-reported anxiety levels, et cetera. And they say this breakthrough was facilitated by a new tiny little wearable device that has made this recording and this detail of analysis or reporting, whatever you want to call it, practical.

[00:15:19] They say the discovery paves the way for using breaths patterns as a diagnostic tool to help with various conditions. I appreciate that, Jay, and the scientific part of it, I'm not really a medical expert, but the teeny tech device that can be with you to monitor this is incredible. The logging and details that can be gained and then you pump that into AI will be incredible. And eventually, at the end of the day, what if they say, walk up, look in this camera, put your finger here, blow here, and you're in.

[00:15:50] Yeah, as if we wanted one more biometric that we need to keep track of and keep safe because, you know, you can't change these things. Your fingerprints get out, your retina pattern gets out. Somebody gets it. You can't. It's not like you can go, oh, I'm just going to change my password now. You can't do that. So it's amazing the things that they're finding that they can track people with. You got that right. And what I find interesting, I don't know if you know, but they even say that your gait can't be changed.

[00:16:17] You know, people a lot do kind of physical face surgery or what do they call that? Well, your gait, I thought, has to do with how you walk, right? Yeah, it does. So what I'm saying is they can change your face. Oh, yeah. What's that called when they change your face? I don't know, plastic surgery or. Yeah, plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery. They can change all those things and they can do pretty good to where it's really hard to, you know, but they cannot change your gait, your walk. Isn't that interesting, too?

[00:16:40] Yeah, and I know that that's true because, you know, where I have an office in, I can hear people coming and sometimes I can know who that person is just by the way they're walking. Like, and it's not even, you know, necessarily like I can't describe it to somebody else, but I can just tell, you know, who that person is. But either the way they carry themselves, the speed, the heaviness, you know, but a lot of times it's funny. I can just tell who's coming down the hall just by the way they're walking. When they're out of sight. Yeah, it's actually surprising all the things they can gain.

[00:17:10] So I'm sure that computer intelligence and, you know, looking at all these factors can really hone in on that to a great degree. And so with the nasal breathing, I'm sure that that's true. I'm sure that's true. I wonder if that changes, though, as you age and things like that. I mean, there may be some more variability in that. Also, your gait would change. That's what they're going to find out, Jay. Your gait would change with like, let's say you injured your leg or something and you had a limp or something like that. That would change things, too. So I guess there are some ways to change it.

[00:17:39] Well, and they say that will change your gait that you can limp, but your core gait of how your body moves, you know, your hip step, even though you limp or whatever, doesn't change. Yeah. So I find it fascinating, meaning that there's some variables that are the same. Here's the whole point. The reason I bring it up. You know, I'm not a scientific expert and I'm certainly not a surgeon or a plastic surgery, whatever. But here's what I'm kind of bringing this up for.

[00:18:04] My hope is because we've got a password problem in society, Jay, and they're trying to do all kinds of things to, you know, use password managers or, hey, let's let auto-generated passwords that are long and unique. And then they go, well, let's use this. Let's not do that. Let's have a pass key or let's have, you know, zero trust on both sides. Let's do that. And they're working on it so hard. And people have come back and said, well, no, let's use key fobs. And then what if you lose your key? There's been no great way to deal with this.

[00:18:33] And I think that they're going to at some point find a way, a combination, a simplified reality that will let us uniquely be identified without it being a pain in the butt. Right? Well, and I think when you factor in more than one biometric and you have two or three or whatever, you're going to get down to just like .00001 accuracy.

[00:18:54] You're going to get really where you can hone in on people even if something changes, even if they do injure their leg or, you know, tear up their hand and their fingerprint doesn't quite work. You're going to be able to just narrow it down to, you know, one in 10 billion very accurately. Yeah. Anyway, I just find that really fascinating. And I really think that they're going to, and I don't know when, I hope it's sooner than later, but they're going to hit on something, Jay. They really are. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:22] I think they're already moving towards it. And I think that, you know, everybody thinks that pass keys is going to be the thing. But it's been slow to adopt, I think, overall. And it is one of those things where you put a lot of data into one thing. I mean, if all your pass keys are on your cell phone, for example, and you lose your phone, you might be in a mess if you didn't have it backed up in something like Bitwarden or somewhere else.

[00:19:44] And I know a lot of times they're like, oh, well, all we got to do, Jay, is just, you know, put it in your thumb or put it in your wrist or the palm of your hand or the back of your hand or put it in your forehead. And, you know, a lot of us kind of freak out of that and we're not very comfortable with that. But I do think they'll create some way to quickly identify people that will be meaningful and easy.

[00:20:07] And we've got to get there, Jay, because even when you do passwords, even a password manager is great, but it has a single hinge point, right? That's the password to get into the password manager. And not only that. And you say, well, wait, we got double factor on that. Okay, fine. But a lot of that can be fake. And by the time I have to use, say, Google, and this is the fascinating thing, oh, well, let's use Google for my authenticator. Well, Google is the one that's been betraying everybody on security more than anybody else. They turn it into the government. They turn it into private sector. They sell your data.

[00:20:36] They collect your data even though they promise they don't and swear they don't. And then they get penalized for doing so and getting caught lying and cheating. And you want them to be your authenticator guy? I don't think so. So there's got to come a better way. Yeah, and, you know, it's interesting. But also the problem with, and it doesn't even matter if you're talking about passkeys or you're talking about your Bitwarden account, your password manager, whatever.

[00:21:03] And in any site, too, if they have backup ways to recover your account, and if it's like, oh, well, just use your email to recover your account or just use yourself. Whatever that weakest link is, that is the weakest link in the chain. And that allows you to get hacked even no matter what great security they have. If they have a simple recover your password that just needs an email and somebody's got access to your email, well, you're cooked. And I will say this. I mean, I appreciate it, but the more they get secure, the harder it is. Now, they've changed.

[00:21:31] It used to be single factor or just, you know, authentication. Then it was double factor. They called it two factor. Now it's called what? NFA? I don't know. NFA multiple factor? Two factor. Oh, I'm not sure. Yeah. I think it's MFA multiple factor. Okay. So now the question becomes, okay, well, what do you get? Pretty soon it's like, hey, I've got 46 chains on my door. I got a lock that I twist and a button that I pressed and a chain that I, whatever, and a bar that I flip.

[00:21:58] At some point, it just becomes so obnoxious and so difficult to where it's hard to get into your own things. I oftentimes start on an IT task for somebody and it's like, literally, I'm telling you, less than a five minute task. But by the time I log in and they're like, oh, you got to update Windows. Reboot right now. Right. And then I reboot. And then 18 tangents. It updates all that. And then I get in there and then it's like, oh, you got to log into your thing. And it's like, oh, you got to change your password. So then I go work on changing my password. And then I, okay. And then it's like, you got to do two factor. Oh, crap. My phone. It's out in my car.

[00:22:28] Okay. I run out to my car. I come on back, get my phone. Oh man. Put in the code. It's expired. Got to go back to the website. Oh, well, shoot. Now it's not giving me a new code. Well, Sam, log back in and log. Okay. Sam, flush your cash. Okay. Good. Now I got, now I got the code. I got it. Now, what was I trying to do? Yeah. Oh yeah. Five minute task. His password reset for his email. Got it. And I'm like a half hour into this five minute thing or an hour into the, it's nuts. It happens all the time. It really does. And it doesn't just happen.

[00:22:58] Everybody can relate to that. It happens all the time. Right.

[00:23:29] Right. Log into my account completely a hundred percent directly. Well, there's no way for them to log into my account completely a hundred percent directly because of all the two factoring because of all the other issues. Not only that, but websites and things that when you said, remember me, they're dropping cookies. They're remembering IP addresses, things like that. Somebody else that's working for you. Even with full access, isn't going to have the same fingerprint, if you will. When they go to these sites, are they're going to think you're double logging in or there's some kind of intrusion and you're going to get all these problems. Yeah.

[00:23:58] You're not in, you're not in Tennessee, Sam. You're in Utah. You're, you know, or whatever. And it's like, oh, and what if you have somebody that works overseas that you're assistant? Or, I mean, anyway, I'm just telling you, what if somebody works on your behalf? Like I'm a blind person. And so I, you know, a lot of times I have people do things on my behalf because some of the interfaces don't work. I mean, they want to put up, what were they putting up for you, Jay, the other day? Oh my gosh. We were on the phone. Yeah. Bicycles, traffic lights, crosswalks, stairs. I mean, literally probably. I can't navigate that. It's not even possible.

[00:24:28] Forget it. Anyway, the bottom line is, ladies and gentlemen, security is a serious issue and they got to work on it. So hope AI can help with that. By the way, what is the biggest cybersecurity threat? Huh? We'll talk about it in the next podcast or in seconds if you're listening on the radio. Hang tight. This is NPITechGuys.com.