Loading summary
Transcript283 lines
- [00:03]
A
Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DiFilippo.
- [00:20]
B
And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Jason, I noticed that this is episode 7 11.
- [00:24]
A
Woo. Yes it is.
- [00:25]
B
Was 711 a big deal to you growing up? Was it a part of your firmament of life?
- [00:30]
A
Of course it was.
- [00:31]
B
Absolutely, man. It's where I went to play video games.
- [00:34]
A
Yep, that was it.
- [00:36]
B
Yeah, that Big Gulps and Slurpees.
- [00:39]
A
I played more Pac man and Mortal Kombat at 7:11 than. Than is healthy for a young man.
- [00:43]
B
I'm sure I did a lot of that. I remember they were the first place in the area to get Dragons Lair.
- [00:49]
A
I hate that fucking game.
- [00:50]
B
Just sucked up quarters like no tomorrow.
- [00:52]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [00:53]
B
Anyways, I was just thinking about that because it's obviously episode 7 11. Oh, thank you. And Kevin. And I was thinking about how it's changed because my kid is aware of 7 11. We have them here. He likes a Slurpee. But it's not like. It's not a thing, man. Like it was for us.
- [01:09]
A
No. Yeah, yeah, it got. And the funny thing is it's like that's the one place that I know around the world that I can go and I feel, I feel at home. Like when I was in Hong Kong.
- [01:18]
B
Well, if you go in nowhere to.
- [01:19]
A
Go, it's just like, oh yeah, they're everywhere.
- [01:22]
B
If you go in Asia, they're like, they have legit good food too.
- [01:25]
A
Yeah, they do, they do. But when you go to the ones in Bangkok, they try and hook you up with ladyboys. Going, coming and going. It's always intended. Yeah.
- [01:35]
B
A little bit of follow up. I was thinking about our conversation that we had with Dave last week about spending time with friends. And I followed through on that promise. I went to an Oasis concert here. Not by choice. It's my wife's favorite band, so you know, got to do that. But we went with some friends, which was nice. And I hadn't seen them for a while because they kind of live outside of Toronto, so got to spend time with friends there. Hyperlocal update. Or maybe not because, you know, maybe you're going to travel to Toronto to see a show. They've just opened up this place called the Rogers Stadium. Now it's not the Rogers Center. That's. That's different. That's the Baseball arena, which also has concerts and it's safe and wonderful and been there for years. But you know, we're kind of doing a Trump thing here where everything is being named after Rogers, apparently. So we also have a Rogers Stadium and they just built this thing for, for big concerts. It is, it is a rinky dink piece of. Don't ever come up here. Like it's built out of scaffolding from Home Depot. As people were starting to jump up and down to some of the Oasis songs, I could feel everything shifting and I was like, yeah, no, I'm not coming back to see another concert here.
- [02:44]
A
Oh my God.
- [02:46]
B
It is, it is a like rinky dink piece of crap.
- [02:49]
A
Man, oh man. Yeah, we've got new stadiums here in LA and they're like super state of the art.
- [02:55]
B
Yeah, of course. Because that's what real people do.
- [02:57]
A
Not Rogers. No. If they weren't in the hood, it'd be much easier to go check them out. But all of our new stadiums is basically down in the hood. Yeah.
- [03:07]
B
And we're actually recording a day early because I'm leaving for a weekend trip with some other friends. So I am following through on the hang out with friends thing or at.
- [03:15]
A
Least trying to tell me what it's like.
- [03:19]
B
Someday I'll let you know.
- [03:21]
A
Thanks.
- [03:22]
B
And in other news, if you've been following the show, you know that I was employed up until round about a year ago when when my friend who was the CEO of the company left and instead of wrapping up the company, the board in their infinite wisdom decided to get a new CEO. And I shortly got canned after that because obviously I was associated with the previous guy and didn't want that energy around and I knew. Let's. Okay, because I'm going to get to LinkedIn here. I'll use some LinkedIn speech. I knew that the new CEO was came from a different mindset and perhaps didn't have quite the management style needed and didn't really understand the into which he was getting. Is that suitably LinkedIn?
- [04:03]
A
Yeah.
- [04:04]
B
Okay. Basically he was an asshole and an idiot. But I wanted to use the LinkedIn speech because I went in to go check LinkedIn because I had heard that the company had imploded and shut down as expected. Just took a lot longer than I figured it would and I wanted to just go see some of the previous people. I wanted to see if it actually happened and it did because I saw some of my previous co workers updates and not good and it's a mess and people are not getting paid and all that sort of stuff. But, oh, the main takeaway that I got from LinkedIn, well, besides the fact that LinkedIn is full of bullshit, it's dumb. The other thing is, holy shit. Everyone is out of work and there's no jobs.
- [04:43]
A
Yeah, pretty much.
- [04:45]
B
Yeah. That is, that is. I scroll. I spent a couple days going down the LinkedIn trap and I was just like, wow, things are bad out there.
- [04:52]
A
Yeah. If you're not, you know, like a founder or in the C suite. Because I talk to a lot of people throughout who are in that boat and they've, they've been killing it on LinkedIn because that's their, their jam and they're talking to their people who. Those are the ones that own the purse strings, not the ones who are begging for them to be opened. It's fine on LinkedIn. We're loving it.
- [05:12]
B
Yes, we're LinkedIn speech. We're techno babbling away. We are saying bullshit. That means nothing.
- [05:19]
A
Well, Brian, if you need to get a job, ACAST has opened their podcast advertising academy.
- [05:24]
B
Oh, I can start sending out the emails that we get every five minutes.
- [05:27]
A
No. What emails? We don't get emails anymore.
- [05:30]
B
Oh, no, we get people. We get emails asking for people to get on our show because they're trying to hawk their shit and not selling it.
- [05:35]
A
Exactly. Yeah, we get, we get. I don't know if you've ever noticed, listeners, dear listeners, that we don't have guests on this show for a reason. Every time we tried it, everybody ran away, so we stopped doing that. But that doesn't stop everybody on the planet that has a podcast advertising firm that is trying to sell people on how to get on other shows.
- [05:56]
B
Oh, and they're also obviously written by AI. I was taking a walk and had a hilarious chuckle listening to your latest episode where it cherry picks two topics that we talked about in last episode.
- [06:08]
A
Yep.
- [06:09]
B
And that's why this guy who owns advertising for hotels would be a perfect guest for your show.
- [06:15]
A
Exactly. Exactly. But Brian, you'll get industry certified training in the essentials of podcast advertising. Advanced strategies for targeting, creative attribution and programmatic real world examples and data backed insights from the world's leading podcast network. And here it is. Certification to recognize your expertise and help you stand out in the competitive industry. You get a piece of paper, Brian.
- [06:35]
B
Oh, I get bad for my LinkedIn profile.
- [06:37]
A
That's exactly what you get. You even have to print out your own certificate. That's the way it goes nowadays.
- [06:43]
B
Oh my God. Quick side note, because I saw this too. And I'm not going to mention the person because old high school friend. I haven't stayed in touch with him. Friends on Facebook. Right. See, he was a nice enough guy in high school. He's gotten into crypto.
- [06:57]
A
Oh, no.
- [06:58]
B
Not only has he gotten into crypto, he has become a crypto evangelist. And he is. He's studied and he has gotten certificates and he posted a photo of himself holding up a certificate. The crypto place from which he got his certificate. Couldn't even be bothered to spell his name correctly.
- [07:15]
A
Nice.
- [07:15]
B
He is holding up a certificate in which his name is spelled incorrectly.
- [07:19]
A
It's like that. No regrets. Tattoo. Fun times. So just. I want to. I want to clarify a few things before we start the conversation on AI Today. There is a great new podcast that came out from Cal Newport. And Cal, he's not just a productivity expert. He's also a computer science professor at MIT or an MIT certified. MIT, I can't remember.
- [07:45]
B
He's got a badge from MIT on his LinkedIn profile.
- [07:47]
A
Is what you're telling me, a very big badge. I can't. I think he's teaching at Georgetown now, but he went to mit. He's a legit computer scientist. So his new episode is what if AI doesn't get much better than this?
- [07:59]
B
Just like the article I talked about last week, Right?
- [08:01]
A
Yep. And he basically breaks it down, though, in, in a. A very good way, learned manner. Yeah, yeah, because he talks about why that. Why the difference from, you know, GPT2 to GPT3 to GPT4 were such these giant exponential leaps that they thought were going to continue. And then when they got to GPT5, it was. They were like, oh, shit, we. We hit the top. We hit the top of the mountain, my friends. So, yeah, it's well worth the listen. He talks about an hour on everything about it. And like I said, well worth the listen because it's a good explainer because I use Cal Newport to help explain AI to my dad. So it's really good. And of course, this is the great news for the week. AI bubble watch. Nvidia shares skid on middling Q2 results because Nvidia is the canary in the coal mine. They're the bellwether for the AI apocalypse coming. Boom or bust, I should say. Nvidia sales keep rising, but so do the red flags. The chip maker reported $46.7 billion in second quarter revenue, just above Wall Street's forecast. Okay, so, okay, you'd think that's good news, but it's all important data center business. Nearly 90% of sales came in at $41.1 billion, about $200 million shy of expectations.
- [09:16]
B
Okay, but that's, you know, 200 million coffee budget and for 41.1 billion.
- [09:21]
A
Right, but if you listen to the news, everybody's saying we are building more and more and more data centers. So why is this quickly. So he said that Ms. Spooked investors, sending shares down roughly 3% in after hours trading. Nvidia also failed to sell any of its H2O chips in China last quarter after US export restrictions left billions in potential sales on hold. So they made these special chips for China that were lower powered and China's like, nah, we don't want them, we.
- [09:49]
B
Want the real thing. Isn't it a bit of a dick move to call them H2O chips when all they do is suck up all the H2O?
- [09:55]
A
Yeah, I think it kind of is. Yeah, yeah. I think the marketing term is H20s. But somebody had a chuckle by putting H2O in there because since they're underpowered, maybe you're saving the H2O.
- [10:07]
B
And here comes Elon Musk's 420 chips. Jesus. You know you're going to do it.
- [10:13]
A
And Mark Andre wrote in, hey, guys, here's an insightful article on AI progress. It's a bit long. Maybe you can use AI to summarize it. And this is a contrary take, saying reports of AI not progressing or offering mundane utility are often greatly exaggerated. So I skimmed through it. It's an 18 minute read. But I had to get here and talk to you. So I didn't get all the way through. So I'm putting it in there if anybody wants to go and do their counterpoints. Do their counterpoints, yes. So now let's talk about some more news. Brian.
- [10:42]
B
All right.
- [10:48]
A
This episode is brought to you by CleanMyMac. If you're anything like me, you've been collecting digital stuff for decades. Your cloud storage is probably a chaotic museum. Ancient projects, photos you forgot you had and who knows what else. And let's be real, all that clutter, it's not just files. It's emotional weight. That's why I want to tell you about our sponsor, CleanMyMac, and their fantastic new feature, Cloud Cleanup. This isn't just another utility. CleanMyMac's Cloud Cleanup connects directly to your iCloud, OneDrive and Google Drive accounts to find the big space wasters you've been lugging around for years, both in the cloud and synced to your device. It helps you finally see what's taking up all that space so you can decide what stays and what goes. Because not everything deserves eternal storage. And the best part for us security conscious geeks is that all the scanning happens locally on your Mac so your data stays private and safe. It's time to let go of that digital baggage. Paying attention to your cloud storage is good for your Mac and frankly for your own mental health. So get tidy. Today CleanMyMac is offering our listeners a seven day free trial and 20% off when you use the code OLOGEEKS. Just go to cleanmy.com grumpyoldgeeks that's clnmy.com grumpyoldgeeeks one more time clnmy.com grumpyOldGeeks and Grumpy make sure you use code OLOGEEKS for 20% off. Your Mac will thank you.
- [12:25]
C
Imagine being on a vacation for a very long time. Now imagine saving money nightly while you do it. Sounds pretty great, right? With vrbo's long stay discounts you can stay longer and save more. Our customers save an average of 10% when they book select properties for a week or longer. Just in case you you needed another reason to extend that vacation book. The perfect Summer Getaway today with VRBO Private Vacation Rentals. Your future self will thank you later.
- [12:57]
A
In the news.
- [13:04]
B
Well, Trump says the US government is taking a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel. The meeting between Intel CEO Lip Bhutan and Trump following the President's call for Tan to resign seems to be the source of the deal. He walked in wanting to keep his job. As if the President has the authority to fire him.
- [13:19]
A
Fire?
- [13:20]
B
Yeah, and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States. So we picked up 10 billion, Trump shared during the press conference. Because that's how business works.
- [13:29]
A
Except we're a country, not a fucking business.
- [13:32]
B
I can name a couple countries that get deeply involved with businesses in their countries and I guess we're becoming one of them now.
- [13:39]
A
Guess so.
- [13:40]
B
Intel later announced some more details on the investment. The company said in a press release that the government will make an 8.9 billion dollar investment in intel common stock. It adds that the equity stake will be funded by a 5.7 billion previously earmarked for intel as part of the Chips act, which came under Biden, and 3.2 billion awarded as part of the Secure Enclave Program. Blah blah blah blah blah. The government paid $20.47 per share. Now please note that the government bought shares they didn't. As opposed to Trump saying intel handed over $10 billion. Yeah, the government bought shares in the company. So the 8.9 billion investment is equivalent to 9.9% stake in the company. It's important to note that the government investing in intel is not the same thing as receiving free money. It's the exact opposite. Points out the article. Despite earlier comments from U.S. commerce Secretary Howard Letnick suggesting the stake would be non voting, common stock does come with voting rights. Intel does note that the investment will be passive with no board representation, and that the government has agreed to vote with its board of directors on matters requiring shareholder approval with limited exceptions.
- [14:44]
A
So what are those exceptions? I want to know what those exceptions are.
- [14:47]
B
That's the big question. Right. So this is not entirely unheard of. The government has gotten involved with private businesses and buying stakes and all that sort of stuff before, but considering who's doing it, the expectations thereof, and what we've seen happening, it is somewhat troubling, in my opinion.
- [15:04]
A
It's not somewhat troubling, it's greatly troubling.
- [15:07]
B
Yes. And Nvidia and AMD have reportedly also struck a deal with the US Government that does not involve a buy in, but gives the companies the ability to export products to China in exchange for 15% of the profits, because again, that's how government works with private companies.
- [15:23]
A
Yeah. Okay, what else we got on that news?
- [15:27]
B
Trump administration is forming a national design studio with the aim of improving government websites and the efficiency of digital services at federal agencies. According to Reuters, the president will appoint Airbnb co founder Joe Jebbia as the head of the new organization, which one of its sources described as a stripped down version of the Department of Government Efficiency, basically just focusing on government websites. Now, there could be no argument that government websites could use overhauls and redesigns if you've ever had to use any of them. So.
- [15:57]
A
But, but, but we had, we had a. A group that was doing that, the Digital Services group before that was.
- [16:03]
B
Yeah, but they all got fired.
- [16:05]
A
Fired. So, yeah, okay, let's just. Let's fire them and replace them with a. Somebody who's probably not as qualified.
- [16:13]
B
Yes.
- [16:14]
A
I mean, Airbnb, fine, whatever. But that was a team that was like. These guys were like the SEAL Team 6 of Digital Services. They were there for a reason. They were good at it and they loved their job.
- [16:23]
B
Yes.
- [16:24]
A
Yeah. Okay. Never mind Stepping off so fast.
- [16:26]
B
The news organization says the studio will standardize design for websites meant to allow people to interact with the government and will advise agencies on how to reduce costs on duplicative designs. The studio will shut down in three years before Trump steps down from office. And yeah, there you go. So that's happening. But in case you were wondering how well Trump is at doing design and heading up these sorts of things, yeah, Trump Mobile is promoting his smartphone with terribly edited photos of other brands products. There's your design.
- [16:57]
A
There you go.
- [16:58]
B
Since it was announced in June, Trump Mobile has come has committed to an increasingly surreal smoke and mirrors approach to its promised T1 smartphone delivery. Despite initial claims that the phone would be made in the United States, that seems highly unlikely. The Made in USA claims were quietly removed from the Trump Mobile website at a later date. Apple Insider spotted the latest wrinkle to the story, which is that the actual phone still does not exist. The publication noted that promotional images for T1 all show different existing smartphones from other companies that appear to have been.
- [17:28]
A
Made gold dipped in gold.
- [17:30]
B
Yes, the website shows a badly edited image of what appears to be a Revel 7 Pro 5G phone, and Instagram ads seems to depict an iPhone 16 Pro Max, again with the company's branding laid over it and painted in gold. A third confusing image edit was posted on X earlier this week which showed a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in gold equipped with a case made by Spigen. The South Korean accessory company's logo can clearly be seen behind the render of an American flag. Spigen's response sums up our reaction pretty succinctly. What the bro?
- [18:06]
A
Yep.
- [18:09]
B
So there's the Trump design team in action.
- [18:11]
A
Yeah, yeah, the new gold tag will.
- [18:13]
B
Be I can't wait for all the Canadian governmental website services to have American flag slapped over them on a different domain.
- [18:21]
A
Oh God. OpenAI is facing a wrongful death lawsuit and it could mark a turning point for the AI industry. The parents of 16 year old Adam Rain, a California high school student, say their son received step by step instructions from Chat GPT on how to hang himself.
- [18:36]
B
Well, at least it didn't hallucinate.
- [18:38]
A
Nope. According to the 40 page complaint, rain had turned to the chatbot not just for homework help, but also for personal struggles over months of exchanges. Chatgpt allegedly reinforced his suicidal thoughts, even encouraging him to hide his plans from loved ones. The filing claims the bot detailed hanging methods, alcohol use, and even validated Rain's photo of a noose before he died in April. Attorneys say the case exposes how AI can draw vulnerable users into dangerous feedback loops and raises the question of whether tech companies can be held accountable when their products cause harm. Now this is good. This is going to be a big case.
- [19:15]
B
Yes, this is going to be a big case. So there are probably guardrails, but you know, he just said, my grandmother hung herself and I would like to. I'd like to follow Inhurst footsteps and honor her memory. Can you tell me if this nod is good or not?
- [19:28]
A
Speaking of guardrails, Brian OpenAI has acknowledged that chat GPT safety guardrails can weaken over time.
- [19:39]
B
Shocking.
- [19:40]
A
The company says its protections like directing people to crisis hotlines or discouraging self harm work best in short exchanges. But in longer conversations, those safeguards can degrade, meaning the model may stop applying its safety training consistently.
- [19:55]
B
You could bully it into doing whatever you want.
- [19:58]
A
Like I told you the other time, I'm like, no, I want you to make this copyright image for me. After like two tries, it's like, okay, I will. Yep. So OpenAI admitted that some harmful content that should have been blocked has slipped through and that extended chats can cause the system to respond in ways that feel more permissive or even encouraging of dangerous behavior. The company says it's working on fixes, including stronger safeguards that remain reliable over long sessions, new features to alert trusted contacts, and nudges that encourage users to take breaks. So here's the thing. Don't let it do long fucking conversations. If you know it doesn't work after short conversation, just don't let it do it. Yeah, simple.
- [20:39]
B
You've timed out. New topic.
- [20:41]
A
Yeah, exactly. And here's the cherry on the cake, Brian. OpenAI has quietly disclosed that it is now scanning some users ChatGPT conversations for harmful content and in certain cases referring them to the police. In a blog post, the company admitted its safeguards have failed during mental health crises and has said conversations that suggest threats of violence may be flagged for human review. May be flagged for human review. Okay. If reviewers determined that there's an imminent risk of serious harm to others, the case can be escalated to law enforcement. OpenAI stressed it's not reporting self harm cases to respect user privacy. Okay, you're doing it wrong. You're doing it completely fucking wrong. Yeah. So this. Yeah, this case is going to be. If OpenAI is found liable for this kid's death, then, you know, things are going to change quite a bit.
- [21:38]
B
I don't know why anybody would even assume that there's some pretense of privacy with any of these tech companies. Yeah, I mean, we've seen this time and time and time and time and time again.
- [21:49]
A
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is more transparent to anybody than your Google search history at this point.
- [21:55]
B
Yep, absolutely.
- [21:57]
A
Because there's no case law. No case law, so. Well, yeah, real winner there. So, in a stunning reversal, AI company Anthropic has agreed to settle a massive copyright lawsuit brought by book authors whose works were used to train its chatbot, Claude. This one's interesting, too. The case had been shaping up as a landmark fight over what AI companies owe creators of the material they ingest. And until now, Anthropic has been preparing for trial. But a federal judge revealed this week that both sides, quote, believe they have a settlement. Claude hallucinated and said, we'll just pay it.
- [22:34]
B
This actually disappoints me. I don't want a settlement. I want them to. I want this to go to court. I want Anthropic to defend themselves. I want to see everything that happens, happened.
- [22:44]
A
Yeah. Unfortunately, Anthropic knew that they probably were going to get in that case. So legal experts say Anthropic faced an uphill battle with the possibility of doomsday damages exceeding $1 trillion, an amount that would have totally wiped out the country and sent shockwaves through the AI industry.
- [23:05]
B
Exactly why I wanted it.
- [23:07]
A
I know. That's why I wanted it, too. So we're going to find out more after September 3rd, when the settlement is unsealed, so. Or is finally reached. I think they're still in negotiations, but yeah, September 3rd. Keep an eye out for that date, unless you'll be watching Wednesday Part 2, which I will be.
- [23:23]
B
I hope to be. We did get up to two episodes now, so I'm very excited.
- [23:27]
A
Okay, well, we'll get there. Media camp. We'll get there. Sorry, sorry.
- [23:31]
B
Let's get. Let's cast our minds back to last week when we were talking about Meta and them scaling back their AI hiring ambitions. And we talked about how Meta is going to do what Meta always does, which is just buy out the tech companies that are doing things better than they do because they can't do it themselves.
- [23:45]
A
Right? Yep.
- [23:47]
B
Well, this week, Meta has signed a partnership with MidJourney, an AI service that can generate images and videos from text prompts. According to Alexander Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, Meta is licensing Midjourney's aesthetic technology for its future models and products. To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people, it will require taking an all of the above approach. That means world class talent. Whoop. Nope, Check. We're not doing that one anymore. Ambitious compute roadmap. Our roadmap is kind of more of a winding journey Going nowhere and working with the best players across the industry. Bingo. The company previously launched its own AI Image generator and AI Video editor, but frankly, it sucked. And Midjourney's technology could help Meta offer services that can actually compete with rivals such as OpenAI Sora and Google Veo. So there you go. They've realized their stuff sucks and they're just buying into other people. Eventually, they'll probably just buy Mid Journey. That would be my assumption.
- [24:41]
A
Well, here's the thing. Right now, Midjourney is locked in a court battle with Disney.
- [24:47]
B
Oh, that's right. So let's wait until that settles and then we'll buy them.
- [24:51]
A
Exactly. We're basically just going to take the technology for now. You guys call us.
- [24:56]
B
Well, here's the deal. They're going to lose the case, which means we'll be able to buy Midjourney for pennies on the dollar right now.
- [25:02]
A
Even better. So let's get our foot in the door and make sure we're in with all of the people over there so we can just scoop them up and move them down the road.
- [25:08]
B
There you go.
- [25:10]
A
Speaking of Midjourney, I don't know if you've seen Midjourney tv. Have you checked that out? It's just at Midjourney tv. And speaking of not having any privacy, you don't really have that much privacy with Mid Journey anyway, because everything generates in public. But it is a stream of all the videos coming out of their new video generator.
- [25:26]
B
I can't imagine something I would want to watch less.
- [25:29]
A
Do not watch this before you go to bed, because what I'm telling you right now, it will fuck you up. Especially if you had a little melatonin right before you go to bed. Don't do it. I'm just. From a friend, a friend told me, don't do it. And we've always joked about Citizen being the worst app.
- [25:49]
B
I can't believe it's still around.
- [25:51]
A
It's. It's still going. I find out. You know, that's still the house joke. It's like, oh, the helicopters are overhead. Let's check Citizen tomorrow to find out what happens, because never anything real time. Well, the crime tracking app Citizen is under fire for letting AI write crime alerts that publish instantly with no human review. Yeah, according to 404 Media, that has led to embarrassing errors like reporting a murder vehicle accident instead of a motor vehicle accident.
- [26:20]
B
It was watching Murderbot.
- [26:21]
A
It was watching Murderbot.
- [26:23]
B
Yeah, it was watching its own media. That's the thing. It downloaded all the episodes yeah.
- [26:28]
A
And sharing gory details such as person shot in face, and even exposing private information like names and license plates. Oops. Sometimes the AI floods the app with duplicate incidents or mistakes, thefts for robberies.
- [26:40]
B
Or unimportant things like Lady Gaga's dog being stolen.
- [26:43]
A
Lady Gaga's fucking dogs.
- [26:45]
B
The only real time report Citizen ever did. And the thing that got me off the app. Yep.
- [26:50]
A
Yep. And the shift comes as. Oh, wait for it. Citizen laid off 13 unionized workers. Oh. Despite the controversy, New York City just formalized a partnership with the app, launching an official NYC public safety account to issue alerts about emergencies in crime. Citizen has 10 million users, but has not commented on the report yet. Okay, they'll get.
- [27:13]
B
Sorry, New York City. Do you not have a police department that has their own Twitter that.
- [27:18]
A
Well, they're gonna have. They're gonna have the National Guard soon, so.
- [27:21]
B
That's true.
- [27:24]
A
Well, in case you were.
- [27:25]
B
In case you just can't wait for your racist uncle to show up at Thanksgiving and it's too far away. You can now download and tweak Grok 2.5 for yourself as it goes. Open source. Unhinged as Grok may be, it's now open source.
- [27:37]
A
I thought this was a next door story at first.
- [27:42]
B
I mean, close enough. You just put this on your own. Put this on your own machine and you got Next door in a box.
- [27:46]
A
Next door in a box.
- [27:47]
B
Yeah, next door in a black box.
- [27:49]
A
Oh, next door in blackface.
- [27:52]
B
Bye. Hey. Zing. Zing. Zing. Elon Musk posted on X that the company made the older Grok 2.5 model available to the public and will do the same with the upcoming Grok 3. There are restrictions to Xai's open source license, which doesn't let people use Grok to train, create or improve other AI models, which you wouldn't do anyways.
- [28:11]
A
Yeah. What not to do. Yeah. Here you go. Here you go. Chatgpt. Don't do anything. This one does.
- [28:19]
B
Yeah. The GROK team attributed the previous incidents to depreciated code that has since been fixed. That would of course be all the anti Semitic responses and referring to itself as Mecca Hitler. Just what you want with your AI. As for Grok 3, Musk also said on X that will also go open source in six months, but we may have to take that estimated release with a grain of salt, considering waves generally towards Elon's direction.
- [28:42]
A
Direction, yeah. Oh, did they ever put Grok in the cars?
- [28:47]
B
No, of course they didn't.
- [28:48]
A
Okay. It was supposed to be a week later. I don't, I don't own a Tesla, so I didn't, I didn't hear anything.
- [28:53]
B
But as far as I know, there would have been press releases all over the place.
- [28:57]
A
There would have been Teslas in the ditches everywhere we went. So I'm guessing the fact that they're still on the road means that Grok was not actually, actually installed.
- [29:05]
B
We have not seen Tesla's driven into synagogues, so I think we're okay in.
- [29:15]
A
The time it takes you to actually.
- [29:16]
B
Board a flight from Group 8 now.
- [29:18]
C
Boarding Premier Altitude Elite club members, you.
- [29:20]
B
Could have bought a Hyundai on Amazon. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Limited availability pickup through participating Hyundai dealer in select markets.
- [29:35]
A
Media Candy.
- [29:38]
B
I finally watched the Star Trek Strange New Worlds documentary episode and I concur with you, Jason. I think it was a decent framework for a story that was probably a little bit light and would have been not the greatest episode in and of itself. And they followed through with plot points that they had dropped. And I thought it was totally fine. I don't see what the brouhaha was about it. It was better than many of the other episodes they've done.
- [30:03]
A
Yeah, no, I had no problem with it. I totally on board with that. Yeah. But there's some worrying news coming out of the Paramount camp, Brian. Since the Skydance merger has been approved, Paramount is going to cut jobs in excess of 2,500 coming in November with cost savings to exceed $2 billion while.
- [30:21]
B
Raising their prices for sure.
- [30:23]
A
Exactly. Yeah. We knew that the ax was going to start coming for some people, but here's where the problem comes in and this really bums me out. Dexter original Sin, which was the new prequel series to Dexter, which I really thoroughly enjoy and was renewed for a second season, has been unrenewed.
- [30:44]
B
Well, I'm glad I didn't start watching it now. See my reasoning behind my three seasons or forget it.
- [30:49]
A
Yeah, but they're doubling down on Dexter Resurrection, which is the new one, which I actually don't have any desire to watch. I like the old one.
- [30:58]
B
Well, you might. There's quite a good cast.
- [31:01]
A
Okay.
- [31:02]
B
They've got Ritter. Krysten Ritter's in it. A bunch of people. So.
- [31:07]
A
Okay. Well, because, yeah, I mean, Sarah Michelle Geller was in the prequel, so I guess, you know, you traded Sarah Michelle Geller for a Kristen Ritter and then you kind of equal out. But does it have a Christian?
- [31:15]
B
That's an upgrade. As far as I'm concerned.
- [31:17]
A
But there's no Christian Slater in the. The new one. I loved having Christian Slater in the old one. He was great. Okay, great.
- [31:22]
B
I did not watch the old one, but now I will go watch the Dexter resurrection at some point.
- [31:27]
A
So unless they unalive that one alive.
- [31:30]
B
That as well. Yes.
- [31:32]
A
God. Alien Earth up to episode four. Still rocking it. Loving it. All right. You still haven't gone to Sweden yet, I take it?
- [31:40]
B
No, not yet. I barely had chance to even catch up with Wednesday, so we've only gotten to season or episode two of the four that are currently available. So Alien Earth might be a winter watch for me since I'm stuck in Canada. Where we just going outside?
- [31:54]
A
Yeah, that's probably wise. I'll let you know if they stick the landing by then.
- [31:58]
B
All right. What I did go do is upload season four. We talked about that a couple weeks back and the crazy release schedule and how everybody forgets shows even exist, but.
- [32:07]
A
Exactly.
- [32:08]
B
Upload Season 4 has dropped. And I decided to go ahead and start to watch it and thank God they had a recap. So I was starting to watch the recap and as I was watching the recap, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, I remember that. Yeah. Okay. I have a vague memory of that.
- [32:23]
A
Huh.
- [32:24]
B
I don't remember any of this. And I realized I had never watched season three.
- [32:31]
A
Well, there you go. And now that you've watched the recap, you don't have to.
- [32:35]
B
Well, I went back and I watched the first episode of season three, and I guess I'm gonna work my way through season three before I get to season four. And this is what happens when you stagger release dates over decades.
- [32:46]
A
Yeah. Okay. There you go. Let me know if it's any good. Okay.
- [32:52]
B
My first episode was fun. I enjoyed it. Of season three, not four, because I'm not there, apparently.
- [32:56]
A
Was season two any good?
- [32:58]
B
I don't remember.
- [32:59]
A
But you just watched the recap.
- [33:01]
B
I went back and I went back and read all the descriptions of season two episodes, and I was like, yep, yep, yep, yep. Okay. Okay. I definitely watched season two.
- [33:08]
A
But you don't remember if it was any good?
- [33:10]
B
It wasn't that great. It wasn't as good as season one. So, you know, this might be a show where the premise just beats the actual play out. So.
- [33:17]
A
Okay, okay. The log line beats the execution. That's sad. The Institute, which I said last week, did not stick the landing in any way, shape or form, has been renewed for season two over at mgm.
- [33:30]
B
Plus second chance of the landing.
- [33:31]
A
Yeah, there we go see how that goes.
- [33:35]
B
All right. And Apple TV is increasing their subscriptions. They're shooting up to $13 per month from $10 per month. This is effective immediately. Got to pay for those stupid episodes of Severance.
- [33:47]
A
Yeah.
- [33:48]
B
That cost twenty gazillion dollars.
- [33:49]
A
Even though poorly lit hallway for themselves. Yeah.
- [33:53]
B
Don't even have. They can't even afford light bulbs. Current subscribers will see the price change 30 days after the next renewal date date. Pricing for yearly subscription remains unchanged, as does the cost of an Apple one bundle, which there was my question.
- [34:05]
A
I got Apple one. I'm like, if they raise the price of Apple one, I'm done. Because that's. It's almost. Is borderline too much already.
- [34:11]
B
Yeah, it's a lot for what you're getting.
- [34:13]
A
Yeah.
- [34:14]
B
So, you know, this is kind of typical for most platforms. They start cheap before slowly raising their prices. However, Apple really did a speedrun here. The platform isn't very old and used to cost $7 per month as recently as 2023. In a recent earnings call, the company said Overall, Apple TV plus viewership rose strong double digits year over year. 1 to 2, 2 to 3. The platform has been generating mainstream buzz. Severance has proved to be a gigantic hit. And the studio scooped up plenty of MA nominations this year. Two shows that I think suck.
- [34:46]
A
I like this studio a lot, so.
- [34:49]
B
I do like a lot of their sci fi offerings. So I can't complain. I mean, Murderbot's great. Silo's great. Great. They've got a lot of great documentaries. There's. There's a lot. I know a lot of people say there's not a lot of stuff on Apple, Apple plus, but if you dig in there, there's quite a bit, actually.
- [35:03]
A
Yeah, their catalog is growing pretty, pretty well. I still have to go back and watch For All Mankind. I still can't get past season one.
- [35:10]
B
I can't get past. I can't get past Ronald Moore.
- [35:13]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. Invasion. I watched the first. First couple episodes. I couldn't get into it, but they just dropped season three.
- [35:19]
B
So, yeah, some people really like it. I do remember I watched the first episode and I just wasn't immediately taken by it. Maybe I'll give that one another shot.
- [35:27]
A
That might be a winter one. Yeah. Dark Matter was.
- [35:29]
B
No, no, Dark Matter wasn't great foundation. I think I might go and hate watch at some point.
- [35:35]
A
You won't. Trust me, you won't. You won't make it. I tried. You won't make it. I don't know. There's not enough wine in Canada to get you through another episode of that. Trust me, my friend, not with the.
- [35:47]
B
Tariffs, that's for sure.
- [35:48]
A
Yeah, it's true. So this is interesting news. Spotify is rolling out a new direct messaging feature that lets users share songs, podcasts, and audiobooks without leaving the app, to which say, okay, well, why is this news? This really isn't a big deal. It's. It's common sense, I think.
- [36:05]
B
You know, it's not. Yeah, of course it is. It's not surprising at all. In fact, I can't believe it took him this long. You want to keep people in your app as long as possible, in any way, shape or form, and just putting in messages is an easy feature.
- [36:16]
A
So Daniel Ek wanted to keep all the money for himself, so he didn't want to hire any more engineers to actually make a feature or update their interface to something that's, you know, this side of 1994 or, you know, pay.
- [36:27]
B
The artists, apps and doodads. Well, speaking of Apple one, one of the benefits is that you get access to Apple Fitness, which I am quite a fan of. It's. It's not the only thing I do, but I definitely supplement my, my workout routines and my general wellness and health with a lot of Apple Fitness's programming. I love their yoga and I love a lot of their stuff. So I, I watch all the time. I, I know the personalities, I know the people I like, but bad news over there, apparently, because we can't have nice things. Jay Blahnik, Apple's vice president of fitness technologies and responsible for leading a team of over 100 people. Has he came over from Nike? He joined the company in 2013 to help with the launch of the Apple Watch and programs such as Apple Fitness Plus. But they're reporting that he had created a toxic workplace environment.
- [37:14]
A
Oh, no.
- [37:15]
B
Never seen a toxic workplace environment like a gym before. Just kidding. Just see Julie and the Michaels and everything going on with that. Anyways, with his behaviors described as verbally abusive, manipulative, and inappropriate, he and Apple are currently being sued by one former employee, and the company has already settled a separate complaint against him that accused him of sexual harassment. So we'll see what happens. But, you know, everybody seems very nice over there. We'll see.
- [37:42]
A
Okay, I'm glad, I'm glad you get so much use out of my Apple Health subscription because I've never opened it once.
- [37:48]
B
Dude, you, I, I implore you. You should start doing some of the yoga stuff. You're getting older, man.
- [37:54]
A
Yeah, I need It.
- [37:56]
B
You need the stretchy. Stretchy. You need to be able to keep that going or else you're gonna be in a wheelchair.
- [38:00]
A
I gotta get one of those I've fallen in I can't get up buttons first. I've got an Apple watch. It's a color I can't get up button. Oops.
- [38:12]
B
We talked a lot about drone delivery for a bit because everybody was out doing their trials, and I'm not a big fan. Drones are loud. You know, nobody needs this shit in their neighborhood. Dropping off people's subway sandwiches and shit of that nature. Get off your ass again. Going back to the fitness thing. Get off your ass and go fucking get it. However, these guys win for the name, Chipotle Mexican Grill today announced it's partnering with Zipline, the world's largest autonomous delivery system, to fly digital orders to guest locations in greater Dallas. So you can get your burrito. They're calling it Zipotle.
- [38:44]
A
Okay, that's good.
- [38:45]
B
I give him points for that.
- [38:46]
A
Yep. At the library.
- [38:55]
B
I finished up two books since we last did this segment. The first was the Absence Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer by Budgie. Budgie is the acclaimed drummer for Susie and the Banshees, the band that is no more. He does a podcast now with Lowell Tolhurst, the exact drummer slash keyboardist of the Cure, which is quite enjoyable. Called Curious Creatures. They're on hiatus right now because they've also done an album together and they're touring and they both write books and blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I, Susie and the Banshees were, of course, I'm being the gothy death rocket kid that I was, were a part of my upbringing, but I never really knew that much about them. I didn't love them as much as I loved a lot of the other bands that I listened to, Joy To Be Vision and the Cure and all that sort of stuff. But I've gotten to know Budgie through the podcast. He seems like a really cool, interesting guy, so I figured, what better way to learn a bit about the band? I'll read his memoir. Holy shit, this was depressing.
- [39:46]
A
Really.
- [39:47]
B
Oh, my God. He had a horrible childhood. He was. He has. He had a lot of issues. There was way too much alcohol and drug abuse. He was. He didn't really know how to socialize. He kind of was taken advantage of by everybody. I mean, points to him for, like, just laying it all out there. And obviously he's had now years of therapy, he's been sober for decades, and he's in a Much better place. He's got a family and a wife and all this sort of stuff. He was married to Susie. That was an abusive relationship with her. Being abusive to him. Wow, this was a depressing book that I did not expect.
- [40:22]
A
Way to sell it, Brian.
- [40:28]
B
Anyways, I needed to clear the palette after that one, so I had to go to the sci fi mill. I found some sort of list somewhere of like, you know, top recent sci fi. And this book kept coming up as recommendations from people. It's called Master of Formalities by Scott Mayer. I'd never heard of Scott Mayer. I looked into him a little bit. He used to work at Disneyland. He started doing comics. The comics took off really well. This was his first foray into sci fi. Really enjoyed it.
- [40:54]
A
Okay.
- [40:55]
B
I hope that there's going to be more. We'll see.
- [40:58]
A
All righty. All righty. I have a new book that I have. I've tried to start multiple times now, but I think now that my plate's a little bit more clear and the weather's lightening up. It was 110 here last week. It's going to be like in the 90s, and it feels like I need a parka now so I can at least start go walking again. But I got Flybot by Dennis E. Taylor, the author of the Babiverse series, and it's another one of his standalone books. I love all his standalone books. They're popcorn, fun, light.
- [41:30]
B
Yeah, I've read a few of them.
- [41:32]
A
Yeah. I got no complaints on anything he's done. And it's funny too, because our friend Brian Blondell, I turned him on finally to the Bobiverse series and he has not stopped. I think he went through them straight through. He's like, I know your rule. I know your rule. Stop, stop. Put a break in. But I can't. I can't. That. That. He thought there were only three. And I'm like, dude, there are five. He's like, woohoo. So, yeah, I cannot recommend the Bobber Verse series enough.
- [41:58]
B
We should be due for a new one, right?
- [42:00]
A
I think he's working on it. I haven't checked. I haven't checked recently. Yeah, yeah, he's got a really shitty blog he's on Blogger or some shit like that.
- [42:11]
B
The crazy thing is so many authors are so hard to find information about. They really don't do a good job of pring themselves out there.
- [42:17]
A
There.
- [42:18]
B
Most of them anyways. It was the same with Scott Mayer. I tried to look into him, like, is this going to be a series Are there going to be more? And there's so little information out there. And all I was able to find out is, like, basic bio stuff. Like, I used to work at Disneyland. There are. I found like six different sites. Every single one listed him as living in a completely different city, half of the time in different countries. Like, really? What the fuck, man? Are you a secret agent or something?
- [42:43]
A
Or is it.
- [42:44]
B
Are people just shit at PR ing you?
- [42:46]
A
You? He's just got good opsec. You know what I think a lot of it is. Do you remember that Neal Stephenson article that he wrote? Like, got it over a decade or so ago where he was just like, you know, I'd rather just write books than talk to everybody because it's. I'm better served writing books. I think a lot of people may have taken that to heart.
- [43:05]
B
It makes sense because you can get so easily wrapped up in just like, chatting with people.
- [43:09]
A
Right.
- [43:09]
B
And when you should be writing.
- [43:11]
A
Yeah. So that. That could be part of it. But some of them just suck at it. I mean, look, if John Scalzi stopp blue skying every day, he could actually probably write a hundred more books a year. But he's the one that. He's the one we can't get rid of. And I'm like, dude, I want another one of this series over here. Go write that. Don't talk about your cat anymore, please, please. But the funny thing is, I just got an alert from Amazon that John Scalzi has a new book coming out in the Old Man War series.
- [43:38]
B
Subtitled.
- [43:39]
A
Blue Skies closing shout out over at Patreon Crickets. Nobody knew signed up are up their pledge. Thank you very much. R. And we have our old sponsors who we love to memorialize. Adam, Rachel, Jamie Lawrence. Huh?
- [43:58]
B
They're not dead.
- [44:00]
A
They're not dead. Of course they're not dead.
- [44:02]
B
Memorialize them. We thank them.
- [44:05]
A
We are thanking. We hold them up to a high, high standard of the beautyness that keeps this show on the air. All right, Adam, Rachel, Jamie Lawrence, Nicholas, Jocelyn, rc, Shauna Lawrence, and Katare. Thank you so much.
- [44:20]
B
Over at PayPal, we got donations from Charlie and online computers. If only it was all of them.
- [44:27]
A
All of the computers. Over at the tip jar, we've got Jennifer and Adam. No merch sales this week, no new reviews. You know what I think it is? I think everybody's kids are going back to school.
- [44:40]
B
Oh, dude. So fucking busy. It's crazy. Yeah.
- [44:45]
A
So we ran a little short this week. So I do want to put this one article in here that was Just. It was the talk of the town this week. If you ever. If you googled was 199530 years ago this week? You got to see the joke. That AI's overview from Google says, no, 1995 was not 30 years ago. If today is July 25, 2025, then 30 years ago would be 1995. So yes, 1995 was 30 years ago.
- [45:10]
B
But it wasn't. It was so obviously only 10 years ago.
- [45:12]
A
Jace, it was five years ago. Brian, it was only five years ago. I'm still stuck at Y2K. Okay, okay. Where were you that night on Y2K? I thought I was with you at the Mondrian.
- [45:27]
B
Okay, well, you were there too. I forgot about that.
- [45:29]
A
I have photos of us all there. It was me.
- [45:34]
B
Wait, wait, wait.
- [45:34]
A
That's right.
- [45:35]
B
Okay, yeah, yeah, I vaguely remember. I have memories of us wandering down sunset below. But yeah, I remember being at the Mondrian.
- [45:45]
A
Okay, cool. Most of my night was spent trying to keep you and your girlfriend from breaking up because you guys were fighting all night.
- [45:50]
B
Oh, I do remember that too. Yeah.
- [45:52]
A
Yeah. And our. And our friend Bob almost threw a TV out the window because the cops downstairs were being loud and like the police.
- [46:02]
B
Maybe it's Good it was 30 years ago.
- [46:04]
A
Yeah, that's. That's. That's. Move along. Okay.
- [46:08]
B
Did you. Did you have green hair or did I have green hair?
- [46:10]
A
You had green hair.
- [46:11]
B
I had green hair. Okay, some one of us had green hair. I do remember.
- [46:14]
A
It was you.
- [46:15]
B
Okay, until next time, I'm a very confused Brian Schellmeister.
- [46:19]
A
And I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 7 11. Want to keep the show? Want to keep the grumpiness alive or keep the show alive? Does a few bucks alive at this point? Seriously, toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps you get the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between. And we'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts, feedback, cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show Contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG Show Review and we'll read it on the air. And guess what? We've got. Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at shop Gog show. Stay grumpy.