The Uneducated PT Podcast - Episode 163 Bianca The Dating Bot

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Episode 163 of The Uneducated PT Podcast sees Karl joined by Ger and Rob for a conversation that starts with an unlikely source: the film Lars and the Real Girl.What begins as a discussion about Ryan Gosling's portrayal of loneliness and isolation quickly evolves into a deeper exploration of connection, community, and the future of human relationships in an increasingly digital world.Using the character of Bianca as a lens, the lads examine whether AI companions, coaching bots, and even AI dating partners could one day serve as a bridge for people struggling with loneliness, social anxiety, or disconnection. Could AI help people build confidence, develop communication skills, and move towards healthier relationships? Or does it risk becoming a substitute for the very human connection we need most?The conversation explores the potential upsides of AI companionship, including emotional support, accessibility, accountability, and behaviour change, alongside the dangers of emotional dependency, unrealistic expectations, and a society that increasingly chooses convenience over genuine connection.The trio also discuss the parallels between coaching and AI, asking whether technology can ever truly replicate the trust, vulnerability, challenge, and growth that come from human relationships. Drawing on themes from John Berardi's Change Maker, they explore the role of coaching as a vehicle for behaviour change and question whether the future of the profession lies in human expertise, artificial intelligence, or a combination of both.A thought-provoking conversation on loneliness, technology, coaching, relationships, and what it means to be connected in the modern world.Topics include:• Lars and the Real Girl and the psychology of isolation• The loneliness epidemic• AI coaching and behaviour change• AI dating companions and virtual relationships• The benefits and risks of artificial companionship• Why human relationships shape us differently• Coaching, connection, and community• John Berardi's Change Maker• The future of the fitness and coaching industry• Technology, vulnerability, and personal growth

Just a clip the couple of like quotes on basically coaching and on the fitness industry. And then I wanted you to kind of deep dive into them. Is that fair? And then you can tell me if you agree or you disagree with the, um, with the, with the, with the, with the, with the quote. Okay. Yeah, we don't exactly have a choice here. We're going to do what you say. Yeah, yeah, fair enough.

That's good. That's how I like things. That's how I like things to run. All right. Okay. So the first one that I clipped was. he talks about the information paradox. So he says,

the average client can access more nutrition and training information in only a few hours than most coaches could access in an entire career 20 years ago. Yet obesity, inactivity and confusion continue to rise. So then I was going to ask is, do you think that more information has translated to better health? outcomes and if not why not?

No. No? I don't know. I think it's a double-edged sword really. In what way? Well like people do have access to like good information for managing their health but now because of like social media, the internet, everything like that, it's a lot easier for people to see loads of misinformation. So it's quite confusing at the same time. It all depends on that person's, the way the person looks at the information they're given. So like we look at like starvation mode as an example

like starving herself will lead to waking like come on it's not going to happen but like there's a lot of confusing information out there but like it all depends on how you view it but can you

can you create a society that has more information than ever before and there not to be a degree of misinformation or misinterpreted information no it's a magnificent isn't it? Like there was always misinformation.

You just saw less, less information that was useful and less misinformation. It's now zoomed out and you're seeing more of the misinformation as well as more of, it's just scaled up really, isn't it? So if it's not an information problem

or if more information isn't a solution for better health outcomes, what is? I think information is, I think information is, but it's almost gone too far with certain aspects. Like it's good to learn about micronutrients and know of that or be aware of micronutrients and what they do for you. But to deep dive into it and go, I now need all of these supplements to stay alive. It's like, no, that's not the purpose of eating fruit, veg, root veg, like whole foods

and all that sort of stuff, things that have nutrients in them. We're just trying to make you aware that those foods are essential for health. It's not that you have to then perfect the levels of everything that you've got in your life. It's just knowing that you feel shit because all you've eaten is potato waffles for the last three years. Whereas I think some people kind of focus too much on perfecting everything, like someone that has come up quite recently in social media and everyone's talking about him. And then...

I'm talking about Steve Bartley. So I think, yeah, we're just focusing on that too much and then we're losing sight of what's actually important in life. And I think therefore that kind of, it spikes cortisol levels and makes people feel shit in a different way. But also having that information there is important. It's kind of like the middle ground, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

I always like that saying, what is it? It's like people don't care how much you know until they know that you care. And I think you can have like all the information in the world. But I think most people who struggle with behavior change or improving health outcomes, they don't have support. Or like they lack support or the right support in regards to, better held and the more information you've got in your head the more support you need

to kind of for people to encourage you to use that information if you're just constantly taken on information you get fatigued and you go well I don't know which one to start with so you don't do any of it whereas actually when we had less information we have to find that information out ourselves we would get any mental health benefits

from going out and finding that information as well as like the whole process of finding the information was good for us as well as what that information provided us at the end. You've kind of, like spending money on a coach, you've spent that physical effort to go and get the information, you're probably then going to want to try and use it. Whereas if you just go on your phone and go, oh, cool, that's good for me, cool, that's good for me, that's good for me.

You don't really feel a depth of connection to the information enough to use it. It's just ease of access. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And it also, it's just, if you're, if you have a coach or you have someone to, if you're paying someone, it's also like Jerry, you said the other day about, you know, signing up with Sam, it's like you're taking, you're, you're getting rid of that brain energy and you're saving,

you're saving space for you to just concentrate on doing the thing rather than having to overthink it. that's that's it like it's it frees up so much time i think it was it was it was it a trade of highly successful people i think they used like zuckerberg and a few others or was it steve jobs how uh they wore like the same outfit yeah they might have had like don't fucking 15 20 uh versions of the same clothes so they just woke up in the morning threw something on and out the door compared to your like 10 15 minutes of looking at a wardrobe and going what am i going to wear what shoes will I wear I can't wear that with this and it's just it's a waste it is a waste of your energy so that's like I've I've enjoyed the last the last two it's only been two weeks like

and knowing I can just walk in someone's taking control that makes my life so much easier yeah okay let me give you the next one because I like this one as well so the cult of credentials so cert certs qualifications technical education are important but they don't automatically create great coaches. The ability to influence behavior, earn trust and develop relationships often determine success far more than another line on a CV. So do you think that the industry or people in the industry or just people in general can overvalue credentials and undervalue people skills or coaching ability? Well, I think we can both say that there's are lots of other coaches that are way more qualified than us.

But what we bring into the work we do is it's the supporting the person. You know, that like you can't, you can't learn that. It's like, you don't like when doctors are training, they do, like they do sections on bedside manner. It doesn't mean you're going to be able to teach it to them. Like a lot of PTs are very good PTs, but they have no human social skills. yeah so it just doesn't matter it doesn't matter how qualified you are

and like the perfect programming if you can't support a person on a human level you're not going to give them the best support as a coach or I suppose someone who like who's really highly educated and they try to put that across to the people that they're trying to work with and let's say it's for example the general public

and they probably get intimidated by like even their terminology. They're just, they're not talking to the person on their level. They're talking to them, you know, three degrees higher and they just can't relate to that. I said this to a client this morning.

When we, when I did my, uh, S&C course with Satanta, I remember one of them was talking about, when you're talking to your client, you want to explain to them, um,

uh, the move, they're doing with their Littiss Dorsi. And I was like, nobody wants to know the fucking name Littissomis Dord. We're not in here to learn Latin. They don't even really need to know it's a Latt.

Like, you can't explain that to him. But pro athletes, you're not going to, you're Littesimus D'Rty. I'm like, your Latt, this area here. Yeah. This is how we work it. This is what we needed for blah, blah, blah. And I only had a laugh with that

with a client today. I was like, I don't think outside of taking the piss have I said Littissimus Darsi to a client. Yeah. It's the same thing with when you say, toning like or if like a if let's say someone comes into it and says oh i want to tone up and then your first automatic thought is to be like oh it's toning isn't a real thing and you try to correct them it's like you know what they're trying to say they're trying to say they want to build some muscle

and lose some body fat so could you just like park that for a minute and just talk to the person about what they want yeah yeah well like it's yeah it's there's a time in a place to correct uh client or a potential client's knowledge on something and then there's a time to just show them the ways they'll move towards it without trying to belittle them. Rob, do you think that sometimes people, even let's say personal trainers or coaches or people who want to kind of work in the fitness industry, they instead of just backing their own ability and starting the thing, whether it's the business or whatever it is, they get self-conscious. or self doubt in their head

and they're like, oh, I need to do this course or this course or this course and then I'll be ready to you know, help people and the coach. It's a really good question. I don't know where you've got that question from. Yes, I do. I think it's the case with a lot of things, isn't it?

There's always there are going to be aspects of lack of confidence so you want to learn a bit more before you can actually get into it to do it. but also there's this kind of a delay tactic as well. It's like avoiding going in and risking it. I want to build my confidence up with the knowledge I've got to apply it, but then almost when you've got a bit too much information in your head,

like I was saying before, you kind of freeze and you don't. Like you go into the situation and you're not open to it. I think a lot of people doing coaching, I think it would be great to just get into the gym, communicate with people, not have any knowledge of what's going on to begin with and kind of learn from the bottom up alongside getting a bit of an education in

rather than just going online, going, ah, there's a level 3 PT course, I'm going to tick these boxes online, do a couple of videos in the gym, make some corrections and send it off. I think if you're able to, I'm trying to divert it away from me a little bit here, but yeah, if you're able to do almost like an apprenticeship

gym qualification, I think that's often probably a better thing to do rather than trying to just qualify and then go, oh, all these people online are doing this, this and this, they're talking about these words, I need to learn some more. Now I need to learn more about nutrition. I've seen this person, I've found this out. I'm not good enough for the gym just yet, rather than just going, I could probably help someone

that's going to walk in at the gym who knows absolutely nothing about working out. I can get them using a treadmill and I've succeeded. It doesn't need to be massively complicated. But in short response to your question, yes, I think that's something that some people probably do. I'd love to own a big gym. And when you're interviewing potential employees, just do a trial by fire, get them to put you through an hour session and be the worst client they could possibly ever meet. Just throw them in the defense.

What would a bad client entail Probably probably like myself and you, Carol, with Sam? I would say a bad client would be someone who shows up late. No, I don't know actually, what would a bad client? No, I don't know about moaning about exercises because like some exercise, like, I know Sam has said to me with certain exercises I do it, he's like, I'm sorry and I was like, yeah, well, I'm a bit of a seda, so I like the, stuff that's awful.

So keep, keep doing that. Yeah, but I don't like people, I don't like people who come into the gym. Not, I,

I don't mind people who moan, but I don't like people that don't try. Do you know what? Yeah. That you know, they're not really given,

they're not like giving their best efforts. Bitch, bitch and moan all you want. It's why I have a tiny little violin inside in the gym that one of my, uh,

old clients got me. And so I could just play that. I'm like, bitch and moan all you want, as long as you just fucking get through it. Sure. But like, It's kind of like, I always describe, like, don't like deli workers.

Why do they always hire people for a deli but never get them to make you a fucking sambo in the interview? And then they go on to be a shit deli worker. Yeah, well, that's if there was a, I've seen a meme online, I think it was like and or someone put up a tweet or something like that. And it was like, listen, if your heart's not in it for making chicken fill of rolls, just don't take the job because it's too important. It's way too important. Don't ruin my day by making a shit. If your heart's not in making chicken fillet rolls, go get a different job because you know what I mean. Don't ruin my chicken fillet roll.

Especially when you're paying $750 for a chicken roll. Yeah, exactly. But anyway, going back to the credentials thing, I agree. I think that you can like self-doubt and be like, oh, I'll be ready to start when I have this qualification and this qualification, this qualification. When in reality, when I started, I, like, I learned. everything on the go, like from experience, but because I enjoyed what I was doing, then that gave me the willingness to like go and do different courses and read different books and actually

take an interest in furthering my education in the thing. So I think like, yeah, you should still like continue to learn and get more qualifications and certificates along the way. But then there's also that the other side of it is like when people feel like they're not good at their job or they have self-dough then they start looking at getting like qualifications and certificates and things that are going to be actually irrelevant to the job that they're doing and maybe not that useful it's just a coping mechanism to say oh i have another thing on the list to prove that i'm worthy at my job and that follows into like one of his other um quotes that i put down and it was like the purpose problem. So many professionals enter the industry because they want to help people,

but that's often where the thinking stops. Raddy suggests that real impact requires a much clearer understanding of who you're serving, what problems you're solving, and why your work matters. So I suppose it's more like, do you know who you're helping and why that qualification would even be relevant to that person. Yeah, I think that's what's important. I think if you're going into a job, you've got the qualification to it, let's say, Jim 4PT, and you've got the knowledge that you need to do it,

but you have that doubt in your head and you're feeling a bit lost with it, going and getting another qualification, unless you are meeting loads of people along the way that help you with your mindset, it's not, it might not, not be the solution. I think maybe going to events like the ones that we've been to together is a good way of doing it because it re-mounts the fire in a different way.

Yeah, I think going for that extra qualification is just going to add more to the swamp of not being sure what you're doing. And sometimes it's just you need more hours doing the thing that you're unsure of to either confirm you don't actually want to do it or, I don't know I don't know where I was going with that. Yeah, but you know what else I think as well? It's like sometimes, and I always think of the Steve Jobs quote of like sometimes you can't connect the dots going forward. You can only connect them going back.

And if you think about like all the like random little jobs you might have had or random little experiences you might have and they all feel random at the time. But then you end up doing something and you look back and you'd be like, oh yeah, that was actually really beneficial for what I'm doing now, even though it just felt like a random job at the time. Like for example, like, let's say when I was working in Spain and I was like standing on the streets just like yapping to people and trying to convince them to get into into the pub. Like that's simply practicing, you know, sales. And like that's, that's relevant for for the job, the career I have now. And. And for dealing drugs. Yeah. But do you know what I mean? So

sometimes even like if if you do go and do like random courses and they might not be relevant to your um the work that you're doing now or the career that you're doing now but like you have like an urge to do it or like a random like weekend course or you go to an event that has nothing to do with the fields that you're in um i don't know i think your your intuition is is important as well I think you're right. I think if my concern is there's so many online courses that you can easily just sit at your laptop and do the course online,

tick some boxes and go, oh, pass that test, therefore that must be the job for me. And then you actually go and do it and you get the day-to-day, like mundane aspects of it, you get the scary aspects of it, you actually have to interact with another human being.

You have to share your knowledge and teach people. And you don't get that from sitting at a screen, but if you're like a weekend course or like a week-long thing like you're saying or after school after school after work language lessons or something like that where you interact with the human beings and learning how to engage or sell or whatever it is there's transferable skills in everything you can do you're just better off trying to do it with other people most of the time it's it's it's that human interaction you're talking about like i know karen't you always talk about community and social and everything like that like any course you do even doing like a course where you go for like one day a weekend and you're doing it for months on end it isn't going to prepare you for someone breaking down inside in the gym in front of you yeah that's that takes that takes i suppose uh one a special person but also time with people it's not some it's not something you learn outside of being on the job i think you almost have to you have to just

throw yourself into the deep end and it's the same as you say about like exercising you're going to be shit of things the only way to get better it is keep doing it and you'll learn you learn on the job yeah experience plenty of stuff that we've we've learned by being on the gym floor that you don't get taught in any course yeah I suppose experience is um basically a credential in itself that we don't really take into account yeah um this one's relevant to you, Jay, after having a viral video. Reputation over reach. So in a world obsessed with followers' views

and engagement metrics, Baradi argues that reputation remains the most valuable currency. A trusted voice with a small audience can often create more meaningful impact than a large audience that doesn't trust the messenger. Are you not the one with 100,000-thousand-thousand-fowler? Why am I getting fucking,

Why am I getting jumped here? Yeah, but I have it. I also have a smaller page that's, you know, just space for, you know, the skill of fitness members. Which I still think it might be bigger than my page. Well, but do you think that's relevant in a fitness industry? Like you were, you, you, you're in a, in a mentorship with other online coaches and stuff like that. So, and I know it's, you know, ones who are obviously focused more on impacts then, then reach. but I so like I know

like don't me wrong the whole viral video and all that it's cool and it's it is nice after a certain length of time hammering away at social media and doing this that you start to see some fucking

like it is external validation when you see like there no one can say that when they don't see the followers ticking up that they don't have a little bit of joy from it it's a dopamine so yeah it's a big dopamine and being riddled with ADHD it's not a fucking it's not a grade, I cook it up to my veins.

But I know if social media died in the morning, my business is fine. I know people that have 20 times the following I have, they ask about my business. My business is golden. I'm like, I could stop doing social media. Most of my business comes from word of mouth. Do you know, so like there is a huge thing on like,

we do see like someone with hundreds, of thousands of followers and we're like oh they must be doing very well you have no fucking idea how they're doing we know

we know people that are doing that have part time jobs that are struggling to get clients and like I could I could delete my Instagram in the morning

and my business was still run fine I know that for a fact do we get caught in the trap of rewarding popularity

over credibility and like how do we how as a coach do you stop yourself from falling into that trap where you're more concerned on growing your Instagram page than giving out valuable content to the audience that you're trying to help

I know I think we talked about this car before about not forgetting to go back to like simple gym tips you know like lots of people And like I've only thought about it recently that I'm like, I should probably just take the personality I have and put that into bringing back some simple gym tips. Because a lot of people don't know stuff. Like the simple thing of how to kick up your dumbbells when you're doing an inclined bench or something like that. Like little things like that.

And then just bringing your personality into it. But at the same time then, doing fun stuff for you on your social media to show. your personality off to people. So they get to know you are. Like, there's, there was a lot of times there over the last year where I didn't enjoy making content.

Yeah. And like someone was like, all right, you've gone down the route now of memes and doing silly videos. And I was like, because I'm having a bit of fun with it. I'm having a little bit of fun with it.

And then like, yes, a lot of it gets you engagement and stuff of that. But like, it's hollow. It's that dope minute. You get it, you see a couple of thousands.

and fucking views and you're like, oh, that's nice. And I think I had one the other week. It was me just drinking a pint. The whole, like, I did enjoy making the video because I was sinking a pint of creamy Guinness. Like, but the whole point was someone said to me, I think you like, there was a minute and a half doing that video. And I remember I wanted to do that video for a week or two. I had friends who were going to hold the camera and blah, blah, blah.

They offered to do it. And I said, no, I can get this done. I want to put my phone back in my pocket so I can be around you for the weekend. So like I enjoyed making the content for a couple of minutes. I knew it was going to be a good video and it would get some engagement, but it was just to show, highlight

the importance of being around other people. So I don't know where I'm going on my tangent there now. I think it's good. I think it depends, doesn't it? It's authenticity. If you were just going into that, place to drink that pint and then buggering off. That's not really authentic. It's not part of your lifestyle. It's not you actually socialising. You're just doing it for potential views,

whereas if the video you're making sits with your values, you're getting across a message that you actually believe in, and there is you. People don't have to like that, but at least you're putting something across that is true. Rather than you just going, oh, if I do this, I'm going to get some likes. It's, yeah. If I do it. If I do it. this, I'll probably get some traction, but it's also because it's going to get traction with the people that I relate to and that I want to influence, rather than just go in, get my numbers up. And I most certainly did not have one point in leave. What do you think, Rob, your relationship with social media is like?

Like my relationship with most people in my life, sporadic. I really enjoy it, but I don't know what my authentic self is for it yet. I don't think. I have admittedly used chat GPT for some influence on some things. I have used it to check whether I've said something that's going to be offensive or taken the wrong way or whatever. And actually, it's chat GPT, it's AI. It knows a little bit. but if I want my message to come across as it does,

it's better to get engagement from someone else than time correcting myself. So I think I've tried to correct it before I've actually tried it. So recently I've just been testing a few different things and seeing what's happened. What do you think you want out of your social media? It's a really good question. That's a answer, isn't it? yeah i i'll put my hands up i like getting responses so getting those likes indicates to me that people that i have respect for have similar views to me or appreciate what i'm putting out so

i think that's definitely part of it um i basically i just want to help people i want to help people kind of come across a load of the things that have helped me in my life, but obviously then projecting what's benefited me isn't necessarily going to help other people. I want to help other people, make people feel safe. There's a lame answer, but that's pretty much it. That sounds like a copy and paste answer.

Yeah. I want people to give me free food. I don't, I always, if I ever, if I ever, like, have any thoughts or something and let's use chat chad d to like uh to like a touch it up it always goes too neutral for me i'm like i don't i'm on the edge i don't want your little balance neutral not offended anyone i hate you got a you got to you got to train it as well and you got to fuck around it i've tried train and it it won't be trained it's like it won't it's a little bitch that's what chat dbt is a little bitch i don't maybe someone warned it about you chat cht btt is like to keep

telling me to tone it down and I'm like I'll tone you down chat gvd I'm the first to go and the robots take it's when chat gbt asks you are you okay that you know you've got a problem mine just goes there I have I have

recreated a message similar to your message but without offending anyone I'm like no that's not what I won't I specifically want to offend people and I want to offend them more than I'm doing yeah yeah so anyway But yeah, it's an interesting one. Like when you actually ask yourself,

what's your relate, not just your relationship, but what's your intent with social media? Because obviously, if you're just, if you're using it for business, that's, that's absolutely fine.

And then you kind of have to ask yourself, well, if I'm using this device for business, then I need to make sure that I'm creating the content for other people more so, for the people that I'm trying to help or whatever more so than me.

So it's like, Jerry, you going back to like the simple gym tips that, all right, they might be obvious to you, but they're not obvious to the people. You know, if you're, you have to think about not you, but the person who is walking into the gym for the first time. That's really, really hard when you've like being around fitness for like the last decade. Don't, don't I find interesting. And you probably have this. You know, when you're showing someone an exercise. Yeah. Or you're trying to show them like this would be like.

a way we could do it incorrectly. And you almost struggle to do it incorrectly when you're doing the exercise because it feels so unnatural to you to like... Perfect. So I'm so fucking class of what I do. Yeah, follow me for coaching days. I always, whatever.

I use the same joke every time I'm like, like a demo and an exercise to it, like a newbie in the gym. And I like, so that's how I'm doing an ordeal. Like, oh, this is how you do a hip hinge. And then I'm like, now you won't do it as well as me because I'm perfect, but you can try. It's like, my God, I'm so unoriginal.

I say the same joke over again. Sometimes you have to recycle some of your jokes all the time. Oh, I recycle all the time. I find the, obviously, as Rob said, like, your social media wanting to help people, that's obviously the big thing. I remember looking at someone asked me before why I'd want to do it. It was like a lot of the body image stuff, food relationship things that will work on, I don't want people to have to go through the same shit I did.

Yeah. I don't necessarily think I'm qualified to the max to help people with everything. If there's certain things going on, I'll always push people out. But any issues I've had, and I have a fucking lot of them, I wouldn't want anyone to be just continuously suffering through them. So that's why I like messing around with the headspace stuff, mental health, food relationship. And I enjoy talking about that. I find it easier.

I find it easy to be open about that stuff online. Yeah. See, I don't think I care about helping other people anymore with my social media. Like before, I might have said that when I was like making nutrition content and stuff like that. But now I just, now I just think of it like a, like my personal diary that's open to the entire world.

And I just use it to like, if I'm thinking about something, but I want to like flesh out my thoughts and like think about it more critically. or expand on it and then I'm just using that as the medium or the tool to kind of and then sometimes

sometimes there's a shit post but for the crack but yeah it's your personal diary yeah yeah which is weird you're subconsciously aware that you have been consciously but now you're subconsciously aware that you sharing that has helped people in the past

and it's helping you in a way to share everything so therefore you can't And like, if it's helping me, it might actually then. Yeah, but I never, whenever I'm, I'm completely selfish with my social media. So if I'm talking about something like a breakup or grief or loneliness or, you know, struggling the gym or whatever it is and I flesh them tots out, I'm purely, not all the time, but a lot of the time I'm talking about my past experience. And the more I talk about myself, I find, the more.

than it's relatable to other people. More so than if I'm trying to talk to them people, but I'm talking to myself. Does that make sense? You're not being selfish then, because the whole point is reaching people that resonate with you. Yeah, what I want to be selfish. I had, was this, was it the other week when I was going up to Sligo or Bally Shannon,

one of the girls had sent me an audio book to listen to how not to kill yourself? Yeah, the pessimist guide. And it was fantastic. And like, it wasn't the whole hippie-dipies, know, love yourself. It was, I think one line in it that got me was like, I didn't sign up for the world to bend me over and fuck me. Yeah.

And it just, it had me in tears laughing inside in the car. But like, you definitely have this as well. The different memes we put up about like the state of our mental health or relationships with people. Yeah. We're like,

okay, it's slightly unhinged. Yeah. But loads of people resonate with it. Yeah. The more unhinged, the more people relate, I think.

But we enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's like we're putting out there like, we're fucked a little bit. Yeah. But we're okay. Yeah. Like you should probably worry about me, but don't bother because I got, I got a notification

yesterday, man, on someone is worried about you. Do you need support on Instagram? And I was just like, I was like, I've literally just said I'm doing fucking fine. Fuck off. And then I was like, also, I do like that they have that. that set up on system on Instagram but also at the same time like if you're actually that worried about me

that you're going to report me to a fucking boss I've had it just ask me how am I doing? I've had it a few times where like people would come up to be in the gym or outside of the gym or like a friend

and be like are you okay I've seen that thing that you posted up on Instagram like no no no no no that's Instagram Kyle don't come up to real Kyle and talk about that stuff yeah yeah we keep this there's a big wall

yeah do you know what I'm You were talking about emotions. No, no, no, just as just, you know, dark humor of, you know. Yeah, how's your dating on the way, Carl? My what? You're dating. So the next quote is, behavior change is the real profession. Okay, so most clients, most clients don't fail because they don't know what healthy eating looks like.

They fail because changing behavior is difficult. The future of coaching may depend less on exercise science and more on understanding human psychology. Yes. Yeah, and I think also, if you think about like AI and stuff like that as well and the fact that you can just type up your own training program or your own nutrition plan or you can get like AI to automate a lot of things for you. I suppose being able to coach and have conversations with people

and make them obviously in person or like, you know, over a Zoom call, like that's obviously going to be more beneficial for your business going forward. Otherwise, like, you don't really have a business because AI is going to be able to replicate all of that other stuff. I think it can actually replicate a lot of the kind of back and forth conversations that you maybe have with a therapist as well. Yeah. Like, I've tested it out a few times, and it does, it does help sometimes, but also it's not open.

Well, no, that's an interesting, that's an interesting one because obviously, um, I, there was, uh, uh, uh, Alan, but, uh, Arme, Rob. Alain de Baton. I think, yeah, yeah, you read his, you read one of his books. How a good mate, yeah. Yeah, and he's a, and he's a therapist as well, uh, by trade. And he was, like, basically saying how yeah AI will basically be able to even replace therapists and obviously a lot of like gen z are using um using like chat chTPT and stuff like that as they're as they're basically free therapists what is your opinion on that do you think that's a good thing or bad thing both i think for those that can't afford therapy it makes an aspect of it afford attainable.

And to have that kind of thing that can reason with you, as long as it's done in a safe way, that thing that can kind of help you stay grounded and you don't have to spend 45 foot a week or whatever it is on it if you can't afford it. I think that's good, but it's like ordering from delivery all the time. Like if you're just using something for convenience

and you're not having a human interaction, longer term, it's not going to have as good as much of an impact. So like short term, there's like a little safety button, I think it's good. But if you're able to have an interaction with a human being, ideally in person, so that you've got the commute to the place that you get into therapy, you're interacting with humans around you, you're using whatever you need to use to get there. Rather than just sitting behind a screen, you're going to get more from that than you're are just going, type into a screen response.

Like, you've got to put more effort into it so you learn more from it. It's going to, AI is going to have to be at a completely different level to match what a therapy session can do with a qualified practitioner. As someone who's journals, use AI and goes to therapy, it's so different. Because, like, you have to be able to talk to it a certain way. You have to prompt it a certain way. It's going to learn how to. answer you back in a certain way, whereas

when you go to therapy, it's about you finding the answers, not someone telling you the answers. So it's a very, it's a very different thing. Like, I thoroughly enjoy going from my hour to hour 20, depending on how long she lets me go over. But like,

it's very different. Like, I don't go, we often joke when I'm inside the room, is like, can you not just fucking fix me? Like, you know, at this stage now, let's just get it over done when we laugh about it. But like, that's... But do you not think, that we'll get to a stage where we probably are already at that stage

where AI will be able to create a version that just prompts the same types of questions. I think it does at times, yeah. It's already that. But it's the personal touch then as well. Yeah, 100%.

Like, who's going to see my unhinged memes before I put them on Instagram? Because I send them all to my therapist. Well, your AI bot might be like, good meme. Good meme, Gerald. No, fuck that. Love that one. Tums up. Emote. No.

See, that already sounds awful. I don't like it. And also, yeah, I always think of like, I think of children using AI as, or teenagers using AI as,

um, their, you know, pocket therapist as like, like, it's almost like, you know, you could have a fire to keep you warm or to literally light you on fire.

And I think if you're kind of that deep in just, using AI for everything and you know you're not really solving any of your problems does not very healthy as a kid there's a kid like I was up in the middle of nowhere in the house and top of fields and stuff so I rarely hung out because probably comes across with my inability to be socially acceptable

I would regularly communicate with friends through I know everyone did it but through MSN or Bebo whatever it was, I'd communicate with them through technology. Yeah. Whereas a load of my mates would do that, but they'd also see each other straight after school because they didn't have to get the 30-minute bus back home and stuff.

And I felt like I kind of spiraled into a bit of oblivion, like without people around me, even though I was interacting with other human beings through technology. And I think even that was a degree too much of separation almost from people. So, yeah, and I had experience of playing football. I had experience of going to school and seeing these people and hanging out with them every now and then. And I didn't have AI to just get lost in and, like, absorbed by it. Whereas now, I think if you're able to have those communications with AI and you're, let's say, 12, 13, 14 years old going through a difficult time,

you're going to become less resilient to communicate with other human beings. if you're getting your solutions from a screen. I heard a good one today. One of my clients, she's a secondary school teacher, and she was talking about whatever school trips they go on. And you remember being on a bus on a school trip, and it was roar and shouting, singing, everyone, like, messing and stuff of that.

She said now that they're all just sitting down quietly on her phone. Like, she used to get off the bus, and her ears would be ringing. she was like, they're all like zombies inside in the seats. Their heads in the phone or headphones on. And like, I was like, we used to be singing songs, inappropriate songs. You were the shenanigans on a bus to and fro anything, like a match or a school trip or mad. She was like, they're just engrossed on their phones. They don't talk to each other properly anymore.

Yeah. Here's one for you. So one in three teens use AI chop boss platforms for social interactions and relationships, including role playing friendships, sexual and romantic. romantic partnerships. The aura study found that sexual and romantic role play is three times as common as using the platforms for homework help. 72% of teens use AI companions at least once a week and some use multiple times a month. That's crazy, isn't it? Maybe an AI relationship would be good for the two of E. When you get sick of you, you can just turn it off. I think we've spoken about this

that, you know, and also you also have to remember like who's it responsible for you know, yeah, who's responsible for the for the different AI platforms and how reliable are they for looking after the well-being of the teenager?

Does that one, that teenager who like died by suicide because they had a AI chap who basically like coached them into killing themselves? Yeah. It's a difficult one, isn't it? because it is there can't be benefits how long ago

how long ago was that they're only doing the um also they they were in court September 19 2025 um I'm sure they probably

got their payout by now um that was with Sam Altman so that was chat GPT um 2025 is it's kind of fucking mad yeah

um I think kids having access to it is probably it's not good because you just don't have as many life experiences to compare it to so you don't have as much contrast it's just I've grown up with this this is life whereas actually if you've rolled around in the dirt outside cut yourself on something done whatever accidentally you touch the kettle and you learn

whereas if you're just I don't know where I'm going with this But basically, the fact that kids and teenagers have in relationships with AI fills me with dread. Like, I don't really know how else to word it. That's not good. Although, it depends. Because if they could be completely isolated somewhere where they're not having human interaction at all and they wouldn't. And then they have this interaction with something that keeps them going. So it's just like how.

It's a difficult one. It's a difficult one. I am how isolated are you you're not living on an island on your own like let me tell you about let me tell you about this film

let me tell you about this film so what's it called again um uh what's the name of a hold on Ryan Gousin's Ryan Goslin's in it Ryan Goslin lonely

what Bobby no the one in space is it the one in space give us clues oh it's called Lars and the real girl

okay so he's basically he's basically this lad that lives in this like small nick community and you've definitely seen the you've definitely seen the

the memes for it or you've seen some videos for it and he basically has a girlfriend but it's this doll and he brings the doll around with him like I've seen I've seen the meme yeah yeah yeah

it's like when you bring when you bring your girl girlfriend. Oh man, just him sitting there. I wonder if I can get the picture up for her. Cuts to him with a sex doll. It's fantastic. Basically that, yeah. But it's not like it's a sex doll, but obviously

it's quite an old film as well. Did you find it, Rob? I've just found images of it. Yeah. Yeah. So basically he has this kind of, he has this girlfriend who obviously is unreal. But because he's kind of so socially awkward and he can't and he struggles to

he struggles to interact with other people in the community. Yes, there it is. You've seen that, haven't you? Yeah, the real go. So he struggles to interact with people in the community. He can't talk to women. So anyway, he's basically socially isolated. And then his brain uses this as a coping mechanism to be able to.

And instead of the community, like, laughing at them and slagging them and stuff like that, they basically go along with it in order. because it's a coping mechanism to help him today and obviously branch out and the clip of the real I've seen of that is like the facial expressions on the family looking at it and it cuts back

to him with a big smile on his face like this is such a normal thing but like we talked about this in another podcast how it's going to end up a lot of people moving towards like partners well let's call them as they are sex bots yeah what if what if them

sex bots or what if what if somehow someone some genius creates these types of you know sex bots or girls or whatever it is that right you have you have probably a huge population

of like men and maybe women who might be socially awkward can't talk to each other I don't have confidence don't have social skills all these things and then you have this like coaching boss that helps you to be able to talk to women

and give you that confidence and then you transfer that over to a real person and you're able to actually communicate because... That's different. You're talking about a coaching bot. Not someone they decide is going to live with me

and be in a relationship with me, bot. Yes, yes. But it will be up to the companies to be responsible enough to like... Oh, that's not going to fucking happen. It's going to be a big line of sex bots. Come on. That's what's happened.

Right, well, I like, I don't like to be blackpilled. I like to see, you know, some optimism in the world. well actually I do like to be black pill. Yeah, you're going to live out in a woods on your own with your boss that'll do everything you say. My coaching boss he was going to teach. Yeah, coaching boss. Yeah.

So anyway, anyway, I just thought that was like a real good representation of someone who's socially isolated, difficult with, you know, emotional resilience. And they just basically have some sort of a coping mechanism. and instead of shaming that person for that coping mechanism, understanding it, and then eventually using that, walking away from that crutch to be able to integrate himself into society, which he finds a girlfriend at the end of it.

That's a great, like the coaching bot is a great idea. Yeah, if it went that way. Yeah. But it won't. Yeah. Like, why do I need, why do you need to teach me how to speak to this woman when I can just use you coaching bot? Exactly.

The way you said using you with a smile and just, no. Take your clothes off. Take your clothes off. I want to see them wires. I'm very sorry. So sorry. Rob, any thoughts? Show me your USB slot.

Let me see that database. Rob's already getting a bot. I think that if it's used in. that way, it's like taking medication for an issue that, a concern that you need to kind of deal with is when you're being rejected, that is when you fail, like you often fail to learn from something and progress from it. But if people around you're accepting that, you're still able to integrate into society in certain ways. And you feel safe enough to open up about different things with different people. It could be beneficial.

potentially. I wouldn't want to try it because I feel like it goes quite far away from being human if you're interacting with a robot in that way. It could help you with talking with women though. I'm really not good at talking to women. No, no, it's such a struggle. I think that's why I panicked in my interview earlier. It was three women on the board the board thing and we were just in like chatting and I was just like freezing.

You felt trapped in a room with them. Yeah, exactly. This is a good, this is a good repress. Sorry, I'm not even listening to this. So the doll is, the doll isn't really the point. Bianca, who is the doll, becomes a psychological bridge that allows Lar to express needs and emotions. He can't express directly.

For a moment there before you said, Lar, I thought you were on a sex bot site, like where they're selling this fantasy to you. I think that's, that's a good thing is, it gives you a safe environment to open up about your needs and wants and stuff. Whereas if you're overwhelmed by the opportunity of opening up to another human being and the risks that are involved, you take one of those risks out, which is I'm interacting with another human,

you're exploring what your needs are with a computer-based thing, then I guess the typical response of the coach is it depends. Yeah. It depends on the certain standards, don't it? True. Would you use a, would you be happy? Let's say, that was a good question. This is the best question.

So, if you buy a boss. If you had a son who was socially awkward, would you be comfortable with them using an AI boss? Not let's say, yeah, an AI Bianca coaching boss that could help him to, that helps support them emotionally, practice conversations and flirting, identify like relationship patterns of fear and improve like social anxiety and resilience. Do you think you'd be on board with that?

I can't say yes because I'm quite ignorant to what that would actually mean right now. but I'd be uncomfortable with it because I feel like throwing yourself in at the deep end sometimes with social interactions is the best way to develop your social interaction skills but then for some people it really switches them off. Do you want me to give you a kind of a little list of the upsides and downsides,

potential upsides and downsides of like a Bianca-style bride who has like AI? You said coaching but now it's done to bride. Well, Bianca is There's two very two very different things. She's a dating, she's a, she's your girlfriend slash wife

slash AI coaching bot. So it's your, it's your interim partner until you can actually meet a real life partner. It's stabilizers before. It's stabilizers on your bike. What's stopping people then from going like, I'm ready now to enter into the real world and meet a real person.

And that goes badly. And then they go, I'm going, Back to Bianca. She's safe. We're going past upside straight into the downside. So the downsides is Bianca becomes the destination. So the Bianca problem. So you basically like, well, why do I want to be fucking Jennifer down the road who is going to like have all our human problems when I can just use Bianca who, you know, is perfect and doesn't judge me.

So that's one downside. The other one is obviously like no real reciprocation. Like it's it's a bot. It's not human. Unrealistic expectations. like you're expecting someone who always listens, never criticizes, never leaves you, never has a bad day and basically is perfectly tailored to your preferences, which obviously isn't a relationship because you have to, you probably have to compromise.

I wouldn't know. I never do. Then it's not a good AI coaching boss. And then, yeah, well, that could potentially it could be. Now, this is the downsides. It's like emotional dependency, all that kind of stuff. but then the upsides might be like a safe place to practice like you can practice having conversations with someone flirting expressing feelings handling rejection all that stuff then you obviously

it can reduce loneliness for people who might be really really struggling really socially anxious like recluse or someone like that and and low barrier entry to vulnerability like yanga for ryan what about so let's say for example there's your kid and then there's this girl assuming heterosexual interests there's your guy kid your boy and a girl down the road your boy's learning from this but how to interact with a woman or a girl is the girl down the road getting the same input or is is your kid then going to be i know i know everything about relation i the dark form using using the force for the dark side now now that Bianca has taught me all the communication and flirting skills now I'm gonna take them stem skills and I'm gonna

run through the town but also you feel like you like if if their eyes telling you that you feel like you know everything and actually part of being human is getting rejected and learning from but it's gonna help let's say you're let's say you are terrified so terrified of being rejected that you never try with anyone and you're anxious you're depressed you're lonely you're going to live a life of misery by yourself and now they've created this bot called beanga who was going to teach you how to deal with rejection like do you know what it's like that's that's what therapists do they basically you know give you low cost low cost rejection or like low cost kind of anxiety

inducing tasks to do. Like when you go to the shop, instead of looking at the ground, look up and talk to the shopkeeper and say, hi, how are you? Take your pack of crisps and leave. That's a win. Do you know what I mean? I honestly think if this is the way the world is going, population numbers

are going to fucking dwindles. Well, they are anyway, but it's going to get worse. This is what we have to wait for. An up-to-date, terrapise bot that will coach you into relationships. Well, I'm sure how many people are struggling in relationships? I'm pretty, I presume a lot of people, and I presume with the generation that we've created on a social media platform,

most of them grew up on their phone anyway, so they didn't build resilience and communication skills. So I know that the technology that took that away from them is going to have to give it back to them. Yeah, and look at us. We have communication skills and we're all single. Well, I've really good communication skills. Yes, and chronically single. Yeah, but that's all my communication skills. Well, maybe. I'll ask Bianca.

I'll ask Bianca. I think if you're trying to get, if you're in a position where your child is terrified of rejection, you need to look at how you have brought them up around rejection and the fear of it. And whether or not you've allowed them to accept that rejection is just another way of learning. Like if you are constantly berating them for doing things wrong, or shouting at them every time they ask for something, you have instilled that fear of rejection in them. Yeah, but you can't blame the parents for everything

because sometimes you'll have like four kids and one of them is like really socially on point and the other isn't. True. So there's obviously neurodivergence and all that sort of stuff. So obviously all of that does take into consideration. But if your child is neurodivergent and there's access to

medical mental health professionals and things like that Bianca, we're calling there. So you're telling me if I had a Bianca when I was growing up I would be fine. I'm not telling you that. I think it's wrong. I don't think it's

the right way of solve it at all. I'm not saying, well, I never said it was. I'm just giving you the, but the, I'm not saying it's the wrong or the right option. I'm just saying it's like, it's like, GLP ones. It's not for everybody, but it helps some people. It sounds like a big sales pitch. All right. This is your new business.

We'll leave it there. All right. We'll come back to Bianchi, but it's a very good. And actually, it could be completely diverted from the actual coaching book. But anyway, we'll leave it there. All right. Thank you, folks. A pleasure as always. We'll have, we'll have Bianca on next week as our special guest.