Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Into the show for 15 minutes, and I have to say: Thank you very much to the panel for bringing back the soul, listening texture, and conscience of TWiG this week - albeit in a new dress! I already deleted IM from my Pocket Casts app, but am glad that curiosity brought me back in to see how this podcast would develop. Now, it’s here to stay. I know it’s a much more sombre discussion than last week at the beginning, but these are sombre times, and then hearing something incredibly upbeat about a crucial and critical topic of the present (AI) is just maximum turn-off-level cognitive dissonance. It’s on par with that meme with the dog sitting in the burning house saying “This is fine. This is fine.”
Finally, I get Jeff’s (and Cathy Gellis’, for that matter) vigorous point about how freedom of speech, including things like section 230, and social media can become a force for good (beyond entertainment and seemingly empower every ridiculous speech on planet earth). Certainly, there have been good examples, like documenting and publishing police brutality, but that always seemed very particular as a use case. I never considered as blatant a misuse of power as this one. Also thanks to Paris and Mikah for being honest, heartfelt, informative, and great in explaining the many ways the present situation is a “house on fire” - from societal to individual, from cognitive to emotional - situation. AND you still always made the necessary connections and brought everything back to tech. Best f’n practice, guys! 
In my book, you would never apologize for trying to discuss, understand, or contribute to the welfare of your community or society at large. The opposite is true.
It’s just like Jeff said in the beginning: Now, the question really is how you can organize an opposition (without any power in either chamber or the supreme court, it seems) online without necessarily risking violence in the streets. This will be the litmus test of freedom of speech. After many years of being critical about many of Jeff’s positions I have to say: he was probably right all along, and it may be down to researchers, teachers, and more-or-less public figures like him to help us find that way. (Never thought I’d write that.)
And all of a sudden, tech is not just ha-ha-funny, oh-so-interesting, wow-that-rich-making, or mmh-that-sexy-sounding, but can actually help solve gigantic problems, e.g., oppose those in power who tear down societal institutions without any regard for laws (neither carefully shaping, proposing, passing, ratifying, executing, nor following). I think it’s then when shows on technology seem most relevant, most pertinent. If it’s all just tech-l’art-pour-l’art, look-how-proftiable-they-are, or fun fluff, even tech turns irrelevant.
Hooray panel and congrats! Thanks for bringing it back! Maybe the crystals will speak to Leo. Hope he takes a long walk with some alternative crystal dude through a crystal cave somewhere who is highly doubtful / cautious about AI (anything with a plug, really…). And the next nine months will be highly engaged about geology or something. Just kidding. But I love that about Leo: if he’s in, he’s all the way in! Covid made Leo seemingly discover sourdough, and since then, I have been baking sourdough breads. This random, deeply personal quirkiness, and positivity is what keeps TWiT fresh. I appreciate he’s currently into AI and I get that you might think you need to relaunch a show with a bang. And bang it did. 
…on to the rest of the show.
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0:04:50 - Paris Martineau said:
The American Bar Association famously like not only like an apolitical, but like a famously non-political organization.
Famously? I’ve never listened to Paris, but she is clearly quite knowledgable about politics. I will grant her some leeway when she summarily declares the ABA an apolitical beast. At the same time, some current event I couldn’t quite remember didn’t quite reconcile with her claim…
ChatGPT disagreed with Paris:
Q: is the ABA a famously non-political organization?
A: The American Bar Association (ABA) presents itself as a nonpartisan organization, but it is not famously apolitical. […] The ABA has taken stances on various legal and policy issues, such as voting rights, immigration, and judicial appointments, which some perceive as having political implications. This has led to criticism from both conservatives and liberals at different times. For example, its evaluations of judicial nominees and positions on certain legislation have occasionally been viewed as leaning in one direction or another.So while the ABA is not explicitly a political organization, it is not “famously non-political” in the way that, say, a purely technical or scientific association might be.
I then remembered the strange event that had happened on January 17: Joe Biden spontaneously declared we had a 28th Amendment to our Constitution. The WashPo promptly noted: We do not. It was such a bizarre claim for the former President to have made that it didn’t even generate a kerfuffle from anyone. Joe explained his rationale:
Why does a famously non-political organization have any opinion whatsoever on this? Why would some private organization think that they have any standing on this matter? Where are the adults in the room? This statement from our former President would have been alarming – if anyone had taken it seriously. There will never be a 28th Amendment Wing in the Joe Biden Library.
This will affect the way I listen to IM. I don’t expect the TWiG/IM panelists to be impartial. OTOH, I do expect them to be straight with the audience when they make dubious factual assertions. Journalists must be especially careful. I’m sure the ABA is fine organization, but using the ABA as some absolute arbiter of reality does not quite add up. Can we get a fact-check in IM #807, please?
Based on history, you’ll be waiting a very long time. Scratch that…you’ll be waiting forever.
I’ve cancelled my TWiT membership since I found myself skipping over non-tech related, political discussion that I have no interest in hearing or financially supporting (which for TWiT and TWiG is almost half the content). MacBreak is about the only show I care to watch anymore.
I provide this feedback only because I have been a very long-time supporter of the network and I’m sad it has to come to this. When I lose a customer it’s nice to know why. So there ya go.
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I’m watching now, I love Paris taking the reigns of the host role!!! She’s a superstar (I’ll edit this post if I have more to say about the show)
There’s an awful buzzing going on in my headphones this episode though; so I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep listening 
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Little remix of the segment on education.
I love The Charismatic Voice, she is absolutely brilliant. I love listening to her going through classic pop and rock music and dissecting the voices and construction of the song.
I was a listener to “This week in Google” up until about 2018 - but stopped since it was too much skip-worthy content. With the rebranding I wanted to give Intelligent Machines a go. So far I am a bit disappointed - it feels very much the same… I liked Paris as a host, though.
But I don’t understand how it is possible to have a 20 minutes discussion about YouTube when it is clear that none of the crew have really given it a go? It felt like the entire crew were a bunch of dinosaurs.
YouTube is a brilliant place for anyone that is slightly curious or in other ways want to learn a thing or two. In addition to having a ton of general entertainment and music etc.
First of all - the music problem:
I have used YouTube as an excellent video-player for music videos for years. At no time is it necessary to manually select a new video to continue playing, YouTube’s algorithms are excellent at stringing together music that goes well together and continue “forever”. Just select the first song, and YouTube will continue from there - almost always hitting excellent songs! In addition there are a bunch of music channels that provides curated music lists. So 100% miss from the panel on this one.
Second - quality content:
There are a ton of brilliant and excellent creators, with content quality that surpasses what many “old school” broadcasters have. I’ll just mention a few - which I highly recommend the crew to look through.
Veritasium - https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium
Extremely high quality content, some of which may require pausing to let the content sink in. Mostly not compatible with doing multiple things at once.
Smarter Every Day - https://www.youtube.com/@smartereveryday
Science based learning and dive into interesting science/technology topics.
Stuff Made Here - https://www.youtube.com/@StuffMadeHere
Excellent and entertaining videos about an extremely smart/skilled guy creating awesome home projects using science and technology - and an insane amount of time.
Mark Rober - https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober
Much the same as “Stuff Made Here” - maybe with more focus of lighthearted fun - this can be viewed while doing other things (like making food, doing laundry, etc). These videos are fun for the entire family - recommended starting point:
“Backyard Squirrel Maze 1.0- Ninja Warrior Course” - https://youtu.be/hFZFjoX2cGg?si=CKHblkwlqBpQRDYk
Practical Engineering - https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalEngineeringChannel
Awesome content for the curious
Everyday Astronaut - https://www.youtube.com/@EverydayAstronaut
If you want to better understand what’s going on in Space - this is the best place to start. Has deep dives and excellent explanations into things like: different rocket engines, rocket fuels, comparison about rockets from the 60s and to now, etc etc.
Extremely relevant to this show:
The AI Grid: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAiGrid
All about AI and machine learning
Dave’s Garage - https://www.youtube.com/@DavesGarage
A random mix of computer related videos, has many videos about AI lately
Digital Engine - https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalEngine
AI, Science and tech
And whenever you have a problem in the real world, like:
- How to bleed your brakes on your bike
- How to mount a new derailleur to your bike
- How to mount a new lock to your door
- How to open the frunk on a Tesla when the actuator is dead
- How to
there are always plenty of instructional videos to be found on YouTube.
Not to mention all videos of awesome people creating assorted tutorials to:
- become a better software developer
- learn to paint
- learn to play the piano
- learn to ride a mountain bike
- learn to ski
- learn to fix your car
- learn to trade options
- become a better sim racer
- etc
And videos covering your hobbies like:
- formula 1
- tour de france / road biking in general
- nascar
- gaming
- etc
This is only scratching the surface. Buy YouTube premium (in addition you can stop paying for AppleMusic / Spotify - since you get a great music streaming service as well) and jump in. This is the only google service worth paying for. The rest are best to avoid completely, but YouTube is awesome for the curious and the willing to learn.
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Hear, hear. John Campbell’s YouTube channel kept me sane during the pandemic To me (and many others), the question was never about whether or not to take the vaccine. The question was what else are you going to do to minimize your chance of infection and maximize positive outcomes when you are infected. In short, the “all of the above” approach. Astonishingly, our public health authorities never provided a menu of those things; John Campbell did. He found the science and read [highlights of] the papers on his channel. YouTube had strict limits what conclusions anyone could say about COVID, the vaccines, etc., and he honored those limits. We learned tons during the pandemic; the “all of the above” menu continues to grow. Strangely – quite sadly – our public health authorities continue to fail spectacularly to provide that information.
The Algorithm found Campbell’s channel for me; I’m grateful. I am amused to read the Wikipedia article on Campbell. It’s grossly partisan; the writers have a very weak grasp of reality. The guy reads $!## science papers on his channel; he “follows the science” as we’ve all been instructed to do. How on god’s green earth could that be controversial? Many of the “errors” noted by the mob in the Wikipedia article have been soundly debunked. That entry isn’t a condemnation of Campbell; it’s a condemnation of the entire Wikipedia. 
To a fair extent, AIs are making the Wikipedia irrelevant.
My point is that I’m impressed that YouTube has managed to be an impartial carrier of channels. Billiyons and billiyons of channels thrive on YouTube. Obey their rules, and you’ll be fine. With his 3M+ subscribers, I’m sure Campbell makes a healthy income and donates a fair percentage to charities.
I was just listing to the Technology Connections channel today. Alec Watson’s latest episode Algorithms are breaking how we think noted that we don’t have to abdicate our agency to The Algorithm. In our preferences, we can note that we should only see subscriptions in our feed – but only about 3% of YouTube users do that. Wow! I never knew.
YouTube and podcasts play a complimentary role: one helps you find material on the other. Anyone familiar with the high quality of podcasts should be conversant with high-quality YouTube channels. You’re absolutely right: a paid subscription makes huge sense; you can eliminate other paid services with YouTube Premium.
Given the hosts’ lack of engagement with YouTube, I guess it’s a good thing that this podcast is no longer called This Week in Google.