Fancy Butt Cushions, Atari LIVES, and more AI Stories

Anti-AI Zine

LA's Cinerama is slow to be reopened - call to action

Fancy Butt Cushions Litter Courtroom - Musk v. Altman v. Butt Cushions

Atari Buys RPG Game, Wizardry, Vice

Buddhist Robot Monk

Vibe-Coding Has (surprise! surprise!) Gaping Security Holes, Futurism, Jon Christian

Sting Says That Connecting with Community Is What Will Save Us, Twitter-source

If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_09 0:23

Look, there's Tampa. Hello, Tampa.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Oh, you can see everyone, you can see Tampa over Jen's window because she's in Tampa. World traveling right now.

SPEAKER_09 0:34

I know, and I'm gonna cry tonight because I have to say goodbye to my daughter after a great trip. I told her I'm like, I'm I said, I'm not gonna cry after dinner when we say goodbye. And we both know it's a lie, it's a big fat lie.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Well, you know, I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_09 0:52

It's been such a good trip. She feels so bad because she's had so much work, and it's like, no, I I work during the day and then I meet up with her and we have fun in the evenings until late in the night.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Yeah, I mean, uh, that's kind of how things go nowadays, you know.

SPEAKER_09 1:10

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, she's grateful to have a gig, so it's like I don't want her to mess it up.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yeah, no, no kidding. I know.

SPEAKER_09 1:19

Uh you were a little under the weather. You you look good. Are you feeling good?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, you know, I just uh you know, I I pushed a little too hard, but you know, I'm good. I had a lot going on this week, so uh just wait till next week.

SPEAKER_09 1:34

Next week, well, I have an interview with my old friend Leslie Fear, and she only does it on the phone, so she has to be uncomplicated. She's like, Come on and tell me some of your hiking stories. So I'm like, okay, but then we have a couple interviews lined up for next week, too. So that should be good.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Oh, I know, and then uh uh Sam, Sam and I are sorting again. Uh, we're doing uh uh Abigail will be on. Lucky, lucky, lucky. We just scheduled it uh right as I was logging in.

SPEAKER_09 2:08

What what evening are you guys sorting? Abigail.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

That's gonna be uh Tuesday, the 19th. It's uh 6 p.m. if you're central. I will be four o'clock on the on the west coast, seven o'clock on the east coast.

SPEAKER_09 2:26

I will be logging in because I love the sorting, it's so fun. What a fun way to use Rachel White's book, and then it's such a great conversation.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

God, I have to write a review today for her book.

SPEAKER_09 2:42

Oh, I do too. Yeah, me too. I do too.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

I'm glad you reminded me because I it's I feel like the worst like kind of author ever because like I always forget to like write reviews for things.

SPEAKER_09 2:54

No, you you actually thought of it just now, and you probably thought of it 10 times prior to right now, so that's good.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

I didn't think I had an Amazon account anymore. I thought I canceled it after I bought her book, but turns out I still have it, so I can leave a review.

SPEAKER_09 3:09

So yeah, that's because Amazon's like you never completely go away because you'll have FOMO.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

I have to know how many reviews I had to write back in the day. A lot, you know, yeah. So uh nowadays I'm just like uh don't call me on the phone and like uh I'll do my best to review your book because I know it's important.

SPEAKER_09 3:29

Yeah, well, you know, I had a weird email this morning from Meta, and it was like, I got off Meta a couple months ago, I think, on in all ways, shape, and form.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

It's been at least a month, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 3:42

At least, yeah. So then I got this message that said, You're being prompted to be a business manager on Meta. Uh log in to check that status or notification status. And I'm like, this is like a weird honey trap by Meta. Because if I log on, I'm back to day one of canceling.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Look, here's a and here's the thing as someone who uh someone who has been off of meta for over two years, yeah. Um, here's the thing that you you're you're gonna need to do for a while. What get a friend who is on meta to look and make sure that your that your profile isn't isn't there.

SPEAKER_09 4:23

That's a great idea, but then what am I supposed to do?

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Uh if it if they if they didn't do what they said they did, then uh like you said, you have to start the process all over again. Wow, okay, I will do that because it happened to me once, like uh when I shut down my old author account before, like it suddenly reappeared, you know what I mean? Because I had two Facebooks, right? Yeah, we had and uh yeah, and uh yeah, it suddenly reappeared like with no explanation. And I was like, uh, I thought we were deleting things, guys. That's annoying. Oh, we did. Would you like us to delete it? And I'm like, but just uh anyway, that's so awful. I'll get my little sister to check.

SPEAKER_09 5:09

Oh, that's smart, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Yeah, she she she has to have one for work, so uh I'll get her to yeah, that's I'll get her to check and make sure you're gone. Is it hot there? Oh, yeah. Uh welcome to welcome to summertime in Texas. No matter what they tell you, uh, it started like a month ago. It did. Uh-huh. And it will it will roll like a month into like whenever they tell you it's fall or winter, you know. It's just like it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_09 5:36

We finally got some storms here in Tampa while I was here, and it's just like cozy, and you think it looks like Seattle outside, and then you step outside and you're sweating.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah, for sure. It's so great. Well, see, we have the same humidity as Florida. I wondered about that. We do, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, it it it it's a joyous, joyous uh feeling.

SPEAKER_09 6:01

My Cooper doesn't know what to do. Is it hard to get your dogs to go outside and do their thing?

SPEAKER_03 6:06

I mean, they're used to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 6:08

Yeah, at this point, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Cooper was like, but they they don't wanna, they don't wanna like they're not like they don't want to linger. Hey, it's hot. We can go out later.

SPEAKER_09 6:19

Later, October. Oh my god. So we are here to doomhole. Doomhole.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Oh, doomhole, doomhole, sweet doomhole.

SPEAKER_09 6:33

I even have some bookmarks this week if I can find them. Okay, I wanted to tell you there's a guy, he sounds like our kind of people. He said, I made a zine about why AI sucks. I thought people might enjoy looking at it. AI sucks, so stop using it. And they're seriously stop using it. And then can you see that?

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_09 6:59

I want that, yeah. Now, do you want me to read a few of his points? Sure. AI poisons black communities. Wait, I have to turn up the brightness because I'm blind. Um, in communities like that of South Memphis, Tennessee. So that must be where he's based. AI tech companies like Elon Musk's um uh XAI poison the air and water of the local residents, leaving some with respiratory issues, no access to clean water. Number two, it accelerates climate change. I feel like it's rinse and repeat what he just said. Number three, uses more water than some bottled water companies, and actually, we found some countries. Number four, polluted more than the entire state of New York in 2025. And then he goes on, he's got like 11, uh, he has 11 different little prom or you know things to a zine. The 11th one is pretty juicy. U.S. government wants to use it to kill people. So that's not subtle. That's not, yeah, yeah. He says, but it, but think of Palantir here. Surprising, absolutely, no one. The United States government has expressed an interest in utilizing AI tech to power things like missile targeting systems, facial recognition, software, and expanding surveillance programs. Okay, dude, how many reasons do you need? This is like 11 reasons already.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Yeah, I know. And he's a hero. Yeah, I mean, and can you blame him for feeling that way? Like, of course, the you know, the look last week. Uh didn't we talk about how uh Palantir was making a deal with like the USDA or whatever about the food?

SPEAKER_09 8:52

I was just listening to it on a different podcast. I listened to the higher side chat and he had on a guy, uh Christian, something or other, and they were talking about that. And they're like, we don't want AI in our food system, but it's just another way that they're gonna make us all feel like we are in scarcity mode, you know, just awful.

SPEAKER_03 9:15

Did you uh did you did you check out that uh Ed Zitron was on Prof. Markets?

SPEAKER_09 9:21

No, I haven't gotten the chance.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

It was it was a good interview, and was it Ed, like always, came with the receipts. I mean, it was yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 9:31

Yeah, people think that he's dicking around and he knows it. It's like that's what that when you sent me the interview when he was on the panel in Seattle. I was very annoyed by the other guy that was with him because it's like Ed knows this stuff, and Ed knew he wasn't gonna get in a throw-down battle with him on a Seattle stage, but he came with receipts, he was ready to respond, and the moderator kind of pushed them apart. She was like, Oh, time constraint.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

The host for the ho the host of uh Pro the Ed Elson who uh he uh he he agrees with him on a lot of the points. Oh, he does. I mean, yeah, he I mean he pushed back in like the you know in the right in the right places and needed a discussion like you're supposed to, but yeah, it's uh it was it was some really interesting. I was like, damn Ed. But yeah, both Eds did a great job.

SPEAKER_09 10:27

Um oh good. Okay, I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Public service announcement. What is it? Uh the Cinerama Dome continues to be closed in Hollywood. Um the Cinerama Dome, which is like uh a world famous, like if you don't know, it's a world famous uh movie theater. I used to see movies there all the time. It it it's gorgeous, it's huge, it's space agey looking. You know, it it is literally done. Um it is. Is it ever gonna open again? Well, the uh Indy Wire Brian Welk, he said the Cinerama Dome advocates take rare chance to put public pressure on own owners to reopen. It actually feels like Hollywood is dead. One participant said during the LA City hearing to apply for a liquor license for the historic venue. So I guess what they're trying to do is uh you know turn it more into like a uh one of those kind of experiences. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, which uh that's I mean that's that that that's a that's a draw for a lot of those places nowadays.

SPEAKER_09 11:40

Yeah, it is, it sure is.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

But uh everybody, uh, if you can do something, you know, if you if you're if you're in LA or uh, you know, and you can advocate or like lobby uh someone there to like get get things rolling and uh get the Centerama Dome going again.

SPEAKER_09 11:59

Well, you know, I'll look for a link to see if there's any sort of like uh place that people can put their names in um of encouragement, just kind of an a more official kind of list. I will look for that and have the links to it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah, it just makes it sad, you know. And then I texted this to my LA friends and they were like, Yeah, you you would not recognize Hollywood, that part of Hollywood right now. It's like it literally does feel like a ghost town. Really? But you know, yeah, there's just yeah, there's just been there's so much, so much exodus from um, you know, what's going on with the industry and uh everybody getting laid off, and there's you know, production work moving out of town, right? And that that affects everything.

SPEAKER_09 12:44

It does, yeah, it sure does. Oh, that's sad. Oh, I have one, so that's a sad one. I have one Shark Tank billionaire Kevin O'Leary says the two people fighting data centers in Utah are Chinese agents. Turns out it's just two local girls in Utah. They make a hilarious video calling him the fuck out.

SPEAKER_07 13:08

Okay, so do you want me to play the video? This guy, like I'm okay. I'm gonna play it for you.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Gabby, what are you doing? And why are who's paying you?

SPEAKER_05 13:21

Well, hi, hello. It's me, Gabby Finlinson. What am I doing? Apparently, we've reached the part of the Stratos data center journey where Kevin O'Leary goes on national Fox News to accuse us of being uh cells for the Chinese Communist Party.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Yeah, because at the end of the day, who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Which adversary would want that? There's only one, it's China. So what I think is happening, I got my guys to go a deep dig into the IP addresses. And here's what we found out. This is fascinating. We found two cells inside of Utah. Elevate strategies. Gabby Phillipson. Gabby, what are you doing? And why are who's paying you? So, what I'm doing right now is after getting this data, I'm calling out Gabby, operating in Utah.

SPEAKER_05 14:02

So, hi Kevin, we are Elevate Strategies. Um, this is Utah. You might not know it because Canada is where we live. Before we get to do anything too serious, this is the very scary, very intimidating man that is driving us. We are not taking the criticism of anyone who is wearing flip-flops and a suit on national television. Kevin, are you okay? But after sitting with this for a moment, we decided to take it as a compliment. Because, first of all, how are these men scared of us? Have you met us? Hi. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_04 14:39

I want a frantic audit of who's funding their platforms. Who isn't? So these are proxies for the Chinese government, is my argument. And if they're not, because I want them to be able to send their name to Gabby. Come out, come out wherever you are.

SPEAKER_05 14:50

Okay, Kevin. Mr. Wonderful's Nancy Drew, the little detective agency. How about it, brother? Because that the payment portal to Japan dynamics bills is somehow broken. As a reminder, we run democratic campaigns in the state of Utah. If we were in this to be making money, we would be doing literally anything else. And you should know that because your job is to give small business owners advice. You'd think that Kevin would understand the health state that is late-stage capitalism and consumerism that has led to you becoming a terrible, horrible billion. I think you get the idea.

SPEAKER_09 15:25

Aren't they heroes?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Oh my God. We need to book them immediately.

SPEAKER_09 15:30

I know. I think I'll reach out to them on TikTok.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Uh you you you you have to. Maybe because I'm not on, I'm not on TikTok, but yeah. I am.

SPEAKER_09 15:39

We like we are a serious cat. Well, I know we are, but I mean I'm no, no, I know personally you're not doing stuff with the account, but they are here wrote Santa Bell.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

You need you need, yeah, let's reach out to them and see if we can get them.

SPEAKER_08 15:54

They're like, I'm not taking him seriously. He's on national television with a business suit and flip-flops. Like they were just like coming at him.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

I think, and then I think he uh he's been on like some kind of a tour, I think, because I I saw that he was on like uh I don't, I don't, I barely know who the guy is. I I know he was in that dumb uh ping pong movie, and uh I I don't watch Shark Tank or and never did. So um, but uh I I he was on uh I think he was on Tucker Carlson too or something. Oh my god. He keeps with that, you know, yeah, he keeps that uh so it's a tour. Yeah, is this how we're spinning this now? Is that um building dinner data centers is how we're going to uh reinvigorate our electrical grid?

SPEAKER_09 16:40

Oh my god, it's awful.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Is that really where they're coming from with this? Like it's awful. Maybe like maybe fix the electrical grid because it needs to be fucking fixed, you know?

SPEAKER_09 16:51

We're like one baby step away from feel sorry for me, pity me. I'm a sad billionaire that just wants to build stuff. We're right there, like his wife. Like, he's a he's not a good man, and his wife was accused of uh being the driver of their boat and being drunk and killing somebody, and you know, they throw money on it and it's kind of disappeared from the ethers, but it's a true thing that happened a few years ago. I mean, these are not good humans, and here's two women in Utah that are like, we're just trying to save our state, save our environment. And this guy's coming after us, and that has to be his angle. It's a Chinese agent. I found two of them, and I love how quickly he's getting spanked in front of the world.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

I mean, it's just ridiculous, and I love the fact that they're they they're just like, okay, we'll come make a video and like uh call out the billionaire. I mean, everybody should be doing that.

SPEAKER_09 17:51

Yep, exactly. Good for them. Well, I'll do my homework. Uh, I'll have links to that in the show notes. If you're on TikTok, you can follow them and tell them to be on our show because that would be a fun conversation.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Yeah, pay attention out there, uh Tim Apple. And uh I know, Mr. Uh, Mr. Marky. Uh uh, we we count all your keystrokes now at Meta Zuckerberg.

SPEAKER_09 18:21

So creepy. It's so creepy. So a Santa Bell for them because they are heroes.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Oh, yeah, yeah. Hold on. I wouldn't with you on vacation. I didn't know if we were recording this week, so I had to reach for my bell. There you go.

SPEAKER_08 18:36

I had to reach for my bell. I'd reach for my belt. We should have to reach for your eggs, your powdered eggs. That was a few weeks ago, folks.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

It's on the uh iconic out of my doomhole. Let's see what we got here. Hold on, it's on my other doom hole.

unknown 18:52

All right.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Everyone at Musk versus Altman trial is using fancy butt cushions.

SPEAKER_08 19:02

This is fake. What's that? This has to be fake. Oh no, this is wired.com.

SPEAKER_09 19:09

I I got this from your link last night and I started reading it to Bryn and then Paywall, so I couldn't go there. Yeah, I mean you get the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

We'll see how far I can go. Paris Dave. The final stragglers testified on Wednesday. Not that it's not worth subscribing to Wired, which is a great magazine. It is, they're doing good work. I I honestly don't currently know if I have a subscription right now or not. I think I do because it didn't stop me. Uh, and I I usually subscribe. Uh, the final stragglers testified on Wednesday in the Musk v. Altman trial. The witnesses generated few waves, aside from the revelation that Microsoft has so far spent over 100 billion on its per partnership with OpenAI. Rather than focus on that, I wanted to bring you a candid observation that my colleague Maxwell Zef and I can't stop talking about. After spending nearly three weeks watching the trial, the courtroom is littered with butt cushions.

unknown 20:16

What?

SPEAKER_03 20:19

All right. Several of the hard wooden benches on the right side of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' courtroom are reserved for OpenAI and Microsoft attorneys, executives, and other members of the defense. About 10 people, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and general counsel Che Chang, have benefited from thick black cushions, the plushiest of them from the brand purple, $120 from Target that spare their butts from hours of spinning. Oh my god. Some cushions have rounded corners while others are square. Oh my god. On Wednesday, Chang even put one behind his back, a less common but not unprecedented move in the corners. OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife Anna have watched a considerable portion of the trial and have both been prolific users of pristine white pillows. Judging from the tags bursting from the seams, the pillows seem to be from the sleeping goods brand Coop, which sells a two-pack of alternative downfilled throw pillows for $35. Oh my God. On Wednesday, an OpenAI bodyguard carried a purple handbag into the courtroom with a pillow for each of the Brock ones. Anna gave her husband just a minute to suffer in pillowless oblivion before she discreetly passed one to him and then situated her own. I felt bad for OpenAI chief futurist Joshua. Uh Achiam, who later took Brockman's seat, but wasn't left with either of the pillows. Oh my God. Achium eventually did obtain one of the more standard black cushions. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Wires request.

SPEAKER_09 22:22

So uh oh my God. You know, but really, I think it was partly strategy, is like fine, they want to be here. We're gonna be comfortable so that we're not wiggling to get out of here. So it's like it's just such uh it's so perfect for Silicon Valley.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

It's it's such a bad move. I mean honestly, if uh uh you know it for them to just go, uh yeah, well, um uh our our butt is way too precious to sit on this bench in a courtroom as we decide the future of humanity and whether the robots are gonna kill us all.

SPEAKER_09 23:02

Maybe they're on special paleo diets and it's meant to muffle their farts.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

We're gonna need we're gonna need you. All right, we're gonna need you to it. It's like uh it's like they got an assistant and they were like uh yes, like like they're doing a coffee order. Okay, we're gonna need you to go to Target. We're gonna need you to buy like 14 of these uh these these 135 pillows, which okay, I'm sure that uh the bench is hard and it does suck to sit there, but I think that this is all.

SPEAKER_09 23:34

What if it was chat GPT? They're like, our our agent, our AI agent, you know, he's he's so empathetic to the human body that he knew that it would be like make our asses sore or butt muscles sore or butt bone sore.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

But Aldman guy, he'll he'll get on, he'll get on TV now and he'll be like, uh, yeah, well, in the future, um, you know, workers won't have to under we're not won't have to go through those conditions because uh, you know, it'll all be AI agents and uh you know they'll be unemployed, yeah. They'll be unemployed, but uh at least they won't have to sit on a hard bench.

SPEAKER_09 24:13

A hard bench because that's hard on the butt bones.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

That's hard on your butt bones. Oh my god, this is hilarious. Having like a uh having a comfortable doom hole or uh we need to make butt cushions with our logo on it. Well, they just don't take anything seriously. There's no accountability for these people, is the thing, you know. They're like uh they're like, oh, um, okay, you violated this and this and that, and uh, you know, we're gonna fine you two million dollars.

SPEAKER_09 24:43

Oh my god, those people don't give a shit. They don't. No, no, ah, so which bell do we ring for that?

SPEAKER_03 24:52

I mean, uh it was it was entertaining, but it was doom hall, doom many, many cushioned doom holes.

SPEAKER_09 25:05

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Atari bought Atari bought like the rights to an RPG classic called Wizardry, and uh, I don't really have a Doom Hole for that. I was just kind of like Atari's still around, they're still buying stuff.

SPEAKER_06 25:19

Oh my god, are we in Blade Runner future?

SPEAKER_09 25:23

Oh my goodness, that sounds really fun. Oh I already want to be on a pre-sale thing.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Do we want to talk about the monk thing?

SPEAKER_09 25:33

Yeah, I mean, uh, you mean the robot?

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Yeah, they let a they let a clanker become a monk. Um, I just seems stupid to me.

SPEAKER_09 25:43

I think so. I mean, I think that it I read the entire thing, and I think that it was what was interesting about it is that they try to find life in everything and find the soul and everything and relate to it as equals. And I have to push back and go, yeah, no, I think I can draw a line in the sand.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

I'm not I mean, I think I think we just did it. I think your takeaway is more important than reading the article, yeah. Because I was like, I don't I don't think these equate because they were like, Well, you know, rocks rocks are spiritual to us, and you know, and this and that. And I'm like, uh, it's not the same thing, guys. It isn't. No, I agree. The a rock is not a thing that's pretending to be a to be a human being, something else, yeah, and have emotions, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 26:32

Yeah, exactly. It doesn't have a rock is a rock, and it doesn't have billionaires being their promo team that are like, hey, this is the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Right. A tree is not pretending that it's a person, yeah. It's like, hey, I'm a tree. Yeah, no, I not like our not like our dogs who are convinced that they're people.

SPEAKER_09 26:52

And I'm convinced they're people, as far as I'm concerned, they are people. Oh, I know I miss Cooper.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_09 27:00

Cooper's in Tampa, I'm in Tampa, he's so vulnerable, and that's why we're tag teaming because then Doug will come out to Florida next week and do his graduation run with the guys and just like take him out to food because like I don't want to put Cooper in a little kennel, he's so old and vulnerable.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

No, I understand. I missed it. I don't like the board, I don't like the board mine either. Yeah, no, not that my vets aren't great, but it's just you know, it's no, they're great too.

SPEAKER_09 27:30

They love them, but it's like it's not my dogs.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Have never really been away from me for any significant amount of time. You know, they showed up during the pandemic, they don't know anything other than like me working from home and like me like being here, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09 27:45

It would break their heart, they would think you're giving them away.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

Yeah, and I I you know what honestly, I can't do that.

SPEAKER_09 27:52

I know that's how I feel. Like, I feel like I would have somebody house sit, maybe that I trust. That's like come, he gets to stay and we'll be back. I miss him. Dogs do have souls.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

What the fuck is vibe coding?

SPEAKER_09 28:07

I feel like we should have covered that in the wingo thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

I don't remember what the fuck it is.

SPEAKER_09 28:13

Wait, let me see what the definition is. Just a sec.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

Vibe coded apps are spilling user up. Hi Biggie of my dog, I guess the trash truck came. Vibe coded apps are spilling users' personal information directly into the maw of greedy hackers. All right, guess which publication this is from? Futurism. Futurism. Hey, John Christian. All right, new to the welcome, John. Welcome, John. I will try to keep my commentary to a minimum uh uh as I can be respectful, and it will be very respectful because we love futurism. Artificial intelligence has torn through many industries since the debut of Chat GPT in 2022. But there, this is how I know that we're in hell because you know what I mean. This is going on now for what, like uh how many years is that? What almost four years?

unknown 29:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

We're in hell. Yeah, we're there's probably no single area where it's had a clearer material impact than software development. Programmers running the gamut from experienced to novice have embraced the tech using chat box and specialty tools. See uh previous Doom holes to see how that normally works out.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

To quickly generate code from natural language prompts. Oh, okay. Vibe coding, as it's come to be known, lets almost anyone churn out entire apps in little time, even if they have little or no technical chops. Got it. So you basically uh yeah, you give the call.

SPEAKER_09 30:01

You're like, I want a thing that does this. I'm giving you the general vibe, the gist. The gist is the word I would have used.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

On a certain level, you have to admit, that's pretty cool. But as we're learning time and again, it also has distinct downsides. And distinct downsides, they have a link to uh basically everything you've gone wrong with trying to vibe code something, which is so great. Thank you, John. Yeah, John, good job. Good job. Uh, one particularly glaring drawback is that a lot of vibe coded software is now being deployed with gaping security flaws. Oh my, of course it is. In the latest sign that we may be veering into an AI-enabled hack pocalyp. Oh my god, and this is awesome. I like this new name. AI-enabled hack pocalypse.

SPEAKER_08 30:56

That's fantastic. Impressed. He probably got his job by just writing this and sending it into them.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

I mean, I would uh we I could probably get a job with futurism if I just like sent them like a cool thing like that. If I just tweeted them, you know. Yeah, I I couldn't. I'm a crazy person. They wouldn't hunt. A fascinating new wired story cover. Uh yeah, but I'm not gonna go out and like uh yeah, I'm not gonna go out and like you know, research and like work the that's what I'm here for. Uh you know, I'm not gonna wander around the waterfront with a fucking spiral notebook writing shit down.

SPEAKER_10 31:37

Is there a waterfront where you're at a fucking fedora on? It's it's a scary forest and a year out.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

Oh no, we got scary boat launches. Yeah, don't worry. Alligator infested.

SPEAKER_08 31:51

Oh god, ghost infested.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Yeah, it looks like a goddamn off-week episode of Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_09 31:58

Mimic infested. Did you see the email this morning from Rachel? Like, I need this contest.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Yeah, do you know what? But when they when when you guys send me stuff from uh I I guess that I guess how they combat me not signing up for Twitter is that it doesn't play the audio for me.

SPEAKER_09 32:16

It doesn't. No, um it's creepy.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Just watching it.

SPEAKER_09 32:22

I was just like woman's voice is all gurgly. It's like now I'll find it somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

It'll be on YouTube or something. Uh yeah. So anyway, I'm a shitty reporter.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Uh I'm not gonna is a good report. Hey, shey, what's with that AI? What's the crackers with that AI? See?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

I watched too much fucking film noir. A fascinating new web story covers research by a cybersecurity firm called Red Access that found sprawling privacy issues in vibe-coded apps.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

What's with that vibe-coded see? The firm examined thousands of web apps created with the vibe coding platforms lovable, replit, base 44, and netlify. I haven't heard of any of that stuff, which is like made-up words. I didn't even know what the fuck vibe coding was. Yeah, typical uh Silicon Valley uh speech. Let's spell a thing weird and like uh that's what we'll call our thing, and that's a neat thing. Uh-huh. What it found was to put it lightly, not good. 5,000 of them had virtually no security or authentication authentication of any kind. Wow. And a full 40% exposed users' sensitive data from medical and financial info to corporate documents and logs of ostensibly private chatbot conversations. Oh my god. The end result is that organizations are actually leaking private data through vibe coding applications, red access code founder Dor Zav told Wired. Uh, this is one of the biggest events ever where people are exposing corporate or other sensitive information to anyone in the world. Jeez, uh, Russia thanks you, North Korea. Thanks you.

SPEAKER_08 34:40

Yeah, China thanks you. Probably even Canada at this point. We've made kind of an enemy of them.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

Canada thanks you.

SPEAKER_08 34:49

And they really and they say thank you so much in Canada because they're so polite.

SPEAKER_03 34:55

The vibe coding platform's response to the embarrassing revelations left something to be desired. Netlify ignored it completely.

SPEAKER_11 35:06

What do you mean, vibe coding? That's not a thing. What do you mean, security breach? Yeah, what do you mean about that?

SPEAKER_03 35:12

See, uh, while the other platforms basically deflected onto users, saying they should have better secured their work before putting into the world.

SPEAKER_10 35:24

Oh, they just victim shame. Oh no, now the vibe code is turned into a victim shame.

SPEAKER_08 35:30

We're victim shaming now. Yes, that's awesome. Just blame it on the audience.

SPEAKER_09 35:36

Oh my god, it was just for shits and giggles, isn't that what CoPilot said?

SPEAKER_03 35:43

You're just too stupid to use our app. Oh yeah. We're treating this as an ongoing matter. A lovable spokesperson told Wired. It's also worth noting that lovable gives builders the tools to build securely, but how an app is configured is ultimately the creator's responsibility. Oh my God. On a certain level, they're right. But these are the companies claiming that creating software is now as simple as describing it to an AI bot. The reality is that AI remains extremely imperfect. So the resulting code is going to have issues that only an experienced human developer or security expert would be able to identify. And these apps fundamentally are the are in the market of putting these people out of business. Jeez. Anyone from our company at any moment can generate an app. And this is not going from your company at any moment, can generate an app. And this is not going through any development cycle or any security check. Zivy acquired people can just start using it in production without asking anyone, and they do. Jeez, John Christian, everybody. I'm the executive editor at Futurism. Oh, he's the executive editor. Oh my god. Executive, yes, sir. Very nice. Uh, assigning editing and reporting on anything from artificial intelligence and space exploration to the personalities shaping the tech sector.

SPEAKER_09 37:26

Wow, I don't know he's amazing. That's a bell. Give a bell for that.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

I don't know what you give for that, but this is for uh all those dumb vibe coding things. This is not for you, John Christian. Doom hole.

SPEAKER_09 37:41

Okay. Uh since you don't get sound, I'm gonna play for you the video. Sting said something that really stuck with user camas. Um yeah, Sting did on CBS. Yep, on CBS Sunday morning, he said this all of us are in danger of losing our work to AI. Wait a second, I'm gonna let Sting say it for himself. He's gonna have a cameo on our show.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

All of us are in danger of losing our work to AI. All of us. Everyone, uh whether you're an artist or a journalist or a lawyer. Your job could be replaced by this technology that none of us quite understand with uh with leading to so uh the played method really is the importance of uh community, the importance of supporting uh the people next to you. Um and I I believe that very strongly. I think community will it's the only thing that will save us, apparently.

SPEAKER_09 38:53

Yeah, yeah, I think he's right about that.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Not not trying to talk out of school here, but maybe uh someone like uh Demi Moore who uh is talking about making friends with clankers at Can this week.

SPEAKER_09 39:08

Uh I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Maybe she should uh hang out with Sting.

SPEAKER_09 39:14

Yeah, I think so too. I saw that. That was really disconcerting.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

It just makes you wonder like, are who are they getting paid for that influence? Of course they are.

SPEAKER_09 39:26

Because they were already they already admitted what we covered that a couple weeks ago, that they were um giving money to TikTok users to influence, make it seem like they use AI and it's the greatest thing ever.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Yeah, totally. That's the I mean the influencer culture is is is replacing uh traditional journalism.

SPEAKER_09 39:48

So we're gonna have this McCarthy list of all the actors that have been we suspect of being bought and paid for. Right now it's Demi Moore. I think Ann Hathaway came out and said, This is the future, we need to embrace it. Um, is that the it's like Ann, isn't that her name? She's like from Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

Yeah, I know I haven't heard her say anything about it, but I mean, I it's I I I feel like uh and you know, honestly, I don't know, but I also have heard from people that would know that um a lot of them are getting paid and view this as and I mean, you know, honestly, they might be right that this is an inevitability in the industry, and the time to like get paid and you know, and and set up where um they get paid when their image or their their likeness or their voice or whatever is used, you know, maybe that's a time to do it now. So I mean, there's two sides of the discussion. I would just like to see more uh Sarah Connoring going on, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:01

You know, sting. Yeah, more sting, more stinging, and also I love that he's like, This is the thing. We don't really a lot of us don't even understand it completely, but it's a good time to, and he gives us the solution, lean into community, really connect one-on-one with actual people, actual things, and and really support in that way. And I think that, you know, no matter what the crisis is, um, you know, I heard a person on a podcast today call it the omni crisis because they're always rolling out crises, you know, it's the hantivirus, it's and then people didn't fall for that. It's the this, it's the that. He called it the omni crisis, and I think AI, we can wrap that up in this omni crisis. And I think Sting reminded us of the path to sanity, at least, at the very least, is taking care of our neighbors. And like if we're concerned about the future of food prices, buy a little more and stock it away so you could maybe share it with a neighbor if it comes to that. Um, if you have land, have some chickens if you're open to it, um, and you have the space for it, or grow a couple bags of potatoes. I'm I'm gonna do that in Denver when I get back. Um, I saw this TikTok guy, and he just got potting soil, like healthy potting soil, and he put some yellow potatoes in there and they just grew, and it was pretty easy to harvest.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

And I'm like, When I got when I when I got into farming a couple of years ago, I had tons of links, I'll send you.

SPEAKER_09 42:38

But potatoes are easy.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

How to build a potato tower and all kinds of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 42:42

Yeah. So I'm just like, I'm gonna do the bare minimum, but just have a little bit of something that I could easily give away, even if it's to our food bank down the street that never really has fresh stuff. They always have canned and preserved stuff, but they need some fresh stuff, so sure. Sting I mean, yeah, came with the goods. That's a Santa Bell.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. I mean, uh I'll always give Sting props. That dude, he he's always uh he's always said what he what he felt, and uh he he he's he's always uh screamed integrity to me. That's why I've always been a fan.

SPEAKER_09 43:25

Yeah, um yeah, no, I he he's a nice man. I've we met him in real life. I don't know if I ever told you that story, but we were staying at the same hotel. It was right after the Grammys. I mean, my kids were little, and we were staying at the same hotel. He was in a big bungalow, a fancy bungalow. We were just in the hotel, and um he gave us a smile and a nod as my girls came running past him as he was going to yoga class and they had all their art supplies. And then, as it was, we went off property to a Thai restaurant. And we were eating food, and it was um, I think Nora was in like third grade or fourth grade or fifth grade, and they were asking the class about you know what they thought about the presidential election that year, and uh what what it should take to be a candidate, and you know what the laws were. And Nora was like, I think it's a dumb law to say you have to be um born in this country to run for president. And what was so funny is Sting was right next to us eating his food by himself, and um and Doug asked a question, you know, to dig down is like, okay, what? So why do you say that? Well, if our country puts you through a citizenship kind of rigmarole and it says you're good enough to be a citizen, then you're good enough to be president. And Sting was like ear to ear smiling. So then when he went to pay his bill, we were still there. And um, when he went to pay his bill, the man came over and he quietly goes, um, here can you know, quietly whispered something. I think Sting assumed he wanted his autograph. And he goes, Oh, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_06 45:05

And he goes, No, your card was declined because he'd been like he would have been in LA the night before, and then here he is in life. Right. He goes, Okay, run this one. But he was so gracious.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

I I have so I have some celebrity card decline stories too. It happens. That's like the sweetest thing, exactly. And they're yeah, it's the and and they're not bad stories, they're always cool about it. They're like, Oh, yeah, here, put it on this one, you know.

SPEAKER_09 45:34

Yeah, exactly. Uh, so I don't know. Maybe that's where we ended. It doesn't feel so doomy when we end with sting.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

I mean, yeah, when like you know, more stories about sting being cool, back in the world, be fully doomy, you know.

SPEAKER_09 45:49

Exactly. All right. Well, uh go. Are you gonna what are you gonna do today? You gotta do stuff with the dogs, you gotta do work. I mean, this is Friday.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

You now that you've reminded me how heavy my schedule is next week, I'm probably gonna need rest. Yeah, I'm probably gonna take it easy over the week.

SPEAKER_09 46:07

That's a lot. I know. Yeah, because I I'm trying to think. We have two interviews. Brian Kukin is wonderful, he'll keep it right in an hour. He's Reiki. He does, I mean, he's a numerologist, so he's gonna look at the numerology of AI.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

Ads coming up, all right. Good.

SPEAKER_09 46:26

I know, and then we have another one. Is oh, it's with our author friend from Book Trope next week, I think. Too. I think we oh Terry, yeah. I think we have him on Thursday.

SPEAKER_03 46:38

Terry Persa.

SPEAKER_09 46:39

Yep. I can't wait. So yeah, go rest. That's gonna be awesome, rest your voice, drink lemon water.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Oh, I I'll I'll I'll I'll be I'll rally. I'll be okay. I'll be okay.

SPEAKER_09 46:51

You just gotta rest this weekend, yeah. All right, guys. Well, thanks for listening. As always, we love you.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

Ah clankers, fucking clinkers, fucking clinkers.