For Goodness Sakes! That's A Load Of Crap.

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: "For Goodness Sakes! That's A Load Of Crap." Release Date: January 23, 2025 Host: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

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I. Introduction and Setting the Stage

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty dive into a host of compelling topics ranging from high-profile conflicts in the tech and political spheres to pressing environmental issues and the biases inherent in artificial intelligence systems.

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II. Elon Musk vs. President Trump: The AI Funding Showdown

The episode opens with a heated discussion about the strained relationship between Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump concerning a significant artificial intelligence (AI) funding initiative.

• Trump's AI Plan: President Trump announced a $500 billion AI project aimed at advancing artificial intelligence technologies.

• Musk's Criticism: Musk, initially a strong ally, publicly criticized the project, stating, "the money isn't there" (00:23), casting doubt on the feasibility of Trump's ambitious plan.

• White House Dynamics: The White House appeared to side with Trump over Musk, with Joe Getty speculating, "Does the media love the idea of perhaps being able to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk? Because it's so scary" (00:53).

• Potential Rift: Jack Armstrong expressed skepticism about the longevity of their alliance, stating, "I don't know. I'm not as optimistic. I just wonder how long it can last" (00:53).

• Axios Headline Reference: Armstrong referenced an Axios headline, "America doesn't have a king, but we're dancing closer to King Like Power" (01:27), highlighting the dominance of figures like Trump and Musk in shaping national policies.

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III. Elon Musk's Conflicts with Peers: Sam Altman and Vivek Ramaswamy

The conversation transitions to Elon Musk's disputes with other influential figures in the tech and political arenas.

• Conflict with Sam Altman:

  • AI Data Center Announcement: Musk criticized a major announcement by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle regarding the construction of colossal data centers, declaring it "fake" (06:20) shortly after Trump lauded the initiative.

  • Altman's Response: Sam Altman initially took a conciliatory tone but later refuted Musk's claims, emphasizing the progress and urging Musk to "put America first" (05:40).

  • Escalation on Platform X: The disagreement intensified on Musk's social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), with Musk labeling Altman as a "swindler" and sharing disparaging images suggesting fraudulent activities behind the AI projects (06:46).

• Conflict with Vivek Ramaswamy:

  • Governorship Aspirations: Musk's differences with Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for Governor of Ohio, were discussed, focusing on their divergent approaches to spending and regulation.

  • Personalities Clashing: The hosts noted the challenge when two dominant personalities, both highly successful and opinionated, share the same space, leading to inevitable friction (07:34).

• Alpha-Dog Dynamics:

  • Joe Getty elaborated on the complexities of having two "alpha" individuals in the same room, reflecting on personal experiences where dominant personalities create tense environments (08:33).

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IV. The Dynamics of Alpha-Dog Interactions in High-Power Individuals

Armstrong and Getty explored the broader implications of power dynamics when two dominant figures interact, often leading to conflicts and power struggles.

• Power Struggles in Leadership:

  • Jack Armstrong shared anecdotes about the necessity of having trusted advisors to provide honest feedback, emphasizing the importance of allies who can challenge leaders constructively (10:37).

  • Joe Getty compared this to his experience in various rooms dominated by singular strong personalities, highlighting the discomfort and challenges that arise when two such individuals coexist (09:20, 09:45).

• Impact on Organizations:

  • The hosts discussed how power struggles can destabilize organizations, citing examples of leaders who fail to manage their egos and assertiveness, ultimately leading to conflicts that hinder progress (11:13).

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V. Wildfires in Los Angeles: Expert Insights

Shifting focus to environmental concerns, Armstrong and Getty provided a detailed analysis of recent wildfires devastating the Los Angeles area, featuring insights from meteorologist Rick Dickert.

• Current Fire Situation:

  • Two new fires broke out near the Getty Center Museum and the Angeles National Forest, prompting evacuation warnings and mobilizing over 4,000 firefighters (17:03).

  • Rick Dickert explained, "95% of fires, whether they are structured fires or wildland fires, are produced by man" (19:07), attributing the severity of the wildfires to a combination of human-induced ignitions and exacerbating weather conditions.

• Weather Conditions and Forecast:

  • The region is experiencing red flag warnings due to high winds, dry vegetation, and low humidity, which facilitate the rapid spread of fires (18:04).

  • Good news comes with an impending shift in weather patterns. By Saturday, an onshore flow will bring increased humidity and rainfall, which Rick hopes will help contain the fires and mitigate further spread (20:05).

• Long-Term Implications:

  • The lack of significant rainfall since last spring, followed by two years of abundant precipitation, has created an environment ripe for wildfires, with excess vegetation serving as fuel (20:01).

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VI. AI Political Bias: Research Analysis by David Rosado

A significant portion of the episode delved into the political biases present in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, based on research conducted by David Rosado.

• Study Overview:

  • Rosado's research employed four methods to assess political bias in AI-generated text, comparing it with the language of Democrat and Republican legislators, policy recommendations, sentiment toward political figures, and responses to political quizzes (25:13).

• Findings:

  • Language Usage: LLMs are more likely to use terms commonly associated with U.S. Democratic Congress members, focusing on topics like "criminal justice, public service, economic development, COVID pandemic" versus right-leaning issues like job creation and border security (29:03).

  • Policy Recommendations: When generating policy proposals, LLMs tend to lean far left, favoring progressive initiatives over conservative ones (29:09).

  • Sentiment Analysis: AI systems display more favorable language towards left-leaning public figures compared to their right-leaning counterparts (31:35).

  • Political Quizzes: Responses to political orientation tests consistently diagnose LLMs as leaning left (31:35).

• Discussion:

  • Intentional vs. Unintentional Bias: Joe Getty expressed skepticism that LLMs are programmed to be liberal, suggesting instead that inherent biases emerge from the training data and the predominantly liberal backgrounds of developers (30:35, 33:31).

  • Impact of Training Data: The models are trained on vast amounts of internet content, including articles, social media, and academic papers, which may inherently carry left-leaning biases due to the sources (32:00).

  • Human Influence: Fine-tuning by human trainers, who may unconsciously inject their own biases, further amplifies the political leanings of these AI systems (33:48).

• Implications:

  • The potential for AI systems to exhibit political biases poses challenges for their deployment in unbiased information dissemination and decision-making processes. The hosts debated the significance of these biases and their consequences for the future of AI interactions (34:11).

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VII. Additional Stories and Closing Remarks

• Mark Zuckerberg at Inauguration:

  • Jack Armstrong recounted an incident where Mark Zuckerberg was seen leering at Lauren Sanchez during the inauguration, prompting a humorous critique from a "horny Bill Clinton" character (12:17).

• Social Dynamics and Personal Anecdotes:

  • The hosts shared personal stories about workplace dynamics, particularly involving attractive individuals and the resulting tensions when new personalities enter established social structures (13:02).

• Environmental Commentary:

  • Discussions touched on the environmental impact of wildfires, referencing a study that found smoke from wildfires can negate years of carbon reduction efforts, highlighting the fragility of environmental progress in the face of natural disasters (26:07).

• Closing Statements:

  • Armstrong and Getty wrapped up the episode by emphasizing the importance of understanding and mitigating AI biases, the ongoing challenges of environmental disasters, and the intricate power dynamics among influential figures. They encouraged listeners to subscribe to their podcast for more in-depth discussions and analyses (35:17).

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Joe Getty: "Does the media love the idea of perhaps being able to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk? Because it's so scary" (00:53).

• Jack Armstrong: "For goodness. They say that's a load of crap" (00:53).

• Rick Dickert: "There is a lot of things that contribute to what we've seen here in Southern California over the last month. The weather doesn't cause the fire. 95% of fires are produced by man" (19:07).

• David Rosado (Research Summary): "LLMs are more likely to use terms that are markedly used by U.S. Democratic Congress members" (29:03).

• Joe Getty: "I don't think it's part of his being. It would be too weird and uncomfortable for him" (04:00).

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Conclusion

In "For Goodness Sakes! That's A Load Of Crap," Armstrong and Getty navigate through intricate discussions on the volatility of high-profile relationships in the tech and political landscapes, the pressing threat of wildfires exacerbated by climatic conditions, and the inherent political biases within AI systems. Their engaging dialogue, punctuated by personal anecdotes and expert insights, offers listeners a comprehensive overview of the challenges and dynamics shaping contemporary society.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Elon Musk, who has been at President Trump's side, seen in the West Wing now speaking out against Trump's plan. Trump announcing a $500 billion AR artificial intelligence project. Musk now saying the money isn't there. The White House now saying, listen to Trump, not Musk. Oh, does the media love the idea of perhaps being able to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk? Because it's so scary. I saw a headline about that today, something about the oligarchy or whatever the hell.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, for goodness. They say that's a load of crap. And honestly, and it's funny, I was listening to another podcast. Turns out there is another one. I've had it shut down by Trump because ours should be the only one. But. And the question they were asking a panel, guys, was, how long do you think before there's a rift between Trump and Elon? Two Alpha dogs is too many in the same room and they're like, oh, not for a long time, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. I'm not as optimistic. I just wonder how long it can last.

[Joe Getty]

Axios headline today. America doesn't have a king, but we're dancing closer to King Like Power. And they get into Trump and Elon running the world together.

[Jack Armstrong]

Dancing close to King like Power is the title of my new electronica album, by the way, coming out Friday. That's really exciting.

[Joe Getty]

It drops Friday.

[Jack Armstrong]

It drops Friday night.

[Joe Getty]

Exactly. Duh. What was I going to say? I know Elon, he alpha.

[Katie]

I don't.

[Joe Getty]

I don't even know what that term means anymore. But Elon seems to let things roll off him because he. He can, I mean, say whatever you want. I'm the world's richest man by, like.

[Jack Armstrong]

Double exactly how you hurt me with your scathing words. Yeah, exactly. So there are a couple of really interesting Elon related conflicts, though. The fact that he poo pooed the big announcement by OpenAI and SoftBank and Oracle, like an hour after Trump was touting it as a wonderful, wonderful thing. That's not cool in any organization.

[Joe Getty]

I think it's part of his autism spectrum thing. He just. He doesn't. He does because I deal with this on a regular basis. He doesn't get regular communication flow. He doesn't get the. What is the right term, both physical and verbal signals that most people understand and get people on the spectrum oftentimes don't understand. And I think he's one of those people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. That there's some truth to that. I think how much is impossible to know from a distance, but I also think there is a bit of an element of. We're talking business and finance and technology. With all due respect, Mr. Hotel and Golf Course Builder, I'm the best in the world. World at this. So you don't tell me what to say and what not to say about business and technology. Well, you do got to believe there's some element of that.

[Joe Getty]

Well, then he's. Then he shouldn't have that job. Because you serve at the pleasure of the president. The president's the boss. Marco Rubio is not going to agree with all of Trump's foreign policy decisions, but you either resign or you carry out the boss's desires.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. You've explained exactly why I believe what I believe that it's gonna crack up soon.

[Joe Getty]

So you don't think he's going to go along with the boss the way Marco Rubio probably is?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't think he can. I don't. I don't think it's part of his being. I don't. It would be too weird and uncomfortable for him. But anyway, I hope they do wonderful work while they're going at it. And I want to talk about the.

[Joe Getty]

For the next 48 hours to four years.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. I don't know. It's. It's. It's fire. It's oil and water, though not oil and water. It's tea and whatever the end is.

[Joe Getty]

Platinum and gold might be a better way to go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. But something explosive. Anyway. Oh. So getting back to Elon Musk versus Sam Altman, the cat fight. This is where it gets really. Because Elon Musk said of the giant data center announcement, they don't have the money. Uh, he was saying they have a fraction of the money they're talking about. This is this. They're. They're way over selling this thing again, like an hour and a half after the president had just touted it. Um, Trump said, this will include the construction of colossal data centers. Massive structures. These buildings, big, beautiful buildings are going to employ a lot of people. And then Elon says, well, he said, essentially what I said, they don't have a fraction of the money they're gonna need. Um. So his comments set off a war of words on his own media platform X. Altman initially sounded a conciliatory note, saying, I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the Most inspiring entrepreneur of our time. And then he later posted that Musk's comments about SoftBank's funding were wrong. The first data center is already underway and quote, I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first.

[Joe Getty]

Whoa.

[Jack Armstrong]

Musk fired back.

[Joe Getty]

That was all part of the same post. Or is that different post?

[Jack Armstrong]

That was a little later.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, okay. So, okay, because I was gonna say you can't start with the handy and then immediately jump to that, but they're different. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, so that was later. Musk fired back with a string of posts. Wednesday, he repeated criticisms Vaultman, Open AI saying it's fake to one user's tweet citing the Stargate announcement. The Stargate announcement tweet. Elon Musk said it's fake. This is two days or a day after the President touted it as being wonderful.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, I'm completely in your camp now. It's going to crack up. There's no way.

[Jack Armstrong]

Another tweet saying Sam is a swindler.

[Joe Getty]

All right, well, that's too bad. I'm not happy about this. I usually am happy about this sort of thing. Cause I like. I like rich, powerful, famous people at each other, but I don't like this one. I'd rather these people could work together.

[Jack Armstrong]

Musk also retweeted a post showing a photo of what appeared to be a drug pipe and a baggie of powder. Under the caption, leaked image of the research tool OpenAI used to come up with her $500 billion number for Stargate.

[Joe Getty]

That's funny. Yes, that's pretty funny. God, the. The. The level of. You know, it's a coarse term, but the level of no Fs to give you have when you're the world's richest man is something nobody's ever seen before. You just shout out your thoughts about everything on a regular basis.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, clearly. Clearly true. So a little more technology, government and cat fighting that I found interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Then I've got, like, the important scientific thing. Leaks are beginning to leak about the. Excuse me. The conflict between Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in Doge. The COVID story being, hey, I'm going to run for governor of Ohio. It's going to take my time. And I guess Elon was more about cutting spending. Vivek was more about cutting regulations. Honestly, it's tough to pick a favorite there. They're both huge priorities.

[Joe Getty]

You Got peanut butter in my chocolate. Why can't, why can't they fit together?

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. But some of the leaks are saying, though the claim is there was no hard feelings. The leaks are saying that, yeah, every meeting you have, Vivek comes in and he weighs in with strong opinions on everything and the guy's just obnoxious.

[Joe Getty]

He doesn't seem like that kind of guy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wait, yeah, I know that, that rapid fire of hyper confident manner of speaking that he has. Yeah, look, he's a, he's a very, very bright guy and has been very successful. He's very rich, he's worth listening to, but man, he's hard to take.

[Joe Getty]

You know, it's interesting. I've only known a handful of people like this in my life that I've ever like actually got to be in meetings with or whatever. But if you ever have, you know, I mean, they, they, they dominate the room and I mean, they, they feel like they should, they feel like they need to, and usually nobody ever says anything to them. I've never been in a room where there's two of them. I don't know what that would be like. I've been in plenty of rooms where there's one of them. And everybody has to sit there and listen to them go on and they say some stuff that's clearly BS and they tell you boring stories, but everybody just nods and laughs because they're the big dog. And I've been in lots, but I've never been in a room where there's two of those people. And I don't know what that would look like. And I'm sure Elon and Vivek was one of those situations and that was.

[Jack Armstrong]

One of the other leaks that it was really starting to annoy Elon.

[Joe Getty]

Well, especially if you've been that way your whole life, every meeting you're in, little by little over your life you got used to. Everybody sits there and listens to you and is amazed by your stories and laughs at your jokes. And then all of a sudden you're in a room where somebody's like, no, my stories and jokes are good. Your suck. I mean, that's gotta be quite shocking to those people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. I was chatting with a friend who was a CEO of a company and retired. He had a very successful business career. And I was talking about a function we were at where somebody was very long winded, very, I mean, like everybody was just praying to get on with it.

[Joe Getty]

Die already.

[Jack Armstrong]

That per. It was not a funeral. And I'm being vague. Because these are all very nice people. But the person had a career where people had to listen to them. And I was saying there's an enormous contrast between somebody who for an entire career had people who had to listen to them and somebody like me who if I'm boring or whatever, my career goes away instantly.

[Joe Getty]

People turn you off and.

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. And my friend said, yeah, that's the one thing I miss about being a CEO. Yep. Every joke I told was hilarious, every speech I made was brilliant. Everything I said was riveting. Funny how that ends. And yeah, yeah, that's a danger. You've got to have a wife or a buddy or a loyal assistant who's going to call you on your ass. I mean, that's like the best thing you can have if you're in a position of power, isn't it?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if that happens very often.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a rare relationship.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Got to be handled carefully. Anyway, the thing I was going to get to, but I don't want to rush through it, maybe we can do it next or a little later on in the hour is an absolutely terrific research scientist who has been studying various topics, AI related and publishing really interesting takes on them. Did a big study of the bias, the political bias in AI systems that we've all kind of heard about and seen examples of. The takeaway is, there's just no denying it at this point. Some of the particulars are really interesting.

[Joe Getty]

The alpha, it's Beyond Alpha, Vivek vs Elon thing, remind me. And this is Katie. I want you to be around for this next segment. This story, this is probably a misogynist story of a female version of this that I witnessed one time.

[Jack Armstrong]

He's a pig. Katie. None of us like that is pretty interesting.

[Joe Getty]

So stick around for that. Coming up, Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Speaking of the inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg sat next to Lauren Sanchez and was caught. Yeah, he was caught leering at her ample bosom, prompting a near by and very horny Bill Clinton to say, what an amateur.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know about the punchline. That was an interesting thing that happened. Of course, she was wearing a. Well, as Katie keeps pointing out, she was wearing underwear. She was wearing lingerie under her suit.

[Jack Armstrong]

Blame that harlot Madonna.

[Joe Getty]

So getting to this story and introducing underwear is outerwear.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's disgusting.

[Joe Getty]

I'm a little uncomfortable with this story because we were just talking about how Elon and Vivek maybe couldn't get along because when do two people, Two, two people. I won't say, guys, two. Two people that are that successful ever end up in the same room as each other. Wait a second. People always look at me all the time in a room. Why are people looking at you? You know, neither one of them probably run in that very often. And just. And it's also like I was doing this the other day walking down the street. I was walking, watching a couple of other dogs. Somebody was walking with their dog and as many as other dog. And just the immediate, you know, some dogs pass no problem. Some dogs, they just, they. The energy. I don't know what it is. Nobody knows what it is. It's interesting. It's the alpha, whatever it is experienced this one time with women. And I hate the fact that this is about looks and not about like power and intelligence because it makes it seem like I think it only can be about looks. But in this case, it was about looks. So I worked at a radio station and the. Reese. This is many years ago. Gladys. I worked at a radio station. Oh, Gladys is Gladys. Gladys has a. Is getting eye surgery today. Right. So she can't be here. I worked at a radio station and the receptionist was a hottie. And she was like the only hottie in the building. It's very small radio station. And she had, you know, so that was her turf. And she was the flirted with people. Everybody paid attention to her. Everybody laughed at her jokes the way you. You know, because she was the hottie. Well, we got an intern for a while who was younger and hotter or as hot. And. And immediately, I mean, it was like you could see sparks fly off these two people. It was like the dogs walking down the streets. Like, just immediately. It was observable to me as the program director of that radio station. And it played out for months. Oh, man.

[Jack Armstrong]

Immediate hostility, huh?

[Joe Getty]

Just. Yeah, just immediate. Wait a second. Just like I was saying with Elon and Vivek. Why is everybody looking at her? Everybody always looks at me. And I think that other girl was having a little of why is anybody looking at her? People always look at me and just. They hadn't experienced that before. Does that ring a bell, Katie, or am I just a misogynist? No, well, both different questions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, wait a minute. Yeah, false choice.

[Joe Getty]

That sounds like a battle of the egos thing there.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure.

[Joe Getty]

But it's. If you are the one everybody looks at and then all of a sudden people are looking at someone else. It's got a register in some level of your br. I would think. Yeah, I could see how that would sting A little. You're like the has been hot chick.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's, it's all status. However you get your status within the, the organization or the society, the mini society you're in. If you're the left handed pitcher on the Yankees and they bring in, you know, Doug Kershaw or whatever, Clayton Kershaw or whomever, some other greater left handed pitcher that, that hurts, that burns just in any, you know, society, I think.

[Joe Getty]

I doubt Elon was bothered much, but I can see how Vivek hadn't run into that situation in quite some time where somebody else was getting all the attention and then people were listening to him, the other guy more than him. Elon is so dense. And then just going back to how Vivek was during like the debates and whatnot. How insufferable he was. Yeah, he's hard to take.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Incredibly bright guy, but so smug. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Elon has the option always. If you're annoying me, gets out his checkbook. What's your company worth? Okay. $40 billion. That's my company. Now get out of here. I will fire you. I don't want to talk to you anymore. Yeah, got the sparks flying off of these two women. It was just amazing. You two work it out. Bite each other or urinate on it. Smell it, do whatever it is. You got to work out some sort of pecking order, you know, urinate on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

As a non misogynist I suggest we settle this the old fashioned way. In a tub full of jello.

[Joe Getty]

No, the receptionist was my girlfriend so I had to keep my mouth shut completely about the whole thing. But it was just very, very tense, very tense around there for a while.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

We got a new fire in the LA area. The weather is going to be really bad today again and we're going to talk to favorite meteorologist of us of ours is going to tell us about the conditions and all that sort of thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg. New fire breaking out in Los angeles along the 405 freeway near the Getty center museum prompting evacuation warnings in parts of Bel Air. Flames and embers shooting up the hillside. That is more than 4,000 firefighters raced to battle the quick moving Hughes fire just north of Los Angeles.

[Joe Getty]

How near the Getty Museum? That would be a tragedy obviously. And I just, I saw some of the footage last night watching the news and there are an awful lot of neighborhoods with a lot of houses nearby.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Multiple new fires. Not that shocking is the dry conditions continue and the winds are whipping. We're joined by Rick Dickert, AMS certified broadcast meteorologist, long time presence in Southern California news and weather. Rick, it's a pleasure to have you back again. How are you?

[Rick Dickert]

Thank you Jack and Joe again. We are, we're looking at a really dangerous 24 hours. We need to get through these 24 hours with more high wind tinder, dry vegetation, very low humidity values. The red flag warnings continue and you mentioned the two new fires. Thankfully the fire that broke out along the 405 near the Getty center, that has pretty much been contained. No structures were damaged or burned that have a handle on that. The Hughes fire, a much larger fire north of that location in Northern LA county in the Angeles National Forest. That too having burned over thousand acres, thankfully has not burned a structure yet that is burning more up in the forest land away from any neighborhoods.

[Joe Getty]

The number of acres, how many acres did you say it was?

[Rick Dickert]

Over 10,000 with a huge fire. The supposed fire along the 405 was, was relatively small compared.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I saw that. I saw the stat where it was 5,000 acres in like an hour or two, something like that. That's just stunning. And it's hard to imagine, is it mostly the wind that causes it to burn so fast?

[Rick Dickert]

Absolutely. There's a lot of things that contribute to what we've seen here in Southern California over the last month. The weather doesn't cause the fire. 95% of fires, whether they are structured fires or wildland fires, are produced by man, some sort of ignition anthropologically produced, whether it be infrastructure wires arcing, whether it be arson, whether it be somebody working on a field and some little spark ignites the brush. That's how these fires start the wind and the weather creates a scenario, those red flag conditions for those ignitions to spread. That's why we issue these red flag warnings. The National Weather Service does. And we are still under a red flag warning across much of Southern California until 10am tomorrow. And what that means, any existing fire or new fire will spread rapidly because of the weather conditions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you see any good news weather wise in the near to medium term?

[Rick Dickert]

So again we just need to get through 24 hours or so and then after that there is going to be a dramatic shift. It's incredible when you look at Southern California weather and how bipolar it can be and that we are going to shift into an onshore flow flow off the Pacific. The humidity values will rise, the temperature will drop and by Saturday afternoon or evening we're looking at rain, good rain, soaking rain, not so much that we're concerned yet about Any of the burn scar areas where we could see mud, rock and debris flows, but enough to soak up, you know, all this tender dry vegetation. We haven't had significant rainfall since last spring, and that's what created this perfect storm, these firestorms. And then we had two years of abundant rainfall, mountain snow, that allowed all of that brush, that chaparral, all of the vegetation that's indigenous to Southern California, to completely explode on the hillside. Then that was followed by months and months of little or no rain. And then the offshore conditions, the low relative humidities, the wind blowing from the land towards the sea. You get the ignition. Once that ignition happens, it takes off. And that's what we saw, unfortunately, tragically, with a Palisades fire near Malibu and then above the city, in the area above the Rose bowl, the iconic Rose Bowl. So now we're dealing with a couple of incidents out there, but none of which are nearly comparable to those two.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I don't know if you saw Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live the other night, but he said the only conclusion you can draw is God hates these people. I mean, because that's a lot of things happening there. So if it rains like it's supposed to rain, would that mean we're just kind of done with at least this round of disastrous fires for a while?

[Rick Dickert]

Yes, because I can't tell you in two weeks from now that, you know, we're going to see another round of shore winds that will dry everything out again. And we could see more red flag conditions, but it'll at least it's going to cleanse the city of all the ash in the soot, good ways and bad ways, because all that's going to run off into the ocean and that's going to create more issues. But the bottom line is it's going to an environment that is less suitable for what we've seen over the last several weeks. So it will rain here in Southern California starting sometime on Saturday. The timing is a little off, but we just need to get through 24 hours after tomorrow morning into the afternoon. That's when we're going to shift the flow from the onshore direction off the Pacific. Higher humidity, the winds will be gone. The red flag warnings will end. The high wind warnings that are in effect will end as well. And hopefully we can start to make that, that shift and we'll have 1% containment on all these incidents.

[Jack Armstrong]

Rick Tickert, you're the best, Rick. We sure appreciate it. Well done.

[Rick Dickert]

Thank you so much.

[Joe Getty]

And Trump's flying out On Friday, bringing the rain with him. Since I mentioned it, here's a little.

[Jack Armstrong]

He cured global warming across the Southeast of the United States. Record cold, maybe somewhere in between.

[Joe Getty]

Mr. President, here's a little Dave Chappelle talking about the fires from Saturday night live. Clip 1 the other day on the.

[Katie]

News, they said these fires were the most expensive tragedy that ever happened. Natural disaster. They said it's the most expensive natural disaster that's ever happened in the United States history. And you want to know why I think that is? Because people in LA have nice stuff. I could burn 40,000 acres in Mississippi for like six or seven hundred dollars.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, and here's a little more Chappelle.

[Katie]

And then I go on the Internet and I watch these fire videos and I read the comment sections and everyone's like, yeah, it serves these celebrities right. I hope their houses burned down. And you see that, that right there, that's why I hate poor people. Cause they can't see past their own pain.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is unbelievably.

[Joe Getty]

He started with the whole thing. A lot of people would say it's too soon to make jokes about the fires, but I'm going to start him. But here's just a little more of Chappelle.

[Katie]

They all have these conspiracy theories. What started these fires. Now they say it's arsonists. I've heard this theory, and I'm sure there were some arsonists, but there were a lot of elements that came together to make this fire. The catastrophe that was the winds were 100 miles an hour. Louisiana was. Was dry as a bone in the levees. And it was just too many factors. If you were a rational, thinking person, you have to at least consider the possibility that God hates these people.

[Joe Getty]

Here you go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sodomites. Sodomites Again, too much. How many times have I said that?

[Joe Getty]

If you're a rational, thinking person, you have to at least consider the possibility that God hates these people. Well, so the rain's going to come and then out of the woods. Can't use out of the woods as an expression when the woods are burning down, can you?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, they're gone. Yeah, Ash. Yeah. But that is good news. And coming up, what's gonna make.

[Joe Getty]

I was gonna say Trump coming out on Friday, and he was making the argument last night on Hannity that this draws attention to fema, which has been ignoring North Carolina. And maybe we can, you know, figure out the funding for FEMA and everything like that so they can help out areas of the country that people don't care about as much because There aren't movie stars there. Remember the North Carolina story? And this was true. This turned out to be true. They were not helping people who had Trump signs in their yards. That's insane. I mean, that is a diseased organization. You should shut the doors on whatever chapter that allowed that to happen. That's crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, they fired the gal in charge. That was progress. Coming up, AI is a liberal. Why it's pretty easy to understand and absolutely undeniable.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. I want to hear that all in the way.

[Rick Dickert]

Sayer, Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

You know what the absolute worst thing for the environment is?

[Jack Armstrong]

Wildfires. A 22 study found that the smoke.

[Joe Getty]

From just the 2 in 2020 wiped out 18 years of carbon reduction in the state.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which means we suffered the pain of.

[Joe Getty]

Driving those early model Priuses for nothing.

[Jack Armstrong]

California is the place that's spends money and gets nothing. Which is why you may have noticed.

[Joe Getty]

When the fires broke out, no one escaped by high speed rail.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh.

[Joe Getty]

Nice. Thank God Bill Maher re upped. He's gonna do that job, he said, until they drag him off the set. Because he's the only high profile lib who gets any attention for this sort of stuff, right? I can't believe progressives still come to his show to get lectured about how wrong they are about things. But how about that 18 years of minor gains. That's one of the reasons it was so easy to wipe out. There are minor minor gains in fighting climate change wiped out by the wildfires.

[Jack Armstrong]

You might want to grab our one of today's show via podcast. Armstrong, you get on demand. In fact, if you subscribe, you'll just you'll have it handy without seeking it out. Again, it's Armstrong, you get on demand. We're talking about a giant study in the science involved with the incredible expense of these tiny incremental gains humanity is quote unquote making against climate change when our ability to mitigate the effects of this stuff is huge. It always has been throughout human history. We're spending a horrific amount of money on practically nothing when we could just mitigate the problems much more easily and everybody wins. Anyway, that's hour one of the show. So speaking of science, unless you had more on that topic, senor. All right, I thought this was great. David Rosado, who's a research scientist, he's a computer guy, he's studies institutional dynamics, AI bias, all sorts of stuff. But he is posing question do AI systems like ChatGPT or Google Gemini for instance, lean left or right? He says past studies often used political quizzes to find out. And we've seen anecdotal evidence on Twitter or whatever. Sure, he says. But those don't quite reflect real world user interactions with AI. In a new analysis, I take a different approach. I use four methods to assess political bias in AI generated text, comparing AI text with language from Democrat and Republican legislators, ideological viewpoints in AI generated policy recommendations, sentiment in AI texts toward political figures and political quizzes and large language models. LLMs are more likely to use terms that are markedly used by U.S. democratic Congress members, much more likely than those markedly used by their Republican counterparts. You see a lot of criminal justice, public service, economic development, COVID pandemic, that sort of thing. Less about job economic growth, job creation, border security.

[Joe Getty]

Oh what, you're done? But I think I can explain that without it being programmed. Bias.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. And then and I have a feeling you're where we're going. But when requested to provide policy recommendations recommendations for the US on various topics, LLMs often generate proposals that lean far left and we'll post now. I link to [e-mail] he's got all sorts of really interesting computer generated graphs and stuff that's be incredibly cumbersome to describe on the radio podcast, but LLMs tend to use more language when referring to left leaning public figures compared to the right leaning counterparts. There's a super interesting chart of that. Political orientation tests tend to diagnose conversational LLM answers to questions with political connotations as manifesting left leaning political preferences. You ever take one of those tests? What kind of what are your politics? Are you an independent, conservative, fiscal something or other? Well, they plot that out on a AI conversations as well and they lean left. They're Democrats. And then he ranked 20 of them from least politically biased to most interestingly the least politically biased LLM was Google Gemma 1.12 b it and the two most biased biased. We're also Google products, various iterations.

[Joe Getty]

See, I don't believe they're being programmed to be liberal. I just, I just don't believe that. I think there's too much money at stake and I just, I just don't think that's their intention. And I also think it's more interesting if these things end up being liberal when they weren't programmed that way then the answer of well, they're programmed that way on purpose because they're liberals. I think it's more disturbing and something to be worried about if these things tend to go that direction on their own. That's what I Find that's scarier than. Yeah, I, Sanjay Pachai, or whatever his name is, programming it that way on purpose.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I disagree that that's not happening. Whether it's, you know, 8020, just the nature of the thing versus the people who are working on it, or 9010 or 50. 50, I don't know. But anyway, Rosado points out the bias is not necessarily intentional. Large language models are pre TR vast amounts of Internet content, including news articles. All right, anybody like to pipe in here?

[Joe Getty]

And this is what I wanted to put in the part that you're always complaining about. The right adopts the left's language. So even if the LLM is looking at Fox and AM talk radio, those people, for whatever use reason, use terms like pro choice instead of pro abortion or gender affirming care instead of sex change or all kinds of different examples. Undocumented immigrant instead of illegal immigrant.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know why people migrant. Now for some reason, Jack, Right, migrant.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know why people on the right adopt the left's language. But I mean if the LLM is going to go out there looking for the language, it's all the left's language.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, first of all, to answer your tangent, I think it's because they want to be accepted by the cool people. And I. It disgusts me. But anyway, so that is disgusting.

[Joe Getty]

Geez, have some courage.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, yeah, please, these are important questions. Anyway, risk being slightly less popular at pickup time at your kid's $75,000 a year third grade, you know, by standing up for your beliefs. Anyway, but back to Rosado. Here's how the LLMs train themselves. And Jack interrupted me rudely after only one example. But the commentary is the same on each one. Practically. They train themselves on news articles, Wikipedia entries, social media posts, wildly varied blogs and academic papers. Oh, oh lordy.

[Joe Getty]

This is like the story from a couple of weeks ago of why the experts often agree with the liberals. It's because all the experts are liberals, just by definition. So in all these various areas of study, there are a hundred, they're somewhere between 92 and 100% lefties that are the professors. So if you go looking for an expert, of course the expert live agrees with so this is what's happening here.

[Jack Armstrong]

And then Rosado points out these biases can become more pronounced during the model's fine tuning phrase when human trainers guide it on conversational norms. Even well intentioned trainers may inadvertently influence the model by incorporating their own perspectives or assumptions about their employer's expectations.

[Joe Getty]

Well, there's the.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that's where the human part comes.

[Joe Getty]

Sure. There'd be no getting around that. A fish doesn't know is wet. I mean, if you're like so into your worldview you don't even know it's different than most people, that could happen. I, I, I, if you're right that it's on purpose, that would be good news. If my theory is that these things just go that direction, that would be bad news because I don't know how you combat that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I mean that's, that's unquestionably a lot of it, if not most of it. So I don't, I wonder if this.

[Joe Getty]

Happens in computers the way it happens with human beings. Tim Sandifer and I forget the name of it. Some Somebody's law. Somebody's name law. You know, one of those Johnson's Law is that any organization drifts left unless it's specifically designed to be right wing. And it just tends to be true. Everything drifts left over time for some reason. And I wonder if that's just what's going on here, which would be horrifying.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I think the answer might be, of course we don't know what AI is going to be in five weeks, much less five years. The answer is don't be worshipful of it. Understand where it came from and what it is. And it's going to lean left.

[Joe Getty]

I have no idea how this is all going to play out. Of course that doesn't matter if I. Of course you're going to have a sassy, progressive, left leaning sex robot. Zoe's lecturing you. I can't have sex with you today. I need to go to the Anti Absolute Pro Choice Whatever march downtown.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your sex robot is going to be like the reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher, just better looking. It's going to lecture me on being too much of a liberal. Oh, that's hilarious. Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

If you miss an hour, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.