AI & Crypto: Robovan Transforms Transport, AI Tongue Takes Over, TikTok Cuts Jobs

AI & Crypto: Robovan Transforms Transport, AI Tongue Takes Over, TikTok Cuts Jobs

October 18, 2024 40m S1E494
In this episode of Weekly Business News, host Ryan Alford is joined by Chris Hansen and Brianna Hall for a lively and humorous discussion covering a wide range of topics. They explore the vibrant business atmosphere in Miami, the unpredictable weather patterns in South Carolina, and the growing appeal of electric vehicles. The conversation takes a deeper dive into GM's investment in lithium mining for EV batteries, Elon Musk's ambitious "Robo Van" project, and Tom Brady's new venture as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Packed with personal stories, sharp insights, and dynamic exchanges, this episode offers both entertainment and valuable commentary

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Full Transcript

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month.
Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.
What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It is October 18th, 2024.

Our weekly business. Well, it starts right about now.
What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now.

It is October 18th, 2024.

Our weekly business news of the week.

Whatever random shit we'll get into.

You never know with this crew.

This is Brianna over here to my left.

Hey.

What's up?

Chris Hansen in Miami.

What's up, Chris?

What's up?

Hey, ready to bring the heat. Ready to bring the thunder from down under here in South Carolina.
South Carolina. Is this a podcast or a wrestling match? Or I know what Brianna was thinking.
She's thinking. Thunder from down under.
She knows what that is. I didn't even think of it until I said it.
I'm like, I think that was like a male review thing or something, right? It's like a Magic Mike type of thing. Oh, okay.
Yeah, I don't know if I can pull that off. It's also a deserted Outback Steakhouse, I think.
Yeah. Yes.
Thunder from Down Under. It's a show in Las Vegas.
I'm going to let Chris pull that off. You know, I'm a happily married man, but Chris has not yet you know crossed the barrier this doesn't work out maybe vegas is showtime baby yes vegas maybe she has something like that maybe he's like yeah kind of vegasy south beach it might yeah not that i go but south beach thunder who knows but look i will say this i'll just get right into it i am wearing a hoodie today it's a little chilly in south carolina and not just any hoodie talking about that brandon bills gear you know i'm talking about this thing is tight and i don't mean like you know medium tight i mean like tight as in comfy and looking good appreciate them for always sending us the best gear.
We've got hats, hoodies, t-shirts. We're taking the BS out of business and they're taking the BS out of dealing with custom merch because that's what they do.
They do it for us. They do it for you to make your brand stand out.
And I just want to get right to them because I'm feeling, hey, this is South Carolina for you, though. We go from, you know, sweating like a week ago, like 88.
And, you know, it was like a balmy 40 this morning, I think. I'm like, okay, I'm going to rock that brandability.
I didn't want to. It's been staring at me in the closet like, you know, shooting through me like, oh, I'm going to wear it.
No, it's 87. I can't put it on.
I'll burn up. I noticed there's no transition between when the air conditioner goes off and then the heater turns on.
That's that is South Carolina. You don't get like, you know, oh, we're going to get some 60s and, you know, low of 60, high of 70.
This isn't California. You know, no, you go straight from 88 in the day, 40 in the morning, you know, and like next week we'll have, I looked, it's be like 82 at night or daytime and like 47 at night, 40 degree swings.
So you always got to run that power. Yeah, exactly.
No break. That's how it is.
Hope you're everyone out there is doing well whenever, wherever wherever you're listening hopefully you're watching so that number one you can see this gear i'm rocking i'm rocking my boy sean whalen's hat too lion's not sheep hope sean's doing well haven't talked to him in a little while had him on the show a couple years ago but always following him super good motivation guy i like sean and uh but i uh i will say i say I am watching our numbers on YouTube climb up. And if you're not watching on YouTube or Spotify, you got to watch us.
You got to see just how beautiful Brianna, how pretty Chris is. You got to deal with me.
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So give them a shout. Chris, how's the week been in old Miami there? It's good.
It's quiet. I mean, Florida last week was crazy with all the hurricane stuff.
So I think it's settled. Weather's been fairly, fairly nice.
Yeah. We're enjoying a break from the rain.
Yeah, exactly. Hopefully no more hurricanes.
I don't know. Is it looking clear right now? I mean, so far, so good.
Supposedly there's a cold front rolling in, but it doesn't feel very cool outside. Yeah.
What's the business vibe like in Miami these days? Like, you know, South Beach, that area. I mean, you're hanging out with people.
I mean, with the election and everything, like what's sort of the temperament? I think South Beach is always popping. I mean, at least when I've been out there, restaurants are still busy.
People are going out, you know, I mean, but again, that's South Beach. That's probably a lot of tourism tourism so it's like vegas people always got money to come spend here um but the local businesses i speak with is definitely a little bit of it's a little slow right now but we're also coming into season with all the snowbirds coming back down so you can see that just in the traffic you know you got way more cars on the road now than you did two months ago yeah you got the old slow folks are they slow or they aggressive they're slow bro they're very slow you're like rocking behind them like okay we're going 40 in a 60.
yeah yeah i don't know if you can get up to 60 in mi. I was driving freaking Chris's Ferrari, and it's like you've got the speed machine, and I couldn't get it past, like, 45.
It's like there's just so much traffic. Yeah, yeah.
The traffic is getting bad in Greenville, too. I'll tell you what.
Wasn't expecting that. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
G-Vegas traffic, baby. Surprisingly thick sometimes surprisingly thick sometimes yeah i tell you what i i live playing eight miles from work and coming through downtown it's been taking me like 14 to 16 minutes like 0.8 yeah yeah not eight miles 0.8 uh i go it's over the river and through the woods to kind of get over here though our house.
You could throw a rock and probably hit your house from here. I could definitely hit a driver close to it.
But that's why I'm getting me like an e-bike. So I'm going to have Natalie, who's our sponsorship driver.
We're going to find like an electric motorcycle company. I got like an e-bike now, but it's not quite like motorcycle shit enough for me.
I need like a little electric motorcycle. I did see, in case you're interested, somebody here parks their Razor scooter.
You could probably get one of those. I'm not going to scoot.
I'm sorry. I'm going to draw the line somewhere.
The scooter is just not me. I know adults ride them now.
I got the adult scooters, but I'm too big for that. Not only am I an adult, but I'm a big adult.
So it's like, these are me riding down the trail on the scooter. Like, hey, guys, coming through.
Look out. Beep, beep.
Big guy on a little scooter. I'd be ready for it.
Yeah. No, I don't think so.
I want, like, Cafe Racer. You know? Like, well, I've got my eye on a couple.
We'll see what we can pull off here. It's not a sponsor.
I might just have to buy one. Yes.
You heard it here, folks. Sponsor Ryan needs a motorcycle scooter.
Yeah, exactly. Speaking of money, if you're interested, I have an article here from CNBC.
It does look like things in the business news world are picking up this week. Last week was a little bit quiet.
And this week we have GM investing $625 million in a joint venture to mine EV battery lithium in the US. So GM is establishing a joint venture with Lithium Americas Corp.
That includes automakers supplying $625 million in cash and credit to the company. So it looks like this sourcing these EV materials is coming out of Nevada.
Breonna's a little bit of a conspiracy theorist. So I'm just going to let our audience know this.
You're going to learn this about her. I think this is a setup for us to somehow talk about the North Carolina.
If you're following on Facebook, all the conspiracy theories about the land in North Carolina, is this a setup to actually get to that? It's not. It's truly, truly not.
I'm sure. I thought that was a setup too.
I was like, don't tell me they're about to start mining in North Carolina. Yeah.
But somewhere else. This is signaling.
Virtue signaling that this is a thing, this lithium mining. And it might take places, some places, not in North Carolina or South Carolina.
This is in Nevada, but we could do a spinoff show that's just Chris and I and our conspiracy theories. Yes.
The right about now conspiracy theories. Series.
There we go. There you go.
I like it. No, I actually just, I pulled this article because I thought it was really good.
I liked to see money being spent, you know, pulling resources from America for American companies. So, you know, obviously we get a lot of our resources from overseas.
I think it's good that we invest in pulling our own resources here. I mean, one way or another, the battery thing is not going back in the bottle.
That genie is not going back in the bottle. You know, I think we've realized that not every car is going to be electric by 2030, but the battery thing is moving forward at a high pace.
And so if we can make the materials, mine the materials here, keep as much of that happening here, like you said, driving jobs, driving opportunities, and then obviously our own resources, that's extremely important and newsworthy. Because I do think, you know, I was talking about about the electric motorcycle think the battery technology has come a long way the things that can be i mean think about all the yard tools all the stuff like the stuff that just had had to be gas 15 years 20 years ago now i mean there's i don't know south carl we don't need it but, like electric snow, like chainsaws, which is kind of scary.
My dad's been using an electric chainsaw cutting up trees from after the hurricane. That scares me a little bit because I feel like you need that noise feedback because it's a chainsaw.
I think you almost need that just to remind you how dangerous it is. It's just be like, oh, you quietly cut your arm off.
Oh, yeah. You know, like, well, that's not good.
But blowers, I got a blower that practically like moves my house off the foundation. It's like.
Is it electric? It's electric and it's strong. I still have a gas.
We have like the, I don't know, 600 gas power backpack leaf blower from when we lived on a farm. And we're in like our littleision house with it yeah but the battery technology has come a long way a lot of things are using it so if we can mine it here i do think more and more vehicles you know i can get behind the motorcycles and scooters and all that stuff i don't know how many you know if you got to take cross country these batteries have to come a long way before you have to be charging every I don't know how far, you know, if you've got to take cross country, these batteries have to come a long way before you have to be charging every, I don't know how far.
That's kind of been my, I like the Rivians. They're stylish.
It's probably like the coolest styling that I feel like. But I've just been on the fence because I don't, and I don't even drive that far.
But if I want to hop in the car and go to Nashville or something, I ain't making it in one of those things not on one charge because you can go an estimated 420 miles on one charge in the rivian yeah that's the only thing that's getting nashville nashville's about 600 miles 550 maybe or close uh and so but and that's then i don't think of that as that far it's six hours. And I don't know.
I think it only works if you find a charging station that's like conveniently located. So you're going to stop and have lunch.
So you plug in, go into the restaurant, have lunch. And then when you get back out.
I'm Clark Rosewall, baby. This is how long can we tolerate in the car to get there? No, I'm not.
Oh, I'm like, oh, I'm going on a road trip. I'm going to get my snacks.

Oh yeah. You stop once at the beginning and you load up, you know, and this is like Dumber Dumber too.
We get the glass bottles. You got to go here, take the bottle.
Oh my gosh. Well, speaking of electric vehicles, um, I don't know if you guys saw this, but Elon Musk, um, unveiled the Roboven, It's a robo van, but we're calling it roboven.

It is a robot taxi. It looks like this.
Yeah, it's pretty spiffy. So Tesla had a pretty big week this week.
I did not include it in our news articles, but I don't know if you guys saw. He launched a spaceship.
I don't know if that's's the right term and then it came back and he caught it in like a little thing and it caught it caught it it was really cool i saw the video the robo van thing i didn't see it live or like i haven't checked all every single article i thought it was getting like panned for some reason it's not being that great i don't know but i don't know if that's just the the the mainstream news now hating on everything elon does because you know he's pro-trump but or it really was lackluster i don't know chris did you see any of that yeah i saw more people talking about the actual robots that they revealed yes optimus optimus prime i also that they were not autonomous, that they were still humans controlling them remotely behind. So you had like a robot bartender that was communicating.
Well, you still have a human somewhere on a control center controlling this. So they were kind of building up to like a Steve Jobs type of thing.
It's like you have this big hype release, but like the technology is still not like there. It's not that great.
So that's what I took from it. I don't know.
I don't know how I feel about all the robot stuff. I freaks me out, but it's definitely interesting.
I just dropped a link with a video to the van. If you guys want to check it out um and yeah i heard the same thing that you heard chris that the humanoid optimus was like there was somebody speaking through it so um they were like serving drinks at the event um that elon had um but yeah it still was like human controlled robot which i kind of like the idea of a human controlled robot.
I don't need a robot taking over my house. I've seen, I've seen a lot of movies.
Yeah. The movies are just kind of like remote robot operators.
Yeah. Exactly.
Like with their robot body. Exactly.
Yeah. It'll be like the robots doing the job the human used to do, like checking out at the grocery store, but the human sitting at home on a computer controlling the robot.
That's wild. The robo-taxi thing makes sense to me.
You know, like, but it's, I still, I don't know where the conversion of, you know, humans on the road versus robots on the road, like how you cross those paths of the reality of them having an accident versus a human, even if it's the human, then it just seems like that's an all or, that's past my pay grade. but like it feels like an all or nothing proposition like if you moved into a new like if we build a new city and day one every vehicle was a robio tech robo taxi you know so that it's all powered that way versus the intermix of old tech new tech robots non then that seems Yeah.
I don't know how we're going to interject these two worlds together in a safe and legally enforceable way. I think I'm more comfortable driving on the roads with robots than I am driving on the roads with Joe Schmo, who may or may not be a licensed driver.
Well, everybody's on their phone anyway. And so it's like, all right, we can acknowledge that or not and get some robo vans going.
And I'd be fine taking a robo van to work. I just don't really want to get hit by some robo idiot that's texting.
Which we know who that is. Probably my 15-year-old that just got his license.
And I have to smack that kid around. That's so scary.
I know. It's like, ugh, disable your phone immediately every time you get in a car.
I think there's a feature for that. They have these things.
This is not an ad, but if they would like to sponsor us, we would love it. It's called a brick, and you can stick it, like, on the dashboard of your car.
And it's like a QR code. You scan it and it disables all the apps on your phone.
So you can only call. So if you have an emergency, you could call.
I probably should get that. I'd stay off mine for the most part, but I'm not immune to it.
And I'd rather almost just have the kind of like take the bullets out of the gun at that moment. Like don't even be distracted.
Yeah. And then the cool thing.
But I want to choose to not be distracted and not have, you know, someone choose it for me. Yeah.
Yeah. It's pretty cool.
In other news, I have some Las Vegas Raiders news. That's always weird to say as somebody that is from California.
L.A. Raiders.
And grew up. Yeah or oakland raiders in oakland yeah so oakland used to have the raiders and the a's and now it has no teams tom brady and partner tom wagner to pay over 200 million dollars for a stake in the las vegas raiders um nfl owners approved former superstar quarterback tom brady as the minority owner of the las vegas raiders um and i have a quote here from tom brady i'm eager to contribute to the organization in any way i can honoring the raiders rich tradition while finding every possible opportunity to improve our offering to fans and most importantly win football games tom pretty yeah nfl legend hall of famer to be like why do you want to own part of a team like is just that profitable to say you own part of a team like i i'm surprised it was this team yeah i don't know probably because it's for sale or something but or just being in las vegas i guess if you're going to buy one, the most potential with all the stuff around it.
But I don't know Probably because It's for sale or something But Or just being in Las Vegas I guess if you're gonna buy one The most potential With all the stuff around it But I don't know Like Minority stake Cause these These teams These teams go for like 3, 4, 5 billion So you know 200 million is a lot of money But that's only like I don't know 10% stake maybe 8% What's the motivation Just to say you're A minority owner what do you think chris i mean obviously he's got a passion for the game but i don't know anything about the profitability or margins on on nfl teams but if for me my thought would be it's probably more of an emotional investment i would think yeah you know like staying involved in your passion. Who knows, man? I'd love to know.
Yeah. No, I think it makes money.
I mean, it's very, very profitable. I think it's both.
Yeah, I think it's a profitable passion investment probably. Maybe he feels he can help the team.
I wonder if it's also like, I mean, Brady's, I don't know what his net worth is.

It probably, he's probably not a billionaire, but he's not probably far off of it.

And maybe it's like to eventually own the whole thing.

It says that his 200 million is only 5%. Yeah, that sounds right.

Let's find out.

His net worth is $300 million.

Yeah.

So $4 billion to buy it.

Maybe 5% of them.

I'm doing my math right.

But you know what?

With all his deals and his clothing line that's now intermixed,

they partnered with the shoe company that i'm forgetting the name of but

you know he might get to where he could be in that i would assume him being involved is going to up the valuation yeah alone you know what i mean yeah like it's already going to appreciate for just this this article yeah it's a great it's the biggest influencer deal in history. But he actually paid.

But his value went up because of his own name, image, and likeness.

The team value went from $4 billion to $5 billion.

So his $200 million immediately went up in value.

If that makes sense.

I think that the Raiders will benefit from having him be know be a part owner of their team for sure uh yeah i mean you know i've yet to see brady tied to anything that tends to go sour the guy is one of the greatest players in the history of the game probably the best definitely the best quarterback ever and then just his work ethic and seemingly stand-up values that as far as what I can see I don't think it's going to hurt the organization it's going to help but I don't know how that translates to wins and losses I mean that I will say that team has had a hard time holding success in the NFL. Yeah, they've had their moments in Oakland like 20 years ago and

in I will say that team has had a hard time holding success in the NFL. Yeah, they've had their moments in Oakland like 20 years ago and a blip here or there, but they're not a historical winner.
Yeah. I would agree with that as a 49ers fan.
In other news, AI-related news, I thought this was an interesting article, Ryan, that you had shared.

AI tongue distinguishes between Pepsi and Coke.

Researchers at Penn State developed an AI-based electronic tongue using a graphene-based transitioner combined with artificial neural network. Excuse my tongue.
Everybody loves a good graphene-based transistor. I got four of those at home, but what about you, Chris? There's a lot of word jumble in this one.
Yes, it's word salad. But basically, there's an AI tag that can distinguish between tastes, specifically Pepsi and Coke.
I thought it was super interesting. I can't even distinguish between Pepsi and Coke.
I can definitely distinguish between Pepsi and Coke. Pepsi is sweeter.
Coke is a little more fizzier or whatever at least to me like it's i can definitely distinguish between the two now coke zero is the bomb like it's the best of all worlds especially cherry coke zero i'm uh if i could only have one drink and it wasn't a beer it would be cherry coke zero it's uh delicious if i knew it was healthy, I've backed off of it. I kind of got into a dangerous spot where I was drinking like five a day.
Oh, my God. And now I have one a week.
Like, literally, that's it. One a week.
But I could totally tell the difference between the two. I just think this is fascinating to me.
Maybe just because it's an electronic tongue. And I'm 12 years old.
But, and the word salad, you know, makes me think of other salads. But we'll just stay away from there.
Chris, what do you think about this AI tongue? My question is why?

What's the goal here?

What are you trying to solve?

What is this accomplishing?

Is this for people that don't have taste buds?

No.

For future development of food,

it can help as a taste tester for different things,

I think is how I would sort of see it.

It mimics the human taste system. So it will have the ability to maybe...
Which is fair. Yeah.
But I think, from my experience, everyone's individual is what they like, what tastes good, what's bad, the level of spice or not spice. You know what I mean? It's like...
It's subjective. Right.
How do you say, like, well, this is going to... If I'm developing products, which is which I assume this is for, oh, this is going to go really well.
But they do, there's a norm though. Like there's things that taste that the majority of people think tastes good.
And there's always going to be individual tastes. But I think all brands taste test foods they're developing and go, okay, did at least 60 percent of the people that taste

it go oh i like this taste versus that taste yeah and i would think taking more jobs man yeah stay at home moms you know taste testers or whatever they are who i don't know who's a taste tester well i've never been asked i'd be perfect i'm like i'm a good taste tester I think that it's a little bit scary because what it reminds me of is how, like, chemically motivated our food processing system is. And, like, basically, like, manufacturers of food are manufacturing not food, right? And so it will aid in that process.
I just wonder, you know, if every movie is going to become reality, which it seems to. So following that track of scientific, you know, reality here, at what point are we like those movies where, you know, you go up to a Coke machine and you, you know, hit your meal of the day? like where it's, I mean, it is probably processed food, but because like, you know, the earth runs out of certain resources or whatever.
Like it probably does. I hope none of my family generations have to see it, but there comes a day where won't we have to rely on some amount of food engineering? I mean, you would hope not.
I guess that would be a question for like the health of the topsoil and farming. And like, you know, if we develop as a nation to where there's no, you know, there's cement over everything, right.
And there's no farmland. I could see that happening.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm just, I don't want that to happen. That's why it's so important to grow a garden.'ve got one yeah still producing tomatoes right nash came in yesterday with like seven i'm like what is going on i still have a bunch of cucumbers in my fridge that ryan gave me from the garden see like it's unbelievable i can't believe the well the soil does with plutonium in it i didn't know would work so well.
Are you joking? I'm joking. Like, what's plutonium? Like, oh, my God, I ate some of that already.
No, kidding. Another AI-related article here.
We got a lot of AI going on in the world, which obviously, you know, if you haven't embraced it already, it is time to embrace AI. tiktok pivoting to ai moderators looks like tiktok is transitioning to ai driven content moderation leading to nearly 500 layoffs mainly in malaysia yeah i mean if i had to watch tiktoks all day and moderate that shit i'd you know i'd just send a robot to do it.
I don't know. Give me the taste testing, but I don't want the moderating TikTok.
It seems like a job for a good robot. I think so, too.
It says definitely like more efficient, more scalable, more consistent in managing user generated content across TikTok's global. I think there's going to be these lines where you feel like,

okay, that seems right for AI and that doesn't.

Like something that's more like this feels like right up the alley.

Yeah.

I mean, it's happening now on Instagram.

Like the Algo robot will flag me for something and I can request it

and then it goes to a human and then it's up to their discretion.

So. Yeah, the Algo robots don't like me because I post a lot of Trump content.
An RFK. Yeah, they don't like me either.
Eh, I don't know if they like me or not, but I just... He's just posting the B content.
I know because I had violations this morning. I looked at it.
Like six of them. I don't have any violations.
No. And I mean, we've posted my opinion stuff, but I don't think I have any.
It's vacay related usually or like firearms related. Yeah.
Like if I'm out in the woods with a gun or something. I did get that once.
You can watch war videos all day of Ukraine and all that. but me with the picture deer hunting, no animal in the picture, just me and a gun is.
I was out shooting my AR probably three years ago. I remember putting a story up about that, and that did get flagged.
It's like, come on, whatever. I'm just shooting at a target.
Just because it happened to be moving human it doesn't make it that bad kidding joke it's a bad joke it's joking it's entertainment news show no it was a flat target on just a tree and i was like i think i went up to it showing where i had hit like millimeter from the target you know know, so proud from 20 feet. I hit like right on that target 20 feet.
No, it was like 200 yards actually. I think it's an important skill to have, you know, uh, firearm safety, being a responsible gun owner, um, you know, finding and, you know, securing your own food, Chris, good job for that.
And, you know, being self-sustainable. Definitely good skills to have.
Yeah. I might not be able to shoot a deer, but I'll just wrangle one up and choke it.
You can run over with your electric scooter. High-powered electric scooter catcher.
Yeah, running right yeah no i'll shoot him uh let's see uh chris what is going on with bitcoin in the news today um bitcoin's up last time i checked before the show i think i saw it was up like 10 for the week so it's up near 67, 68,000.

I think the high all time was around like 70, 71.

So it's climbing back up to that.

Not financial advice, but as always,

it doesn't hurt to dollar cost average

and invest a little bit every week or every month

and just set it and forget it.

Set it and forget it.

All the crypto seems to be popping a little bit, doesn't it?

Everything's popping.

The Dogecoin returns.

Dogecoin is popping the heaviest of all of them.

Elon's, you know, famed meme coin, as they call it.

But yeah, the market's healthier.

We're kind of in that natural upcycle now.

So I'm hoping the next couple months it just steadily kind of goes up. Maybe it's because we don't have any active storms, but I feel like we are on the upswing with the news and business.
We'll see. It's all about polling data.
The early polling data trumps up big. 16 points.
Yeah. Good.
But I don't know what that means. Historically, it usually means good things, but who the hell knows? This is going to be crazy the next few weeks.
Yeah. We'll see.
What do we have? Four or five weeks to election day. I had to approve some requests off for our team to go to their home states to vote.
Yep. I was like, absolutely do it.
I will say that. You got to get out and vote, people, ultimately.
And, I mean, that's sort of like your American duty. Get out and vote who you're going to vote for.
It doesn't matter if it's right, left. Ultimately, I'm an independent.
But we know where I'm voting this time around. but it doesn't matter where you vote.
You need to go visit our partners, Independence Center, IndependenceCenter.org. I was actually looking at a couple of their charts.
They've done polling in some of the battleground states. I was looking at that.
There's like Nebraska and North Carolina, some of the places where I guess some things have been on the fence, some of the other positions that are in debate, like which way it's going to go, and they think that'll swing some of the presidential stuff. And they've got all this independent voting.
They go out and ask the tough questions. It's not right or left pointed, slanted.
It's all independent news, and it's all from our partner, Independence Center. Go to IndependenceCenter.org.
Also, slanted. It's all independent news and it's all from our partner, Independence Center.

Go to IndependenceCenter.org. Also the link in my bio.
Sign up for the newsletter. You'll get information every week that you need to be aware of because again, it's about policies, not parties.
Go check them out. IndependenceCenter.org.
Meta, Orion AR glasses.

Meta. Orion AR glasses.
Meta unveiled Orion augmented reality glasses that project holograms and are controlled by a neural wristband using EMG technology. These glasses represent Meta's vision for the future.
Vision, vision pun intended personal computing potentially replacing smartphones with more intuitive seamless controls yeah the hologram thing is interesting you're doing really well with all the uh the words yeah yeah and i mean i don't know if it's meta or meta but uh what did i say meta that's the first time I heard like you're at your California, I don't know if it's meta or meta. What did I say? Meta.
That's the first time I heard you're at your California. I don't know if it's a California accent.
Is that a California accent? I don't know, folks. Meta.
I'd say meta. It's meta.
Old meta. That's a southern accent.
Look, I don't know where all the metaverse stuff is going to end up going, but I will say I did check this out, and I was seeing the form factor, and the hologram stuff was pretty cool. I still don't know how we go from this world with the smartphone and the high-def screen to this hologram environment that's sort of, I don't know,

not what I consider high def necessarily,

but still interesting nonetheless.

As long as Luke Skywalker, you know, comes out,

you know, has, and I have three CPO

who can like project the hologram on something

with whatever it is.

That's what I think of.

I think of holograms.

I think it was that movie

where it would be like off their wrists.

It'd be like a watch

and it would pop up a hologram.

Yeah.

Thank you. whatever it is.
That's what I think of. I think of holograms.
I think it was that movie where it would be like off their wrists. It would be like a watch and it would pop up a hologram.
Yeah. I don't know.
Limitless. I do think the glasses are a lot more manageable than the freaking Apple Vision Pro.
These are like sunglasses I might actually wear. The one that was demoed on the article.
So we're getting closer to a form factor but I still don't know like the distraction of in your eyes while you're walking around and like how much data is coming in like I guess if you're not walking around and not being distracted it looks like something Mason on our team would wear Mason on our team is very into

all of this type of stuff

I personally will not be caught wearing the AR glasses. Yeah.
Chris might wear them. I can see.
We'll see. Try them out.
I'm with you on it. What's the usability, right? Like how functional is it really? Or is it something you're just kind of like sitting down using you know so we've talked about this man what was video game virtual reality thing with the red one with the oh yeah I forget the name of it I just think back that was 30 years ago right and then we're kind of still trying to do this and it was more novelty whatever it was more novelty than actual usability so i feel like we're like we're a solution in search of a problem like all this stuff like it's like i've yet to you know sometimes technology comes along and it's so obvious like holy shit Like this, oh, what? Where's this been my whole life? You know, sometimes technology comes along and it's so obvious.
Like, holy shit, this, oh, what?

Where's this been my whole life?

You know, MP3 players, the smartphone itself,

once it sort of got adapted and had apps, it's like,

but this feels like it's, we're getting closer.

Maybe it can stop the big goggles from Apple that just don't,

are kind of crazy unless you're sitting at home. But this is sort of like, all right, we want this to work so bad.
We want this

meta thing. We want this virtual.
We got this augmented reality. It has to work.
We're going

to find something's going to stick. We're like throwing spaghetti on the wall.
Like, okay,

what's good. Right.
You like this? Oh, you don't. How about this? Like, you know, like me trying to like the eye light for my wife.
I'm like, you don't like this black T-shirt. How about this black T-shirt? It's like they're creating a solution to a problem that no one, because if you wouldn't ask people, hey, would you want some glasses you could wear instead? Most people would be like, no.
And look, and most innovative stuff does sometimes come along and makes you realize something. But this has got a long way to go, I think, to finding the practicality in the use case from what I'm reading.
I'm sure someone's going to tell me that haptic feedback in the air. You know, that's what people want to do.
Yeah, I want to play the air piano because, you know, you're seeing stuff through the glasses, but it is one of those things once you're, if you're doing that here, you're like, what the hell is that guy? You know, like that guy is having a mental breakdown. And then you got a glass on there.
They're going to think you're like Stevie Wonder, like blind. I mean, it's like, okay.
All right. We'll find it at some point, and you'll hear it here first.
Yeah, I like my own reality. I'm good on the augmented reality for now.
Yeah. I know someone's going to message me or tell me, you know what the use case is for blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, I know, but that's not what this is and we're not there yet. So, there you have it.
Alrighty, friends. Ryan, you want to close us out? Well, that's it for today.
All the news. Any final words, Chris? Any final thoughts? Live in the real world.
Enjoy it before the robots come for us. I'll go take a nice walk or the beach, take a hike.
Yeah. We've got a cold plunge next door now.
I'm going to have to go take a cold plunge after everyone. Maybe before every episode.
That should be part of it. Do the right about now cold plunge.
I'm not going to participate, but... Sawyer, are you in? Hell yeah.
Oh, man. I got a bunch of softies around here.
I mean, I have to do my hair for this show. I'll stay in for four minutes.
One for all of us. You're not going to dunk your head? Okay.
Okay, maybe. Discomfort is comfort.
Well, sometimes. Anyway, we appreciate everyone for listening.
Wherever you are, whenever you are. We don't ever know.
You know, this is a topical news episode. I think most of our audience is on the weekend.
But, you know, if it's like three weeks later, you know, stay for the entertainment. And maybe not the news.
As we fumble through all of the AI technologies, panning some and supporting others. But no matter what, we support you.

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Thank you, Brianna.

Thank you, Sawyer.

We'll see you next time.

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