← So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
1853: Financial Freedom in the Age of AI and Data Surveillance. What it Means For Your Money and Privacy
00:31:50
Loading summary
Transcript69 lines
- [00:00]
Sean Linda
What's up? It's Sean Linda from two Black Guys of Good Credit. If managed supply runs is still on your to do list, here's your science upgrade. Walmart Business has the tech tools and services that make it ridiculously easy to stock up for your office or team. Think scheduled deliveries, multi user accounts and even it setup bonus with a Walmart Business plus membership, you get free shipping, spend, analytics and 2% rewards. Join the smart way to shop at business.walmart.com Terms apply when it comes to.
- [00:31]
Unknown
Delivering flowers for life's special occasions. Trust the name that's been setting the standard for nearly 50 years. 1-800-flowers.com from breathtaking bouquets to one of a kind arrangements, 1-800-flowers is your authority on quality blooms. Always fresh, always stunning, always delivered with care. And right now, for a limited time, you can save up to 40% off your bouquet and make someone's day. Save up to 40% off today at 1-800-flowers.com acast. That's 1-800-flowers.Com acast.
- [01:02]
Farnoosh Torabi
Hiring foreign nationals often feels overwhelming and with shifting federal policies, it's never been more important to have a guiding hand. That's where Meltzer Hell Rung comes in. They're a corporate immigration law firm that helps companies navigate the ins and outs of business immigration with a high touch technology driven approach. Their immigration management platform makes the process easier, more transparent and more efficient. So whether you're already sponsoring foreign national employees or or just realizing your dream hire needs expert work visa services, Meltzer Hell Rung can help you do it right. They stay ahead of policy changes so you don't have to start by signing up for their free weekly news alert emails and monthly webinars. They're full of practical tips, compliance guidance and insights that help you stay smart and strategic. Visit meltzerhellrung.com that's meltzerhellrung.com and tap into a world of talent so Money Episode.
- [01:56]
Martha Underwood
1853 Financial Freedom in the Age of.
- [02:00]
Farnoosh Torabi
AI and Data what it means for your money and privacy.
- [02:06]
Unknown
You're listening to so Money with award winning money guru Farnoosh Torabi. Each day get a 30 minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers and from Farnoosh yourself. Looking for ways to save on gas or double your double coupons. Sorry, you're in the wrong place. Seeking profound ways to live a richer, happier life. Welcome to so Money.
- [02:32]
The protections that were in like the ECOA no longer really exist for us to be able to have recourse to be able to prove that, hey, no, this isn't right. I have the right to financial freedom. I have the right to a bank account. I have the right to a credit card, a mortgage, all of those things. But how are you going to combat that if the regulation and the laws are changed? And that is the challenge. And that's the thing that really concerns me, because we need more people thinking about this, looking at it, saying, hey, these protections were put into place for a reason, and now they're being rolled back. And there is a real chance of us sliding backwards because of it. And that's the danger and the risk of us as women being unbanked.
- [03:26]
Farnoosh Torabi
Welcome to SO Money, everyone.
- [03:27]
Martha Underwood
I'm Farnoosh Tarabi, and we're going to have a very powerful conversation in this next half hour about legacy and how.
- [03:35]
Farnoosh Torabi
Technology is reshaping the way we protect our wealth and our families. My guest is Martha Underwood. She's a 25 year tech veteran and the founder and CEO of Prism, a digital vault platform that helps families and financial institutions securely manage documents, streamline inheritance transfers, and reduce the chaos that often comes with crisis. Prism was born out of Martha's own family emergency when her father was injured during Hurricane Irma and no one could.
- [04:05]
Martha Underwood
Locate the documents needed to access care or funds.
- [04:08]
Farnoosh Torabi
Since then, Martha's made it her mission to protect consumers, especially women, from being left out or left behind when it matters most.
- [04:17]
Martha Underwood
In our conversation, we discuss the rise.
- [04:19]
Farnoosh Torabi
Of AI bias and what it means for our money, the real risks of becoming unbanked as women, and how your data, even your browsing history, can be used to make financial decisions about you without your knowledge or consent. Let's dive in.
- [04:37]
Martha Underwood
Martha Underwood, welcome to Sew Money. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Thank you for all the work you're doing. I think we're gonna learn. So in the next 30 minutes.
- [04:45]
Unknown
I mean, it's awesome to be here. Fronties.
- [04:47]
Martha Underwood
Yeah. I was really drawn to your work. You're a 25 year tech veteran, founder and CEO of Prism, which from what I understand, it's this digital vault platform that helps financial institutions retain deposits, deliver seamless automated inheritance transfers. You're very invested at a philosophical level, I think, from my understanding. Martha like protecting consumers, particularly women. We're going to get into that as well. But maybe we could start with you just talking a little bit about how your personal life, your personal experiences shaped the mission behind what you're doing now as an entrepreneur.
- [05:28]
Unknown
Yeah. I always say that I built Prism out of love for My parents, particularly my dad, because I built PRISM after my dad had a terrible accident during Hurricane Irma where he went on someone's roof thinking that he was going to cut off a tree that fell on it, slips, falls off the roof, and my mom was grieving. We couldn't find any of the documents when they got them to the hospital system, and it was chaos for a while. And then it hit me at that moment that this is what millions of families go through right when an emergency hits. There's documents, there's information, there's money to be accessed to be able to handle the business of whatever that emergency is. And it shouldn't feel so burdensome. We should be able to easily get our hands on that. And that's really when prison was born, really to say that we don't know what's going to happen or when it's going to happen. My parents are 84 and 85. I'm part of the sandwich generation. And so they look to me to be able to get access to this and help them navigate the systems. So I wanted to create something of value that would make my life easier because I have kids and I'm trying to manage them, but also help my parents, who deserve it because they did such a great job raising us. So how do we use tech for good, and how do we create something of value that women who are burdened with the paperwork and all of the things can really benefit from? And that's really where PRISM was born and why I'm on this mission.
- [06:54]
Martha Underwood
So going back to your personal story with your dad, had PRISM been around during that moment, how would it have helped your family? How would it have made things easier? I wanna understand a little bit more about the applic and how it. It's filling gaps.
- [07:10]
Unknown
Absolutely. So I live in Birmingham and they live in Miami. And so when they were asking us for documents and asking us for where things were, I couldn't go to the house to find that for them. So with prism, because it's a digital vault, I would have been able to log in because my mom and dad would have had a joint vault that they had all of this information stored. I would have known where the bank accounts were. I could have logged in and said, okay, I know, mom, you need to go to bank of America or Wells Fargo. Here is where you need to go to get money to pay for the copay or the insurance or whatever else. And I would have been able to access that easily to see again where his insurance policy was, because she was grieving she might have known where it was, but because grief was hitting her so hard, she just went blank. And so being able to log into a shared vault that they gave me permission to, to be able to handle that and talk to the nurses or talk to the administrators and say, here's what the policy number is until I got the opportunity to get down there. That's the thing that would have made all the difference for me. Because other when it happened and I didn't have prism, I was flying blind. Now, the one thing that you also did ask is we sell this to individuals and we only opened it up after the LA fliers, but really we target this to the financial institutions. Because my time at the bank as head of retail software engineering, I was there during 2020, during COVID the height of COVID so many people died. And what I realized was people, the first place people went was to the banks looking for money. The beneficiaries who were like, okay, my mom died, my grandma died, my dad died, they were trying to get access to the dollars to be able to handle the business of death. And at times they were traveling miles or flying in because they didn't have access to that bank because there was no branch in their cities. Because long gone are the days when we live in the same cities with our mom and dads or our grandparents. My mom lives in Miami and they bank at bank of America. Bank of America does not exist in Alabama. There's not one branch in Alabama. I'd have to drive to Atlanta to get there. And imagine all of these other states that might not have some of the big name banks or even the community banks or credit unions that people go to. It's hard.
- [09:28]
Martha Underwood
It's hard. And you mentioned Covid. I remember just trying to get my mortgage during COVID And the bank's hours were only this to that and on only Tuesdays. And so that also, you're limited even if your bank is near you, but you're in a moment of crisis like that. This requires a conversation with your elders, with your parents. You mentioned the sandwich generation. What's challenging about that is not just the money stuff when you're talking about supporting your parents, but it's also the transparency that's needed, the comfort of being able to talk to your parents about their money, which as they may be, even in their 80s, they still see you as their child. And we don't talk to our kids about money. And so any advice that you have that maybe you practiced as you were broaching this topic with your parents?
- [10:18]
Unknown
Yeah, my dad's very private. And so I had to come at them and be like, you're going to leave a legacy. What type of legacy do you want to leave? Do you want to leave one of chaos or one that says that you cared for the family because you've worked too hard for all of the assets that you have for it to not be properly passed on to the kids or to your grandkids? And I had to say, do you know where it'll get go if you don't organize and do this? It will go to the government. And that's really when it was just like, oh, we didn't realize that because I'm like, typically, if you don't know where, if you have a bank account, the banks will rape it for fees if they don't know what the beneficiaries are until the three years or the five years, depending on the state you're in, that it's past statutes of limitations for us to hold the account open and then they'll send it up to the state. Most people don't want to hear that their hard earned money is going to go to the government, especially the older generation, the boomers who've worked so hard. And when I educated them on that, educated him on that, he was really like, oh, I did not realize that. I said, let's start small, start with the will. Like, who's the financial advisor? Let me go talk to them. Let's get the account statements and then not make it so that it's overwhelming, because it can get overwhelming. They're 84. They've had a healthy, long life. And so that's what that was the thing that made him wake up to say, man, it's the loving thing to do. And I worked so hard to amass this wealth for our children. It'll be a shame if it doesn't get to them. And that was the thing that said, okay, we'll get this done.
- [12:08]
Martha Underwood
The operative word, legacy.
- [12:10]
Unknown
Correct.
- [12:12]
Martha Underwood
So important people get that.
- [12:14]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [12:14]
Martha Underwood
Martha, you're also very passionate about educating women in particular around so many issues that concern our finances. But one is you've talked about, and you and I, you know, how we connected is we're both members of the list. It's this community of incredibly talented women. You've done webinars for us there on, on this threat of becoming unbanked, really, in 2025. I know that women's women and financial independence. We have a short history, we have a recent history, I should say, like we, we only started to be able to open up our own loans and credit cards in the 70s without a male co signer. And so I don't, I believe that history can rewrite itself. But what are the threats that you're seeing in 2025 that would accelerate that unbankedness?
- [13:02]
Unknown
So there are a couple of things. The first thing, I'm going to start with the advancement of technology and AI. And then also the changes to laws, the subtle changes to laws. So a lot of women don't know that there was a subtle change to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Right. That specifically roll back the disparate impact protections for anyone. Right. So it makes it harder to call out if there's any bias in lending. And back in the day, it was more of a, we need your husband's signature to be able to give this to you. But I see it as we're sliding back into that. But it's masked in the technology, it's masked in the codes and then the algorithms. Because when you look at logging in now or accessing accounts and all of those things, it's about being digitally disqualified sometimes because maybe my name has changed because I got a divorce, right? Or maybe there's just some searches that happen on social media of my post or anything that goes into the decision that we don't see on whether you get a loan or not because of someone, the underwriter or someone has a bias. Those are the dangers that exist. And the protections that were in, like the ECOA no longer really exists for us to be able to have recourse, to be able to prove that, hey, no, this isn't right. I have the right to financial freedom. I have the right to a bank account, I have the right to a credit card, a mortgage, all of those things. But how are you going to combat that if the regulation and the laws are changed? And that is the challenge. And that's the thing that really concerns me, because we need more people thinking about this, looking at it, saying, hey, these protections were put into place for a reason and now they're being rolled back. And there is a real chance of us sliding backwards because of it. And that's the danger and the risk of us as women being unbanked.
- [15:18]
Martha Underwood
I think it reinforces why we need more women in technology. We need more people of color in technology to learn, because the AI, AI doesn't exist without us. We've been talking about on this podcast and everywhere, that AI, it's created by humans. And so it will have implicit bias if Only one kind of human is making the AI. So that's my takeaway. One of the takeaways is that we need all hands on deck when we're developing this AI. People who come with all different life experiences and awareness of what actually could happen. There was actually a recent case unrelated to money, but it was a black man who sued this company. I think it was a. It was for job applications. He was rejected, I think, to. On so many job applications that he just knew. He was like, this is not. This is about racism, right? This is. There's nothing else here. So we have these sort of things that are servicing now. And he's gainfully employed now. He's been promoted many times, so we know he was a good candidate. He did finally get a job. I mean, he's valued at where he works, so he knew. So I think that only strengthened his case. But I think that we'll probably see similar cases, unfortunately. But we need them. We need people to fight this.
- [16:30]
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely.
- [16:32]
Martha Underwood
You say that our data is being weaponized. Moving now to talking about data as power. What are some examples of this? A lot of people, especially boomers, for example, they're afraid to hand over their data. They're skeptical of technology, which a lot of that we might say, oh, they're just scared. They're not used to it. But maybe there is. It is rooted in some truth, as you have discovered. What have you discovered?
- [16:55]
Unknown
Like you said, it's about who's creating these models and these algorithms. And here's how the data can be weaponized, which we are starting to see glimpses of this. Let's say, for example, you're applying for a mortgage. And I'm talking about from a financial perspective, right? Your income, your credit score, your savings, all of that stuff is great. But AI also pulls your browsing history, your location data, how often you switch jobs, did you open any new accounts. And the algorithm can deem that you're in financial distress when maybe you're not, maybe someone else is using your computer. All of these different things, right? Like maybe you're not. You don't know. But that is data and that is information that can be used and sold. So it's not just, I don't think that the data is there to just understand us, but it's moving towards where it's judging and limiting and controlling us in such a way. And in addition to that, there are no guardrails right now, when you look at regulation around it, AI was just released with no regulation, no guardrails. Around it. And so when you, when an algorithm is in play to make a decision, a financial decision, on whether you are worthy for a mortgage, a loan, a car, a credit card, or whatever they may be, using financial data or just other data attributes about you to come to a conclusion. And that's why I say that the data can be weaponized. Because something as simple as browsing history, which should be private, how does that play into whether or not I should apply for a mortgage? And then also like location data, why should that matter? And because maybe you're in a low socioeconomic place, like where you living, maybe I'm moving to a better place, all of these things, but the AI just does not know that just yet. And so it has the potential to be used to make decisions about us with or without our input or context. And that's the problem. And that's why I think that you talk about having our voices at the table. We have to have our voices at the table as it relates to data transparency and using our data. Because otherwise I think that what we will move towards is slowly being shut out. And that's the problem.
- [19:22]
Farnoosh Torabi
Introducing the new Dell AI PC powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor. It's not just an AI computer, it's a computer built for AI. That means means it's built to help.
- [19:32]
Martha Underwood
Do your busy work for you. So you can fast forward through editing.
- [19:36]
Farnoosh Torabi
Images, designing presentations, generating code, debugging code, running lots of apps without lag, creating live translations and captions, summarizing meeting notes.
- [19:43]
Martha Underwood
Extending battery life, enhancing security, finding that.
- [19:46]
Farnoosh Torabi
File you were looking for, managing your.
- [19:47]
Martha Underwood
Schedule, meeting your deadlines, responding to Jim's.
- [19:50]
Farnoosh Torabi
Long emails, leaving all the time in the world for more you time and for the things you actually want to do. No offense, Jim. Get A new Dell AI PC starting at $699.99 at Dell.com AI PC how those ahead Stay ahead. Hey, so money friends, I know many of you are thinking about starting your own business or you're already in the trenches making smart, strategic money moves. If that's you, I want to personally recommend a podcast that can seriously help you get to that next level. This is small business. What I love about this new season is how real it gets about something we talk about a lot here. Risk Every episode shares honest stories from founders who've faced tough financial decisions, taken bold but calculated risks, and made it through the highs and lows of building a business. Host Andrea Marquez breaks it all down in a way that's actionable and relatable. You'll hear exactly how these entrepreneurs tackled things like funding, pricing and knowing when it's worth betting on yourself. If you're looking for real, practical insights that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence, this podcast is it. Follow and listen to this is Small Business now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't wait to start making smarter money moves Today my parents just got back from traveling in Italy and they cannot stop talking about the Airbnb they stayed in with their friends. It was in a quiet neighborhood near Lake Como, tucked away, and they said it was one of the best parts of their trip. It had this incredible terrace with views of olive groves, a cozy kitchen, and thoughtful touches that made it feel like home. They felt like they were living there, not just passing through. And honestly, that level of experience doesn't happen by accident. It takes effort to manage a great Airbnb, especially if the host isn't nearby. That's where Airbnb's Co Host Network comes in. A co host can step in to help with everything from handling guest messages to making sure the home is stocked and welcoming. If you have a property, whether it's across the world or right around the corner and you're not using it year round, a co host can help you turn it into a reliable income stream without being hands on 24 7. To learn more, head to Airbnb.com host. You know that moment when summer hits and suddenly nothing in your closet feels right? I had that recently and didn't want to waste money on clothes I'd only wear once. That's when I turned to quince. Quince makes timeless, high quality summer staples. Think 100% European linen tops starting at just $30, washable silk dresses and soft cotton sweaters.
- [22:20]
Martha Underwood
The quality is so good, especially for.
- [22:21]
Farnoosh Torabi
The price, about half of what you'd pay elsewhere. And I'm not the only one in the house that's hooked. I've even started getting my kids into Quint. My daughter is in love with her new flamingo print, tankini and the softest pajamas she's ever owned. Quince works directly with top artisans and uses ethical factories so you get beautifully made pieces without the markup. I'm in love with quints and you will be too. Give your summer closet an upgrade with quint. Go to quince.com sewmoney for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com SewMoney and that's.
- [22:58]
Martha Underwood
The well, you're right. And even thinking of before, before AI, right. The FICO credit score model or any credit scoring model before AI. And still they would, for example, factor in how many credit cards you have. Every time you open up a credit card, that's a ding on your credit score. Maybe you're trying to just open it up because you're wanting to get a free trip to Europe. And the most important thing is, are you paying off that debt on time, responsibly? They also ding you if close the account. Maybe it's weighing on you psychologically. You don't want to have this account.
- [23:33]
Farnoosh Torabi
What does it even matter?
- [23:35]
Martha Underwood
And so even before AI, there were these biases. And so is part of what you're advocating for, like these guardrails, what should the guardrails look like?
- [23:44]
Unknown
I think what some of the guardrails are is know what's being collected. So on the company side, right. We need as consumers to be able to have a mechanism for them to send us, like, what's being collected and why do you need this piece of data for me? And then control where it goes. Who are you sharing it with? Because right now they're not sharing that data or that information. Like, who are you sharing it with? These are the things that we need to be advocating for. The other thing, like when you talk about, when we think about the large LLMs and things like people are putting your information in there and companies may be training their own models with information that they may have on you. They need to be telling you that, because who else might be able to access that information if they are sharing with third parties? And so that's the thing that as we start looking at regulation, as we start looking at how these systems are accessing our information, we need transparency on where is it going, who's using it, why do you need it so that we can make the decision? Because the thing is, it's our right, it's our data. Yeah, like, how are you not telling us? Like, I'm just not going to invite someone into my house and be like, just use up everything you want to use and take whatever you want to take.
- [25:10]
Martha Underwood
But to your point, it's so hard to even know that your data is being extracted and used. So what are you looking for? What are the red flags?
- [25:18]
Unknown
You can't know until you ask. And that's why I said we need regulation. Until you ask, they're forced to give you a report on it. So, so what you can do on just the everyday level is if you're using an app is. Look at the terms. Turn off consent. Toggles don't just automatically download an app, whether it's a financial app, a bank app, or any of the apps. Go in and make sure that you are looking at the settings to control what goes where. Turn off those toggles. Don't share this. Don't share my location. Don't share all of this other stuff. Look at what their data policy is and then test them. Send them a message and be like, hey, can you send me all the data you've collected on me and why you're using it? And if more of us do that, I think more of the companies will wake up and be like, hold on. Because they have that. They should be forced to be able to tell us what they're using it for right now. It's not. That's why I said it's a regulatory thing and we really need to have our voices and pay attention to what's happening in Washington on anything as it relates to regulation around AI and data privacy and data information and data consent, all of those things.
- [26:31]
Martha Underwood
Thank you for all that advice and insight. Because you have such an extensive career in tech and you know so much about where it's going, what is your take on AI in general as a tool for good, as one that can backfire?
- [26:46]
Farnoosh Torabi
How do you use AI in your.
- [26:48]
Martha Underwood
Personal life, in your career? I think work. We're talking about this more and more in our. Even our financial conversations on this show. It's inevitable. I think it's all being built right now, the story around AI and what's your temperature read on it.
- [27:02]
Unknown
So my temperature read is a little gloomy sometimes, but then it's also positive. And I fight with that every day as a technologist, because as a technologist, you understand the power that you have in your hands and what you can do with it. And if I can do this with it, then there's bad actors out there that can do all kinds of things with it. Just like what I just saw a notification yesterday that came in and I think it's Marco Rubio, that someone used his voice and was calling the leaders of other countries to have conversations. That's the gloomy part that I'm looking at AI and I'm like, man, like, if they can do that to Marco Rivia, they can do that to everyone else. And that's the fraud piece. They can do it to my parents, they can do it to me. And it's undetect. It's almost undetectable now because they can clone my voice and they can do all of these things. Which is why I'm, I'm really hopeful because more people like me are saying how do we create systems to where there's a two way validation, right? Like if a company calls me, typically if a bank calls me, they're going to ask me what's my Social Security number, what's my pin, what's my secret word, all of that, we need to be able to do that, that to them now and building those and thinking about it. And so in that sense that's where I'm just, okay, this is the dark side of AI. But then on the other side, there's some phenomenal uses for a productivity perspective from giving you advice and being able to look at large data sets and help you like plan your financial future, that's a plus. If I have a job right now and I'm only making $70,000 a year and I have two kids and maybe my husband was laid off and we gotta go to one salary and here are our bill, like all of these things. Tell me how we can make it through the end of the year and still have a great Christmas. Like really help with that piece. Right? And that's the beauty of what AI can do. And even on the healthcare side and some of the advancements that is happening there, for it to be able to take in larger data sets that they have consent or have access to and then run through it, but then provide some really good advice on next steps or.
- [29:22]
Farnoosh Torabi
Oh my God.
- [29:23]
Martha Underwood
Do you know you just gave me a great idea like for the next open enrollment period.
- [29:29]
Unknown
Look at that. But, but that's what I'm saying. All of these things, like open enrollment is very hard, like for parents, it's just, okay, so much has changed, so much has changed. So many people have lost jobs, all these different things. So open enrollment is coming. How do I leverage this? And all of these different scenarios that you can put in based on someone's individual situation that then it can provide you two to three options that still make them whole at the end of the year. So that's where I see it. And I use it every day. I use chat gtp, I use claude, I use replit to just test out new applications and new ideas that I have, all of those types of things. And I think it's phenomenal.
- [30:12]
Martha Underwood
And it can replace jobs which it's already doing. Like even just that example we gave about getting our healthcare assessed, that's something that usually someone in HR might do for you. Or someone a role at the healthcare company. So if you are employed right now and you want to keep your job, how do you upskill to be able to bypass the threats of AI taking over your job?
- [30:37]
Unknown
You really need to embrace a creative side, understand how to master it. And like you said earlier, AI is nothing without us using it, without us prompting, without us understanding how to ask it for what we need to ask it for. And so there are a couple of ways. So with jobs that are task based, like redundant, we know that I need to do step one through 10 every time. AI is already going to take those jobs. There are some other jobs where it's going to be some nuances of, excuse me, how do I pick or how do I have this conversation or how do I deal with some of these issues or how do I predict what might happen in the markets because of the weather and other things that you may be able to use AI as a partner, as a thought partner to come up with solutions for your company that no one else is necessarily thinking about. Interestingly enough, I'm in tech, but I got my degree in English because I loved my creative side. I'm like, I've written poems, I wrote for my school paper, all of those things while I was coding. And so I minored in the technical writing and technical writing, which put me in the college of engineering. So I still was able to code since I was doing that since eighth grade. But the creative side of me is what makes me dangerous, I think my superpower, because I'm able to not only just look at it logically and technically, I'm also able to pull in the creative side and see the intersections of different industries and see how that intersection might impact us. And the people who can do that are the ones that's going to keep their jobs because you're still going to need strategists, you're still going to need people who are, are outside the box thinkers. That's not thinking like everyone else that might be able to put in a wild idea of like how does manufacturing and healthcare go together like something crazy and just think of where those intersect and then say, oh, I can create a new product in manufacturing because this is what was done in the healthcare space and it will work here because there's some synergies that everything doesn't work, but there's some synergies here and I could create a whole new product line or service, all of those. So the people who can do that are the ones that I think will be safe.
- [33:07]
Martha Underwood
I want to bring you to all the college universities and share this lecture because I think it's a whole other episode. But the fate of higher ed is at the mercy of AI and where it's going to take the job market. And I know not everybody goes to college for the ROI of getting a job. Who are these people? I don't know. Nepo babies. But the MO for the largely for most earthlings, we need to get a return on our small mortgage that we took out to get a bachelor's degree. And if we can't get even a beginner's salary job because it's just an AI rigged world, it's going to backfire and in a very. Well, yeah, it's going to be interesting.
- [33:49]
Unknown
The bloodbath is on the way. Yeah. It's already started, right? It really has already started. And I have done a couple of college lectures and I would love to do more. But we talk about how to embrace your creative side and not just look at your industry. Because if you're a business major, okay, what business do you want to go into and how does that intersect? Because it's all intertwined. And I just say that I grew up in IBM. I say I grew up in IBM from a corporate perspective. And they had it right because they put me in several different seats within the company to let me see how the company worked. And I took that baseline and applied it because I was in several different business verticals using tech. So healthcare side, manufacturing side, data side, banking side, retail, all of those. There are synergies across each one of those that someone hasn't really made a connection somewhere on that that I think the business schools and the universities should be training those young minds because you're immersed and just learning every day. That is where you really get to strengthen that muscle. Build and strengthen that muscle to think that way. And not only to think that way from a business industry in the US but also globally. Because there's some things globally that we don't have access to and we might not have done in the US because of laws and restrictions, but if you are exposed and taught it, then you can see the intersection or you can dissect it to see how it might work here in a better or different form. And I think that's from a university perspective that is a huge opportunity that they can really start to leverage AI on and talk through and all of those different things.
- [35:43]
Martha Underwood
Yeah, yeah. Universities are fertile ground. Right. To do this and fertile. I think it's from my one small perspective. I'm on a board, at a public university advisory board. And I just see a lot of resistance to it. Fear.
- [35:59]
Unknown
It's fear. Yeah. Yeah, it's fear.
- [36:02]
Martha Underwood
And you're gonna pay a price for that.
- [36:04]
Unknown
There's a huge price for that. Because with that, fear means you're not moving forward, but your other universities are and the rest of the world is. And so that's gonna hinder you. And I've been talking to a couple of university presidents and I'm like, they're like, ah, we don't know. And I'm like, the longer you sit in that, I don't know, space, the further behind you get.
- [36:28]
Martha Underwood
Yeah. And it's fast. It's a fast hole that's getting dug. I'd love to have you back many times. I think this conversation is constantly evolving. And Martha Underwood, we appreciate your insights. Thank you so much. Thanks for ping ponging with me. I know we touch on so many topics from wealth transfer to data privacy to AI, but I learned so much. I know our audience did as well. So we appreciate you. Thank you.
- [36:54]
Unknown
Awesome. It's my pleasure. Anytime.
- [36:59]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thanks to my guest, Martha Underwood for her insights. We have links to learn more about Martha in our show notes. I'll see you back here on Friday for AskFarnouche.
- [37:07]
Martha Underwood
And I hope your day is so.
- [37:09]
Farnoosh Torabi
Money.
- [37:22]
Unknown
Now at Verizon, we have some big news for your peace of mind. For all our customers, existing and new, we're locking in low prices for three years guaranteed on MyPlan and MyHome. That's future you peace of mind and everyone can save on a brand new phone on MyPlan. When you trade in any phone from one of our top brands, that's new phone peace of mind. Because at Verizon, whether you're already a customer or you're just joining us, we got you Visit Verizon today. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.
- [37:52]
Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. That's why a State Farm agent is there to help you choose a coverage option that's right for you. Whether you're getting a new house, car, boat or rv, helping protected is important. And State Farm is there to help you choose the coverage you need. Whether you prefer talking in person on the phone or using the award winning app. And with so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. So you can continue to focus on what's most important to you. Like a good neighbor State Farm is there.