Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: AI-powered minister, radicalisation of meme culture, Spotify free-tier news + US-China TikTok framework

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MINI TECH SCROLL: AI-powered minister, radicalisation of meme culture, Spotify free-tier news + US-China TikTok framework · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  This episode of Mini Tech Scroll is.
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  Brought to you by Blackbird. A venture capital firm investing
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  in Aussie and Kiwi startups from the very beginning, Blackbird
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  invests in all kinds of technology.
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  So if you have a big idea but need to raise investment to turn
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  it into reality, learn more and connect with the Blackbird team
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  through the link in our show notes.
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  Hey everyone and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  My name is Annabelle and and I'm your Wednesday mini tech scroll
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  host and also. The deputy editor of The Youth.
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  Digital media brand Centennial. World, welcome back.
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  To mini tech scroll everyone before we get into the.
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  Stories This week I have two. Things to mention.
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  The first is that I got a. Haircut.
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  I wonder if any of you noticed the difference?
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  My bangs are back. The second thing though, which
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  is probably more relevant to. You guys is that?
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  This episode is actually being pre.
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  Recorded so this. Is going up tomorrow for me.
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  So it was recorded yesterday for you?
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  If anything monumental happened overnight, that is not covered
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  in this episode. That is why.
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  Other than that, Please remember to.
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  Rate review and. Subscribe and star rate US on
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  Spotify. We also have a buy.
• 1:13
  Me a coffee link in the description if you.
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  Want to check that out? So yes, let's just.
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  Get into the stories the. The first story we have to talk
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  about today is. How an AI minister has recently
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  been appointed in Albania. And no, I don't mean a minister.
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  For AII. Mean an AI generated minister.
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  Last week, the. Albanian Prime Minister Eddie
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  Rama became the first leader making.
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  Albania, the first. Country in the world to appoint
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  a cabinet minister powered. By AI.
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  So the minister's name is. Diala.
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  Which reportedly means sun or sunshine in Albania.
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  And if we have any Albanian listeners, please let me know.
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  No. She does have an avatar where
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  she shows up as. A woman dressed in traditional
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  Albanian clothing the ministers. Portfolio slash role will
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  basically be to tackle. Corruption and promote
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  transparency in the government. This is seemingly around public
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  procurement. Which is the purchase of goods,
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  works or services by the state. Obviously this is an area of
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  government. That would be.
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  Susceptible to corruption and this is something that.
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  Albania has also struggled with historically.
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  The Prime Minister explained DLR.
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  As the quote. First member not physically
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  present. But virtually created.
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  By artificial intelligence. Reporting from Politico.
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  Went into more. Depth about.
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  DLR's ministership. So I will just.
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  Read a quote from that article. Now quote Rama stated that
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  decisions on tenders would be taken out of the ministries and
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  placed in the hands of D Ella. Who is the?
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  Servant of public procurement, he said this.
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  Process will be step by step. But Albania will be a country
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  where public tenders are 100% incorruptible and where every
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  public fund that goes through the tender procedure is 100%
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  legible. I.
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  Thought this was. Really interesting because.
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  AI here is. Positioned as a tool to
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  eliminate bias and judge the contract slash tenders slash
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  from an objective perspective. This is obviously a very
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  different way to view. AI from certain topics.
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  That we have discussed in the past.
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  Especially around how? AI Hub is.
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  Biased depending on how it is being trained and what it has
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  been trained on. So the conversation.
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  And reaction to DLR Online has been reflecting some of these
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  concerns and it has been very mixed.
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  I have seen some comments from people who are simultaneously
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  intrigued. And also worried about how AI
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  will. Actually limit corruption and.
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  Whether it actually? Can others are saying that they
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  believe this was more of a symbolic play by the Prime
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  Minister and the Albanian government?
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  Because you could. Probably.
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  Program an AI. Bot to allocate.
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  Funds to certain organizations that the.
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  Leadership favours, but they kind of.
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  Wipe their hands clean of any sort of corruption and
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  association. With that by.
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  Using the AI minister, I think there is definitely something to
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  be said around transparency here.
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  At times it can definitely. Be difficult to tell how an.
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  AI generated bot or model comes to a certain conclusion whether.
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  That is ChatGPT or. A minister like in this case,
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  but when we're dealing with public procurement and.
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  Issues of state. Spending justification and the
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  decision making process cannot. Be overstated it's.
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  Definitely important to be transparent.
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  About at this time, though there.
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  Obviously isn't too much information about DLR and the
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  back end of that. So I do think it's.
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  Kind of. Hard to pass.
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  Judgement on that at this time either.
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  Way it's definitely. A historic.
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  Move between this. And everything going on in Nepal
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  with obviously Lauren reporting on this recently where a new
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  representative was basically appointed by Gen.
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  Z on. Discord it is crazy to.
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  See the interaction of social media.
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  AI Politics. In this kind of way.
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  I actually. Don't know if we have any
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  Albanian listeners but I would love to hear any perspectives
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  that you. Have about diala.
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  And everything going on with this AI minister.
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  That brings us to our next story and.
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  Obviously the biggest. Story on the Internet in the
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  past week has been about Charlie Kirk's death.
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  Lauren did cover this when the news broke, but more and more is
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  coming out around the shooter's social media presence and his
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  potential affiliation with certain online figures.
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  So this does. Feel relevant to the podcast?
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  So we thought. We would touch on this, I am
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  sure. Most of you guys are across.
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  This story since it is. Literally everywhere.
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  Online at the moment, so I don't think we need to get into the
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  nitty gritty here, but ever since the messages on the
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  bullet. Cases were revealed.
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  To the public, there has been speculation about.
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  The alleged shooter? Tyler Robinson's political
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  beliefs and online affiliations. If you've been online in the
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  past week or so, you've definitely seen.
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  The word grouper. Being thrown around along with
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  political influences like Nick Fuentes come up in this
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  discussion. There has been a lot of really
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  solid reporting on this from Internet culture experts.
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  Ryan Broderick's analysis in the Garbage Day newsletter was
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  pretty comprehensive. I'll link it in the description
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  as well for you guys and Aidan. Walker who?
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  Is a meme expert. That we've actually had on the
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  podcast. Before That's honestly one of my
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  favorite interviews that we have done on the.
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  Podcast, but he made quite a detailed TikTok.
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  About the memes that people are. Associating with Tyler Robinson,
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  I will. Insert a clip.
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  Of that here if you haven't seen it yet.
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  Because he honestly explains it better than I ever could.
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  The casing on the shot that ended Charlie Kirk's life was
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  engraved with a 12 year old furry bashing meme notices
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  bulge. Oh woo, what's that?
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  Which tells us an important thing.
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  This assassination was a shit post.
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  That is the lens to analyze it through.
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  It was designed to be maximally disruptive and incomprehensible,
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  cloaked in layer upon layer of irony so that nobody would know
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  what he really meant unless they were our guy.
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  Now the question everybody's asking is, was this kid a
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  griper? And the question everybody's
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  parents are asking is what is a griper?
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  So gripers are the most extreme fringe of this kind of image
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  board nihilistic culture that I'm talking about.
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  They're led by Nick Fuentes, who is a content creator and a
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  streamer. And they really are about
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  transgressing any boundary that exists.
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  They are like explicitly white nationalists, really bad,
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  horrible people. The name Griper originates from
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  this variant of Pepe the Frog, which comes about in the late
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  twenty 10's. And these guys adopt it as a
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  kind of collective self-portrait.
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  They make it their profile picture, they make it their
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  moniker. There was the Griper War of
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  2019, in which Nick Fuentes and his people trolled Charlie Kirk
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  and Turning Point USA, showing up at these debate events and
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  asking questions that would push Kirk to say things that were
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  even more extreme than Kirk was already saying.
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  Like many Pepe or Griper memes, the core of this is it's a
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  lonely male figure and sort of an immiserated landscape looking
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  sad. And that's part of the story I
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  wish more people were talking about.
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  What's driving our political violence isn't just
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  polarization, where one side is getting more radical and kind of
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  undermining democracy. Nor is it algorithms, like some
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  have said, that are like pickling the brains of young
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  people. It is that feeling which these
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  Pepe memes represent, of you're always going to be alone, you're
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  never going to have a future, and you're never going to have a
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  voice. Since there is already.
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  Quite a lot out there. I don't think it's worth us
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  going into this again. For you especially.
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  Because gropers and the culture and memes around them.
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  A quite specialized but why we wanted to cover this story
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  though today was I think it leads us to.
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  A bigger question around how information, specifically
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  information relating to the online world and Internet.
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  Culture is being covered. When it comes to Charlie Kirk's
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  death and Tyler Robinson's political.
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  Beliefs. What we have seen so far is that
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  on one side you have social media.
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  Users who are. Extremely familiar with people
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  like Nick Fuentes and the white supremacist, misogynistic,
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  homophobic and anti-Semitic beliefs that.
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  He puts forward to his. Followers and on the flip side,
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  you have people who have never. Heard about this side of the
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  Internet whether Tyler. Robinson was actually.
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  Part of this. Group or not, I think is a
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  different question here. But the very fact that he could
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  be. Shows the influence that this
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  niche has on social media. Uses especially.
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  Young men. This begs the question though,
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  why hadn't mainstream media been covering this niche before?
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  And that has left many social media users concerned.
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  Especially about the potential of the.
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  Violence down the line. 1 threads post I saw for example
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  said quote. Tik Tokers.
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  Are doing an infinitely better job explaining the Gropa
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  situation than any mainstream media outlet.
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  Aside from Tik Tokers, some of the best.
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  Coverage is coming from various independent journalists, some of
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  whom I've already mentioned. But for media companies to
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  produce similar coverage, they need money and experts in this.
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  Specific side. Of the Internet Internet.
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  Culture and tech reporting is so.
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  Unbelievably vast. It's impossible to have one
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  journalist do it all. Unfortunately though, this is
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  what many legacy media brands do either because they don't have
• 9:55
  the. Resources to do?
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  This in any other. Way or because?
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  People making the hiring decisions don't really
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  understand how fragmented. This niche actually is this is.
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  Especially important because. Clearly the left.
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  Right, political binary cannot explain.
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  Every political act. Anymore.
• 10:12
  For example, we have been seeing a lot of commentary on TikTok
• 10:15
  about acceleration ISM and how this relates to online political
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  ideology and messaging. But there hasn't really been
• 10:22
  anything about that in mainstream media.
• 10:24
  And it really does add important context to Tyler Robinson and
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  just. This.
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  Movement more broadly. Charlie Kirk Shooter exists
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  politically on the horseshoe, like right in the middle of the
• 10:38
  horseshoe between right and left.
• 10:40
  They are so far to the right that they are consequently to
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  the left, and they are so far to the left that they are
• 10:46
  consequently on the extreme right.
• 10:48
  There's a lot of variety within this group, but the one thing
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  they come together to agree upon is that nothing means anything
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  and you should do anything for the laws.
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  That's what it means. Unless you have spent time in
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  these online spaces observing them, it is very difficult to
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  understand. But this was predominantly done
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  for the laws, and then the secondary function of it was
• 11:15
  acceleration ISM in order to crumble the societal structure
• 11:20
  that we currently they have now. And that is what it comes down
• 11:22
  to. And that's partly why people are
• 11:25
  so conflicted and unable to pin them down because no, they're
• 11:29
  not completely all right, and no, they're not completely left.
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  They exist in the middle of the horseshoe of extremism.
• 11:37
  This group is highly nihilistic in many ways.
• 11:39
  Most of the reasoning behind it is for the laws.
• 11:43
  They almost don't care what they believe in as long as it's
• 11:46
  funny. And that's what a lot of it
• 11:48
  comes down to. Is it funny?
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  Does it accelerate chaos and societal collapse?
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  If it checks those two boxes, that's what they're into.
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  In a similar vein, there is also a conversation going on around
• 12:00
  access to information and who. Deserves it with some of the
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  best. Coverage around Tyler Robinson
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  and Charlie Cut coming from independent journalists posting
• 12:08
  on the likes. Of Substack, Patreon.
• 12:11
  Or just more general personal newsletters.
• 12:13
  Consumers, obviously. Have to pay.
• 12:15
  For membership, this conversation while it has been
• 12:18
  going around among. Users I haven't.
• 12:21
  Really been seeing many. Creators Cover.
• 12:23
  It or many mainstream media publications talk about it.
• 12:26
  So I thought. It would be an interesting angle
• 12:29
  to. Talk about this.
• 12:29
  Story and also kind of gives you some.
• 12:32
  Fresh thoughts. Around this story.
• 12:34
  Because there is. So much content going around and
• 12:37
  we don't want to just add to the.
• 12:38
  Conversation To add to the conversation we.
• 12:40
  Want to add something meaningful?
• 12:41
  OK, let's move on to the next story.
• 12:44
  This one is quite a. Pivot.
• 12:45
  This story is a platform update where Spotify.
• 12:49
  Has recently. Switched up its free user tier.
• 12:52
  Lifting the shuffle only listener experience for context.
• 12:56
  Before this update free users on Spotify.
• 12:58
  Couldn't listen to a specific. Track you would have had to have
• 13:01
  shuffled. An album or a playlist before
• 13:04
  eventually landing on the song you actually wanted to listen
• 13:07
  to. There was also a limited amount
• 13:09
  of. Skips per hour, but Spotify.
• 13:11
  Has now introduced Quote, Pick and play, Search and Play, and
• 13:15
  Share and play, which is. Exactly what it.
• 13:17
  Sounds like it. Basically just allows users.
• 13:19
  To listen to any song they want immediately in a statement
• 13:22
  through to the. Verge, There are.
• 13:24
  Still restrictions around free users and what they want to
• 13:28
  listen to as. Spotify.
• 13:29
  Spokesperson Luke McKay. Told the publication.
• 13:31
  Quote Only Spotify Premium users have complete control to play
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  and skip music without restrictions.
• 13:37
  Mobile listeners of the updated free experience will be able to
• 13:41
  tap on any song. Or search for what they'd like
• 13:44
  to play or if. They don't like a track or
• 13:46
  simply don't want to hear what's next?
• 13:47
  Skip the occasional song and carry on listening.
• 13:50
  Each user has a daily allocated amount of on demand time.
• 13:53
  Once this limit is reached, users will then be limited.
• 13:56
  To six skips per hour. I wanted to cover the story
• 13:59
  because. It's obviously pretty good news.
• 14:01
  For free Spotify users but it all.
• 14:03
  Also I think shows the growing competition between Spotify and
• 14:07
  other streaming platforms. It has been quite a.
• 14:10
  Big conversation online recently.
• 14:12
  How many? Spotify users are.
• 14:14
  Seemingly switching streaming platforms, with some of them
• 14:17
  going to Apple Music. In fact, it was.
• 14:20
  Actually recently reported maybe at the end of.
• 14:23
  August that. Apple Music was rolling out a.
• 14:25
  Tool that allows you to import. Playlists from other streaming
• 14:29
  services, which was arguably an attempt.
• 14:32
  To court Spotify users but this back.
• 14:34
  And Forth has ultimately seen the streaming platforms both.
• 14:37
  Roll out a suite of. Different features and including
• 14:39
  Spotify DMS. I remember people were talking about that as well
• 14:43
  at the end of last month. All in all though, when it comes
• 14:46
  to the free user experience, I think it's definitely.
• 14:49
  Positive that. Spotify is allowing users to
• 14:52
  take more control of that listening experience.
• 14:55
  Streaming platforms are obviously the main way to
• 14:57
  consume music. These days.
• 14:59
  And the barrier to entry just shouldn't be high.
• 15:02
  Especially when. You have so many young people
• 15:04
  dealing with the cost of living crisis and having to cut back on
• 15:07
  expenditure. To.
• 15:08
  Afford the necessities and who doesn't love listening to music
• 15:12
  honestly? Lastly, I have a super quick
• 15:14
  update about the. US TikTok ban I.
• 15:17
  Will keep this. Short since we have covered the
• 15:20
  ban extensively at this point and every time I bring it up I
• 15:23
  wish I didn't have to. I feel like.
• 15:26
  I have done at least 7 episodes involving the TikTok ban and I
• 15:31
  just can't anymore. But but hopefully we are coming
• 15:33
  to an end of all this. Because.
• 15:34
  The US and China have allegedly agreed on a framework that will
• 15:38
  allow TikTok to continue operating in the US.
• 15:40
  Some officials from the administration spoke to the
• 15:43
  deal, but not much has been revealed.
• 15:45
  So far. According to reporting from
• 15:47
  Politico Quote. A White House.
• 15:49
  Official granted anonymity. To share details.
• 15:51
  That have not yet been made public, said the commercial
• 15:54
  terms have been agreed to between the.
• 15:56
  Parties, but the. Finalization of the deal is
• 15:59
  dependent on Trump's call with China's leader on Friday, during
• 16:03
  which the 2. Leaders will discuss details, so
• 16:05
  I guess we'll. Hear more about this later in
• 16:07
  the week. It will be super interesting to
• 16:09
  see what ends up happening with the algorithm because that is
• 16:12
  obviously been a major sticking point so far because it's not
• 16:15
  something that China wants to sell because.
• 16:17
  It is obviously very powerful, so I guess we'll just have to.
• 16:20
  Wait and see what happens there. Well.
• 16:22
  That is. Everything from Mini.
• 16:24
  Tech scroll today, I hope. You guys enjoyed and I hope the
• 16:28
  4:00 PM vibe is not jarring compared to the 9:00 AM vibe
• 16:33
  which is like when I usually record Lauren.
• 16:35
  Will speak. To you guys tomorrow I actually.
• 16:37
  Won't speak to you guys. Next week, but.
• 16:39
  There will still be a mini tech. Scroll episode going up.
• 16:43
  But yes, thank you for listening.
• 16:44
  Bye.