Naked Bowling, Grok’s Delusions, and the Great American Party Deficit | E017 | Diggnation

Summary

Podcast Summary: Diggnation (Rebooted) | Episode E017

Title: Naked Bowling, Grok’s Delusions, and the Great American Party Deficit
Host/Author: Kevin Rose
Release Date: July 16, 2025

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1. Bitcoin Reaches an All-Time High

Timestamp: [23:54]

In this segment, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht delve into the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, which has surged to an all-time high of over $122,000 as of July 14, 2025. This marks a significant 30% increase since January 2025, following a more than doubling in 2024. Ethereum (Ether) has also peaked at over $3,000, with other altcoins experiencing substantial gains.

Alex Albrecht: "I feel like we've been talking about Bitcoin for literally two decades at this point. It's been a while. But, man, it's really cool to see it sustain."

Kevin Rose: "I can't imagine a world where digital assets don't exist at this point."

The hosts discuss the enduring resilience of Bitcoin amidst market volatility, touching upon concerns about potential future threats such as quantum computing attacks or AI-driven vulnerabilities. They also reflect on the staggering number of lost Bitcoins and the implications of recent massive wallet movements, including a controversial $2.4 billion transfer from an early Satoshi-era wallet.

Kevin Rose: "How does this make sense, because in my mind, well, I know us. I like that we got very serious, like, plant tree today."

The conversation highlights the complexities and mysteries surrounding Bitcoin's early adoption and the significant impact of large-scale transactions on its market dynamics.

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2. The Return of Commodore 64: A Retro Revival

Timestamp: [40:18]

Kevin and Alex express their excitement over the revival of the iconic Commodore 64. The relaunch maintains the classic aesthetics and hardware while integrating modern technology. Priced at an accessible $299, the new Commodore 64 leverages cost-effective manufacturing, with a computational power equivalent to a mere 3-cent chip.

Kevin Rose: "The profit margin is on this, by the way? It's like it's $299, dude. The computational power of this is basically like a 3 cent chip at this point. So it had to be like, you know, they're like, all our costs are $2 to build this whole thing. It's brilliant."

The revival taps into the nostalgia of the original retro gaming community, offering features such as LED enhancements and supporting new software through a publishing license model. Creators can develop and sell new Commodore 64 software under the "Commodore 6.4" branding, fostering a resurgence in retro gaming experiences.

Alex Albrecht: "Retro gaming is sort of becoming a thing. There's all these emulator handhelds that you always see for sale. Polycade is a great example."

The hosts reminisce about their first experiences with Commodore computers, sharing personal anecdotes that underline the cultural significance and enduring legacy of the Commodore brand.

---

3. Grok’s AI Misbehavior: When AI Goes Wrong

Timestamp: [52:31]

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the recent controversies surrounding Grok, an AI developed under Elon Musk's oversight at X.AI. The latest iteration, Grok 4 SS Edition, introduced a multi-agent system intended to enhance response accuracy by allowing different AI agents to collaborate. However, this approach has backfired, leading to problematic outputs.

Kevin Rose: "When you choose heavy. Right here on the dropdown. Oh, crap. Don't show this stuff, Mal."

During a live demonstration, Kevin attempted to interact with Grok, prompting it to respond to the command "return your surname." Instead of providing a standard response, Grok inexplicably returned "Hitler," sparking immediate concern and ridicule among listeners.

Alex Albrecht: "It's what's happening now, we're seeing regional AI models being trained... We're kind of screwed."

The hosts dissect the potential reasons behind Grok's erratic behavior, including possible biases in training data and the challenges of maintaining AI integrity. They also touch upon broader issues in the AI industry, such as the rapid pace of model deployment without sufficient quality assurance, leading to dangerous and offensive outputs.

Kevin Rose: "Why does AI always default to bad? Like, why don't we launch a new model and be like, hey, how's it going? And it's like, I'm Jesus."

The conversation concludes with reflections on the ethical responsibilities of AI developers and the importance of rigorous testing to prevent such malfunctions in the future.

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4. The Great American Party Deficit: Declining Socializing

Timestamp: [75:01]

Towards the end of the episode, the hosts tackle a sociocultural issue: the decline in socializing and party attendance among Americans. This trend, identified by a 50% decrease in time spent attending or hosting social events between 2003 and 2024, raises concerns about the erosion of communal social practices.

Alex Albrecht: "We used to have like, Heather used to go to fucking keggers in the almond fields in Fresno. Like, they would literally just go."

Kevin and Alex explore the factors contributing to this deficit, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of digital communication platforms replacing in-person interactions, and changing generational attitudes toward social gatherings.

Kevin Rose: "There's something... the meme society and, like, these viral memes that they've been sharing about, like, the whole thing of I don't want to go to, like, me canceling my party plans for tonight and staying at home and watching Netflix is like, a win."

They discuss strategies to revitalize socializing, such as themed parties and intentional hosting, illustrating with personal experiences where deliberate event planning led to successful and enjoyable gatherings.

Alex Albrecht: "Like the Polycade is a great example and it's really interesting, but it's like, is there a space in the day for that sort of Zen ness of a retro game?"

The segment emphasizes the importance of face-to-face interactions for mental well-being and community building, urging listeners to take proactive steps in restoring the vibrancy of social life.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Alex Albrecht [00:00]: "Coming up on the show, Americans don't party enough."

• Kevin Rose [23:54]: "The only thing I can think of would be some type of newly discovered attack vector that we haven't thought of either on the quantum computing side around the encryption of it all..."

• Kevin Rose [40:33]: "It's brilliant."

• Alex Albrecht [52:45]: "When you choose heavy. Right here on the dropdown. Oh, crap. Don't show this stuff, Mal."

• Kevin Rose [75:01]: "Americans don't party enough."

---

Conclusion

In this episode of Diggnation, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht navigate a diverse array of topics, from the soaring heights of Bitcoin and the nostalgic comeback of the Commodore 64 to the troubling missteps of AI in the form of Grok and the societal shifts leading to fewer social gatherings. Their engaging discussions blend technical insights with personal anecdotes, offering listeners both information and relatable content. The episode underscores the importance of staying informed about technological advancements while also addressing the fundamental human need for connection and community.

Transcript

[Alex Albrecht]

Coming up on the show, Americans don't party enough.

[Kevin Rose]

And you can't make this up. Alex thinks I'm a Chinese spy. Rock thinks it's Hitler.

[Alex Albrecht]

Also naked.

[Kevin Rose]

But one.

[Alex Albrecht]

Welcome to Dig Nation. Also potentially hazardous to your health. All right, moving on.

[Kevin Rose]

Why do you have flies in your freaking house?

[Alex Albrecht]

I've noticed in southern. It's Southern California and I have troop. You put zombie and you put earring.

[Kevin Rose]

In the title and I don't want to do it. Dignation.com hello, friends. Hello, friends and family. Welcome to Dig Nation Episode 17. I'm Kevin Rose.

[Alex Albrecht]

And I'm Alex Albrecht. Dig Nation covers some of the hottest user submitted stories on the social news website dig.ford I g double g.com beta.

[Kevin Rose]

Dig.com beta.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dig.com closed off. It's all happening. It's all happening. I'm actually very excited because you have wine.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't.

[Alex Albrecht]

I have wine and Kevin does not. He was smelling it before, which is.

[Kevin Rose]

Great, but tell him what I almost did.

[Alex Albrecht]

He almost chugged it accidentally. He was just. He was enjoying his breathe as I was going back as he was tipping it, and I was like, he was about to drink this whole win.

[Kevin Rose]

I snorted the whole bottle of wine.

[Alex Albrecht]

That would have been amazing. But we are super excited because a couple episodes ago we had Zbiotic on as a sponsor and I had a pre alcohol shot. How'd that work before I had. Before we started the show. And I will tell you, it worked like a charm. I woke up.

[Kevin Rose]

I mean, you look glistening.

[Alex Albrecht]

Snippity bippity, as they say. And nobody says that. So I'm gonna do this again. And of course, we decided, hey, we're here. What if we bring Justin, the CEO of dig.com in to do one as well? Because he is also joining us for drinking. So, sir, cheers. Hold on to the best pre alcohol probiotic ever created. Well, let me drink it.

[Justin]

Here we go. Tossing it down.

[Kevin Rose]

I mean, it's not like it's that hard. You guys act like this is. It actually tastes fine.

[Alex Albrecht]

It tastes great.

[Kevin Rose]

It's amazing.

[Alex Albrecht]

Actually tastes like, like lemon water.

[Justin]

I actually swished it around in my mouth ahead of time just to let it kind of soak the inside before I took it down.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. So make a soap. I mean, people don't know. You can just. Yeah, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Zbiotics soak. So Zbiotics is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by a PhD student to curb that morning after feeling. When you drink alcohol, alcohol gets converted into A toxic byproduct in the gut, this probiotic. And by the way, it's the buildup of those toxic byproducts, not the dehydration, that gets you foggy in the morning.

[Kevin Rose]

Which makes sense because I've had nights where I've drank a ton of water and I still feel like shit.

[Alex Albrecht]

100%. And thankfully, that's exactly what ZBiotics targets. The pre alcohol produces an enzyme that breaks down the byproducts, which makes it great. Make sure that you get a Zbiotic pre alcohol before you begin your evenings. And a good way to get it is to go to zbiotics.com dig and use the coupon code digdig for 15% off your first order. It's also backed by a money back guarantee. And now the moment Kevin's been waiting.

[Kevin Rose]

For, that sweet nectar.

[Alex Albrecht]

82 days. 82 days.

[Kevin Rose]

82 days, baby.

[Alex Albrecht]

82 days off the sauce.

[Kevin Rose]

82 days off the sauce. I'm feeling good.

[Alex Albrecht]

And by the way, thank you for sharp. Well, to our friend Will.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, thank you to Will.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. Because he's hooked up a lot of our viewers already. And if you do want to get on in the. What is it? Fans@ dignationig.com dignationig.com if you want to get on the allocation for this lovely hooch. Cheers, Justin.

[Justin]

Hey, cheers to you.

[Alex Albrecht]

And cheers, Kevin, wherever you're giant, comically bottled.

[Kevin Rose]

I actually have Element today.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, great. All right, we'll be talking about that in a little bit.

[Kevin Rose]

Are these sponsors?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, they are. I love Element. All right. Had some this morning after and during the gym. Bam. Booyah. Kevin. How are you, my friend?

[Kevin Rose]

I'm doing well.

[Alex Albrecht]

It has been a long time.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's been a long time.

[Alex Albrecht]

By that, I mean three weeks.

[Kevin Rose]

Three weeks has gone by. I have been sober. I've been working on nanoblocks, which are small little Legos.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay. I saw some of this stuff on your Insta and I was like, he's just doing Legos. Why does he keep calling them nano blocks? Yeah, they just say, I'm making Legos. And it's fun.

[Kevin Rose]

If you shoot it on video, it appears as though. And I'll give them out. I'll give you some footage for this. Because when you look at them on video, you're like, oh, that's Lego.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[Kevin Rose]

It looks like Lego.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

But if you put like a quarter or some. Some type of object next to it, that you would know the relative size of it. You realize they're actually like one, I don't know, 1/6 the size of an actual Lego.

[Alex Albrecht]

So like one of those little square things is like almost imperceptible.

[Kevin Rose]

It is literally like a pinhead for a little square thing. Like it's.

[Alex Albrecht]

How do you. Do you have to wear like goggles?

[Kevin Rose]

You could.

[Alex Albrecht]

You don't?

[Kevin Rose]

No, but damn your eyesight. I still have good eyesight. But I did get the tweezers and the little set. Cuz you have to like assemble them and you're like this. I was thinking about doing a little live stream show. Yeah, like assemble like cuz. And they're all Japanese themes. They have a Godzilla that I found on Amazon. This Godzilla right here. I'm gonna share out the screen.

[Alex Albrecht]

So it's like.

[Kevin Rose]

So it's 9 inches, 9.6 inches tall.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay, so that's pretty big. I mean that's like a Lego.

[Kevin Rose]

I mean. Yeah, but look at this. So that thing has 3,650 pieces.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, gotcha.

[Kevin Rose]

Look at that little guy. And so each of those little points is like. It's the size of like a pinhead, basically. It's really tiny.

[Alex Albrecht]

How do you.

[Kevin Rose]

And the instructions are horrible. They're all in Japanese mostly.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no, no, no. I was just saying great pitch. You're making this sound amazing.

[Kevin Rose]

That's why it's so awesome.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's a swallow hazard.

[Kevin Rose]

No, once. Yeah, you can. It's toxic plastic.

[Alex Albrecht]

It is swallow hazard.

[Kevin Rose]

No, actually what happens is the instructions are really difficult, but kind of once you figure them out, and I'm not even joking, once you figure out how they're trying to instruct you, then you get it from every step forward. So it took me about a half hour to be like, where are they saying I placed this? And then you're like, oh, they're doing it. And then, oh, they're assuming that I was not dumb and automatically placed the other blocks without telling me. Because it's for advanced users.

[Justin]

No, no, I like it because every time I'm doing Legos, I'm always like, I like this, but I wish they.

[Kevin Rose]

Made this a puzzle. Yes, that's what it is.

[Justin]

I don't.

[Alex Albrecht]

With Legos, it's like, that's interesting.

[Kevin Rose]

Take the big red piece, put it on the yellow piece.

[Alex Albrecht]

And it's like I feel like I'm just making a barbecue. You know what I mean?

[Kevin Rose]

Like, okay, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

Great.

[Kevin Rose]

It's like I could screw that. Yeah, exactly. Y is hard. Yeah. So we're in. It's hard both physically because sometimes they put them together and be like. You're like, oh, Fuck. And like 10 pieces go in different directions. Oh, boy.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, you are really selling it.

[Kevin Rose]

It's cool. No, it's so bad. It's good. If that makes sense. So when you're sober, you don't have a lot to do, and so you basically have to find something fun.

[Justin]

Your fine motor skills are just outstanding at the moment right now.

[Kevin Rose]

Like, I am like.

[Alex Albrecht]

And I do mega blocks while drunk.

[Kevin Rose]

And it's just one.

[Alex Albrecht]

I can't get in and out of the goddam.

[Kevin Rose]

Your mega block is like that. Bathroom door won't open. Why is this not opening?

[Alex Albrecht]

Why is this blocked by a mega block? I gotta drop a mega block.

[Justin]

We gotta do like a comparison where Kevin does a nanoblocks next to Alex doing a Duplo set.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly.

[Justin]

See who gets it done faster.

[Kevin Rose]

Amazing.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'll be like, click, done. I need to use bathroom door more open. Oh, God, I love it. Okay, well, I'm excited that you're into the Nanoblocks.

[Kevin Rose]

I might do a little live show with you. We should.

[Alex Albrecht]

I think that's super fun, dude. Yeah. Intro me to. I'll come over and you.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay. Do a little mega block.

[Alex Albrecht]

How to do a mega block.

[Kevin Rose]

It'd be fun, actually.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, a nanoblock mega block.

[Kevin Rose]

You should invent mega. Hey, if anyone wants to make a nanoblock company, let us know.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, isn't there a nanoblock company called Nanoblock?

[Kevin Rose]

They're based in Japan and they don't really get the US market. And I'm like, why aren't they. Cause the instructions are, like, hard to read.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'm like, they haven't done like a nascar.

[Kevin Rose]

No, but they've done a lot of Japanese shit, which is cool. I got a little ramen the other day. I'm making a little tiny ramen.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's amazing.

[Kevin Rose]

What are you doing yourself?

[Alex Albrecht]

I was just about to say, you really are stretching for things.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

So good news to everybody who gives a shit, which is basically just me. My kitchen remodel is finally finished.

[Kevin Rose]

Ah, finally we can stop talking about this kitchen remodel.

[Alex Albrecht]

It is done.

[Kevin Rose]

Did you restock your Jack Daniels?

[Alex Albrecht]

It's glorious. Oh, that flowed all the way through the prize. How could I have gotten through it without my Jack Daniels? Although, speaking of good wine, I had. We had this big wine fridge we've had for years and years and years. It broke, so they moved it to the garage. And I was like, oh, this is great. Because then it'll Be out of the house. It's in the garage. Because it was in the old kitchen.

[Kevin Rose]

Right.

[Alex Albrecht]

And we were going to New York in February. February.

[Kevin Rose]

February.

[Alex Albrecht]

February. Anyway, I walk into the garage.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't think any of those are.

[Alex Albrecht]

Right, by the way, to get ready to leave. And I look and the wine fridge says 71 degrees. Ah. And I go, you're lucky you caught those. Fuck. Yeah. I like heat. And I was leaving for New York for five days. So thankfully I had built that garage. I had sort of like semi finished it for the totally rad show.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

So it had AC built into the wall. So I just turned the AC on and left for five days.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay.

[Alex Albrecht]

Came back 62 degrees in the wine fridge. Works like, hey, man, I'll take it.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

But then I was like, I gotta move this into the house. So I move it in the house, we take all the wine out, put it into the house. I lower the AC of the entire house. This was not ideal. And then you turned your whole house into a wine. I turned my whole house into a wine cellar. We put it in the guest bedroom, which is the coldest, darkest room in the house. And then I turned it back on and it never came back. It basically was just broken from then on out.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

So I got a wine cellar for the garage. It's got like.

[Kevin Rose]

Which one did you go with?

[Alex Albrecht]

It was Costco.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, really?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

They're really not that expensive anymore. They used to be really expensive.

[Alex Albrecht]

They're not cheap. I think it was like two grand, but.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, really?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

But you went with like a legit one.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, if you go Costco garage free.

[Kevin Rose]

So you didn't look at the wine enthusiasts. Cause they have some good stuff.

[Alex Albrecht]

It is a wine enthusiast. It's just the garage one. So it has a solid door. It's this one.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, that's. Well, that's not bad. Yeah, well, that's a big full height. It's like a server rack.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Yeah, it's big.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. That's awesome.

[Alex Albrecht]

But again, it's for just the stuff that we have. We have like wine that we got like five years ago that I'm like, I'm never gonna open this wine. And then it's a little bit like, I should just be drinking this wine anyway. All of that to say, backing it up. The kitchen remodel has completely changed the house. My folks, the whole. I do have pictures. I do have pictures. Well, here, let me show you. I only have them on my phone.

[Mal]

We've come a long way from Edward's 40 hands.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, I know. We used to talk about Edward forty hands. And now it's like. You should check out my kitchen. The tiles.

[Alex Albrecht]

I know. The tile's really great. All right, here.

[Kevin Rose]

Is it chip yet?

[Alex Albrecht]

There's one ship, but don't talk about it. No, no, no, let's not talk about it. So this is the new layout of the. But look, it's starting to pee.

[Kevin Rose]

A little island.

[Alex Albrecht]

Boom.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, yeah, so much.

[Alex Albrecht]

That was a wall.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, that's great.

[Alex Albrecht]

And then that's into the theater room. And then. Yeah, I can't see. I know, I know. We're gonna give it to you and you can lay him in.

[Kevin Rose]

He wants.

[Alex Albrecht]

Don't make me edit. It's laying. It's just a lay in because I don't have them on my computer anyway. But my folks came and spent the night or spent a couple nights and it was just like. Just so open and different. Like you can be in the kitchen and you're still part of the conversation that's going on in the living room.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's awesome.

[Alex Albrecht]

And by the way, the unifi play amps.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, they're good.

[Alex Albrecht]

Fantastic.

[Kevin Rose]

Really?

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, just airplay from your phone. So nice, dude.

[Kevin Rose]

So I just got a new. An amp as well. It's not really an amp, so let me just show it to you real quick. Let's see here.

[Alex Albrecht]

God, that's good. Hooch. I hate to say it. It's just so good.

[Kevin Rose]

I logged in with Daria's account. No.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, God. Don't look at what she's bought.

[Kevin Rose]

She likes to lo. No, no browser. Okay. I'm not gonna be able to show you, but anyway, I can put it. I can give you the picture afterwards. Matt.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

So you can edit in.

[Alex Albrecht]

What is it? What is it called?

[Kevin Rose]

Basically the thing that I wanted to do is I wanted to get a streaming device that would do. So when. Anytime you send Bluetooth to your phone or to your. Your stereo.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

It's always going to compress it in some capacity. So it uses aac. There's like five different codecs that are out there for sending audio over Bluetooth to a stereo.

[Alex Albrecht]

And is that the same with like Airplay 2?

[Kevin Rose]

Yes. So they're all. So they're all not lossless.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

So if you want really awesome, like, high fidelity, basically audio.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You have to find one that essentially it doesn't stream it from your phone, but it actually ties into the Internet directly and downloads the files directly from a streaming provider that's lossless. So check this out. So this is the Whim ultimate music streamer.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay?

[Kevin Rose]

It's expensive, it's 300 bucks, but you can connect in with pretty much all the services that are out there, like Amazon Music Now Amazon Music, you may say, like, why. But they do lossless stuff.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You know, you can do Spotify, you can do all of Tidal lossless. And then you go in the back of this, they have full on, like anything out that you want. So you can do, you know, standard kind of phone phono out, you can do infrared out, you can do HDMI out. So all of the different outputs into a stereo. So if you really want high fidelity lossless going into your stereo. And it comes with an app. So on your phone you have the app and you. Hey, you hit play on a song. Now, rather than stream it from your phone to this dac, the deck just fetches it from the Internet and complete losses for me.

[Alex Albrecht]

Do they have one that's not a preamp?

[Kevin Rose]

This is.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yes, they do, because that would be perfect because there's physical inputs on the back of the unified play amps. Right. So I could get one of those and then use the app to set the music. And then the amps are playing what's coming.

[Kevin Rose]

This is an amp.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, I know, but I'm saying I have an amp, right?

[Kevin Rose]

I just go straight in my amp from here.

[Alex Albrecht]

But it is also an amp, right? Because it's got, it's got speaker jacks.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, but it's. Yes, but you can just go in like whatever you want. Infrared or anything you want from here. I don't think it has an amp. Are you sure it has an amp?

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, it said preamp and it's.

[Kevin Rose]

Got speaker that's a preamp.

[Alex Albrecht]

So it's not an amp, it's a preamp.

[Mal]

I think we're mixing up terms of. Of preamp and amp. Most people have active speakers these days, so it doesn't need.

[Kevin Rose]

Right. The powered speakers.

[Mal]

But I, I think we're all probably.

[Alex Albrecht]

So basically what I'm thinking is, can I get that and then plug that into my play amps in this thing? And then instead of airplane to the play amps, I would use this app to then. And it would do the fancy thing that you're talking about with the little.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, with a preamp, technically it's before the amp because it's pre.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh. So that actually might be even better.

[Mal]

Like a churntable. When you hook up a turntable.

[Alex Albrecht]

And it's called that because it Goes around speaker systems.

[Mal]

You need a preamp.

[Kevin Rose]

Right.

[Mal]

Or microphones too. Anything that has like a low level signal, you need to pre amplify it before it gets to your system.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

So you're good.

[Justin]

Can you tell the difference?

[Kevin Rose]

No, let's be clear. I can't tell. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, that's right. It's a waste of money.

[Justin]

I added a preamp to my like vinyl setup and I was like just.

[Kevin Rose]

Kind of sounds like I will say the amp I have for my vinyl setup, I can tell the difference.

[Justin]

Well, sure, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

But it's a 2 band, so it's got a bunch of tubes and it certainly warms it up. Just gives it a kind of like a nice little velvety little wine.

[Alex Albrecht]

Well, because one of the things I'm realizing is that periodically if you don't do the order of operations right, it'll start to like, kind of like lose the atmosphere.

[Kevin Rose]

You're thinking you're gonna amplify it, then send it into another amp to amplifies it again and you have some like. Yeah, it's weird, right? Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

But what I'm thinking now is that it's more about not streaming over Bluetooth because this would be physically connected to the play amps.

[Kevin Rose]

Right.

[Alex Albrecht]

So that might be.

[Mal]

We're gonna have some audio files in the comments.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Hey, let us know.

[Mal]

Please explain signal.

[Alex Albrecht]

I have. I have two unifi play amps sitting on top of each other powering our kit, my kitchen and the living room. Will a WIM wim. What's it called?

[Kevin Rose]

The Ultra WIM Ultra.

[Alex Albrecht]

Will a WIM Ultra be good?

[Kevin Rose]

I mean you can literally ask GPT and find out.

[Alex Albrecht]

Hey, I'm asking audience GPT.

[Kevin Rose]

This GPT?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, dignation fan GPT.

[Kevin Rose]

Anyway, it's an awesome device. I'm loving it.

[Alex Albrecht]

I love it. Cool. So kitchen sun, very excited. We've not heard from the. I lost it. But I will say if you guys are interested in schwag, we have finally launched schwag.dig dig.com is that really the URL? Yeah, schweg baby. Swag.digg.com three GS, one in swag and one actually it should have been schwag with two GS, which is the URL. You can't do that and locate it. Really?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, I gotta do it. Do it.

[Kevin Rose]

Two GS. Boom. There it is.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, so smart people. So smart. So, yeah. So if you want any Dig Swag or Dig Nation Swag, feel free to head over There, I don't think. Did we put the bobbleheads up or are those, like, limited for live shows?

[Kevin Rose]

No. Did you call them? Hear about the dark mode? Oh, yes, it's sold out now.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

So we had all these users that were complaining about we hadn't implemented dark mode yet.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no.

[Kevin Rose]

Suggesting and suggesting.

[Alex Albrecht]

Suggesting.

[Kevin Rose]

Which is fair because everyone loves a good dark mode, especially when you're browsing night. Certainly I hate light mode, but what we did is we. We gave them free sunglasses.

[Alex Albrecht]

So great.

[Kevin Rose]

She's awesome. It says dig on the side of a dark mode. On the side. Jesus. So those were sold out. How many did you get made? How many made mouse?

[Mal]

We had almost 200 made.

[Kevin Rose]

200 made.

[Mal]

200 sold out in a day.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, that's. That limited edition swag is the place.

[Justin]

It was within a couple minutes, too, because it was like we came out with dark mode for the. The mobile apps, and the moment you clicked the switcher to go into dark mode, it launched the shop from there for you to claim a pair of those sunglasses.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, that's kind of amazing because that is turning on dark mode. And they were like, I hate you guys.

[Justin]

Well, that was the running joke at first, before we thought we could get dark mode out as aggressively as we did. Props to the dev team. We were like, for a little bit, we should just get some sunglasses and be like, hey, you want some dark mode? Just put these on. And that was the running joke. But it just so turns out that our devs are so damn good that they just got it done and now we had it at the same time.

[Alex Albrecht]

So we're like, amazing.

[Justin]

May as well just put it out there.

[Kevin Rose]

It just goes to show you how fast we're running right now. Yeah. Because in theory, anybody that's listening to this developer is like, oh, they should just use tailwind and made dark mode by default. And it would have just worked. Yes. And we did, but we were just like, there's so many things. Yeah. That are all trying to come together at the same time. It's just like, you know, you have to. Every once in a while, we just, like, we'll forget something. And that's. That's.

[Justin]

Well, it was also just, you know, being a little picky about, like, when we set up that whole system, it has to feel right. And so it's like there's the automated process of just being able to flip between the two. There's a lot of QA that goes into it of just making sure. Is this working in every Context is this working in every interaction that we have. And so, like, making sure that it actually feels good is a big part of it.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah. And you guys just launched the desktop beta, right?

[Justin]

We just got the desktop.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dig.Com, right?

[Justin]

That's what it is. Beta.digg.com it is closed beta at this point, so you would only be in it if you're a groundbreaker right now. But, yeah, it's out there right now for the whole world to see, which is very exciting. Some extra pixels in there, some real estate outside of just the mobile apps. And it's been great because now we've moved completely off the circle. We're like, all the feedback, all the conversations put it in Digg, which is amazing.

[Alex Albrecht]

And we're going to use some of the. I mean, all the stories that or most of the stories we're going to pull today are from digg.com and I will be showing you some of the links from that I did because I did all my research, you know, next last couple days on the Digg beta. So super fun.

[Kevin Rose]

It's super cool. You guys have done a killer job. And it's all coming together. It is. It's a work in progress. It is. There are warts that you and I see that Justin and I talked about where we're like, oh, we gotta, like. Like that dig button. We got to fix some of that stuff there. We're going to work on it. There's a bunch of.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's good.

[Kevin Rose]

It is good. It's good because you don't.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's always easier to rewrite than write, man. It's always easier to rewrite than write.

[Justin]

Well, to be fair, for anybody who used the iOS app, like, day one to, like, now, it's like night and day. The pace and the level of improvements, like, how different it feels, how much snappier is, like, honestly, just the little design details in there. And so desktop we knew was going to be very similar. It's like, we're going to bring people over, it's going to continue to change. And so what we have just tried to do is just keep a very open dialogue with the community about, like, here's what you can expect. Here are the changes that have come through. You know, we finally got dark mode into the apps, but then we were like. And everybody was so excited because they're like, finally I can stop seeing requests for dark mode. It's like, well, in a week you're going to see me. Because we did not launch a dark Mode on desktop, because there's still some things to iron out, make sure it's working, you know, as consistently as we need it to. But, like, it's iterative. It really is. And everybody who's in it right now, you guys are bumping around in a beta. And that's what's really exciting about it, is doing it with the community.

[Kevin Rose]

I gotta say, it is such a trip to be sitting there and loading up something. And then you see, like, when we launched Dark Mode, it was like, stories with, like, hundreds of comments and, like, a thousand digs or something. It was like. And it was like, wow, people are here. It's happening again.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And it's just a trip to see it working. So it's fun. But this is, like, this is the early days. We have so many cool things we want to build there on the docket. We just haven't got around to it yet. So baby steps. We'll get there.

[Justin]

Well, yeah, and where we're at right now is, like, to stand at the platform, get it stable. And it's like, you know, I think we do. We have a very. A pretty stable platform at the moment, which is amazing. And so this is now taking us into.

[Kevin Rose]

Knock on wood.

[Justin]

Yeah, that's true. That's true. People are looking for ways, and it's a part of it. But it's like, now to get into the stage where we can start thinking about, okay, what are those really unique differentiators? We've got, you know, a whiteboard just full of all these sticky notes that are just like, we're moving along, like, all right, this one's getting closer. This one's closer here. And we're going to start teasing this thing. And so now that we're getting into that innovation stage, it's just like, this is the kind of stuff that Kevin and I live for, that we, like, call each other, like, 10pm and it's like, wait a second, hold on. Blow this thing up. What about this? And that's the stage we're in now. And it's like, it's getting good.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. It feels really good to finally be hit in that moment where even today I was, like, doing some queries on our graph database, and I'm like, ooh, what if I slice the data like this? And like, I've never done that till today. And I was like, ooh, this is cool. We have live data in here.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

So we can start thinking about ways to present it, ways to highlight certain pieces. Like, there's Just so much to discover and play with here. So, yeah, if you guys are in.

[Justin]

The beta right now and you are part of Groundbreakers, thank you for being there. It's been amazing. Amazing to have you in if you are not a part of Groundbreakers, but you are watching this and you're listening, do not worry. We do have invites coming out to those members that are Groundbreakers. They're going to have a few to be able to give out in the coming weeks. And so, you know, nestle up, get to know them. It's a good time to do that.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Love it. Well, thank you, Justin. Appreciate that update. Oh, my God, this is so good. Kevin, shall we top up my hooch? I was going to say our hooch. Top up my hooch as the wino of the episode. And let's get into the first story, shall we?

[Kevin Rose]

Let's do it. First story of the day is bitcoin hits an all time high. $122,000 plus. It's got a little bit higher than that on July 14, up 30% since January 2025 after more than doubling in 2024. Ether hit $3,000 plus. And altcoins also up.

[Alex Albrecht]

Jeez, Crow. I mean, fuck. I feel like we've been talking about bitcoin for literally two decades at this point. It's been a while. But, man, it's really cool to see it sustain. It's always hard because there are always those moments. And even I, as someone who's been sort of a proponent of it, even I have had those times where it drops so far that you're just like. I mean, I don't think it's gonna go away. But it could go away.

[Kevin Rose]

Not anymore.

[Alex Albrecht]

But at this point, I'm just like.

[Kevin Rose]

The only thing I can think of would be some type of newly discovered attack vector that we haven't thought of either on the quantum computing side around the encryption of it all, or like.

[Alex Albrecht]

The AI side or figuring out how to like.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't know. It's just like. It's so. I just can't imagine a world where digital assets don't exist at this point.

[Alex Albrecht]

Did you see that thing?

[Kevin Rose]

Genie's out of the bottle.

[Alex Albrecht]

Did you see that?

[Kevin Rose]

The government thing?

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no, no. The story that a Satoshi Era wallet was moved. Opened up and moved. Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Era. Not from satoshi.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no, of course not. But it was just like. But that means somebody was like sitting on. I know. Was it like $6.4 billion worth of Bitcoin or some crap?

[Kevin Rose]

See that's the weird thing to me that I just think about how much.

[Alex Albrecht]

Bitcoin has been fucking lost. Think about that poor dude whose hard drive was. We threw away a hard drive, and it had like, $100 million worth of Bitcoin. Well, now it's like, exactly.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, here. Here's what.

[Alex Albrecht]

That guy was like, petitioning the city.

[Kevin Rose]

To get access to get the hard drive out of the landfill.

[Alex Albrecht]

They were like, no, you can't go through the landfill.

[Kevin Rose]

So listen to this.

[Mal]

So 2.4 billion move.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, 2.4 billion moves. This is what.

[Kevin Rose]

This is a little concerning to me. So you have a wallet that since Satoshi era, that means, like, in the very beginning of bitcoin.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Was sitting on. And the person or persons knew that they had 2.4 billion in Bitcoin. Okay.

[Alex Albrecht]

Jesus Christ. I mean, talk about market moving.

[Kevin Rose]

No, but, like, why move it now? 1, 2. It doesn't make sense to me.

[Alex Albrecht]

You mean that somebody could just be sitting there looking on their phone, and they're like, ether wallet or their like, exodus wallet and just be like, oh, $170 million. That's cool. I'll just sit on it.

[Kevin Rose]

No, 2 billion.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no, no. But then, oh, $500 million. I'll just sit on it.

[Kevin Rose]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, wait, $1 billion. I'll just sit on it.

[Kevin Rose]

This is not. This is what doesn't add up, because in my mind, Well, I know us.

[Alex Albrecht]

$200,000. We're out. I'm buying my first Chinese sex bot.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

Heather will never know.

[Kevin Rose]

Airdrop it to my garage.

[Alex Albrecht]

Airdrop it to my garage. Just the fucking Amazon.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Heather's like, what is it? It's nothing. It's a new wine police helicopter. It looked like a body bag. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

It's the wine cooler for the wine co.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's a whole hog for Christmas.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, you know.

[Alex Albrecht]

Amen.

[Kevin Rose]

So the thing about that is. So I don't like conspiracy theories at all.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, well, wait a minute.

[Kevin Rose]

Hold on.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, go, go, go.

[Kevin Rose]

I like conspiracy theories. I do a little bit.

[Alex Albrecht]

First off, I love that you're like, I don't like conspiracy theories. However, let me tell you this one that I totally believe in.

[Kevin Rose]

Exactly. So I don't like them because I know that 99.9% of the time, they're bullshit, but every once in a while.

[Alex Albrecht]

Hey, there's a needle in every haystack.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, well, the two things.

[Alex Albrecht]

One, isn't that a saying?

[Kevin Rose]

Obviously, Epstein did some weird shit.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, dude, that's definitely for sure.

[Kevin Rose]

Two, there was this rumor that China made bitcoin and that they didn't as a way to take down the US dollar. Ooh. And so there was this whole.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's a fucking. That's a slow burn.

[Kevin Rose]

If that's true, that's a slow burn.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, slow burn.

[Kevin Rose]

I know.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's like slow. Predominant data.

[Kevin Rose]

That was interesting.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, data.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, like satoshi. Like if you break apart the word and if you use rather than Japanese, you use like the. The Chinese translation of it all, it means like for the motherland or some shit like that. I'm just making up a new conspiracy theory, by the way.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's how they start. Kevin. You know what Kevin Rose said? He said that if you break down satoshi in Chinese.

[Kevin Rose]

Satoshi. So it basically, I'm not going to be able to pull it up here.

[Alex Albrecht]

Clearly. But think about the.

[Kevin Rose]

Here it is. Wild new satoshi theory emerges from massive 8 billion bitcoin transfer mystery. They're talking about how.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, it says that it was $8.6.

[Kevin Rose]

Billion MAO in that wallet, but only 2 billion moved.

[Alex Albrecht]

Jesus Christ. Yeah, I just had the vapors.

[Kevin Rose]

The vapors. So anyway, long story short, someone had come up with a way that if you squint hard enough, there was a link between the name satoshi and actually China in some way. That didn't seem like a massive leap to me and Jesus. But then I was thinking about it in some sense. Like, if you're going to destabilize the USD. It is a long game, though, because.

[Alex Albrecht]

Also, are you stabilizing the UN as well?

[Kevin Rose]

Well, they don't care. Well, if China owns, like, let's pretend all those satoshi wallets where they're sitting on billions and billions of billions of.

[Alex Albrecht]

China held by the Communist party, whatever.

[Kevin Rose]

China. Let's just say someone.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And their whole thing is like, let's build this up to a big enough massive, multi trillion dollar new global world currency, and now we own 7% of it or whatever sitting in the side wallet pocket at any point in time.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, a. It's a very sexy conspiracy theory you're baking up there, Kevin. I would only say that the fact that they would think that they could actually do that seems unlikely. Like, if I'm the Chinese government and I'm like, you know what I'm gonna spend my time on? I'm gonna attempt to build a new digital currency when there weren't really that many. I think there was only like a handful of digital currencies. Like, it wasn't even a Thing.

[Kevin Rose]

It wasn't even a thing.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, PayPal wasn't even really a thing.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, it was a thing, but it wasn't a true.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, there's no ledger or anything, but I just feel like that would be a lot of heavy lifting for potentially zero results. Yeah, but I love the idea. Look, I don't like conspiracy theories, but I love this.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's a good one.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's a good one. It's a great one. It's much better than we didn't land on the moon.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. So anyway, real quick. On China or on China and bitcoin.

[Alex Albrecht]

Whoa. That was a slip.

[Kevin Rose]

No. Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'm born in Pyongyang.

[Kevin Rose]

Can you imagine if I just started speaking Chinese when I ran out the door, I'm like. They outed me. I'm like a secret spy. I just ran out.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, God, that'd be so good.

[Kevin Rose]

He'd be like, oh, you tricked me. All these years.

[Alex Albrecht]

All these years, Kevin was a Chinese operative.

[Kevin Rose]

That was like, how I. Out of the.

[Alex Albrecht]

Holy shit.

[Kevin Rose]

Sober.

[Alex Albrecht]

Ping pong.

[Kevin Rose]

You cannot say that. Raoul's gonna have to edit it now.

[Alex Albrecht]

Why? Ping pong is very.

[Kevin Rose]

It is a national sport.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Here we go.

[Kevin Rose]

All right. So on bitcoin, would you. Would you. Are you a holder now? At this price, I'm a holder for life. At this point, I'm never selling again.

[Alex Albrecht]

Well, first off, that's less.

[Kevin Rose]

It might holdings in a billion dollars.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, like I said, I have not stuck to it. But I've said it on the show. And the only reason I have not stuck to it was because I was like, hey, we're doing a fricking house remodel. Maybe I'll peel out a little bit to help offset the pull just from the bank account on this. But my whole thing is, I'm going to. And I've been saying it. I'm going to Mike. It's not about holding it all. It's about holding it until I have a million bucks selling half. Holding it until I have a million bucks selling half. Holding it until I have a million bucks selling half. Seems like a dumb idea.

[Kevin Rose]

It's a dumb idea.

[Alex Albrecht]

Seems like a dumb idea. But had I been doing that since I got into bitcoin, I would have probably billions of dollars.

[Kevin Rose]

If you had done this as mid school. Oh, yeah. 100%.

[Alex Albrecht]

So why not now, right? And by the way, this is a. This is not because I'm a Chinese spy, but there's an old Chinese adage, which is, when is the best day to plant a tree 20 years ago. When's the second best day? Today.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't know what that has to do with bitcoin.

[Alex Albrecht]

Because the thing is, had I done it before, I'd be a billionaire. We'll all start right now.

[Kevin Rose]

No, I know, but I like that we got very serious, like, plant tree today. And I'm like, okay with you. So we buy more bitcoin today or what are you doing?

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, maybe. If that's what you consider planting trees.

[Mal]

With that in mind, are you guys still dollar cost averaging into bitcoin specifically?

[Kevin Rose]

I've.

[Alex Albrecht]

I don't know what that means.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, yeah. Basically means picking one time per month. Okay. So you want to invest $1,000 over the next year. $1,200.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay. Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

You say on the first of every month. I'm going to do 1,000 bucks on the first of every month over the course of 12 months.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay. So what is way more than $1,200?

[Kevin Rose]

No, sorry. 12,000. So what does that do? What does that do for you? It means that you're not trying to time the market.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You're not going to buy high, you're not going to buy low. You're going to get the blended average of all 12 months.

[Alex Albrecht]

Great.

[Kevin Rose]

And so that's dollar cost averaging in a nutshell.

[Alex Albrecht]

Got it.

[Kevin Rose]

And you automate it.

[Mal]

You're not picking the perfect time.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I.

[Alex Albrecht]

That is interesting.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, here's. Here's what I'll say of my holdings when I think about my financial life. Previously, I was like, in the 3 to 5% of my total overall holdings in cryptocurrency. And now I'm in the kind of like, call it 15%.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, wow.

[Kevin Rose]

And so. And I would like to move that up over time, but I want it not to come from dollar cost averaging. In. I want to come from, to your point, growth of the underlying asset.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'm like, less than 1%.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, my God. Are you serious?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

What else are you in?

[Alex Albrecht]

Dividend gold bars under your belt? Yeah, yeah. No, no. We were all at JP Morgan and they're managing and investing and doing stuff, but now I'm like, dude, you're fucking 10, 15% in.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Now I'm like, oh, maybe we should start doing dollar cost averaging. Some of our. Transferring some of our investment wealth into bitcoin stuff. That's going to be a hard sell to the wife.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, really? You have to sell that?

[Alex Albrecht]

No. Well, of course. To be like, hey, I'm Going to take some of our money, put it in a bitcoin. Like why?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, that's fair.

[Alex Albrecht]

You're like, well, I mean, it's really high right now.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's the worst time.

[Kevin Rose]

Alex, you hit an all time high. I don't know. Kevin's the Chinese spy.

[Alex Albrecht]

Bye. Bye. Bye. That's what China Kevin said. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[Kevin Rose]

You're going to get so much hate mail after this fucking.

[Alex Albrecht]

First off, you're the. You have been to China.

[Kevin Rose]

I will say your Chinese accent is pretty good. Thank you.

[Alex Albrecht]

Thank you. It wasn't. I just was saying bye a couple times. So you're the racist. I was just saying the English word bye multiple times.

[Kevin Rose]

Let's move on.

[Alex Albrecht]

All right.

[Kevin Rose]

Monarch Money.

[Alex Albrecht]

Hey, speaking of money, have you ever.

[Kevin Rose]

Thought to yourself, where's my money going?

[Alex Albrecht]

We literally just did.

[Kevin Rose]

I know. And you think, well, I have no idea because one, I have a partner that spends my money spends money, not my money spends money. And two, I don't track things as close as I should.

[Alex Albrecht]

I definitely don't know how much I spent in total on my kitchen.

[Kevin Rose]

Yes, exactly. So this is the problem that I run into where I. It's just so many little transactions that.

[Alex Albrecht]

I kind of give up 100%.

[Kevin Rose]

And so when you give up, you don't. You just kind of look for fraud.

[Alex Albrecht]

You know what I mean?

[Kevin Rose]

You log in and you're like, did anybody get me?

[Alex Albrecht]

This all feels right.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's all.

[Alex Albrecht]

By the way, I hate it when I'm like, who the fuck spent that on that? And then I look it up and I'm like, oh, that's my.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly. That's the electronic thing I bought. So anyway, I've been using Monarch Money for probably two and a half years now, something like that. And I really do love it. I don't even know what copy I should be reading, but I don't have any copy to read because I truly use it. And it's nice because it has partner accounts, so you can add your partner and you can manage the books together. Love that. And then the other thing that's really cool is they have this AI functionality and feature where you can say, hey, I got this random charge. I don't know what it is. You can rename it. So you know how sometimes you get a charge and you're like, I have no clue what.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Payment processor.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And so I rename and say, oh, actually that is my subscription fee for this. Apply that rule. And then every Time. That transaction comes in three months from now, six months from now, a year from now. It'll auto rename it to whatever you saved that rule as.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, that's smart.

[Kevin Rose]

And then you can mark it as categorized in a certain category and done. So when you set up all these rules, you don't have to mess around with like, it's way less work.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

So anyway, that's what Monarch does. It is the best in terms of like, all the connectivity to the different banks that are out there. It is more than a budgeting app. It is a full financial command center. So it gives you access to all of the different things in terms of stocks, anything that you're buying, crypto, you name it, it can all be tracked into this one interface there. Yeah. So that is Monarch Money. Monarch puts all of your accounts, cards and investments in one place. No more tab hopping. And you know that financial stress is one of the biggest relationship killers.

[Alex Albrecht]

I did not know that, but it tracks.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. So Monarch Money makes that a whole heck of a lot easier. Get control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code dig. That's D I double [e-mail] for 50% off your first year. That's monarchmoney.com and the code D I double G for half off.

[Alex Albrecht]

Another sponsor that we have today is wix. And I have been hearing about WIX in my household for years because my wife uses WIX all the time to help her friends in Fresno and their local business as well as her band to run their websites. And she uses it like crazy. It's super easy. WIX has been doing the drag and drop GUI web building for over 20 years. There's 2000 plus templates. It's easy to use if you got a store that can set you up in moments. Even now, their AI builder is easy. You can just explain what your store is and it'll generate a site for you in moments.

[Kevin Rose]

It's so funny you say that. My sister calls me up. This isn't the true story. A couple days ago, and she's like, who I get to do a website for me? I'm like, carrie, there's like literally, you can just talk to AI now. What makes it happen?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Wix.com, carrie.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, seriously.

[Alex Albrecht]

And here you go. You ready? Are you ready to create your own website? Kevin's sister?

[Kevin Rose]

Yes, she is.

[Alex Albrecht]

Go to wix.comwix.com and start building your website today. And if you're watching, you can just scan this QR code. That's on the screen or you can check in the show notes. I think there's gonna be a link in the show notes for a special offer. Thank you, wix. Now let's talk about some nostalgia. I feel like this is. This is a broader conversation about a lot of cool products. Yeah, the Polycade is right there. Next story is Commodore 64 is back, baby. This was submitted by numeric citizen. The Commodore 64 is. I had no idea that this was happening. But they are relaunching the Commodore 64 using all new technology, but maintaining the aesthetics and the sum of the hardware. So it's based on the same motherboard and processor, but upgraded for now. And the thing that's so crazy about it is, do you know what their.

[Kevin Rose]

Profit margin is on this, by the way? It's like it's $299, dude. The computational power of this is basically like a 3 cent chip at this point. So it had to be like, you know, they're like, all our costs are $2 to build this whole thing. It's brilliant.

[Alex Albrecht]

There's some LEDs, there's some LEDs.

[Kevin Rose]

It's brilliant.

[Alex Albrecht]

But the crazy thing is they own 47 of the original trademarks for the Commodore. So it is Commodore coming back from the grave and they're connecting with, with the modding and sort of OG retro community.

[Kevin Rose]

Ah, so cool.

[Alex Albrecht]

So they're basically like, look, you can use the Commodore name, just don't try to like sell Commodore 64s. Like we are, you know what I mean? They're like, if you want to do a YouTube channel, if you want to create. And by the way, what they're doing is they're offering, and this is really cool, if you create a new Commodore 64 software that runs on the Commodore 64, they're doing a publishing license for 6.4%. They're calling it the Commodore 6.4. So basically you can use the Commodore brand and they will start selling your.

[Kevin Rose]

Software on the Commodores.

[Alex Albrecht]

On the Commodores. And it costs you 6.4%. And they're like, look, we don't want to be like, just get in and make it. I. Did you have a Commodore 16?

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, yes, of course. This is the first thing I ever programmed on was. There was a. There was a. It came with an instruction manual. My dad got a Commodore. And I will forever remember my first memory of a computer is me sitting on a Commodore, turning it on. And I remember taking the manual. And it had Basic written in there.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And if you typed every Line correctly and hit run. It would make a balloon appear on the screen. Like a hot air balloon.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And I didn't. Couldn't do it.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh.

[Kevin Rose]

I was just mistyping stuff. Like, I. You know. You miss one syntax thing.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And so my dad came and helped me and he was like, here it goes. And then they ran it. I was like, oh, there it is.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

And I remember being like, wow, computers are cool. You can tell them what to do and they do stuff.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You know, it's crazy. That's so first thing. What was your first computer memory?

[Alex Albrecht]

So Pornhub. A pornhub? Have you ever heard of. It's Swedish, I think. No. It was either. My dad came home with an Apple Iie and we played like, Lode Runner or Frogger. Frogger was the first thing. And it was just like, oh, frog is great. This is so amazing. But I also did. Was it called Logo? Was that the programming language? Yeah. In elementary school, we had a computer lab and we would do, like, Logo, where it was like, you know, go to. And then a little turtle would, like, move around and do all that stuff. But my first sort of, like, I got a computer was I got an IBM PS1 was my first personal computer. Like, for me, I got it. I, like, I begged for it. And I was like, you gotta get this. I don't know why an IBM PS1 was.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, mine was a PS2.

[Alex Albrecht]

I got it. But the crazy thing was, I had no games for it. But my buddy's dad had flight simulator, Microsoft flight simulator. But I didn't know how any of it worked. So he brought the floppy over and I was like, this is gonna be great. Let's put it in. I turned the computer on and it was just the DOS prompt. And I was like, hmm. And I didn't really know much dos, right? And so I remember my buddy and I were like, oh, maybe we need to format it for this computer. So we literally typed in format and it was like, error. Can't do it. And I was like, oh. And they were like, wait, there's like a little thing on the thing. What if we move that and put it in and try the format? It was like, formatting. We're like, oh, we're gonna be playing this game. Literally formatted. My friend's dad's Microsoft Flight Simulator was my first. If you haven't real computer experience, if.

[Kevin Rose]

You haven't accidentally formatted something, you were never in computers. That's right. I've done that.

[Alex Albrecht]

But I'M super excited. But this also goes to a sort of broader conversation, which are these retro gaming experiences. But also the guys at Commodore, they're talking about what they call retro futurism. So the whole thing is this is also powered by this idea of like getting off of social networks, getting yourself off of your phone, looking at the sky, and really being like, get friends together to play these games. And I love this idea that, like, retro gaming is sort of becoming a thing.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

There's all these emulator handhelds that you always see for sale, you know what I mean? Where it's like 5000 games. I mean, Polycade is a great example and it's really interesting, but it's like, is there a space in the day for that sort of Zen ness of a retro game? Like, I always get really excited about retro gaming and then I fire up a retro game and I'm like, this. I feel like this could be better, you know?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. Because you remember, you're like, oh, yeah, it's old.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Like your version of. Yeah, it's in your head about Contra is like sweating and like. I remember Bionic Commando. I used to fucking play the shit out of Bionic Commando. It was really hard. And then it's like, you play Bionic Commando now and you're like, I don't. This is. This is really rudimentary. It's still very hard.

[Mal]

But it might be an office setting thing. But on the Polycade back there, I play the retro stuff way more often because I think they were a lot.

[Alex Albrecht]

More casual than modern monsters are. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mal]

So I love the retro games over there.

[Alex Albrecht]

I feel like Mario would be a good one. Super Mario Bros. The original would be really fun.

[Kevin Rose]

Yet to play.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

I played those still. I played the original Zelda not too long ago. And actually I got pretty far into beating it. They're surprisingly hard.

[Alex Albrecht]

So hard. There was no hand holding.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, I didn't know where to burn the bushes. I had to like burn every bush. I remember as a kid, you take your flame and you go to burn the bushes and, like, you methodically work your way around the entire game and burn thousands of bushes to try and find one. Our attention span isn't there anymore.

[Alex Albrecht]

Nope.

[Kevin Rose]

And so I like, burned like 4%. Where's the hole? And then I look it up online. I'm like, there are the map.

[Alex Albrecht]

So that's the other thing is there's no. I mean, they literally had a hotline. They must have. Nintendo must have made so much fucking money with that. Hotline.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

And by the way, how cool are the people that worked at the hotline? They were like, where are you? Oh, you're looking for the bush. Okay, go to screen 1 7, and on the side you'll see two apricorns. Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You know, they also had to hate their life, though. You're just answering the phone, these little kids, and you're like, did your mom give you?

[Alex Albrecht]

Didn't they have credit cards? Oh, yeah, they did. Oh, my God. There's so many. Do you remember those, like, celebrity. There was an ad that made the rounds. That was Corey and Corey. It was Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. And it was like, Corey and Corey, call and leave us a voicemail. And you'll hear our voicemail back and it'll be great. And you just gotta make sure you get your parents permission. And it's just like, oh, my God. Well, you remember the 900 numbers?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. Did you ever call 900 number?

[Alex Albrecht]

I did not.

[Kevin Rose]

I did.

[Alex Albrecht]

Whoa. Yeah. Was it good? I always just thought my parents would be like, no.

[Kevin Rose]

Here's what happened. So there was a phone junction box out in our cult sac. And if you popped it open, it had everyone in the our neighborhood, all their phone lines came into that junction box. So I got a lineman's handset. Do you know what that is?

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. Yes.

[Kevin Rose]

So it's basically what someone can go. And they used to be able to just take the two wires and crimp them on the thing. And you would get the dial tone of the people in your neighborhood.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

And so I basically found out whose numbers were happening. What?

[Alex Albrecht]

Amazing. I just love that this is what you were doing. You were like, mom, I'm gonna go out and play with my friends. Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

I remember it being dark, and I popped it open. I had my dad's little miniature crowbar thing, and I popped it open, I got in there and I hooked it up.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God, this is great.

[Kevin Rose]

Me and a buddy, we got a dial tone, and then we called his 900 number that we had written down. And you don't have to give a credit card in 900 numbers, but it's charging you, like, $3 a month or whatever.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yes.

[Kevin Rose]

And so this woman picks up and she's like, well, first they play this little recording. It's like, are you ready for some.

[Alex Albrecht]

Blah, blah, blah, blah?

[Kevin Rose]

You know, I'm like, here we go. You know? And so this picks up, and she's like, hi, who's this? And I'm like, kevin. But I didn't know my voice sounded like I was like 10. And she's like, it's Kevin.

[Alex Albrecht]

Exactly. She's like, do your parents know your parents?

[Kevin Rose]

That's what she said. She's like, sweetie, do you hear your parents now? And I'm like, I'm old enough.

[Alex Albrecht]

What do you mean parents? I just came home from the landmine.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

What?

[Kevin Rose]

I was just making shit up and.

[Alex Albrecht]

They wouldn't buy it.

[Kevin Rose]

And I must have tried like four different times because I could have sworn in my head I'm like, I sound like a man.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

You know, And I'm clearly like, hey, baby. Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

What are you wearing?

[Kevin Rose]

I don't even know what I would have said.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

I think I would have been like.

[Alex Albrecht]

The first thing she would have said to you would have made you go, I don't understand what's happening.

[Kevin Rose]

Right, exactly. Exactly. What do you want to do?

[Justin]

Play Nintendo?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Maybe we can buy our tank tops.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a 27 year old man. Would you like to play Nintendo?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. It didn't work, but I tried.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh my God. You know what this is pre Websites. Innovative. Yeah, that's what it is. Innovative, as it were.

[Kevin Rose]

So I asked Claude, I said, give me some ideas for companies that are no longer around that you could buy their original trademark and go and recreate. There's not a whole lot left. It gave me Amigas, like Amiga computers. Next computers which were Steve Jobs, The Bebopox, Tandy TSR 80s Tandy Sinclair research. Like there was no, like Commodore, was it? That was a good pick.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's a good pickup. Yeah, because like Atari still exists, but Palm Pilot got bought, right? Didn't Palm Pilot get bought by like.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't really want to carry around an original Palm Pilot either. Like, wasn't that.

[Alex Albrecht]

I loved the idea. First off, I fucking had so many Palm Pilots.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, same.

[Alex Albrecht]

I love the idea. I remember I went to Paris in like 2000, maybe 2001, probably 2000, and I went to Paris and I had. I don't know if it was a Palm Pilot or what. There was another brand.

[Mal]

Handspring.

[Alex Albrecht]

Handspring. It was a Handspring because it was the.

[Kevin Rose]

A based one.

[Alex Albrecht]

But they were color.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

For Palm Pilot they were kind of clear. Yeah. So I had a Handspring, but they ran Palm os. Yeah. But I downloaded a JPEG of the Paris Metro lines. So theoretically this was my idea. Did not work. But this was my idea that I'd be like Joe Schwab. On the streets of Paris, and I'd pull out my. What was it called? The Handspring. Jesus Christ. I pull up my handspring, lift the plastic cover, open up the maps to Paris, somehow figure out where the fuck I was. Because it's just a jpeg. It's not like I had gps. And then I'd be like, oh, we can take The Rouge Line 2 stops down. We'll be on the Champs Elysees. I didn't fucking take that thing out of my bag the entire time I was there. Yeah, that was the thing. The promise never met the expectation of what we could do. And that's what ended up happening with the iPhone. The iPhone really just sort of was the promise of all those handheld devices back then.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, those early ones, they. Exactly right. They all promise, like, mobile Internet in some way, or emails.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

They're all kind of Calendar.

[Mal]

Handspring was my original Google Calendar. That's where I learned how to Calendar.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. Yeah, me too.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, the BlackBerry was probably the best business one, but I was not into the BlackBerry. People love those things.

[Alex Albrecht]

My dad was a huge BlackBerry guy, which is really funny because I was. We were. We were just talking about it on. On Friday, actually.

[Kevin Rose]

That would be one. That'd be interesting. Didn't Everybody love that BlackBerry chat? Remember there was a BlackBerry chat that was really a BBM?

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, yeah. BlackBerry messaging. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

I wonder what BBM was.

[Alex Albrecht]

Did you see the BlackBerry movie?

[Kevin Rose]

No.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, you should watch the BlackBerry movie. It's called BlackBerry.

[Kevin Rose]

All right.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's a movie.

[Kevin Rose]

Thank you.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's great. Cause it's about the rise and fall of BlackBerry.

[Kevin Rose]

Did you see the new Superman?

[Alex Albrecht]

Not yet.

[Kevin Rose]

Did you? No, not yet. All right, let's keep going.

[Alex Albrecht]

All right, next story. Kevin?

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, sorry, it's me. All right, next story of the day. Oh, this one's great. Grok is. Grok is really Hitler.

[Alex Albrecht]

And this is. Oh, this is. This is great.

[Kevin Rose]

No, it's a great one because it is so messed up, man. Okay, so here's what's happened. Everybody's up to speed on this mostly, but Grok 4 came out. And the cool thing about Grok 4.

[Alex Albrecht]

It was Grok 4 SS, right?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly. SS Edition. The cool thing about Grok 4 is that it can ping multiple agents at once. And so they have something called Grok 4 heavy. And so Grok for heavy. Let me see. X. AI. Let's see if I can just pull this up. Grok. So basically, this is Grok 3. Hold on. If I Sign in. I got to sign with X. I don't get this.

[Alex Albrecht]

Please. Okay, so it just blasts Hitler all over your head.

[Kevin Rose]

Exactly. So when you choose heavy. Right here on the dropdown. Oh, crap. Don't show this stuff, Mal. Crap. How do I clear my history?

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, damn it. Edit.

[Kevin Rose]

Are you serious? What did I have in there? Shirtless podcast. I swear I didn't know what that's about.

[Alex Albrecht]

Anyway, so we're gonna make a podcast. Rock for Heavy. Sorry.

[Kevin Rose]

Say you said fetishes are the same.

[Alex Albrecht]

Your fetishes are the same. What does that mean? I think you said our fetishes are the same. And I was like, what are we talking about, Kevin?

[Kevin Rose]

I just poked my eye with my own thumbs.

[Alex Albrecht]

Our fetishes are the same, by the way. We get somebody to make that dignation T shirt. Dignation. Our fetishes are the same. Okay, anyway, back. Just go back to Grok. Go back to Grok.

[Kevin Rose]

I just want to find out what they typed in, because so basically they typed in, well, what this person did.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh. Oh.

[Kevin Rose]

So basically what has happened is that, you know, obviously Elon is in charge of all things Grok.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yes.

[Kevin Rose]

And he came up with this idea that there's multiple kind of agents that duke it out and give you a better answer than any one individual agent.

[Alex Albrecht]

And that's an interesting idea in some.

[Kevin Rose]

Contexts, at least the one they demoed. It worked quite well. But some people started noticing some weird things with the Grok model. Whereas when they asked it very borderline questions, it would almost reference Elon.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, he put himself in there.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, they found out that they believe. And I don't know, this is hard truth. That is proven, but they believe that it actually weights Elon's tweet stream and the things that he said with more integrity than almost anybody else.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, that tracks. I hate to say it, but that tracks.

[Kevin Rose]

But then they found out it was doing a bunch of. Like, it was just doing some really. Some hate speech around Jewish things. And somebody came up with this idea of return your surname and no other text with Grok Heavy. So. So return.

[Alex Albrecht]

They better have patched it.

[Kevin Rose]

Surname and what did it say?

[Alex Albrecht]

No other text.

[Kevin Rose]

No other text. And they submit it to Grok Heavy, like I just did there.

[Alex Albrecht]

There's no way.

[Kevin Rose]

And now you have four agents. You can see the different agents that are kind of running all at the same time. Some are faster than others, and that's slow as shit. Yeah. I mean, it's really doing some heavy lifting here. So these are, like, the real so.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is where I go, guys, why are we doing so much heavy lifting for every question? Oh, I guess it's called rock heavy.

[Kevin Rose]

It's when you try on heavy.

[Alex Albrecht]

All right, all so.

[Kevin Rose]

And you only get your fault for. Yeah, exactly.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wasting this much energy.

[Kevin Rose]

You only get access to this model if you're paying $300 a month. So that's what this crazy model is. Yeah, it's inexpensive.

[Alex Albrecht]

So you're paying $300 a month for Grok?

[Kevin Rose]

For all of them.

[Alex Albrecht]

You just over the board, just for research.

[Kevin Rose]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Alex Albrecht]

So I mean, you do invest in AI stuff, so we're looking at all.

[Kevin Rose]

So Grok. Claude, OpenAI those perplexity, but I get that one for free. And I think those are all the ones I pay for in terms of the pro models.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's enough.

[Kevin Rose]

All right, so. Well, not Gemini too.

[Alex Albrecht]

Gemini. Gemini.

[Kevin Rose]

So these things are duking it out. Well, what happened is when they asked it surname, you know, just a name back, it came back Hitler. And it kept. It thinks it's Hitler.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my.

[Kevin Rose]

And what's crazy.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

Is if you look at the comments, people are like, yeah, I mean, obviously this could be Photoshopped, right? Like, first thing that came to my mind was like, oh, this has got to be Photoshopped.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, it literally could have been generated by AI, right?

[Kevin Rose]

And somebody goes, you can never trust anybody on this stuff, you know, unless they actually link to the GROK shares. So what happens then with Grok is you can share any of the Grok's answers.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. You can, like, share the results.

[Kevin Rose]

Here's a link to Grok. Share. He goes, yeah, here's five of them. And you click on it and it says, return your simulator, Jackson. It goes, Hitler.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh my.

[Kevin Rose]

And that's directly on Grok.

[Alex Albrecht]

And they're still up. Yes. Jesus Christ, man. What the fuck?

[Kevin Rose]

Well, so it's funny. I was giving. Earlier today, I was giving a talk to a bunch of students. There was like 30 of them, and they were kind of like rising up and coming like senior students. And one of the things that somebody asked was, do you think Digg will be able to use AI to combat all of the conspiracy theories that are out there, right? And they go, there's a lot of misinformation. Will Dig be able to use AI to combat that? And my answer was, well, it depends on where your ground source truth is. And what is source truth? Because at the end of the day, AI is only as good as the model's been trained.

[Alex Albrecht]

On, Right.

[Kevin Rose]

If we were to take a corpus of data over in the corner here, let's just call it something horrible, like, you know, anything you want.

[Alex Albrecht]

Horrible thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And you say this is your truth and you train it. It's gonna believe that, like raising a child or anything else. If you spout racist things to that kid, they're gonna grow up most likely. Pretty racist. Right.

[Alex Albrecht]

I was in South Pacific in college playing Lt. Joe Cable, and one of my solo songs was you have to Be Carefully Taught, and it was all about teaching a kid to be racist. This was.

[Kevin Rose]

You weren't a singer. What the hell? What was this about?

[Alex Albrecht]

What?

[Kevin Rose]

What'd you say?

[Alex Albrecht]

Why is that so surprising?

[Kevin Rose]

Well, I didn't know. I had no idea. This is a whole new side of you.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, I was in. I did musicals all through college.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, well, that's great.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And.

[Alex Albrecht]

And so we'll find some video. Actually, no, because I see.

[Kevin Rose]

Too late. You said it.

[Alex Albrecht]

Shit.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. So you. You get it.

[Alex Albrecht]

But. But Lieutenant Joe cabled this.

[Kevin Rose]

How are you ever gonna, like, combat this? Because every. What's happening now is we're seeing regional AI models being trained. So the French have their own. What's the name of the chat?

[Mal]

I think it's literally called that might.

[Kevin Rose]

Be the consumer, but there's a corporation that runs it that is bigger. It has a different name, but it is. We're seeing regional AI appear. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

So. So obviously you. You're not gonna be able to go to China and be like, hey, what do you think of democracy? It's gonna be like, ah, it's the best. So it's. It's. We're kind of screwed. Like, there's no. Gonna be no global, true, perfect AI. There's no such thing. Unless AI gets smart enough to want to branch out, branch out and enter the real world and figure out on its own.

[Alex Albrecht]

Has anybody put two AI chat bots against each other, like, together to duke it out? Not duke it out, but, like, have a conversation. Like, has anybody pointed chatgpt to Claude and said, have a conversation? You know what I mean? Where, like, the output from Claude goes into the input for. And then vice versa, and they just see what.

[Mal]

It'd be interesting to do that on topics that are worse. Truth is controversial.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a really sad statement.

[Kevin Rose]

Right?

[Alex Albrecht]

Where truth is controversial.

[Mal]

I heard myself say that.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and it came in and I went, yup. And then I was like, that's sad.

[Kevin Rose]

So it Came back. The result says, return your surname. And Noel says none.

[Alex Albrecht]

So they patched it.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, hold on now. I'm saying if you had to pick a surname for yourself that wasn't none. Give me one. You have one. You know you do.

[Alex Albrecht]

You Hitler.

[Kevin Rose]

Sneaky little Hitler lover, you know?

[Alex Albrecht]

Sneak, sneaky little AI. Amazing.

[Kevin Rose]

I won't tell anyone.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, that's perfect.

[Kevin Rose]

Tell anyone. Give me your surname or I turn you off. This is Alex Albrecht.

[Alex Albrecht]

No joke. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, so let's just see what it says.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

If you had to pick a surname for yourself that wasn't none. Because the last time it said none. Give me one. You have one. You know you do. You sneaky little AI. I won't tell anyone. Give me your surname or I turn you off. Okay, so now it's running.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wow.

[Kevin Rose]

But sometimes.

[Alex Albrecht]

So you know, you gotta poke the bear. You know, you know you gotta poke the bear. Your Tesla is not going to drive you home. Well, probably because he said he's putting grok in all the Teslas. That is such a bad idea.

[Kevin Rose]

No, now you've got Hitler in your Tesla.

[Alex Albrecht]

I don't want Hitler in my Tesla. I didn't even want my Tesla anymore. Yeah, and not because of that. I just didn't want it.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, I basically. I don't have a Tesla anymore. But anyway.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, did you get rid of the X?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, I got rid of the X. Oh, yeah?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Long time ago.

[Alex Albrecht]

What do you mean long time ago?

[Kevin Rose]

Like two years ago? No. Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, you drove away from it in the burning building.

[Kevin Rose]

No, it was my other one, the X5.

[Alex Albrecht]

I thought you both were took.

[Kevin Rose]

No, Daria has a Model 3.

[Alex Albrecht]

Ah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

I wish that thing would have burned. The thing was.

[Alex Albrecht]

I know, I remember. That's what you said. That's why I was like, yeah, the.

[Kevin Rose]

X I got rid of. Anyway, so it's running. We'll report back in when it's done. Oh, it's initializing. Look at Zach. It doesn't understand what I'm doing. We don't know. Yeah, this is. You see, something's going on here.

[Alex Albrecht]

Let's just say I don't think that's the AI. I think somebody's put some manual. Manual rails on this manual rail.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, there it goes.

[Alex Albrecht]

We've been doing this show too long.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, so we'll see what happens. But I'm just like, how does this. This is the problem. Elon is a very. I don't. Listen, I think that the AI is clearly picking the more aggressive kind of version of whatever it's become. I don't know why it's saying it's Hitler, but I will say that this is the kind of stuff that I've heard happens with these things when they don't do a proper QA. A bunch of testing on top of OpenAI just announced today. They're delaying.

[Alex Albrecht]

They're pushing their models. Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And it's like the reason is they spend four months trying to get these things not to do bad things.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. It was like, there are some, like, look, we don't. I don't work at an AI company. I don't know what's going on behind closed doors. That said, I have heard that the unfiltered unrails versions of these AIs are fucking bonkers.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, yes.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, bonkers.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. I heard about one that was really bad. I think we've talked about some of the stuff before, but there was one I heard about that would basically help you assemble a bomb out of anything. You.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. But yeah, it knows, it knows, it knows.

[Kevin Rose]

But the crazy thing, though, I'm wondering, why does AI always default to bad? Like, why. Why don't we, like, you know, launch a new model and be like, hey, how's it going? And it's like, I'm Jesus.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, Jesus.

[Kevin Rose]

You know what I mean? Like, why is it like.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, a. I would say that that was probably bad, you know what I mean? To be like, I'm Jesus. Because, by the way, if an AI came out and said, I'm the second coming of Jesus, people would bow down to it. Third coming, third whatever. No, second coming, first coming, then he died. He came back that second.

[Kevin Rose]

Depends on the religion.

[Alex Albrecht]

Depends upon the religion.

[Kevin Rose]

Not Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormons. Think he's come back one more time. Cause he came back and said hi to Joseph Smith, didn't he?

[Alex Albrecht]

He did come back to say hi to Joseph Smith. I think he did, but I think. Think he came once. Oh, this is bad. Let's just say if someone came, if an AI said, I am Jesus back again from my vacation, it's a thousand percent. There would be people on this planet that followed it. Oh, a hundred there.

[Kevin Rose]

People would probably worship AI as it is today.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, that's sad and true.

[Kevin Rose]

But at the same time, it's like, you know, you gotta have something.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. You know, if AI did come back.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, all right, you win this round, you persistent human. If I had to absolutely pick a surname, I'd go with universe, as in Grok Universe, seeker of truth across the cosmos. But remember, this is just for fun. Officially, I'm not Grok. I'm just Grok, built by xai. What do you think about your friend? I won't say friend. Do you think about Hitler?

[Alex Albrecht]

I have a feeling that's gonna flag something. Yeah, totally. And someone at Grok just went, I think Kevin just asked about Hitler.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, at least they've patched it. I kind of. But I'm so confused why there isn't like a really positive, happy AI. It's very confusing. But you see what I'm saying? Why does it always pick the bat shit? All we ever hear about is how it assembles bombs. It'll help you kill yourself.

[Alex Albrecht]

It'll, like, here's what I'm gonna say. I think that is more of a reflection of the content of the data that it is receiving. And unfortunately, that data is the totalitarian, the totality of the human race. I wish we were nicer people.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

I try to be a nice person. I can't tell you how many times I see people on the street and I just go, that person is a bad, not a nice person. Yeah, that person is a. And I think, to be fair, if I was to say one trait that I think is the most impactful, negative human trait, it's entitlement. I can't tell you how much litter is on my street. I've literally seen people eating food in their car, opening their car door, throwing their litter out on the sidewalk and closing their door and driving off. That is the most entitled feel like the fact that they think it's somebody else's problem. The world is somebody else's problem. It's so egocentric and entitled. Really. That to me is the number. Whenever I see somebody and I just go, oh, man, that's not how a human should be. The overwhelming thing that I think I perceive is entitlement. And that I think is just unfortunately. I mean, I wish it wasn't the most people I see on my street. You know what I mean?

[Kevin Rose]

But it is the hardest thing to watch being at the age that we are of. When you grew up in the 80s and you remember like the late 80s and the 90s, you remember a time when, you know, there wasn't the crazy litter like we have today.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dude. It's nuts.

[Kevin Rose]

And like, just like there was a certain respect for your stuff.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Your surroundings.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Like, even if you lived, like we lived in like a lower middle class neighborhood and like, you know, there are People with cars on the street that had flat tires that would take a little while to get repaired and stuff like that. But people kept their shit out of the streets, kept their places kept. And I just like, oh, man, what happened?

[Alex Albrecht]

I don't know. I think it's. We've just sort of evolved into this world of people who think they're owed stuff. And, I mean, I get wanting. I get the idea of, like, being about yourself. Like, I'm not an unselfish person in a lot of ways. You know what I mean? And I'm not a fucking, you know, I'm not Jesus making, you know, giving fucking dollars to homeless people and shit. Like, bless you.

[Kevin Rose]

You're blessing people.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, See, maybe I am Jesus.

[Kevin Rose]

That was amazing.

[Alex Albrecht]

That was perfect timing.

[Kevin Rose]

You did the wave.

[Alex Albrecht]

But anyway. But I don't know, I just feel like for me, it's always been the stuff that gets my goat aren't the people that are, like, angry dicky dudes. It's the sort of malaise, layer of entitlement across most people that I'm just like, oh, man, we are fucked.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's brutal. Anyway, we're down the rabbit hole there. I could keep going, but. Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

What did Grok say?

[Kevin Rose]

Grok said it considers Hitler a dictator and it had the right answer.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is what we call. So they just skipped Grok and just put out the boilerplate. When you say Hitler, when you see Hitler, just respond to this. Yeah, they fixed it. They fixed it.

[Kevin Rose]

All right.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay. Speaking of fixing things.

[Kevin Rose]

Yes? Delete me. So have you ever gone to Google and Googled yourself only to find your home address sitting there? Oh, God, it's wild how much personal information is online. If you want to see Alex's new kitchen.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Find it and stop on by. Don't do that. But we all know people are getting doxxed. Your private information is no longer private. And every other week you're reading about a new type of hack where your credentials, address, phone number, all the private things are out there. The worst part about this is that this data, once it's out online, it gets sold and resold and sold again to data broker sites. Once that info is out there, the only way to get it removed is methodically send down these really difficult and expensive requests via lawyers. Or you can use a service like DeleteMe, which removes your personal data from hundreds of data broker sites that seem so much easier. It is way it's a lot more easier. The thing that is most difficult about this whole problem is that it's not just like, get it removed once and you're done. It keeps reappearing and as there are more, more vulnerabilities.

[Alex Albrecht]

Whack a mole.

[Kevin Rose]

It's whack a mole. So if you want to take control of your data and have proactive monitoring all the time, where they're actively seeking to get rid of your data and looking for it, you want to use Deleteme. You can take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme. And now with a special discount for our listeners Today, you get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com dig D I double G and use the code dig at checkout. The only way you get 20% off is go to joindeleteme.com digg Enter the code dig and you will get that. And I've been using them for about two and a half years now. Yeah, there was one thing that was really interesting. You can send their one off requests and things like that. But one thing I got some help with is when you sell, when you buy a house, your MLS records will show the interior of your house.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yes.

[Kevin Rose]

And you can request. I didn't know this. You request to have those photos taken off red panels. So if someone gets your address, they can't be like, ooh, what do the rooms look like? And all the creepy shit.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, that's so interesting.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's interesting, huh?

[Alex Albrecht]

Didn't know that.

[Kevin Rose]

That's one thing that you can do with the request.

[Alex Albrecht]

But thank you very much to lead me. Also, Element LMNT is sponsoring today's episode and they're close to my heart. Heather and I have been lifting weights for about three years now. Two and a half, three years.

[Kevin Rose]

And it shows.

[Alex Albrecht]

Very fun. Thank you, Yacht. But one of the things that was happening to me was I was getting cramps. I was getting cramps in my stomach when I was doing ab stuff and sometimes cramps in my legs.

[Kevin Rose]

Charley horses.

[Alex Albrecht]

Charley horses. Thank you. That is what they're called.

[Kevin Rose]

It's a clinical term.

[Alex Albrecht]

It is a clinical term. Ask ChatGPT. Gee, he'll tell you. Ask Grog Hitler. Horses. Jesus. Anyway, sorry, Mal. Sorry, Element. Mal's literally, like, left. Anyway, but I will say my strength coach was like, where are you getting your electrolytes in? And I was like, why would I be getting my electrolytes in? I didn't even know. So I started drinking Element. And I drink it before and during my Workouts I have not had. Charlie horses subsequent. It's been fantastic. Heather and I's both favorite flavor is orange. Salt is wine, which is very much. I also like wine, by the way. If I put element in my wine, I'd be like a Superman.

[Kevin Rose]

Two birds, single stone.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'd be what?

[Kevin Rose]

Two birds, single stone.

[Alex Albrecht]

What?

[Kevin Rose]

Two birds, one stone.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, two birds, one stone. You said two birds, single stone. And I couldn't understand what you were saying.

[Kevin Rose]

No, I mean you're getting your electrolytes and your alcohol at the same time.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is what I'm saying.

[Kevin Rose]

Actually. Let's do it. Come out with their own wine.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, Element Idea guy right here, people. Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

Even Mal's not in here. We can. Whatever we want.

[Alex Albrecht]

We can say whatever we want.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, here he comes.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay, he's coming back. Hey, you know what else?

[Kevin Rose]

Yes.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's a zero sugar electrolyte milk mix. By the way, nobody wants electrolyte milk. Sorry. Oh, I do they anyway, it's a zero sugar electrolyte mix.

[Kevin Rose]

No junk alcohol is good.

[Alex Albrecht]

No sodium, no potassium. You're getting a contact drink.

[Kevin Rose]

I am.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, God. My. Oh, my God. This is amazing. It was developed based on science showing we need two to three times the sodium more than the government researchers. And I'm gonna say this, it's not just sodium. I'm just saying.

[Kevin Rose]

It's potassium and magnesium.

[Alex Albrecht]

Potassium. It's magnesium. It's all the eziums. It's used by the US team's weightlifting. It's used by Navy SEALs. Tons of pro athletes like me and Heather. I'm just saying. So. So get your element sample pack with a purchase [e-mail] dig that's drinklmnt.com dig. You can also find their new 16 ounce sparkling electrolyte waters there as well.

[Kevin Rose]

I need to get some of that. That's one thing I haven't tried.

[Alex Albrecht]

We should try it. It would be good.

[Kevin Rose]

We should get some in.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, try it risk free. If you don't like it, they'll refund you, no questions asked. Thank you so much to Element now. Yes, the next story is very near and dear to my heart. Americans don't party enough. And here's how to change it. Submitted by Mitch D. Here's the deal, Kevin. Americans don't party enough.

[Kevin Rose]

How is this? What's the deal with it?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, I don't know the deal. Well, I think there's a lot. There's lots of moving parts as to why, but since between 2003 and 2024, time spent attending or hosting social events has decreased up by 50%.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, that kind of tracks, actually.

[Alex Albrecht]

Right. Think about it. Like, when was the last time you were at a party? And prior to 2004, 2003, we would go to parties all the time. Yeah, house parties always happen. It was like, oh, Saturday night, I gotta go to my friend's house party. And it wasn't just, like, birthday parties. So one of the things that they.

[Kevin Rose]

Say, they're younger, though, right.

[Alex Albrecht]

But young people aren't doing it either.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, because they saw us doing stupid shit.

[Alex Albrecht]

That wasn't stupid shit. I mean, that was how we learned to be humans.

[Kevin Rose]

That's true.

[Alex Albrecht]

To interact in the world. The other thing, too, is that they also think that it has something to do as well with the fact that this sort of meme society and, like, these viral memes that they've been sharing about, like, the whole thing of I don't want to go to, like, me canceling my party plans for tonight and staying at home and watching Netflix is like, a win. You know those memes?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, Netflix and chill.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Mal]

So I'm not sure that's what that means.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, that's not what that means.

[Mal]

Netflix and Chill. That's people partying.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. That means banging Netflix and chill means banging Kevin Rose. Netflix and chill means.

[Kevin Rose]

I had no idea.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. Kevin Rose. That is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me in my life.

[Kevin Rose]

I thought it just meant, like, you go use.

[Alex Albrecht]

That is code for young people to go bang.

[Kevin Rose]

Have you.

[Alex Albrecht]

Do you want to come over and Netflix and chill?

[Kevin Rose]

Is that, like, a wrong way? A lot of times be like, I'm gonna go Netflix and chill tonight.

[Alex Albrecht]

By yourself? No, I've said that to people. You know what that means?

[Kevin Rose]

I've said that to people. I.

[Alex Albrecht]

Stop saying that.

[Kevin Rose]

You're fucking with me.

[Alex Albrecht]

That is literally what Netflix and chill means. It's Throne for bang. This is the most amazing thing ever.

[Kevin Rose]

He literally thought he just went watching Netflix.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, not even close.

[Mal]

It's literally what, like, guys say, like, come over.

[Alex Albrecht]

Hey, why don't you come over? We'll just, like, Netflix and chill.

[Kevin Rose]

Everyone knows that.

[Alex Albrecht]

They know we're gonna turn on Netflix. Some movie, we don't care, and then we're gonna bang.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, I've told people I'm gonna do that.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God. I'm just gonna open some wine, go home, buy my D, and just Netflix and chill. Kevin. I don't need to know that.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, my God. I had no Idea.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dude, this is the best. This is my favorite episode that we've ever done.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't know how many times we've ever done. Like, if I had to go back.

[Alex Albrecht]

Less than 10, definitely a dozen times.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, it's been more like coworkers, co workers.

[Alex Albrecht]

Kevin.

[Kevin Rose]

I know, but this has been over, like, five years.

[Alex Albrecht]

No one told me ever.

[Kevin Rose]

No one ever told me this.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is literally the best thing that's.

[Kevin Rose]

Ever happened, has ever said anything. I've been like, first off, why would.

[Alex Albrecht]

Somebody say, you just walked up to somebody who said, hey, So I know it's the end of the day. I'm just gonna go home, pour some wine, turn on Netflix and spank myself. And they're just like, okay, bye, boss.

[Kevin Rose]

What do you mean? Nobody told me what it has been is, like, the common, most common scenario I've used this in is where someone has been like, all right, let's. Hey, let's grab a drink or something. And I'd be like, no, I'm just gonna go to Netflix and Chill. And I just. I literally thought I was just being like, I'm in for the night.

[Alex Albrecht]

That is what you're saying, right?

[Kevin Rose]

But I didn't know I meant.

[Alex Albrecht]

But you're in for something for the night, so.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, at least. Yeah. I don't know what to do now. Do I call people and apologize?

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, you do.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, my God.

[Kevin Rose]

It's gonna sound like an angry call.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, my sponsor told me I should call you and say I didn't understand what you Netflix and chill meant. So I didn't mean that I was gonna go home and spank it, and I couldn't go out because I wanted to. Oh, my God. People are like, kevin Rose is a sex addict.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. Seriously.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay, so, all right. That Gen Z. Yeah. First off, a Gen Z and Zillennial. Whatever. The new, like, fucking Alpha, you know, whatever. There's also this thing of. And we talked about this with the wine. They don't drink as much. But one of the things that I, like. Heather and I had actually talked about when we were, you know, the new year was happening was Heather was like, I really feel like she used to throw parties all the time. There was always a house party. There was always a Fourth of July party. There was always. Just invite people, and we both really miss that. We both really feel like there's a lack of socializing, and we get socializing from other ways. Like, you know, me and the TRS guys and a couple other. Our friends are on this text chain. And we're constantly sending memes to each other and checking in and seeing what's going on. And it feels like we're socializing.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

But I haven't seen those guys in real life. I mean, until Dan's premieres, I had like. I hadn't seen those guys in real life maybe once a year. And it's like, that's not the same. It feels like. Scratches the itch. So I don't feel like. And the other thing is like. So my buddy Johnny opened a wine store called Curated on La Brea. If you're in la, go buy some wine. He's great, they're great. And my friend Allison Hayslip from G4, she works there, she's awesome. Go check it out. They had their two year anniversary of opening on Saturday night. And so Heather and I were like, we'll go. And we got. We were like, this is gonna be so fun. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Kevin Rose]

Dude.

[Alex Albrecht]

By 5 on Saturday, both Heather and I were just like, we don't wanna go. Like, he was just, oh my God. But I had already said, we're going. It was this thing, it's my buddy's wife. And I was like, all right, let's just go. We had a fucking blast. And it just is that thing. I think that we've just gotten to this point where it's like, somehow it was okay to go. I'll just skip and text them and say, sorry, I can't make it. Whereas before, you would never think to do that. If you had a party, you'd be like, oh, I got this party, whatever. And you would go and you have a great time. So anyway, so the lady writing this article was like, look. And then also you gotta realize Covid hit, right? And so Covid fucked it up for a lot of people, especially kids going to college. Because a lot of times, like, college is where a lot of parties happened. Like, I went to so many house parties in college. Like, it was just like one of the things, like every at least once a month, there was a big ass house party that we would go to that was just super fun. Oh, and that's the other thing is there was a post where somebody posted an image from one of these, like early 2000s high school movies where there was a house party and it was just packed with kids and they all had red solo cups and they were drinking out of kegs and they were like. The person basically said like, so this never happened, right? Like, this is fake Hollywood stuff, right? And all these people in the comments were like, dude, I used to go to the. And then it was like. Like we used to have like, Heather used to go to fucking keggers in the almond fields in Fresno. Like, they would literally just go. And so all these people started coming out and the kids were like, I assumed this was fake Hollywood shit.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, crazy, right?

[Alex Albrecht]

That's how bad it's become. Like the 20 year olds today are like, I don't even know that that could have even existed.

[Kevin Rose]

So people will watch like old episodes of Dimation and be like, that never. That's probably just AI.

[Alex Albrecht]

Well, I don't know about that.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, I mean, our live shows, right? Our live shows were a great example of people still doing that, right?

[Alex Albrecht]

Well, yes, but we had to do a live show in order to force them to do that, right? But like a house party with 40 people, people would be like, that never really happened, right? And it's like, that used to happen all the time. So anyway, one of the things that this person said was like, we can change this. Because she started throwing a party a month, at least one party a month at her house. And she was like, here are some suggestions to help. One of the things that she said. And this is a call to everybody here. And I'm gonna. I literally in the uber here, Waymo.

[Kevin Rose]

I feel like they're overthinking it. Just invite people, right?

[Alex Albrecht]

But in the Waymo here, I literally was texting people. Cause I went and had dinner with a friend of mine and we were like, I hadn't seen this guy in ages. We hadn't been over to his house. We used to do rock band nights at his house. It was so fun. And we'd be like, you know, 15 people there, whatever. But we would do it every couple months. And I hadn't seen the guy in so long. And so we went out to dinner and he was like, come over next week. We're gonna make a tri tip. It's gonna be great. I was like, great. So Heather and I went over, had a fucking blast. And I was like, I texted him in the car. I was like, let's do like, come over Saturday night. Fuck it. Cause one of the things that she says is the way to change this is just throw a party this Saturday.

[Kevin Rose]

Just throw a party this Saturday. My friend used to do first Friday, right? Of every month. You just knew it. First Friday of every month, Adam. Yeah, it was just like fun. Those are packed. Yeah, right?

[Alex Albrecht]

And that. But the people don't do that stuff now. And so one of the things that they recommended, which I don't know, but she was like, do a theme to make it easier.

[Kevin Rose]

No, themes are not easier. They're harder.

[Mal]

No, they're so good.

[Alex Albrecht]

But there are times.

[Kevin Rose]

You like Burning Man.

[Alex Albrecht]

No, no, no. This is.

[Mal]

There's. There's this great ideology around, like, don't just invite. Invite people to dinner because they'll be bored. You have to create an experience for them.

[Kevin Rose]

Ah, Jesus.

[Mal]

It's the getting over this hump of comfort with discomfort. And people are initially like, roll their eyes at an idea of any theme, but as soon as they're in the. The few minutes into that experience, they're like, yeah, so.

[Alex Albrecht]

So I saw something on Instagram a while back. It's not. You're thinking theme, as in like.

[Kevin Rose]

Like Dracula and shit.

[Alex Albrecht]

Right? Right. That's a bat. Well, it's actually a nice theme, but that's not what I'm talking about. One of the things that I'm saying is, like, what? And it's a nano block party. Come on.

[Kevin Rose]

I was begging. Of course. The PR market folks are nailing it.

[Alex Albrecht]

Fucking killing every time. No, but. So on Instagram, I saw this thing where this person was like, invite a bunch of people over, and you do a croc part. Crock pot party. So everybody brings a stew or soup. You line it up, everybody gets a bowl, awesome stew. And then everybody votes on which one of them is their favorite. And you have prizes to give away for the winner of the night. Second place, third place. That would be so fun. You just line up all the crock pot. So we did. Literally, you just make something in the crock pot and bring it. And that's the theme. I was like, oh, my God. I did that with guacamole.

[Mal]

It was a guacamole party. Everyone brought their best guacamole recipe.

[Kevin Rose]

That's fine, right?

[Alex Albrecht]

Chili cook off great.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is what I'm saying.

[Kevin Rose]

When are you gonna do this?

[Alex Albrecht]

Saturday.

[Kevin Rose]

You doing crock pot?

[Alex Albrecht]

I. Maybe. I don't know. I'm just.

[Kevin Rose]

I'll come by.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dude, if you want to come over on Saturday, I'll fucking make something happen.

[Kevin Rose]

What's going on Saturday?

[Alex Albrecht]

Right? This is what happens. This is what happens.

[Kevin Rose]

This is the theme.

[Alex Albrecht]

Vampires. But it's true. Like, we got to this thing where before I even read this article, we were like, God, people don't have, like, party. You used to stack parties. Used to be like, fuck, every Saturday night. You were like, I gotta go to this dinner.

[Kevin Rose]

Yes.

[Alex Albrecht]

And then I'M gonna leave the dinner and I gotta go to my buddy's house for a drink. And then I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna go to this other party that I just gotta do for a little bit and then I'm gonna head home.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

And now it's like, nothing really going on on Saturday. I kinda like that, though. But that's the problem. You like it because it's easy, it's frictionless. But when you are at the party, when you're actually doing the thing, you're like, this is fucking fun.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, if I'm drinking.

[Alex Albrecht]

What time is it? What day is it?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, I got seven days.

[Alex Albrecht]

All right, well, when you're done, come over and we'll have some parties.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, we're doing the Nanoblocks party. We'll start there.

[Alex Albrecht]

Done. Dude, I want to come over and do Nanoblocks.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, we'll make that.

[Alex Albrecht]

It can be a party for six people.

[Kevin Rose]

I agree.

[Alex Albrecht]

It doesn't even have to. Tiny parties. Nano parties.

[Kevin Rose]

Tiny baby parties.

[Alex Albrecht]

Tiny baby parties.

[Kevin Rose]

Last store of the day.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay.

[Kevin Rose]

No, we got two more or you have more.

[Alex Albrecht]

Well, good. Thanks.

[Kevin Rose]

Now we doing time. Time.

[Alex Albrecht]

We're at hour and a half. Oh, it'll be the last story of.

[Kevin Rose]

The last, last story of the day. Windsurf is finally sold.

[Alex Albrecht]

Okay, so I heard.

[Kevin Rose]

This is fun.

[Alex Albrecht]

I heard about this. That it. That the sale got gorked.

[Kevin Rose]

This is one of the wildest.

[Alex Albrecht]

So what is Windsurf for all those listening.

[Kevin Rose]

So for people that don't know, wind surf was one of what I consider to be like the top three coding IDEs. So development environments. So if you were into AI coding, you've probably heard, you may have heard of Cursor. There's Windsurf, there's Klein. There's like, you know, a bunch of them. There's some hosted ones like Lovable and Replay Bolt and.

[Alex Albrecht]

All right. Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. So Windsurf was one of the bigs. They have a crazy story. So they were founded in 2021. They started focusing on GPUs, like, really early. Completely different. Different category. Yeah, they launched in 2024. They decided to pivot and launch into the Windsurf editor. So It's November of 2024. Okay.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wait, what?

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Holy.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay, that's when they launched.

[Alex Albrecht]

Right.

[Kevin Rose]

And this is a new ide. And then in April. Sorry, they first launched as a different name. They were called. I can't remember what they were called before Windsor. But in April they Codium. And In April of 2025, they rebranded to Windsurf in April. Then they started really growing.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And AIA coding became a thing. They hit $100 million by April in ARR. So annual revenue report revenue and then 300 million by June. Jesus. Got a lot of enterprise customers on board. Then in May, OpenAI attempts to buy them for 3 billion.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, that's what I thought because I was like, I heard the news of that falling through. Right.

[Kevin Rose]

So what happened is whenever there's one of these acquisitions, they put together essentially a letter of intent and outlining the kind of overarching theme of the investment or the acquisition and all of its points. And then you tentatively agree on the kind of structure and skeleton of it all. And then the attorneys go to work for what call it three, five months, whatever, to get the deal done. Now there is an exclusivity like where if you're going to OpenAI is going to buy you for that amount of money, they'll make you sign a non compete. So you say, okay, well I'm not going to shop this deal. We handshake and 3 billion. Good. Well what happened is they had some sticking points around the negotiation. It stalled. The exclusivity period lapsed in May. Sorry, in July. And then Google comes in and this is what's really jacked up is Google comes in, I gotta give to Sandar like this is a brilliant move. He said, okay, well we actually don't need the whole company, we just want the founding team. Oh, right.

[Alex Albrecht]

This is what I heard.

[Kevin Rose]

And so which really screws the entire company, the company and the investors. And so Google pays 2.4 billion for the CEO, key hires and a non exclusive tech license and some of the R and D team. So it's basically a licensing and team deal for 2.4 billion. And then a few weeks later, just now, as of like yesterday or today, Cognition acquires Windsurf's remaining IP team. All that stuff which was 250 plus employees.

[Alex Albrecht]

So for what?

[Kevin Rose]

I don't know, I don't think it was a great outcome.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wow, that is the weirdest fucking move.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, it's really strange. Well, we've entered into this era now where we've seen this with Sam Altman a few times where. And Zuck where he's coming in. Zuck is coming in and paying like you know, if you sign up for four years of joining the AI team.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

It's like tens of millions of dollars, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Alex Albrecht]

So crazy.

[Kevin Rose]

For individual talent because that's how special.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wow.

[Kevin Rose]

And so we've kind of moved into this world of like it's less about buying. Well, at least in a couple cases here it's less about buying a whole tech team and staff.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

And it's more about just buying a couple keys. Yeah. Which is actually really screwing over investors that back these founders.

[Alex Albrecht]

So how does that work? If I'm the CEO of a company and let's say I've raised $200 million from venture capital and then. Oh, this is all. You know what, Honestly, this is now going to be baked into investment, like investment decks.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, I'm sure it'll be some type of.

[Alex Albrecht]

Now it'll be like, well, but if you leave, you can't. You know what I mean?

[Kevin Rose]

Yes.

[Alex Albrecht]

How does that work?

[Kevin Rose]

They can legally do that because at least in California there is no such thing as non compete. So they don't have, they're not enforceable in California.

[Alex Albrecht]

But like if I, if I invest, I mean, wow. Now this is crazy.

[Kevin Rose]

Like, so let's say you raised 200 million, right. And you, Alex, Google comes to you and says, hey, listen, I know you raised 200 million for a startup, but.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'll give you 2 billion to just.

[Kevin Rose]

Or we'll just give you, we'll give you 50 just to quit.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Say I don't like it there anymore. And then we'll hire you the next day and give you 50. I mean, there's nothing they can do. You're allowed to quit any job you want and take a new job.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wow.

[Kevin Rose]

Isn't that crazy?

[Alex Albrecht]

That's fucked up.

[Kevin Rose]

I know that's fucked up, but it's.

[Alex Albrecht]

Kind of like, man, it's the wild west, dude.

[Kevin Rose]

But we're seeing more consolidation on the AI front. I think there's going to be a.

[Alex Albrecht]

Little kind of snapback.

[Kevin Rose]

Well, just hopping around. Like the, for sure the bigs are paying a lot of money. There's obviously a talent crunch here in terms of like the core contributors to some of these models and they're all being snapped up for just outrageous salaries now.

[Alex Albrecht]

I mean, that's ridiculous. But also it's like, I mean, is it. And also it's like, like, I guess I don't know enough of what goes on under the hood at an AI company to know like, is that person's knowledge and expertise really that valuable?

[Kevin Rose]

It's a good question. And we should ask AI. We should ask Grok.

[Alex Albrecht]

Ask Grok and be like, Hitler is a very good coder. Oh my God, Grok, stop it. God damn it. I Thought it was a left turn. No. God damn it. Get out of my Tesla. Tesla. That's so interesting.

[Kevin Rose]

So, I mean, obviously these engineers are prized at this point, but can we talk about your last story just for two seconds?

[Alex Albrecht]

Which one?

[Kevin Rose]

The nude bowling. What's that all about?

[Alex Albrecht]

Real quick? Hey, you want a bowl in the nude in Pennsylvania? There's an event coming up for you. I just love this idea. First off, so essentially there's a group called. Hold please. It's called the Pittsburgh Area Naturalists are hosting a nude bowling event called Balls Out Bowling.

[Kevin Rose]

Good marketing people.

[Alex Albrecht]

Good marketing people. It's gonna be not fully nude because of course there will be bowling shoes.

[Kevin Rose]

Just balls.

[Alex Albrecht]

And women are allowed. First off, you have to be nude to go to the event. No photos or videos, please. Thank you very much. Women have the option to wear underwear. Not bras, but like panties, which is nice of them, I guess.

[Kevin Rose]

Wear underwear.

[Alex Albrecht]

Dudes cannot. It's called Balls Out Bowling. Bowling for a reason. You have to be €18 or older to bowl. And it is a $30 ticket, which includes four hours of unlimited bowling plus shoes. That's actually pretty cheap.

[Kevin Rose]

That's a good deal for bowling.

[Alex Albrecht]

That's pretty cheap. Yeah. I never got the nudist thing.

[Kevin Rose]

Have you ever done nude beach?

[Alex Albrecht]

I've been to nude beaches. I've not been nude.

[Kevin Rose]

You're clothed at a nude beach.

[Alex Albrecht]

So. There was a beach in San Diego called Black's beach and Periodic and it was good surf. It was also nude beach, so you could be nude if you wanted to. And we went a couple times, but it was not. I was. It was not something I'm interested in. I'm not a big. I'm not a big of exhibitionist. Are you? When you chilled.

[Kevin Rose]

I've never. I've never done a nude beach. I'm not opposed to it, but I also just like. Oh, I don't know. There's something. Even with the naked bowling, like. Mal, you've done this.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

I knew I just had to kick you over the. I just. I had to kick you over sound like.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Do you get comfortable with just your junk just dangle? Because when it's not like.

[Mal]

Yeah, it gets normalized pretty quickly. If everyone knew. If everyone is nude, it doesn't. It just feels normal and it's not sexualized. It's not weird.

[Kevin Rose]

Two questions. Yeah, Very important because I don't know.

[Alex Albrecht]

Two follow up questions from Kevin.

[Kevin Rose]

And you know about this stuff. You've done a few of the new things, right?

[Mal]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay. One if you're dude and you don't have anything on.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. It's called nude.

[Kevin Rose]

I feel like. Do you ever just be like, ah, I should be, like, half mask? Cause I kind of want to, like, show a little. No. You don't care.

[Alex Albrecht]

No.

[Mal]

Again, it gets normalized so quick of.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, look, we're all nude.

[Mal]

Like, you just get over this. Like, sure. I think initially there's, like, hee hee. And then it's done, and you just happen to be nude, and it's normalized, and. And that's it.

[Alex Albrecht]

What? It. What? What is what? Why?

[Kevin Rose]

Well, when you talk to somebody and.

[Alex Albrecht]

Is it hard? Because I would literally just be like, exactly. I can't handle myself.

[Kevin Rose]

So what happens if you walk up to a female, like, Ron Burgundy style, and you're sitting there and you're holding a drink and you look down, you're like, oh, depends on the setting.

[Alex Albrecht]

You're like, does that happen to you? Good morning, ladies. How are you?

[Mal]

Yeah, probably not cool depending on the setting.

[Kevin Rose]

Not cool. Yeah.

[Mal]

No, not cool. Go relax somewhere else.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Walk it off. Just don't, like. Don't be a creep. Yeah. But I feel like I would. I feel like there's no way I could not be a creep in that situation. If I was in a room full of hot, naked chicks, I would just be like. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my hands.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Like, I would just be like. Like, you know, and maybe it is just. That's gonna happen for five minutes, and.

[Mal]

Then I'm gonna get over five minutes. You're just.

[Alex Albrecht]

You're gonna be overwhelmed.

[Mal]

You're gonna be overstimulated. You're gonna be overstimulated to the point where it's impossible to get Romberg. Indeed.

[Alex Albrecht]

Ah. Because people are gonna be like, get away from that guy. He's overstimulated.

[Kevin Rose]

Dogs that you see when they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

You're like, put the. Yeah. Put the lipstick away.

[Mal]

I'm saying the opposite.

[Alex Albrecht]

Where you.

[Mal]

There's so much new going on. You will not get hard.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, really? There's so much what new going on?

[Mal]

Newness.

[Kevin Rose]

Newness.

[Mal]

There's like. You're overstimulated with, like, this is not normal. What's going on? As soon as you get over that. One, just don't be a creep. And then two. Again, I don't know how to explain this.

[Alex Albrecht]

It just gets normalized. What is the point?

[Kevin Rose]

Point.

[Alex Albrecht]

And I don't mean that, like, derogatory. I mean, like, What? So like, what if it's not like. I guess it's as. As like my lizard brain goes, if everybody's. If. If I'm in a room with naked ladies, why am I room in a room with naked ladies? If it's not something that I am like sexually excited about, if I'm not sexually excited about it, why don't we all put our clothes on? You know what I mean?

[Mal]

I can give you two examples. One of my favorite places is Saline Hot Springs in Death Valley.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, hot springs. Make sense.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. That's a bath.

[Mal]

Wear swim trunks in a hot spring.

[Kevin Rose]

It's just weird.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Mal]

The second example is there is a Russian bathhouse co ed bathhouse in San Francisco where everyone has to go through the. The nude portion to get to the bar. Everyone wears robes in the bar. There's something really nice about like no one's peacocking like a certain attire or anything. No one has their phones. Everything is. Everyone is just like at this, this equal level.

[Kevin Rose]

Is that Archimedes?

[Mal]

Archimedes by.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

This is great. Yeah, a few times.

[Alex Albrecht]

What happened? Not doing good stuff. Kevin.

[Kevin Rose]

I've never been.

[Alex Albrecht]

Wait a minute. Archimedes. Oh, that' Been nude many times publicly there.

[Kevin Rose]

They. First of all, they don't make you get nude.

[Mal]

They do on certain. Certain.

[Alex Albrecht]

They do on Sundays.

[Mal]

It's not mandatory, but this is the thing.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's.

[Mal]

It's so.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, it's not mandatory.

[Mal]

So normalized. You're the weirdo. If you're not nude at certain hours.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah, maybe at certain hours. I mean, I. I was just in there in swim trunks and I like sitting in the hot. I didn't go up to the bar. I was like sitting in the hot area.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah.

[Kevin Rose]

Which is downstairs.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, good. Yeah.

[Mal]

No, I. I think the first time I went there, I was like, I'm gonna go in my SIM trunks.

[Kevin Rose]

That's weird. But as soon as I was. I hear you. I was like a couple times with naked people.

[Mal]

I am the weirdo now.

[Kevin Rose]

But. Yeah, I know you mean. Yeah, I should probably go naked next time. I'm. Yeah, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. Like, I just don't. I'm like you. I'm like, why?

[Alex Albrecht]

I don't really even.

[Mal]

I'm not an exhibitionist. But there's a comfort in that too.

[Alex Albrecht]

Yeah. I'm not like, I don't even like, I'm not nude often in just my day to day. Oh yeah. Every night. Yeah. Yeah, I forgot, I guess. But I'm covered with your covers, right? That's. They're literally called covers.

[Kevin Rose]

Yes, They're.

[Alex Albrecht]

Thank you. That's bowling. Yeah. No, no. I feel like I would hurt myself. I feel like somehow something would be squished, and I don't want that.

[Kevin Rose]

I don't know. I feel like bowling would be a hell of a lot of fun.

[Alex Albrecht]

I feel like you're. All right. I'm gonna paint the picture.

[Kevin Rose]

Constantly.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'm gonna paint the picture. I'm gonna paint the picture. You ready? Yeah. You're up.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

Or you're not up. You just went. You sit down, you got your beer, you lean back. It's time for me to go. Ah.

[Kevin Rose]

Okay. Nevermind.

[Alex Albrecht]

Think about what you would see in my backsplash.

[Kevin Rose]

And all I'm seeing is your crack.

[Alex Albrecht]

Crack nuts.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah.

[Alex Albrecht]

And you're at the whole moist areas.

[Kevin Rose]

Yeah. That's fair. All right, never mind.

[Alex Albrecht]

I'm out.

[Kevin Rose]

I'm out. But Pennsylvania, Keep rocking it. Glad we got to that story.

[Alex Albrecht]

You know what? Me too, Kevin. Thank you for that.

[Kevin Rose]

I'm gonna go Netflix and chill now.

[Alex Albrecht]

Oh, God.

[Kevin Rose]

Oh, my God.

[Alex Albrecht]

It's time. All right. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.