Speaker 1: From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: as Volocian and I'm care Price.
Speaker 2: Today We've got two big stories to break down for you. First,
Speaker 2: it's Silicon Valley's Westminster Dog Show. Journalists, tech nerds, industry
Speaker 2: insiders are in Vegas this week to check out the
Speaker 2: Consumer Electronics Show. Then, is your grocery store spying on you?
Speaker 3: And then a few other things that caught our eye
Speaker 3: this week, including Silicon Valley's.
Speaker 4: New rave culture fueled by.
Speaker 3: Chinese peptides and the exceptionally creative influencers and OnlyFans models
Speaker 3: getting US visas.
Speaker 2: All of that on the Weekend Tech. It's Friday, January ninth.
Speaker 2: Hello Cara, hi Azi, How are you very good?
Speaker 4: Happy New Year, Happy New Year to you too.
Speaker 1: So it's our first Weekend Tech of the year.
Speaker 4: It is very excited.
Speaker 1: Right before the holidays.
Speaker 2: People like to do roundups the best of the year
Speaker 2: that went by at the start of the year.
Speaker 1: People like to do.
Speaker 4: What's going to happen?
Speaker 1: What's going to happen?
Speaker 3: I'm you know what my tech prediction is, what I'm
Speaker 3: going to be addicted to my father.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not a prediction. That's just as a guarantee.
Speaker 4: That's a prophecy.
Speaker 1: I do actually have one big prediction for you. Tell
Speaker 1: me so.
Speaker 2: I think that people are going to look back at
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six as the year that AI really entered
Speaker 2: the physical world. And I think that became quite clear
Speaker 2: this week at the Consumer Electronics Show. But I actually
Speaker 2: wanted to frame this conversation up about CS with an
Speaker 2: essay I read late last year by faith fee Lee.
Speaker 4: Tell me about it.
Speaker 1: Faith a Lee is the godmother of AI. She is
Speaker 1: you wrote this blog post.
Speaker 2: The title is from Words to Worlds. Spatial intelligence is
Speaker 2: AI's next frontier. To have any idea what that means, I.
Speaker 3: Mean I can guess spatial intelligence meaning like that our
Speaker 3: whole world is sort of mapped with AI.
Speaker 2: Pretty much so is machines in the world with sensors,
Speaker 2: and it's creating fully simulated worlds that.
Speaker 1: Obey the laws of physics. Basically, faith a Lee made
Speaker 1: the case that llms, which power chatbots, are amazing, but
Speaker 1: they're kind of almost like trapped in Plato's cave in
Speaker 1: a weird way because they're not actually seeing the world.
Speaker 1: They're reading text and data that humans or other machines
Speaker 1: have recorded about the world and then extrapolating what the
Speaker 1: world is like from records of the world, rather than
Speaker 1: looking at the world, ingesting it, and understanding its rules
Speaker 1: for themselves like humans do. So this is basically what
Speaker 1: faith A Lee.
Speaker 2: And a lot of others think might be kind of
Speaker 2: the next revolution in computing. It's computers that can actually
Speaker 2: understand the world for themselves rather than interpret it based
Speaker 2: on descriptions of the world. And she basically has argued
Speaker 2: that this will be the next frontiering computing, and that
Speaker 2: to really deliver on the Alan Turing thinking machine promise,
Speaker 2: it can't just be words and numbers. It has to
Speaker 2: be the laws of physics. How gravity is different, how
Speaker 2: pressure is different underwater versus on the surface, how a
Speaker 2: chair moves around a room when you push it depending
Speaker 2: on the fabric of the carpet or the slipperiness of
Speaker 2: the floor. Like these are things now that can only
Speaker 2: be understood in words, But ultimately she wants to build
Speaker 2: machines and algorithms that can understand it for themselves, in
Speaker 2: which case this might be the year I think when
Speaker 2: thinking machines truly enter the room.
Speaker 4: Well, I was just thinking.
Speaker 3: An incredible thing to think about is I've talked to
Speaker 3: you ad nauseum for the last day or two about
Speaker 3: my dog that I've been fastering.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I just think about a new concern.
Speaker 3: That I have all day long, is like what's going
Speaker 3: on with this dog when I'm not with this dog?
Speaker 3: But like, what if I could have a robot that
Speaker 3: could tend to this dog as like a shadow? And
Speaker 3: you're thinking about, like, oh, how does the physical world
Speaker 3: interact with the robot world?
Speaker 4: Like imagine a dog is like I have my mom
Speaker 4: or I have my dad, and then I have.
Speaker 3: My robot Alpha, who is like the robot self that
Speaker 3: takes care of the dog too.
Speaker 1: And who's the real boss You're at the robot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's when robots take When dogs are.
Speaker 1: Listening to the dog, you and the robot are standing
Speaker 1: next to each other and you're like.
Speaker 2: Come here, come here, pal, and the dog goes up
Speaker 2: to the robot.
Speaker 1: That's that's the future.
Speaker 3: That is that's when humans, by the way, dogs answering
Speaker 3: to robots is when humans will really be like, we
Speaker 3: got to get these robots out of the question.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. What about you do you have
Speaker 1: any twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: These predictions, Well, this is not a prediction that I've invented.
Speaker 3: This is a prediction that's based on a lot of
Speaker 3: reading that I've done on Business Insider and the Ft and.
Speaker 1: Showing off.
Speaker 4: Sor Tim Cook. I think is going to step down
Speaker 4: from Apple.
Speaker 2: I saw a headline about that. I didn't dive too
Speaker 2: deep on it. What are people saying.
Speaker 3: He's nearing retirement age, which, you know, it's not something
Speaker 3: that's going to be like a hostile takeover, you know.
Speaker 3: I think it's not going to be something that the
Speaker 3: average person like finds perceptible as far as change. I
Speaker 3: think that he will step down and kind of lead
Speaker 3: from behind the scenes. A lah a Jeff Bezos, I
Speaker 3: mean it's a hard job.
Speaker 2: I guess Apple's obviously a behemoth. And you know, the
Speaker 2: iPhone sales have been robust. The other stuff they've tried,
Speaker 2: like the vision pro goggles they've stepped back from the
Speaker 2: car never happened.
Speaker 1: The TV thing is kind of I mean, it's not.
Speaker 3: You know what I was actually thinking about it apples
Speaker 3: TV has worked, like if you look at the Emmys
Speaker 3: and the Critics' Choice Awards and the Golden globes like
Speaker 3: they've kind of dominated this year. True in a way
Speaker 3: that I mean, I don't know if you would attribute
Speaker 3: that to Tim Cook necessarily.
Speaker 2: But I guess if he could choose an Emmy or
Speaker 2: having invented chet GPTR.
Speaker 1: Respectology colleagues on the West Coast.
Speaker 4: That's absolutely true. That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3: You know. The other thing is that, speaking of our
Speaker 3: friends in Hollywood, the thing that I've noticed a lot
Speaker 3: of retired men do is they start production companies because
Speaker 3: they like to be in the entertainment business. So who knows,
Speaker 3: maybe Tim Apple will start a production company with Apple Studios.
Speaker 4: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: So yes, my prediction is the robot will enter the
Speaker 1: room and yours this Tim Apple will exit the room.
Speaker 4: That's right, Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2: One tech CEO. I don't think it's going anywhere, is Jensen.
Speaker 4: He's not going back to Dennis.
Speaker 1: He's not going back to Denny's.
Speaker 4: I wonder if he passes Denny's and he's like, I can't.
Speaker 1: No, I'm sure.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's a big part of his mythology.
Speaker 2: He was at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, of
Speaker 2: coursees delivering a keynote, and I count with my twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six prediction before I read his remarks, which is
Speaker 2: probably quite dumb, but because he is remarked, luckily we're
Speaker 2: in line with my twenty twenty six prediction. He said
Speaker 2: this will be the year when there's a chet GPT
Speaker 2: moment for physical AI. This is not a disinterested statement.
Speaker 2: Because Nvidio also announced they're getting into the self driving
Speaker 2: car business.
Speaker 1: Yes, I saw that, and this is.
Speaker 2: Pretty interesting because previously you had Tesla sales falling Waymo
Speaker 2: as the dominant players in US self driving robotaxis, and
Speaker 2: it seemed like a two horse race. But part of
Speaker 2: in Vidia's announcement was a partnership with Mercedes where they're
Speaker 2: basically going to plug their software into other car makers.
Speaker 4: They're in the car business.
Speaker 2: They're not in the car business, but they're all of
Speaker 2: a sudden kind of a competitor to their clients, right,
Speaker 2: which is really interesting.
Speaker 4: That is very interesting. Do you think it's something that's
Speaker 4: going to work.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I mean you you're you're the Innvidia shareholder that's against
Speaker 2: your dear leader.
Speaker 1: No, No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: And I think it's very smart to not actually be
Speaker 3: in the car design business. I think it's very smart
Speaker 3: to like put your software in a pre existing car.
Speaker 2: Probably if you're if you're Mercedes who are doing the partnership,
Speaker 2: or other auto makers, you're like, oh, this like a hail.
Speaker 2: Mary's well, I think we have a chance of plugging
Speaker 2: this in and catching up, which is which is really
Speaker 2: really interesting. But he wasn't just talking about this self
Speaker 2: driving car partnership. He was pointing at this kind of
Speaker 2: robotic revolution. He likes hanging out with robots. We talked
Speaker 2: about Earli last year. Remember he got the high five
Speaker 2: from the humanoid robot.
Speaker 4: On his trip I Do, I Do?
Speaker 2: And another king of the self driving car world, Elon
Speaker 2: himself is kind of seemingly more interested in.
Speaker 1: Humanoid robots than self driving cars. Now he's moved on,
Speaker 1: he's moved on.
Speaker 2: He's definitely this time last year, optimist robot was hanging
Speaker 2: out with Kim, and it seemed last year like a
Speaker 2: pure gimmick. And now twelve months later there's a big
Speaker 2: Wall Street Journal story saying that Elon is pivoting the
Speaker 2: whole business to be human optimist robots.
Speaker 1: So it is interesting as this year I'd like to
Speaker 1: meet Kim. This year we'll see.
Speaker 2: So humanoid robots stole the show at CS this year.
Speaker 1: Did you see any of the videos?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: What did you? What did you see?
Speaker 4: I think it was? Was it Tesla that I saw?
Speaker 1: You? Mintioned Tesla. I'm going to show you Boston Dynamics.
Speaker 3: Dynamics, Yes, show me the spot the dog famously they did.
Speaker 1: They've now got Atlas, the person a.
Speaker 4: Booty hun her.
Speaker 1: What are you seeing?
Speaker 4: So I'm seeing the biggest nerd on the planet.
Speaker 3: It kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Holmes when something
Speaker 3: good happens with Faranos coming out and doing like one
Speaker 3: of those like kick dancers.
Speaker 2: It's an extremely flexible humanoid robot doing cotwheels, doing Russian
Speaker 2: Cossack dancing.
Speaker 1: That is what it is, russian'd.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's incredible that they've trained them to do this.
Speaker 2: It is And so Hyundai, who actually bought Boston Dynamics
Speaker 2: lost this robot Atlas.
Speaker 1: It can lift up to one hundred and ten pounds.
Speaker 2: It can work in temperatures between minus four degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 2: up to one hundred and four degrees.
Speaker 4: Assud of the problem of needing cooling centers.
Speaker 1: You don't and actually the battery is pretty amazing as well.
Speaker 2: Last time, like when humanoid robots were last on sixty minutes,
Speaker 2: had these huge hunchback of notre.
Speaker 1: Dam story packs, battery packs.
Speaker 2: But now it's just a pure human form essentially, which
Speaker 2: is kind of interesting. They're planning to produce thirty thousand
Speaker 2: of these robots per year, with the goal of them
Speaker 2: working on factory flos by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4: They're like, humans can't work in hard enough environments. We
Speaker 4: need to make robot.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I guess.
Speaker 4: It's a that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: It could be a good thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I look, I don't know if these are
Speaker 2: actually going to replace humans on the factory floor, but
Speaker 2: certainly they've got everyone talking about Hyundai for the first
Speaker 2: time in a while, I don't talk about human So
Speaker 2: those are humanoid robots designed by Hyundai to be factory workers. LG,
Speaker 2: another South Korean tech firm, also made waves of cs
Speaker 2: this year with its robot called Cloyd Cloud. Lloyd claud
Speaker 2: Lloyd Cloud exactly, which ladders up to a vision.
Speaker 1: Do you know what the vision is?
Speaker 4: What is the vision?
Speaker 1: The zero labor home that's I'm looking for.
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, if I have to do another
Speaker 3: load of laundry, like it's Sissifian the cloud.
Speaker 1: Literally Cloyd literally does the laundry.
Speaker 4: Can I try this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, Eliza.
Speaker 2: Cloyd can remove dishes from the dishwasher, what heat up
Speaker 2: food in the oven? This is this is not a
Speaker 2: domestic home now, this is domestic laborer.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: It can interact seamlessly with other LG devices like your
Speaker 2: fridge and your cooker.
Speaker 3: So it is the connected home that then has the
Speaker 3: robot that's running your connected.
Speaker 2: The robot is the is the conductor to the symphony
Speaker 2: of your connected home.
Speaker 4: Not particularly opposed to this, I got to.
Speaker 2: Say these were of the only humanoid robots who took
Speaker 2: CS by storm. There was also the switchbot one row
Speaker 2: h one that can fill a coffee machine, make breakfast,
Speaker 2: wash the windows. And then there's the one EX Neo robot.
Speaker 2: This one is kind of interesting because it doesn't have
Speaker 2: the best fine motor control, which I think is true
Speaker 2: of all of these robots. So if you have a
Speaker 2: one X Neo robot in your home, you have to
Speaker 2: consent to the fact that it will sometimes switch into
Speaker 2: a mode where it's being human controlled, so there will
Speaker 2: be somebody looking through your robot into your home, wearing
Speaker 2: some kind of like haptic suit, doing what the robot
Speaker 2: needs to do.
Speaker 1: It's like Avatar.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine buying your robot and then having somebody
Speaker 2: sitting four thousand miles away in your house, yes, doing
Speaker 2: your domestic.
Speaker 4: Robots.
Speaker 2: The jobs created by robots are people working thousands of
Speaker 2: miles away to operate robots in your home.
Speaker 1: It's a bizarre Also.
Speaker 2: Like I wouldn't really want camera in my home, which
Speaker 2: is external.
Speaker 3: And we'll talk about this in my next story. But
Speaker 3: there are also places where I don't want cameras.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to hear about that.
Speaker 2: Just before we turn away from CS, there was some
Speaker 2: other robots which are pretty cool but not humanoid. Tell
Speaker 2: me there's the anchor Uphie s two vacuum. It's rumba
Speaker 2: with them up and it can travel between carpeted areas,
Speaker 2: then go to the hard floor to mop it, come
Speaker 2: back to the carpeted area. No water spilled, anything like that.
Speaker 2: And Cara has an aromatherapy.
Speaker 4: Diffuser, Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And then finally smart fridges which can scan your empty
Speaker 2: packages and add them to a shopping list for the
Speaker 2: next grocery run. So it's a camera inside the fridge
Speaker 2: that accesses an app while shopping, so.
Speaker 1: Kind of remind you either on nine or in the
Speaker 1: real world. Yeah, or you need to buy it.
Speaker 3: I mean it is like on a macro level, pretty
Speaker 3: incredible the way in which technology is like filling the
Speaker 3: gaps and what humans can do, and also just like
Speaker 3: taking care of time, Like all these things are very
Speaker 3: time intensive. The question is is like is it time
Speaker 3: that we want to eradicate, Like do we want to not.
Speaker 4: Go to the grocery store. What are we supposed to
Speaker 4: be doing instead.
Speaker 1: Working on our computer?
Speaker 4: Exactly?
Speaker 2: That is the conundrum of the I have to work
Speaker 2: all the time, so then when do I do things
Speaker 2: which are non compensated labor but very important, like yeah,
Speaker 2: the house up is that? That's like, yes, so I
Speaker 2: never I never do the things that I need to
Speaker 2: do which are not directly work related, Like I have
Speaker 2: such a long list of annoying personal things.
Speaker 4: We call it personal ad personal admin.
Speaker 1: Yes, I never get through it. Yes, I don't know if,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't tend to be still if the robot
Speaker 1: could do not yet not yet.
Speaker 3: I mean I still think the idea of like, I
Speaker 3: live in an apartment building where not only humans live,
Speaker 3: but a humanoid robot lives.
Speaker 4: Like how far out are we on.
Speaker 2: That you will go to somebody's house this year, I bet,
Speaker 2: and they'll have a robot.
Speaker 4: That's crazy. Okay, we'll see. I obviously did not get
Speaker 4: to Cees this week. I did, though, get to Wegmans.
Speaker 1: The grocery store, yes, the grocery.
Speaker 3: Store, because I read this article in the Gothamis that
Speaker 3: the grocery store chain was using facial recognition software in
Speaker 3: their NYC location.
Speaker 1: Well wow, what did the goemists find out about this?
Speaker 3: So actually, a city law in twenty twenty one requires
Speaker 3: stores to put up a sign if they use facial
Speaker 3: recognition software, so Wegmans complied. The funny thing is I
Speaker 3: went to Wegmans, and I really had to search for
Speaker 3: this sign. And Wegmans might disagree with me because there
Speaker 3: was a sign on the door, But the way in
Speaker 3: which I had to look for it, because it was
Speaker 3: like sliding in and out of view on the automatic door,
Speaker 3: really made me laugh.
Speaker 2: So you went to Wegmans looking for the sign, you
Speaker 2: hadn't been looking for the sign, you wouldn't have seen it.
Speaker 3: So there were people that I talked to and I
Speaker 3: pointed out the sign to them when I went to
Speaker 3: the store, and they were like, no, I.
Speaker 4: Didn't notice that.
Speaker 1: I didn't recognize that.
Speaker 4: I didn't see that.
Speaker 3: Because if you're not looking for it, I think we're
Speaker 3: so used to just seeing signs up and if there
Speaker 3: don't apply, Like, I've never looked at pet signs until recently.
Speaker 1: So you found the sign. What did it say?
Speaker 3: It said, quote biometric identifier information collected at this location. Then,
Speaker 3: in much finer print, quote Wegman's Food Market, Inc. Collects, retains, converts, stores,
Speaker 3: or shares customers biometric identifier information, which may include facial recognition,
Speaker 3: eye scans, and voice prints.
Speaker 2: Of those two verbs, converts and shares stand out to
Speaker 2: me as convert, I'm like converts into what shares with whom?
Speaker 3: So Gofmus actually asked Wegmans about how they were storing
Speaker 3: the data, how long they were storing it for, and
Speaker 3: how the company would share this data with law enforcement.
Speaker 4: Surprise surprise, Wegmans did.
Speaker 2: Not reply, Okay, what you've been been bearing the leave
Speaker 2: for a while. Now.
Speaker 1: What this is is this? What is this is a
Speaker 1: customer retention to safety thing safety.
Speaker 3: Yes, so the sign says, quote, we use facial recognition
Speaker 3: technology to protect the safety and security of our patrons
Speaker 3: and employees and do not lease, trade, or otherwise profit
Speaker 3: from the transfer of biometric identify or information.
Speaker 2: It is interesting because like in New York they now
Speaker 2: have like you know these like plastic.
Speaker 4: Covers on everything in CBS.
Speaker 1: So that you can't sell the people shoplift.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is just replacing the old Have you seen.
Speaker 1: This person right now?
Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like, you go into any bodega or any sort of
Speaker 3: like smoke shop and there's been a shoplifter and they
Speaker 3: have a photo from the camera that is so blurry
Speaker 3: that you can't even see if this person is a person. Now,
Speaker 3: what we have is a company that has a lot
Speaker 3: of money to invest in software and basically they can
Speaker 3: capture any face and cross reference that face if that
Speaker 3: face has been known to shoplift.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's also like if you haven't been shoplifting.
Speaker 2: Like the idea that you can be personally identified every
Speaker 2: time you go into a shop and cross reference to
Speaker 2: older weird.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you didn't leave your wallet in
Speaker 1: the shop.
Speaker 2: You left your whole identity there that's right to be shared, converted,
Speaker 2: and whatever else that will.
Speaker 3: It's just a very strange phenomenon. So I actually talked
Speaker 3: to a few people, and luckily I had a very
Speaker 3: intelligent woman who had seen the same Gothmass article I had.
Speaker 3: I approached her and said to her, you, did you
Speaker 3: know that facial recognition technology was being used at this Wegman?
Speaker 3: She said, I knew it was being used at Wegmans.
Speaker 3: I thought it was at the Wegmans in Brooklyn, and
Speaker 3: that she actually hadn't clocked the side in the Manhattan store.
Speaker 3: The only reason she knew about it was because she
Speaker 3: had read the Gothmist article.
Speaker 1: I want to hear the tape.
Speaker 3: Do you feel comfortable with your biometrics oatomy collected by
Speaker 3: a large grocery stoarch?
Speaker 5: I know, I actually had the thought right as I
Speaker 5: walked in here. I was like, maybe I should put
Speaker 5: my little scarf around my field wearing.
Speaker 4: A really cute scarf right now.
Speaker 5: Maybe you should use it or like a giant pair
Speaker 5: of sunglasses. Yeah no, I mean, I guess the way
Speaker 5: I feel about it is like I'm not sure that
Speaker 5: it is going to impact me personally. In any real way.
Speaker 5: But I think there are certain people for whom it's
Speaker 5: really bad. Yeah, you know, I'm like a white lady who.
Speaker 1: Is like.
Speaker 5: Economically mobile, and so I'm sort of like not worried
Speaker 5: about it for myself, which I guess is why I
Speaker 5: still came in here. But on principle, yeah, I think
Speaker 5: it's bad.
Speaker 3: You know, it's actually interesting she was wearing this kind
Speaker 3: of cravat that was this little cashmir brown scarf, and
Speaker 3: her idea to cover her face with a scarf is
Speaker 3: actually a good one. Four or four recently published an
Speaker 3: article about anti surveillance design, which you and I have
Speaker 3: talked about, remember in terms of three M and the
Speaker 3: Hong Kong protests.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Four. A fourth point is like, facial recognition tech is complicated,
Speaker 3: but actually tricking it is very easy and the most
Speaker 3: effective tool you can use to trick facial recognition technology
Speaker 3: is actually a mask.
Speaker 1: Is Wegman's an outlier here or the other? I mean
Speaker 1: this you big quich is?
Speaker 2: I know, for example, when you go to the airport,
Speaker 2: you can sometimes shop with your.
Speaker 4: First like the f out Actually no, it's not just Wegmans.
Speaker 3: There are stores of Albertson's Walmart, Kroger's are all using
Speaker 3: it in some of their locations.
Speaker 4: I think also Home Depot, Low's, Macy's. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think a lot of people won't care.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of people will just say, I've
Speaker 3: been surveilled. What is this, as we used to say,
Speaker 3: a little sprinkle of lder going to do to my
Speaker 3: day to day? If I'm not someone who should be
Speaker 3: worried about shoplifting, And to that, I say, what if
Speaker 3: it's not forever about shoplifting?
Speaker 4: Right after the break, the P.
Speaker 3: And GLP ones are having a moment and only fans
Speaker 3: models are getting very special US visas.
Speaker 1: Stay with us and we're back. Does the word peptide
Speaker 1: mean anything to you?
Speaker 3: My friends are always like the peptides, the peptides and my
Speaker 3: skincare and the peptide what I think they use skincare
Speaker 3: that have like peptides that titans their face.
Speaker 1: Have they been to peptide raves apps?
Speaker 3: I mean, unless you're talking about the their bathroom now.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: The New York Times had a great story this week
Speaker 2: with the headline Chinese peptides are the latest biohacking trend
Speaker 2: in the tech world. It had one source saying quote
Speaker 2: the elites all have a Chinese peptide dealer, and it
Speaker 2: follows several Silicon Valley workers, all between twenty and forty
Speaker 2: who are buying unregulated peptides from China with the hope
Speaker 2: that it will improve their health, their sleep, their fitness,
Speaker 2: and their focus.
Speaker 1: But what is it?
Speaker 4: I mean? I know peptides are like protein.
Speaker 2: What is Peptides are amino acids that regulate hormones in
Speaker 2: the body and reduce in flammation, which is why it's
Speaker 2: a popular ingredient I learned in skin care products. It's
Speaker 2: also and I didn't know this embarrassingly, the P in
Speaker 2: GLP one.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that just until this very moment. So
Speaker 3: the p peptides improve health.
Speaker 4: They're good. People like them, But why do they like them? Like,
Speaker 4: what do people say that they do?
Speaker 2: People are claiming that different types of peptides work for
Speaker 2: different types of ailments.
Speaker 1: Peptides is like.
Speaker 2: A catsual term for these collections of amino acids, and
Speaker 2: people are using all kinds of different peptides for different purposes.
Speaker 2: So people say that these peptides can stimulate wound healing
Speaker 2: with by stimulating new blood vessel growth, better sleep, of course,
Speaker 2: weight loss, increase focus. One of the weirdest things was
Speaker 2: improving eye contact. Quote from the story, One Open AI
Speaker 2: researcher called it a zepic for autism. There have been
Speaker 2: some negative side effects. One woman in the New York
Speaker 2: Times story had all her hair fall out bad Two
Speaker 2: women will hostpit life with swollen tongues and racing hearts
Speaker 2: after shooting up on peptides at an anti aging festival
Speaker 2: in Vegas.
Speaker 4: Just like the worst case scenario use.
Speaker 1: Well, in the worst case scenario is probably you die.
Speaker 3: Right, So I'm just saying like in terms of like
Speaker 3: people who are using glps are not generally like going
Speaker 3: to shoot them up festivals.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what this is about. These raves are like
Speaker 2: basically people are going to these parties with DJs where
Speaker 2: all of these peptides, a DJ and a peptide, all
Speaker 2: of these peptides are available, and somebody else is teaching
Speaker 2: you how to make your own peptide cocktail. The time
Speaker 2: that you went through a few of these raves, and
Speaker 2: there are pictures of the raves in the article. People
Speaker 2: are like have a needle in their arm with tape
Speaker 2: with like a disco background.
Speaker 4: Oh so they can just like get fed, get fed peptides.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Is this legal. It's kind of in a
Speaker 1: gray area.
Speaker 2: Personal use is legal, and buying directly from suppliers is legal,
Speaker 2: but very few peptides are FDA approved, and so biohackers
Speaker 2: are very much injecting at their own risk. As the
Speaker 2: woman whose hair fell out may testify. What's kind of
Speaker 2: interesting is this is not as niche as you might imagine.
Speaker 4: The rave piece isn't the rave piece.
Speaker 1: Is pretty niche.
Speaker 2: In fact, you look at the photos in the New
Speaker 2: York Times, it's like only a New York Times journalist
Speaker 2: could describe that as.
Speaker 1: A rave It's like four people in a room with
Speaker 1: purple light.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But as a party, I guess at best, imports of
Speaker 2: peptides and hormones from China doubled.
Speaker 4: I was going to ask why China, and then I
Speaker 4: was like, I know the yes they make.
Speaker 2: So in twenty twenty four, there were one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty four million dollars worth of Chinese peptides imported to
Speaker 2: the US in the first three quarters of the year.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five, three hundred and twenty eight million
Speaker 2: exactly double, which is three twenty million dollars of Chinese peptides.
Speaker 4: Which makes you one, does it work or is there
Speaker 4: just hype?
Speaker 1: I mean JLP's work.
Speaker 4: Have you ever had an I.
Speaker 2: Listen, Honestly reading the article, I was like, Wow, if
Speaker 2: I had a lot more time on my hands and
Speaker 2: I was a little bit more crazed, I can easily
Speaker 2: imagine going down this rabbit hole.
Speaker 3: Yeah here all you kind of can, though, just with
Speaker 3: like very cursory use of GLP wan like a lot
Speaker 3: of people, I mean basically everybody.
Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, I'm also exploring. You're exploring I.
Speaker 4: Am exploring wait no, for mental health benefits.
Speaker 2: So that was one of the things mentioned in the article,
Speaker 2: microdosing GLPS for mental health. But you know, it's like
Speaker 2: the promise that rather than like going to the gym
Speaker 2: four times a week and meditating for forty five minutes
Speaker 2: a day and going on a walk and looking at the.
Speaker 3: Sky back to your it goes back to what you're saying,
Speaker 3: which is this list of all the stuff that you
Speaker 3: have to do when you're not working is really hard
Speaker 3: to do, Like, can I achieve it with this coat that.
Speaker 1: I can buy on line? Yes, so it's tempting.
Speaker 2: I actually, luckily I don't have enough time to go
Speaker 2: down the rabbit hole, but I but I can imagine.
Speaker 1: I can imagine maybe you could have a robot that
Speaker 1: could stranger things.
Speaker 4: Stranger things.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I want to pivot. But do you consider yourself
Speaker 3: an exceptional creative?
Speaker 1: Have you been reading my LinkedIn again?
Speaker 3: I've been reading your thoughts because I take Pepta and
Speaker 3: I read this article that said influencers and only fans
Speaker 3: models dominate the US extraordinary artist visa, and I thought
Speaker 3: of you.
Speaker 1: I saw that story. I didn't read it, but I'm
Speaker 1: glad to bring it up.
Speaker 4: And you know why I thought of you.
Speaker 1: Because I had one visa.
Speaker 4: It was not because you were selling feed picks.
Speaker 2: I was reached for a time deemed by the US
Speaker 2: government an extraordinary artist.
Speaker 4: So do you know where this this I learned for
Speaker 4: the first time reporting the story. Do you know where
Speaker 4: it came from? The one visa came from no idea.
Speaker 3: So these visas were created because in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 3: the Nixon administration was trying to deport John Lennon put
Speaker 3: over his politics. But Lenin was able to stay in
Speaker 3: the US because he was deemed an outstanding person in
Speaker 3: the arts and science.
Speaker 1: So you and John Lennon, Wow, and now a lot
Speaker 1: of only fans.
Speaker 4: Creators and boy George and Shinnan O'Connor wow. Yes.
Speaker 3: The FT reports that currently an overwhelming number of people
Speaker 3: getting approved for OH one visas are influencers and OnlyFans models.
Speaker 3: One lawyer who was interviewed called them scroll kings and
Speaker 3: I love, I.
Speaker 4: Really love scroll kings and queens.
Speaker 3: The number of scroll kings and queens has actually, like
Speaker 3: peptide use, doubled since twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Wow, and why is applicants looked upon so favorably by
Speaker 2: the case officers at the United States Citizenship and Immigration
Speaker 2: Services Bureau.
Speaker 3: Some immigration lawyers said that follower account makes a difference.
Speaker 3: The visa process is complicated and requires a lot of paperwork.
Speaker 2: No, been true, But that's interesting at the follow account
Speaker 2: because much like with the large iguage models, where if
Speaker 2: it doesn't exist in writing, doesn't exist. Yeah, in your
Speaker 2: one visa application, it doesn't exist if you can't measure
Speaker 2: it well. You need to come up with all of
Speaker 2: these very concrete numbers to demonstrate reach and influence and
Speaker 2: blah blah, blah so and who.
Speaker 3: Can demonstrate reach and influence better than an influencer or
Speaker 3: someone with an only fans account, no one, you know.
Speaker 3: I think there are other people who have these visas
Speaker 3: who might be able to say, Okay, I'm in a
Speaker 3: major film or I'm in theater productions, you know, and
Speaker 3: get recommendations from experts in their field. These only fans
Speaker 3: models and influencers are like, look, I have twenty million followers,
Speaker 3: let me stay in the country.
Speaker 1: And how many exceptional talent visas are given out each year?
Speaker 4: Are you fishing?
Speaker 3: Only twenty thousand visas were granted in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: and the majority of visas are still h one b's yeah,
Speaker 3: your exception. That's it for this week for tech stuff,
Speaker 3: I'm Karra Price.
Speaker 1: And I'm os Vloschin.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Eliza Dennis and Melissa Slaughter.
Speaker 2: It was executive produced by me Caarra Price, Julian Nutta,
Speaker 2: and Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina.
Speaker 1: Novelle for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: The engineer is Mike Coscarelli and Jack Insley mikes this episode.
Speaker 1: Kyle Murdoch wrote our theme.
Speaker 3: Song, Please rate, review and Reach out to us at
Speaker 3: tech Stuff Podcast at.
Speaker 4: Gmail dot com. We want to hear from.
Speaker 3: You'll