TNW 368: Facebook Hopes You'll Befriend AI Influencers - AI Phishing, Retro Tech Revival, Passkey Predicament

Tech News Weekly (Audio)

Leo Laporte

Tnw, Twit, Mikah Sargent, Technology News, Technology, News, Jason Howell, Tech News

4.1 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the first episode of 2025, Mikah and Abrar discuss Meta's plans to add AI bots to their social media platforms, the rise of AI-generated phishing scams, the trend of parents giving their kids retro tech devices to reduce screen time, and the current state and future potential of passkeys for secure logins.

Meta plans to populate Facebook and Instagram with AI-generated bot accounts that can create content, share posts, and interact with users, in an effort to drive engagement as user growth stagnates. Abrar and Mikah debate the pros and cons of AI bots on social media.
Cybersecurity experts have seen a significant increase in sophisticated phishing scams using AI to generate hyper-personalized messages mimicking people's communication styles, with over 90% of successful cyberattacks now beginning with phishing emails. Abrar and Mikah discuss cybersecurity training and email filtering used by companies to combat this.
There's a growing trend of parents gifting their kids retro tech like Walkmans, portable CD players, and MP3 players in an effort to reduce screen time. Mikah and Abrar reflect on the appeal of single-purpose devices and bonding over music.
Passkeys, a new login technology aiming to replace passwords, have seen increasing adoption but face usability challenges and inconsistent implementation across sites and devices. Mikah explains how passkeys work and recommends using password managers for now, as both hosts agree passkeys aren't quite ready for mainstream adoption yet.

Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Abrar Al-Heeti

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Micah Sargent from Tech News Weekly, and I am back with Abraar Alhiti of C-Net.
0:06.0	Abrar joins me for a full episode this week where we share two great stories of the week, both.
0:12.0	First, we kick things off with the Brar's story of the week about Facebook,
0:16.0	adding a bunch of AI bots to its social media platform so that you make friends with them and they
0:23.6	post on your posts.
0:25.2	We'll have to see how that turns out.
0:26.6	Then we move on to talk about AI generated phishing scams and how they're using personal,
0:33.4	identifiable information to try and gain access to accounts and services and all sorts of things.
0:42.7	It's a mess out there, and we ask AI how it would handle the problem.
0:48.4	Then we take a trip down nostalgia lane as we talk about parents gifting their kids, Walkman, and
0:56.3	MP3 players to, you know, get them away from those screens for a time.
1:00.6	Before we round things out with a look at the current state of pass keys and what we hope
1:05.7	to see in the future from this passwordless offering. All of that coming up on Tech News Weekly.
1:15.2	Podcasts you love. From people you trust. This is Twitter.
1:23.6	This is Tech News Weekly, episode 368 with Abraarar Alhiti and me, Micah Sargent, recorded Thursday, January 2nd, 2025.
1:34.6	Facebook hopes you'll befriend AI influencers.
1:38.0	Hello and welcome to Tech News Weekly, the show wherever week we talk to and about the people making and breaking
1:44.3	the tech news. I am Micah Sargent, and it is a new year as we are kicking things off here
1:51.2	on January 2nd. I am excited because I, you know, maybe misread my calendar and was looking at things.
2:02.1	And I am very excited and happy that my wonderful, wonderful guest host is ready to do the show with me today.
2:11.6	Welcome back Abra, and welcome to the new year.
2:14.3	Thank you so much.
	...

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