Jan 14, 2022
Do You Have a Smartspeaker? Another Danger Comes Your Way!
By now, you've heard of tick talk. You might use Tik TOK. Many people do. It's their go-to site online, especially if you're a little on the younger side. Here is a danger of some of these tick talk challenges and combine that with Alexa. Oh my
[Following is an automated transcript]
This is a little bit on the scary
side. We built our house some 25 years ago, we contacted a builder,
and I put together all of the specs, and I made sure that the wood
he used was better than average.
[00:00:30] It's all plywood. It's not particle board or composite
boards. And I made sure they were thicker than needed for all of
the rules. Struts were closer together than the code required. And
we had more oversized plumbing than what was needed through the
house. And one of the things I did was I had him wire the house,
actually the electrical contractor, with a heavier gauge wire than
usually.
[00:01:02] So that I had 20 amp sockets at every socket in the
house. Now we put the special 20 amp sockets on some of them, like
in the kitchen, we have a commercial toaster, as a sort of thing
you need, when you got eight kids and a half of our married life,
we had other families living with us too, that we were helping out
everything from training through just getting them through.
[00:01:26] Bot. So there were times when we had 20 plus people
living in my house. It got crowded, but I wanted to make sure
everything was above code so that it would work well and work well
for us and know how much juice we tend to use. Yeah, you don't want
to see my electric bill. I decided, yeah, let's do the heavier
gauge wire, and let's put the sockets in one of the things I had
the electrician do to make the sockets a little bit safer.
[00:01:57] This was back before you had these. I, frankly, hate
them, but these safety sockets where you push in the plugin Erie
must try it for something to get plugged in. There are ways to
defeat those safety sockets, and that's where this problem comes
in. I had him install the sockets.
[00:02:18] You might consider them to be upside down. So the top of
the socket had little grounding. And then underneath that, you had
the hot and the neutral lines. So the idea there was, while if
something fell onto a plug that wasn't plugged in all the way, or
if the kids decided they'd stick something on it, it would go to
ground or made sense to be.
[00:02:45] And apparently, it's worked because none of my kids are
dead yet. So that's a good thing. There are these challenges on Tik
Tok. You've probably heard of them. That's how they got themselves
going. They had that, that ice bucket challenge, and many others
that people were doing, and they continue to this day.
[00:03:06] One of the tick-tock challenges is very stupid and
dangerous. And that's where this article from ARS Technica comes
from. Eric Bankman wrote. When was this? Oh my gosh, this is right
at the beginning of the year. A 10-year-old girl and her mother
used Amazon Alexa. And what was happening in the kid wanted some
challenges.
[00:03:32] Mom wanted some challenges, and they were doing a whole
bunch of things. Physical challenges, like laying down and rolling
over a holding a shot on your foot from a phys ed teacher on
YouTube. And the girl just wanted another one. So for those of you
who are uninitiated, the plug challenge consists of.
[00:03:54] Partially plugging a phone charger into an electrical
outlet. Now the phone chargers usually do not have a grounding pin.
So my little workaround of mounting all of the sockets upside down
wouldn't matter. Cause if you look at that little charger plug,
it's usually just two pins, and it usually doesn't care about the
polarity.
[00:04:16] It doesn't have the more significant the side and the
smaller side, the. Yeah. I can't remember what they call now, but
if they're both the same size, so you can put it in either
direction, the spades that you put in. So if you put it in part
way, you have defeated the safety mechanism in all of these modern
plugs.
[00:04:38] So you put it in part way, you have to push hard and in
it goes, and then you pull it out partway. So that's part one. Can
you plug this phone charger intellectual outlet partway so that
those two conductors are exposed, and then yeah. Then they ask you
the challenge is to drop a penny onto the exposed prong.
[00:05:08] So you can get anything from a tiny spark. That little
coin may jump off to a full-blown electrical fire. Now, mom was
there, and she yelled. No Alexa, no. And the daughter said she's
too intelligent to do something. Anyway, I'm looking at a picture
here that ARS Technica published of a wall socket, where a short
had happened.
[00:05:35] This wall socket is mounted sideways. I don't get that.
And the hot side is up. So anything falling against the sock, and
by the way, the faceplate is metal. And it was grounded. So
anything falling onto a plug that's only partially plugged in
because the socket sideways falls onto it. It touches the metal
faceplate, and you've got a fire burning.
[00:06:05] So they've got a picture of one of these in a house and
you can see where the smoke went up. Now. I don't think the whole
house caught on fire here, but it was a major zap. It reminds me of
the days when we had. The fuses in the basement. And if a fuse
blew, all you really needed to do is go down there and stick a
quarter in it.
[00:06:26] And you're fine, which means it's defeated the purpose.
Anyways, you gotta be careful. At Amazon confirmed in a statement
to the BBC that it has removed that particular challenge from
Alex's database. Obviously these are computer generated, and
they're based on Tik TOK, idiots. You shouldn't be using Tik TOK
for a lot of reasons.
[00:06:52] One of them is it has been alleged that they have been
spying for the Chinese. It is a Chinese company. It's part of 10
cents. And the, there's just a little stupid thing. So Amazon said,
as soon as you became aware of this error, We took action to fix
it. So again, you can't necessarily trust your kid at home with a,
an Alexa doing challenges.
[00:07:18] I just can't believe it. It's just incredible exactly
what happened here. Hey, I want to give you a real quick tip. Last
week, we went over how you can find out. If your computer has been
hacked, basically. In fact, we were a little bit more specific. We
said, okay, what I want to do here is know if not just the
computers have been hacked, but as someone's stolen my.
[00:07:47] Email and or my password. And we explained why and
everything else. Then if you missed it last week, you can just go
right ahead, online to to oh my I'm just having man's beginning of
the year, right? That's what happened. Go online to Craig
peterson.com/itunes or slash your favorite podcast player.
[00:08:08] And you can listen to it there. So really good little
article from. And make use of technology. And they're talking about
what are some of the things you can do? You should do. You
shouldn't do when it comes to external GPU's and now if you are a
regular computer user, you don't even need one of these things and
people might've tried to talk you into it.
[00:08:35] Now, also that GPU is these graphical processing units
are built into all of our computers nowadays. All of these new
computers that our friends at Apple have come up with have some
amazing GPS built into them. Those are great. They're used to
update your actual windows screen that you're looking at hate
Microsoft for stealing words like windows, mean things anyways.
[00:09:03] But the external GPU is something I use on my main
production workstation. So I've got GPU's they work great. And when
I'm processing video and doing the edits, and then the final
renders, that's when an external GPU comes in. So I can guarantee
you if you don't know what I'm talking about here, I guarantee
you.
[00:09:29] I need an external GPU. Now the couple of other things
to know, if you are looking for an, a GPO of any sort to build and
put in your existing computer to build in somewhere out somewhere
else, the GPU's are difficult to get right now. And part of the
reason for that is so many people have been using them for mining
cryptocurrencies, because they're quite good at that.
[00:09:55] Now there's special hardware that's being made. To mine,
cryptocurrencies, but GPU's frankly are great little work around
for anybody that just has a basic computer and wants to try and do
a little crypto mining. So you're going to have a hard time getting
ahold of these. GPU's just like many other chipsets out there and
my own personal experiences.
[00:10:19] I don't need the top end one because of it takes a few
extra minutes to render something. When I'm making a video, it's
not a big deal, cause I'm not making videos all day long. So a
little tip for you on GPU's and external GPU's. And do you need
them, what should do. Use them for, Hey, I am doing some training
every week.
[00:10:43] Kind of what we just did just now, but about
cybersecurity and other things in my weekly newsletter. So make
sure you sign up Craig peterson.com AU. And if you could, and if
you are a podcast listener, like to invite you to subscribe to my
podcast, you can find it at Craig peterson.com/itunes.
[00:11:07] We've got the end of a era for a device that was
considered to be quite secure. In fact, some of our presidents,
particularly the one that comes to mind is President Obama used it
extensively, and it isn't what it was.
[00:11:23] This device that I'm thinking of right now, and we'll
see if you can guess what it is, but it was extremely popular.
[00:11:31] It was for sending and receiving messages that even had
some other functions, but it was mainly an email thing. I remember
having a couple of those back in the day that was strictly email.
They were, they actually nice. And then of course texting came
along and they kept up with the times a little bit.
[00:11:49] What we're talking about is the end of the line. This
was a Canadian company, a company that was well-known worldwide by
the name of rim. They were providing the Blackberry operating
system. They had servers that were designed and built to be secure.
So you could rest assured that all of your data was safe, no loud
you to send and receive emails.
[00:12:23] And it had that wonderful little click keyboard on it.
Something that went the way of all the world. That keyboard is now
gone, and it's gone for good, as has the ability to use some of
those blackberries that you bought over the years to keep yourself.
I just had to play taps underneath that, but it's just
incredible.
[00:12:51] It is the end of the day for the company, the once
dominated the entire smartphone business. If you didn't have a
Blackberry, you weren't cool and you weren't secure or secure. And
you weren't able to communicate as easily. They were actually.
Excellent little devices in their day. I want to add another note
here when we're talking about secure, because Blackberry was very
big and saying, Hey, listen, it's very secure.
[00:13:21] It's all encrypted. We keep all your emails, encrypted,
all your communications and gripped and what we found out, by the
way, is it turned out that the Canadian government, basically the
equivalent of the FBI, CIA NSA had the master key for all
Blackberry messages. And not only did it have the master key, it
shared the master key with the United States secret agencies, the
end of the.
[00:13:53] CIA, et cetera. So if you were thinking you could use
your Blackberry and keep your information safe, you are wrong. You
remember when President Obama was elected? One of the first things
they scrambled for in the tech business was how do we secure our.
Mary. And of course, all kinds are not our Blackberry, his
Blackberry, all kinds of rumors erupted that, it was people
controlling president Obama and they were using the Blackberry and
they're using it because it was secure.
[00:14:22] You, do you remember the whole uproar around. And the
biggest problem was obviously our intelligence knew that they
weren't secure and they could read any message they wanted to, as
well as the Canadian government. And remember the whole five eyes
thing back in the day, these five different governments that shared
information on their own citizens.
[00:14:45] So it was a real windfall for the United States because
Canada was. EV all of this shop software was developed for the
Blackberry. It's where all of the servers were located, and data
could easily be routed to Canadian servers away from us servers if
they wanted to monitor somebody. And so Canada was the one spying
on you, technically not your government.
[00:15:08] They'd never do that. So it was an interesting time,
frankly. As of January 4th, 2020, These Blackberry phones will no
longer be provided with provisioning services, which means they are
going to gradually lose the ability to join networks, including the
cellular network, by the way. So it's man, it's something that many
kids.
[00:15:40] I have never even seen. And I look at it and just think,
I remember envied some of the guys that had the blackberries at the
time. And I had a couple of other little devices, keyboard-driven
that were from people who have been guests on my radio show. And I
really liked those, but in the Blackberry was just crazy expensive
as far as I was concerned.
[00:16:02] But Blackberry's leadership really messed up. The guys
who are developing Android at the time realized, oh, wait a minute.
The iPhone is a pretty popular. It's going to be extremely popular.
So Android then they mimicked the Blackberry at first, made it look
like a Blackberry. And then they switched over and made the Android
operating system be like an iPad.
[00:16:31] So they can pick, can compete with it, but Blackberry
didn't see any of this coming. And it took over a year after the
iPhone came out for Blackberry, for rim research and motion to come
up with its own touchscreen phone. And the software was really
quite a mass where they tried to. Basically crowbar in some new
features and they had the old features.
[00:16:56] They're still incorporate users during this whole time.
We're falling into love with their apple phones and then eventually
the Android phone. Told their IP department, it departments that
they needed to support the iPhone and the Android phones. And so
they did, and Blackberry eventually gave up on its own phones and
they started releasing Android versions.
[00:17:21] Do you remember those, the Android phones from. Mary,
they got out of the hardware business entirely. And now what
they're doing is they're trying to promote corporate security
services. And that's really what they're trying to do. It's a new
claim to fame. Yeah. Remember I just told you last time they were
promoting that they were secure.
[00:17:42] They weren't at all. No, they were to some extent, but
so the last version of Blackberry opera and he said, The very last
release that they had was in 2013. Yeah. 2013 year that hold. So
the devices affected here by this shutdown are by all standards,
extremely low old. And remember you got to get security
updates.
[00:18:07] So these machines, I can't even believe this still
online when Blackberry hasn't given an update to them since 2013,
that's almost a decade now, nine years. So if you're still using
it, stop, and if you're trying to figure out what to use, get an
iPhone. And if you say, oh, Hey, films are too expensive. Don't get
the latest, greatest iPhone.
[00:18:31] Get a slightly older one because they are supported for
five or more years out, unlike everything else out there now,
although. We now have Samsung promising some longer support, like
five-year support for some of the devices. So we'll see how that
ends up going. But frankly, Blackberry, they're done for.
[00:18:53] It's a shame. So there's a handful of software services
that relied on the Blackberry servers to function. So if you were
using Blackberry world or Blackberry link, those also stopped
functioning on the 4th of January and the number of people still
using it. I don't know. When was the last time you saw a Blackberry
and have you used one I'd love to hear from you go ahead and drop
me into the.
[00:19:21] Craig. Yeah, exactly. me@craigpetersawn.com. Let me
know, did you have a Blackberry? Are you still using one? And did
they bother telling you about the shutdown that was coming up, but
this is it. This is the end of what was a very significant
technology. So here's to Blackberry. All right, stick around
everybody.
[00:19:50] Make sure you are on my email list. I'm going to do
something new too, with the list. I'm going to start sending you my
show notes. Now you can opt-out of the show notes, just the show
notes, if you want to, but expect to start seeing them show up in
your email box. And this is the same show notes I send out to all
of the radio and television stations I appear on because it's the
most important news of the week.
[00:20:17] Artificial intelligence is making its way into all kinds
of aspects of our lives. And one of them that concerns me maybe the
most, in some ways it's a benefit and others is AI in the criminal
justice system.
[00:20:33] China has developed what it calls an AI. Or artificial
intelligence prosecutor.
[00:20:41] And they're saying that they can identify dissident and
press charges for common crimes with 97% accurate. Now that is a
very big claim. And the whole idea behind this is their servers
services. If you will, in the court system are overloaded. We have
the same problem. Most countries have the same problem.
[00:21:07] I was just looking at India. They've got some 37 million
backlog court cases. Absolutely. Phenomenal. So the system now in
China can press charges for Shanghai's eight most common crimes
that runs on a standard PC. And it takes part in the
decision-making process. They say, although apparently it's
actually making their decisions, but there are fears.
[00:21:37] The machine could be weaponized by the state. Now it's
interesting. Looking at the actual charges that it's designed to
press right now, they're saying that it was trained using 17,000
real life cases. And it's able to identify and press charges for
the eight most common crimes in Shanghai. These include
provoking.
[00:22:05] Now that's a term used to stifle dissent in China credit
card, fraud, gambling crimes, dangerous driving theft, fraud,
intentional injury, and obstructing official duties. In other words
pretty much everything, right? You go against the government. It's
just going to charge you. And that's what they say high
prosecutor's going to do.
[00:22:28] Now I'm looking to it. Some more details. From the
management review journal. And they're saying that the system can
replace prosecutors in the decision-making process to a certain
extent. Now let's look at some other countries we've got, for
instance, Germany, and they're using image recognition and digital
forensics to help with their caseloads.
[00:22:54] China's using a system. No. System 2 0 6 to evaluate
evidence of a suspect's potential danger and conditions for arrest.
Now, we've had some really weird things happening here in the US
with our criminal justice system. Some of them are absolutely
idiotic. But things like just letting people out the same day that
really should be held because they committed a moderately serious
crime.
[00:23:20] And we just had cases just at the end of 2021, where we
had people. Who had been arrested and got out that same day and
then went on to commit serious crimes, rape, murder, and other
things. So what are we doing here in the US unfortunately we have
found out that in the us, we are monitoring the.
[00:23:49] The funds that people need to put up that are called
bail in order to be released from jail. So normally you'd go in
front of a justice of the peace and maybe a court clerk, and they
would look at what the charges are or what your background is, how
sticky you are in the community, family, business ties, et cetera,
and then set up.
[00:24:14] So you now put up the bail cash or otherwise, and you
are released on basically usually your own recognizance. They're
very somewhat, so we are all ready in many areas using artificial
intelligence for that entire. Process, there's no pleading with the
computer's saying I can't afford a $200,000 bail.
[00:24:39] There's no pleading with the computer saying, listen,
I've been a member of the Rotary club for 20 years and I own a
business here. I have tight ties to the community. That bail is
just way too high because in many communities they are using
artificial intelligence and relying on it a hundred percent.
[00:24:57] That's one of the big problems with computers. People
because they don't really understand them. Just say fine. Just
yeah, go. The computers is almost always right. Yeah. The other
problem is we don't know how it was programmed. Now in the case of
this Chinese computer, that acts as a prosecutor for charging.
[00:25:20] They fed it 17,000 cases. Do we know what those cases
are? Do we know what the computer weighs when it's making its
decisions? And we've seen this already, in some cases here in the
us where normally you can face your accuser. Normally you can go to
the court and say, this decision by the justice of the peace was
not quite right.
[00:25:43] It needs to be fixed right now. All well and good. And
so if they had someone or they'd come in and testify to say, yeah,
you're not a flight risk, et cetera, you're fine. But when it comes
to the computers, people tend to just believe them. What were those
17,000 cases where they were, they all nasty dissidents?
[00:26:05] What did the computer learned from it? And some of these
cases that we've had in the us we've found. That even the people
that provided the software, that AI software, they don't know what
the decision-making process actually was because the computer
learned how to do it. And you need to understand AI models and how
they're fed data and how they work.
[00:26:31] But basically the computers come up with their own way
of thinking through things. Just to make this simple. So it's not
necessarily totally logic. It's not like back in the day, you'd
write software that says, okay, if they have lived in that same
home for over twenty-five years, they have kids in school, they own
a business, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:26:51] So you set up all of the explicit parameters. And from
that, now you can say okay, fine. So you've got, went down this
path based on. Person was and what their background was. Therefore,
you came to this conclusion. That's not what's happening with this
newer AI, not at all. And then you also have the question.
[00:27:12] Okay. What does 97% accurate? Who's going to take
responsibility when there is a mistake. Now I'm not talking about
the 3% that they're admitting could be mistakes. I'm talking about
the 97% of the time. And then if you now move up to the courts, who
are they going to talk to? The prosecutor, the machine, the
designer of the algorithm.
[00:27:38] Are they going to examine all 17,000 cases that were fed
into this? I goes back to what I said before about airplanes.
People are not good at monitoring computers, but computers can be
good at monitoring people. In other words, in this case, the
artificial intelligence may help detect a mistake, but it really
cannot replace humans in making a decision.
[00:28:05] It's very true. China's relying more and more on AI to
boost productivity. They're using AI with facial recognition
systems for their social credit score that allows people to get on.
Train you can't get on a train unless you have a high enough social
credit score. And if you J rock walk, you have now lost points.
[00:28:28] So it's it's really crazy. So I'm very concerned about
this. I found some great information by the way, online from the
justice department about what they are looking to have AI do. And
it's basically everything making decisions and informing. What
should happen? They're looking at using chat chatbox to provide
legal advice for pro se litigants.
[00:28:56] In other words, people that are trying to defend
themselves can go to a chat box that will give them some direction.
That's all in the works. I'm looking at the official documents
right now, criminal justice testing and evaluation consortium,
looking at artificial intelligence. Hey, make sure you subscribe to
my podcast.
[00:29:17] Craig peterson.com/itunes, and I hope I've earned a five
star review. And if you could take a minute, just give it right
there.