[00:00:19] Happy to have you along my fellow tech enthusiasts. I'm Sam Bushman, Jay Hill with me. We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. This broadcast is brought to you by NetworkProvidersInc.com. Check out their website about the services we offer. Building websites, a help desk, security, strategic vision from IT professionals embedded in your company and a whole lot more.
[00:00:40] NetworkProvidersInc.com, the website for the show, npitechguys.com. Check that out as well for the audio versions and the video versions of the show. We're still trying to get one of the most technical people I know, Jay Harrison, on camera, ladies and gentlemen. This is like a tech... I don't know if we're gonna have to clone him or get a robot version or what we're gonna have to do, but he's afraid of the camera, ladies and gentlemen. He's a little camera shy. You guys are glad that I'm not though, you know?
[00:01:06] Really? No, we gotta get you on camera, man. In order for me to promote this show into the big time, we gotta get you on camera. We look foolish and low tech, Jay. I'm a radio guy for a reason, but you know. All right. Anyway, all I'm telling you is it's very, very interesting what's going on in the news. So here's what happens. I use AI a lot now to see what headlines are out there and I just keep an eye on it and everything. And I say, hey, show me the top 15 tech headlines or whatever. And I just see what they are.
[00:01:31] And that doesn't mean I only do those stories or I just rely on that exclusively. I do my homework and everything, but I use that just to see what am I missing? What's going on? What? And I got back the last several weeks I've done this, just nothing but the same headlines. Ah, chips are down. Stocks are down. Tech is struggling. AI is laying everybody off. Security is a big meltdown. And it's just like there's nothing new. You need a happier AI, Sam.
[00:01:55] Well, so then I basically said, hey, I want to see tech news that's unique and different, not just these standard headlines. I got back a bunch of pretty cool stuff. And that's where I'm a stuff, too. I mean, I'm surprised at how much I don't even think we'll cover it all in one show. Well, and that's where the last episode, for example, we talked about that man that had that new capability with his electronic arms or whatever you want to call it, wired into his brain and everything else. It's pretty interesting stuff for sure, especially if you're a blind person like me.
[00:02:21] How long will it be till they can do that for the eyes? We'll get into all that, though, in a future show. But I want to kind of go through some of these just standard headlines real quick. I don't want to spend a lot of time on them. I just want to go through them to kind of illustrate what I'm talking about. AI chips stocks drop as investors question the next phase of the AI boom. See, that's negative. Technology stocks fell sharply. OK, White House launches AI and cybersecurity coordination initiative.
[00:02:50] They're worried about security. They're worried about AI. The government wants to be in the middle of it, which I'm concerned about. Cybersecurity firms gain attention as AI security becomes top concern as a growing concern. Critical SharePoint security flaw. So Microsoft SharePoint now has a security flaw that can be subject to attack. Wow. OK, Security Week gives us that. They got Splunk. I don't know what Splunk is. Do you, Jay? It's like a video thing like Zoom.
[00:03:21] All right. Well, anyway, Splunk and Zoom get hacked. Both companies issued patches that could expose credentials, compromise accounts or allow unauthorized access. Now, when I say they got hacked, I don't know that they really leaked data, but they have vulnerabilities that got exposed. Right. Right. Coca-Cola's Fairlife production. So if you ever drink Fairlife, that kind of muscle milk, kind of a drink or whatever you want to call it. I've never even heard of that.
[00:03:47] OK, I have. I've drank it. You don't look in the aisle and find drinks, though, Jay. I guess not. No. All right. Anyway, so Fairlife, it's kind of like a chocolate milk substance, but it's like for energy and it's for health and people who work out use it and stuff. It's like a protein drink. Sam's on the cutting edge. Anyway, Fairlife, though. So they had a ransomware attack. And so the cyber attack forced the suspension of the production for a while. So, you know, they got I mean, this is Coke, people.
[00:04:15] Japanese food manufacturers restore systems after cyber attack. NVIDIA expands AI infrastructure partnership in Japan. So now they're working with the Japanese government. Apple and open AI face new legal challenges. So Apple filed a trade secret lawsuit. So that big old lawsuit between the two biggest, you know, two huge companies or whatever. Google faces AI setbacks on multiple fronts.
[00:04:45] Reports indicate delays affecting Gemini and their AI development, while the company also confronts new copyright issues. OK, so just nothing more but lawsuits and security and hacking and problems. And IBM's warning raises questions about enterprise IT spending. Everyone's saying, wow, AI is great. But man, can we spend this kind of money? It's funny how you get these competing things. On one hand, you'll say, yeah, oh, there's such a shortage. Everybody's doing this.
[00:05:14] It's crazy. AI is booming at the seams. And then you have the exact opposite story in the same headline in the same news cycle. So that's like, I know everybody's. Yeah. That's what I mean by it. And they repeat it week after week after week. Everybody's getting laid off. But then there's new AI jobs. And anyway, the largest contract chipmaker reaffirmed aggressive AI investment and demand for advanced semiconductor production. This is exactly what you're talking about. Then they're like, the chipmakers can't make enough. It's like, wait a minute. What?
[00:05:44] Right. Cloud providers face new regulatory pressure. Governments continue expanding oversight of cloud infrastructure. And so that's an issue. And then AI competition intensifies as new models challenge industry leaders. And then they say rapid releases from multi AI developers are increasing competitive pressure across the industry. And AI infrastructure spending remains strong despite volatile. Wait a minute.
[00:06:13] We just said that people are wondering if they should spend so much. Okay, fine. Anyway, it's a big old. I wanted to rifle through that because that's kind of the boredom that I have and the conflicts that I have to where it's like, I don't even know that that's worth talking about, Jay. It's like you're hedging their bets. Agreed. It's like they don't know where it falls. So anyway, that's kind of the main headlines that we saw. And I wanted to rifle through those so you guys get what I'm talking about. Look, on a side note. Now I want to talk about. You really? I said on a side note, you really went through those headlines a lot faster than I thought you were going to. So that's good.
[00:06:42] Yeah, I don't really want to spend time on them because they're boring, Jay. Right? We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. And it's not so you can just get bored with all kinds of goofy stuff that conflicts and doesn't make any sense anyway. I don't care if the big corporate enterprise world is spending a bunch of money on IT and they're fearful and the government's going to monitor them and everybody's concerned. Who cares? It doesn't relate to me. I'm not in that big enterprise world anyway. It's the state of tech right now, right? Yeah. So just ignore all that. And now let's talk about something that I find interesting. There's two stories and I wouldn't say they're competing stories, but they're interesting stories.
[00:07:11] And that's why I bring them to your attention. I'm going to give you the second one first. Smart glasses without cameras aim to provide quote heads up information while avoiding many of the privacy concerns surrounding glasses with always on recording. So they're already providing an answer for the concern, which I really like. You can get these glasses without cameras and they can do a lot of different things. They just don't have cameras to record Jay.
[00:07:41] Right. And that's an answer to this next story, which we want to talk about. Jay, let's start with you on this one. Okay. Well, so on those cameras, those glasses that are doing that, giving you kind of augmented reality, giving you information on stuff. They do have cameras on them. Don't mistake that they don't. They're just, they're trying not to just record everybody or do these kind of in your face recordings that people are having a problem with. So the cameras are used for different purposes, not the purposes that betray you or cause the problem.
[00:08:08] So the next headline, are smart glasses turning everyone into a quote hidden camera? They are. And here's the problem with privacy is that these glasses like the meta Ray-Bans and the, you see a lot of these also on TikTok and places that are selling them. The meta Ray-Bans are hundreds of dollars, but they have ones that are 50 to $70. So people are getting them and they're moving from novelty to mainstream technology, but they raise concerns about privacy and consent.
[00:08:37] What appears to be an ordinary pair of glasses may actually be capable of taking photos, recording video and capturing audio with little notice. Recent. And it's very hard to know when someone's actually doing it or not to Jay. That's right. You know, they say that in recent incidents, people can find them unexpectedly featured online. There's wearable technology that's more common. We got to understand how these devices work and how to safeguard privacy. You can watch for indicators. They say smart glasses have LEDs that illuminate sometimes when there's recording. You can learn what these lights look like.
[00:09:07] But remember, they can be difficult to notice, especially in bright environments and stuff. I've seen there's guys that set up shop in their van or whatever, and they purposely, singularly, all they do is they disable those lights. You give them your glasses. You give them 20 bucks. They open them up. They disable or cut the leads to the recording light so that you don't have a light when you're recording with these. But what you need to do is assume that when you're in public, public spaces are public and you are probably being recorded somewhere.
[00:09:34] If it's not on somebody's glasses, it's on a CCC TV or it's on a drone or wherever. You're in public. You're being recorded. But they say you can speak up respectfully. If you believe somebody's recording you, you can probably ask whether they are using a recording device. Request that they stop. Doesn't mean that they will. So someone said they were recording me and Zach just yesterday, and then Zach's like, are you really recording this? And the guy's like, no. But I'm just saying it's that pervasive, Jay.
[00:10:03] Yeah, but it says know the rules because laws vary by state, but private settings such as restrooms, dressing rooms, medical facilities, other places that are private property can have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and they generally prohibit unauthorized recording. And they also go on to say protect your digital footprint. Be mindful about what you share online since images or videos captured without your knowledge can spread quickly through social media. Glasses are just another example of technology that's outpacing the social norms.
[00:10:33] And we've got to be aware of it. That's the biggest thing, be aware of it. And be ready for it. And you're not always going to be able to. In fact, a lot of people revel in this idea of, you know, it reminds me of the people that are auditors. You see these guys with cameras, and they're out there recording in public. They're wanting to get people riled up and mad, and they're wanting to have interactions with the police and stuff so that they can file lawsuits or whatever.
[00:10:57] But if you kind of ignore them, or you're just like, whatever, and you're not going to make the YouTube video because there was no action there. There was no conflict. Yeah, they want something. So you've got to watch their behavior, unusual behavior. If someone repeatedly faces you without interacting naturally, they kind of do some weird taps, you know, then you can kind of feel like what's going on. And just walk away from those people.
[00:11:23] Just go do your own thing and leave them alone, and they'll find somebody else that's more interesting in a hurry. Yeah, and it's not just glasses either. I've seen earrings that have cameras in them. Yeah, smart glasses are just the latest example of technology outpacing social norms, if you will. Well, the challenge isn't just the devices themselves. It's a balance between respect and convenience and need to record versus not. And, you know, we're really getting... Well, I'll give you an example.
[00:11:50] When I first had a cell phone, it was like a big, huge thing, Jay. Yeah, like the Motorola brick. Even bigger than that, though. I mean, I had like a car phone before that even. No, like a bag phone. I'd sometimes bring a bag phone into a restaurant once in a while if I was waiting for something because I'm in radio and I needed... It was back when you had to FCC 24-7 monitor things, and we didn't have near the connectivity we have now. And anyway, long story short, my wife would just be like, put that freaking thing away. Put that thing back in the car. You can't...
[00:12:17] And so it was so out of the social norm. And now it's like, you know, if you're not talking on your phone, is something wrong with you? You have to assume that you're being recorded anywhere you are in public. That's right. That's why they also say... So my whole point, though, is the norm is going to change, though, to where now it's weird, but it won't be long until it's like, well, who doesn't record the interactions? We're going to get there, Jay. I don't want to, but I think we are. I know. Just assume. Don't talk about private stuff in a restaurant.
[00:12:46] There's lots of things that you should be mindful of. I heard Jay's buying a robot. Is that true, Jay? I wish. It's not true. Okay. Well, shoot. People are buying them, though. I'll tell you about it in seconds. This is the one and only TechWatch. We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. Have you ever had great honey?
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[00:14:47] Household robots continue moving closer to reality and closer to your home and life as companies are demonstrating machines that climb stairs, fold laundry, translate languages, and assist with mobility. That's kind of an interesting twist, ladies and gentlemen. They're interesting, Jay, because they're getting more capable. They've got a robot now.
[00:15:15] I can't remember what it's called right this second, but it runs on wheels and you kind of hold on to it. And it's kind of a robot guide dog for blind people now. I have not seen that. They're demonstrating that and it's kind of an interesting thing. And it's pretty smart and pretty good. It's small and light and you don't have to feed it or do anything, but you do got to charge it. I guess you got to feed it electricity. Right. Anyway, but it's kind of interesting and they're doing more and more of this stuff. And so I wanted to talk about these entry-level human robots because they're doing more things. A lot of people have vacuums. That's kind of the most common use of one of these things.
[00:15:44] Our producer, Zach, even has one of those and loves that thing. And I got one and tried it and it didn't work very well. So I sent it back. I hated it. So there you go. I want a robot lawnmower. I know they make them. They're just expensive. That would be kind of cool. So let me give you some pricing just so you kind of understand what you got to expect. And again, I think over the next several years, this pricing will come down significantly. But here it is. They call it an entry-level human assistant robot. They're five to 15 grand.
[00:16:13] They're mostly developer research models right now. Okay. Then you have the consumer-focused home robot, 20 to 30 grand, Jay. This is one X Tesla. Yeah. They're working in this range primarily. Yep. Yep. And ability, though, is still limited in those things. Advanced Industrial Humanoids is what they're called, Jay. You know about those Advanced Industrial Humanoids, bro? These are the guys that will be working in the factory and stuff, right? They're AIHs. Yeah.
[00:16:43] Yeah. 100 to 250 grand plus, they say. 100 to 250 grand plus. And they're supposed to be super awesome, like capable to do all kinds of things. But they're limited in tasks. But they're really, really good at those tasks. And they can work it 16 hours a day when they're not charging. Yes, sir. 100. And the bottom line is household robots are no longer sci-fi, Jay. It's a great idea. But I still feel like it's like flying cars.
[00:17:13] I don't, you know, they've been. But they're still expensive. And they're very limited in their capabilities. But they say within the next five, ten years, many analysts expect prices to fall big time. And they'll be improving, making them practical for more homes. That's what they said five years ago. Yeah. Well, but, Jay, we've made progress now. We have driving cars that drive themselves. And we also have vacuums that vacuum your house and lawnmowers that mow your lawn.
[00:17:41] And so I agree that it's slow. And I agree people think it's going to be tomorrow. And it's not. But yet it's going to come faster than we think, though. I know. It's just going to make us. It's just going to change the work that we're doing. It's kind of just redesigned. So instead of mowing your lawn and folding your laundry, you're going to be managing your bod and getting it repaired and doing these other things for it. And while it's doing those other things, it's just kind of changing you from a household worker to a robot manager.
[00:18:11] Well, what I want is I want a fleet of agents that can do things. I mean, I want them cleaning my garage and mowing my lawn and vacuuming my floor and cutting my hair and making my food and going to pick up my prescriptions. And I want the multi-agent plan, Jay. You don't want like a boiler room of guys making phone calls and sending spam email and stuff like that for you? No, no, no. I just want productive, cool tasks and stuff. I want one of my bots to make cookies and bring them to Jay's family. And I just want to be like on God's errand and stuff with all my bots and stuff. You know what I mean?
[00:18:41] Yeah. I like it. It's like, hey, man, we made Thai food. And so we're bringing you over some Thai food for dinner because we're kind of the service guys. We're the ministering angels with our bots. And so that's the guy I want to be, man. I just want to control all my bots and be a ministering angel to everybody. Yeah, everybody loves this idea. We want Rosie from the Jetsons, right, to just be handling everything. But I don't know if it's going to happen. I want a bot to be an attorney, too. If somebody sues me, just send Rosie, the attorney bot over there, take care of business. She'll sue your socks off.
[00:19:11] And then when you decide you want to cry uncle, she'll be like, okay, we'll stop. Now I'm going to send Tina, the cookie delivery lady, over to say we're so sorry and we love you and it's all good and quit suing us and we'll be kind, too. And, you know, we'll just go there, right, Jay? The world will be a better place. Yes, it will. By the way, speaking of the world being a better place, Jay, multiple monitor setups remain one of the biggest productivity upgrades for office workers, they say now. 100%. And I couldn't agree with this more, Jay. I know. It's one of the cheapest, too.
[00:19:41] One of the cheapest, biggest bang for your buck. Look, if you're on a single monitor, go to a multi-monitor setup and you will be like, how did I ever get along without this? Yeah, for sure. And it's gotten to where people don't even want to work. They're just like, you know what? I got one monitor now. It's not going to work today. I'll work tomorrow. I'll catch up anyway. It boggles me how people do this because it also, what boggles me is how people work on a phone on that tiny screen. And I'm like, man, I've got to have a, I use actually mostly a single monitor at work, but it's a 4K monitor.
[00:20:10] So it's the equivalent of four monitors in one. Yeah, because it's huge and you can put multiple things in sections. But even then, I still have a side monitor that I use for presentations or for putting, you know, ping windows and things that you're trying to monitor or whatever on. But I don't really work from that monitor so much. But still. My son, Ben, is a super web developer and everything else. He develops applications and software for colleges and schools and different things. Anyway. And he basically has like six monitors. Yeah. You just can't get enough when you, once you go down that road. And he puts things everywhere.
[00:20:40] And he, and so he's just like, man, I just need it because I need to compare things. I need to refer to things. And if I have to load and stop and unload and do this and that, it's just not. So I just let it all rip and display. And then I just work pretty soon. We just need to be in a spherical, like IMAX and where you can just have monitors. Well, it's going to get more too, because what's going to happen, Jay, is you're going to start getting agents that are in certain monitors. And all you got to do is keep an eye on that agent. Right. Yeah. You'll be monitoring the agent who will be working on your behalf. Yeah.
[00:21:08] I just need multiple CPUs now because my CPU gets all tied up. My memory gets all tied up. So now I got to have a cluster of like 20 computers and 30 monitors. And then I just got to, you know, be the master control guy and put all the agents to work, Jay. You're going to be the IT guy working on all that stuff when it breaks down. No, it can't break down. Bots have got to fix that. I'll just send my, you know, I'll call it Jake, the IT bot, and he'll just fix all that, Jay. And then it'll all be Jake. I need the bot delivering cookies and making cookies and food and cutting hair. Remember all those tasks, Jay? Yeah. Yeah. I got to have that happen, bro.
[00:21:38] That's a tall order right now. All right. Well, Asana announced the acquisition of what's called Stack AI, Jay. Do you know about this? I don't. I don't. Asana sounds familiar, but I can't remember. It's a software company, right? Yeah. And the goal, it's a race to build what they call AI-powered workplace tools and agents. And so basically they're building the infrastructure for Sam to have what he wants. Now, it's not the automation part.
[00:22:08] You got to understand AI is more of a thinking, a reasoning, and a gather information for you. That whole article. Whereas automation is taking action, Jay. So people need to understand the difference between thinking and action, right? Right. That whole article to me sounds like the buzzword salad of today's news headline. It is. Without question. But, Jay, if it becomes real, though, then they're building the infrastructure for me to have what I want. Yeah. All you got to do is get the automation part where the robots can do their part, and the agents can tell them what to do, and I can just kick it on back, man. Yeah.
[00:22:37] And they'll charge you a monthly fee for it, an exorbitant monthly fee. Of course they will. But I'll just find a bot to raise the money for that. Right. See? Because I can do a bot that'll be out there and it's like, Sam's on the bleeding edge of this cool tech. He's delivering the whole world cookies, man. And as long as your bots can make whatever that cost is X plus one, then you're all right. Roger that. Yes, sir. Now you got that picture. You're thinking right, Jay. You're on target, buddy. So that's what's happening. It's very interesting.
[00:23:03] And, you know, a lot of it sounds cool, but it isn't going to be here very soon because the AI regulation debate intensifies in Washington, says the next headline. Federal policymakers continue evaluating AI oversight, security, quote, safeguards and compliance frameworks for advanced models. So they're digging in and saying we're going to all it means when they do this is it's going to slow down, Jay.
[00:23:29] I think there's a lot of good and necessity to it, but it's also frustrating if you want the future to come quicker. Right. I agree. A hundred percent. You know, people are they say, well, it's the Wild West. And I also agree. I understand that. And you do want some, you know, some oversight of it. You don't want to stifle innovation. Right. It's a hard balance to achieve. Right. Without question. So the next headline says cybersecurity expert push new AI security standards.
[00:23:55] Industry leaders are meeting to develop security practices aimed at protecting an increasingly powerful AI system from, quote, misuse. Which is smart, but I don't know how somebody might take my cookie making bot and they might like put poison in the cookies or something, Jay. Yeah. They can't be having that, bro. This is a great idea. Guard bot. I think it's good because these guys are putting together, you know, their ideas and, you know, they can pass that to legislators. They can do stuff.
[00:24:25] We'll see how it turns out. We'll be on top of it. All I can tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I need a guard bot to keep an eye on my cookie maker so no one poisons the cookies. You see what I'm talking about? I got a lot going on in the world, baby. So I need competing power like you wouldn't believe. Build me my own personal data center, would you please? Yes, sir. For Sam and Jay, that's TechWatch. We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. NPITechGuys.com. NetworkProvidersInc.com. Hey, make it a great.