B (3:43)

You make a great point about how we use our phones, but clearly a number of people still answer these calls. And you hear stories about parents, for example, answering calls where they simulate the voices of their children and say they've been kidnapped and things like that. That always occurs to me, like, who is answering these calls?

C (4:00)

I mean, you get a call from your kid and it seems like you're going to answer that call, right? And it takes something like three seconds for an AI to replicate your voice. So it's really easy for these scammers to make it seem like, oh, it's your mother calling and she needs you to zelle her some. Or they can do things like do a virtual SIM swap. Your SIM card is now an esim. It's virtual. And so they can convince the carrier to swap out the SIM for their own SIM card. And then it looks like your son is calling you or your mom is calling you and you'll pick it up and you'll be like, oh my gosh, of course I'll sell you some money or whatever.

A (4:40)

But.

C (4:40)

So there's now new protections involved at the phone level that will protect you from things like SIM swaps.

B (4:48)

Reading the story, it seemed like the wireless account lock from AT&T would be most effective because it's locking your entire wireless account so that invasive interactions like the SIM swaps can't be completed until you unlock it.

C (5:04)

That's right. And actually all of the major carriers offer this and all of them are opt in. One of the experts I spoke to said it's like freezing your credit so you can just turn on your AT and T wireless account lock verizon and T Mobile have something similar and they prevent big transactions like a SIM swap or changing your address or changing your credit card or whatever. And you know, to your point earlier about all these new scams, last year mobile specific attacks were up 50%. So it's really starting with the phone now because we use it for everything, right? Our whole, entire lives are on there. Every single one of my passwords are on there. So we need to guard with every tool we could possibly use.

B (5:46)

That was WSG contributor Heidi Mitchell. Coming up, the latest chapter in Elon Musk's legal fight against Apple might double as a strong argument for the iPhone's continued dominance, whether he likes it or not. That's after the break.

A (6:08)

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B (6:42)

Elon Musk got into the app business when he acquired Twitter a few years ago, and since then he's had a very public beef with Apple, whose App Store serves as the top gatekeeper to that very big and very profitable industry. His latest antitrust suit argues that Apple's policies, and particularly the company's relationship with rival OpenAI, damage his own plans to build a super app. The twist in this AI powered saga? A number of big tech names are betting that AI will soon make the iPhone about as relevant as your MySpace account. But WSJ columnist and Bold Names podcast co host Tim Higgins says Musk's lawsuit is actually a ringing endorsement of the iPhone's staying power. Tim's with us now to discuss this bullish take. So Tim Apple CEO Tim Cook effectively placated Musk back in 2022 by ensuring him that Apple never planned to ban X from the App Store. Why didn't that peace agreement last?

D (7:41)

There's been tensions between Musk and Apple, really, since Musk got into the app game with his acquisition of Twitter, which became X. Yes, there was a seeming detente early on, but ultimately Apple has a very powerful hand in controlling how businesses operate in the app economy. Musk isn't the first tech company out there to complain about that power, whether it's the 15 to 30% revenue share that Apple takes for companies that are doing digital services in the app economy or the rules that they have to follow that Apple says are important to ensuring user safety and kind of the user experience. Musk has been trying to push back against that power ever since. What we see now with the emergence of Apple teamed up with OpenAI is an extension of that kind of bubbling fight. But it is probably made more intense by the fact that Musk has a huge beef with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI that spans many, many years.

B (8:51)

So many Silicon Valley bigwigs like Mark Zuckerberg, they argue that AI will render the iPhone irrelevant. But wouldn't that require a new form of AI driven communications product? And have we seen any such ideas from the bigger names in AI that might inspire the kind of adoption required to make this thesis a reality?

D (9:14)

Yeah, you think about the iPhone or the smartphone in general. Think of Samsung's phone, which runs on Android, the operating system offered by Google. These devices are your daily users to accessing the digital world. For so many people, this is a personal device that is with them everywhere. This is central to the modern life. And what people like Zuckerberg and others in big tech are betting is that AI will usher in a new computer paradigm that will displace the smartphone as the central part of your life, in part because they think that how you interact with AI or computers, if you will, will just be a different form factor. It won't be through the touchscreen, it will be through voice. Potentially you might still be able to see things, but it perhaps will be through glasses or something like that. What Meta Zuckerberg's company is betting is that the perfect device, the perfect form factor, will be glasses. OpenAI is also talking about a device that it has been teasing. We don't know what it looks like or how it will work. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, he would argue that the iPhone will remain relevant, that it still has a bright future, and has said the company is working on other things, or at least has hinted at the idea that the company is working on other things.

B (10:40)

Going back to Altman and OpenAI, Musk has essentially argued that their relationship with Apple makes it harder for him to realize his vision of X as a super app, where consumers do everything from scrolling the news to managing their finances. Is there any sign that he's closer to that goal than he was a year or two ago?

D (10:58)

If you were to talk to people at X, they would like to tout some of the advancements they have made. But if you're thinking about it as WeChat, which is the way that Musk has described what his vision is, yeah, they're still far away from that. WeChat is a very powerful super app created by Tencent, a Chinese company. In China, the version of WeChat is ubiquitous. The power of the super app in China has elevated that ecosystem beyond the Apple hardware or the Android hardware and has given users the ability to switch devices very easily and you see less lock in outside of China. It's very hard to point to a really successful super app in Europe or in the US In a lot of ways, the Apple ecosystem is the super app for Western consumers.

B (11:53)

That was WSJ columnist Tim Higgins. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show is produced by Julie Chang. I'm your host, Patrick Coffey. Additional support this week from Melanie Royce, Jessica Fenton and Michael Lavall wrote our theme music. Our development producer is Ayesha Al Muslim, Chris Sinsley is the deputy editor and Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of News audio. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.

A (12:28)

At the moment, AI can help you search for business advice, but it can't step in to help if things take a bad turn. But how about quickly finding an AI expert who can? Siemens Accelerator Ecosystem helps you connect with top industrial AI providers and find innovative solutions from a single trusted source. That's AI for real from the global market leader in industrial AI, Siemens. Learn more on USA.Siemens.com AI.