AI Robots & Tech: The Surprising Future Unveiled | Easy Day Foundation DSH #1382

What up y'all?

It's Joe Button here to talk about Prize Picks.

PrizePicks is the best place to win real money while watching football.

You can get up to 100 times your money.

PrizePicks will give you $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup.

You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus.

It's guaranteed.

Just download the PrizePicks app and use code Spotify.

That's code Spotify on PrizePicks to get $50 instantly when you play a $5 lineup.

PrizePicks, run your game.

Must be present in certain states.

Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds.

Visit progressive.com to see if you could save.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

Place myself, phone myself.

But have you seen, though, coming out of China, they have like skins that they'll actually put over the robot that look really human-like.

Holy crazy.

Did you see the one AI in?

It might have been China that went haywire, started attacking everyone.

You saw that, right?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it was spinning like non-stop.

Is it real?

Okay, guys, got Frank and Land in here today from the Easy Day Foundation.

It's their first episode.

Thanks for joining me, guys.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, could you guys give a brief summary of what

Easy Day Foundation is about?

Yeah.

Easy Day Foundation is a nonprofit grant-making organization that Landon and I started about a year and a half ago.

We were founded on Veterans Day 2023.

And the idea we had was to...

basically put on large-scale live events and use them as a platform

to help raise awareness and funds for for veterans.

We focus on three pillars in the veteran community: mental health,

job placement, and family support services.

We try to use those three pillars to give to organizations that do operational services that focus on one or more of those three pillars.

And we try to kind of tailor a holistic approach to the process of reintegrating back into society after veterans leave the service.

We are planning a big event.

Our first big event is the American Music Awards, which are moving to Las Vegas.

May 26 Memorial Day live on CBS and Paramount Plus.

Nice.

That's a big deal.

That's going to be a lot of people at that event, right?

Yeah.

I think it'll be

massive.

Obviously, I think.

If you think about the American Music Awards, this is

a 50-year franchise.

And

to be able to partner with them after starting our organization 18 months ago

and do this on

the platform like CBS and Paramount Plus, I think is

we're very excited about it.

Yeah, that's huge.

And you guys have already helped over 4,000 veterans.

80% of your funding goes directly towards their programs.

That's cool.

That's really high for a charity, I feel like.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've had a great first year.

We had an event last May, May, smaller one, kind of more banquet style where we raised over a million dollars.

We've distributed a good chunk of that so far.

And

we're hoping that this event is a success so that we can keep doing it in subsequent years and kind of turn Memorial Day into the holiday that it's meant to be.

I love it.

I think it's like.

It's not a new thing that we're trying to do.

I think like, if you look back historically at events like Live Aid, right?

I think all of us kind of, you know, whether we were born or not, kind of remember the significance of having a live, you know, huge event that kind of just brings people together.

So I think, you know, this is probably the beginning of, you know, hopefully a lot more that we'll do across different live events to kind of activate for bets.

It's going to be huge.

I have on a lot of bets on the show, so I'm a big supporter.

Yeah.

Can't wait to hear that.

Yeah.

Can't wait to support you guys.

And uh i'll be at the event hopefully yeah please do i know if you need anything welcome yeah yeah have you frank you've been in vegas for a minute huh i was born here raised here um so i'm very deeply rooted in vegas i moved away for college at usc and uh master's degree at nyu and other than that i've been here my whole life yeah so you've seen a lot of growth in the city and there's still a lot more seems like coming huh yeah i mean it's just grown outward massively since the time i was a kid out by red Rock.

It was all desert when I was little, and now it's like, you know, beautiful neighborhoods.

Yeah, Red Rock's the spot now.

Yeah.

Red Rock is the spot.

Durango is the spot, too.

Yeah, you guys are sure with Durango.

Yeah.

And there's more on the way, right?

More on the way.

Can't talk too much about it yet.

But hopefully within the next 12 months or so, we'll be able to announce the next project.

But we are working diligently to get in the ground with that.

I love it.

You guys met at USC?

we did yeah what was that like um i mean it was great landon i uh we're in business school there together had a lot of fun um and we uh met one of my other good friends mutual friend introduced us and uh landon and i have been buddies ever since it's been 10 years now yeah

you come from the vc private equity world yeah that's that's kind of my background um you know obviously we have kind of

if you're building something doesn't matter if it's a business, a brand, or just a better version of yourself, then you already know.

The work never really stops.

Your brain is always on.

Ideas at 2 a.m., problems at 3, plans at 4.

But here's the truth.

If you never shut down, you're going to crash fast.

That's why I use Sambrosa.

It's not hype.

It's not some trendy sleep hack.

It's a legit syrup that helps you fall asleep when your brain won't let you.

You take it and 20 to 30 minutes later, you're out.

Not groggy, not dragged up, just asleep like you're supposed to be.

Then you wake up clear with no brain fog, no dragging yourself out of bed.

You get your hours in and you actually feel like you slept.

Sleep isn't optional.

It's not self-care.

It's strategy.

If you're not getting it right, you're leaving energy, focus, and money on the table.

Sambrosa helps me sleep.

It helps me execute.

That's the only reason I talk about it.

If you want to get ahead, start by getting real rest, check out the link below in their website, www.s-A-M-B-R-O-S-A, sambrosa.com.

Completely different, I think, kind of business focuses, right?

Him being in hospitality, me kind of more pure play like investing in venture.

You know, when I kind of finished school, you know, started with a couple partners and launched kind of a venture fund that was, you know, really focused on partnering with kind of amazing late stage technology companies.

And,

you know,

we've scaled that platform, you know, incredibly quickly over the last decade.

Um, you know, we've worked with some amazing companies.

The first investment we made a decade ago into SpaceX, which

was the first one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's everything is like downhill.

Yeah, that's crazy.

We like to go big every time we do something for the first time.

That's why we're here.

Yeah.

That's why we're here.

Yeah.

Starting off with a big pot.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Let's go.

Exactly.

So, um,

you know, that's been, that's been really amazing.

We've made now hundreds and hundreds of investments.

You know, we have amazing companies in the portfolio.

You know, typically have skewed towards on the equity side of our business to like hard tech names.

So SpaceX that everyone knows.

We did the series A of a company called Archer Aviation, which if you guys are familiar with those vertical takeoff and landing like electric.

They're almost like a helicopter, but they have eight turbines throughout.

So, you know, super, super interesting interesting companies.

They're going to be launching actually Archer.

It's now a public company will be launching to the public probably over the next year or two where folks can actually start to use these vehicles.

But

you don't need a runway anymore.

You could just.

Yeah.

I mean, kind of like one of the first markets they're launching in is

will be San Francisco and New York.

And so if you're familiar with New York, sometimes Blade, if you know that service, the helicopter service,

you know, they're actually going to be working to kind of replace that with these, they're called the EV tolls.

And they'll have, you know, one at JFK, Newark, and you'll be able to come on to

come into Manhattan.

And the cost is, you know, it's fully electric.

So you don't have the fuel cost that you have with a helicopter.

So, you know, it's hundreds.

of dollars for the total ride to bring people back and forth.

Wow.

That's way cheaper, right?

Extremely cheap.

You know, really, really exciting.

So, you know, if I need companies like that,

I could go on about the different businesses that we have in the portal.

I know 3.5B AUM.

That's a lot of companies, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, a lot of, you know, we're fortunate with SpaceX.

That one kind of compounds on its own.

And we're, you know, we're a longtime holder there.

We think that.

Elon and the team are building, you know, an amazing business that will be around for many decades.

A lot of

one of the companies, Figure AI.

I use AI every day.

What does that company do?

So, Figure is actually super interesting.

If you, so the company Archer Aviation was started by Adam Goldstein and Brett Adcock.

You know, after Archer was taken public,

you know, Brett stepped away from the company and founded Figure.

And, you know, the business is, you know, effectively they're creating humanoid robots,

which is insane.

And

the idea is we live in a human-like world.

So

this bottle of water here is built for someone with a hand to pick up.

Everything around us is built for humans.

And so.

you know the idea is as we think about super intelligence you know chat gpt

you know these foundational models the the actual bodies that will power this technology will be human-like.

And so they're building robots that, you know, have the dexterity of us, that can, you know, zero shot.

I could say to you, Sean, pick up, you know, the purple hat on the table.

And, you know, the robot without having that in its data set would know to pick that up and put it on a table and do whatever.

That's crazy.

It's crazy technology.

That's nuts.

Are you using any AI these days?

We're looking into it for sure.

So kind of working through all the different applications that we can use in the gaming and hospitality business.

But, you know, we're in the pretty early stages of that.

Yeah.

I checked into my hotel in Miami and it was AI.

That was at work.

Crazy.

Yeah.

Like there was no humans at the desk.

It was just, yeah, it was just screen and they had blank key cards.

And they said, take one.

So I took it.

And then you scan it and it gives you a room number.

So, yeah it was all ai and it's insane even at the miami airport you know there's wheelchairs that come to the airplane no one was pushing the wheelchair anymore it was ai that's crazy yeah it automatically went to the uh gate and it had a name on the screen and it picked up the person isn't that crazy that is wild i will say in our business we like to keep the aspects of like the human touch

you know from the time you pull your car into valet check-in you know the whole experience um front front of house for guests.

I think it's super important.

So we're not really trying to get rid of that just yet.

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the hotel check-in one, to be honest, because hotels, I want that.

This is more frustrating.

Yeah, I want that personal touch

at a hotel.

Who knows?

Maybe you have a humanoid robot that they're good to you.

It might have a little

human touch, but.

Yeah.

They're advancing fast.

I saw some in Asia that are doing humanoid girlfriends.

It's insane.

Yeah, it's nuts.

I don't know if I can get on board with that.

Yeah, i'll pass on that i've i've seen too much uh black mirror yeah i look i i think the early applications will probably not be hospitality i think it's you know like picking and packing you know in uh you know facilities like an amazon facility if they're picking up boxes and putting it on a rail or re-sorting things or taking apart and just putting it into a machine.

That makes a lot of sense initially.

So,

you know, it's definitely early innings, but we'll see what happens.

I was wondering if AI was going to be a bubble, but it seems like it's here to stay.

Yeah.

I mean, do you use like Chat GPT?

Every day.

Yeah.

Literally every day.

Even I'm sure like prepping for this, you can plug things in a little bit.

Prepping for guests.

It's amazing for health, too.

Like you could get a blood work done and put it in there and it'll give you a plan on how to improve all your results.

It is crazy.

I actually use that.

There's, you know, those body scanners, you put that in.

You can do a body scan like every 30, 60 days and just keep it in one thread and it'll continuously update.

Here's what you need to be doing differently.

CRM was supposed to improve customer relationships.

Instead, it's shorthand for can't resolve much, which means you may have sunk a fortune into software that just bounces customer issues around but never actually solves them.

On the ServiceNow AI platform, CRM stands for something better.

With AI built into one platform, customers aren't mired in endless loops of automated indifference.

They get what they need when they need it.

Bad CRM was then.

This is service now.

Honey punches of oats is the forma perfecta depending on

the case.

Cono juelas crujientes and verdad qual los niños les encantas.

Ademas delicios os trosos de granola nuesces y fruta que todos vana disprutad.

Honey bunches de votes para todos.

Tokal bener para sabermás.

Here's what, like, it just picks up

things.

It's amazing.

It's good.

Yeah, it's good for generating email scripts, too.

Right.

Like if you're sending out some cold emails, there's so many uses.

It's crazy.

I'm a fan.

It's amazing technology.

But I do like the human component with luxury stuff, especially.

I don't know if that could be replaced.

Yeah.

Especially like anything creative.

Right.

Like podcasting and movies.

Yeah, I don't think you're going to be replaced with a human.

Not yet, at least.

They might develop emotions.

You might not have to show up for work anymore.

Yeah, I just replaced myself, phone myself.

But have you seen, though, coming out of China, they have like skins that they'll actually put over the robot that look really human-like.

Holy crap.

Crazy.

Did you see the one AI in?

It might have been China that went haywire, started attacking everyone.

You saw that, right?

Oh my god.

Yeah, it was spinning like non-stop.

Is it real?

Started like editing someone in the front of a crowd.

Actually, real video, yeah.

Unbelievable.

There's been a few like things I've seen where the AI kind of goes off.

on its own.

Yeah.

Like I think Google or someone big like had to shut theirs down.

Wow.

Just generating weird images.

I mean, there are are like hallucinations in the data.

So like sometimes you'll input something and it will actually come back with stuff that's incorrect.

Yeah.

So there's definitely work to be done.

I don't think we're at AGI yet, but

you think that's coming, AGI?

I don't know.

I think.

Probably eventually.

I think like my view is it will probably be a lot longer than we think.

I don't think it's as near as everyone thinks.

But, you know, I think,

I think the rate of improvement with the models month over month across, if you look at the major model providers, whether it's OpenAI or XAI or, you know, any of these guys, you know, they're basically leapfrogging one another, you know, every couple months.

So it's, it's, it's pretty, pretty incredible.

Yeah, a lot of competition.

I'll say, like, the videos now are getting so good that I almost can't tell.

Yeah.

Like three years ago, I could tell the mouth would be off when they're talking.

Right.

But now it's like, is that AI or is that?

Deep fake is scary.

It's insane.

Yeah.

Like, I feel bad for like celebrities because they're going to have to keep an eye on that.

It's true.

There's a lot of, like, I'll get Joe Rogan ads when I'm scrolling on TikTok.

Oh, and it's like, it's an AI act.

It's an AI act, but it looks so real.

Like, it could definitely fool most people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I wonder.

I mean, that must be illegal to do, right?

Yeah.

I guess in their eyes, they'll just get a seasoned assist or whatever and stop.

Yeah.

For now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Crazy times around.

Crazy.

What other inventions and I guess trends are you guys excited about coming up?

What do What else are we looking at that we like?

It's a good question.

I think there's, you know, obviously a lot of exciting stuff in AI.

I think, you know,

in our credit portfolio, you know, one of the things that, you know, the businesses that we're super excited about, you know, I saw actually you had someone on the podcast who also invested in Liquid Death, which is a cool company.

They crushed it.

Amazing marketing.

And also kind of like disrupting, you know, liquor and making it like cool to drink, you know, water-based non-alcoholic beverages.

So that's a business we like, but we kind of do everything.

Um, so we, we, we definitely see a lot of, a lot of cool different stuff.

All right.

Yeah.

What about you, Frank?

Uh, on my end, our investment office kind of focuses a lot more on live events, sports, um, and entertainment.

Um,

so like PowerSlap is a great one.

That's really entertaining entertaining that people seem to love.

I think you've been to a match before.

They're a lot of fun.

Dana White's done a great job with that.

Crushed.

Yeah, just the amount of impressions it gets on social media and whatnot.

Billions.

Absolutely insane.

So it's only two years old.

It just absolutely took off.

So that's been a lot of fun to watch over the last couple of years as well.

I had the two champs on for PowerSlap.

The flying Hawaiian or Cor Crazy Hawaiian

and The Butcher, Brandon Brochrot.

What a name.

Yeah, he's actually a butcher, though.

Actually.

Yeah, he was a butcher before PowerSlot, but he just retired because the PowerSlot money is getting pretty good now.

No way.

Yeah, and he's champ.

Is he local to Vegas?

He's a butcher somewhere.

That's true.

And then

Paige is coming on in a couple of days.

Yeah, she's Paige Van Zam out there as well.

Yeah, she's undefeated.

Who's like the biggest name now in PowerSlot?

I think Hawaiian.

Or the guy that beat him.

Dumpling, yeah.

The dumpling.

Wow.

There's some good names.

Yeah, they're

some great.

I always ask my friends, like, yo, would you do power slots for like X amount of dollars?

And everyone has like a price.

Right.

I don't know if I would do it for any amount of money personally, but they're pretty brave getting up there thing.

Like, bro, yeah, for sure.

Dude, some of those hits are.

Have you seen it?

I've like seen the clips.

We hit the one.

Yeah.

I mean, it's crazy.

Oh, my gosh.

It's crazy.

Some guys get knocked out cold.

What is the percentage of knockout?

Is it like pretty...

I think it depends by weight class, right?

I don't know exactly, but yeah yeah like the heavier the weight the higher the chance like yeah it's it's high though how do they train do they i actually asked the champs on the pod there's like chin exercises you could train to like

chin in the neck yeah strength in the neck and then you got to train technique too because it's not just about strength right it's not just about who has the most muscle there's a lot of technique that goes into it i actually have respect for them i know a lot of people make fun of them but yeah you need to be on point right you got to be super tough too yeah do you can you hit them only with a certain part of the hand or like

what's yeah like you can't hit like behind the ear on the neck.

It's called clubbing you have to land like

smack dab on the cheek.

Wow.

Yeah.

True slap.

Yeah.

True slap.

It's actually hard to do that with tower at the same time.

That's why a lot of people misfire.

When people miss and then see the love on their face and then the next guy is up.

You only got two misses and you're out, right?

Everyone in the crowd is talking about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Shout out to PowerSlap.

And now Dana's getting into boxing, too.

That's going to be interesting.

Yeah.

He's he's got a lot going on.

Uh, it's very exciting.

UFC boxing, power slap.

You guys see the fights.

Was it last night or two nights ago?

I did, and I was at the ones in Miami a few weeks ago.

Great fights.

But I grew up going to all the UFC fights and it was a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Looks like John Jones Ospinall might happen, huh?

I don't know.

I probably shouldn't give details either, but I just got

spoiled anymore.

So

we'll see.

But people are talking about it for sure.

That's a go for me, John Jones.

I think John Jones is one of the most amazing fighters.

It's hard to not say that he's the best of all time.

He hasn't lost, right?

I guess the one technically lost, but when he did the 12-6, but I don't count that as a loss.

He had a draw one time.

I can't remember.

Yeah.

It's been a long time ago.

Yeah, it's been a while.

Shout out to him, man.

Who was the main event?

Oh, it was Patty, right?

In Florida?

Patty was the co-main.

And the main was

Folkanovsky.

Right.

And Diego Lopez.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm rooting for Patty to Batty, man.

He's a very entertaining guy.

Yeah.

He's Irish, right?

Yeah.

I'm half Irish.

He's

from England, I think.

Oh, he's English.

Yeah.

I think the accent and the dad bod.

He's unbelievable.

He's likable for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's actually like relatable because he'll just bulk up and it's all season and people are like, oh, I kind of look like him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he'll get in the ring.

Pretty shredded that night.

Yeah.

When he's in the ring, he looks shredded.

He trains.

But he probably also goes to the pub every now and again, too.

Oh, easily.

Yeah.

He's with McGregor at the pub.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Anything else you guys got coming up other than the AMAs?

Any plans?

We're laser focused on that until May 26 and then hopefully get a little time off after that.

But it's taken up a lot of our time over the last short set,

the next two weeks leading up to it.

We got a lot still to do, making sure everything was perfect and get this first big event out of the way.

And then hopefully on to the next.

We're kind of in the works right now on that, but not much we can share just yet.

Where can people support if they're watching this?

Yeah, so we'll be on CBS live in Paramount Plus.

We'll have a few different opportunities throughout the broadcast for people to scan a QR code and send in a donation.

We'll have a couple performances throughout the night during the AMAs that are going to be like easy day branded performances with some big A-list names.

Haven't released those yet, but stay tuned.

It's going to be hosted by Jennifer Lopez

at the Fountain Blue here in Las Vegas.

And then for the first time ever, we're doing a veteran award.

So we're going to be giving that to a celebrity or artist that has made a big impact in the veteran community.

And that will be presented by a veteran and a celebrity duo.

We'll kind of share some stories and some background and then give that award out.

followed by a lot of really great performances throughout the night.

Love it.

Yeah.

And this hopefully will be the first of many events that we do.

So I think we've certainly set the bar high with the first one, being that it's on CBS.

It's, you know, I think last year at the AMAs, there was over 13 million people that tuned in.

Holy crap.

It's, you know, it's super exciting to be able to take that scale and then kind of amplify the impact for veterans.

And, you know, we have, you know, some amazing partners that we're working with.

Um,

because the night of the event, if you donate, so if you, you know, click onto the QR code, go, you know, through the telecast, 100% of those donations will go to the eight partner orgs that we work with.

Nice.

So we have

Bob Woodruff Foundation, Boot Campaign, Fisher House.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,

UNLV, so local kind of in Vegas,

folded

veteran service.

Oh, I didn't know they had one.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So,

you know, it'll be, it'll be really like awesome, I think, in terms of, you know, the impact.

And for people donating too, it's like, you know,

I think.

to be able to know that the donation that you're making goes 100% through to the orgs that are actually working and providing the service, I think is a really interesting piece of the puzzle because oftentimes with these, you know, what we've learned in our experience over the last 18 months is not every single

organization has super high throughput in terms of like, if you donate, the dollars actually make it to the programs.

And so that's kind of our commitment through this event.

The organizations that we choose, we vet them all out to make sure that they are responsible with their money as well.

So they're all very trusted,

solid foundations.

I love it.

Yeah, I've donated to some charities and you mentioned the throughput and I've later researched what it actually was.

Right.

And it could be super low on some values.

It's actually nuts.

There are some horror stories out there.

So we are we are steering clear of that and we're doing our best to make sure that every dollar goes straight to the, straight to them.

That's important.

Well, we'll link your socials and your website below.

Yeah.

Anything else you guys want to close off with?

I don't think so.

I think, I mean, we're super, super excited about this first event.

I think, you know, excited to have people kind of support and, you know, continue to kind of follow along.

I think there'll be a whole lot more that we'll do.

I just would say that, you know, this is a cause that is unfortunately rampant in this country.

And

our veterans make it possible for us to live in the best country in the history of the world.

And the sacrifice that

they put down, you know, for us to be able to live here is,

massive.

And they don't deserve to come home and have to struggle.

So we really want to make sure that in every situation we can, we can make it as easy as possible for them to have a sense of purpose when they get home and reintegrate back into society

seamlessly.

So

if you're feeling generous, go and donate and easyday.org.

You know, we're we're

trying to help people that really need it and really deserve it, most importantly perfect we'll link it below thanks for coming on guys that was awesome check them out guys check out the amas may 26 right yes right 5 p.m