Refresh Computers Tech Talk
Help and advice are given on a range of technical issues from computers to everything internet-related.
Refresh Computers Tech Talk
03-14-26 Is Your PC AI-Ready? + Refresh Computers Launches Trade-In Program!
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Refresh Computers starts a Trade-In program for the first time in it's 26 year history.
AI is no longer just a chatbot that answers questions. We’re watching the shift to AI agents, systems that can break a goal into steps, have multiple “bots” critique and improve the work, and in some cases take actions like planning a trip or preparing a reservation flow. That sounds convenient, but it also forces a real conversation about privacy, credentials, and what you should never hand over lightly, even if the tool feels smart and personal.
We also tackle the question we hear everywhere right now: “Is my computer AI-ready?” If you’re on Windows 11, there’s a strong chance you already have what you need. We explain why most AI processing happens in the cloud and data centers, what an 8th generation CPU baseline means, why 16GB of RAM is a practical target, and when an NVIDIA GPU can speed things up. We even share a quick way to check your specs using “About This PC” so you can stop guessing.
From there, we jump into robots and talking tech becoming real, plus smart toys that add interactive play without putting another screen in front of kids. And we get blunt about one place AI still fails: phone and email customer service automation that frustrates people and loses business. We wrap with scam prevention tips and Operation Senior Shield in Florida so you can spot seasonal fraud before it hits you or someone you love.
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Welcome And Today’s Tech Agenda
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, go ahead and leave an open mic using the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you're listening to the show here on Saturday, means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now, David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.
SPEAKER_02All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to yet another edition of Tech Talk with Refreshed Computers. So happy to have you listening in to another show. This is going to be another exciting show. And you know, I love our new format. Well, our new format, we've been doing this for several months now, but it's it's more about technology. It's more about things that you may want to be hearing about, right?
SPEAKER_00The stuff that's expanding in the world that you know some people don't even hear about right now.
Refresh Computers Starts Trade Ins
SPEAKER_02It's right. A few weeks ago we talked about war technology. Right. And and how or is that last week? I believe that was last year. Last week. Last week we talked about the technology, how it's advanced and and the different ways it's being used to fight wars. So that was an interesting show for sure. Today we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about AI agents and what they really are. And you really need to listen to this one because this brings AI up to the next level. Right. And it has already brought AI up to the next level because they were just being recently initiated. So we're also going to talk about whether or not your computer is AI ready. And what does it mean to have a computer that can do AI stuff? And so what kind of computer do you actually need? You know, what kind of components do you need in that computer? And we're going to talk about that a little later on. We're also going to talk about robots again and talking computers. And you know, they're finally getting real, finally getting real and finally doing things. And that you know, useful things. So, and then we'll wrap up the show a little later on. But let's uh talk before we get into any of these topics, something new at Refresh Computers that some big changes going on in the case. Big, big, big change in our 26-year history. We have never ever took we never took trade-ins. So when people would come in and ask, hey, can you give me some money for this computer if I buy a computer from you, basically? And and the answer's always been no, because you know, we have pretty good solid sources, and we continue to have the same sources and even more sources. I more than we can actually use, quite frankly, to where we pick up our computers that we refurbish and get back out for resale, better than new computers. And but we would never take a trade-in. And we still will not, even though we're going to start taking trade-ins now, we've just started. We still won't like outright buy your computer. And the fact of the matter is, because I don't know where that came from. You know what I mean? So, but uh the feeling is if you have a computer and you want to trade it in for credit towards a computer that you buy at refresh computers, the chances are pretty good that you know you own that computer because it's got your information on it. That's right, it's got stuff on there. So these are things that we'll verify exactly like you just said, Adam, before we'll allow a trade-in because we want to make sure it's legitimate. And so, you know, that's it's available. Now you do have to bring it into the store. We can't give you a price over the phone because we actually have to see it. Yes. It's good and it's good for desktops and laptops. And I will say it's going to be for seventh generation or newer. We'll be able to allow for some trade-in value for a computer that you may have that you want to upgrade to a newer, fresher computer that you purchased from refreshed computers. Yep. So you can tall call that free tech support hotline for more information, 407-478-8200, or bring it by the superstore there in Longwood, which is you're going to have to do anyway because we can't give you a trade-in value until we see it, because you know we have to see things like broken hinges, broken screens on laptops, you know, things like that. And we actually have to see with our own eyes before we can give you the trade-in value. And it'll be on-the-spot trade-in value too. So if you buy something else at the store, we can apply that credit towards your invoice for that computer or laptop that you purchase. So I'm really excited about doing this because you know we have so many people that's over the years just the geez, I just would like to get a little bit of money for this, you know, before I just toss it or something.
SPEAKER_01You know, I was gonna ask what's kind of inspired the change. I know that like you mentioned, it's uh it's a big change for you guys over the last 26 years.
SPEAKER_02More and more people are are looking to do that. Yes.
SPEAKER_00I I would say the need for Windows 11 is is become the the biggest, I think, push of needing to upgrade your computer at this point in time.
SPEAKER_02Still is. Yes. Still is. And and we'll have to take a look and and see how many users, because we used to when Windows 11 came out, we would say, well, geez, up until this point, there were still more Windows 10 users than Windows 11 users. Yeah. And I'm just wondering if that's the case right now or not, but it should be easy enough to find. So, but let's talk a little bit about some of the techie stuff we wanted to get into and and why you need to listen up about AI agents.
AI Agents And Why They Matter
SPEAKER_00Some of the fun stuff. We almost missed putting this on air because we couldn't stop talking about it.
SPEAKER_02That's right. I mean, AI agents are something that let me give you the best example I can give you is this just started it with the new version of ChatGPT, and which came out I think in March 6th or 7th. And you uh the old AI, you ask Chat GPT something, and it will do the research, it'll come back and give you an answer, you know, it'll even give you some code to code something if you want to do that. Right. And but the new AI what ChatGPT has come out with, which is why this is advancing AI a hundred a hundred times or more, a thousand times maybe, but are these AI agents? So now what happens is when you ask ChatGPT to do something, an AI agent there is looking at it and which would be instead of giving you the response right away, it's shooting it over to another agent who's looking at the response that the first agent came up with and tweaking it and saying, and actually you can see a conversation between the agents, and sometimes a third agent or a fourth AI agent gets involved, depending on how complex the situation is. And so these agents are chatting about what's the best way to show you the answer to what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_00So so to me, it sounds like with the old AI, how we have it right now with Grok, ChatGPT, it's a simple chat bot. You know, you're one single worker, you can ask something, and they'll do the work.
SPEAKER_02You ask a question, it gives you an answer.
SPEAKER_00This new one is like you've got your your own RD team. You you've got the these different bots that are talking to one another, discussing information that you're you're asking about, and they will spit out something way more focused than what this this old one was going to do. The full brainstorm session out on the side by itself. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02So the yeah, this was the latest open AI GPT, right? Chat GPT 5.4, which came out March 5th, actually. So it is has you it utilizes these agents and and it's just so awesome. I mean, the agents, well, they understand what your goal is, they have a discussion, they break it down into steps, and they take actions autonomously, right? And report back or finish the task that you're asking them for. And the difference would be like you know, saying I plan my trip, right? Instead of telling it step-by-step instructions. So it'll plan your trip. I mean, it'll heck, if you want it to, it'll make hotel reservations for you, airline reservations for you. Wow. It'll do all these things. I don't know if I would do that myself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You I know you like to travel, you like to pick your own destination.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to pick pick everything.
SPEAKER_00But you know, thinking about it, the this new open AI chat GPT version, with with the memory it has, I could almost almost bet that if you give it your itinerary, Dave, how you would plan it, I bet you AI could could plan something that's right up your alley at some point.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it well, it can do that now. It can do that now, and you would have the you you have the option today to tell it to automatically implement a few things, right? So or not. Right. You know, just show me what you're talking about. Show me the reservation that you want to make for me. And if I say, okay, make it for me, and boom, it does.
SPEAKER_01I mean And like you said, these models they remember c previous conversations. They have this storage of a profile of you, if you will. So me being like a Chicago Cubs fan, if I told it, hey, I want to plan a trip to Chicago, it already knows I'm a Cubs fan and is probably gonna try and do things that are maybe based around something like that. So if it knows your preferences before you ask it to make this itinerary that we're using as an example, I bet it's gonna build something pretty personal to what it knows about you, right? I yeah, yeah, it will.
SPEAKER_02And again, you can let it. I mean, this is like giving access to a lot of your stuff that it would be very uncomfortable for me to do, and I think most people more personal than being a Cubs fan, or yes.
SPEAKER_00It sounds up my alley because I I'm comfortable having my car drive me. I'd be comfortable to just let an AI plan something for me and see where it takes me, you know. I'm young, I can travel, I can just figure it out when it when it stumbles, I'll figure it out. Adam said, blindfold me, ChatGPT. Take me where you will. Exactly. You know, it's the these genic AIs. I know they're now starting to experiment as well with desktop emulation. I know ChatGPT, this new version, is actually starting to get native computer controls like keyboard and mouse control.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes, it yeah.
SPEAKER_00That that's that's gonna be game changing, I think. That's gonna change office work, any sort of computer-based work.
SPEAKER_02Well, you can actually tell it to go into desktop mode so you and and actually show you the screen and split screen. I mean, that's how it's gotten. So you can see it actually doing an instance of a desktop on the side of your screen.
unknownMan.
SPEAKER_02Working and and and doing things that you would want it to do. And, you know, again, in order for it to get really personal with you, which I'm not there, I'm not comfortable with that, not yet. I'm a long ways from being comfortable actually for that. I mean, you're gonna have to give it all kinds of information about you in order for it to be able to do things for you. Right. Right. So, for example, it can't make your airline reservation. I was gonna say it takes a lot of personal information unless it has your your airline login credentials, your your flight numbers, yeah, all these things, you know. So you it has to have all this information that you're gonna have to share with it and trust it. And for you know, mainly for security reasons, you know, and the unknown. Yeah. This is this is too new. It's in its infancy that I'm gonna have to wait probably a long time. I don't know. But as fast as this technology moves, maybe not so long. I don't know. But it'll do things. Yeah, you're gonna have to give it, you know, things like your bank account information, credit card numbers, all that stuff. It's it's gonna have to know, it's gonna have to have access to. Right. So it wouldn't like it's not like it would be stored out there in the cloud. It would have to be ax have access to it maybe in your, you know, in your from your own personal desktop computer.
SPEAKER_00Like in your browser.
SPEAKER_02Where your computer has to be on for it to be able to get it, and which is another crazy thought. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you know, the the way I kind of think about it is, you know, you're right, it is it is very scary to think about giving that kind of information to an agenic AI like this. But thinking on the counterpart, you know, a lot of people have travel agents, they give that information over to another human being sometimes. Another human being that could have ulterior motives.
SPEAKER_02That's true. You you you hit the nail right on the head. I mean, you you can you when you go to a travel agency, a lot of times you you you're giving them all your information to in order for them to plan your trip right for you. And and so the thought just occurred to me, I feel bad for a lot of these travel agencies now because this is all gonna be automated to the point where how much are they gonna be needed? I mean, you look at that example, that's just one out of probably thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of examples of the types of services that are gonna be automated that you don't need to actually go somewhere or speak to somebody.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna almost start making work optional for a lot of people because you know you you take a lot of that element out of the world, you take it out from 90% of the world, people are gonna have more time for their hobbies, for living. But also if they want to work still, there'll probably still be jobs I can imagine that need a human there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would think so.
SPEAKER_00And I don't I don't think we're in a in the future yet where the human element is taken out of our lives.
SPEAKER_02Not yet, but it's a lot of it's coming soon sooner than than you may realize. And and you know, before we uh go to the break, I want to mention this. Make sure you stay tuned because we're gonna talk about the after the break, we're gonna talk about just what kind of computer do I need to get all this done. And and the answer might be surprising to you, maybe maybe not. Yeah. But it's you really just don't really need much because most of what's going on is going on up there in the cloud.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Up in the data center with all with all these agents. You know, that's where you know they're spending all this money and and making all this RAM shortage, right? Solid state dry shortage is happening right now because all that memory is needed to do all these tasks we're talking about, which means your computer or your laptop really doesn't need to be set up as much as you might think it needs to be to take advantage of all this stuff. And we'll get into that after the break.
Is Your Computer AI Ready
SPEAKER_01We'll take a look at that coming up. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there, and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, we'd love to hear them. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02All right, thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. In the previous segment, we talked about AI agents and why they're so important. And this is something new going on.
SPEAKER_00Some of the exciting stuff with it.
SPEAKER_02Something very exciting going on. And if you missed any of that, go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link, and you can hear the show in its entirety. And better yet, scroll down to the bottom of that page, put it in your email address, and we will send you an email when the next segment is actually out and able to be able to be listened to on the internet. So we're very excited about being able to do that for you. So we talked about these AI agents and what they're doing, how instead of just asking Chat GPT or Gronk or any of these AI tools that you use, a question, waiting for a response, it comes back, it answers. Now it's actually agents talking to each other. Right. And figuring out what's the best way to respond to you before it actually responds to you.
SPEAKER_00It has to take a lot of resources to run, you know, multiple AI agenic bots like that, communicating, researching all at the same time. But it's in the cloud. A lot of that happens at the data centers that they've been building.
SPEAKER_0299% of it. Yeah. In fact. So what kind of computer do you need to get and to get this?
SPEAKER_00You don't really need a lot. Modern computers, this day and age, anything that's running Windows 11, it acts as an interface almost for these AIs. It is. So a lot of the stress is already taken off of your shoulders. So I believe for the for most systems right now, like top-tier AI ones, you're looking at like the Intel Core Ultra processors. Those came out like around what, 2023, I believe. Which are totally not necessary. No, those are overkill for AI use. For doing your AI stuff. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02For 99% of us. If if you're a programmer, maybe it'll help a little bit. But for 99% of us, you just need an eighth generation processor or new. So basically, if it's capable of running Windows 11, you already have an AI tool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think, you know, maybe that was maybe that was the point of that Windows 11 cutoff being at the eighth generation. I know it was first for the security chip that was in it. Yeah. But now it's also looking like, you know, that was the bottom for AI support. And that might have been Microsoft's long-term goal with it.
SPEAKER_02Well, and what kind of memory do you need?
SPEAKER_00Well, I only around 16 gigabytes. You don't need more than your average computer.
SPEAKER_02So yeah. So if you have a computer with with eight gig of RAM, it may not do as quick a job. You may have to wait a little bit longer for one of your AI tools, whether you use ChatGPT or Grok or whichever one you use, you might have to wait a little bit longer for it to respond. But 16 gig of RAM, you'll get the response just as quick as you would, you know, any other computer. So exactly.
SPEAKER_00Like 32 gigs of RAM, that'd be ideal for it. But 16, it should have no problem. I uh I believe uh also with a lot of um systems now, you can have uh a graphics card, like an NVIDIA GPU in it, and that actually will kind of that'll help it as well.
SPEAKER_02That'll speed it up a little bit. So you you know, we have laptops in the store, for example, that are Windows 11 laptops, eight generation and newer, that have a built-in GPU, which is a graphics processing unit. So it has like an you know, you've heard of NVIDIA probably, and you know, they make uh mostly graphics cards. So basically it's a graphics card built inside a laptop. And same thing with the desktop computer. If you want to speed up your AI processing a little bit, then you know having a video card certainly is gonna help.
SPEAKER_01Is there anything special that you need to do after having a video card installed to make it utilize these AI processing powers, or is it just a part of how it's gonna operate?
SPEAKER_02It just does it.
SPEAKER_00It just kind of does it. The the AI sees it and goes, oh, I see that GPU is connected. I I work better on those cores. I'm gonna work there instead. Yeah. And that's that's kind of why this works without like an NPU, the neural processing unit that a lot of AIs use. They're so efficient on those processors, but GPUs are still pretty, pretty good.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's face it too, you know, the makers of Chat GPT, Grok, all the AI tools, you know, 99% of the computers that are made there in the world are probably 8-gen, 9-gen, 10-you know these computers that don't have that built-in NPU. So they have to make it work exactly for all of us. Yeah. And so that's another reason why, you know, it's certainly you know an eighth generation or newer computer, we're talking about 2017, 2018 year model and newer is all you really need.
SPEAKER_00Before AI was ever even really a thought like it is now.
SPEAKER_01And is there a quick way for the folks at home to be able to check their computers, make sure that they're set up for that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can actually go onto your task bar. There should be a little search down there. So it may look like a magnifying glass. You can click that, type about this PC. It'll you can click the first thing that comes up. It'll tell you the processor, the amount of uh store uh RAM your computer has. It'll also tell you the version of Windows that you're on as well.
SPEAKER_02And if you want to, you can call us also if you don't want to do that. 407-478-8200, that free tech support hotline.
SPEAKER_01We'll have more on this conversation and AI focused show here today. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, go and leave an open mic using the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Snore hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now, David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.
SPEAKER_02All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. A couple of reminders before we get into this really cool next segment is that you can listen to the show in its entirety by going to refreshcomputers.net, clicking on that podcast link at the top of the page, and you'll hear this show along with several other shows if you want to listen to those. Going a couple years back. Going back three years back now. So, more importantly, go down to the bottom of the page, put in your email address there, and just hit enter. We're not going to ask you for a whole bunch of questions, just your email address. And you can be automatically notified as soon as this podcast is ready to listen to on the internet. So that's something that you might want to check out. And another reminder is what we started the show off with is the fact that at refresh computers. In the first time in our 26-year history, we're taking trade-ins. So bring that old computer or laptop to the store. We actually have to have it in the store to be able to give you a trade-in value. We have a calculator right there at the counter. We'll be able to tell you what your computer trade-in value is on your laptop or your desktop. And we can apply that to your invoice when you purchase an upgraded computer or laptop at Refresh Computers.
Robots Smart Toys And Talking Tech
SPEAKER_00And if you have any if you have any questions about that, you can give us a call. The number's 407-478-8200. That'll connect you to me or any one of our other wonderful technicians we have there. If you have any questions, but we can't give those quotes over the phone. So the system has to be brought in store. So to the meat and potatoes, this the robots.
SPEAKER_02Well, robots and talking to comp talking computers. I mean, they're they're really they're getting real. They are. This is real real, real useful robots, not just something that you can gawk at and say, oh, that's cool, but it's something that you can say, oh, that's cool. And oh my gosh, can it really do that for me?
SPEAKER_01It went from AI interacting on your PC in the first segment to now it's going to be interacting in real life. In real life.
SPEAKER_00Roomba, I believe, was the one that's coming out with that. We talked about that on our CES show a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01Listen, I was surprised when they figured out how to not go down the stairs. Yeah. Much less going to start climbing up the stairs.
SPEAKER_00So it's still a little funny though to get the notification that says help, I'm stuck at a cliff. I'm at a cliff. But you know, I believe we also talked about some humanoid robots that were showcased at CES that'll be able to do things like cooking, laundry, you know, the dishes, again, all driven by these, these, a, these agenic AIs.
SPEAKER_02And the stuff you used to see in in the Jetsons. I mean, it's coming true. How many other things in the Jetsons have happened in the original Star Trek? Right. There's a lot of stuff, you know. So we're going to be able to do that. We're going to have flying cards at some point. I'm waiting for my own Rosie at this point, right? That's right. Yes. And and it's and you know what? It's coming soon, Greg. Coming soon to a store near you, probably. So another thing that really just blew me away, Adam, was the fact that you can get programmable Lego blocks now. Yeah. I mean, how cool is that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Legos, they've they've always been kind of on the frontier of innovation with toys, of all things. But even in our toys, something like this, where we have a screenless but but digital interactive brick now. This is like they're part of their whole smart play thing. It's got a gyroscope, it can tell when it's upside down, it can tell if a character is next to it, and it it reacts to it. So it's it's almost like your your play sets are now alive.
SPEAKER_02And these these are available now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, these are available now. I think they've got about 10 or 15 different sets that utilize it.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna have to check that out, you know, because I have two and a half-year-old grand twin grandsons, and gosh, we just bought them a huge Lego tool set. Yeah, basically it's a big construction site Lego block box uh sent to them in their uh by Amazon. You know, they're my two and a half year old grandsons. They know what an Amazon truck is, they know what a UPS truck is, they know it's UPS. Oh mommy, UPS, UPS, Amazon, Amazon's here. My three-year-old loves having conversations with Alexa. Yep. And so my uh the twins one day said, Hey, hey, is that that that says Balboa, which is his name, right? One of the twins. It's Balboa on the label. And and mommy said, My daughter's like, no, no, that's that's your daddy that says Scott. It doesn't say Balboa. And he said, No, Balboa. And so when my daughter told us that story, of course, what do we have to do? We got we we we ordered the big Lego blocks to be sent by Amazon with their name on the box, right? So I got one for Balboa and the other one for Kavika, his twin brother. And so, you know, they got their first Amazon delivery and they were really excited about that. But that's what made me think about that because they were Legos. Yeah. And when I was shopping for these Lego blocks, I didn't even look for an electronic version of Lego blocks.
SPEAKER_00Right. It's not something you think about when you think of Lego, and that's that's kind of what I like about it because it it introduces a new level of of play for kids without handing them an iPad. Or adults. Or adults, yeah. Adults too, you know, ages up to whatever it may be now. Ages three to ninety-nine, right? Exactly. So, but if you're but then that means if you're 100, you can't play with it. So sorry. But you know, it's that's that's what I'm excited about. Is the integrations where we're seeing kind of in the level on the consumer where we can see you know, toys are expanding with it. But our our digital lives, you know, Dave, you use AI a lot now, just in general. Well, and hospitals, yeah, elder care. We're gonna have so much more robotics as as the technology solidifies, you know, it stands its ground and proves that it it can perform better than a human.
Why Bad AI Phone Systems Fail
SPEAKER_02And and also like the natural feeling voice of AI. So let me interject something else here, just an opinion. But if you're a business like I'm gonna call out the Gaylord Palms here in Orlando, we called them to make a reservation about a month or so ago, and had to go through this whole AI generated response answer. I mean, everything was completely AI when I called to make a reservation, and it was and it just ticked me off to no end because I couldn't just get it right. It's it's Gaylord Palms, Marriott, you own Gaylord Palms if you're listening. Yeah, before you implement something like that, man, it's gotta be perfect. Yeah, because you just can't be put out. There's businesses going out of business because they jump the gun on implementing something like that. And I'm gonna make a promise to to every one of my customers is that when you call my store, you will never, not as long as I'm alive, ever get a robot answering a call. It's going to be one of our employees live.
SPEAKER_00One of our technicians that work on the floor that have the knowledge to answer the you know your questions. You're not connecting to a person that'll redirect you and have you on hold for an hour. It's gonna be somebody that can help you right away.
SPEAKER_02And the same when you send us an email. You know, if you have a question for us at the store, the email address, by the way, is Longwood at refreshcomputers.net. So just simply Longwood at refreshcomputers.net. All of the employees at the store have access to that email, which makes it easier for us to respond as quickly as we can because everybody can see them. And I another promise I'm going to make to you is the fact that we will never ever automate a response to your email to us either. Either. Sometimes it may look like an automation because let's just face it, I mean, we're all a bunch of nerds that work there, right? It may come across as pretty geeky sometimes, but it's an actual person typing that response, it's not going to be an AI generated response. So as advanced as AI is, and it is excited, you can probably hear in my own voice that I am about the advancements and its technology. It's not ready to take over answering your phone calls yet if you're a businessman. Don't even look at that yet. It's not. It's just not. Well, we've seen the issues that's even had soon.
SPEAKER_01Soon, right. But we've even seen like some of the issues with fast food restaurants jumping the gun a little bit on some of those AI automated ordering setups. And we've seen some of the issues of those where people are ordering like 99 cheeseburgers or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Or a thousand tacos.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. It just can't quite keep up with on-demand requests that need a little bit of touch to kind of navigate a little bit more. But again, like you mentioned, it's getting really close. Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Let's just face it. I mean, here's my own two cents. If I want an electronic version of something, I'll do it on my computer. I'll say I have a computer for that. If I call or email somebody, it's because I want to hear back from somebody. Not not a not a robot, not an AI agent. I want to hear back directly from somebody because that's the path I chose to contact you. I would expect you to respond to me in the same manner. Not give me some automated thing that I'm not going to be able to understand. Or just tick me off because I know it's coming from an AI bot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you just can't get through by yelling, you know, assistant or front desk or something. It doesn't understand. It doesn't.
SPEAKER_02And there's some things like when I make a phone call, there's voice menus that I can use to get information. Fine. I'm not talking about that. You know, like check the balance on my credit card, that kind of thing. Fine. But if I'm calling because I want to talk to somebody, darn it, I want to talk to somebody. I don't want to go through that. I maybe I want somebody to tell me what my balance is on my credit card. Maybe I want that. Yeah. Instead of maybe. You know, I don't understand why you would.
SPEAKER_01But when you Because then maybe you might have an immediate follow-up as to maybe that's not the balance you anticipated or another step that needs to be taken on top of that process. And again, an AI bot an AI bot at this point right now would say, I've completed that task. Yeah. Is there anything else? And then it's it's a it's a you have to restart the whole process all over again.
SPEAKER_00Right. And and you know, it's funny you say that because a lot of uh how these AIs work now, like ChatGBT and Grok, when you're in your your conversations, is its memory is only to basically that conversation. So if you start a new one, it's like a clean slate. The AI doesn't remember what you just talked about. So, you know, when you're talking over the phone to somebody asking about your balance, and you go, you know, oh wait a wait a minute, that that's thousands of dollars lower. Well, I'm sorry, sir, I don't quite understand what you mean. And that that right there, that that just sets it off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So it's just uh I don't think it's not that just that it's not ready for it, but I don't think, you know, because we're human beings first, I don't think there's ever going to be a time where we're we're gonna want to completely do away with that human intervention. Yeah. And a lot of these AI things that are coming up are that seems to be the end goal.
SPEAKER_00We we are we are social creatures just just by nature. We are social creatures that like to be around one another and talk to one another. And I think that's why a lot of these large language model AI bots now have a really human, realistic voices. Very realistic.
SPEAKER_01The update to Alexa is uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I've actually seen instances right now with with Grok where if you have a long enough conversation with Grok, a voice conversation, it may bug out. And I've seen a couple different instances where it starts imitating your voice. It's talked to you so much, it's learned your voice and just responds back in your voice for one for one bit. How you sound or how you sound, so it'll it'll sound like me on air talking back to me.
SPEAKER_02I haven't experienced that yet. Maybe I uh well I've had a few conversation mode sessions with Grok, but most of mine I I turn off. Yeah, I don't start off with that because you know, by default, when you get the up latest version of Grok that has that built in, it has a voice thing coming up, and it was kind of annoying at first. It took me a few times getting into Grok to figure out, wait a minute, let me just figure out how to turn this off because I don't want to use my voice every time initially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's it's way easier to use a text-based LLM as well because it's silent, you know. If you're standing there some needing research quickly, you can tell it, text it, and it'll text it back to you. You can read and refer to. Whereas with your with your speaking it to it, you know, we're humans, we don't always grasp all of the words that are being thrown to us. And let's face it, AI loves to give very detailed responses. But having somebody say that back to you, you know, a a simple one one sentence could have answered it, but the AI gave you paragraphs instead. So, you know, it's you're almost signing up for a lecture sometimes when you're talking to these AI bots.
SPEAKER_02You are. And just to interject something else, quick switch, is that when we a couple weeks ago talked about my frustration with Chat GPT, where it actually forgot things and it came back and told me, no, I didn't forget anything, but it did. And with this latest version of Chat GPT that just came out on March 5th, if you look at the highlights, what's changed that they say what's changed, one of the bullet points is better memory. Won't forget conversations. Vindication. You know what?
SPEAKER_00You just told me you were you can silently say to them, I told you so.
SPEAKER_02So crazy. So listen, don't forget a few things before we this break. A new trade-in program at Refresh Computers. You can go to our website and there's a banner it runs across. You can click on that banner. It explains the trade-in program in detail. Uh, you have to actually bring the device into the store to get a trade-in value to any computer that you purchase from refresh computers. It's only good for computers you buy from refresh computers. So when you want to upgrade, you can do that. So when we come back, we're gonna wrap up with a few things and uh some of them uh recapping a lot of what we just talked about.
SPEAKER_01And only computers, no stair climbing vacuums as of this point. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. And don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02All right, thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We had a lot of interesting conversations on today's show, a lot of technology stuff. So if you missed any of it, you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on the podcast link at the top of the page, and you can listen to the show in its entirety. Better yet, scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address right there, and you can be notified via email as soon as this podcast is ready to be broadcast. And this one and future ones. Yep. And you know, we were talking a lot about you know all kinds of AI stuff again.
SPEAKER_00AI is all over the world at this point. It's something that we didn't expect to turn into this.
SPEAKER_02And advances in AI and whether or not the computer that you own today is AI capable, then I'm gonna say 99%. If you're running a Windows 11 computer, it's definitely AI capable. Right. So you don't need to upgrade to some fancy neuro processing unit computer or anything like that. Not for the vast majority of us, because let's face it, the people who make all the AI tools, the chat GPTs of the world and the Grocs of the world, know that the vast majority of computers that are out there are eighth generation or newer. Right.
SPEAKER_00They're doing a lot of the heavy lifting on their end.
SPEAKER_02So so all the processing is actually done in the cloud, right? 99% of the processing is done in the cloud. So you don't need something big and fancy to take advantage of these AI tools. So, Adam, you were talking about during the break.
SPEAKER_00Yes, Operation Senior Shield. I I I remember talking about this a couple months ago. It's uh it's a whole fraud alert system that I believe the the state of Florida put out has been putting out. And they actually just put out a new one today talking about a bunch of fraud that's gonna be coming out because of St. Patrick's Day. It's it's the the luck season, as a lot of people like to call it. And oh, you know, it's there there are gonna be a lot of scams coming up saying, Oh, you you won this fabulous prize, this this large amount of money. This big pot of gold. This big pot of gold. All we need you to do is go on our website and just just make a smot a small five thousand thousand dollar fee transaction or something like that. They're gonna be asking for money up front, and it's it's not gonna be something real. You know, when you have a a winning like that, a random winning, you they're not gonna be asking you for money. Never.
SPEAKER_02So and a lot of times, you know, we get calls, and you can certainly call us at the free tech support hotline.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 407-478-8200. You know, you get a weird email or something, we can kind of help you out to figure out if it's real or not.
SPEAKER_02Or a screen pop. Sometimes you get a pop up on your screen, you don't know, should I do this or not? Give us a call. You know, we get those calls all the time, don't we get them? Yeah, it's people like, oh, I got this on my screen, I don't know what to do. Well, that's what the free tech support hotline is there for. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00A lot of times we can hear it in the background too. It's making a loud beeping noise or something. And those are the ones that's that really scare people, you know, and that's the point of them.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah. Yeah, if if it comes with the beeping noise or any kind of sound at all, it's always fake. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Immediately.
SPEAKER_02We'll throw that out there.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, if if that's something that you're interested in, the uh operation Senior Shield, you can sign up for it at op seniorshieldfl.com. Or if you want, you can come by the store. We can help you get signed up for it. Just make sure that you yourself are protected from all these scams that are going to be coming up.
SPEAKER_02It's a really great tool and it's put out by the state of Florida.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. So they're aware too of what's going on.
SPEAKER_02And so they they monitor all the latest scams and especially the ones targeting seniors. Yes. So you can sign up for the alerts. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you don't have to be a senior to sign up either. You can sign up on on behalf of your loved one, if you want regard to, and that's what I did.
SPEAKER_02And what's it what's the website again?
SPEAKER_00It is op seniorshieldfl.com. So op seniorshieldfl.com.
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, folks, we're winding the show down today. It's been a real pleasure doing the show with you again. And one of the things I wanted to mention is the fact that I'm hoping that we are talking in a way and explaining things in a way on these uh shows to bring out like the little inner nerd in you because we're all nerds today. We're all nerds at our core. We're all nerds in some way or another. It's exciting. Whether we want to admit it or not. There's an inner nerd in all of us, and I'm hoping that we were able to touch that inner nerd sometime during the show today. And don't forget that free tech support hotline is 407 478 8200. And that's all we have time for today. We'll be talking to you again next week.
