Speaker 1: From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: Oz Valoscian and I'm caar Price. Today we're going to
Speaker 1: get into how Christianity is on the rise in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: Then on Chat to.
Speaker 2: Me, I scrolled down to my very first interaction with
Speaker 2: chat and the first question was why have I been
Speaker 2: unlucky in love?
Speaker 3: When AI advice goes wrong?
Speaker 1: All of that on the weekend. Tech is Friday, October seventeenth.
Speaker 1: Hello Cara, Hi ahs. So the DAYSA came out, which
Speaker 1: is open ayes updated video generation tool and social media app.
Speaker 1: You said to me, people might look back on this
Speaker 1: as the day the Internet change forever.
Speaker 3: I did say that, and I'm not a Pollyanna.
Speaker 1: But I did think you drunk the kool aid.
Speaker 3: No, I drank the truth juice.
Speaker 1: I want some of that. Well, you know, I have
Speaker 1: to give you some credit because as the news has
Speaker 1: evolved and Sorra has kind of taken over the whole
Speaker 1: of social media, I think it's fair to say that
Speaker 1: you were right and I was wrong. This came home
Speaker 1: to me this week with a story about an AI
Speaker 1: homeless person prank. His modo ran a story about how
Speaker 1: kids are creating fake homeless people in AI images and
Speaker 1: then sending them to their parents, Like here he is
Speaker 1: arriving at the door. He says he's a friend of yours.
Speaker 1: He says, he's a friend of your I needed arrest,
Speaker 1: so he's sleeping in your bed. Okay, So like our
Speaker 1: parents falling for this, Yeah, and then in many cases
Speaker 1: the parents call the police. What the well, of course,
Speaker 1: I mean that the kids are saying, here's a strange
Speaker 1: man in our house. He says, a.
Speaker 4: Friend to get Jeremy Carrasco, my dear friend, show tools
Speaker 4: AI to give these people some tutorial on how to
Speaker 4: pixel peep.
Speaker 1: What would he say?
Speaker 3: I think he would say.
Speaker 4: To look closely at this homeless guy. You can kind
Speaker 4: of look at his teeth and his face and his eyes,
Speaker 4: and there will be things they're in that you can
Speaker 4: tell are not real.
Speaker 3: But I also, I'm looking at the images like they're.
Speaker 1: Very super real.
Speaker 4: It's uncanny, though. I mean, to be a parent and
Speaker 4: to have a kid be like, what's this guy doing
Speaker 4: in our house? I guess I would call the police too.
Speaker 1: Well. I mean, that's the thing I had some hesitation
Speaker 1: about bringing this story to you today. As the first
Speaker 1: story on the show.
Speaker 3: Because because you knew I'd like it to.
Speaker 1: Before I decided to bring to you the first story,
Speaker 1: I asked myself, what is the butt of this joke?
Speaker 1: Is the butt of this joke homeless people? Or is
Speaker 1: the butt of this joke gullible parents who freak out
Speaker 1: and sort of share this cultural terror of homeless people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know where it is between those two things.
Speaker 1: But what I think is really interesting about this sore
Speaker 1: A moment is it gives you a glimpse into the
Speaker 1: kind of collective subconscious of the Internet. And so I
Speaker 1: think its not for nothing that the kind of most
Speaker 1: viral meme of the moment is this kind of fantasy
Speaker 1: objectification creation of homeless people effectively vampire like crossing the
Speaker 1: threshold and invading the house. But it's also a metaverse
Speaker 1: story because, as I mentioned, parents are calling the cops
Speaker 1: in North Austin the Round Police Patrol Division Commander Andy
Speaker 1: McKinney told NBC getting a call about an intruder quote
Speaker 1: causes a pretty aggressive response for us because we're worried
Speaker 1: about the safety of the individuals in the home, which
Speaker 1: can mean clearing the home with guns. Out it could
Speaker 1: also cause a swap response.
Speaker 4: Anyone who says that I overreact about manipulated video is wrong,
Speaker 4: like the fact that this is taking department resources to
Speaker 4: fend off a prank that is created by teenagers. And
Speaker 4: also these are not AI masterminds.
Speaker 1: There's a kid, and the idea that you would need
Speaker 1: a swap team to respond is also kind of mind blowing.
Speaker 1: But this actually brings me to my main story of
Speaker 1: the week, because you know who preached charity and compassion
Speaker 1: and care for the homeless, JC, Jesus Christ. Here's what
Speaker 1: he had to say in the gospel. Foxes have holes
Speaker 1: and birds of the air have nests, but the son
Speaker 1: of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Oh my God.
Speaker 1: You may be scratching your head as to why I'm
Speaker 1: quoting the Bible, but it's relevant because Christianity is currently
Speaker 1: all the rage with Silicon Valley elites.
Speaker 4: It still somehow surprises me when people bring up Christianity
Speaker 4: in the same breath as Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: Why is that, well, I mean, it's surprising because the
Speaker 1: two were, for a while seemingly anathema. There's a line
Speaker 1: in the famous TV show about Silicon Valley called Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley where somebody says Christianity is order illegal in northern California,
Speaker 1: and Vanity Fair actually uses that quote in a headline
Speaker 1: about today's trend of Christianity rising in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 4: You know, San Francisco has always struck me. And this
Speaker 4: is a joke. You know, as more about communes than communions.
Speaker 1: It's always a good sign for a joke when you
Speaker 1: have to tell someone as a joke.
Speaker 3: But I mean it, like, what what's happening here?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well it's a huge question. And actually this is
Speaker 1: a somewhat personal story for me because a number of
Speaker 1: my friends who are not in Silicon Valley have recently
Speaker 1: turned to Christianity go to church every week. I think
Speaker 1: in search really community. Yeah, community structure.
Speaker 4: I have found myself more drawn to synagogue recently, but
Speaker 4: we can talk about it.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you exactly about that, because I've
Speaker 1: noticed that too. You talk about going to synagogue when
Speaker 1: you go to synagogue more than you did when I
Speaker 1: knew you.
Speaker 3: Much more, much more.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 4: I think because I'm in search of like a single
Speaker 4: place left in the universe that is somehow tech iastic.
Speaker 4: Now the irony is that the rabbis in the synagogue
Speaker 4: that I go to use iPads, but I would imagine
Speaker 4: they don't have notifications on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a huge surprise that the resurgence of faith,
Speaker 1: partly in response, I think, to tech, as you've mentioned,
Speaker 1: is also happening where tech is made in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: But actually, what I think is particularly interesting is that
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley has always been drawn to countercultures. Yes, and
Speaker 1: the counterculture of ten years ago was psychedelics, burning man, polyamory.
Speaker 1: Then that became mainstream.
Speaker 3: Now now it's polygamy. No, I'm kidding that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So now the old has become new, and it's
Speaker 1: revolutionary to be a Christian in Silicon Valley. So obviously
Speaker 1: the person I want to talk to you about this
Speaker 1: week is peed deal your faith, who I think embodies
Speaker 1: you know, both are swing to the right of the
Speaker 1: tech industry and the rise of Christianity. You're presumably familiar,
Speaker 1: like everybody else on the internet, with his lecture series
Speaker 1: I Am a four part lecture on the Antichrist. Let
Speaker 1: me read from the website quote you are warmly invite
Speaker 1: to a series of four lectures by Peter Teel addressing
Speaker 1: the topic of the biblical Antichrist.
Speaker 4: Who first, can I just ask you who he was inviting?
Speaker 4: Was this on zoom?
Speaker 1: No, No, you could apply, you could go in person,
Speaker 1: and I think it was the crowd, as far as
Speaker 1: I understand, was male dominated, mid twentiesingly guys. And you know,
Speaker 1: Peter Teel obviously is the guy who found a pallenteer
Speaker 1: and PayPal, sued the website Gorper out of existence, and
Speaker 1: personally funded a huge portion of JD Vance's political rise.
Speaker 1: He's also about Christian and in his Antichrist lecture series,
Speaker 1: he posed a few questions about who the Antichrist might be.
Speaker 1: He said, it could be Greta Thumberg, poor Greta. It
Speaker 1: might even be Donald Trump. Oh but it couldn't possibly
Speaker 1: be Mark Andreson, because you know what, because the Antichrist
Speaker 1: is supposed to be popular. Isn't that a great disk?
Speaker 3: That's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: So I think it's important to understand a bit more
Speaker 1: about the nonprofit called the seventeen Collective That's Acts, which
Speaker 1: started holding speaking events and in person events actually last year,
Speaker 1: and they partner with Peter Teel on this event series.
Speaker 1: The group is named after Act seventeen, which is a
Speaker 1: chapter in the Bible which is all about the apostle
Speaker 1: Paul and how he goes to Greece to preach to intellectuals. Ah.
Speaker 1: I see, so there's a kind of sort of doing.
Speaker 1: Is they're kind of referencing this inception of the smartest
Speaker 1: people in the world, which is maybe a little coressed congratulatory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: There's also, according to the anti fair piece, a spreadsheet
Speaker 1: of secret Christians in tech that was being passed around
Speaker 1: before Christianity and Silicon Valley became mainstreamed.
Speaker 4: And who is on this secret spreadsheet of Christians in Tech?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I can tell you who Some
Speaker 1: of the most prominent Silicon Valley Christiansky Jerry tan Who
Speaker 1: Jerry Tann.
Speaker 3: Is, Yes, I do. He's the CEO of y Combine.
Speaker 1: Look at that. He's the CEO Y Combinator, which is
Speaker 1: an extremely influential organization because if you're a young would
Speaker 1: be founder and you get the Y Combinator's seal of approval,
Speaker 1: you are off to the races, right. Another prominent Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley Christian is Pat Gelsinger, who's the former CEO of
Speaker 1: Internal that's one I didn't know. Maybe also a little
Speaker 1: less a little less reflex in today's Silicon Valley to
Speaker 1: be fair. And then very interestingly, there's Tray Stevens. Trey
Speaker 1: Stephens is a Peter Teele partner at Peter Teele's Founder's Fund,
Speaker 1: but he also co founded the defense firm Anderill with
Speaker 1: Palmeer Lucky Oh with old Palmer Lucky. Trey's wife, Michelle
Speaker 1: actually founded at seventeen collective.
Speaker 3: His wife founded it. Fascinating.
Speaker 4: So, I mean, obviously these are major players in the
Speaker 4: tech world, but like, what is the Christianity that they
Speaker 4: believe in?
Speaker 1: Well, I really don't want to speak for them about
Speaker 1: their faith. And I also, while I find some of
Speaker 1: this stuff quite a musing, and I also don't you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's faith plays such an important role in
Speaker 1: so many people's lives. But in the Vanity Fair piece,
Speaker 1: there is some interesting reporting on the broader interaction between
Speaker 1: the tech industry and faith. So Toby Kirth, who's the
Speaker 1: pastor at Peter Teel's church, said, quote, each person has
Speaker 1: a calling and a vocation, and using your gifts to
Speaker 1: the max is a good thing and it's what God
Speaker 1: would want Daniel Francis, the Catholic founder of the AI
Speaker 1: startup able, said quote, you have a duty as a
Speaker 1: founder to make really good products and get them into
Speaker 1: people's hands. You're making God real in people's lives when
Speaker 1: they experience that. Now, obviously there's some good old fashioned
Speaker 1: the American intersection of capitalism and faith and the work
Speaker 1: ethic and all of those things here, and that you
Speaker 1: make money from your talents and then you help the
Speaker 1: poor and all those things. I mean, this is this
Speaker 1: is not so new, but I was kind of more
Speaker 1: intrigued by the idea that there's this belief that if
Speaker 1: God gives you the ability to create new technologology, it's
Speaker 1: your God given purpose to do so.
Speaker 4: Are other people outside of these elite Silicon Valley types
Speaker 4: involved in this church well.
Speaker 1: A pastor at a non denominational church that many of
Speaker 1: these folks go to said that during COVID his congregation swelled,
Speaker 1: in fact more than doubled in size. From a cynical
Speaker 1: point of view, that might not be surprising because some
Speaker 1: of the members of the church are also the most
Speaker 1: powerful people in Silicon Valley, and the church isn't necessarily
Speaker 1: the worst place to rub shoulders with the folks in
Speaker 1: high places.
Speaker 4: So basically going to church as a networking opportunity.
Speaker 1: Not for everyone. I'm sure there's good faith motivations to
Speaker 1: be there just for reasons of pure faith. But one
Speaker 1: Christian entrepreneur was quoted in the Vanity Fair piece saying, quote,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you there are people that are leveraging Christianity
Speaker 1: to get closer to Peter Teel.
Speaker 4: I mean, it is interesting, this is on a sort
Speaker 4: of much grander stage. But like everybody goes to church
Speaker 4: to network in a certain way, so it's just I
Speaker 4: think this or higher here.
Speaker 3: This story, though, really was.
Speaker 4: About something that I don't want you to forget about,
Speaker 4: which is the Antichrist.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, I wouldn't have done so. Peter Tiel gave
Speaker 1: this almost eight hour lecture series about the Antichrist, which
Speaker 1: was theoretically off the record, but of course immediately to
Speaker 1: the press.
Speaker 4: You know, it's very funny that the guy who helped
Speaker 4: create the surveillance state through technology cannot seem to escape
Speaker 4: being surveilled. He couldn't even do an off the record
Speaker 4: lecture series even if he tried.
Speaker 1: Well, he may be one step ahead of the game here,
Speaker 1: Old Peter, because he said, quote this is in the lecture.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty good marketing shtick. If you want everyone
Speaker 1: to hear about something, not to let anyone into the room.
Speaker 1: I'm not bragging, but I'm not totally incompetent either.
Speaker 4: Any anybody who says I'm not bragging is the same
Speaker 4: person who says I have no assholes policy. It's like
Speaker 4: you are you love assholes, and you are bragging. So
Speaker 4: what were the lectures actually about.
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of it, weirdly or maybe not weirdly,
Speaker 1: actually seemed to revolve around deregulation. The Washington Post got
Speaker 1: access to all eight hours of recordings and they reported
Speaker 1: quote Teal argued that critiques of technology and calls for
Speaker 1: stricter regulation by Greta Thunberg and others appear to echo
Speaker 1: biblical interpretations of an Antichrist who will win power by
Speaker 1: offering the world quote peace and safety from apocalyptic destruction.
Speaker 4: So what he's saying is that anybody who wants to
Speaker 4: regulate technology or AI is essentially the devil.
Speaker 1: That is the direction of That is the direction of
Speaker 1: the lecture series, apparently. But that's not the only possibility
Speaker 1: for what the Antichrist might be up to. Reportedly, Teal
Speaker 1: also said, quote is becoming quite difficult to hide one's money.
Speaker 1: An incredible machinery of tax treaties, financial surveillance, and sanctions
Speaker 1: architecture has been constructed, and he went on to say
Speaker 1: that while being rich might give you the illusion of
Speaker 1: having power, you have the sense that it could be
Speaker 1: taken away at any.
Speaker 3: Moment all of a sudden. I feel bad for him.
Speaker 1: So the idea that he's driving towards here is that
Speaker 1: this combination of regulation of financial oversight, if it being
Speaker 1: hard to hide your money, is quote a sign that
Speaker 1: a singular world government has begun to emerge that could
Speaker 1: be taken over by an antichrist figure who could then
Speaker 1: use it to exert control over people.
Speaker 4: So someone like Donald Trump or Greta Tunberg exactly.
Speaker 1: He did clarify that it's not Donald Trump, but he said interestingly, quote,
Speaker 1: if you, in a sincere, rational, well reasoned way, are
Speaker 1: willing to make the argument that Trump is the Antichrist,
Speaker 1: I will give you.
Speaker 3: A hearing unbelievable.
Speaker 1: He went on to say, if you're not willing to
Speaker 1: make that argument, maybe you have to be open to
Speaker 1: the possibility that he's at least relatively good unbelievable onn't
Speaker 1: these weird quotes? So then that Washington Post called up
Speaker 1: his spokesmhen Jeremiah Hall, who said, Peter doesn't believe Trump
Speaker 1: the Antichrist.
Speaker 3: He's like, just to clarify he doesn't believe that.
Speaker 1: His challenge was for Trump's liberal critics to make the
Speaker 1: case that if they want Peter to hear them out,
Speaker 1: they can, but he knows in practice they can't do that,
Speaker 1: and they won't do it.
Speaker 3: So what is the obsession with the Antichrist?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I'll be able to properly answer
Speaker 1: that question, but I can tell you that some Christians
Speaker 1: believe the Antichrist is the personal opponent of Christ, and
Speaker 1: they're expected the Antichrist to appear before the end of
Speaker 1: the world. Here's what Peter Teel said quote. My thesis
Speaker 1: is that in the seventeenth eighteenth century, the Antichrist would
Speaker 1: have been a doctor strange Love, a scientist who did
Speaker 1: all this sort of evil, crazy science. In the twenty
Speaker 1: first century, the Antichrist is a luddite who wants to
Speaker 1: stop all the science. It's someone like Greta what do
Speaker 1: you think it's just a.
Speaker 4: Very trumpy and fixation on like a young woman, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Well no, well maybe that I latch onto Greta, because
Speaker 1: to be fair, he did surface other candidates. Drum roll
Speaker 1: Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: So Joe Biden could be the Antichrist.
Speaker 1: No, he's not charismatic enough. She shin ping anti Christ.
Speaker 1: Not charismatic enough, not charismatic enough. Bill Gates a quote
Speaker 1: very very awful person, but quote not remotely able to
Speaker 1: be the.
Speaker 3: Anti I want to know why he thinks he couldn't
Speaker 3: be the Antichrist. I'm sure. I mean, it's obviously something offensive.
Speaker 1: I think. I think, I think not being the Antichrist
Speaker 1: is a real dick at your charism.
Speaker 3: It is like, you don't have the balls to be
Speaker 3: the Antichrist.
Speaker 1: You don't have the balls to you don't have the
Speaker 1: balls or the shops exactly. Look, it's a weird and
Speaker 1: entertaining story, but it's also consequential. I mean, Peter Teel has.
Speaker 3: A lot of power, that's true, he has a lot
Speaker 3: of power.
Speaker 1: Legions of people, you know, hanging on as every word
Speaker 1: and going to this lecture series. But more to me
Speaker 1: because it speaks of a broader existential crisis that is
Speaker 1: sweeping many people.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Imagine building a I imagine thinking, oh my god, God
Speaker 1: is in the machine, like I'm actually making this product
Speaker 1: first time and it's talking back to me. It's very powerful.
Speaker 1: So this raises questions for anyone. I can imagine if
Speaker 1: anyone you know, what is consciousness is like, shoulday I
Speaker 1: have rights? Is it conscious? But on the flip side,
Speaker 1: what does it mean to be human? Somebody said to
Speaker 1: me the other day, we need to stop asking what
Speaker 1: AI is for and ask what humans are for.
Speaker 3: I've heard that before, and I think that it's true.
Speaker 1: I do, well, yeah, you go, you gotta go to
Speaker 1: church or syn But seriously, yeah, I think this return
Speaker 1: to a system of values that predates this terrifying and
Speaker 1: spectacular moment is not for nothing. I also one of
Speaker 1: my hobby horses is that we're living through a new renaissance.
Speaker 3: Yes, you love to say this, Well.
Speaker 1: I'm in the original renaissance where you had this extraordinary
Speaker 1: explosion of scientific invention, new ways of understanding the world, Leonardo,
Speaker 1: new ways of understanding the human body, the stars, the
Speaker 1: solar system. You also have the extraordinary concentration of wealth
Speaker 1: and power in the hands of people like the medic cheese,
Speaker 1: and you had a fundamentalist religious resurgence which hunts inquisition,
Speaker 1: burning people at the stake. So you know, in a sense,
Speaker 1: nothing is new.
Speaker 4: Does this seem to be an agenda that he's pushing
Speaker 4: onto people or is it just like, come listen to
Speaker 4: my lectures if you're interested.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think when he said I'm not
Speaker 1: totally incompetent, I knew if I told people it's a secret,
Speaker 1: everyone want to know about it. I think it's in
Speaker 1: the small prince.
Speaker 4: After the break, satellites are falling out of the sky.
Speaker 4: The Dutch seized a microchip company, and chatchipt helps you
Speaker 4: get a date.
Speaker 1: And we're back. Cara, Have you been following the continued
Speaker 1: drama in the world of microchips?
Speaker 3: No, and you're obsessed.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is geopolitics at the scale of something
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Micro, the smallest largest scale possible.
Speaker 1: Macro meets micro exactly. So there's been a ton of
Speaker 1: microchip news this week. OpenAI announced a deal with the
Speaker 1: chip maker broad Com to make custom AI microchips just
Speaker 1: for them. Obviously, China announced this ban on the export
Speaker 1: of rare earth metals which will affect computer chips and
Speaker 1: in turn have got the tariff conversation buzzing again the
Speaker 1: stock market down. Most of that news has been pretty
Speaker 1: well reported and you can get it anywhere. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to take you to the Netherlands otherwise known as Holland, Okay,
Speaker 1: where my tulips are exactly so. First off, there have
Speaker 1: been reports brewing that Dutch microchips are winding up in
Speaker 1: Russian weapons which are being used against Ukraine, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that the Western sanctions are supposed to ban the
Speaker 1: sale of microchips to Russia.
Speaker 3: And how do they know that these are Dutch microchips.
Speaker 1: Well, when the weapons rain down from the sky into Ukraine,
Speaker 1: they break the weapons apart and they put out the microchip,
Speaker 1: and the microchip has the name of a Dutch manufacturer
Speaker 1: written on it. And this is actually brought as evidence
Speaker 1: recently to the Hague there were microchips in Russian weapons
Speaker 1: from two Dutch firms. Basically, what's going on is that
Speaker 1: third party countries are legitimately buying these microchips and then
Speaker 1: exporting them to Russia. These countries include Thailand, Turkey, and
Speaker 1: of course China.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 1: China has a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in the Netherlands. What
Speaker 1: which just this week was seized. The company was taken
Speaker 1: over by the Dutch government.
Speaker 4: The Dutch government has taken over a Chinese factory in
Speaker 4: the Netherlands.
Speaker 1: That's right. How there is a law in the Netherlands
Speaker 1: called the Goods Availability Act, and this allows the government
Speaker 1: to quote intervene in privately owned companies in exceptional circumstances.
Speaker 1: The circumstances here are that Nesperia, a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered
Speaker 1: in Holland, is owned by a Chinese company called Wingtech,
Speaker 1: and the Dutch government had reason to believe that their CEO,
Speaker 1: Jiang Shuxeng had some quote serious managerial shortcomings that raise
Speaker 1: broader concerns for the Dutch government about the availability of
Speaker 1: semiconductor products critical to the European industry. In other words,
Speaker 1: the Dutch government were worried this Chinese company would turn
Speaker 1: around and say, we're making all these semiconductors which are
Speaker 1: important for the European industries, including cars, but we're taking
Speaker 1: all back to China and you don't get to have
Speaker 1: any of them. So there was also there was a
Speaker 1: backdrop of illegal or third party exports to Russia powering
Speaker 1: their war machine. But more urgent, the real reason for
Speaker 1: this extraordinary takeover of a private company was the fear
Speaker 1: that its products might be made unavailable to European companies
Speaker 1: who needed them.
Speaker 3: Interesting, So what does this mean exactly?
Speaker 1: Something is happening. Yeah, where the boundaries between governments and
Speaker 1: private companies, which have been blurred consciously and purposefully in
Speaker 1: China since the eighties yea, now in the West are
Speaker 1: also blurring because these technologies are so critical to the
Speaker 1: national interest that governments are unwilling to let them stay
Speaker 1: purely in private hands if it's at the cost of
Speaker 1: strategically undermining their country or the European Union. I mean
Speaker 1: the drama of a European country seizing a factory. The
Speaker 1: factory is still allowed to operate, and the Dutch government
Speaker 1: will only intervene if they think something is going wrong,
Speaker 1: but they've taken the legal control over this company. I
Speaker 1: just think I think it's a watershed moment.
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I actually, I think you're right.
Speaker 1: Also, these Russian weapons are not the only things falling
Speaker 1: out of the sky and causing concern.
Speaker 3: What else is falling out of the sky.
Speaker 1: According to futurism, Starlink and space X satellites are falling
Speaker 1: out of the sky.
Speaker 3: But why are they falling out of the sky now?
Speaker 1: Well, starlink satellites, I now know, only lasts about five
Speaker 1: years and they're supposed to basically burn up as they
Speaker 1: re enter. But scientists are now concerned that when they
Speaker 1: do burn up, they release materials into the atmosphere, which,
Speaker 1: according to one study, could be devastating for the ozone.
Speaker 3: Oh no, the poor ozone layer.
Speaker 1: I no, it's like the nineties. It's like, oh god,
Speaker 1: we were.
Speaker 3: So worried about ozone in the nineties.
Speaker 1: Remember well, I know, and it got a little better,
Speaker 1: but now it could be in jeopardy again. Right now,
Speaker 1: about two to three satellites fall each day out of
Speaker 1: the eight thousand starlinks, like a lot of satellites. Well
Speaker 1: it's going to get a lot more because between Starlink,
Speaker 1: Amazon System, and other companies from around the world, the
Speaker 1: FAA predicts that by twenty thirty, about twenty eight thousand
Speaker 1: fragments could survive re entry.
Speaker 3: This should have been the lead story.
Speaker 1: I knew, you see, I knew, Like space Jenny.
Speaker 3: Thirty five is like tomorrow. That's like ten years.
Speaker 4: If I were doing anything right now, I'd be investing
Speaker 4: in the manufacture of helmets, Like, what kind of helmet
Speaker 4: is going to protect me from a satellite falling from
Speaker 4: the sky.
Speaker 1: That's very funny. I actually there are private companies who
Speaker 1: are specializing now in hunting the rumbas of the sky,
Speaker 1: hunting space junk.
Speaker 3: That's brilliant.
Speaker 4: I have another crazy story for you, and it has
Speaker 4: nothing to do with satellites and has everything to do
Speaker 4: with attachment styles.
Speaker 1: Anxious avoidant is that Yes, you're exactly.
Speaker 3: Is that what you are?
Speaker 4: Did you just give yourself away a little bit? No,
Speaker 4: you're I think you're secure attached.
Speaker 1: Okay, good. I like that.
Speaker 4: The Guardian put out this piece about how people are
Speaker 4: turning to chat GPT to help them with initial text exchange.
Speaker 4: You know, I mean, I know it's been a long
Speaker 4: time for you, but when you first meet someone, you're
Speaker 4: putting your best foot forward.
Speaker 1: I see. So Basically, rather than saying to your friends, hey,
Speaker 1: what should I say? Or they've aby so blah blah,
Speaker 1: you just plug it in through it to get your friends.
Speaker 3: Forget your friend. A friend of mine always says this
Speaker 3: about chatcheebe.
Speaker 4: Now She's like, we haven't spoken in a few days
Speaker 4: because I have chat, Like that's it for no other
Speaker 4: reason that like, I have somebody else to talk to now.
Speaker 1: So this is dating advice.
Speaker 4: This is dating advice, but it's not dating advice in
Speaker 4: the in the macro sense. It's hyper specific dating advice
Speaker 4: on the basis of the actual conversation that you're having
Speaker 4: with a person that you match on a dating app.
Speaker 4: So the people, the kids are calling this chatfishing chatfishing, yes,
Speaker 4: which I really like the.
Speaker 1: Idea, with the idea being that the chatchiptas are much
Speaker 1: better conversationalist than you are, so you're you're essentially chatfishing.
Speaker 1: And then the reality is you meet this other person
Speaker 1: who's completely taciturnin and chomless, and then you realize you've
Speaker 1: been chatfished. Is that I'm done.
Speaker 4: I don't have to tell any more of the story.
Speaker 4: That's what chatfishing. That's exactly what chatfish. So there was
Speaker 4: a woman in the story named Rachel, and actually I
Speaker 4: was reading her bio and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, is it me.
Speaker 4: She's thirty six, she's a business owner, and she'd been
Speaker 4: chatting with a match on hinge for the last three weeks.
Speaker 4: What she said was that the conversations were refreshing. Her
Speaker 4: match kept asking her open ended questions, some of them
Speaker 4: felt like they were straight from a self help book,
Speaker 4: but they also got into ridiculous subjects too, like sharing
Speaker 4: memes and having inconsequential debates like do you like ketchup
Speaker 4: versus Mayo?
Speaker 3: So they decide to meet up. She was very shocked to.
Speaker 4: Find that when she met him on the in person date,
Speaker 4: he was so flat. Unfortunately, Rachel had been chatfished before,
Speaker 4: so she kind of knew the signs of someone offloading
Speaker 4: their conversations to chat GPT to herself. She was like,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give this guy one more chance, and she did,
Speaker 4: and because they hung out again and he was as
Speaker 4: flat as ever, she didn't keep trying. She knew and
Speaker 4: what she said in the article really made me laugh.
Speaker 3: Poor thing.
Speaker 4: She said, I'd already been chat gbt'ed into bed at
Speaker 4: least once. I didn't want it to happen again.
Speaker 1: This brings us to our final segment each week, which
Speaker 1: is Chatting Me.
Speaker 4: This week we heard from Mary in Florida. Mary is
Speaker 4: thirty two years old and describes herself as a chronic
Speaker 4: CHATCHYBT user, or at least she used to be.
Speaker 1: Mmm, she started to tap out.
Speaker 3: I wonder why well she got disillusioned.
Speaker 4: Mary says she started using chat gybt in late twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four, and she very quickly found herself relying on
Speaker 4: it for just about anything that popped into her mind.
Speaker 2: From learning how to thaw a frozen twelve pound turkey
Speaker 2: and under twenty four hours, to fitness advice to creating
Speaker 2: funny Ai've generated in of my Dog.
Speaker 4: But Mary started to notice that one topic kept coming
Speaker 4: up over and over, and that's the concept of what
Speaker 4: we were just talking about.
Speaker 1: Love.
Speaker 2: I scrolled down to my very first interaction with chat
Speaker 2: and the first question was why have I been unlucky
Speaker 2: in love?
Speaker 1: Isn't this interesting? I mean, this is like one of
Speaker 1: the great newspaper media inventions of the twentieth century was
Speaker 1: the Advice a Vice comlument, Love Advice column and I
Speaker 1: Love Call in show.
Speaker 4: So when she asked, the answers that Chat gave her
Speaker 4: were a list of seven potential factors that could be
Speaker 4: contributing to her dating struggles, and she initially found them
Speaker 4: really helpful.
Speaker 3: A little while later, though, she.
Speaker 4: Found herself in a new relationship that started getting tumultuous,
Speaker 4: and so she turned to Chat again.
Speaker 1: Is this when the problem started? Yes.
Speaker 4: Mary found that Chat's advice and the ability to find
Speaker 4: patterns was useful for a while. She says it felt
Speaker 4: like it was validating her intuitions and teaching her to
Speaker 4: try trust her gut, which was a good thing. But then,
Speaker 4: she said, she started depending on it way too much,
Speaker 4: and she stopped thinking so critically about her own intuitions,
Speaker 4: and she found herself assuming the worst of her partner,
Speaker 4: even when it went way against the way she'd preferred
Speaker 4: to handle a difficult situation.
Speaker 2: It stripped me of my humanity and led me to
Speaker 2: believe things that were not necessarily true and fed my delusions.
Speaker 1: Well, thank goodness Mary realized this and lived to tell
Speaker 1: the tale. Because, as we've reported on this show in
Speaker 1: that episode we did with Kashmi Hill, this can go
Speaker 1: a much docopov.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And one of the reasons she sent us a
Speaker 4: voice memo is because she wanted to warn others of
Speaker 4: the psychological dangers of AI and what can happen when
Speaker 4: you become codependent on a chatbot for self growth.
Speaker 3: I actually I really like this chat.
Speaker 4: In me because I think we keep coming back to
Speaker 4: over and over again the deficit that arises with co
Speaker 4: and of offloading.
Speaker 3: You know, and I mean I know it for myself.
Speaker 1: The truth is part of growing up, and part of parenting,
Speaker 1: and part of teaching, and part of actually being a
Speaker 1: boss is encouraging people to know when to ask and
Speaker 1: know when to trust themselves. But the problem with the
Speaker 1: chatbot is it's incentives, so they want to keep you
Speaker 1: in there. They don't. The chat that will never say
Speaker 1: to you, go trust yourself.
Speaker 3: It's time to.
Speaker 1: Trust stread your wings. We want to hear from you,
Speaker 1: our listeners, so please do send your chap stories tart
Speaker 1: inbox Textuff Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: That's it for this week for tech stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm care Price and I'm os Valoshin. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by Eliza Dennis, Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter. It
Speaker 1: was executive produced by me Kara Price, Julia Nutter, and
Speaker 1: Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina Norvelle for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Jack Insley makes this episode and Kyle Murdoch wrote our
Speaker 1: theme song.
Speaker 4: Join us next week for conversation about all the ways
Speaker 4: the Internet can fued our paranoia, especially during pregnancy.
Speaker 1: And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen,
Speaker 1: and reach out to us at tech Stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. We love hearing from you.