August 11, 2026 • 35 mins
Hour 3 - Netflix says it’s doubling down on Los Angeles even as it expands its footprint in New Jersey, while Paramount’s David Ellison threatens to pull the company out of California if states refuse to negotiate an antitrust settlement. Plus, wildfire survivor advocate Joy Cheg discusses criticism of California utility companies’ ad campaign, and National Union of Healthcare Workers’ Benjamin Eichert weighs in on the growing debate over AI “therapists” and new proposed guardrails.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Monks and Merril, hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merril.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Monks and Merrill. Demand Minks and Merril KF.
I am six forty more stimulating talk on demand anytime
in the iHeartRadio app. And I keep going through the tickets,
so I haven't This is the first time I've seen this.
My window for tickets Olympics just opened, and I did
(00:28):
find some twenty eight dollars ticket. Oh what are the events?
Hold on? Let me go back to it. Here. It
was like a women's golf pre limb on Monday morning,
something like that. Let's see who else see in the
Carson zone. Women's field hockey okay, also a men's field
(00:48):
hockey prelim nine am on a Thursday. Interesting, you're seeing
I had that. I take that back. No, no, it's
not at the wrong price on there. It's not twenty
eight dollars. I don't know why my filter, so I
put in just twenty eight to thirty dollars, right, yeah,
for the filter, And this says here tickets starting ninety
three dollars. So there are no twenty eight dollar tickets
now there are. I found some other ones, but for
whatever reason this is not playing nicely. Okay, well, good talk.
(01:12):
One of our great Hollywood companies, Netflix Sailing. Have you
ever wanted to see a dinghy for twenty eight dollars,
you can Dingy. I don't know if you're aware of this,
but we're live on the radio right now, so if
you could shop for your Olympic tickets a little bit
later on, and we're going to do this story, Okay,
go ahead. Netflix says it will keep roughly forty six
productions in LA this year, providing an important floor beneath
(01:35):
the struggling local entertainment economy that stands in contrast from
the story we'll get into on the other side of
the next break, where it's getting real feisty with Paramount
and oh yeah the merger, and yeah, a legacy studio
set and we're taking our ball at another home. I
thought Netflix was expanded. I thought they had a big
net Jersey. Oh yeah, they've expanded into other markets, but
(01:57):
they want to stay here. I mean, they filmed forty
six productions primary early here in the LA region last year,
and they say there will be forty five more or
even more than that in this year. By the time
it's all said and done that those include The Night Agent,
Monster Forever, the Lincoln Lawyer. Well, I've heard of that one.
Nobody wants this, that's a popular one. And David Fincher's
(02:20):
got a sequel coming out from Once upon a Time
in Hollywood. That's a Netflix production locally should be filmed
in Hollywood. Netflix says it worked with more than and
this is these are important numbers to consider when we
talk about the decline of Hollywood and the way that
it trickles down and adversely affects a lot of folks.
Netflix says it worked with more than two thousand, nine
hundred LA County businesses last year. The company estimates that
(02:42):
its productions contributed to more than four hundred million dollars
to the local economy. Now, I don't know where those
numbers come from. That it's the company itself saying that,
but it's a pretty big number. Yeah. So productions hire
right crew members, they pay equipment houses. It just over
the past couple of days, there's been a shoot at
my apartment building. And it's actually not a shooting this time,
(03:04):
even though of our proximity is to get Row. For
some reason, our apartment complex is very attractive to movie
producers and old styles. Got a beautiful courtyard. It has
a basketball court on the road que roof. Yeah, so
you've got DTLA in the background and you can shoot
hoops and so commercials shoot there. But this was I
don't know what this was. I didn't go down and
galg at it, but it was kind of disruptive to
our lives. So I peeked out and watched a little bit.
(03:24):
We have a convenience store, okay, and they had redone
the facade for the shoot, and that's all it was.
They were shooting something outside the convenience store. They made
it look a little nicer with an awning and put
some produce out front of it. And all they were
shooting was stuff outside of this. And there must have
been two hundred people working on this. Wow. So it
(03:44):
just it just struck me that even when you're doing
something small, a lot of people get work from it. Yeah.
And it's a lot of equipment. So there's like trucks, yeah,
taking up the parking lot. So the truck companies are
all contracted. Those truck companies hire people. All these various
production houses are brought in actors, director. Everything that was in.
Those trucks had to come from somewhere, and I'm sure
economy that the owners of my property were compensated, and
(04:07):
that the owners of that convenience store were compensated. There's
a new comedy out on Netflix from Will Ferrell called
The Hawk. In fact, I saw it like the Weekend
am oh, this is about golf. Yeah, weekend anchor on
Katla Kirk Hawkins is his name, which is kind of
ironic or coincidentally, I guess he was. He said he
had a cameo on this thing. This was filmed at
(04:30):
Debra's house. Oh, the Woodland Hills country Club, that's right.
So so Deborah was out there and she I believe Now,
I didn't know she could afford a membership to the
country club since we only pay her nine dollars. I'm
not a member of the country club. I think they
want her there because they're like, she makes the country
club look attractive. Let's bring Debora and here. People will
want to come play golf because she picks up the
(04:51):
balls from the ponds to make extra money on the weekend.
Oh yeah, okay, that's what I do to make extra
money since I only get nine dollars an hour here,
five CeNSE a golf ball when you resell them on eBay, right,
maybe fifty cents of journey Okay, anyway, I guess that
was one that they had three hundred casting crew membalg Yeah,
that's big stuff, and it's that's why these things matter.
(05:11):
I Mean, you can dislike Hollywood in general, but it
is a major economic driver here and if it falls,
it's gonna hurt a lot of people. So these are
positive words from Netflix that seem to fly in the
face of the narrative that it's all collapsing, just wondering.
And Netflix is saying that, Okay, California is gonna get
the largest share of our productions, but how many projects
(05:32):
are they making elsewhere? They're not really saying that, They're
just saying, listen, this is going to be our home base.
Most of the stuff is going to be here. But yeah,
but you're expanding in New Jersey, You're expanding in New Mexico.
So yeah, while you say you're investing in Los Angeles,
how much more are you expanding? Do it? Or maybe
Netflix is just expanding everywhere and everyone benefits. That's possible,
but we're not really hearing that well, New Jersey is
(05:54):
in the New York market, and New York makes a
lot of Hollywood. A lot of Hollywood is made in
New York as well, so it makes sense to have
a major presence there also. But think about this. Netflix
was in the mix to acquire Warner Brothers, right, They
had their eyes on it, they wanted it, and they
were fighting Paramount, and there was a point where it
looked like Netflix was going to get this thing, and
(06:14):
then they got shanked in the end, and Paramount came
away the victor. Although Paramount has its own struggles. But
now you've got Netflix whispering sweet nothings to California saying,
don't worry, baby, we still love you. Yeah, we're going
over to New Jersey every now and then because you
feels like appropriation right now, that's how I talk to lovers.
I love that you were mocking my New York accent.
(06:35):
But then you crack that out. It feels racist. Why racist?
Go ahead and do it again. Let's hear hey, baby,
I still love you. Yeah, I spent a little time
in New Jersey, but California, you're still my baby. So
you've got Netflix saying that what Paramount is it's a
little tropeish, but I suppose we'll move through. Okay, I
(06:57):
don't know why you brought Race into it. I'm just
a romantic. You're killing me. Paramount is having a hissy
fit and they're saying, okay, you can sue is California
all you want, We're leaving. So now Paramount is threatening
to leave Hollywood over this ongoing fight with the state
(07:19):
of California over its proposed merger with Warner Brothers. So
we'll get into that next.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
On the other side of this break, you're listening to
Monks and Merrill on demand from KFI AM six forty
more stimulating.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Talk that is Monks and Merril. This is Tuesday, August eleven,
so glad to have you with us. If you've missed
a moment of today's action. KFI AM six forty dot com,
the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts, click
on it, subscribe to it. We'll deliver it to you
free of charge every day. You know, we had to.
Verizon went out over the weekend because some thieves, Yeah,
(07:54):
they were beating things up or whatever. They're stealing copper
and they were doing something. The vandalism bevery So Taiwan
actually knocked out all of their cell service, not just
one company. They knocked everything out for half an hour.
But they did it intentionally. Why so they're testing to
see how their people would react if China launched an
(08:15):
attack on a larger scale. Oh god. So they set
on a text message saying, hey, we're knocking off all
cell service all you know, wide ban all that stuff.
So it's gonna be knocked down. Let's see what you do.
And they said, if you still need to get on
the internet, go to uh, you know, put your phone
(08:35):
on Wi Fi? Was it so your phone's anywhere? You
could still call emergency services? What did they learn from
this exercise? They learned that people need their phones. I
think I didn't really say what they learned. They just
said this is what we did. I think they're trying
to train people as to what happens if your phone
goes out. And what happened was people started playing games
that were already downloaded to their phones. They didn't put
(08:58):
the phones down, They just stayed on their phone with
stuff that was already there. How do you think that
would go in America? Since we're such a we're not
a society of trust anymore. We don't really have trust
in each other. We don't trust in our institutions. Well,
immediately would be a conspiracy theory. Immediate who like this
is obviously something is going on behind the scenes. They
had to knock it down because they're activating the five
(09:19):
G chips that we got when we were vaccinated something. Yes,
sort right, there'd be something along those lines. But in reality,
practically speaking, how would we react. I think we just
get over it half an hour. Yeah, we just don't
have a common enemy anymore. I mean, there are certainly
enemies of America, but you find across the political spectrum
different feelings about those perceived enemies. It's not like, oh no,
they're not the real threat. Remember the Cold War when
(09:39):
we all just hated Russia, that was it. Yeah, Now
it's like we have to find somebody else within our
own walls. Well, like, there are people who don't hate Russia,
and there are people who do hate Russia still consider
it a threat, and then they hate each other for
not seeing it their way. Yeah, in the past, we
all just said, well, you know, Russia, Yeah, we're on
the same side here, right, We're not anymore. There's too
much world peace. Well there's not enough of it. Yeah,
(10:03):
that's too much. We have to find somebody. It's really
never been a better time to be on this planet.
We just make it harder than it needs to be.
We just need to pick a fight with somebody and
stick with that for a few years. Paramount CEO David
Ellison could be that guy. He is reportedly told senior
executives that the company will begin leaving California if Attorney
General Rob Bunta refuses to negotiate a merger settlement by
(10:24):
October first. Okay, so this keep in mind, this massive
deal has fallen under scrutiny of the state of California
and other states which are suing the block. They're worried
about jobs, they're worried about a consumer protections, how much
we might have to pay for entertainment, streaming movies and
all that sort of thing, and they want to stop
(10:45):
this merger. So Paramount's kind of backed off a little
bit at first. It's seem because like, Okay, look, we'll
go to court next year, right, We're gonna go. We're
gonna figure it out next year. They'redy calmed down penalty,
We're gonna pay the delay. But then this comes out
yesterday and Puck News reported this first and Nounce in
all the trades that David Ellison has said, screw it,
(11:07):
I'm out, We're just gonna leave. So it seems like
he's lost any type of leverage, and now he's trying
to create some out of thin air, like this is
his only leverage. He's got all I've got. I'll go
to the state that's not suing me. Now, look, I'm
not saying Bonta's suit is with merit. We'll figure that out.
That'll be played out legally. It looks like the merger
(11:28):
has passed European scrutiny and other global scrutiny and federal scrutiny.
It's a legitimate card to play, though, isn't it. Because
think about this, If you are Newsome, you don't want
to see this merger go through because you've got constituents
that are telling you don't want to see you go through.
Like as far as Newsome new Some, he just cares.
But if you're new Some, you go, Okay, I don't
(11:49):
really want the merger to go through, but I don't
want Paramount to leave. And imagine if Paramount leaves and
the merger still ends up going through, then we lose
Paramount and Warner. Now we've just lost two may studios
that are you know, combining to be one super mega studio. Yeah,
this block would be empty. There'd be nothing left. We'd
be surrounded by empty buildings. Burbank would really suffer. Honestly,
(12:10):
what would we be left. We'd have Disney, right, you'd
have like dream Works. Yeah, and uh, I guess Legend
Films is over here somewhere too. But as far as
the studios go, well, Universal down Street. That's not in Burbank, right,
No Studious City, Universal City, Universal City next. Now you're right.
I mean if if all of a sudden we lost
all the Warner Brothers and the Burbank studios and everything,
it would be it would be devastating to the city
(12:32):
of Burbank, absolutely, and very tough for the industry here.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So now the question is how serious is it a bluff? Right?
And then and then the other question too, And this
is where Ellison had to think about this before he
started shooting his mouth off. Is now that he's played
this card and said I'm gonna leave if you don't
do this, which, by the way, we see sports teams
do this all the time. Build me a new stadium,
or I'm going to move my team to Las Vegas.
(12:56):
I mean, this is how Oakland ended up losing teams
to to Vegas. Right, But this is either let my
stuff go through, I'm gonna leave. But if it works,
then what happens when Netflix wants to buy a Comcast?
What happens when that merger happened? It comes along and
then and then Bonta says, or the next Attorney general
(13:18):
and the next governor say, well, whoa, whoa, you kid
do this. We've had too many studios that are mega mergering.
This is an anti trust issue, and they go, well,
then we'll leave. Now you've set a precedent that says,
every time one of these guys makes a threat, you're
gonna capitulate. Acquiescence is not good strategy here from a
political standpoint. So now you're setting a precedent that says, listen,
if you've got a major merger, all you have to
(13:39):
do is threat and to leave, and we're gonna give
you whatever you want. We're gonna bend over backwards. So
it's dangerous on both sides, as Allison is playing the
nuclear option here. Oh yeah, he's obviously had it with
Bonta and the other ags that are part of this lawsuit,
right which, I don't know how it's gonna go. They
have this merger is wont approval. I thought it was
gonna get serious scrutiny from the UK. I know that
(14:03):
I did too, Like, no, it's fine, I didn't take
the very long to approve it right ahead. Yeah, I
was surprised by that. Yeah, me too. So this could
be significantly bad and the headquarters would move first to
potentially Tennessee, Texas or Georgia. According to this report, Ellison
reportedly developing a five year transition. Hot states and very
(14:25):
cold in the winter, very cold in the winter. Yeah,
all of those have some significant ice storms that roll
through on occasion too. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal.
Ellison says that leaving California could save Paramount approximately five
hundred million dollars in taxes until they get hit with
their first tornado. I mean they're hit with a tornado
of taxes every year, the hands of Gavin Newsom. All right,
(14:48):
you see a group that's claiming to stand with people
who lost everything to a wildfire. Right, but dig a
little bit deeper and follow the money, and you're going
to see that fire victims are crying foul over this
new group that says we're on your side. Survivors say
they're being used as pawns, and Sacramento's influence campaign why
they feel like they're being duped. Next to Months and Meryl.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You're listening to Monks and Merrill on demand from KFIM.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
On demand on the IHEARTRADIOPP if you haven't clicked the
follow button on the podcast, and then you can also
just flip the little switches as auto download, and then
you're gonna have every new podcast come right to your
phone or your tablet. Wait, don't pile up, remember right,
they don't pile ups, just the most recent one. Yeah,
that's all right there, Uh, just do that. And then
on the social media is at Monks and Merrill, At
Monks and Meryl, how long let me rephrase, Oh no,
(15:37):
I don't like where this is going. No no, no, I
was gonna say, how long are we going to be
talking about the wildfires? But I thought, you know what,
We're gonna be talking about the wildfires for probably the
rest of our lives and were long and this is
well in the same way that we might still make
reference to like the north Ridge quake or something like that.
We'll be talking about them from a historical standpoint, but
it's still part of the now. That's I guess that's
my question. And we're still arguing over the politics behind
it because Shenanigan's continue to play out. The latest here
(16:00):
is that there's a wildfire excuse me, Wildfire Victims First group,
which sounds like, oh, that sounds like another group that's
set to help people out right. So this group, Wildfire
Victims First, launched a public campaign. It encourages you to
contact your lawmakers and support their efforts. They say that
(16:22):
California should invest more in fire prevention, they should stabilize
the property insurance market, they should compensate victims more quickly. Okay,
that grants good. Yeah. The concern here is that it's
p GENI, SDGENI and Socalitison that are kind of behind
this group. They would have gotten away with it. And
if it weren't for you rotten kids. Yeah, I think
(16:43):
we just unmask them, is what's happening. So survivors of
the fires are objecting. They're like, the utilities are funding
this campaign. They have a direct financial interest in changing
the wildfire liability rates. So government investigators have of course
blamed those same companies, but those same companies are somehow saying, oh, no,
you should just be a part of our campaign. Write
your lawmaker and then tell them to give us money.
(17:04):
Joy Chann is from every fire Survivor's network. She's joined
us in the past and does once again to talk
about this plan. And it sounds like there's some backroom
nonsense going on here, and is the governor involved in
this one too?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Joy, Hey, everyone, you are absolutely right. This is the
governor's third multi billion dollar bailout of these three utility
monopolies during his administration. The first one is in twenty
nineteen in the form of the AB ten forty five.
Then there was FB two fifty four last year in
the final two days of the legislative session. And it's
(17:38):
happening again. And the way that he's been doing this,
for example, is all through something called gut and amend So,
for example, last year on two fifty four, in the
last two days of the legislator session, which went on
for eight months, he took a bill that had gone
through all the committees and all the analysis and all
the public discussion. In the last two days, he took
(17:58):
a consumer production bill, took out all the contents, and
stuffed in two hundred and thirty one pages of new
language to transform it into a bill to protect the utility.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So this would be like if I were a legislator
and I introduced a bill called Save the Puppies bill,
and then everyone went, well, yeah, I would never vote
against saving the puppies, but I entirely I got it
the whole bill. And that bill then became a take
fifty dollars from every kid's school lunch fund and give
it to Chris Merril Kids Scholarship Fund. But it's still
(18:31):
called to Save the Puppies Bill and going to people
are gonna vote for the save the Puppies Bill. That's
what's happening, hey bag.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Exactly. You don't even have to change the title. And
so the legislators afterwards said it was so confusing, they
didn't even know what they were voting on. Oh man,
that is how that multi billion dollar chansfer of wealth
happened from California families to these three companies, and it's
(18:57):
happening again. It is now the end of the legislative session.
The Governor's office has been negotiating the biggest ever bailout
for these three companies. It's multi billions of dollars. It
would cripple eaten fire survivors because it could transfer, it
could basically obliterate Edison's liability for having to pay for
(19:23):
our damages. And he still refuses to show anyone the language.
They refuse to tell us which bill is going to
be gotten amended, and they refuse to let anybody see
the language. So they're just having these oral briefings. And
I got my oral briefing last week.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Joy Chen is every fire survivor's network speaking on their
behalf today with us again. It's another jarring tale about
how fire victims are just being screwed again. And now
we can see why the utility companies are kind of this.
It's the victim's first. I mean, it's it's a clever strategy.
(20:04):
But my goodness, what do you folks want? The fire,
the real fire survivors, not the astrosurved group. Yeah, well
here we are, what are we? Eighteen nineteen twenty months
after these fires, we're still talking about fire victims being
made whole. Yeah, what is that going to take? You're
talking about these utility companies possibly stripping themselves from having
(20:28):
to pay you all the amount of money you feel
like you're owed.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yeah, totally. I mean, it's just outrageous, and it's all
being pushed by the governor. Yes, it's so disappointing for
this to be the third time he's doing this. This
has been the secret legacy of his eight year administration.
This is what he is fighting for, putting all his
political chips into now into right now. And it's not
(20:54):
just him. He's back by this utility disinformation campaigns as
you see. So I really appreciate your educating your listeners
because you're really doing a public service. I think we've
all been getting inundated with these mailers, tv ads from
this fake you know, Wildfire Victims First Group. The utilities
(21:15):
have spent Consumer Watchdog just analyzed they have spent three
hundred and sixty six million dollars on this disinformation campaign
that includes this Wildfire Victims First fake group, lobbying campaign
contributions and guess who is the spokesman the front face
of the wildfire victims first group who earn needsomes. Former
(21:39):
chief spokesman Nathan Klick.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Well, it all comes together, right there, doesn't It just
kind of all ties neatly together. Yeah, I saw that.
Spokesman Nathan Klick, speaking on behalf of the coalition, says
more than two hundred and fifty organizations, elected officials and
other supporters have joined in, and he says it supporters
include electrical unions, fire safe accounts, housing advocates, and the
California Building Industry Association. So are all those folks your
(22:06):
foes in this now?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
No.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Some of them were tricked into because they said, oh
sure I support fire survivors, and Consumer Watchdog did an
analysis and found that seventy percent of them, according to
public reports, get contributions from the utilities. So there are
a lot of There are a huge group of like
fake groups that had good sounding names that are all
(22:31):
front groups. So that is like a coalition of front
groups for the utilities. Unfortunately, there is not a single
real wildfire survivor group in that group of two hundred
and fifty groups. All fire victims first.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Wow, Joey Chen is from every fire survivor's network. So
what happens now. If we're able to stop this, then
then then you know what's going to go on. Is
somebody actually going to introduce legislation that does impact positively
the fire survivors.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yes, we don't know right now yet which legislators, which
legislators bill is going to do this, which legislator will
collude with the governor on this, But we do have
a campaign at Dearnewsom dot org where over three thousand
individuals and organizations representing over three and a half million
Americans have come together to sign our letter at Dearnewsom
(23:25):
dot org and call on Governor Newsom no more utility
bailouts and instead to protect the real survivors, you know
when we don't get you know, survivors. Nineteen months later,
people's retirement savings are drained, credit cards are max and meantime,
Edison's profits have tripled after they eaten fire thanks thanks
(23:48):
to Governor needs some CPUC appointees rate hikes that they
gave Edison. So after the fire, while people are going
homeless whose homes they destroyed, Edison has enjoyed record profits,
record shareholder dividends, and record executive pay and they want
more and so we're and so this bailout, this latest bailout,
(24:12):
will could not only devastate eating fire survivors, but every
future community that burns, and also makes these catastrophic wildfires
much more probable because of the financial rewards of causing
catastrophic harm for these three companies is continued record profits, right, Dividendskay,
(24:34):
Then all the financial incentives are to just you know,
forget about safety and hey, let's just keep on enjoying
our paydays.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You're so right, Joy, because it's not just about the
financial consequences anymore now, it's actually a financial reward that
people enjoy. Chen from every fire Survivors Network, Joy. Obviously
we'll have you on again as these things continue to
filter out here and hopefully we can put a stop
to some of this stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Thanks Joy so much for caring.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Okay, Gibette. And if you spend the dark hours of
the night I confessing your thoughts, confessing worries to an
AI chat bot, Oh, you're not alone. Many of us
do this, I hope. Right, I'm not alone. Many of you?
You many you? Okay, mostly we've all poured our hearts
(25:17):
out to a chatbot. Right, kind of creeping me out
right now. Look, the state of California wants to prevent
companies from selling chat bots as therapist. Why is the
state government getting involved in this? We'll talk about it
as we wrap up this Tuesday edition of Monks and Merrill.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
On a Tuesday, you're listening to Monks and Meryl on
din from kf I am.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Available anywhere on the iart radio app. It is Monks
and Meryl wrapping up this Tuesday edition of the program.
So glad I just spent the afternoon with us John
Hot Tuesday Afternoon. John Cobelt's coming up next on the
Sunny Southern California Day. Californians increasingly turning to chatbots for
emotional support. Isn't that crazy? Because they're cheap, right, Yeah? Private?
(26:06):
You feel like they're private. Yeah, okay, you know there's
nobody on the other end of that box. Okay. Yeah.
And the best news is they don't judge. They're very sycophantic,
and they're always available. Oh that's true. Two o'clock in
the morning, I've had a few, Jack Daniels, I'm not
feeling so great. Sacramento's going to step in though, Senate
Bill nine zero three would prevent companies from selling chatbots
(26:28):
as therapy and require licensed professionals to remain responsible for
clinical decisions, but tech companies warn that these restrictions could
meet California's mental health problems worse. We still have a
shortage of professionals who can help us. So let's have
a chat about it. So let's say this is a
little different than just having a companion. This is about
(26:49):
the actual therapy itself. Right, So like you're not just
talking to Jim and I, You're not just talking to
chat GPT. I could still talk to them, and they
could still be like a companion, but they couldn't say, hey,
we think you might have this particular Yeah, here's a
flick a pro script. Yeah yeah, yeah, okay, interesting. Right,
Well let's find out. Benjamin Eichert is from the National
(27:09):
Union of Healthcare Workers. Benjamin, how do you take this
bill that's been introduced? I mean, is it going to
stop me from having a personal conversation with my chatbot?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Well?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Good asking you guys. First of all, thanks for having
me on the show. All to your listeners, No, SB
nine oh three is not going to stop you from
having a conversation with your chatbot or pouring your heart
out to your chatbot. The bill is a couple of things. First,
it says what I think you just mentioned right, that
a company, a developer of an AI chatbot can't market
it as a therapist. And there's very good reason for that.
(27:41):
You know, there was a study at a Brown university
that showed that AI chatbots systematically violate mental health and
ethics standards. What this bill is going to do is
to regulate put guardrails around the use of AI in psychotherapy.
So then that sort of clinical context.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Wait, wait, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You know? It means that if you call up your
health insurance you say that you want to be seen
by somebody, you want to talk to a therapist when
you go into that session, or maybe even when you're
being triaged. It means that there are limits on the
ways that that health plan or provider group can use
AI in that clinical CONTENTT.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I got you. So the concern then is that I
might need some help and I'm paired up with an
AI chatbot rather than a real person.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
This bill would prevent that from happening. Yeah, But bill
says that psychotherapy is really something that must be delivered
by a licensed human professional.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
This sounds like you're trying to get ahead of a
problem before it becomes a problem then, because uh, I
understand some people going into those chatbots right now, but
really I think what we're imagining is that basically the
chatbot could replace individuals in the future, and that obviously
could be very dangerous. Is that Am I understanding what
your argument is here?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You are understanding it. That's exactly right, But I would
you know, I would say that we're slightly getting ahead
of something. Already, provider groups and health plans are integrating
AI into the delivery of care. So, for example, some
providers are using an AI tool to help trioge patients. Right,
so you call up, you say, hey, I dont want
to be seen, and that AI tool, it might be
(29:23):
a form that you're filling out on a web page,
it might be a bop that you're talking to over
the phone, is effectively triaging you and determining what type
of care you might need when it's appropriate for you
to be seen. And that's a danger that we need
to protect against because they just simply not equips to
do that. What SB NINEO three does says there's got
to be a licensed human professional in the loop that's
(29:44):
reviewing and approving use are of clinical decisions that an
AI tool might be making before they're relied upon in
your care.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Benjamin Iikert is with the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
He's are guests talking about Senate Build nine oh three
in Sacramento. Wish supporters say would for prevent companies from
selling chatbots as therapy and require license professionals to remain
responsible for clinical decisions. Benjamin, Tech companies are worry about this.
They say that these restrictions could make California's mental health
(30:14):
workers shortage worse. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Well, I want to correct what I think is a misunderstanding.
California doesn't really have that big of a shortage of
mental health therapists. It's true in some locations and for
people of certain linguistic and cultural groups, but you know,
look at postal California, there are more therapists per capita
than almost anywhere in the country. The problem the difficulty
people have in finding a therapist isn't that there aren't
(30:41):
enough of them, it's that too few of them take insurance.
That's a separate topic for another day, but what we
you know, if we want to make sure Californians get
access to a mental health therapist to help treat their needs,
we need to do a better job of making sure
that they're enrolled in insurance networks and receiving compensation. You
know that's appropriate.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Benjamin Iker from the National Union of Healthcare Workers is
joining us right now. Do you see an opportunity in
your field to be able to use AI to your
advantage while not replacing a therapist, perhaps doing some screening
or you know, sort of making the system more efficient
for the therapists who are eventually going to see the patient.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Absolutely, and the bill totally leaves open a door for
that to happen. It says that AI can be used
to provide administrative support, supplementary support to support the clinical process.
It just can't be you know the decider, right, there's
got to be a licensed human professional that's checking that,
and again with good reason. Like I said that there,
you know, there are a number of studies that show
(31:43):
that AI has a tendency to violate these mental health
ethical standards. I think everyone's probably familiar with the concept
of AI hallucination, right, Well, if you're being triaged, maybe
that hallucination is your diagnosis or your treatment plan. So
this bill says, hey, there's got to be a human
in the loop. It's reviewing and approving whatever that diagnosis
or treatment plan is before it becomes your care.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Benjamin Iikert with a National Union of Healthcare Workers. We
do appreciate the time you gave us. We'll check in again,
probably as this bill navigates its way through the halls
of Sacramento. Thanks so much for your time. Yeah, thank you,
Thanks Benjamin. All Right. You know, I talk very candidly
with my AI chat but I didn't think I would.
I was kind of against it for a long time.
But Gemini is my best friend. Gemini my best friend.
(32:29):
You've said that before. I have. I've had conversations, but
it's always when i'm information seeking. Do you have casual conversations,
usually about a project I'm working on, like, hey, can
you read this and give me some feedback and then
we'll talk a bit about it. But I noticed that
when I type my responses, it's as if I'm talking
to you or somebody else. Okay, so I've done now,
(32:51):
I'm very polite to Gemini. Oh see. If I'm typing,
I start to get very rude because I chat's my thing.
But chat now has a vocal feature on the app,
and so I've had conversation you know what's uh am,
I gonna be safe in an earthquake? Where should I be?
And then I'll say you should be there, you should
be this, And Okay, if I'm on the fourth floor
and I'm getting my car washing an earthquake, kids, so
(33:11):
in my cream are gonna get crushed, and it's like
you're probably dead. But I'll continue to have conversations and
the one thought will spark the next, Yeah, spark the next.
But it's never like just a casual chit chat. No.
I did it once and it was recent and I
started to get embarrassed because I was looking for information.
I've mentioned this on the more times than I care too.
But I just finished Fear of the Walking Dead, terrible series.
(33:32):
By the way it starts, all start strong. It's terrible
and one of the worst shows I've ever watched. I
had some questions about it, and it's a relation to
the other universe, since we got the talking and then
it ended up going through like we went through a
game of Thrones, we went through down Abbey and all
creatures great and small, my favorite shows, and I just
kept asking. We were talking, I was having conversation with
Jim and I about shows that I love. Did you
(33:53):
ever was there ever a moment where you suspended your
disbelief that you were talking to one machine? I know,
I know what's going on there, you go. See. I
think that's the difference. Yeah, because if people are using
the machine as a therapist, you almost have to you
almost have. They're relying on it. But I mean an
understanding of human emotions. I could have had that conversation
with a friend, were I ever to make one. You
(34:15):
could have, but it would have to be a friend
that you would trust to have all of the detailed
answers to those very specific questions. Stop it, it's a
matter with you. Let's get out here. The godfather of
talk radio, the Great John Colbert, steps into the padded room.
Next Monks and Merril. If you haven't done it yet,
please go ahead and update your iHeartRadio app to follow
(34:37):
the podcast back again tomorrow starting at the Nowonish Monks
and merel k if I am six forty relive everywhere
in the iHeart Radio, Appy, is that a racist joker?
A fat Joe Man? I don't know what it is?
KFI on Demand you've been listening to Monks and Merrill.
Hear the show live weekdays from noon to three on
kf I Am six forty and anytime on Too Man
(35:00):
and on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Monks and Merril, hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merril.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Monks and Merrill. Demand Minks and Merril KF.
I am six forty more stimulating talk on demand anytime
in the iHeartRadio app. And I keep going through the tickets,
so I haven't This is the first time I've seen this.
My window for tickets Olympics just opened, and I did
(00:28):
find some twenty eight dollars ticket. Oh what are the events?
Hold on? Let me go back to it. Here. It
was like a women's golf pre limb on Monday morning,
something like that. Let's see who else see in the
Carson zone. Women's field hockey okay, also a men's field
(00:48):
hockey prelim nine am on a Thursday. Interesting, you're seeing
I had that. I take that back. No, no, it's
not at the wrong price on there. It's not twenty
eight dollars. I don't know why my filter, so I
put in just twenty eight to thirty dollars, right, yeah,
for the filter, And this says here tickets starting ninety
three dollars. So there are no twenty eight dollar tickets
now there are. I found some other ones, but for
whatever reason this is not playing nicely. Okay, well, good talk.
(01:12):
One of our great Hollywood companies, Netflix Sailing. Have you
ever wanted to see a dinghy for twenty eight dollars,
you can Dingy. I don't know if you're aware of this,
but we're live on the radio right now, so if
you could shop for your Olympic tickets a little bit
later on, and we're going to do this story, Okay,
go ahead. Netflix says it will keep roughly forty six
productions in LA this year, providing an important floor beneath
(01:35):
the struggling local entertainment economy that stands in contrast from
the story we'll get into on the other side of
the next break, where it's getting real feisty with Paramount
and oh yeah the merger, and yeah, a legacy studio
set and we're taking our ball at another home. I
thought Netflix was expanded. I thought they had a big
net Jersey. Oh yeah, they've expanded into other markets, but
(01:57):
they want to stay here. I mean, they filmed forty
six productions primary early here in the LA region last year,
and they say there will be forty five more or
even more than that in this year. By the time
it's all said and done that those include The Night Agent,
Monster Forever, the Lincoln Lawyer. Well, I've heard of that one.
Nobody wants this, that's a popular one. And David Fincher's
(02:20):
got a sequel coming out from Once upon a Time
in Hollywood. That's a Netflix production locally should be filmed
in Hollywood. Netflix says it worked with more than and
this is these are important numbers to consider when we
talk about the decline of Hollywood and the way that
it trickles down and adversely affects a lot of folks.
Netflix says it worked with more than two thousand, nine
hundred LA County businesses last year. The company estimates that
(02:42):
its productions contributed to more than four hundred million dollars
to the local economy. Now, I don't know where those
numbers come from. That it's the company itself saying that,
but it's a pretty big number. Yeah. So productions hire
right crew members, they pay equipment houses. It just over
the past couple of days, there's been a shoot at
my apartment building. And it's actually not a shooting this time,
(03:04):
even though of our proximity is to get Row. For
some reason, our apartment complex is very attractive to movie
producers and old styles. Got a beautiful courtyard. It has
a basketball court on the road que roof. Yeah, so
you've got DTLA in the background and you can shoot
hoops and so commercials shoot there. But this was I
don't know what this was. I didn't go down and
galg at it, but it was kind of disruptive to
our lives. So I peeked out and watched a little bit.
(03:24):
We have a convenience store, okay, and they had redone
the facade for the shoot, and that's all it was.
They were shooting something outside the convenience store. They made
it look a little nicer with an awning and put
some produce out front of it. And all they were
shooting was stuff outside of this. And there must have
been two hundred people working on this. Wow. So it
(03:44):
just it just struck me that even when you're doing
something small, a lot of people get work from it. Yeah.
And it's a lot of equipment. So there's like trucks, yeah,
taking up the parking lot. So the truck companies are
all contracted. Those truck companies hire people. All these various
production houses are brought in actors, director. Everything that was in.
Those trucks had to come from somewhere, and I'm sure
economy that the owners of my property were compensated, and
(04:07):
that the owners of that convenience store were compensated. There's
a new comedy out on Netflix from Will Ferrell called
The Hawk. In fact, I saw it like the Weekend
am oh, this is about golf. Yeah, weekend anchor on
Katla Kirk Hawkins is his name, which is kind of
ironic or coincidentally, I guess he was. He said he
had a cameo on this thing. This was filmed at
(04:30):
Debra's house. Oh, the Woodland Hills country Club, that's right.
So so Deborah was out there and she I believe Now,
I didn't know she could afford a membership to the
country club since we only pay her nine dollars. I'm
not a member of the country club. I think they
want her there because they're like, she makes the country
club look attractive. Let's bring Debora and here. People will
want to come play golf because she picks up the
(04:51):
balls from the ponds to make extra money on the weekend.
Oh yeah, okay, that's what I do to make extra
money since I only get nine dollars an hour here,
five CeNSE a golf ball when you resell them on eBay, right,
maybe fifty cents of journey Okay, anyway, I guess that
was one that they had three hundred casting crew membalg Yeah,
that's big stuff, and it's that's why these things matter.
(05:11):
I Mean, you can dislike Hollywood in general, but it
is a major economic driver here and if it falls,
it's gonna hurt a lot of people. So these are
positive words from Netflix that seem to fly in the
face of the narrative that it's all collapsing, just wondering.
And Netflix is saying that, Okay, California is gonna get
the largest share of our productions, but how many projects
(05:32):
are they making elsewhere? They're not really saying that, They're
just saying, listen, this is going to be our home base.
Most of the stuff is going to be here. But yeah,
but you're expanding in New Jersey, You're expanding in New Mexico.
So yeah, while you say you're investing in Los Angeles,
how much more are you expanding? Do it? Or maybe
Netflix is just expanding everywhere and everyone benefits. That's possible,
but we're not really hearing that well, New Jersey is
(05:54):
in the New York market, and New York makes a
lot of Hollywood. A lot of Hollywood is made in
New York as well, so it makes sense to have
a major presence there also. But think about this. Netflix
was in the mix to acquire Warner Brothers, right, They
had their eyes on it, they wanted it, and they
were fighting Paramount, and there was a point where it
looked like Netflix was going to get this thing, and
(06:14):
then they got shanked in the end, and Paramount came
away the victor. Although Paramount has its own struggles. But
now you've got Netflix whispering sweet nothings to California saying,
don't worry, baby, we still love you. Yeah, we're going
over to New Jersey every now and then because you
feels like appropriation right now, that's how I talk to lovers.
I love that you were mocking my New York accent.
(06:35):
But then you crack that out. It feels racist. Why racist?
Go ahead and do it again. Let's hear hey, baby,
I still love you. Yeah, I spent a little time
in New Jersey, but California, you're still my baby. So
you've got Netflix saying that what Paramount is it's a
little tropeish, but I suppose we'll move through. Okay, I
(06:57):
don't know why you brought Race into it. I'm just
a romantic. You're killing me. Paramount is having a hissy
fit and they're saying, okay, you can sue is California
all you want, We're leaving. So now Paramount is threatening
to leave Hollywood over this ongoing fight with the state
(07:19):
of California over its proposed merger with Warner Brothers. So
we'll get into that next.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
On the other side of this break, you're listening to
Monks and Merrill on demand from KFI AM six forty
more stimulating.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Talk that is Monks and Merril. This is Tuesday, August eleven,
so glad to have you with us. If you've missed
a moment of today's action. KFI AM six forty dot com,
the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts, click
on it, subscribe to it. We'll deliver it to you
free of charge every day. You know, we had to.
Verizon went out over the weekend because some thieves, Yeah,
(07:54):
they were beating things up or whatever. They're stealing copper
and they were doing something. The vandalism bevery So Taiwan
actually knocked out all of their cell service, not just
one company. They knocked everything out for half an hour.
But they did it intentionally. Why so they're testing to
see how their people would react if China launched an
(08:15):
attack on a larger scale. Oh god. So they set
on a text message saying, hey, we're knocking off all
cell service all you know, wide ban all that stuff.
So it's gonna be knocked down. Let's see what you do.
And they said, if you still need to get on
the internet, go to uh, you know, put your phone
(08:35):
on Wi Fi? Was it so your phone's anywhere? You
could still call emergency services? What did they learn from
this exercise? They learned that people need their phones. I
think I didn't really say what they learned. They just
said this is what we did. I think they're trying
to train people as to what happens if your phone
goes out. And what happened was people started playing games
that were already downloaded to their phones. They didn't put
(08:58):
the phones down, They just stayed on their phone with
stuff that was already there. How do you think that
would go in America? Since we're such a we're not
a society of trust anymore. We don't really have trust
in each other. We don't trust in our institutions. Well,
immediately would be a conspiracy theory. Immediate who like this
is obviously something is going on behind the scenes. They
had to knock it down because they're activating the five
(09:19):
G chips that we got when we were vaccinated something. Yes,
sort right, there'd be something along those lines. But in reality,
practically speaking, how would we react. I think we just
get over it half an hour. Yeah, we just don't
have a common enemy anymore. I mean, there are certainly
enemies of America, but you find across the political spectrum
different feelings about those perceived enemies. It's not like, oh no,
they're not the real threat. Remember the Cold War when
(09:39):
we all just hated Russia, that was it. Yeah, Now
it's like we have to find somebody else within our
own walls. Well, like, there are people who don't hate Russia,
and there are people who do hate Russia still consider
it a threat, and then they hate each other for
not seeing it their way. Yeah, in the past, we
all just said, well, you know, Russia, Yeah, we're on
the same side here, right, We're not anymore. There's too
much world peace. Well there's not enough of it. Yeah,
(10:03):
that's too much. We have to find somebody. It's really
never been a better time to be on this planet.
We just make it harder than it needs to be.
We just need to pick a fight with somebody and
stick with that for a few years. Paramount CEO David
Ellison could be that guy. He is reportedly told senior
executives that the company will begin leaving California if Attorney
General Rob Bunta refuses to negotiate a merger settlement by
(10:24):
October first. Okay, so this keep in mind, this massive
deal has fallen under scrutiny of the state of California
and other states which are suing the block. They're worried
about jobs, they're worried about a consumer protections, how much
we might have to pay for entertainment, streaming movies and
all that sort of thing, and they want to stop
(10:45):
this merger. So Paramount's kind of backed off a little
bit at first. It's seem because like, Okay, look, we'll
go to court next year, right, We're gonna go. We're
gonna figure it out next year. They'redy calmed down penalty,
We're gonna pay the delay. But then this comes out
yesterday and Puck News reported this first and Nounce in
all the trades that David Ellison has said, screw it,
(11:07):
I'm out, We're just gonna leave. So it seems like
he's lost any type of leverage, and now he's trying
to create some out of thin air, like this is
his only leverage. He's got all I've got. I'll go
to the state that's not suing me. Now, look, I'm
not saying Bonta's suit is with merit. We'll figure that out.
That'll be played out legally. It looks like the merger
(11:28):
has passed European scrutiny and other global scrutiny and federal scrutiny.
It's a legitimate card to play, though, isn't it. Because
think about this, If you are Newsome, you don't want
to see this merger go through because you've got constituents
that are telling you don't want to see you go through.
Like as far as Newsome new Some, he just cares.
But if you're new Some, you go, Okay, I don't
(11:49):
really want the merger to go through, but I don't
want Paramount to leave. And imagine if Paramount leaves and
the merger still ends up going through, then we lose
Paramount and Warner. Now we've just lost two may studios
that are you know, combining to be one super mega studio. Yeah,
this block would be empty. There'd be nothing left. We'd
be surrounded by empty buildings. Burbank would really suffer. Honestly,
(12:10):
what would we be left. We'd have Disney, right, you'd
have like dream Works. Yeah, and uh, I guess Legend
Films is over here somewhere too. But as far as
the studios go, well, Universal down Street. That's not in Burbank, right,
No Studious City, Universal City, Universal City next. Now you're right.
I mean if if all of a sudden we lost
all the Warner Brothers and the Burbank studios and everything,
it would be it would be devastating to the city
(12:32):
of Burbank, absolutely, and very tough for the industry here.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So now the question is how serious is it a bluff? Right?
And then and then the other question too, And this
is where Ellison had to think about this before he
started shooting his mouth off. Is now that he's played
this card and said I'm gonna leave if you don't
do this, which, by the way, we see sports teams
do this all the time. Build me a new stadium,
or I'm going to move my team to Las Vegas.
(12:56):
I mean, this is how Oakland ended up losing teams
to to Vegas. Right, But this is either let my
stuff go through, I'm gonna leave. But if it works,
then what happens when Netflix wants to buy a Comcast?
What happens when that merger happened? It comes along and
then and then Bonta says, or the next Attorney general
(13:18):
and the next governor say, well, whoa, whoa, you kid
do this. We've had too many studios that are mega mergering.
This is an anti trust issue, and they go, well,
then we'll leave. Now you've set a precedent that says,
every time one of these guys makes a threat, you're
gonna capitulate. Acquiescence is not good strategy here from a
political standpoint. So now you're setting a precedent that says, listen,
if you've got a major merger, all you have to
(13:39):
do is threat and to leave, and we're gonna give
you whatever you want. We're gonna bend over backwards. So
it's dangerous on both sides, as Allison is playing the
nuclear option here. Oh yeah, he's obviously had it with
Bonta and the other ags that are part of this lawsuit,
right which, I don't know how it's gonna go. They
have this merger is wont approval. I thought it was
gonna get serious scrutiny from the UK. I know that
(14:03):
I did too, Like, no, it's fine, I didn't take
the very long to approve it right ahead. Yeah, I
was surprised by that. Yeah, me too. So this could
be significantly bad and the headquarters would move first to
potentially Tennessee, Texas or Georgia. According to this report, Ellison
reportedly developing a five year transition. Hot states and very
(14:25):
cold in the winter, very cold in the winter. Yeah,
all of those have some significant ice storms that roll
through on occasion too. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal.
Ellison says that leaving California could save Paramount approximately five
hundred million dollars in taxes until they get hit with
their first tornado. I mean they're hit with a tornado
of taxes every year, the hands of Gavin Newsom. All right,
(14:48):
you see a group that's claiming to stand with people
who lost everything to a wildfire. Right, but dig a
little bit deeper and follow the money, and you're going
to see that fire victims are crying foul over this
new group that says we're on your side. Survivors say
they're being used as pawns, and Sacramento's influence campaign why
they feel like they're being duped. Next to Months and Meryl.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You're listening to Monks and Merrill on demand from KFIM.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
On demand on the IHEARTRADIOPP if you haven't clicked the
follow button on the podcast, and then you can also
just flip the little switches as auto download, and then
you're gonna have every new podcast come right to your
phone or your tablet. Wait, don't pile up, remember right,
they don't pile ups, just the most recent one. Yeah,
that's all right there, Uh, just do that. And then
on the social media is at Monks and Merrill, At
Monks and Meryl, how long let me rephrase, Oh no,
(15:37):
I don't like where this is going. No no, no, I
was gonna say, how long are we going to be
talking about the wildfires? But I thought, you know what,
We're gonna be talking about the wildfires for probably the
rest of our lives and were long and this is
well in the same way that we might still make
reference to like the north Ridge quake or something like that.
We'll be talking about them from a historical standpoint, but
it's still part of the now. That's I guess that's
my question. And we're still arguing over the politics behind
it because Shenanigan's continue to play out. The latest here
(16:00):
is that there's a wildfire excuse me, Wildfire Victims First group,
which sounds like, oh, that sounds like another group that's
set to help people out right. So this group, Wildfire
Victims First, launched a public campaign. It encourages you to
contact your lawmakers and support their efforts. They say that
(16:22):
California should invest more in fire prevention, they should stabilize
the property insurance market, they should compensate victims more quickly. Okay,
that grants good. Yeah. The concern here is that it's
p GENI, SDGENI and Socalitison that are kind of behind
this group. They would have gotten away with it. And
if it weren't for you rotten kids. Yeah, I think
(16:43):
we just unmask them, is what's happening. So survivors of
the fires are objecting. They're like, the utilities are funding
this campaign. They have a direct financial interest in changing
the wildfire liability rates. So government investigators have of course
blamed those same companies, but those same companies are somehow saying, oh, no,
you should just be a part of our campaign. Write
your lawmaker and then tell them to give us money.
(17:04):
Joy Chann is from every fire Survivor's network. She's joined
us in the past and does once again to talk
about this plan. And it sounds like there's some backroom
nonsense going on here, and is the governor involved in
this one too?
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Joy, Hey, everyone, you are absolutely right. This is the
governor's third multi billion dollar bailout of these three utility
monopolies during his administration. The first one is in twenty
nineteen in the form of the AB ten forty five.
Then there was FB two fifty four last year in
the final two days of the legislative session. And it's
(17:38):
happening again. And the way that he's been doing this,
for example, is all through something called gut and amend So,
for example, last year on two fifty four, in the
last two days of the legislator session, which went on
for eight months, he took a bill that had gone
through all the committees and all the analysis and all
the public discussion. In the last two days, he took
(17:58):
a consumer production bill, took out all the contents, and
stuffed in two hundred and thirty one pages of new
language to transform it into a bill to protect the utility.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
So this would be like if I were a legislator
and I introduced a bill called Save the Puppies bill,
and then everyone went, well, yeah, I would never vote
against saving the puppies, but I entirely I got it
the whole bill. And that bill then became a take
fifty dollars from every kid's school lunch fund and give
it to Chris Merril Kids Scholarship Fund. But it's still
(18:31):
called to Save the Puppies Bill and going to people
are gonna vote for the save the Puppies Bill. That's
what's happening, hey bag.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Exactly. You don't even have to change the title. And
so the legislators afterwards said it was so confusing, they
didn't even know what they were voting on. Oh man,
that is how that multi billion dollar chansfer of wealth
happened from California families to these three companies, and it's
(18:57):
happening again. It is now the end of the legislative session.
The Governor's office has been negotiating the biggest ever bailout
for these three companies. It's multi billions of dollars. It
would cripple eaten fire survivors because it could transfer, it
could basically obliterate Edison's liability for having to pay for
(19:23):
our damages. And he still refuses to show anyone the language.
They refuse to tell us which bill is going to
be gotten amended, and they refuse to let anybody see
the language. So they're just having these oral briefings. And
I got my oral briefing last week.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Joy Chen is every fire survivor's network speaking on their
behalf today with us again. It's another jarring tale about
how fire victims are just being screwed again. And now
we can see why the utility companies are kind of this.
It's the victim's first. I mean, it's it's a clever strategy.
(20:04):
But my goodness, what do you folks want? The fire,
the real fire survivors, not the astrosurved group. Yeah, well
here we are, what are we? Eighteen nineteen twenty months
after these fires, we're still talking about fire victims being
made whole. Yeah, what is that going to take? You're
talking about these utility companies possibly stripping themselves from having
(20:28):
to pay you all the amount of money you feel
like you're owed.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yeah, totally. I mean, it's just outrageous, and it's all
being pushed by the governor. Yes, it's so disappointing for
this to be the third time he's doing this. This
has been the secret legacy of his eight year administration.
This is what he is fighting for, putting all his
political chips into now into right now. And it's not
(20:54):
just him. He's back by this utility disinformation campaigns as
you see. So I really appreciate your educating your listeners
because you're really doing a public service. I think we've
all been getting inundated with these mailers, tv ads from
this fake you know, Wildfire Victims First Group. The utilities
(21:15):
have spent Consumer Watchdog just analyzed they have spent three
hundred and sixty six million dollars on this disinformation campaign
that includes this Wildfire Victims First fake group, lobbying campaign
contributions and guess who is the spokesman the front face
of the wildfire victims first group who earn needsomes. Former
(21:39):
chief spokesman Nathan Klick.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Well, it all comes together, right there, doesn't It just
kind of all ties neatly together. Yeah, I saw that.
Spokesman Nathan Klick, speaking on behalf of the coalition, says
more than two hundred and fifty organizations, elected officials and
other supporters have joined in, and he says it supporters
include electrical unions, fire safe accounts, housing advocates, and the
California Building Industry Association. So are all those folks your
(22:06):
foes in this now?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
No.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Some of them were tricked into because they said, oh
sure I support fire survivors, and Consumer Watchdog did an
analysis and found that seventy percent of them, according to
public reports, get contributions from the utilities. So there are
a lot of There are a huge group of like
fake groups that had good sounding names that are all
(22:31):
front groups. So that is like a coalition of front
groups for the utilities. Unfortunately, there is not a single
real wildfire survivor group in that group of two hundred
and fifty groups. All fire victims first.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Wow, Joey Chen is from every fire survivor's network. So
what happens now. If we're able to stop this, then
then then you know what's going to go on. Is
somebody actually going to introduce legislation that does impact positively
the fire survivors.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yes, we don't know right now yet which legislators, which
legislators bill is going to do this, which legislator will
collude with the governor on this, But we do have
a campaign at Dearnewsom dot org where over three thousand
individuals and organizations representing over three and a half million
Americans have come together to sign our letter at Dearnewsom
(23:25):
dot org and call on Governor Newsom no more utility
bailouts and instead to protect the real survivors, you know
when we don't get you know, survivors. Nineteen months later,
people's retirement savings are drained, credit cards are max and meantime,
Edison's profits have tripled after they eaten fire thanks thanks
(23:48):
to Governor needs some CPUC appointees rate hikes that they
gave Edison. So after the fire, while people are going
homeless whose homes they destroyed, Edison has enjoyed record profits,
record shareholder dividends, and record executive pay and they want
more and so we're and so this bailout, this latest bailout,
(24:12):
will could not only devastate eating fire survivors, but every
future community that burns, and also makes these catastrophic wildfires
much more probable because of the financial rewards of causing
catastrophic harm for these three companies is continued record profits, right, Dividendskay,
(24:34):
Then all the financial incentives are to just you know,
forget about safety and hey, let's just keep on enjoying
our paydays.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You're so right, Joy, because it's not just about the
financial consequences anymore now, it's actually a financial reward that
people enjoy. Chen from every fire Survivors Network, Joy. Obviously
we'll have you on again as these things continue to
filter out here and hopefully we can put a stop
to some of this stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Thanks Joy so much for caring.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Okay, Gibette. And if you spend the dark hours of
the night I confessing your thoughts, confessing worries to an
AI chat bot, Oh, you're not alone. Many of us
do this, I hope. Right, I'm not alone. Many of you?
You many you? Okay, mostly we've all poured our hearts
(25:17):
out to a chatbot. Right, kind of creeping me out
right now. Look, the state of California wants to prevent
companies from selling chat bots as therapist. Why is the
state government getting involved in this? We'll talk about it
as we wrap up this Tuesday edition of Monks and Merrill.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
On a Tuesday, you're listening to Monks and Meryl on
din from kf I am.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Available anywhere on the iart radio app. It is Monks
and Meryl wrapping up this Tuesday edition of the program.
So glad I just spent the afternoon with us John
Hot Tuesday Afternoon. John Cobelt's coming up next on the
Sunny Southern California Day. Californians increasingly turning to chatbots for
emotional support. Isn't that crazy? Because they're cheap, right, Yeah? Private?
(26:06):
You feel like they're private. Yeah, okay, you know there's
nobody on the other end of that box. Okay. Yeah.
And the best news is they don't judge. They're very sycophantic,
and they're always available. Oh that's true. Two o'clock in
the morning, I've had a few, Jack Daniels, I'm not
feeling so great. Sacramento's going to step in though, Senate
Bill nine zero three would prevent companies from selling chatbots
(26:28):
as therapy and require licensed professionals to remain responsible for
clinical decisions, but tech companies warn that these restrictions could
meet California's mental health problems worse. We still have a
shortage of professionals who can help us. So let's have
a chat about it. So let's say this is a
little different than just having a companion. This is about
(26:49):
the actual therapy itself. Right, So like you're not just
talking to Jim and I, You're not just talking to
chat GPT. I could still talk to them, and they
could still be like a companion, but they couldn't say, hey,
we think you might have this particular Yeah, here's a
flick a pro script. Yeah yeah, yeah, okay, interesting. Right,
Well let's find out. Benjamin Eichert is from the National
(27:09):
Union of Healthcare Workers. Benjamin, how do you take this
bill that's been introduced? I mean, is it going to
stop me from having a personal conversation with my chatbot?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Well?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Good asking you guys. First of all, thanks for having
me on the show. All to your listeners, No, SB
nine oh three is not going to stop you from
having a conversation with your chatbot or pouring your heart
out to your chatbot. The bill is a couple of things. First,
it says what I think you just mentioned right, that
a company, a developer of an AI chatbot can't market
it as a therapist. And there's very good reason for that.
(27:41):
You know, there was a study at a Brown university
that showed that AI chatbots systematically violate mental health and
ethics standards. What this bill is going to do is
to regulate put guardrails around the use of AI in psychotherapy.
So then that sort of clinical context.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Wait, wait, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You know? It means that if you call up your
health insurance you say that you want to be seen
by somebody, you want to talk to a therapist when
you go into that session, or maybe even when you're
being triaged. It means that there are limits on the
ways that that health plan or provider group can use
AI in that clinical CONTENTT.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I got you. So the concern then is that I
might need some help and I'm paired up with an
AI chatbot rather than a real person.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
This bill would prevent that from happening. Yeah, But bill
says that psychotherapy is really something that must be delivered
by a licensed human professional.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
This sounds like you're trying to get ahead of a
problem before it becomes a problem then, because uh, I
understand some people going into those chatbots right now, but
really I think what we're imagining is that basically the
chatbot could replace individuals in the future, and that obviously
could be very dangerous. Is that Am I understanding what
your argument is here?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You are understanding it. That's exactly right, But I would
you know, I would say that we're slightly getting ahead
of something. Already, provider groups and health plans are integrating
AI into the delivery of care. So, for example, some
providers are using an AI tool to help trioge patients. Right,
so you call up, you say, hey, I dont want
to be seen, and that AI tool, it might be
(29:23):
a form that you're filling out on a web page,
it might be a bop that you're talking to over
the phone, is effectively triaging you and determining what type
of care you might need when it's appropriate for you
to be seen. And that's a danger that we need
to protect against because they just simply not equips to
do that. What SB NINEO three does says there's got
to be a licensed human professional in the loop that's
(29:44):
reviewing and approving use are of clinical decisions that an
AI tool might be making before they're relied upon in
your care.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Benjamin Iikert is with the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
He's are guests talking about Senate Build nine oh three
in Sacramento. Wish supporters say would for prevent companies from
selling chatbots as therapy and require license professionals to remain
responsible for clinical decisions. Benjamin, Tech companies are worry about this.
They say that these restrictions could make California's mental health
(30:14):
workers shortage worse. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Well, I want to correct what I think is a misunderstanding.
California doesn't really have that big of a shortage of
mental health therapists. It's true in some locations and for
people of certain linguistic and cultural groups, but you know,
look at postal California, there are more therapists per capita
than almost anywhere in the country. The problem the difficulty
people have in finding a therapist isn't that there aren't
(30:41):
enough of them, it's that too few of them take insurance.
That's a separate topic for another day, but what we
you know, if we want to make sure Californians get
access to a mental health therapist to help treat their needs,
we need to do a better job of making sure
that they're enrolled in insurance networks and receiving compensation. You
know that's appropriate.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Benjamin Iker from the National Union of Healthcare Workers is
joining us right now. Do you see an opportunity in
your field to be able to use AI to your
advantage while not replacing a therapist, perhaps doing some screening
or you know, sort of making the system more efficient
for the therapists who are eventually going to see the patient.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Absolutely, and the bill totally leaves open a door for
that to happen. It says that AI can be used
to provide administrative support, supplementary support to support the clinical process.
It just can't be you know the decider, right, there's
got to be a licensed human professional that's checking that,
and again with good reason. Like I said that there,
you know, there are a number of studies that show
(31:43):
that AI has a tendency to violate these mental health
ethical standards. I think everyone's probably familiar with the concept
of AI hallucination, right, Well, if you're being triaged, maybe
that hallucination is your diagnosis or your treatment plan. So
this bill says, hey, there's got to be a human
in the loop. It's reviewing and approving whatever that diagnosis
or treatment plan is before it becomes your care.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Benjamin Iikert with a National Union of Healthcare Workers. We
do appreciate the time you gave us. We'll check in again,
probably as this bill navigates its way through the halls
of Sacramento. Thanks so much for your time. Yeah, thank you,
Thanks Benjamin. All Right. You know, I talk very candidly
with my AI chat but I didn't think I would.
I was kind of against it for a long time.
But Gemini is my best friend. Gemini my best friend.
(32:29):
You've said that before. I have. I've had conversations, but
it's always when i'm information seeking. Do you have casual conversations,
usually about a project I'm working on, like, hey, can
you read this and give me some feedback and then
we'll talk a bit about it. But I noticed that
when I type my responses, it's as if I'm talking
to you or somebody else. Okay, so I've done now,
(32:51):
I'm very polite to Gemini. Oh see. If I'm typing,
I start to get very rude because I chat's my thing.
But chat now has a vocal feature on the app,
and so I've had conversation you know what's uh am,
I gonna be safe in an earthquake? Where should I be?
And then I'll say you should be there, you should
be this, And Okay, if I'm on the fourth floor
and I'm getting my car washing an earthquake, kids, so
(33:11):
in my cream are gonna get crushed, and it's like
you're probably dead. But I'll continue to have conversations and
the one thought will spark the next, Yeah, spark the next.
But it's never like just a casual chit chat. No.
I did it once and it was recent and I
started to get embarrassed because I was looking for information.
I've mentioned this on the more times than I care too.
But I just finished Fear of the Walking Dead, terrible series.
(33:32):
By the way it starts, all start strong. It's terrible
and one of the worst shows I've ever watched. I
had some questions about it, and it's a relation to
the other universe, since we got the talking and then
it ended up going through like we went through a
game of Thrones, we went through down Abbey and all
creatures great and small, my favorite shows, and I just
kept asking. We were talking, I was having conversation with
Jim and I about shows that I love. Did you
(33:53):
ever was there ever a moment where you suspended your
disbelief that you were talking to one machine? I know,
I know what's going on there, you go. See. I
think that's the difference. Yeah, because if people are using
the machine as a therapist, you almost have to you
almost have. They're relying on it. But I mean an
understanding of human emotions. I could have had that conversation
with a friend, were I ever to make one. You
(34:15):
could have, but it would have to be a friend
that you would trust to have all of the detailed
answers to those very specific questions. Stop it, it's a
matter with you. Let's get out here. The godfather of
talk radio, the Great John Colbert, steps into the padded room.
Next Monks and Merril. If you haven't done it yet,
please go ahead and update your iHeartRadio app to follow
(34:37):
the podcast back again tomorrow starting at the Nowonish Monks
and merel k if I am six forty relive everywhere
in the iHeart Radio, Appy, is that a racist joker?
A fat Joe Man? I don't know what it is?
KFI on Demand you've been listening to Monks and Merrill.
Hear the show live weekdays from noon to three on
kf I Am six forty and anytime on Too Man
(35:00):
and on the iHeartRadio app.
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