Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Business News for April 26 | GM Cars Tracking People without Consent

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Hey there, listeners! Welcome to another exciting episode of Right About Now with Ryan Alford. In this episode, we covered a wide range of topics from business and marketing news to technology and entertainment updates. Here's a detailed synopsis of what we discussed:Business and Marketing News: We kicked off the episode by discussing the latest business and marketing news of the week. From mortgage demand dropping to interest rates soaring, we delved into the implications for the housing market and the economy as a whole.Perplexity AI: We explored the emergence of Perplexity AI, a search startup that achieved unicorn status by raising significant funding. We discussed how their generative AI search platform is changing the landscape of search engines by focusing on providing answers rather than search results.GM Cars Tracking: We delved into the controversy surrounding GM cars tracking drivers without their consent and sharing data with third parties, including insurance companies. We highlighted the privacy concerns and legal issues raised by this practice.MetaQuest Headset Operating System: We discussed Meta Platforms' decision to open up its MetaQuest headset operating system to other hardware makers, aiming to boost its standing in the augmented reality and virtual reality industries. This move is expected to bring more players into the AR and VR space.Kentucky Medical Cannabis Licenses: Kentucky announced a lottery system to award licenses for its medical cannabis program, signaling a step towards the legalization and regulation of cannabis in the state. We explored the business implications and the growing trend of cannabis legalization across the country.TikTok Ban: We touched on the potential ban of TikTok if ByteDance doesn't sell, highlighting the uncertainty surrounding the popular social media platform and its impact on businesses and content creators.Netflix Subscriber Growth: We discussed Netflix's subscriber growth after cracking down on password sharing, leading to a significant increase in new memberships and revenue. The shift in strategy reflects the company's efforts to maintain growth and profitability.Final Thoughts: We wrapped up the episode with reflections on the evolving landscape of technology, entertainment, and business, urging listeners to stay informed and engaged with the latest developments.Timestamps:00:00:26 - Weekly business and marketing news00:02:12 - National Superhero Day and the championship belt00:03:48 - National Honesty Day discussion00:05:04 - Mortgage demand drop and impact on the housing market00:07:08 - Perplexity AI becoming a unicorn00:14:51 - Netflix subscribers increase after password sharing crackdown00:19:29 - Meta opening up Quest headset operating system00:32:39 - Kentucky's lottery for medical cannabis business licenses00:35:10 - Potential TikTok ban and its implications00:36:58 - Final thoughts and sign-off If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

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

It's Friday, April 26, 2024. Our weekly business and marketing news of the week. I'm joined, as always, by my good friend, Chris Hansen. What's up, brother? What's up, Brian? How are you today my man? I couldn't be better in the vacay lounge down there in Miami and I'm here in the studio. We're adding accessorizing at all times. Studio's coming together so hopefully you're watching. If you're not watching the YouTube you need to be. Yeah I agree fully it's popping. We got multiple camera angles. We got the lighting effects, signage, sponsors.

It's just coming together. Feeling good about it. I like it. Yes. How's the week been, brother? Trucking along, man. We're good. I'm headed out of town this weekend, trying to get everything in order. Yeah. It's been good for me, man. We're good. I'm headed out of town this weekend trying to get everything in order.

Yeah. It's been good for me, too. Just normal stuff. You really need to be watching the video to really get the full effect here. We wanted to get Chris's surprise response. This would be the number one business podcast championship belt right here. No BS, all business. We're taking the BS out of business.

And hey, when you're number one, you get to wear the belt right there. I dig it. I dig it. That's real gold, Chris. I was going to say, that's solid gold, isn't it? Got a half kilo of gold on that belt. You see the logo? Look at that. Right right there i'm impressed now we just need to see you in a onesie or some of those latex leather shorts hey april 28th i

looked it up is national national superhero day we're gonna be having this right here look how legit that is oh boy putting this on the table. April 28th is National Superhero Day. And wrestlers are like superheroes. So it's got the championship belt. There it is right there. I can get that lined up, maybe. Getting this belt situated on the table so everybody can see it.

All its glory. You like that? You're blinged out. Yeah, I thought you'd get a kick out of that oh yeah nothing like good audio here as I'm adjusting the video for the belt but it's sitting on the table yes number one in business and marketing on Apple

championship belts that's what they should do though they need to have belts for this stuff that's how you get viral people passing the belts around. Oh, man, we dropped this quarter. You're like quarterly or something, right? This baby's staying right here. Number one.

We appreciate it. But yeah, superhero days on the 28th. So maybe I'll get my banana hammock out and just walk around with the belt around my waist. My wife might kill me. Just top deck of the houseboat, banana hammock, rocking the belt, just showing your dominance

on the lake going into summer. It is Sunday. It's like Sunday is the 28th, so I will probably be on the houseboat. So just hanging out. Drinking hand. Belt. Getting that upper thigh tan.

Yes, exactly. I need to get rid of those tan lines. Picture it now. Just get some good photos for us when you do. Yes, exactly. I need to get rid of those tan lines. Picture it now. Just get some good photos for us when you do. Oh, I will. I will say this. April 30th, we have to have it. This is how bad we've gotten.

We have to have a day for it. April 30th is National Honesty Day. Oh, God. What the fuck? I can hear so much lying. Really? So much lying going on we all tell lies

every now and then I tell white lies to my wife then I can regret it because she catches me in every one even though so I've stopped doing that

I'm not lying anymore not even white lies you realize she just knows she just knows it's stupid shit it's dumb shit and so I don't I hate lying anyway

you're like as soon as you say it you're like it's not even lying it's more like did you drop these chips on the floor? I'm like, no, it must have been the kids. And she's literally hanging out of your mouth.

Yeah. Did you have one more beer? No, I didn't have any more beers. Six more. Kids must have stole it. What are they doing? Yeah, no. But I will, in all honesty.

National Honesty Day. We shouldn't have to have a day for it, but we do. So on Tuesday, you better not tell any lies. It's National Honesty Day. You know what you do for that. Send someone a card, not a Hallmark moment. Happy National Honesty Day. Just be honest with me.

Maybe get honest about some shit from the past. Yeah, maybe. Clear some old karma. Clear be honest with me. Maybe get honest about some shit from the past. Yeah, maybe. Clear some old karma. Clear some cobwebs. In more serious news, the mortgage demand continues to drop as interest rates soared over 7%. So refinancing applications are down 6%. Purchase applications down 1% to 2%. And look, okay okay are we shocked no not shocked and but this is a problem because it impacts its housing but i'm i brought it up more

to talk about the bigger problem which is when houses aren't selling when this stuff's happening it impacts like everything else because it's the top of the funnel like the how however you want to think about i guess the bottom funnel is the biggest. If you reverse it, the house is the largest purchase that gets made. It moves money around because you have money. You have excess maybe from selling because you've got some profits that were made. It puts money in the market. It keeps money moving in the market.

And it's like one of those barometers for everything else. And so you've got everybody sitting on their house, not wanting to sell it, because then they have to buy in this market, even if they make money. So we're in a bad cycle. Those interest rates need to come down. Yeah. I've been on both sides of this, but this is, when I was doing most of my buying and selling,

it just wasn't in this territory. It was like in that 3% to 5%. five percent was considered high yeah yeah i've got a lot of friends in the business and there's it's tough bro i did have lunch with a friend yesterday who actually is a realtor and florida's a little bit cushioned you still got these new york and california people that are willing to pay these rates but dude compared to two three years ago yeah it's quiet yeah quite because if you're gonna have a payment you're gonna have a mortgage this drastically reduces your what you can afford yeah yeah you're buying powers way down so i this is gonna be a big part of the election i'm sure and i'm gonna stay out of politics of it but we needed to come down let's but we need it to come down.

Let's just say that. It needs to come down. We need that simply put. This is interesting. This has a lot to do with like behavior, consumer behavior for how we do things. Because you think about the power that Google has had with search for just being dominant. You Google something.

It's the term. Like when you're looking for information, you Google it. And AI is challenging a lot of industries as a whole, but there's a company that just what's known as unicorn status because of the amount of really about the money that it's raised along with its valuation. Perplexity AI becomes a unicorn. It's an American search startup co-founded by IIT Madras alumnus Aravind Sardinavas. I think I said that right. If I didn't, I apologize. Has recently achieved unicorn status after raising $63 million in a funding round,

bringing its valuation to approximately $1 billion. So let me give you a couple of names. Let me just give you a name. Some of the biggest investors in it, Jeff Bezos. And here's the difference. And this is what, it's going to be an uphill battle, I think, for changing consumer behavior. But it is interesting for, when you think about AI and these search engines, it's more about answers. Questions and answers versus search results. for when you think about AI and these search engines, it's more about answers, questions and

answers versus search results. That might sound like a subtle change, but it is like the way we've gotten used to it is Google is serving you up where they think you want based on the popularity of certain sites, key terms and all of that. There's more that goes into it, but I'm simplifying here. Whereas perplexity is just giving you the answers. They're not necessarily pushing you to other sites. Right. Now, they may have links and they may have reference material, but it's more like that generative AI like ChatGPT.

That's what I feel like. Google makes me ChatGPT now. So. But I feel like Google makes me chat GPT now. Exactly. It is. And I used it for a little while. It was a little clunky. I have the app on my phone, but I'm starting to,

and I think it was clunky because I was clunky, like with knowing what, how to get out of it, what I wanted. But I used it for this week, looking at some of the business headlines of the week, and it was very helpful. And ironically, self-serving,

this was like the top article. Good figure. And hey, so Perplexity, you need to start sponsoring right about now, and we'll make it the search provider of the number one marketing and business show on Apple. That sounds like a good trade there. What do you think, Chris?

Yeah, that sounds like a perfect fit. We're going to get on that. Perpexity AI distinguishes itself in the competitive search engine market by offering a generative AI search platform that utilizes a chatbot-style interface. This allows users to pose questions in natural language, receiving intuitive and conversational answers complete with verifiable citations and multimedia content for enhanced context. The innovative approach aims to disrupt traditional search methods dominated by companies like Google. I should just say dominated by Google.

It's not multiple companies. It's a company. Yeah, when's the last time you went to Yahoo? I was on Bing this morning. I was just binging. That could have taken off. Just Bing it, bro. Just Bing it.

Oh, man. It says, in addition to achieving unicorn status, Perplex the Eye has launched an Enterprise Pro version. Of course it has. Designed to meet the security and privacy needs of business environments. It's $40 a month. Includes features such as enhanced data production, team member management, and the ability to delete queries after seven days.

So you can't delete those queries. That's important. Delete that search history, bro. Yeah, you got to get that search history going. Hey, we do it for you automatically. Yeah, we got to pay for it. There's no incognito mode here on perplexity. You're going to have some perplexity going on where people start checking out your search.

We'll take this load off you guys. We know everyone wants it. We'll delete the search history automatically. What's interesting though, this name. I mean, if I'm perplexed, it means I'm, I guess it's, they're the solve of it. But is the platform confused or is the searcher confused? I'm there with you. I'm in a state of perplexity.

Just perplexity. I just need answers. I don't need questions. I need answers, damn it. They're probably like, oh, when you're perplexed, perplexity is the solution. To me, it's an encyclopedia in a way i want to know how they're going to still add i guess they'll be on the sides of the experience or on the top one day are we gonna be able to pay to be at the top if it's

an answer platform that sure does mean because when you give answers it means you're saying that's what's the truth so So what are you aggregating the information from that is providing me the answer to my question? And who's getting the credit for that? That's what this all raises a little bit because all this knowledge from these things come from the internet, from the website. So if you and i write a killer report on something and it becomes the knowledge base for the answers do we get credit for that that's the question these are the questions that need to be asked and answered because that's where the rubber hits the road. And, yeah, we can go, whoa, it's just about getting the answer.

Yeah, it is. But how did you get there? Do the ends justify the means? Not always. And can we change consumer behavior? I think consumer behavior is getting closer because you already have a working model with ChatGPT, people doing this. Now, I don't think every 50-year-old woman who's not,

or man who's not in maybe like a white-collar position where they're needing content answers like we do in our fields. I could see this in universities probably gaining some traction. Yeah. It kind of colleges drove that. I could see this maybe being the... Get those kids doing it. Yeah, man.

They want answers. And they're at Thanksgiving telling their dad, yo, get on Perplexity. I'm perplexed. Yeah. We'll see. It's interesting, and I will say I'm goingplexed. Yeah. We'll see. It's interesting, and I will say I'm going to continue to use the platform, and I'd be even more likely to if they give me a call.

So my people will get in touch with their people. We'll stop being perplexity. Unicornstats, a billion-dollar valuation. It always asks me, like, okay, if I just keep getting funding, does my valuation just keep going up? What's driving the valuation? The actual tech? Or you just keep stacking cash?

Because a lot of popular people are investing in it. I think it's got to be both. But the way they word it is, oh, they just raised $63 billion, which brings its valuation to $1 billion. I'm like, okay. Is this like earning interest somewhere? They're putting all the money in a 20% interest-bearing bond or something. That borrowed leverage from Bezos.

What's the leverage of his name worth? Oh, yeah. A lot. So we'll see. We'll keep talking. I'm going to bring up the perplexity article of the week each week there we go this actually comes for us from perplexity as well see i'm giving them credit instead of actually where their article came from okay interesting

this is another one of us we're taking the bs out of business and look this is bullshit right here gm cars tracking people without consent no shit we got all these cards with Wi-Fi and everything else. You don't think these things know where you're going? I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm just a realist. It's like, okay. They got all this data on there. We're just doing it for you to lower your insurance.

Yeah. Okay. Or AKA, we're going to raise your insurance. Yeah. You roll through that stop sign or. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're a human being. to raise your insurance. Yeah. You roll through that stop sign or. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're a Tesla does this.

Do you know that Tesla's insurance is based on your, the car driving habits? Yeah. It's funny that the company that gives you like one of the fastest cars on the planet and they're, and then they're judging you for every. Yeah. Here it goes.

You're at one second, but if you use it, your interest is going up. Yeah. Smart, bro. General Motors has been implicated in several reports and investigations for tracking drivers' data

without their explicit consent and sharing this information with third parties, including insurance companies. This practice has raised significant privacy concern and legal issues leading to multiple lawsuits against the company, as it should. In summary, GM's alleged practice of tracking drivers without their consent and sharing this data with insurance companies has led to

legal challenges and a significant public outcry. This situation underscores the growing privacy concerns in the automotive industry and the need for clearer consent mechanisms and stronger regulatory oversight i don't know if i like the words regulatory oversight but what i do think though is holding accountable for tracking people if they didn't consent to it or making it confusing in hell this is what they do they lumped so many of these agreements into one another now so you agree to one thing you're If they didn't consent to it or making it confusing in hell, this is what they do. They lumped so many of these agreements into one another now. So you agree to one thing, you're agreeing to five others. If you have time to read the 37 pages of legal fine print on everything you

do, then you might catch this one clause that says we may or may not track you without your consent. We may report to the insurance company. You might raise your rates and we might take away your license until you go to hell i think it says that somewhere in the fine bread yeah yeah there was a documentary about that on netflix about google specifically where it was basically when you hit accept every time your software updates or agree to these terms i think the documentary is called i agree to these terms yeah but it was more related to tech.

But my question is, does anyone ever really get in trouble for this? Because it's happening across the tech platforms and social media platforms now, the automobile industry. They could make this with all the technology we're using. Like when you do checkouts or certain where you do these consent forms, they could totally have some kind of genie or wizard that goes, here's the pertinent clauses that you need to be aware of. Pull them up. There's 800 pages, but pull up the things that we think you'd care about. They could pull those up and go, here's what you're signing to, and here's the four most important key points. But they bury it four pages deep in 11 or 10-point copy.

I worked in these industries. I know what they do. And it's not necessarily to intentionally be deceitful, but it's to, they're trying to move the product. They have these disclaimers they have to do. The government forces them, and they reduce the copy. It's the name of the game. It's these disclaimers they have to do. The government forces them and they reduce the copy. It's the name of the game. It's like disclaimers at the end of a radio ad. And maybe...

99%... What? What? What did I just sign up for? Money-back guarantee. 99, 49, shipping... The micro-machines talk at the end. And look, I'm in marketing. I don't want disclaimers on every single thing,

but I want to be clear on what the context is. So there's a way to make it better. And GM shouldn't be tracking people without people knowing it. No. I mean, it's called, yeah, it's like our first-minute rights here, or just rights as Americans, not to be tracked at all times. But we know that's what's going on. So just be aware, folks.

We're not pointing any firm fingers. It's not really at one entity. We're just going to raise the questions. We're going to take the BS out and let you be the judge on how you want to handle it. Talent agency. This is freaky, man. I know this is coming.

I was just talking to a friend that's in this industry. Talent agency, CAA. Creative Arts Agency. That's what CAA stands for. Tests AI clones of artists. Creative Arts Agency is actively exploring the use of artificial intelligence to create digital doubles of artists, a move that reflects broader trends in the entertainment industry regarding the integration of A.I. technologies.

C.A.A., a leading entertainment and sports agency, has developed a facility known as the CAA Vault, which utilizes AI technology to create digital doubles of their clients. This initiative allows artists to have ownership and control over their digital likenesses, addressing issues related to copyright and authorized use of their images. Basically, they capture detailed scans of an actor's body face movements and voice and these scans are then used to create high fidelity digital replicas that can be used in various media productions potentially even acting in place of the actual actors it's coming man it's it why if tom Cruise could just not have to actually do any of it,

his digital double does it. He has rights of it. Why would he do it? You could argue some would still. I think we're going to move to this place, Chris. I'm just going to jump to a punchline for me. We're going to get to this place where people are going to go. I want real.

I want to watch real know it's real and there's going to be like a stand for real versus even if it starts to look versus ai you're going to have fiction and non-fiction almost yeah and the technology not only offers new creative possibilities but also raises significant ethical and legal questions, you think, particularly concerning the rights to these digital personas and the implications for actors' careers and musicians' careers and every person that does a on-screen talent. Cody Guss, man, this could be the AI versions of you and I right here.

You may know that wouldn't be as fun people like immortal like you can make movies forever with the same actors how yeah the same a-list celebrities you'll never have to go well there'll never be another tom cruise you're right they won't need to be because he's always around it raises the question of will we stop trying to take these characteristics on? Someone stop trying to be an actor because we have in the can 300 of the best already. Combined with AI originated actors, maybe. Exactly.

Where they can probably be like, hey, AI, create a Brad Pitt, George Clooney type dude combined. Yeah. With their talents combined. Yeah. It really could get your mind down a rabbit hole quickly. Yeah. I don't like it. And I think you're going to see the blowback be like, okay.

People are going to want to know when they're seeing real versus fake. You got the implications of the actors. There's technology going on where like this stuff could be used even to like maybe have conversations with like fans. That's really your AI. Yeah. You think about the implications. Oh, you want to do a Q&A with Tom Cruise?

I keep using Tom Cruise. Everybody knows who Tom Cruise is. LeBron James, whatever. And so it takes the workload. I will say it's interesting. I don't like it, but on one hand, we've always had the what, you can't scale yourself. Maybe you can.

If it's truly your digital double and it knows how you would react. I'll tell you this much. No way I could do some of the stupid shit I do this every day. So it can't be me. You're too unpredictable. Yeah, too unpredictable.

I'm going to trip over this thing, walk it out of the room. I'm going to say something to my wife I shouldn't have. No, I keep saying that. I'm a to trip over this thing, walk it out of the room. I'm going to say something to my wife I shouldn't have. No, I keep saying that. I'm a great husband. But in general, we're human beings versus robots. It's just like it's a fine line. I just think entertainment in the music industry,

from what I know of it already and how cutthroat it is. Prime example, Taylor Swift buying, her masters getting sold was the big thing. So if I die and I'm a famous actor and then the studio ends up with my rights as opposed to my family, you already know the studio is going to fight for them and screw your family.

Yep. Then what if they start making movies and films of stuff that me when i was a person i completely disagreed with yeah they start using me to push an agenda that's where i start thinking because you hear artists all the time i lost my creative freedom i was signed to a label or whatever it might be so it'd be very if you were to do someone, if we were to do this, I would just want to be very sure that you own everything. Yes. Your image and likeness can't be used after your death for God knows what.

Yep. I will say this, but if you are listening to this and you're a company or a person, solopreneur, and you're thinking about starting your own podcast, original creative content, branded content, no AI, go to the radcastnetwork.com. We've got a free audit there if you've got an existing show. Or if you're thinking about starting a new one, look, just all the newest data.

It said, businesses with branded content shows have an 86% lift on awareness and likability. There's a huge brand study now. Shoot me a DM if you're interested, or go to the radcastnetwork.com, fill out that form. We're growing out our network. Look, if you aren't making money, if you aren't monetizing your show, it's called a hobby. It's called arts and crafts, as my good friend Chris Lockhead would say. This is about business, about making money, about generating outcomes,

and adding value to your audience. So if you're interested in that, go to theradcastnetwork.com. Fill out that free audit. If you've got a show, we'll do an audit of your show. We'll get you info. That'll be valuable enough. That's free. Or shoot me a DM on Instagram. We'd love to help you. Keeping it real. Taking the BS. No AI here, baby. We'll use AI to help us, but we don't need it to duplicate. You can't duplicate this. That AI machine would go crazy. I can't wear this gold belt right here. oh next up netflix so subscribers climb on those two words catching me netflix subscribers climb after password sharing crackdown they've netflix added 9.33 million new members during q1 yeah they got you. No more sharing now. Sorry, Mom.

Sorry, Mom and Dad. They caught us. Dad can't use my password anymore. Yeah. My dad might have been using some of my passwords. I don't think they worked for him anymore. 7.5 million more than the same time last year. Those new memberships.

With a take up of its ad funding membership up 65 percent compared to last quarter. This takes its total subscriber base to just shy of 270 million. Revenue was up 15 percent. And net income increased 79 percent compared to the same quarter in 2023. Netflix chief financial officer said the company is building a much more durable and healthy foundation for revenue growth and bringing those new movie theaters but we talked about a couple weeks ago this isn't surprising and look makes sense can't be sharing your passwords on everything we'll say so you have it could be a little confusing if you have multiple

houses or like a bad house but i'll be watching something i'll sometimes get to oh you aren't at your home base i'm like no i'm not but you're supposed to be mobile apps so it can't be geo-focused so they got to register those device codes the better that is yours and there were some people that they were probably like friends with i had like 50 friends like on the same account or something. That's totally. I'm surprised it took this long, honestly, because it looked,

dude, the fact that he did this and their revenue income, when that income went up 80%. Yeah. Easy money for them. Just a little software change. Boom. Yeah. And they increased prices a little bit.

So that always helps. And what we always talk about, people are just moving away from cable. Oh, yeah. There's so many implications here, like cord cutting, everything else, time shifting. They want to watch what they want, when they want, necessarily what's coming on at 10 a.m. And they don't necessarily want to DVR it either.

Oh, let me record it. You don't hear anybody saying that anymore, other than maybe like live sports. Because you just want it available when i want to watch the newest dateline show whatever i just want it in the library not on my dvr that's filling up you've got you've lost too much space now it's called the cloud baby we have so much data on the internet. How much total data is this? How much does that weigh?

What's the weight of all the data? Because it's in a server somewhere, right? At some point, the cloud is in a physical place. I don't know how much,

we should get a specialist on here to tell us how much the data we all, the total amount of data in the cloud. How many terabytes or something? How much that weighs,

like physically. Because I think we get so numb to this stuff, we don't even think about some of those implications. How much energy it takes. How much energy is he using? Yeah. Electricity. Exactly. Meta is opening up Quest headset operating system arrivals.

I brought this up because I think there's been lag in this sort of growing, and I think this is the right move. Facebook parent Meta Platforms is opening up its MetaQuest headset operating system to other hardware makers, part of an effort to boost its standing in the nascent augmented reality and virtual reality industries. The move means other technology companies will be able to build their own headsets

using Meta's operating system. Meta announced a few select early partners, including Microsoft and Lenovo. It's long aspired for Meta to build its own devices. I'm resistant to decrease the company's reliance on competitors. When it comes to mobile apps like Facebook and Instagram, Meta is beholden to mobile OS creators such as Apple and Alphabet.

Meta has taken a particular issue with Apple in recent years, complaining with the iPhone maker's decision around privacy and in-app fees for iOS applications, which have hurt Meta's business. Zuckerberg is aiming to avoid that situation in the next wave of devices, including AR and VR headsets. So getting their applications which they're having and look the only way that this is going to take off that has more players in the game it's like the smartphone situation and i worked through that where back where you have multiple players or different but they're running the same operating system like android got on motorola got them got on all these ones to give you kind of choice and selection and to grow the category as a whole. And I think this could have the same effect because maybe Facebook's great at software development, but not so great at hardware.

So put their software with one of these better hardware providers and maybe you get a better experience and you don't get dizzy and all that shit. Who knows? But I think the only way for this takeoff is get it more proliferated and a better overall user experience. So that's what this is attempting to do is we get further into AR and VR, AI, VR, AR, all this realities, man. It's like IRL. It's weird. D-O-W-N. Yeah. It's like there used to be one reality-N. Yeah. It's like.

There used to be one reality and now we're. All the movies are coming true. Let's call it what it is. Yeah, bro. Terminator, The Matrix, and I don't know. Insert 1984, whatever they are. Yeah. Yeah.

All the smart writers that we thought were just making science fiction up. Science nonfiction. But this is. I would like to see the application of this in business get better. And look, it's all about evolution and change and things like that. So I support all that. It's just a slippery slope of the privacy and the combined with, I don't know, humanity of it all. I think that's the brush we need to be thinking through.

Finally, Kentucky governor announces lottery toward initial round of medical cannabis business licenses. lottery toward initial round of medical cannabis business licenses kentucky will use a lottery system toward initial round of licenses competing to participate the state's startup medical cannabis program the government called it a fair way to give each applicant that clears the screening process and opportunity to lance atlanta license for the program, which launches statewide at the start of 2025. I brought this up because it's just the proliferation of cannabis and sales in general. Kentucky is sort of, I think of kind of Kentucky in a similar light to South Carolina. It's a southern-esque state. They're more middle of the U.S., but definitely eastern, south.

state. They're more middle of the U.S., but definitely eastern, south. And so you're going to see more and more medical, more and more legalities around this. I don't think as the population ages and we get people with clearer minds that know how much this could be taxed and the benefits it could have if regulated the right way. But it's interesting that they hold these lotteries as they know how much it's going to sell. Good for them, dude. Kentucky, they really led the charge on a lot of the hemp growing. They've been a good state for that,

but not a lot of states have done it fairly. That's for sure, even here in Florida. I mean, it's so corrupt. Yeah. I'd like to think this sounds better and like a step in the right direction. So I hope so, man. There's a lot of people that do good business that

aren't these huge big companies that are just buying their way into these states. Yeah. And it'll be interesting to follow how this opens up across it. And again, it's going to have big business implications because of the scale and scope of it all. Just think about it. No matter how you feel about it politically or morally, whatever your stance is, the impact of business, it's just be like

the equivalent of alcohol sales, like a prohibition of alcohol. This is big business and big news. And so Kentucky turning on medical, you're going to see other states doing the same and then it's already legal like in 20 like half the states for i think even non-medical use like in some like it may not being sold yet but some legislation moving that direction quickly the so we'll see and then i did I said that was final, but last thing, the house is essentially past the TikTok ban and it's sitting there. That's still floating out there if ByteDance doesn't sell. So I bring this up if you're out there and it's not to fear monger, but it still feels like they're coming for it. It feels like it's going to go down

temporarily until they settle this thing or sell or whatever they force the hand of by dance to do so just beware if you have a lot if your business or you're thinking about growing on tiktok not that you shouldn't continue to use the platform but i do think this is not settled yet and could have implications. So, and if you're following and you're just a dancer, get your dance on on TikTok, baby, because you don't know. You don't know when that organic or that viral dance might not be available. You have to go back to Facebook. And the dance videos just don't hit the same on facebook so not unless you're the dancing dentist

like an old client rich constantine we blew up the internet on facebook 50 million impressions shit people man pre-tiktok yeah pre-tiktok well tiktok was like getting off the ground as like the music video platform or whatever it was. I mean, called TikTok. I can't remember. This is seven years ago. But yeah, people had to be entertained, man. So that's the story here.

Entertain or educate with your social media content. And Rich was entertaining. He could dance like a mofo. He's good. Kiki, do you love me? Oh, yeah. Please, don't make me sing. Don't make me sing.

That's all we got today, my friend. Any final thoughts, Chris? Stay safe out there, y'all. Yeah. Enjoy the weekend. For sure. Give us a shout out. You can find us at ryanisright.com

Chris it's Chris Broby Hanson that's Broby B-R-O-B-Y Broby Hanson and he is handsome Hanson he is

where I'm at Ryan Alford we'll see you next time on Right About Now this has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford a radcast network production visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities thanks for listening