The Couple's Table
The Couple’s Table is a weekly livestream podcast hosted by Heather Ramirez and Tom Buck. Join us, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall podcast and stuff!
The Couple's Table
A New Year of Creative Exploration
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Have you ever thought about how AI could reshape every corner of our lives, from content creation to healthcare? Join us at the Couples Table as we navigate the start of 2025, sharing laughs about post-holiday mishaps and tackling tech questions from our vibrant audience.
As we take stock of the past year, we celebrate the empowerment that comes from embracing creativity and experimentation. By leaning into what aligns with our true passions, we've found fulfillment in our creative endeavors. Through stories of trial and error, we highlight the importance of authenticity, exploring how our content has grown richer from these genuine experiences.
Our curiosity leads us to the realm of AI, where we explore its transformative potential and ethical dilemmas. From AI-driven profiles on social media to groundbreaking tools like Descript, we ponder the evolving landscape of content creation. We discuss AI's role in healthcare, the nostalgia of vintage tech, and even the futuristic fantasies inspired by classic films. With a nod to AI's influence on everything from media to everyday life, we invite you to consider the future of creativity in an AI-driven world, all while wishing you a joyous start to the new year.
🟣 CONNECT WITH HEATHER —
My Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustcreate
My Tutorial Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherramirez
My Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustplay
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/heatherjustcreate
Website: http://www.heatherjustcreate.com
🟣 CONNECT WITH TOM —
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tombuck
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sodarntom
Couples Table Live Stream Podcast
Speaker 1Hello and welcome. My name is Tom and.
Speaker 2I'm Heather.
Speaker 1And you're sitting at the Couples Table.
Speaker 2Couples Table is a live stream podcast here on this channel. Join us for better or worse, for richer or poorer and sick to set it whole and the new year Happy 2025. Quarter century.
Speaker 1All acquaintance.
Speaker 2Yay, yeah.
Speaker 1Well, it's been a few weeks since we've done a stream. I know, Holidays and business things. I guess Life things happened. Now it's January. It was quite the month, but we're here and we made it.
Speaker 2Yay, freddie is here, I'm ready, I'm ready. Also, freddie has a question. I didn't get it answered in the last chat live.
Speaker 1I'm going to come back to this.
Speaker 2Yeah, I did a stream yesterday so I think that's what you're talking about, sean. Hey, what's up? Bon, hello, hello. Audio hotline in the house. Hey, everybody, and in the pews, happy new year, y'all. Happy new year, I'll jump right into it.
Speaker 1Sure, I need a yeah, go ahead, no, go ahead oh, I said I did a stream yesterday and so I think this is a question from that. Um, I didn't get. Oh yeah, do I? I need a high end adapter for the cable that comes with the Elgato prompter to connect it to a MacBook Question there, I don't think so, the question there being, for some reason, the Elgato prompter comes has a USB-C connector on the prompter Okay, and the cable it comes with is a USB-C to USB-A cable, which is an old school.
Speaker 1It's strange. That's the choice they made instead of c to c, and macbooks, newer ones, only have usb c. So you need to, you have to use. You don't have to use that specific high speed cable that comes with the prompter, but you need a high speed cable, um, at least five gigabits per second. I, the ones I buy aftermarket are at least 20, just to. There's no question that they're good enough, but if you're using an adapter like a little dongle adapter that puts the makes the A to a C, I've used several of them and I haven't had any issues, so I don't think you need. I don't know what kind of adapters I have, they're usually ones just came with other things. So, yeah, I don't think so. I haven't had any issues. But if that's just like giving you too much of a headache, you can like go go on Amazon and search like 20 gigabit per second cable. They have all different lengths. I got like a 16 foot one.
Speaker 1I think for not that much money, and then I can like move the prompter really far from my computer and stuff. It's really nice.
Speaker 2You have a Finley hair on your eyelash.
Speaker 1So I'm have a finley hair on your eyelash so I'm gonna go in. Don't freak out, thank you. There we go.
Speaker 2Sorry, finley is recording his hair is like needles. I know, I'm just staring at it like watching it. I'm like oh it's gonna get dry eyelash.
Speaker 1It's okay, rick is here.
Speaker 2Happy new year, andre. Hey, y'all just joining from terry warfield live cam mackie cam mackie cam mackie Just super chatted him, so Terry had to do 100 pushups on stream. Things are a bit more chill here.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, you can super chat us and then we'll go buy ice cream.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And we won't stream it. That's that's on.
Speaker 2Hey, hey, good to see you, jfk. Happy New Year To our favorite couple YouTube people. Nice, what's us? Us, I guess, yeah, I hope that's us. So what's up, tom? So many things is up. Well, okay, so the first thing we could talk about is you did a stream yesterday instead of a video. I did yeah, um, that that's kind of a big deal because you haven't you've only ever done that once before.
Speaker 1Um, so yeah, it was something I wanted to do and it's kind of a little cheat because I wanted to do a stream. I don't think it's a cheat, I mean because I often will do a stream and a video in the same week. So what I did yesterday was a stream instead of a video, and the reason I wanted to do that was I normally have my videos scheduled, but with the holidays, with all kinds of stuff, I was kind of like whittling down in my reserve. I like to have three or four videos. I was down to two videos.
Speaker 1And I was like well, what's going to ease a lot of stress for me is, if I do a stream, you know like it sort of saves the space, and I mean I'm working on a video right now. I can finish that up before the next week. I can build up my like savings account again.
Speaker 2Sure.
Speaker 1The holidays depleted it a little bit, um, and that just makes me feel less stressed. And it just worked out where, like the thursday, that I would normally put a video was the second, and so it was kind of like we weren't even in town basically until we were gone for new year's, so we didn't even come back till then, so I couldn't have done a stream, like on new year's day or anything it's like, well, that's actually kind of a really fun day to stream.
Speaker 1It's like for a lot of people, it's actually kind of a really fun day to stream. It's like for a lot of people, it's either, you know, winding down their holiday break or their first day back in like regular world Right and being able to, you know, hang out and do a cool live stream was super fun. I meant to stream for an hour and I streamed for basically two hours and it was like such a good time.
Speaker 2I do have to give credit to Heather Just Flay for yes. For let's see building up your stream stamina, oh yeah, yeah, that's your.
Speaker 1That's your gaming channel. Yeah, um, which is so funny because, yeah, the gaming channel when we do streams on there, um, I guess maybe the theory to test would be if we're doing me playing the game, it's my thing, it's me mostly reading the things.
Speaker 1I have a 90 minute stamina meter yeah and it really runs out after 90 minutes like it just doesn't work anymore yeah um, but on my stream the two hours was fine, like I ended because my voice was starting to like give out, but I like mentally was fine. Um, obviously, like it's a totally different thing. Like you know, that involves stuff I don't know. It involves gameplay, it involves reading, dialogue, and you know pronouncing.
Speaker 2You have the problem on thanksgiving. That was like two hours, so it's different when it's like you know all you yeah, you're the focus yeah yeah thanksgiving was like very chill.
Speaker 1There isn't yeah, because there's ones we've done. They've been a couple hours and it's fine, but I, I think when, cause it's not just streaming, you know it's multitasking, but that is like you're playing a game, trying to do that, but also you're playing the game for yourself, playing the game, aware that other people are watching you play the game. So for me that means like I'm trying to, you know, position the camera angles, fine, not gonna see a tom just play channel. I don't think so. Um, but it was really cool to to understand, you know, because we had done streams about games, but like we did a whole series of, like me specifically going through a part of the game, yeah, um, where it was almost like I was the streamer and I learned a lot yeah, we learned a lot we learned a lot.
Speaker 1We learned a lot. Yeah, I have a total different amount of respect for people who do that regularly for many hours at a time, because I can't. But the stamina I have for my own channel is like it's. Yeah, it definitely was like fine.
Speaker 2Yeah, but I do have to say someone made this comment I can't remember who it was, I think it was Jeremy actually. Your someone made this comment. I can't remember who it was, I think it's jeremy actually. But he said I love how you can title your stream like let's nerd out about av stuff, and you had 160 people I know that's kind of crazy like I think, average yeah, that, I mean, that's you were coasting 150, 160, the entire two hours. That's crazy. You know what's even actually crazier about that?
Speaker 1because that's what I sort of titled even actually crazier about that, because that's what I sort of titled my stream. So instead of like live stream q, a or whatever I just do like, let's nerd out about av stuff very casual yeah yeah, it's not like expert hotline or anything, it's just like let's just nerd out um enthusiast yeah and I've done streams that aren't that.
Speaker 1So I've done. Like you know, sometimes I feel like that's too broad and I should do a live stream that's focused. Yeah, like let's, do you know this topic, this piece of gear, this type of workflow, whatever? Um, literally like half as many people will watch those. The ones that get the most people watching are the ones that are that's nerd out about av which makes me so happy, yeah it's like I don't know.
Speaker 1That makes me really happy. I've really tried going back and forth a number of times over the past like six months, and I have found that is the one, that which is cool, because it sets the perfect expectation of like, I don't care what we're talking about, let's just talk about this stuff, but I think that's the thing it's like it's.
Speaker 2in what other format do people have that kind of uh, you know, like to get that type of interaction with you?
Speaker 1that's the only time, yeah because if I do a stream that's like let's talk about, you know, camera lenses or podcast mixers or whatever. If you're not interested, then yeah, if you're not interested, you're not going to watch it. If you are watching it, but you have a question about something else, you're not going to feel comfortable asking it.
Speaker 2Yeah, call me Cubbies here. Hello, happy New Year.
Speaker 1Hello, hello, hello.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, I'm glad that we can kick off Couples Able back. Yeah, I think it had been three weeks we missed.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 2We got sick. Yeah, we were sick. It was a whole thing, man.
Speaker 1Then we had the community event thing, and then we had the like community event thing, and then we had the holidays. It was a really rough. Like I'm laughing now, but like probably the last two months of the year were exceptionally rough and our batteries were entirely drained. It was Thanksgiving, like Thanksgiving forward was when it just all, maybe even, I would say even a little before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, like most of november, from halloween on which was crazy because we had such high.
Speaker 1Good things happen, yeah, like really great things happen, we're like why yeah, so oh my god, but we made it it's like yeah
Growth Through Experimentation and Confidence
Speaker 2well, let me ask you this you touched on this a little bit uh in your stream yesterday, but, like, what is? What are your uh, what's your mindset, what's your intention for a new year? You know, and we, obviously we talk about this all the time I feel like one thing that is a really uh different about our business, our relationship, our partnership, from previous years like until now moving forward. I feel like, as we we spent a lot of time, especially last year, um, really, uh, I don't know, it's not, it it's not like you, you know, building roots and setting a foundation. Like, obviously, you know we've been together like seven years, so we've done that, but I think, like so much of what we did was testing, trying see what we like, so we don't like and now it's like okay, this is how we really want to do it and this is the thing that makes us be our best, and like, let's lean into that.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And I feel that, more than ever, which is cool, it's like perfect because, you know, I think, like both of us agree, like for you, you know, I feel like you're really hitting a stride, especially with the road creator of the year year, which is awesome. You know, like it's so cool that people are recognizing uh, like you're, you are getting accolades, you know for for this thing that you've built, which is awesome. And then for me, re like coming back to the gaming channel and really feeling like oh, this is like it, just it, it all feels right. Yeah, like it's all aligned.
Speaker 1Yes, in alignment very much.
Speaker 2Yeah. And so now it's like okay, I, you know, I tried different things in September, october, november. Great, let's get into. You know, a different phase of of things. So I'm, I'm excited.
Speaker 1Yeah, me too. I mean, that's a good of things. So I'm excited yeah me too. I mean that's a good. It's interesting how you and I are approaching, like you know, your gaming channel, my channel, which obviously we do a lot of like. We pop into each other's channels all the time yeah and then the stuff that we do together like this.
Speaker 1It's fun to see like how that filters in. I mean, for me it was a lot of. It was like I feel like the thing I'm dialing in on what I really like in other people is really watching other people just do their thing and and I have found that a lot of my like maybe criticisms or complaints about some other sorry, I have something in my eyes I tried to prevent that other other um, you know channels that I watch or no longer watch or whatever is it.
Speaker 1Is it? It feels like you know someone following a trend, somebody trying to be something. They're not you know whether or not that's happening. I don't see impression I get versus channels where it's like you just watch someone do their thing, and those can be channels, huge channels, small channel, like it. It really depends on the person and I really want to like protect that about what I do.
Speaker 1Yeah, and my channel I and which I feel like I have, but I feel more confident in it maybe yeah, yeah, confidence is the word, yeah I feel I feel a little more confident in what I do and how I do it, and it's okay if other people it's not like really not trying to please everybody. And then also part of that comes from something I did last year was experiment a little bit like doing live streams, doing um less edited videos, sometimes videos a different length. I feel like I, I feel like I have a nice like um, I don't know what it is Smorgasbord buffet of like things to pull from that are all fun, like my typical I would call call, like a usual video which is like pretty like outlined clear. Even if they're long, it's concise, even if it's like a 45 it's as concise as it can be.
Speaker 1Uh, they're like well produced, they're well edited, there's lots of b, they're like high production value. But then there's the other stuff, like you know, like a q, a video that's a little more casual and personal. I did a couple of those thank you videos throughout the year, like after going to bnh in new york after the road creator of the year thing. It was like this feels like something that, like an instagram or community post, is like thanks, this is cool. Doesn't feel like enough. Um, you know, but I was nervous, like well, I don't want to put. You know, I'm going to put a five to ten minute video out. That is not about any any of the normal channel stuff.
Speaker 2Um, and people were nothing but kind so, okay, this is kind of an interesting thing. Uh, one thing that both of us noticed with me doing the gaming channel was that, um, how do I explain this? I feel I felt like it was a place where I could experiment and even make mistakes.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2But it's okay. You know like I felt personal growth from it in a way where it wasn't just like I'm taking someone, have an environment where you can make a mistake, learn from it and then level up and be better. And I feel like you have really had a lot of affirmation with the experimentation testing on your channel, right? So even the low effort doesn't mean low quality, right. So, like even you know, the low effort doesn't mean low quality, right? Uh, doing different types of videos where it's completely unedited, doing videos that have nothing to do with gear, it's more, it's all 100 you, and to have only positive reception to that is awesome, and I kind of feel that with my channel, it's like I can mess up, it's okay.
Speaker 1Well, your gaming channel is a big like reason that I felt more comfortable doing it because I got to watch you do it yeah, and yeah, I saw how it kind of lights you up and gave you you know it.
Speaker 1It's very easy, once you have a way of doing things, to feel like this is the way I have to do things, or especially, I think in your case you know, having several other channels of all like various sizes you know, bigger than the gaming channel over many years and kind of knowing like this is what a tutorial should be, this is like how a more personal thing should be and then going in. It's almost like the burden of knowledge, like right yeah totally you knew like too much, so it should be this way.
Speaker 1I have to do this and kind of watching you unlearn that, yeah, and then not just unlearn it but make some really cool stuff, both like pre-recorded live streams. Level up your whole setup, level up the way you do things, see you be really excited about it and then see a community build around it. That is like you know. I mean this is affirming because, like the community you built around your gaming channel is some of them are here amazingly positive, nice, awesome people. Um, the community built around the couples table amazingly nice, awesome positive people, the community around my channel.
Speaker 1It's like okay, it feels like something is is good, because, whether it's me, you or both of us, it seems to pull in, like the kind of people that we would want to yeah pull in awesome people to be around. Yeah, exactly yeah, awesome, that was the thing with nab last year, like meeting people in person, and it was. It wasn't like a bunch of like weirdos in a dark alley, like I like you from the internet like I have never met somebody like that.
Speaker 1First of all, I should stop saying that to people, um, but it was like everybody was like, oh, I know your channel. They were like in the middle of doing something, like, oh, I'm working on this, I'm making this, I'm here for my job, doing this. It was like, wow, that's like, that's so cool and and I feel like this, I don't know it's it's very affirming and maybe, and like you said, seeing adults try something new, even make mistakes, um, and maybe I might be reaching too far, but I got a lot of questions yesterday in my stream and in the q a video I did about ai stuff and I think maybe the like, the imperfections, yes, oh, my gosh kind of value a lot more.
Speaker 1Yeah, have a lot more value now than they did before.
Speaker 2Um, because it's the uh, it's the gold thing, the cracks right in cracks.
Speaker 1That's not what it's called I don't remember I don't know, if I got, like we'll say doc rocks name three times, he'll show up and answer the question, right? Doc, doc, doc. That's the third time.
Speaker 2What was it Golden?
Speaker 1cracks. It's the thing where, like something in old school Japanese culture, kintsugi.
Speaker 2Kintsugi.
Speaker 1Yeah, where something breaks, and instead of throwing it away, you put it back together, but you, instead of using super glue or whatever, use like gold to seal it up, and then the cracks become not only stronger but like a beautiful decorative part of it.
Speaker 2Kintsugi, there we go.
Speaker 1Yeah, okay, here, so we can show what we're talking about.
Speaker 2It's like this, right, so you like break something, but then you fill in the cracks with gold and it becomes its own unique piece of art that embraces the imperfections.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah there's a funny thing um, old guitars like like electric guitars from when they were kind of invented, like the 50s to maybe through the 60s and 70s, used like a a certain type of finish that over time would just start cracking, okay, um, and then they switch to a different thing. So now you can have a guitar. You know, like I have some guitars that are over 20 years old and they basically exactly the same as we took them out of the box. Uh. But there's a thing now where people, like when they buy old guitars that have the old finishes they really like, it sort of almost looks like a spider web crack pattern. That goes um, that goes. People will refinish new guitars with that so that they will crack over time. Wow, because it is like a unique. Yeah.
Speaker 2Then you get the one of a kind yeah.
Speaker 1And it's not through damage or anything, it's just a property of this thing and what it does. And yeah, there's not going to be anything else exactly like that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2I like that people appreciate that stuff. Yeah, especially with ai man, I feel like you know it's a huge topic of 2024. It is, I feel like, fully integrated at this point, um, and just just gonna be really interesting kind of seeing how all that unfolds did you hear about the instagram facebook user thing? Do you know how? I heard about it how an ai podcast no pimpy oh pimpy.
Speaker 2One of my discord mobs. Mobs mods posted it in uh in the discord and was like hey, heads up. Uh, is this what you're talking about? Like meta allowed for ai generated profiles or something?
Speaker 1they created their own profiles that are like fake, but it's like they look like real people. So it's like an older person talking about their grandkids and I don't know who this is for, Like why.
Speaker 2Right, why do I need this? Wait? But who creates them? Is it people Like? Users are like hey, I want to make a fake boyfriend.
Speaker 1No, no like Meta, a no, no like meta made them like the engineer like facebook made them wait like 10 or a million I think they have. I think they've like showcased like 20, but I don't know if they will.
Speaker 2If they will, then now reproduce it's like, it's like, it's like being friends with like yeah. So, they have personalities.
Speaker 1Except it's not like if you were friends I won't say her name, alexandra. If you were friends with her and she was aware of what she was like, I'm your assistant to do whatever this looks like. The one I saw was like a 65-year-old, 70-year-old man talking about he's into making textiles and his grandkids and just making posts like the thing I've learned when my grandkids buy me this. I don't know how they label it, it's not clear and it really looks like a person talking about their grandkids, like and I don't know who this is for, and then the comments on it are mostly other bots just saying like and it's like what is happening why? I don't know, I don't know who this is for, and then the comments on it are mostly other bots just saying like and it's like what is happening, why?
Speaker 1I don't know. I don't know who wants this. I don't know what the purpose is and the thing I've seen is like oh, it's to generate ad revenue, but I'm like who's advertising? Like there's more users, but they're all just bots talking to have money. Yeah, they don't. They don't exist, they're not real. It's weird, it's a very weird thing, so I don't know.
Speaker 2Yeah, all right, let's see Real Pell Rooms here. Happy New Year, kombucha. Hey, happy New Year friends, mr Camerajookie, the house, hey everyone.
Speaker 1Hey, Nitro yes, Because we have a friend called Nitro and I think it runs, Because I actually did when I refinished my very first guitar a couple years ago. I learned about this when I did that because I unintentionally used nitro lacquer on the end to finish it and it started cracking a little bit and at first I was like, oh my God, I got to redo this. And then I was like, nope, we're just going to let it be its thing. And it's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 2So I don't mind.
Speaker 1It even has a giant crack on the back. That crack Some cracks aren't whack.
Speaker 2Oh, no coffee. Hey, you too Happy New.
Speaker 1Year. Happy New Year.
Speaker 2Happy New Year to you too.
Speaker 1Yeah Well, do you have, Did I?
Speaker 2answer your question, or did I give you a chance to answer About the intention thing I believe. So, yeah, I feel answered.
Speaker 1Do you have any? I don't think. You and I are big on New Year's resolutions and stuff, Nah dude.
Speaker 2By the time February rolls around, I don't even remember what the hell it was.
Speaker 1It's more like I don't know.
Speaker 2I feel like we're kind of continually trying to yeah, we try, as you know, we do our best every day.
Speaker 1Yeah, I don't need to lie to myself in January and then feel guilty on January 5th, but do you have anything that is maybe a goal or an ambition or a direction that you want to share for the year?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I saw this on instagram. I shared it with you, but it was this. I think it was the author of you pray, love yes, yes yeah.
Speaker 2So she was sharing a message to fellow creatives, saying that it's. She's saying something like um, if you're a creative person, try to to make your decisions and make it a habit to make decisions out of curiosity versus fear, and I think that's a huge. That is an intention that I want to have for as long as I can, because I think the thing I think, you know, december was insane.
Speaker 1We've already mentioned this over and over again. It's a December to remember. Sales event Shut up. Sorry, you kept going. Happy Toyotathon everybody.
Speaker 2The thing is like, when life inevitably happens, that takes a toll on things like passion and motivation, and you know I obviously you know if I've stressed out about one thing in my life, it trickles into creativity right, and I don't think I knew how to handle that because I had not felt the, I had not felt that fire in a really, really long time that I had when I came back to the gaming channel.
Speaker 2I just felt alive in a way that I haven't felt before and then just to have all these things kind of take me away from that. I was getting really, really, really, really frustrated and I think that when I'm anxious, I started to pay attention to things that don't matter. You know like I started unintentionally or unconsciously putting expectations and then, when expectations were met, I would feel defeated you know, and it's like I know when I'm at my best, I don't even pay attention to these things.
Speaker 2It's just like am I having fun or not? Period Right, and I think that point. I really liked the way that she said that because it wasn't passion. Because passion Versus fear, because passion fades Right, same with motivation. It's curiosity. There are going to be days when you are not motivated, but it's curiosity of like, especially for me who has adhd. I'm curious about everything. I I can, you know I can come up with all the ideas. I can ask all the questions.
Speaker 2That is my normal state of being and if I just lean into the curiosity, having no expectations, right, it's just like what if I did this? Or what if we tried this? Or wouldn't it be cool if we did this? Here's, like you know, a cookbook based on recipes from Final Fantasy 14. Wouldn't it be crazy if we went to an apple orchard and tried making a strudel? I don't know Like that was it. There was no. Like this is going to be a banger of a video or anything.
Speaker 1The algorithm's all about strudel videos this year.
Speaker 2And it was, you know, one of the best videos we've made we got, you know, play with the, our new camera.
Speaker 2We had a memory that we won't forget and you know it was just. It was just so much fun and so, yeah, going into 2025. I, I think it's. It was part of that unlearning. You know the burden of knowledge of like this. This is what a YouTube video is supposed to look like, and da-da-da, and you know, here are things about gaming channels I typically don't like, so I don't want to do things like that and all that.
Speaker 2And you know, I just want to be curious and act on that, and then we'll just see where it goes, and what's cool is that I can mess up. Yep, absolutely. We'll just see where it goes, and what's cool is that I can mess up Yep absolutely. I've had multiple instances where I felt like I messed up in the Discord. It's obviously nothing huge, but I love that the community is like I don't know supports giving people the benefit of the doubt, including me.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Which is great, because I have no idea what the heck's happening. I don't know. You know I don't have all the answers, but if you vibe with this, then let's go.
Speaker 1To your channel slogan.
Speaker 2Did I answer your question? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1That's a great answer. The curiosity thing's really interesting. I don't know if it ties into something I used to do when I was teaching because I liked my job, but it was hard, right. We've talked about that a lot, and so there's a lot of times where, like, I'm exhausted, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed, you know, and it's like obviously every far from perfect, every day. But something I did try to do, which I will say like I was able to do on most days, was have one thing I'm looking forward to, which was usually curiosity based. It was usually like, oh you know, I bet you I could do this, this, this, which would make, like, this lesson really interesting, this presentation really interesting, this, this presentation really interesting.
Speaker 2This project really cool. You never like. Every time you come in with a new idea, it's never like. This is going to be hot, you know like this is the thing that's going to be, you know, viral or whatever. Never, it's always like okay, so check this out. I just got this new thing and I have this old thing. Yeah, wouldn't it be cool if, exactly.
Speaker 1It's if, exactly, I wonder, yeah, um, and that, like that, was a saving grace for a lot of time and a difficult job, and I think I still do that. But I think, um, going from that to being like self-employed, where it's like, hey, I'm my own boss, I don't have these pressures, I think it's almost easy to not do that because you feel like it is all passion. Right, it should all be passion, but there are life happens and there's ups and downs and there's still things that you have to do and have to get done and there's parts of it that aren't that fun and you know, like all that kind of stuff, and so I almost feel like trying to pull that back into it is really important, because it yeah yeah, it would only help strengthen things yeah, see, and I think all of last year was us like figuring out all of that, you know, yeah, like it really does feel like a different phase, which is exciting, like I'm excited to see, I'm excited for this year.
Speaker 2I really feel good about it. Was that a sarcastic sigh?
Speaker 1No, it was the last time I said that on stream was January 2020. I'm not saying that on stream again? How do you know? Because I remember we did a new decade, because it was a new decade, oh my god, the world is gonna open up for this year, january 2020.
Speaker 2look out, find that stream oh, lord uh, yeah, who would pay to advertise the box?
Rise of AI in Social Media
Speaker 1that's what I don't I don't get, unless their, their goal is like well, we have these bots, real users will engage with them and stay on the platform, but it's like, it's just it's. It is genuinely dystopian, like I know that's kind of a cliche thing to build something that is like jarvis you know where you, uh, you, you can.
Speaker 2You know, I, I, as a gamer, I really love fictional characters. Sure, okay, ai is a fictional can be a fictional character like jarvis.
Speaker 1Right, like you can. I'm reading a whole book series right now called portal to nova roma, where the main character is an AI put into a physical body if it's, you know like, maybe you, maybe you start with a 70 year old, 70 year old textile worker yeah, to connect with lonely. I don't know.
Speaker 2I mean, I feel, like I feel like I don't going back to.
Speaker 1Like the movie Bicentennial man, like it's sort of like evolved organically, even Jarvis, and like the Iron man things like evolved organically, whereas this is like so manufactured.
Speaker 2I know, but the thing with so okay, my argument there is that Facebook has has never been organic. It's, they've always done the insane thing. That's why they are who they are. They invented social media, like you know, or you know you know, modern social media. Like if anyone's going to do it, it's going to be them, they. If they don't do it, somebody else is going to do it, you know. So yeah, I don't understand why you would willingly encourage that.
Speaker 1I don't.
Speaker 2Like who, who? What's the vision I got? I don't know. I got to see more. I feel like it can't be just that. That's it Right now. That's it.
Speaker 1And that's why people and it's also it's also harder to block those profiles, like they don't have the standard block option. It's very strange. I'm not going back to Facebook Damn.
Speaker 2this 4K image is sharp.
Speaker 1Don't cut yourself so sharp.
Speaker 2Andre says at some point AI users are going to take over Facebook and make it implode upon itself. Matrix 4,. Somebody launches a YouTube follower AI service where you can buy followers that comment like vids that YouTube can't identify.
Speaker 1Plot twist, the service is powered by Google Gemini. I mean, see, that's already a version of that as a thing that people have been doing for years is like buying subscribers, likes that kind of stuff. Obviously Google tries to, or YouTube and Google try to identify that and, like, root it out. So it's the arms race of like.
Speaker 2Yeah, but it's so because it's automated, it's AI and I'm sure there's, like you know, ai bots and coding and all of that that are just creating all these accounts. You know a million accounts a minute. Like how do you even?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Oh, my God, I forgot to. I screenshotted this comment and I meant to share it with you and I forgot.
Speaker 1Oh, let's see the T right now.
Speaker 2Okay, this was on MSQ 4.5.
Speaker 1So one of the gaming streams we did.
Speaker 2It says you're doing a fantastic job. Could you help me with something unrelated? I have a safe pal wallet.
Speaker 1This is the wallet thing.
Speaker 2USDT and I have the seed phrase and then in parentheses it says alarm, fetch, turn, bridge, exercise tape, speak, race clerk, couch, crater letter. How should I go about transferring them to binance?
Speaker 1these types of messages have been popping up. I don't quite understand the scam, but they it's the same thing of like. This is great, but now my like weird crypto wallet or whatever.
Speaker 2Like I need this phrase but then there's the word stuffing, which is like just a bunch of words that don't make sense, that are strung together somehow.
Speaker 1My guess is they're trying to. At some point someone's gonna get scammed out of some money, and I don't know how that works. It's very strange, though. I've been getting those a lot lately too.
Speaker 2I don't understand why you would, but I don't know why would you. How does this work if it's so obvious that it's an? It's like a bot by stringing together these words that don't make sense I don't know.
Speaker 1I I don't know if it's like something gets triggered when someone replies to it, whether it's the channel creator or somebody else.
Speaker 2Maybe, yeah, but I feel like you're giving yourself away by putting even the like you won. The sweepstakes is less of a flag than that is. It's just a bunch of words strung together I don't know.
Speaker 1I yeah, I don't unless someone there, unless some gullible person on the platform with three or four billion people on it. Maybe there is someone who shows up and goes like, oh yeah, the passphrase is usually church, gusher or whatever, and then you're like, okay, it's one of my live drop a similar comment.
Speaker 2I just silenced them.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's a strange. Hey KWAComedy, happy New.
Speaker 2Year's Good to see you. Yeah, so it's a. I think AI is definitely. I don't know, I mean, it's the same thing that you said, but I don't want to be that person who's like the ostrich, right, who's like oh yeah, I don't want to do that. But the thing that does make me nervous with how fast AI is going is that there's not enough education to get people to recognize when something is not real well, I mean a lot of it too like one of the big powers of ai is the scale that you can do things like.
Speaker 1You could always make low effort youtube videos.
Speaker 1You could always content farm, but then you might have to like pay even if it's like some overseas underpaid team of editors or whatever to make like crummy videos and you upload five of them a day.
Speaker 1Now you can have an AI, do 10 of them every day on 15 different channels for no more effort, I guess, and you can have like. The scale at which a single person can potentially try to scam many others is huge. And if all you need is like a small percentage, a very, very small percentage of people to you know if it costs virtually nothing for them to spam those comments everywhere, and they're doing thousands, millions I don't know how many of them and just a couple people respond with something that gets them into their like, gives you access to their binance wallet that's a thing that exists, I'm guessing. And then, I don't know, at some point somebody gets 20, I don't know like, at some point someone gets money so, speaking of ai I don't know if you want to talk about this- sure I haven't seen this on my channel yet, but it's interesting to see on yours.
Speaker 2What, seriously, you haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 1I don't know, I mean my computer's over there I could see.
Speaker 2But Okay, so I have this on all my channels already.
Speaker 1It must be on mine then I just haven't seen it.
Speaker 2Yeah, if you go to your YouTube studio and then go to content. There's a new tab here called inspiration and it's basically, uh, you know, chat GPT built into YouTube, but better, right. So it analyzes the content that has, you know in YouTube's uh, it's been successful, and then creates ideas off of that. But what's crazy is that not only is it ideas, but it's been successful and then creates ideas off of that. But what's crazy is that not only is it ideas, but it's the whole freaking the whole video is the ikea instruction manual to yeah so here's the best product you have for creative work.
Speaker 2Here are your titles. It's doing the outline right there. It's got like all the sections. You would include everything that you would say you could even like, and this is YouTube giving this to you?
Speaker 1This is YouTube. This is not like chat.
Speaker 2You don't even have to do thumbnails anymore, it's all right here.
Speaker 1YouTube. Just making thumbnails for you to put on YouTube.
Speaker 2See, this is the thing that, like I worry for creators, because I feel the thing with this is that now you're not I mean going back to the curiosity thing, now you're not being curious, you're letting YouTube be curious for you you're just letting YouTube take over your channel. Yeah, and that you know YouTube. You run your YouTube channel. Your YouTube channel does not run you. I liked.
Speaker 1they had a thing I don't know if they still even have it anymore because Google is a data company they had stuff where you could go on and sort of see, like you know, based on your niche, like it's just all stuff, like here's what people are searching for, here's potential content gaps.
Speaker 1So it's like I think they could find stuff people are searching for that doesn't have a lot of super relevant stuff and you could go through and be like oh, look, you know, people are searching for SM7B plus RODECaster, and it turns out there's not a lot of videos that explain exactly what they're looking for. Oh, maybe that's a topic I could explain, but it would just give you a topic and then you could think like, okay, I can make a video about that and you figure it out. I mean, I never really found anything that way, but I thought it was interesting at least, whereas this is just like here, make this video. Here's the script, here's the thumbnail. Yeah, at a certain point, let's be like we'll make a voiceover and a person for you and here's a video, just upload.
Speaker 2let us upload this to your channel right now the thing is like I feel like the things that have really been revolutionary for youtube videos and content, or made by people right like casey nice at redefining or defining what vlogs are, you know, that's not gonna be in here what I, you know it's not, and what's interesting to me is, like you see, like literally here's the thumbnails, you can just download it.
Speaker 1It's not even like here's some examples of what you could make, it's just use this one right here. I'm thinking of a point where, like, your YouTube homepage is just filled with this, like it's filled with what is next week, man?
Speaker 2Yeah, I know, I mean it's already kind of now.
Speaker 1Yeah, Obviously there's like ai thumbnails now and ai videos, but like, where it's just finding like and in a way maybe that's a good thing where you find the human crafted thing, the imperfect video that pops up is like, oh, finally, like, do that.
Speaker 2But right, like our eyes are going to be trained for yeah, like this versus the weird hyper glossy thing.
Speaker 1But then I I feel like, because it's that arms race, where then the ai stuff will start to like, let's make it look imperfect, let's make it.
Speaker 1You know that's yeah, let's not have the the super glossy, perfect sheen, but that's you know. Let's make videos with some stutters. I've heard that some um you can do, like, have you create a podcast with two ai hosts talking about this thing? Yes, because there's a really funny one. The example I heard was someone gave a document it was a word document that just said peepee, poo, poo, like over and over and over and over and over again. And they gave that to the program and said okay, have create a podcast with two hosts talk about this. And it is shockingly realistic. It sounds like most podcasts it's a guy and a girl and they're like they're breaking it down like what it means, what it could mean, and it's like it's hilarious and scary and also kind of like wow, there's a lot of bad podcasts out there, because it sort of sounds like stuff I've heard from people but like I don't even remember.
Speaker 2My point was because I'm a person, I'm imperfect and I forgot well, I mean, I think, when it comes to the, the novelty of a I mean things like that.
Speaker 1That's to me that, like that's where it has its place yeah, oh, that was my example, though, was having people actually say like um, or stutter, or forget their words. Yes, um, and it is kind of crazy because it sounds like two real people talking and it. I think the example there was like I mean it was to show the like.
The Evolution of Content Creation
Speaker 1It is ridiculous, but it's also like yeah like you know you don't have to sit here every week and carve time out of your time to make a podcast, that you tire your voice out and sometimes you have a sore throat, sometimes you don't like, you just do this and it's the same thing. And it's not the same thing and that's the thing is like ultimately, like who I? I've had this thought even years ago. One of the earliest streamlining things was, um, you could take like a video or the caption file from a video and turn it into a blog post.
Speaker 2Oh, I remember this.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it's like okay, and I've heard people, I've heard the advice of like you should have blog posts for your videos, which I actually do think is good advice. It's not something I have time for, but like here's a whole post, it's not just the script of the video, but it's me writing out the video, or me writing out like the idea behind the video, the video, or me writing out like the idea behind the video, maybe diving into more depth, explaining things. Obviously you can embed the video in there, you can do your links or whatever. That's a lot of work to put that together. Um, if you just post like the caption file, it looks weird and so there's things that will just create a blog post for you and it's like okay, you know, I've I've heard the argument for a long time that like well, either have nothing or you have that, so might not just have that. It takes zero effort and yeah, but like my question is who is that like?
Speaker 1who's actually gonna want to sit there and read that, but not?
Speaker 2even that like more importantly is like where is your feeling of accomplishment? Yeah, like exactly you're, you're, you know fulfillment right. What is the point? If you, it's like you have no sense of pride in the thing that you're making.
Speaker 1It's like you know, playing a video game and then just putting in the ultimate cheat code to get to the very end and being like I beat the game but you, I guess. I mean you got to the end of the game but like you didn't.
Speaker 1About the journey, yeah, and the friendships we made along the way, but where's the actual feeling of pride, like our? You know, an issue that we have faced in our low level hockey league is some other teams will like to bring in players that are too good for the beginner league that we're in, and so then it becomes impossible. Obviously, like it tips the thing and it's like the thing that's. There's a lot of things that are sad about that, but, like I have always felt, you know, our team has gotten frustrated in the past. We've never done that, we've never brought in higher level players. But obviously, like the conversation has popped up Like we could just get someone. But I'm like I don't. If someone who's like way too good to be here, a couple, just win the game for us, I'm not gonna feel like we won the game.
Speaker 2Yeah, what's the point?
Speaker 1yeah, it's not gonna feel like I did anything. It's gonna actually make me feel bad. I would rather lose but like at least get a little better.
Speaker 2Yeah and yeah agreed yo, uh, geekanoids happy new year. Oh tom, you sparked my interest in the broadcaster video. Very excited to pick one up.
Speaker 1Yeah, pick it up, set it down yeah, andre, the dead internet theory.
Speaker 2Activity and content on the internet, including social media accounts, are predominantly being created and automated by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 1Yeah, forget what the percentage of that is, but it's a very high, like more than half. More than half of stuff on the internet is not, it's just computers talking to each other, it's not even humans. So eventually the whole internet is. There's not even people on it.
Speaker 2Is that where it's supposed to go eventually, like if you just follow the thread?
Speaker 1I think it's already. Most of the internet is already that Like. It's something like it might be 40 or 60% somewhere around. There is already that, which is just like. What Like? Why?
Speaker 2Because capitalism, baby yeah. Because capitalism, baby yeah. What's your top recommendation for a single-angle top, second-angle, top-down camera?
Speaker 1Depending on budget. Top recommendation phone Nice, yeah, phones are so easy, especially like they're easy to use as webcams.
Speaker 2now, and they're small and lightweight. We could just link this right now, actually.
Speaker 1Yeah, just wirelessly even.
Speaker 2I think I could even do it, just this, their iPhone on the overlays, yeah, just like put NDI Hold on. Okay, go.
Speaker 1Turn on the phone. Wait, see, this is if we were an AI. Oh yeah, yeah, there you go. There's a fun thing yeah, so top down.
Speaker 2You know, you just put this on something there we go.
Speaker 1There's our top down shot keyboard. Um, yeah, phone works really good. If you don't want to use your phone um, a camera that I use a lot is the sony zv1f. Um, it's the zv1 that doesn't have a, the lens doesn't zoom at all, so that's just the one I had, but, like a small camera, bless you. Small camera like that is a great top down shot again, because it's small, compact but still super good image quality. Um, and then you could get into smaller? Um real cameras, things like the zve 10 and and stuff like that. Phone is a great place to start and you probably already have one. Or even webcams, like the Elgato Facecam or something like that.
Speaker 2Notebook LM is the AI podcast. The one with the booboo peepee, that's just like an actual podcast with new episodes and everything.
Speaker 1Oh, I've only heard the.
Speaker 2Notebook LM.
Speaker 1Here it is. It's a podcast. This week we dive into the AI-powered genius that doesn't just organize your notes, it flips. I don't know about this?
Speaker 2Oh no, this is an episode from a podcast called Up Against Reality.
Speaker 1They're talking about notebook LM. They're talking about notebook, talking about notebook lm? Yeah, I don't know, it's the I should. I'm gonna have you listen to like a snippet of it, because you're gonna be like I don't even know what your reaction is gonna be. It's weird, it's unsettling. I just you know what I, what I wish.
Speaker 2I wish we can like.
Speaker 1That, that didn't exist.
Speaker 2I want to bring, like Socrates, ralph Waldo, emerson and like Thoreau Come on over and tell me what you think of all this, like just tell me what you. What do you think of where humanity has gone? You used to lock yourself in a cabin for years at a time to write prose.
Speaker 1No, no, no, no, no. You can scroll TikTok and just have the computer do it for you.
The Impact of AI Content Creation
Speaker 2Okay, rick, have you seen Mike Russell's latest video? It's scary. The AI service lets you edit the words of your talking head video and the video will match. You can even change the language.
Speaker 1Oh man, it's like next level descript. I haven't seen that. Um, that see, like tech. Text-based video editing is a thing that I kind of do find interesting for people who aren't video editors. Where you you can, you can have the, which the script has done for a long time long time you see, you see what's being said and you essentially edit a word document, but it is editing the video yeah, but I think it.
Speaker 2I think descript is getting to the point where you can replace words yeah, and it'll. It'll generate it with your voice yeah, and it will um and your face and everything yeah, and that's what seems we have.
Speaker 1So it's a lot smoother, isn't like weird jump cuts and things there, but it's yeah.
Speaker 2That is um, I don't know yeah I mean the way that I feel about it is like I know more of this content is going to be out there because obviously people are going to jump on it yeah uh, and I feel like, um, you know, I remember what was I.
Speaker 2I was doing research for a tutorial. Actually, um, shoot, I don't remember what it was, but it was something ai and I wrote the whole outline, but I didn't end up recording it because of the search results I got on youtube. Um, I was looking at something like ai something and then that all the top results, like the main top results, were this entire video was created with ai and millions of views really all the comments were just like oh my god, this is gonna change a game like now.
Speaker 2And it was basically encouraging people to start youtube channels and see. That's the thing, because when it's incentivized by money, right like if it's incentivized to just create anything. And then you get your. You know, you get your watch time, you get your subscribers and you start making that ad sense. Then who cares about?
Speaker 1community or you know connection or anything. I feel like it's going to get diluted so fast that like, who? Like it's going to be that thing where I don't think people are going to settle in and be like, I'll just watch anything. If it's ai created, it is. If it's human created, is, I think very quickly we're like, oh, this is just like ai garbage again and click off like I feel like the novelty, like no human is going to want to watch that much of it. I feel like, at least in the current form I don't know, that's, that's what I feel yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2Uh, andre says for people who don't really want to do work, getting a free lunch with auto-generated content trump's having the feeling of accomplishment, exactly like if you want to just imagine, right like you wake up, you spend two hours doing whatever with your ai, and then you're done and you get paid I've known, I've known, you know like like I get, I get it.
Speaker 1But when I first, like when I got out of college and I was entering the adult world, there were things that were big milestones, like getting my first, like new car yeah and then eventually like getting a house and stuff and those are big miles, like I can't believe.
Speaker 1You know, the first new car was a toyota corolla. It's not like, oh, I didn't go crazy or anything, but it really to sit in that car and be like, oh my God, like I'm paying the car payment on this thing and it's like it had two miles on it or whatever when I drove it off the lot and every mile's mine, but like it was such a feeling of accomplishment. I've known several people throughout my life that operate this way, but there was someone I remember specifically, specifically with cars. They would sometimes get to borrow other people's cars and the way they would drive around and it literally was the same like amount of fulfillment, as they'd be like check it out.
Speaker 1I'm in the, you know, whatever fancy car and it's like, but that's not, and not even just like you know. You get a. You go rent a car and they accidentally give you like a nicer car and you're expecting like look at. I mean, it wasn't just like the the fun of it, it was literally like like.
Speaker 2As far as the whole world knows, this is my car and I have the same feeling of accomplishment as like you makes me sad because, like I don't whatever, I don't want to judge people's motivations, like if you obviously that that goes to identity right, like you, there's a lot of a lot to unpack. It's just that, like when we're talking about AI right now, january 3rd 2025, we're just seeing, like you know we came we came, we, so we came so far in a year.
Speaker 2Yeah, to the point where now it's just going to be exponential in the next you know few weeks even.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's just going to be exponential in the next, you know, few weeks even. Yeah, I mean, and that's the the really the scale of it, the. The thing that I am curious about, um and this is something I don't know anything about, but something I hear so much of is how much, like, how many resources, how much energy ai systems take. This is something I really don't know but like there's oh the refrigeration thing no, I don't know anything about this the the water that the systems take yeah, like it.
Speaker 2It that's. I've seen this on instagram, that's. I totally cut you off. But I I've heard like, oh, how much water did this post waste, because it takes so much water to cool the systems down.
Speaker 1Yeah, see, I've heard I haven't seen that, but I've heard stuff like that where it's like look, I made this YouTube thumbnail and all it took was like a small part of the rainforest or whatever, and obviously there's problems with that. But the thing I am curious about, if we are in this like end stage capitalism hellscape of like whatever, as you have all these things, it's growing like crazy. You can do all this really cool stuff. But if it does go down the route of like, look, we made AI content for other AI bots to consume and then it really is like well, who at a certain certain point? How does that make money?
Speaker 1see and at a certain point, and but at a certain point, when will the companies be? Like we are spending so much money to like just power these systems? We would actually make more money to not power these systems and then which is right. Like you have to be cash positive yeah, so at a certain point it's like when it's you know, like when is this not our like killer feature? That's in everything anymore?
Speaker 1I genuinely don't think it's going away because the technology is just too interesting and does have so many uses, both positive and negative.
Speaker 2There's no way it's going to go away, but I think, scaled down unless it becomes massively more efficient.
Speaker 1You know like, rather than having you know every time you buy something. Now it's like water bottle with ai. Oh look, see, this water bottle has ai, it's adidas, it has an a and an I in it, but everything is like a with ai, like big sticker on it now, like your washing machine with ai, new car ai, iphone 16, ai, and it's like I feel like that is going to go away because nobody's going to care and and the amount of it's not a selling thing anymore yeah, even apple.
Speaker 1I mean that was a thing that has just popped out, where it's like hmm, iphone 16 sales are lower than expected. Well, yeah, the the shining features, apple intelligence, which people aren't that interested in and also isn't even available yet. So like yeah, I mean, that shows you right there like people would rather just have a better camera or something in their phone uh, andre says for people who don't really.
Speaker 2Oh, I said that. Uh, you mean to say we're already in the skynet area?
Speaker 1seems like it era.
Speaker 2Uh, crazy doc. That type of technology would be really useful in spreading misinformation also hello good to see you geekanoids had a question, not just what is?
Speaker 1oh, retracted, yeah, it doesn't retract from ecamm.
Speaker 2That's why, but it's a good question, yeah sorry, it's about dessert over the holidays. I don't see nothing wrong with this question I, I, you know, when I started to notice this. Actually, uh, there's a lot of ecamm people in here and maybe you guys can tell me this, but I I noticed on Heather just play cause we use Ecamm that messages were getting retracted, but they don't retract from the Ecamm window and I was like, oh uh, I can't look at two chats at the same time.
Speaker 1No, it's hard.
Speaker 2Um, but this is kind of a. When this happens, when someone retracts their comment on YouTube, I shouldn't read it because obviously they chose to attract it. But it's happened like quite a few times and I'm sorry for bringing that, but I like talking about desserts though. Yeah, what was your favorite dessert over Christmas holidays? It was handles.
Speaker 1Yeah, ice cream.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, our end. There's an AI that can make a video out of a single still frame oh yeah, I've heard about that, yeah I don't, I don't think it's. You know, I think the fear that I have is just normal, uh, fear of the unknown. But I don't, I don't actually believe, uh, because I'm always, I'm optimistic, right. So I don't, I don't believe that it's all gonna.
Speaker 1You know, go to I have noticed I mean, I don't think this is the standard thing, um, but I noticed, at least for myself I have become even more critical of stuff. Whereas, like um, you know, like I'm always aware, whereas, like you know, like I'm always aware, like here's a you know a post that someone did, it's like this doesn't seem legit. Like you know, like I don't know what, whatever it might be, you see something and it just sort of seems like. It sort of seems fake or whatever. I've always kind of like tried to pay attention to that. But sometimes, you know, like stuff looks real, seems real, it's kind of accepted at face value. Why would anyone fake this? But I found myself recently being like way more critical of like. Is it like really trying to like vet stuff or find backup sources for things, which is actually a good thing?
Speaker 2As a digital media teacher with an English background, where your entire friggin training was to look at things with a critical eye. Yeah, we do that. I feel like that's not.
Speaker 1I know that's probably not the norm.
Speaker 2Yes, that's the thing that, like I mean dude talk about why I wanted to quit my job and start the whole movement. Share Spark Radio was to educate people in how to use all of these tools and even just the nab thing where I almost I don't know, I was gonna say. I was about to say how I almost derailed my entire life and I cut myself off because that's not what it was.
Speaker 2But looking back, changed course, yeah, yeah to to do this whole like small business creator thing. Imagine if I had done that the whole every day. My life would just be AI. That's the only thing we would be talking about yeah, no thanks. Bullet dodged.
Speaker 1But yeah, you know I still.
Speaker 2I still like talking about these things, but I forgot what I was saying. I feel like I was replying to what you said and then I forgot.
Speaker 1Just being critical.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, forgot just being um critical. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, not, I know it's not the norm, but I, I think like um, things like this. You know forums like this where we can have discussions and everyone can kind of uh share their perspective. So, like here, kathy says the minute I hear an ai voice, even on a short, I'm out. Same when I hear persuasion on instagram, I just scroll so fast because I, I don't. I don't know why that is my default when I can tell the voice is ai, but to me it is a, it's a, it is a turn off to the point where I'm not even.
Speaker 1I just swipe immediately right and I don't know why. That's because it's getting. I I like as someone who has even done a couple sponsored things for ai voice services, but that's because I do see the value in them sometimes right I see, I see the low effort thing. I'm out also as soon as it's like. This is just low. You took someone else's video.
Speaker 2You slapped an ai voice over on it like sometimes it's funny, like when you put the ai voice on the dog. You know like that's sure fun and I I watch those, but if it's an ad I go so fast.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean the thing that I, that I have said, and the reason I actually do like I don't think ai voiceover tools should disappear, is because I've been in situations and I know small businesses, I know small productions, all kinds of things where you you genuinely need a voiceover and there's no one around either with the voice or the technical capability to create it yeah and you find yourself in really tight, tricky situations that either end up with you not making what you need to make or spending more money on it and being able to just that's yeah, but see the thing, everything that you're thinking about is not situations where people need to crunch out an absurd amount of content in yeah, no, it's not.
Speaker 1It's not that and the other thing too, like because even going back to like the sponsored videos I've done, where I'm talking to ai voices and things, um part of me, I don't want to dive in, I just don't even want to like bring in the conversation, but the behind the scenes on those I think is really interesting because they are ai it's text, text to speech.
Speaker 2But it's hard, yeah, it takes a while For each line.
Speaker 1I will typically do five to 10 takes, because each time you generate it it's different to get the right tone dialed in.
Speaker 1The intonation and then you still it's not even just like I type their whole, this whole character's thing. It's like line by line, sentence by sentence, and then piecing those together and still adjusting the timing and the fading and the levels, and like there's still a whole lot of human editing that goes into it. It's just the voice in those cases. That would be it. But I know there's a lot of things there where it's like. You know, it's like when you sometimes see a reel or something that has the captions burned in and sometimes it's like millions and millions of views, but they clearly didn't even attempt to fix the captions, like the auto-generated captions, because there's mispronunciations and typos everywhere and it's like you could have changed that like real easily, but you didn't.
AI Evolution in Everyday Life
Speaker 2Oh, okay, I see why you retracted Geek Noise because you put a new one. I worked all the hours for 18 years on YouTube. Things have changed so much. Ai seems like cheating. Thanks guys, just for fun, non-tech. What was your favorite dessert over the Christmas holidays?
Speaker 1Just desserts.
Speaker 2Sorry, see, the AI seems like cheating, I agree with, but it's also, like you know, the the pocket feels like cheating.
Speaker 1The Osmo pocket.
Speaker 2Yeah, like the new tech Right.
Speaker 1Calculators are cheating?
Speaker 2Yeah, but it's the things that make our you know the new tools that have you know the road casters cheating you could do. We did all of this without this this whole time.
Speaker 2It's whole lot harder, right, it just took forever, and so I don't want to look at ai in that way, because I do feel like you know, you, you use the photoshop ai thing all the time. I use canva all the time. That has all has. It's never been labeled as ai, but that's what it is to remove the background to like generate, you know, assets and images and stuff like that.
Speaker 1Uh, so much just goes to like how it's used, you know, and the intent behind how it's used, and yeah, I'm never going to be a graphic designer.
Speaker 2It's just not a thing that I. I just I don't want to learn it. I it's the part that I hate the most, and so if I could use something like camera that has a lot of ai tools built into it, i'm'm going to use it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I like graphic design and I like doing those things. So the AI tools that I use are the tedious stuff where it's like the AI version almost looks the same as what I would have made but it saved me an hour. A very tedious like clone, stamp and smudge, and just forget that. Like, let me just click a button and you do the thing yeah, that just saves my life.
Speaker 2What up y'all? Uh, let's see. Andre says if everybody is doing youtube that way, the ad money will dry up and too many will have to share the ad revenue and it won't pay enough to make it worth it kind of like bitcoin farms yeah, I'm really curious about that.
Speaker 1Or if ad revenue will increase for non-a increase for the high quality stuff. I don't know.
Speaker 2It's hard for me to have that, it's hard for me to know what that is, because we've had YouTube Premium for years. Who is watching an ai video and then sitting through the ads?
Speaker 1a really sad person like I just I don't know.
Speaker 2Uh, google just bought a nuclear power plant to power ai oh good see, this is the kind of stuff that makes me think like, okay, so yeah it just, we just go full terminator at this point, right no I robot, that's what it is. I forgot what terminator was I prefer just bicentennial man no, because it was.
Speaker 1That was just the one man yeah no, I robot like I know over no, I know.
Speaker 2That's why I said I prefer I judges, it gets smarter, it learns and it decides for itself that the best course of you know action for humanity is. We just needed be put down. Is that what skynet was? It was all like kill humanity.
Speaker 1I can't remember it's all, yes, it's all. Bad news bears the book. I'm reading the portal to nova roma. Very interesting why was.
Speaker 2Uh sorry. No, I'm curious about the terminator. Why was there the one robot that was like glitched?
Speaker 1Like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Why was he not with the robots? I genuinely don't remember or know. I don't think.
Speaker 2I ever saw. Because I'm not an AI, I don't have all the intelligence.
Speaker 1See, if we were AI, I would just answer the question. Oh well, because blah, blah, blah, I got nothing.
Speaker 2Mr Carver J says I think efficiency is the key to the future of AI. Also, ai is a buzzword being applied to everything. Yeah, dude. Okay. So my dad, you know, we saw Family Human Visit and he was telling us about how my parents went to a fast food restaurant it was a. Taco Bell and he was like, yeah, they have AI in the drive-thru. And I was like, what's the AI in the drive-thru?
AI Impact on Content Creation
Speaker 2and it was just him, like speaking to the you know the AI it was taking its order and then, like you don't talk to a person anymore at the menu, in the drive-thru, you talk to, uh, you know, an AI which, like I, don't this is the same thing as like say or press six to talk to whatever exactly like to me, that's not ai, that's just automation well, that's like you know.
Speaker 1An example that we've talked about for two is like, uh, the computer and video games yeah, everything's ai everything. Yeah, I mean, but even going back into old systems, old consoles, when you play against the computer right, that's ai.
Speaker 2Then if you if you're using it.
Speaker 1That yeah, with that definition and that's a great use of it, like, yeah, we want that well, that's why I'm like, if you don't explain, well, it's, it's.
Speaker 2That's why I don't have the words to define things, how can we possibly even understand what's happening? Come on, don't you have all the answers? I don't again not an ai don is here, hello hello leonard, you and heather are so lucky it's very rare and wonderful to have a wife who is also a concert creator and that both of you can enjoy working together yes, it's very nice.
Speaker 2We would go crazy if it was only one of us, probably yeah, definitely um, but it's a we consider ourselves very grateful every day, but it's definitely something that like we have to work on, you know, because like it doesn't really turn off, and it's also the thing that is where we find um, like it's also our hobby yeah, like a lot of blurred lines, keep talking about it.
Speaker 2Yeah, andre, the problem is probably not that ai content will take over, but it might destroy the possibility for normal people to make a living from consecration for a long time that's scary, I actually 100. This I disagree with actually I'm scared of that I don't think that, that I really do not think that's an issue, because I do think that people will. I want to believe that people will always gravitate to human I want to believe that.
Speaker 1I want to believe that the human made is a the human made.
Speaker 2I feel like that. It's not. I I think that um, expediting right, like ai, being able to create 10 videos in 10 minutes I feel like that's a way that you can make a lot of money with ai generated content. But I I think that sponsors like yeah, I don't think that they're going to want to pay for one of those 10 no you know videos that are automatically generated no, yeah, who's gonna no?
Speaker 2I don't know. That's what I think, patrick. Hey, good to see you finally catching you live. Andre, mr, camera joke. Oh, canna vision 70 fake 50 trailer doing the rounds, oh boy oh, mid journey, the future, ai dating, ai marriages, ai driving lessons ai holidays. What's next? Personal discussion content will win out for sure, morton. I'm not sure if you know of the y files channel, but I really enjoyed how they use ai generate content in their videos, but generally skeptical I'd be.
Speaker 1I haven't heard of it but I'd be interested to. I'd be interested to see a way that you enjoy it being used, what that looks like generative.
Speaker 2Ai for the win, says jeremy bahn. Oh, he was reprogrammed oh, the, the terminator it was he, arnold was old tech and was reprogrammed oh watch the movie again. I just like, can't like I'm not, I've never been, a terminator boy.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think the thing I used to like was at universal studios they had a 3d version of terminator 2 and it. It was really fun, like the whole theater would move and it was 3D and stuff. But it always laughed me because they'd be like it's Terminator 2, 3d and it was like the most awkward like timing of how they would say it.
Speaker 2Why is this the thing that you remember? Why you know?
Speaker 1Because it was funny. I don't know Term, because it was funny.
Speaker 2I don't know. Terminator 2, 3, d this is so. That's the most Tom thing ever. Arnold was old tech in his program. You guys really need to rewatch the first two Terminator movies. I don't. I really don't think I saw them.
Speaker 1I definitely have, but not for ages.
Speaker 2With some ice cream Now that sounds good. Could be persuaded, Something that does worry me, having just spent four years in rehab from brain injury. I read that health services are using AI for their diagnosis and care. Do you find that worrying?
Speaker 1I mean your family's in healthcare. I.
Speaker 2I want to say no. I feel like if we're going to, if there's anything worrying about the healthcare service industry, it's not AI in my opinion.
Speaker 1I mean, there's a lot to worry about. I feel like for something like that, like being in rehab for a brain injury, I want a an expert doing my treatment. I know, but there's so many things like For the low level stuff where like I just need some antibiotics. Yeah.
Speaker 2many things like for the low level stuff where, like I just need some antibiotics, yeah for something like please, yeah, just have like scan the thing like it's, you know, just tell me what it is like in the expanse, and there's a way that you can make it. Yeah, make this, make it cheaper for me. Yeah, hell, yeah. Let me go to the ai. You know like, why is health insurance so expensive?
Speaker 1I think there's low. There's low level stuff where I would be okay with it, but there's low level stuff where I'd be okay with it, but there's high level stuff where I would not be okay with it.
Speaker 2So yeah, brain injury, obviously that has like very lasting impacts, right, or anything that's like very, very serious. That's where I would be worried.
Speaker 1But I think you know I guess the other thing I think of is going. I think all of us have had the experience of trying to like explain something you know to be true about your own body to a doctor and them not agreeing with you Like, yeah, where, maybe if there was just a thing that could just you know it would.
Speaker 2Yeah, I had to go to the ER, uh, because basically I had an infection. I knew that's what it was. But then of course, when you go to the er, they want to do all the freaking tests. It was during covid. It ended up costing like four thousand dollars or something to get like a antibiotic z-pack of antibiotics yeah you know, and I was like this is dumb, this is so dumb. Uh, let's see. Over time, human made will prevail, but ai might destroy the foundation for some time a foundation for income arnold as in I'll be back.
Speaker 2That's, that's terminator. Yeah, the expanse.
Speaker 1Excellent reference such a great series. Expanse is so good Book and movie or shows.
Speaker 2I feel you, I feel the.
Speaker 1Craving.
Speaker 2The handles craving and you fading.
Speaker 1Am I fading? I don't feel like I'm fading.
Speaker 2The 2 pm.
Speaker 1Oh, I mean, but I I don't know, emotionally I'm good you're in, you're into the ai well, I mean I'm into like our discussion.
Speaker 2We're talking about the experience that was good one yeah well, how do you want to wrap it up, tom?
Speaker 1how would an ai? Let me see, how do we end this podcast? I mean, there's nothing to wrap up. This is our discussion there. Giganoid said the same thing, it's just there's no conclusion. Like we solved it, guys.
Speaker 2I mean there's nothing to solve, I think like you know, I think the thing that's really important is to not just read headlines but to have to have these discussions of especially both sides right people who create content, who make money off of creating content and people who consume that content like let's, I feel like yeah in in.
Speaker 1Uh, one of the videos I did that had a the ai voiceover sponsor. Somebody left a thing I think might even talk about a past episode, but they, they commented and they were like I like your channel and there was a whole paragraph why they absolutely hated the sponsor thing and they they had.
Speaker 1They're an actor, they have a history and like voice acting, and they were like talking about taking jobs and stuff and I they disagreed very diplomatically, even though it was passionate, it was very diplomatically. So it was like cool, we can actually have a discussion and I explained where I was coming from, like in these situations, obviously I was like obviously this stuff can be used badly, but the situations I'm trying to make people like aware of it, for that I think it's been valuable because that's where I've been. It's not, it's an ai, like there's no actor losing a job because it was never good, there was never going to be an actor it wasn't an option it was never an option.
Speaker 2It's literally like you're not taking away somebody's potential.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're reducing the total overload work stress on someone who's probably not equipped to do this kind of thing, but is now assigned to do it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1That's the kind of thing there, and at the end it was literally like they didn't agree with me, I didn't agree with them, but both of it was like I. My last comment was something along the lines of I'm really glad we had this discussion so that I can share my side of it, you can share your side of it and we can both keep sharing these sides so that we like.
AI Impact on Media Creation
Speaker 2I think both sides are important. Yeah, to be able to have that dialogue I think is really important. Ai for healthcare could be a huge plus for digging out edge cases and present options and info for humans and then evaluate, kind of like when a doctor discusses cases with other doctors. Yeah, but that you know, we all go to google first anyway, hey, I have a spot or I'm feeling a pain you know like like I think it'd be cool.
Speaker 2I think that's actually like a thing, I don't know. Uh, just to be clear, I said old tech as a short, easy description. I know the description is probably not liked by terminator lovers. Oh uh, our newest cool old tech like vcr cameras, we they have stock images and videos so easy and cheap. Now I have yet to use them, though.
Speaker 1Yeah because I, even regardless of price, for those things personally like stock images and stock we never use them anyway yeah, even high quality human-made stuff.
Speaker 1It's like I'm not if I didn't make it, I'm not interested, yeah not everyone can do it, but I I would say I guess wrap this up maybe, but there's. There's a lot of times, maybe in this past year or two, it really seemed trendy to get stock footage, especially because it came so easy to license stock footage, like you're not necessarily buying a clip but you're buying a subscription to somewhere and you can get good stuff. And it almost seemed like people thought you will have to put stock footage and so you watch a tutorial or something or a talking head video, and there's so much stock footage that just does not match, like the quality, the style the people in it like don't match anything and you're just, you're just like, why am I suddenly watching like?
Speaker 2and then it has the like, uh, the like, the race soup, yeah, like, like, like. You gotta have to have one of each, like you know yeah, like I.
Speaker 1I mean, I was watching a channel from an african-american creator who was talking about something and the b-roll was of an asian woman and I was like is this you? Who is this? Like what is happening? Why I don't. And it like contextually, it just in terms of basic editing continuity, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense. You know, it's like in a movie, if someone turns a corner and they're wearing a different coat, like right, right right something just throws you off yeah um, so I I felt like in a lot of cases, ai or not, you just didn't need to do it.
Speaker 1Now that it's so easy, I feel like people might go like oh yeah, just put b-roll for everything, and I would just, whether it's ai or not, I would like what is the purpose? Do you actually even need it in the first place?
Speaker 2exactly. Just because you can't doesn't mean you should.
Speaker 1Right Like it doesn't make your video better. Life lesson.
Speaker 2I don't know. Also, AI voice is very helpful for non-native English-speaking people. I know some who use AI voice who are not confident in the way they speak.
Speaker 1See, that's a good point. And there's also that thing too. It's the new thing where, like YouTube, will dub your voice into other languages.
Speaker 2Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh. And people are upset about that Like in my voice.
Speaker 2That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1I don't know. I'm not sure the detail, but it's something like that and some people are upset about that and for me that's actually one where I'm like I don't care Because If you could help me reach more people, because I'm not making a video that's in those languages, so it is nothing.
Speaker 1You can get my captions and hopefully they can be translated, and that's the best you can get If you can hear me in a way that, like, is at least as accurate as the captions, but you can listen instead of what. I'm cool with that. Yeah, don't redo it in English, obviously, but yeah, don't take my content.
Speaker 2Re-upload it with now the Spanish, like you know, or don't have YouTube Like.
Speaker 1would you like to you know how it like? Youtube generated captions or user uploaded captions, Like, no, no, no, Like. Just keep my regular English voice. Don't overdub that. But other languages, honestly, that helps, because they're. I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2So I feel like I just hated on someone's favorite camera from that 1984.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, I just watched the thing about how popular old cameras are and I didn't realize I've always liked them. But old cameras are. I didn't realize I've always liked them, but I guess with the kids on the TikToks and the Instagrams and stuff, old tape cameras are like so insanely popular to the point where like used price on eBay and stuff are going through the roof Really, yeah, and I'm like oh sweet, because I have a bunch of videos about this old stuff I want to make and I'm like, yes, this is who is missing from the couples table.
Speaker 1We need, like a gen z well, it's, then it's in a trio, though.
Speaker 2Huh, it's not a couple, it's a trio no in the in the discussion I feel, like everyone's, like relatively our age, like in the same, like generation well, sometimes, like bailey, shows up yeah so when bailey's here it counts I just I'm curious.
Speaker 2You know you're born into a world with ai, you're born into a world with google and youtube it's all bad news bears I feel like, oh yeah, so I sorry, here's how we're closing it. I follow um or it pops up because it goes viral on my instagram. There's like like old commercials of things like new tech from 80s and 90s, or whatever.
Speaker 2Yeah, and then there's this one that's come up multiple times where it's like oh, have you know, corded phones are such a nuisance. And this is just this, like mom in a kitchen, she's like trying to hold the phone like this. And then like you're spilling whatever dinner she's making or whatever, and I think the thing is like a headphone that you put the thing in and it like goes here and it's just like, it's funny because it's just like you could you know, it's like an astronaut's helmet that you mount your phone into.
Speaker 1It just looks insane.
Speaker 2But like her, her like frustration contrasted with her like, yeah, but that's kind of how I feel with AIs right now. It's like such a novelty. That's like, yeah, slap it on everything it's just like whoa, whoa. It's going to solve all your problems and it's going to fade, you know, eventually.
Speaker 1it's going to be like all right, we're what's actually sticking you know, like what are we actually using? That's definitely like everything has been thrown at the wall, what is going to stick and what's going to fall off.
Speaker 2Yeah, and we're in that phase now where the wall is just covered. Yeah, exactly, all right, cool. Now I'm talking about this video in french, oh man I would watch that uh, paul says, anyone else got ai fatigue oh I don't know if I have fatigue, but I also don't seek it out, so I don't know yeah, I don't seek it out yeah, I've watched a couple videos where the language is dubbed into english. Cool, but the dictation and pacing felt very artificial.
Speaker 1I'm still willing for my videos to be translated, though yeah, because that is a case where it's that or nothing, so why not?
Speaker 2canon f? Lenses during the pandemic for free, because they couldn't give them away. Now they're selling at a premium.
Speaker 1Oh those, are canon's old film lenses for their old film cameras.
Speaker 2Wow, that makes total sense I am the grandpa on the chat. When I started I was using s video camcorder for my videos and importing in real time. Do you know what that is?
Speaker 1yeah s video is the high quality analog video because you have the red, yellow, white rca cables yeah but s video is like a higher resolution analog video, so some nicer cameras, fourth cable, because I felt I remember it almost looks like. Uh, it's like a almost looks like a small xlr cable, but there's like a lot of pins yes, oh, my god, I remember that.
Speaker 2That's s video yeah, oh, look at that. Uh, imagine crazy. Every single time someone makes a google search, just in case someone can go out of business, everyone needs to adjust. Real-time importing is not something I miss, no me.
Speaker 1That's a video I want to make, actually, as I mr camera junkie has one too. I bought a little. It wasn't even very expensive, like 30 bucks. It's a little recorder made for fpv drones. But I want to see if I can basically slap it onto the side of one of my old cameras and record to a memory card instead of a tape, so then you could use the old camera, but you don't have to do the real-time importing, you don't have to buy tapes, you don't have to manage that workflow, my gosh yeah, you record a 45 minute video and how long it's going to take to import 45 minutes oh and then if something goes wrong halfway through, yeah, and you just have one big file.
Speaker 1It's the whole thing time to clear the table and then actually time to add to the table with some ice cream, which, by the way, now I can go to handles and just ask for the Tom special we're at that point and the best thing actually is the other day they saw our car drive by to go into the drive-thru but another car had come from a different direction and gone in and it was like an older is.
Speaker 1The other day they saw our car drive by to go into the drive-thru but another car had come from a different direction and gone in and it was like an older person and we heard them at the drive-thru. They were, yeah, oh, again the Tom Special or whatever. And the person was like, what are you talking about? What is this? What do I get? Because they thought it was us and we just heard the whole thing. So we sorry we messed up somebody's. It was really cute, though.
Speaker 2All right, it was really funny and with that said guys, we'll catch you next week.
Speaker 1Happy New Year Happy.
Speaker 2New Year, have a great weekend. Happy Friday. See you guys later.
Speaker 1Bye-bye.
Speaker 2Wait, did I cut you off?
Speaker 1your intro. I don't know Outro. Have a safe, happy, fun rest.