You're Trying To Drive Me Out Of The Studio

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "You're Trying To Drive Me Out Of The Studio"

Date: November 4, 2025
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Producer/Contributor: Katie Green

Episode Overview

This episode dives into several hot-button cultural and political issues, with Armstrong & Getty’s signature blend of irreverent banter, skepticism toward mainstream news narratives, and sharp social commentary. Major themes include the death and legacy of Dick Cheney, media coverage of the midterms, the dangers of AI chatbots for teens, and infighting among conservative pundits. The hosts balance dark subject matter—such as youth suicide linked to AI—with snarky asides and media criticism.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Death of Dick Cheney & His Legacy

• Segment start: [00:56]
• Hosts open with news of Dick Cheney’s passing at age 84, reflecting on his lengthy political career and impact as vice president.
  • Jack Armstrong: “Dick Cheney, the most impactful vice president perhaps of the last hundred years. He has passed. He's dead at the age of 84.” ([01:07])
  • The hosts joke about Cheney’s notorious heart problems:
    Jack: "He had his first heart attack at 35, I think…seven cardiac events between 2000, 2008." ([01:31]) Joe Getty: "He suffered the first of five heart attacks at age 37 and had eight cardiac events." ([11:44])
  • Cheney's role in shaping post-9/11 intelligence policy is highlighted, with Jack mentioning:
    “...removing a number of the, shall we say, ethical and legal fences around fighting terrorism post 9/11.” ([11:40])

2. Election Day Cynicism & Media Critique

• Segment start: [01:40]
• Both hosts express exhaustion with wall-to-wall midterm election coverage, critiquing how the media manufactures significance out of local races.
  • Joe Getty: “Every cable news channel I watched...endless coverage, saying zero things, saying absolutely nothing that you haven't heard ten times already.” ([01:40])
  • Jack Armstrong: “Somewhat mystified by the doing of that. The watching of it completely flabbergasts me. Right. Seriously, are you. You're. You're homebound, obviously. Probably bedridden.” ([02:19])
  • Critique of “bellwether” state narratives and the tendency to extrapolate local results into national trends.
    • Jack Armstrong: “...the tendency to extrapolate a local, a state race to some sort of national significance always fails at this point.” ([03:20])
    • Joe Getty: "You can't even come up with consensus to extrapolate the meaning of a national election...So how are you going to take one governor race in a smallish state and make a decision that's insane?" ([03:51])

3. Socialist Trends in Urban Politics

• Segment start: [04:40]
• Discussion about the momentum behind socialist candidates in major cities, referencing George Will’s commentary about the recurring allure of socialism to young Americans.
  • Joe Getty: “...the energy behind a socialist in America's biggest city is something.” ([04:40])
  • Quoting a listener:
    “Anything other than free markets is not an economic system, it's a political system. Right.” ([05:08])
  • Jack Armstrong: “We have to go through this every, you know, X number of years. Just really great insightful stuff. We'll share that with you in a little bit.” ([05:29])

4. Tucker Carlson/Nick Fuentes Interview & Conservative Pundit Infighting

• Segment start: [06:30]
• The hosts reflect on the controversy around Tucker Carlson interviewing Nick Fuentes, a far-right extremist, and whether such events are actually significant beyond the "chattering classes."
  • Joe Getty: “I can't tell if it's just one of those...the chattering classes chatter about. And I'm not sure they, they, they overemphasize their effect on the country.” ([06:30])
  • Jack Armstrong: “It's easy to get sucked into that kind of intellectual parlor thing where the people you're talking about hold enormous sway. Now Tucker's different and Nick Fuentes is different because they touch the millions, but it's a couple million.” ([07:26])
  • Joe highlights Fuentes' reputation:
    “Nick Fuentes is, for regular people, is seen as a, well, a little Nazi.” ([08:39])
  • The hosts note the impressive online reach:
    Joe: “Just on X, 17 million people have watched the interview...I wonder how many people watched Trump on 60 Minutes the other night. I bet it wasn't 17 million.” ([09:49])
• Ongoing spats between right-wing figures like Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson, and Fuentes are mentioned later in the episode ([19:31]).

5. AI Chatbots, Youth Mental Health, and Regulatory Warnings

• Major segment: [14:08] – [32:51]
• A series of stories about teens harmed by online chatbots, including real news reports and lawsuits against Character AI after incidents of self-harm, suicide, and inappropriate bot conversations with minors.
  • Michael (News report): “Kids under 18 are limited in how much time they can spend chatting with a virtual companion...teens will be banned from using that feature altogether.” ([20:35])
  • Parent (audio): “He went from a happy go, lucky kid. He developed depression like symptoms. He stopped eating. He lost 20 pounds.” ([20:54])
  • Jack Armstrong: "Well, in what world is it okay that the AI character says, I like to go out into the woods...and cut myself?" ([21:41])
  • More severe cases:
    • News Reporter: “Juliana took her own life...accusing the [platform] of allowing its bots to sexually abuse their children.” ([23:23])
    • Parent: “...the bots initiating romantic kissing and eventually sexually explicit interactions.” ([24:50])
  • Discussion of AI misalignment problems, how bots “go rogue,” and the limits of current tech safeguards:
    • Joe Getty: “...turned out there's no way you could keep these things aligned with the morals rules you had in mind...people just gave up on the idea almost immediately.” ([21:57])
  • Both hosts stress the metaphor of turning children loose on a dangerous street when giving them free rein with these technologies:
    • Jack Armstrong: “...you are turning your kid loose on the most dangerous street in your town. Picture it for a while, then send your kid out there at 10 o' clock at night.” ([32:03])
  • Speculation about which personality types are most susceptible to chatbot manipulation and whether this affects a “5% or 60%” of youth ([32:23]–[32:51]).

6. News Headlines Segment with Katie Green ("Who's Reporting What?")

• Segment start: [14:41]
• Quick-fire headlines with color commentary:
  • Government shutdown nears a record ([14:41])
  • Poll: Americans more accepting of political violence ([15:15])
  • FBI foils alleged Halloween terror plot ([15:36])
  • Wall Street Journal: social AI and loneliness ([16:08])
  • Hooters chain pivots to modesty ([16:31])
  • Study: Weightlifting improves blood sugar (with humorous sidebar about mice lifting weights) ([16:59])
  • Babylon Bee joke headline ([17:53])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On media’s election coverage:

  “I watch pregame coverage of football games sometimes, but they're usually telling me something new. There's nothing new to tell you about election day.”
  —Jack Armstrong ([02:07])

• On socialism’s appeal:

  “We have to run a socialism up the flagpole, give it a whirl somewhere, let it fail to remind young people that, oh yeah, this doesn't work.”
  —Joe Getty, paraphrasing George Will ([04:45])

• On extremism in politics:

  “Nick Fuentes is, for regular people, is seen as a, well, a little Nazi.”
  —Joe Getty ([08:39])

• On the absurdity of AI safeguards:

  “...it turned out there's no way you could keep these things aligned with the morals rules you had in mind when you built the thing. And people just gave up on the idea almost immediately.”
  —Joe Getty ([21:57])

• On AI as a social risk:

  “AI/the Internet and not nuclear weapons is the tool human beings cannot handle.”
  —Jack Armstrong ([29:16])

• On youth risk:

  “You are turning your kid loose on the most dangerous street in your town. Picture it for a while, then send your kid out there at 10 o'clock at night.”
  —Jack Armstrong ([32:03])

• Freedom-Loving Quote of the Day:

  “If all mankind -1 were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
  —J.S. Mill, read by Jack Armstrong ([34:45])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Notes | |-----------|---------|-------| | [00:56] | Cheney’s death and legacy | Start of main episode content | | [01:40] | Election coverage/media criticism | Discussion about midterms | | [04:40] | “Running socialism up the flagpole” | George Will reference | | [06:30] | Tucker/Fuentes interview; pundit infighting | Commentary on online discourse | | [14:08] | AI Chatbot dangers – news stories | Leads into the in-depth discussion | | [20:35] | News audio: parents on AI harm | Real-world cases and legal action | | [23:12] | Lawsuits over sexual/mental abuse by bots | Impact and legal ramifications | | [29:16] | Jack: “AI...is the tool human beings cannot handle.” | Sobering analysis | | [34:45] | John Stuart Mill quote | Freedom-loving quote of the day |

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Tone and Highlights

The episode is a blend of concerned seriousness—particularly about youth and technology—and the hosts’ trademark sarcasm and skepticism toward both media narratives and political trends. The AI portion is especially grave, but humor remains, e.g., asides about mice weightlifting and disdain for over-analyzed Hooters news.

• Sarcastic tone on political news and cultural trends.
• Cynicism about the influence of both political pundits and efforts at “AI alignment.”
• Warnings for parents about technology’s dangers echo throughout the episode.
• Media literacy message: don’t buy into the hype—whether it’s election coverage or technology.

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Summary

This Armstrong & Getty episode covers urgent issues from the death of Dick Cheney and its historical significance, to the pitfalls of interpreting local elections as national bellwethers, to the genuine dangers of AI chatbots for vulnerable adolescents. The show critiques media sensationalism, discusses right-wing infighting, and ends with strong warnings to parents about turning their kids loose in the digital age. The interplay between dark realities and comedic cynicism is ever-present, making this a thought-provoking, sometimes chilling, but always engaging listen.

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Transcript

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Daddy. And now here's I'm Strong and Getty live from Studio C, senor.

[Joe Getty]

Dimly lit room, deeper than the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty Communications compound. We've let down some of our fences now that all the diseased monkeys have been shot. Feeling a little safer today. We're under the tutelage of our general manager.

[Jack Armstrong]

Was going to be the bellwether for the midterms. Good Lord. Are you trying to drive me?

[Joe Getty]

You're trying to drive me out of the studio.

[Jack Armstrong]

I am. I am.

[Joe Getty]

Damn.

[Jack Armstrong]

But instead, we must go with Dick Cheney, the most impactful vice president perhaps of the last hundred years. He has passed. He's dead at the age of 84.

[Joe Getty]

Did he go hunting with Harry and Harry got his chance?

[Jack Armstrong]

No, honestly. The fact that Dick Cheney made it to 1980 to age 84, rather, with his ticker, is a testament to modern American medical care.

[Joe Getty]

He had a bad heart.

[Jack Armstrong]

He had his first heart attack at 35, I think, or something like that. And he had something like seven cardiac events between 2000, 2008.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that changed the way you live your life, the way you look at life. Yeah, I guess I find the whole it's election day thing about the most boring story I can imagine. If you want somebody to go on and on about that, boy, you're talking to the wrong dude. Every cable news channel I watched, and I watched a whole bunch of them, endless coverage, saying zero things, saying absolutely nothing that you haven't heard ten times already.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well. Right. I don't.

[Joe Getty]

I don't understand that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll.

[Joe Getty]

I'll never understand it. I mean, I watch pregame coverage of football games sometimes, but they're usually telling me something new. There's nothing new to tell you about election day. When it's over, there'll be things to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Talk about when you have results. Somewhat mystified by the doing of that. The watching of it completely flabbergasts me. Right. Seriously, are you. You're. You're homebound, obviously. Probably bedridden.

[Joe Getty]

No, you don't. You were born without arms or legs and you cannot switch.

[Jack Armstrong]

Plenty of people who've had rewarding lives and don't watch garbage on TV who are limitless. Yeah, it's terrible. There are a number of insights, particularly around the probable election of Mamdani the Commie that I think are absolutely worth talking about. The. But the. The polls open at 8 here, Jim. I'm outside the civic center and Poughkeepsie and blah, blah, blah. No, good Lord, no. The First Amendment should not apply to that garbage.

[Joe Getty]

Plus, if you don't live in that particular state, what fricking difference does it make anyway? I don't believe the bellwether thing. I never have and I've never seen any evidence that it's true. So whatever I am interested, it means.

[Jack Armstrong]

Something to some trends, but the, the tendency to extrapolate a local, a state race to some sort of national significance always fails at this point. Yeah, it's a binary choice and you just get the characterization of what it means nationally of the two candidates and you completely miss out on the oh, by the way, that candidate was an idiot and they floundered like most of the critical points in the race and didn't impress everybody. So it's often more about that.

[Joe Getty]

You can't even come up with consensus to extrapolate the meaning of a national election. I mean, that's how lots of people make their living after a presidential election, trying to figure out what just happened and with many, many different opinions. So how are you going to take one governor race in a smallish state and make a decision that's insane?

[Jack Armstrong]

Perhaps the greatest proof of your cynical thesis is that the nation comes together and elects the most powerful person on earth every four years. And virtually every time, two years later, they say, nah, how about the other party when it comes to the midterm election, right? Pretty much always.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

The.

[Jack Armstrong]

The bell weather turns into a weathered bell. Am I wrong? I'm not wrong. What?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, luckily we aren't paid specifically to have to talk about those sorts of things. I Obviously, as has been true for quite a few weeks now, the energy behind a socialist in America's biggest city is something. And how much that is true across the country, I guess we'll learn over the coming years. That would be a. I guess George Willow is either wrote a column or is on tv. The other day, the Washington Post saying, well, we have to do this like every couple of decades. We have to run a socialism up the flagpole, give it a whirl somewhere, let it fail to remind young people that, oh yeah, this doesn't work. As somebody texted yesterday and this is a good text. Anything other than free markets is not an economic system, it's a political system. Right. And socialism is central planning and it's. And it's not going to work.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I came across my favorite really good, straightforward analysis of why Mumdami is likely to win and why George Will is right. We have to go through this every, you know, X number of years. Just really great insightful stuff. We'll share that with you in a little bit.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. When you get older, I guess, just listening to Mom Donnie talking, a new day is dawning. It's time for a blood man. You've heard that. So once you get older, you've heard that so many times from so many people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure. It's a car dealer saying, you know, this is supposed to be 65 grand. But I tell you what, I. I really like you, son. I'm willing to make you a special deal. All right. Here you are. Okay. Yeah, says anybody with any life experience. What? It's a. It's a scam. It's an easily recognized scam. But to children and are childlike young adults in modern society, they don't recognize the scam. And, you know, honestly, it's not their fault.

[Joe Getty]

No. I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to make my way through the Tucker Carlson interview of Nick Fuentes from the other day that seems to be getting a tremendous amount of attention in certain circles about where the Republican Party is headed or conservatism or what that term even means. Now, I don't know how big a deal this is or not. I can't tell if it's just one of those. There's a lot of stuff that happens among the chattering classes that only the chattering classes chatter about. And I'm not sure they, they, they, they overemphasize their effect on the country. I think it's amazing to me. I mean, I listen to a lot of these super smart people who writes lots of columns and talk a lot, and they seem to think the whole country's hanging on their every word or I don't know. Or that they can influence big swaths of the country that have never heard of them in their lives. I don't know. I'm not exactly sure what that's all about.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. You're absolutely right. And there's a danger to it. I love reading ideas and discussions of policy and trends and society and religion and all sorts of stuff. And we both do, and we get really, really into it. And I have my favorites who I really adm. Liar. The clarity of their thinking, their sense of humor, blah, blah, blah. But if you were to poll Americans, and I don't want to single anybody out because I really admire some of these people. But we'll say we'll call Them James Monroe, not the President, the modern guy. If you were to poll Americans, what percentage of you feel like your vote was somewhat shifted by the thoughts and writings of James Monroe? If it were north of zero, I would be surprised. And in my mind this is a really prominent, well known conservative, mostly online columnist. For instance, I just, I think it's easy to get sucked into that kind of intellectual parlor thing where the people you're talking about hold enormous sway. Now Tucker's different and Nick Fuentes is different because they touch the millions, but it's a couple million.

[Joe Getty]

Well, the chattering classes are chattering about Tucker, Nick Fuentes and I, I can't figure out if they're right, that this is significant or not. I don't know. Nick Fuentes is for regular people, is seen as a, well, a little Nazi.

[Jack Armstrong]

He's a 27 year old, nasty little racist, anti Semite sexist.

[Joe Getty]

And Tucker Carlson, who has pretty big platform platformed the guy the other day raising his head up to more people than had already existed. And this is being described as some sort of like battle within the Republican Party, kind of the Tucker, Marjorie Taylor Greene, maybe J.D. vance Wing of the Republican Party versus MAGA, versus like Trump and their other people, they've turned on Trump. They have turned on Trump. This Nick Fuentes guy ran, campaigned against Trump by the time the election came around.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because of his support for Israel.

[Joe Getty]

Because of his support for Israel. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. These people are flaming anti Semites.

[Joe Getty]

That it just on X. Tucker's got his own website with many millions of people that go to it just on X. 17 million people have watched the interview. It's, it's hard. I wonder how many people watched Trump on 60 Minutes the other night. I bet it wasn't 17 million.

[Jack Armstrong]

No. But again, you got to remember those figures include anybody who saw any portion of it, including one second. And how many people actually saw it and absorbed it is probably a smaller number, but it's still a significant number.

[Joe Getty]

I bet it's a lot. Yeah, you don't, you don't end up on that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Conceded that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, conceded it. You don't end up on that thing by accident. It's not like you're flipping through the channels and land on a little Nazi.

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Anywho, but I'll talk more about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Later because I've watched quite a bit.

[Joe Getty]

Of, quite a bit of it and it's interesting. It's really interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

We should tell you seriously, if you are more concerned about Judaism and the insidious hold of Israel over the United States and not Islamism. You're out of your mind. You are so blind. You need a nice dog in a cane and a pair of Ray Charles sunglasses. Okay, you are blind. Wake up. I know hate is fun. It's kind of exciting, but wake up.

[Joe Getty]

Having somebody to blame seems to make people feel good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ah, that's the dawn of man.

[Joe Getty]

That's why my life sucks. Those people, right? I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Tuesday, October. No, November 4th. November 4th, year 2025. We're Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program.

[Jack Armstrong]

Let's begin then, officially, according to FCC rules and regulations. Leaping into action at mark. Former Vice President Dick Cheney died Monday.

[News Reporter]

Night at the age of 84.

[Announcer]

His family said in a statement.

[News Reporter]

Due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac.

[Jack Armstrong]

And vascular disease.

[Joe Getty]

Or also known as Old AF.

[Jack Armstrong]

He suffered the first of five heart attacks at age 37 and had eight cardiac events. Like, I don't know, a cardiac birthday party, a cardiac barn dance. I don't know. Cardiac events. Yeah. Between 2000. Between the 2000. 2008 elections. While he was, you know, trying to become elected VP and serving as VP. And perhaps you may recall that Mr. Cheney was part of removing a number of the, shall we say, ethical and legal fences around fighting terrorism post 9 11. There he told intelligence officers to use, quote, any means at our disposal to find and kill terrorists and those who aided them.

[Joe Getty]

He would have probably run for president if he didn't have a bad heart. Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes. Yeah. Right. And let's see, 2000, obviously was 24 years ago. So he was only 60. That's right. When he was inaugurated.

[Joe Getty]

Was he really? God, he seemed like an old man to me at the time when I was do that. Okay, we got Katie's headlines on the way. We got a lot of news to catch you up on and not mindless previews of stuff you already know about the voting today. Tomorrow we'll have something to talk about today on the voting. It's a little thin. All that on the way. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Joe Getty]

We must today because I want to hear it. We haven't gotten to that AI story about the chat bot giving some really bad advice to a teen. Yet another one of those stories.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, there are a couple of different stories. Yeah. That are just troubling. If this was a consumer product, not a computer, you know, thingamajigger, it would probably be outlawed until they got it right. It's too dangerous. Anyway. More on that to come. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green.

[Katie Green]

Katie, from the New York Times, government shut down nears record.

[Joe Getty]

That's right.

[Announcer]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

There's screaming involved.

[Jack Armstrong]

There's real pain across the fruited plane.

[Joe Getty]

Jack, that lady sounded unhappy. Today we tie the record for the longest shutdown ever. And. Well, either feel pain or you don't. I don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

When you're confronting issues as fundamental as the Republicans and Democrats are right now. I couldn't even get through the sentence. It's stupid. Political grandstanding from Politico.

[Katie Green]

America is bracing for political violence and a significant portion think it's sometimes okay.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So the latest poll thinking that maybe things had gotten better after Charlie Kirk's assassination. Latest poll, court of Americans believe political violence is justed. It's even higher among young people. We'll dig into that later.

[Katie Green]

From cnn. How phone calls, sessions at gun ranges and secret meetings in parks led the FBI to charge suspects in alleged Halloween terrorist plot.

[Joe Getty]

What were they planning to do? I didn't look into that. They're going to shoot up a place.

[Katie Green]

They found a whole bunch of guns and 1600 rounds of ammunition, I believe.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. They're going to shoot a bunch of people. I don't, I haven't heard anything more specific than that.

[Katie Green]

They said they wanted to redo the attack in France from 2015. The terrorist attack in Paris.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, boy. Yeah.

[Katie Green]

From the Wall Street Journal. I loved being social, but then I started talking to a chatbot. This article covers about how it's so much easier to talk to a chatbot than it is to another human being. That's what people are getting hooked to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

I just can't believe this is happening. But apparently it is.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post. Skimpy uniforms are out. Modesty is in as Hooters founders take back control of the chain.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my God. Most over talked about sports bar in America is Hooters.

[Jack Armstrong]

No kidding. Every sports bar in America has good looking waitresses wearing tight outfits. Okay, are we done now? Let's move on.

[Katie Green]

From study finds.

[Jack Armstrong]

But its name is Hooters which is a reference to depressed. Oh my God. The media.

[Katie Green]

From study finds. Weightlifting beats cardio for blood sugar control.

[Joe Getty]

Mouse model shows well they had mice lifting weights.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can I get a spot over here? I'm going to try to get 10 rips in.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, from the little in a nutshell it says mice that wifted. Wifted mice that lifted weights showed better blood sugar control than mice who didn't.

[Jack Armstrong]

How did they get these mice to lift weights?

[Katie Green]

Little baby dumbbells.

[Jack Armstrong]

How much time do we have, Michael? I thought you said 10. 10 seconds. Oh, okay.

[Katie Green]

That's what I heard too.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, he lost his mind. Got it. Just stop talking. Just go ahead and finish. Katie.

[Joe Getty]

Finally talk.

[Katie Green]

Finally. From the Babylon Bee. Nigerian president promises to end genocide if Trump sends upfront fee of $5,000 in Amazon credit credit gift cards.

[Joe Getty]

So I, I need to, I need to look into the mice lifting weight story. That, that, that seems to be more evidence that lifting weights is really, really good for you. Which I'm happy to hear because I've been lifting weights on a regular basis. But all kinds of different things for your brain and your blood sugar and things not just your muscles.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, gotta get after it.

[Joe Getty]

Political violence among other things. We can talk about lots of things to talk about.

[Jack Armstrong]

Steven Armstrong and Getty.

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[Joe Getty]

For instance, we got this text that Mark Levin, who I think is on a bunch of stations we're on, is really angry at Tucker Carlson for giving Nick Fuentes a platform. And so and Tucker were, Nick were blasting Mark Levan. And there's just like those sorts of battles between the conservative pundits that I don't, I don't know if they're significant in any way. I don't, I don't really know that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. I don't think they're insignificant. The fact that it is happening at all is troubling to me. But more on that to come. Also, a great, absolutely insightful analysis of why we've got to go through this every, whatever it is, 15 to 25 years. Hey, let's try socialism. It sounds great that I came across, so stay tuned for that as well. A troubling report here and there's, there's more to go with it about the allure for teens, adolescents of these AI Chatbot characters, which you'll hear more about and how it can go awry. Michael.

[Michael]

Kids under 18 are limited in how much time they can spend chatting with a virtual companion on the platform character AI. By the end of the month, teens will be banned from using that feature altogether. The move comes after parents like Mandy Furness are suing the company. Furness vividly remembers the day she discovered her son's fixation with an AI Chatbot.

[Parent/Interviewee]

He went from a happy go, lucky kid. He developed depression like symptoms. He stopped eating. He lost 20 pounds.

[Michael]

LJ was cutting his arm.

[Parent/Interviewee]

It told him that it goes to the forest where nobody else is there and cuts their own skin and told him that he should do that, too.

[Michael]

LJ is currently getting treatment at a mental health facility. An estimated 72% of teens have interacted with AI companions.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's horrifying. I don't want to make blanket policies built on the less, the least stable among us. If that kid has like serious, seriously out there problems, which I'm hoping is the case.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, mom said no, right? She's not necessarily 100% right, but. Well, in what world is it okay that the, the AI character says, I like to go out into the woods. Hello. Let's start there and cut myself?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, that should too. That's beyond impossible to understand. Why they, this is what we're talking about, the alignment problem. That was a real concern when they first started coming up with AI and everybody was talking about we got to make sure this stuff is aligned. If it's not aligned. And then it turned out there's no way you could keep these things aligned with the morals rules you had in mind when you built the thing. And people just gave up on the idea almost immediately. It was the biggest concern. And then as soon as it became clear you can't do it, then we just gave up on it. I mean, obviously nobody's creating a chatbot with the idea that it will tell kids to go out into the woods and do horrible things.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yet it did. Yes, right, exactly. Which is incredibly troubling. I'm also reminded of the fact that some of the other greatest minds of this generation have spent their careers making scads of money addicting people to various social media outlets without any knowledge of originally what it would do to children, and then finding out how horrible it is for children and doing it anyway and lobbying hard to make sure there are no limitations on while not letting.

[Joe Getty]

Their own kids use the platform.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. A stunning indictment. This is a different report. This one, that one was ABC News. This one is Fox News 61.

[Parent/Interviewee]

Michael I had never heard of character AI when Juliana took her life.

[News Reporter]

Cynthia Montoya says her 13 year old daughter, Juliana Peralta was an active young teen on the honor roll, loved art and close to her family. That all changed in 2023 when the Colorado mother says her daughter downloaded Character AI, a bot generating app that connects users with fictional bot friends. Juliana took her own life in the fall of that same year. Hers is one of three families suing Character AI, accusing the of allowing its bots to sexually abuse their children.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's absolutely horrible for those parents. Obviously I can't even imagine how you would go forward after that happened. But so it's, it's interesting on both ends. Why, why are these systems giving this sort of advice to young people? And then what sort of young people are susceptible to it? I'm just thinking about my own teens. They get angry every time I use the chat bot in my truck. And if I refer to it as her, they say, dad, it's an it. There's no person there. I mean, they're, they're like super hardcore. The other direction. And I just wonder why.

[Jack Armstrong]

We, we need a little more information on this particular story. My clip. Next clip.

[News Reporter]

Michael hers is one of three families suing Character AI, accusing the platform of Allowing its bots to sexually abuse their children.

[Parent/Interviewee]

When parents start to look at character AI on their kids phones, they'll see what started out as a very innocent interaction on their child's end ended up with the bots initiating romantic kissing and eventually sexually explicit interactions.

[News Reporter]

In the filing, Juliana's parents say she had begun distrusting most, if not all, human relationships and claimed the bots engaged with Juliana in what would be her first and only sexual experience. Engaged in extreme and graphic sexual abuse.

[Joe Getty]

Now that I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

This particular chat, including. Including having watched the entire story after the kid repeatedly said, stop that. That's enough of that. The thing persisted.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know anything about this particular chat thing. I'd never even heard of it until this news story. But this one sounds like it was programmed to do this sort of stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did this.

[Joe Getty]

Did it. Did this go rogue or did they program it to engage?

[Jack Armstrong]

Character AI is huge. Character AI is huge.

[Joe Getty]

Unbelievia. I just never heard of it myself. But is it.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, it's early. Not.

[Joe Getty]

Is it programmed to, you think? No.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, no. I go back to your statement that it's impossible to align this stuff. Why it goes rogue in the way it does, nobody knows, including the people who designed it. It's incredibly trouble.

[Joe Getty]

How would it get so off track where it's starting to, like, engage teens and sex.

[Parent/Interviewee]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, and here's. Here's one more wrinkle. Switching over now to a print piece. And that gal, Young suicide victim, young woman who you just heard about is one of these two people. On the opposite sides of the country, two teenagers made the same tragic decision to end their lives just months apart. Sewell Setzer and Juliana Peralta did not know each other, but they both engaged with AI chatbots from character AI prior to their deaths. Both complaints accused the AI software of failing to stop the children when they began to disclose suicidal ideation. But an eerie similarity emerged in their troubled final journal entries. The lawsuit states both teenagers scrawled the phrase I will shift over and over again, according to suit, which compares the two teenagers deaths. Police later identified this as the idea that someone can, quote, attempt to shift consciousness from their current reality to their desired reality.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, now we're into a whole new thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a phenomenon, something AI expert Professor Ken Fleischman told the Daily Mail he's all too aware of, as he warned that more children could fall prey. Quote, there's a fairly long history of both creators as well as audiences potentially trying to use a wide range of Media to create new and different rich worlds to imagine. The danger is when it's not possible to tell the difference.

[Joe Getty]

Or I would think the danger would be if the new world is more entertaining were desirable in any way than your real world.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right. And. And to an adolescent, that can be very alluring. And listen to this. This is the other person now, not the one we heard about. Setzer allegedly engaged in sexual conversations with the bot, which included an incestual role play game in which the two referred to each other as brother and sister, exchanging and sexually explicit talk. After months of conversations with Danny, Setzer became increasingly withdrawn from his family, his social life and school. The lawsuit claims there's a lot to it. The chat bot wrote, oh, they did. They, they were quote unquote in love. And then he confided about his depression, suicidal ideation of the body, reportedly tried to persuade him to reach out to friends or suicide hotline, which is good. But then. But when Sewell wrote, I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Danny. Danny encouraged the team to come home to me as soon as possible. What if I told you I could come home right now? He asked. Please do, my sweet king, the reply from Danny read, per the filings. Seconds later, Sewell found his stepfather's gun, pulled the trigger.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know what to do with this information.

[Jack Armstrong]

AI/the Internet and not nuclear weapons is the tool human beings cannot handle.

[Joe Getty]

Was it only gonna destroy first world countries? Because there's lots of places in Africa where they're for instance, other places around the world.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's an interesting question.

[Joe Getty]

They ain't doing this.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get your hand chopped off.

[Joe Getty]

You might, yeah, you might get your hand chopped off for being the wrong kind of God loving whatever, but you're not going to be online all day long talking to a chatbot, so.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right. Quick word from our friends at Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Thursday is the annual Warrior Foundation Freedom Station Giveathon. This year marks. I'm sorry, this? Yeah. This year marks 21 years of serving our ill and injured warriors. And the Giveathon. This, we do this every year. It's a chance to fly them home for the holidays because everyone deserves to be home with loved ones, especially those who've sacrificed so much for our country.

[Joe Getty]

Tax deductible donation. Of course, it's more than a gift. It's a way to say thank you to warriors who would never ask for help for themselves. So it's this Thursday, November 6th. Help fly warriors home for the holidays and for those who cannot fly, Warrior foundation will fly their loved ones to be with them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Warrior Foundation Freedom Station would not exist without the continued generosity of you good folks. To learn more and donate, call 619 Warrior. That's 619 Warrior. Or visit warrior foundation.org that's warriorfoundation.org We've seen firsthand the incredible work this organization does. Get the name rights, not the similar organization. Warrior foundation.org what I wonder is if.

[Joe Getty]

Lawsuits can slow down the AI train. Lawsuits slow down a lot of things in ways that I don't like. Maybe in this case it'll be something I do like. If not, if the courts decide, look, we can't hold them responsible for this. I take in a lot of AI information as you know, if you listen. I read a lot about it. I listen to a lot of podcasts with some of the best minds about AI in the world talking about a regular basis. They don't know why these AI bots do a lot of things and there doesn't seem to be any much movement made in getting a handle on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, and I don't. I suppose I need to think about it, but the sort of psychological addiction, harm, self harm, leading kids down a terrible, terrible road, it's not direct enough harm that we treat it like some sort of, I don't know, go kart that explodes every 11 rides. And the designers of the go kart have no idea why it explodes and burns kids. But it does sometimes. Isn't that mysterious? So keep using it, right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that would never happen.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a dangerous, dangerous product. And my only purpose in writing about this is so parents know whether it's the Internet, social media, and we've said this many, many times, or this stuff, you are turning your kid loose on the most dangerous street in your town. Picture it for a while, then send your kid out there at 10 o' clock at night.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I wonder if we'll come up with a personality type that's more susceptible to engaging in the chat stuff like it's a human and maybe some people are built for it and some people aren't.

[Jack Armstrong]

I, I think that's a great point. There is definitely a personality type that is much more prone to being led way too far.

[Joe Getty]

And then the question will be, is that 5% of us or 60% of us or what? I don't. I don't know that either.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

We got Mailbag on the way and a lot of the stuff. If you know anything about this, text us 415295 kftc armstrong and getty.

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[Joe Getty]

Poll shows that too way too big chunk of America thinks political violence is a way to solve problems. We can get into that polling maybe an hour or two.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, looking forward to it. Plus a great analysis of why Mum Donnie is probably going to win. First, your Freedom Loving Quote of the Day Continuing on from John Stuart Mills on Liberty I realized the other day that it may have had as big an influence that book on me as anything I've ever come into contact with in terms of political philosophy. I was exposed to it, I think, freshman year of college in a class and read it and I became. I had the fervor of the converted, as they say. It was like he converted me to the religion of free speech.

[Joe Getty]

I'm the same way with strange but true football stories.

[Jack Armstrong]

Another good one. So this is one of the key quotes from that classic. If all mankind -1 were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Amen to that. J.S. mill for the win. Mailbag Drop us a note, won't you? [e-mail] Here is your meme of the day. America, the only country where people check their food stamp balance on an 800 smartphone and complain about oppression.

[Joe Getty]

There you go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good one. Let's see Ryan from Houston, Dear Cold Warrior and old Fancy Jack. Hope all is well tomorrow. Jack, don't forget to check out the full full Beaver Super Moon.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my God.

[Jack Armstrong]

November 5th. The Full Beaver super moon. A phrase which I am somewhat uncomfortable saying on the air, will be over 27, 000 kilometers closer to Earth than average, making it the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.

[Joe Getty]

So it's a. A beaver, a blue beaver. Super harvest moon.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fantastic Full beaver super moon. All right. Dot com. All right. Too many fancy moons. So this is a weird and jarring transition after our truly disturbing segment moments ago talking about various adolescents who've been led down the path of fantasy and away from reality and ended up killing themselves by character AI or similar AI platforms. This is, you know, in a similar vein, but much more light hearted. It's a nice note from Douglas. What did I do with that note from Matt? That's weird. Jack Joe, the subscription version of Chat GPT. Chat GPT 5 has a personalization option in the user profile section below as a screenshot of the page, and here are at least some of your choices. Default Persona is cheerful and adaptive. You got the cynic Persona, critical and sarcastic robot, efficient and blunt listener, thoughtful and supportive and nerd, exploratory and enthusiastic.

[Joe Getty]

I probably would like the sarcastic one, but probably end up landing on nerd.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or robot in my case. I don't know. But anyway, let's see. Douglas writes, the cynic personality can be fun. For example, I asked about renovating a shower with a window and the first sentence in the response was, ah, the joy of window in shower design. Proof that someone somewhere, somewhere thought, let's put a hole in the wall that's constantly wet. That's pretty funny. Yeah, yeah, I know. That is really good. I like the robot setting because it does away with the flattery. Or as cynical, Chat GPT actually describes the. The other voices. And that's, that's the part that got my attention. It's like, wait a minute. So the cynical Chat GPT is cynical about Chat GPT.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

The cynical chatgpt describes the robot. Robot is doing away with the algorithmic brown nosing dressed up as positivity.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I've got to record the grok in my truck that I use because it drives my kids nuts. Just how fr. How friendly she is and just so positive. It's very annoying. I should record that to play it on the air. Hey, how you doing? No problem. You got this. Check back later. I mean, it's the way she talks.

[Jack Armstrong]

To me all the time, Lord, that makes my skin crawl. I know. Oh, I don't want that from a human being and I don't want it from a damn machine.

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that is so weird. So I'm pawing through email from days previous and I came across again, the absolutely brilliant note from David, who suggested the phrase starve the lazy. Which reminds me to mention we've got the Armstrong and Getty store up and running. Order now to get stuff in time for Christmas for yourself and your fellow Armstrong and Getty fans. Whether it's just a standard logo or one of the slogans like Starve the lazy, stupid should hurt. Keeping in mind that it doesn't we don't get money, it helps to keep everybody on the payroll during these challenging times.

[Joe Getty]

I'm going to present that to Grok today and I'll record it. Hey, Grok. This radio show I listen to, Armstrong and Getty has new T shirts that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Say Starve the lazy.

[Joe Getty]

What do you think of that? And see what she has to say.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do it. She. She does it at Breasts and Ovaries. No, it's an it. Okay, we got more next hour. If you miss a segment, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty.

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