Episode #24: Social media’s pros and cons, Starbucks NFTs Starship, and Bing AI
Episode #24: Social media’s pros and cons, Starbucks NFTs Starship, and Bing AI
Rick Huckstep & Shaun Weston ask the question, is social media a force for good in the world? Also in this episode; Starbucks NFTs, robot footballers, Elon’s Starship, Arc, Bing & AI for lazy readers.
🔥 This issue of the Big Tech Little Tech newsletter is promoting Babbel
Anyone can start speaking a new language in just three weeks with Babbel
If you’ve always wanted to learn a new language, Babbel will be the most productive 10 minutes of your day. Trusted by over 10 million subscribers worldwide, the subscription-based language learning platform can get you confidently conversing in a new tongue in just three weeks. This isn’t your grade school textbook: the bite-sized lessons, available in 14 languages, teach you localised vocabulary you’ll actually use in the real world. Plus, speech recognition technology helps you perfect your accent.
👉 Sign up today and get up to 60% off your subscription.
🎙️ Listen to Episode #24 on Spotify
You can find the Big Tech Little Tech podcast on all major podcast platforms.
🎙️ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Anchor | Pandora | Google Podcasts | Castbox | Deezer | Pocket Casts | Stitcher
🌎 For all show notes, background links, and everything to do with the show, go to the Big Tech Little Tech website.
00:00 Preamble
Shaun’s been doing the garden using his Gtech electric garden gadgets, while Rick is buying local veg from his nearby neighbours. Alongside these spring-like musings, Shaun recounts the ridiculousness of toll booths that don’t accept phone payments, and Rick preempts a future possible episode about cashless payments.
03:33 Interesting Tech of the Week
Rick’s interesting tech of the week is news that Starbucks are getting close to rolling out NFTs in the Rewards loyalty programme. Its been a beta project since the end of last year and, by all accounts, been doing well. Learn more about how Starbucks are using NFTs to build customer engagement here…
Shaun’s attention was caught by Artemis, a robot that plays football. It’s a humanoid robot developed at RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) at UCLA in America. It will take part in the autonomous robot soccer competition, RoboCup, in July in Bordeaux.
10:47 Tech News
Over 140,000 authors and performers from 42 German associations and trade unions have asked the EU to enhance draft regulations on AI intelligence. They specifically highlighted ChatGPT as a potential risk to their copyright.
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority says Google's proposals to let app developers break away from its in-app billing system would allow developers to have more freedom. A final judgement will be delivered by regulators after 19 May.
Mumbai welcomed Apple’s first store in India, and Tim Cook was there to open the doors. It is apparently one of the most energy-efficient Apple Store locations in the world.
The launch of the Starship rocket by SpaceX took place, and if you’re over 50 and watched it live, did it take you back to watching the space shuttle launch in 1981?
Netflix will end its DVD-by-mail business by the end of September, Amazon will roll out Dialogue Boost for barely legible movie dialogue, Snap is releasing its ‘My AI’ chatbot to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users for free.
13:37: Is social media a force for good in the world?
In a world constantly connected through social media, the question arises of whether it’s doing more harm than good. From the first social media site, SixDegrees.com, launched in 1997, to TikTok, released in 2016, social media has had a tremendous impact on society.
On one hand, it has provided a platform for activism, enabled the sharing of knowledge, and given a voice to marginalised communities. On the other hand, it’s highly addictive and can create mental health issues, enhance hate speech, and spread misinformation.
The question remains: Is social media good for the world?
Key points…
18:40 Instagram, teenage girls, mental health, TikTok and sleep.
21:09 Taking a broader view of social media may be more helpful.
24:17 What are the upsides of social media?
29:11 What can parents do to tackle social media?
31:20 Age limits on social media use may also isolate kids from their peer groups.
33:20: Outro - Apps, AI, Bing and Arc
Rick has changed his browser to Edge so he can use Bing's AI-powered search engine. Shaun's using his new Arc browser and is loving it, AI or not. Would you use AI to trim a 1,500-word article down to its essence, or read the lot and get the benefits the author intended?
Further Reading
Social media use can be positive for mental health and well-being (Harvard)
What happens when the AI chatbot breaks your heart? (Rick Huckstep)
Social media seen as mostly good for democracy across many nations, but US is a major outlier (Pew Research)
Is social media helping or hurting society? (Odyssey)
US Supreme Court hears two "Section 230" cases that could decide the future of the Internet (Rick Huckstep)
6 ways social media is changing the world (WEF)
Social media hurts girls more than boys (Time)
Interested in making money from AI?
🎙️ Big Tech Little Tech
You can find the Big Tech Little Tech podcast on all major podcast platforms.
🎙️ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Anchor | Pandora | Google Podcasts | Castbox | Deezer | Pocket Casts | Stitcher
🌎 For all show notes, background links, and everything else to do with the show, go to the Big Tech Little Tech website.