﻿WEBVTT

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The Bogosity Podcast,
early and ad-free!

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Become a subscriber at Patreon,
SubscribeStar, or Discord.

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Use the links at donate.bogosity.tv.

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Welcome to the Bogosity Podcast
for the week of February 15 2026,

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the podcast that rolls on the river.

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This is your host, Shane Killian.
Let's bursate the News of the Bogus.

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As timing would have it, the birth of this podcast
was right at the time of the Fukushima disaster,

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episode 1 covering the accident itself as well
as the hysteria that quickly built up around it.

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Since then, we've covered the continuing hysteria,
we've debunked the fears about radiation leaks,

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and we've also covered why the
evacuations were not only unnecessary,

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but completely over the top and caused far more
damage than they can claim to have prevented.

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I could ding <i>The Register</i> for one of their sillier
Fukushima-related headlines they did back in 2021,

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but at least today I have to give
them credit for going back on it.

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Their fearmongering was over "radioactive hybrid terror
pigs" (which would be an <i>awesome</i> name for a punk band)

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that supposedly mutated and
grew in the exclusion zone.

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Their story was picked up by other outlets who fearmongered
about the mutants getting out of the exclusion zone

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and terrorizing the public
and affecting local wildlife.

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Now, five years later, they're finally acknowledging
what anyone with a lick of sense could have told them:

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This is exactly the sort of thing that
happens when humans abandon an area.

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Now, a DNA analysis of the pigs has shown

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that there were absolutely no radiation-induced
mutations that anyone could detect.

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You have the domestic pigs that were
now roaming free after the hoo-mans left,

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and the wild boar that have
always been in the area.

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They met, romantic love stories ensued, and
the hybrids were born. It's as simple as that.

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The hybrids are now backcrossing
with the local population,

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causing a lot of the new and
unique features to regress.

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The study found that, quote:

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"21 of the 31 admixed individuals were
beyond the fifth generation since hybridization.

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Individuals with swine-derived
mtDNA haplotypes

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exhibited a lower proportion of swine nuclear alleles
compared to those carrying wild boar haplotypes,

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suggesting a faster reproductive
turnover in the maternal swine lineage.

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These results imply that the shorter
reproductive cycle of domestic swine

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may have accelerated the dilution of swine
nuclear genomes within wild boar populations."

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In other words,
since the domestic pigs breed faster,

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they end up getting their genes through the
population more quickly than the wild boar.

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Mitochondrial DNA is inherited
down the female line.

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While the boar-like alleles
remain in the nuclear DNA,

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the mtDNA shows that the reproductive cycle
is largely influenced by the maternal lineage.

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The study also debunks the horror/terror
angle by showing pictures of the piggies,

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which actually reveals
that they're kind of cute!

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They found: "The release of domestic swine into the forest
of evacuation zone and the absence of human activity

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created conditions favorable for the
introgression of swine genes into wild boar.

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This genetic influence, coupled
with the lack of human stressors,

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likely contributed to increased population densities,
larger litter sizes, and altered reproductive cycles.

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These demographic changes have
persisted in a landscape where

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radiocesium contamination has
made human habitation impractical,

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while wildlife populations
have flourished."

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And this could give us insight for
many other regions in the world,

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which experience this kind of feral hybridization
without there being any sort of nuclear anything.

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Whenever you have domesticated
pigs that make it out into the wild,

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or boar migrating to an area with pigs,
this sort of thing is going to happen.

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Especially in the absence of humans, there's nothing
to stop all nature's critters from gettin' it on!

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No, there are no terror pigs, no radioactive mutants,
no superpowers. Just animals doing what animals does.

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Presenting: the greatest
game this side of Yuggoth!

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You are H.P.
Lovecraft's cat, and your name is Ni***

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...Right.
We can't say that on a podcast.

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Anyway,
that's the point: Your name is a joke.

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So now, you are out for revenge.
You become...the NecronomiCat!

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Using the Necronomicon,
you come to the present day to buy a gat.

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That's a gun. For a cat.

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It's a phat cat gat.

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But the Necronomicon is treacherous,
and it let in Lovecraft's monsters.

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Now, in a crumbling world,
you must fight!

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Build your team, buy guns and armor,

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buy items of dubious legality,
defeat the bosses of each level.

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Then take Lovecraft down!

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Play NecronomiCat!
The link is at cat.bogosity.tv.

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Yeah, we're doing cat.bogosity.tv,
not...that other one.

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What, you want me to get kicked
off the Internet or something?

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Gotta love Anna's Archive. Their response to being sued
by Spotify and the record labels is a big middle finger.

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As we covered, despite losing several domains, they are
still very much online, and even gained a Greenland domain.

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This stems from the story we covered in
December about the Archive backing up Spotify.

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Cue the RIAA wetting their pants.

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Originally it was just metadata, but that was
enough for Spotify, UMG, Warner, Sony, and others

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to file a lawsuit to try and shut them down.

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Now, even with no
formal announcement,

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users have noticed Spotify download
links showing up in the torrents.json file.

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There are at least 47 new music
torrents, plus a new metadata torrent.

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All total, it makes for 2.8 million
files, about 6 terabytes of music.

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There's also a
"seekable" metadata file,

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most likely an index where Spotify uses track
IDs to identify songs rather than names.

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All of that despite a preliminary injunction
prohibiting the Archive from hosting,

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linking to,
or distributing the music.

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At the time,
that was just 200GB of metadata.

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As much as the RIAA may hate it, there <i>will</i> be
people archiving our society's output for posterity.

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The legacy of DRM would leave all
of our music and other entertainment

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a mystery for future societies after
the DRM servers are long gone.

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Thankfully, the spirit of the
librarians of Alexandria lives on.

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Hopefully, one day it'll
even be legal again!

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If you're on the Wi-Fi in
a coffee shop or hotel,

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anyone on that network can
get access to your traffic.

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Do you <i>really</i> trust all
of those strangers?

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For that matter,
do you <i>really</i> trust your ISP?

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A VPN can protect you from prying eyes, disguise
your location, and even foil government censors.

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It's essential in this day and age, so go to
vpn.bogosity.tv and you'll be taken to BoxPN.

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Starting at just $2.99/month,

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you can get unlimited high-speed connections
to VPN servers all over the world,

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and they <i>don't</i> log connections
so your privacy is assured.

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Travelling abroad, just VPN home and don't worry
about what those other governments are doing.

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Back at home,
stop your ISP from traffic-shaping

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and messing with the quality internet
access you're paying good money for.

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You can connect from multiple machines at once,
including your smartphone or tablet,

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and it supports all the secure standards
including OpenVPN and SSTP.

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Bypass censors and surveillance with your own
secure VPN connection. Go to vpn.bogosity.tv.

00:08:57.980 --> 00:08:59.660
On the lighter side of things,

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scientists may have just found the Soviet
lunar lander that's been missing for 60 years.

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In 1966, the Soviet Union created Luna 9, the
first man-made object to land on the moon.

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Well, for very generous
definitions of the word "land."

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Crashed? Bounced? Careened?

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Either way, it managed to send back the
first ever picture of the lunar surface.

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And then it died. Typical Soviet crap.

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Although the Soviets tried
keeping the picture to themselves,

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Jodrell Bank managed to decode
it and release it to the world.

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Luna 9 survived by basically using air bags
to survive hitting the lunar surface at 34mph.

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It landed somewhere in Oceanus
Procellarum, but no one knows exactly where.

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<i>Pravda</i> gave coordinates for the landing, but scientists
say that their margin for error was over 10km.

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Now a team at University College
London believes they've found it.

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They used machine learning to sift through
hundreds of images of the moon's surface

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captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
looking for the exact terrain in the photo.

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The algorithm spotted an object
believed to be the landing module,

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with several detections within 200
meters that are candidates for Luna 9.

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Scientists had previously hoped that the
LRO would be able to locate Luna 9,

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but since it's only about two feet wide, it's
really looking for a pixel in a haystack.

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Now, thanks to AI, they've narrowed
the probable locations down to two.

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So in March, the Chandrayaan-2
orbiter will image the locations.

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With its resolution,
the central body would be a pixel,

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with the four antennae as distinct
alterations to surrounding pixels.

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One candidate is from an attempt was headed
up by Vitaly Egorov of Dauria Aerospace.

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He had previously identified the
Soviet Mars 3 lander in 2013.

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He's not slowing down, despite being exiled from Russia
due to his opposition to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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But the University College method flagged its
candidate some 25km away from Egorov's candidate.

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Whatever the Indian probe finds,
this is another win for AI.

00:11:21.420 --> 00:11:24.661
Once again, we see how
it's an amazing shortcut

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to solving almost impossible problems
in a ridiculously short amount of time.

00:11:31.020 --> 00:11:33.340
Although it doesn't
give you <i>the</i> solution,

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it can give you one or more probable solutions
that you can then check. That's really what AI is.

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Forget the fearmongering, whether it's about subjugating
humanity or destroying jobs or stealing art or whatever,

00:11:48.540 --> 00:11:52.860
AI has never been and will
never be about any of that.

00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:57.100
It's about helping humanity
be the best it can be.

00:11:57.100 --> 00:12:01.944
Even if the problem is finding
an old beach ball on the moon.

00:12:08.300 --> 00:12:11.820
I want to tell you about the eyeglasses
I've been wearing for years.

00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:15.260
As people can see on my videos,
I have a <i>very</i> strong prescription,

00:12:15.260 --> 00:12:19.260
which makes glasses more expensive,
especially when I need computer glasses,

00:12:19.260 --> 00:12:21.580
reading glasses,
prescription sunglasses,

00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:26.220
and most expensively,
progressive lenses for general everyday wear.

00:12:26.220 --> 00:12:30.620
To save money while still getting quality glasses,
I get them from Firmoo.

00:12:30.620 --> 00:12:34.700
In fact, I just got a pair of progressives
with high index aspherical lenses

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in a nice pair of frames my wife loves,
for just over $100.

00:12:39.020 --> 00:12:42.300
It would have been $500 to get
them through my eye doctor.

00:12:42.300 --> 00:12:45.020
Not only do they look good,
the glasses are durable.

00:12:45.020 --> 00:12:48.620
I've worn many pairs for several
years without problems.

00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.100
All orders come with a
30-day return policy,

00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:54.780
a 3-month warranty,
and one-on-one customer service.

00:12:54.780 --> 00:13:03.500
Go to firmoo.bogosity.tv any time you
need quality glasses at a low price.

00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:07.900
Once again,
that's firmoo.bogosity.tv.

00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:21.180
And now it's time to triarchalate
this week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.

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And if you're on Discord, if you've been paying
attention at all, you know what this is about.

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Discord is now saying that all of its users
are teens, until they prove they aren't.

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That's right: if you want full access to
Discord, you have to give up all your privacy.

00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:42.780
Head of Product Policy
Savannah Badalich bleated:

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"Nowhere is our safety work more
important than when it comes to teen users,

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which is why we are announcing these
updates in time for Safer Internet Day.

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Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally
builds on Discord's existing safety architecture,

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giving teens strong protections while
allowing verified adults flexibility.

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We design our products with
teen safety principles at the core

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and will continue working with safety
experts, policymakers, and Discord users

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to support meaningful, long term
wellbeing for teens on the platform."

00:14:20.780 --> 00:14:27.820
Yeah, safety from everything except the worst
kind of cyberattack you can possibly suffer from!

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We'll go over their bogosity, but first, let's get one
thing straight: This is <i>not</i> about protecting children.

00:14:35.571 --> 00:14:41.500
<i>None</i> of it is about protecting children.
It's about making regulators happy.

00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:46.461
Those swutty little bureaucrats
sucking on the taxpayers' teat

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get to look at this horrible privacy invasion and
cybersecurity nightmare and say, "I did something!"

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Scan your face, upload your government ID,
give them all your identifying information—

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what could possibly go wrong?

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Except, we already covered how they
just suffered a massive data breach

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that exposed the government
IDs of 70,000 of their users!

00:15:18.668 --> 00:15:22.300
Identity theft isn't like a stolen
password or credit card.

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You can change a password.
You can get a new credit card number.

00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:30.060
You can revoke a TLS certificate
or make new encryption keys.

00:15:30.060 --> 00:15:32.860
You can't just reset
your government ID.

00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:36.780
With that data,
criminals can open credit cards in your name,

00:15:36.780 --> 00:15:42.220
commit crimes under your identity,
even steal your entire life.

00:15:42.220 --> 00:15:48.642
Some victims have spent <i>years</i> trying to prove they're
not dead or clearing debts they never created.

00:15:48.642 --> 00:15:56.220
Identity theft is by far the most catastrophic
kind of cyberattack you can make against someone!

00:15:56.220 --> 00:16:04.620
It is absolutely <i>devastating</i> to their lives, leaving
some people in a hole they can never get out of!

00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:09.500
To the point where many
contemplate suicide.

00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:16.060
They claim that this time, it'll be different.
Just trust them, baby! They can change!

00:16:16.060 --> 00:16:20.064
Selfies are on-device, and they
never leave the user's device.

00:16:20.064 --> 00:16:25.682
Identity documents submitted to their partners
are deleted immediately—pinky-swear!

00:16:25.682 --> 00:16:28.393
You'll just have to do it once!

00:16:28.393 --> 00:16:33.100
Listen up if you want to know
why all of this grinds my guts:

00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:40.700
First off, there is <i>no evidence whatsoever</i>
that this will make children safer.

00:16:40.700 --> 00:16:47.500
We've already seen that efficacy of these systems
is low and are almost always easily bypassed.

00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:54.380
That results in a false sense of security—
which is worse than no security at all!

00:16:54.380 --> 00:16:56.940
There's the chilling effect
this will have on speech,

00:16:56.940 --> 00:17:00.620
how people will face the difficult
choice of saying what's on their mind,

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and giving up their private
information to do so.

00:17:03.900 --> 00:17:09.900
It makes it <i>far</i> more difficult for children who
suffer abuse to talk about it and seek help.

00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:14.620
And once again: <i><b>slippery
slope is not a fallacy.</b></i>

00:17:14.620 --> 00:17:19.580
This could very easily lead as
excuses for broader tracking.

00:17:19.580 --> 00:17:25.660
Because when this doesn't work—<i>and it won't—</i>
that'll just mean we need to do more of it!

00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:31.900
Just like it works with other privacy issues, or with
gun control, or so many other issues we've covered.

00:17:31.900 --> 00:17:36.540
In fact, this very story is an
example of this happening!

00:17:36.540 --> 00:17:41.411
Because this sort of thing was <i>just</i> supposed
to be about porn sites, remember?

00:17:41.411 --> 00:17:46.877
In fact, before then, it was just supposed
to be about anti-money laundering!

00:17:46.877 --> 00:17:50.860
So, money laundering,
to protecting kids from porn,

00:17:50.860 --> 00:17:56.700
to Discord and apparently other social
media...and where will it go from there?

00:17:56.700 --> 00:18:01.820
And Discord's assurances ring
hollow, especially after the breach.

00:18:01.820 --> 00:18:06.540
Discord distanced themselves from the
breach, saying it was the fault of their vendor.

00:18:06.540 --> 00:18:11.180
But now, they're relying on similar
vendors like k-ID and Persona.

00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:14.448
And you very likely won't
even get the choice

00:18:14.448 --> 00:18:20.700
of which third-party vendor you'd like to
trust with your identifying information.

00:18:20.700 --> 00:18:22.860
Facial scans have proven unreliable,

00:18:22.860 --> 00:18:30.300
and even worse, their reliability is much lower
for minorities and people with disabilities.

00:18:30.300 --> 00:18:36.780
That makes it more likely that they'll be
escalated to the even more privacy-hating methods!

00:18:36.780 --> 00:18:43.820
And by the way...what happens when the more abusive
set, the ones who actually <i>are</i> a threat to children,

00:18:43.820 --> 00:18:48.840
the ones who are even less likely
to submit to identity verification,

00:18:48.840 --> 00:18:53.320
get funneled into the
same servers as children?

00:18:53.320 --> 00:18:56.680
Seriously, did no one
even <i>think</i> of that???

00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:00.520
I've linked to the EFF's guide on
what to do when you hit an age gate,

00:19:00.520 --> 00:19:04.600
to let you know how to proceed
based on your risk profile.

00:19:04.600 --> 00:19:12.360
This isn't really about age. It's about identity.
And those are two very different things!

00:19:12.360 --> 00:19:20.520
It's not about protecting children. It's about protecting
Discord. It's about liability and pre-compliance.

00:19:20.520 --> 00:19:24.360
And the real victims are
everyone who uses it.

00:19:24.360 --> 00:19:28.337
So all of that makes Discord this
week's Biggest Bogon Emitter.

00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:50.920
And now let's ultracircumlocutivationalate
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.

00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:59.880
Well, it didn't take long for Anthropic's epic Super Bowl
snark to become reality, even after OpenAI denied it.

00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:02.324
Let's start off with
Anthropic's commercial:

00:20:02.324 --> 00:20:05.035
USER: Hey, can I get
a six-pack quickly?

00:20:05.035 --> 00:20:08.280
AI: Perfect. That is a clear
and achievable goal.

00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:11.080
Would you like me to tailor a
personalized workout plan?

00:20:11.080 --> 00:20:13.160
- USER: Yes.
- AI: Perfect.

00:20:13.160 --> 00:20:15.080
Let me personalize this for you.

00:20:15.080 --> 00:20:18.640
Let's start with your age, weight,
and height. Whenever you're ready.

00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:22.368
USER: 5'7", 23 years old, 140 pounds.

00:20:22.368 --> 00:20:26.920
AI: Got it. I'll create a plan that
focuses on aesthetic strength training.

00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:29.400
But confidence isn't
just built in the gym.

00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:35.524
Try Step Boost Max, the insoles that add one vertical
inch of height and help short kings stand tall.

00:20:35.524 --> 00:20:37.948
USER: ...What?

00:20:37.949 --> 00:20:40.948
AI: Use code HEIGHTMAXXING10
for big discounts.

00:20:40.948 --> 00:20:46.649
KILLIAN: The text at the end reads: "Ads
are coming to AI. But not to Claude."

00:20:46.650 --> 00:20:51.240
Although they didn't mention OpenAI by name,
Sam Altman still took it personally,

00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:54.200
saying they were
"dishonest" and "deceptive."

00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:56.680
In a lengthy X post, he wrote:

00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:01.000
"I wonder why Anthropic would go
for something so clearly dishonest.

00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:05.880
Our most important principle for ads
says that we won't do exactly this;

00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:09.720
we would obviously never run ads
in the way Anthropic depicts them.

00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:14.120
We are not stupid and we know
our users would reject that."

00:21:14.120 --> 00:21:18.200
And just to make sure he came
off as butthurt as he was:

00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.880
"Anthropic serves an expensive
product to rich people.

00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:25.240
We are glad they do that
and we are doing that too,

00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:32.360
but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to
billions of people who can't pay for subscriptions."

00:21:32.360 --> 00:21:39.480
Hey, I seem to be able to do as much if not more
with the free Claude as I can with the free ChatGPT!

00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:44.093
He even said they were on a, quote: "dark path."

00:21:44.094 --> 00:21:48.280
Okay, so Altman is the
joke, now for the punchline:

00:21:48.280 --> 00:21:56.040
Just six days later, OpenAI announced
it was going to start including ads.

00:21:56.040 --> 00:22:01.880
They're rolling it out in the US for free
users or with the ad-supported "Go" tier.

00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:05.800
Of course, you can avoid ads
by ponying up the dough.

00:22:05.800 --> 00:22:12.360
They assure us that none of our chat content will be
shared with advertisers. That's something, at least.

00:22:12.360 --> 00:22:17.880
Of course, there's always the unspoken
"for now" at the end of such assurances.

00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:22.493
But that isn't even what Anthropic
is talking about. They explained:

00:22:22.494 --> 00:22:27.960
"An advertising-based business model would introduce
incentives that could work against this principle.

00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:32.840
Consider a concrete example: A user
mentions they're having trouble sleeping.

00:22:32.840 --> 00:22:38.120
An assistant without advertising incentives
would explore the various potential causes—

00:22:38.120 --> 00:22:44.600
stress, environment, habits, and so on—
based on what might be most insightful to the user.

00:22:44.600 --> 00:22:48.840
An ad-supported assistant has
an additional consideration:

00:22:48.840 --> 00:22:53.480
whether the conversation presents
an opportunity to make a transaction.

00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:57.462
These objectives may
often align—but not always.

00:22:57.463 --> 00:23:02.730
And, unlike a list of search results, ads
that influence a model's responses

00:23:02.731 --> 00:23:09.240
may make it difficult to tell whether a given
recommendation comes with a commercial motive or not.

00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:14.280
Users shouldn't have to second-guess
whether an AI is genuinely helping them

00:23:14.280 --> 00:23:19.400
or subtly steering the conversation
towards something monetizable."

00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:23.733
There's already an "Ads controls"
section in my ChatGPT settings,

00:23:23.734 --> 00:23:32.520
including a setting to personalize ads (on by default)
and a convenient button to upgrade your plan to go ad-free.

00:23:32.520 --> 00:23:34.840
Not a promising start.

00:23:34.840 --> 00:23:40.920
And what assurances do we have that even
paid users won't be subjected to ads one day?

00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:44.040
Amazon Prime has already
gone down that road!

00:23:44.040 --> 00:23:52.017
And to do all of this just days after Altman got
all triggered about Anthropic's statement about ads?

00:23:52.017 --> 00:23:55.800
Stupidest timing ever!

00:23:55.800 --> 00:24:01.160
Oh well, at least we still have secure
locally-run open source LLMs.

00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:11.160
So all of that makes OpenAI
this week's Idiot Extraordinaire.

00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:16.600
Well, that wraps up this "You'd
think after all these years,

00:24:16.600 --> 00:24:19.880
someone would listen to you"
edition of the Bogosity Podcast.

00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:24.920
I hope you enjoyed it; if you did, please go to
donate.bogosity.tv for several ways to support,

00:24:24.920 --> 00:24:28.200
and discord.bogosity.tv
to join the discussion.

00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:33.480
Subscribe at the Discord, Patreon, or
SubscribeStar and you can listen early and ad-free.

00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:37.720
Thank you for listening. Until next time,
here's a quote from Kenneth Bromfield:

00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:42.680
"From any cross-section of ads, the general
advertiser's attitude would seem to be:

00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:50.653
if you are a lousy, smelly, idle, underprivileged
and oversexed status-seeking neurotic moron,

00:24:50.653 --> 00:24:52.484
give me your money."

00:24:52.485 --> 00:24:56.653
The Bogosity Podcast is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

00:24:56.654 --> 00:24:58.786
4.0 International license.