Top Five Tech

Welcome to Top 5 Tech, my weekly show about what to watch, listen to, download, read and

something deep every week.

Got a few things on space this week.

Cleo Abram had a great new video talking about neutrinos, one of the particles that can actually

pass through space and even objects like the earth.

And we are building equipment that can actually measure it and that equipment has to go in

the ocean.

It's a wonderful video like Cleo's videos always are, highly recommend this one.

And speaking of space, I really enjoyed this new video from Kurgetsat talking about how

How big the universe actually is.

And why we will likely never ever leave our solar system, even if we had spaceships that don't even exist today.

Spoiler, the universe is really, really big.

But before we leave, what to watch, a quick fun one.

I absolutely love the show Silo. It's an Apple TV original.

My wife and I started watching season 3, which is currently being released weekly.

But it is still very good.

If you've never seen it, I highly recommend going and watching from season 1.

But season 3, also really good. Enjoying it.

And what to listen to this week.

A lot of podcasts are taking time off and I haven't found any new ones.

It's a little sad, but if you are struggling with grief or you needed resources on grief or someone you know,

someone close to you, could help process a little bit of it.

There's a 19-minute podcast episode called The Puzzle of Grief.

This is from the podcast Calm It Down.

And this was something I listened to shortly after my dad passed away.

And it really gives you some words and ways to think when it comes to grief and loss.

I just highly recommend this one.

And if it's applicable to you or someone you know, you should send them the link.

On what to read, I'm actually going to share another read pick when we get to the details.

We mentioned this on the primary tech episode this week, but I'm going to put the Apple News

link to this Washington Post article showing the images of people using the Google Maps AI

nano banana tool to fake satellite imagery. This was so dangerous. I just don't understand how

Google actually let this out. Things like a crater next to the Washington Monument,

tanks rolling across the Golden Gate Bridge, just wild images. And someone who's not savvy to be

able to recognize this kind of fake AI generated imagery, so dangerous for it to have been out

tool has been shut down and you can't generate AI images from Google Maps satellites anymore. But

while this existed, and the Apple News link has lots of photos showing you what people did with

it on what to download. It's my new app can do I have a new task management app out there version

1.1 is actually already out for the Mac coming soon for iPhone and iPad, which will allow for

things like multi select multi delete and tag, you can generate a link for individual tasks and

and then use that in shortcuts or wherever you would like, also cleaned up some of the shortcuts

It's a $3 one-time purchase.

I'll be adding some new features in the near future, but it was the task app I always wanted.

I have an entire video that I published on my YouTube channel talking about it.

I'll link that in the show notes as well, but can do.

$3 for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

Alright, and on something deep this week,

Hank Green has been under fire for his admission of using AI in some of his research and making content.

We talked about that at length in the bonus episode of Primary Technology.

You can listen to that, support that show if you want to hear it.

I wanted to add on to this conversation because I heard a quote from this article.

Unfortunately, it's a paywalled article from the New York Times,

but it's called "If You're Over 40, You're Ready to Use AI."

And I heard this article quoted in an Instagram reel from Colin and Samir, which I'll also put in the show notes.

I'm going to read a quote from that article, author Debbie Millman who wrote it.

She says, "Before a person asks a machine to write for them,

they should know what it feels like to write from the depths of their own uncertainty and identity."

"Before a person lets a machine imitate their voice,

they should have endured the long, uneven, often humiliating process of acquiring one."

And this article talks about younger people, especially students in high school and college,

leaning on AI to write things for them.

It raises the point.

One of the biggest losses, if you are leaning on those tools when you are younger,

is you have not developed that voice or even original thought process

to actually have those meaningful words that you're either going to write or

say or put in a video. So when I think back on the Hank Green situation, yes we

don't want to use too much AI and especially in the wrong places of the

content creation process. Again I talked about on the podcast this week I don't

use AI in my brainstorming or writing process mostly because I don't write

scripts. I have five bullet points that I'll usually have in a bare note and

I'll record an entire video off of that or I just play around with apps and I'll

do a top apps for a certain platform. So I've kind of sidestepped that day.

I possibly script my videos, and I don't use it to brainstorm ideas, but I do use AI to

do things like give me some title ideas for a video or even a podcast episode and I'll

always massage those later. And I do think it's helpful to understand that people who

have been doing something for a long time, whether that's writing, podcasting, making

video content, which Hank Green has been making for decades on YouTube and elsewhere, that

he has already established his voice, his method of data analysis, his way of

developing takes on things. He has many, many years of practice. And so using an AI tool

to aid him in some of those practices to maybe multiply his efforts, I think is a very different

situation than someone who is in high school or college, who has not had the decades of

studying, researching the hard work of developing their voice in a topic. And using those tools

at that age, can undercut and maybe even make it impossible to develop your own personal

voice. If those tools are such a big

part of your workflow at a younger age. So I really need to read this article, but I'll

link that Colin and Samir reel if you want to hear just the pull quote. But I think it's

a good way of framing the question, where do we draw the line with AI usage, especially

in the creative endeavor, and so it doesn't rob us of our own creative voices and opinion

forming skills. That's top five tech for this week. Remember, you can get all the links

and some more commentary as a newsletter that delivers every Friday for free. You can scan

this QR code or the links down in the show notes. And links to everything I'm talking

about is also down in the description.

And I'll catch you next time.