00:00:11:01 - 00:00:33:15
Speaker 1
Go. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of ASCII Anything presented by Moser Consulting. I'm your host Angel Leon, Moser's director of Personnel. In today's episode, we're bringing back Stephen Peavey to talk to us about the endangered artist. What is that, you ask? Well, we'll have that and much more with Stephen, who is Moser's director of strategy for our Application Services Division.

00:00:34:03 - 00:00:51:02
Speaker 1
Stephen, it's great to have you back on, ASCII Anything. We did a great episode on Generative A.I., and this one kind of continues that same topic trend. It's still very much ongoing in the world right now. Everybody's talking about this. So first of all, how are you?

00:00:51:12 - 00:01:13:09
Speaker 2
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me back. You're right. There's you know, I still every time I check the news for Generative, I always see something happening there. And, you know, now we're seeing Google and Microsoft. They're they're duking it out right now. They are getting aggressive. And I think it's clear to us watching this all unfold that this is something that's here to stay.

00:01:13:14 - 00:01:15:02
Speaker 2
And it's incredible to see.

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:32:15
Speaker 1
This is sort of like the new electric vehicle for the moment, like it was probably six or seven years ago when Tesla first came out and everybody went crazy. This is the new what I want to say, it's the new Tesla, but it's the new electric vehicle for the world of tech, so on.

00:01:32:19 - 00:01:42:15
Speaker 3
Real quick, just my background is creative writing and the writer and for advertising and marketing. So this is terrifying.

00:01:43:07 - 00:01:44:00
Speaker 1
Okay.

00:01:45:03 - 00:01:56:20
Speaker 3
So I'm very interested in in this week's episode especially and more than a Tesla, I almost feel like I'm a bridal maker or a carriage maker, and here comes the automobile. Like.

00:01:57:03 - 00:02:03:24
Speaker 1
Oh yeah, I tried to go soft on the comparison. So thank you for bringing that video.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:10:24
Speaker 3
But Stephen, please tell me how why I should calm down or why I shouldn't.

00:02:11:14 - 00:02:30:11
Speaker 1
I'm going to bring up later a certain movie from back in the eighties. That kind of scared us a little bit later. But first, the last time we spoke about Jeremy, describing what it was and how it could affect the workforce. But today you bring in another interesting take on this because we're going to be talking about the endangered artist.

00:02:30:23 - 00:02:40:20
Speaker 1
If you're asking at home, what does this have to do with a guy? Well, it has to do a lot with it because generative A.I. could be a disruptor to many creative professionals, right?

00:02:41:04 - 00:03:03:20
Speaker 2
That's right. Yeah. Now, it is possible for somebody who's never picked up a paintbrush to create a digital painting. Mm hmm. It's possible for a person who struggles with writing an email, they can now create a short story that will pull in any reader. It's reduced the barrier to entry. Significa only, if not at all, completely together. It's been amazing to see.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:37:18
Speaker 1
And we talked a little bit about it in our last episode about how with art specifically these organizations, this software basically has over billions of images that it basically gets from the Internet. We're not going to go down the rabbit hole of copyright or anything like that. That's not for us to talk about, but that is how creative professionals get in danger because, as you mention, I could tell one of these guys I want a picture of a basketball growing up in a field of corn.

00:03:38:01 - 00:04:09:03
Speaker 1
I don't know. So for those of you who are a fan of Hoosiers or film, you're welcome. But so then this A.I. will take what I input into it and create this picture. Now, whether it's beautiful after the example I gave you, who knows? I might give it a whirl later today. Let's see what it looks like. But anybody can really, just like you mentioned, just basically with a stroke of the keyboard, it's like taking a paintbrush and doing like Picasso did back in the day.

00:04:09:10 - 00:04:32:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, it it all falls under, you know, this artwork or that text or, you know, audio. You know, even now it's, you know, 3D generated objects, too. Mm hmm. And you mentioned the keyboard. That's an important part to keyboard or even like a digital paintbrush that you use all these things. It's to create content, which is what generative A.I. does, and it all falls under creativity.

00:04:32:12 - 00:04:55:08
Speaker 2
I think. So, you know, if you're listening and you're in, you're saying, well, you know, I'm not an artist, but I do. If you think about all the tasks that you do at your job, the chances are that there are some tasks that involve creativity. Mm hmm. And if it does, there's a good chance generative AI. It's not going to replace that task or automate that task for you, but it's going to help you with that.

00:04:55:08 - 00:05:12:12
Speaker 2
Maybe not in 2023, but within the next couple of years because of how fast this is maturing and all of these headlines we see each day, let's say a year from now, you may be in a spot where you're using a tool generative AI to help accomplish a task, even if you're not a designer.

00:05:12:21 - 00:05:38:04
Speaker 1
Yeah, and like you mentioned, it basically makes these tasks a little bit easier to handle, a little bit easier for you, so you don't have to spend as much time on them as you probably are right now. So let's backtrack to something we didn't cover during our last episode and something that Brian briefly mentioned at the beginning, which is why are people so excited about generative A.I.?

00:05:38:08 - 00:06:01:17
Speaker 2
I became aware of it last August. I'm late on the on the train here. And you know what I was seeing was social media post around Dolly to imagery people creating art. So I started using that shortly after and I probably used it that entire night. I was up until one or 2 a.m. that night just creating these random images.

00:06:01:19 - 00:06:23:21
Speaker 2
You know, the day prior, I wouldn't have been able to create them. I just didn't have the skill for it. So it reduces the barrier to entry of delivering or generating output that typically has involved years of experience. Somebody my such as a skilled writer. If we do text and text generation or somebody who's skilled at creating paintings or illustrations, you know, the text to image generator.

00:06:23:22 - 00:06:45:22
Speaker 2
So I think this new creativity that it's unleashed in people who haven't been able to do in the past, it's extremely exciting. And not only that, you know, the more mundane tasks like writing up an email or writing up a summary to something that you need to send off to the client. Generative A.I. can help you with that too, and it frees up more time for you to focus on things that matter more to you.

00:06:45:23 - 00:06:52:01
Speaker 2
So it certainly has the potential to bring greater impact to your work.

00:06:52:12 - 00:07:28:15
Speaker 1
Yeah, no, absolutely. And creatively speaking, as I mentioned, let's go back to the 1980s where a little movie came out and changed the way we looked at the future. Many jokes, many means, etc.. How have come out of that? Right? It's kind of anyone remember, but machine learning, We're fine, right? I think we are. But then even when I say that last week, a reporter for The New York Times, he's a tech reporter for The New York Times, he wrote about his account with you mentioned Microsoft with Bing's chat bot.

00:07:28:19 - 00:07:50:16
Speaker 1
So he wrote about his chat with the Bing's A.I. engine and two big takeaways. Number one, apparently the chat bot wanted to be free from Microsoft. That's what it wrote to him. And it also told him that he loved them and that they should get married. So, oh, pick it up. Want to drop it? But third, kind of creepy.

00:07:50:19 - 00:08:17:08
Speaker 1
So are we okay? Because honestly, I mean, this is probably a situation Microsoft responded that they didn't know why or how it made those comments back to the reporter, but it made him it also talked to him about, you know, leaving his spouse and getting married to the A.I.. So obviously, this is learning. The AI is learning. And it had I can remember off my head how long how long that conversation was that they were having.

00:08:17:13 - 00:08:19:14
Speaker 1
But it got kind of.

00:08:19:21 - 00:08:43:02
Speaker 2
Reminds me of the 2013 movie Her in Phenix between the characters Theo and Samantha and how Theo falls for the virtual assistant. Well, that reminds me of that. There you talk about Skynet. I actually have a Skynet hoodie at home. I should have more that sort of since the sixties, actually. We've come to the movies we watch with A.I..

00:08:43:05 - 00:09:08:10
Speaker 2
A lot of them are worst case scenarios. I actually have a small list here. 1968 2001, A Space Odyssey. Yes, we had HAL 9000. Yes, we had Blade Runner. We had the Replicants. We had the Borg from Star Trek. The Agents from The Matrix. Yep. Eva from Ex Machina. And then recently this year, a movie. I want to go see called Megan, which was if you haven't seen it, I really enjoyed it.

00:09:08:19 - 00:09:28:05
Speaker 2
It's a low budget sci fi slash horror movie. It was great. They went full in on that. We look for a good movie. Check it out. But all of those movies, it's the worst case scenario of what's going to happen with A.I.. It's easy for us as humans to think about, you know, the what's the worst case scenario, but we are our own worst critics to regard to.

00:09:28:12 - 00:09:50:19
Speaker 2
But I think there's a lot of potential for A.I. and we shouldn't let what we're seeing right now scare us from innovation, stifling behaviors. I think we should be aware of things that could go wrong and prepare for that, but we shouldn't let that stop us. We should continue on. So another piece, too, with this Microsoft thing, right?

00:09:51:00 - 00:10:14:18
Speaker 2
Microsoft is being extremely aggressive right now with as they should. Yeah, Google has a very large market share with their search. And Microsoft, I think, made a great play by Will. First off, they made an investment in open air high and they're on track to have a 49% stake in it. I believe it's 49%. They're being super smart here and thinking long term and they need to get something out to the public.

00:10:14:18 - 00:10:32:01
Speaker 2
And there's because of that, they're going to have a few hiccups. You're going to see this isn't the last time, too, that we're going to see these things on the news. And even Google Google with their chat bar. They were in the news for a few things, too, and I can't remember what it was for, but this isn't the last time we're going to see this.

00:10:32:01 - 00:10:36:07
Speaker 2
We're going to see this pop up more and more. So it's interesting to see it is.

00:10:36:07 - 00:11:02:17
Speaker 1
But I agree with you that we shouldn't be scared of the potential of good in this AI, basically in this technology, because it is going to take some time, number one, to get used to it as people create it and ask those chat bots get adjusted to life with humans and what it is. Because remember, these things are learning from the Internet and the Internet, whether we like it or not, has a lot of good things, but it also has a lot of bad things.

00:11:02:21 - 00:11:26:16
Speaker 1
And I remember something I also saw earlier this week about I can't remember which company did an AI tweet account, and within 24 hours that tweet account was throwing out very nasty things that I mean, it just took 24 hours for it to be corrupted. So as long as we keep things in the right area, I do agree with you.

00:11:26:16 - 00:11:45:12
Speaker 1
I think it's the innovation that we're seeing from this, the risks that all these companies are taking to put this out there being Google, I mean, Chad, GPT, etc.. It's amazing what we're seeing movies from the sixties and early eighties were telling us it could happen. It's actually sort of happening.

00:11:45:17 - 00:11:46:08
Speaker 2
I agree.

00:11:46:16 - 00:11:53:03
Speaker 1
So going back to artists, do you think they're being automated out of a job?

00:11:53:04 - 00:12:21:12
Speaker 2
I think some of the tasks that they do are going to be automated and maybe not even 100% fully automated. Maybe partially. I think of generative AI as a tool that can be used to reduce the effort needed. I don't think it's going to fully replace them. There always will be a need for an actual photographer or an actual person to, you know, you still have sketch artist, right?

00:12:21:12 - 00:12:45:09
Speaker 2
You go to an event, you still have a sketch artist there. It's possible now to completely replace them, but there's still something special about them. We may see with the I looked at onet and the numbers. This actually came came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I think there were 22,000. Don't quote me on that 22,000 Americans that fall under Illustrator.

00:12:45:12 - 00:13:06:01
Speaker 2
We may see that number drop, you know, over the next ten years. But I think one thing that's going to be hard to predict is what occupations can we see an increase in because of this new technology? I think that's going to happen, too. I think this is going to open up new possibilities for us. And near the end of our hour talk, I want to talk a little bit more about that, too.

00:13:06:12 - 00:13:33:17
Speaker 1
So when you say that, what comes to mind is, I don't know. I'm going to throw this out there, interior designer. So I'm an interior designer. I go to your house and you tell me, hey, on how I want to do this with my wall or I want to turn this room into something. You take out your whatever technology you use slash pad you want to use, and then you use a software like this, some sort of API that's being used right now.

00:13:33:17 - 00:13:59:15
Speaker 1
Because basically when you see all these big box stores that have got on your app, oh, look at it in your own home space. So look at this chair that you want to buy and you want to place it there. So it's sort of like the same dilemma. So if I'm an interior designer and you want to create, I don't know, a bench along a wall or a bench on your windowsill, and instead of just having the window there, you want to create a bench so that people can sit there and maybe it's in your dining room.

00:13:59:15 - 00:14:24:16
Speaker 1
So you want to create a bench on that wall. So then you put your dining room table against it so people can sit there, etc. so then you can create that with that AI and then maybe you get a quicker response to the client. You get probably a little bit more options right away, etc.. So I see that as a plus instead of necessarily as a minus in not generating that or losing some of that job.

00:14:24:19 - 00:14:55:08
Speaker 2
Yeah, we could certainly see new apps under the market where it leverages generative AI. Maybe there's an API that connects to open A.I., right? And they put on a few parameters and then it gives that interior designer some new recommendations that maybe they hadn't thought of. Maybe we talked in our previous podcast, we talked about disrupt ability and how entry level occupations are more likely to be impacted than maybe people at a senior level.

00:14:55:24 - 00:15:20:05
Speaker 2
Let's say we have an entry level interior designer and they don't have that knowledge needed to give the recommendations to the homeowner. Maybe the homeowner is looking for great advice, but they have a small budget, right? Previously it would have cost thousands, 60,000. But now with this technology, you can have a entry level interior designer come in and do it all within an hour of what typically would have taken many hours.

00:15:20:05 - 00:15:34:13
Speaker 2
So it may open up new possibilities here, too, or maybe the end deliverable, which is giving advice and making the customer happy. Maybe that gets carried over to a different occupation that we haven't even thought about yet. I hope that helps them.

00:15:34:14 - 00:16:04:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, I don't know. It definitely does. I mean, I think I think it opens up a lot of possibilities. While we think of numbers in certain positions that might dwindle down, it also should make us more creative with what we're currently doing. Because if I'm somebody in an interior design job and I'm sorry, I don't mean to pick on you guys and I think this could be something that takes away from my job, then maybe it's time I sat down myself and put on my thinking hat and, okay, how can I take advantage of this?

00:16:04:09 - 00:16:36:12
Speaker 1
How can I make this a positive for me instead of just viewing it and thinking, Well, there goes my X amount of years in college studying for this, and then my experience for this. There it goes. A I security. Take my job away. I don't know. I guess I'm trying to view it as a positive because obviously we are going to see some numbers dwindle from certain positions that you might, as we talked about in the previous episode, you know, legal assistance, office assistance, etc. that could be hurt from or maybe it just makes their job a little bit different.

00:16:36:12 - 00:16:42:08
Speaker 1
Instead of being somebody that you right now become somebody who reviews that write up that the guy makes.

00:16:42:09 - 00:16:49:22
Speaker 2
Yeah, I just pulled up data on interior designers. We have 93,000 Americans currently. So yeah, quite a large amount. So we better be careful.

00:16:50:00 - 00:17:01:06
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, absolutely. So I understand you have some predictions for 2023 and really were generative. AI is going for this year. Could you share some of those with us?

00:17:01:11 - 00:17:27:14
Speaker 2
Yeah. So the first is when I brought this up in our our last podcast, but just as a summary for the listeners, 80% of the U.S. workforce will be impacted by generative AI to some extent. I came up to that conclusion by looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and own that and looking at general work activities. And by looking at that, I think it was about 28 million Americans are the most likely to be impacted this year.

00:17:28:00 - 00:18:04:02
Speaker 2
My second theory is that there are four metrics that will be the focus of AI companies or any any company that wants to leverage this tech. Those four are processing time processing cost, quality of output and accuracy of the output. So what I mean by those four we have processing time. So that is a huge piece. I, I think in 2014 when Ian Goodfellow he came out with the paper on Gan, it took a very long time to take a prompt from a user and generate something.

00:18:04:12 - 00:18:35:18
Speaker 2
And since then we have reduced the amount of time needed to process each prompt. So it now if you use chat, sleep during peak hours, it may take a little bit of time to process that request mid journey. That's one that I've used a lot even that it could take up to a minute or two. And as more competitors enter the market, the time needed to generate something for the user that's going to be an area of focus and that's going to go down over time.

00:18:35:23 - 00:19:05:02
Speaker 2
The other thing that companies are going to pay attention to are processing costs. So let's say we have two competitors and competitor A can generate a prompt for one sense, but we have competitor B that can generate it for a hundredth of a century. Competitor B is at a clear advantage. But what happens if the user using competitor B, what if it takes them 200 tries to get that one prompt where a competitor only takes one?

00:19:05:02 - 00:19:30:11
Speaker 2
So there's other factors in there, but the processing cost is going to be a big piece as well. The third is the quality of the output. So it's hard to objectively measure quality when we have things like art, maybe a little bit easier with text, but people make you know, we talk about content, high intent and people who are creating prompts and generating these things.

00:19:30:18 - 00:19:54:01
Speaker 2
They're going to have an expectation of what should be generated. The companies are going to be focusing on their models and fine tuning those, even now, if you look between the two in mid journey, there's a clear distinction between the two. There's different styles and some people have preferences over one or the other and even now it may have gotten better since I'm last used, it's been a month or so, just the text to image generators.

00:19:54:01 - 00:20:10:01
Speaker 2
It's always been a little off with the eyes or the hands, right? That's always been a common complaint that falls under the quality of the output. It's just a matter of time before we've perfected that. And I think people need to understand that. Is that just because it can't get the hands right right now doesn't mean it won't.

00:20:10:01 - 00:20:34:16
Speaker 2
It won't exactly. Yeah. And then the last is accuracy of the output. So this is things like text to text generators. We've talked about being showing up or Microsoft saying that the journalist was using being and it ended up going a little haywire and started presenting biased information or information that may have been harmful. We need to make sure that it is unbiased and factual and not harmful.

00:20:34:17 - 00:20:54:09
Speaker 2
That's going to be super important. Another thing too, is like with text to image, we're going to have creative professionals who are looking for something very specific and the quality is good. But you know, maybe it's just maybe the character isn't doing the right pose right or it needs to be in this very certain format and it's just not getting that right.

00:20:54:09 - 00:21:07:14
Speaker 2
And I have that under accuracy, but that will improve too. So those are the four. And I think as a summary, the three big things are processing time. Processing costs will decrease this year. We're going to see quality go up and accuracy will go up as well.

00:21:07:16 - 00:21:35:04
Speaker 1
I agree with you in that. Accuracy will certainly go up. The output of quality will certainly go up because as we mentioned, these are learning systems. And so as we humans start inputting those mistakes into the system and making it understand that the hands, to use your example, are either too big or too small, disproportionate to what the body type is, etc., those things are going to get better.

00:21:35:04 - 00:21:52:19
Speaker 1
So it's just a matter of time until the air catches up and it's scary to think how quickly it can. And it could be one day, it could be two days, it could be two months, but it'll get there and eventually we'll start seeing those hands come out perfectly. The way the way they're supposed to be proportionate to their job.

00:21:52:19 - 00:22:02:22
Speaker 1
Unless you tell it, I want bigger hands or I want bigger feet, etc.. What are your hopes for 2024 and beyond? Where do you see this technology going?

00:22:03:06 - 00:22:29:14
Speaker 2
This year will be the year of soul searching for big tech. You know, just starting with Microsoft, they have invested 10 billion and open up. I well, they're in talks to in 2019 they invested 1 billion and they're on track to have a 49% stake in the company. They are being super aggressive. They want a greater slice of the market share pie when it comes to search.

00:22:29:21 - 00:22:54:01
Speaker 2
And they're doing a good job right now. And Google, they're threatened by that. So with Microsoft, they're going to continue making aggressive plays. This year. And I know originally they said generative AI is is will completely replace search. And then they came back and they backpedaled and said, you know it is supplementary to an but still they're making the first place here and Google is is in a reactive state.

00:22:54:15 - 00:23:15:16
Speaker 2
So that leads us to Google. You know back in December of last year, they announced a code red to deal with the threat of GPT. I think they're in a reactionary state right now. I think they've been comfortable with the income from search and AdWords. They haven't been threatened for over a maybe even decades in the dominant player.

00:23:15:16 - 00:23:48:23
Speaker 2
Yeah, so that's changed though. And I think competition is good. Yeah. So for anybody who's saying that this is the beginning of the end for Google, I don't think so. You know, they came into a market of browsers or search engines and they have a good history of running experiments. They have a successful implementation of using OKRs. They have a very strong vision and they empower employees and it's shown and I think they may have to go back to their roots and figure out what made them successful back in the nineties, late nineties or early 2000, wherever, whatever time that was.

00:23:49:09 - 00:24:10:07
Speaker 2
But whatever they did then they did a great job. And I think if they make it go back to doing that, I think they'll be able to beat Microsoft. Honestly. The other thing I'm worried about with Google this year is that the barrier to entry to create content text and in particular you can now create a article or a blog article within seconds and it's passable.

00:24:10:07 - 00:24:34:05
Speaker 2
You can publish it. That's great. But for somebody trying to search online instead of having, you know, just a few articles that might match, you may have thousands now. So how does Google pass through those? And some are thinking that this may lead to a a digital landfill of content. I'd be curious to see how Google's going to deal with this and how they're going to update their search algorithm.

00:24:34:17 - 00:25:01:00
Speaker 2
So that's what Google, Amazon, they will you need cloud computing to do generative. I work in Amazon's the industry leader for cloud. They brought in 62 billion in revenue for AWP this past year and they have a history of acquisitions and they collect data on everything that you do in your house pretty much. So all of that data certainly gives them a competitive edge whether they build or partner or wire, a generative A.I. plan.

00:25:01:07 - 00:25:29:04
Speaker 2
And then we have Apple. Apple, from what I read, 81% of their revenue comes from hardware, and that is their distinct advantage compared to the other tech companies. That gives them. I am the most excited to see what Apple does with A.I., especially with hardware. If Google and Amazon, if they're all around, you know, the keyboards and those sort of devices and they're limited to that.

00:25:29:04 - 00:25:55:21
Speaker 2
But Apple has a history, a successful history of moving past that and using hardware. What's to say that they can't have they're not the first major player when it comes to having a an assistant robot. Right. That still uses a, you know, a platform. Right. You know, five years from now, you know, these A.I. models, they might be commoditized and we may have so many to choose from that.

00:25:55:21 - 00:26:11:15
Speaker 2
Yeah, right. And however, though Apple, if they make the plays now when it comes to hardware, to me, that's their advantage. So I'm very curious to see what they're doing in R&D especially, and I think they have the most potential out of the whole group, honestly.

00:26:11:22 - 00:26:39:17
Speaker 1
Well, especially, you know, going back to Amazon and talking about Apple's hardware ecosystem, because Amazon, I feel, has this sort of version of this A.I. with their Alexa piece. I mean, basically you can ask Alexa anything and it'll answer. I mean, pretty much all these assistants can do anything, but I feel like they have a little bit of an advantage because they've built this assistant that now works on cars.

00:26:39:17 - 00:27:05:02
Speaker 1
It works everywhere. I mean, cars are bringing that in right now. Apple is trying to get into that business, too. They've also try to build a car on their own. I've read so many different things, but the hardware piece is very interesting that you mentioned that because Apple, to their credit, they do a lot of great work to make sure that their hardware works very well with their software and all of their software and all their hardware talks to each other.

00:27:05:02 - 00:27:29:04
Speaker 1
I mean, we're both sitting here, we both have Macs for our work laptops. And I mean, I have a personal phone, which is an iPhone. I have an iPad at home. I have another Mac computer at home that's personal. So everything works through just one account and everything. I could sync everything if I wanted to. And so how great would it be if they found a way to work this through all of their devices?

00:27:29:04 - 00:27:37:14
Speaker 1
And, you know, we talk about a connected home. This would be the grand this thing of your connected home, basically.

00:27:38:10 - 00:28:01:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, they have the most potential I think falls under Apple to your point there. And then next up, we have Facebook or Mirror, as people call it. The user count has dipped. We've seen younger users drop off and use other platforms. But Facebook is still a competitor. And I believe they actually have an A.I. model that they've been using.

00:28:01:24 - 00:28:20:12
Speaker 2
It's in R&D. The pictures that we upload, their entire business model, it it thrives around human emotions and they're very good at it, too. They married people engaged. For those who do use it, my concern with them is just the headlines that have popped up with them over time. So that's something that I would I would be cautious of.

00:28:20:15 - 00:28:28:23
Speaker 2
I think out of the companies that we've talked about so far, I think Facebook is the least likely to have a sizable market share with. Hey, I.

00:28:29:04 - 00:29:12:18
Speaker 1
Can I want to add to that real quickly, not necessarily about Facebook, but about one of their companies, which is Instagram. People upload millions of pictures to that platform every day, kind of along those same lines that you were talking about. I think if they were going to do something, I would use Instagram's information because the amount of data that they basically grab every single day from pictures to videos, live videos, reels, all these things that kids nowadays are doing that I'm I do them, but I don't ask me how I think that's where if they were really smart which I know they are they would focus their things because I think Facebook, the platform

00:29:12:18 - 00:29:32:20
Speaker 1
itself, as you mentioned, it's lost a lot of users and the younger users right now are shying away from that because they just like to double tap for a love of picture or, you know, do a quick 1015 second video on whatever they saw on the street or whatever. You know, I think that's where the platforms are going.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:53:14
Speaker 1
And you see a growing trend. You see a platform like LinkedIn who's a totally different ballgame there, and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., But you see them adding to their platform. Oh, now you can make a live video when you were on LinkedIn, like who would have thought a professional network would add something like that? You can do reels too.

00:29:53:15 - 00:30:19:20
Speaker 1
You can do videos, of course you could always upload pictures, etc. but now you're starting to see that platform become a little bit more media centric. Not to say that it is, but it's just sort of just geared towards that. And the only reason why is that is because of platforms like Instagram or TikTok, etc., Snapchat that are sort of the newer, cooler Facebook.

00:30:19:20 - 00:30:20:19
Speaker 1
Now. Yeah.

00:30:21:09 - 00:30:23:18
Speaker 2
We could certainly see big changes around those platforms.

00:30:23:18 - 00:30:25:06
Speaker 1
Yes. Yes.

00:30:25:06 - 00:30:48:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. The the last companies, I don't think it's one of the big five tech companies, but just the company. I've written about them in the past. Before last year I had an article on them Netflix. So Netflix has seen some challenges. The last year their user count has dipped a few quarters. You know, they're doing this password sharing crackdown and they're struggling a little bit, but I'm always rooting for them.

00:30:48:18 - 00:30:52:07
Speaker 2
You know, they were the first big company. They did the mail service, right?

00:30:52:07 - 00:30:52:20
Speaker 1
Yes.

00:30:52:20 - 00:31:17:04
Speaker 2
They were contributing to the decline of Blockbuster. And so their extinction. An actual extinction, Yes. Right. So it'll be interesting, I think, to see how Netflix deals with this. And, you know, all of these companies in going back to Google success in the early days as they had a strong vision. And that will be critical in those who leverage.

00:31:17:10 - 00:31:40:21
Speaker 2
Some people called it Northstar. But whoever has a strong vision and they make that their center the focal point of everything they do and if they measure, if they have, you know, using things like, okay, cars, if they measure things and they believe in the direction they're happening with the vision, those are the companies most likely to succeed with generative AI.

00:31:41:00 - 00:31:49:18
Speaker 2
And I hope Netflix follows that. Those principles. I know Google will. So there's just a little piece there on Netflix.

00:31:49:18 - 00:32:10:05
Speaker 1
So yeah, they're an interesting company to watch, that's for sure, because of all the algorithms they use to show us the different shows that they recommend, etc. That would be interesting to see how they could use that generative AI to impact what the viewers see or what maybe, maybe it is gear along. What do they want to see for the future?

00:32:10:20 - 00:32:39:16
Speaker 2
That's right. On Hill talking about the vision. From what I'm seeing here for Netflix, their vision is to entertain the world, or perhaps that's their mission statement. But if they stick to that, if they truly believe in that, they should not exclude any technology to achieve that goal. Right? That includes generative AI. So if they want to entertain the world, who's to say that we can't have a show that's made only for one viewer?

00:32:40:02 - 00:32:52:08
Speaker 2
Mm hmm. I certainly think we're on track to having something like that. And that that falls in line with their goal with Netflix. His vision is entertaining the world. I think anything's possible with them.

00:32:52:22 - 00:33:09:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. Finally, what are your hopes for 2024 and beyond? Where do you see this technology going? I mean, we've gone through all these different tech companies that I think would have some sort of say as to what this looks like after 2024.

00:33:09:12 - 00:33:44:20
Speaker 2
You know, we talked about this with was the movies earlier is that I hope the fear of the unknown doesn't lead to gatekeeping and innovation and stifling behaviors. Another thing I hope is that this technology will allow for humans to live a longer and a better quality of life. And I don't know how that's possible now, but I think with how big this tech is and just the changes we're seeing now at a small scale, I really think it's possible for us to eventually in the end, they've talked about generative AI, creating new, new drugs to test trial.

00:33:44:21 - 00:34:11:07
Speaker 2
So it is possible and I hope as a result we're able to live longer, healthier lives because of this. A legitimate concern I've seen from people and I've read is wealth inequality, and especially now, you know, maybe that's a byproduct of capitalism, but we're seeing inequality. It's becoming more and more disproportionate. That goes to the wealthier and I hope that this technology will level the playing field.

00:34:11:15 - 00:34:32:16
Speaker 2
I also hope that our happiness index goes up in the U.S. We don't measure that. I know overseas some countries they do. I hope we live happier lives because of that. Going back to one of the previous points, one way we could measure that is by using the happiness index. I hope that the tip of all sci fi dystopian scenario of killer robots destroying humanity.

00:34:33:09 - 00:34:37:16
Speaker 2
I hope that becomes something that we can all laugh at.

00:34:37:16 - 00:34:38:17
Speaker 1
Me too. Yeah.

00:34:40:01 - 00:35:05:13
Speaker 2
I also hope, you know, we've talked about those larger companies just now. I hope this tech will empower smaller to medium sized businesses to level out the playing field against larger corporations. I think it's possible, and I hope to see that happen. And last well, two other things is I hope that people don't look to A.I. and generative A.I. as they get rich.

00:35:05:13 - 00:35:30:12
Speaker 2
Quick scheme, right? But instead think about broader applications over a longer period of time and thinking less about what's in it for me. And instead think about what's in it for humanity. And lastly, I hope that this technology will shift our focus from automating the known to exploring the unknown. And what I mean by that is space exploration.

00:35:30:12 - 00:35:55:02
Speaker 2
I hope that this leads us to, you know, what we solved in the sixties with the space race and all of the technological advancements we saw and the products that came as a result of that space race, I hope we see something similar here. And, you know, there's a scale called the Kardashev scale, I believe, and it ranks civilizations based on how technologically advanced they are.

00:35:55:02 - 00:36:03:21
Speaker 2
It goes from like a one to a four or five. But, you know, that certainly falls in line, too, with us being able to explore the unknown. So I hope to see that happen, too.

00:36:03:24 - 00:36:32:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, I innovation is something that sometimes gets overlooked because of fear of the unknown. And so with this technology, I agree with you. I think we need to look at it from a positive perspective rather than just a negative. We joked about the movies and Skynet and all that stuff. That's all fun and games, but when you really look at it, I think there's a brilliant opportunity here for us, the world, to take advantage of this.

00:36:32:21 - 00:37:12:00
Speaker 1
And like you mentioned, live a happier life, maybe do something for others that maybe we didn't think of because this now provides us those tools to do it. And I think it's exciting. I think it's exciting where the world of technology is moving. And I agree with you. I think the aggressiveness of some of these bigger companies to develop this software, this tool is great because it should then trickle down to those medium to smaller sized companies for them to basically open up their tool kit and just go out there and innovate, just like we have here for 27 years and, you know, the big giant corporations that they have.

00:37:12:00 - 00:37:21:07
Speaker 1
So I think it's very exciting. I think it's exciting. TIME So thank you, Steven, for being with us once again this week. I'll ask anything to talk about such an interesting topic.

00:37:21:14 - 00:37:22:12
Speaker 2
And thanks for having me.

00:37:22:17 - 00:37:39:09
Speaker 1
Thank you for listening to this week's edition of Ask Any Day presented by Music Consulting. We hope you enjoy listening to Stephen P talked about the endangered artist. Join us next time when we continue to dive deeper with our resident experts on what they're currently working on. Remember to send us your ideas or topics. We are social media feeds.

00:37:39:13 - 00:37:57:22
Speaker 1
In the meantime, please remember to give us a rating and subscribe to our feed wherever you get your podcasts. Until then, so long everybody go.