I got my McRib! And…it was delicious. This week has been another busy one for tech. I’m in the saddle with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: crypto scammers make off with millions of Squid Games fans’ money, Facebook stops using facial recognition data in posts, and a girl sells $4 million in NFT art. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.
TIME’S NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE IS A 12-YEAR OLD
TIME Magazine’s first Artist-in-Residence is a 12-year old named Nyla Hayes. TIMEPieces is a new program started by TIME magazine to help artists advance their careers through the use of Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. Nyla got started in NFTs by her uncle and began selling her own art featuring characters with long necks called Long Neckies. Since selling her art as, NFTs Nyla has earned more than $4 million. I’m in the wrong business. You can learn more about NFTs by following TIME’s TIMEPieces feed.
FACEBOOK STOPS USING FACIAL RECOGNITION IN POSTS
Earlier this week, Facebook; uhhh, meta…uhh, Facebook? Facebook says it will stop using software that automatically recognizes and identifies people in social media posts. The move comes after the whistleblower, after the name change, and after other technology companies began drawing down the use of the technology. Facebook has been coming under increased scrutiny with investors and critiques arguing for criminal charges to be brought against the company. Facebook won’t stop working on facial recognition technology, but instead it may begin appearing in Occulus and other meta verse tech.
SQUID SCAMMERS, SCAM MILLIONS FROM CRYPTO BUYERS
Following the hype of Netflix’s most popular movie, Squid Games, scammers have stolen approximately $2.1 million from would-be crypto investors. The scammers listed a new crypto, titled SQUID, saying that the currency could be used as in-game money for a new video game based upon the movie. Gizmodo pointed out numerous red flags alluding to the currency being a scam. The site was filled with spelling errors and you could buy but not sell. The currency peaked at $2,861 before the scammers cashed out, wiping out everyone’s value.