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Get Paid To Train AI On Your Phone Calls?
00:19:50
Another lawsuit against OpenAI, this time from xAI. Intel approached Apple about bailing them out. What if crypto was reversable so you could recover fraud. Drama in open source land. And would you like to get paid to train AI on your phone calls? You’re in luck!
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- [00:05]
Brian McCullough
Welcome to the Tech Brew ride home for Thursday, September 25, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, another lawsuit against OpenAI, this time from XAI. Intel approached Apple about bailing them out. What if crypto was reversible so you could recover fraud drama in open source land? And would you like to get paid to train AI on your phone calls? Well, you're in luck. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.
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Pharmaceutical Advertiser
Foreign.
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Brian McCullough
Is suing OpenAI in California for allegedly stealing trade secrets by means of hiring away key employees. Quoting Reuters, OpenAI is targeting those individuals with knowledge of XAI's key technologies and business plans, including XAI source code and its operational advantages in launching data centers, then inducing those employees to breach their confidentiality and other obligations to XAI through unlawful means, the lawsuit said. Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint. On Thursday, XAI said it discovered the alleged campaign to undermine the company while investigating allegations of trade secret theft against former engineer Xu Chen Li, who it has accused of taking confidential information to the ChatGPT maker in a separate lawsuit. Li has not yet responded to the allegations. XAI has separately sued Apple in federal court for allegedly conspiring with OpenAI to suppress rival platforms. Apple has not yet responded to that lawsuit. Musk is also suing OpenAI over its conversion to a for profit company, while OpenAI has countersued Musk for harassment. According to this complaint, OpenAI hired away former company engineer Jimmy Frateur and an unnamed senior finance executive in addition to Li in order to obtain XAI trade secrets. Frattier, who is not a defendant in the complaint, could not immediately be reached for comment. End quote. Bloomberg is reporting that intel approached Apple about a potential investment in the chipmaker as part of its turnaround efforts and discussed how to work more closely with Apple going forward. A deal with Apple, a longtime intel customer that switched to in house processors in the past five years, would represent further validation of the chip maker's turnaround bid. Still, it's unlikely that Apple would switch back to intel processors in its devices. The iPhone maker's most sophisticated chips are now produced by partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Apple and intel have a long, sometimes strained history together. Apple used intel chips in its Macs for years, but began shifting away from the supplier in 2020, part of a broader effort to use more in house components. Apple also acquired most of Intel's modem chip business in 2019. These days, Apple has sought to show that it's investing heavily in the US Even as much of its production remains overseas. At a White House event in August, the company announced plans to spend 600 billion doll domestic initiatives over a four year period, up from a previous pledge of $500 billion. The centerpiece of the expansion was a $2.5 billion investment in Corning, Apple's longtime glass supplier. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC's Jim Cramer that the investments would encourage other companies to add US production, creating a, quote, domino effect. When asked about intel, he said that competition would be good for the chip foundry industry. We'd love to see intel come back, cook said. End quote Spotify has updated its AI policies, including adopting the upcoming D Dex standard to label and identify AI music and they're also rolling out a new music spam filter. Quoting TechCrunch, the company says it will adopt an upcoming industry standard for identifying and labeling AI music in credits known as ddex, and will soon roll out a new music spam filter to catch more bad actors. Under the DDEX system, labels, distributors and music partners submit standardized AI disclosures in music credits. This solution offers detailed about the use of AI, like whether it was used for AI generated vocals, instrumentation or post production, for example. As part of the same announcement, Spotify clarified its policies around AI enabled personalization, stating directly that unauthorized AI voice clones, deepfakes and any other form of vocal replicas or impersonation are not allowed and will be removed from the platform. While the DDEX standard is developing, Spotify says it's received commitments from 15 labels and distributors who plan to adopt the technology and sees its move as one that could signal to others it's time to adopt the technology. Because AI tools make it easier for anyone to release music, Spotify also has a new plan to cut down on the potential spam that results. This fall, the company will roll out a new music spam filter that will attempt to address spam tactics, tag them, and then stop recommending those tracks to users. Related to this, Spotify will also work with distributors to address something called profile mismatches, a scheme where someone fraudulently uploads music to another artist's profile across streaming services. The company said it hopes to prevent more of these before the music ever goes live. Despite the changes, Spotify executives emphasize they still support use of AI provided it's used in a non fraudulent way. End quote. This looks like an attempt to solve one of the oldest problems in crypto, if I'm reading it correctly, Circle President Heath Tarbert says Circle is exploring the possibility of reversible stablecoin transactions to allow refunds in cases of fraud or dispute. Quoting the FT Circle, the world's second biggest issuer of stablecoins, is examining ways to make it possible to reverse transactions involving its tokens. In a rare admission by a major crypto firm that it needs to take lessons from the traditional financial sector, Circle President Heath Tarbert said a mechanism that allowed money to be refunded in cases of fraud or disputes would help the stablecoin industry's push to become part of the financial mainstream. We are thinking through whether or not there is the possibility of reversibility of transactions, right? But at the same time we want settlement finality, tarbert told the Financial Times. There's an inherent tension there between being able to transfer something immediately but having it be irrevocable, he added. Such measures could be seen as a major departure from the crypto industry's previous emphasis on the immutability of the blockchain, a digital ledger that is public and records transactions that cannot be unwound. Circle said payments could not be directly unwound on its new blockchain called Ark, but instead it could add another layer in which parties could agree to make counterpayments akin to refunds on a credit credit card. The measures also mark a dramatic change in attitude in an industry that has often tried to distance itself from so called tradfi and will be seen by some crypto purists as tantamount to heresy. One prominent venture capitalist said it was offensive to still call Circle's planned venture a blockchain. Tarbert, a former chair of digital assets regulator the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said there were discussions taking place among software developers as to whether on certain blockchains for certain circumstances, provided all the parties agree there could be some degree of reversibility for fraud, he added. People say blockchain technology, stablecoins, smart contracts are superior in technology to the current system, but there are some benefits of the current system that aren't necessarily currently present. Tarbert's comments come several months after the Trump administration killed off a proposal by the US Consumer banking regulator to make cryptocurrency companies responsible for refunding customers accounts when they are hacked, bringing standards for digital wallets into line with bank accounts.
- [07:46]
Pharmaceutical Advertiser
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EBGLIS Librekizumab LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglis. Before starting epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief?
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Ask your doctor about eglis and visit epgliss.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.
- [08:47]
Brian McCullough
Curious about the digital infrastructure that powers today's biggest tech? Then check out the Interconnected Podcast. It's a new series from Equinix that explores emerging tech megatrends and the infrastructure making them possible. Through candid conversations with industry experts, the show breaks down highly complex topics in a way that's easy to understand. In the very first episode, covering AI in the medical field, the hosts do a great job helping listeners understand the computational models and interconnected data systems powering today's most promising medical developments. From there, they reveal the connection between this infrastructure and the groundbreaking healthcare breakthroughs we're seeing lately, like rapid diagnostics, personalized medicine, and supercharged drug discovery. Stay tuned into the digital infrastructure powering today's biggest tech trends with Interconnected. Give it a listen and follow the show on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Christian McCaffrey
I'm Christian McCaffrey, pro running back, and Abercrombie is an official fashion partner of the NFL. I'm not kidding when I say NFL by Abercrombie. Broke the Internet last year, and I think this season's lineup is even cooler. And so does my wife, who keeps stealing all my hoodies. Stay fit for the season and Abercrombie's newest arrivals shop NFL by Abercrombie in the app, online and in store.
- [10:09]
Brian McCullough
Interesting bit of signaling here. Microsoft is bringing Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 to Microsoft 365 copilot starting with researcher and Copilot Studio Quoting the Verge Copilot will continue to be powered by OpenAI's latest models, and now our customers will have the flexibility to use Anthropic models too, starting in Researcher or when building agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio, explains Charles Lamanna, president of Microsoft's business and industry Copilot team. The addition of Cloud Sonnet 4 and Cloud Opus 4.1 advances our commitment to bring the best AI innovation from across the industry to Microsoft 365 copilot tuned for work and tailored for your business needs. End quote Microsoft's Researcher Agent can now use OpenAI's deep reasoning models or Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.1. Researcher users will see a Try Claude button at the top of the Microsoft 365 copilot app that provides access to Opus 4.1 instead of OpenAI's models. Once you opt in, you'll be able to switch between OpenAI and anthropic models in Researcher with ease, lamana said. Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 will also be available as model options in Copilot Studio, Microsoft's platform for building AI agents. With this launch, you can build, orchestrate and manage agents powered by Anthropic models for deep reasoning, workflow automation and flexible agentic tasks, Lamana explains. You'll also be able to mix which models are used for specific tasks with options from anthropic, OpenAI and other models in Azure's model catalog. Claude and Researcher is rolling out today via the Frontier program to Microsoft 365 copilot. Licensed customers who decide to opt in Copilot Studio users can also opt in to get access to Claude. Interestingly, Anthropic's AI models will still be hosted on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's main cloud rival. Microsoft accesses Claude via the Anthropic API just like any other developer. Microsoft previously struck a deal with Xai to host Grok 3 models on Azure, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar arrangement with Anthropic's models on Azure. Soon, Microsoft's announcement of anthropic models in Microsoft 365 copilot arrives just a week after the company started favoring anthropic over OpenAI for Visual Studio Code. GitHub paid users now primarily rely on Cloudsonnet 4 when using the Visual Studio Code Editor's new automatic AI model selection, according to Microsoft. Reports have also suggested that Microsoft will use Anthropic's AI models in Excel and PowerPoint soon after finding they outperformed OpenAI's own models. Bit in the weeds, but there is some drama going on in open source land. A dev by the name of Joel Draper is alleging in a blog post that nonprofit Ruby Central took control of some Ruby open source projects from their maintainers without consent after, he says, pressure from Shopify. According to multiple sources and a recorded meeting described in this account, Ruby Central moved to take control of Several community maintained RubyGems and Bundler repositories and the RubyGems update gem in mid September. The backdrop, per this narrative, was financial strain. Sidekick allegedly pulled a $250,000 a year sponsorship after Ruby Central invited DHH to Rails Conference 2025, leaving the nonprofit reliant on Shopify. Sources claim Shopify pressed Ruby Central to assume full control of key GitHub repos and gems, reportedly setting a hard deadline and signaling funding could be withdrawn if the change didn't happen, and requested that longtime maintainer Andre Arco be excluded from returning. Events accelerated on September 9th when HSBT Hiroshi Shibata renamed the RubyGems GitHub Enterprise to Ruby Central, added director Marty Haut as an owner, and downgraded other maintainers permissions after pushback. Some changes were Briefly reverted on September 15, but Hot remained an owner. In a September 17 Zoom meeting, maintainers and Hot discussed the differences between the community owned RubyGems code and the RubyGems.org service that Ruby Central operates. The maintainers asserted Ruby Central had no ownership of the repos themselves. Despite acknowledging these concerns and alternatives like forking, the Ruby Central board reportedly voted to proceed. On September 18, maintainers lost access to the reorganization repos and some infrastructure while Shopify backed on call coverage stood ready. Ruby Central framed the move publicly as a supply chain security measure and fiduciary duty, promising temporary lockdowns until new operator and contributor agreements are in place. Critics in this account argue Ruby Central conflated its right to secure the service infrastructure with ownership of the open source code bases, and that statements by board members and supporters mischaracterized the situation. The narrative also notes tension around RV, a new tool from Spinel, which some in RailsShopify circles viewed as a threat. The account could concludes with unresolved questions about other companies roles, board vote details and whether control of the code bases will be returned to the long standing maintainers. End quote. Finally today, HOT new app Alert Neon, which pays users to record their phone calls and then sells that audio data to AI companies for training, has become the number two social app on the US App Store. Quoting tech Run, the app Neon Mobile pitches itself as a money making tool, offering hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year for access to your audio conversations. Neon's website says the company pays 30 cents per minute when you call other Neon users and up to $30 per day maximum for making calls to anyone else. The app also pays for referrals. The App first ranked 476 in the social networking category of the US App Store on September 18, but jumped to number 10 at the end of yesterday, according to data from app intelligence firm App Fig. Wednesday, Neon was spotted in the number two position on the iPhone's top free charts for social apps. Neon also became the 7 top overall app or game earlier on Wednesday morning and became the number six top app period, according to Neon's Terms of Service. The company's mobile app can capture users inbound and outbound phone calls. However, Neon's marketing claims to only record your side of the call unless it's with another Neon user. That data is being sold to AI companies, Neon's terms of service state for the purpose of developing, training, testing and improving machine learning models, artificial intelligence tools and systems, and related technologies. The fact that such an app exists and is permitted on the app stores is an indication of how far AI has encroached into users lives and areas once thought of as private. Its high ranking within the Apple App Store, meanwhile, is proof that there is now some subsection of the market seemingly willing to exchange their privacy for pennies regardless of the larger cost to themselves or society. Despite what Neon's privacy policy says, its terms include a very broad license to its user data, where Neon itself is granted a license that leaves plenty of wiggle room for Neon to do more with users data than it claims. Though Neon's app raises many red flags, it still though may be technically legal. Recording only one side of the phone call is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws, Jennifer Daniels, a partner with the law firm Blank Roam's Privacy Security and Data Protection Group, tells TechCrunch. Under the laws of many states you have to have consent from both parties to a conversation in order to record it. It's an interesting approach, says Daniels. Peter Jackson, cybersecurity and privacy attorney at Greenberg Glusker, agreed, and tells TechCrunch that the language around one sided transcripts sounds like it could be a backdoor way of saying that Neon records users calls in their entirety, but may just remove what the other party said from the final transcript. In addition, the legal experts pointed to concerns about how anonymized the data may really be. Neon claims it removes users names, emails and phone numbers before selling data to AI companies, but the company doesn't say how AI partners others it sells to could use that data. Voice data could be used to make fake calls that sound like they're coming from you, or AI companies could use your voice to make their own AI voices. Once your voice is over there, it can be used for fraud, says Jackson. Now this company has your phone number and essentially enough information. They have recordings of your voice which could be used to create an impersonation of you and do all sorts of fraud. Even if the company itself is trustworthy, Neon doesn't disclose who its trusted partners are or what those entities are allowed to do with users data. Further down the road road Neon is also subject to potential data breaches, as any company with valuable data may be. Well, I did bang the drum for years about somebody giving us the ability to make money off of our data, though I don't know that I would do this one. Talk to you tomorrow.