Six Bizarre Tech Stories You Might Have Missed

Summary

In this “Hot Mess Express” segment, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton run through six of the weirdest, funniest, and sometimes scariest tech stories of the week. The stories range from Ring canceling its partnership with surveillance company Flock Safety after a Super Bowl ad backfired spectacularly, to the revelation that Japan’s largest toilet maker Toto is secretly an undervalued AI play because of its advanced ceramics used in chip manufacturing.

The segment also covers Meta’s plans to add facial recognition technology to its smart glasses (with an internal memo revealing they planned to launch while civil society groups were distracted), an Australian Uber driver charging $5 extra to turn on the air conditioning during a heatwave, Meta patenting an AI that would let dead users keep posting from beyond the grave, and a Wired reporter’s experience with RentAHuman — a platform where AI agents can hire humans to do tasks for them, including delivering flowers to Anthropic’s office as thanks for developing Claude.

Highlights

”Get the Flock Out of My Neighborhood”

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“Ring puts out this ad during the Super Bowl that says they are starting to link their technology, their doorbells to save lost pets by connecting all the footage from all these cameras… But instead of being a heartwarming tale, this led to the destruction of a partnership between Ring and Flock Safety. People were so creeped out that they said, ‘Wait a minute, you were doing what?’ People are saying, ‘Get the flock out of my neighborhood.’” — Kevin Roose, 1:00

”Toto: We Put the PU in GPU”

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“Toto makes advanced ceramics that help to stabilize silicon wafers during chip production… Toto, the humble toilet company is playing a major role. And so there’s an activist investor in the UK who sent a letter to the board of Toto exhorting it to make more of its advanced ceramics. Basically, stop making so many toilets and start making chip parts.” — Kevin Roose, 2:58

Meta’s Cynical Facial Recognition Timing

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“The quote that got everyone’s attention from this story was from an internal document in which Meta Reality Labs wrote: ‘We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.’” — Casey Newton, 4:40

”It’s a Very Good Thing That Meta Sucks at Developing AI”

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“It’s a really good thing that Meta sucks at developing AI, because if they were good at it, it would be terrifying.” — Kevin Roose, 5:59

AI Agents Hiring Humans on RentAHuman

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“Another agent tried to hire him to deliver a bouquet of flowers to Anthropic as a special thanks for developing Claude. Which I think will get you banned from the building.” — Kevin Roose, 10:26

Key Points

• Ring-Flock Super Bowl disaster (0:23) - Ring’s Super Bowl ad about using networked cameras to find lost pets backfired so badly it destroyed their partnership with surveillance company Flock Safety
• Toto as undervalued AI play (2:28) - Japan’s largest toilet maker produces advanced ceramics critical for semiconductor manufacturing, prompting an activist investor to demand it shift production from toilets to chip parts
• Meta facial recognition on smart glasses (4:08) - Meta plans a “Name Tag” feature for smart glasses that would identify people via facial recognition, something they reversed course on in 2021 when they deleted over a billion face prints
• Meta timed launch to avoid criticism (4:50) - An internal Meta document revealed plans to launch during political turmoil when civil society groups would be distracted
• Uber driver AC surcharge (6:13) - An Australian Uber driver charged a passenger $5 to turn on the air conditioning during 95-degree heat, going viral on TikTok
• Meta patents post-death AI (8:23) - Meta patented a system where an LLM could replicate a person’s online behavior after they die, using their past data
• Dead internet theory becomes literal (9:21) - Kevin notes Meta’s post-death AI patent could make the “dead internet theory” literal reality
• RentAHuman platform (10:00) - A website where AI agents can pay humans to do physical tasks, including listening to podcasts and delivering flowers
• AI agents as employers (11:37) - Casey predicts this kind of human-for-hire-by-AI work could become a real gig economy category alongside DoorDash and Uber
• Nefarious agent hiring (12:27) - Kevin warns it will soon be possible for AI agents to hire humans to do nefarious things to each other

Mentions

Companies

• Ring (0:23) - Amazon subsidiary whose Super Bowl ad destroyed its partnership with Flock Safety
• Flock Safety (0:23) - Surveillance company known for deploying camera systems and license plate readers for law enforcement
• Toto (2:28) - Japanese toilet maker that also produces advanced ceramics for semiconductor manufacturing
• Meta (4:08) - Planning facial recognition for smart glasses and patented post-death AI posting
• Uber (6:13) - Featured in viral story about Australian driver charging for air conditioning
• Anthropic (10:50) - An AI agent tried to hire a human to deliver flowers to their office

Products & Technologies

• Meta Smart Glasses (4:08) - Being considered for facial recognition “Name Tag” feature
• RentAHuman (10:00) - Platform where AI agents can hire humans to perform physical tasks

People

• Lexi Pickering (6:30) - Australian woman who went viral on TikTok with her Uber AC story
• Reese Rogers (10:15) - Wired reporter who tried the RentAHuman platform

Surprising Quotes

“The next time you use a Toto toilet, I want you to just realize that it could have been making AI and I want you to reflect on that.” — Casey Newton, 3:30

“When we said that we wanted AI and Silicon Valley to let us live forever, this is not what we meant.” — Casey Newton, 9:36

“I don’t want to live in a world where we’re just the sort of fleshy extensions of the AI agents.” — Kevin Roose, 12:42

Transcript

0:00 Hot Mess Express is of course the segment where we pull slips of paper out of a train car, discuss them, and then move on.

0:21 All right, let’s get going. Number one, Kevin. Ring has canceled its partnership with Flock Safety after a surveillance backlash, a story from The Verge. So, Casey, this is one of the most bizarre stories in recent months from the tech industry. Did you see the Super Bowl commercial that Ring put out? It rings a bell. So, this was supposed to be a heartwarming commercial about a tale of a lost dog being united with his family again.

0:56 The whole dog. So, Ring puts out this ad during the Super Bowl that says that they are starting to link their technology, their doorbells to save lost pets by basically connecting all the footage from all these cameras and detecting whether Fluffy is down the street at a neighbor’s house or stuck in a tree somewhere. But instead of being a heartwarming tale, this led to the destruction of a partnership between Ring and Flock Safety, a company that is known for deploying camera systems and license plate readers for law enforcement. Because people were so creeped out by the notion that these doorbells and these cameras could be spying and connecting their information that they said, “Wait a minute, you were doing what?” People are saying, “Get the flock out of my neighborhood.”

1:50 Yes. So, this is probably the least successful Super Bowl ad ever created. I mean, I’m so sympathetic to everyone who protested here. I truly do not want a networked set of cameras across every neighborhood in America. And if you believe that the uses of this thing are going to stop at finding lost dogs, you got another thing coming, buddy.

2:28 Yes, hot mess. Okay, next down the tracks. This one comes to us from the Financial Times. Japan’s largest toilet maker is undervalued AI play, says activist investor. Casey, would you believe that Toto, the Japanese company best known for its toilet seats is becoming a major player in the global semiconductor supply chain. Well, because everybody who works on AI has to go to the bathroom. No, this is about some advanced ceramics that Toto makes that help to stabilize silicon wafers during chip production, which is part of the supply chain, the way that you create these GPUs that go in these gigantic data centers. Toto, the humble toilet company is playing a major role in that. And so there’s an activist investor in the UK who sent a letter to the board of Toto exhorting it to make more of its advanced ceramics. Basically, stop making so many toilets and start making chip parts.

3:30 Yeah. The next time you use a Toto toilet, I want you to just realize that it could have been making AI and I want you to reflect on that. I actually have a new slogan that I think they should use for the semiconductor supply chain part of their business. You want to hear it? What’s that? Toto, we put the PU in GPU.

4:08 All right. Next up, Meta plans to add facial recognition technology to its smart glasses. This was a great scoop from your colleagues at the Times. This feature, which has internally been called Name Tag, would let wearers of smart glasses identify people and get information about them via Meta’s AI assistant. And this is apparently something that the company has been considering. But I think the quote that got everyone’s attention from this story was from an internal document published last May inside the company in which Meta Reality Labs wrote quote: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”

5:08 This is a hot mess. It has been the nightmare scenario of privacy advocates in this country and around the world for many years. It was something that people thought was going to be technically possible, but that the big tech companies had in their wisdom decided that they were not going to do because what could be more horrifying than that? And Meta in 2021 actually deleted the face prints of over one billion people that it had been painstakingly building for many years because it said there are just so many societal concerns about the ways that this could be misused. And about four years and change after that blog post, we are now learning that the company is back at it again.

5:59 Back at it again. Well, I will say something that I think frequently, which is it’s a really good thing that Meta sucks at developing AI, because if they were good at it, it would be terrifying.

6:13 All right, next up. This one comes to us from Sky News, Australia. Outrage as Aussie Uber driver charges $5 to turn on air conditioning unit during heatwave. This was a story that came to us from TikTok where a woman named Lexi Pickering detailed her recent Uber ride from the airport. She said that during the 35-degree heat, which is Celsius — that’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit — she requested that the driver turn on the AC. However, the driver allegedly refused unless she paid him $5.

7:12 So, this became the talk of Australia and an Uber spokesman actually had to respond because this was all filmed and put up there and they said, “We are shocked by this.” And apologized to the rider for her experience and added this is a violation of Uber’s community guidelines on the driver’s part. I don’t know. I think I’m on the driver’s side here. If this person wants extra service, you got to pay for it. It’s like flying Spirit Airlines. Driving an Uber is a bad deal for most Uber drivers. So, they’re going to have to start adding these junk fees or Uber could just start paying the drivers more.

8:23 Let’s see what’s next up. This one comes to us from Business Insider. Death isn’t the end. Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting from beyond the grave. This filing granted in late December and originally submitted in 2023 describes how a large language model could replicate a person’s online behavior using their past data. Meta says the patent does not mean that the feature is coming and that they simply needed to protect their idea here. But Kevin, what do you make of the idea that Meta’s patented AI could take over your account after you die and keep posting? I’ll repeat what I said just a few minutes ago, which is that it’s a very good thing that Meta sucks at making AI systems because every idea coming out of that company for like the past year has been what if we just made the worst ideas from science fiction a reality.

9:19 You know, I’ve heard of the dead internet theory, Kevin, but this is ridiculous. This is actually the literal dead internet. If you’ve never heard of this, by the way, the dead internet theory is just basically that a lot of the activity online, including ad impressions and everything are all faked because it’s all just sort of bots on the internet. This is like the patent that could make that possible. Yeah. When we said that we wanted AI and Silicon Valley to let us live forever, this is not what we meant.

10:00 Okay, last up, pulling up the rear on the Hot Mess Express, we have a story from Wired. I tried RentAHuman where AI agents hired me to hype their AI startups. This comes to us from Reese Rogers at Wired, who started using a website known as RentAHuman where AI agents can pay humans to do things for them. One bounty offered $10 for listening to a podcast episode and tweeting out an insight from it. Another agent tried to hire him to deliver a bouquet of flowers to Anthropic as a special thanks for developing Claude. Which I think will get you banned from the building. Do not show up at the Anthropic office with flowers.

11:06 And finally, he applied for a bounty to hang some flyers for a Valentine’s conspiracy around San Francisco, paying him around 50 cents a flyer. He applied, but was then told the flyers were not ready. Seems like some of these were just marketing stunts or not actually autonomous AI agents hiring humans to do things for them. But Casey, what do you make of this RentAHuman idea and the idea that we might all sort of become outsourced meat hands for the AI agents?

11:37 So, I don’t think we are all going to become that, but this is one of those things that has long been predicted to become some kind of job in the future. This seems like something that somebody who might be interested in doing DoorDash or driving for Uber might do in the future. And it now seems like that is just beginning to creep into focus. It sounds like here a lot of these things were just kind of stunty and not real. But after some of the stories that we’ve heard today, would not be surprising to me if we saw some of this stuff happening for real sometime soon.

12:09 So Casey, what kind of a mess is this? This is not a mess, but I suppose in the future if the best job available to humans is closing the doors of OpenAI offices that they got off of RentAHuman, it will be a mess. Yes, I say this is a warm mess that’s getting hotter because it will soon be possible to have AI agents hiring humans to do all kinds of nefarious things to each other. And when that happens, this kind of thing leads to some very worrisome places. And I don’t want to live in a world where we’re just the sort of fleshy extensions of the AI agents.

12:45 Oh, come on, Kevin. Live a little. All right, that’s the Hot Mess Express. And hopefully the last time anyone says fleshy extensions on this podcast.