There Are No Girls on the Internet - Theo Von's empathy lacks accountability; Congress blocks AI regulation; Elon ruins the neighborhood; Verizon disconnects from DEI – NEWS ROUNDUP w/ Francesca Fiorentini

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Bridget recaps the week in tech news with friend of the pod Francesca Fiorentini, journalist and host of the hilariously smart podcast The Bitchuation Room. Podcast megastar and staunch Trump supporter Theo Von made headlines for a post calling what's happening in Gaza genocide:  https://www.newsweek.com/theo-von-gaza-video-donald-trump-middle-east-2075637 Congress's budget bill prohibits states from regulating AI: https://www.techpolicy.press/us-house-passes-10year-moratorium-on-state-ai-laws/ Elon Musk built an emissions-spewing gas power plant in the middle of a Black neighborhood: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/19/climate/xai-musk-memphis-turbines-pollution Back in 2020, Verizon was a vocal supporter of DEI, but now they've dropped all DEI policies to please their new Trumpian overlords:  https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5402863/verizon-fcc-frontier-dei-trump The Chicago Sun-Tribune published a list of summer books. It was generated by AI and most of the books are fake. Oops! https://www.404media.co/chicago-sun-times-prints-ai-generated-summer-reading-list-with-books-that-dont-exist/   Follow Francesca Fiorentini: https://www.instagram.com/franifio Listen to The Bitchuation Room: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bitchuation-room/id1438285775   Follow TANGOTI: IG @BridgetMarieInDC  TikTok @BridgetMarieInDC  YouTube: ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is another installment of our weekly roundup where we dig into stories that you might have missed on the internet so you don't have to. And I am so thrilled to welcome my guest co-hosts for our conversation today. Francesca Thuringini, journalist and host of the Bituation Room. Thank you so much for being here. Hey, thanks for having me, Bridget. So good to be back in a different era, but really the same era,

a continuation of the awfulness. Really happy to be here. We need more shows like yours. We need more voices like yours. I'm happy to see you everywhere. The bituation room is fantastic. Also, you've got a live show coming up, right? Yes, yes, yes.

If you're hearing this next Friday in Los Angeles, and you are in Los Angeles or want to get to Los Angeles. Yeah, Friday at the Elysian Theater, May 30th. We're going to fix L.A., Bridget, L.A., post-fires, pre-Olympics. It's increasingly unlivable. but council member Eunicez Hernandez, John Ida Rola of the damage report, someone from the Rent Brigade, which has been blowing the whistle on all the price gouging that realtors have been

doing. And Rachel Reyes of the LA podcast, which is an excellent podcast if people don't, people want some local politics podcasts. But yeah, it'll be good. It'll be good. Sometimes you've got to laugh to keep from crying when you're tuning into our political landscape these days. Indeed. So with that, are you ready to talk about some stories that are happening across the internet. So ready. Okay. So the first one is not even really a story. It's more just I want people's takes. This was blowing up in my kind of podcaster group chat. So I was like, you know what? I'll bring it to the podcast. Are you familiar with the podcaster Theo Vaughn? Yes. So for folks who don't know, Theo Vaughn is a super popular podcaster. He rose to fame on MTV's

Road Rules and like competition shows like The Challenge. He hosts a super popular podcast, a podcast but like I can have a million podcast in my life and it will not equal as popular as his show is. I would say that I personally believe that he is one of the reasons why Trump was reelected. Trump kind of agrees with me. Like he shouted out Theo Vaughn from his victory stage and like thanked him by name. He is like a pretty vocal supporter of Trump. He's had him on the podcast and everything. Was he at the inauguration, Bridget?

He was. He was. Ooh. And what's funny is that he kind of is doing like a, if you, if you watch that show, the Royal Gemstones, he kind of favors Keith. Like he wears like a mullet. Like that's kind of the, so like seeing him at the inauguration was like, huh, that's interesting. But Keith, Keith is a good person. Yeah, Keith's a good guy.

I don't know that I would qualify Theo Vaugh. Well, that's sort of the question that I'm bringing to the podcast. So on his podcast, he, this week, he was talking. about Gaza. Here's what he said on the podcast. Quick heads up, though, that we did edit this clip for length. You know, I wanted to say something.

There's been something that's just been kind of on my heart, and so I feel like I should bring it up. There is, you know, we've had people on the podcast in the past to talk about it. And there's just a, there's a conflict that's been happening in the Middle East. people know about it between Israel and Palestine and some of the areas over there, the Gaza area they talk about. And I just think it's, it feels to me, I don't know if I, it just, it feels to me like it's a genocide that's happening while we're alive here in front of our, in front of our lives.

and I don't sometimes I feel like I should say something I'm not a geologist or geographer or anything like that you know so I don't know a lot of the some of it I do know though like I know the basics of the issues over there but for me it's just like how I feel like you see all these photos of people just children women people body parts It's just people like putting their kids back together. And I just can't believe that we're watching that and that more isn't said about it. You notice like, what are we doing? So I'll stop it there.

When I saw this, my friends, my like podcaster friends know that I deeply dislike this person. I deeply dislike the Ovan. And people were dropping this clip in the group chat being like, oh, it's so good that he said something, you know, this clip got 20 million views, so they say on X. And I guess for me, I fully don't know what to do with this because on the one hand, I obviously support anybody who's using a platform to speak out against genocide. But this guy is like all in for Trump very vocally. And so I have a hard time kind of understanding how somebody can make a statement like this and seemingly not have the tiniest bit of like self-reflection on their part of it. And so this rapper,

Zach Fox wasn't having it. He said, don't let Theo Vaughan fool you. He'd be blowing a hook of smoke and doing key bumps with Trump, his family and the literal architects of the genocide he's state crying about. Then he posted a picture of Theo Vaughn with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, partying in Miami from Ivanka's Instagram just a few days ago and said, what do you mean what we are doing? Ask them, which I have to admit is like a pretty funny burn. Yeah. But, and like literally a few days before recording this, Theo was with Trump doing an opening set at a military base in Qatar. And so like, this actually turned into a bit of an argument because I, on the one hand,

totally understand how some of my podcast, my like leftist podcaster friends were like, anybody who's using their platform to speak up is doing a good thing. If 20 million people are getting eyeballs on this and he's making a different subset of the population think about this, that is a good thing. I can understand that point of view, but I just don't buy it. Yeah. I mean, first of all, I love the receipts that were brought against him by that rapper. Like I love and you're like, oh, I'm waiting for this to be really old.

No, no, no. It's from like a week ago, him sitting down with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. I mean, Jared Kushner, who spearheaded in part the Abraham Accords, which effectively completely cut out the existence of Palestinians from any kind of peace process in the Middle East, which is kind of, it's actually just an oxymoron to even say what I just said, because there can be no peace without, you know, Palestinians involved. And so that I think was really important. And also Jared Kushner stands to gain should Trump's ethnic cleansing of Gaza succeed and the Trump of, you know, the Riviera of the Middle East comes to pass. That's, Jared Kushner, as openly said,

this is beach from property. I mean, this is truly on the bones. of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Again, official death tolls stopped back when, you know, there was any kind of infrastructure to account for all the dead. But I really, I hate to come on this show and be like, I really agree with the host because I want to make it spicy and interesting. But Bridget, I super agree with you. Like, I really come down on, like, very, very similar to you on all of this.

And I will say two things about it. Like, I do think that the issue of Palestine is, and the issue of Gaza and the genocide that's happening, is so bipartisan. It's so blanket. It's almost cultural in terms of how much people are against this. And in ways that I think really supersede any party loyalty or any right-left situation. So I think that just has to be named that, like, people who are against genocide or also people who are like, I don't know, I don't vote. who what is a congress like there are people who are just like you know there's nothing to do with party and clearly from theo von dumbass talking his way through that like i'm not a geologist like bro

what are you talking about you were going to like stalactites here like what do we like geologist i mean a geographer none neither of those things actually relevant to this issue i'm not a geologist or a geographer um and then you know saying what he said so i feel like it's like it's both it's good that he said this to his massive audience but you're absolutely right if you have private audience with Donald fucking Trump, which he does, say something to his ass. Say something to that. Instead, it kind of feels like I feel like he probably got, he's got comments on it, people talking about it around him.

He just wanted to address it. And then he can kind of go on about his way and not do anything, activate his community, talk about how Trump is making it worse, talk about all of the genocidal things that the removal of Palestinians to what Libya is the new proposal. Mm-hmm. Receiving a fucking $400 million jet that now we know Trump's solicited from Qatar, you know, just like just to have. Yeah, it's pretty sickening.

And so no, I don't, you know, I have to come back to the like, it's not for us, Bridget. Like, there's a little bit of a like, it's not for us. And so hopefully people who don't listen to Theo Vaughn, listen to our shows, listen to you, listen to this podcast and are like, we don't got to go to war against these people. But I'm not trying to take time out of my day to like, you know, give them a bunch of flowers when they're very much in bed with just fascists at this point. Yeah, I feel very similarly to you. So like my, this is like my Roman empire. I think that Theo, I think a lot of these like bro podcasters, but Theo in particular, I think they are playing a character.

I think that he plays this kind of like, ah, shut, stoner, every man. Like, I'm not a geologist or nothing, but this seems bad. I don't think that he's a stupid person or an uninformed person. I think that he's making a ton of money from his association with the Trumps, with the Kushners. I think he is seeing that like the situation in Gaza is a genocide and is quite bad. And as you said, it's like not a left-right issue. It's like a right wrong. Like I can see what's happening and I can see that it's very bad and very wrong.

I think that he's like, oh, shoot, I need to speak to this. But I want to do it in a way where I don't have to, I can still sort of enable it. I can still sort of make money from my participation with the people who are architecting it. I don't want to have to, you know, I want to get to perform sadness about it while also continuing to basically say nothing about it. And so, yeah, I don't, I, I, it's hard for me to, I mean, maybe I'm cynical. It's hard for me to take this as a win when it's like, yeah, what do you mean? What we are doing? You have audience with the people who are doing this.

Talk to them. Don't talk to me. Well, it's, you know, I have a lot of, I have a lot of thoughts. And I was like, when we started the show, I was like, I got to leave soon. But then now I'm like, oh, no, an issue that I really, really want to talk a lot about. It's interesting. It's ironic. Trump also said this same line.

He's sitting in front of Netanyahu. in the Oval Office going, it's terrible all the killing that's happening there. And you're like, oh my God, buddy, right next to you is the guy who was doing it. And of course he knows, right? But it's much easier to sort of New York Times headline this whole thing. Like, Palestinians died on their own. There is no culprit. Like, and then you cover your ass because you said something, and then you get to move on and you don't have to actually talk about who is doing the thing. But the other thing that happens here, and this is what I think the podcast bros, because when you said podcast pros, it reminded me of another interview this week that Bernie Sanders did with

Andrew Schultz on the Flakrant Podcast, in which Schultz tries to say, they call us podcast bros, the way they called your supporters Bernie Bros. We're the same. And I was like, no, no, no, you're not. And I was very disappointed on, you know, as someone who likes Bernie Sanders, super disappointed by his performance there. I did a whole breakdown on my show about it. If you want like way too many thoughts of mine. However, what's crazy about like the right wing podcast comedian rise, which I think you're totally right. There is a character there that they are all playing and they're doing it for money, you know, like, but I was having this conversation. This is what is crazy for me. Like, every time you ask a liberal, excuse me,

a liberal comedian, doesn't matter, a podcast or whatever, John Oliver, John Stewart, Bill to name three of them. And you say, hey, you seem to have like lots of thoughts about the world and, you know, everything that's happening. And, you know, do you feel like your role is almost larger than just a comic? It's like you're having, you know, an impact. They all go like, no, no, no, no, no, don't listen to me. I'm just a comedian. I shouldn't be the person leading this conversation. What do you want to talk to me for? And I do agree with that in a way because what happens when we deify comedians as sort of thought leaders is your Theo von Andrew Schultz's. And those two guys have no problem saying, oh, I am an intellectual leader. I do speak to like,

you know, the voice, the voice of the voice, the voice of the canceled, you know, white male. Like, that is who I'm speaking for. And so you have this moment where it's like, oh, the right is fully embracing the line between comic and politics. And, politics. the so-called left, I don't really left, but the liberals are completely abdicating it almost out of responsibility, but also leaving this huge gulf where maybe we should be feeling. I don't know what your thoughts are on that. That's such, I had never put that together, but that's such a good point. And it's very frustrating to watch because then the voices who get to be amplified and grow are the ones

who are spouting nonsense. And also spouting nonsense in a way where it's like that you can, like, they, like, they want to be intellectuals with it. Like, I think that's the thing that gets me is, listen, nobody appreciates a hustle and a griff more than I do, like, get your money, do what you got to do. But then, like, don't pull us into it and make it be like, oh, yeah, I'm an intellectual for thinking of this. If you want opinions on, you know, trans identity, I'm your guy, me, the comedian, it's like, no, what are we doing?

Right. And I think it's also the death of the expert. I mean, the internet as a show that talks about it. you know, the internet in its most beautiful periods and in iterations is like, okay, you're listening to or seeing someone who you feel speaks in plain language is, again, personable and isn't necessarily an expert but giving you kind of their gut, you know, reaction, which can be good or bad. But then we get into a lot of trouble when it's like, yeah, we're going to listen to non-trans people talk about trans stuff. We're going to listen to non-Black people. We're going to

people talk about, you know, issues that affect black community. We're going to, like, like, all the, and you're just like, no, no, no, okay, well now, now you're literally elevating. And again, this is not to say that identity gives you that edge, but we're not going to listen to, I don't know, a fucking, you know, like ethnic studies scholar whose department is being obliterated through different Trump executive orders. Like, those are the experts that we should be listening to. Instead, it's like, the worst of the internet is just listening to dumbasses, talk about things they just learned about. Oh, you put that perfectly.

Let's take 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 a cappella band with their between songs banter. There's that 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. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged, one erection. Listen to here. Humor me with Robert Smigel 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.

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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 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.

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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. 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 and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly

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And that's not like a your story. versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just going to put your mind over it. Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back. Okay, speaking of dumbasses, we have to talk about this legislation. The big, beautiful bill. I know you've been thinking about it and talking about it. Something that I don't feel like is getting enough shine is the fact that this big, beautiful agenda bill has a rule baked into it that if passed would prohibit states from enforcing any law or regulation regulating AI for 10 years. I mean, that does not seem like a good thing to me. The advocacy organization demand progress organized a bunch of academic and like civil society organizations, 141 of them to sign a letter, including organizations like the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy. and technology, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and employee coalitions like Amazon employees for climate justice, basically being like, this is bad. The letter reads, this moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes

foreseeable harm, regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences, the company making or using that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public. I mean, it's beyond AI, right? Because, you know, you know, every day we're finding out about some new shit that meta did, deliberately, what was it, targeting young girls who, I forgot what the story was. Yeah, it was girls who took a selfie of themselves and then deleted it because they were unhappy with it. They have technology that it's like, oh, self-esteem issues, huh? Let's get them.

And then they would, yeah, it's like. And then market them with whatever. Totally, totally. Yeah, there was like some other study that was like, you know, like children are using like anti-aging cream like oh my god um yeah man this is so bald-faced like it is so clear what they're trying to do and this is when kind of like the the tech oligarchy um really is showing its whole ass like this is like okay this is what you wanted trump is enacting it and the republicans are enacting it for you a 10-year moratorium and of course you know uh we believe in

states rights when it comes to what you want to do with your own body. But we don't believe in states rights on literally anything else. On anything we want to run roughshot over, you have a sanctuary city. You know, we want to sweep up anybody in your sanctuary city. There's no protections from ice. And same with this AI stuff, which, you know, being in California where Gavin Newsom's been very kind of like flirty with AI, like, oh, you know, it can, maybe it can be good and we have to study it and blow. It's like, you think those studies have happened in, like, kept pace with the rollout of AI? No. No. But it's almost like this is a perfect little cover to be like, well, what can we do? We can't regulate against this industry. Guess I must cash in on it. Yeah, that's exactly what's going on.

And there are so, I mean, I'm glad that you use that example of, of, in California, because like, there are so many ways that AI can be used to make our lives harder as people. And, And we already know that AI can be used to discriminate. So, like, Colorado passed a law requiring tech companies to protect consumers from the risk of algorithmic discrimination. And so, like, if AI is making the decision of employment, they have to inform you that that is happening. They have to inform you that you're interacting with an AI system that we know can

discriminate against you. Where I live in D.C., there was a whole study about the use of AI algorithmic rent pricing tools. And so, like, if your landlord senses that you're desperate. for a place to live and that you'll pay double for that apartment, they can use AI to do that. Wouldn't it be great if there was state-based legislation to be like, actually, you can't do that. Like, these are, these are, this is legislation that actually has real impact in people's lives. And so having a 10-year moratorium on it, I think is really bad.

And as you said, like, what happened to state's rights? What's going to be left in 10 years? Like, I'm sorry, like, thinking about 10 years down the road. I mean, we are going to reach a breaking point much earlier than 10 years. But like, AI has already taken so many jobs. AI is already threatening, I mean, the health sector to say nothing of what we do, content creation, hoovering up all of our voices. I mean, you already, one signs away if they post on social media,

you know, any copyright to that content there. It's like, what is their left? then these are all systems that are being trained on our labor. I mean, it is a massive labor issue while it simultaneously undermines labor. So, yeah, it's terrifying. But also isn't Grock amazing? I mean, the way that Grock knows about white genocide, it's just fantastic. Oh, my God, you could not have set me up better for something I want to talk about in a minute.

But speaking of taking people's jobs, it's coming for the jobs of women. traditionally work done by women, we are more vulnerable to AI taking our jobs and work done by men. This is according to a new report from the United Nations International Labor Organization. So this report says that 9.6% of traditionally female jobs were set to be transformed by AI compared to only 3.5% of jobs typically carried out by men. And so to be clear, the report stressed that human involvement is still needed when talking about jobs and displacement. they say, we stress that such exposure does not imply the immediate automation of an entire occupation, but rather the potential for a large share of its current task to be performed using this technology. And so, I don't know, it really reminds me of what the CEO of that app dualingo said,

where he was like, oh, in the future, we won't even need teachers. AI is going to be better at teaching everybody than any human could be. By the way, we have no evidence of that being true. And he went on to say, in the future, don't worry, we're still going to need teachers because somebody's going to have to provide child care. And as a former educator, I was really, like that, that comment hits a lot of my like, personal trigger points. They called you a child care provider. Yeah, exactly. So, like, for folks who don't know, the first iteration of my career, I was an educator. I spent most of it in a classroom. And I think the idea of deprofessionalizing and devalue. education, especially education being like a field that is predominantly a field that women have a lot of, like we're overrepresented in that field. It really, I just am deeply offended by this. Like I'm offended by the idea that like, oh, AI will be teaching young people in the future.

And human educators, people who went to school, went to college, got degrees, they'll be essentially like babysitters, gig work style babysitters. And that's the future that we'll have. Right. And the reality is none of it is. supported by any research, any science, any data, any first-hand account. It is just we can make a buck. We want to make money. And there's one aspect we haven't completely privatized yet. And that is public education. We're going to destroy it however possible. And AI is one of the ways. I also think like super remote learning, despite what the right said during COVID, which was like, you know, the kids and their mental health.

No, no, no, no, no. Bullshit because Betsy DeVos's family has been actively invested in moving, learning online solely. And again, literally, my brother is a public school teacher in Oakland. And the pandemic was terrible. Kids did not learn more. Remote learning, you know, was really difficult. It was because we were trying to keep people safe, but that is no way to actually teach. And that's with him being an actual teacher.

a real person, but the idea that we're going to just go to like online learning done by AI, I mean, Bridget doesn't really matter when all you want to do is sort of produce little worker bees who can, you know, never fight for themselves or, you know, keep people in sort of a constant, like, I don't know, third grade education. They can start their podcasts and whatnot. Like, no, authoritarianism, fascism, there's no point in educating people in these systems. It really reminds me of this quote from Chris Gileard, who says, every future imagined by a tech company is worse than its previous iteration.

Like, I believe that in my bones. And when I heard this guy talking about the future of education, I was like, damn, that is bleak. Yeah. I mean, they really, like, I think that AI and crypto are just, I mean, when will the bubble burst? That's what I'm what can't. I'm like, just burst already. God damn it. But it won't.

It's got to destroy first. and then maybe it will burst. Speaking of Destroy, I have to talk to you about this piece about how Elon Musk's AI facility is essentially just like polluting a black community. So Elon Musk, he has this AI company called XAI. They built a massive supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee. He's been championing it with all the sort of usual predictable fanfare saying it's the most powerful AI training system in the world.

It's been really selling it locally to this community in Memphis saying it's going to be a source of jobs and money, but residents in nearby Boxtown, which is a majority black, economically disadvantaged community that has long-endured industrial pollution says that this facility is just another threat to their health. Now, you probably know this. The secret of AI is that it's like very power-hungry. So when you are asking Grock about white genocide, that is using, or like using AI to figure out what it would sound like if I don't know, Bugs Bunny read the Declaration of Independence or whatever you're using it for. Right, right.

You're using a lot of power. Yes, and displacing a voice actor. Yeah, thank you. Yes. Because I'm, or really good impressionist, because I'm sure a great impressionist could give you that rendition of Bugs Buddy reading the Declaration of Independence. So Elon Musk Company has currently has no air permits, appearing to rely on a loophole for temporary turbines.

And so this facility is just like pumping out smog using gas powered turbines that are just like completely sickening this community and telling the people who live in this community, oh, this is going to be good for you. Like this is for your own good. One resident said our health was never even considered. The safety of our community was never ever considered. She lives three miles from this facility and already suffers from a lung condition. And I'm sad to say, this is. is like not anything new for this part of Memphis. It has 17 other polluting facilities, including an oil refinery, a steel plant, gas-fired power plant. However, none of those facilities

are owned by Elon Musk, who is obviously like in the Trump administration. And an administration that we've already talked about is like very invested in defanging any kind of AI regulation. Yeah. I mean, what's really also disturbing about this is that as you mentioned, Memphis is already, you know, an environmentally, like a toxic site because of corporate pollution. And Donald Trump is completely stripped any attention, any funds, any, you know, any projects that are focused on cleanup specifically because they mentioned things like environmental racism or disproportionately affect black and brown communities. and you know and it's like because they do that it's like well how come we can't get our toxic sites clean up it says you don't

have them like you don't have them my guy and so your fragility because this mentions race again it's deliberate is it will get people killed um and so this is why it matters to actually talk when you say environmental racism. That is not just an empty fucking buzzword. It is real. But yeah, I didn't know that turbines. Like, I would very much like to see, I'm trying to look at the images.

But, like, as someone who's only one time used AI when they were like, we're going to make yourself these look hot in different contexts. I remember that. I was like, okay. But that's the only time, like, hand to God, never asked Grog, never asked. Although now if you Google search something,

you're sort of inherently forced to do AI because it will populate an AI answer for you. So there's no choice to be like, hey, I'd like to not pollute Memphis or wherever, you know, their data servers and centers are. But I do think we have like, like, where are the exposés on this? You know, I mean, I hope this is just the beginning of the reporting. Totally. And to your point, like, about what this looks like. So Representative Pearson, who is a lawmaker there, he said,

that it's pretty much what you're thinking. He said, it's an actual gas plant in the middle of a neighborhood and you don't need any permitting to do this. Something that's failed drastically and significantly on our system of checks and balances, which like, yeah, that wouldn't be people who like complain about like, well, when are they going to clean up our sites? That wouldn't be happening in a community that was not economically disadvantaged in majority majority black. Like, I'm sorry, it would not be happening in a in a wealthy, predominantly white community. That's why it's happening there. No, of course not. And so I have to give it up to some of the residents who were quoted in this

CNN piece because the residents of this area of Memphis have been fighting this kind of fight for a long time. They spoke to Kashan Pearson, a resident who said that they see their area as a quote, sacrifice zone where companies put facilities that sicken residents. They in 2021, residents successfully fought off a crude oil pipeline that would have crossed Boxtown and multiple other predominantly black communities in Memphis. In 2023, they successfully campaigned to close a medical sterilizing facility, which had been there since the 70s, which was pumping out toxic pollutants linked to breast cancer. So like, they have been fighting this fight for a very long time. And something that I thought was really interesting is that even though Memphis's

mayor, Paul Young, is very supportive of this facility and says like, oh, it's going to bring new jobs and economically revitalize the area, the residents there are smart enough to be very skeptical of that claim. They're like, oh, you know, even though they're making it seem like there's going to be training for like white collar jobs and like tech jobs, the residents are like, it's my understanding that data centers do not typically need large numbers of workers. And I think that we're being sold a false promise. And the only jobs that might possibly manifest for us are like janitorial jobs. And he is right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think that's really important. And I also think it's a, it's a challenge for, you know, on a local level, on a statewide level, like we need better.

we need better representatives. We need, we need folks who are actually going to fight this. Not sadly this week, senators like Kirsten Gillibrand or, you know, Ruben Gallego, who voted in favor of basically a cryptocurrency, you know, so-called, you know, like a regulation bill, but it absolutely does not regulate crypto or stable coin and allows Trump to continue his meme coins and everybody else. So like, again, it's all kind of part of like, the. the tech oligarchy getting their way. The other thing that's important to know, and I'm not sure if this is part of this story, is also that in order to cool down the data centers to do the generative AI,

which is just so funny, like generative, like who the fuck is generating it? A punch of power and fresh water. You have to use fresh water to cool down the system's not even salt water. So, like, they get super, super hot because everyone's, like, trying to, like, manufacture, you know, the perfect AI girlfriend. And then, you know, and then a bunch of fresh water gets used. And where do you think that fresh water comes from? Probably the same community.

So it's, I mean, it's truly pillaging local communities like this one. Yeah. And I, I really, it broke my heart, but was so accurate to hear that resident describe his own community as, like, a sad. sacrifice zone, that people just take and take and take and exploit and exploit. And they do so for these, you know, so-called innovations. And they're just supposed to be okay with it. They're supposed to be okay with being deprived, taken from, having their resources taken and sickened in the process. They're meant to be like, thank you for these opportunities to do this. It's really just a toxic dynamic. And it's one that I think we really need to change. Like, like I,

it makes me angry that lawmakers who are meant to be representing the folks who put them in office have just like abdicated their responsibility on this and thrown up their hands and said, oh, maybe they'll be a janitorial job in it for you. Like, it's just very deeply insulting. 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 headwriter, 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. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. since you guys are middle-aged. One erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel 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, IHeart's. 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. Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-8-4-I-Hart. 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 first,

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 run up the court, licking his fingers why 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. Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Stray. Author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers

to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world, fighting for our lives. All I'm going to do is pull out what you already got inside.

We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that's not like your story versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just going to put your mind over it. Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Let's get right back into it. So Elon Musk was interviewed, and he said that he's going to spend a lot less money and time and politics. He said, I think I've done enough. We'll see if I have a reason to do political spending in the future. I don't really see a reason. He's also talking about politics a lot less. He used to post about politics nonstop, but now it's mostly just about his companies, according to the post. In February, more than half of Musk's posts and reposts on X were about Doge. About 13% of his February post mentioned Trump by name, nearly double that proportion named one of his companies. So far in May, those numbers have reversed. Now,

Under 20% of his posts are about Doge or politics and more than half are about his business ventures. So, yeah, this is a pretty big shift. And I have heard people say like, oh, because his companies are taking a hit, he's super unpopular. What he's doing in government is unpopular. So he's retreating. But I actually see it differently. I think what he's actually saying is like, I've got what I wanted so now I can be done. I have like, you know, grifted my grift.

I have gotten rid of the voices who would have regulated my. companies. I have made some cushy, lucrative contracts. I've got a little money in my pocket. I think the government grip has paid off for him. He has personally enriched himself and now he can back off. That's what I think. Again, I really want to disagree with you here, Bridget. But I think it's, yes, I think it is that. But I also do think that the amount of Tesla take down protests, which, I mean, hats off to the continued protests that, that, that, are taking place on all different kinds of dealerships and whatnot. As well as the Wisconsin judge seat loss after he poured however many millions and millions

of dollars into that and got his ass handed him, handed to him by the people of Wisconsin, is amazing. Like those two things are huge. And so he even just on a PR level knows that he's not helpful to the MAGA brand. But I do think you're right that the behind the scenes, if you have gotten all of our IRS information, our social security data, you know, if you have now allowed for sharing between federal agencies of our private information, in addition to, according to whistleblowers, possibly foreign governments, you've got a fuck ton of leverage and a fuck ton of way to make even more money than you already have. he might have a little dip right now. You know, he obviously borrowed or he bought Twitter on some Tesla stock.

That's not doing very well. But give him some time when, you know, big balls and some other little Pepe meme can develop some new payment system for federal workers who remain and or sell our data to a foreign company. I mean, like, then he's like, we also know that he's strong arming other nations. into using Starlink to get their internet. So like bullshit that he's going away. Bullshit. He's taken a break.

He's just pressing pause while more evil is done. Yeah. The Gryft is truly global with him. I mean, we talked about this on the show before, but when he was doing his sort of woe is me tour being like, I'm losing so much money and I'm only, all I'm trying to do is point out waste and fraud and what, like I'm not a bad guy.

He cried. He cried. He cried. I wish that people, like, he, in my mind, he is, like, the ultimate welfare queen of, like, he is actually the person who was, like, scamming and personally enriching himself at our dime. He is taking from me, Brokies, who live in fucking one bedroom apartments like myself to enrich himself. And he's the richest man on earth. 23 children. He's, he's definitionally a welfare queen. Like, to a tea. And so it just is wild to me. I don't know. I, I, I, I, I, I, When he's when he's talking about like retreating from politics, I completely agree. I don't think he's retreating at all. I think he's like, it's just getting, he can do more behind the scenes than he can in front of the scenes. Because I think that when he's publicly attached to stuff, it doesn't, like people don't like him. Yeah, he's toxic. He's got the opposite effect.

I mean, he should have never been in the public eye. They proved that. He also, you know, in Oval Office meetings, you know, he would get into big fights with different agency heads. and, you know, he was not a pleasant person to be around. Dude was like sleeping on couches in the White House and not showering and wearing the same shit over and over again. Like, you know, all for the American people. Like, no, all for massive security breaches.

And again, stealing our information. So I'm, here's my thing is like, if and when Democrats ever regain control, to me, the damage that Doge has done is probably the biggest thing that needs remedying. And if there is not accountability, if there is not a restoration of both jobs, but also our data privacy of security protocols,

I mean, it's really sick too, Bridget, because we're in a moment where, like, the oligarchy is such where, like, the lines have been drawn. If a lot of tech people are just like, well, I'm in it for the money, fuck democracy, and all the sort of vernear of, We are an innovative, future-looking, democratic, multicultural, da-da-da-da-da. Oh, that's bullshit.

It's been bullshit. But I'm like, I know there are good people in Silicon Valley and in tech. I know there are. They're not in power, but I know there are. And I know there are people who could work with the federal government to help us. So this is me and sort of like, think, you know, future tripping about like, how do we get all of this back? how do we rest this control back from these goals? Yeah, I firmly believe that, I mean, there was a time where you had more thoughtful, ethical voices in tech who genuinely were interested in using technology to build a better future.

And I think that, you know, a lot of those voices got sideline, erased, pushed out. Those happen to be diverse voices as well. And so those people are there. They exist. I think that people like Elon Musk and other tech leaders have really been able to flip the script. and make it seem like, one, technology only gets built at a handful of companies by a handful of people. That's so not true.

Two, that the only people who are doing anything or the only voices worth listening to in tech are the most unethical, not thoughtful, paranoid, like, delusional, like, not with it people. Megalomaniards. It truly is. And it's like, we have gotten mixed up

and are being taken along for the ride of these horrible people who are telling us this is the way it has to be. And I know I firmly believe that that is a lie. It does not have to be this way. It was not always that way. And they're banking on us like memory-holing the fact that it used to not be that way. There was a time when you thought about technology, it was exciting.

You had apps that you loved. When you thought about what the internet was, it was like lots of weird little sites that people were running just because of the fun of it or just because they cared about something. Or it was a community of people gathering around one idea or one passion. And I think that we have forgotten, we have allowed these tech leaders to memory a whole bat and make us forget what it used to be like. It used, I don't want to get too nostalgic because, like, it definitely had its problems back in the day as well. But like, it used to be better than this. And it has been better than this.

And it can be better than this. Yes. And actually the height of freedom. I mean, what's so, I mean, they're open hypocrites, Elon and, you know, the rest of the Peter Thiel's. Like, they're all full of shit. I mean, they were all like, oh, free speech and free society and it's like, yeah, but the old internet was the freest we've ever been, you know, like the internet being run by 10 companies, tech being run by like three companies is not freedom at all.

So I think that's the other thing is like we also have to reclaim this mantle of freedom and free speech. And it's just wild to me that, and it's such. such a failure of the Democratic Party, too, that like, we can, I start to get really sick to my stomach when I think about all the things that we could have, what it should have, but like, Democratic Party could have been the party of privacy and, you know, ending, you know, surveillance. And of course, Obama did a lot of good things, but Obama also went after Edward Stern. And it's like, no, we could have actually planted a flag on that and been like, we protect your data.

There's nothing more important than protecting your data. You have the freedom to, you know, use the internet as you want, and it shouldn't be just a bunch of conglomerates. And Biden's antitrust, you know, FTC started doing some of that. So it's just, it's like, God, it makes me so terrified. Because this is one thing where also Democrats still believe in that old culture of tech. And they use it again as like a shield to still raise money from actually really villainous people. I think Democrats get to sort of in in ways that are unearned, in my opinion, get to enjoy like being a little bit better on the issue, even though like we're not really doing much on it. And like I if we could go back in time and have the Democratic Party, yeah, as you said, make privacy and internet freedom part and parcel of what it meant to be a Democrat. Imagine remember to be today. Like things could be would be so different. Right. And actually I do think like the griff. of, oh, I'm a forward-thinking, you know, pro-democracy, multi-ethnicacial, multireligious,

you know, like support DEI programs company. I think that grift was kind of meant to pull the wool over on, I think, some liberals' eyes. And that, you know, the final form really is monopoly and control. And, you know, now Mark Zuckerberg, oh, God, to be Cheryl Sandberg, which is just so funny and rich. And I just, good. I just, um, like the, I need, I could write like a 10 episode podcast about the rise and fall of lean in. You know, because it's like, nah, man, the final form is we're in control. We're the oligarchs.

Fuck you. You allowed us to get this big. Ha, ha, ha. We just played with some, you know, lightweight DEI programs, which are good again. But we just, you know, we don't actually care about real equity or real. inclusion or, you know, actually doing, you know, making sure our spaces are not actually hotbeds of racism and misogyny. So anyway, first of all, I have met Cheryl Sandberg in person and I don't know if I've told this story in the podcast before, but I was like barely

invited to a book launch she did. And I will never forget it was sort of like, it was right after Trump got elected and it was like, it was such as a very different time. And I remember it was all of these like journalists and like women, media, like, rah, ra, women in media. And this was right when we were starting to learn more about like Cambridge Analytica and what the role that Facebook had in getting Trump elected. And Cheryl Sandberg is there doing a, a very kind of like puffy Q&A about her new book about grief, option B. And somebody asked. She was like, oh, I've been reading about the way that Facebook has been perhaps illegally using all of our data to help get, you know, to help get Trump elected and meddle in our elections. And I'll

never forget, she was like, today is about women's empowerment. Let's stay on focus. Like, that's how she answered the question. Today's about the women. Let's, let's keep our focus on map. I have so many words, but that is truly disgraceful. It was. And I have to say, it's almost like you are a mind reader with the whole companies kind of limply embracing DEI and then just using it to gobble up more power because did you hear about Verizon and DEI? So basically, in 2020, Verizon claimed to be like all in on DEI. They put out statements after the death of George Floyd that was like diversity and inclusion are our greatest superpowers, yada, yada, yada. Cut to this week, Verizon sends a letter to the FCC saying that it

is ending all DEI policy. So no more DEI, teams or roles. They're taking all the references to DEI from their training materials, no more workforce diversity goals. And they're taking it further because they're basically like memory holeing it. They scrubbed the fact that Verizon was ever involved in any of this from their website. When you go to the DEI, pages online. It just redirects to generic Verizon content. And, oh my God. Verizon said that this was because of like Trump's executive orders and Supreme Court and federal mandates. But like, there's no Supreme Court ruling banning DEI or, you know, those kinds of goals. And, you know, certainly other companies like Costco when Trump was like, you need to stop the EI. They were like,

kick rock, we'll do what we want. And the timing of this is very suspicious because Verizon announced this just a day before they, you know, the FCC approved Verizon's $20 billion acquisition of frontier communications. The FCC's approval emphasized that Verizon had gotten rid of their, their quote, discriminatory DEI policies. And it really does seem like Verizon was like, fine, we'll abandon all of our commitments to DEI if we're able to get this merger. And the FCC was like, bet, sure, great.

Dude, that's exactly what happened. That is not even there. That is exactly what happened. There's no mystery here. That is so terrifying and disgusting. I mean, and you see the same thing with, you know, CBS, right? Paramount is trying to, what is it, work with like SkyNet News 1. I don't know where the fuck is sky something. And they're trying to get their merger. And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, we can just do this by getting rid of all of these policies. These are going to have massive impacts on workers. I mean, that's, I think, the other thing. thing that we need to remember about the anti-DEI backlash is it's really it's a workers fight. It's a fight on an attack on workers. Everything we're seeing is an attack on workers. And we have to like, again, whenever, you know, it's like the working class is women of color, predominantly women of color. That is just what it is. The amount of black Americans in federal jobs, what is it,

like 20% of the workforce or something, or 20% I forgot what the 20% was, but it's a huge percentage. This is deliberate. It's an attack on workers. It's a racist attack on workers. Absolutely. But yeah, that's so sick. God, I'm so glad Verizon has shit service in my neighborhood and we had to switch to AT&T. I'm sure AT&T is up to no good and I'm going to be a T-Mobile bitch at some point.

It's going to have to happen. 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 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. 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 Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Huber 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. Toladano, 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 is our offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly.

He running 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 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 Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a paramedipausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it.

Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with the Adamia Riva where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like,

what the hell is that? I was married when I had her so I didn't even consider how empty that nest is going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How hard can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard, you know?

Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to how hard can it be with the Anna Maria Riva, as part of my Cultura Podcast Network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. I have to ask, switching gears a little bit, did you hear about this fake AI-generated booklist that was published in the Chicago Sun-Times? Oh, my gosh. Okay, it's all I've been thinking about for the whole week. So it's just like a very wild story to me. Basically, some newspapers, like print newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times,

and at least one edition of the Philadelphia Enquirer published a syndicated summer book list that was like obviously AI generated that included fake books like made up books by famous authors. So it said that Perciville Emmerit who won the Pulitzer this year for fiction was coming out with a book called The Rainmakers that was supposedly set in quote, the near future American West where artificially induced rain has become a luxury commodity. Bullshit, that book doesn't exist. He did not publish that book. Oh my God. They said that Chilean author Isabella Allende was putting on a book called Tidewater Dreams. And they described it as the first climate fiction novel. Oh, the first.

Yeah, the very first. These are not real books. In fact, Octavia Butler would beg to differ. In fact, of the 15 books on this like must read 2025 summer fiction list, only five of the books were real. The rest of them were all made up. Yo, so they straight up outsource their reading list to AI and thought no one would notice? Yes. And they're not like they're like, it wouldn't be bad enough if this was just like an online thing.

This was in their print addition. Like people got pictures of themselves holding the print edition of this. So like, how did this come to be? I saw on blue sky that the Chicago Sun-Time, somebody who worked there was like, we're looking into how this got published, which that also raises questions of like, you don't know how this got published. Very good question. and like definitely worth looking into.

So it gets a little stickier. According to Victor Lim, the marketing director of the Chicago Sun-Times parent company, Chicago Public Media, the list was part of licensed content provided by King Features, a unit of the publisher Hearst Newspapers. According to NPR,

even though the piece has no byline, a writer did claim responsibility for it and did say that it was generated by AI, obviously. He says, huge mistake on my part and has nothing to do with the Sun-Times. They trust the content that they purchased for me, It's accurate and I betrayed that trust. It is on me 100%.

Wait, I love that. I love reading a little bit more. This guy, the freelancer, says that while he does sometimes use AI to create content, he typically checks it before submitting it. Oh, so you typically check it. Typically, what I can. When I can. Yo, Bridget, like, I used to write when I lived in Argentina years and years and years ago,

not really, like 10 years ago, like one of the things that there was like a freelance gig was farmed out was just like writing travel guides for some online site about cities I had never been to. But I did my research and looked at other guides and looked at the city explanations and just kind of like I didn't plagiarize, but I wrote my own after reading a bunch of other guides version for this guide. Now, that is very much like that job right there, which may be. I don't know, how much should I get, $100, is definitely being farmed out to AI as we speak. But, like, I love the idea that, like, if I had that job now, my lazy ass couldn't even do my own fucking research on a listicle, on a fucking listicle of books. And ironically, they're books. You have to read. You don't even have to read the book, but you've got to read the title. You just go to the books that've been released in 2025. Just look and just go to publishers

I don't even like I don't follow books But like the Hanno Penguin Random House Like it's so wild to me that someone And look if he's like if he came clean and was like Listen I got $50 to do this article Fuck the Sun Times I'm like I'm with him But come on my guy

How many people in Memphis can't breathe Because you had to do this generative AI For how much fresh water was used so we could create a fake Isabella Yende book. And that's, I mean, the commentary around that pretty much said exactly that. Kelly Jensen, who was a former librarian

and the editor of Book Riot had a very good point. She said, this is the future of book recommendations. When libraries are defunded and dismantled, trained professionals are removed in exchange for made up, inaccurate garbage. And it's just like what you were saying. Like, you couldn't even

scroll Amazon and be like, well, I haven't read this book, but it's a book. You can buy it that exists. Exactly. Exactly. It's real. Like, what was the prompt to? Like, AI is also bad. You know what I'm saying? AI is not actually good at it. And that's, even if it were good. And in some case, it is. I still contest fuck AI. And I, and I just, again, I don't know, like, especially as writers, because what you're doing is you're actively undermining your goddamn job. I don't know. I have a lot of thoughts because as I came from AJ Plus, you know,

Valjezea media and they were like, you know, we were doing spearheading a lot of this like short form content, but, but, but text on screen over images, right? That was like now this news and AJ Plus were really big on Facebook. Now all of that stuff is just AI. I think, I'm assuming, I believe it can generate like a couple of images from a story, text on screen. And then, done. So it is, it's not like, oh yeah, we've, we shouldn't have created the Terminator, you know, or the T-1,000, but like, there is a little bit of like, well, this is what happens when like, with the, I don't know, the sort of shorthand and shittification of content and news in general.

I'm having a little bit of a existential moment here. Yeah, I mean, I wish so deeply I could say I've never used AI, but. I have been known to use chatchip-T if I have to write a rough email, like an email where I'm like, oh, I really don't want to write this or like this is, I don't know what to say. Like a like a complicated, like an email where I have to convey a complicated set of feelings. Oh, oh, okay, Bridget. It's complicated feelings left to AI. I know.

I feel like that's probably the worst, the worst use case. So tell me you're talking about a breakup without telling me you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see, it will help you. If you're dreading writing a breakup email, it can help you. I'll put it that way. But I will say, like, having a big think about it, I had a similar existential, like, spin out about this because I was like, don't I owe the people who are like actually in my life, the time to sit down and like put my thoughts together?

And even if it's hard, even if it's cathartic, even if it's difficult, don't I owe them, me, the human actually sitting down and like, I, I. writing out how I feel before I send it as opposed to just like asking chat GBT to do it for me. I really had a deep, deep, I don't want to say crisis, but like, you know, and I think when I hear people like Mark Zuckerberg talking about the future of friendship, how, you know, Facebook, he admits is like no longer for friends in the future we'll all have AI friends on Facebook. And that's who we'll talk to. It's like, that's not a future that I want. Even when human-to-human connection is difficult or hard or emotional, that's the point of being alive.

Like, I don't want to outsource that. I don't want my friend to be AI. Yeah. But also, that is the point when you are an unzuckable little shit, you know, and you, like, got into tech starting to rank chicks rather than talk to them in their face. that's what happens. I mean, again, we're just creating all, like, the word tech bro has been around forever. And it is a smarmy kid that cannot make eye contact with anybody, but also makes more money than you'll ever see in your life and dresses like shit. Yeah.

And are these the people we want to take our cues for the future of friendship from? Like, do you want someone like Mark Zuckerberg in charge of using technology to design the future of what friendship will look like in your life? I would argue no. I would argue that, again, that iteration of the future is worse than the one that came before it. Okay, Bridget, question for you. What happened to the metaverse? Is it still averse? No, they kind of abandoned it. Yeah, they kind of abandoned the metaverse. They were all in on the metaverse. They even had a big announcement when their metaverse AI characters could have legs. They had a whole big announcement. They're like, we've got legs now. It took him a long time to break the legs code. But no, it's no longer really a thing. Okay.

So it kind of went the way of the Google Glass because I've been talking to people about, like, look, it is possible to shame people's product to shit, you know? Yeah. Do you remember when Google, I mean, you live in California, so maybe you lived through this. When Google Glass first came out and, like, it was all the stories were like, I went into a bar in San Francisco wearing Google Glass and I got thrown out. Like it was this like story after story? You know what's crazy about that? You know what's crazy about that? I don't actually think there were that many stories.

But there was that one story where this woman goes into a bar with the Google Glass and then writes some posts as if she's the victim. But everyone was like, honestly, you sound so unfun and I would have kicked you out too. And the reverb of that story of how like, again, before we even had Karen, language, how Karen it was, and how corny it was, and what a tech idiot and kind of just a loser you looked like. It was magical. So it's like, it's almost like, I don't know, it's like mythical that story because it really

tamed the Google Glass wearers. And I don't know what, what's the big, fuck. Oculus. Yeah, the big Oculus or the Google one that people kind of walk around. Oh, um, shoot, what is that? Oh, it's the, it's the new Apple VR. What is the Apple Vision Pro? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Apple Vision Pro, like, I don't know if people are actually wearing that out. So I have a theory that people don't want wearables. This is, I've, I've said this from day one. The only wearables that I've actually ever seen anybody wear are the ones that are, that like essentially look like sunglasses. So I will say like meta does have a. collab with Raybans. I would never wear it, but those are the only wearables,

I think that people would actually wear, ones that just look like regular sunglasses. I don't think people want big shit on their face. Like, I don't think that you would, like, imagine sharing a space with, like, your partner or your roommate. And as opposed it as like holding your phone, you've got a big thing on your face. It's like too much shit on your face. I don't think people want that.

That is my like, yeah, there's too much shit on me. Very, yeah. I don't even want to be around anymore. Yeah, I don't want to be around anymore. there's too much shit of me. Words to live by, really. Francesca, talking to you is such a delight. Like you, oh my God. You have such a like, you just bring such an energy and a light to these stories. I do this every week and like this, you have a, you really bring a flare to this. I really appreciate it. Oh my God. Likewise.

Thank you so much. These are great stories and also stories I was, haven't even talked about this week, which is wild because I talk about everything. No, But like that's why I think this show is so excellent because you're like, you miss this. So and everyone's over here. Bridget's over here. So, and they're very important. But yeah, man, thank you for having me. Where can folks listen to the bituation room?

I was going to segue into the plugs. I just teed you up instead. YouTube.com slash Franny F-O-F-R-A-N-I-F-I-O for the live show, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Friday, is 1 p.m. 4 p.m. Eastern or the bituation room wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find me on social media. I'm on Instagram at Bridgett, Marie in D.C. I'm on TikTok at Bridgett Marie and DC. And I'm on YouTube at there are no girls on the internet. Yeah, that's right. I just started it. So I'm, have not memorized. Oh, please. You'll be my like 93rd follower or subscriber. Thanks so much for listening. We will see you on the internet. If you're looking for ways to support the

show, check out our Murm. store at tangoody.com slash store. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoity.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoity. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. Edited by Joey Pat.

Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tarry 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, write and review us on our podcast. Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, check out the IHeart Radio app,

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