BONUS: Give me a break! Is this the best product collab ever?

Poor Jesse had a rough week, and Jenn was to blame for sending him a tweet about Amazon using AI chatbots to create podcast episodes for products. 

But soon his snarly frustration transforms into laughs as he shares one of the best product collaborations in Western history, a Kit Kat candy bar and Faraday cage for cellphones so people can take a real break rom those perpetual spy machines and/or distraction tools in our pockets. 

 It only went up, up, up from there.

And Jesse's therapy is really paying off. Listeners will notice that he-who-must-not-be-named-especially-in-relation-to-rockets is not referenced. Well, mostly.

The news stories:

Is this Hell? Raw Story, Nicole Charky-Chami

Maryland Is First State to Ban Surveillance Pricing in Grocery Stores, The Guardian, Sanya Mansoor

Kit Kat Wrapper Faraday Cage - Give Yourself a Break and Put Away that Cellphone! Boing Boing, Gail Sherman

Subscriptions to ChatGPT Drop

Disney Announcements, no more phones on moving rides and use of facial recognition

Made and offered in love for you, dear listener. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Fucking clankers. Fucking clankers.

SPEAKER_04 0:14

Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on. I should be like real proud of me. Look at me. Look. What don't you hear?

SPEAKER_03 0:22

I don't hear the squeaks anymore. Yeah. Hey. Well, you know what? I was gonna play into it because you know what that uh uh sound sounded like a sounds like a ghost.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Did it sound like a ghost?

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Sounded like a ghost. It also sounds like an alien from aliens where they're kind of hunting.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

They're going that was your chair.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I know.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

So um everybody didn't hear that one.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

That was a soda pop. What was that?

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Jen, I'm I'm gonna have a goddamn sugar-free Dr. Pepper. You know why?

SPEAKER_03 0:57

That's my favorite sugar-free soda right there, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Thank you. Yeah, I knew you, I knew you were a woman of good taste.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Exactly. Dr. Pepper's better than Dr. Carp, which is Daddy Carp.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Did you listen to that? Don't even get me.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Oh my god. I I actually love that they, you know, Ed had on two other folks and they were laughing about this shit. Yeah. About Palantir's like, you know, I and the thing that I thought that they missed though is I think that Daddy Carp put that out there so that it's in the zeitgeist, also. So now it's in the Zeitgeist not to be mean to billionaire tech bros.

SPEAKER_05 1:39

Oh no, poor boo in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

It's hard to be a public figure. So I I kind of loved it actually. But tell me what's going on.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

I just heard that the Washington Post is uh the editorial that they they they uh a labor union sent an uh uh and doesn't even have to do with the Washington Post. Sent I think the team search, they sent a uh letter to the editor. Remember those?

SPEAKER_03 2:06

You know, yes, I do way back when I love letters letters to the editor.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

They sent one to the Washington Post about some labor stuff, and uh it and it happened to name drop uh you know Jeffy in there. It did, and so uh the Washington Post sent it back to them uh without the edited taking him out and said they'd be happy to publish that letter. So yeah, we can't so we can't even uh we can't even send a letter to the editor anymore. Oh my god, because all these the all these same jerks uh they control everything, yeah. They control everything.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

That's awful, but not surprising. That's terrible. I feel like that's like a mini doom hole to start off this whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

But I mean, like, why would when you think about it? What okay, why does he why would he care? And like uh wouldn't that give you more credibility and and fight off rumors of like uh you know what you're obviously doing if you just went ahead and printed the letter and didn't say anything about it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, hey, yeah, the the the opinions of labor unions are important. Here you go.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

You know, right. You know, it makes me feel like he the gatekeepers held it back from him. He probably didn't even read it and they smacked it down.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

It was the lawyer gatekeepers. Yeah, I feel like nobody likes wanted to take it to him and go, uh, sir, can we like uh publish this letter?

SPEAKER_03 3:40

He's like, I'm doing yoga, hot yoga with my wife. Yeah, god. We're making a happiness.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

I'm eating kiwi right now on my uh on my veranda plots on my veranda, on my veranda, veranda, veranda. Excuse me, I'm going to go buy an Italian town now.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Oh my god, I'm very busy, you know, and I now I have this cynicism when I read any headline related to any tech because I was just talking to Doug about it over coffee this morning because there was this like, oh, um, we got a hold of this email that was before they made the announcement that they're gonna, Amazon's gonna lay off 30,000 people and give them a severance package of$67,000. And um, because they're going all in with AI and just replacing people. And I told that to Doug, and I said, But now I'm so cynical because I'm like, they they know that their investors are gonna go, that's exactly what we want you to do, and then their stocks are gonna go up, up, up. And he was like, Yeah, you can't believe it anymore.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

No, you can't believe it anymore. And now you have to go, okay, now you have to follow the rabbit hole of like, okay, who owns this? Yep. And then who are they owned by?

SPEAKER_03 5:00

And thank God for Ed Zitron because he does that stuff for us. I feel like he's out there like a warrior. I wish he would come on our show. I mean, I like to see his dynamism now where he's angry, but then he has two guys that are kind of laughing because they see the humor also, because he's always making kind of dry humor jokes. So he's so primed to come on our show.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Yeah, Ed. Uh we'd love to have you. We'd love to for it. I mean, we uh you're you're doing the you're doing the Lord's work out there.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Yes, you are, and not AI overlords.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

No, no, not those. The good, the god, gods and goddesses, and and and those the the good ones, the good people.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

The good, the good folks, the yes, exactly. Well, okay, what headlines do you have? What's got you so pissed off this week?

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Well, okay, I felt like uh so this is uh you sent me this last night on Substack. I did. And uh no, no, no, it's not your fault, of course. Um, but it was uh I I mean okay, the it it's it's not I'm not really that fired up. I'm just like uh okay, like this is expected. Um but uh so uh this is from the the raw story. Oh yes, Nicole Charky Chami is her name. Yeah. Uh and the headline is uh, is this hell? Amazon's new AI podcast feature for products leaves internet disoriented. If you remember, like when I restacked you last night, I was like, we are dead, we are in hell, we all died in 2012.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

You know, it's like the worst episode of Black Mirror that we're in.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

Yeah, I know. You know, honestly, I I feel like Black Mirror is probably still on, but like how?

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Yeah, I mean you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 7:03

The the whole show like should just become like uh it should just be like me, just like become this like nostalgic, like uh fantasy land, you know? The place where I let myself live.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Um the place where my my my wine glass lets me live.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

Yeah, you know, like yeah, I'm like, you know those little TVs that had VCRs built into the bottom of them? They're totally coming back. And I've got three. I've got three of them. I found them in found them in a dump outside the barn cell.

unknown 7:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

And I got one of them working. Kinda. Sorta. If you don't need to rewind, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

You gotta manually rewind. You put your finger in the little hole and go backward, backward, backward. We had to do that sometimes with our VCRs.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

You know, honestly, I I'm a I'm a professional here. I have two of those tape rewinders, so you're welcome. You don't text your machine with I'm telling you, I I could I could open a video store right now. I'm thinking about doing it. Yes, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna let people come in my house and check out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

I'm like, side hustle.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Yeah, two dollars, take what you want.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Okay, you need to read the rest of the story.

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Yeah, I know the internet was in disbelief on Wednesday after Amazon unveiled a new AI podcast in quotes feature for products. Air quotes. Air quotes, scare quotes, the dystopian new experience for customers launched this week and allows customers to ask AI hosts questions via text or voice while listening to an audio summary of a product Amazon announced in a news release. Correspondent Katie Natopoulos, who uh is who dropped that uh that tweet on Twitter. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Was that who it was? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you're right. She was the original source.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

What do we say now? That X on Xer?

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah, well, I say Twitter still. Fuck that shit.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Yeah, fuck that shit. Um, I wasn't gonna cause it. Although you know what? I'm thinking about like not just I'm thinking about not calling it Twitter anymore because it's so not what it started off to be.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

Yeah, you know, yeah, anyway. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

I'm off on a I'm I'm already off on it on many tangents. That's okay. They're not kidding. It was look, and like it's impossible to like get this off X and share it. Okay. I tried to put it on Substack.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

So uh, do you want me to try to play it? You guys play the vid?

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Okay, because I can edit out, it'll just take me a second here.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

You guys have to hear this, okay? I tried to repost it, like I said, but it's important exploring the Wilmedix Rapid Relief diaper rash cream.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

And what makes this hospital grade cream different from standard diaper rash products?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Wow, it's really interesting. This cream uses a duo action approach. Instead of just zinc oxide, it combines that with white petrolatum to create new protective barriers. This is how it's supposed to treat existing irritation and prevent new issues from developing.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

So it's not just about treating the problem, but stopping it from coming back.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

And they've added some really thoughtful ingredients like calendula and white birch bark extract. These botanical ingredients help soothe sensitive skin, or the jewel barrier does the heavy lifting.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

All right, Katie, we've got you. You're dealing with discomfort, and this cream is designed for exactly that kind of irritation. Emma, what can you tell them?

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Wait, I have to pause it for a second. I don't understand. Wait, why why does it go uh why does it immediately go to the case? It says why what what waiting wait I wait, let me just interject this first. She says, You sound like you're in discomfort. Like this eases your discomfort. The AI doesn't even fucking know that this isn't a fucking English, um, you know, England adult that has fucking diaper rash. It's for a baby. It says, you are in discomfort.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

And also, why does it immediately go to dango site my baby? You know, like why does it why does it do that? Why does it choose that?

SPEAKER_03 11:52

There's a little bit left of it. Should we listen to the last 12 seconds?

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Okay, coxide and 49% petrolatum working together to create a protective barrier. Petrolatum. Customers mention it works well. I'll just come up.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Okay, that was it. Petrolatum. People are like so not aluminium. Not aluminum. And I love that they obviously have done studies and they think that, okay, first of all, we know as um indie book authors that word of mouth is how people find other books, usually. Yes, yes, same thing with other products. So that's why they also have this call-in feature, which is apparently the most mind-obliterating part. They're like, we're gonna just in in 20 seconds, we have the first collar. Hold on for a moment. And so they're even feigning like they actually have a fucking collar that's real. But the second thing is, they must have done some studies that say if you have an English accent, you have more authority to stupid Americans, is what they're saying. And I'm like, yeah, that's what they're showing us.

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Yeah. Uh it's you know, um, they they're not stupid. They just actually noticed this too at uh because they recently had CinemaCon where they show uh that they show all the the you know the theater owners and the distributors like the new movies and try to get them hyped up. It's the industry one, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, yeah, that's a thing.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

CinemaCon is a thing, and it just happened, and they uh uh these the the studios are now putting an emphasis on influencers over traditional film critics.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

So film critics are like not getting the access they used to. Influencers are who are gonna like, you know, I've got 20 million followers on TikTok and yada. So uh where do you think that's going next?

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Well, uh AI. Yeah, yeah. Well, and on top of it, actually, you just made made something make sense because I was reading an article. Okay, I just read the headline, it was behind a paywall, but it was about how the book reviewers um and that section of our Sunday papers is dead, it's gone. Same thing, right? They're like, oh, social media influencers, if we can get it used to be Oprah's book club back in the day that if they picked up a book, you were uh smashing.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Reese Witherspoon, yes, they had one, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

And now it's gonna be just TikTok influencers that pick up your book and make it a thing, and so they don't even bother.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Yeah, it already is. That's what book talk is, you know, and that that's been building up for a couple of years now. And so uh if you don't read a or if you don't read a book where like fairies fuck each other, okay, or you don't write one of those, like uh you could just throw it into a book.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

I think I might throw it in as a subplot and see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

We should just, you know what, we should start doing that. We should just start writing books there like about like totally something different and see how they do. And then just toss like a uh there just just one chapter where a couple of fairies just randomly go at it. Exactly and then like like it, like it's it's not connected at all to any of the rest of the plot or the book. Like you never, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Well, and then on top of it, what we do is we have an audible made of our book, our fake book, and let an AI narrator narrate it because we know Amazon is promoting those books like a lot more than actual real human beings writing books and um narrating books.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

They're they're they're they're murdering that.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

They moido it a long time ago. They moyed it.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Because uh, you know, people are all into audiobooks, and now it's all it's all gonna be clankers reading audiobooks because they the this this this tech, which I was on to about a year ago, because Google has a thing called Notebook, where you could basically put in a block of text or whatever and go, Hey, uh I I want two podcast people discussing this, you know what I mean? And like it'll it'll do it, you know. Like we played it, like me, me and uh me and a friend of mine that were working on a thing played around with it because it was like uh we we put the uh description of what we were working on in there, and we were like, hey, create a create a like a 20-minute script or something where and it, you know, and it would be like it was like a dude and you know, and a and a girl, and but they were just like uh wow, so here's what we're talking today, and you know, and they they they did it.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Oh did we doom hole this or is there more to say about these?

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Uh I mean there's a lot more to say about it, but uh diaper rash, you know.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

I think we're uh also how funny is it that they chose like they that's the product they chose yeah, and also it's relevant because last week we talked about or two weeks ago, depending on when these are published, uh, about my fifth grade experience at camp where our music teacher went up there. He was a full-grown adult with diaper rash. So, you know, maybe we influenced a zeitgeist and we didn't know it because adults do have diaper rash, apparently.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

I mean, God bless him. Really not. Here's one, here's one that you'll like. Okay. And I think I sent I think I sent this to you already. But uh, this is from The Guardian. Maryland has become the first state in the U.S. to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores. Maryland's law bans grocery and third-party delivery services from using a person's personal data to set higher prices. Westmore, the governor, signed the measure into law on Tuesday. At a time when technology can predict what we need, when we need it, when we'll pay for it, and also when we'll pay more for it. And at a time when we're watching how big companies are then using these analytics against us to make record profits, Maryland is not just pushing back. Maryland is pushing forward because we are going to protect our people, Moore said, at a bill signing ceremony. So this is that's great. This is your surveillance pricing. That's really good news. We've been talking about over a couple of episodes.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

Yeah, and we're gonna continue to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Yeah, Maryland has fired the first shot in the uh against that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

I'm really glad they are because so people there are people that are going into these stores and um they are actually shopping. And if they have like a Kroger or a Walmart or a wherever they're shopping, there's a lot of them now that have these digital tags instead of paper tags on certain products. They will go home and they will get an email from their Amazon that said, Hey, your cart is waiting for you, and they're gonna and they find that a bunch of the products that they had picked up and put in their grocery cart just like a few minutes ago is waiting there with a better price. Isn't that creepy as fuck? So Amazon is buying that data in real time and then sending you an email because there are times that people put back, I see it all the time in Colorado. People are hurting and they will put back products because they're like totaling up what their bill is going to be, and then they put it back. But um, the other thing I I just want to say is there are a few heroes. Like, don't do the self-check if the line is not long, like if you can avoid that, because I will go up there and say, This isn't how this was marked on the shelf. And she's like, Oh, okay, and then diddly diddly diddly, they do this typing thing, and all of a sudden you have this discount. And a human being, because they know that this bullshit's happening, and they they are noted you have to notice it and tell them you're noticing the price is different, and then they're changing it. And last time I was at the grocery store, it saved me like 15 bucks. Yeah, no, I mean, and that's uh that you know, for that's important, it is very important. Yeah, it's important. I mean, people are hurting, and so I think that this is such bullshit. And then uh we were talking about over coffee earlier about how I guess Amazon is getting sued in the state of California for allegedly price fixing, so they've been monitoring prices and then they jack up theirs, you know. So it I don't know, I I don't know much about this lawsuit, so I feel bad even talking about it. But we did talk about how they seem to be on right now on the horizon of the AG in California for price fixing allegedly, but allegedly would you be surprised? No, no, these these folks are such greedy son of a bitches, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

You know, that that's the thing that gets me with this. Okay, I mean, I okay, yeah, yeah. Capitalism that you know, I I get right okay. At the same time, uh there's no reason for what's going on right now. No, you know, there's there there, I mean, there's none. This is this is this is uh price gouging, it's market manipulation, it's uh uh it's you're you're only worried about um uh you know for what what's going on quarter to quarter. Yeah, you know, have you raised expectations this quarter? You know, no matter what, we're gonna do it, you know? Yeah, and they're not you know, they're not looking at the long term, and uh you know, but you know what, Maryland is, and I'm so proud of them.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

So can we do the Santa Belle for them? Happy Santa Belle.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

Thanks, Marilyn.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Thank you, Marilyn. Thanks for leading the way.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

Thanks for leading the way. Everybody all the lawmakers that worked on that one. Good for you. They're heroes. Here, I got one for you, Jen. This may interest you very much. Okay, this is from Boing Boing. Boing Boing. Oh, we love Boing Boing lately. I mean, always Gail Sherman wrote this and take a break from your phone with a Kit Kat rapper that. Is also a Faraday cage. What you mean the candy? The actual wrapper? Yeah, and it's the actual wrapper that they're putting the Kit Kat in. Okay. Nestle wants people to take a break with a Kit Kat and put their phones away and not just put them away, but keep them from connecting entirely. Kit Kat break mode looks like a giant Kit Kat wrapper, but it is actually a Faraday cage. The specially designed wrapper blocks electromagnetic radiation, turning smartphones into bricks. I love this. According to Fast Company, brake mode is a joint effort between Kit Kat Panama and the creative agency Ogil V Columbia. The packaging uses multi-layer construction that combines conductive materials, primarily copper, with polyester layers, Chief Executive Office Geston Potes says. Together, these form a continuous conductive surface that redistribute redistributes and neutralizes incoming electromagnetic signals. An outer polypropylene layer protects the structure, ensuring durability and usability as an everyday package. The sum of these parts is a complete Faraday cage. Once a phone is placed inside, all signals, including calls, internet, Bluetooth, and GPS, are blocked. The wrappers were distributed and tested at several events, but they are not actually a commercially available product, at least not now. For now, stick to do not disturb if you can. So yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

God, I love this so much. That was a great one. It reminded me of, you know, the other thing you can do right now, because it really is. Um, I think I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again for new listeners. Is I have a friend who is a comedian, and she was texting us in the group text one morning and went, uh, guys, put a piece like the size of a juicy fruit um piece of gum of tin foil in your wallet. And yes, I'm telling you to do this because I was in line at the drugstore to get pick up my pharmaceutical stuff, you know, my prescription. And I was the next person that was going to go up and pay. And the woman said, Well, just sec, let me get my card out. And the pharmacist said, Oh, you've already paid. And she goes, No, I haven't. And then Karen sees on her phone an alert that her card paid. Because apparently, these smart chips in our debit cards and credit cards, all they're doing is those registers are just grabbing for the first, the closest uh card. And hers was out because she was getting ready to pay and it grabbed her card and charged her. So she was like freaked out. And she told us and she said she did a ton of research, and all it takes is a little bit of aluminum foil. And I do, I have that in my wallet. And in Colorado, there's this. Um, I don't know if it's just Colorado, maybe you have it in Texas, but there is this scam where there are people in the parking lot that have their phones open with like a Walmart uh cart. If you actually look at the screen of their phone, which I have, I'll come over and go.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Oh, yeah, they do that. They do that everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Yeah, and they're just trying to get close enough to somebody that's wallet is open and available, and then they're uh grabbing their financials so that they can pay for this cart. And then I'm assuming on their end, they're returning it and getting the money or whatever, um, you know, digital money. So anyway, just it sounds paranoid. And until you have your Kit Kat wrapper Faraday cage, um, just put some aluminum foil, just a little strip of it in your wallet or you know, whatever your backpack, whatever you carry around it with you.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

It's a quick Google machine search away, and it can tell you exactly that's right what you need to do because it's not hard.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

No, and I'll put links to some ideas in the show notes actually.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

They're actually companies that make uh they make little Faraday bags, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

RFI thing. Totally. Yeah, so so uh it it it's uh it's but I mean do it because every penny counts right now, and we don't want you guys to do that.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

It's like it's you know, it seems like it's literally tinfoil hat, but guess what? Yeah, guess what in this in this circumstance? It's like uh it's actually it's it's a viable because you know totally is that was a good one, not a conspiracy theory.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

If uh so Jesse, does that get the Santa Bell, the Kit Kat Faraday? Yeah, I mean two Santa Bells and only one bad bell.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

I know. I actually do that. I'm like, do I want to find one that's a bad bell?

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Yeah, I think you should. I think we should balance it out. We can handle it.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Lord protect me here.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

I'll say I'll sage the screen. Here, thank you, Rachel White, for your holy water.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

Thank you, thank you, holy mother, Rachel.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

I feel like I should pass this.

SPEAKER_04 27:21

Okay, what's in shrimp?

SPEAKER_03 27:23

You know what I want to point out to the listeners is you haven't mentioned anything that's pink and rock rocket shaped this entire episode. This is really good. Have you been going to like a 12-step program?

SPEAKER_04 27:40

I I I I return my therapist calls.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

So there were concerns after our last episode.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

They were like, uh they're like, oh well, look who's wandering back in. I was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

So the local authorities did a health and wellness check on you. I did probably send them.

SPEAKER_05 28:01

I was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Like he bought a wizard's hat. What the fuck, man? I gotta look out for my friend.

SPEAKER_04 28:09

Can we look? I have a doom hole that's not necessarily an article, and I mean we're both onto this. Let's do it. Yeah. Because uh, okay, so uh friend of the pod. We all know Anna Maria. Okay. Yes. Oh, oh my god, we love it so her her and her her and her mom GG are wandering about the uh about the streets of Sarajevo yesterday, as they do, and so she starts sending me texts, okay. And uh she's talking about some dude, okay, has his phone out and is loudly talking into it, okay. She thought she thinks it's a she thought it was a tourist, like an American, is loudly talking into his phone. And like uh, so she sees the phone, okay? Yeah, and and it's one of those clank or girlfriends. So this guy is is is visiting Sarajevo, wandering about the streets, okay? Talking to his AI girlfriend, to his AI girlfriend, and and I guess like showing her around, you know, as he's like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

And so uh oh my goodness sakes, what have we come to? So she starts sending me texts, she's like, motherfucker calling his clanker girlfriend in these Ottoman Empire streets talking about how they should come visit. I swear to god, if I'd have been drinking coffee yesterday when this came in, you would have ruined your keyboard spray it out my nose. Okay. Oh Anna, we love you so much. It's like getting cut, except you're watching a grown man risk up a clanker in the historical city center. Talking about this too much time away from you again, bitch. She right there in that greasy little hand clutching my phone.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

I love her so much. I am dying right now, all over again.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

So I don't know whether to ring the bell for that one because it was so damn funny. I think do both at the same time. I guess uh okay. I I should do like uh you spray holy water. I'm gonna be like uh Okay, dude. May the may the may the streets of the Ottoman Empire bless you and uh take away your uh your AI clanker addiction. Your clanker fascination.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Oh my god. I uh this is um yep, I'm just not gonna step in it. That is bad.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

Yeah, that was rough. That was I mean, I don't really have any headlines for this, but you know, we've been talking about uh, you know, we've been we've been talking about how mommy and daddy are fighting, you know.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Oh yeah, I think that's worth uh talking about a little bit. Yeah, and Elon Musk. Yeah, that what they did this week is they have been um doing jury selection and um there are concerns, and you know, I have to say every headline related to this trial is going through either Elon Musk or Sam Altman's propaganda machines, so you can't take it seriously. So one side apparently put out headlines with the journalists saying it's gonna be really hard to find jurists that don't hate Elon Musk and see him as a Nazi. This is what they're saying, and um, and then the other side making it like Sam is that likeable.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

No, I would like to make the argument that it's I think it's gonna be hard to find a jury that likes either one of them.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

That's exactly. I think that's the real headline is nobody has sympathy or empathy for them. Now, I just have to say that um, you know, it feels like maybe with what's happening right now, um, what what has happened in the last 24 hours is that open AI completely missed their financial markers. I mean completely. And I think it was like um instead of people subscribing to Chat GPT, I think they had a 300% jump in people removing that app from their phones and devices.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Yeah, it's way down. I I wonder if it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

Yeah, but they're they are trying to hold up this, they're trying to hold up this guise that they are super, they're super profitable because they want to get into the stock market. IPO, they really want to be out there. And the timing of this trial and also these numbers coming out about people not wanting to use them anymore, it it's it's atrocious. It and I'm I'm here for it. I love it. So it's gonna be interesting because I think there will have to be a settlement. And the only I'm not a fan of either folk. I'm not in camp either, but I do love the the Molotov cocktail that Elon Musk threw out there, which is all the money that he gets from this lawsuit is gonna go into open AI nonprofit, that charity arm, because he wants to re um find, you know, make it more financially fruitful because that's what they've done is they've bled all of the resources out of the open AI nonprofit side. That's how they killed it before they went to for-profit. So he wants to put the money. So I'm not saying it's noble, everything is like for their own optics, but I kind of like that little chess move.

SPEAKER_04 34:12

Well, they already shut down that deal with Disney and closed Sora because they realized that, like, that was uh yeah, that was not gonna make them any money.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

No, oh my god, we have to talk about Disney today, too. After this, I have some things to tell you about.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Okay, that there's a m I'll always talk about that. There's a massive subscription drop. Okay. Internal projections suggest Chat GPT plus subscribers at$20 a month could drop 80%. So the final numbers aren't in, but they're predicting it's gonna drop from 44 million active subscribers to 9 million. That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Um, I've never been more proud of humanity.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

Yeah, and there's a well, I mean, yeah, it's but I mean it's it's kind of like uh what's your value for$20 a month in this economy? What are you getting out of it? You know? And there's a pivot to a thing called Chat GPT Go, which I guess is ad supported, plus you still pay like five to eight dollars a month, even though there's advertisements, yeah. Even though there's ad I killed HBO Max. I was just like, there's no more value here, you know? It's expensive, it's like 20, 22 a month, and I was just like, what am I getting out of this? I watched the same five HBO shows over and over again. I'm just like, I've already got the Blu-rays and that's exactly what I was gonna say. Yeah, you know, they're not they're not they weren't putting anything out that that that did me. Um so uh what did you just say?

SPEAKER_03 35:53

I was like, did you just say they're not putting anything out that did me? Is that what you just yeah? I meant to say did it for me, but uh either one is are you thinking of that chat bot girlfriend?

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Did we cat or was it in these in these Ottoman Empire streets? I'm thinking of my chat GPT girlfriend in these Ottoman Empire sheets.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Oh I'm thinking of a sheets of Faraday cage material. Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 36:26

Can I come out of the Kit Kat bag now so we can please I'll be good this time. I'll be good this time.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Oh my god. Oh, wait, wait, I didn't even tell you when we were playing the diaper rash thing. Did you notice she said that's a fabulous question? And I was just melting because Nova, uh, like the sycopency of this AI podcast. I hope to fuck nobody listens to me.

SPEAKER_05 36:52

I come out of the diaper rash bag.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

You can slap some diaper ash gel on my my the back side of your phone.

SPEAKER_05 37:02

This week, would you like to talk about diaper rash or feet or furry furry costumes?

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Okay, are we done with did we did we just do that? Did we just doomhole the the open AI mass subscription drop thing? Yeah, yeah. Ring a bell, ring a bell.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

I mean, we we you know, I that wasn't, you know, we kind of got there. It was unofficial. Still, you know, it's official when we ring that damn bell.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

Okay, I don't have the article, but I just wanted to hit you with some Disney things that I just learned about. Okay, they're making some changes to the Disney parks, the theme parks. Oh, they're gonna be way more aggressive about um some of the behavior of people going there. One of the things is people cannot have their phones out anymore. I mean, obviously not on those selfie poles, but they can't even have them out in moving rides, which is basically all the rides because that's the idea of ride your riding. So if you do, you're gone. Like they will literally see you know, see you to the park exit. And if you repeat offend, you will be banned. And guess what? They're also looking at facial recognition to let you into the park. That's gonna be your ticket now, possibly, is a change that they're looking at. So, you know, they were Doug and I were talking about it when he was telling me about this. They were one of the first companies that ever tested biometrics because there was fuckery afoot in California, and we were there, and our kids were very small, and they had this option that they were trying out where you would do your thumb scan. And I was looking, it was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

I've done the thumb scan where you you press it on there, and then like Mickey's like his is lights up around his profile goes up green. Yeah, right on, yeah. Yeah, but then there have been and then they went to those those magic things that you wore on your wrist.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

That's because people thought it was around the park. That's because people thought it was weird. Um, that parents thought it was weird to be scanning their kids' thumb. They were uncomfortable with that, so that's why it went to something like a product on their wrist. But now apparently there's going to be some facial recognition involved with that. And um, a lot of this is also to get rid of human beings that are letting people into those gates and um the entry gates, because that's a big uh surge of, you know, they need a lot of employees to be doing that, especially initially when the park's open. So I think that that's they're shedding employees very fast, and that's a big chunk of them. So yeah. But what was interesting is Doug was saying, uh, this is in light of everything we've seen since 2020, where they were moving everything to an app and your phone. Like we were there because my um younger daughter had graduated from high school in 2021. We we and she wanted a trip to Walt Disney World as like the big hurrah. So we did that. And I noticed there were families there that were shocked that they weren't taking money at certain places, like, you know, to get a hot dog at Casey's, you had to have the app and you had to order it. And so I would just I discreetly went up to a family and said, Do you want to just order it on my phone? Yeah, because they he was like, We had cash. We gave our kids cash and they're somewhere in the park not able to do this. They don't have their phones with them and they're not, they don't have this app. And I'm like, Well, let me at least get you some hot dogs, but they really fucked over people. So here we have this dichotomy, right? You can't have your phone out on a moving ride, but yet you have to use your phone at every turn to be in a fast pass line or get your food and your water. It's insane. I think it's weird and it's it's kind of off-putting a little bit to me.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

You know, the the parks are the only things that consistently make money, you know. Yep. I mean, uh ABC and all their broadcast stuff is you know, that's that that's dead. The studio stuff, you know, um effectively, uh uh Mandalorian and Grogu, I guess, which is the first Star Wars movie in forever. You know, yeah, like uh when it when have you ever when it when has it never been like super excited? Like, oh a Star Wars movie's coming out, you know what I mean? Like uh it's tracking to do four or five hundred million, which is nothing, you know what I mean, compared to like what they're gonna end up spending on it.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

So, so why would they so are they just making sure every dollar is accounted for in the case?

SPEAKER_04 42:03

I would think so. I think they're trying to maximize profits at the parks, yeah, and on the cruise lines because that's those are the real money makers.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

I mean, the phones out on a moving ride, that actually makes sense to me. That's a maintenance issue.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

Like I mean, I can't people drop their phones. Yeah, I can't believe that I can't believe that Disney Plus I I watched a guy get kicked off of the haunted mansion one time, try to get out of his dumb doom buggy. They shut the whole thing down, escorted that cat out.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

They were like, Well, you know, we I have to.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

And they told that dude, they were like, Um, hey, yeah, what you can't see when you're trying to get out of that thing is there's a 30-foot drop right there that you could have gone right now, you know. That's exactly right. Yeah, but yeah, that's they're the those the parks are consistently making money. Whereas uh I feel like that's that's the current um that that's the value in Disney right now. Yeah, you know, because you know, they're I can't imagine Disney Plus is making any money, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:02

Yep, no, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

It's too much competition between all, you know, and like they don't have anything on there, or you know, no, and so uh saying that uh this Avengers movie is the most expensive movie ever made ever. Oh my god, it's gotta turn like it's gotta do like 1.9 billion dollars to my god, yeah. So my theory, and like uh I I've you know, whatever. I'm sticking with it. Yeah, I feel like Netflix is gonna eventually buy the mouse.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Yeah, and you're right. I mean, uh, we have a friend who just retired. Um, and he, you know, certain things, I mean, people have been, they they really do have to deal with the human effect. You know, what happens in California is those theme parks become uh the people buy their kids an annual pass and they drop them off like it's summer camp every day of summer vacation, because then they don't have to worry about babysitting. And this and that, and they just go into the parks and they get bored. And so that's why, if you know Tower of Terror, why they have the different stages of dropping, you know, it's random every time. That that all started in the California um adventure park because the parents were dropping off their kids and the kids were trying to jump in sync with how the ride used to be. And it broke the ride so many times that the engineers said we need to make it a random thing so that these kids can't fuck with it, basically. Yeah. And so that's, and then it was so popular that they wanted that, they wanted that weightlessness for uh right. Yeah. And it was just like a you know, to make it interesting again because they're going for 90 different, you know, days in a row or 60 or whatever their summer vacation was. So I understand the human factor makes it complicated. And and that, and and I would love to look at the numbers because I think you're right that the theme parks are where the money is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:02

Think about Netflix too. They've obviously won streaming. Okay. Yeah, they do. I mean, it's there's no question. Spoiler alert, what what's the one component they don't have? Uh theme park. Parks, yeah, parks. And could you imagine what they do with that? Stranger things, Rob. Oh my god, that'd be so cool.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Yeah, yeah. Breaking bad. Oh, I'd love that. You go around in an RV. Two goes after you.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

You could do like the ride they do with the Millennium Falcon, except it's the RV. And like you're in there, like uh, okay, uh, you're you're part of the mission, is you're in the back cooking the meth, and then you pilot the R V through the desert.

SPEAKER_03 45:47

Oh, that would be a whole theme all on its own, is the early days when Jesse Pinkman's trying to get enough Sudafed in order to make a badge.

SPEAKER_04 45:55

Yeah, I know. I mean so great. It would be great. Oh my god. They should just do breaking bad land. And like uh yeah, uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

No, they should just do Vince Gilligan land.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would I I'd be down with that. I would be able to do that. I mean, uh, but yeah, I I I feel like that's the one component that Netflix would and that that would be a bet that that'd be that would that that ultimately would be a better buy for them than this thing that they just tried to do with Warner Brothers.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Yeah, I 100% agree with you.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

Which they also came out on with like bandits on because like not only did they not have to pay for it, but they had to I think they made like uh a ridiculous amount of money, like because they had a pay or play thing, like uh, if you back out of the deal, like you still have to you have to pay.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

You still have to pay. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, um, well, I think that did we doom hole that or what bell do we ring for that? Uh you know what? What Santa Bell this time, thinker bells. Yeah, I love that. Did you did you purge some of that rage you had?

SPEAKER_04 47:02

I don't even have any rage anymore.

SPEAKER_03 47:04

Oh, that's so great! Okay, we transmuted it's all gone.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

My my rage dissipated during uh during the kink Kid Cat bar segment.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Me too. That's how I felt too.

SPEAKER_05 47:14

I feel as light as a feather now.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

As a feva, light as a feva. My kids used to say feva when they were little.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

All right, well, until next week.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Fucking clinkers.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

Bye, Jesse. Bye, listeners.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Bye, everybody, fucking clinkers, fucking clinkers, fucking clinkers.