Tech News Roundup – Week Ending 10/4/24 – Spiceworks

Why it matters:
So much of our everyday lives depend on data stored elsewhere. We take it for granted that our communications, finances, and entertainment will always be available. Occasional outages are to be expected, but multiple in the same week? And from public companies? Individuals don’t have much recourse when these outages occur. It’s not like we have a landline to rely on, cash stuffed under our mattresses, or a deck of playing cards handy. The US government needs to follow the path of the EU and enact regulations to ensure that critical infrastructure remains resilient, like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)Opens a new window .  Companies must also take more precautions to stay online, as their outages aren’t impacting a few people – they’re impacting thousands at a time. Finally, these companies should invest in PR training – as remaining silent during a crisisOpens a new window is a horrible customer experience. 

YouTube Temporarily Said Goodbye to “Hello” and “All Apologies”

Music is licensed to ensure that artists receive royalties for their work. This doesn’t usually impact consumers, but broadcasters cannot play unlicensed music without incurring penalties or fees. That’s why songs from Adele, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, REM, and Kanye West were blocked from US viewers on YouTube earlier this week. YouTube’s agreement with the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC)Opens a new window , representing 30,000 members, was set to expire on October 1, 2024, but the two organizations had not agreed on a new deal. YouTube removed the songs before the deadline and showed US users who tried to access them a message that the video was unavailable in their region. YouTube restored the blocked videos after reaching a deal with SESACOpens a new window .

Why it Matters:
This isn’t the first time a licensing agreement has prevented content from being available on a large-scale platform. Cable networks experience this all the time—just this summer, a licensing fiasco between Diamond Sports Group and Comcast prevented local fans of the Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, and many other baseball teams from watching the games. But as the internet makes the world smaller, local laws one might never think about suddenly become relevant. In this case, the licensing agreement was quickly handled, so you can pop open YouTube and listen to “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)Opens a new window ” the next time an outage tells you that your bank balance is $0.

Anyone Can Create a Podcast in Just 5 Minutes

Google’s experimental AI writing assistant NotebookLMOpens a new window is taking the internet by storm as users discover you can use it to turn any document into a podcast. The tool helps researchers quickly make sense of their data by synthesizing the sources a user uploads. The tool can create a table of contents, FAQ, or study guide with the click of a button. Users can also use natural language to ask questions about their uploaded documents, and the tool will provide citations. The model only uses the information provided, so the risk of hallucination is much lower. But a feature in the latest release has brought the tool to the forefront: Audio OverviewsOpens a new window . Two AI “hosts” discuss your material, which you can listen to, download, or share.

Why it Matters:
The internet is already overflowing with AI-generated content. Experts predict that AI will have created 90% of online contentOpens a new window by 2026. Doctored images, deepfakes, and voice imposters are already everywhere, and they’re getting harder to detect. It’s much more difficult to fact-check a podcast you’re listening to on the go than an online article. Humans also suffer from a few cognitive biasesOpens a new window that make it easier for them to fall for disinformation. We tend to remember and believe the first thing we hear due to primacy and anchoring biases. The authority bias leads us to believe that “experts” have more knowledge about subjects than we do, even when those “experts” are AI-generated podcast hosts.  

Other things to be aware of:

And, in case you missed it, a baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng has gone viralOpens a new window . You can now view her 24/7 live streamOpens a new window on Zoodio.