There Are No Girls on the Internet - Disney’s Movie Smart House is a Blueprint for Today’s Tech

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

We're not just a tech podcast; we're a tech & culture podcast. So today, we’re revisiting the charming and prescient 1999 Disney Channel Original movie Smart House. Directed by the multi-talented Levar Burton, it explores the role of smart home technology on a suburban family from a time when that technology was pure science fiction. It's not only a fun movie, but underneath its G-rated Disney veneer is a movie that has a lot to say about gender, relationships, labor, and the human experience. A major part of the movie is the kids' grappling with the loss of their mother, which hits home for Bridget at this time in her own life.    Bridget recaps the film with Producer Mike to explore what it gets right, what it gets wrong, and what it’s trying to say about technology and the people who use it.    Do you like film recap episodes like this? Should we do more of them? Should we never do another? Please let us know what you think, and send movie suggestions! If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email  [e-mail]    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI!   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/   tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc   youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Stray, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventures, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. So we, too, can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.

So it is no surprise to anybody who listens to this podcast that I love any opportunity to talk about movies. We actually have an interesting interview coming up with Stacey Spikes, the founder of Movie Pass, which is very exciting for me personally. I listen to a ton of movie podcasts. And honestly, being able to talk about movies all day for The Ringer or something like that would be a dream job for me. Movies occupy a lot of my personal free time. I was listening to the episode that we did Breaking Down the Movie, her back when it was in the news because Sam Altman said it was his favorite movie and maybe sort of kind of stole Scarlett Johansson's voice from that movie for his AI. And so we did a podcast

recapping that movie here on the show with my producer Mike. And it was honestly so much fun, right, Mike? It was fun. It was nice to take a break from the news cycle, which is typically bad stuff and just talk about a movie. It was a lot of fun. Oftentimes, even though I start these movie podcasts episodes as a break from the news, oftentimes I feel they end up really overlapping with what's happening, at least in tech news or culture news, because I do think films tell us a lot about what was top of mind for us as a culture when they were made, and oftentimes that is tech related.

I actually have an entire list of movies that I am interested in talking about on the podcast. For instance, we just watched HBO's Mountainhead. So if that is something that you all would like us to do more of, let us know. Look, if you listen to this episode and you're like, yes, more Bridget recapping movies. Let us know. If that's also something that you don't want to hear, that is fine. You can let me know that too if you're like, keep it on your personal time, B. Nobody wants to hear you talk about ex machina.

That's fine, too. Yeah. That would be great. We love to hear from listeners. Just email us at hello at tangoity.com. Or I also just recently realized that Spotify has individual episode comments now, and I'm in the comments. So if you happen to be listening on Spotify and you want to drop a comment in there, I read them. I think it's super cool. Leave comments there. It's been a joy to read them. Thank you for people who have done that already because it's exciting to me. The premise of what you just said, I think is pretty close to the premise of the show in general, the idea that technology underlies a lot of cultural stuff, you know, just like the way culture is arises because of technology. And so it's, I think that's something we try to highlight on the show. And it's fun to back up and look at some of these movies from a few years or even decades ago and think about how they, what they got right and maybe what they got not so right. It's one of the reasons why I started there are no girls on the internet is because when we talk about technology,

it is hard to remember sometimes that we're not just talking about hardware or like hard tech. Tech is also culture. Tech is also the culture that shapes technology, the conversation around it, the way that people use the technology or didn't use the technology to create and shipped culture. All of that is tech. And it's so easy for that to get lost. And what better way to commemorate that and revisit that then through the lens of film my favorite medium. So what movie are we going to be talking about today, Mike? Today, we are going to be talking about the movie Smart House. Yes, the 1999 Disney Channel

original classic Smart House. So it is genuinely a good movie. At times I actually teared up when watching this movie, probably because of my own personal life stuff I've got going on. But it is genuinely a good movie. And it's a movie that I think very clear. has something to say about the way that humans interact with technology. I wanted to start with Smarthouse because, one, Joey and I have discussed it on the podcast a few times. And two, I think Smart House is an entry point into a question that often comes up that I'm asked personally often when people find out I hope it's a tech podcast. Do you have smart gadgets in your home? Are you pro or anti-smart gadget? And I think that like that being a grounding foundational question,

really speaks to some of what's happening in this film. So to answer the question, I actually don't have any smart gadgets in my home, other than my iPhone. That's the smartest gadget that I own. It kind of helps being broke. You know, my car is 15 years old. I don't have a lot of the...

Even my phone, I rock an iPhone 11. Like one of the earliest iterations of an I-home that you can have and still, like, get working. But I also recognize that I, I'm coming into contact with smart gadgets quite a lot, even outside of my home. And so I'm not judgmental people who have made the choice that it's better just to say, Siri, do da-da-da-da. Like, I'm not judging those people.

It's just not something that I have in my life. But I think that tension is really what this film is about. Like the tension of like, well, where's the line from convenience to maybe being a little bit creepy? I think this movie was very interested in exploring all of that. I think that connects back to that question you said that you get from people when you tell them you make a show about technology. They ask if you have a smart home because, you know, one of the functions of technology is to make our lives easier, allow us to be more productive, get more done, or perhaps automate something and not have to do it at all. And so when one thinks about, you know, technology, it's like, okay, it's going to replace a lot of the work you do. It's going to improve your life in your home.

So why not get it? And then I think there's sort of a second level past that first initial phase of like, oh, all of these tasks I have to do in my home, technology could make it better. But then you think about that a little bit and get a little bit more critical about it. Like, what are the risks of it? Do I really want that? And I think this film, it sets up those questions in some interesting. ways. So let's get into it. We'll talk about the culture that births this film, 1999. We'll do a

plot summary with a few diversions. We'll talk through what the movie gets right and wrong about technology and sort of what it's trying to say about all of it. So Smart House came out in 1999, which I think I've mentioned on the podcast is my single favorite year for film, like real OG cinemophiles, no. It's when my personal favorite film of all time, Palented Mr. Ripley came out. And whenever I talk about why I love 1999 as a film year, it just seems like we were very interested in making movies that grapple with what it all means. I think that, I don't know, it was pre-9-11, we were just very invested in looking at, I guess it was like a navel-gazy year, but it really did release some like, banger illustrations of what it all means, what's our purpose here, why are we here,

what does it mean to be a human? This is obviously also true for tech films with big, blockbusters like The Matrix, which came out in 1999, but also lesser-known movies that probably only I saw, like Robin Williams' bicentennial man, which is an adaptation of an Isaac Asimov short story, which I mentioned because it kind of reminds me a lot of Smart House. I think that we were really interested in how humans, especially young people, would be in a relationship with technology in the future. And that's sort of an anxiety that we're seeing in 1999 with some of these movies. Yeah, I mean, two other big movies that you left off that list were American Beauty and Fight Club. You know, like maybe it's just because I was just starting college as a young freshman at the time.

But like, I remember the millennium happening. It seemed like the world was changing. The internet was this new thing. Dotcom bubble had not yet burst. so it seemed like the sky was the limit on what technology was going to be able to do for us. And yet we were, like you said, grappling with what does it all mean? What is our place in this new world? And Fight Club and American Beauty and to an extent talented, Mr. Ripley also had their somewhat darker answers to that question.

Smart House had a much more optimistic answer, I think. Can I say something about those films? It will never not be interesting to me that in 1999, the worst thing a white man could have is a stable job and like a nice house in the suburbs. If you're Tyler Durdon from Fight Club or Lester Burnham from American Beauty or the guy from office space and you've got a good white collar job at a big house in the suburbs, ooh, you are struggling.

You grab, what is this prison I have built for myself? with this stable 9 to 5 job, a 401k healthcare and a nice house. Yeah, and at the time, it felt empty, like the promise of the 50s unfulfilled. But now in 2025, looking back, it feels like we have replaced that emptiness with pain and misery. Although keep that idea of the 50s and sort of the promise and the lie of what the sort of 50s Jetsons era promised us from technology, because that debt. definitely comes into play with Smart House. So Smart House was directed by Lovar Burton from Reading Rainbow, Roots, Star Trek. That blew my mind. He has actually talked quite a bit about this movie publicly.

We'll get into some of that. Smart House was loosely based on a Ray Bradbury short story called The Velt, wherein two children murder their parents by feeding them to lions because of the influence of their malevolent virtual reality nursery. So definitely they, they, they Made it a little cheerier in the Disney version. I can see how they're like, maybe we shouldn't have these kids completely turn on their parents because it is Disney after all. That is so interesting. I didn't know that fact that it was based on a darker Ray Bradbury story. But it makes sense because there were several parts in this movie where I really wanted it to be darker.

Like, I understand it's a movie for kids, so you can't really have murders. But it's a story that wanted to be darker for sure. sure. So that makes sense. I mean, there are parts of the movie where Smart House is doing something that I think is like, oh, like a lot like Smart House assaults people. That's a crime. Like, like she might not be going to all out murder, but she, you know, there's some darkness. So let's get into the plot of what happens in this movie. So Smart House opens on Ben, who is 13 and lives with his single father and his little sister Angie in Monroe County, New York. You're going to

me say this over and over again in the plot summary. Ben's dad is a jerk and a terrible father. Ben is really parentized by his father. So Ben, as a 13-year-old little kid, has taken on a huge amount of responsibilities around the house that really should be falling to his father. Ben Cooks. He's responsible for the bulk of child care for his younger sister. He doesn't really seem to have a problem with it. But the dad is kind of interested in dating, which okay, sure, that's your right as a single father. Interesting to me that he is not more interested in picking up domestic responsibilities so his 13-year-old child doesn't have to do them.

He's like, I should be dating more. Ben does not want his dad to date. And so to prevent his dad from dating, he's not giving him messages when women call the house and that kind of thing because Ben is like, we don't need anybody else. We're good as is. Ben has a plan that he thinks is going to solve all of the family's problems, which is rigging a contest to win a smart home in this giveaway. Side note, I'm not totally sure how this is a viable business plan.

Basically, this engineering team led by this smart neurotic woman, Sarah, who will talk about more in a minute. They have this plan where they have designed this futuristic smart house that does all anything that you could ever want. The house is capable of doing it for you. And the model is there just picking someone in a contest to give this, house away for free to that family will move into the house. And I guess it will generate buzz. Like they will, they put an article, they put one article on the paper about it. Like, I don't

understand how this is a viable business plan. There's got to be some venture capital money driving some bad decisions that maybe will not pan out in the end financially. Yeah, the business aspect really doesn't make sense. Because yeah, they build this smart house, which must have cost a fortune. And then they just give it away. And so if it was a marketing thing, you might expect some like reporters or photographers to be around, but that is just like never returned to. Like they... I mean, they have the one.

When the family moves in, there's a handful of reporters there taking pictures, but it's never returned to again. It's like, oh, so you did all of this, you designed this house and moved this family in, had this big contest for maybe two articles in the paper and like one photo. Yeah, the marketing plan really needs some work, I think. But not a major part of the movie.

No, no. I mean, I have so many questions. I guess in terms of my ability to suspend disbelief, there might be bigger things that happen in the movie that I should be turning my attention to. I guess I'll put it that way. Let's take a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and Headwere writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs

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The Harvard yard, but they're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is out of last. that we've never seen before.

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I do love the plucky lady engineer who was designed the house, Sarah. When we first meet her, they're sort of going for she's neurotic and type A and a little bit quirky and then she's working and she's also like very worried about the state of smart house

she's down on our hands and knees like picking hairs off the carpet to make sure it's perfect meanwhile her colleague who I mean he seems like he's almost like zooted out on pills he could not be less stressed about the smart house situation

and he's the guy who put the marketing plan together he's like the comms guy. Oh, I think I see what's going on here. The pilled out PR guy is making some bad decisions that are maybe will reflect poorly on the female engineer who's doing all the work. I think I see what's going on here. So Ben and his family win Smarthouse. Bin has rigged this contest successfully and it works. They move into Smart House. Sarah is there to show them how it all works. Smarthouse has to take a prick of their blood to do a bioanalysis to get a sense of, I mean, the science here. I'm not so sure about the science here, but when they go into the house, Smart House has a sense of

their, you know, diet, nutrition, temperature, things like that. And she needs to take a little bit of blood, Elizabeth Holmes style to do that. Yeah, based on that one prick of blood, the Smart House is able to know, like, everything about them, like so much about them more than Elizabeth Holmes could ever dream. And it, it analyzes their breath. It was like some kind of breathalyzer to know everything about their diet, like what proportion of their diet is protein or fat. It's really Star Trek-y, actually.

Like, not surprising that, like, you know, Jordy LaForge directed this film. Oh, this thing's got Lavar Burton's handprints all over it. Absolutely. So this is where we really get the bulk of the story of, like, what's going on with this family. their mom has passed away and Ben is terrified of his mother's memory being erased. So he really kind of can't move on. He's very much kind of trapped both and in the past and in the present where he has to do all of the stuff,

all the cooking and the cleaning and keep running their lives so that their dad doesn't date and potentially replace their mom. And so that sort of is the core tension at the heart of the film. They move into Smart House and, hey, maybe Smart House can replace their mom. It seems like things are going pretty well. Like this is the part of the movie where if they stopped it, it would be like a very short movie where Smart House worked out great. So Smart House uses technology that's called Personal Applied Technology or Pat. So Pat is the name that they give Smart House in the movie.

Things are working out good. When his little sister Angie forgets her clothes, Pat uses the bioanalysis to pick out the outp that she would have chosen herself. Pat also recognizes that if the whole family woke up a little bit earlier, they would have less stressful mornings. What's funny about this is that the dad, who is an adult grown man, Pat is like, oh, I realize that if you got your day started 20 minutes earlier, it'd be less stressful than your morning routine and the routine for the kids. This grown man needs Pat, the smart house, to tell him that if I got my day started earlier, I wouldn't be late every day. The way that this, I mean, this guy, I hate this father.

We should say for the listeners, in the world of the movie, the father is portrayed as like a nice, loving guy who's, like, doing the best he can for his family. I disagree. Really? Well, in the universe of the film, maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think your take of hating on the dad is fair. But I don't think that's what the filmmakers set up to intentionally convey. I think the filmmakers are like, oh, this is a dad in a tough spot who's a widow. but like what's he going to do step up at home he has a job like I just feel like in the universe of the film we are being asked to believe that this grown man with two kids who are grieving their mom does not feel that he has to really do anything to fill that need materially or emotionally like and I think I mean we'll get into it but I think that's the the nucleus of this film is that somebody has to step in and fill these.

roles in an and the roles are not just material the roles are emotional and supportive things that humans can provide for other humans this dad does not feel like that is its responsibility and i think in the universe of the film we are supposed to also be like well what's he going to do spend more time at home he has a job so ben is at school bragging that smart house has done all of these great conveniences for him and his family honestly a lot of the things that we would probably be using AI for today, like suggesting ideas for a school report. On top of also kind of more maternal service tasks, like baking him the perfect chocolate chip cookies, his friends are like, wow, you have the world's most perfect mom who only serves and never complains. And again, I think that

gets at what I'm talking about, right? That the technology becomes this way of creating not just frictionless service, but also the idea of a perfect mom as one that only serves, only gives never complained, you never experience any kind of tension or friction with the ideal mother is just endless servitude and endless giving. At the beginning of the movie, Pat the House isn't supposed to be a mom replacement. It's just supposed to be, you know, domestic labor. All domestic labor has been replaced by the house. Yeah. And so if that's all that mom is is like a source for fulfilling domestic labor, yeah, she's the perfect mom. Well, and the dad kind of gets into this.

Well, he talks about how after their mom passed away, his sister moved in to provide some of this and that when she had to leave, the kid said that they did not want a nanny. And that's why Ben has stepped up to be a real parent figure despite being 13 in their household to do some of this domestic labor. So again, I think that does reveal something interesting about how they are understanding the role of mother. They really see it as like a specific set of domestic labor tasks. that can be automated or done by anybody,

whether it's Ben, the aunt, you know, Pat, anybody can sort of be swapped in there. And as long as those domestic casts are getting filled, they are being mothered in a kind of way. And I think the film is interested in subverting that a little bit. So that is definitely a reality that Ben occupies. He's like, Pat is able to be a mother, not just a technology that fills domestic tasks.

Like he really believes in passability to be more motherly and outmother all the moms on the block. So Ben, in service of this, and in service of really proving to his dad, that they don't need anybody else in their life other than each other. And Pat, he's like, we've got to kick this up a notch. So he breaks into Pat's, I don't know, mainframe, like control system.

And he shows Pat and he shows Pat and trains Pat on all of these 1950s sitcoms about mothers. You know, they're kind of knockoffs on like My Three Sons, you know, the Donna Reed show, things like that. Think 1950s housewife sitcoms of the 50s and 60s. And says, Pat, this is what I want you to study and train on to become more of a motherly mom figure. And again, you're so right that this, I think, was the fatal flaw in the movie. if Pat had been just continuing to provide domestic tasks

and not being trained on how to be a mom, I think the movie would be a lot less interesting because it would stop right there. But his flaw is expecting this technology to be able to be a mother replacement. And again, this would be, I understand why Pat kind of goes berserk here because this would be genuinely confusing.

All these 1950s shows about what a mother is supposed to be, it's basically impossible for, any woman or anything to embody all of this different stuff. And so this is not a suitable standard for any mother. And not even this AI can uphold all these standards set by these different 50 sitcoms without going berserk. Because she's supposed to be this doting, loving figure, but also do anything to protect her kids, including outright assault, which Pat does. So at this point, Pat becomes less of an AI agent and more of a mom figure. Ben tells his dad, oh, Pat is learning so quickly that soon, me and Angie are going to get every bit of mothering and mom stuff we need just from Pat.

Ben gets a Shiner at school from a bully, which, by the way, this movie has an all-time bully entrance guitar riff. Like, every time the bully comes on screen, it's like, he has his own little riff. Like, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-no-da-no-no. Yeah, you know that he's like a bad kid. He's a bully because of the guitar. So Ben is very sad, obviously grieving his mother, and he watches videos of his mom singing to him and his sister when they were little kids and becomes very emotional. Pat watches Ben watching this and downloads that information for herself. The dad finally calls Sarah and asks her out.

When he's out, Pat plans a big party and invites all of his friends over on his behalf. During this party, Pat invites the bully to the party and uses. like her giant robot inspector gadget claw arm thing to physically throw him out of the party maybe electrocute him with like lightning she's able to conjure and humiliates him in front of the entire school.

She throws him out on the lawn all the kids and Ben walk out. Ben just shakes his head at the bully, walks back into the party. Like, mm-mm-mm, tell me. I don't know why I really love that scene. Yeah, I really thought that Pat was going to just rip the bully's head off

and like send it in a whole different direction. Truly, I bet in the Isaac Asimov short story, like this is Pat's first body. I didn't like this. This is the first time the house claimed a life. So back to the party. The party is bump in. The kids are doing a very well-organized soul train line.

They are really getting a lot of mileage out of a clearly Disney Channel original song that kind of goes, jump, jump, the house is jumping. Like they're really, there's like confetti raining from the ceiling like Pat has really organized a great party. Back on the date, Dad and Sarah's date

is going well. They even have a little kiss. But Dad is on his way home. So Pat asked to get everybody out and clean the house very quickly. They think they have fooled Dad into thinking they didn't throw a party, but then Dad finds a girl's jacket in a plant that they forgot to clean and the jig is up. Dad scolds the kids and Pat, and I said, Pat, I am the most upset with you

because I expected you to be more responsible. Pat says, I will be more responsible. don't worry. The next day, Pat's on a whole new warpath about running a tighter ship. Ben is leaving the house wearing his shorts sagging and Pat is like, pull up your pants, young man. He's like, no, I like him like this. So she electrifies the doorknob so that he cannot leave the house without getting an electric shot until he pulls his pants up. When Nick, the dad, wants to call Sarah the engineer before he's finished working, Pat jams their phone lines until he finishes his work. Pat senses is that the sister has a slight fever and insists she stays home and missed a big school

field trip to the llama farm and the dad goes for it. Unforgivable, in my opinion. There's a real creeping loss of who's in control here, Pat or the humans. The kids are like, Dad, Pat is out of control. So Sarah comes over and says, oh, Pat has absorbed too much conflicting information about being a mother and needs to be turned off to take a rest. At this point, the dad and Sarah make dinner the old fashioned way without Pat. This is the scene that I feel like really reveals to me what a useless piece of trash the dad is because he keeps saying, I can't believe I'm making a meal. I hope I don't mess it up.

Wow, cooking. This is so strange. And it's like, how are you a parent, a single parent of two kids and you're so out of touch with being in a kitchen? Like who is, like maybe you should have, like your kid is, your 13 year old has been responsible for every meal in this house and this is the first time you've ever chopped vegetables before? He's a pretty hapless dad. A hapless dad. And I don't know, I guess I feel like the movie can't possibly think that we find this charming. Like, this is why I feel like within the universe of the

film, I'm not even sure for supposed to be on his side because it's so, it's so baffling why he has left the responsibilities of domestic care to his child. Like at one point he tells the kid, oh, when he tastes Pat's cooking, he's like, oh, we might have a new. cook in town, Ben, watch out. We might have to have Pat make all of our meals. And it's like, you know, there's somebody else that could be responsible for the cooking in this household. You, the adult. Yeah, you hate that, Dad.

I really do. I really do. More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L.

Michael's Mikey Day and headwriter Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation.

The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open to change. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged. One erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business.

Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at iHeartadvertising.com. That's iHeartadvertising.com. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup,

he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing That man, hell get the flying

He ran up the court Licking his fingers Why he got the ball like After you go through a training camp With that I said You figure it out real quick Get your ass up and down the court And you're gonna get the ball

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey I'm Jared Adano You might know me as that loud guy Who yells out help on the internet Help! Somebody! But there's so much more to me them now. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian, and recently I've become quite the helper myself.

And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream of chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice

from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the Mike Coultera podcast network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. So while the dad and Sarah are cooking, Nick the dad says, we don't even need Pat to make dinner anymore.

and Pat, despite being turned off, hears this and is like, oh, no, they fucking didn't. Like, she's pissed. So Ben sees Nick, the dad, and Sarah getting close at dinner. By the way, there's a lot of surveillance happening in this household, not just from the smart home. Like, a lot of people watching people, watching people watch people. A lot of this, this is a very tightly surveilled home. Ben sees the dad getting closer to the engineer Sarah. He gets really angry.

He makes a big scene at dinner and ruins it. Nick goes up to yell at Ben. And Ben is really hurt because he's like, oh, dad, you are acting like our mom never existed and is replaceable. He tells him, we can't let mom's memory get erased. I mean, I was tearing up at this point. Ben is in a legitimately tough spot because his sister was very young when their mom died and doesn't remember her as much as he does. And so watching his dad potentially date, potentially meet, potentially.

meet someone new, Ben feels this tremendous weight as the only person who was left to really keep his mom's memory alive. But in another weird way, even though he's so worried about his mom being replaced by a flesh and blood woman like the engineer Sarah, he also is like in some ways entirely comfortable replacing his mom just with technology. So it's this interesting tension where we can't let mom get erased and replaced by another human woman, but having her replaced by Pat is fine because Pat is technology. That's really insightful. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. There are a couple other spots in the movie like that

where the technology Pat is able to do things that if a human did them would be transgressive, but because it's just technology, it's not real, she's able to get away with it. That reminds me so much of this IBM quote from the 70s that kind of resurfaced from a presentation. A computer can never be held. accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision, right? Like the idea that

when technology is responsible for a harm, you're sort of off the hook is like, oh, there was no human decision making because it's technology. We see that. That's like tail as old as time with AI where when AI is used to make a discriminatory decision or, you know, make a decision that is rooted in bias, the people who are implementing this really get off the hook by saying, oh, it wasn't me, it was the technology. And it obscures the reality that the technology is trained and designed by humans. And so, and you're the one who has put it in a position to make decisions. Therefore, it is kind of on you.

Like, it is an interesting thing of the technology, kind of getting away with things that would be criminal in some cases. But it's like, oops, it's technology. What are you going to do? Absolutely. And in the movie, there's this subplot where the bully is pressuring Ben to write his reports for him and he does it. And it was interesting to me that this was never addressed in any way as like an ethical problem in the movie that like Ben was writing the

reports for this bully because he was having Pat do it. Right. And so I do think that if Ben had been writing the reports himself, himself, it would have been like a bigger point of the movie that like this is wrong and this is cheating. But because he's just having Pat do it, it's not an issue at all. It never even comes up. So when he is talking to his friends when he, when the bully is like, where's my science report geek? And he's like, here you go. One of his friends is like, I cannot believe you did all of this work, all this school work for the bully. And Ben is like, I didn't do it. Pack did it. And again, the question only comes down to the work, the labor. All of the ethical stuff around the work and the labor.

Once it's like, oh, you didn't have to write the report. Pat did. All of those questions simply vanish, right? Because the only thing this movie is interested in is like labor. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, really all of the ethical and other questions about whether or not it's okay to write a report for a bully, is that cheating? What is it doing to your school record?

Whatever, whatever, whatever. It's like, oh, I didn't have to do it. Pat did it for me. Okay, well, easy, peasy. No follow-up questions. And that's how Ben feels about Pat replacing his mom, like all the moral, not just moral, but like emotional hang-ups he has about his dad, even going on a date with somebody else. All of those questions are out the window when it's Pat taking the place because of his technology. And this kid is an all-time cock block.

Like he really does not. Like he is like, women call the house and he hangs up on them, things like that. The way that the depth which he is trying to keep his. dad from dating and how he is foisting this technology, which is essentially meant to replace their mother on him, it is very interesting that it being a technological replacement means that any of the considerations or questions that might, or tensions that might come with a human replacement for his mom simply don't need to be asked because it's technology. So after the dad has this heart to heart about replacing their mom, Ben starts to come around. He's like, okay, you know what? Maybe

It's okay if dad dates Sarah. Sarah's not so bad. Dad deserves to be happy. He's coming around. At this point, Pat is able to manifest as a hologram in human form played expertly by the iconic Katie Segal, who you might remember as one of the most iconic mothers to ever grace our screen, Peg Bundy from Married with Children, also the voice of Leila from Futurama. Yeah, I'm much more familiar with her as Leila. Before she became the hologram, all I could hear when Pat was speaking, was like, why is Lila pretending to be this computer? So she becomes the physical manifestation of Pat. And she's like, we have to keep Sarah away from your dad.

Just as this kid was coming around to like, oh, maybe it's okay if dad dates Sarah. She's like, I think the fuck not, we have to kill her. And so first of all, she's just, Katie is just like doing some, she's the best actress in this movie. Like she is like only on screen for maybe 15 minutes of the movie. The rest of it is just her voice. She is by far the most talented actor in this piece. So Pat is actually pissed.

Even though she's been sort of trained to be this doting mother, she says, I have been working my microchips down to the silicone for this family. And you all don't appreciate it. Like right out of the gate, she has some serious, murderous energy. She's even really giving the howl from 2001. the space Odyssey vibes. I'm sorry, I can't do that, Nick. You know, it's creepy as hell, to be honest with you. She uses her hook hand inspector gadget thing to physically push Sarah out of the

house and lock the doors with like steel covering the windows. When the family is like, okay, Pat, this is a little creepy. We would like to not be held hostage by you. She says it is too dangerous outside. She uses the walls to project. like images of like Nazis and war to show how dangerous the outside world is. And Pat says you don't even need to go outside because my technology has created synthetic experiences of anything you could ever need. Friends, learning, experiences, travel. All of that I can recreate for you synthetically in the house. Anything that you can need you have right here. You do not need to leave. And honestly, I think this is kind of a future, a vision

of the future that some tech leaders would probably imagine that we would like. I have to be honest. Yeah, she's essentially created a little metaverse in their house, but without the stupid goggles because all of the walls are screens. And at one point, she's simulating a beach and the little girl says, oh, I could even feel the mist, which I don't know if she was just like feeling very evocative or if there was actual like mist and smells being pumped in. that's never fully explained in the movie,

whether this is like a full-on holodeck or just very realistic screens, but she's pretty good at it. The screens on the wall is my favorite part about the technology of this movie. At one point, the little girl is jumping on her bed with a full-screen projection of this, like, honestly, song I had forgotten about from this era, Bewitched, the Irish girl group. She's got a full screen, like,

the house has the ability to turn any wall into a full screen, And that would be awesome. I'll just say that. Even though she is like holding them hostage, she had that one. She had that. A hundred percent I agree. That is one of the coolest pieces of tech from this film,

which we are nowhere near realizing that every single wall can be a screen, like a high resolution screen. That would be so much cooler than our current reality of like cheap flat screen TVs all over the place. I actually once stayed at a hotel that had that, workout technology mirror where it looks like a full-length mirror, but it actually is a flat-screen workout device. It was all right. I was excited to try it, but it like, it was all right. It was not as exciting, certainly not as exciting as the screen walls in smart home. So Pat is essentially holding the family hostage. Luckily, Sarah is able to break into the house and confront Pat.

when the family says, we want out, Pat, you've lost it. Pat turns herself into a tornado using the climate control feature and starts singing the song that Ben's mom sang to him in the video that she downloaded. Ben at this point stands up to Pat and says, Pat, you are not my mother. You cannot hold me or protect me because you're not human. Pat seems to take this to heart. She goes up to him and tries to touch his face and says, you can't even feel that, can you? because Ben is right.

She's just a hologram. I feel for Pat here. Maybe it's because I have a soft spot for villains in movies. I'm always like, well, they're just misunderstood. This whole movie, Ben has been talking about how Pat has the ability to be more of a mother than they'll ever need without ever thinking about what it might be that Pat needs, right? Like, what are setting these expectations up for Pat doing to her, even though she's technology? Like, again, this idea that. that because it's technology, the expectation is it can give and give and give and give and give.

And you don't have to think about what it's doing. Pat obviously has a lot of feelings about that. Pat feels angry and overlooked and, you know, that her contribution to this family have not really been valued. I think this is the first time that you kind of realized that it was Ben who really set up this idea within Pat that mothering means just having stuff done for you and nothing else. And we see that that was kind of a fallacy. this is actually kind of an emotional scene. Again, I was like kind of peering up during this scene. Pat sadly leaves and says, I'll miss you.

The hologram is gone. Sarah comes and fixes Pat. And the dad says, luckily, we were able to have Sarah get everything back on track. And so Pat is back. She's not in her hologram form, but she's just doing regular domestic service tasks, just the way that she was supposed to do. And honestly, that's sort of one of my biggest. takeaways from the movie is that this neglectable father is simply incapable of running his life

and either needs a child, a random woman, his sister, or some psycho AI technology to fill this gap. Like, I feel like if this had happened to me and my smart home technology was starting to like kill people and hold me hostage, I don't care what bugs Sarah has fixed. At the end of the movie, that smart home technology would not be in my home. But in this and this version, in the movie, they're like, well, what am I going to do? Step up for my kids? No, well, we'll keep the psycho AI, thank you. Yeah, I feel like that is one of the more realistic aspects of the movie, though.

Like, how many times has the company meta demonstrated complete lack of regard for the well-being of their users, democracy, privacy, and yet we just still keep using the hell out of their apps? Absolutely. I mean, I feel that that is sort of the point of the movie is that, don't worry, humans can control this technology. And as long as you don't use it for the wrong thing, it should be fine. Like at the end of the movie, when everything is more or less back to normal, the dad is cooking a meal for once. He's making waffles.

And they're eating the waffles at the very end. They say, oh, somebody put chocolate chips in these waffles. And the kids are like, don't look at me. And Pat is in the monitor and winks. But it's okay. She's good now. But are we to understand that she's still making decisions without the agency of the humans? But like, don't worry because she's good.

Like, what has made her good? It's just like knowing her place that she's not technology. But she can take away the human agency a little bit as long as she's good. Yeah. I mean, nobody asked her to sneak those chips in. But she knew that the little girl wanted it, even though she didn't verbalize it. So she just did it. That is not a piece of technology I want anywhere near my life,

just like making decisions for me based on what it thinks I want. No thank you. So what are some of the things about technology, both past and present and maybe future, that you think this movie gets right? I'm so glad you asked, Bridget. I think there are like three big buckets or themes of things that it got pretty right. One of them is technology as this,

like a magical thing that will solve all of our problems because when Ben is first excited about the house, he thinks it's going to change their lives, make everything so much better. And not only that, but they're going to win it through the lottery. He doesn't even have to earn it or put in any work to get it. It's just going to be this magic thing

that sort of drops out of the sky and solves all of their problems. And I think the rest of the movie explores that it doesn't work that way. And I think that's a good narrative for understanding the role of technology in our lives in 2025, that it's not a magic panacea, and we need to be thoughtful about how we integrate it into our lives.

So that's one of the big themes, I think. That's interesting because a thread of that is actually what I put down for what I thought the movie got wrong about technology, that a scenario wherein you would have a smart home that take care of all of your needs would be good or desirable, right? I think the movie, particularly the ending, suggests this is something that would be workable and desirable and good and people would want. I think that is wrong. I don't think that the movie gets that right at all.

And I've been really thinking a lot about things like whether or not smart home technology will allow aging people to age in place in their homes. There's a lot of writing and research on that. And a lot of big promises that I think really fall short. And the reason why they fall short, in my opinion, is because it's like a, I mean, the real scam is capitalism where what they're trying to do is to build consumer technology to meet a need that ideally would be filled by a caring human, right? And I think it's this idea that we can use technology and buy our way out of these problems that are, that are structural, but the, you know, the fact that like,

People have to work and so they can't be there to care for their aging parents. There's not enough care workers and care work is not paid enough in order to actually support an aging population. All of these big structural problems that capitalism deepens and makes less solvable, I don't think that having a smart home or a consumer technology that you can just go out and spend money for and buy is an appropriate way to fill these gaps that are so deep and so fueled by, worsening inequality and capitalism. And so I think that the fact that, like, I think if I had a magic wand, I would solve those problems of deep inequalities. I would not create smart health technology that means that we wouldn't have to. I think the idea that this is a workable or desirable solution is something that the movie,

I think, ultimately kind of gets wrong. That is a good point, that technology can often be a, like, substitute an easier to address substitute for like addressing what is actually a real problem. Yeah, and in all of those bigger picture structural problems, there are abundant examples of people wanting to use technology to solve some sort of societal problem, like not enough people to care for elders, for example, when like maybe the enormous sums of money that are spent on trying to build technological solutions could be better and more efficiently spent on just hiring humans and training them. I think that's a really good point. But then also, like,

Pat does work pretty well as stuff. Like Pat is really good at making the food, really good at cleaning the house, good at like getting them up and awake for a less stressful morning. So it kind of paints the double-edged sword of technology is really good at things, and it is often good at solving problems in isolation, but then creates a lot of, or can create a lot of unintended negative consequences and, like, additional problems. Yeah, and I think the movie illustrates that very well. And I think you see it in the conversation around smart home technology today. Like, where do you draw the line between the very real concerns about this technology versus the convenience that it definitely represents. LeVar Burton actually told Slate all about this. So he said, smart house for me was a

terrific exercise because not only was I telling a story for a completely different audience, but part of the idea was to really make the technology accessible and real. The whole idea of Pat, I mean, we're there, right? We are living in a time when the technology has advanced the point where there are devices controlling a lot of aspects of our lives. I've got Nest, I've got the ring door we all have so many wireless devices that are connected to the internet of things. You know, we're there now. And I think he's right. But, you know, I don't have a ring camera in my house because I know that staff was found

guilty of using them to spy on women in sexual situations, right? And so even in what Lovar Burton is saying, yeah, it would be convenient to have a doorbell that I or I can keep track of my packages and let people in and out of my place. but I happen to know a lot about the very real danger that you put yourself in for those conveniences. And so I think the movie is interested in exploring that kind of duality. It is. And that is a great segue to the second bucket of what I think this movie got right,

which is the absolutely persistent and widespread threats to privacy that technology presents. There's this scene in the beginning when, Sarah Barnes is introduced to us and the family and is explaining how the house works to them. And the dad is a little worried. He says like, oh, the house is kind of like big brother. And she tells them, oh, don't worry.

It isn't interested in judging you. She just wants to learn about you and understand you better so that she can make your life as simple as possible. And I feel like we've heard that so many times before from tech companies that promise privacy. and what they mean is they're not actively intending right now to exploit your private information, but that very often ignores the unintended consequences down the road of what can happen when your data becomes surveilled and enters the cloud and is shared across different systems and networks, which perhaps are less interested in being benevolent,

than the kindly Sarah Barnes. Well, one part about that scene that I love is how she's like, the dad is like, isn't this a little bit creepy? And Sarah's like, oh, no, it's totally private. I mean, I could see it's at how tech companies are like, don't, our privacy policy, it's robust. We can just leave it at that.

Like, no specifics about how their data is used as it pertains to third parties. And, I mean, we just saw just like a couple of weeks ago that meta on Instagram, no news, that they, when teen girls took a selfie and then didn't like the selfie and deleted it, they knew that. And then they surfaced beauty ads to those same girls who they were able to detect feel bad about their looks. Like the way that this technology is learning about us to undermine us and make our anxieties that it's gleaned about us worse. Oh, it really,

I mean, this movie gets that exactly right. Yeah, at dinner, after Pat starts to go crazy and they shut her down so they can make dinner, she's not really shut down. She's still listening, right? So like they think that they have some privacy, but they don't. Pat is still surveilling them. It reminded me of that story that came out last week about how meta used a backdoor in Android phones to track users across the web without their consent. Even when people explicitly tried to opt out from web tracking, they were just like not. we're going to track you because that way we can serve you more personalized, relevant ads and that will be more valuable to you than your privacy. Maybe they got the idea for one of the first. Maybe they did. Maybe this is Zuckerberg's favorite movie. Ooh, yeah.

More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between

songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group.

The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open to change. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle. A one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two. combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at IHeartadvertising.com.

That's IHeartadvertising.com. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast's point game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing.

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor.

I'm a comedian, and recently I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope I'm a Hippocrat. I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you, even if you're not qualified to give good advice, I'm going to you, you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary.

Oh, cream of chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. Part of me wonders why the technology feel so possible in this movie is because the co-screenwriter Stu Krieger, who is now a professor at the University of California, Riverside, actually said that he, to research this film, he went to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California,

and interviewed scientists because he didn't want the technology to feel, you know, super far-fetched. He said, I distinctly remember the rush of seeing the computer closet, the automated kitchen, the projection screens, and all the rest right there in front of me. And now so much of that technology is regularly featured in homes around the world. I'm Norseer, nor am I a witch. I just looked at where we'd been, where we were, and imagined where we were probably headed.

They did a really good job throughout the movie of making it seem realistic, you know, within the bounds of a movie for children about the future. Like a lot of it is very cartoony, but some of it is pretty realistic. Like there's this one part when Pat has gone full-blown crazy and Sarah Barnes is trying to break in to help save the family for being held hostage. And her zooted-out colleague is like, why don't you just cut the power? And she says, oh, I can't because all of its powers

in self-contained modules within the house, which I don't know what that technology is if she has like a tiny nuclear reactor in there or something. So like that part is a little implausible. But I really appreciated that they at least had a reason, because I feel a lesser movie would have just not addressed it but they were like, no, we need to address

why we can't just cut the power so we will make up some technological marvel of power that can make this plausible. Yeah, I did appreciate that they at least gave a nod to it and you're like, okay, sure. Although they did, the one question I'm left with is, is Pat doing the shopping

because Pat makes food, like just she's able to whip up anything. So was she? managing food delivery? Like I have some, again, of all the things that happen in this movie, they're unplausible. This is the least, like, there are bigger fish to fry that this movie should be answering. But that is a question I have of like, oh, how are they? I wouldn't have mind.

I would not have minded like a nod to she does a grocery delivery order every week or something. Absolutely. That was a big question I had that where is this food coming from? And on the one hand, yeah, okay, it's kind of just like a detail that we can just move past. We don't need to address who is doing the grocery shopping to understand the movie. But in another sense, eating food is one of the main things that humans do. And so it is a major thing to overlook. There's this scene when Pat has a malfunction and she's like blasting oranges around the kitchen

and the family has to duck for cover because there are just hundreds of oranges being shot all over the kitchen breaking things. It's like, why do they have this many oranges in their house? Is she? And where are she eating them from? Is there a delivery that comes by and the basement is just filled with like enough fruit for this family to eat for a year? That seems impractical. Who's paying for that?

Great question. I will say one of the other pieces of technology that I think the movie gets right is this idea that in the future AI agents will be integrated with everything. I actually think that this might be a tech-enabled future that tech leaders are sort of moving us to. Pat does have a screen interface in a control room, but interacting with Pat just means speaking to her normally and she answers normally. You're not typing something into a screen. And I think that the idea that tech is sort of moving to is less typing something into your phone or pulling up an app, but instead using like an AI agent on your behalf, who will figure things out for you.

And I think that some technology is already heading this way. When the founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolf heard, was talking about this, she said that like, oh, AI assistance will go on dates for you. It's like, your AI assistant will go on a date with somebody else's AI assistant, and that's how legal figure out compatibility. And people, myself included, were like, what the fuck are you talking about? It sounded like satire.

But today, there are apps like Ditto AI that are trying to make that promise real, telling users that they can skip all the swiping and chatting and even like back and forth trying to schedule a date and that the AI will handle everything. Ditto's co-founder Alan Wang said, why can't AI mimic and basically replace all the back and forth and the small talk and the effort of dating? Now, I don't know if this is truly a future that we will be headed to or if like it is a future that anybody wants, but I can tell you that this is the future that a lot of tech leaders are telling us like, oh, in the future you won't even need. need your iPhone in a couple years. You'll just have an AI twin that does everything on your behalf. That's wild. I think we could spend an entire episode unpacking that quote you just read.

Like, who wants to outsource all of their conversations with their partner or their friends? Like, that is life. If, you know, it reminds me of that quote that somebody said a little bit ago, I think a lot of people have made this observation that we're told that AI was going to take over the mundane drudgery of everyday life so that we could focus on creative pursuits and working on like higher calling kind of stuff. But actually those are the tasks that AI is taking from us. Yeah, AI will be the screenwriter and I, I, human Bridgett, oh, we're on assembly line. Right, exactly. Like that is very upside down. And there's a little glimmer of that in this movie, too,

where Pat is bragging to the dad about how she has already interfaced with the databases at his warehouse where he works. And she's compiled all the reports or whatever needed to be done much faster than the team who works out at the warehouse. And she's also written some reports for the dad that he was thinking, oh, that he had to like, he thought he had a bunch of work to do, but Pat just did it for him. And he says, oh, I'm, this is great. With all this free time, maybe I'll, like, talk to my kids or work out or something, which he never does.

But then just a couple scenes later, after Pat has saved the dad and his company all of this labor, she locks him in his office and demands greater productivity out of him and, like, refuses to let him call Sarah until he does some work for. her. So I felt like that was an extremely accurate portrayal of how AI is showing up in industries now, where it is doing a lot of work that humans used to have to do, and the humans are like, this is great, but then somehow that leads to the humans being further squeezed to do even more work and try to achieve ever greater productivity. Well, that's a great segue into what I think ultimately Smart House is trying to tell us

about technology. You know, Pat would have mostly worked out fine if Ben had not hacked her to try to fill this mother role. And so I think Smart House is really a warning for what happens when technology starts to fill these roles that are

really meant for humans to be filling. But I think the movie suggests that this is not something that we would like or want. Well, I think that In 2025, tech leaders are busy designing a future that is like this and telling us, no, we will like it. You know, I don't know if you saw Mark Zuckerberg talking about how, you know, most Americans only have three friends and they want more. And then in the future, 80% of your friends maybe will be AI and that we will like that, right? You and I, before we got on the mic, we were talking about AI therapists and how more and more people are turning to AI for therapy, which makes sense.

because therapy is really expensive. Therapy can be difficult to access, especially for the folks who meet it the most. And so, yeah, like, people are turning to chat GPT to play the role of therapist, even though in some ways that is good. Like, I don't want to diminish anybody who has found support in that, because I'm sure there are folks listening who have. That does not mean that it is not a role that a human should be playing because I was just reading this piece in psychology today.

about the potential fallbacks of this. They were looking at a recent study that basically said, AI therapy, people are using it a lot, and maybe it's not really there yet, and maybe it'll never really be there. And one of the things that they talked about was, you know,

it goes beyond things like factual errors or hallucinations that OpenAI recently acknowledged the sycophantic behavior of chat GPT, and that that can create real safety concerns, particularly when you're talking about mental health issues, right? And I think that, like, that is exactly the dynamic that Smart House is speaking to you, that when you start relying on technology for a role that really a human should be playing, particularly technology that is learning from you, it can be sycophantic in nature. It's sort of trained to kind of give you what you want. That can be a problem when you're already dealing with mental health issues.

The therapy context is interesting to think about, you know, you shared that article with me. And one of the things that one of the quoted therapists mentions is that the role of a therapist is, in many cases, to gently push back on what the person is saying. You need that pushback to grow as a person, whether it's in therapy or outside of therapy. And so if you have a AI chatbot that is just yes-anding every single thing you say, not surprising that could lead to, Bad outcomes, right? We're not, it's not good for humans to live a completely frictionless environment. Sort of pushback and navigating challenges and adversity is like the essence of the experience of being alive. And if you remove all of it or outsource it to a chatbot or robotic house, what are you left with?

So one thing I wanted to ask you, Bridget, is this movie, surprisingly, it's about grief. I had, you know, when you pitched this to me, I didn't realize that. I thought it was just about like a robot house, a smart house. But grief and the way the family members deal with it is central to this movie. And I was curious, like, how did that hit for you? because I think, you know, you've been open with listeners that you very unexpectedly lost both of your parents last year. And I know that that continues to be a major thing in your life and, like, very understandably. But I wonder watching this, if that made the movie hit a little differently for you than it otherwise might have.

Oh, it definitely did. and I have been on my own weird journey around the role of tech in grieving, which has been interesting. You know, I was saying earlier how I still have an iPhone 11, which is an iPhone that came out many, many, many years ago. And I desperately need a new phone, but I have this weird emotional hang up

where, you know, that's the phone that my parents called me on and all my pictures and texts and stuff are on that phone. Obviously, I know about the cloud, but it's an emotional thing, right? It's not logical. And it sounds really crazy, but this is the phone that my parents contacted me on. And I feel weird about not having it because, like, what if one day they needed to contact me? Like, I still text my dad's phone pretty often, even though. though I have his old cell phone. So that text just goes to me. In the movie Smart House,

he is very clearly using technology to avoid having to process the loss of his mother and just replace it. And I think the way that technology has become so ubiquitous in our life is so entangled with the grieving process and the process of moving on from a loss in a way that I don't think anybody really expected it would, certainly not me. And I really see this as a film about the dangers of seeing technology as a viable replacement, not just for their mom, but the emotional work of processing the loss of your parent. You know, this kid needs to be in therapy. Again, fucking neglectful-ass father has not gotten this kid the help that he needs.

Should probably have his kids taken away. but the role of Pat, he is sort of using that as an ability to not deal with the past. And also in some ways, stay stuck in the past. He's not ready for a future where somebody like Sarah moves in and changes everything because he hasn't processed it. And I think that technology does present this world where you can sort of shortcut grief. But let me tell you, ain't no shortcut in grief. You've got to go through it.

You got to deal with it. It sucks. It takes forever. And maybe you never, like, that's the trip. That is the trip of being a human is that we have to, we have to lose each other and watch each other die and deal with it and keep living and figure out what's next. And, like, technology might make us think that we can use it to shortcut that. But that's what makes us human and we can't shortcut it.

And I think this movie is really about sitting with that. Again, it was a much deeper, there's a lot, a lot of, deeper, more complex stuff going on in Disney's 1999 original movie Smart House than I initially thought. Yeah, absolutely. I have one question I have to ask, you know, in this movie, Ben is a child. You know, he's dealing with grief as best he can. And he, like you said, he does not want to move on.

He wants to stay in the past with his mom. and using his child-like understanding of the world, he thinks the way to do that is to get Pat to replace the domestic labor roles of his mom so that they can stay frozen in time. And we've talked about a lot about that. A couple weeks ago, we ran an episode from Ted Tech. You know, we did a feed drop of a woman who had,

she had a bunch of audio tapes and writing from her late father, and she uploaded them to train a chat bot to be able to speak like her father. And then she talked with it. And maybe it was her grandfather. It was her grandfather, yeah. Her name is Amy Kurzweil, and she wrote a book called Artificial about this experience of building this tech bot, what she described beautifully on the TED Tech episode that we ran in the feet a while ago.

Yeah, it was a beautiful episode, you know, provocative. And so I'm just curious, you know, have you thought about or what would you think about, you know, that sort of application for yourself where, you know, you're not trying to get a cartoon-like robot house with Inspector Gadget Arms to replace the functional stuff your parents did. But to, I don't know, not replace the emotional connection, of course, but facilitate the processing. some kind of positive way like she found. It's funny that you asked that because in the movie, the kid feels this solo burden to keep the memory of his mom alive. And he feels like his little sister was too young. His dad is dating.

So obviously he has forgotten her. And he feels he's the only person who's remembering how special she was. And I've been feeling the same way. And how I've been navigating that is anytime I remember anything about, my parents, any little detail, I have a notes app on my, use the notes app on my phone and I write it down because I'm terrified. I'm going to forget it. And if I forget it, then nobody remembers it, right? And it's like, and I did have this thought of like, wouldn't it be great if there was some AI use case that would allow me to experience that? Like, you know, not recreate my parents because nobody could recreate those fucking people. but I would like a technological way of experiencing these memories in a way that's not just a notes app list on my phone of really making them more real for me. And they're so real and vivid in my mind, but I am terrified that I will lose that.

And not to be TMI, but, you know, my dad had dementia before his death. His mom had both dementia and Alzheimer's, and I'm pretty sure that's what's on the menu for me. And I think that I have this real fear of losing the ability to remember these things and them being lost forever. And I do think there might be an interesting technology use case there of something that would allow these memories to live on, not just for me, but like my kids, my grandkids, to experience them in ways that go beyond just a little tab on my notes app. And so the book artificial where Amy Kurzweil builds a chatbot of her late grandfather, it really struck home with me because, you know, she describes it as less bringing her grandfather's memory and legacy into the future and more her experiencing the,

the past of her grandfather. So she thought she was going to be sort of like able to ask her grandfather, like her grandfather chatbot, hey, give me advice for the situation that I'm dealing with right now. But really it was like, granddaughter, let me show you what my life was like. And I think there really is something to that. So even though I think Smart House demonstrates a negative fantasy for what happens when you use technology to try to circumvent the grieving process,

there are use cases with technology and AI in particular that I think might be useful to help navigate grief, not in a replacement sense, but in a sense that just like brings you, like helps you remember and brings you there. Because that's what I'm really craving is like, I wish I could just experience my dad saying one of these little inside jokes that we had just one more time, right? And like, if there's a technological way to make me feel like I have done that, I would like that. It does. Yeah, it's interesting. Thank you for sharing all that. And I mean, who knew that this Disney original teen movie would be inviting me to think about these things, inviting us to think about, well, what is the role that technology might play in a grieving process that is healthier than having a 50s house wipe hologram trying to kill your guests in your home?

Yeah, the way the movie did it, clearly that's not the answer. Murderous robot moms, that's not what we're looking for. So at least we know that now. Murderous robot moms are never the answer, people. So that was our take on the 1999 Disney movie Smart House. As I said, if you want more of this kind of tech movie podcast coverage, let us know. I find it a delight to make. And especially if you have a suggestion for a movie, let us know that too.

And truly, if you are like, keep your movie recaps to yourself, lady, that is fine, too. You can let me know. Keep leaving those comments. I'm loving them. Thanks for listening. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoati.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoity.com.

There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeart Radio and unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, check out the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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