WEBVTT - NZ software companies should start in the US 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.400 Kyoder, this has been just popping in at the top 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.040 to let you know that next week our episode will 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:08.160 be a day late. It'll come out on Friday instead 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.000 of Thursday. So if you get to Thursday and your 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.159 episode is not in the feed where you expect it, 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.960 don't panic. Just wait twenty four more hours and you'll 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:21.320 find it there. Onto the episode. The all important US market. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.440 It's where every key we startup founder dreams of making 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.360 it big, because everything's bigger in America. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.720 Which is exactly why our featured guest on the podcast 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.800 this week is squarely focused on the US market and 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.760 advisors and other founders to also set their sights on 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:38.400 the US from day one. 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.600 Scales. The problem, kiwis we do a lot of things 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.160 amazingly well, but we don't understand scale. There's maybe seven 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:52.360 hundred thousand businesses in New Zealand and ninety something percent 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.080 of them are micro businesses. In the US mark of 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.800 we're focused in there is twenty five million smeak businesses, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.959 is a five p five million EMI businesses, half a 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.360 million new businesses every year that scale. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.120 Welcome to the Business of Tech powered by two Degrees Business. 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:14.240 I'm Ben Moore and I'm Peter Griffin. You just heard 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.919 there from Nick Lassett, the founder and CEO of Black 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.280 Pearl Group, an INZX listed tech company with operations in 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.880 Wellington and Tempe, Arizona. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.440 Black Pearl just reported a revenue increase of one hundred 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.759 and eighty three percent to four point one million dollars 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.520 for the year to March, with the vast majority of 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.440 that growth in the US market. 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.119 We'll hear Nick talking about the ups and downs office 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.360 efforts to crack the US market shortly. 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.000 But first, Peter, you've been given a briefing on the 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.520 new surface devices from Microsoft, which are the first wave 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:53.720 of so called Copilot plus PCs. What does that mean. 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.280 There are plenty of surface devices that every sort of 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.160 year micro Soft releasesm Typically I wouldn't pay too much 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.040 attention to that because it's all very iterative, but there's 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:11.360 certainly something different going on with this debut of Microsoft 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.480 surface devices, the laptops and the more sort of tablets 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.480 that you can sort of turn into a laptop with 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.400 the attached keyboard, and the big difference this year is 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:26.239 building in a so called neural processing unit into the 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.480 ARM based chip architecture in those devices. So they've done 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:35.320 a deal with Qualcom to use this ARM architecture, which 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.480 is really a bit of a slap in the face 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.680 for Intel and AMD, the big sort of traditional giants 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.760 in the chip world. ARM, the originally British company, has 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.120 done a great job of architecting chips, particularly for lightweight 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:56.240 portable devices like smartphones and laptops. And what they've done 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:02.760 now is integrate copilot features that Microsoft has developed in 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:07.280 conjunction with open AI, actually building that into the device itself, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.160 so all the AI workloads are done on the device 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.880 rather than constantly going to the cloud. So I saw 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.160 that in Sydney last week. I first look at some 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:23.079 of the features, including the controversial recall feature, which got 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.680 a lot of criticism. Security researchers how to look at 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.919 that and found failings in that. Microsoft actually the day 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.959 I was in Sydney put out a release tightening up 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.680 how they're dealing with recall to answer some of those 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:38.960 security concerns. So you'll hear more about that in the 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:44.080 interview with Tim Meerzak that I did. But this is 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:48.680 really the start of the AI PC revolution and we're 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.640 going to see Dell and HP and everyone else incorporating 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.040 this copilot stuff into their hardware as well, and I 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.360 guess yeah, there are lots of benefits to that, such 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.360 as the security aspect of having everything on the device 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.160 rather than it constantly going to the cloud. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.080 Yeah, it's the new wave of hardware, isn't it, having 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.800 just the next level of processing unit on the on 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.680 the on the hardware itself. I think what we need 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.279 to think about is actually what is the what is 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.839 the result of this? So it sounds like the marketing 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.839 hype of We're putting AI in your computer, and it's like, 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.320 actually doesn't mean anything. What we need to understand is 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.560 what is that actually, what are the results of that? 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.720 What are the uses that people are going to get 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.800 from that? And your interviewee, Tim Mirzak, he speaks a 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.160 little bit to that in the interview. You've got to 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.039 try and kind of listen between his marketing hype a 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.440 little bit as you listen to this interview. But there 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.960 is some interesting gems in there as well. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.520 Yeah, there's the things that Microsoft is doing and the 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.680 start of it as things like recall and live translation 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.840 and you know, some of that stuff we've seen elsewhere. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.360 But the bit which is is going to be most significant, 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.720 I think to users is all of these third party 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.599 app developers. And this is similar to the conversation we 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.960 had about Apple Intelligence last week where they are also 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.560 putting AI into their devices, so it's all done natively. 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.480 And they talked in Sydney about Adobe putting this into 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.359 light Room and all of their products. So the speed 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.880 that you can render things, how you can apply the 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.239 AI tools that Adobe is rolling out on the device 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.520 disconnected from the cloud, that's pretty cool. So once we 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:39.200 start to see these companies and Microsoft is compatible now 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.720 I think with three hundred software makers they're developing for 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.800 this new chipset. Once we start seeing those roll out, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:48.480 I think that's when people will go wow. You know, 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.600 so this little app I use for my work on 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.240 the Windows platform is now suddenly infused with with AI 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:58.640 without me having to rely on going to the cloud. 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:00.680 That's when I think we'll be interesting. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.240 Absolutely. Well, let's have a listen to your interview with 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:05.760 Tim Meerzak. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.600 Yeah, this is Tim. He heads up the Surface business 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:14.159 across Australia and New Zealand. Tim, thanks so much for 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.240 being on the business of tech. Now you head up 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.880 the surface business for Microsoft in Australia and New Zealand. 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.960 Lots of surface laptops and surface pro devices are used 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:29.039 in New Zealand and I've just seen the latest iteration 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.640 off those and huge performance improvements in some cases up 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.480 to ninety percent based on the previous iteration, which is 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.280 pretty incredible and interesting your views on what was done 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.839 to achieve that. But these are the first line of 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:49.279 co pilot plus PCs, so called AI PCs, with a 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.200 new processor in the PC that is dedicated to those 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.920 AI processes. Explained to us the difference between that world 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.240 in the cloud and taking that onto the PC and 0:06:58.279 --> 0:06:59.279 what that actually means. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:00.960 YEA, certainly, Peter. 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.560 All the current stuff that we've been doing from an 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.800 AI workload has all been in the cloud and we've 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.560 integrated it in with our applications to make people more 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.520 productive than ever. The difference between copilot plus PC is 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.840 you can do all of that stuff, but then there's 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.640 so much more. And by that is we're taking amazing 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:23.800 AI experiences that run natively on the device itself, and 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.080 that is the biggest difference that we have here. We've 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.920 already started to talk about some of those experiences in 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:36.480 Recall Live captioning co Create, for example, which are amazing 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:41.160 experiences that are exclusive to Copilot plus PCs. In order 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.760 to be classed as copilot plus PCs, you need three 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:49.520 key things. The first one is RAM sixteen gigs. You 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.000 need a two five six gig SSD hard drive. And 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.679 then one of the real key components is a neural 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:01.280 processing unit or as we call it NPU. And what 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.360 an MPU is designed to do is to do all 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.360 of that ALI grub work and do it very efficiently. 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.520 And on these devices, the parameters to be classed as 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.600 a copilot PC is more than forty trillion operations per 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.280 second and that's what we're going to be launching in 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.480 New Zealand on the sixth of August. The way I 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.400 like to look at it is think of just a processor. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.080 You've just got one big chip and on that you 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.520 have the CPU, the GPU, and now this NPU on 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.960 there right. So the CPU and the GPUs not anything new, 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.079 and they can do a lot of these AI tasks, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.400 but they can't do it as efficiently. So with the NPU, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.040 this is a leapfrog in terms of the amount of 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.439 processing power that the NPU can do, which takes off 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.920 the burden on the CPU and GPU. So this is 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.800 why not only are you able to to have these 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.439 incredible AI experiences that you've never been able to have before, 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.959 but you're starting to see benefits in places like battery life. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.120 For example. I don't mean an extra hour. I'm talking 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.280 about doubling the battery life. And that's just something that 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:20.079 you don't see through different generations of a particular. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.960 Product, some when those users have already been introduced to 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.640 some aspects of AI. What we saw today was about 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.760 three features that really draw on that neural processing unit 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.400 and AI functionality. Quickly take us through some of as. 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.920 Let's start with recall, which is one that's had most attention. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:40.080 What is recall? 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.960 Think of it as a giving everyone a photographic memory. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:45.040 I have a bad memory. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:46.000 I'll say it. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:47.800 I won't beat around the walls. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.920 I have a bad memory, but I can remember certain 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.319 aspects of things that I've seen. So think if I 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.440 had seen if got an email or a WhatsApp message 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.240 on my device and it had a red flower in there, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.040 and that's all I remember. I don't know where it 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.719 came from, but I remember the red flower. I can 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:13.440 simply type that in and ll pull up that image 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.120 and whatever was surrounding that image, So it gives everyone 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:21.360 a photographic memory. Why that's really important is a lot 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.120 of people spend a lot of time trying to find things. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:29.119 Imagine if you can just put in a natural language, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.400 just as I did there talking about a red flower, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.040 and then straightaway it comes in and it gives you 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.000 exactly what you're looking for. And to me, that's what 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.440 recall is all about. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.599 And what it's doing. It's I think every five or 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.120 ten seconds, it's taking a snapshot of what's on your screen. 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.240 Doesn't matter what browser you're in. Everything that's on your 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.840 screen there has been captured every five to ten seconds. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.040 But you have the ability to set the parameters what 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.320 is recorded and if it's recorded at all. I mean, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.600 this is now a opten system, right, it's not switched 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:03.600 on by default. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.520 Think of it as, yes, taking a picture every five seconds, 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.280 but it does a little bit more than that. It 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.760 takes the picture, takes the visual components, puts that into 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.200 text so that it is searchable. So think of it 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.240 as creating an index of your photos that's also fully 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.720 encrypted so it's safe, and it is also kept on 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.040 the device, so that's one thing. Now you mentioned opt in, 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.960 we have made an announcement. It is hot off the 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:37.040 press today. So we have made an update to the 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.800 recall feature where it will now be part of our 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.960 Windows Insider program. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:42.480 What is that? 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.840 So Windows Insider program are a group of people that 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.960 want to trial and test and give feedback on the 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:56.600 latest and greatest Microsoft developments within the operating system. You 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.840 can simply log into Microsoft dot com and you can 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.959 joining the inside up program should you wish, There is 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.880 an option to do that. And the reason why it's 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.640 really important to go into that environment is because we 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:15.120 want more feedback. We're hearing what customers are saying and 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.920 we're wanting to act and make sure that they've got 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.560 the very best experience. But more importantly that they're at 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.240 the center and we're talking to their concerns they may 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:26.280 have around recall. 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:31.160 Everyone can see the utility off this recall, the convenience 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.320 that it brings to your computing environment, but will be 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.960 a honeypop for hackers and that as well, so security 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.920 has to be central to that. There's been some criticism 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.040 which led to this decision. I think to do Windows 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.080 Insiders so that you can make sure this is water 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:51.280 tight before everyone gets their hands on it. It's also 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:56.000 Windows Hello, which is the main security interface for your devices. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.800 It has to go through that as well, which is 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:58.640 pretty robust. 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:03.199 There's a few secure elements that we are making sort 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.040 of mandatory on Copilot plus pieces, which I think is 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.760 probably important to mention. Firstly, we have secure boot, which 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:14.720 is often just afforded to scenarios where there's a high 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:20.439 amount of customer sensitive data, so think finance institutions, think 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.520 medical practices, etc. So that is on by default on 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:30.600 Copilot plus PCs. We then have the biometrics piece that 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.080 you talked about, and that is a requirement for recall 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.320 because we don't want to just give access to people 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.840 that say they are who they are. We need to 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.880 be one hundred percent sure. And then the last piece 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.720 is around the Pluton process, where we're working very very 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.040 closely with our silicon providers to make sure that we 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.000 have an additional layer. And all of this sort of 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:58.520 stuff is usually afforded to highly sensitive data devices and 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.960 we've brought that into our consumer space with Copilot plus PC. 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.280 The one last thing I'll mention on recall is all 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.440 of that work, all of that functionality is on the device, 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.720 and this is really important. Recall is always on the device. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.400 The user is at the center. They decide what they 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.480 want Recall to take images of. They can go back 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.440 in time and say I don't want that image recorded. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.000 I don't want that record and so on and so forth. 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.240 You can pause it, you can stop it because at 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.800 the end of the day, Microsoft's built on trust and 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.360 we want our consumers to trust us as well. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.600 A couple of other features, what's this co create? How 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:44.400 is that drawing on AI? And what does it do? 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.520 I get asked all the time the question around will 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.200 why buy a surface? And I actually use co create 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.000 as my example. I can draw a stick person and 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.200 that's about it. But co create turns me into an artist. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.960 And by that I mean I can put in a 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.800 little prompt, say a castle on a hill with a tree, 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.960 and then I can just start drawing with my slim 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:13.720 pen and then I can decide, well, how realistic do 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.560 I want it to look or do I want it 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.040 to look closer to how I'm inputting it. You can 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:24.440 have that experience on co pilot through the cloud. But 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.680 the real key difference here is the speed you get 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.760 near zero latency when you do that, because nothing goes 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.320 off your device has to be processed in the cloud 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.920 and then comes back to the device. It is all 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:42.160 managed on the device itself and it is unlocked by 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.160 that NPU that on the new Qualcom chips can deliver 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.520 forty five trillion operations per second. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.720 We also saw live translation. You know, we've seen a 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:56.120 lot of this and various guys is typically it's usually 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.360 in the cloud, so you might go to Microsoft Translator 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.560 or a Google translator, whatever and does a reasonable Job's 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.320 got for good these services, but that there's a bit 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:07.680 of lag there. While it goes to the cloud, it 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.680 thinks about it and it sends it back. What we 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:14.920 saw today is live translation Spanish to English and back, 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:20.040 all on the device. None of that dialogue goes anywhere else, 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:21.880 stays encrypted on the device. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.880 It comes down to latency, which creates a better experience, 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.840 so you're not waiting to catch up with what someone's saying. 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.600 So I only unfortunately speak one language, and when when 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.280 we saw today a colleague of my speaking Spanish and 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.040 then another colleague speaking French, it was just incredible that 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.680 they could just speak in a conversational tone at pace 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.120 and immediately I saw it translated in English, so I 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.280 wasn't missing part of the conversation, and I feel that 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:55.640 that's really inclusive. 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.200 It is a real fundamental shift, isn't it. We've heard 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.280 so much in the last couple of years about large 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.840 language models chat GPT made by open Ai, which is 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.880 a big partner of Microsoft, and this whole narrative around 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.000 the capacity required to train those large language models and 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:17.080 service all of those people typing queries and prompts into 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.200 chat GPT and stable diffusion and all the others. It's 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.639 a big load. But fundamentally, once there are hundreds of 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.160 millions of these types of devices out there, a lot 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.560 of that load is going to be done on the 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.639 device because all your software partners will create their software 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.639 to work with that NPU on a copilot plus PC. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.880 So that's going to be a massive shift, isn't it. 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.080 At the moment, it's very cloud centric. This is taking 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:48.640 it ultimately right into the heart of the consumer's device, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:50.719 doing it there instead of doing it into cloud. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.600 And that's great. We've talked a little bit about latency today, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.080 but it's also very resource hungry. It's not as efficient 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.960 as being able to do it on the device itself, 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:04.919 so when you bring it over there, there's also a 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:09.639 sustainability angle here, so it's not just an amazing customer 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.280 experience and a unique experience, but it's also better for 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.320 the environment. So yes, you're one hundred percent right. We've 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.240 been on a journey here. We started with open AI 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.480 and chat GPT, and then we started bringing through co 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.840 Pilot all of that AI stuff into our applications, and 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:31.320 then this is the next iteration. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.159 It's not as say you're paying a massive price premium 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.439 for instance, the Copilot plus, the NPU and all that 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.719 sort of thing. It's basically similarly priced to what the 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.840 you know, these surface pro and surface laptops were in 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:48.320 the last iteration, Peter. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.320 It's even better than that. In fact, our devices spect 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.800 for spec twenty to twenty five percent cheaper with the 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.000 launch of these Copilot plus pieces. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.400 And that's going to be reflected in the New Zealand 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.399 pre reflected in New Zealand pricing as well. 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.240 I have had many meetings with the biggest retail partners 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:11.200 over there in New Zealand as well. They're just as 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:12.880 excited as we are. 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.199 Well, can't wait to get my hands on one to 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.720 have a play as well, So Tim, we'll see where 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:20.280 it goes. Thanks so much for being on the show. 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:21.000 Thank you, Peter. 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.879 So as Tim said, they're the surface range of co 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:30.160 Pilot plus PC's debut here on August sixth, many other 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.600 Copilot plus PCs are now heading the market from the 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.960 likes of Aser, Dell, HP and Lenovo. So that's what 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.040 you will pretty much be presented with now if you're 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.600 buying a sort of a higher end new Windows PC, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.320 a device with a neural processing unit built into it 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.639 that does the AI workloads on the device. 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:51.439 And we will report back once we've spent a bit 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.360 of time playing with these new devices trying out recall 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:55.840 and other AI features. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.000 Moving on, Ben to your interview with Black pearls Nick Lassett. Now, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.959 Black Pearl is listed on the Interdex with a market 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:07.160 capitalization of around thirty seven million as we record this, 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.840 but because it's primarily focused on the US market, it 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.200 doesn't have much of for a profile here. What does 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.200 Black Pearl actually do well? 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.240 Like you said, it's an nz X listed tech company 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:23.680 and it mainly supplies software for marketing and lead generation 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.880 and their flagship product is called Pearl Diver, which unearth's 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:32.040 data about website visitors for sales and marketing, which has 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.560 traditionally been done using cookies, which you'll probably be familiar 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.280 with at this point. But Black Pearl claim to be 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.200 prepared for the impending cookie apocalypse, which is when browsers 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.600 will no longer support kind of standardized cross site collection 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.240 of user data by default. It's been coming for some time. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.000 It's been delayed, but we've been promised cookies are on 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.960 the way out now. From what I understand, Black Pearl 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.800 use their own bespoke tracking software code which links with 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.400 data that has shared among partners in a data cooperative. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.720 So if you filled out a form with Company A, 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.639 they can link your data with Black Pearls tracker, and 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:13.679 if that track is used by Company B and you 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.080 visit Company b's website, then they will know that you've 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.679 been there and maybe get a bit of information about you. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:23.600 I believe that's how it works. They also have some 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.000 clever kind of AI algorithm stuff there to help with 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.840 getting more of that information and confirming people who they 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.120 say they are and all those kinds of things as well. 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.000 Nick is definitely a go big or go home kind 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.679 of guy, as you'll realize that you listen to the interview. 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.199 So here it is Ben's interview with Black Pearl Groups 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:43.080 Nick Lissett. 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:52.760 Hi, Nick, welcome to the Business of Tech podcast. Thanks 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:53.359 for joining us. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.000 Thank you very much for having me be. 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.720 So you are the head of Black Pearl Group, a 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.439 company that listed in late twenty twenty two on the 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.840 z X and has since gone on to realize a 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:06.880 bit of success. You want to give us a brief 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:07.880 intro about yourself. 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.760 Well, I'm definitely the ugly head. We've got much better 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:16.919 looking aheads here. So unfortunately I was nominated as the face, 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:22.639 the founder and CEO here at Blackbild Group. And just 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:24.640 for those that don't know who we are or what 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.840 we do, we're a data technology company and we specialise 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:34.919 in building data, lead sales and marketing solutions, specifically for 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.560 the US smaller medium sized business market. 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:43.439 So you are obviously US focused. But you're based in 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.440 New Zealand, you're listed on the zat X and being 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:49.800 in business in New Zealand for a while now, you've 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:53.399 noticed that there are some challenges to starting a business 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:56.479 in New Zealand that you know is aiming to become 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.320 a big global success or a unicorn, as like to 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:00.840 call them. 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:07.919 Yes, scale scales the problem right, and kiwis we do 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:11.399 a lot of things amazingly well, but we don't understand 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:15.919