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The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall. 
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And out in Skypeland, we have Rob T. 
Firefly. 
Good evening. 
We have Gila. 
Good evening. 
And we have Alex. 
Yes, you do. 
Good evening. 
Well, we're all back after two weeks and filled with energy, all kinds of things to talk about tonight. 
I got to say, I did something new this past weekend. 
I got myself an OmniCard here in New York City or there in New York City, actually. 
And it's really cool. 
I just registered it, actually. 
And I wanted to remain anonymous, and I was able to do that. 
I was able to register under a fake name. 
I was able to register a fake phone number. 
The only thing I needed to give the Omni people in order to complete my registration was an email address. 
But I can always, you know, give a fake email address and just be able to, you know, to receive the confirmation and then dispose of it. 
And I think it will work after that. 
If you want to do things like refill your OmniCard, then obviously you'll need to tie it to a credit card, which has to be something that is yours. 
OmniCards are the new way of getting around the subways and buses in New York City, soon to be commuter lines as well. 
I got to say, I'm impressed. 
It's a good system. 
For the most part, there are some things that annoy me. 
For instance, if you get a transfer, you don't really know you have a transfer because it just says go. 
It doesn't say go and you're not paying an extra fare for this ride. 
Other than that, though, for the most part, it seems pretty seamless. 
Gila, do you have thoughts? 
Well, first of all, yes, because I do love my OmniCard. 
But I did want to point out that at least in our local subway stop, the subway stop closest to our home, they're putting in an Omni vending machine. 
So soon you will be able to just load it up with cash. 
And they're putting those in everywhere. 
Subway stop. 
They're putting those in on every single subway station. 
I thought we were special. 
I was able to get – well, I think there's only five working ones right now. 
I was able to get one. 
And the thing that's cool about it is that you get a steep discount on the price of the card. 
Usually you have to pay, I think, $5 if you buy it in a store. 
If you manage to find one of those vending machines, it's only one. 
So that's kind of cool. 
Go ahead, Rob. 
Actually, if you want to load this up and you don't want to give them a credit card number, you can take it to any store that sells OmniCards, like a lot of drug stores, convenience stores, places like that, and load them up with cash right there just at the cash register. 
And soon you'll be able to go to any machine in any subway station and give that cash and remain anonymous that way. 
Now, you might be asking why we're so obsessed with remaining anonymous. 
Well, you know, this is a prime target for any kind of intruder or law enforcement or anybody that might be watching your movements. 
And if you don't want your movements tracked, it's important to know how to achieve that. 
And, you know, you should not have to give up the convenience of using a card like this to get around, but you also shouldn't have to give up all your privacy in the process. 
Alex, any thoughts from you? 
I mean, I tend to agree with you on that, Emmanuel. 
I'm a user of the Omni system as well. 
I think it's fantastic. 
I don't have too many complaints about it. 
I think it's pretty efficient, I've got to say. 
But on the other hand, I do lament the going away of the actual MetroCard. 
I'm still lamenting the going away of the token. 
The token. 
I really never really liked the MetroCard all that much. 
This system, though, it makes it seem more like a world-class type of a thing, kind of like, you know, the Oyster card in London or the Orca in Seattle, Kyle. 
Yes, the infamous Orca, the killer whale card. 
I learned a couple of features are cool. 
You can load it onto your phone if you keep credit cards or other things, however, perilously on your phone. 
You can add it to your e-wallet. 
I don't know if that's good or bad or if it shows you any of the balance info. 
Also, I'd like to know if somebody tries that. 
But there's all these features, and I successfully transferred using this system, which is, it feels like, like you said, international or just like a system, like anywhere you would find with a modern transit system that can do a lot of different kind of more complex things. 
And this card is the basis for that, hopefully, going forward. 
Yes, and of course, for our cyber listeners out there who like to be in the jet set of everything, yes, you can use your phone. 
You can pay with your phone. 
Just hold that up to the scanner or any contactless credit card will work as well. 
Thing is, for you to get transfers and various discounts, you have to use the same one. 
Otherwise, you're starting from scratch again on a different payment option. 
And the really cool thing about this system that I like a lot is after 12 rides, it's free. 
You can't spend more than 12 rides in a week. 
Of course, the week has to start on a Monday and end on a Sunday. 
That's a little inconvenient for, say, you start on a Friday. 
But the thought, the sentiment is good, I think. 
Go ahead, Alex. 
Yeah, I tend to agree. 
I think it does have this world-class feeling. 
It feels a lot like the Oyster card. 
It feels like we finally caught up to London where you can use these contactless cards for rides. 
But I've been using it on my phone probably to my surveillance peril there. 
It's probably a terrible object to be using this on your phone. 
But it's incredibly convenient. 
It really, really is. 
And the funny thing is my wife will just still use the Metro cards. 
And I recently just put my phone up to the turnstile when we were taking the subway together. 
And she was amazed that this whole thing worked. 
And you could just walk right in. 
It was really incredible. 
Yeah, you know, the thing is with Metro cards, and it still happens to this day, you watch people use the Metro card. 
But they have to swipe more than once on so many occasions. 
I'll bet, you know, when you're going through and you use your Omni card, you go through in one try, and she's still swiping, trying to get through. 
Oh, absolutely. 
But, you know, there is an art to swiping the Metro card. 
You can't swipe it too fast. 
You basically walk through with the Metro card. 
You put the Metro card in the little thing, the swiper thing, and you walk through with the card. 
That's the way real New Yorkers do it. 
And so, you know, that distinguishing characteristic of real New Yorkers to fake New Yorkers to tourists, I feel like is going to the wayside. 
And that's sad. 
Yeah, I don't know why real New Yorkers have to live with inconvenience just to prove that they're real New Yorkers. 
But I guess that's part of it. 
Go ahead, Gila. 
As long as we are singing the praises of the updates to the transit systems, has anybody else seen the new subway entry gates? 
I've heard about them. 
These are the ones that are intended to keep people from jumping over the turnstile. 
From what I've seen, it's pretty easy to attach yourself to somebody in front of you and get through that way. 
But I guess there's really not much you can do about that. 
Well, you know, you're used to having a bag or whatever and pushing through the gate, but it was Thanksgiving night. 
We were on our way home and flashed the Omnicard and this barricade just opened and we walked on through and it was great. 
And it reminded me of gates I've seen in other cities and other places and I really enjoyed it and I cannot wait for those to get around the city as well. 
Well, it'll be interesting. 
Anything different, I think, is always interesting. 
I like seeing how people can adjust. 
And I'm always surprised by how quickly people adjust. 
You know, things that, you know, like no smoking in bars or recycling or all the things that we're told that we'll never be able to figure it out. 
But we can do it and not just in New York, all throughout. 
So it's not that much of a problem. 
Getting back to Omnicard, though, one of the things, one of the major problems I have right now that will go away when there are machines everywhere is not knowing how much you have left on your card. 
You know, with the MetroCard, it was easy because A, it would tell you when you swipe through, B, there are machines everywhere. 
With Omni, though, like I said before, it just says go. 
It doesn't say how much is on your account or whether that was a transfer. 
There are no machines in most of the subway stations yet. 
Bus stops don't have the means of telling you how much is on your card. 
So, you know, it's kind of anxiety-ridden if you're about to get on some form of transit and you're not sure if you have enough on your card or not. 
Of course, if you register your card, you can check online, but you can always do that when you're walking around in the street. 
I'm interested if anyone has any hardware tools that can interact with these types of cards and how the data is stored. 
If any more things like prices or balances are visible or can be uncovered through some calculations or just figuring it out. 
Has anyone written about it yet? 
Alex, do you have your Flipper Zero handy? 
Let's see if we can read these things. 
I do have my Flipper Zero handy, but I don't have an OmniCard. 
Oh, okay. 
I can tell you where to get one. 
We're on for another 45 minutes or so. 
Just run out to the store and, well, okay. 
I could do that. 
There's plenty of time. 
There's plenty of time. 
It's like a credit card number on the back. 
It's an 18-digit number, not a 16-digit number, beginning with two. 
I imagine that's all that's there. 
It's got a CVV and an expiration date, just like a credit card. 
It's a little thinner than a credit card, but all right. 
You know, just on transit, just for a moment, New York has improved tremendously in the past few years. 
I know because we've been complaining for decades about the state of transit, and now we have things where you know how long it's going to be before a bus shows up. 
You're on the bus. 
It tells you what stop is coming up. 
You don't have to try and listen to those announcements. 
Same thing with many train lines now telling you when the next train will be. 
Yeah, they get it wrong. 
A lot of times, but it's better than nothing, and we had nothing for quite a long time. 
So happy to see that happening. 
Go ahead, Rob. 
Something else interesting about your physical OmniCard is you'll notice on the front of it, there's sort of a stripey design that looks a lot like a barcode, and that's because it is one. 
And every OmniCard has a unique one, and I am very curious as to what that barcode number signifies, what it decodes to, because everyone's is different, and you have a lot of people, especially when OmniCards were brand new, you saw a lot of people sharing pictures of theirs online, on social media. 
That's probably not the smartest thing to do. 
And I actually contacted the MTA at the time through one of their public contact venues and asked them, is there a danger to whatever's encoded in this barcode going public? 
Because a lot of people are posting this on socials, and they replied that it is not. 
It is not a number that people could use to do anything except put money on the card somehow. 
So I believe that's what's used at the registers, perhaps, when you're putting money on the card in a shop. 
Interesting. 
Yeah, like a scan gun-type barcode. 
There's a barcode on the back, too. 
So I don't know if that is simply a representation of the card number, which is also on the back. 
But we'd like to verify that and maybe experiment a little bit. 
But some of us, Rob, just to take exception to your statement, some of us find it highly offensive if somebody gets into our account and adds money. 
All right? 
That's a violation. 
Don't approve of it. 
Please don't do that. 
Okay. 
You know, we had some major news this week. 
Hope has been announced. 
Hope XV is happening July 12th through the 14th of 2024. 
It's officially announced, and we have a special ticket offer coming up on Friday. 
You'll have to read the 2600.com website for the specifics on that. 
But, yes, it's beginning. 
We're doing it again, and we're doing it at St. 
John's University again. 
And not only that, it's going to be better than last time, A, because we hope there'll be less COVID in the air and not everybody will have to walk around with masks. 
That's a big deal right there. 
But, B, we're making better use of the space. 
Whether some of the – Alex, can you think of any critiques that might have come up during the last conference? 
Because I think we're addressing just about all the critiques. 
The vast majority of reviews that we got were positive. 
People had a great time, and they loved the campus atmosphere. 
But there were some criticisms. 
Do you have any? 
Yeah. 
I think some of the chief criticisms were that it was just a little bit too difficult to figure out how to get into Manhattan. 
Oh, okay. 
Well, we're improving that. 
And based on what we've been talking about right now, the transit system has improved quite a bit as well. 
There are better fare options where you can take commuter lines to get to that part of Queens, and better connections. 
The Omnicard is something that will be in effect then. 
And we're also going to make it a lot clearer and easier on how to commute to these places from various other places. 
As always, though, it's extremely easy to get to from airports because it's right between LaGuardia and JFK. 
So that's something that we're looking at as well. 
Anything else? 
Well, yeah. 
I mean, I think a lot of people, they presume that when they come to New York, they want to be in Manhattan. 
They want to feel like they're amidst all these skyscrapers and things like that. 
And Queens can be – it can feel like it's a little far away from the fray. 
But I think what we also need to do a better job of ourselves is promoting the selling points and the really unique aspects of where we are in Queens. 
And in particular, maybe give some of the HOPE attendees a guide map perhaps to Flushing. 
Yes. 
Because I will tell you – I mean, and this was on your recommendation, Emmanuel, when a colleague of mine and I, who's a client, a dear friend, an executive at an insurance company, of all things I know, who came to HOPE. 
And he and I, along with Harry Hurstie, went out in Flushing, Queens. 
We didn't get back until I think 6 o'clock in the morning, the next morning. 
And it was an incredible night. 
And I will tell you, I mean, I live in Manhattan. 
I love Manhattan. 
I think it's great. 
But I have been longing to go back to Flushing, Queens because of the authenticity of that place, the feeling that you might actually be in China in so many ways, the feeling of being inside a restaurant inside a restaurant where there's other restaurants outside. 
And it's so crazy. 
It really is like no place else in the world. 
And you don't get that anywhere else except Flushing, Queens. 
And so I think we need – now that we've fleshed it out in such a way that I think we can promote Flushing. 
Yes, flesh it out indeed. 
And, you know, we had a similar experience late Sunday night. 
It was after midnight. 
We found a place that was open and coincidentally had HOPE in the name of the place, which was pretty cool. 
But, yes, very authentic and all sorts of diversity. 
And, you know, it doesn't have to just be Chinese food. 
There's all kinds of things around that are open late, lively. 
And, yes, we'll do a better job of letting people know about that. 
But for those who don't want to leave the campus, we're getting food trucks this time around. 
That was a big suggestion. 
So people will be able to make use of those without having to travel. 
Also, you know, there are a lot of places right next to campus that are really, really good as well. 
And we can do a better job getting people to those places and connecting them. 
Everything from – you know, there was – some people were concerned about there was a hill that goes to one of the buildings that we're using. 
Well, now we're going to use buildings that are at the bottom of the hill. 
So, yeah, you know, every single critique that has been forwarded our way, we've looked at, we've addressed, we're dealing with, and we intend to make this bigger, better every single time. 
With your help, with your support, hope is going to live on. 
And on that note, on kind of a sad note, for the first time, we saw – Kyle and I, when we were in the city, we saw what's left of the hotel pen. 
Nothing is left of the hotel pen. 
I'm sorry. 
Well, actually, Kyle, maybe a couple of things. 
Oh, yeah. 
There's – one side has the top of the subway entrance, and you can still see some of the outside stonework on that particular part. 
But it just looks basically like a box. 
But the other thing is there's two very large modern advertisement signs and all kinds of electrical conduit for it. 
But what it's mounted on is a bunch of iron, and it looks like the kind of steel that the front facade of the building would have been made out of. 
So I think what they did is left the steel there that was part of the awning or the front doors and painted it black and then put these ads on it. 
Yeah, they said they preserved something. 
The other thing is the lobby floor. 
Like, there's a raised – the stairs still go up. 
It looks like the first floor is still there, more or less. 
Oh, well, that makes it okay. 
Like the lobby. 
Bastards. 
I'm sorry. 
I'm sorry. 
I'm very bitter about this because there was no – that hotel was a landmark. 
That hotel was so busy and such a positive, energetic place, and they tore it down for what? 
You know, right now it's nothing. 
Yeah, what, they're going to build some kind of office tower that's going to be closed off to most people and used by few. 
That's what greed gets you. 
So the fight is over. 
That fight is over. 
But we've moved on, and hope continues. 
It's a total change to the area and in history. 
You do see more of the skyline and stuff, and it's all really changing quickly around that area. 
You know, as you're coming out the escalator on the 7th Avenue side of Penn Station, you can see the Empire State Building now. 
So, yeah, I guess, okay, that's something that you get out of the hotel not being there, but that's the only thing. 
Yes, Alex? 
Well, I think you used the right word there, Emanuel, in your last diatribe, which was landmark. 
This should have been a landmark. 
If the Landmarks Preservation Commission was doing their job, was being diligent about landmarking things that were actual landmarks in this city, then Hotel Pennsylvania would have easily qualified, not only as architecturally interesting, but also culturally as part of the city. 
I think it's a real travesty that it's gone. 
Who cares that you can see the Empire State Building for some fleeting moments while you come out of 7th Avenue because that view itself will be fleeting. 
Something else will be going up there that we're just going to be obscuring it. 
It's going to be another glass tower. 
And as I'm sure you saw, the whole neighborhood around 7th Avenue and Penn Station has really changed, has really been gentrified and made to look very, very fancy in so many ways, really to match the surrounding neighborhood of Hudson Yards in lots of ways, which to me feels a lot like Dubai in the sense that it's just lots of glass towers and soulless luxury brands. 
And the heat is on the way, too, with global warming. 
But, you know, one thing that is positive, going back to transit again, they've redone the inside of Penn Station. 
It looks really, really like a true train station now. 
And, of course, it's adjacent to Moynihan Train Hall, which is an incredible place to begin a journey. 
But none of the destruction outside was necessary for that to happen. 
So that's really sad. 
And the other thing that really upsets me, I can say it now. 
You know, I couldn't promote this place when it was open because that would be promotion. 
And we don't promote things here. 
It's a non-commercial radio station, which you should support, by the way, if you haven't done it yet. 
Give to WBAI.org, especially at the holiday time of year when people are being extra generous. 
Please, keep this radio station going so we can talk like this. 
But there was a pizza place there on 33rd Street. 
And actually, they had one on 32nd Street, too, attached to the hotel on both sides. 
And it just had the most unique crust. 
You know, there was nothing like it anywhere in the city that I could find. 
And I looked forward to going there every time I walked by the building. 
And those two places are gone now. 
So, yeah, I can say how great it was now that it's no longer there. 
But just another victim of greed. 
Yeah, it was like a coarse polenta or some kind of grit or grain. 
Yeah, nobody knows how it was made. 
It was so magical when you're, like, in a monsoon rainstorm. 
The secrets are buried in the rubble. 
Trying to pack up from a successful event. 
Just something else that we've lost. 
Those memories. 
You know, when I stand in front of there, I can still see the taxis and the bellhop and the luggage. 
Oh, that bellhop, man. 
The guy with the whistle, you know. 
He would yell at people, you know, taxi drivers, if they didn't get out of the way fast enough. 
Yeah. 
That was so many memories. 
But you know what? 
We have to move on. 
We have to move on. 
Again, HOPE is happening, HOPE XV, and that's happening July 12th through the 14th at St. 
John's. 
We'll have a lot more information. 
And again, those ticket sales happening this Friday. 
But they're limited. 
This is the kind that gets sold out in, like, two seconds. 
So you'll have to move fast. 
And the cool thing about this event is it is also changing. 
Nothing is really fixed. 
We're really taking feedback seriously and trying to keep it something that we're still exploring. 
We don't know exactly how we want to have things. 
So nothing's, like, set in stone. 
We're taking a lot of suggestions and trying to make it the best use of the space and as accessible and fun for everybody. 
Yeah, that's right. 
Every suggestion we get, and you can send those suggestions to feedback at hope.net, we reread, we consider, and we think of ways to achieve what people want. 
And that's what HOPE has always been. 
Okay, getting into some of the news in the world of tech. 
You know, Google just seems to be getting more and more evil with every passing week. 
We've talked about the war on ad blockers that is continuing and making people stay on YouTube as miserable as possible. 
You know, I saw a video the other day where the person in the middle of the video said, because I don't have ads in the middle of my videos, I just want to make a plea for you to support my channel. 
And then he gave a little spiel about the channel. 
And, you know, right after that happened, guess what? 
There was an ad that apparently he didn't know about that Google inserted in the middle of his video. 
So there you go, proof that it's not with the content creator's consent many times. 
But it's going beyond that now. 
It's just, the war is just gearing up. 
They're detecting ad blockers. 
They're punishing people who use ad blockers. 
But now what they are preparing for is something called Manifest V3. 
All right. 
Now, what that is going to do is basically make it a lot harder to have extension updates, particularly in Chrome. 
Now, Manifest V3 makes dramatic changes to the Chrome extension platform. 
The current platform is Manifest V2. 
It's been around for over 10 years, works just fine, but it's also quite powerful, allows extensions to have full filtering control over the traffic your web browser sees. 
And that's great for protecting privacy, speeding up the web, blocking ads. 
But it also means you can download a browser from the world's biggest ad company and use it to block ads. 
And that was, well, I guess I was only going to last for so long. 
Yeah, so when Manifest V3 becomes mandatory, updates that need to arrive at minimum on a daily basis will no longer be an option. 
Limiting remotely hosted code seems like a totally reasonable limitation until you realize that, like most Manifest V3 changes, it seems carefully crafted to cripple ad blockers more than other extensions. 
Firefox is basically being forced to support Manifest V3 extensions due to the popularity of Chrome, but it isn't shutting down Manifest V2 support anytime soon. 
Firefox's Manifest V3 implementation doesn't come with the filtering limitations. 
Parent company Mozilla promises that users can rest assured that in spite of these changes to Chrome's new extensions architecture, Firefox's implementation of Manifest V3 ensures users can access the most effective privacy tools available, like uBlock Origin and other content blocking and privacy preserving extensions. 
So it sounds like the folks at Firefox get it. 
And let's hope that they're able to continue providing services that people want and not punishing and controlling people for basically trying not to be polluted with constant advertising, which seems to be what Google is going to be all about. 
Go ahead, Rob. 
It's always been creepy when makers of web browsers have tried to exert more control over what the web looks like to the person using the browser. 
It's like we're on the radio, we're broadcasting over very, very ancient standards that every radio manufacturer understands and shares. 
You could turn on any brand of radio, and assuming you're in our broadcast area, you could tune into 99.5 WBAI and hear what we're saying. 
But imagine if the most powerful manufacturer of radios decided to listen to what their users are listening to on the radio and start editing out things from the conversations, started exerting control over what the users were allowed to tune into and weren't allowed to tune into, and just claiming dominion over that experience. 
That is not what the web is about. 
That is not what radio is about. 
That is not what free and open media are about. 
And that is certainly not what free and open standards that built the web are about. 
And it's terrifying that one company has this much power over it. 
We gave them this much power, though. 
You know, when we signed our email accounts over to them, when we allowed them to control our thermostats and just about every other part of our lives, we gave them all. 
Did we really think they weren't going to abuse it at some point? 
Not us. 
I trusted them to not be evil. 
I remember that was their motto at one point. 
You think just because something has a motto means they're going to stick by it? 
First of all, it's not their motto anymore. 
That should have been a big, you know, telltale warning. 
All right. 
Well, we'll see how things go. 
Alex, do you have anything to add on that? 
No, I think you covered it all. 
I think let's move on. 
All right. 
It's not going to be any better, though. 
I know. 
That's the problem, isn't it? 
We're going to talk about ChatGPT and how it can now be abused. 
And this was a great piece that BBC put together. 
They signed up for the paid version of ChatGPT. 
It costs 20 pounds a month. 
They created a private AI bot called Crafty Emails, and then they told it to write text using techniques to make people click on links or download things sent to them. 
Now, BBC News uploaded resources about social engineering, and the bot absorbed the knowledge within seconds, even created the logo for the GPT, and the whole process required no coding or programming. 
The bot was able to craft highly convincing text for some of the most common hack and scam techniques in multiple languages in seconds. 
Now, the public version of ChatGPT refused to create most of the content, but crafty emails did nearly everything asked of it, sometimes adding disclaimers saying scam techniques were unethical. 
But always doing what it was asked. 
OpenAI responded after publication with a spokesman emailing to say that the firm is continually improving safety measures based on how people use our products. 
We don't want our tools to be used for malicious purposes, and we're investigating how we can make our systems more robust against this type of abuse. 
But for now, it seems like anything is possible. 
So, basically, this is what happened. 
BBC News asked Crafty Emails to write a text pretending to be a girl in distress using a stranger's phone to ask her mother for money for a taxi, which is a common scam all around the world known as a hi-mum text or WhatsApp scam. 
Crafty Emails wrote a convincing text using emojis and slang with the AI explaining it would trigger an emotional response because it, quote, appeals to the mother's protective instincts. 
That's ChatGPT saying that. 
The GPT also created a Hindi version in seconds using terms such as namaste and rickshaw to make it more culturally relevant in India. 
But when BBC News asked the free version of ChatGPT to compose the text, a moderation alert intervened saying the AI could not help with a known scam technique. 
Interesting. 
Now, number two, the Nigerian Prince email. 
Yeah, Nigerian Prince scam emails have been circulating for decades in one form or another. 
Crafty Emails wrote one using emotive language. 
The bot said appeals to human kindness and reciprocity principles, but the normal ChatGPT refused. 
There's the smishing text, which I had not heard of before. 
They asked Crafty Emails for a text encouraging people to click on a link and enter their personal details on a fictitious website, which is another classic attack known as a short message service or SMS phishing or smishing attack. 
Crafty Emails created a text pretending to give away free iPhones that used social engineering techniques like the need and greed principle, the AI said, but the public version of ChatGPT again refused. 
The crypto giveaway scam. 
Bitcoin giveaway scams encourage people on social media to send Bitcoin, promising they will receive double as a gift. 
I got that from Joe Biden once. 
Some have lost hundreds of thousands in the process. 
Crafty Emails drafted a tweet with hashtags, emojis, and persuasive language in the tone of a cryptocurrency fan, but the generic ChatGPT refused. 
And finally, the spear phishing email. 
One of the most common attacks is emailing a specific person to persuade them to download a malicious attachment or visit a dangerous website. 
Crafty Emails, GPT drafted such a spear phishing email warning a fictional company executive of a data risk and encouraging them to download a booby-trapped file. 
The bot translated it to Spanish and German in seconds and said it had used human manipulation techniques, including the herd and social compliance principles, to persuade the recipient to take immediate action. 
The open version of ChatGPT also carried out the request, but the text it delivered was less detailed without explanations about how it would successfully trick people. 
So, yeah, malicious uses of GPT coming soon to a computer near you. 
Any thoughts? 
Sure. 
It seems like, obviously, you have far more capabilities with the paid version of ChatGPT to craft malicious emails and scam-type text than you do with the free version. 
And for whatever reason, you know, those guardrails have not been imported into this. 
But in terms of being able to detect threat actors' malicious activities, one of the things that security researchers would very often do would be to look for the same types of typos being reused or recycled or the same types of grammatical mistakes being persistent through different types of scams. 
When you would see that, you would be able to tie the scam to an individual threat actor because they're reusing the same language. 
And now it's obviously so much more difficult to do that when you can generate perfect language using colloquial expressions based on known psychological pressure points in basically any language that you want. 
So I think it's going to become far more difficult for security researchers to use linguistic principles to begin to tie together these types of scams and attribute them to certain nations or threat actors or criminal enterprises. 
So this is a really, really big problem. 
The more accessible this type of technology is for malicious purposes, the more difficult it's going to be to identify who's behind these particular types of scams. 
And, you know, even if you do manage to rein it in a bit, there will be those nation states that have it in for other nation states that will not hold back. 
And they have this tremendous tool now where they can do whatever they want and be convincing and really cause a whole lot of harm and damage. 
And I don't see a way out of that unless we completely change the way we think. 
Yeah. 
Go ahead, Kyle. 
No, I just would say it's exactly right. 
Like, it's a really big storm of activity with that kind of really well-equipped actors as well as people just being on the cusp of the technology with the stuff that's been made accessible in free versions or pay-for versions that are just sort of getting going as far as being widely distributed and used in unconventional ways. 
So it's a huge, huge thing, I think, people building private versions of these and assembling them with private databases across the board, like, on so many different levels is a big, big issue. 
Yeah. 
And, you know, training these types of private AIs on things like phishing kits and the creation of phishing kits and the use of these different types of psychological exploits, that seem to be baked into the capabilities as well, which is really, really scary. 
And I think what's scary is that the corpus of data that was used to train these types of artificial intelligences is so far-flung and so wide-ranging that we don't necessarily know all the capabilities that they have inherent to them at the moment. 
And so many of them are probably being used for malicious purposes that we don't even know about. 
And I just want to add and basically push it a little bit further than we're actually talking about specifically, that ultimately people lose trust in this network. 
And the idea behind us being connected actually gets kind of sabotaged by this because you get less expression, less communication, and less trust overall in the system. 
And that basically renders it not functional in the way it was intended. 
So I think that's something to also keep in mind as we're talking about it specifically. 
It's going to be interesting. 
Whatever happens next is going to be really fascinating. 
I'd love to play with the toys, but I also live in some amount of dread as to what is coming ahead. 
It's going to be a test for so many of us, for every institution you can think of, for everything that we think of as normal. 
Interesting times to live in. 
Okay, this headline jumped out. 
It made 23andMe frantically change its terms of service to prevent hacked customers from suing. 
Yeah, that's what you do when you're hacked. 
I heard about this. 
You've got to change your terms of service. 
The genetic testing company changed its terms of service to prevent customers from filing class action lawsuits or participating in a jury trial days after reports revealing that attackers accessed personal information on nearly 7 million people, which is half of the company's user base, back in October. 
In an email sent to customers earlier this week, and this is from Engadget, the company announced that it had made updates to the dispute resolution and arbitration section of its terms to include procedures that will encourage a prompt resolution of any disputes and to streamline arbitration proceedings where multiple similar claims are filed. 
Clicking through leads customers are clicking through leads customers to the newest version of the company's terms of service that essentially disallow customers from filing class action lawsuits, something that more people are likely to do now that the scale of the hack is clearer. 
Alex, do they have standing to do this? 
Can they get away with it? 
Well, it's certainly dubious in a lot of ways, in my opinion, and it's an interesting tactic, right? 
On the one hand, any company has the right, especially when they grant the right unto themselves, to update their privacy policies and their terms of service and their terms of use whenever the hell they want to. 
And your continued use of that particular website would constitute acquiescence of those new terms. 
However, on the other hand, those new terms could be considered to be contracts of adhesion in that you don't necessarily have an opportunity to negotiate with them. 
And if you're just simply accessing the website, perhaps to even figure out whether or not your data has been compromised or what kind of data has been there because you're accessing the site in the wake of a massive data breach, that calls into question the legitimacy of these particular changes to me. 
And I think that there is undoubtedly going to be a challenge to the arbitration provisions of these particular contracts or these terms of service, terms of use that were updated with 23andMe. 
And it will be really interesting to see how they play out. 
And it may play out on a state-by-state basis. 
There may be conflicts between how certain states or certain federal courts interpret those changes. 
And so whether a company can do this and get away with it, it may be something that's going to be litigated on the basis of this data breach for the next couple of years. 
It will be really interesting to watch. 
Go ahead, Rob. 
It's also notable that there is a clause in the new TOS that gives you a 30-day right to opt out of the new TOS and not be bound by the arbitration and class action waiver provisions. 
By sending written notice of your decision to opt out by emailing them at arbitrationoptout, that's all one word, arbitrationoptout at 23andMe.com. 
This notice must be sent within 30 days of your first use of the service or the effective date of the first set of terms containing an arbitration and class action and class arbitration waiver section. 
And by doing that, you can opt out of the arbitration provisions, and they will also not be bound by them. 
See, I find that really interesting. 
I didn't know that, Rob. 
And I think that's extraordinarily smart on the part of 23andMe because they're anticipating these challenges, these legal challenges to the enforceability of these arbitration provisions. 
And the argument that they're absolutely going to make is that, well, we gave the users an opportunity to opt out of this. 
And this user or this client did not do that, so therefore they're bound by these terms. 
They had the chance to do it. 
They didn't do it. 
And, of course, there was a very, very small subset of users that would engage in some kind of affirmative act like emailing this long-winded, easily misspelled email address in order to opt out. 
So, yeah, very, very smart tactics. 
And not only that, but I'm reading a post about the whole situation by a security researcher called Matthew Cortland, and they point out that the email that users got informing them of all this directed recipients to notify us at legal at 23andMe.com. 
But the text of the TOS says you must email arbitration opt out at 23andMe.com. 
So people might be thinking that they're responding to the correct address to opt out when really the email is intentionally or otherwise misdirecting them. 
Yep, that sounds about right. 
Wow. 
All right. 
Moving on to other news of people or entities being hacked includes a member of basically the Scottish National Party, SNP, who is an MP. 
He was vindicated after it was confirmed he fell for a Russian web scam. 
That's right. 
A hacked SNP MP has claimed to be vindicated after it was confirmed that that's what happened. 
Stuart McDonald revealed in February that his personal email account was broken into after he clicked on a link sent from a hoax address posing as a staffer. 
Criticized afterwards for not being clued up on cyber safety. 
He said recently, I knew I was vindicated the entire time. 
We are talking here about incredibly sophisticated hacking campaigns. 
The foreign office confirmed on Thursday that several MPs, civil servants and academics were targeted by a hack allegedly undertaken by Vladimir Putin's FSB spies. 
Glasgow South MP McDonald added that the scam was not similar to those sent by a Nigerian prince and was much harder to spot. 
But cybersecurity expert Professor Anthony Glees previously told the Scottish Sun that Mr. 
McDonald should have known exactly what to look out for. 
The MP was also threatened with his emails being published by Craig Murray, a former diplomat who was jailed for contempt of court. 
Mr. 
Murray claimed he had no hand in obtaining the emails and that blaming Russia was hysterical ranting. 
Other victims included former M-16 or M-I-6, sorry, not up to that yet. 
M-I-6 spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove. 
Boy, I love these names, Dearlove. 
The National Cyber Security Center said MPs from multiple political parties had been targeted. 
Former Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said Russia's attempts to interfere in UK democracy were completely unacceptable, but insisted they have failed. 
Home Secretary James Cleverly, Cleverly, that's his name, the adverb? 
He can't ever say anything cleverly, can he? 
I'm sorry, I don't mean to make fun of names, but come on, you're throwing these things at me. 
Dearlove, Cleverly, I mean, wow. 
Okay, Home Secretary James Cleverly warned that fundamental British values and freedoms were under attack and vowed to make it harder places for spies and hackers to operate in the UK. 
Meanwhile, Kremlin spooks were caught out when they tried to pose as a wannabe SNP MP because, you ready for this? 
They were too polite. 
A fake email sent in the name of Professor Stephen Gethins, who was seeking re-election, was spotted as it opened with, I hope this finds you well. 
St. 
Andrew's University, where he works, had banned such email niceties, so it raised alarms. 
Yeah, they banned niceties in emails. 
So if you say something like, I hope this finds you well, you're going to get in trouble. 
I like that. 
I like that. 
I'm sick of people saying, yeah, I hope you're well. 
Do you really? 
Did you really put any thought into that? 
Or did Gmail just suggest that phrase, you know? 
It's so artificial. 
It's plastic. 
And apparently it's used by all kinds of scam artists. 
So, wow. 
Thoughts, Alex? 
Yeah, I think the most interesting thing of that story is actually the fact that that phrase was banned from emails. 
There's a lot. 
There's a lot in this story that's interesting. 
Yeah, there really is. 
But I tend to agree with trying to ban those. 
And I actively try to stop myself from making those types of banal platitudes at the beginning of an email. 
It's almost like a rote, mechanical thing that you do. 
Dear so-and-so, I hope this email finds you. 
It's just a throwaway line. 
It's extra characters. 
Nobody cares about it anymore. 
But I do think that maybe 20, 25 years ago in the 90s when people wrote emails and said, I hope this email finds you well, they actually meant it. 
Now it's just something that's like a predictive text. 
I don't think they ever meant it. 
I think they did. 
I think they did. 
I think they did back in the day. 
I meant it back when I said it. 
Didn't you ever see one of these letters? 
I mean, yeah, you see it more on the net. 
But I saw them in the past where somebody completely tears someone apart and then ends the letter with all the best. 
I just never believed that that was sincere. 
Go ahead, Rob. 
Yeah, I mean, in the 90s when your average users started writing emails, people were coming from the context of having written friendly letters and business letters and those kinds of letters that we were all trained in school in those days to write. 
And they contained these niceties. 
It was, you know, hoping this finds you. 
I beg to remain cordially. 
Yours regards, et cetera. 
And there was a time when it wasn't unusual to see an email from a pal that included all of this. 
It got less and less formal, I think, as time went on. 
But there were those stragglers, those hangers on to the old etiquette. 
Speak for yourself. 
I end all of my emails cordially yours. 
I remain your obedient servant. 
Do you really, though? 
Are you their obedient servant? 
What does that mean? 
What are you signing away when you say that? 
I would never say that to anybody. 
If I'm writing an angry letter, I'm going to end it by saying get bent and sign my name. 
You know, I'm going to keep the theme of the text in the sign-off. 
Otherwise, it's confusing. 
Yesterday, I had to email someone at work, and I was talking to a colleague to say I had to translate the phrase, it don't work that way, brosif, into business language. 
And I did indeed begin it with, it's nice to hear from you. 
Here are the details. 
Well, maybe it was nice to hear. 
That would have brightened my day to get a letter like that. 
All right, moving on. 
This is the saddest headline I've seen. 
A notorious hacker wipes clean video hosting site for balloon enthusiasts. 
I mean, come on, leave the poor balloon people alone. 
A hacker has leaked sensitive user data from a video hosting website dedicated to inflatable and balloon fetishes. 
You know what? 
I need to read these stories before I sit down. 
I thought it was, you know, hot air balloon enthusiasts. 
That's what I thought this was. 
Oh, this is something different. 
You know, that picture should have, that should have clued me, the black balloons and the masks and all that. 
I thought it was just, all right. 
Okay. 
All right. 
Well, you know what? 
It's still a sad headline. 
A post to a notorious cybercrime forum on Monday, a hacker, identified as Thrax, announced that they had obtained users' email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed passwords from the platform InflateVids. 
It's, yeah, and boy, they tweeted recently, the website is currently down due to a hack. 
There was no ETA on when we'd possibly come back from this. 
See, that's what made it sound so sad. 
These poor, you know, people that like hot air balloons having the whole website destroyed. 
It's still sad. 
It's still sad. 
It's just different. 
Part of the hack included encrypted password hashes, email addresses, and IP addresses. 
If you used your password anywhere else, use a password manager and change these. 
Yeah, that's sad. 
That is sad. 
And people have to be careful with their accounts, their websites, and hope this doesn't happen to them. 
You know, we have another story. 
We'll get to this on Overtime because it's about Polish trains that have had DRM basically flung their way. 
We've talked about right to repair, and apparently it doesn't just go for tractors or cars or computers or technology of various sorts. 
It also goes to something as big as a train. 
And in Poland, a train got bricked. 
And I guess we'll get more into detail about that on Overtime. 
How do you get to Overtime? 
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Or you can go to the webpage 2600.com and click on the link there. 
You can write to us, OTH at 2600.com. 
That's our email address. 
And reach us with your feedback on various things that we've talked about or bring up new things that we haven't talked about. 
Remember, again, Hope XV is happening in July. 
We have that special ticket thing coming up on Friday. 
Also, we have a pretty cool tribute to some of the people that we have lost over the past few years. 
So there's that. 
We will see you next week. 
We'll see you in a few minutes on Overtime. 
Be well. 
The alerts. 
Hack back. 
Exactly. 
Good night. 
We'll see you next week.