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Forget AI, The Counter-Strike Bubble Just Burst
00:21:47
Did Microsoft use dark patterns to charge more for AI? The tech angle to that whole NBA gambling scandal. Forget the AI bubble, the Counter-Strike bubble definitely just burst. Halo is coming to PlayStation. And how AI is revolutionizing the old, faking your expense reports scam.
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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home from Monday, October 27, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today, did Microsoft use dark patterns to charge more for AI? The tech angle to that whole NBA gambling scandal? Forget the AI bubble, the counter strike bubble definitely just burst. Halo is coming to PlayStation and how AI is revolutionizing the old faking your expense reports scam. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech if you're looking for enterprise grade identity automation minus the enterprise grade baggage, aka having your users log on 500 times, Yeshid delivers advanced IAM automation without moving teams onto a legacy identity provider. Whether you use Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Okta, Yeshida integrates directly. No rebuilds or rip and replaces are required. Yeshid helps IT and security teams reduce risk, not just tickets. And IT teams everywhere might have just breathed a collective sigh of relief. Every access change, review and approval is tracked and exportable, helping security teams effortlessly demonstrate compliance with SOC2, ISO or HIPAA. IT and security teams can spot risk before it becomes a finding the learn more at yeshid.com techbrew that's Y-E-S-H-I-.com techbrew the country of Australia is suing Microsoft for allegedly misleading around 2.7 million Microsoft 365 users into accepting a price hike for Copilot plans while hiding cheaper non AI options. Quoting Reuters, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or accc, alleged that after the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 personal plan increased by 45% and the price of the family plan increased by 29%, the ACCC said. The regulator said Microsoft failed to clearly tell users that a cheaper classic plan without Copilot was still available, the watchdog said. The option to keep the cheaper plan was only revealed after consumers began the cancellation process, a design it argued breached Australian consumer law by failing to disclose material information and creating a false impression of available choices. Microsoft's previous communications through emails and a blog post failed to mention the cheaper alternative, only informing customers that the price increase would apply to the next auto renewal, the ACCC said. The ACCC said the maximum penalty that could be imposed on a company for each breach of Australian consumer law was the greater of $50 million Australian three times the benefits obtained that were reasonably attributable or 30% of the corporation's adjusted turn over during the breach period if the value of the benefits could not be determined. Any penalty that might apply to this conduct is a matter for the court to determine and would depend on the court's findings, the regulator said. The ACCC will not comment on what penalties the court may impose.
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Warning to everyone that X plans to fully retire the twitter.com domain, meaning some users might need to re enroll their security keys for Two Factor authentication. This will lock accounts that are not updated by November 10th. Quoting PCMag if you're using a hardware security key as your Two factor authentication on X, you'll need to RE enroll by November 10th or your account will be locked. If you're affected, X will automatically prompt you to enroll. You can re enroll your existing security key or enroll a new one, it added. The move will allow X to retire the twitter.com domain. To clarify, this change is not related to any security concern and only impacts yubikeys and pass keys, not other two factor authentication methods such as authenticator apps. It says security keys enrolled as a two factor authentication method are currently tied to the twitter.com domain. Re enrolling your security key will associate them with x.com allowing us to retire the Twitter domain.
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You know that big gambling scandal rocking the NBA? Well, guess what? There is a tech angle. There's a big hacking angle to this story. The Department of Justice's rigged poker game indictment alleges that some degree of the monkey business involved hacking deckmate, whose $10,000 plus card shuffling machines you see a lot in casinos. Apparently they were hacked to reveal players hands. Quoting Bloomberg the deckmate, made by gambling equipment supplier Light Wonder, is about the size of a carry on suitcase and ubiquitous in casinos and card rooms. The quick shuffling machine revolutionized poker when it was introduced in 2002 and became an industry standard. Updated models such as the Deckmate 2 can reportedly shuffle a deck of cards in 22 seconds. Deckmate is the official shuffler of the World Series of Poker. The devices were a key part of an allegedly illegal scheme involving NBA players who lured unsuspecting victims to high stakes poker games that were stacked against them, according to the US Department of Justice. They were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contact lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big, Joseph Nosella Jr. U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement. The irony is that card shufflers were developed to help prevent cheating. Light and Wonder only sells the deckmate to licensed casino operators, not to individuals, though sometimes the machines end up for sale online. An unaltered, commercially available deckmate shuffler retails for more than $10,000, according to federal documents. One of the devices used in the alleged scam was stolen at gunpoint, the prosecutor said. Neither Deckmate nor Light and Wonder were implicated in any way in Thursday's indictments. The company, formerly Scientific Games, is one of the largest makers of slot machines in the world, with $3.18 billion in revenue last year. The Deckmate machines cited in federal charging documents were altered with concealed technology to read all the cards in the deck. Since the cards were always dealt in a particular order, the devices could determine which player would have the winning hand. This information was transmitted to an off site member of the conspiracy, who then relayed the information via cell phone back to a member of the ring who was playing at the table, according to the indictment. That person, known as the quarterback or driver, then secretly signaled this information by touching certain chips or other items on the table to other conspirators. The defendants also used chip cheating technology such as a chip tray analyzer, essentially a poker chip tray that also secretly read cards using hidden cameras and an X ray table that could read cards face down on the table. Special contact lenses or eyeglasses could also read pre marked cards. Light and Wonder says hacking of the company's machines could only happen when they are off site. It would be virtually impossible to pull off such a scheme within a licensed casino. Three years ago, a cheating scandal stunned the world of livestream poker at Los Angeles Hustler Live Casino, which broadcasts its games on YouTube. A relatively new player holding an unremarkable hand of a jack of clubs and four of hearts called the bluff of an experienced player winning $269,000 in a pot. Outrage immediately ensued, with thousands of players accusing the winner of cheating, which she denied. Months later, Hustler Live Casino published an independent report saying it found no evidence of cheating. But a group of security researchers at Ioactiv set out to prove it was possible. They were suspicious about a line in the report about the card shuffler, which was marked as highly complex and thus received a low priority for the investigation. The shuffling devices are mostly for poker, although variations are used in other card games such as blackjack and Bacharach. While the primary objective of these devices is to enhance game speed by assisting dealers in shuffling, they also ensure security through various deck checks, and their control over the deck renders them highly desirable targets for attackers, according to Joseph Tataro, Enrique Neesom and Ethan Shekelford, who detailed their findings in a 2023 report. They determined that cheating can be done by a rogue insider, such as a corrupt employee, players physically present at poker tables, or remote players connected through network capabilities. A rogue insider could gain access to the machine via the exposed Ethernet and USB ports near the rear of the device, which would give them full access to the device's software, according to the researchers. They noted that players regularly access the machines through these ports to charge their phones. Full Compromise of the DM2 shuffler gives an attacker the ability to only sort the deck, but to always know the state of the deck, meaning they know what each player holds in their hands, they said.
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The digital world is more connected behind the scenes than you may realize. Interconnected is a video podcast series by Equinix that explores the hidden infrastructure behind our connected future. From data centers to cloud ecosystems to the platforms and people who use them, Interconnected's hosts bring tech leaders, industry experts and innovators together in candid conversations to break down and discuss the future of global connectivity. The third episode of Interconnected, for example, covers the digital infrastructure for a food secure world. They discuss how farmers are moving from 20th century operations to AI and machine learning that analyzes soil, weather and crop data to tackle 21st century risks, plus how digital platforms are now connecting local producers to global demand through cloud. Linked supply chains follow Interconnected on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When your data goes dark, Veeam turns the lights back on. Partner with Veeam to increase your data resilience and get the right data recovery options for any kind of disruption so you can undo the unpredictable and get your data back so fast you won't even have time to miss it. With Veeam, it's all good. Keep your business running@veeam.com and here's a story that's just as wild as that one. Also from Bloomberg. Quote the value of digital items in the popular video game Counter Strike has fallen 48% following an update by the title's developer, Valve. Over the past year. Investors wary of the volatility in The S&P 500 and cryptocurrency markets have snapped up the video game items at a record rate. The price of Counter Strike items, ranging from digital guns and knives to gloves can fluctuate depending on a number of factors, including scarcity, player engagement, and changes pushed by the game's developer. In 2024, one virtual gun sold for over $1 million at 7pm in New York. On Wednesday, an update from Valve shifted the exchange rate between various categories of items such as knives and gloves. Afterward prices plummeted, erasing roughly $3 billion in value by Friday morning, according to data from PriceEmpire, an analytics company that calculates an aggregate market value for the items. This was a complete shock to the community, said Ethan McDonald, marketing manager for Price Empire. This completely changes the supply of Counter Strike's most sought after and expensive tier of items. Counter Strike traders are primarily young gamers. Oscar Stapleton, a 20 year old in London, had $1 million worth of digital items in his inventory Wednesday night. He lost $270,000 in less than 24 hours, he said. I've had a good past few months, he said. This is a shock In China, where a lot of Counter Strike trading activity takes place. Myriad videos bemoaning the downturn circulated on social media. Valve runs a marketplace for Counter Strike items, but most of the trading activity takes place through unofficial channels. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Many investors, traders and players have been selling off a lot of items out of fear that the bubble has finally popped, McDonald said. Apparently this market hit $6 billion in value at its height. Here's another great quote about all of this from Kotaku. Perhaps the most ridiculous shift in value WasMileyBeefs now nearly $4 million. Yes, you read that right. Batch of now worthless red skins. How do I explain this to the irs?
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Microsoft plans to bring its Halo franchise to the PlayStation for the first time ever with the launch of a 25th anniversary remake of Combat Evolved. This is coming next year. Quoting the Times. We are all seeking to meet people where they are, matt Booty, the president of Xbox Game Content and Studios, said in an interview about Microsoft's strategic shift. Video game companies have long enticed players to buy consoles with games featuring their mascots. Nintendo developed a family friendly lineup of characters in the 1980s, and Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda remain moneymakers. Sony's exclusive franchises include the Cinematic Adventures, Uncharted, God of War and the Last of Us. Microsoft has decided to move in another direction. It is an end effort to reach more gamers and maximize revenue after the company opened its wallet to acquire major Studios. Microsoft spent $69 billion on Activision Blizzard, which makes Call of Duty and Candy Crush, and $7.5 billion on ZeniMax Media, whose portfolio includes the Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Joost van Drunen, a market analyst and professor at New York University, said Microsoft's newest console, the Xbox Series X S, had been a commercial disappointment since releasing in 2020. Analysts estimate that it has sold at least 32 million units, compared to about 80 million units of the PlayStation 5. When it comes to consoles, Xbox has always been the bridesmaid and never the bride, van Drunan said. They just haven't been able to outmaneuver PlayStation and Nintendo. Next year's remake, titled Campaign Evolved, will be released for the Xbox series X S, PlayStation 5 and PC. It will not include the original game's competitive multiplayer modes, though, but for the first time, four players can cooperatively play the campaign online. Microsoft leaders hope that bringing its premiere franchises to new audiences will ultimately attract more customers into the Xbox ecosystem. Booty said consumers no longer have a strong attachment to the actual devices they use to play games. Our biggest competition isn't another console, he said, adding, we are competing more and more with everything from TikTok to movies. There are signs the strategy is working. Between April and July, six of the top 10 best selling games on Sony's consoles were Microsoft properties. Near the top was Forza Horizon, five years after it was initially released for Xbox consoles.
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Finally today we've done so many stories about management urging employees to use AI to, you know, maybe 5x their output. But what this segment presupposes is what if the employees can use AI to fight back? Quoting the FT Businesses are increasingly being deceived by employees using artificial intelligence for an age old scam. Faking expense reports the launch of new image generation models by top AI groups such as OpenAI and Google in recent months has sparked an influx of AI generated receipts submitted internally within companies, according to leading expense software platforms. Software provider Appzen said fake AI receipts accounted for about 14% of fraudulent documents submitted in September, compared with none last year. Fintech group RAMP said its new software flagged more than $1 million in fraudulent invoices within 90 days. About 30% of U.S. and UK financial professionals surveyed by expense management platform Medias reported they had seen a rise in falsified receipts following the launch of OpenAI's GPT4O last year. These receipts have become so good, we tell our customers, do not trust your eyes, said Chris Juneau, senior vice president and head of product marketing for SAP Concurrent, one of the world's leading expense platforms, which processes more than 80 million compliance checks monthly using AI. Several platforms attributed a significant jump in the number of AI generated receipts after OpenAI launched GPT4O's improved image generation model in March. OpenAI told the Financial Times that it takes action when its policies are violated and its images contain metadata that signaled they were created by chatgpt Creating fraudulent documents previously required skills in photo editing or paying for such services through online vendors. The advent of free and accessible image generation software has made it easy for employees to quickly falsify receipts in seconds by writing simple text instructions to chatbots. Several receipts shown to the FT by expense management platforms demonstrated the realistic nature of the images, which included wrinkles in paper, detailed itemization that matched real life menus and signatures. This isn't a future threat, it's already happening. While currently only a small percentage of non compliant receipts are AI generated, this is only going to grow, said Sebastien Marchand, chief executive of ridu, an expense management platform. The rise in these more realistic copies has led companies to turn to AI to help detect fake receipts, as most are too convincing to be found by human reviewers. The software works by scanning receipts to check the metadata of the image to discover whether an AI platform created it. However, this can be easily removed by users taking a photo or a screenshot of the picture. To combat this, it also considers other contextual information by examining details such as repetition in server names and times, and broader information about the employee's tip. The tech can look at everything with high details of focus and attention that humans. After a period of time, things fall through the cracks. They are human, added Calvin Lee, senior director of product management at ramp. Research by SAP in July found that nearly 70% of financial officers believed their employees were using AI to attempt to falsify travel expenses or receipts, with about 10% adding they are certain it has happened in their company. Mason Wilder, research director at the association of Certified Fraud Examiners, said AI generated fraudulent receipts were a significant issue for organizations. He added, there is zero barrier for entry for people to do this. You don't need any kind of technological skills or aptitude like you maybe would have needed five years ago using Photoshop.
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So Fargo, North Dakota is a lovely town and guess what? If you ever find yourself in Fargo, go to the visitor center right on the south side of town. They have the actual wood chipper that was used in the movie Fargo. It's signed by the Coen brothers and everything. You can get your picture taken with it. Do it. Talk to you tomorrow.
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What the hell is going on right now and why is it happening like this? At Wired, we're obsessed with getting to the bottom of those questions on a daily basis, and maybe you are too. I'm Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired, and I'm hosting our new podcast series, the Big Interview. Each week I'll sit down with some of the most interesting, provocative, and influential people who are shaping our right now. Big Interview conversations are fun. I want a shark that that eats the Internet, that turns it all off, unfiltered and unafraid.
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So in a lot of ways, I try to be an antidote to the unimaginable faucet of reactionary content that you see online. To the best of my ability, every.
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Week we're going to offer you the ultimate luxury of our times meaning and context. True or false? You, Brian Johnson, the man sitting across from me, one day, at some point as of yet undefined in the future, you will die. False. Tell me more. Listen to the Big Interview right now, in the same place you find WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast. Subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts.